From 334b42bdf97bb71adf10db5f641914953ca06a65 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: OPSXCQ Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2018 03:42:44 -0300 Subject: [PATCH] update --- textfiles.com/politics/amorality.txt | 2786 ++ textfiles.com/politics/anapolis.cvn | 115 + textfiles.com/politics/animal.ing | 943 + textfiles.com/politics/annapoli.txt | 145 + textfiles.com/politics/anonymit | 778 + textfiles.com/politics/antigvt1.txt | 288 + textfiles.com/politics/antipir.new | 206 + textfiles.com/politics/antiterr | 2709 ++ textfiles.com/politics/aots.txt | 55 + textfiles.com/politics/apf-char.txt | 169 + textfiles.com/politics/app-abde.txt | 1603 ++ textfiles.com/politics/arabs.txt | 364 + textfiles.com/politics/arafat.txt | 146 + textfiles.com/politics/armscont.txt | 113 + textfiles.com/politics/art.nws | 59 + textfiles.com/politics/art20.txt | 35 + textfiles.com/politics/artcle90.txt | 88 + textfiles.com/politics/articles.120 | 134 + textfiles.com/politics/arts.txt | 93 + textfiles.com/politics/asa_faq.txt | 2362 ++ 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for pamphlet publication as a + +result of an amusing situation. An anarchist who ran a + +store in England found that his comrades in the + +movement regarded it as perfectly right to take his goods + +without paying for them. "To each according to his need" + +seemed to them to justify letting those who were best able + +foot the bills. Kropotkin was appealed to, with the result + +that he not only condemned such doctrine, but was + +moved to write the comrades this sermon. + + Its conception of morality is based on the ideas set + +forth in _Mutual Aid_ and later developed in his + +_Ethics_. Here they are given special application to "right + +and wrong" in the business of social living. The job is + +done with fine feeling and with acute shafts at the shams + +of current morality. + + Kropotkin sees the source of all so-called moral + +ideas in primitive superstitions. The real moral sense + +which guides our social behavior is instinctive, based on + +the sympathy and unity inherent in group life. Mutual + +aid is the condition of successful social living. The moral + +base is therefore the good old golden rule "Do to others as + +you would have others do to you in the same + +circumstances," --which disposed of the ethics of the + +shopkeeper's anarchist customers. + + This natural moral sense was perverted, Kropotkin + +says, by the superstitions surrounding law, religion and + +authority, deliberately cultivated by conquerors, + +exploiters and priests for their own benefit. Morality has + +therefore become the instrument of ruling classes to + +protect their privileges. + + He defends the morality of killing for the benefit of + +mankind --as in the assassination of tyrants--- but never + +for self. Love and hate he regards as greater social forces + +for controlling wrong-doing than punishment, which he + +rejects as useless and evil. Account-book morality --doing + +right only to receive a benefit-- he scores roundly, urging + +instead the satisfactions and joy of "sowing life around + +you" by giving yourself to the uttermost to your fellow- + +men. Not of course to do them good, in the spirit of + +philanthropy, but to be one with them, equal and sharing. + + + + ANARCHIST MORALITY + + by P. Kropotkin + + + +I + + + + The history of human thought recalls the swinging + +of a pendulum which takes centuries to swing. After a + +long period of slumber comes a moment of awakening. + +Then thought frees herself from the chains with which + +those interested --rulers, lawyers, clerics-- have carefully + +enwound her. + + She shatters the chains. She subjects to severe + +criticism all that has been taught her, and lays bare the + +emptiness of the religious political, legal, and social + +prejudices amid which she has vegetated. She starts + +research in new paths, enriches our knowledge with new + +discoveries, creates new sciences. + + But the inveterate enemies of thought --the + +government, the lawgiver, and the priest-- soon recover + +from their defeat. By degrees they gather together their + +scattered forces, and remodel their faith and their code of + +laws to adapt them to the new needs. Then, profiting by + +the servility of thought and of character, which they + +themselves have so effectually cultivated; profiting, too, + +by the momentary disorganization of society, taking + +advantage of the laziness of some, the greed of others, the + +best hopes of many, they softly creep back to their work + +by first of all taking possession of childhood through + +education. + + A child's spirit is weak. It is so easy to coerce it by + +fear. This they do. They make the child timid, and then + +they talk to him of the torments of hell. They conjure up + +before him the sufferings of the condemned, the + +vengeance of an implacable god. The next minute they + +will be chattering of the horrors of revolution, and using + +some excess of the revolutionists to make the child "a + +friend of order." The priest accustoms the child to the + +idea of law, to make it obey better what he calls the + +"divine law," and the lawyer prates of divine law, that the + +civil law may be the better obeyed. + + And by that habit of submission, with which we are + +only too familiar, the thought of the next generation + +retains this religious twist, which is at once servile and + +authoritative, for authority and servility walk ever hand in + +hand. + + During these slumbrous interludes, morals are rarely dis- + +cussed. Religious practices and judicial hypocrisy take + +their place. People do not criticize, they let themselves be + +drawn by habit, or indifference.They do not put + +themselves out for or against the established morality. + +They do their best to make their actions appear to accord + +with their professions. + + All that was good, great, generous or independent + +in man, little by little becomes moss-grown; rusts like a + +disused knife. A lie becomes a virtue, a platitude a duty. + +To enrich oneself, to seize one's opportunities, to exhaust + +one's intelligence, zeal and energy, no matter how, + +become the watchwords of the comfortable classes, as + +well as of the crowd of poor folk whose ideal is to appear + +bourgeois. Then the degradation of the ruler and of the + +judge, of the clergy and of the more or less comfortable + +classes becomes so revolting that the pendulum begins to + +swing the other way. + + Little by little, youth frees itself. It flings overboard + +its prejudices, and it begins to criticize. Thought + +reawakens, at first among the few; but insensibly the + +awakening reaches the majority. The impulse is given, the + +revolution follows. + + And each time the question of morality comes up again. + +"Why should I follow the principles of this hypocritical + +morality?" asks the brain, released from religious terrors. + +Why should any morality be obligatory?" + + Then people try to account for the moral sentiment + +that they meet at every turn without having explained it + +to themselves. And they will never explain it so long as + +they believe it a privilege of human nature, so long as + +they do not descend to animals, plants and rocks to + +understand it. They seek the answer, however, in the + +science of the hour. + + And, if we may venture to say so, the more the basis + +of conventional morality, or rather of the hypocrisy that + +fills its place is sapped, the more the moral plane of + +society is raised. It is above all at such times precisely + +when folks are criticizing and denying it, that moral + +sentiment makes the most progress. It is then that it grows, + +that it is raised and refined. + + Years ago the youth of Russia were passionately + +agitated by this very question. "I will be immoral!" a + +young nihilist came and said to his friend, thus + +translating into action the thoughts that gave him no rest. + +"I will be immoral, and why should I not? Because the + +Bible wills it? But the Bible is only a collection of + +Babylonian and Hebrew traditions, traditions collected + +and put together like the Homeric poems, or as is being + +done still with Basque poems and Mongolian legends. + +Must I then go back to the state of mind of the half- + +civilized peoples of the East? + + "Must I be moral because Kant tells me of a + +categoric imperative, of a mysterious command which + +comes to me from the depths of my own being and bids + +me be moral? But why should this 'categoric imperative' + +exercise a greater authority over my actions than that + +other imperative, which at times may command me to get + +drunk. A word, nothing but a word, like the words + +'Providence,' or 'Destiny,' invented to conceal our + +ignorance. + + "Or perhaps I am to be moral to oblige Bentham, + +who wants me to believe that I shall be happier if I drown + +to save a passerby who has fallen into the river than if I + +watched him drown? + + "Or perhaps because such has been my education? + +Because my mother taught me morality? Shall I then go + +and kneel down in a church, honor the Queen, bow before + +the judge I know for a scoundrel, simply because our + +mothers, our good ignorant mothers, have taught us such + +a pack of nonsense ? + + "I am prejudiced, --like everyone else. I will try to rid + +myself of prejudice! Even though immorality be distaste- + +ful, I will yet force myself to be immoral, as when I was a + +boy I forced myself to give up fearing the dark, the church- + +yard, ghosts and dead people --all of which I had been + +taught to fear. + + "It will be immoral to snap a weapon abused by + +religion; I will do it, were it only to protect against the + +hypocrisy imposed on us in the name of a word to which + +the name morality has been given!" + + Such was the way in which the youth of Russia + +reasoned when they broke with old-world prejudices, + +and unfurled this banner of nihilist or rather of anarchist + +philosophy: to bend the knee to no authority whatsoever, + +however respected; to accept no principle so long as it is + +unestablished by reason. + + Need we add, that after pitching into the waste- + +paper basket the teachings of their fathers, and burning all + +systems of morality, the nihilist youth developed in their + +midst a nucleus of moral customs, infinitely superior to + +anything that their fathers had practiced under the + +control of the "Gospel," of the "Conscience," of the + +"Categoric Imperative," or of the "Recognized + +Advantage" of the utilitarian. But before answering the + +question, "Why am I to be moral ?" let us see if the + +question is well put; let us analyze the motives of human + +action. + + + +II + + + + When our ancestors wished to account for what led + +men to act in one way or another, they did so in a very + +simple fashion. Down to the present day, certain catholic + +images may be seen that represent this explanation. A man + +is going on his way, and without being in the least aware + +of it, carries a devil on his left shoulder and an angel on + +his right. The devil prompts him to do evil, the angel tries + +to keep him back. And if the angel gets the best of it and + +the man remains virtuous, three other angels catch him up + +and carry him to heaven. In this way everything is explained + +wondrously well. + + Old Russian nurses full of such lore will tell you never + +to put a child to bed without unbuttoning the collar of its + +shirt. A warm spot at the bottom of the neck should be left + +bare, where the guardian angel may nestle. Otherwise the + +devil will worry the child even in its sleep. + + These artless conceptions are passing away. But + +though the old words disappear, the essential idea + +remains the same. + + Well brought up folks no longer believe in the devil, but + +as their ideas are no more rational than those of our + +nurses, they do but disguise devil and angel under a + +pedantic wordiness honored with the name of philosophy. + +They do not say "devil" nowadays, but "the flesh," or "the + +passions." The"angel" is replaced by the words + +"conscience" or "soul," by "reflection of the thought of a + +divine creator" or "the Great Architect," as the Free- + +Masons say. But man's action is still represented as the + +result of a struggle between two hostile elements. And a + +man is always considered virtuous just in the degree to + +which one of these two elements --the soul or + +conscience-- is victorious over the other --the flesh or + +passions. + + It is easy to understand the astonishment of our + +great-grandfathers when the English philosophers, and + +later the Encyclopedists, began to affirm in opposition to + +these primitive ideas that the devil and the angel had + +nothing to do with human action, but that all acts of man, + +good or bad, useful or baneful, arise from a single motive: + +the lust for pleasure. + + The whole religious confraternity, and, above all, + +the numerous sects of the pharisees shouted "immorality." + +They covered the thinkers with insult, they + +excommunicated them. And when later on in the course + +of the century the same ideas were again taken up by + +Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Tchernischevsky, and a host of + +others, and when these thinkers began to affirm and prove + +that egoism, or the lust for pleasure, is the true motive of + +all our actions, the maledictions redoubled. The books + +were banned by a conspiracy of silence; the authors were + +treated as dunces. + + And yet what can be more true than the assertion + +they made? + + Here is a man who snatches its last mouthful of + +bread from a child. Every one agrees in saying that he is a + +horrible egoist, that he is guided solely by self-love. + + But now here is another man, whom every one + +agrees to recognize as virtuous. He shares his last bit of + +bread with the hungry, and strips off his coat to clothe the + +naked. And the moralists, sticking to their religious + +jargon, hasten to say that this man carries the love of his + +neighbor to the point of self-abnegation, that he obeys a + +wholly different passion from that of the egoist. And yet + +with a little reflection we soon discover that however + +great the difference between the two actions in their result + +for humanity, the motive has still been the same. It is the + +quest of pleasure. + + If the man who gives away his last shirt found no + +pleasure in doing so, he would not do it. If he found + +pleasure in taking bread from a child, he would do that + +but this is distasteful to him. He finds pleasure in giving, + +and so he gives. If it were not inconvenient to cause + +confusion by employing in a new sense words that have a + +recognized meaning, it might be said that in both cases + +the men acted under the impulse of their egoism. Some + +have actually said this, to give prominence to the thought + +and precision to the idea by presenting it in a form that + +strikes the imagination, and at the same time to destroy + +the myth which asserts that these two acts have two + +different motives. They have the same motive, the quest of + +pleasure, or the avoidance of pain, which comes to the + +same thing. + + Take for example the worst of scoundrels: a Thiers, + +who massacres thirty-five thousand Parisians, or an + +assassin who butchers a whole family in order that he may + +wallow in debauchery. They do it because for the moment + +the desire of glory or of money gains in their minds the + +upper hand of every other desire. Even pity and + +compassion are extinguished for the moment by this other + +desire, this other thirst. They act almost automatically to + +satisfy a craving of their nature. Or again, putting aside + +the stronger passions, take the petty man who deceives his + +friends, who lies at every step to get out of somebody the + +price of a pot of beer, or from sheer love of brag, or from + +cunning. Take the employer who cheats his workmen to + +buy jewels for his wife or his mistress. Take any petty + +scoundrel you like. He again only obeys an impulse. He + +seeks the satisfaction of a craving, or he seeks to escape + +what would give him trouble. + + We are almost ashamed to compare such petty + +scoundrels with one who sacrifices his whole existence to + +free the oppressed, and like a Russian nihilist mounts the + +scaffold. So vastly different for humanity are the results of + +these two lives; so much do we feel ourselves drawn + +towards the one and repelled by the other. + + And yet were you to talk to such a martyr, to the + +woman who is about to be hanged, even just as she nears + +the gallows, she would tell you that she would not + +exchange either her life or her death for the life of the + +petty scoundrel who lives on the money stolen from his + +work-people. In her life, in the struggle against monstrous + +might, she finds her highest joys. Everything else outside + +the struggle, all the little joys of the bourgeois and his + +little troubles seem to her so contemptible, so tiresome, so + +pitiable! "You do not live, you vegetate," she would + +reply; "I have lived." + + We are speaking of course of the deliberate, + +conscious acts of men, reserving for the present what we + +have to say about that immense series of unconscious, all + +but mechanical acts, which occupy so large a portion of + +our life. In his deliberate, conscious acts man always seeks + +what will give him pleasure. + + One man gets drunk, and every day lowers himself + +to the condition of a brute because he seeks in liquor the + +nervous excitement that he cannot obtain from his own + +nervous system. Another does not get drunk; he takes no + +liquor, even though he finds it pleasant, because he wants + +to keep the freshness of his thoughts and the plentitude of + +his powers, that he may be able to taste other pleasures + +which he prefers to drink. But how does he act if not like + +the judge of good living who, after glancing at the menu + +of an elaborate dinner rejects one dish that he likes very + +well to eat his fill of another that he likes better. + + When a woman deprives herself of her last piece of + +bread to give it to the first comer, when she takes off her + +own scanty rags to cover another woman who is cold, + +while she herself shivers on the deck of a vessel, she does + +so because she would suffer infinitely more in seeing a + +hungry man, or a woman starved with cold, than in + +shivering or feeling hungry herself. She escapes a pain of + +which only those who have felt it know the intensity. + + When the Australian, quoted by Guyau, wasted + +away beneath the idea that he has not yet revenged his + +kinsman's death; when he grows thin and pale, a prey to + +the consciousness of his cowardice, and does not return to + +life till he has done the deed of vengeance, he performs + +this action, a heroic one sometimes, to free himself of a + +feeling which possesses him, to regain that inward peace + +which is the highest of pleasures. + + When a troupe of monkeys has seen one of its + +members fall in consequence of a hunter's shot, and + +comes to besiege his tent and claim the body despite the + +threatening gun; when at length the Elder of the band + +goes right in, first threatens the hunter, then implores him, + +and finally by his lamentations induces him to give up the + +corpse, which the groaning troupe carry off into the + +forest, these monkeys obey a feeling of compassion + +stronger than all considerations of personal security. This + +feeling in them exceeds all others. Life itself loses its + +attraction for them while they are not sure whether they + +can restore life to their comrade or not. This feeling + +becomes so oppressive that the poor brutes do everything + +to get rid of it. + + When the ants rush by thousands into the flames of + +the burning ant-hill, which that evil beast, man, has set on + +fire, and perish by hundreds to rescue their larvae, they + +again obey a craving to save their offspring. They risk + +everything for the sake of bringing away the larvae that + +they have brought up with more care than many women + +bestow on their children. + + To seek pleasure, to avoid pain, is the general line + +of action (some would say law) of the organic world. + + Without this quest of the agreeable, life itself + +would be impossible. Organisms would disintegrate, life + +cease. + + Thus whatever a man's actions and line of conduct + +may be, he does what he does in obedience to a craving of + +his nature. The most repulsive actions, no less than + +actions which are indifferent or most attractive, are all + +equally dictated by a need of the individual who + +performs them. Let him act as he may, the individual acts + +as he does because he finds a pleasure in it, or avoids, or + +thinks he avoids, a pain. + + Here we have a well-established fact. Here we have + +the essence of what has been called the egoistic theory. + + Very well, are we any better off for having reached + +this general conclusion? + + Yes, certainly we are. We have conquered a truth + +and destroyed a prejudice which lies at the root of all + +prejudices. All materialist philosophy in its relation to + +man is implied in this conclusion. But does it follow that + +all the actions of the individual are indifferent, as some + +have hastened to conclude? This is what we have now to + +see. + + + +III + + + + We have seen that men's actions (their deliberate + +and conscious actions, for we will speak afterwards of + +unconscious habits) all have the same origin. Those that + +are called virtuous and those that are designated as + +vicious, great devotions and petty knaveries, acts that + +attract and acts that repel, all spring from a common + +source. All are performed in answer to some need of the + +individual's nature. all have for their end the quest of + +pleasure, the desire to avoid pain. + + We have seen this in the last section, which is but a + +very succinct summary of a mass of facts that might be + +brought forward in support of this view. + + It is easy to understand how this explanation makes those + +still imbued with religious principles cry out. It leaves no + +room for the supernatural. It throws over the idea of an + +immortal soul. If man only acts in obedience to the needs + +of his nature, if he is, so to say, but a "conscious + +automaton," what becomes of the immortal soul? What of + +immortality, that last refuge of those who have known too + +few pleasures and too many sufferings, and who dream of + +finding some compensation in another world? + + It is easy to understand how people who have + +grown up in prejudice and with but little confidence in + +science, which has so often deceived them, people who + +are led by feeling rather than thought, reject an + +explanation which takes from them their last hope. + + + +IV + + + + Mosaic, Buddhist, Christian and Mussulman theologians + +have had recourse to divine inspiration to distinguish + +between good and evil. They have seen that man, be he + +savage or civilized, ignorant or learned, perverse or + +kindly and honest, always knows if he is acting well or ill, + +especially always knows if he is acting ill. And as they + +have found no explanation of this general fact, they have + +put it down to divine inspiration. Metaphysical + +philosophers, on their side, have told us of conscience, of + +a mystic "imperative," and, after all, have changed nothing + +but the phrases. + + But neither have known how to estimate the very + +simple and very striking fact that animals living in + +societies are also able to distinguish between good and + +evil, just as man does. Moreover, their conceptions of + +good and evil are of the same nature as those of man. + +Among the best developed representatives of each + +separate class, --fish, insects, birds, mammals,-- they are + +even identical. + + Forel, that inimitable observer of ants, has shown by + +a mass of observations and facts that when an ant who has + +her crop well filled with honey meets other ants with + +empty stomachs, the latter immediately ask her for food. + +And amongst these little insects it is the duty of the + +satisfied ant to disgorge the honey that her hungry friends + +may also be satisfied. Ask the ants if it would be right to + +refuse food to other ants of the same anthill when one has + +had oneUs share. They will answer, by actions impossible + +to mistake, that it would be extremely wrong. So selfish + +an ant would be more harshly treated than enemies of + +another species. If such a thing happens during a battle + +between two different species, the ants would stop + +fighting to fall upon their selfish comrade. This fact has + +been proved by experiments which exclude all doubt. + + Or again, ask the sparrows living in your garden if + +it is right not to give notice to all the little society when + +some crumbs are thrown out, so that all may come and + +share in the meal. Ask them if that hedge sparrow has + +done right in stealing from his neighbor's nest those + +straws he had picked up, straws which the thief was too + +lazy to go and collect himself. The sparrows will answer + +that he is very wrong, by flying at the robber and pecking + +him. + + Or ask the marmots if it is right for one to refuse + +access to his underground storehouse to other marmots of + +the same colony. they will answer that it is very wrong, by + +quarrelling in all sorts of ways with the miser. + + Finally, ask primitive man if it is right to take food + +in the tent of a member of the tribe during his absence. He + +will answer that, if the man could get his food for himself, + +it was very wrong. On the other hand, if he was weary or + +in want, he ought to take food where he finds it; but in + +such a case, he will do well to leave his cap or his knife, or + +even a bit of knotted string, so that the absent hunter may + +know on his return that a friend has been there, not a + +robber. Such a precaution will save him the anxiety + +caused by the possible presence of a marauder near his + +tent. + + Thousands of similar facts might be quoted, whole + +books might be written, to show how identical are the + +conceptions of good and evil amongst men and the other + +animals. + +The ant, the bird, the marmot, the savage have read neither + +Kant nor the fathers of the Church nor even Moses. And + +yet all have the same idea of good and evil. And if you re- + +flect for a moment on what lies at the bottom of this idea, + +you will see directly that what is considered good among + +ants, marmots, and Christian or atheist moralists is that + +which is useful for the preservation of the race; and that + +which is considered evil is that which is hurtful for race + +preservation. Not for the individual, as Bentham and Mill + +put it, but fair and good for the whole race. + + The idea of good and evil has thus nothing to do + +with religion or a mystic conscience. It is a natural need of + +animal races. And when founders of religions, + +philosophers, and moralists tell us of divine or + +metaphysical entities, they are only recasting what each + +ant, each sparrow practices in its little society. + + Is this useful to society? Then it is good. Is this + +hurtful? Then it is bad. + + This idea may be extremely restricted among + +inferior animals, it may be enlarged among the more + +advanced animals; but its essence always remains the + +same. + + Among ants it does not extend beyond the anthill. + +All sociable customs, all rules of good behavior are + +applicable only to the individuals in that one anthill, not + +to any others. One anthill will not consider another as + +belonging to the same family, unless under some + +exceptional circumstances, such as a common distress + +falling upon both. In the same way the sparrows in the + +Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, though they will mutually + +aid one another in a striking manner, will fight to the + +death with another sparrow from the Monge Square who + +may dare to venture into the Luxembourg. And the + +savage will look upon a savage of another tribe as a person + +to whom the usages of his own tribe do not apply. It is + +even allowable to sell to him, and to sell is always to rob + +the buyer more or less; buyer or seller, one or other is + +always "sold." A Tchoutche would think it a crime to sell + +to the members of his tribe: to them he gives without any + +reckoning. And civilized man, when at last he + +understands the relations between himself Ind the + +simplest Papuan, close relations, though imperceptible at + +the first glance, will extend his principles of solidarity to + +the whole human race, and even to the animals. The idea + +enlarges, but its foundation remains the same. + + On the other hand, the conception of good or evil + +varies according to the degree of intelligence or of + +knowledge acquired. There is nothing unchangeable + +about it. + + Primitive man may have thought it very right --that is, + +useful to the race-- to eat his aged parents when they + +became a charge upon the community-- a very heavy + +charge in the main. He may have also thought it useful to + +the community to kill his new-born children, and only + +keep two or three in each family, so that the mother could + +suckle them until they were three years old and lavish + +more of her tenderness upon them. + + In our days ideas have changed, but the means of + +subsistence are no longer what they were in the Stone Age. + +Civilized man is not in the position of the savage family + +who have to choose between two evils: either to eat the + +aged parents or else all to get insufficient nourishment + +and soon find themselves unable to feed both the aged + +parents and the young children. We must transport + +ourselves into those ages, which we can scarcely call up + +in our mind, before we can understand that in the + +circumstances then existing, half-savage man may have + +reasoned rightly enough. + + Ways of thinking may change. The estimate of what + +is useful or hurtful to the race changes, but the + +foundation remains the same. And if we wished to sum + +up the whole philosophy of the animal kingdom in a + +single phrase, we should see that ants, birds, marmots, + +and men are agreed on one point. + + The morality which emerges from the observation + +of the whole animal kingdom may be summed up in the + +words: "Do to others what you would have them do to + +you in the same circumstances. + + And it adds: "Take note that this is merely a piece + +of advice; but this advice is the fruit of the long experience + +of animals in society. And among the great mass of social + +animals, man included, it has become habitual to act on + +this principle. Indeed without this no society could exist, + +no race could have vanquished the natural obstacles + +against which it must struggle." + + Is it really this very simple principle which + +emerges from the observation of social animals and + +human societies? Is it applicable? And how does this + +principle pass into a habit and continually develop? This + +is what we are now going to see. + + + +V + + + + The idea of good and evil exists within humanity + +itself. Man, whatever degree of intellectual development + +he may have attained, however his ideas may be obscured + +by prejudices and personal interest in general, considers + +as good that which is useful to the society wherein he + +lives, and as evil that which is hurtful to it. + + But whence comes this conception, often so vague + +that it can scarcely be distinguished from a feeling? There + +are millions and millions of human beings who have + +never reflected about the human race. They know for the + +most part only the clan or family, rarely the nation, still + +more rarely mankind. How can it be that they should + +consider what is useful for the human race as good, or + +even attain a feeling of solidarity with their clan, in spite + +of all their narrow, selfish interests? + + This fact has greatly occupied thinkers at all times, + +and it continues to occupy them still. We are going in our + +turn to give our view of the matter. But let us remark in + +passing that though the explanations of the fact may vary, + +the fact itself remains none the less incontestable. And + +should our explanation not be the true one, or should it + +be incomplete, the fact with its consequences to humanity + +will still remain. We may not be able fully to explain the + +origin of the planets revolving round the sun, but the + +planets revolve none the less, and one of them carries us + +with it in space. + + We have already spoken of the religious + +explanation. If man distinguishes between good and evil, + +say theologians, it is God who has inspired him with this + +idea. Useful or hurtful is not for him to inquire; he must + +merely obey the fiat of his creator. We will not stop at this + +explanation, fruit of the ignorance and terrors of the + +savage. We pass on. + + Others have tried to explain the fact by law. It must + +have been law that developed in man the sense of just and + +unjust, right and wrong. Our readers may judge of this + +explanation for themselves. They know that law has + +merely utilized the social feelings of man, to slip in, + +among the moral precepts he accepts, various mandates + +useful to an exploiting minority, to which his nature + +refuses obedience. Law has perverted the feeling of + +justice instead of developing it. Again let us pass on. + + Neither let us pause at the explanation of the + +Utilitarians. They will have it that man acts morally from + +self-interest, and they forget his feelings of solidarity with + +the whole race, which exist, whatever be their origin. + +There is some truth in the Utilitarian explanation. But it is + +not the whole truth. Therefore, let us go further. + + It is again to the thinkers of the eighteenth century + +that we are indebted for having guessed, in part at all + +events, the origin of the moral sentiment. + + In a fine work, The Theory of Moral Sentiment, left + +to slumber in silence by religious prejudice, and indeed + +but little known even among anti-religious thinkers, + +Adam Smith has laid his finger on the true origin of the + +moral sentiment. He does not seek it in mystic religious + +feelings; he finds it simply in the feeling of sympathy. + + You see a man beat a child. You know that the + +beaten child suffers. Your imagination causes you + +yourself to suffer the pain inflicted upon the child; or + +perhaps its tears, its little suffering face tell you. And if + +you are not a coward, you rush at the brute who is + +beating it and rescue it from him. + + This example by itself explains almost all the moral + +sentiments. The more powerful your imagination, the + +better you can picture to yourself what any being feels + +when it is made to suffer, and the more intense and + +delicate will your moral sense be. The more you are + +drawn to put yourself in the place of the other person, the + +more you feel the pain inflicted upon him, the insult + +offered him, the injustice of which he is a victim, the more + +will you be urged to act so that you may prevent the pain, + +insult, or injustice. And the more you are accustomed by + +circumstances, by those surrounding you, or by the + +intensity of your own thought and your own imagination, + +to act as your thought and imagination urge, the more will + +the moral sentiment grow in you, the more will it become + +habitual. + + This is what Adam Smith develops with a wealth of + +examples. He was young when he wrote this book which is + +far superior to the work of his old age upon political econ- + +omy. Free from religious prejudice, he sought the + +explanation of morality in a physical fact of human nature, + +and this is why official and non-official theological + +prejudice has put the treatise on the Black List for a + +century. + + Adam Smith's only mistake was not to have + +understood that this same feeling of sympathy in its + +habitual stage exists among animals as well as among + +men. + + The feeling of solidarity is the leading + +characteristic of all animals living in society. The eagle + +devours the sparrow, the wolf devours the marmot. But + +the eagles and the wolves respectively aid each other in + +hunting, the sparrow and the marmot unite among + +themselves against the beasts and birds of prey so + +effectually that only the very clumsy ones are caught. In + +all animal societies solidarity is a natural law of far greater + +importance than that struggle for existence, the virtue of + +which is sung by the ruling classes in every strain that may + +best serve to stultify us. + + When we study the animal world and try to explain + +to ourselves that struggle for existence maintained by + +each living being against adverse circumstances and + +against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles + +of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal + +society and have become habitual to it, the more chance + +has it of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the + +struggle against hardships and foes. The more thoroughly + +each member of the society feels his solidarity with each + +other member of the society, the more completely are + +developed in all of them those two qualities which are the + +main factors of all progress: courage on the one hand, md + +on the other, free individual initiative. And on the + +contrary, the more any animal society or little group of + +animals loses this feeling of solidarity --which may chance + +as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional + +plenty-- the more do the two other factors of progress + +courage and individual initiative, diminish. In the end + +they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks + +before its foes. Without mutual confidence no struggle is + +possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity-- + +and no victory! Defeat is certain. + + We can prove with a wealth of examples how in the + +animal and human worlds the law of mutual aid is the + +law of progress, and how mutual aid with the courage + +and individual initiative which follow from it secures + +victory to the species most capable of practicing it. + + Now let us imagine this feeling of solidarity acting dur- + +ing the millions of ages which have succeeded one another + +since the first beginnings of animal life appeared upon the + +globe. Let us imagine how this feeling little by little + +became a habit, and was transmitted by heredity from the + +simplest microscopic organism to its descendants -- + +insects, birds, reptiles, mammals, man-- and we shall + +comprehend the origin of the moral sentiment, which is a + +necessity to the animal like food or the organ for + +digesting it. + + Without going further back and speaking of + +complex animals springing from colonies of extremely + +simple little beings, here is the origin of the moral + +sentiment. We have been obliged to be extremely brief in + +order to compress this great question within the limits of + +a few pages, but enough has already been said to show + +that there is nothing mysterious or sentimental about it. + +Without this solidarity of the individual with the species, + +the animal kingdom would never have developed or + +reached its present perfection. The most advanced being + +upon the earth would still be one of those tiny specks + +swimming in the water and scarcely perceptible under a + +microscope. Would even this exist? For are not the + +earliest aggregations of cellules themselves an instance of + +association in the struggle? + + + + VI + + + + Thus by an unprejudiced observation of the animal + +kingdom, we reach the conclusion that wherever society + +exists at all, this principle may be found: Treat others as + +you would like them to treat you under similar + +circumstances. + + And when we study closely the evolution of the + +animal world, we discover that the aforesaid principle, + +translated by the one word Solidarity, has played an + +infinitely larger part in the development of the animal + +kingdom than all the adaptations that have resulted from + +a struggle between individuals to acquire personal + +advantages. + + It is evident that in human societies a still greater + +degree of solidarity is to be met with. Even the societies of + +monkeys highest in the animal scale offer a striking + +example of practical solidarity, and man has taken a step + +further in the same direction. This and this alone has + +enabled him to preserve his puny race amid the obstacles + +cast by nature in his way, and to develop his intelligence. + + A careful observation of those primitive societies + +still remaining at the level of the Stone Age shows to what + +a great extent the members of the same community + +practice solidarity among themselves. + + This is the reason why practical solidarity never + +ceases; not even during the worst periods of history. Even + +when temporary circumstances of domination, servitude, + +exploitation cause the principle to be disowned, it still + +lives deep in the thoughts of the many, ready to bring + +about a strong recoil against evil institutions, a + +revolution. If it were otherwise society would perish. + + For the vast majority of animals and men this feeling re- + +mains, and must remain an acquired habit, a principle + +always present to the mind even when it is continually + +ignored in action. + + It is the whole evolution of the animal kingdom + +speaking in us. And this evolution has lasted long, very + +long. It counts by hundreds of millions of years. + + Even if we wished to get rid of it we could not. It + +would be easier for a man to accustom himself to walk on + +fours than to get rid of the moral sentiment. It is anterior + +in-- animal evolution to the upright posture of man. + + The moral sense is a natural faculty in us like the + +sense of smell or of touch. + + As for law and religion, which also have preached + +this principle, they have simply filched it to cloak their + +own wares, their injunctions for the benefit of the + +conqueror, the exploiter, the priest. Without this principle + +of solidarity, the justice of which is so generally + +recognized, how could they have laid hold on men's + +minds? + + Each of them covered themselves with it as with a garment; + +like authority which made good its position by posing as the + +protector of the weak against the strong. + + By flinging overboard law, religion and authority, mankind + +can regain possession of the moral principle which + +has been taken from them. Regain that they may criticize + +it, and purge it from the adulterations wherewith priest, + +judge and ruler have poisoned it and are poisoning it yet. + + Besides this principle of treating others as one + +wishes to be treated oneself, what is it but the very same + +principle as equality, the fundamental principle of + +anarchism? And how can any one manage to believe + +himself an anarchist unless he practices it? + + We do not wish to be ruled. And by this very fact, + +do we not declare that we ourselves wish to rule nobody? + +We do not wish to be deceived, we wish always to be told + +nothing but the truth. And by this very fact, do we not de- + +clare that we ourselves do not wish to deceive anybody, + +that we promise to always tell the truth, nothing but the + +truth, the whole truth? We do not wish to have the fruits + +of our labor stolen from us. And by that very fact, do we + +not declare that we respect the fruits of others' labor? + + By what right indeed can we demand that we + +should be treated in one fashion, reserving it to ourselves + +to treat others in a fashion entirely different? Our sense of + +equality revolts at such an idea. + + Equality in mutual relations with the solidarity + +arising from it, this is the most powerful weapon of the + +animal world in the struggle for existence. And equality + +is equity. + +By proclaiming ourselves anarchists, we proclaim before- + +hand that we disavow any way of treating others in which + +we should not like them to treat us; that we will no longer + +tolerate the inequality that has allowed some among us to + +use their strength, their cunning or their ability after a + +fashion in which it would annoy us to have such qualities + +used against ourselves. Equality in all things, the + +synonym of equity, this is anarchism in very deed. It is not + +only against the abstract trinity of law, religion, and + +authority that we declare war. By becoming anarchists we + +declare war against all this wave of deceit, cunning, + +exploitation, depravity, vice --in a word, inequality-- + +which they have poured into all our hearts. We declare + +war against their way of acting, against their way of + +thinking. The governed, the deceived, the exploited, the + +prostitute, wound above all else our sense of equality. It + +is in the name of equality that we are determined to have + +no more prostituted, exploited, deceived and governed + +men and women. + + Perhaps it may be said --it has been said sometimes + +"But if you think that you must always treat others as you + +would be treated yourself, what right have you to use + +force under any circumstances whatever? What right have + +you to level a cannon at any barbarous or civilized + +invaders of your country? What right have you to + +dispossess the exploiter? What right to kill not only a + +tyrant but a mere viper?" + + What right? What do you mean by that singular + +word, borrowed from the law? Do you wish to know if I + +shall feel conscious of having acted well in doing this ? If + +those I esteem will think I have done well? Is this what you + +ask? If so the answer is simple. + + Yes, certainly! Because we ourselves should ask to + +be killed like venomous beasts if we went to invade + +Burmese or Zulus who have done us no harm. We should + +say to our son or our friend: "Kill me, if I ever take part in + +the invasion!" + + Yes, certainly! Because we ourselves should ask to + +be dispossessed, if giving the lie to our principles, we + +seized upon an inheritance, did it fall from on high, to use + +it for the exploitation of others. + + Yes, certainly! Because any man with a heart asks be- + +forehand that he may be slain if ever he becomes + +venomous; that a dagger may be plunged into his heart if + +ever he should take the place of a dethroned tyrant. + + Ninety-nine men out of a hundred who have a wife + +and children would try to commit suicide for fear they + +should do harm to those they love, if they felt themselves + +going mad. Whenever a good-hearted man feels himself + +becoming dangerous to those he loves, he wishes to die + +before he is so. + + Perovskaya and her comrades killed the Russian + +Czar. And all mankind, despite the repugnance to the + +spilling of blood, despite the sympathy for one who had + +allowed the serfs to be liberated, recognized their right to + +do as they did. Why? Not because the act was generally + +recognized as useful; two out of three still doubt if it were + +so. But because it was felt that not for all the gold in the + +world would Perovskaya and her comrades have + +consented to become tyrants themselves. Even those who + +know nothing of the drama are certain that it was no + +youthful bravado, no palace conspiracy, no attempt to + +gain power. It was hatred of tyranny, even to the scorn of + +self, even to the death. + + "These men and women," it was said, "had + +conquered the right to kill"; as it was said of Louise + +Michel, "She had the right to rob." Or again, "They have + +the right to steal," in speaking of those terrorists who + +lived on dry bread, and stole a million or two of the + +Kishineff treasure. + + Mankind has never refused the right to use force on + +those who have conquered that right, be it exercised upon + +the barricades or in the shadow of a cross-way. But if such + +an act is to produce a deep impression upon men's + +minds, the right must be conquered. Without this, such an + +act whether useful or not will remain merely a brutal fact, + +of no importance in the progress of ideas. People will see + +in it nothing but a displacement of force, simply the + +substitution of one exploiter for another. + + + +VII + + + + We have hitherto been speaking of the conscious, + +deliberate actions of man, those performed intentionally. + +But side by side with our conscious life we have an + +unconscious life which is very much wider. Yet we have + +only to notice how we dress in the morning, trying to + +fasten a button that we know we lost last night, or + +stretching out our hand to take something that we + +ourselves have moved away, to obtain an idea of this + +unconscious life and realize the enormous part it plays in + +our existence. + + It makes up three-fourths of our relations with + +others. Our ways of speaking, smiling, frowning, getting + +heated or keeping cool in a discussion, are unintentional, + +the result of habits, inherited from our human or pre- + +human ancestors (only notice the likeness in expression + +between an angry man and an angry beast), or else + +consciously or unconsciously acquired. + + Our manner of acting towards others thus tends to + +become habitual. To treat others as he would wish to be + +treated himself becomes with man and all sociable + +animals, simply a habit. So much so that a person does + +not generally even ask himself how he must act under + +such and such circumstances. It is only when the + +circumstances are exceptional, in some complex case or + +under the impulse of strong passion that he hesitates, and + +a struggle takes place between the various portions of his + +brain --for the brain is a very complex organ, the various + +portions of which act to a certain degree independently. + +When this happens, the man substitutes himself in + +imagination for the person opposed to him; he asks + +himself if he would like to be treated in such a way, and + +the better he has identified himself with the person whose + +dignity or interests he has been on the point of injuring, + +the more moral will his decision be. Or maybe a friend + +steps in and says to him: "Fancy yourself in his place; + +should you have suffered from being treated by him as he + +has been treated by you? And this is enough. + + Thus we only appeal to the principle of equality in + +moments of hesitation, and in ninety-nine cases out of a + +hundred act morally from habit. + + It must have been obvious that in all we have hitherto + +said, we have not attempted to enjoin anything,we have + +only set forth the manner in which things happen in the + +animal world and amongst mankind. + + Formerly the church threatened men with hell to + +moralize them, and she succeeded in demoralizing them + +instead. The judge threatens with imprisonment, flogging, + +the gallows, in the name of those social principles he has + +filched from society; and he demoralizes them. And yet + +the very idea that the judge may disappear from the earth + +at the same time as the priest causes authoritarians of + +every shade to cry out about peril to society. + + But we are not afraid to forego judges and their + +sentences. We forego sanctions of all kinds, even + +obligations to morality. We are not afraid to say: "Do what + +you will; act as you will"; because we are persuaded that + +the great majority of mankind, in proportion to their + +degree of enlightenment and the completeness with which + +they free themselves from existing fetters will behave and + +act always in a direction useful to society just as we are + +persuaded beforehand that a child will one day walk on + +its two feet and not on all fours simply because it is born + +of parents belonging to the genus Homo. + + All we can do is to give advice. And again while + +giving it we add: "This advice will be valueless if your + +own experience and observation do not lead you to + +recognize that it is worth following." + + When we see a youth stooping and so contracting his + +chest and lungs we advise him to straighten himself, hold + +up his head and open his chest. We advise him to fill his + +lungs and take long breaths, because this will be his best + +safeguard against consumption. But at the same time we + +teach him physiology that he may understand the + +functions of his lungs, and himself choose the posture he + +knows to be the best. + + And this is all we can do in the case of morals. And + +this is all we can do in the case of morals. We have only a + +right to give advice, to which we add: "Follow it if it + +seems good to you." + + But while leaving to each the right to act as he + +thinks best; while utterly denying the right of society to + +punish one in any way for any anti-social act he may have + +committed, we do not forego our own capacity to love + +what seems to us good and to hate what seems to us bad. + +Love and hate; for only those who know how to hate + +know how to love. We keep this capacity; and as this + +alone serves to maintain and develop the moral + +sentiments in every animal society, so much the more will + +it be enough for the human race. + + We only ask one thing, to eliminate all that + +impedes the free development of these two feelings in the + +present society, all that perverts our judgment: --the + +State, the church, exploitation; judges, priests, + +governments, exploiters. + + Today when we see a Jack the Ripper murder one + +after another some of the poorest and most miserable of + +women, our first feeling is one of hatred. + + If we had met him the day when he murdered that + +woman who asked him to pay her for her slum lodging, + +we should have put a bullet through his head, without + +reflecting that the bullet might have been better bestowed + +in the brain of the owner of that wretched den. + + But when we recall to mind all the infamies which + +have brought him to this; when we think of the darkness + +in which he prowls haunted by images drawn from + +indecent books or thoughts suggested by stupid books, + +our feeling is divided. And if some day we hear that Jack + +is in the hands of some judge who has slain in cold blood + +a far greater number of men, women and children than all + +the Jacks together; if we see him in the hands of one of + +those deliberate maniacs then all our hatred of Jack the + +Ripper will vanish. It will be transformed into hatred of a + +cowardly and hypocritical society and its recognized + +representatives. All the infamies of a Ripper disappear + +before that long series of infamies committed in the name + +of law. It is these we hate. + + At the present day our feelings are continually thus + +divided. We feel that all of us are more or less, + +voluntarily or involuntarily, abettors of this society. We + +do not dare to hate. Do we even dare to love? In a society + +based on exploitation and servitude human nature is + +degraded. + + But as servitude disappears we shall regain our + +rights. We shall feel within ourselves strength to hate and + +to love, even in such complicated cases as that we have + +just cited. + + In our daily life we do already give free scope to + +our feelings of sympathy or antipathy; we are doing so + +every moment. We all love moral strength we all despise + +moral weakness and cowardice. Every moment our + +words, looks, smiles express our joy in seeing actions + +useful to the human race, those which we think good. + +Every moment our looks and words show the repugnance + +we feel towards cowardice, deceit, intrigue, want of + +moral courage. We betray our disgust, even when under + +the influence of a worldly education we try to hide our + +contempt beneath those lying appearances which will + +vanish as equal relations are established among us. + + This alone is enough to keep the conception of + +good and ill at a certain level and to communicate it one + +to another. + + It will be still more efficient when there is no longer + +judge or priest in society, when moral principles have + +lost their obligatory character and are considered merely + +as relations between equals. + + Moreover, in proportion to the establishment of + +these relations, a loftier moral conception will arise in + +society. It is this conception which we are about to + +analyze. + + + +VIII + + + + Thus far our analysis has only set forth the simple + +principles of equality. We have revolted and invited + +others to revolt against those who assume the right to treat + +their fellows otherwise than they would be treated + +themselves; against those who, not themselves wishing to + +be deceived, exploited, prostituted or ill-used, yet behave + +thus to others. Lying, and brutality are repulsive, we have + +said, not because they are disapproved by codes of + +morality, but because such conduct revolts the sense of + +equality in everyone to whom equality is not an empty + +word. And above all does it revolt him who is a true + +anarchist in his way of thinking and acting. + + If nothing but this simple, natural, obvious + +principle were generally applied in life, a very lofty + +morality would be the result; a morality comprising all + +that moralists have taught. + + The principle of equality sums up the teachings of + +moralists. But it also contains something more. This + +something more is respect for the individual. By + +proclaiming our morality of equality, or anarchism, we + +refuse to assume a right which moralists have always + +taken upon themselves to claim, that of mutilating the + +individual in the name of some ideal. We do not + +recognize this right at all, for ourselves or anyone else. + + We recognize the full and complete liberty of the + +individual; we desire for him plentitude of existence, the + +free development of all his faculties. We wish to impose + +nothing upon him; thus returning to the principle which + +Fourier placed in opposition to religious morality when + +he said: + + "Leave men absolutely free. Do not mutilate them + +as religions have done enough and to spare. Do not fear + +even their passions. In a free society these are not + +dangerous." + + Provided that you yourself do not abdicate your + +freedom, provided that you yourself do not allow others + +to enslave you; and provided that to the violent and anti- + +social passions of this or that person you oppose your + +equally vigorous social passions, you have nothing to + +fear from liberty. + + We renounce the idea of mutilating the individual + +in the name of any ideal whatsoever. All we reserve to + +ourselves is the frank expression of our sympathies and + +antipathies towards what seems to us good or bad. A man + +deceives his friends. It is his bent, his character to do so. + +Very well, it is our character, our bent to despise liars. + +And as this is our character, let us be frank. Do not let us + +rush and press him to our bosom or cordially shake + +hands with him, as is sometimes done today. Let us + +vigorously oppose our active passion to his. + + This is all we have the right to do, this is all the + +duty we have to perform to keep up the principle of + +equality in society. It is the principle of equality in + +practice. + + But what of the murderer, the man who debauches chil- + +dren? The murderer who kills from sheer thirst for blood + +is excessively rare. He is a madman to be cured or + +avoided. As for the debauchee, let us first of all look to it + +that society does not pervert our children's feelings, then + +we shall have little to fear from rakes. + +All this it must be understood is not completely + +applicable until the great sources of moral depravity-- + +capitalism, religion, justice, government--shall have + +ceased to exist. But the greater part of it may be put in + +practice from this day forth. It is in practice already. + + And yet if societies knew only this principle of + +equality; if each man practiced merely the equity of a + +trader, taking care all day long not to give others anything + +more than he was receiving from them, society would die + +of it. The very principle of equality itself would + +disappear from our relations. For, if it is to be maintained, + +something grander, more lovely, more vigorous than + +mere equity must perpetually find a place in life. + + And this greater than justice is here. + + Until now humanity has never been without large + +natures overflowing with tenderness, with intelligence, + +with goodwill, and using their feeling, their intellect, their + +active force in the service of the human race without + +asking anything in return. + + This fertility of mind, of feeling or of goodwill + +takes all possible forms. It is in the passionate seeker after + +truth, who renounces all other pleasures to throw his + +energy into the search for what he believes true and right + +contrary to the affirmations of the ignoramuses around + +him. It is in the inventor who lives from day to day + +forgetting even his food, scarcely touching the bread with + +which perhaps some woman devoted to him feeds him + +like a child, while he follows out the intention he thinks + +destined to change the face of the world. It is in the ardent + +revolutionist to whom the joys of art, of science, even of + +family life, seem bitter, so long as they cannot be shared + +by all, and who works despite misery and persecution for + +the regeneration of the world. It is in the youth who, + +hearing of the atrocities of invasion, and taking literally + +the heroic legends of patriotism, inscribes himself in a + +volunteer corps and marches bravely through snow and + +hunger until he falls beneath the bullets. It was in the + +Paris street arab, with his quick intelligence and bright + +choice of aversions and sympathies, who ran to the + +ramparts with his little brother, stood steady amid the rain + +of shells, and died murmuring: "Long live the Commune!" + +It is in the man who is revolted at the sight of a wrong + +without waiting to ask what will be its result to himself, + +and when all backs are bent stands up to unmask the + +iniquity and brand the exploiter, the petty despot of a + +factory or great tyrant of an empire. Finally it is in all + +those numberless acts of devotion less striking and + +therefore unknown and almost always misprized, which + +may be continually observed, especially among women, + +if we will take the trouble to open our eyes and notice + +what lies at the very foundation of human life, and + +enables it to enfold itself one way or another in spite of + +the exploitation and oppression it undergoes. + + Such men and women as these, some in obscurity, + +some within a larger arena, creates the progress of + +mankind. And mankind is aware of it. This is why it + +encompasses such lives with reverence, with myths. It + +adorns them, makes them the subject of its stories, songs, + +romances. It adores in them the courage, goodness, love + +and devotion which are lacking in most of us. It transmits + +their memory to the young. It recalls even those who have + +acted only in the narrow circle of home and friends, and + +reveres their memory in family tradition. + + Such men and women as these make true morality, + +the only morality worthy the name. All the rest is merely + +equality in relations. Without their courage, their + +devotion, humanity would remain besotted in the mire of + +petty calculations. It is such men and women as these who + +prepare the morality of the future, that which will come + +when our children have ceased to reckon, and have + +grown up to the idea that the best use for all energy, + +courage and love is to expend it where the need of such a + +force is most strongly felt. + + Such courage, such devotion has existed in every + +age. It is to be met with among sociable animals. It is to be + +found among men, even during the most degraded + +epochs. + + And religions have always sought to appropriate + +it, to turn it into current coin for their own benefit. In fact + +if religions are still alive, it is because--ignorance apart-- + +they have always appealed to this very devotion and + +courage. And it is to this that revolutionists appeal. + + The moral sentiment of duty which each man has + +felt in his life, and which it has been attempted to explain + +by every sort of mysticism, the unconsciously anarchist + +Guyau says, "is nothing but a superabundance of life, + +which demands to be exercised, to give itself; at the same + +time, it is the consciousness of a power." + + All accumulated force creates a pressure upon the + +obstacles placed before it. Power to act is duty to act. And + +moral "obligation" of which so much has been said or + +written is reduced to the conception: the condition of the + +maintenance of life is its expansion. + + "The plant cannot prevent itself from flowering. + +Sometimes to flower means to die. Never mind, the sap + +mounts the same," concludes the young anarchist + +philosopher. + + It is the same with the human being when he is full + +of force and energy. Force accumulates in him. He + +expands his life. He gives without calculation, otherwise + +he could not live. If he must die like the flower when it + +blooms, never mind. The sap rises, if sap there be. + + Be strong. Overflow with emotional and + +intellectual energy, and you will spread your intelligence, + +your love, your energy of action broadcast among others! + +This is what all moral teaching comes to. + + + +IX + + + + That which mankind admires in a truly moral man + +is his energy, the exuberance of life which urges him to + +give his intelligence, his feeling, his action, asking nothing + +in return. + + The strong thinker, the man overflowing with + +intellectual life, naturally seeks to diffuse his ideas. There + +is no pleasure in thinking unless the thought is + +communicated to others. It is only the mentally poverty- + +stricken man, who after he has painfully hunted up some + +idea, carefully hides it that later on he may label it with his + +own name. The man of powerful intellect runs over with + +ideas; he scatters them by the handful. He is wretched if + +he cannot share them with others, cannot scatter them to + +the four winds, for in this is his life. + + The same with regard to feeling. "We are not + +enough for ourselves: we have more tears than our own + +sufferings claim, more capacity for joy than our own + +existence can justify," says Guyau, thus summing up the + +whole question of morality in a few admirable lines, + +caught from nature. The solitary being is wretched, + +restless, because he cannot share his thoughts and feelings + +with others. When we feel some great pleasure, we wish to + +let others know that we exist, we feel, we love, we live, we + +struggle, we fight. + + At the same time, we feel the need to exercise our + +will, our active energy. To act, to work has become a need + +for the vast majority of mankind. So much so that when + +absurd conditions divorce a man or woman from useful + +work, they invent something to do, some futile and + +senseless obligations whereby to open out a field for their + +active energy. They invent a theory, a religion, a "social + +duty"-- to persuade themselves that they are doing + +something useful. When they dance, it is for a charity. + +When they ruin themselves with expensive dresses, it is to + +keep up the position of the aristocracy. When they do + +nothing, it is on principle. + + "We need to help our fellows, to lend a hand to the + +coach laboriously dragged along by humanity; in any + +case, we buzz round it," says Guyau. This need of lending + +a hand is so great that it is found among all sociable + +animals, however low in the scale. What is all the + +enormous amount of activity spent uselessly in politics + +every day but an expression of the need to lend a hand to + +the coach of humanity, or at least to buzz around it . + + Of course this "fecundity of will," this thirst for + +action, when accompanied by poverty of feeling and an + +intellect incapable of creation, will produce nothing but a + +Napoleon I or a Bismarck, wiseacres who try to force the + +world to progress backwards. While on the other hand, + +mental fertility destitute of well developed sensibility + +will bring forth such barren fruits as literary and scientific + +pedants who only hinder the advance of knowledge. + +Finally, sensibility unguided by large intelligence will + +produce such persons as the woman ready to sacrifice + +everything for some brute of a man, upon whom she + +pours forth all her love. + + If life to be really fruitful, it must be so at once in + +intelligence, in feeling and in will. This fertility in every + +direction is life; the only thing worthy the name. For one + +moment of this life, those who have obtained a glimpse of + +it give years of vegetative existence. Without this + +overflowing life, a man is old before his time, an impotent + +being, a plant that withers before it has ever flowered. + + "Let us leave to latter-day corruption this life that + +is no life," cries youth, the true youth full of sap that longs + +to live and scatter life around. Every time a society falls + +into decay, a thrust from such youth as this shatters + +ancient economic, and political and moral forms to make + +room for the up-springing of a new life. What matter if + +one or another fall in the struggle! Still the sap rises. For + +youth to live is to blossom whatever the consequences! It + +does not regret them. + + But without speaking of the heroic periods of + +mankind, taking every-day existence, is it life to live in + +disagreement with one's ideal ? + + Now-a-days it is often said that men scoff at the + +ideal. And it is easy to understand why. The word has so + +often been used to cheat the simple-hearted that a + +reaction is inevitable and healthy. We too should like to + +replace the word "ideal," so often blotted and stained, by + +a new word more in conformity with new ideas. + + But whatever the word, the fact remains; every human + +being has his ideal. Bismarck had his--however strange--; + +a government of blood and iron. Even every philistine has + +his ideal, however low. + + But besides these, there is the human being who has con- + +ceived a loftier ideal. The life of a beast cannot satisfy him. + +Servility, lying, bad faith, intrigue, inequality in human + +relations fill him with loathing. How can he in his turn + +become servile, be a liar, and intriguer, lord it over + +others? He catches a glimpse of how lovely life might be + +if better relations existed among men; he feels in himself + +the power to succeed in establishing these better relations + +with those he may meet on his way. He conceives what is + +called an ideal. + +Whence comes this ideal? How is it fashioned by heredity + +on one side and the impressions of life on the other? We + +know not. At most we could tell the story of it more or + +less truly in our own biographies. But it is an actual fact -- + +variable, progressive, open to outside influences but + +always living. It is a largely unconscious feeling of what + +would give the greatest amount of vitality, of the joy of + +life. + + Life is vigorous, fertile. rich in sensation only on + +condition of answering to this feeling of the ideal. Act + +against this feeling, and you feel your life bent back on + +itself. It is no longer at one, it loses its vigor. Be untrue + +often to your ideal and you will end by paralyzing your + +will, your active energy. Soon you will no longer regain + +the vigor, the spontaneity of decision you formerly knew. + +You are a broken man. + + Nothing mysterious in all this, once you look upon + +a human being as a compound of nervous and cerebral + +centers acting independently. Waver between the various + +feelings striving within you, and you will soon end by + +breaking the harmony of the organism; you will be a sick + +person without will. The intensity of your life will + +decrease. In vain will you seek for compromises. Never + +more will you be the complete, strong, vigorous being + +you were when your acts were in accordance with the + +ideal conceptions of your brain. + + There are epochs in which the moral conception + +changes entirely. A man perceives that what he had + +considered moral is the deepest immorality. In some + +instances it is a custom, a venerated tradition, that is + +fundamentally immoral. In others we find a moral system + +framed in the interests of a single class. We cast them + +overboard and raise the cry "Down with morality!" It + +becomes a duty to act "immorally." + + Let us welcome such epochs for they are epochs of + +criticism. They are an infallible sign that thought is + +working in society. A higher morality has begun to be + +wrought out. + + What this morality will be we have sought to + +formulate, taking as our basis the study of man and + +animal. + + We have seen the kind of morality which is even + +now shaping itself in the ideas of the masses and of the + +thinkers. This morality will issue no commands. It will + +refuse once and for all to model individuals according to + +an abstract idea, as it will refuse to mutilate them by + +religion, law or government. It will leave to the + +individual man full and perfect liberty. It will be but a + +simple record of facts, a science. And this science will say + +to man: "If you are not conscious of strength within you, if + +your energies are only just sufficient to maintain a + +colorless, monotonous life, without strong impressions, + +without deep joys, but also without deep sorrows, well + +then, keep to the simple principles of a just equality. In + +relations of equality you will find probably the maximum + +of happiness possible to your feeble energies. + + "But if you feel within you the strength of youth, if + +you wish to live, if you wish to enjoy a perfect, full and + +overflowing life --that is, know the highest pleasure which + +a living being can desire-- be strong, be great, be vigorous + +in all you do. + + "Sow life around you. Take heed that if you + +deceive, lie, intrigue, cheat, you thereby demean yourself. + +belittle yourself, confess your own weakness beforehand, + +play the part of the slave of the harem who feels himself + +the inferior of his master. Do this if it so pleases you, but + +know that humanity will regard you as petty, + +contemptible and feeble, and treat you as such. Having no + +evidence of your strength, it will act towards you as one + +worthy of pity-- and pity only. Do not blame humanity if + +of your own accord you thus paralyze your energies. Be + +strong on the other hand, and once you have seen + +unrighteousness and recognized it as such --inequity in + +life, a lie in science, or suffering inflicted by another-- rise + +in revolt against the iniquity, the lie or the injustice. + + "Struggle! To struggle is to live, and the fiercer the + +struggle the intenser the life. Then you will have lived; + +and a few hours of such life are worth years spent + +vegetating. + + "Struggle so that all may live this rich, overflowing + +life. And be sure that in this struggle you will find a joy + +greater than anything else can give." + + This is all that the science of morality can tell you. + +Yours is the choice. + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/anapolis.cvn b/textfiles.com/politics/anapolis.cvn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8f13be80 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/anapolis.cvn @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION + +Proceedings of the Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government, +Annapolis in the State of Maryland. September 14, 1786 + +To the Honorable, The Legislatures of Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New +Jersey, and New York. + +The Commissioners from the said States, respectively assembled at Annapolis, +humbly beg leave to report. + +That, pursuant to their several appointments, they met, at Annapolis in the +State of Maryland on the eleventh day of September Instant, and having proceeded +to a Communication of their Powers; they found that the States of New York, +Pennsylvania, and Virginia, had, in substance, and nearly in the same terms, +authorized their respective Commissions "to meet such other Commissioners as +were, or might be, appointed by the other States in the Union, at such time and +place as should be agreed upon by the said Commissions to take into considera- +tion the trade and commerce of the United States, to consider how far a uniform +system in their commercial intercourse and regulations might be necessary to +their common interest and permanent harmony, and to report to the several States +such an Act, relative to this great object, as when unanimously by them would +enable the United States in Congress assembled effectually to proved for the +same."... + +That the State of New Jersey had enlarged the object of their appointment, +empowering their Commissioners, "to consider how far a uniform system in their +commercial regulations and other important matters, mighty be necessary to the +common interest and permanent harmony of the several States," and to report such +an Act on the subject, as when ratified by them, "would enable the United States +in Congress assembled, effectually to provide for the exigencies of the Union." + +That appointments of Commissioners have also been made by the States of New +Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North Carolina, none of whom, +however, have attended; but that no information has been received by your +Commissioners, of any appointment having been made by the States of Connecticut, +Maryland, South Carolina or Georgia. + +That the express terms of the powers of your Commissioners supposing a deputa- +tion from all the States, and having for object the Trade and Commerce of the +United States, Your Commissioners did not conceive it advisable to proceed on +the business of their mission, under the Circumstances of so partial and +defective a representation. + +Deeply impressed, however, with the magnitude and importance of the object +confided to them on this occasion, your Commissioners cannot forbear to indulge +an expression of their earnest and unanimous wish, that speedy measures be +taken, to effect a general meeting, of the States, in a future Convention, for +the same, and such other purposes, as the situation of public affairs may be +found to require. + +If in expressing this wish, or in intimating any other sentiment, your Commis- +sioners should seem to exceed the strict bounds of their appointment, they +entertain a full confidence, that a conduct, dictated by an anxiety for the +welfare of the United States, will not fail to receive an indulgent construc- +tion. + +In this persuasion, your Commissioners submit an opinion, that the Idea of +extending the powers of their Deputies, to other objects, than those of Com- +merce, which has been adopted by the State of New Jersey, was an improvement on +the original plan, and will deserve to be incorporated into that of a future +Convention; they are the more naturally led to this conclusion, as in the course +of their reflections on the subject, they have been induced to think, that the +power of regulating trade is of such comprehensive extent, and will enter so far +into the general System of the federal government, that to give it efficacy, and +to obviate questions and doubts concerning its precise nature and limits, may +require a correspondent adjustment of other parts of the Federal System. + +That there are important defects in the system of the Federal Government is +acknowledged by the Acts of all those States, which have concurred in the +present Meeting; That the defects, upon a closer examination, may be found +greater and more numerous, than even these acts imply, is at least so far +probably, from the embarrassments which characterize the present State of our +national affairs, foreign and domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a +deliberate and candid discussion, in some mode, which will unite the Sentiments +and Councils of all the States. In the choice of the mode, your Commissioners +are of opinion, that a Convention of Deputies from the different States, for the +special and sole purpose of entering into this investigation, and digesting a +plan for supplying such defects as may be discovered to exist, will be entitled +to a preference from considerations, which will occur without being particu- +larized. + +Your Commissioners decline an enumeration of those national circumstances on +which their opinion respecting the propriety of a future Convention, with more +enlarged powers, is founded; as it would be a useless intrusion of facts and +observations, most of which have been frequently the subject of public discus- +sion, and none of which can have escaped the penetration of those to whom they +would in this instance be addressed. They are, however, of a nature so serious, +as, in the view of your Commissioners, to render the situation of the United +States delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the untied virtue and +wisdom of all the members of the Confederacy. + +Under this impression, Your Commissioners, with the most respectful deference, +beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction that it may essentially tend to +advance the interests of the union if the States, by whom they have been +respectively delegated, would themselves concur, and use their endeavors to +procure the concurrence of the other States, in the appointment of Commis- +sioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, to take into +consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further +provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the +Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such +an Act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as when +agreed to, by them, and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, +will effectually provide for the same. + +Though your Commissioners could not with propriety address these observations +and sentiments to any but the States they have the honor to represent, they have +nevertheless concluded from motives of respect, to transmit copies of the Report +to the United States in Congress assembled, and to the executives of the other +States. + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/animal.ing b/textfiles.com/politics/animal.ing new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a342c07c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/animal.ing @@ -0,0 +1,943 @@ +From mimsy!dtix!darwin.sura.net!ukma!rutgers!ub!acsu.buffalo.edu!marcotte Tue Oct 6 13:24:40 EDT 1992 + + +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + +The following is a companion to the list of frequently asked questions (FAQ). + +Look for the FAQ under the subject: + +.rec.food.veg FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST (FAQ) + +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + + + +ANIMAL DERIVED INGREDIENT LIST +(from the National Anti-Vivisection Society's "Personal Care with Principle," +Spring, 1992) + +INGREDIENTS DERIVED FROM ANIMALS: + +A + +Acetylated Hydrogenated Lard Glyceride +Acetylated Lanolin +Acetylated Lanolin Alcohol +Acetylated Lanolin Ricinoleate +Acetylated Tallow +Albumen +Albumin +"Amerachol"(TM) +Ammonium Hydrolyzed Protein +Amniotic Fluid +AMPD Isoteric Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Amylase +Animal Collagen Amino Acids +Animal Keratin Amino Acids +Animal Protein Derivative +Animal Tissue Extract -- Epiderm Oil R +Arachidonic Acid + +B + +Batyl Alcohol +Batyl Isostearate +Beeswax +Benzyltrimonium Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Brain Extract +Buttermilk + +C + +C30-46 Piscine Oil +Calfskin Extract +Cantharides Tincture -- Spanish Fly +Catharidin +Carmine -- Cochineal +Carminic Acid -- Natural Red No. 4 +Casein +Castor -- Castoreum (not Castor Oil) +Ceteth-2 -- Poltethylene (2) Cetyl Ether +Ceteth-2, -4, -6, -10, -30 +Cholesterol +Civet +Cochineal +Cod-Liver Oil +Coleth-24 +Collagen +Cysteine, -L-Form +Cystine (or Cysteine) + +D + +Dea-Oleth-10 Phosphate +Desamido Animal Collagen +Desamidocollagen +Dicapryloyl Cystine +Diethylene Tricaseinamide +Dihydrocholesterol +Dihydrocholesterol Octyledecanoate +Dihydrocholeth-15 +Dihydrocholeth-30 +Dihydrogenated Tallow Benzylmoniumchloride +Dihydrogenated Tallow Methylamine +Dihydrogenated Tallow Phthalate +Dihydroxyethyl Tallow Amine Oxide +Dimethyl Hydrogenated Tallowamine +Dimethyl Tallowamine +Disodium Hydrogenated TallowGlutamate +Disodium Tallamido Mea-Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Tallowaminodipropionate +Ditallowdimonium Chloride +Dried Buttermilk +Dried Egg Yolk + +E + +Egg +Egg Oil +Egg Powder +Egg Yolk +Egg Yolk Extract +Elastin +Embryo Extract +Estradiol +Estradiol Benzoate +Estrogen +Estrone +Ethyl Arachidonate +Ethyl Ester of Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Ethyl Morrhuate -- Lipineate +Ethylene Dehydrogenated Tallowamide + +F + +Fish Glycerides +Fish Oil + +G + +Gelatin (not Gel) +Glucuronic Acid +Glyceryl Lanolate +Glycogen +Guanine -- Pearl Essence + +H + +Heptylundecanol +Honey +Human Placental Protein +Human Umbilical Extract +Hyaluronic Acid +Hydrogenated Animal Glyceride +Hydrogenated Ditallow Amine +Hydrogenated Honey +Hydrogenated Laneth-5, -20, -25 +Hydrogenated Lanolin +Hydrogenated Lanolin Alcohol +Hydrogenated Lard Glyceride +Hydrogenated Shark-Liver Oil +Hydrogenated Tallow Acid +Hydrogenated Tallow Betaine +Hydrogenated Tallow Glyceride +Hydrolyzed Animal Elastin +Hydrolyzed Animal Keratin +Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Hydrolyzed Casein +Hydrolyzed Elastin +Hydrlyzed Human Placental Protein +Hydrolyzed Keratin +Hydrolyzed Silk +Hydroxylated Lanolin + +I + +Isobutylated Lanolin +Isopropyl Lanolate +Isopropyl Tallowatelsopropyl Lanolate +Isostearic Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Isostearoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein + +K + +Keratin +Keratin Amino Acids + +L + +Lactic Yeasts +Lactose -- Milk Sugar +Laneth-5 through -40 +Laneth-9 and -10 Acetate +Lanolin -- Wool Fat; Wool Wax +Lanolin Acid +Lanolin Alcohols -- Sterols; Triterpene Alcohols; Aliphatic Alcohols +Lanolin Linoleate +Lanolin Oil +Lanolin Ricinoleate +Lanolin Wax +Lanoinamide DEA +Lanosteral +Lard +Lard Glyceride +Lauroylhydrolyzed Animal Protein +Leucine +Liver Extract +Lysine + +M + +Magnesium Lanolate +Magnesium Tallowate +Mammarian Extract +Mayonnaise +MEA-Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Menhaden Oil -- Pogy Oil; Mossbunker Oil +Milk +Mink Oil +Minkamidopropyl Diethylamine +Muscle Extract +Musk +Musk Ambrette +Myristoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein + +N + +Neat's-Foot Oil + +O + +Oleamidopropyl Dimethylamine Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Oleostearine +Oleoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Oleth-2, and 3 +Oleth-5, and 10 +Oleth-10 +Oleth-25 and 50 +Oleyl Alcohol +Oleyl Arachidate +Oleyl Imidazoline +Oleyl Lanolate +Ovarian Extract + +P + +Palmitoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Palmitoyl Hydrolyzed Milk Protein +PEG-28 Glyceryl Tallowate +PEG-8 Hydrogenated Fish Glycerides +PEG-5 through -70 Hydrogenated Lanolin +PEG-13 Hydrogenated Tallow Amide +PEG-5 to -20 Lanolate +PEG-5 through -100 Lanolin +PEG-75 Lanolin Oil and Wax +PEG-2 Milk Solids +PEG-6, -8, -20 Sorbitan Beeswax +PEG-40, -75, or -80 Sorbitan Lanolate +PEG-3, -10, or -15 Tallow Aminopropylamine +PEG-15 Tallow Polyamine +PEG-20 Tallowate +Pentahydrosqualene +Perhydrosqualene +Pigskin Extract +Placental Enzymes, Lipids and Proteins +Placental Extract +Placental Protein +Polyglyceryl-2 Lanolin Alcohol Ether +Potassium Caseinate +Potassium Tallowate +Potassium Undecylenoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +PPG-12-PEG-50 Lanolin +PPG-2, -5, -10. -20, -30 Lanolin Alcohol Ethers +PPG-30 Lanolin Ether +Pregnenolone Acetate +Pristane +Progesterone +Purcelline Oil Syn + +R + +Royal Jelly + +S + +Saccharide Hydrolysate +Saccharide Isomerate +Serum Albumin +Serum Proteins +Shark-Liver Oil +Shellac +Shellac Wax +Silk Amino Acids +Silk Powder +Sodium Caseinate +Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate +Sodium Coco-Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Sodium Hydrogenated Tallow Glutamate +Sodium Laneth Sulfate +Sodium Methyl Oleoyl Taurate +Sodium n-Mythyl-n-Oleyl Taurtate +Sodium Soya Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Sodium TAllow Sulfate +Sodium Tallowate +Sodium / TEA-Lauroyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Sodium / TEA-Undecylenoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Sodium Undecylenate +Soluble (Animal) Collagen +Soya Hydroxyethyl Imidazoline +Spleen Extract +Squalene +Stearyl Alcohol -- Stenol + +T + +Tallow +Tallow Acid +Tallow Amide +Tallow Amidopropylamine Oxide +Tallow Amine +Tallow Amine Oxide +Tallow Glycerides +Tallow Hydroxyethal Imidazoline +Tallow Imidazoline +Tallowmide DEA and MEA +Tallowmidopropyl Hydroxysultaine +Tallowminopropylamine +Tallowmphoacete +Talloweth-6 +Tallow Trimonium Chloride -- Tallow +Tea-Abietoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Tea-Coco Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Tea-Lauroyl Animal Collagen +Amino Acids +Tea-Lauroyl Animal Keratin Amino Acids +Tea-Myristol Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Tea-Undecylenoyl Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Testicular Extract +Threonine +Triethonium Hydrolyzed Animal Protein Ethosulfate +Trilaneth-4 Phosphate + +W + +Wood Fat +Wool Wax Alcohols + +Y + +Yogurt + +Z + +Zinc Hydrolyzed Animal Protein + +THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS MAY BE ANIMAL-DERIVED: + +A + +Acetaldehyde -- Ethanal +Acetic Acid +Acetic Anhydride -- Acetyl Oxide; Acetic Oxide +Acetoin -- Acetyl Methyl Carbinol +Acetylated Sucrose Distearte +Acetylmethylcarbinol +Alanine +Alcloxa -- Aluminum Chlorohydroxy Allantoinate +Aldol +Allantoin +Allantoin Acetyl Methionine +Allantoin Ascorbate +Allantoin Biotin +Allantoin Calcium Pantothenate +Allantoin Galacturonic Acid +Allantoin Glycyrrhetinic Acid +Allantoin Polygalacturonic Acid +Allantoinate +Aluminum Acetate -- Burow's Solution +Aluminum Chorhydroxy Allantoinate +Aluminum Distearate +Aluminum Isostearates/Laurates/Stearates +Aluminum Isostearates/Myristates +Aluminum Isostearates/Palmitates +Aluminum Lactate +Aluminum Myristates/Palmitates +Aluminum Salts (Aluminum Acetate, Aluminum Lanolate, Aluminum Stearate, +..Aluminum Tristearate) +Aluminum Stearates +Aluminum Tripalmitate/Triisostearate +Aluminum Tristearate +Ammonium C12-15 Pareth Sulfate -- Pareth-25-3 Sulfate +Ammonium Isostearate +Ammonium Myristyl Sulfate +Ammonium Oleate +Ammonium Stearate -- Stearic Acid; Ammonium Salt +Amphoteric +Amphoteric-2 +Ascorbyl Stearate +Asparagine +Aspartic-Acid -- DL & L Forms; Aminosuccinate Acid + +B + +Basic Voilet 10 +Beheneth-5, -10, -20, -30 +Behenic Acid -- Docosanoic Acid +Behenic Acid -- Docosanol +Beta-Carotene -- Provitamin A; Beta Carotene +Betaine +Biotin -- Vitamin H; Vitamin B Factor +Brilliantines +Burow's Solution +Butyl Acetate -- Acetic Acid; Butyl Ester +Butyl Glycolate +Butyl Oleate +Butyl Palmitate +Butyl Phrhaly Butyl Glycolate +Butylrolactone -- Butanolide + +C + +C18-36 Acid +C29-70 Acid -- C29-70 Carboxylic Acids +C18-36 Acid Glycol Ester +C18-36 Acid Triglyceride +C9-11 Alcohols +C12-16 Alcohols +C14-15 Alcohols +C12-15 Alcohols Benzoate +C12-15 Alcohols Lactate +C21 Dicarboxylic Acid +C15-18 Glycol +C18-20 Glycol Palmitate +C8-9, C9-11, C9-13, C9-14, C10-11, C10-13, C11-12, C11-13, C12-14, C13-14, +..C13-16, and C20-40 IsoParaffins +C11-15 Pareth-12 Stearate +C11-15 Pareth-40 +C12-13 Pareth 3-7 +C14-15 Pareth-7, -11, -13 +C10-18 Triglycerieds +Calcium Stearate +Calcium Stearoyl Lactylate +Caproamphoacetate +Caproamhodiacetate +Capryl Betaine +Caprylamine Oxide +Caprylic / Capric / Stearic Triglyceride +Caprylic Acid +Caprylamphoacetate +Capryloamphodiacetate +Carbamide +Cetearalkonium Bromide +Ceteareth-3 -- Cetyl/Stearyl Ether +Ceteareth-4, -6, -8, -10, -12, -15, -17, -20, -27, -30 +Ceteareth-5 +Cetaryl Alcohol +Ceteth-1 +Cetyl- +Cetyl Alcohol +Cetyl Ammonium +Cetyl Arachidate +Cetyl Betaine +Cetyl Esters +Cetyl Lactate +Cetyl Myristate +Cetyl Octanoate +Cetyl Palmitate +Cetyl Phosphate +Cetyl Ricinoleate +Cetyl Stearate +Cetyl Stearyl Glycol +Cetylarachidol +Cetylpyridinium Chloride +Cetyltrymethylammonium BromideChitin +Cloflucarbon + +D + +Deceth-7-Carboxylic Acid +Decyl Betaine +Diacetyl +Diazo- +Diazolidinyl Urea -- Germall II (TM) +Dicetyl Adipate +Dicetyl Thiodipropionate +Diethyl Asparate +Diethyl Palmitoyl Apartate +Diethyl Sebacate +Diethylaminoethyl Stearamide +Diethylaminoethyl Stearate +Diglyceryl Stearate Malate +Dihydroxyethyl Soyamine Dioleate +Dihydroxyethyl Stearamine Oxide +Dihydroxyethyl Stearyl Glycinate +Dimethyl Behenamine +Dimethyl Lauramine Oleate +Dimethyl Myristamine +Dimethyl Palmitamine +Dimethyl Stearamine +Dimethylaminopropyl Oleamide +Dimethylaminopropyl Stearamide +Dimethylol Urea +Dimyristyl Thiodipropionate +Dioleth-8-Phosphate +Direct Black 51 +Direct Red 23 -- Fast Scarlet 4BSA +Direct Red 80 +Direct Violet 48 +Direct Yellow 12 -- Chrysophenine G +Disodium Cetaeryl Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Isostearamino Mea- Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Monooleamidosulfosuccinate +Disodium Monoricinoleamido Mea-Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Oleamido MIPA-Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Oleamido PEG-2 Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Oleyl Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Stearmido MEA-Sulfosuccinate +Disodium Stearminodipionate +Disodium Stearyl Sulfosuccinate +Distearyl Thiodipropionate +DI-TEA-Palmitoyl Asparate +Dodecanedionic Acid; Cetearyl Alcohol; Glycol Copolymer +Dodecyltetradecanol + +E + +Enfleurage +Enzyme +Ethyl Aspartate +Ethyl Oleate +Ethyl Palmitate +Ethyl Serinate +Ethyl Stearate +Ethyl Urocanate +Ethylene Dioleamide +Ethylene Distearamide +Ethylene Urea +Ethylhexyl Palmitate + +F + +Fatty Alcohols -- Cetyl; Stearyl; Lauryl; Myristyl +Folic Acid +Fructose + +G + +Gel (not Silica gel) +Glucose Glutamate +Glyceryl Caprate +Glyceryl Caprylate +Glyceryl Caprylate/Caprate +Glyceryl Dioleate +Glyceryl Distearate +Glyceryl Hydrostearate +Glyceryl Hydrostearate +Glyceryl Hydroxystearate +Glyceryl Isostearate +Glyceryl Monostearate +Glyceryl Myristate +Glyceryl Oleate +Glyceryl Palmitate Lactate +Glyceryl Stearate SE +Glyceryl Trimyristate +Glycol Stearate SE +Glycyrrhetinyl Stearate +Guanidine Carbonate +Guanosine + +H + +Hexanediol Distearate +Histidine +Hydrogenated Fatty Oils +Hydroxylated Lecithin +Hydroxyoctacosanyl Hydroxyastearate +Hydroxystearmide MEA +Hydroxystearic Acid + +I + +Imidazlidinyl Urea +Indole +Isobutyl Myristate +Isobutyl Palmitate +Isobutyl Stearate +Isoceteth-10, -20, -30 +Isocetyl Alcohol +Isocetyl Isodecanoate +Isocetyl Palmitate +Isocetyl Stearate +Isocetyl Stearoyl Stearate +Isoceteth-10 Stearate +Isodecyl hydroxystearate +Isodecyl Myristate +Isodecyl Oleate +Isodecyl Palmitate +Isohyxyl Palmitate +Isopropyl Acetate +Isopropyl Isostearate +Isopropyl Myristate +Isopropyl Palmitate +Isopropyl Stearate +Isostearamidopropalkonium Chloride +Isostearamidopropyl Betaine +Isostearamidopropyl +Dimethylamine Glycolate +Isostearamidopropyl Dimethylamine Lactate +Isostearamidopropyl Ethyldimonium Ethosulfate +Isostearamidopropyl Morpholine Lactate +Isostearamidoporopylamine Oxide +Isosteareth-2 through -20 +Isostearic Acid +Isostearoamphoglycinate +Isostearoamphopropionate +Isostearyl Alcohol +Isostearyl Benzylimidonium Chloride +Isostearyl Diglyceryl Succinate +Isostearyl Erucate +Isostearyl Ethylimidonium Ethosulfate +Isostearyl Hydroxyethyl Imidazoline +Isostearyl Imidazoline +Isostearyl Isostearate +Isostearyl Lactate +Isostearyl Neopentanoate +Isostearyl Palmitate +Isostearyl Stearoyl STearate + +L + +Lactic Acid +Lauroyl Sarcosine +Lauryl Isostearate +Lauryl Palmitate +Lauryl Stearate +Lauryl Suntaine +Lecithin +Lithium Stearate + +M + +Magnesium Myristate Magnesium Oleate +Magnesium Stearate +Methyl Gluceth-10 or -20 +Methyl Glucet-20 Sesquistereate -- Glucamate +Methyl Glucose Sesquioleate +Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate +Methyl Hydroxystearate +Methyl Lactate +Methyl Myristate +Methyl Oleate +Methyl Palmitate +Mixed Isopropanolamines +Myristate +Morpholine Stearate +Myreth-3 +Myreth-3 Caprate -- Myristic Ethoxy Caprate +Myreth-3 Laurate +Myreth-3 Myristate +Myreth-4 +Myristamide DEA -- Myristic Diethanolamide +Myristamide MIPA +Myristamidopropyl Betaine +Myristamidopropyl Diethylamine +Myristamidopropylamine Oxide +Myristamine Oxide +Myristaminopropionic Acid +Myristate +Myristic Acid +Myristimide MEA +Myristoamphoacetate +Myristoyl Sarcosine +Myristyl Alcohol +Myristyl Betaine +Myristyl Hydroxyethyl Imidazoline +Myristyl Isostearate +Myristyl Lactate +Myristyl Myristate +Myristyl Neopentanoate -- Ceraphyl +Myristyl Propionate +Myristyl Stearate +Myristyleicosanol +Myristyleicosyl Stearate +Myristyloctadecanol + +N + +Nonyl Acetate + +O + +Octododecanol-2 -- Octyl Dodecanol +Octododeceth-20, -25 +Octododecyl Myristate +Octoxyglyceryl Behenate +Octyl Acetoxystearate +Octyl Hydroxystearate +Octyl Palmitate +Octyl Stearate +Octyldocecanol +Octyldodecyl Stearate +Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate +Oleamide -- Oleylamide +Oleamide DEA -- Oleic Diethanolamide +Oleamide MIPA +Oleamine Oxide +Oleic Acid +Oleoyl Sarcosine +Oleth-3 Phosphate +Oleth 20 +Oleth-20 Phosphate +Oleyl Betaine +Oleyl Myristate +Oleyl Oleate +Oleyl Stearate +Orotic Acid -- Pyrimidecarboxylic Acid + +P + +Palmamamidopropyl Betaine +Palmitamide DEA, MEA +Palmitamidopropyl Betaine +Palmitamindopropyl Diethylamine +Palmitamine +Palmitamine Oxide -- Palmityl Dimethylamine Oxide +Palmitate +Palmitic Acid +Panthenyl Ethyl Etheracetate +Pareth-25- 12 +PEG-9 Caprylate +PEG-8 Caprylate / Caprate +PEG-6 Caprylic / Capric Glycerides +PEG-6 to -150 Dioleate +PEG-3 Dipalmitate +PEG-2 through -175 Distearate +PEG-5 through -120 Glyceryl Stearate +PEG-25 Glyceryl Trioleate +PEG-6 or -12 Isostearate +PEG-20 Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate +PEG-4 Octanoate +PEG-2 through -9 Oleamide +PEG-2 through -30 Oleamide +PEG-12, -20, or -30 Oleate +PEG-3 through -150 Oleate +PEG-6 through -20 Palmitate +PEG-25 through -125 Propylene Glycol Stearate +PEG-8 Sesquioleate +PEG-5 or -20 Sorbitan Isostearate +PEG-3 or -6 Sorbitan Oleate +PEG-80 Sorbitan Palmitate +PEG-40 Sorbitan Peroleate +PEG-3 or -40 Sorbitan Stearate +PEG-30, -40, or -60 Sorbitan Tetraoleate +PEG-60 Sorbitan Tetrastearate +PEG-2 through -150 Stearate +PEG-66 or -200 Tryhydroxystearin +Pentaerythrityl Tetraoctanoate +Pentaerythrityl Tetrastearate and + Calcium Stearate +Phospholipids -- Phosphatides +Polyglycerol +Polyglycerol-4 Cocoate +Polyglycerol-10 Decalinoleate +Polyglycerol-2 Diisostearate +Polyglycerol-6 Dioleate +Polyglycerol-6 Distearate +Polyglycerol-3 Hydroxylauryl Ether +Polyglycerol-4 Isostearate +Polyglycerol-3, -4 or -8 Oleate +Polyglycerol-2 or -4 Oleyl Ether +Polyglycerol-2 PEG-4 Stearate +Polyglycerol-2 Sesquiisostearate +Polyglycerol-2 Sesquioleate +Polyglycerol-3, -4 or -8 Stearate +Polyglycerol-10 Tertraoleate +Polyglycerol-2 Tetrastearate +Polysorbate 60 and Polysorbate 80 +Potassium Apartate +Potassium Coco-Hydrolyzed Protein +Potassium DNA +Potassium Oleate-Oleic Acid + Potassium Salt +Potassium Myristate +Potassium Palmitate +Potassium Stearate -- Stearic Acid + Potassium Salt +PPG-3-Myreth-11 +PPG-4-Ceteareth-12 +PPG-4-Ceteth-1, -5 or -10 +PPG-4 Myristyl Ether +PPG-5-Ceteth- 10 Phosphate +PPG-6-C12-18 Pareth +PPG-8-Ceteth, -5, -10, or -20 +PPG-9-Steareth-3 +PPG-10-Ceteareth-20 +PPG-10 Cetyl Ether +leyl Ether +PPG-11 or -15 Stearyl Ether +PPG-26 Oleate -- Polyxypropylene + 2000 Monooleate; Carbowax +PPG-28 Cetyl Ether +PPG-30 Cetyl Ether +PPG-30, -50, Oleyl Ether +PPG-36 Oleate -- Polyoxypropylene (36) + Monooleate +PPG-Isocetyl Ether PPG-3- + Isosteareth-9 +Proline +Propylene Glycol Myristate +Protein Fatty Acid Condensates +Proteins +Pyridium Compounds +Pyroligneous Acid + +R + +Retinyl Palmitate +Ribonucleic Acid -- RNA + +S + +Sarcosines +S-Carboxy Methyl Cysteine +Sebactic Acid -- Decanedioic Acid +Serine +Skatole +Sodium Aluminum Chloroydroxyl Lactate +Sodium C12-15 Pareth-7 + Carboxylate +Sodium C12-15 Pareth-Sulfate +Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate +Sodium Cetyl Sulfate +Sodium Cocyl Sarcosinate +Sodium DNA +Sodium Glyceryl Oleate Phosphate +Sodium Isosteareth-6 Carboxylate +Sodium Isosteroyl LacrylatE +Sodium Myreth Sulfate +Sodium Myristate +Sodium Myristoyl Isethionate +Sodium Myristoyl Sarcosinate +Sodium Myristyl Sulfate +Sodium Oleth-7 or -8 Phosphate +Sodium Palmitate +Sodium Pareth- 15-7 or 25-7 + Carboxylate +Sodium Pareth-23 or -25 Sulfate +Sodium PCA +Sodium PCA Methysilanol +Sodium Ribonucleic Acid -- SRNA +Sodium Sarcosinate +Sodium Soap +Sodium Stearate +Sodium Steroyl Lactylate +Sodium Urocanate +Sorbeth-6 Hexastearate +Sorbitan Diisoseate +Sorbitan Dioleate +Sorbitan Fatty Acid Esters +Sorbitan Isostearate +Sorbitan Oleate -- Sorbitan Monooleate +Sorbitan Palmitate -- Span 40 (TM) +Sorbitan Sesquioleate +Sorbitan Sequistearate +Sorbitan Triisostearate +Sorbitan Tristearate +Spermaceti -- Cetyl Palmitate +Stearalkonium Bentonite +Stearalkonium Chloride +Stearalkonium Hectorite +Stearamide +Stearamide DEA -- Stearic Acid + Diethanolamide +Stearamide DIBA Stearate +Stearamide MIPA Stearate +Stearamide MIPA +Stearamide Oxide +Stearmidopropalkonium Chloride +Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine +Stearamine +Stearamine Oxide +Stearates +Steareth-2 +Steareth-4 through -100 +Stearic Acid +Stearic Hydrazide +Stearmidoethyl Diethylamine +Stearoamphoacetate +Stearoamphocarboxyglycinate +Stearoamphodiacetate +Stearoamphohydroxypropysulfonate +Stearoamphopropionate +Stearone +Stearoxy Dimethicone +Stearoxytrimethylsilane +Stearoyl Lactylic Acid +Stearoyl Sarcosine +Steartrimonium Chloride +Steartrimonium Hydrolyzed Animal Protein +Stearyl Acetate +Stearyl Betaine +Stearyl Caprylate +Stearyl Citrate +Stearyl Erucamide +Stearyl Erucate +Stearyl Ghycyrrhetinate +Stearyl Heptanoate +Stearyl Hydroxyethyl Imidazoline +Stearyl Lactate +Stearyl Octanoate +Stearyl Stearate +Stearyl Stearoyl Stearate +Stearyldimethyl Amine +Stearylvinyl Ether/Maleic + Anhydride Copolymer +Steriods (sic) (could be misspelling for steroids) +Sterol +Sucrose Distearate +Sucrose Laurate +Sucrose Stearate +Synthetic Spermaceti + +T + +TEA-Lauroyl Sarcosinate +TEA-Myristate +TEA-Oleate -- Triethanolamine Oleate +TEA-Palm-Kernel Sarcosinate +TEA-Stearate +Terpinyl Acetate +Tetramethyl Decynediol +TIPA-Stearate +Tridecyl Stearate +Tryhydroxy Stearin +Triisostearin +Trimethylopropane Triisostearate +Trimyristin-Glyceryl Trimyristate +Trioleth-8 Phosphate +Trioleyl Phosphate +Tristearin +Tristearyl Citrate +Tryptophan +Tyrosine + +U + +Undecylpentadecanol +Urea -- Carbamide +Urease + +V + +Valine + +W + +Waxes + +Z + +Zinc Stearate -- Zinc Soap + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/annapoli.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/annapoli.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..94b8caf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/annapoli.txt @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION: + + +Proceedings of the Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the +Federal Government, Annapolis in the State of Maryland. + September 14, 1786 + +To the Honorable, The Legislatures of Virginia, Delaware, +Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York - + +The Commissioners from the said States, respectively +assembled at Annapolis, humbly beg leave to report. + +That, pursuant to their several appointments, they met, at +Annapolis in the State of Maryland on the eleventh day of +September Instant, and having proceeded to a Communication +of their Powers; they found that the States of New York, +Pennsylvania, and Virginia, had, in substance, and nearly +in the same terms, authorized their respective Commissions +"to meet such other Commissioners as were, or might be, +appointed by the other States in the Union, at such time and +place as should be agreed upon by the said Commissions to take +into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States, +to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial +intercourse and regulations might be necessary to their common +interest and permanent harmony, and to report to the several +States such an Act, relative to this great object, as when +unanimously by them would enable the United States in +Congress assembled effectually to proved for the same."... + +That the State of New Jersey had enlarged the object of their +appointment, empowering their Commissioners, "to consider how +far a uniform system in their commercial regulations and other +important matters, mighty be necessary to the common interest +and permanent harmony of the several States," and to report such +an Act on the subject, as when ratified by them, "would enable +the United States in Congress assembled, effectually to provide +for the exigencies of the Union." + +That appointments of Commissioners have also been made by the +States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and North +Carolina, none of whom, however, have attended; but that no +information has been received by your Commissioners, of any +appointment having been made by the States of Connecticut, +Maryland, South Carolina or Georgia. + +That the express terms of the powers of your Commissioners +supposing a deputation from all the States, and having for +object the Trade and Commerce of the United States, Your +Commissioners did not conceive it advisable to proceed on +the business of their mission, under the Circumstances of +so partial and defective a representation. + +Deeply impressed, however, with the magnitude and importance +of the object confided to them on this occasion, your +Commissioners cannot forbear to indulge an expression of +their earnest and unanimous wish, that speedy measures be +taken, to effect a general meeting, of the States, in a +future Convention, for the same, and such other purposes, +as the situation of public affairs may be found to require. + +If in expressing this wish, or in intimating any other +sentiment, your Commissioners should seem to exceed the strict +bounds of their appointment, they entertain a full confidence, +that a conduct, dictated by an anxiety for the welfare of the +United States, will not fail to receive an indulgent construction. + +In this persuasion, your Commissioners submit an opinion, that +the Idea of extending the powers of their Deputies, to other +objects, than those of Commerce, which has been adopted by the +State of New Jersey, was an improvement on the original plan, +and will deserve to be incorporated into that of a future +Convention; they are the more naturally led to this conclusion, +as in the course of their reflections on the subject, they have +been induced to think, that the power of regulating trade is +of such comprehensive extent, and will enter so far into the +general System of the federal government, that to give it +efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts concerning its +precise nature and limits, may require a correspondent +adjustment of other parts of the Federal System. + +That there are important defects in the system of the Federal +Government is acknowledged by the Acts of all those States, +which have concurred in the present Meeting; That the defects, +upon a closer examination, may be found greater and more +numerous, than even these acts imply, is at least so far +probably, from the embarrassments which characterize the +present State of our national affairs, foreign and domestic, +as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid +discussion, in some mode, which will unite the Sentiments and +Councils of all the States. In the choice of the mode, your +Commissioners are of opinion, that a Convention of Deputies +from the different States, for the special and sole purpose +of entering into this investigation, and digesting a plan for +supplying such defects as may be discovered to exist, will be +entitled to a preference from considerations, which will occur +without being particularized. + +Your Commissioners decline an enumeration of those national +circumstances on which their opinion respecting the propriety +of a future Convention, with more enlarged powers, is founded; +as it would be a useless intrusion of facts and observations, +most of which have been frequently the subject of public +discussion, and none of which can have escaped the penetration +of those to whom they would in this instance be addressed. +They are, however, of a nature so serious, as, in the view +of your Commissioners, to render the situation of the United +States delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the +untied virtue and wisdom of all the members of the Confederacy. + +Under this impression, Your Commissioners, with the most +respectful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous +conviction that it may essentially tend to advance the interests +of the union if the States, by whom they have been respectively +delegated, would themselves concur, and use their endeavors +to procure the concurrence of the other States, in the +appointment of Commissioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the +second Monday in May next, to take into consideration the +situation of the United States, to devise such further +provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the +constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the +exigencies of the Union; and to report such an Act for that +purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as when +agreed to, by them, and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures +of every State, will effectually provide for the same. + +Though your Commissioners could not with propriety address +these observations and sentiments to any but the States they +have the honor to represent, they have nevertheless concluded +from motives of respect, to transmit copies of the Report to +the United States in Congress assembled, and to the executives +of the other States. + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/anonymit b/textfiles.com/politics/anonymit new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cbe180a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/anonymit @@ -0,0 +1,778 @@ +From caf-talk Caf Jun 8 19:52:43 1992 +Newsgroups: comp.society +Subject: Anonymity and privacy on the network +Message-ID: <92083.072152SOCICOM@auvm.american.edu> +Date: 23 Mar 92 12:21:52 GMT +Organization: The American University - University Computing Center +Lines: 759 +Approved: SOCICOM@AUVM + + +Moderator's note: The following article is a lengthy excerpt from a +recent issue of FIDONEWS concerning individual privacy and the use of +aliases or handles in computer-based communications. It was submitted by +a comp.society reader who used a handle; because the excerpt is a cross- +post from another electronic publication, I have taken the liberty of +viewing the use of a handle by sender as a request for privacy and +anonymity similar to the request a newspaper editor might receive in a +letter to the editor. Thus, while reprinting the submission, the name +and address of the sender are "withheld upon request." The article +raises a number of good points; the submission by a reader using a handle +to preserve anonymity makes a point; and the editorial action of +submitting the reader's posting anonymously makes the question current. +What are the implications of using aliases on the net? + +Greg Welsh, moderator, comp.society +Internet: Socicom@american.edu +Bitnet: Socicom@auvm.bitnet + +[begin excerpt] +F I D O N E W S -- | Vol. 9 No. 9 (2 March 1992) + The newsletter of the | + FidoNet BBS community | Published by: + _ | + / \ | "FidoNews" BBS + /|oo \ | (415)-863-2739 + (_| /_) | FidoNet 1:1/1 + _`@/_ \ _ | Internet: + | | \ \\ | fidonews@fidonews.fidonet.org + | (*) | \ )) | + |__U__| / \// | Editors: + _//|| _\ / | Tom Jennings + (_/(_|(____/ | Tim Pozar + (jm) | +----------------------------+--------------------------------------- +Published weekly by and for the Members of the FidoNet international +amateur network. Copyright 1992, Fido Software. All rights reserved. +Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes +only. For use in other circumstances, please contact FidoNews. + +Paper price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5.00US +Electronic Price: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . free! + +For more information about FidoNews refer to the end of this file. +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +[...some editing...] +====================================================================== + ARTICLES +====================================================================== + + +The Joy of Handles +Mahatma Kane Jeeves +101/138.8 +David Lescohier +101/138.0 + + + + + THE JOY OF HANDLES + ------------------ + or: + EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ME + (but have no right to ask) + -------------------------- + + + * * * * * + + +We should never so entirely avoid danger as to appear +irresolute and cowardly. But, at the same time, we should +avoid unnecessarily exposing ourselves to danger, than +which nothing can be more foolish. [Cicero] + + + * * * * * + + + +Do you trust me? + +If you participate in computer conferencing, and you use +your real name, then you'd better. + +"Why?", you ask. "What can you do with my name?" To start +with, given that and your origin line, I can probably look +you up in your local phone book, and find out where you +live. Even if you are unlisted, there are ways to locate +you based on your name. If you own any property, or pay any +utility bills, your address is a matter of public record. +Do you have children in the public schools? It would be +easy to find out. But that's just the beginning. + +Former Chairman of the U.S. Privacy Protection Commission +David F. Linowes, in his book "Privacy in America" (1989), +writes of New York private investigator Irwin Blye: + + "Challenged to prove his contention that, given a little + time and his usual fee, he could learn all about an + individual without even speaking with him, Blye was + presented with a subject -- a New Jersey + newspaperman.... The result was a five-page, single- + spaced, typed report which documented, though not always + accurately, a wide sweep of the journalist's past, and + was detailed to the point of disclosing his father's + income before his retirement." + +Who am I? If I don't post, you might not even know I exist. +I could be on your local Police Department, or an agent +working with the IRS, or some federal law-enforcement +agency. I could be a member of some fanatical hate group, +or criminal organization. I might even be a former Nixon +White-House staffer! + +I could be that pyromaniacal teenager you flamed last +weekend, for posting a step-by-step description of how he +made plastic explosive in his high-school chem lab. He +seemed kind of mad. + +But you're an upstanding citizen; you have nothing to hide. +So why not use your name on the nets? Trust me. There's +nothing to worry about. + +Is there? + + * * * * * + + WHAT'S ALL THIS BROUHAHA? + ------------------------- + + Stupidity is evil waiting to happen. [Clay Bond] + + +Not long ago in Fidonet's BCSNET echo (the Boston Computer +Society's national conference), the following was posted by +the conference moderator to a user calling himself "Captain +Kirk": + + "May we ask dear Captain Kirk that it would be very + polite if you could use your real name in an echomail + conference? This particular message area is shared + with BBS's all across the country and everyone else is + using their real name. It is only common courtesy to + do so in an echomail conference." + +One of us (mkj) responded with a post questioning that +policy. Soon the conference had erupted into a heated +debate! Although mkj had worried that the subject might be +dismissed as trivial, it apparently touched a nerve. It +brought forth debate over issues and perceptions central to +computer communications in general, and it revealed profound +disparities in fundamental values and assumptions among +participants. + +This article is a response to that debate, and to the +prevailing negative attitudes regarding the use of handles. +Handles seem to have a bad reputation. Their use is +strangely unpopular, and frequently forbidden by network +authorities. Many people seem to feel that handles are rude +or dishonest, or that anyone wishing to conceal his or her +identity must be up to no good. It is the primary purpose +of this article to dispel such prejudices. + +Let us make one thing perfectly clear here at the outset: We +do NOT challenge the need or the right of sysops to know the +identities of their users! But we do believe that a sysop +who collects user names has a serious responsibility to +protect that information. This means making sure that no +one has access to the data without a legal warrant, and it +certainly means not pressuring users to broadcast their real +names in widespread public forums such as conferences. + + * * * * * + + SO YOU WANT TO BE A STAR? + ------------------------- + + John Lennon died for our sins. [anonymous] + + +Andy Warhol said that "In the future, everyone will be +famous for fifteen minutes". The computer nets, more than +any other medium, lend credibility to this prediction. A +network conference may span the globe more completely than +even satellite TV, yet be open to anyone who can afford the +simplest computer and modem. Through our participation in +conferencing, each of us becomes, if only briefly, a public +figure of sorts -- often without realizing it, and without +any contemplation of the implications and possible +consequences. + +Brian Reid (reid@decwrl.DEC.COM) conducts and distributes +periodic surveys of Usenet conference readership. His +statistical results for the end of 1991 show that of the +1,459 conferences which currently make up Usenet, more than +fifty percent have over 20,000 readers apiece; the most +popular conferences are each seen by about 200,000 readers! +Mr. Reid's estimate of total Usenet readership is nearly TWO +MILLION people. + +Note that Mr. Reid's numbers are for Usenet only; they do +not include any information on other large public nets such +as RIME (PC-Relaynet), Fido, or dozens of others, nor do +they take into account thousands of private networks which +may have indirect public network connections. The total +number of users with access to public networks is unknown, +but informed estimates range to the tens of millions, and +the number keeps growing at an amazing pace -- in fact, the +rate of growth of this medium may be greater than any other +communications medium in history. + +The special problems and risks which arise when one deals +with a large public audience are something about which most +computer users have little or no experience or +understanding. Until recently, those of us involved in +computer conferencing have comprised a small and rather +elite community. The explosion in network participation is +catching us all a little unprepared. + +Among media professionals and celebrities, on the other +hand, the risks of conducting one's business in front of a +public audience are all too familiar. If the size of one's +audience becomes sufficiently large, one must assume that +examples of virtually every personality type will be +included: police and other agents of various governments, +terrorists, murderers, rapists, religious fanatics, the +mentally ill, robbers and con artists, et al ad infinitum. +It must also be assumed that almost anything you do, no +matter how innocuous, could inspire at least one person, +somewhere, to harbor ill will toward you. + +The near-fatal stabbing of actress Theresa Saldana is a case +in point. As she was walking to her car one morning near her +West Hollywood apartment, a voice behind her asked, "Are you +Theresa Saldana?"; when she turned to answer, a man she had +never seen before pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed her +repeatedly. + +After her lengthy and painful recovery, she wrote a book on +the experience ("Beyond Survival", 1986). In that book she +wrote: + + + [pg 12] "... Detective Kalas informed me that the + assailant, whom he described as a Scottish drifter, had + fixated upon me after seeing me in films." + + [pg 28] "... it was through my work as an actress that + the attacker had fixated on me. Naturally, this made + me consider getting out of show business ..." + + [pg 34] "For security, I adopted an alias and became + 'Alicia Michaels.' ... during the months that followed + I grew so accustomed to it that, to this day, I still + answer reflexively when someone calls the name Alicia!" + +Or consider the fate of Denver radio talk show host Alan +Berg, who in 1984 died outside his home in a hail of +gunfire. Police believe he was the victim of a local neo- +nazi group who didn't like his politics. + +We are reminded of the murders of John Lennon and Rebecca +Shaffer; the Reagan/Hinckley/Foster incident; and a long +string of other "celebrity attacks" of all sorts, including +such bizarre events as the occupation of David Letterman's +home by a strange woman who claimed to be his wife! There is +probably no one in public life who doesn't receive at least +the occassional threatening letter. + +Of course, ordinary participants in network conferencing may +never attract quite the attention that other types of +celebrities attract. But consider the following, rather less +apocalyptic scenarios: + + -- On Friday night you post a message to a public + conference defending an unpopular or controversial + viewpoint. On Monday morning your biggest client + cancels a major contract. Or you are kept up all + night by repeated telephone calls from someone + demanding that you "stop killing babies"! + + -- You buy your teenage son or daughter a computer and + modem. Sometime later you find your lawn littered + with beer bottles and dug up with tire marks, or + your home vandalized or burglarized. + + -- One day you are nominated to the Supreme Court. Who + are all these strange people on TV claiming to be + your friends? How did that fellow know your position + on abortion? Your taste in GIFs? + +Celebrities and other professional media personalities +accept the risks and sacrifices of notoriety, along with the +benefits, as part of their chosen careers. Should computer +conference participants be expected to do the same? And who +should be making these decisions? + + * * * * * + + OTHER MEDIA + ----------- + + When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome [Cervantes] + + +Older media seem to address the problems of privacy very +differently than computer media, at least so far. We are +not aware of ANY medium or publication, apart from computer +conferencing, where amateur or even most professional +participants are required to expose their true names against +their will. Even celebrities frequently use "stage names", +and protect their addresses and phone numbers as best they +can. + +When a medium caters specifically to the general public, +participants are typically given even greater opportunities +to protect their privacy. Television talk shows have been +known to go so far as to employ silhouetting and electronic +alteration of voices to protect the identities of guests, +and audience members who participate are certainly not +required to state their full names before speaking. + +The traditional medium most analogous to computer +conferencing may be talk radio. Like conferencing, talk +radio is a group discussion and debate medium oriented +toward controversy, where emotions can run high. Programs +often center around a specific topic, and are always run by +a "host" whose role seems analogous in many respects to that +of a conference moderator. It is therefore worth noting +that in talk radio generally, policy seems to be that +callers are identified on the air only by their first names +(unless of course they volunteer more). + +Finally, of course, authors have published under "pen names" +since the dawn of publishing, and newspapers and magazines +frequently publish letters to the editor with "name and +address withheld by request" as the signature line. Even +founding fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John +Jay, in authoring the seminal Federalist Papers in 1787 for +publication in the Letters columns of various New York City +newspapers, concealed their identities behind the now-famous +psuedonym "Publius". + +What would you think if someone called a radio talk show +demanding to know the identity of a previous caller? Such a +demand would undoubtedly be seen as menacing and +inappropriate in that context. Yet that same demand seems +to arise without much challenge each time a handle shows up +in a computer conference. The authors of this article feel +that such demands should always be looked upon as +suspicious, and that it would be beneficial for moderators +to take upon themselves the responsibility of making sure +that besieged handle-users are aware of their right to +refuse such inappropriate demands. + +It is reasonable to assume that privacy policies in +traditional media are the result of hard-won wisdom gained +from long experience. Are we so arrogant that we cannot +learn from others? It is not hard to imagine the sorts of +problems and experiences which shaped these policies in the +old media. Will we have to wait for similar problems to +occur on the computer networks before we learn? + + * * * * * + + PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE + ------------------------ + + In an effort to identify people who fail to file tax + returns, the Internal Revenue Service is matching + its files against available lists of names and + addresses of U.S. citizens who have purchased + computers for home use. The IRS continues to seek + out sources for such information. This information + is matched against the IRS master file of taxpayers + to see if those who have not filed can be + identified. + [COMPUTERWORLD, Sept. 1985] + + Date: Thu, 23 May 91 11:58:07 PDT + From: mmm@cup.portal.com + Subject: The RISKS of Posting to the Net + - + I just had an interesting visit from the FBI. It + seems that a posting I made to sci.space several + months ago had filtered through channels, caused the + FBI to open (or re-open) a file on me, and an agent + wanted to interview me, which I did voluntarily... + I then went on to tell him about the controversy + over Uunet, and their role in supplying archives of + Usenet traffic on tape to the FBI... + [RISKS Digest] + + Also frequent are instances where computers are + seized incident to an unrelated arrest. For + example, on February 28, 1991, following an arrest + on charges of rape and battery, the Massachusetts + state and local police seized the suspect's computer + equipment. The suspect reportedly operated a 650- + subscriber bulletin board called "BEN," which is + described as "geared largely to a gay/leather/S&M + crowd." It is not clear what the board's seizure is + supposed to have accomplished, but the board is now + shut down, and the identities and messages of its + users are in the hands of the police. + [CONSTITUTIONAL, LEGAL, AND ETHICAL + CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEALING WITH ELECTRONIC + FILES IN THE AGE OF CYBERSPACE, Harvey A. + Silverglate and Thomas C. Viles] + + +Most of us have been brought up to be grateful for the fact +that we live in a nation where freedom is sacred. In other +countries, we are told as children, people are afraid to +speak their minds for fear they are being watched. Thank +God we live in America! + +It would surprise most of us to learn that America is +currently among the premiere surveillance nations in the +world, but such, sadly, is indeed the case. Our leadership +in technology has helped the U.S. government to amass as +much information on its citizens as almost any other nation +in history, totalitarian or otherwise. And to make matters +worse, a consumer surveillance behemoth has sprung up +consisting of huge private data-collection agencies which +cater to business. + +As Evan Hendricks, editor of "Privacy Times" (a Washington +D.C.-based newsletter) has put it: "You go through life +dropping bits and pieces of information about yourself +everywhere. Most people don't realize there are big vacuum +cleaners out there sucking it all up." [Wall Street +Journal, March 14, 1991]. + +To get an idea of how much of your privacy has already been +lost, consider the bits and pieces of information about +yourself which are already available to investigators, and +how thoroughly someone might come to know you by these clues +alone. + +A person's lifestyle and personality are largely described, +for example, by his or her purchases and expenses; from your +checking account records -- which banks are required by law +to keep and make available to government investigators -- a +substantial portrait of your life will emerge. Credit card +records may reveal much of the same information, and can +also be used to track your movements. (In a recent case, +"missing" Massachusetts State Representative Timothy O'Leary +was tracked by credit-card transactions as he fled across +the country, and his movements were reported on the nightly +news!) + +Then there are your school records, which include IQ and +other test results, comments on your "socialization" by +teachers and others, and may reveal family finances in great +detail. Employment and tax records reveal your present +income, as well as personal comments by employers and co- +workers. Your properties are another public record of your +income and lifestyle, and possibly your social status as +well. Telephone billing records reveal your personal and +business associations in more detail. Insurance records +reveal personal and family health histories and treatments. + +All of this information is commonly accessed by government +and private or corporate investigators. And this list is +far from exhaustive! + +Now consider how easily the computer networks lend +themselves to even further erosions of personal privacy. The +actual contents of our mail and telephone traffic have up to +now been subjected to deliberate scrutiny only under +extraordinary conditions. This built-in safety is due +primarily to the difficulty and expense of conducting +surveillance in these media, which usually requires extended +human intervention. But in the medium of computer +communications, most surveillance can be conducted using +automated monitoring techniques. Tools currently available +make it possible and even cost-effective for government and +other interests to monitor virtually everything which +happens here. + +Why would anyone want to monitor network users? It is well +documented that, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI and +other agencies of government, in operations such as the +infamous COINTELPRO among others, spent a great deal of time +and effort collecting vast lists of names. As Computer +Underground Digest moderators Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer +recalled in a recent commentary (CuD #3.42): + + "A 1977 class action suit against the Michigan State + Police learned, through FOIA requests, that state and + federal agents would peruse letters to the editor of + newspapers and collect clippings of those whose politics + they did not like. These news clippings became the basis + of files on those persons that found there way into the + hands of other agencies and employers." + +To get onto one of these government "enemies" lists, you +often needed to do nothing more than telephone an +organization under surveillance, or subscribe to the "wrong" +types of magazines and newspapers. Groups engaged in +political activism, including environmental and women's +rights organizations, were commonly infiltrated. The sort +of investigative reporting which uncovered these lists and +surveillances back in the '60s and '70s is now rare, but +there is little reason to assume that such activities have +ceased or even slowed. In fact, progressive computerization +of local police LEIU activities (Law Enforcement +Intelligence Units, commonly known as "red squads") suggests +that such activities may have greatly increased. + +Within the realm of computer conferencing especially, there +is ample reason to believe that systematic monitoring is +being conducted by government and law-enforcement +organizations, and perhaps by other hostile interests as +well. In a recent issue of Telecom Digest +(comp.dcom.telecom), Craig Neidorf (knight@EFF.ORG) reported +on the results of a recent Freedom of Information Act +request for documents from the Secret Service: + + " ... The documents also show that the Secret Service + established a computer database to keep track of + suspected computer hackers. This database contains + records of names, aliases, addresses, phone numbers, + known associates, a list of activities, and various + [conference postings] associated with each individual." + +But the privacy issues which surround computer +communications go far beyond the collection of user lists. +Both government and industry have long pursued the elusive +grail of personality profiling on citizens and consumers. Up +to now, such ambitions have been restrained by the practical +difficulty and expense of collecting and analyzing large +amounts of information on large numbers of citizens. But +computer communications, more than any other technology, +seems to hold out the promise that this unholy grail may +finally be in sight. + +To coin a phrase, never has so much been known by so few +about so many. The information commonly available to +government and industry investi-gators today is sufficient +to make reliable predictions about our personalities, +health, politics, future behavior, our vulnerabilities, +perhaps even about our innermost thoughts and feelings. The +privacy we all take for granted is, in fact, largely an +illusion; it no longer exists in most walks of life. If we +wish to preserve even the most basic minimum of personal +privacy, it seems clear that we need to take far better care +on the networks than we have taken elsewhere. + + * * * * * + + FREEDOM + ------- + + Human beings are the only species with a history. + Whether they also have a future is not so obvious. + The answer will lie in the prospects for popular + movements, with firm roots among all sectors of the + population, dedicated to values that are suppressed + or driven to the margins within the existing social + and political order... + [Noam Chomsky] + + +In your day-to-day social interactions, as you deal with +employers, clients, public officials, friends, acquaintances +and total strangers, how often do you feel you can really +speak freely? How comfortable are you discussing +controversial issues such as religion, taxes, politics, +racism, sexuality, abortion or AIDS, for example? Would you +consider it appropriate or wise to express an honest opinion +on such an issue to your boss, or a client? To your +neighbors? + +Most of us confine such candid discussions to certain +"trusted" social contexts, such as when we are among our +closest friends. But when you post to a network conference, +your boss, your clients, and your neighbors may very well +read what you post -- if they are not on the nets today, +they probably will be soon, as will nearly everyone. + +If we have to consider each post's possible impact on our +social and professional reputations, on our job security and +income, on our family's acceptance and safety in the +community, it could be reckless indeed to express ourselves +freely on the nets. Yet conferences are often geared to +controversy, and inhibitions on the free expression of +opinions can reduce traffic to a trickle, killing off an +important conference topic or distorting a valuable sampling +of public opinion. + +More important still is the role computer networks are +beginning to play in the free and open dissemination of news +and information. Democracy is crippled if dissent and +diversity in the media are compromised; yet even here in the +U.S., where a "free press" is a cherished tradition, the +bulk of all the media is owned by a small (and ever- +shrinking) number of corporations, whose relatively narrow +culture, interests and perspec-tives largely shape the +public perception. + +Computer communication, on the other hand, is by its nature +very difficult to control or shape. Its resources are +scattered; when one BBS goes bust (or is busted!), three +others spring up in its place. The natural resiliency of +computer communications (and other new, decentral-ized +information technologies such as fax, consumer camcorders +and cheap satellite links) is giving rise to a new brand of +global "guerrilla journalism" which includes everyone, and +defies efforts at suppression. + +The power and value of this new journalistic freedom has +recently shown itself during the Gulf War, and throughout +Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, as well as within the +U.S. Just think of the depth and detail of information +available on the nets regarding the Secret Service's recent +"Operation Sundevil" and associated activities, compared to +the grossly distorted, blatantly propagandistic coverage of +those same activities given to the general public through +the traditional media. + +Historically, established power and wealth have seldom been +disposed to tolerate uncontrolled media, and recent events +in this country and elsewhere show that computer media are +sometimes seen as threats to established interests as well. +To understand the role of handles in this context, it is +useful to note the flurries of anti-handle sentiment which +have arisen in the wake of crackdowns such as Sundevil, or +the Tom Tcimpidis raid in the early 1980s. Although few +charges and fewer convictions have typically resulted from +such operations, one might be tempted to speculate that the +real purposes -- to terrorize the nets and chill freedoms of +speech and assembly thereon -- have been achieved. + +In this way, sysops and moderators become unwitting +accomplices in the supression of freedom on the networks. +When real name requirements are instituted, anyone who fears +retaliation of any sort, by any group, will have to fear +participation in the nets; hence content is effectively +controlled. This consideration becomes especially important +as the nets expand into even more violent and repressive +countries outside the U.S. + +We must decide whether freedom of information and open +public discussion are in fact among the goals of network +conferencing, and if so, whether handles have a role in +achieving these goals. As access to the networks grows, we +have a rare opportunity to frustrate the efforts of +governments and corporations to control the public mind! In +this way above all others, computers may have the potential +to shape the future of all mankind for the better. + + * * * * * + + A CALL TO ACTION + ---------------- + + + The move to electronic communication may be a turning + point that history will remember. Just as in + seventeenth and eighteenth century Great Britain and + America a few tracts and acts set precedents for + print by which we live today, so what we think and do + today may frame the information system for a + substantial period in the future. + [Ithiel de Sola Pool, "Technologies of Freedom", 1983] + + +There was a time when anybody with some gear and a few +batteries could become a radio broadcaster -- no license +required. There was a time when anyone with a sense of +adventure could buy a plane, and maybe get a contract to +carry mail. Those early technological pioneers were +probably unable to imagine the world as it is today, but +their influence is strongly felt in current laws, +regulations and policies with roots in the traditions and +philosophies they founded and shaped. + +Today the new pioneers are knitting the world together with +computers, and the world is changing faster than ever. Law +and ethics are scrambling to keep up. How far will this +growth take us? No one can say for sure. But you don't +need a crystal ball to see that computer communications has +the potential to encompass and surpass all the functionality +of prior media -- print, post, telegraph, telephone, radio +and television -- and more. It seems reasonable to assume +that computer communications will be at least as ubiquitous +and important in the lives of our grandchildren as all the +older media have been in ours. + +It will be a world whose outlines we can now make out only +dimly. But the foundations of that world are being built +today by those of us exploring and homesteading on the +electronic frontier. We need to look hard at what it will +take to survive in the information age. + +In this article we have attempted to show, for one very +narrow issue, what some of the stakes may be in this future- +building game. But the risks associated with exposing your +name in a computer conference are not well defined, and +various people will no doubt assess the importance of these +risks differently. After all, most of us take risks every +day which are probably greater than the risks associated +with conferencing. We drive on the expressway. We eat +sushi. To some people, the risks of conferencing may seem +terrifying; to others, insignificant. + +But let us not get side-tracked into unresolvable arguments +on the matter. The real issue here is not how dangerous +conferencing may or may not be; it is whether you and I will +be able to make our own decisions, and protect ourselves (or +not) as we see fit. The obvious answer is that users must +exercise their collective power to advance their own +interests, and to pressure sysops and moderators to become +more sensitive to user concerns. + +To help in that effort, we would like to recommend the +following guidelines for user action: + + -- Bear in mind John Perry Barlow's observation that + "Liberties are preserved by using them". Let your + sysop know that you would prefer to be using a + handle, and use one wherever you can. + + -- Try to support boards and conferences which allow + handles, and avoid those which don't. + + -- When using a handle, BEHAVE RESPONSIBLY! There will + always be irresponsible users on the nets, and they + will always use handles. It is important for the + rest of us to fight common anti-handle prejudices by + showing that handles are NOT always the mark of an + irresponsible user! + + -- Educate others about the importance of handles (but + NEVER argue or flame anyone about it). + +To sysops and moderators: We ask you to bear in mind that +authority is often used best where it is used least. Grant +users the right to engage in any harmless and responsible +behaviors they choose. Protect your interests in ways which +tread as lightly as possible upon the interests of others. +The liberties you preserve may be your own! + +In building the computer forums of today, we are building +the social fabric of tomorrow. If we wish to preserve the +free and open atmosphere which has made computer networking +a powerful force, while at the same time taking care against +the risks inherent in such a force, handles seem to be a +remarkably harmless, entertaining and effective tool to help +us. Let's not throw that tool away. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +[end of excerpt] + + +-- +David Collier-Brown, | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA | lethe!dave +72 Abitibi Ave., | +Willowdale, Ontario, | He's so smart he's dumb. +CANADA. 416-223-8968 | -- Joyce Collier-Brown + +From caf-talk Caf Jun 10 00:17:10 1992 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/antigvt1.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/antigvt1.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..db4399b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/antigvt1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,288 @@ + Antistatism: An Eye For An Eye . . . + +Clarification: + + All "words inside quotation marks" mean that those words were used "for +lack of a better word." + +Summary Of Political Ideology (Autonomy): + +Decision Making: + +- No government exists to make decisions for the Antistate (as a single + entity) or the people within it. +- Territorial, professional, and trade resolutions are made through free + agreements between individuals or groups of individuals out of + necessity. +- Every individual or group of individuals in the Antistate can make + free contracts (agreements) with any other individual or group of + individuals anywhere. This is not an "ensured right," but a + necessary means of survival. +- The "free agreements" or "contracts" are open-ended arrangements (not + written binding deals). They provide services or produce + (material items) in return for services or produce between + individuals or groups of individuals. +- Example of a contract: Farmer Joe will give one third of his crop to + Doctor Bob if Doctor Bob takes care of all Farmer Joe's medical + concerns. +- The contracts can be created, altered, or ended at any time. + + Political Rights: + +- There are no restrictions (no law, government, police, prisons, etc.) + regulating what an individual can or cannot do in the Antistate. + The individual has complete and total freedom. +- This absolute liberty creates a balance that reacts with, and + counteracts every action in the Antistate. +- Example of balance of action: Farmer Joe breaks both his legs. Doctor + Bob takes half Farmer Joe's crop and refuses to set Farmer Joe's + broken legs. Farmer Joe either dies (unable to do anything) or + makes contracts with Butch Thug and Orthopedic Surgeon Mary for + protection and care. +- Anyone can believe anything and say anything they please in the + Antistate, but nobody has to listen. +- Anyone can leave or enter the Antistate. +- Political dissent is useless, an individual may try to implement a + "true" political system, but with few followers this is futile. + +Minority Rights: + +- Once an individual is within the Antistate they have the complete + freedom to do anything despite who the individual is. + - It is impossible to "be a citizen" of the Antistate, this requires the + recognition of an absent government. + +Leaders & Government Involvement In Society: + +- To clarify: The government is nonexistent, therefore it cannot have + any leaders and cannot involve itself with anything. +- If any social leaders (religious, etc.) arise (such as Ghandi) the + extent of their "power" is limited to the number of individuals + that choose to follow them. + +Education And Professionals: + +- As previously said, services are a commodity for barter, the more rare + the service, the more desired it becomes. +- Education is a valuable service; those people being taught are trading + other items and services to the person who is educating them. +- Services (medical, construction, just about anything, etc.) are given + in exchange for items or other services. +- The more educated one becomes in a trade (skill), the more they can + rely on their knowledge to provide goods and services for them. +- Education is a key tool in teaching people to survive independently. + +Defence Of Political Ideology: + +Major Advantages Of Antistatism (Autonomy): + + Equality: Every person in the Antistate has equal opportunity. Since +individual rights are absolute and unconditional in the Antistate, anybody can +do anything. The same opportunities are available to everybody, and the +ultimate goal of society is constant, survival. + + Autonomy: It may seem that in our "democracy" we have almost complete +freedom, this is not true. In Canada, there is a modest document (Bill of +Rights) that attempts to "guarantee" the Canadian public a certain set of +rights and freedoms. There is another document (the written law) that +contains thousands upon thousands of restrictions and regulations placed on +Canadian citizens. In short, there are more things we cannot do than things +that we can do. Not only are we restricted in what we can do, we can also +have our remaining rights involuntary removed (arrests and imprisonment, +minors have few rights, questionable mental faculties, etc.). Finally, we pay +(taxes) for the privilege of having our rights taken away. It's not a big +secret that police, lawyers, and politicians cost money. These problems are +avoided in the Antistate where the legal system, government, and law +enforcement are forsaken. + + Individualism & Collectivism: In the world today there are few who could +survive completely independent of others. This is a basic principle of +Antistatism. Within the Antistate an individual is free to be just that, an +individual. The individual is bound by no laws other than necessity to merge +with others. If an individual is forced to join others for any reason, the +person loses their identity as an individual and becomes a group entity. The +loss of individual identity and merger into a group entity forces unnecessary +restrictions on the person, hindering progress. Necessity draws the individuals together (collects the individuals) and drives them to work for +the good of each other, themselves included. From these mutual junctions of +distinct individuals in an immense collection, progress is spawned. There is +no other society, but the Antistate, in which an individual can work +progressively with others and not lose their distinct identity. + +Attacks On Antistatism: + + Attack #1: "Wouldn't the stronger people take advantage of the weaker +people? How can this be justified?" + + Defence #1: Yes, the stronger, faster, and smarter people would take +advantage of the weaker people. There is nothing wrong with this. Those +people most capable of survival will live and develop and have children with +the same characteristics of survival. The weak will be weeded out, sometimes +by the strong and sometimes by the environment, and the weak characteristics +that they possess will disappear from mankind. In this way, human beings will +progress naturally as organisms, and socially as more hardy beings capable of +independent survival. It is only within the last hundred years that human +beings have become the only organisms to deviate from this natural state of +things. + + Attack #2: "What would stop another country from invading the Antistate +and claiming all the territory?" + + Defence #2: As was stated before, very few people are capable of +independent survival. Therefore the individuals make contracts out of +necessity for various things such as nourishment, shelter, and protection. +One of the most common contracts that would arise among the people would be +those of defence. In return for some commodity or service, protection would +be given to the providing individual. Enough of these contracts would give +way to a huge, self-governing army protecting each other, benefiting +everybody. + + Attack #3: "If the Antistate isn't really a state, how can it have +political borders?" + + Defence #3: If the Antistate can keep other countries from claiming it's +territory, then the borders of the Antistate are defined as any territory +unclaimed by any country. + +Summary Of Economic Ideology (Private Enterprise): + +Position On Economic Spectrum: + +- The economic system in the Antistate is similar to extreme capitalism. +- State enterprise, state involvement in the economy, and taxation is + impossible without a state and therefore absent in the Antistate. +- There is no currency; there is no state to produce it, and no need to + represent large amounts of items. + +Production: + + - Everyone produces (for themselves) what is needed for survival and any + "luxury items" desired. +- Anything needed or desired by an individual (which the individual + cannot produce) is taken from or traded for with goods or services + with other individuals. +- It is foolish to produce excess amounts (more than is needed for + comfortable survival) of goods unless they are to be used for + trade. +- "Disposable income" (meaning excess "luxury items") depends on how + hard the individual in question works to produce or trade for it. + +Classless Society: + +- Everyone has the same job, to get what is needed for survival (there + are many means of doing this). +- Without currency it is difficult to determine who is rich and who + isn't (a monetary value cannot be given). +- The "winners" (in an economic sense) are those who get what they need + to survive and get the "luxury items" they want. +- The "average" person gets what they need to survive plus a few "luxury + items." +- The "loser" dies, unable to get what is needed for survival. +- Education is essential to maintain a "profitable" lifestyle. + +Social Problems (If the Antistate is installed somewhere in the modern world): + +- Poverty would run rampant until all those who could not learn to + survive independently quickly enough are dead. +- Crime would become commonplace until it becomes unprofitable (why + murder the only doctor in town, etc.). +- An extreme drop would occur in the economy for a long period until the + above points are resolved. + +Defence Of Economic Ideology: + +Major Advantages Of Private Enterprise: + + Liberty: Within a system of complete private enterprise, a person has +the greatest possible amount of freedom to produce anything they want to (or +nothing). Also, they can trade for (or take) any items they choose. An +individual has the independence to pursue any activity they prefer (no working +nine to five). You can take a vacation, give yourself a raise, or take that +BMW anytime! + + No Taxes, No Welfare: Who can argue with such a fine idea? No taxes, no +welfare. No welfare means those who cannot or will not produce die. The +people who need welfare die, the problem is erased. Great idea! + + No Excess: The greatest amount of items being produced are those that +people need. Producing these items requires time, effort and materials. +Therefore, nothing is being produced and not used. The system becomes +tailored to the needs of society, those who produce what everyone needs will +be successful. + + Attacks On Private Enterprise: + + Attack #1: "You claimed earlier that all people in the Antistate would +be equal. How can this be so when some people are bound to be better at +producing things that everybody needs?" + + Defence #1: What was claimed earlier was that all people in the +Antistate have equal opportunities. Yes, some people will be "more +successful" than others by producing things that everyone needs. There is a +healthy balance created in private enterprise where the "winners" end up +producing necessary things and get what they need while the "losers" produce +plastic cows or fuzzy dice and end up with nothing. If everyone ends up +producing the same vital, but now abundant item, it is only logical that some +of them will get "business" while others won't. The others who aren't getting +any "business" either find new items to produce or become "losers." + + Attack #2: "How can you possibly leave those people who cannot produce +without any assistance? It's inhumane to let them just die." + + Defence #2: If you want to take care of them, you can do it, but to +force me to do it is equally inhumane. Those people who cannot survive should +die. They carry genetic traits (blindness for instance) that will pass on if +they reproduce. I am in no way advocating that we should go out and destroy +these people (nature does that just fine), I'm just saying to go out of our +way and do the surviving for them is unnatural. This is another self- +correcting problem that will take care of itself if left alone in a natural +state. + + Attack #3: "How do I stop Butch Thug or Sid Crook from stealing my BMW?" + + Defence #3: Either let your BMW get stolen, or get a big gun and defend +it. An eye for an eye. Why do we need cops when we can do the job better? + +Rationale Behind Political/Economic Combination: + + The ideology of Antistatism is the combination of three distinct +political ideologies and two economic ideologies: democracy, anacro-communism, +autonomy, private enterprise and capitalism. These ideologies express freedom +for the people. Their merger into one system provides freedom in a plausible +form. + + Antistatism is the best possible 21st century ideology. Marx and Lenin +have both claimed that final stage in a perfectly evolved society is autonomy. +That is what the Antistate is, a perfectly evolved society. Within it is +found independent, autonomous individuals who are producing and progressing to +the benefit of everyone. The self-governing people are completely free to +persue their personal goals and ideals within the confines of their survival. +Without a government, there are no problems arising from powerful leaders, +apathetic politicians and of course, no taxes. Let the people control +themselves and the people will be content. + + If government exists to serve the people, and it doesn't do this, then +it doesn't work. When something doesn't work, you either fix it, or rid +yourself of it for good. + +Bibliography: + +Alinsky, Saul D. 1972. Rules For Radicals. Vintage Books (Random House Inc.) +Cohen, Carl, ed. 1972. Communism, Fascism, And Democracy: The Theoretical + Foundations. Random House Inc. +Dalton, George. 1974. Economic Systems & Society. Penguin Books Ltd. +Jacker, Corinne. 1968. The Black Flag Of Anarchy. Charles Scribner's Sons. +Laski, Harold J. 1955. "Anarchism." Encyclopedia Britannica. Ed. Walter Yust. + vol. 1. William Benton. pp. 873-878. +Lehning, Arthur. 1968. "Anarchism." Dictionary Of The History Of Ideas: + Studies Of Selected Pivotal Ideas. vol. 1. Charles Scribner's Sons. + pp. 70-76. +Lenin, Vladimir. 1916. Imperialism, The Highest Stage Of Capitalism. Progress + Publishers +Lenin, Vladimir. "State And Revolution." Essential Works Of Marxism. Ed. + Arthur P. Mendel. Bantam Books, Inc. pp. 103-198. +Stalin, Joseph. "The Foundations Of Leninism." Essential Works Of Marxism. Ed. + Arthur P. Mendel. Bantam Books, Inc. pp. 209-296. +Ward, Colin. 1973. Anarchy In Action. Harper & Row, Publishers. + + By Q&A + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/antipir.new b/textfiles.com/politics/antipir.new new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c30a8a13 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/antipir.new @@ -0,0 +1,206 @@ + + BILL TRACKING REPORT + + + 102nd Congress + 1st Session + + U. S. Senate + + S 893 + + 1991 S. 893 + + AMENDMENT, TITLE 18, UNITED STATES CODE + +DATE-INTRO: April 23, 1991 + +LAST-ACTION-DATE: October 5, 1992 + +FINAL STATUS: Pending + +SPONSOR: Senator Orrin G. Hatch R-UT + +TOTAL-COSPONSORS: 2 Cosponsors: 1 Democrats / 1 Republicans + +SYNOPSIS: A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to impose criminal +sanctions for violation of software copyright. + +ACTIONS: Committee Referrals: +04/23/91 Senate Judiciary Committee +06/09/92 House Judiciary Committee + +Legislative Chronology: + +1st Session Activity: +04/23/91 137 Cong Rec S 4837 Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee +04/23/91 137 Cong Rec S 4862 Remarks by Sen. Hatch +07/25/91 137 Cong Rec D 972 Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights + and Trademarks approved for full Committee + consideration +08/01/91 137 Cong Rec D 1036 Senate Judiciary Committee ordered favorably + reported +09/23/91 137 Cong Rec S 13465 Cosponsors added + +2nd Session Activity: +04/07/92 138 Cong Rec S 4931 Reported in the Senate (S. Rept. No. + 102-268) +06/04/92 138 Cong Rec S 7580 Passed in the Senate, after agreeing to + an amendment proposed thereto, by voice + vote +06/04/92 138 Cong Rec S 7580 Senate adopted Specter (for Hatch) + Amendment No. 1868, to make a technical + correction, by voice vote +06/04/92 138 Cong Rec S 7613 Hatch Amendment No. 1868, submitted +06/09/92 138 Cong Rec H 4338 Senate requested the concurrence of the + House +06/09/92 138 Cong Rec H 4445 Referred to the House Judiciary Committee +08/12/92 138 Cong Rec D 1066 House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property + and Judicial Administration held a hearing +09/10/92 138 Cong Rec D 1094 House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property + and Judicial Administration approved for + full Committee action amended +09/30/92 138 Cong Rec D 1246 House Judiciary Committee ordered reported, + amended +10/03/92 138 Cong Rec H 11129 House voted to suspend the rules and pass, + amended, by voice vote +10/03/92 138 Cong Rec H 11129 House agreed to amend the title, by voice + vote +10/03/92 138 Cong Rec H 11196 Reported in the House, amended (H. Rept. + 102-997) +10/05/92 138 Cong Rec S 16975 House requested the concurrence of the + Senate + +BILL-DIGEST: (from the CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE) +0604/92 (Measure passed Senate, amended ) Amends the Federal criminal code +to impose criminal sanctions for copyright violations involving the +reproduction or distribution, during any 180-day period, of specified +numbers of copies infringing the copyright in one or more computer programs. + +CRS Index Terms: + +Crime and criminals; Computer software; Copyright infringement; Fines +(Penalties) + +CO-SPONSORS: + +Original Cosponsors: + + DeConcini D-AZ + +Added 09/23/91: + + Gorton R-WA + + + + FULL TEXT OF BILLS + + 102ND CONGRESS; 2ND SESSION + IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + AS REPORTED IN THE HOUSE + + S. 893 + + 1991 S. 893; + + SYNOPSIS: + AN ACT +To amend title 18, United States Code, to impose criminal sanctions for + violation of software copyright. + +DATE OF INTRODUCTION: FEBRUARY 28, 1991 + +DATE OF VERSION: OCTOBER 5, 1992 -- VERSION: 5 + + SPONSOR(S): +Sponsor not included in this printed version. + + TEXT: +102D CONGRESS +2D SESSION + S. 893 + + Report No. 102-997 +To amend title 18, United States Code, to impose criminal sanctions for + violation of software copyright. + + ------------------------------------- + + IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + + JUNE 9, 1992 + Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary + + OCTOBER 3, 1992 +Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House + on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed + +Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in + italic + ------------------------------------- + + AN ACT +To amend title 18, United States Code, to impose criminal sanctions for + violation of software copyright. + +* Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United* +*States of America in Congress assembled, * +** That (a) section 2319(b)(1) of title 18, United States Code, is +amended- + (1) in paragraph (B) by striking "or" after the semicolon; + (2) redesignating paragraph (C) as paragraph (D); + (3) by adding after paragraph (B) the following: + "(C) involves the reproduction or distribution, during any + 180-day period, of at least 50 copies infringing the copyright + in one or more computer programs (including any tape, disk, or + other medium embodying such programs); or"; + (4) in new paragraph (D) by striking "or" after "recording,"; and + (5) in new paragraph (D) by adding ", or a computer program", + before the semicolon. + (b) Section 2319(b)(2) of title 18, United States Code, is amended- + (1) in paragraph (A) by striking "or" after the semicolon; + (2) in paragraph (B) by striking "and" at the end thereof and + inserting "or"; and + (3) by adding after paragraph (B) the following: + "(C) involves the reproduction or distribution, during any + 180-day period, of more than 10 but less than 50 copies + infringing the copyright in one or more computer programs + (including any tape, disk, or other medium embodying such + programs); and". + (c) Section 2319(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended- + (1) in paragraph (1) by striking "and" after the semicolon; + (2) in paragraph (2) by striking the period at the end thereof and + inserting "; and"; and + (3) by adding at the end thereof the following: + "(3) the term 'computer program' has the same meaning as set forth + in section 101 of title 17, United States Code.". +*SECTION 1. CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. * +* Section 2319(b) of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as* +*follows: * +* "(b) Any person who commits an offense under subsection (a) of this * +*section- * +* "(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, or fined in the * +* amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense consists of * +* the reproduction or distribution, during any 180-day period, of at * +* least 10 copies or phonorecords, of 1 or more copyrighted works, * +* with a retail value of more than $2,500; * +* "(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, or fined in the * +* amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense is a second * +* or subsequent offense under paragraph (1); and * +* "(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 1 year, or fined in the * +* amount set forth in this title, or both, in any other case.". * +*SEC. 2. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. * +* Section 2319(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended- * +* (1) in paragraph (1) by striking " 'sound recording', 'motion * +* picture', 'audiovisual work', 'phonorecord'," and inserting " * +* 'phonorecord' "; and * +* (2) in paragraph (2) by striking "118" and inserting "120". * + Amend the title so as to read: "An Act to amend title 18, United States +Code, with respect to the criminal penalties for copyright +infringement.". + Passed the Senate June 4 (legislative day, March 26), 1992. + Attest: + WALTER J. STEWART, +* Secretary.* + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/antiterr b/textfiles.com/politics/antiterr new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8f6ba6e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/antiterr @@ -0,0 +1,2709 @@ + HEARING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SECURITY, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS + AND HUMAN RIGHTS SUBCOMMITTEE + OF THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE + + SUBJECT: US ANTI-TERRORISM POLICY + + CHAIRED BY: REP. TOM LANTOS (D-CA) + + WITNESSES: + TIM WIRTH, COUNSELOR, DEPARTMENT OF STATE + HARRY BRANDON III, DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, FBI + + RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ROOM 2172 + TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1993 + + REP. LANTOS: (Sounds gavel) The Subcommittee on International +Security, International Organizations, and Human Rights will please come to +order. + + Today we are holding our third hearing on US anti-terrorism and +counter-terrorism policy. And our two distinguished witnesses are the +Honorable Tim Wirth, counsellor at the Department of State, and Mr. Harry +Brandon III, assistant director in the Intlligence Division of the FBI. +We are very pleased to have both of you, gentlemen. + + In 1992 there were 361 terrorist attacks, the lowest number since +1975. Americans continue to be the top targets of terrorism: some 40 +percent of terrorist attacks were directed at United States citizens or +United States property. There have been some spectacular terrorist attacks +in recent months, and there have been some spectacular successes in +preventing terrorist attacks in the recent past. + + Nevertheless, the American people for the first time in a decade have +recognized that terrorism has come to the United States. There is a great +deal of concern both about the World Trade Center outrage and the attempted +assassination of members of Congress, attacks on important facilities in +New York City and elsewhere. We have also seen a very well-coordinated +series of attacks by Kurdish terrorists against Turkish facilities some -- +in some 29 cities across Western Europe. + + We are also very much concerned that in a number of instances where +the fact of terrorism is beyond any doubt, such as the Pan Am bombing which +took place three and a half years ago, nothing basically has happened to +bring the perpetrators to justice. Sanctions have been in effect +concerning Syria for well over a year with little or no visible effect. +Qadhafi has clearly decided he will not turn over the two suspects in the +Pan Am 103 bombing. And it's clear that some of our allies -- perhaps the +French in particular -- will never agree to an oil embargo within the +highly politicized context of the UN. And the time has arrived when we +need to look at dealing with punishing terrorists no longer on a +multilateral basis. + + I would like to commend the FBI for its extraordinary success both in +arresting people in the World Trade Center outrage and in preventing what +are reported to be potentially very serious terrorist plans in New York +City and elsewhere. + +But there is a great deal of concern, as both of you gentlemen know, in the +country about lack of coordination among our various agencies. There is a +great deal of discussion, and we have held some hearings and we'll have one +next week about how various individuals inciting to terrorism obtain entry +into the United States. And clearly, as a free and open society we are +just feeling our way in this very new and complex and dangerous arena. +There is concern about the continuing failure to place a number of +countries on the list of states that are supporting terrorism. Cuba, Iran, +Iraq, Libya, North Korea, and Syria are designated as states currently +sponsoring terrorism. But many of my colleagues are intrigued as to why +the Sudan is not on the list when the Sudan is clearly engaged in +sponsoring terrorism and acts as a surrogate for Iran in many cases, and +there are questions with respect to the placement of Pakistan on the +terrorism list. We would like both of you gentlemen to address these +issues. + + Before I ask you to make your opening statements, I'm very pleased to +call on the ranking Republican member of the full committee, who has been +engaged in the subject of fighting terrorism for many years, Congressman +Gilman of New York. + + REP. BENJAMIN GILMAN (R-NY): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to +commend you for arranging this timely hearing on US anti-terrorism policy. +It's something we must address squarely and promptly. And I'm particularly +pleased to welcome our disinguished former colleague, Tim Wirth, in his +new role as counselor to the State Department. And as a point man for +global affairs, his portfolio now includes terrorism, but in this area I +must say the administration to date has been out to lunch. Those arrested +in the World Trade Center bombing and the plan to attack the UN +headquarters and other targets in Manhattan are followers of Sheik Omar +Abdel Rahman. He entered the country through a string of errors and +failures that suggest that Abbot and Costello may have been in charge of +our visas. Their equipment is obsolete. No one is assigned to make sure +that visa applicants are properly screened. The left hand, apparently, +doesn't know what the right hand is doing and, apparently, didn't seem to +care. + + Legislation I've co-sponsored will fix many of these problems, but the +State Department says it will take more than a year just to modernize the +visa screening system. This is more than an abstract issue for me. Many +of my constituents work in Manhattan. One of them died in the World Trade +Center bombing. More could easily have been victims if the FBI had not +smashed the latest conspiracy. + + Mr. Counselor, I don't want any more of my constituents blown up in +New York any more than my colleagues want. For that matter, I don't want +any more Americans at risk of terrorist attacks anywhere in our country. +I'd like to read to you a letter I've just received in the mail, and the +text goes as follows: "As an American born and living in New York City for +38 years and now in Rockland County for 30 years, I no longer feel safe in +this country. The latest incident of foreign terrorists in New York City +has made me realize you must institute legislation that changes completely +our immigration laws. We cannot continue to allow these people into our +country. The laws are wrong. We've allowed our US to become a dumping +ground for hoodlums, terrorists, and people who are not interested in any +good. They merely wish to destroy the US. I demand changes be made, and +tomorrow will not be too soon." + + And I would venture to say that that's probably a feeling that's +rampant amongst many of our constituents. + + I've spoken a number of times about this with administration +officials, and Secretary Christopher says it will be fixed. And I realize +that you are just coming onto the scene and we can't put the blame on your +shoulders, but all we have been hearing about is talk and no action, no +sense of urgency. The fence that should be keeping out terrorists has been +riddled with holes. And I don't think we can wait more than a year, and I +say it should be fixed now. + + So, today, I'm introducing legislation calling on the Secretary to +submit to the Congress within 60 days following the enactment of that +legislation an emergency plan to straighten out this mess in both the short +and long term. Counselor Wirth, you and Secretary Christopher are going to +have to work together to personally drain this swamp, or it won't happen. +And we in the Congress will certainly do what we can to work with you to be +of whatever assistance we can. The safety of all Americans here at home +demands no less. + + Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much, Congressman Gilman. + + Let me say before turning to my colleague from Nebraska that, with the +possible exception of the flood in the middle of our country, there really +ought to be no subject less open to partisanship than the subject of anti- +terrorism and counterterrorism. And for the sake of accuracy, I would like +to correct my good friend's statements as to who has been out to lunch. +Sheik Rahman entered the United States under two presidents, President +Reagan and President Bush. I do not blame either President Reagan or +President Bush for the entry of Sheik Rahman into this country, but I think +it's utterly unacceptable to blame an administration that took office on +January 20th for the entry of the sheik that took place during the 1980s, +and I believe that my friend and colleague will want to make that +correction. If Abbott and Costello were in charge, Abbott and Costello had +different party affiliations than the one implied by my good friend. + + REP. GILMAN: If the gentleman will yield, I think -- + + REP. LANTOS: I'll be happy to yield. + + REP. GILMAN: I think the focus of our attention is on the system and +not who's to blame in the past, but let's find the holes in the system and +correct it and not wait a year to do it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: That was precisely my point. The holes are in the +system, and the system failed during the two previous administrations. And +I think it is unfair and palpably inaccurate to blame this administration +for those failures. And I think my friend understands this just as clearly +as I do. + + Congress Bereuter. + + REP. DOUG BEREUTER (R-NE): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I +want to commend you for holding these hearings and say to our distinguished +former -- to welcome all the witnesses, but to say to our distinguished +former colleague in the House, Tim Wirth, welcome, a sincere warm welcome +back to you. You had a great and very distinguished career here in the +House and the Senate. And you have big sets of diverse responsibilities in +the State Department, and we wish you well. Hope to work constructively +and positively with you as you approach your responsibilities there for the +country. + + This, as many people know, is the third in a series of hearings on +terrorism convened by the chairman. +I recall when we had the first hearing of this series in March. At that +time, Judge William Webster made the point that the United States is not an +easy target for terrorists. Yet our sieve-like borders, I would say, and +our openness to foreign visitors and our lifestyle makes us very vulnerable +to those terrorist attacks. + + The recent arrests of the terrorist cell in New York City, caught in +the very act of creating a bomb, provides vivid proof of the extraordinary +job done by the relevant US agencies. As a rule, the public is not aware +of the efforts of our law enforcement agencies in this area. They tend to +do their job as they should, attracting little public attention. It's only +when something dramatic, as in the case of the arrest of the would-be +bomber terrorists, that our counterterrorism efforts become clear. But +there have in recent years been a number of equally impressive +counterterrorist operations that have not received public attention. +Still, no one can be totally secure from the terrorist threat. + + Recently, Chairman Lantos and I were part of a US congressional +delegation that met with members of the European parliament. At that +meeting, British and Spanish parliamentarians spoke with great passion and +great sadness about the destruction that terrorism has brought to their +respective countries. And they gave us some very graphic examples that I, +for reasons of security, are not going to -- that I'm not going to +reiterate here, about the changes that would be necessary in our society in +order to cope with what they're facing today in London, for example. They +spoke about the ability of the IRA and the Basque guerrillas to bring the +country to a standstill, either by exploding a random bomb or by phoning in +a phony bomb threat. They warned that if terrorists gain a serious +foothold in the United States, the kinds of disruption caused by the World +Trade Center bombing will become all too commonplace. + + While Americans, thus far, have been relatively effective in combating +terrorism state-side, it is important to note that US tourists and US +property throughout the world continue to be prime targets for terrorist +organizations. Our counterterrorist organizations and efforts are only as +effective as the intelligence we receive, our ability to work with our +friends and our allies, and the ability of our people to correctly +interpret and respond to the information we receive. Serving now as a +member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, I have some appreciation of +the job that our intelligence and counterterrorist forces perform. I hope +my colleagues will remember that as we take up the authorization and +appropriation for the intelligence community. + + It's a thankless task that they pursue oftentimes with no public +attention for all their successes. It is, however, these people doing +their jobs correctly that causes us to have some successes that no one ever +knows about. If there's a lapse, of course, they'll be subject to +microscopic examination. + + There are a great many proposals designed to enhance the effectiveness +of our counterterrorism efforts. I know my distinguished Republican leader +on the full committee, Mr. Gilman, has a strong interest in preserving the +organizational structure of the Counterterrorism Bureau in the State +Department. And Mr. Gilman, I think, has been focusing on this subject of +counterterrorism longer than any member of the House. + + I would say to our witnesses and my colleagues that I have a +particular concern regarding the abuse of US political asylum laws that +have, in some instances, permitted would-be terrorists to operate freely in +the United States. For example, the person who killed the CIA employees +while they were driving to work, Mr. Kansi, had claimed political asylum on +what turned out to be a patently fraudulent basis. One of the Sudanese +recently arrested, he was here claiming political asylum. We know, of +course, that the blind Sheik made claims for political asylum and that has +presented great difficulty in dealing with him for that and for other +reasons. + + My own view is that some form of summary exclusion of patently +fraudulent political asylum claims is absolutely essential. We have 18,000 +cases pending in New York City alone today -- no hope that those people +will ever show up for those hearings, they'll just fade into the fabric of +American society. And I do not blame the executive branch for that +problem; the blame belongs squarely on the Congress of the United States. +The INS is pleading for summary exclusion authority, and yet our judiciary +committees will not address this issue. So that is one particular concern +that I want to make known here today, and hope that my colleagues here, and +the public listening to any proceedings, will cause some action to be +taken. + + Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. It's quite +timely. And I look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much, Congressman Bereuter. Let me just +mention -- my colleagues know -- just a short while ago, we held a +confidential closed hearing on Sheik Rahman and the series of events that +led to his repeated entry into the United States. Next week, on Thursday, +this subcommittee will hold an +open hearing on that entire issue, and while obviously we can discuss that +matter fully today, we have set aside an entire hearing for that purpose. + + I would also like to associate myself with the comments of my friend +from Nebraska concerning summary exclusion. I think the time is long past +that the United States can expose itself to terrorist threats by misguided +policies in this field of political asylum and related matters. Probably +no member of this body has done more to point to state sponsored terrorism +in the former Yugoslavia than my good friend from Indiana, and I'm happy to +call on Congressman McCloskey. + + REP. MCCLOSKEY: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. No questions or +statements. + + REP. LANTOS: Secretary Wirth, we're delighted to hear from you. + + Oh, I'm sorry. Congresswoman Snowe? (Pause.) Won't you at least +welcome our distinguished guest? (Laughter.) + + Okay, Secretary Wirth. + + SEC. WIRTH: Mr. Chairman, I'm delighted to be here with my +colleagues, and want to begin by thanking you and the committee for holding +these hearings. As a new member of the executive branch, I can assure you +that the preparation for a hearing does cause a good deal of focus and +coordination, exactly the kinds of things that you all have been talking +about, and so I just want to assure how constructive we believe these +hearing are and how helpful they are in helping to pull together data +downtown. + + Also, we greatly appreciate and respect the bipartisan or non-partisan +approach that you and Congressman Gilman have taken to this, both this year +and in the past. We greatly appreciate it. That's precisely the way that +we have to approach this. As you pointed out in your opening statement, +probably no issue is less partisan -- perhaps only the flood issue. So let +me just draw a little bit more out on the metaphor that you raised related +to the floods and the problems that we have there. + + During flood conditions, if you don't repair the levees and keep them +constructed, if you don't have a roof that works, you're going to get wet +and run into significant problems. The parallel to that are the +information systems that the State Department has had. And unfortunately, +looking back on this, we have not kept the levees repaired and kept the +roof repaired. We have not kept the information systems up, and this has +been in fact a major, major problem. We are dealing with, as you have +heard in previous testimony and will hear next week, extraordinarily +antiquated information systems in an area that is not rocket science any +more. I mean, all of us deal with information systems, for example, in our +own personal lives with credit cards and credit checks. There are very +broad computer systems that allow us with great ease to check on millions +and millions -- tens of millions of Americans, and yet we have such an +antiquated system that dealing with 2-1/2 million people who are on the +various lists around the world, we can't keep track of them. + + We have, as you know, made requests to the Congress in the coming +appropriations, requesting funds to sharply update this. As pointed out, +it does take time to put in these new systems, but we really appreciate the +support that we've gotten from the Congress in helping us to repair the +levees, so to speak, to put in the new systems that are absolutely +imperative so that we at least have the information necessary at all of our +consular offices spread around the world to do a better job, to catch +individuals before that water or those thugs seep into the country. So we +appreciate that, and I just wanted to carry out your metaphor as a start, +because I think it is an appropriate way of beginning. + + The past several months have brought more than their share of dramatic +terrorist-related events. Even since the department's last testimony in +this issue before your committee in March, we've seen Iraq's attempt to +kill former President Bush, the arrests of suspect planning to blow up the +UN headquarters and other facilities in New York City, coordinated +incidents by Kurds in European cities, the burning of a Turkish hotel with +the loss of 40 lives, and continuing violence by groups such as the PIRA +(?) in the United Kingdom and the ETA in Spain. + + This spate of domestic and international terrorist attacks has raised +terrorist concerns in many countries. More directly, the World Trade +Center bombing and the threat of attacks against the United Nations +headquarters, against tunnels leading to New York, and against Senator +D'Amato personally, have brought the terrorist threat home to us in the +United States, +a point so clearly made in Congressman Gilman's opening -- opening +statement. + + Naturally, these developments cannot help but make us wonder about +what may happen next. As a government and people, we also have to consider +what else can be done against the terrorist threat. How best can we +protect our society without generating a sense of panic that may well +further the terrorists' goals of disrupting and sapping confidence in our +institutions? + + The terrorist threat will not go away. It takes too many forms. +There are too many potential criminals seeking publicity for their views, +and their weapons are often rudimentary and widely available. This should +not, however, be cause for despair. There are steps we and other +governments can take together to counter the threat posed by terrorists, +steps that we are taking, and steps that we are augmenting week by week. + + I look forward to discussing the administration's counterterrorism +policies and programs with you today, and I would suggest that perhaps we +might first examine emerging trends in terrorism and our strategies to +combat those threats, and then discuss areas in which the essential +partnership between the Congress and the executive branch to counter +terrorism can be strengthened. + + In 1992, as you pointed out in your opening remarks, Mr. Chairman, +there were a total of 361 acts of international terrorism, the lowest level +in 17 years. Through May of this year, our preliminary figures show that +there have been 115 incidents of international terrorism as compared to 144 +for the similar period in 1992. These statistics are subject to revision +and do not include the spate of anti-Turkish incidents undertaken by the +Kurdish Workers' Party in late June. Casualties of terrorism increased +dramatically, however, because of the number of persons injured in the +World Trade Center bombing. That number will go up approximately a +thousand people injured, as Congressman Gilman again pointed in his +remarks. + + American citizens and property remain the principal targets of +terrorists throughout the world. Nearly 40 percent of last year's +incidents were directed at US targets, US individuals, US institutions, US +firms. We expect that trend to continue this -- this year and into the +future. The US influence in economic, cultural, political, and military +terms is so much greater than any other nation that we inevitably represent +a high profile target to terrorists around the world. + + Regrettably, while the number of overall terrorist incidents is down, +the first six months of 1993 have seen a surge in terrorist spectaculars. +Terrorists, as we all know, seek publicity. Those behind the World Trade +Center bombing, Iraq's attempt to kill former President Bush, and the +recent and chilling coordinated wave of Kurdish attacks across Europe +sought the headline. We condemn such heinous acts and the result of +violence against innocent people. + + Making accurate predictions about future trends in terrorism is, of +course, difficult. Terrorism is often cyclical in nature. As old passions +and groups fade, often we see new factors, new groups, new causes emerge to +produce deadly terrorist attack. Addressing where terrorism will come from +in the future is difficult, and experts disagree. But there is little +dispute that we will be dealing terrorists and their crimes for years to +come. + + Terrorism at its most basic is an attempt to change through violence +and intimidation the practices and policies of people and governments. We +are not going to yield to this. To do so only encourages future terrorism. + + The Clinton administration is committed to exerting strong and steady +leadership in a rapidly-changing world. History has taught us the United +States and all nations can meet that challenge by maintaining a commitment +to democratic institutions and to the rule of law. Promoting democratic +governments and institutions are full -- that are fully accountable to +their citizens is our most basic tool for advancing free markets and our +long-term national security, and addressing the great and complex global +issues of our time. + + Democracy does not sponsor terrorism. It is no accident that states +that do -- Iraq, Iran, Libya, Cuba -- are also among the most repressive +for their own citizens. + + Mr. Chairman, let me assure you the that Clinton administration +will remain vigilant in countering whatever threats may be posed by +international terrorists to US interests. Working in close consultation +with the Congress, successive administrations have developed a set of +principles which continue to guide us as we counter the threat posed by +terrorists. These include making no concessions to terrorists, continuing +to apply increasing pressure to state sponsors of terrorism, forcefully +applying the rule of law to international terrorists, and helping other +governments improve their capabilities to counter the threats posed by +international terrorists. + + Countering terrorism is, of course, more than a matter of policies. +It's the effective day-to-day implementation of these policies that is so +important. The Clinton administration is committed to an effective and +interagency approach to combatting terrorism. Every day, officials at +State, Justice, Defense, the CIA and FBI cooperate closely in an ongoing +effort against the threats posed by international terrorists. Indicative +of these close working relationships is the presence here today of the good +witness from the FBI, Mr. Harry Brandon. We clearly recognize that +countering the threat of terrorism does not consist solely of applying the +rule of law or bringing intelligence or diplomacy to bear on the problem or +resorting to military might. Instead, our approach is and will be an +interagency one. This ensures that all of our efforts are coordinated and +bring to bear the best capability of our government and its people as we +jointly deal with that threat. + + The post-Cold War international environment is simultaneously less and +more hospitable for terrorists. Terrorists no longer enjoy safe haven or +receive support in Eastern Europe. Moscow has reduced the flow of arms to +several of the six nations -- Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and +Syria -- that we identify as state sponsors of terrorism. At the same +time, however, state sponsorship of terrorism remains a significant growing +threat to American interests and nationals. Iran continues to sponsor +international terrorism, maintains its unacceptable fatwa against Salman +Rushdie and represents a significant terrorist threat to American +interests. Iraq, despite the requirements imposed by the United Nations, +regularly engages in terrorism against UN relief operations and, most +dramatically, tried to kill former President Bush. Libya refuses to comply +with the requirements imposed by the UN Security Council in light of its +clear responsibility for the bombings of Pan Am 103 and UTA 772. Syria +continues to allow terrorist groups to maintain offices and training sites +in the territory it controls. + + As we look toward emerging threats, we must also recognize that long- +suppressed ethnic- and religious-based conflicts may lead to new violent +expressions such as we're already seeing in the Balkans. We need to be +alert to the possible emergence of international terrorism from such ethnic +conflicts. In the Middle East and North Africa, new and radical groups +such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the FIS in Algeria have +emerged in recent years, invoking Islamic ideology but using terrorist +tactics to advance their extremist agendas. In Egypt, the Islamic group, +the group with whom Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman is so closely involved, has +undertaken violent attacks on Egyptian officials, secular intellectuals and +foreign tourists in an effort to destabilize the Mubarak government. I +would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Egypt on its forthright +decision to seek the extradition of the Sheik to stand trial for attacks +that he inspired while still in Egypt. Tough decisions such as that made +by Egypt demonstrate the worldwide recognition that applying the rule of +law is one of the most effective means possible to confront the threat +posed by terrorism. + + The misuse of Islamic political rhetoric by these groups should not +cause us to confuse in our own minds terrorism and Islam. Our problem is +not, of course, with Islam or the people who practice that religion; it is +instead with the use of violence and terrorism by any person, regardless of +religion, national origin or ethnicity. Even with Iran, the most effective +state sponsor of terrorism, we have made clear that it is unacceptable +behavior, not the religious nature of the regime, that is the source of our +concerns. Drawing a distinction between behavior and religion also helps +defeat the Iranian desire to lead Islamic opinion and draw lines of +confrontation between Islam and the West. + + Our counter-terrorism strategy has three key elements: to implement +our policy of no concessions, to keep pressure on state sponsors, and to +apply the rule of law. These basic policies have served us well in the +past and will do so in the future. Our strategy applies equally well to +groups such as the Abu Nidal organization or a small and unnamed group +which may come together to undertake only a single attack. Terrorists, +whether from the Provisional Irish Republican Army, Sendero Luminoso, or a +more loosely organized group such as the group that appears responsible for +the World Trade Center bombing, always have had the advantage of being able +to take the initiative in selecting the timing and choice of targets. + + It's unfortunately true that terrorists have to be successful or lucky +only occasionally to gain international attention. That is one reason that +gathering intelligence is so essential to frustrating the work of +terrorists. In this regard, the efforts by the FBI to infiltrate the group +planning to undertake a savage series of attacks in New York will serve as +a landmark example of the importance of intelligence in interdicting +terrorist operations. Improving our intelligence capabilities is a major +part of our response. + + Another major element of our counter-terrorism policy is a firm +response. When President Clinton ordered the cruise missile strike against +the headquarters of Iraq's intelligence service, he delivered a firm, +proportional and necessary response to the continuing threat against the +United States posed by Iraq, a shown by the outrageous Iraqi attempt +against the life of former President Bush. The strike demonstrates that +the Clinton administration will respond vigorously, decisively and +effectively to the terrorist threat around the world. + + Increasingly, governments are willing to join in steps against state +sponsors of terrorism and the groups they support. An outstanding example +of international cooperation is the United Nations Security Council +condemnation of Libya for Pan Am 103 and UTA 772. The passage of landmark +UN Security Council Resolution 731 and 748 is a significant indication of +this changed attitude. Until Libya complies fully with the requirements +imposed by the Security Council, these sanctions will remain in place. +Indeed, the sanctions may be strengthened if that nation continues to +refuse to comply with the legitimate conditions imposed by the Security +Council. + + Let me assure you that I personally continue to work closely with our +British and French allies on this issue. I met in Paris just two weeks ago +with my counterparts from these nations to discuss additional sanctions on +Libya. All three governments have gone on record that new and tougher +sanctions should be considered if Libya does not comply with the Council's +demands. Libya would be well advised not to misjudge our resolve. + + Mr. Chairman, the State Department has the lead role in dealing with +international terrorism overseas and does so through an interagency +coordinating mechanism. The Justice Department has a similar lead role in +terrorism issues occurring within the United States. +In confronting international terrorism, we recognize that terrorists do not +just engage in acts that are purely political. They are criminal acts in +their -- to their -- there are criminal aspects to their activities. +Hijacking or bombing an aircraft or planting a bomb in a marketplace is a +crime no matter what the motivation. Furthermore, some terrorist groups +which do not enjoy state-sponsorship have tried to develop independent +means of support. Some groups have resorted to crime, such as bank robbery +or extortion, while others, particularly in the Andean region, have +developed close working relationships with drug dealers. + + When the transition team began to work at the State Department, it was +struck by the number of small independent offices and bureaus that had been +established to deal with problems such as narcotics and terrorism. Many of +these offices enjoyed direct access to the Secretary or part of a complex +and ineffective management structure. One step toward rationalizing this +process was the recommendation that we form a new Bureau for Narcotics, +Terrorism and Crime. Under the reorganization plan, this new bureau will +be under my direction as the Undersecretary for Global Affairs. The +reorganization will ensure that the range of issues associated with +terrorism, including narcotics and international crime, will have my +personal attention. I strongly believe that this synergistic approach will +make our counterterrorism policies and programs more effective, +particularly in this hemisphere, where a combination of criminal activity, +narcotics trafficking and terrorism threatens the growth of fragile +democratic institutions, particularly in Central America and the Andean +region. + + I recognize that there have been concerns expressed about the +reorganization. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to assure you and your colleagues +that there will be no diminution of the US government's commitment to +counterterrorism. I can and do bring counterterrorism matters directly to +the Secretary and to others in the administration. I am and will remain +available to the Congress on this important issue. And I will continue to +provide that leadership under the proposed reorganization. Besides +offering management rationality, this reorganization also offers +significant benefits by improving coordination in our international efforts +to train personnel in anti-terrorism and narcotics capabilities, a +leadership role which we in the United States are increasingly playing +around the world. In addition, this reorganization allows us to apply the +lessons learned from one strategy to counter similar problems in another +type of criminal activity. + + Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me touch briefly on congressional activity +that we hope to work with you to pass through the Congress. At the +beginning of my testimony, I mentioned the need to strengthen further the +partnership between the Executive and Legislative Branches. There are a +number of legislative initiatives which need action during this session, +and I would hope that you and your colleagues could help us in the +Executive Branch by providing for prompt congressional action on these +important, yet relatively noncontroversial initiatives. Our +counterterrorism priorities include the following: + + The President last month signed documents transmitting to the Congress +the Convention on the Marketing of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of +Detection, a new international convention dealing with detecting and +controlling plastic explosives. After the December 1988 destruction of Pan +Am 103 by a plastic explosives bomb, the United States and other nations +agreed to identify chemical marking agents which could be incorporated into +plastic explosives during the manufacturing stage in order to make these +explosives detectable. Our aim was to develop an international agreement +that would help prevent bombings using plastic explosives. As a result, +this international agreement was completed in Montreal in 1991. It is has +been signed by the United States and 50 other nations. The administration +is seeking urgent Senate action on this agreement. + + We also seek congressional action this year on implementing +legislation for two important counterterrorism treaties -- the Protocol for +the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports Serving +International Aviation and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful +Attacks Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation. These treaties extend +the prosecute or extradite principle embodied in previous multilateral +anti-terrorism treaties to attacks on airports serving civilian aviation +and to attacks on civilian shipping and off-shore platforms. These +treaties were prompted in part by the 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks +and by the hijacking of Achille Lauro passenger liner. The Senate gave its +advice and consent to these international conventions in 1989, but approval +of the implementing legislation was delayed because it was incorporated +into the Omnibus Crime Bill. The Clinton administration included the +counterterrorism legislation in its proposed State Department authorization +bill for fiscal years 1994-95. + + I understand that during its mark-up last month, your full committee +felt it could not act on the treaty legislation and the other +counterterrorism provisions because of jurisdictional issues with the +judiciary committee. I hope your committee and perhaps those who also +serve on Judiciary can be helpful in securing final approval for this +implementing legislation, the absence of which prevents US accession to +these important international agreements. Perhaps these can best be dealt +with in conference. + + Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, before turning to your +questions, I'd like to emphasize again our commitment to the long-term +struggle against terrorism. As both President Clinton and Secretary +Christopher have made clear, the issue of domestic and international +terrorism is a high priority for this administration. Obviously, there are +no magic solutions or silver bullets for this problem. Instead, working in +a close relationship with the Congress, we must and will maintain our +vigilance, increase and adjust our capabilities, and further development +cooperation to help ensure the safety of Americans and American interests +throughout the world. We need and appreciate your continued support, and +we thank you for your help. + + Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. I also want to +welcome Ms. Barbara Bodeen (sp), who is acting coordinator for +counterterrorism at the State Department. + + If it's all right with you, Mr. Brandon, since Secretary Wirth will +have to leave before noon, we would like to get to questions with him now +so all of my colleagues will have a full opportunity to question him. Is +that all right with you, sir? + + MR. BRANDON: Certainly, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: I appreciate your -- your courtesy. + + Before beginning the questions, let me express my appreciation to the +full committee's specialists on terrorism, Ms. Beth Ford, to Ms. Marianne +Murray (sp), our outstanding summer intern Frank Salufo (sp), the +Republican staff specialist, Mike Innis (sp), and staff director Dr. Bob +King and John Mackin (sp) for the preparation of -- of this hearing. + + Mr. Secretary, you said a great deal that I agree with, but there are +a number of issues that disturb me and perhaps where the department and at +least I have differing points of view. So let me begin by focussing on the +dramatically different reaction we have had to the attempted assassination +of President Bush and the Pan Am 103 tragedy. + + President Bush visited Kuwait this spring. And after a thorough +investigation, and there is no doubt in my mind that the investigation was +thorough and the evidence is conclusive, President Clinton -- and I'm +quoting from your testimony -- "ordered the cruise missile strike against +the headquarters of Iraq's intelligence service. He delivered a firm, +proportional, and necessary response to the continuing threat against the +United States posed by Iraq as shown by the outrageous Iraqi attempt +against the life of former President Bush. The strike demonstrated the +Clinton administration will respond vigorously, decisively, and effectively +to the terrorist threat around the world." + + Well, let me first to clear the record tell you what I said the moment +I was advised of this attack by -- by our forces, that I fully support the +President's action. I think it was absolutely necessary. It was firm. + +And unfortunately, it was proportional. I have grave doubts about the +proportionality of response to terrorist attacks. This gives the terrorist +entity the opportunity to determine tit for tat what will take place. And +I would like to, in the first place, ask you to respond to the wisdom of +this proportionality issue, and then indicate whether you will take back to +the secretary and the President the concern that many of us have that the +proportionality of response is not an effective way of dealing with +terrorism. Response has to be disproportionate, response has to be so +punishing and so severe that the terrorist will think twice before +repeating this attack or similar attacks. But be that as it may, President +Bush visited Kuwait this spring, and a couple of months later, the United +States firmly and, in my judgment, appropriately responded. + + Now there is clearly no doubt about the terrorist attack having been +perpetrated against Pan Am 103. If my memory serves me right, that outrage +occurred 3-1/2 years ago -- 3-1/2 years ago. And what the failure of +response to me indicates is an internationally advertised impotence by the +civilized world to deal with such an outrage. + + I was stunned by your prepared testimony, Mr. Secretary, and this is +what you are saying. Increasingly governments are willing to join in steps +against state sponsors of terrorism and the groups they support. An +outstanding example of international cooperation is the United Nations +Security Council condemnation of Libya for the Pan Am 103 and the UTA 772 +bombings. Well, presumably the two people who have been identified as the +perpetrators of this outrage which resulted in the death of scores of +innocent people -- scores of innocent people with their families still +crying out for justice -- there has been nothing. + + Two weeks ago, you met in Paris with your counterparts, as you say, +and you may ratchet up the sanctions. Well, you may ratchet up the +sanctions if you succeed in persuading them, but that also will result in +nothing. And I would like to ask you to engage in some introspection on +the part of this administration in this appallingly double standard in +responding to international terrorism. When the terrorist attack is aimed +at a former President, we respond practically instantaneously, as soon as +we complete the inquiry -- and forcefully. When the terrorist attack +results in the death of innocent civilians, large numbers of innocents +civilians, years ago, by a country that we have defined as a state-sponsor +of terrorism for years under the Reagan, Bush and now the Clinton +administration, we are still diddling with diplomatic niceties, and there +is no penalty +and no punishment. And I, for one, cannot comprehend the totally different +intensity and speed with which response was forthcoming. + + Now, I realize that most of this occurred before your tenure. I think +retaliation should have taken place long before now, certainly under the +Bush administration. But you have now been in office, this administration +has been in office now for five, six months, and we are still talking about +ratcheting up sanctions against Libya. The people have still not been +extradited. There is still no visible punishment of the perpetrators. And +I'd be grateful if you'd try to respond. + + MR. WIRTH: Well thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate +your question and it is one that on the surface poses a dilemma. But I +think, looking underneath it, they are two very, very different situations, +different timing, and two -- as you point, two very different +administrations. + + First, focusing on Iraq, it was a carefully considered response by +this administration. As you know, it was a matter that after the proof +became clear that this was the group that had attempted the assassination +of President Bush, after it was clear that that was also a state +sponsorship of that group and all of the evidence was in, we were very +careful about working that through and the response was considered. A +number of options, as you can imagine, were looked at, and the chosen +option was to operate over the weekend and to go after the headquarters of +Iraqi intelligence, to do so in a manner that we thought was proportionate +and we thought would also cause the least loss of innocent civilian life. + + That was the decision made by this administration to, one, demonstrate +the fact that we were clearly willing and able and were committed to a fast +response, but also wanted to do so without killing a number of innocent +people. We are also in that business of trying to demonstrate that kind of +humanity regardless of what terrorists might do. + + Related to the comparison with Pan Am 103 -- + + REP. LANTOS: Well, Mr. Secretary, no one is advocating the killing of +innocent people, so let's get that clear. + + The question I have is whether the action, which you again +appropriately describe as proportionate, shows good judgment. Because it +seems to me, at least, that Saddam Hussein's ability to plan and carry out +further terrorist attacks may have been slightly impaired but has certainly +not been eliminated. + + I very much doubt that this will have any long-term effect on Saddam's +propensity for terrorism and, as many have indicated, there may be counter- +retaliation because, clearly, the impact was so minimal. It was minimal. +We did some damage to one of the many intelligence headquarters. There are +plenty of other intelligence organizations, there are plenty of other +military organizations that Saddam has, planning terrorism, supporting +terrorism, participating in terrorism. + + So the response, while it may have been effective symbolically, and it +certainly enjoyed the overwhelming support in the Congress, including mine, +and that of the American people, it does not answer the question as to why +the response was not more effective in crippling Saddam's capabilities. + + MR. WIRTH: Well, Mr. Chairman, again, it was the judgment of the +administration, looking at all of +the alternatives that were available, and once it became clear that this +was an act of attempted state-sponsored terrorism, as to what the response +ought to be, and the response that was chosen was the one that was +executed. + + One can, I'm sure, disagree on what the level of response ought to be. +As I pointed out, one of the variables in our thinking was what impact this +would have on, and how we could identify and isolate various targets with a +minimum loss of the lives of innocent individuals. It was clearly one of +the variables that we at this point were concerned about. + + REP. LANTOS: Speaking of loss of innocent lives, what is your answer +to the families of the Pan Am victims whose innocent lives were lost 4-1/2 +years ago? Now four years of that period was not under this +administration, but a half a year has been. + + MR. WIRTH: Mr. Chairman, we share exactly your exasperation, your +frustration, and your -- the reaction to the appalling bombing of Pan Am +103. I have met on a number of occasions with the families of the victims, +as has Secretary Christopher, as have any number of high-level officials in +this administration, and they are a remarkable, patient, and persistent +group of Americans who deserve not only our understanding but our enormous +admiration. + + The Pan Am 103 situation, as you pointed out, occurred four-plus years +ago. The forensics, the tracing of the bomb that blew up Pan Am 103 was +really quite a remarkable but very time-consuming achievement, as you know. +Once it was very clear -- which was about two years ago -- once it was very +clear -- a little more than that -- two years ago, that this -- where the +bomb had come from, and who had made it, and it was traced back, then the +previous administration chose the route that they chose to take. And you +know, I don't want to second guess the decisions made at that point. They +were made, and that is history. + + When I said that there was, in my testimony, a quite remarkable coming +together of nations on this, this is the first time that this had happened, +Mr. Chairman. Most nations have viewed the issues of terrorism, and -- +like the issue of narcotics as, well, those are American problems. You +know, we don't have those, those are yours, Uncle Sam, you take care of +those. Now increasingly, countries are coming to understand that +terrorism, like narcotics, is resting in their backyards as well, and that +it is absolutely imperative that we as a community of civilized nations +under the rule of law attempt to act together forcefully through +international bodies where appropriate, and the previous administration +chose to go through the United Nations. The French, the British, and the +United States got together and led the resolution that passed through the +Security Council and then passed the United Nations to apply sanctions +against Libya. Those were economic sanctions. + + Now Mr. Chairman, to suggest that those have had no impact whatsoever +I think is perhaps not to give them the credit that they deserve. I think +if we were to look carefully at the activities of the Libyans since then, +the Libyans' economy is in significant problems, the Libyans have not, to +my best knowledge, become active on the world scene as they were before. +We have, through this set of sanctions, been able to isolate the Libyans +and been able to demonstrate to them thatthe world was very concerned about +their activities and -- + + REP. LANTOS: Is Libya continuing to be able to sell its oil? + + MR. WIRTH: Excuse me? + + REP. LANTOS: Is Libya selling oil at the moment? + + MR. WIRTH: The next step is what sanctions ought to be carried out as +the next step. Libya's still selling oil. Oil provides about 95 percent +-- 90 to 95 percent of Libya's foreign exchange and is 25 to 30 percent of +the Libyan economic base. The United States has been very concerned, as +you and I have discussed, to -- while the Libyans are hurting as a result +of the first set of sanctions, we would like in the United States to +ratchet those sanctions up to a next level, and that's what I was meeting +with our French and British colleagues about. There is a difference of +opinion between the allies about what sanctions ought to be undertaken. It +is our hope -- + + REP. LANTOS: Who is opposing placing an oil embargo on Iraq -- on +Libya? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, the French have been less enthusiastic about an oil +embargo than an assets freeze. The British have been less enthusiastic +about an asset freeze than an embargo on oil or oil equipment. What we are +attempting to do is to work through a kind of brokerage arrangement so that +the three of us can be in agreement, and that is, as you probably know, a +difficult negotiation. But we would like to be able to ratchet up those +sanctions. We believe that that's the appropriate response by the United +States of America and by the United Nations. + + REP. LANTOS: Mr. Secretary, I believe we have six countries on the +list of states currently sponsoring terrorism: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, +North Korea, and Syria. Is that correct? + + MR. WIRTH: That is correct, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Is there any intention on the part of the administration +to remove any of these six nations from that list? + + MR. WIRTH: I know of no intent to remove any of those six nations +from the list, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Is there any intention on the part of this +administration, Mr. Secretary, to add any countries to this list? And I +particularly have in mind the possibility of Sudan, which in the view of +some of us should have been placed on the list a long time ago, and +possibly Pakistan. + + MR. WIRTH: The Sudanese situation is currently under review, Mr. +Chairman. The previous administration had determined that there was not +evidence of state-sponsored terrorism from Sudan, and that is the +criteria, is not individual acts of terrorism but state-sponsored +terrorism. We are reviewing that at the current time and are almost +completed with our own review of the Sudanese situation. + + Similarly, ahead of that was a review of Pakistan, and that decision +will be forthcoming in the next few days. + + REP. LANTOS: Speaking of -- of Pakistan, a Pakistani citizen was +charged with killing two CIA employees earlier this year. Is that correct? + + MR. WIRTH: I beleve that is correct, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: What degree of cooperation have we received from the +government of Pakistan in pursuing this matter? + + MR. WIRTH: We have extensive negotiations and discussions with the +country of Pakistan, and have made it very clear to them -- they are very +aware of the fact -- that if the country of Pakistan is placed on the +terrorism list, that, then, has significant economic repercussions for +Pakistan and for the relationships between our two countries. And as a +consequence we have found increasing cooperation from the Pakistanis. + + REP. LANTOS: Are you satisfied at the moment, Mr. Secretary, that +Pakistan is giving us full cooperation in apprehending the killer of two of +our CIA employees? + + MR. WIRTH: Yes, Mr. Chairman, the Pakistanis have been very +forthcoming and cooperative on this. But again, I would point out that the +procedures established by the Congress and implemented by the State +Department in terms of listing countries, you know, for state-sponsored, +and that is in the report that we put out annually, and, you know, is an +enormously important tool that is available. And countries are absolutely +aware of the fact that this tool is there and that we're willing to use it. + + REP. LANTOS: Now, it's the information of some of us that Sudan is +acting as a surrogate for Iran. What is the State Department's view of the +degree of cooperation between Iran and Sudan, both in the field of +perpetrating state-sponsored terrorism and in other areas? + + MR. WIRTH: There -- it appears to us, Mr. Chairman, to be a number of +suggestions that there is that linkage, and we're in the process of +examining that right now. It is no mystery that the airport in Khartoum is +a -- is a conduit out of which and into which fly all kinds of contraband, +whether those are individuals or narcotics activities or others, and we are +very, very concerned about that. And as I pointed out earlier, we are +right in the middle of our re-examination of the US position toward -- +toward the government of Sudan. + + REP. LANTOS: Now, a number of us in the Congress have been disturbed +by official US contacts with various terrorist radical Islamic +organizations that have been involved in violent terrorist acts such as +Hamas or the Islamic group in Egypt. What did we gain from such contacts, +Mr. Secretary. + + MR. WIRTH: (to staff) Do you know what those were? + + MS. : I have -- (off mike) + + MR. WIRTH: You'd have to refresh my memory. I can't comment on that. +I'll do that for the record, Mr. Chairman. I don't know about the -- I -- +I cannot tell you about those specific contacts. Let me review that and +get back to you, if I might. + + REP. LANTOS: That's -- that's -- that's very good. + + Congressman Gilman. + + REP. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN (R-NY): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + Mr. Wirth, first let me say that nobody is attempting to put blame on +your responsibilities in this office, this administration, or prior +administrations. It's just that all of the prior administrations have left +something to be desired with regard to the effective approach to +counterterrorism. And particularly now with what's happened in the last +few months, a greater amount of emphasis is due with regard to finding some +more effective ways of dealing with this. + + Now, our enforcement people tell us that the most important part of +their prevention program is to get intelligence, to be able to spotlight +groups and persons who are intent on doing harm to our nation. And that's +why we've concentrated most recently in trying to close the loopholes on +our immigration areas and trying to make certain that we provide the kind +of information that's needed at our ports of entry with regard to potential +terrorists and criminals. And I know that we can't talk about the +specifics of the recent IG report on the visa to Sheik Rahman at this point +until it's finally -- the confidentiality is removed. +However, that report at the end of June pointed out some very serious flaws +in the visa system and in trying to keep terrorists out of our nation, +serious flaws which we knew about, which your office knows about. So tell +us, what is the Department, and your office particularly, charged with the +anti-terrorism portfolio, doing now and immediately to try to close these +gaping holes in our ow house of defenses against terrorism? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, I think, Mr. Gilman, your initial description of +Abbot and Costello is probably pretty accurate. In the situation of the +blind sheik getting into the country, in exploring that I came to a very +simple conclusion. Everything that could have gone wrong did, and it +happened over a significant period of time. Fundamental to this is, as we +discussed earlier, an information system. We have a tendency in our +government to neglect the basic bricks and mortar, to neglect the basic +foundation, to neglect the processes that make government work. I mean, I +can tell you, going to the State Department after being in the Congress, +the State Department makes the Congress look like a Swiss watch. And I +know that may come as a surprise because you and I were probably frustrated +in the same way, but it's remarkable. The computer system in the -- + + REP. LANTOS: Let the record show it's not an expensive Swiss watch; +it's an inexpensive Swiss watch. (Laughter.) + + MR. WIRTH: I'll leave the -- I'll leave that unattended, Mr. +Chairman. + + But just to give you an example, the computer system in the State +Department was installed in the late 1970s. The computer system at OMB +effectively doesn't exist, and the same thing happened in the White House. +I mean, how you can get along with a telephone system surrounding the +President that is effectively the same kind of plug-in the telephones that +we all saw on "Saturday Night Live" 25 years ago -- you know, it is as much +a joke looking at this, but it's a tragedy, as well. You know, the State +Department itself just internally simply does not have the capability to do +the job that it's being asked to do in this simple matter of processing +information. + + And we can't do this in our own backyard, and we certainly can't do it +around the world. We have consular posts, hundreds and hundreds of +consular offices around the world that are not linked together with any +kind of an information system. I mean, as I pointed out earlier, the +easiest parallel to think about is our own credit ratings. If you move +from New York to Colorado to California to Nebraska, you can have +information on Gilman or Wirth or Lantos or Bereuter within a matter of +minutes, and that information is very thorough, very complete, and very +simple to obtain with the technology of 1993. That does not exist in the +State Department. + + The State Department Consular Affairs operation is still heavily +dependent on an old microfiche operation which is enormously awkward to +work, which is extremely old-fashioned, takes a great deal of time, and is +not capable of taking the spelling -- a transliteration of an Arab name to +English and looking at all of the permutations of that kind of a name. You +just can't do it. The consular office in Khartoum, the consular office in +Cairo both were dependent upon that old microfiche system. We are, as you +know and as you have helped us to do, trying to rapidly put new technology +in so that, in effect, our consular system can operate as a credit system +does in the United States. And again, that parallel is an easy one to come +to understand. So that's one problem that exists. + + We have come to the Congress and asked for funds to do this. The +Congress has committed so far through the appropriations process most of +the money to do this, and it's essential that we do it. It's the kind of +very small investment that pays off enormously. + + MR. GILMAN: Counselor Wirth, how long will it take us to attack the +priority areas, the areas where there is the most danger of having +terrorists come to our nation from those areas? What are we doing to +prioritize that kind of a reform of their systems? + + MR. WIRTH: The current operation is upgrading in particular those +consular offices and embassies through which the greatest number of +individuals come. And so, therefore, we're talking about the largest +embassies in the world are the ones that are being upgraded first, because +they are the ones where you get the greatest return and have the greatest +need for that kind of upgrade. + + REP. GILMAN: Is that underway at the present time? + + MR. WIRTH: That is currently under -- that is current underway. We +are also requesting funds for the much smaller posts, of which we have a +large number, and unfortunately, included in those, you know, is the post +in Khartoum, are a whole variety of new embassies in the former Soviet +Union, other areas around the world that, from our perspective, are a very +high priority. But until we have the funds to do it, we won't be able to. +It won't happen until the next year. + + REP. GILMAN: We're ready to help you out in any way we can to close +up those problems. In -- + + MR. WIRTH: Well, we appreciate that, and I think we are in complete +agreement with your sort of Abbott and Costello description earlier. +Dealing with this with a technology that's effectively 30 years old made it +extremely difficult for consular officers to do the job that they're +trained to do. + + REP. GILMAN: Well, I welcome your thrust. In 1991 -- + + MR. WIRTH: Thank you, Mr. Gilman. + + REP. GILMAN: -- Counselor Wirth, the State Department stopped +checking the FBI criminal record histories of visa applicants. That +occurred, we've been advised, because of an interagency dispute with the +FBI over whether or not the State Department would have to pay a fee for +those checks on possible known criminals. Can you tell us when the State +Department will get back into the FBI criminal record system so that we can +get some sense of their government agencies working together to try to +thwart terrorists and other criminal elements from getting visas to travel +to our nation and that threatens our very safety? And if you need to pay +the FBI a little more, we can try to negotiate a treaty with them. + + MR. WIRTH: Mr. Gilman, the -- during the late 1980s and early 1990s, +in the Congress we were all fascinated with user charges, and one of the +mandates for user fees came from the Congress that user fees be charged by +the FBI, and so, therefore, the State Department was required by law to pay +user fees to the FBI for gaining access to their information. I have been +-- met with the attorney general, Ms. Reno, no more than two weeks ago, and +we are putting together a long list of areas where we believe the State +Department and the Justice Department have got to increase and better +coordinate our activities. She has been absolutely terrific on this, and I +will defer to Mr. Brandon on this, but the -- I will say her first question +of me was, "What do you need from us?" One of our first responses is, +"Lower prices for access to your data." + + Let me ask Mr. Brandon if he might want to comment on this, if I +could. + + REP. GILMAN: I welcome that. + + Mr. Brandon? + + MR. BRANDON: This was mandated. The user fee was mandated. We +didn't think it was a very good idea. We don't think it's a very good idea +today. + + REP. GILMAN: Could you move the mike? Could you move the mike a +little closer, please? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. These fees were mandated. We didn't think it +was a very good idea at the time. We don't think it's a very good idea +today, because it can, unfortunately, restrict the flow of information. + + REP. GILMAN: Well, what are we talking about? How much are we +talking about to provide this kind of information to the State Department? + + MR. BRANDON: I'm not aware of the exact fee. I tend to think it's in +the record of $6 or $7 a record check. I'm not sure of the accuracy of +that fee. + + BARBARA BODINE (Acting Coordinator, Office of Counterterrorism): +Probably somewhere in that neighborhood, and when you get into the +thousands of -- + + REP. GILMAN: Well -- + + MS. BODINE: -- when you get into the thousands of record-check names, +you start getting into some serious money. + + REP. GILMAN: Could you move that mike a little closer, too? It's +hard to hear -- + + MR. BODINE: Sorry. + + MR. WIRTH: Mr. Chairman, this is Barbara Bodine, who is acting +coordinator of the Office of Counterterrorism. + + REP. GILMAN: Yes. Could you repeat that response? + + MS. BODINE: I'd just say that, even though the individual fee may +only be about $5 a name, when you think of the thousands of names that we +will often run through, it can be quite a burden on our consular affairs +budget. + + REP. GILMAN: It's a bit embarrassing for us as members of Congress to +have to go out to the public and say, "Well, you know, we have trouble in +finding out who these terrorists are because we can't pay the subscription +fee to the FBI to get that information to where it should go. + + REP. LANTOS: Would the gentleman yield? + + REP. GILMAN: I'd be pleased to yield. + + REP. LANTOS: Has either the Department of State or the Department of +Justice requested Congress to have this fee waived? + + MR. WIRTH: Mr. Chairman, we are working with the Senate on a whole +package of activities. When the legislation came through in the House of +Representatives, you -- we were recently arrived and had not got our whole +perspective together. We have a whole package related to this and other +activities for the legislation currently going through the Senate. + + REP. LANTOS: Mr. Brandon, has the Department of Justice requested +that this fee be waived? + + MR. BRANDON: I'm not certain of that answer, sir. + + REP. LANTOS: Well, I think both departments have a responsibility of +advising the Congress how they think this could be better worked. I think +we find it absurd that we have a World Trade Center bombing with a damage +of -- + + REP. GILMAN (?): $600 billion, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Of over $600 million, and we are -- + + REP. GILMAN (?): Billion. + + REP. LANTOS: And we are haggling over $5 fees for finding out FBI +information. I think this is an absurdity which needs to come to an end, +and it needs to come to an end without delay. I mean, the FBI will either +stop charging you, or we will give you the money so you can pay them, but +this absurd lack of cooperation cannot continue. + + I thank my friend for yielding. + + REP. BEREUTER (?): Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman -- + + REP. GILMAN: I'd be pleased to yield to the gentleman. + + REP. BEREUTER (?): You know, I could see where a user fee to outside +agencies -- not agencies, but outside individuals might be appropriate, but +not between government agencies. But the FBI now provides for all of the +banks. Every individual that goes to work for a bank there's an FBI check +run on them and it costs $42 per check. And I'm wondering if in some of +the fees that you charge outside people because you have to set up a +department for doing that and personnel and equipment and everything else, +that somewhere in those -- that fee structure is included enough for the +operation of that division or department to cover the cost of their +interagency -- I'm not sure that when the government -- when the Congress +passed that that you were talking about, Mr. Wirth, that they were thinking +so much about interagency as they were from outside sources because I know +at the time they were thinking primarily about the number of employees that +were being screened by the FBI for banks. + + REP. LANTOS: (Off mike) -- do you want to comment? + + MR. WIRTH: Just to say that we have attempted on the cost of this to +pass it through to the applicants, of course, as much as possible, but it +does create an awkwardness in the situation, but I think it would be -- +it's fair to point out, Mr. Gilman, that the fee issue is not the key issue +in this. I mean, it's a troublesome, troublesome noise in the background. + + More important is the fact that we have an information system that is +so obsolete that it can't be used efficiently and effectively, and that +once we have the new information system and have fed into that information +the 2-1/2 million -- 2-1/2 to 3 million names that are currently on various +watch lists, both in the -- of the State Department and the FBI, that this +problem will be alleviated very significantly. + + REP. GILMAN: Well, of course, it's more than troublesome, Counselor +Wirth. If -- here's one agency within the government, the FBI, that has +the information we need, but isn't passing it over to State Department +because State felt it was too expensive at one time. And yet, here we have +a $600 million property damage and the cost of lives in the World Trade +Center, some 200 lives in the Pan Am loss of life. +It's abominable that we don't have a transfer of intelligence and +information based upon cost. Does the CIA charge your agency for providing +information to you, or to the White House? And does the FBI charge the +White House for information? I think it's high time we correct this +abominable situation, and I would hope that we could get to that +immediately. And, of course, the Congress, as the chairman has indicated, +is willing to take a look at any statutory need in revising this system. +I'd welcome any comment. + + MR. WIRTH: I mean, I -- again, we will be in the -- looking at the +possibility of this in terms of the Senate legislation, which will be the +companion bill to the bill that's already gone through the House. Again, I +would say, Mr. Gilman, that while this has been awkward and not as easy as +-- as possible and somewhat expensive, this has not been a fundamental +problem. I think our system includes all of the information from the FBI. +I think that there is -- I was just checking with Mr. Brandon. I do not +know of situations where we have been limited in our access to information. +It's more difficult to get, it's more expensive to get, but we've gotten it +all. + + There's been very good cooperation with the FBI. Their information is +in our system, our information system and theirs, you know, can work +together. It's just that they are not as easily compatible as modern +systems would be. And let me again go back to the fact that the basic, +fundamental reform and streamlining of our information system is the key to +this. + + REP. GILMAN: Well, I understand -- I understood that in 1991 State +stopped checking with the FBI because of the user fee problem. Has that +now been eliminated? + + MR. BRANDON: (Aside to Wirth) (Off mike) -- but it didn't stop. + + MR. WIRTH: Mr. Brandon's telling me that there was a momentary +slowdown in 1991, but it did not -- it did not stop and it's now back -- + + REP. GILMAN: So we're back on -- back on track -- + + MR. WIRTH: -- it's now back where it used to be. + + REP. GILMAN: -- despite the user fee. + + MR. WIRTH: Yes. + + REP. GILMAN: Thank you. + + Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Congressman McCloskey. + + REP. FRANK MCCLOSKEY (D-IN): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I +commend you for holding these hearings. They are most helpful and +educational. Very good to see Mr. Wirth again. + + Tim, as we talked before, I do -- I truly am in awe, and I'm not +envious at all of the complexity and difficulty of your jurisdiction. I +wish you well. But I think the -- the difficulty and the scope of your +issues are as -- probably as large -- about as large as anyone's in the -- +in the -- in the federal government that have to be accountable in any +particular way. So I guess I -- I might -- I might weave a question or a +concern together that brings quite basically two of your major areas +together: terrorism and refugees. + + I was almost awesomely saddened by a report about ten days ago in the +New York Times interviewing a 20-year-old Sarajevan Bosnian soldier who +said quite matter-of-factly -- and he was not -- he was not dramaticizing +(sic) or exaggerating -- he said "I am a member of a lost generation." In +essence, as we all know, the whole world has walked out on young Sarajevans +and -- and young Bosnians. What can we say to them? Most interest -- most +interestingly, he said if somehow he lives through this, he -- he plans to +be a -- a terrorist. + + Mr. Chairman, to me, the Bosnian Sarajevo situation, Bosnia and -- +Bosnia overall, Sarajevo specifically right now is the biggest pressure +cooker for the present and the future generating terrorism that we can +possibly imagine. And in the -- in the meantime, as you know, the -- the +partition plan goes on, the -- Lord -- Lord Owen and whatever in essence +telling the Bosnians with a gun to their head "Take this or leave it". We +see in the last four or five days the word coming from Owen and others +that, indeed, the -- the UN could be out within a matter of weeks both +militarily. And, as far as refugee aid resources, UNHCR is -- is talking +about getting out. There -- there's fuel trucks, as you know, Tim, that +would help generate the water now stranded at the Sarajevo airport. All +our -- all our resources, all our governments, all our -- all our words +somehow cannot -- cannot keep these people from +dying from thirst and being most malevolently slaughtered as they're lining +up for water. I guess on a positive note, I guess I'd like to ask you is +there any hope? Maybe more objectively, is there any slaughter, is there +any abomination, is there any travesty, is there any genocide that would +generate the administration to break from the fold and to generate the +leadership on this issue and stop this slaughter? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, Mr. McCloskey, you describe the situation, I think, +very accurately, and it is an enormous tragedy. We are building to a time +of a real watershed moment, I think, in the history of Sarajevo. There are +currently, in terms of my portfolio, responsibility for the humanitarian +side of this -- we have got two problems. One is one of access, as you +point out. The siege of Sarajevo goes on. The airport in Sarajevo -- +there is six miles from town, approximately, as you point out, a good deal +of activity, and I think were the siege to be broken, if, in fact, that +happened in some way, then we would see the flowing into Sarajevo of +supplies not only from countries but from PVOs and NGOs from all over the +world, both from the West and from the countries -- Islamic countries. + + Do we have the funds to do that? The United States -- people have +said we're not doing anything. The taxpayers of the United States, the +citizens of the United States have been extraordinarily generous. It +should be point out that in the last year, citizens of the United States +have spent approximately $340 million in humanitarian aid to Bosnia alone, +$95 million in the last month alone. I regret to say that the +contributions from our allies have not kept pace with what they had done +last year or with what we expect of them. Ambassador Zimmerman, whom you +know, Warren Zimmerman, who was our last ambassador to Yugoslavia, has been +appointed by Secretary Christopher as his special envoy, recently was in +the capitals of Europe talking to every one of the European governments +asking them to up their contribution, will be meeting with Mrs. Ogata in +Geneva at a specially-called UNHCR meeting this Friday, and we are hoping +that we can increase that pressure, Mr. McCloskey. + + REP. MCCLOSKEY: Tim, I was in Zagreb talking to President Tudjman +about two weeks ago, and while there had a chance to drop by the UNPROFOR +headquarters. General Gudreau (sp), the second in command in the Balkan +region there, basically said that the one thing that could generate +concerted Western action would be the total slaughter and dismantling of +Sarajevo. I was heartened that he said that, but quite frankly, I was +skeptical and a little bit disbelieving at the time. I mean, can you tell +me any thought? Is there any thinking or any policy in the administration +that would not allow that? I mean, they're starving, an endangered people, +probably worse in Gorazde. But are we going to allow 350,000 people to be +slaughtered in Sarajevo, to be starved, shot, without water for days at a +time? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, just two responses to that. Of course, the +political-military options are under constant review, as you know. On the +humanitarian side, we are doing everything we can to increase the +contributions coming from sources, political, governmental sources and +nongovernmental sources, but that, as you know, is extremely difficult as +long as the siege of Sarajevo goes on. Without access, no matter how many +supplies we have, it doesn't do any good. + + MR. MCCLOSKEY: Thank you, Mr. Wirth. + + Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much. + + Congressman Bereuter? + + REP. DOUG BEREUTER (R-NE): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. + + Mr. Wirth, you are sitting down there and the recipient of some +expressed frustrations on the part of members of the House. + + MR. WIRTH: They're not shared by any of us in the State Department, I +can assure you, Mr. Bereuter. + + REP. BEREUTER: I'm sure they are. And they are not aimed at you +personally, as I'm sure you understand. You, as a former member of the +House, know that members of the House are in better contact with the +American people routinely, every weekend, in the course of the week, than +any other segment of this society. We're in much better contact day to day +than the people who cover the Congress and national events. We're in much +better contact than the people that are in the bureaucracies with the +American attitude and opinion, and that level of frustration, pent up for +some number of years, is coming forth here. + + Let me tell you, going back to the comments about the strike against +the intelligence service building in Iraq, that I agree with Chairman +Lantos that the response must be overwhelming. That's the kind of +statement, that's the kind of action that Saddam Hussein understands. It's +the only one he respects. And I disapprove very much of this constant use +of the term "proportionality." I see no proportionality in what happened +there. I see indisputably the Iraqi government attempting to assassinate +President Bush, and we respond by knocking out a building, damaging a +building. A former president; a building. And I look at that building, +multi-winged building, six stories high, reinforced steel and concrete, and +I wondered why wasn't that taken out in the war. Well, it was. It's been +built since the war, along with the palaces that we destroyed. They've +been built in a larger and grander scale ever. And we take great pains to +avoid any loss of life within the building by going for a weekend. + + Now, do I have a better idea? Yes, I've got a better idea. We take +on the weapons of mass destruction and the missiles that are being +constructed in Iraq, and we take on the weapons of mass destruction that +are being built and rebuilt and the facilities for them in Libya. We not +only send a direct and telling message to them, +but we try to keep that kind of -- those kind of weapons of mass +destruction, the means of delivery, from reaching the operations stage that +they can be used against us and against the neighbors of those countries. +That's the kind of proportional response I think that is understood. We +looked weak, and it was a weak response. + + Mr. Wirth, I -- Counselor, I do hope that you will have a chance to +try to impress once again, if you haven't already, on our Judiciary +Committee the kind of actions that they need to take over there. I am +quite concerned, if we have an incident of mass terrorism which involves +illegal aliens or people here under political asylum, there will be a kind +of a xenophobia -- already falling on fertile ground, already seeing the +signs of it in this country -- that will bring us the kind of actions that +we won't want to see in the United States. So it is important that we take +these actions to avoid that kind of xenophobia in this country. + + And I just think it's quite important that you add the weight of the +administration to the plea for action from our Judiciary Committees so that +the personnel that we have in the INS and the various law enforcement +agencies have the tools that they need. I think it's important, and you +would understand this, that we listen to the people who are on the front +lines and we don't let it get filtered through a permanent bureaucracy in +some of the agencies that are accustomed to doing things one way and not +down there at Dulles Airport, not down there at JFK, not there off the +coast of California. Those are the people who we ought to listen to, I'd +say. + + Can you tell me if you've had, in conclusion, any kind of opportunity +at this point to appear before a Judiciary Committee or have any of your +colleagues in State or Treasury had that opportunity? + + MR. WIRTH: The -- I can tell you I have not personally testified. +This is -- the issues of asylum and the summary or expeditious exclusion +are both issues in the Justice Department, and I would refer to Mr. Brandon +or to other testimony. But I do know that, as we look at making our whole +system better, we talked earlier about our responsibilities in the +information system. Our department is strongly in support of the +expeditious exclusion or the summary exclusion provision that I believe you +mentioned in your opening comments. The -- that was passed, as you +remember, last year by the Congress and was part of the omnibus crime bill +that ultimately got vetoed. And that is currently being reviewed by an +interagency working group in this administration. So is the reforming and +streamlining of our asylum system, which requires major changes of law. + + And I think you're absolutely correct. In all of my contacts, less +intense than they used to be, I think the bond between citizens and their +government not only is from citizens a sense of the military security or +the defense that's given to them, but also a sense that their borders are +secure and they're not being overwhelmed. And I think that, you know, we +see in California and in Texas and Florida in particular a sense of +institutions just being overwhelmed and the system not being able to +respond to that. This administration is extremely sensitive to and aware +of that. And President Clinton himself has spoken to that on a number of +occasions. + + REP. BEREUTER: Counselor Wirth, I want to just say in conclusion that +I am impressed with the incredible array of responsibilities that you have, +but I believe you have the right kind of experience, the right intent and +the right integrity to pursue it successfully. So I wish you well on that +effort. + + MR. WIRTH: Well, I thank you very much, Mr. Bereuter, and I -- it's a +great pleasure to be back here. When I earlier in response to Mr. +McCloskey's last comment about frustration, reflecting out my own and I +think yours as well -- you know, there are so many things you'd like to +have done immediately, and you know, my frustration comes from that it +doesn't happen as fast as you'd like it to. But, you know, I think that we +are making some significant progress. At least I hope so. + + REP. BEREUTER: Thank you. + + MR. WIRTH: Thank you. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much. + + Congressman Martinez? + + REP. MATTHEW MARTINEZ (D-CA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess, like +my colleagues, I think that it -- well, maybe I have a slightly different +view in retaliation for the attempted assassination of George Bush. Where +maybe a building wasn't sufficient, I think timing and everything else +wasn't what it should have been in response to that. But I'm not too sure +that we want to go out and declare war against Iraq. Of course, we might +do that. We did that with Grenada without declaring war, wiped out a +government there. Went into Panama and pulled a government leader out of +Panama. So I guess we can do just about anything we want, unless we're +going to abide by our membership in the UN, and then I think we are limited +in what our response would be. So I'm not sure I want to, at this time, +say that the adequate response would have been declare war on Iraq. But it +almost sounds that some of my colleagues' statements border on that. + + But what I'm more interested in is, you know, you talked earlier about +how easy it was for someone -- an undesirable or someone who's been +affiliated with terrorism or a known terrorist -- to get into the country +because of the checks and everything else. And I'm wondering, more +importantly -- well, it's not more importantly. It's important to stop +them before they ever get in here, because we have seemed to allow people +to come when a lot of different -- in a lot of different ways: visas, +visitors visas and everything else. + + And, you know, the average person that's coming from one of these +countries, we make it so difficult for them to get in to visit a loved one +or to even come to a funeral of a loved one here. I've had countless +number of cases in my district office arguing with the State Department and +the embassies in the other countries of allowing people to come. I +remember one where the young man wanted to come to visit his mother because +she was desperately ill, and the State Department said, "Well, she's +desperately ill, and if death is imminent as you suggest, why don't you +just wait until she dies and come to the funeral?" Smart. She did die, +and then they told him, "Well, it's too late. She's dead. Why do you want +to come and visit now?" + + You know, I can't understand the State Department's mentality in some +cases like that and their other mentality when they make it not as +difficult as possible for people who are, to my own personal opinion, +undesirable in this country who would cause these problems, but more than +that, after they're here and we discover who they are, the process for +getting them out. You know, I think it takes too long. I think there's +too many appeals that they make. We give them the same system of justice +that every American citizen has, and they're not American citizens. And +they came here for dubious reasons, to commit foul play against us. + + So have you or the administration or the State Department thought +about submitting legislation to us to try to correct the way to get these +people out as quickly as we can or, if they have already committed a crime, +bring them to trial as possible and take appropriate action against them? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, Mr. Martinez, first, the answer to that is yes. +First, we are respectful, as the Congress is, of the balance between civil +liberties and the respect for individual rights which is at the +fundamentals of the United States of America and everything that we've +stood for. You know, that basis, as the earlier part of your statement +reflects, is absolutely imperative for us to continue to respect. + + Understanding that framework, we are -- right now there is a very +high-priority interagency working group looking at the reform and +streamlining of our asylum system in particular and also the -- what we +used to call summary exclusion. I think it's now called expeditious +exclusion. But we are looking at attempting to get that legislation back +and passed as it was the Congress last year. Although part of the omnibus +crime bill which was vetoed, that did not become law, and we would like to +move that back up to the Congress, I believe, after the current review as +rapidly as possible. + + REP. MARTINEZ: I think it's long overdue. Let me ask you on another +subject -- terrorism. I was, a while back -- I can't remember how long ago +-- in Israel, and it was kind of a lunch conversation with one of the +Israelis who had been briefing us on terrorism. And his comment was that +they are so much more advanced in their intelligent -- intelligence against +communist -- against terrorism than we are in this country +because they have had years and years of training agents to infiltrate and +et cetera. And I asked him at the time was there -- and I guess at that +time there was not -- an exchange of information with the appropriate +agencies here in the United States, and his answer was no, and I'm +wondering, has that changed? Is there -- + + MR. WIRTH: We have very good -- we have very, very good contacts with +Israeli intelligence as -- no, I'm very surprised to hear that. + + REP. MARTINEZ: Well, it's been a couple of years ago, but maybe that +-- at that time -- evidently -- + + MR. WIRTH: What we have with them is very -- + + REP. MARTINEZ: -- to him there was not the kind of cooperation there +should be. + + MR. WIRTH: We have with them, and increasingly we have contacts and +cooperation around the world. On Iran alone, the secretary has asked that +we really highlight the attention given by other countries as we give it to +Iran to try to lift up people's awareness of Iran as a real center of +state-sponsored terrorism. + + It was two weeks ago, the first meeting of this group, Ms. Boudin (sp) +was there representing the United States of America and really leading our +efforts to attempt to get everybody's intelligence together and to get +everybody's awareness increased on this, and we again, exercising the +leadership we should exercise, are doing that there. So the sharing of +intelligence is going on on a number of fronts, and we've accelerated that +in the last four months. + + REP. MARTINEZ: The retaliation afterwards is probably an appropriate +response, but you know, trying to stay ahead of them and stop them before +it actually happens I think is the best way to go, and it's awfully +difficult. You don't know when they're going to sprout up and where +they're going to sprout up. + + That brings to mind -- you were talking earlier about state-sponsored +terrorism versus, I guess, independent terrorism. Do we have any +statistics or do we have any knowledge of how much of this is just +spontaneous in some little group, that they decide, hey, they have a cause +and they want to make a statement, and they go out and plan and carry out +some act of terrorism? Or do we have any information, does or intelligence +information provide us with a definite division, either percentage-wise or +numbers, between state-sponsored and independent actions? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, as I pointed out in my -- the start of my testimony, +Mr. Martinez, on the one hand, our efforts in the overall level of +terrorism has gone down. We are -- the world is much more attuned to this, +our cooperation with other countries is much better, our interagency +cooperation is much better, our intelligence is much better. We've seen +the overall trend of terrorism decline. + + While I say that, there are alarming trends on the other side. While +what we've done in the past seems to be working, we're seeing new phenomena +growing. One of those is what one would call sort of the self-starter, the +freelancers, the ones that you refer to which may be a new and growing +phenomenon. And we've got to be better at that, be more vigilant at that. +We may have seen -- we don't know yet, but we may have seen that in New +York, in the World Trade Center or in the other threats targeted on the 4th +of July. We don't know yet enough about those events to tie them to a +state or whether those are freelancers. + + There are some other items that are alarming, and one of those was the +ability of the PKK to, in 29 different locations around Europe, to stage +terrorist events on one day. That was a very coordinated and I would say +impressively coordinated set of events. I mean, that is a major +undertaking to have that happen in 29 different places. And you know, that +was to gain attention, that was not a terrorist -- by a terrorist act we +don't think as the World Trade Center. It was a +different sort of thing for the purposes of publicity, and that's a +different kind of a phenomenon that we're seeing. So, it's a little bit +like Whack-a-Mole. Have you ever been to an amusement park and see that +game, Whack-a-Mole? You put in a quarter and you have so much time, and +you have the thing and you're whacking down and the things pop up. You're +whacking over here and they pop up over here. Well, we have to continue to +play Whack-a-Mole on this, and there are these new phenomena that are +coming up. And, you know, your question points out that we have to change, +be more adaptable and be increasingly vigilant and increasingly well- +coordinated in taking this on. + + REP. MARTINEZ: The last statement, well-coordinated, leads me to my +next question, the last question. It seems to me -- and it only seems to +me, and I couldn't really state this as a fact, but that there isn't the +kind of cooperation or coordination between, let's say, the FBI, the State +Department and Immigration Department. It almost seems much like in the +old neighborhoods that I lived in there were the gang wars and the turf +wars, and this is mine and this is yours, and boy, you try to cross over +and you get into a heck of a battle. + + Is there -- and if there is, is there a way of extending that so that +the INS is able to work with the FBI and the State Department identifying +people that need to be removed from our society? + + MR. WIRTH: I came at this with the same skepticism that you had. I +expected when I was first looking at this, coming into this new job, Mr. +Martinez, to have the kind of fragmentation or non-cooperation or turf +battles that your question suggests, and I would say I found just the +opposite. This may have existed 10 years ago, this fragmentation, but +again, the previous administration set up a much broader, cooperative +effort between State, the CIA and the FBI, in particular, and that has +worked remarkably well. I mean, this is a very well-coordinated group that +works together on a steady basis. They are in touch on a daily basis. And +I would say that if there were ever an example -- if I've ever seen an +example of real interagency cooperation, government working the way it +ought to work, this was a base to me. + + We are strengthening that. We are building upon that very good base. +I'll give you some examples of that. I mentioned our increased efforts +with Justice across the board. We're doing the same thing with the CIA. +We have a new border security working group that is operating out of the +counterterrorism office at the State Department. We have a group called +TREVI (sp) that we're working with, which is a European Community group, +which the United States is playing an increasing role in. We are working +with the European Community, as I pointed out, on Iran, trying to say, +okay, what lessons did we learn about this sort of cooperation, how can we +help other countries to get this kind of a cooperative effort, how do we +better share information with them. And the sense of urgency that +countries feel and that agencies feel is very real, indeed. + + REP. MARTINEZ: Well, I thank you very much. It's gratifying to hear +that because there is a sense of urgency among the citizens. They see +things like the bombing more recently and the destruction in that building, +the billions of dollars of destruction, and they're concerned. And they +have no way of knowing just what our government is doing, exactly, and +you're giving us information like this, we're able to carry it back to our +constituents. Thank you. + + MR. WIRTH: Thank you, Mr. Martinez. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you, Mr. Martinez. + + Congresswoman Snowe. + + REP. OLYMPIA SNOWE (R-ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + I want to welcome you, Mr. Wirth, a former colleague here in the +House. I appreciate your testimony here this morning. + + Several of the issues that have been brought up here during the +question period, I have addressed in legislation that I've introduced with +Congressman Gilman, one that would require that State Department have +access to the FBI files with respect to the background of individuals and +criminal activity. The second part of that also would require an update by +the State Department of the computer system and the updated microfiche +system that led to the serious bureaucratic bungling that ultimately led to +the Sheik's admission to the United States. I'll get back to those issues +in a moment. + + But in the discussion here this morning with respect to the access by +the State Department to the FBI files and the surcharge or the user fee +that is required in order to have access to that information, it seems to +me to typify the problem in the mindset that we have in this country, or +perhaps the inability to shift our mindsets from the fact that terrorism +always occurred abroad and not on domestic territory. And I know that +that's also going to be difficult, I think, for the various agencies, +including the State Department, the FBI and the immigration office, to deal +with this in a cooperative fashion. And I know there is cooperation now, +as you say. + + But I think this illustrates the problem. The State Department does +not get access to FBI information +because it has to pay a user fee of only about $600,000, which is the +equivalent of three State Department officials abroad, out of 20,000 +employees out of the State Department. So we're talking about a fraction +amount of money compared to the overall budget in the State Department. + + And then, on the other hand, we have the FBI who has defined the fact +that we're only going to provide this information to law enforcement +agencies. So, of course, that doesn't include the State Department, rather +than looking at the overall issue, [which] is that what are we trying to +achieve here -- which is, of course, to save not only money in this +country, but to save human lives, and that the ultimate goal was to have +access to that information so that people are best equipped to make the +kind of decisions and judgments that do not allow people to come to the +United States who are dangerous individuals. + + So we not only have that kind of problem -- which we do have, which in +my -- in my opinion does represent the kind of problems that I think we +have now in trying to shift, in trying to do what we need to do, in +changing the laws, whatever they may require, and that includes immigration +laws, to -- to address the problems that exist here in this country. + + There was an article in the New York Times recently talking about this +very fact, and I think it's -- I think it's very good and it's realistic. +And in that article, it says America is better equipped to bomb Baghdad +than to thwart attacks on its own soil. And I think it's true. We have +yet come -- we have not come to grips with this notion, and it's a +difficult one to come to grips with. But I think that that problem with +access to the FBI files is sort of an illustration of the problem that +we're dealing with. + + The second part of the issue in terms of admitting the sheik to this +country, it not only was a failed system in terms of technology and +updates, but it also was because of human failure. The individual involved +did not follow through on all the prescribed procedures in looking for that +information, and the information -- it was in the Cairo system. So it is +unfortunate that on one hand so that we do have a -- a computer failure in +terms of the -- not having the up-to-date information, but on the other +hand we also have the human failure. And my legislation would also include +the -- the requirement of personal accountability. We do that now with +ambassadors. And I think that we also should do that with individuals who +work in these embassies and consulate offices when they fail to do what +they're supposed to be doing, because this does, unfortunately, translate +into human tragedy, as we have seen here in the United States and may +continue to occur, unfortunately. And so I think that we have to sort of +shift gears here, and I think that that does require as well among the +agencies in trying to depart from how we've dealt with these issues from +the past. + + Now you look at the sheik in terms of deportation and extradition. It +defies logic to suggest it's taking years. We have been trying to +extradite him and deport him since 1991, because he was issued a green +card. While one office in New York City was trying to deport him from -- +in the Immigration office, in New Jersey they were issuing him a green card +simultaneously. I mean, so we are talking worse than Abbott and Costello +in my estimation, but the point is that it does defy imagination here that +it could take so long to deport a known dangerous individual. + + And so I would hope that all the agencies, including the two that you +represent here today, will do everything that you can to change the +immigration laws so that we come back to -- to a situation that is far more +reasonable than currently exists today. And that's what I would like to +ask you, Mr. Wirth. Exactly what would you suggest for changes that would +make this system far more logical and far more -- much -- more safer -- +more safe than it is today for Americans and what we can anticipate for the +future with respect to terrorist activities committed on American soil? + + MR. WIRTH: Well, Congresswoman Snowe, we share your sense of urgency +about this, and I can assure you that that is felt not only in the +international part of this, but in a -- I felt the same concerns in my +discussions with the Justice Department, I would say, as I -- I don't know +if you were here earlier when I met with Ms. Reno. The first thing that +she says was "What do you want me to do?" I mean, that the same thing: +"We're here. We'll do whatever you want us to do." It was a very +forthcoming and terrific discussion. + + Going through your points, one, I think that the -- we may be barking +up something of a -- of a blind alley here on the issue of the user fees. +There really has not been a stoppage of information as a result of this. +It's awkward, it's more difficult than it ought to be, but it has not +resulted, as far as I know, in any stoppage of information. But since this +has come up so intensely, Mr. Chairman, what I'd like to do is to go back +and have a look at this and maybe give you a formal response to this whole +question of the user fee and how that has interfered, and so on. I think +we all ought to really examine that more closely. And let me commit to +doing that by the end of the month, if I might. I think that would be +helpful for all of us. If I can't get it by that time and it's more +complicated, I'll let you know. But let's see if we can resolve this once +and for all. + + Second, the information is a significant problem. We've talked about +that. Perhaps we ought to, Mr. Chairman, be going back to the +appropriations committee and asking for more money to more rapidly upgrade +that issue. We are determined to do that within the next year, to have the +new information system in place, and maybe it should be more rapid than +that. We thought that this was what the current system could bear. + + Third, Congresswoman Snowe makes a very good point about human error +and what goes into the system. I mean, this goes back to what we all +learned first dealing with computers: garbage in, garbage out. You know, +if you don't put the right information into the system, you're not going to +get reasonable information coming out of the system. And we're aware of +that, and have augmented and increased the communiques going out to our +embassies and all of our consular offices on this. Their own frustration +is reflected in having to operate often with an extraordinarily +understaffed area, with a system that doesn't work very well, but that's no +excuse for the errors that were made related to the incidents that we've +been discussing which, again, the Abbott and Costello nature of it -- if +errors could be made, they were all -- they were all made, and some of that +was human errors. I would hope that we would not be criminalizing human +error. I think rather it goes to the point of really much better training, +and a much better sense of accountability, and a much better leadership in +each one of our consular offices. And I know that that's currently +underway by the new assistant secretary for consular affairs. + + Finally, on the change of immigration laws, this really isn't our +bailiwick in the State Department, and I would defer to Mr. Brandon's +questions later. We did -- have made it very clear that we believe that +reform and streamlining of our asylum system is absolutely imperative. We +see the problems with that in so many different places whether, you know, +we're dealing with the Chinese coming in illegally and sitting off the +coast of Mexico today, to the problems of the blind sheik; the issue of +summary or expeditious exclusion is another one that has to be taken care +of right away. On both of those, this administration I know is moving +rapidly, but I would leave that to Mr. Brandon and to the Justice +Department since that does fall very specifically into their bailiwick. We +are supporting their efforts in every way that we can from the State +Department, providing both testimony, anecdotal evidence, and a push to get +this to happen. + + REP. SNOWE: A couple of points -- we did include, you should know, in +the State Department authorization the requirement that you have access to +the FBI files and also an update of the computer system -- + + MR. WIRTH: Yes. + + REP. SNOWE: So that that -- those two issues have been included. + + Another point is in my legislation that has to go before the Judiciary +Committee, and I'm in hopes that they will deal -- address this issue this +year, and that is to go back to the immigration law prior to 1990 whereas +if somebody was a member of a terrorist organization, they would not be +allowed to be admitted to the United States. + + + +The law was changed, unfortunately, in 1990 that required greater burden of +proof upon the United States government to prevent an individual from +entering the United States. Now you'd have to prove that they were about +to be personally part of a terrorist activity or were personally part of a +terrorist activity. So a much greater burden to prevent an individual from +coming to the United States, and certainly we ought to go back to the 1990 +law. That would certainly have meant that the sheik would not have been +admissible, although he came in under, as we know, other circumstances. +But we would not have been able to deny him admission to the United States +on that basis, even though he was and is a member of a terrorist +organization. + + Finally, one other point. You mentioned earlier in your remarks that +-- that the State Department has access to all of the criminal activity +files of an individual, crimes committed in the United States. It is my +understanding the State Department does not have access to such information +of crimes committed in the United States. + + MR. WIRTH: I'm not sure that I said that we had access to all the +criminal files of crimes committed in the United States. We do have access +to the relevant FBI information, and I do not know of a problem on that, +but I would ask Mr. Brandon would you like to comment on any of that? + + MR. BRANDON: There's -- there's not an open interface between the FBI +and State Department with regard to all criminal files. But upon request +we furnish them any information we have that's identifiable. + + When I say "not an open system", it is -- the State Department is not +designated as a law enforcement agency, so they don't have their own direct +access. That's the only caveat, though. Any time they make an inquiry, if +we have the record, they get it. + + REP. SNOWE: In conjunction with this issue, when I was developing +this legislation, I came across, I thought, a startling statistic, that +there was a 45 percent drop in denial of visas for individuals with past +criminal activities. And I don't know if this has any bearing or any +relationship, but I -- I certainly -- it's disconcerting, to say the least. + + MR. WIRTH: Well, again, your sense of urgency is, I can guarantee +you, reflected both in the State Department and in the Justice Department +of looking at this whole system. And this again goes fundamenally back to +the point made by Congressman Bereuter about the absolute imperative to +assure to our -- all of our constituencies, the citizens of the United +States, that in fact our government is working effectively to protect them, +and this is a very, very significant threat which they perceive, which is +very real, and which we have a responsibility to execute. + + REP. SNOWE: I appreciate it. Thank you very much -- (inaudible) -- + + MR. WIRTH: Thank you very much. + + REP. SNOWE: -- thank you. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much. + + I know, Mr. Secretary, you have to leave shortly, but Congressman +Smith has a couple of -- + + MR. WIRTH: I wanted to wait for Congressman Smith before leaving. +(Laughter) + + REP. LANTOS: Very good. + + REP. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH (R-NJ): I appreciate that, Tim. + + Mr. Chairman, thank you for yielding. + + Mr. Brandon, I'd like to direct my first question to you. Last March +24th Mr. Gilman and I wrote Secretary Christopher asking for a full and +thorough investigation concerning the five fraudulent Nicaraguan passports +that were found on March 8th at the home of one of the suspects arrested in +connection with the bombings at the World Trade Center. We received back +correspondence on April 14th advising us that there would be a full +investigation by the FBI and by the Department of State's Diplomatic +Security Service. + + As you know, as members of this committee know, there have been some +-- some people convicted in Nicaragua as a result of that -- of fraud. As +a matter of fact, one of those who was sentenced to six years in prison in +mid-April, Rodolfo Locao Baretto (sp), has stated that he was scapegoated +and just a couple of weeks ago was given a stay of his sentence for, quote, +"health reasons" and apparently is going to be leaving the country very +shortly. If you could advise the committee as to the status of that +investigation, because it is very important, I think, as we proceed with +our bilateral relations with Nicaragua, because even people like Ibarra, +who made some very substantial allegations -- true or untrue we're not sure +-- raised some very serious questions, especially when his information, +perhaps circumstantially, corroborated with some of the other facts of this +case. If you could respond to that. + + MR. BRANDON: Well, I -- (off mike) -- going to have to answer this +way, but those -- there is investigative activity that's on-going. There +have been some -- there have been federal charges filed in the United +States involving one individual in connection with those passports. So +unfortunately I am basically going to have to say that it's not really +appropriate for me to -- to go into the status of the investigation. + + REP. SMITH: If it -- + + MR. BRANDON: But it is on-going. + + REP. SMITH: It is -- hopefully it's aggressive and -- + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. SMITH: -- no doubt, thorough. As soon as this committee, +whether it be privately or otherwise, could be informed, it would be very, +very helpful, because it remains -- + + MR. BRANDON: We will -- we certainly will do so. + + REP. SMITH: I appreciate that. + + One very brief second question, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Could you -- could you direct whatever questions you +have to Counsellor Wirth first, Mr. Smith, because he has to leave. + + REP. SMITH: I have no questions for Mr. Wirth at this time. + + REP. LANTOS: Well, then, if -- if I may just intrude for a second, +Counsellor Wirth, we are all in your debt for a very comprehensive and +extremely informative testimony. We hope your colleague will be able to +stay with us for the balance of the hearing, and we look forward to having +you back again. + + MR. WIRTH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll ask Ms. Bodeen (sp) to +stay, and I -- again I want to thank you two ways: one, having this kind +of a hearing does, you know, make agencies focus more clearly than they +might and to pull things together, and that is a -- that's a very useful +contribution all by itself; second, I think the dialogue that we have had +and continue to have, you know, is extremely useful and positive and we +greatly appreciate the support of you and Congressman Gilman and members of +the committee. We are deeply indebted. I had met with Secretary +Christopher related to issues surrounding this hearing, and he wanted me to +again convey his thanks to both of you, and particularly for your great +support for the efforts which he's undertaking at the State Department. + + REP. LANTOS: Well, we appreciate this very much, and I understand Ms. +Snowe has a farewell comment to make to you. + + REP. SMITH: (Off mike) -- quick question. Is the State Department +and FBI issuing awards to seek these international terrorists? + + MR. WIRTH: What we are attempting to do is -- we have authority in +the State Department which the FBI does not have, and what we are +attempting to do is to rationalize that reward structure so that the FBI +can use much of the authority that we currently have. + + MR. BRANDON: That's right. We do have authority -- I'll bring it up +later if I get the opportunity -- we just don't have the money. + + REP. : Will the gentlewoman yield? + + REP. SNOWE: Yes. + + REP. : Is -- was the dispute resolved that I understand existed +between the State Department and the FBI on this -- + + MR. WIRTH: Yes. + + REP. : -- with regards to the World Trade Center as to offering +rewards for the finding and capture of these perpetrators? + + MR. BRANDON: There -- there was no dispute. I think -- + + MR. WIRTH: There was no dispute. + + MR. BRANDON: -- that was probably an erroneous interpretation -- + + REP. SNOWE: As to -- as to whether or not there was enough +international connections -- + + MR. BRANDON: That's correct. That's correct. It was -- + + REP. SNOWE: So that's -- there's no dispute between -- + + MR. BRANDON: No. + + REP. SNOWE: -- the agencies on that one. + + MR. BRANDON: No. No. + + REP. SNOWE: So the question is one of monetary. + + MR. BRANDON: From our perspective it is. We -- we got authority in +1984 to have a reward system which is similar for acts within the United +States. We've just never been able to get any money to back that up. + + REP. SNOWE: Doesn't State have a -- + + MR. BRANDON: There's -- their -- their authority is for acts abroad +or acts specifically that come from abroad. + + MR. WIRTH: And what we are attempting to do is to broaden that for +information abroad as well as actions abroad -- + + REP. SNOWE: Yeah. Okay. That's -- + + MR. WIRTH: -- which would help -- that would -- it seems to me, the +flow -- + + REP. SNOWE: Okay. + + MR. WIRTH: -- of information and the intelligence and cooperation +between the two agencies. + + REP. SNOWE: Thank you. + + REP. GILMAN: Mr. Chairman, just before Mr. Wirth departs, I would +like to comment how fortunate you are to have a career diplomat like Ms. +Bodeen (sp) working with you on counterterrorism who's had so many years of +experience in that office. + + Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + MR. WIRTH: Thank you very much. + + Thank you, Mr. Chairman -- (inaudible) -- + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much. We're very pleased to have you. + + If my colleague from New Jersey agrees, we would like to have Mr. +Brandon make his opening statement, then we will begin the questioning with +you. Is that all right with you? + + REP. : (Off mike.) + + REP. LANTOS: That's all you have. Then, please go ahead. + + REP. : Mr. Brandon, if you could speak to the issue, and, in +previous years, I think we've all been very gratified by the kind of +coordination and protection that have been afforded US citizens and those +visiting major sporting events. And as we all know, the World Cup is +coming to the United States. My sons and I had the opportunity of joining +that overflow crowd at RFK recently to see Brazil and England square off in +an excellent soccer match. + + Could you speak to the kinds of -- without, obviously, revealing +anything of -- that could compromise your work -- the kinds of preparations +that are being made, particularly since this is the truest form -- when we +talk about the World Series, it's really a US series, when we talk about -- +other than the Olympic games, the World Cup is a truly international event +-- the kinds of special preparations that are being made to mitigate +terrorism events. + + MR. BRANDON: We're very much aware that the World Cup is coming. And +starting about a 18 months ago, we began meeting with various law +enforcement services from abroad -- people who've had experience in dealing +with the World Cup and the tremendous problems that have to date gone along +with this. + + We've also had four meetings now with law enforcement authorities +from, in which you've gotten all the US cities who will host these games +involved. They've come to meetings where we've all come together, along +with some of the authorities from abroad, so that everybody is sharing the +same information and so they have the same understanding of what may face +us. Along with that, we have other government agencies working in the same +working groups. We're also setting up -- in fact, it's actually operating +now or partially operating -- an electronic system for movement of +intelligence information from abroad into the United States and then to be +funneled out to all of the venues. And this will be done instantly as +information comes up. + + We've also worked very closely with the World Cup officials with +regard to physical security at all of the sites and how they're going to +handle the various crowd checks -- that sort of thing. I think that we're +very much involved with that. We hope that it goes off without incident, +that goes without saying. I think that the systems are in place to give us +the best chance of having that happen. + + REP. : You do have sufficient resources to get the job done? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, I believe we do have at this point. + + REP. : Thank you very much. + + REP. LANTOS: Well, Mr. Brandon, let me first thank you for being so +patient and understanding. Your prepared statement will be entered in the +record in its entirety. You may summarize any way you choose, then we'll +move on to questions. + + MR. BRANDON: I appreciate that. I think that's probably a very good +way to proceed, as my prepared statement was probably too long. I'd like +to -- + + REP. LANTOS: Your statement is not too long. (Laughter.) + + MR. BRANDON: I would like to make a few brief remarks, if I might, +Mr. Chairman. + + In 1982, by Executive Order, the FBI was assigned specific lead agency +responsibility for combating terrorism in the United States. And at the +same time, the Department of State was given responsibility for combating +terrorism abroad. We believe we have a two-fold mission. The first and +primary mission that we have is to prevent acts of terrorism. If we are +not able to do that, then the secondary mission that we have -- which +becomes our primary mission, if there is an act of terrorism -- is to +immediately respond to an act of terrorism using all of our resources. + + Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the United States has remained a major +target for international terrorist groups. The Department of State keeps +these statistics. According to their statistic, the overall number of +incidents worldwide has decline, however, the United States does continue +to be clearly the primary target abroad. At the same time, within the +United States, international terrorism has been very limited. Now, that +doesn't mean that we haven't suffered in the United States from terrorism, +because when you combine domestic and international terrorism, we've had, +since 1982, 166 separate incidents of terrorism in the United States that's +resulted in 21 deaths, hundreds -- and now with the World Trade Center +thousands of injuries. + + And during the same period -- a fact that a lot of people don't know +about, because maybe we can't talk about it a lot -- the FBI and local law +enforcement authorities have prevented 74 potential acts of terrorism. + + REP. LANTOS: I'm going to stop you right there -- + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. LANTOS: -- Mr. Brandon, because you are making an extremely +important point. In all of our anti-terrorism efforts, we need the support +of the American public. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. LANTOS: And I don't want this phrase just to slip by, because +this is really at the core of the issue we are discussing. + + Now, just a short while ago, a few weeks ago, the FBI made public +attempted acts of terrorism in New York City involving the United Nations +Building, major federal building that houses the FBI, two tunnels, and +attempts at assassinating a member of Congress. + + Now, you are saying to us -- and I accept this -- that there were 74 +attempted acts of terrorism that were prevented by your action? + + MR. BRANDON: By the FBI or a combination or by local law enforcement. + + REP. LANTOS: Or the law enforcement agencies? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. Since 1982. + + REP. LANTOS: Since 1982. That's a decade. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. LANTOS: I will not ask you, obviously, to itemize each of those +74 attempted acts of terrorism that were prevented by our alert law +enforcement agencies. I want to tip my hat to you and to your colleagues. +But I do want to ask you to give us some information about those without, +in any sense, interfering with confidentiality of sources and other such +matters. So, let me sort of help you by asking a few questions. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes. + + REP. LANTOS: What proportion of the 74 attempted acts of terrorism +that were prevented by your actions were state sponsored? + + MR. BRANDON: I'm hesitant to try to answer that off the top of my +head. + + REP. LANTOS: Well, just give me a ballpark. Was it 90 percent, 50 +percent, 10 percent? + + MR. BRANDON: I would say probably 15 to 20 percent. + + REP. LANTOS: 15 to 20 percent were state sponsored acts of terrorism. +What states were involved in those attempted acts of terrorism? You are +certainly not revealing any intelligence secrets, because they know that +they were involved. So, it's high time the American people know. + + MR. BRANDON: Specifically, to name three -- Iran, Iraq, and Libya. + + REP. LANTOS: Iran, Iraq, and Libya. Were there any other states +involved in attempted acts of terrorism on American soil during the course +of the last decade? + + MR. BRANDON: I don't believe so. I would like the opportunity to +respond further to you in writing. + + REP. LANTOS: That's fair enough. Can you describe, in general terms, +the basic outlines of the attempted acts of terrorism that were sponsored +by Iran? We are not revealing any secrets to them, because they knew what +they were doing. + + MR. BRANDON: In very general terms, I would say, Iranian preventions +-- or potential acts of terrorism have been directed against individuals +who were anti-regime, where state organs or representatives of the +government were used -- intended to carry out acts directed against +individuals who were considered to be anti-regime. + + REP. LANTOS: How about Iraq sponsored acts of terrorism? Can you +describe those to us in general terms? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes. And I can give you a very specific example in this +case. + + REP. LANTOS: Please. + + MR. BRANDON: In 1990, an individual was arrested in California and +charged with attempted murder -- or was planning to attempt to murder an +Iraqi dissident residing in the United States. His name is Andre Koshabe +(sp). He has subsequently entered a plea and been found guilty of this. +This was at the direction of the government of Iraq. + + REP. LANTOS: Can you give us some additional information on Iraq's +sponsored terrorists acts within the United States? + + MR. BRANDON: I think, probably, other than that one example, I would +be better -- we'd be better served if I were to say, in general, they have +been directed against anti-regime -- people who are viewed as being anti- +regime. + + REP. LANTOS: How about Libyan sponsored acts of terrorism within the +United States? + + MR. BRANDON: In 1988, we arrested six Libyans who were charged -- +actually charged with various fraud violations in an attempt to finance -- +what we believe, to finance activities on the government of Libya in the +United States. They were also involved in violating the trade embargo +between the United States and Libya. + + We've also had similar incidents where Libyan national -- or people +acting on behalf of the government of Libya were searching out people who +were considered to be against Gadhafi, against the government of Libya with +intent to do harm to them. So, it's a fairly similar pattern with Libya. + + REP. LANTOS: This is very helpful. Is there anything else you would +be able to reveal to this committee in connection with the 74 attempted +terrorist acts? + + MR. BRANDON: I think that probably I would prefer to answer that on +the -- in writing for the committee to have in writing. + + REP. LANTOS: That's fine. Please go ahead with your comments. I +thought this was very helpful. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + While we have had 166 acts of terrorism and 74 potential acts stopped, +I do think we need to look at it and say that, in fact, even with this +number -- compared to many countries around the world, the United States +has had a relatively low rate of terrorism, both domestic and certainly +international within the United States. + + Congress has played a major role in our efforts in counter-terrorism +by giving -- passing statutes, which have enabled us to investigates acts +of terrorism in the United States -- and also particularly legislation in +1984 and 1986, which resulted in a rather major expansion of FBI +jurisdiction that enabled the FBI or charged the FBI with going abroad to +investigate acts of terrorism directed against United States citizens. + + We believe that the relatively low level of terrorist activity over +the past decade is simply because I think our government, our law +enforcement, and intelligence agencies have been most active in this area. +There's been a great deal of attention paid to this area, and this is +known. We've also had successes in terms of law enforcement activity in +this area. I think a way to characterize this is that I think that it is +fairly well known that the United States is a pretty hard operating area +for a terrorist. This is due to a lot of cooperation, including citizen +cooperation -- which you just mentioned. That's vital, absolutely vital. + + We shouldn't, however, I think -- I think we're foolish if we try -- +we become overly confident. We've just had a couple of recent incidents, +which I think serves to focus attention upon this area. Certainly, the +bombing in New York -- although I feel that what has occurred since then is +something that sends a clear message to terrorists who would come to the +United States. We have been successful in making arrests. + + The plan to commit acts of violence in New York, which was just +stopped a couple of weeks ago, also serves, I think, to remind us that we +are vulnerable. There's no question about that. + + REP. LANTOS: We have arrested nine people in connection with that +attempted acts of -- + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. LANTOS: -- terrorism. My understanding is that a tenth +individual is at large -- + + MR. BRANDON: That is correct. + + REP. LANTOS: -- and has not yet been arrested. + + MR. BRANDON: That's correct. Yes, sir. + + REP. LANTOS: Is he actively being pursued, and is it our information +that he is still in the country? + + MR. BRANDON: He is very, very actively being pursued. + + REP. LANTOS: Please go ahead. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. I will -- I think you understand, because of +pending prosecution, any comments that I would make in these two cases are +extremely limited. + + You had expressed an interest earlier this morning, and you've +previously + + +expressed an interest in what our assessment is of the terrorist threat. +Speaking of the terrorist threat in the United States, it is our position, +after looking at all of our sources of information which we do on a daily, +literally hourly basis, here and abroad, that, in fact, in spite of the two +recent incidents, if you will, that we do not believe that we are about to +see a wave of terrorism sweeping the United States. We just don't see the +indicators at present that indicate that. We're not unaware of it at all. +We're looking at it very hard. But we do not believe that we see that +today, that this is a precursor of a wave of terrorism. + + During the past several years, we have seen and adapted, I think, to +various forms of terrorism. Terrorism has evolved over the last 20 years. +I think that we've dealt with them as a government in a fairly well- +informed manner and it's been successful. I say it again; the value of +cooperation cannot be overstated. There is cooperation within the United +States government with state and local law enforcement within the United +States and very vital cooperation around the world with intelligence and +law enforcement agencies from around the world. + + Terrorism truly, with very few exceptions, is an area in which +politics don't become -- are not a factor. It is one of the few common +bonds that we find worldwide. People have a concern about this. So we are +-- we do have this, and we push cooperation around the world. We have +challenges ahead; there's no question about that. We need to continue our +effort, and we will continue our effort. + + I think I would just really say that I want to assure you, and I hope +you know this, that the women and men of the FBI are firmly committed in +this area. There should be no doubt about this. We will undertake any and +all measures necessary to ensure that we can effectively combat this menace +in the United States and abroad. + + At this point I'd like to stop and be responsive to questions. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much. And we certainly appreciate the +enormous work done by the men and women of the FBI. + + Congressman Gilman has to leave, so I'll yield the first chance for +questions to him. + + REP. BENJAMIN GILMAN (R-NY): I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for +permitting me to go out of order. And I want to first compliment our +Bureau for its recent arrests in New York of those terrorists who would +have targeted our UN complex and other facilities in New York City. It +would have been dreadful if they had been able to complete their mission. +And I've already expressed that to Director Sessions. I think our entire +nation and citizens in New York are most grateful for the -- + + MR. BRANDON: Thank you, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: -- good enforcement work that the Bureau has undertaken. +Can you tell me how many personnel are assigned to your day-to-day +counterterrorism work? + + MR. BRANDON: We generally don't -- we don't give out that figure +publicly. I would be very happy to respond to that in writing certainly. + + REP. GILMAN: If you would, I think our committee would welcome +knowing this. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes. A side comment, and I'll just very quickly add to +that, is that the FBI is a rather unique organization. We do have the +ability to move resources very, very quickly. Trained criminal +investigators can be moved from one area to another. In the area of +terrorism, I can assure you when we have an incident such as the World +Trade Center or the investigation, the more recent investigation where the +people have been charged with conspiring to commit an act of terrorism, the +resources committed have been enormous. And without question, we've +shifted in some other areas. And then, as we can, we'll move them back. + + REP. GILMAN: Your work, though, is essentially involved in +counterterrorism. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: That's full-time? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: I assume, then, you have some other full-time personnel +working on counterterrorism with you. + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: And that's the information that I would hope you would +provide the committee. + + MR. BRANDON: Absolutely. + + REP. GILMAN: Now, Counselor Wirth indicated there was some inter- +agency task force at work, and I might pursue that with Mrs. Bodine as +well. Is that underway now? Do you meet on a regular basis? Can you tell +me a little bit about that inter-agency task force? + + MR. BRANDON: We have, for a number of years, actually been meeting +with the various parts of the US government that have an involvement and +interest in counterterrorism. This is done quite often, sometimes almost +on a daily basis if events dictate. Lacking that, I'd say at a minimum at +least every two weeks we formally get together and meet to discuss issues +of common interest. + + I think that it's an extremely effective way to do business. It +really does ensure that maybe we don't let the bureaucratic problems that +sometimes crop up get in our way, because we work together very well. + + REP. GILMAN: That's encouraging. Ms. Bodine, what agencies are +involved in this inter-agency task force that meets on a regular basis? + + MS. BODINE: (Inaudible) -- coordinating sub-group, and it includes +the NSC, the Director for Global Affairs, Coordinator for Counterterrorism, +FBI, Justice, CIA, JCS, OSD, Special Operations, Low-Intensity Conflict +Office, and on occasion, as needed, FAA, (MARAD?), Department of Energy, +Treasury. + + REP. GILMAN: And you meet regularly? + + MS. BODINE: We meet at least every two weeks, and more often as +necessary. + + REP. GILMAN: And do you chair that? + + MS. BODINE: It's chaired by the NSC, but it is very much of an open +meeting. + + REP. GILMAN: And have you found it to be effective and beneficial? + + MS. BODINE: I've found it to be extraordinarily effective and +beneficial. As Counselor Wirth said, it's a model, I think, for how other +issues could be handled. We know each other. We can deal with each other +very casually on the phone. We can make things happen very quickly when we +have to, because we already know each other and we know the issues. + + REP. GILMAN: Well, that's an encouraging aspect of this whole +problem. Mr. Brandon, has the FBI completed its review of the Israeli +arrests earlier this year of several Americans who were involved in +terrorist activities on behalf of Hamas in the Middle East? + + MR. BRANDON: We have, to the extent -- yes, we have. + + REP. GILMAN: And can you tell us anything about your conclusions at +all? + + MR. BRANDON: I don't believe I can in this forum, sir. I'd be glad +to respond separately. + + REP. GILMAN: Can you tell us at least whether these people were +definitely involved with Hamas in their activities? + + MR. BRANDON: I would rather respond in writing to you, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: And would you do that for the committee? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir; absolutely. + + REP. GILMAN: Mr. Chairman, with your consent, I'd like to make a +request. Can you tell us also, has the FBI concluded its work on Pan Am +103, or is that still an ongoing investigation? + + MR. BRANDON: Oh, that's an ongoing investigation. Obviously there +have been indictments that have been brought. But there are aspects of the +investigation that are continuing, yes, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: Is there some thought that there are more people +involved than you have initially found? + + MR. BRANDON: It would not really be appropriate for me to comment on +that. + + REP. GILMAN: Can you comment in writing to the committee -- + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: -- with regard to the extent of your activity in Pan Am +103? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. We'd be glad to do so. + + REP. GILMAN: And again, just to reiterate what we discussed earlier, +there is no longer any problem, then, of your providing information in your +files to the State Department's agency on counterterrorism, that there is a +free flow of information now to the State Department. Am I correct? + + MR. BRANDON: Yes, sir. + + REP. GILMAN: But you are still charging them for it. + + MR. BRANDON: In certain categories, I'm going to have to beg that a +little -- beg the question a little bit, because I'm I guess what we call +an operator, and I'm not entirely familiar with the information management +aspect. I'm aware of the issue, but my understanding, very clear +understanding is at this point that the -- I know, from an operational +standpoint, the information flow is complete and thorough. I believe the +other technical aspects have been overcome, although the State Department +still doesn't like to have to pay for certain kinds of information. + + + + REP. GILMAN: Well, I would hope that both your office and Mrs. +Bodine's office could provide us with some recommendations to try to +overcome this glitch, so to speak, in getting information flowing freely +and any cost problem that might be involved. It seems incredulous that we +should have that happening in a very critical problem. + + MR. BRANDON: We'll visit that again, but I can state unequivocally in +the area of counterterrorism there is no problem with the flow of +information. + + REP. GILMAN: Well, we thank both of you for your input. We thank +both of you for your continued involvement in this very critical problem. +Thank you, Mr. Chairman. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you very much. I just have a couple of questions +before I conclude. Ms. Bodine, what is the extent of cooperation between +narcotics and terrorist activities in various parts of the world that you +deal with? For instance, is it true that in the Bekaa Valley, under Syrian +control, the various terrorist groups obtain much of their funding or most +of their funding from narcotics activities? + + MS. BODINE: There is an intertwining of narcotics and terrorism. + + REP. LANTOS: Could you pull the microphone there? + + MS. BODINE: I'm sorry. I said there is an intertwining of narcotics +and terrorism in a number of places. Lebanon is one. Certainly Colombia, +the Andean region, is another. In most cases, the narcotics is used, as +you mentioned with Lebanon, as a source of revenue. The other way that it +will sometimes come up is that the terrorists will, in a sense, become +mercenaries to the narco-traffickers. It's always a mercantile kind of +arrangement. + + We are aware of and we do speak with the Syrians on the question of +drug eradication. We are aware of that link, and it is a particularly +bothersome one. One of the reasons that we are putting narcotics, +terrorism and crime together in one bureau is that there is this +intertwining of these three groups of despicable people, and it makes it +much easier to deal with them in a coordinated fashion if we are in one +bureau. + + REP. LANTOS: Mr. Brandon, would you care to comment on this issue of +the intertwining of terrorism and narcotics trade? + + MR. BRANDON: I think what Ms. Bodine has stated is -- we're in +complete agreement with that. Of course, our role being primarily domestic +is one where we're more on the receiving end, so we're not quite as +involved internationally. But we're very much aware of that. + + REP. LANTOS: Let me ask one final question of the two of you. With +the end of the Cold War and with the breakdown of the very peculiar +discipline that the Cold War provided, there are some indications that +ethnically-based terrorist organizations are proliferating. I wonder if +you would care to comment on this issue, Ms. Bodine. + + MS. BODINE: We have seen the same trends. Ethnicity has long been a +basis of terrorist groups. You can look at the Irish Republican Army and +ETA, the Corsicans. That is quite of$JL a basis. They're often the +dispossessed, the disenfranchised, within a particular society. And they +seek to redress their grievances through terrorism. + + As you said, taking the lid off of a lot of long-standing, sometimes +century-old animosities has erupted in violence all around the rim of the +former Soviet Union. It is quite possible that this will develop into +terrorism. We're watching it very closely. We are working with other very +concerned states. For example, the Austrians, who (sit?) next to +Yugoslavia, are particularly concerned about this. + + So far the issue of new ethnic terrorism is a theory looking for +evidence. We have not seen any infrastructure. We have not seen any of +the build-up that would lead to some kind of organized ethnic terrorism. +But certainly all the pieces are there. The grounds are there. And +unfortunately, there are groups who will, in a sense, rent themselves out +as technical advisors. So it's a phenomenon that we are watching very +carefully. + + REP. LANTOS: Mr. Brandon? + + MR. BRANDON: Well, I would just like to add that while it's something +that we do have to watch and be aware of, is that I think that it's also -- +we have to be equally careful with this concept. We have to be extremely +careful that we are now viewing groups of people as being lawbreakers or +terrorists simply because they happen to come from a country or from an +ethnic group. And I think that is very, very important. + + What we're seeing, the question -- I will go ahead and say, the +question comes up continually with regard to Islam. The question can be +posed, "Are Muslims terrorists?" The answer is no. It's clearly, clearly +no. There are people who advocate and use violence, very small groups on +the fringes, as there are in many groups around the world. But it is +something that I think we all have to stress and be careful about in the +way we provide information to the public and the way it's characterized, +because we just can't get involved in that. It's not right. + + REP. LANTOS: I fully agree with you and I think the whole Congress +shares that view. Is there any final comment that either of you would like +to make? It's been an extremely valuable and useful hearing. + + Ms. Bodine? + + MS. BODINE: I would just like to thank the committee for the time. I +think the fact that we have all been here for this long dealing with an +issue that doesn't go away, won't go away, but needs quite clearly in the +comments joint cooperation not only in our agency, but between the +executive and the legislative branch. And thank you very much for your +time and interest. + + REP. LANTOS: Thank you. + + Mr. Brandon? + + MR. BRANDON: I would just simply echo that I hope we can continue to +have the interchange that's necessary. The area is of such concern that we +can't afford not to be talking and working with each other. + + REP. LANTOS: Well, on behalf of this Subcommittee on International +Security, I want to thank both of you for a very valuable morning. This +hearing is adjourned. + + (Gavel.) + + END + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/aots.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/aots.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5deede89 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/aots.txt @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ + 1645 + + ANOTHER ON THE SAME + + by John Milton + + + + + + + + + + + +ANOTHER_ON_THE_SAME + Another on the Same +- + Here lieth one who did most truly prove, + That he could never die while he could move, + So hung his destiny never to rot + While he might still jogg on, and keep his trot, + Made of sphear-metal, never to decay + Untill his revolution was at stay. + Time numbers motion, yet (without a crime + 'Gainst old truth) motion number'd out his time: + And like an Engin mov'd with wheel and waight, + His principles being ceast, he ended strait. + Rest that gives all men life, gave him his death, + And too much breathing put him out of breath; + Nor were it contradiction to affirm + Too long vacation hastned on his term. + Meerly to drive the time away he sickn'd, + Fainted, and died, nor would with Ale be quickn'd; + Nay, quoth he, on his swooning bed out-stretch'd, + If I may not carry, sure Ile ne're be fetch'd, + But vow though the cross Doctors all stood hearers, + For one Carrier put down to make six bearers. + Ease was his chief disease, and to judge right, + He di'd for heavines that his Cart went light, + His leasure told him that his time was com, + And lack of load, made his life burdensom, + That even to his last breath (ther be that say't) + As he were prest to death, he cry'd more waight; + But had his doings lasted as they were, + He had bin an immortall Carrier. + Obedient to the Moon he spent his date + In cours reciprocal, and had his fate + Linkt to the mutual flowing of the Seas, + Yet (strange to think) his wain was his increase: + His Letters are deliver'd all and gon, + Onely remains this superscription. +- + -THE END- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/apf-char.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/apf-char.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cca131d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/apf-char.txt @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ + THE AMERICAN PRIVACY FOUNDATION + + +Charter: WHEREAS millions of American citizens are presently having + their privacy violated through electronic, chemical, and + physical techniques, and, + + WHEREAS many groups with authority, such as business and + government, are increasingly utilizing these techniques + in the continuing invasion of privacy, and, + + WHEREAS these groups are increasingly coercing citizens to + be subjected to these invasions, be denying employment, + loans, benefits, or other required monetary incomes to + those individuals who refuse to be monitored, tested, or + investigated, and, + + WHEREAS technological innovations are continuously making + such violations more prevalent, less expensive, and easier + to perform, + + WITNESS THAT The American Privacy Foundation is hereby + formed to counter the trends of increasing privacy + violations in the United States of America. + + The American Privacy Foundation is opposed to: + + 1) Collection, by any organization, of information showing + what a citizen purchases on a day-to-day basis. + 2) Genetic testing for purposes of determining if a citizen + possesses 'defective' or undesirable genes, and the + subsequent distribution of this information to various + organizations. + 3) Drug testing or monitoring by any of the following + techniques; urine, blood, or hair follicle analysis; + skin patches; or electronic devices meant to monitor + legal or illegal substance useage of an individual. + 4) Sharing of information between the business community and + government. + 5) Compilation of 'medical profiles' by data collection from + various sources, for submission to business or insurance + companies. + 6) Any electronic device which is used for tracking the + location of a given individual on a continuous basis. + 7) Imbedded electronic devices intended to monitor and enforce + legislation. + 8) Any attempt by the government to ban or eliminate cash + currency, or to impose further controls or monitoring of + currency. + + 1) DAY-TO-DAY TRANSACTION COLLECTION: + a) Concern: A large amount amount of information about + the lifestyle, eating habits, and medical conditions + can be inferred from these records. + b) Example: Several businesses, most notably high- + technology grocery stores, have begun collecting + day-to-day transaction information on individuals. + This is accomplished by enticing a customer into using + a 'Shopping Club'-type card, which indicates the + identity of the purchaser as well as demographic + information. The purchases are recorded against the + customers' name, and a log of purchases can be + compiled. + c) Exceptions: The A.P.F. recognizes the necessity of + business to keep records about credit and payment + history, in order to determine eligibility for the + privilidge of credit. + + 2) GENETIC TESTING: + a) Concern: In a few short years, many human genes will be + identified. If a person is discriminated against due to + genetic abberations, this person is 'prosecuted before + the fact'. + b) Example: If you are found to have a gene predisposing you + to alcoholism, you could be denied a job, loan, or + insurance, even if you have never touched a drink in your + entire life. + c) Exceptions: A person might request genetic testing for his + own knowledge or for overwhelming medical necessity. If the + test is requested and desired by the person, and if the + information is specifically prohibited from being shared + with any other group, the APF has no objection to this + practice. + 3) DRUG TESTING: + a) This patently offensive practice presupposes guilt, + and violates the 5th Amendment to the Constitution by + requiring a person to undertake an action that may be + self-incriminating. A person should be judged on their + performance at work, only. If the person performs well, + then they should be rewarded. If they perform poorly, + they should be removed. What intoxicants are ingested + by a person in their own time is in no way the business + of any company or any government entity. + b) Example: A patch has been developed that would be worn + for up to one month, that is capable of detecting every + drink, every cigarette, every substance ingested during + that period. + c) Exceptions: The APF does not object to standard drug + tests for individuals in certain jobs that put other + individuals at serious physical risk (e.g., jobs in + the transportation industry or in nuclear power plants). + Additionally, if a test is someday developed that tests + present levels of intoxication, much like a Breathalyser + does now, the APF has no objection to use of this test in + any and all employment situations. (An employer, when he + pays for your hours, has the right to expect you to be + sober during those paid hours.) + 4) BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT SHARING OF DATA: + The government has an strong need to possess certain + information on individuals (for administration of income + taxes and social security benfits, as an example). + Because of this, they possess powerful informational + tool. If this information is leaked to companies or + individuals, a serious breach of privacy occurs. + Additionally, your geographic location and lifestyle + can be inferred by the records collected by business. + If this information is shared with the government, the + stage is set for serious abuses, all the way up to + Bosnian-style 'Ethnic Cleansing'. + + 5) COMPILATION OF MEDICAL PROFILES: + A group known as the Medical Information Bureau, from + Boston, Massachusettes, is rapidly becoming the 'TRW' + of the medical community. They draw information from + every source possible, including some that have been + legally challenged as unethical. + There is a legitimate need for credit-reporting companies, + since they provide information allowing a lender to make + intelligent decisions on the granting of something that + is clearly a privilege (the granting of credit). + There is not nearly as much reasonable rational as + credit histories, since this is not an area in which + special privileges are granted. All people have the right + to work SOMEwhere. All people have the right to be granted + medical care. With MIB records, these rights may soon + be denied. + 6) LOCATION MONITORING: + There is absolutely no reason why an employer or a + government agency has the right to keep tabs on a + persons' location on a continuous basis (excepting + those individuals on probation or parole). + There is a few businesses who have started using POSILOCK, + a system in which an employee wears a badge that enables the + employer to determine and track physical location of + an employee in its' building throughout the day. + 7) ELECTRONIC LAW ENFORCEMENT: + In a few short years, electronic microchips may be imbedded + in a variety of common objects. In fact, recent developments + will allow toll-road users to speed through toll-booths + while an electronic device monitors their travel, and + the tollsystem would automatically deduct amounts from + a 'toll account' paid for by the traveller. In short + order, software could be programmed to note your entry + point, your exit point, and your average speed. If your + average speed exceeded the speed limit, you could ALSO + automatically receive a speeding ticket for your + 'transgression'. This concept can be carried to an + extreme - with every object monitoring your every move, + and issuing citations for any transgressions. + 8) THE CASHLESS SOCIETY: + The government would truely love to make cash disappear + entirely. If all transactions were electronic, many + wonderous things would occur: Taxes could be collected on + EVERY transaction you make, automatically deducted. + And EVERY monetary transaction could be monitored, and + the government would then know every little thing there + is to know about us. This is perhaps the most insiduous and + most dangerous of the potential dangers, but it is also the + least likely to occur any time soon. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/app-abde.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/app-abde.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..90f3f09e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/app-abde.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1603 @@ +Appendix A: + + The United Nations System + + The UN is composed of six principal organs and numerous subordinate +agencies and bodies as follows: + +1) Secretariat + +2) General Assembly: + UNCHS United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) + UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development + UNDP United Nations Development Program + UNEP United Nations Environment Program + UNFPA United Nations Population Fund + UNHCR United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Refugees + UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund + UNITAR United Nations Institute for Training and Research + UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine + Refugees in the Near East + UNSF United Nations Special Fund + UNU United Nations University + WFC World Food Council + WFP World Food Program + +3) Security Council: + UNAVEM United Nations Angola Verification Mission + UNDOF United Nations Disengagement Observer Force + UNFICYP United Nations Force in Cyprus + UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon + UNIIMOG United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group + UNMOGIP United Nations Military Observer Group in India and + Pakistan + UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision Organization + +4) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): + Specialized agencies + FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations + IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development + ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization + IDA International Development Association + IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development + IFC International Finance Corporation + ILO International Labor Organization + IMF International Monetary Fund + IMO International Maritime Organization + ITU International Telecommunication Union + UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural + Organization + UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization + UPU Universal Postal Union + WHO World Health Organization + WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization + WMO World Meteorological Organization + Related organizations + GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade + IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency + Regional commissions + ECA Economic Commission for Africa + ECE Economic Commission for Europe + ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean + ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific + ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia + Functional commissions + Commission on Human Rights + Commission on Narcotic Drugs + Commission for Social Development + Commission on the Status of Women + Population Commission + Statistical Commission + +5) Trusteeship Council + +6) International Court of Justice (ICJ) + +Appendix B + +Abbreviations for International Organizations and Groups + +ABEDA Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa +ACC Arab Cooperation Council +ACCT Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation +ACP African, Caribbean, and Pacific Countries +AfDB African Development Bank +AFESD Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development +AG Andean Group +AL Arab League +ALADI Asociacion Latinoamericana de Integracion; see Latin + American Integration Association (LAIA) +AMF Arab Monetary Fund +AMU Arab Maghreb Union +ANZUS Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty +APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation +AsDB Asian Development Bank +ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations + +BAD Banque Africaine de Developpement; + see African Development Bank (AfDB) +BADEA Banque Arabe de Developpement Economique en Afrique; + see Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (ABEDA) +BCIE Banco Centroamericano de Integracion Economico; see Central + American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) +BDEAC Banque de Developpment des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale; see + Central African States Development Bank (BDEAC) +Benelux Benelux Economic Union +BID Banco Interamericano de Desarvollo; see Inter-American + Development Bank (IADB) +BIS Bank for International Settlements +BOAD Banque Ouest-Africaine de Developpement; see West African + Development Bank (WADB) + +C Commonwealth +CACM Central American Common Market +CAEU Council of Arab Economic Unity +CARICOM Caribbean Community and Common Market +CCC Customs Cooperation Council +CDB Caribbean Development Bank +CE Council of Europe +CEAO Communaute Economique de l'Afrique de l'Ouest; see West + African Economic Community (CEAO) +CEEAC Communaute Economique des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale; see + Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC) +CEMA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; also known as CMEA or + Comecon; abolished 1 January 1991 +CEPGL Communaute Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs; see Economic + Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL) +CERN Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire; see European + Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) +CG Contadora Group +CIS Commonwealth of Independent States +CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CEMA); also known as + Comecon; abolished 1 January 1991 +COCOM Coordinating Committee on Export Controls +Comecon Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CEMA); also known as + CMEA; abolished 1 January 1991 +CP Colombo Plan +CSCE Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe + +DC developed country + +EADB East African Development Bank +EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development +EC European Community +ECA Economic Commission for Africa +ECAFE Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East; see Economic and + Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) +ECE Economic Commission for Europe +ECLA Economic Commission for Latin America; see Economic Commission + for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) +ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean +ECOSOC Economic and Social Council +ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States +ECWA Economic Commission for Western Asia; see Economic and Social + Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) +EFTA European Free Trade Association +EIB European Investment Bank +Entente Council of the Entente +ESA European Space Agency +ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific +ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia + +FAO Food and Agriculture Organization +FLS Front Line States +FZ Franc Zone + +G-2 Group of 2 +G-3 Group of 3 +G-5 Group of 5 +G-6 Group of 6 (not to be confused with the Big Six) +G-7 Group of 7 +G-8 Group of 8 +G-9 Group of 9 +G-10 Group of 10 +G-11 Group of 11 +G-15 Group of 15 +G-19 Group of 19 +G-24 Group of 24 +G-30 Group of 30 +G-33 Group of 33 +G-77 Group of 77 +GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade +GCC Gulf Cooperation Council + +Habitat see United Nations Center for Human Settlements (UNCHS) +HG Hexagonal Group + +IADB Inter-American Development Bank +IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency +IBEC International Bank for Economic Cooperation +IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development +ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization +ICC International Chamber of Commerce +ICEM Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration; see + International Organization for Migration (IOM) +ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions +ICJ International Court of Justice +ICM Intergovernmental Committee for Migration; see + International Organization for Migration (IOM) +ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross +IDA International Development Association +IDB Islamic Development Bank +IEA International Energy Agency +IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development +IFC International Finance Corporation +IGADD Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development +IIB International Investment Bank +ILO International Labor Organization +IMCO Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization; see + International Maritime Organization (IMO) +IMF International Monetary Fund +IMO International Maritime Organization +INMARSAT International Maritime Satellite Organization +INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization +INTERPOL International Criminal Police Organization +IOC International Olympic Committee +IOM International Organization for Migration +ISO International Organization for Standardization +ITU International Telecommunication Union + +LAES Latin American Economic System +LAIA Latin American Integration Association +LAS League of Arab States; see Arab League (AL) +LDC less developed country +LLDC least developed country +LORCS League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies + +MERCOSUR Southern Cone Common Market +MTCR Missile Technology Control Regime + +NACC North Atlantic Cooperation Council +NAM Nonaligned Movement +NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization +NC Nordic Council +NEA Nuclear Energy Agency +NIB Nordic Investment Bank +NIC newly industrializing country; see newly industrializing + economy (NIE) +NIE newly industrializing economy +NSG Nuclear Suppliers Group + +OAPEC Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries +OAS Organization of American States +OAU Organization of African Unity +OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development +OECS Organization of Eastern Caribbean States +OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference +OPANAL Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America + and the Caribbean +OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries + +PCA Permanent Court of Arbitration + +RG Rio Group + +SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation +SACU Southern African Customs Union +SADCC Southern African Development Coordination Conference +SELA Sistema Economico Latinoamericana; see Latin American Economic + System (LAES) +SPC South Pacific Commission +SPF South Pacific Forum + +UDEAC Union Douaniere et Economique de l'Afrique Centrale; see + Central African Customs and Economic Union (UDEAC) +UN United Nations +UNAVEM United Nations Angola Verification Mission +UNCHS United National Center for Human Settlements (also + known as Habitat) +UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development +UNDOF United Nations Disengagement Observer Force +UNDP United Nations Development Program +UNEP United Nations Environment Program +UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural + Organization +UNFICYP United Nations Force in Cyprus +UNFPA United Nations Fund for Population Activities; see UN Population + Fund (UNFPA) +UNHCR United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees +UNICEF United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund; see + United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) +UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization +UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon +UNIIMOG United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group +UNMOGIP United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan +UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees + in the Near East +UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision Organization +UPU Universal Postal Union +USSR/EE USSR/Eastern Europe + +WADB West African Development Bank +WCL World Confederation of Labor +WEU Western European Union +WFC World Food Council +WFP World Food Program +WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions +WHO World Health Organization +WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization +WMO World Meteorological Organization +WP Warsaw Pact (members met 1 July 1991 to dissolve the alliance) +WTO World Tourism Organization + +ZC Zangger Committee + +note: not all international organizations and groups have abbreviations + + + Appendix D: Weights and Measures +Mathematical Notation +Mathematical Power Name +10^18 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 one quintillion +10^15 or 1,000,000,000,000,000 one quadrillion +10^12 or 1,000,000,000,000 one trillion +10^9 or 1,000,000,000 one billion +10^6 or 1,000,000 one million +10^3 or 1,000 one thousand +10^2 or 100 one hundred +10^1 or 10 ten +10^0 or 1 one +10^-1 or 0.1 one tenth +10^-2 or 0.01 one hundredth +10^-3 or 0.001 one thousandth +10^-6 or 0.000 001 one millionth +10^-9 or 0.000 000 001 one billionth +10^-12 or 0.000 000 000 001 one trillionth +10^-15 or 0.000 000 000 000 001 one quadrillionth +10^-18 or 0.000 000 000 000 000 001 one quintillionth +Metric Interrelationships +Conversions from a multiple or submultiple to the basic units of meters, +liters, or grams can be done using the table. For example, to convert from +kilometers to meters, multiply by 1,000 (9.26 kilometers equals 9,260 +meters) or to convert from meters to kilometers, multiply by 0.001 (9,260 +meters equals 9.26 kilometers) +Prefix Symbol Length, Area Volume + weight, + capacity +exa E 10^18 10^36 10^54 +peta P 10^15 10^30 10^45 +tera T 10^12 10^24 10^36 +giga G 10^9 10^18 10^27 +mega M 10^6 10^12 10^18 +hectokilo hk 10^5 10^10 10^15 +myria ma 10^4 10^8 10^12 +kilo k 10^3 10^6 10^9 +hecto h 10^2 10^4 10^6 +basic unit - 1 meter, 1 meter^2 1 meter^3 + 1 gram, + 1 liter +deci d 10^-1 10^-2 10^-3 +centi c 10^-2 10^-4 10^-6 +milli m 10^-3 10^-6 10^-9 +decimilli dm 10^-4 10^-8 10^-12 +centimilli cm 10^-5 10^-10 10^-15 +micro u 10^-6 10^-12 10^-18 +nano n 10^-9 10^-18 10^-27 +pico p 10^-12 10^-24 10^-36 +femto f 10^-15 10^-30 10^-45 +atto a 10^-18 10^-36 10^-54 + +Equivalents + +Unit Metric Equivalent US Equivalent +acre 0.404 685 64 hectares 43,560 feet^2 +acre 4,046,856 4 meters^2 4,840 yards^2 +acre 0.004 046 856 4 0.001 562 5 miles^2, + kilometers^2 statute +are 100 meters^2 119.599 yards^2 +barrel (petroleum, US) 158.987 29 liters 42 gallons +barrel (proof spirits, 151.416 47 liters 40 gallons +US) +barrel (beer, US) 117.347 77 liters 31 gallons +bushel 35.239 07 liters 4 pecks +cable 219.456 meters 120 fathoms +chain (surveyor's) 20.116 8 meters 66 feet +cord (wood) 3.624 556 meters^3 128 feet^3 +cup 0.236 588 2 liters 8 ounces, liquid (US) +degrees, celsius (water boils at 100. multiply by 1.8 and add + degrees C, freezes at 0. C) 32 to obtain .F +degrees, fahrenheit subtract 32 and divide by (water boils at 212 .F, + 1.8 to obtain .C freezes at 32 .F) +dram, avoirdupois 1.771 845 2 grams 0.062 5 ounces, avoirdupois +dram, troy 3.887 934 6 grams 0.125 ounces, troy +dram, liquid (US) 3.696 69 milliliters 0.125 ounces, liquid +fathom 1.828 8 meters 6 feet +foot 30.48 centimeters +foot 0.304 8 meters 0.333 333 3 yards +foot 0.000 304 8 kilometers 0.000 189 39 miles, + statute +foot^2 929.030 4 centimeters^2 144 inches^2 +foot 2 0.092 903 04 meters^2 0.111 111 1 yards^2 +foot^3 28.316 846 592 liters 7.480 519 gallons +foot^3 0.028 316 847 meters^3 1,728 inches^3 +furlong 201.168 meters 220 yards +gallon, liquid (US) 3.785 411 784 liters 4 quarts, liquid +gill (US) 118.294 118 milliliters 4 ounces, liquid +grain 64.798 91 milligrams 0.002 285 71 ounces, + advp. +gram 1,000 milligrams 0.035 273 96 ounces, + advp. +hand (height of horse) 10.16 centimeters 4 inches +hectare 10,000 meters^2 2.471 053 8 acres +hundredweight, long 50.802 345 kilograms 112 pounds, avoirdupois +hundredweight, short 45.359 237 kilograms 100 pounds, avoirdupois +inch 2.54 centimeters 0.083 333 33 feet +inch2 6.451 6 centimeters^2 0.006 944 44 feet^2 +inch3 16.387 064 centimeters^3 0.000 578 7 feet^3 +inch3 16.387 064 milliliters 0.029 761 6 pints, dry +inch3 16.387 064 milliliters 0.034 632 0 pints, liquid +kilogram 0.001 tons, metric 2.204 623 pounds, + avoirdupois +kilometer 1,000 meters 0.621 371 19 miles, + statute +kilometer^2 100 hectares 247.105 38 acres +kilometer^2 1,000,000 meters^2 0.386 102 16 miles^2, + statute +knot (1 nautical 1.852 kilometers/hour 1.151 statute miles/hour +mi/hr) +league, nautical 5.559 552 kilometers 3 miles, nautical +league, statute 4.828.032 kilometers 3 miles, statute +link (surveyor's) 20.116 8 centimeters 7.92 inches +liter 0.001 meters^3 61.023 74 inches^3 +liter 0.1 dekaliter 0.908 083 quarts, dry +liter 1,000 milliliters 1.056 688 quarts, liquid +meter 100 centimeters 1.093 613 yards +meter^2 10,000 centimeters^2 1.195 990 yards^2 +meter^3 1,000 liters 1.307 951 yards^3 +micron 0.000 001 meter 0.000 039 4 inches +mil 0.025 4 millimeters 0.001 inch +mile, nautical 1.852 kilometers 1.150 779 4 miles, + statute +mile^2, nautical 3.429 904 kilometers^2 1.325 miles^2, statute +mile, statute 1.609 344 kilometers 5,280 feet or 8 furlongs +mile^2, statute 258.998 811 hectares 640 acres or 1 section +mile^2, statute 2.589 988 11 kilometers^2 0.755 miles^2, nautical +minim (US) 0.061 611 52 milliliters 0.002 083 33 ounces, + liquid +ounce, avoirdupois 28.349 523 125 grams 437.5 grains +ounce, liquid (US) 29.573 53 milliliters 0.062 5 pints, liquid +ounce, troy 31.103 476 8 grams 480 grains +pace 76.2 centimeters 30 inches +peck 8.809 767 5 liters 8 quarts, dry +pennyweight 1.555 173 84 grams 24 grains +pint, dry (US) 0.550 610 47 liters 0.5 quarts, dry +pint, liquid (US) 0.473 176 473 liters 0.5 quarts, liquid +point (typographical) 0.351 459 8 millimeters 0.013 837 inches +pound, avoirdupois 453.592 37 grams 16 ounces, avourdupois +pound, troy 373.241 721 6 grams 12 ounces, troy +quart, dry (US) 1.101 221 liters 2 pints, dry +quart, liquid (US) 0.946 352 946 liters 2 pints, liquid +quintal 100 kilograms 220.462 26 pounds, avdp. +rod 5.029 2 meters 5.5 yards +scruple 1.295 978 2 grams 20 grains +section (US) 2.589 988 1 kilometers^2 1 mile2, statute or 640 + acres +span 22.86 centimeters 9 inches +stere 1 meter3 1.307 95 yards^3 +tablespoon 14.786 76 milliliters 3 teaspoons +teaspoon 4.928 922 milliliters 0.333 333 tablespoons +ton, long or 1,016.046 909 kilograms 2,240 pounds, avoirdupois +deadweight + +ton, metric 1,000 kilograms 2,204.623 pounds, + avoirdupois +ton, metric 1,000 kilograms 32,150.75 ounces, troy +ton, register 2.831 684 7 meters^3 100 feet^3 +ton, short 907.184 74 kilograms 2,000 pounds, avoirdupois +township (US) 93.239 572 kilometers^2 36 miles^2, statute +yard 0.914 4 meters 3 feet +yard^2 0.836 127 36 meters^2 9 feet^2 +yard^3 0.764 554 86 meters^3 27 feet^3 +yard^3 764.554 857 984 liters 201.974 gallons + + +********** + +Appendix E + +Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names + + This list indicates where various names including all United States +Foreign Service Posts, alternate names, former names, and political or +geographical portions of larger entities can be found in The World +Factbook. Spellings are not necessarily those approved by the United +States Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Alternate names are included in +parentheses; additional information is included in brackets. + +Name Entry in The World Factbook + +Abidjan [US Embassy] Ivory Coast +Abu Dhabi [US Embassy] United Arab Emirates +Acapulco [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Accra [US Embassy] Ghana +Adana [US Consulate] Turkey +Addis Ababa [US Embassy] Ethiopia +Adelaide [US Consular Agency] Australia +Adelie Land (Terre Adelie) Antarctica + [claimed by France] +Aden Yemen +Aden, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Admiralty Islands Papua New Guinea +Adriatic Sea Atlantic Ocean +Aegean Islands Greece +Aegean Sea Atlantic Ocean +Afars and Issas, French Djibouti + Territory of the (F.T.A.I.) +Agalega Islands Mauritius +Aland Islands Finland +Alaska United States +Alaska, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Aldabra Islands Seychelles +Alderney Guernsey +Aleutian Islands United States +Alexander Island Antarctica +Alexandria [US Consulate General] Egypt +Algiers [US Embassy] Algeria +Alhucemas, Penon de Spain +Alma-Ata Kazakhstan +Alphonse Island Seychelles +Amami Strait Pacific Ocean +Amindivi Islands India +Amirante Isles Seychelles +Amman [US Embassy] Jordan +Amsterdam [US Consulate General] Netherlands +Amsterdam Island (Ile Amsterdam) French Southern and Antarctic Lands +Amundsen Sea Pacific Ocean +Amur China; Russia +Andaman Islands India +Andaman Sea Indian Ocean +Anegada Passage Atlantic Ocean +Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Sudan +Anjouan Comoros +Ankara [US Embassy] Turkey +Annobon Equatorial Guinea +Antananarivo [US Embassy] Madagascar +Antipodes Islands New Zealand +Antwerp [US Consulate General] Belgium +Aozou Strip [claimed by Libya] Chad +Aqaba, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Arabian Sea Indian Ocean +Arafura Sea Pacific Ocean +Argun China; Russia +Ascension Island Saint Helena +Ashgabat (Ashkhabad) Turkmenistan +Ashkhabad [Interim Chancery] Turkmenistan +Assumption Island Seychelles +Asuncion [US Embassy] Paraguay +Asuncion Island Northern Mariana Islands +Atacama Chile +Athens [US Embassy] Greece +Attu United States +Auckland [US Consulate General] New Zealand +Auckland Islands New Zealand +Australes Iles (Iles Tubuai) French Polynesia +Axel Heiberg Island Canada +Azores Portugal +Azov, Sea of Atlantic Ocean + +Bab el Mandeb Indian Ocean +Babuyan Channel Pacific Ocean +Babuyan Islands Philippines +Baffin Bay Arctic Ocean +Baffin Island Canada +Baghdad Iraq +Baku Azerbaijan +Baky (Baku) Azerbaijan +Balabac Strait Pacific Ocean +Balearic Islands Spain +Balearic Sea (Iberian Sea) Atlantic Ocean +Bali [US Consular Agency] Indonesia +Bali Sea Indian Ocean +Balintang Channel Pacific Ocean +Balintang Islands Philippines +Balleny Islands Antarctica +Balochistan Pakistan +Baltic Sea Atlantic Ocean +Bamako [US Embassy] Mali +Banaba (Ocean Island) Kiribati +Bandar Seri Begawan [US Embassy] Brunei +Banda Sea Pacific Ocean +Bangkok [US Embassy] Thailand +Bangui [US Embassy] Central African Republic +Banjul [US Embassy] Gambia, The +Banks Island Canada +Banks Islands (Iles Banks) Vanuatu +Barcelona [US Consulate General] Spain +Barents Sea Arctic Ocean +Barranquilla [US Consulate] Colombia +Bashi Channel Pacific Ocean +Basilan Strait Pacific Ocean +Bass Strait Indian Ocean +Batan Islands Philippines +Bavaria (Bayern) Germany +Beagle Channel Atlantic Ocean +Bear Island (Bjornoya) Svalbard +Beaufort Sea Arctic Ocean +Bechuanaland Botswana +Beijing [US Embassy] China +Beirut [US Embassy] Lebanon +Belau Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the + (Palau) +Belem [US Consular Agency] Brazil +Belep Islands (Iles Belep) New Caledonia +Belfast [US Consulate General] United Kingdom +Belgian Congo Zaire +Belgrade [US Embassy] Yugoslavia +Belize City [US Embassy] Belize +Belle Isle, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Bellinghausen Sea Pacific Ocean +Belmopan Belize +Belorussia Belarus +Bengal, Bay of Indian Ocean +Bering Sea Pacific Ocean +Bering Strait Pacific Ocean +Berkner Island Antarctica +Berlin [US Branch Office] Germany +Berlin, East Germany +Berlin, West Germany +Bern [US Embassy] Switzerland +Bessarabia Romania; Moldova +Bijagos, Arquipelago dos Guinea-Bissau +Bikini Atoll Marshall Islands +Bilbao [US Consulate] Spain +Bioko Equatorial Guinea +Biscay, Bay of Atlantic Ocean +Bishbek [Interim Chancery] Kyrgyzstan +Bishop Rock United Kingdom +Bismarck Archipelago Papua New Guinea +Bismarck Sea Pacific Ocean +Bissau [US Embassy] Guinea-Bissau +Bjornoya (Bear Island) Svalbard +Black Rock Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Black Sea Atlantic Ocean +Boa Vista Cape Verde +Bogota [US Embassy] Colombia +Bombay [US Consulate General] India +Bonaire Netherlands Antilles +Bonifacio, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Bonin Islands Japan +Bonn [US Embassy] Germany +Bophuthatswana South Africa +Bora-Bora French Polynesia +Bordeaux [US Consulate General] France +Borneo Brunei; Indonesia; Malaysia +Bornholm Denmark +Bosporus Atlantic Ocean +Bothnia, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Bougainville Island Papua New Guinea +Bougainville Strait Pacific Ocean +Bounty Islands New Zealand +Brasilia [US Embassy] Brazil +Brazzaville [US Embassy] Congo +Bridgetown [US Embassy] Barbados +Brisbane [US Consulate] Australia +British East Africa Kenya +British Guiana Guyana +British Honduras Belize +British Solomon Islands Solomon Islands +British Somaliland Somalia +Brussels [US Embassy, US Mission Belgium + to European Communities, US + Mission to the North Atlantic + Treaty Organization (USNATO)] +Bucharest [US Embassy] Romania +Budapest [US Embassy] Hungary +Buenos Aires [US Embassy] Argentina +Bujumbura [US Embassy] Burundi +Byelorussia Belarus + +Cabinda Angola +Cabot Strait Atlantic Ocean +Caicos Islands Turks and Caicos Islands +Cairo [US Embassy] Egypt +Calcutta [US Consulate General] India +Calgary [US Consulate General] Canada +California, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Campbell Island New Zealand +Canal Zone Panama +Canary Islands Spain +Canberra [US Embassy] Australia +Cancun [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Canton (Guangzhou) China +Canton Island Kiribati +Cape Town [US Consulate General] South Africa +Caracas [US Embassy] Venezuela +Cargados Carajos Shoals Mauritius +Caroline Islands Micronesia, Federated States of; + Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the +Caribbean Sea Atlantic Ocean +Carpentaria, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Casablanca [US Consulate General] Morocco +Cato Island Australia +Cebu [US Consulate] Philippines +Celebes Indonesia +Celebes Sea Pacific Ocean +Celtic Sea Atlantic Ocean +Central African Empire Central African Republic +Ceuta Spain +Ceylon Sri Lanka +Chafarinas, Islas Spain +Chagos Archipelago (Oil Islands) British Indian Ocean Territory +Channel Islands Guernsey; Jersey +Chatham Islands New Zealand +Cheju-do Korea, South +Cheju Strait Pacific Ocean +Chengdu [US Consulate General] China +Chesterfield Islands New Caledonia + (Iles Chesterfield) +Chiang Mai [US Consulate General] Thailand +Chihli, Gulf of (Bo Hai) Pacific Ocean +China, People's Republic of China +China, Republic of Taiwan +Choiseul Solomon Islands +Christchurch [US Consular Agency] New Zealand +Christmas Island [Indian Ocean] Australia +Christmas Island [Pacific Ocean] Kiribati + (Kiritimati) +Chukchi Sea Arctic Ocean +Ciskei South Africa +Ciudad Juarez [US Consulate Mexico + General] +Cochabamba [US Consular Agency] Bolivia +Coco, Isla del Costa Rica +Cocos Islands Cocos (Keeling) Islands +Colombo [US Embassy] Sri Lanka +Colon [US Consular Agency] Panama +Colon, Archipielago de Ecuador + (Galapagos Islands) +Commander Islands Russia + (Komandorskiye Ostrova) +Conakry [US Embassy] Guinea +Congo (Brazzaville) Congo +Congo (Kinshasa) Zaire +Congo (Leopoldville) Zaire +Con Son Islands Vietnam +Cook Strait Pacific Ocean +Copenhagen [US Embassy] Denmark +Coral Sea Pacific Ocean +Corn Islands (Islas del Maiz) Nicaragua +Corsica France +Cosmoledo Group Seychelles +Cote d'Ivoire Ivory Coast +Cotonou [US Embassy] Benin +Crete Greece +Crooked Island Passage Atlantic Ocean +Crozet Islands (Iles Crozet) French Southern and Antarctic Lands +Curacao [US Consulate General] Netherlands Antilles +Cusco [US Consular Agency] Peru + +Dahomey Benin +Daito Islands Japan +Dakar [US Embassy] Senegal +Daman (Damao) India +Damascus [US Embassy] Syria +Danger Atoll Cook Islands +Danish Straits Atlantic Ocean +Danzig (Gdansk) Poland +Dao Bach Long Vi Vietnam +Dardanelles Atlantic Ocean +Dar es Salaam [US Embassy] Tanzania +Davis Strait Atlantic Ocean +Deception Island Antarctica +Denmark Strait Atlantic Ocean +D'Entrecasteaux Islands Papua New Guinea +Devon Island Canada +Dhahran [US Consulate General] Saudi Arabia +Dhaka [US Embassy] Bangladesh +Diego Garcia British Indian Ocean Territory +Diego Ramirez Chile +Diomede Islands Russia [Big Diomede]; United States + [Little Diomede] +Diu India +Djibouti [US Embassy] Djibouti +Dodecanese Greece +Doha [US Embassy] Qatar +Douala [US Consulate General] Cameroon +Dover, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Drake Passage Atlantic Ocean +Dubai [US Consulate General] United Arab Emirates +Dublin [US Embassy] Ireland +Durango [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Durban [US Consulate General] South Africa +Dushanbe Tajikistan +Dusseldorf [US Consulate General] Germany +Dutch East Indies Indonesia +Dutch Guiana Suriname + +East China Sea Pacific Ocean +Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) Chile +Eastern Channel (East Korea Pacific Ocean + Strait or Tsushima Strait) +East Germany (German Democratic Germany + Republic) +East Korea Strait (Eastern Pacific Ocean + Channel or Tsushima Strait) +East Pakistan Bangladesh +East Siberian Sea Arctic Ocean +East Timor (Portuguese Timor) Indonesia +Edinburgh [US Consulate General] United Kingdom +Elba Italy +Ellef Ringnes Island Canada +Ellesmere Island Canada +Ellice Islands Tuvalu +Elobey, Islas de Equatorial Guinea +Enderbury Island Kiribati +Enewetak Atoll (Eniwetok Atoll) Marshall Islands +England United Kingdom +English Channel Atlantic Ocean +Eniwetok Atoll Marshall Islands +Epirus, Northern Albania; Greece +Eritrea Ethiopia +Essequibo [claimed by Venezuela] Guyana +Etorofu Russia[de facto] + +Farquhar Group Seychelles +Fernando de Noronha Brazil +Fernando Po (Bioko) Equatorial Guinea +Finland, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Florence [US Consulate General] Italy +Florida, Straits of Atlantic Ocean +Formosa Taiwan +Formosa Strait (Taiwan Strait) Pacific Ocean +Fort-de-France Martinique + [US Consulate General] +Frankfurt am Main Germany + [US Consulate General] +Franz Josef Land Russia +Freetown [US Embassy] Sierra Leone +French Cameroon Cameroon +French Indochina Cambodia; Laos; Vietnam +French Guinea Guinea +French Sudan Mali +French Territory of the Afars Djibouti + and Issas (F.T.A.I.) +French Togo Togo +Friendly Islands Tonga +Frunze (Bishkek) Kyrgyzstan +Fukuoka [US Consulate] Japan +Funchal [US Consular Agency] Portugal +Fundy, Bay of Atlantic Ocean +Futuna Islands (Hoorn Islands) Wallis and Futuna + +Gaborone [US Embassy] Botswana +Galapagos Islands (Archipielago Ecuador + de Colon) +Galleons Passage Atlantic Ocean +Gambier Islands (Iles Gambier) French Polynesia +Gaspar Strait Indian Ocean +Geneva [Branch Office of the US Switzerland + Embassy, US Mission to European + Office of the UN and Other + International Organizations] +Genoa [US Consulate General] Italy +George Town [US Consular Agency] Cayman Islands +Georgetown [US Embassy] Guyana +German Democratic Republic Germany + (East Germany) +German Federal Republic of Germany + (West Germany) +Gibraltar, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Gilbert Islands Kiribati +Goa India +Gold Coast Ghana +Golan Heights Syria +Good Hope, Cape of South Africa +Goteborg [US Consulate General] Sweden +Gotland Sweden +Gough Island Saint Helena +Grand Banks Atlantic Ocean +Grand Cayman Cayman Islands +Grand Turk [US Consular Agency] Turks and Caicos Islands +Great Australian Bight Indian Ocean +Great Belt (Store Baelt) Atlantic Ocean +Great Britain United Kingdom +Great Channel Indian Ocean +Greater Sunda Islands Brunei; Indonesia; Malaysia +Green Islands Papua New Guinea +Greenland Sea Arctic Ocean +Grenadines, Northern Saint Vincent and the Grenadines +Grenadines, Southern Grenada +Guadalajara Mexico + [US Consulate General] +Guadalcanal Solomon Islands +Guadalupe, Isla de Mexico +Guangzhou [US Consulate General] China +Guantanamo [US Naval Base] Cuba +Guatemala [US Embassy] Guatemala +Gubal, Strait of Indian Ocean +Guinea, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Guayaquil [US Consulate General] Ecuador + +Ha'apai Group Tonga +Habomai Islands Russia[de facto] +Hague,The [US Embassy] Netherlands +Haifa [US Consular Agency] Israel +Hainan Dao China +Halifax [US Consulate General] Canada +Halmahera Indonesia +Hamburg [US Consulate General] Germany +Hamilton [US Consulate General] Bermuda +Hanoi Vietnam +Harare [US Embassy] Zimbabwe +Hatay Turkey +Havana [US post not maintained, Cuba + representation by US Interests + Section (USINT) of the Swiss + Embassy] +Hawaii United States +Heard Island Heard Island and McDonald Islands +Helsinki [US Embassy] Finland +Hermosillo [US Consulate] Mexico +Hispaniola Dominican Republic; Haiti +Hokkaido Japan +Holy See, The Vatican City +Hong Kong [US Consulate General] Hong Kong +Honiara [US Consulate] Solomon Islands +Honshu Japan +Hormuz, Strait of Indian Ocean +Horn, Cape (Cabo de Hornos) Chile +Horne, Iles de Wallis and Futuna +Horn of Africa Ethiopia; Somalia +Hudson Bay Arctic Ocean +Hudson Strait Arctic Ocean + +Inaccessible Island Saint Helena +Indochina Cambodia; Laos; Vietnam +Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol) China +Ionian Islands Greece +Ionian Sea Atlantic Ocean +Irian Jaya Indonesia +Irish Sea Atlantic Ocean +Islamabad [US Embassy] Pakistan +Islas Malvinas Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Istanbul [US Consulate General] Turkey +Italian Somaliland Somalia +Iwo Jima Japan +Izmir [US Consulate General] Turkey + +Jakarta [US Embassy] Indonesia +Japan, Sea of Pacific Ocean +Java Indonesia +Java Sea Indian Ocean +Jeddah [US Consulate General] Saudi Arabia +Jerusalem [US Consulate General] Israel; West Bank +Johannesburg South Africa + [US Consulate General] +Juan de Fuca, Strait of Pacific Ocean +Juan Fernandez, Isla de Chile +Juventud, Isla de la Cuba + (Isle of Youth) + +Kabul [US Embassy now closed] Afghanistan +Kaduna [US Consulate General] Nigeria +Kalimantan Indonesia +Kamchatka Peninsula Russia + (Poluostrov Kamchatka) +Kampala [US Embassy] Uganda +Kampuchea Cambodia +Karachi [US Consulate General] Pakistan +Kara Sea Arctic Ocean +Karimata Strait Indian Ocean +Kathmandu [US Embassy] Nepal +Kattegat Atlantic Ocean +Kauai Channel Pacific Ocean +Keeling Islands Cocos (Keeling) Islands +Kerguelen, Iles French Southern and Antarctic Lands +Kermadec Islands New Zealand +Khabarovsk Russia +Khartoum [US Embassy] Sudan +Khmer Republic Cambodia +Khuriya Muriya Islands Oman + (Kuria Muria Islands) +Khyber Pass Pakistan +Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee Kanal) Atlantic Ocean +Kiev [Chancery] Ukraine +Kigali [US Embassy] Rwanda +Kingston [US Embassy] Jamaica +Kinshasa [US Embassy] Zaire +Kirghiziya Kyrgyzstan +Kiritimati (Christmas Island) Kiribati +Kishinev (Chicsinau) Moldova +Kithira Strait Atlantic Ocean +Kodiak Island United States +Kola Peninsula Russia + (Kol'skiy Poluostrov) +Kolonia [US Special Office] Micronesia, Federated States of +Korea Bay Pacific Ocean +Korea, Democratic People's Korea, North + Republic of +Korea, Republic of Korea, South +Korea Strait Pacific Ocean +Koror [US Special Office] Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of +Kosovo Yugoslavia +Kowloon Hong Kong +Krakow [US Consulate] Poland +Kuala Lumpur [US Embassy] Malaysia +Kunashiri (Kunashir) Russia [de facto] +Kuril Islands Russia [de facto] +Kuwait [US Embassy] Kuwait +Kwajalein Atoll Marshall Islands +Kyushu Japan +Kyyiv (Kiev) Ukraine + +Labrador Canada +Laccadive Islands India +Laccadive Sea Indian Ocean +La Coruna [US Consular Agency] Spain +Lagos [US Embassy] Nigeria +Lahore [US Consulate General] Pakistan +Lakshadweep India +La Paz [US Embassy] Bolivia +La Perouse Strait Pacific Ocean +Laptev Sea Arctic Ocean +Las Palmas [US Consular Agency] Spain +Lau Group Fiji +Leningrad see Saint Petersburg Russia + [US Consulate General] +Lesser Sunda Islands Indonesia +Leyte Philippines +Liancourt Rocks Korea, South + [claimed by Japan] +Libreville [US Embassy] Gabon +Ligurian Sea Atlantic Ocean +Lilongwe [US Embassy] Malawi +Lima [US Embassy] Peru +Lincoln Sea Arctic Ocean +Line Islands Kiribati; Palmyra Atoll +Lisbon [US Embassy] Portugal +Lombok Strait Indian Ocean +Lome [US Embassy] Togo +London [US Embassy] United Kingdom +Lord Howe Island Australia +Louisiade Archipelago Papua New Guinea +Loyalty Islands (Iles Loyaute) New Caledonia +Lubumbashi [US Consulate General] Zaire +Lusaka [US Embassy] Zambia +Luxembourg [US Embassy] Luxembourg +Luzon Philippines +Luzon Strait Pacific Ocean +Lyon [US Consulate General] France + +Macao Macau +Macedonia Bulgaria +Macquarie Island Australia +Madeira Islands Portugal +Madras [US Consulate General] India +Madrid [US Embassy] Spain +Magellan, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Maghreb Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, + Tunisia +Mahe Island Seychelles +Maiz, Islas del (Corn Islands) Nicaragua +Majorca (Mallorca) Spain +Majuro [US Special Office] Marshall Islands +Makassar Strait Pacific Ocean +Malabo [US Embassy] Equatorial Guinea +Malacca, Strait of Indian Ocean +Malaga [US Consular Agency] Spain +Malagasy Republic Madagascar +Male [US post not maintained, Maldives + representation from Colombo, + Sri Lanka] +Mallorca (Majorca) Spain +Malpelo, Isla de Colombia +Malta Channel Atlantic Ocean +Malvinas, Islas Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Managua [US Embassy] Nicaragua +Manama [US Embassy] Bahrain +Manaus [US Consular Agency] Brazil +Manchukuo China +Manchuria China +Manila [US Embassy] Philippines +Manipa Strait Pacific Ocean +Mannar, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Manua Islands American Samoa +Maputo [US Embassy] Mozambique +Maracaibo [US Consulate] Venezuela +Marcus Island (Minami-tori-shima) Japan +Mariana Islands Guam; Northern Mariana Islands +Marion Island South Africa +Marmara, Sea of Atlantic Ocean +Marquesas Islands French Polynesia + (Iles Marquises) +Marseille [US Consulate General] France +Martin Vaz, Ilhas Brazil +Mas a Tierra Chile + (Robinson Crusoe Island) +Mascarene Islands Mauritius; Reunion +Maseru [US Embassy] Lesotho +Matamoros [US Consulate] Mexico +Mazatlan [US Consulate] Mexico +Mbabane [US Embassy] Swaziland +McDonald Islands Heard Island and McDonald Islands +Medan [US Consulate] Indonesia +Mediterranean Sea Atlantic Ocean +Melbourne [US Consulate General] Australia +Melilla Spain +Mensk (Minsk) Belarus +Merida [US Consulate] Mexico +Messina, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Mexico [US Embassy] Mexico +Mexico, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Milan [US Consulate General] Italy +Minami-tori-shima Japan +Mindanao Philippines +Mindoro Strait Pacific Ocean +Minicoy Island India +Minsk Byelarus +Mogadishu [US Embassy] Somalia +Moldovia Moldova +Mombasa [US Consulate] Kenya +Mona Passage Atlantic Ocean +Monrovia [US Embassy] Liberia +Montego Bay [US Consular Agency] Jamaica +Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro +Monterrey [US Consulate General] Mexico +Montevideo [US Embassy] Uruguay +Montreal [US Consulate General, Canada + US Mission to the International + Civil Aviation Organization + (ICAO)] +Moravian Gate Czechoslovakia +Moroni [US Embassy] Comoros +Mortlock Islands Micronesia, Federated States of +Moscow [US Embassy] Russia +Mozambique Channel Indian Ocean +Mulege [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Munich [US Consulate General] Germany +Musandam Peninsula Oman; United Arab Emirates +Muscat [US Embassy] Oman +Muscat and Oman Oman +Myanma, Myanmar Burma + +Naha [US Consulate General] Japan +Nairobi [US Embassy] Kenya +Nampo-shoto Japan +Naples [US Consulate General] Italy +Nassau [US Embassy] Bahamas, The +Natuna Besar Islands Indonesia +N'Djamena [US Embassy] Chad +Netherlands East Indies Indonesia +Netherlands Guiana Suriname +Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis +New Delhi [US Embassy] India +Newfoundland Canada +New Guinea Indonesia; Papua New Guinea +New Hebrides Vanuatu +New Siberian Islands Russia +New Territories Hong Kong +New York, New York [US Mission United States + to the United Nations (USUN)] +Niamey [US Embassy] Niger +Nice [US Consular Agency] France +Nicobar Islands India +Nicosia [US Embassy] Cyprus +Nightingale Island Saint Helena +North Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean +North Channel Atlantic Ocean +Northeast Providence Channel Atlantic Ocean +Northern Epirus Albania; Greece +Northern Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines +Northern Ireland United Kingdom +Northern Rhodesia Zambia +North Island New Zealand +North Korea Korea, North +North Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean +North Sea Atlantic Ocean +North Vietnam Vietnam +Northwest Passages Arctic Ocean +North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) Yemen +Norwegian Sea Atlantic Ocean +Nouakchott [US Embassy] Mauritania +Novaya Zemlya Russia +Nuevo Laredo [US Consulate] Mexico +Nyasaland Malawi + +Oahu United States +Oaxaca [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Ocean Island (Banaba) Kiribati +Ocean Island (Kure Island) United States +Ogaden Ethiopia; Somalia +Oil Islands (Chagos Archipelago) British Indian Ocean Territory +Okhotsk, Sea of Pacific Ocean +Okinawa Japan +Oman, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Ombai Strait Pacific Ocean +Oporto [US Consulate] Portugal +Oran [US Consulate] Algeria +Oresund (The Sound) Atlantic Ocean +Orkney Islands United Kingdom +Osaka-Kobe [US Consulate General] Japan +Oslo [US Embassy] Norway +Otranto, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Ottawa [US Embassy] Canada +Ouagadougou [US Embassy] Burkina +Outer Mongolia Mongolia + +Pagan Northern Mariana Islands +Palau Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the +Palawan Philippines +Palermo [US Consulate General] Italy +Palk Strait Indian Ocean +Palma de Mallorca Spain + [US Consular Agency] +Pamirs China; Tajikistan +Panama [US Embassy] Panama +Panama Canal Panama +Panama, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Paramaribo [US Embassy] Suriname +Parece Vela Japan +Paris [US Embassy, US Mission to France + the Organization for Economic + Cooperation and Development + (OECD), US Observer Mission at + the UN Educational, Scientific, + and Cultural Organization + (UNESCO)] +Pascua, Isla de (Easter Island) Chile +Passion, Ile de la Clipperton Island +Pashtunistan Afghanistan; Pakistan +Peking (Beijing) China +Pemba Island Tanzania +Pentland Firth Atlantic Ocean +Perim Yemen +Perouse Strait, La Pacific Ocean +Persian Gulf Indian Ocean +Perth [US Consulate] Australia +Pescadores Taiwan +Peshawar [US Consulate] Pakistan +Peter I Island Antarctica +Philip Island Norfolk Island +Philippine Sea Pacific Ocean +Phoenix Islands Kiribati +Pines, Isle of Cuba + (Isla de la Juventud) +Piura [US Consular Agency] Peru +Pleasant Island Nauru +Ponape (Pohnpei) Micronesia +Ponta Delgada [US Consulate] Portugal +Port-au-Prince [US Embassy] Haiti +Port Louis [US Embassy] Mauritius +Port Moresby [US Embassy] Papua New Guinea +Porto Alegre [US Consulate] Brazil +Port-of-Spain [US Embassy] Trinidad and Tobago +Port Said [US Consular Agency] Egypt +Portuguese Guinea Guinea-Bissau +Portuguese Timor (East Timor) Indonesia +Poznan [US Consulate] Poland +Prague [US Embassy] Czechoslovakia +Praia [US Embassy] Cape Verde +Pretoria [US Embassy] South Africa +Pribilof Islands United States +Prince Edward Island Canada +Prince Edward Islands South Africa +Prince Patrick Island Canada +Principe Sao Tome and Principe +Puerto Plata [US Consular Agency] Dominican Republic +Puerto Vallarta Mexico + [US Consular Agency] +Pusan [US Consulate] South Korea +P'yongyang Korea, North + +Quebec [US Consulate General] Canada +Queen Charlotte Islands Canada +Queen Elizabeth Islands Canada +Queen Maud Land Antarctica + [claimed by Norway] +Quito [US Embassy] Ecuador + +Rabat [US Embassy] Morocco +Ralik Chain Marshall Islands +Rangoon [US Embassy] Burma +Ratak Chain Marshall Islands +Recife [US Consulate] Brazil +Redonda Antigua and Barbuda +Red Sea Indian Ocean +Revillagigedo Island United States +Revillagigedo Islands Mexico +Reykjavik [US Embassy] Iceland +Rhodes Greece +Rhodesia Zimbabwe +Rhodesia, Northern Zambia +Rhodesia, Southern Zimbabwe +Riga [Interim Chancery] Latvia +Rio de Janeiro Brazil + [US Consulate General] +Rio de Oro Western Sahara +Rio Muni Equatorial Guinea +Riyadh [US Embassy] Saudi Arabia +Robinson Crusoe Island Chile + (Mas a Tierra) +Rocas, Atol das Brazil +Rockall [disputed] United Kingdom +Rodrigues Mauritius +Rome [US Embassy, US Mission to Italy + the UN Agencies for Food and + Agriculture (FODAG)] +Roncador Cay Colombia +Roosevelt Island Antarctica +Ross Dependency Antarctica + [claimed by New Zealand] +Ross Island Antarctica +Ross Sea Antarctica +Rota Northern Mariana Islands +Rotuma Fiji +Ryukyu Islands Japan + +Saba Netherlands Antilles +Sabah Malaysia +Sable Island Canada +Sahel Burkina; Cape Verde; Chad; The Gambia; + Guinea-Bissau; Mali; Mauritania; + Niger; Senegal +Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) Vietnam +Saint Brandon Mauritius +Saint Christopher and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis +Saint George's [US Embassy] Grenada +Saint George's Channel Atlantic Ocean +Saint John's [US Embassy] Antigua and Barbuda +Saint Lawrence, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Saint Lawrence Island United States +Saint Lawrence Seaway Atlantic Ocean +Saint Martin Guadeloupe +Saint Martin (Sint Maarten) Netherlands Antilles +Saint Paul Island Canada +Saint Paul Island United States +Saint Paul Island French Southern and Antarctic Lands + (Ile Saint-Paul) +Saint Peter and Saint Paul Rocks Brazil + (Penedos de Sao Pedro e + Sao Paulo) +Saint Petersburg Russia + [US Consulate General] +Saint Vincent Passage Atlantic Ocean +Saipan Northern Mariana Islands +Sakhalin Island (Ostrov Sakhalin) Russia +Sala y Gomez, Isla Chile +Salisbury (Harare) Zimbabwe +Salvador de Bahia Brazil + [US Consular Agency] +Salzburg [US Consulate General] Austria +Sanaa [US Embassy] Yemen +San Ambrosio Chile +San Andres y Providencia, Colombia + Archipielago +San Bernardino Strait Pacific Ocean +San Felix, Isla Chile +San Jose [US Embassy] Costa Rica +San Luis Potosi Mexico + [US Consular Agency] +San Miguel Allende Mexico + [US Consular Agency] +San Salvador [US Embassy] El Salvador +Santa Cruz [US Consular Agency] Bolivia +Santa Cruz Islands Solomon Islands +Santiago [US Embassy] Chile +Santo Domingo [US Embassy] Dominican Republic +Sao Luis [US Consular Agency] Brazil +Sao Paulo [US Consulate General] Brazil +Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo, Brazil + Penedos de +Sapporo [US Consulate General] Japan +Sapudi Strait Indian Ocean +Sarawak Malaysia +Sardinia Italy +Sargasso Sea Atlantic Ocean +Sark Guernsey +Scotia Sea Atlantic Ocean +Scotland United Kingdom +Scott Island Antarctica +Senyavin Islands Micronesia, Federated States of +Seoul [US Embassy] Korea, South +Serbia Serbia and Montenegro +Serrana Bank Colombia +Serranilla Bank Colombia +Severnaya Zemlya (Northland) Russia +Seville [US Consular Agency] Spain +Shag Island Heard Island and McDonald Islands +Shag Rocks Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Shanghai [US Consulate General] China +Shenyang [US Consulate General] China +Shetland Islands United Kingdom +Shikoku Japan +Shikotan (Shikotan-to) Japan +Siam Thailand +Sibutu Passage Pacific Ocean +Sicily Italy +Sicily, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Sikkim India +Sinai Egypt +Singapore [US Embassy] Singapore +Singapore Strait Pacific Ocean +Sinkiang (Xinjiang) China +Sint Eustatius Netherlands Antilles +Sint Maarten (Saint Martin) Netherlands Antilles +Skagerrak Atlantic Ocean +Slovakia Czechoslovakia +Society Islands French Polynesia + (Iles de la Societe) +Socotra Yemen +Sofia [US Embassy] Bulgaria +Solomon Islands, northern Papua New Guinea +Solomon Islands, southern Solomon Islands +Soloman Sea Pacific Ocean +Songkhla [US Consulate] Thailand +Sound, The (Oresund) Atlantic Ocean +South Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean +South China Sea Pacific Ocean +Southern Grenadines Grenada +Southern Rhodesia Zimbabwe +South Georgia South Georgia and the South + Sandwich Islands +South Island New Zealand +South Korea Korea, South +South Orkney Islands Antarctica +South Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean +South Sandwich Islands South Georgia and the South + Sandwich Islands +South Shetland Islands Antarctica +South Tyrol Italy +South Vietnam Vietnam +South-West Africa Namibia +South Yemen (People's Democratic Yemen + Republic of Yemen) +Soviet Union Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelarus, Estonia, + Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, + Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, + Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, + Uzbekistan +Spanish Guinea Equatorial Guinea +Spanish Sahara Western Sahara +Spitsbergen Svalbard +Stockholm [US Embassy] Sweden +Strasbourg [US Consulate General] France +Stuttgart [US Consulate General] Germany +Suez, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Sulu Archipelago Philippines +Sulu Sea Pacific Ocean +Sumatra Indonesia +Sumba Indonesia +Sunda Islands (Soenda Isles) Indonesia; Malaysia +Sunda Strait Indian Ocean +Surabaya [US Consulate] Indonesia +Surigao Strait Pacific Ocean +Surinam Suriname +Suva [US Embassy] Fiji +Swains Island American Samoa +Swan Islands Honduras +Sydney [US Consulate General] Australia + +Tahiti French Polynesia +Taipei Taiwan +Taiwan Strait Pacific Ocean +Tallin [Interim Chancery] Estonia +Tampico [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Tanganyika Tanzania +Tangier [US Consulate General] Morocco +Tarawa Kiribati +Tartar Strait Pacific Ocean +Tashkent [Interim Chancery] Uzbekistan +Tasmania Australia +Tasman Sea Pacific Ocean +Taymyr Peninsula Russia + (Poluostrov Taymyra) +Tegucigalpa [US Embassy] Honduras +Tehran [US post not maintained, Iran + representation by Swiss Embassy] +Tel Aviv [US Embassy] Israel +Terre Adelie (Adelie Land) Antarctica + [claimed by France] +Thailand, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Thessaloniki Greece + [US Consulate General] +Thurston Island Antarctica +Tibet (Xizang) China +Tbilisi Georgia +Tierra del Fuego Argentina; Chile +Tijuana [US Consulate General] Mexico +Timor Indonesia +Timor Sea Indian Ocean +Tinian Northern Mariana Islands +Tiran, Strait of Indian Ocean +Tobago Trinidad and Tobago +Tokyo [US Embassy] Japan +Tonkin, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Toronto [US Consulate General] Canada +Torres Strait Pacific Ocean +Toshkent (Tashkent) Uzbekistan +Trans-Jordan Jordan +Transkei South Africa +Transylvania Romania +Trieste [US Consular Agency] Italy +Trindade, Ilha de Brazil +Tripoli [US post not maintained, Libya + representation by Belgian + Embassy] +Tristan da Cunha Group Saint Helena +Trobriand Islands Papua New Guinea +Trucial States United Arab Emirates +Truk Islands Micronesia +Tsugaru Strait Pacific Ocean +Tuamotu Islands (Iles Tuamotu) French Polynesia +Tubuai Islands (Iles Tubuai) French Polynesia +Tunis [US Embassy] Tunisia +Turin [US Consulate] Italy +Turkish Straits Atlantic Ocean +Turkmeniya Turkmenistan +Turks Island Passage Atlantic Ocean +Tyrol, South Italy +Tyrrhenian Sea Atlantic Ocean + +Udorn [US Consulate] Thailand +Ulaanbaatar Mongolia +Ullung-do Korea, South +Unimak Pass [strait] Pacific Ocean +Union of Soviet Socialist Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelarus, Estonia, + Republics Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, + Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, + Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, + Uzbekistan +United Arab Republic Egypt; Syria +Upper Volta Burkina +USSR Armenia, Azerbaijan, Byelarus, Estonia, + Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, + Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, + Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, + Uzbekistan +Vaduz [US post not maintained, Liechtenstein + representation from Zurich, + Switzerland] +Vakhan Corridor (Wakhan) Afghanistan +Valencia [US Consular Agency] Spain +Valletta [US Embassy] Malta +Vancouver [US Consulate General] Canada +Vancouver Island Canada +Van Diemen Strait Pacific Ocean +Vatican City [US Embassy] Vatican City +Velez de la Gomera, Penon de Spain +Venda South Africa +Veracruz [US Consular Agency] Mexico +Verde Island Passage Pacific Ocean +Victoria [US Embassy] Seychelles +Vienna [US Embassy, US Mission Austria + to International Organizations + in Vienna (UNVIE)] +Vientiane [US Embassy] Laos +Vilnius [Interim Chancery] Lithuania +Volcano Islands Japan +Vostok Island Kiribati +Vrangelya, Ostrov Russia + (Wrangel Island) + +Wakhan Corridor Afghanistan + (now Vakhan Corridor) +Wales United Kingdom +Walvis Bay South Africa +Warsaw [US Embassy] Poland +Washington, DC [The Permanent United States + Mission of the USA to the + Organization of American + States (OAS)] +Weddell Sea Atlantic Ocean +Wellington [US Embassy] New Zealand +Western Channel Pacific Ocean + (West Korea Strait) +West Germany (Federal Republic Germany + of Germany) +West Korea Strait Pacific Ocean + (Western Channel) +West Pakistan Pakistan +Wetar Strait Pacific Ocean +White Sea Arctic Ocean +Windhoek Namibia +Windward Passage Atlantic Ocean +Winnipeg [US Consular Agency] Canada +Wrangel Island (Ostrov Vrangelya) Russia [de facto] + +Yaounde [US Embassy] Cameroon +Yap Islands Micronesia +Yellow Sea Pacific Ocean +Yemen (Aden) [People's Democratic Yemen + Republic of Yemen] +Yemen Arab Republic Yemen +Yemen, North [Yemen Arab Yemen + Republic] +Yemen (Sanaa) [Yemen Arab Yemen + Republic] +Yemen, People's Democratic Yemen + Republic of +Yemen, South [People's Democratic Yemen + Republic of Yemen] +Yerevan Armenia +Youth, Isle of Cuba + (Isla de la Juventud) +Yucatan Channel Atlantic Ocean +Yugoslavia Bosnia and Hercegovina; Croatia; + Macedonia; Serbia and Montenegro; + Slovenia + +Zagreb [US Consulate General] Yugoslavia +Zanzibar Tanzania +Zurich [US Consulate General] Switzerland + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/arabs.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/arabs.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bd2c4f4e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/arabs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,364 @@ + + A HISTORY OF THE ARAB PEOPLES OF THE MIDEAST + +ARABS + +The term Arabs refers to the people who speak Arabic as their +native language. A Semitic people like the Jews (see SEMITES), +Arabs form the bulk of the population of Algeria, Bahrain, +Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, +Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab +Emirates, Yemen (Aden), and Yemen (Sana). In addition, there +are about 1.7 million Palestinian Arabs living under Israeli +rule in the WEST BANK and GAZA STRIP, territories occupied by +Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (see ARAB-ISRAELI +WARS), and more than 700,000 Arab citizens of Israel. +Estimates of the total Arab population of the countries above +range from 175 to 200 million. The great majority of Arabs are +Muslims, but there are significant numbers of Christian Arabs +in Egypt (see COPTIC CHURCH), Lebanon, and Syria and among +Palestinians. In geographical terms the Arab world includes +North Africa and most of the Middle East (excluding Turkey, +Israel, and Iran), a region that has been a center of +civilization and crossroads of trade since prehistoric times. + +ARAB HISTORY + +References to Arabs as nomads and camel herders of northern +ARABIA appear in Assyrian inscriptions of the 9th century BC. +The name was subsequently applied to all inhabitants of the +Arabian peninsula. From time to time Arab kingdoms arose +across on the fringes of the desert, including the Nabataeans +at PETRA in southern Jordan in the 2d century BC and PALMYRA in +central Syria in the 3d century AD, but no great Arab empire +emerged until ISLAM appeared in the 7th century AD and provided a +basis for Arab tribal unity. + +Although a majority of Muslims today are not Arabs, the +religion was born in the Arabian peninsula and Arabic is its +mother tongue. MECCA, a place of religious pilgrimage for +tribes of western Arabia and a trading center on the route +between southern Arabia and the urban civilizations of the +eastern Mediterranean and Iraq, was the birthplace of the +prophet of Islam, MUHAMMAD Ibn Abdullah (c.570-632 AD); the +Muslim calendar begins with his flight to MEDINA in 622 because +it marked the founding of a separate Muslim community. By the +time of Muhammad's death, Mecca and nearly all the tribes of +the peninsula had accepted Islam. A century later the lands of +Islam, under Arab leadership, stretched from Spain in the west +across North Africa and most of the modern Middle East into +Central Asia and northern India. + +There were tow great Islamic dynasties of Arab origin, the +UMAYYADS (661-750), centered in Damascus, and the ABBASIDS +(750-1258), whose capital was Baghdad. Most Umayyad rulers +insisted on Arab primacy over non-Arab converts to Islam, while +the Abbasid caliphs (see CALIPHATE) accepted the principle of +Arab and non-Arab equality as Muslims. At its height in the +8th and 9th centuries, the Abbasid caliphate was +extraordinarily wealthy, dominating trade routes between Asia +and Europe. Islamic civilization flourished during the Abbasid +period (see ARABIC LITERATURE; ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE) +even though the political unity of the caliphate often +shattered into rival dynasties. Greek philosophy was +translated into Arabic and contributed to the expansion of +Arab-Persian Islamic scholarship. Islamic treatises on +medicine, philosophy, and science, including Arabic translation +of Plato and Aristotle, greatly influenced Christian thinkers +in Europe in the 12th century by way of Muslim Spain. The +power of the Arab Abbasid family declined from the 10th century +onward due to internal political and religious rivalries and +victories by Christian European Crusaders (see CRUSADES; +MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY OF THE) seeking to recapture territory +lost to Islam. The Mongol invasion of the 13th century +(see MONGOLS) led to the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate in +1258 and opened the way for the eventual rise of a great +Turkish Muslim empire known as the OTTOMAN EMPIRE. The +Ottomans took Constantinople (Istanbul) from the Byzantines in +1453 and had taken control of the Arab Middle East and most of +North Africa by the end of the 16th century. Arabs remained +subjects of the Ottoman Turks for over 300 years. +The Arab world of today is the product of Ottoman decline, +European colonialism, and Arab demands for freedom from +European occupation. At the beginning of World War I all of +North Africa was under French (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco), +Italian (Libya), or British (Egypt) domination. After World +War I the League of Nations divided the Arab lands that had +remained Ottoman during the war between Britain and France with +the understanding that each power would encourage the +development of the peoples of the region toward self-rule. +Iraq and PALESTINE (including what is now Jordan) went to +Britain, and Syria and Lebanon to France. Britain had +suggested to Arab leaders during the war that Palestine would +be included in areas to be given Arab self-determination, but +British officials then promised the region to the Zionist +movement, which called for a Jewish state there (see ZIONISM). +The Arab lands gained their independence in stages after World +War II, sometimes, as in Algeria, after long and bitter +struggles. Much of Palestine became the state of Israel in May +1948, setting the stage for the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which +five wars have occurred (1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982), +and contributing to the rise of the PALESTINE LIBERATION +ORGANIZATION (PLO), which gained prominence after the +humiliating Arab losses in the 1967 war. + +PEOPLE AND ECONOMY + +Arabs have traditionally been considered nomads, epitomized by +the BEDOUIN of Arabia. Stereotypical portrayals of Arabs today +use the image of the nomad or tribal sheik, usually with +prejudicial intent. In fact, it is difficult to generalize +about Arabs in terms of appearance or way of life. Bedouins +are less than 10 percent of the total Arab population. Most +Arab societies are heavily urbanized, particularly the oil-rich +states of the Arabian Peninsula. This reversal of the +stereotype of the desert Arab owes much to the fact that there +is little if any agriculture in such societies. Major peasant +populations are found in countries such as Egypt (see +FELLAHIN), Syria, Algeria, and Iraq, where there is water for +irrigation, but even there generalizations are difficult. All +these nations have heavy urban concentrations; Cairo, for +example, has a population of 14 million and is still expanding. +As a whole, then, Arab society today is more heavily urban than +rural, as a result of major political, economic, and social +changes that have occurred in the last century. In addition, +there are important variations in political and religious +outlooks among Arabs. + +In the midst of such diversity the two basic elements uniting +most Arabs are the Arabic language and Islam. Though spoken +Arabic differs from country to country, the written language +forms a cultural basis for all Arabs. Islam does the same for +many, with Arabic being the language of the KORAN, the revealed +word of God delivered through the prophet Muhammad. Most Arabs +are Sunni Muslims (see SUNNITES). A minority are SHIITES. The +division of Islam into two main branches is the result of a +dispute over succession to the caliphate that goes back to the +7th century and has led to certain doctrinal differences +between the two branches. The major Shiite country is non-Arab +Iran, but there are large numbers of Shiites in Iraq (where +they form a majority) and in Lebanon (where Shiites are now the +biggest single religious group). Shiite tensions are due +partly to Iranian efforts to promote Shiite Islam in the +aftermath of the 1979 revolution that brought Ayatollah +Ruhollah KHOMEINI to power and partly to the fact that Shiites, +who form the economic underclass in many Arab nations, feel +that they have been discriminated against by the Sunnite +majority. + +Although traditional tribal life has nearly disappeared, tribal +values and identity retain some importance, especially when +linked to Islam. Descent from the clan of the prophet Muhammad +or from one of the first Arab tribes to accept Islam still +carries great prestige. Many villages and towns contain +prominent families with common links to tribal ancestors. +Blood ties contribute to the formation of political factions. +These types of relationships are less prevalent in cities; +even there, however, leading families may seek to intermarry +their children to preserve traditional bonds, and many urban +families retain patronage ties to their villages. + +Nevertheless, the importance of kinship has been weakened by +the rapid expansion of urban society, by modern educational +systems, and by the creation of centralized governments whose +bureaucracies are often the major source of employment for +university graduates. Many educated young people choose +spouses from among fellow classmates, a development that +reflects especially the expansion of educational and +professional opportunities for women. It is not uncommon for +young people to become engaged and then wait a year or two to +marry because they cannot find or afford suitable housing +immediately. In the past the bride would have become part of +the husband's family household, a custom still followed in many +villages. + +This rapid pace of urbanization and social change has been +encouraged by economic constraints found in many Arab +societies. Except for oil, there are few natural resources to +be exploited for industrial development. Agricultural +productivity is generally high in Arab countries, but +productive land is scarce in some regions because of the lack +of water, and droughts and rising demand have increased the +possibility of conflicts over water resources shared by +neighboring countries. Fewer opportunities in agriculture, +coupled with social modernization, have caused young people to +flock to major cities seeking education and employment. This +has placed serious strains on governmental abilities to respond +to social needs. + +This process has been exacerbated by another factor--the rapid +rate of population growth in many Arab countries. Most have a +rate of increase near 3% annually, as compared to rates of +growth in Western Europe of under 1%. These growth rates +reflect the impact of modern medicine and social services that +have lessened infant mortality. The tendency to smaller +families found in Western urban societies has not occurred +because of the prevalence of traditional attitudes favoring +large families, particularly among the poor and in areas where +tribal values prevail. The United Arab Emirates has a growth +rate approaching 9%, and even a rate of 2.7% for Egypt means +that a million Egyptians are born every 9 months in a country +where agricultural land comprises only 12% of the total land +area, forcing further urban congestion and the need to import +more food to maintain subsistence levels. This inability to +feed one's population from indigenous resources leads to +increased indebtedness and a diversion of funds needed for +development. +One final element in this equation is the large number of young +people in these expanding populations. For example, 6% of all +Tunisians are under 20 years of age, a not unrepresentative +statistic suggesting that future problems of unemployment and +food shortages will be greater than they are now. These +population indices suggest great potential for social unrest, +and the failure of many secular Arab regimes to fulfill their +promises of economic prosperity and national strength have +contributed to the increasing adherence to Islam by young +people in some Arab countries. Among the young, in particular, +Arab inability to regain the territories lost in the 1967 war +with Israel led to questioning of the secular ideologies that +had dominated regional politics during the post-World War II +era, while a growing gap between rich and poor and the spread +of education increased demands for greater participation in +largely undemocratic political systems. + +MODERN POLITICS AND SOCIAL ISSUES + +The men who led the Arab independence movements after World War I +were usually secularists. Although many of them, such as +Egypt's Gamal Abdul NASSER, were Pan-Arab nationalists who +advocated the creation of a single Arab nation, they believed +it essential that their countries adopt many aspects of Western +civilization, such as secular laws, parliamentary government, +and the like. These views challenged the primacy of Islam in +everyday life. Islamic law (see SHARIA) makes no distinction +between religious and temporal power. Muslims believe that all +law derives from the Koran, and that God's word must therefore +apply to all aspects of life. The gradual relegation of Islam +to the realm of personal status, a process that began during +the period of Western dominance, continued as Arab nations +gained independence under nationalist leaders who believed that +Islam lacked answers to the problems confronting modern society +and national development. + +Many devout Arab Muslims disagreed. The Muslim Brotherhood, +for example, was formed in Egypt as early as 1929 to meet the +needs of Egyptians uprooted by modern economic and cultural +inroads into traditional Egyptian life. A central tenet of all +such Muslim groups is the belief that Western economic and +social values cannot restore past Arab greatness, and that +Muslim societies must be based on principles derived from their +own roots. Beyond this, such groups often differ on the type +of society they envisage and how to achieve it. Some +organizations advocate overthrow of existing regimes, others +the spread of their views by peaceful means. The call to Islam +has special appeal to those who are unemployed and have little +hope of a secure future, people who are the victims rather than +the beneficiaries of modernization. Many others who have +rejected membership in such groups have returned to the private +religious duties of Islam, such as praying five times daily, +fasting during the holy month of RAMADAN, and making a +pilgrimage to Mecca. + +Muslim organizations see the West as the real threat to Islamic +stability. Most see Israel as an agent of the West in the +Middle East, depriving Palestinian Arabs of their rightful +homeland. Even secular Arabs who admire the West and fear +reintroduction of a Muslim theocracy nevertheless often feel +angered at what they perceive as Western and especially +American ignorance of and unconcern for Arab concerns. The +Palestinian uprising (intifada) launched in December 1988 has +created new awareness of the problem. + +On the other hand, anti-Israel pronouncements have often served +to create a false impression of unity when real agreement was +lacking. The ARAB LEAGUE, formed in 1945, has been more a +forum for Arab infighting than a framework for cooperation. +Arabs genuinely feel common bonds based on language and a +shared historical and cultural legacy, but they also identify +themselves as Egyptians, Iraqis, and so on. Their ideological +differences reflect the wide range of governing systems in the +Arab world, from socialist regimes to oil-rich monarchies. + +Complicating factors for the region have been the GULF WAR +(1980-88) between Iran and Iraq and increased tensions between +Iran and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. These conflicts +focused attention on the major oil-producing region of the +world. As of 1987, more than 69% of the proved oil reserves of +the globe could be found in the Middle East, particularly in +Saudi Arabia, which contains nearly half of the world's +reserves. Oil has been exported from the Arab world since the +1930s, but only with the creation of the ORGANIZATION OF +PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES (OPEC) in 1960 and the Libyan +revolution of 1969 did these countries begin to determine oil +prices themselves. Although only eight Arab nations are +substantial oil producers and OPEC has several non-Arab +members, the organization is usually associated with Arab oil; +the oil shortages of 1973-74 resulted from Saudi anger at U. +S. policy during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Overproduction +drove down prices in the 1980s, weakening OPEC's clout and the +ability of the oil-producing Arab states to provide aid and +jobs for the poorer Arab nations. Oil experts believe, +however, that the Arab world will remain the strategically +significant center of world oil production well into the 21st +century, a fact that has contributed to the involvement of +foreign powers in the region. + +FUTURE PROSPECTS + +The Arab world holds potential for both growth and conflict. A +solution to the Palestinian problem would defuse the likelihood +of another Arab-Israeli war and permit allocation of resources +to domestic sectors rather than to military outlays. Arab +states, however, need to settle their own differences as well. +Some efforts to promote more unified approaches to problems of +common interest have been made in recent years, including the +formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, +Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) in 1981 and +the Arab Maghrib Union (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and +Tunisia) and the Arab Cooperation Council (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, +and Yemen [Sana]) in 1989. The major inter-Arab rivalry is +that between Syria and Iraq, the principal internal problem +that of Lebanon, where communal strife has involved its +neighbors and destabilized the region. The impact of +population growth on economic development and the appeal of +Islamic revolutionary factions to the disaffected will remain +crucial to Arab prospects into the next century. CHARLES D. +SMITH + +MEMBERS OF THE ARAB LEAGUE + +--------------------------------------------------------------- +COUNTRY AREA POPULATION PER CAPITA INFANT PERCENT + (km sq.) (1989 EST.) INCOME MORTALITY URBAN + (1986) (per 1,000 + live births) +--------------------------------------------------------------- +Algeria * 13,600 24,900,000 2,570 81 43 +Bahrain 678 500,000 8,530 26 81 +Djibouti 23,200 400,000 1,067 127 74 +Egypt 1,001,449 54,800,000 760 93 45 +Iraq * 458,317 18,100,000 2,400 69 68 +Jordan 97,740 4,000,000 1,550 54 69 +Kuwait* 17,818 2,100,000 13,890 16 94 +Lebanon 16,000 3,300,000 1,000 50 80 +Libya * 1,759,540 4,100,000 7,170 74 76 +Mauritania 1,030,700 2,000,000 440 132 35 +Morocco 446,550 25,600,000 590 90 43 +Oman 212,457 1,400,000 4,990 100 9 +Qatar * 11,000 400,000 12,520 31 88 +Saudi 2,149,690 14,700,000 6,930 71 73 +Arabia +Somalia 637,457 8,200,000 280 137 33 +Sudan 2,505,813 24,500,000 320 113 20 +Syria 185,180 12,100,000 1,560 48 50 +Tunisia 163,610 7,900,000 1,140 77 53 +United Arab 83,600 1,700,000 14,410 32 81 +Emirates* +Yemen 332,968 2,500,000 480 132 20 +(Aden) +Yemen 195,290 6,900,000 950 113 40 +(Sana) +----------------------------------------------------------------- + * Member of OPEC + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/arafat.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/arafat.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..db659562 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/arafat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ + Arafat's Speech in Johannesburg + May 10, 1994 + + +The following is the complete text of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's +address to a Islamic gathering in a mosque in Johannesburg on May 10, +as broadcast by Israel Radio, Kol Yisrael: + + + +Brothers, I have to thank you to give me this opportunity to come here +to pray together, and Insh'Allah, we will pray together very soon in +Jerusalem, the first shrine of Islam. + +Excuse me for my poor language in English, but I try to do my best. + +My brothers, after the signing of the agreement, and we have to +understand that after the gulf war, the real conspiracy is to demolish +completely the Palestinian issue from the agenda of the international +new order. This is where the main conspiracy and it was not easy, +because our people as you know had paid the price of this gulf war. As +you know our community in Kuwait which was the biggest and richest +community in Kuwait had been kicked out of Kuwait. + +Not only that, after that we had been placed by this initiative +declared by President Bush for Madrid Conference. And it wasn't easy, +how we had accept to go to Madrid Conference. Why? Not to give them +the reason and an excuse to exclude the cause of Jerusalem, the cause +of Palestine. This has to be understood. And long after this agreement +which is the first step and not more than that, believe me. There are +a lot to be done. + +The Jihad will continue and Jersualem is not for the Palestinian +People. It is for all the Muslim Uma, all the Muslim Uma. You are +responsible for Palestine and for Jerusalem before me. + +(Verse from the Koran in Arabic) And we saved him (Abraham) and Lot, +and we brought him to the land which is blessed for ever. + +This blessing, to Abraham, for the land which had been blessed for the +whole world. While after this agreement, you have to understand, our +main battle is not to get how much we can achieve from them here or +there. Our main battle is Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the first shrine of +the Muslims. + +This has to be understood for everybody and for this I was insisting +before signing to have a letter from them, from the Israelis, that +Jerusalem is one of the items which has to be under discussion. And +no, the permanent state of Israel- no! It is the permanent state of +Palestine. Yes, it is the permanent state of Palestine.And in this +letter it is very important for everybody to know, I insist to mention +and they have written it and I have this letter. I didn't declare - I +didn't publish it till now. In this letter we are responsible for all +the Christian and Muslim and the Islamic holy sacred places, and I had +insisted to mention the Christian holy sacred place before the Islamic +holy sacred place because I had to be faithful to the agreement +between the Calipha Omar and the Patriarch Saphrona. + +You remember this agreement between the Calipha Omar and the Patriarch +Saphrona. For this I was insisting to mention in this letter the +Christian holy places beside the Islamic holy places. + +And here we are, I came and I have to speak frankly. I can't do it +alone, without the support of the Islamic Uma, I can't do it alone. +And what to say like the Jews, go and you will have to fight alone. +No! You have to come, and to fight and to start the Jihad to liberate +Jerusalem your first shrine. + +And this is very important. And for this, in the agreement, I insist +with my colleagues, with my brothers to mention that not exceeding the +beginning of the third year and directly after signing the Cairo +agreement to start discussions for the future of Jerusalem. The future +of Jerusalem. + +And you saw me on TV while I was hesitating...you remember the +picture? Becuase I was insisting to mention Jerusalem. And I said OK, +I don't want only from Rabin this promise. No! I want this promise +from the co-sponsors, Christopher and Kosyrev, and as a witness, +President Mubarak. And this has been done, which is very important for +everbody to know. + +Now, here we are. And everybody has to understand that there is a +continuous conspiracy against Jerusalem. During the next two years, +which have been mentioned, not exceeding the beginning of the third +year, they will try to demolish and to change the demographics of +Jerusalem. It is very important, unless we have to be very cautious +and to put it in our priority as nothing worth to be priority than +Jerusalem. To put it in our first priority not only as Palestinians, +not only as Arabs, but as Muslims and as Christians too. I have +mentioned this to the Pope and to the Patriarch of Istanbul and the +Archbishop of Canterbury. To those I told them, if you want to make +your holy sepulchre, your holy, sacred Christian places. OK. Carry on +with the Israelis, with the Jews. + +We are not against the Jews. We have to remember what has been +mentioned in our Koran, (quotation in Arabic from the Koran) And in +English, that among the nations of Musa there is a nation, or a part +of the nation, which they believe in just, and by just they control. +And for your information, there are two Jewish sects, in Palestine. +Samaritans in Nablus and Natorei Karta in Jersualem. They are refusing +to recognize the state of israel and they are considering themselves +as Palestinians. I'm saying this to give you proof that what they are +saying that it is their Capital - no! It is not their capital, it is +our capital, it is your capital. It is the first Shrine of the Islam +and the Muslims. + +But we are in need of your support. Everywhere. This is a message for +the people, of Palestine from our populations in Jerusalem. Calling to +you, everybody here, not only here, everywhere, and I'm sure sooner or +later, we'll pray in Jerusalem.Together. + +This agreement I am not considering it more than the agreement which +had been signed between our prophet Muhhamud and Quraysh. And you +remember, Caliph Omar had refused this agreement and considering the +agreement of the very low class. But Muhammud had accepted it and we +are accepting now this peace accord. + +But to continue our way to Jerusalem, to the first shrine, together +and not alone. And we have to say clearly and honestly, that there is +a very, very, very difficult circumstances that face us. I'll give one +quote - one example. You remember after the massacre took place in the +Mosque in Hebron? You remember? Twenty two days the security council +was hesitating to accept the resolution to condemn this massacre. You +remember? Twenty two days. Do you know why? For one way I was +insisting to put in this resolution "throughout the occupied +Palestinian land and territories, including Jerusalem." They were +trying to bargain with me, to cancel Jerusalem. I refused. And I got +it in the end, and you remember. + +Again, I have to thank you, I have to thank you from my heart, from my +heart, and I am telling you frankly from brother to brother, we are in +need of you, we are in need of you as Muslims, as Mujadin. + +And on this occasion, I have to tell my old friend, my old brother, +Nelson Mandela, to thank him for give me this invitation to come, to +visit South Africa for the first time as a part of your struggle, I am +here. And I am telling again by your names and by the name of the +Islamic Uma that we will be beside him and we are sure that you will +continue to be beside us. + +(Verses from the Koran in Arabic) We will enter the Mosque (El Aksa), +like we entered the first time.. God doesn't break his promise. .And +together, shoulder to shoulder, until victory, until victory, till +Jerusalem, to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem. + +They will help us more than they ever did before. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/armscont.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/armscont.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3ed7ecec --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/armscont.txt @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please distribute. + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON ARMS CONTROL + + +The end of the Cold War leaves two great tasks for +American arms control policy: to halt the spread +of nuclear, chemical, biological and missile +technologies to countries that do not have them; +and to turn the legacy of the Cold War into +effective strategy for the post-Cold War era. + + +The Clinton/Gore Plan + +Stop nuclear proliferation + +* Bolster the International Atomic Energy + Agency's capacity to inspect suspect + facilities through surprise inspections in + member countries. + +* Lead a strong international effort to impose + sanctions against companies or countries that + spread dangerous weapons. + +* Demand that other nations tighten their export + laws and strengthen enforcement of policies + regarding nuclear weapons. + +* Never again subsidize the nuclear ambitions of + a Saddam Hussein. + +* Ensure that agricultural and other non- + military loans to foreign governments are used + as intended. + +* Strengthen safeguards to ensure that key + nuclear technology and equipment are kept out + of dictators' grasp. + +* Ratify the START Treaty and the follow-on + agreement of June, 1992. + +Pursue and strengthen international agreements + +* Make non-proliferation the highest priority of + our intelligence agencies. + +* Press more nations to sigh and abide by the + Missile Technology Control Regime. + +* Conclude a chemical weapons convention banning + the production, stockpiling, or use of + chemical weapons. + +* Lead the effort to achieve a Comprehensive + Test Ban Treaty through a phased approach. + +Nuclear weapons plans for the 21st century + +* Maintain a survivable nuclear deterrent, + consistent with our needs in the post-Cold War + era. + +* Develop effective defenses to protect our + troops from short and medium range missiles. + +* Support research on limited missile defense + systems to protect the U.S. against new long- + range missile threats. + +* Conduct all such activities in strict + compliance with the Anti-Ballistic Missile + (ABM) Treaty. + +The Record + +* Al Gore has gained an international reputation + as an innovative and hard working expert on + arms control issues. + +* Advocated sharp reductions in weapons and + shift from destabilizing land-based multiple- + warhead missiles to single warhead missiles - + now core objectives of the American + negotiating position. + +* Wrote legislation to stop proliferation of + ballistic missiles capable of delivering + nuclear weapons, and is advocating new + legislation to block the spread of chemical, + biological and nuclear weapons to Iraq. + +* Resisted weakening of the ABM treaty and + worked to keep SDI form violating from U.S. + obligations. + +* Fought efforts to scrap SALT II limits and + preserved them as the foundations for START. + +* Favored a ban on short-time of flight or + depresses trajectory missiles - a year before + US negotiators adopted the position. + +* Advocated special treatment for nuclear armed + sea-launched cruise missiles because of their + unusual nature. + +* Monitored Geneva arms control talks as one of + ten Senate observers. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/art.nws b/textfiles.com/politics/art.nws new file mode 100644 index 00000000..be58159a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/art.nws @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +The Ultimate society - The Quest for a Lost America +by Howard C. Miller + +America was once a golden promise of freedom for those who would +flee from places of slavery anddictatorship. Have we abused or +misued our freedom, or even given it a false image? Even today, +in the modern American society, prejudice, racism and hatred are +to be found everywhere. Is this truly a civilized land we live in, +when we review some of the true wrongs of our society? We +certainly have been given far more freedom and rights than any +other country has ever known, but from what I see, I wonder if we +deserve them. Perhaps we do, or perhaps not all of us do. + +One major problem is the way the government totally misuses the +political system. Another major problem is the mass communications +area, which can and often does give a narrowminded and biased view +of the subject they are referring to. And possibly the most +serious of these problems is our education in the public schools +of America This is partly the fault of the government. + +Since it looks probable that we cannot change the ways of the +people who are in command today as responsible adults, when +referring to those past thei fourth decade of life, we must teach +our children better and more. To do this, it is important to press +the government to make more funds available to the education system +and other necessary social programs. + +But money alone won't help. The education system must be totally +revised to give the maximum amount of information on all sides, not +a diluted viewpoint of the subject at hand to be later expanded by +college education, if the person in question decides to have such +higher learning. + +I feel we could learn a good deal from the Japanese social +structure today. Japan is a rich country, and its students are +motivated and encouraged to learn so well, that b the time they are +entering their early twenties, the're already working towards their +Ph.D! I think, in my opinon, Japan's government and social +structure outclasses the America one in many ways. + +Too much of the southeastern states are still undereducated, +prejudiced and so forth. They are in serious need of help from the +north and southwest states to solve this problem. + +But even in the north, racism and prejudice run rampant Prejudice +is ugly and must be fought against, no matter what form it takes, +because it is simply wrong, intended or not. + +Let us make 1990 the Year of Equal Treatment and Rights For All. +Let us make it also the Year of Services for those who need it. +Because, when we get right down to the simple cold and logical fact +that we are all humans, regardless of our shape, size and color, +it will be a better world for us all. A rose is a rose, whether +it is red, white or yellow. A cat is a cat, whether it be a lion, +tiger, panther, cheetah or house pet. Whether a rose is missing +a petal or not, it is still a rose. Whether a cat is missing a leg +or not, it is still a cat. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/art20.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/art20.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fb5784df --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/art20.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ + Abraham Lincoln And Abortion + + + +In November 1781, Lucy Hanks was a young beautiful servant girl +employed by a wealthy plantation owner. Her employer was a +bachelor who was educated in England at Oxford. When he migrated +to America he brought with him his favorite books. + +Like many young poor people during the 18th century, Lucy Hanks was +illiterate. One day, as she was doing her housekeeping, her employer +caught her looking at the pictures in one of his books. He could tell +she was fascinated, so he read the captions of each picture to her. +From that time on, after hours of work, he privately tutored her and +successfully taught her to read and write. + +They became romantically involved and she became very pregnant. +During those days, when a girl got into trouble, she was treated like +a dog. The bachelor employer wouldn't marry her, so he gave her some +money and sent her away. + +Abortion wasn't a choice in 1782, so Lucy Hanks gave birth to a +daughter whom she named Nancy Hanks. Nancy Hanks grew up and married +a drifter named Thomas Lincoln, and in 1809 Abraham Lincoln was +born. + +By today's standards Nancy Hanks could have easily been swept away by +abortion, along with one of the greatest presidents of all time. + +A million and a half babies are robbed every year of being an Abe +Lincoln, Sister Theresa or a Joe Montana, but more importantly they +are being robbed of just being. + +From Visalia Times Delta 1/29/90 by Duane Phelps +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/artcle90.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/artcle90.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7b984e6f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/artcle90.txt @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +From: sean@dranet.dra.com (Sean Donelan) +Subject: Year 1990: computer users rights and the popular press +Date: Sun, 30 Dec 90 22:19:53 EST + +The year 1990 in review. Here is a list of some of the articles that have +appeared in the "popular" press in the last year. There were some 800+ +articles on computer crime, "hackers" (in the negative sense), and viruses. +For comparison there were about equal number of articles on those topics +in each of the preceeding four years. However in the preceeding four years +I couldn't find a single article in 1300+ periodicals that mentioned +protecting rights of people who use computers. Note the slight difference +from the rights of people in a computerized society (lots of articles on +privacy, computer (mis)matching, and various computer snafu's). + +Perhaps the EFF should have hired a advertising firm before a lawyer? :-) + +Actually for only six months it is a pretty impressive showing. + +------------- + + 1 High-tech witch-hunting vs. First Amendment. (Electronic Frontier + Foundation protecting legal rights of computer users) (editorial), PC + Week, Oct 8, 1990 v7 n40 p87(1) + Article No. 09485051 *** Full-text article (2566 characters) *** + + 2 Can invaders be stopped but civil liberties upheld?; Industry executives + have joined to stimulate debate over computer users' rights. (computer + hackers, The Executive Computer), The New York Times, Sept 9, 1990 v139 + pF12(N) pF12(L) 21 col in + Article No. 08822456 + + 3 EFF: bringing Bill of Rights into the computer age. (Electronic Frontier + Foundation), Byte, Sept 1990 v15 n9 p28(2) + Article No. 08819820 + + 4 Slow push to judgement. (computer hackers)(Viewpoint) (column), + Computerworld, August 27, 1990 v24 n35 p21(1) + Article No. 08791012 + + 5 Group to address computer users' rights. (Computer Professionals for + Social Responsibility) (Business) (company profile), PC Week, August 13, + 1990 v7 n32 p117(1) + Article No. 08748606 *** Full-text article (2745 characters) *** + + 6 Fighting back against Fed's BBS crackdown. (heavy-handed approach of + federal government toward operators of computer bulletin boards) (The + Wide View) (column), PC Week, July 23, 1990 v7 n29 p53(1) + Article No. 08670228 *** Full-text article (5156 characters) *** + + 7 Crackdown on hackers 'may violate civil rights.' (computer hackers), New + Scientist, July 21, 1990 v127 n1726 p22(1) + Article No. 09300107 + + 8 Rights Advocate. (Mitchell Kapor; Newsmaker) (column), + CommunicationsWeek, July 16, 1990 n309 p2(1) + Article No. 08638928 + + 9 Kapor group lines up for rights fight. (entrepreneur Mitch Kapor's + Electronic Frontier Foundation) (includes related article on three + hackers pleading guilty to documentation theft), Computerworld, July 16, + 1990 v24 n29 p6(1) + Article No. 08639188 + + 10 Group to defend civil rights of hackers founded by computer industry + pioneer. (Mitchell Kapor), The Wall Street Journal, July 11, 1990 pB4 + pB4 16 col in + Article No. 08619396 + + 11 High-tech crime fighting: the threat to civil liberties., The Futurist, + July-August 1990 v24 n4 p20(6) + Article No. 09177465 *** Full-text article (22737 characters) *** + + 12 Hacker raids stir up battle over constitutional rights., Computerworld, + June 25, 1990 v24 n26 p1(2) + Article No. 08583448 + + 13 Drive to counter computer crime aims at invaders; legitimate users voice + worries over rights., The New York Times, June 3, 1990 v139 p1(N) p1(L) + 36 col in + Article No. 08498074 + +True, I'm not working on the clock, and it is sunday night, so this isn't as +complete as professional research should be, but you get what you pay for... +-- +Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO 63132-1806 +Domain: sean@dranet.dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/articles.120 b/textfiles.com/politics/articles.120 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..80c7e1f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/articles.120 @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + Version 1.2 + July 22, 1992 + + + + ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION OF EFF-AUSTIN + +The undersigned natural persons of the age of eighteen (18) years +or more acting as incorporators of a corporation under the Texas +Non-Profit Corporation Act, hereby adopt the following Articles +of Incorporation for such corporation: + + ARTICLE ONE +The name of the corporation is EFF-Austin. + + ARTICLE TWO +The corporation is a non-profit corporation. + + ARTICLE THREE +The period of its duration is perpetual. + + ARTICLE FOUR +The purposes for which the corporation is organized are those +within the scope and meaning of the Texas Non-Profit Corporation +Act which are pursuant to the following goals: + + (a) to engage in and support educational activities that +increase understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed +by computing and telecommunications, and related civil liberties +issues. + + (b) to foster a clearer social understanding of the issues +underlying free and open telecommunications; and + + (c) to facilitate and encourage communication between +individuals interested in computer and telecommunication +technology and related social and legal issues. + +This corporation shall not, except to an insubstantial degree, +engage in any activities or exercise any powers that are not in +furtherance of the primary purposes of this corporation. This +corporation is organized pursuant to the Texas Non-Profit +Corporation Act and no part of the net earnings of the corporation +nor of its assets shall inure to the benefit of any individual +member, officer or individual except that the corporation shall be +authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for +services rendered and to make payments and distributions in +furtherance of the purposes stated herein. + + ARTICLE FIVE +The street address of the initial registered office of the +corporation is 2700-A Metcalfe, Austin TX, 78741 and the name of +its initial registered agent at such address is Steve Jackson. + + ARTICLE SIX +The number of directors constituting the board of directors of the +corporation is nine, and the names and addresses of the persons who +are to serve as the initial directors are: + +Smoot Carl-Mitchell XXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78741 + +Edward Cavazos XXXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78741 + +Matt Lawrence XXXXX + Austin, TX 78758 + +Steve Jackson XXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78744 + +John Quarterman XXXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78746 + + +The qualifications, manner of selection, duties, terms and other +matters relating to the Board of Directors shall be provided in the +Bylaws of the Corporation. + + ARTICLE SEVEN +The name and street address of each incorporator is: + +Smoot Carl-Mitchell XXXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78741 + +Edward Cavazos XXXXXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78741 + +Steve Jackson XXXXXXXXXXXX + Austin, TX 78744 + + ARTICLE EIGHT +No member of the organization, member of the Board, or Officer +shall be personally liable for the payment of the debts of the +Corporation except as such member, Director, or Officer may be +liable by reason of his own conduct and acts. + + ARTICLE NINE +Upon dissolution of the corporation, assets shall be distributed +for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of section +501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section +of any future federal tax code. + +IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have hereunto set our hands, this _______ +day of ___________________, l992. + + ____________________________ +Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Incorporator + ____________________________ +Steve Jackson, Incorporator +____________________________ +Edward Cavazos, Incorporator + +THE STATE OF TEXAS $ +COUNTY OF TRAVIS $ + +I, a notary public, do hereby certify that on this _____ day of +____________________, l992, personally appeared before me EDWARD +CAVAZOS, STEVE JACKSON, and SMOOT CARL-MITCHELL, Incorporators, +known to me to be the persons whose names are subscribed to the +foregoing document, who, being first by me duly sworn, individually +and severally declared that they are the persons who executed the +foregoing document as Incorporators, that they executed it for the +purposes therein expressed, and that the statements therein +contained are true and correct. + + IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and + seal the day and year above written. + + _______________________________ + Notary Public, State of Texas (seal) + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/arts.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/arts.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..543d2143 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/arts.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please distribute. + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON THE ARTS + + + +Bill Clinton and Al Gore believe that the arts +should play an essential role in educating and +enriching all Americans. The White House should +help the arts become an integral part of education +in every community, helping broaden the horizons of +our children and preserve our valuable cultural +heritage. A Clinton/Gore Administration will +ensure that all of our citizens have access to the +arts for all of our citizens. + +As President and Vice President, Bill Clinton and +Al Gore will defend freedom of speech and artistic +expression by opposing censorship or "content +restrictions" on grants made by the National +Endowment for the Arts. They will continue federal +funding for the arts and promote the full diversity +of American culture recognizing the importance of +providing all Americans with access to the arts. + + +The Record + +* Governor Bill Clinton initiated sweeping + educational reforms in the 1980s. The new + standards which the state adopted in 1983 + include art and music in the curriculum for + all K-12 students and require one-half unit of + fine arts instruction for high school + graduation. As a result: + + ! Arkansas is among only a few states that + have included the arts in the basic, + required high school curriculum. + + ! Student participation in arts programs + has increased 30 percent and funding for + positions for music and art teachers has + increased 35 percent since 1983. + + ! A "Survey of Fine Arts" course at the + high school level, with curriculum + guidelines for art and instrumental and + vocal music classes in elementary and + secondary schools. + +* Governor Clinton has enthusiastically + supported the state's commitment to programs + for the general public. In 1991-92, in the + face of shifting priorities and declining + grant awards from the National Endowment for + the Arts, Governor Clinton strongly sustained + the state's support for touring programs and + local arts agencies. + + ! While many states' arts agency budgets + dropped as much as 40 percent, Governor + Clinton's budget for the Arkansas Arts + Council increased funding for arts + programs. In 1992, grants from the + Arkansas state Arts Council supported 393 + performances, exhibitions and arts + classes in 138 cities and communities in + Arkansas. + + ! Arkansas has a strong folk arts tradition + and is home to a regional repertory + theater, the nationally recognized + Children's Theater, the Arkansas Symphony + Orchestra, Ballet Arkansas, and numerous + local theater and performing arts + programs. + +* Senator Gore has supported funding to bring + operas, symphony orchestras, playhouses, and + educational arts programs to all of America. + +* Opposed measures which would cut funding for + the National Endowment for the Arts and place + content restrictions on federally funded + artists. + +* Led the fight to preserve funding for public + television programs like Sesame Street that + enrich the lives of million of American + families. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/asa_faq.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/asa_faq.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..86d8f016 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/asa_faq.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2362 @@ +ALT.SOCIETY.ANARCHY FAQ + +Version .1 + + + +It's time to get the damn ball rolling, so I am just going to post this + +as-is. This is the OFFICIAL FAQ for alt.society.anarchy (and if you believe + +that, I have a bridge to sell you). Please note: + + + +1. I didn't say any of this. + +2. You aren't reading any of this. + +3. This is not an FAQ + +4. You are probably asleep. + + + +Furthermore: + + + +1. If you don't like anything that is attributed to you, email me and it's cut. + +2. If you don't like anything that someone else said, tough shit. Send me your + + rebuttal and I will include it. + +3. This is much more incomplete than I would like. Of course it's your + + responsibility to fix that, not mine. + +4. If you have saved old alt.society.anarchy postings, I want them. + + + +Please do not expect me to be fair. I have my own opinions as well. + +Your only guarantee is that concise rebuttals to statements in the FAQ will + +be included in future releases. I am editing things to shorten them in some + +cases. + + + +My fiat is based on my initiative; so is yours. + + + +It should be self-evident, but I DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING IN THIS FAQ. + +TO BE SAFE, YOU SHOULD ASSUME I AGREE WITH NONE OF IT. + + + +I provide archival services for electronic texts. Much of what is referred + +to below comes from the archives, and some from usenet postings (which I do not + +archive). The archives are stored on an internet ftp fileserver, and the + +address is red.css.itd.umich.edu. The archives are not exclusively for + +anarchist materials (in fact anarchist materials do not constitute the + +majority of political documents on the site). + + + +pauls@umich.edu + + + +March 5, 1993 + + + +----- + + + +ORGANIZATION OF THE FAQ: + + + +1. DEFINITIONS -- What is anarchism? Who are anarchists? What is not + + anarchism? What types of anarchism are there? + + + +2. SNIPPETS OF INTERESTING DISCUSSIONS -- I guarantee that these snippets + + were interesting to me. If you fall asleep, then you can assume that they + + were not interesting to you. + + + +3. CONTACTS FOR ANARCHISTS ON THE NET + + + +4. SUGGESTED READINGS + + + +----- + + + +S E C T I O N O N E : D E F I N I T I O N S + + + +It seems like a massive number of repeat-questions circulate around the + +definitions of anarchism, anarchy, anarchists. This issue is confused + +by the fact that there is rampant sectarianism (across very broad + +ideological territory) among those who consider themselves anarchists. + +This section of the FAQ needs more opinions from people who can illucidate + +their working definitions of anarchy. + + + + + +a. from an anarchist libertarian + + + +From: eagle@carr3.acpub.duke.edu (Carter Butts) + +Date: 1 Mar 93 05:27:19 GMT + + + + A number of individuals here seem to enjoy attacking anarchy, + +libertarianism, and the free market in general, but few that I have seen thus far + +seem to have a great deal of information on any of the above. In defense of a + +few of these concepts, then, I feel compelled to say a few things. + + + +What anarchy is, and is not: + + Anarchy is a class of social interaction systems without a centralized + +coercive control. Anarchy does NOT mean no rules, it means no ruler. Anarchy is + +not one particular system of social interaction; there are as many types of + +anarchy as there are types of governments. Likewise, anarchy is not of necessity + +a utopian ideal (one would do just as well to say that government per se is a + +utopian ideal). Before you attempt to attack anarchy, you would do well to know + +what you are attacking. + + + +Libertarianism: + + Libertarianism, as it is generally defined by Libertarians (not + +necessarily those in the political party which bears the "Libertarian" name), is + +a system of ethics (rules for social interaction) based on the premise that it is + +wrong to initiate force or fraud. Keep in mind that, if one is attacked, one is, + +under the Libertarian ethic, free to respond with force or fraud as the situation + +warrants. + + + +Objectivism: + + (Here I'm using it in the Randian sense.) This is an egoist philosophy + +which holds that one should both attempt to maintain an understanding of + +objective reality (it assumes that there is such an animal) and act so as to + +maximize one's long-term benefits within it. + + + +The Market: + + In the New Libertarian Manifesto (forgive me, I forget the author's + +name), the market, or agora, is defined to be all non-coerced interactions. This + +covers a LOT of territory. Most Libertarians use the Market as a fairly generic + +term, and when they talk about the benefits of the market, they usually mean the + +benefits of uncoerced behavior. (For those who don't see the connection between + +the normal definition and Libertarian definition of market, read the Manifesto. + +There are very good reasons for it, but they are far too long to repeat here.) + + + + Someone earlier made the rather ridiculous statement that anarchy and + +Libertarianism were incompatible. I say rather that the two cannot be seperated. + + ALL government (government being defined as a monopolist of law who weilds a + +coercive force in order to maintain its monopoly power witin a given region) + +represents an initiation of force (governments that deny this are initiating + +fraud as well). If this is so, then no true Libertarian can be anything other + +than an anarchist! As for Objectivism, there is some tension between it and + +Libertarianism. If one is an Objectivist Libertarian, one is so because one + +believes Libertarian ideals to be in one's best interests. Libertarianism in no + +way implies Randian Objectivism, so one cannot discount the former by attacking + +the latter. + + This post in and of itself does not constitute a true defense of any of + +the above terms. It does, however, contain definitions which are important for + +any rational discussion of anarchy or Libertarianism. + + + + + +b. regarding anarchist sectarianism + + + +From: "Svein Olav G. Nyberg" + +Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 19:08:37 GMT + + + +There has been complaints about both the socialists who + +call themselves anarchists, and the capitalists who do + +call themselves anarchists. + + + +I have the unfortunate impression that for both categories, + +it is not the anarchist part of X-anarchist that is the + +real motivating force behind their thought and argument, + +but the X. + + + +Not that anything is inherently wrong with being an Xist + +instead of an anarchist, but it sounds rather shallow when + +the sides are trying to denounce one another as not being + +the true breed of anarchist. + + + +Besides, anarchism can itself become very dogmatic. If + +freedom becomes a dogma, it becomes impossible to answer + +the question of whether one is allowed to submit to any + +kind of dominion. + + + +So, you should appreciate each others' "impurities" and + +perhaps even _learn_ from each others' thinking. Am I + +asking the impossible? + + + + + +c. regarding stirner's egoist philosophy + + + +From: solan@math.uio.no + + + + "Non serviam!" - "I will not serve", is known from literature as + +Satan's declaration of his rebellion against God. We wish to follow + +up on this tradition of insurrection. + + In modern times, the philosophy of the individual's assertion of + +himself against gods, ideals and human oppressors has been most + +eloquently expressed by Max Stirner in his book "Der Einzige und + +Sein Eigentum"[1]. + + Stirner, whose real name was Johann Kaspar Schmidt [1806-56], + +lived in a time dominated by German Idealism, with Hegel as its + +prominent figure. It is against this background of fixation of ideas + +that Stirner makes his rebellion. Stirner takes down these ideas + +from their fixed points in the starry sky of Spirit, and declares + +all ideas to be the ideas of an Ego[2], and the realm of spirits and + +ideas to be the mind of the thinker himself. His heaven-storming is + +total. Even the idealist tool - dialectic, and the supreme ghost of + +Idealism, [Absolute] Spirit - are stripped of their status of + +intrinsic existence, and are taken back into the Ego himself. This + +is most clearly seen in Stirner's main triad: Materialist - + +Idealist - Egoist. And the triad stops at its last link. Any further + +progress cannot negate Egoism, for - progress has been taken back + +into the individual, as his - property. + + For Stirner, the solution to the "alienation", or + +"self-alienation" of Idealism, is in self-expression, or - + +ownership. What cannot be one's own cause, the cause that is not + +one's own, is not worth pursuing. As Stirner says "Away then, with + +every cause that is not altogether my cause!" + + + +[1] English title: "The Ego and Its Own". + +[2] Einziger - single individual. + + + + + +----- + + + +S E C T I O N T W O : S N I P P E T S + + + +Please fill my mailbox with things like what's below -- clarifications and + +summaries of some of the interesting debates. It should go without saying + +that these debates are not finished, and may never be. + + + + + +a. regarding the nature of man + + + +From: wlee@muskwa.ucs.ualberta.ca (Porcupine) + +Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 02:48:31 GMT + + + +If you think "pure communism" (whatever that is!) has ignored human + +psychology you are obviously ignorant of the volumes and volumes of writing + +done by Marxists, post Marxists, Existentialist Marxists, Anarchists, and + +what not on this subject. The very driving _force_ behind communism has + +been its desire and logic for a world without man preying on another man + +simply for the sake of material goods. MAN IS NOT NATURALLY GREEDY; Man is + +naturally self-interested. There is a difference. + + + +As to "communism can't work" -- grow up. I would expect that kind of logic + +from a grade 6 student. You don't plug in Communism like a toaster or a + +VCR. It's not a bloody appliance -- it's a way of life that evolves + +over hundreds, if not thousands, of years, to meet the needs of human + +beings. If you want to see what happens when you try to "plug in" a + +"system" look at the USSR both old and "new" where the people are suffering + +from an elite ruling class that has existed since the dark ages, and still + +continues to rule. + + + +b. regarding voting + + + +From: bbrigade@world.std.com + + + +[snippet from BAD Brigade's Broadside #8] + + + + The primary reason why anti-statists should not vote, and in fact + + should oppose voting, is that the very act of voting is an attempt on + + the part of voters to delegate to another a power that they could not + + justly possess themselves. Government is based on coercion. While + + states of various sorts provide some services and benefits to + + residents of their jurisdictions, the institution of government also + + utilizes cops, courts, the military, the IRS, etc, to coercively + + interfere in the lives of its subjects. Anarchists argue that no one, + + whether in or out of government should have such power. If this is + + true, anarchists, who oppose political power and coercion of any + + sort, cannot consistently advocate voting. Individuals should not have + + the authority to coerce others, and therefore they should not put + + themselves in a position to delegate such authority to third parties, + + which is the essence of voting. While some argue that they vote only + + in self-defense, the consequence of their voting is that their + + candidate coerces others who choose not to participate in the process, + + and therefore this method of self-defense should be unacceptable to + + anarchists. + + + + Besides being unethical for an anti-authoritarian in and of + + itself, participation in electoral politics serves to legitimize the + + whole political process and the existence of government. If people did + + not vote, the democratic theory of government would lose its + + legitimacy and politicians would have to justify their rule on the + + basis of something other than the alleged consent of the governed. + + This, hopefully, would make the true nature of the state more obvious + + to the governed. And such a revelation would have the potential to + + motivate people to challenge, evade, or ignore government interference + + and coercion. + + + + Even if anarchists could ethically participate in voting, there is + + one major reason to boycott the process: any candidate anarchists help + + elect will implement interventionist policies and initiate coercive + + actions, the results of which will be incompatible with anarchist + + goals. While voting for a Democrat may arguably make intervention in + + cuba or nicaragua less likely, it could make matters worse in + + israel/palestine or south africa. (Neither the ANC nor the PLO will + + take a position on the united states presidential election, basically + + because they support Bush, but are embarrassed to admit this + + publicly.) Voters claim that a Republican will make things worse + + economically for working and/or poor people in the united states; + + however increased taxes, which will certainly be enacted by a + + Democratic president, will further impoverish the working people from + + whom they are extorted. Additionally, while people fear a supreme + + court with a Republican-appointed majority, individual justices are + + unpredictable (like Sandra Day O'Connor), and Democratic judges are as + + willing to coercively interfere in our lives as are Republicans. + + + + Besides not yielding the desired results, voting by anarchists + + entails another weakness. Even if every anarchist in the united states + + voted in the presidential election, it would not influence the + + outcome. There are few enough anarchists about that their individual + + votes are meaningless, since elections are decided by millions of + + votes. If voting anarchists seriously believe that voting can + + ethically be done, even by anarchists, then they should consider + + entering the political process fully and campaigning for presidential + + candidates. If it's acceptable for them to vote, it's acceptable for + + their candidates to hold power in a coercive government, and it's + + acceptable for them to encourage others to vote. I have not seen any + + anarchists argue for active involvement in the Democratic party, but + + this is a logical outcome of anarchist arguments for voting. If these + + people aren't comfortable urging others to vote for their candidates, + + they should rethink the justifications for their own voting. + + + + Non-voting on the part of anarchists is not a sign of apathy. On + + the contrary, it is a sign of rejection of the political, i.e., + + coercive, means of dealing with problems and living our lives. If, as + + anarchists, we are serious about finding new ways of living and + + interacting, it would behoove us to stay out of the swamp of electoral + + politics and maintain our traditional opposition to involvement with + + electoral politics in any form. + + + + + +c. why anarchism today? + + + +From: x551_003@ccvax.ucd.ie + +Date: 14 Dec 92 11:40:16 GMT + + + +This is a copy of an article originally printed in the Irish + +anarchist magazine Workers Solidarity (34). Workers + +Solidarity can be contacted at WSM, PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, + +Ireland. + + + +[...] + + + +It is becoming clear that the bulk of what has been referred to as + +socialism up to now is in fact nothing of the sort. The vast bulk + +of the theory and practise of the last 70 years needs to be thrown + +in the bin. Unfortunately most of the Leninist groups are avoiding + +such an exercise preparing instead to do a botched plastering job + +over the appearing cracks. They have chosen to follow the same + +paths as the Communist parties did and will probably suffer a + +similar fate. + + + +The vast bulk of those leaving the Leninist and labour parties are + +just disappearing from any form of politics or activism. The few + +who are trying to continue the anti-capitalist fight in a new way + +are making old mistakes. For the most part rather then seeing their + +version of socialism as flawed they have come to see capitalism as + +triumphant. There is a tradition however which refused to see + +socialism as something being imposed by a minority wielding state + +power on behalf of a majority. The tradition of anarchism always + +rejected both the crude authoritarianism of Leninism and the + +reformism of the labour parties. + + + +It is for this reason that we call ourselves anarchists. Anarchism + +as a tradition is no doubt flawed, at times even badly flawed but it + +has always been better than any of the alternatives on offer. + +What's more, it has been capable of the sort of fierce self- + +criticism needed to continually develop. Throughout the last 120 + +years it has always been the anarchist (or a sub-group of + +anarchists) that has developed the best position on the events of + +the day. Most importantly anarchism unlike reformism, Leninism and + +Trotskyism has never imposed dictatorship and massacre on the + +working class. + + + + + +d. the growth of sym + + + +From: william@syacus.acus.oz.au + +Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 1:09:29 EST + + + +A way, a case, an option. I feel that perhaps the comics and poets of + +this existence are where to begin (c.f. Bateson). Nevertheless; what + +I might say intellectually will be long winded, drawn-out, and "sound + +like I come from Neptune" [Chomsky]. "True comics" and poets have + +the capability to express thought at a highter bandwidth. It is rare, + +in my experience, that prose is ample to such a challenging task. + + + +I submit that the lenght of this preamble is witness to the hypothesis + +I am positing. :-) + + + +Real question -- did you catch the oration from the commedians ? + + + +Importantly; as follows ... + + + + The Growth of Sym + + ================== + + + + Now, Sym was a Glug; and 'tis mentioned so + + That the tale reads perfectly plain as we go. + + In his veins ran blood of that stupid race + + Of docile folk, who inhabit the place + + Called Gosh, sad Gosh, where the tall trees sigh + + With a strange, significant sort of cry + + When the gloaming creeps and the wind is high. + + + + When Sym was born there was much to-do, + + And his parents thought him a joy to view; + + But folk not prejudiced saw the Glug, + + As his nurse remarked, "In the cut of his mug". + + For he had their hair, and he had their eyes, + + And the Glug expression of pained suprised, + + And their predilection for pumpkin pies. + + + + And his parents' claims were a deal denied + + By his maiden aunt on his mother's side. + + A tall Glug lady of fifty-two + + With a slight moustache of auburn hue. + + "Parental blither !" she said quite flat. + + "He's an average Glug; and he's red and fat ! + + And exceedingly fat and red at that !" + + + + But the father, Joi, when he gazed on Sym, + + Dreamed great and wonderful things for him. + + Said he, "If the mind of a Glug could wake ! + + Then, Oh, what a wonderful Glug he'd make ! + + We shall teach this laddie to play life's game + + With a different mind and definite aim: + + A Glug in appearance, yet not the same." + + + + But the practical aunt said, "Fudge ! You fool ! + + We'll pack up his dinner and send him to school. + + He shall learn about two-times and parsing and capes, + + And how to make money with inches on tapes. + + We'll apprentice him then to the drapery trade, + + Where, I've heard it reported, large profits are made; + + Besides, he can sell us cheap buttons and braid." + + + + So poor young Sym, he was sent to school, + + Where the first thing taught is the Golden Rule. + + "Do unto others", the teacher said ... + + Then suddenly stopped and scratched his head. + + "You may look up the rest in a book", said he. + + "At present it doesn't occur to me; + + But do it, whatever it happens to be." + + + + And now", said the teacher, "the day's task brings + + Consideration of practical things. + + If a man makes a profit of fifteen pounds + + On one week's takings from two milk rounds, + + How many ... ?" And Sym went dreaming away + + To the sunlit lands where the field-mice play, + + And wrens hold revel the livelong day. + + + + He walked in the welcoming fields alone, + + While far, far away came the pedagogue's drone: + + "If a man makes ... Multiply ... Abstract nouns ... + + From B take ... Population of towns ... + + Rods, poles or perches ... Derived from Greek ... " + + Oh, hawthorn buds came out this week, + + And robins are nesting down by the creek. + + + + So Sym was head of his class not once; + + And his aunt repeatedly dubbed him "Dunce !" + + But, "Give him a chance," said his father, Joi, + + "His head is abnormally large for a boy." + + But his aunt said, "Piffle ! It's crammed with bosh ! + + Why, he don't know the rivers and the mountains of Gosh + + Nor the names of the nephews of good King Splosh !" + + + + So th argument ran; but one bright Spring day + + Sym settled it all in his own way. + + "'Tis a tramp," he announced, "I've decided to be; + + And I start next Monday at twenty to three ... " + + When the aunt recovered she screamed, "A tramp ? + + A low-lived, pilfering, idle scamp, + + Who steals people's washing, and sleeps in the damp ?" + + + + So Sym went off, and a year ran by, + + And the father said, with a smile-masked sigh, + + "It is meet that the young should leave the nest." + + Said the aunt, "Don't spill that soup on your vest ! + + Nor mention his name ! He's our one discrace ! + + And he's probably sneaking around some place + + With fuzzy black whiskers all over his face." + + + + But, under a hedge, by a flowering peach, + + A youth with a little blue wren held speech. + + With his back to a tree and his feet in the grass, + + He watched the thistledown drift and pass, + + And the cloud-puffs, borne on a lazy breeze, + + Move by on their errand, above the trees, + + Into the vault of mysteries. + + + + "Now teach me, little blue wren," said he. + + "'Tis you can unravel this riddle for me. + + I am 'mazed by the gifts of this kindly earth -- + + Which of them all has the greatest worth ? + + He flirted his tail as he answered, then, + + He bobbed and he bowed to his coy little hen: + + "Why, sunlight and worms !" said the little blue wren. + + + + -- C.J. (Den) Dennis + + + + + +e. regarding your boss... + + + +From: ee@lever.com (Edward Elhauge) + +Subject: The Boss + +Date: 5 Feb 93 18:57:38 GMT + + + +This story was passed on to me at work. + + + + The Boss + + + + When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be boss. + +The brain said, "Since I control everything and do all the thinking, + +I should be boss." The feet said, "Since I carry man where he wants + +to go and get him in position to do what the brain wants, I should + +be boss." The eyes said, "Since I must look out for all of you and + +tell you all where danger lurks, I should be boss" + + + + And so it went with the heart, the ears, the lungs, and finally + +the ass hole spoke up and demanded that he be made boss. All the + +other parts laughed and laughed, astounded at the idea of an ass + +hole being boss. The brain thought this idea of an ass hole being + +boss was absurd and said so. + + + + The ass hole was so angry that he locked himself off and refused + +to function. The brain became feverish, the eyes became crossed and + +ached, the feet were too weak to walk, the hands hung limply at the + +sides, the heart and lungs struggled to keep going. All the parts + +pleaded with the brain to relant and let the ass hole be the boss + +and so it happened. All the other parts did all the work and the ass + +hole just bossed and passed out a lot of shit. + + + +THE MORAAL ------ You don't have to be a brain to be boss. + + Just An Ass Hole. + + + + + +----- + + + +S E C T I O N T H R E E : N E T W O R K I N G A N D C O N T A C T S + + + + + +a. usenet news groups of interest + + + + alt.society.anarchy + + alt.politics.radical-left + + alt.society.revolution + + alt.philosophy.objectivism + + talk.politics.theory + + talk.philosophy.misc + + talk.environment + + alt.society.civil-liberties | I don't read these two; one of them may + + alt.society.civil-liberty | be bogus. + + alt.politics.libertarian + + alt.postmodern + + alt.music.hardcore + + alt.zines + + alt.feminism + + soc.feminism + + alt.amateur-comp + + + +b. electronic mailing lists and getting stuff by mail + + + +Since I live on usenet and get my files mostly via ftp, I am probably not + +the best person to talk about mailing lists. Anyway, please inform me of + +corrections and additions to this area. + + + + + + Anarchy List + + [hmm, for some reason I can't locate the address. I think + + cardell@lysator.liu.se can probably help...] + + + + Spunk Press Distribution List (Anarchist Literature) + + spunk-list-request@lysator.liu.se + + + + Autonome Forum + + aforum@moose.uvm.edu + + [this is not a mailing list but they'll send you stuff if you're not + + an asshole. they do "Arm the Spirit" and distribute communiques from + + a number of european groups, as well as the PKK in turkey and the + + Prison News Service. you can regularly find their materials on + + alt.politics.radical-left on usenet.] + + + + Practical Anarchy Online + + [it sez to send mail to the editors, and they are: + + cmunson@macc.wisc.edu + + cardell@lysator.liu.se + + plus I imagine if you get on the Spunk list you'll get P@-online also] + + + + 1-Union Mailing List (Syndicalist) + + Organizer: mlepore@mcimail.com + + [can't remember the Listserv address, someone help me out please] + + + + pnews Mailing List + + odin@world.std.com puts this out. mostly socialist materials, some + + syndicalist stuff. basically non-sectarian, with representation from + + many groups and individuals. + + the address for the whole list is pnews@world.std.com, so don't be an + + idiot and send "subscribe pnews user@host.domain" messages to the list. + + + + + +c. anonymous ftp sites + + + + + + well i don't want to pat myself on the back, but i don't know of many + + ftp sites with radical literature on them other than mine. so, take + + a look at red.css.itd.umich.edu in /pub/Politics and /pub/Zines. Other + + places to look at are ftp.msen.com and quartz.rutgers.edu, though + + they generally do not have much explicitly anarchist theoretical material. + + if you're into the hacker-anarchist stuff (which is mostly of the vulgar + + "let's blow 'em up" variety) you can look on ftp.eff.org in /pub/cud + + or on the eff mirror archives on my site. + + + + if you find text files (or postscript) on anarchist or radical political + + topics, or if you produce them yourself, you can upload them to + + the directory "incoming" on red.css.itd.umich.edu or email them to me + + (pauls@umich.edu) and i will archive them. + + + + + +----- + + + +S E C T I O N F O U R : R E A D I N G S + + + + + +a. on spain + + + +From: evonraut@MtHolyoke.edu (J. Erika von Rautenfeld) + +Subject: Re: Student run @ course at HSU + +Date: 3 Mar 1993 14:00:39 -0500 + + + +Also check out _Free Women of Spain_ by Martha Ackelsberg about the + +Mujeres Libres, an anarcha-feminist organization in Spain in the 30s. + +Very good oral history and theory of anarchism/ana-fem. Provides an + +inroad into contemporary problems & you can do theory and history at the + +same time. + +Good for such student run groups is _The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous + +Utopia_, Ursula K. LeGuin's science fiction novel about two worlds. It + +presents interesting questions about what an anarchist society would be + +like (for those who are interested in the utopia thing). Particularly + +interesting for me is the issue of continuous revolution and the tendency + +for power to become institutionalized even within a self-conscious + +community. + +Have you checked out any of the stuff coming from Autonomedia/Semiotext? + +Much of it is tons 'o fun if nothing else. + + + + + +From: cardell@lysator.liu.se (Mikael Cardell) + +Subject: Re: Student run @ course at HSU + +Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 13:20:18 GMT + + + +How about looking into the experiments in anarchistic economy as they + +were carried out by millions during the spanish civil war? Check out: + + + + Thomas, Hugh: The Spanish Civil War + + + + Lorenzo: (The Swedish title translates into...) Syndicalism In Power + + (I forget the French original title) + + + + + +b. spunk press reading list + + + + + +General: + + + +'Anarchism Today', David E. Apter and James Joll, MacMillan (ISBN 333 12041 + +8), has chapters on various movements and a bibliography of Anarchism in + +print. George Woodcock's Anarchist Reader and Anarchism also have useful + +bibliographies. Daniel Guerin's 'Anarchism' (Monthly Review Press, + +ISBN 85345-175-3) takes an anarchosyndicalist point of view (and has + +a bibliography). + + + +'Classics': + + + +'The ABC of Anarchism' - Alexander Berkman + +'Civil Disobedience' - Thoreau + +'Anarchy' - Malatesta + +Anything by Kropotkin, Bakunin, Proudhon. + +'Enquiry Concerning Political Justice' - William Godwin. + + + +On individualism: Max Stirner's 'The Ego And His Own' + + + +On the situationists: + + + +BAMN:By Any Means Necessary, Penguin (out of print, cannot remember the + +author - I'd like to get hold of a copy of this). + + + +Raoul Vaneigem's 'The Revolution of Everyday Life' + +Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle' + + + +Also, 'The Situationist Anthology' (editor??) + + + +On the squatters' movement: + + + +'The Squatters' by Ron Bailey. + + + +- Visions of utopia: + + + +'Journey to Utopia' by Marie Bernelli (an anthology) + +'News from Nowhere' by William Morris + +'The Dispossessed' - Ursula Le Guin + + + +Anarchosyndicalism: + + + +IWW: + + + +'The Living Spirit of the Wobblies' by Len de Caux, International + +Publishers, 381 Park Avenue South, New York 10016, ISBN. This has + +an extensive bibliography on the IWW. + + + +Also, 'The Case of Joe Hill', Philip S.Foner, same publisher. + + + + + +Spain: + + + +Books published outside the anarchist press on the Spanish revolution + +are in the above bibliographies. George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' + +is a good introduction to the Civil War. + + + +The definitive work is 'Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution' Jose + +Peirats, Freedom Press (ISBN 0 900 384 53 0), also see 'Collectives in the + +Spanish Revolution', Gaston Leval, Freedom Press (ISBN 0 900384 11 5), + +'Anarchist Organisation:the History of the F.A.I', by Juan Gomez Casas, + +Black Rose Books (Quebec), (ISBN 0-920057-38-1), plus others by + +Freedom Press and Black Rose Books, e.g. + +'Spain 1936-1939:Social Revolution-Counter Revolution', Freedom Press + +(ISBN 0 900384 54-9) + + + +[ NB Freedom Press titles are nice and cheap, and only 10% for + +overseas postage; they're at 84B Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX + +(Tel 081-247-9249) ] + + + +Latin America: + + + +'Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class 1860-1931', John M. Hart, + +Univ. of Texas press (ISBN 0 292 70400 3). + + + +Chapter on Argentina and Uruguay in 'Anarchism Today' (above) + + + +'The Cuban Revolution' by Sam Dolgoff + + + +Britain: + + + +'The Slow Burning Fuse' by John Quail (also see bibliography in the + +Anarchist Reader) + + + +Russian: + + + +I don't know which of these are anarchosyndicalist, there are a number + +listed in the above bibliographies, esp. Voline's 'The Unknown Revolution' + +Paul Avrich's 'The Russian Anarchists' and Peter Arshinov's 'History + +of the Makhnovist movement'. Emma Goldman wrote a fair bit, in + +'Living My Life', volume 2, 'My Disillusionment with Russia', etc. + + + + + +c. part of chuck munson's bibliography for anarchists. i have nuked everything + + except the titles, so this is the abridged version. get the full release + + from cmunson@macc.wisc.edu. + + + +FICTION + + + +Le Guin, Ursula K. + + The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. + +New York: Avon Books, 1974. + + + +Piercy, Marge. + +Woman on the Edge of Time. + + New York: Ballantine, 1976. + + + +Orwell, George. + + Animal Farm. + +New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c.1946. + + + + + +NONFICTION + + + +CLASSICAL ANARCHISM (??--1939) + + + +Avrich, Paul. + +The Haymarket Tragedy. + +New Jersey: Princeton University Press, + + 1984. + + + +Berkman, Alexander. + +A.B.C. of Anarchism. + + London: Freedom Press, 1977, + + (originally + + published in 1929). + + + +Goldman, Emma. + +Anarchism and Other Essays. + +New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1969 + +(originally published in 1917). + + + + + +ANARCHISM TODAY (1940-- ) + + + +Beck, Julian. + +Life of the Theater: the relation of the artist to the + +struggle + + of the people. + + New York: Limelight Editions: Distributed by Harper + + & Row, 1986, c.1972. + + + +Bookchin, Murray. + +Toward an Ecological Society. + +Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1980. + + + +Clark, John. + +The Anarchist Moment: Reflections on Culture, + +Nature and + + Power. + + Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1984. + + + +DeLeon, David. + + The American as Anarchist: Reflections on + +Indigenous Radicalism. + + Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1978. + + + +Devall, Bill and George Sessions. + + Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. + + Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1985. + + + +Free. + + Revolution for the Hell Of It. + + New York: The Dial Press, Inc. 1968. + + + +Illich, Ivan. + +Tools for Conviviality. + +New York: Harper and Row, 1973. + + + +Negrin, Su. + +Begin at Start: Some Thoughts on Personal Liberation + +and World Change. + +Washington, NJ: Times Change Press, 1972. + + + +Read, Herbert. + +Anarchy and Order: Essays in Politics. + +Boston: Beacon Press, 1954. + + + +Roszak, Theodore. + +Person/Planet: The Creative Disintegration of Industrial + + Society. + +New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977. + + + + + +BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY + + + +Avrich, Paul. + +An American Anarchist: The Life of Voltarine De Cleyre. + + New Jersey: + +Princeton University Press, 1978. + + + +Goldman, Emma. + +Living My Life. + +New York: Da Capo Press, 1970, c.1931. + + (Two volumes). + + + +Winslow, Kent. + +Dreamworld.. + +Tucson: The Match!, 1988. + + + + + +ANTHOLOGIES + + + +Ehrlich, Howard. & others. + +Reinventing Anarchy. + +London: Routledge & + + Kegan Paul Ltd., 1979. + + + +Roussopoulos, Dimitrios I. ed. + +The Anarchist Papers. + +Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1986. + + + + + + Anthology of anarchist and libertarian socialists + +writing on a variety of anarchist issues. A sample of + +some of the essays: + + "Theses on Libertarian + +Municipalism," by Murray Bookchin. + + "The Greens: + +Nationalism or Anti-Nationalism," by Chris Southcott + + and Jorgen Pedersen. + + "Culture and Coercion," by + + J. Frank Harrison. + + "The Manufacture of consent," + +by Noam Chomsky. + + "Emma Goldman and Woman," + +by Alice Wexler. + + "Emma Goldman: The case for + +Anarcho-Feminism," by Marsha Hewitt. + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHIES + + + +Deleon, David. in The American as Anarchist. + + Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1984, + +p. 196-235. + + + +Goehlert, Robert & Claire Herczeg. Anarchism: A + +Bibliography. Public + + Administration Series: + +Bibliography: P-902. Feb. 1982. Monticello, IL: + +Vance Bibliographies, 1982, 122 p. + + + + + +INDEXES + + + +Alternative Press Index. + +Baltimore, MD: Alternative Press Center, 1969-date. + + + + + +MAGAZINES, JOURNALS, AND NEWSPAPERS + + + +Anarchy: A journal of Desire Armed: + +Published bimonthly by C.A.L. (Columbia Anarchist + +League). + + PO Box 1446, Columbia, MO 65205-1446. + + Subscription rate: $6.00/six issues. + + + +Fifth Estate: + +Published quarterly. + + 4632 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48201. + +Subscription rate: $5.00/year. + + + +Social Anarchism: A Journal of Practice and Theory: + + Published semiannually by the Atlantic Center for + +Research and Education. + +2743 Maryland Ave., Baltimore, MD 21218. + +Subscription rate: $10/four issues. + + + +Practical Anarchy. + +Published quarterly. + +PO Box 173, Madison, WI 53701-0173. + +SASE (52 cents) or $5/4 issues. + +Editor: Chuck Munson. + +[also available in e-version -- ed] + + + +BOOKSTORES & VENDORS + + + +A Distribution + +396 7th St., #2 + +Jersey City, NJ 07302 + + + +Bound Together Books + +1369 Haight St + +San Francisco, CA 94133 + + + +Fifth Estate Bookstore + +4632 Second Ave. + +Detroit, MI 48201 + + + +Wooden Shoe Books + +112 S 20th St. + +Philadelphia, PA 19103 + + + +Left Bank Distribution + +4241 Brooklyn NE, #201 + +Seattle, WA 98105 + + + + + +d. some electronic text on anarchism (and other militant anti-state writings of + + interest) available via ftp on red.css.itd.umich.edu. These are all in + + the directory /pub/Politics + + + +Autonome Forum + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Autonome.Forum + +total 8 + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Feb 27 15:43 Misc + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Feb 7 19:58 PKK + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Feb 8 11:15 Prison.News.Service + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Jan 31 05:31 RAF + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 351 Feb 8 03:25 README.AF + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1380 Feb 5 11:22 README.aforum + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Jan 31 05:31 RZ + + + +Autonome.Forum/Misc: + +total 163 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 5874 Aug 25 1992 biotech + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 29616 Aug 18 1992 open.borders + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 23764 Jan 7 18:41 taylor.interview + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 84928 Feb 5 11:23 viehmann.essay + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 20525 Nov 28 15:47 why-antia.pamphlet + + + +Autonome.Forum/PKK: + +total 78 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 5790 Nov 2 00:22 PKK.background + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 20576 Feb 5 11:23 PKK.update.920512 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 19490 Nov 2 00:23 PKK.update.920921 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 15106 Nov 28 15:49 PKK.update.921111 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 16083 Feb 5 11:23 PKK.women + + + +Autonome.Forum/Prison.News.Service: + +total 52 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 49244 Feb 5 11:23 pns-37 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1866 Feb 5 11:23 pns-37.index + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 962 Feb 8 11:15 pns-38.index + + + +Autonome.Forum/RAF: + +total 96 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 85 Aug 27 1992 _red.army.fraction + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 12738 Aug 27 1992 counter.power + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 8505 Oct 11 19:17 iraq + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 14444 Aug 27 1992 raf.history + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 30814 Aug 27 1992 raf.prisoners + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 14348 Oct 11 19:18 sevillano + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 12264 Aug 27 1992 world.econ.summit + + + +Autonome.Forum/RZ: + +total 38 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 262 Aug 28 1992 _revolutionary.cells + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 37563 Sep 1 1992 gerd.albartus + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Arm.the.Spirit + +total 690 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 1647 Aug 14 1992 README.ATS + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 147715 Aug 14 1992 ats-12 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 190324 Sep 4 1992 ats-13 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 324382 Mar 5 08:34 ats-14-15 + + + + + +Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR BAD.brigade + +total 112 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 5362 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#1 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 5641 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#2 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 8474 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#3 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 6482 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#4 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 11673 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#5 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 7589 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#6 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 10312 Nov 9 21:24 BAD-Broadside-#7 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 6490 Nov 9 21:25 BAD-Broadside-#8 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 40969 Nov 25 09:58 BAD-Pamphlet-AIDS + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 4985 Nov 9 22:55 BAD.pamphlets + + + + + +Essays: Anarchy + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Essays/Anarchy + +total 81 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 41643 Sep 21 10:51 abolishWork + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 17212 Jan 7 22:36 anarchism.today + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 14800 Jan 7 18:40 carse + 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+ +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 930 Jan 7 18:52 highpoint.revolt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3360 Jan 7 18:52 hospital.closures + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2417 Feb 2 08:46 parcel.bomb + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2394 Jan 7 18:52 women.march + + + + + +Industrial Workers of the World (syndicalist) + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR IWW + +total 16 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 9464 Oct 20 12:23 about.the.iww + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 1414 Oct 20 12:24 bay.area.iww + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 3430 Dec 10 03:47 iww.preamble + + + + + +Love and Rage + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Love.and.Rage + +total 5 + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Feb 17 16:01 LR-1 + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Mar 4 12:00 LR-1.espanol + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2512 Feb 17 16:01 README.lr + + + +Love.and.Rage/LR-1: + +total 203 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2512 Feb 17 16:01 README.lr1 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1719 Feb 17 16:00 abclist2.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2454 Feb 17 16:00 acoli.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1802 Feb 17 16:00 actup.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3999 Feb 17 16:00 afa.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 5329 Feb 17 16:00 alf.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4193 Feb 17 16:00 alist.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2349 Feb 17 16:00 annonce.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 9655 Feb 17 16:00 antifare.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 450 Feb 17 16:00 ayfblurb.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1296 Feb 17 16:00 ayfbulg.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 322 Feb 17 16:00 burning.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2362 Feb 17 16:00 calnews.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 9558 Feb 17 16:00 changes.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1481 Feb 17 16:00 columbia.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 11198 Feb 17 16:00 copklan.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4290 Feb 17 16:00 directac.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 425 Feb 17 16:00 discobul.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3950 Feb 17 16:00 fascnote.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1837 Feb 17 16:00 ferre.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2124 Feb 17 16:00 grjury.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1759 Feb 17 16:00 intercal.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1242 Feb 17 16:00 italyout.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1169 Feb 17 16:00 killtv.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 25028 Feb 17 16:01 letfeb.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 5129 Feb 17 16:01 march.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4459 Feb 17 16:01 masthead.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4166 Feb 17 16:01 mexcolon.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 7490 Feb 17 16:01 mumia.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2620 Feb 17 16:01 mxcronol.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2636 Feb 17 16:01 mxfemeng.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2612 Feb 17 16:01 n20spain.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1254 Feb 17 16:01 natoffen.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4298 Feb 17 16:01 ogb.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 6614 Feb 17 16:01 pamove.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1159 Feb 17 16:01 patterso.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1301 Feb 17 16:01 politics.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1730 Feb 17 16:01 serbshot.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2114 Feb 17 16:01 serbwome.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2159 Feb 17 16:01 sidebar.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 9743 Feb 17 16:01 skin.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 16014 Feb 17 16:01 somalia.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3242 Feb 17 16:01 spain.txt + + + +Love.and.Rage/LR-1.espanol: + +total 70 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1535 Feb 27 13:34 abclist.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4401 Feb 27 13:42 andres.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1304 Feb 27 13:58 casapaz.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1670 Feb 28 18:57 dom.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3529 Feb 28 18:58 ezcronol.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 6422 Feb 28 19:01 facnot.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 2282 Feb 28 19:02 madrid.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3445 Feb 28 19:03 mexoct.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3198 Feb 28 19:05 mxfems.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 1881 Feb 28 19:06 nigerisp.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 6338 Feb 28 19:07 presoper.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3006 Feb 28 19:10 spantifa.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 8716 Feb 28 19:13 sppolst.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 568 Feb 28 18:49 subsp.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 3430 Feb 28 19:16 suppgrps.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 5469 Feb 28 19:17 univerp2.txt + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 4407 Feb 28 19:20 vcentmex.txt + + + + + +Organized Thoughts (syndicalist) + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Organized.Thoughts + +total 135 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 27170 Oct 30 22:27 ot.1 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 41047 Oct 30 22:27 ot.2 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 28427 Oct 30 22:27 ot.3 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 39215 Oct 30 22:28 ot.4 + + + + + +Spunk Press (Practical Anarchy Online, plus essays) + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Spunk + +total 888 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 1317 Sep 16 12:10 README.practical.anarchy + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 57418 Feb 8 11:20 civil-disobedience + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 2401 Nov 20 11:43 durruti.interview + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 45211 Nov 25 09:49 pa-1.1 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 29776 Sep 16 12:12 pa-1.2 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 54321 Nov 24 13:34 pa-1.3 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 57609 Jan 19 11:37 pa-2.1 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 338712 Feb 8 11:25 probchild + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 24142 Jan 7 23:19 reading.list + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 262690 Feb 15 03:02 taz.doc + + + + + +Stirner and Egoism + + + +uglymouse% ls -lR Non.Serviam + +total 29 + +drwxr-xr-x 2 pauls 1024 Jan 31 05:31 Stirner + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 5978 Dec 8 08:10 non.serviam-00 + +-rw-r--r-- 1 pauls 22507 Jan 21 10:52 non.serviam-01 + + + +Non.Serviam/Stirner: + +total 553 + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 659 Dec 1 14:17 README.Stirner + +-r--r--r-- 1 pauls 555492 Dec 1 14:10 der.einzige.sea.hqx + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + +That's all kids. Some day there might be an update to this document. + +On the other hand if you don't get off your ass and send me some update + +material, I won't bother. + + + +pauls@umich.edu + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/askacop.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/askacop.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..aff2db79 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/askacop.txt @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +Monday January 31, 1994 + +YOU WANNA KNOW HOW TO HANDLE CRIME? ASK A COP + +By MIKE ROYKO + +THEY'RE ALL over TV and the papers talking about crime: the president of the +United States, his aides, members of Congress, lawyers, professors. They are +promising this and that and vowing to do such and such. + +But I've noticed the absence of one group that might be expected to have some +opinion on crime and what, if anything, can be done to reduce it. + +Cops. + +Oh, once in a while you might get a high-ranking police official, a chief of +some big city department. But police brass sound like the politicians, since +they deal with budgets, manpower charts and other administrative matters. + +By cops, I mean the men and women who go out on the street every day and try to +solve crimes and arrest criminals. + +In all the blather coming out of Washington about crime, and what the +big-spenders will do about it, the invisible man is the street cop. + +So the morning after President Clinton blew hot air at the nation, I called a +friend who has been a cop for many years. He's worked on homicides, robberies, +rapes, just about every form of foul behavior. + +Because he aspires to higher rank, and clout still means something in the +Chicago Police Department, it wouldn't help his career to be known as my +friend. So his name can't be used. + +But he's real. And when I asked him what his reaction was to the current +anti-crime frenzy in the White House and Congress, he said: ''It's a lot of +bull----.'' + +He elaborated. ''There's nothing we haven't heard before. Three strikes and +you're out. We already send up three-time losers in Illinois. Hasn't done +anything to the crime rate. Build more prisons. We can't build enough prisons +to hold all the bad guys. Tougher gun laws. Look, the only people the gun laws +affect are honest people. Frankly, I wish every decent family in America had a +gun and knew how to use it. + +''Besides, federal crime laws don't mean a damn thing to me because about 95 +percent of the crimes in this country are local, not federal. The feds aren't +dealing with shootings in saloons or guys going nuts and killing their wives +and kids or the neighbors. Most of their busts are white-collar. So federal +laws don't mean squat when it comes to everyday crime. + +''Now, I'm in a minority, but a lot of cops agree with me on this. And that's +the drug laws. We're wasting our time trying to control that crap. We're +wasting billions of dollars and throwing people in jail who are just +self-destructive goofs. + +''We'd be better off doing what we do with liquor and cigarettes. Tax them and +license the sale. Sure, people abuse booze and they smoke. But smoking is way +down because most people know it's bad for them. The same thing with booze. +More white wine and light beer and fewer boilermakers. + +''It's the same thing with drugs. Right now, most people don't use drugs. If +you legalize it, most people still won't use drugs. + +''But you take away the illegal profit motive, there go the drug peddlers, the +gangs and the other serious crime. And most of the police and political +corruption. + +''Then you wouldn't have thousands of cops wasting their time trying to bust +some small-time dealer. You wouldn't have them clogging up the courts and +filling up cells that somebody dangerous should be in. + +''But you don't hear the politicians say that because they're afraid of the +people who say: 'I don't want my kids buying drugs.' Hey, lady, if your kid +wants to buy drugs right now, he can do it. And maybe he already is. + +''Look back 20 years. Anybody who said we ought to legalize gambling in +Illinois was treated like a nut. The Mafia will take it over. Where there's a +casino there will be murder and prostitution, and families are going to fall +apart because the old man is blowing his paycheck at the blackjack table. + +''Now we got gambling boats all over Illinois. We're going to have them in +Chicago and the suburbs. And it's no big deal. The sky isn't falling. + +''Same thing with drugs. What, somebody is going to smoke some marijuana at +home, listen to music, then go out and shoot everybody he sees? No, he's going +to fall asleep and get up the next morning with less of a hangover than if he +drank three boilermakers. + +''Now, if you legalize the stuff, and tax it, you save billions of dollars that +we're wasting now, and you bring in a lot of extra money from the taxes. + +''Then you take that money and use some of it for rehabbing the junkies. + +''But you also find ways to invest it in places like the West Side, in public +works projects or to help start private businesses that will create jobs. +Because that's where it all started, the craziness and the higher crime rate. +When the low-skill jobs disappeared, the husbands were out of work and they +disappeared. And that's why we have all these one-parent or no-parent families +that turn out the street criminals. + +''Hey, but what do I know? I only go out there and arrest them, fill out the +paperwork and go to court. + +''It's not like I'm some expert in Washington and get on C-Span.'' diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/asset.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/asset.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..862c0495 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/asset.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1060 @@ +[1] Forfeiture Info from BJA, IA +Keywords: Bureau of Justice Assistance, Forfeiture +Date: Thu May 06 20:05:24 MDT 1993 +Organization: Apple Computer Inc. +Lines: 1009 + + +ASSET FORFEITURE + +Civil Forfeiture: Tracing the Proceeds of Narcotics Trafficing + +Prepared by: +Police Executive Research Forum +Michael Goldsmith + +November 1988 +Addendum Added January 1992 + +U.S. Department of Justice +Office of Justice Programs + + Bureau of Justice Assistance + +U.S. Department of Justice +William P. Barr.........................Attorney General + +Office of Justice Programs +Jimmy Gurule............................Assistant Attorney General + +Bureau of Justice Assistance +Gerald (Jerry) P. Regier................Acting Director + +Elliott A. Brown........................Deputy Director + +James C. Swain..........................Director, Policy Development + and Management Division + +Curtis H. Straub, II....................Director, State and Local + Assistance Division + +Pamela Swain............................Director, Discretionary Grant + Programs Division + +William F. Powers Director..............Special Programs + + Division + +Bureau of Justice Assistance +633 Indiana Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20531 +(202) 514 6278 + +The Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, coordinates +the activities of the following program Offices and Bureaus: Bureau of +Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of +Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the +Office for Victims of Crime. + + + U.S. Department of Justice + Office of Justice Programs + Bureau of Justice Assistance + +Office of the Director Washington DC 25031 + +Dear Colleague: + +Illicit drug traffic continues to flourish in every part of the country. +The cash received by the traffickers is often converted to assets that + + can be used by drug dealers in ways that suit their individual tastes. +Since 1981, federal authorities have increased their attack on these +assets through both criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings with +remarkable success. The recent passage and use of state asset forfeiture +laws offers an excellent means for state and local jurisdictions to +emulate the federal success. + +The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), in the Office of Justice +Programs, has funded a nationally focused technical assistance and +training program to help state and local jurisdictions facilitate +broader use of such laws. BJA selected the Police Executive Research +Forum to develop and administer this program because of its history of +involvement in practical problem-oriented research to improve police +operations and the Forum's central role in developing training materials +for use by police agencies and chief executives. + +As part of this project, the Forum has contracted with experts in the +area of asset forfeiture and financial investigations to prepare a +series of short manuals dealing with different concerns in the area of +asset forfeiture. We hope these manuals help meet the rapidly unfolding +needs of the law enforcement community as more and more agencies apply +their own forfeiture laws and strive to learn from the successes and +problems of their peers. + + +I welcome hearing your comments about this program. We have this project +so that most requests for information or assistance can be handled +through the Forum staff in Washington, D.C., by calling 202/466-7820. + + Sincerely yours, + + Gerald (Jerry) P Regier + Acting Director + + +Table of Contents + +Civil Forfeiture: Tracing the Proceeds of Narcotics Trafficking +The Advantages of Civil Forfeiture +Standard and Procedures +Common Evidentiary Factors +Close Proximity +Means of Support +Concealment Efforts and Commingled Funds +Pre-Trial Statements +Narcotics Records +Evasive Trial Testimony + + Net Worth Analysis +Basic Net Worth Analysis +Tax and Forfeiture Proceedings Distinguished +Net Worth Forfeiture Cases +Conclusion +Endnotes + +1991 Addendum + +Proceeds Broadly Defined +The Government's Burden of Proof +General Evidentiary Principles +Common Factors of Circumstantial Proof +Conclusion +Addendum Endnotes + + +Civil Forfeiture: Tracing The Proceeds Of Narcotics Trafficking + +Asset forfeiture has recently become an important weapon in the fight +against narcotics trafficking. This development was initially spurred by +enactment of the RICO and CCE statutes statute in 1970.(1) Through this +law, Congress sought to provide law enforcement with a way to disgorge + + criminal enterprises of their profits.(2) Significantly, by authorizing +forfeiture as a criminal sanction applied directly against the +perpetrator, RICO went well beyond traditional forfeiture statutes that +merely allowed civil proceedings against contraband or property used +during the commission of a crime.(3) + +In 1978, further expansion was achieved when Congress authorized civil +forfeiture of any proceeds derived from narcotics trafficking in +violation of federal law. By expanding the type of property subject to +seizure, 21 U.S.C. Section 881(6) gave prosecutors their first effective +civil mechanism for striking at the profits of narcotics trafficking.(4) +State enactment of comparable provisions soon followed.(5) However, +though federal officials have pursued this remedy aggressively,(6) its +potential has not yet been realized by the states. Three factors may +explain this phenomenon. First, federal forfeiture law is more favorable +to prosecutors than most state statutes. Second, federal resources +exceed state levels. Third, there is the perception that forfeiture of +profits is often impractical because, absent a monetary seizure +contemporaneous with a narcotics transaction, the targeted asset must be +traced to narcotics trafficking.(7) Tracing is a complex process +requiring adequate resources and legislative tools, as well as +investigative creativity and diligence. + + + Despite these limitations, however, tracing an asset to narcotics +trafficking is not an insurmountable task. Federal courts have +identified a number of factors that may be sufficient to achieve the +required linkage. Though federal law is admittedly highly favorable, the +factors themselves transcend federal grounds. They are equally +applicable to state litigation. Moreover, relying upon analyses +comparable to "net worth" proof used in tax litigation, imaginative +investigators may be able to develop new avenues for attacking this +problem. This paper will provide an overview of the legal principles +that must be considered in achieving successful proceeds forfeitures. It +consists of four sections. Section I will review the advantages of civil +forfeiture in a tracing context. Section II will review federal +standards and procedures, and contrast them with selected state +statutes. Section III will set forth common evidentiary factors in +tracing litigation. Finally, Section IV will summarize pertinent +considerations derived from net worth litigation. + +The Advantages of Civil Forfeiture + +Although tracing is a complex process, prospects for successful +forfeiture are eased considerably by the procedural benefits of civil +process. The most obvious feature is the lower burden of proof +confronting enforcement officials: proof by a preponderance of the + + evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.(8) Furthermore, under +federal law and some state legislation, the burden of proof is placed on +the claimant rather than the government.(9) Thus, enforcement officials +need not achieve certainty in their tracing efforts. They need only +satisfy a relaxed standard of proof This is an advantage of enormous +consequence, as many cases turn on the burden of proof. Moreover, even +if criminal prosecution was precluded by operation of the exclusionary +rule, civil forfeiture may still be possible. Although the exclusionary +rule applies to forfeiture proceedings, tainted evidence may still be +sufficient to meet the lower burden of proof.(10) Indeed, civil +forfeiture may be a viable option despite an acquittal on criminal +charges.(11) + +The civil context provides other advantages as well. For example, +prosecutors may resort to the discovery process to obtain information +pertinent to tracing.(12) The claimant may be deposed and disclosure of +his records compelled. Perjury and contempt sanctions are potentially +available against untruthful or recalcitrant witnesses. And, while the +Fifth Amendment may still be asserted, a civil claimant risks an adverse +factual finding by doing so.(13) This possibility places the claimant in +a particular bind if criminal charges against him are still pending. +Asserting the Fifth Amendment may result in an adverse factual +determination, while answering questions may have incriminating + + consequences in the criminal proceedings.(14) And, regardless of whether +criminal charges are pending, discovery is likely to provide useful +information for impeachment if the claimant testifies at the forfeiture +proceeding. Such testimony will often be necessary because, once the +government's evidentiary burden has been sustained, failure to provide +responsive proof will result in an adverse judgment.(15) Often times, +however, such testimony proves counterproductive because it is presented +in an evasive or inconsistent manner. + +A civil claimant is also required to establish his standing to contest +the forfeiture. Frequently, legal title to property will be in someone's +name other than the real party at interest. Most courts will not permit +forfeitures to be contested by such so-called straw men. Thus, before +the prosecution must present its proof, the claimant must establish his +standing. Normally, this requires proof of dominion and control beyond +mere legal title.(16) Federal law and some state statutes require that +this be initially accomplished by filing a verified claim.(17) In +addition, some United States Attorneys offices routinely make standing a +central discovery issue.(18) Thus, civil claimants are by no means +assured automatic access to the courtroom. + +For these reasons, the civil claimant is in a very difficult position +relative to his posture in a criminal trial. Indeed, notwithstanding + + tracing obstacles confronting the government, many cases are uncontested +by potential claimants or otherwise lost on standing grounds.(19) This +means that, even when tracing obstacles exist, forfeiture proceedings +should be considered since the government may never be put to its proof. + +Standards and Procedures + +Federal standards and procedures are designed to facilitate the civil +forfeiture of proceeds. 21 U.S.C. Section 881(a)(6) authorizes the +forfeiture of "all moneys, negotiable instruments, securities, or other +things of value furnished or intended to be furnished by any person in +exchange for a controlled substance... [and] all proceeds traceable to +such an exchange..."(20) The term proceeds extends to interest, +dividends, income, or property derived from the original trafficking +profits. This broad scope is a consequence of the relation back theory: + +When a statute provides for civil forfeiture, the forfeiture takes place +at the moment the property is used or generated illegally, unless the +statute provides otherwise. At that moment, all rights and legal title +to the property vest in the government and any subsequent transfer is of +no effect. In the eyes of the law, the subsequent judicial proceedings +merely confirm or perfect a forfeiture that has, in theory, already +taken place. This is known [sic] as the "relation back" doctrine and it + + is one of the peculiar legal rules that makes civil forfeiture such an +effective weapon against crime. Because the government's right to +proceeds relates back to the time they are generated, it is legally +entitled to all the gain thereafter accruing from the proceeds. + +Once the action has been brought, the government's burden is merely to +establish probable cause to forfeit the property at issue.(22) Hearsay +evidence may be used to meet this burden.(23) Moreover, the probable +cause standard does not require any showing by a preponderance of the +evidence. Instead, probable cause is flexibly defined as a "reasonable +ground for belief...[that the property constitutes proceeds of narcotics +trafficking], supported by less than prima facie proof, but more than +mere suspicion."(24) There is no need to trace the proceeds to a +particular narcotics transaction; it is enough if the proceeds can be +linked to narcotics trafficking generally.(25) Once this initial burden +has been satisfied, the burden shifts to the claimant who must establish +his case by a preponderance of the evidence.(26) Should the claimant +fail to present any evidence, the property will be forfeited.(27) + +Given this favorable climate, civil forfeitures have flourished +federally. Two recent cases demonstrate this point. In the United States +v. $33,000 United States Currency,(28) probable cause for forfeiture was +satisfied by the following evidence: l) claimant's guilty plea to + + conspiracy to distribute marijuana and to evade taxes; 2) the seizure of +$33,000 located in a brown paper bag in claimant's home; 3) the presence +of drugs on the premises; and 4) claimant's lack of legitimate +employment. Although claimant presented evidence that he had received +$21,915.92 from the recent sale of a horse, the court fownd that his +burden of proof had not been met because of his failure to explain his +cash transactions at a time when he had no apparent source of +income.(29) + +In United States v. Brock,(30) the government sought forfeiture of +jewelry, valued at $120,000, which was found in a bag in claimant's +attic. Despite the absence of any direct evidence connecting the jewelry +with claimant's narcotics activity, the Court of Appeals concluded +probable cause was present: + +The circumstances were sufficient to warrant a conclusion that there was +no other way Brock could have acquired the jewelry than... by proceeds +of the alleged narcotics violation. The jewelry was found secreted in +the same house as the narcotics and paraphernalia for distribution of +narcotics. In addition, a large quantity of cash and a loaded revolver, +further suggestive of ongoing narcotics activity, were seized at the +house. These circumstances fairly lead to an inference that the jewelry +was the proceeds of narcotics activity... Circumstantial evidence and + + inferences therefrom are good grounds for a finding of probable cause in +a forfeiture proceeding. + +The conclusion to forfeit the property was justified... [especially] +given the evidence that the claimant had no source of legitimate income +for several years preceding the seizure.(31) + +From these examples, it is apparent that forfeiture of proceeds is +relatively easy to accomplish under federal law. Though state laws are +usually not as prosecution oriented, they are still adequate. Three +generalizations may be drawn from statutes in selected states.(32) +First, some states have adopted the federal approach to civil +forfeiture. In Arizona, for example, the law requires prosecutors to +establish probable cause for forfeiture; once this standard has been +met, the claimant has the burden of proof.(33) Similar rules may apply +in Florida, though principally because of judicial interpretation rather +than explicit statutory mandate.(34) Moreover, even in jurisdictions not +adopting the federal model, federal cases are still valuable persuasive +authority. + +Second, although the federal probable cause standard is especially +attractive to prosecutors, the traditional preponderance of the evidence +burden is not substantially more difficult to meet. Fortunately, state + + courts have not raised the civil forfeiture standard to proof beyond a +reasonable doubt.(35) In addition, most state laws place the burden of +proof on the claimant to establish any available statutory +exemptions.(36) Such exemptions, however, rarely raise tracing issues. + +Third, many state statutes estab,ish presumptions providing that money +or negotiable instruments found in "close proximity" to contro,led +substances are presumed to be forfeitable.(37) Though rebuttable, this +presumption places the burden of proof on the claimant. Thus, in close +proximity cases, state practice does not deviate significantly from +federal practice. Predictably, most state civil forfeitures of proceeds +have involved close proximity seizures. Though there have been numerous +successes,(38) few reported state decisions have involved complex +tracing efforts.(39) This suggests that state authorities are not +attempting more difficult forfeitures. If this record is to improve, +states must develop legally sufficient techniques for tracing proceeds +in non-proximity situations. Fortunately, common evidentiary factors may +be gleaned from well established federal jurisprudence. + +Common Evidentiary Factors + +The common perception is that tracing proceeds to narcotics trafficking +necessarily involves a complex paper trail. On occasion, of course, that + + is exactly what is required. If so, investigators must be prepared to +subpoena and analyze documents from a wide variety of institutions. In +re Maria Familienstiftung v. United States,(40) for example, narcotics +proceeds used to purchase real estate were traced through various +domestic and foreign banks. This process involved subpoenaing documents +from the banks and obtaining testimony from both bank employees and +couriers used by the narcotics trafficker. In addition, the veil of +various nominee corporations had to be pierced. Ultimately, the +forfeiture was successful.(41) Similarly, in United States v. Banco +Cafetero Panama,(42) extensive bank record analysis was necessary to +track the flow of $3 million in narcotics proceeds through five bank +accounts. Moreover, once traced, proceeds co-mingled with legitimate +funds had to be distinguished.(43) Fortunately, the appellate court +allowed the government the benefit of a favorable accounting procedure +to facilitate this task.(44) + +The majority of reported proceeds decisions, however, have not required +complex documents analysis. In large part, this may be explained by the +judiciary's willingness to allow assets to be traced to narcotics +trafficking generally rather than to a particular narcotics +transaction.(45) A review of the cases establishes that tracing usually +involves a few relatively simple factors. Although these factors are +usually present in varying combinations, they are best examined in + + isolation. Accordingly, they are set forth separately below: + +Close Proximity + +Cases in which the targeted proceeds are found in close proximity to +narcotics provide the easiest forfeiture setting. The Brock and $33, 000 +United States Currency decisions, supra, illustrate this point.(46) + +Means of Support + +Most cases involve an obvious discrepancy between the claimant's life- +style and his apparent means of support. This category actually consists +of a number of factors: a) strong evidence of narcotics trafficking; b) +high expenditures, often in cash; and c) little or no legitimate source +of income. Thus, for example, it is quite common for courts to stress +that claimant's cash expenditwes far exceed his available income from +legitimate employment. For example, in United States v. One 1990 +Chevrolet Blazer,(47) these factors plus evidence of efforts to conceal +the purchase were sufficient to establish probable cause.(48) In United +States v. Young(49) and United States v. Murillo,(50) evidence of +defendants' narcotics trafficking, combined with tax returns, was +sufficient for forfeiture of substantial assets in a criminal +proceeding. Therefore, discrepant life-style factors are surely + + pertinent in any civil forfeiture proceeding. Cash expenditures, in +particular, have proven to be extremely probative.(51) Furthermore, the +claimant is in an obvious bind when he is unable to provide proof of +legitimate employment. Note, however, that there must be evidence of +narcotics trafficking. It obviously is not enough that the claimant was +involved in criminality generally. + +Concealment Efforts and Commingled Funds + +A few courts have suggested that efforts to conceal ownership may be +pertinent to forfeiture. This makes sense, since any person investing +narcotics proceeds has a strong incentive to conceal their source. For +example, in United States v. A Single Family Residence,(52) a probable +cause factor cited by the Court was the trafficker's acknowledgment of +having formed fictitious corporations to hide assets.(53) Similarly, +concealment efforts were also mentioned by the court in Chevrolet +Blazer, supra.(52) On occasion, concealment is accomplished by +commingling narcotics proceeds with legitimate funds. Under such +circumstances, forfeiture may be on a percentage basis.(55) When bank +accounts are involved, at least one court has applied a different +analysis. Banco Cafetero Panama, supra, permitted the government to +maximize the proceeds subject to forfeiture by giving prosecutors the +option of two accounting procedures: "drugs-in, last out" or "drugs-in, + + first-out."(56) The former may be preferred when the government seeks +funds remaining in the account, while the latter may be preferred when +the government seeks to forfeit an asset purchased with funds from the +account. + +Pre-Trial Statements + +Many forfeiture decisions place heavy reliance on statements made by the +claimant before trial. Generally, these are statements made to +associates or to undercover agents during the investigative stage of the +case. For example, in United States v. A Single Family Residence,(57) +testimony from several co-conspirators established that the trafficker +had told them narcotics proceeds had been used to buy the property.(58) +Similar statement in United States v. Premises Known as 2639 +Meetinghouse established that narcotics proceeds had been invested in +several bars.(59) And in United States v. All Funds,(60) the claimant +confided to an undercover agent, posing as a bank officer, that 60 to 70 +percent of certain corporate deposits were narcotics proceeds. Such +statements have also been obtained through nonconsensual electronic +surveillance.(61) Finally, even evasive answers to questions concerning +ownership of property have been cited as a factor in meeting the +government's evidentiary burden.(62) + + + Narcotics Records + +Although narcotics records are rarely located, they have provided a +useful way to establish a trafficker's profits. For example, in United +States v. Lewis, entries in a drug ledger were persuasively correlated +with currency deposits and expenditures on various homes.(63) Such +records are also a valuable source of potential impeachment material. + +Evasive Trial Testimony + +A major factor in many forfeiture trials has been the weak testimony +presented by the claimant. As previously stated, burden of proof +considerations effectively compel claimants to present some proof.(64) +When they do so, however, the result is often detrimental to their +interests. Technically, evasive or inconsistent testimony merely serves +to undercut the defendant's case, but its real impact implicitly +strengthens the government's position. For example, in United States v. +Yukon Delta Houseboat,(65) claimant testified that a loan was the source +of funds used to purchase property. The Court of Appeals, however, +doubted his credibility because his testimony at trial regarding the +details of that purported loan were in some respects inconsistent with +his prior deposition testimony. "Furthermore,... he never listed any... +Ioan... as a liability on [various credit] application."(66) Similarly, + + in United States v. One Parcel of Real Property, the Court clearly +regarded claimant's testimony concerning the source of funds for payment +as a pure fable.(67) + +Net Worth Analysis + +The cases discussed in Section III demonstrate that forfeiture may be +accomplished without resort to complex financial analyses. Even so, +although many of those cases involved substantial proceeds, greater +success may require more sophisticated approaches. The logical next step +is a net worth analysis borrowed from criminal tax litigation. In +essence, this procedure seeks to establish that, an individual's +reported income from legitimate sources is inconsistent with either his +expenditures or his increased net worth during a designated time +period.(68) In criminal tax cases, this contrast establishes nonpayment +of income taxes. In narcotics cases, this procedure, combined with +evidence of narcotics trafficking, may be used to establish that assets +were acquired with trafficking proceeds. To appreciate the impact of +this analysis, three factors should be considered: l) the basics of net +worth analysis; 2) significant differences between tax and forfeiture +cases; and 3) the experience with net worth forfeiture cases. + +Basic Net Worth Analysis + + +The complexities of net worth analysis are beyond the scope of this +paper. In essence, however, the procedure may be summarized as follows: + +The Government makes out a prima facie case... if it establishes the +defendant's opening net worth... with reasonable certainty and then +shows increases in his net worth for each year in question which, added +to his nondeductible expenditures and excluding his known nontaxable +receipts for the year, exceed his reported taxable income by a +substantial amount.... The jury may infer that the defendant's excess +net worth increases represent unreported taxable income if the +Government either shows a likely source,... or negates all possible +nontaxable sources.(69) + +The Supreme Court has legitimized this practice, provided that three +requirements are met: a) the opening net worth must be established with +reasonable certainty; b) reasonable explanations by the taxpayer +inconsistent with guilt must be negated; and c) the net worth increase +must be attributable to currently taxable income.(70) These requirements +cause substantial burdens for the government. For example, to establish +a defendant's opening net worth, an exhaustive investigation of +documents and witnesses must be undertaken.(71) In particular, the +investigation must be sufficiently thorough to negate the possibility of + + a cash hoard defense in which the taxpayer maintains that substantial +cash reserves account for the appearance of increased net worth. This is +said to be the "most frequent challenge to the government's +computations..."(72) Thus, it is not uncommon for investigations to +consume many agents' time over several years.(73) As a result, this +procedure is saved for complex tax cases in which direct proof of guilt +is unavailable. + +Tax and Forfeiture Proceedings Distinguished + +Tax and forfeiture proceedings are similar in one critical respect. Each +requires the government to identify an asset or source of income. +Frequently, this item has been concealed in some manner. Fundamental +differences, however, make net worth procedure easier to apply in civil +forfeitures. The principal distinction is the civil nature of the +forfeiture proceeding. Because forfeitures are civil, the burden of +proof is not the "beyond a reasonable doubt standard."(74) This means +that opening net worth may be established with less certainty than in +criminal prosecutions. It also means that not every hypothesis +inconsistent with guilt need be negated. Ironically, since civil +discovery is available in forfeitures, it is also easier to meet the +requirements of a net worth case. The claimant, for example, may be +deposed and asked to state his net worth at particular time periods. He + + may be compelled to produce supporting documentation. He may be asked to +account for any cash hoards, and to explain all sources of income. +Despite these obvious advantages, however, net worth theory has rarely +been applied to forfeitures. + +Net Worth Forfeiture Cases + +A review of federal and state decisions reveals only two cases that +explicitly apply to the net worth theory in this context. Other +decisions, however, have relied on informal variations of this doctrine +emphasizing the discrepancy between a claimant's life-style and his +apparent means of legitimate support. Examples of this approach have +already been supplied.(75) Another illustration, which comes a step +closer to using net worth analysis, is United States v. Four Parcels of +Real Estate.(76) Civil forfeiture was effected through the following +evidence: a) extensive evidence of claimant's cash expenditures on his +home; b) a tax return showing gross income in 1980 of $35,650; and c) +two financial statements, found during a search incident to arrest, +showing a net worth of $239,000 in 1981 and of $1,079,000 in 1983. +Apparently, no effort was made to comply with formal net worth +requirements, but probable cause was still found. + +Given the government's probable cause burden in federal cases, it is + + unlikely that complex net worth analysis will have to be used in that +context. Two criminal forfeiture cases, however, have used this method +successfully. In United States v. Harvey,(77) the government conducted +an in-depth analysis of defendant's records. The investigation included +records from his corporations, banks, real estate holdings, and tax +returns. Critical statements by the defendant were obtained through +nonconsensual electronic surveillance.(78) Based on this evidence, +prosecutors established at trial that the defendant had a zero net worth +in 1976, earned approximately $120,000 from legitimate sources between +1976 to 1982, and accumulated a net worth of $4.5 million during that +time period. This evidence was considered sufficient for a restraining +order holding the assets for trial. In reaching this decision, the judge +cited the government's use of net worth analysis which had been approved +in tax cases.(79) Because defendant Harvey never went to trial, however, +the net worth analysis was not tested again. + +At this writing, United States v. Lewis(80) is the only reported +decision explicitly addressing the net worth doctrine in a forfeiture +setting. Although it stands alone, Lewis is very significant because it +was a criminal forfeiture. Since the government was able to use net +worth analysis successfully under the reasonable doubt standard, the +doctrine holds great potential for civil forfeitures operating under the +preponderance standard and liberal discovery rules. Moreover, Lewis is + + significant because the court applied the net worth doctrine despite the +government's failure to establish the defendant's opening net worth. The +Court held that "where the government shows an accumulation of income +far beyond the defendant's legitimate means, an opening net worth figure +is not essential."(81) + +Although this holding was limited to the "unique facts" involved,(82) +Lewis is potentially broadly applicable because its circumstances, in +fact, were hardly unique. Rather, the court stressed factors typical of +many narcotics investigations. First, consensually recorded tapes +revealed the defendant's statement refuting "the possibility of a +preexisting legitimate source for his remarkably high net worth."(83) +Second, the decision observed that "the government proved the existence +of a lucrative drug distribution enterprise over several years."(84) +Third, "the government's financial evidence was thorough; for the period +in question, the evidence [appeared] to foreclose all leads which might +have suggested other legitimate sources of income."(85) Accordingly, +Lewis provides an appropriate benchmark for considering future net worth +applications.(86) + +Conclusion + +Asset forfeiture continues to hold great potential for attacking large + + scale narcotics trafficking. Using the benefits of civil discovery and a +lower burden of proof, law enforcement has an important opportunity to +strike at the profits generated by such criminality. Thus far, most +civil forfeitures have been accomplished by federal authorities. +Although federal law is admittedly preferable to most state statutes, +the states do have adequate legal tools to achieve comparable success. +Existing case law demonstrates that forfeitures can be accomplished +through modes of proof that are relatively straightforward. Beyond that, +net worth analysis may offer new means for reaching the proceeds of +complex narcotics enterprises. + +Endnotes + +1. 18 U.S.C. Section 1961 et seq. (1976); 21 U.S.C. Section 848 (1983). + +2. See, e.g., Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 27-28 (1983); S. +Rep. No. 617, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 78 (1969). + +For a historical overview of criminal and civil forfeiture doctrine see +Clark, Civil and Criminal Penalties and Forfeitures: A Framework for +Constitutional Analysis, 60 Minn. L. Rev. 379 (1976); Maxeiner, Bane of +American Forfeiture Law Q Banished At Last?. 62 Cornell L. Rev. 768 +(1977). + + +4. Smith, Prosecution And Defense Of Forfeiture Cases 4-2 (1986) +[hereinafter cited as Smith, Forfeiture]. + +5. Citations to some pertinent state statutes are set forth infra notes +33, 36-37. + +6. As recently as 1981, however, federal enforcement efforts were +severely criticized. See Asset Forfeiture Q a Seldom Used Tool In +Combatting Drug Trafficking (GAO April 1981). + +7. See generally The National Governors' Association, Et Al., State Laws +And Procedures Affecting Drug Trafficking Control:A National Overview +73-77 + +8. See, e.g., United States v. Regan, 232 U.S. 37, 50(1914). + +9. See infra notes 22-24, 33-35 and accompanying text. + +10. See, e.g., United States v. $31,828,760 F.2d 228, 230 (8th Cir. +1985); United States v. Monkey, 725 F.2d 1007,1012 (5th Cir. 1984). + +11. See United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms, 465 U.S. 354, + + 360 (1983); United States v. Fifty Thousand Dollars, 757 F.2d 103,104 +(6th Cir. 1985); United States v. Premises Known as 2639 Meetinghouse, +633 F. Supp. 979, 983 (E.D. Pa. 1986) (one of forfeiture claimants had +never been prosecuted). + +12. SMITH, Forfeiture, supra note 4, at 10-3. + +13. See Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 318 (1976). In United States +v. A Single Family Residence, 803 F.2d 625, 629 n.4 (11th Cir. 1986), +Baxter was cited as permitting an adverse inference when a witness +asserted the Fifth Amendment in a civil deposition. + +14. For this reason, claimants customarily request that civil +proceedings be stayed pending resolution of the criminal case. This +issue is discussed in Smith, Forfeiture, supra note 4, at 10-2. + +15. See, e.g., United States v. A Single Family Residence, 803 F.2d 625, +629-30 (11th Cir. 1986). + +16. See id., at 630; re Maria Familienstiftung v. United States, 643 F. +Supp. 139, 145 (S.D. Fla. 1986) (citing other authority). + +17. See, e.g., Smith, Forfeiture, supra note 4, at 9-62; N.J. STAT. ANN. + + Section 2C:64-3(d) (West 1982). + +18. Smith, Forfeiture, supra note 4, at 9-54.2. A further benefit of +civil forfeiture is the government's right to appeal. See id., at 11-26. + +19. This is especially so when couriers have been intercepted. Under +such circumstances, the courier may not have the necessary legal +interest in the proceeds, and his employer is rarely inclined to risk +discovery by contesting the forfeiture. Id., at 420. In many instances, +all concerned deny ownership. Id., at 4-23. Consequently, default +judgments are quite common. Id., at 4-28. + +20. The full text of section 881 is set forth in the appendix. + +21. Smith, Forfeiture, supra note 4, at 434 to 4-35. + +22. See, e.g., Unites States v. $41,305 in Currency, 802 F.2d 1339,1343 +n.6 (11th Cir. 1986); Unites States v. $5,644,540 in Currency, 799 F.2d +1357,1362 (9th Cir. 1986). + +23. See, e.g., United States v. One 56 Foot Motor Yacht, 702 F.2d +1276,1282 (9th Cir. 1983); United States v. One 1964 Beechcraft, 691 +F.2d 725, 728 (5th Cir. 1982). + + +24. United States v. $250,000 in Currency, 808 F.2d 895, 897 (1st Cir. +1987); United States v. A Single Family Residence, 803 F.2d 625, 628 +(11th Cir. 1986). + +25. See, e.g., United States v. $4,255,625.39 in Currency, 762 F.2d 895, +904 (11th Cir. 1985); Unites States v. $13,000 in Currency, 733 F.2d +581, 585 (8th Cir. 1984). + +26. See, e.g., United States v. Banco Cafetero Panama, 797 F.2d +1154,1160 (2d Cir. 1986); United States v. $4,265,000 in Currency, 762 +F.2d 895, 904 (11th Cir. 1985) (citing extensive authority). + +27. See, e.g., United States v. $250, 000 in Currency, 808 F.2d 895, 900 +(1st Cir. 1987); United States v. A Single Family Residence, 803 F.2d +625, 629-30 (11th Cir. 1986). + +28. 640 F. Supp. 899-900 (D. Md. 1986). + +29. Id., at 900. + +30. 747 F.2d 761, 762-63 (D.C. Cir. 1984). + + + 31. Id. + +32. This project involved a survey of cases and statutes in the +following states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, +Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. In addition, every +state was surveyed for cases involving net worth analysis or explicit +analysis focusing on the tracing concept. No traditional net worth case +was located. Pertinent state decisions are cited in the footnotes below. + +33. ARIZ. REV. STAT. ANN. Section 13-4305, 4311(H)(Supp. 1986). + +34. In re Forfeiture of Approximately $48,900, 432 So. 2d 1382,1385 +(Fla, Dist. Ct. App. 1983)(noting legislative intent to conform to +federal law). This decision is potentially very important because +prosecutors won a favorable interpretation despite statutory language +which did not reflect the federal model. See also People v. Lot 23,Q +Colo.QP.2dQ(April 13,1987)(forfeiture under public nuisance statute; +holding that once the government establishes a prima facie case, burden +shifts to claimant and that claimant's failure to present evidence +mandates forfeiture). + +35. See People v. Lot 23, 735 P.2d 184,188 (Colo. 1987); Commonwealth v. +$15,836.85QCash, 511 A.2d 871, 873 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1986); ILL. ANN. STAT + + ch. 56 v2 para. 1655(3)(b)(Smith-Hurd, Supp. 1986). + +36. See FLA. STAT. ANN. Section 893.10 (West 1976, Supp. 1987); GA. CODE +ANN. Section 16-13-50 (Supp. 1986); MICH. STAT. ANN. Section 14.15(7531) +(1987 Supp.). + +37. See ILL. STAT. ANN. ch. 561/2 para. 1505(5) (Smith-Hurd, Supp. +1986); MICH STAT. ANN. Section 14.15(7521)(f)(Supp. 1987); PA. STAT. +ANN. tit. 35, Section 780-128(1)(iii)(Supp. 1986). + +38. See, e.g., People v. Lot 23, 735 P.2d 184,189-91 (Colo. 1987) +(judicial inference). See also People v. Strong, 502 N.E.2d 744, 748-49 +(Ill. App. 3rd Dist. 1986); Commonwealth v. $15,836.85QCash, 511 A.2d +871 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1986). + +39. Two Pennsylvania decisions stand out as significant in this respect. +See Lappas v. Brown, 483 A.2d 979, 983-84 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1984) (some +evaluation of bank records and claimant's reported source of legitimate +income); MI Grossman v. Commissioner of Police, 465 A.2d 1007,1009 (Pa. +Super. Ct. 1983) (detailed analysis of marijuana sales operation; issue +not addressed on appeal). + +40. 643 F. Supp. 139 (S.D. Fla. 1986). + + +41. Id., at 142-48. + +42. 797 F.2d 1154 (2d Cir. 1986). + +43. Id., at 1157-59. + +44. Id., at 1159-62. + +45. See supra note 25 and accompanying text. + +46. See supra notes 28-31, and 37-38 and accompanying text. + +47. 572 F. Supp. 994 (E.D.N.Y. 1983). + +48. Id., at 995-96. + +49. 745 F.2d 733, 745-46, 762-63 (2d Cir. 1984). + +50. 709 F.2d 1298,1298-99 (9th Cir. 1983). + +51. See generally United States v. Four Parcels of Real Estate, 647 F. +Supp. 1440 (N.D. Ala. 1986); United States v. One Plymouth Colt Vista, + + 644 F. Supp. 1546, 1549-50 (N.D. Ill. 1986); United States v. One Chevy +Blazer, 572 F. Supp. 994, 995 (E.D.N.Y. 1983). + +52. 803 F.2d 625 (11th Cir. 1986). + +53. Id., at 629. + +54. 572 F. Supp. at 996. See also United States v. One 1980 Red Ferrari, +827 F.2d 477 (9th Cir. 1987) (fictitious name). + +55. See United States v. Premises Known as 2639 Meetinghouse, 633 F. +Supp. g79, 990 (E.D. Pa. 1986). + +56. 797 F.2d at 1159. + +57. 803 F.2d 625 (11th Cir. 1986). + +58. Id., at 629. + +59. 633 F. Supp. 979, 983-85 (E.D. PA. 1986). + +60. QF. Supp.Q (S.D.N.Y. 1986) (Lexis Genfed Library). +61. See United States v. Harvey, 560 F. Supp. 1040,1090-91 (S.D. Fla. + + 1983). + +62. See United States v. Certain Real Property, 568 F. Supp. 434, 436 +(W.D. Ark. 1983). + +63. 759 F.2d 1316,1330 (8th Cir. 1985). + +64. See supra note 15 and accompanying text. + +65. 774 F.2d 1432 (9th Cir. 1985). + +66. Id., at 1435. + +67. 648 F. Supp. 436, 437-38 (D. Mass. 1986). + +68. For an excellent review of net worth analysis, see U.S. Department +of Justice, Criminal Tax Manual Section 31 et seq. (1985) [hereinafter +cited as Criminal Tax Manual]. + +69. United States v. Sorentino, 726 F.2d 876, 879-80 (1st Cir. 1984). + +70. Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121,132-37 (1954). + + + 71. Criminal Tax Manual, supra note 68, at 31-17. + +72. Id., at 31-26. + +73. Id., at 31-19 et seq. (citing numerous examples). + +74. See supra note 8 and accompanying text. + +75. See supra notes 47-51 and accompanying text. In addition, a +substantial number of criminal casesQnot involving forfeitureQhave used +this method to corroborate criminality. See Nossen, "One-on one" +Uncorroborated Testimony: the Dilemma of Prosecutors, Defense Attorneys +and the Courts in Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, Cases, 58 NOTRE DAME L. REV. +1019 (1983) (containing numerous citations); R. Nossen, The Detection, +Investigation And Prosecution Of Financial Crimes (1982). + +76. 647 F. Supp. 1440 (N.D. Ala. 1986); see also In re Coastal Seafood +Enterprises, 648 F. Supp 79 (D.S.C), aff'd without opinion, 823 F.2d 546 +(4th Cir. 1987) (emphasizing discrepant expenditures); United States v. +Miscellaneous Jewelry, 667 F. Supp. 232 (D. Md. 1987) (same); Lappas v. +Brown, 483 A.2d 979, 984 (Pa. Super, Ct. 1984). + +77. 560 F. Supp. 1040,1090 (S.D. Fla. 1983). + + +78. Id., at 1090-91. + +79. Id. + +80. 759 F.2d 1316 (8th Cir. 1985). + +81. Id., at 1327-28. + +82. Id. + +83. Id. + +84. Id., at 1328. + +85. Id. + +86. Lewis also contains a useful review of the admissibility of +financial records to rebut net worth defenses. Id., at 1328-30. + +ADDENDUM + +Addendum Contents + + +I. Proceeds Broadly Defined +II. The Government's Burden of Proof +III. General Evidentiary Principles +IV. Common Factors of Circumstantial Proof +"Close Proximity" +Cash Hordes +Concealment Efforts and Commingled Funds +Extensive Cash Expenditures +Informal Net-Worth Analysis +Formal Net-Worth Analysis +Failure to Account for Income; Inherently Incredible Testimony and +Affirmative Misrepresentations +Proof of Narcotics Trafficking +Statements by Informants +Expert Opinions +Conclusion +Endnotes + +Civil Forfeiture: Tracing the Proceeds of Narcotics Trafficking + +In 1987, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) commissioned the Police +Executive Research Forum to prepare a monograph on an important aspect + + of asset forfeiture: establishing the evidentiary link between narcotics +trafficking and the illicit proceeds generated by such activity. +Although Congress had authorized civil forfeiture of narcotics proceeds +almost a decade earlier, 21 U.S.C. $881(6) (1978), relatively few court +decisions had addressed the process by which the evidentiary connection +between narcotics trafficking and forfeitable proceeds could be +established. Nevertheless, the few available cases did suggest certain +principles as possible guidelines for law enforcement. The original +version of this monograph, published in 1988, set forth those guiding +principles.(1) +Since 1988, both federal and state authorities have intensified their +efforts to combat narcotics trafficking through civil forfeiture. As a +result, the case law on this subject has increased substantially. Recent +decisions have both confirmed the evidentiary principles identified in +the original monograph and articulated in more detail the standards for +tracing narcotics proceeds. Accordingly, it is appropriate to supplement +the original monograph with updated authority. +Because this monograph is designed as a supplement, it does not provide +general background on civil forfeiture. Instead, it summarizes the most +pertinent background materials. The reader is directed to the original +monograph for the remainder. +This monograph is organized in four sections. Section I addresses the +concept of "proceeds" within the meaning of the federal narcotics law on + + civil forfeiture. Section II explains the operation and significance of +the burden of proof under the federal statute. Section III sets forth +general evidentiary principles, and section IV addresses common +evidentiary factors of circumstantial proof. Although the monograph +focuses on federal law, both the "proceeds" concept and the evidentiary +principles discussed readily apply to state forfeiture actions as well. + +I. Proceeds Broadly Defined + +21 U.S.C. $881(6) authorizes forfeiture of "all moneys, negotiable +instruments, securities, or other things of value furnished or intended +to be furnished by any person in exchange for a controlled substance . . +. [and] all proceeds traceable to such an exchange . . ." [emphasis +added] Under the "relation back" doctrine, the government's interest in +these proceeds vests at the time of the illegal act; the forfeiture +proceeding merely perfects this interest. Consequently, courts interpret +the term "proceeds" to include derivative proceeds, such as interest, +dividends, income, or property derived from the original trafficking +activity.(2) +For example, in United States v. One Parcel of Real Estate,(3) narcotics +violators initially used their profits to buy property in North +Carolina. Later, they sold the property and used the proceeds to buy +real estate in Florida. The government obtained forfeiture of the + + Florida property as derivative proceeds, thereby benefiting from +appreciation of the original investment.(4) Other decisions have +likewise taken an expansive view of the term "proceeds."(5) Moreover, +adding insult to injury, the Fifth Circuit has ruled that unsuccessful +claimants (property owners) may not deduct forfeiture losses on their +income tax returns.(6) + +II. The Government's Burden of Proof + +In $881 forfeiture cases, the government faces a minimal burden of +proof. It need establish only probable cause that the targeted property +is subject to forfeiture. Moreover, probable cause is defined flexibly +in this context; the evidence need furnish only a "reasonable ground for +belief . . . [that the property constitutes narcotics proceeds], +supported by less than prima facie proof, but more than mere +suspicion."(7) This burden may be met with hearsay evidence.(8) In +addition, the proceeds need not be linked to a particular narcotics +transaction, but only to narcotics trafficking generally.(9) +Once the government meets its burden of proof and goes forward, the +burden shifts to the claimant, who must establish his or her case by a +preponderance of the evidence.(10) Failure by the claimant to make out a +prima facie case will result in summary judgment for the government (at +the pretrial motion stage) or in a directed verdict (at the trial + + stage). Most cases are decided by summary judgment because most +claimants are unable to present enough evidence even to raise a serious +factual issue. Thus, "a showing of probable cause alone will support a +judgment of forfeiture."(11) + +III. General Evidentiary Principles + +In general, the courts have allowed law enforcement considerable leeway +in making the connection between narcotics trafficking and illicit +proceeds. Perhaps the most significant factor in decisions granting +forfeiture has been the judiciary's repeated emphasis that +circumstantial evidence may provide an adequate basis for finding that +targeted assets represent narcotics proceeds. Thus, a "direct connection +between the property subject to seizure and the illegal activity that +renders the items forfeitable need not be shown in order to establish +probable cause.''(12) Given some prosecutors' initial reluctance to +apply forfeiture statutes aggressivelyQbecause of concern that illicit +assets could not be accurately identifiedQthe judiciary should be given +credit for applying evidentiary principles that do not make the tracing +process unduly rigid. +Recently, the courts have also stressed that determination of probable +cause should be made under a "totality of the circumstances" standard. +For example, in United States v. Thomas,(13) the Fourth Circuit reversed + + a district court which, in denying forfeiture, had "consider[ed] . . +[the] evidence piecemeal rather than as parts of a total picture."(14) +For this reason, the Fourth Circuit observed: The government fairly +complains that the court engaged in a "divide and conquer" approach to +its case, one that required each item of evidence to establish probable +cause independently or be altogether disregarded. Parsing evidence in +isolation for a fatal flaw threatens to transform the standard of +"probable cause" into a steep threshold requirement that would impede +the operation of the forfeiture statutes.(15) + +Similarly, in United States v. Parcels of Land (Laliberte),(16) the +First Circuit stated that "all that is required is that a court be able +to look at the 'aggregate' of the facts and find reasonable grounds to +believe that the property probably was derived from drug +transactions."(17) +In addition to indicating that evidence should be evaluated under a +"totality of the circumstances" test, the judiciary has identified +certain types of circumstantial evidence as especially probative in +forfeiture cases. The most convincing evidence generally reflects the +following factors: l) "close proximity" between asset and drugs; 2) +"cash hordes"; 3) concealment efforts and commingled funds; 4) extensive +cash expenditures; 5) informal net worth analysis; 6) formal net worth +analysis; 7) the claimant's failure to account for income; 8) proof of + + narcotics trafficking 9) informant statements; and 10) expert opinions. +This evidence, which may appear in a wide variety of combinations +depending on the facts of the case, provides a viable basis for +establishing that targeted assets constitute narcotics proceeds. The +evidentiary factors are discussed in the next section. +End of article 19 (of 37)--what next? [npq] + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/asset2.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/asset2.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4d5b6386 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/asset2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,453 @@ +Asset Forfeiture: Civil Forfeiture + +- Part 2 - + +IV. Common Factors of Circumstantial Proof + +''Close Proximity'' +Despite recent decreased emphasis on seizures of cash and/or cars that +occur during the arrest of drug violators, such seizures nevertheless +continue to account for many civil forfeitures. The courts recognize +that the location of assets in "close proximity" to narcotics is a +relevant factor. Such evidence helps establish that the property +constitutes drug proceeds or was intended to be exchanged in a narcotics +transaction.(18) In each case, of course, the courts also examine the +circumstances of the seizure for evidence of narcotics trafficking. + +Cash Hordes + +Courts often regard cash hordes as strongly indicative of narcotics +trafficking. As one court has noted, "[a] large sum of cash, in and of +itself, is evidence of its use for the purpose of an illegal drug +transaction."(19) + + In situations involving a cash horde, the government ordinarily seeks to +forfeit the horde as money obtained directly in exchange for narcotics. +By itself, the presence of cash will not justify forfeiture. However, +the attendant circumstances frequently provide additional proof linking +the horde to narcotics trafficking. For example, as stated above, the +money may have been found in close proximity to narcotics. In addition, +as one court recently observed: Of particular significance is the nature +of the currency itselfQthe way it was packaged, the mixed denominations +of the bills, and the sheer amount of currency consisting of a large +number of small billsQ which in this court's own experience . . . +appears to be a common thread running through cases involving controlled +substances and the proceeds therefrom.(20) + +Thus, the circumstances of each cash horde should be carefully analyzed +for indications of drug dealing. + +Concealment Efforts and Commingled Funds + +Efforts to conceal the true ownership of property or to disguise the +manner in which it was purchased constitute significant evidentiary +factors. For example, in United States v. Parcels of Land +(Laliberte),(21) the court noted: Laliberte attempted to shield this +money from the attention of the government, which is a further + + indication of drug trafficking . . . Laliberte instructed [his partner] +not to make deposits of . . . money in amounts greater than $10,000 in +order to avoid scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service. Laliberte also +told his accountant not to itemize his personal investments . . . +despite the tax benefits he could have realized from doing so.(22) + +Likewise, in United States v. Haro,(23) the court based its decision to +allow a criminal forfeiture of a defendant's property, in part, on his +efforts to conceal the property's true ownership.(24) The defendant, an +attorney, undertook extensive measures to conceal narcotics proceeds in +order to buy real estate. Such proof, albeit circumstantial, obviously +serves to link assets to narcotics activity.(25) +Commingled funds pose special difficulties for the government. Although +commingling may be evidence of narcotics activity, the government's +recovery is limited to the percentage of the property proven to be +tainted.(26) Courts will carefully scrutinize allegedly commingled +funds, however, to ensure that they are partially derived from +legitimate sources.(27) + +Extensive Cash Expenditures + +Another factor often cited by the courts is the tendency of drug +traffickers to engage in numerous large cash transactions. This pattern + + is so well recognized that the Fourth Circuit recently reversed a +district court decision that failed to give such evidence proper weight: +The district court found that during a nine-month stretch . . . [the +claimant] made cash expenditures totaling $137,000.... The court failed +to note the significance of this evidence, namely that the possession of +unusually large amounts of cash . . . or the making of uncommonly large +cash purchases . . . may be circumstantial evidence of drug +trafficking.(28) + +Likewise, the Second Circuit, after recounting a claimant's various cash +expenditures, recently concluded that "[t]he district court could +reasonably infer that it was unusual to pay for expensive property such +as real estate and heavy construction equipment with cash it could also +find even more unusual [the claimant's] payments for some of the +purchases with five, ten, and twenty dollar bills."(29) + +Informal Net-Worth Analysis + +The tendency of drug traffickers to engage in large cash transactions is +frequently accompanied by the absence of legitimate means of employment +capable of supporting such large expenditures. Accordingly, courts often +consider an apparent discrepancy between an individual's lifestyle and +his or her employment income as indicative of narcotics trafficking and + + its proceeds. +In most cases, courts note this conflict without conducting the type of +formal "net worth" analysis typical of tax prosecutions. For example, +one leading commentator has observed: In the typical proceeds case, the +government shows that a drug trafficker has acquired substantial assets, +often purchased with cash, but has no legitimate or declared source of +income that could account for more than a fraction of his wealth. +Frequently, he has filed no tax returns for several years, and, of +course, there is always the strong evidence of a "likely source from +which [the trier of fact] could reasonably find that the net worth +increases sprang." Such evidence is usually enough to show probable +cause to believe that all of the trafficker's more valuable property is +subject to forfeiture....(30) + +Thus, after quoting the above excerpt, one district court stated: +Under a net worth theory, the government could survive a motion to +dismiss by alleging, with sufficient particularity, that [the claimant] +is a drug trafficker, that he has no other known source of income, and +that he has accumulated substantial assets during the period in which he +had no known source of income.(31) + +Accordingly, even an informal net worth analysis provides a strong +evidentiary basis for finding that targeted assets constitute narcotics + + proceeds. + +Formal Net-Worth Analysis + +On occasion, the government has resorted to a more formal presentation +of "net worth" proof. This process involves establishing an individual +target's income during a designated period and comparing this figure +with his expenditures or increased net worth during the same period. +Given proof of substantial narcotics trafficking, the difference between +these amounts suggests that the proceeds are illicit. + +Before 1988, the government rarely relied on this method of proof in +forfeiture cases. Since then, however, law enforcement has learned that +this highly effective method of tracing proceeds can be accomplished +relatively easily and without the complexities of a tax prosecution. As +a result, net-worth proof has become more common in civil forfeiture +cases. More important, numerous appellate courts have relied on this +mode of proof to sustain forfeitures. +For example, in United States v. Parcels of Land (Laliberte)(32) the +First Circuit initially noted that the claimant's average annual +adjusted gross income was $27,690, and then set forth his numerous +expenditures during this period. Based on a comparison of these figures, +the court stated: The sheer magnitude of Laliberte's expenditures + + supports an inference that his property acquisitions were funded with +the proceeds of drug trafficking. Laliberte's millions of dollars in +purchases far exceeded his reported average annual income, . . . and +there was no other apparent legitimate source of money to account for +the magnitude of the expenditures.(33) + +Similarly, in United States v. Thomas,(34) the Fourth Circuit observed: +Here the undisputed cash expenditures vastly exceeded Thomas' legitimate +income. During this period, Thomas' only source of income was his +business .... Records ... show that Thomas reported only $13,964 in +gross income on his business license applications for the years 1983 +through 1986 .... Thomas' tax returns ... report an income of +approximately $11,000 in 1985 and $1,300 in 1986. According to testimony +of his wife, Thomas also had significant obligations during this period: +two separate households with a woman and five children in each. Evidence +that cash expenditures by ThomasQa suspected drug traffickerQhugely +exceeded any verifiable income suggest that the money was derived +illegally.(35) + +Given the persuasive effect of net-worth analysis, this methodology has +been repeatedly endorsed by federal appellate courts.(36) For this +reason, although forfeiture can generally be achieved without such +proof, net-worth analysis should be considered in major civil forfeiture + + actions aimed at narcotics proceeds. + +Failure to Account for Income; Inherently Incredible Testimony and +Affirmative Misrepresentations + +Another circumstantial factor applied by the courts focuses on an +individual's inability to account for the targeted asset and/or an +individual's tendency to misrepresent how the property was obtained. The +special nature of civil forfeiture proceedings provides the government +with unique opportunities to develop this line of evidence. +Because forfeiture actions under $881 are civil proceedings, +individual's cannot take complete refuge under the privilege against +self incrimination. The privilege does apply to civil proceedings, of +course, but within that context judges may draw an adverse inference +about individuals asserting the privilege.(37) As a result, owners of +seized property are potentially exposed to scrutiny either through +pretrial discovery or by cross-examination at trial. This exposure +places pressure on those owners to explain how they obtained their money +or other property. +Accordingly, when property owners have failed to provide a satisfactory +explanation, courts have cited this failure as indicative of a +connection between narcotics trafficking and the asset(s) in question. +For example, in United States v. 228 Acres of Land,(38) the Second + + Circuit based its probable cause finding, in part, on the following +analysis: [The Claimant] failed to account adequately for his possession +of such large sums of cash. He made no claim of prior gifts or of +earlier investments. Instead, he claimed that the funds were after-tax +profits from his jewelry business, but he failed to offer any bills, +receipts or other records to prove that his . . . businesses were +actually capable of generating such large sums of cash.(39) + +Most claimants resort to asserting that the money in question +constitutes gambling winnings or cash that had been stored at home. This +position has been almost universally rejected. For example: In trying to +prove that the large sum of money in question is not subject to +forfeiture, claimant asserts that he won the majority of the money +gambling . . . He is unclear, however, as to the amounts he won and when +he won the money. Also, for the years he claimed he won the money, his +tax returns do not show any gambling winnings.... Claimant testified +that he kept the money in a large wooden box in the utility room +attached to his house; however, his wife testified . . . that she never +recalled seeing a large wooden box .... The court also finds it highly +unlikely that a person would keep such a large sum . . . in a box in a +utility room accessible only from the outside . . . of the house.(40) + +Similarly, in other cases, courts have found the testimony of the owner + + in question to be contradictory, non-credible, or outright false. Such +evidence, therefore, is considered indicative of a connection between an +asset and narcotics trafficking.(41) + +Proof of Narcotics Trafficking + +A threshold requirement in this general context is proof of narcotics +trafficking during a specified time period. Absent such proof, none of +the factors set forth above would warrant forfeiture. In addition, +however, courts are more likely to find that assets constitute narcotics +proceeds when the government proves extensive narcotics activity. In +other words, the more evidence of drug dealing, the more likely the +assets will be deemed narcotics proceeds. +Proof of trafficking is regarded indicative of illicit proceeds because +judges recognize that the drug trade typically generates large profits. +Thus, extensive proof of trafficking increases the likelihood of tainted +assets. Such proof may consist of prior convictions and arrests for drug +dealing as well as evidence that did not result in prosecution.(42) In +addition, courts may consider the purity of the drugs in question as +suggestive of both the claimant's role in the distribution chain and of +the length of time he has been in the trade.(43) Thus, when the purity +of the drugs is high, the violator is probably both high up in the +distribution chain and likely to have been dealing drugs for a + + substantial period.(44) + +Statements by Informants + +In federal prosecutions, courts also have recognized the potential value +of informant statements set forth in affidavits. Though generally not a +major part of the government's case, such evidence is viewed as +suggestive. For example, such evidence recently was used to help +establish an individual's involvement in drug trafficking and to +identify his illicit proceeds.(45) Therefore, its potential value ought +to be kept in mind. + +Expert Opinions + +The significance of circumstantial evidence presented by the +government's case may be explained to the court by an expert witness. +For example, in United States v. 228 Acres of Land,(46) the court +allowed a DEA agent to give an expert opinion on several matters, +including the proposition that the purity of the claimant's heroin was +indicative of both his role in the narcotics enterprise and his +connection to the supply source.(47) Because an expert witness can +explain the importance of facts that otherwise may appear innocuous or +insignificant, such testimony can make a crucial difference in close + + cases. Moreover, because expert opinion affords the government a key +opportunity to explain and summarize its case, expert testimony should +be used whenever a forfeiture case is based on circumstantial evidence. + +Conclusion + +Asset forfeiture continues to be a critical weapon in the war on +narcotics trafficking. Fortunately for law enforcement, the case law has +developed in a manner that both interprets the term "proceeds" broadly +and facilitates the tracing of such proceeds to narcotics trafficking. +Thus, law enforcement need not rely only on direct evidence, which is +rarely available, to establish a strong forfeiture case. Circumstantial +evidence is often sufficient. To maximize the potential afforded by +asset forfeiture, however, prosecutors and investigators must make every +effort to present in court the array of circumstantial proof outlined in +this monograph. + +Endnotes + +1. See M. Goldsmith, Asset ForfeitureQCivil Forfeiture: Tracing the +Proceeds of Narcotics Trafficking (BJA 1988). + +2. D. Smith, The Prosecution and Defense of Forfeiture Cases, $4.03[4] + + (1990 Supp.) [hereinafter Smith, Forfeiture]. + +3. 675 F. Supp. 645 (D. Fla. 1987). + +4. Id. at 645-46; see United States v. One 1980 Rolls Royce, 905 F.2d +89, 91 (5th Cir. 1990). + +5. See, e.g., United States v. Monkey, 725 F.2d 1007, 1012 (5th Cir. +1984). An expansive view of proceeds was addressed in the dicta, the +issue itself was not brought up on appeal. + +6. Wood v. United States, 863 F.2d 417, 419 (5th Cir. 1989). + +7. United States v. $4,250,000 in Currency, 808 F.2d 895, 897 (5th Cir. +1987); United States v. A Single Family Residence, 803 F.2d 625, 628 +(11th Cir. 1986). + +8. United States v. One 56 Foot Motor Yacht, 702 F.2d 1276, 1282 (9th +Cir. 1987), United States v. One 1964 Beechcraft, 691 F.2d 725, 728 (5th +Cir. 1982). + +9. United States v. $4,255,625.39 in Currency, 762 F.2d 895, 904 (11th +Cir. 1985); United States v. $13,000 in Currency, 733 F.2d 581, 585 (8th + + Cir. 1984). + +10. United States v. Banco Cafetero Panama, 797 F.2d 1154, 1160 (2d Cir. +1986); United States v. $4,265,000 in Currency, 762 F.2d 895, 904 (11th +Cir. 1985). + +11. United States v. One 1980 Red Ferrari, 875 F.2d 186, 188 (8th Cir. +1989); see also United States v. Thomas, 913 F.2d 1111, 1114 (4th Cir. +1990). + +12. United States v. Edwards, 885 F.2d 377, 390 (7th Cir. 1989), see +also United States v. Thomas, 913 F.2d 1111, 1114 (4th Cir. 1990). + +13. 913 F.2d 1111 (4th Cir. 1990). + +14. Id. at 1115. + +15. Id. at 1117. + +16. 903 F.2d 36 (1st Cir. 1990). + +17. Id. at 38-39 (emphasis added). + + + 18. See, e.g., United States v. Pace, 898 F.2d 1218, 1235-36 (7th Cir. +1990); United States v. $91,960, 897 F.2d 1457, 1462 (8th Cir. 1990) + +19. United States v. One Lot of $99,870, 1988 Dist. Lexis 15415 (D. +Mass.) (noting, however, that such proof alone does not necessarily +constitute probable cause). + +20. United States v. $103,025, 741 F. Supp. 903, 905 (M.D. Ga. 1990). + +21. 903 F.2d 36 (1st Cir. 1990). + +22. Id. at 40. + +23. 685 F. Supp. 1468 (E.D. Wisc. 1988), aff'd. sub. nom. United States +v. Herrero, 893 F.2d 1512, 1543 (7th Cir. 1990). + +24. Id. at 1470-71 & 1475. + +25. See also United States v. 228 Acres of Land and Dwelling, 916 F.2d +808, 813 (2nd Cir. 1990) (effort to conceal income a factor in probable +cause determination), United States v. 1.678 Acres of Land, 684 F. Supp. +426, 427 (W.D. N.C. 1988) (payments for property made in the name of +third parties; violator deeded property to third party shortly after + + seizure of drugs and currency). + +26. See, e.g., United States v. One Rolls Royce, 905 F.2d 89, 90-91 (5th +Cir. 1990) (citing other authority); United States v. Certain Real +Property at 2323 Charms Rd., 726 F. Supp. 164, 169 (E.D. Mich. 1989). +Once this percentage has been determined, however, the government will +likely benefit from a favorable accounting procedure to maximize the +amount subject to forfeiture. United States v. Banco Cafetero Panama, +797 F.2d 1154, 1159 (2d Cir. 1986). + +27. United States v. One Rolls Royce, 905 F.2d 89, 91 (5th Cir. 1990). + +28. United States v. Thomas, 913 F.2d 1111,1115 (4th Cir. 1990). + +29. United States v. 228 Acres of Land, 916 F.2d 808, 813 (2nd Cir. +1990); see also United States v. Parcels of Land (Laliberte), 903 F.2d +36, 40 (1st Cir. 1990); United States v. $215,300 United States +Currency, 882 F.2d 417, 419 (9th Cir. 1989). + +30. Smith, Forfeiture, supra note 2, $4.03, at 450 (1990 Supp.). This +observation, however, is qualified by the following appropriate +commentary: + A problem of proof, however, arises where the government makes the + + mistake of trying to forfeit literally everything owned by the drug +trafficker, including a great many items of small value. If the +trafficker can show any non-drug income, fairness dictates that he ought +to at least be able to keep a portion of his total assets corresponding +to the proportion his non-drug income bears to his drug derived income. +Id. at 451, cited with approval in United States v. Property at 2323 +Charms Rd., 726 F. Supp. 164, 169 (E.D. Mich 1989) + +31. United States v. Property at 2323 Charms Rd., 726 F. Supp. 164, 169 +(E.D. Mich. 1989); see also United States v. Miscellaneous Property, 667 +F. Supp. 232, 239-41 (D. Md. 1987). + +32. 903 F.2d 36 (2d Cir. 1990). + +33. Id. at 39-40. + +34. 913 F.2d 1111 (4th Cir. 1990). + +35. Id. at 1115 (citing other authority). + +36. See United States v. One 1987 Mercedes 560 SEL, 919 F.2d 327, 331-32 +(5th Cir. 1990); United States v. 228 Acres of Land, 916 F.2d 808, 813 +(2nd Cir. 1990); United States v. Edwards, 885 F.2d 377, 390 (7th Cir. + + 1989), United States v. Nelson, 851 F.2d 976, 980 (7th Cir. 1988). + +37. See, e.g., United States v. Thomas 913 F.2d 1111, 1115 (4th Cir. +1990) (citing Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308 318 (1976)). + +38. 916 F.2d 808 (2nd Cir. 1990). + +39. Id. at 813. + +40. United States v. $103,025 in U.S. Currency, 741 F. Supp. 903, 906 +(M.D. Ga. 1990); see also United States v. Thomas, 913 F.2d 1111, 1118 +(4th Cir. 1990). + +41. United States v. 228 Parcels of Land, 916 F.2d 808, 813 (2nd Cir. +1990) (false statements); United States v. Haro, 685 F. Supp. 1468, +1470-71 & 1475 (E.D. Wisc. 1988) (testimony incredible and perjurious), +aff'd. sub. nom. United States v. Herrero, 893 F.2d 1512, 1543 (7th Cir. +1990); United States v. One Lot of $99,870 in U.S. Currency, 1988 U.S. +Dist. Lexis 15415 (D. Mass.) (contradictory testimony); United States v. +11348 Wyoming, 705 F. Supp. 352, 355-56 (E.D. Mich. 1989); cf. United +States v. One 1987 Mercedes SEL, 919 F.2d 327 332 (5th Cir. 1990) +(claimant unable to meet burden of proof); United States v. Parcels of +Land (Laliberte), 903 F.2d 36 41-42 (1st Cir. 1990) (same). + + +42. See, e.g., United States v. Thomas 913 F.2d 1111, 1116 (4th Cir. +1990); United States v. One Lot of $99,870 in U.S . Currency, 1988 U.S. +Dist. Lexis 15415 (D. Mass.) (arrest resulting in nolle prosequi still a +probative factor). + +43. United States v. 228 Acres of Land and Dwelling, 916 F.2d 808, 812 +(2d Cir. 1990). + +44. Id. + +45. See id. at 41; United States v. Thomas, 913 F.2d 1111, 1117 (4th +Cir. 1990). + +46. 916 F.2d 808 (2d Cir. 1990). + +47. Id. at 812 and 814 (2d Cir. 1990) +End of article 20 (of 37)--what next? [npq] alt.society.resistance #21 (8 more) [1] +From: kiddyr@gallant.apple.com (Ray Kiddy) + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/asset3.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/asset3.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c3251837 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/asset3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1659 @@ +[1] Forfeiture Info from BJA, II +Keywords: Bureau of Justice Assistance, Forfeiture +Date: Thu May 06 20:12:03 MDT 1993 +Organization: Apple Computer Inc. +Lines: 1124 + +BTW, for more info send mail to publish@ganymede.apple.com + +body of msg: + +help +send /publish/Index + +i have some GAO reports (not many :-<) and am putting on this series +of 14 pamphlets on Forfeiture for police. + +ps: i am not selling anything, this is all free info. + +======================================================================= + +ASSET FORFEITURE + + +Public Record and Other Information on Hidden Assets + +Prepared by: +Police Executive Research Forum +Frank R Booth + +November 1988 +Reprinted January 1992 + +U.S. Department of Justice +Office of Justice Programs +Bureau of Justice Assistance + +U.S. Department of Justice +William P. Barr.........................Attorney General + +Office of Justice Programs +Jimmy Gurule............................Assistant Attorney General + +Bureau of Justice Assistance +Gerald (Jerry) P. Regier................Acting Director + + + Elliott A. Brown........................Deputy Director + +James C. Swain..........................Director, Policy Development + and Management Division + +Curtis H. Straub, II....................Director, State and Local + Assistance Division + +Pamela Swain............................Director, Discretionary Grant + Programs Division + +William F. Powers Director..............Special Programs + Division + +Bureau of Justice Assistance +633 Indiana Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20531 +(202) 514 6278 + +The Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, coordinates +the activities of the following program Offices and Bureaus: Bureau of +Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of +Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the +Office for Victims of Crime. + + + + U.S. Department of Justice + Office of Justice Programs + Bureau of Justice Assistance + +Office of the Director Washington DC 25031 + +Dear Colleague: + +Illicit drug traffic continues to flourish in every part of the country. +The cash received by the traffickers is often converted to assets that +can be used by drug dealers in ways that suit their individual tastes. +Since 1981, federal authorities have increased their attack on these +assets through both criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings with +remarkable success. The recent passage and use of state asset forfeiture +laws offers an excellent means for state and local jurisdictions to +emulate the federal success. + +The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), in the Office of Justice +Programs, has funded a nationally focused technical assistance and +training program to help state and local jurisdictions facilitate +broader use of such laws. BJA selected the Police Executive Research + + Forum to develop and administer this program because of its history of +involvement in practical problem-oriented research to improve police +operations and the Forum's central role in developing training materials +for use by police agencies and chief executives. + +As part of this project, the Forum has contracted with experts in the +area of asset forfeiture and financial investigations to prepare a +series of short manuals dealing with different concerns in the area of +asset forfeiture. We hope these manuals help meet the rapidly unfolding +needs of the law enforcement community as more and more agencies apply +their own forfeiture laws and strive to learn from the successes and +problems of their peers. + +I welcome hearing your comments about this program. We have this project +so that most requests for information or assistance can be handled +through the Forum staff in Washington, D.C., by calling 202/466-7820. + + Sincerely yours, + + Gerald (Jerry) P Regier + Acting Director + + + + Table of Contents + +Introduction +The Initial Lead +Intelligence +Sources Of InformationQGovernment Records + County Records + Recorder of Deeds + Liens Office/Clerk of Courts + Health Departments + Weights and Measures Department + County Taxing Authority + Sheriff/County Prosecutor + State Records + Corporation Bureau + Labor and Industry + Department of Revenue + State Police/Fire Marshals + Licensing Boards/Regulatory Bodies + Federal and Local Records +Sources Of InformationQAffiliated Businesses + The Former Property Owner/Lessor + The Realtor + + The Title Company + The Bank Account + The Accountant + Vendors + Tenants/Former Employees +Conclusion +Endnotes +Selected References And Writings + +Introduction + +In 1970, the federal Organized Crime Control Act was enacted. Part of +this Act included the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations +statute (RICO), which allowed for both the civil and criminal +prosecution of individuals investing moneys derived from illegal sources +into legitimate enterprises. This legislation also allowed for civil and +criminal seizure of identified properties or assets that had been +purchased with these illicit funds. + +In the last ten years many states have enacted asset forfeiture and +seizure laws, modeled to varying degrees after the 1970 federal statute, +to target the great profits in crime that help sustain and further +promote criminal enterprises. Some states also permit the prosecutor or + + law enforcement agency to convert seized assets to real dollars for +agencies use in future investigations. For example, the seizure of a +boat valued at six figures that was purchased as a result of illegal +narcotics profiteering can certainly ease the strain of tight government +budgets and increase the availability of "buy" or "flash" money. + +Federal and state laws regarding ill-gotten assets have several +important meanings to the law-enforcement community and the general +public: + +- The statutes provide another legal tool for prosecuting major +offenders. + +- The laws allow for a comprehensive crippling assault on major +offenders allowing their illicit investment assets to be seized and +removed as supplemental sources of "legitimate" income. + +- Seizing and eliminating the illicit business assets of major offenders +also strengthens the legitimate business community. The major +offender/"businessman" will certainly inject his criminal tactics into +the business community and secure for himself an unfair competitive +edge. Elimination of the illicit assets can help eliminate this edge. + + + - And, as noted above, asset forfeiture can be a financial benefit to +all levels of government if the illicit assets are converted to funds +that benefit the law-enforcement community. + +The major offender with cash ready for investment is usually surrounded +by a cadre of professionalsQattorneys, accountants, investment +counselors, bankers and realtors. These professionals are supplemented +by a ready supply of individuals and corporate "straws" and "fronts." +These associates may range from criminal cronies to the attorney's +secretary, from trusted relatives to legitimate businessmen seeking new +partners or lucrative, quick turn around investments. + +As major offenders use these professionals and associates to oversee +their investments, law enforcement agencies face major barriers in +detecting and identifying the real ownership and sources of investment. +There are, however, methods and sources of information available to the +investigator which, if applied diligently and explored fully, can reveal +these assets and investments and at least partially remove the veil of +secrecy that surrounds these transactions. + +The purpose of this paper is to explore these unveiling methods and +share these sources of information. Some are obvious and have been +mentioned in many publications; others are less so. Many are + + interrelated, with the result that one source of information leads to +the necessity of pursuing another source of information. Some may +require special investigative tools, such as subpoenas, writs or search +warrants; others simply require instinct, diligence, hard work and +attention to detail. + +For the purpose of this paper we will limit the nature of the hidden +asset to those of real estate investment and investment in a business +enterprise. + +The reader will note that references to various state, county and local +government sources of information have a "Pennsylvania flavor." This +reflects the author's experiences with sources of information and laws +in that state. The sources in your jurisdiction may be known by other +names, but the same information is sure to be available regardless of +the jurisdiction. + +The Initial Lead + +The initial information or lead that generates hidden asset +investigations may result either as a "spin-off" or developed lead from +another investigation, or as a result of a "proactive" investigation +specifically targeting a major offender. + + +The spin-off lead results from an investigation not directly relating to +revealing hidden assets. It most often arises from a more traditional +criminal investigation, such as that of a major narcotics trafficker, or +as a result of intelligence gathering. This type of initial information +may also surface indirectly when debriefing a criminal informant, +conversing with a legitimate businessman, or conducting surveillance. +For example: + +- A meeting observed between a recognized major organized-crime figure +and the president of a local meat cutters' union in southeast +Pennsylvania was the catalyst that generated an investigation into the +relationship between a health benefit provider and a union employee +group. The result was a significant prosecution of an organized crime +figure in this industry.(1) + +- A major numbers banker visiting a work crew at a small multiple-unit +dwelling led to a major recovery of hidden investments of ill-gotten +gambling monies in various businesses in Chester, Pennsylvania.(2) + +The spin-off lead also may be generated through analyzing telephone toll +records, bank records or business records in an unrelated investigation. +The payment of a utility bill or real estate taxes on a property + + unrelated or previously unconnected to the offender by investigators can +be the single item leading to a major hidden-asset investigation. + +In addition to the spin-off lead or the lead developed from another +investigation, leads to hidden-asset investigations can be developed in +a proactive manner. If the investigator allows, as his initial premise, +that a major offender has generated capital for investment and that this +capital may have been invested, then initial investigative procedures +can be taken to determine the validity of this premise. + +If proper legal process and cause can be developed, both mail covers and +telephone toll analysis, in combination with the use of a Dial Number +Recorder (DNR), are valuable tools in this proactive approach to initial +leads. Telephone or mail contacts between the targeted offender and +professionals and businesses involved in real estate investments or +financing can prove to be critical leads. If patterns of contacts are +observed, the likelihood of an investment transaction increasesQas does +eventual success in detection. + +The types of contacts by mail or telephone that indicate asset +investment include communications with realtors and real estate +businesses; banks and savings and loan institutions (particularly those +not previously identified); and attorneys known as investment or real + + estate specialists. Others include contacts with accounting firms, +insurance companies, utility companies, taxing authorities, commercial +trash haulers, construction companies, home improvement and repair +businesses, title companies, telephone companies and business consulting +firms. These contacts are major indicators of asset investment, as well +as your "lead sheet OQnot only to documenting the asset ownership, but +to identifying knowledgeable sources of information and potential +witnesses for prosecution. + +In addition to the analysis of mail and telephone records as proactive +tools, the legal pick-up and careful analysis of your target's trash, at +either their residences or known businesses, should never be overlooked +as a potentially important proactive source of intelligence. It must be +stressed, however, that this must be accomplished in a totally legal +manner to avoid tainting the evidence. + +If you are legally able to secure your target's trash, you may well +obtain leads and information generated by the group of businesses and +individuals identified above. In addition, you may find notes written by +your target regarding his involvement in some previously undisclosed +business or investment. Or you could discover hand-carried invoices or +bills from a supplier to the hidden-asset business. Many businesses do +this as a matter of practice. Others may be requested to hand deliver + + the material to avoid detection and to avoid the mails. Many +sophisticated criminals today are wary of potential mail fraud charges +and take extreme measures to avoid use of the mails. + +If you have identified a particular professional involved in investment +who has been determined to have extensive contact with your target, a +"targeted surveillance" could be initiated on this professional. This +could prove very productive if your target and this professional meet +and are observed visiting a business site, or if they are involved in a +business meeting with some previously unknown associates. The potential +for additional initial leads from this scenario are vast. Depending upon +your available resourcesQboth time and staffQthis approach should be +considered carefully. However, a surveillance of this nature can be +quite time consuming, costly and of limited productivity unless specific +prior knowledge of a meeting is known. + +Both the "spin offS lead and the "proactive" effort, if properly +pursued, can generate that initial lead so vital to an asset-disclosure +investigation. However, as important as proper pursuit is, of equal +importance is the need for investigator awareness and education. The +investigator in a major narcotics case must realize the great potential +for asset disclosure in these matters and be alert to asking that extra +question or two that could provide that initial detail or lead to asset + + disclosure. The investigator also must be aware of the need for +attention to detail and the potential significance of a seemingly minor +item. For instance, the discovery of a utility bill of less that $10 +paid by the major narcotics trafficker on a property previously +unrelated to him can be that vital initial lead to a major asset +disclosure investigation. + +Intelligence + +The value of intelligence to the hidden asset investigation is directly +related to the quality, quantity and source of the intelligence +information. In conducting a traditional narcotics related investigation +over a lengthy period, great quantities of information can be developed +from a multitude of sources. Sometimes information is maintained in a +well-organized, retrievable and manageable manner, however, often it is +not. This information is not considered true intelligence if it has not +been maintained in a manageable manner and is not retrievable. It also +is not considered intelligence unless some effort has been made to +determine its validity, its source's reliability, or to confirm it +through other investigative efforts. + +If the criminal intelligence relating to your investigation target has +been managed properly, it is a primary source of leads and information + + for your investigation. Information that should be extracted from this +organized intelligence should include at least the following: + +- Names and identifying data of all participants, major and minor, in +the criminal structure. + +- The participants' past and present occupations, places of employment +and their businesses. + +- Female participants in the criminal structure, and wives and +girlfriends of participants in the criminal structure, should be +identified by all previously known names. + +- All non-criminal associates and friends of members of the criminal +organization should be identified, along with their businesses and +occupations. + +- Past and current business partners of all members of the criminal +structure should be identified. + +- All known associates in the financial community should be identified. +Included should be those associated with real estate, banking, the law +and accounting. + + +Information in these categories is important as raw material to connect +with intelligence developed later in the investigation which may reveal +the "front" or "front organization." + +Previously used criminal informants who have knowledge of your target +may prove helpful. Were these sources who had knowledge of the target's +narcotics operation ever questioned concerning his investments? If not, +they should be located immediately and be debriefed in this area. Also, +leads may be generated from others who have previously investigated your +target. Investigators and prosecutors do not commit to paper all of +their knowledge regarding an investigation. That initial lead, so +important to success in an asset probe, could be gained from them as a +result of a simple telephone call. + +All other information in law-enforcement files relating to your target +that has not been organized properly should be thoroughly examined, and +pertinent information in the above categories and any other data should +be consolidated into a new, comprehensive intelligence system that +allows ready retrieval.(3) + +Having extracted, organized and consolidated all available intelligence +from the traditional criminal files and intelligence, there likely will + + be significant gaps in the information needed to pursue your asset +investigation. + +Now you must fill those information and intelligence voids. Much of the +balance of this paper will explore the sources of information that will +assist you, not only filling these voids, but in providing additional +information and potential witnesses and informants for success in a +difficult investigative undertaking. + +Sources Of InformationQGovernment Records + +Government records are probably the most accessible records, with the +most broad applications, available to assist in the hidden-asset +investigation as it relates to real estate purchases or investments in a +business enterprise. Of particular value are the records maintained at +the county and state level. + +County Records + +Recorder of Deeds. + +This office is responsible for recording all deeds in the county +regarding real estate transactions. The recorded deed contains the names + + of both the buyer and seller, in addition to a description of the +property, and in most cases, the recorded selling price. + +In addition, the deed may reveal the addresses of the buyer and the +seller (known respectively as the grantor and the grantee) and the +identification of the attorney or other representative of either the +buyer or seller. The identification of the seller of the property or his +representative is, of course, an immediate lead possibility for the +hidden asset investigation. + +In addition to maintaining deeds, the Recorder of Deeds also maintains +and records all mortgages relating to real estate or property +transactions. This document is the source of a number of vital pieces of +information. One obvious piece of information is the source of a loan +(mortgage) to purchase the property. The mortgage document identifies a +lending institution that has agreed to finance the purchase of the +property. This leads the investigation to possible sources of +documentation and witnesses who may know and have done business with the +target of the investigation. + +The mortgage, and sometimes the deed, also may provide another +potentially vital lead to true ownership and the unveiling of the hidden +assetQ the title company. If a title company was involved in the sale, + + that company will hold such important information as the settlement +sheet, which reveals the distribution of monies to the buyer and seller +resulting from the sale. In + +addition, the title company may retain copies of the financial +instruments, such as checks, used to consummate the transaction. + +Title companies may not be readily identifiable on a deed or mortgage. +They may only be identifiable as a code stamped or handwritten on the +public document. For example, you may observe the following: CT 12345Q +03. In this example, the letters "CT" identify Commonwealth Title +Company and the number "03" identifies Commonwealth Title's #3 office at +a certain location. The number "12345" identifies their file number. + +Liens Office/Clerk of Courts. + +Locating a supplier or vendor to whom the subject of the investigation +or his "front" or "front corporation" is indebted can be a valuable +lead. Because the indebtedness may have been involuntary, this can lead +the investigator to a target's antagonist, who may have reason to +cooperate. Liens or judgments filed by businesses or individuals against +other businesses can be located in county offices of various names. In +Pennsylvania, this office is known as the Office of the Prothonotary. + + These files should be reviewed carefully. The filing of a lien does not +always indicate that a true debt has been established. For instance, a +mechanic's lien is filed by a subcontractor against the property owner +to secure the subcontractor against the possible future contractor's +failure to compensate for work completed. + +If liens or judgments are located, the next step in developing lead +material is checking with the Office of the Clerk of Courts. This office +maintains records of all civil and criminal actions in the county. A +thorough review of these records should be made relevant to each +judgment or lien. If civil litigation has been initiated, it can produce +additional leads and information valuable to the hidden-asset case. Of +primary significance in these files are sworn depositions and +interrogatories, possibly used by both sides. These documents can be +particularly revealing. + +Health Departments. + +Most county health departments have an inspection division that is +responsible for routine sanitary or health inspections of various +businesses within the jurisdiction. These inspectors are potential +sources of information because of their on-site presence and their +routine contacts with business employees and owners. In this capacity, + + they can identify former employees as possible future sources or they +may provide insight into the true ownership of the business. + +Weights and Measures Departments. + +Like the county health department, the county weights and measures +department (in most counties) has an inspection division. In this +capacity the inspectors have access to the employees and the owners of +the inspected business, and thus have information potentially valuable +to the investigation. They may have leads, for example, to former +employees or dissatisfied vendors. + +Also, because of the weights and measures department's enforcement +responsibility, an adversarial situation may exist, thereby bringing the +true ownership closer to the surface or providing other insight into the +true ownership. + +County Taxing Authority. + +The county taxing authority can be the source of several types of +valuable information. Identification of who pays the taxes on a property +and where the billing notice is mailed are often of interest. If the +billing notice is mailed to a practitioner associated with the hidden + + owner, rather than the owner of record, a key lead has just been +developed. The taxing authority also will have a record of payment of +taxes that may lead to a previously unknown bank account, which could in +turn be traced to the true owner. A tax dispute can lead to some +connection to true ownership, either directly or through professional +representation. + +Sheriff/County Prosecutor. + +Beyond general criminal intelligence, the sheriff and county prosecutor +may maintain a general incident file related to businesses within the +county, in addition to maintaining an emergency telephone contact +number. + +The incident file can lead to non-criminal reports or contacts with the +managers or owners of a business, or identification of individuals +involved in a non-criminal incident reported and investigated by county +officials. This may develop further lead material or even connect the +subject of the investigation to the business or property. + +If an emergency telephone contact number is provided, it should be +checked to determine if its subscriber is consistent with the recorded +ownership. + + +State Records + +Corporation Bureau. + +If initial leads in the investigation disclose corporate entities as +possibly holding these assets, the first investigative source should be +the state's Corporation Bureau or Office of Corporate Registry. + +The quality and substance of information maintained by this office +varies from state to state. However, certain data appears common to most +jurisdictions. That information includes the following: + +- Name of Corporation + +- Purpose of Corporation + +- Corporate Officers + +- Corporate Directors + +- Stock Distribution + + + - Date of Incorporation + +- Registered Agent (if any) + +Some states require additional data and periodic updates of changes in +any of the above areas. Enforcement of these changes varies widely from +state to state; some enforce aggressively, others less so. Certain +states also require the periodic filing of financial statements that can +be an asset to the investigator. + +Those states with aggressive enforcement programs may seek to revoke +corporate charters if certain filing requirements are not met. By +forcing the corporation structure to file information or face charter +revocation, states can help generate additional investigative leads. + +In reality, the sophisticated major offender normally will not file +information that will aid the investigation effort. But all avenues must +be thoroughly examined in seeking even the slightest opening in the +corporate veil. For example, if filed information can be shown to be +false, the investigation could use the Corporation Bureau's regulatory +authority to revoke the charter of the front corporation. If this action +is fought by the corporation counsel or other representative, the +resulting conflict could further remove the veil of secrecy. + + +Labor and Industry. + +Many states, under their labor departments, require the filing of +periodic lists of employees, revealing their names, social security +numbers and salaries. In Pennsylvania, this is accomplished on a +quarterly basis through the Department of Labor and Industry. + +This provides a relatively updated listing of employees, their salaries +and social security numbers. In addition, it gives the investigator the +opportunity to identify former employees by comparing old quarterly +reports with recent ones. As mentioned, former employees can be +excellent inside sources of information. + +The Labor Department in your state may also have a Labor Relations +Board, a Bureau of Mediation or both. If the alleged hidden asset +business employs a unionized work force, these offices may well provide +leads, particularly if a labor dispute has arisen. + +Department of Revenue. + +Although state revenue departments, like the U.S. Internal Revenue +Service, are statutorily prohibited from disclosing much tax + + information, they can be sources of certain vital information of a +public record nature. + +Some revenue departments license businesses. The department may issue +sales tax licenses. Generally, these licenses and the applications for +them are considered public information. If so, they will contain +potentially useful elements of information. However, of even greater +potential value is the local or regional state tax collector who has +been assigned to a targeted business' delinquent collection. The revenue +investigator may be able to provide inside information regarding the +business, its true ownership, who represents the business and other +"inside" information. A contact with a revenue investigator, however, +must be conducted carefully to avoid improper receipt or disclosure of +confidential tax information. + +In some states and under specified conditions, law enforcement and +prosecutors can obtain access to corporate, business and personal income +tax information. + +If you are able to access either corporate or personal state income tax +returns in your jurisdiction, you have access to an invaluable source of +information. Several leads to possible sources of hidden investments can +be derived from personal and corporate tax returns. + + +Loans to and from stockholders, and loans to and from corporate +officers, can be questionable and should be pursued. Also, mortgages, +notes and bonds shown as liabilities on a corporate return must be +closely investigated. + +Another key item on both corporate and personal returns that should be +analyzed carefully are interest payments. Interest income may have been +derived from a source, often a bank, that was previously unknown to the +investigator. This may lead to bank accounts controlled by the subject +of the investigation that have been used for an illicit investment +financed with illegally earned funds. + +Tax returns also may disclose the identity of the accountant preparing +the return. This provides the identity and location of a person +intimately familiar with either the corporation or the target. In +addition, the investigator now has potential access to additional +important recordsQthe accountant's work papers. These will be discussed +in more detail later. + +State Police/Fire Marshals. + +Any record of a fire related to the subject business or property should + + be thoroughly pursued. Fire often relates to insurance. The +identification of a previously unknown insurance company can be an +important lead. Who pays the premium? Who are the beneficiaries? And the +agent assigned or responsible for the policy can be an important lead +because of his first-hand knowledge of the business. + +When arson is investigated, additional witness interviews of employees, +owners or other witnesses could prove useful. + +Licensing Boards/Regulatory Bodies. + +Like other types of state and local authority, the licensing and +regulation of businesses and occupations varies from state to state and +from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. + +In a hidden-asset investigation, the various boards, agencies and bodies +that license, regulate and inspect must be considered primary sources of +information. And in most jurisdictions, the files and records of these +agencies are considered public information and are readily accessible. + +In Pennsylvania, a myriad of occupations and businesses are licensed, +regulated and inspected. The Department of State alone licenses twenty- +six separate areas, including accountants and real estate agents that + + can be significant to the hidden-asset investigation. State licensing +ranges from architects to auctioneers, cosmetologists to chiropractors, +and podiatrists to psychologists. In addition, licensing and inspection +or audit occurs in banking, insurance, environmental resources, fish and +game, liquor, milk marketing, public utilities, securities and +transportation. + +Obviously, the range of oversight is great, and the degree of useful +information available from these various agencies ranges from a simple +application that is approved routinely and without follow-up, to an +application requiring in-depth financial statements, bonding and +thorough background investigation before approval is allowed. + +Whatever information the licensing board or regulatory agency requires, +investigators should search for the following types of information: + +- An application with basic information provided by the applicant that +may be used to develop leads, + +- Sources of financing often are required, which can be traced in an +attempt to identify the hidden owner, + +- Bonding and insurance sources may be identified which, when pursued, + + may lead to hidden ownership, + +- Employment and occupation histories may be required that can aid +investigations, + +- Leads to accountants, attorneys and lending institutions can be found +and lead to valuable information, and + +- Inspection or audit divisions within the licensing and regulatory +bodies provide on-site sources that may lead to quality informants or +witnesses. + +It must also be pointed out that the regulatory or licensing authority +may do more than license; it also may exercise the authority to suspend, +fine or even revoke the license necessary for the business to operateQa +powerful legal weapon. Effective use of state regulatory agencies is a +largely untapped investigative tool. + +Federal and Local Records. + +In pursuing the hidden-asset investigation, state and county records are +of predominant importance, but federal and local records sources also +must be combed. In many instances, similar categories of information + + will be developed from these sources. Both conduct regulatory and +inspection operations, in that data, as categorized above, will be +developed which could be useful. Federal and local data falls into two +broad categories: (1) applications and documents as required by the +agency, and (2) documents that will lead to potential informants or +witnesses who can link the hidden owner to the hidden asset. + +Because it would be repetitious in many cases, no further discussion +will be given to the local and federal sources of information. Suffice +it to say that at the local level, licensing boards and agencies, health +inspectors, zoning boards and taxing authorities can be prime sources, +in addition to such sources as local law enforcement and prosecutors. At +the federal level, the same licensing and inspection authorities, in +addition to the various federal law enforcement and investigation +agencies, are key sources. + +Sources Of Information - Affiliated Businesses + +In addition to using previously collected information and intelligence +and government records as sources of information and leads, information +must be gathered on businesses affiliated with the business or real +estate investment being investigated. There are two categories. The +first category is the business that supplies services necessary for day- + + to-day basic business operations. This includes suppliers of raw +materials, vendors and trash collectors. The second category is the +provider of professional servicesQfor instance, the accountant, banker +and realtor. + +Before probing these two categories of affiliated businesses, the +investigation should have accomplished the following: + +- Identified, analyzed and consolidated all available intelligence into +a retrievable, understandable intelligence system. + +- Completely identified all participants in the criminal organization +and developed background information on their businesses and +occupations. + +- Completely identified all noncriminal associates of your criminal +target who have relations to the business community or the professional +community. + +- Established one or more initial leads to an undisclosed investment in +real estate or a business enterprise. + +- Searched all potential public records available regarding these + + initial leads and incorporated these findings into the intelligence +system. + +Up to this point, most of the sources of information discussed would be +considered part of the public domain and readily accessible. Information +required from these affiliated businesses, however, in most cases, will +require legal proceeding to fully secure them. + +Also, your investigation has now moved from its confidential phase to an +overt stage where your attorney (whom you will need) most likely will be +required to engage in enforcement litigation with attorneys opposing +your access to records. Hidden asset investigations cannot succeed +without the combined efforts and talents of the investigator and the +attorney, working as a team. + +The Former Property Owner/Lessor. + +The investigation likely will turn up, at some point, a physical +property. It may simply be a piece of land, or it could be a small +building, an apartment house or a restaurant. This physical property may +have been purchased, it could be leased, or it may be used on a +lease/purchase arrangement. Regardless of the nature of the relationship +of the hidden owner to the property, there are several common + + denominators. + +In each interview or contact with anyone associated with the hidden +asset investigation, the investigator must obtain the two necessary +ingredients for successQdocumentation and potential witnesses. + +An initial interview with either the owner (if the property is leased) +or the former owner (if the property has been purchased) should be +conducted. The interview should cover the following: + +- Why did you sell or lease the business? + +- How did you advertise that the business was for sale or lease? + +- Identify all individuals who expressed any interest whatsoever in the +purchase or lease of the business. + +- What were the terms of the sale or lease agreement? + +- Where was the agreement of sale or lease consummated? Who was present? + +- How were (are) you compensated for the purchase or lease of the +business? + + +- What changes in vendors or employees have occurred since your sale or +lease? + +- What documents do you have concerning the purchase or lease? + +Responses to these inquiries may identify the subject as having +personally shown an interest in the property at some time; it may +identify a title company involved; it will surely identify Realtors +involved; it may identify associates of the target as expressing +interest, or as serving as new employees, vendors or financial sources; +it will identify banks or payment and lending institutions; it will +identify former employees and former vendors as potential sources; and +it may identify the target's accountant or attorney. + +Contact with these affiliated businesses will provide varying degrees of +cooperation. The recalcitrant interviewee should be made aware of the +possibility of legal processes and that he is not a target of the +investigation, if this is so. If he continues to be uncooperative, legal +proceedings should be used. + +In these contacts, the investigator also must remain attentive to the +smallest item that can seem unimportant but that could lead to a major + + breakthrough. For instance, a single call from a Realtor to the seller +expressing interest in the business, but with no follow-up, can develop +a lead to other property investments or a key future witness. + +The Realtor. + +Having made that contact with the owner/lessor and having established +involvement by a Realtor, the Realtor is the next logical contact. + +The Realtor can be the source of a variety of information, and the +Realtor's role can range from full knowledge of hidden ownership to +merely servicing an account. The Realtor's cooperation will vary in +proportion to his role and his knowledge; if deeply involved, he likely +will be uncooperative. + +The Realtor could have been contacted by the hidden owner who, after +expressing interest in the asset, replaced himself with a front or front +corporation, or a close criminal associate of the subject could have +assumed the same role. + +In addition the Realtor may have executed the Agreement of Sale and +established escrow accounts for the deposit of down payment monies. +These documents may be retained by the Realtor and are vital leads. A + + new bank account with a record of deposits for asset purchase purposes +may lead to or connect to the subject of the investigation. + +The Realtor may also have a management role in the asset, depending on +the nature of the business. He could, for example, be responsible for +collecting rent, maintaining the property or paying utility bills. If +so, this allows for new avenues of inquiry. Exercising a management role +means a Realtor has a more intimate knowledge of the hidden asset than +the Realtor merely providing servicing. The management Realtor should be +questioned regarding former and current tenants, vendors and employees +of the hidden asset. + +The Title Company. + +Most transactions between buyer and seller involve title insurance. The +purpose of title insurance is to assure the buyer that the asset is free +from any unknown encumbrances or debts. This protection is provided by a +title company. In many cases, the title company is the location where +the asset actually changes ownership. For this reason, title companies +can be excellent sources of information. Unfortunately, most title +companies require a subpoena or some other legal process before +relinquishing their records. + + + Not only does the title company maintain documents important to the +investigation, but the company officer assigned the transaction may have +first-hand knowledge of the asset's ownership because title insurance is +buyer generated. As with the Realtor, the title company officer must be +questioned thoroughly in all aspects of the transaction, from initial +contact by the buyer to consummation of the sale. + +The records maintained by the title company will include the settlement +sheet, which will show the distribution of monies between buyer and +seller. Also, the title company should retain copies of any financial +instruments used in the transaction. These instruments could be checks, +money orders or other financial instruments. If cash was involved, a +record of that is also available from the title company. In addition, +like the Realtor, the title-company escrow account may have been used as +a repository for down payments or other transactions involving the asset +purchase. + +The Bank Account. + +The financial transaction may relate to a bank, or it could relate to +another category of financial institution: a savings and loan +association, a brokerage account, a credit union, a pension fund, or any +combination of these institutions. Or it could be a pure cash + + transaction. + +At all financial institutions two functions occur: money flows in and +money flows out. In a hidden-asset investigation, the money flowing from +the account may be the investment in the hidden asset. The money flowing +into the account may be even more important. + +When an account has been identified as the source (or possible source) +of an illicit investment, you must secure that account in its entirety. +That account can only be secured by proper legal process to the bank or +other institution, or directly to the subject business. + +Often it is preferable to secure the financial records directly from the +subject business or the suspected front, for a number of reasons. You +will be securing the original document, which is, of course, the best +evidence. Also, you may obtain the records even faster and you will +eliminate the possibility of poor quality documents so often associated +with financial institution duplication. + +This method is suggested but must be tailored to your investigation. If +your effort is overt at this phase of the investigation, the bank or +financial institution can be used as a backup source for documents not +received from the subject business or suspected front. + + +Upon receipt of financial records, tracing of investments begins. +Assuming that the investigation has revealed an investment of a specific +amount from a front's corporate account, the following should be +analyzed at once: + +- All opening account deposits should be obtained and examined. + +- All major deposits shortly before and shortly after the date of +investment in the illicit enterprise should be obtained. + +- All cash deposits during the same period as (2) should be noted. + +- Establish a dollar threshold based on the magnitude of the account and +record all deposits greater than that threshold. + +- Complete (4) for all withdrawals of funds. + +- Pay special attention to even-dollar disbursements. + +- Identify and investigate all regular payments for potential leads. + +- Note all wire transfers and credit and debit memos for follow-up + + investigation. + +Pursuit of the above items should be the initial steps in the analysis +of bank or financial accounts. The purpose is to identify funds of major +proportion flowing in and out of the account to the subject of the +investigation or his accounts. It may also generate new lead material. + +In the analysis of bank accounts, it is crucial that attention be given +to detail and items small in size. Although you may want to focus +initial investigation on the major items in the account as suggested +above, do not overlook the balance of the records. They could be +critical. + +There are an array of banking records that could prove valuable, +including certificates of deposit, credit card advances and currency +transaction reports. Loan records deserve special attention. + +If a deposit analyzed in the financial records was generated as a result +of a loan, it should be pursued diligently. Several questions should be +addressed. Who applied for the loan? How were the proceeds deposited to +the account of interest to the investigation? And perhaps most +important, how was it secured or collateralized? + + + Answers to these questions regarding the loan could tie your target to +the business, especially the security or collateral for the loan. + +Along with bank records, consider the banker. The banker could be the +liaison between the loan for the investment in the illicit asset and the +subject of your investigation. He may also have intimate knowledge of +the business and may even be an informal advisor. Include the banker in +your investigation as a possible valuable source of "inside" information +concerning the ownership and operation of the illicit enterprise. + +The Accountant. + +In the hidden-asset investigation, the accountant for the targeted +business enterprise can be an important source, not only for documents +but also as an "insider" and possible witness. Like the Realtor and the +banker, the accountant's degree of cooperation will be directly +proportional to his personal and professional involvement with the +subject of the investigation and the investments. + +The documents held by the accountant most vital to a hidden-asset +investigation are known simply as the accountant's work papers. These +work papers will identify expenditures made by the enterprise; sources +of business income; loans obtained by the business; loans made by the + + business; and other financial records. Generally, the accountant's work +papers are not only an excellent supplement to the bank records, but +also may serve as a primary source of new information or records. + +Of particular interest in the work papers are notes or memos made by the +accountant during the preparation of tax returns, m conversation with +those operating the hidden-asset business, or both. For example, if a +business loan had been made to a corporate officer, there may be a note +indicating the purpose of the loan. This note also could identify who +approved the loan, and this could lead to your target. + +The accountant's work papers may also include copies of tax returns +prepared by the accountant for the hidden-asset business. If you do not +have access to state or local tax returns, these work papers may provide +you with access. These papers also may provide possible new sources of +information, such as former accountants, vendors, real estate or asset +investments by your target, and employee records. + +In addition to his function as accountant and preparer of tax returns, +the accountant may serve as a business advisor or investment consultant +to the business or your target. His activity m this role may shed +further light on the case. + + + Vendors. + +As mentioned earlier, the identification of vendors, particularly former +vendors, can be critical to a hidden-asset investigation. The vendor has +access to the day-to-day operation of the business and often has +critical insight into the business management and financial workings. +The vendor may have direct contact with the true ownership, particularly +m the early stages of the vendor/business relationship. + +Vendors can range from renovation contractors and insurance providers to +trash collectors and vending-machine managers. The more substantial the +vendor's dollar role in the hidden-asset business, the more likely a +direct contact between the vendor and your target has occurred. + +For example, as evidenced in a past investigation, a vending company +supplied a variety of vending machines to a bar/restaurant owned by a +major criminal figure but fronted by an associate. The vending company +offered an interest-free loan to the business for using their vending +machines, with the loan being paid on a monthly basis from 50 percent of +the vending machine receipts. The loan was substantial and of major +concern to the hidden owner. As a result, he negotiated the loan +repayment agreement and his name and a record of his involvement +appeared in the vending company records. This was not conclusive + + evidence on its own, but served as a critical element that subsequently +was combined with other investigative evidence in a successful hidden- +asset investigation. + +Former or current vendors who have been identified as experiencing +financial problems with the suspect business may be primary leads +because their adversarial relationship makes these vendors more likely +than others to cooperate. + +The vendor's own records may prove helpful. The investigation should +check samples of payment sources relating to the vendor; review any +contractual agreements between vendor and target business; and identify +all vendor employees involved with supplying goods and services to the +target enterprise. + +Tenants/Former Employees. + +If the hidden-asset business leases space or apartments to tenants, the +tenants may give valuable information. The tenants and former tenants +share a business relationship with the hidden asset and, as such, should +be questioned regarding payments of rent, identification of collectors, +identification of vendors, and who responds to complaints. + + + One of the best sources of information regarding any business is the +former employee. His usefulness to the investigation centers on his role +in the business, how long he functioned m that role and why his +employment was ended. + +A former employee involved m the hidden-asset business from its +inception is most valuable because of his knowledge of the hidden +owner's initial involvement. Also, a former employee who had a role in +the financial aspect of the business is invaluable. As mentioned +earlier, analysis of state Labor and Industry reports can be valuable m +locating former employees prior to obtaining bank or business records +from other sources. + +Conclusion + +The hidden-assets investigation is difficult, time-consuming and costly. +But, it is critical and must be pursued to prevent the corruption and +disruption of the legitimate business community and to deter the illegal +marketplace from meshing successfully with the legitimate marketplace. +Success in the hidden-asset investigation also discourages other major +narcotics financiers or dealers and their corrupt business and +professional associates from future investment. + + + To succeed in the hidden-asset investigation requires sincere commitment +and total dedication by the attorney/investigator team. In most cases, +it requires a proactive effort, rather than the traditional reactive +investigation. And it requires dogged attention to detail, logic in your +methods, organization of effort, and patience. But it can be successful. + +Endnotes + +1. Health Care Fraud: A Rising Threat; Pennsylvania Crime Commission, +1981. + +2. Chester City Racketeer; Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1978. + +3. Use of a mini or personal computer, if available, and legal in your +jurisdiction is an excellent tool for managing this kind of data. + +4. May be identified elsewhere as County Court, Circuit Court, Court of +Quarter Sessions or some other designation. + +Selected Reference And Writings + +The Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Financial Crimes, +Richard A. Nossen (1982). + + +The Cash Connection: Organized Crime, Financial Institutions and Money +Laundering, President's Commission on Organized Crime (1984). + +RICO Investigations: A Case Study, Gregory T. Magarity, American +Criminal Law Review (1980). + +A Chester City Racketeer: Hidden Interests Revealed, Pennsylvania Crime +Commission (1978). + +Health Care Fraud: A Rising Threat, Pennsylvania Crime Commission +(1981). + +Sources of Information for Criminal Investigators, ANACAPA Sciences, +Inc. + +Penetration of Legitimate Business by Organized Crime, National +Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (1970). + +Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute, US Department of +Justice, Criminal Division, 4th Edition. + +Techniques in the Investigation and Prosecution of Organized Crime, + + Materials on RICO, G. Robert Blakey (Editor), January 1980. + +The First National Seminar on Asset Seizure and Forfeiture, National +Institute on Economic Crime, and Washington Crime News Service, April +1985. +End of article 21 (of 37)--what next? [npq] alt.society.resistance #22 (7 more) [1] +From: kiddyr@gallant.apple.com (Ray Kiddy) + + + [1] Forfeiture Info from BJA, III +Keywords: Bureau of Justice Assitance, Forfeiture +Date: Thu May 06 20:13:13 MDT 1993 +Organization: Apple Computer Inc. +Lines: 451 + +BTW, for more info send mail to publish@ganymede.apple.com + +body of msg: + +help +send /publish/Index + +i have some GAO reports (not many :-<) and am putting on this series +of 14 pamphlets on Forfeiture for police. + +ps: i am not selling anything, this is all free info. + +======================================================================= + +ASSET FORFEITURE + + +The Management and Disposition of Seized Assets + +Prepared by: +Police Executive Research Forum +G Patrick Gallagher + +November 1988 +Reprinted January 1992 + +U.S. Department of Justice +Office of Justice Programs +Bureau of Justice Assistance + +U.S. Department of Justice +William P. Barr.........................Attorney General + +Office of Justice Programs +Jimmy Gurule............................Assistant Attorney General + +Bureau of Justice Assistance +Gerald (Jerry) P. Regier................Acting Director + + + Elliott A. Brown........................Deputy Director + +James C. Swain..........................Director, Policy Development + and Management Division + +Curtis H. Straub, II....................Director, State and Local + Assistance Division + +Pamela Swain............................Director, Discretionary Grant + Programs Division + +William F. Powers Director..............Special Programs + Division + +Bureau of Justice Assistance +633 Indiana Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20531 +(202) 514 6278 + +The Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, coordinates +the activities of the following program Offices and Bureaus: Bureau of +Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of +Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the +Office for Victims of Crime. + + + + U.S. Department of Justice + Office of Justice Programs + Bureau of Justice Assistance + +Office of the Director Washington DC 25031 + +Dear Colleague: + +Illicit drug traffic continues to flourish in every part of the country. +The cash received by the traffickers is often converted to assets that +can be used by drug dealers in ways that suit their individual tastes. +Since 1981, federal authorities have increased their attack on these +assets through both criminal and civil forfeiture proceedings with +remarkable success. The recent passage and use of state asset forfeiture +laws offers an excellent means for state and local jurisdictions to +emulate the federal success. + +The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), in the Office of Justice +Programs, has funded a nationally focused technical assistance and +training program to help state and local jurisdictions facilitate +broader use of such laws. BJA selected the Police Executive Research + + Forum to develop and administer this program because of its history of +involvement in practical problem-oriented research to improve police +operations and the Forum's central role in developing training materials +for use by police agencies and chief executives. + +As part of this project, the Forum has contracted with experts in the +area of asset forfeiture and financial investigations to prepare a +series of short manuals dealing with different concerns in the area of +asset forfeiture. We hope these manuals help meet the rapidly unfolding +needs of the law enforcement community as more and more agencies apply +their own forfeiture laws and strive to learn from the successes and +problems of their peers. + +I welcome hearing your comments about this program. We have this project +so that most requests for information or assistance can be handled +through the Forum staff in Washington, D.C., by calling 202/466-7820. + + Sincerely yours, + + Gerald (Jerry) P Regier + Acting Director + +Table of Contents + + +Introduction +Background on Seized Assets +Major Issues in the Management of Seized Assets +Disposition Issues +Methods for Handling Common Problems +Liability Issues +Resource Directory: Roster of Persons Interviewed + +Introduction + +From March to May, 1987, the Police Executive Research Forum (the +Forum), surveyed seven law enforcement agencies on how they manage and +dispose of seized assets, and the liability issues involved in asset +seizure and forfeiture. + +The agencies covered in the study are the U.S. Marshals Service; the +U.S. Customs Service; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; the +Broward County, Florida SheriffUs Department; the Metro-Dade, Florida +Police Department; the Fort Lauderdale, Florida Po,ice Department; and +the Detroit, Michigan Police Department. These agencies were chosen +because they have been dealing with large volumes of seized assets over +an extended period and the non-federal agencies, in particular, have + + acquired a reputation for sophisticated management of those assets. + +The July, 1985, National Institute of Justice, Research in Brief +entitled "Use of Forfeiture Sanctions in Drug Cases, " provides an +overview of the forfeiture provisions on a state-by-state basis. +Regarding the disposition of forfeited property, that brief notes that: + +more than half the states provide that confiscated property goes to the +State or local treasury, or part to each. In some States, however, law +enforcement agencies may keep the property for official use. If the +property is sold or if it is cash, then the money goes to the State or +local treasury. In eight States, law enforcement agencies can keep all +property, cash, and sales proceeds (p. 5). + +Some federal agencies have been actively involved in managing seized +assets. The state of Florida, pushed by its proximity, and in response +to substantial, drug traffic, has responded to the point that many of +the state's law enforcement agencies have developed smoothly operating +forfeiture processes under the State forfeiture statute, and high- +quality management procedures for handling and disposing of seized +assets. While this should be the response of any advanced and +professional agency, in Florida the agencies' expertise has developed +out of necessity. Innovative procedures must be used to take the + + offensive against the drug trade. Moreover, the agencies literally would +be inundated with seized assets if they had not learned to process them +expeditiously, and turn the newly acquired properties into valuable +resources in the fight against drug trafficking. + +Background On Seized Assets + +When asked what were the most commonly seized assets, the seven +agencies' responses were remarkably similar: the two top assets were +cash and cars, followed by boats, planes, jewelry and weapons. Those +items made up 95 percent of all seized assets. Local agencies rarely +become involved in seizing businesses or real property (although this +seems to be changing as more and more state forfeiture laws are used to +seize so-called derivative assets). State and federal agencies, in +contrast, conduct such seizures frequently. + +One reason local agencies usually did not target real property for +seizure is because they recognize the attendant difficulties in managing +them (Detroit made this very clear: " . . . if at all possible do not +get involved in seizing property"). Under the Florida Contraband +Forfeiture Act, authorities can seize only that property that is an +instrumentality of the crime--that is, cars, cash, and the Rolex watch +mentioned below. Property seizable under federal law and special + + provisions of the Florida statutes are property and assets acquired by +using financial resources accruing (derived) from illegal activities. +Therefore, under Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations +(RICO) statutes, law enforcement agencies may be aggressive in seizing +real estate acquired with drug or other racketeering proceeds. + +The U.S. Marshals Service generally does not seize assets, except for +judicial seizures conducted pursuant to a federal court order. However, +the marshals do manage assets seized by other federal agencies, such as +the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and +Naturalization Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), +with DEA accounting for 90 percent of seized items. + +Among the more unusual items seized or turned over to the Marshals from +other agencies are a bank, a horse ranch, a golf course, gas stations, +flower shops, a drug store, a recording studio and a brass foundry. The +U.S. Customs Service lists elephants and kangaroos among the noteworthy +items seized, while local agencies reported gymnastic equipment, +Kruggerands, pill machines for making quaaludes, and even a Rolex watch +(noted earlier) used to set the time for a drug deal. + +Most of the survey respondents, as local agencies, operate independently +of the U.S. Marshals Service, although Detroit currently is trying to + + establish a working relationship with the Service. The Broward County +SheriffUs Department has probably the closest arrangement with the +Service, for their county's personnel are named special U.S. Deputy +Marshals for enforcement purposes, and they operate under their legal +umbrellaQtraveling cross country to serve subpoenas, gaining access to +selected Service intelligence, and receiving information on federal +investigations in their area. In short, this cooperative arrangement +provides a major boost to furthering the Broward County Sheriff's +Department's objectives. + +In pursuing forfeiture action against such property, local agencies have +not been deterred by the need to track assets to other states: The +Broward County Sheriff's Department, for example, seized sixty-four +Arabian horses and autos + +on a farm in Michigan where marijuana was being grown. The Detroit +Police Department went far afield to seize a farm in Tennessee. + +Major Issues In The Management Of Seized Assets + +When Detroit personnel were asked about how they maintain and preserve +the value of such assets as cars, real estate, farms, and businesses, +their answer was precise: "prompt disposal." The issues of maintenance + + and preservation were of major concern to all seven agencies, or they +remained sensitive to the requirement to responsibly manage the asset +while it was in their possession. + +In Florida, local departmental use of the most frequently seized +property, cars, requires approval from local courts. Then, the agency +can use the autos in investigations or hold them for auction with the +proceeds going to the asset forfeiture Law Enforcement Trust Fund +(LETF). This type of account can be set up in Florida jurisdictions to +hold seized proceeds, pending approval of city or county commissions for +its expenditureQexclusively for additional investigative activity. + +After seizure, an item should be appraised in order to document its +value at the time of seizure, and to identify encumbrances and liens +(especially those affecting autos and real estate parcels) that might +make an item a financial liability to the seizing agency. Detroit even +has second appraisal done if they must go to court, so that they have a +record that the property did not decrease in value while in their +possession. + +Some agencies (e.g., the U.S. Marshals Service and the Florida +Department of Law Enforcement) report that they try to determine if an +item will be a financial liability prior to deciding whether to seize + + it. In fact, the Marshals Service participates with the local U.S. +AttorneyUs Office and the investigating federal agency in a "pre-seizure +planning" process to avoid having to assume responsibility for high +financial liability items. + +Storing conveyances (including planes, boats and automobiles) often +requires an enclosed space to preserve the items in optimum condition. +This requires either owning or renting storage space. Often the dollar +value of the conveyance will determine how it is held in storageQfor +example, a Rolls Royce in good condition warrants an enclosed storage +facility, while an old model automobile in poor condition could be +stored in an open-fenced area. Broward County processes older and less +valuable cars (with book values of $500 to $1000) by allowing owners to +repossess them for a fee of $250 to cover the agencyUs legal costs. Ft. +Lauderdale places a $250 service charge on seized rental cars, or those +with legitimate liens. + +In addition to storage, mechanical maintenance must be provided, and +that requires either using staff skills within the agency or hiring +qualified contractors. If a conveyance such as a boat or plane is +expected to be stored for an extended period, experienced mechanics must +be hired to specially prepare ("pickle") the engine and other mechanical +parts for long-term storage. + + +Autos are comparatively simple to maintain, and some agencies use their +own people (in many cases sworn personnel) to handle servicing. In other +agencies, civilians assigned to city or county maintenance yards care +for cars. Planes and boats present a more difficult task, for their +maintenance requires much more technical knowledge and skill. Most +agencies that deal with planes and boats use contracted maintenance +servicesQexcept for Broward, which assigns the boats permanently to the +Marine Interdiction Unit of the Organized Crime Bureau. The planes are +assigned to their own Aviation Section. + +Usually, the boats and planes are first stripped of valuable electronic +equipment. This is either used by the agency (for, in many cases, the +hardware is better and more sophisticated than the agencies current +equipment) or, in Florida, sold with the proceeds going into a Law +Enforcement Trust Fund (LETF). Every agency commented on the +extraordinary expense of maintaining boats and planes. + +Seized cash is immediately placed in interest bearing accounts. In +Florida, upon receiving court approval through the receipt of title, the +account with the cash is transferred to the appropriate LETFQlocal or +state, depending upon the seizing agency. Ft. Lauderdale's arrangement +with a local bank and the state's attorney allows the bank to use its + + machines to count and simultaneously photograph every bill, and then +deposit the funds in the agencyUs account. + +Florida's Law Enforcement Trust Fund (LETF) program merits special +mention. Seized money and the proceeds from sales and auctions are +placed in such accounts, subject to certain state statutory provisions. +A local department must apply to the locally maintained Fund to use the +money; a state agency applies to the state fund. A request from a +particular division or bureau in a locality is passed through the chain +of command to the chiefs office and, if approved, is forwarded to the +respective city or county council for consideration. Ft. Lauderdale has +to submit monthly reports on all seizures and trust fund activity to the +city manager, and along with other Florida agencies, another complete +list to FDLE. + +As an example of concrete activity in Florida's trust fund program, +Metro-Dade recently requested and received funds to rent a large airport +hangar as an enclosed space for a large number of seized vehicles +managed by the department. Previously, the vehicles were housed in an +open-fenced lot. In addition, Ft. Lauderdale funds five staff positions +out of this fund: an attorney, three forfeiture specialists, and a +secretaryQall of whom work directly on forfeiture legal proceedings and +the preservation and maintenance of seized assets. + + +Most agencies use a combination of in-house expertise, such as sworn +personnel who are pilots or auto mechanics, and hired consultants, +including aircraft mechanics and marina staff, to manage the various +types of conveyances seized. Following a competitive bidding process, +the U.S. Customs Service hired a general management consultant who is +responsible for all custody, management and disposition of seized +conveyances. The general contractor is responsible for hiring +subcontractors to deal with specific mechanical and storage requirements +of seized assets. + +When businesses are seized, it must be determined whether to continue +operating the business or close down its activity. Experiences among +agencies has varied. Obviously, Broward County did not choose to +continue to operate a seized porno theatre, on the rare occasion when it +seized a business. If it is projected to be cost-effective to continue +operation of a seized business, the U.S. Marshals will employ a business +manager to oversee the business. The Florida Department of Law +Enforcement has never had occasion to continue operating any business +seized, and the U.S. Customs Service and local agencies usually avoid +seizing businesses. + +When hiring consultants to appraise the value of a conveyance or a + + business, provide mechanical maintenance, store items or actually manage +a business, the seven agencies reported using a variety of methods to +locate reputable contractors. Typically, local trade associations and +professional groups are contacted for referrals, advertisements are +placed in appropriate trade journals and newspapers, and other law +enforcement agencies may be contacted for assistance. Metro-Dade uses +the countyUs current list of approved vendors. References are requested +and checked to assure that the contractors are competent and reputable. +The U.S. Marshals Service maintains a list of vendors in each of its +thirteen regional offices, while the other agencies surveyed stated that +they do not maintain approved lists but can easily retrieve the names of +reputable contractors with whom they have dealt in the past. + +Disposition Issues + +All agencies stated that they are allowed to convert seized equipment to +departmental use. Although a state or federal agency may on its own +decide to use a vehicle which has been seizedQusually in a district or +region outside the one where it was seizedQa local agency is more likely +to sell the seized vehicle. In Florida, an agency may in turn request +money from the Law Enforcement Trust Fund to purchase another needed +vehicle. By selling assets, a local agency avoids any appearance of +seizing an item specifically for agency use. Broward County has even + + "traded" one piece of seized equipment for another. On one occasion, +because its regular radios did not have enough channels, the + +and those of its membership to address law enforcement groups and to +make sure that those groups are familiar with all of the requirements of +the pertinent statutes. All agencies reported that, if at all possible, +each asset is evaluated before seizure to be sure that it actually +belongs to the suspect. + +The Marshals use a system of "pre-seizure planning," in which targeted +assets are evaluated to ascertain ownership and the existence of any +encumbrances or liens. The Marshals stated that they have had difficulty +with mortgage lenders and title insurance companies recognizing the +Marshal's title to a piece of seized real estate. Such companies are +concerned that owners may claim their constitutional rights have been +violated, and that the property is still theirs. For example, has a +fugitive received the notification required by law regarding the pending +disposition of his property? + +The Marshals Service has never been sued directly, but they reported a +suit has been brought challenging the constitutionality of a particular +seizure. The Marshals also noted that they would hesitate to seize an +asset deemed a financial liability because of encumbrances or liens that + + summed to an amount greater than the propertyUs assessed value. + +Asset seizure and forfeiture lawsuits have focused almost exclusively on +the perceived slowness of the process for returning a seized asset to +the rightful owner. However, on the bright side, when jurisdictions have +been sued, their actions have been upheld in every case (such as Ft. +Lauderdale and Detroit). + +With the reasonable burden of proof and the preponderance of the +evidence burden in civil cases, the above agencies reported few +reservations about pursuing a case or deciding to attempt the seizure. +After seizure, however, other troublesome situations may arise. Broward +wrestled with the problem of what to do with a load of maple wood that +was surrounded by a load of hashish. Could they donate it to a shelter +facility? They eventually destroyed it, feeling that they could not +justify returning it, or giving it away. + +Resource Directory: + +Roster Of Persons Interviewed + +1. U.S. Marshals Service + + + Joseph Enders, Chief +Operations Support +(703) 285-1271 + +2. U.S. Customs Service + +Gary George +Seized Property Officer +(202) 566-5435 + +3. Metro-Dade Police Department + +Major Art Nehrbass +Executive Officer +Special Investigations Division +(305) 592-7323 + +George Aylesworth, Esq. +Supervisor +Police Legal Unit +(305) 547-7404 + +4. Ft. Lauderdale Police Department + + +Robert Wennerholm, Esq. +Legal Advisor +(305) 761-5626 + +5. Broward County SheriffUs Department + +Captain Carl Parrott +Assistant Commander +Organized Crime Unit + +Commander William Dunman +Director +Organized Crime Centre +(305) 492-1810 + +6. Detroit Police Department + +Inspector Terry Ford, Esq. +Director +Forfeiture Unit +(313) 224-4490 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/assetnew.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/assetnew.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2da8533e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/assetnew.txt @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ +ASSET FORFEITURE TAKES A BIG HIT IN CALIFORNIA! + +Thank you, folks, for helping in this endevor: + + +LAWMAKERS REVOKE COPS' ASSET-SEIZING POWERS + + WIDESPREAD ABUSE LEADS LEGISLATURE TO LET THE LAW REVERT TO 1988 RULES, +WHICH REQUIRE A CONVICTION. + +By GARY WEBB +Mercury News Sacramento Bureau + +SACRAMENTO -- Stung by evidence of widespread abuse, the California +Legislature decided Friday night to kill the state's asset-forfeiture law, +which for four years has allowed police to take money and property from people +who were merely suspected of dealing drugs. + +Starting next year, police will be required to obtain drug-trafficking +convictions in most cases before they can keep seized property. + +``The way the asset forfeiture law was being applied was an assault on +individual property rights and not necessarily on drug dealers,'' said +Assemblyman John Burton, D-San Francisco, who led the fight to reform the +forfeiture law. ``I think we have solved a significant problem here.'' + +With the repeal, California becomes only the second state in the nation to +revoke the vast seizure powers police agencies were granted in the 1980s when +the ``war on drugs'' was at its height. Missouri lawmakers scaled back their +forfeiture laws this spring after evidence of police abuses surfaced. + +The outcome was a stunning defeat for California law enforcement agencies, who +until a few weeks ago were almost assured of getting the controversial law +made permanent. Last year, police said keeping the law -- which has produced +at least $180 million for police and prosecutors since 1989 -- was their No. 1 +political priority. + +But lobbyists and lawmakers said a recent Mercury News series on forfeiture +abuses changed everything. + +``I think the accuracy and the detail of the series outlining the abuses was +the turning point in the negotiations,'' said Margaret Pena, a lobbyist for +the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been pressing for reform of the +forfeiture statutes for several years. ``For once the Legislature has put the +concerns of innocent people who have been abused by the police above the +interests of law enforcement.'' + +Some lawmakers complained their telephone lines were tied up for hours by +callers urging forfeiture reforms. + +Attorney General Dan Lungren, in a news conference early Friday, accused the +press of being duped by drug lawyers. He described lawmakers who supported +forfeiture reforms as advocating a ``cease-fire'' in the drug war. + +REPORTS CALLED `DISTORTED' + +``Unfortunately, the white powder bar has done a great job of getting this +issue represented in the press in very distorted fashion to suggest that +somehow there are wide-scale problems with this law,'' Lungren said. ``That +is, in fact, inaccurate. That has not been true since the law took effect.'' + +Lungren, who favors expanding the forfeiture laws, said there were few +``troublesome'' cases among the 16,000 forfeiture actions filed by state +prosecutors in the last four years -- less than one-thousandth of 1 percent, +he said. + +The Mercury News investigation, which examined more than 250 court cases in +five counties, found dozens of instances in which property was taken from +people who had never been convicted of drug trafficking or who had their cases +dropped. The law was intended to take profits away from major drug dealers, +but records show property seizures were often aimed at the poor, casual drug +users and people who speak no English. + +Burton, chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee, attempted to change the law +to allow forfeiture claimants access to up to $10,000 of their own funds to +hire a lawyer. Since forfeiture is a civil, not criminal, proceeding, +claimants have no right to have a court-appointed lawyer. The Mercury News +found that many people whose assets were seized were forced to represent +themselves. + +Burton's bill, AB 114, also would have prohibited police from seizing items +worth less than $1,500 and required law enforcement to file criminal charges +before assets could be seized. + +Law enforcement agencies objected strongly to allowing forfeiture claimants +access to money to hire lawyers, saying it would give ``millions of dollars to +drug lawyers'' and allow drug dealers to keep $40 million a year. + +By early this morning, Burton's bill, backed by an unusual coalition of +conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, had not come up for a vote. +Because no new forfeiture bill was approved, the current law expires Dec. 31, +and forfeitures will then be governed by a 1988 law that requires criminal +convictions in most cases. + +``I tried to work with (law enforcement) on it, but they kept saying they'd +rather let the (current law) die,'' Burton said. After reading the 1988 law +that will govern asset forfeitures if the current law isn't renewed, Burton +said he was happy to oblige. + +``The '88 law doesn't have some of the protections that mine does, but at +least they've got to get a criminal conviction before they can take +anything,'' Burton said. ``I couldn't get my bill out of committee with a +conviction requirement in it.'' + +Only cases involving the seizure of more than $25,000 in cash will not require +convictions. But in those cases, prosecutors must provide clear and convincing +evidence that the cash is drug-tainted -- a much higher level of proof than +what is currently required. + +Negotiations between Burton and law enforcement broke down Wednesday after +anonymous leaflets written by prosecutors began circulating through the halls +of the statehouse, depicting Burton as a friend of drug dealers. Burton +stormed out and told reporters he wouldn't continue the talks until he got a +public apology. + +`OVERZEALOUS COPS' BLAMED + +Assemblyman Richard Katz, the Los Angeles Democrat who wrote the 1989 bill +that gave rise to many of the abuses, acknowledged the law had caused some +unintended problems, which he blamed on ``overzealous cops.'' + +Katz said the 1992 killing of Donald Scott, a Ventura County millionaire who +was gunned down by police during an asset forfeiture raid that found no drugs, +was ``a prime example'' of law enforcement gone awry. + +``But I think generally asset forfeiture has been one of the most successful +weapons in the war on drugs,'' Katz said. ``Rather than lose the law, I think +the problems could have been worked out.'' + +Sen. Ken Maddy, R-Fresno, one of the Legislature's staunchest supporters of +asset forfeiture, said Friday that he would try again next year -- an election +year -- to get the forfeiture law reinstated. + +But Burton said that as long as he runs the Assembly Rules Committee, which +decides the fate of thousands of bills every year, that is unlikely to happen. + +``They're not going to get anything else on this for as long as I'm here,'' +Burton vowed. + +San Jose Mercury News diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/auction.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/auction.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c78d6864 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/auction.txt @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ + + + + + + + + GOVERNMENT SURPLUS AUCTIONS 1994 +GOVERNMENT SURPLUS AUCTIONS + +MISCELLANEOUS + + August 9 -------------------- Hereford + August 17 ------------------- Southampton + August 24 ------------------ Carlisle/Catterick + September 7 ----------------- Telford + September 12 ---------------- Banbury + September 13 ---------------- Banbury + October 20 ------------------ Stirling + November 8 ------------------ Hereford + November 16 ----------------- Southampton + November 21 ----------------- Banbury + November 22 ----------------- Banbury + November 30 ----------------- Carlisle/Catterick + December 7 ------------------ Telford + + + + Auctions Auctioneers + + STIRLING Harrison & Hetherington Ltd + The King Robert Hotel Borderway Mart + Bannockburn Rosehill + Stirling Carlisle + Scotland CA1 2RS + Tel:0228 26292 + + BANBURY Midland Marts Ltd + The Pedigree Centre PO Box 10 + Banbury Stockyard The Stockyard + Oxon Banbury + Oxon + OX16 8EP + Tel:0295 250501 + + SOUTHAMPTON Austin & Wyatt + The Post House Hotel The Squiare + Herbert Walker Avenue Bishops Waltham + Southampton Hants + Hants SO3 1GG + Tel:0489 893466 + + HEREFORD Russel Baldwin & Bright + Hereford Moat House The Mews + Belmont House King Street + Hereford Hereford + HR4 9DB + Tel:0432 355441 + + CARLISLE/CATTERICK Harrison & + Hetherington Ltd + "The Auctioneer" Borderway Mart + Borderway Mart Rosehill + Rosehill Carlisle + Carlisle CA1 2RS + Tel:0228 26292 + + TELFORD Harrison & + Hetherington Ltd + Telford Racqet Centre Borderway Mart + Telford Rosehill + Shropshire Carlisle + CA1 2RS + Tel:0228 26292 + + + + + VEHICLE AUCTIONEERS + + MEASHAM - HGV and Plant ADT + Tamworth Road + Measham + Burton on Trent + DE12 7DY + + LEEDS - All Types Motor Auction Leeds + Hillidge Road + Leeds + LS10 1DE + Tel:0532 772644 + + PETERBOROUGH - Cars and Light ADT + Commercials Boongate + Peterborough + Cambridgeshire + PE11 5AH + Tel:0733 68881 + + KINROSS - All Types Kinross Motor Auctions + Bridgend + Kinross + KY13 7RN + Tel:0577 62564 + + ASTON DOWN - All Types ADT + MOD PE + Aston Down + Stroud + Glos + GL8 8HT + Tel:061 2239179 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/autobio b/textfiles.com/politics/autobio new file mode 100644 index 00000000..344aadd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/autobio @@ -0,0 +1,3899 @@ + AUTOBIOGRAPHY + by Thomas Jefferson + + + + + AUTOBIOGRAPHY + + 1743 -- 1790 + + _With the Declaration of Independence_ + + January 6, 1821 + + At the age of 77, I begin to make some memoranda and state some +recollections of dates & facts concerning myself, for my own more +ready reference & for the information of my family. + + The tradition in my father's family was that their ancestor +came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of +Snowdon, the highest in Gr. Br. I noted once a case from Wales in the +law reports where a person of our name was either pl. or def. and one +of the same name was Secretary to the Virginia company. These are +the only instances in which I have met with the name in that country. +I have found it in our early records, but the first particular +information I have of any ancestor was my grandfather who lived at +the place in Chesterfield called Ozborne's and ownd. the lands +afterwards the glebe of the parish. He had three sons, Thomas who +died young, Field who settled on the waters of Roanoke and left +numerous descendants, and Peter my father, who settled on the lands I +still own called Shadwell adjoining my present residence. He was +born Feb. 29, 1707/8, and intermarried 1739. with Jane Randolph, of +the age of 19. daur of Isham Randolph one of the seven sons of that +name & family settled at Dungeoness in Goochld. They trace their +pedigree far back in England & Scotland, to which let every one +ascribe the faith & merit he chooses. + + My father's education had been quite neglected; but being of a +strong mind, sound judgment and eager after information, he read much +and improved himself insomuch that he was chosen with Joshua Fry +professor of Mathem. in W. & M. college to continue the boundary line +between Virginia & N. Caroline which had been begun by Colo Byrd, and +was afterwards employed with the same Mr. Fry to make the 1st map of +Virginia which had ever been made, that of Capt Smith being merely a +conjectural sketch. They possessed excellent materials for so much +of the country as is below the blue ridge; little being then known +beyond that ridge. He was the 3d or 4th settler of the part of the +country in which I live, which was about 1737. He died Aug. 17. +1757, leaving my mother a widow who lived till 1776, with 6 daurs & +2. sons, myself the elder. To my younger brother he left his estate +on James river called Snowden after the supposed birth-place of the +family. To myself the lands on which I was born & live. He placed +me at the English school at 5. years of age and at the Latin at 9. +where I continued until his death. My teacher Mr. Douglas a +clergyman from Scotland was but a superficial Latinist, less +instructed in Greek, but with the rudiments of these languages he +taught me French, and on the death of my father I went to the revd +Mr. Maury a correct classical scholar, with whom I continued two +years, and then went to Wm. and Mary college, to wit in the spring of +1760, where I continued 2. years. It was my great good fortune, and +what probably fixed the destinies of my life that Dr. Wm. Small of +Scotland was then professor of Mathematics, a man profound in most of +the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, +correct and gentlemanly manners, & an enlarged & liberal mind. He, +most happily for me, became soon attached to me & made me his daily +companion when not engaged in the school; and from his conversation I +got my first views of the expansion of science & of the system of +things in which we are placed. Fortunately the Philosophical chair +became vacant soon after my arrival at college, and he was appointed +to fill it per interim: and he was the first who ever gave in that +college regular lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric & Belles lettres. He +returned to Europe in 1762, having previously filled up the measure +of his goodness to me, by procuring for me, from his most intimate +friend G. Wythe, a reception as a student of law, under his +direction, and introduced me to the acquaintance and familiar table +of Governor Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled that office. +With him, and at his table, Dr. Small & Mr. Wythe, his amici omnium +horarum, & myself, formed a partie quarree, & to the habitual +conversations on these occasions I owed much instruction. Mr. Wythe +continued to be my faithful and beloved Mentor in youth, and my most +affectionate friend through life. In 1767, he led me into the +practice of the law at the bar of the General court, at which I +continued until the revolution shut up the courts of justice. [For a +sketch of the life & character of Mr. Wythe see my letter of Aug. 31. +20. to Mr. John Saunderson] + + In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the choice of +the county in which I live, & continued in that until it was closed +by the revolution. I made one effort in that body for the permission +of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected: and indeed, during +the regal government, nothing liberal could expect success. Our +minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an habitual belief +that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country in all +matters of government, to direct all our labors in subservience to +her interests, and even to observe a bigoted intolerance for all +religions but hers. The difficulties with our representatives were +of habit and despair, not of reflection & conviction. Experience +soon proved that they could bring their minds to rights on the first +summons of their attention. But the king's council, which acted as +another house of legislature, held their places at will & were in +most humble obedience to that will: the Governor too, who had a +negative on our laws held by the same tenure, & with still greater +devotedness to it: and last of all the Royal negative closed the last +door to every hope of amelioration. + + On the 1st of January, 1772 I was married to Martha Skelton +widow of Bathurst Skelton, & daughter of John Wayles, then 23. years +old. Mr. Wayles was a lawyer of much practice, to which he was +introduced more by his great industry, punctuality & practical +readiness, than to eminence in the science of his profession. He was +a most agreeable companion, full of pleasantry & good humor, and +welcomed in every society. He acquired a handsome fortune, died in +May, 1773, leaving three daughters, and the portion which came on +that event to Mrs. Jefferson, after the debts should be paid, which +were very considerable, was about equal to my own patrimony, and +consequently doubled the ease of our circumstances. + + When the famous Resolutions of 1765, against the Stamp-act, +were proposed, I was yet a student of law in Wmsbg. I attended the +debate however at the door of the lobby of the H. of Burgesses, & +heard the splendid display of Mr. Henry's talents as a popular +orator. They were great indeed; such as I have never heard from any +other man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote. Mr. Johnson, +a lawyer & member from the Northern Neck, seconded the resolns, & by +him the learning & the logic of the case were chiefly maintained. My +recollections of these transactions may be seen pa. 60, Wirt's life +of P. H., to whom I furnished them. + + In May, 1769, a meeting of the General Assembly was called by +the Govr., Ld. Botetourt. I had then become a member; and to that +meeting became known the joint resolutions & address of the Lords & +Commons of 1768 -- 9, on the proceedings in Massachusetts. +Counter-resolutions, & an address to the King, by the H. of Burgesses +were agreed to with little opposition, & a spirit manifestly +displayed of considering the cause of Massachusetts as a common one. +The Governor dissolved us: but we met the next day in the Apollo of +the Raleigh tavern, formed ourselves into a voluntary convention, +drew up articles of association against the use of any merchandise +imported from Gr. Britain, signed and recommended them to the people, +repaired to our several counties, & were re elected without any other +exception than of the very few who had declined assent to our +proceedings. + + Nothing of particular excitement occurring for a considerable +time our countrymen seemed to fall into a state of insensibility to +our situation. The duty on tea not yet repealed & the Declaratory +act of a right in the British parl to bind us by their laws in all +cases whatsoever, still suspended over us. But a court of inquiry +held in R. Island in 1762, with a power to send persons to England to +be tried for offences committed here was considered at our session of +the spring of 1773. as demanding attention. Not thinking our old & +leading members up to the point of forwardness & zeal which the times +required, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis L. Lee, Mr. Carr & myself +agreed to meet in the evening in a private room of the Raleigh to +consult on the state of things. There may have been a member or two +more whom I do not recollect. We were all sensible that the most +urgent of all measures was that of coming to an understanding with +all the other colonies to consider the British claims as a common +cause to all, & to produce an unity of action: and for this purpose +that a commee of correspondce in each colony would be the best +instrument for intercommunication: and that their first measure would +probably be to propose a meeting of deputies from every colony at +some central place, who should be charged with the direction of the +measures which should be taken by all. We therefore drew up the +resolutions which may be seen in Wirt pa 87. The consulting members +proposed to me to move them, but I urged that it should be done by +Mr. Carr, my friend & brother in law, then a new member to whom I +wished an opportunity should be given of making known to the house +his great worth & talents. It was so agreed; he moved them, they +were agreed to nem. con. and a commee of correspondence appointed of +whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. The Govr. (then Ld. +Dunmore) dissolved us, but the commee met the next day, prepared a +circular letter to the Speakers of the other colonies, inclosing to +each a copy of the resolns and left it in charge with their chairman +to forward them by expresses. + + The origination of these commees of correspondence between the +colonies has been since claimed for Massachusetts, and Marshall II. +151, has given into this error, altho' the very note of his appendix +to which he refers, shows that their establmt was confined to their +own towns. This matter will be seen clearly stated in a letter of +Samuel Adams Wells to me of Apr. 2., 1819, and my answer of May 12. +I was corrected by the letter of Mr. Wells in the information I had +given Mr. Wirt, as stated in his note, pa. 87, that the messengers of +Massach. & Virga crossed each other on the way bearing similar +propositions, for Mr. Wells shows that Mass. did not adopt the +measure but on the receipt of our proposn delivered at their next +session. Their message therefore which passed ours, must have +related to something else, for I well remember P. Randolph's +informing me of the crossing of our messengers. + + The next event which excited our sympathies for Massachusets +was the Boston port bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the +1st of June, 1774. This arrived while we were in session in the +spring of that year. The lead in the house on these subjects being +no longer left to the old members, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Fr. L. Lee, +3. or 4. other members, whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing +that we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with +Massachusetts, determined to meet and consult on the proper measures +in the council chamber, for the benefit of the library in that room. +We were under conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from +the lethargy into which they had fallen as to passing events; and +thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting & prayer +would be most likely to call up & alarm their attention. No example +of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distresses in +the war of 55. since which a new generation had grown up. With the +help therefore of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the +revolutionary precedents & forms of the Puritans of that day, +preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing +their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which the Port +bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation & prayer, to +implore heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us +with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the +King & parliament to moderation & justice. To give greater emphasis +to our proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr. +Nicholas, whose grave & religious character was more in unison with +the tone of our resolution and to solicit him to move it. We +accordingly went to him in the morning. He moved it the same day; +the 1st of June was proposed and it passed without opposition. The +Governor dissolved us as usual. We retired to the Apollo as before, +agreed to an association, and instructed the commee of correspdce to +propose to the corresponding commees of the other colonies to appoint +deputies to meet in Congress at such place, _annually_, as should be +convenient to direct, from time to time, the measures required by the +general interest: and we declared that an attack on any one colony +should be considered as an attack on the whole. This was in May. We +further recommended to the several counties to elect deputies to meet +at Wmsbg the 1st of Aug ensuing, to consider the state of the colony, +& particularly to appoint delegates to a general Congress, should +that measure be acceded to by the commees of correspdce generally. +It was acceded to, Philadelphia was appointed for the place, and the +5th of Sep. for the time of meeting. We returned home, and in our +several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the people +on the 1st of June, to perform the ceremonies of the day, & to +address to them discourses suited to the occasion. The people met +generally, with anxiety & alarm in their countenances, and the effect +of the day thro' the whole colony was like a shock of electricity, +arousing every man & placing him erect & solidly on his centre. They +chose universally delegates for the convention. Being elected one +for my own county I prepared a draught of instructions to be given to +the delegates whom we should send to the Congress, and which I meant +to propose at our meeting. In this I took the ground which, from the +beginning I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was +that the relation between Gr. Br. and these colonies was exactly the +same as that of England & Scotland after the accession of James & +until the Union, and the same as her present relations with Hanover, +having the same Executive chief but no other necessary political +connection; and that our emigration from England to this country gave +her no more rights over us, than the emigrations of the Danes and +Saxons gave to the present authorities of the mother country over +England. In this doctrine however I had never been able to get any +one to agree with me but Mr. Wythe. He concurred in it from the +first dawn of the question What was the political relation between us +& England? Our other patriots Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, +Pendleton stopped at the half-way house of John Dickinson who +admitted that England had a right to regulate our commerce, and to +lay duties on it for the purposes of regulation, but not of raising +revenue. But for this ground there was no foundation in compact, in +any acknowledged principles of colonization, nor in reason: +expatriation being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all +nations, in all ages. I set out for Wmsbg some days before that +appointed for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentery on the +road, & unable to proceed. I sent on therefore to Wmsbg two copies +of my draught, the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I knew +would be in the chair of the convention, the other to Patrick Henry. +Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too lazy to +read it (for he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew) I never +learned: but he communicated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph informed +the convention he had received such a paper from a member prevented +by sickness from offering it in his place, and he laid it on the +table for perusal. It was read generally by the members, approved by +many, but thought too bold for the present state of things; but they +printed it in pamphlet form under the title of "A Summary view of the +rights of British America." It found its way to England, was taken up +by the opposition, interpolated a little by Mr. Burke so as to make +it answer opposition purposes, and in that form ran rapidly thro' +several editions. This information I had from Parson Hurt, who +happened at the time to be in London, whether he had gone to receive +clerical orders. And I was informed afterwards by Peyton Randolph +that it had procured me the honor of having my name inserted in a +long list of proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced +in one of the houses of parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the +hasty step of events which warned them to be a little cautious. +Montague, agent of the H. of Burgesses in England made extracts from +the bill, copied the names, and sent them to Peyton Randolph. The +names I think were about 20 which he repeated to me, but I recollect +those only of Hancock, the two Adamses, Peyton Randolph himself, +Patrick Henry, & myself. (* 1) The convention met on the 1st of Aug, +renewed their association, appointed delegates to the Congress, gave +them instructions very temperately & properly expressed, both as to +style & matter; and they repaired to Philadelphia at the time +appointed. The splendid proceedings of that Congress at their 1st +session belong to general history, are known to every one, and need +not therefore be noted here. They terminated their session on the +26th of Octob, to meet again on the 10th May ensuing. The convention +at their ensuing session of Mar, '75, approved of the proceedings of +Congress, thanked their delegates and reappointed the same persons to +represent the colony at the meeting to be held in May: and foreseeing +the probability that Peyton Randolph their president and Speaker also +of the H. of B. might be called off, they added me, in that event to +the delegation. + + (* 1) See Girardin's _History of Virginia,_ Appendix No. 12, +note. + + Mr. Randolph was according to expectation obliged to leave the +chair of Congress to attend the Gen. Assembly summoned by Ld. +Dunmore to meet on the 1st day of June 1775. Ld. North's +conciliatory propositions, as they were called, had been received by +the Governor and furnished the subject for which this assembly was +convened. Mr. Randolph accordingly attended, and the tenor of these +propositions being generally known, as having been addressed to all +the governors, he was anxious that the answer of our assembly, likely +to be the first, should harmonize with what he knew to be the +sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left. He feared +that Mr. Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the mark of the +times, would undertake the answer, & therefore pressed me to prepare +an answer. I did so, and with his aid carried it through the house +with long and doubtful scruples from Mr. Nicholas and James Mercer, +and a dash of cold water on it here & there, enfeebling it somewhat, +but finally with unanimity or a vote approaching it. This being +passed, I repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and conveyed to +Congress the first notice they had of it. It was entirely approved +there. I took my seat with them on the 21st of June. On the 24th, a +commee which had been appointed to prepare a declaration of the +causes of taking up arms, brought in their report (drawn I believe by +J. Rutledge) which not being liked they recommitted it on the 26th, +and added Mr. Dickinson and myself to the committee. On the rising +of the house, the commee having not yet met, I happened to find +myself near Govr W. Livingston, and proposed to him to draw the +paper. He excused himself and proposed that I should draw it. On my +pressing him with urgency, "we are as yet but new acquaintances, sir, +said he, why are you so earnest for my doing it?" "Because, said I, +I have been informed that you drew the Address to the people of Gr. +Britain, a production certainly of the finest pen in America." "On +that, says he, perhaps sir you may not have been correctly informed." +I had received the information in Virginia from Colo Harrison on his +return from that Congress. Lee, Livingston & Jay had been the commee +for that draught. The first, prepared by Lee, had been disapproved & +recommitted. The second was drawn by Jay, but being presented by +Govr Livingston, had led Colo Harrison into the error. The next +morning, walking in the hall of Congress, many members being +assembled but the house not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay, speaking +to R. H. Lee, and leading him by the button of his coat, to me. "I +understand, sir, said he to me, that this gentleman informed you that +Govr Livingston drew the Address to the people of Gr Britain." I +assured him at once that I had not received that information from Mr. +Lee & that not a word had ever passed on the subject between Mr. Lee +& myself; and after some explanations the subject was dropt. These +gentlemen had had some sparrings in debate before, and continued ever +very hostile to each other. + + I prepared a draught of the Declaration committed to us. It +was too strong for Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope of +reconciliation with the mother country, and was unwilling it should +be lessened by offensive statements. He was so honest a man, & so +able a one that he was greatly indulged even by those who could not +feel his scruples. We therefore requested him to take the paper, and +put it into a form he could approve. He did so, preparing an entire +new statement, and preserving of the former only the last 4. +paragraphs & half of the preceding one. We approved & reported it to +Congress, who accepted it. Congress gave a signal proof of their +indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too +fast for any respectable part of our body, in permitting him to draw +their second petition to the King according to his own ideas, and +passing it with scarcely any amendment. The disgust against this +humility was general; and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was +the only circumstance which reconciled them to it. The vote being +passed, altho' further observn on it was out of order, he could not +refrain from rising and expressing his satisfaction and concluded by +saying "there is but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I +disapprove, & that is the word _Congress_," on which Ben Harrison +rose and said "there is but on word in the paper, Mr. President, of +which I approve, and that is the word _Congress._" + + On the 22d of July Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, R. H. Lee, & +myself, were appointed a commee to consider and report on Ld. North's +conciliatory resolution. The answer of the Virginia assembly on that +subject having been approved I was requested by the commee to prepare +this report, which will account for the similarity of feature in the +two instruments. + + + On the 15th of May, 1776, the convention of Virginia instructed +their delegates in Congress to propose to that body to declare the +colonies independent of G. Britain, and appointed a commee to prepare +a declaration of rights and plan of government. + + In Congress, Friday June 7. 1776. The delegates from Virginia +moved in obedience to instructions from their constituents that the +Congress should declare that these United colonies are & of right +ought to be free & independent states, that they are absolved from +all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political +connection between them & the state of Great Britain is & ought to +be, totally dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for +procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be +formed to bind the colonies more closely together. + + The house being obliged to attend at that time to some other +business, the proposition was referred to the next day, when the +members were ordered to attend punctually at ten o'clock. + + Saturday June 8. They proceeded to take it into consideration +and referred it to a committee of the whole, into which they +immediately resolved themselves, and passed that day & Monday the +10th in debating on the subject. + + It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, +Dickinson and others + + That tho' they were friends to the measures themselves, and saw +the impossibility that we should ever again be united with Gr. +Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time: + + That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise & proper +now, of deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the +people drove us into it: + + That they were our power, & without them our declarations could +not be carried into effect; + + That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, +Pennsylva, the Jerseys & N. York) were not yet ripe for bidding adieu +to British connection, but that they were fast ripening & in a short +time would join in the general voice of America: + + That the resolution entered into by this house on the 15th of +May for suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the +crown, had shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these +middle colonies, that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a +separation from the mother country: + + That some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to +consent to such a declaration, and others had given no instructions, +& consequently no powers to give such consent: + + That if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to +declare such colony independant, certain they were the others could +not declare it for them; the colonies being as yet perfectly +independant of each other: + + That the assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, +their convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New +York was now sitting, & those of the Jerseys & Delaware counties +would meet on the Monday following, & it was probable these bodies +would take up the question of Independance & would declare to their +delegates the voice of their state: + + That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these +delegates must retire & possibly their colonies might secede from the +Union: + + That such a secession would weaken us more than could be +compensated by any foreign alliance: + + That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would +either refuse to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so +much in their power as that desperate declaration would place us, +they would insist on terms proportionably more hard and prejudicial: + + That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to +whom alone as yet we had cast our eyes: + + That France & Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising +power which would one day certainly strip them of all their American +possessions: + + That it was more likely they should form a connection with the +British court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise +to extricate themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a +partition of our territories, restoring Canada to France, & the +Floridas to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery of these +colonies: + + That it would not be long before we should receive certain +information of the disposition of the French court, from the agent +whom we had sent to Paris for that purpose: + + That if this disposition should be favorable, by waiting the +event of the present campaign, which we all hoped would be +successful, we should have reason to expect an alliance on better +terms: + + That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from +such ally, as, from the advance of the season & distance of our +situation, it was impossible we could receive any assistance during +this campaign: + + That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which +we should form alliance, before we declared we would form one at all +events: + + And that if these were agreed on, & our Declaration of +Independance ready by the time our Ambassador should be prepared to +sail, it would be as well as to go into that Declaration at this day. + + On the other side it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and +others + + That no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of +separation from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever +renew our connection; that they had only opposed its being now +declared: + + That the question was not whether, by a declaration of +independance, we should make ourselves what we are not; but whether +we should declare a fact which already exists: + + That as to the people or parliament of England, we had alwais +been independent of them, their restraints on our trade deriving +efficacy from our acquiescence only, & not from any rights they +possessed of imposing them, & that so far our connection had been +federal only & was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities: + + That as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance, +but that this bond was now dissolved by his assent to the late act of +parliament, by which he declares us out of his protection, and by his +levying war on us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of his +protection; it being a certain position in law that allegiance & +protection are reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is +withdrawn: + + That James the IId. never declared the people of England out of +his protection yet his actions proved it & the parliament declared +it: + + No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of +declaring an existing truth: + + That the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared +their constituents ready to join, there are only two colonies +Pennsylvania & Maryland whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and +that these had by their instructions only reserved a right of +confirming or rejecting the measure: + + That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted for +from the times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth ago, +since which the face of affairs has totally changed: + + That within that time it had become apparent that Britain was +determined to accept nothing less than a carte-blanche, and that the +King's answer to the Lord Mayor Aldermen & common council of London, +which had come to hand four days ago, must have satisfied every one +of this point: + + That the people wait for us to lead the way: + + That _they_ are in favour of the measure, tho' the instructions +given by some of their _representatives_ are not: + + That the voice of the representatives is not always consonant +with the voice of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in +these middle colonies: + + That the effect of the resolution of the 15th of May has proved +this, which, raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of +Pennsylvania & Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the freer +part of the people, & proved them to be the majority, even in these +colonies: + + That the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed +partly to the influence of proprietary power & connections, & partly +to their having not yet been attacked by the enemy: + + That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there +seemed no probability that the enemy would make either of these the +seat of this summer's war: + + That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for +perfect unanimity, since it was impossible that all men should ever +become of one sentiment on any question: + + That the conduct of some colonies from the beginning of this +contest, had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to +keep in the rear of the confederacy, that their particular prospect +might be better, even in the worst event: + + That therefore it was necessary for those colonies who had +thrown themselves forward & hazarded all from the beginning, to come +forward now also, and put all again to their own hazard: + + That the history of the Dutch revolution, of whom three states +only confederated at first proved that a secession of some colonies +would not be so dangerous as some apprehended: + + That a declaration of Independence alone could render it +consistent with European delicacy for European powers to treat with +us, or even to receive an Ambassador from us: + + That till this they would not receive our vessels into their +ports, nor acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admiralty +to be legitimate, in cases of capture of British vessels: + + That though France & Spain may be jealous of our rising power, +they must think it will be much more formidable with the addition of +Great Britain; and will therefore see it their interest to prevent a +coalition; but should they refuse, we shall be but where we are; +whereas without trying we shall never know whether they will aid us +or not: + + That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, & therefore we +had better propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful +aspect: + + That to await the event of this campaign will certainly work +delay, because during this summer France may assist us effectually by +cutting off those supplies of provisions from England & Ireland on +which the enemy's armies here are to depend; or by setting in motion +the great power they have collected in the West Indies, & calling our +enemy to the defence of the possessions they have there: + + That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of +alliance, till we had first determined we would enter into alliance: + + That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our +people, who will want clothes, and will want money too for the +paiment of taxes: + + And that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into +alliance with France six months sooner, as besides opening their +ports for the vent of our last year's produce, they might have +marched an army into Germany and prevented the petty princes there +from selling their unhappy subjects to subdue us. + + It appearing in the course of these debates that the colonies +of N. York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South +Carolina were not yet matured for falling from the parent stem, but +that they were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most +prudent to wait a while for them, and to postpone the final decision +to July 1. but that this might occasion as little delay as possible a +committee was appointed to prepare a declaration of independence. +The commee were J. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. +Livingston & myself. Committees were also appointed at the same time +to prepare a plan of confederation for the colonies, and to state the +terms proper to be proposed for foreign alliance. The committee for +drawing the declaration of Independence desired me to do it. It was +accordingly done, and being approved by them, I reported it to the +house on Friday the 28th of June when it was read and ordered to lie +on the table. On Monday, the 1st of July the house resolved itself +into a commee of the whole & resumed the consideration of the +original motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which being again +debated through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes +of N. Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, N. Jersey, +Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, & Georgia. S. Carolina and +Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware having but two members +present, they were divided. The delegates for New York declared they +were for it themselves & were assured their constituents were for it, +but that their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth +before, when reconciliation was still the general object, they were +enjoined by them to do nothing which should impede that object. They +therefore thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either +side, and asked leave to withdraw from the question, which was given +them. The commee rose & reported their resolution to the house. Mr. +Edward Rutledge of S. Carolina then requested the determination might +be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, tho' they +disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake of +unanimity. The ultimate question whether the house would agree to +the resolution of the committee was accordingly postponed to the next +day, when it was again moved and S. Carolina concurred in voting for +it. In the meantime a third member had come post from the Delaware +counties and turned the vote of that colony in favour of the +resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that morning +from Pennsylvania also, their vote was changed, so that the whole 12 +colonies who were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for +it; and within a few days, the convention of N. York approved of it +and thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her +delegates from the vote. + + Congress proceeded the same day to consider the declaration of +Independance which had been reported & lain on the table the Friday +preceding, and on Monday referred to a commee of the whole. The +pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms +with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those +passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck +out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating +the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in +complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted +to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still +wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a +little tender under those censures; for tho' their people have very +few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers +of them to others. The debates having taken up the greater parts of +the 2d 3d & 4th days of July were, in the evening of the last, closed +the declaration was reported by the commee, agreed to by the house +and signed by every member present except Mr. Dickinson. As the +sentiments of men are known not only by what they receive, but what +they reject also, I will state the form of the declaration as +originally reported. The parts struck out by Congress shall be +distinguished by a black line drawn under them; & those inserted by +them shall be placed in the margin or in a concurrent column. + + + A Declaration by the Representatives of the + United States of America, in General + Congress Assembled. + + When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one +people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with +another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate & +equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle +them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they +should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. + + We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are +created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with *inherent +and* [certain] inalienable rights; that among these are life, +liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, +governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from +the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government +becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to +alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's +foundation on such principles, & organizing it's powers in such form, +as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. +Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should +not be changed for light & transient causes; and accordingly all +experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while +evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the +forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses +& usurpations *begun at a distinguished period and* pursuing +invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under +absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off +such government, & to provide new guards for their future security. +Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now +the necessity which constrains them to *expunge* [alter] their former +systems of government. The history of the present king of Great +Britain is a history of *unremitting* [repeated] injuries & +usurpations, *among which appears no solitary fact to contradict the +uniform tenor of the rest but all have* [all having] in direct object +the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove +this let facts be submitted to a candid world *for the truth of which +we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.* + + He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome & +necessary for the public good. + + He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate & +pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his +assent should be obtained; & when so suspended, he has utterly +neglected to attend to them. + + He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of +large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the +right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to +them, & formidable to tyrants only. + + He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, +uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public +records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with +his measures. + + He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly *& +continually* for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the +rights of the people. + + He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause +others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of +annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their +exercise, the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the +dangers of invasion from without & convulsions within. + + He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; +for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of +foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations +hither, & raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. + + He has *suffered* [obstructed] the administration of justice +*totally to cease in some of these states* [by] refusing his [assent +to laws for establishing judiciary powers. + + He has made *our* judges dependant on his will alone, for the +tenure of their offices, & the amount & paiment of their salaries. + + He has erected a multitude of new offices *by a self assumed +power* and sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our people +and eat out their substance. + + He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies *and +ships of war* without the consent of our legislatures. + + He has affected to render the military independant of, & +superior to the civil power. + + He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction +foreign to our constitutions & unacknowledged by our laws, giving his +assent to their acts of pretended legislation for quartering large +bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting them by a mock-trial +from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the +inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our trade with all parts +of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for +depriving us [ ] [in many cases] of the benefits of trial by jury; +for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences; +for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring +province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging +it's boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit +instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these *states* +[colonies]; for taking away our charters, abolishing our most +valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our +governments; for suspending our own legislatures, & declaring +themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases +whatsoever. + + He has abdicated government here *withdrawing his governors, +and declaring us out of his allegiance & protection*. [by declaring +us out of his protection, and waging war against us.] + + He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, +& destroyed the lives of our people. + + He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign +mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny +already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy [ ] [scarcely +paralleled in the most barbarous ages, & totally] unworthy the head +of a civilized nation. + + He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the +high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the +executioners of their friends & brethren, or to fall themselves by +their hands. + + He has [excited domestic insurrection among us, & has] +endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless +Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished +destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions *of existence.* + + *He has incited treasonable insurrections of our +fellow-citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of +our property.* + + *He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating +it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a +distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them +into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in +their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium +of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great +Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought +& sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every +legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable +commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of +distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in +arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived +them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus +paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one +people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES +of another.* + + In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for +redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been +answered only by repeated injuries. + + A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may +define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a [ ] [free] people *who +mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe that the +hardiness of one man adventured, within the short compass of twelve +years only, to lay a foundation so broad & so undisguised for tyranny +over a people fostered & fixed in principles of freedom.* + + Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. +We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their +legislature to extend *a* [an unwarrantable] jurisdiction over *these +our states* [us]. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our +emigration & settlement here, *no one of which could warrant so +strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expense of our +own blood & treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of +Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of +government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a +foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that +submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor +ever in idea, if history may be credited: and*, we [ ] [have] +appealed to their native justice and magnanimity *as well as to* [and +we have conjured them by] the ties of our common kindred to disavow +these usurpations which *were likely to* [would inevitably] interrupt +our connection and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the +voice of justice & of consanguinity, *and when occasions have been +given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from +their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their +free election, re-established them in power. At this very time too +they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only +soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to +invade & destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to +agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever +these unfeeling brethren. We must [We must therefore] endeavor to +forget our former love for them, and hold them as we hold the rest of +mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free +and a great people together; but a communication of grandeur & of +freedom it seems is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will +have it. The road to happiness & to glory is open to us too. We +will tread it apart from them, and* acquiesce in the necessity which +denounces our *eternal* separation [ ] [and hold them as we hold the +rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.]! + + We therefore the representatives We therefore the +representatives + of the United States of of the United States of + America in General Congress America in General Congress + assembled do in the name & assembled, appealing to the + by authority of the good supreme judge of the world + people of these *states reject for the rectitude of our + & renounce all allegiance & intentions, do in the name, & by + subjection to the kings of the authority of the good + Great Britain & all others people of these colonies, + who may hereafter claim by, solemnly publish & declare that + through or under them: we these united colonies are & + utterly dissolve all political* of right ought to be free & + + *connection which may independent states; that they + heretofore have subsisted are absolved from all allegiance + between us & the people or to the British crown, + parliament of Great Britain: and that all political + & finally we do assert & connection between them & the + declare these colonies to be free state of Great Britain is, & + & independent states,* & that ought to be, totally + as free & independent states, dissolved; & that as free & + they have full power to levy independent states they have + war, conclude peace, contract full power to levy war, + alliances, establish commerce, conclude peace, contract + & to do all other acts & alliances, establish commerce & + things which independent to do all other acts & things + states may of right do. which independent states + may of right do. + + And for the support of And for the support of this + this declaration we mutually declaration, with a firm + pledge to each other our reliance on the protection of + lives, our fortunes, & our divine providence we mutually + sacred honor. pledge to each other our + lives, our fortunes, & our + sacred honor. + + + The Declaration thus signed on the 4th, on paper was engrossed +on parchment, & signed again on the 2d. of August. + + + Some erroneous statements of the proceedings on the declaration +of independence having got before the public in latter times, Mr. +Samuel A. Wells asked explanations of me, which are given in my +letter to him of May 12. 19. before and now again referred to. I +took notes in my place while these things were going on, and at their +close wrote them out in form and with correctness and from 1 to 7 of +the two preceding sheets are the originals then written; as the two +following are of the earlier debates on the Confederation, which I +took in like manner. + + On Friday July 12. the Committee appointed to draw the articles +of confederation reported them, and on the 22d. the house resolved +themselves into a committee to take them into consideration. On the +30th. & 31st. of that month & 1st. of the ensuing, those articles +were debated which determined the proportion or quota of money which +each state should furnish to the common treasury, and the manner of +voting in Congress. The first of these articles was expressed in the +original draught in these words. "Art. XI. All charges of war & all +other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, or +general welfare, and allowed by the United States assembled, shall be +defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the +several colonies in proportion to the number of inhabitants of every +age, sex & quality, except Indians not paying taxes, in each colony, +a true account of which, distinguishing the white inhabitants, shall +be triennially taken & transmitted to the Assembly of the United +States." + + Mr. [Samuel] Chase moved that the quotas should be fixed, not +by the number of inhabitants of every condition, but by that of the +"white inhabitants." He admitted that taxation should be alwais in +proportion to property, that this was in theory the true rule, but +that from a variety of difficulties, it was a rule which could never +be adopted in practice. The value of the property in every State +could never be estimated justly & equally. Some other measure for +the wealth of the State must therefore be devised, some standard +referred to which would be more simple. He considered the number of +inhabitants as a tolerably good criterion of property, and that this +might alwais be obtained. He therefore thought it the best mode +which we could adopt, with one exception only. He observed that +negroes are property, and as such cannot be distinguished from the +lands or personalities held in those States where there are few +slaves, that the surplus of profit which a Northern farmer is able to +lay by, he invests in cattle, horses, &c. whereas a Southern farmer +lays out that same surplus in slaves. There is no more reason +therefore for taxing the Southern states on the farmer's head, & on +his slave's head, than the Northern ones on their farmer's heads & +the heads of their cattle, that the method proposed would therefore +tax the Southern states according to their numbers & their wealth +conjunctly, while the Northern would be taxed on numbers only: that +negroes in fact should not be considered as members of the state more +than cattle & that they have no more interest in it. + + Mr. John Adams observed that the numbers of people were taken +by this article as an index of the wealth of the state, & not as +subjects of taxation, that as to this matter it was of no consequence +by what name you called your people, whether by that of freemen or of +slaves. That in some countries the labouring poor were called +freemen, in others they were called slaves; but that the difference +as to the state was imaginary only. What matters it whether a +landlord employing ten labourers in his farm, gives them annually as +much money as will buy them the necessaries of life, or gives them +those necessaries at short hand. The ten labourers add as much +wealth annually to the state, increase it's exports as much in the +one case as the other. Certainly 500 freemen produce no more +profits, no greater surplus for the paiment of taxes than 500 slaves. +Therefore the state in which are the labourers called freemen should +be taxed no more than that in which are those called slaves. Suppose +by any extraordinary operation of nature or of law one half the +labourers of a state could in the course of one night be transformed +into slaves: would the state be made the poorer or the less able to +pay taxes? That the condition of the laboring poor in most +countries, that of the fishermen particularly of the Northern states, +is as abject as that of slaves. It is the number of labourers which +produce the surplus for taxation, and numbers therefore +indiscriminately, are the fair index of wealth. That it is the use +of the word "property" here, & it's application to some of the people +of the state, which produces the fallacy. How does the Southern +farmer procure slaves? Either by importation or by purchase from his +neighbor. If he imports a slave, he adds one to the number of +labourers in his country, and proportionably to it's profits & +abilities to pay taxes. If he buys from his neighbor it is only a +transfer of a labourer from one farm to another, which does not +change the annual produce of the state, & therefore should not change +it's tax. That if a Northern farmer works ten labourers on his farm, +he can, it is true, invest the surplus of ten men's labour in cattle: +but so may the Southern farmer working ten slaves. That a state of +one hundred thousand freemen can maintain no more cattle than one of +one hundred thousand slaves. Therefore they have no more of that +kind of property. That a slave may indeed from the custom of speech +be more properly called the wealth of his master, than the free +labourer might be called the wealth of his employer: but as to the +state, both were equally it's wealth, and should therefore equally +add to the quota of it's tax. + + Mr. [Benjamin] Harrison proposed as a compromise, that two +slaves should be counted as one freeman. He affirmed that slaves did +not do so much work as freemen, and doubted if two effected more than +one. That this was proved by the price of labor. The hire of a +labourer in the Southern colonies being from 8 to pound 12. while in +the Northern it was generally pound 24. + + Mr. [James] Wilson said that if this amendment should take +place the Southern colonies would have all the benefit of slaves, +whilst the Northern ones would bear the burthen. That slaves +increase the profits of a state, which the Southern states mean to +take to themselves; that they also increase the burthen of defence, +which would of course fall so much the heavier on the Northern. That +slaves occupy the places of freemen and eat their food. Dismiss your +slaves & freemen will take their places. It is our duty to lay every +discouragement on the importation of slaves; but this amendment would +give the jus trium liberorum to him who would import slaves. That +other kinds of property were pretty equally distributed thro' all the +colonies: there were as many cattle, horses, & sheep, in the North as +the South, & South as the North; but not so as to slaves. That +experience has shown that those colonies have been alwais able to pay +most which have the most inhabitants, whether they be black or white, +and the practice of the Southern colonies has alwais been to make +every farmer pay poll taxes upon all his labourers whether they be +black or white. He acknowledges indeed that freemen work the most; +but they consume the most also. They do not produce a greater +surplus for taxation. The slave is neither fed nor clothed so +expensively as a freeman. Again white women are exempted from labor +generally, but negro women are not. In this then the Southern states +have an advantage as the article now stands. It has sometimes been +said that slavery is necessary because the commodities they raise +would be too dear for market if cultivated by freemen; but now it is +said that the labor of the slave is the dearest. + + Mr. Payne urged the original resolution of Congress, to +proportion the quotas of the states to the number of souls. + + Dr. [John] Witherspoon was of opinion that the value of lands & +houses was the best estimate of the wealth of a nation, and that it +was practicable to obtain such a valuation. This is the true +barometer of wealth. The one now proposed is imperfect in itself, +and unequal between the States. It has been objected that negroes +eat the food of freemen & therefore should be taxed. Horses also eat +the food of freemen; therefore they also should be taxed. It has +been said too that in carrying slaves into the estimate of the taxes +the state is to pay, we do no more than those states themselves do, +who alwais take slaves into the estimate of the taxes the individual +is to pay. But the cases are not parallel. In the Southern colonies +slaves pervade the whole colony; but they do not pervade the whole +continent. That as to the original resolution of Congress to +proportion the quotas according to the souls, it was temporary only, +& related to the monies heretofore emitted: whereas we are now +entering into a new compact, and therefore stand on original ground. + + Aug 1. The question being put the amendment proposed was +rejected by the votes of N. Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode island, +Connecticut, N. York, N. Jersey, & Pennsylvania, against those of +Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North & South Carolina. Georgia was +divided. + + The other article was in these words. "Art. XVII. In +determining questions each colony shall have one vote." + + + July 30. 31. Aug 1. Present 41. members. Mr. Chase observed +that this article was the most likely to divide us of any one +proposed in the draught then under consideration. That the larger +colonies had threatened they would not confederate at all if their +weight in congress should not be equal to the numbers of people they +added to the confederacy; while the smaller ones declared against a +union if they did not retain an equal vote for the protection of +their rights. That it was of the utmost consequence to bring the +parties together, as should we sever from each other, either no +foreign power will ally with us at all, or the different states will +form different alliances, and thus increase the horrors of those +scenes of civil war and bloodshed which in such a state of separation +& independance would render us a miserable people. That our +importance, our interests, our peace required that we should +confederate, and that mutual sacrifices should be made to effect a +compromise of this difficult question. He was of opinion the smaller +colonies would lose their rights, if they were not in some instances +allowed an equal vote; and therefore that a discrimination should +take place among the questions which would come before Congress. +That the smaller states should be secured in all questions concerning +life or liberty & the greater ones in all respecting property. He +therefore proposed that in votes relating to money, the voice of each +colony should be proportioned to the number of its inhabitants. + + Dr. Franklin thought that the votes should be so proportioned +in all cases. He took notice that the Delaware counties had bound up +their Delegates to disagree to this article. He thought it a very +extraordinary language to be held by any state, that they would not +confederate with us unless we would let them dispose of our money. +Certainly if we vote equally we ought to pay equally; but the smaller +states will hardly purchase the privilege at this price. That had he +lived in a state where the representation, originally equal, had +become unequal by time & accident he might have submitted rather than +disturb government; but that we should be very wrong to set out in +this practice when it is in our power to establish what is right. +That at the time of the Union between England and Scotland the latter +had made the objection which the smaller states now do. But +experience had proved that no unfairness had ever been shown them. +That their advocates had prognosticated that it would again happen as +in times of old, that the whale would swallow Jonas, but he thought +the prediction reversed in event and that Jonas had swallowed the +whale, for the Scotch had in fact got possession of the government +and gave laws to the English. He reprobated the original agreement +of Congress to vote by colonies and therefore was for their voting in +all cases according to the number of taxables. + + + Dr. Witherspoon opposed every alteration of the article. All +men admit that a confederacy is necessary. Should the idea get +abroad that there is likely to be no union among us, it will damp the +minds of the people, diminish the glory of our struggle, & lessen +it's importance; because it will open to our view future prospects of +war & dissension among ourselves. If an equal vote be refused, the +smaller states will become vassals to the larger; & all experience +has shown that the vassals & subjects of free states are the most +enslaved. He instanced the Helots of Sparta & the provinces of Rome. +He observed that foreign powers discovering this blemish would make +it a handle for disengaging the smaller states from so unequal a +confederacy. That the colonies should in fact be considered as +individuals; and that as such, in all disputes they should have an +equal vote; that they are now collected as individuals making a +bargain with each other, & of course had a right to vote as +individuals. That in the East India company they voted by persons, & +not by their proportion of stock. That the Belgic confederacy voted +by provinces. That in questions of war the smaller states were as +much interested as the larger, & therefore should vote equally; and +indeed that the larger states were more likely to bring war on the +confederacy in proportion as their frontier was more extensive. He +admitted that equality of representation was an excellent principle, +but then it must be of things which are coordinate; that is, of +things similar & of the same nature: that nothing relating to +individuals could ever come before Congress; nothing but what would +respect colonies. He distinguished between an incorporating & a +federal union. The union of England was an incorporating one; yet +Scotland had suffered by that union: for that it's inhabitants were +drawn from it by the hopes of places & employments. Nor was it an +instance of equality of representation; because while Scotland was +allowed nearly a thirteenth of representation they were to pay only +one fortieth of the land tax. He expressed his hopes that in the +present enlightened state of men's minds we might expect a lasting +confederacy, if it was founded on fair principles. + + John Adams advocated the voting in proportion to numbers. He +said that we stand here as the representatives of the people. That +in some states the people are many, in others they are few; that +therefore their vote here should be proportioned to the numbers from +whom it comes. Reason, justice, & equity never had weight enough on +the face of the earth to govern the councils of men. It is interest +alone which does it, and it is interest alone which can be trusted. +That therefore the interests within doors should be the mathematical +representatives of the interests without doors. That the +individuality of the colonies is a mere sound. Does the +individuality of a colony increase it's wealth or numbers. If it +does, pay equally. If it does not add weight in the scale of the +confederacy, it cannot add to their rights, nor weigh in argument. +A. has pound 50. B. pound 500. C. pound 1000. in partnership. Is it +just they should equally dispose of the monies of the partnership? +It has been said we are independent individuals making a bargain +together. The question is not what we are now, but what we ought to +be when our bargain shall be made. The confederacy is to make us one +individual only; it is to form us, like separate parcels of metal, +into one common mass. We shall no longer retain our separate +individuality, but become a single individual as to all questions +submitted to the confederacy. Therefore all those reasons which +prove the justice & expediency of equal representation in other +assemblies, hold good here. It has been objected that a proportional +vote will endanger the smaller states. We answer that an equal vote +will endanger the larger. Virginia, Pennsylvania, & Massachusetts +are the three greater colonies. Consider their distance, their +difference of produce, of interests & of manners, & it is apparent +they can never have an interest or inclination to combine for the +oppression of the smaller. That the smaller will naturally divide on +all questions with the larger. Rhode isld, from it's relation, +similarity & intercourse will generally pursue the same objects with +Massachusetts; Jersey, Delaware & Maryland, with Pennsylvania. + + Dr. [Benjamin] Rush took notice that the decay of the liberties +of the Dutch republic proceeded from three causes. 1. The perfect +unanimity requisite on all occasions. 2. Their obligation to consult +their constituents. 3. Their voting by provinces. This last +destroyed the equality of representation, and the liberties of great +Britain also are sinking from the same defect. That a part of our +rights is deposited in the hands of our legislatures. There it was +admitted there should be an equality of representation. Another part +of our rights is deposited in the hands of Congress: why is it not +equally necessary there should be an equal representation there? +Were it possible to collect the whole body of the people together, +they would determine the questions submitted to them by their +majority. Why should not the same majority decide when voting here +by their representatives? The larger colonies are so providentially +divided in situation as to render every fear of their combining +visionary. Their interests are different, & their circumstances +dissimilar. It is more probable they will become rivals & leave it +in the power of the smaller states to give preponderance to any scale +they please. The voting by the number of free inhabitants will have +one excellent effect, that of inducing the colonies to discourage +slavery & to encourage the increase of their free inhabitants. + + Mr. [Stephen] Hopkins observed there were 4 larger, 4 smaller, +& 4 middle-sized colonies. That the 4 largest would contain more +than half the inhabitants of the confederated states, & therefore +would govern the others as they should please. That history affords +no instance of such a thing as equal representation. The Germanic +body votes by states. The Helvetic body does the same; & so does the +Belgic confederacy. That too little is known of the ancient +confederations to say what was their practice. + + Mr. Wilson thought that taxation should be in proportion to +wealth, but that representation should accord with the number of +freemen. That government is a collection or result of the wills of +all. That if any government could speak the will of all, it would be +perfect; and that so far as it departs from this it becomes +imperfect. It has been said that Congress is a representation of +states; not of individuals. I say that the objects of its care are +all the individuals of the states. It is strange that annexing the +name of "State" to ten thousand men, should give them an equal right +with forty thousand. This must be the effect of magic, not of +reason. As to those matters which are referred to Congress, we are +not so many states, we are one large state. We lay aside our +individuality, whenever we come here. The Germanic body is a +burlesque on government; and their practice on any point is a +sufficient authority & proof that it is wrong. The greatest +imperfection in the constitution of the Belgic confederacy is their +voting by provinces. The interest of the whole is constantly +sacrificed to that of the small states. The history of the war in +the reign of Q. Anne sufficiently proves this. It is asked shall +nine colonies put it into the power of four to govern them as they +please? I invert the question, and ask shall two millions of people +put it in the power of one million to govern them as they please? It +is pretended too that the smaller colonies will be in danger from the +greater. Speak in honest language & say the minority will be in +danger from the majority. And is there an assembly on earth where +this danger may not be equally pretended? The truth is that our +proceedings will then be consentaneous with the interests of the +majority, and so they ought to be. The probability is much greater +that the larger states will disagree than that they will combine. I +defy the wit of man to invent a possible case or to suggest any one +thing on earth which shall be for the interests of Virginia, +Pennsylvania & Massachusetts, and which will not also be for the +interest of the other states. + + * * * + + These articles reported July 12. 76 were debated from day to +day, & time to time for two years, were ratified July 9, '78, by 10 +states, by N. Jersey on the 26th. of Nov. of the same year, and by +Delaware on the 23d. of Feb. following. Maryland alone held off 2 +years more, acceding to them Mar 1, 81. and thus closing the +obligation. + + Our delegation had been renewed for the ensuing year commencing +Aug. 11. but the new government was now organized, a meeting of the +legislature was to be held in Oct. and I had been elected a member by +my county. I knew that our legislation under the regal government +had many very vicious points which urgently required reformation, and +I thought I could be of more use in forwarding that work. I +therefore retired from my seat in Congress on the 2d. of Sep. +resigned it, and took my place in the legislature of my state, on the +7th. of October. + + On the 11th. I moved for leave to bring in a bill for the +establishmt of courts of justice, the organization of which was of +importance; I drew the bill it was approved by the commee, reported +and passed after going thro' it's due course. + + On the 12th. I obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring +tenants in tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In the earlier +times of the colony when lands were to be obtained for little or +nothing, some provident individuals procured large grants, and, +desirous of founding great families for themselves, settled them on +their descendants in fee-tail. The transmission of this property +from generation to generation in the same name raised up a distinct +set of families who, being privileged by law in the perpetuation of +their wealth were thus formed into a Patrician order, distinguished +by the splendor and luxury of their establishments. From this order +too the king habitually selected his Counsellors of State, the hope +of which distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests & will +of the crown. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy +of wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to make +an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has +wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, & +scattered with equal hand through all it's conditions, was deemed +essential to a well ordered republic. To effect it no violence was +necessary, no deprivation of natural right, but rather an enlargement +of it by a repeal of the law. For this would authorize the present +holder to divide the property among his children equally, as his +affections were divided; and would place them, by natural generation +on the level of their fellow citizens. But this repeal was strongly +opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who was zealously attached to ancient +establishments; and who, taken all in all, was the ablest man in +debate I have ever met with. He had not indeed the poetical fancy of +Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming +diction; but he was cool, smooth and persuasive; his language +flowing, chaste & embellished, his conceptions quick, acute and full +of resource; never vanquished; for if he lost the main battle, he +returned upon you, and regained so much of it as to make it a drawn +one, by dexterous man;oeuvres, skirmishes in detail, and the recovery +of small advantages which, little singly, were important altogether. +You never knew when you were clear of him, but were harassed by his +perseverance until the patience was worn down of all who had less of +it than himself. Add to this that he was one of the most virtuous & +benevolent of men, the kindest friend, the most amiable & pleasant of +companions, which ensured a favorable reception to whatever came from +him. Finding that the general principle of entails could not be +maintained, he took his stand on an amendment which he proposed, +instead of an absolute abolition, to permit the tenant in tail to +convey in fee simple, if he chose it: and he was within a few votes +of saving so much of the old law. But the bill passed finally for +entire abolition. + + In that one of the bills for organizing our judiciary system +which proposed a court of chancery, I had provided for a trial by +jury of all matters of fact in that as well as in the courts of law. +He defeated it by the introduction of 4. words only, _"if either +party chuse."_ The consequence has been that as no suitor will say to +his judge, "Sir, I distrust you, give me a jury" juries are rarely, I +might say perhaps never seen in that court, but when called for by +the Chancellor of his own accord. + + The first establishment in Virginia which became permanent was +made in 1607. I have found no mention of negroes in the colony until +about 1650. The first brought here as slaves were by a Dutch ship; +after which the English commenced the trade and continued it until +the revolutionary war. That suspended, ipso facto, their further +importation for the present, and the business of the war pressing +constantly on the legislature, this subject was not acted on finally +until the year 78. when I brought in a bill to prevent their further +importation. This passed without opposition, and stopped the +increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its +final eradication. + + The first settlers of this colony were Englishmen, loyal +subjects to their king and church, and the grant to Sr. Walter +Raleigh contained an express Proviso that their laws "should not be +against the true Christian faith, now professed in the church of +England." As soon as the state of the colony admitted, it was divided +into parishes, in each of which was established a minister of the +Anglican church, endowed with a fixed salary, in tobacco, a glebe +house and land with the other necessary appendages. To meet these +expenses all the inhabitants of the parishes were assessed, whether +they were or not, members of the established church. Towards Quakers +who came here they were most cruelly intolerant, driving them from +the colony by the severest penalties. In process of time however, +other sectarisms were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family; +and the established clergy, secure for life in their glebes and +salaries, adding to these generally the emoluments of a classical +school, found employment enough, in their farms and schoolrooms for +the rest of the week, and devoted Sunday only to the edification of +their flock, by service, and a sermon at their parish church. Their +other pastoral functions were little attended to. Against this +inactivity the zeal and industry of sectarian preachers had an open +and undisputed field; and by the time of the revolution, a majority +of the inhabitants had become dissenters from the established church, +but were still obliged to pay contributions to support the Pastors of +the minority. This unrighteous compulsion to maintain teachers of +what they deemed religious errors was grievously felt during the +regal government, and without a hope of relief. But the first +republican legislature which met in 76. was crowded with petitions to +abolish this spiritual tyranny. These brought on the severest +contests in which I have ever been engaged. Our great opponents were +Mr. Pendleton & Robert Carter Nicholas, honest men, but zealous +churchmen. The petitions were referred to the commee of the whole +house on the state of the country; and after desperate contests in +that committee, almost daily from the 11th of Octob. to the 5th of +December, we prevailed so far only as to repeal the laws which +rendered criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, the +forbearance of repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode of +worship: and further, to exempt dissenters from contributions to the +support of the established church; and to suspend, only until the +next session levies on the members of that church for the salaries of +their own incumbents. For although the majority of our citizens were +dissenters, as has been observed, a majority of the legislature were +churchmen. Among these however were some reasonable and liberal men, +who enabled us, on some points, to obtain feeble majorities. But our +opponents carried in the general resolutions of the commee of Nov. +19. a declaration that religious assemblies ought to be regulated, +and that provision ought to be made for continuing the succession of +the clergy, and superintending their conduct. And in the bill now +passed was inserted an express reservation of the question Whether a +general assessment should not be established by law, on every one, to +the support of the pastor of his choice; or whether all should be +left to voluntary contributions; and on this question, debated at +every session from 76 to 79 (some of our dissenting allies, having +now secured their particular object, going over to the advocates of a +general assessment) we could only obtain a suspension from session to +session until 79. when the question against a general assessment was +finally carried, and the establishment of the Anglican church +entirely put down. In justice to the two honest but zealous +opponents, who have been named I must add that altho', from their +natural temperaments, they were more disposed generally to acquiesce +in things as they are, than to risk innovations, yet whenever the +public will had once decided, none were more faithful or exact in +their obedience to it. + + The seat of our government had been originally fixed in the +peninsula of Jamestown, the first settlement of the colonists; and +had been afterwards removed a few miles inland to Williamsburg. But +this was at a time when our settlements had not extended beyond the +tide water. Now they had crossed the Alleghany; and the center of +population was very far removed from what it had been. Yet +Williamsburg was still the depository of our archives, the habitual +residence of the Governor & many other of the public functionaries, +the established place for the sessions of the legislature, and the +magazine of our military stores: and it's situation was so exposed +that it might be taken at any time in war, and, at this time +particularly, an enemy might in the night run up either of the rivers +between which it lies, land a force above, and take possession of the +place, without the possibility of saving either persons or things. I +had proposed it's removal so early as Octob. 76. but it did not +prevail until the session of May. '79. + + Early in the session of May 79. I prepared, and obtained leave +to bring in a bill declaring who should be deemed citizens, asserting +the natural right of expatriation, and prescribing the mode of +exercising it. This, when I withdrew from the house on the 1st of +June following, I left in the hands of George Mason and it was passed +on the 26th of that month. + + In giving this account of the laws of which I was myself the +mover & draughtsman, I by no means mean to claim to myself the merit +of obtaining their passage. I had many occasional and strenuous +coadjutors in debate, and one most steadfast, able, and zealous; who +was himself a host. This was George Mason, a man of the first order +of wisdom among those who acted on the theatre of the revolution, of +expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the +lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican +change on democratic principles. His elocution was neither flowing +nor smooth, but his language was strong, his manner most impressive, +and strengthened by a dash of biting cynicism when provocation made +it seasonable. + + Mr. Wythe, while speaker in the two sessions of 1777. between +his return from Congress and his appointment to the Chancery, was an +able and constant associate in whatever was before a committee of the +whole. His pure integrity, judgment and reasoning powers gave him +great weight. Of him see more in some notes inclosed in my letter of +August 31. 1821, to Mr. John Saunderson. + + Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776. a new member and +young; which circumstances, concurring with his extreme modesty, +prevented his venturing himself in debate before his removal to the +Council of State in Nov. 77. From thence he went to Congress, then +consisting of few members. Trained in these successive schools, he +acquired a habit of self-possession which placed at ready command the +rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, & of his +extensive information, and rendered him the first of every assembly +afterwards of which he became a member. Never wandering from his +subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language +pure, classical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his +adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the +eminent station which he held in the great National convention of +1787. and in that of Virginia which followed, he sustained the new +constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic +of George Mason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. With these +consummate powers were united a pure and spotless virtue which no +calumny has ever attempted to sully. Of the powers and polish of his +pen, and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office of +the nation, I need say nothing. They have spoken, and will forever +speak for themselves. + + So far we were proceeding in the details of reformation only; +selecting points of legislation prominent in character & principle, +urgent, and indicative of the strength of the general pulse of +reformation. When I left Congress, in 76. it was in the persuasion +that our whole code must be reviewed, adapted to our republican form +of government, and, now that we had no negatives of Councils, +Governors & Kings to restrain us from doing right, that it should be +corrected, in all it's parts, with a single eye to reason, & the good +of those for whose government it was framed. Early therefore in the +session of 76. to which I returned, I moved and presented a bill for +the revision of the laws; which was passed on the 24th. of October, +and on the 5th. of November Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe, George Mason, +Thomas L. Lee and myself were appointed a committee to execute the +work. We agreed to meet at Fredericksburg to settle the plan of +operation and to distribute the work. We met there accordingly, on +the 13th. of January 1777. The first question was whether we should +propose to abolish the whole existing system of laws, and prepare a +new and complete Institute, or preserve the general system, and only +modify it to the present state of things. Mr. Pendleton, contrary to +his usual disposition in favor of antient things, was for the former +proposition, in which he was joined by Mr. Lee. To this it was +objected that to abrogate our whole system would be a bold measure, +and probably far beyond the views of the legislature; that they had +been in the practice of revising from time to time the laws of the +colony, omitting the expired, the repealed and the obsolete, amending +only those retained, and probably meant we should now do the same, +only including the British statutes as well as our own: that to +compose a new Institute like those of Justinian and Bracton, or that +of Blackstone, which was the model proposed by Mr. Pendleton, would +be an arduous undertaking, of vast research, of great consideration & +judgment; and when reduced to a text, every word of that text, from +the imperfection of human language, and it's incompetence to express +distinctly every shade of idea, would become a subject of question & +chicanery until settled by repeated adjudications; that this would +involve us for ages in litigation, and render property uncertain +until, like the statutes of old, every word had been tried, and +settled by numerous decisions, and by new volumes of reports & +commentaries; and that no one of us probably would undertake such a +work, which, to be systematical, must be the work of one hand. This +last was the opinion of Mr. Wythe, Mr. Mason & myself. When we +proceeded to the distribution of the work, Mr. Mason excused himself +as, being no lawyer, he felt himself unqualified for the work, and he +resigned soon after. Mr. Lee excused himself on the same ground, and +died indeed in a short time. The other two gentlemen therefore and +myself divided the work among us. The common law and statutes to the +4. James I. (when our separate legislature was established) were +assigned to me; the British statutes from that period to the present +day to Mr. Wythe, and the Virginia laws to Mr. Pendleton. As the law +of Descents, & the criminal law fell of course within my portion, I +wished the commee to settle the leading principles of these, as a +guide for me in framing them. And with respect to the first, I +proposed to abolish the law of primogeniture, and to make real estate +descendible in parcenary to the next of kin, as personal property is +by the statute of distribution. Mr. Pendleton wished to preserve the +right of primogeniture, but seeing at once that that could not +prevail, he proposed we should adopt the Hebrew principle, and give a +double portion to the elder son. I observed that if the eldest son +could eat twice as much, or do double work, it might be a natural +evidence of his right to a double portion; but being on a par in his +powers & wants, with his brothers and sisters, he should be on a par +also in the partition of the patrimony, and such was the decision of +the other members. + + On the subject of the Criminal law, all were agreed that the +punishment of death should be abolished, except for treason and +murder; and that, for other felonies should be substituted hard labor +in the public works, and in some cases, the Lex talionis. How this +last revolting principle came to obtain our approbation, I do not +remember. There remained indeed in our laws a vestige of it in a +single case of a slave. It was the English law in the time of the +Anglo-Saxons, copied probably from the Hebrew law of "an eye for an +eye, a tooth for a tooth," and it was the law of several antient +people. But the modern mind had left it far in the rear of it's +advances. These points however being settled, we repaired to our +respective homes for the preparation of the work. + + Feb. 6. In the execution of my part I thought it material not +to vary the diction of the antient statutes by modernizing it, nor to +give rise to new questions by new expressions. The text of these +statutes had been so fully explained and defined by numerous +adjudications, as scarcely ever now to produce a question in our +courts. I thought it would be useful also, in all new draughts, to +reform the style of the later British statutes, and of our own acts +of assembly, which from their verbosity, their endless tautologies, +their involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within +parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at certainty by _saids_ and +_aforesaids_, by _ors_ and by _ands_, to make them more plain, do +really render them more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to +common readers, but to the lawyers themselves. We were employed in +this work from that time to Feb. 1779, when we met at Williamsburg, +that is to say, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe & myself, and meeting day by +day, we examined critically our several parts, sentence by sentence, +scrutinizing and amending until we had agreed on the whole. We then +returned home, had fair copies made of our several parts, which were +reported to the General Assembly June 18. 1779. by Mr. Wythe and +myself, Mr. Pendleton's residence being distant, and he having +authorized us by letter to declare his approbation. We had in this +work brought so much of the Common law as it was thought necessary to +alter, all the British statutes from Magna Charta to the present day, +and all the laws of Virginia, from the establishment of our +legislature, in the 4th. Jac. 1. to the present time, which we +thought should be retained, within the compass of 126 bills, making a +printed folio of 90 pages only. Some bills were taken out +occasionally, from time to time, and passed; but the main body of the +work was not entered on by the legislature until after the general +peace, in 1785. when by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in +opposition to the endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, +vexations and delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills +were passed by the legislature, with little alteration. + + The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of +which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in +all the latitude of reason & right. It still met with opposition; +but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; +and a singular proposition proved that it's protection of opinion was +meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is +a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an +amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that +it should read "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy +author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great +majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle +of it's protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and +Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination. + + Beccaria and other writers on crimes and punishments had +satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness and inefficacy +of the punishment of crimes by death; and hard labor on roads, canals +and other public works, had been suggested as a proper substitute. +The Revisors had adopted these opinions; but the general idea of our +country had not yet advanced to that point. The bill therefore for +proportioning crimes and punishments was lost in the House of +Delegates by a majority of a single vote. I learnt afterwards that +the substitute of hard labor in public was tried (I believe it was in +Pennsylvania) without success. Exhibited as a public spectacle, with +shaved heads and mean clothing, working on the high roads produced in +the criminals such a prostration of character, such an abandonment of +self-respect, as, instead of reforming, plunged them into the most +desperate & hardened depravity of morals and character. -- Pursue the +subject of this law. -- I was written to in 1785 (being then in +Paris) by Directors appointed to superintend the building of a +Capitol in Richmond, to advise them as to a plan, and to add to it +one of a prison. Thinking it a favorable opportunity of introducing +into the state an example of architecture in the classic style of +antiquity, and the Maison quarree of Nismes, an antient Roman temple, +being considered as the most perfect model existing of what may be +called Cubic architecture, I applied to M. Clerissault, who had +published drawings of the Antiquities of Nismes, to have me a model +of the building made in stucco, only changing the order from +Corinthian to Ionic, on account of the difficulty of the Corinthian +capitals. I yielded with reluctance to the taste of Clerissault, in +his preference of the modern capital of Scamozzi to the more noble +capital of antiquity. This was executed by the artist whom Choiseul +Gouffier had carried with him to Constantinople, and employed while +Ambassador there, in making those beautiful models of the remains of +Grecian architecture which are to be seen at Paris. To adapt the +exterior to our use, I drew a plan for the interior, with the +apartments necessary for legislative, executive & judiciary purposes, +and accommodated in their size and distribution to the form and +dimensions of the building. These were forwarded to the Directors in +1786. and were carried into execution, with some variations not for +the better, the most important to which however admit of future +correction. With respect of the plan of a Prison, requested at the +same time, I had heard of a benevolent society in England which had +been indulged by the government in an experiment of the effect of +labor in _solitary confinement_ on some of their criminals, which +experiment had succeeded beyond expectation. The same idea had been +suggested in France, and an Architect of Lyons had proposed a plan of +a well contrived edifice on the principle of solitary confinement. I +procured a copy, and as it was too large for our purposes, I drew one +on a scale, less extensive, but susceptible of additions as they +should be wanting. This I sent to the Directors instead of a plan of +a common prison, in the hope that it would suggest the idea of labor +in solitary confinement instead of that on the public works, which we +had adopted in our Revised Code. It's principle accordingly, but not +it's exact form, was adopted by Latrobe in carrying the plan into +execution, by the erection of what is now called the Penitentiary, +built under his direction. In the meanwhile the public opinion was +ripening by time, by reflection, and by the example of Pensylva, +where labor on the highways had been tried without approbation from +1786 to 89. & had been followed by their Penitentiary system on the +principle of confinement and labor, which was proceeding +auspiciously. In 1796. our legislature resumed the subject and +passed the law for amending the Penal laws of the commonwealth. They +adopted solitary, instead of public labor, established a gradation in +the duration of the confinement, approximated the style of the law +more to the modern usage, and instead of the settled distinctions of +murder & manslaughter, preserved in my bill, they introduced the new +terms of murder in the 1st & 2d degree. Whether these have produced +more or fewer questions of definition I am not sufficiently informed +of our judiciary transactions to say. I will here however insert the +text of my bill, with the notes I made in the course of my researches +into the subject. + + Feb. 7. The acts of assembly concerning the College of Wm. & +Mary, were properly within Mr. Pendleton's portion of our work. But +these related chiefly to it's revenue, while it's constitution, +organization and scope of science were derived from it's charter. We +thought, that on this subject a systematical plan of general +education should be proposed, and I was requested to undertake it. I +accordingly prepared three bills for the Revisal, proposing three +distinct grades of education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary +schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a +middle degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of +life, and such as would be desirable for all who were in easy +circumstances. And 3d. an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences +generally, & in their highest degree. The first bill proposed to lay +off every county into Hundreds or Wards, of a proper size and +population for a school, in which reading, writing, and common +arithmetic should be taught; and that the whole state should be +divided into 24 districts, in each of which should be a school for +classical learning, grammar, geography, and the higher branches of +numerical arithmetic. The second bill proposed to amend the +constitution of Wm. & Mary College, to enlarge it's sphere of +science, and to make it in fact an University. The third was for the +establishment of a library. These bills were not acted on until the +same year '96. and then only so much of the first as provided for +elementary schools. The College of Wm. & Mary was an establishment +purely of the Church of England, the Visitors were required to be all +of that Church; the Professors to subscribe it's 39 Articles, it's +Students to learn it's Catechism, and one of its fundamental objects +was declared to be to raise up Ministers for that church. The +religious jealousies therefore of all the dissenters took alarm lest +this might give an ascendancy to the Anglican sect and refused acting +on that bill. Its local eccentricity too and unhealthy autumnal +climate lessened the general inclination towards it. And in the +Elementary bill they inserted a provision which completely defeated +it, for they left it to the court of each county to determine for +itself when this act should be carried into execution, within their +county. One provision of the bill was that the expenses of these +schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one +in proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth +the education of the poor; and the justices, being generally of the +more wealthy class, were unwilling to incur that burthen, and I +believe it was not suffered to commence in a single county. I shall +recur again to this subject towards the close of my story, if I +should have life and resolution enough to reach that term; for I am +already tired of talking about myself. + + The bill on the subject of slaves was a mere digest of the +existing laws respecting them, without any intimation of a plan for a +future & general emancipation. It was thought better that this +should be kept back, and attempted only by way of amendment whenever +the bill should be brought on. The principles of the amendment +however were agreed on, that is to say, the freedom of all born after +a certain day, and deportation at a proper age. But it was found +that the public mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it +bear it even at this day. Yet the day is not distant when it must +bear and adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly +written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. +Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live +in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible +lines of distinction between them. It is still in our power to +direct the process of emancipation and deportation peaceably and in +such slow degree as that the evil will wear off insensibly, and their +place be pari passu filled up by free white laborers. If on the +contrary it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at +the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the +Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors. This precedent would +fall far short of our case. + + I considered 4 of these bills, passed or reported, as forming a +system by which every fibre would be eradicated of antient or future +aristocracy; and a foundation laid for a government truly republican. +The repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation and +perpetuation of wealth in select families, and preserve the soil of +the country from being daily more & more absorbed in Mortmain. The +abolition of primogeniture, and equal partition of inheritances +removed the feudal and unnatural distinctions which made one member +of every family rich, and all the rest poor, substituting equal +partition, the best of all Agrarian laws. The restoration of the +rights of conscience relieved the people from taxation for the +support of a religion not theirs; for the establishment was truly of +the religion of the rich, the dissenting sects being entirely +composed of the less wealthy people; and these, by the bill for a +general education, would be qualified to understand their rights, to +maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in +self-government: and all this would be effected without the violation +of a single natural right of any one individual citizen. To these +too might be added, as a further security, the introduction of the +trial by jury, into the Chancery courts, which have already ingulfed +and continue to ingulf, so great a proportion of the jurisdiction +over our property. + + On the 1st of June 1779. I was appointed Governor of the +Commonwealth and retired from the legislature. Being elected also +one of the Visitors of Wm. & Mary college, a self-electing body, I +effected, during my residence in Williamsburg that year, a change in +the organization of that institution by abolishing the Grammar +school, and the two professorships of Divinity & Oriental languages, +and substituting a professorship of Law & Police, one of Anatomy +Medicine and Chemistry, and one of Modern languages; and the charter +confining us to six professorships, we added the law of Nature & +Nations, & the Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral professor, and +Natural history to those of the professor of Mathematics and Natural +philosophy. + + Being now, as it were, identified with the Commonwealth itself, +to write my own history during the two years of my administration, +would be to write the public history of that portion of the +revolution within this state. This has been done by others, and +particularly by Mr. Girardin, who wrote his Continuation of Burke's +history of Virginia while at Milton, in this neighborhood, had free +access to all my papers while composing it, and has given as faithful +an account as I could myself. For this portion therefore of my own +life, I refer altogether to his history. From a belief that under +the pressure of the invasion under which we were then laboring the +public would have more confidence in a Military chief, and that the +Military commander, being invested with the Civil power also, both +might be wielded with more energy promptitude and effect for the +defence of the state, I resigned the administration at the end of my +2d. year, and General Nelson was appointed to succeed me. + + Soon after my leaving Congress in Sep. '76, to wit on the last +day of that month, I had been appointed, with Dr. Franklin, to go to +France, as a Commissioner to negotiate treaties of alliance and +commerce with that government. Silas Deane, then in France, acting +as agent (* 2) for procuring military stores, was joined with us in +commission. But such was the state of my family that I could not +leave it, nor could I expose it to the dangers of the sea, and of +capture by the British ships, then covering the ocean. I saw too +that the laboring oar was really at home, where much was to be done +of the most permanent interest in new modelling our governments, and +much to defend our fanes and fire-sides from the desolations of an +invading enemy pressing on our country in every point. I declined +therefore and Dr. Lee was appointed in my place. On the 15th. of +June 1781. I had been appointed with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. +Jay, and Mr. Laurens a Minister plenipotentiary for negotiating +peace, then expected to be effected thro' the mediation of the +Empress of Russia. The same reasons obliged me still to decline; and +the negotiation was in fact never entered on. But, in the autumn of +the next year 1782 Congress receiving assurances that a general peace +would be concluded in the winter and spring, they renewed my +appointment on the 13th. of Nov. of that year. I had two months +before that lost the cherished companion of my life, in whose +affections, unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years in +unchequered happiness. With the public interests, the state of my +mind concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed; and I +accepted the appointment, and left Monticello on the 19th. of Dec. +1782. for Philadelphia, where I arrived on the 27th. The Minister of +France, Luzerne, offered me a passage in the Romulus frigate, which I +accepting. But she was then lying a few miles below Baltimore +blocked up in the ice. I remained therefore a month in Philadelphia, +looking over the papers in the office of State in order to possess +myself of the general state of our foreign relations, and then went +to Baltimore to await the liberation of the frigate from the ice. +After waiting there nearly a month, we received information that a +Provisional treaty of peace had been signed by our Commissioners on +the 3d. of Sept. 1782. to become absolute on the conclusion of peace +between France and Great Britain. Considering my proceeding to +Europe as now of no utility to the public, I returned immediately to +Philadelphia to take the orders of Congress, and was excused by them +from further proceeding. I therefore returned home, where I arrived +on the 15th. of May, 1783. + + (* 2) His ostensible character was to be that of a merchant, +his real one that of agent for military supplies, and also for +sounding the dispositions of the government of France, and seeing how +far they would favor us, either secretly or openly. His appointment +had been by the Committee of Foreign Correspondence, March, 1776. + + On the 6th. of the following month I was appointed by the +legislature a delegate to Congress, the appointment to take place on +the 1st. of Nov. ensuing, when that of the existing delegation would +expire. I accordingly left home on the 16th. of Oct. arrived at +Trenton, where Congress was sitting, on the 3d. of Nov. and took my +seat on the 4th., on which day Congress adjourned to meet at +Annapolis on the 26th. + + Congress had now become a very small body, and the members very +remiss in their attendance on it's duties insomuch that a majority of +the states, necessary by the Confederation to constitute a house even +for minor business did not assemble until the 13th. of December. + + They as early as Jan. 7. 1782. had turned their attention to +the monies current in the several states, and had directed the +Financier, Robert Morris, to report to them a table of rates at which +the foreign coins should be received at the treasury. That officer, +or rather his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15th +in an able and elaborate statement of the denominations of money +current in the several states, and of the comparative value of the +foreign coins chiefly in circulation with us. He went into the +consideration of the necessity of establishing a standard of value +with us, and of the adoption of a money-Unit. He proposed for the +Unit such a fraction of pure silver as would be a common measure of +the penny of every state, without leaving a fraction. This common +divisor he found to be 1 -- 1440 of a dollar, or 1 -- 1600 of the +crown sterling. The value of a dollar was therefore to be expressed +by 1440 units, and of a crown by 1600. Each Unit containing a +quarter of a grain of fine silver. Congress turning again their +attention to this subject the following year, the financier, by a +letter of Apr. 30, 1783. further explained and urged the Unit he had +proposed; but nothing more was done on it until the ensuing year, +when it was again taken up, and referred to a commee of which I was a +member. The general views of the financier were sound, and the +principle was ingenious on which he proposed to found his Unit. But +it was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious for computation +either by the head or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread 1 -- +20 of a dollar would be 72. units. + + A pound of butter 1 -- 5 of a dollar 288. units. + + A horse or bullock of 80. D value would require a notation of +6. figures, to wit 115,200, and the public debt, suppose of 80. +millions, would require 12. figures, to wit 115,200,000,000 units. +Such a system of money-arithmetic would be entirely unmanageable for +the common purposes of society. I proposed therefore, instead of +this, to adopt the Dollar as our Unit of account and payment, and +that it's divisions and sub-divisions should be in the decimal ratio. +I wrote some Notes on the subject, which I submitted to the +consideration of the financier. I received his answer and adherence +to his general system, only agreeing to take for his Unit 100. of +those he first proposed, so that a Dollar should be 14 40 -- 100 and +a crown 16. units. I replied to this and printed my notes and reply +on a flying sheet, which I put into the hands of the members of +Congress for consideration, and the Committee agreed to report on my +principle. This was adopted the ensuing year and is the system which +now prevails. I insert here the Notes and Reply, as shewing the +different views on which the adoption of our money system hung. The +division into dimes, cents & mills is now so well understood, that it +would be easy of introduction into the kindred branches of weights & +measures. I use, when I travel, an Odometer of Clarke's invention +which divides the mile into cents, and I find every one comprehend a +distance readily when stated to them in miles & cents; so they would +in feet and cents, pounds & cents, &c. + + The remissness of Congress, and their permanent session, began +to be a subject of uneasiness and even some of the legislatures had +recommended to them intermissions, and periodical sessions. As the +Confederation had made no provision for a visible head of the +government during vacations of Congress, and such a one was necessary +to superintend the executive business, to receive and communicate +with foreign ministers & nations, and to assemble Congress on sudden +and extraordinary emergencies, I proposed early in April the +appointment of a commee to be called the Committee of the states, to +consist of a member from each state, who should remain in session +during the recess of Congress: that the functions of Congress should +be divided into Executive and Legislative, the latter to be reserved, +and the former, by a general resolution to be delegated to that +Committee. This proposition was afterwards agreed to; a Committee +appointed, who entered on duty on the subsequent adjourn-ment of +Congress, quarrelled very soon, split into two parties, abandoned +their post, and left the government without any visible head until +the next meeting in Congress. We have since seen the same thing take +place in the Directory of France; and I believe it will forever take +place in any Executive consisting of a plurality. Our plan, best I +believe, combines wisdom and practicability, by providing a plurality +of Counsellors, but a single Arbiter for ultimate decision. I was in +France when we heard of this schism, and separation of our Committee, +and, speaking with Dr. Franklin of this singular disposition of men +to quarrel and divide into parties, he gave his sentiments as usual +by way of Apologue. He mentioned the Eddystone lighthouse in the +British channel as being built on a rock in the mid-channel, totally +inaccessible in winter, from the boisterous character of that sea, in +that season. That therefore, for the two keepers employed to keep up +the lights, all provisions for the winter were necessarily carried to +them in autumn, as they could never be visited again till the return +of the milder season. That on the first practicable day in the +spring a boat put off to them with fresh supplies. The boatmen met +at the door one of the keepers and accosted him with a How goes it +friend? Very well. How is your companion? I do not know. Don't +know? Is not he here? I can't tell. Have not you seen him to-day? +No. When did you see him? Not since last fall. You have killed +him? Not I, indeed. They were about to lay hold of him, as having +certainly murdered his companion; but he desired them to go up stairs +& examine for themselves. They went up, and there found the other +keeper. They had quarrelled it seems soon after being left there, +had divided into two parties, assigned the cares below to one, and +those above to the other, and had never spoken to or seen one another +since. + + But to return to our Congress at Annapolis, the definitive +treaty of peace which had been signed at Paris on the 3d. of Sep. +1783. and received here, could not be ratified without a House of 9. +states. On the 23d. of Dec. therefore we addressed letters to the +several governors, stating the receipt of the definitive treaty, that +7 states only were in attendance, while 9. were necessary to its +ratification, and urging them to press on their delegates the +necessity of their immediate attendance. And on the 26th. to save +time I moved that the Agent of Marine (Robert Morris) should be +instructed to have ready a vessel at this place, at N. York, & at +some Eastern port, to carry over the ratification of the treaty when +agreed to. It met the general sense of the house, but was opposed by +Dr. Lee on the ground of expense which it would authorize the agent +to incur for us; and he said it would be better to ratify at once & +send on the ratification. Some members had before suggested that 7 +states were competent to the ratification. My motion was therefore +postponed and another brought forward by Mr. Read of S. C. for an +immediate ratification. This was debated the 26th. and 27th. Reed, +Lee, [Hugh] Williamson & Jeremiah Chace urged that ratification was a +mere matter of form, that the treaty was conclusive from the moment +it was signed by the ministers; that although the Confederation +requires the assent of 9. _states_ to _enter into_ a treaty, yet that +it's conclusion could not be called _entrance into it_; that +supposing 9. states requisite, it would be in the power of 5. states +to keep us always at war; that 9. states had virtually authorized the +ratifion having ratified the provisional treaty, and instructed their +ministers to agree to a definitive one in the same terms, and the +present one was in fact substantially and almost verbatim the same; +that there now remain but 67. days for the ratification, for it's +passage across the Atlantic, and it's exchange; that there was no +hope of our soon having 9. states present; in fact that this was the +ultimate point of time to which we could venture to wait; that if the +ratification was not in Paris by the time stipulated, the treaty +would become void; that if ratified by 7 states, it would go under +our seal without it's being known to Gr. Britain that only 7. had +concurred; that it was a question of which they had no right to take +cognizance, and we were only answerable for it to our constituents; +that it was like the ratification which Gr. Britain had received from +the Dutch by the negotiations of Sr. Wm. Temple. + + On the contrary, it was argued by Monroe, Gerry, Howel, Ellery +& myself that by the modern usage of Europe the ratification was +considered as the act which gave validity to a treaty, until which it +was not obligatory. (* 3) That the commission to the ministers +reserved the ratification to Congress; that the treaty itself +stipulated that it should be ratified; that it became a 2d. question +who were competent to the ratification? That the Confederation +expressly required 9 states to enter into any treaty; that, by this, +that instrument must have intended that the assent of 9. states +should be necessary as well to the _completion_ as to the +_commencement_ of the treaty, it's object having been to guard the +rights of the Union in all those important cases where 9. states are +called for; that, by the contrary construction, 7 states, containing +less than one third of our whole citizens, might rivet on us a +treaty, commenced indeed under commission and instructions from 9. +states, but formed by the minister in express contradiction to such +instructions, and in direct sacrifice of the interests of so great a +majority; that the definitive treaty was admitted not to be a verbal +copy of the provisional one, and whether the departures from it were +of substance or not, was a question on which 9. states alone were +competent to decide; that the circumstances of the ratification of +the provisional articles by 9. states, the instructions to our +ministers to form a definitive one by them, and their actual +agreement in substance, do not render us competent to ratify in the +present instance; if these circumstances are in themselves a +ratification, nothing further is requisite than to give attested +copies of them, in exchange for the British ratification; if they are +not, we remain where we were, without a ratification by 9. states, +and incompetent ourselves to ratify; that it was but 4. days since +the seven states now present unanimously concurred in a resolution to +be forwarded to the governors of the absent states, in which they +stated as a cause for urging on their delegates, that 9. states were +necessary to ratify the treaty; that in the case of the Dutch +ratification, Gr. Britain had courted it, and therefore was glad to +accept it as it was; that they knew our constitution, and would +object to a ratification by 7. that if that circumstance was kept +back, it would be known hereafter, & would give them ground to deny +the validity of a ratification into which they should have been +surprised and cheated, and it would be a dishonorable prostitution of +our seal; that there is a hope of 9. states; that if the treaty would +become null if not ratified in time, it would not be saved by an +imperfect ratification; but that in fact it would not be null, and +would be placed on better ground, going in unexceptionable form, tho' +a few days too late, and rested on the small importance of this +circumstance, and the physical impossibilities which had prevented a +punctual compliance in point of time; that this would be approved by +all nations, & by Great Britain herself, if not determined to renew +the war, and if determined, she would never want excuses, were this +out of the way. Mr. Reade gave notice he should call for the yeas & +nays; whereon those in opposition prepared a resolution expressing +pointedly the reasons of the dissent from his motion. It appearing +however that his proposition could not be car-ried, it was thought +better to make no entry at all. Massa-chusetts alone would have been +for it; Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Virginia against it, Delaware, +Maryland & N. Carolina, would have been divided. + + (* 3) Vattel, L. 2, 156. L, 77. I. Mably Droit D'Europe, 86. + + Our body was little numerous, but very contentious. Day after +day was wasted on the most unimportant questions. My colleague +Mercer was one of those afflicted with the morbid rage of debate, of +an ardent mind, prompt imagination, and copious flow of words, he +heard with impatience any logic which was not his own. Sitting near +me on some occasion of a trifling but wordy debate, he asked how I +could sit in silence hearing so much false reasoning which a word +should refute? I observed to him that to refute indeed was easy, but +to silence impossible. That in measures brought forward by myself, I +took the laboring oar, as was incumbent on me; but that in general I +was willing to listen. If every sound argument or objection was used +by some one or other of the numerous debaters, it was enough: if not, +I thought it sufficient to suggest the omission, without going into a +repetition of what had been already said by others. That this was a +waste and abuse of the time and patience of the house which could not +be justified. And I believe that if the members of deliberative +bodies were to observe this course generally, they would do in a day +what takes them a week, and it is really more questionable, than may +at first be thought, whether Bonaparte's dumb legislature which said +nothing and did much, may not be preferable to one which talks much +and does nothing. I served with General Washington in the +legislature of Virginia before the revolution, and, during it, with +Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten +minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide +the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing +that the little ones would follow of themselves. If the present +Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body +to which the people send 150. lawyers, whose trade it is to question +everything, yield nothing, & talk by the hour? That 150. lawyers +should do business together ought not to be expected. But to return +again to our subject. + + Those who thought 7. states competent to the ratification being +very restless under the loss of their motion, I proposed, on the 3d. +of January to meet them on middle ground, and therefore moved a +resolution which premising that there were but 7. states present, who +were unanimous for the ratification, but, that they differed in +opinion on the question of competency. That those however in the +negative were unwilling that any powers which it might be supposed +they possessed should remain unexercised for the restoration of +peace, provided it could be done saving their good faith, and without +importing any opinion of Congress that 7. states were competent, and +resolving that treaty be ratified so far as they had power; that it +should be transmitted to our ministers with instructions to keep it +uncommunicated; to endeavor to obtain 3. months longer for exchange +of ratifications; that they should be informed that so soon as 9. +states shall be present a ratification by 9. shall be sent them; if +this should get to them before the ultimate point of time for +exchange, they were to use it, and not the other; if not, they were +to offer the act of the 7. states in exchange, informing them the +treaty had come to hand while Congress was not in session, that but +7. states were as yet assembled, and these had unanimously concurred +in the ratification. This was debated on the 3d. and 4th. and on +the 5th. a vessel being to sail for England from this port +(Annapolis) the House directed the President to write to our +ministers accordingly. + + Jan. 14. Delegates from Connecticut having attended yesterday, +and another from S. Carolina coming in this day, the treaty was +ratified without a dissenting voice, and three instruments of +ratification were ordered to be made out, one of which was sent by +Colo. Harmer, another by Colo. Franks, and the 3d. transmitted to the +agent of Marine to be forwarded by any good opportunity. + + Congress soon took up the consideration of their foreign +relations. They deemed it necessary to get their commerce placed +with every nation on a footing as favorable as that of other nations; +and for this purpose to propose to each a distinct treaty of +commerce. This act too would amount to an acknowledgment by each of +our independance and of our reception into the fraternity of nations; +which altho', as possessing our station of right and in fact, we +would not condescend to ask, we were not unwilling to furnish +opportunities for receiving their friendly salutations & welcome. +With France the United Netherlands and Sweden we had already treaties +of commerce, but commissions were given for those countries also, +should any amendments be thought necessary. The other states to +which treaties were to be proposed were England, Hamburg, Saxony, +Prussia, Denmark, Russia, Austria, Venice, Rome, Naples, Tuscany, +Sardinia, Genoa, Spain, Portugal, the Porte, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis +& Morocco. + + Mar. 16. On the 7th. of May Congress resolved that a Minister +Plenipotentiary should be appointed in addition to Mr. Adams & Dr. +Franklin for negotiating treaties of commerce with foreign nations, +and I was elected to that duty. I accordingly left Annapolis on the +11th. Took with me my elder daughter then at Philadelphia (the two +others being too young for the voyage) & proceeded to Boston in quest +of a passage. While passing thro' the different states, I made a +point of informing myself of the state of the commerce of each, went +on to New Hampshire with the same view and returned to Boston. From +thence I sailed on the 5th. of July in the Ceres a merchant ship of +Mr. Nathaniel Tracey, bound to Cowes. He was himself a passenger, +and, after a pleasant voyage of 19. days from land to land, we +arrived at Cowes on the 26th. I was detained there a few days by the +indisposition of my daughter. On the 30th. we embarked for Havre, +arrived there on the 31st. left it on the 3d. of August, and arrived +at Paris on the 6th. I called immediately on Doctr. Franklin at +Passy, communicated to him our charge, and we wrote to Mr. Adams, +then at the Hague to join us at Paris. + + Before I had left America, that is to say in the year 1781. I +had received a letter from M. de Marbois, of the French legation in +Philadelphia, informing me he had been instructed by his government +to obtain such statistical accounts of the different states of our +Union, as might be useful for their information; and addressing to me +a number of queries relative to the state of Virginia. I had always +made it a practice whenever an opportunity occurred of obtaining any +information of our country, which might be of use to me in any +station public or private, to commit it to writing. These memoranda +were on loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of +recurrence when I had occasion for a particular one. I thought this +a good occasion to embody their substance, which I did in the order +of Mr. Marbois' queries, so as to answer his wish and to arrange them +for my own use. Some friends to whom they were occasionally +communicated wished for copies; but their volume rendering this too +laborious by hand, I proposed to get a few printed for their +gratification. I was asked such a price however as exceeded the +importance of the object. On my arrival at Paris I found it could be +done for a fourth of what I had been asked here. I therefore +corrected and enlarged them, and had 200. copies printed, under the +title of Notes on Virginia. I gave a very few copies to some +particular persons in Europe, and sent the rest to my friends in +America. An European copy, by the death of the owner, got into the +hands of a bookseller, who engaged it's translation, & when ready for +the press, communicated his intentions & manuscript to me, without +any other permission than that of suggesting corrections. I never +had seen so wretched an attempt at translation. Interverted, +abridged, mutilated, and often reversing the sense of the original, I +found it a blotch of errors from beginning to end. I corrected some +of the most material, and in that form it was printed in French. A +London bookseller, on seeing the translation, requested me to permit +him to print the English original. I thought it best to do so to let +the world see that it was not really so bad as the French translation +had made it appear. And this is the true history of that +publication. + + Mr. Adams soon joined us at Paris, & our first employment was +to prepare a general form to be proposed to such nations as were +disposed to treat with us. During the negotiations for peace with +the British Commissioner David Hartley, our Commissioners had +proposed, on the suggestion of Doctr. Franklin, to insert an article +exempting from capture by the public or private armed ships of either +belligerent, when at war, all merchant vessels and their cargoes, +employed merely in carrying on the commerce between nations. It was +refused by England, and unwisely, in my opinion. For in the case of +a war with us, their superior commerce places infinitely more at +hazard on the ocean than ours; and as hawks abound in proportion to +game, so our privateers would swarm in proportion to the wealth +exposed to their prize, while theirs would be few for want of +subjects of capture. We inserted this article in our form, with a +provision against the molestation of fishermen, husbandmen, citizens +unarmed and following their occupations in unfortified places, for +the humane treatment of prisoners of war, the abolition of contraband +of war, which exposes merchant vessels to such vexatious & ruinous +detentions and abuses; and for the principle of free bottoms, free +goods. + + In a conference with the Count de Vergennes, it was thought +better to leave to legislative regulation on both sides such +modifications of our commercial intercourse as would voluntarily flow +from amicable dispositions. Without urging, we sounded the ministers +of the several European nations at the court of Versailles, on their +dispositions towards mutual commerce, and the expediency of +encouraging it by the protection of a treaty. Old Frederic of +Prussia met us cordially and without hesitation, and appointing the +Baron de Thulemeyer, his minister at the Hague, to negotiate with us, +we communicated to him our Project, which with little alteration by +the King, was soon concluded. Denmark and Tuscany entered also into +negotiations with us. Other powers appearing indifferent we did not +think it proper to press them. They seemed in fact to know little +about us, but as rebels who had been successful in throwing off the +yoke of the mother country. They were ignorant of our commerce, +which had been always monopolized by England, and of the exchange of +articles it might offer advantageously to both parties. They were +inclined therefore to stand aloof until they could see better what +relations might be usefully instituted with us. The negotiations +therefore begun with Denmark & Tuscany we protracted designedly until +our powers had expired; and abstained from making new propositions to +others having no colonies; because our commerce being an exchange of +raw for wrought materials, is a competent price for admission into +the colonies of those possessing them: but were we to give it, +without price, to others, all would claim it without price on the +ordinary ground of gentis amicissimae. + + Mr. Adams being appointed Min. Pleny. of the U S. to London, +left us in June, and in July 1785. Dr. Franklin returned to America, +and I was appointed his successor at Paris. In Feb. 1786. Mr. Adams +wrote to me pressingly to join him in London immediately, as he +thought he discovered there some symptoms of better disposition +towards us. Colo. Smith, his Secretary of legation, was the bearer +of his urgencies for my immediate attendance. I accordingly left +Paris on the 1st. of March, and on my arrival in London we agreed on +a very summary form of treaty, proposing an exchange of citizenship +for our citizens, our ships, and our productions generally, except as +to office. On my presentation as usual to the King and Queen at +their levees, it was impossible for anything to be more ungracious +than their notice of Mr. Adams & myself. I saw at once that the +ulcerations in the narrow mind of that mulish being left nothing to +be expected on the subject of my attendance; and on the first +conference with the Marquis of Caermarthen, his Minister of foreign +affairs, the distance and disinclination which he betrayed in his +conversation, the vagueness & evasions of his answers to us, +confirmed me in the belief of their aversion to have anything to do +with us. We delivered him however our Projet, Mr. Adams not +despairing as much as I did of it's effect. We afterwards, by one or +more notes, requested his appointment of an interview and conference, +which, without directly declining, he evaded by pretences of other +pressing occupations for the moment. After staying there seven +weeks, till within a few days of the expiration of our commission, I +informed the minister by note that my duties at Paris required my +return to that place, and that I should with pleasure be the bearer +of any commands to his Ambassador there. He answered that he had +none, and wishing me a pleasant journey, I left London the 26th. +arrived at Paris on the 30th. of April. + + While in London we entered into negotiations with the Chevalier +Pinto, Ambassador of Portugal at that place. The only article of +difficulty between us was a stipulation that our bread stuff should +be received in Portugal in the form of flour as well as of grain. He +approved of it himself, but observed that several Nobles, of great +influence at their court, were the owners of wind mills in the +neighborhood of Lisbon which depended much for their profits on +manufacturing our wheat, and that this stipulation would endanger the +whole treaty. He signed it however, & it's fate was what he had +candidly portended. + + My duties at Paris were confined to a few objects; the receipt +of our whale-oils, salted fish, and salted meats on favorable terms, +the admission of our rice on equal terms with that of Piedmont, Egypt +& the Levant, a mitigation of the monopolies of our tobacco by the +Farmers-general, and a free admission of our productions into their +islands; were the principal commercial objects which required +attention; and on these occasions I was powerfully aided by all the +influence and the energies of the Marquis de La Fayette, who proved +himself equally zealous for the friendship and welfare of both +nations; and in justice I must also say that I found the government +entirely disposed to befriend us on all occasions, and to yield us +every indulgence not absolutely injurious to themselves. The Count +de Vergennes had the reputation with the diplomatic corps of being +wary & slippery in his diplomatic intercourse; and so he might be +with those whom he knew to be slippery and double-faced themselves. +As he saw that I had no indirect views, practised no subtleties, +meddled in no intrigues, pursued no concealed object, I found him as +frank, as honorable, as easy of access to reason as any man with whom +I had ever done business; and I must say the same for his successor +Montmorin, one of the most honest and worthy of human beings. + + Our commerce in the Mediterranean was placed under early alarm +by the capture of two of our vessels and crews by the Barbary +cruisers. I was very unwilling that we should acquiesce in the +European humiliation of paying a tribute to those lawless pirates, +and endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to +habitual depredations from them. I accordingly prepared and proposed +to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments, +articles of a special confederation in the following form. + + * * * + + "Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at war with +the Piratical States of Barbary. + + 1. It is proposed that the several powers at war with the +Piratical States of Barbary, or any two or more of them who shall be +willing, shall enter into a convention to carry on their operations +against those states, in concert, beginning with the Algerines. + + 2. This convention shall remain open to any other power who +shall at any future time wish to accede to it; the parties reserving +a right to prescribe the conditions of such accession, according to +the circumstances existing at the time it shall be proposed. + + 3. The object of the convention shall be to compel the +piratical states to perpetual peace, without price, & to guarantee +that peace to each other. + + 4. The operations for obtaining this peace shall be constant +cruises on their coast with a naval force now to be agreed on. It is +not proposed that this force shall be so considerable as to be +inconvenient to any party. It is believed that half a dozen +frigates, with as many Tenders or Xebecs, one half of which shall be +in cruise, while the other half is at rest, will suffice. + + 5. The force agreed to be necessary shall be furnished by the +parties in certain quotas now to be fixed; it being expected that +each will be willing to contribute in such proportion as circumstance +may render reasonable. + + 6. As miscarriages often proceed from the want of harmony +among officers of different nations, the parties shall now consider & +decide whether it will not be better to contribute their quotas in +money to be employed in fitting out, and keeping on duty, a single +fleet of the force agreed on. + + 7. The difficulties and delays too which will attend the +management of these operations, if conducted by the parties +themselves separately, distant as their courts may be from one +another, and incapable of meeting in consultation, suggest a question +whether it will not be better for them to give full powers for that +purpose to their Ambassadors or other ministers resident at some one +court of Europe, who shall form a Committee or Council for carrying +this convention into effect; wherein the vote of each member shall be +computed in proportion to the quota of his sovereign, and the +majority so computed shall prevail in all questions within the view +of this convention. The court of Versailles is proposed, on account +of it's neighborhood to the Mediterranean, and because all those +powers are represented there, who are likely to become parties to +this convention. + + 8. To save to that council the embarrassment of personal +solicitations for office, and to assure the parties that their +contributions will be applied solely to the object for which they are +destined, there shall be no establishment of officers for the said +Council, such as Commis, Secretaries, or any other kind, with either +salaries or perquisites, nor any other lucrative appointments but +such whose functions are to be exercised on board the sd vessels. + + 9. Should war arise between any two of the parties to this +convention it shall not extend to this enterprise, nor interrupt it; +but as to this they shall be reputed at peace. + + 10. When Algiers shall be reduced to peace, the other +pyratical states, if they refuse to discontinue their pyracies shall +become the objects of this convention, either successively or +together as shall seem best. + + 11. Where this convention would interfere with treaties +actually existing between any of the parties and the sd states of +Barbary, the treaty shall prevail, and such party shall be allowed to +withdraw from the operations against that state." + + * * * + + Spain had just concluded a treaty with Algiers at the expense +of 3. millions of dollars, and did not like to relinquish the benefit +of that until the other party should fail in their observance of it. +Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden +were favorably disposed to such an association; but their +representatives at Paris expressed apprehensions that France would +interfere, and, either openly or secretly support the Barbary powers; +and they required that I should ascertain the dispositions of the +Count de Vergennes on the subject. I had before taken occasion to +inform him of what we were proposing, and therefore did not think it +proper to insinuate any doubt of the fair conduct of his government; +but stating our propositions, I mentioned the apprehensions +entertained by us that England would interfere in behalf of those +piratical governments. "She dares not do it," said he. I pressed it +no further. The other agents were satisfied with this indication of +his sentiments, and nothing was now wanting to bring it into direct +and formal consideration, but the assent of our government, and their +authority to make the formal proposition. I communicated to them the +favorable prospect of protecting our commerce from the Barbary +depredations, and for such a continuance of time as, by an exclusion +of them from the sea, to change their habits & characters from a +predatory to an agricultural people: towards which however it was +expected they would contribute a frigate, and it's expenses to be in +constant cruise. But they were in no condition to make any such +engagement. Their recommendatory powers for obtaining contributions +were so openly neglected by the several states that they declined an +engagement which they were conscious they could not fulfill with +punctuality; and so it fell through. + + May 17. In 1786. while at Paris I became acquainted with John +Ledyard of Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, and of +fearless courage, & enterprise. He had accompanied Capt Cook in his +voyage to the Pacific, had distinguished himself on several occasions +by an unrivalled intrepidity, and published an account of that voyage +with details unfavorable to Cook's deportment towards the savages, +and lessening our regrets at his fate. Ledyard had come to Paris in +the hope of forming a company to engage in the fur trade of the +Western coast of America. He was disappointed in this, and being out +of business, and of a roaming, restless character, I suggested to him +the enterprise of exploring the Western part of our continent, by +passing thro St. Petersburg to Kamschatka, and procuring a passage +thence in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, whence he +might make his way across the continent to America; and I undertook +to have the permission of the Empress of Russia solicited. He +eagerly embraced the proposition, and M. de Semoulin, the Russian +Ambassador, and more particularly Baron Grimm the special +correspondent of the Empress, solicited her permission for him to +pass thro' her dominions to the Western coast of America. And here I +must correct a material error which I have committed in another place +to the prejudice of the Empress. In writing some Notes of the life +of Capt Lewis, prefixed to his expedition to the Pacific, I stated +that the Empress gave the permission asked, & afterwards retracted +it. This idea, after a lapse of 26 years, had so insinuated itself +into my mind, that I committed it to paper without the least +suspicion of error. Yet I find, on recurring to my letters of that +date that the Empress refused permission at once, considering the +enterprise as entirely chimerical. But Ledyard would not relinquish +it, persuading himself that by proceeding to St. Petersburg he could +satisfy the Empress of it's practicability and obtain her permission. +He went accordingly, but she was absent on a visit to some distant +part of her dominions, (* 4) and he pursued his course to within 200. +miles of Kamschatka, where he was overtaken by an arrest from the +Empress, brought back to Poland, and there dismissed. I must +therefore in justice, acquit the Empress of ever having for a moment +countenanced, even by the indulgence of an innocent passage thro' her +territories this interesting enterprise. + + (* 4) The Crimea. + + May 18. The pecuniary distresses of France produced this year +a measure of which there had been no example for near two centuries, +& the consequences of which, good and evil, are not yet calculable. +For it's remote causes we must go a little back. + + Celebrated writers of France and England had already sketched +good principles on the subject of government. Yet the American +Revolution seems first to have awakened the thinking part of the +French nation in general from the sleep of despotism in which they +were sunk. The officers too who had been to America, were mostly +young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and more ready to +assent to the suggestions of common sense, and feeling of common +rights. They came back with new ideas & impressions. The press, +notwithstanding it's shackles, began to disseminate them. +Conversation assumed new freedoms. Politics became the theme of all +societies, male and female, and a very extensive & zealous party was +formed which acquired the appellation of the Patriotic party, who, +sensible of the abusive government under which they lived, sighed for +occasions of reforming it. This party comprehended all the honesty +of the kingdom sufficiently at it's leisure to think, the men of +letters, the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility partly from +reflection, partly from mode, for these sentiments became matter of +mode, and as such united most of the young women to the party. +Happily for the nation, it happened at the same moment that the +dissipations of the Queen and court, the abuses of the pension-list, +and dilapidations in the administration of every branch of the +finances, had exhausted the treasures and credit of the nation, +insomuch that it's most necessary functions were paralyzed. To +reform these abuses would have overset the minister; to impose new +taxes by the authority of the King was known to be impossible from +the determined opposition of the parliament to their enregistry. No +resource remained then but to appeal to the nation. He advised +therefore the call of an assembly of the most distinguished +characters of the nation, in the hope that by promises of various and +valuable improvements in the organization and regimen of the +government, they would be induced to authorize new taxes, to controul +the opposition of the parliament, and to raise the annual revenue to +the level of expenditures. An Assembly of Notables therefore, about +150. in number named by the King, convened on the 22d. of Feb. The +Minister (Calonne) stated to them that the annual excess of expenses +beyond the revenue, when Louis XVI. came to the throne, was 37. +millions of livres; that 440. millns. had been borrowed to +reestablish the navy; that the American war had cost them 1440. +millns. (256. mils. of Dollars) and that the interest of these sums, +with other increased expenses had added 40 millns. more to the annual +deficit. (But a subseqt. and more candid estimate made it 56. +millns.) He proffered them an universal redress of grievances, laid +open those grievances fully, pointed out sound remedies, and covering +his canvas with objects of this magnitude, the deficit dwindled to a +little accessory, scarcely attracting attention. The persons chosen +were the most able & independent characters in the kingdom, and their +support, if it could be obtained, would be enough for him. They +improved the occasion for redressing their grievances, and agreed +that the public wants should be relieved; but went into an +examination of the causes of them. It was supposed that Calonne was +conscious that his accounts could not bear examination; and it was +said and believed that he asked of the King to send 4. members to the +Bastile, of whom the M. de la Fayette was one, to banish 20. others, +& 2. of his Ministers. The King found it shorter to banish him. His +successor went on in full concert with the Assembly. The result was +an augmentation of the revenue, a promise of economies in it's +expenditure, of an annual settlement of the public accounts before a +council, which the Comptroller, having been heretofore obliged to +settle only with the King in person, of course never settled at all; +an acknowledgment that the King could not lay a new tax, a +reformation of the criminal laws, abolition of torture, suppression +of Corvees, reformation of the gabelles, removal of the interior +custom houses, free commerce of grain internal & external, and the +establishment of Provincial assemblies; which alltogether constituted +a great mass of improvement in the condition of the nation. The +establishment of the Provincial assemblies was in itself a +fundamental improvement. They would be of the choice of the people, +one third renewed every year, in those provinces where there are no +States, that is to say over about three fourths of the kingdom. They +would be partly an Executive themselves, & partly an Executive +council to the Intendant, to whom the Executive power, in his +province had been heretofore entirely delegated. Chosen by the +people, they would soften the execution of hard laws, & having a +right of representation to the King, they would censure bad laws, +suggest good ones, expose abuses, and their representations, when +united, would command respect. To the other advantages might be +added the precedent itself of calling the Assemblee des Notables, +which would perhaps grow into habit. The hope was that the +improvements thus promised would be carried into effect, that they +would be maintained during the present reign, & that that would be +long enough for them to take some root in the constitution, so that +they might come to be considered as a part of that, and be protected +by time, and the attachment of the nation. + + The Count de Vergennes had died a few days before the meeting +of the Assembly, & the Count de Montmorin had been named Minister of +foreign affairs in his place. Villedeuil succeeded Calonnes as +Comptroller general, & Lomenie de Bryenne, Archbishop of Thoulouse, +afterwards of Sens, & ultimately Cardinal Lomenie, was named Minister +principal, with whom the other ministers were to transact the +business of their departments, heretofore done with the King in +person, and the Duke de Nivernois, and M. de Malesherbes were called +to the Council. On the nomination of the Minister principal the +Marshals de Segur & de Castries retired from the departments of War & +Marine, unwilling to act subordinately, or to share the blame of +proceedings taken out of their direction. They were succeeded by the +Count de Brienne, brother of the Prime minister, and the Marquis de +la Luzerne, brother to him who had been Minister in the United +States. + + May 24. A dislocated wrist, unsuccessfully set, occasioned +advice from my Surgeon to try the mineral waters of Aix in Provence +as a corroborant. I left Paris for that place therefore on the 28th. +of Feb. and proceeded up the Seine, thro' Champagne & Burgundy, and +down the Rhone thro' the Beaujolais by Lyons, Avignon, Nismes to Aix, +where finding on trial no benefit from the waters, I concluded to +visit the rice country of Piedmont, to see if anything might be +learned there to benefit the rivalship of our Carolina rice with +that, and thence to make a tour of the seaport towns of France, along +it's Southern and Western coast, to inform myself if anything could +be done to favor our commerce with them. From Aix therefore I took +my route by Marseilles, Toulon, Hieres, Nice, across the Col de +Tende, by Coni, Turin, Vercelli, Novara, Milan, Pavia, Novi, Genoa. +Thence returning along the coast by Savona, Noli, Albenga, Oneglia, +Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Frejus, Aix, Marseilles, Avignon, Nismes, +Montpellier, Frontignan, Cette, Agde, and along the canal of +Languedoc, by Bezieres, Narbonne, Cascassonne, Castelnaudari, thro' +the Souterrain of St. Feriol and back by Castelnaudari, to Toulouse, +thence to Montauban & down the Garonne by Langon to Bordeaux. Thence +to Rochefort, la Rochelle, Nantes, L'Orient, then back by Rennes to +Nantes, and up the Loire by Angers, Tours, Amboise, Blois to New +Orleans, thence direct to Paris where I arrived on the 10th. of June. +Soon after my return from this journey to wit, about the latter part +of July, I received my younger daughter Maria from Virginia by the +way of London, the youngest having died some time before. + + The treasonable perfidy of the Prince of Orange, Stadtholder & +Captain General of the United Netherlands, in the war which England +waged against them for entering into a treaty of commerce with the U. +S. is known to all. As their Executive officer, charged with the +conduct of the war, he contrived to baffle all the measures of the +States General, to dislocate all their military plans, & played false +into the hands of England and against his own country on every +possible occasion, confident in her protection, and in that of the +King of Prussia, brother to his Princess. The States General +indignant at this patricidal conduct applied to France for aid, +according to the stipulations of the treaty concluded with her in 85. +It was assured to them readily, and in cordial terms, in a letter +from the Ct. de Vergennes to the Marquis de Verac, Ambassador of +France at the Hague, of which the following is an extract. + + "Extrait de la depeche de Monsr. le Comte de Vergennes a Monsr. +le Marquis de Verac, Ambassadeur de France a la Haye, du 1er Mars +1786. + + "Le Roi concourrera, autant qu'il sera en son pouvoir, au +succes de la chose, et vous inviterez de sa part les patriotes de lui +communiquer leurs vues, leurs plans, et leurs envieux. Vous les +assurerez que le roi prend un interet veritable a leurs personnes +comme a leur cause, et qu' ils peuvent compter sur sa protection. +Ils doivent y compter d' autant plus, Monsieur, que nous ne +dissimulons pas que si Monsr. le Stadhoulder reprend son ancienne +influence, le systeme Anglois ne tardera pas de prevaloir, et que +notre alliance deviendroit unetre de raison. Les Patriotes sentiront +facilement que cette position seroit incompatible avec la dignite, +comme avec la consideration de sa majeste. Mais dans le cas, +Monsieur, ou les chefs des Patriotes auroient a craindre une +scission, ils auroient le temps suffisant pour ramener ceux de leurs +amis que les Anglomanes ont egares, et preparer les choses de maniere +que la question de nouveau mise en deliberation soit decide selon +leurs desirs. Dans cette hypothese, le roi vous autorise a agir de +concert avec eux, de suivre la direction qu' ils jugeront devoir vous +donner, et d' employer tous les moyens pour augmenter le nombre des +partisans de la bonne cause. Il me reste, Monsieur, il me reste +Monsieur, de vous parler de la surete personelle des patriotes. Vous +les assurerez que dans tout etat de cause, le roi les prend sous sa +protection immediate, et vous ferez connoitre partout ou vous le +jugerez necessaire, que sa Majeste regarderoit comme une offense +personnelle tout ce qu' on entreprenderoit contre leur liberte. Il +est a presumer que ce langage, tenu avec energie, en imposera a +l'audace des Anglomanes et que Monsr. le Prince de Nassau croira +courir quelque risque en provoquant le ressentiment de sa Majeste." + + This letter was communicated by the Patriots to me when at +Amsterdam in 1788. and a copy sent by me to Mr. Jay in my letter to +him of Mar. 16. 1788. + + The object of the Patriots was to establish a representative +and republican government. The majority of the States general were +with them, but the majority of the populace of the towns was with the +Prince of Orange; and that populace was played off with great effect +by the triumvirate of Harris the English Ambassador afterwards Ld. +Malmesbury, the Prince of Orange a stupid man, and the Princess as +much a man as either of her colleagues, in audaciousness, in +enterprise, & in the thirst of domination. By these the mobs of the +Hague were excited against the members of the States general, their +persons were insulted & endangered in the streets, the sanctuary of +their houses was violated, and the Prince whose function & duty it +was to repress and punish these violations of order, took no steps +for that purpose. The States General, for their own protection were +therefore obliged to place their militia under the command of a +Committee. The Prince filled the courts of London and Berlin with +complaints at this usurpation of his prerogatives, and forgetting +that he was but the first servant of a republic, marched his regular +troops against the city of Utrecht, where the States were in session. +They were repulsed by the militia. His interests now became +marshalled with those of the public enemy & against his own country. +The States therefore, exercising their rights of sovereignty, +deprived him of all his powers. The great Frederic had died in +August 86. (* 5) He had never intended to break with France in +support of the Prince of Orange. During the illness of which he +died, he had thro' the Duke of Brunswick, declared to the Marquis de +la Fayette, who was then at Berlin, that he meant not to support the +English interest in Holland: that he might assure the government of +France his only wish was that some honorable place in the +Constitution should be reserved for the Stadtholder and his children, +and that he would take no part in the quarrel unless an entire +abolition of the Stadtholderate should be attempted. But his place +was now occupied by Frederic William, his great nephew, a man of +little understanding, much caprice, & very inconsiderate; and the +Princess his sister, altho' her husband was in arms against the +legitimate authorities of the country, attempting to go to Amsterdam +for the purpose of exciting the mobs of that place and being refused +permission to pass a military post on the way, he put the Duke of +Brunswick at the head of 20,000 men, and made demonstrations of +marching on Holland. The King of France hereupon declared, by his +Charge des Affaires in Holland that if the Prussian troops continued +to menace Holland with an invasion, his Majesty, in quality of Ally, +was determined to succor that province. (* 6) In answer to this Eden +gave official information to Count Montmorin, that England must +consider as at an end, it's convention with France relative to giving +notice of it's naval armaments and that she was arming generally. (* +7) War being now imminent, Eden questioned me on the effect of our +treaty with France in the case of a war, & what might be our +dispositions. I told him frankly and without hesitation that our +dispositions would be neutral, and that I thought it would be the +interest of both these powers that we should be so; because it would +relieve both from all anxiety as to feeding their W. India islands. +That England too, by suffering us to remain so, would avoid a heavy +land-war on our continent, which might very much cripple her +proceedings elsewhere; that our treaty indeed obliged us to receive +into our ports the armed vessels of France, with their prizes, and to +refuse admission to the prizes made on her by her enemies: that there +was a clause also by which we guaranteed to France her American +possessions, which might perhaps force us into the war, if these were +attacked. "Then it will be war, said he, for they will assuredly be +attacked." (* 8) Liston, at Madrid, about the same time, made the +same inquiries of Carmichael. The government of France then declared +a determination to form a camp of observation at Givet, commenced +arming her marine, and named the Bailli de Suffrein their +Generalissimo on the Ocean. She secretly engaged also in +negotiations with Russia, Austria, & Spain to form a quadruple +alliance. The Duke of Brunswick having advanced to the confines of +Holland, sent some of his officers to Givet to reconnoitre the state +of things there, and report them to him. He said afterwards that "if +there had been only a few tents at that place, he should not have +advanced further, for that the King would not merely for the interest +of his sister, engage in a war with France." But finding that there +was not a single company there, he boldly entered the country, took +their towns as fast as he presented himself before them, and advanced +on Utrecht. The States had appointed the Rhingrave of Salm their +Commander-in-chief, a Prince without talents, without courage, and +without principle. He might have held out in Utrecht for a +considerable time, but he surrendered the place without firing a gun, +literally ran away & hid himself so that for months it was not known +what had become of him. Amsterdam was then attacked and capitulated. +In the meantime the negotiations for the quadruple alliance were +proceeding favorably. But the secrecy with which they were attempted +to be conducted, was penetrated by Fraser, Charge des affaires of +England at St. Petersburg, who instantly notified his court, and +gave the alarm to Prussia. The King saw at once what would be his +situation between the jaws of France, Austria, and Russia. In great +dismay he besought the court of London not to abandon him, sent +Alvensleben to Paris to explain and soothe, and England thro' the D. +of Dorset and Eden, renewed her conferences for accommodation. The +Archbishop, who shuddered at the idea of war, and preferred a +peaceful surrender of right to an armed vindication of it, received +them with open arms, entered into cordial conferences, and a +declaration, and counter declaration were cooked up at Versailles and +sent to London for approbation. They were approved there, reached +Paris at 1 o'clock of the 27th. and were signed that night at +Versailles. It was said and believed at Paris that M. de Montmorin, +literally "pleuroit comme un enfant," when obliged to sign this +counter declaration; so distressed was he by the dishonor of +sacrificing the Patriots after assurances so solemn of protection, +and absolute encouragement to proceed. (* 9) The Prince of Orange +was reinstated in all his powers, now become regal. A great +emigration of the Patriots took place, all were deprived of office, +many exiled, and their property confiscated. They were received in +France, and subsisted for some time on her bounty. Thus fell +Holland, by the treachery of her chief, from her honorable +independence to become a province of England, and so also her +Stadtholder from the high station of the first citizen of a free +republic, to be the servile Viceroy of a foreign sovereign. And this +was effected by a mere scene of bullying & demonstration, not one of +the parties, France England or Prussia having ever really meant to +encounter actual war for the interest of the Prince of Orange. But +it had all the effect of a real and decisive war. + + (* 5) lre to Jay Aug. 6. 87. + + (* 6) My lre Sep. 22. 87. + + (* 7) My lre to J. Jay Sep.24. + + (* 8) lre to Carm. Dec. 15. + + (* 9) My lre to Jay Nov. 3. lre to J. Adams, Nov. 13. + + Our first essay in America to establish a federative government +had fallen, on trial, very short of it's object. During the war of +Independance, while the pressure of an external enemy hooped us +together, and their enterprises kept us necessarily on the alert, the +spirit of the people, excited by danger, was a supplement to the +Confederation, and urged them to zealous exertions, whether claimed +by that instrument, or not. But when peace and safety were restored, +and every man became engaged in useful and profitable occupation, +less attention was paid to the calls of Congress. The fundamental +defect of the Confederation was that Congress was not authorized to +act immediately on the people, & by it's own officers. Their power +was only requisitory, and these requisitions were addressed to the +several legislatures, to be by them carried into execution, without +other coercion than the moral principle of duty. This allowed in +fact a negative to every legislature, on every measure proposed by +Congress; a negative so frequently exercised in practice as to benumb +the action of the federal government, and to render it inefficient in +it's general objects, & more especially in pecuniary and foreign +concerns. The want too of a separation of the legislative, +executive, & judiciary functions worked disadvantageously in +practice. Yet this state of things afforded a happy augury of the +future march of our confederacy, when it was seen that the good sense +and good dispositions of the people, as soon as they perceived the +incompetence of their first compact, instead of leaving it's +correction to insurrection and civil war, agreed with one voice to +elect deputies to a general convention, who should peaceably meet and +agree on such a constitution as "would ensure peace, justice, +liberty, the common defence & general welfare." + + This Convention met at Philadelphia on the 25th. of May '87. +It sate with closed doors and kept all it's proceedings secret, until +it's dissolution on the 17th. of September, when the results of their +labors were published all together. I received a copy early in +November, and read and contemplated it's provisions with great +satisfaction. As not a member of the Convention however, nor +probably a single citizen of the Union, had approved it in all it's +parts, so I too found articles which I thought objectionable. The +absence of express declarations ensuring freedom of religion, freedom +of the press, freedom of the person under the uninterrupted +protection of the Habeas corpus, & trial by jury in civil as well as +in criminal cases excited my jealousy; and the re-eligibility of the +President for life, I quite disapproved. I expressed freely in +letters to my friends, and most particularly to Mr. Madison & General +Washington, my approbations and objections. How the good should be +secured, and the ill brought to rights was the difficulty. To refer +it back to a new Convention might endanger the loss of the whole. My +first idea was that the 9. states first acting should accept it +unconditionally, and thus secure what in it was good, and that the 4. +last should accept on the previous condition that certain amendments +should be agreed to, but a better course was devised of accepting the +whole and trusting that the good sense & honest intentions of our +citizens would make the alterations which should be deemed necessary. +Accordingly all accepted, 6. without objection, and 7. with +recommendations of specified amendments. Those respecting the press, +religion, & juries, with several others, of great value, were +accordingly made; but the Habeas corpus was left to the discretion of +Congress, and the amendment against the reeligibility of the +President was not proposed by that body. My fears of that feature +were founded on the importance of the office, on the fierce +contentions it might excite among ourselves, if continuable for life, +and the dangers of interference either with money or arms, by foreign +nations, to whom the choice of an American President might become +interesting. Examples of this abounded in history; in the case of +the Roman emperors for instance, of the Popes while of any +significance, of the German emperors, the Kings of Poland, & the Deys +of Barbary. I had observed too in the feudal History, and in the +recent instance particularly of the Stadtholder of Holland, how +easily offices or tenures for life slide into inheritances. My wish +therefore was that the President should be elected for 7. years & be +ineligible afterwards. This term I thought sufficient to enable him, +with the concurrence of the legislature, to carry thro' & establish +any system of improvement he should propose for the general good. +But the practice adopted I think is better allowing his continuance +for 8. years with a liability to be dropped at half way of the term, +making that a period of probation. That his continuance should be +restrained to 7. years was the opinion of the Convention at an early +stage of it's session, when it voted that term by a majority of 8. +against 2. and by a simple majority that he should be ineligible a +second time. This opinion &c. was confirmed by the house so late as +July 26. referred to the committee of detail, reported favorably by +them, and changed to the present form by final vote on the last day +but one only of their session. Of this change three states expressed +their disapprobation, N. York by recommending an amendment that the +President should not be eligible a third time, and Virginia and N. +Carolina that he should not be capable of serving more than 8. in any +term of 16. years. And altho' this amendment has not been made in +form, yet practice seems to have established it. The example of 4 +Presidents voluntarily retiring at the end of their 8th year, & the +progress of public opinion that the principle is salutary, have given +it in practice the force of precedent & usage; insomuch that should a +President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I trust he +would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views. + + But there was another amendment of which none of us thought at +the time and in the omission of which lurks the germ that is to +destroy this happy combination of National powers in the General +government for matters of National concern, and independent powers in +the states for what concerns the states severally. In England it was +a great point gained at the Revolution, that the commissions of the +judges, which had hitherto been during pleasure, should thenceforth +be made during good behavior. A Judiciary dependent on the will of +the King had proved itself the most oppressive of all tools in the +hands of that Magistrate. Nothing then could be more salutary than a +change there to the tenure of good behavior; and the question of good +behavior left to the vote of a simple majority in the two houses of +parliament. Before the revolution we were all good English Whigs, +cordial in their free principles, and in their jealousies of their +executive Magistrate. These jealousies are very apparent in all our +state constitutions; and, in the general government in this instance, +we have gone even beyond the English caution, by requiring a vote of +two thirds in one of the Houses for removing a judge; a vote so +impossible where (* 10) any defence is made, before men of ordinary +prejudices & passions, that our judges are effectually independent of +the nation. But this ought not to be. I would not indeed make them +dependant on the Executive authority, as they formerly were in +England; but I deem it indispensable to the continuance of this +government that they should be submitted to some practical & +impartial controul: and that this, to be imparted, must be compounded +of a mixture of state and federal authorities. It is not enough that +honest men are appointed judges. All know the influence of interest +on the mind of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by +that influence. To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of +their peculiar maxim and creed that "it is the office of a good judge +to enlarge his jurisdiction," and the absence of responsibility, and +how can we expect impartial decision between the General government, +of which they are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual +state from which they have nothing to hope or fear. We have seen too +that, contrary to all correct example, they are in the habit of going +out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead and grapple +further hold for future advances of power. They are then in fact the +corps of sappers & miners, steadily working to undermine the +independant rights of the States, & to consolidate all power in the +hands of that government in which they have so important a freehold +estate. But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration of +powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected. +Were not this great country already divided into states, that +division must be made, that each might do for itself what concerns +itself directly, and what it can so much better do than a distant +authority. Every state again is divided into counties, each to take +care of what lies within it's local bounds; each county again into +townships or wards, to manage minuter details; and every ward into +farms, to be governed each by it's individual proprietor. Were we +directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon +want bread. It is by this partition of cares, descending in +gradation from general to particular, that the mass of human affairs +may be best managed for the good and prosperity of all. I repeat +that I do not charge the judges with wilful and ill-intentioned +error; but honest error must be arrested where it's toleration leads +to public ruin. As, for the safety of society, we commit honest +maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench, +whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may indeed +injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which +is the first and supreme law. In the impeachment of judge Pickering +of New Hampshire, a habitual & maniac drunkard, no defence was made. +Had there been, the party vote of more than one third of the Senate +would have acquitted him. + + (* 10) In the impeachment of judge Pickering of New Hampsire, a +habitual & maniac drunkard, no defence was made. Had there been, the +party vote of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted +him. + + Among the debilities of the government of the Confederation, no +one was more distinguished or more distressing than the utter +impossibility of obtaining, from the states, the monies necessary for +the payment of debts, or even for the ordinary expenses of the +government. Some contributed a little, some less, & some nothing, +and the last furnished at length an excuse for the first to do +nothing also. Mr. Adams, while residing at the Hague, had a general +authority to borrow what sums might be requisite for ordinary & +necessary expenses. Interest on the public debt, and the maintenance +of the diplomatic establishment in Europe, had been habitually +provided in this way. He was now elected Vice President of the U. S. +was soon to return to America, and had referred our bankers to me for +future councel on our affairs in their hands. But I had no powers, +no instructions, no means, and no familiarity with the subject. It +had always been exclusively under his management, except as to +occasional and partial deposits in the hands of Mr. Grand, banker in +Paris, for special and local purposes. These last had been exhausted +for some time, and I had fervently pressed the Treasury board to +replenish this particular deposit; as Mr. Grand now refused to make +further advances. They answered candidly that no funds could be +obtained until the new government should get into action, and have +time to make it's arrangements. Mr. Adams had received his +appointment to the court of London while engaged at Paris, with Dr. +Franklin and myself, in the negotiations under our joint commissions. +He had repaired thence to London, without returning to the Hague to +take leave of that government. He thought it necessary however to do +so now, before he should leave Europe, and accordingly went there. I +learned his departure from London by a letter from Mrs. Adams +received on the very day on which he would arrive at the Hague. A +consultation with him, & some provision for the future was +indispensable, while we could yet avail ourselves of his powers. For +when they would be gone, we should be without resource. I was daily +dunned by a company who had formerly made a small loan to the U S. +the principal of which was now become due; and our bankers in +Amsterdam had notified me that the interest on our general debt would +be expected in June; that if we failed to pay it, it would be deemed +an act of bankruptcy and would effectually destroy the credit of the +U S. and all future prospect of obtaining money there; that the loan +they had been authorized to open, of which a third only was filled, +and now ceased to get forward, and rendered desperate that hope of +resource. I saw that there was not a moment to lose, and set out for +the Hague on the 2d. morning after receiving the information of Mr. +Adams's journey. I went the direct road by Louvres, Senlis, Roye, +Pont St. Maxence, Bois le duc, Gournay, Peronne, Cambray, Bouchain, +Valenciennes, Mons, Bruxelles, Malines, Antwerp, Mordick, and +Rotterdam, to the Hague, where I happily found Mr. Adams. He +concurred with me at once in opinion that something must be done, and +that we ought to risk ourselves on doing it without instructions, to +save the credit of the U S. We foresaw that before the new +government could be adopted, assembled, establish it's financial +system, get the money into the treasury, and place it in Europe, +considerable time would elapse; that therefore we had better provide +at once for the years 88. 89. & 90. in order to place our government +at it's ease, and our credit in security, during that trying +interval. We set out therefore by the way of Leyden for Amsterdam, +where we arrived on the 10th. I had prepared an estimate showing +that + + Florins. + there would be necessary for the year 88 -- 531,937 -- 10 + 89 -- 538,540 + 90 -- 473,540 + -------------------- + Total, 1,544,017 -- 10 + Flor. + + to meet this the bankers had in hand 79,268 -- 2 -- 8 + & the unsold bonds would yield 542,800 622,068 -- 2 -- 8 + -------- ----------------- + we proposed then to borrow a million yielding. . . 900,000 + ----------------- + which would leave a small deficiency of. . . . . . 1,949 -- 7 -- 4 + + Mr. Adams accordingly executed 1000. bonds, for 1000. florins +each, and deposited them in the hands of our bankers, with +instructions however not to issue them until Congress should ratify +the measure. This done, he returned to London, and I set out for +Paris; and as nothing urgent forbade it, I determined to return along +the banks of the Rhine to Strasburg, and thence strike off to Paris. +I accordingly left Amsterdam on the 30th of March, and proceeded by +Utrecht, Nimeguen, Cleves, Duysberg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonne, +Coblentz, Nassau, Hocheim, Frankfort, & made an excursion to Hanau, +thence to Mayence and another excursion to Rude-sheim, & Johansberg; +then by Oppenheim, Worms, and Manheim, and an excursion to +Heidelberg, then by Spire, Carlsruh, Rastadt & Kelh, to Strasburg, +where I arrived Apr. 16th, and proceeded again on the 18th, by +Phalsbourg, Fenestrange, Dieuze, Moyenvie, Nancy, Toul, Ligny, +Barleduc, St. Diziers, Vitry, Chalons sur Marne, Epernay, Chateau +Thierri, Meaux, to Paris where I arrived on the 23d. of April; and I +had the satisfaction to reflect that by this journey our credit was +secured, the new government was placed at ease for two years to come, +and that as well as myself were relieved from the torment of +incessant duns, whose just complaints could not be silenced by any +means within our power. + + A Consular Convention had been agreed on in 84. between Dr. +Franklin and the French government containing several articles so +entirely inconsistent with the laws of the several states, and the +general spirit of our citizens, that Congress withheld their +ratification, and sent it back to me with instructions to get those +articles expunged or modified so as to render them compatible with +our laws. The minister retired unwillingly from these concessions, +which indeed authorized the exercise of powers very offensive in a +free state. After much discussion it was reformed in a considerable +degree, and the Convention was signed by the Count Montmorin and +myself, on the 14th. of Nov. 88 not indeed such as I would have +wished; but such as could be obtained with good humor & friendship. + + On my return from Holland, I had found Paris still in high +fermentation as I had left it. Had the Archbishop, on the close of +the assembly of Notables, immediately carried into operation the +measures contemplated, it was believed they would all have been +registered by the parliament, but he was slow, presented his edicts, +one after another, & at considerable intervals of time, which gave +time for the feelings excited by the proceedings of the Notables to +cool off, new claims to be advanced, and a pressure to arise for a +fixed constitution, not subject to changes at the will of the King. +Nor should we wonder at this pressure when we consider the monstrous +abuses of power under which this people were ground to powder, when +we pass in review the weight of their taxes, and inequality of their +distribution; the oppressions of the tythes, of the tailles, the +corvees, the gabelles, the farms & barriers; the shackles on Commerce +by monopolies; on Industry by gilds & corporations; on the freedom of +conscience, of thought, and of speech; on the Press by the Censure; +and of person by lettres de Cachet; the cruelty of the criminal code +generally, the atrocities of the Rack, the venality of judges, and +their partialities to the rich; the Monopoly of Military honors by +the Noblesse; the enormous expenses of the Queen, the princes & the +Court; the prodigalities of pensions; & the riches, luxury, indolence +& immorality of the clergy. Surely under such a mass of misrule and +oppression, a people might justly press for a thoro' reformation, and +might even dismount their rough-shod riders, & leave them to walk on +their own legs. The edicts relative to the corvees & free +circulation of grain, were first presented to the parliament and +registered. But those for the impot territorial, & stamp tax, +offered some time after, were refused by the parliament, which +proposed a call of the States General as alone competent to their +authorization. Their refusal produced a Bed of justice, and their +exile to Troyes. The advocates however refusing to attend them, a +suspension in the administration of justice took place. The +Parliament held out for awhile, but the ennui of their exile and +absence from Paris begun at length to be felt, and some dispositions +for compromise to appear. On their consent therefore to prolong some +of the former taxes, they were recalled from exile, the King met them +in session Nov. 19. 87. promised to call the States General in the +year 92. and a majority expressed their assent to register an edict +for successive and annual loans from 1788. to 92. But a protest +being entered by the Duke of Orleans and this encouraging others in a +disposition to retract, the King ordered peremptorily the registry of +the edict, and left the assembly abruptly. The parliament +immediately protested that the votes for the enregistry had not been +legally taken, and that they gave no sanction to the loans proposed. +This was enough to discredit and defeat them. Hereupon issued +another edict for the establishment of a cour pleniere, and the +suspension of all the parliaments in the kingdom. This being opposed +as might be expected by reclamations from all the parliaments & +provinces, the King gave way and by an edict of July 5. 88 renounced +his cour pleniere, & promised the States General for the 1st. of May +of the ensuing year: and the Archbishop finding the times beyond his +faculties, accepted the promise of a Cardinal's hat, was removed +[Sep. 88] from the ministry, and Mr. Necker was called to the +department of finance. The innocent rejoicings of the people of Paris +on this change provoked the interference of an officer of the city +guards, whose order for their dispersion not being obeyed, he charged +them with fixed bayonets, killed two or three, and wounded many. +This dispersed them for the moment; but they collected the next day +in great numbers, burnt 10. or 12. guard houses, killed two or three +of the guards, & lost 6. or 8. more of their own number. The city was +hereupon put under martial law, and after awhile the tumult subsided. +The effect of this change of ministers, and the promise of the States +General at an early day, tranquillized the nation. But two great +questions now occurred. 1. What proportion shall the number of +deputies of the tiers etat bear to those of the Nobles and Clergy? +And 2. shall they sit in the same, or in distinct apartments? Mr. +Necker, desirous of avoiding himself these knotty questions, proposed +a second call of the same Notables, and that their advice should be +asked on the subject. They met Nov. 9. 88. and, by five bureaux +against one, they recommended the forms of the States General of +1614. wherein the houses were separate, and voted by orders, not by +persons. But the whole nation declaring at once against this, and +that the tiers etat should be, in numbers, equal to both the other +orders, and the Parliament deciding for the same proportion, it was +determined so to be, by a declaration of Dec. 27. 88. A Report of +Mr. Necker to the King, of about the same date, contained other very +important concessions. 1. That the King could neither lay a new tax, +nor prolong an old one. 2. It expressed a readiness to agree on the +periodical meeting of the States. 3. To consult on the necessary +restriction on lettres de Cachet. And 4. how far the Press might be +made free. 5. It admits that the States are to appropriate the +public money; and 6. that Ministers shall be responsible for public +expenditures. And these concessions came from the very heart of the +King. He had not a wish but for the good of the nation, and for that +object no personal sacrifice would ever have cost him a moment's +regret. But his mind was weakness itself, his constitution timid, +his judgment null, and without sufficient firmness even to stand by +the faith of his word. His Queen too, haughty and bearing no +contradiction, had an absolute ascendency over him; and around her +were rallied the King's brother d'Artois, the court generally, and +the aristocratic part of his ministers, particularly Breteuil, +Broglio, Vauguyon, Foulon, Luzerne, men whose principles of +government were those of the age of Louis XIV. Against this host the +good counsels of Necker, Montmorin, St. Priest, altho' in unison with +the wishes of the King himself, were of little avail. The +resolutions of the morning formed under their advice, would be +reversed in the evening by the influence of the Queen & court. But +the hand of heaven weighed heavily indeed on the machinations of this +junto; producing collateral incidents, not arising out of the case, +yet powerfully co-exciting the nation to force a regeneration of it's +government, and overwhelming with accumulated difficulties this +liberticide resistance. For, while laboring under the want of money +for even ordinary purposes, in a government which required a million +of livres a day, and driven to the last ditch by the universal call +for liberty, there came on a winter of such severe cold, as was +without example in the memory of man, or in the written records of +history. The Mercury was at times 50;dg below the freezing point of +Fahrenheit and 22;dg below that of Reaumur. All out-door labor was +suspended, and the poor, without the wages of labor, were of course +without either bread or fuel. The government found it's necessities +aggravated by that of procuring immense quantities of fire-wood, and +of keeping great fires at all the cross-streets, around which the +people gathered in crowds to avoid perishing with cold. Bread too +was to be bought, and distributed daily gratis, until a relax-ation +of the season should enable the people to work: and the slender stock +of bread-stuff had for some time threatened famine, and had raised +that article to an enormous price. So great indeed was the scarcity +of bread that from the highest to the lowest citizen, the bakers were +permitted to deal but a scanty allowance per head, even to those who +paid for it; and in cards of invitation to dine in the richest +houses, the guest was notified to bring his own bread. To eke out +the existence of the people, every person who had the means, was +called on for a weekly subscription, which the Cures collected and +employed in providing messes for the nourishment of the poor, and +vied with each other in devising such economical compositions of food +as would subsist the greatest number with the smallest means. This +want of bread had been foreseen for some time past and M. de +Montmorin had desired me to notify it in America, and that, in +addition to the market price, a premium should be given on what +should be brought from the U S. Notice was accordingly given and +produced considerable supplies. Subsequent information made the +importations from America, during the months of March, April & May, +into the Atlantic ports of France, amount to about 21,000 barrels of +flour, besides what went to other ports, and in other months, while +our supplies to their West-Indian islands relieved them also from +that drain. This distress for bread continued till July. + + Hitherto no acts of popular violence had been produced by the +struggle for political reformation. Little riots, on ordinary +incidents, had taken place, as at other times, in different parts of +the kingdom, in which some lives, perhaps a dozen or twenty, had been +lost, but in the month of April a more serious one occurred in Paris, +unconnected indeed with the revolutionary principle, but making part +of the history of the day. The Fauxbourg St. Antoine is a quarter of +the city inhabited entirely by the class of day-laborers and +journeymen in every line. A rumor was spread among them that a great +paper manufacturer, of the name of Reveillon, had proposed, on some +occasion, that their wages should be lowered to 15 sous a day. +Inflamed at once into rage, & without inquiring into it's truth, they +flew to his house in vast numbers, destroyed everything in it, and in +his magazines & work shops, without secreting however a pin's worth +to themselves, and were continuing this work of devastation when the +regular troops were called in. Admonitions being disregarded, they +were of necessity fired on, and a regular action ensued, in which +about 100. of them were killed, before the rest would disperse. +There had rarely passed a year without such a riot in some part or +other of the Kingdom; and this is distinguished only as cotemporary +with the revolution, altho' not produced by it. + + The States General were opened on the 5th. of May 89. by +speeches from the King, the Garde des Sceaux Lamoignon, and Mr. +Necker. The last was thought to trip too lightly over the +constitutional reformations which were expected. His notices of them +in this speech were not as full as in his previous `Rapport au Roi.' +This was observed to his disadvantage. But much allowance should +have been made for the situation in which he was placed between his +own counsels, and those of the ministers and party of the court. +Overruled in his own opinions, compelled to deliver, and to gloss +over those of his opponents, and even to keep their secrets, he could +not come forward in his own attitude. + + The composition of the assembly, altho' equivalent on the whole +to what had been expected, was something different in it's elements. +It has been supposed that a superior education would carry into the +scale of the Commons a respectable portion of the Noblesse. It did +so as to those of Paris, of it's vicinity and of the other +considerable cities, whose greater intercourse with enlightened +society had liberalized their minds, and prepared them to advance up +to the measure of the times. But the Noblesse of the country, which +constituted two thirds of that body, were far in their rear. +Residing constantly on their patrimonial feuds, and familiarized by +daily habit with Seigneurial powers and practices, they had not yet +learned to suspect their inconsistence with reason and right. They +were willing to submit to equality of taxation, but not to descend +from their rank and prerogatives to be incorporated in session with +the tiers etat. Among the clergy, on the other hand, it had been +apprehended that the higher orders of the hierarchy, by their wealth +and connections, would have carried the elections generally. But it +proved that in most cases the lower clergy had obtained the popular +majorities. These consisted of the Cures, sons of the peasantry who +had been employed to do all the drudgery of parochial services for +10. 20. or 30 Louis a year; while their superiors were consuming +their princely revenues in palaces of luxury & indolence. + + The objects for which this body was convened being of the first +order of importance, I felt it very interesting to understand the +views of the parties of which it was composed, and especially the +ideas prevalent as to the organization contemplated for their +government. I went therefore daily from Paris to Versailles, and +attended their debates, generally till the hour of adjournment. +Those of the Noblesse were impassioned and tempestuous. They had +some able men on both sides, and actuated by equal zeal. The debates +of the Commons were temperate, rational and inflexibly firm. As +preliminary to all other business, the awful questions came on, Shall +the States sit in one, or in distinct apartments? And shall they +vote by heads or houses? The opposition was soon found to consist of +the Episcopal order among the clergy, and two thirds of the Noblesse; +while the tiers etat were, to a man, united and determined. After +various propositions of compromise had failed, the Commons undertook +to cut the Gordian knot. The Abbe Sieyes, the most logical head of +the nation, (author of the pamphlet Qu'est ce que le tiers etat? +which had electrified that country, as Paine's Common sense did us) +after an impressive speech on the 10th of June, moved that a last +invitation should be sent to the Nobles and Clergy, to attend in the +Hall of the States, collectively or individually for the verification +of powers, to which the commons would proceed immediately, either in +their presence or absence. This verification being finished, a +motion was made, on the 15th. that they should constitute themselves +a National assembly; which was decided on the 17th. by a majority of +four fifths. During the debates on this question, about twenty of +the Cures had joined them, and a proposition was made in the chamber +of the clergy that their whole body should join them. This was +rejected at first by a small majority only; but, being afterwards +somewhat modified, it was decided affirmatively, by a majority of +eleven. While this was under debate and unknown to the court, to +wit, on the 19th. a council was held in the afternoon at Marly, +wherein it was proposed that the King should interpose by a +declaration of his sentiments, in a _seance royale._ A form of +declaration was proposed by Necker, which, while it censured in +general the proceedings both of the Nobles and Commons, announced the +King's views, such as substantially to coincide with the Commons. It +was agreed to in council, the _seance_ was fixed for the 22d. the +meetings of the States were till then to be suspended, and +everything, in the meantime, kept secret. The members the next +morning (20th.) repairing to their house as usual, found the doors +shut and guarded, a proclamation posted up for a seance royale on the +22d. and a suspension of their meetings in the meantime. Concluding +that their dissolution was now to take place, they repaired to a +building called the "Jeu de paume" (or Tennis court) and there bound +themselves by oath to each other, never to separate of their own +accord, till they had settled a constitution for the nation, on a +solid basis, and if separated by force, that they would reassemble in +some other place. The next day they met in the church of St. Louis, +and were joined by a majority of the clergy. The heads of the +Aristocracy saw that all was lost without some bold exertion. The +King was still at Marly. Nobody was permitted to approach him but +their friends. He was assailed by falsehoods in all shapes. He was +made to believe that the Commons were about to absolve the army from +their oath of fidelity to him, and to raise their pay. The court +party were now all rage and desperate. They procured a committee to +be held consisting of the King and his ministers, to which Monsieur & +the Count d'Artois should be admitted. At this committee the latter +attacked Mr. Necker personally, arraigned his declaration, and +proposed one which some of his prompters had put into his hands. Mr. +Necker was brow-beaten and intimidated, and the King shaken. He +determined that the two plans should be deliberated on the next day +and the seance royale put off a day longer. This encouraged a +fiercer attack on Mr. Necker the next day. His draught of a +declaration was entirely broken up, & that of the Count d'Artois +inserted into it. Himself and Montmorin offered their resignation, +which was refused, the Count d'Artois saying to Mr. Necker "No sir, +you must be kept as the hostage; we hold you responsible for all the +ill which shall happen." This change of plan was immediately +whispered without doors. The Noblesse were in triumph; the people in +consternation. I was quite alarmed at this state of things. The +soldiery had not yet indicated which side they should take, and that +which they should support would be sure to prevail. I considered a +successful reformation of government in France, as ensuring a general +reformation thro Europe, and the resurrection, to a new life, of +their people, now ground to dust by the abuses of the governing +powers. I was much acquainted with the leading patriots of the +assembly. Being from a country which had successfully passed thro' a +similar reformation, they were disposed to my acquaintance, and had +some confidence in me. I urged most strenuously an immediate +compromise; to secure what the government was now ready to yield, and +trust to future occasions for what might still be wanting. It was +well understood that the King would grant at this time 1. Freedom of +the person by Habeas corpus. 2. Freedom of conscience. 3. Freedom +of the press. 4. Trial by jury. 5. A representative legislature. +6. Annual meetings. 7. The origination of laws. 8. The exclusive +right of taxation and appropriation. And 9. The responsibility of +ministers; and with the exercise of these powers they would obtain in +future whatever might be further necessary to improve and preserve +their constitution. They thought otherwise however, and events have +proved their lamentable error. For after 30. years of war, foreign +and domestic, the loss of millions of lives, the prostration of +private happiness, and foreign subjugation of their own country for a +time, they have obtained no more, nor even that securely. They were +unconscious of (for who could foresee?) the melancholy sequel of +their well-meant perseverance; that their physical force would be +usurped by a first tyrant to trample on the independance, and even +the existence, of other nations: that this would afford fatal example +for the atrocious conspiracy of Kings against their people; would +generate their unholy and homicide alliance to make common cause +among themselves, and to crush, by the power of the whole, the +efforts of any part, to moderate their abuses and oppressions. + + When the King passed, the next day, thro' the lane formed from +the Chateau to the Hotel des etats, there was a dead silence. He was +about an hour in the House delivering his speech & declaration. On +his coming out a feeble cry of "Vive le Roy" was raised by some +children, but the people remained silent & sullen. In the close of +his speech he had ordered that the members should follow him, & +resume their deliberations the next day. The Noblesse followed him, +and so did the clergy, except about thirty, who, with the tiers, +remained in the room, and entered into deliberation. They protested +against what the King had done, adhered to all their former +proceedings, and resolved the inviolability of their own persons. An +officer came to order them out of the room in the King's name. "Tell +those who sent you, said Mirabeau, that we shall not move hence but +at our own will, or the point of the bayonet." In the afternoon the +people, uneasy, began to assemble in great numbers in the courts, and +vicinities of the palace. This produced alarm. The Queen sent for +Mr. Necker. He was conducted amidst the shouts and acclamations of +the multitude who filled all the apartments of the palace. He was a +few minutes only with the queen, and what passed between them did not +transpire. The King went out to ride. He passed thro' the crowd to +his carriage and into it, without being in the least noticed. As Mr. +Neckar followed him universal acclamations were raised of "vive +Monsr. Neckar, vive le sauveur de la France opprimee." He was +conducted back to his house with the same demonstrations of affection +and anxiety. About 200. deputies of the Tiers, catching the +enthusiasm of the moment, went to his house, and extorted from him a +promise that he would not resign. On the 25th. 48. of the Nobles +joined the tiers, & among them the D. of Orleans. There were then +with them 164 members of the Clergy, altho' the minority of that body +still sat apart & called themselves the chamber of the clergy. On +the 26th. the Archbp. of Paris joined the tiers, as did some others +of the clergy and of the Noblesse. + + These proceedings had thrown the people into violent ferment. +It gained the souldiery, first of the French guards, extended to +those of every other denomination, except the Swiss, and even to the +body guards of the King. They began to quit their barracks, to +assemble in squads, to declare they would defend the life of the +King, but would not be the murderers of their fellow-citizens. They +called themselves the souldiers _of the nation_, and left now no +doubt on which side they would be, in case of rupture. Similar +accounts came in from the troops in other parts of the kingdom, +giving good reason to believe they would side with their fathers and +brothers rather than with their officers. The operation of this +medicine at Versailles was as sudden as it was powerful. The alarm +there was so compleat that in the afternoon of the 27th. the King +wrote with his own hand letters to the Presidents of the clergy and +Nobles, engaging them immediately to join the Tiers. These two +bodies were debating & hesitating when notes from the Ct. d'Artois +decided their compliance. They went in a body and took their seats +with the tiers, and thus rendered the union of the orders in one +chamber compleat. + + The Assembly now entered on the business of their mission, and +first proceeded to arrange the order in which they would take up the +heads of their constitution, as follows: + + First, and as Preliminary to the whole a general Declaration of +the Rights of Man. Then specifically the Principles of the Monarchy; +rights of the Nation; rights of the King; rights of the citizens; +organization & rights of the National assembly; forms necessary for +the enactment of laws; organization & functions of the provincial & +municipal assemblies; duties and limits of the Judiciary power; +functions & duties of the military power. + + A declaration of the rights of man, as the preliminary of their +work, was accordingly prepared and proposed by the Marquis de la +Fayette. + + But the quiet of their march was soon disturbed by information +that troops, and particularly the foreign troops, were advancing on +Paris from various quarters. The King had been probably advised to +this on the pretext of preserving peace in Paris. But his advisers +were believed to have other things in contemplation. The Marshal de +Broglio was appointed to their command, a high flying aristocrat, +cool and capable of everything. Some of the French guards were soon +arrested, under other pretexts, but really on account of their +dispositions in favor of the National cause. The people of Paris +forced their prison, liberated them, and sent a deputation to the +Assembly to solicit a pardon. The Assembly recommended peace and +order to the people of Paris, the prisoners to the king, and asked +from him the removal of the troops. His answer was negative and dry, +saying they might remove themselves, if they pleased, to Noyons or +Soissons. In the meantime these troops, to the number of twenty or +thirty thousand, had arrived and were posted in, and between Paris +and Versailles. The bridges and passes were guarded. At three +o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th July the Count de la Luzerne was +sent to notify Mr. Neckar of his dismission, and to enjoin him to +retire instantly without saying a word of it to anybody. He went +home, dined, and proposed to his wife a visit to a friend, but went +in fact to his country house at St. Ouen, and at midnight set out for +Brussels. This was not known until the next day, 12th when the whole +ministry was changed, except Villedeuil, of the Domestic department, +and Barenton, Garde des sceaux. The changes were as follows. + + The Baron de Breteuil, president of the council of finance; de +la Galaisiere, Comptroller general in the room of Mr. Neckar; the +Marshal de Broglio, minister of War, & Foulon under him in the room +of Puy-Segur; the Duke de la Vauguyon, minister of foreign affairs +instead of the Ct. de Montmorin; de La Porte, minister of Marine, in +place of the Ct. de la Luzerne; St. Priest was also removed from the +council. Luzerne and Puy-Segur had been strongly of the Aristocratic +party in the Council, but they were not considered as equal to the +work now to be done. The King was now compleatly in the hands of +men, the principal among whom had been noted thro' their lives for +the Turkish despotism of their characters, and who were associated +around the King as proper instruments for what was to be executed. +The news of this change began to be known at Paris about 1. or 2. +o'clock. In the afternoon a body of about 100 German cavalry were +advanced and drawn up in the Place Louis XV. and about 200. Swiss +posted at a little distance in their rear. This drew people to the +spot, who thus accidentally found themselves in front of the troops, +merely at first as spectators; but as their numbers increased, their +indignation rose. They retired a few steps, and posted themselves on +and behind large piles of stones, large and small, collected in that +Place for a bridge which was to be built adjacent to it. In this +position, happening to be in my carriage on a visit, I passed thro' +the lane they had formed, without interruption. But the moment after +I had passed, the people attacked the cavalry with stones. They +charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers +of stones obliged the horse to retire, and quit the field altogether, +leaving one of their number on the ground, & the Swiss in their rear +not moving to their aid. This was the signal for universal +insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred, +retired towards Versailles. The people now armed themselves with +such weapons as they could find in armorer's shops and private +houses, and with bludgeons, and were roaming all night thro' all +parts of the city, without any decided object. The next day (13th.) +the assembly pressed on the king to send away the troops, to permit +the Bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the preservation of order in the +city, and offer to send a deputation from their body to tranquillize +them; but their propositions were refused. A committee of +magistrates and electors of the city are appointed by those bodies to +take upon them it's government. The people, now openly joined by the +French guards, force the prison of St. Lazare, release all the +prisoners, and take a great store of corn, which they carry to the +Corn-market. Here they get some arms, and the French guards begin to +form & train them. The City-committee determined to raise 48.000. +Bourgeoise, or rather to restrain their numbers to 48.000. On the +14th. they send one of their members (Mons. de Corny) to the Hotel +des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde-Bourgeoise. He was +followed by, and he found there a great collection of people. The +Governor of the Invalids came out and represented the impossibility +of his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he +received them. De Corny advised the people then to retire, and +retired himself; but the people took possession of the arms. It was +remarkable that not only the Invalids themselves made no opposition, +but that a body of 5000. foreign troops, within 400. yards, never +stirred. M. de Corny and five others were then sent to ask arms of +M. de Launay, governor of the Bastile. They found a great collection +of people already before the place, and they immediately planted a +flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on the +Parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a +little, advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and +in that instant a discharge from the Bastile killed four persons, of +those nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired. I happened to +be at the house of M. de Corny when he returned to it, and received +from him a narrative of these transactions. On the retirement of the +deputies, the people rushed forward & almost in an instant were in +possession of a fortification defended by 100. men, of infinite +strength, which in other times had stood several regular sieges, and +had never been taken. How they forced their entrance has never been +explained. They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and +such of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury, +carried the Governor and Lt. Governor to the Place de Greve (the +place of public execution) cut off their heads, and sent them thro' +the city in triumph to the Palais royal. About the same instant a +treacherous correspondence having been discovered in M. de +Flesselles, prevot des marchands, they seized him in the Hotel de +Ville where he was in the execution of his office, and cut off his +head. These events carried imperfectly to Versailles were the +subject of two successive deputations from the assembly to the king, +to both of which he gave dry and hard answers for nobody had as yet +been permitted to inform him truly and fully of what had passed at +Paris. But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the +king's bed chamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated +detail of the disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed +fearfully impressed. The decapitation of de Launai worked powerfully +thro' the night on the whole aristocratic party, insomuch that, in +the morning, those of the greatest influence on the Count d'Artois +represented to him the absolute necessity that the king should give +up everything to the Assembly. This according with the dispositions +of the king, he went about 11. o'clock, accompanied only by his +brothers, to the Assembly, & there read to them a speech, in which he +asked their interposition to re-establish order. Altho' couched in +terms of some caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made +it evident that it was meant as a surrender at discretion. He +returned to the Chateau afoot, accompanied by the assembly. They +sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of which was the +Marquis de la Fayette who had, the same morning, been named +Commandant en chef of the Milice Bourgeoise, and Mons Bailly, former +President of the States General, was called for as Prevot des +marchands. The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun. +A body of the Swiss guards of the regiment of Ventimille, and the +city horse guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles +increased. The foreign troops were ordered off instantly. Every +minister resigned. The king confirmed Bailly as Prevot des +Marchands, wrote to Mr. Neckar to recall him, sent his letter open to +the assembly, to be forwarded by them, and invited them to go with +him to Paris the next day, to satisfy the city of his dispositions; +and that night, and the next morning the Count D'Artois and M. de +Montesson a deputy connected with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de +Guiche, and the Count de Vaudreuil, favorites of the queen, the Abbe +de Vermont her confessor, the Prince of Conde and Duke of Bourbon +fled. The king came to Paris, leaving the queen in consternation for +his return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, +the king's carriage was in the center, on each side of it the +assembly, in two ranks afoot, at their head the M. de la Fayette, as +Commander-in-chief, on horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and +behind. About 60.000 citizens of all forms and conditions, armed +with the muskets of the Bastile and Invalids, as far as they would +go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes, pruning hooks, scythes &c. +lined all the streets thro' which the procession passed, and with the +crowds of people in the streets, doors & windows, saluted them +everywhere with cries of "vive la nation," but not a single "vive le +roy" was heard. The King landed at the Hotel de Ville. There M. +Bailly presented and put into his hat the popular cockade, and +addressed him. The King being unprepared, and unable to answer, +Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of sentences, and +made out an answer, which he delivered to the audience as from the +king. On their return the popular cries were "vive le roy et la +nation." He was conducted by a garde bourgeoise to his palace at +Versailles, & thus concluded an amende honorable as no sovereign ever +made, and no people ever received. + + And here again was lost another precious occasion of sparing to +France the crimes and cruelties thro' which she has since passed, and +to Europe, & finally America the evils which flowed on them also from +this mortal source. The king was now become a passive machine in the +hands of the National assembly, and had he been left to himself, he +would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as +best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been formed, +hereditary in his line, himself placed at it's head, with powers so +large as to enable him to do all the good of his station, and so +limited as to restrain him from it's abuse. This he would have +faithfully administered, and more than this I do not believe he ever +wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind, and +timid virtue; and of a character the reverse of his in all points. +This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of the Rhetor Burke, +with some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense was proud, +disdainful of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, +eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her +desires, or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and +dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois and others of her +clique, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury, +which called into action the reforming hand of the nation; and her +opposition to it her inflexible perverseness, and dauntless spirit, +led herself to the Guillotine, & drew the king on with her, and +plunged the world into crimes & calamities which will forever stain +the pages of modern history. I have ever believed that had there +been no queen, there would have been no revolution. No force would +have been provoked nor exercised. The king would have gone hand in +hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the +increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to +advance the principles of their social institution. The deed which +closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve +nor condemn. I am not prepared to say that the first magistrate of a +nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable to +it's punishment: nor yet that where there is no written law, no +regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in +our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and +redressing wrong. Of those who judged the king, many thought him +wilfully criminal, many that his existence would keep the nation in +perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a +regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were +better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with +this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the Queen in +a Convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the king in his +station, investing him with limited powers, which I verily believe he +would have honestly exercised, according to the measure of his +understanding. In this way no void would have been created, courting +the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given for those +enormities which demoralized the nations of the world, and destroyed, +and is yet to destroy millions and millions of it's inhabitants. +There are three epochs in history signalized by the total extinction +of national morality. The first was of the successors of Alexander, +not omitting himself. The next the successors of the first Caesar, +the third our own age. This was begun by the partition of Poland, +followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz; next the conflagration of +Copenhagen; then the enormities of Bonaparte partitioning the earth +at his will, and devastating it with fire and sword; now the +conspiracy of kings, the successors of Bonaparte, blasphemously +calling themselves the Holy Alliance, and treading in the footsteps +of their incarcerated leader, not yet indeed usurping the government +of other nations avowedly and in detail, but controuling by their +armies the forms in which they will permit them to be governed; and +reserving in petto the order and extent of the usurpations further +meditated. But I will return from a digression, anticipated too in +time, into which I have been led by reflection on the criminal +passions which refused to the world a favorable occasion of saving it +from the afflictions it has since suffered. + + M. Necker had reached Basle before he was overtaken by the +letter of the king, inviting him back to resume the office he had +recently left. He returned immediately, and all the other ministers +having resigned, a new administration was named, to wit St. Priest & +Montmorin were restored; the Archbishop of Bordeaux was appointed +Garde des sceaux; La Tour du Pin Minister of War; La Luzerne Minister +of Marine. This last was believed to have been effected by the +friendship of Montmorin; for altho' differing in politics, they +continued firm in friendship, & Luzerne, altho' not an able man was +thought an honest one. And the Prince of Bauvau was taken into the +Council. + + Seven princes of the blood royal, six ex-ministers, and many of +the high Noblesse having fled, and the present ministers, except +Luzerne, being all of the popular party, all the functionaries of +government moved for the present in perfect harmony. + + In the evening of Aug. 4. and on the motion of the Viscount de +Noailles brother in law of La Fayette, the assembly abolished all +titles of rank, all the abusive privileges of feudalism, the tythes +and casuals of the clergy, all provincial privileges, and, in fine, +the Feudal regimen generally. To the suppression of tythes the Abbe +Sieyes was vehemently opposed; but his learned and logical arguments +were unheeded, and his estimation lessened by a contrast of his +egoism (for he was beneficed on them) with the generous abandonment +of rights by the other members of the assembly. Many days were +employed in putting into the form of laws the numerous demolitions of +ancient abuses; which done, they proceeded to the preliminary work of +a Declaration of rights. There being much concord of sentiment on +the elements of this instrument, it was liberally framed, and passed +with a very general approbation. They then appointed a Committee for +the reduction of a projet of a Constitution, at the head of which was +the Archbishop of Bordeaux. I received from him, as Chairman of the +Committee a letter of July 20. requesting me to attend and assist at +their deliberations; but I excused myself on the obvious +considerations that my mission was to the king as Chief Magistrate of +the nation, that my duties were limited to the concerns of my own +country, and forbade me to intermeddle with the internal transactions +of that in which I had been received under a specific character only. +Their plan of a constitution was discussed in sections, and so +reported from time to time, as agreed to by the Committee. The first +respected the general frame of the government; and that this should +be formed into three departments, Executive, Legislative and +Judiciary was generally agreed. But when they proceeded to +subordinate developments, many and various shades of opinion came +into conflict, and schism, strongly marked, broke the Patriots into +fragments of very discordant principles. The first question Whether +there should be a king, met with no open opposition, and it was +readily agreed that the government of France should be monarchical & +hereditary. Shall the king have a negative on the laws? shall that +negative be absolute, or suspensive only? Shall there be two +chambers of legislation? or one only? If two, shall one of them be +hereditary? or for life? or for a fixed term? and named by the king? +or elected by the people? These questions found strong differences +of opinion, and produced repulsive combinations among the Patriots. +The Aristocracy was cemented by a common principle of preserving the +ancient regime, or whatever should be nearest to it. Making this +their Polar star, they moved in phalanx, gave preponderance on every +question to the minorities of the Patriots, and always to those who +advocated the least change. The features of the new constitution +were thus assuming a fearful aspect, and great alarm was produced +among the honest patriots by these dissensions in their ranks. In +this uneasy state of things, I received one day a note from the +Marquis de la Fayette, informing me that he should bring a party of +six or eight friends to ask a dinner of me the next day. I assured +him of their welcome. When they arrived, they were La Fayette +himself, Duport, Barnave, Alexander La Meth, Blacon, Mounier, +Maubourg, and Dagout. These were leading patriots, of honest but +differing opinions sensible of the necessity of effecting a coalition +by mutual sacrifices, knowing each other, and not afraid therefore to +unbosom themselves mutually. This last was a material principle in +the selection. With this view the Marquis had invited the conference +and had fixed the time & place inadvertently as to the embarrassment +under which it might place me. The cloth being removed and wine set +on the table, after the American manner, the Marquis introduced the +objects of the conference by summarily reminding them of the state of +things in the Assembly, the course which the principles of the +constitution were taking, and the inevitable result, unless checked +by more concord among the Patriots themselves. He observed that +altho' he also had his opinion, he was ready to sacrifice it to that +of his brethren of the same cause: but that a common opinion must now +be formed, or the Aristocracy would carry everything, and that +whatever they should now agree on, he, at the head of the National +force, would maintain. The discussions began at the hour of four, +and were continued till ten o'clock in the evening; during which time +I was a silent witness to a coolness and candor of argument unusual +in the conflicts of political opinion; to a logical reasoning, and +chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy tinsel of rhetoric or +declamation, and truly worthy of being placed in parallel with the +finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us by Xenophon, by Plato +and Cicero. The result was an agreement that the king should have a +suspensive veto on the laws, that the legislature should be composed +of a single body only, & that to be chosen by the people. This +Concordate decided the fate of the constitution. The Patriots all +rallied to the principles thus settled, carried every question +agreeably to them, and reduced the Aristocracy to insignificance and +impotence. But duties of exculpation were now incumbent on me. I +waited on Count Montmorin the next morning, and explained to him with +truth and candor how it had happened that my house had been made the +scene of conferences of such a character. He told me he already knew +everything which had passed, that, so far from taking umbrage at the +use made of my house on that occasion, he earnestly wished I would +habitually assist at such conferences, being sure I should be useful +in moderating the warmer spirits, and promoting a wholesome and +practicable reformation only. I told him I knew too well the duties +I owed to the king, to the nation, and to my own country to take any +part in councils concerning their internal government, and that I +should persevere with care in the character of a neutral and passive +spectator, with wishes only and very sincere ones, that those +measures might prevail which would be for the greatest good of the +nation. I have no doubt indeed that this conference was previously +known and approved by this honest minister, who was in confidence and +communication with the patriots, and wished for a reasonable reform +of the Constitution. + + Here I discontinue my relation of the French revolution. The +minuteness with which I have so far given it's details is +disproportioned to the general scale of my narrative. But I have +thought it justified by the interest which the whole world must take +in this revolution. As yet we are but in the first chapter of it's +history. The appeal to the rights of man, which had been made in the +U S. was taken up by France, first of the European nations. From her +the spirit has spread over those of the South. The tyrants of the +North have allied indeed against it, but it is irresistible. Their +opposition will only multiply it's millions of human victims; their +own satellites will catch it, and the condition of man thro' the +civilized world will be finally and greatly ameliorated. This is a +wonderful instance of great events from small causes. So inscrutable +is the arrangement of causes & consequences in this world that a +two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, +changes the condition of all it's inhabitants. I have been more +minute in relating the early transactions of this regeneration +because I was in circumstances peculiarly favorable for a knowledge +of the truth. Possessing the confidence and intimacy of the leading +patriots, & more than all of the Marquis Fayette, their head and +Atlas, who had no secrets from me, I learnt with correctness the +views & proceedings of that party; while my intercourse with the +diplomatic missionaries of Europe at Paris, all of them with the +court, and eager in prying into it's councils and proceedings, gave +me a knolege of these also. My information was always and +immediately committed to writing, in letters to Mr. Jay, and often to +my friends, and a recurrence to these letters now insures me against +errors of memory. + + These opportunities of information ceased at this period, with +my retirement from this interesting scene of action. I had been more +than a year soliciting leave to go home with a view to place my +daughters in the society & care of their friends, and to return for a +short time to my station at Paris. But the metamorphosis thro' which +our government was then passing from it's Chrysalid to it's Organic +form suspended it's action in a great degree; and it was not till the +last of August that I received the permission I had asked. -- And +here I cannot leave this great and good country without expressing my +sense of it's preeminence of character among the nations of the +earth. A more benevolent people, I have never known, nor greater +warmth & devotedness in their select friendships. Their kindness and +accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of +Paris is beyond anything I had conceived to be practicable in a large +city. Their eminence too in science, the communicative dispositions +of their scientific men, the politeness of the general manners, the +ease and vivacity of their conversation, give a charm to their +society to be found nowhere else. In a comparison of this with other +countries we have the proof of primacy, which was given to +Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Every general voted to +himself the first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles. +So ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, In what country on +earth would you rather live? -- Certainly in my own, where are all my +friends, my relations, and the earliest & sweetest affections and +recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice? +France. + + On the 26th. of Sep. I left Paris for Havre, where I was +detained by contrary winds until the 8th. of Oct. On that day, and +the 9th. I crossed over to Cowes, where I had engaged the Clermont, +Capt. Colley, to touch for me. She did so, but here again we were +detained by contrary winds until the 22d. when we embarked and landed +at Norfolk on the 23d. of November. On my way home I passed some +days at Eppington in Chesterfield, the residence of my friend and +connection, Mr. Eppes, and, while there, I received a letter from the +President, Genl. Washington, by express, covering an appointment to +be Secretary of State. I received it with real regret. My wish had +been to return to Paris, where I had left my household establishment, +as if there myself, and to see the end of the Revolution, which, I +then thought would be certainly and happily closed in less than a +year. I then meant to return home, to withdraw from Political life, +into which I had been impressed by the circumstances of the times, to +sink into the bosom of my family and friends, and devote myself to +studies more congenial to my mind. In my answer of Dec. 15. I +expressed these dispositions candidly to the President, and my +preference of a return to Paris; but assured him that if it was +believed I could be more useful in the administration of the +government, I would sacrifice my own inclinations without hesitation, +and repair to that destination; this I left to his decision. I +arrived at Monticello on the 23d. of Dec. where I received a second +letter from the President, expressing his continued wish that I +should take my station there, but leaving me still at liberty to +continue in my former office, if I could not reconcile myself to that +now proposed. This silenced my reluctance, and I accepted the new +appointment. + + In the interval of my stay at home my eldest daughter had been +happily married to the eldest son of the Tuckahoe branch of +Randolphs, a young gentleman of genius, science and honorable mind, +who afterwards filled a dignified station in the General Government, +& the most dignified in his own State. I left Monticello on the 1st +of March 1790. for New York. At Philadelphia I called on the +venerable and beloved Franklin. He was then on the bed of sickness +from which he never rose. My recent return from a country in which +he had left so many friends, and the perilous convulsions to which +they had been exposed, revived all his anxieties to know what part +they had taken, what had been their course, and what their fate. He +went over all in succession, with a rapidity and animation almost too +much for his strength. When all his inquiries were satisfied, and a +pause took place, I told him I had learnt with much pleasure that, +since his return to America, he had been occupied in preparing for +the world the history of his own life. I cannot say much of that, +said he; but I will give you a sample of what I shall leave: and he +directed his little grandson (William Bache) who was standing by the +bedside, to hand him a paper from the table to which he pointed. He +did so; and the Doctr. putting it into my hands, desired me to take +it and read it at my leisure. It was about a quire of folio paper, +written in a large and running hand very like his own. I looked into +it slightly, then shut it and said I would accept his permission to +read it and would carefully return it. He said, "no, keep it." Not +certain of his meaning, I again looked into it, folded it for my +pocket, and said again, I would certainly return it. "No," said he, +"keep it." I put it into my pocket, and shortly after took leave of +him. He died on the 17th. of the ensuing month of April; and as I +understood that he had bequeathed all his papers to his grandson +William Temple Franklin, I immediately wrote to Mr. Franklin to +inform him I possessed this paper, which I should consider as his +property, and would deliver to his order. He came on immediately to +New York, called on me for it, and I delivered it to him. As he put +it into his pocket, he said carelessly he had either the original, or +another copy of it, I do not recollect which. This last expression +struck my attention forcibly, and for the first time suggested to me +the thought that Dr. Franklin had meant it as a confidential deposit +in my hands, and that I had done wrong in parting from it. I have +not yet seen the collection he published of Dr. Franklin's works, and +therefore know not if this is among them. I have been told it is +not. It contained a narrative of the negotiations between Dr. +Franklin and the British Ministry, when he was endeavoring to prevent +the contest of arms which followed. The negotiation was brought +about by the intervention of Ld. Howe and his sister, who, I believe, +was called Lady Howe, but I may misremember her title. Ld. Howe +seems to have been friendly to America, and exceedingly anxious to +prevent a rupture. His intimacy with Dr. Franklin, and his position +with the Ministry induced him to undertake a mediation between them; +in which his sister seemed to have been associated. They carried +from one to the other, backwards and forwards, the several +propositions and answers which past, and seconded with their own +intercessions the importance of mutual sacrifices to preserve the +peace & connection of the two countries. I remember that Ld. North's +answers were dry, unyielding, in the spirit of unconditional +submission, and betrayed an absolute indifference to the occurrence +of a rupture; and he said to the mediators distinctly, at last that +"a rebellion was not to be deprecated on the part of Great Britain; +that the confiscations it would produce would provide for many of +their friends." This expression was reported by the mediators to Dr. +Franklin, and indicated so cool and calculated a purpose in the +Ministry, as to render compromise hopeless, and the negotiation was +discontinued. If this is not among the papers published, we ask what +has become of it? I delivered it with my own hands into those of +Temple Franklin. It certainly established views so atrocious in the +British government that it's suppression would to them be worth a +great price. But could the grandson of Dr. Franklin be in such +degree an accomplice in the parricide of the memory of his immortal +grandfather? The suspension for more than 20. years of the general +publication bequeathed and confided to him, produced for awhile hard +suspicions against him: and if at last all are not published, a part +of these suspicions may remain with some. + + I arrived at New York on the 21st. of Mar. where Congress was +in session. + + So far July 29. 21. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/awpp.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/awpp.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dc17c7f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/awpp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ + At What Price Peace + + An Editorial by Robert Hoffman, Editor + The Bear Valley Voice + Big Bear Lake, CA USA + February 23, 1994 + + (c) 1994 - Posted with Permission + + + On Singapore TV last night, the Muppets sang a song urging + toleration among the various types of monsters, a lesson in + which kids here don't need much instruction. This tiny + island, floating in the South China Sea and blown by hot, + wet winds off the Straights of Jahore, is home to 2.5 + million natives and another 3 million foreign workers. + + There are Malays, Tamils, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and + a few other ethnic groups here who live in peace (mostly) + under the watchful eye of a paternalistic government. + Toleration --- of religious, cultural and linguistic + differences --- is not merely a consumation devoutly to + be wished. It is a necessity of life. + + One is struck by this, and by the almost total lack of + violent crime. And one is tempted to wish that America + could be run this well. Until, of course, a deeper look + reveals the cost of peace and relative safety. + + It is illegal in Singapore to chew gum, smoke indoors, spit + anywhere and to fail to flush the toilet. Infractions can + cost you a hefty fine, although we have yet to see any police + patrolling the men's rooms. The penalty for trafficking in + drugs is the ultimate one --- the gallows. Two years ago, a + couple of Australians found out the government was not + kidding about this. + + Those unwise enough to commit crimes are subjected to another + punishment that most Americans would also find cruel and + unusual --- caning. A man who killed a prostitute, rather + inadvertently, got five years --- and 12 strokes. + + If a newspaper publishes something the government takes + exception to, the authorities simply ban it from the stands. + + And the system works. There is no gum on the sidewalk, no + foul smell of smoke in the restaurants, and so far all the + toilets appear to be duly flushed. There are not homeless + beggars squatting on the sidewalks, and if drug addiction + exists, it does so behind tightly closed doors. Newspapers + tow the line. + + The price? An almost tangible lack of jay -- not content- + ment or security, but happiness. These folks are somber + and businesslike. They are dutiful, responsible, frugal, + obedient, compliant, polite --- and humorless. And even + in this sultry tropical setting, the people of Singapore are + as buttoned up and as frightfully modern as a businessman + from Phoenix or a computer nerd from Silicon Valley. + + This may have come from Singapore's history as a Crown + colony --- 150 years under rule from London. The Japanese + arrived one morning on bicycles and rousted the British + garrison (which was, unaccountably, waiting for the invasion + on the wrong sde of the island), and the Singaporeans were + visited with one of the most brutal occupations in history. + In the early '60s, they became their own masters --- flirting + with communism, dallying with Malaysia and Indonesia, and + finally striking out on their own under the heavy-handed but + avuncular leadership of Oxford-educated former prime minister + Lee Kwan Yew. + + The result is a country steeped in Western ways (English is + the dominant language and will be probably forever) with an + Asian soul. Individual freedom is not an Oriental virtue, + and the average Singaporean is amused that Americans are + aghast at the control the government has over the people's + lives. They point to their low crime rate and their clean + streets and wonder how we can put personal freedoms over such + blessings. + + We don't bother to explain. + + + + Dennis R. Hilton diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/b-i-c.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/b-i-c.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3c0a1196 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/b-i-c.txt @@ -0,0 +1,171 @@ + Danielle Crittenden - Wall Street Journal - March 31, 1994 +(Ms. Crittenden recently moved back to her native Toronto) + ---------------------------------------------------------- + +Recently I spoke to a friend who had given birth to her second +child a week after I did in November. My child's birth was +covered by private insurance in New York; my friend gave birth +here, under Canada's much-lauded, state-funded, universal health +care plan. + +"Did you have an epidural?" she asked suspiciously, referring to +the local anesthetic injected into the lower spine, a common +painkiller for childbirth. + +"Of course," I said (neither of us romanticize the pain of +"natural" labor). "It was wonderful. My husband and I played +Scrabble in the birthing room right up until I had to push. I +won," I added. + +A cold silence. + +"How did yours go?" I asked. + +"It was awful," she said bitterly. "When I got to the hospital, I +asked for an epidural. The nurse said I had to wait - there were +three people ahead of me. Soon, I was feeling sick with pain. The +nurse told me to take a hot shower. I couldn't stand it anymore, +and begged for the anesthetic. It still wasn't my turn. I was +rocking back and forth in agony. Then the doctor arrived and said +the baby was coming out and it was too late for anything. +Afterward he apologized o me - he said I looked in terrible pain +and it was horrible to watch." + +It seemed astonishing to me, listening to my friend's story, that +in late 20th century North America a woman would have to give +birth the old-fashioned way - in pain. It's true incidents like +this do sometimes occur in the U.S., yet in Ontario - Canada's +richest and most populous province - government control of +medicine has made the exceptional the norm. + +My friend, who is an editor at a national magazine and married to +a partner in a major law firm, give birth at St. Michael's, a +bustling central Toronto hospital. The hospital's head of +anesthesia confirms that from 4 P.M. to 8 A.M., as well as on +weekends and holidays, there is only one anesthetist on duty for +the entire hospital; for traffic-accident and burn victims, +everyone. If he's busy, tough luck. + +St. Michael's isn't unique, either. I checked with other large +hospitals in the city. Few had more than a single anesthetist on +duty off-hours. At North York General, in the midst of Toronto's +most affluent suburbs, 3,500 babies are born a year, 60% of them +to women who request epidurals - and there is still only one +anesthetist on duty off-hours. + +Outside of Toronto, the situation is even worse. Ontario's +socialist government, desperately seeking to control its runaway +health budget, has announced that epidurals will no longer be +available to women in Thunder Bay, a community of 125,000 in the +northwest of the province. Thunder Bay women needn't feel picked +on. According to Richard Johnston, a spokesman for the Ontario +Medical Association, the availability of epidurals is sporadic +everywhere outside Toronto, because few small hospitals have the +budget for anesthetists trained to give epidurals, especially +during off-hours. Many women end up going to their general +practitioners for delivery and doing it "naturally," whether they +like it or not. + +Apologists for the Canadian health system blame greedy doctors +for its chronic shortages and queues. But an Ontario doctor +receives only US$100 to administer an epidural. His U.S. +counterpart usually collects about US$1,000 (a figure that, +unlike the Canadian, takes into account overhead and equipment). +Epidurals are vanishing from Ontario, not because doctors are +overpaid but because hospitals' fees per birth are capped at very +low rates by a debt-burdened government. And, as many argue would +happen under the Clinton health plan, it is illegal for either +the doctor or the hospital to charge even willing patients more +than the state-prescribed fee. + +The result? As Dr. Johnston says: "In the case of an anesthetist +trained to give epidurals, it is not lucrative for him to offer +his services all night. Why bother staying up, if you don't get +paid extra for it?" + +Some American women have already gotten a whiff of the cruelties +of Canadian medicine. In California, the Midwest, and Florida, +according to Nancy Oriol, director of obstetric anesthesia at +Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, some large HMOs refuse to pay for +epidurals unless a patient has a medical condition thought to +warrant it, such as a history of heart disease. And of course it +is the intention of the Clinton health plan to drive ever large +numbers of Americans into HMOs. + +My friend did have one choice that the users of HMOs do not - the +freedom to choose her own doctor. But her choice was an empty +one. For while she might pick an obstetrician, she had no way to +be sure that he would in the end deliver her baby. Most Canadian +obstetricians now work in groups, and a patient gets whichever of +them happens to be on call at the time she goes into labor, or +the intern on duty at the hospital (again, why bother to work +late ...). Further, few Canadian doctors can afford to have +ultrasound machines or other sophisticated machinery in their +offices. Those tests have to be booked weeks in advance. + +My New York doctor, on the other hand, was there for me at any +hour, even for a false labor at 2 A.M., because he is an +old-style fee-for-service man. He also had an ultrasound in his +examining room. In the end, my friend's baby was delivered by her +family GP, because he promised to be present. + +Pregnant women, of course, are not the only Canadians suffering +as provinces across the country seek to hold down health care +costs. Americans are by now familiar with tales of Canadians +queuing for heart bypasses and chemotherapy, or crossing the +border for surgery. But what my friend's nasty experience reveals +is that the system can no longer cope with an event as +straightforward as birth. It is as if medical practice in Canada +is reeling backward in time; in the case of birth, as much as a +century. + +As part of this drive toward ever more primitive medicine, the +Ontario government has set up three free-standing "birth +centers," staffed by midwives. It is hoped that these centers, so +much less costly to run than high-tech maternity wards, will +attract "low-risk" pregnant women away from hospitals. Midwifery +became a licensed profession in Ontario last year. These +graduates of a three-year community college program will earn, on +average, as much as $300 more per birth than obstetricians (who +are paid $250 per delivery, and $18 per pre- and post-natal +visit). The government has committed $8 million to the program. + +The ministry of health claims that its sudden munificence toward +midwives is all the in the spirit of promoting "choice" for +women. But given the difficulty women who do not want to suffer +pain in childbirth face in exercising their right of choice, the +gesture smacks of cynicism. It is health bureaucrats who are +making the real choices. They have decided that epidurals are an +"elective," even an extravagance, and that women who anticipate +normal labors should have their babies without anesthesia, and +better still, in someplace other than a costly hospital ward. + +You might expect that Ontario's anti-anesthetic policy would face +charges of sexism. No one is suggesting, for instance, that men +have hernia surgery without painkillers, under the knife of a +"caring professional" who did not graduate from med school. When +the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists last year +found out that some U.S. insurers were refusing to pay for +epidurals, they issued a report pointing out "there is no other +circumstance where it is considered acceptable for a person to +experience severe pain amenable to safe intervention while under +a physician's care." + +But in Canada, the very feminist groups who ought to be outraged +by the policy have, in fact, lobbied for it. These organizations +have long complained about the male-dominated medical profession, +its insistence on delivering babies in sterile hospital +facilities, it enthusiasm for technology. One of the most +important local advocacy groups is even proposing that five +maternity wards in Toronto be shut down once the midwife program +is up and running. + +A free-market health system, including one with HMOs, might not +include insured epidurals; but it might create a relatively +undistorted market in which people are to purchase this procedure +themselves. A health system that is run by politicians is, +however, subject to political pressure. This is especially true +when a group's ideologic agenda coincides with the government's +need to save money. In this instance, it actually puts women and +their babies in the sort of danger and pain they have not known +since their great-grandmother's day. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/badcheck.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/badcheck.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..76f38274 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/badcheck.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ + + + Bank 3/20* <---+----- Original: by Unnkown Author ---* + *--- Reformatted: by James P. Leonard ----> 7/10/92 + + Representativess Knew of Overdrafts + + If the major media has been full of the developing scandal of an + imperial Congress abusing its own bank for Members' private benefit, + it has also been full of the excuses these members have made to + whitewash their malfeasance. + + Prime among these are various versions of blaming the bank for bad + record keeping and notification procedures. + + However, according to the Report of the Committee on Standards of + Official Conduct of the House of Representatives, released March 10, + (Report # 102-452), every member who wrote a check which overdrew + his account by more than the amount of his next month's salary was + notified of the fact by telephone and asked to cover the overdraft. + + So for most of the offenders, this excuse simply will not wash. + + + According to the report, "The daily accumulation of Member overdrafts + was so routine that one Bank employee spent much of her time tele- + phoning Members..." + + Ms. Klemp, a Bank employee testifying before the Committee is quoted + by the report as follows: + + Mr. McHugh (Chairman of the Committee): "...did you tell them that + they had to make their checks good but at the very least they had to + bring them below the next month's salary?" + + Ms. Klemp: "That is basically what I said_you have x number amount + of overdrafts. You are over your next month's salary, and I + would always give their salary figure and ask them to please make a + deposit. + + "I didn't always say make the exact deposit, but I said please, make + a deposit. In a lot of cases, the Member would clear up the whole + amount. In other cases, they would just drop themselves back below + the next month's salary." + + + + Mr. McHugh: "In terms of what you communicated to them...should they + have known that their overdrafts should never exceed their next + month's salary?" + + Ms. Klemp: "Yes, I did make that very clear. In fact, when I would + call and again often talk to a staff person I would say at that time, + if I started to see a lot of overdrafts coming in all of a sudden, + sometimes a lot came in, sometimes it was a trickle all month, if a + lot came in and I could see there was going to be a problem, I would + always say, you are not to exceed your next month's salary or checks + will start to be returned." + + But, according to the Report, they seldom, if ever were returned. + + So many Members were allowed to write checks while vastly exceeding + their monthly salaries. In addition to the telephone calls alerting + members to their overdrafts, the Report quotes a 1928 letter + from the then Sergeant-at-Arms boasting, that the House Bank was + one of the first in Washington "to install up-to-date methods of + returning monthly statements to its depositors." + + + + While the Report makes no mention of whether that practice still + obtains, there is every reason to expect that it would, and that + Members would demand no less, although some of their statements + raise the question of whether or not it does. + + Furthermore, the practice of allowing members to write overdraft + checks for the amount of their next month's wages, was in itself, + not officially sanctioned, other than, by custom. + + But the Report states that the General Accounting Office, the + investigative branch of Congress, expressed misgivings about the + overdrafts. It at first, beginning in the 1950s, repeatedly + requested the Sergeant-at-Arms to rectify the situation and either + not allow overdrafts or to establish hard and fast guidelines. + + The practice ultimately became sanctioned by custom, however, when + the succeeding Sergeants-at-Arms defended the practice as being an + allowable draft against the next month's salary, rather than as + an overdraft. Thus, by a semantic game, did the Members and + their employee, the Sergeants-at-Arms, extend their privilege. + + + + Criticism of the practice by the GAO, apparently ended in the 1970s, + when the GAO audits were made public. But it did make lists of + suggested regulations which were never adopted, and it did note + with horror that in a ten year period ending in 1968, the number + of unpaid checks had tripled. + + It did not mention the matter again until the two reports that + triggered the closure of the House Bank and the disclosure of those + who had abused their privileges, covering the two fiscal years from + July 1, 1988 to June 30, 1990. + + The Committee had some difficulty in defining what constituted + "abuse of banking privileges." Its assigned task was to consider + whether Members had "routinely and repeatedly" written overdraft + checks in a "significant" amount. + + It decided that any amount up to one month's advance was not + "significant," and ultimately settled on defining "significant" + as being overdrawn in excess of one month's salary. + + + + + It acknowledged that anyone unfamiliar with the House Bank "will + find this definition of 'significant amount' generous." It then + went on to say that "In common parlance, the term 'repeated' means + more than once, and 'routine' suggests a pattern of conduct." + + But the Committee decided that "repeated" and "routine" meant that + the conduct was engaged in for more than 20 percent of the + 39 months under review. So the Committee of Members was still in + fact trying to protect its prerogatives. + + But the Minority Report, or that of Republican members of the + Committee challenged this by stating, "we find it impossible to + defend a definition of 'abuse' that is so narrow that it excludes + an individual who wrote over 850 NSF checks totaling over $150,000 + with seven separate months of negative balance exceeding next + month's salary deposit." + + A late breaking report in The Washington Times, which has been the + first to break and keep on the story, said that finally the Justice + Department is investigating the scandal to determine whether Income + Tax regulations and campaign finance regulations had been violated + with an eye to criminal proceedings. _ADR diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/badcit.mag b/textfiles.com/politics/badcit.mag new file mode 100644 index 00000000..303ce9a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/badcit.mag @@ -0,0 +1,341 @@ + + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + º BAD CITIZENS AND GOOD FREEDOM º + º º + º by º + º Jefferson Mack º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + "The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to + govern. Every class is unfit to govern." --Lord Acton + + If every class is unfit to govern, then who will lead + us? The answer is obvious. No one! + Free, independent, competent people don't need leaders. + A truly free society is disorganized. Nobody is in charge. + Nobody takes orders. Everyone does exactly what he or she + wants to do, taking orders from nobody else. If you want + something from someone else, you make a voluntary trade or + exchange in which both of you are happy with the deal. + The people who preach the need to organize don't want + you to be free. What they want is for you to pay their + bills and do their dirty work so they can be free to do what + they want to do. + The last thing someone who wants to boss others wants + around are independent, competent people who want to left + alone to live their own lives. Such people never make good + citizens, not the way a politician talks about good citizens. + A political leader will tell you a good citizen obeys + the law--every law. A good citizen works hard--at whatever + job the government tells him he is suppose to work at. A + good citizen pays his taxes--even if he doesn't have enough + left over to feed his kids. A good citizen volunteers his or + her time to work on civic projects the leader designs. A + good citizen goes off to fight and die in wars with people he + doesn't know so that the leader can win a place in the + history books. The good citizen never complains--no matter + how stupid or crude a government official treats him nor how + much a leader asks him to sacrifice. + Give a politician enough good citizens and he will rule + forever, fat and happy, while the good citizens sweat and + suffer and die to make sure the political leader keeps the + good life. + Politicians and bureaucrats spend a great deal of time + and effort trying to convince the people they rule that a + moral person must be a good citizen. Back in the dark ages + they called it the "Divine Right of Kings". Now days it's + called patriotic duty, or civic responsibility, but it all + adds up to the argument that every decent, honorable person + must put the interests of the state and the government above + their own personal interests. + + BAD CITIZENS HAVE MORE FUN BECAUSE THEY ARE MORE FREE. + + A free society is supposed to have free citizens, not + good citizens. The day you wake up and realize you don't + have all the freedom you want, the first thing you want to do + is bad citizen. + A bad citizen may love the place where he lives. He may + love his country and respect his neighbors. But a bad + citizen won't love or respect the people who run the + government. A bad citizen will always put his own interest + and the interest of his family and friends above the interest + of some common good as described by the people who hold + political power. + We are not talking here about violent criminals or + rebels. Political leaders love those kinds of people. They + love pulling their guns, arresting people and putting down + riots. If you don't think the politicians loved the recent + events in Los Angeles, you haven't been watching the TV news. + Every single politician in the country has jumped on the band + wagon by promising us they'll solve the problem if we'll just + give them some more of our money and a little more of our + freedom. + Political leaders love big trials with lots of newspaper + space. It gives them a chance to show how powerful they can + really be. They are expecting open confrontation and they + will be prepared to deal with it. They have detention camps, + secret police, riot control equipment, and the army ready to + go after all those who dare openly confront the government. + But any political leader who's got a country full of + peaceful bad citizens has got a serious problem. Bad + citizens work hard to support themselves, they treat their + neighbors with respect, they won't cheat others for their own + gain, and they don't do violent acts that hurt innocent + people. + What bad citizens won't do is help the government make + his or her life miserable. They continually try to maximize + the freedom they have, even if they have to break or ignore a + few laws to do it. + Too many bad citizens make government almost impossible. + That's one big reason why the Soviet Union didn't work. Too + many Soviet citizens realized they were never going to get a + fair share out of socialism and they stopped being good + citizens. They looked out for themselves rather than the + good of the State. + + GOOD CITIZENS MAKE TYRANTS POSSIBLE. + + Nazi Germany wasn't filled with people who wanted to + throw Jews into bonfires, make slaves of eastern Europeans, + or rule the world from Berlin. Nazi Germany was filled with + good citizens and Hitler did everything he could to make all + those good citizens think they were better off with him in + charge, even if they did have to give up a few freedoms. + Hitler was more frightened that all those good citizens might + stop being good citizens than he was of the allied armies. + North Korea, Viet Nam, Cuba, Iran, and Iraq are filled + with good citizens, all of them hoping that by being good + citizens, they will help things get better. Only things keep + getting worse. The good citizen works harder but gets less + to eat, has less fun, enjoys life less, and has less hope for + a better future. + + BAD CITIZENS HAVE KEPT THE UNITED STATES FREE. + + Back in 1917 a majority of the voters in the United + States decided they knew what was best for everyone and + passed the Eighteenth Amendment, taking away the freedom of a + man to relax with a beer after an honest day's work. Hundred + of thousands in this great country suddenly turned into bad + citizens. They didn't organize into a let's-bring-back-the- + booze political party or start blowing up police stations. + All they did was to keep on drinking. Some bad citizens were + more than willing to smuggle, distill, or brew the booze and + sell it for a profit. + In 1933, the social manipulators and the do-gooders + finally gave up, agreed to throw out the great experiment and + a tens of thousands of people went back to being good + citizens. + These kind of things keep happening all over this + country. Have you tried driving a fixed fifty-five along our + highways? A whole industry has gotten rich selling us radar + detectors to give us a chance against the modern technology + of the Highway Patrol. Eventually, the wizards in Washington + had no choice but to up the speed limit to 65, at least in a + few places. + The Drug Enforcement Administration, and every State and + local police department spend billions each year to try and + stamp out the use of recreational drugs. Yet every year, the + price of the drugs go down, while availability go up. + Anybody who wants to smoke pot, can, any place in the United + States. + Other freedoms are under constant attack. Take the + issue of gun control. The people who tout this totalitarian + principle keep telling us that the majority of Americans want + some kind of gun control. So what? No majority in a free + country has the right to take away the freedoms of any + minority. That's what freedom is all about, and owning a gun + is a damn good way to help make sure nobody starts + interfering with your personal freedom. As long as the + people who understand and believe that principle insist on + keeping their guns, we are going to be able to keep them. + In California the state government outlawed a whole + collection of different kinds of semi-automatic weapons and + demanded that every citizen register those weapons and turn + them in. Non-compliance has been almost total. + Americans used to be pretty good tax payers, way back in + the forties and fifties. But one day we woke up and realized + that the fat cat friends of Congress had all been given + special privileges and were paying less than their fair + share. + So a whole lot of good taxpayers have turned into bad + citizens. We are now a nation of tax evaders. We figure + every angle, both legal and illegal to bring down our own + taxes. Every increase in the tax structure is matched or + exceeded by losses as more ordinary middle class citizens + figure out ways to cheat on their taxes or join the + underground economy. We've now got the politicians against + the ropes. They are bankrupting the treasury, but they can't + raise taxes any farther because the know all us bad citizens + aren't going to take it any more. + If we keep protesting and evading new tax increases, + eventually the politicians will have no choice but to start + cutting the waste if they want to leave enough money in the + treasury to keep paying them their fat salaries. + Each of the above examples shows just how much we are a + nation of bad citizens. That's why we have as much freedom + as we do. That's why in recent years, this country has been + moving in the direction of more freedom, not less. The + politicians are finally beginning to understand that you + can't take an American's freedom away and make it stick. + There are two many bad citizens in this country. + + HOW TO SURVIVE AS A BAD CITIZEN + + Once you realize that you are not living in a free + country and that there is no go reason why you should be a + good citizen, there are a few rules you need to learn so you + can get the most benefit out of being a bad citizen without + suffering more loss of personal freedom or even going to + jail. + A smart bad citizen won't let himself get caught being + bad. He won't brag to his friends and neighbors about what a + bad citizen he is. He won't tell the local newspaper how + proud he is of being a bad citizen. He will not deliberately + confront the government, and he will avoid doing anything in + public that will warn any government official that he is not + a good citizen. + The bad citizen tries to be the invisible man or woman, + the person the government official would never expect is + denying the government his help and cooperation. + That means if you want to be a bad citizen, you don't + want to stand on any street corners making speeches demanding + revolution and you don't want to run with a mob throwing + rocks at police vehicles. You just want to live your own + life, doing everything in private you want to do, exactly the + way you want to do it. + You want to look like a good citizen. You will even + want to do some things that all good citizens do, like vote. + Only once you are in the voting booth, you vote against + every bond issue, every politician who's in office, and every + new initiative that will increase government power or raise + your taxes. If the only choice is between two common thieves + then a bad citizen writes in someone else's name, or even his + own. + You insist on getting every possible government benefit + you are eligible for and demand every government service the + law says you are entitled to receive. If you are eligible, + you'll collect social security, unemployment benefits, use + food stamps, dip into Medicare, claim farm subsidies, and try + to get the government to pay you for drawing obscene art or + writing nasty stories. + You may even decide to take a government job, if you can + make more money doing that than working for some private + firm. But a bad citizen who's got a government job takes all + his sick leave, goofs off every chance he gets, and does + everything he can to minimize the damage the government can + do to other bad citizens. + But don't cooperate with the bastards when it's not to + your advantage to do so. Except when it's in your direct, + economic advantage, you ignore the government. Never + voluntarily do anything that will help the government in any + way. + If bad citizens know someone who is cheating on their + taxes, violating a business license law, working in a job + paying less than the minimum wage, or selling a little dope, + they don't call the authorities. + A bad citizen files his income tax return but cheats in + ways that take advantage of IRS incompetence. Bad citizens + work off the books and don't declare the income. They'll + drive one hundred and fifty miles to buy a truck load of + groceries in another state that charges less sales tax. + A bad citizen loses his census form, or fills it in + wrong. Bad citizens don't provide the government any kind of + information unless they get an immediate benefit or there is + a government official standing there insisting that they do + it. + Bad citizens don't sacrifice their own pleasures or + happiness just because the government tells them such + sacrifices are in the common good. They don't volunteer + their services for anything the government is trying to do, + no matter how worthwhile the project appears to be. If the + politicians tell them there is an energy crisis, they don't + turn the heat down and the lights off if they can afford the + electricity. + Bad citizens enjoy the freedom of driving their own + personal cars instead of riding tax-subsidized mass transit + systems or subjecting their personal schedules to the demands + of car pooling. Bad citizens don't waste time sorting + garbage unless there is a direct economic benefit for doing + so. They don't man a voting booth, support the local + sheriff, waste time in town meetings, donate to political + parties, report poachers, nor contribute to the Community + Chest and United Fund. They recognize that a government that + steals freedom shouldn't get any voluntary help. + Of course, there is a chance that someone will show up + at your door pointing a gun to make you volunteer for some + civic duty like jury duty. When that happens, don't argue, + go. But a bad citizen won't do anything more than what is + absolutely necessary. On something like jury duty, it may + even be possible to help screw up the system even while + pretending to act like a good citizen. + It the person on trial is accused of tax evasion, drug + offenses, bootlegging, pornography, non-violent sex offenses, + a failure to obtain a business license, or any other crime + that shouldn't be a crime in a free society, a bad citizen + can always find some justification for voting not guilty, + even if every other member of the jury is convinced he's + guilty. + Such a bad citizen is exercising the right of jury + nulification, that is, the right to set a person free because + the juror thinks the law is not constitutional. But the bad + citizen won't admit that to the judge, the jury, nor the + press. Instead, he or she will insist that he or she was not + convinced by the prosecutor's evidence. + When the government confronts a bad citizen, the bad + citizen will insist that the government official respect + every right that the Constitution and the law gives every + citizen. The bad citizen makes sure he knows what rights the + law gives him, and then he demands they be respected. The + bad citizen will be polite, he will fight the urge to get + angry, he will never, ever, initiate violence against a + government official, but he will insist on his rights. + Unless he is presented with a warrant, he won't let a + government official into his house, he won't give permission + to any officer of the law to search any of his belongings, + and he won't answer any questions, even apparently innocent + questions without first checking with a lawyer. + Even in the United States with all the protections + against self-incrimination, most of the people in jails are + there because they talked too much. + When questioned by a government official, the smart + person in such a situation becomes the dumbest citizen in the + county. He hasn't been reading the newspapers, doesn't + listen to the radio, doesn't know a thing about what is going + on, but he loves the government, and loves doing his civic + duty, and he knows his rights. + If bad citizens are asked a direct question, they won't + lie, but they give as little information as possible. They + never gives any information that they are not required by law + to give. But the do it all courteously, never suggesting by + tone or attitude that they are being anything but totally + cooperative. + All you have to do is say, "I don't want to answer that + question." If the government official insists you answer + the question, then you say, "I want to speak to my lawyer + before I answer that question." + But most of the time, the bad citizen will never be + bothered by some government thug because he will learn how to + maximize his own happiness without having to have any + dealings with the politician or the bureaucrat. + + + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | THE CHAOS ADVOCATE is copyrighted by Mack Tanner. You | + | may review and read sections of this electronic publication | + | to determine whether or not you would like to read the entire | + | work. If you decide to read the entire magazine, or if you | + | keep a copy of the magazine in the unpacked, readable format | + | for your own personal use or review for more than two days | + | must pay a SHARELIT fee by mailing $2.00 to | + | | + | Mack Tanner | + | 1234 Nearing Rd. | + | Moscow, ID 83843 | + | | + | If you want a receipt, include a self-addressed and | + | stamped envelope. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bakunin.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bakunin.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..25b63e7a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bakunin.txt @@ -0,0 +1,277 @@ + + +The Immorality of the State + +by Mikhail Bakunin [1814-1876] + +Transcribed by The Dak + +Holiday Inn, Cambodia BBS 209/456-8584 + +======================================= + + + The existence of a single limited State necessarily presupposed the + +existence, and if necessary provokes the formation of several States, it + +being quite natural that the individuals who find themselves outside of this + +State and who are menaced by it in their existence and liberty, should in + +turn league themselves against it. Here we have humanity broken up into an + +indefinite number of States which are foreign, hostile, and menacing toward + +one another. + + + There is no common right, and no social contract among them, for if such a + +contract and right existed, the various States would cease to be absolutely + +independent of one another, becoming federated members of one great State. + +Unless this great State embraces humanity as a whole, it will necessarily + +have against it the hostility of other great States, federated internally. + +Thus war would always be supreme law and the inherent necessity of the very + +existence of humanity. + + + Every State, whether it is of a federative or a non-federative character, + +must seek, under the penalty of utter ruin, to become the most powerful of + +States. It has to devour others in order not to be devoured in turn, to + +conquer in order not to be conquered, to enslave in order not to be enslaved + +- for two similar and at the same time alien powers, cannot co-exist without + +destroying each other. + + + THE STATE THEN IS THE MOST FLAGRANT NEGATION, THE MOST CYNICAL AND + +COMPLETE NEGATION OF HUMANITY. It rends apart the universal solidarity of + +all men upon earth, and it unites some of them only in order to destroy, + +conquer, and enslave all the rest. It takes under its protection only its + +own citizens, and it recognizes human right, humanity, and civilization only + +within the confines of its own boundries. And since it does not recognize + +any right outside of its own confines, it quite logically arrogated to itself + +the right to treat with the most ferocious inhumanity all the foreign + +populations whom it can pillage, exterminate, or subordinate to its will. + + + Since international law does not exist, and since it never can exist in a + +serious and real manner without undermining the very foundations of the + +principle of absolute State sovereignty, the State cannot have any duties + +toward foreign populations. If then it treats humanely a conquered people, + +if it does not go to the full length in pillaging and exterminating it, and + +does not reduce it to the last degree of slavery, it does so perhaps because + +of considerations of political expediency and prudence, or even because of + +pure magnanimity, but never because of duty - for it has an absolute right to + +dispose of them in any way it deems fit. + + + This flagrant negation of humanity, which constitutes the very essence of + +the State, is from the point of view of the latter the supreme duty and the + +greatest virtue: it is called PATRIOTISM and it constitutes the TRANSCENDENT + +MORALITY of the State. We call it the transcendent morality because + +ordinarily it transcends the level of human morality and justice, whether + +private or common, and thereby it often sets itself in shard contradiction to + +them. Thus, for instance, to offend, oppress, rob, plunder, assassinate, or + +enslave one's fellowman is, to the ordinary morality of man, to commit a + +serious crime. + + + In public life, on the contrary, from the point of view of patriotism, + +when it is done for the greater glory of the State in order to conserve or to + +enlarge its power, all that becomes a duty and a virtue. And this duty, this + +virtue, are obligatory upon every patriotic citizen. Everyone is expected to + +discharge those duties not only in respect to strangers but in respect to his + +fellow-citizens, members and subjects of the same State, whenever the welfare + +of the State demands it from him. + + + The supreme law of the State is self-preservation at any cost. And since + +all States, ever since they came to exist upon the earth, have been condemned + +to perpetual struggle - a struggle against their own populations, whom they + +oppress and ruin, a struggle against all foreign States, every one of which + +can be strong only if the others are weak - and since the States cannot hold + +their own in this struggle unless they constantly keep on augmenting their + +power against their own subjects as well as against the neighborhood States - + +- it follows that the supreme law of the State is the augmentation of its + +power to the detriment of internal liberty and external justice. + + + Such is in its stark reality the sole morality, the sole aim of the State. + +It worships God himself only because he is its own exclusive God, the + +sanction of its power and of that which it calls its right, that is, the + +right to exist at any cost and always to expand at the cost of other States. + +Whatever serves to promote this end is worthwhile, legitimate, and virtuous. + +Whatever harms it is criminal. The morality of the State then is the + +reversal of human justice and human morality. + + + The State has to recognize in its own hypocritical manner the powerful + +sentiment of humanity. In the face of this fainful alternative there remains + +only one way out: and that it hypocrisy. The States pay their outward + +respects to this idea of humanity; they speak and apparently act only in the + +name of it, but they violate it every day. This, however, should not be held + +against the States. They cannot act otherwise, their position having become + +such that they can hold their own only by lying. Diplomacy has no other + +mission. + + + Therefore what do we see? Every time a State wants to declare war upon + +another State, it starts off by launching a manifesto addressed not only to + +its own subjects but to the whole world. In this manifesto it declares that + +right and justice are on its side, and it endeavors to prove that it is + +actuated only by love of peace and humanity and that, imbued with generous + +and peaceful sentiments, it suffered for a long time in silence until the + +mounting iniquity of its enemy forced it to bare its sword. At the same time + +it vows that, disdainful of all material conquest and not seeking any + +increase in territory, it will put and end to this war as soon as justice is + +reestablished. And its antagonist answers with a similar manifesto, in which + +naturally right, justice, humanity, and all the generous sentiments are to be + +found respectively on its side. + + + Those mutually opposed manifestos are written with the same eloquence, + +they breathe the same virtuous indignation, and one is just as sincere as the + +other; that is to say both of them are equally brazen in their lies, and it + +is only fools who are deceived by them. Sensible persons, all those who have + +had some political experience, do not even take the trouble of reading such + +manifestoes. On the contrary, they seek ways to uncover the interests + +driving both adversaries into this war, and to weigh the respective power of + +each of them in order to guess the outcome of the struggle. Which only goes + +to prove that moral issues are not at stake in such wars. + + + Perpetual war is the price of the State's existence. The rights of + +peoples, as well as the treaties regulating the relations of the States, lack + +any moral sanction. In every definite historic epoch they are the material + +expression of the equilibrium resulting from the mutual antagonism of States. + +So long as States exist, there will be no peace. There will be only more or + +less prolonged respites, armistices concluded by the perpetually belligerent + +States; but as soon as the State feels sufficiently strong to destroy this + +equilibrium to its advantage, it will never fail to do so. The history of + +humanity fully bears out this point. + + + Crimes are the moral climate of the States. This explains to us why ever + +since history began, that is, ever since States came inmto existence, the + +political world has always been and still continues to be the stage for high + +knavery and unsurpassed brigandage - brigandage and knavery which are held in + +high honor, since they are ordained by patriotism, transcendent morality, and + +by the supreme interest of the State. This explains to us why all the + +history of ancient and modern States is nothing more than a series of + +revolting crimes; why present and past kings and ministers of all times and + +of all countries - statesmen, diplomats, bureaucrats, and warriors - if + +judged from the point of view of simple morality and human justice, deserve a + +thousand times the gallows of penal servitude. + + + For there is no terror, cruelty, sacrilege, perjury, imposture, infamous + +transaction, cynical theft, brazen robbery or foul treason which has not been + +committed and all are still being committed daily by representatives of the + +State, with no other excuse than this elastic, at times so convenient and + +terrible phrase REASON OF STATE. + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/balsamob b/textfiles.com/politics/balsamob new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d64f392d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/balsamob @@ -0,0 +1,965 @@ + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY +Cyberspace +Cyberpunk +Electronic Communication +Postmodernism + +Compiled by +Anne Balsamo +Program in Science, Technology and Culture +School of Literature, Communication and Culture +Georgia Institute of Technology +Atlanta, GA 30332 +anne.balsamo@lcc.gatech.edu + +(additions welcomed) + +November, 1992 + + +Alexander, Michael. 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"Dialogics and Didacticism: John Brunner's Narrative +Blending." Science-Fiction Studies 14 (1987): 20-33. + +Nash, Jim. "Bridging the Real and the Unreal." Computerworld (March 12, +1990): 12. + +Nelson, Ted. Computer Lib/Dream Machines. (Pub by author, 1974). Repub. +Microsoft press, 1987. + +Nichols, Bill. "The Work of Culture in the age of Cybernetic Systems." +Screen 29.4 (Winter 1987): 22-46. + +Nicolis, Gregoire and Ilya Prigogine. Exploring Complexity: an +introduction. New York: Freeman, 1989. + +Papert. S. Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New +York: Basic Books, 1980. + +Pask, G. Micro Man. Macmillan Press, 1982. + +Penley, Constance. The future of an illusion: film, feminism and +psychoanalysis. U of Minnesota p, 1989. + +Penley, Constance and Andrew Ross, eds. Technoculture. Minneapolis: U +of Minnesota press, 1991. + +Pfeil, Fred. Another Tale to Tell: Politics and narrative in +postmodern culture. London: Verso, 1990. + +Pickover, Clifford. 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Warner, 1989. + +/ + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/banned.91 b/textfiles.com/politics/banned.91 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..84c33bd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/banned.91 @@ -0,0 +1,526 @@ +Banned Computer Material 1992 + +Inspired by Banned Book Week '92, this is a list of computer material +that was banned or challenged in academia in 1992. Iowa State +University has the dubious distinction of being listed most often +(three times). + +The list proper starts after a list of the academic institutions where +bans or challenges have occurred. The list proper is followed by +instructions on how to get more information about specific incidents +and then by instructions on how to get general information about +computers and academic freedom. + +Please send reports, corrections, and updates to either +caf-talk@eff.org (a public mailing list) or kadie@eff.org (private). + +-- Carl Kadie, kadie@eff.org, + co-editor Computer and Academic Freedom News + Disclaimer: I do not represent EFF; this is just me. + version: 1.09 + +============= Academic Institutions ================== + USA + Ball State University + Boston University (i) + Carnegie Mellon University + Iowa State University (i) + North Dakota State University + Princeton + University of California at Berkeley (site of an unsuccessful challenge) + University of Massachusetts at Boston + University of Nebraska at Lincoln + University of Wyoming + Virginia Public Education Network + Virginia Tech + Williams College (the college not directly involved) + Canada + Canadian universities + Simon Fraser University + University of British Columbia + University of Manitoba + University of Toronto (site of an unsuccessful challenge) + University of Ottawa + Wilfrid Laurier University (i) + Wilfrid Laurier University (ii) + Europe + Irish universities + German universities + Middle East Technical University in Turkey + United Kingdom Net + Updates + Iowa State University (ii) + University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (ban ended) + Continuing + Boston University (ii) + Iowa State University (iii) + James Madison University + Pennsylvania State University + University of Newcastle + University of Texas + University of Toledo + Western Washington University (& University of Washington) + +=============== List of Banned Computer Materials ============== + ++ USA: + +Computer code at *Ball State University* to crack passwords + ... even if it is never run. During a system-wide search, an + administrator found the computer code. The user says "[i]t really + bothers me that I'm going to get in a lot of trouble (probably + anyway) just for the mere possession of a program." + REFERENCE: + news/cafv02n11:<9202161945.AA24863@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> + +Lyrics to Ice-T's Cop Killer in a .plan file at *Boston University* + "Two people have complained to my department's chair... .He asked me + informally to remove it. I told him I would not do so voluntarily." + REFERENCE: + news/cafv02n35: + +Articles in an open bulletin board at *Carnegie Mellon University* if +they offend + The University threatened to investigate the author on charges of + sexual harassment unless he stopped writing. + news/cafv02n11:<46750.298C2BB3@psycho.fidonet.org> + news/cafv02n08:<1992Jan28.223429.20426@eff.org> + +Material from the rec.arts.erotica newsgroup at *Iowa State University* + To protest the University's ban of this newsgroup, a student + reposted some of the articles to newsgroup isu.newsgroups. He was + summarily expelled from the University computers. Later his + account was restored. The incident made the front page of the + student newspaper. + news/cafv02n30:<1992May6.033143.16713@eff.org> + news/cafv02n30:<1992May8.064304.8364@news.iastate.edu> + +All "offensive" material at *North Dakota State University* + Banned by the Policy on Misuse of Computer Facilities + news/cafv02n20:<1992Apr27.214917.13402@eff.org> + +Any electronic posting at *Princeton* that demeans a person because of +his or her beliefs + banned by Princeton's Guidelines for the use of Campus and + Network Computing Resources and the more general Rights, Rules, + Responsibilities Policy. + news/cafv02n20:<199204292110.AA23705@eff.org> + news/cafv02n20:<1992Apr29.213206.24214@eff.org> + +Anti-Semitic material available at the *University of California at +Berkeley* via the Internet + ... challenged by a student, but the University and the + Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith said that censorship would be + inappropriate. + news/cafv02n07: + +All .plan files at the *University of Massachusetts at Boston* that would +not be given a PG-13 rating + news/cafv02n39: + +All the alternative newsgroups (even alt.censorship) at the +*University of Nebraska at Lincoln* + ... because someone might find some of the articles in some of the + newsgroups "objectionable". On April 6th the UNL Academic Senate + Executive Committee voted to request restoration of the majority of + the alt.* groups, but none have been restored. + news/cafv02n22:<1992Mar26.214421.26447@sparky.imd.sterling.com> + news/cafv02n22:<9203212232.AA24018@cse.unl.edu> + news/cafv02n23:<1992Apr1.192701.28737@eff.org> + news/cafv02n23:<9205040334.AA04565@cse.unl.edu> + news/cafv02n23: + news/cafv02n30:<1992May5.005813.281@eff.org> + +Computer code at the *University of Wyoming* for Internet Relay Chat + A student was told that if university searches turned up IRC code in + his possession, he "would be disusered without hope for reinstatement." + news/cafv02n08: + <3803321809011992_A11466_POSSE_11614C9F3200@mrgate.uwyo.edu> + +Any network use on *Virginia Public Education Network* that violates +"generally accepted social standards" + Such use is defined as "obscene" and is banned by PEN's Acceptable + Use Policy. + policies/virginia.pen.edu + policies/virginia.pen.edu.critique + +Any "unwarranted annoyance" or "unsolicited email" at *Virginia Tech* + ... banned by the Information System's Appropriate Use Policy. + The policy is currently being revised. + news/cafv02n20:<1992Apr27.214917.13402@eff.org> + +The phrase "George Bush and his people need a bullet in the head" posted +to the Net from *Williams College* + The posting led to a U.S. Secret Service and grand jury investigation. + news/cafv02n29:<1992Jun11.001601.29258@morrow.stanford.edu> + ++ Canada: + +alt.sex.bondage and other "pornographic writing" anywhere in *Canada*. + ... challenged in a CBC Radio show reporting that some police + consider these legally obscene, and would like to suppress them + if possible. (The police haven't acted, but their statements may + have caused some sites to ban material.) + news/cafv02n30: + +All Netnews discussions of sex at *Simon Fraser University* + The _Globe and Mail_ quotes the director of academic computing + services: "It's the same as if somebody wants Playboy or + Penthouse. We don't have them in the university library." In + fact, SFU has _Playboy_ in its library. + news/cafv02n38:<1992Jul21.164722.252@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> + news/cafv02n37: + +All "vulgar", "reprehensible", "pornographic", or "poison[ous]" +material that might be accessed from, created on, or stored on +*University of British Columbia* computing equipment starting with +newsgroups alt.sex and rec.arts.erotica + ... banned by order of the president of the University + news/cafv02n39: + +All Netnews discussions of sex at the *University of Manitoba* + ... banned the day after a critical article in the Winnipeg Free Press + news/cafv02n21:<1992May10.093635.27536@ccu.umanitoba.ca> + news/cafv02n38:<1992Jul21.164722.252@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> + news/cafv02n37: + news/cafv02n26:<1992May28.010057.18609@cs.sfu.ca> + news/cafv02n30:<1992May31.080939.25516@clarinet.com> + +All on-line material related to sex at *University of Toronto* + ... challenged in a broadcast by CITY-TV (an independent Toronto + television station) that suggested the U. of Toronto should deal + with the "problem" like U. of Manitoba did, that is, by banning the + material. The U. of Toronto resisted the challenge and refused to + censor the material. + news/cafv02n34:<1992Jul7.150830.27316@ccu.umanitoba.ca> + policies/utoronto.ca + news/cafv02n37: + news/cafv02n33:<1992Jun16.045026.15800@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> + +The alt.sex* newsgroups at the *University of Ottawa* + cases/wlu.ca + +All "profane" computer file names at *Wilfrid Laurier University* + news/cafv02n40:<1992Aug13.182157.5688@m.cs.uiuc.edu> + +The alt.sex* newsgroups at *Wilfrid Laurier University* + ... because the administration thinks they are "offensive" and "puerile". + cases/wlu.ca + ++ Europe: + +Newsgroups at *many German universities* that discuss sex, including +discussion of recovery from sexual abuse + ... banned in response to an article in the German paper "EMMA" . + news/cafv02n23:<199204201927.AA07124@eff.org> + +Netnews discussion in *Ireland* of abortion + news/cafv02n11:<1992Feb24.222848.12187@maths.tcd.ie> + +Netnews discussion via Switzerland's SWITCH of gay rights, of drugs +and drug policy, and of sex and recovery from sexual abuse. Also, +United Press International articles related to terrorism or sex + SWITCH is an academic network consortium. The official rational is + that this information *might* be illegal under Swiss law. + news/cafv02n22:<1992Mar2.135005.14877@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> + news/cafv02n11:<1992Feb20.180752@sic.epfl.ch> + news/cafv02n13:<16825.9203091724@pyr.swan.ac.uk> + +All on-line political or religions "activism" at *Middle East +Technical University in Turkey* + news/cafv02n21:<1992May4.223243.28741@eff.org> + +Newsgroups alt.sex*, alt.drugs, alt.evil, alt.tasteless and +rec.arts.erotica on *United Kingdom Net* + UKNet is commercial network that connects most academic institutions in + the United Kingdom. They say that they fear UK law. + news/cafv02n33:<1992Jun08.165434.4998@bas-a.bcc.ac.uk> + news/cafv02n30:<1992May19.093311.105@rdg.dec.com> + ++ Updates: + +Most on-line discussion of sex at *Iowa State University* + Iowa State University restricts access to these newsgroups. The + rational for the restriction is Iowa's Obscenity law. That law, + however, explicitly exempts universities. Since the original + restrictions were started rec.arts.erotica has been added to the + restricted list, while discussion of drugs and drug policy were + removed. + news/cafv02n11:<1992Feb23.201324.12799@m.cs.uiuc.edu> + news/cafv02n11:<3198@ecicrl.ocunix.on.ca> + news/cafv02n08:<1992Jan24.160039.20161@news.iastate.edu> + news/cafv02n30:<1992May11.132630.23905@news.iastate.edu> + +Email send to or from the National Center for Supercomputer +Applications (NCSA) that verbally attacks the Center or the +*University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign* + No longer grounds for a computer file search + case/ncsa.email + news/cafv02n33:<1992Jun2.011050.15719@m.cs.uiuc.edu> + ++ No Changes Reported: + +Any computer files at *Boston University* that anyone else finds +offensive or annoying + The rules at Boston University prohibit a computer user from "making + accessible offensive [or] annoying ... material". + news/cafv01n10 + +All rude articles at *Iowa State University* + On-line rudeness is prohibited by Iowa State computer policy. A + student was reprimanded for posting a rude article to the net. + news/cafv01n38 + news/cafv02n23:<1992Apr2.174625.23219@eff.org> + +All email containing "offensive" material at *James Madison University* + news/cafv01n39 + +The alt.sex.* hierarchy on PSUVM, the main general purpose computer at +*Pennsylvania State University* + news/cafv01n34 + +All offensive messages at *University of Newcastle* + news/cafv01n39 + +All email or Netnews articles that "bring discredit" to the *University +of Texas* or its Computer Science Department" + news/cafv01n37 + +The alt.sex newsgroup at the *University of Toledo* + batch/oct_06_1991 + +More than a dozen newsgroups, including alt.sex, at *Western Washington +University* + They were removed from Western Washington University on the order of + one person, the Vice Provost for "information and communication". + Alt.sex remains at the *University of Washington*, but other + newsgroups were removed right before a negative article was printed + in the Seattle _Post Intelligencer_. + news/cafv01n33 + news/cafv01n36 + news/cafv01n35 + news/cafv01n41 + +========= How to get more information about an incident ========= + +Following each item in the list above is one or more references. +For example: + news/cafv02n11:<9202161945.AA24863@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> + news/cafv01n10 + policies/virginia.pen.edu + cases/wlu.ca + batch/oct_06_1991 + +In the first example, "news/cafv02n11" is the name of a file and +"<9202161945.AA24863@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>" is a message-id within the file. +The other example references consist of just file names. If a +reference includes a message-id, retrieved the named file first, then +edit it and do a text search for that message-id. + +The files are available by anonymous ftp (the preferred method) and by +email. To get the files via ftp, do an anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org +(192.88.144.4), and "get" the files. + +For example: + + get pub/academic/news/cafv02n11 + get pub/academic/news/cafv01n10 + get pub/academic/policies/virginia.pen.edu + get pub/academic/cases/wlu.ca + get pub/academic/batch/oct_06_1991 + +To get the files by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org. +For the files in the example, the email should contain the lines: + +send acad-freedom/news cafv02n11 +send acad-freedom/news cafv01n10 +send acad-freedom/policies virginia.pen.edu +send acad-freedom/cases wlu.ca +send acad-freedom/batch oct_06_1991 + +========== Other Information of Possible Interest =========== + +All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows. + +================= +caf +================= +A description to the comp-academic-freedom-talk mailing list. It is a +free-forum for the discussion of questions such as: How should general +principles of academic freedom (such as freedom of expression, freedom +to read, due process, and privacy) be applied to university computers +and networks? How are these principles actually being applied? How can +the principles of academic freedom as applied to computers and +networks be defended? + +================= +banned.1991 +================= +A list of computer material that was banned at universities during (or +before) 1991. It summarizes incidents and policies at Ohio State U., +the U. of Illinois (two campuses), Case Western U., Boston U., U. of +Waterloo, U. of Toledo, Western Washington U., Iowa State U., +Pennsylvania State U., U. of Texas, U. of Newcastle, James Madison U., +U. of Wisconsin, and others. + +================= +statements/caf-statement +================= +This is an attempt to codify the application of academic freedom to +academic computers. It reflects our seven months of on-line discussion +about computers and academic freedom. It covers free expression, due +process, privacy, and user participation. + +Comments and suggestions are very welcome (especially when posted to +CAF-talk). All the documents referenced are available on-line. +(Critiqued). + +================= +statements/caf-statement.critique +================= +This is a critique of an attempt to codify the application of academic +freedom to academic computers. It reflects our seven months of on-line +discussion about computers and academic freedom. It covers free +expression, due process, privacy, and user participation. + +Additional comments and suggestions are very welcome (especially when +posted to CAF-talk). All the documents referenced are available +on-line. + +================= +faq/netnews.reading +================= +q: Should my university remove (or restrict) Netnews newsgroups +because some people find them offensive? If it doesn't have the +resources to carry all newsgroups, how should newsgroups be selected? + +================= +faq/netnews.writing +================= +q: Should my university allow students to post to Netnews? + +================= +faq/netnews.liability +================= +q: Does a University reduce its likely liability by screening Netnews +for offensive articles and newsgroups? + +================= +faq/censorship-and-harassment +================= +q: Must/should universities ban material that some find offensive +(from Netnews facilities, email, libraries, and student publications, +etc) in order to comply with antiharassment laws? + +================= +faq/media.control +================= +q: Since freedom of the press belongs to those who own presses, a +public university can do anything it wants with the media that it +owns, right? + +================= +faq/policy +================= +q: What guidance is there for creating or evaluating a computer policy? + +================= +library/bill-of-rights.ala +================= +The Library Bill of Rights from the American Library Association. + +================= +library/diversity.ala +================= +"Diversity in Collection Development" + +An interpretation by the American Library Association of the "Library +Bill of Rights" + +It says that collections should be inclusive, not exclusive. And that +materials should cover the needs and interest of all patrons. "This +includes materials that reflect political, economic, religious, +social, minority, and sexual issues." + +================= +academic/speech-codes.aaup +================= +On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes Expression - An +official statement of the American Association of University +Professors (AAUP) + +It says in part: "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be +banned or forbidden. No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful +or disturbing that it may not be expressed." + +================= +academic/student.freedoms.aaup +================= +Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students -- This is the main +U.S. statement on student academic freedom. + +================= +law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin +================= +The full text of UWM POST v. U. of Wisconsin. This recent district +court ruling goes into detail about the difference between protected +offensive expression and illegal harassment. It even mentions email. + +It concludes: "The founding fathers of this nation produced a +remarkable document in the Constitution but it was ratified only with +the promise of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment is central to +our concept of freedom. The God-given "unalienable rights" that the +infant nation rallied to in the Declaration of Independence can be +preserved only if their application is rigorously analyzed. + +The problems of bigotry and discrimination sought to be addressed here +are real and truly corrosive of the educational environment. But +freedom of speech is almost absolute in our land and the only +restriction the fighting words doctrine can abide is that based on the +fear of violent reaction. Content-based prohibitions such as that in +the UW Rule, however well intended, simply cannot survive the +screening which our Constitution demands." + + +================= +================= + +These document(s) are available by anonymous ftp (the preferred +method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp +to ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s): + + pub/academic/caf + pub/academic/banned.1991 + pub/academic/statements/caf-statement + pub/academic/statements/caf-statement.critique + pub/academic/faq/netnews.reading + pub/academic/faq/netnews.writing + pub/academic/faq/netnews.liability + pub/academic/faq/censorship-and-harassment + pub/academic/faq/media.control + pub/academic/faq/policy + pub/academic/library/bill-of-rights.ala + pub/academic/library/diversity.ala + pub/academic/academic/speech-codes.aaup + pub/academic/academic/student.freedoms.aaup + pub/academic/law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin + +To get the file(s) by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org. +Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file +name): + +send acad-freedom caf +send acad-freedom banned.1991 +send acad-freedom/statements caf-statement +send acad-freedom/statements caf-statement.critique +send acad-freedom/faq netnews.reading +send acad-freedom/faq netnews.writing +send acad-freedom/faq netnews.liability +send acad-freedom/faq censorship-and-harassment +send acad-freedom/faq media.control +send acad-freedom/faq policy +send acad-freedom/library bill-of-rights.ala +send acad-freedom/library diversity.ala +send acad-freedom/academic speech-codes.aaup +send acad-freedom/academic student.freedoms.aaup +send acad-freedom/law uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/batf-not.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/batf-not.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e55de810 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/batf-not.txt @@ -0,0 +1,159 @@ +From _American Firearms Industry_, September 1993 + + BATF and the Night of Terror + +by Bob Lesmeister + + Bold face: "What are you doing in my house? Get out of my house!" + + This is what Janice Hart screamed as she witnessed agents of the Bureau +of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms (BATF) literally tearing her home apart. +What had Janice Hart done to have her house destroyed? NOTHING. BATF had the +wrong house and the wrong suspect. In what has become the rule instead of +the exception, BATF agents blatantly and knowingly violated Hart's 1st, 2nd, +3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th Amendment rights. In addition, agents once again +forcefully abused children in the "pursuit of their duties." + + As related by Margie Boule in the Washington OREGONIAN, in the evening of +February 5th Janet [sic] Hart had just returned home to her house outside of +Portland, Oregon, from the grocery store with her two young daughters when +she noticed law enforcement agents swarming in and out of her home. Little +did she realize that they had literally torn the inside of her house apart +in the search for guns that didn't exist. When she stormed up to the side +door (it had been torn off its hinges and then nailed back on) demanding an +answer a BATF agent yanked her inside telling her she was going to jail. In +typical BATF fashion, Hart was not informed of the charges against her, she +was not read her rights, nor was she allowed to see after her children. + + The children were terrified. Both daughters heard the BATF agent say Mrs. +Hart was headed for jail and they became horrified. As Hart's daughter told +THE OREGONIAN, "I was crying. They (BATF agents) say, 'Shut up and get back +in the car.' So, I put up my knee like to get out, and he shut the door on +my knee." BATF may call this act of child abuse an "accident" or something +that happened in "the heat of confrontation" but the truth is, agents have +been engaging in this sort of behavior since the inception of the BATF as a +bureau. The most blatant case being the storming of the Branch Davidian +compound with automatic weapons, knowing full well that children would be +caught in the crossfire. Another incident was the case of Del and Melisa +Knudson. During a raid on the Knudson home (no illegal firearms were found), +Mrs. Knudson was handcuffed and forced to leave her 21-month old daughter +unattended in a bathtub. Luckily, the baby didn't drown. Evidently, the +agents were not concerned with the baby's welfare nor that of the parents. + + As the daughters were being held outside the home, Hart was forced +inside. In what must have seemed like a scene from a Gestapo raid in Nazi +Germany, Janice Hart witnessed the destruction of her personal property by +the "secret police." As she related to THE OREGONIAN, "I'm screaming, 'Oh my +God, what are you doing to my house?' They told me to shut up. They said I +could talk later. And they kept saying, 'You're going to prison, Janice.' +The whole house was totally destroyed." + + BATF agents in the kitchen were throwing plates and dishes on the floor. +In the bedroom agents were ripping clothes off hangers and dumping them on +the floor. Dresser drawers were overturned and strewn all about. Hart's life +was terrorized, her children were abused, her house destroyed, and her +personal belongings ravaged. During the Gestapo-style raid, while Mrs. Hart +was in custody, BATF agents did not bother to insure that Hart was indeed +the subject of their warrant. They simply didn't bother to check. And what's +worse, when it was obvious the had the wrong person, they continued to +terrorize Hart and her family. + + In a complete violation of Hart's civil and constitutional rights, BATF +agents herded her into the basement of the house and interrogated her. Like +a scene from some cheap detective move, agents gave her the "third degree." + + "There's about eight of them down there," she told the OREGONIAN, "and +they're asking my over and over my name, my Social Security number, my +birthdate. On and on, over and over. And I'm saying, 'What did I do?'" + + Hart was forced to answer questions for over an hour before she was read +her rights and then agents refused to allow her to call an attorney, both +serious violations of Hart's Constitutional rights knowingly violated by +BATF. George Kim, main investigator, should have known better. The person +cited in the warrant was Janice Marie Harrell, who had used "Hart" as an +alias, but that's where the similarity ends. The Janice the BATF was in +search of had a scar on her face. Janice Hart did not. Harrell was a street +woman, while Hart was a working-class homeowner with two children. Hart's +eyes were a different color than Harrell's, her hair was different and she +was heavier than the real suspect. There was nothing in Hart's background or +physical appearance that matched Janice Marie Harrell. + + "They pulled up my sleeves, looking for scars," said Hart. Of course, +they weren't there. "I say, 'How do I remove scars? Scars don't disappear.' +That's when he (Kim) started getting this expression on his face like 'I +think I messed up.' But of course, they don't admit that to you." + + So, when it's obvious that Agent Kim and his bumbling agents have the +wrong person, do they release Hart? No, they arrest her. They read Hart her +rights and take her to the Portland slammer. It was at the Portland police +station when things finally turned around. The Portland police, professional +and conscientious, treated Hart as a person, without intimidation and +threats. Immediately upon being fingerprinted, they released her because it +was obvious that Kim and his Keystone Cops had arrested the wrong person. It +took Portland police 30 seconds to recognize that Janice Hart was not Janice +Harrell and they released her, while Kim and his agents were standing nearby +scratching their heads. + + OREGONIAN reporter, Margie Boule recounted Hart's story for local +Portland BATF resident agent in charge, Pete McLouth and he basically said +that his agents did indeed pick up the wrong person. He couldn't deny it +because Harrell was picked up shortly after the terrorist raid on Hart's +home. That's about all he said, however, because McLouth took the standard +BATF line of "I can't talk about it because it's an ongoing investigation." + + The search warrants used by the BATF in the Hart case were much like the +ones used in the Branch Davidian case. Someone, with hearsay knowledge, +tipped BATF off. There was no evidence that Janice Hart was Janice Harrell +and absolutely no evidence or even the slightest indication that Hart was +illegally dealing firearms. + + The raid was conducted simply because of one person's gossip. Even though +Janice Hart no longer faces criminal charges, she is still feeling the +harassment of BATF. She now suffers both sleep and eating disorders. She and +her older daughter visit a psychiatrist to deal with the stress and her +4-year-old daughter has had related problems in school. Added to that, +Hart's neighbors are no longer the friendly sort. To them, Hart is still a +criminal subject of a police raid. + + What is evident once again from this raid is the fact that BATF agents +did not feel that violent behavior, destruction of property, violation of +rights and child abuse would be challenged. It shows once again that silence +from the top, read that to mean BATF Director Stephen Higgins' office, is +taken as a green light to commit atrocities in the name of the law. Director +Higgins is well aware that violations are being committed on a daily basis +by his agents, yet he has done nothing and continues to do nothing about it. +He once again has proved himself to be an eneffectual and incompetent law +enforcement officer. Over the past year it has been shown that sexual +harrassment and intimidation even within the ranks of the BATF has gone +unabated and violent terrorist raids on innocent citizens continue at an +alarming rate. This continues because the Director allows it. One word or +one directive from Higgins could prevent future Constitutional and civil +rights violations by BATF agents, but so far, he denies there is a problem. +Unless citizens get involved and pressure the White House to appoint a +professional person with integrity and respect for the Bill of Rights to +head BATF, the abuses will continue. + + Tom Cloyd, writing an editorial to THE OREGONIAN in response to the raid, +sums it up best. "But the horror and violence go even beyond this, for child +abuse was apparently involved in this case. Three children, ages 12, 9 and 4 +were in the car when Hart arrived home to find it being trashed by federal +agents. The children had to watch this act of incomprehensible violence and +the 12-year-old was physically abused when and agent closed a door on her +leg to keep her from getting out of the car. I hope others will join with me +in demanding that federal law enforcement agents of all sorts be briefed on +the Bill of Rights, be held accountable to the public for their actions and +be prosecuted when they take our society's legitimate and law-driven pursuit +of justice into their own hands." + + Unfortunately, it seems that Director Higgins is unconcerned with the +Bill of Rights as he permits his agents to violate the law time and again +without censure or reprimand. I try hard not to draw parallels to the +Gestapo of the 1930's and 40's and Stalin's ruthless NKVD, but breaking down +of doors, the destruction of property, illegal interrogations etc. of +innocent people by BATF are so close to "secret police" tactics that they +could be right out of the KGB manual. Russia's first secret police was +formed by Ivan the Terrible in 1565 and they were every bit as cruel as +their descendants in the Cheka and the KGB. French biographer and historian +Henri Troyat describes some of Ivan's secret police tactics: "Husbands were +tortured in front of wives, mothers in front of children." I'm sure +12-year-old Nina Hart and 4-year-old Randi Hart know the feeling. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bbs-olt.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bbs-olt.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..358b158b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bbs-olt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ + +Reprinted from: Compuserve's Online Today + +FEDERAL PRIVACY SUIT AGAINST BBS OPERATOR (March 26) + + An electronic bulletin board system user has filed a $112,000 lawsuit +against a BBS and its system operator claiming that the sysop did not properly +safeguard private electronic mail. The lawsuit could prove to be a landmark +since a court ruling would be the first one handed down under the federal +Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The ECPA mandates privacy +protection of electronic communications, including the electronic mail found +on commercial services and bulletin board systems. + Linda Thompson filed a pro se complaint in the US District Court for the +Southern District of Indiana. The civil action alleges that Bob Predaina, +doing business as the Professional's Choice Bulletin Board, violated federal +or Indiana state law on 10 counts. + According to the complaint obtained by Online Today, during December of 1987, +Predaina allowed others to access and view the contents of all electronic +communications in a private message portion of the subscription BBS. +Previously deleted private messages were also restored so that others could +read them. Apparently, Thompson`s private e-mail was among the messages made +available to others. + Again, in January, 1988, the sysop "intentionally or recklessly intercepted +and restored to the public portion of the board," a private message of +Thompson's that she had previously deleted. In subsequent action, the sysop +denied Thompson access to the board even though she had paid one year +subscription to the BBS. When Thompson requested that the sysop refrain from +actions that "were contrary to the law," Predaina refused. + The last two counts of the complaint could be the most damaging and state +that on January 6, the sysop "intentionally, maliciously or with reckless +disregard for the truth, made statements which on their face are damaging to +the professional and personal reputation of [Thompson] in public and to another +person, subjecting the Petitioner to humiliation, personal anguish and +ridicule." In the suit, Predaina is charged with making similar statements in +the form of publicly posted BBS messages. + Predaina did not respond to phone calls from Online Today for a reaction to +the lawsuit. However, callers to Predaina's BBS are greeted with a public +apology to Thompson. + "Generally sysops are good at policing themselves and their boards," Thompson +told Online Today. "The reason for the lawsuit was that there apparently was +going to be no resolution between [Predaina and myself]. I think that if you +have a board that has a facility for private mail, you have a right to expect +that private mail stays private and is not spread all over." + + --James Moran + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bbsefct.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bbsefct.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..272d305a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bbsefct.txt @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ + +This file contains a short article on the impact one Bulletin Board +system (BBS) can have in the local enviroment. Be sure to read if you +are a SYSOP or travel the bulletin boards. +THE IMPACT BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS AND LOCAL INFORMATION EXCHANGE +SYSTEMS CAN HAVE ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS. +The following message was left by Fred McCamic on the RECYCLENET Bulletin +board in New Jersey, Jan 85. +Do you wonder what difference a computer bulletin board could make? Beg, +borrow or steal the March 1985 issue of "Whole Earth Review", turn to +page 89, and read "The Neighborhood ROM": Computer Aided Local Politics". +It's an interview of Dave Hughes, a retired U.S. Army Colonel who runs a +bulletin board in Colorado Springs. +Two years ago, it seems, Hughes spotted a small legal notice regarding +an ordinance that would have regulated working at home. He attended the +planning commission meeting, and was alone in speaking against the ordinance. +The commission agreed to table the ordinance for 30 days, during which time +he posted the text on his BBS, and wrote just two letters to editors +suggesting that people could dial his BBS. In the next 10 days, over 250 +people called the board. +Some 175 aroused citizens attended the next city council meeting. At least +one person submitted revised ordinance text to the BBS. The planning board +made four successive revisions of the ordinance; each one was posted on the +BBS. When the final version came up for a vote, no one had anything to say +-it had already been said on the BBS. +ed on the +BBS. When the final version came up for a vote, no one had anything to say +-it had already been \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bbsvslaw.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bbsvslaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..af7e5b43 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bbsvslaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ +| +| From: MIKE SWARTZBECK Refer#: NONE +| To: ALL Recvd: NO +| Subj: Rodney King beaten AGAIN! Conf: (160) ANEWS +| from Computer Underground Digest, 12.03.92: +| Date: 02 Dec 92 11:49:08 EST +| From: David Lehrer <71756.2116@COMPUSERVE.COM> +| Subject: File 8--Akron BBS trial update! +| +| Akron BBS trial update: Dangerous precedents in sysop prosecution +| +| You may already know about the BBS 'sting' six months ago in Munroe +| Falls, OH for "disseminating matter harmful to juveniles." Those +| charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Now a trial date of 1/4/93 +| has been set after new felony charges were filed, although the +| pretrial hearing revealed no proof that *any* illegal content ever +| went out over the BBS, nor was *any* found on it. +| +| For those unfamiliar with the case, here's a brief summary to date. +| In May 1992 someone told Munroe Falls police they *thought* minors +| could have been getting access to adult materials over the AKRON +| ANOMALY BBS. Police began a 2-month investigation. They found a small +| number of adult files in the non-adult area. +| +| The sysop says he made a clerical error, causing those files to be +| overlooked. Normally adult files were moved to a limited-access area +| with proof of age required (i.e. photostat of a drivers license). +| +| Police had no proof that any minor had actually accessed those files +| so police logged onto the BBS using a fictitious account, started a +| download, and borrowed a 15-year old boy just long enough to press the +| return key. The boy had no knowledge of what was going on. +| +| Police then obtained a search warrant and seized Lehrer's BBS system. +| Eleven days later police arrested and charged sysop Mark Lehrer with +| "disseminating matter harmful to juveniles," a misdemeanor usually +| used on bookstore owners who sell the wrong book to a minor. However, +| since the case involved a computer, police added a *felony* charge of +| "possession of criminal tools" (i.e. "one computer system"). +| +| Note that "criminal tool" statutes were originally intended for +| specialized tools such as burglar's tools or hacking paraphenalia used +| by criminal 'specialists'. The word "tool" implies deliberate use to +| commit a crime, whereas the evidence shows (at most) an oversight. +| This raises the Constitutional issue of equal protection under the law +| (14'th Amendment). Why should a computer hobbyist be charged with a +| felony when anyone else would be charged with a misdemeanor? +| +| At the pretrial hearing, the judge warned the prosecutor that they'd +| need "a lot more evidence than this" to convict. However the judge +| allowed the case to be referred to a Summit County grand jury, though +| there was no proof the sysop had actually "disseminated", or even +| intended to disseminate any adult material "recklessly, with knowledge +| of its character or content", as the statute requires. Indeed, the +| sysop had a long history of *removing* such content from the non-adult +| area whenever he became aware of it. This came out at the hearing. +| +| The prosecution then went on a fishing expedition. According to the +| Cleveland Plain Dealer (7/21/92) +| +| "[Police chief] Stahl said computer experts with the Ohio Bureau +| of Criminal Identification and Investigation are reviewing the +| hundreds of computer files seized from Lehrer's home. Stahl said it's +| possible that some of the games and movies are being accessed in +| violation of copyright laws." +| +| Obviously the police believe they have carte blanche to search +| unrelated personal files, simply by lumping all the floppies and files +| in with the computer as a "criminal tool." That raises Constitutional +| issues of whether the search and seizure was legal. That's a +| precedent which, if not challenged, has far-reaching implications for +| *every* computer owner. +| +| Also, BBS access was *not* sold for money, as the Cleveland Plain +| Dealer reports. The BBS wasn't a business, but rather a free community +| service, running on Lehrer's own computer, although extra time on the +| system could be had for a donation to help offset some of the +| operating costs. 98% of data on the BBS consists of shareware +| programs, utilities, E-mail, etc. +| +| The police chief also stated: +| +| "I'm not saying it's obscene because I'm not getting into that +| battle, but it's certainly not appropriate for kids, especially +| without parental permission," Stahl said. +| +| Note the police chief's admission that obscenity wasn't an issue at +| the time the warrant was issued. +| +| Here the case *radically* changes direction. The charges above were +| dropped. However, while searching the 600 floppy disks seized along +| with the BBS, police found five picture files they think *could* be +| depictions of borderline underage women; although poor picture quality +| makes it difficult to tell. +| +| The sysop had *removed* these unsolicited files from the BBS hard +| drive after a user uploaded them. However the sysop didn't think to +| destroy the floppy disk backup, which was tossed into a cardboard box +| with hundreds of others. This backup was made before he erased the +| files off the hard drive. +| +| The prosecution, lacking any other charges that would stick, is using +| these several floppy disks to charge the sysop with two new second-degree +| felonies, "Pandering Obscenity Involving A Minor", and +| "Pandering Sexually Oriented Matter Involving A Minor" (i.e. kiddie +| porn, prison sentence of up to 25 years). +| +| The prosecution produced no evidence the files were ever "pandered". +| There's no solid expert testimony that the pictures depict minors. All +| they've got is the opinion of a local pediatrician. All five pictures +| have such poor resolution that there's no way to tell for sure to what +| extent makeup or retouching was used. A digitized image doesn't have +| the fine shadings or dot density of a photograph, which means there's +| very little detail on which to base an expert opinion. The +| digitization process also modifies and distorts the image during +| compression. +| +| The prosecutor has offered to plea-bargain these charges down to +| "possession" of child porn, a 4th degree felony sex crime punishable +| by one year in prison. The sysop refuses to plead guilty to a sex +| crime. Mark Lehrer had discarded the images for which the City of +| Munroe Falls adamantly demands a felony conviction. This means the +| first "pandering" case involving a BBS is going to trial in *one* +| month, Jan 4th. +| +| The child porn statutes named in the charges contain a special +| exemption for libraries, as does the original "dissemination to +| juveniles" statute (ORC # 2907.321 & 2). The exemption presumably +| includes public and privately owned libraries available to the public, +| and their disk collections. This protects library owners when an adult +| item is misplaced or loaned to a minor. (i.e. 8 year olds can rent +| R-rated movies from a public library). +| +| Yet although this sysop was running a file library larger than a small +| public library, he did not receive equal protection under the law, as +| guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Neither will any other BBS, if this +| becomes precedent. The 'library defense' was allowed for large +| systems in Cubby versus CompuServe, based on a previous obscenity case +| (Smith vs. California), in which the Supreme Court ruled it generally +| unconstitutional to hold bookstore owners liable for content, because +| that would place an undue burden on bookstores to review every book +| they carry, thereby 'chilling' the distribution of books and +| infringing the First Amendment. +| +| If the sysop beats the bogus "pandering" charge, there's still +| "possession", even though he was *totally unaware* of what was on an +| old backup floppy, unsolicited in the first place, found unused in a +| cardboard box. "Possession" does not require knowledge that the person +| depicted is underage. The law presumes anyone in possession of such +| files must be a pedophile. The framers of the law never anticipated +| sysops, or that a sysop would routinely be receiving over 10,000 files +| from over 1,000 users. +| _______________________ +| +| One comment: If a computer is a 'criminal tool' my local +| public library and most of the schools in this area are in -BIG- +| trouble... diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/betrayed.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/betrayed.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0bf5b661 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/betrayed.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1640 @@ +The following is a transcript of the video, "A NATION BETRAYED". It +documents alleged CIA involvement in covert drug running activities and +how they supposedly interfered with the nation's attempts to recover +POW/MIAs. It is very long (around 75K bytes) so you may wish to save +it and download it from your network site for offline reading. It is a +document I promised I'd upload to the net. You may find it +unbelievable. You may not be surprised at what it says. I have +several comments which I will append to end of the document. Sufficed +to say that information of this type is its own shocking kind of +pornography. As far as I can see Gritz's arguments are more or less +sound. The evidence from three separate sources is even more +compelling. As I watched this video I felt thoroughly violated. It is +not enjoyable reading, but it may well be true. + +Be careful when you seek the truth. Upon finding it you may be forced +to change your view of the world. + +(apologies to the original quote) + +(Transcriber's note: The following is a transcription of spoken +english and as such can be difficult to read, much less transcribe. I +have tried to preserve exactly as was spoken except for a few places +where I have organized the language used to clarify meaning. I am not +an English major so don' slam me for not using perfect english +punctuation in the sometimes rather strange usages.) + +---------------------------CUT HERE---------------------------------- + +Colonel Bo Gritz Addressing the American Liberty Lunch Club: + +What I want to tell you very quickly is something that I feel is more +heinous than the Bataan death march. Certainly it is of more concern to +you as Americans than the Watergate. What I'm talking about is +something we found out in Burma - May 1987. We found it out from a man +named Khun Sa. He is the recognized overlord of heroin in the world. +Last year he sent 900 tons of opiates and heroin into the free world. +This year it will be 1200 tons. + +(video showing discussion at Khun Sa's headquarters -- some translation +of Burmese to English going on..Bo Gritz still talking to Lunch club in +the foreground) + +On video tape he said to us something that was most astounding: that US +government officials have been and are now his biggest customers, and +have been for the last twenty years. I wouldn't believe him. We +fought a war in Laos and Cambodia even as we fought whatever it was in +Vietnam. The point is that there are as many bomb holes in those two +other countries as there are in Vietnam. Five hundred and fifty plus +Americans were lost in Laos. Not one of them ever came home. We heard +a president say, "The war is over, we are out with honor - all of the +prisoners are home." and a few other lies. Now we got rid of that +president, but we didn't get rid of the problem. We ran the war in +Laos and Cambodia through drugs. The money that would not be +appropriated by a liberal congress, was appropriated. And you know who +we used for distribution? Santos Trafficante, old friend of the CIA +and mobster out of Cuba and Florida. We lost the war! +Fifty-eight-thousand Americans were killed. Seventy-thousand became +drug casualties. In the sixties and seventies you saw an infusion of +drugs into America like never was before. Where do you think the Mafia +takes the heroin and opiates that it gets through its arrangement with +the US government? It doesn't distribute them in Africa or Europe. +This is the big money bag here. We're Daddy Warbucks for them. So I +submit to you that the CIA has been pressed for solutions. Each time +they have gone to the sewer to find it. And you cant smell like a rose +when you've been playing in the cesspool. We've been embracing +organized crime. Now you've all looked and heard about Ollie North, +about the Contras, about nobody knowing anything. + +(cut to part of Iran Contra hearings with Ollie North explaining the +flow of funds from Iran to the Contras) + +North: + +And Mr. Gorbanifar suggested several incentives to make that February +transaction work. And the attractive incentive for me was the one he +made that residuals could flow to support the Nicaraguan resistance. + + +Legislator: + +Even Gorbanifar knew that you were supporting the Contras. + +North: + +Yes he did. Isvestia knew it. The name had been in the papers in +Moscow. It had been all over Danny Ortega's newscasts. Radio Havana +was broadcasting it. It had been in every newspaper in the land. + +Legislator: + +All our enemies knew it and you wanted to keep it from the United +States Congress. + +North: + +We wanted to be able to deny a covert operation. + + +(back to Bo at the Luncheon Club) + + +We have a constitution that says that the laws will be made by the +Congress, enforced by the executive branch, interpreted by the judicial +branch. But in reality we have an executive branch that has for more +than a twenty years operated in what what Ollie North called a parallel +government. When the Congress says no, it makes no difference. +They're gonna do it anyway. And it is special intelligence - top +secret. Why? Not because the communists don't know what were doing, +its to keep it a secret from you. You're not capable of making those +kinds of decisions according to those in parallel government. The +reason I know ... I was there. I've been a product of parallel +government myself. + +(Narrator) + +Lieutenant Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz is the most decorated Green Beret +commander of the Vietnam Era. General William Westmoreland, in writing +his memoirs, singled out Bo Gritz as the "American Soldier" for his +exemplary courage in combat and outstanding ingenuity in recovering a +highly secret black-box the Viet-Cong had taken from a crashed U2 spy +plane. The feature films "Rambo", "Uncommon Valor" and "Missing in +Action" were based in part upon his real-life military experiences. + +(Back to Bo) + +Dick Secord, General, United States Air Force, a man I know well, said +it best. Before the senate investigating committee Dick Secord was +asked - if we were supporting the Contras, why were we selling them +arms bought from a communist block nation at exorbitant profit rates. + +(skip to scene from hearings) + + +Senator: + +If the purpose of the enterprise was to help the contras, why did you +charge Colero a mark-up? + +Secord: + +We were in business to make a living, Senator. We had to make a +living. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time. It was a +commercial enterprise. + +Senator: + +Oh..I thought the purpose of the enterprise was to aid Colero's cause. + +Secord: + +Can't I have two purposes? I did. + +Senator: + +Oh..allright. + +(back to Bo) + +And then Dick Secord said in his playboy interview: "I think I deserve +the eight million that we made from the Iran arms sale for all the hard +work I did." If you've got to pay a patriot, you've got the wrong guy. + +(applause from audience) + +These are patriots for profit. There has been a guise of patriotism +that a lot of people have been hiding behind. War is their business. +Business has been good. + + +(fade to shots of the Vietnam 'conflict' - Narrator takes over again) + +Bo Gritz risked his life a thousand times in combat in Vietnam before +he was sent by a national security council staffer Tom Harvey in the +White House to Burma in November of 1986 in search of American +prisoners of war. He discovered instead a heroin highway and a nation +betrayed by high level American officials involved in narcotics +trafficking. Tom Harvey and his superiors in the White House were not +pleased with Bo's report. + +(fade to scene of Bo - now with beard in a field obviously somewhere in +Southeast Asia - palm trees and oxen indigenous to the area abound - I +assume its in either Burma or Thailand) + +The thing that I was most concerned about was - and I thought was +fantastic - was the general's offer to stop the flow of opium and +heroin into the free world. When I asked him (assume he's talking +about a conversation with Tom Harvey now) he said "that's fantastic". +There was a pause, then he said, "Bo, there's no one here that supports +that." And I said, "What?! Vice-President Bush has been appointed by +president Reagan as the Number One policeman to control drug entry into +the United States. How can you say there's no interest and no support +when we bring back a video tape with a direct interview with a man who +puts 900 tons of opium and heroin across into the free world every year +and is willing to stop it?" And he said, "Bo, what can I tell you? +All I can tell you is there is no interest in doing that here." + +Well that made me wonder. Thats because it doesn't sound American and +it doesn't sound right. Thats when we began to do our own +investigation because for about three years people had told me, both in +Washington DC and, interestingly enough, in Oklahoma city that the +whole POW situation was being undermined by US government officials +involved in drug trafficking. I wouldn't believe it. I said, "You +guys aren't playing with a full deck... you've got yourselves strung +out too thin." And they said, "Bo, you better listen, because for +three years we've had prisoners literally within our grasp and +something has happened at the last minute." (I said), "Each time I've +made every effort to cooperate with government officials. I can't +believe that people in the US government would actually, either overtly +or covertly, do anything to undermine a rescue operation. " + +Well, we're still without Prisoners of War and there is no interest, +we're told at the White House, in stopping the flow of drugs coming in +from the Golden Triangle into the free world. + +(fade to front-page articles about Bo Gritz in Parade magazine and +Soldier of Fortune...narrator picks up here) + +Lieutenant Colonel Bo Gritz is no stranger to controversy. In thirty +years of devoted service to the US Army and to the recovery of American +prisoners of war, he has encountered plenty. The making of this +American warrior began early. He was five years old when his father, a +B-17 pilot, was shot down over Europe during World War II. His mother, +a pilot with the women's Air Force, would later marry a master sergeant +and remain with the occupation forces in Germany after the war. Raised +by his maternal grandparents in Oklahoma, young Bo Gritz began training +at Fort Union Military Academy in Virginia. He was named Corps +Commander in his senior year when he chanced upon a recruiting poster +that changed his life. In short order, Gritz won his green beret in +the Army Special forces by passing all courses in the unconventional +warfare training. After graduating from officer's candidate school, the +newly-commissioned second lieutenant then insisted on Ranger training. + +Assigned to the command of the first mobile South Vietnamese gorilla +forces to be organized, Gritz also operated secretly in Cambodia and +Laos with his force of Cambodian mercenaries, or "Bos", as he called +them. By official body-count, over 450 of the enemy died as a result + of Gritz's actions. His wartime records are replete with examples of +Bo's concern for keeping Americans alive in a war gone mad. + +As recon chief of the supersecret delta-force, Bo was cited for Valor +in saving the lives of 30 US Infantrymen from the BigRed-One division. +More often than not, his valor was in placing himself between the +enemy and his men. According to an official military report dated 31 +July 1967 submitted on then Major Gritz, "His personal bravery is +legendary exemplified by the fact that he has been awarded five silver +stars and numerous other decorations for valor." In all Bo Gritz was +awarded 62 citations for valor, five silver stars, eight bronze stars, +two purple hearts and a presidential citation. + +Bo was ready to sign up for a fifth tour of duty when he had a talk +with General Fred Weiyan (sp?), the "daddy-rabbit" in Vietnam. As +Gritz described it, "I was a major and special operations chief. I'll +never forget that day. I stood there and heard that man say. Bo, your +not going to win the war and neither am I." That was the most +disillusioning moment of my life. It meant that every man who had ever +lost his finger or his life had lost it for nothing. I decided, on the +spot, to leave Vietnam. I would not kill another enemy or risk another +comrade's life." + +(back to Bo at the luncheon) + +I've had the opportunity to do a lot of things that other officers have +not. I was the first recon chief and intelligence officer for +delta-force. Commanded the first gorilla forces that went behind enemy +lines. When I commanded special forces in Latin America, we did It +exactly right. And we did exactly what men in camoflage are supposed +to do. It was very natural that Harold R. Aaron (sp?) would single me +out because, besides having a sixth-degree black belt in karate, I have +established an ability to operate on my own. And I think when Aaron +said, "Bo, we want you to do this", he understood that I'm also hard +headed enough that I wouldn't cave in. He said, "I want you to +consider retiring. I would only be temporary. We have overwhealming +evidence now that people are still there, being held in communist +prisons." Mr. H. Ross Perot had been asked by Eugene Tighe, director +of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to back a private mission that +would look into the POW situation. Perot said, "Bo, I want you to go +there. I want you to do everything you have to do. You come and tell +me there aren't any prisoners of war left alive." + +(narrator) + +Bo returned from IndoChina with extensive evidence that there were +indeed American prisoners of war in captivity, including a solid report +of 47 at one particular camp. Perot turned the project back over to +General Tighe who wrote to Secretary of Defense, Harold Brown asking +that the source, a Nguyen Dok Jong (sp?) be brought to the United +States for a polygraph test. Brown repeated the request to Secretary +of State Cyrus Vance. One month later, Vance finally responded that +the commissioner of immigration would not permit Jong into the United +States for further questioning. As Bo puts it, "Think about it. One +man, not a thousand and the defense intelligence agency chief and +secretary of state can't get him into the country. That was a pretty +clear signal that the military was politically handcuffed on the +prisoner of war issue." + +For eight years Gritz sought to find and free American POW's. He +crossed five times behind enemy lines into communist Laos and Vietnam. +Three times he was within moments of embracing those American heroes +our government had declared dead. Each time something unexplained +caused Gritz and his Operation Lazarus team to fall short with freedom +and victory in sight for the POWs. + +There has never been a shortage of criticism from any number of +armchair generals such as Robert K. Brown of "Soldier of Fortune" +magazine who devoted an entire issue to condemning Gritz's efforts. +Even to the extent of publishing documents stolen from Bo while he was +on the mission in Laos. They have even belittled his prayer before +crossing enemy lines. (Gritz is a devout Mormon...Ed) His critics said +he should have looked more like the Rambo in the movies, who actually +avoided the draft in an all-girls school in Switzerland. + +More debilitating than the hundreds of miles on foot within enemy +territory has been the disinformation propagated by those within our +government who have covered up the plight of our prisoners of war. +Gritz has been accused of being a media hound. He insists he has never +sought the spotlight, but when confronted has always been a positive +voice for our prisoners of war and will continue to be until they are +home to speak for themselves. + +Working as an agent for the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA) in the +CIA, it was fine for Gritz to travel at great peril using false +documents, as Ollie North and Bud McFarland did when they traveled to +Iran on phony Irish passports. On one occasion he was stopped by US +customs at Seattle-Tacoma airport with four separate passports. He was +quickly released when his intelligence contact in Washington confirmed +his mission. It was quite acceptable with the US government for Bo +Gritz to travel at such great peril until he returned from Burma's +infamous Golden Triangle on December of 1986 with information +concerning with involvement of high-level US officials involved in +large-scale drug trafficking in Southeast Asia. His tremendous courage +in refusing to back down to their threats has lead to his current +indictment for misuse of a passport in order to keep him from getting +this information to the American public. + +(back to Bo at the luncheon) + +There a book out now called Secret Warriors, I think. Its about an +organization called the ISA. Congress never knew about and everybody +gives me credit for exposing it, but that's not true. When I was +called before congress in 1983, they said, "Bo, are you working as an +official agent for the US government?" And I said, "Yes". And they +said, "For what organization?" And I said, "I will not identify that +organization, other than to call it the activity." This is because +even the initials I-S-A were top secret. Because it wasn't an +oversight. It was created by Carter. Can you imagine that? He did +one good thing that I know of. (laughter) But it was parallel +government. He created a secret organization to do things that the CIA +could not do and he didn't dare let congress know about it. + +Now ISA got Dosier back, the general that was captured by terrorists in +Italy. And ISA did a lot of other things. You can read about them now +because its in this book by some guy who write for the Wall Street +Journal. The point is that Jerry King was the head of ISA. Jerry King +called me on the telephone and said, "Bo, we have been ordered to put +operation Grand Eagle...", which was the governments name for the +prisoner of war rescue mission. It certainly wasn't grand and it sure +wasn't an eagle 'cause it never got off the ground. But he said, +"We've been ordered to put operation Grand Eagle on the shelf as if it +never existed." Hand before God he said, "there are still too many +bureaucrats that don't want to see American prisoners of war come back +alive." Now I didn't know what Jerry King meant then. I thought he +was angry because there was a bureaucratic tug-of-war going on between +ISA, the CIA and defense intelligence and maybe he was losing. But +remember Jerry King's words, 'cause they'll tie in here. I'm wondering +why that the Vietnamese intercept Colonel Richard Walsh (a POW..Ed) +moments before the turnover and capture not only him, but the General +also (unclear who the General is here ... Ed.) And I knew that we +still had him, because in the newspapers it appeared that, "The +Vietnamese and Lao delegations of the United Nations confirm that they +are holding an American citizen in custody." And I said, "By golly, we +in our state department are going to press for an identity." Because +doesn't it say that the president is required to safegaurd American +citizens in hostile hands. And I knew when when we pressed what would +happen? Richard Walsh would be identified. Who is he? A prisoner of +war. Hooray! Now the log jam is broken. And who can Walsh testify +to? The other men he was with. And they can testify. Were going to +get them all out now, even though its going to cost us something. Did +you ever see Richard Walsh's name identified? I didn't. + +Mrs. Walsh showed me a newspaper article that said where a Air Force +casualty officer came to her at this time and said, "Your husband is +alive. He's a prisoner of war. We have high hopes he'll be coming +home soon." They put it in the newspaper there in Minneapolis. She +was told that Air Force Two was spooling up...who's that belong +to?..George Bush...to go get her husband. That's what she told me, but +it never happened and I thought again, "What rotten luck and what a +bunch of wimps in the state department for not going and demanding that +they identify that citizen." They probably did. They found out who he +was and they said, "lets forget it." Because when I walked into the +state department shortly thereafter, a friend of mine said, "Bo, we +thought that you'd been captured. Your passport turned up in a very +unlikely place." And I said, "Yeah, I know all about it." (not sure +what he's referring to here ... Ed.) + +Do you think that all of this has just been rotten luck. Well, when +you wear the uniform of the United States you have this faith ... hope +that the system will do it. Just like General Aaron said, "Let the +system do the rest." Now comes truth... + +We were training Afghan freedom fighters in the deserts of South Nevada +near where I live and I was proud to do so. In cooperation with the US +State Department Office For Security Assistance. We finished that +mission. A man by the name of Tom Harvey who is National Security +Council Ollie North look-alike. Ollie comes from Annapolis, Harvey +comes from West Point. Tom Harvey called me and said, "We have +information ...", and here is a copy of the letter that's why I brought +all these documents. I hope some of you challenge them. I hope the +White House, the Pentagon would challenge them. Because if they would +publicly that would have to admit to the truth. This letter was sent +to Vice-President Bush by an American citizen by the name of Aurthur +Soucheck, it is dated 29 August 1986. It says that General Khun Sa has +American prisoners of war. It says that Khun Sa tried to rescue four +of them. It says his forces escorted the four to the Mekong river. +While attempting to cross the rain-swollen river, the four US +personnel, three of Khun Sa's soldiers and two horses were swept away +by the raging water and all drowned. It goes on to say that Khun Sa +has repeated intelligence reports of location of US prisoners being +kept in Laos ... that he says that has seventy prisoners of war. Tom +Harvey said, "This is getting TOP priority." + +Now in G. Gordon Liddy's book, "Will", he says, "no American has ever +come out of the Golden Triangle alive." But that's what we were being +asked to do. Tom Harvey said, "Bo, do you think you would be able to +infiltrate into Khun Sa's inner sanctum and determine if this report is +true or not?" Do you think maybe somebody is trying to get me bumped +off? (laughter) It didn't make any difference. Brothers and sisters, +you and I are small compared to this nation and the risk that we take +if there is one American there is worth it. God's will they'll be home +while they're still alive. I told Harvey, "We didn't fight a war in +Burma, why should there be prisoners of war there?" But you know a guy +like Khun Sa has got connections all over. And I said, "We'll try." + +I speak Chinese. Khun Sa speaks Chinese. He's right along the +southern China border. Surrounded by communists, he's fighting the +communists. He has a forty-thousand man army. About eight-million +Shan people that make up the minority Shan state. Burma is communist. +Every one of his weapons are M16s and M60 machine guns. All the latest +stuff that we have. I found out why later. Too make a long story +short, we got in to see Khun Sa and he didn't have any prisoners of +war. And let me caveat it by saying this. We traveled three days +going and three days coming by horse over mountains that were literally +vertical up and down. I made the comment at that time to Scott Weekly +(sp?) who was Ollie North's classmate at Annapolis and went with me. +I said, "I would hate to be an engineer that had to build a highway +through these mountains because they're virgin teak forests ... rain +forests .. tremendously beautiful." + +Six days coming and going. Khun Sa didn't have any prisoners of war. +We gave Khun Sa the letter from the White House that I had. Thats the +only thing that let me get in there. You don't walk in because the CIA +has a seven digit figure on Khun Sa's head and they haven't been able +to collect. You think they're gonna let somebody like me in there. +Say, "Hi! I wanna go visit Khun Sa!" Doesn't work! But I guess they +thought this guy is crazy enough because I gave this letter ... I told +Harvey, "We got to have a credential, guy." He said, "We can't do +that, Bo. We never do that." I said, "Harvey, has anyone ever gone to +the Golden Triangle and come out alive? I need something that will +convince Khun Sa were not there to kill him, we're there for +humanitarian purposes." So Harvey said, "Well, this will be the +language. 'You are operating in cooperation with the White House .. +etc .. etc.'" It worked! Khun Sa didn't have one single prisoner of +war, didn't know anything about prisoners of war. + + +(switch to a scene with Bo and Khun Sa talking at Khun Sa's camp with +Khun Sa's troops doing practice drills in the background. Bo is +discussing the letter from Soucheck with Khun Sa. It is nearly +impossible to decipher what is specifically being discussed because +Khun Sa's troops are incredibly loud and drown out the conversation, so +I will proceed to the next scene. Don't worry...there are more Khun Sa +meetings to come. The long and short of it is Khun Sa says he will +decrease or stop the drug shipments and Gritz gets it on videotape. Now +back to Bo at the luncheon.) + + +Now with Nancy Reagan saying no to drugs and Judge Ginsberg not allowed +to sit on the supreme court because he smoked marijuana .. and you're +an accessory to murder if you ever smoke marijuana, according to Nancy +Reagan. I figured we'd get an 'attaboy'. We didn't have prisoners, +but we had three video tapes showing Khun Sa himself. And I thought, +"Boy, is George Bush gonna be thrilled about this!" (much laughter) +We delivered those tapes to Tom Harvey just before Christmas. You try +to call Tom Harvey now, because some news people did, and he doesn't +return your calls. We delivered those tapes just before Christmas, Tom +Harvey called me back and said, "Bo, Fantastic! You guys actually got +in to see Khun Sa. The CIA said he had been assasinated." Somebody +needed some pocket change. "And there he is talking." And I said, +"That's right, Tom. Harvey, what about the 900 tons?" I figured they +were just bubbling over. They were all right, they were dripping in +their knickers. But it wasn't from joy. Harvey said, "Bo..", these +are quotes ... hand on the square .. he said, "Bo, there's no interest +here in that." You be on the other end of the phone. You've just come +out of Burma. You've brought what you consider to be a way to stop 900 +tons of heroin, not marijuana and get rid of the cancer that has +infected the bureaucracy and there's "no interest." I challenged +Harvey because I'm pretty hard-headed. I said, "Tom, didn't President +Reagan appoint George Bush the number one cop to stop drugs before they +come into the United States?" I wanted to remind him of these little +things. And he said, "Bo, what can I tell you? There is NO INTEREST +here in doing that." Now that is White-House-ese for saying, "Get of +this subject, leave us alone." I knew that we had trod upon some very +sensitive toes. I still didn't have a clue to what was going on, but I +knew that we were getting close to finding out and I took off and went +to Burma again. + +Now I want to show you some things when I got back to Burma. (he shows +some newspaper headlines) The United States government wanted Khun Sa +killed quick and here's how they did it: + + US CALLS FOR NO MERCY IN DRUG WAR + +These are over-there newspapers... + + AIRSTRIKES AGAINST KHUN SA's HEADQUARTERS + BURMESE AND THAI TROOPS MOVE ON KHUN SA + +Finally it says, and there is a picture of Burmese and Thai troops +standing on top of a high mountain top: + + KHUN SA'S STRONGHOLD SEIZED + +Now many of you are soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors. You know that +airstrikes, troops mean war. There's hair, eyes and teeth everywhere. +When I went back into Burma in May I took two other Americans with me. +It was the most peaceful area. It was exactly like we left it except +for one big change. Remember I told you it took us three days to ride +by horse to get there in November and come out in December. Well, when +we went in May, we went by pickup truck. Straight from the Thai border +all the way right to the General's front door. And on the other way +coming back there were Thai military 10 ton trucks covered and loaded. +There's only one thing that comes out of the Golden Triangle and that's +heroin. + +When we got there General Khun Sa said, "What took you so long?" I +said, "General, I was waiting for the war to die down. I didn't want +to get caught in all of this 26,000 troops and airstrikes", and he just +laughed. He said, "That was a newspaper war!" I said, "What do you +mean newspaper war?" He said, "The Thai and Burmese came to me and +said that if they don't make it look like there doing something, they +stand to lose tens of millions of dollars this year in drug supression +funds from American taxpayers." So Kuhn Sa said, "Make it look like +anything you want to, but I want a rode built here." They used the +newspapers and I want to show you something. This one here says, "US +PROVIDES ANOTHER 1.8 MILLION TO FIGHT DRUGS" So it worked! And this +guy is really smiling. This is a Thai receiving a check from the US +Ambassador. + +Khun Sa got what he wanted. Now he began to assemble his officers. It +took him a week to get them all together because he brought them from +all over the place. And now I understand why. I thought I was just +going to talk to him, but he said no and put me off for a week. He +assembled officers from the entire Shan territory from all over the +Golden Triangle. They came in. He sat everybody down. He brought his +secretary out. He had his secretary read from their log. + +(Scene switches to Khun Sa's headquarters. All of Khun Sa' officers +are here along with Khun Sa. I'd say around twenty in all. Bo and his +companions are sitting with them. This is where it gets VERY +interesting. The following conversation was in broken english from +Khun Sa's end so some of the syntax may be a bit wierd.) + +Bo: + +I cannot ask the General to cut your throat by revealing any contact +that would hurt your economy at this moment. But I pray that he will +reveal any connections from the older time or that will not hurt you +now. That if they are still in power, we might be free of them. + +Khun Sa: + +Some of the connections I can expose to you. Some were in Burma, some +were in Thailand, some were in America. But I don't remember all of +their names and my secretary remembers them so he will give you the +information. + +Secretary: + +In 1965 to 1975 there is one CIA in Laos, his name was Shakley. He was +involved the narcotics business. And we know that Shakley used one +civilian to organize trafficking. His civilian name was Santos +Trafficante. He was the organizer of trafficking for Shakley. This +was financed by Richard Armitage who stayed in Vietnam. After the +Vietnam war Richard Armitage was a prominent trafficker in Bangkok. +This was between 1975 to 1979 he was a very active trafficker in +Bangkok. He was one of the embassy employees. Then after that in 1979 +he quit from embassy and then he established a company name the Far +East Trading company. Then he used the name of his company under the +table for drug trafficking. He then used the drug money to support the +Lao anti-communist troops. + +Bo: + +So he used it in arms and munitions. + +Secretary: + +Yes. This Richard Armitage has a lot of friends in Laos and Thailand. +There is a lot of CIA personnel in Laos. One of the CIA agents is +named Daniel Arnold. This Arnold was a munitions trafficker. There is +another one Jerry Daniels who organized trafficking for Richard +Armitage. + + +(Now back at the luncheon with Bo) + + +One of the men named by Khun Sa, this is not me naming him. This is +Khun Sa, the drug overlord reading from his records, named Richard +Armitage as being a chief drug trafficker from 1965 through 1979. You +know where Richard Armitage went in 1979? He went to Dole's staff, +then he Reagan's campaign staff and now he is the Assistant Secretary +of Defense right underneath Mr. Carlucci. Richard Armitage has been +responsible for recovery of US prisoners of war way back before we +actually got involved with H. Ross Perot. He is still responsible for +them. What I'm trying to do is find you Khun Sa's letter because it +will say it best. Here it is. Letter from Khun Sa written to the US +Justice department dated 28 Jun 1987. I just want to read you a couple +sentences. "During the period 1965 to 1975, CIA chief in Laos Theodore +Shakley, was in the Drug Business." Now Theodore Shakley would have +been director of intelligence of the CIA if George Bush had not been +appointed to that post. Theodore Shakley was then posted as the deputy +director for covert operations. It said, "Santo Trafficante acted as +his buying and transporting agent while Richard Armitage handled the +financial section with banks in Australia." + +All of a sudden the words from Jerry King came back, "Too many +bureaucrats don't want to see American prisoners returned alive." Why? + Couldn't figure it out. Gunboat at midnight in the middle of the +Mekong with Voice of America saying were there to abort our attack. +Walsh and the General recaptured before turnover. Why? Now I'll tell +you why. If this is true it means Richard Armitage and a lot of other +people that are named here are the least men in the world that want to +see Americans come home. Because when American prisoners of war do +come home, whether we bring them home or they drag themselves across +that Mekong river somehow, and report to the US Embassy and aren't +destroyed there. When they do come home, because they will, there will +be one hell of an investigation as to what took the greatest nation in +the world so long to bring home heroes that have been waiting for more +than fifteen years. When that investigation is conducted it will show +as Khun Sa says that these men, these bureaucrats, appointed not +elected, appointed, have broken the faith with you and this country and +its law. Have used their office as a cover to run drugs and arms to +promote covert operations that the United States Congress did not +approve of. Its the parallel government. Now that may be allright, +but I'll tell you something. It's not allright to leave hundreds of +Americans to die alone in the hands of the enemy to a bunch of wimps +that were never there. + +When I came back here, I thought I was a lone ranger. I said, "Boy, +I've got this information. Somehow we've got to get it to the proper +authorities and I'm all alone. Well, not so. Guess who shows up in +Time Magazine? H. Ross Perot ... and he's on page 18, May 4th and it +says, "Perot's Private Probes." H. Ross Perot was not in Burma with +me, but I know now where he got his info. Four billion dollars opens a +lot of doors for you. It didn't open a couple of doors, however, as +I'll let you in on this story. H. Ross Perot had gained US agent +investigation reports of Richard Armitage. Perot didn't know I was +over in Burma. He was doing this on his own. This article said he +pinned Richard Armitage. Armitage is a fat broad. Literally. This is +a giant of a man. And demanded that Armitage resign because it says +that H. Ross Perot accused him of being an a drug smuggler and an arms +dealer. That takes pretty big cajones. (laughter) It says that Perot +then went to his friend, George Bush. It says that he gave evidence of +wrong doing by Armitage. I'm quoting. Bush told Perot to go to the +proper authorities. (sounds of shock and dismay by audience) I'm still +reading now. So the billionaire called on William Webster. He's now +head of the CIA. It says that Perot made at least one visit to the +White House carrying a pile of documents, yet he has received no +support from the Reagan administration. In fact Frank Carlucci... +Who's he? He's the secretary of defense. And who was he before? +Deputy directory of Central Intelligence. Frank Carlucci called him in +to ask him to stop persueing Armitage. Talk about insulation! And +when four billion dollars cant even get your foot in the door even +though the man is a good Texan from Houston. Tell me there's no +cover-up here. + +Now H. Ross was working on his own. He didn't know what Khun Sa had +told us. Khun Sa doesn't have a television or a telephone. He doesn't +know who Richard Armitage is. He doesn't give a damn. All he knows is +the people who are on his records that he's dealt with. This affadavit +though by a man by the name of Daniel Sheehan ... and you'll recognize +Sheehan's name if you don't know him already by the Silkwood case. He +jumped on Kerr-Magee (sp?). Kerr-Magee is pretty powerful. But they +won the Silkwood case there in Oklahoma and have done a few other +things. + +(switch to a talk-show interview with Daniel Sheehan) + +Sheehan: + +There's little doubt at all that President Reagan was involved in a +conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act. He's been directly ordered +by the United States Congress not to mount this military operation +against Nicaragua. They've cut off all funds for him to do so, but he +went to Saudi Arabia and various private citizens to raise the money in +total violation of the Federal Neutrality Act. They're engaged in +violations of the arms-export control act. They're engaged in +violations of the Federal Racketeering Act. There is a whole federal +racketeering syndicate that they like to refer to as The Enterprise. +Richard Secord referred to it as. But what it is in fact, Jim, is the +off-the-shelf, stand-alone, self-financing, covert operations capacity +that Oliver North talked about Bill Casey wanting to set up. Fact is, +that it has been set up. Its been operating for many years now. Out +from under the control of any president. Out from under the control of +the director of central intelligence. Out from under the supervision +of any intelligence committee. Its run by Theodore Shakley, the former +director of covert operations worldwide by the CIA under George Bush +when George Bush was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in +1976. And this crowd has set up the off-the-shelf operation and is +carrying out not only a partnership with the drug dealers from Central +America and from Southeast Asia, but also carrying out a major +political assasination program which was participated in by William +Buckley who was the Beirut section chief for the CIA who was kidnapped +in March of 1984 and who was the subject of all the real negotiations +for the sale of the TOW missiles to Iran. It was not a sale to open +any openings to the moderates in Iran, nor was it in fact a negotiation +to negotiate for the general release of hostages. It was initiated +solely and exclusively to obtain the release of William Buckley because +he knew about the whereabouts of the off-the-shelf operation. It was a +criminal enterprise and they feared that if the American people found +out about that there would be a huge constitutional scandal and the +President of the United States would be impeached. + +You have to remember that the head of the Justice Department, Edwin +Meese, used to be the chief of staff at the White House that ran all +these meetings where they were setting up these plans. This was no +great surprise to Edwin Meese who came before us on November 25th, 1986 +and said, "Oh my gosh, look at this. There seems to be some sale of +TOW missiles to Iran going on here." He knew perfectly well what was +going on here. And there is a very technical phrase in the law that +refers to what they're doing. It's called a Big Fat Lie. + +(poor edit here going back to Bo at luncheon) + +Bo: + +(referring to The Christic Institue, I presume) + +If they're telling the truth in this case, then we should look at the +evidence they have. I've been told by my friends in the Central +Intelligence that they are, "funded by the KGB." Well, when they tell +me that and it's because Christic is talking bad about the government, +it makes me think that maybe somebody higher up has told them, "hey.. +go tell 'em that they're being funded by the KGB." I don't know too +much more than that, but I do know ironically enough, can H. Ross +Perot, General Khun Sa and the Christic, three different totally +separate entities come up with the same information if its not true? + +This affadavit though by Daniel Sheehan ... there's his signatures +swearing that it is the truth. He has uncovered information ... I just +want to read you a couple of sentences. Its says here that, "One of +the officers in the US embassy in Thailand, one Mort Abromowitz (he was +the Ambassador as a matter of fact), came to know of Armitage's +involvement in the secret handling of opium funds and called there to +be initiated a internal state department heroin smuggling investigation +directed against Richard Armitage." It says, "Armitage was a target of +embassy personnel complaints to the effect that he was utterly failing +to perform his duties on behalf of American MIA's." And Armitage +reluctantly resigned as DOD special consultant on MIA's at the end of +1977. It says, "From 1977 to 1979 Armitage remained in Bangkok opening +and operating a business named the Far East Trading Company." It says +that, "This company was in-fact merely a front for secret operations +conducting opium money out of Southeast Asia to Tehran, Iran and the +Nugen-Hand Bank." It goes on ... + +There's three fingers now. One, twelve-thousand miles from here from +an infamous warlord who doesn't even know Armitage, other than for the +fact that he is the bagman. H. Ross Perot gaining it from government +testimony of agents investigating. But have you ever seen Armitage +indicted? But if you look at these reports the agents have been farmed +out. Anyone who comes up with a report of investigation against +Armitage gets reassigned or retired. You'll recognize some of this. +This is back to Khun Sa's letter: + + "After 1979 Richard Armitage resigned from the US embassy's posting + and set up the Far East Trading Company as a front for his continuation + in the drug trade. Soon after Daniel Arnold was made to handle the + drug business as well as the transportation of arms sales. (Daniel + Arnold was a CIA station chief). Jerry Daniels then took over the drug + trade from Richard Armitage." + +Jerry Daniels was a CIA member. Jerry Daniels died mysteriously in +Bangkok, Thailand. I wonder why. + +(cut to segment from Iran-Contra hearings) +(end of part 1) +-- +------------------------------------------------------------------- +It's the man in the White House, the man under the steeple +Passing out drugs to the American people +I don't believe in anything, nothing is free +They're feeding our people that Government Cheese + +------------------------------------------------------------------ +(this is part 2 of 2 in a series on alleged cia involvement in drug +trafficking and pow/mia problems) + + +Narrator: + +The Christic Institute's charges against The Enterprise were featured +briefly in the Iran-Contra hearings during Jack Brooks' questioning of +Richard Secord. + +Brooks: + +... vast array of alleged illegal and corrupt practices beginning as +far back as the 1960's. Did you know about that? + +Secord: (somewhat nervously) + +Of course I know about it. + +Brooks: + +Well, the allegations include the organization of assasination programs +funded by the drug king-pin in Laos and laundering of millions of +dollars skimmed from the sale of military weapons to the Shah of Iran, +and the provision of military services to Somosa, and laundering +Colombian drug money, but anyhow ... + +Narrator: + +Secord's response was prophetic. Nearly a year later the cased would +be dismissed in a blatantly political move by Judge Lawrence King. + +Brooks: + +Describe your involvement and transactions with them ... + +Secord: (nervously and contemptously) + +Can I comment on the suit? The suit, which was filed in May of last +year, is the most outrageous fairy tale anybody has ever read. Nobody, +including the Justice Department, credits it at all. It's being dealt +with. I can only fight on so many fronts at once. I regard that one +as a rather minor threat that will be tossed out of ... + +Narrator: + +The congressional committees carefully side-stepped these charges as +well as the issue of massive cocaine smuggling by the Contras. But the +media was quick to notice the striking parallels between the liberal +Christic Institute's allegations and conservative Bo Gritz's +discoveries in Burma. Sharing a commitment to the truth, both Sheehan +and Gritz have been outspoken in their charges that The Enterprise has +engaged in assasinations, drug dealing and illegal weapons shipments. + +Their activities have well been documented in the mainstream press. +The case of Edwin Wilson is a powerful example of The Enterprise's +blatant disregard for law and congressional restraints. Sentenced to +52 years in prison for providing weapons and explosives to Libya, the +former CIA agent has pointed out that his more-than-willing partners in +those transactions and others were none other than Richard Secord and +Theodore Shakley. According to Wilson, "If I'm guilty, they're guilty. +If I got 52 years for what I shipped, Ollie North ought to get 300 +years." + +(cut to video clip from BBS NEWSNIGHT. Interview with Edwin Wilson in +prison.) + +Wilson: + +I would like to have the story get out, which is the truth. There has +been such as massive cover-up on this whole group. The group that now +is running the war for the Contras that I felt that the only way I +could somewhat justify my own actions was to have the truth come out. + +Interviewer: + +Are you saying that Iran-Contra is just the tip of the iceberg? + +Wilson: + +... just the tip of the iceberg. + +(cut back to Gritz at luncheon) + +I swore to defend this constitution. As a soldier I was brainwashed. +And I wasn't a dumb soldier either. I've got advanced degrees in +college, honors graduating from the Command and General Staff College +of the United States Army, given the high command, served in the +highest level staff positions in the Pentagon. And yet I thought that +as a soldier I was to be apolitical. I was to never question what our +executive branch civilians told us to do. Just do or die. What an +education I got. + +Back in 1975-76 I commanded special forces in Latin America. Same time +George Bush was head of the CIA. We knew that Noriega was not only a +drug smuggler then but we knew that he was a communist besides. He was +the intelligence officer under Omar Terrijos (sp?). We, the United +States, payed Noriega three times what we pay our President to be our +friend. I recommended more than ten years ago that we dump him. We +didn't and now were seeing the result of it. My point is George Bush +knew what was going on then. He was head of Central Intelligence. It +was his OK that said pay Noriega hundreds of thousands of dollars every +year. He knew what the intelligence reports were. That Noriega is a +brother to Fidel Castro. Don't ever let him tell you he didn't know. +I think a lot of the truth would come out if we tried General Noriega +because he knows what happened and would be willing to tell what +happened, but there is nobody in the administration that wants to hear +what happened. We know were not going to try him. Thats just a ruse. +Read the newspapers about three months before we indicted him. I saw +where Armitage went down to Panama to warn Noriega, that if he didn't +get under control that we were going to eliminate him. Well, Noriega +has bigger cajones than any bureaucrat that you'll ever meet. He's a +little guy like H. Ross Perot, but he is tougher than Texas cowhide and +he will pull the plug on the Panama Canal if we try to force him out. +I think Noriega is going to come out the winner (I guess not... ed.) + +And by the way, can you imagine what Armitage did? See, Tom Harvey and +Armitage are best friends. They lift weights everyday in the Pentagon +athletic club. I know when we got back from Burma that Harvey rubbed +his hands together and said, "Hey Dick, come on over to the White +House. Bo Gritz just got back from Golden Triangle with information on +POW's from Khun Sa." Can you imagine what happened when Khun Sa said, +"...and I will disclose every government official I've dealt with for +20 years.."? I bet you Dick Armitage involuntarily urinated right +there! (much laughter) And all of a sudden US declares no mercy. Its +a war of words. No president thats ever declared a war on drugs has +ever fought one and I see 'em being fought today. But there's a way to +do it and end-running the Constitution is not the way. But here's what +we've done. You saw Ollie North stand up and become an acclaimed hero. + Now Ollie North is a Marine that I believe has done everything he +thought was right to stem the rising tide of communism. But I want to +give you some facts and you decide for yourself. I think Ollie North +had good intentions but he was manipulated and used. + +Have we won the war in Nicaragua? Has the end justified the means +because the planes carrying arms to the Contras came back loaded with +drugs. I submit to you that we have lost. Did we ever intend to win? + +(cut to a scene with female reporter interviewing Mike Tulliver (sp?), +a former pilot who flew drug runs.) + +Reporter: + +The government decided to get into the drug business in order to pay +for the Contras? The American government? + +Mike Tulliver: + +As incredulous as it may sound, I believe that they not only decided to +get into it I think that they orchestrated the whole thing. + +Reporter (narrating): + +Mike Tulliver is a pilot who's principle occupation has been smuggling +drugs. He's currently serving a three and one half year sentence in a +federal prison in Miami for a conviction unrelated to the secret +flights he made for the Contras. He says he was approached in 1985 by +long-time CIA operatives to run what they called "supplies." + +Tulliver: + +You could bring back their cargo without ever having to worry about +interception, arrest, anything like this. Everything was taken care of. + +Reporter: + +What kind of cargo are you talking about? + +Tulliver: + +Drugs. + +Reporter: + +And the same people who you believe set you up with the arms also set +you up with 25,000 pounds of pot? + +Tulliver: + +Sure... oh yes ... sure .. in change. + +Reporter: + +So what do you do with that 25,000 pounds of pot? + +Tulliver: + +We take off out of Honduras and we leave. + +Reporter: + +To? + +Tulliver: + +South Florida. + +Reporter: + +Where in South Florida? + +Tulliver: + +We landed at Homestead. + +Reporter: + +Homestead? + +Tulliver: + +Air Force Base. + +Reporter: + +With whose clearance? + +Tulliver: + +I was given a discreet transponder code to squawk about two hours south +of Miami. I received my instructions from the ground for traffic +separation and told them what my destination was. + +Reporter: + +What did you say? + +Tulliver: + +I told them we were a non-scheduled military flight into Homestead Air +Force Base. + +Reporter: + +What happened when you landed? + +Tulliver: + +We landed about 1:30 - 2:00 in the morning I guess. A little blue +truck came out and met us and it had a little white sign that said, +"FOLLOW ME." + +Reporter: + +And you did... + +Tulliver: + +And we followed it. + +Reporter: + +To where? + +Tulliver: + +Some area of the field. I have no idea ... I've never been there +before or since. + +Reporter: + +Where you surprised that you were going to land all of this pot at an +Air Force base? + +Tulliver: + +Yeah... I was a little taken aback to be honest with you. I was +somewhat concerned about it. I figured it was a setup or it was a DEA +bust or a sting or something like that. + +Reporter: + +And instead nothing happened to you? + +Tulliver: + +No. A little guy in the pickup truck takes us out and I get in a taxi +cab. + +Reporter: + +Did you get payed for the flight? + +Tulliver: + +75,000 dollars. + +Reporter narrating with video clip of cargo plane at Homestead: + +Tulliver identifies this as the plane he flew. The plane traces to a +company that was hired by the government to fly humanitarian supplies +to the Contras at the same time Tulliver made his flights. + +(cut to clip with George Morales) +Reporter: + +Why would the CIA allow drug planes to come into the United States +loaded with coke from (undecipherable). + +Morales: + +Money. + +Reporter Narrating: + +George Morales is a world champion boat racer. He is also a world +reknowned cocaine trafficker whose empire extended from Colombia to +Miami. Morales was indicted for running cocaine in 1984. He says the +CIA used his indictment to pressure him into providing planes, pilots +and three million dollars in cash to the Contras. He too is in federal +prison awaiting sentencing on the '84 charge. + +Reporter: + +So you're saying that drug planes were allowed into the states as long +as somebody was kicking money into the Contra coffer. + +Morales: + +Definitely. + +Reporter: + +Is this like just a one-time occurrence? Somebody snuck in? + +Morales: + +No. + +Reporter: + +Frequent? + +Morales: + +Yes. + +Reporter: + +Routine? + +Morales: + +Yes. + +(back to Tulliver) + +Believe it or not, the entire business is compartmentalized. I'm like +a Teamster. I'm in transportation. You've got people who are in +loading. You've got people who are in offloading. You've got people +who are in distribution. You've got people who are in sales. It's +like an IBM situation. + +Reporter narrating again: + +Gary Betzner was one of George Morale's top pilots. He too is in +federal prison in Miami on an unrelated drug conviction. His sentence +is 15 years. Like Morales and Tulliver he has little to gain from +talking about these drug flights. + +Betzner: + +I took two loads, small aircraft loads of weapons to John Hull's ranch +in Costa Rica and returned back to Florida with approximately 1000 kilos +of cocaine. + +Reporter: + +What exactly was in the plane that you flew from Fort Lauderdale? + +Betzner: + +Oh there was some C4 explosives, M60 machine guns. It was stacked all +the way to the ceiling. + +Reporter: + +How many pounds of weaponry? + +Betzner: + +I would estimated around 2500 pounds. I understood right away that it +wasn't the private guns that went down that were that important. It +was what was coming back that could buy much larger and better and more +sophisticated weapons. It was unaccounted for cash. + +Reporter narrating: + +... near heavy security Ramone Rodriguez was brought to capitol hill. +Ocean Hunter, it appears, is just the beginning (?). Under oath, he +told Senators that the drug connection is much larger. That he'd +handled a direct 10 million dollars in cash contributions from the +Colombian cocaine cartels to the Contras. + +Rodriguez: + +Outside the United States drug dealers are very powerful people. They +have cash. The CIA deals primarily with items outside of the US. If +they're going to deal in foreign country's policies and politics +they're going to run up against or run with the drug dealers. It +cannot be done any other way. + +Reporter: + +Do you have any evidence, any proof, any ideas of whether the large +sums of cash you had delivered to the Contras, whether it actually made +it to the Contras? + +Rodriguez: + +There is no way to trace cash. My guess it that not all of it got +there, but I'm a cynic. + +Reporter: + +Where would it have ended up? + +Rodriguez: + +I would say that you're gonna find a lot of it in nest eggs, foreign +accounts, waiting for the day when the Contra issue is no longer +popular, when Congress votes it out of existance and they have to do +something else for a living. + +(back to Bo at the luncheon) + +Point is there are three sources now all saying one little bureaucrat. +Look how bureaucrats fall! You break wind wrong, you're out of here in +an election year. Why hasn't Mr. Armitage been investigated? When we +came back I was told by telephone in Bangkok, "Bo, if you don't erase +and forget everything that you have done, you're going to get hurt." I +was told, "Everybody loves you. Nobody wants to hurt you. No one +wants to put a war hero in jail, but if you don't cooperate you're +going to hurt the government." And I said, "Joe, whose government am I +gonna hurt?" (lots of applause) + +I am sick and tired of watching the result of poor politics sending our +soldiers overseas to do something that they were not meant to do. I'm +a fighter, but when we fight we ought to fight to win. And when we +send people we ought to be willing to bring them back again. (much +applause) + +We did go before congress. You know who runs the drug task force in +the house of representatives? Lawrence Smith. He is a democrat from +"Miami Vice" Florida and his staff told me before I came up, "Bo, you +better be well-heeled-for-bear because the people who keep the chairman +in office are more prone to promote drugs than they are to fight them." + When I got up there Lawrence Smith would not allow any members of the +task force to view the video tapes that we brought from Khun Sa in +Burma. He asked me, "Colonel, how could a man of your intelligence put +any stock at all in what a drug warlord would say?" I said, "Mr. +Chairman, aren't we dealing with Michael Gorbochev and he's a +communist. But we talk to him because he has the missiles and we want +to reduce them. Khun Sa has all the heroin and if we want to stop it +he's the guy we ought to see." And he says, "What's this business +about a heroin highway? How do we know the Thai's didn't build that +road to attack Khun Sa?" And I said, "Well Chairman, if they did, they +did a heck of a good job because it goes right straight to his +headquarters and nobody is attacking and he his own little customs +houses all along the road where the little bar comes down." He ended +the hearing by saying, "I don't think there is any substantive evidence +here that would indicate any further investigation need be made." He +never called H. Ross Perot. He never called the Christic Institute. +He never allowed the tapes or the letter that Khun Sa wrote because I +found out that video tapes aren't enough. They said, "Well, he didn't +write anything." Then we had a letter with his signature on it under the +Shan seal. + +Point is Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a parallel government this day +that lives within the United States government. It is a parasite! +Personally, I think we may have lost the Executive Branch. + +(cut to clip from Iran-Contra hearings with Jack Brooks questioning +Ollie North about executive order rescinding the constitution) + +I was particularly concerned Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami +papers and several others that there had been a plan developed by that +same agency, a contingency plan in the event of an emergency that would +suspend the American constitution and I was deeply concerned about it. +I'm wondering if that was the area in which he had worked. + +I believe that he was, but I wanted to get his confirmation. (Brooks +tries to continue here and is interrupted by Daniel Inouye, chairman of +the proceeding and senator from Hawaii) + +Inouye: + +May I most respectfully that that matter not be touched upon at this +stage. If we wish to get into this I'm certain arrangements can be +made during executive session. + +(cut to Jack Brook's summary) + +... involving the US government in military activity in direct +contradiction of the law, diverting public funds into private pockets +in secret unofficial activities, selling access to the President for +thousand of dollars, dispensing cash and foreign money orders out of a +White House safe, accepting gifts and falsifying papers to cover it up, +altering and shredding national security documents, lying to Congress. +Now I believe that the American people understand that democracy cannot +survive that kind of abuse. + +(back to Bo at luncheon) + +I don't think it makes a hoot who you vote for for President. The same +people are gonna run this country. I stand before you today. You +gotta know who I am. I'm an indicted felon because part of that phone +call in Thailand said, "Bo, if you don't erase and forget, if you don't +come to the apartment (that was a safehouse in Washington, DC), you're +gonna be charged with 15 years and your going to serve as a felon and +we're going to bring up aggravated charges and hostile witnesses." +That's not my kind of language. I said, "Friend, that's an insult to +you, me and two hundred years of constitutional government." He said, +"Bo, don't give me that. Bring everything you've got to the +apartment." I said, "Who's going to be there, Joe?" And he said, "You +know me better than that, Bo. It will just be me and Tom Harvey." I +said, "OK, I'll bring this stuff dear citizen. I'll show it to you +then you tell me to erase and forget." When I got to LA with the tapes +he said, "Bo, don't come." He was that much of a friend. He said, +"Don't come. Hide those tapes. Everybody's laying for you." He said, +"But please destroy and forget. That's all the state department wants +you to do because otherwise you're going to jail as a felon." You know +what they charged me with? They did charge me. Misuse of a passport. +Now that is a weeny charge for somebody thats been in clandestine +warfare for more than 30 years. That throws me in league with Jane +Fonda. She was cavorting with the enemy and misusing her passport. +Ollie North and Robert McValium went to Iran on Irish passports so they +could do an illegal arms deal, but nobody has charged them. Thats +because they're cooperating. + +Well, I'm not worried about that. The US attorney doesn't know how +hard to take it because I said, "I don't deny I misused a passport. I +misused it many times. Every time in pursuit of US prisoners of war." +You dear citizen, see if you would erase and go back to sleep and +forget. I don't think that you will. In my defense I got a lawyer, +he's the former US attorney for Nevada. He took my case for free other +than all the expenses it cost to bring in witnesses. Were going to use +this court as a forum for prisoners of war and for government in drug +dealing because you know you can't sue the government, but when the +government jumps on you now you can turn it around on them. Thats +exactly what were doing. I got a plea the other day saying, "Bo, just +go ahead and cop a plea it'll be a misdemeanor." No way Jose, were +going all the way with this one. + +(Narrator) + +The American Warrior has traveled a long road from the jungles of +Vietnam to the Pentagon to a hostile federal courtroom in Las Vegas, +but the commitment to God, country, honor and decency have never +wavered. It would be far easier to walk away from this battle, but to +do so would be impossible for this soldier. + +Interestingly enough, the US attorney prosecuting this case against a +respected dissenting war hero is himself the former road manager for a +well-known 1960's antiwar rock group. The irony is not lost on Las +Vegans, but the issues behind the trial demand nationwide attention. + +One can only wonder what the charges will be against Oliver North. + +The Christic Institue, on the other hand, is facing an uphill battle in +their current appeal of Judge King's dismissal of their racketeering +lawsuit against The Enterprise last June in Miami. As Father Bill +Davis, their chief investigator explains: + +(cut to Fr. Bill Davis from The Christic Institute) + +This is by far the most important case we've ever done. I think for +the kinds of forces that were up against, as well as for the broader +public policy implications. If this crowd can get away with what they +have been getting away with: the arms dealing, the drug dealing, the +assasination programs and sell it under the guise of some kind of blind +anti-communism, having had the revelations that we've had: the +Hasenfuss flight, the Iran arms deal. If they still get away with it +then I think democracy, at least in this country, is in very very +serious condition. I don't think it will survive. Were either going +to win against these forces, this time or I am not optimistic about the +survival of democracy in this country. I think it's that serious. + +(Narrator) + +The seriousness of Gritz's discoveries during his first mission to the +Golden Triangle, however was brought home immediately after his return. +Scott Weekly, his Operation Lazarus team member and veteran of several +POW recovery missions, was arrested and charged with a federal +violation resulting from the Afghan training program he helped Gritz +conduct. Weekly was a classmate of Oliver North's at Annapolis and has +a PhD in physics. After numerous forays into hostile enemy territory +neither he nor Gritz were prepared for the treachery that awaited them +at home. + +(Bo filmed in Thailand or thereabouts) + +The ambassador level person for the US government in charge of +narcotics control made a statement immediately following the release of +this tape to the White House that the United States would never a agree +to talk with General Khun Sa about drug control because he was such a +black-hearted criminal. I believe that we can show through facts that +have already been established by the US Justice Department and on-going +investigations that there are people currently who saw that tape in the +US government that all that they could to stop this interview right +here for fear they would be exposed. Even to the point where they +arrested Scott Weekly for a minor technicality of transporting +explosives illegally on a commercial airliner. + +Very briefly we were training a couple of Afghan freedom fighters +through the knowledge and request of the US state department and other +official agencies. The explosives were procurred for us from Fort +Sill, Oklahoma and were naturally transported, because we were using +them at a remote desert base, by aircraft. There was no danger to the +civilian aircraft. The explosives were C4, plastic, frontline safe. +You could shoot them with a machine gun and they wouldn't go off. +There were no detonating devices with us. Federal agents told Scott +when he was taken into custody that it wasn't a technicality and that +the real target was me. They were under pressure by the US attorney's +office to find out whether or not I was in kahoots with North and +Poindexter since I had traveled to Latin America and to the Middle East +in pursuit of various government associated projects. The fact is and +the truth is that I've had nothing to do with North and Poindexter or +any illegal activities either in South America or the Middle East. Now +the truth is that I believe that elements in the US government are +afraid that they will be exposed for their illegal activities and drug +trafficking. Through that exposure that this will cease and they will +loose their power. If they had tried to put pressure by causing Scott +Weekly even to be ajudged guilty ... because he was told if he would +plead guilty that there would be no problem... that he would be given +probation... that there would be no more pursuit... that it would be +unsupervised probation which would allow him to continue to travel +overseas. In truth, he was sentenced. The fact is that Scott was told +that if he would plead guilty that there would be no further +investigation and that all would go well for him and that if he did not +plead guilty there would be a tether put on all of us so that we would +not be able to travel and at that time we were very very close to +negotiating the release of American prisoners of war. The only reason +that Scott plead guilty was so that other members of the Operation +Lazarus team, myself included, would be free to continue the mission of +liberating US prisoners of war, which is ongoing now. + +(Narrator Discussing Weekly's case) + +Scott Weekly was made to serve fourteen months of a five year sentence +before it was demonstrated that the agents had removed sensitive +documents from his pre-sentencing file which would have exonerated him. +The sentence was simply dismissed. + +Lance Trimmer, a former Green Beret communications specialist with the +Lazarus team, accompanied Gritz to Burma in Weekly's place in May, 1987 +where he witnessed Khun Sa naming the US officials involved in drug +trafficking. As a professional private investigator, since returning +he has spearheaded the effort to document and publicize the team's +findings and was instrumental in obtaining Scott Weekly's release from +LongPoke Federal Prison. In the process he has been unjustifiably +arrested and detained three times by the police and federal +authorities. + +(Narrator introducing Barry Flinn) + +Barry Flinn is the Bangkok station chief for Operation Lazarus. In May +of 1987 he served as the cameraman with Colonel Gritz on his second +trip to visit Khun Sa. Also during this time he has made other trips +into ShanLand. On one occasion he accompanied a journalist from +Australia who filmed the proceedings and made this the subject of a +news program in Australia. Barry himself was arrested immediatly upon +his return to Bangkok from ShanLand on the first trip and has been +several times since then as has been Khun Sa. + +(Khun Sa in interview with Australian journalist .. either he himself or +a translator is speaking... it sounds like Khun Sa himself) + +... even if they kill me the opium will still be there. They only use +me as a money tree. Every time they want money, they come and shake +the tree just like a Christmas tree. + +Journalist: + +...spraying the opium crop with the poison 24-D (or somesuch...Ed.) + +(Narrator Again) + +One of the problems that Khun Sa pointed out in the news program in +Australia is the extensive use of toxic herbicide spraying over his +territory not to kill the opium plants, but to kill the food crops +which is very very destructive of the culture and the people and +creating a very serious refugee problem. + +(Khun Sa again...) + +We have 300 families in the hills now who have no food. The world body +is doing something against humanity in the Shan state and nobody knows +about it. + +(Bo talks about Khun Sa's offer) + +General Khun Sa has extended an offer in writing to turn over to the +United States Government on March 15, 1988 one ton of refined Asian +heroin, that sells for $250,000 per pound to distributors, as a show of +good faith that he would stop 1200 tons of heroin from entering the +free world in 1988. The response of the State Department was, "no +interest." + +(Bo talking in Southeast Asian Field) + +There are personalities within the United States Government who have, +as early as the early 1960's, trafficked in opium and heroin to finance +assasination programs initially approved by the Central Intelligence +Agency, which didn't work then and aren't working now. If these +assasinations programs spread from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand +to Iran, to Nicaragua, to Libya and have the potential of continuing to +spread unless some exposure is finally done to eliminate these high +officials. + +H. Ross Perot has said as a result of his investigation he has found a, +"snake pit without a bottom." He says that the people involved will do +anything to keep their wrongdoings covered up. He even says that a man +that was responsible for the Phoenix assasination program is now on the +personal staff of George Bush. + +(Cut to Barry Flinn in Bangkok discussing his trip with Bo.) + +My name is Barry Flinn and I live in Bangkok, Thailand. I have been in +Bangkok now for two years. I am a member of Operation Lazarus and I am +the station chief here in Bangkok. My function for Operation Lazarus +is to collect information from my agents in Laos and in Vietnam on +locating live Americans held captive in these two countries. This last +trip Colonel Gritz had asked me to go into ShanLand, a territory of +Burma, to be a witness and a cameraman to record the conversation with +him and General Khun Sa. I agreed to go and I did witness, I did +record the meeting with Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz and General Khun +Sa. Another member of Operation Lazarus by the name of Lance Trimmer +also accompanied us. In Shanland I did record the meeting and the +facts are as follows: General Khun Sa's people, the secretaries read +from a document written in the Shan language about American officials +dealing in heroin from 1965 to the present. Some of the names he had +given us were a man by the name of Shakley, a man by the name of +Armitage and other American officials involved in drugs. Now my job is +strictly locating POWS. I am not involved with the DEA or any other US +Government agency. I am a private citizen. It makes you angry when +you hear of the drug problems in America. Children taking heroin at +twelve and high officials supplying them the heroin and all the +cover-ups they did in the past, the present and probably in the future. + Now as a witness I definitely believe these men were involved in the +drug trade. General Khun Sa did say that, after giving us the names, +he wouldn't be surprised if B52 bombers started flying over Shanland to +destroy him and to kill him so that he wouldn't testify to the other +Americans involved in the drug trade. + +I am staying in Bangkok, Thailand to locate POWs and if people are +interested in more information about the interview with Khun Sa and Lt. +Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz they know were to find me. The American +embassy knows were to locate me. Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz knows +were to locate me and I'm sure the people involved in the drug trade +know where to locate me. + +Allright. One more thing. I did here about the Americans Shakley, +Armitage and other Americans being named it sent a chill up my spine +and down my back. It made me angry. It made me shocked. I couldn't +believe it, but it was there: names, files of old papers that the Lao +agents and the Shan people have on our Americans. Somebody has to do +something. It will probably all be covered up. I don't know. It's +not my business. I was only a witness and it will stay with me for the +rest of my life about the people in our government dealing drugs. It's +nice to know, isn't it? It's really nice to know... + +(Bo gives summary) + +In summary, the reason that American prisoners of war are not at home +as we speak, if what Khun Sa, the Christic Institute, and H. Ross Perot +are saying is true, is because Richard Armitage, the one man +responsible for their recovery is a heroin smuggler and an arms dealer. + He has misused his office in order to promote covert operations +through the sale of heroin and trading in arms that bypasses the US +Congress. When prisoners come home he will be investigated. His +wrongdoings and misuse of office will be uncovered and exposed and he +and the others will fall like a house of cards. + +As an American citizen it is our responsibility to wake up to the +internal threat, the treachery that threatens literally the life of +this nation. + +(Bo back at luncheon asks people to swear to do something) + +It's time that we just became Americans. Here is what I would ask you +to do, because you can't just go back to sleep on this thing like we +did on 007, the Korean airline. One is, I would ask that in your mind, +if not physically here today be willing to raise you hand to the square +(?) and swear again before God and witnesses your allegiance to this +heavenly banner (points to flag) and to the constitution of the United +States because it will die hermetically sealed in the National Archives +if we don't breath some life back into it. It is hanging by a thread. +The righteous people of this country, doesn't mean Democrat, +Republican, right, left, conservative, liberal, the righteous people of +this country need now to stand up and put a shoulder to it to keep it +stable. I want you to commit to yourself that you're going to do +something about it. Demand that an investigation be made. + +(Bo narrating here...) + +Demand a thorough and true investigation of Richard Armitage. Insist +that The Christic Institute's charges go to trial and be heard by a +jury of Americans. That those in our government that represent sewage, +that clog the bureaucracy today might be cleaned out. That the +American way might continue. That our children might grow up in +liberty and freedom with same opportunities that we have had. + +(Gritz apparently is willing to run for Congress on the Republican +ticket. Back to the luncheon) + +In the legislature you need to seek out, identify and draft people that +have the guts to stand up, because if you get the legislature up there +it can be through the people. It can be pulled back from the brink. I +think thats our saving grace. I think that through the legislature we +can do what no one else would have done to Nixon. We can wash him +away, we can wash away, hopefully, it's going to be a hard fight, this +cancer. I stand before you and give you an order. You have got to do +something about this thing. We fought the enemy foreign. Can't we +fight the enemy domestic? + +(much applause) + +(Ed: If you wish to order the video tape, you can write Bo Gritz at the +address below. I'm not sure how current it is. I highly recommend +that you do order it somehow. Reading about it is one thing, but it's +another thing entirely to see Khun Sa and his men dictating the names +of top US officials to video tape. Many documents that are on the +video are not in my transcription here. They would be too numerous to +transcribe) + +(Transcribers disclaimer: The views expressed in this document do not +necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the transcriber. I am only +the messenger. Don't shoot me. Many people know I typed this and if I +were to disappear there would be some serious investigations because +several of my family are good friends with powerful people in the +Media. Doing me harm would only serve to substantiate the validity of +Gritz's claims. Jeez, this sounds paranoid, but if it's true certain +cautions are warranted.) + +Lt. Colonel James 'Bo' Gritz +Box 472-HCR31 +Sandy Valley, NV. 89019 + +------------------------------------------------------------------ +It's the man in the White House, the man under the steeple +Passing out drugs to the American people +I don't believe in anything, nothing is free +They're feeding our people that Government Cheese + +------------------------------------------------------------------ diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/beverley.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/beverley.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..50fde7c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/beverley.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1950 @@ + THE IDEOLOGY OF POSTMODERN MUSIC AND LEFT POLITICS + + by + + JOHN BEVERLEY + + University of Pittsburgh + Copyright (c) 1989 by _Critical Quarterly_, all rights + reserved. Reprinted by permission. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + This article appeared initially in the British journal + _Critical Quarterly_ 31.1 (Spring, 1989). I'm grateful + to its editors for permission to reproduce it here, and + in particular to Colin MacCabe for suggesting the idea + in the first place. I've added a few minor corrections + and updates. + ------------------------------------------------------ + + + for Rudy Van Gelder, friend of ears + + +[1] Adorno directed some of his most acid remarks on + + musical sociology to the category of the "fan." For + + example: + + What is common to the jazz enthusiast of all + + countries, however, is the moment of compliance, + + in parodistic exaggeration. In this respect their + + play recalls the brutal seriousness of the masses + + of followers in totalitarian states, even though + + the difference between play and seriousness + + amounts to that between life and death (...) + + While the leaders in the European dictatorships of + + both shades raged against the decadence of jazz, + + the youth of the other countries has long since + + allowed itself to be electrified, as with marches, + + by the syncopated dance-steps, with bands which do + + not by accident stem from military music.^1^ + + One of the most important contributions of + + postmodernism has been its defense of an aesthetics of + + the _consumer_, rather than as in the case of + + romanticism and modernism an aesthetics of the + + producer, in turn linked to an individualist and + + phallocentric ego ideal. I should first of all make it + + clear then that I am writing here from the perspective + + of the "fan," the person who buys records and goes to + + concerts, not like Adorno from the perspective of the + + trained musician or composer. What I will be arguing, + + in part with Adorno, in part against him, is that music + + is coming to represent for the Left something like a + + "key sector." + + + * * * * * * * * * + + +[2] For Adorno, the development of modern music is a + + reflection of the decline of the bourgeoisie, whose + + most characteristic cultural medium on the other hand + + music is.^2^ Christa Burger recalls the essential + + image of the cultural in Adorno: that of Ulysses, who, + + tied to the mast of his ship, can listen to the song + + of the sirens while the slaves underneath work at the + + oars, cut off from the aesthetic experience which is + + reserved only for those in power.^3^ What is implied + + and critiqued at the same time in the image is the + + stance of the traditional intellectual or aesthete in + + the face of the processes of transformation of culture + + into a commodity--mass culture--and the consequent + + collapse of the distinction between high and low + + culture, a collapse which precisely defines the + + postmodern and which postmodernist ideology celebrates. + + In the postmodern mode, not only are Ulysses and his + + crew both listening to the siren song, they are singing + + along with it as in "Sing Along with Mitch" and perhaps + + marking the beat with their oars--one-two, one-two, + + one-two-three-four. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[3] One variant of the ideology of postmodern music + + may be illustrated by the following remarks from an + + interview John Cage gave about his composition for + + electronic tape _Fontana Mix_ (1958): + + Q.--I feel that there is a sense of logic and + + cohesion in your indeterminate music. + + A.--This logic was not put there by me, but was + + the result of chance operations. The thought that + + it is logical grows up in you... I think that all + + those things that we associate with logic and our + + observance of relationships, those aspects of our + + mind are extremely simple in relation to what + + actually happens, so that when we use our + + perception of logic we minimize the actual nature + + of the thing we are experiencing. + + Q.--Your conception (of indeterminacy) leads you + + into a universe nobody has attempted to charter + + before. Do you find yourself in it as a lawmaker? + + A.--I am certainly not at the point of making + + laws. I am more like a hunter, or an inventor, + + than a lawmaker. + + Q.--Are you satisfied with the way your music is + + made public--that is, by the music publishers, + + record companies, radio stations, etc.? Do you + + have complaints? + + A.--I consider my music, once it has left my desk, + + to be what in Buddhism would be called a non- + + sentient being... If someone kicked me--not my + + music, but me--then I might complain. But if they + + kicked my music, or cut it out, or don't play it + + enough, or too much, or something like that, then + + who am I to complain?^4^ + + We might contrast this with one of the great epiphanies + + of literary modernism, the moment of the jazz song in + + Sartre's _Nausea_: + + (...)there is no melody, only notes, a myriad of + + tiny jolts. They know no rest, an inflexible + + order gives birth to them and destroys them + + without even giving them time to recuperate and + + exist for themselves. They race, they press + + forward, they strike me a sharp blow in passing + + and are obliterated. I would like to hold them + + back, but I know if I succeeded in stopping one it + + would remain between my fingers only as a raffish + + languishing sound. I must accept their death; I + + must even _will_ it: I know few impressions + + stronger or more harsh. + + I grow warm, I begin to feel happy. There is + + nothing extraordinary in this, it is a small + + happiness of Nausea: it spreads at the bottom of + + the viscous puddle, at the bottom of _our_ time-- + + the time of purple suspenders and broken chair + + seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, + + spreading at the edge, like an oil stain. No + + sooner than born, it is already old, it seems as + + though I have known it for twenty years (...) + + The last chord has died away. In the brief + + silence which follows I feel strongly that there + + it is, that _something has happened_. + + Silence. + + _Some of these days + + You'll miss me honey_ + + What has just happened is that the Nausea has + + disappeared. When the voice was heard in the + + silence, I felt my body harden and the Nausea + + vanish. Suddenly: it was almost unbearable to + + become so hard, so brilliant. At the same time + + the music was drawn out, dilated, swelled like a + + waterspout. It filled the room with its metallic + + transparency, crushing our miserable time against + + the walls. I am _in_ the music. Globes of fire + + turn in the mirrors; encircled by rings of smoke, + + veiling and unveiling the hard smile of light. My + + glass of beer has shrunk, it seems heaped up on + + the table, it looks dense and indispensable. I + + want to pick it up and feel the weight of it, I + + stretch out my hand... God! That is what has + + changed, my gestures. This movement of my arm has + + developed like a majestic theme, it has glided + + along the jazz song; I seemed to be dancing.^5^ + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[4] The passage from _Nausea_ illustrates Adorno's + + dictum that music is "the promise of reconciliation." + + This is what betrays its origins in those moments of + + ritual sacrifice and celebration in which the members + + of a human community are bonded or rebonded to their + + places within it. In _Nausea_ the jazz song prefigures + + Roquentin's eventual reconciliation with his own self + + and his decision to write what is in effect his + + dissertation, a drama of choice that will not be + + unfamiliar to readers of this journal. Even for an + + avant-gardist like Cage music is still--in the allusion + + to Buddhism--in some sense the sensuous form or "lived + + experience" of the religious.^6^ + +[5] Was it not the function of music in relation to + + the great feudal ideologies--Islam, Christianity, + + Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Confucianism--to produce + + the sensation of the sublime and the eternal so as to + + constitute the image of the reward which awaited the + + faithful and obedient: the reward for submitting to + + exploitation or the reward for accepting the burden of + + exploiting? I am remembering as I write this + + Monteverdi's beautiful echo duet _Due Seraphim_--two + + angels--for the _Vespers of the Virgin Mary_ of 1610, + + whose especially intense sweetness is perhaps related + + to the fact that it was written in a moment of crisis + + of both feudalism and Catholicism. + +[6] Just before Monteverdi, the Italian Mannerists had + + proclaimed the formal autonomy of the art work from + + religious dogma. But if the increasing secularization + + of music in the European late Baroque and 18th century + + led on the one hand to the Jacobin utopianism of the + + _Ninth Symphony_, it produced on the other something + + like Kant's aesthetics of the sublime, that is a + + mysticism of the bourgeois ego. As Adorno was aware, + + we are still in modern music in a domain where, as in + + the relation of music and feudalism, aesthetic + + experience, repression and sublimation, and class + + privilege and self-legitimation converge.^7^ + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[7] Genovese has pointed out in the Afro-American + + slave spiritual something like a contrary articulation + + of the relation of music and the religious to the one I + + have been suggesting: the sense in which both the music + + and the words of the song keep alive culturally the + + image of an imminent redemption from slavery and + + oppression, a redemption which lies within human time + + and a "real" geography of slave and free states ("The + + river Jordan is muddy and wide / Gotta get across to + + the other side").^8^ Of the so-called Free Jazz + + movement of the 60s--Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, + + Albert Ayler, late Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, + + etc.--the French critic Pierre Lere remarked in a + + passage quoted centrally by Herbert Marcuse in one + + of the key statements of 60s aesthetic radicalism: + + (...)the liberty of the musical form is only the + + aesthetic translation of the will to social + + liberation. Transcending the tonal framework of + + the theme, the musician finds himself in a + + position of freedom(...) The melodic line becomes + + the medium of communication between an initial + + order which is rejected and a final order which is + + hoped for. The frustrating possession of the one, + + joined with the liberating attainment of the + + other, establishes a rupture in between the Weft + + of harmony which gives way to an aesthetic of the + + cry (_esthetique du cri_). This cry, the + + characteristic resonant (_sonore_) element of + + "free music," born in an exasperated tension, + + announces the violent rupture with the established + + white order and translates the advancing + + (_promotrice_) violence of a new black order.^9^ + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[8] Music itself as ideology, as an ideological + + practice? What I have in mind is not at all the + + problem, common both to a Saussurian and a vulgar + + marxist musicology, of "how music expresses ideas." + + Jacques Attali has correctly observed that while music + + can be defined as noise given form according to a code, + + nevertheless it cannot be equated with a language. + + Music, though it has a precise operationality, never + + has stable reference to a semantic code of the + + linguistic type. It is a sort of language without + + meaning.^10^ + +[9] Could we think of music then as outside of + + ideology to the extent that it is non-verbal? (This, + + some will recall, was Della Volpe's move in his + + _Critique of Taste_.) One problem with + + poststructuralism in general and deconstruction in + + particular has been their tendency to see ideology as + + essentially bound up with language--the "Symbolic"-- + + rather than organized states of feeling in general.^11^ + + But we certainly inhabit a cultural tradition where it + + is a common-sense proposition that people listen to + + music precisely to escape from ideology, from the + + terrors of ideology and the dimension of practical + + reason. Adorno, in what I take to be the + + quintessential modernist dictum, writes: "Beauty is + + like an exodus from the world of means and ends, the + + same world to which beauty however owes its objective + + existence."^12^ + +[10] Adorno and the Frankfurt School make of the + + Kantian notion of the aesthetic as a purposiveness + + without purpose precisely the locus of the radicalizing + + and redemptive power of art, the sense in which by + + alienating practical aims it sides with the repressed + + and challenges domination and exploitation, + + particularly the rationality of capitalist + + institutions. By contrast, there is Lenin's famous + + remark--it's in Gorki's _Reminiscences_--that he had + + to give up listening to Beethoven's _Appasionata_ + + sonata: he enjoyed it too much, it made him feel soft, + + happy, at one with all humanity. His point would seem + + to be the need to resist a narcotic and pacifying + + aesthetic gratification in the name of the very + + difficult struggle--and the corresponding ideological + + rigor--necessary to at least setting in motion the + + process of building a classless society. But one + + senses in Lenin too the displacement or sublation of an + + aesthetic sensibility onto the field of revolutionary + + activism. And in both Adorno and Lenin there is a + + sense that music is somehow in excess of ideology. + +[11] Not only the Frankfurt School, but most major + + tendencies in "Western Marxism" (a key exception is + + Gramsci) maintain some form or other of the + + art/ideology distinction, with a characteristic + + ethical-epistemological privileging of the aesthetic + + _over_ the ideological. In Althusser's early essays-- + + "A Letter on Art to Andre Daspre," for example--art was + + said to occupy an intermediate position between science + + and ideology, since it involved ideology (as, so to + + speak, its raw material), but in such a way as to + + provoke an "internal distancing" from ideology, + + somewhat as in Brecht's notion of an "alienation + + effect" which obliges the spectator to scrutinize and + + question the assumptions on which the spectacle has + + been proceeding. In the section on interpellation in + + Althusser's later essay on ideology, this "modernist" + + and formalist concern with estrangement and + + defamiliarization has been displaced by what is in + + effect a postmodernist concern with fascination and + + fixation. If ideology, in Althusser's central thesis, + + is what constitutes the subject in relation to the + + real, then the domain of ideology is not a world-view + + or set of (verbal) ideas, but rather the ensemble of + + signifying practices in societies: that is, the + + cultural. In interpellation, the issue is not + + _whether_ ideology is happening in the space of + + something like aesthetic experience, or whether "good" + + or "great" art transcends the merely ideological + + (whereas "bad" art doesn't), but rather _what_ or + + _whose_ ideology, because the art work is precisely + + (one of the places) where ideology happens, though of + + course this need not be the dominant ideology or even + + any particular ideology. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[12] If the aesthetic effect consists in a certain + + satisfaction of desire--a "pleasure" (in the + + formalists, the recuperation or production of + + sensation)--, and if the aesthetic effect is an + + ideological effect, then the question becomes not the + + separation of music and ideology but rather their + + relation. + +[13] Music would seem to have in this sense a special + + relation to the pre-verbal, and thus to the Imaginary + + or more exactly to something like Kristeva's notion of + + the semiotic.^13^ In the sort of potted lacanianism we + + employ these days in cultural studies, we take it that + + objects of imaginary identification function in the + + psyche--in a manner Lacan designated as "orthopedic"-- + + as metonyms of an object of desire which has been + + repressed or forgotten, a desire which can never be + + satisfied and which consequently inscribes in the + + subject a sense of insufficiency or fading. In + + narcissism, this desire takes the form of a libidinal + + identification of the ego with an image or sensation of + + itself as (to recall Freud's demarcation of the + + alternatives in his 1916 essay on narcissism) it is, + + was or should be. From the third of these + + possibilities--images or experiences of the ego as it + + should be--Freud argued that there arises as a + + consequence of the displacement of primary narcissism + + the images of an ideal ego or ego ideal, internalized + + as the conscience or super ego. Such images, he added, + + are not only of self but also involve the social ideals + + of the parent, the family, the tribe, the nation, the + + race, etc. Consequently, those sentiments which are + + the very stuff of ideology in the narrow sense of + + political "isms" and loyalties--belonging to a party, + + being an "american," defending the family "honor," + + fighting in a national liberation movement, etc.--are + + basically transformations of homoerotic libidinal + + narcissism. + +[14] It follows then that the aesthetic effect--even + + the sort of non-semantic effect produced by the + + organization of sound (in music) or color and line (in + + painting or sculpture)--always implies a kind of social + + Imaginary, a way of being with and/or for others. + + Although they are literature-centered, we may recall in + + this context Jameson's remarks at the end of _The + + Political Unconscious_ (in the section titled "The + + Dialectic of Utopia and Ideology") to the effect that + + "all class consciousness--that is all ideology in the + + strict sense--, as much the exclusive forms of + + consciousness of the ruling classes as the opposing + + ones of the oppressed classes, are in their very nature + + utopian." From this Jameson claims--this is his + + appropriation of Frankfurt aesthetics--that the + + aesthetic value of a given work of art can never be + + limited to its moment of genesis, when it functioned + + willy-nilly to legitimize some form or other of + + domination. For if its utopian quality as "art"--its + + "eternal charm," to recall Marx's (eurocentric, petty + + bourgeois) comment on Greek epic poetry--is precisely + + that it expresses pleasurably the imaginary unity of a + + social collectivity, then "it is utopian not as a thing + + in itself, but rather to the extent that such + + collectivities are themselves ciphers for the final + + concretion of collective life, that is the achieved + + utopia of a classless society."^14^ + +[15] What this implies, although I'm not sure whether + + Jameson himself makes this point as such, is that the + + political unconscious of the aesthetic is (small c) + + communism. (One would need to also work through here + + the relation between music--Wagner, Richard Strauss + + --and fascism.) + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[16] I want to introduce at this point an issue which + + was particularly crucial to the way in which I + + experienced and think about music, which is the + + relation of music and drugs. It is said the passage + + from _Nausea_ I used before derived from Sartre's + + experiments in the 30s with mescaline. Many of you + + will have your own versions of essential psychedelic + + experiences of the 60s, but here--since I'm not likely + + to be nominated in the near future for the Supreme + + Court--is one of mine. It is 1963, late at night. I'm + + a senior in college and I've taken peyote for the first + + time. I'm lying face down on a couch with a red + + velour cover. Mozart is playing, something like the + + adagio of a piano concerto. As my nausea fades--peyote + + induces in the first half hour or so a really intense + + nausea--I begin to notice the music which seems to + + become increasingly clear and beautiful. I feel my + + breath making my body move against the couch and I feel + + the couch respond to me as if it were a living + + organism, very soft and very gentle, as if it were the + + body of my mother. I remember or seem to remember + + being close to my mother in very early childhood. I am + + overwhelmed with nostalgia. The room fills with light. + + I enter a timeless, paradisiacal state, beyond good and + + evil. The music goes on and on. + +[17] There was of course also the freak-out or bad + + trip: the drug exacerbated sensation that the music is + + incredibly banal and stupid, that the needle of the + + record player is covered with fuzz, that the sound is + + thick and ugly like mucus; Charlie Manson hearing + + secret apocalyptic messages in "Helter Skelter" on the + + Beatles's _White Album_; the Stones at Altamont. + + Modernism in music, say the infinitely compressed + + fragments of late Webern, is the perception in the + + midst of the bad trip, of dissonance, of a momentary + + cohesion and radiance, whose power is all the greater + + because it shines out of chaos and evil. In Frankfurt + + aesthetics, dissonance is the voice of the oppressed in + + music. Thus for Adorno it is only in dissonance, which + + destroys the illusion of reconciliation represented by + + harmony, that the power of seduction of the inspiring + + character of music survives.^15^ + + + * * * * * * * * + + + Consider what moderation is required to express + + oneself so briefly... You can stretch every + + glance out into a poem, every sigh into a novel. + + But to express a novel in a single gesture, a joy + + in a breath--such concentration can only be + + present in proposition to the absence of self- + + pity. + + --Schoenberg on Webern^16^ + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[18] Cage's _4'33"_--which is a piece where the + + performer sits at a piano without playing anything for + + four minutes and thirty-three seconds--is a + + postmodernist homage to modernist aesthetics, to + + serialism and private language music. What it implies + + is that the listening subject is to compose from the + + very absence of music the music, the performance from + + the frustration of the expected performance. As in + + the parallel cases of Duchamp's ready-mades or + + Rauschenberg's white paintings, such a situation gives + + rise to an appropriately "modernist" anxiety (which + + might be allegorized in Klee's twittering birds whose + + noise emanates from the very miniaturization, + + compression and silent tension of the pictorial space) + + to create an aesthetic experience out of the given, + + whatever it is. + +[19] Postmodernism per se in music, on the other hand, + + is where the anxiety of the listener to "make sense of" + + the piece is either perpetually frustrated by pure + + randomness--Cage's music of chance--or assuaged and + + dissipated by a bland, "easy-listening" surface with + + changes happening only in a Californian _longue duree_, + + as in the musics of La Monte Young, Philip Glass, Terry + + Riley, or Steve Reich. The intention of such musics, + + we might say, is to transgress both the Imaginary and + + Symbolic: they are a sort of brainwashing into the + + Real. + + + * * * * * * * * + + + I [heart] ADORNO + + --bumper sticker (thanks to Hilary Radner) + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[20] One form of capitalist utopia which is portended + + in contemporary music--we could call it the Chicago + + School or neoliberal form--is the utopia of the record + + store, with its incredible proliferation and variety of + + musical commodities, its promise of "different strokes + + for different folks," as Sly Stone would have it: + + Michael Jackson--or Prince--, Liberace, Bach on + + original instruments or _a la _ Cadillac by the + + Philadelphia Orchestra, Heavy Metal--or Springsteen--, + + Country (what kind of Country: Zydeco, Appalachian, + + Bluegrass, Dolly Parton, trucker, New Folk, etc.?), + + jazz, blues, spirituals, soul, rap, hip hop, fusion, + + college rock (Grateful Dead, REM, Talking Heads), SST + + rock (Meat Puppets etc.), Holly Near, _Hymnen_, + + _salsa_, reggae, World Beat, _norteno_ music, + + _cumbias_, Laurie Anderson, 46 different recorded + + versions of _Bolero_, John Adams, and so on and on, + + with the inevitable "crossovers" and new "new waves." + + By contrast, even the best stocked record outlets in + + socialist countries were spartan. + +[21] But this is also "Brazil" (as in the song/film): + + the dystopia of behaviorly tailored, industrially + + manufactured, packaged and standardized music--Muzak--, + + where it is expected that everyone except owners and + + managers of capital will be at the same time a fast + + food chain worker and consumer. Muzak is to music + + what, say, McDonalds is to food; and since its purpose + + is to generate an environment conducive to both + + commodity production and consumption, it is more often + + than not to be heard in places like McDonalds (or, so + + we are told in prison testimonies, in that Latin + + American concomitant of Chicago School economics which + + are torture chambers, with the volume turned up to the + + point of distortion). + +[22] In Russell Berman's perhaps overly anxious image, + + Muzak implies a fundamental mutation of the public + + sphere, "the beautiful illusion of a collective, + + singing along in dictatorial unanimity." Its ubiquity, + + as in the parallel cases of advertising and packaging + + and design, refers to a situation where there is no + + longer, Berman writes, "an outside to art (...) There + + is no pre-aesthetic dimension to social activity, since + + the social order itself has become dependent on + + aesthetic organization."^17^ + +[23] Berman's concern here I take to be in the + + spirit of the general critique Habermas--and in this + + country Christopher Lasch--have made of postmodern + + commodity culture, a critique which as many people have + + noted coincides paradoxically (since its main + + assumption is that postmodernism is a reactionary + + phenomenon) with the cultural politics of the new + + Right, for example Alan Bloom's clinically paranoid + + remarks on rock in _The Closing of the American + + Mind_.^18^ + +[24] Is the loss of autonomy of the aesthetic + + however a bad thing--something akin to Marcuse's notion + + of a "repressive desublimation" which entails the loss + + of art's critical potential--, or does it indicate a + + new vulnerability of capitalist societies--a need to + + legitimize themselves through aestheticization--and + + therefore both a _new possibility_ for the left and a + + new centrality for cultural and aesthetic matters in + + left practice? For, as Berman is aware, the + + aestheticization of everyday life was also the goal of + + the historical avant garde in its attack on the + + institution of the autonomy of the aesthetic in + + bourgeois culture, which made it at least potentially a + + form of anti-capitalist practice. The loss of aura or + + desublimation of the art work may be a form of + + commodification but it is also, as Walter Benjamin + + pointed out, a form of democratization of culture.^19^ + +[25] Cage writes suggestively, for example, of "a + + music which is like furniture--a music, that is, which + + will be part of the noises of the environment, will + + take them into consideration. I think of it as a + + melodious softening the noises of the knives and forks, + + not dominating them, not imposing itself. It would + + fill up those heavy silences that sometimes fall + + between friends dining together."^20^ In some of the + + work of La Monte Young or Brian Eno, music becomes + + consciously an aspect of interior decorating. What + + this takes us back to is not Muzak but the admirable + + baroque tradition of _Tafel Musik_: "table" or dinner + + music. Mozart still wrote at the time of the French + + Revolution comfortably and well _divertimentii_ meant + + to accompany social gatherings, including meetings of + + his Masonic lodge. After Mozart, this utilitarian or + + "background" function is repressed in bourgeois art + + music, which will now require the deepest concentration + + and emotional and intellectual involvement on the part + + of the listening subject. + +[26] The problem with Muzak is not its ubiquity or the + + idea of environmental music per se, but rather its + + insistently kitsch and conservative melodic-harmonic + + content. What is clear, on the other hand, is that + + the intense and informed concentration on the art work + + which is assumed in Frankfurt aesthetics depends on an + + essentially Romantic, formalist and individualist + + conception of both music and the listening subject, + + which is not unrelated to the actual processes of + + commodification "classical" music was undergoing in the + + late 18th and 19th centuries. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[27] The antidote to Muzak would seem to be something + + like Punk. By way of a preface to a discussion of Punk + + and extending the considerations above on the relation + + between music and commodification, I want to refer + + first to Jackson Pollock's great painting _Autumn + + Rhythm_ in the Met, a picture that--like Pollock's work + + in general--is particularly admired by Free Jazz + + musicians. It's a vast painting with splotches of + + black, brown and rust against the raw tan of unprimed + + canvas, with an incredible dancing, swirling, + + clustering, dispersing energy. As you look at it, you + + become aware that while the ambition of the painting + + seems to be to explode or expand the pictorial space of + + the canvas altogether, it is finally only the limits of + + the canvas which make the painting possible as an art + + object. The limit of the canvas is its aesthetic + + autonomy, its separation from the life world, but also + + its commodity status as something that can be bought, + + traded, exhibited. The commodity is implicated in the + + very form of the "piece;" as in the jazz record in + + _Nausea_, "The music ends." (The 78 RPM record--the + + commodity form of recorded music in the 20s and 30s-- + + imposed a three minute limit per side on performances + + and this in turn shaped the way songs were arranged in + + jazz or pop recording: cf. the 45 and the idea today of + + the "single.") + +[28] Such a situation might indicate one limit of + + Jameson's cultural hermeneutic. If the strategy in + + Jameson is to uncover the emancipatory utopian- + + communist potential locked up in the artifacts of the + + cultural heritage, this is also in a sense to leave + + everything as it is, as in Wittgenstein's analytic + + (because that which is desired is already there; it + + only has to be "seen" correctly), whereas the problem + + of the relation of art and social liberation is also + + clearly the need to _transgress_ the limits imposed by + + existing artistic forms and practices and to produce + + new ones. To the extent, however, such transgressions + + can be recontained within the sphere of the aesthetic-- + + in a new series of "works" which may also be available + + as commodities--, they will produce paradoxically an + + affirmation of bourgeois culture: in a certain sense + + they _are _ bourgeois high culture. + +[29] A representation of this paradox in terms of 60s + + leftism is the great scene in Antonioni's film + + _Zabriskie Point_ where the (modernist) desert home of + + the capitalist pig is (in the young woman's + + imagination) blown up, and we see in ultra slow motion, + + in beautiful Technicolor, accompanied by a spacy and + + sinister Pink Floyd music track, the whole commodity + + universe of late capitalism--cars, tools, supermarket + + food, radios, TVs, clothes, furniture, records, books, + + decorations, utensils--float by. What is not clear is + + who could have placed the bomb, so that Jameson might + + ask in reply a question the film itself also leaves + + unanswered: is this an image of the destruction of + + capitalism or of its fission into a new and "higher" + + stage where it fills all space and time, where there is + + no longer something--nature, the Third World, the + + unconscious--outside it? And this question suggests + + another one: to what extent was the cultural radicalism + + of the 60s, nominally directed against the rationality + + of capitalist society and its legitimating discourses, + + itself a form of modernization of capitalism, a + + prerequisite of its "expanded" reproduction in the new + + international division of labor and the proliferation + + of electronic technologies--with corresponding "mind- + + sets"--which emerge in the 70s?^21^ + + + * * * * * * * * + + + From Punk manifestos: + + + Real life stinks. + + + What has been shown is that you and I can do + + anything in any area without training and with + + little cash. + + + We're demanding that real life keep up with + + advertising, the speed of advertising on TV... We + + are living at the speed of advertising. We demand + + to be entertained all the time, we get bored very + + quickly. When we're on stage, things happen a + + thousand times faster, everything we do is totally + + compressed and intense on stage, and that's our + + version of life as we feel and see it. + + In the future T.V. will be so good that the + + printed word will function as an artform only. In + + the future we will not have time for leisure + + activities. In the future we will "work" one day + + a week. In the future there will be machines + + which will produce a religious experience in the + + user. In the future there will be so much going + + on that no one will be able to keep track of it. + + (David Byrne)^22^ + + +[30] The emergence and brief hegemony of Punk--from, + + say, 1975 to 1982--was related to the very high levels + + of structural unemployment or subemployment which + + appear in First World capitalist centers in the 70s as + + a consequence of the winding down of the post-World War + + II economic long cycle, and which imply especially for + + lower middle class and working class youth a consequent + + displacement of the work ethic towards a kind of on the + + dole bohemianism or dandyism. Punk aimed at a sort of + + rock or Gesamtkunstwerk (Simon Frith has noted its + + connections with Situationist ideology^23^) which + + would combine music, fashion, dance, speech forms, + + mime, graphics, criticism, new "on the street" forms + + of appropriation of urban space, and in which in + + principle everybody was both a performer and a + + spectator. Its key musical form was three-chord garage + + power rock, because its intention was to contest art + + rock and superstar rock, to break down the distance + + between fan and performer. Punk was loud, aggressive, + + eclectic, anarchic, amateur, self-consciously anti- + + commercial and anti-hippie at the same time. + +[31] As it was the peculiar genius of the Sex Pistol's + + manager, Malcolm McClaren, to understand, both the + + conditions of possibility and the limits of Punk were + + those of a still expanding capitalist consumer culture + + --a culture which, in one sense, was intended as a + + _compensation_ for the decline in working-class + + standards of living. Initially, Punk had to create its + + own forms of record production and distribution, + + independent of the "majors" and of commercial music + + institutions in general. The moment that to be + + recognized as Punk is to conform to an established + + image of consumer desire, to be different say than + + New Wave, is the moment Punk becomes the new commodity. + + It is the moment of the Sex Pistols' US tour depicted + + in _Sid and Nancy_, where on the basis of the + + realization that they are becoming a commercial success + + on the American market--_the_ new band--they auto- + + destruct. But the collapse of Punk--and its undoubted + + flirtation with nihilism--should not obscure the fact + + that it was for a while--most consciously in the work + + of British groups like the Clash or the Gang of Four + + and also in collective projects like Rock Against + + Racism--a very powerful form of Left mass culture, + + perhaps--if we are attentive to Lenin's dictum that + + ideas acquire a material force when they reach the + + millions--one of the most powerful forms we have seen + + in recent years in Western Europe and the United + + States. Some of Punk's heritage lives on in the + + popularity of U2 or Tracy Chapman today and or in the + + recent upsurge of Heavy Metal (which, it should be + + recalled, has one of its roots in the Detroit 60s + + movement band, MC5). + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[32] The notion of postmodernism initially comes into + + play to designate a crisis in the dominant canons of + + American architecture. Hegel posited architecture over + + music as the world historical form of Romantic art, + + because in architecture the reconciliation of spirit + + and matter, reason and history, represented ultimately + + by the state was more completely realized. Hence, for + + example, Jameson's privileging of architecture in his + + various discussions of postmodernism. I think that + + today, however, particularly if we are thinking about + + how to develop a left practice on the terrain of the + + postmodern, we have to be for music as against + + architecture, because it is in architecture that the + + power and self-representation of capital and the + + imperialist state reside, whereas music--like sports-- + + is always and everywhere a power of cultural production + + which is in the hands of the people. Capital can + + master and exploit music--and modern musics like rock + + are certainly forms of capitalist culture--, but it can + + never seize hold of and monopolize its means of + + production, as it can say with literature. The + + cultural presence of the Third World in and against the + + dominant of imperialism is among other things, to + + borrow Jacques Attali's concept, "noise"--the intrusion + + of new forms of language and music which imply new + + forms of community and pleasure: Bob Marley's reggae; + + Run-DMC on MTV with "Walk This Way" (a crossover of rap + + with white Heavy Metal); "We Shall Overcome" sung at a + + sit-in for Salvadoran refugees; the beautiful South + + African choral music Paul Simon used on _Graceland_ + + sung at a township funeral; _La Bamba_; Public Enemy's + + "Fight the Power"; Ruben Blades' _Crossover Dreams_. + +[33] The debate over _Graceland_ some years ago + + indicates that the simple presence of Third World + + music in a First World context implies immediately a + + series of ideological effects, which doesn't mean that + + I think there was a "correct line" on _Graceland_, e.g. + + that it was a case of Third World suffering and + + creative labor sublimated into an item of First World + + white middle-class consumption.^24^ Whatever the + + problems with the concept of the Third World, it can no + + longer mark an "other" that is radically outside of and + + different than contemporary American or British + + society. By the year 2000, one out of four inhabitants + + of the United States will be non-european (black, + + hispanic of latin american origin, asian or native + + american); even today we are the fourth or fifth + + largest hispanic country in the world (out of twenty). + + In this sense, the Third World is also _inside_ the + + First, "en las entranas del monstruo" (in the entrails + + of the monster) as Jose Marti would have said, and for + + a number of reasons music has been and is perhaps the + + hegemonic cultural form of this insertion. What would + + American musical culture be like for example without + + the contribution of Afro-American musics? + +[34] Turning this argument on its head, assume + + something like the following: a young guerrilla fighter + + of the FMLN in El Salvador wearing a Madonna T-shirt. + + A traditional kind of Left cultural analysis would have + + talked about cultural imperialism and how the young man + + or woman in question had become a revolutionary _in + + spite of_ Madonna and American pop culture. I don't + + want to discount entirely the notion of cultural + + imperialism, which seems to me real and pernicious + + enough, but I think we might also begin to consider how + + being a fan of Madonna might in some sense _contribute + + to_ becoming a guerrilla or political activist in El + + Salvador. (And how wearing a Madonna T-shirt might be + + a form of revolutionary cultural politics: it + + certainly defines--correctly--a community of interest + + between young people in El Salvador and young people in + + the United States who like Madonna.) + + + * * * * * * * * + + +[35] Simon Frith has summarized succinctly the critique + + of the limitations of Frankfurt school aesthetic theory + + that has been implicit here: + + The Frankfurt scholars argued that the + + transformation of art into commodity inevitably + + sapped imagination and withered hope--now all that + + could be imagined was what was. But the artistic + + impulse is not destroyed by capital; it is + + transformed by it. As utopianism is mediated + + through the new processes of cultural production + + and consumption, new sorts of struggles over + + community and leisure begin.^25^ + + More and more--the point has been made by Karl Offe + + among others--the survival of capitalism has become + + contingent on non-capitalist forms of culture, + + including those of the Third World. What is really + + utopian in the present context is not so much the + + sublation of art into life under the auspices of + + advanced consumer capitalism, but rather the + + current capitalist project of reabsorbing the entire + + life energy of world society into labor markets and + + industrial or service production. One of the places + + where the conflict between forces and relations of + + production is most acutely evident is in the current + + tensions--the FBI warning at the start of your evening + + video, for example--around the commercialization of VCR + + and digital sound technologies. Cassettes and CDs are + + the latest hot commodities, but by the same token they + + portend the possibility of a virtual decommodification + + of music and film material, since its reproduction via + + these technologies can no longer be easily contained + + within the "normal" boundaries of capitalist property + + rights. + +[36] As opposed to both Frankfurt school style _Angst_ + + about commodification and a neopopulism which can't + + imagine anything finer than Bruce Springsteen (I have + + in mind Jesse Lemisch's polemic against Popular Front + + style "folk" music in _The Nation_)^26^, I think we + + have to reject the notion that certain kinds of music + + are _a priori_ ethically and politically OK and others + + not (which doesn't mean that there is not ideological + + struggle in music and choice of music). Old Left + + versions of this, some will recall, ranged from + + jazz=good, classical=bad (American CP), to jazz=bad, + + classical=good (Soviet CP). The position of the Left + + today--understanding this in the broadest possible + + sense, as in the idea of the Rainbow--should be in + + favor of the broadest possible variety and + + proliferation of musics and related technologies of + + pleasure, on the understanding--or hope--that in the + + long run this will be deconstructive of capitalist + + hegemony. This is a postmodernist position, but it + + also involves challenging a certain smugness in + + postmodernist theory and practice about just how far + + elite/popular, high culture/mass culture distinctions + + have broken down. Too much of postmodernism seems + + simply a renovated form of bourgeois "art" culture. To + + my mind, the problem is not how much but rather how + + little commodification of culture has introduced a + + universal aestheticization of everyday life. The Left + + needs to defend the pleasure principle ("fun") involved + + in commodity aesthetics at the same time that it needs + + to develop effective images of _post-commodity_ + + gratification linked--as transitional demands--to an + + expansion of leisure time and a consequent + + transformation of the welfare state from the realm of + + economic maintenance--the famous "safety net"--to that + + of the provision of forms of pleasure and personal + + development outside the parameters of commodity + + production. While it is good and necessary to remind + + ourselves that we are a long way away from the + + particular cultural forms championed by the Popular + + Front--that these are now the stuff of_our_ nostalgia + + mode--, we also need to think about the ways in which + + the Popular Fronts in their day were able to hegemonize + + both mass and elite culture. The creation--as in a + + tentative way in this paper--of an _ideologeme_ which + + articulates the political project of ending or + + attenuating capitalist domination with both the + + production _and_ consumption of contemporary music + + seems to me one of the most important tasks in cultural + + work the Left should have on its present agenda. + +[37] Of course, what we anticipate in taking up this + + task is also the moment--or moments--when architecture + + becomes the form of expression of the people, because + + that would be the moment when power had really begun to + + change hands. What would this architecture be like? + _______________________________________________________ + + + NOTES + + + 1. Theodor Adorno, "Perennial Fashion--Jazz," in + _Prisms_, trans. Samuel and Shierry Weber (London: + Neville Spearman, 1967), 128-29. + + 2. On this point, see Adorno's remarks in _The + Philosophy of Modern Music_, trans. Anne Mitchell and + Wesley Blomster (New York: Seabury, 1980), 129-33. + + 3. Christa Burger, "The Disappearance of Art: The + Postmodernism Debate in the U.S.," _Telos_, 68 (Summer + 1986), 93-106. + + 4. Ilhan Mimaroglu, extracts from interview with + John Cage in record album notes for Berio, Cage, + Mimaroglu, _Electronic Music_ (Turnabout TV34046S). + + 5. Jean-Paul Sartre, _Nausea_, trans. Lloyd + Alexander (New York: New Directions, 1959), 33-36. + + 6. Cf. the following remarks by the minimalist + composer La Monte Young: + Around 1960 I became interested in yoga, in which + the emphasis is on concentration and focus on the + sounds inside your head. Zen meditation allows + ideas to come and go as they will, which + corresponds to Cage's music; he and I are like + opposites which help define each other (...) In + singing, when the tone becomes perfectly in tune + with a drone, it takes so much concentration to + keep it in tune that it drives out all other + thoughts. You become one with the drone and one + with the Creator. + Cited in Kyle Gann, "La Monte Young: Maximal Spirit," + _Village Voice_, June 9, 1987, 70. (Gann's column in + the _Voice_ is a good place to track developments in + contemporary modernist and postmodernist music in the + NY scene.) + + 7. "Beethoven's symphonies in their most arcane + chemistry are part of the bourgeois process of + production and express the perennial disaster brought + on by capitalism. But they also take a stance of + tragic affirmation towards reality as a social fact; + they seem to say that the status quo is the best of all + possible worlds. Beethoven's music is as much a part + of the revolutionary emancipation of the bourgeoisie as + it anticipates the latter's apologia. The more + profoundly you decode works of art, the less absolute + is their contrast to praxis." Adorno, _Aesthetic + Theory_, trans. C. Lenhardt (New York: Routledge & + Kegan Paul, 1986), 342. + + 8. Eugene Genovese, _Roll, Jordan, Roll. The + World the Slaves Made_ (New York: Vintage, 1976), 159- + 280. + + 9. Pierre Lere, "_Free Jazz_: Evolution ou + Revolution," _Revue d'esth tique_, 3-4, 1970, 320-21, + translated and cited in Herbert Marcuse, + _Counterrevolution and Revolt_ (Boston: Beacon, 1972), + 114. + + 10. See Attali's, _Noise: The Political Economy of + Music_, trans. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: Univ. of + Minnesota Press, 1985). + + 11. Barthes is perhaps an exception, and Derrida + has written on pictures and painting. John Mowitt at + the University of Minnesota has been doing the most + interesting work on music from a poststructuralist + perspective that I have seen. He suggests as a primer + on poststructuralist music theory I. Stoianova, _Geste, + Texte, Musique_ (Paris: 10/18, 1985). + + 12. _Aesthetic Theory_, 402. + + 13. The semiotic for Kristeva is a sort of babble + out of which language arises--something between + glossolalia and the pre-oedipal awareness of the sounds + of the mother's body--and which undermines the subject's + submission to the Symbolic. "Kristeva makes the case + that the semiotic is the effect of bodily drives which + are incompletely repressed when the paternal order has + intervened in the mother/child dyad, and it is + therefore 'attached' psychically to the mother's body." + Paul Smith, _Discerning the Subject_ (Minneapolis: + Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1988), 121. + + 14. Fredric Jameson, _The Political Unconscious. + Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act_ (Ithaca: + Cornell, 1981), 288-91. + + 15. _Aesthetic Theory_, 21-22. + + 16. I've lost the reference for this quote. + + 17. Russell Berman, "Modern Art and + Desublimation," _Telos_, 62 (Winter 1984-85): 48. + + 18. Andreas Huyssen notes perceptively that "Given + the aesthetic field-force of the term postmodernism, no + neo-conservative today would dream of identifying the + neo-conservative project as postmodern." "Mapping the + Postmodern," in his _After the Great Divide: Modernism, + Mass Culture, Postmodernism_ (Bloomington: Indiana UP, + 1986), 204. I became aware of Huyssen's work only as I + was finishing this paper, but it's obvious that I share + here his problematic and many of his sympathies + (including an ambivalence about McDonalds). + + 19. See in particular Susan Buck-Morss, + "Benjamin's _Passagen-Werk_: Redeeming Mass Culture for + the Revolution." _New German Critique_, 29 (Spring- + Summer 1983), 211-240; and in general the work of + Stuart Hall and the Birmingham Center for Cultural + Studies. Peter Burger's summary of recent work on the + autonomy of art in bourgeois society is useful here: + _Theory of the Avant-Garde_, trans. Michael Shaw + (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota, 1984), 35-54. In a + way Frankfurt theory didn't anticipate, it has seemed + paradoxically necessary for capitalist merchandising to + preserve or inject some semblance of aura in the + commodity--hence kitsch: the Golden Arches--, whereas + communist or socialized production should in principle + have no problem with loss of aura, since it is not + implicated in the commodity status of a use value or + good. Postmodernist pastiche or _mode retro_--where a + signifier of aura is alluded to or incorporated, but in + an ironic and playful way--seems an intermediate + position, in the sense that it can function both to + endow the commodity with an "arty" quality or to detach + aspects of commodity aesthetics from commodity + production and circulation per se, as in Warhol. + + 20. John Cage, "Erik Satie," in _Silence_ + (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1966), p.76. + + 21. "Yet this sense of freedom and possibility-- + which is for the course of the 60s a momentarily + objective reality, as well as (from the hindsight of + the 80s) a historical illusion--may perhaps best be + explained in terms of the superstructural movement and + play enabled by the transition from one infrastructural + or systemic stage of capitalism to another." Fredric + Jameson, "Periodizing the 60s," in Sohnya Sayres ed., + _The 60s Without Apology_ (Minneapolis: _Social + Text_/Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1984), 208. + + 22. From Isabelle Anscombe and Dike Blair eds., + _Punk!_ (New York: Urizen, 1978). + + 23. Simon Frith, _Sound Effects. Youth, Leisure + and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll_ (New York: Pantheon, + 1981), 264-268. + + 24. On this point, see Andrew Goodwin and Joe Gore + "World Beat and the Cultural Imperialism Debate," + _Socialist Review_ 20.3 (Jul.-Sep., 1990): 63-80. + + 25. _Sound Effects_, 268. Cf. Huyssen: "The + growing sense that we are not bound to _complete_ the + project of modernity (Habermas' phrase) and still do + not necessarily have to lapse into irrationality or + into apocalyptic frenzy, the sense that art is not + exclusively pursuing some telos of abstraction, non- + representation, and sublimity--all of this has opened + up a host of possibilities for creative endeavors + today." _After the Great Divide_, 217. + + 26. "I Dreamed I Saw MTV Last Night," _The Nation_ + (October 18, 1986), 361, 374-376; and Lemisch's reply + to the debate which ensued, "The Politics of Left + Culture," _The Nation_ (December 20, 1986), 700 ff. + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/beyondwr.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/beyondwr.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f43aebb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/beyondwr.hum @@ -0,0 +1,250 @@ + +"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes +of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." + Albert Einstein, 1946 + + The development, deployment and use of nuclear weapons have + forever altered our environment. For the first time, a species + has the capability of destroying itself and its life support + system. Our thinking, however, has not yet caught up with that + reality. In order to survive, we must change our mode of + thinking. This change requires knowledge, decision, and action. + +I. KNOWLEDGE + + A. War is Obsolete + + Throughout recorded history, war has been used to acquire, to + defend, to expand, to impose, to preserve. War has been the + ultimate arbiter of differences between nations. War and the + preparation for war have become intrinsic to human culture. Now + we must accept the reality that war has become obsolete. + + * We cannot fight a full-scale nuclear war. A full-scale nuclear + war would destroy civilization as we know it and would threaten + life itself. + + * We cannot fight a limited nuclear war. Detonation of even a + small percentage of the world's nuclear arsenals could trigger a + "nuclear winter" and could cause the extinction of humanity. It + is also highly probable that a limited nuclear war would escalate + to a full-scale nuclear war. + + * We cannot fight a conventional war among the superpowers. Such + a war would likely escalate to a nuclear war. + + * We cannot fight a conventional war among the non-superpowers + without potentially involving the superpowers. The growing + interdependence of nations has produced a network of "vital + interests" that the superpowers have pledged to defend. This + defense could, in turn, escalate through conventional war to + nuclear war. + + Today, because war has become obsolete, we must learn to resolve + conflict without violence. + + + +B. We are One + +"Once a photograph of the earth, taken from the outside, is available... + a new idea as powerful as any in history will let loose." + Sir Fred Hoyle, 1948 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The view of the earth from space is a symbol of the + interconnectedness of all life. This symbol of oneness is + validated by a variety of scientific discoveries of the last + century. + + * Physics demonstrates that nothing exists in isolation. All of + matter, from sub-atomic particles to the galaxies in space, is + part of an intricate web of relationships in a unified whole. + + * Ecology provides the understanding that all parts of a living + system are interconnected and that greater stability results from + increased diversity. + + * Biology reveals that, in a totally interrelated system, the + principle of survival of the "fittest" is now seen as that + species which best contributes to the well-being of the whole + system. + + * Psychology explains the projection of the dark side of the + personality upon an "enemy." That knowledge gives us new tools + to understand conflict and to improve relationships between + individuals and between nations. + + Together these discoveries reveal in a new way the meaning of + "One." We are one interconnected, interdependent life-system, + living on one planet. + + + C. The New Mode of Thinking + + The knowledge that war is obsolete and that we are one is the + foundation of the new mode of thinking. Our mode of thinking is + what we identify with. It determines our values, our attitudes, + our motivation, and our actions. + + Until recently, we had not experienced the earth as one + integrated system. We had limited experience of other peoples + and other cultures. Therefore, our primary loyalty has been + limited to our family, tribe, race, religion, ideology, or + nation. Our identification has been restricted and we have often + seen those beyond that identification as enemies. + + In the nuclear age this limited identification threatens all + humanity. We can no longer be preoccupied with enemies. We can + no longer see ourselves as separate. Modern transportation, + communication systems and the discoveries of science have + increased tremendously our direct and indirect experience of the + world. We now see that all of life is interdependent, that we + share a common destiny, that our individual well-being depends on + the well-being of the whole system. We must now identify with + all humanity, all life, the whole earth. This expanded + identification is the new mode of thinking. + + It may be that we will never eliminate conflict between + individuals or between nations. There will always be different + perspectives, different ideas and different approaches to + problems. However, an overriding identification with the whole + earth will enable us to resolve conflicts by discovering + solutions that benefit all. Diversity will no longer be a cause + of war. By changing our mode of thinking, diverse points of view + will become a source of creative solutions. + + The human species has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to + change its mode of thinking. As we have matured and acquired new + knowledge, we have expanded our identification beyond the tribe, + clan and the city-state. As we began to expand our + identification beyond race, we abolished the institution of + slavery. Now, by expanding our identification to the whole earth + and all humanity, we will build a world beyond war. + +"The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not + perish, is to shake off our ancient prejudices and build the earth." + Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 1936 + +II. DECISION + + The process of building a world beyond war begins with the + acknowledgement that war is obsolete and that we are one. Change + then requires a decision to reject totally the obsolete and to + commit totally to build upon the new identification. + + Decision means "to-cut" (-cision) "away from" (de-), to reject + forever an option, to close the door to an existing possibility. + Without a decision it is impossible to discover the new. There + is always a peril in moving into the unknown. We cannot preview + all that will happen. We must draw upon our individual and + collective experience of making such "leaps" in the past. + + The decision to change our modes of thinking must be made on an + individual basis. Individuals are the basic element of + societies. Without an individual change, societal change cannot + occur. Each of us must decide to adopt the new mode of thinking + as the basis of his or her life. + +"To compromise in this matter is to decide; to postpone and evade decision + is to decide; to hide the matter is to decide...There are a thousand ways + of saying no; one way of saying yes; and no way of saying anything else." + Gregory Vlastos, 1934 + +III. ACTION + + Societies generate their own vision of what is possible and draw + their behavior from that vision. This nation must renew its + commitment to the vision upon which it was founded and build + agreement about the implications of that vision in the + contemporary world. + +"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; + that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; + that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to + secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving + their just powers from the consent of the governed." + Declaration of Independence, 1776 + + We have not always lived up to the highest expression of our + founding principles. For example, "all men are created equal" + originally meant only white, tax-paying, property-owning males. + Clearer understanding of these principles has resulted in + creative change. When enough of us agreed that "all men are + created equal" meant black and white, we abolished slavery. When + enough of us agreed that it meant women and men, we instituted + women's suffrage. When enough of us agree that it mean more than + "separate but equal," we recognized civil rights. + + When new agreements about principles are reached, laws, treaties + and policies are developed to implement them. That is the only + sequence of lasting change: agreement about principle, the law. + Law cannot effectively precede agreement. Agreement must spring + from new understanding of principles. The action through which + agreement is built is education. + + + Today education must be based upon the knowledge that war is + obsolete and that we are one. We now know that the principle + "all men are created equal" applies to every human being on the + planet. We now know that the unalienable right to life, liberty + and the pursuit of happiness cannot be secured by war. We must + now work together to build agreement based on that knowledge + throughout our society. + + Power comes from individuals who are connected to universal + principles and who are working together to build new agreements. + The power of the nation has come from involvement of the people + in the unfolding of our founding principles. We have always + agreed that such involvement is not the exclusive right of the + elite. Truth is self-evident: it is available to all. Power + flows not from the top, but from the consent of the governed. + Our Great Seal says it clearly: "E Pluribus Unum--Out of Many, + One." + + We have become a demonstration of that statement on our Great + Seal. The possibility that resulted from the process of + involving people in the pursuit of truth has been unfolding for + 200 years. This process has served as a beacon of hope and + inspiration to people around the world. It has drawn the largest + diversity of people ever assembled in one nation. We have + gathered the "Many"--the religions, the races, the + nationalities--working for the well-being of the "One," the + United States of America. + + To fulfill the purpose and vision upon which this nation was + founded, we must change our understanding of the principle "Out + of Many, One" to include the whole earth and all life. We must + work together to build a world beyond war. + +"I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but the + people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not + to take the power from them, but to inform them by education." + Thomas Jefferson, 1820 + + ************************************************ + + +Try to take the whole concept in together. Do not get lost in a +disagreement on a small point or technicality. This is the most important +issue to face Mankind. We need your help, now! + + +Questions or comments concerning this concept should be directed +to the Beyond War BBS (FIDO 301) at (213) 477-5706, 23 hours per +day. Give us a call. + +Call The Works BBS - 1600+ Textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always Open + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/biblemor.d b/textfiles.com/politics/biblemor.d new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c07cfab3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/biblemor.d @@ -0,0 +1,1106 @@ + 17 page printout + + From an old, undated, book published by Watts & Co. entitled: + 'Pamphlets by Charles Watts' Vol. I. + + The book contains the motto: -- + + "To Believe without evidence and demonstration is an + act of ignorance and folly." -- Volney. + + **** **** + + BIBLE MORALITY. + by + Charles Watts + Vice-President of the National Secular Society + + Watts & Co. 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street. + London, England. + + 1873? + + **** **** + + BIBLE MORALITY. + + SECULARISTS have no desire to extol the Bible above its +merits, nor to depreciate it below its deserts. We gladly admit +that it contains some useful precepts; but these, as a rule, are +intermixed with so many teachings of an injurious character that +their beauty is often overshadowed and their utility annulled. Its +coarse language in many places renders it unfit for general +perusal, and destroys its value as a standard for every-day life. +The true worth of literature should be its moral tone. Novels are +appreciated by the intelligent reader in proportion to their being +"adorned" with a moral. And dramas fail to gain the approval of the +thoughtful public unless virtue is inculcated in a chaste form. So +with the Bible: if in its ethical tone it is defective, or if it is +questionable in its injunctions or indelicate in its records, it +cannot with advantage be accepted as an absolute monitor in human +conduct. + + All correct codes of morals should be clear in their authority +and practical in their application. This is the more necessary when +severe penalties -- as in the case of Christian ethics -- are +threatened for non-acceptance and disobedience. Now, the ethics of +the Bible are both contradictory and impracticable. The same line +of conduct is enjoined in one passage, and just as explicitly +prohibited in another. One man is blamed because he is not cruel +enough, and will not go on slaying the Lord's enemies; another +man's chief glory consists in being a mighty man of war and a great +destroyer of men, women, and children; while other passages +proclaim, "Thou shalt not kill," and enjoin mercy and "loving- +kindness." The most absolute rest is enjoined on the Sabbath, and +the fiercest denunciations are hurled at the most vigorous +Sabbatarian. Retaliation for wrong is counselled, and forgiveness +is enjoined. We are told to love one another," and we are commanded +to hate our own flesh and blood. Industry is advised and also +discouraged; lustful pursuits are condemned and also permitted. +Thus Biblical morality is destitute of the first fundamental +condition of all just ethics. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + + Among the general principles taught in the Bible and expounded +by orthodoxy in this country is that belief, not conduct, is the +foundation of virtue, and that uncharitableness towards opponents +is justifiable. One of the first instructions which a parent should +enforce upon a child is never to impute bad motives in matters of +belief or non-belief. No lesson is more valuable than this, none +more calculated to render the child's life happy and unsuspicious, +and to make its influence in the world more useful and beneficial. +The Bible permits just the opposite. According to Christian +teachings, if a man does an act of kindness, we are not to accept +it with gratitude simply as an act of kindness, but we are to judge +from the motives of his conduct. Did he perform the act from love +to God, or did he do it only from respect for his fellow man? If +the former, his services will go up as a sweet smelling offering to +Deity; if the latter, he merely performed a "splendid vice." The +motive, not the act, is the thing to be considered. If men slay, +ravish, and destroy for the glory of God, the motive not only +condones, but consecrates, the act. Hence, in the early history of +Christianity, the practice of lying for the good of the Church was +not only allowed, but considered praiseworthy. To require universal +belief in one particular faith, and to condemn to eternal perdition +those who are unable to comply therewith, is not the most moral +doctrine. Truly, a book that teaches that "many are called but few +are chosen," or, in other words, that the majority of our fellow +creatures are to be cast into a burning lake, cannot assist to +promote the happiness and good of mankind. The tendency of such +teaching as this cannot have a beneficial effect, inasmuch as it +often produces mutual hatred between man and man. Artificial and +unjust distinctions of government and of classes have often +produced ill-feeling between man and man; but that evil has been +increased by the religious distinctions based upon Biblical +teaching. The natural law of love is simple and clear. It is a duty +to love all men until we have reason to believe that the trust is +misplaced or abused. It then becomes necessary to slightly modify +our conduct as an act of self-defence; hence the enactment of laws +for the repression of crime and the curtailment of injury. If a +man's belief teaches him that he can persecute, we have a right to +be upon our guard, for we know from bitter experience that such +belief has frequently shaped itself into conduct. But whatever man +believes about matters that do not affect his conduct should +produce in us neither love nor hatred towards him. His belief may +be ever so curious, absurd, unreal, and fantastic, ever so +ridiculous and self-contradictory, and in proportion of its +partaking of those qualities it may excite and amuse us; but it +ought not to make us respect or dislike him one whit more. With the +Bible it is quite different: its defect consists in its teaching us +to love and respect certain people who believe certain things which +have no direct beneficial bearing on their conduct; while we are to +avoid those whose lives may be a model of purity and benevolence, +but who cannot subscribe to a certain faith. + + The great principle of Bible morality is supposed to be +contained in the Ten Commandments. The Decalogue, we are assured, +enunciates moral lessons, against which no substantial objections +can be brought. There are two versions of the Decalogue given in +the Old Testament, varying in certain not unimportant particulars. +Moses brought down, we are informed, the Ten Commandments from + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +Mount Sinai, where he had been having a 'tete-a-tete' with the +Lord. They were written on stone, and were copied off for future +generations in Exodus xx. They are also given in Deuteronomy v.; +but that was merely from memory, when Moses had become somewhat +advanced in age. It is not surprising, therefore, that he should +insert certain interpolations in the second giving of the law which +are absent from the first. How this incongruity can be reconciled +with the doctrine of the Divine inspiration of the Bible may be +left for Christians to decide among themselves. The Decalogue is +divided into two parts: that which relates to man's duty to God, +and that which relates to the mutual duties of man to man. It is +worthy of notice that, although the second half contains six +commands, and the former half only four, nevertheless the first +half is a great deal longer than the second. Most of the commands +of the second half are contained in the most condensed form. The +second, third, and fourth Commandments are all developments of the +first. The first really contains or assumes the three which succeed +it. The first, which is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," +of course involves the second against idolatry, the third against +blasphemous swearing, and the fourth enjoining restful remembrance +of the creation of the world by God. It is curious, while God in +these Commandments had so much to say in giving a complete code of +conduct to his creatures, and confining himself as he did within +the limits of a certain number of Hebrew characters, written on a +stone small enough for a man to carry down the side of a steep +mountain, that he should have wasted so much time in telling them +how to behave to him, and have left so little space to contain what +was far more important -- viz., the rules to regulate our conduct +to each other. The whole prescribed duly of man to man is contained +in seventy-seven words. The second Commandment brings out that +particular character of the Christian God which is so conspicuous +in other parts of the Bible. We are not to make and bow down to +images. Very good advice, we readily admit. But why are we not to +do so? Is there any appeal to the generous and reverential +sentiments of the human heart? Surely a noble and good God would +have said something similar to this: "Thou shalt not bow down +thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, the Lord thy God, am a +great, beneficent, and generous God, with a wide, all-embracing +love. Thou shalt not degrade thy soul nor debase thy being by +worshipping the gods of the heathen. I am your only father, who +made and cares for you, and your place of reverence and trust is in +the all-sustaining hollow of my hand." Had the Deity said this, and +proved his sincerity by appropriate actions subsequently towards +his subjects, it would have done more to have won the affections of +his children to him than the whole of his present recorded sayings +contained from Genesis to Revelation. But no; we find that a sordid +appeal is made partly to the mean fears, and partly to the paternal +affections, of the Jews. They are forbidden to worship other gods: +"For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity +of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth +generation of them that hate me." Fancy a great, Almighty God, +creator of the earth, being jealous of the estranged affection of +an unfortunate Jew! But this is in keeping with the general +character of the Christian Deity, and most of his particular and +immediate acquaintances. The part of the Decalogue which has +reference to us, as members of society, is so brief, in comparison +to that which has been occupied by theology and the requirements of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +God, that little room is left for the introduction of rewards and +punishments which are to follow the fulfillment or non-fulfillment +of so important a behest as "Thou shalt not kill." But the +punishment of idolatry, a most cruel, unjust, and revengeful one is +given at full length. The fifth Commandment, Honor thy father and +mother" is certainly, as far as it goes, an excellent one. It comes +home to the heart of everyone who has the feelings of love and duty +within him. We can take no possible exception to its request. But +the reason given for its fulfillment is as selfish as it is untrue. +Yielding to no one in the belief that filial affection and +reverence are not only duties, but carry with them (as all virtues +do to some extent) their own reward in the satisfaction of an +approving sense of right, it has yet to be shown that the keeping +of the first part of this command will secure the accomplishment of +the second. Honoring parents does not invariably carry with it the +fulfillment of the promise, "Thy days shall be long in the land +which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The best of sons have +frequently been called upon to pay the last debt of nature when +still in the bloom and vigor of their manhood, while some of the +worst of characters live to a comparatively old age, a grief to +their parents and a disgrace to themselves. Though, therefore, we +would echo the command, "Children, obey your parents," we would +also say; Do so, not from any selfish hope of personal gain or long +life, but for the love you should have for those who have toiled +for and protected you through years of infancy and helplessness. +Duty, gratitude, and affection should be the inspiration to +obedience, not the grovelling incentive given by the Bible. But may +not this be taken as a fair sample of Bible teaching? Whenever we +discover a noble thought, a just precept, or a generous sentiment, +we generally find it surrounded by much that is impracticable +misleading, and fallacious. The sixth, seventh, and eights +Commandments call for no special remark, save that, when they point +out the extremes of certain vices, and forbid their indulgence, +they fail to state how far persons may go in their direction +without committing fatal errors; and this difficulty is all the +greater when we reflect that these were the very Commandments which +most of God's favorites had the greatest predilection for breaking. +The chief object of the ninth Commandment is its limitation. Why +should the word "neighbor" be introduced in the prohibition of +false swearing? It is equally a wrong to swear falsely against a +stranger as against a neighbor. The tenth Commandment is the only +one of the second part of the Decalogue which errs by excess of +Puritanism. There can be no harm, for instance, in coveting a +neighbor's house if sufficient compensation is offered to induce +him to give up the lease; and, if we did not occasionally covet our +neighbor's oxen, beefsteaks and sirloins would be even more scarce +among the working classes than they are at present. Speaking +broadly, the one great objection to the Decalogue is the absence of +any noble, inspiring principle of conduct. It teaches no real love, +no true charity; it is a penal code, not a rule of life. + + Orthodox believers are continually proclaiming that love is +the foundation of Biblical ethics; the fact is, however, that, if +human actions were regulated by some teachings of the Bible, there +would be but few manifestations of love. To kill the inhabitants of +a conquered city, and to save none alive (Deut. xx. 10-16), is a +peculiar mode of exhibiting love to our fellow men. The conduct of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +Christ was not calculated to inspire us with a superabundance of +love when he said: "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I +also deny before my father which is in heaven" (Matt. x. 33) or +when he stated "But those mine enemies which would not that I +should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me" +(Luke xix. 27). Here we have an indication of that unforgiving and +revengeful spirit which destroys true affection. If there be any +truth in the popular notions of sin and forgiveness, it was not +moral for Christ to act as he did when speaking in a parable to his +disciples. They, not being able to understand him, asked him for an +explanation of what he then said. His reply was: "Unto you is given +to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but, unto them that are +without, all these things are done in parables; that seeing, they +may see and not perceive, and hearing, they may hear and not +understand, lest at any time they should be converted, and their +sins be forgiven them" (Mark iv.). This is not only partial and +unjust, but a planned determination to teach so mysteriously that +people should not learn the truth, in case they should thereby be +saved. Such a mode of advocacy would be deemed injurious, indeed, +in these days, and is only squalled by the following "inspired" +information to certain persons: "And for this cause God shall send +them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all +might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in +unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 11, 12). We are advised to be holy, +even as God is holy; but what is holiness according to Bible +morality? If a "Divine" sanction to a thing constitutes it holy, +then deceit, murder, lying, and the deepest kind of cruelty are +allied with Scriptural holiness. In 2 Kings x. God is represented +as rewarding the following crimes, and thereby giving the Bible +sanction to the worst kind of immorality. Jehu, having become King +of Israel, commences his reign with a series of murders. Having +resolved upon the destruction of the house of Ahab, Jehu commences +his task in a manner possible only to those who fight with the +"zeal of the lord." Killing all who were likely to obstruct him in +the carrying out of his base object, he arrived at Samaria, his +purpose being to slay all the worshippers of Baal. In order, +therefore, that he might entrap them all into one slaughter house, +he announced that he was a great worshipper of Baal, and that he +had come to offer a mighty sacrifice to this idol. By this craft he +succeeded in drawing all the worshippers of Baal together. When the +unfortunate victims were assembled, tendering their sacrifices, +Jehu ordered his captains to go in and slay them, allowing none to +escape. Accordingly, they were all sacrificed to the treachery of +this "servant of the Lord." And this conduct is approved by God; +for in verse 30 is recorded: "And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because +thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, +and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in +mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the +throne of Israel." Bible morality is further illustrated in the +case of Samuel (1 Samuel xvi. 1-4). This prophet is commanded by +God to go on a certain mission under false pretenses, and with a +direct falsehood upon his lips. Now, is it moral to deceive and +murder? If not, why did God command and encourage such vices? And +why should men be invited to imitate the example of one who +practiced such immoralities? Biblical ethics are alleged to be +based upon the "holiness of God." In order to ascertain what that +"holiness" really is, it is only necessary to read Genesis xxx. and + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +xxxi., where immorality, ingratitude, deceit, and theft are found +to be ascribed to Jacob, who was encouraged and beloved by God; +Exodus ix. 13-16, where people are seen to have been raised up by +God for the very purpose of being "cut off from the earth;" Exodus +xxxii., for an account of the anger, injustice, and cruelty of +Moses, culminating in the slaughter of thousands of human beings at +the command of God; Joshua vi., viii., and x., for a record of his +reckless murder of thousands of human beings, among whom were men, +women, and children, at the special command of God; 2 Samuel xii. +11-31, for adultery and cruelty in connection with David; and then +peruse Psalms xxxviii. and cix. for a confession of a life of +deceit, lying, and licentiousness. Yet we are told that David "was +a man after God's own heart," and that he "kept God's commandments, +and did that only which was right in his eyes" (1 Kings xiv. 8). +Such may be Biblical morality; but it is certainly opposed to +Secular ideas of ethical philosophy. + + The teachings of the Bible in reference to slavery are +barbarously unjust. According to its permit, men and women can be +bought and sold like cattle, the weak being compelled to serve the +strong. In Exodus xxi. 2-6 we have a most cruel law for regulating +this "Bible institution," the cruelty and injustice of which law +are two-fold. First, if the slave when he is bought be single, and +if, during his seven years of slavery, he marries and becomes a +father, then, at the expiration of his time, his wife and children +are his master's, and the slave goes out free. Is this moral? What +becomes of the poor man's paternal affections? Is the love for his +wife nothing? Is he to be separated from that he holds dear, and to +see the object of his affections given to the man who for seven +years had robbed him of his independence and his manhood? If, +however, the poor victim's love for his wife and children be +stronger than his desire for liberty, what is his fate? He is to be +brought to the door, have his ear bored with an awl, and doomed to +serve his master forever. Thus Bible morality makes perpetual +slavery and physical pain the punishments of the exercise of the +purest and best feelings of human nature. Where is the moral lesson +in the statement: "And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever +thy soul lusteth after; for oxen or for sheep, or for wine or for +strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth; and thou shalt +eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and +thine household"? If this is not giving a license to the worst of +passions, words have no meaning. But Bible morality strikes at the +manhood and happiness of man. It stifles our tenderest affections, +and urges the exercise of the cruellest passions by teaching that +a man may kill the wife of his bosom if she dare to entice him +secretly from his God (Deut. xiii. 6-9). Where is the man who will +so far belie his nature as to accept such morality as this? +Unfortunately, Bible teachings have frequently caused a complete +severance and breaking up of the ties of affection in families. The +Bible commands its believers to leave father, mother, sister, and +brother to follow Christ. According to its teachings, it is +justifiable to break up a certain and a human bond that we may get +a problematical chance of a problematical blessedness in a +problematical future. There are few, doubtless, who have not +learned in their own sad experience how the family tie has been + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +often disunited by Christian teachings. Brothers and sisters have +been separated for years from the home of their childhood because +they dared to emancipate themselves from the shackles of the +prevailing faith. + + Accepting the term "moral" as expressing whatever is +calculated to promote general progress and happiness, what Morality +is contained in the following passages from the Bible: "Take no +thought for your life;" "Resist not evil;" "Blessed be ye poor;" +"Labor not for the bread which perisheth;" "Servants, be subject to +your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but +also to the forward;" "Let every man abide in the same calling +wherein he was called;" "Submit yourself to every ordinance of man +for the Lord's sake;" "Let every soul be subject unto the higher +powers, for there is no power but of God ... Whosoever, therefore, +resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that +resist shall receive to themselves damnation"? Were these +injunctions obeyed, health, independence of character, and +political progress would be ignored. For the reforms we have +hitherto secured we are indebted to men and women who practically +disregarded the Bible, and based their conduct upon the principle +of utility. To teach, as the Bible does, that wives are to be +subject to their husbands in everything (Eph. v.); to "set your +affections on things above, not on things on the earth " (Colos. +iii.); to "love not the world, neither the things that are in the +world" (1 John ii.); to "lay not up for yourselves treasures upon +earth" (Matt. vi.), is not to inculcate the principle of equality, +or to inspire man with a desire to take an interest in "the things +of time." Whatever service the Bible may render in gratifying the +tastes of the superstitious, it cannot, to men of thought and +energy, be of any great moral worth. + + To persecute for non-belief of any teaching, but more +particularly of speculative questions, is not in accordance with +ethical justice. Is it true that the Bible encourages persecution +for the non-belief in, or the rejection of its teachings? If yes, +so far at least is its moral worth lessened. For belief in the +truth of a doctrine, or the wisdom of a precept, is, to the honest +inquirer, the result of the recognition on his part of sufficient +evidence in their favor. Whenever that evidence is absent, +disbelief will be found, except among the indifferent or the +hypocritical. Now, in the Bible there are many things that the +sincere thinker is compelled, through lack of evidence, to reject. +What does the New Testament inculcate towards such persons? When +Christ sent his disciples upon a preaching expedition he said +(Matt. x.): "Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, +when ye depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your +feet." This, we are informed by Oriental writers, was a mode in the +East of showing hatred towards those against whom the dust was +shaken. The punishment threatened those who refused the +administrations of the disciples is most severe, for "it shall be +more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of +judgment than for that city." In St. John xv. we read: "If a man +abideth not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; +and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are +burned." This accords with the gloomy announcement (2 Thess. i.): +"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, +and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be +punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the +Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be +glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that +believe." Again (Mark xvi.): "He that believeth not shall be +damned." St. Paul exclaims (Gal. i.): "If any man preach any other +gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." +He also says (1 Tim. vi, 3-5): "If any man teach otherwise, and +consent not to the wholesome words, even the words of our Lord +Jesus Christ ... he is proud, knowing nothing ... From such +withdraw thyself." "Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have +delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme" (1 Tim. +i. 20). In these passages persecution and punishment are clearly +taught for disbelief. And that such teaching has had an immoral +tendency the excommunications, the imprisonments, and sacrifice of +the lives of heretics in connection with the history of +Christianity abundantly prove. + + Orthodox Christians contend that the Bible is a necessary +factor in the educational system of all nations. While admitting +the necessity of instruction in the affairs of daily life, they +allege that a question of far greater importance is the preparation +for existence "beyond the grave." They profess to be impressed with +the notion that there is a city of refuge in store for them when +they arrive at the end of life's journey; and, having to encounter +many storms and difficulties ere they reach this supposed haven of +rest, they feel assured that the Bible is a sufficient guide to +carry them safely over the sea of time, and land them securely in +the harbor of eternity. They therefore rely on this book as if it +were unerring in its directions and infallible in its commands. + + Now, there is ample reason to doubt the capability of this +Christian guide. Its inability, however, as an instructor and guide +does not arise from any lack of variety of contents, The Bible +contains a history of the cosmogony of the earth, and the story of +man's fall from what is termed his first estate of perfection and +happiness. Then we have the history of God's chosen people, from +their uprise to their national extinction, with a record of the +Jewish laws, specifying those acts most calculated to propitiate +the favor and secure the reward of heaven, and those which are +condemned, with their appropriate and stipulated punishments. We +have also glimpses of the histories of other nations, the causes of +their fall, and the account of their national sins, which drew down +upon them that wrath of heaven which extinguished or sorely +punished them. Following this, there is the story of Job -- the +lessons to be derived from the sudden collapse of his worldly +greatness, and his soliloquies upon the mysteries of nature and of +providence. Next come the Psalms -- a copious manual of praise, +prayer, cursing, and penitence, followed by the woes, lamentations, +and misfortunes of a host of prophets -- some practical, some +mystical, and some evangelical -- together with the four different +versions of the life, actions, and death of Christ; a short account +of the early doings of the Church, recorded in several epistles +written by sundry apostles, culminating in the strange and + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +extraordinary nightmare of St. John the Divine. Now, any man who +fails to discover in so large a field materials by which to +regulate his life must do so, not from the scarcity, but the +valuelessness, of the article supplied. + + In estimating the real value of the Bible as a moral guide it +must be taken as a whole, by which is meant those books of the Old +and New Testaments which are bound together and commonly called the +Word of God. And here a question arises that, if the knowledge of +the whole Bible be necessary to our future happiness, which +according to St. John it is, why is it that so many of the books +that originally constituted the Bible are lost? If the testimony of +the book itself can be accepted, we have only a portion of what at +one time composed the Bible. In Numbers a quotation is given from +a book called "The Book of the Wars of the Lord;" in judges and +Samuel we read of "The Book of Jasher;" in Kings mention is made of +"The Book of the Acts of Solomon;" and in Chronicles of "The +Account of the Chronicles of King David." We further read of "The +Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah" and "The Book of the +Chronicles of the Kings of Israel." Allusion is also made to "The +Book of Nathan the Prophet" and to "The Book of Gad the Seer." +Notwithstanding the loss of these books, Christians exclaim, How +wonderfully their book has been preserved! Even the portions that +are retained are so full of mistakes, errors, and corruptions that +its intelligent supporters are compelled to give the greater part +of it up as incapable of defence, while those who still contend for +its "divinity" hesitate to come forward and support it in public +debate. + + Another question suggests itself: Are we to consider the Old +Testament as the Word of God? If so, upon the Christian hypothesis, +its teachings are equally as deserving of our respect as are those +of the New Testament. If, on the other hand, the Old Testament is +not intended for our acceptance, why is it preached and enforced as +God's Word? True, it is sometimes stated that the Hebrew writings +are useful for instruction, although they are not of the same +authority with Christians as the New Testament. But here it is +overlooked that the New Testament is founded upon the Old, and +often appeals to it to corroborate its statements. Furthermore, the +New Testament distinctly says that the Old was written by good and +holy men for our instruction, etc. Besides, does not Christ +emphatically state that he did not come to destroy its authority? +"Think not," says be, "that I am come to destroy the law or the +prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say +unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall +in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, +therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall +teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of +heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be +called great in the kingdom of heaven." Here is a command not to +break even one of the least of the commandments. Again, Christ +says: "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; whatsoever +they bid you observe, that observe and do." Among a collection of +Christian stories occurs the following anecdote: -- A person once +asked a poor, illiterate old woman what she deemed to be the +difference between the Old and New Testaments, to which she +replied: "The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +New Testament is the Old Testament revealed." This has been +triumphantly quoted by Christian writers to show the harmony +existing between the two books. But it is absurd and contradicts +facts. The assumption is, that the Old Testament is the partial +statement of a body of truths, from which the New Testament differs +not in kind, but only in degree. It is supposed that nothing in the +New Testament contradicts what is stated in the Old, but only +reveals and amplifies with a clearer light what had already been +stated partially and under allegorical semblance in the Old. Now, +so far is this from being correct that it would be difficult to +find any two alleged bodies of sacred truths which differ from and +contradict each other more than the divine revelation made through +Moses and the prophets, and the revelation made through Christ and +his Apostles. For instance, Moses taught that retaliation was a +duty, while Christ strictly prohibits it. With Moses persecutors +were put to the edge of the sword; with Christ, however, they were +to be blessed. Under the old system, good works and a virtuous life +were the conditions of Divine favor and reward, and bad works and +a vicious life were to incur Divine disfavor and punishment. Under +the new system, faith is the all-in-all, the essential condition of +salvation. + + A proof of the inadequacy of the Bible as a guide and +instructor is furnished by what are termed the "liberal +Christians." Here we have men of the best intentions and of high +intellectual acquirements refusing to accept the Bible as an +absolute guide, or as an infallible instructor. With such persons +the Bible has no value as "infallible revelation." If, however, the +Bible is not an infallible record, it is simply a human production, +and has no more claim upon us, except what its merits inspire, than +any other book. Is it not rather inconsistent to contend, as these +liberal Christians do, that certain portions of the Bible are +"divine," while the other parts are simply human? If every +Christian sect put forward similar contentions, there would be but +few parts of the "Holy Scriptures" that would not be divine and +human at the same time, according to the respective opinions of +different classes of believers. But how are we to decide what is +"divine" and what is human? To what standard shall we appeal? What +criterion have we by which to test its genuineness? Shall we accept +the authority of the Protestant or the Catholic Church? Shall we +judge from the standpoint of the Trinitarians or the Unitarians? + + For the Bible to be trustworthy as a guide it should be +reliable in its statements and harmonious in its doctrines. That it +is not so will be evident from the following reference to its +pages. The Bible teaches that God is omniscient and omnipresent; +yet in Gen. xi. 5 we read that the Lord came down to see the city +and the tower which the children of men builded; and in Gen. xviii. +20, 21: "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah +is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down +now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry +of it, which is come unto me; and, if not, I will know." It teaches +that God is immutable; yet, on several occasions, we find him +changing his mind, repenting, and sometimes turning back from his +repentance; as in the great instance (Gen. vi. 6): "And it repented +the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at +the heart" (also 1 Sam. xv. 10, 11). God told Baalim to go with the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +men (Num. xxii., 20), and was angry with him because he went (Num. +xxii. 21, 22). It teaches that God is invisible, yet we read (Gen. +xxxii. 30): "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I +have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved;" and (Ex. +xxiv. 9, 10): "Then up went Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, +and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of +Israel;" and, again (Ex. xxxiii. 11, 23): "And the Lord spake unto +Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend ... And I +will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my +face shall not be seen and, finally (Gen. xviii.), we have the +remarkable though perplexed account of the Lord paying a visit to +Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and eating with him of cakes, +butter, milk, and veal. It teaches that God is all good; yet we +read (Isa. xlv. 7): "I form the light and create darkness: I make +peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things;" and (Lam. +iii. 38): "Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil +and good?" and (Ezekiel xx. 25): "Wherefore I gave them also +statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not +live." It teaches that God is no respecter of persons; yet we read +(Gen. iv. 4, 5): "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his +offering; but unto Cain and his offering he had no respect;" and +(Ex. ii. 25): "And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God +had respect unto them;" and (Rom. ix. 11-13) For the children being +not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the +purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, +but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall +serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau +have I hated." And, in fact, nearly the whole Bible story is that +of a chosen people, preferred above all other nations, surely for +no superior goodness on their part! It teaches (Ex. xx. 5) that God +is a jealous God, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the +third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" yet we read +(Ezekiel xviii. 20): "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the +father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son." It +teaches that Christ is God (John i- 1, 14; Reb. i. 8); yet we read +(John viii. 40): "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that has told +you the truth, which I have heard of God;" also (1 Tim. ii. 5): +"One mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." It +teaches (John x. 30) that Christ and his father are one; yet we +read (John xiv. 28): "For my father is greater than I." It teaches +(John xvi. 30; Col. ii. 3) that Jesus knew all things; yet we read +(Mark xi. 13): "And seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, he +came, if haply he might find anything thereon; and, when he came to +it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet;" +and, far more significant (Mark xiii. 32): "But of that day and +that hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, +neither the Son, but the Father." It teaches of Jesus (John viii. +14): "Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true; for I +know whence I came, and whither I go;" yet we read (John v. 3 1): +"If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." It teaches +further (1 Tim. ii. 6) that he gave himself a ransom for all; yet +we read (Matt. xv. 24): "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the +house of Israel;" and (Mark vii. 26, 27): "The woman was a Greek, +a Syrophoenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast +forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let +the children first be filled; for it is not meet to take the +children's bread and cast it unto the dogs." It teaches that + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +miracles are proofs of a divine mission (Matt. ix. 6; John v. 36; +Heb. ii. 4) yet (Deut. xiii. 1-3; Matt. xxiv. 24; 2 Thess. ii. 9) +warns against false prophets and anti-Christs, who shall show great +signs and wonders. It teaches in many passages of the New Testament +that the end of the world is at hand, as in Matt. xxiv., 1 Cor. xv. +51, 52; 1 Thess. iv. 15; 1 Peter iv. 7; yet we read (2 Thess. ii. +2, 3): "That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither +by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day +of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means." +Further, on this subject, we read (Matt. x. 23), in which Jesus is +addressing the Apostles he sent forth: "Ye shall not have gone over +the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come;" yet we read +(Matt. xxiv. 14): "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached +in all the world for witness unto all nations; and then shall the +end come and, similarly (Mark xiii. 10): "And the gospel must first +be published among all nations." It teaches (Luke i. 33; Heb. i. 8) +that the kingdom of Christ shall endure forever; yet we read, in +one of the most remarkable passages of the New Testament (1 Cor. +xv. 24, 25, 28): "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered +up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down +all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he +hath put all enemies under his feet ... And when all things shall +be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject +unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all-in- +all." It teaches that the Holy Ghost is God (Acts V. 3, 4); yet we +read (John xv. 26): "But when the Comforter is come, whom shall I +send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which +proceedeth from the Father;" and, again (John xiv. 16): "I will +pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter;" and, +again (Acts x. 38); "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy +Ghost and with power." Finally, it teaches that "all Scripture is +given by inspiration of God, and is profitable" (2 Tim. iii. 16); +yet we read (1 Cor. vii. 6, 12): "But I speak this by permission, +and not of commandment ... But to the rest speak I, not the lord;" +and similarly (2 Cor. xi. 17) That which I speak, I speak it not +after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of +boasting." + + The foregoing are but a few of "apparent discrepancies," or, +as we call them, direct self-contradictions; and, be it remembered, +they concern the essentials of Christianity - the three persons of +the God, the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and the end of the +world. The Bibliolater may be encouraged in the endeavor to +reconcile them by the assurance that an indefinite further number, +just as perplexing, await solution. + + Those Christians who are too enlightened to accept the Bible, +as it has chanced to come down to us, as in every word the very +Word of God, and too free-minded to submit to the authority of a +tradition which has varied with all climes and ages, or a Church +whose history is a record of blunders, compromises, falsifications, +self-contradictions, probably unequalled in the annals of any +merely secular institution whatever, manage to remain, in their own +estimation, Christians, by believing that God's saving revelation +to mankind is made in the Bible, and that everyone may read it for +himself if he studies the volume in a reverent and prayerful +spirit. They admit many errors of copyists, reject many passages, + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +and even books, as decidedly spurious, and regard many others as +doubtful yet maintain that, all deductions made, there is left a +clear and sufficient Divine message, whose essential character is +untouched by any of the errors or defects, and unchanged by any of +the various readings. + + Now, this theory is certainly the most illogical which a +Christian can hold for that of the thorough Bibliolater is +consistent in its blind submission of reason to faith and the Roman +and Church views are equally consistent in their blind submission +to faith and tradition and ecclesiastical authority; while this new +theory seeks and pretends to conciliate things which are +essentially irreconcilable -- reason and faith, freethought and +revelation, liberty and servitude, the natural and the +supernatural. But, as it is the theory of some of the best and +ablest of our religious fellow-citizens, and of those who are most +heartily with us in much sound Secular work, it practically claims +a fuller consideration here than it intrinsically merits. + + In the first place, it is evidently open to the fatal +objection that it makes man the measure and standard of his God, +setting up certain Scriptures as supernatural and Divine, then +subjecting them to the arbitrament of human nature, the reason and +conscience of the creature. Each of those who hold it says in +effect; "Here are books purporting to contain the Word of God, and +I believe they do contain it, but mixed with many vain words of men +therefore, what suits me I shall consider Divine, and what does not +suit me I shall reject." Numerous clever attempts have been made to +smooth away this sharp self-contradiction; but, so far as we are +aware, and as was to be expected, not one that can be deemed even +plausible by any candid outsider. There is but one mode of getting +rid of it -- a mode swift and effectual, obvious, and facile in +theory; but, as long experience proves, very hard to put into +practice -- and this is to surrender the initial claim of Divine +inspiration of the books, when, of course, it would be quite +natural and consistent to sit in judgment on them, as on any other +human writing, welcoming what in them we find good and true, +rejecting what we find bad and false. + + It is indeed alleged that the special grace of the Holy Spirit +always illumines and guides every one who studies these books in +the proper frame of mind; but, as we find, in fact, that no two +serious students read quite alike -- each reading in accordance +with his peculiar temperament, intellect, training, and +circumstances, precisely as he would read were there no Holy Spirit +in question -- the said special grace, having no perceptible +effect, may be safely left out of the calculation. Innumerable +sectaries, all alike devout and sincere, all alike drawing their +inspiration from the Bible, have differed widely on the very +fundamental doctrines of Christianity; and we never heard of the +Holy Spirit doing anything towards bringing these brethren into +unity. A Christian eclectic submits the Bible to the test of his +own reason find conscience, which have been educated and purified, +not by the book itself, nor by any supernatural grace, but by the +results of a long and gradual progress in secular enlightenment and +civilization; which progress has been at nearly every step opposed +on the authority of the book, and in the name of the religion + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +founded on it. Doctrines that now revolt the common conscience did +not in former centuries revolt the consciences of men who were +taught by the book and purified by the Holy Spirit. It is not by +special grace, nor revelation of the Holy Scriptures, but by +critical scholarship, that men have come now to decide as to the +genuineness and authenticity, the date and authority, of the +various portions. Until free learning was revived at the classical +or heathenish Renaissance, the Holy Spirit was content to leave all +the most pious Biblical students in very deep darkness as to nearly +all the points on which our eclectic Christians are now so clearly +enlightened. + + The family ideal set forth in the Bible is certainly not one +of a high ethical nature. The domestic relationship of Noah, +Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Solomon could not be emulated +to-day without practicing gross injustice, and submitting to utter +moral degradation. The Indo-European race has developed in morals +as in knowledge, and two thousand years ago, when Germanicus led +the Roman legions, he beheld with wonder the respect with which the +ignorant, rude, and warlike Germans treated their wives and +daughters. It is an insult to civilized women for any one to +commend the family ideal of those who made woman a slave. Even +Christ is represented as treating women as if they were necessarily +inferior to men; while his conduct to his mother, his commendation +and personal practice of celibacy, and his encouraging others to +renounce their own obligations to their families, are not +calculated to shed a halo of peace and happiness within the home +circle. Moreover, St. Paul's doctrine of the absolute submission of +wives to their husbands can hardly be offered us to admire as an +ideal. + + The Secularist family ideal is far superior to that of the +Bible, inasmuch as it is on a level with the ethics of our social +development. It teaches that marriage should be the result of +mutual affection, and that such a union creates the responsibility +of undivided allegiance, mutual fidelity, and mutual consideration. +It affirms that in the domestic circle there should be no one- +sided, absolute authority; that husband and wife should be partners +in deed, not only in theory, animated alike by the desire to +promote each other's happiness. + + The basis of Bible morality, being God's will, is very +delusive, for the simple reason that, if such a will has been +recorded, it is not known to us; and the conjectured +representations of it given to us by theologians of all ages are +impracticable and conflicting. In the Bible there is not to be +found only one will ascribed to its Deity, but many; and those are +as contradictory as they are various. For instance, murder, +adultery, theft, deceit, and other crimes can be proved from the +Bible to be opposed to the expressed desire of God, as given in the +Scriptures; while upon the same authority these crimes can be shown +to accord with God's will. The result is, it is impossible to +regulate human conduct upon the sanctions of either the "inspired" +records. It is this peculiar nature of Bible teachings which was, +probably, the cause of the early Christians lying for the glory of +the Church (see Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History"), and of +Christians at a more modern period robbing and murdering those whom + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +they termed heretics. In doing what they did in this persecuting +business, the Bible believers, no doubt, thought that they were +acting in accordance with "God's will," as set forth in the "Divine +revelation," The founders and promoters of those body-and-mind- +destroying institutions, the Inquisition and the Star Chamber, were +in all probability sincere, and many of them in the affairs of +every-day life, apart from theology, good men. In religious +matters, however, they were cruel and inhuman in the extreme. Why +was this? Because, no doubt, in punishing even to death those who +opposed the true faith, they thought the were following the Bible +as a guide (see Deuteronomy Xiii. 6-9). + + The acceptance of the Bible as a standard of morality involves +also the recognition of teachings and doctrines that are +conflicting and impracticable. In one place we are told that faith +alone will save us (Romans iii. 27, 28); while in another portion +of this same "authority" we are assured that works are necessary to +secure salvation (James ii. 24). In St. John we read, "No man +cometh unto the Father but by me" [Christ] (xiv. 6); and in the +same gospel it is recorded, "No man can come to me [Christ] except +the Father draw him" (vi. 44). This makes salvation depend, not +upon man, but upon God. In John it is written, "For there are three +that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy +Ghost; and these three are one;" while Timothy states distinctly +that "there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the +man Christ Jesus." The New Testament teaches that Christ brought +glad tidings for all men; yet we are assured that he came but to +the lost sheep of the house of Israel -- that many are called, but +few are chosen. In one chapter we learn that all sin can be +forgiven, while in another part of the same book it is said that +the sin against the Holy Ghost is never to be forgiven. In Timothy +we read; "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our +Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the +knowledge of the truth." But this cannot be if it is true that "for +this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should +believe a lie." If the delusions are sent by God, and if in +consequence mankind believe a lie, and get punished hereafter for +such belief, it is only fair to suppose that God's will was that +they should not come to a knowledge of the truth; which contradicts +what is stated in Timothy. John assures us that "whosoever hateth +his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath +eternal life abiding in him." This is very consoling when we read +the following: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and +mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters -- yea, +and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." To be a disciple +of Christ you must hate your brother; you are thus a murderer, and +"no murderer hath eternal life." If you wish, therefore, to have +eternal life, you must not become a disciple of Christ. Martyrdom +by death may not always be the best way to advance a principle, +inasmuch as more good can generally be done by living for a cause +than by dying for it. But Christians say the martyrdom of the early +Christians proves the truth of their doctrines, and in support of +their contention they quote the words of Jesus: "And I [Jesus] say +unto you, My friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and +after that have no more that they can do." These words, it is +thought, prove that Jesus, taught and held life cheaply, in order +to advance more readily his doctrines. It appears, however, from + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + +John that Christ did what many of his followers now do -- taught +one thing and practiced another; for on one occasion John says, +"Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in jewry, because +the Jews sought to kill him." What are we to do in this case -- +follow Christ's teaching, or his example? To follow both is +impossible. Some persons condemn all war upon the ground that it is +anti-Scriptural, and in their justification they quote Matthew, +where he says: "Then said Jesus unto them, Put up again thy sword +into its place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with +the sword." The soldier, on the other hand, tells the peace man +that we ought to possess swords; for in Luke it is said: "He that +hath no sword let him sell his garments and buy one." Both would be +equally justified, and both would be equally condemned, by the New +Testament -- a very perplexing position to be in. But the man fond +of fighting would keep his sword, believing that the more +Christianity became spread the more use there would be for the +sword, as Christ declared: "Think not that I am come to send peace +on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to +set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against +her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." If +Christ had succeeded in his object -- and he has partially -- the +advocate of the sword would have had good grounds for +justification. + + St. Paul considers charity the highest of virtues, without +which all other acquirements are as nothing. But then he +immediately destroys the efficacy of such teaching by the following +command: "As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach +any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be +accursed." We are told that "wisdom is the principal thing, +therefore get wisdom." But we are also assured that in much wisdom +there is much grief, and that he that increaseth knowledge +increaseth sorrow. It is folly to guide man to wisdom, telling him +that it is better than riches, while he is taught that "the wisdom +of the world is foolishness with God." Where is the incentive for +a youth to acquire knowledge when St. Paul says, "It is written, I +will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the +understanding of the prudent"? + + From these samples of the incoherent nature of Bible +statements and teachings, it will be seen how impossible it is to +rely implicitly on such a book as a guide in human conduct. True, +Christians may urge that there is no contradiction in the cases +cited ; that the Bible is God's Word, and must therefore be all +true. It is in vain that the student points out that this +revelation abounds with impossibilities and absurdities, for he is +reminded that with God all things are possible, therefore let "God +be true, and every man a liar." It is further urged that the +mistakes occur through our lack of comprehension; that the +Scriptures would be plain enough if we could only "see our way +clear " to accept them as gospel; and that the depravity of our +nature prevents us viewing revealed truth in a spiritual light. +These are the sentiments of many who profess to accept the Bible as +a guide. Truly, we must become as little children if we endorse the +doctrine of Scriptural infallibility. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 16 + + BIBLE MORALITY. + + The conduct of those who, in the face of such inconsistency, +contend for Bible infallibility is something more than foolish; it +is criminal. To shelter all that the Bible contains under the halo +of "divinity" is to pay homage to the worst of human weaknesses. If +a man is to pursue an intellectual career; if he is to foster a +manly independence; if he is to live a life of integrity, he must +not be bound either by ancient folly or modern orthodoxy but, +unfettered, he should learn the lessons afforded by a knowledge of +the facts of nature, and from the discoveries of science acquire +those rules which through life will be a surer counsellor than the +Bible, and a safer guide than theology. + + + **** **** + + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + + **** **** + + + + + The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful, +scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of +suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the +Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our +nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and +religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to +the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so +that America can again become what its Founders intended -- + + The Free Market-Place of Ideas. + + The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old, +hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts +and information for today. If you have such books please contact +us, we need to give them back to America. If you have such books +please send us a list that includes Title, Author, publication +date, condition and price. + + + **** **** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 17 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bigjoke.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bigjoke.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a62b3494 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bigjoke.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2611 @@ + + +There was a white man, a black, and a Jew riding in a car when it was involved +in an accident and everyone was killed. The rescue folks were cleaning up the +mess when suddenly the white man got up and brushed himself off. One of the +EMT's asked, "What happened?!" The white man explained, "Well, when we met +saint Peter, he says, 'Due to the lack of money up here right now, you can go +back for $1000.', so I gave him the money and came back." The EMT asked "Well, +were's the other two?" The white man again explained "Well, when I left, the +black guy was looking for a co-signer and the Jew was trying to get saint Peter +down to $750".... + + + +"Moosehead". A great beer...and a new experience for the moose! + + + +One day, little Johnny was sitting on a corner, stirring a bucket of shit. +The milkman walked up and said, "Whatcha got there, Johnny?" +To which Johnny replied (deep, slow voice is best) "Bucket o' shit." +"Whatcha making?" +"A Milkman." +"Hrummph!" said the Milkman and walked across the street. Next, the Mailman +came and said "Whatcha got there Johnny?" "Bucket o' shit." +"Whatcha making?" "A Mailman." "Hrummph!" The Mailman walked across the +street and began talking to the Milkman. Shortly after, a policeman walked +up and had a conversation with the two aggrieved men. He then walked over +to Johnny and said, "What do you have there, Johnny?" "Bucket o' shit." "I +bet you're making a Policeman." + "Nope, ain't got enough shit." + + + +One day, Johnny was sitting in the library, calmly flicking small ball bearings +around the room. Of course, one of the balls hit the librarian square in the +forehead. She stood up and glared around the room and said, "Who has the steel +balls," to which Johnny gleefully replied "Superman!" + + + +It was a month before Christmas, and just for a stunt +Santa had his face buried in Mrs. Clauses' cunt +There was a loud noise and Santa Jumped with a start +It seemed Mrs. Claus had cut loose with one hell of a fart +All Santa could do was gag and to spit +His face and his beard were all plastered with shit +Mrs. Claus was still on the bed, panting and groaning +Hollering for Santa to try and get his bone in +Santa started laughing and shouting, and with a loud cheer +Said I know what to do, I'll screw one of the deer +They're cleaner and neater, and don't you suppose +I'll be just the right height if I stand on my toes +Santa ran from the barn Shaking his head at the noise +Saying Jesus Christ, how'd I know they were all boys +It was getting about time to head for the south +Santa hoping he could get rid of the taste in his mouth +As the reindeer proceeded to line up in fours +Santa hollered "Merry Christmas Mrs. Claus this vibrator is yours!" +As Santa and his sleigh streaked into the sky +He said you may not be able to fuck yourself, but why don't you try +While Santa rode in the night, his ass frozen to the sled +He started thinking of Mrs. Claus at home in her warm bed +Santa spun in midair and headed back to the pole +They say he never go t farther from that hairy old hole +The moral of this story will end with this bit +Any job that you do, you just have to take shit. + + + +Little Johnny was twelve years old and like other boys of his age, rather +curious. He has bben hearing quite a bit about "courting" from older boys, and +he wondered what it was and how it was done. One day he took his questions to +his mother, who became rather flustered. Instead of explaining things to him, +she told him to hide behind the curtain one night and watch his older sister +and her boy friend. This he did. The following morning he described +everything to his mother. + + "Sis and her boy friend sat and talked for awhile, then he turned off most of +the lights, and he started kissing and hugging her. I figured sis must be +getting sick because she started looking funny. He must have thought so too +because he put his hand under her blouse to feel her heart just like a doctor +would, except hes not as smart as the doctor because he seemed to have trouble +finding the heart.. + +I guess he was getting sick too, because pretty soon both of them started +panting and getting all out of breath. His other hand must have been cold, +because he put it under her skirt. Aboout this time, sis got worse, and began +to moan and squirm around. They slid down to the end of the couch. This was +when the fever started. I know it was a fever, because sis told him she felt +really hot.. + +Finally, i found out what was making them so sick: A big eel had gotten inside +his pants somehow.. It just jumped out of his pants and stood there, about ten +inches long. Honest. Anyway, he grabbed it in one hand to keep it from getting +away. + +When sis saw it she got really scared, her eyes got big and her mouth fell +open. She started calling out to god and stuff like that. She said it was the +biggest one she had ever seen. I should tell her about the ones down at the +lake.. + +Anywa, sis got brave and tried to kill the eel by biting its head off. All of a +sudden she made a noise and let the eel go... I guess it bit her back, then she +grabbed it with both hands and held it tight while he took a muzzle out of his +pants pocket and slipped it over the eels head to keep it from biting again. + +Sis laid back and spread her legs so she could get a scissor lock on it, and he +helped by laying on top of the eel. The eel put up a hell of a fight. Sis +started graning and squealing and her boyfriend almost upset the couch. I +guess they wanted to kill the eel by squashing it between them.. + +After a while, they both got up and gave a great sigh, her boyfriend got up and +sure enough, they had killed the eel. i know it was dead, because it just hung +ther, limp and some of its insides were hanging out.. + +Sis and her boyfreind were a little tired from the battle, but they went to +courting anyway. He started hugging and kissing again. By Golly, the eel +wasn't dead. It jumped straight-up and started to fight again. i guess eels +are like cats... they have nine lives... + +This time sis jumped up and tried to kill the eel by sitting on it.. After +fifty-five minutes of struggle, they finally killed the eel. I know it was +this time because i saw sis's boyfriend peel its skin off and flush it down the +toilet.. + +Johnny's mother fainted. + + + + Now there are three guys, a white guy, a black guy, and + a Polock. They all have to live on the desert for a + day and they're allowed to pick ONE thing to take. + Each is asked what they want to take. + + First the white guy is asked what he wants to take. He + says, "I'd like to take a glass of water." + + "Why a glass of water?" he is asked. + + "So I can have something to drink when + I get thirsty." + + Next the black guy is asked what he wants to take. He + says, "I'd like to take an ice cube." + + "Why an ice cube?" he is asked. + + "So I can have something to suck on + when it gets hot." + + Finally the Polock is asked what he wants to take. He + says, "I'd like to take a car door." + + "Why a CAR DOOR?" he is asked. + + "So I can roll down the window when + it gets hot!" + + + + Q. What do you call oral sex at a national park??? + + A. Old Facefull!!!! + + + +Q. What did the masochistic girl say to her date??? + +A. "Slap...or I'll stop you!" + + + +At the last Georgia vs Auburn confrontation that took place in Georgia, an +enterprising Athens businessman put up a sign in his parking lot that said +"Auburn Fans Park Your Tractors Here". + +What's the best use for a degree from the University of Georgia? + +You tape it to your back bumper so you can park in the handicapped spaces. + + +Why are they laying down artificial turf in Jordan-Hare(Auburn) Stadium? + +To stop the cheerleaders from grazing. + + +What do they say when the Georgia cheerleaders take the field? + +How 'bout them dawgs. + + +An Auburn student enters a store and orders an RC and a moon pie. The +waiter says, "You go to Aubrun don't you?" + "If I came in here and ordered Sphgetti would you say I'm Italian?" + "No.", The waiter replied. + "If I ordered a Taco would you say that I'm Mexican?" + "No," the waiter says again. + "Then how come I order an RC and a moon pie and you say I'm from +Auburn?" + "Because this is a hardware store." + + + + What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft? + + A flat miner! + + + +Woman walks into her doctors office and says "You son of a bitch, those +hormones you gave me are just a little too strong. I've got hair growing all +over my titties". The doctor said, "Jeez, how far down does the hair go". +Lady - "All the way down to my dick. And that's another thing... + + + +This guy gets into a horrible auto accident and part of the damage form the +accident was that his dick was amputated. So, this dude is at the doctor and is +desperate. He pleads with the doctor to do something for him, so the doctor +tells him that there is a little baby elephant over at the zoo that just died. +The doctor says that they can use the elephant's trunk in place of this guy's +schlong. The guy is getting all excited and tells the doctor to do it. A few +years later the guy is with this incredible babe and they are out for dinner. +All of a sudden, she sees this thing come up from under the table and grab a +dinner roll and then dissappear back under the table. She screams and asks what +the hell it was. He tells her that he has to level with her. A few years ago I +had an accident, and my dick was cut off, so the doctor replaced it with the +trunk from a baby elephant. She thought that it was amazing and she asked if he +could do it again. He hesitatnly said `Yeah, I can do it again, but I don't +know if my ass can take another roll!' + + + +Did you hear the one about the optical lens manufacturer? + +He accidently fell into his lens grinder and made a spectacle of himself!!! + + + +This musician finally finished a new song, but no one would buy it. He was +telling another musician about it, and the other guy said "Let me hear it". +The first guy went to the piano and played a wonderful tune. When he finished, +the second guy said "That's a wonderful tune! I don't see why no one will buy +it. What do you call it?". The first man says "I love you so goddam much I +gotta shit" + + + +I understand that there is a mayor in California who is not only in favor of +the legalization of marijuana, but who also claims that smoking pot allows one +to focus one's conciousness better when driving and the like. He has gone as +far as encouraging citizens to smoke marijuana while driving by posting traffic +signs reading "no left turn unstoned". + + + +Q. Why, in the traditional wedding picture, is the groom in a chair and the +bride standing???? + +A. Because he's too tired to get up and she's too sore to sit down!!!! + + + +Q. What do you get if you eat Uranium??? + +A. You get Atomic ache!!!!! + + + +There was this polish kid one day who wanted a bike REALLY badly so he goes +to his father and says, Dad, can I have a bike, PLEASE! + +His father says to his son, is your dick long enough to touch the ground +yet? The son replies, no, so the father says NO BIKE. + +A few years later the son asks the father again and again his father wants +to know his dick size. Again, it isn't big enuf so he says no. + +Finally a few years later the son goes to his father and says, Dad, can I have +a bike, to which the father replies, is your dick be enuf toreach the ground. +The son happily says yes thinking finally he will get a bike. + +The father replies, GOOD, now go fuck yourself! + + + +There was this Englishman, Frenchman, a Mexican, and a Texan. They were all in +a plane. The pilot says "The plane has to lose some weight or we'll never make +it!" So, the Englishman says "God Save The Queen," and jumps out, the +Frenchman says "Vive La France!" and jumps out. Then the Texan says "Remember +The Alamo!" and pushes the Mexican out. + + + +One day a preacher came into town and started preaching that he could heal all +kinds of ailments. Well, as he was preaching, a man on crutches happened to +walk by. The preacher stoped him and said, "Brother, what is your ailment?" He +replied, "Well preacher, I have a deformed leg, and have never walked without +crutches." The preacher said, "What's your name, Brother?" "My name's John." +said the crippled man. "Well brother John, you step back behind this curtain." +and he did. About a minute later, another man happened to walk by and was also +stopped by the preacher. "What's your name brother" said the preacher. "Mu-mu- +ma names Ba-Ba-BOB!" was the reply. "Well brother Bob, what is your ailment?" +"Well, P-P-Preacher, I ha-ha-have a stu-stu-stu- problem talking." So the +preacher ushered him behind the curtian also and then started dancing and +preaching and yelling and praying and all kinds of stuff. After about 5 minutes +of this, he said, "Brother John, throw down your crutches, Brother Bob, speak +to me in a normal voice "About 30 seconds later, a voice came from behind the +curtian. "P-P Preacher, Br-Bra-Brother John Je-Jes-just fell on hi-hi-his ass!" + + + +My teenage daughter proudly wears a button that says: "If I had wanted to +hear from an asshole I would have farted." + + + +Three women are in a car crash and are all killed but fortunatly go to +heaven. Where they are met at the gates by St. Peter. + +SP says to the first woman: How did you die. And she says "The Big H" +SP says, Heart Attack, how terrible, come on in. + +SP says to the second woman how did you die? + And she says "I got the big C" + And Saint Peter says, Cancer that's terrible, you come in too. + +SP turns to the third woman and says, How did you die? + +She replys: "The big G" + +SP says, The Big G I don't know the big G? +What's that? + +She says Gonneria! + +SP says, You can't die from Gonerria! + +And the third woman replys: "If you give it to Leroy you can..." + + + +A woman wearing a hat was crossing the street in Chicago when a great wind +blew her skirt up over her head. she had no panties on, but she grabbed +for her hat instead of trying to hold her skirt down. + +A young man walking by asked her why should would grab the hat first +instead of her skirt, especially since she was wearing no underwear. + +"Young man," she replied, "what's under that skirt is 50 years old. + This hat is brand new!" + + + +DO YOU KNOW WHY A DOG LICKS HIS BALLS ? +BECAUSE HE CAN ! + + + +Q. What did the Indian say when he saw the mushroom cloud from the A-bomb test? + +A. "Wishum I had said that"! + + + +A new lumberjack has just finished his first month in the wilds of Alaska, +where there are no women for miles. He couldn't take it anymore, so he asks +his foreman what the men do to relieve themselves sexually. The foreman says, +"Try the hole in the barrel outside the shower, the men swear by it." The +lumberjack tried it out and had the experience of his life. "Wow, thats +fantastic," the lumberjack says, "I'm going to use it every day." "Everyday +except Wednesday," says the foreman. "Why?" says the lumberjack. "Wednesday's +your day in the barrell." + + + +Heard about the new Indian lottery? +Rub off the dot on the card, and if it matches the one on your forehead, +you're a winner! + + + +A man comes home one day with four brand new snow tires--I mean beautiful, +white wall, top-of-the line models. His wife says to him, "Why'd you buy snow +tires you don't even have a car?" +The man says: "Yeah but you buy bras don't you?" + + + +How do you tell the difference between snowmen and snowwomen? + +Snow-Balls + + + +"Before you hump her, + Cover your thumper!" + + + +"Is that Hortense?" +"She looks relaxed to me...." + + + +These jokes are about as funny as a helicoptor with an ejector seat! + + + +A schoolteacher told her class to come to school the next day dressed as a +mood. She said grades would be awarded on the basis of originality. The next +day she had the children stand up and tell what mood they were personifying. +The first child, Johnny, was all dressed in blue. He said, "I'm depression." +He got a C. The second child, Billy, was wearing green. "I'm jealousy and +envy." he said. Billy got a B. The next child, Darnell, stood up, wearing his +normal clothes, but with a pear stuck on his dick. The teacher said, "What in +heaven's name kind of mood are you? +Darnell replied, "Why, I's fuckin dis peah!" + + + +Q. Whats a prophylactic? + +A. A planned parent hood! + + + +Hear about the little black boy with the runs? + +He thought he was melting. + + + +Whats the difference between a mother-in-law and a vulture? + +The vulture at least waits till your dead to eat out your heart! + + + +Q> How do you starve a Puerto Rican? + +A> Hide his food stamps under his work shoes... + + + + +Well, we knew that it would happen before too long. Yesterday, Oral +Roberts was filmed standing on the Berlin Wall. He wants to raise +1 million marks by the end of the year, or he claims that the good Lord +will close the wall forever! + + + +Q. When cows laugh, does milk come out of there noses too? + + + + + +"I was working as an usher in the movie theatre, when I noticed a couple +in the back row making out in the dark. I suppose that I should have +stopped them, but I figured that they'd never notice another hand." + + + + + + There was a young lady of Erskine, + Who had a remarkably fair skin. + When I said to her, "Mabel, + You look, nice in your sable," + She replied, "I look best in my bare skin". + + + + + +Well, this guy was out driving around in his Caddy, and he sees a +hitchhiker, a pretty gal who looks a real sexy. He picks her +up, and within a few minutes they are chatting about homes, jobs, +friends, etc. Turns out, she claims to be a witch, with real magic +powers. He scoffs, and she says, 'no, it's true.' And if he doesn't +believe her, she will turn him into something to prove it. "Ha", +he says again, "you can't do it!! + +Well, she leans over his way -he's now a little nervous- and says a +few words into his ear, and sure enough, he turns into a motel +parking lot. + + + + + + +A man came home and his wife came running up and said "Honey my +sewing machine broke can ya fix it?" + +He replied "Who do I look like Mr Singer!!!" + +The next day he came home and his wife met him at the door and +said "Honey, my Vac Cleaner broke can you fix it ?" + +he replied "Who do I look like Mr Hoover!!" + +The next day the man came home and his wife said "Honey a nice +man cam buy and fixed the Vac and the sewing machine....He said I +could either bake him a cake or sleep with him" + +The man replied "what kind of cake did you bake?" + +She replied "Who do I look like BETTY CROCKER!!" + + + +Q: Why do the driver's education classes in West Virginia only use the + car on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays? + +A: Because on Tuesday and Thursday the sex ed class has it. + + + +The rabbit and the snake bumped into each other on the trail, and the snake +says "Sorry... but you see, I am blind!". The rabbit replies "Hey, I'm sorry +too, but I'm also blind...I've been blind all my life. +As a matter of fact, I dont even know what I am!". + +The snake says "Really? I dont what I am either! Say, maybe we can help +each other out... +I'll feel around on you and tell you what are, and then +you can do the same for me... Whatdya say?" + +Rabbit replies "ok". So, the snake coils up around the Rabbit and says... +"Okay...you are fuzzy all over, you got long front legs and short back legs, +long ears, and a fuzzy little tail... + Why... Little fella, you are a rabbit!" + +Well, the rabbit is overjoyed at this profound revelation, and replies +in like kind by feeling around on the snake and says... + +"Umm...Well, you are cold, slimy all over, and it appears that you crawl +on the ground on your belly all the time, and you dont have any balls!... +I'm pretty sure you're a lawyer!" + + + + +Two women were hurrying through the Christmas crowds on Main Street, +when one happens to hear a strange, little voice, down below her knees. + +"Hey!" it yells at her. "Look down here!" + +What should she see but a small, frightened green frog, stuck in a +showbank. Rush hour trucks and taxis are missing this little guy by +just inches. + +"Pick me up!" the frog begs. + +The wonan reaches down with a gloved hand, scoops the critter from the +snow and holds him delicately at arm's length. + +"Thank you!" he cries. "Now kiss me! I swear if you kiss me, I'll turn +into a hotshot Wall Street stockbroker!" + +The woman says nothing, and instead tucks the frog in her pocket. + +A few minutes later, her walking companion can't stand the suspense. + +"Aren't you going to kiss the frog?" she asks. + +"Are you kidding?" laughs the rescuer. "You can make more money with a +talking frog than you can with a hotshot Wall Street stockbroker." + + + + + +For as long as they could remember, four men had gotten together early +each December for a sauna and pre-Christmas lunch. + +"I won't be able to make the sauna this year, but I'll meet you at the +deli after," Chuck told his pals. + +Tom, Dick and Harry gather as usual at the sauna to play catch-up on the +events of the year. + +"So how is your son?" Tom asks Dick. + +"Excellent. Couldn't be better. He's in business for himself now, +making tailor made suits. Things are going so well for him that only +yesterday, he gave one of his friends a free suit." + +"A free suit?" + +"Absolutely," says Dick. + +"And how is your son, Tom?" + +Tom beams. + +"My son is selling cars. He's very successful. He's the top salesman +at his dealership. He's doing so well that only last week he gave a +friend a car." + +"Gave a friend a car?" + +"Free. For nothing." + +Tom and Dick shake their heads, delighted at their kids' success. + +"How about your son, Harry?" asks Tom. + +"Don't ask," says Harry. "My son is in real estate. My son is selling +condos as if there were no tomorrow. My son has sold so many condos +that only last week, he gave one of his friends a free condo." + +"No!" + +"Yes! Gave away a condo!" + +The three men agree they're blessed to have such successful, generous +sons. + +They get dressed and head over to the deli to meet their fourth pal for +lunch. + +Chuck is sitting at the table holding his head in his hands. + +"Old friend!" Tom, Dick and Harry cry, "Why so sad?" + +Chuck sighs. + +"It's about my son," he says. "I don't know how to tell you this, guys. + My son only told me last night at dinner. He's gay." + +"No!" + +"Yes, and I don't mind admitting, I'm having some real difficulty coping +with this as a man. Is it my fault? Should I have done something +differently?" + +"Don't torture yourself," advises Tom. + +"Don't dwell on it," comforts Dick. + +"Whatever will be, will be," adds Harry. + +Chuck shakes his head. + +"You're right. It's his life. I've got to accept it. I should look on +the bright side. He's making lots of new friends, I guess. Why just +last week, these new friends gave him a new suit, a new car, and a new +condo." + + + +The Indian chief had to leave the resovation for a year, so he left his +son in charge. +When he returned, he asked is son how things had gone for the year. +"Well, I've got some good news, and some bad news" he said. +"What's the bad news?" the chief asked. +"Since you've been away, 20,000 white men have moved onto the +reservation, and have built houses on our best hunting grounds" he +replied. +"But that's disasterous" the chief replied, "So what's the good news?" +"Well, they taste like buffalo" + + + + + Little Johnny came home from school one day and kicked a chicken. (He +lives on a farm) His mother saw it and said "Johnny, I saw you kick that +chicken and we're having chicken for dinner. As punishment you get no +dinner tonight." + Little Johnny then went out to the barn and kicked a cow in his anger. +His mother called him to the house and said "Johnny, I saw you kick that +cow. You get no milk before bedtime tonight." + Even more upset, he went and sat on the porch. A while later his father +came home and kicked the cat that was sleeping on the sidewalk. Johnny +walking into the house and said to his mother, "Are YOU going to tell +him or am I?" + + + + + A divorce case was going on, and the parents were trying to decide who +would get custody of their only child, Melissa. The Judge asked Melissa, "Do +you want to live with your Mommy?", and Melissa said "No, because she beats +me". The Judge scowled at the mother. Then the Judge asked, "Do you want to +live with your Daddy?", and Melissa replied "No, he beats me too.". The +Judge scowled at both the parents, then turned to Melissa and asked, "Then +who do you want to live with?", to which Melissa replied "The Dallas +Cowboys. They can't beat anyone." + + + + + + + ** LOST DOG ** + + 3 legs, + Blind in left eye, + Missing right ear, + Tail broken, + Recently castrated... + Answers to the name of + "LUCKY" + + + + + +You know it's a bad day when: + +1. You wake up face down on the pavement. +2. You put your bra on backwards, and it fits better. +3. You You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on HOLD. +4. You see the "60 minutes" news team waiting for you in your office. +5. Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles. +6. You want to put on the clothes you wore home from the party but there + aren't any. +7. You put on the news and they're displaying emergency routes out of the + city. +8. The woman you've been seeing on the side begins to look like your wife. +9. Your twin sister forgets your birthday. +10. You wake up to discover that your water bed broke and then you realize + that you don't have a water bed. +11. Your horn goes off accidentally, and remains stuck, as you follow a + group of Hell's Angels on the freeway. +12. The timer on your coffee maker is set to brew at 8:00 a.m. and you + forgot to put the coffee pot in the dispenser. +13. Your auburn hair color turns purple overnight. + + + +How to get along at the office: + +If it rings, put it on hold; +If it clanks, call a repairman; +If it whistles, ignore it; +If it's a friend, take a break; +If it talks, take notes; +If it's handwritten, type it; +If it's copied, file it; +If it's Friday, forget it! + + + + + +How to succeed without talent: + +1. Study to look tremendously important. +2. Speak with great assurance. Stick to generally accepted facts. +3. Avoid arguments; if challenged, fire an irrelevant question at your + antagonist and intently polish your glasses while he tries to answer. + As an alternative, hum under your breath while examining your + fingernails. +4. Contrive to mingle with important people. +5. Before talking with a man you wish to impress, ferret out his remedies + or current problems, then advocate them strongly. +6. Listen while others wrangle. Pluck out a platitude and defend it + righteously. +7. When asked a question by a subordinate, give him a "have you lost your + mind" stare until he glances down, then paraphrase the question back at + him. +8. Acquire a capable stooge, but keep him in the backround. +9. In offering to perform a service, imply your complete familiarity. +10. Arrange to be the clearinghouse for all complaints--it encourages the + thought that you are in control. +11. Never acknowledge thanks for your attention; this will implant + subconscious obligation in the mind of your victim. +12. Carry yourself in the grand manner. Refer to your associates as + "some of the boys in our office." Discourage light conversation that + might bridge the gap between boss and man. +13. Walk swiftly from place to place as if engrossed in affairs of great + moment. Keep your office door closed. Interview by appointment only + and give orders by memoranda. Remember, you are a big shot and you + don't give a damn who knows it. + + + +Before you ask me for the day off, consider the following statistics: + +There are 365 days in the year, you sleep eight hours a day making 122 days, +which subtracted from 365 days makes 243 days. You also have 8 hours of +recreation every day, making another 122 days and leaves a balance of 121 +days. There are 52 Sundays that you do not work at all, leaving 69 days. +You get Saturday afternoon off. This gives 52 half-days, or 26 more days +that you do not work. This leaves a balance of 43 days. You get an hour +off for lunch, which when totaled makes 16 days, leaving 27 days of the +year. You get at least 21 days leave every year, so that leaves 6 days. +You get 5 legal holidays during the year, which leaves only 1 day, + + AND YOU WANT ME TO GIVE + YOU THAT ONE DAY OFF!!! + + + + + Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence + +1. Never use an elevator in a building that has been hit by a nuclear + bomb; use the stairs. + +2. When you're flying through the air, remember to roll when you hit + the gorund. + +3. If you're on fire, avoid gasoline and other flammable materials. + +4. Don't attempt communications with dead people; it will only lead to + psychological problems. + +5. Food will scarce; you will have to scavenge. Learn to recognize + foods that will be available after the bomb: mashed potatoes, shredded + wheat, tossed salad, ground beef, etc. + +6. Put your hand over your mouth when you sneeze; internal organs will + be scarce in the post-nuclear age. + +7. Try to be neat; fall only in designated piles. + +8. Drive carefully in 'Heavy Fallout' areas; people could be staggering + illegally. + +9. Nutritionaly, hundred dollar bills are equal to ones, but more + sanitary due to limited circulation. + +10. Accumulate mannequins now; spare parts will be in short supply on + D-DAY. + + + + + Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence + +1. Never use an elevator in a building that has been hit by a nuclear + bomb; use the stairs. + +2. When you're flying through the air, remember to roll when you hit + the gorund. + +3. If you're on fire, avoid gasoline and other flammable materials. + +4. Don't attempt communications with dead people; it will only lead to + psychological problems. + +5. Food will scarce; you will have to scavenge. Learn to recognize + foods that will be available after the bomb: mashed potatoes, shredded + wheat, tossed salad, ground beef, etc. + +6. Put your hand over your mouth when you sneeze; internal organs will + be scarce in the post-nuclear age. + +7. Try to be neat; fall only in designated piles. + +8. Drive carefully in 'Heavy Fallout' areas; people could be staggering + illegally. + +9. Nutritionaly, hundred dollar bills are equal to ones, but more + sanitary due to limited circulation. + +10. Accumulate mannequins now; spare parts will be in short supply on + D-DAY. + + + + + +Hear the one 'bout the ax murderer and his two half-brothers. + + + +Two dogs are waiting in a Vet's office, a Pit Bull and a Great Dane. The +Great dane says to the Pit Bull, "So why are you here?" Well says the Pit +Bull, " I was sitting in my yard when this pretty young girl walked by. I +couldn't control myself and I bit her, so they're going to put me to sleep. +" "Oh" says the Great Dane. "So why are you here?" asks the Pit Bull. "Well" +says the Great Dane, "I was in the powder room with my mistres when se bent +over to pick her towel up." "Needless to say I couldn't controll myself and +I mounted her." "Owwww" says the Pit Bull "Thats to bad , so their going to +put you to sleep to huh..." "No" says the Great Dane "I'm only here to have +my nails clipped!" + + + + What does a shoplifter take for diarrhea? + + - Klepto-Bismol! + + + + What do you get when you spray a box of condoms with laughing gas? + + - Glad bags! + + + + The Night Before Christmas + + Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, + everyone felt shitty, even the mouse! + + Dad at the whore house, Mom smoking grass, + and I just settled down for a nice piece of ass. + + Then out on the lawn there rose such a clatter, + I sprang from my piece to see what was the matter. + + He came down the chimney like a bat out of hell, + I knew right away that fat fucker fell. + + He filled all the stockings with pretzels and beer, + and a big rubber dick for my brother the queer. + + He rose up the chimney with one hell of a fart, + that son-of-a-bitch blew my chimney apart. + + He swore and he cursed as he flew out of sight, + "Piss on you all and have one hell of a night." + + + +A pig goes into a bar and asks for six beers and drinks them all and +asks the bartender where the bathroom is and is told by the bartender +that is down the hall. A little while latter the pig leaves. Then another +pig comes in and asks for twelve beers and then asks where the bathroom +is and is told that is down the hall. A little while latter the pig +leaves. Then a third pig enters and orders and drinks twenty-four beers +and is just about to leave when the bartender asks "hey, aren't you going +to ask where the bathroom is?" and the pig says "No, I'm the pig that +goes wee-wee all the way home." + + + +(Q) So, what is the East German nation gonna put on their new flag?? +(A) ...... A suitcase. + + +(Q) How can you tell if you're in a gay church? +(A) Every other person is kneeling + + + +Down in cajun country, a deputy sheriff went to the house of the old man whose +wife was missing, and said to him "I have some good news and some bad news for +you. Which would you like to hear first?" + +The old man replied "Give me the bad news first" + +"Well," said the deputy, "we just found your wife in the river, drowned." + +The old man broke down and, crying hysterically, walked away from the deputy to +grieve. A few minutes later he hobbled back to the deputy and asked "If that +was the bad news, what's the good news?" + +"Well" said the deputy, "when we fished her out of the water, there were ten, +maybe twelve, big blue crabs on her... so we're sending her back down in the +morning" + + + + + (__) (__) (__) (__) + (oo) (oo) (oo) (oo) + /-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ + / | || / | || / | || / | || +* ||----|| * ||W---|| * ||w---|| * ||V---|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + Cow Cow laden Same cow Nancy Reagan-type + with milk after milking cow with milk + + + (___) (___) * (___) (___) + (o o) (o o) \ (o o) (o o) + /-------\ / /-------\ / \-------\ / /-------\ / + / | ||O / | ||O | ||O / | ~#>-+|O +* ||,---|| * ||#\--|| ||,---|| * ||,----| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^ + Bull Same bull after Rotc bull after Red-blooded American Bull + seeing above cow seeing other bull shooting the Rotc bull + + + (__) (__) (__) (__) + (oo) (oo) (oo) (oo) + /-------\/-* /-------\/ /-------\/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + / | || \ )*)(\/* / * / | || +* ||----|| * \ |||/)|/()( ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +\/|(/)(/\/(,,/ \)|(/\/|)(/\ + Cow munching Grass munching Cow in water Cow in trouble + on grass on cow + + (__) (__) * (__) * (__) + (oo) (oo) \ (oo) | (oo) + /--------\/ /-oooooo-\/ \-------\/ \-------\/ + * o| || * ooooooooo o o| || / || + ||----|| ooooooooooooo ||----||>==/-----|| + ooo^^ ^^ ooooooooooooooooo ^^ ^^ ^^ + Cow taking Cow in deep Cow getting the shit + a shit shit kicked out of her + + + (__) + (oo) U + /-------\/ /---V + / | || * |--| . +* ||----|| + ^^ ^^ + +Cow at 1 meter. Cow at 100 meters. Cow at 10,000 meters. + + + (__) )__( vv vv + (oo) (oo) ||----|| * + /-------\/ *-------\/ || | / + / | || / | || /\-------/ +* ||----|| / ||----|| (oo) + ^^ ^^ vv vv (~~) + +American Cow Polish Cow Australian Cow + + + (__) (__) (__) + (oo) ____ (oo) _---_(oo) + /-------\/ /- --\/ /- -\/ + / | || / | || /| || +* ||----|| * ||___-|| * ||___-|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + +Freshman Cow at Freshman Cow Freshman Cow +start of school After the "Freshman 15" After the "Freshman 20" + + + (__) (__) (__) + (OO) (##) (xx) + /-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ + / | || / | || / | || +* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + +Cow who drank Jolt Cow who ate Cow who used Jolt to wash + psychadelic mushrooms down psychadelic mushrooms + + + /\ __ + / \ || + (__) (__) \ / (_||_) + SooS (oo) \/ (oo) + /------S\/S /-------\/ /S /-------\/ + / | || / | || / S / | || + * ||----|| * ||----||___/ S * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + This cow belonged Ben Franklin owned Abe Lincoln's + to George Washington this cow cow + + + (__) + * (__) (oo) + \ (oo) /------\/ + \-------\/ /| |/ | + | ==$ || / | [) || + ||----|| * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + Old "One Arm" belonged This cow was given to + to Ceasar's Palace Hugh Hefner for his Birthday + + + (___) (__) (__) + ( O ) (oo) (oo) + /-------\ / \/--------\/ + / | ||V | | + * ||----|| ||------|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + The cyclops that Jason and This cow lived with +the Argonauts met had this cow Dr. Doolittle + + + (__) (__) + [##] (#o) + /-------\/ /-------\/ /------- (__) + / | || / | || / | || (oo) + * ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----|---\/ + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^ + This cow belonged This cow lived with This cow belonged to + to Flash Gordon the Little Rascals the Headless Horseman + + + (____) (____) (____) + (oo ) (o o) ( O O) + /-----------\ / /-----\ /---- /-----------\ / + / || | \/ / | | \/ | / || | \/ + / || |||| \ | | | | | / || |||| + * ||||-----|||| *| | |-----| | | * ||||-----|||| + /\/\ /\/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ ^^^^ ^^^^ + This cow belonged This was Salvatore No one was sure whether + to Pablo Picasso Dali's favorite cow M.C. Escher's cow had four + legs or eight + + + O__O \_|_/ + (oo) (oo) + /-------\/ /-------\/ + / | || / | || + * ||----|| * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + Cow at Disneyland Cow visiting the Statue of Liberty + + + (__) (__) + ^^ (oo) (--) + ^^^^ /-------\/ /-\/-\ + ^^^^^ / | || /| |\ + ^^^^^ * ||----|| ^ | | ^ + ^^^^^^^^ ====^^====^^==== | | +^^^^^^^^^^^^^/ /----\ +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ / \ \ +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ * ^ + Cow Hanging Ten at Malibu Cow sunning at Fort Lauderdale + (What a bod, huh guys?) + + + )\ (__) + / \ (oo) + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Cow swimming at Amityville +(Where Jaws was filmed, for those less educated) + + + * (__) + \ (DD) + \ /-------\/ + |\ / | ||_\_/ + \ | \ (__) * ||----| + \\|| \(oo) ^^ ^ + \||\ \\/ Cow chugging brews and staring at + ^^ \|| sunbathers at Fort Lauderdale + \\ || + \\|| + \|| + ^^ / / / / / / / / / / / + \\_ / / / / / / / / / / / / + \_ / / / / / _______ / / + Cow skiing a Black Diamond at Aspen / / / / | \ / / + / / / (__)| / / + / / / (oo)| / / + ( ### ) /-------\/ | + ( ## ) (------------) / | ||^_| + ## (__) ( *>COUGH<* ) * ||----| + ## (oo) . . . ( *>COUGH<* ) ^^ ^ + /--UU--\/ (____________) + / | || Cow sheltering from English Weather + * ||---|| + (New) Jersey Cow + + + O O O O + \ \ / / + \ \ (__) / + (__) \ \ (xx)/ + (DD) \ +--------+\// + /-------\/ \| | / + / | || +--------+ + * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ +Cow fantasizing about "Riding the Mechanical Bull" + at Gillies in Texas + + + o o + |__| (__) (__) + (oo) (oo) =(oo)= oo + /-------\/ /-------vv /-------\/ + / | || / | || / | || +* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----|| + ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ + bill bixby bela lugosi boris karloff claude rains + male relative cow cow cow + cow + + + x + xxxx|xxxx + xxxxxxx|xxxxxxx + | + // + (__) // (__) (__) + (oo)// (oo)===(oo) + /-------\// /-------\/ \/-------\ + / | |// / | || || | \ + * ||----| * ||----|| ||----|| * + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + Julie Andrews Cow Siamese cows + + + o o (__) ^ + \ / (oo) / + \ / _____\/___/ + (__) \__/ / /\ / / + (oo) _______(oo) ^ / * / + /---------\/ /| ___ \/ / ___/ + / | x=a(b)|| / | { }|| *----/\ + * ||------|| * ||{___}|| / \ + ^^ ^^ ||-----|| / / + ^^ ^^ ^ ^ + + Mathematical Television This cow does Disco + Cow Cow (That's what comes of + (developer of (Cow-thode snorting cow-caine) + cow-culus) Ray Tube) + + + o + | [---] + | | + | | |------========| + /----|---|\ | **** |=======| + /___/___\___\ o | **** |=======| + | | ___| |==============| + | | ___ {(__)} |==============| + \-----------/ []( )={(oo)} |==============| + \ \ / / /---===--{ \/ } | + ----------------- / | NASA |==== | + | | * ||------||-----^ + ----------------- || | | + / / \ \ ^^ ^ | + / ---- \ + ^^ ^^ This cow jumped over the Moon + + + (__) + ([][]) "I have this recurring dream + __\/_--U about golden arches.".. (__) + /\ \__ ^ :..("") + /\\\ / / //\ ____\_____\/ // + /----^/__/\ /\ // \\/ \___ / // + \\\____/--\-- // /-/__________/ // + /====== \/ =======/==============// + *_/ / \ /^ // / \\ + / \ ^ // \\ + + Psycowlogist and patient + + + (___) + \^^^^^^^^\ (__) (o o) + \^^^^^^^^\\ (oo) \ / + *-----\_______\/\/ \--O--/ + ^_______/ --- \______^ // -----\ + ^--------\ \S/ /\_____^ \\/_^{} /==V===[] + \______/ \_____\\// + \__/ + It's a bird... //\\ The Boss + It's a plane... // \\ (Bruce Holstien) + // // + ^^ ^^ + + + ================== + _____________________________ H H + | |-------------| H (__) H + | | ________ | H (oo) H __ + | COWNTY | | (|__|) | | H / \/ \ H / \ + | JAIL | | |oo| | | H | | | | H | STOP | + | | |__|\/|__| | H D===b=----- H \ __ / + | | o | H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H || + | | ^ | H H || + | | ] | H H || + | | | H H || + |_____________|_____________| H H || + ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ + Some cows get in trouble... Cattle Guard + + + ( ( ) + ( ( ) ) + ( ( ) + ( / ) + ( ( \\ ) + ( | // ) + | | (__) + | | (oo) (__) + | | ----\/ ______(oo)_____ + | | || ( _)_______(__) ) + **| | ---|| \ __________/ + ``'---------^^ + Cow Hide Cow Pie + + + \ | / ___________ + ____________ \ \_# / | ___ | _________ + | | \ #/ | | | | | = = = = | + | | | | | \\# | |`v'| | | | + | | \# // | --- ___ | | | || | | + | | | | | #_// | | | | | | + | | \\ #_/_______ | | | | | | || | | + | | | | | \\# /_____/ \ | --- | | | + | | \# |+ ++| | | |^^^^^^| | | | || | | + | | \# |+ ++| | | |^^^^^^| | | | || | | +^^^| (^^^^^) |^^^^^#^| H |_ |^| | |||| | |^^^^^^| | + | ( ||| ) | # ^^^^^^ | | |||| | | | ||||||| | + ^^^^^^^^^^^^^________/ /_____ | | |||| | | | ||||||| | + `v'- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | ||||||| | + || |`. (__) (__) ( ) + (oo) (oo) /---V + /-------\/ \/ --------\ * | | + / | || ||_______| \ + * ||W---|| || || * + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + + "Cow Town" + + + \ (__) (__) + \\(oo) (\/) + /-----\\\/ /-------\/ + / | (##) / | || + * ||----||" * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ ~~ ~~ + This cow plays bagpipes. Cow from Beijing + + + (__) (__) (__) + (\/) ($$) (**) + /-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ + / | 666 || / |=====|| / | || +* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + +Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow in love + + + (__) (__) + (oo) (oo) + /-'''''-\/ /-------------------\/ + / |'''''|| / | || +* ||''''|| * ||----------------|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + Cow in Argyle Stretch Cow + * + ** ** + * ** * * * ** + * / / \ * * + \ \ / \ / / (__) + * / / \ \ (__) \ \ /--------(00) + / (00) / / / | |( ) + \ /-------\/ \ \ * ||---- ||() + / / | || / / || || + \ \ * ||----|| \ \ ^^ ^^ + / / ^^ ^^ / / Cow Chewing Marbles + Cow in Heat + + + (___) + (o o) + /------\ / (__) (__) + / ____O (oo) (oo) + | / /----\----\/ /-------\/ + /\oo===| / || / | || + | || *||^-----|| * OO----OO + * ^^ ^^ ^^ + Cowt in the Act low rider cow + + + (__) \__\ (__) + (oo) o (oo) (oo) + /-------\/ ____\___\/ *+-------\/ + / | || / | || ||______|| +* ||----|| * ||----|| ||----|| + OO OO OO OO OO OO +Detroit cow Mustang cow pickup cow + + + (__) (__) \_||_~ + (oo) (oo) (*||*) + /---------------\/ /----\/ /-------\||/ + / | || / || / | || +* ||------------|| *-||----|| * ||----|| + OO OO OO OO OO }{ + li-moo-cow fastback cow teenager's cow + + + ____ + (____) + .xxxx. + (__) '(oo)` + (oo) /-----'-\/ ` + /-------\/ / | |============> + / | || * ||----| (~) +* ||----|| ~~ ~ + ~~ ~~ Moo-ammar Cowdafi + holy cow armed and dangerous + + + (___) (___) + (o o) (o o) + /-------\ / /-------\ / + / | ||O / | O~ ||O +* ||,---|| * ||,---|| + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + A Bull A-bomb-in-a-bull No-bull + + + (---) + ( ) + /-----\ (___) + | | (o o) + | | | (-----) \ / + | | | / / \ O + | * | * | O | + ^^ ^^ ----- + Coward Phone Bull + + + | | | | * + | | (__) | | \ (__) + | | (oo) | | \ (oo) + | | /-------\/ | | -----------\/-- + | | / | || | | ----| |--- + | | * ||----|| | | -------- + | \______^^____^^___ | \_________________ + | _________________ | _________________ + | / | / + | | | | + | | | | + | | | | + | | | | + | | | | + | | | | + | | | | +/ \ / \ + +Cow perched on a tree. Cow attempting to fly off tree. + + + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | \_________________ + | _________________ + | / + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | (__) + | | *---------(..) +/ \ ^^----^^\/ + +Cow that has failed miserably in the attempt. + + + . /\ . . : (__) + . / \ . . : (xx) + / \ . . * : __------\/ + / \ * : * ||____|| + | (__) | . . ** : / | |\ + . /| (oo) |\ ** : + / | /\/\ | \ . . * : Hamburger + . / |=|==|=| \ . * : + . / | | | | \ . : + / USA | ^||^ |NASA \ . : * (__) + |______| ^^ |______| . : \ (oo) + . (__||__) . . : \-------\/ + . /_\ /_\ . . . : 8-| || + !!! !!! : ||----|| + : ^^ ^^ + The cow that jumped over the moon. : Flying Cow + + + ...---... + ../ / | \ \.. + ./ / / | \ \ \. + / / / | \ \ \ + / / / | \ \ \ + ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | / + \ | /(__) + \|/ (oo) + /---++--\/ + / | || || + * || \|/ (oo) + /---++--\/ + / | || || + * ||-++-|| + ^^ ^^ + + Cow surviving attack by Red Baron + + + ..---.. (__) + / \ (oo) + | RIP | /-------\/ + | | / | || + | | * ||----|| + | | ^^ ^^ + | | +\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////// + + Elvis's Cow... ...Or is it alive and living in tax exile??? + + + (__) + (oo) + /---+ +--\/ + / | | | || + * ||-+ +-|| + ^^ ^^ * + + David Copperfield's Cow David Copperfield's other Cow + + + (__) + (oo) + /-------\/ + / | || + * ||----|| + ^^ ^^ + (__) (__) + (oo) (oo) + /-------\/ \/-------\ + / | || -^^- || | \ + * ||---- -^^- || * + ^^ ^^ + (__) (__) + (oo) (oo) + /-------\/ \/-------\ + / | || || | \ + * ||----|| ||----|| * + ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + Barnum's Troupe of performing cows + + + + (__) _--------_ + (oo) |__________| BIG + /-------\/ XXXXXXXXXX MAC + / | 007 || __________ + * ||----|| |_ _| + ^^ ^^ -------- + Cow licenced to kill Enemy Cow after having met previous cow + + + (__) + (oo) + /'^^^-m + (__) / '' ` ) + (oo) o /| /|/|_ | /| + / \/ / / _ / | | | | + / _\===^ ___\_____/___ |_____|_| + ___|__/ |/\ (___________(_) //|| || + * ^ ^ * ww ww + + Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Cow'nt Dracula + + + ____ ____ |+++++| +|++++| ___ |++++| ____ |+++++| +|++++| |++ ______________________ |++++| |+++++| +|++++| |++/ /( )\ \ |++++| |+++++| __ +| | |+| |-oo- | \______ |++++| |+++++| |++| +-----(__)--| \__\/ _(__)_ \ ---------------------------------- + o ( oo /_______________________| (oo) \ | __ + | _/\_| | M O O - B U S T E R S|__\/\ /| | /oo| - Bleaurgh! + |-| \\____ ------ )_ /| /\ + -|_ \_|-_|^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 0 _| * \/ * + \ | __________________________________/ + | W| \ \_/ /----------------- \ \_/ / + / /\ \ \___/ \___/ + / / \ \ + ^^^ ^^^ Who you gonna call...? + + + (__) (__) (__) (----------) + (00) (-o) (--) . . . ( *>YAWN<* ) + /------\/ /------\/ /------\/ (----------) + /| || /| || /| || +* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----|| + +Cow w/ Glasses Flirtatious cow (winking) Cow after pulling an all-nighter + + +* (__) (__) (__) (__) + \ (oo) (oo) (oo) (oo) + \-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ + /| |\ / / \ / \ / / \ \ + //||----||\\ * //------\\ * \\--// * \\----\\ + ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ +Cow walking Cow jogging Same cow Cow breaking + + + (__) + (oo) (__) o * (__) + \/ (oo)/ " | (oo) + ____| \____ /-------\/(__ o=o=o=|------\/ + ---/ --** / | / | | + *____/ |___// * ||----|| ||----|| + //--------/ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ + //__ Cow Cow pooing + Cow marching standing + + + Side Front Side back (___) Where's all the bulls! + (__) (__) (__) (__) (O O)/ + ( oo (oo) oo ) ( ) ^ _/\ /\_ ^ + /\_| /\/\ |_/\ / \ \\/ O \// + + + +I have to sadly announce that Willie Nelson was killed today... + +He was playing "On the road Again" + + + + STRESS + + That confusion created + when one's mind + overrides the body's + basic desire to + choke the living shit + out of some asshole who + desperately needs it. + + + + ARMY + + JOIN THE ARMY + Travel to exotic, distant lands. + Meet exciting, unusual people + and kill them + + + +Here it is! The Hillbilly's book of medical terminology for the layman. + +ARTERY The study of fine paintings +BARIUM What you do when CPR fails +CESARIAN SECTION A district in Rome +COLIC A sheep dog +COMA A punctuation mark +CONGENITAL Friendly +DILATE To live long +FESTER Quicker +G.I. SERIES Baseball games between teams of soldiers +GRIPPE A suitcase +HANGNAIL A coathook +MEDICAL STAFF A doctor's cane +MINOR OPERATION Coal digging +MORBID A higher offer +NITRATE Lower than day rate +ORGANIC Church musician +OUTPATIENT Person who has fainted +POST-OPERATIVE A letter carrier +PROTEIN In favor of young people +SECRETION Hiding anything +SEROLOGY Study of English knighthood +TABLET A small table +TUMOR An extra pair +URINE Opposite of you're out +VARICOSE VEINS Veins which are very close together +BENIGN What you are after you be eight + + + +A Texan came Down Under for a holiday, and was being shown around one of the +cattle stations in the Northern Territory. As they were driving along, the +Texan pointed at a cow and asked what it was. The station owner said, "That's +one of my prize Hereford heiffers." The Texan said, "Shoot! That one wouldn't +even be weaned yet back in Texas!" A little while later, the Texan pointed at +a ram and asked what it was. The station owner said, "That's one of my stud +Merino rams." The Texan said, "Sheeoot! That ram is smaller than one of my +new born lambs back in Texas!" By this time the station owner was pretty +pissed off, and when the Texan saw a mob of kangaroos and asked what they were, +the station owner replied, Grasshoppers...Incredibly LARGE grasshoppers... + + + +Q) What's the difference between an ambush and a 69 + +A) At least with a 69, you can see the cunt coming..... + + + +This eighty year old was getting a physical and the doctor said, "You've +got the vitality of a thirty year old, how old was your dad when he died?" +"He's still alive, working construction." the man replied. "What about your +grandfather?" the doc asked. "He just turned a hundred and thirteen +yesterday and he's getting married to a fifteen year old girl next weekend +" said the man. +"Why on earth would a hundred and thirteen year old man want to marry a +fifteen year old girl??" +"Who said he wants to get married?" + + + +There was a postion open for an accountant at this one large firm. They +got the applicants down to 3 people. The president was going to interview +each one seperately. He asked the first applicant in. +"I'm going to ask you just one question." says the president, "What's 2+2?" +Applicant #1 promptly answers "Four." +"Thank you, we will get back to you" Replied the president. +The second applicant comes in, same question "What's 2+2?" +Applicant #2 thinks this must be a trick question, thinks a little bit and +says "Five." +The president replies "Well, that's obviously wrong, don't call us, we'll +call you." +The third applicant comes in, same question "What's 2+2?" +The third applicant looks around as if he's looking for someone else in the +room and replies "What would you like it to be?" +The president excaims "YOU'RE MY MAN!" + + + +What do you call 1 white guy surrounded by 3 black men? +Victim. + +What do you call 1 white guy surrounded by 5 blacks? +Coach. + +What do you call 1 white guy surrounded by 20 blacks? +Quarterback. + +What do you call 1 white guy surrounded by 200 blacks? +Warden. + +What do you call it when a white guy gets wings? +Angel.. + +And what do you call it when a black guy gets wings? +Bat! + + + +Three traveling salesmen, an American, a Polack and a Black mam, were +driving down a dirt road when there car just up and died. Well, they had +seen a farm house about a mile back up the road. They all took off jogging +and got there about sun set. They knocked at the door, and a nice, elderly +farmer opened the door. They used the phone to call the local garages, but +they were all closed. Not knowing what else to do, they asked permission to +stay the night at the farmers house. They farmer said that if they wanted +to, they were welcome to stay in the barn. He showed them out to the barn, +and showed them where to stay. He then warned them to stay outta the tree +in the back yard. His daughter was getting ready to marry Billy Joe Jim +John Jake Franks, and he didn't want any peeping toms. They all easily +agreed, and went in to the barn. After about an hour of talking, they are +all very curious as to what this daughter looks like. They finally decide +to climb the tree, but quietly. When they get to the top of the tree, the +look in the window, and see this very beautiful, naked, young lady standing +in front of a mirror. They are all getting an eyefull of this big breasted, +tight assed, big bushed lady, when the farmed walkes out side, having heard +them, and yells, "Who's in that tree?". The three freeze. The American gets +an idea and, very carefully, "Meow. Meow.". The Black man, having cought on +says, "Tweet, tweet." The polack, having realized what is going on says, +"Moo! Moo! Moo!" + + + +Now that the metric system is in wide use world wide (except here in the +US), it is time to change a few common phrases. + +. A miss is as good as 1.6 kilometers + +. Put your best .3 of a meter forward + +. Spare the 5.03 meters and spoil the child + +. Twenty-eight grams of prevention is worth 453 grams of cure. + +. Give a man 2.5 centimeters and he'll take 1.6 kilometers. + +. Peter Piper picked 8.8 liters of pickled peppers. + + + +In the woods there's this clearing away from where all the animals live +where all the animals of the forest go to take a crap. One day this +little white fuzzy bunny rabbit was hunched over a log when this large +brown bear sits down next to him to take a shit. After a couple of +minutes this large brown bear looks down at this little white fuzzy +bunny rabbit and says "Hey, do you ever have problems with shit +sticking to your fur?" The little white fuzzy bunny rabbit looks up at +the big brown bear and replies "Uh, no I don't." So the bear picks up +the rabbit and wipes his ass with him. + + + +Getting even with the answering machine + Lesson 48 + +Hi. I'm calling to make sure you received in the mail your free sample of +the new chocolate candy made in San Francisco by transvestites - it's +called a "He-She" Bar. + +CLICK + + + +One night, my friend was home in Santa Cruz, working on his computer +Lightning struck the satellite dish on the roof of the house. He was +rendered unconcious, and when he awoke, the Keyboard Prayer was on the +screen : + +Our program, who art in memory, HELLO by thy name, +Forgive us our I/O errors as we forgive those whose logic circuits are +faulty. +Lead us not into frustration,and deliver us from power surges. +For thine is the algorithm, the application and the solution, +looping forever and ever. RETURN.'" + +On this incident, he was given the name St. $ilicon. The Giver of Data +instructed him to form the church of Heuristic Information Processing,the +first user-friendly religion. +This was in 1984; since then, the fourth-quarter prophet and strict +fun-damentalist has been ministering to the D-based and D-filed. +He usually wears a white suit with a button that asks: 'Has your data been +saved?' + +His act includes the 'Sermon on the Monitor': 'Dearly C-loved, we are +assembled here together because PCing is believing. We're here to console +you, +ASCII and ye shall receive. We say there is a life worth debugging. Data, +data, everywhere and not a thought to think, that's the problem... Friend, +perhaps you know someone out there with a terminal illness -- some poor +hacker +with bloodshot eyes in data distress -- who's been attacked by the evil one, +Glitch, and his wicked helper, Missingstuffinfiles.Even if your data has +been +blown all to HAL there's not a thing we can do to bring it back, but we can +solace you in your hour of need. + +From the Binary Bible,which St. $ilicon translated from the ancient Greek, +the +first book SYSGEN I:i 'In the beginning the Giver of Data generated +silicon +and carbon and the system was without architecture, and uninitialized, and +randomness was upon the arrangement of the matrix.' +Announcements: +- For cathode-lics - a new high school (Our Lady of Perpetual + Upgrades - we don't have nuns, we have nulls) and a new junior high + ( PCjr - the immaculate deception). +- Also performs curcuit-cisions and bar-code mitzvahs. +- The Binary Bible includes commandments + * Thou shalt not pirate programs + * the 23rd PROM "Yea, though I commute to the valley each day, + I fear no evil, for my Mazda is running. + You prepare a desk for me in the office of my competitors." +- For Bootists, a mantra: Ohms EPROM RAM ROM. +- For CMOSlems, readings from the CORE-RAM. +- Hymn number 1101101 +- "Amazing space, how sweet it is, To have a disk like thee, + My files were lost but now they're found, There's room on my PC." + +The end of his pitch promises Nerdvana, and words that restoreth the scroll: +"There's no need to abandon hope, all ye who press ENTER; + in the END everything will be right-justified." + + + +The difference between a cowboy from texas and a cowboy from +Oklahoma is that the cowboy from Oklahoma has the shit on the Outside of +his boots. + + + +You know those little silver balls you put on cakes and cookies? +Well... + There was this family of three boys and a mom and they were all making +christmas cookies when they accidentally spilled them all over the table. +They decided that since they couldn't put them on the cake that they would +eat them all up. + Later that night the first boy wakes up and goes to mommie and says, +"Mommie, mommie I pead a bebe." + Mommie said, "Go back to bed." + Later on in the night the second kid woke up and went to mommie and +said, "Mommie, mommie, I pead a bebe." + Mommie said, "Go back to bed." + The third boy woke up and went to mommie. + Mommie said, "I suppose you pead a bebe to right?" + The boy said, "No mommie. I was jacking off when I shot the dog!" + + + +You know how to tell the Polish secretary(sub stitute any ethnisism) in the +office pool? +She's the one with the white-out on her monitor screen. + + +What's the new venereal disease that only affects foot fetishists? +Athlete's tongue. + + +Why is a boss like a diaper? +Always on your ass and full of shit. + + + +Subject: Insurance claims + +I hit his car because he got to close. + +I let him try out my motorcycle. He was climbing a hill and didn't know the +hill went down the other side and crashed. + +I slipped on a string bean in the supermarket. My right leg was bruised and +it's hard to walk on my lower back. + +I drove my truck under a bridge and it didn't fit. + +I knocked over a man. He admitted it was his fault as he'd been run over +before. + +Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't +have. + +The reason I have water damage is because I mistook the left side of the +bridge to be the right side. + +The pedestrian didn't have any idea of which way to go, so I ran over him. + +A huge tree ran out into the street and I couldn't stop in time! + + + +A man died and was taken to his place of eternal torment by the devil. +As he passed sulfurous pits and shrieking sinners, he saw a man he +recognized as a layer snuggling up to a beautiful woman. +"That's unfair!" he cried. "I have to roast for all eternity, and +that lawyer gets to spend it with a beautiful woman." +"Shut up," barked the devil, jabbing him with his pitchfork. "who +are you to question that woman's punishment?" + + + +Two lawyers were walking along negotiating a case. "Look," said one to the +other, "let's be honest with each other." Okay, you first," + replied the other. That was the end of the discussion. + + + + +The devil visited a young lawyer's office and made him an offer. "I can +arrange some things for you," the devil said. "I'll increase your income +five-fold. Your partners will love you; your clients will respect you; +you'll have four months of vacation each year and live to be a hundred. +All I require in return is that your wife's soul, your children's souls and +their children's souls must rot in hell for eternity." + +The lawyer thought for a moment and said, "What's the catch?" + + + +A minister and a lawyer were chatting at a party. "What do you do if you +make a mistake on a case?" the minister asked. "Try to fix it if it's big; +ignore it if it's insignificant," replied the lawyer. + "What do you do?" The minister replied, "Oh, more or less the same. + Let me give you an example. The other day I meant to say 'the devil +is the father of liars,' but I said instead 'the devil is the father of +lawyers,' so I let it go." + + + +What do lawyers use for birth control? + +Their personalities. + + + +Why don't you ever see lawyers at the beach? + +The cats keep covering them up with sand. + + + +The only good thing that the Internal revenue has not taxed is your pecker. +This is due to the fact that 40% of the time it is hanging around +unemployed, +30% of the time it is pissed off, 20% of the time it is hard-up, and 10% of +the time it is employed but it operates in a hole. +However, it has two dependents and they are both nuts. Accordingly, after +September 1, 1988 your pecker will be taxed on its size, using the 'pecker +checker' scale below. Determine your category and insert the additional tax +under "other taxes" page 2 part V, line c-1 of your standard income tax +return +(form 1040) + + PECKER CECKER SCALE + +10" - 12" Luxury Tax $30.00 +8" - 9" Hole Tax $25.00 +6" - 7" Privilege Tax $15.00 +4" - 5" Nuisance Tax $00.00 + +NOTE: anyone under 4" is eligible for a refund. do not apply for an +extension +Males with peckers in excess of 12" should file under "capital gains" + + + + True or False: + +1. A clitoris is a type of flower. +2. A pubic hair is wild rabbit. +3. Spread eagle is a wild bird. +4. Vagina is the medical term to describe heart trouble. +5. A menstraul cycle has 3 wheels. +6. A G-string is part of a violin. +7. Semen is a term for sailors. +8. Anus is the Latin word for "yearly". +9. Testicles are found on an octopus. +10. Asphalt describles rectal troubles. +11. KOTEX is a radio station in College Station, TX. +12. Masterbate is used to catch large fish. +13. Coitus is a musical instrument. +14. Fetus is a character on "Gunsmoke". +15. An umbilical cord is part of a parachute. +16. A condom is a large apartment complex. +17. An orgasm is the person who accompanies the choir in church. +18. A diaphram is a drawing in pencil +19. A dildo is a variety of sweet pickle. +20. A lesbian is a person from the Middle East. +21. Sodomy is a special kind of fast-growing grass. +22. Pornography is the business of making records. +23. Genitals are people of non-Jewish origin. +24. Douche is the French word for "twelve". +25. An enema is someone who is not your friend. +26. Ovaries are a French egg dish made with cheese. +27. Scrotum is a small planet next to Uranus. +28. A vulva is a car from Sweden. +29. A fallopian tube is part of a tv set. +30. It is dangerous to have a wet dream under an electric blanket. +31. McDonald's golden arches is a phallic symbol. +32. Fellatio is an Italian dagger. +33. Cunnilingus is a person who can speak four languages. + + + +What are the six most important men in a women's life? + +1. Doctor-because he wants you to take off your cloths.... +2. Dentist-because he wants you to open wide... +3. Milkman-because he wants to know if you want it in the front or the rear. +4. Interior Decorator-because he says "when it's up you'll love it!" +5. Hairdresser-because he will say "Do you want it blown or teased?" +6. The last is your BANKER- he will advise you if you withdraw it too soon + you will lose interest. + + + + TO ALL EMPLOYEES + + SUBJECT: SPECIAL INTENSITY TRAINING + + In order to assure that we continue to produce the highest quality work +possible it will be our policy to keep all employees well trained through +our +program of Special High Intensity Training (S.H.I.T.). We are giving our +employees more S.H.I.T. than any other company in town. + + If you feel you do not receive your share of S.H.I.T. on the job please see +your supervisor. You will be placed on the top of the S.H.I.T. list for +special +attention. + + All of our supervisors are paticularly qualified to see that you get all +the +S.H.I.T. you can handle at your oun speed. + + If you consider yourself to be trained enough already you may be interested +in helping us to train others. We can add you to our Basic Understanding +Lecture List Special High Intensity Training (B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.). + + If you have further questions please address them to our Head of Training +High Intensity Training (H.O.T.S.H.I.T.) + + Thank You + + Boss in General Special High Intensity Training (B.I.G.S.H.I.T.) + + P.S. With the personality some of you display around here you could +easily become the Director of Intensity Training. Special High +Intensity Training (DS). + + + +A boy goes up to his father and says "Dad,how do you spell clitoris ?" +His father answers,"Gee son,I don't know but I had it on the tip of +my tongue just a moment ago." + + + +WHY DON'T BLIND PEOPLE SKYDIVE? +IT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF THEIR DOGS! + +WHY DO WOMEN SKYDIVERS WEAR TAMPONS? +SO THEY DON'T WHISTLE ON THE WAY DOWN + + + + Did ya hear the one about the tugboat who was so down + hearted when she learned that her mother was a tramp and + her father was a ferry? + + + + +How about the little tree who tried to determine his parentage. He asked the +wise old oak what kind of tree he was. "I don't know," the oak said, "if +you're a son of a beech or a son of a birch, but I do know your mother was the +greatest piece of ash in this forest." + + + + There were these two old men, Sol and Abe, who REALLY loved +baseball. They went to every game played in town; they subscribed to +Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News - they lived, ate, and breathed +baseball. + One day, Abe passed away. His friend, Sol, was desolute, but he kept +up with the baseball. Months went by, and Sol was lonely without his +good friend Abe. And, one day, as Sol was walking down the street, he +heard a strange, yet familiar, voice from around him. + "Solly...can you hear me...? I'm heeeeeere, Sol..." Well, Sol was +confused and shaken, but he had the presence of mind to answer back: +"Who's there? Who are you?" + "Sooollll, it's your old friend, AAAAAbe... I'm talking to you from +Heeeeeeaven...." + "ABE! Is that YOU? Really? H-h-how are you doing? What's Heaven +LIKE?", sputtered Sol. + "Soolllllll, it's greeeaaat! I love it! You will, toooooo... +But...I've good news and bad news for you, Soolllly..." + "Yeah? Wow! Well, tell me the good news, Abe!" + "Sollll, the good news is that there's BASEball here in +Heavvvven..." + "Great, Abe!...So, what's the bad news???" + "Soollll, the bad news is...you're batting 'cleanup' tomorrow...." + + + +And why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways? + + + +A good-looking woman passed by this Indian and he raised his right hand and +said, "Chance." The woman stopped for a moment, then said, "Wait a minute. +I've read about Indians before, you're supposed to say 'How'." To which the +indian replied, "I already know HOW lady, I just want a chance!" + + + +There was this Newfoundland priest hearing confessions when he had a sudden +urge to take a piss. He didn't want to close down the confessionals so he +decides to find someone to fill on for a couple of minutes while he +relieves himself. He looks outside and there is a janitor standing there. +The priest asks him if he will fill in for a few minutes. The janitor is +reluctant because he doesn't know much about the job. The priest explains +that people come in and confess, and you just read the chart on the wall, +and give the appropriate pennance. The janitor agrees and the priest +hurries off to the washroom. A guy comes in and confesses to the janitor +that he has committed oral sex. The janitor looks at the chart, but the +penalty for oral sex isn't on the list. He didn't know what to do, so he +decided to ask someone. He looks outside and there is a choir boy standing +there. The janitor says "What does the Father usually give for oral sex?". +The choir boy replies "Usually just a bag of chips and a can of Coke." + + + +Two young boys see a female playmate crying. One ask her why, and she +tells him that she is mentrating for the first time and shows him her pad. +He goes back to the other boy. "Well, why was she crying?" + +" You'd cry too if somebody cut off your balls." + + + +Q: What were Christ's last words to the Mexicans before he died? + +A: "Don't do anything until I come back..." + + + + According to a recent survey, the Three Biggest Lies are: + +1. "The check's in the mail." + +2. "I won't come in your mouth." + +3. "I'm Black, and proud of it!" + + And, the Two Biggest Polish Lies are: + +1. "The check's in your mouth." + +2. "I won't come in the mail." + + + +A MAN WON A MILLION DOLLARS IN THE STATE LOTTERY +HE GAVE $1000.00 TO EACH OF HIS THREE GIRLFRIENDS +ONE SPENT ALL OF IT ON HERSELF +ONE SPENT HALF ON HIM & HALF ON HERSELF +THE LAST ONE INVESTED THE $1000.00 AND MADE $20000.00, SHE SPENT $1000.00 +ON HERSELF, PAID BACK THE $1000.00 TO THE BOYFRIEND. +WHICH ONE DID HE MARRY? +THE ONE WITH THE BIG TITS!! + + + +"Don't Drive and Park! Accidents Cause People !" + + + +Twelve Days of Christmas + +1st.DAY +My dearest Darling John, +I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge +in a pear tree! What a truly delightful gift. Thank you 'Darling' +for the lovely thought. + With deep love & affection + Your everloving Agnes! + +2nd DAY +My Dearest John, +Today the postman brought your very sweet gift ---- +Two Turtle Doves, I am Delighted. They are adorable! + All my love, + Your everloving Agnes! + +3rd DAY +Dearest John, +Oh! How extravagent you are! I really must protest! I dont deserve +such generosity! Three french hens I insist....you are too kind + Your loving Agnes! + +4th DAY +Dearest John, +The four calling birds that I received today are lovely, and +should be good company for the hens, doves and partridges! +I really must consider getting an aviary! + Kind regards, Agnes! + +5th DAY +Dear John, +What a surprise ... today the postman delivered Five Gold Rings!- +One for every finger. You are really impossible, but I love you. +Frankly though, all the birds are beginning to sqwark and get +on my nerves! + Regards Agnes! + +6th DAY +Dear Johnathon!, +When I open the door this morning there were actually six bloody +great geese laying eggs ALL over the porch! What in hell do +you expect me to do with all of them?? The neighbors are beginning +to complain and I can't sleep! PLEASE STOP!!!! + Cordially Yours Agnes! + +7th DAY +JOHN! +What is it with you and these rotten birds??? Now I get SEVEN +SWANS ARE SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!! IS THIS SOME SORT OF A GODDAMMED +JOKE????? The house is full of BIRD SHIT and IT IS NOT FUNNY ANY +MORE!!! Stop sending these bloody Birds!!!!! + Yours Agnes! + +8th DAY +O.K. BUSTER, +I THINK I PREFER THE GODAMMED BIRDS.... WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING +TO DO WITH EIGHT BLOODY MAIDS-A-MILKING?????? AS IF IT WASNT +ENOUGH WITH ALL THE F..KING BIRDS!! NOW I HAVE EIGHT COWS TO +SHIT ALL OVER THE PLACE AND MOO ALL NIGHT....... + AGNES! + +9th DAY +LOOK DICKHEAD! +WHAT ARE YOU???? SOME KIND OF NUT???? NOW YOU SEND ME NINE PIPERS +PLAYING AND THEY NEVER F..KING WELL STOP!!! WHEN THEY ARE NOT PLAYING +THEIR BLOODY PIPES THEY KEEP CHASING THE MAIDS THROUGH THE COW SHIT. +THE COWS KEEP MOOING AND TREADING ALL OVER THE BIRDS. THE NEIGHBORS ARE NOW +THREATENING TO HAVE ME EVICTED...GET KNOTTED! + AGNES! + +10th DAY +YOU ROTTEN BASTARD! +NOW I HAVE TEN LADIES DANCING....HOW ON EARTH ANY ONE CAN CALL +THE WHORES, "LADIES", IS BEYOND ME!! THEY SPEND ALL NIGHT PULLING +THE BLOODY PIPERS!!! THE COWS HAVE DIARRHOEA AND CAN'T SLEEP. +MY LIVING ROOM IS A SEA OF SHIT. THE LANDLORD HAS JUST DECLARED +THE BUILDING UNFIT FOR HABITATION..MINE OR THE ANIMALS'!!! +PISS OFF.... AGNES! + +11th DAY +LISTEN SHITFACE, +WITH ELEVEN LORDS A-LEAPING ALL OVER THE MAIDS A-MILKING, WELL, WE +SHALL NEVER WALK AGAIN!!!! THE PIPERS ARE FIGHTING THE LORDS FOR A BIT +OF TIT AND COMITTING SODOMY WITH THE COWS!!! THE BIRDS HAVE ALL BEEN +TRAMPLED TO DEATH AND ARE ROTTING IN THE SHIT HAVING BEEN TRAMPLED +IN THE ORGY!! I HOPE YOU ARE SATISFIED ...YOU BASTARD!!!! + YOUR SWORN ENEMY AGNES! + +12th DAY +YOU STINKING LOUSY P...K! +THE TWELVE DRUMMERS DRUMMING HAVE TEAMED UP WITH THE ELEVEN LORDS +A-LEAPING IN MAKING ONE HELL OF A RACKET. BOTH LOTS HAVE BEEN +BUGGERING THE PIPERS AS WELL AS THE COWS.... AND WHO KNOWS WHAT +HAPPENED TO THE MAIDS. THEY HAVE PROBABLY DROWNED IN THE COW +SHIT BY NOW!!!! THE ONLY WAY I HAVE SAVED MYSELF IS TO LOCK +MYSELF IN THE BATHROOM AND TO HIDE IN THE PEARTREE WHICH HAS NOW +GROWN THROUGH THE ROOF! THEY GOT ME BEFORE I COULD GET THE DOOR LOCKED! I'M +PREGNANT!!! YOU ROTTEN BASTARD! THANK GOD IT IS FINALLY CHRISTMAS..... +AGNES! + + + +Q: Why couldn't the computer teacher have sex? + +A: Becuase he had a floppy dick! + + + +"I would like to have a tattoo made" said the customer to the +owner of the tattoo shop. "Can you draw a $100.00 bill?" + +"Sure!" said the owner. "Just tell me where you want it; is it +going to be in your left arm, right arm, chest, or where?" + +"I would like you to draw it on my pecker." + +"Are you sure?" said the owner. "It is going to hurt like @#$%^!!" + +"Yeap! That's where I want it." + +"Why?" asked the owner. + + "Three reasons. First, I like to fondle large bills." + +"Allright, what's the second? + +"Second, I like to watch my money grow." + +"OK and what's the third." + + "You won't believe it, but my wife can blow one hundred bucks in a + matter of seconds! + + + +A protestant moved into a completly Catholic comunity. Being good Catholics +they welcomed him to their comunity. But, also because they were good +Catholics they did not eat red meat on Fridays. So, when their neighbor, +receiving his paycheck on Fridays, began barbequuing some juicy steak, they +began to squirm. They were so annoyed that they went to talk to him about it. +After much talk they conviced him to become Catholic. The next Sunday he went +to the priest and the priest sprinkled holy water on him and said : + + You were born Protestant - + You were raised Protestant - + But now you are Catholic. + +And so, the next Friday, the neighbors sat down to eat fish and were +disturbed by the smell of roast beef from the neighboring house. They went over +to talk to the new Catholic because he new he was not supposed to eat beef on +Fridays. When they saw him, he was sprinlking catchup on the beef saying : + + You were born a cow - + You were raised a cow - + But now you are fish. + + + +This depressed looking chap walks into a inner city bar of the cheap strong +drink sort, sits at the bar and orders a pint of bitter. While the bartender +is getting the man his beer the man sort of casually takes out a tiny piano, an +itty bitty piano bench and a teeny weeny man in a black tux to match the lot. +The little man sits at the bench and begins to play melodiously and +magnificently on the microscopic minute piano. The bartender sees this and his +eyes pop out of his head, his jaw bounces off the floor and this croaking noise +sort of eminates from his throat as he exclaims, "Wow! That's amazing! I +thought I'd seen it all... Where did you find that guy?" The depressed man +sighed and replied, "Well to make a long, sad story short... I was walking +along the beach one day and I came across an old bottle encrusted in sea +growth. I sort of scraped away some of the sea growth and polished it a bit, +when suddenly to my utter astonishment a menacing genie appeared and said in a +thunderous voice, 'Thank you, oh pitiful mortal for freeing me from that +bottle. I shall grant you three wishes. Speak up! What will it be?' I was +scared to death! But I managed to get out that I would like a million bucks, +and what do you know? A check for a million bucks appeared, just like that in +my hand! Then I ordered a limo and driver. It was there as soon as the words +left my mouth! As far as the third wish goes, you can see the depressing +results right there...", and the man pointed sadly toward the mini-man who was +hammering out some heavy jazz on the ivories. The bar tender shook his head +and said, "That's an amazing story pal, but one thing confuses me. What's so +depressing about it all?" The man took a deep breath as if trying not to cry +and answered, "Well, what I really wanted was a ten inch penis..." + + + +Q->Did you hear about the polock that broke his leg at the golf course? + +A->He fell off the ball washer. + + + +A few days after Christmas a mother was working in the kitchen, listening to +her son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the +train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of bithches who want off, get the +hell off now 'cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches who +are getting on, get your asses in the train 'cause we're leaving!" + +The mother went in and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in +this house. Now I want you to go to your room for two hours. When you come +out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language. + +Two hours later, son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his +train. Soon the train stopped and the mother, who is still in the kitchen, +heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking the train, please +remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with +us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us +again soon.! "For those of you who are just boarding, we ask you to stow all +of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember there is no smoking except in +the club car. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us +today. For those of you who are pissed off about the two hour delay, please +see the Bitch in the kitchen." + + + + NEW COMPANY POLICY + ================== + + The personnel department of this organization will apply a new + program to all employees starting immediately. + + The program is designed to phase out many jobs of this organization + although no prior official announcement will be made, and will + be called R.A.P.E. (Retire All Personnel Early). + + All employees who are "RAPEd" will have an opportunity to seek + other employment and will be able to request a review of their + records before discharge. This phase of the cut-back is dubbed + S.C.R.E.W. (Survey of Capabilities of Retired Early Workers). + + One last chance is promised by this organization to employees who + have been SCREWed or RAPEd. They may appeal for a final review + called S.H.A.F.T. (Study by Higher Authority Following Termination). + + Employees who are RAPEd may be allowed only one additional SCREWing + but may request the SHAFT as many times as they desire. + + -the Management + + + +A black family went to the zoo and the cage with the elephant. The young son +asked his mother "Mama, what's that thing hangin' off dat elephant?" + "That's his tail, son." + "No, mama, dat other thing!" + "Oh, that's his trunk, son." + "No, mama, dat other thing between his legs!" + "Uh, that's nothin'", replies the mother. +Undaunted, the boy asks his father. "Daddy, daddy, what's dat thing hangin' off +dat elephant?" + "That's his tail, son." + "No, daddy, dat other thing!" + "That's his trunk, son." + "No daddy, dat other thing between his legs!" + "Oh, that's his penis, son." + "Well, I asked mama and she said it was nothin'!" + "Son," replied the father, "I spoiled that woman!" + + + +Q. Whats a platonic relationship??? + +A. A relationship between a guy who *WANTS* to have sex and a girl who DOESNT! + + + +Q. Whats red and white and falls down the chimmney??? + +A. Santa Klutz!!!! + + + +And girls, do you know what to do if your Kotex catches fire? + +Throw it on the ground and tampon it! + + + + Dashing through the mall... + On a late December day, + Through the $tores we go + Charging all the way... + (Ching... + Ching... + Ching....) + Bell$ on register$ ring + Making checkbook$ light, + Oh, what fun it is to buy up + Everything in $ight!! + (Ching... + Ching... + Ching...) + + ..happy holidaze... + + + +Two men go into the doctor's office and sit beside each other.. After a while +they are talking up a storm, and 1 guy says, "I'm in here cuz I have a red ring +around my dick and I don't know what it is!" "Well, I'm in here because I have +a green ring around my dick! What a coincedence" the second exclaimed. So the +1st guy goes into the office, and 15 minutes later he comes out and says to the +second man, "It's fine! Nothing to worry about!" Relieved, the second guy +goes in, and comes back out crying. + "What happened in there?" the first guy asks + "Well, there's a big difference between Lipstick and Gangreen!" + + + +Three guy die and goto hell because of their perverse actions when they +were alive. They meet with the devil and he strikes them a deal,"I'll let +you go to heaven if you can walk 100 stories of stairs without getting a +hard-on." These guys think it's a breeze. The only problem is that on +every landing is a naked lady. So the fist guy takes his shot and doesn't +even make it past the first stair and already pops a rod. The Devil asks +"Well, what did your father do for a living?" The man replied "He was a +Carpenter" so the devil takes a saw and saws his dick off. The next guy +goes and makes it to the 49th floor, but can take it any more and up she +goes. The devil asks" Well, what did YOUR father do fo a living?" The +man replies "He was a butcher" so out comes the clever and he has +no more dick. The third guy gives it a shot but at the 59th floor he can't +hold out anymore. He starts laughing and the devil asks why. He says "my dad +was a lolipop maker and you have to suck my dick off!" + + + + JINGO BELLS + ~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Jingo Bells! Gringo Bells! +Jingo all the way! +Oh, what fun it is to ride +with Teddy's boys today! +Hey! + +Jingo Bells! Lob those shells! +We're down here to stay! +It's Yankee Law in Panama - +C'mon and make My Day! + +Dashing all our foes, in a plot marked "C.I.A." +Overthrowing those, Who don't see things our way. +A Price on Manuel's Head, Playing to the right, +What fun it is to Laugh and Sing and +Bomb them out of sight! +OHHHHH - + +Jingo Bells! Gringo Bells! +Jingo all the way! +Oh, what fun it is to run +The Latins like we say! +Hey! + +Jingo Bells! Profit Swells! +Make the peasants PAY! +Protect the RICH! Take back the Ditch! +It's the ALL-AMER'CUN WAY!!!! + + + +A young black lady walks into the drugstore one day and asks for tampons The +druggist asks if she wants mini or maxi pads. Puzzled, she asks "What's the +difference?" + + "Well, what's your flow like?" + + "Linoleum." + + + +One man told his wife: "I feel ten years younger after I shave in the morning." + +Did you ever think of shaving before going to bed?" she responded. + + + +Mrs. Van Horn inherited Penrod, a parrot that swore. After several +embarrassing experiences (which will not be featured on this board), she told +her minister about the problem. "I have a female parrot who is a saint," he +said. "She sits on her perch and prays all day. Bring your parrot over. +Mine'll be a good influence." + +The woman brought Penrod to the minister's home. When the cages were placed +together, Penrod cried, "Hi baby! Hows about a little lovin'?" "Great!" replied +the female parrot. "Thats just what I've been prayin' for!." + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/billofr b/textfiles.com/politics/billofr new file mode 100644 index 00000000..29525ec9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/billofr @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ + + NEW + THE^BILL OF RIGHTS + +Nearly everything has changed in the United States since the Bill of +Rights was written and adopted. We still see the original words when +we read those first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, yet the meaning +is vastly different now. + +And no wonder. We've gone from a country of a few million to a few +hundred million. The nation's desire to band together was replaced by +revulsion of togetherness. We exchanged a birthright of justice for a +magic bullet, and replaced the Pioneer Spirit with the Pioneer Stereo. + +We're not the people who founded this country and our Bill of Rights +should reflect this. + +As we approach the 21st Century, it's time to bring the wording up to +date showing what we are and who we are. + +AMENDMENT I + +Congress shall make no law establishing religion, but shall act as if +it did; and shall make no laws abridging the freedom of speech, unless +such speech can be construed as "commercial speech" or "irresponsible +speech" or "offensive speech;" or shall abridge the right of the +people to peaceably assemble where and when permitted; or shall +abridge the right to petition the government for a redress of +grievances, under proper procedures. + +It shall be unlawful to cry "Fire!" in a theatre occupied by three or +more persons, unless such persons shall belong to a class declared +Protected by one or more divisions of Federal, State or Local +government, in which case the number of persons shall be one or more. + + +AMENDMENT II + +A well-regulated military force shall be maintained under control of +the President, and no political entity within the United States shall +maintain a military force beyond Presidential control. The right of +the people to keep and bear arms shall be determined by the Congress +and the States and the Cities and the Counties and the Towns (and +someone named Fred.) + + +AMENDMENT III + +No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without +the consent of the owner, unless such house is believed to have been +used, or believed may be used, for some purpose contrary to law or +public policy. + + +AMENDMENT IV + +The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, +and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures may not be +suspended except to protect public welfare. Any place or conveyance +shall be subject to search by law enforcement forces of any political +entity, and any such places or conveyances, or any property within +them, may be confiscated without judicial proceeding if believed to be +used in a manner contrary to law. + + +AMENDMENT V + +Any person may be held to answer for a crime of any kind upon any +suspicion whatever; and may be put in jeopardy of life or liberty by +the state courts, by the federal judiciary, and while incarcerated; +and may be compelled to be a witness against himself by the forced +submission of his body or any portion thereof, and by testimony in +proceedings excluding actual trial. Private property forfeited under +judicial process shall become the exclusive property of the judicial +authority and shall be immune from seizure by injured parties. + + +AMENDMENT VI + +In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to +avoid prosecution by exhausting the legal process and its +practitioners. Failure to succeed shall result in speedy +plea-bargaining resulting in lesser charges. Convicted persons shall +be entitled to appeal until sentence is completed. It shall be +unlawful to bar or deter an incompetent person from service on a jury. + + +AMENDMENT VII + +In civil suits, where a contesting party is a person whose private +life may interest the public, the right of trial in the Press shall +not be abridged. + + +AMENDMENT VIII + +Sufficient bail may be required to ensure that dangerous persons +remain in custody pending trial. There shall be no right of the public +to be afforded protection from dangerous persons, and such protection +shall be dependent upon incarceration facilities available. + + +AMENDMENT IX + +The enumeration in The Constitution of certain rights shall be +construed to deny or discourage others which may from time to time be +extended by the branches of Federal, State or Local government, unless +such rights shall themselves become enacted by Amendment. + +AMENDMENT X + +The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution +shall be deemed to be powers residing in persons holding appointment +therein through the Civil Service, and may be delegated to the States +and local Governments as determined by the public interest. The +public interest shall be determined by the Civil Service. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + The Pen is mightier than the Sword. + The Court is mightier than the Pen. + The Sword is mightier than the Court. + - Rey Barry - +----------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/biosurvy.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/biosurvy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e2f9b864 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/biosurvy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,237 @@ +COUNTING ANIMALS, ONE BY ONE +Will Babbitt's Bio Survey Violate Property Rights? +By Charles Oliver +In Los Angeles +Investor's Business Daily +October 22, 1993, Page 1 + +======================================================================== +"Essentially, what they are proposing is that the government permanently +keep track of almost every living thing in the United State. That isn't +physically possible." +Robert Gordon, Executive Director of the National Wildlife Institute. +======================================================================== + +Have you every wondered how many living things ther are in the U.S.? +How many plants and animals -- trees, squirrels, cockroaches, etc. -- +share our homeland? + +There are perhaps 500,000 species in the U.S., and there are easily +billions of living creatures. No one knows for sure how many. + +But if Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has his way, we may one day +know. Not soon, certainly, but eventually. + +Later this year, after Congress approves its final budget, the Interior +Department will begin the National Biological Survey, an ambitious, some +say impossible, attempt to catalog every nonhuman living organism in the +U.S. The plan excludes only bacteria and other microorganisms. + +That mammoth undertaking has already generated quite a bit of +controversy. + +Babbitt claims that the survey will both enrich our stock of knowledge +of the natural world and make application of the nation's environmental +laws more efficient. + +But critics of the survey worry about that second point. They fear +that, in order to conduct the survey, government researchers may invade +the privacy of private citizens. + +And they also are concerned that the data generated by the survey will +make it easier for the federal goverment to take away the property +rights of landowners under the guise of environmental protection. + +The National Biological Survey has sometimes been referred to as +an enviromental census. + +But that label may not be quite right. + +The survey will not be a singular event or even a recurring count taking +place evey 10 years like the census that counts the number of persons in +the U.S. + +Rather, the more correct analogy would be to the National Geological +Survey. Just as the geological survey is an ongoing effort to provide +ever more acurate maps of the nation's natural resources, the biological +survey will, its backers hope, be a perpetual effort to map the nation's +ecosystems. + +Hope is the key word. The survey will be funded as an administrative +effort of the Interior Department, operating at the discretion of the +secretary. + +A bill that would make the survey a permanent federal agency with a +presidentially appointed head was approved by the House of +Representatives earlier this month. But the Senate is unlikely to act +on the proposal until next year. + +Babbitt has indicated that he considers the survey possibly to be the +most important program that he will initiate. + +Some in the environmental community agree. + +"Everyone stands to benefit from a more coordinated, more complete +database," said David Wilcove, senior ecologist at the Environmental +Defense Fund. + +"We will get a much better picture of which species are in decline and +which are not," he said. + +"We'll be more able to devote resourses to those that are endangered and +we can do so at an earlier stage when we have more options." + +The survey will begin with a budget of about $170 million and 1,700 +employees. The bulk of its funding and most of its employees will come +from absorbing existing research projects from various Interior +Department agencies. + +The first stage of the survey will involve compling and analyzing the +data already collected by the federal government, state governments, +universities and other private researchers and preparing a preliminary +inventory of living things in the U.S. + +But eventually, the project will expand to count every organism on all +U.S. public and private lands. + +With only one researcher for every 300 species, survey officials say +they will have to rely upon outside sources -- universities, state +agencies and various other think tanks -- for much of the actual +legwork. + +Still, the task remains daunting. + +"We can't begin to overestimate the enormity of this project," said +Robert Gordon, executive director of the National Wilderness Institute. + +Gordon contends that whatever data are gathered will be snapshots of +particular moments in time -- not a comprehensive, good-for-all-time +census. + +"The number of a given species in a given area is constantly changing. +It's influenced by so many different things -- the weather, the presence +of species that feed upon it or that it feeds upon. Point data are +meaningless; what counts is direction," said Gordon. + +ONGOING EFFORT +But that, say the survey's supporters, is exactly why it should be an +ongoing effort, not a one-time count. + +"Essentially, what they are proposing is that the government permanently +keep track of almost every living thing in the United States. That +isn't physically possible," Gordon said. + +The EDF's Wilcove concedes that it will be "a long, long time before we +have an accurate inventory of every plant and animal." + +"But we'll be learning more and more about more and more species as we +go along, and that will be enormously helpful. Information can be +significant, even when it isn't complete," Wilcove said. + +Opponents of the survey worry about what that information will be used +for. + +"A lot of people are concerned that the survey will be used as a cover +for national land-use planning," said Ike Sugg, an environmental analyst +at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. + +Not so, said Trudy Harlow, a spokesperson for the Interior Department. + +"The survey is nonadvocacy and nonregulatory. All it will do is collect +information.," she said. + + +REGUALTION NIGHTMARE? +But even something as benign as information is generated within a +context, says Robert Gordon. + +"And the context of the national Biological Survey is a vast array of +federal environmental rules -- the Endangered Species Act, wetlands +regulations, the national Natural Landmark Program and other rules. The +survey is obviously intended to strengthen the enforcement of such +regualtions," Gordon said. + +"Ignorance isn't a tool," countered David Wilcove. "The survey is +taking a lot of heat from people upset with the nation's environmental +laws. But if those laws are their real concern, they should address +those laws and try to change what they think is wrong with them, not +attack information gathering." + +In any event, Babbitt and the survey's supporters say, there's no reason +to suppose that the survey will lead to greater environmental regulation +until the data are collected. + +In fact, they say, the data could lead to a relaxation of environmental +rules in some cases. + +"It's certainly possible that we could learn that more species are +endangered than we thought and that they need protection, but it's also +possible that we could learn that some species aren't in as much trouble +as we thought," Wilcove said. + + +COUNTERING CRITICS' SUSPICIONS +But the suspicions of the survey's opponents were strengthed by two +suggestions made by Interior Secretary Babbitt. + +The first was that the survey be exempt from the Freedom of Information +Act. The second was that those collecting data for the survey not have +to get written permission from private property owners before venturing +onto their lands. + +Interior's Harlow says Babbitt's intent isn't secrecy at all costs. + +"We want an exemption from the Freedom of Information Act simply because +it's difficult to protect a very limited species if people know where it +is," Harlow said. + +"For example, if we announced that the last few members of, say, a given +species of cactus could be found in a certain location, someone would +try to dig them up. We wanted to prevent those kinds of situations," +harlow said. + +And the survey has no plans to violate anyone's property rights, she +contends. + +"We would abide by the same requirements that other researchers must, +and that's oral permission of landowners," Harlow said. + +TRACKING SPECIES +"Tracking some species can involve crossing numerous parcels of land. I +know of one case in which researchers tracking a parrot species had to +cross 1,500 (individual private) parcels," she said. + +"If you tell people what you want, they'll usually give you permission +and the work can be done quickly," she added. "But having to get +written persmission fromeach and every property owner would slow things +down too much." + +Earlier this month, a bill that would make the National Biological +Survey a permanent federal agency came to the floor of the House, where +members succeeded in adding several amendments addressing landowners' +fears. + +One amendment requires the survey to catalog all federal lands before +looking at private property. + +Another requires researchers to get written permission from landowners +before surveying private property. + +And a third amenment forbids the survey from using volunteers to collect +field data on private lands. + +While these amendments made the bill more palatable to those concerned +about protecting property rights -- enough so that it passed in teh +House -- they don't completely allay their fears. + +Critics of the survey point out that they still have no idea what the +Senate version of the bill -- or more important the final law -- will +look like. It may not incorporate the protections placed in the House +bill. + +Moreover, their central concern -- that the data gathered by the +National Biological Survey will be used as the basis for further +restrictions on private property -- cannot be remedied by anything short +of defunding the survey. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/biowar.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/biowar.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1622fa43 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/biowar.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ + PENTAGON BIOWARFARE RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN UNIVERSITY LABORATORIES + + Overshadowed by Star Wars and overlooked by the media, the push + toward biowarfare has been one of the Reagan administration's best + kept secrets. The research budget for infectious diseases and toxins + has increased tenfold since fiscal '81 and most of the '86 budget of + $42 million went to 24 U.S. university campuses where the world's most + deadly organisms are being cultured in campus labs. + The amount of military money available for biotechnology research + is a powerful attraction for scientists whose civilian funding + resources dried up. Scientists formerly working on widespread killers + like cancer now use their talents developing strains of such rare + pathogens as anthrax, dengue, Rift Valley fever, Japanes encephalitis, + tularemia, shigella, botulin, Q fever, and mycotoxins. + Many members of the academic community find the trend alarming, + but when MIT's biology department voted to refuse Pentagon funds for + biotech research, the administration forced it to reverse its + decision. And, in 1987, the University of Wisconsin hired Philip + Sobocinski, a retired Army colonel, to help professors tailor their + research to attract Pentagon-funded biowarfare research to the school. + Richard Jannaccio, a former science writer at UW, was dismissed from + his job on August 25, 1987, the day after the student newspaper, THE + DAILY CARDINAL, published his story disclosing the details of Colonel + Sobicinski's mission at the University. + Since the U.S. is a signatory to the 1972 Biological and Toxic + Weapons Convention which bans "development, production, stockpiling + and use of microbes or their poisonous products except in amounts + necessary for protective and peaceful research," the university-based + work is being pursued under the guise of defensive projects aimed at + developing vaccines and protective gear. Scientists who oppose the + program insist that germ-warfare defense is clearly impractical; every + person would have to be vaccinated for every known harmful biological + agent. Since vaccinating the entire population would be virtually + impossible, the only application of a defensive development is in + conjunction with offensive use. Troops could be effectively vaccinated + for a single agent prior to launching an attack with that agent. + Colonel David Huxsoll, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research + Institute of Infectious Diseases admits that offensive research is + indistinguishable from defensive research even for those doing it. + Each of the sources for this synopsis raised ethical questions + about the perversion of academia by military money and about the U.S. + engaging in a biological arms race that could rival the nuclear + threat, yet none mentioned the safety or the security of the labs + involved. The failure to investigate this aspect of the issue is a + striking omission. Release of pathogens, either by accident or + design, would prove tragic at any of the following schools: Brigham + Young, California Institute of Technology, Colorado State University, + Emory, Illinois Institute of Technology, Iowa University, M.I.T., + Purdue, State University of N.Y. at Albany, Texas A&M, and the + Universities of California, California at Davis, Cincinnati, + Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, + Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Utah. + + SOURCES: ISTHMUS, 10/9/87, "Biowarfare and the UW," by Richard + Jannaccio, pp 1, 9, 10; THE PROGRESSIVE, 11/16/87, "Poisons from the + Pentagon," by Seth Shulman, pp 16-20; WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/17/86, + "Military Science," by Bill Richards and Tim Carrington, pp 1, 23. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bjrtext.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bjrtext.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2284d0c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bjrtext.txt @@ -0,0 +1,273 @@ + + THE BILL OF JURY RIGHTS + + The following six points were approved for inclusion in the +Bill of Jury Rights by voting delegates at the St. Louis "BJR" +Conference. Time ran out before several other items proposed for +the Bill could be debated and voted upon. + + Conference participants were subsequently asked to send us +their signatures if they wanted us to attach them to the six +points that were approved, for publication in this issue of the +FIJActivist. The "signed" Bill, then, is to date as follows: + + 1. The inherent right of jurors to be informed of their duty +to judge the law as well as the facts in all cases shall not be +infringed. + + 2. In all criminal trials, a jury of at least twelve persons +must be seated unless declined by the defendant. + + 3. The jury must be told that unanimity is not required, but +if not achieved, a retrial is possible. + + 4. A guilty or innocent verdict must be established +unanimously by the jury. + + 5. Jurors must be randomly selected from the widest +possible base. + + 6. Jurors may not be disqualified from service except by +reason of conflict of interest. + + + + Signatures of those who've signed to date will be reproduced +in the next FIJActivist. So far, we've received signatures from: + + David S. Curland, NH; Toni L. Black, SC; Frank Nugent, MO; +Red Beckman, MT; Honey Lanham Dodge, TX; Ken Bush, MO; Godfrey D. +Lehman, CA; Sasha D. Kennison, SC; Marjorie C. Davies, OH; +Richard B. Boddie, CA; Dick Sunderman, WY; Norma D. Segal, NY; +Dave Dawson, WY; Paul Carroll, AZ; Eon Marshall, CA; Barbara +Anderson, NH; Bro. Jim Lorenz, CA; Dennis Kurk, MN; Beatrice +Kurk, MN; Walter A. Murray, Jr. WY; Richard Tompkins, AZ; Darlene +Span, AZ; Jerry Span, AZ; Larry Dodge, MT; Don Doig, MT. + + + BJR Conferees and Speakers note: If you haven't done so +already, you can still "sign" the Bill of Jury Rights, as +presented above. Just send us your signature. We'll cut it out +and paste it up with the others. We'll send you a master copy of +the signed document, and print it in the next FIJActivist! + + + + + + + "DRAFTERMATH" + + Since the St. Louis conference, Texans for FIJA met to draft +a "Texas version", which proposes item 1 of the Bill of Jury +Rights as an amendment to the section of that state's +constitution dealing with trial by jury, and includes BJR items +2-5 as part of a list of proposed statutes by which to implement +and supplement that section, as amended. + + The Texas version also divided the statutes into those which +would apply to all trials, and those which would apply only to +criminal trials. After discussing the Texas version with FIJA +activists in Colorado and Wyoming, collecting from them still +more suggestions, Larry Dodge brought the accumulated commentary +to FIJA HQ in Montana, where he and Don Doig added still a third +battery of statutes, applicable only to civil cases, and rewrote +the entire document, using as many suggestions as possible. + + After some debate over whether some of the items in the list +should be separated out as "rights of the defendant", as opposed +to "jury rights" (resolved by deciding that all rights of the +jury are derivative of the right of defendants to trial by jury, +so that it makes no sense to separate them), a more-or-less +comprehensive Bill of Jury Rights was developed: + + Proposed Constitutional Amendment, (either by legislative +referendum or citizen initiative) to the state constitutional +section on Trial by Jury: + + "The inherent right of jurors to be informed of their duty +to judge the law as well as the facts in all cases shall not be +infringed." + + Proposed statutes to implement the above amendment, and to +supplement state constitutional sections dealing with Trial by +Jury or with Rights of the Accused: + + 1. In all trials: + + a. a jury of at least twelve persons must be seated +unless declined by the defendant. + + b. jurors must be selected randomly, from the widest +possible base. + + c. jurors may not be disqualified from service except +by reason of conflict of interest. + + d. no evidence which either side wishes to present to +the jury may be withheld, provided it was lawfully obtained. + + e. jurors may take notes in the courtroom, have +questions posed to witnesses, and take reference materials into +the jury room. + + f. during selection, jurors may refuse to answer +questions which they believe violate their right of privacy, +without prejudice. + + + 2. In all criminal trials: + + a. the court must inform the jury of its right to judge +both law and fact in reaching a verdict, and failure to so inform +the jury is grounds for mistrial. The jurors must acknowledge by +oath that they understand this right, no party to the trial may +be prevented from encouraging them to exercise it, and no +potential juror may be disqualified from serving on a jury +because he expresses a willingness to judge the law or its +application, or to vote according to conscience. + + b. the jury must be told that it is not required to +reach a unanimous verdict, but that failure to do so will produce +a hung jury, and a retrial will be possible. + + c. A unanimous vote of the jury is required in order +for it to render a verdict of guilty or innocent. + + d. the jury must be informed of the range of +punishments which can be administered if the defendant is found +guilty, and what, if any, exceptions to that range may be +available to the convict. + + e. the court may grant no motions which limit the +individual rights of the defendant, most particularly his right +to have the jury hear whatever justifications for his actions the +defense may wish to present. + + + 3. In all civil trials: + + a. civil trial jurors also retain the traditional power +to judge the law, and must be so told by the court whenever the +government or any agent of the government is a party to the +trial, and where the amount in dispute exceeds $20. + + b. agreement by three-quarters of the jury constitutes +a verdict. + + c. no judge may overturn the verdict of the jury. +Appeals may be made only to another jury, and if these juries +disagree, the case shall be decided by a third jury. + + + + + "PLUS THREE" + + The St. Louis conference produced three independent +proposals for wording which we would like to reproduce here as +additional food for thought. + + FORMER JUSTICE JOHN I. PURTLE'S PROPOSAL + + Trial juries shall be composed of 12 or more citizens chosen +at random from a pool consisting of all persons in the judicial +district over the age of 18 years. In criminal cases the verdict +must be unanimous and in civil cases, 75% must agree on the +verdict. Jurors shall be allowed to take notes during the trial +and may take the notes and all evidence into the deliberation +room. + + Grand juries shall consist of 16 or more members selected +from the same pool and an indictment must be signed by 75% of the +panel. The grand jury shall have the right to select independent +counsel. + + The inherent rights of jurors to be informed of their duty +to judge the law and the facts in all cases shall not be +infringed. + + GODFREY DAVIDSBURG LEHMAN'S PROPOSAL + + The inherent right of jurors to be informed of their duty +to judge the law and facts by general or special verdicts at +their discretion in all cases shall not be infringed. + + Trial juries shall be composed of 12 or more citizens +selected at random from the widest possible community base in the +judicial district without peremptory challenge; challenges for +cause shall be limited only to cases of direct partisan interest. + + Verdicts in all criminal trials shall be unanimous and in +civil trial shall be by 75%. Jurors shall be informed of their +options to select the third verdict of "Not Proven" when they are +dissatisfied with the limitations by either an outright acquittal +or conviction. + + The court shall not withhold from the jury any evidence +which any of the litigants wish to bring before the jury, except +for evidence illegally obtained. In the case of evidence +obtained under questionable circumstances, the court shall +explain to the jury how the evidence was obtained without +revealing the evidence itself and the judge may express his +opinion as to proper admissibility. + + But the evidence shall be allowed only if one-third (?) or +more of the jury so desire provided that a ruling of illegality +by the jury shall constitute an automatic indictment of the +persons who obtained such evidence, and who shall be tried +immediately under the criminal statutes of this state concurrent +with the originating trial. + + Should defendants be acquitted in said trial, the suppressed +evidence shall be made immediately available to the jury in the +originating trial; but if said trial be already completed, the +freed evidence shall constitute grounds for a new trial upon the +request of either party. + + The Seventh Amendment's proscription that "no fact tried by +a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United +States, than by the rules of the common law," shall be understood +that no appellate court in any case may evaluate the jury verdict +neither to overrule nor uphold, being limited only to determine +if the trial was conducted fairly per Constitutional mandate. + + If a question appears to the court or in the case of new +evidence, the court shall send the case back to the trial court +for a new trial before a second jury, equal in sovereign rank to +the first jury, which can deliver a new verdict or uphold the +first verdict. If the second jury overrules the first, a third +trial may be held, the final determination being the two agreeing +juries. + + FRANK NUGENT'S PROPOSAL + + ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE 1. It being the natural right and +ability of each and every citizen of this state to judge for +himself or herself as to the relevance of evidence, and it being +the natural right and ability of each and every citizen to resist +pre-judging any issue, no evidence shall be declared inadmissible +or otherwise kept from the jury on the grounds of relevance or +irrelevancy, nor on the ground that such evidence would be +prejudicial. + + 2. Should any judge rule that any evidence being submitted +was obtained illegally, the question of admissibility of such +evidence shall be turned over to arbitration consisting of the +following persons: prosecuting attorney, defense attorney or the +pro se defendant, and three jurors from the general jury pool. +If the arbiters decide by an 80% vote that such evidence was +obtained legally, then such evidence shall be placed before the +jury. A less than 80% vote shall constitute a finding that the +evidence was obtained illegally, and then it shall not be +admitted nor revealed to the jury; provided however, that such a +ruling of illegality shall constitute an automatic indictment of +the persons who obtained such evidence, and who shall be tried +immediately under the criminal statutes of this state concurrent +with the originating trial. Should defendants be acquitted in +said trial, the suppressed evidence shall be made immediately +available to the jury in the originating trial; but if said trial +be already completed, the freed evidence shall constitute grounds +for a new trial upon the prayer of either party. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bkrsfld.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bkrsfld.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8315cec0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bkrsfld.txt @@ -0,0 +1,390 @@ + 1/9/8 +1841696 + In California, a Question of Abuse; An Excess of Child Molestation +Cases Brings Kern County's Investigative Methods Under Fire. + The Washington Post, May 31, 1989, FINAL Edition + BY: Jay Mathews, Washington Post Staff Writer + SECTION: Style, p. d01 + STORY TYPE: News National + LINE COUNT: 314 WORD COUNT: 3456 + + BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Only two of the children at the trial could even +identify Gina Miller. She was Colleen Forsythe's friend, the only +nonrelative in Bakersfield's infamous Pitts family child molestation and +pornography ring. + + Identified or not, the jury found her guilty with the others in 1985 and +sent the soft-spoken, auburn-haired fast-food worker to prison for 405 +years, forcing her to end abruptly the breast-feeding of her fourth child, +10-month-old Tammra. + + After hearing the lurid allegations made during the seven-month trial, +the 12 jurors from this San Joaquin Valley city of oil wells and fruit +trees may have felt even the most severe punishment was insufficient. +Children testified that several adult members of the Pitts family gathered +regularly to sodomize and molest their own sons, daughters, nephews or +nieces, often after forcing drugs or alcohol on them. Children said they +saw cameras apparently filming the sexual acts. + + There had never been anything like it here, and in a city full of +families from Oklahoma and the South who prided themselves on their +Christian values and adherence to law and order, the reaction was horror +and outrage. Children could not make up such stories, prosecutors +repeatedly reminded the jurors and the public. "I can't conceive of a +reason for something like this," said Superior Court Judge Gary T. Friedman +as he pronounced sentences. "I doubt if our friends in the animal kingdom +would treat their young in such a fashion." + + A few defense attorneys raised objections to the extraordinary prison +terms. The total of 2,619 years for the seven defendants set a child abuse +case record for California and probably the whole country. Defense +attorneys noted that no adults had testified to witnessing the crimes, that +there was no sign of the alleged pornographic films or videotapes and that +the medical evidence was controversial. But such objections were buried in +an outpouring of disgust at the trial testimony and a growing concern about +mass child abuse cases materializing in many other parts of the country. + Then, as months went by, a few Bakersfield residents began to wonder +about the Pitts case and several other sexual abuse investigations that had +been carried out for several years by a number of very active officials in +the Kern County district attorney's and sheriff's offices. One analysis +showed that in 1982 the county's rate of arrests for child molesting was +twice the state average. Investigations that initially focused on just one +or two children seemed to grow to include many more. + + Finally, a county investigation of an alleged satanic cult, a group that +made the Pitts defendants appear kindly by comparison, careened irrevocably +out of control. Child witnesses who had been repeatedly interviewed, much +like the witnesses in the Pitts and several other cases, told investigators +that the cult had not only molested children but conducted blood rites and +even killed babies. Frantic efforts to discover the bodies proved +fruitless, and then three young witnesses went one crucial step further. +They identified as members of the satanic ring a sheriff's deputy, a social +worker and a deputy district attorney--persons with impeccable reputations +who could not possibly have been where the children said they saw them. + + This was the turning point. The credibility of both witnesses and +investigators in the series of molestation cases began to come into serious +question. Gina Miller, obsessed with thoughts of her children, said she +felt her spirits lifting for the first time. Perhaps she had a chance to +get out soon. + + Within months a special investigative team from the state attorney +general's office had descended on Bakersfield and produced one of the most +damning reports one California agency had ever written about another. The +80-page document concluded that a county child sexual abuse coordinator and +sheriff's deputies overinterviewed and pressured child witnesses, gave them +opportunities to share accounts of the case, and assumed anything a child +said was true. The report said this prompted investigators "to accept the +children's statements without question, to neglect to verify those +statements through additional questions of the victim and others close to +the victim, and to fail to seek additional corroborative evidence to +support the children's claims." + + The county's investigation, the report concluded, "foundered in a sea of +unproven allegations, insufficient corroborative evidence, and bizarre +allegations that in some instances were proven to be false and raised +serious questions about the victims' credibility." + + The state's highest law enforcement officials had decided that, in +Bakersfield at least, horribly detailed stories of abuse and molestation +told by innocent children might not always be true. Not only did the report +challenge an article of faith in the conviction of the Pitts family and +other defendants here, but it was directly critical of methods used by +investigators who had participated, at least in part, in gathering +testimony used against the Pitts family and many others. + + The resulting furor has not drawn much attention outside California's +San Joaquin Valley. Notable molestation cases like the McMartin Preschool +trial in Los Angeles have preempted most national media attention. But the +attorney general's report on Bakersfield paints a picture of what has to be +considered one of the clumsiest and most destructive child abuse +investigations in American history. The report leaves unanswered many +questions about how to deal with such tragedies, and what to do about many +other Kern County residents left in prison whose cases have not attracted a +full-scale second look. + + For the attorney general's report said nothing directly about the Pitts +defendants. Miller said she experienced a sinking feeling that the state's +exposure of investigative clumsiness might not help them after all, and +others raised the same concerns. + + Glenn Cole, a retired accountant who led the county grand jury from 1983 +to 1985, said he believes "innocent people are in jail right today" because +children were "questioned to the point where they could not tell truth from +fiction." He said he thinks the initial investigators were not properly +trained and the attorney general's office should have done more to right +the wrongs. "I try to put it out of my mind," Cole said, "but I get very +emotional about it." + + Some attorneys, particularly those defending the Pittses, are beginning +to compare many of the Bakersfield child abuse investigations to the Salem +witch trials. They say they fear that instinctive loathing over unusually +egregious accounts of child molestation has subverted the rule of law and +due process and unnecessarily shattered dozens of lives, including those of +several children. + + In some minds the parallels across three centuries are very close. +Michael Snedeker, a San Francisco attorney representing one of the Pitts +defendants, said the Salem trials began in 1692 with two children who, +after repeated questioning, identified many local people as witches. "The +Salem witchcraft fever did not break until the children made absolutely +unbelievable accusations, pointing their damning fingers at the governor's +wife," he said. "They also accused those most eager in the prosecution of +witches. Once disbelieved in a few particulars, they lost the power to +condemn they undoubtedly never sought." + + Bitter arguments have broken out here over the guilt or innocence of the +Pitts defendants and several others jailed after investigations similar to +the discredited satanic case. At the very least, the turmoil shows how +damaging a misstep in a child abuse case can be, and how it may take years +to erase the effects of overzealous interviewing and an unshakable belief +in the veracity of children, even those under severe emotional pressure. + + In the last several months two of the alleged child victims in the Pitts +case have recanted, saying nothing at all happened in the green house on +Sycamore Street where the molestations were supposed to have occurred. + + The sudden shift in the cases sparked unusual tensions between many +leading Bakersfield citizens. Andrew Gindes, a former prosecutor who +handled the Pitts case, has sued Alfred T. Fritts, former +co-publisher/editor of the Bakersfield Californian, for libel after the +newspaper printed a story about one witness's recantation. Gindes' +complaint alleged that Fritts was hostile toward him because Fritts feared +his "own activities would be disclosed if a vigorous policy was pursued by +law enforcement against child molesters." Dennis Kinnaird, an attorney +representing Fritts and other defendants in the case, called the allegation +"totally incorrect" and said, "We don't think it has any basis in fact." + + Gindes, in an interview, expressed outrage that the results of a lengthy +jury trial were now being questioned, and accused attorneys for the Pitts +defendants of organizing a "media hype." "I don't think the media should be +used to conduct a public relations campaign to attempt to prejudice the +judicial system," he said. + + Investigators and prosecutors here who handled most of the cases say +that their evidence stands up, and bitterly denounce the decision to drop +the satanic cult case. Kern County District Attorney Edward R. Jagels, who +refused to prosecute the satanic case, still defends the investigative +methods and lengthy prison sentences in the Pitts and other cases. +Arguments against them, he said, "just don't hang together." + + Although some attorneys with the state attorney general's office +privately express doubts about the evidence in the Pitts and other cases +brought during the widespread molestation investigations of 1982 to 1985, +they say they can do nothing to overturn jury verdicts. Deputy Attorney +General Thomas Gede, who was assigned to the Pitts case on appeal, said +that after reading all 14,000 pages of trial transcript he is convinced of +the guilt of all seven defendants. + While those verdicts are being appealed, the Pitts defendants and many +others remain in prison with multiple life sentences, wondering if they +will ever leave prison and, if they do, ever restore a semblance of their +previous lives. + + Colleen Forsythe, sentenced to 373 years in the Pitts case, said her +13-year-old daughter Windy, one of the two witnesses who have recently +recanted, has been through several foster homes and returned more than once +to the custody of juvenile authorities. + + During trial, Forsythe, now 30, insisted on her innocence. "There was no +way I was going to say that I did something like that when I didn't," she +said during an interview at the California Institution for Women in +Frontera. + + Miller rejected an early offer of a lighter sentence in exchange for +testifying against the others. "People think I was crazy for not taking +that deal, but how could I take responsibility for all these people?" she +said. + + Bakersfield tree surgeon Roy Nokes, who spent $50,000 in a successful +fight to clear his son and daughter-in-law of molestation charges in +another case, said he thinks some innocent people who lacked the necessary +financial resources accepted shorter jail terms after seeing the huge jury +verdicts against those in the Pitts case and others. His son, +daughter-in-law and others are suing a prosecutor and an investigator for +the alleged harm done them and their families. + + "They should be hit hard enough that they never do anything like this +again," he said. + + The Pitts case began in 1984 when Ricky Lynn Pitts, now 36 and a former +truck driver and bartender, and his wife Marcella were accused of molesting +Marcella's three sons by a previous marriage. The new wife of Marcella's +ex-husband told authorities the boys had reported being molested during +weekend visits to the Pittses' house on Sycamore Street. + + Marcella Pitts, 34, serving a 373-year sentence in the case, said the +wife of her ex-husband made false charges because "she knew I was going to +fight for custody of those kids and she knew I'd win." But the boys' +account led authorities to take custody of them as well as eight other +children and, after weeks of interviews with the 11 children, to file +molestation charges against the Pittses, Forsythe, Forsythe's husband Wayne +(they have since divorced), Forsythe's mother Grace Dill, 55, Dill's son +Wayne Dill Jr., 33, and Miller. + + At the trial, some children said they were injected with drugs, forced +to drink urine and alcohol and to engage in sex acts with adults and other +children while as many as three cameras recorded the scene. In some cases, +Ricky Pitts was accused of threatening children with being tied to a board +hanging on the wall. + + The seven defendants all insisted on their innocence, and four took and +passed lie detector tests. But the prosecution produced testimony from a +physician, Bruce Woodling, that there were signs of molestation in two +children. The prosecution said it produced medical testimony on only these +two because they were the only ones who denied being molested. + + Many child witnesses were interviewed repeatedly by Carol Darling, the +district attorney's child sexual abuse coordinator, before telling stories +of abuse and agreeing to testify. Darling, who declined to comment on the +case, retired on a disability pension last year for excessive mental and +emotional stress. + + Andrew Rubin, an attorney who represented Ricky Pitts, said he saw many +inconsistencies in the children's testimony and thought it sounded as if it +came from an outside source, but the jury seemed impressed by the medical +testimony and one moment of courtroom drama. + + A 6-year-old girl witness, whom Pitts said he had disciplined in the +past, began screaming hysterically, "Don't let him get me! Don't let him +kill me!" when she was asked to identify him at the defendants' table. +Uncontrollable, she ran into the arms of Judge Friedman, who said after the +trial he felt "she was definitely traumatized, as were the other children." + + At that point in the trial, Rubin said, "I realized I was in serious +trouble in this case." + + The defendants began serving their sentences in the summer of 1985. +Their continued protestations of innocence were largely ignored until +Christina Hayes, now 14, Ricky Pitts' niece and the eldest of the child +witnesses, had a conversation with her guardian's wife during the 1986 +Christmas season. + + The wife, Mary Isabell, said she was concerned about the girl's hostile +attitude and poor study habits. After a visit by Christina's grandfather, +who firmly believed in the innocence of the Pitts defendants, Isabell +invited Christina into her bedroom to discuss the trial. + "I said, 'We have to talk about it,'" Isabell said in a taped interview +with private investigator Denver Dunn, which is now part of the court +record. "I told her, 'You have to tell me the truth. Good God, if it +happened a little bit, not at all, a whole bunch, whatever happened, I need +to know so that I can help you.'" + + After thinking about it for a moment, Christina changed her story and +said that nothing had happened. In the course of several days of talk with +Robert Hayes, the guardian she refers to as her father, and with Isabell, +she said her trial testimony had emerged from hours of interviews with +social worker Carol Darling and other investigators, in which she was told +accounts of what other children were saying. She said Darling told her some +potentially violent friends of the Pitts family were out to do her harm. + + "They told me that if I didn't cooperate they would take me away from my +dad (Hayes) and put me in a foster home," Christina said in an interview +conducted during a walk in her Bakersfield neighborhood with no other +adults present. Her natural mother, Clovette Pitts, disappeared when the +others were arrested. + + Hayes said he believes Christina is now telling the truth and noted that +her grades and general attitude have improved. But Jagels, the county +district attorney, and other county investigators said her new story is +false, perhaps concocted to relieve tension in the family. They emphasized +her lengthy, detailed testimony on the stand, which defense attorneys point +out consisted mostly of short, affirmative answers to detailed prosecution +questions. Jagels said he thought it significant that she could not specify +precisely where and when she heard the details of the molestations she +testified to. Jagels also noted her recantation came shortly after she +learned her grandmother, Grace Dill, had broken her leg in prison. + + Three weeks after Christina Hayes changed her story, district attorney's +investigator Tam Hodgson interviewed Windy Betterton, Forsythe's daughter, +producing a transcript that is now in the court record: + + Hodgson: "Okay. Those things that you testified to, are all of them +true, some of them true, none of them true?" + + Betterton: "None of them are true." + + Her cousin, Sherril Boyd, told Hodgson that she had informed the girl of +Christina Hayes' recantation and cautioned Windy to be sure she was telling +the truth. Boyd said the girl began to cry, and then said "the people at +the DA's office had kept asking, or saying over and over and over that they +knew she had been molested. She had finally just made up something to keep +them from questioning her anymore." + + In the satanic cases, the attorney general's report criticized Kern +County investigators for interviewing "victims repeatedly, covering old +ground, reiterating other victims' statements, failing to question the +children's statements, and urging them to name additional suspects and +victims." Despite state guidelines against multiple interviews, one child +in the satanic case "was interviewed 24 times by sheriff's deputies and a +total of 35 times in the investigation," the report said. + + Critics of the Kern County investigations, citing the attorney general's +report, have focused on several other cases investigated about the same +time by some of the same Kern County officials or by other officials using +similar methods: + + Scott and Brenda Kniffen and Alvin and Deborah McCuan, two couples with +two small children each, were given prison terms of 240 to 268 years for +molesting their children, despite evidence that some of the children had +falsely accused other adults and had come under the influence of a mentally +disturbed relative who resented some of the defendants. Prosecutors used +testimony from Woodling that was challenged by David Paul, an +internationally recognized child abuse expert. + + David A. Duncan, a 39-year-old former oil field worker, was sent to +prison for 60 years in 1984 on a molestation charge. Duncan was accused by +child witnesses discovered during a sweep of a neighborhood in another +investigation. The children were repeatedly interviewed before they +testified, and testimony by a jail-house informant was also used against +Duncan. He was released in late January after an appeals court reversed his +conviction and the prosecutor dropped the charges. + + Howard L. Weimer, a 65-year-old former automobile repair shop owner, has +been in prison for a year after a woman he and his wife cared for as foster +parents years before accused him of molesting her. Eventually sheriff's +deputies, in part through lengthy interviews, found four other former +foster children of the couple who made similar accusations. The trial judge +imposed a 42-year sentence. + + John A. Stoll, a 45-year-old former gas plant foreman, received a +40-year sentence after being convicted of molestation on testimony from his +son and some other children, including some who later recanted. + + Many investigators and attorneys who handled Bakersfield child abuse +cases in the early 1980s vigorously defend their actions and ridicule the +attorney general's report. "It was just junk," former deputy district +attorney Gindes said in an interview. He said he still believed the satanic +cult accusations might have merit. + + In a follow-up interview, Gindes denied criticizing the attorney +general's attack on the satanic case investigation or saying he thought the +satanic case might still have merit. He declined to say what his attitude +toward the case was. + + Carol Darling's husband Brad, a lieutenant in the Kern County sheriff's +office, has continued to speak to church groups about his belief in some of +the satanic charges. He told one group, according to a transcript, that his +witnesses "described things that I can't fathom a child knowing about or +learning on television." The Darlings declined to be interviewed. + + Snedeker said an expert witness, University of California Irvine +gynecologist R. David Miller, has concluded that the medical evidence used +at the trial was meaningless. But appeals and new trials take time. Despite +the widespread doubt about many of the Bakersfield molestation cases, the +people sent to prison expect to be there for some time. + Gina Miller said she is certain she will be free some day and thinks she +can start a new life with her children in another state. Her friend Colleen +Forsythe is less hopeful. When she is freed, she said, she may not try to +retrieve her children from their new homes. + + "I'm scared of kids. I'm scared to death of kids," she said. "I'm glad I +can't have any more." + + CAPTIONS: Gina Miller, of the defendants in the Bakersfield trial. + Grace Dill, Marcella Pitts and Colleen Forsythe in prison. + Christina Hayes, eldest of the child witnesses, has since recanted her +testimony. LV witnesses, has since recanted her testimony. LV + + NAMED PERSONS: MILLER, GINA; FORSYTHE, COLLEEN; PITTS, RICKY LYNN; + PITTS, MARCELLA + DESCRIPTORS: Child molestation; Trials; California ;^«Ë\PMODEM FON ‚^éÃüåABALON TXT ¹ Ì9*FORCE TXT ᬠ× \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/blakquot.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/blakquot.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1e7e32a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/blakquot.txt @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ +The following is a collection of quotes by BLACK Americans: + +ROBERT C. MAYNARD (black, syndicated columnist) + +"The underclass is a lawless, illiterate minority with zero +regard for the common decencies of those more fortunate than +they. (It is categorized by) masses of illiterate, untrained +youth on the streets with abundant access to drugs and guns. +(This is) our nation's future. Unless we begin to re-channel +the energies and reshape the values of the youth of that +underclass, none of us is safe. The burgeoning underclass is +the social dynamite that threatens the stability of the entire +society." + +... + +WILLIAM HOUGH (black, retired Army sergeant) + +"We have been accusing whites of the very same offense for years. +No there is no other ethnic group in America that seems more +prejudiced than us blacks. And it is virtually destroying us as +a race. The black media, the black leaders and our parents must +share in the blame for this. What started out as black pride +eventually turned into black racism. How can we see racism and +prejudice in other races but fail to recognize it among ourselves? + +We are constantly bombarded with negativism by our black press. For +instance, we are fed depressing information about this wicked, one- +sided society that we live in and that our chance of making it is +almost nil. + +We hear this same kind of negativism from family, friends, and +neighbors. No wonder so many young blacks are turned off. We end +up with an embittered and confused individual. + +Black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, when he was chairman +of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charged that black +leaders 'are sitting there watching the destruction of our race +while they bitch, bitch, bitch about Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan +isn't the problem. Jimmy Carter was not the problem. The lack of +black leadership is the problem." + +... + +WALTER WILLIAMS (black professor at George Mason University) + +"Civil rights organizations, once part of a proud struggle, have +now squandered their moral authority. They are little more than +race hustlers championing a racial spoils system. They no longer +seek fair play and a color blind society. Their agenda is one of +rights, where quota is king and colorblindness is viewed with +contempt. Today's civil rights organizations differ only in degree +,but not in kind, from white racist organizations past and present." + +... + +SHELBY STEELE (a black professor) + +"A generation after the Watts riot and the passage of the Civil +Rights Act of 1964, it is time for blacks to drop the crutch of +racial victimization and rely on their own efforts to gain access +to the American mainstream." + +"The opportunities are there. Blacks have only to stop hiding +behind racism and take advantage of them. While racism still exists, +it is not what is holding back America's black people. Instead, the +specter of racism has become a crippling fixation of blacks, a way +not just to excuse failure but to avoid dealing with real problems. +Victimization views white people as omnipotent. It is as though +white people are in charge of our fate rather than ourselves. The +sense of victimization has led blacks to rely on programs like +affirmative action that both stem from and perpetuate their sense +of being victims." + +"The insistence on black victimization and white guilt sets in motion +a never-ending and ultimately futile, inter-racial battle . . . that +leaves us with an identity (as a victim) that is at war with our best +interests, that magnifies our oppression and diminishes our sense of +possibility." + +"It did blacks no good to ignore their real fears and blame racism +for all their failings. Blacks have tremendous possibilities, but +if you think you're up against a white racism and your just a total +victim of it, then you can't do anything except be mad." diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bookban.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bookban.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f0e57c80 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bookban.txt @@ -0,0 +1,320 @@ + + Censored Books + +Responding to the Meese commission's official approval of pressure-group +censorship, Waldenbooks staged a promotion featuring 52 volumes that had been +"challenged, burned or banned somewhere in the United States in the last 15 +years." The titles and the reasons for outrage against these books are so +astounding that we decided to publish the complete list. + +THE BASTARD, by John Jakes. + Removed from Montour (Pennsylvania) High School library, 1976. + +BLOODLINE, by Sidney Sheldon. + Challenged in Abingdon, Virginia, 1980; + Elizabethton, Tennessee, 1981. + +BRAVE NEW WORLD, by Aldous Huxley. + Removed from classroom, Miller, Missouri, 1980. + Challenged frequently throughout the U.S. + +CARRIE, by Stephen King. +Considered "trash" that is especially harmful for "younger girls." + Challenged by Clark High School library, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1975. + Placed on special closed shelf in Union High School library, Vergennes, + Vermont, 1978. + +THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, by J.D. Salinger. +Considered "dangerous" because of vulgarity, occultism, violence and sexual +content. + Banned in Freeport High School, DeFuniak Springs, Florida, 1985. + Removed from + Issaquah, Washington, optional high school reading list, 1978; + required reading list, Middleville, Michingan, 1979.; + Jackson-Milton school libraries, North Jackson, Ohio, 1980; + Anniston, Alabama, high school libraries, 1982. + Challenged by Libby (Montana) High School, 1983. + +CATCH-22, by Joseph Heller. +Considered "dangerous" because of objectionable language. + Banned in Strongsville, Ohio, 1972 (overturned in 1976). + Challenged by Dallas, Texas, Independent School District high school + libraries, 1974, + Snoqualmie, Washington, 1979. + +THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, by Jean M. Auel. +Challenged by numerous public libraries. + +A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, by Anthony Burgess. +"Objectionable" language. + Removed from + Westport, Rhode Island, high school classrooms, 1977; + Aurora, Colorado, high school classrooms, 1976; + Anniston, Alabama, high school libraries, 1982. + +THE COLOR PURPLE, by Alice Walker. +Considered inappropriate because of its "troubling ideas about race relations, +man's relationship to God, African history and human sexuality." + Challenged by Oakland, California, high school honors class, 1984; + rejected for purchase by Hayward, California, school trustees. + +THE CRUCIBLE, by Arthur Miller. +Considered dangerous because it contains "sick words from the mouths of +demon-possessed people." + Challenged by Cumberland Valley High School, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, + 1982. + +CUJO, by Stephen King. +Profanity and strong sexual content cited as reasons for opposition. + Banned by Washington County, Alabama, Board of Education, 1985; + challenged by Rankin County, Mississippi, School District, 1984; + removed from Bradford, New York, school library, 1985; + rejected for purchase by Hayward, California, school trustees, 1985. + +DEATH OF A SALESMAN, by Arthur Miller. +Cited for profanity. + Banned by Spring Valley Community High School, French Lick, Indiana, + 1981; + challenged by Dallas, Texas, Independent School District high school + libraries, 1974. + +THE DEVIL'S ALTERNATE, by Frederick Forsyth. + Removed by Evergreen School District, Vancouver, Washington, 1983. + +THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL, by Anne Frank. +Objections to sexually offensive passages. + Challenged by Wise County, Virginia, 1982; + Alabama State Book Committee, 1983. + +EAST OF EDEN, by John Steinbeck. +Considered "ungodly and obscene." + Removed from Anniston, Alabama, high school libraries, 1982; + Morris, Manitoba, school libraries, 1982. + +A FAREWELL TO ARMS, by Ernest Hemingway. +Labeled as a "sex novel." + Challenged by Dallas, Texas, Independent School District high school + libraries, 1974; + Vernon-Verona-Sherill, New York, School District, 1980. + +FIRESTARTER, by Stephen King. +Cited for "graphic descriptions of sexual acts, vulgar language and violence." + Challenged by Campbell County, Wyoming, school system, 1983-1984. + +FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON, by Daniel Keyes. +Explicit, distasteful love scenes cited among reasons for opposition. + Banned by Plant City, Florida, 1976; + Emporium, Pennsylvania, 1977; + Glen Rose (Arkansas) High School library, 1981. + Challenged by Oberlin (Ohio) High School, 1983; + Glenrock (Wyoming) High School, 1984. + +FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC, by V.C. Andrews. +Considered "dangerous" because it contains "offensive passages concerning +incest and sexual intercourse." + Challenged by Richmond (Rhode Island) High School, 1983. + +FOREVER, by Judy Blume. +Detractors cite its "four-letter words and [talk] about masturbation, birth +control and disobedience to parents." + Challenged by Midvalley Junior-Senior High School library, Scranton, + Pennsylvania, 1982; + Orlando, Florida, schools, 1982; + Akron, Ohio, School District libraries, 1983; + Howard-Suamico (Wisconsin) High School, 1983; + Holdredge, Nebraska, Public Library, 1984; + Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Public Library, 1984; + Patrick County, Virginia, School Board, 1986; + Park Hill (Missouri) South Junior High School library, + 1982. + +THE GRAPES OF WRATH, by John Steinbeck. +Considered "dangerous" because of obscene language and the unfavorable +depiction of a former minister. + Banned in Kanawha, Iowa, 1980; Morris, Manitoba, 1982. + Challenged by Vernon-Verona-Sherill, New York, School District, 1980; + Richford, Vermonth, 1991.(?) + +HARRIET THE SPY, by Louise Fitzhugh. +Considered "dangerous" because it "teaches children to lie, spy, back-talk +and curse." + Challenged by Xenia, Ohio, school libraries, 1983. + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN, by Mark Twain. +Considered "dangerous" because of objectionable language and "racist" terms +and content. + Challenged by Winnetka, Illinois, 1976; + Warrington, Pennsylvania, 1981; + Davenport, Iowa, 1981; + Fairfax County, Virginia, 1982; + Houston, Texas, 1982; + State College, Pennsylvania, area school district + 1983; + Springfield, Illinois, 1983 + Waukegan, Illinois, 1984. + +I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, by Maya Angelou. +Considered "dangerous" because it preaches "bitterness and hatred against +whites." + Challenged by Alabama State Textbook Committee, 1983. + +GGIE'S HOUSE, by Judy Blume. + Challenged by Caspar, Wyoming, school libraries, 1984. + +IT'S OKAY IF YOU DON'T LOVE ME, by Norma Klein. +Considered "dangerous" because it portrays "sex as the only thing on your +people's minds." + Banned in Haywood County, California, 1981. + Removed by Widefield (Colorado) High School, 1983; + Vancouver, Washington, School District, 1984. + +THE LIVING BIBLE, by William C. Bower. +Considered "dangerous" because it is "a perverted commentary on the King James +Version." + Burned in Gastonia, North Carolina, 1986. + +LORD OF THE FLIES, by William Golding. +Considered "demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than +an animal." + Challenged by Dallas, Texas, Independent School District high school + libraries, 1974; + Sully Buttes (South Dakota) High School, 1981; + Owen (North Carolina) High School, 1981; + Marana (Arizona) High School, 1983; + Olney, Texas, Independent School District, 1984. + +LOVE IS ONE OF THE CHOICES, by Norma Klein. + Removed from Evergreen School District, Vancouver, Washington, 1983. + +THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, by Ray Bradbury. +Profanity and the use of God's name in vain sparked opposition to this novel. + Challenged by Haines City (Florida) High School, 1982. + +MATARESE CIRCLE, by Robert Ludlum. +"Unnecessarily rough language and sexual descriptions" caused opposition to +this novel. + Restricted (to students with parental consent) by Pierce (Nebraska) + High School, 1983. + +THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, by William Shakespeare. +Objections to purported anti-Semitism. + Banned by Midland, Michigan, classrooms, 1980. + +NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, by George Orwell. Objections to pro- Communist material +and explicit sexual matter. + Challenged by Jackson County, Florida, 1981. + +OF MICE AND MEN, by John Steinbeck. +Considered "dangerous" because of its profanity and "vulgar language." + Banned in Syracuse, Indiana, 1974; + Oil City, Pennsylvania, 1977; + Grand Blanc, Michigan, 1979; + Continental, Ohio, 1980l + Skyline High School, Scottsboro, Alabama, 1983. + Challenged by Greenville, South Carolina, 1977; + Vernon-Verona- Sherill, New York, School District, 1980; + St. David, Arizona, 1981; + Telly City, Indiana, 1982; + Knoxville, Tennessee, School Board, 1984. + +ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. +Objectionable language. + Removed by Milton (New Hampshire) High School library, 1976. + Challenged by Mahwah, New Jersey, 1976; + Omak, Washington, 1979; + Mohawk Trail Regional High School, Buckland, Mass, 1981. + +ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, by Ken Kesey. + Removed from required reading list by Westport, Massachusetts, 1977. + Banned by Freemont High School, St. Anthony, Idaho. (Instructor was + fired.) + Challenged by Merrimack (New Hampshire) High School, 1982. + +ORDINARY PEOPLE, bu Judith Guest. +Called "obscene" and "depressing." + Banned (temporarily) by Merrimack (New Hampshire) High School, 1982. + +OTHERWISE KNOWN AS SHEILA THE GREAT, by Judy Blume. + Challenged by Caspar, Whyoming, school libraries, 1984. + +THE PIGMAN, by Paul Zindel. +Considered "dangerous" because it features "liars, cheaters and stealers." + Challenged by Hillsboro, Missouri, School District, 1985. + +THE RED PONY, by John Steinbeck. +Called a "filthy, trashy sex novel." + Challenged by Vernon-Verona-Sherill, New York, School District, 1980. + +THE SEDUCTION OF PETER S., by Lawrence Sanders. +Called "blatantly graphic, pornographic and wholly unacceptable for a high +school library." + Burned by Stroudsburg (Pennsylvania) High School library, 1985. + +A SEPARATE PEACE, by John Knowles. +Detractors cite offensive language and sex as dangerous elements in this novel. + Challenged by Vernon-Verona-Sherill, New York, School District, 1980; + Fannett-Metal High School, Shippensburg, Pa, 1985. + +THE SHINING, by Stephen King. +Considered dangerous because it "contains violence and demonic possession and +ridicules the Christian religion." + Challenged by Campbell County, Wyoming, school system, 1983. + Banned by Washington County, Alabama, Board of Education, 1985. + +SILAS MARNER, by George Eliot. + Banned by Union High School, Anaheim, California, 1978. + +SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. +Considered "dangerous" because of violent, irreverent, profane and sexually +explicit content. + Burned in Drake, North Carolina, 1973; + Rochester, Michigan, 1972; + Levittown, New York, 1975; + North Jackson, Ohio, 1979; + Lakeland, Florida, 1982. + Barred from purchase by Washington Park High School, Racine, Wi, 1984. + Challenged by Owensboro (Kentucky) High School library, 1985. + +SUPERFUDGE, by Judy Blume. Disapproval based on "profane, immoral and +offensive" content. + Challenged by Caspar, Wyoming, school libraries, 1984; + Bozeman, Montana, school libraries, 1985. + +THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW, by S.E. Hinton. +Objections to "graphic language, subject matter, immoral tone and lack of +literary quality." + Challenged by Pagosa Springs, Colorado, 1983. + +TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee. +Considered "dangerous" because of profanity and undermining of race relations. + Challenged (temporaily banned) in Eden Valley, Minnesota, 1977; + Vernon-Verona-Sherill, New York, School District, 1980; + Warren, Indiana, township schools, 1981; + Waukegan, Illinois, School District, 1984; + Kansas City, Missouri, junior high schools, 1985; + Park Hill (Missouri) Junior High School, 1985. + Protested by black parents and NAACP in Casa Grande (Arizona) + Elementary School District, 1985. + +ULYSSES, by James Joyce. +"Given its long history of censorship, ULYSSES has rarely been selected for +high school libraries." -- Judith Krug, director, Office for Intellectual +Freedom, American Library Association, 1986. + +UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by Harriet B. Stowe. +Use of the word nigger caused opposition. + Challenged by Waukegan, Illinois, School District, 1984. + +WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, by Shel Silverstein. +Considered by opponents to undermine parental, school and religious authority. + Pulled from shelves for review by Minot, North Dakota, public school + libraries, 1986. + Challenged by Xenia, Ohio, school libraries, 1983.. + +Sources for all of the above information: American Library Association +RESOURCE BOOK FOR BANNED BOOK WEEK 1986 and the NEWSLETTER ON INTELLECTUAL +FREEDOM, published by the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Complete +documentation is available from the American Library Association. +---------------------------- +-BB@VI/\617/527.0091/\14.4k- +---------------------------- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/boondogl.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/boondogl.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0a0e9451 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/boondogl.hum @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +ONLY THE BEST FOR UNCLE SAM + +There has been entirely too much nattering about excessive prices paid by our +government for things like hammers, toilet seats and coffee makers. + +That's not to excuse such boondoggles It's just that we have all paid too much +for something now and again -- why expect the government to be different? + +Sure, the Defense Department itself probably has five million procurement +specialists. But it's still a tough job to spend $300 billion or more just to +keep our rockets pointed in the right direction and our military clothed, fed +and shuttled around from post to post. + +Lookit. You, over there in the back. Yes, you. You're complaining that a +really good hammer costs about $20 at the neighborhood hardware store, right? +But what about last Valentine's Day (which you had forgotten even though it's +your wedding anniversary also)? Remember? You went out and paid $75 for a +dozen red roses! Ha! + +And YOU! You bought a perfectly fine new car last fall when the '85s came out +for $17,500. Right. Now that same model is advertised for $12,498. Ha! + +And what about your wife who ordered that nightie from Frederick's of Hollywood +for $89 only to find the same thing on sale at Wal-Mart two weeks later for +$6.99? Ha! + +Let's get back to those 5 million procurement specialists for a sec'. Even if +there were actually that many (and there aren't), each would have to personally +spend about $6 million of the Defense budget in a year's time just to keep up. +When was the last time YOU managed to spend $6 million? Most of us will have a +hard time going through $500,000 in a lifetime. Half-a-million bucks A +pittance. + +I'll bet if you had to procure as much stuff with as much red tape as those +civil and military people do, you'd have a boondoggle or two in your attic, too. + +What about the time your whole family got together and decided to jointly buy +that condo in Nicaragua? How long has it been since the Sandinista took it over +for a command post? What is it they're paying you to rent it? Nothing?? Ha! + +Turn the tables for a moment. Let's say you have to go out and buy a Star Wars +-- er, Strategic Defense Initiative. They're not sold off the shelf like +Cabbage Patch Kids, you know; they're custom made. Do you think the sheet metal +fabricator who works in the back of that motorcycle shop down the road could +come up with one any cheaper than what our government is going to pay? Heck, +even George Lucas had to spend upwards of $10 million for all that clay and +plastic stuff in his movies, and it's all fake. + +Now, here's the most telling point of all: What was your tax bill last year? +Three, four thousand? Ten grand? Did you get what you paid for? Will you +EVER? That's gotta be the biggest boondoggle of them all. Ha! + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bor-stat.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bor-stat.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fc64bed5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bor-stat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,588 @@ + Feel free to copy this article far and wide, but please + keep my name and this sentence on it. + + + The Bill of Rights, a Status Report + by Eric Postpischil + + 4 September 1990 + + 6 Hamlett Drive, Apt. 17 + Nashua, NH 03062 + + edp@jareth.enet.dec.com + + + How many rights do you have? You should check, because it + might not be as many today as it was a few years ago, or + even a few months ago. Some people I talk to are not + concerned that police will execute a search warrant without + knocking or that they set up roadblocks and stop and + interrogate innocent citizens. They do not regard these as + great infringements on their rights. But when you put + current events together, there is information that may be + surprising to people who have not yet been concerned: The + amount of the Bill of Rights that is under attack is + alarming. + + Let's take a look at the Bill of Rights and see which + aspects are being pushed on or threatened. The point here + is not the degree of each attack or its rightness or + wrongness, but the sheer number of rights that are under + attack. + + + Amendment I + + Congress shall make no law respecting an + establishment of religion, or prohibiting the + free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom + of speech, or of the press; or the right of the + people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the + Government for a redress of grievances. + + ESTABLISHING RELIGION: While campaigning for his first + term, George Bush said "I don't know that atheists should + be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered + patriots." Bush has not retracted, commented on, or + clarified this statement, in spite of requests to do so. + According to Bush, this is one nation under God. And + apparently if you are not within Bush's religious beliefs, + you are not a citizen. Federal, state, and local + governments also promote a particular religion (or, + occasionally, religions) by spending public money on + religious displays. + + FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION: Robert Newmeyer and Glenn + Braunstein were jailed in 1988 for refusing to stand in + respect for a judge. Braunstein says the tradition of + rising in court started decades ago when judges entered + carrying Bibles. Since judges no longer carry Bibles, + Braunstein says there is no reason to stand -- and his + Bible tells him to honor no other God. For this religious + practice, Newmeyer and Braunstein were jailed and are now + suing. + + + FREE SPEECH: We find that technology has given the + government an excuse to interfere with free speech. + Claiming that radio frequencies are a limited resource, the + government tells broadcasters what to say (such as news and + public and local service programming) and what not to say + (obscenity, as defined by the Federal Communications + Commission [FCC]). The FCC is investigating Boston PBS + station WGBH-TV for broadcasting photographs from the + Mapplethorpe exhibit. + + FREE SPEECH: There are also laws to limit political + statements and contributions to political activities. In + 1985, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce wanted to take out + an advertisement supporting a candidate in the state house + of representatives. But a 1976 Michigan law prohibits a + corporation from using its general treasury funds to make + independent expenditures in a political campaign. In + March, the Supreme Court upheld that law. According to + dissenting Justice Kennedy, it is now a felony in Michigan + for the Sierra Club, the American Civil Liberties Union, or + the Chamber of Commerce to advise the public how a + candidate voted on issues of urgent concern to their + members. + + FREE PRESS: As in speech, technology has provided another + excuse for government intrusion in the press. If you + distribute a magazine electronically and do not print + copies, the government doesn't consider you a press and + does not give you the same protections courts have extended + to printed news. The equipment used to publish Phrack, a + worldwide electronic magazine about phones and hacking, was + confiscated after publishing a document copied from a Bell + South computer entitled "A Bell South Standard Practice + (BSP) 660-225-104SV Control Office Administration of + Enhanced 911 Services for Special Services and Major + Account Centers, March, 1988." All of the information in + this document was publicly available from Bell South in + other documents. The government has not alleged that the + publisher of Phrack, Craig Neidorf, was involved with or + participated in the copying of the document. Also, the + person who copied this document from telephone company + computers placed a copy on a bulletin board run by Rich + Andrews. Andrews forwarded a copy to AT&T officials and + cooperated with authorities fully. In return, the Secret + Service (SS) confiscated Andrews' computer along with all + the mail and data that were on it. Andrews was not charged + with any crime. + + FREE PRESS: In another incident that would be comical if + it were not true, on March 1 the SS ransacked the offices + of Steve Jackson Games (SJG); irreparably damaged property; + and confiscated three computers, two laser printers, + several hard disks, and many boxes of paper and floppy + disks. The target of the SS operation was to seize all + copies of a game of fiction called GURPS Cyberpunk. The + Cyberpunk game contains fictitious break-ins in a + futuristic world, with no technical information of actual + use with real computers, nor is it played on computers. + The SS never filed any charges against SJG but still + refused to return confiscated property. + + PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY: The right to assemble peaceably is no + longer free -- you have to get a permit. Even that is not + enough; some officials have to be sued before they realize + their reasons for denying a permit are not Constitutional. + + PEACEABLE ASSEMBLY: In Alexandria, Virginia, there is a + law that prohibits people from loitering for more than + seven minutes and exchanging small objects. Punishment is + two years in jail. Consider the scene in jail: "What'd + you do?" "I was waiting at a bus stop and gave a guy a + cigarette." This is not an impossible occurrence: In + Pittsburgh, Eugene Tyler, 15, has been ordered away from + bus stops by police officers. Sherman Jones, also 15, was + accosted with a police officer's hands around his neck + after putting the last bit of pizza crust into his mouth. + The police suspected him of hiding drugs. + + PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES: Rounding out the + attacks on the first amendment, there is a sword hanging + over the right to petition for redress of grievances. + House Resolution 4079, the National Drug and Crime + Emergency Act, tries to "modify" the right to habeas + corpus. It sets time limits on the right of people in + custody to petition for redress and also limits the courts + in which such an appeal may be heard. + + + Amendment II + + A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the + security of a free State, the right of the people + to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. + + RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS: This amendment is so commonly + challenged that the movement has its own name: gun + control. Legislation banning various types of weapons is + supported with the claim that the weapons are not for + "legitimate" sporting purposes. This is a perversion of + the right to bear arms for two reasons. First, the basis + of freedom is not that permission to do legitimate things + is granted to the people, but rather that the government is + empowered to do a limited number of legitimate things -- + everything else people are free to do; they do not need to + justify their choices. Second, should the need for defense + arise, it will not be hordes of deer that the security of a + free state needs to be defended from. Defense would be + needed against humans, whether external invaders or + internal oppressors. It is an unfortunate fact of life + that the guns that would be needed to defend the security + of a state are guns to attack people, not guns for sporting + purposes. + + Firearms regulations also empower local officials, such as + police chiefs, to grant or deny permits. This results in + towns where only friends of people in the right places are + granted permits, or towns where women are generally denied + the right to carry a weapon for self-defense. + + + Amendment III + + No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered + in any house, without the consent of the Owner, + nor in time of war, but in a manner to be + prescribed by law. + + QUARTERING SOLDIERS: This amendment is fairly clean so + far, but it is not entirely safe. Recently, 200 troops in + camouflage dress with M-16s and helicopters swept through + Kings Ridge National Forest in Humboldt County, California. + In the process of searching for marijuana plants for four + days, soldiers assaulted people on private land with M-16s + and barred them from their own property. This might not be + a direct hit on the third amendment, but the disregard for + private property is uncomfortably close. + + + Amendment IV + + The right of the people to be secure in their + persons, houses, papers and effects, against + unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be + violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon + probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, + and particularly describing the place to be + searched, and the persons or things to be seized. + + RIGHT TO BE SECURE IN PERSONS, HOUSES, PAPERS AND EFFECTS + AGAINST UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES: The RICO law + is making a mockery of the right to be secure from seizure. + Entire stores of books or videotapes have been confiscated + based upon the presence of some sexually explicit items. + Bars, restaurants, or houses are taken from the owners + because employees or tenants sold drugs. In Volusia + County, Florida, Sheriff Robert Vogel and his officers stop + automobiles for contrived violations. If large amounts of + cash are found, the police confiscate it on the PRESUMPTION + that it is drug money -- even if there is no other evidence + and no charges are filed against the car's occupants. The + victims can get their money back only if they prove the + money was obtained legally. One couple got their money + back by proving it was an insurance settlement. Two other + men who tried to get their two thousand dollars back were + denied by the Florida courts. + + RIGHT TO BE SECURE IN PERSONS, HOUSES, PAPERS AND EFFECTS + AGAINST UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES: A new law goes + into effect in Oklahoma on January 1, 1991. All property, + real and personal, is taxable, and citizens are required to + list all their personal property for tax assessors, + including household furniture, gold and silver plate, + musical instruments, watches, jewelry, and personal, + private, or professional libraries. If a citizen refuses + to list their property or is suspected of not listing + something, the law directs the assessor to visit and enter + the premises, getting a search warrant if necessary. Being + required to tell the state everything you own is not being + secure in one's home and effects. + + NO WARRANTS SHALL ISSUE, BUT UPON PROBABLE CAUSE, SUPPORTED + BY OATH OR AFFIRMATION: As a supporting oath or + affirmation, reports of anonymous informants are accepted. + This practice has been condoned by the Supreme Court. + + PARTICULARLY DESCRIBING THE PLACE TO BE SEARCHED AND + PERSONS OR THINGS TO BE SEIZED: Today's warrants do not + particularly describe the things to be seized -- they list + things that might be present. For example, if police are + making a drug raid, they will list weapons as things to be + searched for and seized. This is done not because the + police know of any weapons and can particularly describe + them, but because they allege people with drugs often have + weapons. + + Both of the above apply to the warrant the Hudson, New + Hampshire, police used when they broke down Bruce Lavoie's + door at 5 a.m. with guns drawn and shot and killed him. + The warrant claimed information from an anonymous + informant, and it said, among other things, that guns were + to be seized. The mention of guns in the warrant was used + as reason to enter with guns drawn. Bruce Lavoie had no + guns. Bruce Lavoie was not secure from unreasonable search + and seizure -- nor is anybody else. + + Other infringements on the fourth amendment include + roadblocks and the Boston Police detention of people based + on colors they are wearing (supposedly indicating gang + membership). And in Pittsburgh again, Eugene Tyler was + once searched because he was wearing sweat pants and a + plaid shirt -- police told him they heard many drug dealers + at that time were wearing sweat pants and plaid shirts. + + + Amendment V + + No person shall be held to answer for a capital, + or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a + presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except + in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or + in the Militia, when in actual service in time of + War or public danger; nor shall any person be + subject to the same offence to be twice put in + jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled + in any criminal case to be a witness against + himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or + property, without due process of law; nor shall + private property be taken for public use without + just compensation. + + INDICTMENT OF A GRAND JURY: Kevin Bjornson has been + proprietor of Hydro-Tech for nearly a decade and is a + leading authority on hydroponic technology and cultivation. + On October 26, 1989, both locations of Hydro-Tech were + raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration. National + Drug Control Policy Director William Bennett has declared + that some indoor lighting and hydroponic equipment is + purchased by marijuana growers, so retailers and + wholesalers of such equipment are drug profiteers and + co-conspirators. Bjornson was not charged with any crime, + nor subpoenaed, issued a warrant, or arrested. No illegal + substances were found on his premises. Federal officials + were unable to convince grand juries to indict Bjornson. + By February, they had called scores of witnesses and + recalled many two or three times, but none of the grand + juries they convened decided there was reason to criminally + prosecute Bjornson. In spite of that, as of March, his + bank accounts were still frozen and none of the inventories + or records had been returned. Grand juries refused to + indict Bjornson, but the government is still penalizing + him. + + TWICE PUT IN JEOPARDY OF LIFE OR LIMB: Members of the + McMartin family in California have been tried two or three + times for child abuse. Anthony Barnaby was tried for + murder (without evidence linking him to the crime) three + times before New Hampshire let him go. + + COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: Oliver North + was forced to testify against himself. Congress granted + him immunity from having anything he said to them being + used as evidence against him, and then they required him to + talk. After he did so, what he said was used to find other + evidence which was used against him. The courts also play + games where you can be required to testify against yourself + if you testify at all. + + COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: In the New York + Central Park assault case, three people were found guilty + of assault. But there was no physical evidence linking + them to the crime; semen did not match any of the + defendants. The only evidence the state had was + confessions. To obtain these confessions, the police + questioned a 15-year old without a parent present -- which + is illegal under New York state law. Police also refused + to let the subject's Big Brother, an attorney for the + Federal government, see him during questioning. Police + screamed "You better tell us what we want to hear and + cooperate or you are going to jail," at 14-year-old Antron + McCray, according to Bobby McCray, his father. Antron + McCray "confessed" after his father told him to, so that + police would release him. These people were coerced into + bearing witness against themselves, and those confessions + were used to convict them. + + COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: Your answers to + Census questions are required by law, with a $100 penalty + for each question not answered. But people have been + evicted for giving honest Census answers. According to the + General Accounting Office, one of the most frequent ways + city governments use census information is to detect + illegal two-family dwellings. This has happened in + Montgomery County, Maryland; Pullman, Washington; and Long + Island, New York. The August 8, 1989, Wall Street Journal + reports this and other ways Census answers have been used + against the answerers. + + COMPELLED TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF: Drug tests are + being required from more and more people, even when there + is no probable cause, no accident, and no suspicion of drug + use. Requiring people to take drug tests compels them to + provide evidence against themselves. + + DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIBERTY, OR PROPERTY WITHOUT DUE PROCESS + OF LAW: This clause is violated on each of the items life, + liberty, and property. Incidents including such violations + are described elsewhere in this article. Here are two + more: On March 26, 1987, in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, + Jeffrey Miles was killed by police officer John Rucker, who + was looking for a suspected drug dealer. Rucker had been + sent to the wrong house; Miles was not wanted by police. + He received no due process. In Detroit, $4,834 was seized + from a grocery store after dogs detected traces of cocaine + on three one-dollar bills in a cash register. + + PRIVATE PROPERTY TAKEN FOR PUBLIC USE WITHOUT JUST + COMPENSATION: RICO is shredding this aspect of the Bill of + Rights. The money confiscated by Sheriff Vogel goes + directly into Vogel's budget; it is not regulated by the + legislature. Federal and local governments seize and + auction boats, buildings, and other property. Under RICO, + the government is seizing property without due process. + The victims are required to prove not only that they are + not guilty of a crime, but that they are entitled to their + property. Otherwise, the government auctions off the + property and keeps the proceeds. + + + Amendment VI + + In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall + enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by + an impartial jury of the State and district + wherein the crime shall have been committed, + which district shall have been previously + ascertained by law, and to be informed of the + nature and cause of the accusation; to be + confronted with the witnesses against him; to + have compulsory process for obtaining Witnesses + in his favor, and to have the assistance of + counsel for his defence. + + THE RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Surprisingly, the + right to a public trial is under attack. When Marion Barry + was being tried, the prosecution attempted to bar Louis + Farrakhan and George Stallings from the gallery. This + request was based on an allegation that they would send + silent and "impermissible messages" to the jurors. The + judge initially granted this request. One might argue that + the whole point of a public trial is to send a message to + all the participants: The message is that the public is + watching; the trial had better be fair. + + BY AN IMPARTIAL JURY: The government does not even honor + the right to trial by an impartial jury. US District Judge + Edward Rafeedie is investigating improper influence on + jurors by US marshals in the Enrique Camarena case. US + marshals apparently illegally communicated with jurors + during deliberations. + + OF THE STATE AND DISTRICT WHEREIN THE CRIME SHALL HAVE BEEN + COMMITTED: This is incredible, but Manuel Noriega is being + tried so far away from the place where he is alleged to + have committed crimes that the United States had to invade + another country and overturn a government to get him. Nor + is this a unique occurrence; in a matter separate from the + Camarena case, Judge Rafeedie was asked to dismiss charges + against Mexican gynecologist Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain + on the grounds that the doctor was illegally abducted from + his Guadalajara office in April and turned over to US + authorities. + + TO BE INFORMED OF THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF THE ACCUSATION: + Steve Jackson Games, nearly put out of business by the raid + described previously, has been stonewalled by the SS. "For + the past month or so these guys have been insisting the + book wasn't the target of the raid, but they don't say what + the target was, or why they were critical of the book, or + why they won't give it back," Steve Jackson says. "They + have repeatedly denied we're targets but don't explain why + we've been made victims." Attorneys for SJG tried to find + out the basis for the search warrant that led to the raid + on SJG. But the application for that warrant was sealed by + order of the court and remained sealed at last report, in + July. Not only has the SS taken property and nearly + destroyed a publisher, it will not even explain the nature + and cause of the accusations that led to the raid. + + TO BE CONFRONTED WITH THE WITNESSES AGAINST HIM: The courts + are beginning to play fast and loose with the right to + confront witnesses. Watch out for anonymous witnesses and + videotaped testimony. + + TO HAVE COMPULSORY PROCESS FOR OBTAINING WITNESSES: Ronald + Reagan resisted submitting to subpoena and answering + questions about Irangate, claiming matters of national + security and executive privilege. A judge had to dismiss + some charges against Irangate participants because the + government refused to provide information subpoenaed by the + defendants. And one wonders if the government would go + to the same lengths to obtain witnesses for Manuel Noriega + as it did to capture him. + + TO HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL: The right to assistance + of counsel took a hit recently. Connecticut Judge Joseph + Sylvester is refusing to assign public defenders to people + ACCUSED of drug-related crimes, including drunk driving. + + TO HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL: RICO is also affecting + the right to have the assistance of counsel. The + government confiscates the money of an accused person, + which leaves them unable to hire attorneys. The IRS has + served summonses nationwide to defense attorneys, demanding + the names of clients who paid cash for fees exceeding + $10,000. + + + Amendment VII + + In Suits at common law, where the value in + controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the + right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no + fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise + reexamined in any Court of the United States, + than according to the rules of common law. + + RIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY IN SUITS AT COMMON LAW: This is a + simple right; so far the government has not felt threatened + by it and has not made attacks on it that I am aware of. + This is our only remaining safe haven in the Bill of Rights. + + + Amendment VIII + + Excessive bail shall not be required, nor + excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual + punishments inflicted. + + EXCESSIVE BAIL AND FINES: Tallahatchie County in + Mississippi charges ten dollars a day to each person who + spends time in the jail, regardless of the length of stay + or the outcome of their trial. This means innocent people + are forced to pay. Marvin Willis was stuck in jail for 90 + days trying to raise $2,500 bail on an assault charge. But + after he made that bail, he was kept imprisoned because he + could not pay the $900 rent Tallahatchie demanded. Nine + former inmates are suing the county for this practice. + + CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: House Resolution 4079 + sticks its nose in here too: "... a Federal court shall + not hold prison or jail crowding unconstitutional under the + eighth amendment except to the extent that an individual + plaintiff inmate proves that the crowding causes the + infliction of cruel and unusual punishment of that + inmate." + + CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: A life sentence for selling + a quarter of a gram of cocaine for $20 -- that is what + Ricky Isom was sentenced to in February in Cobb County, + Georgia. It was Isom's second conviction in two years, and + state law imposes a mandatory sentence. Even the judge + pronouncing the sentence thinks it is cruel; Judge Tom + Cauthorn expressed grave reservations before sentencing + Isom and Douglas Rucks (convicted of selling 3.5 grams of + cocaine in a separate but similar case). Judge Cauthorn + called the sentences "Draconian." + + + Amendment IX + + The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain + rights, shall not be construed to deny or + disparage others retained by the people. + + OTHER RIGHTS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE: This amendment is so + weak today that I will ask not what infringements there are + on it but rather what exercise of it exists at all? What + law can you appeal to a court to find you not guilty of + violating because the law denies a right retained by you? + + + Amendment X + + The powers not delegated to the United States by + the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the + States, are reserved to the States respectively, + or to the people. + + POWERS RESERVED TO THE STATES OR THE PEOPLE: This + amendment is also weak, although it is not so nonexistent + as the ninth amendment. But few states set their own speed + limits or drinking age limits. Today, we mostly think of + this country as the -- singular -- United States, rather + than a collection of states. This concentration of power + detaches laws from the desires of people -- and even of + states. House Resolution 4079 crops up again here -- it + uses financial incentives to get states to set specific + penalties for certain crimes. Making their own laws + certainly must be considered a right of the states, and + this right is being infringed upon. + + + Out of ten amendments, nine are under attack, most of them + under multiple attacks of different natures, and some of + them under a barrage. If this much of the Bill of Rights + is threatened, how can you be sure your rights are safe? A + right has to be there when you need it. Like insurance, + you cannot afford to wait until you need it and then set + about procuring it or ensuring it is available. Assurance + must be made in advance. + + The bottom line here is that your rights are not safe. You + do not know when one of your rights will be violated. A + number of rights protect accused persons, and you may think + it is not important to protect the rights of criminals. + But if a right is not there for people accused of crimes, + it will not be there when you need it. With the Bill of + Rights in the sad condition described above, nobody can be + confident they will be able to exercise the rights to which + they are justly entitled. To preserve our rights for + ourselves in the future, we must defend them for everybody + today. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/breakaway_02.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/breakaway_02.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..108f365e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/breakaway_02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,814 @@ + + Voila. Une miracle formidable! ;))) + + Issue number two of Breakaway is here! + + And this time, my Internet account won't make any trouble, 'cause +I've got a brand new account. So be sure to test it by submitting to + ;-) + + By the way, a notice about the trouble with my account went out +to about half of the subscribers. To those who didn't receive it: + + - If you have asked me questions, and didn't get any replies, + please mail me again. + + - If you still haven't received issue #1, notify me. + +Vidar Hokstad +Editor + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +BEGIN BREAKAWAY.002 + + + + + + + B R E A K A W A Y + + Debates on modern marxism + + + -+*+- + + + Issue no. 2, volume no. 1 + + + June/July 1994 + + + + + +======================================================================= +CONTENTS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +(00) EDITORIAL + +(01) column: WHAT'S UP? + Some informal notes on issues we want to tell you about + +(02) FIRST VICTIM OF THE REVOLUTION + Another poem... + +(03) AUGUST MEETING + Red Forum needs a platform. + +(04) column: A SEARCHLIGHT ON INTERNET + Revolutionary resources on the information highway + +(05) column: READERS COMMENTS + got anything to say? do it here. + +(06) series: FOR A NEW BEGINNING (1 of 2) + a critique of secterianism + +(07) GENERAL INFORMATION + How and what to submit, how to contact us, etc. + + + + +======================================================================= +(00) EDITORIAL +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Finally. Summer's coming. At least it gets hotter in the air here +up north. + + So. Time to liven up. But where are we heading? How will we work +to get a step or two closer towards our goals the last half of 1994? + + For we can't just sit back and dream. Revolution won't grow on +dreams. + + Submissions might be one way to do something. Because unity can +only be achieved if we know what other people think; if we know what +we think ourselves. + + By submissions, I'm naturally fishing for articles for Breakaway, +but not only that. In general: Write, submit, make noise. If you write +well, even bourgeois papers might occasionally print. And when they +don't: Complain, call the editor, resubmit your piece to another, +more progressive newspaper and tell them who didn't want to print it, +and what excuse they gave. + + It's worth a try. Even if the only result is that *one* reader +takes the trouble of learning more about socialism. + + It's up to you. Overflow your local newspaper with articles and +comments. And if they don't publish, maybe we will... + + Keep writing! + + +Vidar Hokstad +Editor + + +BTW: I may not have made this clear enough before, so I make sure +I do this time. The contents of this zine need not reflect the policy +of Red Forum, even when I it's written by me. Unless an expressivly +say so, the views presented are those of the author. + + + +======================================================================= +(01) column: WHAT'S UP? +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +- Thursday 20th May, a meeting in the executive committee of the + Norwegian Communist Party's (NKP) section in Oslo and Akershus + declared to be in favor of supporting a computer project suggested + by Red Forum / IC economically. + + Suggested investments went up to 50.000 NOK (7500 USD), with + RF/IC paying an additional 4000 USD over a 5 year period, + allowing RF / IC to start it's own BBS with UUCP connection to + USENET, in addition to using the system for DTP. + + Unfortunately, on a meeting the 15th of June, the final decision + were postponed until August. However, it is clear that RFIC will + probably set up a UUCP site whatever the NCP decides. + + On the meeting on the 15th, critique against the project was + mainly directed towards the emphasis on information gathering + through electronic media, and the role of RFIC. An important + argument for the project is that the NCP will be unable to + provide the same facilities for producing it's party news- + paper without cooperation with RFIC. + + +- Breakaway #1 was advertized in three rounds in a series of USENET + conferences, and by June 28th, it had been distributed to + subscribers from USA, Canada, UK, Norway, Australia, France, + Spain, South-Africa, Ireland and Germany. I continued getting + responses to one of the posts for more than 6 weeks after it + was posted. + + +- Bourgeois censorship? The postal strike[1] in northern Germany + throughout this month was barely mentioned in Norwegian media. It + was if the whole thing wasn't happening, and our only source for + updated info turned out to be GermNews (news + from Germany in German, edited by some guy in Berlin). + + But really, we should've expected this. Telling people about + the suggested "Postreform II", which in essence is the bourgeois + forces in the Bundestags attempt at selling the entire German + postal service to the highest-bidder, would certainly not + increase the popularity of the European Union which our social- + democratic government continues to insist is the best way to + secure social-democratic values (Notice that they stopped saying + "socialist values" about 15 years ago...). + + Breakaway welcomes your comments on this and similar matters. + Do you find news on the net or elsewhere which is ignored by + bourgeoise newspapers and TV-stations? Tell us about it. + + +- Norwegians: In a short time, if everything turn out the way we + want to, we will be able to distribute selected articles from + "Friheten" through e-mail. Mail me if you want to subscribe. + This is meant to be the first step in providing material from + leftist newspapers through e-mail, and in a few weeks several + other revolutionary newspapers in Norway will receive the + same offer. + + Be sure to specify whether you only want to receive the index + (to request selected articles later), or the full text. + + We also welcome initiative from our subscribers when it + comes to providing material from newspapers outside Norway. + + +- Information about membership in Red Forum / IC can now + be obtained from me. Request the file info/Membership. + + +- Request submission guidelines by asking for the file + info/Submissions + +---- +[1] The German "postal" service includes the divisions "Postbank" and + "Telecom" in addition to mail delivery, and have about 670.000 + employees. + + + + +======================================================================= +(02) FIRST VICTIM OF THE REVOLUTION +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + I saw a glimpse + of our future tonight. + + Misery were thrown toward my eyes, + opression like today, + but most of all a spark + of hope. + + In each and every + socalled "home" + man discussed his future. + + + Misery forced him + + into action. + + + And as days went by in pain, + there were each and every day + another one + that whispered in the dark + a little, + long forgotten, + word. + + But fear + it brought + when someone + + in broad daylight + + stood up straight and + dared to scream + + - Revolution + + and was shot. + + + + +======================================================================= +(03) AUGUST MEETING +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + It is quite some time since Red Forum was formed, and it was +decided to prepare a basic platform. Not much have been done, and now +summer's threatening :-) Meetings close to summer vacation have to +many times proved _impossible_... So, final decision concerning our +platform have been postponed until August. + + But that does not mean that we won't do any work before that. +Presented here are some of the results of what have been done, with +explanations of the circumstances under which it has been done. + + We hereby invite all RF / IC members, as well as Breakaway readers, +and others, to send us comments, alternative platforms (or just the +platform of _your_ favorite organization), criticism etc. We promise +that any input will be discussed at our meeting (unless we are drowning +in documents...), and at least an extensive summary of what we receive +will be published in Breakaway. + + Since we plan to include as much as possible in Breakaway, and +to make as much of what we can't include in Breakaway publicly +accessibly by other means (from this autumn hopefully a series of +listserv / mailserver services), to as wide a public as possible, +we would prefer to receive documents in English, but if a) you have +printed documents you think would be of interest, or b) you feel +unable to express your ideas clear enough in English, we will at least +read, and quite possibly also translate, documents received in French, +German, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. + +Vidar Hokstad +Red Forum / Internationalists Committee + + +PS: Unfortunately, it has during my work on issue #2 of Breakaway +become clear that the person that were supposed to provide us with a +draft for discussion haven't been able to do so in time. The +mauscript, or another draft, will therefore make it to Breakaway at +earliest in time for Breakaway #3. + + Because of this, this section may seems a litle strange. It was +meant to include the draft, in addition to two or three other short +pieces with comments, which all have been left out. + + + + +VIDAR HOKSTAD: On the "Oslo meeting" in February +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + It was still winter, and cold. Colder than the last years. The +streets were filled with snow, and walking out of the train station, I +think we all wished we'd lived somewhere warmer. + + We were fewer than expected as we reached the offices of the +Norwegian Communist Party, where our meeting were to be held. Still +the meeting was attended by members from a broad range of +organisations. + + The agenda of the meeting was nothing less than to form a new +revolutionary organisation. It wasn't a new party we wanted to build, +but an organisation that could try to unify through open debate, and +to spread information about marxism to new people, outside our +movement, and especially youth. + + As in many other industrialized countries, the revolutionary left +have since long been dying in Norway. After the maoist movement stopped +attracting new youth in the middle of the seventies, almost no more +members came, and the old ones literally started dying. + + However, with Gorbachev, new hopes strated growing. Even though +many of us, looking back, believe that Gorbachev was a lousy leader, +he should still be admired for freeing the revolutionary movement of +the curse which the Soviet union, and the "socialist" countries in +eastern Europe have been. + + Finally it was possible for us to talk freely about the sacred +dogmas, the fanatical love directed towards the October revolution +1917, the admiration of Stalin because of his warfare against Hitler +(how could he not fight Hitler, a man who treatened his reign, a +competitor for the "crown"?), without being insulted; being called +petty-bourgeois, traitor, or "worse": Trotskyite.[1] + + The main part of our meeting consisted of avoiding "difficult" +matters. Red Forum was never meant to be an organisation with views +about everything - the different parties and groups have thos views. +Too many of them. We wanted an organisation open to everyone, +everywhere, that accepts a basic platform, that consider themselves +marxists and revolutionaries, that are consequent internationalists. + + The firm programme, the strong party line, is not something that +can be voted on by a small group. The revolutionary party, in my +opinion an international party, can only be formed by uniting the +existing movement, by bringing at least the majority of existing +groups and tendencies together. + + It will take years, but continuous debates internally in the +movement will sooner or later bring the unity that is neccesary; +an unity that will be forced upon us as the threat from capitalist +regimes in crisis, scared capitalists, grow stronger. + + One of the results of these principles were that we decided to +wait before creating a thorough program. We agreed that instead, +for a few months, giving us time to discuss, and to bring more +people into the forum, the following would do: + +- Red Forum is a forum for the discussion of Marxist theory and +politics based on a revolutionary, internationlist foundation. + + This is the foundation on which we invite new people to join +Red Forum / IC (so let me se some new members now ;), and which +provide a minimal basis for the work we have started doing. It is +not a foundation that can give us easy solutions to the daily +political struggle, but for this we have our respective parties. + + It is a foundation which we hope will bring together, at first, +a small, geographically and politically, widespread group of people +to discuss new ways for the Marxist movement to escape from the +secterianism that have polluted the left for decades. + + Applications for membership are encouraged. No fees are charged +at present, but expect this to change after the August meeting. + +V.H. + +---- +[1] But secteric organisations still claim to be a guiding light for us +all here too. It's less than a month ago a member of "the ML group +Revolution" published an article covering an entire A3 page in the NCP +party newspaper, trying to insult me by calling me a "pettybourgeois +trotskyite" after I had criticized Stalin in the same newspaper on the +1st of May. + + + +======================================================================= +(04) column: A SEARCHLIGHT ON INTERNET +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +* Pathfinder Press + +GOPHER: ftp.std.com in '/Book Sellers' + + Pathfinder Press specializes in publishing revolutionary and +working-class leaders in their own words, including Malcolm X, Nelson +Mandela, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. + + It should be noted that Pathfinder is closely related to Militant +if I'm not mistaken... + + +* Book Stacks Unlimited Inc. + +TELNET: books.com + + Even though they're certainly not "progressive", it is possible +to find quite a lot of books by leftist writers among their 270.000 +titles, even Marx. From my position, with the prices of books here +in Norway, it seemed cheap. + + +* Agora BBS + +TELNET: agora.stm.it + + BBS of the Italian Radical party, supporting 7 different languages. +(English, French, German, Italian, Esperanto, Russian and Spanish If +I remember correcly, It's a long time since I tested it). Even though +the interface is cumbersome, the system might contain some useful +information. + + + +======================================================================= +(05) READERS COMMENTS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Notice that I will not usually reply to critique on political +issues in the same issue as the letter is published. Replies will be +published at _earliest_ the issue after the letter, however admin- +istrative questions and comments, as well as direct questions to me +will be answered at once. + + Also, when you write to me, please state clearly whether your +comment is a submission or not. If you don't, don't blame me if I +don't treat them as you intended. + +Ed. + + +---- +To: Vidar +From: Jack Hill + +Dear Vidar, + +I still haven't had time to work up any real thorough critique of the +first issue of Breakaway. However, I do have a few thoughts and +comments that I would like to share with you. + +Let me say first of all that roughly speaking I agree with your +analysis of what is the situation facing Marxist theory and those who +want to apply it to the current political and economic struggles. What +I mean is that we agree that Marxism is essential for the liberation of +the working class and all the oppressed; that it has been trampled on, +distorted, and mutilated by a wide variety of forces who claimed to be +communists; that we face a huge struggle to restore the good name of +communism. + +One place where I think we don't see completely eye to eye, is in how +to characterize the regimes in Russia, Eastern Europe, China and +elsewhere which abandoned Marxism (or in some cases, never followed +it). You seem to want to call all these bureaucratic regimes +"Stalinist". I'm not sure that is an adequate characterization. I do +think they were all state capitalist regimes, but they varied quite a +bit among themselves in terms of how they came to power, how they +maintained it, to what extent they had popular support. Maoism is a +revisionist theory but it is not the same as Stalinism. There are a +lot of varieties of revisionism in the world and we have to look at all +of them carefully. Another related point is that I think the evidence +is clear that the Chinese revolution in particular produced substantial +advances for the Chinese masses. In other words I think the Chinese +revolution was a genuine popular revolution although the party which +led it was not a proletarian Marxist-Leninist party. So that when we +denounce Maoism, we are not denouncing the epic revolutionary struggle +of the Chinese people. + +Anyway, there is a lot of theoretical sorting out to do get rid of the +mountains of historical garbage and re-establish a genuine, scientific +and revolutionary Marxist theory. The Marxist-Leninist Party, in my +opinion, did some very good historical research into some of these +questions, but there are a lot more questions yet to be cleared up. As +one example, comrades in Chicago did very extensive research into the +women's movement and the struggles for women's liberation in early +Soviet Russia. We will be publishing a book bringing together our +articles and research in the next couple of months. + +There is a lot more to be said on this but I don't have time right now. + +I have a couple other less political comments. Personally I didn't +care much for the poem you published. I prefer literature which more +directly attacks the "system" in one way or another. Have you heard of +Struggle magazine? I'll send you a copy in the mail. The editor and I +have been politically associated for over 25 years. + +The other point is not major and I'm not sure if I should ever mention +it but I will. I don't want to sound too harsh or overly critical, but +my point is that there were some spots in that first issue where the +English could have been improved. All your main points came through +clearly enough, so I don't want to make too big a deal out of this. +But for maximum clarity, it could probably use a little more work. + +So, good job! Hang in there. I'm looking forward to the next issue. + +While I'm at it I will send you a couple other things that I didn't +send you before. There is a May First leaflet we put out, an exchange +I had on PNEWS Conferences about the dissolution of the MLP, and the +editorial of Struggle magazine which I posted to PNEWS. + + Keep up the struggle, + Jack Hill + +---- +Editors comments: + +- When it comes to fiction, we'll probably annoy quite a few of you, +because a lot of what we publish will be experimental in a lot of ways, +and very much of it related to Cyberpunk. The reason? The taste of +the editor, and the people I relate to, and "steal" material from. +The only way to change this is by actually submitting... + + So: All of you that write fiction, submit. That's the only way of +increasing the diversity of this zine. + +- When it comes to improving grammar and style, please feel free to +comment. Especially help on which terms to use etc. will be +appreciated, as translating texts on politics in general, and marxism +in particular, demands quite a lot of terms that certainly can't be +translated directly, and were it often is little help in a dictionary. + + The problem is certainly not reduced by the fact that we have to +rely on translations done entirely by people with English as their +second language. + + If anyone feel they can contribute: I would be extremely grateful +if someone offers to read through material to check the language every +now and then, or, even better, volunteer to help translating when (if) +we get hold of material in languages you master. + + +Apart from that? Well, I _will_ give my views with regards to Jack's +other comments in the next issue, so watch out... ;) + + + +======================================================================= +(06) FOR A NEW BEGINNING (1 of 2) +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +I received the following article from Dave Hollis some time ago, and +even though the article is quite long, I decided to edit it only +slightly. The unedited text is available on request. To let Dave +himself tell you about the background (quoted from the message he +sent me): + + " The following article was written by myself for a conference of +people who came out of a trotskyist organisation. Over 1.5 years ago I +did so myself. The article is an attempt to elaborate experiences made +in German and the UK on the questions of sectarianism and democratic +centralism. " + + + + +FOR A NEW BEGINNING + +Written by Dave Hollis +Co-authored by Maggie McQuillan +Please contact the author before republishing the article. + + + + It is lamentable that he [Ted Grant] has allowed his political + authority to be used by people whose main concern is not to + clarify ideas but to cause the maximum damage to Militant. + One unfortunate feature of political life is the spiteful urge + of former activists to justify their defection by hurling + allegations of heinous political crimes at their former + comrades. + (Militant, 24/1/1992) + + The action to spread these lies outside the organisation, is a + despicable attempt to sabotage our work, which arises from + pure spite ... + (A Reply to PBy, RWe, JG) + + + + +The current developments in England come as no surprise to us. The +decision we took to leave over a year and a half ago was based on the +understanding that the new organisation was not fundamentally different +from the old one. We realised and said then that it was only a +question of time until a new split would take place. The formation of +the "Democratic Platform" days after the world conference was only an +harbinger of the events that were to follow. + +I have avoided commenting up to now on the events taking place in the +"Socialist Appeal". Although a pamphlet was dedicated to us and we +were used as a stick to beat the "Democratic Platform" with, I chose to +remain silent. It was not a case of being unable to answer the +accusations and the points made, it was quite simply that I, and +others, had put this sect behind us. + +Given that a discussion is now beginning to take place on how one +should go forward, I feel that the time is now appropriate to comment +on the current events, relate our experiences and put forward what I +consider has to be done. I recommend all Comrades to read the document +Bruno wrote shortly after we left, "How and what must be Discussed". +It contains a concise explanation of the state of thinking in Germany +at that time and what we considered to be the next steps. + +Before I go into details, I would like to put the question of Pat's +role in Germany straight. Despite what the leaders of sect number two +think or want to believe, there was no secret activity between the +"Democratic Platform" and the German group. There was no one pulling +our strings. In addition, anyone with a degree of political +understanding could have seen that there were (and most probably are) a +number of political disagreements between us. + +An author is often betrayed by the language used when writing or +speaking. This is very much case in the article "answering" Pat, +Julian and Roy. For instance, why does the second sect talk about a +"conspiracy"? Why do comrades act "in spite", and so on? It is +necessary to look into the reasons why people react in such a way. For +instance, why do members of such an organisation view those who leave +as "betrayers" who, to add insult to injury, are also considered to be +acting "in spite"? + +The answer to these questions lies in understanding that we are dealing +here with a typical behaviour of a sect. + + + +SECTS + +One thing that strikes me when thinking back to the definition of a +sect in the Militant and Socialist Appeal, is the fact that a sect is +defined by its inability to build a mass base. At best, this +definition is only half the truth and at worse, it is totally false. + +What characterises a sect is not its inability to build but its +internal workings - how the members relate to each other, how they +react to "outsiders", etc. A sect is a group of people who follow a +particular teaching and consider every other teaching to be wrong and +dangerous. To put it another way: a sect is the belief of a group of +people that their "model" of how society is to be interpreted is the +one and only truth. + +This definition does not quite capture the real nature of a sect. What +is also important is that psychological factors play the main role. A +sect is held together by beliefs. Either you accept them and you are a +member, otherwise you have no place within it. The loyalty to the +organisation is not based on a conscious understanding of its aims, it +is loyalty to the group. The members "function", they mostly do not +act consciously. The smaller the organisation the greater the part +played by psychological factors. It is no accident that such +organisations have their idols and "great leaders". It is also no +accident that the feeling of "us" and "them" was nurtured in Militant +and Socialist Appeal. The "family feeling" is a prerequisite for the +functioning of a sect. + +The Jehovah Witnesses have their bible, a Marxist organisation has the +works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky or whoever. + +This way of thinking leads unavoidably its members to considering those +who disagree with their point of view to be "not loyal", "spiteful", +out to cause damage, etc. Those who become "dissidents" are countered +in the main by insults and not by arguments. For most of the members +of Militant it was only necessary to put us into a particular +compartment, accuse us of departing from Marxism and that was that - +and it worked! In both sects we experienced this, I don't think I have +to elaborate further. + +One particular analogy that springs to mind is that of looking at +membership of a sect as being like a marriage. To leave a sect is like +getting divorced. It is neither easy, nor is it without pain. + +As is the case with other subjects, there is still a lot that needs to +be written on this. In passing, I would just like to mention the +following aspects not discussed in this article: martyrdom, sacrifices +for the cause and assimilation. They are worth an article in +themselves. Unfortunately, time is pressing - I want to finish this +article before your conference and not afterwards. One of the most +painful but most interesting revelations for me was the discovery that +the workings of a political and a religious sect are more less +identical and that all "cadre" organisations I have met up to know +operate in the same way. + +At first I found it hard to believe this. Since leaving the second +sect, however, I have spoken with a number of people who were also +members of "cadre" organisations and have found out that the behaviour +experienced was always strikingly similar. + +I can imagine the howls of rage at such statements. I hope, however, +that no one was offended. Whoever feels offended should think over +very carefully why this is the case. + +There are many obvious behaviours that indicate the presence of a +political sect. A few examples: The inability to think for oneself, +the repetition of the "line", blind loyalty, the inability to question +a point of view, the "functioning" of the members, the inability to +understand someone else's point of view. + +Comrades who do not believe this should ask themselves a few questions: +Did not the old organisations talk about their faith in the working +class? What place does "faith" have for people who consider themselves +to be "Marxists"? Either we are talking about a science or we are +talking about a religion. It is necessary to decide which of the two +possibilities we want. Why does the resolution on the founding of the +new (old) International talk about being based on the first four +congresses of the Communist International? Is it not obvious to anyone +who claims to be a Marxist that resolutions passed over seventy years +ago are very unlikely to have any bearing on the economical and +political situation of today? The references to the writings of the +'great teachers' are just as bad. + +In passing, the attempt by such organisations to justify their program +and actions by reference to such things or people is religious activity +at its purest. + +As we only know too well (see the resolution on the founding of the +"International" passed at Tarrogona), an attempt is made to build a +line of tradition backwards to particular "gurus" or whatever. The +organisation stands at the front of this line as the natural +continuation of the best traditions of the past. However, it is +overseen that this is religion. Religion is re-ligio - a backwards +connection to a mystical beginning. + +Once a political organisation has laid claim to this "revolutionary +continuity", the question of a programme's content is also solved. +Either the timeless validity of programmes out of the past are insisted +upon or parts of various programmes are eclectically thrown together. + +I remember very clearly Ted not being happy with our idea in Germany of +writing a new political program, i.e. a manifesto. "What do you need +it for, you have the Transitional Programme" -as if the world had stood +still for the past fifty years! It is no wonder that in such +organisations practices characteristic of religious sects quickly +manifest themselves ... + + +...continued in Breakaway #3 + + +======================================================================= +(07) GENERAL INFORMATION +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + A reduced "General Information" column from now on, not to use +all the space repeating the same info... + + Breakaway will be published as often as we have enough material. +"Enough" is at present about 30kb of text, but this might increase +if we get enough submissions. Under any circumstances we'll limit +ourselves to 30kb until we reach one issue every two weeks. (Probably +won't happen in your lifetime ;-) + + The format is, as you can see, pure 7-bit ASCII. + + + Do you: + + - want to subscribe? + - have an idea? + - have a question? + - want to submit, and want to know how? + + + Just send us a message, preferably by e-mail, and we'll send you +appropriate information as soon as possible. To ensure that we can +reply, please include your e-mail address in the body of the message. + + + +SOME BRIEF NOTES ON SUBMISSIONS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +* BREAKAWAY will accept articles from people belonging to all trends + or ideologies related to marxism, or from people who are simply + interested in marxist theory or practice. + +* You should limit yourself to articles between 100 and 300 lines if + possible (shorter pieces will naturally also be accepted). If you + find that difficult, try to divide your article into shorter + sections suitable for publishing over two to four issues. + +* We will publish most articles or news reports we receive concerning + marxist ideology, the actions of marxist organisations, or + information of importance to the average revolutionary. Also + fiction might be accepted (contact us for more info) + +* We accept anonymous submissions. However, if you choose to do so, + we would prefer if you give us a pseudonym to use as your + signature. + + + +How to contact Red Forum / Internationalists Committee: +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Editor : Vidar Hokstad +E-mail : +Snailmail : Boks 30, N-2001 Lillestroem, NORWAY +Tel. : +47 638 170 35 (5pm to 9pm GMT) + +======================================================================= + Proletarians of all countries, unite! +======================================================================= + +END BREAKAWAY.002 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/breakaway_03.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/breakaway_03.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3abe253a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/breakaway_03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,909 @@ + + Again delayed... + + This time partly on purpose. Finally we've gotten a listserver to +take care of mailing out Breakaway, and I wanted to wait until it was all +set up, so that I didn't have to mail out hundreds of issues manually +again... + +Vidar Hokstad +Editor + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +BEGIN BREAKAWAY.003 + + + + + + + B R E A K A W A Y + + Debates on modern marxism + + + -+*+- + + + Issue no. 3, volume no. 1 + + + August/September 1994 + + + + + +======================================================================= +CONTENTS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +(00) EDITORIAL + +(01) column: WHAT'S UP? + Some informal notes on issues we want to tell you about + +(02) STATE CAPITALISM AND STALINISM + An attempt at a reply to Jack Hills letter in issue #2 + +(04) column: A SEARCHLIGHT ON INTERNET + Revolutionary resources on the information highway + +(05) column: ANNOUNCEMENTS + Red Orange ?!? What's that? + +(06) series: FOR A NEW BEGINNING (2 of 2) + a critique of secterianism + +(07) GENERAL INFORMATION + How and what to submit, how to contact us, etc. + + + + +======================================================================= +(00) EDITORIAL +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Thank you! + + The last two months my mailbox have been overflowing. Allthough +the number of submissions still is low, the amount of subscription +requests, interesting info, and positive feedback mailed to me have +been overwealming. + + It is certainly enough socialists out on the net to justify this +publication. + + The beauty of the net, is the lack of distribution-problems due to +geographical issues. For a truly international movement, the net is a +blessing of similar importance today, as the railroad was when Marx and +Engels wrote their famous _Manifesto_[1]. What before took years, can +today be done in weeks - the human factor being the last barrier... + + We are as users of the net witnessing capitalism create the +ultimate tool for the working class to use. The final weapon to turn +against them. An anarchic structure where the number of voices crying +out their opinions into cyberspace is finally more important than the +money of the bourgeoisie. + + Watch the drama unfold, as capitalist companies struggle to make +net access available to us all at low cost, so that we can turn it +against them even more easily, or wither away as loosers in an ever +hardening competition. + + Look around you, and see virtual worlds, empires, of information, +be created, live and die, in an accelerating cycle of "living +knowledge" - the net is a medium in which a creation will never be +finished, never will be finite, but always lies open for new +exploration and new enhancements. + + Enter the age of the virtual commune... + +Vidar Hokstad +Editor + + + +---- +[1] "And that union, to attain which the burghers of the Middle Ages, +with their miserable highways, required centuries, the modern +proletarian, thanks to railways, achieve in a few years." + + +======================================================================= +(01) column: WHAT'S UP? +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +- After a few series of adverts on a series of USENET conferences + and mailing-lists the numbers of subscribers practically went + through the roof. On 1th of July, shortly after my first round of + advertising for issue #2, 15 subscription requests arrived + during my less than an hour online that day (and several more had + arrived before I logged on), and that was only the beginning... + + Breakaway is now distributed to subscribers in (sorted after + numbers of subscribers) USA, UK, Canada, France, Norway, Germany, + Ireland, Australia, South-Africa, Spain, Finland, New Zealand, + Sweden and South-Korea! + + Most of our subscribers (approx. 60%) comes from the US. Breakaway + has also been uploaded to a few local BBS's around the world. + + I would especially like to welcome our first subscriber in + South-Korea, who, in spite of the political oppression, still + takes the chance involved with subscribing to Breakaway. The + South-Korean government have, as naby of you will know, a + reputation for imprisoning revolutionaries, and I doubt they'd + like Breakaway very much... + +- Breakaway is now archived in the ftp archive at + etext.archive.umich.edu in the directory /pub/Zines/Breakaway. + Another archive is expected soon... + +- Red Forum have recently gotten it's own gopher archive at the + EDIN gopher. In addition to general information about Red Forum, + the archive also contains material from Breakaway, and a pointer + to the archive mentioned above. Try gopher to garnet.berkeley.edu, + port 1520, 1521 or 1522, and select "13. Political Movements and + Theory/", then "2. Socialist Political Groups/", and finally + "3. Non-US Socialist Organizations/" to find us. + +- I've adjusted the size of Breakaway up to approx. 40kb from this + issue. + +- The Red Forum meeting will be in late September or early October + instead of August. + +- Two mailing-lists have been set up. One for Breakaway, and another + one as a discussion list for Breakaway subscribers and RFIC + members. + + The address is "majordomo@powertech.no". Send a message with + "help" in the body to retrieve informations about the commands + at your disposal, or use "lists" to get a list of all the lists + administrated by Powertech (our service provider). + + The discussion list may possibly not be set up correctly when you + read this. I'll post a short notice to the Breakaway mailing list + as soon as it is working. You will *NOT* be automatically + subscribed to this list even if you subscribe to Breakaway. + +- Breakaway is now also available on WWW. Select the URL + "http://www.ifi.uio.no/~vidarh/" (my homepage) from Mosaic or Lynx, + or go directly to the Breakaway archive by adding "Breakaway/" to + the above URL. Starting with issue #4, most material will be + available on the web before it is being mailed out, since it + will be written in a custom SGML format, and converted to HTML + (for WWW), ASCII, and AmigaGuide. + + For more info about World Wide Web, send mail to info@cern.ch + (automatic mailer) + + The WWW editions will be _updated_ with current addresses, more + links etc. However, no new entries will be added. + + + +======================================================================= +(02) STATE CAPITALISM AND STALINISM +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +An attempt at a reply to Jack Hills letter in issue #2, and more... [1] + + I agree that naming all regimes "Stalinist" without a closer +examination, is to simple. But let me try to explain this +simplification. + + Jack stated, in my opinion correctly, that the Chinese revolution +originated as a popular revolution despite the degeneration that +followed it, and the party that led it. This is an assertion that +seems to provide us with a major difference between the development in +China and Russia, as there are differences between Stalinism, defined +strictly as _Stalins theory and practice_, contrary to using Stalinism +in a broad sense for denoting any state capitalist regime using +communist symbolism, and Maoism. + + And yes, Maoism is revisionistic where stalinism is reactionary. +While Stalinism were in effect, with it's bureaucratic system, trying to +reverse the process of building capitalism, Maoism was, at the time, +a force of liberation. + + Even the Russian revolution was a popular revolution, allthough the +_October revolution_ did not have the support of the majority. In the + same way as the great French revolution of 1789 didn't consist of just +one attack on the establishment, but a series of struggles, the Russian +revolution was a process that at least must be said to include the +overthrowing of the Czar regime in February 1917, and later the October +Revolution, but which could be extended in both directions: Towards +the uprisings in 1905, and throughout the end of of Lenins life. + + Or even further... + + Some would even claim that the Russian revolution didn't finish it's +task before the State-Capitalist regime was overthrown, and Russia +finally got to experience the curse of developed capitalism in a +"free market" environment. + + My opinion is that this is going too far. As always, history has +shown us some of it's innumerable variations, by providing us with a +series of "socialist" revolutions which all degenerated into state +capitalism. State capitalism has earned a position as an independent +stage in the development of our world at a place where we before only +knew the direct transition from feudalism to capitalism, as it had +happened in the developed countries. + + State capitalism has earned a position as an intermediate step on +the underdeveloped countries way to capitalism, as socialism[2] by most +communists are seen as an intermediate step on our way towards +communism. + + Again roughly simplified, Maoism played the role equivalent to the +role of Leninism in Russia. In the same way as Leninism, Maoism was an +adaption of Marxism to a severly underdeveloped, perhaps even non-existent +capitalism. It meant the inclusion of the poor peasants into the proletariat, +even though we have been able to witness how large parts of these peasants +didn't share the interests of the proletariat. + + There's a lot to criticize about both Lenin and Mao, but there's little +doubt about their intent. + + I don't feel I can say the same about Stalin. And it would be highly +unfair to call Mao China's Stalin. + + True, good intent is no excuse for oppression, but there _is_ a +difference between unwillingly causing death by starvation, and organized, +well planned, executions. There _is_ a difference between causing the +creation of an oppressive regime by not foreseeing the consequences of +what you do, and actually intentionally strenghtening oppression. + + Still the errors of Mao _and_ Lenin must be openly discussed, and +the crimes they _did_ commit condemned, as the actions of any revolutionary +must be constantly under attack by ourselves - we can't expect to win a war +against capitalism, if we don't dare to fight minor battles with our +comrades of fear that we might be wrong. + + But we must also we very aware about what we are doing, and be careful +not to throw away the experiences, and ideas, that actually are worth using, +and developing. + + What about state capitalism, then? + + Certainly there must be valuable experiences to be extracted from the +state capitalist regimes, and conclusions to be made? + + In opposition to some trends, I do not see state capitalism as a +highly developed capitalism, ready for the socialist revolution, but +as a backward regime created out of combining the political inheritance +from a feudalist past with the awakening capitalist economic structures. + + As such, the development in China, towards a market economy controlled +by a highly totalitarian government is no surprise. Similar tendencies +could be seen in Europe during the early years of capitalist economy. + + We just hadn't a good word for it until recently[3] + + History always repeats itself, but it has a bad memory. It never +replicates the exact same patters over and over again. Like the +Mandelbrot set of fractals: the further you move from your point of +origin, the larger the differences, but changes never appear suddenly - +the patterns seems to go through a slow metamorphosis. + + The revolutions of China and Russia have many differences. But +these are minor, cosmetic, differences. The main tendencies, the +radicalisation, and then degenerisation, of a bourgeoisie revolution, +are the same. + + This tendency we find in every bourgeoisie revolution, but only +in the underdeveloped countries the bourgeoisie is weak enough to let +this radicalisation continue to a point where it causes the seizure +of state power by a vanguardist minority _strong enough to keep it_. + + We remember from the French Revolution of 1789 a phase of +radicalisation. But this phase was ended by reactionary forces, +creating another dictature, and thus it isn't suitable for the +capitalists when they look for ways to fight communism. + + They find their weapons in the "socialist" revolutions - the +revolutions where the bourgeoisie finds regimes that looks like +their visions of communism. For can their reign be ended without +replacing it with _another_ oppressive force? And won't this force +be the _state_? This is the nightmare the capitalists envision. + + Their reign _will_ be replaced by new oppression. Not the state, +or rather not the state as in bourgeoisie terminology. It will by +neccessity be the dictatorship of the majority, of the proletariat. +But it will also be the democracy of the many instead of the few. + + Here lies the problems of the "socialist revolutions". Until +now, they have been seizure of power by an elite - a minority - that +haven't understood that the time had not yet come for socialism. + + To build socialism in countries that lack most fundamental goods, +that can't fulfill the basic needs of their populations, will +inevitably end in oppression: + + The vanguardist parties will always be haunted by people in search +of power, by people that want more than their share. In a country +where poverty rules, how can you escape poverty? By seizing power +for yourself, by becoming emperor... + + In a country with ONE party, or at least only one party with +power, which party do you turn to if power is what you want? + + +Vidar Hokstad + + +---- +[1] Please note that the inclusion of Jack's letter in issue #2 was an +error on my behalf - the letter was not meant to be published. However +I've chosen still to comment on the issues he mentioned, because I find +the problems he rises interesting. I would like to hear more opinions +on these questions. Submissions are especially welcome, but write even +if you don't want to submit (just make sure you state that clearly, +so I don't mess up again...). + +[2] That is, the political system, not the ideology or ideologies. + +[3] It should also be noted that while early western capitalism +certainly showed remarkable resemblances to state capitalism as the +term is used here, there were also distinct differences - again the +natural variations of history? Or are the differences more fundamental? +I won't go into that now. Any comments? + + + +======================================================================= +(04) column: A SEARCHLIGHT ON INTERNET +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +* CPUSA + +E-MAIL: communistpty@igc.apc.com, + pww@igc.apc.com (Peoples Weekly World) + timwheeler@igc.apc.com (PWW editor Tim Wheeler) + + Communist Party of USA. Publishes Peoples Weekly World, and the +theoretical journal Political Affairs. Their youth organization is +YCL - Young Communist League. + + + +* Marxism (mailing-list) + +E-MAIL: marxism-request@world.std.com (majordomo) + marxism-approval@world.std.com (the list moderator) + + The Marxism list have had a steady stream of messages, and have +established itself as one of the more high-volume leftist lists. +It's highly focused on academic questions, but should still provide +interesting reading for others - at least you'd probably have no +problems getting enough suggestions for what to read ;) + + + +* Marxist Leninist Bookstore + +E-MAIL: + + Jack Hill writes: + + " Actually, this is just an e-mail address that +the Chicago Workers' Voice (a small Marxist-Leninist political group +in Chicago, formerly the Chicago branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party +(USA) ) uses to exchange views and information on political issues. + + We publish two periodicals: an agitational newsletter _The Chicago +Workers' Voice_/_Voz Obrera_ in English and Spanish, and _The Chicago +Workers' Voice Theoretical Journal_. I would certainly be willing to +send anyone who requests it the text of our agitational articles. I +can also inform anyone who asks what are the contents of our +theoretical journal. Each issue runs about 240-250K so it would be hard +to sent out the whole journal by e-mail, but I might be able to send +individual articles if someone is really interested. Of course, if I +start getting hundreds of requests, I may have to reconsider this offer. + + M-L Books is an actual bookstore located in a storefront in the +Mexican community of Chicago. We have been in this community for 15 +years. We have a wide variety of titles of Marx, Engels, and Lenin in +English and Spanish. Our prices are generally low, since much of our +stock was acquired years ago at low prices. I don't have a complete +listing of our current stock with current prices, but if there is a +title you want, let me know. We can probably help you. + + Keep up the struggle. + Jack Hill " + + + +* Committees of Correspondence + +GOPHER: See the EDIN gopher below. +LIST: cocdiscuss@garnet.berkeley.edu (The CocDiscuss list) + newman@garnet.berkeley.edu (the list moderator) + + + +* EDIN gopher + +GOPHER: garnet.berkeley.edu (ports 1520/1521/1522) +E-MAIL: newman@garnet.berkeley.edu (Nathan Newman) + + The EDIN gopher is one of the main resources for revolutionary and +other progressive groups on the Net. Apart from pointers to a wide range +of leftist organization on the Internet, it contains massive information +about human rights organizations, economics etc., and pointers to tons +of other info. An absolute _must_. Red Forum can also be found here. + + The maintainer, Nathan Newman, is highly active on Usenet, and also +moderates the Committees of Correspondence discussion list - CocDiscuss. + + + +* Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus + +GOPHER: +USENET: cl.gruppen.pds +E-MAIL: PDS-BLV@IPN-B.comlink.de (PDS Landesvorstand Berlin) + + Notice that this entry is by no means complete. The PDS have an +extensive list of e-mail addresses to a long range of local sections and +members of their party. The few addresses mentioned here have been taken +from the newsgroup "cl.gruppen.pds". + + + +* Archiv fuer marxistische Theorie + +EMAIL: CHRONIK@LINK-S.cl.sub.de + + + +======================================================================= +(05) ANNOUNCEMENTS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + RED ORANGE + + A Marxist Triquarterly of Theory, Politics, and the Everyday + + Robert A. Nowlan, Chief Editor + Robert J. Cymbala, Managing Editor + + + The inaugural issue of Red Orange will be published in the spring +of 1995. Red Orange will contribute to the positive development of +revolutionary Marxist knowledges of contemporary capitalist economics, +politics, society, and culture. Red Orange will include critical, +theoretical, and pedagogical articles of sustained length, as well as a +dossier of briefer writings which deal with developments in popular +consciousness and mass culture. Red Orange will produce work that is +engaged in systematic investigation and explanation, and which is +concerned with extending and developing revolutionary Marxist critical +theory of capitalist society and culture. Red Orange will argue for the +necessary theoretical and political priority of such concepts as class, +class conflict and struggle, class consciousness, history, materiality, +mode of production, forces and relations of production, labor, +proletariat, revolution, socialism, communism, dialectics, ideology, +theory, and critique. + + The first issue of Red Orange will begin to investigate the broad +topic of "Late Capitalism at the Fin-de-Siecle." This focus will +continue throughout the first year as the second and third issues of Red +Orange will (tentatively) focus upon the specific topics of market and +commodity culture (issue two) and globality, globalism, and global +post-ality (issue three) in fin-de-siecle late capitalism. We invite +submissions for this first and for the subsequent second and third +issues of Red Orange that focus on the development of revolutionary +Marxist critical theory of, and intellectual-pedagogical intervention +within, various institutions, discourses, practices, and social +relations of fin-de-siecle late capitalism. We invite submissions from +across the full range of traditional academic-intellectual +"disciplines." We are also particularly interested in articles which +will address the related question -- in the course of their +investigation of fin-de-siecle late capitalist economics, politics, +society, and culture -- of How and Why, on the Advent of the +Twenty-First Century, the Revolutionary Socialist Transformation of +Capitalism into Communism is -- Still -- Possible and -- Still -- +Necessary. + + Texts and inquiries should be addressed to Red Orange, Post Office +Box 1055, Tempe, AZ, 85280-1055, U.S.A. + + + +======================================================================= +(06) FOR A NEW BEGINNING (2 of 2) +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Written by Dave Hollis +Co-authored by Maggie McQuillan +Please contact the author before republishing the article. + + +... continued from Breakaway #2 + +Democratic Centralism + +Democratic centralism is usually justified by saying that it originates +out of the organisation the workers give themselves in struggle. +Leaving aside for a moment that its historical roots were completely +different, let me try and examine the concept as such. + +Instinctively, the idea of democratically deciding and then acting +together is very appealing - at least in the cases when one is fighting +the class enemy. For a revolutionary organisation, however, democratic +centralism has meant and means something else. + +Democratic centralism is usually defined as being "freedom of +discussion and unity of action". This definition, taken from Lenin +himself, doesn't tell the whole story. A democratic centralist +organisation is based on a separation of the task of leadership from +the task of carrying out the decisions. This separation takes the +form, in the best case, of a yearly election of a central or national +committee. + +Whatever name this committee may have, I think that no one will +contradict me in saying that it has the right to lead the organisation +and take decisions in its name which are then binding on the members. + +Before going into the ramifications of such powers, it is very +important to note that such a division of labour is nothing more than a +reproduction of the capitalist model of parliamentary democracy in a +workers' organisation. Instead of the majority leading the +organisation we have the majority drawing up the leaders. As is the +case with parliamentary elections when electing MPs, the rank and file +does not lead an organisation and the people do not lead parliament +because the leaders are elected at regular intervals. + +The effects of the separation described above are not at first glance +apparent. To understand them it is necessary to not only investigate +the practical consequences of democratic centralism on the workings of +a political organisation, but also to look into what effects it has on +the minds of the members. + +As experienced in the previous two sects, democratic centralism +required of the members that they put forward its programme and +policies when working within the movement. This makes it very +difficult for the members to question and develop differing ideas to +those internally agreed. + +One could of course counter by saying that one can discuss anything +with anyone. However it should be obvious that members will feel +"obliged" to put forward the "line" in public and not develop ones +ideas in a dialogue with the workers. A tendency can and will develop +that engenders conformity, something very unhealthy for a revolutionary +organisation. Furthermore, it is very easy for a feeling to develop of +"us" and "them" - something we have already had more than enough +experience of in the past. The underlying processes at work here are +by no means easy to depict. Attitudes are shaped by an organisation +but an organisation is also shaped by attitudes. Cause and effect will +change places more than once + +Ideas when taken up by people become a material force in their own +right. Separating the overwhelming majority of the members from the +decision making process has consequences that go a lot further than +depicted up to now. + +A tendency will develop, as is the case in almost any workers' +organisation, of loyalty and acceptance of the leaders. Those who +decide will also be those who appear to be competent in the eyes of the +members. If the organisation grows, i.e. it is successful, the +position of the leadership will be strengthened, a bureaucracy can then +develop. If the organisation declines, it is by no means said that the +leadership will be weakened [1]. How often in the history of the labour +movement have leaderships survived bad decisions because of the loyalty +of the members? Leaderships of Stalinist organisations, for example, +have often committed great crimes against their members and still +survived to tell the story! + +Looking through the documents of the factional struggle within +Militant, it immediately becomes apparent that the force of ideas were +by no means sufficient to break the loyalty built up in the leadership. +Loyalty to a leadership - be it blind or conscious - is poison for a +revolutionary organisation. This point has to be seen in context of +what I wrote above on sectarianism and the psychological background of +loyalty. + +The development of loyalties, the inability to question ideas, to +understand differing ideas shows that democratic checks, as important +as they undoubtedly are, are in now way sufficient to prevent an +organisation from degenerating. To put it another way, there is always +a need for democratic checks when the organisation in question has un- +democratic traits in it right from the word go! + +Bureaucratic centralism, or bureaucratism in general, begins with the +separation of the leaders from the rest, i.e. those who carry out the +decisions. As soon as no active control takes place - be it due to the +structure of the organisation or because the members do not want to - +bureaucratism will be the result. It must be the result. + +Up till now, I have looked into the effects of democratic centralism in +the organisation itself. I would like to now portray how democratic +centralism affects the political work in the movement. In passing, it +should be obvious that the criticisms of democratic centralism are, in +a slightly modified form, just as applicable and relevant to the +organisations of the labour movement, i.e. the trade unions and the +Labour Party. + +The discussion on the merits or otherwise of democratic centralism are +by no means new. Both Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky criticized in +detail, and independently of each other, Lenin's organisation concept. +Rosa Luxemburg's contribution appeared in English under the title +Organizational Question of Russian Social Democracy. Although the +translation is terrible, the translator managed to get the meaning more +or less across - the article is well worth a read. Trotsky's pamphlet, +Our Political Tasks, was published in 1904 in Russian and also +translated in 1970 into German. + +One of Trotsky's criticisms of Lenin's organisation concept concerned +the question of self-activity, i.e. the ability of the working class +to act by itself. In Lenin's concept this self-activity was given +narrow bounds. + +In contrast, Trotsky saw the main task of the Social Democracy as being +one of stimulating and fostering this self-activity. Trotsky saw in +Lenin's plans an obstacle for the development of political +consciousness of the proletariat. Moreover he saw the danger that the +party, due to its not legitimated claim to hegemony with regard to the +working class and the resulting strict separation from the proletariat, +taking up such a sectarian position that the proletariat could turn its +back on the party at the decisive moment. + +Lenin's formal centralism would not lead to its declared aim, the +strengthening of the party, but, instead, to the danger of the +separation of the working class from the party. Trotsky saw the +guarantee for the party's stability "in an active and self-active +participating proletariat and not in its organisational head". + +Trotsky counterposed to democratic centralism the concept of +democratic centralisation, i.e. a centralisation from below. In his +view, this centralisation can only be the majority will of the rank +and file organisations, which exercise a continuous control over their +delegates. To give a flavor and the direction of Trotsky's +criticisms, here are a few passages from his pamphlet: + + + + "The system of political substitution is, as is the system of + 'economistic' simplification, derived consciously or + unconsciously from a 'sophistic' understanding of the + relationship of the objective interests of the proletariat to its + consciousness. Marxism teaches that the interests of the + proletariat are determined by its objective conditions of + existence. These interests are so imperious that they in the end + cause the proletariat to transfer them into the area of its + consciousness, i.e. to reach its objective interests by its + subjective needs. Between both these factors - the objective + factor of its class interests and its subjective consciousness - + lies, in reality unavoidable, road of knocks and blows, mistakes + and disappointments, vicissitudes and defeats. For the tactical + wisdom of the party of the proletariat, the whole task lies + between these two planes, it consists in shortening and + facilitating the road from the one to another." + + + "... If the Economists do not lead in this way the proletariat + because it trots behind them, the 'politicians' also do not lead + the proletariat because they are themselves looking to perform + their duties. If the Economists shirk their colossal tasks by + devoting themselves to a modest role, to march at the tail of + history, the 'politicians' solve the question by making history + to its own tail..." + + + "We revolutionize the masses badly or well (mostly badly) by + waking in them their elementary political instincts. However, as + long as it is the question of the complex tasks of transforming + these instincts into the conscious efforts of a political working + class determined by the class itself, we resort to the short and + simplified methods of the thoughts of standing in for others and + substitution. + + In the internal politics of the party, these methods lead, as we + will see, to the party organisation replacing the party itself, + the CC replacing the party's organisation and finally a dictator + replacing the CC; furthermore, these methods lead to the + committees creating and abolishing the 'lines', while 'the people + remain silent'. In the external politics, these methods appear + in the attempts to exert pressure on other social organisations, + not by the real power of the proletarian conscious of its own + interests but by the abstract power of the class interests of the + proletariat." + + + "We are speaking of the absolute necessity of the creation of + party members, of conscious social democrats, not, however, of + simple skilled 'detail workers'- and one answers us: 'That goes + without saying'. What does that mean? For whom does 'that' go + without saying? Does 'that' go without saying in the context of + our party work, i.e. does the creation of political thinking + party comrades an absolute, integral part of it?" + + + "Every thought that promotes the technical principle of the + division of labour to the principle of social democratic + organisation, consciously or unconsciously acquires the final + unavoidable consequence: the separation of consciousness and + implementation, the separation of social democratic thought from + technical functions by means of which these thoughts must + necessarily be realised. The 'organisation of professional + revolutionaries', more precisely its head, appears as the centre + of social democratic consciousness and underneath this centre, + the disciplined executors of technical functions are to be + found." + + + +Originally, I planned at this point to look into the historical +background of democratic centralism in some detail. Due to lack of +time, I can only skirt over the subject. If enough interest is +present, I can into this subject in some detail. + +If one reads 'What is to be Done', Lenin states clearly that his +organisational model stems from a terrorist organisation, 'Land and +Freedom'. Moreover, his ideas were based on an amalgamation of the +Marxism of the 2. International (in particular the German Marxism of +Kautsky) with the traditions of the Russian revolutionary +intelligentsia. + +The idea taken directly from Kautsky that the proletariat is only +capable of developing a trade union consciousness and therefore the +bourgeois intelligentsia, collected in the Social Democracy, is +required to 'bring in' a socialist consciousness into the working +class, determined Lenin's organisational concept. + +Despite the fact that Lenin modified his views on this subject under +pressure from without, the organisational principles derived from this +false understanding of the question of socialist consciousness +remained. The idea that the ideas of socialism are not to be explained +by the material conditions but instead are to viewed as a question of +science, higher morals and a successful propaganda activity, have since +this time bedevilled the labour movement. + +The ideas of separating out the tasks of leadership, i.e. the +separation detailed above, also have their roots in this false +understanding of the question of socialist consciousness. Instead of +it being a question of the working class being able to free itself from +the chains of capitalism, this mentality leads to this question being +reduced to a technical problem that can only be solved by technicians. +Slowly, surely and unavoidably, the whole concept of socialism is +robbed of its human content: "We have the solution and you have to put +it into practice". Having experienced this way of thinking more than +once and over a long period of time, I think I can say that this way of +thinking was prevalent in the sects. + + + +Instead of a conclusion + +It is easy to criticize, it is easy to know better. I was tempted - +despite the shortness of time available to me - to pick up on a number +of points made in the documents for your national meeting. What struck +me on reading them however, is that it is very unclear as to what you +consider to be your tasks. + +The road to hell is paved with good intentions. What sort of +organisation is required and for what purpose? It is stated in the +document Establishing a new Tradition that there is a tremendous +political vacuum existing in the current world situation. +Unfortunately, it is much more than a vacuum. The ideas of socialism, +i.e. that the workers can take charge of society, have been +discredited and most probably for a whole historical period. The +rediscovery of these ideas can only take place over a long period of +time. As we have already said in Germany, it is not even clear whether +these new ideas will acquire the name "Socialism". + +What alternatives are there going to be, how they are going to look, +etc. will only result from a long period of discussion in and with the +labour movement and also by learning from experiences. One very +important part of these discussions will undoubtedly be a reappraisal +of the history of the labour movement and its ideas. This reappraisal +will require socialists having to leave no stone unturned and really +questioning things we have always taken for granted. + +From what I have said in the article as a whole, revolutionaries will +have to take more account of a number of things that it has never +really done to any great degree in the past. Life has changed a lot +since the "great teachers". Either one has to learn to come to terms +with this fact and draw the necessary conclusions otherwise how things +will end up will be clear right from the word go - sect No. 3! + +To hold comrades together just on the basis of ideas is not going to be +a simple task. Once the pressure is off, those comrades who have +missed out on life up to know will want to catch up. Some, or perhaps +many, will leave politics altogether. + +Life is no longer going to be rosy or easy. There are no simple +solutions and to call for the nationalization of the top 200 monopolies +at every appropriate and inappropriate occasion is not going to help +either. Only by understanding what went wrong in the past and why it +went wrong, is it possible to build for the future. The form and +content this will take are still very unclear - if we recognize this +fact, there is a chance that we can do it better. But only if we do +so! + Dave Hollis, 15.4.94 + + +P.S. This document was written in a hurry and under pressure from an +ongoing struggle against redundancies. It would have been impossible +to have written it without the help and critical comments of Maggie +McQuillan, who agrees with the main lines of argument and conclusions. +In this sense, the document should be considered to have been co- +authored by her. All grammatical mistakes, mis-spellings, etc. are, +of course my responsibility. + + +---- +[1] In fact, often the leadership have been _strengthened_, since it +generally is the opposition that leaves the organisation first, leaving +the sinking ship in an even worse condition than before. Editors remark + + + +======================================================================= +(07) GENERAL INFORMATION +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Breakaway will be published as often as we have enough material. +"Enough" is at present about 40kb of text, but this might increase +if we get enough submissions. Under any circumstances we'll try to +limit ourselves to 40kb until we reach one issue every two weeks. +(Probably won't happen in your lifetime ;-) + + The format is, as you can see, pure 7-bit ASCII. + + + Do you: + + - want to subscribe? + - have an idea? + - have a question? + - want to submit, and want to know how? + + + Just send us a message, preferably by e-mail, and we'll send you +appropriate information as soon as possible. To ensure that we can +reply, please include your e-mail address in the body of the message. + + + +SOME BRIEF NOTES ON SUBMISSIONS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +* BREAKAWAY will accept articles from people belonging to all trends + or ideologies related to marxism, or from people who are simply + interested in marxist theory or practice. + +* You should limit yourself to articles between 100 and 300 lines if + possible (shorter pieces will naturally also be accepted). If you + find that difficult, try to divide your article into shorter + sections suitable for publishing over two to four issues. + +* We will publish most articles or news reports we receive concerning + marxist ideology, the actions of marxist organisations, or + information of importance to the average revolutionary. Also + fiction might be accepted (contact us for more info) + +* We accept anonymous submissions. However, if you choose to do so, + we would prefer if you give us a pseudonym to use as your + signature. + + + +How to contact Red Forum / Internationalists Committee: +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Editor : Vidar Hokstad +E-mail : +Snailmail : Boks 30, N-2001 Lillestroem, NORWAY +Tel. : +47 638 170 35 (5pm to 9pm GMT) + +======================================================================= + Proletarians of all countries, unite! +======================================================================= + +END BREAKAWAY.003 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/brnrec.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/brnrec.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..44fcc287 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/brnrec.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1114 @@ +Jerry Brown as Governor: +Highlights of Eight Years of Progress + +Brown on Agriculture and Farm Issues + + As Governor of California, Jerry Brown recognized the +tremendous importance of agriculture to the economic well-being +of the state. To promote California agriculture: + +o He created the Office of International Trade to promote the +export of California agricultural products, and to forecast +demands for agricultural products; + +o He expanded the Agricultural Export Information Program to +provide data vital to the competitive strength of California's +producers and exporters, + +o He established the Farm Products Trust Fund to protect farmers +from default by produce dealers and processors, + +o He encouraged the growth of direct marketing - dozens of +certified farmer's markets throughout the state sell thousands +of tons of produce direct to consumers; + +o He encouraged consumer participation on agriculture marketing +boards, + +o He suspended minimum retail price controls on milk and milk +products, revising the laws to assure fair and reasonable prices +to consumers; + +o He pioneered the development of integrated pest management +techniques and increased the amount of money spent on +alternative pest management programs, + +o He developed the most comprehensive pesticide regulatory +program in the country, + +o He established the Pest Response Task Force to review and +improve existing pest prevention systems, + +o He constructed a modern laboratory to inspect and analyze +chemicals in agricultural products and foodstuffs, + +o He opened a new veterinary laboratory in San Bernadino to +provide improved laboratory services for the livestock industry +in Southern California, + +o He oversaw eradication of the Meditereanean Fruit Fly +infestation, which posed a grave threat to California +agriculture; + +o He promoted the development of alternative sources of on-farm +energy, including ethanol production and the establishment of +biomass farming areas. + + +Brown on the Arts + + Jerry Brown believes that art is an important part of +society, and his record as Governor of California is a +testimonial to that fact. As Governor: + +o He created the California Arts Council, which awarded $38.2 +million in grants to artists; + +o He established a Summer School for the Arts and passed an +Exemplary Arts Education Act, to promote and fund art education; + +o He signed the Art in Public Buildings Act, which made it +possible to commission 47 artists to create works of art in 29 +public buildings; + +o He signed the California Art Preservation Act, which prevents +works of art from being intentionally damaged or destroyed; + +o He signed the California Live-Work Space Act, which allows +cities to change zoning laws so that artists can live and work +in the same space; + +o He supported the Resale Royalties Act, which provides a 5% +royalty on the price of their art work when it is sold; + +o He signed the Artist-Dealer Relations Act, which helped +artists to collect monies owed them by art dealers. + +Jerry Brown demonstrated that politics can help the arts, while +enhancing the quality of life for all of the people. + + + + +Brown on Campaign Financing + + As Secretary of State of the State of California, Brown +took the following measures: + +o Called for full enforcement of election laws, requiring +specific and accurate donor lists from candidates, + +o Argued in court for precise reporting of campaign +contributions, + +o Filed briefs with the FCC to try and ensure free air time for +candidates, reducing the need for enormous campaign "war chests" +of money for the media. + +Today, Jerry Brown will accept no campaign contribution greater +than $100.00, as opposed to the $1000.00 dollar limit imposed by +federal election regulations. + + + +Brown on Consumer Issues + + Jerry Brown's concern for people and willingness to +stand up for their rights is obvious in his record on consumer +issues. As Governor of California: + +o He pushed for and signed legislation ensuring a comprehensive +right to privacy for the citizens of California, + +o He enacted legislation prohibiting creditors and bill +collectors from engaging in harassment, + +o He signed legislation prohibiting sex or marital status from +being a factor in denial of credit to an individual, + +o He limited the amount of security deposit that a landlord +could charge a tenant, + +o He enacted reforms to make small claims court more accessible +to consumers, including adding evening and Saturday sessions and +raising the claim ceiling to $1500; + +o He established the nation's first "anti-redlining" measure, +prohibiting discrimination by lenders based on geographic +location or ethnic makeup of a neighborhood; + +o He established "life line" utility rates, allowing people on +modest incomes to qualify for reduced rates for basic services; + +o He ended industry domination of regulatory boards by drafting +legislation which placed a majority of public members on most +state boards, + +o He prohibited discrimination by occupational licensing boards, +and required licensing examinations to be job-related; + +o He established a Housing Advisory Service to assist people who +are rehabilitating or building their own homes, + +o He vetoed legislation which would have allowed variable-rate +mortgages to have no upper limit on their interest rate, + +o He allowed price advertising by doctors and dentists, + +o He required item pricing by all retail grocery outlets, +including those with computerized check-outs; + +o He allowed consumers to purchase "generic" brand prescription +drugs rather than the more expensive drugs prescribed by +tradenames, + +o He enacted a "lemon law", protecting the buyers of defective +new cars; + +o He set up a Marketing Hotline to provide consumers with +information about farmers and farmers' markets where they could +buy produce directly. + +These are just a few of the reasons why Jerry Brown's +administration was widely criticized by well-funded special +interests; because Governor Jerry Brown used his office to look +after the needs of the people rather than business' private +agendas. + + + +Brown on Criminal Justice + + As Governor of the State of California, Jerry Brown: + +o Required mandatory prison sentences for persons using a gun in +the commission of a major crime, + +o Required mandatory prison sentences for felons convicted of +repeat offenses, + +o Signed legislation eliminating early parole for most inmates, + +o Supported and signed legislation authorizing construction of +twelve new prisons, + +o Required mandatory prison sentences for persons committing +violent crimes against the elderly, blind, or severely +handicapped; + +o Signed into law the first Career Criminal Prosecution program +in the nation, to help take repeat offenders off the streets. +As a result, convictions in these cases increased by almost 50%, +sentences increased by almost 33%, and bail increased by 100%. + +o Signed legislation providing state funding to local sheriffs +and police for a similar program, the Career Criminal +Apprehension Program; + +o Created the Crime Resistance Task force, which funded the +establishment of local Neighborhood Watch programs; + +o Signed the Victim / Witness Assistance Program into law. +This program, paid for entirely by fines levied on criminals, +provided funding for 34 centers which help over 60,000 victims +and witnesses of crimes each year. + +o Signed legislation creating Rape Crisis Centers to assist +victims of sexual assault, + +o Reduced the penalty for possession of small amounts of +marijuana, but imposed mandatory prison sentences on heroin +pushers; + + +In 1982 alone, Governor Brown signed 150 new anti-crime bills +which resulted in more than 5,600 criminals per year going to +prison for new or longer terms. + + + + +Brown on the Economy + + While Jerry Brown was Governor of the State of +California: + +o More than 2 million new jobs were created in California, + +o He fought for and signed a $1 billion tax cut; at the same +time, California went from having the 4th highest taxes in the +U.S. to the 23rd highest. + +o He reduced the growth of government in California more than +his Republican predecessor, while delivering exceptional +services to citizens; + +o He vetoed nearly $2 billion in new appropriations, + +o He blocked efforts to increase sales, income, liquor, and +gasoline taxes; + +o He eliminated the oil depletion allowance for major oil +companies, + +o He revised the "preferential income policies" which allowed +wealthy people to dodge state income taxes, + +o The Western States Agricultural Commission was created to +promote trade in U.S. agricultural products, + +o Established the World Trade Commission to promote +international trade, investment, and tourism; + +o Exports from the state more than doubled, to account for 12.4% +of all U.S. exports, + +o He oversaw the creation of the Department of Economic and +Business Development, which generated $1.1 billion in new +investment and helped create more than 15,000 new jobs; + +o His administration saw venture capital rise to nearly three +times the amount of capital accumulated by any other state, + +o He authorized California Industrial Development Bonds to allow +local governments to issue bonds to permit modernization and +expansion of industry, + +o He created the Governor's Executive Fellows program to bring +private sector executives into state government to train +executives in State agencies, + +o He signed legislation creating the Housing Finance Agency, +providing loans for moderate and low-income housing +construction; + +o He created the Pension Investment Unit, which resulted in the +investment of more than $60 billion to create new jobs and new +state revenues. + + + +Governor Brown provided real tax reform to California's citizens +and businesses: + +o He eliminated the business inventory tax, + +o He indexed California's personal income tax, + +o He eliminated the capital gains tax on small business +investments, + +o He created solar and energy conservation tax credits, + +o He created tax credits for businesses hiring targeted +unemployed workers. + + +Above all, Jerry Brown used government to provide California's +businesses with an environment in which they could compete and +succeed. + + +Brown on Education + + Both as Governor of California and as a Trustee of the +Los Angeles Community College District, Jerry Brown has +demonstrated a solid commitment to education: + +K-12: + +o As Governor, he more than tripled the state's K-12 educational +budget, from $2.6 billion to $7.9 billion, + +o By working with the legislature, he ensured that by 1982, 96% +of the school population was spending, per student, within $100 +of each other; + +o He tightened requirements for graduation from high school, + +o He signed the California Worksite Education and Training Act, +which promotes educational programs directly linked to +employment; + +o He signed legislation which gives local school teachers and +administrators more control over the educational curriculum at +their schools, providing an educational approach which is best +suited to the locality; + +o He signed legislation establishing the California Mathematics +Project, to develop and support programs which enhance +mathematics education; + +o He placed nearly $10 million in the state budget to fund the +training of teachers in such areas as mathematics and computer +science, + +o At the same time, he provided tax deductions for computer +manufacturers to donate computers to schools, + +o He oversaw legislation which provided state funding for +training related to an employer's hiring needs; + +o He signed legislation providing special assistance to students +who are unable to speak English, + +o He signed legislation ensuring that at least one meal per day +would be provided for all underprivileged students from +kindergarten through the twelfth grade; + +o He increased support from $276 million to $726 million for +students with special educational needs. + + + +Colleges and Universities: + +o Under his administration, funding to state universities and +community colleges nearly doubled, and funding for equal +opportunity programs tripled; + +o He opposed charging tuition at the state's colleges and +universities, and tried to minimize increases in student fees, + +o He increased funding for student aid by more than $50 million, + +o He initiated special programs and "centers of excellence" +such as the California Space Institute, the Microelectronics +Research facility, and the Institute for Global Security and +Cooperation, among many others. + +Clearly, Jerry Brown understood that in order for our country to +remain competitive, education must be a priority. + + + +Brown on Energy Policy + + As Governor of California, Jerry Brown saw the worst +days of the Oil Embargo and our country's dependence on foreign +sources of fuel. He set about making California's energy policy +a model for the rest of the country. He focused on two +concepts: energy conservation and alternative sources of energy. +He made substantial progress in each. In the field of energy +conservation: + +o He instituted the nation's first mandatory energy efficiency +standards for buildings and appliances - saving consumers +hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs each year; + +o He reduced the projected growth rate for energy consumption to +1.3% and allowed the state to delay construction of several +expensive power plants, + +o He signed legislation providing for a 40% tax credit for +installation of insulation and other conservation measures, + +o This credit, and other programs, were so successful that while +economic output of the state doubled, energy consumption +increased by only 10%; + +o He established a three-year, $360 million program to expand +and improve the state's mass transit facilities, + +o He encouraged the Public Utility Commission to use its +rate-making authority to promote a wide variety of energy +conservation and management techniques, + +o He sponsored and signed legislation appropriating $20 million +to finance energy conservation projects in schools, hospitals, +and community agencies. + +At the same time, Governor Brown was looking to the needs of the +future, and promoting alternative energy sources. Toward this +end: + +o He formed the State Energy Commission, which diversified the +supply of energy and developed alternative sources of energy. +Energy programs of this sort should save the people of +California over $100 billion by the year 2000. + +o He established the nation's first Nuclear Safeguard Laws, a +legislative package banning construction of new nuclear power +facilities until safety and waste storage problems are resolved; + +o He enacted a 55% solar energy tax credit, the nation's largest +and most flexible; + +o He enacted "solar rights" legislation which removed local +zoning and contractual restrictions on solar installations, + +o He established a Solar Business Office to promote rapid +commercialization of solar energy, + +o He granted solar housing a priority in spending state housing +funds, + +o He supported the installation of hydroelectric generation +facilities on existing flood control or water storage dams, + +o He expedited licensing procedures for geothermal projects, + +o He provided incentives for industry to develop cogeneration, + +o He enacted legislation to establish a wind energy information +center, to disseminate information about wind energy to +potential users; + +o He created the Alternative Transportation Fuels Program to +commercialize production and use of fuels such as ethanol and +methanol, + +o He appropriated over $20 million for alcohol and biomass fuel +development, + +o He required all new state buildings over 10,000 square feet to +install solar hot water heating systems. + +Jerry Brown has the foresight and conviction to enact a more +comprehensive and far- reaching set of energy programs than +exist in any other state. + + + +Brown on the Environment + + Jerry Brown may well be most fondly remembered as the +Governor of California who did the most to protect and preserve +the environment. In spite of opposition from special interest +groups, he managed to: + +o Impose a moratorium on nuclear power plants until safety and +waste storage problems are resolved, + +o Adopt the toughest anti-smog laws in the country, + +o Establish the nation's toughest programs for improving air +quality, with a result that pollution dropped by up to 50% even +though vehicle traffic increased by 20%; + +o Implement standards restricting the introduction of several +carcinogens into the air we breathe, + +o Implement a strong enforcement program to control hazardous +materials, + +o Develop the largest pesticide regulatory program in the +country, + +o Provide periodic checks on toxins in California's waterways, +through the Toxic Substances Monitoring Program; + +o Authorize ongoing state inspections of landfills, to prevent +public health hazards; + +o Ban the manufacture and sale of fluorocarbons for aerosol +propellants, + +o Establish the California Conservation Corps to put young +people to work in environmental and conservation projects, + +o Develop a statewide policy to protect California's remaining +wetlands, + +o Have major portions of five of California's wild rivers made +part of the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers system, assuring +their preservation; + +o Implement special programs to improve the quality of +California's rivers, + +o Add more than 700,000 acres to the State Park system, + +o Have more than 500,000 acres of the State Park system +classified as "wilderness", marking it for preservation; + +o Acquire a total of 16,613 acres of land for the preservation +of rare and endangered species, and for critical wildlife +habitat; + +o Establish the Coastal Conservancy, an agency charged with +protecting the scenic and ecological values of the California +coast by managing and acquiring land; + +o Appropriate $2.5 million for the support of non-game and rare +and endangered wildlife programs, + +o Bar the Forest Service from developing roads in large portions +of the California wilderness (this would have made the land +accessible to loggers and others), + +o Establish an Energy Resources fund, + +o Introduce a comprehensive 20-year plan to channel money from +the state's oil, geothermal, and state forest revenues into +maintaining the productivity of renewable natural resources +through the Renewable Resources Investment Fund; + +o Create a state office to stimulate development of +environmentally-friendly technologies, + +o Use monies from the Energy Resources fund to reforest +timberlands, stock rivers with fish, preserve wetlands, promote +soil and water conservation, and develop recreation and open +space in urban areas; + +o Enact legislation creating a statewide emergency response +system for toxic chemical spills, + +o Put into place tough new civil and criminal penalties for +illegal toxic waste dumping, + +o Deliver a water conservation awareness kit to millions of +California households, saving vast amounts of water, and the +electricity used to pump it; + +o Implement state recycling programs for paper and motor oil, +reducing wastes and saving tens of millions of dollars; + +o Begin the process of converting the state vehicle fleet to +methanol and ethanol use, giving the state of California the +largest test vehicle fleet in the nation; + +o Form the State Energy Commission, which diversified the +supply of energy and developed alternative sources of energy. +Energy programs of this sort should save the people of +California over $100 billion by the year 2000. + +o Sign into law the 40% conservation tax credit - so effective +that while economic production doubled, energy use increased by +only 10%; + +Jerry Brown foresaw the energy problems which the United States +is facing, and has worked hard to secure a future in which we +can be less dependent on foreign energy supplies. + + + + +Brown on Equal Opportunity + + Jerry Brown has always believed in equal opportunity for +all people. His position as Governor of California allowed him +to put those beliefs into practice. His record on equal +opportunity is unmatched in the history of the state, and +possibly the history of the United States: + +o He strongly supported - and continues to support - a woman's +right to personal choice concerning her body and her +reproductive system, + +o He extended child care and unemployment disability benefits to +all working women, + +o He authorized the spending of $10 million to encourage the +development of innovative new child-care programs, + +o He prohibited the payment of differing wages for jobs +requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility that are +performed under similar working conditions; + +o He signed legislation requiring government social service +organizations to promote the training of women for job +classifications in which 70% of employees were men, + +o He signed legislation prohibiting sex or marital status from +being a factor in denial of credit to an individual, + +o He granted state employees one year of leave for purposes of +pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery; + +o He mandated that women who are pregnant not be discriminated +against in hiring based upon their pregnancy, + +o He designated sexual harassment as an unfair employment +practice, + +o He amended the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination +based on sex or marital status, + +o He gave state District Attorneys greater power to enforce +court orders for child support payments, + +o He banned mandatory retirement for public and private +employees. + +o He amended the state discrimination laws to include age, +making it illegal to discriminate against senior citizens; + +o He prohibited the use of public funds to provide facilities +and programs for one sex only; + +o He appointed 287 Asians, 435 African-Americans, 549 Hispanics, +and 46 Native Americans to government positions (including the +first Hispanic and African American California State Supreme +Court Justices); + +o He named women to fill nearly one third of the appointed posts +in the state. These appointments included 131 judges, 5 Cabinet +Members, 22 Department Directors, and 10 Deputy Directors; + + + + +Brown on Health Care + + As Governor of the State of California, Jerry Brown made +health care for all citizens a priority. As a result: + +o He created the Governor's Council on Wellness and Physical +Fitness, to help prevent illness and disease, focusing on a +medical system oriented toward maintenance of health rather than +cure of disease; + +o He developed health programs emphasizing preventative health +care by increasing the number of family physicians, primary care +nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants; + +o He sponsored legislation allowing registered nurses to +practice as midwives and public health professionals, + +o He created a training program for nurses who are LVNs to +become RNs through an apprenticeship. This program was the +first of its kind in the country. + +o He established programs to identify and provide services such +as nutrition and health care to high-risk mothers and infants, + +o He greatly expanded family planning and prenatal health +programs, such as the ongoing Obstetrical Access Project, with +sites throughout the state to improve the health of mothers and +their infants; + +o He increased funding for the Rural Health Care Program, +providing services to areas which did not have access to them; + +o He created a Farm Workers Health Services Program, to increase +health care services to migrant farm workers and their families; + +o He signed legislation providing financial assistance to urban +and rural heath care programs for Native Americans, + +o He developed many health education programs, including dental +health programs for elementary school students and a +preventative health program for senior citizens; + +o He established a toxic waste "superfund" to compensate +workers suffering from the effects of toxic chemicals, + +o He created a state Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse to +help free people from substance abuse, + +o He oversaw the establishment of a statewide education program +to stop drunk driving, + +o He developed programs to encourage the establishment of +community mental- health treatment centers, + +o His Department of Rehabilitation oversaw the creation of more +than 25 community-based living centers for disabled +Californians, + +o He gave protections to workers who needed special devices to +overcome a handicap, + +o He signed into law the Robinson Act, which provides for +negotiation between health care providers and consumers, +lowering expenditures; + +o He appointed a Special Committee on Health Care to develop +recommendations for health care cost containment. Many of their +ideas were written into law. + +o He broadened reimbursement policies to increase the +availability of chiropractic, acupuncture, and podiatry +services; + +o He instituted a $25,000 tax deduction for any taxpayer who +remodeled a home or business to make it accessible to +handicapped people. + +Clearly, Jerry Brown has a record of making health care +available to his constituents, especially those in most dire +need of these services. + + + +Brown on Investing in People + + Jerry Brown made the following statement in his January +7, 1982 State of the State address: + + "If we think clearly and act correctly, we can make the +tools to lift millions out of poverty and ignorance and we can +pioneer the new technologies that emphasize quality over +quantity." + + Working with the legislature and leaders in industry, labor, +and education, Jerry Brown initiated a series of programs +designed to lead California into the information age. Among +them: + +o The California Commission on Industrial Innovation, a +blue-ribbon panel of citizens chaired by Governor Brown, which +formulated an economic blueprint for California for the rest of +the century. The commission provided fifty specific proposals +for educational excellence, renewed productivity, and improved +competitiveness. + +o Calling for higher standards in high-school education, +including requiring at least three years of math and two years +of science for all high-school graduates, with even more +stringent requirements for college-bound students; + +o Acting on this decision, both the California State University +and University of California systems raised their entrance +requirements in mathematics. + +o In the 1982-83 budget, $9.7 million was allocated to upgrade +math and science education by doing the following: training 350 +new math teachers, opening 15 regional Teacher Education / +Computer centers, equipping several mobile vans to provide +in-service training in computer-aided instruction, setting up a +statewide clearinghouse to purchase, evaluate, and disseminate +educational software; + +o Funds were allocated to support projects such as the +Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) program, +geared to motivate and support women and minority students and +help them complete college degrees in math, engineering, and the +sciences. + +o Through the California Worksite Education and Training Act , +tens of millions of dollars have been spent putting over tens of +thousands of people to work in skilled labor positions. More +than 2,500 employers have become involved in the program, which +is widely recognized as one of the most successful in the +nation. + +o More than $2 million has been invested in community colleges +to establish employment-based high technology training. 27 +campuses have implemented such programs, with priority given to +projects in new and emerging technologies. + +o A total of $9.5 million went to California universities, to +establish microelectronics research laboratories and purchase +equipment. + +o Workers displaced by new technologies have been assisted by +more than 20 Displaced Workers Reemployment Centers around the +state. These centers have attracted interest and support from +businesses and labor groups such as General Motors and the +United Auto Workers. + +o The Employment Preparation Program has been expanded to assist +welfare applicants in finding jobs as an alternative to +requiring welfare money; + +o Monies from the state Unemployment Insurance fund were +allocated to prepare Californians for jobs in growth industries. +The program focus is employer commitment to hire and upgrade +these trainees, rather than providing training for training's +sake. + +Jerry Brown has proven a commitment to advancing the welfare of +all citizens by education, job training, and government / +employer / labor cooperative relations. It is a common sense +approach that works. Brown on Senior Citizens' Rights + + Jerry Brown is a staunch supporter of equal rights for +all people, including the elderly. He has, as Governor of +California, worked to protect the rights of senior citizens by: + +o Banning mandatory retirement for public and private employees, + +o Creating a state funded program of preventive health services +for people over 60, + +o Allowing senior citizens to completely defer their property +taxes until home ownership changes hands, + +o Exempting all property transferred to a surviving spouse from +inheritance and gift taxes, + +o Providing tuition-free classes at California state +universities for persons over 60 years of age, for both credit +and audit purposes; + +o Creating the Multipurpose Senior Services Project pilot +programs to provide information on care and resources to allow +people to stay at home rather than be institutionalized, + +o Making discrimination on the basis of age illegal in all +state-funded programs or grants and any contract worth over +$100,000 involving state monies; + +o Establishing the Golden State Seniors Discount program, which +enables senior citizens to obtain discounts with participating +merchants throughout the state. + + +Brown on Social Services + + As Governor, Jerry Brown took action to improve the +administration of social services in California. For example: + +o He established the Cooperative Agency's Resources for +Education program, which assisted families in moving off welfare +to self-support. The program saves the state more than $70,000 +for each family, and is so successful that New York City +expressed interest in setting up a similar program; + +o He initiated the Employment Preparation Program to provide job +search assistance to welfare applicants, + +o He implemented Project Intercept which has collected literally +hundreds of millions of dollars in child support payments. + +o He initiated the Quality Control / Corrective Action program, +which helped to cut the number of errors in the Aid to Families +with Dependent Children offices in half; + +o His Department of Social Services, in cooperation with the +Urban League, made dramatic improvements in the placement of +minority-group children in adoptive homes; + +o He supported and signed legislation requiring that the agency +responsible for care of a child must have a written assessment +of a child's case, develop a case plan for the child, help to +reunify the child with his or her family, and insure that the +child receive an administrative review every 6 months and a +court review every 18 months; + +o He supported and signed legislation requiring that the +Adoptions Assistance program provide benefits to eligible +hard-to-place children who would not be adopted without this +assistance. + + + + +Brown on Transportation + + As Governor of the State of California, Jerry Brown +recognized the importance of transportation policy to future +development. He took steps to establish a transportation policy +that Californians could rely on to support the necessary +infrastructure in their growing state. As a result, while Jerry +Brown was Governor: + +o He oversaw the completion of approximately 1,500 lane miles +of new freeway, at a cost of $1.1 billion; + +o Overall mass transit ridership increased by more than 90%, to +1.2 billion passengers, + +o A van and car pooling was instituted which saved 79 million +gallons of gasoline and cut air pollution by 45,000 tons of +emissions, + +o He signed an Omnibus Mass Transportation Bill which provided +$368 million for mass transit facilities, + +o He increased funding for "intermodal" transportation +facilities (places where two or more different forms of +transportation come together), making it more convenient for the +public to use mass transit; + +o He signed legislation authorizing the construction of several +railway projects, including trains operating between San Diego +and Los Angeles, rail freight yards in San Ysidro, and the +rehabilitation of the McCloud River Railroad. + +Jerry Brown believes that transportation is central to economic +growth, and as Governor of California, took measures to insure +transportation infrastructure was not neglected. + + + + +Brown on Women's Issues + + Jerry Brown has a strong commitment to protecting +women's rights. As an ardent supporter of the Equal Rights +Amendment, he has taken the following actions as Governor of +California: + +o He strongly supported - and continues to support - a woman's +right to personal choice concerning her body and her +reproductive system, + +o He extended child care and unemployment disability benefits to +all working women, + +o He augmented child care programs by $12 million annually, + +o He authorized the spending of $10 million to encourage the +development of innovative new child-care programs, + +o He prohibited the payment of differing wages for jobs +requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility that are +performed under similar working conditions, requiring equal pay +for equal work; + +o He designated sexual harassment as an unfair employment +practice, + +o He signed legislation prohibiting sex or marital status from +being a factor in denial of credit to an individual, + +o He granted state employees one year of leave for purposes of +pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery; + +o He mandated that pregnant women not be discriminated against +in hiring based upon their pregnancy, + +o He amended the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination +based on sex or marital status, + +o He enacted legislation requiring the Department of Health +Services to maintain a prenatal health program to address needs +of women with high risk pregnancies and their infants, + +o He signed legislation requiring government social service +organizations to promote the training of women for job +classifications in which 70% of employees were men, + +o He gave state District Attorneys greater power to enforce +court orders for child support payments, + +o He prohibited the use of public funds to provide facilities +and programs for one sex only, and required that as much as +possible, equal opportunities for male and female athletes be +provided by state colleges and universities; + +o He revised the circumstances under which a marriage may be +summarily dissolved by a judge, + +o He named women to fill nearly one third of the appointed posts +in the state. These appointments included 131 judges, 5 Cabinet +Members, 22 Department Directors, and 10 Deputy Directors. + +Jerry Brown has also strongly supported tougher penalties for +crimes against women. He has signed legislation which: + +o Provides on-call staff in county hospitals to examine victims +of rape or other sexual assault at all times, + +o Prohibits granting of probation in cases of rape by force or +violence, + +o Extends the statute of limitations for prosecution of sexual +assault cases from 3 to 6 years, + +o Creates a new statutory procedure allowing immediate +injunctive relief for victims of harassment, + +o Strengthens the rights of recipients of child support, + +o Allows courts to provide injunctive relief in order to prevent +acts of domestic violence, + +o Permits a spouse to be prosecuted for the offense of rape, + +o Establishes courtroom procedures to protect victims of rape +("rape shield" laws), + +o Establishes a one year minimum prison sentence for people +convicted of pimping or pandering. + +Jerry Brown is committed to establishing the rights of women and +seeing that those rights are protected. + + + + + + +Brown on Worker's Rights + + As Governor of California, Jerry Brown stood up for +working men and women , even when it cost him the support of +powerful special interests. While Governor, he set standards +for reforms which, if adopted nationally, would make life better +for millions of working men and women. For example: + +o He increased the maximum unemployment insurance benefits for +workers, allowing them to feed themselves and their families +while looking for work; + +o He drafted and implemented legislation allowing collective +bargaining and stronger legal remedies for California's farm +workers, + +o He extended collective bargaining to public school teachers +from kindergarten to the junior college level, + +o He broadened protections against unfair labor practices, + +o He funded a pioneering program to make workers and industrial +and government officials aware of the hazards of toxic chemicals +in the workplace; + +o He protected workers who complain about health and safety +hazards from retaliation by their employers, and extended +criminal sanctions to the occupational health field; + +o He supported and signed the Occupational Carcinogen Control +Act, which made California the first state to require the +registration of carcinogens; + +o He issued an executive order prohibiting state job +discrimination based on sexual preference, + +o He increased benefits for employees disabled on the job, and +provided that tips and gratuities be counted as wages for +computing benefits; + +o He curbed the use of temporary restraining orders and +injunctions in labor disputes, allowing workers with legitimate +grievances a chance to air them; + +o He oversaw the largest increase in temporary disability +benefits in the 63-year history of the workers' compensation +system; minimum and maximum compensation increased by more than +25%, and death benefits increased by 500%. + +o He gave the Labor Commissioner broad authority to penalize +firms which illegally failed to insure their employees against +job-related injuries, broke child-labor laws, or withheld wages; + +o He increased the minimum wage above the federal minimum, + +o He strengthened and vigorously enforced the state child labor +laws, + +o He set up a special program to make exploiting illegal aliens +an activity which was no longer profitable, + +o He set up an inter-agency task force to identify and prosecute +employers who "cashed out" workers, short-changed trust funds, +and evaded taxes; + +o He enacted legislation prohibiting the use of professional +"strike breakers." + +o He created the Department of Economic and Business Development +to stimulate job opportunities, + +o He initiated the nation's first "Work Sharing Unemployment +Insurance" program as an alternative to worker layoffs, + +o He prohibited the forced retirement of older workers, + +o He fought for and implemented a number of job training +programs; the program tripled in size in five years, and +included health and vocational apprenticeships. + +Despite the serious recession in the late 1970's, California - +under the leadership of Jerry Brown - saw its job market expand +faster than any other industrial state and 70% faster than the +rest of the nation. + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bugs.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bugs.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c27d5c63 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bugs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,382 @@ +from the Amnet Civil Liberties BBS, Chicago +------------------------------------------- + + BUGS, TAPS AND INFILTRATORS: WHAT TO DO ABOUT POLITICAL SPYING + + by Linda Lotz + American Friends Service Committee + + +Organizations involved in controversial issues -- particularly those who +encourage or assist members to commit civil disobedience -- should be alert to +the possibility of surveillance and disruption by police or federal agencies. + +During the last three decades, many individuals and organizations were spied +upon, wiretapped, their personal lives dirupted in an effort to draw them away +from their political work, and their organizations infiltrated. Hundreds of +thousands of pages of evidence from agencies such as the FBI and CIA were +obtained by Congressional inquiries headed by Senator Frank Church and +Representative Otis Pike, others were obtained through use of the Freedom of +Information Act and as a result of lawsuits seeking damages for First +Amendment violations. + +Despite the public outcry to these revelations, the apparatus remains in place, +and federal agencies have been given increased powers by the Reagan +Administration. + +Good organizers should be acquainted with this sordid part of American history, +and with the signs that may indicate their group is the target of an +investigation. + +HOWEVER, DO NOT LET PARANOIA IMMOBILIZE YOU. The results of paranoia and +overreaction to evidence of surveillance can be just as disruptive to an +organization as an actual infiltrator or disruption campaign. + +This document is a brief outline of what to look for -- and what to do if you +think your group is the subject of an investigation. This is meant to suggest +possible actions, and is not intended to provide legal advice. + + + POSSIBLE EVIDENCE OF GOVERNMENT SPYING + +|| OBVIOUS SURVEILLANCE + +Look for: + + * Visits by police or federal agents to politically involved individuals, +landlords, employers, family members or business associates. These visits may +be to ask for information, to encourage or create possibility of eviction or +termination of employment, or to create pressure for the person to stop his or +her political involvement. + + * Uniformed or plainclothes officers taking pictures of people entering your +office or participating in your activities. Just before and during +demonstrations and other public events, check the area including windows and +rooftops for photographers. (Credentialling press can help to separate the +media from the spies.) + + * People who seem out of place. If they come to your office or attend your +events, greet them as potential members. Try to determine if they are really +interested in your issues -- or just your members! + + * People writing down license plate numbers of cars and other vehicles in +the vicinity of your meetings and rallies. + +Despite local legislation and several court orders limiting policy spying +activities, these investigatory practices have been generally found to be +legal unless significant "chilling" of constitutional rights can be proved. + + +|| TELEPHONE PROBLEMS: + +Electronic surveillance equipment is now so sophisticated that you should not +be able to tell if your telephone converstaions are being monitored. Clicks, +whirrs, and other noises probably indicate a problem in the telephone line or +other equipment. + +For example, the National Security Agency has the technology to monitor +microwave communications traffic, and to isolate all calls to or from a +particular line, or to listen for key words that activate a tape recording +device. Laser beams and "spike" microphones can detect sound waves hitting +walls and window panes, and then transmit those waves for recording. In these +cases, there is little chance that the subject would be able to find out about +the surveillance. + + Among the possible signs you may find are: + + * Hearing a tape recording of a conversation you, or someone else in your +home or office, have recently held. + + * Hearing people talking about your activities when you try to use the +telephone. + + * Losing service several days before major events. + +Government use of electronic surveillance is governed by two laws, the Omnibus +Crime Control and Safe Streets Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance +Act. Warrants for such surveillance can be obtained if there is evidence of a +federal crime, such as murder, drug trafficking, or crimes characteristic of +organized crime, or for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence +information available within the U.S. In the latter case, an "agent of a +foreign power" can be defined as a representative of a foriegn government, +from a faction or opposition group, or foreign based political groups. + + +|| MAIL PROBLEMS: + +Because of traditional difficulties with the US Postal Service, some problems +with mail delivery will occur, such as a machine catching an end of an envelope +and tearing it, or a bag getting lost and delaying delivery. + +However, a pattern of problems may occur because of political intelligence +gathering: + + * Envelopes may have been opened prior to reaching their destination; +contents were removed and/or switched with other mail. Remember that the glue +on envelopes doesn't work as well when volume or bulk mailings are involved. + + * Mail may arrive late, on a regular basis different from others in your +neighborhood. + + * Mail may never arrive. + +There are currently two kinds of surveillance permitted with regards to mail: +the mail cover, and opening of mail. The simplest, and least intrusive form is +the "mail cover" in which postal employees simply list any information that can +be obtained from the envelope, or opening second, third or fourth class mail. +Opening of first class mail requires a warrant unless it is believed to hold +drugs .... More leeway is given for opening first class international mail. + + +|| BURGLARIES: + +A common practice during the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) +was the use of surreptitious entries or "black bag jobs." Bureau agents were +given special training in burglary, key reproduction, etc. for use in entering +homes and offices. In some cases, keys could be obtained from "loyal American" +landlords or building owners. + +Typical indicators are: + + * Files, including membership and financial reports, are rifled, copied or +stolen. + + * Items of obvious financial value are left untouched. + + * Equipment vital to the organization may be broken or stolen, such as +typewriters, printing machinery, and computers. + + * Signs of a political motive are left, such as putting a membership list or +a poster from an important event in an obvious place. + +Although warrantless domestic security searches are in violation of the Fourth +Amendment, and any evidence obtained this way cannot be used in criminal +proceedings, the Reagan Administration and most recent Presidents (excepting +Carter) have asserted the inherent authority to conduct searches against those +viewed as agents of a foreign power. + + +|| INFORMERS AND INFILTRATORS: + +Information about an organization or individual can also be obtined by placing +an informer or infiltrator. This person may be a police officer, employee of a +federal agency, someone who has been charged or convicted of criminal activity +and has agreed to "help" instead of serve time, or anyone from the public. + +Once someone joins an organization for the purposes of gathering information, +the line between data gathering and participation blurs. Two types of +infiltrators result -- those who are under "deep cover" and adapt to the +lifestyle of the people they are infiltrating, and agents provocateurs. +Deep-cover infiltrators may maintain their cover for many years, and an +organization may never know who these people are. Agents provocateurs are more +visible, because they will deliberately attempt to disrupt or lead the group +into illegal activites. They often become involved just as an event or crisis +is occurring, and leave town or drop out after the organizing slows down. + +An agent may: + + * Volunteer for tasks which provide access to important meetings and papers +such as financial records, membership lists, minutes and confidential files. + + * Not follow through or complete tasks, or else do them poorly despite an +obvious ability to do good work. + + * Cause problems for a group such as commiting it to activities or expenses +without following proper channels, or urge the group to plan activities that +divide group unity. + + * Seem to create or be in the middle of personal or political difference that +slow the work of the group. + + * Seek the public spotlight, in the name of your group, and then make +comments or present an image different from the rest of the group. + + * Urge the use of violence or breaking the law, and provide information and +resources to enable such ventures. + + * Have no obvious source of income over a period of time, or have more money +available than his or her job should pay. + + * Charge other people with being agents (a process called snitch-jackets), +thereby diverting attention from him or herself, and draining the group's +energy from other work. + +THESE ARE NOT THE ONLY SIGNS, NOR IS A PERSON WHO FITS SEVERAL OF THESE +CATEGORIES NECESSARILY AN AGENT. BE EXTREMELY CAUTIONS AND DO NOT CALL ANOTHER +PERSON AN AGENT WITHOUT HAVING SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. + +Courts have consistently found that an invividual who provides information, +even if it is incriminating, to an informer has not had his or her +Constitutional rights violated. This includes the use of tape recorders or +electronic transmitters as well. + +Lawsuits in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere, alleging infiltration of lawful +political groups, have resulted in court orders limiting the use of police +informers and infiltrators. However, this does not affect activities of federal +agencies. + + +|| IF YOU FIND EVIDENCE OF SURVEILLANCE: + + * Hold a meeting to discuss spying and harassment + + * Determine if any of your members have experienced any harassment or noticed +any surveillance activities that appear to be directed at the organization's +activities. Carefully record all the details of these and see if any patterns +develop. + + * Review past suspicious activities or difficulties in your group. Have one +or several people been involved in many of these events? List other possible +"evidence" of infiltration. + + * Develop internal policy on how the group should respond to any possible +surveillance or suspicious actions. Decide who should be the contact person(s), +what information should be recorded, what process to follow during any event or +demonstration if disruption tactics are used. + + * Consider holding a public meeting to discuss spying in your community and +around the country. Schedule a speaker or film discussing political +surveillance. + + * Make sure to protect important documents or computer disks, by keeping a +second copy in a separate, secret location. Use fireproof, locked cabinets if +possible. + + * Implement a sign-in policy for your office and/or meetings. This is helpful +for your organizing, developing a mailing list, and can provide evidence that +an infiltrator or informer was at your meeting. Appoint a contact for spying +concerns. This contact person or committee should implement the policy +developed above and should be given authority to act, to get others to respond +should any problems occur. + +The contact should: + + * Seek someone familiar with surveillance history and law, such as the local +chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union, the +National Conference of Black Lawyers or the American Friends Service Committee. +Brief them about your evidence and suspicions. They will be able to make +suggestions about actions to take, as well as organizing and legal contacts. + + * Maintain a file of all suspected or confirmed experiences of surveillance +and disruption. Include: date, place, time, who was present, a complete +description of everything that happened, and any comments explaining the +context of the event or showing what impact the event had on the individual or +organization. If this is put in deposition form and signed, it can be used as +evidence in court. + + * Under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act, request any files +on the organization from federal agencies such as the FBI, CIA, Immigration and +Naturalization, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, etc. File similar +requests with local and state law enforcement agencies, if your state freedom +of information act applies. + +|| PREPARE FOR MAJOR DEMONSTRATIONS AND EVENTS: + + * Plan ahead; brief your legal workers on appropriate state and federal +statutes on police and federal officials spying. Discuss whether photographing +with still or video cameras is anticipated and decide if you want to challenge +it. + + * If you anticipate surveillance, brief reporters who are expected to cover +the event, and provide them with materials about past surveillance by your +city's police in the past, and/or against other activitists throughout the +country. + + * Tell the participants when surveillance is anticipated and discuss what +the group's response will be. Also, decide how to handle provocateurs, police +violence, etc. and incorporate this into any affinity group, marshall or other +training. + + +|| DURING THE EVENT: + + * Carefully monitor the crowd, looking for surveillance or possible +disruption tactics. Photograph any suspicious or questionable activities. + + * Approach police officer(s) seen engaging in questionable activities. +Consider having a legal worker and/or press person monitor their actions. + + +|| IF YOU SUSPECT SOMEONE IS AN INFILTRATOR: + + * Try to obtain information about his or her background: where s/he attended +high school and college; place of employment, and other pieces of history. +Attempt to verify this information. + + * Check public records which include employment; this can include voter +registation, mortgages or other debt filings, etc. + + * Check listings of police academy graduates, if available. + + +|| ONCE YOU OBTAIN EVIDENCE THAT SOMEONE IS AN INFILTRATOR: + + * Confront him or her in a protected setting, such as a small meeting with +several other key members of your group (and an attorney if available). +Present the evidence and ask for the person's response. + + * You should plan how to inform your members about the infiltration, +gathering information about what the person did while a part of the group and +determining any additional impact s/he may have had. + + * You should consider contacting the press with evidence of the infiltration. + + +|| IF YOU CAN ONLY GATHER CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, BUT ARE CONCERNED THAT THE +PERSON IS DISRUPTING THE GROUP: + + * Hold a strategy session with key leadership as to how to handle the +troublesome person. + + * Confront the troublemaker, and lay out why the person is disrupting the +organization. Set guidelines for further involvement and carefully monitor the +person's activities. If the problems continue, consider asking the person to +leave the organization. + + * If sufficient evidence is then gathered which indicates s/he is an +infiltrator, confront the person with the information in front of witnesses +and carefully watch reactions. + + * Request an investigation or make a formal complaint + + * Report telephone difficulties to your local and long distance carriers. +Ask for a check on the lines to assure that the equipment is working properly. +Ask them to do a sweep/check to see if any wiretap equipment is attached +(Sometimes repair staff can be very helpful in this way.) If you can afford it, +request a sweep of your phone and office or home from a private security firm. +Remember this will only be good at the time that the sweep is done. + + * File a formal complaint with the US Postal Service, specifying the problems +you have been experiencing, specific dates, and other details. If mail has +failed to arrive, ask the Post Office to trace the envelope or package. + + * Request a formal inquiry by the police, if you have been the subject of +surveillance or infiltration. Describe any offending actions by police +officers and ask a variety of questions. If an activity was photographed, ask +what will be done with the pictures. Set a time when you expect a reply from +the police chief. Inform members of the City Council and the press of your +request. + + * If you are not pleased with the results of the police chief's reply, file +a complaint with the Police Board or other administrative body. Demand a full +investigation. Work with investigators to insure that all witnesses are +contacted. Monitor the investigation and respond publicy to the conclusions. + + * Initiate a lawsuit if applicable federal or local statutes have been +violated. Before embarking on a lawsuit, remember that most suits take many +years to complete and require tremendous amounts of organizers' and legal +workers' energy and money. + + * Always notify the press when you have a good story; keep interested +reporters updated on any new developments. They may be aware of other police +abuses, or be able to obtain further evidence of police practices. Press +coverage of spying activities is very important, because publicity-conscious +politicians and police chiefs will be held accountable for questionable +practices. + +Prepared by: +Linda Lotz +American Friends Service Committee +980 North Fair Oaks Avenue +Pasadena, CA 91103 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/burintrv.61 b/textfiles.com/politics/burintrv.61 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5d1d0ac3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/burintrv.61 @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ + INTERVIEW + with + WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS + conducted by + Gregory Corso + and + Allen Ginsberg + Originally appeared in Journal For the Protection of All People + 1961 + Transcribed by Flesh + 1992 +B= William Burroughs +C= Gregory Corso +G= Allen Ginsberg + +C: What is your department? + +B: Kunst unt Wissenschaft + +C: What say you about political conflicts? + +B: Political conflicts are merely surfaced manifestations. If + conflicts arise you may certain powers intend to keep this + conflict under operation since they hope to profit from the + situation. To concern yourself with surface political conflicts + is to make the mistake of the bull in the ring, you are + charging the cloth. That is what politics is for, to teach you + the cloth. Just as the bullfighter teaches the bull, teaches him + to follow, obey the cloth. + +C: Who manipulates the cloth? + +B: Death + +G: What is death? + +B: A gimmick. It's the time birth death gimmick. Can't go on much + longer, too many people are wising up. + +C: Do you feel there has been a definite change in man's makeup? + A new consciousness? + +B: Yes, I can give you a precise answer to that. I feel that the + change the mutation in consciousness will occur spontaneously + once certain pressures now in operation are removed. I feel that + the principal instrument of monopoly and control that prevents + expansion of consciousness is the word lines controlling thought + feeling and apparent sensory impressions of the human host. + +G: And if removed, what step? + +B: The forward step must be made in silence. we detach ourselves + from word forms-this can be accomplished by substituting for + words, letters, concepts, verbal concepts, other modes of + expression; for example, color. We can translate word and + letter into color (Rimbaud stated that in his color vowels, + words quote "words" can be read in silent color.) In other + words man must get away from verbal forms to attain the + consciousness, that which is there to be perceived at hand. + +C: How does one take that "forward step," can you say? + +B: Well, this is my subject and is what I am concerned with. + Forward steps are made by giving up old armor because words are + built into you---in the soft typewriter of the womb you do not + realize the word-armor you carry; for example, when you read + this page your eyes move irresistibly from left to right + following the words that you have been accustomed to. Now try + breaking up part of the page like this: + Are there or just we can translate + many solutions for example color word color + in the soft typewriter into + political conflicts to attain consciousness + monopoly and control + +C: Reading that it seems you end up where you began, with politics + and it's nomenclature: conflict, attain, solution, monopoly, + control--so what kind of help is that? + +B: Precisely what I was saying---if you talk you always end up with + politics, it gets nowhere, I mean man it's strictly from the + soft typewriter. + +C: What kind of advice you got for politicians? + +B: Tell the truth once and for all and shut up forever. + +C: What if people don't want to change, don't want no new + consciousness? + +B: For any species to change, if they are unable and are unwilling + to do so--I might for example however have suggested to the + dinosaurs that heavy armor and great size was a sinking ship, + and that they do well to convert to mammal facilities---it would + not lie in my power or desire to reconvert a reluctant + dinosaur. I can make my feeling very clear, Gregory, I fell like + I'm on a sinking ship and I want off. + +C: Do you think Hemingway got off? + +B: Probably not. + + + (Next day) + +G: What about control? + +B: Now all politicians assume a necessity of control, the more + efficient the control the better. All political organizations + tend to function like a machine, to eliminate the unpredictable + factor of AFFECT---emotion. Any machine tends to absorb, + eliminate, Affect. Yet the only person who can make a machine + move is someone who has a motive, who has Affect. If all + individuals were conditioned to machine efficiency in the + performance of their duties they would have to be at least one + person outside the machine to give the necessary orders; if the + machine absorbed or eliminated all those outside the machine the + machine will slow down and stop forever. Any unchecked impulse + does, within the human body & psyche, lead to the destruction + of the organism. + +G: What kind of organization could technological society have + without control? + +B: The whole point is I feel the machine should be eliminated. Now + that it has served its purpose of alerting us to the dangers of + machine control. Elimination of all natural sciences----If + anybody ought to go to the extermination chambers definitely + scientists, yes I'm definitely antiscientist because I feel that + science represents a conspiracy to impose as, the real and only + universe, the Universe of scientists themselves----they're + reality-addicts, they've got to have things so real so they can + get their hands on it. We have a great elaborate machine which + I feel has to be completely dismantled--- in order to do that + we need people who understand how the machine works ---the mass + media---paralleled opportunity. + +G: Who do you think is responsible for the dope situation in + America? + +B: Old Army game, "I act under orders ." As Captain Ahab said, + "You are not other men but my arms and legs---" Mr. Anslinger + has a lot of arms and legs, or whoever is controlling him, same + thing as the Wichman case, he's the front man, the man who has + got to take the rap, poor bastard, I got sympathy for him. + +C: Could you or do you think it wise to say who it will be or just + what force it will be that will destroy the world? + +B: You want to create a panic? That's top secret----want to swamp + the lifeboats? + +C: O.K. How did them there lifeboats get there in the first place? + +B: Take for instance some Indians in South America I seen. There + comes along this sloppy cop with his shirt buttons all in the + wrong hole, well then, Parkinson's law goes into + operation---there's need not for one cop but seven or eight, + need for sanitation inspectors, rent collectors, etc.; so after + a period of years problems arise, crime, dope taking and + traffic, juvenile delinquency---So the question is asked, "What + should we do about these problems?" The answer as Gertrude Stein + on her deathbed said comes before the question--- in short + before the bastards got there in the first place! that's all--- + +G: What do you think Cuba and the FLN think about poets? And what + do you think their marijuana policy is? + +B: All political movements are basically anti-creative----since a + political movement is a form of war. "There's no place for + impractical dreamers around here" that's what they always say. + "Your writing activities will be directed, kindly stop horsing + around." "As for the smoking of marijuana, it is the + exploitation for the workers." Both favor alcohol and are + against pot. + +C: I feel capitol punishment is dooming U.S.A. + +B: I'm against Capitol Punishment in all forms, and I have written + many pamphlets on this subject in the manner of Swift's modest + proposal pamphlet incorporated into Naked Lunch; these pamphlets + have marked Naked Lunch as an obscene book, most all methods + of Capitol Punishment are designed to inflict the maximum of + humiliation---note attempts to prevent suicide. + +G: What advice do you have for American youth who are drawn to + political action out of sympathy for the American revolution--- + +B: "I wouldn't be in your position"---old saw. If there is any + political move that I would advocate it would be an alliance + between America and Red China, if they'd have us. + +C: What about the Arab peoples---how are they faring? + +B: They're stuck back thousands of years and they think they're + going to get out with a TV set. + +C: What about the Negros, will they make it---not only the ones in + the South, but everywhere? + +B: Biologically speaking the Afro-asiatic block is in the + ascendancy---always remember that both Negro and White are + minority groups---the largest race is the mongoloid group. In + the event of atomic war there is a tremendous biological + advantage in the so-called underdeveloped areas that have high + birth rates and high death rate because, man, they can plow + under those mutations. The country with a low birth rate and low + death rate will be hardest hit---and so the poor may indeed + inherit the earth, because they're healthier. + +G: What do you think of White Supremacy? + +B: The essence of white supremacy is this: they are people who want + to keep things as they are. That their children's children's + children might be a different color is something very alarming + to them---in short they are committed to the maintenance of + static image. The attempt to maintain a static image, even if + it's a good image, just won't work. + +C: Do you think Americans want and could fight the next war with + the same fire and fervency as they did in World War 2? + +B: Undoubtedly, yes---because they remember what a soft time they + had in the last one---they sat on their ass. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bush-add.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/bush-add.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..466094ba --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bush-add.txt @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ +------------------------------------------- +President Bush's Address to the Nation +Wednesday, January 16, 1991, 9:00 PM E.S.T. +------------------------------------------- + + +Just two hours ago, Allied Air forces began an attack on military +targets in Iraq and Kuwait. These attacks continue as I speak. +Ground forces are not engaged. + This conflict started August 2d, when the dictator of Iraq +invaded a small and helpless neighbor. Kuwait, a member of the +Arab league and a member of the United Nations, was crushed; its +people brutalized. Five months ago Saddam Hussein started this +cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined. + This military action, taken in accord with United Nations +resolutions, and with the consent of the United States Congrees, +follows months of constant and virtually endless diplomatic +activity on the part on the United Nations, the United States, +and many, many other countries. Arab leaders sought what became +known as an Arab solution only to conclude that Saddam Hussein +was unwilling to leave Kuwait. Others traveled to Baghdad, and a +variety of efforts to restore peace and justice. Our Secretary +of State, James Baker, held an historic meeting in Geneva, only +to be totally rebuffed. This past weekend, in a last ditch +effort, the Secretary General of the United Nations went to the +Middle East, with peace in his heart - his second such mission. +And he came back from Baghdad with no progress at all in getting +Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait. Now, the 28 countries +with forces in the Gulf area, have exhausted all reasonable +efforts to reach a peaceful resolution, have no choice but to +drive Saddam from Kuwait by force. We will not fail. + As I report to you, air attacks are underway against +military targets in Iraq. We are determined to knock out Saddam +Hussein's nuclear bomb potential; we will also destroy his +chemical weapons facilities; much of Saddam's artillery and tanks +will be destroyed. Our operations are designed to best protect +the lives of all the coalition forces by targeting Saddam's vast +military arsenal. Initial reports from General Schwarzkopf are +that our operations are proceeding according to plan. Our +objectives are clear : Saddam Hussein's forces will leave Kuwait, +the legitimate government of Kuwait will be restored to its +rightful place, and Kuwait will once again be free. Iraq will +eventually comply with all relevant United Nations resolutions +and then, when peace is restored, it is our hope, that Iraq will +live as a peaceful and cooperative member of the family of +nations, thus enhancing the security and stability of the Gulf. + Some may ask, "Why act now, why not wait?" The answer is +clear : The world could wait no longer. Sanctions, though having +some effect, showed no signs of accomplishing their objective. +Sanctions were tried for well over five months, and we and our +allies concluded that sanctions alone would not force Saddam from +Kuwait. + While the world waited, Saddam Hussein systematically raped, +pillaged, and plundered a tiny nation no threat to his own. He +subjected the people of Kuwait to unspeakable atrocities. And +among those maimed and murdered - innocent children. While the +world waited, Saddam sought to add to the chemical weapons +arsenal he now possesses - an infinitely more dangerous weapon of +mass destruction - a nuclear weapon. And while the world waited, +while the world talked peace and withdraw, Saddam Hussein dug in +and moved massive forces into Kuwait. While the world waited, +while Saddam stalled, more damage was being done to the fragile +economies of the third world, emerging democracies of Eastern +Europe, to the entire world including to our own economy. The +United States, together with the United Nations, exhausted every +means at our disposal to bring this crisis to a peaceful end. +However, Saddam clearly felt, that by stalling and threatening +and defying the United Nations, he could weaken the forces +arrayed against him. While the world waited, Saddam Hussein met +every overture of peace with open contempt. While the world +prayed for peace, Saddam prepared for war. + I had hoped, that when the United States Congress, in +historic debate, took its resolute action, Saddam would realize +he could not prevail, and would move out of Kuwait in accord with +the United Nation resolutions. He did not do that. Instead, he +remained intransigent, certain that time was on his side. Saddam +was warned over and over again to comply with the will of the +United Nations - "Leave Kuwait or be driven out." Saddam has +arrogantly rejected all warnings. Instead he tried to make this +a dispute between Iraq and the United States of America. Well he +failed. + Tonight, 28 nations, countries from five continents : Europe +and Asia, Africa and the Arab league, have forces in the Gulf +area, standing shoulder to shoulder against Saddam Hussein. +These countries had hoped the use of force could be avoided. +Regrettably, we now believe that only force will make him leave. + Prior to ordering our forces into battle I instructed our +military commanders to take every necessary step to prevail as +quickly as possible. And with the greatest degree of protection +possible for American and Allied servicemen and women. I've told +the American people before, that this will not be another +Vietnam. And I repeat this here tonight, our troops will have +the best possible support in the entire world. And they will not +be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back. I'm +hopeful that this fighting will not go on for long, and that +casualties will be held to an absolute minimum. + This is an historic moment. We have, in this past year, +made great progress in ending the long era of conflict and cold +war. We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves +and for future generations a new world order. A world where the +rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of +nations. When we are successful, and we will be, we have a real +chance at this new world order, an order in which a credible +United Nations can use its peace-keeping role to fulfill the +promise and vision of the U.N.'s founders. + We have no argument with the people of Iraq. Indeed, for +the innocents caught in this conflict, I pray for their safety. +Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq. It is the liberation of +Kuwait. It is my hope that somehow the Iraqi people can, even +now, convince their dictator that he must lay down his arms, +leave Kuwait, and let Iraq itself rejoin the family of peace +loving nations. Thomas Paine wrote, many years ago, "These are +the times that try mens' souls." Those well known words are so +very true today. But even as planes of the multi national forces +attack Iraq, I prefer to think of peace, not war. I'm convinced, +not only that we will prevail, but that out of the horror of +combat, will come the recognition that no nation can stand +against a world united. No nation will be permitted to brutally +assault its neighbor. + No president can easily commit our sons and daughters to +war. They are the nation's finest. Ours is an all volunteer +force, magnificently trained, highly motivated. The troops know +why they're there. And listen to what they say. For they've +said it better than any president or prime minister ever could. +Listen to Hollywood Huddleston, Marine Lance Corporal. He says, +"Let's free these people so we can go home and be free again." +And he's right. The terrible crimes and tortures committed by +Saddam's henchmen against the innocent people of Kuwait are an +affront to mankind and a challenge to the freedom of all. Listen +to one of our great officers out there. Marine Lieutenant +General Walter Boomer. He said, "There are things worth fighting +for. A world in which brutality and lawlessness are allowed to +go unchecked isn't the kind of world we're going to want to live +in." Listen to Master Sergeant J.P. Kendel of the 82nd Airborne. +"We're here for more than just the price of a gallon of gas. +What we're doing is going to chart the future of the world for +the next hundred years. Its better to deal with this guy now, +then five years from now." And finally, we should all sit up and +listen to Jackie Jones, an Army lieutenant, when she says, "If we +let him get away with this, who knows what's going to be next." +I've called upon Hollywood and Walter and J.P. and Jackie, and +all their courageous comrades in arms, to do what must be done. + Tonight, America and the world are deeply grateful to them, +and to their families. And let me say to everyone listening or +watching tonight, when the troops we've sent in finish their +work, I'm determined to bring them home as soon as possible. +Tonight, as our forces fight, they and their families are in our +prayers. May God bless each and every one of them, and the +coalition forces at our side in the Gulf, and may he continue to +bless our nation, the United States of America. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bush.q b/textfiles.com/politics/bush.q new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4d0997ff --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bush.q @@ -0,0 +1,447 @@ + These quotes are all from our fearless leader, who puked in Tokyo, and +started crying in Panama, George Herbert Walker Bush. These quotes are mostly +from the new book "Bushisms" by the editors of The New Republic, but as time +goes on, more quotes will be added to the list. If you like +these quotes, I strongly recomend you get Bushisms at the nearest book store. +Try not to weap as you read 'em! :-) More info at the end of the file. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +We cannot gamble with inexperience in that Oval Office. + -While campaigning '88 + +Take out the word `Quayle' and insert the word `Bush' wherever it appears, +and that's the crap I took for eight years. Wimp. Sycophant. Lap dog. +Poop. Lightweight. Boop. Squirrel. Asshole. George Bush. + -defending his choice of Dan Quayle as his running mate. + +You cannot be president of the United States if you don't have faith. +Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War +and all that stuff. And we are blessed. So don't feel sorry for - don't +cry for me, Argentina. + -Stressing the importance of prayer, while campaigning in New + Hampshire, 1/15/92. + +We've got a little toy department to look at to get some stuff for the +grandchildren. `Slime' is the name of it, I believe. It's a toy. + -While Christmas shopping in Frederick, MD. Bush then + went to look for "that slime thing" + +If frogs had wings, they'd let down their tail. + -At a press conference. + +I think in politics there are certain moral values. I'm one who - we believe +strongly in the seperation of church and state, but when you get into some +questions, there are some moral overtones. Murder, that kind of thing, and I +feel a little, I will say, uncomfortable with the elevation of the religion +thing. + -On the TV show Meet the Press. + +It's like Missouri, `Show me.' I'm from Missouri; we've got to see exactly +what's going on. + -at a press conference on Iraq's claim to complying + with UN resolutions. + +So tomorrow there'll be another tidal wave, so keep your snorkel above the +water level and do what you think is right. + -When asked on forthcoming budget negotiations. + +You know every day, many important papers come across the desk in that +marvelous Oval Office, and very few items remain there for long. Got to keep +that paper moving or you get inundated. Your snorkel will fill up and there +will be no justice. + -On the dificulty of keeping up with presidental duties. + +Bush: It's a jungle out there. +Reporter: Are you getting frustrated with Gorbachev? +B: Did you hear about Tarzan and Jane? +R: No. +B: Tarzan came down and said, "Jane, I'll have a double. On the rocks." She +said, "Tarzan, you don't..." "I'll have another double on the rocks." He has a +third drink. Jane says, "What's the matter, Tarzan." He says, "It's a +jungle out there." Get it? +R: Yeah. + -At a golf-course news conference. + +So far it did not reverberate in the negative there. The signature is being +checked through the master computer, which is located someplace else, and +we'll get an answer back after we leave. + -Using a signature-verifier at a National Grocers Association + conference in Orlando, Florida. This is the same place he was + amazed by a check out scanner saying "This is for checking out?" + +There's no difference between me and the president on taxes. No more +nitpicking. Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah. Now, it's off to the races! + -responding to criticism that differences between himself and + Reagan on tax issues were creating a political liability. + +I say the same thing I say to a person whose family was maimed by a pistol +or an explosive charge or whatever else it might be - a fire - this is bad. + -on his response to families of victims of gun violence. Bush + went on to lament the dificulties of trying to put limits on + AK-47 assault rifles "and still, you know, do what's right by + the legitimate sportsman." + +We've got the best health care plan there is and it does not socialize +medicine in this country. It preserves the quality of care. It makes health +care - gives health care access to all and it does it without the quality of +American education. + -Does he belive what he's saying? + +I'm all for Lawrence Welk. Lawrence Welk is a wonderful man. He used to be, +or was, or wherever he is now, bless him. + -While arguing for the line item veto. He apparently didn't know + if Welk was alive or dead. + +Ours is a great state, and we don't like limits of any kind. Ricky Clunn is +one of the great bass fisherman. He's a Texas young guy, and he's a very +competitve fisherman, and he talked about learning to fish wading in creeks +behind his dad. He in his underwear went wading in the creeks behind his +father, and he said - as a fisherman he said it's great to grow up in a +country with no limits. + -At a live stock event in Houston. Bush, born and raised in the + East, can get defensive about his credentials as a Texan: "I have + my Texas hunting license here..." + +I've been talking the same way for years, so it can't be that serious. + -While attending church in Kennebunkport, Maine. "Can't act," he + explained, "Just have to be me." + +I just am not one who - who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words +around. + -On his reluctance of calling U.S. interference with Iraqi + shipping a "Blockade". Bush thought it gave the wrong impresion. + +Look, how was the actual deployment thing? + -To astronauts aboard the Shuttle Atlantis. + +I've got to be careful I don't overcheerlead on this economy. + -Expressing caution lest his optimism about the state of the + economy be mistaken as indifference to the plight of the + unemployed. + +Well, I'm going to kick that one right into the end zone of the secretary of +education. But, yes, we have all - he travels a good deal, goes abroad. We +have alot of people in the department that does that. We're having an +international - this is not as much education as dealing with the environment + - a big international conference coming up. And we get it all the time - +exchanges of ideas. But I think we've got - we set out there - and I want to +give credit to your Governor McWherter and to your former governor Lamar +Alexander - we've gotten great ideas for a national goals program from - in +this country - from the governors who were responding to, maybe the principal +of your high school, for heaven's sake. + -Responding to ideas on education reform. + +I saw a story yesterday that I went a little ballistic - which is only part +true - semiballistic. + -While announcing John Tower as the nominee for secretary of + defense. + +I don't know that it would be my judgment - my - the function of the president +to suggest what employment somebody should take. If you ask me, would I like +to go out there, leaving my job and go to work for this sheik when I get +through being president, no, I wouldn't like to do that. + -At a press conferance on Sununu aide Edward Rogers' possible + conflict of interest in accepting a position with a Saudi + sheik for $600,000. + +Look, if an American Marine is killed - if they kill an American Marine, +that's real bad. And if they threaten and brutalize the wife of an American +citizen, sexually threatening the lieutenant's wife while kicking him in the +groin over and over again, then, Mr. Gorbachev, please understand, this +president is going to do somthing about it. + -Especialy if they know about Iran-Contra! + +I mean I think there'll be a lot of aftermaths in what happened, but we're +going forward. + -When announcing Dick Cheny as the nominee as the new seceratary + of defense. + +The Democrats choked the throttle - pulled the throttle back of a slowing +economy while they hunted for every last morsel of partisan advantage. + -At an Oklahoma fund raiser. + +I don't know whether I'd call it `cashing in'. I expect every president has +written his memoirs and recieved money for it. Indeed, I read that a former +president - was it Grant? Grant got half a million bucks - that's when half a +million really meant something. + -Defending Reagan from charges that the $5,000,000 he recieved + from his autobiography was cashing in on the presidancy. + +I'm for Mr. Reagan - blindly. + -While campaining in '84. + +I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don't care what the +facts are. + -to the Bush '88 Coalition of American Nationalities, confirming + that "I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." + +Theses, they're very dangerous. They trap you. Especially these furry ones... +it's these furry guys that get you in trouble. They can reach out and listen +to somthing so - keep it respectful here. + -at a photo opportunity with his fitness czar, Arnold + Schwarzeneggar, on the need for caution when near a microphone. + +Those are two hypo-rhetorical questions. + -during the Bush-Dukakis presidential debat, probing Dukakis' + defense policy. + +I'm not going to hypothecate that it may - anything goes too fast. + -on the speed of reform in Eastern Europe. + +Hey, hey, nihaoma. Hey, yeah, yeah. Heil, heil - a kind of Hitler salute. + -greeting foriegn tourists at Lafayette Park on his way home from + church. (Nihaoma is Mandarin for "how are you?") + +Watch quite a bit. I watch the news and I don't like to tell you this, because +you'll think I'm into some weird TV freak here, but we - I have a set upstairs +that has five screens on it and I can sit on my desk and whip - just punch a +button if I see one off on the corner, that moves into the middle screen, the +other one goes to the side. Then I can run up an down the - up and down the +dial. So I - and you can record all four - four going at once, while you - +when you're watching. I don't quite know how to do that yet. But I cite this +because Barbara accuses me of being too much - not too much, but plugged into +TV too often, put it that way. Love sports on TV. + -during a C-SPAN interview on his favorite pastimes. + +I know what I've told you I'm going to say, I'm going to say. And what else I +say, well, I'll take some time to figure out - figure that all out. + -working on the "message thing" + +You know, I mentioned - and with realy from the heart - the concept of going +across the river. to this little church and watching one of our children - +adopted kid - be baptized. And that made for me - it was very emotional for +me. It helped me in reaching a very personal view of this question. And I +don't know. + -responding to criticism that his position supporting prosecution + of abortionists, but not of women choosing abortion was a double + standard. + +We're delighted to be here, Barbara and I. There's a danger: You have +President Reagan, Governor Deukmejian, and George Bush. Watch out - Overdose +of charisma! That's not too good. + -At a campaign rally in Los Angeles. "I think I'm a charismatic + sun of a gun." He then added "I'm not going to depend entirely + on that to win. + +We're delighted to be here, Barbara and I. There's a danger: You have +President Reagan, Governor Deukmejian, and George Bush. Watch out - Overdose +of charisma! That's not too good. + -At a campaign rally in Los Angeles. "I think I'm a charismatic + sun of a gun." He then added "I'm not going to depend entirely + on that to win. + +You need to be able to do more than `just say no'. You need to have the +confidance to look you false friends in the eyes and say `Hell, no, I don't +want any of that.' + -At an anti-drug rally in Denver. Bush was hoping to save + youngsters from people he once called "narced-up terrorist kinda + guys." + +I had an opportunity to than him eyeball-to-eyeball for the best +communications I belive any two countries could possibly have had. + -at a press conferance following his Camp David meeting with + President Ozal of Turkey. + +No your not going to see me stay put... I am not going to forsake my +responsibilities. You may not see me put as much - I mean, un-put as much. + -clarifying travel plans for the coming year. + +Barbara: I think it's because I don't threaten anybody. I don't make any big +decisions, I'm trying to say this nicley so I won't hurt my own fealings. +But-I mean-no Marilyn Monroe am I. I'm just not a threat to anybody. I like +people. And I feal for them. Maybe more than I should that's good for me. + +George: Maybe Joe DiMaggio disagrees with you. + +Barbara: What's that mean? Marilyn Monroe? + +George: I think - Marilyn Monroe - maybe has the same high regard. + +Barbara: Well that's nice. + -during an interview with David Frost. + +Please don't look at part of the glass, the part that is only less than half +full. + -On the defeat of his friend Dick Thornburghin + +Fluency in English is somthing that I'm not often accused of. + -toasting Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhuttoo at a White + House dinner. + +And I guess with these cameras listening, be sure never to end your sentence +with a - without - end a sentance with a preposition because it will be duly +reported all across the countries by these gaurdians of the -- + -Offering a quick grammar lesson to students. + +All I was doing was appealing for an endorsement, not suggesting you endorse +it. + -To Roy Romer, governor of Colorodo, at a meeting of the National + Governors Association. After Bush outlined his growth plan, Romer + attacked it as being partisan. + +I was shot down, and I was floating around in a little yellow raft, setting a +record for paddling. I thought of my family, my mom and dad, and the strength +I got from them. I thought of my faith, the seperation of church and state. + -relating his experiances in WWII. + +This is not a tax break for the rich, it is a creation of small jobs. + -on his proposed capital gaines tax cut + +And let me say in conclusion, thanks for the kids. I learned an awful lot +about bathtub toys - about how to work the telephone. One guy knows - +several of them know their own phone numbers - preperation to go to the +dentist. A lot of things I'd forgotten. So it's been a good day. + -at the Emily Harns Head Start center in Maryland. + +My running mate took the lead, was the author, of the Job Training Partnership +Act. Now, because of alot of smoke and frenzying of bluefish out there, going +after a drop of blood in the water, nobody knows that. + -on Dan Quayle. He then stated "There's somthing very exciting + about putting some confidence in someone in his 30's or 40's." + +She refurbished the White House with the dignity that is her legacy. + -on former first lady Nancy Reagan. + +We have a complicated three-way conundrum at this point. + -on the dificulty of restoring the economy to post invasion + Panama while ensuring democracy and Panama's sovereignty (ha ha). + +Bush: Let me be clear, I'm not in favor of new taxes. I'll repeat that over, +and over, and over again. And this one compromise that - where we begrudgingly +had to accespt revenues, revenue increases, is the exception that proves the +rule. + +Reporter: The exception that proves what rule? + +Bush: The rule that I'm strongly opposed to raising taxes. + -he justified his change of heart to reporters by saying "I'm + doing like Lincoln did, `Think anew.' I'm thinking anew" + +It's no exaggeration to say the undecideds could go one way or another. + -At a campaign rally in Ohio in '88, speculating to local voters + that Ohio's 23 electorial votes might be the "swing votes" that + would determine the election. + +I think there are some differences, there's no question, and will still be. +We're talking about a major, majore situation here... I mean we've got a major +rapport - relationship of economics, major in the security, and all of that, +we should not loose sight of. + -durring a conference before his vist to Japan, where he would + puke on Prime Minsister Miyazawa. + +We have - I have - want to be positioned in that I could not possibly support +David Duke, because of the racism and because of the... bigotry and all of +this. + -distancing himself from Duke, whom he described as an "insicere + charlatan" + +Boy, they were big on crematoriums, weren't they? + -during a tour of Auschwitz + +When I need a little free advice about Saddam Hussein, I turn to country +music. + -at a country music awards ceremony in Nashville. He then refered + to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band as the "Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty + Great Bird" + +Get this passed. Later on, we can all debate it. + -on his economic growth plan. + +High tech is potent, precise, and in the end, unbeatable. The truth is, it +reminds a lot of people of the way I pitch horseshoes. Would you believe some +people? Would you believe our dog? + -on the importance of high tech. + +Obviously when you see somebody go berserk and get a weapon and go in and +murder people, of course it troubles me. + -on the Killeen massacre, where a lone gunman killed 23 people in + Texas. + +It has been said by some cynic, maybe a former president, "If you want a +friend in Washington, get a dog." We took them literaly - that advice - +as you know. But I didn't need that because I have Barbara Bush. + -I wonder what Barbara thought? + +I'm delighted that Barbara Bush is with me today, and I - She got a good clean +bill of health yesterday from Walter Reed Hospital, I might add, and then - +But I'm taking another look at our doctor. He told her it's ok to kiss the dog +- I mean - no - it's ok to kiss your husband, but don't kiss the dog. So I +don't know exactly what that means. + -At a New Jersey high school. + +Reporter: Do you know to what extent the U.S and Colombia are in fact +cooperating militarily now, in terms of interdiction efforts? + +Bush: Well I - Yes I know that. + +R: Can you share that with us? + +B: No. + +R: Why not, sir? + +B: Because I don't feel like it. + -durring a press conference before attending the drug summit. + +I don't want to just sit here blaming Congress. I mean, we're all in this +together. + -on a TV interview + +I think the Congress should be blamed. + -several minutes later. + +I'm not the most articulate emotionalist. + -at a question-and-answer session, following the Malta summit + with Gorbachev, when asked "what was it like for you sitting + across from this man." + +I am less intersted in what the definition is. You might argue technically, +are we in a recession or not. But when there's this kind of slugishness and +concerns - defintions, heck with it. + -At an interview in Philidelphia. + +I had a good long talk bilaterally with Francois Mitterrand this morning. + -during a news conferance, after a Nato confereance in Rome. + +If your worried about the caribou, take a look at the arguments that were used +about the pipeline. They'd say the caribou would be extinct. You've got to +shake them away with a stick. They're all making love lying up against the +pipeline and you got thousands of caribou up there. + -At a Bush/Quayle '92 fund raiser, defending his plan to offer + oil companies "enviromentaly responsive access" to the Alaskan + National Wildlife Reserve. + +If you want to have a philosophical discussion, I take your point, because I +think it is important that if we - that if you presented me with a hypothesis, +"You've got to do this or you've got to do that," and I would accept it and +understand the political risks that'd be involved if I showed any flexibility +at all in even discussing it - I would have to say that - that a - that you +make a very valid point in your question, because, as I tried to indicate in +my remarks, it's job creation, and that is attraction of capital that is realy +the best antidote to poverty. + -Money is an antidote to poverty? Where did he get that crazy + idea??? + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Thanks to the editors of the New Republic for compiling and finding most +of these quotes! + +This list was typed completly by Asher Feldman. You can do whatever you want +with it, but please leave this, and the info at the top intact. I plan on +maintaining and updating this list. If you have an addition/corection/comment +than feal free to send me E-mail at the following adresses : + +PORTAL : Wizard0 +NETCOM : asher +Internet : asher@netcom.com + OR + wizard0@cup.portal.com +If you have any lists of funny Bush/Quayle quotes, or related material, please +send them to me. My U.S. Snail adress is + +Asher Feldman +4791 Calle de Tosca +San Jose, CA 95118 + +and your name will be added to the list. +Please excuse any and all spelling errors. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/buyusa.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/buyusa.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..46b2e46c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/buyusa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +The recent "Buy American" hysteria has raised the question of just +which common products are, in fact, made by American companies. +Here's a quiz: + + 1. The parent company of Braun household appliances is: + a) Swiss; b) German; c) American; d) Japanese + + 2. Bic pens are: + a) Japanese; b) Czech; c) American; d) French + + 3. The maker of Haagen-Dazs ice cream is based in: + a) France; b) Sweden; c) Britain; d) America + + 4. RCA televisions are made by a company based in: + a) Japan; b) America; c) France; d) Korea + + 5. The parent of Arrow shirts is: + a) Thai; b) Italian; c) American; d) French + + 6. Godiva chocolate is: + a) French; b) Belgian; c) Swiss; d) American + + 7. Vaseline's owner is: + a) American; b) French; c) Anglo-Dutch; d) German + + 8. Firestone tires are: + a) Japanese; b) American; c) German; d) French + + 9. Holiday Inns are owned by a company based in: + a) France; b) America; c) Britain; d) Saudi Arabia + + 10. Tropicana orange juice is owned by a company based in: + a) Brazil; b) Canada; c) Mexico; d) America + + 11. Jaguar cars are made by a company based in: + a) Germany; b) Britain; c) America; d) Japan + + 12. Atari video games are: + a) Korean; b) American; c) Japanese; d) Malaysian + + Answers: 1. (c) Braun is American (Gillette Co.) + 2. (d) Bic is French (Bic SA) + 3. (c) Haagen-Dasz is British (Grand Metropolitan PLC) + 4. (c) RCA is French (Thomson SA) + 5. (d) Arrow is French (Bidermann International) + 6. (d) Godiva is American (Campbell Soup Co.) + 7. (c) Vaseline is Anglo-Dutch (Unilever PLC) + 8. (a) Firestone is Japanese (Bridgestone Corp.) + 9. (c) Holiday Inns is British (Bass PLC) + 10. (b) Tropicana is Canadian (Seagram Co. Ltd.) + 11. (c) Jaguar is American (Ford Motor Co.) + 12. (b) Atari is American (Atari Corp.). +--- + * Origin: *PowerSurge!* (23:914/0) diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/byeusa.yes b/textfiles.com/politics/byeusa.yes new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ff2b3b43 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/byeusa.yes @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + + BLUEPRINT FOR A TAKEOVER + +Back in 1944 a great Congressman (Samuel Pettengill) warned that communism +wanted America to spend itself into bankruptcy and was striving in every +way to get Americans to become totally dependent on a centralized government. +He gave to his fellow members of the House of Representatives the 12 points +of the Socialist Manifesto for the economic destruction of free governments. +We need, desperately, to review his words. In order to prepare a nation for +socialism or communism he said: +"The people must be made to feel their utter helplessness and their inability +to solve their own problems. While in this state of mind, there is held up +before them a benign and all-wise leader to whom they must look for the cure +for all thir ills. This state of mind is most readily developed in a time of +ecomonic stress or national diaster. + +"The principle of local self-government must be wiped out, so that this +leader or group in control can have all political power readily at hand. + +"The centralized government, while appearing in form to represent the people, +must dutifully register the will of the leader or group in control . + +"Constitutuional guarantees must be swept aside. This is accomplished in part +by ridiculing them as outmoded and as obstructions to progress. + +"Public faith in the legal profession and respect for the courts must be +undermined.. + +"The law-making body must be intimidated and from time to time rebuked, so +as to prevent the development of public confidence therin. + +"Economically, the people must be kept ground down by high taxes, which, +under one pretext or another, they are called upon to pay. This, they are +brought to a common level and all income above a meager living is taken +from them. In this manner,ecomomic independence is kept to a minimin and +the citizen is forced to rely more amd more upon the government that +controls him. Capital and credits is this completely within the control +of the government. + +"A great public debt must be built up so that citizens can never escape +its burdens. This makes govenment the virtual receiver for the entire nation. + +"A general distrust of private business and industry must be kept alive, +so that the public may not begin to rely upon its own resources. + +"Government bureaus are set up to control practically every phase of the +citizen's life. These bureaus issue directives without number, but all +under the authority of the leader to whom they are immediately responsible. +It is a government of men, and not of laws. + +"The education of the youth of the nation is taken under control to the end +that all may, at an early age, be incoculated with a spirit of submission to +the system and of reverence for the benevolennt leader. + +"To supplement and fortify all the foreging, there is kept flowing a steady +stream of governmental propaganda designed to extol all that bow the knee, +and to vilify those who dare to raise a voice of dissent." + +These are the twelve points in the blueprint of the communists to take over +this nation via economic manipulation as prsented by Samuel Pettengill. +Stop and go back over them and ask yourself how near to total completion and +fulfullmenmt America is at this present moment to every one of them. + +Remember Lenin said in 1921 . . . "They will spend themselves into +bankruptcy . . . they will commit national suicide." Stalin said, "We +won't have to fire a single shot . . . they will fall, like overripe fruit, +into our hands." + +But finally, let us remember the words of our own Thomas Jefferson, author +of the Declaration of Independence, third President and one of the wisest of +our Founding Fathers. He said, "If we let Washington tell us what to sow and +when to reap, the nation shall soom want for bread." +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Karl Marx said, "Spend Them To Death." Americans will master plan their own +destruction by taxing and spending themselves to death and will fall to us +like over-ripe apples! +-From Karl Marx Manifesto +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +**** PLEASE REPRODUCE THIS PACKET AND PASS ON, THANK YOU - AND MAY GOD +**** BLESS YOU - AND AMERICA !!! (602) 997-4624 +============================================================================== +======================== T H E E N D ================================= +============================================================================== + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/bylaws.2_1 b/textfiles.com/politics/bylaws.2_1 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5683e5b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/bylaws.2_1 @@ -0,0 +1,219 @@ + Version 2.1 + August 17, 1992 + + + The By-Laws of EFF-Austin + + + I. Introduction + + These are the by-laws of EFF-Austin, a non-profit organization +incorporated under the laws of the State of Texas. These by-laws +are adopted by the Board of Directors, under the authority of the +Articles of Incorporation of EFF-Austin, and pursuant to the goals, +powers and limitations set out therein. + + EFF-Austin shall from time to time informally conduct +activities and correspond with others under the name "Electronic +Frontier Foundation -- Austin Chapter" to signify its relationship +with its parent national organization: The Electronic Frontier +Foundation. + + II. Boards, Officers and Members + +A. Board of Directors + +Section (1) -- General Powers +The business and affairs of the Corporation shall be managed by its +Board of Directors (the Board). + +Section (2) -- Number, & Tenure of Directors +The number of seats on the Board shall be 9. Each director shall +hold office until a majority of the Board votes to replace the +director, or until the director resigns. A seat on the board is +to be considered vacant if the director holding the seat is absent +from 2 consecutive meetings as described in section (3) below. + +Section (3) -- Regular Meetings +A regular meeting of the Board shall be held, without other notice +than this by-law, on the second Tuesday of each month, at a place +to be determined by the Board. The Board may provide, by +resolution, the time and the place for additional regular meetings +without notice other than such resolution. + +Section (4) -- Special Meetings +Special meetings of the Board shall be called by the Secretary at +the request of any 2 directors. The Secretary may fix any place, +within or without the city of Austin, Texas, as a place for holding +any special meeting of the Board called by them. + + +Section (5) -- Notice +Notice of any special meeting shall be given at least two days +previously thereto by written notice, telephone call, or electronic +means to each director at his business or home address or telephone +number. The Board shall define a procedure which, if followed, +will be deemed to provide a board member with constructive notice +of special meetings. + +Section (6) -- Quorum +A majority of the number of current directors shall constitute a +quorum for the transaction of business at any meeting of the board +of directors. + +Section (7) -- Manner of Acting +The act of the majority of current directors at a meeting at which +a quorum is present shall be the act of the Board. + +Section (8) -- Action Without A Meeting +Any action required or permitted to be taken by the Board at a +meeting may be taken without a meeting if consent in writing, +setting forth the action so taken, shall be signed by all of the +directors. + +Section (9) -- Telephone Meetings +Any or all of the directors may participate in a meeting of the +Board by means of a conference telephone or similar +communications equipment by means which all persons in the meeting +can communicate with each other at the same time; and participation +by such means shall constitute presence in person at any such +meeting. + +Section (10) -- Vacancies +Any vacancies occurring on the Board may be filled by an +affirmative vote of a majority of the remaining directors though +less than a quorum of the Board. A director so elected shall +immediately replace his predecessor. + +Section (11) -- Presumption of Assent +A director of the Corporation who is present at a meeting of +the Board at which action on any matter is taken, shall be presumed +to have assented to the action unless his dissent is entered in +the minutes of the meeting or unless he shall file his written +dissent to such action with the person acting as the Secretary of +the meeting before the approval of the minutes thereof. + + + + + + +B. Officers + +The Board shall elect a President, Vice President, Secretary and +Treasurer whose duties will be determined by the Board. The Board +may appoint assistants to these officers or create new positions +as seen fit. Officers, assistants, and any others appointed by the +board shall serve until such time as they resign, or are replaced +or removed by the Board. + +C. Advisory Board + +Section (1) -- Appointment +The Board of Directors from time to time shall appoint individuals +to an Advisory Board, providing such individuals have consented to +said appointment. + +Section (2) -- Nature and Tenure +The Advisory Board shall act in accordance with guidelines provided +by the Board of Directors. Advisory Board members shall serve on +the Advisory Board at the discretion of the Board of Directors, +until such time as they may be replaced or removed. + + +D. Members + +The Board shall set any and all membership requirement including, +but not limited to: fees, dues, residency and any other +requirements except for those in violation of (E) below. A +membership shall last until the end of the month one year following +the month a membership is accepted. + + +E. Non-discrimination policy + +Under no circumstances shall the following criteria be used to +limit or favor membership, appointment to the Board or Advisory +Board, or to affect any other decision making process: + +An individual's race, sex, religious affiliation, national origin, +or sexual preference. + + + III. Contractual Obligations + +All deeds, leases, transfers, contracts, bonds, notes and other +obligations (including checks) authorized on behalf of the +corporation shall be signed by two of the four officers appointed +in accordance with these bylaws. + + + IV. Fiscal Year + +The fiscal year of EFF-Austin shall begin on the first day of +January and end on the last day of December. + + + V. Books and Records + +EFF-Austin shall keep correct and complete books and records of +account pursuant to the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act and any +other relevant laws. Any person with a proper purpose in relation +to EFF-Austin may, after a written request, inspect and copy the +corporation's books and records, and may do so through his attorney +or agent. The Board may establish reasonable inspection and +copying fees to cover material and labor involved. A member of +EFF-Austin can request that a financial audit be performed by an +accounting firm of his choice, providing that said member cover all +associated costs and fees, and that said member does not subject +EFF-Austin to more than one audit per year. + + + VI. Miscellaneous Provisions + +A. Legal Construction + +The by-laws shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the +State of Texas. All reference in the bylaws to statutes, +regulations, or other sources of legal authority shall refer to the +authorities cited, or their successors, as they may be amended from +time to time. + +B. Headings + +The headings used in the by-laws are used for convenience and shall +not be considered in construing the terms of the by-laws. + +C. Gender + +Wherever the context requires, all words in the by-laws in the male +gender shall be deemed to include the female or neuter gender, all +singular words shall include the plural, and all plural words +shall include the singular. + + + + VII. Bylaw Revision + +These bylaws may be altered, amended or repealed and new by-laws +may be adopted by the Board at any regular or special meeting. + + + CERTIFICATE OF SECRETARY + +I certify that I am the duly elected and acting secretary of EFF- +Austin and that the foregoing By-laws constitute the by-laws of the +Corporation. These by-laws were duly adopted at a meeting of the +Board of Directors held on __________________, 1992. + + + +Dated: _________________, 1992 + + + ___________________________ + Steve Jackson + Secretary + EFF-Austin + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/c_a_m.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/c_a_m.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..216500cf --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/c_a_m.txt @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto + +Timothy C. May +tcmay@netcom.com + + +A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto +anarchy. + +Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for +individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other +in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange +messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts +without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. +Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re- +routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which +implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance +against any tampering. Reputations will be of central importance, far +more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. +These developments will alter completely the nature of government +regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the +ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of +trust and reputation. + +The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a social +and economic revolution--has existed in theory for the past decade. +The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge +interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for +interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now +been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences +monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But only recently +have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient +speed to make the ideas practically realizable. And the next ten +years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas +economically feasible and essentially unstoppable. High-speed +networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band +transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips +now under development will be some of the enabling technologies. + +The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this +technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology +by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration. +Many of these concerns will be valid; crypto anarchy will allow +national secrets to be traded freely and will allow illicit and stolen +materials to be traded. An anonymous computerized market will +even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and +extortion. Various criminal and foreign elements will be active users +of CryptoNet. But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy. + +Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of +medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will +cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations +and of government interference in economic transactions. Combined +with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a +liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words +and pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed +wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus +altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the +frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an +arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which +dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property. + +Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences! + +.......................................................................... +Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, +tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero +408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, +W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. +Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: by arrangement. + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/campfin.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/campfin.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..22f3ec21 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/campfin.txt @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please distribute. + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM + + +American politics is held hostage by big money +interests. Members of Congress now collect more +than $2.5 million in campaign funds every week +while Political Action Committees, industry +lobbies, and cliques of $100,000 donors buy access +to Congress and the White House. + +George Bush recently vetoed the 1992 Campaign +Finance Reform Bill in order to protect the special +interest that support him. American pay for this +system in decreased environmental and worker safety +regulations, increased health care costs, and +weakened consumer regulations. + +Bill Clinton and Al Gore believe it's long past +time to clean up Washington. As part of their plan +to fight the cynicism that is gripping the American +people, Bill Clinton and Al gore will support and +sign strong campaign finance reform legislation to +bring down the cost of campaigning and encourage +real competition. + +We can't go four more years without a plan to take +away power form the entrenched bureaucracies and +special interests that dominate Washington. + + +The Clinton/Gore Plan + +* Place voluntary spending caps on House and + Senate Races, depending on a state's + population. These caps will level the playing + field and encourage challengers to enter the + race. + +* Limit political action committee (PAC) + contributions to the $1000 legal limit for + individuals. + +* Reduce the cost to television air time to + promote real discussion and turn TV into an + instrument of education, not a weapon of + political assassination. + +* Eliminate tax deductions for special interest + lobbying expenses and the "lawyer' loophole," + which allows lawyer-lobbyists to disguise + lobbying activities on behalf of foreign + governments and powerful corporations. + +* Require lobbyists who appear before + Congressional committees to disclose the + campaign contributions they've made to members + of those committees. The public has a right + to know when moneyed interests are trying + influence elected officials in Washington. + +* End the unlimited "soft" money contributions + that are funneled through national, state, and + local parties to Presidential candidates. + + +The Record + +* In the face of legislative resistance and + powerful opposition form special interests, + Governor Clinton spearheaded a successful + citizen's initiative to adopt an Ethics and + Lobbyist Disclosure Act which requires + professional lobbyists to disclose the amount + of money they spend to influence public + officials, and public officials to disclose + information about their income and financial + holdings. + +* Senator Gore voted for the Senate Elections + Ethics Act which establishes spending limits + on Senate campaigns, prohibits Federal office + holders and candidates from raising "soft + money," eliminates "leadership PACs," and + encourages cleaner campaigns. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/canada.hc b/textfiles.com/politics/canada.hc new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b4d075d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/canada.hc @@ -0,0 +1,588 @@ +Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l +Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU +Message-ID: <01GTWG1NEDEE001H7J@camins.Camosun.BC.CA> +Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 14:59:52 -0800 +Sender: English Language Discussion Group +From: Peter Montgomery +Subject: Official Canadian Document on Handicap Language: c 560 lines +Lines: 579 + + A + + W A Y + + with + + W O R D S + + + + + + + GUIDELINES AND APPROPRIATE TERMINOLOGY + FOR THE PORTRAYAL OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES + + +Separate Insert Sheet with Terminology List: + + TERMINOLOGY GUIDE + + CONCERNING PERSONS WITH DISABLITIES + + Do not use or say Do use or say + + Aged (The) SENIORS + elderly (The) Adjectives like frail, senile or feeble + suggest a negative image of seniors + and should not be used. + + Birth defect PERSON WITH A DISABILITY SINCE + congenital defect BIRTH, PERSON WHO HAS A + deformity CONGENITAL DISABILITY + + Blind (The) PERSON WHO IS BLIND, PERSON + visually impaired (the) WITH A VISUAL IMPAIRMENT + + Confined to a wheelchair PERSON WHO USES A + wheelchair bound WHEELCHAIR, WHEELCHAIR USER + For individuals with a mobility + impairment, a wheelchair is a + means to get around independently. + + Cripple PERSON WITH A DISABILITY, + crippled PERSON WITH A MOBILITY + lame IMPAIRMENT, PERSON WHO + HAS ARTHRITIS, A SPINAL CORD + INJURY,ETC. + + Deaf (The) PERSON WHO IS DEAF + When referring to the entire deaf + population and their culture it is + acceptable to use "the deaf". + + Hard of hearing (The) PERSON WHO IS HARD OF + hearing impaired (the) HEARING + These individuals are not deaf and + may compensate for a hearing loss + with an amplification device or + system. + + Epileptic (The) PERSON WHO HAS EPILEPSY + + + Fit SEIZURE + + Hnadicapped (The) PERSON WITH A DISABILITY + UNLESS REFERRING TO AN + ENVIRONMENTAL OR ATTITUDINAL BARRIER + In such instances "Person who is + handicapped by" is appropriate. + + Insane PERSONS WITH A MENTAL + lunatic HEALTH DISABILITY, PERSON WHO + maniac HAS SCHIZOPHRENIA, PERSON + mental patient WHO HAS DEPRESSION + mentally diseased It is important to remember that + neurotic the development of appropriate + psycho terminology is still in progress;how- + psychotic ever, the above terms are currently + schizophrenic in use. The term "insane" (unsound + unsound mind mind) should only be used in strictly + legal sense. Obviously, words such + as "crazy", "demented", "deviant" + "loony", "mad" and "nuts" should + be avoided. + + Invalid PERSON WITH A DISABILITY + The literal sense of the word + "invalid" is "not valid". + + + Mentally Retarded PERSON WITH AN INTELLECTUAL + defective DISABILITY, PERSON WHO IS + feeble minded INTELLECTUALLY IMPAIRED + idiot One can say, a person with + imbecile Down's syndrome, only if relevant + moron to the story. + retarded + simple + mongoloid + + Normal PERSON WHO IS NOT DISABLED + Normal is only acceptable in refer- + ence to statistics, e.g., "the norm". + + Patient PERSON WITH A DISABILITY + Unless the relationship being referred + to is between a doctor and client. + + Physically challenged PERSON WITH A DISABILITY + differently able + + Spastic PERSON WHO HAS SPASMS + Spastic should never be used as + a noun. + + Suffers from PERSON WITH A DISABILITY, + afflicted PERSON WHO HAS CEREBRAL + stricken with PALSY,ETC. + Having a disability is not synony- + mous with suffering. + + Victim of cerebral palsy PERSON WHO HAS CEREBRAL + multiple sclerosis, PALSY, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, + arthritis, etc ARTHRITIS, ETC., PERSON + WITH A DISABILITY, PERSON + WITH A MOBILITY IMPAIRMENT + + A + WAY + WITH + WORDS + Guidelines and appropriate + terminology for the portrayal + of persons with disabilities + + Produced by + Status of Disabled Persons Secretariat + Department of the Secretary of State + of Canada + Ottawa, Ontario + KlA OM5 + (819) 997-2412 (VOICE and TDD) + + This booklet is available in alternate media format. + Ce guide est egalement disponible en francais. + + c Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1991 + Cat No. S2-216/1991 E + ISBN 0-662-18713-X + + + I N T R O D U C T I 0 N + + Language is a powerful and important tool in + shaping ideas, perceptions, and ultimately, + public attitudes. + + Words are a mirror of society's attitudes and + perceptions. Attitudes can be the most diffi- + cult barrier persons with disabilities must face + in gaining full integration, acceptance and + participation in society. + + Careful presentation of information about per- + sons with disabilities can help overcome neg- + ative attitudes and shape positive ones. The + Standing Committee on the Status of Disabled + Persons found in its report No News is Bad + News that vocabulary con create perception. + Demeaning, belittling or negative words are + a barrier to greater understanding and can + trivialize genuine support given by a commu- + nity to persons with disabilities. + + Language use is changing as persons with + disabilities claim their individual and collec- + tive right to participate fully in society. + + Dated and disparaging words are being + replaced with precise, descriptive terms + which have specific meanings that are not + interchangeable. + + 1 + + + + Persons with disabilities are asking, just as + women and minority groups are asking, that + the media use respectful terms in writing + about them or issues that affect their lives. + + Individuals with disabilities are working to + achieve equality, independence and full par- + ticipation in our society. The ways in which + issues are reported and the use of proper ter- + minology can help persons with disabilities + reach these goals. + + P U R P O S E : + + This booklet suggests current and appropriate + terminology to reflect the increased participa- + tion by Canadians with disabilities in our + society. This booklet is intended to encour- + age and promote fair and accurate portrayal + of persons with disabilities. It is primarily + designed for print and broadcast media pro- + fessionals writing and reporting about issues + of concern to persons with disabilities. + + C O N T E N T: + + This booklet has two sections and a remov- + able insert. GENERAL GUIDELINES has infor- + mation on terminology and portrayal of + persons with disabilities. + + + + 2 + + + MEDIA COVERAGE OF PERSONS WITH + DISABILITIES deals with reporting on issues of + concern to persons with disabilities. The + removable insert suggests appropriate termi- + nology. + + G E N E R A L G U I D E L I N E S: + + 1. It is important to remember that each + word in today's terminology has a pre- + cise meaning and that the words are not + interchangeable. + + 2 "Disabled" and "handicapped" are not + the same thing. A disability is a function- + al limitation or restriction of an individu- + al's ability to perform an activity. A + "handicap" is an environmental or attitu- + dinal barrier that limits the opportunity for + a person to participate fully. Negative + attitudes or inaccessible entrances to + buildings are examples of handicaps. + + 3 The word "disabled" is an adjective, not + a noun. People are not conditions. Do + not use "the disabled"; use "persons with + disabilities". + + 4 Focus on the issue rather than the disability. + If the disability is not relevant to the story, + it is not necessary to report it. + + + 3 + + + 5 Try to avoid categorizing persons with + disabilities as either super-achievers or + tragic figures. Choose words that are + non-judgemental, non-emotional and are + accurate descriptions. Avoid using + "brave", "courageous", "inspirational" or + other similar words that are routinely used + to describe a person with a disability. + + Remember that the majority of persons + with disabilities are average and typical + of the rest of the population. + + Similarly, references which cause discom- + fort, quilt, pity or insult, should be avoided. + Words like "suffers from stricken with", + "afflicted by", "patient", "disease" or + "sick" suggest constant pain and a sense + of hopelessness. While this may be the + case for some individuals, a disability is a + condition that does not necessarily cause + pain or require medical attention. + + 6 Avoid the use of words such as "burden + "incompetent", "defective", "special", + etc. which suggest that persons with + disabilities should be treated differently or + be excluded from activities generally + available in the community. + + 4 + + + 7 Be particularly careful with terminology + used in headlines. Remember that head- + lines make the first impression. + + 8 Refer to technical aids in factual, non- + emotional terms. Avoid prolonged focus + on support equipment. + + 9 Persons with disabilities are comfortable + with the terminology used to describe + daily living activities. Persons who use + wheelchairs go for "walks". people with + visual impairments "see" what you mean, + etc. A disability may just mean that some + things are done in a different manner; + however, that does not mean the words + used to describe the activity must be + different. + + 10 Remember that although some disabilities + are not visible, it does not mean they are + less real. Individuals with invisible dis- + abilities such as epilepsy, haemophilia, + mental health, learning, or developmental + disabilities also encounter negative + attitudes and barriers. + + 5 + + + M E D I A C O V E R A G E + O F P E R S O N S W I T H + D I S A B I L I T I E S + + Researching, Writing and Reporting + + 1 Too often, when a person with a disability + is featured in a story that has several pos- + sible angles, the human interest story line + dominates, e.g., how the individual has + overcome great odds. + + 2 There are few examples of in-depth cover- + age of issues of particular importance to + persons with disabilities (e.g., lack of + physical access to facilities, employment, + poverty, etc.). + + 3 Persons with disabilities are seldom asked + for their views on stories dealing with + transportation, the environment, child + care, etc. + + The media can help create and reinforce + positive attitudes towards persons with + disabilities. Progress has been made in + recent years and media professionals are + asking advice on how to report on, + discuss, and write about disability. + + 6 + + + + Bridging the Communicutions Gap + + Here are some suggestions to improve com- + munications with persons with disabilities. + + 1 When talking with a person with a disability + speak directly to him/her rather than + through a companion who may be there. + + 2 Avoid putting persons with disabilities on + a pedestal and using patronizing terms. + Interview a person with a disability as + you would any other person. + + 3 Do not unnecessarily emphasize differences. + Having a "one of them" versus a "one of us" + attitude only serves to reinforce barriers. + + 4 In visual treatments (e.g., television, + photographs), do not dwell on technical + aids or adaptive devices unless, of + course, the purpose is to introduce or + discuss a particular aid or device. + + Following an interview, ask yourself: + + 1 Am I writing this piece because it involves + a person with a disability or because the + issue and related circumstances are rele- + vant to the general population? If it did + not involve a person with a disability, + would I still want to write it? + + 7 + + + + 2 Is a reference to a disability necessary to + the story? If it is, am I using the correct + terminology (e.g., "uses a wheelchair", + and not "confined to a wheelchair")? + + 3 Is this piece accurate and unbiased? + Have I avoided sensationalism? + + + + C O N C L U S I O N + + Journalists can contribute to a more positive + and accurate image of persons with disabili- + ties. The information provided to the general + public, and the ways in which this informa- + tion is presented, often create a framework + for the attitudes people have and the ways in + which they interact with individuals with dis- + abilities. If the coverage of disability-related + issues is done in a non-emotional, factual and + integrative manner, the public will no doubt + begin to question the prejudices and stereo- + types that still exist. + + 8 + + + + R E F E R E N C E S : + + Editing Canadian English. Prepared for the + Freelance Editors Association of Canada. + + Guidelines for Reporting ond Writing About + People with Disabilities. Archalert, Volume 4, + No. 7. + + No News is Bad News. Standing Committee + on the Status of Disabled Persons, House of + Commons. + + Portraying People with Disabilities. National + Easter Seal Society (Chicago, Illinois). + + "Watch Your Longuoge. Words Shape + Attitudes". Frances Strong (appeared in the + Rehabilitation Digest, winter, 1989). + + Word Choices. A lexicon of preferred terms + for disability issues. Office for Disabled + Persons, Government of Ontario. + + Words with Dignity. Ontario March of + Dimes. + + Worthless or Wonderful: The Social + Stereotyping of Persons with Disobilities. + Status of Disabled Persons Secretariat, + Department of the Secretary of State of + Canada. + + 9 + + + + O R G A N I Z A T I 0 N S + C O N S U L T E D + + Canadian Association for Community Living + (CACL) + 4700 Keele Street, Kinsmen Building + Toronto, Ontario + M3J 1P3 + (416) 661-9611 + + Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD) + 2435 Holly Lane, Suite 205 + Ottawa, Ontario + KlV 7P2 + (613) 526-4785 + + Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) + 396 Cooper Street + Ottawa, Ontario + K2P 2H7 + (613) 567-0311 + + Canadian Hard of Hearing Association + (CHHA) + 2435 Holly Lane, Suite 205 + Ottawa, Ontario + KIV 7P2 + VOICE (613) 526-1584, + TDD (613) 526-2692 + + 10 + + + + + Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) + 2160 Yonge Street + Toronto, Ontario + M4S 2Z3 + (416) 484-7750 + + Canadian National Institute for the Blind + (CNIB) + 1931 Bayview Avenue + Toronto, Ontario + M4G 4C8 + (416) 486-2500 + + Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) + 520 Sutherland Drive + Toronto, Ontario + M4G 3V9 + (416) 391-0203 + + Coalition of Provincial Organizations + of the Handicapped (COPOH) + 624-294 Portage Avenue + Winnipeg, Manitoba + R3C OB9 + (204) 947-0303 + + Learning Disabilities Association + of Canada (LDAC) + 323 Chapel Street + Ottawa, Ontario + KlN 7Z2 + (613) 238-5721 + + 11 + + + + National People First + 4700 Keele Street, Kinsmen Building + Toronto, Ontario + M3J 1P3 + (416) 661-9611 + + Canadian Deaf and Hard of + Hearing Forum (CDHHF) + 2435 Holly Lane, Suite 205 + Ottawa, Ontario + KIV 7P2 + VOICE (613) 526-4867, + TDD (613) 526-2492 + + National Educational Association + of Disabled Students (NEADS) + 4th Level Unicentre + Carleton University + Ottawa, Ontario + K1S 5B6 + (613) 233-5963 + + One Voice Seniors Network + 350 Sparks Street, Suite 901 + Ottawa, Ontario + K1R 7S8 + (613) 238-7624 + + 12 + + + + The Society for Depression and Manic- + Depression of Manitoba + 4-1 000 Notre-Dame Avenue + Winnipeg, Manitoba + R3F 0N3 + (204) 786-0987 + + Canadian Friends of Schizophrenics + 95 Barber Greene Road, Suite 309 + Don Mills, Ontario + M3C 3F9 + (416) 445-820A + + 13 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cantwell.alt b/textfiles.com/politics/cantwell.alt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..63461507 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cantwell.alt @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +The Electronic Frontier Foundation +================================== +1001 G Street NW, Suite 950 E +Washington DC 20001 USA ++1 202 347 5400 (voice) ++1 202 393 5509 (fax) ++1 202 638 6120 (BBS) +Internet: ask@eff.org + + + * EFF Wants You (to add your voice to the crypto fight!) * + + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation needs your help to ensure privacy rights! + + + * DISTRIBUTE WIDELY * + +Monday, February 7th, 1994 + +From: Jerry Berman, Executive Director of EFF + jberman@eff.org + + +Dear Friends on the Electronic Frontier, + +I'm writing a personal letter to you because the time has now come for +action. On Friday, February 4, 1994, the Administration announced that it +plans to proceed on every front to make the Clipper Chip encryption scheme +a national standard, and to discourage the development and sale of +alternative powerful encryption technologies. If the government succeeds +in this effort, the resulting blow to individual freedom and privacy could +be immeasurable. + +As you know, over the last three years, we at EFF have worked to ensure +freedom and privacy on the Net. Now I'm writing to let you know about +something *you* can do to support freedom and privacy. *Please take a +moment to send e-mail to U.S. Rep. Maria Cantwell (cantwell@eff.org) to +show your support of H.R. 3627, her bill to liberalize export controls on +encryption software.* I believe this bill is critical to empowering +ordinary citizens to use strong encryption, as well as to ensuring that +the U.S. software industry remains competitive in world markets. + +Here are some facts about the bill: + +Rep. Cantwell introduced H.R. 3627 in the House of Representatives on +November 22, 1993. H.R. 3627 would amend the Export Control Act to move +authority over the export of nonmilitary software with encryption +capabilities from the Secretary of State (where the intelligence community +traditionally has stalled such exports) to the Secretary of Commerce. The +bill would also invalidate the current license requirements for +nonmilitary software containing encryption capablities, unless there is +substantial evidence that the software will be diverted, modified or +re-exported to a military or terroristic end-use. + +If this bill is passed, it will greatly increase the availability of +secure software for ordinary citizens. Currently, software developers do +not include strong encryption capabilities in their products, because the +State Department refuses to license for export any encryption technology +that the NSA can't decipher. Developing two products, one with less secure +exportable encryption, would lead to costly duplication of effort, so even +software developed for sale in this country doesn't offer maximum +security. There is also a legitimate concern that software companies will +simply set up branches outside of this country to avoid the export +restrictions, costing American jobs. + +The lack of widespread commercial encryption products means that it will +be very easy for the federal government to set its own standard--the +Clipper Chip standard. As you may know, the government's Clipper Chip +initiative is designed to set an encryption standard where the government +holds the keys to our private conversations. Together with the Digital +Telephony bill, which is aimed at making our telephone and computer +networks "wiretap-friendly," the Clipper Chip marks a dramatic new effort +on the part of the government to prevent us from being able to engage in +truly private conversations. + +We've been fighting Clipper Chip and Digital Telephony in the policy arena +and will continue to do so. But there's another way to fight those +initiatives, and that's to make sure that powerful alternative encryption +technologies are in the hands of any citizen who wants to use them. The +government hopes that, by pushing the Clipper Chip in every way short of +explicitly banning alternative technologies, it can limit your choices for +secure communications. + +Here's what you can do: + +I urge you to write to Rep. Cantwell today at cantwell@eff.org. In the +Subject header of your message, type "I support HR 3627." In the body of +your message, express your reasons for supporting the bill. EFF will +deliver printouts of all letters to Rep. Cantwell. With a strong showing +of support from the Net community, Rep. Cantwell can tell her colleagues +on Capitol Hill that encryption is not only an industry concern, but also +a grassroots issue. *Again: remember to put "I support HR 3627" in your +Subject header.* + +This is the first step in a larger campaign to counter the efforts of +those who would restrict our ability to speak freely and with privacy. +Please stay tuned--we'll continue to inform you of things you can do to +promote the removal of restrictions on encryption. + +In the meantime, you can make your voice heard--it's as easy as e-mail. +Write to cantwell@eff.org today. + + + +Sincerely, + +Jerry Berman +Executive Director, EFF +jberman@eff.org + + + +P.S. If you want additional information about the Cantwell bill, send +e-mail to cantwell-info@eff.org. To join EFF, write membership@eff.org. +For introductory info about EFF, send any message to info@eff.org. + +The text of the Cantwell bill can be found on the Internet with the any of +the following URLs (Universal Resource Locators): + +ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Legislation/cantwell.bill +http://www.eff.org/ftp/EFF/Policy/Legislation/cantwell.bill +gopher://gopher.eff.org/00/EFF/legislation/cantwell.bill + +It has been posted to CompuServe (go EFFSIG; hr3627.bil in Library #2), +and GEnie (Public Forum*Non-Profit Connection library; keyword PF, page 545). +It is also available on AOL (keyword EFF). + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/case_234.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/case_234.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7142aaf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/case_234.txt @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +Author: Krishna Padmasola +e-mail: krishna@scri.fsu.edu +Credit: The idea for writing this story came after reading the 1992 Scientific +American special issue on Mind and Brain. + + + Case No. 234FA + + ``It was a diminutive winged creature, a little bird with +crimson headdress, its brown feathered body quivering with the +restless energy derived from the accelerated metabolic rate so +characteristic of its species. Displaying excellent navigational +skills, it would suddenly dive into the thicket to feast on some +insect which betrayed its own presence and relieve it of its burden of +existence, and emerge again from the world of inconstant shadows into +the brilliant sunlit garden. However, the feast is soon forgotten, and +the search for new source of food begins all over again; this time +perhaps it is a flower in bloom, its scent hinting at the presence of +nectar, advertising its need for pollination. It was fascinating to +watch the exquisite little bundle of life, and I could see every +detail of its feathered body, I could feel its heartbeat, I followed +the rythmic motion of its wings flapping in synchrony, its tail +serving to steer and balance at the same time. There was no message in +its existence, and as I realized the senselessness of the demand for +the meaning of life by ossified minds, I felt a strange kinship +towards my avian friend...'' + + Three days ago, a patient was admitted to the ward. Evidently +he was suffering from severe depression. He used to be a dancer in a +Broadway show, before he was fired six months ago for being rude and +giving unsolicited advice to the director. As is usually the case, the +onset of mania was quite sudden and apparently without any obvious +reason. At home he mistreated his wife, and made life difficult for +her with his tense and irritable demeanor. Then he left to live with +his father, who also suffered from similar symptoms, though not quite +that degree. There, however, his condition steadily deteriorated , and +finally he accepted hospitalization. Although he received a dose of +tranquilizer, he spent the night disrupting the ward, and in the +morning, signed out against medical advice. That was two days ago.... +Yesterday we learnt that he had committed suicide. Interestingly, the +cause of death was unknown. One would have thought that he had passed +away in his sleep had it not been for the note found in his clenched +hands, in which he stated that he was committing suicide of his own +free will. + + The description of the bird in the garden was one of the many +remarkable entries we found in his diary, each of them revealing an +intensity of perception and heightened awareness which a prejudiced +mind would have thought him incapable of possessing. It has been +observed that manic-depressives are talented or even endowed with +genius. Perhaps, as some suggest, the extreme swings of mood and the +accompanying changes of outlook may give rise to creativity. The same +emotional fluctuations often lead manic-depressives to exhibit +suicidal tendencies, and their spark of creativity is prematurely +extinguished , perhaps an indication of the inherent instability of +creativity itself. If I were allowed to speculate, I might say that +creativity is a local revolution against mental entropy; but that is +the philosopher's job, and henceforth I shall withhold myself from +trespassing into the realm of his investigations. + + How did he come by his death? That is an interesting question, +but his diary is mute upon that point, understandably so. Perhaps if +the fleeting images of his thoughts in the moments prior to his death +were captured by an invisible scribe , they might read like this... +`` I am on the shore of a mighty ocean, a silent observer, dwarfed by +its magnificence to an insignificant speck . The waves are rushing to +pounce upon the beach, then receding to muster all their strength and +prepare for a fresh assault with renewed determination. But deep below +the raging surface, there is an undercurrent, signifying confidence +and purpose. This, I recognize to be my mind, my conciousness +witnessing the various activities going on in it. I am now lying down, +with the suicide note in my hand, and have willed myself to death. The +waves are subsiding gradually , and now the surface is disturbed only +by tiny ripples. I feel my breath to be a tenuous thread connecting me +with life. Deep down, on the ocean floor, a dormant volcano is about +to wake up, and if it did, its tremors would create a tidal wave of +uncontrollable fury. This is my innermost survival instinct rebelling +against the sentence I have placed upon myself, but it vanished as +soon as I recognised its identity. Now the ocean is completely +stagnant, its surface mirroring the blue sky above. Suddenly, there +are clouds floating across the sky, their reflections skimming the +ocean surface. These are the images of various people, cherished, +forgotten or vanished memories , the faces, sights, sounds and smells +that I had hoarded in my unconcious. They are of no value to me +anymore. Of what use are dead memories to a dead man? My breath has +stopped and the heart has followed suit. Now there is just the calm +ocean, and a clear blue sky , both merging together in the horizon. +There is no more division between the mind and the conciousness; they +are one. Only I exist. '' + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cato1091.rep b/textfiles.com/politics/cato1091.rep new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fd281ab2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cato1091.rep @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +CATO POLICY REPORT + +CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE + +(By CATO Institute Chairman William Niskanen) + +The Crime Bill is a Killer + +Crime in the United States is a serious problem. The crime bill now being +considered in Congress, however, is not a serious solution. A product of +mindless Republicans and spineless Democrats, the crime bill is counter- +productive, discriminatory, and expensive. Let me count the ways. + + Approval of the crime bill would probably INCREASE the number of murders. +It has been widely reported that the bill authorizes capital punishment for some +51 crimes. What has not been widely reported is that 10 of those crimes involve +something other than murder; treason, espionage, transporting explosives with +intent to kill, arson of federal property in interstate commerce, the fourth +felony conviction of a major drug supplier, drug trafficking "drive by +shootings," aircraft hijacking, hostage taking, kidnapping, and bank robbery. +Those are clearly serious offenses. The problem with authorizing capital +punishment for them is that it would eliminate any marginal deterrent effect on +the offender who murders the victims or witnesses to those offenses. That would +surely increase the number of hostages, kidnap victims, witnesses to bank +robbery, and so on who are murdered. The deterrent effect of a criminal penalty +is a function of the severity of the penalty and the probability of arrest and +conviction. An increase in the penalty for the crimes listed here would reduce +the number of offenders convicted, at the cost of the lives of innocent victims +and witnesses. + + Second, the bill creates different classes of murders, depending on the +status of the victim. The murder of foreign officials, a wide range of federal +officials from the president to poultry inspectors, the families of federal +officials, state officials assisting federal officials, court officers and +jurors, and others would be capital crimes. The bill would not provide a +similar deterrent for the 99-plus percent of murders that do not fall under +those categories. Similarly, the bill authorizes a police officers "bill of +rights" without addressing the rights of those who are abused by the arbitrary +exercise of police power. One might hope that those sections would be ruled +unconstitutional as inconsistent with equality under the law. + + And third, the bill is expensive, authorizing an additional #3 billion of +federal funds for enforcement, incarceration, and the training of police +officials. That figure underestimates the total cost, because other provisions +would increase the current overcrowding of state prisons and jails. Crime is a +serious problem, and additional funding might be appropriate if there were any +evidence that it would reduce crime. Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) expressed what +may be a common belief when he said, "Crime in America is inversely proportional +to the number of policemen we have on the streets." Unfortunately, there is NO +evidence that a general increased in funding for police and corrections would +reduce crime. + + The provisions of the crime bill discussed above are broadly supported by +the Bush Administration and members of Congress of both parties. Most of the +controversy has been focused on the provisions affecting gun control and the +exclusionary rule. Crime in America is a serious problem, but whatever the +merits of those provisions, the crime bill of 1991 is not serious legislation. + + In 1723, the English Parliament passed the Black Act, which authorized the +capital punishment for such heinous offenses as stalking deer in disguise at +night, cutting down young trees, and writing threatening letters. The crime bill +now before the House is addressed to more serious offenses, but the political +incentives to talk tough and legislate stupidly are the same as those that led +to the notorious Black Act. + +Submitted by: + +Chris Crobaugh +North Ridgeville, Ohio 44039 +(216) 327-6655 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cattlism.fun b/textfiles.com/politics/cattlism.fun new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..27a1f25aa57c5ba98579a08da29637ee86a6ce38 GIT binary patch literal 1024 zcmbu7&u-f=490gh;CJ9{mm;q)D5+x@$e$u{S8O-gqAe}97|2qCy!|LSNil3a%?DeM z$&WvN50VXe<=esUO z7~6xt(EUGGD|h?4S|woN5Uw#J+zwj4<0JfAg4@)G*A!f$2MNEZfr(O9D=l=GpzuR~ zDGqgUsCH$Z)lMqLv(%YcydP7F@zhW7*-Jz?okA2|7n3EXgUfH=+G@ z`?{N(G|>Q!W1Lqc>FFKqh50cav03Fg$|4W5hpY|^i|2C-CxOO(U}ZUOK@!9B3q zjtl$5O(@56OJc|Us=7%fFQO7V$+a9<N;`3>0AHzfc7 literal 0 HcmV?d00001 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ccbc-w.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/ccbc-w.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ffa3c093 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ccbc-w.txt @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ + WIRED's Press Release Regarding the Ban - 3/23/94 +FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: + Taara Eden Hoffman +544 Second Street Director of Publicity +San Francisco, CA 94107 USA +1 (415) 904 0666 + taara@wired.com + + + +Cyberspace Cannot Be Censored +***************************** + +WIRED Responds to Canadian Ban of Its April Issue + +Wednesday, March 23, 1994, San Francisco + + +WIRED's April issue has been banned in Canada. WIRED's offense? Publication +of a story called "Paul and Karla Hit the Net," a 400-word article about +how Canadians are getting around a Canadian court decision to ban media +coverage of details in the Teale-Homolka murder case. + +This article does not reveal details of the case. Instead, the article + + WIRED's Press Release Regarding the Ban - 3/23/94 (23/24) +explains why the media ban has proven unenforceable and reports how +information on the case is readily available to Canadians. + +According to a survey conducted by the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, 26 percent +of those polled said they knew prohibited details of the trial, because +they are continuously leaked by Canadian court witnesses, police, and +others to the international media. Once this information is published, it +pours back into Canada via fax, videocassettes, magazines and photocopies +of articles, e-mail, Internet newsgroups, and other online services. In the +United States, People magazine, and the TV show, A Current Affair as well +as the New York Times and other publications and shows have covered the +story and the ban. + +As WIRED's story and the action of Canada's Attorney General make clear, +the ban is not only a waste of time and money,but has actually had the +opposite effect of what was intended. Rumors and sensationalized accounts +of the case abound, and the Teale-Homolka trial is one of the hottest +topics of discussion among Canadians. + +"Banning of publications is behavior we normally associate with Third World +dictatorships," said WIRED publisher Louis Rossetto. "This an ominous +indication that the violation of human rights is becoming Canadian policy." + + WIRED's Press Release Regarding the Ban - 3/23/94 (24/47) +According to Rossetto, the Canadian Government's recent seizure of gay and +lesbian periodicals under the guise of controlling "pornography" and its +behavior in the Teale-Homolka case have made Canada a leading violator of +free speech rights, and have set a scary precedent for other nations that +would like to control what its citizens read and think. + +"Information wants to be free," said Jane Metcalfe, WIRED's president. "At +the end of the 20th century, attempts to ban stories like this one are +condemned to be futile. That WIRED's criticism of the ban has itself been +banned is supremely ironic and utterly chilling." + +Since WIRED supports free speech, WIRED is making the text of its "banned" +story with details on how readers can get more information on the case +available on the Internet. Canadians and people around the world can +discover exactly what the Canadian government is trying to keep hidden. + +The banned article text can be obtained via the following WIRED Online +services: + + o WIRED Infobot e-mail server send e-mail to infobot@wired.com, + containing the words "get + homolka/banned.text" on a single + + WIRED's Press Release Regarding the Ban - 3/23/94 (24/69) + line inside the message body + + o WIRED Gopher gopher to gopher.wired.com + select "Teale-Homolka " + + o WIRED on World Wide Web http://www.wired.com + select "Teale-Homolka " + +The complete text of WIRED 2.04 will be available from the Infobot, Gopher, +and World Wide Web on April 19. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/centamer.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/centamer.hum new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c8ed2a1e5a6ca22b1500db591bfe7f0c3738f078 GIT binary patch literal 5120 zcmb`LO^@5i5r%UXp#RYDWfDLuI6)4Z0LH@W!+L_)hj_5QZi{S*y&~CMevGXA`aEwn zNolfk+<^}s4Ov}P??+YZ-Mc^P$89(6_dg#(JHBs1|4;W+1viYTzq)jE{|Wx&+lRqj zeE<53IaF+&BJ{p?iV_RY)2|-n+}A#iV`$xvS3B#IAFI&#F&5Fc_SPR&>AQCp&eBj- zMU}cP^sbA=Ih1Z1+|)Tgy0_oIeY;mKS9j>sbgD)-R%rR6<14E@gW zzJd*8r5NclIA13s>ZMSg!XQ-iOX2%datD9iyS3GiIg6?5ls&-@_FR9B?SsAa#b4Z? zLm7b=OxrYu@7$;F{`U8OxG%p=zI5-WF&Pwu{2F|hT2gX#R7)CP(2C$rQ%mcp=5SrG zZr#|Y)D6n{|7h?R&ZU^`ru5gHJ4~bdSE||}wbU3(MVtdX3g+#1tQa^J>Y=>Bez55uHx7yOx#G)=j z(9P|JUY3Kfj78-lWUsCStS0*IA%rlAW96#Y+%@~_jQNXh4`Uy~=#J``nodJ9SX~^^ z2B&>S8@)eGe&LR>>1xQGQrmigHljZAtc^|&Zb%KEt%O>MJa7~&HfGKzZ8uFU%R1;N zd+i+Cl9(`g0Ajehq!dR0LEGXRWOWH_ICJ#p;NVXjV`>MQa|p-8Ybs+vIRg)+vpt!H zK{Yn1AAJu|mCRj(J_QT^lMkexoF$9iXiflK@;gT29s;Wz;Zf10DAbQl$9C)SiZJ3CZLA!NsH4`^C$jL;@>p5HMmT%^jttRoEEILLVs#D)JJX#%oPQ z^Z8b4;nh&F+gd0#9RTAjGVWKW$fh6+={u%1<42iFQNNzu<91`#G2n34f?l7}7d~wf zOt@ea%}&4eaP&!Z^F08M{ZyP?*#lDc6A>Mvm{>B|7RO3m5b_jay>ecbWHsp>ywz-I zR>wJn&eS2ZG8UOk&EP9idc=OLAj0vwh6ocxXiptI%Tnv7wpEaOZDLnOsC(gHDFgun z#prymMp;m0B$<^0h)?K%GEly-SYEK*9DAl3D4=3@tRo{5b&9gGO-dYK0iGb34yi;E zakLg&<=I*e;CS#jE_UI^7jywGLg}!^mz+4>6mP@nWsAEsS+ZsYhY9;PQ1Zlu8AMvg z-;QbVEqfN_oTywDnboI;6n@0cnKWv^t#0El0nwt&69N}OG~}t+=C|*N(FEUS7K`SC z`)!H=m0&aKVb+2|Z8skiI}&{cuCG{$nrFc)_5_t}lzzkpO>PZ-BV_0KqF@KlgDOvq z+-)}kiYcU`>9TsUHum41Z9&F;wCQB@5d4JEgu9@B7Ln&zPQKPSOGb>c=OfNUG1RS7 zU?%pq9)6tY2^j!oUNo>ID~OZM4AjgjhTzj$yWaQI$<_q;V?@de^B1FmUk%-@Yn`p5 zyTtxALUt?gUd0MK6-5XoM{PI1WXGjxsCo%kTkXJ#%dIoK>(h}Q4gLY`VQvLB;P=|jCiFSS;kybdxgW0@X%18u%~Sel`=%XE4dl7q zWL<(}c7&I$cn=+BtKkXTu3pe^VFrYupBgM!(!4iID)Q>s?v|`IUKmWbp4II3*q8P$ zd-j4WFnY6vk-3au>DUx&Wv>==(;!#R)XdW!2~#UBG>_~PfG$pa=f83zp?AuQntF?S ztJOl=jUU0<3uFXXEVLozR3%=k_ow{x8&q4)>i_W{RXgIVF5L}D9*2K?hg zwUa_UzOc3<5aRk+^Gu3$1eZ6f z;WA*REs)G|P>7-liFFLi!z_PDmn&r}wPkMZ?44+qUNgFpjlfxupq~fj%PobYYR=P2 zkoAl+AsOV$nyU>`AjoWcE`8i7HIK63@3#Aktcz6TwQT*Y?rgp?I9^|+8@{o%6B@XQ zCk@}_x;`a=FNrfQN|LfQKPUV%-rf2}IT>Il1@!QFup7>NA6u7q?|$V9Ai8+AuDjcT zbVk0}nqO-Lso92sn$V-^QdrFFga2Mrnk(;AB&FjTsN)bmZ!ynWo#$6Zz`NbLd3OSt+JOWo!R=^UEjuN~F~q zs;>vwM1OFvefVaX7j{FPtz0ePh@Cs-@vZfiS_;0CfF#7aD`nj;++2@%o2P#s;CuIe zcASeqwee=(dDu*8069a?W&nAQz6iFbYEQx{>MQ$q-}stE`dgurtr51tAJ}Kj^cS~R z-bLzL30ZSf0quaj`w=eb&&$fQ&NJP8=YxpH7cSbdsc+G=%@k{D-j5dhVk+HcuU+TZ z2qt!bkLF$+mPY^(V!PP3IpK0+Be`rl*mZbr)DFf|9vVBXk-E*prkyYvnE jeE~x@xys+ZLRdCQ+ literal 0 HcmV?d00001 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/century.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/century.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bf7a9665 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/century.txt @@ -0,0 +1,605 @@ + [Speech: Massachusetts Libertarian Party: + 200th Birthday of the Bill of Rights, December 19, 1991.] + + + + The occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the Bill of +Rights reminds us to be very worried about the growth since World War Il +of a national-security oligarchy, a secret and invisible state within +the public state. + + The national-security state has come upon us not all at once but +bit by bit over a span of several decades. It is useful to review the +episodes -- the ones that are now known to us -- through which the current +situation evolved. + + 1. 1945: The Gehlen Deal + + Wild Bill Donovan of the wartime Office of Strategic Services, +the OSS, proposed to President Roosevelt before the war was over that +the United States should setup a permanent civilian intelligence agency, +but military foes of Donovan leaked his plan to a conservative +journalist, Walter Trohan, who exposed the idea in the Chicago _Tribune_ +and denounced it as an" American Gestapo." [1] + + But only a few weeks after this. after Roosevelt's death and the +inauguration of Harry Truman. In the utmost secrecy, the Army was taking +its own much more dangerous steps toward an American Gestapo. + + Days after the Nazi surrender in May 1945, a US Army command +center in southern Germany was approached by Nazi Brigadier General +Reinhard Gehlen. Gehlen was the chief of the Nazi intelligence apparatus +known as the FHO, Foreign Armies East. The FHO ran spy operations +throughout East Europe and the Soviet Union during the war, and it +remained intact during the late-war period when the rest of the +Wehrmacht was crumbling. In fact, the FHO was the one part of the +Naziwar machine that continued to recruit new members right through the +end of the war. SS men at risk of war crimes charges in particular were +told to join with Gehlen, go to ground, and await further orders. + + Gehlen presented himself for surrender to the American forces +with an arrogant, take-me-to-your-leader attitude and was for a few +weeks shunted aside by GIs who were unimpressed by his demand for +red-carpet treatment. But he had an interesting proposal to make and was +soon brought before high-level officers of the Army's G-2 intelligence +command. + + Gehlen's proposal in brief: Now that Germany has been defeated, +he told his captors, everyone knows that the pre-war antagonism between +the Soviet Union and the United States will reappear - Who emerges with +the upper hand in Europe may well depend on the quality of either side's +intelligence. The Soviets are well known to have many spies placed in +the United States and the American government, but the Americans have +almost no intelligence capability in East Europe and the Soviet Union. +Therefore, Gehlen proposes that the United States Army adopt the FHO in +its entirety, including its central staff, as well as its underground +intelligence units, several thousand men strong, throughout East Europe +and the U.S.S.R. Thus, the FHO will continue doing what it was doing for +Hitler that is, fighting Bolshevism - but will now do it for the United +States. + + The OSS was formally dismantled in the fall of 1945 at the very +moment at which General Gehlen and six of his top aides were settling +into comfortable quarters at the army's Fort Hunt in Virginia, not far +from the Pentagon. For the next several months, in highly secret +conversations, Gehlen and the U.S. Army hammered out the terms of their +agreement. By February 1946, Gehlen and his staff were back in Europe, +installed in a new village-sized compound in Pullach, from which they +set about the business of reactivating their wartime intelligence +network, estimated at between 6,000 and 20,000 men, all of them former +Nazis and SS members, many of them wanted for war crimes but now (like +the famous Klaus Barbie) protected through Gehlen's deal with the United +States both from the Nuremberg Tribunal and the de-Nazification +program. + + Thus it was that the superstructure of the United States' +post-war intelligence system was laid on the foundation of an international +Nazi spy ring that had come to be the last refuge of SS war criminals who +had no other means of escaping judgment. The Gehlen Org, as it came to be +called by the few Americans who knew about it (and needless to say, the United +States Congress knew nothing of the Gehlen deal, and the evidence is strong +that Truman knew very little, if anything at all, about it) continued to serve +the United States as its eyes and ears on Europe and the U.S.S.R. until 1955. +At that time, fulfilling one of the terms of the secret treaty of Fort Hunt in +1945, the entire Gehlen Org was transferred to the new West German government, +which gave it the name of the Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, and which +the descendants of General Gehlen serve to this day. The BND continued to serve +as the backbone of NATO intelligence and is said to have supplied well into the +1960s something in the order of seventy percent of the NATO intelligence take. + + This is the base upon which the U.S. intelligence system was +founded. The National Security Act of 1947 reorganized the military and +created the CIA, but the Gehlen Org was the base from which U.S. +intelligence developed throughout the decades of the Cold War. I am not +trying to imply here that Stalin was not a villain or that Soviet +communism was not a threat to Europe. I am saying rather that everything +American policymakers believed they knew about Europe and the U.S.S.R. +well into the 1960s was sent to them by an intelligence network made up +completely of Hitler's most dedicated Nazis. I believe this fact helps to +explain how the American national-security community evolved the +quasi-fascistic credo we can observe developing in the following incidents. + + 2. 1945: Operation Shamrock + + This program, set up by the Pentagon and turned over to the +National Security Agency after 1947, was discovered and shut down by +Congress in 1975. As a House committee explained in a 1979 report, +Shamrock intercepted "virtually all telegraphic traffic sent to, from, +or transitting the United States." Said the House report,'Operation +Shamrock was the largest government interception program affecting +Americans" ever carried out. In a suit brought by the ACLU in the 1978 +to declassify Shamrock files, the Defense Department claimed that either +admitting or denying that the Shamrock surveillance took place, never +mind revealing actual files, would disclose "state secrets." A judicial +panel decided in the Pentagon's favor despite the ACLU's argument that +to do so was 'dangerously close to an open ended warrant to intrude on +liberties guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.' [2] + + 3. 1945: Project Paperclip + + This is perhaps the most famous of such programs but it is still +not well understood. The U.S. Army wanted German rocket scientists both +for its own interest in rocketry and to keep them out of the hands of +the Soviets, who had the same ambitions. United States law forbade these +scientists' entry into the U.S., however, because they were all Nazis +and members of the SS, including the prize among them, Dr. Werner von +Braun. The Army acted unilaterally, therefore, in bringing the rocket +scientists to the United States as prisoners of war and defining the +Redstone rocket laboratory in Huntsville as a POW compound. Later the +Paperclip scientists were de- Nazified by various bureaucratic means and +emplaced at the center of the military space program. What is not well +understood is that hundreds of additional Nazi SS members who had +nothing at all to contribute to a scientific program were also admitted. +This included the SS bureaucrat who oversaw the slave labor efforts in +digging the underground facilities at the Nazi rocket base on +Peenemunde. [3] + + 4. 1947: Project Chatter + + The U.S. Navy initiated this program to continue Nazi +experiments in extracting truth from unwilling subjects by chemical +means, especially mind-altering drugs such as Mescaline. This was at the +same time that U.S. investigative elements detailed to the Nuremberg +Tribunal were rounding up Nazis suspected of having experimented with +"truth serums" during World War II. Such experiments are banned by +international law. [4] + + 5. 1948: Election Theft + + New to the world and eager to learn, the CIA immediately began +spending secret money to influence election results in France and Italy. +Straight from the womb, it thus established a habit of intervention +which, despite being rationalized in terms of the Red menace abroad, +would ultimately find expression within the domestic interior. [5] + + 6. 1953: MK-Ultra + + The CIA picked up the Navy's Project Chatter and throughout the +1950s and '60s ran tests on involuntary and unwitting subjects using +truth drugs and electro-magnetic fields to see if it could indeed +control a subject's mind without the subject's being aware. This +research continued despite the fact that the United States signed the +Nuremberg Code in 1953 stipulating that subjects must be aware, must +volunteer, must have the aid of a supervising doctor, and must be +allowed to quit the experiment at any moment. + + 7. 1953: HT/Lingual + + The CIA began opening all mail traveling between United States +and the U.S.S.R. and China. HT/Lingual ran until 1973 before it was +stopped. We found out about it in 1975. [6] + + 8. 1953: Operation Ajax + + The CIA overthrew Premier Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, +complaining of his neutralism in the Cold War, and installed in his +place General Fazlollah Zahedi, a wartime Nazi collaborator. Zahedi +showed his gratitude by giving 25-year leases on forty percent of Iran's +oil to three American firms. One of these firms, Gulf Oil, was fortunate +enough a few years later to hire as a vice president the CIA agent +Kermit Roosevelt, who had run Operation Ajax. Did this coup set the +clock ticking on the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80? [7] + + 9. 1954: Operation Success + + The CIA spent $20 million to overthrow the democratically +elected Jacabo Arbenz in Guatemala for daring to introduce an agrarian +reform program that the United Fruit Company found threatening. General +Walter Bedell Smith, CIA director at the time, later joined the board of +United Fruit. [8] + + 10. 1954: News Control + + The CIA began a program of infiltration of domestic and foreign +institutions, concentrating on journalists and labor unions. Among the +targeted U.S. organizations was the National Student Association, which +the CIA secretly supported to the tune of some $200,000 a year. This +meddling with an American and thus presumably off-limits organization +remained secret until _Ramparts_ magazine exposed it in 1967. It was at +this point that mainstream media first became curious about the CIA and +began unearthing other cases involving corporations, research centers, +religious groups and universities. [9] + + 11. 1960-1961: Operation Zapata + + Castro warned that the United States was preparing an invasion +of Cuba, but this was 1960 and we all laughed. We knew in those days the +United States did not do such things. Then came the Bay of Pigs, and we +were left to wonder how such an impossible thing could happen. + + 12. 1960--63: Task Force W + + Only because someone still anonymous inside the CIA decided to +talk about it to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975, we +discovered that the CIA's operations directorate decided in September +1960: (a) that it would be good thing to murder Fidel Castro and other +Cuban leaders, (b) that it would be appropriate to hire the Mafia to +carry these assassinations out, and (c) that there would be no need to +tell the President that such an arrangement was being made. After all, +was killing not the Mafia's area of expertise? + + It hardly seemed to trouble the CIA that the Kennedy +administration was at the very same time trying to mount a war on +organized crime focusing on precisely the Mafia leaders that the CIA was +recruiting as hired assassins. + + 13. 1964: Brazil + + Two weeks after the Johnson administration announced the end of +the JFK Alliance for Progress with its commitment to the principle of +not aiding tyrants, the CIA staged and the U.S. Navy supported a coup +d'etat in Brazil over-throwing the democratically elected Joao Goulart. +Within twenty-four hours a new right-wing government was installed, +congratulated and recognized by the United States. + + 14. 1965: The DR + + An uprising in the Dominican Republic was put down with the help +of 20,000 U.S. Marines. Ellsworth Bunker, the U.S. ambassador, Abe +Fortas, a new Supreme Court justice and a crony of LBJ's presidential +advisors (Adolf Berle, Averill Harriman, and Joseph Farland) were all on +the payroll of organizations such as the National Sugar Refining +Company, the Sucrest Company, the National Sugar Company, and the South +Puerto Rico Sugar Company--all of which had holdings in the Dominican +Republic that were threatened by the revolution. + + 15. 1967: The Phoenix Program + + A terror and assassination program conceived by the CIA but +implemented by the military command targeted Viet Cong cadres by name +-- a crime of war, according to international law. At least twenty thousand +were killed, according to the CIA's own William Colby, of whom some 3,000 +were political assassinations. A CIA analyst later observed "They +killed a lot of the wrong damn people". [10] + + 16. August 1967: COINTELPRO + + Faced with mounting public protest against the Vietnam War, the +PBI formally inaugurated its so-called COINTELPRO operations, a +rationalized and extended form of operations under way for at least a +year. A House committee reported in 1979 that "the FBI Chicago Field +Office files ù ù ù in 1966 alone contained the identities of a small +army of 837 informers, all of whom reported on antiwar activists' political +activities, views or beliefs, and none of whom reported on any unlawful +activities by these activists." [11] + + 17. October 1967: MH/Chaos + + Two months after the PBI started up COINTELPRO, the CIA followed +suit with MH/Chaos, set up in the counterintelligence section run by a +certifiable paranoid named James Jesus Angleton. Even though the illegal +Chaos infiltration showed that there was no Soviet financing or +manipulation of the antiwar movement, Johnson refused to accept this, +and the operation continued in to the Nixon administration. By 1971, CIA +agents were operating everywhere there were students inside America, +infiltrating protest groups not only to spy on them but to provide +authentic cover stories they could use while traveling abroad and +joining foreign anti-war groups. Chaos was refocused on international +terrorism in 1972, but another operation, Project Resistance, conducted +out of the CIA Office of Security, continued surveillance of American +domestic dissent until it was ended in June 1973. + + 18. April 1968: The King Plot + + The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. led at once to +massive urban riots, the breakup of the nonviolent civil rights movement +and in ten years to a congressional investigation that found evidence of +conspiracy, despite the initial finding that, as in the JFK case, the +assassin was a lone nut. The conspiracy evidence included proof that the +FBI had directly threatened King and that, in the certain knowledge that +King was a target of violent hate groups, the Memphis Police Department +had withdrawn its protective surveillance and had let this fact be known +publically via newspaper, radio, and television broadcasts. + + 19. June 1968: The RFK Hit + + The assassination of Robert Kennedy came on the heels of his +victory in the California presidential primary. This victory had +virtually guaranteed his nomination as an antiwar presidential candidate +at the Democratic convention in August. The assassinations of King and +the second Kennedy were body blows to the civil rights and the antiwar +movements and drove nails in the coffins of those who were still +committed to the principles of democratic nonviolent struggle. + + From now on there would be virtually nothing left of the +organized movement except the Black Panthers and the Weathermen, both +committed to violence and thus both of them doomed. The official +verdict in Robert Kennedy's murder was, predictably enough, that it was +the work of another lone nut. This conclusion was reached by a +still-secret Los Angeles Police Department investigation, despite the +fact that L.A. coroner Thomas Noguchi found that most of RFK's wounds were +fired point blank behind him whereas the alleged assassin Sirhan Sirhan, by +unanimous testimony of many eyewitnesses, never got his pistol closer to +Kennedy than six feet and was always in front of him. It was true +nevertheless, that Sirhan fired. It was also true that he was, and +apparently remains, insane. Sirhan has claimed several times that he +was "programmed" to carry out the assassination by unnamed sources. Was Sirhan +the offspring of Project Chatter and/or MK-Ultra? + + 20. 1969: Operation Minaret + + This was a CIA program charted to intercept (according to a +House Report) "the international communications of selected American +citizens and groups on the basis of lists of names, 'watchlists,' +supplied by other government agencies...The Program applied not only to +alleged foreign influence on domestic dissent, but also to American +groups and individuals whose activities 'may result in civil +disturbances...'" [14] + + 21. April 1971: Helms protests + + In a rare public speech to the American Society of Newspaper +Editors, CIA Director Richard Helms asked the nation to "take it on +faith that we too are honorable men devoted to her service." He went on +to say, "We do not target on American citizens." [15] + + 22. 1972: Watergate + + As though to give body to Helms' touching promise, seven CIA +Operatives detailed to the Nixon White House played the same political +game the CIA learned abroad in all its clandestine manipulations from +France to Brazil, from Italy to Guatemala, but now in the context of +U.S. Presidential politics. Whether through sheer fluke or a subtle +counter-conspiracy, Nixon's CIA burglars were caught in the act, and two +years later Nixon was therefore forced to resign. For a moment, a +window opened into the heart of darkness. + + 23. 1973: Allende Murdered + + Frustrated in its 1970 efforts to control the Chilean election, +the CIA resorted to murder once again in the elimination of Salvador +Allende. Allende government official Orlando Letelier along with an +American supporter, Ronnie Moffit, were also killed, not far away in +Chile, but in Dupont Circle in our nation's capital. + + 24. Late 1970s: "Defenders of Democracy" + + As death squads raged through Latin America, FBI agents and U.S. +marshals in Puerto Rico secretly created, trained and armed a super-secret +police unit named "Defenders of Democracy" and dedicated to the assassination +of leaders of the Puerto Rican independence movement. [16] +This was in the Jimmy Carter period. Did Carter know? + + 25. 1980: October Surprise + + The facts in this strange first act of the Iran-Contra episode +are still in dispute, but the charge made by Barbara Honegger, activist +in the Reagan 1980 campaign, and by Carter national security aide Gary +Sick, is of megascandal dimensions. + + Honegger and Sick claim in outline that in 1980 William Casey, +long-time U.S. super-spy but at that point without the least portfolio, +led a secret Reagan campaign delegation to Europe to strike a secret +deal with Iran, a nation with which the United States was virtually at +war because of the 42 hostages Iran had seized from the U.S. embassy. + + In the alleged deal, Iran agreed not to release the hostages +until the U.S. presidential race was over, thus denying President Carter +the political benefit of getting the hostages back. Reagan agreed that, +if elected, he would help Iran acquire certain weapons. Well, for a few +bucks here and there, too, of course, and something for Israel, but the +basic deal was U.S. Arms for U.S. hostages held by Iran. + + The basic deal was also so deeply criminal as to go beyond all +statutes but those that deal with treason. + + 26. 1970s and 1980s: The Noreiga Connection + + The CIA was exposed time and again throughout these decades in +big-time international dope trafficking. This was not altogether new. +Already in the late '60s we had discovered that this was happening in +Southeast Asia, where the CIA's regional airline, Air America, was found +deeply involved in the opium trade being run out of the so called Golden +Triangle centered in Laos and involving Chinese drug lords associated +with the anti-Communist Kuomintang. [17] The ClA's support in moving +large amounts of opium was valuable, it seemed, in maintaining good +relations with our anti-Communist friends. In the 1970s and '80s, CIA +drug operations appeared in this hemisphere for a related but even +better reason: they were a convenient way to finance anti-Communist +operations that the Congress would not fund. + + The rash of drug cases around former Panamanian strongman Manuel +Noriega--once a darling of the CIA until he dared oppose U.S. policy in +Nicaragua--provides a glimpse into the true heart of the contemporary +CIA. Noriega received as much as $10 million a month from the Medellin +Cartel (whose profits were $3 million a day) plus $200,000 a year from +the CIA for the use of Panamanian runways in transhipment of cocaine to +the north. + + Noriega is only in trouble today because he turned against the +Reaganauts. The real attitude of Reagan and Bush toward drug trafficking +is indicated much less in Noriega's trial itself than in the kind of +deals the Justice Department is willing to make to convict him. +According to a recent _Boston Globe_ news story, federal prosecution +have paid at least $1.5 million in "fees" for testimony against Noriega. +In addition, some government witnesses have received freedom from life +sentences, recovery of stashed drug profits and confiscated property, +and permanent U.S. residency and work permits for themselves and family +members. + + The best deals go to the biggest offenders, such as Carlos +Lehder. Leader of the Medellin Cartel, Lehder was sentenced to 145 years +in prison, but is probably facing a real sentence of less than five +years on account of his collaboration against Noriega. He is said to +have made a $10-million contribution to the contra cause. + + The case of Floyd Carlton is also instructive. Carlton was a +drug pilot whose testimony led to Noriega's indictment in 1988. He was +allowed by Bush's prosecutors to transfer his cocaine profits into the +U.S.tax-free. Bush also promised not to seize his various homes and +ranches and agreed to pay $210,000 to support his wife, three children, +and a nanny and to furnish them with permanent residence in the U.S. and +work permits. [18] + + 27. October 1986: The Enterprise + + A contra supply plane was shot down in Nicaragua. A low-level +CIA agent named Eugene Hassenfus was captured alive. Hassenfus chose not +to make a martyr of himself, and thus was born the Iran-Contra scandal, +a continuation of the politics of the October Surprise but on a far +grander scale. The CIA and the NSC were learning how to operate beyond +the reach of American Law. With the "free-standing, off-the-books" +organization they called "the Enterprise," capable of financing it's +operations from drug profits and thus independent of the exchequer, The +likes of Oliver North and John Poindexter and Theodore Shackley and +Thomas Clines and Rafael Quintero and William Casey had it made. They +could form U.S. policy pretty much by themselves, especially since the +super-patriot Ronald Reagan seemed content to blink and doze. Who cared +what Congress might think or say? As Admiral Poindexter put it so +eloquently, "I never believed . . . that the Boland Amendment ever +applied to the -- National Security Council staff." [19] + + 28. 1991: BCCI + + The main difference between the CIA's early Cold War scandals +and the ones we are seeing today is that the more recent ones are +immeasurably more complex. This is sharply true of our last two +examples, one of which is that of the still emerging scandal around the +Bank of Credit and Commerce International. The BCCI scandal appears to +involve the CIA in a far-flung international financial network created +for the primary purpose of laundering vast amounts of drug money and +with the secondary purpose of ripping off the unsuspecting smaller banks +that BCCI acquired in pursuit of its primary objective. + +One fascinating aspect of the BCCI scandal is that it may at last supply +us with the final solution of one of the outstanding riddles of the last +decades--namely, why does the government insist on keeping drugs illegal +since the only evident result of this is to keep the price of drugs (in +both dollars and lives) high? Could this be because it is the secret +elements of the Government--The CIA, the NSC, the Enterprise--that is actually +selling them? + + 29. 1991: Casolaro + + Finally, consider just briefly another case of astounding +complexity, still not at all exposed, still writhing in the +twilight--the case of Inslaw, Inc., involving the George Bush Justice +Department and the death of Danny Casolaro, a free-lance investigative +journalist with whom I happen to identify most closely, even though I +never met him. + + The story in brief: Inslaw, Inc. in the early 1980s was an +enterprising computer software company whose most important product was +a software program called Promis. Promis' appeal lay in the fact that it +made it possible for Justice Department attorneys to keep track of an +extremely large number of cases. The Justice Department bought Promis +from Inslaw in 1982 and began installing it in its various offices. + + Inslaw had completed nineteen installations of Promis within a +year, and all seemed to be going well. But suddenly the Justice +Department began to complain about Promis and soon was refusing to pay +Inslaw, which therefore careened into bankruptcy. + + The fact, however, was that nothing at all was wrong with +Promis. Rather, the Justice Department--so it is alleged--had made a +deal with Dr. Earl Brian, California health secretary under Governor +Ronald Reagan. In this alleged deal--which Dr. Brian denies--the Justice +Department would simply steal Inslaw's Promis software and give it to +Dr. Brian, who--would then be in a position to sell it back to the +Justice Department for an estimated $250 million. + + Part of the reason the Justice Department was willing to do this +for Dr. Brian, as the allegation continues, is that Brian had helped +persuade Iranian leaders to cooperate with Reagan in the October +Surprise operation of 1980. + + But there's more to the allegation. The attempt to get Promis +out of Inslaw's hands and into Dr. Brian's had two other purposes, +according to Inslaw's attorney, Elliot L. Richardson. The first was "to +generate revenue for covert operations not authorized by Congress. The +second was to supply foreign intelligence agencies with a software +system that would make it easier for U.S. eavesdroppers to read +intercepted signals." That is, a back door access was built into the +Promis software. Anyone who bought Promise was buying a Trojan Horse. + + Danny Casolaro had talked to many of the informants in this +case. Telling friends he was on his way to contact an informant who +would put the last piece in the picture, he left his home in Washington +in August l99l to travel to Martinsburg, West Virginia, where he took a +hotel room and waited for the informant to contact him. Before leaving +he had told his friends not to believe it if he died in a car accident. + + He was found dead in his room, in the bathtub, with both arms +slashed a total of twelve times. The Martinsburg police quickly ruled +his death a suicide and allowed his body to be embalmed immediately, +even before notifying his family of his death. His hotel room was +cleaned of the least indication that he had been in it. His briefcase +and his notes were never found. In his _New York Times_ op-ed piece +about this last October, Elliot Richardson ended by reminding his +readers that he had called for a special prosecutor once before. + + Richardson was the nominated Attorney General in 1973 and +resigned in disagreement with Nixon, calling for a special prosecutor to +investigate Watergate. + + Now Richardson wants another special prosecutor to probe the +Inslaw case. He believes Casolaro was murdered and that evidence points +to "a widespread conspiracy implicating lesser government officials in +the theft of Inslaw's technology." These same officials, of course, +would also be involved in the apparent attempt to generate funding for +illegal covert operations and to sneak Trojan Horse software into the +systems by which other governments monitor their litigation caseloads. + + + + + + + We can be sure at least that the events we have briefly reviewed +here are not isolated and separate. In the painful story that begins +with General of the Third Reich Reinhard Gehlen and continues down to +the death of Danny Casolaro, we face a stream of systemically connected +corruption and abuses of power. + + A secret state has set itself up within the darkest corners of +the American government. It is what Nixon adviser John Dean called a +cancer on the presidency, but it has metastasized well beyond the White +House. It is not paranoia to call attention to this, but a simple act +of realism. + + + NOTES + +1. John Ranalegh, The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA (New + York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), p. 80. + +2. House Select Committee on Assassinations: Report, vol. Vlll, pp. + 506-08. + +3. Linda Hunt, Secret Agenda (New York: St. Martins Press, 1990). + +4. Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams (New York: Grove + Press, 1985). + +5. Ranalegh, p. 131. + +6. Ibid., p. 270. + +7. Ibid., p. 261-64. + +8. Ibid., p. 268. + +9. Ibid., p. 246, p. 471. + +10. Ibid., p. 440, p. 553. + +11. HSCA, vol. VIII, p. 524. + +12. Ranalegh, p. 534. + +13. The HSCA Report. Findings and Recommendations (Washington: U.S. + Government Printing Office, 1979). See p. 407 re the FBI and p. + 418 re the MPD. + +14. HSCA, vol. VIII, p. 507. + +15. Ranalegh, p. 281. + +16. See Boston Globe and New York Times stories of January 29, 1992. + +17. See Alfred McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (New + York: Harper Colophon, 1973). + +18. Boston Globe, Dec. 13, 1991. + +19. Iran-Contra Trading Cards #35. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cfp1-sum b/textfiles.com/politics/cfp1-sum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..759fbd87 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cfp1-sum @@ -0,0 +1,723 @@ +Date: Mon, 1 Apr 91 22:56:31 EST + +[not an April Fool's joke] + +From: mercuri@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Rebecca Mercuri) + +Subject: Computers, Freedom, Privacy Trip Report + +The following constitutes my trip report for the Computers, Freedom and +Privacy Conference held March 26-28, Airport Marriott Hotel, +Burlingame, California. Although I have made a sincere attempt to +relate the events of the conference in a fair and unbiased manner, the +nature of the material covered entails a certain amount of emotion and +it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate one's own feelings from +the subject matter. I therefore apologize for any inadvertent mistakes, +omissions, or philosophical commentary. Readers are encouraged to send +corrections to me at the email address below. No flames please! + +Respectfully submitted, R. T. Mercuri + +mercuri@gradient.cis.upenn.edu + + +No portion of this document may be copied or distributed for commercial +purposes without the prior express written permission of the author. +Non-commercial uses are permitted, but the author and source must be +credited. +Copyright (C) 1991 R. T. Mercuri. All Rights Reserved. [Edited lightly +by PGN and included in RISKS with permission of the author.] + +This work was partially supported by the University of Pennsylvania's +Distributed Systems Laboratory as a part of its promotion of the +professional activities of its students. Matching funds were also +provided by Election Watch, a division of the Urban Policy Research +Institute, a non-profit organization. + + +====================================================================== +The First Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy was organized +and chaired by Jim Warren, and sponsored by the Computer Professionals +for Social Responsibility (CPSR). Numerous other organizations also +lent their support to the conference, which was attended by +approximately 400 individuals (described by Terry Winograd as ranging +>from the sandals of Silicon Valley to the dark suits of Washington) +covering the fields of law, investigation, programming, engineering, +computer science, hacking, industry, media, academics, government, law +enforcement, and civil rights. The crowd was about 75% male, with very +few minorities in evidence (only ~10% of the speakers were female, and +none were minorities). Attendees formed a veritable who's who of +hacking with key figures such as Captain Crunch, Phiber Optik, Steve +Jackson, Craig Neidorf, and other notables there, some accompanied by +an entourage of defense and prosecuting attorneys. Cliff Stoll and Ted +Nelson (separately) took the opportunity to distribute copies of their +books and give autos. (Cliff was fond of playing with a brightly- +colored yo-yo and writing memos to himself on his hand, Ted appeared to +be creating a video record of the conference by filming each speaker +with a small hand-held camera for a few seconds as each talk began.) A +list of attendees was distributed, providing all information that each +participant marked as "open". The vast majority of participants +provided their name, company, address, phone number and email address. +Some people remarked privately that had they been more aware of the +manner in which such information is currently being used, they likely +would have "closed" more of their own data. (The list was printed in +name-alphabetical order so it was unfortunately possible to derive the +names of individuals who elected not to be listed.) + +Jim Warren, who described himself as a self-made multi-millionaire, +entrepreneur, futures columnist, and member of the board of directors +of MicroTimes and Autodesk, Inc., took a severe loss on the conference. +He had estimated break-even at 500 participants, but had only achieved +around 300 paid admissions as most of the media and some staff members +attended for free. To his credit, he organized a fast-paced, well-run +(on-time) conference which allowed many of the key figures in this +field to present their thoughts and ideas. Audio and videotapes, as +well as the conference proceedings (published by Springer-Verlag) will +be available shortly [write to CFP Proceedings, 345 Swett Road, +Woodside, CA 94062]. The conference was preceded by a day of tutorial +sessions, but I was unable to attend those activities. + +My major criticism regarding the conference was that the sheer volume +of speakers (over 20 per day) allowed little time for questioning from +the audience. Many of those who were not wearing red speaker's badges +began feeling like second-class citizens whose opinions were neither +wanted nor recognized. If someone managed to obtain a microphone and +used it to make a statement rather than to ask a question, they were +routinely hissed by a large portion of the audience. The unresolved +tension became most obvious on the last day of the conference when, +during the panel discussion on Electronic Speech, Press & Assembly, a +loud altercation broke out in the front of the room. This panel had a +representative from Prodigy Services, but the person who was supposed +to give opposing commentary (apparently regarding the email privacy +issue) had been unable to appear. Certain attendees were prepared to +present their views, but were informed that they would not be permitted +to do so. A private meeting was arranged for those who wished to +discuss the Prodigy matter, but many found this to be unacceptable. + +An oft-heard word describing the material revealed during the +conference was "chilling". After the second day of the conference I +became aware of how invasive the monitoring systems have become. As I +returned to my room within the hotel, I realized that my use of the +electronic pass-key system could alert the hotel staff of my entry and +exit times. People could leave messages for me, which would be reported +on my television screen, all of this being recorded in some database +somewhere, possibly not being erased after my departure. My entire +hotel bill, including phone calls and meal charges could also be +displayed on my television screen, along with my name, for anyone to +access (without a password) if they were in my room. Chilling indeed. +Pondering all of this, I left the room, lured to the hotel lobby by the +sound of what I assumed to be a cocktail piano player. When I located +the baby grand piano I realized that, through the high-tech wonders of +Yamaha, no human sat at the keyboard. A sophisticated computerized unit +rendered a seemingly- endless sequence of expertly arranged tunes, with +no requests allowed from the audience. This ghostly image reemphasized, +to me, the silent pervasion of computers into our daily lives, and the +potential erosion of personal freedom and privacy. + +Throughout the conference, many problems were posed, few answers were +given. Factions developed --- some people felt we needed more laws, +some people felt we needed fewer laws, some felt that all data +(including program code) should be free and accessible to everyone, +some felt that everything is personal property and should be +specifically released by the owner(s) prior to general use. Certain +people felt that all problems could be resolved by tightly encrypting +everything at all times (the issue of password distribution and +retention was ignored). What was resolved was to form an organization +called the US Privacy Council which "will attempt to build a consensus +on privacy needs, means, and ends, and will push to educate the +industry, legislatures, and citizens about privacy issues." The first +thing this organization did was form a newsgroup, called alt.privacy. I +observed that at least 50 messages were posted to this newsgroup within +the 3 days following the conference, most pertaining to privacy of +emails. This was disappointing, to say the least. Presumably people +will use the mailing list and the newsgroup to disseminate information, +but whether this is merely a duplication of other existing newsgroups +(such as RISKS), and whether the Privacy Council will have any impact +at all, shall be left to be seen. + +The conference opened with a comment by Jim Warren that this meeting +could be "the first Constitutional Convention of the new frontier". He +then introduced Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe who used the +analogy of cyberspace to describe some of the problems of a "virtual +constitutional reality". He quoted Eli Noam as saying that "networks +become political entities" and that there could conceivably be "data +havens", private networks much like Swiss bank accounts, which are +virtual governments in themselves. He asserted that a bulletin board +sysop is not a publisher, in the same way that a private bookstore +owner is not a publisher. The individual merely makes the products +available, and has the responsibilities of a seller, not a publisher. +Tribe then went on to delineate five major points. First, there is a +vital difference between governmental (public) and private actions. +Second, ownership is an issue that goes beyond that which may be +technologically feasible. Property encourages productivity. You have a +constitutional right to inhabit your own body. Free speech may be a +luxury we can't afford (like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, or +viruses roaming the network). Third, the government cannot control +speech as such. Recently it was ruled that answers to very simple +questions (such as your name, age) are considered testimonial, as they +require the use of the human mind. Fourth, the Constitution was founded +on a normative understanding of humanity, and should not be subject to +disproof by science and technology. The words of the 4th Amendment +apply to material things, it defends people, not places. It is the task +of law to inform and project an evolutionary reading of the bill of +rights to new situations. Fifth, Constitutional principles should not +vary with accidents of technology. In conclusion, Tribe proposed an +additional amendment to the constitution which asserted that "this +Constitution's protection for freedom of speech, press, +assembly...shall be construed as fully applicable without regard to the +technological medium used." + +The first panel discussion of the conference was titled: Trends in +Computers and Networks. Peter Denning of NASA Ames introduced the panel +by stating that computers are now under attack due to security being +added on as an afterthought. John Quarterman of Texas Internet +Consulting then discussed the manner in which user/host names could be +made more readable (accessable) on the network. Peter Neumann of SRI +overviewed general issues surrounding the authorship of the "Computers +at Risk" book, stating that the group involved with the text was +primarily interested in motivating efforts towards evaluating safe, +secure, reliable systems (and that they only proposed general +guidelines in the text). He warned the listeners "don't wait for the +catastrophe". Neumann also mentioned the issue of disenfranchization of +the poor and lower class who will be unable to access the new +technology, stating that "gaps are getting much bigger". Martin Hellman +of Stanford University discussed cryptography. He stated that the 56 +bit DES standard was set not by technology, but instead by economics. +He mentioned a study at Bell Labs that indicated that 70% of all +passwords there could be cracked using a dictionary technique. He +believes that technology will not solve all of our problems, and that +persons who are concerned about social responsibility are not +(necessarily) anti-technical. David Chaum of DigiCash spoke about +informational rights and secure channels with regard to electronic +money transactions. He believes that with an adequately encrypted +system there is no necessity for a central, mutually trusted party. The +problem is in finding a practical encryption protocol, or a +distributed, mutually-trusted tamper-proof box solution. David Farber +of the University of Pennsylvania expressed the view that protection +schemes might not be "retrofittable" and should be part of the +fundamental design of computer architecture, protocols and technology, +rather than being tacked on, but he worried that people may not be +willing to pay for these design features. Farber also mentioned the +possibility of retroactive wiretapping, where archived data could be +obtained through invasive means. + +The second panel session was titled: International Perspectives and +Impacts. Ronald Plesser of the Washington D.C. law firm of Piper & +Marbury first mentioned that these issues impact on how international +business is conducted. Many countries, particularly in Europe, have +already established standards with which we must comply. Databases +feeding Europe must be concerned with the processing of personal data +of individuals. Certain directives have been authored that are so +general in scope as to be difficult to apply ("to all files located in +its territory" was one example). Tom Riley, of Riley Information +Services in Canada, continued this discussion regarding data protection +policies. He urged the authoring of a harmonized directive, similar to +that for other exports. The United States, by lagging behind in +establishing standards of its own, risks the possibility of losing the +opportunity to affect these policies as they are being written. David +Flaherty entertained the crowd with his "George Bush" speech, stressing +that "privacy begins at home". Robert Veeder of the D.C. Office of +Information Regulatory Affairs discussed the impact of the 30,000+ +messages to Lotus which effectively stopped the production of their CD- +ROM database. This electronic lobbying had never been used to such +great effect prior to that time. He believes the electronic forum will +provide larger access to public concerns. (The impression I was left +with was that certain governmental agencies are not wholly enthusiastic +about this powerful method of expression, and that they are monitoring +the situation.) +Next, we heard from a variety of speakers on the subject of Personal +Information and Privacy. Janlori Goldman, of the ACLU, discussed the +"library lending" project by the FBI. This was an attempt to track +library usage habits of foreign nationals. The ACLU objects to this +sort of surveillance as well as other similar broad-based methods. An +audience member criticized the ACLU's own release of membership data, +to which Janlori replied that she did not agree with her organization's +policy to allow such releases, but was currently unable to do more than +protest against it. John Baker, Senior Vice President of Equifax, +described the benefits of information with regard to improved goods, +services, prices, convenience and wider choices. (Equifax is an +organization which supplies marketplace data with specific information +about consumers.) He stressed that people need to understand their +rights, responsibilities and opportunities with regard to their +published data. He believes that the Lotus Marketplace product was +flawed because of the delay involved when customers wanted to "opt-out" +of the database. He portrayed a spectrum of controls over data usage, +ranging from no restrictions (free speech), through some restrictions +(based on impact, sensitivity, access, security and confidentiality), +to absolute restrictions (where the available information would have +little value). Equifax took a survey on consumer interest in +availability of data for direct marketing purposes which revealed that +75% would find it acceptable as long as there is a facility to opt-out. +An audience member raised the point that the default is opt-out rather +than opt-in. + +These two speakers were followed by a debate between Marc Rotenberg, +Washington Office Director of the Computer Professionals for Social +Responsibility, and Alan Westin, Professor of Public Law and Government +at Columbia University, with the subject "should individuals have +absolute control over secondary use of their personal information?" +Marc argued in favor of the statement, using an eloquent oratorial +style, and Alan spoke in opposition with the demeanor of a seasoned +litigator. Marc made such statements as "we are all privacy advocates +about something in our personal lives", "it is the most fragile +freedom" and "protect privacy, change the default", stressing that the +individual should have the right to control the value and use of their +personal information. Alan outlined four major issues: 1. Nature of the +secondary use; 2. Society should decide on fair uses, not a nihilistic +veto; 3. Underpinning of constitutional democracy; 4. Adequate control +protects against potential misuse. He believes that the consumer +benefits from the advantages of a knowledge society. No winner/loser of +the debate was declared. + +Speakers continued on the subject of Personal Information and Privacy. +Lance Hoffman, of the EE & CS department at George Washington +University, mentioned that Japan will be instituting a system of +personal phone number calling --- basically you can send and receive +calls at your "own" phone number wherever you happen to be situated. +This permits very close tracking of individual movements and is a +potential further invasion of privacy. He noted that no one has ever +received the ACM Turing Award for a socially responsible system, and +encouraged positive recognition of achievements along these lines. He +also recommended that a "dirty dozen" list of worst systems be compiled +and distributed. + +Evan Hendricks, editor and publisher of Privacy Times, listed many +records that are and are not currently protected by law from +distribution. Interestingly, video rental records are protected, but +medical records are not. He cited an interesting example of a +circumstance where a man and woman living in the same home (but with +different last names) were sent copies of each other's bills, urging +them to encourage their "roommate" to pay. It turned out that the +individuals were landlady and tenant. Another interesting fact that +Evan revealed was that studies indicate ~30% of social security numbers +in some databases are inaccurate. Lists of persons having filed +Workmen's Compensation claims have, in some cases, been used to +blacklist people from jobs. Hendricks urged people to ban the recording +and distribution of human genome information --- some parents +voluntarily provide cellular test results in case their child is later +missing or kidnapped. There is no way to know how these records are +likely to be used in the future. + +Tom Mandel, director of the Values and Lifestyles Program (VALS) at +SRI, spoke in favor of the Lotus Marketplace product. He felt that the +30K response was not representative of the general public, and believes +that a small percentage of "media sophisticates" can have apply greater +leverage. He noted that VALS is currently involved with a joint venture +with Equifax, who is currently involved with a joint venture with +Lotus. + +Willis Ware, of the RAND Corporation, chaired the HEW committee that +led to the 1980 privacy act (a reporter preparing materials for +publication can not be searched). He felt that the government +previously was considered to be a threat to privacy, not a protector, +and considers the privacy issue as one of social equity. He indicated +that personal information should not be considered to be private +property, and should be shared in an equitable manner. To apply +royalties for usage would place a tremendous impact on costs. He noted +that the databases behind airline, pharmacy and point-of-sale systems +may be open to access by various groups including the Internal Revenue +Service and Drug Enforcement personnel. + +Simon Davies, a member of the law faculty at Australia's University of +New South Wales, provided a sobering criticism of this conference and +the United States' policy making processes, stating that the conference +was too "nice" and "conciliatory" and that the "US is an embarrassment +to the privacy issue". He used the term "pragvocate" (pragmatic +advocate) to describe policy-makers who are well-trained, say the right +things, and denounce extremes, giving environmentalists as an example. +He reminded us that the basis of the US system is not to "opt-out" --- +no one would write to the LA police asking "don't beat me up". Davies +alerted us to the fact that Thailand, an oppressive military +government, is currently purchasing US technology to provide smart ID +cards for their citizens. He noted that the Smithsonian Institute +awarded them a trophy for their use of technology. He stated that the +United States is encouraging similar activities in the Philippines and +Indonesia. + +A somewhat light-hearted after-dinner talk was delivered by Eli Noam, +of Columbia University's School of Business, on the subject of +"reconciling free speech and freedom of association". He suggested that +phone systems be established whereby individuals can provide their +friends and associates with special access codes so that they can dial +them. Others can call, but at a higher rate. (Note that this would +likely have an adverse impact on legitimate business and social calls +as well as possibly reducing undesirable calls.) He stated that +presently "no computer can write the 4-line plot capsules that appear +in TV Guide", with regard to the failure of AI systems. Noam questioned +the lack of policies concerning what happens to an information data +base after an individual's death. He concluded with the statement that +for "all digital systems --- 0's and 1's are created equal." + +The second day of the conference opened with a session on Law +Enforcement Practices & Problems. Glenn Tenney, well known as the +organizer of the Hacker's Conference, chaired this panel with little +comment. Don Ingraham, Assistant DA of Alameda County, Calif. (who, +during a tutorial earlier in the week, distributed information on the +writing of search warrants), gave a fantastically humorous +presentation. He spoke of the "pernicious myth of cyberspace" and +declared "you ARE the country". He mentioned that systems exist with +"the security built in of a sieve" and that people have their +information on these systems, but not necessarily because they want it +to be there. He feels that the attitude of "don't worry, we don't need +standards" is a poor one, and that laws should be written to let the +people know what the rules are. He would rather see an organization +formed called Sociable Professionals for Responsible Computing (instead +of CPSR). He finished his talk by saying "if you don't do it, who will +-- if not now, when" (a Talmudic quotation that he used without +citation). + +Robert Snyder, of the Columbus Ohio Police Department, presented the +view of the "cop on the street". He spoke of his naivete when first +entering the field of computer law, and how much evidence was destroyed +at first by listening to suspects who told him to type things like +"format c:" in order to access the hard disk. He has encountered +situations where the suspect actually does not know what is on the +system --- some of these are cases where a parent is running a business +and a child is using the machine for illicit hacking purposes. In these +cases, even though he has a warrant to obtain all of the computer +equipment, he often will not shut down a legitimate business. He +brought up the issue of unregistered software sitting on a confiscated +system. There are liability problems dealing with the return of such +materials. Basically he stated that the law enforcement personnel +require further education and training, and should operate within +guidelines but with prudence. + +Donald Delaney, Senior Investigator with the New York State Police, +began his talk by relating how when his home was burglarized in 1985, +he experienced a feeling of violation. This feeling is much the same +with computer crime. Many firms experience a loss of income from such +activities. In his experience, many of the people caught are engaged in +more crimes than the ones they are charged with. + +Dale Boll, Deputy Directory of the Fraud Division of the U.S. Secret +Service, spoke of the various forms of access device fraud (credit +card, ATM, passwords, phone access, frequent flyer numbers, etc.). He +stated that it is illegal to posses counterfeit access devices and that +if you have 15+ illegal access devices or numbers in your possession, +you may be a subject of federal investigation. They have a 96% +conviction rate. ATM cards can be manufactured illegally using +cardboard and regular audio tape. The credit card industry is now +losing $1 Billion per year. An audience member asked if they are using +programs like Gofer (grep for UNIX hackers) to search for information +they want on bulletin boards and networks. He replied that although +they own this program, they use it personally and not for investigation +purposes. + +The next session, on Law Enforcement and Civil Liberties, had seven +participants, none of whom were given much time to present their views. +I will briefly highlight what they said here. Sheldon Zenner, the +Attorney for Craig Neidorf said that the prosecutors had originally +sought a 2-year sentence, and that thanks to many of the people at this +conference who rallied to Craig's support, they were able to get him +off. Mark Rasch who defended the internet worm case stated that the +expectation of privacy is changed because of the technology employed -- +- technology affects behavior. Cliff Figallo, manager of the WELL +(Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, popular among many Bay Area participants +as an alternative means of accessing the Internet) addressed his +concerns about overuse of law enforcement. He wants his users to feel +safe. Sharon Beckman, Litigation Council to the Electronic Freedom +Foundation (EFF) and Attorney for Steve Jackson Games (whose computers +were seized, when one of his fantasy games was perceived as being +capable of training users to "hack" into computers) stated that +underlying values of the constitution should be interpreted in terms of +today's technology. Ken Rosenblatt, a District Attorney covering the +Silicon Valley area, stated that he is charged with upholding civil +liberties and feels that the laws are presently adequate. Mike Gibbons, +Special Agent for the FBI, mentioned that he worked various white +collar cases, including the 75 cent case (described in Cliff Stoll's +book), and the Robert Morris case. He feels that there are various +classes of computer crime, including impairment, data theft, and +intrusion. Mitch Kapor, founder of EFF, stated that the "electronic +frontier hasn't been settled yet" and that we should not stifle the +"network petri dish inventing the future". He questioned the nature of +reasonable search, stating that there haven't been enough cases yet to +establish a meaning for this in computer law. Everyone should be +protected from tyranny, not only hackers. He looks at the EFF as a +means of civilizing cyberspace. The matter of free speech was discussed +in the questioning session with the panel -- much speculation was +directed towards the legality of discussions of bomb-making, system +hacking, and the publication of other potentially lawless activities on +the net or in technical papers. Other comments included the fact that +law enforcement cannot seize an entire post office, their search must +be limited to the mailbox of the suspect. This analogy applies to +computer networks as well, although the volatility (ease of total +destruction of evidence) of computer data is of concern to +investigators. As I had an extended and quite insightful conversation +with Russ Brand over lunch, I returned a tad late to the next session, +on Legislation and Regulation, and was only able to catch two of the +speakers. Elliot Maxwell, Assistant Vice President at Pacific Telesis +stated that it is "difficult to have simple and specific rules". Paul +Bernstein, whose LawMUG BBS and Electronic Bar Association is well +known among the legal community, stated that one should "use mediums +that exist -- participate in fashioning the laws." + +The most eye-opening session of the entire conference, in my opinion, +was the following one on Computer-Based Surveillance of Individuals. It +opened with Judith King describing the FBI Library Surveillance +Program, where the reading habits of foreign nationals were +investigated. She stated that many librarians want laws to protect the +confidentiality of users, and some statutes have been passed. Karen +Nussbaum, Executive Director of 9 to 5 (on which the film was based), +gave an accounting of the monitoring of employees in the workplace. +Currently over 26 Million employees are having their work tracked +electronically, and over 10 Million have their pay based on computer +evaluations. The personal habits of the worker can be monitored, one +can look into a user's screen and see what they are doing or even send +them messages. She described the "corporate plantation" as a place of +stress, humiliation and harassment. Gary Marx, Sociology Professor at +MIT, gave a whirlwind assessment of the importance of privacy, some +technofallacies (like the Wizard of Oz "pay no attention to the little +man behind the curtain"), and steps you can use to protect privacy (the +bulk of these useful lists are published in the proceedings). He +related how a telephone can be made "hot on the hook" so that you can +silently monitor your babysitter, your children or your spouse, when +you are not at home. Most devices, such as this one, are perfectly +legal within your own house. David Flaherty spoke again, this time in a +more serious vein, saying "we are living in a surveillant society" and +"you have to make daily choices about what you are willing to give up +about yourself." The second day's after-dinner speaker was William +Bayse, Assistant Director, Technical Services Division of the FBI, who +discussed a newly created national system called the NCIC-2000, under +the topic of "balancing computer security capabilities with privacy and +integrity". He began by asserting that crime has become more mobile and +that conventional crime-tracking methods are inadequate. For example, +he said, many missing persons actually want to remain missing. He feels +that the accuracy of records is imperative. Various information bases +have been formed, including lists of stolen items, vehicles, and wanted +persons. Presently 65,000 officers are using this system, with 360M +transactions annually, at a cost of 3 cents a transaction. For an +example of effectiveness, over $1.1 Billion in vehicles have been +recovered. Proposed, but not yet implemented is the portion of the +system which provides a live scan of fingerprints at the scene of an +arrest (or when someone is stopped for a motor vehicle violation) [with +the intended purpose of considerably reducing false identifications... +PGN]. Much criticism was generated from the audience regarding the +potential misuse of this system for harassment, and the retention of +fingerprints for future use. Marc Rotenberg addressed Bayse questioning +why documents requested under the freedom of information act from his +agency have still not been supplied, and stating that currently a +lawsuit is pending to obtain their policies regarding monitoring of +computer bulletin boards. Bayse refused comment. + +The final day of the conference opened with a session on Electronic +Speech, Press and Assembly. Jack Rickard of Boardwatch Magazine +mentioned that bulletin boards are highly specialized, primarily funded +by individuals, and are in their embrionic stage. David Hughes, +Managing General Partner of Old Colorado City Communications, added +some color to the conference with his western garb (10-gallon hat, bolo +tie) and use of his laptop for the notes of his speech. He described +himself as a "Citizen of the Western Frontier of the Information Age" +and drawled, "Read my Cursor". He described electronic speech as +"fingers of the tongue with the ear for the eye --- but it is still +speech". In describing US history, were it to have occurred today, +Jefferson would have used a Macintosh, Adams would have used a PC, but +"Tom Paine would have put Common Sense on a private BBS with a +Commodore 64". "Don't tread on my cursor!" he cried. George Perry, Vice +President of Prodigy, began by saying that he did not want to engage in +discussion on the dispute, but then stated that "Prodigy does not read +private email". Prodigy is a privately owned and operated company which +believes that the market should be allowed to decide what services need +to be provided. The Constitution regulates free speech with respect to +the government, Prodigy thinks of itself as a publisher. Lance Rose, a +NY Attorney, enumerated the types of rights afforded to individuals and +companies with regard to ownership, including trade secrets, +confidentiality, trademark, copyright and patent. There is currently a +great diversity of laws which service providers must adhere to, making +the provider, in some instances, a law enforcement agent. During the +open comment section, Hughes noted that very few legislators are +currently on-line, and he thanked Prodigy for preparing the NAPLPS +market (for his products). The notable talk in the Access to Government +Information session was David Burnham's (Co-Director and Writer with +the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [TRAC] in D.C.). He +stated that "badly administered agencies are more damaging than rogue +operations". The objectives of TRAC are to obtain transactional data +>from federal enforcement agencies, such as the IRS, NRC, and Justice +Department. He demonstrated how the raw statistics could be combined +with additional figures regarding inflation, population, and margin of +error, showing that the so-called "trends" of increasing crime, or +increased non-compliance with tax law, were actually flat lines when +the mitigating factors were added in. + +The final panel discussion was on Ethics and Education. Richard +Hollinger, Sociology Professor with the University of Florida, asserted +that the "same officers who are investigating computer crimes are the +ones who are protesting computers in their patrol cars because they +feel it would be oppressive." He is concerned with the industry's +encouragement of the use of computers in schools, before rules for +their ethical use have been written. Donn Parker with SRI stated that +laws are needed in order to convict hackers. Convictions have a "very +good effect on our whole problem", he said. He referred back to the +60's when the ACM and IEEE drafted codes of conduct, and said that +these should be popularized. He believes that one can not teach ethics, +that it comes from interpersonal relationships, and (for him) the +Christian religion and the Bible. One can teach, he believes, the +application of ethics, beyond the golden rule. He delineated three +rules: 1. The Owner's Rule - you choose to issue your property into the +public domain, or not; 2. The User's Rule - you assume everything +belongs to something else, unless otherwise informed; 3. The Hacker's +Rule - systems are free, everything should go to the people (which he +rejected as childish, not worth considering). He suggested that we +consider the dilemma of Descartes -- if it is OK to start by stealing +pencils, where then can we draw the line? Dorothy Denning spoke briefly +regarding the network uses by children (Kids Net). She speculated that +we should teach them something about hacking in order to take the +mystery out of it. She compared telephone fraud by children as a more +sophisticated version of the "is your refrigerator running" prank. + +The Education and Ethics panel continued with the softspoken John +Gilmore, a "generalist" with Cygnus Support. He warned that we are +losing the larger open society. The US is currently #1 in percentage of +population in jail. He spoke of drug usage as a victimless crime. John +asked the audience "who has not broken a law in the past month?" Only a +few raised their hands. He then asked "who here has all their disks +clean -- free from something you would not want them to find if you +were investigated?" About 15% raised their hands, but after pondering +it, a number of them lowered them (the person behind me muttered that +he had some shareware for which he had not paid). Gilmore said "privacy +is a means -- what is the end we are looking for? Tolerance." He urged +real privacy of personal communications, financial transactions, things +should be as "private as that thought held in our minds." He demanded +that we stop building fake systems -- laws that dictate that you "can't +listen to cellular phone calls" -- and instead build real protections +into your systems and buy them from others. His talk received a +standing ovation from the vast majority of the audience members. + +The remaining panel speaker, Sally Bowman, a Child Psychologist with +the Computer Learning Foundation, stated that her organization is +working to raise awareness and solve a number of problem areas. The +problems she outlined were: 1. Lack of awareness of the magnitude of +the problem. Software industry is being hurt by piracy; 2. Many +misimpressions -- confusion, lack of information; 3. Lack of teeth in +software copying policies; 4. Lack of strategies in teaching ethics; 5. +School budgets are too small to allow legal procurement of software. +Her organization is presently educating parents as to the "tell-tale" +signs which indicate whether a child is "abusing" computer systems. + +The concluding session, entitled "Where Do We Go From Here" was staffed +by a number of the conference speakers. They overviewed their feelings +regarding the issues raised during the sessions and made general +comments with respect to what they might do to raise awareness and +resolve some of the problems. + +Throughout the conference many pamphlets, brochures and newsletters +were distributed. Although it is infeasible for me to provide copies of +this literature, interested parties can contact me or Jim Warren +(jwarren@well.sf.ca.us) to provide source names and addresses. Some of +the more interesting items (in no particular order, just how they +happened to come out of my briefcase) included: + - Brochures from the Cato Institute "Toward a Moral Drug Policy", +"America's Counter-revolution", "The Semiconductor Industry and Foreign +Competition", "The Promise of High-Definition Television: The Hype and +the Reality", and their publication catalog. + - Matrix Information and Directory Services Newsletter. + - The Manifesto of Militant Humanism. + - "Are you a Hacker?" by Robert Bickford, reprinted from MicroTimes. + - Call for formation of a World Privacy Network. + - An advertisement for SafeWord Software (password +checking/protection). + - Condom distributed by Anterior Technology (they market a system +whereby you can retrieve the first 80 characters of emails while out of +town). + - "The Bill of Rights is Under Attack" from Committee for the Bill of +Rights. + - Hollywood Hacker Info, reprinted from Computer Underground Digest. + - Calif. State Assembly Bill #1168 on Personal Information Integrity. + - Computer Learning Month - from the Computer Learning Foundation. + - The Equifax Report on Consumers in the Information Age - A reprint +of John Barlow's article "Crime and Puzzlement" from Whole Earth +Review, Fall 1990. + - Various brochures from the First Amendment Congress, an +organization providing educational materials on the First Amendment. + - Policy papers from the League for Programming Freedom including +"Against Software Patents", "Lotus Disinformation Forewarned is +Forearmed", and the Effector (its newsletter). + - CPSR reprints of newsarticles regarding the Lotus database. + - Promotional literature for Ted Nelson's Xanadu. + - Brochure for the Community Memory BBS, and its newsletter. + - Brochure for the Art Com Electronic Network. + - Brochure for the International Society for Individual Liberty. + - Various copies of MicroTimes. + - Application forms for CPSR and the League for Programming Freedom. + - Rel-EAST, the east-west high-tech business report. + - Suggested reading on how computer crime is investigated from Don +Ingraham. + - Book promotional literature including: "Rogue Programs" edited by +Lance Hoffman, Van Nostrand Reinhold "Protecting Privacy in +Surveillance Societies", David Flaherty, University of North Carolina +Press "Spectacular Computer Crimes", Buck Bloombecker, Dow Jones-Irwin +"Using the Public Library in the Computer Age", Westin & Finger, ALA. +Directions & Implications of Advanced Computing, Vol. 1 and Proceedings +>from 88 and 90, CPSR. + - Flyer announcing "The Privacy Project" an NPR series (for which I +was interviewed) to be broadcast in the Fall of 1991. + - Flyer advertising "Your Expanding Infosphere" an NPR ComputerTalk +Program. + - Reason, a magazine for "free minds and free markets" whose cover +story was on cryogenics. + - Flyer on the National Apple Users Group Conference, June 7-9, 1991. + - Flyer on the Silicon Valley Networking Conference, April 23-25, +1991. + - Flyer on the third Chugach Conference, University of Alaska, Oct. +3-5, 1991. Plus Center for Information Technology News from U. Alaska. + - Flyer on the Calif. Forum of the First Amendment Congress, May 6, +1991, Stanford University (free to the public). + - Flyer for the Electronic Democracy Conference, Sept 4-5, 1991. + - Calls for Papers from: The National Conference on Computing and +Values (Aug. 12-16, 1991) Directions & Implications of Advanced +Computing (May 2-3, 1992) + +I returned home with a broader idea of the many facets of the computer +freedom and privacy issue. I must now admit to being more worried than +I was before I attended this conference, as to the lack of solutions +being offered by my colleagues. Perhaps this meeting of the minds is a +first start. More work needs to be done. + +R. Mercuri mercuri@gradient.cis.upenn.edu The following are some +addenda & corrections to my trip report on the Computers, Freedom and +Privacy Conference, with thanks to the individuals who provided +additional details and insights. + +1. A second CFP conference has been scheduled for Spring 1992 in +Washington, D.C. -- the general chairman will be Lance J. Hoffman. + +2. Later figures for the first conference indicate that Jim Warren's +losses may not have been as severe as he had indicated when I spoke +with him. + +3. Although the formation notice for alt.privacy indicated that the US +Privacy Council was created AT the CFP conference, Lance Hoffman has +informed me that this organization was actually formed PRIOR to the +conference. Its first public meeting was held during the conference +period but otherwise had no official conference involvement. + +4. Robert Veeder works at the Office of Information Regulatory Affairs +IN D.C., a branch of the federal Office of Management and Budget. + +5. Mark Rasch prosecuted (not defended) the internet worm case. + +6. Dorothy Denning wrote to me, mentioning that "the main point I tried +to make in my talk was that we are letting our young people down by not +taking responsibility for bringing them into the computing and network +community as responsible users." My brief comments of her talk could +lead a reader to believe that she was somewhat cavalier about the +issue, which was certainly not the case. + +7. The "sandals of Silicon Valley to the dark suits of Washington" +quote should be accredited to Terry Winograd. + +8. Judith Krug (not King) spoke in behalf of the American Library +Association. + +9. In Dave Hughes' talk, he had Franklin using an Apple and Jefferson +using Word Perfect running under Windows (far more comical than what I +had recalled). + + Considering the length of the conference and quantity of speakers, I +am relieved that my errors and omissions were so few. + +Yours in good journalism, R. Mercuri mercuri@gradient.cis.upenn.edu + -- + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cfp2-sum b/textfiles.com/politics/cfp2-sum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ebfb0c52 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cfp2-sum @@ -0,0 +1,802 @@ + COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY-2: A REPORT + by Steve Cisler (sac@apple.com) + + +[The opinions and views expressed are those of the author, Steve Cisler, +and not necessarily those of Apple Computer, Inc. Misquotes of people's +statements are my responsibility. Permission is granted for re-posting +in electronic form or printing in whole or in part by non-profit +organizations or individuals. Transformations or mutations into +musicals, docudramas, morality plays, or wacky sitcoms remain the right +of the author. This file may be found on the Internet in ftp.apple.com +in the alug directory. + -Steve Cisler, Apple Computer Library. + Internet address: sac@apple.com ] + + The Second Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, (March +18-20, 1992. Washington,D.C.).was sponsored by the Association for +Computing Machinery and thirteen co-sponsors including the American +Library Association and a wide variety of advocacy groups. + + The diversity of the attendees, the scope of the topics covered, +and the dynamism of the organized and informal sessions gave me a +perspective I had lost in endless conferences devoted only to library, +information, and network issues. I can now view the narrower topics of +concern to me as a librarian in new ways. Because of that it was one of +the best conferences I have attended. But there's a danger of these +issues being re-hashed each year with "the usual suspects" invited each +time to be panelists, so I urge you, the readers, to become involved and +bring your own experiences to the next conference in 1993 in the San +Francisco Bay Area. + +++====================================================================++ + + Wednesday, March 18 + + The day began with concurrent tutorials on the following topics: + Getting on the Net (Mitchell Kapor, Electronic Frontier +Foundation); + Making Information Law and Policy (Jane Bortnick, Congressional +Research Service); + Communications and Network Evolution (Sergio Heker, JVNCNet), + Private Sector Privacy (Jeff Smith, Georgetown University); + Constitutional Law for Non-lawyers (Mike Godwin, EFF); +Computer Crime (Don Ingraham, Alameda County (CA) District Attorney); + Modern Telecommunications: Life After Humpty- Dumpty (Richard +Wolff, Bellcore); + International Privacy Developments (David Flaherty, Univ. of +Western Ontario); + +and the one I attended... + Information Law and Policy: Jane Bortnick, + Congressional Research Service (CRS) + + In Bortnick's tutorial, she covered the following points: + 1)Setting information policy is not a linear process, and it's +not clear how or when it is made because of many inputs to the process. + 2) Many policies sit on the shelf until a crisis, and the right +technology is either in place, or certain people grab it. + 3)Events create renewed interest in information policy. + 4)Industry, academic, or non-governmental groups play an +important role by testifying before committees studying policy and by +lobbying. + 5)CRS is the institutional memory for Congress because of the +rapid turnover in the staff on the Hill. + 6) The challenge is to develop policy that does not hinder or +hold things up, but there is a high degree of uncertainty, change, and +lack of data. The idea is to keep things as open as possible throughout +the process. + + Bortnick said that the majority of laws governing information +policy were written in an era of paper; now electronic access is being +added, and Congress is trying to identify fundamental principles, not +specific changes. + Because of the economic factors impinging on the delivery of +information, members of Congress don't want to anger local cable, phone, +or newspaper firms. + To get sensible legislation in a rapidly changing environment you +have to, paradoxically, slow down the legislative processes to avoid +making bad laws. Nevertheless, in a crisis, Congress can sometimes work +very quickly. + We have to realize that Congress can't be long term because of +annual budget cycles and because of the hard lobbying by local +interests. + In making good policy and laws, building consensus is the key. + +The current scope of information policy: + -spans broad range of topics dealing with information +collection, use, access, and dissemination + -global warming has a component because new satellites will dump +a terabyte a day: who is responsible for storage, access, adding value +to all of this data? + -many bills have the phrase: "and they will establish a +clearinghouse of information on this topic" + -information policy has increasingly become an element within +agency programs + -impact of information technologies further complicates debate + -result=more interested players from diverse areas. + + Congress has many committees that deals with these issues. CRS +gets 500,000 requests for information a year: 1700 in one day. After +"60 minutes" is broadcast CRS gets many requests for information. from +Congress. + + Jim Warren asked several questions about access to government +information. There was a general discussion about how the Library of +Congress would be digitized (size, cost, copyright barriers). It was +noted that state level experiments affected federal activity, especially +the states that are copyrighting their information (unlike the federal +government). + + The discussion about Congressional reluctance to communicate via +electronic mail with constituents: a new directory does not even list +some fax numbers that had been quasi-public before some offices felt +inundated with fax communications. + +++====================================================================++ + + + Keynote Address: + Al Neuharth, The Freedom Forum and founder of USA Today + "Freedom in cyberspace: new wine in old flasks" + + Lunch, following the tutorials, was followed by an address by Al +Neuharth. The high points were: + 1. First amendment freedoms are for everyone. Newspaper publishers +should not relegate anyone to 2nd class citizenship or the back of the +bus. + 2. The passion for privacy may make our democracy falter. + 3. Publishing of disinformation is the biggest danger, not +information-glut. + + Commenting on American Newspaper Publishers Assn. to keep RBOCs +out of information business, Neuharth noted that the free press clause in +the Bill of Rights does not only apply to newspapers. Telcos have first +amendment rights too. "ANPA is spitting into the winds of change", he +said, and some newspaper publishers are not happy with this stance, so +there is a lot of turmoil. People should get their news when, how and +where they want it: on screen or tossed on the front porch. Telcos have +yet to demonstrate expertise in information gathering and dissemination; +they have an outmoded allegiance to regulation . + + He strongly criticized the use of anonymous sources by newspapers. +Anonymous sources, he said, provide misinformation that does irreparable +harm. The Washington Post is the biggest user of confidential sources. +Withholding of names encourages fabricating and misinformation. Opinions +and style should not be hidden in news pages but kept on the editorial +page. + + +++====================================================================++ + + Wednesday Afternoon Session: Who Logs On? + Given by Robert Lucky of Bell Labs: + +Speaking personally, Lucky covered the following points: + 1. Fiber to the home: who pays for it? + The consumers will pay and the consumer will benefit. How much +they will pay and how much they will benefit is what matters. + We must to install wideband switching and we will.The drama is +mainly economic and political, not technical. It will happen in 40 +years. Asked what fiber will bring that copper will not, Lucky took the +Field of Dreams approach: supply of bandwidth will create demand. + 2. Access and privacy. + This is a personal quandary for Lucky. Intimate communications +will be coming-- individual cells on each pole and an individual number +for each person. "I like to call anybody from my wrist, but I hate +having people calling me." + If you have access, you can't have privacy. The right to be +left alone takes away from the 'right' from other people. Lucky was the +first of many to raise the problems of the FBI recommend legislation, +the Digital Telephony Amendment, that would require re-design of present +network so that surveillance could take place, and that the cost of +doing this would be 20 cents a month per subscriber. It will be hard to +find conversations, but you will pay for this. He viewed this with +grave concern; it's a bad idea. He is all for getting drug kings but he +wants his privacy. + + 3. Lucky's observations on the Internet/NREN: + One of the wonderful things is the sense of freedom on the +Internet. Anonymous ftp. There are programs and bulletin boards. Sense +of freedom of information and freedom of communication, but nobody seems +to pay for it. It just comes. As a member of AT&T, this needs to be +transitioned to a commercial enterprise. Government is not good at this; +intellectual property lawyers will build walls, and hackers may screw +it up too. "I still want all the freedom in the commercial enterprise." + + Linda Garcia of the OTA (Office of Technology Assessment) spoke +about access issues and said it was a cost/benefit problem. Rural areas +should be able construct a rural area network (RAN). Take small +businesses, educators, hospitals and pool their demand for a broadband +network. Government could act as a broker or community organizer and +transfer the technology. Rural communities should not be treated the +same way as urban areas. The regulatory structure should be different for +rural Maine than for lower Manhattan. See her OTA reports "Critical +Connections and Rural America at the Crossroads" for in-depth +treatments of these issues. + + Al Koppe of New Jersey Bell outlined the many new services being +rolled out in NJ at the same time they are maintaining low basic rates. + --In 1992 there will be narrowband digital service for low +quality video conferencing; in 1994 wideband digital service. + --Video on demand, entertainment libraries and distance learning +applications will be coming along soon after. + --Koppe predicted a 99% penetration by 1999 with complete fiber +by 2010. This will be a public network and not a private one. It will +still be a common carrier. + This is a very aggressive and optimistic plan, an important one +for all of us to watch. Lucky said he had never seen a study that shows +video on demand services can be competitive with video store prices. The +big question remains: how does a business based on low-bandwidth voice +services charge for broadband services? It remains a paradox. + + Brian Kahin, Kennedy School of Government, discussed the growth of +the Internet and policy issues: + --points of access for different users + --network structure and current NSFNet controversy + He said the NREN debate is one between capacity (enabling high end +applications) and connectivity (number of resources and users online). + +++====================================================================++ + + Afternoon Session: Ethics, Morality, and Criminality + + Mike Gibbons of the FBI chaired this session which was one of the +central themes for all present. In the same room we had law enforcement +(LE) representatives from state, local, and federal governments, civil +libertarians, and convicted computer criminals, as well as some victims. + + The FBI views the computer as a tool, and Gibbons told a story +about the huge raid on Lyndon LaRouche's data center in Virginia where +400 LE types took part. I had the feeling that Gibbons was telling his +own hacker story because the audience would appreciate the challenges +that faced him more than LE supervisors without a technical knowledge of +computers would appreciate it. He was also involved in the Robert Morris +case. + + Mike Godwin of EFF agrees that it is not ethical to access other +people's computer without permission, but Mike represents those who may +have acted unethically but still have rights. + + Case involving Craig Neidorf of _phrack_ who felt that his +publication of a Bell South document was within the 1st amendment . +Bell South pegged the Document cost was $70K because it included the Vax +workstation and the software in the cost! There was a question whether +that document was property at all. LE folks can make good faith +mistakes, but Craig had to spend $100,000 and that the prosecutor and +Secret Service never admitted they were wrong. + + Jim Settle from FBI sets policy on computer crime and supervisor +of computer crime squad. Background in Univacs in 1979. There is not a lot +of case law on computer crimes. LE was computer stupid and is not out +there to run over people's rights. They discuss moral issues even when +an action was legal. + + Don Delaney of the New York State Police: He has been dealing with +PBX and calling card fraud; he talks to students about perils of +computer crime, and works with companies who have been hit. Every day at +least one corporation has called him. $40,000 to $400K loss in a short +time. He has found glitches in the PBX software; he complained that few +PBX salespeople tell the customers about remote access units through +which criminals gain access. Once this happens the number is sold on the +street in New York at about $10 for 20 minutes. Even Westchester County +Library was hit. People used binoculars to read the PIN numbers on +caller's cards as they dialed in Grand Central Station. Delaney called +this 'shoulder surfing' and noted that cameras, camcorders, and +binoculars are being used regularly. + + Mitch Kapor raised the issue of the Digital Telephony Amendment. +It is proposed legislation to amend 18 USC 2510 (government can intercept +communications on showing probable cause as they did with John Gotti) +Settle of the FBI asked: "What happens if the technology says you can't +do it? You change the tech. to allow it or you repeal the law that +allows wire tap. Don Parker of SRI said it is essential to have +wiretap ability as a tool for LE. + + The FBI under the Department of Justice has authority to use +wiretaps in its operations. This has been one of the most effective +tools that law enforcement has, but with the advent of digital telephony +such as ISDN, the LE community is worried that no capability exists to +intercept these digital signals, and this will preclude the FBI and +other LE officials from intercepting electronic communications. + + The FBI proposes an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 to +require electronic services providers to ensure that the government will +e able to intercept digital communications. There are a number of parts +to the bill: + 1. the FCC shall determine the interception needs of the DOJ and +issue regulations 120 days after enactment. + 2. Service providers and pbx operators to modify existing telecom +systems within 180 days and prohibit use of non-conforming equipment +thereafter, with penalties of $10,000 per day for willful offenders. + 3. Gives FCC the authority to compensate the system operators by +rate structure adjustment for required modifications. That is, the user +will pay for this decreased security desired by the government. + + Godwin said he believes that wiretap is okay when procedures are +followed, but you have to decide what kind of society you want to live +in. The FBI asked, "Are you going to say that crime is okay over the +phones and that it should not be controlled?" He implied that not making +changes to the law would leave cyberspace open to sophisticated +criminals, many of whom have more resources for technology that does the +LE community. For more information on this there is a 10 page +legislative summary. + +++====================================================================++ + + The Evening of Day One: + + There were Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions that were less formal +and with less attendance. Nevertheless, they were some of the high +points of the conference. + + Where else would one find the law enforcement types switching +roles with computer intruders who had to defend a system against an attack? +Kudos to Mike Gibbons for setting this up. + + There was also a panel of hackers (I use the term in the broadest +and non-pejorative sense) including "Emmanuel Goldstein"--the nom de +plume for the editor of 2600: The Hacker's Weekly; Craig Neidorf, +founder of phrack; Phiber Optik, a young man who recently plea bargained to +a couple of charges; and Dorothy Denning, chair of the CS department at +Georgetown University. + + Goldstein (this was a character in Orwell's 1984 who was a front +for the establishment!) sees hackers as intellectuals on a quest for +bugs which, when corrected, help the system owner.He is extremely +frustrated over media treatment of hackers, yet he was open to a +Japanese camera crew filming the casual meetings of 2600 readers that +took place in the hotel lobby throughout the conference. He said that +hackers and system administrators work together with each other in +Holland. + + As an example of lax system management there was a military +computer during the middle east war had a password of Kuwait'. Don +Parker of SRI believes that Goldstein should not continually blame the +victim. + + Many of the hackers and publishers strongly believed that +"knowing how things work is not illegal." The current publisher of Phrack +said, "I believe in Freedom of Speech and want to tell people about new +technology." + + Most librarians would agree, but much of the problem was what some +people did with that knowledge. An interesting discussion followed about +who was responsible for security: vendors, system administrators, or +public law enforcement personnel. Phiber Optik is now maintaining a Next +machine on the Net and complained that answers to technical questions +cost $100 per hour on the Next hotline. + +++====================================================================++ + + Electronic Money: Principles and Progress + Eric Hughes, DigiCash + + Electronic money uses public key encryption. People can recognize +your digital signature, but cannot read it. The goal is to create a bank +on the Internet that only uses software and affords the user complete +anonymity. There is the bank, the buyer, and the seller. Money flows +from the bank in a money loop. Bank does not know what is signs but it +knows that it did sign it and will honor the electronic check. This would +allow financial transactions and privacy for the buyer. + + In a library setting this would mean I could buy an item +electronically (a document, image, code) and nobody could link it with +my name. My buying habits would be private, and a person roaming through +the transactions might see that someone purchased the computer simulation +"Small furry animals in pain" but would not know the name of the +purchaser. + + Doing private database queries will become more and more important +as the network is used for more business activities. The DigiCash scheme +has multi-party security and is a safe way of exchanging files and +selling them in complete privacy. It's also very cheap and the +unlinkability is very important. + + In the discussion session the issue of drug lords using the system +was raised. DigiCash has limited its transactions to less than $10,000, +and most would be far less. A British attendee said that stores had to +keep extensive records for VAT tax audits, so EEC and US regulations +would conflict with the goals of DigiCash. + + +++====================================================================++ + + Thursday Morning Sessions + + For Sale: Government Information + + This was staged as a role playing advisory panel where a grad +student made a broad and complicated request for information in a +particular format. The panelist made short statements about their +interests and then tried to answer the pointed questions from George +Trubow of John Marshall Law School. + +Dwight Morris (LA Times): + His job is to get government data and turn it into news stories. +He noted that the FOIA is a joke; it's a last resort. Vendors are foia-ing +the agencies and then trying to sell those foia requesters software to +read the data tapes! + +Ken Allen of the Information Agency Association: + The government should not elude the appropriations process by +selling information, nor should the agency control content. The IIA is +against exclusive contracts. + +Mitch Freedman,Westchester Co. Library ALA Coordinator for Access to +Information: + Are many people asking for access for this information, or will +the coding benefit many users in the long run? He mentioned of WINDO +program, freedom of access, and its link to informed democracy. + +Franklin Reeder, Office of management and Budget: + He observed that unusable databases in raw form mean that choice +of format is irrelevant. There may be broader demand for this information, +and the database should be provided with interfaces for many users. + Government agencies should not turn to information provision for +revenues; it becomes an impediment to access. "I don't think the public +sector should be entrepreneurial. " + +Costin Toregas, Public Technology, Inc.--owned by cities and counties in +U.S. and Canada: + We should re-examine our language when discussing information and +access. How do you recover the costs of providing the new technological +access mechanisms. The provision of this should be high priority. + +Robert Belair, Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, deals in FOIA and privacy +issues: + Choice of format is an issue, and in general we are doing a bad +job. Belair notes that FOIA requests are not cheap. There are $2-4,000 +fees from government agencies--even more than the lawyer fees! + + Questions: + + Denning: no view of where technology is taking us. Why not put the +FOIA information online? + Freedman says the Owens bill handles this. + Weingarten says that one agency is planning for a db that has no +equipment to handle it yet. + Belair: we will get change in FOIA and the Owens bill is good. + Toregas: A well-connected community is crucial. + + Harry Goodman asked Ken Allen if he still believed that "libraries +be taken off the dole." + Allen denied he said this but Goodman had it on tape! Allen said +privatization is a red herring. Government agencies might not be the +best way to provide the access to information. Allen says it should be by +diverse methods. + + Glenn Tenney, running for Congress in San Mateo County (CA), said +he had trouble getting information on voting pattern of the members of +Congress and to buy it would have cost thousands of dollars.( + Ken Allen replied that a private company had developed the +information from raw material, but others thought this was basic +information that should be available to all citizens. Other people +wanted the Congressional Records online (and cheap); others wanted the +private sector to do it all and to get the government to partner in such +projects. + +++====================================================================++ + + Free Speech and the Public Telephone Network + + Jerry Berman of the EFF: + --Do telcos have the right to publish over their own networks? + --What are the implications of telcos as newspapers vs. telcos +as common carrier? Aren't safeguards needed to compel free access for all +players? + --There is already discrimination on the 900 services (provision +or billing for porno businesses). + --When the public finds out what is on the network, there will +be a big fight. + --Will we follow the print model or the broadcasting model? + --How can a new infrastructure secure a diversity of speech and +more participants, and how we can break the deadlock between cable, +papers, and telcos. + + Henry Geller, Markle Foundation (FCC/NTIA) : + -- The key is the common carrier nature of the telephone +networks and that they should carry all traffic without determining what is +appropriate. + --Congress can't chose between warring industries, so it won't +act on some of these telecomm issues. + --Broadband area: if the bits flowing are TV programming, the +telco is forbidden to provide. Print model is a good one to follow, not +the cable or broadcast model. He mentioned CNN's squelching of NBC +cable channel. + + John Podesta (Podesta Associates): + --There are forces that are trying to push messengers off the +road and keep the network from being diverse. + --We need a network with more voices, not just those of the +owners. + --We will be faced with censorship by the government and network +owners (MCI, US West); + --There will be more invasion of privacy + Six things have to happen: + 1. More competition via open platform. Personal ISDN at low +tariffs. + 2. Structural safeguards + 3. Common carriers should be content neutral when providing access + 4. Originators should bear responsibility for obscene or salacious +postings. + 5. Protect net against invasion of privacy. Debate is whether it +will be easier or harder to wiretap in the future. + 6. Don't adopt broadcast or cable model for network; both are more +restrictive with regards to First Amendment issues. + + Bob Peck (ACLU): + --Government ban on RBOCs providing information is a first +amendment issue, but there is also an issue of access. How do we make +sure that everyone gets charged the same rates? + --The Rust vs. Sullivan decision could affect network use; +abortion clinics could not answer any questions about the topic. US +Govt. claimed: "We paid for the microphone; we just want to be able to +control what is said." This is being argued in other cases by DOJ +and should be resisted. + + Eli Noam (NYU): + --Coming from state government he tried to be an oxymoron, a +"forward-looking state utility commissioner". + --Telcos say: If anyone can use the common carrier, why not +themselves. + --Free speech is rooted in the idea of scarcity and restraints +to access. + --When you have 9000 channels, who cares? + --There will be no scarcity. He predicts people will be video +literate. Video will have new obscene phone calls. + --We are over-optimistic about the short term and too cautious +about long term effects. + --Telecommuting is already happening on a significant scale. + --We will have telecommunities, subcultures of special interest +groups. + --Our political future is based on jurisdiction. Is there a new +form of political entity emerging that transcends time zones? + --Information glut: The key issue will be how you filter and +screen it. + --Handling the information will be a big issue.The user's brain +is the ultimate bottleneck. + --Internet news is about 18 MB a day. + --Screening will be by the network itself or by user groups and +telecommunities. + --Rights of individuals vs. the governments. Is the first +amendment a local ordinance? + --We need power over international interconnection. Fly the flag +of teledemocracy. + +++====================================================================++ + + Lunch with Bruce Sterling + + Bruce Sterling, author of The Difference Engine (with William +Gibson) and a new title, The Hacker Crackdown, gave an outstanding +performance/speech entitled "Speaking the Unspeakable" in which he +represented three elements of the so- called computer community who were +not at CFP-2. + + --The Truly Malicious Hacker: + "Your average so-called malicious user -- he's a dweeb! He +can't keep his mouth shut! ....Crashing mainframes-- you call that +malice? Machines can't feel any pain! You want to crash a machine, try +derailing a passenger train. Any idiot can do that in thirty minutes, +it's pig-easy, and there's *nothing* in the way of security. Personally +I can't understand why trains aren't de-railed every day." + + --A narco-general who has discovered the usefulness of his +contacts with the North American law enforcement communities--and their +databases: + "These databases that you American police are maintaining. +Wonderful things....The limited access you are granting us only whets +our appetite for more. You are learning everything about our +criminals....However, we feel that it is only just that you tell us +about your criminals.....Let us get our hands on your Legions of Doom. I +know it would look bad if you did this sort of thing yourselves. But you +needn't." + + --A data pirate from Asia: + "The digital black market will win, even if it means the +collapse of your most cherished institutions....Call it illegal, call it +dishonest, call it treason against the state; your abuse does not +matter; those are only words and words are not as real as bread. The only +question is how much suffering you are willing to inflict on yourselves, +and on others, in the pursuit of your utopian dream." + + Sterling's speech was a hilarious, yet half-serious departure from +the usual fare of conferences and is well worth obtaining the audio or +video cassette. I also recommend you attend the American Library +Association conference in late June 1992 when Sterling will address the +LITA attendees. + +++====================================================================++ + + Who's in Your Genes + +Who's in Your Genes was an overview of genetic data banking, and a +discussion of the tension between an individual's right to privacy and +the interests of third parties. DNA forensic data banks and use of +genetic records by insurers were explored. Madison Powers was +chair. Panelists included John Hicks, FBI Lab; Paul Mendelsohn, +Neurofibromatosis, Inc.; Peter Neufeld, Esq.; Madison Powers, +Kennedy Center for Ethics, Georgetown University. + +++====================================================================++ + + + Private Collection of Personal Information + + This was another role-playing session where the participants took +positions close to those they would hold in real life. Ron Plessor of +Piper and Marbury acted as the 'scene setter and facilitator'. It was he +who posed the broad question "Should the government have a role in the +privacy debate?" and asked the panelists to debate about the +establishment of a data protection board (as proposed by Congressman +Wise in H.R. 685d). + + Janlori Goldman of the ACLU enthusiastically embraced the role of +general counsel to the Data Board. She questioned the representatives +from the fictitious private enterprises who were planning a supermarket +discount shoppers' program where all items are matched with the +purchaser and mailing lists would be generated with this fine-grained +information. + + "It would be good to come to the board before you start the +service." Her tone was very ominous, that of a friendly but all powerful +bureaucrat. "Bring your papers and come on in to discuss your project. +Let's keep it informal and friendly this time to prevent the more formal +meeting." She even alluded to making subpoenas and getting phone +records of the direct marketeers. She would not offer the marketeers +assurances of confidentiality in their discussion, and even though this +was role playing, several people around me who had thought the idea of a +board would be useful, changed their mind by the end, partly because of +her fervor. + + At the Q&A session about 25 people dashed for the microphones, +making this session the most provocative of all. At least it touched a +chord with everyone. + +++====================================================================++ + + On the evening of March 19, the Electronic Frontier Foundation +presented the EFF Pioneer awards to those individuals who have done the +most to advance liberty, responsibility, and access to computer-based +communications. I was honored to serve as a judge and read the large +number of nominations. Each person or institution made a strong +impression on me, and it was difficult to narrow it down to five people. +The recipients each made a very moving statement after they were called +to the podium by Mitchell Kapor of the EFF. + +++====================================================================++ + + March 20 + + Privacy and Intellectual Freedom in the Digital Library + Bob Walton of CLSI, Inc. + + Walton discussed the transformation of libraries as collections of +books into digital libraries with falling technological costs and +volatile questions of intellectual property and reimbursement. + + Gordon Conable, Monroe (MI) County Library system, spoke of +libraries as First Amendment institutions, ones where Carnegie saw the +provision of free information as a public good. However, the economics +of digital information are quite different, and this causes problems, as +does the government using the power of the purse to control speech (Rust +vs. Sullivan). + + I spoke about the case of Santa Clara County (CA) Library +defending its open access policy when a citizen complained about +children checking out videos he thought should be restricted. It was a +good example of how the whole profession from the branch librarian on up +to the California State Librarian presented a unified front in the face +of opposition from some parts of the community and the San Jose Mercury +News, the local paper that waffled somewhat on its own stance. + + Jean Polly of Liverpool Public Library spoke about the problems +running a library BBS where religious fundamentalists dominated the +system, but outlined her library's many activities (smallest public +library as an Internet node) and her plans for the future. + +++====================================================================++ + + + Who Holds the Keys? + + In a sense the cryptography discussion was one of the most +difficult to follow, yet the outlines of a very large battlefield came +into view by the end of the session. The two sides are personal privacy +and national security. Should the government be allowed to restrict the +use of cryptography? (Only weakened schemes are allowed to be legally +exported.) What legal protections should exist for enciphered +communications? + + David Bellin of the Pratt Institute stood up and spoke in code. He +thought encrypted speech was protected and that he should have the right +to associate with his peers through encryption (to prevent snooping). He +did not believe the technology is controllable, nor that there is safety +and one end and freedom at the other. + + Jim Bidzos of RSA Data Security said we need a review of +cryptographic policy. The long term effects of the current +confrontational relationship will be bad. John Gilmore of Cygnus Support +felt that the public should discuss cryptographic issues and not behind +closed doors. This is a good time for network people, manufacturers, and +the government to work together. John Perry Barlow sees encryption as an +answer to the problem of having lots of privacy. Using the drug war +rationale to prohibit export is a bad idea. Whitfield Diffie, of Sun +Microsystems gave an excellent overview of the philosophy of encryption +and why it's important as we move from face-to-face communications to +electronic. There are a number of policy problems: + --a bad person might be able to protect information against all +assaults. In a free society a person is answerable for your actions, +but a totalitarian society uses prior restraint. What will ours become? + --Can a so-called 'free society' tolerate unrestricted use of +cryptography? Because cryptography can be done on standard processors +with small programs, and because covert channels are hard to detect, +enforcement of a strong anti-crypto law would require drastic measures. + + I asked Jim Bidzos about the government agencies beating their +swords into plowshares by looking for new roles in a world without a +Soviet threat. He thought NSA could use budget hearings to say that with +a lean/mean military budget, a modest increase in crypto capability +might give the government more lead time in an emergency. + + One member of the audience challenged Bidzos to go ahead and +export RSA outside of the US. Barlow responded "Come on, Jim. The +Russians are already using RSA in their launch codes." To +which Bidzos replied, "My revenue forecasts are being revised downward!" + Barlow answered, "You would not have gotten any royalties +from them anyway." Bidzos: "Maybe..." + + With only a partial understanding of some of the technology +involved (cryptography is a special field peopled mainly by +mathematicians and intelligence officials), I think that this will be +the issue of the 90s for libraries. It may be a way to protect both privacy +and intellectual property in the digital libraries of the future. + + +++====================================================================++ + + Final Panel: + Public Policy for the 21st Century, + moderated by Mara Liasson, National Public Radio + + "How will information technologies alter work, wealth, value, +political boundaries?... What will the world be like in a decade or +two?... What public policies now exist that may pull the opposite +direction from the economic momentum and will lead to social tension and +breakage if not addressed properly?" + + Peter Denning, George Mason University: + People used to have faith that strong governments would bring +salvation through large programs (he named failures). The poor track +record of government and changes in comms technology have accelerated +the decline of the faith. + + Mitchell Kapor: + He sees digital media as the printing press of the 21st century. +The WELL and others make us realize we are not prisoners of geography, +so our religious, hobby, or academic interests can b shared by the enabling +technologies of computers. "Individuals flourish from mass society with +this technology" Openness, freedom, inclusiveness will help us make a +society that will please our children and grandchildren. + + Simon Davies, Privacy International: + "There is possibly a good future, but it's in the hands of +greedy men. I see a world with 15 billion beings scrambling for life, +with new frontiers stopping good things. For 14 billion they are very +pissed off, and that our wonderful informational community (the other +billion) becomes the beast. It will be something most of the world will +do without. If we recognize the apocalypse now we can work with the +forces." + + Esther Dyson, EDventure Holding, Inc.: + She thinks that cryptography is a defensive weapon. The free- +flow of cryptic information is dangerous to the powerful. She want more +markets and less government. Large concentrations of power makes her +suspicious. Global protected networks will help those in the +minority(disagreeing with Davies). We don't have one global villages but +many. How do we avert tribalism of class? + + Roland Homet, Executive Inc.: + Homet was more conciliatory. America has a penchant for ordered +liberty. It uses toleration and restraint to keep forces working +together. + +++====================================================================++ + +Lance Hoffman, of the George Washington University and organizer of the +conference, deserves a great deal of credit for a smooth running yet +exciting three days. + +There will be a CFP-3 in the San Francisco area next year. If you find +these issues to be a major force in your professional life, we hope you +will be able to attend next year. Traditionally, there have been +scholarships available, but these depend on donations from individuals +and firms. + + End of Report/ Steve Cisler sac@apple.com + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cgw.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cgw.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8dc8c96e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cgw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ +Computer Gaming World (Golden Empire Publications) +June, 1990, Number 72, Page 8 +Editorial by Johnny L. Wilson + + It CAN Happen Here + + Although Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis is probably best known +for 'Main Street', 'Babbitt', 'Elmer Gantry', and 'Arrowsmith', my personal +favorites are 'It Can't Happen Here' and 'Kingsblood Royal'. The latter is an +ironic narrative in which who suffers from racial prejudice toward the black +population discovers, through genealogical research, that he himself has black +ancestors. The protagonist experienced a life-challenging discovery that +enabled Lewis to preach a gospel of civil rights to his readership. + + The former is, perhaps, Lewis' most lengthy novel and it tells how a radio +evangelist was able to use the issues of morality and national security to form +a national mandate and create a fascist dictatorship in the United States. As +Lewis showed how patriotic symbolism could be distorted by power-hungry elite +and religious fervor channeled into a political movement, I was personally +shaken. As a highschool student, reading this novel, for the first time, I +suddenly realized what lewis intended for his readers to realize. "It" (a +dictatorship) really CAN happen here, There is an infinitesimally fine line +between protecting the interests of society and encumbering the freedoms of the +self-same society in the name of protection. + + Now it appears that the civil liberties of game designers and gamers +themselves are to be assaulted in the name of protecting society. In recent +months two unrelated events have taken place which must make us pause: the +raiding of Steve Jackson Games' offices by the United States Secret Service, +and the introduction of A.B. 3280 into the California State Assembly by +Assemblyperson Tanner. + + On March 1, 1990, Steve Jackson Games (a small pen and paper game company) +was raided by agents of the United States Secret Service. The raid was +allegedly part of an investigation into data piracy and was, apparently, +related to the latest supplement from SJG entitled, GURPS Cyberpunk (GURPS +stands for Generic Universal Role-Playing System). GURPS Cyberpunk features +rules for a game universe analogous to the dark futures of George Alec Effinger +('When Gravity Fails'), William Gibson ('Neuromancer'), Norman Spinrad ('Little +Heroes'), Bruce Sterling ('Islands in the Net'), and Walter Jon Williams +('Hardwired'). + + GURPS Cyberpunk features character related to breaking into networks and +phreaking (abusing the telephone system).Hence, certain federal agents are +reported to have made several disparaging remarks about the game rules being a +"handbook for computer crime". In the course of the raid (reported to have +been conducted under the authority of an unsigned photocopy of a warrant; at +least, such was the only warrant showed to the employees at SJG) significant +destruction allegedly occurred. A footlocker, as well as exterior storage +units and cartons, were deliberately forced open even though an employee with +appropriate keys was present and available to lend assistance. In addition, +the materials confiscated included: two computers, an HP Laserjet II printer, a +variety of computer cards and parts, and an assortment of commercial software. +In all, SJG estimates that approximately $10,000 worth of computer hardware and +software was confiscated. + + The amorphous nature of the raid is what is most frightening to me. Does +this raid indicate that those who operate bulletin board systems as individuals +are at risk for similar raids if someone posts "hacking" information on their +computer? Or does it indicate that games which involve "hacking" are subject +to searches and seizures by the federal government? Does it indicate that +writing about "hacking" exposes one to the risk of a raid? It seems that this +raid goes over the line of protecting society and has, instead, violated the +freedom of its citizenry. Further facts may indicate that this is not the +case, but the first impression strongly indicates an abuse of freedom. + + Then there is the case of California's A.B 3280 which would forbid the +depiction of any alcohol or tobacco package or container in any video game +intended primarily for use by minors. The bill makes no distinction between +positive or negative depiction of alcohol or tobacco, does not specify what +"primarily designed for" means, and defines 'video game' in such a way that +coin-ops, dedicated game machines, and computer games can all fit within the +category. + + Now the law is, admittedly, intended to help curb the use and abuse of +alcohol and tobacco among minors. Yet the broad stroke of the brush with which +it is written limits the dramatic license which can be used to make even +desirable points in computer games. For example, Chris Crawford's 'Balance of +the Planet' depicts a liquor bottle on a trash heap as part of a screen talking +about the garbage problem. Does this encourage alcohol abuse? In 'Wasteland', +one of the encounters involves two winos in an alley. Does their use of +homemade white lightening commend it to any minors that might be playing the +game? + + One of the problems with legislating art is that art is designed to both +reflect and cast new light and new perspectives on life. As such, depiction of +any aspect of life may be appropriate, in context. Unfortunately for those who +want to use the law as a means of enforcing morality, laws cannot be written to +cover every context. + + We urge our California readers to oppose A.B. 3280 and help defend our basic +freedoms. We urge all of our readers to be on the alert for any governmental +intervention that threatens our freedom of expression. "It" not only CAN +happen here, but "it" is very likely to if we are not careful. + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ch01.dos b/textfiles.com/politics/ch01.dos new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fc564c48 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ch01.dos @@ -0,0 +1,1496 @@ + 23 page printout, page 1 - 23 + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + **** **** + This file, its printout, or copies of either + are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. + + Bank of Wisdom --- Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + **** **** + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + AN EXPOSITION OF THE FABLES AND MYTHOLOGY OF + THE BIBLE AND OF THE IMPOSTURES OF THEOLOGY + + BY JOSEPH WHELESS + + Lately Major, Judge Advocate, U.S.A.; + Author of "Compendium of Laws of Mexico"; + Translator, Civil Code of Brazil; Associate Editor, + American Bar Association Journal, in + Section of Comparative Law: + Member of American Law Institute, etc. + + "Behold, the false pen of the Scribes hath + wrought falsely" -- Jeremiah VIII, 8 (R.V.) + + NEW YORK --:-- 1926 + + FOREWORD TO SECOND AND REVISED EDITION + + Like Saul of Tarsus before he changed his name -- but not his +nature -- the maker of the ensuing search of the Scriptures, born +down in the Bible Belt, was bred "after the straightest sect of our +religion," a Southern Methodist. Nurtured by earnestly Christian +parents, I was heir to their faith and joint heir to salvation with +them. Through youth and into maturer years, like Paul, "so +worshipped I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are +written in the law and in the prophets" of ancient Jewry, with the +heavy increment for faith of the Wesleyan brand of Protestant +Christianity superimposed. + + Being so born and taught, so I naturally believed. For +religious belief is all but exclusively a matter of birth and early +teaching, of environment. A man takes and holds, though often most +indifferently, the religion, or brand of belief, of his fathers, of +his family. Born a pagan, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Mohammedan, a +Mormon, that he remains, except one time in many thousands, through +life; though, if taken in infancy, he will as naturally fall heir +to and believe the most contrary faith: witness the famous +Janizaries, captive Christian children trained in the Moslem faith, +and Islam's most fanatic soldiers. If born into a Christian family, +Catholic or Protestant, or of one of the many sects of either, he +usually remains, at least nominally, Catholic or Protestant, as he +was born and taught. Children believe anything they are taught; +Santa Claus, fairies, goblins, ghosts, and witches are as real, as +veritably true, to a child as Jesus the Christ to a cleric -- often +much more so. It is a maxim of the Master of the Christian faith: +"Except ye ... become as little children, ye cannot enter the +kingdom of heaven: ... for of such is the kingdom" (Matt. xviii. 3; +xix, 14). Hence the reason of the churchly maxim: Disce primum quod +credendum est -- "Learn first of all what is to be believed." + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + From my earliest years the Methodist Sunday school and Church +were as a sort of home extension of religious atmosphere and +teaching; my earliest initiation was into the "infant class" of +that institution of sacred learning. There my infantile mind was +fed and fired with the venerable verities of our first parents and +the seductive wiles of the talking snake of Eden, of Balaam's +loquacious jackass, the anthropophagous whale of Jonah, the heroic +adventures of David with Goliath and with Bathsheba, of noble +Daniel, unscathed in the lions' den and in the fiery furnace, of +Peter's walking on the water, and the devils sent into the pigs, +with many other like articles of holy faith necessary to salvation. + + Fascinated with these ancient gems of inspiration, and deeply +imbued with the sense of Christian duty to "seek first the kingdom +of God," whereupon everything else needful would be added +liberally, daily I grew in biblical wisdom as I grew in stature and +in strength. And, too, I took my religion seriously, and seriously +strove to live as a Christian should, comforted by the saving +Methodist doctrine of the divine right of backsliding; if sometimes +I fell, I fell upon my knees, got up, and pursued resolutely my +pilgrimage through this vale of tears. My Bible was my constant +companion, guide, and friend. + + Years before my majority I led all others in old "Tulip +Street" in familiarity with Holy Writ; so when a great Sunday- +school Bible verse-quoting bee was held, I was easily the favorite +for winner, and as easily I won both prizes -- Heroes of the Cross +and some other like classic of literature -- for number and +correctness of verses quoted from memory. That Bible-quoting +contest of some forty years ago struck the spark which, long +smoldering, flames up now in this book of mine. In its original +form, written some years ago, the chapters which are now headed +"Harmony of the Gospels" and "Sacred Doctrines of Christianity" +reproduced in substance, and yet do in effect, that memorable +verse-matching contest. + + From a sense of Christian duty, as well as for its practical +aid in linguistic studies, I read the Bible often, and in several +modern languages, and picked a little at the ancient ones. Later, +when writing this book, I learned sufficient Hebrew for the +understanding and honest rendition of the sacred texts. In such +frequent readings of the Bible, and in more languages than one, I +could not but be struck with important differences of meaning given +in different versions to the same verse or text; memory, too, would +go back to the same story told quite differently in other of the +sacred texts; I would search out the parallel passage and find it +at right angles or criss-cross with the one before me. Such +adventures roused dangerous trains of thought, which I devoutly +sought to conjure out of mind. My honest mind was struck, too, and +shocked, by many things which, it seemed to me, were absurd or +abhorrent as human actions, and magnifiedly so as the alleged word +or deed of my God. But "he that doubteth is damned"; so faith +triumphed over reason for a long, long time, though I felt myself +ever a bit less "orthodox" as the years went by, and as I read and +thought. Yet so vital was my residuary faith, and so disturbed my +conscience over my disregard of the divine ban, "Be ye not +unequally yoked together with unbelievers: ... what part hath he + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +that believeth with an infidel?" (2 Cor. vi, 14, 15) that upon +entering the holy bonds I purposely backslid from my native +Methodism, and took the plunge -- on a cold winter night -- into +the Baptist communion, in the earnest hope of leading my new life +partner (whose family were of that persuasion) into that aqueous +fold of Christ with me. My faith and my chill bath were unrewarded +-- then. This book is my tribute of unalloyed admiration and +devotion to her whose beautiful character and soul shine out into +my life with no pale reflected light of storied Calvary, but in +their own native warmth and purity, untinged and untainted by any +superstition of unreality. Great now is my reward; our two minds +share cordially now the single thought -- always hers: + + "Do good, for good is good to do; + Spurn bribe of heaven and threat of hell." + + Faith, I read, "has for its object the unknowable." How could +the things of faith be unknowable if they were all inerrantly +revealed by God in the "Holy Bible, book divine"? I determined to +know the truth, if it could be found in the Bible. I bought two +copies of that sacred book for what seemed must be the test of +truth. My method was simple and looked sure: from Genesis to +Revelation I reread one copy, pencil in hand; every passage that +seemed meet for my purpose I marked, noting book, chapter, and +verse on the margin of each copy for identification. These sacred +and marked volumes I then tore apart, and with scissors cut out +every marked passage. Patiently then I sorted the great mass of +clippings, putting apart into little piles all that told the same +tale differently, or treated the same Christian doctrine at cross- +purposes. This accomplished, I read and carefully "matched" one +inspired truth with another. Then, through several years, at every +opportunity which a rather active professional work and frequent +absences from the country permitted, and into the weary hours of +many a night, painstakingly, conscientiously, faithfully, in my +quest for truth out of the fountain of revelation, I carried on the +work of creating order out of the chaos which almost appalled me +with its multiplicity and its inconsistency. The result is here +presented; my book speaks for itself. The wayfarer, though a fool, +cannot mistake it. + + Thus it was that I took up the challenge of the Christ to +"search the Scriptures," haply to demonstrate to the seeker after +truth "whether these things were so," as in the Bible related for +belief, under the admonition of the Christ himself: "He that +believeth not shall be damned." + + No man, priest, parson, or zealot for his inherited faith, can +say with truth that this book of mine falsely or wantonly "attacks +the Bible," or defames the Bible God, or ridicules the Christian +religion. If iconoclastic results follow this candid search of the +Scriptures, the fault is with the Bible, for this my book speaks +truly. This book is based wholly on the Bible; its all but every +reference is to the Bible, faithfully quoted in exact words of +inspiration. The Hebrao-Christian God is depicted in plain words of +revelation for every word and deed attributed to him by the +inspired writers. This God "whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, +him declare I unto you," truly. This book is simply the Bible taken +by and large, and thus viewed in a light not shed upon it by pulpit + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +expoundings of golden texts, or by private readings of isolated +choice fragments. Ye bibliologists cannot impeach or refute the +truth herein revealed out of Holy Writ -- + + "... nor all your piety nor wit + Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, + Nor all your tears wash out a word of it!" + + The earnest hope is cherished for this book, that the simple +and sincere search here made of the Scriptures for truth's sake, +will serve to make only theology and religious intolerance vain and +ridiculous; that it shame contending Christians from an unfounded +faith in the untrue, and encourage them and all men into the +brotherhood of the only possible true and pure religion -- to + + "Do good, for good is good to do." + +Then will indeed be realized the burden of the herald angel's song: + + "Peace on earth to men of good will." + + CONTENTS + + I THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY + II A SKETCH OF HEBREW SCRIPTURES + III THE PATRIARCHS AND THE COVENANTS OF YAHWEH + IV THE WONDERS OF THE EXODUS + V THE FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS + VI THE "TEN COMMANDMENTS" AND THE "LAW" + VII THE "CONQUEST" OF THE PROMISED LAND + VIII THE HEBREW HEATHEN RELIGION. SEX WORSHIP AND IDOLS + IX THE PAGAN GOD -- AND GODS -- OF ISRAEL + X YAHWEH -- THE "TERRIBLE GOD" OF ISRAEL + XI THE HOLY PRIESTS AND PROPHETS OF YAHWEH + XII BIBLE THEOLOGY AND MODERN TRUTH + XIII THE "PROPHECIES" OF JESUS CHRIST + XIV THE INSPIRED "HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS" + XV MORE: "HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS" + XVI THE SACRED DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY + XVII THE CHRISTIAN "PLAN OF SALVATION" + XVIII REVELATIONS OF THE HEREAFTER + XIX CESSET SUPERSTITION AND THEN? + INDEX + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + + CHAPTER I + + THE GENESIS OF CHRISTIANITY + + WHAT Is Truth?" asked the mystified Pilate of Jesus the +Christ, as he stood before the Roman governor, accused by the +priests of the Jews of having proclaimed himself King of the Jews +and Messiah, thus "perverting the nation, and forbidding to give +tribute to Caesar, saying, That he himself is Christ a king" (Luke +xxiii, 2). Pilate asked Jesus, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" and + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +a second time he queried, "Art thou a king then?" After standing +some time mute, Jesus finally, and equivocally, answered: "Thou +sayest that I am a king"; and he added: "To this end was I born, +and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear +witness unto the truth"; but, he averred, "My Kingdom is not of +this world" (John xviii, 37). + + Then Pilate's challenging Question, which has rung down the +nearly twenty centuries since, and yet challenges answer concerning +"this just person": Was he Christ? Was he the Son of God, Virgin- +born? Was he the heralded King of the Jews? Was he King of a +Kingdom not of this world? These things recorded of him, were they +so? + + The system of Christian theology grown up around this unique +Subject, and in current acceptance bound to the concept of a true +religion of the spirit, is wrought upon the basis of an implicit +belief in a composite of two miraculous "revelations of God to +Man." Of these the one is known as the Old Testament or will of +God, revealed in olden times to the Hebrew people; the other, of +the century of Jesus Christ, and revealed through himself and his +Jewish propagandists, is known as the New Testament or will of God. +These two revelations are committed to mankind through a +compilation of sixty-six small separate brochures of "Scriptures" +or writings, together called The Bible from the Greek Ta Biblia or +"The Books." This Bible constitutes all that we have or know of the +"revealed Word of God." + + Truth, without alloy of possible error, lies in the inspired +and sacred pages of this wonderful "Word of God" -- if full +credence be given to its claims for itself, and to the claims made +for it by the theologians. + + As for its own claims of inspired and inerrant truth, they +abound: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. iii, +16); "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but +holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 +Peter i, 21); though the Hebrew Deity himself, as quoted by +Jeremiah, avers: "the prophets prophesy lies in my name" (Jer. +xxiii, 25); and this prophet adds: "The false pen of the scribes +hath wrought falsely" (Jer. viii, 8, Revised Version). John the +Evangelist says: "He that saw it bare record, and his record is +true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe" +(John xix, 35). And his Divine Subject declares: "I have greater +witness than that of John. ... Though I bear record of myself, yet +my record is true" (John v, 36; viii, 14). Paul, the chief of the +propagandists, asserts, "I speak the truth in Christ; I lie not" +(Rom. ix, 1) -- though with amazing naivete he has just admitted +that he does "lie unto the glory of God" (Rom. iii, 7), that His +truth may the more abound! The assumption of truth is usually +attached to a confession. + + The Scriptures Old and New, their verity thus vouched for, we +well know to be a collection of many separate pieces of writing by +many Different "inspired" Hebrew writers, through many ages of +Hebrew history. The Bible has not thus the advantage of unity of +authorship, as have the Sacred Scriptures of some other widespread +faiths of the present day. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + The Koran of Merbammed is fabled to have been brought down +from heaven to this prophet by the archangel Gabriel, full-written +on the parchment skin of the ram which was miraculously provided in +the nick of time just as Father Abraham was about to cut the throat +of his son Isaac as a sacrifice to Yahweh on Mt. Moriah; the later +Book of Mormon, miraculously written on golden plates, and hidden +in a cache on Cumorah Hill, near Palmyra, was specially revealed to +the late Prophet J. Smith, here in New York State, in the year +1823, by the angel Moroni. As these latter sacred texts were +written in an unknown hieroglyph, the angel loaned to Prophet Smith +a pair of patent spectacles called Urim and Thummim, which had the +miraculous faculty of rendering the strange script into rather +faulty English words to the eye of the seer, and so enabling him, +hidden from curious prying behind a kitchen screen, to translate +the mystic manuscript, upon the completion of which pious work the +golden plates and spectacles were taken by the angel back to +heaven. + + Over 600,000 people in the United States live and die in the +faith of this "revelation"; and the sect has been considerably +persecuted and martyred for its faith by other Americans who +believed other and more ancient Hebrew revelations (though they +hate and persecute the Jews). And more millions of human beings +have for 1200 years believed the "revelations" of Mohammed than +ever did believe the Hebrao-Christian revelations. So much for +"revealed" faiths. Before forgetting Prophet J. Smith, it may be +recalled, as a bit of curious American history, that in 1829, less +than one hundred years ago, John the Baptist himself, he who +baptized the Jewish Jesus, came down from heaven to New York State +and publicly ordained Prophet Smith and his confrere Oliver Cowdery +into "the Priesthood of Aaron"; and that the immortal Saints Peter, +James the Brother of Jesus, and John (which one not specified) then +and there conferred upon the two Prophets "the Order of the +Priesthood of Melchizedek," of which Jesus Christ was himself a +perpetual member (Heb. vi, 20). + + We shall examine the truth of the Christian theology, +searching the Scriptures whether the miraculous things therein +recounted for faith can possibly be so. Incidentally we shall catch +an occasional sidelight from sacred or secular history, but chiefly +we shall keep closely in our search to Holy Writ. First we shall +take a brief retrospective look at some of the secular and historic +phases of Christianity as it has prevailed unto the Christian +civilization of past and present. + + THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY + + Judea, the birthplace of the Christ, was a small outlying +province of the far-flung Pagan Roman Empire, its turbulent Jewish +fanaticism curbed by Roman law and legions. + + The new religion rose there, but met with little acceptance in +its native place, where the Jews could not recognize in the humble +Carpenter of Nazareth the tokens of the kingly "Messiah" of their +olden prophecy. It spread with readier acceptance among the +neighboring pagans, who believed all gods and had no objection to +taking on another; they were familiar with virgin births and with + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +gods coming to earth in human form. At Lystra the pagan populace +even acclaimed Paul and Barnabas as pagan deities, crying, "The +gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," Barnabas being +called Jupiter himself, and Paul the lesser divinity, Mercury, +"because be was the chief speaker" (Acts xiv, 11, 12). This greater +pagan honor to 'Barnabas seems to have offended Paul's sense of +importance; for shortly afterward they quarreled, "and the +contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder +one from the other" (Acts xv, 39), in a rather un-christian humor. + + But the proselytizing campaigns continued, pushed with much +zeal, now almost exclusively among the pagans. Naturally the new +faith drifted toward imperial Rome, the head and heart of the +ancient Pagan world. There, too, it took root and spread among the +lowly and the slaves, its rites hidden away in the slums and in the +catacombs. + + This new religion, besides being purer and simpler -- at first +-- than some of the older cults, was coupled with some very +effective inducements. Its Founder proclaimed himself as very God; +he had come to establish a kingdom on earth and in heaven. To those +who would abandon their families and their poor possessions, he +made the positive promise of immense immediate reward: "There is no +man that hath left house ... or lands for my sake, but he shall +receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses ... and lands; and +in the world to come eternal life" (Mark x, 29, 30; Matt. xix, 29; +Luke xviii, 30). He proclaimed again and again that in a very short +time the existing world should end, that he would come in glory to +establish his kingdom and a new earth, where he would reign +forever. So soon, indeed, would this great reward be realized, the +prospective king asserted, that there were some "standing here, who +shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in +his kingdom" (Matt. xvi, 28). The new religion assured everlasting +felicity in its heaven to all who would just believe; it threatened +eternal torment in the fires of its hell for all who would not +believe and accept it. + + Under the spell of these promises and threats and of the +assurance of a quick end of the earth, the propagandists of the +cult promptly established a strange new scheme of which they were +the administrators -- a scheme of pure communism. As the world +would quickly come to an end, there was no reason and no need to +take heed of temporal affairs; they must all watch and pray and +pool all their poor belongings in their leaders' hands for the +common benefit. This the trembling and zealous proselytes did, +under the sanction of supreme fear: "Neither was any among them +that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold +them, and brought the price of the things that were sold, and they +laid them down at the Apostles' feet; and distribution was made +unto every man according as he had need" (Acts iv, 34, 35). And the +story of what befell Ananias and Sapphira (Acts v, 1-11) for +holding out a part of their substance from the common pool was +wholesome warning to any who, with a cautious eye to a possible +hitch in the "second coming," might be inclined to "lie to the Holy +Ghost," who kept the score of the contributions. The history of + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +Dowie, "Elijah II," and his New Zion, and of "Moses II," younger +brother of Jesus Christ," here in twentieth-century United States, +illustrates the truth that certain human traits are not yet +extinct. + + Such was the intellectual enlightenment of the classes among +which the new faith was propagated, and for which the inspired +Gospel biographies of the Christ and the apostolic epistles were +put into circulation. The chief of the disciples and his associate +propagandists were admittedly "unlearned and ignorant men" (Acts +iv, 13) the new cult was that of fishermen and peasants, of the +ignorant, the disinherited, the slave as is proved by many of their +acts and sayings, recorded in the New Testament and in early church +history. + + Naturally the new religion gained adherents and slowly spread, +as all other religions have done: Mithraism, its closest and all +but successful rival; Mohammedanism, which far outspread it; +Mormonism, Spiritualism, Mother-Eddyism and many another cult and +superstition, including "heresies" combated and persecuted by the +new faith from the very first, several of which (like some entirely +"pagan" religions) all but overthrew the struggling new "orthodox" +creed of the Christ. But by virtue of its superior moral merits, +its exceptional system of rewards and punishments, and the great +zeal of its propagandists, it grew and strengthened and finally +gained the upper hold in the centuries-long struggle with paganism. + + THE NEW AND THE OLDER RELIGIONS + + Christianity was not so new or so novel as we generally think +it. In its essentials it had hardly a new thought in it -- except +hell-fire and the oft-repeated and never realized dictum, "The end +of all things is at hand" (I Peter iv, 7). In lieu of the plurality +of gods of the pagan religions, it evolved the one pagan god +Yahweh, of old Hebrew mythology, into Three-in-One Christian +Godhead. The other pagan gods became, in effect, the "saints" of +the new cult; or, as the Catholic Encyclopedia has it, "the Saints +are the successors to the Gods" (Vol. XV, p. 710) -- though the +theory of the Psalmist tallies better with that of the new +theology: "All the gods of the heathen are devils" (Psalms xcvi, 5, +Vulgate). The incarnation of Gods in human form by virgin birth was +common place myth; their death, resurrection, transition to and fro +between heaven and earth, and the like, were articles of faith of +many pagan creeds and of all mythologies. Monotheism, without idol- +worship, is the single essential difference of the Christian +religion from paganism; and when one recalls the Trinity, and the +icons and sacred images of saints, even this difference seems +attenuated. + + The death and resurrection of pagan gods is alluded to +specifically by Ezekiel. Yahweh had brought him in his vision to +the north door of the Temple at Jerusalem; "and, behold, there sat +women weeping for Tammuz" (Ezek. viii, 14). Tammuz was a so-called +god of vegetation, fabled to have died and been resurrected with +the returning seasons. One month of the Hebrew calendar is named +Tammuz. The fable is simply a myth of the death of vegetation in +the winter and its rebirth in the spring. It was a very prevalent + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +superstition in ancient times, in Assyria, in Egypt (the myths of +Isis and Osiris), in Palestine, Greece, and other pagan countries; +and the Tammuz myth was one of the heathenish cults followed by the +pagan Hebrews. The women referred to by Ezekiel were celebrating +the annual death of their god Tammuz by weeping for him. Now they +weep annually over the death of Jesus Christ, and rejoice each year +on the Easter of his resurrection. This so-called Tammuz-cult was +native to Babylonia; and, says the Catholic Encyclopedia, "it was +unmistakably allied with the worship of Adonis and Attis, and even +of Dionysus. Much might have been hoped for these religions with +their yearly festival of the dying and rising Gods" (Vol. XI, p. +388). But they were otherwise corrupt and moribund, and gave way +finally to the newer, purer religion, but identical cult, of the +Christ. + + It would be interesting to develop the records of the adoption +by Christianity of the pagan myths and ceremonies. It is a large +subject, and we cannot go into it at length here, where our task is +limited to a study of the sacred texts for the proofs or disproofs +of their own validity which they so abundantly afford. But some +brief extracts from authoritative works may be included, for their +own significance and to point the way for further inquiry. + + True, practically every tenet and ceremonial of the Christian +religion has its counterpart in, and was adapted from, the beliefs +and ceremonies of the pagan religions which preceded it and for +centuries lived alongside it. We have just noticed the "Yearly +festival of the dying and rising God" in the ceremonials of +paganism. This is very like the death and resurrection of the +Christian God, Jesus Christ; and it is the resurrection of Jesus +which is the cornerstone of the Christian religion: "If Christ be +not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" +(I Cor. xv, 14). To be as brief as may be in outlining this very +suggestive subject, I will quote a paragraph from a well-known +recent work, 'The Next Step in Religion,' by Ray Wood Sellars, +[Ray Wood Sellers, The Next Step in Religion: An Essay toward the +Coming Renaissance. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1918)] +supplemented by extracts from the Catholic Encyclopedia, the best +brief outlines of Christian adoptions and adaptations of paganism. +Says Mr. Sellars: + + "The Orphic cults in Greece, the Osiris and Isis cult in + Egypt, the worship of Attis and Adonis in Syria [of which + Palestine is part], the purification and communion ceremonies + of Mithraism, all turned about the idea of a secret means of + salvation. The God dies and is resurrected; the Virgin Goddess + gives birth to a Son; the members of the religious community + eat of their God and gain strength from the sacred meal. The + Church Fathers were aware of these similarities, and sought to + explain away their resemblances by means of the theory that + the Devil had blasphemously imitated Christian rites and + doctrines." -- I may pause to point out that these pagan rites + long antedated the Christian analogies, and therefore the + theory loses force. -- "The death and resurrection of a + Savior-God was very prevalent in Tarsus, Paul's own city. The + Attis Mysteries were celebrated in a season which corresponded + to the end of our Lenten season and the beginning of Easter. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + They were preceded by fasting and began with lamentations; the + votaries gathered in sorrow around the bier of the dead + divinity; then followed the resurrection; and the risen God + gave hope of salvation to the mystic brotherhood; and the + whole service closed with the feast of rejoicing, the + Hilaria." (Sellars, pp. 23-24.) + + Much more comprehensive, and constituting a very notable +admission, are the following passages from the Catholic +Encyclopedia. By way of introductory, it says: "Speaking from the +standpoint of pure history, no one will deny that much in the +antecedent and environing aspirations and ideals of paganism +formed, to use the Church phrase, a praeparatio evangelica of high +value. 'Christo jam tum venienti, crede, parata via est.' sings the +Hymn of Prudentius. The pagan world 'saw the road,' Augustine could +say, 'from its hill-top.' 'Et ipse Pitaetus Christianus est.' said +the Priest of Attis; while, of Heraclitus and the old Philosophers, +Justin avers that 'there were Christians before Christ.' Indeed, +the earlier apologists for Christianity go far beyond anything we +should wish to say, and indeed made difficulties for their +successors" (Vol. XI, p. 393). And again: "It has indeed been said +that the 'Saints are the successors to the Gods.' Instances have +been cited of pagan feasts becoming Christian; of pagan temples +consecrated to the worship of the true God; of statues of pagan +Gods baptized and transformed into Christian Saints" (Vol. XV, p. +710). + + A few instances out of the great number of these analogies +between pagan and Christian rites follow: + + "The Christian ritual developed when, in the third century, +the Church left the Catacombs. Many forms of self-expression must +needs be identical, in varying times, places, cults, as long as +human nature is the same. Water, oil, light, incense, singing, +procession, prostration, decoration of altars, vestments of +priests, are naturally at the service of universal religious +instinct. Little enough, however, was directly borrowed by the +Church -- nothing, without being 'baptized,' as was the Pantheon. +In all these things the spirit is the essential: the Church +assimilates to herself what she takes, or, if she cannot adapt, she +rejects it. + + "Even pagan feasts may be 'baptized': certainly our +processions of April 25th are the Robigalia; the Regation Days may +replace the Ambarualia; the date of Christmas Day may be due to the +same instinct which placed on December 25th the Natalis Invictis of +the Solar Cult (Vol. XI, p. 390). + + "The Roman Virtues, Fides, Castitas, Virtus (manliness) were +canonized [p. 391]. The Mysteries had already fostered, though not +created, the conviction of immortality. It was thought that +'initiation' insured a happy after-life and atoned for sins, that +else had been punished, if not in this life, in some place of +expiation (Plato, Rep. 366; cf. Pindar, Sophocles, Plutarch). These +Mysteries usually began with the selection of Initiandi, their +preliminary baptism, fasting, and confession. After many + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +sacrifices, the Mysteries proper were celebrated, including +tableaux showing heaven, hell, purgatory, the soul's destiny, the +gods. Apuleius (in Metamorphoses) tells us his thrilling and +profoundly religious experiences. + + "There was often seen the 'Passion' of the god Osiris; the +rape and return of Kore and the sorrows of Demeter (Eleusis) -- the +sacred marriage and divine births (Zeus, Brimos). Finally, there +was usually the Meal of mystic food; grains of all sorts at +Eleusis, bread and water in the cult of Mithra, wine (Dionysus), +milk and honey (Attis), raw bull's flesh in the Orphic Dionysus- +Zagreus cult. Sacred formukae were certainly imparted, of magical +value (Vol. XI, pp. 391-2). In the Tauroboliuml the Initiandi were +baptized by dipping in the bull's blood, whence the dipped emerged +renatus in aeternum ('reborn into Eternity'). In the sacred Meal +(which was not a sacrifice), the worshippers communicated in the +God and with one another. + + "The sacred Fish of Atargatis have nothing to do with the +origin of the Eucharist, nor with the Ichthys Anagram of the +Catacombs. The Anagram -- (Ichthys, the Greek word for Fish), does +indeed represent 'Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter' -- (Jesus +Christ, Son of God, Savior); the propagation of the symbol was +often facilitated owing to the popular Syrian Fish-cult (from +Dagon, Syrian Fish-god). That the terminology of the Mysteries was +largely transported into Christian use is certain (Paul, Ignatius, +Origen, Clement, etc.); that the liturgy, especially of baptism, +organization of the Catechumenate, Disciplina Arcana, etc., were +affected by them, is highly probable. Always the Church has +forcefully molded words, and even concepts (as Savior, Epiphany, +Baptism, Illumination (photismos), Mysteries (teletes), Logos, to +suit her own Dogma and its expression. Thus it was that John could +take the expression 'Logos,' mould it to his Dogma, cut short all +perilous speculation among Christians, and assert once for all that +the "Word was made Flesh' and was Jesus Christ" (Cath. +Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, p. 392). + + The fish anagram above referred to was an ancient pagan symbol +of fecundity, of great vogue and veneration throughout pagandom, +and was adopted by Christendom for the double reason that the +initials acrostically formed the name and title of Jesus Christ and +that in ancient science fish were supposed to be generated in the +water without carnal copulation, and were thus peculiarly symbolic +of the virgin-born Christ. The pagan origin and Christian +significance of the symbol are attained by the authority just +quoted: "The most remarkable example of such a poem [acrostic or +anagram] is attributed by Lactantius and Eusebius to the Erythrean +Sibyl, the initial letters forming the words 'Iesous Xristos Theou +Uios Soter (stauros).' Omitting the doubtful parenthesis (cross), +these words form a minor acrostic: Ichthys, fish, the mystical +symbol of our Lord" (Cath. Encyc. Vol. I, p. 111). + + The pagan origin of the two greatest Christian festivals, +Christmas and Easter, may be emphasized by brief extracts. +"Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. The +first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. ... [about 200 A.D.] ... +There is no month in the year to which respectable authorities have + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +not ascribed Christ' birth. ... At Rome, then, the Nativity was +celebrated on 25 December before 354; in the East, at +Constantinople, not before 379. ... The well-known solar feast, +however, of Natalis Invictis, celebrated on 25 December, has a +strong claim on the responsibility for our December date. ... It +would be impossible here to even outline the history of solar +symbolism and language as applied to God, the Messiah, and Christ +in Jewish or Christian canonical, patristic, or devotional works. +Hymns and Christmas offices abound in instances. The earliest +rapprochement of the births of Christ and the Sun is in Cyprian (De +pasch. comp. xix): 'O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on +that day on which the Sun was born ... Christ should be born.' In +the fourth century Chrysostom (De Solst. et AEquin., II, p. 118) +says: 'But our Lord too is born in the month of December (25). ... +But they call it the "Birthday of the Unconquered." Who is so +unconquered as our Lord? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of +the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice.' ... Pope Leo I bitterly +reproves solar survivals -- Christians on the very door-step of the +Apostles' Basilica turn to adore the rising Sun. ... But even +should a deliberate and legitimate 'baptism? of a pagan feast be +seen here, no more than the transference of the date need be +supposed. The abundance of midwinter festivals may have helped the +choice of the December date, the same instinct which set Natalis +Invictis at the winter solstice will have sufficed, apart from +deliberate adaptation or curious calculation, to set the Christians +feast there too" (Cath. Encyc., Vol. III, pp. 724-727). + + This "baptism" of the most popular pagan festival of the Sun +as the birthday of the Son of God is thus evidently admitted to be +as the secular histories clearly prove it was -- a sop to the pagan +masses to conciliate them with Christianity by permitting them to +continue to enjoy their great festivals and ceremonies the more +readily to entice them into the paganized Christian Church. + + As Christmas is a "baptized" pagan festival of the solar cult, +celebrating the birth of the sun at the winter solstice, so is +Easter a pagan solar festivity, celebrated at the spring equinox in +all the Eastern pagan lands as the renewal of vegetal life and the +resurrection of nature from the long death of winter. The name +Easter, according to the Venerable Bede, "relates to Eostre, a +Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring" (Cath. +Encyc., Vol. V, p. 224). It is identically the Jewish passover; "in +fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter +celebration" (Id. p: 225). But it is of even more pagan origin than +Judaism, with its festivals of "new moons"; its pagan solar +character is shown by the time of its celebration: "Easter was +celebrated in Rome and Alexandria on the first Sunday after the +first full moon after the spring equinox. ... Already in the third +century 25 March, was considered the day of the crucifixion" (Id. +p. 225). "A great number of pagan customs, celebrating the return +of spring, gravitated to Easter" (Id., p. 227). + + The foregoing is as comprehensive a statement of the admitted +"borrowings" or "adaptations" by Christianity from paganism as can +well be made in brief quotations. They are authoritative, and they +completely prove that there is nothing new in the Christian +religion except Hebrew monotheism, with threats of hell and +damnation, and temporal torture and death for the unbeliever. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + It may surprise and grieve many good Christians to know that +all their pious observances, prayers, hymns, baptism, communion at +the altar, redemption, salvation, the celebration of Christmas as +the birth of their God in mid-winter, and of Easter, his +resurrection as spring breaks, all, all, are pagan practices and +myths, thousands of years antedating their Jesus-religion. + + The simple truth is that paganism was outworn; its myths were +too childish to be believed by the enlightened minds of those days. +Four centuries before Christ, Socrates was put to death for +disbelief in the gods of Greece. Paganism, too, had become corrupt +in many of its practices; the time was ripe for a reform in +religion, and for a purer system based on belief in one God. One of +the many pretended Messiahs of Israel served as the occasion for +this reform. His own people did not largely accept him; his +propaganda found readier acceptance among the pagans, who had a +freer form of worship and were very prone to believe in any god and +in every fable. So the new cult made its way slowly through the +pagan Roman world. + + The new religion was at first tolerated throughout the Empire, +and at Rome. As it grew and spread, it interfered with the business +of many "Demetrius silversmiths," who violently opposed it as +destroying their idol-trade (Acts xix, 24). By their evil reports, +maybe, its votaries became suspected of criminal practices and +conspiracies against the Empire, and it suffered intermittent +persecutions, but it persisted. It met persecution and attempted +suppression, not as a religion, but as an interference with the +policy of the State. After three hundred years, during which +paganism flourished decadently and was the religion of "the best +peoples and best portions of the earth," the new religion gained +the adherence of the pagan Emperor Constantine, who became sole +emperor of the pagan world through a victory due, as he was made by +Christian priests superstitiously to believe, to a miraculous Sign +of the Cross, with the legend In Hoc Signo Vinces, hung out in +heaven for him during the battle at the Milvian Bridge by the +Christian's God himself. The emperor, in gratitude or as a shrewd +policy of state, adopted the new god and creed, and at the +instigation of the priests set up this creed as the state religion +and enthroned its priests in place and power in the state. In the +spirit of pagan tolerance, which one would think should be the +spirit of Christianity, Constantine decreed religious liberty +throughout the Empire. The terms of his Edict of Milan, in 313, are +worth recalling; they shame the very sect which was its intended +beneficiary. + + PAGAN TOLERANCE AND CHRISTIAN INTOLERANCE + + The proselytized emperor decreed: "It seems to us proper that +the Christians and all others should have liberty to follow that +mode of religion which to each of them appears best; for it befits +the well-ordered State and the tranquillity of our times that each +individual be allowed, according to his own choice, to worship the +Divinity." + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + But no sooner had the priests of the new religion foisted +themselves securely into power, and by their threats of hell fire +dominated the superstitious minds of the emperors, than the old +decrees of persecution under which they themselves had previously +suffered were revamped and turned into engines of torture and +destruction of both pagans and "heretic" Christians alike, and +religious intolerance became the corner-stone of the Church +apostolic. Without mentioning earlier laws, in which the new +persecutors cautiously felt their way, it was enacted, at priestly +instigation, in the famous Codex Theodosianus, about A.D. 384: "We +desire that all the people under the rule of our clemency should +live by that religion which divine Peter the apostle is said to +hive given the Romans. ... We desire that heretics and schismatists +be subjected to various fines. ... We decree also that we shall +cease from making sacrifices to the gods. And if any one has +committed such a crime, let him be stricken with the avenging +sword" (Cod. Theod. xvi, 1, 2; 5, 1; 10, 4). What a contrast to the +Edict of Milan, granting tolerance to all! In these laws of the now +"Christian" empire priestly intolerance is made the law of the +land; and the accursed words "Inquisition of the Faith" and +"inquisitors" first appear in this code. + + THE DEADLY SANCTIONS OF RELIGION + + But the priests should not alone bear the infamy of these laws +of persecution and death, instigated by them. To the Devil his due! +The "Holy Ghost" itself, it is claimed by the Bible and the Church, +inspired and decreed by positive command all the bloody murders and +tortures by the priests from Moses to the last one committed; and +the spirit of them lives and is but hibernating to-day. The Holy +God of Israel, whose name is Merciful, thus decreed on Sinai: "He +that sacrificeth to any gods [elohim], save unto Yahweh only, he +shall be utterly destroyed" (Ex. xxii, 20). And hear this, which +the ancient priests attribute to their God: + + "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or + thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which + is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go + serve other gods, and ... Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor + hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither + shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou + shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to + put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. + And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die" (Deut. + xiii, 6--10)! + + Words are inadequate to comment on this murderous decree of a +barbarian God! And not only must all under penalty of a fiendish +death worship the Holy Yahweh of Israel, but listen to this other +fatal, infamous decree of the priests in the name of this God: + + "The man that will do presumptuously, and will not + hearken unto the priest, even that man shall die" (Deut. xvii, + 12). + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + And the tergiversant slaughter-breathing persecutor for pay of +the early Christians, now turned for profit their chief apostle of +persecution, pronounces time and again the anathema of the new +dispensation against all dissenters from his superstitious, +tortuous doctrines and dogmas, all such "whom I have delivered unto +Satan" (I Tim. i, 20), as be writes to advise his adjutant Timothy. +He flings at the scoffing Hebrews this question: "He that despised +Moses, law died without mercy ...: Of how much sorer punishment, +suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot +the Son of God?" (Heb. x, 28, 29). All such "are set forth for an +example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7); "that +they might all be damned who believed not the truth" (2 Thess. ii, +12); and even "he that doubteth is damned" (Rom. xiv, 23). This +Paul, who with such bigoted presumption "deals damnation 'round the +land on all he deems the foe" of his dogmas, is first seen +"consenting to the death" of the first martyr Stephen (Acts viii, +1); then he blusters through the country "breathing out +threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts +ix, 1), the new converts to the new faith. Then, when he suddenly +professed miraculous "conversion" himself, his old masters turned +on him and sought to kill him, and he fled to these same disciples +for safety, to their great alarm (Acts ix, 23-26), and straightway +began to bully and threaten all who would not now believe his new +preachments. To Elymas, who "withstood them," the doughty new +dogmatist "set his eyes on him," and thus blasted him with inflated +vituperation: "O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child +of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease +to pervert the right ways of the Lord"? (Acts xiii, 8-10). Even the +"meek and loving Jesus" is quoted as giving the fateful admonition: +"Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" +(Matt. x, 28) -- here first invented and threatened by Jesus the +Christ himself, for added terror unto belief. Paul climaxes the +terror: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living +God" (Heb. x, 31). + + Thus "breathing out threatenings and Slaughter" against all +who would not believe their gospel of miracles and damnation, the +founders of the new faith forged and fastened the fetters of the +new superstition upon the already superstitious pagans about them, +and gradually throughout the Roman world. By fear of hell, pagan +individuals, and in later times, by the choice proffered by +"Christian" conquerors between the Cross and the sword, whole pagan +peoples fell under the domination of the new militant faith. Whole +tribes and nations were given the choice between Christianity and +death; early history abounds in instances. The Hungarians adopted +Christianity as the alternative to extermination in A.D. 1000; also +the pagan Wends when conquered in 1144, and most of the pagan +Teutonic tribes. Charlemagne required every male subject of the +Holy Roman Empire above the age of twelve to renew his oath of +allegiance and swear to be not only a good subject but also a good +Christian. To refuse baptism and to retract after baptism were +crimes punishable with death. It was indeed fearful danger and +death by torture, rack, and fire to show the faintest symptoms of +doubt of the faith of the Holy Church. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + "LIKE KING LIKE PEOPLE" + + Following the truism of Isaiah, "like king like people," very +great sections of the people throughout the Empire, especially the +official and subservient classes, hastened to adopt the name and +outward indicia of Christianity, now become official and popular. +But so "joined to their idols" were the masses of pagan "converts" +for convenience, and so addicted to its showy forms and ceremonies, +that the now officially recognized Church of Christ was not slow to +popularize itself with the pagan-Christian masses by taking over +bodily and "baptizing" to itself the temples, idols, rituals, +ceremonials, the whole pomp and glorious circumstance of paganism, +as we have just seen admitted by the paragraphs of church history +quoted from the work of Sellars and the authoritative Catholic +Encyclopedia. Christianity became thus scarcely more than a refined +veneer of paganism. A devout pagan becoming, either from +convenience or conviction, a Christian, no doubt felt quite +comfortable and at home in a "baptized" pagan-Christian temple, +aglow with all the trappings and ceremonials and resonant with all +the old familiar rituals and litanies of his just-recanted +paganism, with merely the name of Zeus or Jupiter replaced by that +of Jehovah, and of Adonis or Tammuz by that of Jesus, and with +"Mary, Mother of God," for Isis (with the child Horus), as the new +"Queen of Heaven." As the missionaries of Rome carried the new cult +into yet other countries, and various kings and rulers fell to the +appeal and pomp of the priests, whole tribes and nations of +heathens followed their leaders into the Church, veneering their +paganism with the name, forms, and ceremonials of Roman +Christianity. This is the testimony of early ecclesiastical and +secular history. + + Later instances more generally known, but the significance of +which is as generally overlooked, further confirm Isaiah's maxim. +For a millennium the Western Empire was more or less Roman +Christian; the Eastern Empire had the Greek Church with its own +Patriarch, but, with considerable vicissitudes of constancy, it +recognized the supremacy of papal Rome, and the formulas of faith +and creed were the same, with the exception of the age-long +controversy over the "filioque" clause of the Nicene Creed, and the +bitter feuds over image-worship known as iconoclasm. The rancours +engendered from these differences of belief, together with the +bigoted pretensions of patriarch and pope, led to the final rupture +between Greek and Roman Churches in the year 1053. All the West +followed their leader the pope; the East clung with equal tenacity +to the tenets of the patriarch. So bitter were the hatreds thus +perpetuated, that the Western popes and emperorsa refused all aid +to the beleaguered emperors and Church of the East in the fatal +conflicts with the Turks, till in 1453 Constantinople and the whole +Eastern empire fell before the Crescent, and Europe became Turkish +and Mohammedan up to the very gates of Vienna. + + But western and northern Europe remained of the Roman faith +until the Reformation begun by Luther in 1517. Here a most signal +vindication of "Like king like people" is witnessed. The Christian +kings and rulers who had political grievances against the pope +quickly took up the quarrel of Luther with the Roman Church; those +who were politically friendly to the pope seized arms to defend him + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 16 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +and the Church; their respective peoples flocked to their standards +and followed them in their rival faiths, and Europe was a welter of +blood and strife during the ensuing fierce wars between Catholic +and Protestant Christians. The strife of hostile Christian faiths +yet endures, abated some-what in degree. + + England was wholly Romish before the Reformation; so staunch +a supporter of the True Faith was the lecherous Henry VIII that the +pope bestowed on him the title Fidei Defensor, Defender of the +Faith. Papal sanction being refused to his scandalous project of +divorce from Catharine, in order to marry Anne Boleyn, Henry broke +with the pope and became Protestant; carried England with him into +the Protestant ranks; founded the Church of England; and became its +supreme spiritual head. The old Romish practice of burning +dissenters at the stake was turned against the English Catholics to +suppress that sect entirely. Henry's Romish daughter "Bloody Mary" +succeeded him, and she was in turn succeeded by her Protestant bar- +sinister sister Elizabeth: each in turn kept the fires of +Smithfield blazing with the burning of the "heretics" of the +opposite faith. Finally, with the revolution against the Catholic +Stuarts, Protestantism won and England became what she is to-day, +the staunch bulwark of the reformed Faith and the Established +Church. + + On such chances and caprices of vanity and spite in Providence +doth the religious complexion of whole nations of loyal Christians +turn and depend. It is curious to remember that the Protestant +sovereigns of England yet bear the popish title "Fidei Defensor," +which is blazoned on the national escutcheon and stamped on the +coin of the realm to-day, + + And so, through the long dark ages of faith, and so long as +the priest-prostituted State would use its civil power in +superstitious aid of the Holy Church, the Holy Church has zealously +fulfilled its Bible's commands and has murdered and tortured men, +women, and tender children by fire and sword through its special +agency of faith, the Holy Inquisition. This priest-ordained +institution was only abolished by the infidel Napoleon in Italy in +1808; but the moment his dreaded power fell, the "Scourge of God" +was eagerly re-established in the Papal States by God's Vicar Pope +Pius VII in 1814, and in Tuscany and Sardinia in 1835. It was only +finally abolished, along with the usurped "temporal power" of God's +vicars on earth, as one of the first glorious acts of the new +Kingdom of Italy, in 1870, -- just at the time when the Holy Ghost +came to the "Vatican prisoner" to reassert that the torture and +murder of dissenters from theological dogma was a God-imposed duty +and divine right of his Holy Church. We shall see how this is. + + "NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH" + + It would appear, from what is quoted below, that Holy Church +does not accept complaisantly this deprivation of power to execute +these bloody features of the divine commands committed to it. It +recognizes perforce its temporal impotence, and seems, like the +modern Hun, to bide if not to toast "The Day," as it often +suggests? "Today the temporal penalties formerly inflicted on +apostates and heretics cannot be enforced, and have fallen into + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 17 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +abeyance"; -- abeyance, temporary suspension, reluctant disuse, if +you please, as may be read in Vol. I, p. 625, of the Catholic +Encyclopedia, published under the imprimatur of Holy Church but a +few years ago (1907), in New York City, and as is several times +repeated in its volumes. Its whole system for suppression even to +extermination yet exists intact, ready for instant resort when and +should "changed conditions" again permit. From Vol. XIV, p. 761, et +seq., commended to very thoughtful perusal, are quoted several +precious, pregnant paragraphs (the italics are mine): + + "Nearly all ecclesiastical legislation in regard to the + repression of heresy proceeds upon the assumption that + Heretics are in wilful revolt against lawful authority; that + they are, in fact, Apostates who by their own culpable act + have renounced the True Faith. ... It is easy to see that in + the Middle Ages this was not an unreasonable assumption. ... + + "No one could be ignorant of the claims of the Church; + and if certain people repudiated her authority, it was by an + act of rebellion inevitably carrying with it a menace to the + sovereignty which the rest of the world accepted. ... + + "The Canon Law deals very largely with the enunciation of + principles of right and wrong which are in their own nature + irreformable; the direct repeal of its provisions has never or + very rarely been resorted to; but there remain upon the + statute book a number of enactments which owing to changed + conditions are to all practical intents and purposes obsolete. + ... + + "The custom of burning heretics is really not a question + of justice, but a question of civilization (p. 769). ... + + "'The gravest obligation,'" says Pope Leo XIII in his + Encyclical "Immortals Dei" of Nov. 1, 1885, "requires the + acceptance and practice not of the religion which one may + choose, but of that which God prescribes and which is known by + certain and indubitable marks to be the only true, one'"! (p. + 764). + + There we have the incubating germs of potential hell on earth +again in the name of God and the Christian religion. It is not the +Roman Church alone which is guilty; now, and throughout this book, +I make no imputations against it as Catholic, but only as +Christian; for 1500 years it was the only, as it claims yet to be +the only true, "Christian" Church, -- "fons et origo malorum," of +religious superstitions and persecutions innumerable. Its greater +guilt lies only in its being the father of all these priestly +dogmas which have been and are the blight of civilization. The +dissenters were, and well might be again, their Providence +permitting, all that this same article above quoted imputes to +them; for in a typical tu quoque conclusion (which admits its own +guilt) Holy Church thus recites history: "On the other hand, the +ferocity of the leading Reformers more than equalled that of the +most fiercely denounced Inquisitors. Even the 'gentle' Melanchthon +wrote to Calvin to congratulate him on the burning of Servetus: +'The Church, both now and in all generations, owes and will owe you + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 18 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +a debt of gratitude.' And, says Luther, 'Let there be no pity; it +is a time of wrath, not of mercy. Therefore, dear Lords, let him +who can slay, smite, destroy.' John Knox 'thought that every +Catholic in Scotland ought to be put to death.'" -- And the +authorized and authoritative Encyclopedia article just quoted +asserts solemnly that the inspired canon laws, including those +prescribing the torture and burning to death of "heretics," are in +their divine nature "irreformable," have accordingly never been +repealed and merely lie "in abeyance" or are "for practical +purposes obsolete," only because of "changed conditions"; and that +the infernal "custom of burning heretics is really not a question +of justice [i.e. of right or wrong], but a question of +civilization" -- which has gradually brought about these "changed +conditions," so that "burning heretics," while yet a divinely +sanctioned and unrepealed law of God and Church, cannot in these +days be enforced because of this secular "civilization" which +renders the burning laws of God and Church unpopular and impotent. + + Revolting and truly significant as this is, it is also a +confession which suggests the truth of the assertion often made +that "Christian civilization" is a misnomer, and that such +civilization as the world to-day enjoys exists, not because of the +Christian religion, but in despite and defiance of that religion +and its ministers. Only so far as the world has broken away from +the superstition and thrall of the theological dogmas of this +religion and its Holy Church and has caught something of its better +spirit, making "obsolete" the fires of the Church on earth and in +hell, has civilization slowly and painfully progressed, and have +human liberty of thought and conscience and political and civil +liberty become possible and been slowly and painfully realized in +some parts of the "Christian" world. + + FAITH FLOURISHED ON IGNORANCE + + With the decline an fall of the Roman Empire the Christian +religion spread and grew, among the Barbarian destroyers of Rome. +The Dark Ages contemporaneously spread their intellectual pall over +Europe. Scarcely any but priests and monks could read. Charlemagne +learned to wield the pen only to the extent of scrawling his +signature. The barons who wrested Magna Carta from John Lackland +signed with their marks and seals. The worst criminals, provided +they were endowed with the rare and magic virtue of knowing how to +read even badly, enjoyed the "benefit of clergy" (i.e., of clerical +learning), and escaped immune or with greatly mitigated punishment. +There were no books save painfully-written manuscripts, worth the +ransom of princes, and utterly unattainable except by the very +wealthy and by the Church; not till about 1450 was the first +printed book known in Europe. The Bible existed only in Hebrew, +Greek, and Latin, and the ignorant masses were totally ignorant of +it other than what they heard from the priests, who told them that +they must believe it or be tortured and killed in life and damned +forever in the fires of hell after death. It is no wonder that +faith flourished under conditions so exceptionally favorable. + + During the long dark ages of faith, the Holy Church and +benightedness were at their apogee and holy heyday. Miracles of +superstition happened every day by the conjuration of unwashed + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 19 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +saints and the exorcisms of motley priests, just as they do to-day +in the jungles of Africa and the arctic regions of America, through +the conjurings of Hottentot medicine-men and Eskimo shamans; but +never a single true miracle such as the modern ones of medicine, of +surgery, of sanitation, of the physical sciences! + + Any who may question the accuracy -- or desire astonishing +details -- of this reference to the miracles and superstitions of +saints and Holy Church, is cheerfully recommended to the +exhaustless fount of authentic lore and accredited vouchers for it +all, in the sixteen volume Catholic Encyclopedia, under the names +of the myriad various saints and the articles Magic, Exorcism, +Necromancy, Sorcery, Witchcraft, and scores of other such, all +vouched for under the imprimatur of authority. And none of this, +with such sanction, can possibly be impeached of error; for the +same high source states: "Error is in one way or another the +product of ignorance." The priestly maxim of those dark ages of +faith is the accredited axiom of Hugo of St. Victor: "Disce premum +quod credendum est" -- "Learn first what is to be believed"! -- +though amongst the churchmen it is said to have been a privileged +maxim for themselves, that they might "hold anything so long as +they hold their tongues." + + Under the sway and dominion of such "sacred science," genius +was dead; the human intellect atrophied; credulity was rampant. All +this followed swiftly upon the grafting of the Christian religion +upon the splendid though decadent civilization of the Roman Empire +in East and West. These all are simple facts of history. + + "CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION" + + Dickens's Child's History of England, in speaking of the early +pagan inhabitants of that island at the time of the Roman invasion, +55 years before the era of the so-called "Prince of peace," says: +"The ancient Britons, being divided into as many as thirty or forty +tribes, each commanded by its own little king, were constantly +fighting with each other, as savage people usually do." + + That single sentence epitomizes the whole history of +"Christian-civilized" Europe from that day to this: the Christian +has been no whit different from the savage as regards the savage +pastime of "constantly fighting with each other, as savage people +usually do." Read any history of Europe as a whole, or of any +particular people of Europe: its pages are replete with next to +nothing but fighting and wars, internecine and international, in +almost every single year of its bloody annals. And wars about what? + + Without an exception they have all been of one of three +inveterate classes: wars instigated by lust of conquest and power +on the part of "divine right" kings or even more popular rulers, +seeking to rob and steal each other's territories or to force their +will upon others; wars, and the most terrible and brutal of all, +incited by this Holy Christian religion before the Reformation, +with the holy purpose of exterminating unbelievers, as in the +Crusades and the Spanish butcheries of the Moors, or with the pious +object of exterminating, at Popish instigation, dissenting +"heretics," such as the Albigenses, Waldenses, Netherlanders, + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 20 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + +Cathari, Huguenots, Jews, and scores of others; and after the +Reformation, furious exterminating wars of one fanatical faction of +Christians against another, all blasphemously in the name of God! +Such pious infamies, for a thousand years and more, from its +earliest usurpation of power until skeptic anti-clericalism made it +impotent, have been the chief occupation of the Church Persecutrix, +-- that + + "... saintly, murderous brood, + To carnage and the Bible* given, + Who think through unbelievers' blood + Lies their directest path to heaven." + *The original reads "the Koran." + +A third, and redeeming, class of European wars has been those +glorious and righteous struggles for liberty by oppressed and +debased peoples, ground to misery and desperation by Holy Church +and divine right kings -- both which institutions are thoroughly +Biblical and Christian -- to throw off their galling yokes and to +win political freedom and liberty of conscience for themselves and +their posterity. But the Christian religion, while instigating and +waging many of the most cruel wars, has never once prevented a +single accursed war, of which over fifty have plunged "civilized +Christian Europe" into a welter of blood and misery in the past +century alone; while the world to-day yet staggers under the +devastation of the greatest and most destructive war of all +history, which desolated humanity and all but overthrew +civilization. And no war has been in which the name of God was not +inscribed upon the bloody banners of the aggressor; assailants and +defenders alike swamp high heaven with frantic and fatuous prayers +to God to give victory to each against the other -- prayers which +God has never heard or attended to, for God, as Napoleon cynically +and truly said, "is always on the side of the heaviest guns" -- or +of the deadliest poison-gas and most ruthless butchery of men. + + Until wicked, brutal, damned war is ended on earth, there is +and can be no true civilization; for all war -- unless defensive -- +is uncivilized, brutish barbarism. And to this holy consummation +the Christian religion, as such, will never lead or even +contribute. He whom the Christians fondly call "The Prince of +Peace" -- for what reason and with what reason God only knows -- is +not to be counted on to aid; for himself explicitly avers: "Think +not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send +peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against +his father, and the daughter against her mother, And a man's foes +shall be they of his own household" (Matt. x, 34-36)! Far from +preventing war, truly has his theology, or creedal religion, +throughout his era been the prolific cause and miserable pretext of +wars and woes unnumbered: of human misery degradation, ignorance, +intolerance, persecution, pogroms, murders by fire and sword -- in +a word, of most of the ills and sorrows which humanity, subject to +its thrall, has suffered from the days of Constantine's league with +the Church, A.D., 313, to this very year of Christ and his +religion. Gainsay this no man who knows history can. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 21 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + The Christian religion has been the fearful sanction of human +slavery, of "divine right" rulers, of "God-anointed" priestly +domination of the mind and soul of man, of the imposed inferiority +of woman. The deadly dogma of divine right of kings and of the sin +of resistance to oppression is positively ordained: "The powers +that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the +power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they, that resist shall +receive to themselves damnation" (Romans xiii, 1. 2). But the +Declaration of Independence reads otherwise. As for the priestly +dominance, we will take ancient Scripture for authority -- More +modern instances may occur to some: "The prophets prophesy falsely, +and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to +have it so" (Jer. v, 31); apd the pertinent query follows: "What +will ye do in the end the end thereof?" That is for this age to +answer unequivocally. + + THE "CHRISTIAN" PEOPLES + + The best and most highly civilized portion of the human race +is within the pale of Christendom; but are these peoples so because +they profess the Christian religion? Just as well and truly say +that they are the most intelligent of mind, the fairest of +complexion, the most comely of form and face because they are +Christian. + + But as pagans, before ever they heard of Christianity, they +were the same: because they were of the Caucasian race, Aryan -- +which means "noble." All know the story of the youthful priest, +later Gregory the Great, seeing a group of "barbarian" captives +exposed for sale in the Christian slave-market of Rome; struck with +their personal beauty, he asked of what country they were. Being +told "They are Angles," he exclaimed: "No, they are angels," and +was thus moved to send missionaries to their Teutonic homeland to +"convert" their nation from paganism to the true faith. Deathless +in history, in song and story, are "the glory that was Greece, the +grandeur that was Rome" -- the two highest civilizations of +antiquity as well as of the early Christian era: the glory and the +power were of pagan Greece, of pagan Rome long before and long +after the Christian religion came, and that glory, that high +civilization was eclipsed, swamped, by the night of the Christian +dark ages -- which were the ages of faith. + + Not only these greatest civilizations, but the greatest minds +of the ages, the best of men, were pagans: Aristotle, Plato, +Socrates, Epictetus, Demosthenes, Cicero, Seneca, the Plinys, the +Antonines, Marcus Aurelius, the philosophers, the poets, Pilate +himself -- the catalogue is long and illustrious: Justin had to +explain it thus -- "there were Christians before Christ." The +Augustan Age, just at the time of the advent of the Man of Sorrows, +was the glorious golden age of the ancient world -- and purely +pagan. And for centuries after Christ the greater part of Europe +remained pagan, and but slowly, and bloodily, gave way to +Christianity after the league of State with Church under +Constantine, as we may again notice in this sketch. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 22 + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + + Having given a rapid retrospect of some of the phases of +Christian history, and sought to clear away some popular +misconceptions, I shall proceed, in the following chapters, in all +conscience and truth of statement, easily verifiable by all, to +"search the Scriptures," Hebrew and Hebrao-Christian, whether these +things which they contain for our faith are worthy of faith and +credit. This search win truly "reveal" the Bible and its God in the +very words of inspiration. If they be found inspired of truth, the +first and highest duty of man is reverently to cherish and obey +them -- "for therein ye think ye have eternal life." If inspiration +and truth, divine and human, are found lacking, for God's sake and +humanity's, may intelligent people renounce forevermore the vain +priest-imposed "hope to merit heaven by making earth a hell" for +superstition's sake; let us cease wrangling and being intolerant +over moronic myths, and let us have peace from "idle tales" and +fables. + + + + **** **** + + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + + The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful, +scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of +suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the +Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our +nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and +religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to +the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so +that America can again become what its Founders intended -- + + The Free Market-Place of Ideas. + + The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old, +hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts +and information for today. If you have such books please contact +us, we need to give them back to America. + + + **** **** + + + + + IS IT GOD'S WORD? + by + Joseph Wheless + + 1926 + + **** **** + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 23 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/chaos.mag b/textfiles.com/politics/chaos.mag new file mode 100644 index 00000000..16e596aa --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/chaos.mag @@ -0,0 +1,265 @@ + + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + º CHAOS AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING º + º º + º by º + º Mack Tanner º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + "Law of the Perversity of Nature: You cannot successfully + determine beforehand which side of the bread to butter." + --Anonymous + + Most of you have probably heard the story about the + clever young man who offers to go to work for a businessman + on a try-out basis in which the young man will be paid only + one cent on the first day, two cents for the second day, four + cent on the third day, and so on, the salary doubling each + day until the businessman decides whether or not he wants to + hire the young man on a permanent basis. + Thinking he's getting a good deal, the businessman takes + on the kid and a month slips by before the businessman + decides he won't keep the young man on. When the young man + presents the bill for his wages for thirty days, the + businessman discovers it's cheaper to sign over the company + than paying the wages. + The businessman has just learned the truth of compound + interest. By doubling a single cent thirty times, you end up + with $5,368,709.12 on the last doubling. The business man + owes the young man over 10 million dollars for the thirty + days of work. + While this common mathematical principle has long been + understood, it's only been in recent years that scientists + have examined and explored what impact compounding small sums + can have on what are called chaotic systems. + A chaotic system is any dynamic physical, biological, or + mathematical system in which a complicated set of data + interact in non-linear and non-repetitive way. (Anyone + interested in a more technical explanation of chaos theory + should check out a library book on the subject.) + Until recently, the philosophy of determinism was the + basis for much of scientific thought and direction. The + concept was that if we only knew the equations and had the + precise data, the future could be predicted. This concept is + best summarized in Laplace's famous statement: + + "An intellect which at any given moment knew all the + forces that animate Nature and the mutual positions of + the beings that comprise it, if this intellect were vast + enough to submit its data to analysis, could condense + into a single formula the movement of the greatest + bodies of the universe and that of the lightest atom: + for such an intellect nothing could be uncertain; and + the future just like the past would be present before + its eyes." Pierre Simon de Laplace, 1749-1827 + + Chaos theory now shows how naive and ridiculous this + statement is. What scientists have come to understand in + only the last few years is that in all chaotic systems, very + small variations in input data can have a profound impact on + the future development of the system. The more the variables + at the initiation of the system, the greater the difficulty + in predicting what impact tiny increases or decrease in a + single variable will have on the progress of the system. In + a perverse sort of way, the longer term the prediction + attempted, the greater and more accurate the amount of + initial data that is required to make the prediction. As the + thousands, or millions of different variables act upon each + other, no human, nor human manufactured computing machine can + predict what the smallest change to any single variable will + do to the future of the system. + The most commonly cited example of a chaotic system is + the weather. Other chaotic systems include hydraulic + turbulence, biological species interaction, epidemiology, and + all human societies and economies. + Understanding chaos theory explains why scientists have + such a difficult time predicting the weather more than + twenty-four hour in advance and why they now realize that + they will never be able to make trustworthy long-term weather + predictions. It is simply impossible to collect the in-put + data in the quantity and with the degree of accuracy + necessary to make a credible long term prediction. (Of + course, the government will never admit this is good reason + to stop spending billions trying to do so!) + Understanding chaos theory also explains why it will be + impossible for humans to ever control the weather to produce + a desired result with no danger of unexpected and undesirable + results. Cloud seeding may make it rain over a dry Iowa corn + field, but the impact of that intervention might result in an + hurricane destroying a coastal city in Florida six months, or + six years in the future. + Given the complexity of the non-linear equations in + describing weather patterns, no scientist will ever be able + to prove that it was the cloud seeding that caused the + hurricane, nor, for that matter, that the cloud seeding + didn't contribute to the hurricane's development. + Humans can impact on or redirect a chaotic system, but + we can not prove or disprove exactly how the human + intervention impacted on the system over the long term. We + will know we changed the system, but we can never know how we + changed the system, nor what the system would have done if we + had changed nothing. + All human societies and all human economic systems are + chaotic systems. They develop and progress as a result of an + incredible amount of input in which any single individual may + do something that will have an unexpected and unpredictable + multiplier impact on how the system will operate at some + future point in time. + Chaos theory explains why social engineering can never + produce the expected result and why such schemes will always + produce unintended results. Chaos theory also explains why + neither the social engineers nor the critics of social + engineering can ever prove what real impact an attempt at + social engineering actually had on the economy and the + society. + We have been listening to a lot of political debate + about what caused the riots in Los Angeles. The + conservatives blame the deteriorating situation of the city + on social programs of the Great Society, welfare dependency, + government regulation, minimum wages laws, high taxes, and + moral decline while the liberals blame the failure of the + government to spend enough money, racism, police brutality, + illegal immigration, and the entire American corporate + cultural. + The entire debate is total bullshit! + There is absolutely no way anyone can scientifically + establish what things might have been done differently that + could have prevented the deterioration of our cities into the + current social morass. Furthermore, there is no way anyone + can scientifically demonstrate what new proposals for social + engineering will produce intended and only intended future + results. + The entire political debate over the domestic agenda + that goes on in connection with the current presidential + election is also total bullshit! + Nobody can explain scientifically exactly what caused + the recent recession nor place with any scientific certainty + the blame on any set of government actions. And nobody can + predict what impact all of the different proposed economic + solutions will actually have on the future world economic + situation. + Yet every politician is demanding that we spend a + trillion dollars on programs that they can't demonstrate will + work and they won't ever to be able to prove that they did + work once they are in place. + The national economy and its interrelation with the + world economy is a chaotic system even more complex, + unpredictable, and unmanageable than the world weather and + climate patterns. Any politician who claims he can control + it for the benefit of everyone without damaging large groups + of other people is either a fool, or a crook, or more likely + both. + The government can do lots of things that will have + short term impact on the economy. Political leaders can + lower interest rates, shift investment opportunities, + legislate prices, regulate exchanges, and all those things + will alter the economic future of the economy. But chaos + theory explains why we can not predict what the long term + result of such action will be and why the unintended results + may well be much more disastrous than the original problem + could have ever become if left alone and free of government + intervention. + All of this is scientific fact that can be described by + observation of prior events, the examination of mathematical + formulas and demonstrated with computer modeling. + But don't expect any political candidate, office holder, + member of congress, bureaucrat, or scientist working on a fat + government contract to admit the truth of this. For them to + do so would be for them to admit that the American federal + budget is being wasted on social engineering projects with no + guarantees that they will work or that they won't produce + disasters. + Chaos theory not only explains why economic central + planning can't work, it also explains why government + bureaucracy grows so fast. + Because political leaders and the bureaucrats refuse to + recognize that what they are trying to do can't be done, they + work under the delusion that they only thing preventing + ultimate success is more and better data. They excuse their + repeated failures by insisting they didn't have enough data, + *which is right*, but they refuse to understand that no + matter how much data they collect, it will never be enough to + allow them to predict and control what the economy is going + to do. + Instead, they collect and quantify increasingly greater + amounts of data as the cost escalates much like the salary of + the boy who stated out at a penny for the first day's work. + The more information they collect, the more difficult the + task of correlating, interpreting, and analyzing the + information they have. They hire ever larger numbers of + people who can be put to the task of collecting and handling + the information. + When things go wrong, the excuse is always a failure in + intelligence and the proposed solution is to hire more people + and gather more raw data. The more things go wrong, the more + money they spend trying to fix it. A fascinating conclusion + of chaos theory is that you cannot predict the result of the + fix, even if you try to put everything back exactly like it + was! When we used DDT to kill the bugs and found out that it + did more harm than good - in unexpected ways - the decision + to quit using DDT may have resulted in greater damage than + would have been the result of continuing its use. + + But if the government can't control the economy for the + benefit of all, what is the government doing? + + Our politician leaders and the bureaucrats they hire + play exactly the same role in the modern secular state that + pagan priests and shamans played in ancient civilizations. + Except, where ancient pagan priests and shamans promised to + magically control the weather, stop the earthquakes, and + curse the enemy with disease and pestilence, these modern + wizards and magicians promise us that everyone will have a + good job, decent medical care, and a useful education while + avoiding drugs, unwanted pregnancies, and crime in the + streets. + Fortunately for us all, the weather generally does treat + human populations pretty well, and despite the bungled + attempts of government interference, millions of free people, + all looking out for their own selfish interest, usually + succeed in creating a chaotic, but healthy economy that + provides most of us with all the good things of life and a + few of us the chance to get rich. + Like their ancient counterparts always claimed credit + for spring rains, sunny weather, and good harvests, the + modern political wizards and magicians claim credit for the + successful economy and insist that the taxpayers contribute + even more money to guarantee continued success in the future. + They are taking credit for things they didn't do and charging + us high prices for not doing it. + The amount they take for themselves and for those whom + they decide to bless with entitlement programs continues to + grow. Most of us are working five full months a year for the + sole purpose of feeding our monstrous and useless government + beast. And still the wizards are telling us they need more + money. + They will keep demanding more money for as long as the + taxpayer will pay it. The debt will grow like the wages owed + the clever young man until it reaches the point where the + whole government system will collapse under the weight of + it's own debt. + But don't worry. Just like the good weather stuck + around for long after humans gave up on paying pagan priests + to guarantee good harvests, the basic economy, the sum total + of all human interactions and economic exchanges, will still + be around long after the collapse of big government. + + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | THE CHAOS ADVOCATE is copyrighted by Mack Tanner. You | + | may review and read sections of this electronic publication | + | to determine whether or not you would like to read the entire | + | work. If you decide to read the entire magazine, or if you | + | keep a copy of the magazine in the unpacked, readable format | + | for your own personal use or review for more than two days | + | must pay a SHARELIT fee by mailing $2.00 to | + | | + | Mack Tanner | + | 1234 Nearing Rd. | + | Moscow, ID 83843 | + | | + | If you want a receipt, include a self-addressed and | + | stamped envelope. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/charlott.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/charlott.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b53a9ab1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/charlott.txt @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@ + + +THE CHARLOTTE TOWN RESOLVES: + + + RESOLVES ADOPTED IN CHARLOTTE TOWN, + MECKLENBURG COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, + MAY 31, 1775 + +Charlotte Town, Mecklenburg County, May 31. + +This Day the Committee met, and passed the following + + RESOLVES: + + Whereas by an Address presented to his Majesty by both +Houses of Parliament in February last, the American Colonies +are declared to be in a State of actual Rebelion, we conceive +that all Laws and Commissions confirmed by, or derived from the +Authority of the King or Parliament, are annulled and vacated, +and the former civil Constitution of these Colinies for the +present wholly suspended. To provide in some Degree for the +Exigencies of the County in the present alarming Period, we +deem it proper and necessary to pass the following Resolves, +viz. + + 1. That all Commissions, civil and military, heretofore +granted by the Crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are +null and void, and the Constitution of each particular Colony +wholly suspended. + + 2. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, under +the Direction of the Great Continental Congress, is invested +with all legislative and executive Powers within their +respective Provinces; and that no other Legislative or +Executive does or can exist, at this time, in any of these +Colonies. + + 3. As all former Laws are now suspended in this Province, +and the Congress have not yet provided others, we judge it +necessary, for the better Preservation of good Order, to form +certain Rules and Regulations for the internal Government of +this County, until Laws shall be provided for us by the +Congress. + + 4. That the Inhabitants of this County do meet on a +certain Day appointed by this Committee, and having formed +themselves into nine Companies, to wit, eight for the County, +and one for the Town of Charlotte, do choose a Colonel and +other military Officers, who shall hold and exercise their +several Powers by Virtue of this Choice, and independent of +Great-Britain, and former Constitution of this Province. + + 5. That for the better Preservation of the Peace, and +Administration of Justice, each of these Companies do choose +from their own Body two discreet Freeholders, who shall be +impowered each by himself, and singly, to decide and determine +all Matters of Controversy arising within the said Company +under the Sum of Twenty Shillings, and jointly and together all +Controversies under the Sum of Forty Shillings, yet so as their +Decisions may admit of Appeals to the Convention of the Select +Men of the whole County; and also, that any one of these shall +have Power to examine, and commit to Confinement, Persons +accused of Petit Larceny. + + 6. That those two Select Men, thus chosen, do, jointly +and together, choose from the Body of their particular Company +two Persons, properly qualified to serve as Constables, who may +assist them in the Execution of their Office. + + 7. That upon the Complaint of any Person to either of +these Select Men, he do issue his Warrant, directed to the +Constable, commanding him to bring the Aggressor before him or +them to answer the said Complaint. + + 8. That these eighteen Select Men, thus appointed, do +meet every third Tuesday in January, April, July, and October, +at the Court-House, in Charlotte, to hear and determine all +Matters of Controversy for Sums exceeding Forty Shillings; +also Appeals: And in Cases of Felony, to commit the Person or +Persons convicted thereof to close Confinement, until the +Provincial Congress shall provide and establish Laws and Modes +of Proceeding in all such Cases. + + 9. That these Eighteen Select Men, thus convened, do +choose a Clerk to record the Transactions of said Convention; +and that the said Clerk, upon the Application of any Person or +Persons aggrieved, do issue his Warrant to one of the +Constables, to summon and warn said Offender to appear before +the Convention at their next sittinbg, to answer the aforesaid +Complaint. + + 10. That any Person making Complaint upon Oath to the +Clerk, or any Member of the Convention, that he has Reason to +suspect that any Person or Persons indebted to him in a Sum +above Forty Shillings, do intend clandestinely to withdraw from +the County without paying such Debt; the Clerk, or such Member, +shall issue his Warrant to the Constable, commanding him to +take the said Person or Persons into safe Custody, until the +next sitting of the Convention. + + 11. That when a Debtor for a Sum below Forty Shillings +shall abscond and leave the County, the Warrant granted as +aforesaid shall extend to any Goods or Chattels of the said +Debtor as may be found, and such Goods or Chattels be seized +and held in Custody by the Constable for the Space of Thirty +Days; in which Term if the Debtor fails to return and discharge +the Debt, the Constable shall return the Warrant to one of the +Select Men of the Company where the Goods and Chattels are +found, who shall issue Orders to the Constable to sell such a +Part of the said Goods as shall amount to the Sum due; that +when the Debt exceeds Forty Shillings, the Return shall be made +to the Convention, who shall issue the Orders for Sale. + + 12. That all Receivers and Collectors of Quitrents, Public +and County Taxes, do pay the same into the Hands of the +Chairman of this Committee, to be by them disbursed as the +public Exigencies may require. And that such Receivers and +Collectors proceed no farther in their Office until they be +approved of by, and have given to this Committee good and +sufficient Security for a faithful Return of such Monies when +collected. + + 13. That the Committee be accountable to the County for +the Application of all Monies received from such public +Officers. + + 14. That all these Officers hold their Commissions during +the Pleasure of their respective Constituents. + + 15. That this Commission will sustain all Damages that may +ever hereafter accrue to all or any of these Officers thus +appointed, and thus acting, on Account of their Obedience and +Conformity to these Resolves. + + 16. That whatever Person shall hereafter receive a +Commission from the Crown, or attempt to exercise any such +Commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an Enemy to +his Country; and upon Information being made to the Captain of +the Company where he resides, the said Captain shall cause him +to be apprehended, and conveyed before the two Select Men of +the said Company, who, upon Proof of the Fact, shall commit him +the said Offender, into safe Custody, until the next setting of +the Convention, who shall deal with him as Prudence may direct. + + 17. That any Person refusing to yield Obedience to the +above Resolves shall be deemed equally criminal, and liable to +the same Punishments as the Offenders above last mentioned. + + 18. That these Resolves be in full Force and Virtue, until +Instructions from the General Congress of this Province, +regulating the Jurisprudence of this Province, shall provide +otherwise, or the legislative Body of Great-Britain resign its +unjust and arbitrary Pretentions with Respect to America. + + 19. That the several Militia Companies in this county do +provide themselves with proper Arms and Accoutrements, and hold +themselves in Readiness to execute the commands and Directions +of the Provincial Congress, and of this committee. + + 20. That this committee do appoint Colonel Thomas Polk, and +Doctor Joseph Kennedy, to purchase 300 lb. of Powder, 600 lb. +of Lead, and 1000 Flints, and deposit the same in some safe +Place, hereafter to be appointed by the committee. + + Signed by Order of the Commitee. + + EPH. BREVARD, Clerk of the Committee + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/choice.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/choice.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e347223f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/choice.txt @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ + GW> Ain't sayin' which side I'm on here, but relax a bit -- I noticed the + GW> phrase "anti-choice" enter the pro-choicers' vocabulary about the same + GW> time I first heard the term "pro-abortion" used by pro-lifers. The + GW> chicken or the egg, it doesn't matter, but in a battle for public + GW> sentiment, neither side will give up its code words unless the other + GW> one does first -- sounds like a stand-off to me. + + + CHOICESPEAK: + THE LANGUAGE TO ABORT THE CONSCIENCE + +From where Winston stood, it was just possible to read, picked +out on its face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the +party: + WAR IS PEACE + FREEDOM IS SLAVERY + IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH + 1984, by George Orwell + + Language has always been used for deceitful and misleading + purposes. Misrepresentations, distortions and outright lying + have been employed for ulterior motives throughout all of + recorded history. And, as man has "progressed," his abuse of + language has reached new levels of sophistication and + treachery. + + The abuse of language for devious purposes has been given + several definitions over time. The term "doublespeak" (or + "doubletalk") refers to language which APPEARS to be + meaningful, but is actually a mixture of sense and nonsense. + George Orwell, in his famous novel *1984*, coined the word + "Newspeak," denoting a propagandistic language marked by + ambiguity and contradictions. Its stated purpose: to + "diminish the range of thought." + + Never has language-for-propaganda been more cleverly or + effectively used, however, than by our contemporary + pro-abortionists. To as great an extent as possible, abortion + advocates have conceptualized and debated abortion without + mention of, or attention to, the act itself. For the last + twenty years, they have strived to redefine child-killing as a + "choice." Sadly, their endeavor has met with great success. + One commonly hears, for instance: "Whose CHOICE is it, who + decides?" "This fight is for reproductive CHOICE." + "Pro-lifers are the anti-CHOICE minority." "Pro-CHOICE is not + pro-abortion." "The issue is not abortion, the issue is + CHOICE." And even in the "neutral" media: "Anti-abortion + demonstrators squared off with pro-CHOICE activists." + + Given the spread, like so many cancer cells, of such + pro-abortion euphemisms throughout our language, it is clear + that a new term is necessary to definitively characterize the + pro-abortionists' misleading use of words for propaganda + purposes. The term I propose to serve this purpose is + "Choicespeak," which I define as "propagandistic language + marked by ambiguity and contradictions DESIGNED TO INCREASE + ACCEPTANCE OF THE ANTI-LIFE MENTALITY." + + Specific examples of Choicespeak are not at all hard to find. + A preborn baby becomes, via Choicespeak, the "product of + conception." The scientific fact that a human being's + biological life begins at fertilization (conception) becomes, + via Choicespeak, a "religious view." The killing of a CHILD + becomes, via Choicespeak, the "termination of a PREGNANCY." + (In terms of intent and effect, abortion and childbirth should + be contrasted as follows: CHILDBIRTH is the termination of a + PREGNANCY; ABORTION is the "termination" of a CHILD.) And, + last but not least, abortion --- the killing of an innocent + preborn baby --- becomes, via Choicespeak, a valid "choice" + that a woman may consider. + + Words can be used as weapons so long as there is a target. In + abortion, the targets are easy prey. Simply put, the abortion + industry has wielded its powerfully deceptive words against + vulnerable mothers and the innocent children within their + wombs. Women are exploited; their babies destroyed; men are + alienated. And the family, the very foundation of society, is + assaulted at its core. + + Therefore, the Choicespeaking zealots must be exposed; their + NON-truths must be replaced by THE truth. To do this, one + must be alert when exposed to pro-abortion rhetoric and + anti-life logic. Probe beyond the surface and ascertain the + underlying principles; uncover the real meaning behind the + alluring message. Otherwise, the abortion seducing "Big + Brother" may very well distort YOUR perception and diminish + YOUR "range of thought," increasing your acceptance of and + tolerance for abortion -- a truly unthinkable crime. + + Woe to those who call evil good, + and good evil, + who change the darkness into light, + and light into darkness, + who change bitter into sweet, + and sweet into bitter! (Isaiah 5:20) + +--------------------------------------------------------------- +documentation provided by SCMIS + +David on the Beach in Arizona + + + +... To let live is to live yourself! +--- Blue Wave/TG v2.00 [NR] + * Origin: The Arizona Badlands BBS Casa Grande AZ 6028368336 (85:823/126.0) diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/chron.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/chron.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b84d6420 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/chron.txt @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ + +Via Greenlink II +================================================================= + + GREENPEACE WORLD PARK BASE + + ANTARCTIC DIARY 23 + Jan 11,1990 + + +Our Resupply ship the MV Gondwana has left Auckland, New Zealand +on the second leg of this years campaign to have this vast frozen +continent protected as a World Park. This last twelve months +living at Cape Evans has been a remarkable time for me both +personally and as a small part of the world wide movement for +environmental protection. When we left New Zealand on 22nd +December 1988 the challenge was to highlight Antarctica's place +in the mind's of people all around the world. From the many +contacts we have had from many countries and from hearing about +the growing influence of the Green political movement I feel sure +that we humans are collectively changing our awareness of the +natural world and in particular Antarctica's place in natural +order of things. + +It has long been a fear that oil exploration and exploitation was +the biggest and most imminent danger that the natural world faced +in Antarctica. 1989 seems to have been a year full of examples +of the damage that can be done in the polar regions when fuel +spills occur. In our own backyard we saw for ourselves that +where large quantities of fuel are handled the possiblities for +large spills seems to be almost inevitable. The US McMurdo +Station, 25Km to the south has had a series of large fuel spills +in the last eighteen months ( Over 450 000 Litres or nearly 118 +000 US Gals ) and none of these spills have been cleaned up to +date. While we were investigating the environmental impact of +one of these spills in early October we uncovered yet another +fuel spill which was later admitted to be in fact a number of +spills going back as far as 1983 and no records exist of these +periodic spills. This spill site was only 150 Metres from New +Zealand's Scott Base and was on an area of foreshore sea-ice that +thaws each summer thus releasing the contaminating fuel directly +into the sea. + +Both New Zealand and the US are major sponsors of the Minerals +Convention which is an agreement among the Antarctic Treaty +signatory nations. This Convention which is also know around the +world as the Wellington Convention, after the capital city of New +Zealand was negotiated behind closed doors, sets out the +conditions under which minerals can be extracted from Antarctica. + +There are a growing number of governments, now responding to +public opinion at home opposing the ratification of this Minerals +Convention. Australia, France, Italy and Belgium have rejected +the convention and along with a number of other countries are +actively pushing for a comprehensive Envronmental Protection +agreement for Antarctica in the form of a Wilderness Reserve. + +Oil hungry nations and their supporters remain in favour of this +Miners Convention stating that they wish to keep their options +open for future oil exploration of Antarctica while reluctantly +pursuing the more sensible path of energy conservation and the +development of alternative energy systems. + +Well, in my last diary written at World Park Base I found myself +with the treat of oil-exploration in my mind and I haven't +written about the Polar summer that is blazing around me. I +suspect that there are two factors involved in my preoccupation. +The news of the rusting hulk of the Kharg 5 tanker spilling its +contents uncontrollably into the Atlantic off the Morroccan coast +has brought back to me the 1989 events... the Bahia Paraiso - +Anvers Isand Antarctica, the Exxon Valdez - Prince Philips Sound +Alaska, the US South Pole Station, the US airfield McMurdo Sound +Antarctica... all sites of environmental disasters in Polar +regions. The other factor is that as a New Zealander I am +saddened by the fact that my government remains a major sponsor +of a Miners Convention for Antarctica. + +Outside my window the sea-ice is in full-melt and the stretches +of open water are growing before our eyes. In the Cape Evans +area more than twenty Weddell Seals are basking ashore and the +Skua chicks are growing. The amazing thaw that we have +experienced this year continues to feed the thousands of little +streams and dozens of miniature lakes that dot the area. We have +had about two week of settled weather, ideal for preparing the +base for the arrival of our resupply ship and our many old +friends. + +My kindest regards to all our supporters and friends as my time +here at World Park base comes rapidly to and end. + +Phil Doherty. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/chrstlie.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/chrstlie.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..702945a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/chrstlie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ + "GIVING THE LIE TO THE CHRISTIAN RIGHTWING" + + Howdy, gang! It's time for another radical-subversive, smutty, +leftwing upload from that old electronic anarchist, Sax Allen, coming to you +very much alive from Free San Francisco! + + In recent weeks, the Reagan/Nixon stacked Supreme Court has +abandoned law and precedent in favor of extreme rightwing ideology and the +Heritage Foundation agenda. They've begun dismantling the progressive changes +for which we all fought so hard and long. They're sabotaging and undermining +important gains in civil rights, abortion, search and seizure, privacy and +separation of church and state. + + Because these rightwing noodle heads are so fond of making up +their own "factoids" and because they're currently pumping out a bunch of +malarkey about America supposedly being a "Christian" nation, and because as +proof of this they're making up religious lies about some of our most +intelligent presidents...for all these reasons I thought you'd enjoy hearing a +few hot words from our founding fathers themselves. Note in particular what +George Washington says! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + The American Revolution of 1776 was to a large degree led by men +steeped in the rational humanism of the Enlightenment who considered all +established religion a form of barbaric superstition. Thus their insistence on +the separation of church and state, which was universally regarded as the MOST +RADICAL aspect of the American Revolution. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + THOMAS JEFFERSON: + + "Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the +introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned: +yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect +of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. +To suport roguery and error all over the earth." + -- "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1781-82) + + "...the priests indeed have heretofore thought proper to ascribe +to me religious, or rather anti-religious sentiments, of their own fabric, but +such as soothed their resentments against the act of Virginia for establishing +religious freedom. They wished him to be thought atheist, deist, or devil, who +could advocate freedom from their religious dictations. But I have ever +thought religion a concern purely between our God and our consciences, for +which we were accountable to him, and not to the priests." + -- Letter to Mrs. Harrison Smith (6 August 1816) + + + JOHN ADAMS: + + "Eight millions of Jews hope for a Messiah more powerful and +glorious than Moses, David, or Solomon; who is to make them as powerful as he +pleases. Some hundreds of millions of Mussulmans [Moslems] expect another +prophet more powerful than Mahomet [Mohammed], who is to spread Islamism over +the whole earth. Hundreds of millions of Christians expect and hope for a +millennium in which Jesus is to reign for a thousand years over the whole world +before it is burnt up. The Hindoos [Hindus] expect another and final +incarnation of Vishnu, who is to do great and wonderful things, I know not +what. All these hopes are founded on real or pretended revelation.... + You and I hope for splendid improvements in human society, and +vast amelioration in the condition of mankind. Our faith may be supposed by +more rational arguments than any of the former." + -- Letter to Thomas Jefferson (24 September 1821) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession." + -- Abraham Lincoln + + + "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on +the Christian religion." + -- George Washington + + + "Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet." + -- Napoleon + + + "When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live +a normal and wholesome life." + -- Sigmund Freud +, he has a better chance to live +a + + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Salted Slug Systems Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 408-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/church.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/church.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5b4113b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/church.txt @@ -0,0 +1,314 @@ + + + CHURCH AND STATE + + The school all recited in unison ". . .that one Nation, + indivisible, under God, shall not perish from this Earth." + "Now, let's give thanks to the Father for all the + blessings we have received in the pursuit of our studies. + Mr. Jones, will you lead us in the prayer?" + Mr. Jack Jones, the minister of our local Methodist + Church gives a short but inspiring prayer. The entire class + of students respond with a sincere 'Amen'. + They hold the opening ceremony each day in the audi- + torium. Following the prayer, the entire school sings a + song from the hymnal. They are accompanied by the church + organist. No student has ever complained that they didn't + enjoy these morning sessions. Students are excused and go + to their respective classrooms. + The school, sponsored by our church, gains its support + from members of the church who have children attending the + school. Parents became disenchanted with our public school + system. They finally agreed they should have input in + determining the teaching of their children. + In the lower grade public schools, rowdiness had become + an accepted fact of school life. The teachers had simply + lost control over the students. It had become obvious that + teaching was to accommodate slower students. Other students + with more and faster learning abilities were held back. + They were becoming bored and restive. + In junior and senior high schools, the same problems + existed and drug use is becoming evident. Physical violence + is becoming an everyday occurrence. These problems were all + on the minds of parents when they decided to form a school + under the sponsorship of the church. Throughout the history + of this country, churches were in the forefront of educa- + tion. Some of the oldest colleges in the east were started + in the same manner. + In his study and interpretation of the history of + education in the United States, Elwood P. Cubberly (1868- + 1941) demonstrated that in the United States the school + arose everywhere as a child of the church. James F. + Messenger (b. 1872), in his study of the history of + education, points out at time of the framing of the + Constitution of the United States, in 1787, education was + regarded as a matter of church control. (Encyclopedia + Americana) + Back to our school. Several parents had been teachers + in the past and they were hired for the new school. The man + hired as principal also coordinated the lesson plans for all + the classes. The student body had grown to 45 in the past + year alone. + Scholastically, our students scored appreciably higher + than students of the same grades in public schools of our + city. The students were proud of their achievements. The + teachers were proud of their students as were the parents. +  + Our school was gaining a reputation for good, solid educa- + tion. No frills, no pampering, no nonsense. + That our students scored much higher than students in + the public system obviously upset local and state education + authorities. Efforts were started to close the school. + First attack was on the teachers . . . they were not state + accredited. + The school answered that this was a private school and + of no concern to educational authorities. Nevertheless, it + was apparent these people had become concerned. Our + students were learning to become God-fearing, questioning + and upright citizens. They were not robots as were being + churned out in the state run system. + State authorities were not so easily dissuaded and + filed suit in a local court to have the school closed. Our + minister and principal ignored the court order and the + school continued. For a short while, anyway. The local + sheriff came by the church and school with an order for the + school to close down. However, the minister had received a + call from friends and the doors are locked barring their + entry. + Finally, in a show of police power, they forced their + way into the buildings. They actually arrested the minister + and principal for contempt of court. + What was that? They forced their way into the church + and school to arrest the minister and the principal? Is + this still America? Just where do these knotheads find the + authority to pull such a stunt? + Separation of church and state, is their argument. + Where do they find such a statement? They insist our + Constitution guarantees separation of church and state. + Religion belongs to the church and education is a state + function. + Cow paddies! Our Constitution says NO such thing. + These are words of demented idiots. These people are + parroting words which were taken completely out of their + context. This statement is attributed to Thomas Jefferson + and used by bleeding hearts out of it's intent and meaning + for many years. + Let's take a look at what our Constitution has to say + about church and state. + The First Amendment is part of our Bill of Rights. + This specifically prohibits the government from interfering + in special areas such as religion, press, free speech, etc. + + The introductory statement or preamble to the Bill of + Rights makes the intent crystal clear . . . + + "THE Convention of a number of the States, having + at the time of their adopting the Constitution, + expressed a desire, in order to prevent mis- + construction or abuse of its powers, that further + declaratory and restrictive clauses should be + added: And as extending the ground of public +  + confidence in the Government, will best ensure the + beneficent ends of its institution:" (Also from + Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the + Union) + + Not any question about the intent of the First Congress + when it submitted the first twelve amendments to the states + for their approval, is there? Further restraining and + confining clauses to prevent the misunderstanding or abuse + of its powers. This was the high fence around the powers. + They also confined the misuse of those powers by the federal + government. + Back to the First Amendment . . . separation of church + and state? Not a chance. Here is what it has to say about + our RIGHT to religious freedom, opening and operating + schools, etc: + + "Congress shall make no law respecting an es- + tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free + exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of + speech, or of the press; or the right of the + people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the + Government for a redress of grievances." + + Can you read anything in there which allows them to + close a school or arrest a minister or principal? Of course + not. They would prefer you didn't know what our rights are + so they say we are guaranteed "separation of church and + state." + We are GUARANTEED the right to establish any religion + and to practice it freely as our hearts and consciences + dictate. Our Founding Fathers were religious and Christian + and believed religion was something between an individual + and his Maker. + In 1789, Congress passed an ordinance which declared + that: Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to + good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and + the means of education should ever be encouraged. (Encyclo- + pedia Americana) Religion most certainly not an issue in + which the government could stick its nose. This is one of + those restrictive clauses to prevent an abuse of power! + Is it possible that those who work for government don't + know what our Constitution says either? It is not only + possible but very definitely true. This even though we have + ordered ALL persons who work for a government entity, at any + level, to take an oath to support the document. + Being men of wisdom, the Founding Fathers specified + that no religious test be a qualification to office. (Art + VI, Sec 3) They were firm believers in religious freedom. + For the sake of illustration, let's say that you and + three or four friends get together. You all decide to + worship Isis or a stone or a jaguar, . . . . the idol is + unimportant. The fact remains our Constitution says you + have that RIGHT! And further you have the right to exercise +  + your religious belief freely. + Your friends may not agree with you or your belief and + I may not agree with you. Even government may also disagree + with that belief. Yet they cannot interfere with your + doctrine or the free exercise thereof. First Amendment + guarantees that. There are no changes further on in our + Constitution to say they can obstruct your belief. This is + why they want you to believe there is a guarantee of + separation of church and state. + Going back to our opening illustration, the right to + establish and practice a religious belief was violated. + Also the right to freedom of speech and of the people to + peacefully assemble. All First Amendment guarantees. + How do they get away with it? Because they feel power + and might makes right! And we are fast becoming illiterate + and ignorant concerning our Constitution. At the same time + we are becoming a nation of wimps. It's becoming apparent + as we look around there are no real men anymore. No one has + enough starch in their backbones to tell these people enough + is enough. What has happened to the "land of the free and + the home of the brave?" + These people are seizing and assuming powers which we + did not grant to government at any level. Can you imagine + this happening in this country let's say 200 or even 100 + years ago? People would have been up in arms. And rightly + so. + A quote from an encyclopedia might shed some light on + what our government has in mind for the United States . . . + "In Russia, education is a state monopoly. No + religious schools (apart from a few seminaries for the + special purpose of training priests) or private schools of + any kind are permitted to exist. (And we've seen what is + going on there. They have people who don't know how to wind + a watch.) + Teaching in the schools must emphasize scientific + materialism and exclude any consideration of the super- + natural." (Encyclopedia Americana) God is a no-no! + If you have a chance to see the original or true copy + of our Constitution, you will see WE THE PEOPLE on the first + line of the Preamble. We agreed to and established the + Constitution giving permission and authority for our + government. + This is a fixed and immutable document changeable only + by the ones who gave the authority for government . . . WE + THE PEOPLE. (Art V) There is nothing in the document which + gives the right to anyone in government to enlarge their + sphere of power or authority. + By our permission, they were given authority and + jurisdiction to govern. When they exceed granted powers, + they are breaking the law and violating the trust we imposed + in them. By such an act their jurisdiction ceases. Alex- + ander Hamilton pointed out in the Federalist Papers (No. 78) + that 'No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Consti- + tution can be valid.'  + Let's take a look at how the federales are observing + this guaranteed right to free exercise of our religious + beliefs. Would it surprise you to hear that they don't + believe we have it? + The Internal Revenue Service, part of the executive + branch, have regulations which have a direct or implied + consent of the Congress. They can decide if a church + doesn't conform to what they term is a conventional + religious belief. By a simple letter they can then say you + are not a church and take away your tax exempt status. + Further restrictive clauses mentioned in the preamble + to the Bill of Rights has a hollow ring. I'll have to admit + it really generates confidence in our government, doesn't + it? + Looking a little further in our Bill of Rights, two + more amendments will make our point. The Ninth and Tenth + are clear to anyone that no power or authority not expressly + granted can be seized. These were included just in case + someone in government decided our Constitution and Bill of + Rights didn't mean what they say. Let's see what they say + and you will understand why governments really wish they + didn't exist. + + Article IX + The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain + rights, shall not be construed to deny or + disparage others retained by the people. + Article X + The powers not delegated to the United States + by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the + States, are reserved to the States respectively or + to the people. + + Not difficult to understand, are they? Then why were + the people arrested or the church and school closed? We + have to reassert ourselves and assume the power of directing + our governments to their intended roles. We have elected + people to Congress who break the law by violating constitu- + tional restrictions and the oath they took to support the + document. Throw them out of office! Drastic? Not at all. + Look at what they are doing to us. Those appointed deserve + to have civil suits filed in federal courts for violation of + our constitutional rights. + Relying on Supreme Court decisions as a guide to filing + suits in court is normally a false hope. First, the Supreme + Court has NO authority under our form of government to make + law. Their decisions are just that . . . decisions . . . + only opinions! The basis for federal suits are the + Constitution and what our Founding Fathers determined and + established for our new government. + Nevertheless, there are many older decisions which do + substantiate our stand. Intensive research will find those. + By staying strictly within constitutional authority, they + have no where to turn to disagree or argue against. +  + Petitions for Redress of Grievances can be effective. + Send them to all members of Congress together with anyone + else in the bureaucracy with a suggestion of power. This is + First Amendment right. Send any Petitions for Redress of + Grievances via certified mail. It wouldn't be the first + time bureaucrats have 'lost' mail when they haven't had to + sign for it. Phone calls and letters to members of Congress + are a must. Ask questions about assuming powers we did not + confer . . . about the oath they have taken to support the + document etc. + Before someone takes me to task for the statement that + the Founding Fathers were Christians, let me point out the + last page of the Constitution. When the delegates affixed + their signatures before it was sent to the Congress for its + submission to the states we find: + "DONE in Convention, by the Unanimous Consent of + the States present the Seventeenth Day of + September in the Year of Our Lord one thousand + seven hundred and Eighty seven . . . ." + The opening illustration was not hypothetical. + Incidents like this are occurring with frightening regular- + ity. Media reports show there are over 6000 cases now + pending between religious organizations and the federal + government. + To allow these people to destroy our country and form + of government, all good people need to do is nothing! What + will you tell your posterity? How will you justify it? Or + is it simply that you don't want to become involved . . . + let your children or grandchildren worry about it them- + selves? + There is a point where the exercise of their power + stops . . that's when we stand firm and say don't cross this + line. + Young minds are fertile ground. The state wants + control of education to mold these minds to their view. + They WANT robots. Let's deny them the power. + + + PLEASE SUPPORT SHAREWARE BY REGISTERING WITH THE AUTHOR.  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cia-doc.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cia-doc.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ec79e8c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cia-doc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2200 @@ + THE WORLD FACTBOOK 1990 + ELECTRONIC VERSION + + The World Factbook is produced annually by the Central Intelligence +Agency for the use of United States Government officials, and the style, +format, coverage, and content are designed to meet their specific +requirements. Comments and queries are welcome and may be addressed to: + + Central Intelligence Agency + Attn: Public Affairs + Washington, DC 20505 + (703) 351-2053 + +.pa + Table of Contents + +Text (249 nations, dependent areas, and other entities) + Afghanistan + Albania + Algeria + American Samoa + Andorra + Angola + Anguilla + Antarctica + Antigua and Barbuda + Arctic Ocean + Argentina + Aruba + Ashmore and Cartier Islands + Atlantic Ocean + Australia + Austria + + Bahamas, The + Bahrain + Baker Island + Bangladesh + Barbados + Bassas da India + Belgium + Belize + Benin + Bermuda + Bhutan + Bolivia + Botswana + Bouvet Island + Brazil + British Indian Ocean Territory + British Virgin Islands + Brunei + Bulgaria + Burkina + Burma + Burundi + + Cambodia + Cameroon + Canada + Cape Verde + Cayman Islands + Central African Republic + Chad + Chile + China (also see separate Taiwan entry) + Christmas Island + Clipperton Island + Cocos (Keeling) Islands + Colombia + Comoros + Congo + Cook Islands + Coral Sea Islands + Costa Rica + Cuba + Cyprus + Czechoslovakia + + Denmark + Djibouti + Dominica + Dominican Republic + + Ecuador + Egypt + El Salvador + Equatorial Guinea + Ethiopia + Europa Island + + Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) + Faroe Islands + Fiji + Finland + France + French Guiana + French Polynesia + French Southern and Antarctic Lands + + Gabon + Gambia, The + Gaza Strip + German Democratic Republic + (East Germany) + Germany, Federal Republic of + (West Germany) + Ghana + Gibraltar + Glorioso Islands + Greece + Greenland + Grenada + Guadeloupe + Guam + Guatemala + Guernsey + Guinea + Guinea-Bissau + Guyana + + Haiti + Heard Island and McDonald Islands + Honduras + Hong Kong + Howland Island + Hungary + + Iceland + India + Indian Ocean + Indonesia + Iran + Iraq + Iraq-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone + Ireland + Israel (also see separate Gaza Strip and West Bank entries) + Italy + Ivory Coast + + Jamaica + Jan Mayen + Japan + Jarvis Island + Jersey + Johnston Atoll + Jordan (also see separate West Bank entry) + Juan de Nova Island + + Kenya + Kingman Reef + Kiribati + Korea, North + Korea, South + Kuwait + + Laos + Lebanon + Lesotho + Liberia + Libya + Liechtenstein + Luxembourg + + Macau + Madagascar + Malawi + Malaysia + Maldives + Mali + Malta + Man, Isle of + Marshall Islands + Martinique + Mauritania + Mauritius + Mayotte + Mexico + Micronesia, Federated States of + Midway Islands + Monaco + Mongolia + Montserrat + Morocco + Mozambique + + Namibia + Nauru + Navassa Island + Nepal + Netherlands + Netherlands Antilles + New Caledonia + New Zealand + Nicaragua + Niger + Nigeria + Niue + Norfolk Island + Northern Mariana Islands + Norway + + Oman + + Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the + (Palau) + Pacific Ocean + Pakistan + Palmyra Atoll + Panama + Papua New Guinea + Paracel Islands + Paraguay + Peru + Philippines + Pitcairn Islands + Poland + Portugal + Puerto Rico + + Qatar + + Reunion + Romania + Rwanda + + St. Helena + St. Kitts and Nevis + St. Lucia + St. Pierre and Miquelon + St. Vincent and the Grenadines + San Marino + Sao Tome and Principe + Saudi Arabia + Senegal + Seychelles + Sierra Leone + Singapore + Solomon Islands + Somalia + South Africa + South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands + Soviet Union + Spain + Spratly Islands + Sri Lanka + Sudan + Suriname + Svalbard + Swaziland + Sweden + Switzerland + Syria + + Taiwan entry follows Zimbabwe + Tanzania + Thailand + Togo + Tokelau + Tonga + Trinidad and Tobago + Tromelin Island + Tunisia + Turkey + Turks and Caicos Islands + Tuvalu + + Uganda + United Arab Emirates + United Kingdom + United States + Uruguay + + Vanuatu + Vatican City + Venezuela + Vietnam + Virgin Islands + + Wake Island + Wallis and Futuna + West Bank + Western Sahara + Western Samoa + World + + Yemen Arab Republic + {Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen} + Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of + {Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen} + Yugoslavia + + Zaire + Zambia + Zimbabwe + + Taiwan + +Appendix A: The United Nations System +Appendix B: International Organizations +Appendix C: Country Membership in International Organizations +Appendix D: Weights and Measures +Appendix E: Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names + +Note: all maps will be available only in the printed version for the + foreseeable future +.pa + Notes, Definitions, and Abbreviations + +There have been some significant changes in this edition. In the +Government section the former Branches entry has been replaced by +three entries--Executive branch, Legislative branch, and Judicial +branch. The Leaders entry now has subentries for Chief of State, +Head of Government, and their deputies. The Elections entry has +been completely redone with information for each branch of the +national government, including the date for the last election, the +date for the next election, results (percent of vote by candidate or +party), and current distribution of seats by party. In the Economy +section there is a new entry on Illicit drugs. + +Abbreviations: (see Appendix B for international organizations) + + avdp. avoirdupois + c.i.f. cost, insurance, and freight + CY calendar year + DWT deadweight ton + est. estimate + Ex-Im Export-Import Bank of the United States + f.o.b. free on board + FRG Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) + FY fiscal year + GDP gross domestic product + GDR German Democratic Republic (East Germany) + GNP gross national product + GRT gross register ton + km kilometer + km2 square kilometer + kW kilowatt + kWh kilowatt-hour + m meter + NA not available + NEGL negligible + nm nautical mile + NZ New Zealand + ODA official development assistance + OOF other official flows + PDRY People's Democratic Republic of Yemen {Yemen + (Aden) or South Yemen} + UAE United Arab Emirates + UK United Kingdom + US United States + USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) + YAR Yemen Arab Republic {Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen} + +Administrative divisions: The numbers, designatory terms, and +first-order administrative divisions are generally those approved by the +United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) as of 5 April 1990. Changes +that have been reported but not yet acted upon by BGN are noted. + +Area: Total area is the sum of all land and water areas delimited +by international boundaries and/or coastlines. Land area is the +aggregate of all surfaces delimited by international boundaries and/or +coastlines, excluding inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers). +Comparative areas are based on total area equivalents. Most entities +are compared with the entire US or one of the 50 states. The smaller +entities are compared with Washington, DC (178 km2, 69 miles2) or +The Mall in Washington, DC (0.59 km2, 0.23 miles2, 146 acres). + +Birth rate: The average annual number of births during a year +per 1,000 population at midyear. Also known as crude birth rate. + +Contributors: Information was provided by the Bureau of the +Census (Department of Commerce), Central Intelligence Agency, +Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Nuclear Agency, Department of +State, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Navy Operational +Intelligence Center and Maritime Administration (merchant marine data), +Office of Territorial and International Affairs (Department of the +Interior), United States Board on Geographic Names, United States +Coast Guard, and others. + +Dates of information: In general, information available as of 1 +January 1990 was used in the preparation of this edition. Population +figures are estimates for 1 July 1990, with population growth rates +estimated for mid-1990 through mid-1991. Major political events have +been updated through 30 March 1990. Military age figures are average +annual estimates for 1990-94. + +Death rate: The average annual number of deaths during a year +per l,000 population at midyear. Also known as crude death rate. + +Diplomatic representation: The US Government has diplomatic +relations with 162 nations. There are only 144 US embassies, since some +nations have US ambassadors accredited to them, but no physical US +mission exists. The US has diplomatic relations with 149 of the 159 UN +members--the exceptions are Albania, Angola, Byelorussia (constituent +republic of the Soviet Union), Cambodia, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, People's +Democratic Republic of Yemen {Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen}, Ukraine +(constituent republic of the Soviet Union) and, obviously, the US itself. +In addition, the US has diplomatic relations with 13 nations that are not +in the UN--Andorra, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, +Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, San Marino, South Korea, +Switzerland, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the Vatican City. North Korea is not in +the UN and the US does not have diplomatic relations with that nation. +The US has not recognized the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and +Lithuania into the Soviet Union and continues to accredit the diplomatic +representatives of their last free governments. + +Disputes: This category includes a wide variety of situations +that range from traditional bilateral boundary disputes to unilateral +claims of one sort or another. Every international land boundary +dispute in the "Guide to International Boundaries," a map published +by the Department of State, is included. References to other situations +may also be included that are border- or frontier-relevant, such as +maritime disputes, geopolitical questions, or irredentist issues. +However, inclusion does not necessarily constitute official acceptance +or recognition by the US Government. + +Entities: Some of the nations, dependent areas, areas of special +sovereignty, and governments included in this publication are not +independent, and others are not officially recognized by the US +Government. Nation refers to a people politically organized into a +sovereign state with a definite territory. Dependent area refers to a +broad category of political entities that are associated in some way +with a nation. Names used for page headings are usually the short-form +names as approved by the US Board on Geographic Names. The +long-form name is included in the Government section and an entry +of "none" indicates a long-form name does not exist. In some +instances, no short-form name exists--then the long-form name must +serve for all usages. + +There are 249 entities in the Factbook that may be categorized as +follows: + +NATIONS +157 UN members (there are 159 members in the UN, but only 157 are + included in The World Factbook because Byelorussia and Ukraine are + constituent republics of the Soviet Union) + 15 nations that are not members of the UN--Andorra, Federated States of + Micronesia, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, + Namibia, Nauru, North Korea, San Marino, South Korea, Switzerland, + Tonga, Tuvalu, Vatican City + +OTHER + 1 Taiwan + +DEPENDENT AREAS + 6 Australia--Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, + Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and + McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island + 2 Denmark--Faroe Islands, Greenland + 16 France--Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, + French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic + Lands, Glorioso Islands, Guadeloupe, Juan de Nova Island, + Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Reunion, St. Pierre and + Miquelon, Tromelin Island, Wallis and Futuna + 2 Netherlands--Aruba, Netherlands Antilles + 3 New Zealand--Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau + 3 Norway--Bouvet Island, Jan Mayen, Svalbard + 1 Portugal--Macau + 16 United Kingdom--Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, + British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, + Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat, + Pitcairn Islands, St. Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich + Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands + 15 United States--American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, + Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, + Navassa Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, + Puerto Rico, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Palau), + Virgin Islands, Wake Island + +MISCELLANEOUS + 7 Antarctica, Gaza Strip, Iraq-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone, + Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands, West Bank, Western Sahara + +OTHER ENTITIES + 4 oceans--Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean + 1 World +=== +249 total + +Notes: The US Government has not recognized the incorporation of +Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into the Soviet Union as constituent +republics during World War II. Those Baltic states are not members of the +UN and are not included in the list of nations. The US Government does +not recognize the four so-called "independent" homelands of +Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei, and Venda in South Africa. + +Gross domestic product (GDP): The value of all goods and +services produced domestically. + +Gross national product (GNP): The value of all goods and +services produced domestically, plus income earned abroad, minus +income earned by foreigners from domestic production. + +GNP/GDP methodology: GNP/GDP dollar estimates for the OECD +countries, the USSR, Eastern Europe, and a portion of the developing +countries, are derived from @m5purchasing power parity (PPP) +calculations rather than from conversions at official currency exchange +rates. The PPP methods involve the use of average price weights, +which lie between the weights of the domestic and foreign price systems; +using these weights, US $100 converted into German marks by a PPP +method will buy an equal amount of goods and services in both the US +and Germany. One caution: the proportion of, say, military expenditures +as a percent of GNP/GDP in local currency accounts may differ +substantially from the proportion when GNP/GDP is expressed in PPP dollar +terms, as, for example, when an observer estimates the dollar level of +Soviet or Japanese military expenditures. Similarly, dollar figures for +exports and imports reflect the price patterns of international +markets rather than PPP price patterns. + +Growth rate (population): The annual percent change in the +population, resulting from a surplus (or deficit) of births over +deaths and the balance of migrants entering and leaving a country. +The rate may be positive or negative. + +Illicit drugs: There are five categories of illicit +drugs--narcotics, stimulants, depressants (sedatives), hallucinogens, +and cannabis. These categories include many drugs legally produced and +prescribed by doctors as well as those illegally produced and sold +outside medical channels. + + Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) is the common hemp plant, provides +hallucinogens with some sedative properties, and includes marijuana (pot, +Acapulco gold, grass, reefer), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, Marinol), +hashish (hash), and hashish oil (hash oil). + + Coca (Erythroxylon coca) is a bush and the leaves contain the stimulant +cocaine. Coca is not to be confused with cocoa which comes from cacao +seeds and is used in making chocolate, cocoa, and cocoa butter. + + Cocaine is a stimulant derived from the leaves of the coca bush. + + Depressants (sedatives) are drugs that reduce tension and anxiety and +include chloral hydrate, barbiturates (Amytal, Nembutal, Seconal, +phenobarbital), benzodiazepines (Librium, Valium), methaqualone +(Quaalude), glutethimide (Doriden), and others (Equanil, Placidyl, +Valmid). + + Drugs are any chemical substances that effect a physical, mental, +emotional, or behavioral change in an individual. + + Drug abuse is the use of any licit or illicit chemical substance that +results in physical, mental, emotional, or behavioral impairment in an +individual. + + Hallucinogens are drugs that affect sensation, thinking, +self-awareness, and emotion. Hallucinogens include LSD (acid, microdot), +mescaline and peyote (mexc, buttons, cactus), amphetamine variants (PMA, +STP, DOB), phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust, hog), phencyclidine analogues +(PCE, PCPy, TCP), and others (psilocybin, psilocyn). + + Hashish is the resinous exudate of the cannabis or hemp plant +(Cannabis sativa). + + Heroin is a semisynthetic derivative of morphine. + + Marijuana is the dried leaves of the cannabis or hemp plant +(Cannabis sativa). + + Narcotics are drugs that relieve pain, often induce sleep, and refer to +opium, opium derivatives, and synthetic substitutes. Natural narcotics +include opium (paregoric, parepectolin), morphine (MS-Contin, Roxanol), +codeine (Tylenol w/codeine, Empirin w/codeine, Robitussan A-C), and +thebaine. Semisynthetic narcotics include heroin (horse, smack), and +hydromorphone (Dilaudid). Synthetic narcotics include meperidine or +Pethidine (Demerol, Mepergan), methadone (Dolophine, Methadose), and +others (Darvon, Lomotil). + + Opium is the milky exudate of the incised, unripe seedpod of the +opium poppy. + + Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is the source for many natural and +semisynthetic narcotics. + + Poppy straw concentrate is the alkaloid derived from the mature dried +opium poppy. + + Qat (kat, khat) is a stimulant from the buds or leaves of Catha edulis +that is chewed or drunk as tea. + + Stimulants are drugs that relieve mild depression, increase energy and +activity, and include cocaine (coke, snow, crack), amphetamines (Desoxyn, +Dexedrine), phenmetrazine (Preludin), methylphenidate (Ritalin), and +others (Cylert, Sanorex, Tenuate). + +Infant mortality rate: The number of deaths to infants under one +year of age in a given year per l,000 live births occurring in the same +year. + +Land use: Human use of the land surface is categorized as +@m5arable land--land cultivated for crops that are replanted after +each harvest (wheat, maize, rice); @m5permanent crops--land +cultivated for crops that are not replanted after each harvest +(citrus, coffee, rubber); @m5meadows and pastures--land permanently +used for herbaceous forage crops; @m5forest and woodland--land under +dense or open stands of trees; and @m5other--any land type not +specifically mentioned above (urban areas, roads, desert). The +percentage figure for irrigated refers to the portion of the entire +amount of land area that is artificially supplied with water. + +Leaders: The chief of state is the titular leader of the country +who represents the state at official and ceremonial funcions but is not +involved with the day-to-day activities of the government. The head +of government is the administrative leader who manages the day-to-day +activities of the government. In the UK, the monarch is the chief +of state and the prime minister is the head of government. In the US, +the President is both the chief of state and the head of government. + +Life expectancy at birth: The average number of years to be lived +by a group of people all born in the same year, if mortality at each +age remains constant in the future. + +Maritime claims: The proximity of neighboring states may prevent +some national claims from being fully extended. + +Merchant marine: All ships engaged in the carriage of goods. All +commercial vessels (as opposed to all nonmilitary ships), which +excludes tugs, fishing vessels, offshore oil rigs, etc. Also, a +grouping of merchant ships by nationality or register. + + Captive register--A register of ships maintained by a territory, +possession, or colony primarily or exclusively for the use of ships +owned in the parent country. Also referred to as an offshore register, +the offshore equivalent of an internal register. Ships on a captive +register will fly the same flag as the parent country, or a local +variant of it, but will be subject to the maritime laws and taxation +rules of the offshore territory. Although the nature of a captive +register makes it especially desirable for ships owned in the parent +country, just as in the internal register, the ships may also be owned +abroad. The captive register then acts as a flag of convenience +register, except that it is not the register of an independent state. + + Flag of convenience register--A national register offering +registration to a merchant ship not owned in the flag state. The major +flags of convenience (FOC) attract ships to their register by virtue +of low fees, low or nonexistent taxation of profits, and liberal +manning requirements. True FOC registers are characterized by having +relatively few of the ships registered actually owned in the flag +state. Thus, while virtually any flag can be used for ships under a +given set of circumstances, an FOC register is one where the majority +of the merchant fleet is owned abroad. It is also referred to as an +open register. + + Flag state--The nation in which a ship is registered and which +holds legal jurisdiction over operation of the ship, whether at home +or abroad. Differences in flag state maritime legislation determine +how a ship is manned and taxed and whether a foreign-owned ship may be +placed on the register. + + Internal register--A register of ships maintained as a subset of +a national register. Ships on the internal register fly the national +flag and have that nationality but are subject to a separate set of +maritime rules from those on the main national register. These +differences usually include lower taxation of profits, manning by +foreign nationals, and, usually, ownership outside the flag state +(when it functions as an FOC register). The Norwegian International +Ship Register and Danish International Ship Register are the most +notable examples of an internal register. Both have been instrumental +in stemming flight from the national flag to flags of convenience and in +attracting foreign-owned ships to the Norwegian and Danish flags. + + Merchant ship--A vessel that carries goods against payment of +freight. Commonly used to denote any nonmilitary ship but accurately +restricted to commercial vessels only. + + Register--The record of a ship's ownership and nationality as +listed with the maritime authorities of a country. Also, the +compendium of such individual ships' registrations. Registration of +a ship provides it with a nationality and makes it subject to the laws +of the country in which registered (the flag state) regardless of the +nationality of the ship's ultimate owner. + +Money figures: All are expressed in contemporaneous US dollars +unless otherwise indicated. + +Net migration rate: The balance between the number of persons +entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons +(based on midyear population). An excess of persons entering the +country is referred to as net immigration (3.56 migrants/1,000 +population); an excess of persons leaving the country as net +emigration (-9.26 migrants/1,000 population). + +Population: Figures are estimates from the Bureau of the Census +based on statistics from population censuses, vital registration +systems, or sample surveys pertaining to the recent past, and on +assumptions about future trends. + +Total fertility rate: The average number of children that would +be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing +years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each age. + +Years: All year references are for the calendar year (CY) unless +indicated as fiscal year (FY). +.pa + Appendix A: The United Nations System + + The UN is composed of six principal organs and numerous subordinate +agencies and bodies as follows: + +1) Secretariat: + UNDRO United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator's Office + +2) General Assembly: + INSTRAW International Research and Training Institute for the + Advancement of Women + UNCHS United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) + UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development + UNDP United Nations Development Program + UNEP United Nations Environment Program + UNFPA United Nations Population Fund + UNHCR United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Refugees + UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund + UNIDIR United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research + UNITAR United Nations Institute for Training and Research + UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social Development + UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine + Refugees in the Near East + UNSP United Nations Special Fund + UNU United Nations University + UP University for Peace + WFC World Food Council + WFP World Food Program + +3) Security Council: + UNAVEM United Nations Angola Verification Mission + UNDOF United Nations Disengagement Observer Force + UNFICYP United Nations Force in Cyprus + UNGOMAP United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and + Pakistan + UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon + UNIIMOG United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group + UNMOGIP United Nations Military Observer Group in India and + Pakistan + UNTAG United Nations Transition Assistance Group + UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision Organization + +4) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): + Specialized agencies + FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations + IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development + ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization + IDA International Development Association + IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development + IFC International Finance Corporation + ILO International Labor Organization + IMF International Monetary Fund + IMO International Maritime Organization + ITU International Telecommunication Union + MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency + UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural + Organization + UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization + UPU Universal Postal Union + WHO World Health Organization + WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization + WMO World Meteorological Organization + Related organizations + GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade + IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency + Regional commissions + ECA Economic Commission for Africa + ECE Economic Commission for Europe + ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean + ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific + ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia + Functional commissions + Commission on Human Rights + Commission on Narcotic Drugs + Commission for Social Development + Commission on the Status of Women + Population Commission + Statistical Commission + +5) Trusteeship Council + +6) International Court of Justice (ICJ) +.pa + Appendix B: International Organizations + +ACC Arab Cooperation Council +ACP African, Caribbean, and Pacific Countries (assoc. with EC) +ADB Asian Development Bank +AfDB African Development Bank +AFESD Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development +AIOEC Association of Iron Ore Exporting Countries +AL Arab League or League of Arab States +AMF Arab Monetary Fund +AMU Arab Maghreb Union +--- Andean Pact +ANRPC Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries +ANZUS ANZUS Council +AP Andean Pact +APC African Peanut (Groundnut) Association +ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations +ASPAC Asian and Pacific Council +ASSIMER International Mercury Producers Association +--- Association of Tin Producing Countries + +BADEA Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa +BCIE Central American Bank for Economic Integration +Benelux Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg Economic Union +BIS Bank for International Settlements +BLEU Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union +BOAD West African Development Bank + +C Commonwealth +CACM Central American Common Market +CAEU Council of Arab Economic Unity +CARICOM Caribbean Community and Common Market +CCC Customs Cooperation Council +CDB Caribbean Development Bank +CE Council of Europe +CEAO West African Economic Community +CEEAC Economic Community of Central African States +CEMA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (sometimes CMEA or + Comecon) +CENTO Central Treaty Organization +CEPGL Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries +CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research +CILSS Permanent Interstate Committee on Drought Control in the Sahel +CIPEC Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries +CMEA see CEMA +Comecon see CEMA +--- Conference of East and Central African States +CP Colombo Plan + +DAC Development Assistance Committee (OECD) + +EADB East African Development Bank +EAMA African States associated with the EC +EC European Communities +ECA Economic Commission for Africa (UN) +ECE Economic Commission for Europe (UN) +ECLA Economic Commission for Latin America (UN) +ECLAC Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN) +ECOSOC Economic and Social Council (UN) +ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States +ECWA Economic Commission for Western Asia (UN) +EFTA European Free Trade Association +EIB European Investment Bank +EMS European Monetary System +Entente Council of the Entente +ESA European Space Agency +ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN) +ESCWA Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN) + +FAO Food and Agriculture Organization (UN) +FZ Franc Zone + +G-8 Group of Eight +G-10 Group of Ten +G-77 Group of 77 +GA General Assembly (UN) +GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (UN) +GCC Gulf Cooperation Council + +IADB Inter-American Development Bank +IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency (UN) +IATP International Association of Tungsten Producers +IBA International Bauxite Association +IBEC International Bank for Economic Cooperation +IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or + World Bank (UN) +ICAC International Cotton Advisory Committee +ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization (UN) +ICC International Chamber of Commerce +ICCO International Cocoa Organization +ICEM Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration +ICES International Cooperation in Ocean Exploration +ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions +ICJ International Court of Justice (UN) +ICM Intergovernmental Committee for Migration +ICO International Coffee Organization +ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross +IDA International Development Association (IBRD affiliate, UN) +IDB Inter-American Development Bank +IDB Islamic Development Bank +IEA International Energy Agency (associated with OECD) +IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development (UN) +IFC International Finance Corporation (IBRD affiliate, UN) +IHO International Hydrographic Organization +IIB International Investment Bank +ILO International Labor Organization (UN) +ILZSG International Lead and Zinc Study Group +IMF International Monetary Fund (UN) +IMO International Maritime Organization (UN) +INMARSAT International Maritime Satellite Organization +INRO International Natural Rubber Organization +INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite Organization +INTERPOL International Criminal Police Organization +IOC International Olympic Committee +IOOC International Olive Oil Council +IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union +IRC International Rice Council +ISO International Sugar Organization +ITC International Tin Council +ITU International Telecommunication Union (UN) +IWC International Whaling Commission +IWC International Wheat Council +LAES Latin American Economic System +LAIA Latin American Integration Association +--- Lake Chad Basin Commission +LORCS League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies +--- Mano River Commission +--- Mekong Committee +MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency + +NAM Nonaligned Movement +NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization +NC Nordic Council +NCC Nordic Council of Ministers +NEA Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD) +NIB Nordic Investment Bank +--- Niger River Commission +--- Nordic Council + +OAPEC Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries +OAS Organization of American States +OAU Organization of African Unity +OCAM Afro-Malagasy and Mauritian Common Organization +ODECA Organization of Central American States +OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development +OECS Organization of Eastern Caribbean States +OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference +OMVS Organization for the Development of the Senegal River Valley +OPANAL Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America + and the Caribbean +OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries + +PAHO Pan American Health Organization +PCA Permanent Court of Arbitration + +SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation +SADCC Southern African Development Coordination Conference +SC Security Council (UN) +SELA Latin American Economic System +SPC South Pacific Commission +SPEC South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation +SPF South Pacific Forum + +TC Trusteeship Council (UN) +TDB Trade and Development Board (UN) + +UDEAC Central African Customs and Economic Union +UEAC Union of Central African States +UN United Nations +UNCTAD UN Conference on Trade and Development +UNDP UN Development Program +UNESCO UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization +UNHCR UN High Commissioner for Refugees +UNICEF UN Children's Fund +UNIDO UN Industrial Development Organization +UPEB Union of Banana Exporting Countries +UPU Universal Postal Union (UN) + +WCL World Confederation of Labor +WEU Western European Union +WFC World Food Council (UN) +WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions +WHO World Health Organization (UN) +WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization (UN) +WMO World Meteorological Organization (UN) +WP Warsaw Pact +WPC World Peace Council +WSG International Wool Study Group +WTO World Tourism Organization +.pa + Appendix C: Country Membership in International Organizations + + This information is currently available only as a table in the +printed version of The World Factbook 1990. For the 1991 edition a new +textual format will be adopted that will greatly expand the breadth and +depth of coverage to include many more organizations with complete name, +acronym or abbreviation, date established, aim, and list of members. +.pa + Appendix D: Weights and Measures + + Mathematical Notation + + Mathematical Power Name +10 +18 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 one quintillion +10 +15 or 1,000,000,000,000,000 one quadrillion +10 +12 or 1,000,000,000,000 one trillion +10 +9 or 1,000,000,000 one billion +10 +6 or 1,000,000 one million +10 +3 or 1,000 one thousand +10 +2 or 100 one hundred +10 +1 or 10 ten +10 +0 or 1 one +10 -1 or 0.1 one tenth +10 -2 or 0.01 one hundredth +10 -3 or 0.001 one thousandth +10 -6 or 0.000 001 one millionth +10 -9 or 0.000 000 001 one billionth +10 -12 or 0.000 000 000 001 one trillionth +10 -15 or 0.000 000 000 000 001 one quadrillionth +10 -18 or 0.000 000 000 000 000 001 one quintillionth + +Conversions from a multiple or submultiple to the basic units of meters, +liters, or grams can be done using the table. For example, to convert from +kilometers to meters, multiply by 1,000 (9.26 kilometers equals 9,260 meters) +or to convert from meters to kilometers, multiply by 0.001 (9,260 meters equals +9.26 kilometers) + Length, + weight, +Prefix Symbol capacity Area Volume +------ ------ -------- ------ ------- +exa E 10 +18 10 +36 10 +54 +peta P 10 +15 10 +30 10 +45 +tera T 10 +12 10 +24 10 +36 +giga G 10 +9 10 +18 10 +27 +mega M 10 +6 10 +12 10 +18 +hectokilo hk 10 +5 10 +10 10 +15 +myria ma 10 +4 10 +8 10 +12 +kilo k 10 +3 10 +6 10 +9 +hecto h 10 +2 10 +4 10 +6 +deka da 10 +1 10 +2 10 +3 +basic unit - 1 meter, 1 meter2 1 meter3 + 1 gram, + 1 liter +deci d 10 -1 10 -2 10 -3 +centi c 10 -2 10 -4 10 -6 +milli m 10 -3 10 -6 10 -9 +decimilli dm 10 -4 10 -8 10 -12 +centimilli cm 10 -5 10 -10 10 -15 +micro u 10 -6 10 -12 10 -18 +nano n 10 -9 10 -18 10 -27 +pico p 10 -12 10 -24 10 -36 +femto f 10 -15 10 -30 10 -45 +atto a 10 -18 10 -36 10 -54 + +======================================================================== + + EQUIVALENTS + + The exponents 2 and 3 are used for square and cubic, respectively. +Name Metric Equivalents +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +acre 0.404 685 64 hectares 43,560 feet2 +acre 4,046,856 4 meters2 4,840 yards2 +acre 0.004 046 856 4 0.001 562 5 miles2, + kilometers2 statute +are 100 meters2 119.599 yards2 +barrel (petroleum, US) 158.987 29 liters 42 gallons + (proof spirits, US) 151.416 47 liters 40 gallons + (beer, US) 117.347 77 liters 31 gallons +bushel 35.239 07 liters 4 pecks +cable 219.456 meters 120 fathoms +chain (surveyor's) 20.116 8 meters 66 feet +cord (wood) 3.624 556 meters3 128 feet3 +cup 0.236 588 2 liters 8 ounces, liquid (US) +degrees, celsius (water boils at 100 multiply by 1.8 and add + degrees C, freezes at 32 to obtain degrees F + 0 degrees C) +degrees, fahrenheit subtract 32 and divide (water boils at 212 + by 1.8 to obtain degrees F, freezes at + degrees C 32 degrees F) +dram, avoirdupois 1.771 845 2 grams 0.062 5 ounces, avoirdupois +dram, troy 3.887 934 6 grams 0.125 ounces, troy +dram, liquid (US) 3.696 69 milliliters 0.125 ounces, liquid +fathom 1.828 8 meters 6 feet +foot 30.48 centimeters 12 inches +foot 0.304 8 meters 0.333 333 3 yards +foot 0.000 304 8 kilometers 0.000 189 39 miles, statute +foot2 929.030 4 centimeters2 144 inches2 +foot 2 0.092 903 04 meters2 0.111 111 1 yards2 +foot3 28.316 846 592 liters 7.480 519 gallons +foot3 0.028 316 847 meters3 1,728 inches3 +furlong 201.168 meters 220 yards +gallon, liquid (US) 3.785 411 784 liters 4 quarts, liquid +gill (US) 118.294 118 milliliters 4 ounces, liquid +grain 64.798 91 milligrams 0.002 285 71 ounces, advp. +gram 1,000 milligrams 0.035 273 96 ounces, advp. +hand (height of horse) 10.16 centimeters 4 inches +hectare 10,000 meters2 2.471 053 8 acres +hundredweight, long 50.802 345 kilograms 112 pounds, avoirdupois +hundredweight, short 45.359 237 kilograms 100 pounds, avoirdupois +inch 2.54 centimeters 0.083 333 33 feet +inch2 6.451 6 centimeters2 0.006 944 44 feet2 +inch3 16.387 064 centimeters3 0.000 578 7 feet3 +inch3 16.387 064 milliliters 0.029 761 6 pints, dry +inch3 16.387 064 milliliters 0.034 632 0 pints, liquid +kilogram 0.001 tons, metric 2.204 623 pounds, avoirdupois +kilometer 1,000 meters 0.621 371 19 miles, statute +kilometer2 100 hectares 247.105 38 acres +kilometer2 1,000,000 meters2 0.386 102 16 miles2, statute +knot (1 nautical mi/hr) 1.852 kilometers/hour 1.151 statute miles/hour +league, nautical 5.559 552 kilometers 3 miles, nautical +league, statute 4.828.032 kilometers 3 miles, statute +link (surveyor's) 20.116 8 centimeters 7.92 inches +liter 0.001 meters3 61.023 74 inches3 +liter 0.1 dekaliter 0.908 083 quarts, dry +liter 1,000 milliliters 1.056 688 quarts, liquid +meter 100 centimeters 1.093 613 yards +meter2 10,000 centimeters2 1.195 990 yards2 +meter3 1,000 liters 1.307 951 yards3 +micron 0.000 001 meter 0.000 039 4 inches +mil 0.025 4 millimeters 0.001 inch +mile, nautical 1.852 kilometers 1.150 779 4 miles, statute +mile2, nautical 3.429 904 kilometers2 1.325 miles2, statute +mile, statute 1.609 344 kilometers 5,280 feet or 8 furlongs +mile2, statute 258.998 811 hectares 640 acres or 1 section +mile2, statute 2.589 988 11 kilometers2 0.755 miles2, nautical +minim (US) 0.061 611 52 milliliters 0.002 083 33 ounces, liquid +ounce, avoirdupois 28.349 523 125 grams 437.5 grains +ounce, liquid (US) 29.573 53 milliliters 0.062 5 pints, liquid +ounce, troy 31.103 476 8 grams 480 grains +pace 76.2 centimeters 30 inches +peck 8.809 767 5 liters 8 quarts, dry +pennyweight 1.555 173 84 grams 24 grains +pint, dry (US) 0.550 610 47 liters 0.5 quarts, dry +pint, liquid (US) 0.473 176 473 liters 0.5 quarts, liquid +point (typographical) 0.351 459 8 millimeters 0.013 837 inches +pound, avoirdupois 453.592 37 grams 16 ounces, avourdupois +pound, troy 373.241 721 6 grams 12 ounces, troy +quart, dry (US) 1.101 221 liters 2 pints, dry +quart, liquid (US) 0.946 352 946 liters 2 pints, liquid +quintal 100 kilograms 220.462 26 pounds, avdp. +rod 5.029 2 meters 5.5 yards +scruple 1.295 978 2 grams 20 grains +section (US) 2.589 988 1 kilometers2 1 mile2, statute or 640 acres +span 22.86 centimeters 9 inches +stere 1 meter3 1.307 95 yards3 +tablespoon 14.786 76 milliliters 3 teaspoons +teaspoon 4.928 922 milliliters 0.333 333 tablespoons +ton, long or deadweight 1,016.046 909 kilograms 2,240 pounds, avoirdupois +ton, metric 1,000 kilograms 2,204.623 pounds, avoirdupois +ton, register 2.831 684 7 meters3 100 feet3 +ton, short 907.184 74 kilograms 2,000 pounds, avoirdupois +township (US) 93.239 572 kilometers2 36 miles2, statute +yard 0.914 4 meters 3 feet +yard2 0.836 127 36 meters2 9 feet2 +yard3 0.764 554 86 meters3 27 feet3 +yard3 764.554 857 984 liters 201.974 gallons +.pa + Appendix E: Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names + + This list indicates where various names including all United States Foreign +Service Posts, alternate names, former names, and political or geographical +portions of larger entities can be found in The WORLD FACTBOOK +are not necessarily those approved by the United States Board on Geographic +Names (BGN). Alternate names are included in parentheses, additional +information is included in brackets. + +Name Entry in the WORLD FACTBOOK +------------------------------ --------------------------------------- +Abidjan (US Embassy) Ivory Coast +Abu Dhabi (US Embassy) United Arab Emirates +Acapulco (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Accra (US Embassy) Ghana +Adana (US Consulate) Turkey +Addis Ababa (US Embassy) Ethiopia +Adelaide (US Consular Agency) Australia +Adelie Land (Terre Adelie) Antarctica + (claimed by France) +Aden (US post not maintained, Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of + representation by British + Embassy) +Aden, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Admiralty Islands Papua New Guinea +Adriatic Sea Atlantic Ocean +Aegean Islands Greece +Aegean Sea Atlantic Ocean +Afars and Issas, French Djibouti + Territory of the (F.T.A.I.) +Agalega Islands Mauritius +Aland Islands Finland +Alaska United States +Alaska, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Aldabra Islands Seychelles +Alderney Guernsey +Aleutian Islands United States +Alexander Island Antarctica +Alexandria (US Consulate General) Egypt +Algiers (US Embassy) Algeria +Alhucemas, Penon de Spain +Alphonse Island Seychelles +Amami Strait Pacific Ocean +Amindivi Islands India +Amirante Isles Seychelles +Amman (US Embassy) Jordan +Amsterdam (US Consulate General) Netherlands +Amsterdam Island French Southern and Antarctic Lands + (Ile Amsterdam) +Amundsen Sea Pacific Ocean +Amur China; Soviet Union +Andaman Islands India +Andaman Sea Indian Ocean +Anegada Passage Atlantic Ocean +Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Sudan +Anjouan Comoros +Ankara (US Embassy) Turkey +Annobon Equatorial Guinea +Antananarivo (US Embassy) Madagascar +Antipodes Islands New Zealand +Antwerp (US Consulate General) Belgium +Aozou Strip (claimed by Libya) Chad +Aqaba, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Arabian Sea Indian Ocean +Arafura Sea Pacific Ocean +Argun China; Soviet Union +Ascension Island St. Helena +Assumption Island Seychelles +Asuncion (US Embassy) Paraguay +Asuncion Island Northern Mariana Islands +Atacama Chile +Athens (US Embassy) Greece +Attu United States +Auckland (US Consulate General) New Zealand +Auckland Islands New Zealand +Australes Iles (Iles Tubuai) French Polynesia +Axel Heiberg Island Canada +Azores Portugal +Azov, Sea of Atlantic Ocean + +Bab el Mandeb Indian Ocean +Babuyan Channel Pacific Ocean +Babuyan Islands Philippines +Baffin Bay Arctic Ocean +Baffin Island Canada +Baghdad (US Embassy) Iraq +Balabac Strait Pacific Ocean +Balearic Islands Spain +Balearic Sea (Iberian Sea) Atlantic Ocean +Bali (US Consular Agency) Indonesia +Bali Sea Indian Ocean +Balintang Channel Pacific Ocean +Balintang Islands Philippines +Balleny Islands Antarctica +Baltic Sea Atlantic Ocean +Baluchistan Afghanistan; Iran; Pakistan +Bamako (US Embassy) Mali +Banaba (Ocean Island) Kiribati +Bandar Seri Begawan (US Embassy) Brunei +Banda Sea Pacific Ocean +Bangkok (US Embassy) Thailand +Bangui (US Embassy) Central African Republic +Banjul (US Embassy) Gambia, The +Banks Island Canada +Banks Islands (Iles Banks) Vanuatu +Barcelona (US Consulate General) Spain +Barents Sea Arctic Ocean +Barranquilla (US Consulate) Colombia +Bashi Channel Pacific Ocean +Basilan Strait Pacific Ocean +Bass Strait Indian Ocean +Batan Islands Philippines +Bavaria (Bayern) Germany, Federal Republic of +Beagle Channel Atlantic Ocean +Bear Island (Bjornoya) Svalbard +Beaufort Sea Arctic Ocean +Bechuanaland Botswana +Beijing (US Embassy) China +Beirut (US Embassy) Lebanon +Belem (US Consular Agency) Brazil +Belep Islands (Iles Belep) New Caledonia +Belfast (US Consulate General) United Kingdom +Belgian Congo Zaire +Belgrade (US Embassy) Yugoslavia +Belize City (US Embassy) Belize +Belle Isle, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Bellinghausen Sea Pacific Ocean +Belmopan Belize +Bengal, Bay of Indian Ocean +Bering Sea Pacific Ocean +Bering Strait Pacific Ocean +Berkner Island Antarctica +Berlin, East (US Embassy) German Democratic Republic +Berlin, West (US Mission) Germany, Federal Republic of +Bern (US Embassy) Switzerland +Bessarabia Romania; Soviet Union +Bijagos, Arquipelago dos Guinea-Bissau +Bikini Atoll Marshall Islands +Bilbao (US Consulate) Spain +Bioko Equatorial Guinea +Biscay, Bay of Atlantic Ocean +Bishop Rock United Kingdom +Bismarck Archipelago Papua New Guinea +Bismarck Sea Pacific Ocean +Bissau (US Embassy) Guinea-Bissau +Bjornoya (Bear Island) Svalbard +Black Rock Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Black Sea Atlantic Ocean +Boa Vista Cape Verde +Bogota (US Embassy) Colombia +Bombay (US Consulate General) India +Bonaire Netherlands Antilles +Bonifacio, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Bonin Islands Japan +Bonn (US Embassy) Federal Republic of Germany +Bophuthatswana South Africa +Bora-Bora French Polynesia +Bordeaux (US Consulate General) France +Borneo Brunei; Indonesia; Malaysia +Bornholm Denmark +Bosporus Atlantic Ocean +Bothnia, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Bougainville Island Papua New Guinea +Bougainville Strait Pacific Ocean +Bounty Islands New Zealand +Brasilia (US Embassy) Brazil +Brazzaville (US Embassy) Congo +Bridgetown (US Embassy) Barbados +Brisbane (US Consulate) Australia +British East Africa Kenya +British Guiana Guyana +British Honduras Belize +British Solomon Islands Solomon Islands +British Somaliland Somalia +Brussels (US Embassy, US Mission Belgium + to European Communities, US + Mission to the North Atlantic + Treaty Organization or USNATO) +Bucharest (US Embassy) Romania +Budapest (US Embassy) Hungary +Buenos Aires (US Embassy) Argentina +Bujumbura (US Embassy) Burundi + +Cabinda Angola +Cabot Strait Atlantic Ocean +Caicos Islands Turks and Caicos Islands +Cairo (US Embassy) Egypt +Calcutta (US Consulate General) India +Calgary (US Consulate General) Canada +California, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Campbell Island New Zealand +Canal Zone Panama +Canary Islands Spain +Canberra (US Embassy) Australia +Cancun (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Canton (Guangzhou) China +Canton Island Kiribati +Cape Town (US Consulate General) South Africa +Caracas (US Embassy) Venezuela +Cargados Carajos Shoals Mauritius +Caroline Islands Micronesia, Federated States of; + Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the +Caribbean Sea Atlantic Ocean +Carpentaria, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Casablanca (US Consulate General) Morocco +Cato Island Australia +Cebu (US Consulate) Philippines +Celebes Indonesia +Celebes Sea Pacific Ocean +Celtic Sea Atlantic Ocean +Central African Empire Central African Republic +Ceuta Spain +Ceylon Sri Lanka +Chafarinas, Islas Spain +Chagos Archipelago (Oil Islands) British Indian Ocean Territory +Channel Islands Guernsey; Jersey +Chatham Islands New Zealand +Cheju-do Korea, South +Cheju Strait Pacific Ocean +Chengdu (US Consulate General) China +Chesterfield Islands New Caledonia + (Iles Chesterfield) +Chiang Mai (US Consulate General) Thailand +Chihli, Gulf of (Bo Hai) Pacific Ocean +China, People's Republic of China +China, Republic of Taiwan +Choiseul Solomon Islands +Christchurch (US Consular Agency) New Zealand +Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) Australia +Christmas Island (Pacific Ocean) Kiribati + (Kiritimati) +Chukchi Sea Arctic Ocean +Ciskei South Africa +Ciudad Juarez (US Consulate Mexico + General) +Cochabamba (US Consular Agency) Bolivia +Coco, Isla del Costa Rica +Cocos Islands Cocos (Keeling) Islands +Colombo (US Embassy) Sri Lanka +Colon (US Consular Agency) Panama +Colon, Archipielago de Ecuador + (Galapagos Islands) +Commander Islands Soviet Union + (Komandorskiye Ostrova) +Conakry (US Embassy) Guinea +Congo (Brazzaville) Congo +Congo (Kinshasa) Zaire +Congo (Leopoldville) Zaire +Con Son Islands Vietnam +Cook Strait Pacific Ocean +Copenhagen (US Embassy) Denmark +Coral Sea Pacific Ocean +Corn Islands (Islas del Maiz) Nicaragua +Corsica France +Cosmoledo Group Seychelles +Cote d'Ivoire Ivory Coast +Cotonou (US Embassy) Benin +Crete Greece +Crooked Island Passage Atlantic Ocean +Crozet Islands (Iles Crozet) French Southern and Antarctic Lands +Curacao (US Consulate General) Netherlands Antilles +Cusco (US Consular Agency) Peru + +Dahomey Benin +Daito Islands Japan +Dakar (US Embassy) Senegal +Daman (Damao) India +Damascus (US Embassy) Syria +Danger Atoll Cook Islands +Danish Straits Atlantic Ocean +Danzig (Gdansk) Poland +Dao Bach Long Vi Vietnam +Dardanelles Atlantic Ocean +Dar es Salaam (US Embassy) Tanzania +Davis Strait Atlantic Ocean +Deception Island Antarctica +Denmark Strait Atlantic Ocean +D'Entrecasteaux Islands Papua New Guinea +Devon Island Canada +Dhahran (US Consulate General) Saudi Arabia +Dhaka (US Embassy) Bangladesh +Diego Garcia British Indian Ocean Territory +Diego Ramirez Chile +Diomede Islands Soviet Union (Big Diomede); United States + (Little Diomede) +Diu India +Djibouti (US Embassy) Djibouti +Dodecanese Greece +Doha (US Embassy) Qatar +Douala (US Consulate General) Cameroon +Dover, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Drake Passage Atlantic Ocean +Dubai (US Consulate General) United Arab Emirates +Dublin (US Embassy) Ireland +Durango (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Durban (US Consulate General) South Africa +Dusseldorf (US Consulate General) Federal Republic of Germany +Dutch East Indies Indonesia +Dutch Guiana Suriname + +East China Sea Pacific Ocean +Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) Chile +Eastern Channel (East Korea Pacific Ocean + Strait or Tsushima Strait) +East Germany German Democratic Republic +East Korea Strait (Eastern Pacific Ocean + Channel or Tsushima Strait) +East Pakistan Bangladesh +East Siberian Sea Arctic Ocean +East Timor (Portuguese Timor) Indonesia +Edinburgh (US Consulate General) United Kingdom +Elba Italy +Ellef Ringnes Island Canada +Ellesmere Island Canada +Ellice Islands Tuvalu +Elobey, Islas de Equatorial Guinea +Enderbury Island Kiribati +Enewetak Atoll (Eniwetok Atoll) Marshall Islands +England United Kingdom +English Channel Atlantic Ocean +Eniwetok Atoll Marshall Islands +Epirus, Northern Albania; Greece +Eritrea Ethiopia +Essequibo (claimed by Venezuela) Guyana +Estonia Soviet Union (de facto) +Etorofu Soviet Union (de facto) + +Farquhar Group Seychelles +Fernando de Noronha Brazil +Fernando Po (Bioko) Equatorial Guinea +Finland, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Florence (US Consulate General) Italy +Florida, Straits of Atlantic Ocean +Formosa Taiwan +Formosa Strait (Taiwan Strait) Pacific Ocean +Fort-de-France Martinique + (US Consulate General) +Frankfurt am Main Federal Republic of Germany + (US Consulate General) +Franz Josef Land Soviet Union +Freetown (US Embassy) Sierra Leone +French Cameroon Cameroon +French Indochina Cambodia; Laos; Vietnam +French Guinea Guinea +French Sudan Mali +French Territory of the Afars Djibouti + and Issas (F.T.A.I.) +French Togo Togo +Friendly Islands Tonga +Fukuoka (US Consulate) Japan +Funchal (US Consular Agency) Portugal +Fundy, Bay of Atlantic Ocean +Futuna Islands (Hoorn Islands) Wallis and Futuna + +Gaborone (US Embassy) Botswana +Galapagos Islands (Archipielago Ecuador + de Colon) +Galleons Passage Atlantic Ocean +Gambier Islands (Iles Gambier) French Polynesia +Gaspar Strait Indian Ocean +Geneva (Branch Office of the US Switzerland + Embassy, US Mission to European + Office of the UN and Other + International Organizations) +Genoa (US Consulate General) Italy +George Town (US Consular Agency) Cayman Islands +Georgetown (US Embassy) Guyana +Gibraltar, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Gilbert Islands Kiribati +Goa India +Gold Coast Ghana +Golan Heights Syria +Good Hope, Cape of South Africa +Goteborg (US Consulate General) Sweden +Gotland Sweden +Gough Island St. Helena +Grand Banks Atlantic Ocean +Grand Cayman Cayman Islands +Grand Turk (US Consular Agency) Turks and Caicos Islands +Great Australian Bight Indian Ocean +Great Belt (Store Baelt) Atlantic Ocean +Great Britain United Kingdom +Great Channel Indian Ocean +Greater Sunda Islands Brunei; Indonesia; Malaysia +Green Islands Papua New Guinea +Greenland Sea Arctic Ocean +Grenadines, Northern St. Vincent and the Grenadines +Grenadines, Southern Grenada +Guadalajara Mexico + (US Consulate General) +Guadalcanal Solomon Islands +Guadalupe, Isla de Mexico +Guangzhou (US Consulate General) China +Guantanamo (US Naval Base) Cuba +Guatemala (US Embassy) Guatemala +Gubal, Strait of Indian Ocean +Guinea, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Guayaquil (US Consulate General) Ecuador + +Ha'apai Group Tonga +Habomai Islands Soviet Union (de facto) +Hague,The (US Embassy) Netherlands +Haifa (US Consular Agency) Israel +Hainan Dao China +Halifax (US Consulate General) Canada +Halmahera Indonesia +Hamburg (US Consulate General) Federal Republic of Germany +Hamilton (US Consulate General) Bermuda +Hanoi Vietnam +Harare (US Embassy) Zimbabwe +Hatay Turkey +Havana (US post not maintained, Cuba + representation by US Interests + Section or USINT of the Swiss + Embassy) +Hawaii United States +Heard Island Heard Island and McDonald Islands +Helsinki (US Embassy) Finland +Hermosillo (US Consulate) Mexico +Hispaniola Dominican Republic; Haiti +Hokkaido Japan +Holy See, The Vatican City +Hong Kong (US Consulate General) Hong Kong +Honiara (US Consulate) Solomon Islands +Honshu Japan +Hormuz, Strait of Indian Ocean +Horn, Cape (Cabo de Hornos) Chile +Horne, Iles de Wallis and Futuna +Horn of Africa Ethiopia; Somalia +Hudson Bay Arctic Ocean +Hudson Strait Arctic Ocean + +Inaccessible Island St. Helena +Indochina Cambodia; Laos; Vietnam +Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol) China +Ionian Islands Greece +Ionian Sea Atlantic Ocean +Irian Jaya Indonesia +Irish Sea Atlantic Ocean +Islamabad (US Embassy) Pakistan +Islas Malvinas Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Istanbul (US Consulate General) Turkey +Italian Somaliland Somalia +Iwo Jima Japan +Izmir (US Consulate General) Turkey + +Jakarta (US Embassy) Indonesia +Japan, Sea of Pacific Ocean +Java Indonesia +Java Sea Indian Ocean +Jeddah (US Consulate General) Saudi Arabia +Jerusalem (US Consulate General) Israel; West Bank +Johannesburg South Africa + (US Consulate General) +Juan de Fuca, Strait of Pacific Ocean +Juan Fernandez, Isla de Chile +Juventud, Isla de la Cuba + (Isle of Youth) + +Kabul (US Embassy now closed) Afghanistan +Kaduna (US Consulate General) Nigeria +Kalimantan Indonesia +Kamchatka Peninsula Soviet Union + (Poluostrov Kamchatka) +Kampala (US Embassy) Uganda +Kampuchea Cambodia +Karachi (US Consulate General) Pakistan +Kara Sea Arctic Ocean +Karimata Strait Indian Ocean +Kathmandu (US Embassy) Nepal +Kattegat Atlantic Ocean +Kauai Channel Pacific Ocean +Keeling Islands Cocos (Keeling) Islands +Kerguelen, Iles French Southern and Antarctic Lands +Kermadec Islands New Zealand +Khabarovsk Soviet Union +Khartoum (US Embassy) Sudan +Khmer Republic Cambodia +Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee Kanal) Atlantic Ocean +Khuriya Muriya Islands Oman + (Kuria Muria Islands) +Khyber Pass Pakistan +Kigali (US Embassy) Rwanda +Kingston (US Embassy) Jamaica +Kinshasa (US Embassy) Zaire +Kiritimati (Christmas Island) Kiribati +Kithira Strait Atlantic Ocean +Kodiak Island United States +Kola Peninsula Soviet Union + (Kol'skiy Poluostrov) +Kolonia (US Special Office) Micronesia, Federated States of +Korea Bay Pacific Ocean +Korea, Democratic People's Korea, North + Republic of +Korea, Republic of Korea, South +Korea Strait Pacific Ocean +Koror (US Special Office) Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of +Kosovo Yugoslavia +Kowloon Hong Kong +Krakow (US Consulate) Poland +Kuala Lumpur (US Embassy) Malaysia +Kunashiri (Kunashir) Soviet Union (de facto) +Kuril Islands Soviet Union (de facto) +Kuwait (US Embassy) Kuwait +Kwajalein Atoll Marshall Islands +Kyushu Japan + +Labrador Canada +Laccadive Islands India +Laccadive Sea Indian Ocean +La Coruna (US Consular Agency) Spain +Lagos (US Embassy) Nigeria +Lahore (US Consulate General) Pakistan +Lakshadweep India +La Paz (US Embassy) Bolivia +La Perouse Strait Pacific Ocean +Laptev Sea Arctic Ocean +Las Palmas (US Consular Agency) Spain +Latvia Soviet Union (de facto) +Lau Group Fiji +Leningrad (US Consulate General) Soviet Union +Lesser Sunda Islands Indonesia +Leyte Philippines +Liancourt Rocks (claimed by Japan)Korea, South +Libreville (US Embassy) Gabon +Ligurian Sea Atlantic Ocean +Lilongwe (US Embassy) Malawi +Lima (US Embassy) Peru +Lincoln Sea Arctic Ocean +Line Islands Kiribati; Palmyra Atoll +Lisbon (US Embassy) Portugal +Lithuania Soviet Union (de facto) +Lombok Strait Indian Ocean +Lome (US Embassy) Togo +London (US Embassy) United Kingdom +Lord Howe Island Australia +Louisiade Archipelago Papua New Guinea +Loyalty Islands New Caledonia + (Iles Loyaute) +Lubumbashi (US Consulate General) Zaire +Lusaka (US Embassy) Zambia +Luxembourg (US Embassy) Luxembourg +Luzon Philippines +Luzon Strait Pacific Ocean +Lyon (US Consulate General) France + +Macao Macau +Macedonia Bulgaria; Greece; Yugoslavia +Macquarie Island Australia +Madeira Islands Portugal +Madras (US Consulate General) India +Madrid (US Embassy) Spain +Magellan, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Mahe Island Seychelles +Maiz, Islas del (Corn Islands) Nicaragua +Majorca (Mallorca) Spain +Majuro (US Special Office) Marshall Islands +Makassar Strait Pacific Ocean +Malabo (US Embassy) Equatorial Guinea +Malacca, Strait of Indian Ocean +Malaga (US Consular Agency) Spain +Malagasy Republic Madagascar +Male (US post not maintained, Maldives + representation from Colombo, + Sri Lanka) +Mallorca (Majorca) Spain +Malpelo, Isla de Colombia +Malta Channel Atlantic Ocean +Malvinas, Islas Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Managua (US Embassy) Nicaragua +Manama (US Embassy) Bahrain +Manaus (US Consular Agency) Brazil +Manchukuo China +Manchuria China +Manila (US Embassy) Philippines +Manipa Strait Pacific Ocean +Mannar, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Manua Islands American Samoa +Maputo (US Embassy) Mozambique +Maracaibo (US Consulate) Venezuela +Marcus Island (Minami-tori-shima) Japan +Mariana Islands Guam; Northern Mariana Islands +Marion Island South Africa +Marmara, Sea of Atlantic Ocean +Marquesas Islands French Polynesia + (Iles Marquises) +Marseille (US Consulate General) France +Martin Vaz, Ilhas Brazil +Mas a Tierra Chile + (Robinson Crusoe Island) +Mascarene Islands Mauritius; Reunion +Maseru (US Embassy) Lesotho +Matamoros (US Consulate) Mexico +Mazatlan (US Consulate) Mexico +Mbabane (US Embassy) Swaziland +McDonald Islands Heard Island and McDonald Islands +Medan (US Consulate) Indonesia +Mediterranean Sea Atlantic Ocean +Melbourne (US Consulate General) Australia +Melilla Spain +Merida (US Consulate) Mexico +Messina, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Mexico (US Embassy) Mexico +Mexico, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +Milan (US Consulate General) Italy +Minami-tori-shima Japan +Mindanao Philippines +Mindoro Strait Pacific Ocean +Minicoy Island India +Mogadishu (US Embassy) Somalia +Mombasa (US Consulate) Kenya +Mona Passage Atlantic Ocean +Monrovia (US Embassy) Liberia +Montego Bay (US Consular Agency) Jamaica +Monterrey (US Consulate General) Mexico +Montevideo (US Embassy) Uruguay +Montreal (US Consulate General, Canada + US Mission to the International + Civil Aviation Organization + or ICAO) +Moravian Gate Czechoslovakia +Moroni (US Embassy) Comoros +Mortlock Islands Micronesia, Federated States of +Moscow (US Embassy) Soviet Union +Mozambique Channel Indian Ocean +Mulege (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Munich (US Consulate General) Federal Republic of Germany +Musandam Peninsula Oman; United Arab Emirates +Muscat (US Embassy) Oman +Muscat and Oman Oman +Myanma, Myanmar Burma + +Naha (US Consulate General) Japan +Nairobi (US Embassy) Kenya +Nampo-shoto Japan +Naples (US Consulate General) Italy +Nassau (US Embassy) Bahamas, The +Natuna Besar Islands Indonesia +N'Djamena (US Embassy) Chad +Netherlands East Indies Indonesia +Netherlands Guiana Suriname +Nevis St. Kitts and Nevis +New Delhi (US Embassy) India +Newfoundland Canada +New Guinea Indonesia; Papua New Guinea +New Hebrides Vanuatu +New Siberian Islands Soviet Union +New Territories Hong Kong +New York, New York (US Mission United States + to the United Nations or USUN) +Niamey (US Embassy) Niger +Nice (US Consular Agency) France +Nicobar Islands India +Nicosia (US Embassy) Cyprus +Nightingale Island St. Helena +North Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean +North Channel Atlantic Ocean +Northeast Providence Channel Atlantic Ocean +Northern Epirus Albania; Greece +Northern Grenadines St. Vincent and the Grenadines +Northern Ireland United Kingdom +Northern Rhodesia Zambia +North Island New Zealand +North Korea Korea, North +North Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean +North Sea Atlantic Ocean +North Vietnam Vietnam +Northwest Passages Arctic Ocean +North Yemen Yemen Arab Republic +Norwegian Sea Atlantic Ocean +Nouakchott (US Embassy) Mauritania +Novaya Zemlya Soviet Union +Nuevo Laredo (US Consulate) Mexico +Nyasaland Malawi + +Oahu United States +Oaxaca (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Ocean Island (Banaba) Kiribati +Ocean Island (Kure Island) United States +Ogaden Ethiopia; Somalia +Oil Islands (Chagos Archipelago) British Indian Ocean Territory +Okhotsk, Sea of Pacific Ocean +Okinawa Japan +Oman, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Ombai Strait Pacific Ocean +Oporto (US Consulate) Portugal +Oran (US Consulate) Algeria +oCresund (The Sound) Atlantic Ocean +Orkney Islands United Kingdom +Osaka-Kobe (US Consulate General) Japan +Oslo (US Embassy) Norway +Otranto, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Ottawa (US Embassy) Canada +Ouagadougou (US Embassy) Burkina +Outer Mongolia Mongolia + +Pagan Northern Mariana Islands +Palau Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the +Palawan Philippines +Palermo (US Consulate General) Italy +Palk Strait Indian Ocean +Palma de Mallorca Spain + (US Consular Agency) +Pamirs China; Soviet Union +Panama (US Embassy) Panama +Panama Canal Panama +Panama, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Paramaribo (US Embassy) Suriname +Parece Vela Japan +Paris (US Embassy, US Mission to France + the Organization for Economic + Cooperation and Development or + OECD, US Observer Mission at + the UN Educational, Scientific, + and Cultural Organization or + UNESCO) +Pascua, Isla de (Easter Island) Chile +Pashtunistan Afghanistan; Pakistan +Peking (Beijing) China +Pemba Island Tanzania +Pentland Firth Atlantic Ocean +Perim Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of +Perouse Strait, La Pacific Ocean +Persian Gulf Indian Ocean +Perth (US Consulate) Australia +Pescadores Taiwan +Peshawar (US Consulate) Pakistan +Peter I Island Antarctica +Philip Island Norfolk Island +Philippine Sea Pacific Ocean +Phoenix Islands Kiribati +Pines, Isle of Cuba + (Isla de la Juventud) +Piura (US Consular Agency) Peru +Pleasant Island Nauru +Ponape (Pohnpei) Micronesia +Ponta Delgada (US Consulate) Portugal +Port-au-Prince (US Embassy) Haiti +Port Louis (US Embassy) Mauritius +Port Moresby (US Embassy) Papua New Guinea +Porto Alegre (US Consulate) Brazil +Port-of-Spain (US Embassy) Trinidad and Tobago +Port Said (US Consular Agency) Egypt +Portuguese Guinea Guinea-Bissau +Portuguese Timor (East Timor) Indonesia +Poznan (US Consulate) Poland +Prague (US Embassy) Czechoslovakia +Praia (US Embassy) Cape Verde +Pretoria (US Embassy) South Africa +Pribilof Islands United States +Prince Edward Island Canada +Prince Edward Islands South Africa +Prince Patrick Island Canada +Principe Sao Tome and Principe +Puerto Plata (US Consular Agency) Dominican Republic +Puerto Vallarta Mexico + (US Consular Agency) +Pusan (US Consulate) South Korea +P'yongyang Korea, North + +Quebec (US Consulate General) Canada +Queen Charlotte Islands Canada +Queen Elizabeth Islands Canada +Queen Maud Land Antarctica + (claimed by Norway) +Quito (US Embassy) Ecuador + +Rabat (US Embassy) Morocco +Ralik Chain Marshall Islands +Rangoon (US Embassy) Burma +Ratak Chain Marshall Islands +Recife (US Consulate) Brazil +Redonda Antigua and Barbuda +Red Sea Indian Ocean +Revillagigedo Island United States +Revillagigedo Islands Mexico +Reykjavik (US Embassy) Iceland +Rhodes Greece +Rhodesia Zimbabwe +Rhodesia, Northern Zambia +Rhodesia, Southern Zimbabwe +Rio de Janeiro Brazil + (US Consulate General) +Rio de Oro Western Sahara +Rio Muni Equatorial Guinea +Riyadh (US Embassy) Saudi Arabia +Robinson Crusoe Island Chile + (Mas a Tierra) +Rocas, Atol das Brazil +Rockall (disputed) United Kingdom +Rodrigues Mauritius +Rome (US Embassy, US Mission to Italy + the UN Agencies for Food and + Agriculture or FODAG) +Roncador Cay Colombia +Roosevelt Island Antarctica +Ross Dependency Antarctica + (claimed by New Zealand) +Ross Island Antarctica +Ross Sea Antarctica +Rota Northern Mariana Islands +Rotuma Fiji +Ryukyu Islands Japan + +Saba Netherlands Antilles +Sabah Malaysia +Sable Island Canada +Sahel Burkina; Cape Verde; Chad; The Gambia; + Guinea-Bissau; Mali; Mauritania; Niger; + Senegal +Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) Vietnam +St. Brandon Mauritius +St. Christopher and Nevis St. Kitts and Nevis +St. George's (US Embassy) Grenada +St. George's Channel Atlantic Ocean +St. John's (US Embassy) Antigua and Barbuda +St. Lawrence, Gulf of Atlantic Ocean +St. Lawrence Island United States +St. Lawrence Seaway Atlantic Ocean +St. Martin Guadeloupe +St. Martin (Sint Maarten) Netherlands Antilles +St. Paul Island Canada +St. Paul Island United States +St. Paul Island (Ile Saint-Paul) French Southern and Antarctic Lands +St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks Brazil + (Penedos de Sao Pedro e + Sao Paulo) +St. Vincent Passage Atlantic Ocean +Saipan Northern Mariana Islands +Sakhalin Island (Ostrov Sakhalin) Soviet Union +Sala y Gomez, Isla Chile +Salisbury (Harare) Zimbabwe +Salvador de Bahia Brazil + (US Consular Agency) +Salzburg (US Consulate General) Austria +Sanaa (US Embassy) Yemen Arab Republic +San Ambrosio Chile +San Andres y Providencia, Colombia + Archipielago +San Bernardino Strait Pacific Ocean +San Felix, Isla Chile +San Jose (US Embassy) Costa Rica +San Luis Potosi Mexico + (US Consular Agency) +San Miguel Allende Mexico + (US Consular Agency) +San Salvador (US Embassy) El Salvador +Santa Cruz (US Consular Agency) Bolivia +Santa Cruz Islands Solomon Islands +Santiago (US Embassy) Chile +Santo Domingo (US Embassy) Dominican Republic +Sao Luis (US Consular Agency) Brazil +Sao Paulo (US Consulate General) Brazil +Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo, Brazil + Penedos de +Sapporo (US Consulate General) Japan +Sapudi Strait Indian Ocean +Sarawak Malaysia +Sardinia Italy +Sargasso Sea Atlantic Ocean +Sark Guernsey +Scotia Sea Atlantic Ocean +Scotland United Kingdom +Scott Island Antarctica +Senyavin Islands Micronesia, Federated States of +Seoul (US Embassy) Korea, South +Serrana Bank Colombia +Serranilla Bank Colombia +Severnaya Zemlya (Northland) Soviet Union +Seville (US Consular Agency) Spain +Shag Island Heard Island and McDonald Islands +Shag Rocks Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) +Shanghai (US Consulate General) China +Shenyang (US Consulate General) China +Shetland Islands United Kingdom +Shikoku Japan +Shikotan (Shikotan-to) Japan +Siam Thailand +Sibutu Passage Pacific Ocean +Sicily Italy +Sicily, Strait of Atlantic Ocean +Sikkim India +Sinai Egypt +Singapore (US Embassy) Singapore +Singapore Strait Pacific Ocean +Sinkiang (Xinjiang) China +Sint Eustatius Netherlands Antilles +Sint Maarten (St. Martin) Netherlands Antilles +Skagerrak Atlantic Ocean +Slovakia Czechoslovakia +Society Islands French Polynesia + (Iles de la Societe) +Socotra Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of +Sofia (US Embassy) Bulgaria +Solomon Islands, northern Papua New Guinea +Solomon Islands, southern Solomon Islands +Soloman Sea Pacific Ocean +Songkhla (US Consulate) Thailand +Sound, The (Oresund) Atlantic Ocean +South Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean +South China Sea Pacific Ocean +Southern Grenadines Grenada +Southern Rhodesia Zimbabwe +South Georgia South Georgia and the South + Sandwich Islands +South Island New Zealand +South Korea Korea, South +South Orkney Islands Antarctica +South Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean +South Sandwich Islands South Georgia and the South + Sandwich Islands +South Shetland Islands Antarctica +South Tyrol Italy +South Vietnam Vietnam +South-West Africa Namibia +South Yemen Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of +Spanish Guinea Equatorial Guinea +Spanish Sahara Western Sahara +Spitsbergen Svalbard +Stockholm (US Embassy) Sweden +Strasbourg (US Consulate General) France +Stuttgart (US Consulate General) Federal Republic of Germany +Suez, Gulf of Indian Ocean +Sulu Archipelago Philippines +Sulu Sea Pacific Ocean +Sumatra Indonesia +Sumba Indonesia +Sunda Islands (Soenda Isles) Indonesia; Malaysia +Sunda Strait Indian Ocean +Surabaya (US Consulate) Indonesia +Surigao Strait Pacific Ocean +Surinam Suriname +Suva (US Embassy) Fiji +Swains Island American Samoa +Swan Islands Honduras +Sydney (US Consulate General) Australia + +Tahiti French Polynesia +Taipei Taiwan +Taiwan Strait Pacific Ocean +Tampico (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Tanganyika Tanzania +Tangier (US Consulate General) Morocco +Tarawa Kiribati +Tartar Strait Pacific Ocean +Tasmania Australia +Tasman Sea Pacific Ocean +Taymyr Peninsula Soviet Union + (Poluostrov Taymyra) +Tegucigalpa (US Embassy) Honduras +Tehran (US post not maintained, Iran + representation by Swiss Embassy) +Tel Aviv (US Embassy) Israel +Terre Adelie (Adelie Land) Antarctica + (claimed by France) +Thailand, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Thessaloniki Greece + (US Consulate General) +Thurston Island Antarctica +Tibet (Xizang) China +Tierra del Fuego Argentina; Chile +Tijuana (US Consulate General) Mexico +Timor Indonesia +Timor Sea Indian Ocean +Tinian Northern Mariana Islands +Tiran, Strait of Indian Ocean +Tobago Trinidad and Tobago +Tokyo (US Embassy) Japan +Tonkin, Gulf of Pacific Ocean +Toronto (US Consulate General) Canada +Torres Strait Pacific Ocean +Trans-Jordan Jordan +Transkei South Africa +Transylvania Romania +Trieste (US Consular Agency) Italy +Trindade, Ilha de Brazil +Tripoli (US post not maintained, Libya + representation by Belgian + Embassy) +Tristan da Cunha Group St. Helena +Trobriand Islands Papua New Guinea +Trucial States United Arab Emirates +Truk Islands Micronesia +Tsugaru Strait Pacific Ocean +Tuamotu Islands (Iles Tuamotu) French Polynesia +Tubuai Islands (Iles Tubuai) French Polynesia +Tunis (US Embassy) Tunisia +Turin (US Consulate) Italy +Turkish Straits Atlantic Ocean +Turks Island Passage Atlantic Ocean +Tyrol, South Italy +Tyrrhenian Sea Atlantic Ocean + +Udorn (US Consulate) Thailand +Ulaanbaatar Mongolia +Ullung-do Korea, South +Unimak Pass (strait) Pacific Ocean +United Arab Republic Egypt; Syria +Upper Volta Burkina + +Vaduz (US post not maintained, Liechtenstein + representation from Zurich, + Switzerland) +Vakhan Corridor Afghanistan + (Wakhan) +Valencia (US Consular Agency) Spain +Valletta (US Embassy) Malta +Vancouver (US Consulate General) Canada +Vancouver Island Canada +Van Diemen Strait Pacific Ocean +Vatican City (US Embassy) Vatican City +Velez de la Gomera, Penon de Spain +Venda South Africa +Veracruz (US Consular Agency) Mexico +Verde Island Passage Pacific Ocean +Victoria (US Embassy) Seychelles +Vienna (US Embassy, US Mission Austria + to International Organizations + in Vienna or UNVIE) +Vientiane (US Embassy) Laos +Volcano Islands Japan +Vostok Island Kiribati +Vrangelya, Ostrov Soviet Union + (Wrangel Island) + +Wakhan Corridor Afghanistan + (now Vakhan Corridor) +Wales United Kingdom +Walvis Bay South Africa +Warsaw (US Embassy) Poland +Washington, DC (The Permanent United States + Mission of the USA to the + Organization of American + States or OAS) +Weddell Sea Atlantic Ocean +Wellington (US Embassy) New Zealand +Western Channel Pacific Ocean + (West Korea Strait) +West Germany Germany, Federal Republic of +West Korea Strait Pacific Ocean + (Western Channel) +West Pakistan Pakistan +Wetar Strait Pacific Ocean +White Sea Arctic Ocean +Windhoek Namibia +Windward Passage Atlantic Ocean +Winnipeg (US Consular Agency) Canada +Wrangel Island (Ostrov Vrangelya) Soviet Union + +Yaounde (US Embassy) Cameroon +Yap Islands Micronesia +Yellow Sea Pacific Ocean +Yemen (Aden) Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of +Yemen, North Yemen Arab Republic +Yemen (Sanaa) Yemen Arab Republic +Yemen, South Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of +Youth, Isle of Cuba + (Isla de la Juventud) +Yucatan Channel Atlantic Ocean + +Zagreb (US Consulate General) Yugoslavia +Zanzibar Tanzania +Zurich (US Consulate General) Switzerland +.pa + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cia.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cia.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1ff8d530 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cia.txt @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +***NOTE: EXTRACTED FROM THE ACADEMIC AMERICAN +ENCYCLOPEDIA*** + +TITLE(s): Central Intelligence Agency + The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA) is one of + several organizations responsible for gathering and evaluating foreign + intelligence information vital to the security of the United States. + + It is also charged with coordinating the work of other agencies in the + intelligence community--including the NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY and the + Defense Intelligence Agency. It was established by the National Security Act + of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services. Its first + director was Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter. + + The CIA's specific tasks include: advising the president and the NATIONAL + SECURITY COUNCIL on international developments; conducting research in + political, economic, scientific, technical, military, and other fields; + carrying on counterintelligence activities outside the United States; + monitoring foreign radio and television broadcasts; and engaging in more + direct forms of ESPIONAGE and INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS. + + Throughout its history the CIA has seldom been free from controversy. In + the 1950s, at the height of the cold war and under the direction of Allen + Welsh DULLES, its activities expanded to include many undercover operations. + It subsidized political leaders in other countries; secretly recruited the + services of trade-union, church, and youth leaders, along with + businesspeople, journalists, academics, and even underworld leaders; set up + radio stations and news services; and financed cultural organizations and + journals. + + After the failure of the CIA-sponsored BAY OF PIGS INVASION of Cuba in + 1961, the agency was reorganized. In the mid-1970s a Senate Select Committee + and a Presidential Commission headed by Nelson Rockefeller investigated + charges of illegal CIA activities. Among other things, they found that the + CIA had tried to assassinate several foreign leaders, including Fidel CASTRO + of Cuba. It had tried to prevent Salvador ALLENDE from winning the 1970 + elections in Chile and afterward had worked to topple him from power. + + Between 1950 and 1973 the CIA had also carried on extensive mind-control + experiments at universities, prisons, and hospitals. In 1977, President + Jimmy Carter directed that tighter restrictions be placed on CIA clandestine + operations. Controls were later also placed on the use of intrusive + surveillance methods, such as wiretapping and opening of mail, against U.S. + citizens and resident aliens. + + Late in the 1970s, however, fears arose that restraints on the CIA had + undermined national security. The agency's failure to foresee the revolution + in Iran (1979) gave new impetus to efforts at revitalization. President + Ronald Reagan and his CIA director, William J. CASEY, loosened many of the + restrictions, but such activities as the mining of Nicaraguan harbors in 1984 + as part of the covert campaign in support of the Contra rebels and the + still-unclear role of the CIA in the IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR focused renewed + public attention on the agency. + + Following Casey's death in 1987, Reagan appointed William WEBSTER, then + director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to be Director of Central + Intelligence. His reputation for integrity helped to restore the agency's + image, but alleged intelligence failures during the PERSIAN GULF WAR (1991) + tarnished the record of his tenure. He was succeeded in 1991 by Robert M. + GATES. + + Bibliography: Ameringer, C. D., Foreign Intelligence: The Secret Side of + American History (1990); Breckinridge, S. A., The CIA and the U. S. + Intelligence System (1986); Colby, William, and Forbath, Peter, Honorable + Men: My Life in the CIA (1978); Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri, The CIA and + American Democracy (1989); Karalekas, Anne, History of the Central + Intelligence Agency (1977); Leary, W. M., ed., The Central Intelligence + Agency (1984); Lefever, Ernest W., and Godson, Roy, The CIA and the + American Ethic: An Unfinished Debate (1980); McGarvey, Patrick, CIA: The + Myth and the Madness (1972); Marchetti, Victor, and Marks, John D., The CIA + and the Cult of Intelligence (1975); Ranelagh, John, The Agency: The Rise + and Decline of the CIA (1986); Ransom, Harry H., The Intelligence + Establishment (1970); Snepp, Frank, Decent Interval (1977); + Turner, Stansfield, Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition (1985); + Woodward, Bob, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987 (1988). + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/circumnv.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/circumnv.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..119c92a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/circumnv.txt @@ -0,0 +1,350 @@ + +_________________________________________________________________ + + + W I N N I N G B Y C I R C U M N A V I G A T I O N: + + Milwaukee's clinic defenders find legal recourse + on a detour around the District Attorney + + Copyright 1993, 1994 by Muriel Hogan + +_________________________________________________________________ + + +As the Milwaukee Clinic Protection Coalition (MCPC) steeled itself +for a second Wisconsin winter on the street, members celebrated +the anniversary of the permanent injunction signed December 10, +1992 by Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner. The injunction +limits certain kinds of protest activity outside Milwaukee's +abortion clinics. Clinic escorts and defenders, dreading their +winter vigil, are nonetheless cheered by indications that the +fundamentalist Christian onslaught is diminishing at last. + +Once-huge crowds of "Antis" have dwindled to a handful on +weekdays and 20 or 30 on Saturdays. At some clinics, there've +been no protesters at all, a condition the defenders call "NFA." +Away from the clinics, protest leaders can't recruit more that a +few hundred people to come to their public events. By contrast, +LifeChain, an annual pro-life demonstration in Milwaukee, +attracted 8,000 people last fall. The Milwaukee Journal quoted +one LifeChain participant who preferred to express his opinion +"without threatening anyone, without breaking any laws." + + +* Signs of decline + +Programming on the Christian broadcast station WVCY also reflects +the cooldown. At the height of Milwaukee's 1992 summer protests, +WVCY-FM aired two hours a day of live reports and exhortations, +while WVCY-TV showed 30 minutes a night of clinic protest +footage, often followed by an hour-long call-in show on the +subject. In 1993, most abortion-related programs were nostalgic +reruns of the Antis' 1992 glory days. + +WVCY's anti-abortion radio show, "Building the Foundations" has +cut back from 30 minutes to 15, inspiring its MCPC listeners to +call it "The Quarter-Hour of Power." Other WVCY shows have +switched to safer topics: school prayer, satanism in popular +music, and the dangers of troll dolls. Today, WVCY often ignores +news about abortion protesters who are facing fines and jail +terms under the permanent injunction. + + +* Attendance down, violence up + + +MCPC started in April, 1992, when anti-abortion activists +announced their eight-week "Short-Term Mission to the Pre-Born." +That summer, the Missionaries to the Preborn, Operation Rescue, +and Youth for America (YOFAM) orchestrated large demonstrations +and blockades. Missionary founders Rev. Joseph Foreman and Rev. +Matthew Trewhella stated their intention to close every abortion +clinic in Milwaukee. The Short-Term Mission resulted in over +1,000 arrests and $1 million in law enforcement costs. + +By contrast, 1993's summer protests were much smaller, with +police costs of $112,000. But the Milwaukee Fire Department +reported costs of $48,000 for the butyric acid attack on one +clinic in August, and $99,000 for two September "car rescues" in +which Antis chained themselves into junked automobiles to block +clinic doors. Figures are unavailable for protest-related court +costs and for the amount of protesters' unpaid fines. + +As the Antis' desperation has increased, so has their violence. +Since Dr. David Gunn's assassination last March, Milwaukee's +doctors have been the target of home blockades, stalking, and +death threats. One clinic has had bullets fired through its +windows four times in 1993. + + +* How the defenders attack + +On the street, MCPC's strategy is purely defensive, protecting +patients and holding clinic doors to prevent blockades. +Defenders practice the discipline of keeping their hands in their +pockets and avoiding verbal exchanges with the Antis. But in +court, the hands come out of the pockets. Using the permanent +injunction, the Coalition has launched a full-tilt legal +offensive against the Antis. + +The injunction orders protesters to stay 25 feet away from each +clinic and ten feet from each patient. Protesters must not +impede patients, touch them, photograph them, or record their +license plates. (See box.) If an Anti repeatedly breaks these +rules, MCPC serves them with the injunction and starts collecting +evidence of their violations. + + +* The legal lioness + +Attorney Joan Clark, one of MCPC's co-coordinators, has led the +legal attacks like a mama lion: watchful, tenacious, and coolly +aggressive. A self-described "housewife and mom," she plots +strategies with other pro-choice attorneys including her husband +Bill Guis, MCPC board members Katy Doyle and Katie Walsh, and +Walsh's husband Steve Glenn. No doubt, the presence of so many +female lawyers has inspired gland-shrivelling FemiNazi paranoia +in many Antis. + +Interviewed last week, Clark said MCPC began its legal work even +before the Short-Term Mission. "By the time the first big crowds +hit the streets," she said, "the Coalition had been successful in +getting a preliminary injunction into place." + +"That spring," Clark said, "Katie Walsh and Chris Korsmo (of +NARAL) convinced the Powers That Be that there was going to be +serious, serious trouble. And with no injunction, there'd be no +mechanism to handle it." + +The December permanent injunction, almost identical to the +preliminary, solidified what Clark calls the "completely +separate, parallel system of justice" that protects Milwaukee's +five abortion clinics. + +But even after the preliminary injunction was signed, its +benefits were hard to see and difficult to enforce. "It didn't +do us much tangible good until this year. But two significant +things happened. First, fully half of the named defendents +disappeared. In that respect, the injunction started helping +right away. And second, it gave us a great morale boost." + + +* A detour around what? + +But why was this roundabout route necessary? "You get an +injunction because there isn't an enforceable law on the books +that will that will prevent certain things from taking place," +Clark explained. "There's a hole and you need to fill it up." + +"We needed this injunction," she said, "because the Milwaukee +District Attorney, E. Michael McCann, is anti-choice and would +not charge people who were arrested day after day. The only way +to stop this activity was to set up a completely separate system +of justice," she said. + +"People don't realize that the Missionaries had already been +doing this for three years, long before the Short-Term Mission." +Clark said. "Every single day at Summit, when a patient would +approach, two people blocked the door. You call the cops, get +the paddy, spend an hour getting rid of them. The woman would +get in. And then when the next patient came -- two more people +would sit down." + +Clark said police officers have told her that "until the +Coalition started, the DA wouldn't talk to police or clinic +owners about anything, not even battery. Dr. Paul Seamars was +physically restrained by one Anti while another took his picture, +and the DA wouldn't do anything. It's a very, very, very +dishonest policy." + +"Anywhere else," said Clark, "if you receive ten municipal +disorderly conduct tickets for the same activity within a +relatively short period of time, you'll be charged with a crime, +because these muni tickets are not deterring you." + +"If we had had a District Attorney who'd do his job, the +Missionaries wouldn't be here. Except for two weeks in Buffalo +and four weeks in Wichita, we have the most chronic, terrible +problem in the country," she said. + + +* Have you been served? + +You'll frequently find Clark in court, sitting at the prosecution +table with counsel from the City Attorney or State Attorney +General. "I'm there unofficially as an evidence gatherer. I'm +more conversant with the facts than the city attorney, because +usually I was there when the incident happened," Clark said. "A +second function we serve is to tell the city when the people +they're looking for show up at clinics." + +Clark also serves injunctions for MCPC and keeps track of +which Antis have been served. She described her informal rule: +"We serve people whose names we know who violate the injunction. +Because down the road, if they do something bad, we want to be +able to bring a motion against them." + +She's very sensitive to the free speech issues the injunction +raises. "If you violate the injunction, the question is whether +you're acting in concert with a named defendant, and / or whether +we care," she said. + +"Take the Concrete Christian," she said, referring to a protester +who always stands motionless and silent. "He violates the +injunction every day, but I couldn't care less. I consider that +First Amendment activity, and I would never go after him," Clark +said. Although we might get a judge to say this guy is acting in +concert, it would be dishonest, because he's not." + +Clark urges people to come observe how "sidewalk counselling" +works. "Watch for half an hour," she said. "You'll see: it's +not someone expressing a view. It's very aggressive, very +physical -- and it's designed to scare the hell out of somebody +who's seeking medical attention." + +* Crime and punishment + +So far, MCPC's biggest catch is Brian Longworth, convicted in +November of criminal contempt and sentenced to two years for +twice blockading clinic doors. Longworth first attracted MCPC's +attention by leading "kiddie-hits," blockades that result in +dozens of arrests of children as young as eight years old. +"Longworth is definitely the worst," said Clark. "Longworth is +big because he's the leader of Youth for America, he felt he was +untouchable, and his name was not on the injunction." + +Clark stressed the importance of prosecuting defendants whose +names are not on the injunction: "The Antis tell everybody the +injunction's just a piece of paper. If your name isn't on there, +it doesn't apply to you. But this Longworth thing hit everybody +right in the face. All of a sudden, they can't deny it any +more," she said. + +Another un-named defendant, Rev. Joseph Foreman, was found in civil +contempt November 29. Foreman's a national figure among anti- +abortion activists, a former field operations director for +Operation Rescue. Since moving to Milwaukee in 1992, he's become +the most prominent leader on the local scene. Oddly, neither +WVCY nor the Missionaries to the Preborn has mentioned Foreman's +conviction. + +At his trial, Foreman complained that he felt singled out for +selective prosecution, and urged the city to first pursue +defendants who were named on the injunction. Joan Clark +dismissed Foreman's assertion, saying, "Joe knows why he's being +picked. A prosecutor with limited resources will go after the +people who are the most troublesome." + +Altogether, six Antis have been found in criminal contempt and 27 +in civil contempt. More than half of these people have come to +Milwaukee from other states to participate in protests here. + +A person found in civil contempt must forfeit $500, or swear to +obey the injunction, or serve 20 days. For a second violation, +penalties double. A third violation can become criminal +contempt, carrying $5,000 or a year in jail. The Milwaukee City +Attorney's office and the State Attorney General are continuing +to bring contempt motions against Antis who violate the +injunction. + + +* Approaching the endgame + +The permanent injunction, like many legal matters, has taken +effect with an almost geological slowness over the past year. +Now Clark and the Coalition can sense its increasing speed and +effectiveness. "This is absolutely going to mop up the problem," +she said. "Things will pop up now and again, but most Antis will +drop out after their first convictions. They're desperate! Why +are they talking about Waco, Texas all the time, and Halloween? +They can't even talk about this issue on the radio any more!" + +At the clinics, defenders feel that the remaining protesters have +become more frantic. As their legal woes multiply, previously +mild-mannered Antis have spun out of control. In recent weeks, +police have arrested middle-aged Christian homeowners for +kicking, slapping, and spitting at clinic defenders and escorts. + +With spring, MCPC hopes that the Freedom of Access to Clinic +Entrances (FACE) bill will solve the Anti problem for clinics +nationwide. FACE has passed both houses of Congress, but must +clear a conference committee before President Clinton can sign +it. Among hard-core protesters, a common practice is to blockade +in one city until the penalties become too severe, then move to +another city. Brian Longworth, for example, collected 16 +convictions in Georgia and California before he came to +Wisconsin. The new federal law will stop these itinerant +protestors much more effectively. + +FACE may make the local issue moot, but the pro-choice community +won't forget how their District Attorney made Milwaukee taxpayers +underwrite his personal religious beliefs. And dollars don't +cover the damage to patients' privacy and peace of mind. One +clinic escort said, "I wish I'd counted the tears. Every time +the Antis make a woman cry, I think of how the DA should make +reparations for all those tears." + +Clark said that one defender, Mike Salick, has found the perfect +analogy for MCPC's long struggle. "It's like a town in the Old +West," she said, "where the bad guys are preying on the +townspeople. And for some reason, the sheriff won't do anything. +Finally the townspeople say 'OK, we've had enough!' And they +rise up and they drive the bad guys out of town. That's just +what we've done!" + +_________________________________________________________________ + +* Clip and save! + +How to Exercise Your First Amendment Rights +Without Getting Arrested: + +A Handy Wallet Card for the Pro-Life Activist + + +1. Do not come any closer than 25 feet to any abortion clinic's +doorway, parking lot, or driveway. + +2. Do not come any closer than 10 feet to any person entering or +leaving the clinic. + +3. Do not physically abuse, grab, touch, push, shove, or crowd +any person entering or leaving the clinic. + +4. Do not photograph any person entering or leaving the clinic, +and do not record their car's license number. + +5. Clinic defenders focus their legal offensive on certain kinds +of protesters, those who: + +- Blockade clinic entrances. + +- Threaten or scare patients, doctors, or clinic staff. + +- Make physical contact with patients or defenders. + +- Lose their tempers, or are verbally abusive. + +You can speak, pray, sing, hold a sign, and counsel anyone who +voluntarily approaches you. People who follow these guidelines +have nothing to worry about. + +_________________________________________________________________ + +This article has appeared in: + +The Shepherd Express, Milwaukee, WI, December, 1993. +The Sojourner, Boston, MA, January, 1994, in a condensed version. +Off Our Backs, Washington, DC, February, 1994. +_________________________________________________________________ + + Copyright 1993, 1994 by Muriel Hogan + +Anyone may duplicate or distribute this article on BBSs, nets, +and echos. No one may reproduce this article in hardcopy for +sale or free distribution without my prior written permission. +For print permission, please contact me via Fido netmail. + +_________________________________________________________________ + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/citveto.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/citveto.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3833847d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/citveto.txt @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ + THE CITIZEN'S LINE ITEM VETO PROPOSITION + +"If voting could change anything, it would be illegal." -- Karl +Hess + +"If a law is disliked by as many as one-third is it not likely +that you would be better off without it?" -- The Moon is a Harsh +Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein + +Here's a proposition that, if passed, would convince me to +abandon two decades of abstinence from the political process, +register to vote, and vote early and often -- too often, I think, +for this proposition to stand any chance of being enacted, for it +would actually place real power in the hands of the average voter +in a way that the established Powers That Be would not permit. + +You are free to try proving me wrong by attempting to get it +passed: I assure you it will not be enacted into law without +being watered down so much as to be meaningless. But I offer it +as an exercise for the politically active, to demonstrate to them +the contempt in which the electorate is held by elected and +appointed officials, and how any real attempt to enfranchise +power in the hands of the people will be resisted tooth and nail. + +California has in place a method of amending the state +constitution through voters' initiatives called propositions. +Very well -- California is as good a place as any to test any +whacky new idea. If successful here, it will be imitated in +other states, and perhaps even federally. Therefore, herewith +proposed to be placed before the voters of the State of +California is + + + ***** + + THE CITIZEN'S LINE ITEM VETO PROPOSITION + +Summary: The State of California shall establish a statewide +voicemail telephone system whereby voters may exercise a line- +item veto over all legislation signed by the governor. A one- +third vote in favor of vetoing a line item shall prevent it from +becoming law, with no override available. + +The proposition: + +Within one year of the passage of this proposition: + +I. A. The State of California shall register any California voter +who wishes to enroll for Citizen's Line Item Veto participation. +Such enrollment shall identify these voters in a manner not +invasive to their personal privacy, but with a level of security +equivalent to that used by the commercial banking industry for +telephone banking transactions. + +B. The State of California shall establish a state-wide voice- +mail telephone system, operated by touch-tone telephones using an +(800) area code telephone number or other free-to-caller area +code. All California voters enrolled for Citizen's Line Item +Veto participation shall be entitled to vote on this system. + +C. Each line item in all legislation signed by the governor the +previous week shall be placed before the enrolled voters on this +voice mail system. Each voter on the system shall be given one +vote per line item of legislation signed by the governor, YES or +NO. + +D. A count shall be made each week of all votes on each line- +item. If a line-item gains one-third or more NO votes, it shall +fail to have been passed into law, and no appeal to any +legislative, executive, or judicial authority may override this +veto. + +II. The State of California shall provide a weekly line-item +summary of all legislation which has been signed into law by the +governor the previous week. Such summary shall be in a form +understandable to any resident of the State of California with a +high school diploma issued by a California public school, and +shall be made publicly available. + +III. To compensate voters in the Line Item Veto for the time and +effort of reading the legislation and registering their vote, all +voters enrolled in the Line Item Veto who vote on the system at +least eight times per year shall be exempt at point of sale on +all purchases from the California Sales Tax for the next year. + +IV. No line-item vetoed by the voters of the Line Item Veto may +be reintroduced into legislation for a period of three years. + +V. No tax or other method of public funding, including all usage +fees, shall pass into effect without being subject to the +Citizen's Line Item Veto, nor shall any tax or other method of +funding, including all usage fees, remain in effect two years +from the passage of this proposition unless it is placed before +the enrolled voters of the Citizen's Line Item Veto. + + + ***** + + + --J. Neil Schulman + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Salted Slug Systems Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 408-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/citzndef.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/citzndef.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0d363893 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/citzndef.txt @@ -0,0 +1,402 @@ +Newsgroups: misc.legal +From: jim@irvine.com (James) +Subject: SSNs, taxes, legal jurisdictions, and citizenship +Organization: Irvine Compiler Corp., Irvine, California, USA +Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1993 02:03:16 GMT +Message-ID: +Lines: 394 + +I've come across claims that there is another class of citizenship in +these United States, and that members of that class do not have to +file taxes and hence do not have to obtain a Social Security Number +for any reason. + +I would very much like to obtain informed opinions and citings from +legal decisions in support for or against, as I don't yet have all the +facts. + +To kick off the discussion, I'll offer what I've learned so far. But, +please: I'm primarily interested in the legal aspects. Discussing the +philosophical or social implications would be fun, but only as asides +to the legal aspects. Also, I'm not especially interested in the +tax consequences so much as I'm interested in the overall issue of +individual Sovereignty and the loss thereof. + + * * * + +0. The Issue + +With respect to US citizenship and SSNs, there are two claims made: +1) that US citizens are required to file taxes and the IRS requires +taxpayers to obtain an SSN; and 2) that there is another class of +citizenship whose members do not have to file taxes and are not +subject to most federal regulations. + +The first claim is undeniably true. US citizens must definitely file +taxes and the IRS definitely requires taxpayers to obtain SSNs. + +A summary of the argument for the second claim follows. I am trying +to track down all supporting information---court decisions in +particular---to determine its veracity. + +Where I've wished to add supporting evidence or personal interjections, +I've placed references in square brackets [] to a Notes section. + + +1. The Argument In Favor of Claim 2 + +1.1. Classes of Citizenship + +There are two distinct and separate classes of citizenship: 1) State +Citizenship, which has existed since before and after the Union was +formed; and 2) US citizenship, which has existed only since the 14th +Amendment (which actually created the class of US citizenship). + +By Common Law birthright everyone who is born in a State is a +Sovereign Citizen of the State in which they were born. + + +1.2. Common Law + +Common Law is the basis of the U.S. Constitution and the various State +constitutions. Common Law derives from English law, and is largely +uncodified. Common Law is approached as axiomatic, and provides that +persons have inalienable (or "natural") rights that cannot be taken +away by governmental entities. [1] + + +1.3. The Nature of Sovereignty + +The term Sovereign has very special meaning in law. It is from Common +Law and derives from the body of law applicable to Kings (Sovereigns). +A Sovereign is not necessarily subject to any higher authority. +However, if one is not a Sovereign then one is subject to some higher +authority. + +There are three classes of Sovereigns in the United States: "We The +People", the State Governments, and the Federal Government. Hence, a +State Citizen is a Sovereign. + +Each Sovereign State Citizen, with respect to every other Sovereign +State Citizen, is a Sovereign. Each State, with respect to every +other State, is a Sovereign. The United States of America ("the US"), +as a country, is a Sovereign with respect to every other country in +the world. + +The Sovereign "We The People" created the States. The States are +subject to the Sovereign We The People that created them. The +Sovereign States created the US. The US is subject to the Sovereign +States that created it. + + +1.4. Classes of Constitutions + +Each State has two constitutions: 1) an original Common Law +constitution with which the State, as a Sovereign Country whose form +of government was required to be a Republic (not quite the same thing +as a Democracy), entered into the Union; and 2) a Corporate +constitution created sometime after the State entered into the Union +and had incorporated. + +California, for example, has two Constitutions: the original Common +Law constitution of 1849, and the statutory law ("Corporate") +constitution of 1879. Both constitutions are still in effect. The +Corporate constitution cites the original Common Law constitution and +is a substitute for it. The term substitute has special meaning in +law. It does not mean "to replace" or "to supersede". [2] + +The State Constitutions and the Federal Constitution are documents +specifically creating and delineating the powers and restrictions of +the created government. All other powers are to remain with the +People and all powers granted to the government are from the People. + +The Constitutions give a Sovereign Citizen no rights whatsoever, +because a Sovereign Citizen already possessed all rights possible: +the Citizen was and is the ultimate Sovereign in this country. +The Constitutions simply acknowledge and state the preexistence of +these "inalienable rights" and guarantee that the government will not +in any way infringe or take away these rights. + +Among other things, the various Constitutions state that any +government shall not infringe on the right of individuals to enter +into contracts. + + +1.5. The Nature of the District of Columbia + +Each State in the Union is a separate Country. This is stated by US +Supreme Court Cases and Congressional Record, most recently in 1968. + +Late in the 18th century, 13 separate countries agreed to form a Union +and to create a 14th separate country called the District Of Columbia. +The land for the Federal District of Columbia was taken from the +country of Maryland. [3] + +Washington D.C. and all States are separate countries with respect to +each other. Therefore, any entity, whether a person or a corporation, +while residing in another country, is a foreigner (an "alien"). + +The US Government (of the District of Columbia) is a foreign/alien +corporation with respect to each State. + + +1.6. Classes of Citizenship Revisited + +Sovereign State Citizenship is a Common Law birthright. That status +was not and is not created by the State or the United States; it is +axiomatic. + +US citizenship was created by the 14th amendment to the Constitution, +hence US citizens are subject to the US government. + +A Sovereign State Citizen (or briefly, a State Citizen) is not subject +to the US government in the same way that a US citizen is. A State +Citizen has the full protections of all of the restrictions on the US +Government that the US constitution provides. + +State Citizens are Citizens of exactly one State. The US Constitution +guarantees that every State shall treat Citizens of every other State +while within that State as if they were Citizens of their State. + +US citizens are citizens only of the District Of Columbia. They are +not State Citizens of the State in which they reside. They are +technically Franchises of the Corporation called the US Government. + +Any US citizen residing in one of the 50 states is considered to be a +resident alien of that state, and not a Citizen of that state---and, +as a special point in law, is "residing" in that State, as opposed to +being "domiciled" there. + +A State Citizen is subject to common law and the original state +constitution. The Common Law constitution can be invoked in court by +a State Citizen. The Corporate constitution does not apply to a State +Citizen. [4] + +The Corporate constitution of a State does apply to a resident/alien. +All modifications to the original Common Law constitution contained +in the Corporate constitution do apply to residents/aliens. + + +1.7. The Nature of Income Taxes + +Both the US Constitution and the State Constitutions do allow for +excise taxes. + +The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that +Congress may impose taxes on income. [5] + +The US Supreme Court has ruled that the income tax is an excise tax +because it is a tax on the earnings of corporate franchises (i.e. US +citizens) and hence is an excise tax. [6] + +Because a US citizen is a Franchise of a foreign corporation with +respect to the State, and is residing in the State, that citizen pays +some income taxes to a special state entity. In California, that +entity is the Franchise Tax Board and the tax is called the Resident +Income Tax. + +State Citizens are not subject to the Resident Income Tax since they +are not residents of the State and are not aliens with respect to the +State. [7] + +State Citizens are not citizens of the District Of Columbia and therefore +they are not subject to the District Of Columbia's income tax. + + +1.8. The Nature of the Social Security Tax + +Social Security was first implemented in 1935, originally not as a tax +per se. The Social Security Act of 1935 was repealed in 1938 and +reenacted as a direct tax on all US citizens. It is a direct tax +because the Social Security Act of 1938 states that the revenues can +be used for "any other purposes". [8] + +The Social Security tax today is a direct tax called FICA, and the +revenue collected from payees is directly given to recipients. +However, the revenue is considered part of the general tax revenues +(e.g. those collected from taxes on incomes and other sources), +and can be spent in any way specified by Congress. + +The courts have ruled that Social Security disbursements are "gifts" +from the government. However, the US Government is free to do with +the monies whatever it wishes. + +Social Security taxes are not refundable. + +Since State Citizens are not US citizens they are not subject to +social security tax. The social security tax is voluntary. + + +2. Notes. + +[1] I wanted to compare Common Law and Statutory Law, but my + understanding of the nature of Statutory Law needs improvement. + +[2] Each Sovereign State after entering into the Union eventually + incorporated. Each State has two flags: the Sovereign State flag + and the Corporate State flag. The Corporate constitution is the + constitution that is full of all of the Statutory "laws" that + apply to its residents. Anything the Corporate State creates is + subject to it. The US Government is also a Corporation. + The US also has two flags: the Sovereign United States flag and + the Federal Corporate flag which, with Gold fringe, is also a + military or martial law flag. + +[3] The District of Columbia cannot become a state, because the land + belongs to Maryland. + +[4] If one examines many of the "laws" on the books and the Corporate + Constitution of a State one will find that they are carefully written + so as not to apply to State Citizens. They are written to apply to all + the residents/foreigners/aliens/corporations (aka "Persons", i.e. + non-State Citizens) residing in the state. Of course, virtually + everyone in every state is a resident alien ("Person") since they + are all citizens of the US. (State Citizens are "Sovereigns," + and, under statutory law, not "Persons".) + +[5] The tax laws, as written by the US Congress, are not actually Laws + (with a capital L) at all but are codes (or contract laws). + The laws most certainly are valid for US citizens. Persons who + claim the tax laws are unconstitutional are also wrong: + there are US Supreme Court cases stating in clear and certain terms + that the "income tax" is actually an excise and hence is not + unconstitutional. In addition there are US Supreme Court cases + stating in clear and certain terms that the tax laws apply to US + citizens even if they earn all of their income outside of the US + with no direct or indirect economic involvement with US. + The mere fact that one is a US citizen empowers the IRS to determine + one's Federal income tax liability. The IRS usually forces + US citizens to "voluntarily" determine that liability themselves. + +[6] There are court rulings stating that the income tax as it now + stands has nothing to do with---and never has had anything to do + with---the 16th amendment. + +[7] Do Citizens of Thailand (a foreign country) pay their taxes to the US + Government? No. State Citizens are considered non-resident + aliens with respect to the District of Columbia. There is an IRS + form W-8, "non-resident alien declaration", that exempts one from + the Federal Income tax. If one files a W-8, the IRS will + eventually send one a letter stating that one is exempt from all + Federal tax liability. I have yet to actually see such a letter though. + +[8] Many persons today, especially older persons, still claim that the + Social Security tax is not a direct tax and is like an account into + which they have paid and from which they expect all of "their" invested + money back plus some. But that is only as it was originally + implemented and stated to the American People, and has not applied + since 1938. + + +3. Analysis + +3.1. Questions of Status and Jurisdiction + +The key legal issue seems to be one of Status. Is one's status under +law Sovereign or Subject? Status is critical to any legal proceeding +so that proper and legal jurisdiction can be determined. It is +beginning to look like the outcome of any given case, whether argued +before the US Supreme Court or some other court, is ultimately +affected by Status and Jurisdiction. Another key legal issue which +ultimately affects Status are the terms "domiciled in/living in" and +"resides in/residing in". According to law a citizen of his own +country is domiciled in or lives in his country. A foreigner/alien or +diplomat while "living in" a country not his own resides in or is +residing in that country. + +The question then in court is which constitution one can invoke. The +constitution that one can invoke is totally dependent upon one's +Status. + + +3.2. Contracts and Social Security + +A State Citizen or US citizen is entering into a contract by obtaining +a driver's license, a credit card, a bank account, a social security +card, by filing income tax returns, etc. Once one is party to a +contract the terms of that contract are in full effect and actually +are law for the parties of the contract and fully enforcible to the +full extent of the Law. + +The governments and courts must make sure the terms of the contract +are followed to the letter. This is what the Federal Government and +State Governments are supposed to do and are doing with great effect. +They enforce the terms of contracts voluntarily and non-fraudulently +entered into by two or more parties. + +A State Citizen, by obtaining a social security number, is signing a +contract. The terms of a contract can constrain or supersede any of +the rights the Sovereign previously held. And those terms are fully +enforcible by the courts. + +The social security contract binds the parties to the laws and +statutes regarding social security. + +The social security contract also makes one a US citizen and hence +makes one subject to the 14th amendment and to any other laws that +apply to US citizens. One is still a State Citizen, but all the +Federal laws, income tax laws, social security laws, etc., constrain +one's rights contractually. + + +3.3. Rights of US citizens vs. Rights of State Citizens + +All US citizens are subject to the US Government and have "civil +rights," but have neither "inalienable" rights nor rights guaranteed +by the Constitutions. The rights that US citizens hold are only those +granted to them by the US Government. + +Civil rights can be removed or changed at will by legislation. For +example, US citizens were given the right to a trial by jury only in +1968. Previously, US citizens might be given trials by jury but the +guaranteed right to a jury trial did not exist for them. In contrast, +State Citizens have had that right guaranteed by the State and US +Constitutions since their existence. + +A State Citizen has absolutely no need of civil rights. A State +Citizen already holds all rights as inalienable. + +No challenges regarding constitutionality may be mounted by +aliens/foreigners and US citizens since they did not create the US +constitution---instead they are created constructs of the US +constitution. Sovereign State Citizens can challenge the +constitutionality of laws, codes, or statutes. This is why US citizen +tax-protesters get slam-dunked when they stand before the US Supreme +Court (or the Tax Court for that matter) and claim that the income tax +is unconstitutional. They are wrong twice: they cannot legally even +present the challenge, and the income tax is an excise tax and is +constitutional. + + +4. Conclusions + +Some individuals now claim to be State Citizens by virtue of having +obtained letters from the states in which they are domiciled +acknowledging their Citizenships in those States. Also, to deny +Federal jurisdiction, these Citizens have attempted to break all +contractual ties with the US Government, by returning their Social +Security cards, by submitting IRS W-8 forms and by closing all +financial accounts with members of the Federal Reserve System (credit +cards, bank accounts, loans) etc. In addition, to deny Corporate +State jurisdiction, these Citizens have returned their driver's +licenses, vehicle registrations, and license plates. + +These Citizens claim that Federal Statutory laws, statutes, codes, +etc., and the state Corporate constitutions, do not apply to +them---and have never applied to them---and also that none of the +State Statutory laws, statutes, codes, etc., apply to them. + +In traffic and tax cases, the state courts are upholding these claims +so far, but not without a huge fight per individual case. I have yet +to actually sit in on a case to see this happen, but I have read some +of the decisions rendered on such cases. Most cases against State +Citizens are eventually dismissed, because the courts appear not to +want more legal precedents set. + +The above is a summary of most of the support that I have found so far +for claim 2. I have not verified all of this. This is what I am +trying to do right now. So: does anyone have informed opinions about +this matter? Can anyone point to solid legal work that secures or +refutes the correctness of claim 2? + +--James Zarbock diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/civlib b/textfiles.com/politics/civlib new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fd794362 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/civlib @@ -0,0 +1,483 @@ +Civil Liberties in Cyberspace: +When does hacking turn from an exercise +of civil liberties into crime? + +by Mitchell Kapor + +published in Scientific American, +September, 1991. + + +On March 1, 1990, the U.S. Secret Service raided the offices of Steve +Jackson, an entrepreneurial publisher in Austin, Tex. Carrying a +search warrant, the authorities confiscated computer hardware and +software, the drafts of his about-to-be-released book and many business +records of his company, Steve Jackson Games. They also seized the +electronic bulletin-board system used by the publisher to communicate +with customers and writers, thereby seizing all the private electronic +mail on the system. + + +The Secret Service held some of the equipment and material for months, +refusing to discuss their reasons for the raid. The publisher was forced +to reconstruct his book from old manuscripts, to delay filling orders +for it and to lay off half his staff. When the warrant application was +finally unsealed months later, it confirmed that the publisher was +never suspected of any crime. + + +Steve Jackson's legal difficulties are symptomatic of a widespread +problem. During the past several years, dozens of individuals have been +the subject of similar searches and seizures. In any other context, this +warrant might never have been issued. By many interpretations, it +disregarded the First and Fourth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution, +as well as several existing privacy laws. But the government proceeded +as if civil liberties did not apply. In this case, the government was +investigating a new kind of crime -- computer crime. + + +The circumstances vary, but a disproportionate number of cases share a +common thread: the serious misunderstanding of computer-based communi- +cation and its implications for civil liberties. We now face the task +of adapting our legal institutions and societal expectations to the +cultural phenomena that even now are springing up from communications +technology. + + +Our society has made a commitment to openness and to free +communication. But if our legal and social institutions fail to adapt +to new technology, basic access to the global electronic media could be +seen as a privilege, granted to those who play by the strictest rules, +rather than as a right held by anyone who needs to communicate. To +assure that these freedoms are not compromised, a group of computer +experts, including myself, founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation +(EFF) in 1990. + + +In many respects, it was odd that Steve Jackson Games got caught up in a +computer crime investigation at all. The company publishes a popular, +award-winning series of fantasy roleplaying games, produced in the +form of elaborate rule books. The raid took place only because law +enforcement officials misunderstood the technologies -- computer +bulletin-board systems (BBSs) and on-line forums -- and misread the +cultural phenomena that those technologies engender. + + +Like a growing number of businesses, Steve Jackson Games operated an +electronic bulletin board to facilitate contact between players of its +games and their authors. Users of this bulletin-board system dialed in +via modem from their personal computers to swap strategy tips, learn +about game upgrades, exchange electronic mail and discuss games and +other topics. + + +Law enforcement officers apparently became suspicious when a Steve +Jackson Games employee -- on his own time and on a BBS he ran from his +house -- made an innocuous comment about a public domain protocol for +transferring computer files called Kermit. In addition, officials +claimed that at one time the employee had had on an electronic +bulletin board a copy of Phrack, a widely disseminated electronic publi- +cation, that included information they believed to have been stolen from +a BellSouth computer. + + +The law enforcement officials interpreted these facts as unusual +enough to justify not only a search and seizure at the employee's +residence but also the search of Steve Jackson Games and the seizure of +enough equipment to disrupt the business seriously. Among the items +confiscated were all the hard copies and electronically stored copies of +the manuscript of a rule book for a role-playing game called GURPS +Cyberpunk, in which inhabitants of so-called cyberspace invade +corporate and government computer systems and steal sensitive data. +Law enforcement agents regarded the book, in the words of one, as "a +handbook for computer crime." + + +A basic knowledge of the kinds of computer intrusion that are +technically possible would have enabled the agents to see that GURPS +Cyberpunk was nothing more than a science fiction creation and that +Kermit was simply a legal, frequently used computer program. +Unfortunately, the agents assigned to investigate computer crime did not +know what -- if anything -- was evidence of criminal activity. +Therefore, they intruded on a small business without a reasonable +basis for believing that a crime had been committed and conducted a +search and seizure without looking for "particular" evidence, in vi- +olation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. + + +Searches and seizures of such computer systems affect the rights of +not only their owners and operators but also the users of those systems. +Although most BBS users have never been in the same room with the +actual computer that carries their postings, they legitimately expect +their electronic mail to be private and their lawful associations to +be protected. + + +The community of bulletin-board users and computer networkers may be +small, but precedents must be understood in a greater context. As +forums for debate and information exchange, computer-based bulletin +boards and conferencing systems support some of the most vigorous +exercise of the First Amendment freedoms of expression and association +that this country has ever seen. Moreover, they are evolving rapidly +into large-scale public information and communications utilities. + + +These utilities will probably converge into a digital national public +network that will connect nearly all homes and businesses in the U.S. +This network will serve as a main conduit for commerce, learning, +education and entertainment in our society, distributing images and +video signals as well as text and voice. Much of the content of this +network will be private messages serving as "virtual" town halls, +village greens and coffeehouses, where people post their ideas in public +or semipublic forums. + + +Yet there is a common perception that a defense of electronic civil +liberties is somehow opposed to legitimate concerns about the +prevention of computer crime. The conflict arises, in part, because +the popular hysteria about the technically sophisticated youths known as +hackers has drowned out reasonable discussion. + + +Perhaps inspired by the popular movie _WarGames_, the general public +began in the 1980s to perceive computer hackers as threats to the +safety of this country's vital computer systems. But the image of +hackers as malevolent is purchased at the price of ignoring the +underlying reality -- the typical teenage hacker is simply tempted by +the prospect of exploring forbidden territory. Some are among our best +and brightest technological talents: hackers of the 1960s and 1970s, +for example, were so driven by their desire to master, understand and +produce new hardware and software that they went on to start companies +called Apple, Microsoft and Lotus. + + +How do we resolve this conflict? One solution is ensure that our scheme +of civil and criminal laws provides sanctions in proportion to the +offenses. A system in which an exploratory hacker receives more time in +jail than a defendant convicted of assault violates our sense of +justice. Our legal tradition historically has shown itself capable of +making subtle and not-so-subtle distinctions among criminal offenses. + + +There are, of course, real threats to network and system security. The +qualities that make the ideal network valuableQits popularity, its +uniform commands, its ability to handle financial transactions and its +international access -- also make it vulnerable to a variety of +abuses and accidents. It is certainly proper to hold hackers +accountable for their offenses, but that accountability should never +entail denying defendants the safeguards of the Bill of Rights, +including the rights to free expression and association and to free- +dom from unreasonable searches and seizures. + + +We need statutory schemes that address the acts of true computer crim- +inals (such as those who have created the growing problem of toll and +credit-card fraud) while distinguishing between those criminals and +hackers whose acts are most analogous to noncriminal trespass. And we +need educated law enforcement officials who will be able to recognize +and focus their efforts on the real threats. + + +The question then arises: How do we help our institutions, and +perceptions, adapt? The first step is to articulate the kinds of values +we want to see protected in the electronic society we are now shaping +and to make an agenda for preserving the civil liberties that are +central to that society. Then we can draw on the appropriate legal +traditions that guide other media. The late Ithiel de Sola Pool argued +in his influential book Technologies of Freedom that the medium of +digital communications is heir to several traditions of control: the +press, the common carrier and the broadcast media. + + +The freedom of the press to print and distribute is explicitly +guaranteed by the First Amendment. This freedom is somewhat limited, +particularly by laws governing obscenity and defamation, but the thrust +of First Amendment law, especially in this century, prevents the +government from imposing "prior restraint" on publications. + + +Like the railroad networks, the telephone networks follow common-car- +rier principles -- they do not impose content restrictions on the +"cargo" they carry. It would be unthinkable for the telephone company to +monitor our calls routinely or cut off conversations because the +subject matter was deemed offensive. + + +Meanwhile the highly regulated broadcast media are grounded in the +idea, arguably mistaken, that spectrum scarcity and the pervasiveness +of the broadcast media warrant government allocation and control of +access to broadcast frequencies (and some control of content). Access +to this technology is open to any consumer who can purchase a radio or +television set, but it is nowhere near as open for information +producers. + + +Networks as they now operate contain elements of publishers, +broadcasters, bookstores and telephones, but no one model fits. This +hybrid demands new thinking or at least a new application of the old +legal principles. As hybrids, computer networks also have some features +that are unique among the communications media. For example, most +conversations on bulletin boards, chat lines and conferencing systems +are both public and private at once. The electronic communicator speaks +to a group of individuals, only some of whom are known personally, in a +discussion that may last for days or months. + + +But the dissemination is controlled, because the membership is limited +to the handful of people who are in the virtual room, paying attention. +Yet the result may also be "published" -- an archival textual or voice +record can be automatically preserved, and newcomers can read the +backlog. Some people tend to equate on-line discussions with party (or +party-line) conversations, whereas others compare them to newspapers +and still others think of citizens band radio. + + +In this ambiguous context, freespeech controversies are likely to +erupt. Last year an outcry went up against the popular Prodigy comput- +er service, a joint venture of IBM and Sears, Roebuck and Co. The +problem arose because Prodigy management regarded their service as +essentially a newspaper" or "magazine," for which a hierarchy of +editorial control is appropriate. Some of Prodigy's customers, in +contrast, regarded the service as more of a forum or meeting place. + + +When users of the system tried to protest Prodigy's policy, its editors +responded by removing the discussion. then the protestors tried to +use electronic mail as a substitute for electron- assembly, +communicating through huge mailing lists. Prodigy placed a limit on the +number of messages each individual could send. + + +The Prodigy controversy illustrates important principle that belongs on +civil liberties agenda for the future: freedom-of-speech issues will not +disappear simply because a service provider has tried to impose a +metaphor on its service. Subscribers sense, I believe, that freedom of +speech on the networks is central for individuals to use electronic +communications. Science fiction writer William Gibson once remarked +that "the street finds its own uses for things." Network service pro- +viders will continue to discover that their customers will always find +their own best uses for new media. + + +Freedom of speech on networks will be promoted by limiting content-based +regulations and by promoting competition among providers of network +services. The first is necessary because governments will be tempted +to restrict the content of any information service they subsidize or +regulate. The second is necessary because market competition is the +most efficient means of ensuring that needs of network users will be +met. + + +The underlying network should essentially be a "carrier" -- it should +operate under a content-neutral regime in which access is available to +any entity that can pay for it. The information and forum services would +be "nodes" on this network. (Prodigy, like GEnie and CompuServe, +currently maintains its own proprietary infrastructure, but a future +version of Prodigy might share the same network with services like +CompuServe.) + + +Each service would have its own unique character and charge its own +rates. If a Prodigy-like entity correctly perceives a need for an +electronic "newspaper" with strong editorial control, it will draw an +audience. Other less hierarchical services will share the network with +that "newspaper" yet find their own market niches, varying by format and +content. + + +The prerequisite for this kind of competition is a carrier capable of +highbandwidth traffic that is accessible to individuals in every +community. Like common carriers, these network carriers should be seen +as conduits for the distribution of electronic transmissions. They +should not be allowed to change the content of a message or to discrim- +inate among messages. + +This kind of restriction will require shielding the carriers from legal +liabilities for libel, obscenity and plagiarism. Today the ambiguous +state of liability law has tempted some computer network carriers to +reduce their risk by imposing content restrictions. This could be +avoided by appropriate legislation. Our agenda requires both that the +law shield carriers from liability based on content and that carriers +not be allowed to discriminate. + + +All electronic "publishers" should be allowed equal access to networks. +Ultimately, there could be hundreds of thousands of these information +providers, as there are hundreds of thousands of print publishers +today. As "nodes," they will be considered the conveners of the +environments within which on-line assembly takes place. + + +None of the old definitions will suffice for this role. For example, +to safeguard the potential of free and open inquiry, it is desirable +to preserve each electronic publisher's control over the general flow +and direction of material under his or her imprimaturQin effect, to give +the "sysop," or system operator, the prerogatives and protections of a +publisher. + + +But it is unreasonable to expect the sysop of a node to review every +message or to hold the sysop to a publish er's standard of libel. +Message traffic on many individually owned services is already too +great for the sysop to review. We can only expect the trend to grow. +Nor is it appropriate to compare nodes to broadcasters (an analogy +likely to lead to licensing and content-based regulation). Unlike the +broadcast media, nodes do not dominate the shared resource of a public +community, and they are not a pervasive medium. To take part in a +controversial discussion, a user must actively seek entry into the +appropriate node, usually with a subscription and a password. + + +Anyone who objects to the content of a node can find hundreds of other +systems where they might articulate their ideas more freely. The danger +is if choice is somehow restricted: if all computer networks in the +country are restrained from allowing discussion on particular subjects +or if a publicly sponsored computer network limits discussion. + + +This is not to say that freedom-of-speech principles ought to protect +all electronic communications. Exceptional cases, such as the BBS used +primarily to traffic in stolen long-distance access codes or credit-card +numbers, will always arise and pose problems of civil and criminal +liability. We know that electronic freedom of speech, whether in public +or private systems, cannot be absolute. In face-to-face conversation and +printed matter today, it is commonly agreed that freedom of speech +does not cover the communications inherent in criminal conspiracy, +fraud, libel, incitement to lawless action and copyright infringement. + + +If there are to be limits on electronic freedom of speech, what +precisely should those limits be? One answer to this question is the +U.S. Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio. The court +ruled that no speech should be subject to prior restraint or criminal +prosecution unless it is intended to incite and is likely to cause +imminent lawless action. + + +In general, little speech or publication falls outside of the +protections of the Brandenburg case, since most people are able to +reflect before acting on a written or spoken suggestion. As in +traditional media, any on-line messages should not be the basis of +criminal prosecution unless the Brandenburg standard is met. + + +Other helpful precedents include cases relating to defamation and +copyright infringement. Free speech does not mean one can damage a +reputation or appropriate a copyrighted work without being called to +account for it. And it probably does not mean that one can release a +virus across the network in order to "send a message" to network +subscribers. Although the distinction is trickier than it may first +appear, the release of a destructive program, such as a virus, may be +better analyzed as an act rather than as speech. + + +Following freedom of speech on our action agenda is freedom from unrea- +sonable searches and seizures. The Steve Jackson case was one of many +cases in which computer equipment and disks were seized and held some- +times for months -often without a specific charge being filed. Even when +only a few files were relevant to an investigation, entire computer +systems, including printers, have been removed with their hundreds of +files intact. + + +Such nonspecific seizures and searches of computer data allow "rummag- +ing," in which officials browse through private files in search of +incriminating evidence. In addition to violating the Fourth Amendment +requirement that searches and seizures be "particular," these searches +often run afoul of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. +This act prohibits the government from seizing or intercepting elec- +tronic communications without proper authorization. They also contravene +the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, which prohibits the government from +searching the offices of Dublishers for documents, including +materials that are electronically stored. + + +We can expect that law enforcement agencies and civil libertarians +will agree over time about the need to establish procedures for +searches and seizures of "particular" computer data and hardware. Law +enforcement officials will have to adhere to guidelines in the above +statutes to achieve Fourth Amendment "particularity" while maximizing +the efficiency of their searches. They also will have to be trained to +make use of software tools that allow searches for particular files or +particular information within files on even the most capacious hard +disk or optical storage device. + + +Still another part of the solution will be law enforcement's abandonment +of the myth of the clever criminal hobbyist. Once law enforcement no +longer assumes worst-case behavior but looks instead for real evidence +of criminal activity, its agents will learn to search and seize only +what they need. + + +Developing and implementing a civil liberties agenda for computer net- +works will require increasing participation by technically trained +people. Fortunately, there are signs that this is begining to happen. +The Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference, held last spring in San +Francisco, along with electronic conferences on the WELL (Whole Earth +'Lectronic Link) and other computer networks, have brought law +enforcement officials, supposed hackers and interested members of the +computer community together in a spirit of free and frank discussion. +Such gatherings are beginning to work out the civil liberties guidelines +for a networked society. + + +There is general agreement, for example, that a policy on electronic +crime should offer protection for security and privacy on both +individual and institutional systems. Defining a measure of damages +and setting proportional punishment will require further goodfaith +deliberations by the community involved with electronic freedoms, in- +cluding the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, the +bar associations, technology groups, telephone companies and civil +libertarians. It will be especially important to represent the damage +caused by electronic crime accurately and to leave room for the valuable +side of the hacker spirit: the interest in increasing legitimate under- +standing through exploration. + + +We hope to see a similar emerging consensus on security issues. Network +systems should be designed not only to provide technical solutions to +security problems but also to allow system operators to use them +without infringing unduly on the rights of users. A security system +that depends on wholesale monitoring of traffic, for example, would +create more problems than it would solve. + + +Those parts of a system where damage would do the greatest harm -- +financial records, electronic mail, military data -- should be +protected. This involves installing more effective computer security +measures, but it also means redefining the legal interpretations of +copyright, intellectual property, computer crime and privacy so that +system users are protected against individual criminals and abuses by +large institutions. These policies should balance the need for civil +liberties against the need for a secure, orderly, protected electronic +society. + + +As we pursue that balance, of course, confrontations will continue to +take place. In May of this year, Steve Jackson Games, with the support +of the EFF, filed suit against the Secret Service, two individual Secret +Service agents, an assistant U.S. attorney and others. + + +The EFF is not seeking confrontation for its own sake. One of the +realities of our legal system is that one often has to fight for a legal +or constitutional right in the courts in order to get it recognized +outside the courts. One goal of the lawsuit is to establish clear +grounds under which search and seizure of electronic media is +"unreasonable" and unjust. Another is to establish the clear +applicability of First Amendment principles to the new medium. + + +But the EFF's agenda extends far beyond liagation. Our larger agenda +includes sponsoring a range of educational initiatives aimed at the +public's general lack of familiarity with the technology and its +potential. That is why there is an urgent need for technologically +knowledgeable people to take part in the public debate over communica- +tions policy and to help spread their understanding of these issues. +Fortunately, the very technology at stake -- electronic conferencing +-- makes it easier than ever before to get involved in the debate. + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/clinton.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/clinton.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ecff69e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/clinton.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1691 @@ + +Technology for America's Economic Growth: +A New Direction to Build Economic Strength + + +A New Direction + + Investing in technology is investing in America's future: a +growing economy with more high-skill, high-wage jobs for American +workers; a cleaner environment where energy efficiency increases +profits and reduces pollution; a stronger, more competitive private +sector able to maintain U.S. leadership in critical world markets; +an educational system where every student is challenged; and an +inspired scientific and technological research community focused on +ensuring not just our national security but our very quality of +life. + + American technology must move in a new direction to build +economic strength and spur economic growth. The traditional federal +role in technology development has been limited to support of basic +science and mission-oriented research in the Defense Department, +NASA, and other agencies. This strategy was appropriate for a +previous generation but not for today's profound challenges. We +cannot rely on the serendipitous application of defense technology +to the private sector. We must aim directly at these new challenges +and focus our efforts on the new opportunities before us, +recognizing that government can play a key role helping private +firms develop and profit from innovations. + + We must move in a new direction: + + Strengthening America's industrial competitiveness and creating +jobs; + + Creating a business environment where technical innovation can +flourish and where investment is attracted to new ideas; + + Ensuring the coordinated management of technology all across the +government; + + Forging a closer working partnership among industry, federal and +state governments, workers, and universities; + + + Redirecting the focus of our national efforts toward +technologies crucial to today's businesses and a growing economy, +such as information and communication, flexible manufacturing, and +environmental technologies; and, + + Reaffirming our commitment to basic science, the foundation on +which all technical progress is ultimately built. + + + + +For the American People + + Our most important measure of success will be our ability to +make a difference in the lives of the American people, to harness +technology so that it improves the quality of their lives and the +economic strength of our nation. + + We are moving in a new direction that recognizes the critical +role technology must play in stimulating and sustaining the long- +term economic growth that creates high-quality jobs and protects our +environment. + + We are moving in a new direction to create an educational and +training system that challenges American workers to match their +skills to the demands of a fast-paced economy and challenges our +students to reach for resources beyond their classrooms. + + We are moving in a new direction to dramatically improve our +ability to transmit complicated information faster and further, to +improve our transportation systems, our health care, our research +efforts, and even the ability of our military to respond quickly and +decisively to any threat to our nation's security. + + In these times, technology matters as well to an efficient +farm, food processing, and food retailing industry that delivers a +variety of low-cost, wholesome foods; to a construction industry +that builds high-quality, affordable housing; and to an energy +sector that balances energy efficiency with clean, affordable and +efficient energy sources. + +New Criteria + + + We will hold ourselves to tough standards and clear vision. +The best technology policy unleashes the creative energies of +innovators throughout the economy by creating a market that rewards +invention and enterprise. We are moving to accelerate the +development of civilian technology with new criteria: + + Accelerating the development of technologies critical for +long-term economic growth but not receiving adequate support from +private firms, either because the returns are too distant or because +the level of funding required is too great for individual firms to +bear; + + Encouraging a pattern of business development that will +likely result in stable, rewarding jobs for large numbers of +workers; + + Accelerating the development of technologies that could +increase productivity while reducing the burden of economic activity +on the local, regional, or global environment; + + Improving the skills offered by American workers by +increasing the productivity and the accessibility of education and +training; + + Reflecting the real needs of American businesses as +demonstrated by their willingness to share the cost of research or +participate in the design of initiatives; + + Supporting communities or disadvantaged groups in the U.S. or +abroad who have not enjoyed the benefits of technology-based +economic growth; + + Contributing to U.S. access to foreign science and +technology, enhancing cooperation on global problems or U.S. +successes in technology-related foreign markets. + +Reaching Our Technology Goals + + The challenge we face demands that we set and keep focused on +our goals: + + LONG TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH THAT + CREATES JOBS AND PROTECTS THE + ENVIRONMENT + + + A GOVERNMENT THAT IS MORE + PRODUCTIVE AND MORE RESPONSIVE TO THE + NEEDS OF ITS CITIZENS + + WORLD LEADERSHIP IN BASIC + SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND ENGINEERING. + + We have the means to stimulate innovations that will bring +economic growth and help us reach our goals and other important +objectives. Foremost is a sound fiscal policy that reduces the +federal deficit and lowers interest rates. But that is not always +enough. We must also turn to: + + Research and experimentation tax credits and other fiscal +policies to create an environment conducive to innovation and +investment; + + A trade policy that encourages open but fair trade; + + A regulatory policy that encourages innovation and achieves +social objectives efficiently; + + Education and training programs to ensure continuous learning +opportunities for all Americans; + + Support for private research and development through research +partnerships and other mechanisms to accelerate technologies where +market mechanisms do not adequately reflect the nation's return on +the investment; + + + Support for contract R & D centers and manufacturing extension +centers that can give small businesses easy access to technical +innovations and know-how; + + Support for a national telecommunications infrastructure and +other information infrastructures critical for economic expansion; + + Department of Defense and other federal agency purchasing +policies designed to foster early markets for innovative products +and services that contribute to national goals; + + + Strong and sustained support for basic science to protect the +source of future innovations; + + International science and technology cooperative projects that +enhance U.S. access to foreign sources of science and technology, +contribute to the management of global problems, and provide the +basis for marketing U.S. goods and services; + + Dual-use Defense Department research and development programs; + + National user facilities that make sophisticated research tools, +such a synchrotron radiation and neutron beam tools, available to a +variety of research organizations. + +Managing Technology for Economic Growth + + Redirecting America's programs in science and technology will +require major changes in the way we manage our efforts. Tight +management is essential to ensure the highest possible return our +investments and to ensure that tax, regulatory and other efforts +reinforce instead of frustrate our work. + + We are making major changes: + + Working with Vice President Gore, a reinvigorated Office of +Science and Technology Policy will lead in the development of +science and technology policy and will use the Federal Coordinating +Council on Science, Engineering, and Technology, along with other +means, to coordinate the R & D programs of the federal agencies; + + The new National Economic Council will monitor the +implementation of new policies and provide a forum for coordinating +technology policy with the policies of the tax, trade, regulatory, +economic development, and other economic sectors. + + As we move from traditional, mission-oriented R & D to +investments designed specifically to strengthen America's industrial +competitiveness and create jobs, considerable care must be taken to +set priorities. In many cases, it will be essential to require +cost-sharing on the part of private partners. In all cases, it will +be essential for our government to work closely with business and +labor. + + Our initiative in advanced manufacturing, for example, will +not be successful without direct input from the private sector about +which technical areas are most important. We will conduct a review +of laws and regulations, such as the Federal Advisory Committee Act +and conflict-of-interest regulations to determine whether changes +are needed to increase government-industry communication and +cooperation. + + We also will work closely with Congress to prevent +'earmarking' of funds for science and technology. Peer review and +merit-based competition are critical to the success of any science +and technology policy. + + Effective management of technology policy also requires an +effective partnership between federal and state governments. The +states have pioneered many valuable programs to accelerate +technology development and commercialization. Our efforts should +build on these programs. + + And, every federal technology program, including those of +long-standing, will be regularly evaluated against pre-established +criteria to determine if they should remain part of a national +program. Major changes facing our nation's economy demand a +searching re-examination of technology programs, particularly now as +we move toward new efforts and a new emphasis in our technology for +America's economic growth. + +Building America's Economic Strength: New Initiatives + + The challenges we face -- from our competitors abroad and +from our people at home -- demand dramatic innovation and bold +action that will not just revive our economy now but also ensure our +economic growth well into the future. Building America's economic +strength through technology demands new initiatives that confront +these challenges effectively, efficiently, and creatively. + + PERMANENT EXTENSION OF THE RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION TAX +CREDIT to sustain incentives for the R&E work so essential to new +developments; + + INVESTMENT IN A NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE and +establishment of a task force working with the private sector to +design a national communications policy + +that will ensure rapid introduction of new communication +technology; + + ACCELERATED INVESTMENT IN ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES +that promote U.S. industrial competitiveness and that build on, +rather than minimize, worker skills; + + RE-ESTABLISHING TECHNOLOGICAL LEADERSHIP AND COMPETITIVENESS OF +THE U.S. AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY through a major new program to help the +industry develop critical new technology that can all but eliminate +the environmental hazards of automobile use and operate from +domestically produced fuels and facilitate the development of a new +generation of automobiles; + + IMPROVE TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING by supporting the +development and introduction of computer and communications +equipment and software that can increase the productivity of +learning in formal school settings, a variety of business training +facilities and in homes. + + INVESTMENTS IN ENERGY-EFFICIENT FEDERAL BUILDINGS to reduce +wasteful energy expenses and encourage the adoption of innovative, +energy-efficient technology. + + + + + + +Goal: LONG-TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH THAT CREATES JOBS AND PROTECTS THE +ENVIRONMENT + + Technology is the engine of economic growth. In the +United States, technological advance has been responsible for as +much as two-thirds of productivity growth since the Depression. +Breakthroughs such as the transistor, computers, recombinant DNA and +synthetic materials have created entire new industries and millions +of high-paying jobs. + + International competitiveness depends less and less on +traditional factors such as access to natural resources and cheap +labor. Instead, the new growth industries are knowledge based. + +They depend on the continuous generation of new technological +innovations and the rapid transformation of these innovations into +commercial products the world wants to buy. That requires a +talented and adaptive work force capable of using the latest +technologies and reaching ever-higher levels of productivity. + + Modern production systems also make much more efficient +use of energy and materials. Advances in technology can lead to +enormous reductions in the environmental emissions associated with +automobiles, buildings, and factories. And because pollution always +signals inefficiencies and, because wasteful energy costs raise the +price of doing business, these technology advances can also lead to +increased profits. + + We can promote technology as a catalyst for economic +growth by: + + directly supporting the development, commercialization, and +deployment of new technology; + fiscal and regulatory policies that indirectly promote these +activities; + investment in education and training; and, + support for critical transportation and communication +infrastructures. + +Technology Development, Commercialization and Use + + Since World War II, the federal government's de facto +technology policy has consisted of support for basic science and +mission-oriented R&D -- largely defense technology. Compared to +Japan and our other competitors, support for commercial technology +has been minimal in the U.S.. Instead, the U.S. government has +relied on its investments in defense and space to trickle down to +civilian industry. + + Although that approach to commercial technology may have +made sense in an earlier era, when U.S. firms dominated world +markets, it is no longer adequate. The nation urgently needs +improved strategies for government/industry cooperation in the +support of industrial technology. These new approaches need not +jeopardize agency missions: In many technology areas, missions of +the agencies coincide with commercial interests or can be +accomplished better through close cooperation with industry. + + + This Administration will modify the ways federal agencies +do business to encourage cooperative work with industry in areas of +mutual interest. President Eisenhower undertook a similar policy +change in 1954, when he issued an executive order directing federal +agencies to support basic research. This new policy will result in +significantly more federal R&D resources going to (pre-competitive) +projects of commercial relevance. It will also result in federal +programs that go beyond R&D, where appropriate, to promote the broad +application of new technology and know-how. + +R&D. At the level of technology development, the fundamental +mechanism for carrying out this new approach is the cost-shared R&D +partnership between government and industry. All federal R&D +agencies (including the nation's 726 federal laboratories) will be +encouraged to act as partners with industry wherever possible. In +this way, federal investments can be managed to benefit both +government's needs and the needs of U.S. businesses. + + This reorientation is particularly urgent for the +Department of Defense, which accounts for 56 percent of all federal +R&D. A significant portion of DoD's research and development +budget is already focused on dual-use projects --particularly +projects supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency +(DARPA). Since a growing number of defense needs can be met most +efficiently by commercial products and technology in the years +ahead, this fraction will increase. DoD is developing a strategy +to improve the integration of defense and commercial technology +development. + + All federal support for technology development is being +reviewed to ensure that research priorities are in line with +contemporary needs of industry and to ensure that strategies for +working with industry are consistent. + + To strengthen industry-government cooperation and to +provide more federal support for commercial R&D: + + The ratio of civilian and dual-use R&D to purely military +R&D is significantly higher in President Clinton's economic plan. +This is a first step toward balancing funding levels for these two +categories. In 1993, the civilian share of the total federal R&D +budget was approximately 41% . Under President Clinton's plan, the +civilian share will be more than 50% by 1998. Total spending + +for civilian R&D will rise from $27.9 billion to 36.6 billion during +this period. + + The Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program is +expanded significantly. Established in 1990, the ATP shares the +costs of industry-defined and industry-led projects selected through +merit-based competitions. + + The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will +be renamed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) -- as the +agency was known before 1972. The ARPA program in dual use will be +expanded in ways that increase the likelihood that defense research +can lead to civilian product opportunities. + + New Department of Energy programs designed to increase the +productivity of energy use in industry, transportation, and +buildings as well as renewable energy programs will ensure that the +goals of environmental protection are fully consistent with other +business objectives. DoE, working with other agencies, will +encourage industry R&D consortia in an effort directed at reducing +pollution and manufacturing waste. + + Manufacturing R&D will receive particular attention from ATP, +ARPA and other federal agencies. SEMATECH, an industry consortium +created to develop semiconductor manufacturing technology, will +receive continued matching funds from the Department of Defense in +FY94. This consortium can serve as a model for federal consortia +funded to advance other critical technologies. Programs will be +encouraged in the development of a new automobile, new construction +technologies, intelligent control and sensor technologies, rapid +prototyping, and environmentally-conscious manufacturing. + + All laboratories managed by the Department of Energy, NASA, +and the Department of Defense that can make a productive +contribution to the civilian economy will be reviewed with the aim +of devoting at least 10-20 percent of their budgets to R&D +partnerships with industry. + + Agencies will make it a priority to remove obstacles to +Cooperative R&D Agreements (CRADAs) and to facilitate industry-lab +cooperation through other means. + + + The Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, +and Technology (FCCSET) will be strengthened. Initiatives are +currently underway in the following six areas: improving our +understanding of the climate system, advanced supercomputers and +computer networks, math and science education, materials processing, +biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. + + Commercialization. Although U.S. firms remain relatively strong in +the invention of new technologies, foreign competitors are often +first to commercialize and bring new products to market. The +reorientation of federal R&D can play an important role. +Cooperative research is a powerful way to get technology and know- +how into the hands of businesses that are in a position to put them +quickly to work. The tax, regulatory, and other reforms described +later also play a key role by creating a favorable investment +environment for innovation. But in many cases additional programs +are needed, such as: + + Regional Technology Alliances explicitly designed to promote +the commercialization and application of critical technologies in +which there are regional clusters of strength to encourage firms and +research institutions within a particular region to exchange +information, share and develop technology, and develop new products +and markets. + + Agile Manufacturing programs expanded to allow temporary +networks of complementary firms to come together quickly to exploit +fast-changing market opportunities. These programs support the +development and dissemination of information technology and +technical standards to make such networks possible. + +Access and Use. In addition to support for the development and +adoption of new technologies, programs are needed to ensure that all +American businesses have easy access to existing technology and best +practices. The Agriculture Department has historically devoted half +of its R&D budget to the active dissemination of research results. +The extraordinary productivity gains in American farming throughout +this century owe a great deal to the close links between individual +farmers and county extension agents. + + American manufacturing also needs an effective system. +New manufacturing technologies and approaches are available that can +lead to dramatic improvements in product quality, cost, + +and time-to-market. But relatively few U.S. businesses have taken +advantage of these new technologies and best practices. The problem +is particularly acute among the 360,000 small and medium-sized +manufacturers, many of whom are still using 1950s technology. + + Workers should play a significant role in the use and +spread of manufacturing technology. Workplace experience makes +clear that new technologies are implemented most effectively when +the knowledge and concerns of workers are included in the process. + + To enhance the use of and access to technology, we will: + + Create a national network of manufacturing extension centers. +Existing state and federal manufacturing extension centers managed +through the Department of Commerce provide assistance to a small +number of businesses, but service must be greatly expanded to give +all businesses access to the technologies, testing facilities, and +training programs they need. Federal funds (to be matched by state +and local governments) will support and build on existing state, +local, and university programs, with the goal of creating a nation- +wide network of extension centers. + + Expand the Manufacturing Experts in the Classroom program to +support manufacturing specialists from industry and labor teaching +in technical and community colleges. The goal is to strengthen the +capacity of such institutions to serve regional manufacturing firms. + + Work through the Department of Labor to assist US firms in +implementing the principles of high performance work organization. +DOL will coordinate assistance in workforce literacy, technical +training, labor management relations, and the restructuring of +management and work processes. Implementation will occur in part +through the network of manufacturing extension centers. + + + + +A World-Class Business Environment For Innovation and Private Sector +Investment + + Increasing investment in civilian technologies is only one +element of a strategy to restore America's industrial and +technological leadership, and to create high-wage, high-skill jobs. +The United States must also ensure that its tax, trade, regulatory +and procurement policies encourage private sector investment and +innovation. In a global where capital and technology are +increasingly mobile, the United States must make sure that it has +the best environment for private sector investment and job creation. + + To improve the environment for private sector investment +and create jobs, we will: + +1. Make Permanent the Research and Experimentation (R&E) Tax +Credit: The need for additional U.S. investment in R&D is clear. +Currently, the United States invests 1.9 percent of GDP in non- +defense R&D, as compared to 3.0 percent in Japan and 2.7 percent in +West Germany. We will increase private R&E expenditures by making +the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent. In the past, +the effectiveness of this credit has been undermined by a series of +six and nine-month temporary extensions. The credit cannot induce +additional R&E expenditures unless its future availability is known +when the businesses are planning R&E projects and projecting costs. +R&E activity, by its nature, is long term and businesses should be +able to plan their research activity knowing that the credit will be +available when the research is actually undertaken. Thus if the R&E +credit is to have the intended incentive effect, it should be +permanent. + +2. Create incentives for long-term investments in small +businesses: The Administration will send legislation to Congress +designed to provide incentives for those who make high-risk, long- +term venture capital investments in startups and other small +enterprises. These companies are the major source of job creation, +economic growth, and technological dynamism in our economy. + +3. Create incentives for investment in equipment: Currently, +America's chief economic competitors are investing twice as much in +plant and equipment (as a percentage of GDP) as the United States. +Furthermore, studies show a high correlation between investment in +new equipment and productivity -- since new technologies are often +embodied in capital equipment. To stimulate additional investment +in equipment, the + +Administration will propose a temporary incremental investment tax +credit for large businesses and a permanent credit for small +businesses. + +4. Reform antitrust laws to permit joint production ventures: +The Administration will forward legislation to Congress which would +extend the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984 to cover joint +production ventures. Increasingly, the escalating cost of state-of- +the-art manufacturing facilities will require firms to share costs +and pool risks. + +5. Ensure that U.S. trade policy strengthens high technology +industries: To remain competitive, America's high-tech industries +need full access to overseas markets and effective protection of +intellectual property rights. The Administration is committed to +multilateral and bilateral negotiations, and enforcement of existing +agreements, that will accomplish these objectives. The trade policy +must also be consistent with a vigorous public research and +development program. + +6. Review proposals to increase the supply and availability of +patient capital: A number of proposals have been made to increase +the time-horizon of investments. For example, the National Academy +of Science has proposed creating a publicly-funded, privately run +Civilian Technology Corporation. The private-sector Council on +Competitiveness has proposed a sweeping set of reforms to improve +corporate governance and encourage long-term asset ownership. The +Administration will review these and other proposals in an effort to +improve the environment for long-term investments. + +7. Ensure that federal regulatory policy encourages investment +in innovation and technology development that achieve the purposes +of the regulation at the lowest possible cost: Regulatory policy +can have a significant impact on the rate of technology development +in energy, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and +many other areas. The caliber of the regulatory agencies can +affect the international competitiveness of the industries they +oversee. At the same time, skillful support of new technologies can +help businesses reduce costs while complying with ambitious +environmental regulations. A well designed regulatory program can +stimulate rather than frustrate attractive directions for +innovation. We will review the nation's regulatory "infrastructure" +to ensure that unnecessary + +obstacles to technical innovation are removed and that priorities +are attached to programs introducing technology to help reduce the +cost of regulatory compliance. + +Education and Training + + Technology policy can play a key role in supporting our +commitment to improving the education and training opportunities for +all Americans. + + First, it is essential that priorities in research, +regulatory, and other policies designed to encourage innovation and +investment in the economy reflect the need to create high- +performance workplaces -- workplaces which offer all workers +skilled, rewarding jobs with opportunities for growth. These +priorities are reflected in the design of the initiatives described +earlier. Our plan ensures that economic growth works to the +advantage of all Americans in the workforce, not just an elite group +of well-educated workers who have easy access to training in new +skills. + + Secondly, it is essential that all Americans have access +to the education and training they need and that the teaching +enterprise itself become a high-performance workplace. Our +initiatives in education and training follow four central themes: +restructuring primary and secondary schooling, using youth +apprenticeships and other programs to facilitate the transition from +school to work for people who do not expect to go to college, making +training accessible and affordable to all workers who need to +upgrade their skills to keep pace with a rapidly changing economy, +and programs specifically targeted to help workers displaced by +declining defense budgets or increased international trade. + + Technology policy can and must support all of these +objectives. + +1. Public investment will be provided to support technology that +can increase the productivity of learning and teaching in formal +school settings, in industrial training, and even at home. New +information technologies can give teachers more power in the +classroom and create a new range of employment opportunities. +Schools can themselves become high-performance workplaces. + + +2. Public investment will also be increased for programs designed to +provide needed skills in mathematics, science, and engineering. +Programs will be supported in primary, secondary, college, post- +graduate schools and in a range of industrial training facilities. +Particular attention will be paid to increasing participation by +minorities and women. + +3. Defense capabilities in education and training represent an +important resource. New programs will accelerate transfer of this +experience to civilian institutions. The Department of Defense and +NASA have invested heavily both in the hardware and software needed +for advanced instructional systems, they have accumulated valuable +experience in how to use the new technologies in practical teaching +situations. The Navy Training Systems Center and the Army +Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command together spend +about $1 billion a year on training systems. There are over 150 +defense simulation and training companies serving these needs in +central Florida alone. + + Specific initiatives include the following: + +A. Access to the Internet and developing NREN will be +expanded to connect university campuses, community colleges, and K- +12 schools to a high-speed communications network providing a broad +range of information resources. Support will be provided for +equipment allowing local networks in these learning institutions +access to the network along with support for development of high- +performance software capable of taking advantage of the emerging +hardware capabilities. + +B. An interagency task force will be created from +appropriate federal agencies to (i) establish software and +communication standards for education and training, (ii) coordinate +the development of critical software elements, (iii) support +innovative software packages and curriculum design, and (iv) collect +information resources in a standardized format and make them +available to schools and teaching centers throughout the nation +through both conventional and advanced communication networks. This +task force will provide specific assistance to the interagency task +force on worker displacement. + +C. Programs in the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, +Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) Committee on Education and +Human Resources programs will be enhanced. + +These programs are designed to improve the teaching of science, +mathematics, and engineering at all levels. In K-12 schools, +primary emphasis will be placed on teacher preparation, +comprehensive organizational reform, and curriculum development. +Programs for undergraduate education emphasize faculty preparation +and organization and curriculum reforms but place heaviest emphasis +on student incentives. At the graduate level, most funding is +directed for fellowships. + +D. Proposals will be encouraged for an industry consortia or +regional alliance designed to develop new teaching systems (hardware +and software) and work with training organizations throughout the +nation to develop, install, and maintain state-of-the art systems. +Firms now providing similar services to defense training +organizations are likely to participate. + +E. Promote Manufacturing Engineering Education. Traditional +engineering education, with its focus on product design and +analysis, has seriously neglected the management and operation of +manufacturing activities. This program provides matching funds for +graduate or undergraduate programs in manufacturing engineering. + + + + + +" Information Superhighways" + +New Options offered by Information Technology +in Education and Training + +-- Computers can create an unprecedented opportunity for learning +complex ideas, creating an environment that can closely approximate +real work environments or experimental apparatus. +-- Interconnected systems can help students work together as parts +of a team even if the members of the team are separated +geographically. +-- Training can be embedded as a part of new equipment. Complex +machine tools or software packages can be purchased with tutorials +that bring new operators up to speed quickly, that provide quick +refreshers for unusual events, and that allow operators to build new +competencies during off-hours. + +-- Advanced systems permit instruction tailored to the learning +needs of individuals. This is particularly important for retraining +adults that reenter a training environment with a great variety of +learning needs and learning abilities. And it is important in +ensuring that minorities, women, people with disabilities, and +others that may be disadvantaged by traditional approaches to +instruction. +-- Communication technologies can bring a rich education and +training environment to people isolated because they live in remote +areas or because of the demands of work and family responsibilities. +-- Technology can reduce the burden of record-keeping and other +paperwork that consumes so much teacher time in today's classrooms. +It can also bring teachers and schools together in ways that +facilitate the exchange of ideas and build a sense of community. + + Efficient access to information is becoming critical for +all parts of the American economy. Banks, insurance companies, +manufacturing concerns, and many other business operations now +depend on high-speed communication links. Many more businesses can +take advantage of such systems if they are reliable, easy to use, +and inexpensive. Such systems would also be of enormous value to +schools, hospitals, and other public organizations. Even the most +remote school could be connected to state-of-the art information. +Hospitals could call in experts for consultation even if the expert +is far from the patient. + + Accelerating the introduction of an efficient, high-speed +communication system can have the same effect on US economic and +social development as public investment in the railroads had in the +19th century. It would provide a critical tool around which many +new business opportunities can develop. + + Specific new programs include : + +A. Implementation of the High-performance Computing and +Communications Program established by the High-Performance Computing +Act of 1991 introduced by Vice President Gore when he served in the +Senate. Research and development funded by this program is +creating (1) more powerful super computers, (2) faster computer +networks and the first national high speed network, and (3) more +sophisticated software. This network will be constructed by the +private sector but encouraged by federal policy + +and technology developments. In addition, it is providing +scientists and engineers with the tools and training they need to +solve "Grand Challenges", research problems--like modeling global +warming--that cannot be solved without the most powerful computers. + +B. Create a Task Force on Information Infrastructure. +Government telecommunication and information policy has not kept +pace with new developments in telecommunications and computer +technology. As a result, government regulations have tended to +inhibit competition and delay deployment of new technology. For +instance, without a consistent, stable regulatory environment, the +private sector will hesitate to make the investments necessary to +build the high-speed national telecommunications network that this +country needs to compete successfully in the 21st Century. To +address this problem and others, we will create a high-level inter- +agency task force within the National Economic Council which will +work with Congress and the private sector to find consensus on and +implement policy changes needed to accelerate deployment of a +national information infrastructure. + +C. Create an Information Infrastructure Technology Program to +assist industry in the development of the hardware and software +needed to fully apply advanced computing and networking technology +in manufacturing, in health care, in life-long learning, and in +libraries. + +D. Provide funding for networking pilot projects through the +National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of +the Department of Commerce. NTIA will provide matching grants to +states, school districts, libraries, and other non-profit entities +so that they can purchase the computers and networking connections +needed for distance learning and for hooking into computer networks +like the Internet. These pilot projects will demonstrate the +benefits of networking to the educational and library communities. + +E. Promote dissemination of Federal information. Every year, +the Federal government spends billions of dollars collecting and +processing information (e.g. economic data, environmental data, and +technical information). Unfortunately, while much of this +information is very valuable, many potential users either do not +know that it exists or do not know how to access it. We are + +committed to using new computer and networking technology to make +this information more available to the taxpayers who paid for it. +In addition, it will require consistent Federal information policies +designed to ensure that Federal information is made available at a +fair price to as many users as possible while encouraging growth of +the information industry. + +Transportation and other Infrastructure + + A competitive, growing economy requires a transportation +system that can move people, goods and services quickly and +efficiently. To meet this challenge, each transport sector must +work effectively both by itself and as part of a larger, +interconnected whole. With nearly one out of every six dollars of +GDP now spent in transportation related activities, technologies +that increase the speed, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of the +transportation sector will also increase the economy's +competitiveness and ability to create jobs. + + One of the greatest challenges we face is to rehabilitate +and properly maintain the huge stock of infrastructure facilities +already in place. With this in mind, the Administration will +consider establishing an integrated program of research designed to +enhance the performance and longevity of the existing +infrastructure. Among other things, this program would +systematically address issues of assessment technology and renewal +engineering. A strategic program to develop new technologies for +assessing the physical condition of the nation's infrastructure, +together with techniques to repair and rehabilitate those +structures, could lead to more cost-effective maintenance of the +infrastructure necessary to economic growth. + + Providing a world class transportation sector will require +the nation to meet the challenges posed both by increased congestion +in many parts of the transportation system, and by the need to +rebuild and maintain a public capital stock valued at more than $2.4 +trillion. To meet these challenges, the Administration's program +includes increased investment in a number of areas: + +A. Upgrading the nation's highways and transit systems by +providing additional funding authorized by the Intermodal Surface +Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). Improve mass transit +services and facilities by investing an additional $600 + +million in 1994 and $1 billion each year from 1995 to 1998 in +transit capital projects. + +B. Investing in magnetic levitation (maglev) transportation +and high-speed rail by providing funds for a maglev prototype and +for start-up of private or state/local high-speed rail projects. + +C. Increasing research on new technologies that could lead to +the development of "smart highways". These efforts range from +technologies that provide in-route planning and traffic monitoring, +to those that would support a fully automated system. + +D. Increasing research on civil aviation technologies, +including an examination of the economic, market, safety, and noise +aspects of advanced aircraft. We will also support advanced in- +flight space and ground-based command, navigation, weather +prediction, and control systems. US aeronautical, research and +development facilities infrastructure such as wind tunnels will also +be revitalized. + +E. Increasing research on new materials that will allow the +construction of infrastructure facilities that are more durable, +minimizing the frequency of costly reconstruction with its attendant +disruption of traffic. + +F. Exploring new assessment technologies for more accurately +assessing the expected life of existing public infrastructure. A +number of new technologies from a variety of industries, including +electronic, medical, space, defense, and manufacturing sectors, +could be used to develop more-reliable, nondestructive methods for +evaluating the condition of existing structures. Since current +assessment techniques are so unreliable, engineering decisions must +include significant room for error and costly fail-safe features. +The data made available by nondestructive evaluation and monitoring +could be used to schedule better an ongoing program of cost- +effective maintenance and rehabilitation. + +G. Supporting renewal engineering programs which target +materials and construction methods that would lower the cost of +rehabilitating and repairing structures. + + + + +GOAL: MAKING GOVERNMENT MORE EFFICIENT AND MORE RESPONSIVE + + The federal government must use technology to improve the +efficiency of its own operations. Many private businesses have +used advanced communication systems to improve the efficiency of +their operations and to make their businesses more sensitive to the +needs of individual customers and clients. The federal government +must move actively to take advantage of these new opportunities. +Similarly, the federal government is one of the nation's largest +consumers of energy yet many of its buildings are far less efficient +than structures owned by private firms and taxpayers are paying the +bill. + + The enormous purchasing power of the federal government +can be used to stimulate markets for innovative products in many +areas. This power should be exercised in a way that is consistent +with overall national technology objectives. President Clinton is +committed to reinventing government, to make government work better, +harder, and smarter. Technology can help us achieve that goal. + +Information Technology + + Information technology will be used to dramatically +improve the way the Federal Government serves the people. +Government will become more cost-effective, efficient, and "user- +friendly." In particular, we will use technology to improve the +quality and timeliness of service, to provide new ways for the +public to communicate with their government, and to make government +information available to the public in a timely and equitable +manner. + + Fast communication makes it possible for teams to work +closely on a project even if the team members are physically distant +from each other. Information technology presents an opportunity to +flatten existing organizational structures, form effective cross- +disciplinary problem-solving groups, and expand the definition of +the workplace and workforce via telecommuting. But business +organizations in many sectors have found that automating existing +work processes based on a tradition of processing paper does not +always provide the greatest benefits from investment in automation. +Efficiency gains from the new technology often can only be captured +if changes are made in the + +structure of their organizations and the way they are managed. The +administration will undertake a careful review of government +management with a view to making the most efficient possible use of +new information technologies. + + Improved quality and timeliness of service. Information +technology will eliminate errors generated in routine paper +processes while reducing processing time. For example, the Internal +Revenue Service (IRS)'s electronic filing program is reducing error +rates on tax returns from 16 percent to less than 3 percent, while +speeding up the delivery of refunds by as much as four weeks. +Agencies are moving forward to convert many other paper processes to +electronic form. + + Information on paper is hard to retrieve. Automation is +allowing the Social Security Administration to provide beneficiaries +with "one-stop" service anywhere in the country from an 800 number. +Better connections among Federal offices, in a manner that +safeguards the privacy of individuals, will make it easier to get +answers from the government. + + New ways to communicate. In the past, citizens typically +had to go to a federal office during business hours to receive +benefits or services. A government that uses technology to expand +its hours of service and communicate with the public electronically +will deliver services and benefits where people need them, not where +the government provides them. We will make it possible for people +to communicate with a Federal agency using electronic as well as +conventional mail. Automated terminals may be placed in public +locations such as shopping centers or post offices that could +provide in-hours access to a variety of government services. + + Access to government information. Government information +is a public asset. Markets depend on sound and timely economic +decisions. Federal geographic and climatological information allows +farmers to apply fertilizer more efficiently, local governments to +formulate environmental policy, and public safety officials to +prepare for natural disasters. The government will promote the +timely and equitable access to government information via a diverse +array of sources, both public and private, including state and local +governments and libraries. The development of public networks such +as the Internet and the National Research and Educational Network +(NREN) will + +contribute significantly to this diversity, enabling government +information to be disseminated inexpensively to a broad range of +users. + + Policy and technology infrastructure. Many of the +government's policies in such areas as privacy, information +security, records management, information dissemination, and +procurement will be updated to take into account the rapid pace of +technological change. In addition, the government must apply the +economic principle of maximizing return on investment when acquiring +information technology, and be able to acquire commercial, off-the- +shelf technology quickly and easily. + + In addition, resources are needed to provide a technology +infrastructure to support these service delivery improvements. The +support for the IRS Tax System Modernization in the stimulus +package, along with requests elsewhere for resources to support +information technology, are examples of the government investing in +technology to put people first. + +Energy Efficiency + + The federal government is wasting tax dollars by operating +inefficient buildings. More than $2 billion could be invested in +energy retrofits in federal buildings with average payback times +less than 3-4 years. California, Texas, Iowa, and several other +states have successful programs which have profitably invested in +state buildings during the past several years. The programs have +both increased the efficiency of state structures and stimulated the +local construction industry. + + HUD spends approximately $3-4 billion a year subsidizing +the energy bills of about 5 million low income households. At least +$3 billion could be invested in energy retrofits with a payback less +than five years. + + We are introducing a multi-year program designed to +capture the economic benefits of energy retrofits, create new jobs +in the construction industry, and to foster innovation in efficient +building components and in the construction industry itself. + +Procurement Policy + + + The federal government, particularly the Department of +Defense and NASA, is a gigantic customer for high technology +products. Historically, it played an important role in helping +assure an early market for high-risk commercial technologies that +were extremely expensive to develop. For example, the defense-space +share of the U.S. computer hardware market was 100 percent in 1954, +and it exceeded 50 percent until 1962. Semiconductors, jet +aircraft, and pharmaceuticals also benefited from this government +investment. + + In recent years, DoD has ceased to be an influential +"first customer" for commercial technology. By and large, this is +not due to differing technical requirements: today's commercial +capabilities often equal or surpass DoD requirements. Rather the +problem is a growing morass of procurement laws and regulations. +Many commercial manufacturers refuse to do business with DoD +altogether, and those that do often wall off their defense +production. As a result, the military and commercial worlds have +grown increasingly segregated from one another. + + The cost of this segregation both to DoD and the nation is +high, as a 1991 report by the Center for Strategic and International +Studies plainly stated: + +"[It] results in higher prices to DoD (even when lower-cost +commercial alternatives exist for the same requirements), loss of a +broad domestic production base that could be available to defense +for peacetime and surge demands, and lack of access to commercial +state-of-the-art technologies. Additionally, the wall between +engineers and scientists engaged in commercial and military work +impedes the kind of shoulder-to-shoulder contact that is the essence +of technology transfer and that is basic to achieving greater job +stability and growth opportunities for the U.S. work force." + + The federal government will make it a priority to +thoroughly review and reform its procurement policy, particularly +(but not exclusively) defense procurement policy. It will begin by +reviewing the recommendations of the congressionally-mandated +"Section 800 Panel" (after Section 800 of the FY1991 Defense +Authorization Act), which recently completed a detailed study of DoD +procurement practices. + + + + + More specifically, the federal government will begin steps +necessary to achieve the following reforms: + + Government purchases or government-contracted development +should give priority to commercial specifications and products. + + Agencies should invest in and procure advanced technologies, +where it is economically feasible, in order to facilitate their +commercialization. + + Agencies should experiment with a portion of their +procurement budget to allow them to procure innovative products and +services incorporating leading-edge technologies. + + Agencies should evaluate bids based on their ability to +minimize life-cycle cost rather than acquisition cost, including +environmental, health and safety costs borne by the public. + + Agencies should obtain rights in technologies developed +under government contracts only to the extent necessary to meet the +agencies' needs, leaving contractors with the rights necessary to +encourage private sector investment in the development of commercial +applications. + + Agencies should use performance-based contracting strategies +that give contractors the design freedom and financial incentive to +be innovative and efficient. + + + + + + + + +GOAL: WORLD LEADERSHIP IN BASIC SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND +ENGINEERING. + + + It is essential to recognize that technical advances +depend on basic research in science, mathematics, and engineering. +Scientific advances are the wellspring of the + +technical innovations whose benefits are seen in economic growth, +improved health care, and many other areas. The federal government +has invested heavily in basic research since the Second World War +and this support has paid enormous dividends. Our research +universities are the best in the world; our national laboratories +and the research facilities they house attract scientists and +engineers from around the globe. In almost every field, United +States researchers lead their foreign colleagues in scientific +citations, in Nobel Prizes, and most other measures of scientific +excellence. + + This administration will both ensure that support for +basic science remains strong, and that stable funding is provided +for projects that require continuity. We will not allow short-term +fluctuations in funding levels to destroy critical research teams +that have taken years to assemble. + + But stable funding requires setting clear priorities. In +recent years, rather than canceling less important projects when +research budgets have been tight, Federal agencies have tended to +spread the pain, resulting in disruptive cuts and associated +schedule delays in hundreds of programs. We will improve +management of basic science to ensure that high-priority programs +receive sustained support. + + University Research. The National Science Foundation and +the National Institutes of Health provide the vast majority of +Federal funding for university research. Since universities play +dual roles of research and teaching, the long-term scientific and +technological vitality of the U.S. depends upon adequate and +sustained funding for university research grant programs at NSF, +NIH, and other research agencies. + + National Laboratories. In fields like high-energy +physics, biomedical science, nuclear physics, materials sciences, +and aeronautics, the national laboratories provide key facilities +used by researchers in academia, Federal labs, and industry. In +addition, in many fields, researchers at Federal labs are world +leaders. We will ensure that Federal laboratories continue their +key role in basic research and will encourage more cooperative +research between the laboratories and industry and universities. +And we will develop new missions for our federal labs to make full +use of the talented and experienced men and women working there in +today's post-cold war era. + + + Space Science and Exploration. The resources needed for +space exploration and research make government funding essential. +We will continue to work with foreign partners to design missions +needed to explore our solar system and the universe beyond. +Research on micro-gravity and life-sciences as applied to the human +in space program will also be supported. + + Environmental Research. In FY93, the Federal government +will invest in research to better understand global warming, ozone +depletion, and other phenomena important to local, regional, and +global environments. This research is essential if we are to fully +assess the damage mankind is doing to our planet and take effective +action to address it. Vital research on local and regional +environmental problems will also be strongly supported at EPA, NOAA, +NASA, DoD, DOL, USDA, and other agencies. + + + + + +BUILDING AMERICA'S ECONOMIC STRENGTH: NEW INITIATIVES + +Permanent Extension Of The Research And Experimentation Tax Credit + +Invest In A National Information Infrastructure + +Advanced Manufacturing Technology + +Facilitate Private Sector Development of a New Generation of +Automobiles + +Improve Technology For Education And Training + +Investments In Energy-Efficient Federal Buildings + + + + + + +PERMANENT EXTENSION OF THE RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION TAX CREDIT + +Objectives + + The success of U.S. businesses depends on their ability to +compete both in the development of innovative products and +production processes and in their ability to bring new products to +the market quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, the U.S. has +fallen behind many of its foreign competitors in civilian research. +Currently the U.S. invests 1.9 percent of GDP in non-defense R&D +compared to 3.0 percent in Japan and 2.7 percent in Germany. US +investment in research and experimentation can be increased through +a tax credit for R&E that can provide a stable basis for business +planning. + + Increasing investment in research is important to foster +economic growth and technological development and to improve +international competitiveness. But many of the benefits of research +cannot be captured by the businesses making the investments. +Instead, these benefits redound to competitors and to the public. +In the absence of an incentive for research, businesses simply might +not invest in research the way our economic goals demand. The +research and experimentation credit should be permanently extended +to foster economic growth and technological development, create +jobs, and improve international competitiveness. R&D activity, by +its nature, is long-term, and taxpayers should be able to plan their +research activity knowing that the credit will be available when the +research is actually undertaken. + +Actions + + The Administration will propose that the Research and +Experimentation Tax Credit be made permanent. The credit would +apply to qualified research expenditures by businesses and +businesses expenditures for university basic research paid or +incurred after June 30, 1992. The proposal also provides a basis +for start-up businesses to qualify for the credit. + + + + + + +INVEST IN AN INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE + +Objectives + + Today's "Information Age" demands skill, agility and speed in +moving information. Where once our economic strength was determined +solely by the depth of our ports or the condition of our roads, +today it is determined as well by our ability to move large +quantities of information quickly and accurately and by our ability +to use and understand this information. Just as the interstate +highway system marked a historical turning point in our commerce, +today "information superhighway" -- able to move ideas, data, and +images around the country and around the world -- are critical to +American competitiveness and economic strength. + + This information infrastructure -- computers, computer data +banks, fax machines, telephones, and video displays -- has as its +lifeline a high-speed fiber-optic network capable of transmitting +billions of bits of information in a second. Imagine being able to +transmit the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica in one second. + + The computing and networking technology that makes this +possible is improving at an unprecedented rate, expanding both our +imaginations for its use and its effectiveness. Through these +technologies, a doctor who needs a second opinion could transmit a +patient's entire medical record -- x-rays and ultrasound scans +included -- to a colleague thousands of miles away, in less time +than it takes to send a fax today. A school child in a small town +could come home and through a personal computer, reach into an +electronic Library of Congress -- thousands of books, records, +videos and photographs, all stored electronically. At home, viewers +could choose whenever they wanted from thousands of different +television programs or movies. + + Efficient access to information is becoming increasingly more +important for all parts of our economy. Banks, insurance companies, +manufacturing concerns, and many other businesses now depend on high +speed communication networks. These networks have become a critical +tool around which many new business opportunities are developing. + + And, by harnessing the power of supercomputers able to +transform enormous amounts of information to images or solve +incredible complex problems in record time, and share this power + +with an ever-expanding audience of scientists, businesses, +researchers, students, doctors and others, the potential for +innovation and progress multiplies rapidly. Supercomputers help us +develop new drugs, design new products, predict dangerous storms and +model climate changes. They help us design better cars, better +airplanes, more efficient manufacturing processes. Accelerating the +introduction of an efficient, high-speed communication network and +associated computer systems would have a dramatic impact on every +aspect of our lives. But this is possible only if we adopt forward- +looking policies that promote the development of new technologies +and if we invest in the information infrastructure needed for the +2lst Century. + + + +Actions + +A. Implementation of the High-performance Computing and +Communications Program established by the High-Performance Computing +Act of 1991 introduced by Vice President Gore when he served in the +Senate. Research and development funded by this program is +creating (1) more powerful super computers, (2) faster computer +networks and the first national high speed network, and (3) more +sophisticated software. This network will be constructed by the +private sector but encouraged by federal policy and technology +developments. In addition, it is providing scientists and +engineers with the tools and training they need to solve "Grand +Challenges", research problems--like modeling global warming--that +cannot be solved without the most powerful computers. + +B. Create a Task Force on Information Infrastructure. +Government telecommunication and information policy has not kept +pace with new developments in telecommunications and computer +technology. As a result, government regulations have tended to +inhibit competition and delay deployment of new technology. For +instance, without a consistent, stable regulatory environment, the +private sector will hesitate to make the investments necessary to +build the high-speed national telecommunications network that this +country needs to compete successfully in the 21st Century. To +address this problem and others, we will create a high-level inter- +agency task force within the National Economic Council which will +work with Congress and the private sector to find consensus on and +implement policy + +changes needed to accelerate deployment of a national information +infrastructure. + +C. Create an Information Infrastructure Technology Program to +assist industry in the development of the hardware and software +needed to fully apply advanced computing and networking technology +in manufacturing, in health care, in life-long learning, and in +libraries. + +D. Provide funding for networking pilot projects through the +National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of +the Department of Commerce. NTIA will provide matching grants to +states, school districts, libraries, and other non-profit entities +so that they can purchase the computers and networking connections +needed for distance learning and for hooking into computer networks +like the Internet. These pilot projects will demonstrate the +benefits of networking to the educational and library communities. + +E. Promote dissemination of Federal information. Every year, +the Federal government spends billions of dollars collecting and +processing information (e.g. economic data, environmental data, and +technical information). Unfortunately, while much of this +information is very valuable, many potential users either do not +know that it exists or do not know how to access it. We are +committed to using new computer and networking technology to make +this information more available to the taxpayers who paid for it. +In addition, it will require consistent Federal information policies +designed to ensure that Federal information is made available at a +fair price to as many users as possible while encouraging growth of +the information industry. + + + + + +PROMOTE ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY + +Objectives + + Manufacturing remains the foundation of the American +economy. Although the United States was the unchallenged world +leader in manufacturing for many years, our performance has slipped +badly in recent decades. American firms still excel at + +making breakthroughs, such as IBM's discovery of high-temperature +superconductivity, but foreign firms are often better at follow +through: namely, turning technology into new products and processes +both quickly and cheaply. + + Both American industry and government under-invest in +manufacturing. In contrast to their foreign competitors, U.S. firms +neglect process-related R&D within their overall R&D portfolio. And +the federal government allocated only two percent of its $70 billion +R&D budget to manufacturing R&D in FY92. + + We have also neglected the dissemination of existing +technology and know-how. New manufacturing technologies and +approaches are available that can lead to dramatic improvements in +product quality, cost, and time-to-market. Although a few U.S. +firms have begun to adopt these technologies and approaches, most +firms still lag. The problem is most acute among the 360,000 small +and medium-sized manufacturers, who employ 8 million workers, but +too often lack the resources or ability to gain access to the +technologies that will help them grow, increase their profits, and +create jobs. + + Finally, investments in manufacturing have not reflected +the concerns and the knowledge of factory employees. Firms should +use technology to build on rather than reduce worker skills. + +Actions: + +A. Provide increased funding for advanced manufacturing R&D. +SEMATECH, an industry consortium to develop semiconductor +manufacturing technology, will receive continued matching funds from +the Department of Defense in FY94. Industry consortia (including +universities and government laboratories, where appropriate) will be +the preferred performers of such R&D, to assure its commercial +relevance. Programs will be encouraged in the development of a +new automobile, new construction technologies, intelligent control +and sensor technologies, rapid prototyping, and environmentally- +conscious manufacturing. + + + + + +B. Support Agile Manufacturing. The new Agile Manufacturing +Program (also known as "Enterprise Integration") is designed to +capitalize on the emerging shift from mass production to flexible or +"agile" manufacturing. Agile manufacturing allows independently- +owned companies to form instantaneous partnerships with firms that +have complementary capabilities in order to exploit market +opportunities. These partnerships -- called "virtual enterprises" +or "virtual corporations" -- will leverage our nation's strengths in +information technology. This program supports both the development +and dissemination of such technology for enterprise integration. + +C. Create a national network of manufacturing extension centers. +Many small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in the U.S. have not +taken advantage of new technologies and best practices, either +because they are unaware of them or because they cannot afford them. +Existing state and federal manufacturing extension centers provide +assistance to a small number of firms, but service must be greatly +expanded to give all firms access to the technologies, testing +facilities, and training programs they need. Federal funds (to be +matched by state and local governments) will go to support and build +on existing state, local, and university programs, with the goal of +creating a nation-wide network of extension centers. + +D. Seed Regional Technology Alliances. Manufacturing industries +tend to cluster geographically, and the strength of these technology +clusters is fast becoming a key to international competitiveness. +This new program is designed to encourage firms and research +institutions in a particular region to exchange information, share +and develop technology, and develop new products and markets. +Federal funds (to be matched by alliance members) will go to support +applied R&D and a range of technology services oriented particularly +to smaller firms (test facilities for new products and prototypes, +design and management assistance, start-up incubators, education and +training, export promotion and market monitoring, and quality +testing and standards certification). + +E. Promote Manufacturing Engineering Education. Traditional +engineering education, with its focus on product design and +analysis, has seriously neglected the management and operation of +manufacturing activities. This program provides matching funds + +for graduate or undergraduate programs in manufacturing engineering. + +F. Promote Environmentally-Conscious Manufacturing. The +Departments of Commerce, Energy, Defense, and a number of other +federal organizations will incorporate environmental goals in +research and development consortia for manufacturing. In addition, +NIST, working with EPA, DoE, and state agencies, will undertake a +technical support program in energy and environmental waste +minimization for small and medium-sized firms. + + + + + +FACILITATE PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW GENERATION OF +AUTOMOBILES + +Objectives: + + The automobile plays a central role in U.S. manufacturing +capabilities, in America's economy, and in the lives of most +Americans. If America's auto industry is to remain competitive and +strong in the 21st century, preserving jobs, sustaining economic +growth, and expanding its business, it must continue its exploration +of new technologies that encourage the industry's growth and protect +the environment. Increasingly stringent environmental concerns both +here and abroad make this effort increasingly more essential and the +need for innovation and new ideas even greater. + + New fuels and new propulsion systems developed during the +last decade offer promise as eventual replacements for the +combination of gasoline and the internal combustion engine that have +served so well for generations. Given adequate investment in +research and development, and adequate incentives for U.S. producers +to invest in these technologies, a new generation of vehicles could +be on the market -- preserving jobs, expanding growth -- that would +be safe and perform as well, if not better than existing +automobiles, cost no more to drive than today's automobiles, consume +only domestic fuels such as natural gas and renewables, and produce +little or no pollution. + + + While the basic technology needed to achieve this goal is +available, converting it to a practical vehicle represents an +historic challenge. The potential can only be captured under the +leadership of the U.S. business community and the industry itself. +Success must be defined by their ability to develop a vehicle that +can be built and sold successfully in private markets. They must +play a central role in designing an efficient government-industry +partnership in which the industry plays a leadership role in +establishing priorities. + + If U.S. producers lead the world in introducing such a +vehicle, the domestic industry would be able to meet expanding +domestic and international markets with a machine that significantly +reduces pollution and operates from domestic fuel sources. + + This initiative represents a bold and dramatic step toward a +more profitable, and more environmentally sound future for one of +America's most important industries. + + + +Actions + +A. Establish a "clean car" task force linking research efforts +of relevant agencies with those of U.S. auto manufacturers. This +task force will immediately establish an advisory group consisting +of technology leaders in the principle US automobile manufacturers, +their principal suppliers, and US fuel suppliers. It will oversee +the establishment of cooperative research ventures in (i) fuel-cells +and the control and other systems required for practical fuel-cell +hybrid vehicle designs, (ii) advanced batteries, ultra-capacitors, +advanced gas storage & delivery systems, and (iii) production of +methanol and hydrogen from natural gas, municipal waste and other +waste products, energy crops, and the electrolysis of water + +B. The task force will establish a special advisory group +consisting of key state officials and representatives of the +participating Departments to (i) design a program for using the +authority already present in the Clean Air Act revision of 1991 and +the National Energy Act of 1992 to encourage introduction of +prototype vehicles consistent with the objectives of this program, +(ii) coordinate state regulatory programs designed to require low or + +zero emission vehicles, and (iii) propose federal regulations needed +to supplement state efforts. It will also design programs for +managing federal vehicle procurement. + +C. Working with its private sector and state advisory groups, +the task force will prepare a list of development requirements and +conduct a systematic search for capabilities in national +laboratories and defense facilities. Capabilities identified will +be integrated rapidly into the research teams. + + + +IMPROVE TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING + +Objectives + + This project will support the development and introduction +of computer and communications equipment and software that can +increase the productivity of learning in formal school settings, a +variety of business training facilities, and in homes. + +Actions + +A. Access to the Internet and developing high-speed National +Research and Educational Network (NREN) will be expanded to connect +university campuses, community colleges, and K-12 schools to a high- +speed communications network providing a broad range of information +resources. Support will be provided for equipment allowing local +networks in these learning institutions access to the network along +with support for development of high-performance software capable of +taking advantage of the emerging hardware capabilities. + +B. An interagency task force will be created from +appropriate federal agencies to (i) adopt software and +communication standards for education and training, (ii) coordinate +the development of critical software elements, (iii) support +innovative software packages and curriculum design, and (iv) collect +information resources in a standardized format and make them +available to schools and teaching centers throughout the nation +through both conventional and advanced communication networks. This +task force will provide specific assistance to the interagency task +force on worker displacement. + +C. Programs in the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, +Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) Committee on Education and +Human Resources programs will be enhanced. These programs are +designed to improve the teaching of science, mathematics, and +engineering at all levels. In K-12 schools, primary emphasis will +be placed on teacher preparation, comprehensive organizational +reform, and curriculum development. Programs for undergraduate +education emphasize faculty preparation and organization and +curriculum reforms but place heaviest emphasis on student +incentives. At the graduate level, most funding is directed for +fellowships. + +D. Proposals will be encouraged for an industry consortia or +regional alliance designed to develop new teaching systems (hardware +and software) and work with training organizations throughout the +nation to develop, install, and maintain state-of-the art systems. +Firms now providing similar services to defense training +organizations are likely to participate. + +E. Promote Manufacturing Engineering Education. Traditional +engineering education, with its focus on product design and +analysis, has seriously neglected the management and operation of +manufacturing activities. This program provides matching funds for +graduate or undergraduate programs in manufacturing engineering. + + + +MAKE ENERGY EFFICIENCY INVESTMENTS IN FEDERAL BUILDINGS + +Objectives + + This project would increase the efficiency of government +by making cost-effective investments in buildings where the energy +bills are paid by the taxpayers. The project would create a +significant number of jobs in urban areas, create new businesses and +job skills, stimulate markets for innovative energy efficiency +equipment, and reduce the impact of the federal government on the +environment. + +Actions + + + In the case of federal building retrofits, funding will be +provided to the Department of Energy which will be responsible for +managing the program. + + In the case of funds for federally subsidized housing, +funds will be provided to HUD which will manage the fund with DoE +providing technical guidance. + +A. Create an advisory group of key officials from states with +successful state building retrofit programs, representative +building facility managers from federal buildings, and utility +managers of successful "demand-side management" programs. This +group will ensure that the federal program is designed with the +advantage of their experience and provide periodic evaluation and +guidance. + +B. The managers of the funds will provide funding for +preliminary "walk through" audits, following the experience in the +Texas program. Based on these preliminary studies, funding will be +provided for more extensive audits. Proposals made in these audits +will be funded using the following criteria: +-- technical merit of the proposal; +-- extent to which all cost-effective savings (i.e. justified on a +10% real discount rate) have been captured; +-- cost-sharing by the agency, utility, or other source of +financing; +-- in the case of federally subsidized housing, state and other +non- program cost-sharing will be considered, including use of Low- +Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and other funds -- at +least a 1:1 match should be expected; and +-- the extent to which contractors invest in hiring and training +new workers. + + In each proposal, at least 6% of the program cost will be +set aside for monitoring and evaluation using regional centers that +follow an agreed protocol established by a lead center + + Up to 10% of the program funds should be spent to create +early markets for innovative technologies which represent a +significant advance over existing systems and have the potential for +large future applications. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/column01.nws b/textfiles.com/politics/column01.nws new file mode 100644 index 00000000..99d622c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/column01.nws @@ -0,0 +1,173 @@ +ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» +º °±²The Sixth Column²±° º +ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ +º To: All those who travel CyberSpace for limitless knowledge º +º From: Lestat De Lioncourt / Coordinator of the Sixth Column º +º Re: Introduction and Purpose º +ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + +Are you happy with the current situation America is in today? Do you have +this little voice, in the back of your head whispering, "Something isn't +right about all of this"? Are you concerned for your family and your +children? What will they inherit from us? + + The American Dream or Economic Slavery? + +I have found that most of the people in CyberSpace are somewhat "aware" of +what is really happening to our Nation. CyberSpace is a wonderful place, +where ideas and information are constantly traveling the boundless reaches, +for every person in it to share and learn. Some use CyberSpace to play the +"soap opera" game on tele-conference BBSs. Some use it to download the +latest pornographic .gifs to waste hard drive space and get a one minute +stand with their hand. Some people are above the rest, they play the +software piracy circuits and play games all day. Professing in the belief +that software theft is the highest plateau of data communications. + +Then we come to the rarest breed of people in CyberSpace. The ones who are +aware of the importance to the cry, "KEEP THE INFORMATION FREE". They see +the government trying to put CyberSpace under federal control. They +realize the repercussions of such an action. They are the Hackers. The +ones who have been dubbed as "outlaws, criminals, and vandals". However, +we all know that the true definition of a Hacker is: A Person who sees +information as the greatest treasure. Information that should be free to +all who want to learn. But we know that in reality, information and truth +is kept from us at every turn. + + The Sixth Column + +If information is gold, then we are wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. +We collect and distribute information that has been hidden from the +citizens of this great Nation. Information that some people don't want the +public to know about (the best kind, of course). Some of the information +that we provide is so unbelievable that most people tune it out. However, +everything is available for you to make up your own mind. + +I read an article about a hacker's views on hackers. In it he stated that +there are few common traits linking hackers together. He also stated, "The +most significant trait of Hackers is a severe distrust of authority." As I +see it, that trait is the most important trait anyone could have. Do you +simply "believe" everything you are told? I doubt it. + +The Sixth Column is based on our Constitutional right, "To Freedom Of +Speech and Expression". We are not the people who say, "Well..thats just +life," "What can you do?", and "I can't do anything". In a short amount of +time, we took a concept and turned it into reality to reach more people. +And that is just the beginning. + +That's enough of preliminaries. We will now skim over some interesting +'tid bits of information that most people don't know about. + + =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + +The following is just a few example of what we have discovered doing +research into a variety of subjects. Basically "questioning authority," +and look at what we have found. + + 1. Income Taxes - Its VOLUNTARY! + + a. The Fifth Amendment protects you from being a witness against + yourself. The 1040 can be used against you. Therefore you are + NOT REQUIRED to file. + + b. You do not have a "taxable income"! Income is defined in the + Internal Revenue Code as "a corporate profit". WAGES are NEVER + MENTIONED in the IRC. + + c. The IRS cites the law constantly. The Income Tax laws which + are based solely on the 16th Amendment. However, it has been + proven that the 16th Amendment was NEVER RATIFIED! It was + voted on 64-4 against. + + d. Information on these points and more are available. The Media + has been proven to be controlled in respect to this issue. We + have many files on this subject. If you don't believe it, just + read a few texts for yourself. We guarantee you will be + shocked. + + 2. Driver's Licence & Registration + + a. Its a contract. Its not mandatory. + + b. The current vehicle code states, "All prior codes are still in + effect". They don't tell you in the current edition of the + codes, but in the older versions you will find that a Driver is + defined as "A person who uses the highways to haul freight or + passengers for profit". (By law, are you a driver?) + + 3. Social (In)Security + + a. Indications show that the Social Security System will collapse + by 2006. Why? + + b. For every dollar that is taken from your paycheck, the + government take a loan out on it. Ten dollars for every dollar + that you put in. Think of how much that means over the years + multiplied by how many people pay into it. + + c. The money that you put in now is not going into a place set + aside for you when you retire. It goes directly to people who + are already retired. Because of the way they handled the + system, the gov't is taxing soc. sec. at about 50% and + increasing the (voluntary) income tax assessments on social + security earnings. + + d. Information about this swindle and how you can drop out is + available. + + + =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + +That was just a small portion of the information we have accumulated. So +far we support information on the following topics. + + 1. IRS / TAX / Financial information files + + 2. Government Politics and Conspiracy information texts. Many texts on + what is happening to our Nation from all over the country. + + 3. AIDS - Is it man-made? + + 4. The Kennedy Assassination - Many texts on information you'll never + see in the Media or in history books. + + 5. And Much More! + + +As you read this, you know that President Clinton has officially gotten +tossed aside the Federal Vaseline and bent over America. More taxes, more +spending and more debt are the continuing factor in the way the government +runs the country. + +We are a Nation OF, FOR, AND BY THE PEOPLE. The Government is supposed to +be subservient to the will of the people. We were not intended to be +controlled by the government. + + =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + +That's all for now for our intro. We hope that you take the opportunity to +inspect our information before you make up your mind on any topic. + + +Grateful Thanks to the following people: + +-Pazuzu, for all the wicked humor and all the wicked truths. + +-Irwin Schiff, you paid a high price for telling the truth. We hope you +know that your information has shown people the truth. + +-Thomas Jefferson, be glad you are dead, because if you saw how far this +Nation has sunk, you would have killed yourself. + +-To all of The Photon Regulars, we are still out there. + +-To all software pirates, thanks for reminding me that there are more +important things in life than getting high score. + + + +Yours for Freedom, + +The Sixth Column + +[EOF] + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/comanrky.pap b/textfiles.com/politics/comanrky.pap new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4c71d5f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/comanrky.pap @@ -0,0 +1,1326 @@ + 2/94 THE COMING ANARCHY (part 1) + +How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly +destroying the social fabric of our planet + +by Robert D. Kaplan + +The Minister's eyes were like egg yolks, an aftereffect of some of the many +illnesses, malaria especially, endemic in his country. There was also an +irrefutable sadness in his eyes. He spoke in a slow and creaking voice, the voice +of hope about to expire. Flame trees, coconut palms, and a ballpoint-blue +Atlantic composed the background. None of it seemed beautiful, though. "In +forty-five years I have never seen things so bad. We did not manage ourselves +well after the British departed. But what we have now is something worse--the +revenge of the poor, of the social failures, of the people least able to bring up +children in a modern society." Then he referred to the recent coup in the West +African country Sierra Leone. "The boys who took power in Sierra Leone come from +houses like this." The Minister jabbed his finger at a corrugated metal shack +teeming with children. "In three months these boys confiscated all the official +Mercedes, Volvos, and BMWs and willfully wrecked them on the road." The Minister +mentioned one of the coup's leaders, Solomon Anthony Joseph Musa, who shot the +people who had paid for his schooling, "in order to erase the humiliation and +mitigate the power his middle-class sponsors held over him." + +Tyranny is nothing new in Sierra Leone or in the rest of West Africa. But it is +now part and parcel of an increasing lawlessness that is far more significant +than any coup, rebel incursion, or episodic experiment in democracy. Crime was +what my friend--a top-ranking African official whose life would be threatened +were I to identify him more precisely--really wanted to talk about. Crime is what +makes West Africa a natural point of departure for my report on what the +political character of our planet is likely to be in the twenty-first century. + +The cities of West Africa at night are some of the unsafest places in the world. +Streets are unlit; the police often lack gasoline for their vehicles; armed burglars, carjackers, and muggers proliferate. "The government in Sierra Leone +has no writ after dark," says a foreign resident, shrugging. When I was in the +capital, Freetown, last September, eight men armed with AK-47s broke into the +house of an American man. They tied him up and stole everything of value. Forget +Miami: direct flights between the United States and the Murtala Muhammed Airport, +in neighboring Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, have been suspended by order of the +U.S. Secretary of Transportation because of ineffective security at the terminal +and its environs. A State Department report cited the airport for "extortion by +law-enforcement and immigration officials." This is one of the few times that the +U.S. government has embargoed a foreign airport for reasons that are linked +purely to crime. In Abidjan, effectively the capital of the Cote d'Ivoire, or +Ivory Coast, restaurants have stick- and gun-wielding guards who walk you the +fifteen feet or so between your car and the entrance, giving you an eerie taste +of what American cities might be like in the future. An Italian ambassador was +killed by gunfire when robbers invaded an Abidjan restaurant. The family of the +Nigerian ambassador was tied up and robbed at gunpoint in the ambassador's +residence. After university students in the Ivory Coast caught bandits who had +been plaguing their dorms, they executed them by hanging tires around their necks +and setting the tires on fire. In one instance Ivorian policemen stood by and +watched the "necklacings," afraid to intervene. Each time I went to the Abidjan +bus terminal, groups of young men with restless, scanning eyes surrounded my +taxi, putting their hands all over the windows, demanding "tips" for carrying my +luggage even though I had only a rucksack. In cities in six West African +countries I saw similar young men everywhere--hordes of them. They were like +loose molecules in a very unstable social fluid, a fluid that was clearly on the +verge of igniting. + +"You see," my friend the Minister told me, "in the villages of Africa it is +perfectly natural to feed at any table and lodge in any hut. But in the cities +this communal existence no longer holds. You must pay for lodging and be invited +for food. When young men find out that their relations cannot put them up, they +become lost. They join other migrants and slip gradually into the criminal +process." + +"In the poor quarters of Arab North Africa," he continued, "there is much less +crime, because Islam provides a social anchor: of education and indoctrination. +Here in West Africa we have a lot of superficial Islam and superficial +Christianity. Western religion is undermined by animist beliefs not suitable to a +moral society, because they are based on irrational spirit power. Here spirits +are used to wreak vengeance by one person against another, or one group against +another." Many of the atrocities in the Liberian civil war have been tied to +belief in juju spirits, and the BBC has reported, in its magazine Focus on +Africa, that in the civil fighting in adjacent Sierra Leone, rebels were said to +have "a young woman with them who would go to the front naked, always walking +backwards and looking in a mirror to see where she was going. This made her +invisible, so that she could cross to the army's positions and there bury charms +. . . to improve the rebels' chances of success." + +Finally my friend the Minister mentioned polygamy. Designed for a pastoral way of +life, polygamy continues to thrive in sub-Saharan Africa even though it is +increasingly uncommon in Arab North Africa. Most youths I met on the road in West +Africa told me that they were from "extended" families, with a mother in one +place and a father in another. Translated to an urban environment, loose family +structures are largely responsible for the world's highest birth rates and the +explosion of the HIV virus on the continent. Like the communalism and animism, +they provide a weak shield against the corrosive social effects of life in cities. In those cities African culture is being redefined while desertification +and deforestation--also tied to overpopulation--drive more and more African +peasants out of the countryside. + +A Premonition of the Future + +West Africa is becoming the symbol of worldwide demographic, environmental, and +societal stress, in which criminal anarchy emerges as the real "strategic" +danger. Disease, overpopulation, unprovoked crime, scarcity of resources, refugee +migrations, the increasing erosion of nation-states and international borders, +and the empowerment of private armies, security firms, and international drug +cartels are now most tellingly demonstrated through a West African prism. West +Africa provides an appropriate introduction to the issues, often extremely +unpleasant to discuss, that will soon confront our civilization. To remap the +political earth the way it will be a few decades hence--as I intend to do in this +article--I find I must begin with West Africa. + +There is no other place on the planet where political maps are so +deceptive--where, in fact, they tell such lies--as in West Africa. Start with +Sierra Leone. According to the map, it is a nation-state of defined borders, with +a government in control of its territory. In truth the Sierra Leonian government, +run by a twenty-seven-year-old army captain, Valentine Strasser, controls +Freetown by day and by day also controls part of the rural interior. In the +government's territory the national army is an unruly rabble threatening drivers +and passengers at most checkpoints. In the other part of the country units of two +separate armies from the war in Liberia have taken up residence, as has an army +of Sierra Leonian rebels. The government force fighting the rebels is full of +renegade commanders who have aligned themselves with disaffected village chiefs. +A pre-modern formlessness governs the battlefield, evoking the wars in medieval +Europe prior to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ushered in the era of +organized nation-states. + +As a consequence, roughly 400,000 Sierra Leonians are internally displaced, +280,000 more have fled to neighboring Guinea, and another 100,000 have fled to +Liberia, even as 400,000 Liberians have fled to Sierra Leone. The third largest +city in Sierra Leone, Gondama, is a displaced-persons camp. With an additional +600,000 Liberians in Guinea and 250,000 in the Ivory Coast, the borders dividing +these four countries have become largely meaningless. Even in quiet zones none of +the governments except the Ivory Coast's maintains the schools, bridges, roads, +and police forces in a manner necessary for functional sovereignty. The Koranko +ethnic group in northeastern Sierra Leone does all its trading in Guinea. Sierra +Leonian diamonds are more likely to be sold in Liberia than in Freetown. In the +eastern provinces of Sierra Leone you can buy Liberian beer but not the local +brand. + +In Sierra Leone, as in Guinea, as in the Ivory Coast, as in Ghana, most of the +primary rain forest and the secondary bush is being destroyed at an alarming +rate. I saw convoys of trucks bearing majestic hardwood trunks to coastal ports. +When Sierra Leone achieved its independence, in 1961, as much as 60 percent of +the country was primary rain forest. Now six percent is. In the Ivory Coast the +proportion has fallen from 38 percent to eight percent. The deforestation has led +to soil erosion, which has led to more flooding and more mosquitoes. Virtually +everyone in the West African interior has some form of malaria. + +Sierra Leone is a microcosm of what is occurring, albeit in a more tempered and +gradual manner, throughout West Africa and much of the underdeveloped world: the +withering away of central governments, the rise of tribal and regional domains, +the unchecked spread of disease, and the growing pervasiveness of war. West +Africa is reverting to the Africa of the Victorian atlas. It consists now of a +series of coastal trading posts, such as Freetown and Conakry, and an interior +that, owing to violence, volatility, and disease, is again becoming, as Graham +Greene once observed, "blank" and "unexplored." However, whereas Greene's vision +implies a certain romance, as in the somnolent and charmingly seedy Freetown of +his celebrated novel The Heart of the Matter, it is Thomas Malthus, the +philosopher of demographic doomsday, who is now the prophet of West Africa's +future. And West Africa's future, eventually, will also be that of most of the +rest of the world. + +Consider "Chicago." I refer not to Chicago, Illinois, but to a slum district of +Abidjan, which the young toughs in the area have named after the American city. +("Washington" is another poor section of Abidjan.) Although Sierra Leone is +widely regarded as beyond salvage, the Ivory Coast has been considered an African +success story, and Abidjan has been called "the Paris of West Africa." Success, +however, was built on two artificial factors: the high price of cocoa, of which +the Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer, and the talents of a French +expatriate community, whose members have helped run the government and the +private sector. The expanding cocoa economy made the Ivory Coast a magnet for +migrant workers from all over West Africa: between a third and a half of the +country's population is now non-Ivorian, and the figure could be as high as 75 +percent in Abidjan. During the 1980s cocoa prices fell and the French began to +leave. The skyscrapers of the Paris of West Africa are a facade. Perhaps 15 +percent of Abidjan's population of three million people live in shantytowns like +Chicago and Washington, and the vast majority live in places that are not much +better. Not all of these places appear on any of the readily available maps. This +is another indication of how political maps are the products of tired +conventional wisdom and, in the Ivory Coast's case, of an elite that will +ultimately be forced to relinquish power. + +Chicago, like more and more of Abidjan, is a slum in the bush: a checkerwork of +corrugated zinc roofs and walls made of cardboard and black plastic wrap. It is +located in a gully teeming with coconut palms and oil palms, and is ravaged by +flooding. Few residents have easy access to electricity, a sewage system, or a +clean water supply. The crumbly red laterite earth crawls with foot-long lizards +both inside and outside the shacks. Children defecate in a stream filled with +garbage and pigs, droning with malarial mosquitoes. In this stream women do the +washing. Young unemployed men spend their time drinking beer, palm wine, and gin +while gambling on pinball games constructed out of rotting wood and rusty nails. +These are the same youths who rob houses in more prosperous Ivorian neighborhoods +at night. One man I met, Damba Tesele, came to Chicago from Burkina Faso in 1963. +A cook by profession, he has four wives and thirty-two children, not one of whom +has made it to high school. He has seen his shanty community destroyed by +municipal authorities seven times since coming to the area. Each time he and his +neighbors rebuild. Chicago is the latest incarnation. + +Fifty-five percent of the Ivory Coast's population is urban, and the proportion +is expected to reach 62 percent by 2000. The yearly net population growth is 3.6 +percent. This means that the Ivory Coast's 13.5 million people will become 39 +million by 2025, when much of the population will consist of urbanized peasants +like those of Chicago. But don't count on the Ivory Coast's still existing then. +Chicago, which is more indicative of Africa's and the Third World's demographic +present--and even more of the future--than any idyllic junglescape of women +balancing earthen jugs on their heads, illustrates why the Ivory Coast, once a +model of Third World success, is becoming a case study in Third World +catastrophe. + +President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who died last December at the age of about +ninety, left behind a weak cluster of political parties and a leaden bureaucracy +that discourages foreign investment. Because the military is small and the +non-Ivorian population large, there is neither an obvious force to maintain order +nor a sense of nationhood that would lessen the need for such enforcement. The +economy has been shrinking since the mid-1980s. Though the French are working +assiduously to preserve stability, the Ivory Coast faces a possibility worse than +a coup: an anarchic implosion of criminal violence--an urbanized version of what +has already happened in Somalia. Or it may become an African Yugoslavia, but one +without mini-states to replace the whole. + +Because the demographic reality of West Africa is a countryside draining into +dense slums by the coast, ultimately the region's rulers will come to reflect the +values of these shanty-towns. There are signs of this already in Sierra +Leone--and in Togo, where the dictator Etienne Eyadema, in power since 1967, was +nearly toppled in 1991, not by democrats but by thousands of youths whom the +London-based magazine West Africa described as "Soweto-like stone-throwing +adolescents." Their behavior may herald a regime more brutal than Eyadema's +repressive one. +(continued in part 2) + + + +Transmitted: 94-01-26 17:10:03 EST + + + +2/94 THE COMING ANARCHY (part 2) + +(continued from part 1) +The fragility of these West African "countries" impressed itself on me when I +took a series of bush taxis along the Gulf of Guinea, from the Togolese capital +of Lome, across Ghana, to Abidjan. The 400-mile journey required two full days of +driving, because of stops at two border crossings and an additional eleven +customs stations, at each of which my fellow passengers had their bags searched. +I had to change money twice and repeatedly fill in currency-declaration forms. I +had to bribe a Togolese immigration official with the equivalent of eighteen +dollars before he would agree to put an exit stamp on my passport. Nevertheless, +smuggling across these borders is rampant. The London Observer has reported that +in 1992 the equivalent of $856 million left West Africa for Europe in the form of +"hot cash" assumed to be laundered drug money. International cartels have +discovered the utility of weak, financially strapped West African regimes. + +The more fictitious the actual sovereignty, the more severe border authorities +seem to be in trying to prove otherwise. Getting visas for these states can be as +hard as crossing their borders. The Washington embassies of Sierra Leone and +Guinea--the two poorest nations on earth, according to a 1993 United Nations +report on "human development"--asked for letters from my bank (in lieu of prepaid +round-trip tickets) and also personal references, in order to prove that I had +sufficient means to sustain myself during my visits. I was reminded of my visa +and currency hassles while traveling to the communist states of Eastern Europe, +particularly East Germany and Czechoslovakia, before those states collapsed. + +Ali A. Mazrui, the director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the +State University of New York at Binghamton, predicts that West Africa--indeed, +the whole continent--is on the verge of large-scale border upheaval. Mazrui +writes, "In the 21st century France will be withdrawing from West Africa as she +gets increasingly involved in the affairs [of Europe]. France's West African +sphere of influence will be filled by Nigeria--a more natural hegemonic power. . +. . It will be under those circumstances that Nigeria's own boundaries are likely +to expand to incorporate the Republic of Niger (the Hausa link), the Republic of +Benin (the Yoruba link) and conceivably Cameroon." + +The future could be more tumultuous, and bloodier, than Mazrui dares to say. +France will withdraw from former colonies like Benin, Togo, Niger, and the Ivory +Coast, where it has been propping up local currencies. It will do so not only +because its attention will be diverted to new challenges in Europe and Russia but +also because younger French officials lack the older generation's emotional ties +to the ex-colonies. However, even as Nigeria attempts to expand, it, too, is +likely to split into several pieces. The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research recently made the following points in an analysis of +Nigeria: "Prospects for a transition to civilian rule and democratization are +slim. . . . The repressive apparatus of the state security service . . . will be +difficult for any future civilian government to control. . . . The country is +becoming increasingly ungovernable. . . . Ethnic and regional splits are +deepening, a situation made worse by an increase in the number of states from 19 +to 30 and a doubling in the number of local governing authorities; religious +cleavages are more serious; Muslim fundamentalism and evangelical Christian +militancy are on the rise; and northern Muslim anxiety over southern [Christian] +control of the economy is intense . . . the will to keep Nigeria together is now +very weak." + +Given that oil-rich Nigeria is a bellwether for the region--its population of +roughly 90 million equals the populations of all the other West African states +combined--it is apparent that Africa faces cataclysms that could make the +Ethiopian and Somalian famines pale in comparison. This is especially so because +Nigeria's population, including that of its largest city, Lagos, whose crime, +pollution, and overcrowding make it the cliche par excellence of Third World +urban dysfunction, is set to double during the next twenty-five years, while the +country continues to deplete its natural resources. +Part of West Africa's quandary is that although its population belts are +horizontal, with habitation densities increasing as one travels south away from +the Sahara and toward the tropical abundance of the Atlantic littoral, the +borders erected by European colonialists are vertical, and therefore at +cross-purposes with demography and topography. Satellite photos depict the same +reality I experienced in the bush taxi: the Lome-Abidjan coastal +corridor--indeed, the entire stretch of coast from Abidjan eastward to Lagos--is +one burgeoning megalopolis that by any rational economic and geographical +standard should constitute a single sovereignty, rather than the five (the Ivory +Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria) into which it is currently divided. + +As many internal African borders begin to crumble, a more impenetrable boundary +is being erected that threatens to isolate the continent as a whole: the wall of +disease. Merely to visit West Africa in some degree of safety, I spent about $500 +for a hepatitis B vaccination series and other disease prophylaxis. Africa may +today be more dangerous in this regard than it was in 1862, before antibiotics, +when the explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton described the health situation on +the continent as "deadly, a Golgotha, a Jehannum." Of the approximately 12 +million people worldwide whose blood is HIV-positive, 8 million are in Africa. In +the capital of the Ivory Coast, whose modern road system only helps to spread the +disease, 10 percent of the population is HIV-positive. And war and refugee +movements help the virus break through to more-remote areas of Africa. Alan +Greenberg, M.D., a representative of the Centers for Disease Control in Abidjan, +explains that in Africa the HIV virus and tuberculosis are now "fast-forwarding +each other." Of the approximately 4,000 newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients in +Abidjan, 45 percent were also found to be HIV-positive. As African birth rates +soar and slums proliferate, some experts worry that viral mutations and +hybridizations might, just conceivably, result in a form of the AIDS virus that +is easier to catch than the present strain. + +It is malaria that is most responsible for the disease wall that threatens to +separate Africa and other parts of the Third World from more-developed regions of +the planet in the twenty-first century. Carried by mosquitoes, malaria, unlike +AIDS, is easy to catch. Most people in sub-Saharan Africa have recurring bouts of +the disease throughout their entire lives, and it is mutating into increasingly +deadly forms. "The great gift of Malaria is utter apathy," wrote Sir Richard +Burton, accurately portraying the situation in much of the Third World today. +Visitors to malaria-afflicted parts of the planet are protected by a new drug, +mefloquine, a side effect of which is vivid, even violent, dreams. But a strain +of cerebral malaria resistant to mefloquine is now on the offensive. +Consequently, defending oneself against malaria in Africa is becoming more and +more like defending oneself against violent crime. You engage in "behavior +modification": not going out at dusk, wearing mosquito repellent all the time. + +And the cities keep growing. I got a general sense of the future while driving +from the airport to downtown Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The +forty-five-minute journey in heavy traffic was through one never-ending +shantytown: a nightmarish Dickensian spectacle to which Dickens himself would +never have given credence. The corrugated metal shacks and scabrous walls were +coated with black slime. Stores were built out of rusted shipping containers, +junked cars, and jumbles of wire mesh. The streets were one long puddle of +floating garbage. Mosquitoes and flies were everywhere. Children, many of whom +had protruding bellies, seemed as numerous as ants. When the tide went out, dead +rats and the skeletons of cars were exposed on the mucky beach. In twenty-eight +years Guinea's population will double if growth goes on at current rates. +Hardwood logging continues at a madcap speed, and people flee the Guinean +countryside for Conakry. It seemed to me that here, as elsewhere in Africa and +the Third World, man is challenging nature far beyond its limits, and nature is +now beginning to take its revenge. + +Africa may be as relevant to the future character of world politics as the +Balkans were a hundred years ago, prior to the two Balkan wars and the First +World War. Then the threat was the collapse of empires and the birth of nations +based solely on tribe. Now the threat is more elemental: nature unchecked. +Africa's immediate future could be very bad. The coming upheaval, in which foreign embassies are shut down, states collapse, and contact with the outside +world takes place through dangerous, disease-ridden coastal trading posts, will +loom large in the century we are entering. (Nine of twenty-one U.S. foreign-aid +missions to be closed over the next three years are in Africa--a prologue to a +consolidation of U.S. embassies themselves.) Precisely because much of Africa is +set to go over the edge at a time when the Cold War has ended, when environmental +and demographic stress in other parts of the globe is becoming critical, and when +the post-First World War system of nation-states--not just in the Balkans but +perhaps also in the Middle East--is about to be toppled, Africa suggests what +war, borders, and ethnic politics will be like a few decades hence. + +To understand the events of the next fifty years, then, one must understand +environmental scarcity, cultural and racial clash, geographic destiny, and the +transformation of war. The order in which I have named these is not accidental. +Each concept except the first relies partly on the one or ones before it, meaning +that the last two--new approaches to mapmaking and to warfare--are the most +important. They are also the least understood. I will now look at each idea, +drawing upon the work of specialists and also my own travel experiences in +various parts of the globe besides Africa, in order to fill in the blanks of a +new political atlas. + +The Environment as a Hostile Power + +For a while the media will continue to ascribe riots and other violent upheavals +abroad mainly to ethnic and religious conflict. But as these conflicts multiply, +it will become apparent that something else is afoot, making more and more places +like Nigeria, India, and Brazil ungovernable. + +Mention "the environment" or "diminishing natural resources" in foreign-policy +circles and you meet a brick wall of skepticism or boredom. To conservatives +especially, the very terms seem flaky. Public-policy foundations have contributed +to the lack of interest, by funding narrowly focused environmental studies +replete with technical jargon which foreign-affairs experts just let pile up on +their desks. + +It is time to understand "the environment" for what it is: the national-security +issue of the early twenty-first century. The political and strategic impact of +surging populations, spreading disease, deforestation and soil erosion, water +depletion, air pollution, and, possibly, rising sea levels in critical, +overcrowded regions like the Nile Delta and Bangladesh--developments that will +prompt mass migrations and, in turn, incite group conflicts--will be the core +foreign-policy challenge from which most others will ultimately emanate, arousing +the public and uniting assorted interests left over from the Cold War. In the +twenty-first century water will be in dangerously short supply in such diverse +locales as Saudi Arabia, Central Asia, and the southwestern United States. A war +could erupt between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile River water. Even in Europe +tensions have arisen between Hungary and Slovakia over the damming of the Danube, +a classic case of how environmental disputes fuse with ethnic and historical +ones. The political scientist and erstwhile Clinton adviser Michael Mandelbaum +has said, "We have a foreign policy today in the shape of a doughnut--lots of +peripheral interests but nothing at the center." The environment, I will argue, +is part of a terrifying array of problems that will define a new threat to our +security, filling the hole in Mandelbaum's doughnut and allowing a post-Cold War +foreign policy to emerge inexorably by need rather than by design. + +Our Cold War foreign policy truly began with George F. Kennan's famous article, +signed "X," published in Foreign Affairs in July of 1947, in which Kennan argued +for a "firm and vigilant containment" of a Soviet Union that was imperially, +rather than ideologically, motivated. It may be that our post-Cold War foreign +policy will one day be seen to have had its beginnings in an even bolder and more +detailed piece of written analysis: one that appeared in the journal +International Security. The article, published in the fall of 1991 by Thomas +Fraser Homer-Dixon, who is the head of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at +the University of Toronto, was titled "On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as +Causes of Acute Conflict." Homer-Dixon has, more successfully than other +analysts, integrated two hitherto separate fields--military-conflict studies and +the study of the physical environment. + +In Homer-Dixon's view, future wars and civil violence will often arise from +scarcities of resources such as water, cropland, forests, and fish. Just as there +will be environmentally driven wars and refugee flows, there will be +environmentally induced praetorian regimes--or, as he puts it, "hard regimes." +Countries with the highest probability of acquiring hard regimes, according to +Homer-Dixon, are those that are threatened by a declining resource base yet also +have "a history of state [read 'military'] strength." Candidates include +Indonesia, Brazil, and, of course, Nigeria. Though each of these nations has +exhibited democratizing tendencies of late, Homer-Dixon argues that such +tendencies are likely to be superficial "epiphenomena" having nothing to do with +long-term processes that include soaring populations and shrinking raw materials. +Democracy is problematic; scarcity is more certain. +(continued in part 3) + + + +Transmitted: 94-01-26 17:09:54 EST + + + + 2/94 THE COMING ANARCHY (part 3) (continued from part 2) +Indeed, the Saddam Husseins of the future will have more, not fewer, +opportunities. In addition to engendering tribal strife, scarcer resources will +place a great strain on many peoples who never had much of a democratic or +institutional tradition to begin with. Over the next fifty years the earth's +population will soar from 5.5 billion to more than nine billion. Though optimists +have hopes for new resource technologies and free-market development in the +global village, they fail to note that, as the National Academy of Sciences has +pointed out, 95 percent of the population increase will be in the poorest regions +of the world, where governments now--just look at Africa--show little ability to +function, let alone to implement even marginal improvements. Homer-Dixon writes, +ominously, "Neo-Malthusians may underestimate human adaptability in today's +environmental-social system, but as time passes their analysis may become ever +more compelling." + +While a minority of the human population will be, as Francis Fukuyama would put +it, sufficiently sheltered so as to enter a "post-historical" realm, living in +cities and suburbs in which the environment has been mastered and ethnic +animosities have been quelled by bourgeois prosperity, an increasingly large +number of people will be stuck in history, living in shantytowns where attempts +to rise above poverty, cultural dysfunction, and ethnic strife will be doomed by +a lack of water to drink, soil to till, and space to survive in. In the +developing world environmental stress will present people with a choice that is +increasingly among totalitarianism (as in Iraq), fascist-tending mini-states (as +in Serb-held Bosnia), and road-warrior cultures (as in Somalia). Homer-Dixon +concludes that "as environmental degradation proceeds, the size of the potential +social disruption will increase." + +Tad Homer-Dixon is an unlikely Jeremiah. Today a boyish thirty-seven, he grew up +amid the sylvan majesty of Vancouver Island, attending private day schools. His +speech is calm, perfectly even, and crisply enunciated. There is nothing in his +background or manner that would indicate a bent toward pessimism. A Canadian +Anglican who spends his summers canoeing on the lakes of northern Ontario, and +who talks about the benign mountains, black bears, and Douglas firs of his youth, +he is the opposite of the intellectually severe neoconservative, the kind at home +with conflict scenarios. Nor is he an environmentalist who opposes development. +"My father was a logger who thought about ecologically safe forestry before +others," he says. "He logged, planted, logged, and planted. He got out of the +business just as the issue was being polarized by environmentalists. They hate +changed ecosystems. But human beings, just by carrying seeds around, change the +natural world." As an only child whose playground was a virtually untouched +wilderness and seacoast, Homer-Dixon has a familiarity with the natural world +that permits him to see a reality that most policy analysts--children of suburbia +and city streets--are blind to. + +"We need to bring nature back in," he argues. "We have to stop separating +politics from the physical world--the climate, public health, and the +environment." Quoting Daniel Deudney, another pioneering expert on the security +aspects of the environment, Homer-Dixon says that "for too long we've been +prisoners of 'social-social' theory, which assumes there are only social causes +for social and political changes, rather than natural causes, too. This +social-social mentality emerged with the Industrial Revolution, which separated +us from nature. But nature is coming back with a vengeance, tied to population +growth. It will have incredible security implications. + +"Think of a stretch limo in the potholed streets of New York City, where homeless +beggars live. Inside the limo are the air-conditioned post-industrial regions of +North America, Europe, the emerging Pacific Rim, and a few other isolated places, +with their trade summitry and computer-information highways. Outside is the rest +of mankind, going in a completely different direction." + +We are entering a bifurcated world. Part of the globe is inhabited by Hegel's and +Fukuyama's Last Man, healthy, well fed, and pampered by technology. The other, +larger, part is inhabited by Hobbes's First Man, condemned to a life that is +"poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Although both parts will be threatened by +environmental stress, the Last Man will be able to master it; the First Man will +not. + +The Last Man will adjust to the loss of underground water tables in the western +United States. He will build dikes to save Cape Hatteras and the Chesapeake +beaches from rising sea levels, even as the Maldive Islands, off the coast of +India, sink into oblivion, and the shorelines of Egypt, Bangladesh, and Southeast +Asia recede, driving tens of millions of people inland where there is no room for +them, and thus sharpening ethnic divisions. + +Homer-Dixon points to a world map of soil degradation in his Toronto office. "The +darker the map color, the worse the degradation," he explains. The West African +coast, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, China, and Central America have +the darkest shades, signifying all manner of degradation, related to winds, +chemicals, and water problems. "The worst degradation is generally where the +population is highest. The population is generally highest where the soil is the +best. So we're degrading earth's best soil." + +China, in Homer-Dixon's view, is the quintessential example of environmental +degradation. Its current economic "success" masks deeper problems. "China's +fourteen percent growth rate does not mean it's going to be a world power. It +means that coastal China, where the economic growth is taking place, is joining +the rest of the Pacific Rim. The disparity with inland China is intensifying." +Referring to the environmental research of his colleague, the Czech-born +ecologist Vaclav Smil, Homer-Dixon explains how the per capita availability of +arable land in interior China has rapidly declined at the same time that the +quality of that land has been destroyed by deforestation, loss of topsoil, and +salinization. He mentions the loss and contamination of water supplies, the +exhaustion of wells, the plugging of irrigation systems and reservoirs with +eroded silt, and a population of 1.54 billion by the year 2025: it is a +misconception that China has gotten its population under control. Large-scale +population movements are under way, from inland China to coastal China and from +villages to cities, leading to a crime surge like the one in Africa and to +growing regional disparities and conflicts in a land with a strong tradition of +warlordism and a weak tradition of central government--again as in Africa. "We +will probably see the center challenged and fractured, and China will not remain +the same on the map," Homer-Dixon says. + +Environmental scarcity will inflame existing hatreds and affect power +relationships, at which we now look. + +Skinhead Cossacks, Juju Warriors + +In the summer, 1993, issue of Foreign Affairs, Samuel P. Huntington, of Harvard's +Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, published a thought-provoking article +called "The Clash of Civilizations?" The world, he argues, has been moving during +the course of this century from nation-state conflict to ideological conflict to, +finally, cultural conflict. I would add that as refugee flows increase and as +peasants continue migrating to cities around the world--turning them into +sprawling villages--national borders will mean less, even as more power will fall +into the hands of less educated, less sophisticated groups. In the eyes of these +uneducated but newly empowered millions, the real borders are the most tangible +and intractable ones: those of culture and tribe. Huntington writes, "First, +differences among civilizations are not only real; they are basic," involving, +among other things, history, language, and religion. "Second . . . interactions +between peoples of different civilizations are increasing; these increasing +interactions intensify civilization consciousness." Economic modernization is not +necessarily a panacea, since it fuels individual and group ambitions while +weakening traditional loyalties to the state. It is worth noting, for example, +that it is precisely the wealthiest and fastest-developing city in India, Bombay, +that has seen the worst intercommunal violence between Hindus and Muslims. +Consider that Indian cities, like African and Chinese ones, are ecological time +bombs--Delhi and Calcutta, and also Beijing, suffer the worst air quality of any +cities in the world--and it is apparent how surging populations, environmental +degradation, and ethnic conflict are deeply related. + +Huntington points to interlocking conflicts among Hindu, Muslim, Slavic Orthodox, +Western, Japanese, Confucian, Latin American, and possibly African civilizations: +for instance, Hindus clashing with Muslims in India, Turkic Muslims clashing with +Slavic Orthodox Russians in Central Asian cities, the West clashing with Asia. +(Even in the United States, African-Americans find themselves besieged by an +influx of competing Latinos.) Whatever the laws, refugees find a way to crash +official borders, bringing their passions with them, meaning that Europe and the +United States will be weakened by cultural disputes. + +Because Huntington's brush is broad, his specifics are vulnerable to attack. In a +rebuttal of Huntington's argument the Johns Hopkins professor Fouad Ajami, a +Lebanese-born Shi'ite who certainly knows the world beyond suburbia, writes in +the September-October, 1993, issue of Foreign Affairs, "The world of Islam +divides and subdivides. The battle lines in the Caucasus . . . are not +coextensive with civilizational fault lines. The lines follow the interests of +states. Where Huntington sees a civilizational duel between Armenia and +Azerbaijan, the Iranian state has cast religious zeal . . . to the wind . . . in +that battle the Iranians have tilted toward Christian Armenia." + +True, Huntington's hypothesized war between Islam and Orthodox Christianity is +not borne out by the alliance network in the Caucasus. But that is only because +he has misidentified which cultural war is occurring there. A recent visit to +Azerbaijan made clear to me that Azeri Turks, the world's most secular Shi'ite +Muslims, see their cultural identity in terms not of religion but of their Turkic +race. The Armenians, likewise, fight the Azeris not because the latter are +Muslims but because they are Turks, related to the same Turks who massacred +Armenians in 1915. Turkic culture (secular and based on languages employing a +Latin script) is battling Iranian culture (religiously militant as defined by +Tehran, and wedded to an Arabic script) across the whole swath of Central Asia +and the Caucasus. The Armenians are, therefore, natural allies of their fellow +Indo-Europeans the Iranians. + +Huntington is correct that the Caucasus is a flashpoint of cultural and racial +war. But, as Ajami observes, Huntington's plate tectonics are too simple. Two +months of recent travel throughout Turkey revealed to me that although the Turks +are developing a deep distrust, bordering on hatred, of fellow-Muslim Iran, they +are also, especially in the shantytowns that are coming to dominate Turkish +public opinion, revising their group identity, increasingly seeing themselves as +Muslims being deserted by a West that does little to help besieged Muslims in +Bosnia and that attacks Turkish Muslims in the streets of Germany. + +In other words, the Balkans, a powder keg for nation-state war at the beginning +of the twentieth century, could be a powder keg for cultural war at the turn of +the twenty-first: between Orthodox Christianity (represented by the Serbs and a +classic Byzantine configuration of Greeks, Russians, and Romanians) and the House +of Islam. Yet in the Caucasus that House of Islam is falling into a clash between +Turkic and Iranian civilizations. Ajami asserts that this very subdivision, not +to mention all the divisions within the Arab world, indicates that the West, +including the United States, is not threatened by Huntington's scenario. As the +Gulf War demonstrated, the West has proved capable of playing one part of the +House of Islam against another. + +True. However, whether he is aware of it or not, Ajami is describing a world even +more dangerous than the one Huntington envisions, especially when one takes into +account Homer-Dixon's research on environmental scarcity. Outside the stretch +limo would be a rundown, crowded planet of skinhead Cossacks and juju warriors, +influenced by the worst refuse of Western pop culture and ancient tribal hatreds, +and battling over scraps of overused earth in guerrilla conflicts that ripple +across continents and intersect in no discernible pattern--meaning there's no +easy-to-define threat. Kennan's world of one adversary seems as distant as the +world of Herodotus. + +Most people believe that the political earth since 1989 has undergone immense +change. But it is minor compared with what is yet to come. The breaking apart and +remaking of the atlas is only now beginning. The crack-up of the Soviet empire +and the coming end of Arab-Israeli military confrontation are merely prologues to +the really big changes that lie ahead. Michael Vlahos, a long-range thinker for +the U.S. Navy, warns, "We are not in charge of the environment and the world is +not following us. It is going in many directions. Do not assume that democratic +capitalism is the last word in human social evolution." + +Before addressing the questions of maps and of warfare, I want to take a closer +look at the interaction of religion, culture, demographic shifts, and the +distribution of natural resources in a specific area of the world: the Middle +East. +(continued in part 4) + + + +Transmitted: 94-01-26 17:09:45 EST + + + +2/94 THE COMING ANARCHY (part 4) + +(continued from part 3) +The Past Is Dead + +Built on steep, muddy hills, the shantytowns of Ankara, the Turkish capital, +exude visual drama. Altindag, or "Golden Mountain," is a pyramid of dreams, +fashioned from cinder blocks and corrugated iron, rising as though each shack +were built on top of another, all reaching awkwardly and painfully toward +heaven--the heaven of wealthier Turks who live elsewhere in the city. Nowhere +else on the planet have I found such a poignant architectural symbol of man's +striving, with gaps in house walls plugged with rusted cans, and leeks and onions +growing on verandas assembled from planks of rotting wood. For reasons that I +will explain, the Turkish shacktown is a psychological universe away from the +African one. + +To see the twenty-first century truly, one's eyes must learn a different set of +aesthetics. One must reject the overly stylized images of travel magazines, with +their inviting photographs of exotic villages and glamorous downtowns. There are +far too many millions whose dreams are more vulgar, more real--whose raw energies +and desires will overwhelm the visions of the elites, remaking the future into +something frighteningly new. But in Turkey I learned that shantytowns are not all +bad. + +Slum quarters in Abidjan terrify and repel the outsider. In Turkey it is the +opposite. The closer I got to Golden Mountain the better it looked, and the safer +I felt. I had $1,500 worth of Turkish lira in one pocket and $1,000 in traveler's +checks in the other, yet I felt no fear. Golden Mountain was a real neighborhood. +The inside of one house told the story: The architectural bedlam of cinder block +and sheet metal and cardboard walls was deceiving. Inside was a home--order, that +is, bespeaking dignity. I saw a working refrigerator, a television, a wall +cabinet with a few books and lots of family pictures, a few plants by a window, +and a stove. Though the streets become rivers of mud when it rains, the floors +inside this house were spotless. + +Other houses were like this too. Schoolchildren ran along with briefcases +strapped to their backs, trucks delivered cooking gas, a few men sat inside a +cafe sipping tea. One man sipped beer. Alcohol is easy to obtain in Turkey, a +secular state where 99 percent of the population is Muslim. Yet there is little +problem of alcoholism. Crime against persons is infinitesimal. Poverty and +illiteracy are watered-down versions of what obtains in Algeria and Egypt (to say +nothing of West Africa), making it that much harder for religious extremists to +gain a foothold. + +My point in bringing up a rather wholesome, crime-free slum is this: its +existence demonstrates how formidable is the fabric of which Turkish Muslim +culture is made. A culture this strong has the potential to dominate the Middle +East once again. Slums are litmus tests for innate cultural strengths and +weaknesses. Those peoples whose cultures can harbor extensive slum life without +decomposing will be, relatively speaking, the future's winners. Those whose +cultures cannot will be the future's victims. Slums--in the sociological +sense--do not exist in Turkish cities. The mortar between people and family +groups is stronger here than in Africa. Resurgent Islam and Turkic cultural +identity have produced a civilization with natural muscle tone. Turks, history's +perennial nomads, take disruption in stride. + +The future of the Middle East is quietly being written inside the heads of Golden +Mountain's inhabitants. Think of an Ottoman military encampment on the eve of the +destruction of Greek Constantinople in 1453. That is Golden Mountain. "We brought +the village here. But in the village we worked harder--in the field, all day. So +we couldn't fast during [the holy month of] Ramadan. Here we fast. Here we are +more religious." Aishe Tanrikulu, along with half a dozen other women, was +stuffing rice into vine leaves from a crude plastic bowl. She asked me to join +her under the shade of a piece of sheet metal. Each of these women had her hair +covered by a kerchief. In the city they were encountering television for the +first time. "We are traditional, religious people. The programs offend us," Aishe +said. Another woman complained about the schools. Though her children had +educational options unavailable in the village, they had to compete with +wealthier, secular Turks. "The kids from rich families with connections--they get +all the places." More opportunities, more tensions, in other words. + +My guidebook to Golden Mountain was an untypical one: Tales From the Garbage +Hills, a brutally realistic novel by a Turkish writer, Latife Tekin, about life +in the shantytowns, which in Turkey are called gecekondus ("built in a night"). +"He listened to the earth and wept unceasingly for water, for work and for the +cure of the illnesses spread by the garbage and the factory waste," Tekin writes. +In the most revealing passage of Tales From the Garbage Hills the squatters are +told "about a certain 'Ottoman Empire' . . . that where they now lived there had +once been an empire of this name." This history "confounded" the squatters. It +was the first they had heard of it. Though one of them knew "that his grandfather +and his dog died fighting the Greeks," nationalism and an encompassing sense of +Turkish history are the province of the Turkish middle and upper classes, and of +foreigners like me who feel required to have a notion of "Turkey." + +But what did the Golden Mountain squatters know about the armies of Turkish +migrants that had come before their own--namely, Seljuks and Ottomans? For these +recently urbanized peasants, and their counterparts in Africa, the Arab world, +India, and so many other places, the world is new, to adapt V. S. Naipaul's +phrase. As Naipaul wrote of urban refugees in India: A Wounded Civilization, +"They saw themselves at the beginning of things: unaccommodated men making a +claim on their land for the first time, and out of chaos evolving their own +philosophy of community and self-help. For them the past was dead; they had left +it behind in the villages." + +Everywhere in the developing world at the turn of the twenty-first century these +new men and women, rushing into the cities, are remaking civilizations and +redefining their identities in terms of religion and tribal ethnicity which do +not coincide with the borders of existing states. + +In Turkey several things are happening at once. In 1980, 44 percent of Turks +lived in cities; in 1990 it was 61 percent. By the year 2000 the figure is +expected to be 67 percent. Villages are emptying out as concentric rings of +gecekondu developments grow around Turkish cities. This is the real political and +demographic revolution in Turkey and elsewhere, and foreign correspondents +usually don't write about it. + +Whereas rural poverty is age-old and almost a "normal" part of the social fabric, +urban poverty is socially destabilizing. As Iran has shown, Islamic extremism is +the psychological defense mechanism of many urbanized peasants threatened with +the loss of traditions in pseudo-modern cities where their values are under +attack, where basic services like water and electricity are unavailable, and +where they are assaulted by a physically unhealthy environment. The American +ethnologist and orientalist Carleton Stevens Coon wrote in 1951 that Islam "has +made possible the optimum survival and happiness of millions of human beings in +an increasingly impoverished environment over a fourteen-hundred-year period." +Beyond its stark, clearly articulated message, Islam's very militancy makes it +attractive to the downtrodden. It is the one religion that is prepared to fight. +A political era driven by environmental stress, increased cultural sensitivity, +unregulated urbanization, and refugee migrations is an era divinely created for +the spread and intensification of Islam, already the world's fastest-growing +religion. (Though Islam is spreading in West Africa, it is being hobbled by +syncretization with animism: this makes new converts less apt to become +anti-Western extremists, but it also makes for a weakened version of the faith, +which is less effective as an antidote to crime.) + +In Turkey, however, Islam is painfully and awkwardly forging a consensus with +modernization, a trend that is less apparent in the Arab and Persian worlds (and +virtually invisible in Africa). In Iran the oil boom--because it put development +and urbanization on a fast track, making the culture shock more intense--fueled +the 1978 Islamic Revolution. But Turkey, unlike Iran and the Arab world, has +little oil. Therefore its development and urbanization have been more gradual. +Islamists have been integrated into the parliamentary system for decades. The +tensions I noticed in Golden Mountain are natural, creative ones: the kind +immigrants face the world over. While the world has focused on religious +perversity in Algeria, a nation rich in natural gas, and in Egypt, parts of whose +capital city, Cairo, evince worse crowding than I have seen even in Calcutta, +Turkey has been living through the Muslim equivalent of the Protestant +Reformation. + +Resource distribution is strengthening Turks in another way vis-a-vis Arabs and +Persians. Turks may have little oil, but their Anatolian heartland has lots of +water--the most important fluid of the twenty-first century. Turkey's Southeast +Anatolia Project, involving twenty-two major dams and irrigation systems, is +impounding the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Much of the water that +Arabs and perhaps Israelis will need to drink in the future is controlled by +Turks. The project's centerpiece is the mile-wide, sixteen-story Ataturk Dam, +upon which are emblazoned the words of modern Turkey's founder: "Ne Mutlu Turkum +Diyene" ("Lucky is the one who is a Turk"). + +Unlike Egypt's Aswan High Dam, on the Nile, and Syria's Revolution Dam, on the +Euphrates, both of which were built largely by Russians, the Ataturk Dam is a +predominantly Turkish affair, with Turkish engineers and companies in charge. On +a recent visit my eyes took in the immaculate offices and their gardens, the +high-voltage electric grids and phone switching stations, the dizzying sweep of +giant humming transformers, the poured-concrete spillways, and the prim unfolding +suburbia, complete with schools, for dam employees. The emerging power of the +Turks was palpable. + +Erduhan Bayindir, the site manager at the dam, told me that "while oil can be +shipped abroad to enrich only elites, water has to be spread more evenly within +the society. . . . It is true, we can stop the flow of water into Syria and Iraq +for up to eight months without the same water overflowing our dams, in order to +regulate their political behavior." + +Power is certainly moving north in the Middle East, from the oil fields of +Dhahran, on the Persian Gulf, to the water plain of Harran, in southern +Anatolia--near the site of the Ataturk Dam. But will the nation-state of Turkey, +as presently constituted, be the inheritor of this wealth? + +I very much doubt it. + +The Lies of Mapmakers + +Whereas West Africa represents the least stable part of political reality outside +Homer-Dixon's stretch limo, Turkey, an organic outgrowth of two Turkish empires +that ruled Anatolia for 850 years, has been among the most stable. Turkey's +borders were established not by colonial powers but in a war of independence, in +the early 1920s. Kemal Ataturk provided Turkey with a secular nation-building +myth that most Arab and African states, burdened by artificially drawn borders, +lack. That lack will leave many Arab states defenseless against a wave of Islam +that will eat away at their legitimacy and frontiers in coming years. Yet even as +regards Turkey, maps deceive. + +It is not only African shantytowns that don't appear on urban maps. Many +shantytowns in Turkey and elsewhere are also missing--as are the considerable +territories controlled by guerrilla armies and urban mafias. Traveling with +Eritrean guerrillas in what, according to the map, was northern Ethiopia, +traveling in "northern Iraq" with Kurdish guerrillas, and staying in a hotel in +the Caucasus controlled by a local mafia--to say nothing of my experiences in +West Africa--led me to develop a healthy skepticism toward maps, which, I began +to realize, create a conceptual barrier that prevents us from comprehending the +political crack-up just beginning to occur worldwide. + +Consider the map of the world, with its 190 or so countries, each signified by a +bold and uniform color: this map, with which all of us have grown up, is +generally an invention of modernism, specifically of European colonialism. +Modernism, in the sense of which I speak, began with the rise of nation-states in +Europe and was confirmed by the death of feudalism at the end of the Thirty +Years' War--an event that was interposed between the Renaissance and the +Enlightenment, which together gave birth to modern science. People were suddenly +flush with an enthusiasm to categorize, to define. The map, based on scientific +techniques of measurement, offered a way to classify new national organisms, +making a jigsaw puzzle of neat pieces without transition zones between them. +"Frontier" is itself a modern concept that didn't exist in the feudal mind. And +as European nations carved out far-flung domains at the same time that print +technology was making the reproduction of maps cheaper, cartography came into its +own as a way of creating facts by ordering the way we look at the world. + +In his book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of +Nationalism, Benedict Anderson, of Cornell University, demonstrates that the map +enabled colonialists to think about their holdings in terms of a "totalizing +classificatory grid. . . . It was bounded, determinate, and therefore--in +principle--countable." To the colonialist, country maps were the equivalent of an +accountant's ledger books. Maps, Anderson explains, "shaped the grammar" that +would make possible such questionable concepts as Iraq, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, +and Nigeria. The state, recall, is a purely Western notion, one that until the +twentieth century applied to countries covering only three percent of the earth's +land area. Nor is the evidence compelling that the state, as a governing ideal, +can be successfully transported to areas outside the industrialized world. Even +the United States of America, in the words of one of our best living poets, Gary +Snyder, consists of "arbitrary and inaccurate impositions on what is really +here." +(continued in part 5) + + + +Transmitted: 94-01-26 17:09:36 EST + + + + 2/94 THE COMING ANARCHY (part 5) + +(continued from part 4) +Yet this inflexible, artificial reality staggers on, not only in the United +Nations but in various geographic and travel publications (themselves by-products +of an age of elite touring which colonialism made possible) that still report on +and photograph the world according to "country." Newspapers, this magazine, and +this writer are not innocent of the tendency. + +According to the map, the great hydropower complex emblemized by the Ataturk Dam +is situated in Turkey. Forget the map. This southeastern region of Turkey is +populated almost completely by Kurds. About half of the world's 20 million Kurds +live in "Turkey." The Kurds are predominant in an ellipse of territory that +overlaps not only with Turkey but also with Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the former +Soviet Union. The Western-enforced Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, a +consequence of the 1991 Gulf War, has already exposed the fictitious nature of +that supposed nation-state. + +On a recent visit to the Turkish-Iranian border, it occurred to me what a risky +idea the nation-state is. Here I was on the legal fault line between two clashing +civilizations, Turkic and Iranian. Yet the reality was more subtle: as in West +Africa, the border was porous and smuggling abounded, but here the people doing +the smuggling, on both sides of the border, were Kurds. In such a moonscape, over +which peoples have migrated and settled in patterns that obliterate borders, the +end of the Cold War will bring on a cruel process of natural selection among +existing states. No longer will these states be so firmly propped up by the West +or the Soviet Union. Because the Kurds overlap with nearly everybody in the +Middle East, on account of their being cheated out of a state in the post-First +World War peace treaties, they are emerging, in effect, as the natural +selector--the ultimate reality check. They have destabilized Iraq and may +continue to disrupt states that do not offer them adequate breathing space, while +strengthening states that do. + +Because the Turks, owing to their water resources, their growing economy, and the +social cohesion evinced by the most crime-free slums I have encountered, are on +the verge of big-power status, and because the 10 million Kurds within Turkey +threaten that status, the outcome of the Turkish-Kurdish dispute will be more +critical to the future of the Middle East than the eventual outcome of the recent +Israeli-Palestinian agreement. + +America's fascination with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, coupled with its lack +of interest in the Turkish-Kurdish one, is a function of its own domestic and +ethnic obsessions, not of the cartographic reality that is about to transform the +Middle East. The diplomatic process involving Israelis and Palestinians will, I +believe, have little effect on the early- and mid-twenty-first-century map of the +region. Israel, with a 6.6 percent economic growth rate based increasingly on +high-tech exports, is about to enter Homer-Dixon's stretch limo, fortified by a +well-defined political community that is an organic outgrowth of history and +ethnicity. Like prosperous and peaceful Japan on the one hand, and war-torn and +poverty-wracked Armenia on the other, Israel is a classic national-ethnic +organism. Much of the Arab world, however, will undergo alteration, as Islam +spreads across artificial frontiers, fueled by mass migrations into the cities +and a soaring birth rate of more than 3.2 percent. Seventy percent of the Arab +population has been born since 1970--youths with little historical memory of +anticolonial independence struggles, postcolonial attempts at nation-building, or +any of the Arab-Israeli wars. The most distant recollection of these youths will +be the West's humiliation of colonially invented Iraq in 1991. Today seventeen +out of twenty-two Arab states have a declining gross national product; in the +next twenty years, at current growth rates, the population of many Arab countries +will double. These states, like most African ones, will be ungovernable through +conventional secular ideologies. The Middle East analyst Christine M. Helms +explains, "Declaring Arab nationalism "bankrupt," the political "disinherited" +are not rationalizing the failure of Arabism . . . or reformulating it. +Alternative solutions are not contemplated. They have simply opted for the +political paradigm at the other end of the political spectrum with which they are +familiar--Islam." + +Like the borders of West Africa, the colonial borders of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, +Algeria, and other Arab states are often contrary to cultural and political +reality. As state control mechanisms wither in the face of environmental and +demographic stress, "hard" Islamic city-states or shantytown-states are likely to +emerge. The fiction that the impoverished city of Algiers, on the Mediterranean, +controls Tamanrasset, deep in the Algerian Sahara, cannot obtain forever. +Whatever the outcome of the peace process, Israel is destined to be a Jewish +ethnic fortress amid a vast and volatile realm of Islam. In that realm, the +violent youth culture of the Gaza shantytowns may be indicative of the coming +era. + +The destiny of Turks and Kurds is far less certain, but far more relevant to the +kind of map that will explain our future world. The Kurds suggest a geographic +reality that cannot be shown in two-dimensional space. The issue in Turkey is not +simply a matter of giving autonomy or even independence to Kurds in the +southeast. This isn't the Balkans or the Caucasus, where regions are merely +subdividing into smaller units, Abkhazia breaking off from Georgia, and so on. +Federalism is not the answer. Kurds are found everywhere in Turkey, including the +shanty districts of Istanbul and Ankara. Turkey's problem is that its Anatolian +land mass is the home of two cultures and languages, Turkish and Kurdish. +Identity in Turkey, as in India, Africa, and elsewhere, is more complex and +subtle than conventional cartography can display. + +A New Kind of War + +To appreciate fully the political and cartographic implications of +postmodernism--an epoch of themeless juxtapositions, in which the classificatory +grid of nation-states is going to be replaced by a jagged-glass pattern of +city-states, shanty-states, nebulous and anarchic regionalisms--it is necessary +to consider, finally, the whole question of war. + +"Oh, what a relief to fight, to fight enemies who defend themselves, enemies who +are awake!" Andre Malraux wrote in Man's Fate. I cannot think of a more suitable +battle cry for many combatants in the early decades of the twenty-first century. +The intense savagery of the fighting in such diverse cultural settings as +Liberia, Bosnia, the Caucasus, and Sri Lanka--to say nothing of what obtains in +American inner cities--indicates something very troubling that those of us inside +the stretch limo, concerned with issues like middle-class entitlements and the +future of interactive cable television, lack the stomach to contemplate. It is +this: a large number of people on this planet, to whom the comfort and stability +of a middle-class life is utterly unknown, find war and a barracks existence a +step up rather than a step down. + +"Just as it makes no sense to ask 'why people eat' or 'what they sleep for,'" +writes Martin van Creveld, a military historian at the Hebrew University in +Jerusalem, in The Transformation of War, "so fighting in many ways is not a means +but an end. Throughout history, for every person who has expressed his horror of +war there is another who found in it the most marvelous of all the experiences +that are vouchsafed to man, even to the point that he later spent a lifetime +boring his descendants by recounting his exploits." When I asked Pentagon +officials about the nature of war in the twenty-first century, the answer I +frequently got was "Read Van Creveld." The top brass are enamored of this +historian not because his writings justify their existence but, rather, the +opposite: Van Creveld warns them that huge state military machines like the +Pentagon's are dinosaurs about to go extinct, and that something far more +terrible awaits us. + +The degree to which Van Creveld's Transformation of War complements Homer-Dixon's +work on the environment, Huntington's thoughts on cultural clash, my own +realizations in traveling by foot, bus, and bush taxi in more than sixty +countries, and America's sobering comeuppances in intractable-culture zones like +Haiti and Somalia is startling. The book begins by demolishing the notion that +men don't like to fight. "By compelling the senses to focus themselves on the +here and now," Van Creveld writes, war "can cause a man to take his leave of +them." As anybody who has had experience with Chetniks in Serbia, "technicals" in +Somalia, Tontons Macoutes in Haiti, or soldiers in Sierra Leone can tell you, in +places where the Western Enlightenment has not penetrated and where there has +always been mass poverty, people find liberation in violence. In Afghanistan and +elsewhere, I vicariously experienced this phenomenon: worrying about mines and +ambushes frees you from worrying about mundane details of daily existence. If my +own experience is too subjective, there is a wealth of data showing the sheer +frequency of war, especially in the developing world since the Second World War. +Physical aggression is a part of being human. Only when people attain a certain +economic, educational, and cultural standard is this trait tranquilized. In light +of the fact that 95 percent of the earth's population growth will be in the +poorest areas of the globe, the question is not whether there will be war (there +will be a lot of it) but what kind of war. And who will fight whom? + +Debunking the great military strategist Carl von Clausewitz, Van Creveld, who may +be the most original thinker on war since that early-nineteenth-century Prussian, +writes, "Clausewitz's ideas . . . were wholly rooted in the fact that, ever since +1648, war had been waged overwhelmingly by states." But, as Van Creveld explains, +the period of nation-states and, therefore, of state conflict is now ending, and +with it the clear "threefold division into government, army, and people" which +state-directed wars enforce. Thus, to see the future, the first step is to look +back to the past immediately prior to the birth of modernism--the wars in +medieval Europe which began during the Reformation and reached their culmination +in the Thirty Years' War. + +Van Creveld writes, "In all these struggles political, social, economic, and +religious motives were hopelessly entangled. Since this was an age when armies +consisted of mercenaries, all were also attended by swarms of military +entrepreneurs. . . . Many of them paid little but lip service to the +organizations for whom they had contracted to fight. Instead, they robbed the +countryside on their own behalf. . . ." + +"Given such conditions, any fine distinctions . . . between armies on the one +hand and peoples on the other were bound to break down. Engulfed by war, +civilians suffered terrible atrocities." + +Back then, in other words, there was no "politics" as we have come to understand +the term, just as there is less and less "politics" today in Liberia, Sierra +Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, among other places. + +Because, as Van Creveld notes, the radius of trust within tribal societies is +narrowed to one's immediate family and guerrilla comrades, truces arranged with +one Bosnian commander, say, may be broken immediately by another Bosnian +commander. The plethora of short-lived ceasefires in the Balkans and the Caucasus +constitute proof that we are no longer in a world where the old rules of state +warfare apply. More evidence is provided by the destruction of medieval monuments +in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik: when cultures, rather than states, fight, then +cultural and religious monuments are weapons of war, making them fair game. + +Also, war-making entities will no longer be restricted to a specific territory. +Loose and shadowy organisms such as Islamic terrorist organizations suggest why +borders will mean increasingly little and sedimentary layers of tribalistic +identity and control will mean more. "From the vantage point of the present, +there appears every prospect that religious . . . fanaticisms will play a larger +role in the motivation of armed conflict" in the West than at any time "for the +last 300 years," Van Creveld writes. This is why analysts like Michael Vlahos are +closely monitoring religious cults. Vlahos says, "An ideology that challenges us +may not take familiar form, like the old Nazis or Commies. It may not even engage +us initially in ways that fit old threat markings." Van Creveld concludes, "Armed +conflict will be waged by men on earth, not robots in space. It will have more in +common with the struggles of primitive tribes than with large-scale conventional +war." While another military historian, John Keegan, in his new book A History of +Warfare, draws a more benign portrait of primitive man, it is important to point +out that what Van Creveld really means is re-primitivized man: warrior societies +operating at a time of unprecedented resource scarcity and planetary +overcrowding. + +Van Creveld's pre-Westphalian vision of worldwide low-intensity conflict is not a +superficial "back to the future" scenario. First of all, technology will be used +toward primitive ends. In Liberia the guerrilla leader Prince Johnson didn't just +cut off the ears of President Samuel Doe before Doe was tortured to death in +1990--Johnson made a video of it, which has circulated throughout West Africa. In +December of 1992, when plotters of a failed coup against the Strasser regime in +Sierra Leone had their ears cut off at Freetown's Hamilton Beach prior to being +killed, it was seen by many to be a copycat execution. Considering, as I've +explained earlier, that the Strasser regime is not really a government and that +Sierra Leone is not really a nation-state, listen closely to Van Creveld: "Once +the legal monopoly of armed force, long claimed by the state, is wrested out of +its hands, existing distinctions between war and crime will break down much as is +already the case today in . . . Lebanon, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Peru, or +Colombia." +(continued in part 6) + + + +Transmitted: 94-01-26 17:09:27 EST + + + + +2/94 THE COMING ANARCHY (part 6) + +(continued from part 5) +If crime and war become indistinguishable, then "national defense" may in the +future be viewed as a local concept. As crime continues to grow in our cities and +the ability of state governments and criminal-justice systems to protect their +citizens diminishes, urban crime may, according to Van Creveld, "develop into +low-intensity conflict by coalescing along racial, religious, social, and +political lines." As small-scale violence multiplies at home and abroad, state +armies will continue to shrink, being gradually replaced by a booming private +security business, as in West Africa, and by urban mafias, especially in the +former communist world, who may be better equipped than municipal police forces +to grant physical protection to local inhabitants. + +Future wars will be those of communal survival, aggravated or, in many cases, +caused by environmental scarcity. These wars will be subnational, meaning that it +will be hard for states and local governments to protect their own citizens +physically. This is how many states will ultimately die. As state power +fades--and with it the state's ability to help weaker groups within society, not +to mention other states--peoples and cultures around the world will be thrown +back upon their own strengths and weaknesses, with fewer equalizing mechanisms to +protect them. Whereas the distant future will probably see the emergence of a +racially hybrid, globalized man, the coming decades will see us more aware of our +differences than of our similarities. To the average person, political values +will mean less, personal security more. The belief that we are all equal is +liable to be replaced by the overriding obsession of the ancient Greek travelers: +Why the differences between peoples? + +The Last Map + +In Geography and the Human Spirit, Anne Buttimer, a professor at University +College, Dublin, recalls the work of an early-nineteenth-century German +geographer, Carl Ritter, whose work implied "a divine plan for humanity" based on +regionalism and a constant, living flow of forms. The map of the future, to the +extent that a map is even possible, will represent a perverse twisting of +Ritter's vision. Imagine cartography in three dimensions, as if in a hologram. In +this hologram would be the overlapping sediments of group and other identities +atop the merely two-dimensional color markings of city-states and the remaining +nations, themselves confused in places by shadowy tentacles, hovering overhead, +indicating the power of drug cartels, mafias, and private security agencies. +Instead of borders, there would be moving "centers" of power, as in the Middle +Ages. Many of these layers would be in motion. Replacing fixed and abrupt lines +on a flat space would be a shifting pattern of buffer entities, like the Kurdish +and Azeri buffer entities between Turkey and Iran, the Turkic Uighur buffer +entity between Central Asia and Inner China (itself distinct from coastal China), +and the Latino buffer entity replacing a precise U.S.-Mexican border. To this +protean cartographic hologram one must add other factors, such as migrations of +populations, explosions of birth rates, vectors of disease. Henceforward the map +of the world will never be static. This future map--in a sense, the "Last +Map"--will be an ever-mutating representation of chaos. + +The Indian subcontinent offers examples of what is happening. For different +reasons, both India and Pakistan are increasingly dysfunctional. The argument +over democracy in these places is less and less relevant to the larger issue of +governability. In India's case the question arises, Is one unwieldy bureaucracy +in New Delhi the best available mechanism for promoting the lives of 866 million +people of diverse languages, religions, and ethnic groups? In 1950, when the +Indian population was much less than half as large and nation-building idealism +was still strong, the argument for democracy was more impressive than it is now. +Given that in 2025 India's population could be close to 1.5 billion, that much of +its economy rests on a shrinking natural-resource base, including dramatically +declining water levels, and that communal violence and urbanization are spiraling +upward, it is difficult to imagine that the Indian state will survive the next +century. India's oft-trumpeted Green Revolution has been achieved by overworking +its croplands and depleting its watershed. Norman Myers, a British development +consultant, worries that Indians have "been feeding themselves today by borrowing +against their children's food sources." + +Pakistan's problem is more basic still: like much of Africa, the country makes no +geographic or demographic sense. It was founded as a homeland for the Muslims of +the subcontinent, yet there are more subcontinental Muslims outside Pakistan than +within it. Like Yugoslavia, Pakistan is a patchwork of ethnic groups, +increasingly in violent conflict with one another. While the Western media gushes +over the fact that the country has a woman Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, +Karachi is becoming a subcontinental version of Lagos. In eight visits to +Pakistan, I have never gotten a sense of a cohesive national identity. With as +much as 65 percent of its land dependent on intensive irrigation, with wide-scale +deforestation, and with a yearly population growth of 2.7 percent (which ensures +that the amount of cultivated land per rural inhabitant will plummet), Pakistan +is becoming a more and more desperate place. As irrigation in the Indus River +basin intensifies to serve two growing populations, Muslim-Hindu strife over +falling water tables may be unavoidable. + +"India and Pakistan will probably fall apart," Homer-Dixon predicts. "Their +secular governments have less and less legitimacy as well as less management +ability over people and resources." Rather than one bold line dividing the +subcontinent into two parts, the future will likely see a lot of thinner lines +and smaller parts, with the ethnic entities of Pakhtunistan and Punjab gradually +replacing Pakistan in the space between the Central Asian plateau and the heart +of the subcontinent. + +None of this even takes into account climatic change, which, if it occurs in the +next century, will further erode the capacity of existing states to cope. India, +for instance, receives 70 percent of its precipitation from the monsoon cycle, +which planetary warming could disrupt. + +Not only will the three-dimensional aspects of the Last Map be in constant +motion, but its two-dimensional base may change too. The National Academy of +Sciences reports that "as many as one billion people, or 20 per cent of the +world's population, live on lands likely to be inundated or dramatically changed +by rising waters. . . . Low-lying countries in the developing world such as Egypt +and Bangladesh, where rivers are large and the deltas extensive and densely +populated, will be hardest hit. . . . Where the rivers are dammed, as in the case +of the Nile, the effects . . . will be especially severe." + +Egypt could be where climatic upheaval--to say nothing of the more immediate +threat of increasing population--will incite religious upheaval in truly biblical +fashion. Natural catastrophes, such as the October, 1992, Cairo earthquake, in +which the government failed to deliver relief aid and slum residents were in many +instances helped by their local mosques, can only strengthen the position of +Islamic factions. In a statement about greenhouse warming which could refer to +any of a variety of natural catastrophes, the environmental expert Jessica +Tuchman Matthews warns that many of us underestimate the extent to which +political systems, in affluent societies as well as in places like Egypt, "depend +on the underpinning of natural systems." She adds, "The fact that one can move +with ease from Vermont to Miami has nothing to say about the consequences of +Vermont acquiring Miami's climate." + +Indeed, it is not clear that the United States will survive the next century in +exactly its present form. Because America is a multi-ethnic society, the +nation-state has always been more fragile here than it is in more homogeneous +societies like Germany and Japan. James Kurth, in an article published in The +National Interest in 1992, explains that whereas nation-state societies tend to +be built around a mass-conscription army and a standardized public school system, +"multicultural regimes" feature a high-tech, all-volunteer army (and, I would +add, private schools that teach competing values), operating in a culture in +which the international media and entertainment industry has more influence than +the "national political class." In other words, a nation-state is a place where +everyone has been educated along similar lines, where people take their cue from +national leaders, and where everyone (every male, at least) has gone through the +crucible of military service, making patriotism a simpler issue. Writing about +his immigrant family in turn-of-the-century Chicago, Saul Bellow states, "The +country took us over. It was a country then, not a collection of 'cultures.'" + +During the Second World War and the decade following it, the United States +reached its apogee as a classic nation-state. During the 1960s, as is now clear, +America began a slow but unmistakable process of transformation. The signs hardly +need belaboring: racial polarity, educational dysfunction, social fragmentation +of many and various kinds. William Irwin Thompson, in Passages About Earth: An +Exploration of the New Planetary Culture, writes, "The educational system that +had worked on the Jews or the Irish could no longer work on the blacks; and when +Jewish teachers in New York tried to take black children away from their parents +exactly in the way they had been taken from theirs, they were shocked to +encounter a violent affirmation of negritude." + +Issues like West Africa could yet emerge as a new kind of foreign-policy issue, +further eroding America's domestic peace. The spectacle of several West African +nations collapsing at once could reinforce the worst racial stereotypes here at +home. That is another reason why Africa matters. We must not kid ourselves: the +sensitivity factor is higher than ever. The Washington, D.C., public school +system is already experimenting with an Afrocentric curriculum. Summits between +African leaders and prominent African-Americans are becoming frequent, as are +Pollyanna-ish prognostications about multiparty elections in Africa that do not +factor in crime, surging birth rates, and resource depletion. The Congressional +Black Caucus was among those urging U.S. involvement in Somalia and in Haiti. At +the Los Angeles Times minority staffers have protested against, among other +things, what they allege to be the racist tone of the newspaper's Africa +coverage, allegations that the editor of the "World Report" section, Dan Fisher, +denies, saying essentially that Africa should be viewed through the same rigorous +analytical lens as other parts of the world. + +Africa may be marginal in terms of conventional late-twentieth-century +conceptions of strategy, but in an age of cultural and racial clash, when +national defense is increasingly local, Africa's distress will exert a +destabilizing influence on the United States. + +This and many other factors will make the United States less of a nation than it +is today, even as it gains territory following the peaceful dissolution of +Canada. Quebec, based on the bedrock of Roman Catholicism and Francophone +ethnicity, could yet turn out to be North America's most cohesive and crime-free +nation-state. (It may be a smaller Quebec, though, since aboriginal peoples may +lop off northern parts of the province.) "Patriotism" will become increasingly +regional as people in Alberta and Montana discover that they have far more in +common with each other than they do with Ottawa or Washington, and +Spanish-speakers in the Southwest discover a greater commonality with Mexico +City. (The Nine Nations of North America, by Joel Garreau, a book about the +continent's regionalization, is more relevant now than when it was published, in +1981.) As Washington's influence wanes, and with it the traditional symbols of +American patriotism, North Americans will take psychological refuge in their +insulated communities and cultures. + +Returning from West Africa last fall was an illuminating ordeal. After leaving +Abidjan, my Air Afrique flight landed in Dakar, Senegal, where all passengers had +to disembark in order to go through another security check, this one demanded by +U.S. authorities before they would permit the flight to set out for New York. +Once we were in New York, despite the midnight hour, immigration officials at +Kennedy Airport held up disembarkation by conducting quick interrogations of the +aircraft's passengers--this was in addition to all the normal immigration and +customs procedures. It was apparent that drug smuggling, disease, and other +factors had contributed to the toughest security procedures I have ever +encountered when returning from overseas. + +Then, for the first time in over a month, I spotted businesspeople with attache +cases and laptop computers. When I had left New York for Abidjan, all the +businesspeople were boarding planes for Seoul and Tokyo, which departed from +gates near Air Afrique's. The only non-Africans off to West Africa had been +relief workers in T-shirts and khakis. Although the borders within West Africa +are increasingly unreal, those separating West Africa from the outside world are +in various ways becoming more impenetrable. + +But Afrocentrists are right in one respect: we ignore this dying region at our +own risk. When the Berlin Wall was falling, in November of 1989, I happened to be +in Kosovo, covering a riot between Serbs and Albanians. The future was in Kosovo, +I told myself that night, not in Berlin. The same day that Yitzhak Rabin and +Yasser Arafat clasped hands on the White House lawn, my Air Afrique plane was +approaching Bamako, Mali, revealing corrugated-zinc shacks at the edge of an +expanding desert. The real news wasn't at the White House, I realized. It was +right below. +-------------------- +Robert D. Kaplan is a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly. His article in +this issue (February, 1994) will be expanded into a book he is writing for Random +House, with support from the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Foreign Policy +Research Institute. + + + +Transmitted: 94-01-26 17:09:17 EST diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/commanif.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/commanif.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bcb50f9b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/commanif.txt @@ -0,0 +1,943 @@ + +[ The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Reprinted in +its entirety with the exception of part III, a short polemic against certain +political groups of their time (1847) with whom Marx and Engels disagreed. ] + + + Manifesto of the Communist Party + + + A specter is haunting Europe -- the specter of Communism. All the +powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this +specter: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German +police-spies. + + Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as +communistic by its opponents in power? Where the Opposition that has not +hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced +opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? + + Two things result from this fact: + + I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be +itself a power. + + II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the +whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this +nursery tale of the specter of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself. + + To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in +London, and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the English, +French, German, Italian, Flemish, and Danish languages. + + + + + I. Bourgeois and Proletarians + + + The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class +struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild- +master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant +opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open +fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution +of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. + + In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a +complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation +of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, +slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, +apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate +gradations. + + The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal +society, has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new +classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the +old ones. + + Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this +distinctive feature: It has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a +whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two +great classes directly facing each other -- bourgeoisie and proletariat. + + From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers of the +earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie +were developed. + + The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh +ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the +colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of +exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to +industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary +element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development. + + The feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was +monopolized by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of +the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place. The guild-masters +were pushed aside by the manufacturing middle class; division of labor between +the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labor in +each single workshop. + + Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even +manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionized +industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, +modern industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial +millionaires -- the leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois. + + Modern industry has established the world market, for which the +discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense +development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This +development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in +proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same +proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into +the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. + + We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a +long course of developement, of a series of revolutions in the modes of +production and of exchange. + + Each step in the development of the was accompanied by a corresponding +political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the sway of the +feudal nobility, it became an armed and self-governing association in the +medieval commune; here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany), +there taxable "third estate" of the monarchy (as in France); afterwards, in +the period of manufacture proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the +absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, the +corner-stone of the great monarchies in general -- the bourgeoisie has at +last, since the establishment of modern industry and of the world market, +conquered for itself, in the modern representative state, exclusive political +sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the +common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. + + The bourgeoisie has played a most revolutionary role in history. + + The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to +all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder +the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors," and has left +no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash +payment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of +chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of +egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, +and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up +that single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word for +exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted +naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. + + The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto +honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, +the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage- +laborers. + + The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and +has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. + + The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal +display of vigor in the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, found +its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first +to show what man's activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far +surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has +conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former migrations of nations +and crusades. + + The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the +instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and of +production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of +existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of +production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting +uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier +ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and +venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become +antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that +is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses +his real conditions of life and his relations with his kind. + + The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the +bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, +settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. + + The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a +cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the +great chagrin of reactionaries, it has drawn from under the feed of industry +the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national +industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are +dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death +question for all civilized nations, by industries that no longer work up +indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; +industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter +of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the +country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of +distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion +and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter- +dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual +production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common +property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more +impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures there arises +a world literature. + + The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of +production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all +nations, even the most barbarian, into civilization. The cheap prices of its +commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese +walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of +foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to +adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it +calls civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In +a word, it creates a world after its own image. + + The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rules of the towns. It +has created the enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as +compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the +population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country +dependent on the towns, so it has made the barbarian and semi-barbarian +countries dependent on the civilized ones, nations of peasants on nations of +bourgeois, the East on the West. + + More and more the bourgeoisie keeps doing away with the scattered state +of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has +agglomerated population, centralized the means of production, and has +concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was +political centralization. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, +with separate interests, laws, governments and systems of taxation, became +lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one +national class interest, one frontier and one customs tariff. + + The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has +created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all +preceding generations together. Subjection of nature's forces to man, +machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam- +navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for +cultivation, canalization of rivers, while populations conjured out of the +ground -- what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive +forces slumbered in the lap of social labor? + + We see then that the means of production and of exchange, which served +as the foundation for the growth of the bourgeoisie, were generated in feudal +society. At a certain stage in the development of these means of production +and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and +exchanged, the feudal organization of agriculture and manufacturing industry, +in a word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with +the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They +had to burst asunder; they were burst asunder. + + Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and +political constitution adapted to it, and by the economic and political sway +of the bourgeois class. + + A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern bourgeois +society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a +society that hs conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, +is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether +world whom he has called up by his spells. For many a decade past history of +industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive +forces against the modern conditions of production, against the property +relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and its +rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical +return put the existence of the entire bourgeois society on trial, each time +more threateningly. In these crises a great part not only of the existing +products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are +periodically destroyed. In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in +all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity -- the epidemic of over- +production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary +barbarism; it appears as if famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off +the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be +destroyed. And why? Because there is too much civilization, too much means +of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces +at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the +conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too +powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and no sooner do +they overcome these fetters than they bring disorder into the whole of +bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The +conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created +by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand +by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the +conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old +ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more +destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented. + + The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground +are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. + + But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to +itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those +weapons -- the modern working class -- the proletarians. + + In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the +same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed -- a +class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find world +only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers, who must sell +themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, +and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all +the fluctuations of the market. + + Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labor, the +work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, +all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is +only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is +required of him. hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, +almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for his +maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a +commodity, and therefore also of labor, is equal to its cost of production. +in proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage +decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of +labor increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, +whether by prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work exacted +in a given time, or by increased speed of the machinery, etc. + + Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal +master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. masses of +laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates +of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect +hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the +bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly +enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker, and, above all, by the individual +bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain +to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more +embittering it is. + + The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labor, in +other words, the more modern industry develops, the more is the labor of men +superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any +distinctive social validity for the working class. All are instruments of +labor, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex. + + No sooner has the laborer received his wages in cash, for the moment +escaping exploitation by the manufacturer, than he is set upon by the other +portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, +etc. + + The lower strata of the middle class -- the small tradespeople, +shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants +-- all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their +diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which modern industry is +carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, +partly because their specialized skill is rendered worthless by new methods of +production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the +population. + + The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With the +birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At first the contest is +carried on by individual laborers, then by the work people of a factory, then +by the operatives of one trade, in one locality, against the individual +bourgeois who directly exploits them. They direct their attacks not against +the bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments of +production themselves; they destroy imported wares that compete with their +labor, they smash machinery to pieces, they set factories ablaze, they seek to +restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages. + + At this stage the laborers still form an incoherent mass scattered over +the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. If anywhere +they unite to form more compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of +their own active union, but the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in +order to attain its own political ends, is compelled to set the whole +proletariat in motion, and is moreover still able to do so for a time. At +this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the +enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, +the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeois. Thus the whole historical +movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so +obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie. + + But with the development of industry the proletariat not only increases +in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and +it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life +within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalized, in proportion +as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labor and nearly everywhere +reduces wages to the same low level. The growing competition among the +bourgeois and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of the workers +ever more fluctuating. The unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more +rapidly developing, make their livelihood more and more precarious; the +collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and +more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon the workers +begin to form combinations (trade unions) against the bourgeoisie; they club +together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent +associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional +revolts. Here and there the contest breaks out into riots. + + Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real +fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever +expanding union of the workers. This union is furthered by the improve means +of communication which are created by modern industry, and which place the +workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this +contact that was needed to centralize the numerous local struggles, all of the +same character, into one national struggle between classes. But every class +struggle is a political struggle. And that union, to attain which the +burghers of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required +centuries, the modern proletarians, thanks to railways, achieve in a few +years. + + This organization of the proletarians into a class, and consequently +into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition +between the workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, +mightier. It compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the +workers, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself. +Thus the ten-hour bill in England was carried. + + Altogether, collisions between the classes of the old society further +the course of development of the proletariat in many ways. The bourgeoisie +finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy; +later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself whose interests have +become antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all times with the +bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battles it sees itself +compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for its help, and thus, to drag +it into the political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the +proletariat with its own elements of political and general education, in other +words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie. + + Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling classes +are, by the advance of industry, precipitated into the proletariat, or are at +least threatened in their conditions of existence. These also supply the +proletariat with fresh elements of enlightenment and progress. + + Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the +process of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the +whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a +small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the +revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, +therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the +bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised +themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement +as a whole. + + Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, +the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes +decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is +its special and essential product. + + The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the +artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from +extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are +therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are +reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance +they are revolutionary, they are so only in view of their impending transfer +into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future +interests; they desert their own standpoint to adopt that of the proletariat. + + The "dangerous class," the social scum (Lumpenproletariat), that +passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, +here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its +conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool +of reactionary intrigue. + + The social conditions of the old society no longer exist for the +proletariat. The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife +and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family +relations; modern industrial labor, modern subjection to capital, the same in +England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every +trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many +bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois +interests. + + All the preceding classes that got the upper hand, sought to fortify +their already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their +conditions of appropriation. The proletarians cannot become masters of the +productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of +appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. +They have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to +destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property. + + All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in +the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, +independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense +majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot +stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of +official society being sprung up into the air. + + Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat +with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each +country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie. + + In depicting the most general phases of the development of the +proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within +existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open +revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the +foundation for the sway of the proletariat. + + Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, +on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to +oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, +at least, continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, +raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, +under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. The +modern laborer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress of +industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own +class. He becomes a pauper, and it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is +unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its +conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to +rule because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to +feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under the +bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with +society. + + The essential condition for the existence and sway of the bourgeois +class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital +is wage-labor. Wage-labor rests exclusively on competition between the +laborers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the +bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the laborers, due to competition, by +their revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of +modern industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on +which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the +bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its +fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. + + + + + II. Proletarians and Communists + + + In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole? + + The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working +class parties. + + They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat +as a whole. + + They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to +shape and mold the proletarian movement. + + The Communists are distinguished from the other working class parties by +this only: 1. in the national struggles of the proletarians of the different +countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the +entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various +stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the +bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the +interests of the movement as a whole. + + The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most +advanced and resolute section of the working class parties of every country, +that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, +theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage +of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate +general results of the proletarian movement. + + The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all the other +proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of +bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat. + + The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based on +ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by this or that +would-be universal reformer. + + They merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from +an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very +eyes. The abolition of existing property relations is not at all a +distinctive feature of Communism. + + All property relations in the past have continually been subject to +historical change consequent upon the change in historical conditions. + + The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in favor +of bourgeois property. + + The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property +generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois +private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of +producing and appropriating products that is based on class antagonisms, on +the exploitation of the many by the few. + + In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the +single sentence: Abolition of private property. + + We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the +right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man's own labor, +which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, +activity and independence. + + Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do you mean the property +of the petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of property that +preceded the bourgeois form? There is no need to abolish that, the +development of industry has to a great extent already destroyed it, and is +still destroying it daily. + + Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property? + + But does wage-labor create any property for the laborer? Not a bit. It +creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labor, and +which cannot increase except upon the condition of begetting a new supply of +wage-labor for fresh exploitation. property, in it present form, is based on +the antagonism of capital and wage-labor. let us examine both sides of this +antagonism. + + To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a social +status in production. Capital is a collective product, and only the united +action of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the united action of +all members of society, can it be set in motion. + + Capital is therefore not personal, it is a social, power. + + When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into the +property of all members of society, personal property is not thereby +transformed into social property. It is only the social character of the +property that is now changed. It loses its class character. + + Let us now take wage-labor. + + The average price of wage-labor is the minimum wage, i.e. that quantum +of the means of subsistence which is absolutely requisite to keep the laborer +in bare existence as a laborer. What, therefore, the wage-laborer +appropriates by means of his labor, merely suffices to prolong and reproduce a +bare existence. We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropriation +of the products of labor, an appropriation that is made for the maintenance +and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith to +command the labor of others. All that we want to do away with is the +miserable character of this appropriation, under which the laborer lives +merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only insofar as the +interest of the ruling class requires it. + + In bourgeois society, living labor is but a means to increase +accumulated labor. In Communist society, accumulated labor is but a means to +widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the laborer. + + In bourgeois society, therefore, the pas dominates the present; in +Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society +capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is +dependent and has no individuality. + + And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeoisie, +abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The abolition of +bourgeois individuallity, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is +undoubtedly aimed at. + + By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of +production, free trade, free selling and buying. + + But if selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying disappears +also. This talk about free selling and buying, and all the other "brave +words" of our bourgeoisie about freedom in general, have a meaning, if any, +only in contrast with restricted selling and buying, with the fettered traders +of the Middle Ages, but have no meaning when opposed to the Communist +abolition of buying and selling, of the bourgeois conditions of production, +and of the bourgeoisie itself. + + You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. +But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for +nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its +non-existence in the hands of the nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, +with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for +whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority +of society. + + In a word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. +Precisely so; that is just what we intend. + + From the moment when labor can no longer be converted into capital, +money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolized, i.e., from +the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into +bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality +vanishes. + + You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other +person than the bourgeois, than the middle class owner of property. This +person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible. + + Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of +society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the +labor of others by means of such appropriation. + + It has been objected, that upon the abolition of private property all +work will cease, and universal laziness will overtake us. + + According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the +dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who work, acquire +noting, and those who acquire anything, do not work. The whole of this +objection is but another expression of the tautology: There can no longer be +any wage-labor when there is no longer any capital. + + All objections urged against the Communist mode of producing and +appropriating material products, have, in the same way, been urged against the +Communist modes of producing and appropriating intellectual products. Just +as, to the bourgeois, the disappearance of class property is the disappearance +of production itself, so the disappearance of class culture is to him +identical with the disappearance of all culture. + + That culture, the loss of which he laments is, for the enormous +majority, a mere training to act as a machine. + + But don't wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended +abolition of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois notions of +freedom, culture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the +conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your +jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will +whose essential character are determined by the economic conditions of +existence of your class. + + The selfish misconception that induces you to transform into eternal +laws of nature and of reason, the social forms springing from your present +mode of production and form of property -- historical relations that rise and +disappear in the progress of production -- this misconception you share with +every ruling class that has preceded you. What you see clearly in the case of +ancient property, what you admit in the case of feudal property, you are of +course forbidden to admit in the case of your own bourgeois form of property. + + Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this +infamous proposal of the Communists. + + On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? +On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form this family +exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its +complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and +in public prostitution. + + The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its +complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital. + + Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by +their parents? To this crime we plead guilty. + + But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, when we +replace home education by social. + + And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by the +social conditions under which you educate, by the intervention of society, +dire or indirect, by means of schools, etc.? The Communists have not invented +the intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter the +character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of +the ruling class. + + The bourgeois claptrap about the family and education, about the +hallowed co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the +more, by the action of modern industry, all family ties among the proletarians +are torn asunder, and their children are transformed into simple articles of +commerce and instruments of labor. + + But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the whole +of the bourgeoisie in chorus. + + The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. He +hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and, +naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common +to all will likewise fall to the women. + + He has not even a suspicion that the real point aimed at is to do away +with the status of women as mere instruments of production. + + For the rest, noting is more ridiculous than the virtuous indignation of +our bourgeois at the community of women which, they pretend, is to be openly +and officially established by the Communists. The Communists have no need to +introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial. + + Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of their +proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the +greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives. + + Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, +at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with is that +they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an +openly legalized community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident, that +the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the +abolition of the community of women springing from that system, i.e., of +prostitution in both public and private. + + The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries +and nationality. + + The workingmen have no country. We cannot take from them what they have +not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, +must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the +nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of +the word. + + National differences and antagonisms between peoples are vanishing +gradually from day to day, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to +freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of +production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto. + + The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. +united action, of the leading civilized countries at least, is one of the +first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat. + + In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another is put an +end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. +In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, +the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end. + + The charges against Communism made from a religious, a philosophical, +and, generally, from an ideological standpoint, are not deserving of serious +examination. + + Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, views, +and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, changes with every change +in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in +his social life? + + What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual +production changes its character in proportion as material production is +changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling +class. + + When people speak of ideas that revolutionize society, they do but +express the fact that within the old society the elements of a new one have +been created, and that the dissolution of the old ideas keeps even pace with +the dissolution of the old conditions of existence. + + When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions +were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th +century to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death-battle with the +then revolutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of +conscience, merely gave expression to the sway of free competition within the +domain of knowledge. + + "Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religion, moral, philosophical and +juridical ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. +But religion, morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly +survived this change. + + "There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., +that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal +truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting +them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all pas historical +experience." + + What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past +society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms +that assumed different forms at different epochs. + + But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past +ages, viz., the exploitation of one part of society by the other no wonder, +then, that the social consciousness of past ages, despite all the multiplicity +and variety it displays, moves with certain common forms, or general ideas, +which cannot completely vanish except with the total disappearance of class +antagonisms. + + The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional +property relations; no wonder that its development involves the most radical +rupture with traditional ideas. + + But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism. + + We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working +class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to +establish democracy. + + The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, +all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production +in the hands of the state, i.e. of the proletariat organized as the ruling +class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible. + + Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of +despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois +production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically +insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip +themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are +unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production. + + These measures will of course be different in different countries. + + Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be +pretty generally applicable. + + 1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to + public purposes. + + 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. + + 3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. + + 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. + + 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a + national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. + + 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands + of the state. + + 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; + the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the + soil generally in accordance with a common plan. + + 8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, + especially for agriculture. + + 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual + abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable + distribution of population over the country. + + 10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of child + factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with + industrial production, etc. + + When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, +and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of +the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. +Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one +class for oppressing another. If the proletariat during its contest with the +bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as +a class; if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, +as such sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, +along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence +of class antagonisms, and of classes generally, and will thereby have +abolished its own supremacy as a class. + + In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class +antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of +each is the condition for the free development of all.... + + + + +[ Section III is omitted. ] + + + + + IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing +Opposition Parties + + + Section II has made clear the relations of the Communists to the +existing working class parties, such as the Chartists in England and the +Agrarian Reformers in America. + + The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the +enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the +movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of +that movement. In France the Communists ally themselves with the Social- +Democrats, against the conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, +however, the right to take up a critical position in regard to phrases and +illusions traditionally handed down from the great Revolution. + + In Switzerland they support the Radicals, without losing sight of the +fact that this party consists of antagonistic elements, partly of Democratic +Socialists, in the French sense, partly of radical bourgeois. + + In Poland they support the party that insists on an agrarian revolution +as the prime condition for national emancipation, that party which fomented +the insurrection of Cracow in 1846. + + In Germany they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a +revolutionary way, against the absolute monarchy, the feudal squirearchy, and +the petty bourgeoisie. + + But they never cease, for a single instant, to instill into the working +class the clearest possible recognition of the hostile antagonism between +bourgeoisie and proletariat, in order that the German workers may straightway +use, as so many weapons against the bourgeoisie, the social and political +conditions that the bourgeoisie must necessarily introduce along with its +supremacy, and in order that, after the fall of the reactionary classes in +Germany, the fight against the bourgeoisie itself may immediately begin. + + The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because that +country is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution that is bound to be carried +out under more advanced conditions of European civilization and with a much +more developed proletariat than what existed in England in the 17th and in +France in the 18th century, and because the bourgeois revolution in Germany +will be but the prelude to an immediately following proletarian revolution. + + In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement +against the existing social and political order of things. + + In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question +in each case, the property question, no matter what its degree of development +at the time. + + Finally, they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the +democratic parties of all countries. + + The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly +declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all +existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist +revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They +have a world to win. + + Workingmen of all countries, unite! + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/commnlaw.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/commnlaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b4a582ef --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/commnlaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,274 @@ +Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy +From: ajteel@dendrite.cs.Colorado.EDU (A.J. Teel) +Subject: Re: Enforcement of Early Common Law +Message-ID: <1993Mar17.024330.14586@colorado.edu> +Organization: Universtiy of Coloardo, Boulder +Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 02:43:30 GMT +Lines: 263 + +>So are you calling for a return to trial by ordeal? Why do you find +>millenium-old common law so desireable? + + Why do you find our "new" statutory law so desirable? So where +did you get the idea that Common-Law is "trial by ordeal"? Is small +claims court, "trial by ordeal"? This Common-Law was the ONLY LAW when +the Const. was created and it WAS ONLY CREATED TO LIMIT THE POWERS +OF GOVERNMENT. + + Compare the idea of "Common-Law" which is what the Constitution *for* +the United States of America is BASED UPON and the corrupt, politically +expedient "statutory" or "Vice-Admiralty" law that was never the intention +of the framers of the Const. + + Please, please place me in your kill file or read the items I am +posting, one or the other. Thanks. I do look forward to THOUGHTFUL +discussions with you in the future. + ++=============================================================================+ +| D I S C L A I M E R | ++------------------------------------oooOooo----------------------------------+ +| The sender of this message is not responsible for and does not necessarily | +| agree with the content or opinions contained herein. Mail will be forwarded | +| to the source identified, if any. This is for "information purposes only", | +| has not necessarily been verified or tested in any way, and "should not be | +| construed as legal advise". Your comments and responses are encouraged. | +| Please Email to "ajteel@dendrite.cs.colorado.EDU" instead of replying here. | +| With Explicit Reservation of All Rights, UCC 1-207, A. J. Teel, Sui Juris. | ++=============================================================================+ + +[START OF DOCUMENT: fl870402.txt.lis ] + + + How We Lost Our Common Law Heritage + + by Richard J. Maybury + + Two Kinds of Law + +As a public school teacher and economic textbook writer, I saw that +government control of the school system causes a "chilling" effect. +Teachers and textbook publishers are reluctant to teach anything that might +raise the eyebrows of the bureaucrats. + +Any serious criticism of government is omitted from the student's lessons. +Huge amounts of vitally important information about law and political power +are not passed on to the next generation. + +Because of this chilling effect, Americans are no longer taught that there +are two kinds of legal systems, political and scientific. + +Many of America's "Founding Fathers" in 1776 were lawyers, and they took +care to insure that their new country would be founded on the principles of +scientific law. But these principles have now been swept from the legal +system, and from the schools and colleges. What we are taught today is +political law. + +To understand the differences between a scientific legal system and a +political one, it is necessary to know how scientific law developed. + + Scientific Jurisprudence. + +Fifteen centuries ago the Roman Empire had collapsed. Barbarians had +overrun Europe and set up feudal governments. + +These feudal governments were bloodthirsty and brutal, but they had one +virtue: they were lazy. They had little interest in the day-to-day +affairs of the common people. as long as the commoners paid taxes and +fought wars, their new governments left them alone. + +This meant in many kingdoms there were no government court systems. +Whenever two individuals had a dispute, they had to work it out on their +own. We can imagine what happened. Disputes often led to brawls or worse. +After several bloody incidents, the commoners would begin looking for ways +to avoid violence. When two individuals had a dispute, their families and +friends would gather round and tell them to find some neutral third party +to listen to their stories and make a decision. + +Legal historians tell us the most highly respected and neutral third party +in the community was usually a clergyman. The disputants would be brought +before this clergyman and he would listen to both sides of the story. The +clergyman would then consult moral guidelines, and make a decision. This +decision would become a precedent for later decisions. + +As decades passed, the precedents were written down and kept in a safe +place. Persons who were not too clear about how to handle an unusual +business transaction or some other sticky matter could consult them to +better plan ahead and avoid problems. + +Eventually, some of the clergymen became so skilled at listening to cases +that they acquired considerable prestige. Demand for their services grew, +and they became full-time judges. The body of precedents they produced +became the law of common useage, the "common law". + +In its early years, common law was a private legal system completely +independent of government. This is important. Students are taught that +law and government are virtually the same thing, but this is quite wrong. +Law and government are two very different institutions and they do not +necessarily go together. Law is a service; government is force. + + Two Fundamental Laws + +A major problem a common law judge encountered was disputes between persons +from different communities or of different religions. Guidelines on which +cases were decided had to be those which all persons held in common. + +There are two fundamental laws on which all major religions and +philosophies agree: (1) do what you have agreed to do, and, (2) do not +encroach on others or their property. + +Common law was the body of definitions and procedures growing out of these +two laws: "Do what you have agreed to do" was the basis of contract law; +"do not encroach on others or their property" was the basis of criminal and +tort law. + +This is how common law became the source of all our basic laws against +theft, fraud, kidnapping, murder, etc. These acts were not made illegal by +Congress; they were prohibited by centuries-old common law principles. + + Legal Consistency + +A skilled common law judge would try to make all his decisions logically +consistent with the two fundamental laws. Common law was not only a +private legal system, it was a scientific one. Abraham Lincoln considered +`Euclid's Geometry' to be one of his most important law books; he studied +it to be sure the logic of his cases was airtight. + +One of the most important characteristics of common law was its certainty. +It had evolved very carefully over many centuries, changing little from one +decade to the next. The two fundamental laws remained always in place, a +stabilizing force. The community could expect their legal environment to +remain reasonably orderly. + +In fact, common law was so logical and sensible that the typical American +could study and understand it! It was regarded as a source of wisdom. + +The great British statesman Edmund Burke said of early America, "In no +country, perhaps, in the world, is law so general a study." He observed +that "all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in +that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch +of his business ... were so many books as those on law exported to the +colonies." + +A British general trying to govern America in the 1700s complained that +Americans were impossible to buffalo; they were all lawyers. + + Political Law + +Political law is the opposite of common law. Based on political power -- +brute force -- not on the two fundamental laws. It is crude and primitive. +It has no requirement for logic or morality. It changes whenever the +political wind changes. Fickle and tangled; no one can completely +understand it. + +Democracy or dictatorship, it doesn't matter; political law is arbitrary. +You do whatever the powerholders say, or else. Right or wrong. + +This is why majority rule is mob rule. The majority is as human as any +dictator. Like the dictator, they do not necessarily vote for what is +right; they vote for what they want. + +Their wants change constantly, so political power destroys businessmen's +ability to plan ahead. James Madison asked in the `Federalist Papers', +"What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of +commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before +they can be executed?" + +The American Revolution was fought over the difference between scientific +law and political law. Government officials had encroached into the +private business, lives, and property of the colonists, and the colonists +resented this. "All men are created equal". God has given no one special +permission to encroach on others, government included. + +The leaders of the American revolution believed common law was superior to +political law. After the revolution, they created the Bill of Rights and +other documents based on common law principles. The goal was to make the +superiority of these principles permanent, and to restrain government's +efforts efforts otherwise. + + Discovery vs. Enactment + +The founder's understanding of the scientific nature of common law can be +seen in this statement by Thomas Paine: "Man cannot make principles, he +can only discover them." + +Common law was a process of discovery: There were courts before there was +law. + +The premise of common law was that there is a Higher Law than political +law; the judges tried to discover and apply this Law. It was carefully, +logically, worked out, case after case, century after century, much like +the laws of physics or chemistry. + +Political law is an enactment process. Legislators -- lawmakers -- make +changes according to whatever political pressures they happen to be feeling +at the moment. Something that seems right today can be very wrong +tomorrow. In fact, under political law the frequent redefining of right +and wrong is considered necessary; during re-election lawmakers proudly +boast of the number of new laws they have enacted. + +In short, we now live in a world where it is assumed politicians have some +divine power to make law. In 1788, Patrick Henry realized this could +happen. During his struggle to prevent creation of a federal government he +warned that "Congress, from their general powers, may fully go into the +business of human legislation." Henry's warning was ignored, of course, +and today's burdensomely insane legal system is the consequence. + +`Business Week' says that each year in the U.S. there are more than 100,000 +new laws, rules and regulations enacted. This is a primary reason the +economy is a shambles. Tax rates, money supply, trade restrictions, +licensing laws, and thousands of other factors are stirred around in a +witch's brew of regulation. + +Much of this brew is lunacy. In `The Trenton Pickle Ordinance and Other +Bonehead Legislation', newsman Dick Hyman cites 600 examples of our +political law. In Massachusetts, says Hyman, it is illegal to put tomatoes +in clam chowder. [The FOUNDATION Editorial Staff agrees that some stern +measures are necessary in this instance.] A Texas law says that when two +trains meet at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop and +neither shall proceed until the other has gone. The Arkansas legislature +once enacted a law forbidding the Arkansas River to rise higher than a +certain limit. + +Go back and reread Edmund Burke's remark about our forefather's study of +law. Notice Burke refers to law as a science. Would any sane person today +call our law a science? + +Observe Hong Cong. A magnet for Red China's impoverished victims of +socialism. This city is often cited as a model of free-market +effectiveness; it's one of the most prosperous cities in Asia, yet most in +Hong Kong know nothing of free-market economics. The city's legal system +just happens to be based on British common law principles. + +Common law was not perfect, but it was consciously aimed in a specific +direction; that of truth and justice. Political law has no aim at all, +other than to obtain and use political power for whatever purposes the +powerholders decide. Common law historically has had strong popular +support, indeed it was the principle upon which this country was founded. +It weathered continuous political assault until the politically +manufactured exigencies of the New Deal finally overwhelmed it. + + Liberty vs. Permission + +We free-market advocates should bear in mind that under political law +people have no genuine liberties; only permissions. We do not have freedom +of speech -- we have permission to speak. We do not have freedom to trade +-- we have licensed permission to trade. These permissions can be +restricted or revoked at the whim of the powerholders. Indeed, under +political law we really have no more political liberty than do the Soviets; +just more permissions at the moment. + +Under scientific law, the individual's fundamental rights to life, liberty, +and property were held to be gifts granted by the Creator; they could not +be infringed. Says Arthur R. Hogue in `Origins of the Common Law', "The +common law is marked by a doctrine of the supremacy of law ... All agencies +of government must act upon established principles ... The king, like his +subjects, was under the law." + +Our attempt to rescue civilization will fail if we continue living under +political law. Even if hundreds of reforms are enacted, the next group of +politicians can easily use political law to overturn them. + +[Edited from `Freedom League Newsletter', Apr/May 1987] + +[END OF DOCUMENT: fl870402.txt.lis ] + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/comp-bor b/textfiles.com/politics/comp-bor new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9c81c67b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/comp-bor @@ -0,0 +1,237 @@ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + +LEGAL OVERVIEW + +THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS + +Advances in computer technology have brought us to a new frontier in +communications, where the law is largely unsettled and woefully +inadequate to deal with the problems and challenges posed by electronic +technology. How the law develops in this area will have a direct impact +on the electronic communications experiments and innovations being +devised day in and day out by millions of citizens on both a large and +small scale from coast to coast. Reasonable balances have to be struck +among: + +% traditional civil liberties +% protection of intellectual property +% freedom to experiment and innovate +% protection of the security and integrity of computer + systems from improper governmental and private + interference. + +Striking these balances properly will not be easy, but if they are +struck too far in one direction or the other, important social and legal +values surely will be sacrificed. + +Helping to see to it that this important and difficult task is done +properly is a major goal of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It is +critical to assure that these lines are drawn in accordance with the +fundamental constitutional rights that have protected individuals from +government excesses since our nation was founded -- freedom of speech, +press, and association, the right to privacy and protection from +unwarranted governmental intrusion, as well as the right to procedural +fairness and due process of law. + +The First Amendment + +The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the +government from "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," and +guarantees freedom of association as well. It is widely considered to +be the single most important of the guarantees contained in the Bill of +Rights, since free speech and association are fundamental in securing +all other rights. + +The First Amendment throughout history has been challenged by every +important technological development. It has enjoyed only a mixed record +of success. Traditional forms of speech -- the print media and public +speaking -- have enjoyed a long and rich history of freedom from +governmental interference. The United States Supreme Court has not +afforded the same degree of freedom to electronic broadcasting, +however. + +Radio and television communications, for example, have been subjected to +regulation and censorship by the Federal Communications Commission +(FCC), and by the Congress. The Supreme Court initially justified +regulation of the broadcast media on technological grounds -- since +there were assumed to be a finite number of radio and television +frequencies, the Court believed that regulation was necessary to prevent +interference among frequencies and to make sure that scarce resources +were allocated fairly. The multiplicity of cable TV networks has +demonstrated the falsity of this "scarce resource" rationale, but the +Court has expressed a reluctance to abandon its outmoded approach +without some signal from Congress or the FCC. + +Congress has not seemed overly eager to relinquish even +counterproductive control over the airwaves. Witness, for example, +legislation and rule-making in recent years that have kept even +important literature, such as the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, from being +broadcast on radio because of language deemed "offensive" to regulators. +Diversity and experimentation have been sorely hampered by these rules. + +The development of computer technology provides the perfect opportunity +for lawmakers and courts to abandon much of the distinction between the +print and electronic media and to extend First Amendment protections to +all communications regardless of the medium. Just as the multiplicity +of cable lines has rendered obsolete the argument that television has to +be regulated because of a scarcity of airwave frequencies, so has the +ready availability of virtually unlimited computer communication +modalities made obsolete a similar argument for harsh controls in this +area. With the computer taking over the role previously played by the +typewriter and the printing press, it would be a constitutional disaster +of major proportions if the treatment of computers were to follow the +history of regulation of radio and television, rather than the history +of freedom of the press. + +To the extent that regulation is seen as necessary and proper, it should +foster the goal of allowing maximum freedom, innovation and +experimentation in an atmosphere where no one's efforts are sabotaged by +either government or private parties. Regulation should be limited by +the adage that quite aptly describes the line that separates reasonable +from unreasonable regulation in the First Amendment area: "Your liberty +ends at the tip of my nose." + +As usual, the law lags well behind the development of technology. It is +important to educate lawmakers and judges about new technologies, lest +fear and ignorance of the new and unfamiliar, create barriers to free +communication, expression, experimentation, innovation, and other such +values that help keep a nation both free and vigorous. + +The Fourth Amendment + +The Fourth Amendment guarantees that "the right of the people to +be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against +unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no +Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath +or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be +searched, and the persons or things to be seized." + +In short, the scope of the search has to be as narrow as +possible, and there has to be good reason to believe that the +search will turn up evidence of illegal activity. + +The meaning of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee has evolved over time in +response to changing technologies. For example, while the Fourth +Amendment was first applied to prevent the government from trespassing +onto private property and seizing tangible objects, the physical +trespass rationale was made obsolete by the development of electronic +eavesdropping devices which permitted the government to "seize" an +individual's words without ever treading onto that person's private +property. To put the matter more concretely, while the drafters of the +First Amendment surely knew nothing about electronic databases, surely +they would have considered one's database to be as sacrosanct as, for +example, the contents of one's private desk or filing cabinet. + +The Supreme Court responded decades ago to these types of technological +challenges by interpreting the Fourth Amendment more broadly to prevent +governmental violation of an individual's reasonable expectation of +privacy, a concept that transcended the narrow definition of one's +private physical space. It is now well established that an individual +has a reasonable expectation of privacy, not only in his or her home +and business, but also in private communications. Thus, for example: + +% Government wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping are now limited +by state and federal statutes enacted to effectuate and even to expand +upon Fourth Amendment protections. + +% More recently, the Fourth Amendment has been used, albeit with +limited success, to protect individuals from undergoing certain random +mandatory drug testing imposed by governmental authorities. + +Advancements in technology have also worked in the opposite direction, +to diminish expectations of privacy that society once considered +reasonable, and thus have helped limit the scope of Fourth Amendment +protections. Thus, while one might once have reasonably expected +privacy in a fenced-in field, the Supreme Court has recently told us +that such an expectation is not reasonable in an age of surveillance +facilitated by airplanes and zoom lenses. + +Applicability of Fourth Amendment to computer media + +Just as the Fourth Amendment has evolved in response to changing +technologies, so it must now be interpreted to protect the reasonable +expectation of privacy of computer users in, for example, their +electronic mail or electronically stored secrets. The extent to which +government intrusion into these private areas should be allowed, ought +to be debated openly, fully, and intelligently, as the Congress seeks to +legislate in the area, as courts decide cases, and as administrative, +regulatory, and prosecutorial agencies seek to establish their turf. + +One point that must be made, but which is commonly misunderstood, is +that the Bill of Rights seeks to protect citizens from privacy invasions +committed by the government, but, with very few narrow exceptions, these +protections do not serve to deter private citizens from doing what the +government is prohibited from doing. In short, while the Fourth +Amendment limits the government's ability to invade and spy upon private +databanks, it does not protect against similar invasions by private +parties. Protection of citizens from the depredations of other citizens +requires the passage of privacy legislation. + +The Fifth Amendment + +The Fifth Amendment assures citizens that they will not "be deprived of +life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" and that private +property shall not "be taken for public use without just compensation." +This Amendment thus protects both the sanctity of private property and +the right of citizens to be proceeded against by fair means before they +may be punished for alleged infractions of the law. + +One aspect of due process of law is that citizens not be prosecuted for +alleged violations of laws that are so vague that persons of reasonable +intelligence cannot be expected to assume that some prosecutor will +charge that his or her conduct is criminal. A hypothetical law, for +example, that makes it a crime to do "that which should not be done", +would obviously not pass constitutional muster under the Fifth +Amendment. Yet the application of some existing laws to new situations +that arise in the electronic age is only slightly less problematic than +the hypothetical, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation plans to +monitor the process by which old laws are modified, and new laws are +crafted, to meet modern situations. + +One area in which old laws and new technologies have already clashed and +are bound to continue to clash, is the application of federal criminal +laws against the interstate transportation of stolen property. The +placement on an electronic bulletin board of arguably propriety computer +files, and the "re-publication" of such material by those with access to +the bulletin board, might well expose the sponsor of the bulletin board +as well as all participants to federal felony charges, if the U.S. +Department of Justice can convince the courts to give these federal laws +a broad enough reading. Similarly, federal laws protecting against +wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping clearly have to be updated to +take into account electronic bulletin board technology, lest those who +utilize such means of communication should be assured of reasonable +privacy from unwanted government surveillance. + +Summary + +The problem of melding old but still valid concepts of constitutional +rights, with new and rapidly evolving technologies, is perhaps best +summed up by the following observation. Twenty-five years ago there was +not much question but that the First Amendment prohibited the government +from seizing a newspaper's printing press, or a writer's typewriter, in +order to prevent the publication of protected speech. Similarly, the +government would not have been allowed to search through, and seize, +one's private papers stored in a filing cabinet, without first +convincing a judge that probable cause existed to believe that evidence +of crime would be found. + +Today, a single computer is in reality a printing press, typewriter, and +filing cabinet (and more) all wrapped up in one. How the use and output +of this device is treated in a nation governed by a Constitution that +protects liberty as well as private property, is a major challenge we +face. How well we allow this marvelous invention to continue to be +developed by creative minds, while we seek to prohibit or discourage +truly abusive practices, will depend upon the degree of wisdom that +guides our courts, our legislatures, and governmental agencies entrusted +with authority in this area of our national life. + +For further information regarding The Bill of Rights please contact: + +Harvey Silverglate +Silverglate & Good +89 Broad Street, 14th Floor +Boston, MA 02110 +617/542-6663 + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/compsec b/textfiles.com/politics/compsec new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4086ba70 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/compsec @@ -0,0 +1,1224 @@ +% (C) 1987, Simson L. Garfinkel. +% May not be transmitted or copied without permission + + + Introduction to Security + + An Introduction to Computer Security For Lawyers + +(Most of the examples in this article are based on actual events.) + +A small business has its accounting records erased by a malicious +high school student using a home computer and a modem. Did the business +take reasonable security precautions to prevent this sort of damage? + +A friend gives you a public domain program which greatly improves your +computer's performance. One day, you find that the program has stopped +working, along with all of your wordprocessor, spreadsheet and +database programs. + +It is important for legal practitioners to understand issues +of computer security, both for the protection of their own interests +and the interests of their clients. Lawyers today must automatically +recognize insecure computer systems and lax operating procedures in +the same was as Lawyers now recognize poorly written contracts. +Additionally, as computers become more pervasive, more legal cases +will arise which revolve around issues of computer security. Unless +familiar with the basic concepts of computer security, a lawyer +will not know how to approach the question. + +Not being a lawyer, the author will not attempt to address the legal +aspects surrounding computer security. Instead, the goal of this +article is to convey to the reader a basic understanding of the +technical issues in the field. Even a simple understanding of computer +security will afford the average lawyer protection from the accidental +loss or theft of documents and data stored in the firm's computer +systems, and allow the lawyer to begin to evaluate cases in which +bypassing of computer security is of primary interest. + +This article attempts to broadly cover questions of computer security +in the small business or law firm. Because of its objectives, this +article is not a step-by-step guide on how to make a law firm +computer more secure: Instead, this article hopes to acquaint the +reader with the issues involved so that the reader may then be able +to analyze systems on a case-by-case basis and recognize when outside +assistance is required. + +Simply defined, computer security is the process, procedures, or +tools which assure that data entered into a computer today will be +retrievable at a later time by, and only by, those authorized to do +so. The procedures should additionally include systems by which +computer system managers (simply ``management'' on future references) +will be notified when attempts at penetrating security are made. +Security is violated when some person or persons (the ``subverter'') +succeedes in retrieving data without authorization. Security is also +breached when the subverter manages to destroy +or altering data belonging to others, making +retrieval of the original data impossible. + +Although a substantial effort has been spent in the academic and +computer research communities exploring issues of computer security, +little of what is understood has been put into practice on a wide +scale. Computers are not inherently insecure, but there is a great +temptation to build and run computers with lax security procedures, +since this often results in simpler and faster operation. If security +considerations are built into a product from the beginning they are +relatively low cost; security added as an after-thought is often very +expensive. Additionally, many computer users are simply not aware of +how their facilities are insecure and how to rectify the situation. + + Who are the subverters? + +It is a mistake to assume that all people bent on stealing or +destroying data can be grouped together and that similar defenses are +equally effective against all subverters. In practice, the are two +major groups: those who want to steal data and those who wish to +destroy it. The first group can be called ``spies,'' the second group +can be called ``vandals'' or ``crackers.'' Different security +measures are targeted at each group. + +Spies are sometimes exactly that: spies, either governmental or +corporate who stand to gain from the possession of confidential or +secret data. Other times, spies are employees of the organization +that owns the computer -- employees who seek information in the +computer for personal advancement or blackmail. + +Crackers are typically adolescent boys who have a computer and a +modem. They are usually very intelligent and break into computer +systems for the challenge. They communicate with their friends via +computer bulletin boards, often using stolen ATT credit card or MCI +numbers to pay for the calls. On these boards, crackers report phone +numbers, user names, passwords and other information regarding +computer systems they have ``discovered.'' Many crackers are aware that +their actions are illegal and cease them on their 18th birthday to +avoid criminal liability for their actions. +``Vandals'' describes a larger group which includes both crackers and +other people likely to vandalize data, such as disgruntled employees. + +Computer security has two sets of mutual goals, each tailored to a +particular set of opponents. The first goal is to make the cost of +violating the computer security vastly greater than the value of the +data which might be stolen. This is designed to deter the spies, who +are interested in stealing data for its value. The second goal of +security is to to make it too difficult for crackers to gain access to a +computer system within a workable period of time. + + Three terms: operating system, accounts and passwords + +The program which controls the basic operations of a computer is +referred to as the computer's ``operating system.'' Often the same +computer can be used to run several different operating systems (but +not simultaneously). For example, the IBM PC/AT can run either the +MSDOS operating system or Xenix, a Unix-based operating system. Under +these two operating systems, the PC/AT has completely different +behavior. + +If a computer system is intended for use by many people, the operating +system must distinguish between users to prevent +them from interfering with each other. For example, most multi-user +operating systems will not allow one user to delete files belonging +to another user unless the second user gave explicitly permission. + +Typically, each user of the computer is assigned an ``account.'' The +operating system then does not allow commands issued by the user of +one account to modify data which was created by another account. +Accounts are usually named with between one and eight letters or +numbers which are also called ``usernames.'' Typical usernames that +the author has had include ``simsong'', ``Garfinkel'', ``slg'', +``SIMSON'' and ``ML1744.'' + +Most operating systems require that a user enter both the account name +and a ``password'' in order to use the account. Account names are +generally public knowledge while passwords are secret, known only to +the user and the operating system. (Some operating systems make +passwords available to system management, an insecure practice which +will be explored in a later section.) Since the account can not be +used without the password the name of the account can be made public +knowledge. If a cracker does break into an account, only the password +needs to be changed. Knowing a person's username is mandatory in order +to exchange electronic mail. + + How much security? + +In most computer systems, security is purchased at a cost in system +performance, ease of use, complexity and management time. Many +government systems have a full time ``security officer'' whose job is +to supervise and monitor the security operations of the computer +facility. Many universities are also extremely concerned about +security, since they are well-marked targets for crackers in the +surrounding community. Most businesses, however, are notoriously lax +in their security practices, largely out of ignorance and a lack of +direct experience. + +Security exists in many forms: An operating system may be programmed +to prevent users from reading data they are not authorized to access. +Security may be procedures followed by computer users, such as +disposing of all printouts and unusable magnetic media in shredders or +incinerators. Security may be in the form of alarms and logs which +tell the management when a break-in is attempted and/or successful. +Security may be a function of hiring procedures which require +extensive security checks of employees before allowing them to access +confidential data. Lastly, security may be in the form of physical +security, such as locks on doors and alarm systems intended to protect +the equipment and media from theft. + +In a secure environment, the many types and layers of security are +used to reinforce each other, with the hope that if one layer fails +another layer will prevent or minimize the damage. Established +protocol and judgment are required to determine the amount and cost +of security which a particular organization's data warrant. + + Security through obscurity + +Security through obscurity is the reliance upon little known and +often unchangeable artifacts for security. Security +through obscurity is not a form of security, although it is often +mistaken for such. Usually no mechanism informs site management that the +``security'' has been circumvented. Often intrusions are not detected +until significant damage has been done or the intruder gets careless. +Once damage is detected, +management has little choice but to choose a new security system which +does not depend on obscurity for its strength. + +The classic example of security through obscurity is the family that +hides the key to the front door under the ``Welcome'' mat. The only +thing to stop a burglar from entering the house is the ignorance that +there is a hidden key and its location -- that is, the key's +obscurity. If the house is burglarized and the burglar returns the +key to its original place, the family will have no way of knowing how +the burglar got in. If the family does change the location of the +hidden key, all the burglar needs to do is to find it again. A +higher level of +security would be achieved by disposing of the hidden key and issuing +keys to each member of the family. + +For an example of security through obscurity on a computer, imagine the +owner of a small business who uses her IBM PC for both day-to-day +bookkeeping and management of employee records. In an attempt to keep +the employee records hidden from his employees, she labels the disk +``DOS 1.0 BACKUP DISK.'' The owner's hope is that none of the employees +will be interested in the disk after reading the label. Although the +label may indeed disinterest inquisitive employees, there +are far better ways to secure the disk (such as locking it in a file +cabinet). + +In a second example of security through obscurity, a secretary stores +personal correspondence on her office wordprocessor. To hide the +documents' existence, she chooses filenames for them such as MEMO1, +MEMO2, ..., and sets the first three pages of the documents to be the +actual text of old, inter-office memos. Her private letters are +obscurely hidden after the old memos. Once her system is discovered, +none of her correspondence is secure. + + Physical Security + +Physical security refers to devices and procedures used to protect +computer hardware and media. Physical security is the most important +aspect of computer security. Because of the similarities +between computers and other physical objects, physical security is +the aspect of computer which is best understood. + +Like typewriters and furniture, office computers are targets for +theft. But unlike typewriters and furniture, the cost of a computer +theft can be many times the dollar value of the equipment stolen. +Often, the dollar value of the data stored inside a computer far +exceeds the value of the computer itself. Very strict precautions +must be taken to insure that computer equipment is not stolen by +casual thieves. + + Hardware + +A variety of devices are available to physically secure computers and +computer equipment in place. Examples are security plates which mount +underneath a computer and attach it to the table that it rests on. +Other approaches include the use of heavy-duty cables threaded +through holes in the computer's cabinet. It is important, +when installing such a restraining device, to assure that they +will not damage or interfere with the operation of the computer (more +than one installation has had workmen drill holes through circuit +boards to bolt them down to tables.) + + Backups + +To ``back up'' information means to make a copy of it from one place to +another. The copy, or ``backup,'' is saved in a safe place. In the +event that the original is lost, the backup can be used. + +Backups should be performed regularly to protect the user from loss of +data resulting from hardware malfunction. Improved reliability is a +kind of security, in that it helps to assure that data stored today +will be accessible tomorrow. The subverter in such an event might be a +the faulty chip or power spike. Backups stored off site provide +insurance against fire. + +Backups are also vital in defending against human subverters. If a +computer is stolen, the only copy of the data it contained will be +on the backup, which can then be restored on another computer. If a +cracker breaks into a computer system and erases all of the files, +the backups can be restored, assuming that the cracker does not have +access to or knowledge of the backups. + +But backups are a potential security problem. Backups are +targets for theft by spies, since they can contain exact copies of +confidential information. Indeed, backups warrant greater physical +security than the computer system, since the theft of a backup +will not be noticed as quickly as the theft of media containing working +data. + +With recognition of the potential security hole of backups, some +computer systems allow users to +prevent specific files from being backed up at all. +Such action is justified when the potential cost of having a +backup tape containing the data stolen is greater than the potential +cost of losing the data due to equipment malfunction, or when the data +stored on the computer is itself a copy of secure master source, such +as a tape in a file cabinet. + + Sanitizing + +Floppy disks and tapes grow old and are often discarded. Hard disks +are removed from service and returned enact to the manufacture for +repair or periodic maintenance. Disk packs costing +thousands of dollars are removed from equipment and resold. If these +media ever contained confidential data, special precautions must be +taken to ensure that no traces of the data remain on the media after +disposal. This process is called ``sanitizing.'' To understand +sanitizing, first it is necessary to understand how information is +recorded on magnetic media: + +The typical PC floppy disk can store approximately 360 thousand +characters. Each of these each of these characters consists of 8 +binary digits, called ``bits,'' which can be set to ``0'' or ``1.'' +Information on the disk is arranged into files. One part of the +disk, called the directory, is used to list the name and location of +every file. + +Using the operating system's delete-file command (such as the MSDOS +``erase'' command) is not sufficient to insure that data stored cannot +be recovered by skilled operators. Most delete-file commands do not +actually erase the target file from a diskette: instead, the command +merely erases the name of the file from the diskette's directory. This +action frees the storage area occupied by the file for use but does +not modify the data in any way. +The file itself remains intact and can be recovered at a later time +if it has not been overwritten. Many programs exist on the +market to do just this. + +Even if the actual file contents are overwritten or erased -- that is, +even if all of the bits used to store the contents of the file are +set to ``0'' -- it is still possible to recover the original +data, although not with normal operating procedures. + +Imagine a black and white checkerboard used for a computer memory. +Assume that the value of any square on the checkerboard is +proportional to the darkness of the square: the black squares are 1s +and the white squares are 0s. Now consider what happens when the +checkerboard is painted with one coat of white paint: the original +checkerboard pattern is still discernible, but less so. The squares +which formerly had a value of 1 now evaluate to 0.1 or 0.2. When the +computer reads the memory, the 0.1 or 0.2 are rounded to 0. But an +expert with special equipment could easily recover the original +pattern. + +Just as the pattern can be recovered from a checkerboard uniformly +painted, data can be recovered from a floppy disk which has been +uniformly erased or reformatted. Typical sanitization procedures +involve writing a 1 to every location on the media, then to write a 0 +to every location, then to fill the media with random data. To use +the checkerboard analogy, this would be the same as painting the board +black, then white, then with a different checkered pattern. The +original pattern should then be undetectable. Additional effort +might be desired when dealing with very sensitive data. + +Sanitizing is obviously an expensive and time consuming process. +Physical destruction of the media represents an attractive +alternative -- simply feeding the floppy disk (or the checkerboard) +into a paper shredder does very well. Unfortunately, physical +destruction is not economically possible with expensive media which +must be returned for service or for resale in order to recover +costs of purchase. + + Authentication + +Authentication is the process by which the computer system verifies +that a user is who the user claims to be, and vice versa. +Systems of authentication are usually classified as being based on: + + Something the user has. (keys) + + Something the user knows. (passwords) + + Something the user is. (fingerprints) + + Passwords + +A password is a secret word or phrase which should be known only to +the user and the computer. When the user attempts to use the computer, +he must first enter the password. The computer compares the typed password +to the stored password and, if they match, allows the user access. + +Some computer systems allow management access to the list of stored +passwords; doing so is generally regarded as an unsound practice. If +a cracker gained access to such a list, every password on the computer +system would have to be changed. Other computers store passwords after +they have been processed by a non-invertible mathematical function. +The user's typed password cannot be derived by the processed +password, eliminating the damage resulting from the theft of the +master password list. The password that the user types when attempting +to log on is then transformed with the same mathematical function and +the two processed passwords are compared for equality. + + What makes a secure password? + +Insecure passwords are passwords which are easy for people to guess. +Examples of these include passwords which are the same +as usernames, common first or last names, passwords of four +characters or less, and English words (all english words, even long +ones like ``cinnamon.''). + +A few years ago, the typical cracker would spend many hours at his +keyboard trying password after password. Today, crackers have +automated this search with personal computers. The cracker can +program his computer to try every word in a large file. Typically, these +files consist of thirty thousand word dictionaries, lists of first and +last names and easy-to-remember keyboard patterns. + +Examples of secure passwords include random, unpronounceable +combinations of letters and numbers and several words strung together. +Single words spelled backwards, very popular in some circles, are not +secure passwords since crackers started searching for them. + +The second characteristic of a secure password (and of a secure +computer) is that it is easily changed by the user. Users should be +encouraged to change their passwords frequently and whenever they believe +that someone else has been using their account. This way, if a cracker +does manage to learn a user's password, the damage will be minimized. + +It should go without saying that passwords should never be written +down, told to other people or chosen according to an easily predicted +system. + + Smart Cards + +If the communication link between the user and the computer is +monitored, even the longest and most obscure password +can be recorded, giving the eavesdropper access to the account. The +answer, some members of the computer community believe, is for users +to be assigned mathematical functions instead of passwords. When the +user attempts to log on, the computer presents him with a number. The +user applies his secret function (which the computer knows) to the +number and replies with the result. Since the listener never sees the +function, only the input and the result, tapping the communications +link does not theoretically give one access to the account. + +Assume for example, user P's formula is ``multiply by 2.'' When she tries to +log in, the computer prints the number ``1234567.'' She types back +``2469134,'' and the computer lets her log in. A problem with this system +is that unless very complicated formulas are used, it is relatively easy for +a eavesdropper to figure out the formula. + +Very complicated formulas can be implemented with the ``smart card,'' +which is a small credit-card sized device with an embedded computer +instead of magnetic strip. The host computer transmits a large (100 +digit) number to the smart card which performs several thousand +calculations on the number. The smart card then transmits the result +back to the host. Obviously, dedicated hardware consisting of the +smart cards themselves and a special reader are required. Smart cards +change authentication from something to user knows (a password) to +something the user has (a smart card). Naturally, the theft of a +smart-card is equivalent to the disclosure of a password. + +Smart cards have been proposed as a general replacement for many +password applications, including logon for very secure computers, +verification of credit cards, and ATM cards and identity cards. Since the +cards are authenticated by testing a mathematical function stored +inside the card on a silicon computer, rather than a number stored on +a magnetic strip, the cards would be very difficult to duplicate or +forge. They are also very expensive. + + Authentication of the computer: The Trojan Horse problem + +While most computer systems require that the user authenticate +himself to the computer, very few provide a facility for +the computer to authenticate itself to the user! Yet, computer +users face the same authentication problems a computer does. + +For example, a user sits down at a terminal to log onto a computer +and is prompted to type his username and his password. What assurance +does the user have that the questions are being asked by the +operating system and not by a program that has been left running on +the terminal? Such a program -- called a Trojan Horse -- +can collect hundreds of passwords in a very short time. Well written +trojan horses can be exceedingly difficult to detect. + +Another example of a trojan horse program is a program which claims to +performs one function while actually performing another. For example, +a program called DSKCACHE was distributed on some computer bulletin +board systems in the New York in December 1985. The program +substantially improved disk i/o performance of an IBM Personal +Computer, encouraging people to use the program and give it to their +friends. The hidden function of DSKCACHE was to erase the contents of +the computer's disk when it was run on or after the trigger date, +which was March 24, 1986. + +Trojan horses are possible because reliable ways in which the computer can +authenticate itself to the user are not wide spread. + + Computer Viruses + +A computer virus is a malicious program which can reproduce itself. +The DSKCACHE program described above is a sort of computer virus that +used humans to propagate. Other computer viruses copy themselves +automatically when they are executed. Viruses have been written which +propagate by telephone lines or by computer networks. + +The computer virus is another problem of authentication: Since +programs have no way of authenticating their actions, the user must +proceed on blind trust when we run them. When I use a text editor on +my computer, I trust that the program will not maliciously erase all +of my files. There are times that this trust is misplaced. Computer +viruses are some of the most efficient programs at exploiting trust. + +One computer virus is a program which when +run copies itself over a randomly located program on the hard disk. +For example, the first time the virus is run it might copy itself +onto the installed wordprocessor program. Then, when either the +original virus program or the wordprocessor program are run, another +program on the hard disk will be corrupted. Soon there will be no +programs remaining on the disk besides the virus. + +A more cleaver virus would merely modify the other programs on the +disk, inserting a copy of itself and then remain dormant until a +particular target date was reached. The virus might then print a +ransom note and prevent use of the infected programs until a ``key'' was +purchased from the virus' author. + +Once a system is infected, the virus is nearly impossible to +eradicate. The real danger of computer viruses is that they can +remain dormant for months or years, then suddenly strike, erasing data +and making computer systems useless (since all of the computer's +programs are infected with the virus.) Viruses could also be triggered +by external events such as phone calls, depending on the particular +computer. A number of authors have suggested ways of using computer +viruses for international blackmail infecting the nation's banking +computers with them. Viruses can and have been placed by disgruntled +employees in software under development. Such viruses might be +triggered when the employee's name is removed from the business' +payroll. + +There are several ways to defend against computer viruses. The +cautious user should never use public domain software, or only use +such software after a competent programmer has read the source-code +and recompiled the executable-code from scratch. + +{Computer programs are usually written in one of several english-like +languages and then processed, using a program called a compiler, into a form +which the computer can execute directly. While even a good programmer would +have a hard time detecting a virus if presented solely with the executable +code, they are readily detectable in source-code.} + + +Telecommunications + + Modems + +The word MODEM stands for Modulator/Demodulator. A modem takes a stream +of data and modulates it into a series of tones suitable for broadcast +over standard telephone lines. At the receiving end, another modem +demodulates the tones into the original stream of data. + +In practice, modems are used in two distinct ways: A) File Transfer +and B) Telecomputing. + +When used strictly for file transfer, modems are used in a fashion +similar to the way that many law firms now use telcopier machines. One +computer operator calls another operator and they agree to transfer a +file. Both operators set up the modems, transmit the file and then shut +down the modems, usually disconnecting them from the phone lines. + +When used in this manner, the two computer operators are essentially +authenticating each other over the telephone. (``Hi, Sam? This is +Jean.'' ``Hi Jean. I've got Chris' file to send.'' ``Ok, send it. Have +a nice day.'') If one operator didn't recognize or had doubts about +the other operator, the transfer wouldn't proceed until the questions +had been resolved. This system is called attended file transfer. + +Modems can also be used for unattended file transfer, which is really +a special case of telecomputing. + +In telecomputing, one or more of the modems involved in operated +without human intervention. In this configuration, a computer is +equipped with a modem capable of automatically answering a ringing +telephone line. Such modems are called AA (for ``auto answer'') +modems. When the phone rings, the computer answers. After the modem +answers the caller is required to authenticate himself to the computer +system (at least, this is the case when a secure computer system is +used), after which the caller is allowed to use the computer system or +perform file transfer. + +In most configurations, the computer system does not authenticate +itself to the caller, creating a potential for Trojan horse programs +to be used by subverters (see above). + +AA modems answer the telephone with a distinctive tone. If a cracker +dials an AA modem, either by accident or as the result of an +deliberate search, the tone is like a neon sign inviting the cracker +to try his luck. Fortunately, most multi-user operating systems are +robust enough to stand up to even the most persistent crackers. Most +personal computers are not so robust, although this depends on the +particular software being used. Leaving a PC unattended running a +file-transfer program is an invitation for any calling cracker to take +every file on the machine he can find, especially if the file-transfer +program uses a well known protocol and does not require the user to +type a password. The only security evident is the obscurity of the +telephone number, which may not be very obscure at all, and of the +file transfer program's protocol. + + Call back and password modems + +Modem manufactures have attempted two strategies to make AA modems +more secure: passwords and call back. + +When calling a password modem, the user must first type a password +before the modem will pass data to the host computer. The +issues involved in breaking into a computer system protected by +password modems are the same as in breaking into a computer system +which requires that users enter passwords before logging in. + +A good password modem has a password for every user and records the +times that each user calls in, but most password modems only have one +password. For most operating systems a password modem is overkill, +since the operating system provides its own password and accounting +facilities, or useless, since, any functionality which a password +modem provides can be implemented better by programs running on a +computer which a non-password modem is attached to. But for an +unattended microcomputer performing file transfer, a password modem +may be the only way to achieve a marginal level of security. + +A call back modem is like a password modem, in that it requires the +caller to type in a preestablished password. The difference is that a +call back modem then hangs up on the caller and then ``calls back'' -- +the modem dials the phone number associated with the password. The +idea is that even if a cracker learns the password, he cannot use +the modem because it won't call him back. + +In practice, shortcomings in the telephone system make call back +modems are no more secure than password modems. Most telephone +exchanges are ``caller controlled,'' which means that a connection is +not broken until the caller hangs up. If the cracker, after entering +the correct password, doesn't hang up, the modem will attempt to +``hang up,'' pick up the phone, dial and connect to the cracker's modem +(since the connection was never dropped). A few modems will not being +dialing until they hear a dial tone, but this is easily overcome by +playing a dial tone into the telephone. + +The idea of call back can be made substantially more secure by using +two modems, so that the returned call is made on a different +telephone line than the original call is received on. Call back of +this type must be implemented by the operating system rather than +the modem. Two modem call back is also defeatable by use of the ``ring +window,'' explained below: + +How many times have you picked up the telephone to discover someone at +the other end? The telephone system will connect the caller before it +rings the called party's bell if the telephone is picked up within a +brief period of time, called the ``ring window.'' That is -- when a +computer (or person) picks up a silent telephone, there is no way to +guarantee that there will be no party at the other end of the line. +There is no theoretical way around the ring window problem with the +current telephone system, but the problem can be substantially +minimized by programming the dialout-modem to wait a random amount of +time before returning the call. + +The principle advantage of a call back modem is that it allows the +expense of the telephone call to be incurred at the computer's end, +rather than at the callers end. One way to minimize telecommunication +costs might be to install a call back modem with a WATS line. + +In general, both password and call back modems represent expensive +equipment with little or no practical value. They are becoming +popular because modem companies, playing on people's fears, are making +them popular with advertising. + + Computer Networks + +A network allows several computers to exchange data and share devices, +such as laser printers and tape drives. Computer networks can be small, +consisting of two computers connected by a serial line, or very large, +consisting of hundreds or thousands of systems. One network, the +Arpanet, consists of thousands of computers at universities, +corporations and government installations all over the United States. +Among other functions, the Arpanet allows users of any networked +computer to transfer files or exchange electronic mail with users at any +other networked computer. The Arpanet also provides a service) by which +a user of one computer can log onto another computer, even if the other +computer is several thousand miles away. + +It is utility of the network which presents potential security +problems. A file transfer facility can be used to steal files, remote +access can be used to steal computer time. A spy looking for a way to +remove a classified file from a secure installation might use the +network to ``mail'' the document to somebody outside the building. +Unrestricted remote access to resources such as disks and printers +places these devices at the mercy of the other users of the network. A +substantial amount of the Arpanet's system software is +devoted to enforcing security and protecting users of the network from +each other. + +In general, computer networks can be divided into two classes: those +that are physically secure and those that are not. A physically +secure network is a network in which the management knows the details +of every computer connected at all times. An insecure network is one +in which private agents, employees, saboteurs and crackers are free to add +equipment. Few networks are totally insecure. + +Encryption + + What is encryption? + +The goal of encryption is to translate a message (the ``plaintext'') +into a second message (the ``cyphertext'') which is unreadable without +the possession of additional information. This translation is +performed by a mathematical function called the encryption algorithm. +The additional information is known as the ``key.'' In most encryption +systems, the same key is used for encryption as for decryption. + + +Encryption allows the content of the message to remain secure even if +the cyphertext is stored or transmitted via insecure methods (or even +made publicly available). The +security in such a system resides in the strength of the encryption +system employed and the security of the key. In an ideal cryptographic +system, the security of the message resides entirely in the secrecy +of the key. + +When Julius Caeser sent his reports on the Gallic Wars back to Rome, +he wanted the content of the reports to remain secret until they +reached Rome (where his confidants would presumably be able to decode +them.) To achieve this end, he invented an encrypted system now known +as the Caeser Cipher. The Caeser Cipher is a simple substitution +cipher in which every letter of the plaintext is substituted with the +letter three places further along in the alphabet. Thus, the word: + + AMERICA + +encrypts as + + DQHULFD + +The ``key'' of the Caeser Cipher is the number of letters which the +plaintext is shifted (three); the encryption algorithm is the rule +``shift all letters in the plaintext by the same number of +characters.'' The Caeser Cipher isn't very secure: if the algorithm is +known, the key is deducible by a few rounds of trail-and-error. +Additionally, the algorithm is readily determinable by lexigraphical +analysis of the cyphertext. Recently, the author sent a postcard to a +friend which was encrypted with the Caeser Cipher (without any +information on the card that it was encrypted or which system was +used): the postcard was decoded in five minutes. + +Modern cryptography systems assume that both the encryption +algorithm and the complete cyphertext are publicly known. +Security of the plaintext is achieved by security of the key. +Cryptographic keys are typically very large numbers. Since +people find it easier to remember sequences of letters than numbers, +most cryptographic systems allow the user to enter an alphabetic key +which is translated internally into a very large number. + +Ideally, it should be impossible for a spy to translate the +cyphertext back into plaintext unless he is in possession of the key. +In practice, there are a variety of methods by which cyphertext can be +decrypted. Breaking cyphers usually involves detecting regularities +within the cyphertext and repeated decoding attempts of the cyphertext +with different keys. This process requires considerable amounts of +computer time and (frequently) a large portion of the cyphertext. As +there are many excellent books written on the subject of cryptography, +it will not be explored in depth here. + + Why encryption? + +Encryption makes it more expensive for spies to steal data, since +even after the data is stolen it must still be decrypted. Encryption +thus provides an additional defense layer against data theft after +other security systems have failed. + +On computer systems without security, such as office IBM PCs shared by +several people, encryption is a means for providing +privacy of data between users. Instead of copying confidential files +to removable media, users can simply encrypt their files and leave them on +the PC's hard disk. Of course, the files must be decrypted before they +can be used again and encryption of files does not protect them from deletion. + +Encryption allows confidential data to be transmitted via insecure +systems, such as telephone lines or by courier. Encryption allows one to +relax other forms of security with the knowledge that the encryption +system is reasonably secure. + + Costs of Encryption + +Encryption is not without its costs. Among these are the expenses +of the actual encryption and decryption, the costs associated with +managing keys, and the degree of security required of the encryption +program. + +Beyond the cost of purchasing the encryption system, there are costs +associated with the employment of cryptography as a security measure. +Encrypting and decrypting data requires time. Most cryptography +systems encrypt plaintext to cyphertext containing many control +characters: special file-transfer programs must be used to transmit +these files over telephone lines. In many cryptography systems, +a one character change in the cyphertext will result in the rest of +the ciphertext being indecipherable, requiring that 100 percent reliable +data transmission and storage systems be used for encrypted text. + +If the encryption program is lost or if the key is +forgotten, an encrypted message becomes useless. This characteristic +of cryptography encourages many users to store both an encrypted and +a plaintext version of their message, which dramatically reduces the +security achieved from the encryption in the first place. + +An encryption program should be the most carefully guarded program on +the system. A cracker/spy might modify the program so that it records +all keys in a special file on the system, or so that it encrypts all +files with the same key (known to the cracker), or with an +easy-to-break algorithm rather than the advertised one. Management +should regularly verify an encryption program to assure that it is +providing its expected function, and only its expected function. + + Key Management + +Key management is the process by which cryptographic keys are decided +upon and changed. For maximum security, keys (like passwords) should +be randomly chosen combinations of letters and numbers. Keys should +not be reused (that is, every message should be encrypted with a +different key) and no written copy of the key should exist. Few +computer users are able to adhere to such demanding protocols. + + Encryption as a defense against crackers + +If a database is stored in encrypted form, it becomes nearly +impossible for a saboture guy to make fradulant entries unless the +encryption key is known. This provides an excellent defense against +crackers and sabatures who vandalize databases by creating fraudulent +entries. On a legal accounting or medical records system, it is far +more damaging to have a database unknowingly modified than destroyed. +A destroyed database can be restored from backups; modifications to a +database may require weeks or months to detect. Unfortunately, few +database programs on the market use encryption for stored files. + +Some operating systems store user information, such as passwords, +encrypted. As noted previously, when passwords are stored with a +one-way encryption algorithm it is of little value to a cracker to +steal the file which contains user passwords. The UNIX operating +system is so confident in its encryption system that the password file +is readable by all users of the system; to date, it does not appear +that this confidence is misplaced. + + Encryption in practice + +In practice, there are several serviceable cryptography systems on the +market: most of them use different cryptographic algorithms, which is +both advantageous and disadvantagous to the end user. One advantage of +the availability of many different cryptography systems is that +secrecy of the encryption system adds to the security of the +plaintext. This is a form of security through obscurity and should not +be relied on, but its presence will slightly strengthen security. + +A disadvantage of the multitude of encryption systems is that the +transmitter of an encrypted message must ensure that the proposed +recipient knows which decryption algorithm to use and has a suitable +program, in addition to knowing the decryption key. + + Public-key encryption + +In some cryptography systems a different key is used to encrypt a +message than to decrypt it. Such systems are called ``public-key'' +systems, because the encrypting key can be made public without (in +theory) sacrificing the security of encrypted messages. + +There are several public key systems in existence; all of them have +been broken with the exception of system devised by Rivest, Shamir +and Adlerman called RSA. In RSA, the private key consists of two +large prime numbers while the public key consists of the product of +the two numbers. The system is considered to be secure because it is +not possible, with today's computers and algorithms, to factor +numbers several hundred digits in length. +The problem with RSA is determining the size of the +prime numbers to use: they must be large enough so that their product +cannot be factored within a reasonable amount of time, yet small +enough to be manipulated and transmitted by existing computers in +a reasonable time frame. The +problem is compounded by the fact that new factoring algorithm are +being constantly developed, so a number which is long enough today +may not be long enough next week. While the length of the public key +can always be increased, messages encrypted with today's ``short'' keys +may be decryptable with tomorrow's new algorithms and computers. + + Confidence in the encryption program + +A computer's cryptography program is one of the most rewarding targets +for a Trojan horse. The very nature of a computer's +cryptography program is that it requires absolute faith on the part +of the user that the program is performing exactly the function which +it claims to, but there are a number of very damaging in which a +cryptography program can be modified without notice: + +The program could make a plaintext copy of everything it encrypts or +decrypts without the user's knowledge. This copy could be hidden for +the later retrieval by the cracker. The copy could even be encrypted +with a different key. + +The program could keep a log of every time it encrypted or decrypted +a file. Included in this log could be the time, user, filename, key +and length of the encrypted or decrypted file. + +The program might use an encryption algorithm which has a hidden +``back door'' -- that is, a secret method to decrypt any cyphertext +message with a second key. + +The program might have a ``time bomb'' in it so that, after a +particular date, instead of decrypting cyphertext it prints a ransom +note. The user would only be able to decrypt his file after obtaining +a password from the author of the program, perhaps at a very high +cost. (This is a form of computer extortion which will be further +explored under ``subversion.'') + +Microcomputer Security Issues + +Beware of public domain software! Although there are many excellent +programs in the public domain, there is are an increasing number of +malicious Trojan Horses and computer viruses. Unless the source code of +the program is carefully examined by a competent programmer, it is +nearly impossible to test a public domain program for hidden and +malicious functions. Even ``trying a'' program once may cause +significant data loss -- especially if the microcomputer is equipped +with a hard disk. Although the vast majority of public domain software +is very useful and relatively reliable, the risks faced by the user are +considerable and the trust required in the software absolute. Hobbyists +can afford to risk their data for gains of using some public domain +software; businesses and law practices cannot be so careless. + +The user of a microcomputer must back up his own files, not only to +protect against accidental deletion or loss of data but also to +protect against theft of equipment. Although no issue in +microcomputer security is stressed more than backups, many users +do not perform this routine chore. + +More than any other computer system, with a microcomputer physical +security is vitally important because of the ease of stealing a +microcomputer and the ease at which it can be resold. (It is rather difficult for a +bugler to sell a stolen mainframe computer). Anti-theft devices +must be installed on equipment containing hard disks, not only for the +value of the equipment but also for the value of the data stored +therein. + +Do not trust the microcomputer or its operating system to guard +confidential documents stored on a hard disk. If a spy has physical +access to the computer, he can physically remove the hard disk and +read its contents on another machine. File encryption is another +defense against this sort of data theft, but the installed encryption +program should be regularly checked for signs of tampering (for +example, the modification date or the size of the file having changed). + +Managing a secure computer + + Auditing + +Most security-conscious operating systems provide some sort of +auditing system to record events such as invalid logon attempts or +attempted file transfer of classified files. +Typically, each log entry consists of a timestamp and a description +of the event. One of the responsibility of site management is to read +these ``security logs.'' + +Most operating systems keep records of the times that each user was +logged on within the past year. A selective list of logons between +5pm and 8am can help detect unauthorized ``after-hours'' use of +accounts by crackers, especially on computers equipped with modems. + +Some operating systems will notify a user when he logs in of the last +time he logged in. Other systems will will notify a user of every +time an unsuccessful login attempt is made on his account. Presented +with this information, it is very easy one to discover when crackers +are attempting (or have succeeded) to break into the system. + +Good auditing systems include the option to set software alarms which +will notify management of suspicious activity. For example, an alarm +might be sent to notify management whenever someone logs into the +user administration account, or the first time that an account is +accessed over a dialup. The security administrator could then verify +that the account was used by those authorized to use it and not by +crackers. + + Alarms + +Software alarms scan for suspicious activity and alert management when +such activity is detected. These programs can be implemented as daily +tasks which scan the security logs and isolate out questionable +occurrences. Software alarms can be useful on insecure computers, such +as desktop PCs, for altering management of security violations which +the operating system cannot prevent. + +For example, it is possible to write a very simple program on a PC +that would notify management whenever a system program, such as a text +editor, spread sheet or utility program is modified or replaced. Such +a program could detect a virus infection and could be used to isolate +and destroy the virus before it became widespread. + +On larger computers, alarms can notify management of repeated failed logon +attempts (indicating that a cracker it attempting to break into the +computer) or repeated attempts by one user to read another user's +files. + +It is important for management to test alarms regularly and not to +become dependent on alarms to detect attempted violations of security; +the first action by an experienced cracker after breaking into a +system should be to disable or reset the software alarms so that the +break in is hidden. + + Policy and Protocol + +The most secure protocol is useless if people do not follow it. A +good protocol is one that is easy, if not automatic, to follow. + +For example, many university computer centers have adopted a policy +that computer passwords are not given out over the telephone under any +circumstances. Such a policy, if enforced, eliminates the possibility +of a cracker telephoning management and, posing as a staff member, +obtaining a user's password. + +Other policies include requiring users to change their passwords on a +regular basis. Some computer systems allow policies such as this to be +implemented automatically: After the same password has been used for a +given period of time, the computer requires that the user change the +password the next time the user logs in. + + Subversion + +Most incidents of data loss are due to employees rather than external +agents. Many employees, by virtue of their position, are presented +with ample opportunity to steal or corrupt data, use computer +resources for personal gain or the benefit of a third party and +generally wreak havoc. While computers make these actions easier, they +are merely reflections of concerns already present in the +businessplace. Traditional methods of employee screening coupled with +sophisticated software alarms and backup systems can both minimize the +impact of subversion and aid in its early detection. + + Cracking + +This section is intended to give some idea of how a cracker breaks +into a computer. The intent is that, by giving a demonstration of how +a cracker breaks into a computer system, the reader will gain insight +into ways of preventing similar actions. +The target system is actually irrevelent; the concepts presented apply +to many on the market. + +Perhaps as the result of a random telephone search, the cracker has +found the telephone number of a modem connected to a timesharing computer. +Upon calling the computer's modem, the cracker is prompted to Logon. Different +operating systems have different ways of logging in and perhaps the +cracker is not familiar with this one. (The cracker's typing is lowercase +for clarity.) He starts: + + hello + RESTART + +The computer prints ``RESTART'' telling the cracker that ``hello'' is +not the proper way to logon to the computer system. Some computer +systems provide extensive help facilities in order to assist novice +users in logging in, which are just as helpful to crackers as they are +to novices. From trial and error, the cracker determines the proper +way to logon to the system: + + help + RESTART + user + RESTART + login + DMKLOG020E USERID MISSING OR INVALID + +The next task for the cracker is to determine a valid username and +password combination. One way to do this is to try a lot of them. It +is not very difficult to find a valid username from a list of common +first and last names: + + login david + DMKLOG053E DAVID NOT IN CP DIRECTORY + login sally + DMKLOG053E SALLY NOT IN CP DIRECTORY + login cohen + LOGIN FORMAT: LOGIN USERNAME,PASSWORD + RESTART + +Once a valid username is found, the cracker tries +passwords until he find one that works: + + login cohen,david + DMKLOG050E PASSWORD INCORRECT - REINITIATE LOGON PROCEDURE + login cohen,charles + DMKLOG050E PASSWORD INCORRECT - REINITIATE LOGON PROCEDURE + login cohen,sally + LOGMSG - 15:40:23 +03 TUESDAY 06/24/86 + WICC CMS 314 05/29 PRESS ENTER=> + +The basic flaw in this operating system is that it tells the cracker +the difference between a (valid username,invalid password) pair and an +(invalid username, invalid password) pair. For the invalid usernames, +the system responded with the ``NOT IN CP DIRECTORY'' response, while +for valid usernames the system asked for the user's PASSWORD. + +Some systems systems ask for a password regardless of whether or not +the username provided by the cracker is valid. This features enhances +security dramatically since the cracker never knows if a username he +tries is valid or not. + +Suppose a cracker has to try an average of 20,000 names or words to find +a correct username or password. Mathematically, on a system +which does not inform the cracker when a username is correct the +cracker may have to try upwards from 20,000 x 20,000 = 400,000,000 +username/password combinations. On a system which tells the cracker +when he has found a valid username the search +is reduced to total of 20,000 + 20,000 = 40,000 tries. The difference +is basically whether the password and the username can be guessed +sequentially or must be guessed together. + +All it takes is patience to crack a system. One way to speed the +process is to automate the username and password search: essentially, +the cracker programs his computer to try repeatedly to log onto the +target system. To find a username, the cracker can instruct his +computer to cycle through a list of a few thousand first and last +names. Once a username is found, the cracker programs his computer to +search for passwords in a similar fashion. The cracker may also have a +dictionary of the 30,000 most common english words, and try each of +these as a password. Since people tend to pick first names, single +characters, and common words as passwords, most passwords can be +broken within a few thousand tries. If the cracker's computer can +test one password every 5 seconds, ten thousand passwords can be +tested in under 15 hours. (Hopefully by this time a software alarm +would have disabled logins from the computer's modem, but few +operating systems contain such provisions.) + +Finding one valid username/password combination on a system does not +place the entire computer at the mercy of the cracker (unless it is a +privileged account which he discovers), but it does give him a very +strong basis from which to explore and then crack the rest of the +accounts on the system. Some computers are more resistant to this +sort of exploration than others. + +If the cracker gives up trying to penetrate the login server of the +host, there are still many other ways to crack the system. He might +telephone the computer operator and, pretending to be a member of the +computer center's staff, ask for the operator's password. (Crackers +have successfully used this method to break into numerous computer +systems around the country.) + +Some crackers use their computers to search for other computers. A +cracker will program his computer to randomly dial telephone numbers +searching for AA modems. When the cracker's computer finds a modem answering, +the phone number is recorded for later cracking. Automatically +dialing modems can also be used to crack into long distance services +such as MCI and Sprint by trying successive account numbers. + +Although it is theoretically possible to track a cracker back through +his call, such action requires the assistance of the telephone +utility. Utilities will not trace telephone calls unless ordered to do +so by police who have, to date, been very hesitant about ordering such +action. At a recent massive computer break in at Stanford University +one research staffer communicated with a cracker over the computer for +two hours while another staffer in the lab contacted police to arrange +a trace; the police refused. + + +Conclusion + +Computer security is a topic too large to cover fully in any +publication, least of all in as short an introduction as this. In +order to evaulate a security system it is necessary to think like a +cracker or a subverter. After that, most other details follow. + + +Glossary + +Backup (n.): A copy of information stored in a computer, to be used +in the event that the original is destroyed. + +Back up (v.): To make a backup. + +break (v.): To gain access to computers or information thought to +be secure. To break a cypher is to be able to decrypt any message +encrypted with it. To break a computer is to log on to it without +authorization. + +bit: One unit of memory storage. Either a ``0'' or a ``1.'' + +client: With reference to a computer network, the computer or program +which requests data or a service. + +Confidence: The level of trust which can be placed in a computer +system or program to perform the function which it is designed to do. +Alternatively, the amount of protection offered by such a system. + +Cracker: A person who breaks into computers for fun. + +Encryption: The process of taking information and making it +unreadable to those who are not in possession of a the decrypting key. + +MODEM: Modulator/Demodulator. A device used for sending computer +information over a telephone line. + +Public key: A cryptography system which uses one key to +encrypt a message and a second key to decrypt it. In a perfect +public-key system it is not possible to decrypt a message without the +second key. + +RSA: Rivest, Shamir and Adlerman. A popular public-key cryptography +system. + +Trojan Horse: A program which claims to be performing one function +while actually performing another. + +Sanitizing: Ensuring that confidential data has been removed +from computer media before the media is disposed of. + +security logs: A recording of all events of a computer system +pertinent to security. + +Security through obscurity: Security that arises from ignorance of +operating procedures rather than first principles. + +server: With respect to a network, the computer or program which +responds to requests from clients. + +smart card: a credit-card sized computer, used for user authentication. + +subversion: Attacks on a computer system's security from trusted +individuals within the organization + +References and Credits + +For more information on computer security, see: + +The Codebreakers, by David Kahn, 1973. Available in abridged (by +author) paperback. A signet Book from The New American Library, Inc, +Bergenfield, NJ 07621. ISBN 0-451-08967-7. + +The Hut Six Story, by Gordon Welchman. + +Personal Computer Security Considerations, by the National +Computer Security Center, NCSC-WA-002-85, December 1985, from the +Government Printing Office. + +Special Publication 500-120 - Security of Personal Computer +Systems: A Management Guide, January 1985, from the National Bureau +of Standards. + +Some of the information presented in this article is the result of +discussions on the ARPANET network ``Security'' mailing list and the +Usenet network ``net.crypt'' newsgroup. + +Multics is a trademark of Honeywell. + +UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. + +VM/CMS is a trademark of International Business Machines (IBM). diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/computer b/textfiles.com/politics/computer new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2dac539f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/computer @@ -0,0 +1,390 @@ + An Introduction to Computer Conferencing: a Look at Software + Available in the Academic World + ------------------------------------------------------------ + Alex Cruz, M.S. + Associate Consultant + Center for Advanced Study American Airlines Decision Technologies + in Telecommunications 4200 American Blvd. + The Ohio State University Fort Worth, Texas 76155 + Columbus, Ohio 43210 + +This paper is intended to be an introduction to some of the concepts of +computer conferencing as well as a guide to some of the existing +conferencing software today. Even though the number of commercial +users is increasing, the software described is mainly used in academic +environments. It should provide novice users with the necessary concepts +and leads to visualize the applications of computer conferencing in their +fields. An special emphasis is placed on interactive computer +conferencing. + + +What is Computer Conferencing? +------------------------------ + +The concept of computer conferencing is not new and lot of definitions +have been given. It refers to the idea of establishing some type of +communication with one or more people through a computer that is +presumably connected to a network of other computers. The most basic +way of computer conferencing can be two computers connected to each +other through a wire. + +The sophistication of computer conferencing is directly related to the +amount of 'wire' used, the friendliness of the software used, the +geographic location of the parties involved, the requirements of the +information to be transmitted (simple documents, graphic files, etc) and +the nature of the conference: + +Types of Computer Conferencing +------------------------------ + +Computer conferencing can be classified in many different ways but +mainly two different variables define the types of computer conferencing +best: the size of the audience and the amount of time involved in the +question-response interval. + +According to the first variable, there are three different types of computer +conferencing: + + - one-to-one: one person interacts in a direct way with another. + - one-to-many: one person establishes communications with more than +one person at a time. + - many-to-many: many people are able to interact with many others + +According the second variable, there are two types of conferencing: + + - non-interactive: the period of time between the initial contact and +the response can vary from a few seconds to many weeks. + - interactive: the conference occurs 'live'; participants are able to +communicate to each other directly at a particular time resulting in no +delay between the initial contact and the response. + +Most people involved in the academic and research fields have already +experimented with some combinations of these different types of +computer conferencing: the most basic and oldest way of computer +conferencing is the one-to-one non-interactive kind: electronic mail. + +Using the concept of electronic mail, mailing lists were born: the same +message body was to be sent to many people; this refers to the one-to- +many non-interactive conferencing. Thousands of private and public +mailing lists exist today over hundredths of computer networks; this is +not surprising since most computer systems that have electonic mail +software allow distribution lists that can have many electronic mail +addresses. + +The last type of non-interactive conferencing refers to the many-to-many +concept: any person belonging to a large group of users can 'post' a +message or article and many people can reply to that message, each of +the replies being able to be read by all the users. Thousands of electronic +bulletin board systems utilize this idea for discussions of different topics. + +The massive use of interactive computer conferencing is more recent and +its applications are starting to flourish as the academic community +increases its involvement with such systems. One-to-one software is +very common and included in most multi-user operating system packages +such as Unix, VMS, CMS. Even one-to-one interactive computer +conferencing can be broken down in two different types: + + + line driven: in line driven environments, one user sends a +single short message to another user's address in the system. + + screen driven: two users establish a communi cation session +where typically, the screen is divided in two halves, and each other can +'talk' by simply typing the desired text. The other party receives the +text as it is being typed or after the return key has been pressed, +depending on the hardware/software being used. + +One-to-many interactive computer conferencing attracts the idea of +'public speech' or 'lecturing' in a computer environment. Even though +this concept has yet not been fully explored, it would naturally be +included as part of many-to-many interactive because of software +limitations: most many-to-many conferencing software have or can +implement the one-to-many feature (for example, as a listen-only user). + +Perhaps one of the most exciting types of conferencing nowadays is +many-to-many interactive communications via a computer. Thanks to +the already existing commercial and academic computer networks, many +people have been introduced to the concept of across-the-world +interactive communications. Some examples will be provided later in +this paper. + +This type of software allows a user to interact with many users at the +same time and discuss different types of issues and exchange research +and academic problems and solutions. Due to the cultural and +geographical diversity of the users of some of these systems, many +different types of useful feedback is provided when asked for. + +How is computer conferencing used at the university level today? +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Non-interactive computer conferencing has been used extensively at just +about every college and university. Most higher education institutions +have a connection to BITNET and/or the Internet. The main applications +of these connections are electronic mail, file transferring and remote +login. Both BITNET and Internet connected computers have bulletin +board style software available: BITNET list servers and USENET +newsgroups are the main ones; USENET is indeed a network of its own +that sitson top of many other Internet based networks. + +Academically, teachers are using electronic mail and mailing lists to get +in touch with their students on class matters and university administrators +to provide faculty and students with information related to university life +and courses. Intelligent 'fuzzy' electronic mailers [IRCCAPRIL90] +combined with other conferencing services such as interest groups lists or +newsgroups help both teachers and students get answers and suggestions to +their subjects of research as well as find answers to questions that have +already been asked. Today, it is common for a well 'networked' researcher +to search for the answer of a problem first, by asking others in a specific +topic discussion group and then apply the results to the problem if a +feasible answer is found. These and other applications reveal an extense +use of non-interactive computer conferencing in academics. + +On the other hand, interactive computer conferencing is starting to +become more and more popular at the university level: BITNET users +are able to contact any user in the BITNET network by using a simple +command to issue line messages. The power of Unix software/hardware +along with the already existing Internet based networks allow academic +users to establish one-to-one screen based communication sessions by +also issuing a simple command. At the moment, limited academic +research is being conducted on the applications of interactive computer +conferencing to teaching and researching, though it is being widely used +for electronic meetings among researchers to discuss aspects of the +research as well as to collaborate in projects remotely. + +Software Examples for Each Category +----------------------------------- +(The following is a small guide providing some examples of software and +hardware that is able to execute the different types of computer +conferencing as described above) + +Non-interactive computer conferencing is already widely in use but the +outreach of a single computer connection (BITNET or Internet based) is +not well known yet: + + + one-to-one: electronic mail. The number of companies, +institutions and foreign countries that now are reachable through already +existing computer networks has increased enourmously in the last few +years. Companies and computer services such as Compuserve, MCI +(MCIMail), AT&T (AT&T Mail), GEnie, the National Public Telecomputing +Network, Applelink, Byte Information eXchange, Connect Professional +Information Network, Fidonet, GeoNet Mailbox Systems, NASAMail, PeaceNet, +the Space Physics Analysis Network, Telenet's commercial electronic mail +service and many regional networks are all already onnected to the +Internet or other networks reachable from the Internet and therefore +can reached by BITNET [INMG90]. For a guide on how to reach each +network from your system, get the Inter-Network Mail Guide by John Chew, +by anonymously FTPing into ra.msstate.edu (see Appendix A) and obtaining +the file: /pub/docs/internetwork. + +For a more complete description of all the possible networks that can be +reach, refer to "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and +Networks" by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. + + + one-to-many: this type of computer conferencing normally +comes as mailing lists or moderated newsgroups. If you wish to get +introduced to the concepts of list servers, send a one line message to +LISTSERV @BITNIC.BITNET with the content: 'HELP'. Only an e-mail +connection is needed to subscribe to most discussion lists. + + + many-to-many: USENET moderated and unmoderated +newsgroups are more common on Unix and Internet connected machines. +Subjects of the newsgroups range in both intellectual as well as +recreational value. There is a very strong molecular biology community +that uses the USENET software and network to exchange ideas and +discuss research. Just about any type of computer software and hardware +has its own newsgroup as well as some other science topics. On the +recreational side, sport event schedules from soccer to biking are +regularly posted; also TV, music, humor, religion and foreign cultures +have their newsgroups. If you do not have access to a USENET news +feed, please contact your system administrator. + +Interactive conferencing is easily reachable at the one-to-one level +because the simplicity of the software is not comparable to that of many- +to-many conferencing software. Also, it must be noticed that the type +of software described here can only be found in large multi-user systems: +local area networked personal computers normally already have software +that enables some computer conferencing. + + + one-to-one: + o Unix (Hewlett Packard, MIPS, DEC, AT&T, Sun, Next manufacture +hardware for the Unix Operating System): + Most versions of the Unix operating system support the 'talk' +command which enables the user to establish an initial user to user +session where everything that one user types appears in the screen of the +other user and viceversa until an escape key sequence is pressed. A +typical command line could look like: + + talk amiller + +to talk to user amiller in the presently used system, or + + talk amiller@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu + +if the Unix system being used is other than magnus.acs.etc. Adding other +users to the initial one-to-one conversation is not possible. + +In addition to the 'talk' command, most Unix systems also support the +'finger' command which allows a user to get a list of users at a remote +machine: + + finger @mercurio.dm.unirm1.it + +will return a list of current users in a Sun workstation used in the +department of Mathematics at the University of Rome, Italy. These two +commands compliment each other when a user is trying to find a particular +remote user and talk to him/her. + + o VMS (Digital Equipment Corporation Vax machines...): + The PHONE command behaves in a very similar way to the 'talk' +command in UNIX. The PHONE command does allow for more than one user +at a time. + + o CMS (BITNET based machines, IBM mainframes..): + The TELL command in this operating system allows the user to +send a single short message to another user currently logged on to any +BITNET computer: + + tell CRUZ at OHSTVMB Hello, Alex how are you? + +would send a short message to user CRUZ in BITNET node OHSTMVB. + +All three commands in all three operating systems are standard. Contact +your local system administrator if not present in your machine. + + + many-to-many: + (Due to the diversity of interactive computer conferencing, only +three systems will be touched and given sources to) + + o Bitnet Relay Chat: this software is available mainly for +BITNET based machines. It provides the use with a friendly interface to +communicate with other BITNET users. Some of the features of this +software include: switching between users/screens via PF-keys, disk +message logging, disconnected answering machine services; it is suitable +for any type of terminal from 1200 Baud PC to local 3270 terminals. It is +maintained by Eric Thomas (ERIC@SEARN.BITNET) [CHAT90]. + + o Internet Relay Chat: It is mainly a Unix based program that +enables machines from all over the world connected to both Internet and +BITNET based computers to establish a 'chat' connection and set one-to- +one, one-to-many and many-to-many sessions. It provides many different +features such as private, moderated, invite-only, secret channels, group +and private messaging, multiple nicknames, notification of user presence, +user list by server, channel and other properties, etc. To access IRC on a +trial basis from an Internet connected computer, type 'telnet +bradenville.andrew.cmu.edu' and provide the necessary nickname and +screen emulation information. Issue the command '/HELP' to get started, +'/WHO *' to see the current users (as an average 200+ from over 18 +countries around the world) or '/LIST' to see a list of current users. + +The software to run IRC is free of charge but copyright guidelines are to +be met. This is where it can obtained: + +OS Site Directory/File +---- ----------------------- -------------------- +Unix freebie.engin.umich.edu pub/irc/clients/UNIX +VMS freebie.engin.umich.edu pub/irc/clients/VMS +VM freebie.engin.umich.edu pub/irc/clients/VM + + OS - Operating System + Site - Site to FTP to (see appendix A) + Directory/File - Filename and directory + + o International Citizen's Band: this is a similar program to IRC. +It contains most of the same features but its architecture and logic for +server-client connections differs from that of IRC's. The software can be +obtained through anonymous FTP at athos.rutgers.edu, file /pub/icb- +client.tar.z; this software will only execute in Unix based machines. + +Conclusion +---------- + +Computer Conferencing is another necessary tool for today's computer +aided research and instruction. It has all the embedded advantages that +other already used electronic media enjoy: easiness of processing, easy +data storage, quick detailed responses, easier to find the desired recipient, +speed and reliability of document/message transmission, document safety +and security, etc [CRUZ90]. + +There are also other advantages that are due to the character of this type +of communications: the store-and-forward nature of computer conferencing +gives the participants a response time period that is not possible in more +traditional ways of face-to-face or telephone communications [STEVENS86]. + +Flexibility so that any researcher with a workstation and a network +connectionmust is ableto join a discussion session; facility to search the +network for existing conferences;multiple communication channels; these +and other features are needed for collaboration during the process of +refining a theory or analysis of experimental data [SMARR90]. Interactive +computer conferencing already offers these features. + +Computer conferencing is a growing field and many applications are +already surfacing in the areas of project coordination, sales management, +customer service, online marketplaces, interactive journalism, distributed +education and organization & community building. + +The academic world is just a step away from fully taking advantage of +all the capabilities of Computer Conferencing. + + + + + Appendix A + ---------- + +The TCP/IP file transfer protocol is called File Transfer Protocol (FTP). +FTP enables a user of a given network to remote access and then locally +transfer files existing in another computer host of that same network. +Many computer hosts allow for anonymous FTP, whereby a user can +obtain files form a remote host [QUARTERMAN88]. + +The FTP software is available in most Unix and VMS based systems. +Some IBM mainframes support FTP file transferring but with a lot of +limitations. In order to access the software, just type 'ftp host.name' +where host name is the archive you want to access: 'ftp ra.msstate.edu' +will access the machine 'ra' at the Mississippi State University archives. +When prompted for a USERNAME: respond with the word 'anonymous' and when +prompted for a password respond with your electronic mail address. Once +the connection is successfully established, the user may retrieve any of +the files available in the authorized directories. To retrieve the +Inter-Network Mail Guide, the user would type : + + cd pub (to change to 'public' directory) + cd docs (to change to 'documents' directory) + get internetwork + (to get file transmitted from the remote computer to the current +directory of the user that is doing the FTP connection) + +Exiting the program can be resolved by typing 'exit' or 'quit' at the FTP +prompt. + + + + + References + ---------- + +[CHAT90] Program Filelist for Net Server at the BITNET Network +Information Center. Direct electronic retrieval, July 1991, page 3. + +[CRUZ90] Alex Cruz, "An Evaluation of a State Wide Computer +Network for Small and Medium Size Industries in the State of Ohio", +June 1990, Master's Thesis, The Ohio State University, pages 30-41. + +[INMG90] John J. Chew, "Inter-Network Mail Guide", June 1990, Page 2-3. + +[IRCCAPRIL90] "Fuzzy Mail", "WHO-IS" Instructional Research Computer +Center Newsletter, The Ohio State University, April 1990, page 7. + +[QUARTERMAN88] John S. Quarterman, "The Matrix: Computer Networks and +Conferencing Systems Worldwide", 1990, Digital Press, pages 11-13, 125-126. + +[SMARR90] Larry Smarr, Charles Catlett, "Life After Internet: Making +Room for New Applications",November 1990, Symposium of the Programs on +Science, Technology, and Public Policy and Strategic Computing and +Telecommunications in the Public Sector, John F. Kennedy School of +Government, Harvard University. + +[STEVENS86] Chandler H. Stevens, "Electronic Organization & Expert +Networks: Beyond Electronic Mail and Computer Conferencing", May +1986, Sloan WP#1794-86, Sloan School of Management, Massachusets +Institute of Technology, pages 1-9. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/concerni b/textfiles.com/politics/concerni new file mode 100644 index 00000000..789f574c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/concerni @@ -0,0 +1,1092 @@ + +To be presented at the 13th National Computer Security Conference, +Washington, D.C., Oct. 1-4, 1990. + + + Concerning Hackers Who Break into Computer Systems + + Dorothy E. Denning + Digital Equipment Corp., Systems Research Center + 130 Lytton Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301 + 415-853-2252, denning@src.dec.com + + +Abstract + +A diffuse group of people often called ``hackers'' has been +characterized as unethical, irresponsible, and a serious danger to +society for actions related to breaking into computer systems. This +paper attempts to construct a picture of hackers, their concerns, +and the discourse in which hacking takes place. My initial findings +suggest that hackers are learners and explorers who want to help +rather than cause damage, and who often have very high standards +of behavior. My findings also suggest that the discourse surrounding +hacking belongs at the very least to the gray areas between larger +conflicts that we are experiencing at every level of society and +business in an information age where many are not computer literate. +These conflicts are between the idea that information cannot be owned +and the idea that it can, and between law enforcement and the First +and Fourth Amendments. Hackers have raised serious issues about +values and practices in an information society. Based on my findings, +I recommend that we work closely with hackers, and suggest several +actions that might be taken. + + +1. Introduction + +The world is crisscrossed with many different networks that are used +to deliver essential services and basic necessities -- electric power, +water, fuel, food, goods, to name a few. These networks are all +publicly accessible and hence vulnerable to attacks, and yet virtually +no attacks or disruptions actually occur. + +The world of computer networking seems to be an anomaly in the +firmament of networks. Stories about attacks, breakins, disruptions, +theft of information, modification of files, and the like appear +frequently in the newspapers. A diffuse group called ``hackers'' +is often the target of scorn and blame for these actions. Why are +computer networks any different from other vulnerable public networks? +Is the difference the result of growing pains in a young field? +Or is it the reflection of deeper tensions in our emerging information +society? + +There are no easy or immediate answers to these questions. Yet it +is important to our future in a networked, information-dependent +world that we come to grips with them. I am deeply interested in +them. This paper is my report of what I have discovered in the early +stages of what promises to be a longer investigation. I have +concentrated my attention in these early stages on the hackers +themselves. Who are they? What do they say? What motivates them? +What are their values? What do that have to say about public policies +regarding information and computers? What do they have to say about +computer security? + +From such a profile I expect to be able to construct a picture of +the discourses in which hacking takes place. By a discourse I mean +the invisible background of assumptions that transcends individuals +and governs our ways of thinking, speaking, and acting. My initial +findings lead me to conclude that this discourse belongs at the very +least to the gray areas between larger conflicts that we are +experiencing at every level of society and business, the conflict +between the idea that information cannot be owned and the idea that +it can, and the conflict between law enforcement and the First and +Fourth Amendments. + +But, enough of the philosophy. On with the story! + + +2. Opening Moves + +In late fall of 1989, Frank Drake (not his real name), Editor of +the now defunct cyberpunk magazine W.O.R.M., invited me to be +interviewed for the magazine. In accepting the invitation, I hoped +that something I might say would discourage hackers from breaking +into systems. I was also curious about the hacker culture. This +seemed like a good opportunity to learn about it. + +The interview was conducted electronically. I quickly discovered +that I had much more to learn from Drake's questions than to teach. +For example, he asked: ``Is providing computer security for large +databases that collect information on us a real service? How do +you balance the individual's privacy vs. the corporations?'' This +question surprised me. Nothing that I had read about hackers ever +suggested that they might care about privacy. He also asked: ``What +has [the DES] taught us about what the government's (especially NSA's) +role in cryptography should be?'' Again, I was surprised to discover +a concern for the role of the government in computer security. I +did not know at the time that I would later discover considerable +overlap in the issues discussed by hackers and those of other computer +professionals. + +I met with Drake to discuss his questions and views. After our +meeting, we continued our dialog electronically with me interviewing +him. This gave me the opportunity to explore his views in greater +depth. Both interviews appear in ``Computers Under Attack,'' +edited by Peter Denning [DenningP90]. + +My dialog with Drake increased my curiosity about hackers. I read +articles and books by or about hackers. In addition, I had discussions +with nine hackers whom I will not mention by name. Their ages ranged +from 17 to 28. + +The word ``hacker'' has taken on many different meanings ranging +from 1) ``a person who enjoys learning the details of computer systems +and how to stretch their capabilities'' to 2) ``a malicious or +inquisitive meddler who tries to discover information by poking around +.. possibly by deceptive or illegal means ...'' [Steele83] The +hackers described in this paper satisfy both of these definitions, +although all of the hackers I spoke with said they did not engage +in or approve of malicious acts that damage systems or files. Thus, +this paper is not about malicious hackers. Indeed, my research so +far suggests that there are very few malicious hackers. Neither +is this paper about career criminals who, for example, defraud +businesses, or about people who use stolen credit cards to purchase +goods. The characteristics of many of the hackers I am writing about +are summed up in the words of one of the hackers: ``A hacker is someone +that experiments with systems... [Hacking] is playing with systems +and making them do what they were never intended to do. Breaking +in and making free calls is just a small part of that. Hacking is +also about freedom of speech and free access to information -- being +able to find out anything. There is also the David and Goliath side +of it, the underdog vs. the system, and the ethic of being a folk +hero, albeit a minor one.'' + +Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation who calls +himself a hacker according to the first sense of the word above, +recommends calling security-breaking hackers ``crackers'' +[Stallman84]. While this description may be more accurate, I shall +use the term ``hacker'' since the people I am writing about call +themselves hackers and all are interested in learning about computer +and communication systems. However, there are many people like +Stallman who call themselves hackers and do not engage in illegal +or deceptive practices; this paper is also not about those hackers. + +In what follows I will report on what I have learned about hackers +from hackers. I will organize the discussion around the principal +domains of concerns I observed. I recommend Meyer's thesis [Meyer89] +for a more detailed treatment of the hackers' social culture and +networks, and Meyer and Thomas [MeyerThomas90] for an interesting +interpretation of the computer underground as a postmodernist rejection +of conventional culture that substitutes ``rational technological +control of the present for an anarchic and playful future.'' + +I do not pretend to know all the concerns that hackers have, nor +do I claim to have conducted a scientific study. Rather, I hope +that my own informal study motivates others to explore the area +further. It is essential that we as computer security professionals +take into account hackers' concerns in the design of our policies, +procedures, laws regulating computer and information access, and +educational programs. Although I speak about security-breaking hackers +as a group, their competencies, actions, and views are not all the +same. Thus, it is equally important that our policies and programs +take into account individual differences. + +In focusing on what hackers say and do, I do not mean for a moment +to set aside the concerns of the owners and users of systems that +hackers break into, the concerns of law enforcement personnel, or +our own concerns as computer security professionals. But I do +recommend that we work closely with hackers as well as these other +groups to design new approaches and programs for addressing the +concerns of all. Like ham radio operators, hackers exist, and it +is in our best interest that we learn to communicate and work with +them rather than against them. + +I will suggest some actions that we might consider taking, and I +invite others to reflect on these and suggest their own. Many of +these suggestions are from the hackers themselves; others came from +the recommendations of the ACM Panel on Hacking [Lee86] and from +colleagues. + +I grouped the hackers' concerns into five categories: access to +computers and information for learning; thrill, excitement and +challenge; ethics and avoiding damage; public image and treatment; +and privacy and first amendment rights. These are discussed in +the next five subsections. I have made an effort to present my +findings as uncritical observations. The reader should not infer +that I either approve or disapprove of actions hackers take. + + +3. Access to Computers and Information for Learning + +Although Levy's book ``Hackers'' [Levy84] is not about today's +security-breaking hackers, it articulates and interprets a ``hacker +ethic'' that is shared by many of these hackers. The ethic includes +two key principles that were formulated in the early days of the +AI Lab at MIT: ``Access to computers -- and anything which might +teach you something about the way the world works -- should be +unlimited and total,'' and ``All information should be free.'' In +the context in which these principles were formulated, the computers +of interest were research machines and the information was software +and systems information. + +Since Stallman is a leading advocate of open systems and freedom +of information, especially software, I asked him what he means by +this. He said: ``I believe that all generally useful information +should be free. By `free' I am not referring to price, but rather +to the freedom to copy the information and to adapt it to one's own +uses.'' By ``generally useful'' he does not include confidential +information about individuals or credit card information, for example. +He further writes: ``When information is generally useful, +redistributing it makes humanity wealthier no matter who is +distributing and no matter who is receiving.'' Stallman has argued +strongly against user interface copyright, claiming that it does +not serve the users or promote the evolutionary process [Stallman90]. + +I asked hackers whether all systems should be accessible and all +information should be free. They said that it is OK if some systems +are closed and some information, mainly confidential information +about individuals, is not accessible. They make a distinction between +information about security technology, e.g., the DES, and confidential +information protected by that technology, arguing that it is the +former that should be accessible. They said that information hoarding +is inefficient and slows down evolution of technology. They also +said that more systems should be open so that idle resources are +not wasted. One hacker said that the high costs of communication +hurts the growth of the information economy. + +These views of information sharing seem to go back at least as far +as the 17th and 18th Centuries. Samuelson [Samuelson89] notes that +``The drafters of the Constitution, educated in the Enlightenment +tradition, shared that era's legacy of faith in the enabling powers +of knowledge for society as well as the individual.'' She writes +that our current copyright laws, which protect the expression of +information, but not the information itself, are based on the belief +that unfettered and widespread dissemination of information promotes +technological progress. (Similarly for patent laws which protect +devices and processes, not the information about them.) She cites +two recent court cases where courts reversed the historical trend +and treated information as ownable property. She raises questions +about whether in entering the Information Age where information is +the source of greatest wealth, we have outgrown the Enlightenment +tradition and are coming to treat information as property. + +In a society where knowledge is said to be power, Drake expressed +particular concern about what he sees as a growing information gap +between the rich and poor. He would like to see information that +is not about individuals be made public, although it could still +be owned. He likes to think that companies would actually find it +to their advantage to share information. He noted how IBM's disclosure +of the PC allowed developers to make more products for the computers, +and how Adobe's disclosure of their fonts helped them compete against +the Apple-Microsoft deal. He recognizes that in our current political +framework, it is difficult to make all information public, because +complicated structures have been built on top of an assumption that +certain information will be kept secret. He cites our defense policy, +which is founded on secrecy for military information, as an example. + +Hackers say they want access to information and computing and network +resources in order to learn. Both Levy [Levy84] and Landreth +[Landreth89] note that hackers have an intense, compelling interest +in computers and learning, and many go into computers as a profession. +Some hackers break into systems in order to learn more about how +the systems work. Landreth says these hackers want to remain +undiscovered so that they can stay on the system as long as possible. +Some of them devote most of their time to learning how to break the +locks and other security mechanisms on systems; their background +in systems and programming varies considerably. One hacker wrote +``A hacker sees a security hole and takes advantage of it because +it is there, not to destroy information or steal. I think our +activities would be analogous to someone discovering methods of +acquiring information in a library and becoming excited and perhaps +engrossed.'' + +We should not underestimate the effectiveness of the networks in +which hackers learn their craft. They do research, learn about +systems, work in groups, write, and teach others. One hacker said +that he belongs to a study group with the mission of churning out +files of information and learning as much as possible. Within the +group, people specialize, collaborate on research project, share +information and news, write articles, and teach other about their +areas of specialization. Hackers have set up a private system of +education that engages them, teaches them to think, and allows them +to apply their knowledge in purposeful, if not always legal, +activity. Ironically, many of our nation's classrooms have been +criticized for providing a poor learning environment that seems to +emphasize memorization rather than thinking and reasoning. One hacker +reported that through volunteer work with a local high school, he +was trying to get students turned on to learning. + +Many hackers say that the legitimate computer access they have through +their home and school computers do not meet their needs. One student +told me that his high school did not offer anything beyond elementary +courses in BASIC and PASCAL, and that he was bored by these. Hans +Huebner, a hacker in Germany who goes by the name Pengo, wrote in +a note to the RISKS Forum [Huebner89] : ``I was just interested in +computers, not in the data which has been kept on their disks. As +I was going to school at that time, I didn't even have the money +to buy [my] own computer. Since CP/M (which was the most sophisticated +OS I could use on machines which I had legal access to) didn't turn +me on anymore, I enjoyed the lax security of the systems I had access +to by using X.25 networks. You might point out that I should have +been patient and wait[ed] until I could go to the university and +use their machines. Some of you might understand that waiting was +just not the thing I was keen on in those days.'' + +Brian Harvey, in his position paper [Harvey86] for the ACM Panel on +Hacking, claims that the computer medium available to students, e.g., +BASIC and floppy disks, is inadequate for challenging intellectual +work. His recommendation is that students be given access to real +computing power, and that they be taught how to use that power +responsibly. He describes a program he created at a public high school +in Massachusetts during the period 1979-1982. They installed a +PDP-11/70 and let students and teachers carry out the administration +of the system. Harvey assessed that putting the burden of dealing +with the problems of malicious users on the students themselves was +a powerful educational force. He also noted that the students who +had the skill and interest to be password hackers were discouraged +from this activity because they also wanted to keep the trust of +their colleagues in order that they could acquire ``superuser'' status +on the system. + +Harvey also makes an interesting analogy between teaching computing +and teaching karate. In karate instruction, students are introduced +to the real, adult community. They are given access to a powerful, +deadly weapon, and at the same time are taught discipline and to +not abuse the art. Harvey speculates that the reason that students +do not misuse their power is that they know they are being trusted +with something important, and they want to live up to that trust. +Harvey applied this principle when he set up the school system. + +The ACM panel endorsed Harvey's recommendation, proposing a +three-tiered computing environment with local, district-wide, and +nation-wide networks. They recommended that computer professionals +participate in this effort as mentors and role models. They also +recommended that outside of schools, government and industry be +encouraged to establish regional computing centers using donated +or re-cycled equipment; that students be apprenticed to local companies +either part-time on a continuing basis or on a periodic basis; and, +following a suggestion from Felsenstein [Felsenstein86] for a +``Hacker's League,'' that a league analogous to the Amateur Radio +Relay League be established to make contributed resources available +for educational purposes. + +Drake said he liked these recommendations. He said that if hackers +were given access to powerful systems through a public account system, +they would supervise themselves. He also suggested that Computer +Resource Centers be established in low-income areas in order to help +the poor get access to information. Perhaps hackers could help run +the centers and teach the members of the community how to use the +facilities. One of my colleagues suggested cynically that the hackers +would only use this to teach the poor how to hack rich people's +systems. A hacker responded by saying this was ridiculous; hackers +would not teach people how to break into systems, but rather how +to use computers effectively and not be afraid of them. +In addition, the hackers I spoke with who had given up illegal +activities said they stopped doing so when they got engaged in other +work. + +Geoff Goodfellow and Richard Stallman have reported that they have +given hackers accounts on systems that they manage, and that the +hackers have not misused the trust granted to them. Perhaps +universities could consider providing accounts to pre-college students +on the basis of recommendations from their teachers or parents. +The students might be challenged to work on the same homework problems +assigned in courses or to explore their own interests. Students +who strongly dislike the inflexibility of classroom learning might +excel in an environment that allows them to learn on their own, in +much the way that hackers have done. + + +4. Thrill, Excitement, and Challenge + +One hacker wrote that ``Hackers understand something basic about +computers, and that is that they can be enjoyed. I know none who +hack for money, or hack to frighten the company, or hack for anything +but fun.'' + +In the words of another hacker, ``Hacking was the ultimate cerebral +buzz for me. I would come home from another dull day at school, +turn my computer on, and become a member of the hacker elite. It +was a whole different world where there were no condescending adults +and you were judged only by your talent. I would first check in +to the private Bulletin Boards where other people who were like me +would hang out, see what the news was in the community, and trade +some info with people across the country. Then I would start actually +hacking. My brain would be going a million miles an hour and I'd +basically completely forget about my body as I would jump from one +computer to another trying to find a path into my target. It was +the rush of working on a puzzle coupled with the high of discovery +many magnitudes intensified. To go along with the adrenaline rush +was the illicit thrill of doing something illegal. Every step I made +could be the one that would bring the authorities crashing down on +me. I was on the edge of technology and exploring past it, spelunking +into electronic caves where I wasn't supposed to be.'' + +The other hackers I spoke with made similar statements about the +fun and challenge of hacking. In SPIN magazine [Dibbel90], reporter +Julian Dibbell speculated that much of the thrill comes from the +dangers associated with the activity, writing that ``the technology +just lends itself to cloak-and-dagger drama,'' and that ``hackers +were already living in a world in which covert action was nothing +more than a game children played.'' + +Eric Corley [Corley89] characterizes hacking as an evolved form of +mountain climbing. In describing an effort to construct a list of +active mailboxes on a Voice Messaging System, he writes ``I suppose +the main reason I'm wasting my time pushing all these buttons is +simply so that I can make a list of something that I'm not supposed +to have and be the first person to accomplish this.'' He said that +he was not interested in obtaining an account of his own on the system. +Gordon Meyer says he found this to be a recurring theme: ``We aren't +supposed to be able to do this, but we can'' -- so they do. + +One hacker said he was now working on anti-viral programming. He +said it was almost as much fun as breaking into systems, and that +it was an intellectual battle against the virus author. + + +5. Ethics and Avoiding Damage + +All of the hackers I spoke with said that malicious hacking was morally +wrong. They said that most hackers are not intentionally malicious, +and that they themselves are concerned about causing accidental +damage. When I asked Drake about the responsibility of a person +with a PC and modem, his reply included not erasing or modifying +anyone else's data, and not causing a legitimate user on a system +any problems. Hackers say they are outraged when other hackers cause +damage or use resources that would be missed, even if the results +are unintentional and due to incompetence. One hacker wrote ``I +have ALWAYS strived to do NO damage, and inconvenience as few people +as possible. I NEVER, EVER, EVER DELETE A FILE. One of the first +commands I do on a new system is disable the delete file command.'' +Some hackers say that it is unethical to give passwords and similar +security-related information to persons who might do damage. In +the recent incident where a hacker broke into Bell South and downloaded +a text file on the emergency 911 service, hackers say that there +was no intention to use this knowledge to break into or sabotage +the 911 system. According to Emmanuel Goldstein [Goldstein90], the +file did not even contain information about how to break into the +911 system. + +The hackers also said that some break-ins were unethical, e.g., +breaking into hospital systems, and that it is wrong to read +confidential information about individuals or steal classified +information. All said it was wrong to commit fraud for personal +profit. + +Although we as computer security professionals often disagree with +hackers about what constitutes damage, the ethical standards listed +sound much like our own. Where the hackers' ethics differs from +the standards adopted by most in the computer security community +is that hackers say it is not unethical to break into many systems, +use idle computer and communications resources, and download system +files in order to learn. Goldstein says that hacking is not wrong: +it is not the same as stealing, and uncovers design flaws and security +deficiencies [Goldstein89]. + +Brian Reid speculates that a hacker's ethics may come from not being +raised properly as a civilized member of society, and not appreciating +the rules of living in society. One hacker responded to this with +``What does `being brought up properly' mean? Some would say that +it is `good' to keep to yourself, mind your own business. Others +might argue that it is healthy to explore, take risks, be curious +and discover.'' Brian Harvey [Harvey86] notes that many hackers are +adolescents, and that adolescents are at a less developed stage of +moral development than adults, where they might not see how the effects +of their actions hurt others. Larry Martin [Martin89] claims that +parents, teachers, the press, and others in society are not aware +of their responsibility to contribute to instilling ethical values +associated with computer use. This could be the consequence of the +youth of the computing field; many people are still computer illiterate +and cultural norms may be lagging behind advances in technology and +the growing dependency on that technology by businesses and society. +Hollinger and Lanza-Kaduce speculate that the cultural normative +messages about the use and abuse of computer technology have been +driven by the adaption of criminal laws [HollingerLanza-Kaduce88], +which have been mainly in the last decade. They also speculate that +hacking may be encouraged during the process of becoming computer +literate. Some of my colleagues say that hackers are irresponsible. +One hacker responded ``I think it's a strong indication of the amount +of responsibility shown that so FEW actually DAMAGING incidents are +known.'' + +But we must not overlook that the differences in ethics also reflect +a difference in philosophy about information and information handling +resources; whereas hackers advocate sharing, we seem to be advocating +ownership as property. The differences also represent an opportunity +to examine our own ethical behavior and our practices for information +sharing and protection. For example, one hacker wrote ``I will accept +that it is morally wrong to copy some proprietary software, however, +I think that it is morally wrong to charge $6000 for a program that +is only around 25K long.'' Hence, I shall go into a few of the ethical +points raised by hackers more closely. It is not a simple case of +good or mature (us) against bad or immature (hackers), or of teaching +hackers a list of rules. + +Many computer professionals argue the moral questions by analogy, +e.g., see Martin [Martin89]. The analogies are then used to justify +their judgement of a hacker's actions as unethical. Breaking into +a system is compared with breaking into a house, and downloading +information and using computer and telecommunications services is +compared with stealing tangible goods. But, say hackers, the +situations are not the same. When someone breaks into a house, the +objective is to steal goods, which are often irreplaceable, and +property is often damaged in the process. By contrast, when a hacker +breaks into a system, the objective is to learn and avoid causing +damage. Downloaded information is copied, not stolen, and still +exists on the original system. Moreover, as noted earlier, information +has not been traditionally regarded as property. Dibbel [Dibbel90] +says that when the software industries and phone companies claim +losses of billions of dollars to piracy, they are not talking about +goods that disappear from the shelves and could have been sold. + +We often say that breaking into a system implies a lack of caring +for the system's owner and authorized users. But, one hacker says +that the ease of breaking into a system reveals a lack of caring +on the part of the system manager to protect user and company assets, +or failure on the part of vendors to warn managers about the +vulnerabilities of their systems. He estimated his success rate +of getting in at 10-15%, and that is without spending more than an +hour on any one target system. Another hacker says that he sees +messages from vendors notifying the managers, but that the managers +fail to take action. + +Richard Pethia of CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) reports +that they seldom see cases of malicious damage caused by hackers, +but that the break-ins are nevertheless disruptive because system +users and administrators want to be sure that nothing was damaged. +(CERT suggests that sites reload system software from secure backups +and change all user passwords in order to protect against possible +back doors and Trojan Horses that might have been planted by the +hacker. Pethia also noted that prosecutors are generally called +for government sites, and are being called for non-government sites +with increasing frequency.) Pethia says that break-ins also generate +a loss of trust in the computing environment, and may lead to adoption +of new policies that are formulated in a panic or management edicts +that severely restrict connectivity to outside systems. Brian Harvey +says that hackers cause damage by increasing the amount of paranoia, +which in turn leads to tighter security controls that diminish the +quality of life for the users. Hackers respond to these points by +saying they are the scapegoats for systems that are not adequately +protected. They say that the paranoia is generated by ill-founded +fears and media distortions (I will return to this point later), +and that security need not be oppressive to keep hackers out; it +is mainly making sure that passwords and system defaults are +well-chosen. + +Pethia says that some intruders seem to be disruptive to prove a +point, such as that the systems are vulnerable, the security personnel +are incompetent, or ``it's not nice to say bad things about hackers.'' +In the N.Y. Times, John Markoff [Markoff90] wrote that the hacker +who claimed to have broken into Cliff Stoll's system said he was +upset by Stoll's portrayal of hackers in ``The Cuckoo's Egg'' +[Stoll90]. Markoff reported that the caller said: ``He [Stoll] +was going on about how he hates all hackers, and he gave pretty much +of a one-sided view of who hackers are.'' + +``The Cuckoo's Egg'' captures much of the popular stereotypes of +hackers. Criminologist Jim Thomas criticizes it for presenting a +simplified view of the world, one where everything springs from the +forces of light (us) or of darkness (hackers) [Thomas90]. He claims +that Stoll fails to see the similarities between his own activities +(e.g., monitoring communications, ``borrowing'' monitors without +authorization, shutting off network access without warning, and lying +to get information he wants) and those of hackers. He points out +Stoll's use of pejorative words such as ``varmint'' to describe +hackers, and Stoll's quote of a colleague: ``They're technically +skilled but ethically bankrupt programmers without any respect for +others' work -- or privacy. They're not destroying one or two +programs. They're trying to wreck the cooperation that builds our +networks.'' [Stoll90, p. 159] Thomas writes ``at an intellectual +level, [Stoll] provides a persuasive, but simplistic, moral imagery +of the nature of right and wrong, and provides what -- to a lay reader +-- would seem a compelling justification for more statutes and severe +penalties against the computer underground. This is troublesome +for two reasons. First, it leads to a mentality of social control +by law enforcement during a social phase when some would argue we +are already over-controlled. Second, it invokes a punishment model +that assumes we can stamp out behaviors to which we object if only +we apprehend and convict a sufficient number of violators. ... There +is little evidence that punishment will in the long run reduce any +given offense, and the research of Gordon Meyer and I suggests that +criminalization may, in fact, contribute to the growth of the computer +underground.'' + + +6. Public Image and Treatment + +Hackers express concern about their negative public image and +identity. As noted earlier, hackers are often portrayed as being +irresponsible and immoral. One hacker said that ``government +propaganda is spreading an image of our being at best, sub-human, +depraved, criminally inclined, morally corrupt, low life. We need +to prove that the activities that we are accused of (crashing systems, +interfering with life support equipment, robbing banks, and jamming +911 lines) are as morally abhorent to us as they are to the general +public.'' + +The public identity of an individual or group is generated in part +by the actions of the group interacting with the standards of the +community observing those actions. What then accounts for the +difference between the hacker's public image and what they say about +themselves? One explanation may be the different standards. Outside +the hacking community, the simple act of breaking into systems is +regarded as unethical by many. The use of pejorative words like +``vandal'' and ``varmint'' reflect this discrepency in ethics. Even +the word ``criminal'' carries with it connotations of someone evil; +hackers say they are not criminal in this sense. Katie Hafner notes +that Robert Morris, who was convicted of launching the Internet worm, +was likened to a terrorist even though the worm did not destroy data +[Hafner90]. + +Distortions of events and references to potential threats also create +an image of persons who are dangerous. Regarding the 911 incident +where a hacker downloaded a file from Bell South, Goldstein reported +``Quickly, headlines screamed that hackers had broken into the 911 +system and were interfering with emergency telephone calls to the +police. One newspaper report said there were no indications that +anyone had died or been injured as a result of the intrusions. What +a relief. Too bad it wasn't true.'' [Goldstein90] In fact, the +hackers involved with the 911 text file had not broken into the 911 +system. The dollar losses attributed to hacking incidents also are +often highly inflated. + +Thomas and Meyer [ThomasMeyer90] say that the rhetoric depicting +hackers as a dangerous evil contributes to a ``witch hunt'' mentality, +wherein a group is first labeled as dangerous, and then enforcement +agents are mobilized to exorcise the alleged social evil. They see +the current sweeps against hackers as part of a reaction to a broader +fear of change, rather than to the actual crimes committed. + +Hackers say they are particularly concerned that computer security +professionals and system managers do not appear to understand hackers +or be interested in their concerns. Hackers say that system managers +treat them like enemies and criminals, rather than as potential helpers +in their task of making their systems secure. This may reflect +managers' fears about hackers, as well as their responsibilities +to protect the information on their systems. Stallman says that +the strangers he encounters using his account are more likely to +have a chip on their shoulder than in the past; he attributes this +to a harsh enforcer mentality adopted by the establishment. He says +that network system managers start out with too little trust and +a hostile attitude toward strangers that few of the strangers deserve. +One hacker said that system managers show a lack of openness to those +who want to learn. + +Stallman also says that the laws make the hacker scared to communicate +with anyone even slightly ``official,'' because that person might +try to track the hacker down and have him or her arrested. Drake +raised the issue of whether the laws could differentiate between +malicious and nonmalicious hacking, in support of a ``kinder, gentler'' +relationship between hackers and computer security people. In fact, +many states such as California initially passed computer crime laws +that excluded malicious hacking; it was only later that these laws +were amended to include nonmalicious actions [HollingerLanza-Kaduce88]. +Hollinger and Lanza-Kaduce speculate that these amendments and other +new laws were catalyzed mainly by media events, especially the reports +on the ``414 hackers'' and the movie ``War Games,'' which created +a perception of hacking as extremely dangerous, even if that perception +was not based on facts. + +Hackers say they want to help system managers make their systems +more secure. They would like managers to recognize and use their +knowledge about design flaws and the outsider threat problem. +Landreth [Landreth89] suggests ways in which system managers can +approach hackers in order to turn them into colleagues, and Goodfellow +also suggests befriending hackers [Goodfellow83]. John Draper (Cap'n +Crunch) says it would help if system managers and the operators of +phone companies and switches could coopererate in tracing a hacker +without bringing in law enforcement authorities. + +Drake suggests giving hackers free access in exchange for helping +with security, a suggestion that I also heard from several hackers. +Drake says that the current attitude of treating hackers as enemies +is not very conducive to a solution, and by belittling them, we only +cause ourselves problems. + +I asked some of the hackers whether they'd be interested in breaking +into systems if the rules of the ``game'' were changed so that instead +of being threatened by prosecution, they were invited to leave a +``calling card'' giving their name, phone number, and method of +breaking in. In exchange, they would get recognition and points +for each vulnerability they discovered. Most were interested in +playing; one hacker said he would prefer monetary reward since he +was supporting himself. Any system manager interested in trying +this out could post a welcome message inviting hackers to leave their +cards. This approach could have the advantage of not only letting +the hackers contribute to the security of the system, but of allowing +the managers to quickly recognize the potentially malicious hackers, +since they are unlikely to leave their cards. Perhaps if hackers +are given the opportunity to make contributions outside the +underground, this will dampen their desire to pursue illegal activities. + +Several hackers said that they would like to be able to pursue their +activities legally and for income. They like breaking into systems, +doing research on computer security, and figuring out how to protect +against vulnerabilities. They say they would like to be in a position +where they have permission to hack systems. Goodfellow suggests +hiring hackers to work on tiger teams that are commissioned to locate +vulnerabilities in systems through penetration testing. Baird +Info-Systems Safeguards, Inc., a security consulting firm, reports +that they have employed hackers on several assignments [Baird87]. +They say the hackers did not violate their trust or the trust of +their clients, and performed in an outstanding manner. Baird believes +that system vulnerabilities can be better identified by employing +people who have exploited systems. + +One hacker suggested setting up a clearinghouse that would match +hackers with companies that could use their expertise, while +maintaining anonymity of the hackers and ensuring confidentiality +of all records. Another hacker, in describing an incident where +he discovered a privileged account without a password, said ``What +I (and others) wish for is a way that hackers can give information +like this to a responsible source, AND HAVE HACKERS GIVEN CREDIT +FOR HELPING! As it is, if someone told them that `I'm a hacker, and +I REALLY think you should know...' they would freak out, and run +screaming to the SS [Secret Service] or the FBI. Eventually, the +person who found it would be caught, and hauled away on some crazy +charge. If they could only just ACCEPT that the hacker was trying +to help!'' The clearinghouse could also provide this type of service. + +Hackers are also interested in security policy issues. Drake expressed +concern over how we handle information about computer security +vulnerabilities. He argues that it is better to make this information +public than cover it up and pretend that it does not exist, and cites +the CERT to illustrate how this approach can be workable. Other +hackers, however, argue for restricting initial dissemination of +flaws to customers and users. Drake also expressed concern about +the role of the government, particularly the military, in +cryptography. He argues that NSA's opinion on a cryptographic standard +should be taken with a large grain of salt because of their code +breaking role. + +Some security specialists are opposed to hiring hackers for security +work, and Eugene Spafford has urged people not to do business with +any company that hires a convicted hacker to work in the security +area [ACM90]. He says that ``This is like having a known arsonist +install a fire alarm.'' But, the laws are such that a person can +be convicted for having done nothing other than break into a system; +no serious damage (i.e., no ``computer arson'') is necessary. Many +of our colleagues admit to having broken into systems in the past, +e.g., Geoff Goodfellow [Goodfellow83] and Brian Reid [Frenkel87]; +Reid is quoted as saying that because of the knowledge he gained +breaking into systems as a kid, he was frequently called in to help +catch people who break in. Spafford says that times have changed, +and that this method of entering the field is no longer socially +acceptable, and fails to provide adequate training in computer science +and computer engineering [Spafford89]. However, from what I have +observed, many hackers do have considerable knowledge about +telecommunications, data security, operating systems, programming +languages, networks, and cryptography. But, I am not challenging +a policy to hire competent people of sound character. Rather, I am +challenging a strict policy that uses economic pressure to close +a field of activity to all persons convicted of breaking into +systems. It is enough that a company is responsible for the behavior +of its employees. Each hacker can be considered for employment based +on his or her own competency and character. + +Some people have called for stricter penalties for hackers, including +prison terms, in order to send a strong deterrent message to hackers. +John Draper, who was incarcerated for his activities in the 1970's, +argues that in practice this will only make the problem worse. He +told me that he was forced under threat to teach other inmates his +knowledge of communications systems. He believes that prison sentences +will serve only to spread hacker's knowledge to career criminals. +He said he was never approached by criminals outside the prison, +but that inside the prison they had control over him. + +One hacker said that by clamping down on the hobbyist underground, +we will only be left with the criminal underground. He said that +without hackers to uncover system vulnerabilities, the holes will +be left undiscovered, to be utilized by those likely to cause real +damage. + +Goldstein argues that the existing penalties are already way out +of proportion to the acts committed, and that the reason is because +of computers [Goldstein89]. He says that if Kevin Mitnick had +committed crimes similar to those he committed but without a computer, +he would have been classified as a mischief maker and maybe fined +$100 for trespassing; instead, he was put in jail without bail +[Goldstein89]. Craig Neidorf, a publisher and editor of the electronic +newsletter ``Phrack,'' faces up to 31 years and a fine of $122,000 +for receiving, editing, and transmitting the downloaded text file +on the 911 system [Goldstein90]. + + +7. Privacy and the First and Fourth Amendments + +The hackers I spoke with advocated privacy protection for sensitive +information about individuals. They said they are not interested +in invading people's privacy, and that they limited their hacking +activities to acquiring information about computer systems or how +to break into them. There are, of course, hackers who break into +systems such as the TRW credit database. Emanuel Goldstein argues +that such invasions of privacy took place before the hacker arrived +[Harpers90]. Referring to credit reports, government files, motor +vehicle records, and the ``megabytes of data piling up about each +of us,'' he says that thousands of people legally can see and use +this data, much of it erroneous. He claims that the public has been +misinformed about the databases, and that hackers have become +scapegoats for the holes in the systems. One hacker questioned the +practice of storing sensitive personal information on open systems +with dial-up access, the accrual of the information, the methods +used to acquire it, and the purposes to which it is put. Another +hacker questioned the inclusion of religion and race in credit records. + +Drake told me that he was concerned about the increasing amount of +information about individuals that is stored in large data banks, +and the inability of the individual to have much control over the +use of that information. He suggests that the individual might be +co-owner of information collected about him or her, with control +over the use of that information. He also says that an individual +should be free to withhold personal information, of course paying +the consequences of doing so (e.g., not getting a drivers license +or credit card). (In fact, all Federal Government forms are required +to contain a Privacy Act Statement that states how the information +being collected will be used and, in some cases, giving the option +of withholding the information.) + +Goldstein has also challenged the practices of law enforcement agencies +in their attempt to crack down on hackers [Goldstein90]. He said +that all incoming and outgoing electronic mail used by ``Phrack'' +was monitored before the newsletter was shutdown by authorities. +``Had a printed magazine been shut down in this fashion after having +all of their mail opened and read, even the most thick-headed +sensationalist media types would have caught on: hey, isn't that +a violation of the First Amendment?'' He also cites the shutdown +of several bulletin boards as part of Operation Sun Devil, and quotes +the administrator of the bulletin board Zygot as saying ``Should +I start reading my users' mail to make sure they aren't saying anything +naughty? Should I snoop through all the files to make sure everyone +is being good? This whole affair is rather chilling.'' The +administrator for the public system The Point wrote ``Today, there +is no law or precedent which affords me ... the same legal rights +that other common carriers have against prosecution should some other +party (you) use my property (The Point) for illegal activities. +That worries me ...'' + +About 40 personal computer systems and 23,000 data disks were seized +under Operation Sun Devil, a two-year investigation involving the +FBI, Secret Service, and other federal and local law enforcement +officials. In addition, the Secret Service acknowledges that its +agents, acting as legitimate users, had secretly monitored computer +bulletin boards [Markoff90a]. Markoff reports that California +Representative Don Edwards, industry leader Mitchell Kapor, and civil +liberties advocates are alarmed by these government actions, saying +that they challenge freedom of speech under the First Amendment and +protection against searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. +Markoff asks: ``Will fear of hackers bring oppression?'' + +John Barlow writes ``The Secret Service may actually have done a +service for those of us who love liberty. They have provided us +with a devil. And devils, among their other galvanizing virtues, +are just great for clarifying the issues and putting iron in your +spine.'' [Barlow90] Some of the questions that Barlow says need +to be addressed include ``What are data and what is free speech? +How does one treat property which has no physical form and can be +infinitely reproduced? Is a computer the same as a printing press?'' +Barlow urges those of us who understand the technology to address +these questions, lest the answers be given to us by law makers and +law enforcers who do not. Barlow and Kapor are constituting the +Computer Liberty Foundation to ``raise and disburse funds for +education, lobbying, and litigation in the areas relating to digital +speech and the extension of the Constitution into Cyberspace.'' + +8. Conclusions + +Hackers say that it is our social responsibility to share information, +and that it is information hoarding and disinformation that are the +crimes. This ethic of resource and information sharing contrasts +sharply with computer security policies that are based on authorization +and ``need to know.'' This discrepancy raises an interesting question: +Does the hacker ethic reflects a growing force in society that stands +for greater sharing of resources and information -- a reaffirmation +of basic values in our constitution and laws? It is important that +we examine the differences between the standards of hackers, systems +managers, users, and the public. These differences may represent +breakdowns in current practices, and may present new opportunities +to design better policies and mechanisms for making computer resources +and information more widely available. + +The sentiment for greater information sharing is not restricted to +hackers. In the best seller ``Thriving on Chaos,'' Tom Peters +[Peters87] writes about sharing within organizations: ``Information +hoarding, especially by politically motivated, power-seeking staffs, +has been commonplace throughout American industry, service and +manufacturing alike. It will be an impossible millstone around the +neck of tomorrow's organizations. Sharing is a must.'' Peters argues +that information flow and sharing is fundamental to innovation and +competetiveness. On a broader scale, Peter Drucker [Drucker89] says +that the ``control of information by government is no longer possible. +Indeed, information is now transnational. Like money, it has no +`fatherland.' '' + +Nor is the sentiment restricted to people outside the computer security +field. Harry DeMaio [DeMaio89] says that our natural urge is to +share information, and that we are suspicious of organizations and +individuals who are secretive. He says that information is exchanged +out of ``want to know'' and mutual accommodation rather than ``need +to know.'' If this is so, then some of our security policies are +out of step with the way people work. Peter Denning [DenningP89] +says that information sharing will be widespread in the emerging +worldwide networks of computers and that we need to focus on ``immune +systems'' that protect against mistakes in our designs and recover +from damage. + +I began my investigation of hackers with the question: who are they +and what is their culture and discourse? My investigation uncovered +some of their concerns, which provided the organizational structure +to this paper, and several suggestions for new actions that might +be taken. My investigation also opened up a broader question: What +are the clashing discourses that the hackers stand at the battle +lines of? Is it owning or restricting information vs. sharing +information -- a tension between an age-old tradition of controlling +information as property and the Englightenment tradition of sharing +and disseminating information? Is it controlling access based on +``need to know,'' as determined by the information provider, vs. +``want to know,'' as determined by the person desiring access? +Is it law enforcement vs. freedoms granted under the First and Fourth +Amendments? The answers to these questions, as well as those raised +by Barlow on the nature of information and free speech, are important +because they tell us whether our policies and practices serve us +as well as they might. The issue is not simply hackers vs. system +managers or law enforcers; it is a much larger question about values +and practices in an information society. + + +Acknowledgments + +I am deeply grateful to Peter Denning, Frank Drake, Nathan Estey, +Katie Hafner, Brian Harvey, Steve Lipner, Teresa Lunt, Larry Martin, +Gordon Meyer, Donn Parker, Morgan Schweers, Richard Stallman, and +Alex for their comments on earlier versions of this paper and helpful +discussions; to Richard Stallman for putting me in contact with +hackers; John Draper, Geoff Goodfellow, Brian Reid, Eugene Spafford, +and the hackers for helpful discussions; and Richard Pethia for a +summary of some of his experiences at CERT. The opinions expressed +here, however, are my own and do not necessarily represent those +of the people mentioned above or of Digital Equipment Corporation. + + +References + +ACM90 + ``Just say no,'' Comm. ACM, Vol. 33, No. 5, May 1990, p. 477. + +Baird87 + Bruce J. Baird, Lindsay L. 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Hollinger and Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, ``The Process of + Criminalization: The Case of Computer Crime Laws,'' Criminology, + Vol. 26, No. 1, 1988, p. 101-126. + +Huebner89 + Hans Huebner, ``Re: News from the KGB/Wiley Hackers,'' RISKS Digest, + Vol. 8, Issue 37, 1989. + +Landreth89 + Bill Landreth, Out of the Inner Circle, Tempus, Redmond, WA, 1989. + +Lee86 + John A. N. Lee, Gerald Segal, and Rosalie Stier, ``Positive + Alternatives: A Report on an ACM Panel on Hacking,'' Comm. ACM, + Vol. 29, No. 4, April 1986, p. 297-299; full report available from + ACM Headquarters, New York. + +Levy84 + Steven Levy, Hackers, Dell, New York, 1984. + +Markoff90 + John Markoff, ``Self-Proclaimed `Hacker' Sends Message to Critics,'' + The New York Times, March 19, 1990. + +Markoff90a + John Markoff, ``Drive to Counter Computer Crime Aims at Invaders,'' + The New York Times, June 3, 1990. + +Martin89 + Larry Martin, ``Unethical `Computer' Behavior: Who is Responsible?,'' + Proc. of the 12th National Computer Security Conference, 1989. + +Meyer89 + Gordon R. Meyer, The Social Organization of the Computer Underground, + Master's thesis, Dept. of Sociology, Northern Illinois Univ., Aug. + 1989. + +MeyerThomas90 + Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas, ``The Baudy World of the Byte Bandit: + A Postmodernist Interpretation of the Computer Underground,'' Dept. + of Sociology, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL, March 1990. + +Peters87 + Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos, Harper & Row, New York, Chapter VI, S-3, + p. 610, 1987. + +Samuelson89 + Pamela Samuelson, ``Information as Property: Do Ruckelshaus and + Carpenter Signal a Changing Direction in Intellectual Property Law?" + Catholic University Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 2, Winter 1989, p. + 365-400. + +Spafford89 + Eugene H. Spafford, ``The Internet Worm, Crisis and Aftermath,'' + Comm. ACM, Vol. 32, No. 6, June 1989, p. 678-687. + +Stallman84 + Richard M. Stallman, Letter to ACM Forum, Comm. ACM, Vol. 27, + No. 1, Jan. 1984, p. 8-9. + +Stallman90 + Richard M. Stallman, ``Against User Interface Copyright'' to appear + in Comm. ACM. + +Steele83 + Guy L. Steele, Jr., Donald R. Woods, Raphael A. Finkel, Mark R. + Crispin, Richard M. Stallman, and Geoffrey S. Goodfellow, The + Hacker's Dictionary, Harper & Row, New York, 1983. + +Stoll90 + Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg, Doubleday, 1990. + +Thomas90 + Jim Thomas, ``Review of The Cuckoo's Egg,'' Computer Underground + Digest, Issue #1.06, April 27, 1990. + +ThomasMeyer90 + Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer, ``Joe McCarthy in a Leisure Suit: + (Witch)Hunting for the Computer Underground,'' Unpublished + manuscript, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University, + DeKalb, IL, 1990; see also the Computer Underground Digest, Vol. + 1, Issue 11, June 16, 1990. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/const.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/const.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e9d80e17 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/const.txt @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ + +A NEW COVENANT* + +WE, THE UNDERSIGNED Witnesses to the Lesson of History - that no Form of +political Governance may be relied upon to secure the individual Rights +of Life, Liberty, or Property - now therefore establish and provide +certain fundamental Precepts measuring our Conduct toward one another, +and toward others: + +Individual Sovereignty + +FIRST, that we shall henceforward recognize each individual to be the +exclusive Proprietor of his or her own Existence and of all products of +that Existence, holding no Obligation binding among Individuals excepting +those to which they voluntarily and explicitly consent; + +Freedom from Coercion + +SECOND, that under no Circumstances shall we acknowledge any Liberty to +initiate Force against another Person, and shall instead defend the +inalienable Right of Individuals to resist Coercion employing whatever +Means prove necessary in their Judgement; + +Association and Secession + +THIRD, that we shall hold inviolable those Relationships among +Individuals which are totally voluntary, but conversely, any Relationship +not thus mutually agreeable shall be considered empty and invalid; + +Individuality of Rights + +FOURTH, that we shall regard Rights to be neither collective nor additive +in Character - two individuals shall have no more Rights than one, nor +shall two million nor two thousand million - nor shall any Group possess +Rights in Excess of those belonging to its individual members; + +Equality of Liberty + +FIFTH, that we shall maintain these Principles without Respect to any +person's Race, Nationality, Gender, sexual Preference, Age, or System of +Beliefs, and hold that any Entity or Association, however constituted, +acting to contravene them by initiation of Force - or Threat of same - +shall have forfeited its Right to exist; + +Supersedure + +UPON UNANIMOUS CONSENT of the Members or Inhabitants of any Association +or Territory, we further stipulate that this Agreement shall supercede +all existing governmental Documents or Usages then pertinent, that such +Constitutions, Charters, Acts, Laws, Statutes, Regulations, or Ordinances +contradictory or destructive to the Ends which it expresses shall be null +and void, and that this Covenant, being the Property of its Author and +Signatories, shall not be Subject to Interpretation excepting insofar as +it shall please them. + +SIGNATORY: WITNESS: + +_________________________________ _______________________________ +signature date signature date + +_________________________________ _______________________________ +name (please print) name (please print) + +SEND TO: 111 East Drake, Suite 7032, Fort Collins, Colorado 80525. PLEASE +ENCLOSE TWO DOLLARS to cover processing and archiving. Add SASE for +confirmation of receipt. + +*Exercepted from Chapter XVII of THE GALLATIN DIVERGENCE by L. Neil +Smith, Del Rey Books (a division of Random House), New York, 1985, as +amended by unanimous consent, October, 1986. + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Salted Slug Systems Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 408-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/const11.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/const11.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4b714649 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/const11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,600 @@ + + + +THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1787 + + + +We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, +establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, +promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves +and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the +United States of America. + + +Article 1 + +Section 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a +Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and +House of Representatives. + +Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members +chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, +and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite +for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. + +No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the +Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a citizen of the United States, +and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which +he shall be chosen. + +Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among +the several States which may be included within this Union, +according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined +by adding to the whole number of free Persons, including those +bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, +three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made +within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the +United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, +in such Manner as they shall by law Direct. The number of +Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, +but each State shall have at least one Representative; +and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire +shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island +and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, +New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, +Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. + +When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive +Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. + +The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; +and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. + +Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of +two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, +for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. + +Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, +they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of +the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the expiration of the +second Year, of the second Class at the expiration of the fourth Year, +and of the third Class at the expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third +may be chosen every second Year; and if vacancies happen by Resignation, +or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, +the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the +next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. + +No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of +thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, +and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State +for which he shall be chosen. + +The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, +but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. + +The Senate shall choose their other Officers, and also a President +pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall +exercise the Office of President of the United States. + +The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. +When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. +When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice +shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence +of two thirds of the Members present. + +Judgment in cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal +from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, +Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall +nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and +Punishment, according to Law. + +Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and +Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; +but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, +except as to the Places of chusing Senators. + +The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, +and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, +unless they shall by law appoint a different Day. + + +Section 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, +Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a +Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; +but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, +and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, +in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. + +Each house may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, +punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the +Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member. + +Each house shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, +and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may +in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the +Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of +one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal. + +Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the +Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to +any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. + +Section 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation +for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury +of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and +Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance +at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning +from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, +they shall not be questioned in any other Place. + +No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, +be appointed to any civil Office under the authority of the United States, +which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been +increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the +United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance +in Office. + +Section 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the +House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with +Amendments as on other Bills. + +Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and +the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the +President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, +but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House +in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections +at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. +If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that house +shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, +together with the Objections, to the other House, by which +it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds +of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such Cases +the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, +and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be +entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill +shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) +after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, +in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their +Adjournment prevent its Return, in which case it shall not be a Law. + +Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate +and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question +of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; +and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, +or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of +the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules +and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. + +Section 8. The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, +Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence +and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises +shall be uniform throughout the United States; + +To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; + +To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, +and with the Indian Tribes; + +To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws +on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; + +To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, +and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; + +To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities +and current Coin of the United States; + +To establish Post Offices and Post Roads; + +To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing +for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right +to their respective Writings and Discoveries; + +To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; + +To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, +and Offenses against the Law of Nations; + +To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, +and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; + +To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use +shall be for a longer term than two Years; + +To provide and maintain a Navy; + +To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; + +To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, +suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; + +To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for +governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the +United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment +of the Officers, and the Authority of training the militia according +to the discipline prescribed by Congress; + +To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, +over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, +by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, +become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to +exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent +of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, +for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dockyards, +and other needful Buildings;--And + +To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying +into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested +by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, +or in any Department or Officer thereof. + +Section 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any +of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not +be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight +hundred and eight, but a Tax or Duty may be imposed on such Importation, +not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. + +The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless +when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. + +No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. + +No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion +to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. + +No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. + +No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue +to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, +or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. + +No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence +of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account +of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be +published from time to time. + +No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States; +and no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, +without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, +Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, +or foreign State. + +Section 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or +Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; +emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender +in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, +or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. + +No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties +on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing +it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, +laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury +of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision +and Controul of the Congress. + + +No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of +Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any +Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or +engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger +as will not admit of delay. + +ARTICLE 2 + +Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President +of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during +the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President +chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows: + +Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, +a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives +to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or +Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under +the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. + +The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot +for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of +the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of +all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; +which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to +the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the +President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, +in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, +open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. +The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, +if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; +and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal +Number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately +chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have +a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House +shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, +the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State +having one Vote; a Quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member +or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the +States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice +of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of +the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain +two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them +by Ballot the Vice President. + +The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, +and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day +shall be the same throughout the United States. + +No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, +at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to +the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that +Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, +and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. + +In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, +Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the +said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the +Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation +or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what +Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, +until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. + +The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, +a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during +the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive +within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them. + +Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the +following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that +I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, +and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the +Constitution of the United States." + +Section 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army +and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, +when called into the actual Service of the United States; +he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer +in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to +the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power +to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, +except in Cases of impeachment. + +He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the +Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators +present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice +and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public +Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other +Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein +otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: +but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, +as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, +or in the Heads of Departments. + +The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen +during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall +expire at the End of their next session. + +Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress +Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their +Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; +he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either +of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to +the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall +think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; +he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall +Commission all the Officers of the United States. + +Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the +United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, +and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. + +ARTICLE THREE + +Section 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested +in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may +from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme +and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good behavior, +and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, +which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. + +Section 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, +arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties +made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting +Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty +and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States +shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a +State and Citizens of another State;--between Citizens of different States; +--between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of +different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, +and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects. + +In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, +and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have +original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the +supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, +with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. + +The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; +and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall +have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial +shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. + +Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in +levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them +Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on +the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession +in open Court. + +The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of Treason, +but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, +or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. + + +ARTICLE FOUR + +Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the +public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. +And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, +Records, and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. + + +Section 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all +Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. + +A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, +who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, +shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from +which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having +Jurisdiction of the Crime. + +No person held to Service or Labor in one State, under the Laws thereof, +escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, +be discharged from such Service or Labor, But shall be delivered up on Claim +of the Party to whom such Service or Labor may be due. + + +Section 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; +but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction +of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two +or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the +Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. + +The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules +and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging +to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so +construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, +or of any particular State. + +Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union +a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against +Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive +(when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. + + +ARTICLE FIVE + +The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, +shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of +the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention +for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents +and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures +of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths +thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by +the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the +Year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect +the first and fourth Clauses in the ninth Section of the first Article; +and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of it's +equal Suffrage in the Senate. + +ARTICLE SIX + +All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption +of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States +under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. + +This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made +in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, +under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme +Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, +any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary +notwithstanding. + +The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the +several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, +both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound +by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious +Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust +under the United States + +ARTICLE SEVEN + +The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the +Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same. + +Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present +the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one +thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the Independence of the +United States of America the Twelfth In Witness whereof We have +hereunto subscribed our Names, + +Go. WASHINGTON-- +Presid. and deputy from Virginia + +New Hampshire + +John Langdon +Nicholas Gilman + +Massachusetts + +Nathaniel Gorham +Rufus King + +Connecticut + +Wm. Saml. Johnson +Roger herman + +New York + +Alexander Hamilton + +New Jersey + +Wil: Livingston +David Brearley +Wm. Paterson +Jona: Dayton + +Pennsylvania + +B Franklin +Thomas Mifflin +Robt Morris +Geo. Clymer +Thos FitzSimons +Jared Ingersoll +James Wilson +Gouv Morris + +Delaware + +Geo: Read +Gunning Bedford jun +John Dickinson +Richard Bassett +Jaco: Broom + +Maryland + +James Mchenry +Dan of St Thos. Jenifer +Danl Carroll + +Virginia + +John Blair-- +James Madison Jr. + +North Carolina + +Wm. Blount +Rich'd Dobbs Spaight +Hu Williamson + +South Carolina + +J. Rutledge +Charles Cotesworth Pinckney +Charles Pinckney +Pierce Butler + +Georgia + +William Few +Abr Baldwin + + +Attest: +William Jackson, Secretary + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/const_in.cyb b/textfiles.com/politics/const_in.cyb new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d6174bb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/const_in.cyb @@ -0,0 +1,884 @@ +Laurence H. Tribe, "The Constitution in Cyberspace" +PREPARED REMARKS + +KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT THE +FIRST CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS, FREEDOM & PRIVACY + +Copyright, 1991, Jim Warren & Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility + All rights to copy the materials contained herein are reserved, except as +hereafter explicitly licensed and permitted for anyone: + Anyone may receive, store and distribute copies of this ASCII-format +computer textfile in purely magnetic or electronic form, including on +computer networks, computer bulletin board systems, computer conferencing +systems, free computer diskettes, and host and personal computers, provided +and only provided that: +(1) this file, including this notice, is not altered in any manner, and +(2) no profit or payment of any kind is charged for its distribution, other + than normal online connect-time fees or the cost of the magnetic media, and +(3) it is not reproduced nor distributed in printed or paper form, nor on +CD ROM, nor in any form other than the electronic forms described above +without prior written permission from the copyright holder. + Arrangements to publish printed Proceedings of the First Conference on +Computers, Freedom & Privacy are near completion. Audiotape and videotape +versions are also being arranged. + A later version of this file on the WELL (Sausalito, California) will +include ordering details. Or, for details, or to propose other distribution +alternatives, contact Jim Warren, CFP Chair,345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; +voice:(415)851-7075; fax:(415)851-2814; e-mail:jwarren@well.sf.ca.us.[4/19/91] + +[ These were the author's *prepared* remarks. + A transcript of Professor Tribe's March 26th comments at the Conference +(which expanded slightly on several points herein) will be uploaded onto the +WELL as soon as it is transcribed from the audio tapes and proofed against +the audio and/or videotapes.] + + +"The Constitution in Cyberspace: +Law and Liberty Beyond the Electronic Frontier" + +by Laurence H. Tribe + +Copyright 1991 Laurence H. Tribe, +Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law, +Harvard Law School. + +Professor Tribe is the author, most recently, of +"On Reading the Constitution" (Harvard University Press, +Cambridge, MA, 1991). + + +Introduction + + My topic is how to "map" the text and structure of our +Constitution onto the texture and topology of "cyberspace". That's +the term coined by cyberpunk novelist William Gibson, which many +now use to describe the "place" -- a place without physical walls +or even physical dimensions -- where ordinary telephone +conversations "happen," where voice-mail and e-mail messages are +stored and sent back and forth, and where computer-generated +graphics are transmitted and transformed, all in the form of +interactions, some real-time and some delayed, among countless +users, and between users and the computer itself + + Some use the "cyberspace" concept to designate fantasy worlds +or "virtual realities" of the sort Gibson described in his novel +*Neuromancer*, in which people can essentially turn their minds into +computer peripherals capable of perceiving and exploring the data +matrix. The whole idea of "virtual reality," of course, strikes a +slightly odd note. As one of Lily Tomlin's most memorable +characters once asked, "What's reality, anyway, but a collective +hunch?" Work in this field tends to be done largely by people who +share the famous observation that reality is overrated! + + However that may be, "cyberspace" connotes to some users the +sorts of technologies that people in Silicon Valley (like Jaron +Lanier at VPL Research, for instance) work on when they try to +develop "virtual racquetball" for the disabled, computer-aided +design systems that allow architects to walk through "virtual +buildings" and remodel them *before* they are built, "virtual +conferencing" for business meetings, or maybe someday even "virtual +day care centers" for latchkey children. The user snaps on a pair +of goggles hooked up to a high-powered computer terminal, puts on +a special set of gloves (and perhaps other gear) wired into the +same computer system, and, looking a little bit like Darth Vader, +pretty much steps into a computer-driven, drug-free, 3-dimensional, +interactive, infinitely expandable hallucination complete with +sight, sound and touch -- allowing the user literally to move +through, and experience, information. + + I'm using the term "cyberspace" much more broadly, as many +have lately. I'm using it to encompass the full array of +computer-mediated audio and/or video interactions that are already +widely dispersed in modern societies -- from things as ubiquitous +as the ordinary telephone, to things that are still coming on-line +like computer bulletin boards and networks like Prodigy, or like +the WELL ("Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link"), based here in San +Francisco. My topic, broadly put, is the implications of that +rapidly expanding array for our constitutional order. It is a +cyberspace, either get bent out of shape or fade out altogether. +The question, then, becomes: when the lines along which our +Constitution is drawn warp or vanish, what happens to the +Constitution itself? + + +Setting the Stage + + To set the stage with a perhaps unfamiliar example, consider +a decision handed down nine months ago, *Maryland v. Craig*, where +the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the power of a state to put an +alleged child abuser on trial with the defendant's accuser +testifying not in the defendant's presence but by one-way, +closed-circuit television. The Sixth Amendment, which of course +antedated television by a century and a half, says: "In all +criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to +be confronted with the witnesses against him." Justice O'Connor +wrote for a bare majority of five Justices that the state's +procedures nonetheless struck a fair balance between costs to the +accused and benefits to the victim and to society as a whole. +Justice Scalia, joined by the three "liberals" then on the Court +(Justices Brennan, Marshall and Stevens), dissented from that +cost-benefit approach to interpreting the Sixth Amendment. He +wrote: + + The Court has convincingly proved that the Maryland + procedure serves a valid interest, and gives the + defendant virtually everything the Confrontation Clause + guarantees (everything, that is, except confrontation). + I am persuaded, therefore, that the Maryland procedure is + virtually constitutional. Since it is not, however, + actually constitutional I [dissent]. + + Could it be that the high-tech, closed-circuit TV context, +almost as familiar to the Court's youngest Justice as to his even +younger law clerks, might've had some bearing on Justice Scalia's +sly invocation of "virtual" constitutional reality? Even if +Justice Scalia wasn't making a pun on "virtual reality," and I +suspect he wasn't, his dissenting opinion about the Confrontation +Clause requires *us* to "confront" the recurring puzzle of how +constitutional provisions written two centuries ago should be +construed and applied in ever-changing circumstances. + + Should contemporary society's technology-driven cost-benefit +fixation be allowed to water down the old-fashioned value of direct +confrontation that the Constitution seemingly enshrined as basic? +I would hope not. In that respect, I find myself in complete +agreement with Justice Scalia. + + But new technological possibilities for seeing your accuser +clearly without having your accuser see you at all -- possibilities +for sparing the accuser any discomfort in ways that the accuser +couldn't be spared before one-way mirrors or closed-circuit TVs +were developed -- *should* lead us at least to ask ourselves whether +*two*-way confrontation, in which your accuser is supposed to be made +uncomfortable, and thus less likely to lie, really *is* the core +value of the Confrontation Clause. If so, "virtual" confrontation +should be held constitutionally insufficient. If not -- if the +core value served by the Confrontation Clause is just the ability +to *watch* your accuser say that you did it -- then "virtual" +confrontation should suffice. New technologies should lead us to +look more closely at just *what values* the Constitution seeks to +preserve. New technologies should *not* lead us to react reflexively +*either way* -- either by assuming that technologies the Framers +didn't know about make their concerns and values obsolete, or by +assuming that those new technologies couldn't possibly provide new +ways out of old dilemmas and therefore should be ignored +altogether. + + The one-way mirror yields a fitting metaphor for the task we +confront. As the Supreme Court said in a different context several +years ago, "The mirror image presented [here] requires us to step +through an analytical looking glass to resolve it." (*NCAA v. +Tarkanian*, 109 S. Ct. at 462.) The world in which the Sixth +Amendment's Confrontation Clause was written and ratified was a +world in which "being confronted with" your accuser *necessarily* +meant a simultaneous physical confrontation so that your accuser +had to *perceive* you being accused by him. Closed-circuit +television and one-way mirrors changed all that by *decoupling* those +two dimensions of confrontation, marking a shift in the conditions of +information-transfer that is in many ways typical of cyberspace. + + What does that sort of shift mean for constitutional analysis? +A common way to react is to treat the pattern as it existed *prior* +to the new technology (the pattern in which doing "A" necessarily +*included* doing "B") as essentially arbitrary or accidental. Taking +this approach, once the technological change makes it possible to +do "A" *without* "B" -- to see your accuser without having him or her +see you, or to read someone's mail without her knowing it, to +switch examples -- one concludes that the "old" Constitution's +inclusion of "B" is irrelevant; one concludes that it is enough for +the government to guarantee "A" alone. Sometimes that will be the +case; but it's vital to understand that, sometimes, it won't be. + + A characteristic feature of modernity is the subordination of +purpose to accident -- an acute appreciation of just how contingent +and coincidental the connections we are taught to make often are. +We understand, as moderns, that many of the ways we carve up and +organize the world reflect what our social history and cultural +heritage, and perhaps our neurological wiring, bring to the world, +and not some irreducible "way things are." A wonderful example +comes from a 1966 essay by Jorge Louis Borges, "Other +Inquisitions." There, the essayist describes the following +taxonomy of the animal kingdom, which he purports to trace to an +ancient Chinese encyclopedia entitled *The Celestial Emporium of +Benevolent Knowledge*: + + On those remote pages it is written that animals are + divided into: + + (a) those belonging to the Emperor + (b) those that are embalmed + (c) those that are trained + (d) suckling pigs + (e) mermaids + (f) fabulous ones + (g) stray dogs + (h) those that are included in this classification + (i) those that tremble as if they were mad + (j) innumerable ones + (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush + (l) others + (m) those that have just broken a water pitcher + (n) those that, from a great distance, resemble flies + + Contemporary writers from Michel Foucault, in *The Archaeology +of Knowledge*, through George Lakoff, in *Women, Fire, and Dangerous +Things*, use Borges' Chinese encyclopedia to illustrate a range of +different propositions, but the *core* proposition is the supposed +arbitrariness -- the political character, in a sense -- of all +culturally imposed categories. + + At one level, that proposition expresses a profound truth and +may encourage humility by combating cultural imperialism. At +another level, though, the proposition tells a dangerous lie: it +suggests that we have descended into the nihilism that so obsessed +Nietzsche and other thinkers -- a world where *everything* is +relative, all lines are up for grabs, all principles and +connections are just matters of purely subjective preference or, +worse still, arbitrary convention. Whether we believe that killing +animals for food is wrong, for example, becomes a question +indistinguishable from whether we happen to enjoy eating beans, +rice and tofu. + + This is a particularly pernicious notion in a era when we pass +more and more of our lives in cyberspace, a place where, almost by +definition, our most familiar landmarks are rearranged or disappear +altogether -- because there is a pervasive tendency, even (and +perhaps especially) among the most enlightened, to forget that the +human values and ideals to which we commit ourselves may indeed be +universal and need not depend on how our particular cultures, or +our latest technologies, carve up the universe we inhabit. It was +my very wise colleague from Yale, the late Art Leff, who once +observed that, even in a world without an agreed-upon God, we can +still agree -- even if we can't "prove" mathematically -- that +"napalming babies is wrong." + + The Constitution's core values, I'm convinced, need not be +transmogrified, or metamorphosed into oblivion, in the dim recesses +of cyberspace. But to say that they *need* not be lost there is +hardly to predict that they *will* not be. On the contrary, without +further thought and awareness of the kind this conference might +provide, the danger is clear and present that they *will* be. + + The "event horizon" against which this transformation might +occur is already plainly visible: + + Electronic trespassers like Kevin Mitnik don't stop with +cracking pay phones, but break into NORAD -- the North American +Defense Command computer in Colorado Springs -- not in a *WarGames* +movie, but in real life. + + Less challenging to national security but more ubiquitously +threatening, computer crackers download everyman's credit history +>from institutions like TRW; start charging phone calls (and more) +to everyman's number; set loose "worm" programs that shut down +thousands of linked computers; and spread "computer viruses" +through everyman's work or home PC. + + It is not only the government that feels threatened by +"computer crime"; both the owners and the users of private +information services, computer bulletin boards, gateways, and +networks feel equally vulnerable to this new breed of invisible +trespasser. The response from the many who sense danger has been +swift, and often brutal, as a few examples illustrate. + + Last March, U.S. Secret Service agents staged a surprise raid +on Steve Jackson Games, a small games manufacturer in +Austin, Texas, and seized all paper and electronic drafts of its +newest fantasy role-playing game, *GURPS[reg.t.m.] Cyberpunk*, +calling the game a "handbook for computer crime." + + By last Spring, up to one quarter of the U.S. Treasury +Department's investigators had become involved in a project of +eavesdropping on computer bulletin boards, apparently tracking +notorious hackers like "Acid Phreak" and "Phiber Optik" through +what one journalist dubbed "the dark canyons of cyberspace." + + Last May, in the now famous (or infamous) "Operation Sun Devil," +more than 150 secret service agents teamed up with state +and local law enforcement agencies, and with security personnel +>from AT&T, American Express, U.S. Sprint, and a number of the +regional Bell telephone companies, armed themselves with over two +dozen search warrants and more than a few guns, and seized 42 +computers and 23,000 floppy discs in 14 cities from New York to +Texas. Their target: a loose-knit group of people in their teens +and twenties, dubbed the "Legion of Doom." + + I am not describing an Indiana Jones movie. I'm talking about +America in the 1990s. + +The Problem + + The Constitution's architecture can too easily come to seem +quaintly irrelevant, or at least impossible to take very seriously, +in the world as reconstituted by the microchip. I propose today to +canvass five axioms of our constitutional law -- five basic +assumptions that I believe shape the way American constitutional +scholars and judges view legal issues -- and to examine how they +can adapt to the cyberspace age. My conclusion (and I will try not +to give away too much of the punch line here) is that the Framers +of our Constitution were very wise indeed. They bequeathed us a +framework for all seasons, a truly astonishing document whose +principles are suitable for all times and all technological +landscapes. + + +Axiom 1: +There is a Vital Difference +*Between Government and Private Action* + + The first axiom I will discuss is the proposition that the +Constitution, with the sole exception of the Thirteenth Amendment +prohibiting slavery, regulates action by the *government* rather than +the conduct of *private* individuals and groups. In an article I +wrote in the Harvard Law Review in November 1989 on "The Curvature +of Constitutional Space," I discussed the Constitution's +metaphor-morphosis from a Newtonian to an Einsteinian and +Heisenbergian paradigm. It was common, early in our history, to +see the Constitution as "Newtonian in design with its carefully +counterpoised forces and counterforces, its [geographical and +institutional] checks and balances." (103 *Harv. L. Rev.* at 3.) + + Indeed, in many ways contemporary constitutional law is still +trapped within and stunted by that paradigm. But today at least +some post-modern constitutionalists tend to think and talk in the +language of relativity, quantum mechanics, and chaos theory. This +may quite naturally suggest to some observers that the +Constitution's basic strategy of decentralizing and diffusing power +by constraining and fragmenting governmental authority in +particular has been rendered obsolete. + + The institutional separation of powers among the three federal +branches of government, the geographical division of authority +between the federal government and the fifty state governments, the +recognition of national boundaries, and, above all, the sharp +distinction between the public and private spheres, become easy to +deride as relics of a simpler, pre-computer age. Thus Eli Noam, in +the First Ithiel de Sola Pool Memorial Lecture, delivered last +October at MIT, notes that computer networks and network +associations acquire quasi-governmental powers as they necessarily +take on such tasks as mediating their members' conflicting +interests, establishing cost shares, creating their own rules of +admission and access and expulsion, even establishing their own *de +facto* taxing mechanisms. In Professor Noam's words, "networks +become political entities," global nets that respect no state or +local boundaries. Restrictions on the use of information in one +country (to protect privacy, for example) tend to lead to export of +that information to other countries, where it can be analyzed and +then used on a selective basis in the country attempting to +restrict it. "Data havens" reminiscent of the role played by the +Swiss in banking may emerge, with few restrictions on the storage +and manipulation of information. + + A tempting conclusion is that, to protect the free speech and +other rights of *users* in such private networks, judges must treat +these networks not as associations that have rights of their own +*against* the government but as virtual "governments" in themselves +-- as entities against which individual rights must be defended in +the Constitution's name. Such a conclusion would be misleadingly +simplistic. There are circumstances, of course, when +non-governmental bodies like privately owned "company towns" or +even huge shopping malls should be subjected to legislative and +administrative controls by democratically accountable entities, or +even to judicial controls as though they were arms of the state -- +but that may be as true (or as false) of multinational corporations +or foundations, or transnational religious organizations, or even +small-town communities, as it is of computer-mediated networks. +It's a fallacy to suppose that, just because a computer bulletin +board or network or gateway is *something like* a shopping mall, +government has as much constitutional duty -- or even authority -- +to guarantee open public access to such a network as it has to +guarantee open public access to a privately owned shopping center +like the one involved in the U.S. Supreme Court's famous *PruneYard +Shopping Center* decision of 1980, arising from nearby San Jose. + + The rules of law, both statutory and judge-made, through which +each state *allocates* private powers and responsibilities themselves +represent characteristic forms of government action. That's why a +state's rules for imposing liability on private publishers, or for +deciding which private contracts to enforce and which ones to +invalidate, are all subject to scrutiny for their consistency with +the federal Constitution. But as a general proposition it is only +what *governments* do, either through such rules or through the +actions of public officials, that the United States Constitution +constrains. And nothing about any new technology suddenly erases +the Constitution's enduring value of restraining *government* above +all else, and of protecting all private groups, large and small, +>from government. + + It's true that certain technologies may become socially +indispensable -- so that equal or at least minimal access to basic +computer power, for example, might be as significant a +constitutional goal as equal or at least minimal access to the +franchise, or to dispute resolution through the judicial system, +or to elementary and secondary education. But all this means (or +should mean) is that the Constitution's constraints on government +must at times take the form of imposing *affirmative duties* to +assure access rather than merely enforcing *negative prohibitions* +against designated sorts of invasion or intrusion. + + Today, for example, the government is under an affirmative +obligation to open up criminal trials to the press and the public, +at least where there has not been a particularized finding that +such openness would disrupt the proceedings. The government is +also under an affirmative obligation to provide free legal +assistance for indigent criminal defendants, to assure speedy +trials, to underwrite the cost of counting ballots at election +time, and to desegregate previously segregated school systems. But +these occasional affirmative obligations don't, or shouldn't, mean +that the Constitution's axiomatic division between the realm of +public power and the realm of private life should be jettisoned. + + Nor would the "indispensability" of information technologies +provide a license for government to impose strict content, access, +pricing, and other types of regulation. *Books* are indispensable to +most of us, for example -- but it doesn't follow that government +should therefore be able to regulate the content of what goes onto +the shelves of *bookstores*. The right of a private bookstore owner +to decide which books to stock and which to discard, which books to +display openly and which to store in limited access areas, should +remain inviolate. And note, incidentally, that this needn't make +the bookstore owner a "publisher" who is liable for the words +printed in the books on her shelves. It's a common fallacy to +imagine that the moment a computer gateway or bulletin board begins +to exercise powers of selection to control who may be on line, it +must automatically assume the responsibilities of a newscaster, a +broadcaster, or an author. For computer gateways and bulletin +boards are really the "bookstores" of cyberspace; most of them +organize and present information in a computer format, rather than +generating more information content of their own. + + +Axiom 2: +The Constitutional Boundaries of Private Property +and Personality Depend on Variables Deeper Than +*Social Utility and Technological Feasibility* + + The second constitutional axiom, one closely related to the +private-public distinction of the first axiom, is that a person's +mind, body, and property belong *to that person* and not to the +public as a whole. Some believe that cyberspace challenges that +axiom because its entire premise lies in the existence of computers +tied to electronic transmission networks that process digital +information. Because such information can be easily replicated in +series of "1"s and "0"s, anything that anyone has come up with in +virtual reality can be infinitely reproduced. I can log on to a +computer library, copy a "virtual book" to my computer disk, and +send a copy to your computer without creating a gap on anyone's +bookshelf. The same is true of valuable computer programs, costing +hundreds of dollars, creating serious piracy problems. This +feature leads some, like Richard Stallman of the Free Software +Foundation, to argue that in cyberspace everything should be free +-- that information can't be owned. Others, of course, argue that +copyright and patent protections of various kinds are needed in +order for there to be incentives to create "cyberspace property" in +the first place. + + Needless to say, there are lively debates about what the +optimal incentive package should be as a matter of legislative and +social policy. But the only *constitutional* issue, at bottom, isn't +the utilitarian or instrumental selection of an optimal policy. +Social judgments about what ought to be subject to individual +appropriation, in the sense used by John Locke and Robert Nozick, +and what ought to remain in the open public domain, are first and +foremost *political* decisions. + + To be sure, there are some constitutional constraints on these +political decisions. The Constitution does not permit anything and +everything to be made into a *private commodity*. Votes, for +example, theoretically cannot be bought and sold. Whether the +Constitution itself should be read (or amended) so as to permit all +basic medical care, shelter, nutrition, legal assistance and, +indeed, computerized information services, to be treated as mere +commodities, available only to the highest bidder, are all terribly +hard questions -- as the Eastern Europeans are now discovering as +they attempt to draft their own constitutions. But these are not +questions that should ever be confused with issues of what is +technologically possible, about what is realistically enforceable, +or about what is socially desirable. + + Similarly, the Constitution does not permit anything and +everything to be *socialized* and made into a public good available +to whoever needs or "deserves" it most. I would hope, for example, +that the government could not use its powers of eminent domain to +"take" live body parts like eyes or kidneys or brain tissue for +those who need transplants and would be expected to lead +particularly productive lives. In any event, I feel certain that +whatever constitutional right each of us has to inhabit his or her +own body and to hold onto his or her own thoughts and creations +should not depend solely on cost-benefit calculations, or on the +availability of technological methods for painlessly effecting +transfers or for creating good artificial substitutes. + + +Axiom 3: +*Government May Not Control Information Content* + + A third constitutional axiom, like the first two, reflects a +deep respect for the integrity of each individual and a healthy +skepticism toward government. The axiom is that, although +information and ideas have real effects in the social world, it's +not up to government to pick and choose for us in terms of the +*content* of that information or the *value* of those ideas. + + This notion is sometimes mistakenly reduced to the naive +child's ditty that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words +can never hurt me." Anybody who's ever been called something awful +by children in a schoolyard knows better than to believe any such +thing. The real basis for First Amendment values isn't the false +premise that information and ideas have no real impact, but the +belief that information and ideas are *too important* to entrust to +any government censor or overseer. + + If we keep that in mind, and *only* if we keep that in mind, +will we be able to see through the tempting argument that, in the +Information Age, free speech is a luxury we can no longer afford. +That argument becomes especially tempting in the context of +cyberspace, where sequences of "0"s and "1"s may become virtual +life forms. Computer "viruses" roam the information nets, +attaching themselves to various programs and screwing up computer +facilities. Creation of a computer virus involves writing a +program; the program then replicates itself and mutates. The +electronic code involved is very much like DNA. If information +content is "speech," and if the First Amendment is to apply in +cyberspace, then mustn't these viruses be "speech" -- and mustn't +their writing and dissemination be constitutionally protected? To +avoid that nightmarish outcome, mustn't we say that the First +Amendment is *inapplicable* to cyberspace? + + The answer is no. Speech is protected, but deliberately +yelling "Boo!" at a cardiac patient may still be prosecuted as +murder. Free speech is a constitutional right, but handing a bank +teller a hold-up note that says, "Your money or your life," may +still be punished as robbery. Stealing someone's diary may be +punished as theft -- even if you intend to publish it in book form. +And the Supreme Court, over the past fifteen years, has gradually +brought advertising within the ambit of protected expression +without preventing the government from protecting consumers from +deceptive advertising. The lesson, in short, is that +constitutional principles are subtle enough to bend to such +concerns. They needn't be broken or tossed out. + + +Axiom 4: +The Constitution is Founded on Normative +Conceptions of Humanity That Advances +*in Science and Technology Cannot "Disprove"* + + A fourth constitutional axiom is that the human spirit is +something beyond a physical information processor. That axiom, +which regards human thought processes as not fully reducible to the +operations of a computer program, however complex, must not be +confused with the silly view that, because computer operations +involve nothing more than the manipulation of "on" and "off" states +of myriad microchips, it somehow follows that government control or +outright seizure of computers and computer programs threatens no +First Amendment rights because human thought processes are not +directly involved. To say that would be like saying that +government confiscation of a newspaper's printing press and +tomorrow morning's copy has nothing to do with speech but involves +only a taking of metal, paper, and ink. Particularly if the seizure +or the regulation is triggered by the content of the information +being processed or transmitted, the First Amendment is of course +fully involved. Yet this recognition that information processing +by computer entails something far beyond the mere sequencing of +mechanical or chemical steps still leaves a potential gap between +what computers can do internally and in communication with one +another -- and what goes on within and between human minds. It is +that gap to which this fourth axiom is addressed; the very +existence of any such gap is, as I'm sure you know, a matter of +considerable controversy. + + What if people like the mathematician and physicist Roger +Penrose, author of *The Emperor's New Mind*, are wrong about human +minds? In that provocative recent book, Penrose disagrees with +those Artificial Intelligence, or AI, gurus who insist that it's +only a matter of time until human thought and feeling can be +perfectly simulated or even replicated by a series of purely +physical operations -- that it's all just neurons firing and +neurotransmitters flowing, all subject to perfect modeling in +suitable computer systems. Would an adherent of that AI orthodoxy, +someone whom Penrose fails to persuade, have to reject as +irrelevant for cyberspace those constitutional protections that +rest on the anti-AI premise that minds are *not* reducible to really +fancy computers? + + Consider, for example, the Fifth Amendment, which provides +that "no person shall be . . . compelled in any criminal case to +be a witness against himself." The Supreme Court has long held +that suspects may be required, despite this protection, to provide +evidence that is not "testimonial" in nature -- blood samples, for +instance, or even exemplars of one's handwriting or voice. Last +year, in a case called *Pennsylvania v. Muniz*, the Supreme Court +held that answers to even simple questions like "When was your +sixth birthday?" are testimonial because such a question, however +straightforward, nevertheless calls for the product of mental +activity and therefore uses the suspect's mind against him. But +what if science could eventually describe thinking as a process no +more complex than, say, riding a bike or digesting a meal? Might +the progress of neurobiology and computer science eventually +overthrow the premises of the *Muniz* decision? + + I would hope not. For the Constitution's premises, properly +understood, are *normative* rather than *descriptive*. The philosopher +David Hume was right in teaching that no "ought" can ever be +logically derived from an "is." If we should ever abandon the +Constitution's protection for the distinctively and universally +human, it won't be because robotics or genetic engineering or +computer science have led us to deeper truths, but rather because +they have seduced us into more profound confusions. Science and +technology open options, create possibilities, suggest +incompatibilities, generate threats. They do not alter what is +"right" or what is "wrong." The fact that those notions are +elusive and subject to endless debate need not make them totally +contingent on contemporary technology. + + +Axiom 5: +Constitutional Principles Should Not +*Vary With Accidents of Technology* + + In a sense, that's the fifth and final constitutional axiom I +would urge upon this gathering: that the Constitution's norms, at +their deepest level, must be invariant under merely *technological* +transformations. Our constitutional law evolves through judicial +interpretation, case by case, in a process of reasoning by analogy +>from precedent. At its best, that process is ideally suited to +seeing beneath the surface and extracting deeper principles from +prior decisions. At its worst, though, the same process can get +bogged down in superficial aspects of preexisting examples, +fixating upon unessential features while overlooking underlying +principles and values. + + When the Supreme Court in 1928 first confronted wiretapping +and held in *Olmstead v. United States* that such wiretapping +involved no "search" or "seizure" within the meaning of the Fourth +Amendment's prohibition of "unreasonable searches and seizures," +the majority of the Court reasoned that the Fourth Amendment +"itself shows that the search is to be of material things -- the +person, the house, his papers or his effects," and said that "there +was no searching" when a suspect's phone was tapped because the +Constitution's language "cannot be extended and expanded to include +telephone wires reaching to the whole world from the defendant's +house or office." After all, said the Court, the intervening wires +"are not part of his house or office any more than are the highways +along which they are stretched." Even to a law student in the +1960s, as you might imagine, that "reasoning" seemed amazingly +artificial. Yet the *Olmstead* doctrine still survived. + + It would be illuminating at this point to compare the Supreme +Court's initial reaction to new technology in *Olmstead* with its +initial reaction to new technology in *Maryland v. Craig*, the 1990 +closed-circuit television case with which we began this discussion. +In *Craig*, a majority of the Justices assumed that, when the 18th- +century Framers of the Confrontation Clause included a guarantee of +two-way *physical* confrontation, they did so solely because it had +not yet become technologically feasible for the accused to look his +accuser in the eye without having the accuser simultaneously watch +the accused. Given that this technological obstacle has been +removed, the majority assumed, one-way confrontation is now +sufficient. It is enough that the accused not be subject to +criminal conviction on the basis of statements made outside his +presence. + + In *Olmstead*, a majority of the Justices assumed that, when the +18th-century authors of the Fourth Amendment used language that +sounded "physical" in guaranteeing against invasions of a person's +dwelling or possessions, they did so not solely because *physical* +invasions were at that time the only serious threats to personal +privacy, but for the separate and distinct reason that *intangible* +invasions simply would not threaten any relevant dimension of +Fourth Amendment privacy. + + In a sense, *Olmstead* mindlessly read a new technology *out* of +the Constitution, while *Craig* absent-mindedly read a new technology +*into* the Constitution. But both decisions -- *Olmstead* and *Craig* -- +had the structural effect of withholding the protections of the +Bill of Rights from threats made possible by new information +technologies. *Olmstead* did so by implausibly reading the +Constitution's text as though it represented a deliberate decision +not to extend protection to threats that 18th-century thinkers +simply had not foreseen. *Craig* did so by somewhat more plausibly +-- but still unthinkingly -- treating the Constitution's seemingly +explicit coupling of two analytically distinct protections as +reflecting a failure of technological foresight and imagination, +rather than a deliberate value choice. + + The *Craig* majority's approach appears to have been driven in +part by an understandable sense of how a new information technology +could directly protect a particularly sympathetic group, abused +children, from a traumatic trial experience. The *Olmstead* +majority's approach probably reflected both an exaggerated estimate +of how difficult it would be to obtain wiretapping warrants even +where fully justified, and an insufficient sense of how a new +information technology could directly threaten all of us. Although +both *Craig* and *Olmstead* reveal an inadequate consciousness about +how new technologies interact with old values, *Craig* at least seems +defensible even if misguided, while *Olmstead* seems just plain +wrong. + + Around 23 years ago, as a then-recent law school graduate +serving as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, I +found myself working on a case involving the government's +electronic surveillance of a suspected criminal -- in the form of +a tiny device attached to the outside of a public telephone booth. +Because the invasion of the suspect's privacy was accomplished +without physical trespass into a "constitutionally protected area," +the Federal Government argued, relying on *Olmstead*, that there had +been no "search" or "seizure," and therefore that the Fourth +Amendment "right of the people to be secure in their persons, +houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and +seizures," simply did not apply. + + At first, there were only four votes to overrule *Olmstead* and +to hold the Fourth Amendment applicable to wiretapping and +electronic eavesdropping. I'm proud to say that, as a 26-year-old +kid, I had at least a little bit to do with changing that number +>from four to seven -- and with the argument, formally adopted by a +seven-Justice majority in December 1967, that the Fourth Amendment +"protects people, not places." (389 U.S. at 351.) In that +decision, *Katz v. United States*, the Supreme Court finally +repudiated *Olmstead* and the many decisions that had relied upon it +and reasoned that, given the role of electronic telecommunications +in modern life, the First Amendment purposes of protecting *free +speech* as well as the Fourth Amendment purposes of protecting +*privacy* require treating as a "search" any invasion of a person's +confidential telephone communications, with or without physical +trespass. + + Sadly, nine years later, in *Smith v. Maryland*, the Supreme +Court retreated from the *Katz* principle by holding that no search +occurs and therefore no warrant is needed when police, with the +assistance of the telephone company, make use of a "pen register", +a mechanical device placed on someone's phone line that records all +numbers dialed from the phone and the times of dialing. The +Supreme Court, over the dissents of Justices Stewart, Brennan, and +Marshall, found no legitimate expectation of privacy in the numbers +dialed, reasoning that the digits one dials are routinely recorded +by the phone company for billing purposes. As Justice Stewart, the +author of *Katz*, aptly pointed out, "that observation no more than +describes the basic nature of telephone calls . . . . It is simply +not enough to say, after *Katz*, that there is no legitimate +expectation of privacy in the numbers dialed because the caller +assumes the risk that the telephone company will expose them to the +police." (442 U.S. at 746-747.) Today, the logic of *Smith* is +being used to say that people have no expectation of privacy when +they use their cordless telephones since they know or should know +that radio waves can be easily monitored! + + It is easy to be pessimistic about the way in which the +Supreme Court has reacted to technological change. In many +respects, *Smith* is unfortunately more typical than *Katz* of the way +the Court has behaved. For example, when movies were invented, and +for several decades thereafter, the Court held that movie +exhibitions were not entitled to First Amendment protection. When +community access cable TV was born, the Court hindered municipal +attempts to provide it at low cost by holding that rules requiring +landlords to install small cable boxes on their apartment buildings +amounted to a compensable taking of property. And in *Red Lion v. +FCC*, decided twenty-two years ago but still not repudiated today, +the Court ratified government control of TV and radio broadcast +content with the dubious logic that the scarcity of the +electromagnetic spectrum justified not merely government policies +to auction off, randomly allocate, or otherwise ration the spectrum +according to neutral rules, but also much more intrusive and +content-based government regulation in the form of the so-called +"fairness doctrine." + + Although the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts have +taken a somewhat more enlightened approach in dealing with cable +television, these decisions for the most part reveal a curious +judicial blindness, as if the Constitution had to be reinvented +with the birth of each new technology. Judges interpreting a late +18th century Bill of Rights tend to forget that, unless its *terms* +are read in an evolving and dynamic way, its *values* will lose even +the *static* protection they once enjoyed. Ironically, *fidelity* to +original values requires *flexibility* of textual interpretation. It +was Judge Robert Bork, not famous for his flexibility, who once +urged this enlightened view upon then Judge (now Justice) Scalia, +when the two of them sat as colleagues on the U.S. Court of Appeals +for the D.C. Circuit. + + Judicial error in this field tends to take the form of saying +that, by using modern technology ranging from the telephone to the +television to computers, we "assume the risk." But that typically +begs the question. Justice Harlan, in a dissent penned two decades +ago, wrote: "Since it is the task of the law to form and project, +as well as mirror and reflect, we should not . . . merely recite . +. . risks without examining the *desirability* of saddling them upon +society." (*United States v. White*, 401 U.S. at 786). And, I would +add, we should not merely recite risks without examining how +imposing those risks comports with the Constitution's fundamental +values of *freedom*, *privacy*, and *equality*. + + Failing to examine just that issue is the basic error I +believe federal courts and Congress have made: + + * in regulating radio and TV broadcasting without + adequate sensitivity to First Amendment values; + + * in supposing that the selection and editing of + video programs by cable operators might be less + than a form of expression; + + * in excluding telephone companies from cable and + other information markets; + + * in assuming that the processing of "O"s and "1"s + by computers as they exchange data with one + another is something less than "speech"; and + + * in generally treating information processed + electronically as though it were somehow less + entitled to protection for that reason. + + The lesson to be learned is that these choices and these +mistakes are not dictated by the Constitution. They are decisions +for us to make in interpreting that majestic charter, and in +implementing the principles that the Constitution establishes. + + +*Conclusion* + + If my own life as a lawyer and legal scholar could leave just +one legacy, I'd like it to be the recognition that the Constitution +*as a whole* "protects people, not places." If that is to come +about, the Constitution as a whole must be read through a +technologically transparent lens. That is, we must embrace, as a +rule of construction or interpretation, a principle one might call +the "cyberspace corollary." It would make a suitable +Twenty-seventh Amendment to the Constitution, one befitting the +200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Whether adopted all at +once as a constitutional amendment, or accepted gradually as a +principle of interpretation that I believe should obtain even +without any formal change in the Constitution's language, the +corollary I would propose would do for *technology* in 1991 what I +believe the Constitution's Ninth Amendment, adopted in 1791, was +meant to do for *text*. + The Ninth Amendment says: "The enumeration in the +Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or +disparage others retained by the people." That amendment provides +added support for the long-debated, but now largely accepted, +"right of privacy" that the Supreme Court recognized in such +decisions as the famous birth control case of 1965, *Griswold v. +Connecticut*. The Ninth Amendment's simple message is: The *text* +used by the Constitution's authors and ratifiers does not exhaust +the values our Constitution recognizes. Perhaps a Twenty-seventh +Amendment could convey a parallel and equally simple message: The +*technologies* familiar to the Constitution's authors and ratifiers +similarly do not exhaust the *threats* against which the +Constitution's core values must be protected. + The most recent amendment, the twenty-sixth, adopted in 1971, +extended the vote to 18-year-olds. It would be fitting, in a world +where youth has been enfranchised, for a twenty-seventh amendment +to spell a kind of "childhood's end" for constitutional law. The +Twenty-seventh Amendment, to be proposed for at least serious +debate in 1991, would read simply: + +"This Constitution's protections for the freedoms of +speech, press, petition, and assembly, and its +protections against unreasonable searches and seizures +and the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without +due process of law, shall be construed as fully +applicable without regard to the technological method or +medium through which information content is generated, +stored, altered, transmitted, or controlled." diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/continen.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/continen.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b2927680 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/continen.txt @@ -0,0 +1,242 @@ + + +DECLARATION AND RESOLVES OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS: + + +OCTOBER 14, 1777 + + Whereas, since the close of the last war, the +British parliament, claiming a power, of right, to +bind the people of America by statutes in all cases +whatsoever, hath, in some acts, expressly imposed +taxes on them, and in others, under various presences, +but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, +hath imposed rates and duties payable in these +colonies, established a board of commissioners, with +unconstitutional powers, and extended the +jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for +collecting the said duties, but for the trial of +causes merely arising within the body of a county: + And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, +judges, who before held only estates at will in their +offices, have been made dependant on the crown alone +for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times +of peace: And whereas it has lately been resolved in +parliament, that by force of a statute, made in the +thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the +Eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and +tried there upon accusations for treasons and +misprisions, or concealments of treasons committed +in the colonies, and by a late statute, such trials +have been directed in cases therein mentioned: + And whereas, in the last session of parliament, +three statutes were made; one entitled, "An act to +discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are +therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, +lading, or shipping of goods, wares and merchandise, +at the town, and within the harbour of Boston, in +the province of Massachusetts-Bay in New England;" +another entitled, "An act for the better regulating +the government of the province of Massachusetts-Bay +in New England;" and another entitled, "An act for the +impartial administration of justice, in the cases +of persons questioned for any act done by them in the +execution of the law, or for the suppression of +riots and tumults, in the province of the +Massachusetts-Bay in New England;" and another +statute was then made, "for making more effectual +provision for the government of the province of +Quebec, etc." All which statutes are impolitic, +unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, +and most dangerous and destructive of American +rights: + And whereas, assemblies have been frequently +dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when +they attempted to deliberate on grievances; and +their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable +petitions to the crown for redress, have been +repeatedly treated with contempt, by his Majesty's +ministers of state: + The good people of the several colonies of +New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode Island and +Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, +New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Newcastle, Kent, and +Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North- +Carolina and South-Carolina, justly alarmed at these +arbitrary proceedings of parliament and +administration, have severally elected, constituted, +and appointed deputies to meet, and sit in general +Congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to +obtain such establishment, as that their religion, +laws, and liberties, may not be subverted: Whereupon +the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a +full and free representation of these colonies, taking +into their most serious consideration, the best means +of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first +place, as Englishmen, their ancestors in like cases +have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their +rights and liberties, DECLARE, + That the inhabitants of the English colonies in +North-America, by the immutable laws of nature, the +principles of the English constitution, and the several +charters or compacts, have the following RIGHTS: + Resolved, N.C.D. 1. That they are entitled to +life, liberty and property: and they have never ceded +to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of +either without their consent. + Resolved, N.C.D. 2. That our ancestors, who first +settled these colonies, were at the time of their +emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the +rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural- +born subjects, within the realm of England. + Resolved, N.C.D. 3. That by such emigration they +by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of +those rights, but that they were, and their descendants +now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all +such of them, as their local and other circumstances +enable them to exercise and enjoy. + Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English +liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the +people to participate in their legislative council: and +as the English colonists are not represented, and from +their local and other circumstances, cannot properly +be represented in the British parliament, they are +entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation +in their several provincial legislatures, where their +right of representation can alone be preserved, in all +cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only +to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as +has been heretofore used and accustomed: But, from the +necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual +interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to +the operation of such acts of the British parliament, +as are bonfide, restrained to the regulation of our +external commerce, for the purpose of securing the +commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother +country, and the commercial benefits of its respective +members; excluding every idea of taxation internal or +external, for raising a revenue on the subjects, in +America, without their consent. + Resolved, N.C.D. 5. That the respective colonies +are entitled to the common law of England, and more +especially to the great and inestimable privilege of +being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according +to the course of that law. + Resolved, N.C.D. 6. That they are entitled to the +benefit of such of the English statutes, as existed at +the time of their colonization; and which they have, by +experience, respectively found to be applicable to +their several local and other circumstances. + Resolved, N.C.D. 7. That these, his Majesty's +colonies, are likewise entitled to all the immunities and +privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal +charters, or secured by their several codes of +provincial laws. + Resolved, N.C.D. 8. That they have a right +peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, +and petition the king; and that all prosecutions, +prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the +same, are illegal. + Resolved, N.C.D. 9. That the keeping a standing +army in these colonies, in times of peace, without the +consent of the legislature of that colony, in which +such army is kept, is against law. + Resolved, N.C.D. 10. It is indispensably necessary +to good government, and rendered essential by the +English constitution, that the constituent branches of +the legislature be independent of each other; that, +therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several +colonies, by a council appointed, during pleasure, by +the crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous and +destructive to the freedom of American legislation. + All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in +behalf of themselves, and their constituents, do claim, +demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and +liberties, which cannot be legally taken from them, +altered or abridged by any power whatever, without +their own consent, by their representatives in their +several provincial legislature. + In the course of our inquiry, we find many +infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, +which, from an ardent desire, that harmony and mutual +intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, +we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such +acts and measures as have been adopted since the last +war, which demonstrate a system formed to enslave America. + Resolved, N.C.D. That the following acts of +parliament are infringements and violations of the +rights of the colonists; and that the repeal of them is +essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony +between Great Britain and the American colonies, viz. + The several acts of Geo. III. ch. 15, and +ch. 34.-5 Geo. III. ch.25.-6 Geo. ch. 52.-7 Geo.III. +ch. 41 and ch. 46.-8 Geo. III. ch. 22. which impose +duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, +extend the power of the admiralty courts beyond their +ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial +by jury, authorize the judges certificate to indemnify +the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise +be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a +claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be +allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of +American rights. + Also 12 Geo. III. ch. 24, intituled, "An act for +the better securing his majesty's dockyards, magazines, +ships, ammunition, and stores," which declares a new +offence in America, and deprives the American subject +of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage, by +authorizing the trial of any person, charged with the +committing any offence described in the said act, out +of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in +any shire or county within the realm. + Also the three acts passed in the last session of +parliament, for stopping the port and blocking up the +harbour of Boston, for altering the charter and +government of Massachusetts-Bay, and that which is +entitled, "An act for the better administration of +justice, etc." + Also the act passed in the same session for +establishing the Roman Catholic religion, in the +province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system +of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the +great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of +religion, law and government) of the neighboring +British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and +treasure the said country was conquered from France. + Also the act passed in the same session, for the +better providing suitable quarters for officers and +soldiers in his majesty's service, in North-America. + Also, that the keeping a standing army in several +of these colonies, in time of peace, without the +consent of the legislature of that colony, in which +such army is kept, is against law. + To these grievous acts and measures, Americans +cannot submit, but in hopes their fellow subjects in +Great Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us +to that state, in which both countries found +happiness and prosperity, we have for the present, +only resolved to pursue the following peaceable +measures: 1. To enter into a non-importation, non- +consumption, and non-exportation agreement or +association. 2. To prepare an address to the people +of Great-Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants +of British America: and 3. To prepare a loyal address +to his majesty, agreeable to resolutions already +entered into. + +------------------------------------ + + Taken from: Journals of Congress (ed. 1800), I. pp. 26-30. + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/contra3.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/contra3.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b7305ba0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/contra3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,513 @@ +excerpts from: Contrascience #3 < for an original copy, + 2131 - 80th St So send $2 to this address. + Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494 + + ____"WAR = FUN"_____ + + "Our young ones are at this very moment + assimilating fiction which, under its pert + and smiling guise, turns them into competitors, + teaches them to see domination as the only + alternative to subjection. They are learning sex + roles; perverse and deformed visions of history; + how to grow up, adapt, and succeed in the world + as it presently is. They learn not to ask questions." + - Ariel Dorfman + + I grew up as most average American kids do - playing war, +cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, playing at any game +involving imaginary violence for the sake of "fun." Ask any kid +and odds are he, or she (there is a tendency to assume just +boys play this game - girls are supposed to play with dolls, +remember. But many girls do, too) can make all the gun noises +and wants to be an "army guy" like G.I. Joe, or another high-tech, +gun-toting hero. It doesn't matter what stage in the technological +evolution of killing the kids reenact and aspire to be a part of, +it is still killing. We learn that war is this amazing game where +no one gets hurt, no one dies, and the bad guys always lose. In +the US, it seems kids grow up wanting to be a soldier, shooting +guns and throwing hand grenades; or a sports star. I wanted to +be in the army and have all the "cool" guns and drive a tank. As +I got older I guess I grew tired of the idea of being a soldier, +but the fascination with killing and guns remained. Once again, +like the "average boy," I began exploring the power of using a gun. +Of taking a BB gun and killing something simply because it could +be done - a new version of the game I had learned to enjoy. I +remember sitting for hours, trying to shoot birds as they landed +on a tree branch and frogs as they sat on the edge of a pond. I +probably killed many, but I eventually reached a point where I +could do it no longer. I realized that it made me feel ill to kill +for the perverse enjoyment of it. My gratitude to my parents for +making me think about what I was doing and what I had done. + The sad thing is that thousands of kids are taught to kill much +more than I, and to truly love the act. I was a light-weight in +comparison to the majority of kids that I grew up with. This does +not excuse my actions, but it brings to light the fact that this +fascination with killing is commonplace, even considered status +quo. While I wasn't verbally encouraged to kill, my actions were +condemned very little. To many people such actions seem +insignificant. "Boys will be boys!" is often the standard +explanation. The fact is that we are all raised in a culture +where guns, warfare, and killing are so commonplace that when a +child acts accordingly, it is viewed as "natural." As serious an +issue as cruelty to animals is, it is secondary to the fact that +we accept kids pretending to kill one another and kids living +killing living creatures for fun as normal. This way of thinking +is the heart of the problem. This attitude has allowed children +to run around wishing for war and mocking violence for +generations. All you need to do is walk through a toy store to +see where our childrens' interest lies. These attitudes will +continue unless we work to change them. + I do not believe that the government has been preparing us +for war as we grow up without any kind of focused effort. But +if we all grow up wanting to be soldiers it doesn't make +recruitment any harder. And besides, society is so ingrained +with these pro-war notions that why should a government even +need to promote it. Just demonize a small and poorly armed +country, bomb it back to the stone age while showing off all +our neat new killing machines, get the people's bloodlust +raging, and watch the support grow. Make it seem like a +sporting event, like a Rambo movie, like fiction; fun and +exciting. Who is going to question it? + This game of mixed messages continues. Toys recreate war +and cartoon characters carry and shoot guns at one another +with smiles on their faces. TV is not the problem, only a +symptom. We are the problem and our attitudes must change. +While many of us realize the failings of such an attitude, +many more do not. They go out hanging yellow ribbons +everywhere believing smart bombs do not harm civilians and +enjoying all the wonderful parades. Some join the military, +hoping to use the power they have learned to love. Or maybe +worst of all, they just go along for the ride with their +heads buried in their gun cabinets, buying their children +plastic M-16's and contributing to the American myth that war +is fun and no one really dies. + + "It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6, + or 7 to discover that the flag to which you have + pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, + has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a + great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the + Indians, and, although you are rooting for G.Cooper, + that the Indians are you." + - James Baldwin + + "Man is a religious animal. Man is the only + religious animal. He is the only animal that has the + true religion - several of them. He is the only + animal that loves his neighbors as himself and cuts + his throat if his theology isn't straight." + - Mark Twain + + _________________________ + +PROPAGANDHI is: + Chris - vocals, guitar + Jordan - Drums + John - Bass + +This interview took place in December 1993 at the THD +house in Minneapolis in the midst of the flu epidemic from +hell. + +? - So who here is sick? +C - Me and John are kinda sick. +Jd - Me, not yet. +? - On your record you said you didn't want to be pigeonholed +into one leftist thouhgt.. +Jd - Well, the label is really kinda fucking shitty. I think, +for myself I could probably take every fucking label in the +book and put it on me for certain reasons and other reasons +why you couldn't put it on me. So.. I can't really relate to +any specific thing in an absolute way. +C - We get this question all the time - it is almost like +we have to have a written-out answer or something. I think +the best way I could sum it up for myself would be.. +libertarian socialist, meaning maximum freedom with maximum +solidarity. That's how I feel life should be. +J - I just label myself an anarchist because I think the +principle doctrine of anarchism is having optimism in human +nature - and I have that. +Jd - I have a lot of optimism in human nature and that is the +only thing that keeps me going. I'm also very discouraged +because seeing that humanity has created this global shit hole +that we have today. But at the same time, our humanity is the +only thing that can get us out of this. +C - We're not utopians or anything, we are realist - idealists. +? - How long have you guys been in the U.S.? +All - Two days, three weeks left. +? - So this is your first time in the U.S.? +C - No, we tried this last year. Went for two weeks... +? - What are your impressions of the U.S.? Is it worse than +Canada? Or is Canada any better? +J - I am kind of surprised when Americans almost rave about +how our social programs and everything are so much better.. +I don't see Canada as being a hell of a lot better. +Jd - On a level of meeting people in scenes and stuff, I +think that almost every person we've met or dealt with so far +has been really nice. I don't think there's a real national +difference in that regard, you meet a lot of really good +people. But in respect to politically, I definitely think the +U.S. is potentially the worst country in the entire world. +C - All the social programs are disappearing in Canada anyway, +especially with things like NAFTA. But the bottom line is that +Canada makes about as much sense as the U.S. in terms of a +nation. It is illogical to have a country this big. +J - The regional disparity is just hilarious. +Jd - Illogical for our purposes, but it's very logical for +the purposes who are in control. +S - For the purposes of human happiness... +Jd - It's a pretty absurd country. I think a lot of the same +stuff that goes on down here is - even as Canadians we hear +more about what happens in the U.S. than we do of our own +country. A lot of people are looking at the U.S. - there is +a common consensus that Canada is one step up on the U.S. so +we should stop worrying about the problems down here. But +there is a lot of bad shit going on up there as well. +J - There are a lot of people who consider themselves so +socially aware and cut down Americans for being so patriotic, +but they think about burning the Canadian flag and they get +all uptight about it.. it's totally illogical. +Jd - I think it is getting to be that problems are so bad +they aren't national anymore anyway, with all the trans- +national companies gaining so much power, it's not Canadian +or American anymore. +? - How has the record been doing? The Winnipeg scene, is +that pretty good? +Jd - Considering it's geographic position I think it is +good. +C - I anyone cares, from a selling point it is fine, but +the way it is being sold in Canada... +Jd - You really learn a lot about how fucked up people +involved in alternative music are, not for the purpose of +doing things for each other, but a lot of people are in it +just strictly for profit. I never really thought about it +before but if you are just making a buck, or x amount of +cents, off of each album sold, the people who make the +records are making more, the people who distro the records are +making more, the people who actually SELL the records are +making, I guess, 100% more than the band is... +C - It seems kinda weird. For example, in Canada, Cargo +records has an absolute monopoly on all distribution. They got +the records from Mike for a certain price and jacked it up to +30 or 40% and resold it and the record stores who got it in +Winnipeg jacked it up, in some cases it seemed like 100%! +So LPs and CDs were showing up for 20+ dollars in stores. We +had to get Mike to send some to us and sell them ourselves +just to undersell - sell them for cost. We tried to get this +boycott happening and people just kept buying [in the +stores.] Cargo Records found out about the boycott and +threatened to drop all of our records but they knew they were +selling so they kept them and just kept jacking up the cost. +J - We put up a poster about the boycott and - we assume it +was the one record store that was marking it up the most - +called the city of Winnipeg and tried to stop us. Departments +of the police and the city of Winnipeg were investigating +us because we were trying to sell our own records - because +we didn't have a license to sell. +C - The thing is then, what we should have thought about +before we decided to do a record with Fat Mike, to ask him who +is going to distribute, and hopefully next time we can have +more control. Then again, we said we don't use Cargo and Mike +asked, "Who should I use?" and we couldn't come up with +anybody besides ourselves... It is just sad that all these +shitty companies have monopolies on punk rock records. +J - Especially Cargo. Cargo is like omnipotent in Canada. +Jd - Even like the business dominance over CDs - what is it? +like EMI makes... +C - Every CD made.. even if Born Against put out a CD, EMI +gets a percentage because they have a copyright on CDs. Fuck, +every time you buy one of our records $$ goes to +Thorne - EMI!... +? - I think it is interesting that bands are always preaching +to the same people and they are always saying the same thing, +but when people come to a show from outside the scene, they +[punks] are always looking at them like, "what are they doing +here?" What the hell good does that do? +C - I don't believe in the preaching to the converted thing. +I believe in positive reinforcement. +Mark (of Destroy and Cinder fame, joins in) - I totally agree. +I think it is ridiculous to say that everyone is converted - +it's fucking bullshit. i can say from experience that half the +people that I see at shows don't give a shit about anything. +C - Even if these things are being reinforced, it is important +that you are sharing those ideas with someone you may not even +live in the same part of the world as you. I think it is +important to know that you are not alone in your ideas. +M - If nothing else, with those ideas you are encouraging +more communication via saying something, even if two people +go home and disagree but start talking about it. +J - I also think that we are using the generalized punk scene +member who instead of going out to the protest goes home and +listens to Born Against. That is really the point that has to +be made - that alternative music has to have alternative +action or it is just Nirvana. +C - That is a lot different coming from Winnipeg. I think it +is a lot different in San Francisco or even Minneapolis where +the punk scene might be politically active. In Winnipeg, it +doesn't exist. The people are young right now. They don't +really participate out of the scene, it is all personal right +now. I think that statement that the personal _is_ the +political has been taken too far. I don't really think it is, +it is a starting point. If you actually want social change +instead of just personal change you have to go beyond the +slogan and start doing things outside the scene. Because the +world doesn't hive a shit about a punk rock scene anyway. All +the radical ideas, probably none of them originated with the +punk scene. +? - Anything else you want to say? +C - Boycott Cargo! Boycott DutchEast! Don't buy our records +from them. If you buy our record from anybody take off the +plastic wrap and send it back to Fat Mike. +J - Go Vegan! + + Propagandhi. + po box 3 + Winnipeg, Manitoba + R3M 353 Canada + + advocating moral puritanism since 1991. + ______________________________________________ + + ART FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT THE RICH + Kathe Kollwitz ( 1867 - 1945 ) + + As a young girl in Germany, Kathe Kollwitz was influenced +by her socialist father and grew to believe social injustice +was the greatest of all disorders. She studied printmaking and +eventually began creating works about the exploitation of the +poor. As Kathe matured she realized her bisexuality and came to +believe that such feelings were essential for the creation of +her art. Despite the era of male dominance in the home, she +married a doctor who worked in an early form of socialized +medicine for the poorer classes and they shared a life-long +relationship of mutual respect and equality. Together, they +spent their lives in the ghetto and worked tirelessly for the +poor. Kathe felt she was the protagonist of the poor and the +oppressed and that she had a responsibility to keep working +until her talent inspired interest in the cause. + When her son was killed in WWI, Kathe began a campaign +against war. She produced posters calling for the end of war +and did many series of prints in which she represented dying +soldiers and their grieving families. She battled periods of +severe depression and continued this crusade as the Nazis rose +to power in the 1930's. As a result of her political stances, +Kathe was classified as a "degenerate" artist by the German +state. Kathe remained in the ghetto of bomb-raged Germany until +her death, near the end of WWII. + Throughout Kathe Kollwitz's life, she worked tirelessly for +the rights of the downtrodden and the oppressed. She always +stressed that art should grip the human heart. She fought the +sexism and militarism of her environment in order to use her +art to communicate her message of peace and compassion. + _____________________ + + LIFE: + AS INSIGNIFICANT AS THE FLIP OF A SWITCH. + + 4,000 AND COUNTING... + The purpose of this article is to question the notion that in +the US, a country where the majority of its people (naively) +pride themselves on being self-ruled and free, the government is +given the right to murder its citizens. It is written from the +standpoint that we are part of a society where, whether we like +it or not, those who break the laws of the state are punished +as the government sees fit. As far as anarchism, whether the +state should exist, or has a right to dictate laws and +punishments upon its people is another debate and one which I +will not discuss here. + The death penalty has been around as long as the human race +and the earliest capital punishment laws were religious in +nature. The mosaic code required death for many offenses, as +did many early civilizations. Enforcement of laws with the +threat of death has continued for many centuries and the death +penalty remained deeply connected to religion throughout the +19th century. During the industrial revolution, England had +death sentences for over 200 crimes, including the theft of +bread. By 1807, public hangings had become such a popular event +that over 40,000 people crowded around to witness them. The +major religious denominations uniformly supported the notion +of capital punishment. Clergy from the congretationalist and +presbyterian denominations went so far as to publicly oppose +the abolition of capital punishment by citing the Christian +bible verse, Genesis 9:6: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man +shall his blood be shed." In the U.S., the death penalty has +been a constant occurence, reaching its peak in the 1930's, a +decade where the annual average of executions was 167. + State-endorsed killing in the U.S. has dropped off +considerably in the last 60 years and there has been a shift +in the number of religious denominations willing to support +it. Many churches have reversed their position and now +oppose capital punishment, although often very quietly. Today, +religious groups that still support capital punishment include +Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and certain fundamentalist +Christian and orthodox Jewish groups. Internationally, support +of the death penalty has waned, leaving the U.S. as one of +only 30 nations in the world who institute the death penalty. +Of NATO countries, the U.S. shares the status of executing +its people only with Turkey. + Between 1930 and 1980 there were 3,860 recorded executions +in the United States. Although executions have occurred +steadily throughout this time, there was a lull beginning in +June 1972 when the supreme court ruled that there was a lack +of standards in the selection process of what offenders would +be singled out for death. As a result, the death penalty was +banned pending a restructuring of this system. In July of +1976, the supreme court again released a decision. It said +that capital punishment for the crime of murder was neither +cruel or unusual punishment and released new standards for +the enactment of the death penalty. After this supreme court +decision, states restructured their justice systems and +resumed giving the sentence of death. Between 1977 and 1989, +120 people were put to death. The restructuring has allowed +the return of state executions, and also created a trap where +the condemned sit for years waiting for the newly established +safeguards and appeals to decide their fate. + Today, 99% of those on death row are male. About 50% of them +were unemployed at the time of imprisonment. And, while blacks +are 12% of the U.S. population, they constitute 40% of the +death row population. In 1988, there were 2, 048 inmates on +death row. This number is steadily increasing due to the new +appeals process which has reduced the number of executions, +while the number of annual death sentences given has risen. +As a result, we inhumanely leave thousands of people locked +in solitary confinement, pondering their death for years. + For those people more concerned with the nations economy +than "the death of a few criminals," an economic argument +can also be made against capital punishment. The execution of +one human being is far more expensive than to imprison that +one person for life. The lengthy appeals process required for +the execution of an individual often costs 10 times that of a +regular case. During this appeals period, the prisoners are +held in special cells, requiring extra supervision and costing +more to maintain. In fact, incarceration of a prisoner for 40 +years is substantially less costly than going through the full +legal process necessary to put that person to death. + In 1987, two law professors published a study of death +sentences in the 20th century. They found that between 1990 +and 1985, 349 persons were incorrectly convicted of capital +offenses. As a result, 23 innocent prisoners were actually put +to death. Another study, released in 1988, found that in the +previous decade, for every 30 persons sentenced to death, 10 +had left death row and one was executed. In effect, a person +is sentenced to death, left to think about it for a few years, +and then we decide to let them live. Americans held hostage in +Iran that endured mock executions can tell you how inhumane +even the suggestion of such action is. As for the +arbitrariness of the executions we allow, more than 20,000 +homicides are punishable by the death penalty each year in the +U.S. But, in the '70's, the ratio of murders to death +sentences was 117:1. Today this ratio is even higher. + The apparent randomness in selection for a death sentence +reveals a system of racism and classism. Minorities and the +poor are statistically more likely to be executed as they are +unable to afford the defense required to fight such a +sentence. Making things even more unjust, a recent supreme +court decision ruled that states are not constitutionally +required to provide counsel for penniless death row inmates +who continue their appeal in state courts. In effect, the +government has once again effectively narrowed the means by +which defendants can appeal and made it easier for them to +be put to death. This is especially ture of those accused +from the lower classes. The late Supreme Court Justice +William L. Douglas, one of the few justices against the death +penalty, declared, "One searches our chronicles in vain for +the execution of any member of the affluent strata of our +society." + Despite all these executions there is still a debate over +the effectiveness of capital punishment as a crime deterrent. +The majority of murders are committed in the heat of passion +when the thought of punishment is the last thing on the +murderer's mind. And, if the murder was in fact premeditated, +the person has planned the murder to the point where he or +she feels they will not be caught. Statistically, people +convicted of murder are among the most unlikely to to commit +violent crimes again in, or outside of, prison. The fear of +sentencing a person to the death penalty often influences a jury +to convict the individual of a lesser crime; resulting in early +release rather than a life sentence. So few executions actually +take place and the appeals process is so drawn out that any +amount of deterrent value that capital punishment could have is +surely lost. And, there is some evidence to show that executions +only encourage crime. + Why shouldn't potential killers see executions as evidence +that lethal vengeance is justified? + "Are more atrocities committed in those countries where +such punishments are unknown? Certainly not: the most savage +bandits are always found under laws most severe, and it is +no more than what might be expected. The fate with which they +are threatened hardens them to the sufferings of others as +well as to their own. They know that they can expect no lenity, +and they consider such acts of cruelty as retaliations." +( - Jeremy Bentham) + Certainty of punishment such as imprisonment is a much +stronger deterrent than severity. + In 1976, Canada abolished the death penalty, subsituting it +with mandatory minimum sentences. The homicide rate did not +rise and has fallen a bit as a result. This pattern has also +been observed in France. A comprehensive UN report found that +abolition of the death penalty has no effect on murder rates. +The U.S. government has ignored these studies and continues the +killing for apparently no other reason than a twisted form of +retribution and spite. + This spiteful attitude affects the way we view violence. +Some studies have found that capital punishment may have a +"brutalizing effect" on our society that increases the level +of violence. We begin to see violence as acceptable; as +state-sanctioned. We lose sight of the fact that the persons +we have imprisoned are human beings. + + "It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. + Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that + cancel one another, but similars that breed their own + kind." - B. Shaw + + Furthermore, the act of executions as committed by the state +does not treat the condemned as human beings. I will spare you +the many step by step descriptions of the various ways the +state executes its citizens. All but one... + In April of 1982, John Louis was to be executed by +electrocution in the electric chair. He was given a 1,900 +volt surge of electricity of 1/2 minute. In the process, the +electrode broke on his leg and had to be reattached. A second +shock failed to kill him, and smoke was seen rising from his +mouth and leg. He was then given a third shock of 1,900 volts +until his death. He was slowly and inhumanely put to death in +what was a toal of 14 minutes. + This is nothing but state-sanctioned torture and should not +be viewed as just and effective punishment. Even if the +condemned person had committed heinous crimes, why should we +further cheapen life? the execution of a criminal cannot +reverse the damage done by crimes already committed. It simply +adds to the death toll and further dehumanizes society. If we +were to ask those involved with the act of execution, many will +agree. + "Revulsion at the duty to supervise and witness + executions is one reason why so many prison wardens, + people unsentimental about crime and criminals, are + opponents of capital punishment." - Hugo A. Bedlan + + Despite all the funds spent to kill an individual, we cannot +be certain an error will not be made. How can "the penalty of +death... be imposed given the limitations of our minds and +institutions, without considerable measures of both +arbitrariness and mistake?" ( - unknown.) + While our justice system is said to be much more safeguarded +today, humankind is not infallible - especially where the +government is concerned! Even if we were a society free of +error and truly just, to kill another human being in the name +of government order would still do little more than legitimate +violence. By democratically supporting the murder of a portion +of our populace, we are effectively limiting our own +freedom. + + "The power to permanently eliminate from society + any of its citizens who deviate from the state + government line or policy is an absolute necessity + for the survival of every repressive government + known to man." - Wyatt Espy. + + Why support a step toward such a future? + +- end - + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cookie.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cookie.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5dfa40c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cookie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,286 @@ + + Operation Cookie! + + + + **What is Operation Cookie? + Operation Cookie is an effort by hundreds of people across the + United States to relieve our soldiers in the Middle East. By + baking and shipping a package of cookies, you can participate and + brighten the days of our servicemen. + + **I thought no packages were being sent to the Mid-East! How are + the cookies being transported? + Since the U.S. Post is only shipping first class letters to + the Gulf, Sgt. Bill Sankey of the 2nd Command Communications + Group has offered to airlift a planeful of cookies from Patrick + Air Force Base in Florida. Only packages marked "Official Pack- + ages-Needed On Duty" are being allowed out through the U.S. mail, + so special transportation is needed. + + **What kinds of cookies travel best? + Small cookies without pointed edges are preferred. Moist + cookies that will not crumble are ideal. Most bar, drop, and + fruit cookies will travel well. Please do not make peanut butter + cookies or chocolate chip cookies as the former will crumble and + the latter will melt. Avoid fragile rolled cookies. Cookies + need to withstand freezing temperatures as well as 150 degree + heat. Cargo bays of military planes are not heated and things + will freeze. After being unloaded, boxes may sit in the sun for + awhile, so cookies will thaw or melt! + Sending brownies is not recommended. Please do not send any + cookies that contain alcohol or liquor, as they are illegal in + Arab countries. + It has also been suggested that you enclose the recipe, or a + list of ingredients in case people are allergic to certain ingre- + dients. They may also wish to bake the recipe at home if they + are fond of it! You may also send a note of encouragement or a + photo, but that is up to you. + + **How do I pack cookies? + To prevent breakage, it is suggested that you wrap cookies + "back to back" with wax paper or plastic wrap. These can be + placed in shoe boxes, clothes boxes, gift boxes, coffee cans, or + any other suitable container. Another way to prevent crumbling + is to stack the wrapped cookies between two of the styrofoam + trays that meat is sold on and secure. Pack the individual + containers in a HEAVY, wax-paper lined box. Foil-lined corrugat- + ed cardboard or fiberboard works best. Use newspaper or bubble + wrap for filler. NOTE: Do not use popcorn as filler, as it will + attract bugs! Shake gently to see if cookies are secure and do + not rattle around. Add extra filler at the top. Tape the box + with waterproof tape. Cover packing box with brown paper. Seal + with waterproof tape. Do not tie with any kind of stirng, as it + will jam on the U.P.S. conveyor belts. Write the address neatly + on the box or an address label and cover with tape to prevent + smearing. + + + **Where do I send my packaged cookies? + Send boxes to: Operation Cookie, c/o Sub-Trek I, 190 Malabar + Road #119, Palm Bay West Center, Palm Bay, FL 32907. Shipping + via U.P.S. or Federal Express is ideal. You may ship by U.S. + Mail, but it is slow and costs much more. + + **What if I can't bake? + You may choose to send store-bought cookies, but follow the + above guidelines as to which cookies travel best. If you do not + wish to send cookies, but still would like to participate, you + can send letters to servicemen by writing to: Any Servicemember, + Operation Desert Shield, SPO New York, 09866-0006. Many people + have been slipping single-serving packages of powdered drink mix + in their envelopes. Men are required to drink six gallons of + water a day, and not all of it is fresh and clear. The drink mix + helps a lot, they say. + + **When is the deadline for sending cookies? + There is no real deadline as of yet. Cookies go out on a space + available basis. As long as boxes keep arriving, they will be + airlifted out. But send your packages soon to ensure delivery! + + + Some Recipes For Cookies That Travel Well + + + Peanut Butter Cookies + + 1 cup Peanut Butter (chunky or creamy) + 1 cup Sugar (or 3/4 cup) + 1 Egg + + Mix together and drop by spoonfuls on ungreased baking sheets. + Press with fork tines in an X shape on tops. Bake at 350F for 10 + minutes. Don't overbake! Since there is no flour in this re- + cipe, cookies don't have a cakey quality. + + + Arlene's Sugar Cookies + + 1 cup Butter or Margarine + 1 1/2 cup Confectioners Sugar + 2 Eggs + 1 cup Sour Cream + 1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla + 4 1/2 cups Flour + 1 tsp Salt + 1 tsp Baking Powder + 1 tsp Baking Soda + 1/2 tsp Nutmeg + + Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat + well. Add sour cream and vanilla and blend well. Sift dry + ingredients together and add to sour cream mix. Chill for sever- + al hours. Roll dough until 1/2 inch thick and cut off with + cookie cutter (remember, round shapes travel best). Bake for 12 + minutes at 375F on lightly greased sheet. + + + Rum (or Mocha) Balls + + 2 1/2 cups Crushed Vanilla Wafers + 1 cup Confectioners Sugar + 1 cup Finely Chopped Walnuts + 2 TBS Cocoa + 3 TBS Karo Syrup + 1/4 cup Rum Flavoring or Coffee + + Mix dry ingredients together. Form well in center. Pour liquid + ingredients into well. Stir dry ingredients into well. Dough + should be a little sticky. Form into balls about size of a + walnut. Roll in more confectioners sugar and let dry 2 hours + before shipping. If dough is too moist, add more crushed + cookies. + + + Oatmeal Cookies + + 1 cup Crisco + 1 cup Sugar + 1 cup firmly packed Brown Sugar + 2 Eggs + 2 cups all-purpose Flour + 1 tsp Baking Powder + 1 tsp Baking Soda + 1 tsp Salt + 1 1/2 cups uncooked Oats + 1/2 cup chopped Nuts + (1/2 cup Raisins and 1 tsp Allspice are optional) + + Preheat oven to 350F. Cream Crisco and sugars in mixer. Add + eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine + flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed + mixture; mix just until smooth. Stir in oats and nuts. + Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350F + for 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned. + Makes 5 dozen. + + + Raisin Oatmeal Drop Cookies + + Instant Mashed Potato Puffs + 1 cup firmly packed Brown Sugar + 1/2 cup granulated Sugar + 3/4 cup Shortening + 2 Eggs + 1/4 cup Water + 1 tsp Vanilla + 1 cup all-purpose Flour + 1 tsp Salt + 1/2 tsp Soda + 1 tsp Cinnamon + 1/2 tsp Cloves + 1 cup Raisins + 1 cup chopped Nuts + 3 cups quick-cooking Rolled Oats + + Heat oven to 400F. Prepare potatoes as directed on package for 2 + servings (1 cup); set aside. Cream sugars, shortening, eggs, + water, and potatoes. Measure flour by dipping method or by + sifting. Blend flour, salt, soda, and spices; stir in. Fold in + raisins, nuts, and rolled oats. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of + dough on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Store + in container with a tight fitting lid. + Makes 5 dozen. + + + Cardamom Cookies + + 1 cup Butter + 2 tsp Baking Soda + 1 tsp ground Cardamom + 1/2 tsp Salt + 1/2 cup firmly packed Light Brown Sugar + 2 Eggs + 4 1/2 cups Flour + 2 tsp Cream of Tartar + + Cream butter and add baking soda, cardamom, and salt. Mix well. + Blend in sugar. Beat in eggs. Sift together flour and cream of + tartar and stir into butter mixture, blending well. Chill for 3- + 4 hours or overnight. Shape dough into 1/2 inch balls. Place on + ungreased cookie sheets. Dip fork into flour and press each + cookie in crisscross style. Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes. + Makes 4 dozen. + + + Gingersnaps + + 3 cups Flour + 3 tsp Baking Soda + 3 tsp Ginger + 1/2 tsp Cinnamon + 1 cup Butter + 1 cup Sugar + 1/2 cup Molasses + 1 Egg + Additional Sugar for sprinkling + + Sift flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon together; set + aside. Cream butter; add sugar gradually, beating until fluffy. + Blend in molasses. Add egg and beat thoroughly. Add dry ingre- + dients in thirds, mixing until blended after each addition. Drop + by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle generously + with sugar. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes. + Makes 4 dozen. + + + Gingerbread from a Mix + + 1 package (14.5 oz) Gingerbread Mix + 1/2 cup Water + 1/2 cup Nuts + 1 cup Candied Fruit + + Heat oven to 375F. Mix gingerbread and water. Stir in candied + fruit and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie + sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. + Makes 3 dozen + NOTES: Use raisins, currants, dates, figs, or a combination + instead of candied fruit. Dromedary Gingerbread Mix works well. + + + Joe Froggers + + 2 1/2 cups sifted Flour + 1 1/2 tsp Ginger + 1 tsp Baking Soda + 1 tsp Salt + 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves + 1/2 tsp Nutmeg + 1/2 cup Shortening + 1 cup Sugar + 1 cup Light Molasses + + Sift together first six ingredients. Cream shortening and sugar + well and beat in molasses. Add dry ingredients and stir until + well mixed. Wrap and chill dough well. Roll out half of the + dough at a time to a 1/4 inch thickness on lightly floured board + (keep remaining dough in refrigerator until ready to use). + Arrange cookies on lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 350F + for 10 minutes or until done. Cool on baking sheet 1-2 minutes + or until set. Remove from baking sheet with wide spatula and + cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container. + Makes 3 dozen. + + + Cherry Winks + + 1 cup Sugar + 3/4 cup Shortening + 2 Eggs + 2 TBSP Milk + 1 tsp Vanilla + 1 cup chopped Nuts + 1 cup chopped Dates + 2 1/4 cup Flour + 1 tsp Baking Powder + 1/2 tsp Salt + 1/2 tsp Soda + Crushed Cornflakes + Maraschino Cherries + + Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, nuts, and + dates. Sift and add dry ingredients. Form balls the size of a + walnut. Roll in crushed cornflakes. Flatten slightly and top + with half of maraschino cherry. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/coptalk.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/coptalk.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..16c75cd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/coptalk.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ + Don't Talk to Cops + + by + + Robert W. Zeuner + Member of the New York State Bar + +=========================================================================== + Typed by: The Mad Alchemist|Lunatic Labs BBS 415-278-7421 1200/2400 +Re-typed and spelling checked by Richard M. Bash of Combat Arms, 2869 Grove +Way, Castro Valley, California 94546, Telephone (415) 538-6544. +=========================================================================== + + + "GOOD MORNING! My name is investigator Holmes. Do you mind answering a +few simple questions?" If you open your door one day and are greeted with +those words, STOP AND THINK! Whether it is the local police or the FBI at +your door, you have certain legal rights of which you ought to be aware +before you proceed any further. + + In the first place, when law enforcement authorities come to see you, +there are no "simple questions". Unless they are investigating a traffic +accident, you can be sure that they want information about somebody. And +that somebody may be you! + + Rule number one to remember when confronted by the authorities is that +there is no law requiring you to talk with the police, the FBI, or the +representative of any other investigative agency. Even the simplest +questions may be loaded and the seemingly harmless bits of information +which you volunteer may later become vital links in a chain of +circumstantial evidence against you or a friend. + + DO NOT INVITE THE INVESTIGATOR INTO YOUR HOME! + + Such an invitation not only gives him the opportunity to look around +for clues to your lifestyle, friends, reading material, etc., but also +tends to prolong the conversation. The longer the conversation, the more +chance there is for a skill investigator to find out what he wants to know. + + Many times a police officer will ask you to accompany him to the +police station to answer a few questions. In that case, simply thank him +for the invitation and indicate that you are not disposed to accept it at +this time. Often the authorities simply want to photograph a person for +identification purposes, a procedure which is easily accomplished by +placing him in a private room with a two-way mirror at the station, asking +him a few innocent questions, and then releasing him. + + If the investigator becomes angry at your failure to cooperate and +threatens you with arrest, stand firm. He cannot legally place you under +arrest or enter your home without a warrant signed by a judge. If he +indicates that he has such a warrant, ask to see it. A person under arrest, +or located on premises to be searched, generally must be shown a warrant if +he requests it and must be given to chance to read it. + + Without a warrant, an officer depends solely upon your helpfulness to +obtain the information he wants. So, unless you are quite sure of yourself, +don't be helpful! + + Probably the wisest approach to take to a persistent investigator is +simply to say: "I'm quite busy now. If you have any questions that you feel +I can answer, I'd be happy to listen to them in my lawyer's office. +Goodbye!" + + Talk is cheap. When that talk involves the law enforcement +authorities, it may cost you, or someone close to you, dearly. +=========================================================================== + This info came from a leaflet that was printed as a public service by +individuals concerned with the role of authoritarianism and police power in +our society. Please feel free to copy or republish. + + This info also applies to dealing with private investigators, and +corporate security agents. + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/court.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/court.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5e3ac85e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/court.txt @@ -0,0 +1,196 @@ +NO PROTECTION FOR U.S. CITIZENS + + This article is reprinted from Full Disclosure. Copyright (c) 1986 +Capitol Information Association. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby +granted to reprint this article providing this message is included in its +entirety. Full Disclosure, Box 8275-CI3, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107. $15/yr. + + The Minimization Procedure required by the Foreign Intelligence +Surveillance Act (50 U.S.C. 1801) offers no protection to United States +Citizens. + + The U.S. government's secret spy court authorized under the Foreign +Intelligence Surveillance Act is used by intelligence agencies (CIA, FBI, +NSA, etc) to obtain authorization to electronically spy on foreign powers and +their agents within the United States. + + The Act requires a minimization procedure to be followed with respect to +information obtained on U.S. persons in the course of the surveillance. When +a law enforcement agency seeks to electronically surveil a suspected criminal +they are required to demonstrate probable cause that a crime has been or will +be committed in order to obtain a search warrant. However, for an +intelligence agency to obtain a warrant from the United States Foreign +Intelligence Court (USFISC), they only need to demonstrate probable cause +that the target is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. That is +to obtain a warrant in a normal Federal or State Court, there must be +evidence of a crime, but to obtain a warrant in the USFISC there merely needs +to be an indication that the target might be associated with a certain class +of people. + + To "protect" U.S. persons a minimization procedure is employed with +respect to the disclosure of information obtained during the surveillance of +foreign powers and their agents. Full Disclosure has obtained a copy of a +FBI warrant application filed with the USFISC which details the actual +minimization procedure. According to the application's Exhibit A which +details the procedure: + + These procedures apply to the acquisition, + retention, and dissemination of nonpublicly + available communications and other information + concerning unconsenting United States persons + that is collected in the course of electronic + surveillance directed at the telephone + communications of this agent of a foreign power + and oral communications of this agent of a + foreign power... + + When the FBI begins the surveillance, they will verify that the telephone +communications lines being intercepted at the residence and business are in +fact the telephone lines of the agent of the foreign power. + + The FBI agents who monitor the communications are responsible for +determining if the information "intercepted must be minimized". Further, the +communications of United States persons (this includes discussions of U.S. +persons by foreign powers) will be subject to "continuing analysis to +establish categories of communications that are not pertinent to the +authorized purpose of the surveillance". The categories are to be +established after a reasonable period of monitoring the communications of the +foreign power. No information was provided which would indicate that +information categorized as not pertinent would be stored, processed or +disseminated any differently than pertinent information. + + Access to information obtained regarding United States persons is to be +under strict controls. Use of the information is restricted to FBI +supervisory, investigative, and clerical personnel who have a need to know +the information for "foreign intelligence or law enforcement" purposes. Any +information which contains evidence of a criminal offense is retained until a +decision is rendered by prosecutive officials, and if the United States +person is prosecuted the information will be retained until the end of the +prosecution. + + To further "protect" United States persons information regarding them +won't be disseminated without their consent, unless the information is +"evidence of a crime which has been, is being, or is about to be committed". +Such information can be disseminated to "Federal, state, local, or foreign +officials or agencies with law enforcement responsibility for the crime". +Information regarding U.S. persons which is not evidence of a crime, but +which reasonably appears to be foreign intelligence information can be +disseminated in a "manner which identifies United States persons only for +authorized foreign intelligence, foreign counterintelligence, +countersabotage, and international terrorism, or law enforcement purposes". + + So far, there is little minimization (or protection) of information +regarding United States persons which was obtained in a manner inconsistant +with the Fourth Amendment warrant requirements. The last sentence of the +Exhibit appears to set forth the only protection afforded the United States +person: + + + Any information acquired from electronic + surveillance of the target of a foreign power + which is disseminated for law enforcement + purposes shall be accompanied by a statement + that such information or any information + derived therefrom, may only be used in a + criminal proceeding with the advance + authorization of the Attorney General. + + Prior to the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, George +Hasen, Chairman of the Committee on Civil Rights wrote a letter to Senator +Inouye outlining this very problem. The text of his letter follows: + + Dear Senator Inouye: We understand that your Committee has received from +the Committee on Federal Legislation of the Association of the Bar of the +City of New York its critique of the provisions of the proposed Foreign +Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1977 (S. 1506). Our Committee on Civil +Rights associates itself, generally, with that critique, but we disagree with +it in one important respect. + + Both the Committee on Federal Legislation and the Committee on Civil +Rights are concerned because the standards imposed by S. 1566 for obtaining a +warrant to engage in electronic surveillance do not, in some instances, +require a probable cause showing of criminal conduct. It is the considered +judgment of the Committee on Civil Rights that a CRIMINAL STANDARD IS +ESSENTIAL to the bill and, unlike the Committee on Federal Legislation, we +believe that unless S. 1566 is amended to provide such a standard, it should +not be enacted. + + We think that is important to remember why this legislation is needed. +Clearly it is not needed to empower government agencies to carry on +electronic surveillance. Rather, the need is for legislation which will +limit and control electronic surveillance and the consequent government +intrusion into the private lives of American Citizens. The findings of +Congressional committees which over the last several years have investigated +intelligence agency abuses HAVE MADE THIS ABUNDANTLY CLEAR. Based on such +findings, the Church Committee specifically concluded that no American should +"be targeted for electronic surveillance except upon a judicial finding of +probable criminal activity" and, further, that targeting "an American for +electronic surveillance in the absence of probable cause to believe he might +commit a crime, is unwise and unnecessary." (Intelligence Activities and the +Rights of Americans, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study +Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, U.S. Senate, +94th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1976), at 325.) + + Further the Supreme Court has warned of the danger to First Amendment +rights inherent in national security surveillances: + + "National security cases . . . often reflect a convergence of First and +Fourth Amendment values not present in cases of `ordinary' crime. Though the +investigative duty of the executive may be stronger in such cases, so also is +there greater jeopardy to constitutionally protected speech. `Historically +the struggle for freedom of speech and press in England was bound up with the +issue of the scope of the search and seizure power,' Marcus v. Search +Warrant, 367 U.S. 717, 724 (1961). History abundantly documents the tendency +of Government -- however benevolent and benign its motives -- to view with +suspicion those who most fervently dispute it policies. Fourth Amendment +protections become the more necessary when the targets of official +surveillance may be those suspected of unorthodoxy in their political +beliefs. The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government +attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect `domestic +security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, +the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent.' +United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313 (1971). + + Notwithstanding these warnings, S. 1566 would permit the electronic +surveillance of United States citizens and other persons for 90 days or more +without any showing that they are engaged in, or likely to be engaged in, +criminal activity. Section 2521(b)(2)(B)(iv)/1 would go even further and +would permit the electronic surveillance of individuals who "knowingly" aid +and abet persons whose conduct may be entirely lawful. + + Surely, the burden of justifying such a departure from basic Fourth +Amendment principles -- if indeed it can be justified -- ought to be on the +proponents of such provisions. And, surely, they ought to be able to specify +precisely those lawful activities of American citizens which are so vital to +the safety of the nation that the Government must be permitted to +surreptitiously gather information about them and, worse, to do so by such an +intrusive method as electronic surveillance. In our opinion, however, two +Attorneys General have been unable to sustain that burden, and the few +examples are simply unconvincing. In our view, the necessity of a +non-criminal standard has not been demonstrated, and it should, therefore, be +rejected. + + There is another and perhaps even more important reason why such a +standard should not be accepted. If, in this first legislative attempt to +control searches in national security matters, Congress authorizes the most +intrusive and least precise of techniques -- electronic surveillance -- where +no crime is involved, what justification will there be for barring in similar +situations more specific methods such as surreptitious entry and mail +openings? And if a non-criminal standard is necessary to protect the +national security where the connection with a foreign power can be as tenuous +as that provided in S. 1566, what arguments can be made against a similar +standard in domestic situations where the perceived danger to national +security may be just as great? + + S. 1566 represents in some respects an advance over earlier proposals, +but in out view, IF A NON-CRIMINAL STANDARD IS RETAINED, ENACTMENT OF THIS +LEGISLATION WILL LEGITIMIZE THE VERY CONDUCT IT OUGHT TO PROHIBIT AND WILL +CONSTITUTE A SERIOUS BLOW TO CIVIL LIBERTIES. + + If permitted by your procedures, it would be appreciated if this letter +were made a part of the record of the hearings of your Committee on this +bill. [emphassis added] + +/1 This section was passed into law. +part of the record of the hearings of your Committee on this +bill. [ \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/coutetat.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/coutetat.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3b5fc7be --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/coutetat.hum @@ -0,0 +1,500 @@ +The following is an electronic reprint, with the author's permission, of Larry +Abraham's Insider Report of December 1986. Subscriptions to Insider Report are +$80 for 6 months or $145 for one year. For subscription information contact +Insider Report P.O. Box 39895 Phoenix, AZ 85069. Outide Arizona call (800) +528-0559. Inside Arizona call (602) 252-4477. Electronic reprint courtesy of +Genesis 1.28 (206) 361-0751. + + +THE COUP D'ETAT IN WASHINGTON + +What you are currently witnessing, my fellow Americans, is no mere scandal over +an arms shipment. Far from it. What is actually taking place is a coup +d'etat. The visible leader of this coup is Secretary of State George Shultz. +The planning, strategy, and tactics are all being carried out by his colleagues +in the Council on Foreign Relations, within and without government. And the +intended victims are anti-Communists everywhere. + +Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary has as it's third definition of coup d'etat +"the alteration of an existing government by a small group". In all coups, +events move fast and furiously. Disclosures are made and heads roll. Then, +more disclosures are followed by more heads rolling. There are accusations, +denials, charges, and countercharges. To the uninformed observer, everything +appears to be one vast state of confusion. But be not confounded, gentle +reader. This coup is no different from many in the past. As Lord Action said +of the French Revolution, "amidst the tumult is too much design." + +THE BOTTOM LINE + +Before I get into all the essential background of what is now a created crisis +of historic importance, let me give you the bottom line. Believe me, you won't +like it. Here it is: The anti-Communists are being purged from the Reagan +Administration. One-worlders in the State Department (in effect, the CFR +foreign ministry) are now in complete control of the U.S. foreign policy. + +This means that anti-Communist efforts throughout the world will now be set up +for betrayal, collapse, and ultimate destruction. From the high mountains of +Afghanistan to the jungles of Nicaragua, from the swamps of Laos to the plains +of Angola, courageous and gallant freedom fighters will be sold into Communist +slavery. + +Now for some background information that is critical for a proper understanding +of the coup that has just taken place. Well before the Reagan Administration +took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, deals were being cut. Once it +was obvious that Carter was out and Ronald Reagan would soon be in, jockeying +for position became a way of life inside the beltway. + +The first major deal (and possibly the most fatal) came when Ronald Reagan +agreed to put George Bush on ticket as the nominee for Vice President. With +this came all of the Bush baggage--James Baker, Malcom Balderidge, ultimately +George Shultz, to name but a few. + +THE WHITE HOUSE vs. THE STATE DEPARTMENT + +One of Reagan's most worthwhile early appointments was of Richard V. Allen to +the post of National Security Adviser. Allen's tenure was short-lived, due to +a "scandal" contrived and constantly pumped by the Washington Post, over a +meaningless gift to Allen's wife by an obscure Japanese businessman. + +But it was during these early days of the Reagan Administration that something +called the Reagan Doctrine was born. Simply stated, the Reagan Doctrine +supported efforts to free countries now under the yoke of Communist slavery. +Ever since the end of World War II, the State Department had tacitly supported +the opposite view--that "once Communist, always Communist." Now, here came +Ronald Reagan, Richard Allen, and others, saying that a country now under Red +domination is fair game for reversal. + +At the State Department, the Reagan Doctrine was about as popular as drunk +jokes at a Baptist convention. But Reagan's first Secretary of State, +Alexander Haig, was no powerhouse policy maker. He clearly was being rewarded +for his "good efforts" to protect the Establishment during the final days of +the Nixon Administration. It quickly became apparent to the Insiders that +stronger measures and stronger leaders would be necessary to counter the +anti-Communists in the White House. + +THE LINES ARE DRAWN + +Understand that what we are covering here could encompass volumes, and +undoubtedly will someday. So let me touch just the highlights. Haig goes out, +George Shultz comes in; Allen goes out, Robert McFarlane comes in. In the case +of McFarlane, part of the key Allen staffers remained at their posts--including +Lt. Oliver North. Ollie believed in the Reagan Doctrine and went to work +implementing it. He helped plan the Grenada invasion, covert support for the +Contras on Nicaragua, arms and aid to Jonas Savimbi in Angola, assistance to +the anti-Communist freedom fighters on Afghanistan, and so on. In other words, +the National Security Council was actively and effectively pursuing an +anti-Communist course. + +At the State Department, of course, especially under the ubiquitous George +Shultz, it was business as usual: undermine our allies and reward our +adversaries. The State Department had powerful friends helping it, the +national news media being one of the most important. + +To understand what is happening now, it is vital to realize that at one and the +same time, the following had been taking place: Col.North and friends +(Ambassador Lewis Tambs, Jack Wheeler, Andy Messing, Gen. Jack Singlaub, et +al.) were drumming up support for the Contras, while the State/Congressional +"liberals"/media triumvirate were doing everything they could to block them. +Ollie and friends (Howard Phillips foremost among them) were pushing for vital +arms to Jonas Savimbi and support to RENAMO in Mozambique. The State +Department, on the other hand (led by George Shultz, Chester Crocker, and Frank +Weisner), was delayingarms to Savimbi and giving millions in direct aid to +Samora Michel in Mozambique. + +I had first-hand knowledge of two of these situations. Working through friends +in Israel, I became aware of a veritable supermarket of rifles, ground-to-air +missiles, radar equipment, and so on, that was for sale. We were going to get +this materiel to Jonas Savimbi and his anti-Communist freedom fighters in +Angola, if the Stingers and Red-Eyes promised him by President Reagan were +delayed to a point of uselessness. Fortunately, thanks to Howard Phillips, +Jesse Helms, and a handful of others, it proved unnecessary. + +Also during the same period of time (late '85 and early '86), I was in direct +contact with Ollie North, as part of an attempt to supply sophisticated +communications systems to the Contras on Nicaragua. Even then, Ollie knew he +was a target, and all conversations were very circumspect. As far back as two +years ago, trial balloons were being launched by the Washington Post and the +New York Times over what "undisclosed State Department sources" were calling +"that rogue operation in the White House." The wolf pack was stalking him, and +Ollie knew it. It was just a matter of time before they drew blood. + +THE REASON FOR "IRANGATE" + +Now enter, from stage crazy, the Iranian connection. Hunter Thompson once +said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." In order to understand +the weirdos in Iran, the clock must once again be turned back to BR time +(that's "Before Reagan"). + +Had the CFR alliance been working in the best interest of the United States, +none of what is unfolding today could have happened. How quickly we forget +that it was the very same State Department/major media axis that toppled the +dastardly Shah and brought the sainted Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini back from +French exile. + +Yet in spite of the duplicity, these are now the very same people who are +screaming to high heaven that "there are no moderates in Iran." There are +"moderates" in Russia, of course. There are "moderates" in China, Angola, +Mozambique, Nicaragua, Cuba, even within the PLO. But none in Iran,you are +supposed to believe. According to major media/State Department logic, even the +most brutal of Communist regimes have "moderates." Yes, they are Communist, but +they are moderate Communists --especially if they speak English, cut their meat +with a knife, and laugh appreciatively at a Gary Trudeau cartoon. These +"moderates" should be wined, dined, and courted at Park Avenue cocktail +parties. But never, repeat never, is such a distinction accorded +anti-Communists. + +Anybody with half an ounce of brains knows that there are people and forces +inside Iran that are well worth helping, in anticipation of the vacuum which +will follow upon the death of the Ayatollah. Even within the Khomeini +loyalists, there obviously exist people and power blocks who are jockeying for +position. Considering that the Ayatollah is 84 years old, and something less +than a whirling dervish of administrative capability, is it not logical to +assume that people within his oligarchy would be looking elsewhere for allies? +Granted, some are already in the pocket of the Soviets. But isn't that even +more reason why others might be very amenable to an opening from the West? + +POTENTIAL ALLIES IN IRAN + +I have never been to Iran, and I can't think of one Iranian I know personally. +But even without such first-hand knowledge, I can think of at least four groups +who are worth courting within that beleaguered country: + +(1.) The Kurds. This ferocious and independent group rules the northern +reaches of Iran, and is feared by everyone--including the Israeli general who +trained and armed them. Brigadier General Tzuri Sagi (now retired) told me two +years ago when I was in Israel that the Kurds would prove a major obstacle to +the Communist takover of Iran. Even the Khomeini crazies have never moved +against them, for they would be shipped back to Teheran in goatskins. The +Kurds are definitely people worth having on your side! + +(2.) Pahlavi followers. The late lamented Shah still has vast numbers of +people who must look back at his reign as the "good old days". The Shah's +eldest son is, I believe, an officer in the U.S. Air Force. Whenever he's +interviewed he goes to great lengths to tell his listeners about the Pahlavi +loyalists outside of Iran and within. Isn't it interesting that young Pahlavi +is completely ignored by our media masters, as they spread the line, "there are +no moderates in Iran." + +(3.) The Iranian Jews. I have been told by people who keep track of such +things, that the Jewish population of Iran numbers over 3 million. This is +indeed a force to be reckoned with, as Israel has clearly acknowledged. As far +back as October 1982, then-Israeli ambassador to the United States, Moise +Arens, disclosed in an interview in the Boston Globe, of all places, that +Israel was routinely selling arms to Iran. You would think that the Washington +Post would surely admit that among 3 million Iranian Jews, there must be some +moderates. But to the "liberal" mentality, this dilemma is easily solved. +When facts get in the way, ignore them. + +(4.) Miscellaneous groups. Within this category are the followers of the +exiled Bauni Sauder (remember him?), the Suuni Muslims, and those who are +merely politically ambitious, such as Parliamentary Speaker Ali-Akbar +Rafsanjani and his adherents. + +If it is true, as the media and George Shultz would have us believe, that +"there is no one within Iran worth courting," then who in the name of Allah +made the decision to send the original hostages home to America, on the very +day Ronald Reagan was being sworn into office in 1981? Obviously somebody, +including the old Ayatollah himself, felt that with friends like Carter; you +don't need enemies, but that with Reagan, maybe, just maybe, it might help to +have access to the "Great Satan" in Washington D.C. + +Finally, on the Iranian aspect of the whole charade, you have Adnan Khashoggi, +Saudi mega-bucker, joining forces with Manucher Ghorbanifar, and Iranian deal +doer, and agreeing to face the cameras in an exclusive interview with Barbara +Wawa. So off she flew to Monte Carlo, where she was informed, in no uncertain +terms, that the media had really messed up. "Had you stayed out of it," they +said in so many words, "more hostages would have been released, Iranian access +would have continued, and Communist elements inside Iran would have been +outflanked." And I'm sure they were right. + +As Pat Buchanan hammered home (to the delightful consternation of the press), +if the Iranian initiative was designed to sell arms to Iran, use the markup of +said arms to help anti-Communists in Nicaragua, and do it all without costing +the American taxpayers one cent, then God bless Ollie North! + +But--and here's the biggie--none of this contrived controversy has anything to +do with selling arms to Iran. The arms shipments, regardless of beneficiary, +served only as a smokescreen, blocking our view of the real purpose of this +exercise. Remember the bottom line conclusion I presented on page one? The +real war is the one being fought inside the beltway surrounding Washington D.C. + +THE REAL OBJECTIVE + +As I pointed out at the beginning of this article, George Shultz and his +minions at State have been looking for a way to put an end, once and for all, +to anti-Communist activity emanating from the White House. Also, they have as +their objective final consolidation of all U.S. foreign policy in their grasp, +just as it was in the halcyon days of yore, when Henry Kissinger held both +posts, Secretary of State and National Security Adviser. + +Here's how the game was plotted. The Insiders who set it up waited until the +November election results were in. They waited until they knew that every key +committee, both in the House and the Senate, would be in friendly hands. They +waited right up to the moment when it looked as though the rest of the +hostages' plight were at an all-time high. As any good bridge player knows, +knowing when to play your cards is as important as what cards you were dealt. +And these folks are pros. + +The opening gambit appeared in the pages of an insignificant newspaper +published in Lebanon and written in Arabic. Al Shiraa, an obscure pro-Syrian +weekly, dropped the first trump card to hit the table, when it revealed details +of McFarlane's secret trip to Iran. Now, who do you suppose monitors weekly +newspapers written in Arabic? Well, let me give you a hint: it isn't the +overpaid, over-drinking, Pulitzer-pursuing pundits of the New York Times and +the Washington Post. No way. Nor is it Sam Donaldson, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, +or the rest of the blow-dried, sweater-wearing, talking heads on network TV. +The only people who indulge in that obscure and tedious function are the +heavy-lensed and nameless minions at the State Department. + +So how do you suppose that juicy little tidbit about Robert McFarlane made it's +way from the blasted-out back alleys of Lebanon to the front pages of the New +York Times and the Washington Post? As Professor Henry Higgins would have +said, "By jove, I think you've got it." + +So now comes the media blitz--the pointing with pride, the viewing with +alarm...asking about the who, what, when, and where. Speculation was flying +thick and fast. "Shultz didn't know." "What didn't he know?" "Donald Regan +knows." "What does he know?" "Poindexter is responsible." "Responsible for +what?" The real culprit is Ollie North." "Who the blazes is Ollie North?" + +Blood was starting to appear in the water, and the sharks went into a feeding +frenzy. Nobody knew just yet bliid it was, but that wasn't important. It was +seeping out of the White House, and for the liberal media establishment that +was all they needed to know. + +STOKING THE FIRES + +On November 24, Undersecretary of State, John C. Whitehead, strolled into a +State Department hearing room and proceeded to place the State Department in +official opposition to the President and his White House operation. Who is +John C. Whitehead? You'd better get to know him, for unless things change +drastically, he is going to have a lot to say about how foreign policy is +conducted on your behalf. + +John Whitehead went straight from Harvard, where he received his MBA, to the +financial behemoth, Goldman, Sachs, and Co. By 1955, he was a partner at this +key Insider institution. And let me tell you, there are few positions in the +would of international mega-banking more powerful than senior partner at +Goldman, Sachs. + +Then quietly and without fanfare, in the interest of serving a "higher order," +Mr. Whitehead left his esteemed position on Wall Street and moved to +Washington, to become the number two man at State. + +It's important you understand what all of this means. Here's a man who has +spent his entire professional life on Wall Street, now in the second-most +important position in the U.S. foreign policy establishment. What experience +does he have in statecraft? Just who is he, to take on his own President? +Well, gentlefolk, the answer is simple: John C. Whitehead is one of "the +boys". Did I mention that during his Wall Street years, he also became a +prominent fixture at the Council on Foreign Relations and a trustee for the +Carnegie Corporation? (You remember the Carnegie Corporation; that is where +Alger Hiss hung his hat when he left the State Department in 1946.) + +You may never have heard of John C. Whitehead before "Irangate" was +orchestrated for our entertainment. But believe me, among the folks at the CFR +who have been running your country for the past fifty years, he is well known +indeed. In the inner sanctums of the New World Order crowd, his credentials +are impeccable. + +THE PURGE BEGINS + +But back to the coup d'etat. The very next day, November 25, with the lessor +lights of the press speculating that surely the next act will be George +Shultz's resignation, now that the State Department had "distanced" itself from +the President's policy, a very important and very private meeting was held. +Only two men were present: Secretary of State George Shultz and President +Ronald Reagan. The off-the-record meeting took place in the morning. + +Then, just an hour or two later (about noon, Eastern Standard Time), Mr.Reagan +called a news conference to announce the resignation of Admiral John Poindexter +as National Security Adviser and the sacking of his aide, Lt. Col. Oliver +North. The President refused to answer questions and turned the microphones +over to Attorney General Edwin Meese. + +Finally, one week later, on December 2 came the coup d'grace of this coup +d'etat. President Reagan again took to the microphones of the White House +briefing room, to reveal that the new Presidential adviser for national +security affairs would be one Frank C. Carlucci. + +As I watched Ronald Reagan make this announcement, I knew that my worst fears +had been realized. Not only was Shultz not going to resign; but he had +consolidated full working control over all aspects of U.S. foreign policy. + +Just in case there was any doubt about this, confirmation came immediately +after the news conference ended. During the postmortem, the CBS morning +anchor, Morton Dean, cut to his State Department reporter and asked, "How is +this appointment being viewed over there?" The answer was immediate and +unmistakable: "State Department officials are overjoyed with Carlucci's +appointment. They see him as one of their own." + +MORE ON FRANK CARLUCCI + +As to Carlucci's curriculum vitae, I shall try to be brief. Princeton '52, +Harvard '56. Joined the State Department in 1956, right from Harvard. Served +in various African stations, including Johannesburg, until 1971, when, presto +chango, he metamorphosized into an economic expert and became associate +director of the Office of Management and Budget. In case you have forgotten, +the sitting President was Richard Nixon, and Carlucci's immediate boss, the +Director of OMB, was none other than George Shultz. + +But Mr. Carlucci's first love was in foreign affairs, so in 1975, under Gerry +Ford, and until 1978, under Jimmy Carter, Frank Carlucci was U.S. Ambassador +to Portugal. Seems harmless enough, doesn't it--until you remember that +1975-1978 were the critical years in the post-Salazar era of Portuguese policy. +Under Gen. Salazar and his successors, Portugal had been combating the +Communist-supported revolutionaries in Angola and Mozambique. It was during +Carlucci's tenure as Ambassador to Portugal that the U.S. State Department, +first under Kissinger (during Ford's presidency) and later under Muskie (with +Carter as president), supported "independence" for Portugal's former +possessions. Of course, what this really meant was that Marxist-Leninist +cut-throats soon controlled both strategic former colonies flanking South +Africa. + +Next, the multi-talented Carlucci took up his new assignment in the Carter +Administration as Deputy Director of the CIA. (That's right. Ronald Reagan's +new National Security Adviser was Jimmy Carter's number 2 man at the CIA. I +hope this isn't making you as sick to read as it is for me to write.) In 1982, +Frank Carlucci ventured forth to make his fortune as president of Sear's World +Trade, Inc., but like all CFR members, when duty calls, back to government you +go. I can almost hear his former and about-to-be new boss, George Shultz, +saying, "Frank, have I got a job for you." + +So there you have it. The coup is complete, and the mop-up operation is +underway. How are things going to be run now? Let me quote it straight from +the horse's mouth. Here is how New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis +described the new realities. In his syndicated column of December 5, Lewis +said of the President: "His leadership would have to be of a different kind, +collaborative, not royal. Centrist, not driven by ideological obsession." +Understand that by "ideological obsession" Lewis means anti-Communist +activities, and you'll understand what he is signaling. + +Continuing, Lewis says "...he appointed a respected professional, Frank +Carlucci, as his National Security Adviser. One wonders who helped bring the +President back from the brink?" C'mon Anthony, spend $95 for a subscription to +Insider Report, and you'll know whodunit. Oh, I forgot; you'er a reporter for +the New York Times, you've won the pulitzer prize, you already know. + +Further on in his column, Lewis indicates that just appointing Carlucci ins't +enough. Or as he puts it, "other professional changes cannot be avoided if the +President hopes to work with Congress." Then Lewis concludes by delivering the +following unmistakable warning: "The collaboration with Congress depends on +the substance of policy as well as respect for those who carry it out. There +can be no collaboration if the President insists on ideological crusades." + +Lewis doesn't care what the boobs in Biloxi make of this column. He knows it +will be understood where it really counts--in the power centers of Washington +and the financial centers of New York. There will be no collaboration with the +new Congress unless the President toes the mark and does exactly as he is told, +especially as regards to U.S. foreign policy. + +As I write this, the other fatalities in this coup d'etat are starting to come +thick and fast. The anti-Communist, highly respected and brilliant Ambassador +to Costa Rica, Lewis Tambs, has resigned his post. Now, Ambassador Faith Ryan +Wittlesey, a devout anit-Communist and great patriot, is under fire because she +too is a friend of Ollie North. And you can be certain that the carnage will +continue. + +But it doesn't have to be this way! + + +LET'S TAKE THE OFFENSIVE + +Let me turn from this solemn and somber review, and present instead a positive +plan that would strike a devastating blow against our would-be masters, and +serve the cause of freedom very, very well. + +Let me offer our own game plan, which of put into effect immediately could +wrestle the offensive out of the hands of George Shultz and his media +collaborators. Admittedly, what I'm about to propose is audacious. But we +live in a time when only bold measures can capture the imagination of a nation +whose people are mesmerized by television and who grow easily bored by anything +which can't be presented in predigested bites. + +Let's use this whole sordid mess to demand something that is long, long +overdue--namely, investigate the State Department! Here is how we can take the +offensive on this one: + +(1.) Ollie North would choose a sitting committee of the Senate, disregard the +advice of his lawyers to invoke the Fifth Amendment, and tell the whole truth +of what he and his fellow anti-Communists were doing. I suggest that this +committee be the one chaired by Sen. Jeremiah Denton. + +But make no mistakes about it. If Ollie North announced that he had dismissed +his lawyers and was prepared to appear before this committee, each and every +member would come scurrying back to Washington as though his life depended on +it. Furthermore, Ollie could pick the time--say 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, +or what the media pros call "prime time". Every network, regardless of +scheduled programming, would be there, cameras fixed, klieg lights on, +breathlessly waiting for every word. It would be a media event unlike anything +our side has had before or may ever have again. + +In a prepared statement, Lt. Col. Oliver North, in full uniform and armed +with the truth, would tell the American public just why it was he had to do +what he had done. The President wouldn't, and didn't, trust his own State +Department to implement the Reagan Doctrine of rolling back Communism. "If the +president can't trust his State Department," Ollie could conclude by saying, +"why should we?" Therefore, I call on my fellow citizens to demand, and the +members of Congress to form, a special committee to launch a full-scale review +and investigation of State Department Policy and the actions this policy +fostered." + +What would happen? Why, the left would go absolutely crazy! The media would +scream "Mccarthyism." In short, all hell would break loose. But isn't it time +as Shakespeare said in Julius Caesar, to "cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of +war." For indeed we are at war. A contemporary of the great bard, Sir John +Harrington, said in a brilliant epigram: "Treason doth never prosper, what's +the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." It is high time to +call treason by its proper name. + +(2.) The next day, with conservatives across America taking the lead, we swamp +the Senators and Congressmen with telephone calls, telegrams, and letters, +demanding an investigation as called for by Ollie North. Pat Robertson, Jerry +Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Marlin Maddoux, and other right-thinking Americans +would take to the airwaves with the cry, "Investigate the State Department!" +There are TV and radio evangelists and conservative talk-show hosts in every +part of this country who would rally to this effort. It's time we employed +those assets. + +(3.) Then, to make sure that a liberal whitewash wasn't engineered under the +new Congress, Pat Buchanan (now the only man in the Executive Branch we can +truly trust) would resign his position as White House Director of +Communications and offer the chair to an independent panel of distinguished +citizens and honest scholars, to prepare and present to the President their own +findings on U.S. foreign policy and its failures. + +The cover-up crowd have had their own special commissions on everything from +Pearl Harbor and the JFK assassination to the failure of the shuttle launch. +It's time honest and patriotic Americans had a commission that would ask the +right questions and look in the right closets. + +(4.) Finally, all across America, from state houses to Rotary clubs, from +classrooms to boardrooms, petitions would be prepared and circulated, demanding +"Investigate the State Department!" What if the names were computerized, and +every person who signed was sent a copy of the commission report, detailing the +treasonous duplicity carried out by the CFR/State Department cabal? + +Could this plan work? Of course it could. Would it change things? Without a +doubt. Will it happen? Frankly, the answer to that question depends totally +on the response of the key players: Ollie North, Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, +and so on. They must ask themselves, as President Reagan himself said so +effectively, "If not us, who? If not now, when?" + +And as for the President, let's face facts. He has become a captive of forces +around him that he does not even understand. This is a battle that must be +fought without him...or even in spite of him. + +At another time in our history, when the future of the country hung in the +balance, a man rose to implore his fellow citizens to action. The date was +March 23, 1775. The place, Richmond, Virginia. The man, Patrick Henry. Hear +him now: "We are not weak if we make proper use of those means which the God +of nature has placed in our power...the battle, sir, is not to the strong +alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave...it is vain, sir, to +extenuate the matter. The gentlemen may cry, peace, peace,'but there is no +peace. The war has actually begun." + +We've been at war for years. You know it, and I know it. Now we have the +chance to make sure the American people know it, too--and to learn why so many +of our "leaders" keep shooting the good guys in the back! + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cpsr-ber b/textfiles.com/politics/cpsr-ber new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dbeddf68 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cpsr-ber @@ -0,0 +1,830 @@ +A COMPUTER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES PLATFORM + +Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility +Berkeley Chapter +Peace and Justice Working Group + +***************************************************************** + +INTRODUCTION + +As computer and information technologies become all pervasive, they +touch more and more on the lives of everyone. Even so, their +development and deployment remains unruly, undemocratic and +unconcerned with the basic needs of humanity. Over the past 20 years, +new technologies have dramatically enhanced our ability to collect and +share information, to improve the quality of work, and to solve +pressing problems like hunger, homelessness and disease. Yet over the +same period we have witnessed a growing set of problems which are +eroding the quality of life in our country. We have seen the virtual +collapse of our public education system. Privacy has evaporated. +Workplace monitoring has increased in parallel with the de-skilling or +outright disappearance of work. Homelessness has reached new heights. +Dangerous chemicals poison our environment. And our health is +threatened by the growing pandemic of AIDS along with the resurgence +of 19th century diseases like cholera and tuberculosis. + +As a society, we possess the technical know-how to resolve +homelessness, illiteracy, the absence of privacy, the skewed +distribution of information and knowledge, the lack of health care, +environmental damage, and poverty. These problems persist only because +of the way we prioritize research and development, implement +technologies, and distribute our social wealth. Determining social +priorities for research, development, implementation and distribution +is a political problem. + +Political problems require political solutions. These are, of course, +everyone's responsibility. As human beings, we have tried to examine +these problems, and consider possible solutions. As people who design, +create, study, and use computer and information technologies, we have +taken the initiative to develop a political platform for these +technologies. This platform describes a plausible, possible program +for research, development, and implementation of computer and +information technologies that will move towards resolving our most +pressing social needs. This document also unites many groups and +voices behind a common call for change in the emphasis and application +of these technologies. + +This platform addresses Computer and Information Technologies, because +we work with those technologies, and we are most familiar with the +issues and concerns related to those technologies. We do not address +other key technologies like bioengineering or materials science, +although some issues, for example, intellectual property rights or +research priorities, apply equally well to those areas. We would like +to see people familiar with those fields develop platforms as well. + +Finally, we do not expect that this platform will ever be "finished." +The rate of scientific and technical development continues to +accelerate, and new issues will certainly emerge. Likewise, our +understanding of the issues outlined here will evolve and deepen. Your +comments are necessary for this document to be a relevant and useful +effort. + +We encourage candidates, organizations and individuals to adopt the +provisions in this platform, and to take concrete steps towards making +them a reality. + +Peace and Justice Working Group Computer Professionals for Social +Responsibility, Berkeley Chapter + +August, 1992 + +***************************************************************** + +PLATFORM GOALS + +The goals of this platform are: + +* To promote the use of Computer and Information Technologies to +improve the quality of human life and maximize human potential. + +* To provide broad and equal access to Computers and Information +Technology tools. + +* To raise consciousness about the effects of Computer and +Information Technologies among the community of people who create and +implement these technologies. + +* To educate the general public about the effects Computers +and Information Technologies have on them. + +* To focus public attention on the political agenda that determines +what gets researched, funded, developed and distributed in Computer +and Information Technologies. + +* To democratize (that is, enhance the public participation in) the +process by which Computer and Information Technologies do or do not +get researched, funded, developed and distributed. + + +***************************************************************** + +PLATFORM SUMMARY + +A. ACCESS TO INFORMATION and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES + + 1. Universal access to education + 2. Elimination of barriers to access to public information + 3. An open National Data Traffic System + 4. Expansion of the public library system + 5. Expansion of public information treasury + 6. Freedom of access to government data + 7. Preservation of public information as a resource + 8. Restoration of information as public property + +B. CIVIL LIBERTIES and PRIVACY + + 1. Education on civil liberties, privacy, and the implications + of new technologies + 2. Preservation of constitutional civil liberties + 3. Right to privacy and the technology to ensure it + 4. Community control of police and their technology + + +C. WORK, HEALTH and SAFETY + + 1. Guaranteed income for displaced workers + 2. Improved quality of work through worker control of it + 3. Emphasis on health and safety + 4. Equal opportunity to work + 5. Protection for the homeworker + 6. Retraining for new technologies + + +D. THE ENVIRONMENT + + 1. Environmentally safe manufacturing + 2. Planning for disposal or re-use of new products + 3. Reclamation of the cultural environment as public space + + +E. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION + + 1. Replacement of "national competitiveness" with "global + cooperation" + 2. Global distribution of technical wealth + 3. An end to the waste of technical resources embodied in the + international arms trade + 4. A new international information order + 5. Equitable international division of labor + + +F. RESPONSIBLE USE OF COMPUTERS and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES + + 1. New emphasis in technical research priorities + 2. Conversion to a peacetime economy + 3. Socially responsible engineering and science + +***************************************************************** +THE PLATFORM +***************************************************************** + +A. ACCESS TO INFORMATION and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES + +The body of human knowledge is a social treasure collectively +assembled through history. It belongs to no one person, company, or +country. As a public treasure everyone must be guaranteed access to +its riches. We must move beyond the division between information +"consumer" and "provider" -- new information technologies enable each +of us to contribute to the social treasury as well. An active +democracy requires a well-informed citizenry with equal access to any +tools that facilitate democratic decision-making. This platform calls +for: + +1. UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO EDUCATION: "23 Million adult Americans cannot +read above fifth-grade level."[1] We reaffirm that quality education +is a basic human right. We call for full funding for education through +the university level to insure that everyone obtains the education +they need to participate in and contribute to the "Information Age." +Education must remain a public resource. Training and retraining to +keep skills current with technology, and ease transition from old +technologies to new technologies must be readily available. All people +must have sufficient access to technology to ensure that there is no +"information elite" in this society. Computers should be seen as tools +to accomplish tasks, not ends in themselves. The public education +system must provide students with access to computers, as well as the +critical and analytical tools necessary to understand, evaluate and +use new technologies. Staffed and funded computer learning centers +should be set up in low-income urban and rural areas to provide such +access and education to adults as well as children. Teachers require +an understanding of the technology to use it effectively, and to +communicate its benefits and limitations to students. These skills +must be an integral part of the teacher training curriculum, and must +also be available for teachers to continue to upgrade their skills as +new tools become available. Finally, to learn, children need a +nurturing environment, including a home, an adequate diet, and quality +health care. Pitting "welfare" versus "education" is a vicious +prescription for social failure. We call for adequate social services +to ensure that our children have the environment in which they can +benefit from their education. + +2. ELIMINATION OF BARRIERS TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: +Democracy requires an informed public, with generous access to +information. However, access to information increasingly requires +tools such as a computer and a modem, while only 13% of Americans own +a personal computer, and of them, only 10% own a modem.[2] In +addition, requiring fees to access databases locks out those without +money. We must assure access to needed technology via methods such as +a subsidized equipment program that can make basic computer and +information technologies available to all. We call for the +nationalization of research and public information databases, with +access fees kept to a minimum to ensure access to the data. In many +cases, the technology itself is a barrier to use of new technologies. +We strongly encourage the research and development of non-proprietary +interfaces and standards that simplify the use of new technology. + +3. AN OPEN NATIONAL DATA TRAFFIC SYSTEM: An Information Society +generates and uses massive amounts of information. It requires an +infrastructure capable of handling that information. It also +determines how we communicate with each other, how we disseminate our +ideas, and how we learn from each other. The character of this system +will have profound effects on everyone. The openness and accessibility +of this network will determine the breadth and depth of the community +we can create. + +We call for a "National Data Traffic System" that can accommodate all +traffic, not just corporate and large academic institution traffic, so +that everyone has access to public information, and has the ability to +add to the public information. This traffic system must be accessible +to all. The traffic system will include a "highway" component, major +information arteries connecting the country. We propose that the +highway adopt a model similar to the federal highway system -- that +is, a system built by and maintained publicly, as opposed to the +"railroad" model, where the government subsidizes private corporations +to build, maintain and control the system. The "highway model" will +guarantee that the system serves the public interest. At the local +level, the existing telephone and cable television systems can provide +the "feeder roads", the "streets" and the "alleys" and the "dirt +roads" of the data network through the adoption of an Integrated +Services Digital Network (ISDN) system, along the lines proposed by +the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The features proposed by EFF +include affordable, ubiquitous ISDN; breaking the private monopoly +control of the existing communication networks; short of public +takeover of the networks, affirmation of "common carrier" principles; +ease of use; a guarantee of personal privacy; and a guarantee of +equitable access to communications media.[3] + +4. EXPANSION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM: The public library system +represents a public commitment to equal access to information, +supported by community resources. Yet libraries, in the era of +Computer and Information Technologies, are having their funding cut. +We call for adequate funding of public libraries and an extension of +the library system into neighborhoods. Librarians are the trained +facilitators of information access. As such, librarians have a unique, +strategic role to play in the "information society." We call for an +expansion of library training programs, for an increase in the number +of librarians, and for additional training for librarians so that they +can maximize the use of new information-retrieval technology by the +general public. Every public library must have, and provide to their +clientele, access to the national data highway. + +5. EXPANSION OF THE PUBLIC INFORMATION TREASURY: A market economy +encourages the production of those commodities that the largest market +wants. As information becomes a commodity, information that serves a +small or specialized audience is in danger of not being collected, and +not being available. For example, the president of commercial database +vendor Dialog was quoted in 1986 as saying "We can't afford an +investment in databases that are not going to earn their keep and pay +back their development costs." When asked what areas were not paying +their development costs, he answered, "Humanities."[4] Information +collection should pro-actively meet broad social goals of equality and +democracy. We must ensure that the widest possible kinds of social +information are collected (not just those that have a ready and +substantial market), while ensuring that the privacy of the individual +is protected. + +6. FREEDOM OF ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT DATA: Public records and economic +data are public resources. We must ensure that the principles of +"Freedom of Information" laws remain in place. Government agencies +must comply with these laws, and should be punished for +non-compliance. Government records that are kept in a digital format +must be available electronically to the general public, provided that +adequate guarantees are in place to protect the individual. + +7. PROTECTION OF PUBLIC INFORMATION RESOURCES: Recently, we have seen +a dangerous trend in which the Federal government sells off or +licenses away rights to information collected at public expense, which +is then sold back to the public at a profit. Access to public data now +often requires paying an information-broker look-up fees.[5] Public +resources must be public. We call for a halt to the privatization of +public data. + +8. RESTORATION OF INFORMATION AS PUBLIC PROPERTY: "Since new +information technology includes easy ways of reproducing information, +the existence of these [intellectual property] laws effectively +curtails the widest possible spread of this new form of wealth. Unlike +material objects, information can be shared widely without running +out."[6] The constitutional rationale for intellectual property rights +is to promote progress and creativity. The current mechanisms -- the +patent system and the copyright system -- are not required to ensure +progress. Other models exist for organizing and rewarding intellectual +work, that do not require proprietary title to the results. For +example, substantial and important research has been carried out by +government institutions and state-supported university research. A +rich library of public domain and "freeware" software exists. Peer or +public recognition, awards, altruism, the urge to create or +self-satisfaction in technical achievement are equally motivators for +creative activity. + +Authors and inventors must be supported and rewarded for their work, +but the copyright and patent system per se does not ensure that. Most +patents, for example, are granted to corporations or to employees who +have had to sign agreements to turn the ownership over to the employer +through work-for-hire or other employment contracts as a condition of +employment. The company, not the creating team, owns the patent. In +addition, in many ways, patents and copyrights inhibit the development +and implementation of new technology. For example, proprietary +research is not shared, but is kept secret and needlessly duplicated +by competing companies or countries. Companies sue each other over +ownership of interfaces, with the consumer ultimately footing the +bill. Software developers must "code around" proprietary algorithms, +so as not to violate known patents; and they still run the risk of +violating patents they don't know about. We call for a moratorium on +software patents. We call for the abolition of property rights in +knowledge, including algorithms and designs. We call for social +funding of research and development, and the implementation of new +systems, such as public competitions, to spur development of socially +needed technology. + +B. CIVIL LIBERTIES and PRIVACY + +Advances in Computer and Information Technologies have facilitated +communications and the accumulation, storage and processing of data. +These same advances may be used to enlighten, empower and equalize but +also to monitor, invade and control. Alarmingly, we witness more +instances of the latter rather than of the former. This platform +calls for: + +1. EDUCATION ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, PRIVACY, AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF NEW +TECHNOLOGIES: New technologies raise new opportunities and new +challenges to existing civil liberties. In the absence of +understanding and information about these technologies, dangerous +policies can take root. For example, police agencies and the news +media have portrayed certain computer users (often called "hackers") +as "pirates" out to damage and infect all networks. While some +computer crime of this sort does take place, such a demonization of +computer users overlooks actual practice and statistics. This +perception has led to an atmosphere of hysteria, opening the door to +fundamental challenges to civil liberties. Homes have been raided, +property has been confiscated, businesses have been shut down, all +without due process. Technology skills have taken on the quality of +"forbidden knowledge", where the possession of certain kinds of +information is considered a crime. In the case of "hackers", this is +largely due to a lack of understanding of the actual threat that +"hackers" pose. We must ensure that legislators, law-enforcement +agencies, the news media, and the general public understand Computer +and Information Technologies instead of striking out blindly at any +perceived threat. We must also ensure that policy caters to the +general public and not just corporate and government security +concerns. + +2. PRESERVATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL CIVIL LIBERTIES: The U.S. +Constitution provides an admirable model for guaranteeing rights and +protections essential for a democratic society in the 18th century. +Although the new worlds opened up by Computer and Information +Technologies may require new interpretations and legislations, the +freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights must continue no matter what +the technological method or medium. Steps must be taken to ensure that +the guarantees of the Constitution and its amendments are extended to +encompass the new technologies. For example, electronic transmission +or computer communications must be considered as a form of speech; and +information distributed on networked computers or other electronic +forms must be considered a form of publishing (thereby covered by +freedom of the press). The owner or operator of a computer or +electronic or telecommunications facility should be held harmless for +the content of information distributed by users of that facility, +except as the owner or operator may, by contract, control information +content. Those who author statements and those who have contractual +authority to control content shall be the parties singularly +responsible for such content. Freedom of assembly should be +automatically extended to computer-based electronic conferencing. +Search and seizure protections should be fully applicable to +electronic mail, computerized information and personal computer +systems. + +3. RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND THE TECHNOLOGY TO ENSURE IT: Because Computer +and Information Technologies make data collection, processing and +manipulation easier, guaranteeing citizen privacy rights becomes +problematic. Computer and Information Technology make the job of those +who use data en-masse -- marketing firms, police, private data +collection firms -- easier. We need to develop policies that control +what, where, whom and for what reasons data is collected on an +individual. Institutions that collect data on individuals must be +responsible for the accuracy of the data they keep and must state how +the information they obtain will be used and to whom it will be made +available. Furthermore, we must establish penalties for +non-compliance with these provisions. Systems should be in place to +make it easy for individuals to know who has information about them, +and what that information is. + +We must ensure that there is no implementation of any technological +means of tracking individuals in this country through their everyday +interactions. Technology exists that can ensure that electronic +transactions are not used to track individuals. Encrypted digital +keys, for example, provide the technical means to achieve anonymity in +electronic transactions while avoiding a universal identifier. Where +government financial assistance is now provided electronically, we +must ensure that these mechanisms help empower the recipient, and do +not become sophisticated means of tracking and policing behavior +(e.g., by tracking what is bought, when it is bought, where it is +bought, etc.). + +The technology to effectively ensure private communications is +currently available. The adoption of a state-of-the-art standard has +been held up while the government pushes for mandatory "back-doors" so +that it can monitor communication. (Computer technology is treated +differently here; for example, we do not legislate how complex a lock +can be.) We must ensure that personal communication remains private by +adopting an effective, readily available, de-militarized encryption +standard. + +4. COMMUNITY CONTROL OF POLICE AND THEIR TECHNOLOGY: New technologies +have expanded the ability of police departments to maintain control +over communities. The Los Angeles Police Department is perhaps an +extreme example: they have compiled massive databases on +African-American and Latino youth through "anti-gang" mass +detainments. These databases are augmented by FBI video and photo +analysis techniques. "But the real threat of these massive new +databases and information technologies is... their application on a +macro scale in the management of a criminalized population."[7] With +new satellite navigational technology, "we shall soon see police +departments with the technology to put the equivalent of an electronic +bracelet on entire social groups."[8] We call for rigorous community +control of police departments to protect the civil liberties of all +residents. + +C. WORK, HEALTH and SAFETY + +Computer and Information Technologies are having a dramatic effect on +work. New technologies are forcing a reorganization of work. The +changes affect millions of workers, and are of the same level and +magnitude as the Industrial Revolution 150 years ago. The effects have +been disastrous -- the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, a fall +in wages over the past 15 years, the lengthening of the work week for +those who do have jobs, a rise in poverty and homelessness. Employed +Americans now work more hours each week that at any time since 1966, +while at this writing 9.5 million workers in the "official" workforce +are unemployed, and millions more have given up hope of ever finding +work.[9] Too often, products and profitability are given priority over +the needs and health of the workers who produce both. For example, +research is done on such matters as how humans contaminate the clean +room process,[10] not on how the chemicals used in chip manufacturing +poison the handlers. Or new technologies are implemented before +adequate research is carried out on how they will affect the worker. +This misplaced emphasis is wrong. This platform calls for: + +1. GUARANTEED INCOME FOR DISPLACED WORKERS: New technologies mean an +end to scarcity. Producing goods to meet our needs is a conscious +human activity. Such production has been and is currently organized +with specific goals in mind, namely the generation of the greatest +possible profit for those who own the means of production. We can +re-organize production. + +With production for private profit, corporations have implemented +robotics and computer systems to cut labor costs, primarily through +the elimination of jobs. Over the last ten years alone, one million +manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the U.S. Workers at the jobs +that remain are pressured to take wage and benefits cuts, to "compete" +in the global labor market made possible by digital telecommunications +and modern manufacturing techniques. Most new jobs have been created +in the low-pay service sector. As a result, earnings for most workers +have been falling.[11] The corporate transfer of jobs to low-wage +areas, including overseas, affects not only low-skill assembly line +work or data entry, but also computer programming and data analysis. + +Wages and benefits must be preserved in the face of automation or +capital flight. Remaining work can be spread about by shortening the +work week while maintaining the weekly wage rate. At the same time, +steps must be taken to acknowledge that the nature of work is +changing. In the face of the new technologies' ever-increasing +productivity utilizing fewer and fewer workers, the distribution of +necessities can no longer be tied to work. We must provide for workers +who have lost their jobs due to automation or job flight, even if no +work is available, by guaranteeing a livable income and retraining +opportunities (see #6 below). + +2. IMPROVED QUALITY OF WORK THROUGH WORKER CONTROL OF IT: Millions +work boring, undignified jobs as a direct result of computer and +information technology. Work is often degraded due to de-skilling, +made possible by robotics and crude artificial intelligence +technology; or by job-monitoring, made simple by digital technology. +(Two-thirds of all workers are monitored as they work.[12]) Workers +face greater difficulties in organizing to protect their rights. +Technologies are often foisted on the workers, ignoring the obvious +contributions the workers can make to the design process. The +resulting designs further deprive the worker of control over the work +process. In principle, tools should serve the workers, rather than the +workers serving the tools. + +But new technologies could relieve humans of boring or dangerous work. +Technology enables us to expand the scope of human activity. We could +create the possibility of "work" becoming leisure. We call for the +removal of all barriers to labor organizing as the first step toward +giving workers the power to improve the quality of their work. Workers +must be protected from intrusive monitoring and the stress that +accompanies it. We must ensure worker involvement in the design +process. We must also improve the design of user interfaces so that +users can make full use of the power of the technology. + +Furthermore, it is not enough just to "participate" in the design +process -- worker involvement must correspond with increased control +over the work process, goals, etc. In other words, we must ensure that +there is "no participation without power." Computer and Information +Technologies facilitate peer-to-peer work relationships and the +organization of work in new and challenging ways. Too often, though, +in practice we see a tightening of control, with management taking +more and more direct control over details on the shop floor. We must +ensure that new technologies improve rather than degrade the nature of +work. + +3. EMPHASIS ON HEALTH AND SAFETY: Technologies are often developed +with little or no concern for their effect on the workers who +manufacture or use them. + +Electronics manufacturing uses many toxic chemicals. These chemicals +are known to cause health problems such as cancer, birth defects and +immune system disorders. Workers are entitled to a safe working +environment, and must have the right to refuse unsafe work without +fear of penalty. Workers have the right to know what chemicals and +processes they work with and what their effects are. We call for +increased research into developing safe manufacturing processes. We +call for increased research into the effects of existing manufacturing +processes on workers, and increased funding for occupational safety +and health regulation enforcement. + +The rate of repetitive motion disorders has risen with the +introduction of computers in the workplace -- they now account for +half of all occupational injuries, up from 18% in 1981.[13] +Musculo-skeletal disorders, eyestrain and stress are commonly +associated with computer use. There is still no conclusive study on +the harmful effects of VDT extremely low frequency (ELF) and very low +frequency (VLF) electromagnetic field emissions.[14] Together these +occupational health tragedies point to a failure by manufacturers, +employers and government to adequately research or implement policies +that protect workers. We call for funding of major studies on the +effects of computers in the workplace. We call for the immediate +adoption of ergonomic standards that protect the worker. We must +ensure that pro-active standards exist before new technologies are put +in place. Manufacturers and employers should pay now for research and +worker environment improvement rather than later, after the damage has +been done, in lawsuits and disability claims. We must ensure that +worker safety always comes first, not short-sighted, short-term +profits that blindly overlook future suffering, disabilities and +millions in medical bills. + +4. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO WORK: Computer and Information Technology +institutions are overwhelmingly dominated by white males. Programs +must be adopted to increase the direct participation of +under-represented groups in the Computer and Information Technology +industries. + +5. PROTECTION FOR THE HOMEWORKER: Computer and Information +Technologies have enabled new patterns of working. "Telecommuting" may +be preferred by many workers, it may expand opportunities for workers +who are homebound, and it would reduce the wastefulness of commuting. +At the same time, homework has traditionally increased the +exploitation of workers, deprived them of organizing opportunities, +and hidden them from the protection of health and safety regulations. +We must guarantee that crimes of the past do not reappear in an +electronic disguise. Computer and Information Technologies make +possible new forms of organization for work beyond homework, such as +neighborhood work centers: common spaces where people who work for +different enterprises can work from the same facility. Such +alternative structures should be supported. + +6. RETRAINING FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES: As new technologies develop, new +skills are required to utilize them. Workers are often expected to pay +for their own training and years of schooling at no cost to the +employer. Training workers in new skills must be a priority, the cost +of which must be shared by employers and the government, and not the +sole responsibility of the worker. + +D. THE ENVIRONMENT + +We share one planet. While our understanding of the environment +increases, and the impact of previous technologies and neglect become +more and more apparent, too little attention is paid to the effects of +new technologies, including Computer and Information Technologies, on +the environment, both physical and cultural. The creation of a global +sustainable economy must be a priority. This platform calls for: + +1. ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE MANUFACTURING: The manufacture of electronics +technology is among the most unhealthy and profoundly toxic human +enterprises ever undertaken.[15] The computer and information +technology industries must be cleaned up. Manufacturers cannot +continue their destruction of our environment for their profit. They +must be made to pay the actual cost of production, factoring in +environmental cleanup costs for manufacturing methods and products +that are environmentally unsafe. Priority must be placed on developing +and implementing new manufacturing techniques that are environmentally +safe, such as the "no-clean" systems which eliminate ozone-shredding +chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from the production of electronic circuit +boards.[16] We must ensure that these standards are adopted globally, +to prohibit unsafe technologies from migrating to other countries with +lax or non-existent environmental protection laws. No manufacturing +technique should be implemented unless it can be proven to be +environmentally safe. We must ensure industry's responsiveness to the +communities (and countries) in which they are located. Neighborhoods +and countries must participate in the planning process, and must be +informed of the environmental consequences of the industries that +surround them. They must have the right to shut down an enterprise or +require the enterprise to cleanup or change their manufacturing +processes. + +2. PLANNING FOR DISPOSAL OR RE-USE OF NEW PRODUCTS: As new +technologies become commodities with a finite life-cycle, new +questions loom as to what happens to them when they are discarded. +Little is known about what happens to these products when they hit the +landfill. We must ensure that manufacturers and designers include +recycling and/or disposal in the design and distribution of their +products. Manufacturers must be responsible for the disposal of +commodities once their usefulness is exhausted. Manufacturers must +make every effort to ensure longevity and re-use of equipment. For +example, product specifications might be made public after a specified +period of time so that future users could continue to find support for +their systems. Or manufacturers might be responsible for ensuring that +spare parts continue to be available after a product is no longer +manufactured. Manufacturers could sponsor reclamation projects to +strip discarded systems and utilize the components for training +projects or new products, or they could facilitate getting old +equipment to people who can use it. + +3. RECLAMATION OF THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT AS PUBLIC SPACE: We live +not only in a natural environment, but also in a cultural environment. +"The cultural environment is the system of stories and images that +cultivates much of who we are, what we think, what we do, and how we +conduct our affairs. Until recently, it was primarily hand-crafted, +home-made, community-inspired. It is that no longer."[17] Computers +and information technologies have facilitated a transformation so that +our culture is taken and then sold back to us via a media that is +dominated by a handful of corporations. At the same time, new +technologies promise new opportunities for creativity, and new +opportunities for reaching specific audiences. But both older (e.g., +book and newspaper publishing) and newer (e.g., cable television and +computer games) media throughout the world are controlled by the same +multi-national corporations. We advocate computer and information +technology that fights the commodification of culture and nurtures and +protects diversity. This is only possible with a rigorous public +support for production and distribution of culture. We must use new +technologies to ensure the diverse points of view that are necessary +for a healthy society. We must ensure a media that is responsive to +the needs of the entire population. We must ensure true debate on +issues of importance to our communities. We must ensure that our +multi-faceted creativity has access to an audience. And we must also +recognize that in many cultural instances computer and information +technology tools are intrusive and inappropriate.[18] + + +***************************************************************** + +E. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION + +Historically, information flow around the world has tended to be +one-way, and technology transfer from developed countries to +underdeveloped countries has been restricted. These policies have +reinforced the dependency of underdeveloped countries on the U.S., +Japan and Western Europe. As international competition for markets and +resources intensifies, "national competitiveness" has become a +negative driving consideration in technology policy. This platform +calls for: + +1. REPLACEMENT OF "NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS" WITH "GLOBAL +COOPERATION": The most popular rationale for investing in high +technology in the United States is "national competitiveness." This is +an inappropriate rhetoric around which to organize technology policy. +It ignores the fact that the largest economic enterprises in the world +today are international, not national. "National competitiveness" is +also inappropriate in a world of increasing and accelerating global +interdependence and a detailed division of labor that now routinely +takes in the entire planet's workforce. Finally, "national +competitiveness" is inappropriate in a world in which two-thirds of +the world's population lives in abject poverty and environmental +collapse -- the rhetoric of "national competitiveness" should be +replaced by a rhetoric of "global cooperative development." + +2. GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION OF TECHNICAL WEALTH: The global division of +labor is fostering a "brain drain" of scientists and engineers, +transferring badly-needed expertise from the developing world to the +industrialized world. Fully 40% of the engineering graduate students +in American universities are from foreign countries, typically from +countries with little or no advanced technological infrastructure. A +large majority of these graduate students stay in the U.S. when they +complete their studies. American immigration laws also favor +immigrants with advanced scientific or technical education. This +intensifies the disparity between the advanced countries and those +with widespread poverty. This concentration of technical expertise +reinforces a global hierarchy and dependence. Expertise on questions +of international import, such as global warming, toxic dumping, acid +rain, and protection of genetic diversity becomes the exclusive domain +of the developed countries. With so much of the world's scientific +and technical expertise located in the monoculture of the +industrialized world, the developing world has the disadvantage not +only of meager financial resources and dependence on foreign capital, +but the added disadvantage of living under the technical domination of +the rich countries. This platform calls for a conscious policy of +distributing scientific and technical talent around the world. For +example, incentives can be given to encourage emigration to countries +in need of technological talent. + +3. AN END TO THE WASTE OF TECHNICAL RESOURCES EMBODIED IN THE +INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRADE: The world currently spends about $1 trillion +annually on weapons. This is a massive transfer of wealth to +arms-producing countries, and especially the United States, the +world's largest arms exporting nation.[19] Weapons of interest to all +countries are increasingly high tech, so a continuing disproportion of +international investments in high technology will be in weapons +systems. Weapons sales not only increase international tensions and +the likelihood of war, but they also reinforce authoritarian regimes, +deter democratic reform, support the abuse of human rights, divert +critical resources from urgent problems of human and environmental +need, and continue the accelerating disparity between rich and poor +nations. We call for a complete and permanent dismantling of the +global arms market. + +4. A NEW INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION ORDER: The growing disparity +between "information rich" and "information poor" is by no means +limited to the U.S. Disparities within industrialized countries are +dwarfed by international disparities between the industrialized +countries and the developing world. A global telecommunications regime +has developed that favors the rich over the poor, and the gap is +growing steadily. As a simple example, rich countries are able to +deploy and use space-based technologies such as earth-surveillance +satellites and microwave telecommunications links to gather +intelligence and distribute information all over the globe. The +concentration of information power in single countries is even more +advanced when viewed internationally. We call for the placement of +international information collection and distribution under +international control. + +5. EQUITABLE INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOR: Improved communication +and coordination made possible by Computer and Information +Technologies has accelerated the development of a new global division +of labor where dirty manufacturing industries are moved to developing +countries, and "clean" knowledge industries are promoted in the +developed countries. This pattern of development ensures that +underdeveloped countries remain underdeveloped and turns them into +environmental wastelands. We must ensure a truly new world order that +equitably distributes work, and ends the destruction and enforced +underdevelopment of vast sections of the world's population. + +F. RESPONSIBLE USE OF COMPUTERS and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES + +Computer and Information Technologies were born of the military and to +this day are profoundly influenced by the military. People often talk +of the "trickle down" or "spin-off" effect, in which money spent on +military applications yields technology for general, non-military +applications. This makes little sense when the military pursues absurd +or irrelevant technology such as computer chips that will survive a +nuclear war. There are very few, if any, cases of military technology +producing tangible commercial breakthroughs. At the same time, various +studies have shown that money invested in non-military programs +creates more jobs than money invested in military hardware. Also, new +technologies are developed with little or no public discussion as to +their social consequences. Technologies are developed, and then their +developers go in search of problems for their technology to solve. +Pressing social needs are neglected, while elite debates about +technology focus on military applications or consumer devices like +high definition television (HDTV). Or pressing social problems are +approached as "technical" problems, fixable by new or better +technology. This platform calls for: + +1. NEW EMPHASIS IN TECHNICAL RESEARCH PRIORITIES: Current research +planning is either in private hands, or closely controlled by +government agencies. As a result, research priorities are often +shielded from public discussion or even knowledge. New technologies +are often developed as "tools looking for uses, means looking for +ends"[20] or to serve destructive rather than constructive goals. HDTV +and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) are examples. Substantial +university research on new technologies is still financed and +controlled by the Department of Defense. While military-based research +has occasionally led to inventions which were of general use, this +effect has been mostly coincidental, and the gap between the interests +of military research and the needs of society has widened to the point +that even such coincidental "public good" from military controlled +technology research now seems unlikely. These misguided research +priorities not only waste financial resources, but drain away the +intellectual resources of the scientific community from pressing +social problems where new technological research might be particularly +useful such as in the area of the environment. We must ensure that +Computer and Information Technology research is problem-driven and is +under the control of the people it will affect. We must ensure that +new technologies will not be harmful to humans or the environment. We +must ensure that human and social needs are given priority, as opposed +to support for military or police programs. We must ensure that +technical research is directed toward problems which have a realistic +chance of being solved technically rather than blindly seeking +technical solutions for problems which ought to be addressed by other +means. + +2. CONVERSION TO A PEACETIME ECONOMY: There is no justification for +the power the Pentagon holds over this country, particularly in light +of recent international developments. We must dismantle our dependency +on military programs. We must realign our budget priorities to focus +on social problems rather than on exaggerated military threats. The +released research and development monies should be redirected toward +solving pressing social and environmental problems. We must move +towards the goal of the elimination of the international market in +weapons. Job re-training in socially useful skills must become a +priority. + +3. SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE: "Proposed +technological projects should be closely examined to reveal the covert +political conditions and artifact/ideas their making would entail. It +is especially important for engineers and technical professionals +whose wonderful creativity is often accompanied by appalling +narrow-mindedness. The education of engineers ought to prepare them to +evaluate the kinds of political contexts, political ideas, political +arguments and political consequences involved in their work."[21] To +this list we can add developing an appreciation for the +interconnectedness of the environments -- the natural, social and +cultural -- we work in. We call for an increased emphasis on training +in social education in the engineering and science departments of our +schools and universities, public and private research laboratories and +manufacturing and development facilities in order to meet these goals. +Engineers must be exposed to the social impact of their work. This +could be done through work-study projects or special fellowships. We +need to also expand the body of people who "can do technology", that +is, not only "humanize the hacker", but "hackerize the humanist" or +"engineerize the worker." + +------------------------------ diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cpsr-pri b/textfiles.com/politics/cpsr-pri new file mode 100644 index 00000000..76c92f66 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cpsr-pri @@ -0,0 +1,394 @@ +Statement of Marc Rotenberg, +Washington Director +Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) + +Open Forum on Library and Information Service's Roles in the +National Research and Education Network (NREN) + +National Commission on Libraries and +Information Science (NCLIS) +Washington, DC +July 21, 1992 + + + Thank you for the opportunity to testify today before the +National Commission on Library and Information Science (NCLIS). My +name is Marc Rotenberg and I am the Director of the Washington +Office of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). +CPSR is a national organization of professionals in the computing +field. + + I would like to speak with you about privacy protection and the +future of the NREN. This is item 6 identified in the NREN research +agenda. Richard Civille will speak with you next about CPSR's work +to promote Local Civic Networks. + + During the past few years CPSR has coordinated several national +efforts to promote privacy protection for network communication. +>From cryptography to Caller ID, we have sought to ensure that the +rapid developments in the communications infrastructure do not +diminish the privacy we all value. We believe that the future of +network communications depends largely on the ability to make +certain that sufficient privacy protection is available for all +users of the network. + + In this effort we have worked closely with the library +community. It became clear to us that library organizations have a +special appreciation for the importance of privacy protection. For +many, privacy is the critical safeguard that protects intellectual +freedom and promotes the open exchange of information. The +American Library Association, the Association of Research and other +library organizations have all shown their support for privacy +protection through codes of conduct, policy statements, and research +conferences. + + We have also worked closely with telecommunication policy +makers in the United States and around the world. The New York +state Public Service Commission issued a policy on +telecommunication privacy which set out several principles for +network communications. These recommendations have been followed +in several states. More recently, the Minister of Communications +in Canada issued a series of principles on communications policy. +Meanwhile, the Commission of the European Communities has put +forward a draft directive on Data Protection in Telecommunications. + + The European Commission made a critical point about future +network development. It said that "the effective protection of +personal data and privacy is developing into an essential +precondition for social acceptance of new digital networks and +services." This view is shared by agencies in other countries that +have looked at the implications of advanced networking services. +For example, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Japan +recently concluded a study on the protection of personal data in the +telecommunications business and recommended a series of privacy +guidelines to accompany the introduction of new network services. + + In the United States, however, we find ourselves in the midst +of the greatest privacy debate in a generation. In the absence of +a coherent federal policy to protect privacy, consumers have been +left to fend for themselves, and the response is not encouraging. +>From Pennsylvania to California, telephone companies now face +widespread and well-founded consumer opposition to new telephone +services. Part of the reason for this is that there has been +little effort in the United States at the federal level to develop +privacy principles for new network services. + + CPSR would like to see an agency in the United States take on +the task of developing and promulgating privacy principles for +network services. We have already recommended the creation of a +data protection board which could, among other tasks, develop +appropriate principles for network communications. There is a +proposal before Congress to establish such an agency, but is +unclear whether it will be enacted this year. + + Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been +unwilling to address the privacy implications of new network +services. We are also somewhat disappointed that neither the +Computer Science and Technology Board (CSTB) of the National +Research Council or the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) has +addressed privacy concerns for network users. Both the CSTB and +the OTA are well qualified to tackle this problem. + + In the interim, NCLIS could take a leadership role, and help +develop and promulgate privacy principles for the emerging +communications infrastructure. It is clearly in the interest of +the library and information science community to ensure adequate +privacy protection, but unless some agency takes on this +responsibility it appears unlikely that the work will be +undertaken. + + CPSR believes that it is in the long-term interest of our +country and of computer users around the world to ensure protection +for networked communication. The failure to develop such policy +may impose very high costs on all network users, and may ultimately +reduce greatly the value of the network to users. + + Speaking academically, the absence of adequate protection for +electronic communication is a substantial gap in NREN policy that +should soon be addressed if the full potential of the +infrastructure is to be realized. Speaking practically, if we don't +get some good policy soon, we may all be buried in a blizzard of +electronic junkmail the likes of which we have never known. + + I would like now to make three points about the current state +of privacy protection for NREN, and then propose a series of +principles for privacy protection. These principles may help "get +the ball rolling" and encourage the development of other +initiatives. I hope that NCLIS will recommend that the Office of +Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) give these principles full +consideration. + +FINDING 1: + + Commercialization of the NREN will exacerbate existing privacy +problems. Without a clear mechanism to protect privacy, user +concerns will increase. + + Much of the discussion surrounding the NREN today focuses on +the opportunity to develop commercial services and to provide +network access for private carriers. We do not oppose efforts to +provide commercial services. Clearly, there is an important +opportunity to develop new services and to offer products through +the network. At the same time, it is apparent that the +commercialization of the NREN will create new pressures on privacy +protection. + + In the current network environment, made up primarily of +researchers and scientists, there is little incentive or +opportunity to gather personal data, to compile lists, or to sell +personal information. This is likely to change. Once commercial +transactions begin to take place on the net, the information +environment will resemble a hybrid of credit card and telephone +call transactions. Records of individual purchases will be +available and will possess commercial value. The NREN community +will face a whole new set of privacy issues. + + We anticipate that there will be three different types of +privacy problems as the NREN continues to evolve. First, as +commercial organizations become users of the network, they will +gather personal data, and wish to sell lists. The address files +for list servers could be sold, and users may find themselves +"subscribed" to lists they have no interest in. These activities +will raise traditional privacy concerns about the restrictions on +disclosure and secondary use, the opportunity for users to obtain +information held by others, and the need to minimize the collection +of personal information. + + Second, efforts to promote competitiveness in the delivery of +network services may also lead to the disclosure of network data +which will compromise user privacy. + + This problem is already apparent in the current rules for the +operation of the telephone network. The Federal Communication +Commission requires telephone companies to provide records of +customer phone calls to other companies so that competing companies +may analyze calling patterns and sell their services. Large +companies objected to the disclosure of this sensitive information. +As a result the FCC required that telephone companies obtain +authorization before releasing these numbers. But this restriction +only applies to telephone customers with more than 20 lines. + + The disclosure of Customer Proprietary Network Information +(CPNI) has already surprised many telephone customers who now +receive calls from companies with whom they have no prior +relationship. These companies are able to describe the customer's +telephone calling habits in great detail. Users of NREN services +are also likely to object to the disclosure of network information. + + The third problem is that law enforcement agencies are likely +to make "greater demands" on communication service providers to +turn over records of electronic communications to the government +and to provide assistance in the execution of warrants. I say +"greater demands" with some reservation since the recent proposal +>from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to require that all +communications equipment in the United States be capable of +wiretapping seems about the greatest demand conceivable. Still, we +should anticipate that the government demands for access to the +contents and records of NREN communications are likely to increase. + +FINDING 2: + + Current privacy protections are inadequate + + Electronic communications are provided some protection against +unlawful interception by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act +(ECPA) of 1986. This law extends the very important guarantees +contained within the 1968 wiretap statute to digital communication +and stored electronic mail. But this protection now appears +inadequate. As a general matter, the wiretap law protects the +contents of an electronic message against unlawful disclosure; it +does not protect the record of the transaction against disclosure. + + ECPA also does not appear to protect critical personal +information, such as a person's telephone number, from improper +disclosure. For example, the Calling Number Identification (CNID) +service is probably a violation of the wiretap statute and clearly +a violation of the wiretap law of several states. Nonetheless, +the service has been offered over the objection of consumer groups, +technical experts, and legal scholars. + +FINDING 3: + + Technical safeguards provide only a partial solution + + There are some in the network community who believe that +technology will provide a solution to these emerging privacy +problems. New techniques in cryptography provide ways to protect +the contents of an electronic message and even to protect the +identity of the message author. An article that will appear next +month in Scientific American titled "Achieving Electronic Privacy" +describes in more detail how it may be possible through technical +means to recapture some privacy. + + CPSR has supported many efforts to improve technical means for +privacy protection. In fact, CPSR has been of the leading +proponents of the widespread us of cryptography to protect +electronic communications. We have opposed restrictions by both +the National Securit y Agency and the Federal Bureau of +Investigation on the use of cryptography. We have also supported +the development of privacy-enhancing technologies, such as +telephone cards which are widely used in Europe and Japan, and +recommended that policy makers explore technical means to protect +information. + + Nonetheless, we do not believe that technical safeguards will +provide sufficient protection for networked communications. Our +right of privacy is based on Constitutional principles and our +national history, and reflects our commitment to certain political +ideals. The protection of privacy is ultimately a policy decision +that must be resolved through our political institutions. Clearly, +technology provides useful developments that we should incorporate +into future networks, but it would be a mistake to assume that +technology alone will provide sufficient protection. + + This point was made two decades ago by former White House +Science Adviser Jerome Wiesner who also served as president of MIT. +In testimony before Congress on the privacy implications of +databanks, Professor Wiesner said: "There are those who hope new +technology can redress these invasions of personal autonomy that +information technology now makes possible, but I don't share this +hope. To be sure, it is possible and desirable to provide +technical safeguards against unauthorized access. It is even +conceivable that computers could be programmed to to have their +memories fade with time and to eliminate specific identity. Such +safeguards are highly desirable, but the basic safeguards cannot be +provided by new inventions. They must be provided by the +legislative and legal systems of this country. We must face the +need to provide adequate guarantees for individual privacy." + + We believe that the development of NREN privacy policy should +be conducted in this spirit: looking for opportunities to +incorporate technical safeguards while recognizing that the +ultimate decisions are policy-based. PRIVACY GUIDELINES + + Before discussing the proposed privacy principles, I would like +to say a few words about the desirability of developing these +principles. Privacy protection in electronic environments is a +particularly complex policy problem. There is legal jargon and +technical jargon. There are rapid changes. And there are +certainly a wide range of opinions about how best to achieve +privacy, even about what privacy means. + + Privacy principles have helped to clarify goals and to convey +objectives in non-technical terms. Well developed polices are +"technology neutral" and are adaptable as new technologies emerge. +Professional organizations have made widespread use of such +principles for codes of ethics and for public education. + + There are a number of such polices in the privacy realm. Some +of these polices have been extremely influential in the development +of public policy, national law, and international agreements. For +example, the Code of Fair Information Practices was the basis for +the Privacy Act of 1974, the most extensive privacy law in the +United States. The Code was developed by a special task force +created by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1973. +Other codes have formed the basis for data protection law in Great +Britain. + + All of these codes seek to establish certain responsibilities +for organizations that collect personal information, and to create +certain rights for individuals. + + In developing these telecommunication privacy guidelines, we +examined existing codes and particularly the principles developed +by the Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) +in 1981. We also incorporated several additional principles that +we believe are necessary to protect personal information in +communication environments. + + Taken as a whole, the principles are intended to improve +privacy protection for network communications as the NREN continues +to evolve. RECOMMENDATION 1: + + The confidentiality of electronic communications should be +protected. + + The primary purpose of a communication network is to ensure +that information can travel between two points without alteration, +interception, or disclosure. A network that fails to achieve this +goal will not serve as a reliable conduit for information. +Therefore the primary goal should be to guarantee the +confidentiality of electronic communications. RECOMMENDATION 2: + + Privacy considerations must be recognized explicitly in the +provision, use and regulation of telecommunication services. + + The addition of new services to a communications infrastructure +will necessarily raise privacy concerns. Users should be fully +informed about the privacy implications of these services so that +they are able to make appropriate decisions about the use of +services. RECOMMENDATION 3: + + The collection of personal data for telecommunication services +should be limited to the extent necessary to provide the service. + + Users should not be required to disclose personal data which is +not necessary for the rendering of the service. In particular, the +use of the Social Security number should be avoided. In no +instance, should it be used as both an identifier and +authenticator. RECOMMENDATION 4: + + Service providers should not disclose information without the +explicit consent of service users. Service providers should be +required to make known their data collection practices to service +users. + + Service providers have a responsibility to inform users about +the collection of personal information and to protect the +information against unlawful disclosure. Personally identifiable +information should not be disclosed without the affirmative consent +of the user. RECOMMENDATION 5: + + Users should not be required to pay for routine privacy +protection. Additional costs for privacy should only be imposed for +extraordinary protection. + + The premise of the federal wiretap statue is that all users of +the public network are entitled to the same degree of legal +protection against the unlawful disclosure of electronic +communications. This principle should be carried forward into the +emerging network environment. Segmented levels of privacy +protection are also likely to introduce new transaction costs and +create inefficiencies. Where special charges are imposed for +privacy, it should be for "armored car" service. RECOMMENDATION +6: + + Service providers should be encouraged to explore technical +means to protect privacy. + + Service providers should pursue technical means to protect +privacy, particularly where such means may improve the delivery of +service and reduce the risk of privacy loss. RECOMMENDATION 7: + + Appropriate security polices should be developed to protect +network communications + + Security is an element of privacy protection but it is not +synonymous with privacy protection. Appropriate security policies +should be put in place to protect privacy. However, it should be +recognized that some security measures may compromise privacy +protection. Network monitoring, for example, or the collection of +detailed audit trail information will raise substantial privacy +concerns. Therefore, security policies should be designed to serve +the larger goal of privacy protection. RECOMMENDATION 8: + + A mechanism should be established to ensure the observance of +these principles. + + Good principles without appropriate oversight and enforcement +are insufficient to protect privacy. This has been the experience +of the United States with the Privacy Act of 1974 and of the +European countries with the OECD principles of 1981. In both +instances, fine principles lacked sufficient oversight and +enforcement mechanisms. + + Additional principles may be appropriate and these principles +may well need modification. But we hope that they will provide a +good starting point for a discussion on communications privacy for +the NREN. [Attachments: "Protecting Privacy," Communications of +the ACM, April 1992; "Communications Privacy: Implications for +Network Design," Proceedings of INET '92, Kobe, Japan)] & + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cr-law b/textfiles.com/politics/cr-law new file mode 100644 index 00000000..35fec8b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cr-law @@ -0,0 +1,660 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + Copyright Law + + + _J_o_r_d_a_n _J. _B_r_e_s_l_o_w + _1_2_2_5 _A_l_p_i_n_e _R_o_a_d, _S_u_i_t_e _2_0_0 + _W_a_l_n_u_t _C_r_e_e_k, _C_A _9_4_5_9_6 + +_1 _4_1_5 _9_3_2 _4_8_2_8 + + + + I am an attorney practicing copyright law and computer law. + I read a series of queries in net.legal about copyright law and + was dismayed to find that people who had no idea what they were + talking about were spreading misinformation over the network. + Considering that the penalties for copyright infringement can in- + clude $50,000.00 damages per infringed work, attorneys fees, + court costs, criminal fines and imprisonment, and considering + that ignorance is no excuse and innocent intent is not even a + recognized defense, I cringe to see the network used as a soapbox + for the ill-informed. For that reason, this article will discuss + copyright law and license law as they pertain to computer + software. + + My goal is to enable readers to determine when they should + be concerned about infringing and when they can relax about it. + I also want to let programmers know how to obtain copyright for + their work. I'll explain the purpose of software licenses, and + discuss the effect that the license has on copyright. For those + of you who are programmers, I'll help you decide whether you own + the programs you write on the job or your boss owns them. I will + also mention trademark law and patent law briefly, in order to + clarify some confusion about which is which. Incidentally, if + you read this entire essay, you will be able to determine whether + or not the essay is copyrighted and whether or not you can make a + printout of it. + + This is a long article, and you may not want to read all of + it. Here is an outline to help you decide what to read and what + to ignore: + 1. The Meaning of Copyright from the Viewpoint of the Software User + 1.1 A bit of history + 1.2 The meaning of _c_o_p_y_r_i_g_h_t + 1.3 The meaning of _p_u_b_l_i_c _d_o_m_a_i_n + 1.4 A hypothetical software purchase + 1.5 Can you use copyrighted software? + 1.6 Can you make a backup copy? + 1.7 Licenses may change the rules + + __________ + c Copyright 1986 Breslow, Redistributed by permission + + + Copyright Law 1 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 2 + + + 1.8 Can you modify the program? + 1.9 Can you break the copy protection scheme? + 1.10 Summary + + 2. Copyright Sounds Neat -- How Do I Get One? Or, How Do I Know If + this Program is Copyrighted? + 2.1 How do you get a copyright? + 2.2 How do you lose a copyright? + 2.3 How do you waste a stamp? + 2.4 Do you have to register? + 2.5 How copyright comes into existence + 2.6 The copyright notice + 2.7 Advantages of registration + 2.8 A test to see if you understand this article + + 3. Who Owns The Program You Wrote? + 3.1 Introduction + 3.2 Programs written as an employee + 3.3 Programs written as a contractor + + 4. A Brief Word about Licenses + 4.1 Why a license? + 4.2 Is it valid? + + 5.1 Trademark law explained + 5.2 Patent law + + 6. Conclusion + + + + 1. The Meaning of Copyright from the Viewpoint of the Software + User + + 1.1. A bit of history + + If you're not interested in history, you can skip this para- + graph. _M_o_d_e_r_n copyright law first came into existence in 1570, + by an act of Parliament called the Statute of Anne. Like most + laws, it hasn't changed much since. It was written with books + and pictures in mind. Parliament, lacking the foresight to + predict the success of the Intel and IBM corporations, failed to + consider the issue of copyrighting computer programs. + + At first, courts questioned whether programs could be copy- + righted at all. The problem was that judges couldn't read the + programs and they figured the Copyright Law was only meant to ap- + ply to things humans (which arguably includes judges) could read + without the aid of a machine. I saw some mythical discussion + about that in some of the net.legal drivel. Let's lay that to + rest: programs are copyrightable as long as there is even a + minimal amount of creativity. The issue was laid to rest with + the Software Act of 1980. That Act modified the Copyright Act + (which is a Federal law by the way), in such a way as to make it + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 3 + + + clear that programs are copyrightable. The few exceptions to + this rule will rarely concern anyone. The next question to arise + was whether a program was copyrightable if it was stored in ROM + rather than on paper. The decision in the Apple v. Franklin + case laid that to rest: it is. + + 1.2. The meaning of _c_o_p_y_r_i_g_h_t + + Now, what is copyright? As it is commonly understood, it is + the right to make copies of something -- or to put it the other + way around, it is the right to prohibit other people from making + copies. This is known as an exclusive right -- the exclusive + right to _r_e_p_r_o_d_u_c_e, in the biological language of the Copyright + Act -- and what most people don't know is that copyright involves + not one, not two, but five exclusive rights. These are (1) the + exclusive right to make copies, (2) the exclusive right to dis- + tribute copies to the public, (3) the exclusive right to prepare + _d_e_r_i_v_a_t_i_v_e _w_o_r_k_s (I'll explain, just keep reading), (4) the ex- + clusive right to perform the work in public (this mainly applies + to plays, dances and the like, but it could apply to software), + and (5) the exclusive right to display the work in public (such + as showing a film). + + 1.3. The meaning of _p_u_b_l_i_c _d_o_m_a_i_n + + Before we go any further, what is public domain? I saw some + discussion on the net about public domain software being copy- + righted. Nonsense. The phrase _p_u_b_l_i_c _d_o_m_a_i_n, when used correct- + ly, means the absence of copyright protection. It means you can + copy public domain software to your heart's content. It means + that the author has none of the exclusive rights listed above. + If someone uses the phrase _p_u_b_l_i_c _d_o_m_a_i_n to refer to _f_r_e_e_w_a_r_e + (software which is copyrighted but is distributed without advance + payment but with a request for a donation), he or she is using + the term incorrectly. Public domain means no copyright -- no ex- + clusive rights. + + 1.4. A hypothetical software purchase + + Let's look at those exclusive rights from the viewpoint of + someone who has legitimately purchased a single copy of a copy- + righted computer program. For the moment, we'll have to ignore + the fact that the program is supposedly licensed, because the + license changes things. I'll explain that later. For now, as- + sume you went to Fred's Diner and Software Mart and bought a + dozen eggs, cat food and a word processing program. And for now, + assume the program is copyrighted. + + 1.5. Can you use copyrighted software? + + What can you do with this copyrighted software? Let's start + with the obvious: can you use it on your powerful Timex PC? Is + this a joke? No. Prior to 1980, my answer might have been No, + you can't use it! + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 4 + + + People actually pay me for advice like that! Well think: + you take the floppy disk out of the zip lock baggy, insert it in + drive A and load the program into RAM. What have you just done? + You've made a copy in RAM -- in legalese, you've reproduced the + work, in violation of the copyright owner's exclusive right to + reproduce. (I better clarify something here: the copyright own- + er is the person or company whose name appears in the copyright + notice on the box, or the disk or the first screen or wherever. + It may be the person who wrote the program, or it may be his + boss, or it may be a publishing company that bought the rights to + the program. But in any case, it's not you. When you buy a copy + of the program, you do not become the copyright owner. You just + own one copy.) + + Anyway, loading the program into RAM means making a copy. + The Software Act of 1980 addressed this absurdity by allowing you + to make a copy if the copy "is created as an essential step in + the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a + machine and ... is used in no other manner ...." By the way, + somebody tell me what _a _m_a_c_h_i_n_e means. If you connect 5 PC's on + a network is that _a _m_a_c_h_i_n_e or _s_e_v_e_r_a_l _m_a_c_h_i_n_e_s? A related ques- + tion is whether or not running software on a network constitutes + a performance. The copyright owner has the exclusive right to do + that, remember? + + 1.6. Can you make a backup copy? + + OK, so you bought this copyrighted program and you loaded it + into RAM or onto a hard disk without the FBI knocking on your + door. Now can you make a backup copy? YES. The Software Act + also provided that you can make a backup copy, provided that it + "is for archival purposes only ...." What you cannot do, howev- + er, is give the archive copy to your friend so that you and your + pal both got the program for the price of one. That violates the + copyright owner's exclusive right to distribute copies to the + public. Get it? You can, on the other hand, give both your ori- + ginal and backup to your friend -- or sell it to him, or lend it + to him, as long as you don't retain a copy of the program you are + selling. Although the copyright owner has the exclusive right to + distribute (sell) copies of the program, that right only applies + to the first sale of any particular copy. By analogy, if you buy + a copyrighted book, you are free to sell your book to a friend. + The copyright owner does not have the right to control resales. + + 1.7. Licenses may change the rules + + At this point, let me remind you that we have assumed that + the program you got at the store was sold to you, not licensed to + you. Licenses may change the rules. + + 1.8. Can you modify the program? + + Now, you're a clever programmer, and you know the program + could run faster with some modifications. You could also add + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 5 + + + graphics and an interactive mode and lots of other stuff. What + does copyright law say about your plans? Well ... several dif- + ferent things, actually. First, recall that the copyright owner + has the exclusive right to make derivative works. A derivative + work is a work based on one or more preexisting works. It's easy + to recognize derivative works when you think about music or + books. If a book is copyrighted, derivative works could include + a screenplay, an abridged edition, or a translation into another + language. Derivative works of songs might be new arrangements + (like the jazz version of Love Potion Number 9), a movie + soundtrack, or a written transcription, or a _l_o_n_g _v_e_r_s_i_o_n, (such + as the fifteen minute version of "Wipe Out" with an extended drum + solo for dance parties). In my opinion, you are making a deriva- + tive work when you take the store-bought word processor and modi- + fy it to perform differently. The same would be true if you + _t_r_a_n_s_l_a_t_e_d a COBOL program into BASIC. Those are copyright in- + fringements -- you've horned in on the copyright owner's ex- + clusive right to make derivative works. There is, however, some + breathing room. The Software Act generously allows you to _a_d_a_p_t + the code if the adaptation "is created as an essential step in + the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a + machine ...." For example, you might have to modify the code to + make it compatible with your machine. + + 1.9. Can you break the copy protection scheme? + + Moving right along, let's assume your store bought program + is copy protected, and you'd really like to make a backup copy. + You know this nine-year-old whiz who can crack any copy- + protection scheme faster than you can rearrange a Rubix cube. Is + there a copyright violation if he succeeds? There's room to ar- + gue here. When you try to figure out if something is an infringe- + ment, ask yourself, what exclusive right am I violating? In this + case, not the right to make copies, and not the right to distri- + bute copies. Public performance and display have no relevance. + So the key question is whether you are making a _d_e_r_i_v_a_t_i_v_e _w_o_r_k. + My answer to that question is, "I doubt it." On the other hand, + I also doubt that breaking the protection scheme was "an essen- + tial step" in using the program in conjunction with a machine. + It might be a "fair use," but that will have to wait for another + article. Anyone interested in stretching the limits of the "fair + use" defense should read the Sony _B_e_t_a_m_a_x case. + + 1.10. Summary + + Let me summarize. Copyright means the copyright owner has + the exclusive right to do certain things. Copyright infringement + means you did one of those exclusive things (unless you did it + within the limits of the Software Act, i.e., as an essential step + ....). + + + + + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 6 + + + 2. Copyright Sounds Neat -- How Do I Get One? Or, How Do I Know + if this Program is Copyrighted? + + 2.1. How do you get a copyright? + + If you've written an original program, what do you have to + do to get a copyright? Nothing. You already have one. + + 2.2. How do you lose a copyright? + + If you've written an original program, what do you have to + do to lose your copyright protection? Give copies away without + the copyright notice. + + 2.3. How do you waste a stamp? + + If you mail the program to yourself in a sealed envelope, + what have you accomplished? You've wasted a stamp and an envelope + and burdened the postal system unnecessarily. + + 2.4. Do you have to register? + + Do you have to register your program with the U.S. Copyright + Office? No, but it's a damn good idea. + + 2.5. How copyright comes into existence + + Copyright protection (meaning the five exclusive rights) + comes into existence the moment you _f_i_x your program in a _t_a_n_g_i_- + _b_l_e _m_e_d_i_u_m. That means write it down, or store it on a floppy + disk, or do something similar. Registration is optional. The + one thing you must do, however, is protect your copyright by in- + cluding a copyright notice on every copy of every program you + sell, give away, lend out, etc. If you don't, someone who hap- + pens across your program with no notice on it can safely assume + that it is in the public domain (unless he actually knows that it + is not). + + 2.6. The copyright notice + + The copyright notice has three parts. The first can be ei- + ther a c with a circle around it (c), or the word Copyright or + the abbreviation Copr. The c with a circle around it is prefer- + able, because it is recognized around the world; the others are + not. That's incredibly important. Countries around the world + have agreed to recognize and uphold each others' copyrights, but + this world-wide protection requires the use of the c in a circle. + On disk labels and program packaging, use the encircled c. Un- + fortunately, computers don't draw small circles well, so program- + mers have resorted to a c in parentheses: (c). Too bad. That + has no legal meaning. When you put your notice in the code and + on the screen, use Copyright or Copr. if you can't make a cir- + cle. + + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 7 + + + The second part of the notice is the "year of first publica- + tion of the work." _P_u_b_l_i_c_a_t_i_o_n doesn't mean distribution by Os- + borne Publishing Co. It means distribution of copies of the pro- + gram to the public "by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by + rental, lease, or lending." So when you start handing out or + selling copies of your precious code, you are publishing. Publi- + cation also takes place when you merely OFFER to distribute + copies to a group for further distribution. Your notice must in- + clude the year that you first did so. + + The third part of the notice is the name of the owner of the + copyright. Hopefully, that's you, in which case your last name + will do. If your company owns the program -- a legal issue which + I will address later in this article -- the company name is ap- + propriate. + + Where do you put the notice? The general idea is to put it + where people are likely to see it. Specifically, if you're dis- + tributing a human-readable code listing, put it on the first page + in the first few lines of code, and hard code it so that it ap- + pears on the title screen, or at sign-off, or continuously. If + you're distributing machine-readable versions only, hard code it. + As an extra precaution, you should also place the notice on the + gummed disk label or in some other fashion permanently attached + to the storage medium. + + 2.7. Advantages of registration + + Now, why register the program? If no one ever rips off your + program, you won't care much about registration. If someone does + rip it off, you'll kick yourself for not having registered it. + The reason is that if the program is registered before the in- + fringement takes place, you can recover some big bucks from the + infringer, called statutory damages, and the court can order the + infringer to pay your attorneys fees. Registration only costs + $10.00, and it's easy to do yourself. The only potential disad- + vantage is the requirement that you deposit the first and last 25 + pages of your source code, which can be inspected (but not + copied) by members of the public. + + 2.8. A test to see if you understand this article + + Now, someone tell me this: is this article copyrighted? + Can you print it? + + 3. Who Owns The Program You Wrote? + + 3.1. Introduction + + The starting point of this analysis is that if you wrote the + program, you are the author, and copyright belongs to the author. + HOWEVER, that can change instantly. There are two common ways for + your ownership to shift to someone else: first, your program + might be a "work for hire." Second, you might sell or assign + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 8 + + + your _r_i_g_h_t_s in the program, which for our purposes means the + copyright. + + 3.2. Programs written as an employee + + Most of the programs which you write at work, if not all of + them, belong to your employer. That's because a program prepared + by an employee within the scope of his or her employment is a + "work for hire," and the employer is considered the _a_u_t_h_o_r. This + is more or less automatic if you are an employee -- no written + agreement is necessary to make your employer the copyright owner. + By contrast, if you can convince your employer to let you be the + copyright owner, you must have that agreement in writing. + + By the way, before you give up hope of owning the copyright + to the program you wrote at work, figure out if you are really an + employee. That is actually a complex legal question, but I can + tell you now that just because your boss says you are an employee + doesn't mean that it's so. And remember that if you created the + program outside the _s_c_o_p_e of your job, the program is not a "work + for hire." Finally, in California and probably elsewhere, the + state labor law provides that employees own products they create + on their own time, using their own tools and materials. Employ- + ment contracts which attempt to make the employer the owner of + those off-the-job _i_n_v_e_n_t_i_o_n_s are void, at least in sunny Califor- + nia. + + 3.3. Programs written as a contractor + + Wait a minute: I'm an independent contractor to Company X, + not an employee. I come and go as I please, get paid by the hour + with no tax withheld, and was retained to complete a specific + project. I frequently work at home with my own equipment. Is + the program I'm writing a "work for hire," owned by the Company? + Maybe, maybe not. In California, this area is full of landmines + for employers, and gold for contractors. + + A contractor's program is not a "work for hire," and is not + owned by the company, unless (1) there is a written agreement + between the company and the contractor which says that it is, and + (2) the work is a _c_o_m_m_i_s_s_i_o_n_e_d _w_o_r_k. A _c_o_m_m_i_s_s_i_o_n_e_d _w_o_r_k is one + of the following: (a) a contribution to a _c_o_l_l_e_c_t_i_v_e _w_o_r_k, (b) + an audiovisual work (like a movie, and maybe like a video game), + (c) a translation, (d) a compilation, (e) an instructional text, + (f) a test or answer to a test, or (g) an atlas. I know you must + be tired of definitions, but this is what the real legal world is + made of. An example of a collective work is a book of poetry, + with poems contributed by various authors. A piece of code which + is incorporated into a large program isn't a contribution to a + collective work, but a stand-alone program which is packaged and + sold with other stand-alone programs could be. + + So where are we? If you are a contract programmer, not an + employee, and your program is a _c_o_m_m_i_s_s_i_o_n_e_d _w_o_r_k, and you have a + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 9 + + + written agreement that says that the program is a "work for hire" + owned by the greedy company, who owns the program? That's right, + the company. But guess what? In California and elsewhere the + company just became your employer! This means that the company + must now provide worker's compensation benefits for you AND UNEM- + PLOYMENT INSURANCE. + + 4. A Brief Word About Licenses. + + 4.1. Why a license? + + When you get software at the local five and dime, the + manufacturer claims that you have a license to use that copy of + the program. The reason for this is that the manufacturer wants + to place more restrictions on your use of the program than copy- + right law places. For example, licenses typically say you can + only use the program on a single designated CPU. Nothing in the + copyright law says that. Some licenses say you cannot make an + archive copy. The copyright law says you can, remember? But if + the license is a valid license, now you can't. You can sell or + give away your copy of a program if you purchased it, right? + That's permitted by copyright law, but the license may prohibit + it. The more restrictive terms of the license will apply instead + of the more liberal copyright rules. + + 4.2. Is it valid? + + Is the license valid? This is hotly debated among lawyers. + (What isn't? We'll argue about the time of day.) A few states + have passed or will soon pass laws declaring that they are valid. + A few will go the other way. Federal legislation is unlikely. + My argument is that at the consumer level, the license is not + binding because there is no true negotiation (unless a state law + says it is binding), but hey that's just an argument and I'm not + saying that that's the law. In any case, I think businesses + which buy software will be treated differently in court than con- + sumers. Businesses should read those licenses and negotiate with + the manufacturer if the terms are unacceptable. + + 5. I Have A Neat Idea. Can I Trademark It? What About patent? + + 5.1. Trademark law explained + + Sorry, no luck. Trademark law protects names: names of + products and names of services. (Note that I did not say names + of companies. Company names are not trademarkable.) If you buy + a program that has a trademarked name, all that means is that you + can't sell your own similar program under the same name. It has + nothing to do with copying the program. + + 5.2. Patent Law + + Patent law can apply to computer programs, but it seldom + does. The main reasons it seldom applies are practical: the + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + + + + + Copyright Law 10 + + + patent process is too slow and too expensive to do much good in + the software world. There are also considerable legal hurdles to + overcome in order to obtain a patent. If, by chance, a program + is patented, the patent owner has the exclusive right to make, + use or sell it for 17 years. + + 6. CONCLUSION + + I know this is a long article, but believe it or not I just + scratched the surface. Hopefully, you'll find this information + useful, and you'll stop passing along myths about copyright law. + If anyone needs more information, I can be reached at the address + on the first page. Sorry, but I do not usually have access to + the network, so you can't reach me there. + + Thank you. JORDAN J. BRESLOW + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + News Version B 2.11 February 26, 1986 + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cr-lawsw b/textfiles.com/politics/cr-lawsw new file mode 100644 index 00000000..db4f08f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cr-lawsw @@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +----------------------------------------------------------------- +The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 2, no. 1 (1991): +164-170. +----------------------------------------------------------------- +----------------------------------------------------------------- +Recursive Reviews +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +Copyright, Digital Media, and Libraries +by Martin Halbert + +Running a branch library devoted to computational materials, I am +frequently amazed at patrons' lack of understanding of copyright +issues. One patron, an otherwise very intelligent research +scientist, was baffled concerning the restrictions inherent in +checking software out of the library. The magnitude of his +misunderstanding came home to me when he asked if our +restrictions meant that he didn't need to bring his own disks to +copy the software onto. He thought, in all honesty, I finally +realized, that copying the software was what checking out +software was all about. After a very long discussion with him +about copyright and why it is illegal to copy software, he went +away somewhat shocked, but at least informed. + +While most librarians have a better understanding of the concept +of copyright than my patron, how many of us have really thought +about all the ramifications of copyright and new digital media +technologies? Librarians are ostensibly supposed to be experts +on the proper use of the collections of information they +administer. This month's column is devoted to a brief +bibliography on the subject of copyright and digital media. I +know that I had never considered many of the issues raised in the +sources reviewed below, so I think they will be of interest to +all librarians who have added any kind of digital media (e.g., +software and CD-ROM databases) to their collections. + ++ Page 165 + + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Intellectual +Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information. +Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, April 1986. +OTA-CIT-302. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +This 1986 report by the Office of Technology Assessment is the +best existing review and discussion of how new technological +developments have impacted the concept of intellectual property +in the United States. Many discussions of the topic begin with a +review of this source (see below), which is justifiable +considering its quality. The 300-page report concisely covers +the conceptual framework and goals of intellectual property +rights, how current laws have tried to accommodate technological +change, enforcement issues, and the role of the federal +government as a regulator. The conclusion of the report is that +the new technologies, especially functional works like software, +have rendered the existing concepts and implementations of +domestic intellectual property law obsolete. An entirely new +approach to the issue of what constitutes intellectual property +and how to regulate it will have to be developed by congress. +The OTA report raises profoundly troubling issues for librarians +and the entire information industry. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. Computer +Software and Intellectual Property--Background Paper. +Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, March 1990. +OTA-BP-CIT-61 +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +Drawing on the 1986 OTA report and others, this OTA background +paper further analyzes software issues. It goes into greater +detail concerning questions peculiar to software, such as +addressing the following questions. Can an interface be +copyrighted? Can the concept of an algorithm be unambiguously +defined? Patented? Is a neural net to be considered a software +system or a hardware system? The paper includes a few +developments which happened after the 1986 OTA report, but +fundamentally the paper only raises questions and provides a +context for discussing the problem. Real answers may be a long +way off. + ++ Page 166 + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Duggan, Mary Kay. "Copyright of Electronic Information: Issues +and Questions." Online 15, no. 3 (May 1991): 20-26. (ISSN +0146-5422) +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Because developments in the law have lagged so far behind +technological developments, many issues of copyright and digital +media are being resolved in practice, if not in legal fact. +Duggan discusses emerging views about what constitutes "fair use" +of electronic information sources. She concludes that while some +consensus is developing about use of search results from CD-ROM +and dial-up databases, little agreement has yet been reached +about LAN and WAN access to databases and other network +information sources. + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Garret, John R. "Text to Screen Revisited: Copyright in the +Electronic Age." Online 15, no. 2 (March 1991): 22-24. (ISSN +0146-5422) +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +John Garret is the director of market development at the +Copyright Clearance Center. Taking a very different view from +most of the other sources reviewed in this column, he maintains +that current copyright laws are perfectly capable of dealing with +the new electronic environment. He calls into question many of +the assumptions about computer systems and monetary funding that +(he claims) underlie the move to overhaul the copyright system. +He describes a variety of small-scale pilot projects that the +Copyright Clearance Center has undertaken in conjunction with +publishers and researchers "to provide owner-authorized, +text-based information electronically for internal use to various +sets of users, and to determine what they use, when they use it, +why, how often, and to what end." He further claims: "For these +pilots, and for other, larger-scale programs that will be +developed in the future, existing copyright law provides a +perfectly adequate context for the development and elaboration of +systems to manage computer-based text." + ++ Page 167 + + +While one has to wonder whether Mr. Garret is unbiased in this +matter given his position, he does make a convincing argument for +the limited case of electronic access to text-only databases. +However, his points do not address the larger issues raised in +the OTA intellectual property studies. + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Alexander, Adrian W., and Julie S. Alexander. "Intellectual +Property Rights and the 'Sacred Engine': Scholarly Publishing in +the Electronic Age." In Advances in Library Resource Sharing, +ed. Jennifer Cargill and Diane J. Graves, 176-192. Westport, +Conn.: Meckler, 1990. +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Adrian and Julie Alexander give a fine overview of the 1986 OTA +report, as well as a conference on intellectual property rights +held in 1987 by the Network Advisory Committee of the Library of +Congress. They conclude with a broad discussion of the potential +for electronic publishing for the scholarly research and +publication process, which echoes many of the themes discussed at +recent meetings of the Coalition for Networked Information. + +They maintain, as some CNI speakers have, that electronic +publishing represents an opportunity for universities to +recapture their intellectual property from the expensive and +fruitless cycle of sale back and forth to publishers. They also +point out that publishers want to capture this potential +publication medium as well. + ++ Page 168 + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Shuman, Bruce A., and Joseph J. Mika. "Copyrighted Software and +Infringement by Libraries." Library and Archival Security 9, no. +1 (1989): 29-36. (ISSN 0196-0075) +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Shuman and Mika provide a good overview of the current state of +software piracy and copyright infringement, with a few additional +comments that describe the situation of libraries which circulate +software. They are quite critical of the practice of +"shrink-wrap" licensing which many vendors have taken up. This +is the familiar tactic of pasting a license agreement with many +restrictions on the outside of a shrink-wrapped software package, +with a statement to the effect of "if you open this package, you +thereby agree to this license." They describe the many problems +involved in trying to police the use of software by library +patrons, and state that: "Librarians will continue to find +themselves between copyright holders and license-vendors, eager +to recover the money they feel entitled to, and patrons (and +sometimes library employees) who wish to 'liberate' programs, +whether out of simple greed, a love of the challenge, altruism, +or a 'Robin Hood' complex." + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Denning, Dorothy E. "The United States vs. Craig Neidorf." +Communications of the ACM 34, no. 3 (March 1991): 24-32. (ISSN +0001-0782) +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Finally, I would like to conclude this column with an example of +the kinds of troubling legal actions that are surely brewing on +the horizon. + +The March 1991 Communications of the ACM was partly devoted to a +debate concerning electronic publishing, constitutional rights, +and hackers. The article by Dorothy Denning was a description of +the trial of Craig Neidorf, a pre-law student at the University +of Missouri. Neidorf was charged by a federal grand jury with +wire fraud, computer fraud, and interstate transportation of +stolen property. + ++ Page 169 + + +All this because he published a document (containing what turned +out to be public domain information) in an electronic journal he +edited. The electronic journal was called "Phrack," a +contraction of the terms "Phreak" (the act of breaking into +telecommunications systems) and "Hack" (the act of breaking into +computer systems). The document in question concerned the E911 +system of Southwestern Bell, and it contained only information +that was already in the public domain. The charges against +Neidorf were dropped when this was brought up during the trial, +but Neidorf was left with all his court costs, amounting to +$100,000. + +Now, regardless of what one thinks of Neidorf or the ethics of +hacking, the fact that the U.S. government can bankrupt an +individual (or institution!) by making groundless accusations of +publishing "secret" electronic documents bears attention! +Neidorf's case may potentially mark the beginning of entirely new +types of censorship revolving around electronic media. Denning's +article points out that currently the government can seize all +computer equipment and files of an individual or organization, +and hold them for months. This kind of search and seizure (again +on mistaken grounds) devastated one small company called Steve +Jackson Games. Denning discusses this incident as well, and it +is chilling to imagine happening by accident to one's own +organization. + +Problems of copyright and the new digital media are only now +beginning to surface, but they have been inherent in the new +technologies since at least the sixties. Libraries and society +as a whole will increasingly have to face these issues, either in +legislation by a forward-looking congress, or more likely in +painful court trials like the United States vs. Neidorf. + ++ Page 170 + + +About the Author + +Martin Halbert +Automation and Reference Librarian +Fondren Library +Rice University +Houston, TX 77251-1892 +HALBERT@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic +journal. It is sent free of charge to participants of the +Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (PACS-L), a computer +conference on BITNET. To join PACS-L, send an electronic mail +message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 that says: SUBSCRIBE PACS-L First +Name Last Name. + +This article is Copyright (C) 1991 by Martin Halbert. All Rights +Reserved. + +The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C) 1991 +by the University Libraries, University of Houston, University +Park. All Rights Reserved. + +Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computer +conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are +authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic +or printed form, at no charge. This message must appear on all +copied material. All commercial use requires permission. +---------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/criminal.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/criminal.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..76bf6919 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/criminal.txt @@ -0,0 +1,251 @@ + INSTEAD OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT + + By. J. Neil Schulman + + Copyright (c) 1992 by J. Neil Schulman. + + This article may be reproduced without further + permission on computer bulletin boards provided that + it is reproduced whole and unchanged. + All other rights reserved. + + + + Is there any relation between crimes and arrests, or + crime and punishment, for that matter? On this second + question, we know there is not: according to the Department + of Justice, 75% - 80% of violent crimes in this country + are committed by repeat offenders. Further, a chart in + the \Los Angeles Times\ provides good evidence there is + little relationship between crimes committed and arrests + made, as well. + + As a sidebar to an article in the February 27, 1992 + \Los Angeles Times\ on the brutality of the Japanese + criminal justice system, the \Times\ provided a chart of + Violations of Criminal Law per 100K of population in + various countries, and another chart comparing the Arrest + Rates in those countries. + + The Violations chart shows Britain leading the pack + with 7,355 criminal law violations per 100K, West Germany + with 7,031 (the stats are from 1989, pre-German- + unification), France with 5,831, the U.S. with 5,741, Japan + with 1,358, and South Korea with 912. + + The Arrest Rate chart (also 1989) shows South Korea + with 78.8%, West Germany with 47.2%, Japan with 46.2%, + France with 38.8%, Britain with 33.6%, and the U.S. with + 21.1% + + Since every country on this list aside from the U.S. + has a virtual prohibition of private ownership of firearms, + gun control doesn't lead to a less-criminal society. + Obviously that is a blind alley for those seeking a + reduction of crime. + + Further, a comparison of the West German crime rate + with its arrest rates also seems to blow out of the water + the argument made by American law & order advocates that a + greater certainty of arrest and punishment will necessarily + lead to less crime: West Germany has both the second + highest crime rate and the second highest arrest rate -- + possibly the first highest arrest rate, since the South + Korean arrest claims, requiring superhuman powers worthy of + Sherlock Holmes, strain any sensible person's credulity. + + + INDICTING THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM + + Libertarian critics of the policy of crime and + punishment have long argued that crime is a necessary + product of the very nature of the State, created by it + along with provoking foreign threats to justify a military- + industrial complex, as a way of manipulating the public + into submission to political control. It is a sweeping + charge and one which is likely to be dismissed as crackpot + by anyone who can't conceive of an alternative way of + thinking about the subject. + + But if we were to indict the criminal justice system + as a criminal conspiracy might be so indicted, and look for + evidence to support the charge, what do we find as the + system's "modus operandi"? + + First, the State creates a set of laws which mix the + concept of crime as an attack upon an individual's life or + property with the idea that a crime is anything the State + says it is -- and thus crimes without victims -- or with + "the State" as the sole "victim" -- are created wholesale. + Thus "possession" of a prohibited substance or object, even + if such possession has inflicted no actual damage upon + another person, in many cases receives as much punishment + from the State as a robbery or murder. Additionally, the + State sets itself up as the judge of what is an offense + against itself, the judge which decides whether someone is + guilty of an offense against itself, and the judge which + decides what pains and costs to inflict upon a transgressor + against itself. Then it sends out armed agents to enforce + its decisions. Thus does the State treat itself as a God + or Sovereign, whose will is to be feared and obeyed, and + everyone else treated as one of its subjects. + + Second, the "protection" of the "public" from crime, + defined however the State decides, is turned over to the + State which taxes the public on the basis that they "need" + protection from crime, then hires police to "enforce the + law" -- but police have no legal obligation to protect the + public which is being taxed to pay them from criminals, and + suffer no liability from failure to do so. + + Third, a "criminal justice" system is set up in which + the guilt or innocence of a suspect bears only passing + resemblance to the sentences imposed on them after plea + bargains which trade ease of conviction for reduced + sentences -- regardless of whether the person charged is + guilty or innocent. No compensation is given to those who + are charged but found innocent, and often have their lives + ruined by the accusation; compensation of the victim of a + crime exists only as an occasional sideshow: the center + ring is reserved for imprisonment of the criminal at + taxpayer's expense, imposing additional costs upon the + victim. + + When the system is supposedly "working," those who are + found guilty are sent into prisons which ensure that a + prisoner will learn the craft of crime as a permanent + lifestyle, creating a revolving-door criminal class which + provides permanent employment for police, lawyers, prison- + guards, and "crime-fighting" governors and legislators -- + while everything these officials do, regardless of their + rhetoric, \increases\ the number of attacks by criminals + on the innocent. + + When the system is supposedly "not working," this + massive prison bureaucracy is so clogged that convicted + criminals are sent back out the street in short order, to + attack more innocent victims and provide more grist for the + criminal-justice mill. + + Meanwhile, the same system which creates crime and + does little to protect the public from it also demands that + the public disarm and rely on the government for protection + against criminals. + + Is the libertarian indictment fantasy? Or is it a + stripping away of the Emperor's New Clothes? It seems + hard to avoid the conclusion that if you put all this + together, Criminal Justice is the protection shakedown of + the public by professional organized criminals in control + of an entire society: a system set up to terrorize the + public into a condition where it will abide any amount of + legalized theft and police control in order to be + liberated from constant criminal invasions engineered to + justify the system itself. + + In a precise metaphor: the disease is being spread by + the very doctors the public relies on for the cure. + + + A NEW THEORY OF CRIME MANAGEMENT + + The alternative to the game of Cops and Robbers by + which the criminal justice system encourages criminals to + prey upon the public so there is an excuse for the State to + catch and imprison them, is to eliminate the State from the + system as much as possible. + + First, the public must come to realize that the first + line of defense against criminal invasion of their lives + and property is: themselves. No one cares about protecting + you, your loved ones, and your neighbors as much as you do + -- and no one aside from the potential victim is more + likely to be able to provide effective counter-measures + against invasion. The defense against criminal invasion + requires vigilance, planning, and a willingness to fight + back. The best and surest way to reduce crime is to make + it unprofitable and dangerous for the criminal. The + likelihood that a criminal attack will result in the + criminal's being injured or dying during the attack is, + both logically and practically, the surest way to achieve a + low-crime society. The example of Switzerland, a society + organized along the lines of universal defense by all + citizens, and where criminal attacks are virtually non- + existent, comes to mind immediately. + + Second, the public must realize that there are three + "criminal justice" systems already at work in our country, + and the system of police, criminal indictments, trial, and + punishment is the least effective of the three. The other + two are the system of civil laws by which individuals who + cause damage to another can be sued and compensation + collected, and the insurance industry, by which victims can + measure the statistical likelihood of victimization against + the costs of potential attack, and calculate proper + "compensation" for themselves in advance. + + Third, the public must realize that the criminal + justice system promotes crime and protects criminals rather + than fighting it, and move to eliminate it as quickly as is + humanly possible. This requires a massive awakening by the + American people to the actual functioning of the criminal + justice system, so they can evaluate for themselves whether + it is "failing," or whether it is doing precisely what it + is designed to do: victimize the public at all turns. The + concept of "crime" must be completely severed from its + statutory definitions, and replaced with a simple test: If + a crime has been committed, (a) Who committed it, (b) Who + is the victim, and (c) What costs has the criminal invasion + imposed upon the victim? If these three questions cannot + be answered clearly and firmly, there has been no crime + committed. + + Fourth, the solution of what to do with a criminal who + is not killed in process of the crime -- a criminal who is + captured alive or manages to escape, or must be hunted down + -- must be made as much as possible contingent on the + accountable costs the criminal has imposed upon the victim. + Instead of "rehabilitating" a criminal or "punishing" a + criminal, the object must be to calculate as much as is + humanly possible the costs that a criminal has imposed upon + a victim (and the costs of apprehension and conviction as + well), and extract as much value as possible from that + criminal so that it may be used in compensation to the + victim. + + The object of "criminal justice" must be restricted to + (a) augmenting the public's first-line self-defense with + additional lines of response, such as armed response to + burglar alarms; (b) detective work to locate, identify, and + capture those who have committed criminal invasions or + thefts; and (c) a trial system to assure that those + charged with an invasion or theft actually committed it, + and upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt, to calculate the + costs of that invasion and extract that cost from the + criminal so that it may be used to compensate the victim. + In the case where a criminal invasion has produced + irreparable harm such as the death of a victim or victims, + the murderer must be regarded as the property of the + victim's heirs, to dispose of as they wish, limited only + by such mitigations that the precepts of society deem + humane. + + The current criminal justice system has failed. On + that there can be no doubt. A proof of this failure is + that each year the increased crime rate is used as an + excuse to ask for more money and wider powers. This sort of + reward for failure occurs only in the public sector; in the + private sector, where competition is allowed, merchants who + operate on this basis are driven out of business by + customers going elsewhere and, if the failure is deliberate + policy, the merchant indicted for fraud. They are not + given more money and told to keep trying. + + The question remains: do the American people have the + courage and clarity of thought to identify the cause of + the failure of the criminal justice system as its very + design, and re-design the system so that it makes sense? + + On that question, only time will tell. + + ## \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/crn3.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/crn3.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..66c488dd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/crn3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,735 @@ + CYBER RIGHTS NOW! + + + // + /\ .^. / / + //^\ \.^| |^.^./ / + / |_: : : |/ + / /^ ^ ^ \ \ + /\ \_ | \ \ + / /\ \ | \ \ + // \ / . \ \ + / | | \\ + |CRN!| \ + + )ASCII by Bone( + + Newsletter 3 + + ****PLEASE DISTRIBUTE**** + + /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ + I. Introduction + II. A Matter of Fairness + Why software copy protection is unfair + to individuals with disabilities + III. E-Mail Addresses for Sale + IV. Jesus Takes Over the Internet + V. 5 Reasons Why Online Services Are Dying + VI. AOL4FREE - Can I get Caught? + VII. AOL and USENET Abuse + VIII. Little Thing on Technology + \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ + +*********************************************************** + INTRODUCTION + by Bone + + Looking at the articles in this Issue I'd say CRN! is actually looking +a bit on the classy side. We have some really good articles for you this time. +I actually only wrote one article this time. The rest were submitted by +CRN! members. Some of whom have some serious talent. + CRN! now has over 225 registered users and keeps growing daily! +Our distribution also seems to be growing. + Hopefully CRN! will continue to grow to a real force in the computer +world. I have no intention of becoming like C|Net or anything like that. I +don't want to be a pansy to the corporate world (even though I work in it :( ). +I just want CRN! to be recognized as a voice in the computer world. + I'm actually out of words. On with the articles. + + * <= Tribble * <=Tribble's evil cousin Skippy + - Bone + + + +*********************************************************** + A MATTER OF FAIRNESS: + WHY SOFTWARE COPY PROTECTION IS UNFAIR TO INDIVIDUALS + WITH DISABILITIES + By Belgarion + +Before I begin I would like to apologize for the necessity of a pseudonym. +You see my job focuses on providing information regarding assistive +technology and, more specifically, how to adapt computers for people with +disabilities. However, since a good portion of my job deals with working +with many many computer software and hardware companies I have a concern +that just ONE may look unfavorably upon my opinions. This, in turn, could +lead to said company refusing to work with us, which in turn could cause +some individual to not be able to use a piece of software they would want +to. In addition, there is also always the possibility of my superiors not +appreciating this either (they are perfectly fine with what I do, they just +share the same concern that I do). Anyway, on to the focus of this article. + +As previously mentioned I try to help individuals with disabilities adapt +computers, both hardware and software for their use. I work with +individuals of all ages and functioning abilities. The software we adapt is +also equally as varied. I have helped to set up computers for children with +Cerebral Palsy and adults who are paralyzed from the neck down. Today one +of the largest obstacles for independent computer usage continues to be +software copy protection. What is designed to save (or make) the companies +a few extra dollars is actually eliminating a potential revenue source that +is pretty impressive. How impressive? Microsoft has an entire team devoted +to making Windows 95 easier to use by individuals with disabilities (there +are notes about it when you install the software, in the manual, and an icon +in the Control Panel - they obviously take it seriously). According to +Microsoft's Computer Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities, "it is +estimated that there are over 30 million people in the United States alone +that could be affected by computer design." That's a lot of buying power +and if the big M$ took note it's surprising that so many other companies +remain ignorant. + +Of all the software available three types of software cause the most problems: + a) Document check - It is fairly difficulty for an individual using a +headmouse (an ultrasonic device that is worn on the head an allows for full +mouse control, the user moves their head to move the cursor and blows into a +straw to click the mouse button) to turn to page 33 and look at word 6 on +line 5 paragraph 3. While add-on TSR software, such as virtual keyboards +that work in conjunction with a headmouse, allow for 'typing' by the +individual, they are still unable to access the documentation. Thus, they +can no longer independently use the software. + b) CD Check and key disk - Again, an individual who is unable to +functionally swap CD's or disks is condemned to use the one in the drive or +not use the program at all. I know that some CD's are required to be +present due to the vast amount of information required, and that disk towers +are available. I am specifically pointing to those programs that could +reasonably fit onto a hard drive but deliberately require the CD to be present. + C) Dongle - Possibly the worst of them all the dongle, frequently +employed by high-power CAD and other professional software, can actually +prevent a professional from doing their job. I recently gave a copy of +the 3D Studios 4 patch to an individual who is quadriplegic. The person +was so happy that he actually had tears in his eyes. He had wanted to +use the software for over a year however his adaptive hardware used the +parallel port and was not compatible with the dongle requires to run +3D-Studios. The patch helped to solve this problem. + +It is important to recognize that I do not advocate for illegally pirating +software. I am only trying to point out how certain practices can vastly +effect a group of individuals who should be , but rarely are, taken into +account by the software developers. I wonder how some of the companies +would react if Christopher Reeve wrote them and told them he would love to +use their product but can't because of the document check... + +So what do I do? I keep a library of patches for available software. +Copyware has also been kind enough to regularly provide us with Neverlock to +demonstrate how programs can be modified to avoid things like document +checks and key disks. I also provide location information of FTP or WWW +sites where cracks are available (I can't keep copies of cracks that are +modified portions of the actual code - it's illegal ;) ). I also try to +keep a few other tricks up my sleeve... + +Anyway, this was just one person's perspective. While I am sure that there +are some who agree and some who disagree I think that (for the most part) +people feel that EVERYONE should be able to use software. If you would like +more information on adapting computers take a look in Yahoo. They have a +pretty good list of links and can get you pointed in the right direction. + +I can also be reached at AN369067@ANON.PENET.FI. If you have any a major +problem or emergency I am sure that Bone will be able to find me... + +-Belgarion + +******************************************************** + E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR SALE + by Intaglio + + Junkmail - don't you hate receiving it? I always felt it was a +terrible waste of paper. Do you really want to deal with it on +the net, too? What a waste of bandwidth and storage space. let +your voice be heard. Send a short message to the companies who +want to exploit our privacy for their economic gain. Share this +message with your electronic community. Don't let them play on +the apathy that has already allowed them to commercialize the +net to such a degree. + +The following message taken from a cpsr newsletter + +--snip-- + +The Marketry company of Bellvue, Washington is now selling email +addresses of Internet users obtained from Newsgroup postings. From +the company's press release: + + "These are email address of individuals who are actively using + the Internet to obtain and transfer information. They have + demonstrated a substantial interest in specific area of information + on the Internet. They are regularly accessing information in their + interest areas from newsgroups, Internet chats and websites. . . . + The file is anticipated to grow at the rate of 250,000 E Mail + addresses per month, all with Interest selections." + +What are the interest areas currently available? "Adult, Computer, +Sports, Science, Education, News, Investor, Games, Entertainment +Religion, Pets." The release notes that "additional interests areas +will be added, please inquire." Activities of US and non-US Net users +will be included in the Marketry product. + +The Washington Post reported that the president of Markertry, Norm +Swent, would not disclose who the actual owner of the list is. "That +really is confidential information," Swent said, "and we are obviously +bound by confidentiality agreements with the list owner." + +WHAT YOU CAN DO: + + (a) Sit back, let your newsgroup postings get swept up by the data + scavengers and watch the junk email pile high on your system, or + + (b) Send email to Marketry and tell them to STOP SELLING PERSONAL + DATA GATHERED FROM THE NET. Send email to: listpeople@marketry.com + and tell your friends to send email. And tell your friends' friends. + +It's your name. It's your mailbox. Think about it. + + +******************************************************** + JESUS TAKES OVER THE INTERNET! + Letter provided by ANONYMOUS + Comments by Bone + + First let me state that this is the first time I am commenting +on something in a way I think may piss some people off. Let me state +that I believe noone has ANY right to push their beliefs on someone +else. Let it also be know that I am agnostic (not atheist). This +was brought on by 8 years of private catholic school (the type +where they did hit you...hard) and a better than average IQ. + These comments reflect the way I am towards people who +try to regulate others lives. I have nothing against God. If he does +exist I picture him as a big warm guy who when you reach heaven +will say "It's OK, you screwed up, everyone does" and give you a big +warm hug. Not a "throw the sinner is hell" type of god. + Anyway, anything starting in *** is me (Bone). + +> >Message-ID: <030313Z02101995@anon.penet.fi> +> >Path: nntp4.mindspring.com!matlock.mindspring.com! +> >news.sprintlink.net!EU.net!news..eunet..fi!anon..penet..fi +> >Newsgroups: alt.aol-sucks +> >From: an388076@anon.penet.fi (DiannaLeach) +> >X-Anonymously-To: alt.aol-sucks +> >Organization: Anonymous forwarding service +> >Reply-To: an388076@anon.penet.fi +> >Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 03:01:05 UTC +> >Subject: My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the almighty +> >father +> >Lines: 102 +> > +> > +> >Brothers and Sisters in Christ: +> > +> >Hello all, this is once again Mrs. Dianna Leech writing to you +> >from my secure account within the Internet at America OnLine. +> >Over the last several weeks I have been only to post messages +> >to this message board on a sporadic basis. You see, I have been +> >out fighting in Washington D.C., for Christian values for one and +> >all. I hope to be able to write more within the next couple of days +> >and weeks and months to come. +> > +> >I see that there has been some debate as to whether or not I am Dawn +> >or whether I am Mimi. Why can't you people just accept the fact, that +> >I am who I am and that is Mrs. Dianna Leach. For those of you not +> >familiar with me, I am here to bring TOS to all the world. I will +> >bring AOL's TOS to every corner of the earth that has an Internet +> >connection -- it must be done in Jesus name. + +*** What is your quest? +*** I seek the Holy Grail! +*** What is your favorite color.... + +> > +> >After reading several hundred back messages in this group, I am +> >concerned about the direction it is taking -- but I also see some +> >progress. I see many more Christian women and men speaking up in +> >this discussion group who come from AOL. They are coming to defend +> >their morals and beliefs that the Internet is a vile disgusting place for +> >the worlds children to have to visit. + +*** You don't like it??? Don't use it! You don't eat a food you don't like. + +> > They understand that AOL is a +> >Christian community where we love one another and we can learn and +> >grow in this love. They understand that TOS is a well written +> >document that protects and defends Christian morals and values. + +*** Since when? I don't think it was Christian specific. + +> >AMEN. +> > This must and will continue. I'm happy to see more and more AOLers +> >and GNNers going out to all the Internet to spread the good news of +> >TOS and Jesus Christ. Mr. Jordan, don't give up the fight for what +> >you believe in.. God will send you a little miracle to let you know +> >that he is working on the big ones -- like converting all of the +> >Internet to AOL and TOS. + +*** God help us all :) + +> > +> >One thing that is particularly troubling to me is that I have been +> >seeing an ever increasing amount of obscene language and four letter +> >words used in the messages in this message base. Dear friends, be +> >warned that this type of behavior must not be continued any further. + +*** Shiver in fear! + +> >I am announcing my new policy of ZERO tolerance for those who use +> >curse and blasphemy words. We must realize, that this mess age +> >base is open to many children who may read these vulgar words. +> >If you use them, I will take several steps. For one, I will send the letter +> >to your sys admin with a copy of AOL's TOS to show them how you +> >violated common decency standards. + +*** Since when did AOL set the rules? Ever hear of the Internet Society? +*** Or even better, the CONSTITUTION???? Guess not... + +> > Next, I will forward to letter to +> >AOL's TOS for future reference so that accounts may be terminated +> >when AOL acquires all of the Internet. + +*** That will NEVER happen. If it does I'm going back to my hacking +*** ways. BIGTIME. + +> > I'm sorry I have to resort to these +> >tactics, but if you people can not abide by the voluntary rules that +> >AOL and Jesus Christ have set up for the Internet in its TOS document, + +*** I checked the Internet Societies member list. Jesus didn't make the cut +*** this year. + +> >then you will have to suffer the consequences. Note though, that you +> >will also suffer the consequences at the right hand of Jesus Christ on + +*** Isn't he a lefty? Or shouldn't he be ambidextrous so he isn't biased. + +> >judgment day as well. There is your warning -- please don't make me +> >resort to this. Also, this includes *EVERYONE* who is a participant +> >in this discussion group -- no one will be excluded (not even the all +> >powerful CABAL members). +> > +> >Secondly, I think that we should eradicate all known homosexuals +> >from participating in this discussion group. + +*** Can you say Bigot? Homosexuals (non flaming) are just regular +*** people with different sexual preferences. Nothing else. + +> > Lets make this a place +> >where we know our children will not be harmed. So, sorry Mr. Finley, +> >you'll have to go, and you better take Mr. McCracken (ASCII Rider) +> >with you, since we all really know that his sexual orientation leans +> >toward homosexuality - despite his attempts to hit on me. + +*** To quote a little known document "All men are created equal". + +> > +> >Third on my agenda, is to change the name of this group. The current +> >one is inappropriate at best. S*cks is not appropriate language for + +*** SUCKS is a bad word??? Bart Simpsons says bitch on TV and +*** SUCKS is a bad word???? That sucks. + +> >our christian children to be hearing. I'm open to suggestions on +> >this one. My real hope would be to just kill this group and take our +> >discussion over to alt.online-service.aol or something like that +> >lets wait though and see what suggestions we get for new names for +> >this group. OK? +> > +> >And finally, during this week that Jews celebrate their special +> >holidays, lets all say a special prayer for them that they will +> >someday know that their creator is Jesus Christ and they will join +> >with us in celebrating the body of our Lord and savior, Jesus +> >Christ, the most holy one. + +*** My god woman, your a Christian Nazi! + +> > +> >Well, there you have it people, three new agenda items -- short +> >term goals for this newsgroup. The Christian Women's League +> >long term goal of converting all of the Internet to AOL/TOS/Jesus +> >has not and will not change until complete conversion is at hand. + +*** You're going to be waiting a LONG time. + +> > +> >Now, let us reflect on what Jesus has given us and thank him for +> >that: +> > +> >Dear sweet Jesus, thank you again for providing the on-line community +> >with AOL. + +*** If Jesus invented AOL I think he did a better job with the Chia Pet. + +> > We thank you for the Christian Fellowship that we all +> >have come to enjoy on your network of choice. Thank you dear father +> >for writing TOS for us as a guideline on how you want us to act in +> >this day of global communications. + +*** Jesus is a technical writer for AOL? Must be working with Elvis. + +> > Dear Jesus, give us the strength to +> >always do your will, and we know your will is to free the net of +> >porn, homosexuality, and Christ haters. We know that only a powerful +> >document and Christian AOL GUIDES can accomplish this feat, but we +> >will do it in your name Jesus, forever and ever. AMEN. ALLELUIA! + +*** I keep getting flashes of Bill the Cat as Fundamental Bill and his +*** quest against penguin lust (remember that one?). + +> > +> >Sincerely and on behalf of HIS sorrowful passion, +> >Mrs. Dianna Leach +> >Christian Women's League +> > + +*** I'm conducting a playful little survey. +*** E-mail your answer to seaman@phobos.lib.iup.edu +*** - - - - - - - - - -cut here- - - - - - - - - - +*** This woman needs to: +*** +*** A) get laid +*** B) get the stick out of her ___________ (you fill it in) +*** C) Realize all people(PC) are created equal. +*** D) Realize that America was founded by people looking +*** for religious freedom +*** E) Go back to England during the middle ages when +*** the churches ran everything +*** F) Realize that if God really cared famine, war, and +*** plagues would not be happening. +*** G) (you fill in) +*** +*** Choose one and send it to Bone. Results will be in +*** the next newsletter! +*** +*** - - - - - - - - - -cut here- - - - - - - - - - + + +*************************************************************** + 5 REASONS WHY ONLINE SERVICES ARE DYING + by Marty Robinson + + There was a very interesting article in the Atlanta Journal- +Constitution today. It's a reprint from the Orange County Register and +was written by Stephen Lynch. + + This isn't the whole article, just the top 5 reasons online +services are on the way out. + +"1- They can't keep up with growth. AOL Spokeswoman Pam McGraw says the +service receives more than 4 million e-mail messages a day from outside +providers - but that volume forces delivery delays of about two hours. +Unlike the Web, which is scattered across a worldwide computer network, +commercial services route all their subscribers through the same +bottleneck and the users are charged for the delays. + +2- Too many graphics. Even on a high-speed modem, one page on (the online +services) can take forever to load. MSN spokesman Bill Miller says that +his service has been criticized by some users for it's abundant photos - +"from the result of us pushing the envelope." Make that "the result of +trying to make more money." On the Web, if something is taking too long to +load, you hit "Stop" and go elsewhere. Commercial services, in an effort +to run up your bill, make you load and load and load. + +3- They are losing their content providers. Almost everything you can find +on a commercial service can be found on the Web. And more content +providers are leaving the companies in favor of a broader audience. + +4- They've become blockades, not gateways. Commercial services have +realized the Web is the way to go, and the Big Four all feature browsers +to surf the general Internet. But to access the Web through AOL is to go +to New York by the way of Alaska. + +5- They know they are dying. AOL is starting a direct Internet service. So +is CompuServe. Microsoft tried to by 20 percent of Netscape. Apple +Computer is transforming the World into a direct Internet service." + +Mr. Lynch goes on to give one reason why online services are still not extinct: + +"One reason why commercial providers aren't dying: No one has invested in +a national service that you can load on your computer, double-click and +boom, Web access. Until that happens, easy-to-use commercial services may +still cling to Internet newbies, who are good for at least six months +before they realize they are being suckered." + +**************************************************************** + AOL4FREE - CAN I GET CAUGHT? + by ANONYMOUS + + A better question would be 'would they want to prosecute me if I'm +caught?' The answer depends on how easy it is to catch and trace you. A +little more than a week ago, certain persons in the underground community +found a security hole which allowed them to sign on any AOL account +without needing a password. While browsing around some TOS accounts, they +found EMAIL concerning AOL4Free. The letter you've all been massmailed in +the hack rooms explains how AOL can detect usage of AOL4Free. However, I +have managed to get my hands on a fuller version of the letter within +which AOL Staff admits plans to take legal action against AOL4Free +users. +Check it out: + +----------------------------------------------------------- + +Date: Mon, Sep 4, 1995 1:52 PM EDT +From: Appelman +Subj: Fwd: AOL4FREE detector +To: lippke@aol.net + +Posted on: America Online (using WAOL 2.5) + +Please supply her with the list of screen names. This will get +interesting. + +Barry + +-------------- +Forwarded Message: + +Date: Thu, Aug 31, 1995 4:32 PM EDT +From: MayLiang +Subj: Fwd: AOL4FREE detector +To: Appelman +cc: Dphillips, JMCHURCH + +Posted on: America Online (using WAOL 2.5) + +Barry-- + +This is great! I talked to Jane and what we need is a list of screen +names only (no member names or addresses--those need to be subpoenaed)of +the aol4free people. We then should get verification from TOS and then +hand them over to the Secret Service, but those are things you don't +have to worry about. So you may start whenever you're ready! + +May + +P.S. How's the patent application looking? :) + + +-------------- +Forwarded Message: + +Date: Thu, Aug 31, 1995 12:26 PM EDT +From: Appelman +Subj: Fwd: AOL4FREE detector +To: MayLiang + +Posted on: America Online (using WAOL 2.5) + +These people are idable as stealing time. I think we have enough? to go +forward with legal action. We are ready whenever you are. + +Barry + + +-------------- +Forwarded Message: + +Date: Thu, Aug 31, 1995 10:11 AM EDT +From: Lippke +Subj: AOL4FREE detector +To: KHuntsman, Steiny, JHunter +cc: Appelman, X066TR + +Posted on: America Online (using WAOL 2.5) + + Heh heh heh .. looks like we've got a reliable AOL4FREE detector. If +you filter the log for "CMis" you'll come up with what seems to be a +reliable list of AOL4FREE users. The CMis message is being output by the +terminal handler when it gets a holding area update carried in by a +q_context that doesn't have the same UID as the stored q_context. These +updates are all coming in from Library with the last token being set to +Dd. + Knowing that AOL4FREE sends in constant K1s and that K1 is marked +pre-login, I hypothesized that the thing must start sending in the swarms +of K1 tokens BEFORE the user is fully logged in --- and, sure enough, +when you look at the billing history of these folks, they pretty much all = +look normal until June (when AOL4FREE came out) and then they started racking +up 1000s of minutes of free time and almost no paid time. + With this bit of knowledge, we should be able to comb through the old +logs and come up with a fairly comprehensive hit list which could then = +be verified by TOS (although it looks like a positive lock!). Others can +decide what to do with them, but I have visions of all AOL4FREE hackers +getting simultaneously whacked. The prevention code still needs to go +into the TIH, but that'd sure send a shot over their bow! :-) + +/David + +----------------------------------------------------------- + + Looks pretty bad, doesn't it, with the Secret Service and everything. +But not to worry... with v4 of AOL4Free, you are much harder to detect! + + You see, what AOL4Free does is send the free token after every +real token. When you are signing on, you send the 'Dd' token with you +screen name and password, and a free 'K1' token is sent afterward. However, +because you aren't really signed on yet, AOL sees the K1 token as a bug +and records it in a log. All the Network Ops people had to do is search +their logs for this bug and viola, they had their AOL4Free users. + + v4 is modified so that it doesn't send the free token after 'Dd'. Users +of v4 are totally Stealth... they 'look' just like normal AOL users. The ONLY +way for AOL to identify them as AOL4Free users would be to record their +entire sessions... but with hundreds of thousands of mac users, how would +they pick out suspects? They could comb through billing records looking +for inordinate amounts of free time, but for privacy and technical reasons +this isn't feasible. + +NOTE: If you're calling from the 800 number, logging in over TCP, or have +not disabled caller ID with *67 AOL CAN TRACE YOU WITH THE PRESS +OF A BUTTON. PLEASE, if you're on a fake account or doing anything highly +illegal, sign onto AOL only through your local number. They'll need a +court order to find you there. + +*********************************************************** + AOL AND USENET ABUSE + by Dr. Suess (Doc@CatnHat.net) + + Recently I commented on my concerns about being removed +from my server at the request of America Online. Most would say this would +be inappropriate. My concerns derive from America Online's attitude that +they have the right to exercise control over FORMER America Online +members. + + This truly reminds me of a movie, The Godfather, which is about +the Mafia and is an excellent movie despite Marlon Brando. Once a member +of the Mafia you can never leave except as a deceased member. + + America Online seems to function the same way. Once a member +you will always belong to them. I am, like many, an ex-member of American +Online. I often refer to Steve Case as Cardinal Case. Perhaps I have been in +grevious error at great personal risk. Henceforth I will address him +with great respect as Don Case. I value my ISP account and would not +like to lose it nor become a member of the Federal Witness Protection +Program as I have enough difficulty keeping my name straight. + + Please note the first word of the second sentence of the paragraph +immediately following the header. + + ********** + +From: webedit@aol.net (Canceler Web Editor) +Newsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.announce +Followup-To: poster +Subject: 6 Oct 1995: Abuse Report from AOL +Date: 9 Oct 1995 21:53:00 GMT +Organization: America Online +Message-ID: <45c5js$7l7@newstf01.news.aol.com> + +This is an abbreviated report of USENET abuse by current and +ex-America Online members. Inclusion in this report indicates +that, as of this date, local action has been or is in the +process of being taken against the poster. + +All inappropriate articles have been canceled. No further +reports about these users are necessary. To report an instance +of USENET abuse which doesn't appear on this report, send mail +to postmaster@aol.com - please remember to include a complete +copy of the USENET article, including all headers, to help us +quickly quash the abuse. + +To make an emergency report of abuse, send complete copies of +the abuse to atropos@aol.net. + +America Online's USENET Terms of Service (acceptable usage policies) +are available via anonymous FTP at + + ftp://ftp.aol.com/pub/usenet/aol-usenet-aup.txt. + +Comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome via e-mail to +atropos@aol.net. + +USER INCIDENTS (5+) DESCRIPTION (if appl.) +===================================================== +beachstdes 19 commercial +bluesees 5 monetary chain-letter +christo440 7 commercial +coolshari 1 non-binary in binary newsgroup +cwigley657 4 non-binary in binary newsgroup +hotbod2117 21 non-binary in binary newsgroup +jacenjen 5 commercial +juepaman 1 illegal activity +juepaman 46 illegal activity +juepaman 46 illegal activity +jvitaly 1 illegal activity +llyg 16 commercial +los1lag2 39 inappropriate/TERMINATED +rashr 8 inappropriate +sleuth1801 450 commercial +thofm0428 27 inappropriate + +Ed Brundage +Internet Feedback, Response, and Information Team +America Online, Inc. +ifritfox@aol.com or foxman@aol.net + +-- +All postings to news.admin.net-abuse.announce are unconfirmed and +unverified unless stated otherwise by the moderators. All opinions +expressed above are considered the opinions of the original poster, +not the moderators or their respective employers. + +For a copy of the guidelines to this group, see: +http://www.math.psu.edu/barr/net-abuse-guidelines.html + + ************* + +Is this a matter of semantics or a matter of attitude? One nice thing +about me is that you will always know where I stand on an issue. I am +assertive, aggressive and tend to call it as it is rather than as I see +it. Based on my prior experiences with America OnMafia documented in +earlier posts I suspect this is an attitude problem. + +"quickly quash" ? quash: crush; subdue + +Kiralynne, a dubious lady of a thousand names and even more personalities. + +hmmmm... thinking again... I wonder if the illegal activity was reported +to the appropriate authorities?? + +hmmmm... thinking again... if the activity was illegal why was the member +not terminated?? + +hmmmm...hee hee... inappropriate = terminated illegal = cancelled post + +Hello?? Hello?? Anybody home?? Odd... the lights are on but... + +************************************************************* + LITTLE THING ON TECHNOLOGY + by Layne + + Well, as you might know all of the good, high quality games out +today like Under the Killing Moon, Magic Carpet 2, and the others are +CD-ROM based games. You might see this as a problem because you are +being required to access the data as fast as possible AND even multiple +disks are becoming frequent. I am sure that most of you out there would +like to have many games. What I mean is that, sure you can install one +large CD game on your hard drive completely, but only one. Now what +current technology is working on is faster CD-ROM drives as well as +multiple drives on your home used PCs. For instance, remember when 2x +drives were first out, you thought WOW! Well, know I am seeing PCs that +come with 3 (yes 3!) 4x CD-ROM drives in your machine or try out the 6x +SCSI CD-ROM, that baby can cook. Well enough from that end. + + Have you noticed that just a year ago Pentium was just coming out +and had all kinds of problems, and now you can own a little P-75 for just +under $1,500. These are probably the best kind of machine to own in the +home, unless your super rich and would prefer an SGI or SUNSparcstation. +The internet is expanding so fast that you must be connected or you will +be lost in less than a year. I mean, sooner or later there will be +multi-player interactive and fully graphical operating games. I mean +right now MUDs and MUSHs and IRCs seem really nice, but what about a +couple of years from now when something like Johnny Mneumonic comes to +life just about everyone will be fully immersed. Life as we know it +today will be gone and if you're not at least 10% cyber-literate then +you'll never know what's happening because it'll probably all be computer +updated. + + +******** + +-EOF + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/crocker.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/crocker.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fa794d39 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/crocker.txt @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ + Planning Threatens Freedom + by C. Brandon Crocker + + Is the American economy too free? Many people think so. +Socialists have long advocated central economic planning, +and, under the guise of "national economic policy," such +ideas are working their way into the programs of the major +political parties. + The persistent appeal of central planning would seem +anomalous, given the poor relative performance of planned +economies versus free economies. But economic efficiency is +not the only, nor necessarily the most compelling argument +against central planning. Economic planning threatens all +individual freedoms, and must be analyzed in terms of these +threats. + How does central planning threaten individual liberty? +To find the answer, we must consider what central planning is +and how it works. The goals of central planning are to +create high growth, minimize unemployment, and sometimes to +provide an "equitable" income distribution, or to protect the +environment. Proponents believe these goals can be achieved +by using government to intercede in the "chaos" of the free +market so as to redirect the nation's resources and design an +"optimal" mix of industries. + The losses to individual freedom from this type of +system are obvious. To make sure the economic plan is +followed, government must interfere with the freedom of +individuals to start businesses, to invest and work where +they choose, and even to consume certain goods and services. + A nation's economy is nothing more than the decisions of +individuals as to what to produce and consume. Therefore, a +government-controlled economy means government-controlled +people. If government is to enforce an economic plan, it +cannot have people starting whatever businesses they like or +investing capital wherever they wish. Certain fields of +employment will have to be forcibly curtailed and certain +goods and services (either already available or which could +be made available) will have to prevented from reaching the +population -- because control of what is produced is +necessarily control of what is consumed. + These are not insignificant losses of freedom. +Proponents of central planning, however, deny that there is +any major restriction of occupational choice under economic +planning. To be sure, some restriction will take place in +"undesirable" industries targeted to be phased out, +curtailed, or not allowed to start up, but this will be done +for the "social good." Furthermore, central planning in +practice often saves jobs, they claim, in industries which +would be abandoned in a free market, thus preserving the +freedom of many people to pursue the occupations of their +choice. + These arguments, however, are invalid. First, whether +jobs are taken away for the "social good" or not doesn't +alter the fact that freedom of choice, in terms of available +options, has been diminished. Second, while the free +operation of the market does cause some people to leave their +chosen occupations when industries become obsolete, there is +a great difference between not being able to follow one's +chosen occupation because no one is willing to pay for a +particular product or service, and not being able to follow +one's occupation because of government edict. In the first +instance freedom of action is not being denied and the +freedom of people to make (or not make) contracts is +preserved. In the second instance, the opposite is true. + Is the individual freedom lost so onerous as to outweigh +such professed benefits as security against involuntary +unemployment and destitution? An acquaintance from Norway, +living under a semi-socialist system, thinks not. He likes +the feeling of security. He even asserts, as do many +Norwegians, that government should tell people what they +should and should not do because most people do not know how +best to take care of themselves (and the government does). + This is security at a price, certainly. But in addition +to the individual freedoms already lost by such a scheme, +this brand of security comes at the expense of something of +far greater value -- security against arbitrary power and +despotism -- in a word, security against totalitarianism. + The serious implementation of any significant economic +plan will lead to increasing governmental dominance in the +running of industry and make possible the easy abduction of +most political and economic freedoms. There will be an +inevitable conflict between business and the economic +planners. To regulate millions of individual businesses in +such a complete way (output, number of employees, use of raw +materials, etc.) without the cooperation of those businesses +will be impossible -- especially considering that business +will feel that policy may change with the next election. The +solution to an uncooperative private sector will be to make +individual companies better serve the "public interest" +through measures such as nationalization and government +controlled syndicates. + Government control of the economy leads not only to +power over production, but also to power over consumption and +distribution. Substituting the price system with government +edicts takes the distribution of goods and services out of +the hands of individual buyers and sellers, and places it +into the hands of a central authority. With this power the +central authority can wield great control over the populace. + George Orwell, commenting on Friedrich Hayek's classic +book, The Road to Serfdom, remarked, "It cannot be said too +often -- at any rate it is not being said nearly enough -- +that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the +contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the +Spanish inquisition never dreamt of." To believe that such a +vast concentration power will not be used at some point to +oppress the population is to deny the history of mankind. +The world is full of maniacs and coercive utopians -- many of +whom are interested in political power, as history well +shows. + All totalitarian regimes rely heavily on economic +controls to coerce their subjects. The efforts of Hitler's +National Socialists to oppress Jews and other minority groups +were greatly facilitated by the Nazi government's control of +employment and the distribution of goods. The Soviets use +economic controls to pressure dissidents, and they even use +their system of rationing to create high voter turnouts for +their one-candidate elections -- if you don't vote, you don't +receive your ration cards. Those not rigidly conforming to +Maoist doctrine during the Cultural Revolution often lost +their jobs, no matter how valuable their skills. China's +current one-child policy is enforced by a series of economic +"benefits" which include jobs, salaries, and rations. The +success of the Chinese central planners in enforcing such an +unpopular policy which meets the resistance of centuries of +Chinese tradition shows how great the power a government can +wield over its people when it controls the economy. + Neither Germany in 1933, Russia in 1917, nor China in +1949 had long traditions of democracy and political and +economic freedom. The United States, in contrast, has a long +and deeply ingrained tradition of democracy and freedom, as +well as constitutional arrangements which make quickly +installed tyranny unlikely. This is no reason, however, to +feel safe in taking steps to weaken that tradition and to +make possible great abrogation of individual freedom. Free +societies have been, and still are, very rare and fragile. +Freedoms taken for granted and not carefully safeguarded do +not last long. The loss of economic freedom is a major crack +in the foundation of any free society. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/crockett.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/crockett.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d2b2ef7d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/crockett.txt @@ -0,0 +1,329 @@ + PUBLIC MONIES AND PRIVATE SUPPLICATIONS + by Davy Crockett + + [ShareDebate International editor's note: the + copyright for the below has expired eons ago and is in + the public domain. It was reprinted in The Washington + Times National Weekly Edition, February 6-12, 1995, + page 33.] + + [Washington Times Editor's note: This argument by Davy + Crockett against the principle of wealth distribution + first was published in "The Life of Colonel David + Crockett,"compiled by Edward S. Ellis and published + in 1884. It appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch] + + "Several years ago, I was one evening standing on the + steps of the Capitol with some other members of + Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great + light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a large + fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as + we could. + + "In spite of all that could be done, many houses were + burned and many families made homeless, and, besides, + some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. + The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many + women and children suffering, I felt that something + ought to be done for them. + + "The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating + $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other + business and rushed it through as soon as it could be + done. + + "The next summer, when it began to be a time to think + about the election, I concluded that I would take a + scout around among the boys of my district. I had no + opposition there, but, as the election was some time + off, I did not know what might turn up." + + + A stranger's curt greeting + + "When riding one day in a part of my district in which + I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man + in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I + gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to + the fence. As he came up, I spoke to the man. He + replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly. + + "I began: 'Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate + beings called candidates, and . . . ' + + "'Yes, I know you; you are Colonel Crockett, I have + seen you once before, and voted for you the last time + you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering + now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I + shall not vote for you again.' + + "This was a sockdolager. . . I begged him to tell me + what was the matter." + + "'Well, Colonel, it is hardly worthwhile to waste + time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be + mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows + that either you have no capacity to understand the + Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty + and firmness to be guided by it. + + "'In either case you are not the man to represent me. + But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I + did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the + constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the + purpose of insulting or wounding you. + + "I intend by it only to say that your understanding + of the Constitution is different from mine; and I will + say to you what, but for my rudeness, I should not + have said, that I believe you to be honest . . . but + an understanding of the Constitution different from + mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to + be worth having, must be held sacred, and rigidly + observed in all its provisions. The man who wields + power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the + more honest he is.' " + + "I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be + some mistake about it, for I do not remember that I + gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional + question." + + + Crockett's vote on bill recalled + + "'No, Colonel, there's no mistake. Though I live here + in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the + papers from Washington and read very carefully all the + proceedings of Congress. My papers say that last + winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to + some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown. Is that true? " + + "Well, my friend, I may as well own up. You have got + me there. But certainly no one will complain that a + great and rich country should not give the + insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering + women, particularly with a full and overflowing + treasury, and am sure, if you had been there you would + have done just as I did." + + "'It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of + it is the principle. In the first place, the + government ought to have in the treasury no more than + enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has + nothing to do with the question. The power of + collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the + most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, + particularly under our system of collecting revenue by + tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no + matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is, the + more he pays in proportion to his means. + + "'What is worse, it presses upon him without his + knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a + man in the United States who can ever guess how much + he pays to the government. So you see that while you + are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it + from thousands who are even worse off than he. + + "'If you had the right to give him anything, the + amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and + you had as much right to give $20 million as $20,000. + If you have the right to give to one, you have the + right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither + defines nor stipulates the amount, you are at-liberty + to give to any and everything which you may believe, + or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount + you may think proper.' " + + + Wide door to robbing people + + "'You will very easily perceive what a wide door this + would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on + the one hand, and for robbing the people, on the + other. No, Colonel. Congress has no right to give + charity. Individual members may give as much of their + own money as they please, but they have no right to + touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. + + "'If twice as many houses had been burned in this + district as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other + member of Congress would have thought of appropriating + a dollar for our relief. There are about 240 members + of Congress. + + "'If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers + by contributing each one week's pay, it would have + made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in + and around Washington who could have given $20,000 + without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. + The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, + if reports be true, some of them spend not very + creditably. And the people about Washington, no doubt, + applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of + giving by giving what was not yours to give. + + "'The people have delegated to Congress, by the + Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do + these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and + for nothing else. Everything beyond this is + usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution. + + "'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the + Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a + precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when + Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the + limits~of the Constitution there is no limit to it, + and no security for the people. I have no doubt you + acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, + except as far as you are personally concerned, and you + see that I cannot vote for you. + + + Critic could persuade others + + "I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have + opposition, and this man should go to talking, he + would set others to talking, and in that district I + was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the + fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I + did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to + him: + + "'Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head + when you said I had not sense enough to understand the + Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and + thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many + speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but + what you have said here at your plow has got more + hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I + ever heard. + + "'If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I + would have put my head into the fire before I would + have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and + vote for me again, if I ever vote for another + unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.' " + + "He laughingly replied: 'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn + to that once before, but I will trust you again upon + one condition. You say that you are convinced that + your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do + more good than beating you for it. If, as you go + around the district, you will tell people about this + vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will + not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep + down opposition, and, perhaps, I may exert some little + influence in that way.' " + + "'If I don't,' said I, 'I wish I may be shot; and to + convince you that I am in earnest in what I say, I + will come back this way in a week or 10 days, and if + you will get up a gathering of people, I will make a + speech to them. Get up a barbeque and I will pay for + it.' " + + "'No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this + section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute + for a barbeque, and some to spare for those who have + none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, + and we can then afford a day for a barbeque. This is + Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday. + Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, + and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and + hear you.' " + + "Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I + say goodbye. I must know your name." + + "'My name is Bunce.' " + + "Not Horatio Bunce?" + + "'Yes.' + + ""Well, Mr. Bunce. I never saw you before, though you + say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am + glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope + to have you for my friend. + + "It is one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met + him. He mingled but little with the public but was + widely known for his remarkable intelligence and + incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and + running over with kindness and benevolence, which + showed themselves not only in words but in acts." + + + His fame extended far and wide + + "He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and + his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his + immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him + before, I had heard much of him, and but for this + meeting it is very likely I should have had + opposition, and been beaten. One thing is very + certain, no man could now stand up in that district + under such a vote. + + "At the appointed time I was at his house, having told + our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to + every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it + gave the people an interest and a confidence in me + stronger than I had ever seen manifested before. + + "Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his + house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have + gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight + talking about the principles and affairs of + government, and got more real, true knowledge of them + than I had got all my life before. + + "I have known and seen much of him since, for I + respect him no, that is not the word - I reverence and + love him more than any living man, and I go to see him + two or three times every year; and I will tell you, + sir, if everyone who professes to be a Christian lived + and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of + Christ would take the world by storm. + + "But to return to my story. The next morning we went + to the barbeque, and, to my surprise, found about a + thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not + known before, and they and my friend introduced me + around until I had got pretty well acquainted - at + least, they all knew me. + + "In due time notice was given that I would speak to + them. They gathered up around a stand that had been + erected. I opened my speech by saying: + + "'Fellow citizens - I present myself before you today + feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been + opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or + both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I + can today offer you the ability to render you more + valuable service than I have ever been able to render + before. + + "'I am here today more for the purpose of + acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I + should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as + well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a + matter for your consideration only.' " + + "I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for + the appropriation and then told them why I was + satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying: + + "'And now, fellow citizens, it remains only for me to + tell you that most of the speech you have listened to + with so much interest was simply a repetition of the + arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced + me of my error. + + It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he + is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is + satisfied with his convert and that he will get up + here and tell you so.' " diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/crypanmf.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/crypanmf.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b0b3bfd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/crypanmf.txt @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ +From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) +Subject: The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto +Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 12:11:24 PST + +Cypherpunks of the World, + +Several of you at the "physical Cypherpunks" gathering yesterday in +Silicon Valley requested that more of the material passed out in +meetings be available electronically to the entire readership of the +Cypherpunks list, spooks, eavesdroppers, and all. + +Here's the "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" I read at the September 1992 +founding meeting. It dates back to mid-1988 and was distributed to +some like-minded techno-anarchists at the "Crypto '88" conference and +then again at the "Hackers Conference" that year. I later gave talks +at Hackers on this in 1989 and 1990. + +There are a few things I'd change, but for historical reasons I'll +just leave it as is. Some of the terms may be unfamiliar to you...I +hope the Crypto Glossary I just distributed will help. + +(This should explain all those cryptic terms in my .signature!) + +--Tim May + +................................................... + +The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto + +Timothy C. May +tcmay@netcom.com + + +A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto +anarchy. + +Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for +individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other +in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange +messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts +without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. +Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re- +routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which +implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance +against any tampering. Reputations will be of central importance, far +more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. +These developments will alter completely the nature of government +regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the +ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of +trust and reputation. + +The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a social +and economic revolution--has existed in theory for the past decade. +The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge +interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for +interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now +been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences +monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But only recently +have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient +speed to make the ideas practically realizable. And the next ten +years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas +economically feasible and essentially unstoppable. High-speed +networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band +transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips +now under development will be some of the enabling technologies. + +The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this +technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology +by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration. +Many of these concerns will be valid; crypto anarchy will allow +national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen +materials to be traded. An anonymous computerized market will +even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and +extortion. Various criminal and foreign elements will be active users +of CryptoNet. But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy. + +Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of +medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will +cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations +and of government interference in economic transactions. Combined +with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a +liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words +and pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed +wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus +altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the +frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an +arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which +dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property. + +Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences! + + +-- +.......................................................................... +Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, +tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero +408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, +W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. +Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: by arrangement. + + + + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cryptoa.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cryptoa.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3b00688c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cryptoa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ + +From cracked@primenet.com Sat Oct 19 17:49:15 1996 +Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 22:38:28 -0700 (MST) +To: cracked@primenet.com +From: CrACKeD +Message-ID: <199610190538.WAA27296@primenet.com> +Subject: Crypto Anarchist Manifesto + +From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) +Subject: The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto +Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 12:11:24 PST + +Cypherpunks of the World, + +Several of you at the "physical Cypherpunks" gathering yesterday in +Silicon Valley requested that more of the material passed out in +meetings be available electronically to the entire readership of the +Cypherpunks list, spooks, eavesdroppers, and all. + +Here's the "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" I read at the September 1992 +founding meeting. It dates back to mid-1988 and was distributed to +some like-minded techno-anarchists at the "Crypto '88" conference and +then again at the "Hackers Conference" that year. I later gave talks +at Hackers on this in 1989 and 1990. + +There are a few things I'd change, but for historical reasons I'll +just leave it as is. Some of the terms may be unfamiliar to you...I +hope the Crypto Glossary I just distributed will help. + +(This should explain all those cryptic terms in my .signature!) + +--Tim May + +................................................... + +The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto + +Timothy C. May +tcmay@netcom.com + + +A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto +anarchy. + +Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for +individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other +in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange +messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts +without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. +Interactions over networks will be untraceable, via extensive re- +routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which +implement cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance +against any tampering. Reputations will be of central importance, far +more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. +These developments will alter completely the nature of government +regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the +ability to keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of +trust and reputation. + +The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a social +and economic revolution--has existed in theory for the past decade. +The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge +interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for +interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now +been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences +monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But only recently +have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient +speed to make the ideas practically realizable. And the next ten +years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas +economically feasible and essentially unstoppable. High-speed +networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band +transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips +now under development will be some of the enabling technologies. + +The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this +technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology +by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration. +Many of these concerns will be valid; crypto anarchy will allow +national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen +materials to be traded. An anonymous computerized market will +even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and +extortion. Various criminal and foreign elements will be active users +of CryptoNet. But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy. + +Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of +medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will +cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations +and of government interference in economic transactions. Combined +with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a +liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words +and pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed +wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus +altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the +frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an +arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which +dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property. + +Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences! + + +-- +.......................................................................... +Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, +tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero +408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, +W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. +Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: by arrangement. + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cslaw.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cslaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ce4a793b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cslaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,283 @@ +Gary S. Morris +GSM Associates +Suite 202 +7338 Lee Highway +Falls Church, Virginia 22046 +(703) 685-3021 + + + + Computer Security and the Law + +I. Introduction + + You are a computer administrator for a large manufacturing +company. In the middle of a production run, all of the +mainframes on a crucial network grind to a halt. Production is +delayed costing your company hundreds of thousands of dollars. +Upon investigating, you find that a virus was released into the +network through a specific account. When you confront the owner +of the account, he claims he neither wrote nor released the +virus, but admits that he has distributed his password to +"friends" who need ready access to his data files. Is he liable +for the loss suffered by your company? In whole, or in part? And +if in part, for how much? These and related questions are the +subject of computer security law. The answers may vary depending +on the state in which the crime was committed and the judge who +presides at the trial. Computer security law is a new field, and +the legal establishment has yet to reach broad agreement on many +key issues. Even the meaning of such basic terms as "data" can be +the subject of contention. + + Advances in computer security law have been impeded by the +reluctance on the part of lawyers and judges to grapple with the +technical side of computer security issues [1]. This problem +could be mitigated by involving technical computer security +professionals in the development of computer security law and +public policy. This article is meant to help bridge the gap +between the technical and legal computer security communities by +explaining key technical ideas behind computer security for +lawyers and presenting some basic legal background for technical +professionals. + +II. The Technological Perspective + + A. The Objectives of Computer Security + + The principal objective of computer security is to protect +and assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of +automated information systems and the data they contain. Each of +these terms has a precise meaning which is grounded in basic +technical ideas about the flow of information in automated +information systems. + + B. Basic Concepts + Š There is a broad, top-level consensus regarding the meaning +of most technical computer security concepts. This is partly +because of government involvement in proposing, coordinating, and +publishing the definitions of basic terms [2]. The meanings of +the terms used in government directives and regulations are +generally made to be consistent with past usage. This is not to +say that there is no disagreement over definitions in the +technical community. Rather, the range of such disagreement is +much narrower than in the legal community. For example, there is +presently no legal consensus on exactly what constitutes a +computer [3]. + + The term used to establish the scope of computer security is +"automated information system," often abbreviated "AIS." An AIS +is any assembly of electronic equipment, hardware, software, and +firmware configured to collect, create, communicate, disseminate, +process, store, and control data or information. This includes +numerous items beyond the central processing unit and associated +random access memory, such as input/output devices (keyboards, +printers, etc.) + + Every AIS is used by subjects to act upon objects. A +subject is any active entity that causes information to flow +among passive entities called objects. For example, subject +could be a person typing commands which transfer information from +a keyboard (an object) to memory (another object), or a process +running on the central processing unit that is sending +information from a file (an object) to a printer (another +object). + + Confidentiality is roughly equivalent to privacy. If a +subject circumvents confidentiality measures designed to prevent +its access to an object, the object is said to be "compromised." +Confidentiality is the most advanced area of computer security +because the U.S. Department of Defense has invested heavily for +many years to find ways to maintain the confidentiality of +classified data in AIS [4]. This investment has produced the +Department of Defense Trusted Computer System Evaluation +Criteria [5], alternatively called the Orange Book after the +color of its cover. The Orange Book is perhaps the single most +authoritative document about protecting the confidentiality of +data in classified AIS. + + Integrity measures are meant to protect data from +unauthorized modification. The integrity of an object can be +assessed by comparing its current state to its original or +intended state. An object which has been modified by a subject +without proper authorization is said to be "corrupted." +Technology for ensuring integrity has lagged behind that for +confidentiality [4]. This is because the integrity problem has +until recently been addressed by restricting access to AIS to +trustworthy subjects. Today, the integrity threat is no longer +tractable exclusively through access control. The desire for +wide connectivity through networks and the increased use of +commercial-off-the-shelf software has limited the degree to which Šmost AISs can trust its subjects. Work in integrity has been +accelerating over the past few years, and will likely become as +important a priority as confidentiality in the future. + + Availability means having an AIS and its associated objects +accessible and functional when needed by its user community. +Attacks against availability are called denial of service +attacks. For example, a subject may release a virus which +absorbs so much processor time that the AIS becomes overloaded. +This area is by far the least well developed of the three +security properties, largely for technical reasons involving the +formal verification of AIS designs [4]. Although such +verification is not likely to become a practical reality for many +years, techniques such as fault tolerance and software +reliability are used to mitigate the effects of denial of service +attacks. + + C. Computer Security Requirements + + The three security properties of confidentiality, integrity, +and availability are achieved by labeling the subjects and +objects in an AIS and regulating the flow of information between +them according to a predetermined set of rules called a security +policy. The security policy specifies which subject labels can +access which object labels. For example, suppose you went +shopping and had to present your driver's license to pick up some +badges assigned to you at the entrance, each listing a brand +name. The policy at this store is that you can only buy brand +names listed on one of your badges. At the check-out line, the +cashier compares the brand name of each object you want to buy +with the names on your badges. If there's a match, she rings it +up. But if you choose a brand name which doesn't appear on one +of your badges, she puts it back on the shelf. You could be +sneaky and alter a badge, or pretend to be your neighbor who has +more badges than you, or find a clerk who will turn a blind eye. +No doubt the store would employ a host of measures to prevent you +from cheating. The same situation exists on secure computer +systems. Security measures are employed to prevent illicit +tampering with labels, positively identify subjects, and provide +assurance that the security measures are doing the job correctly. +A comprehensive list of minimal requirements to secure an AIS are +presented in the Orange Book [5]. + +III. The Legal Perspective + + A. Sources of Computer Law + + The three branches of government, legislative, +executive and judicial, produce quantities of computer law which +are inveresly proportional to the amount of coordination needed +for its enactment. The legislative branch, consisting of the +Congress and fifty state legislatures, produce the smallest +amount of law which is worded in the most general terms. For +example, the Congress may pass a bill mandating that sensitive +information in government computers must be protected. The Šexecutive branch, consisting of the Executive Office of the +President and numerous agencies, issues regulations which +implement the bills passed by legislatures. Thus, the Department +of Commerce may issue regulations which establish criteria for +determining when economic information is sensitive and describe +how it must be protected. Finally, the judicial branch serves as +an avenue of appeal and decides the meaning of the laws and +regulations in specific cases. After the decisions are issued +(and in some cases appealed) they are taken as the word of the +law in legally similar situations. + + B. Current Views on Computer Crime + + Currently, there is no universal agreement in the legal +community on what constitutes a computer crime. One reason is +the rapidly changing state of computer technology. For example, +in 1979, the U.S. Department of Justice publication [6] +partitioned computer crime into three categories: 1) Computer +abuse, "the broad range of international acts involving a +computer where one or more perpetrators made or could have made +gain and one or more victims suffered or could have suffered a +loss;" 2) Computer crime, "illegal computer abuse [that] implies +direct involvement of computers in committing a crime;" and +3) Computer-related crime, "any illegal act for which a +knowledge of computer technology is essential for successful +prosecution." These definitions have become blurred by the vast +proliferation of computers and computer related products over the +last decade. For example, does altering an inventory bar code at +a store constitute computer abuse? Should a person caught in +such an act be prosecuted under both theft and computer abuse +laws? Clearly, advances in computer technology should be +mirrored by parallel changes in computer law. + + Another attempt to describe the essential features of +computer crime has been made by Wolk and Luddy [1]. They claim +that the majority of crimes committed against or with the use of +a computer can be classified as follows: + + 1) Sabotage: "Involves an attack against the entire + [computer] system or against its subcomponents, and may be + the product of foreign power involvement or penetration by a + competitor..." + 2) Theft of services: "Using a computer at someone else's + expense." + 3) Property crimes involving the "theft of property by and + through the use of computers." [7] + +A good definition of computer crime should capture all acts which +are criminal and involve computers and only those acts. Assessing +the completeness of a definition seems problematic, but is +tractable using technical computer security concepts. For +example, consider the following matrix: + + + Confidentiality Integrity Availability Š +Sabotage X X + +Theft of Services X + +Property Crimes X X + + +This shows that Wolk and Luddy's categorization is strong with +respect to availability and weaker in the areas of +confidentiality and integrity. Indeed, upon closer examination +it becomes apparent that there are ways to violate +confidentiality and integrity which do not constitute sabotage, +theft of services, or property crimes. For example, a Trojan +horse could append code to a word processor which sends copies of +a user's confidential text as messages to the perpetrator's +electronic mailbox. This isn't sabotage because no AIS +functionality was destroyed or even altered; theft of services +does not apply if the perpetrator is paying for his electronic +mail account; and unless the confidential text was copyrighted, +it is not a property crime. This analysis is significant because +it demonstrates that examining a legal concept from a technical +perspective can yield insights into its strengths and weaknesses +and even suggest avenues for improvement. + +IV. Conclusion + + The development of effective computer security law and +public policy cannot be accomplished without cooperation between +the technical and legal communities. The inherently abstruse +nature of computer technology and the importance of the social +issues it generates demand the combined talents of both. At +stake is not only a fair and just interpretation of the law as it +pertains to computers, but more basic issues involving the +protection of civil rights. Technological developments have +challenged these rights in the past and have been met with laws +and public policies which have regulated their use. For example, +the invention of the telegraph and telephone gave rise to privacy +laws pertaining to wire communications. We need to meet advances +in automated information technology with legislation that +preserves civil liberties and establishes legal boundaries for +protecting confidentiality, integrity, and assured service. Legal +and computer professionals have a vital role in meeting this +challenge together. + + REFERENCES + +[1] Stuart R. Wolk and William J. Luddy Jr., "Legal Aspects of +Computer Use," Prentice Hall, 1986, pg. 129. + +[2] National Computer Security Center, "Glossary of Computer +Security Terms," 21 October 1988. + +[3] Thomas R. Mylott III, "Computer Law for the Computer +Professional," Prentice Hall, 1984, pg. 131. Š +[4] Gasser, Morrie, "Building a Secure Computer System," Van +Nostrand, 1988. + +[5] Department of Defense, "Department of Defense Trusted +Computer System Evaluation Criteria," December 1985. + +[6] United States Department of Justice, "Computer Crime, +Criminal Justice Resource Manual," 1979. + +[7] Wolk and Luddy, pg. 117. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cyber.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cyber.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e14723da --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cyber.txt @@ -0,0 +1,671 @@ + + +This article is from NameBase NewsLine, which is distributed to users of +NameBase, a microcomputer database with 170,000 citations and 78,000 names. +This 3-megabyte database is available on floppy disks and is used by over +700 journalists and researchers around the world. For a brochure write to: + + Public Information Research, PO Box 680635, San Antonio TX 78268 + Tel: 210-509-3160 Fax: 210-509-3161 + +From NameBase NewsLine, No. 2, July-August 1993: + + + Cyberspace Wars: Microprocessing vs. Big Brother + + by Daniel Brandt + + Just ten years ago the issues were so simple, the arguments so clean. +The concept of hackers was cute and quaint, best understood through +Hollywood thrillers like "War Games." The major media had yet to use +the word "cyberspace," a term just then created by William Gibson in +Neuromancer, his first masterpiece in a strange new genre of "cyberpunk" +fiction. + + It was ten years ago that establishment liberal David Burnham wrote +"The Rise of the Computer State" with Ford, Rockefeller, and Aspen +Institute money. This book ignored microprocessing and limited its +nightmarish vision to the dangers posed by Big Brother's mainframes. One +chapter covered the threat posed by the National Security Agency (NSA), +the largest U.S. intelligence agency with the world's best computers, an +agency that is not subjected to any oversight. In the mid-1970s the Senate +Intelligence Committee headed by Frank Church warned that "if not properly +controlled," the NSA's technology "could be turned against the American +people at a great cost to liberty." For thirty years the NSA obtained +copies of most telex messages entering and leaving the U.S., and the CIA +illegally intercepted thousands of first-class letters as they left the +country. If the high-tech NSA were ever turned against us, Church said, +"no American would have any privacy left.... There would be no place to +hide."[1] + + One word -- privacy -- summed up the debate nicely then, because Big +Brother had a monopoly on computing power. But some cracks were already +appearing in this pre-cyberspace version of the problem. In 1978 the +Carter administration admitted that the Soviets were tapping into +microwave links in New York, Washington, and San Francisco; microwave was +like a sieve compared to the old underground intercity telephone cables. +That was only a minor irritant compared to January 15, 1990, when half +of the entire AT&T network crashed due to a single software bug. The +technicians in the hardware lab where I worked used to kid the software +engineers, saying that if civilization had developed the way programmers +write programs, one woodpecker could come along and bring it all down. + + Also in 1978 the NSA began harassing certain mathematicians in +the private sector, claiming "sole authority to fund research in +cryptography."[2] Then came the microprocessor. Within a few years every +mass-market magazine for microcomputer hobbyists was running an occasional +article on new encryption techniques, and the NSA couldn't keep the lid +on. Hackers were experimenting on their crude machines with a technique +called "public key cryptography."[3] A recent estimate has it that "a +buildingful of NSA's specially hot-rodded supercomputers might take a day +to crack a 140-digit code," but from NSA's point of view that's not good +enough. Today's micros are roughly 100 times faster with 100 times the +capacity of the machine I bought ten years ago; the price is lower and it +fits on your lap. They can easily encrypt and decrypt with keys this size. +While the world's most powerful supercomputer grinds all day to crack one +key, "what is it going to do when 100 million people each use 100 +different keys per day?"[4] Big Brother has suddenly lost his monopoly on +encryption technology, and hackers everywhere could not be more delighted. + + Yes, the rules of the game have changed, due primarily to the rapid +evolution of microprocessing power. The simple concept of "privacy" no +longer works as well as it did for Frank Church and David Burnham. The +little guy on his microcomputer bulletin board system (BBS) -- by one +estimate there are now 60,000 of these in the U.S.[5] -- wants privacy +from Big Brother, but corporations will also be screaming for privacy as +they adopt the new encryption technology. And then what about +transnational corporations seeking to avoid government intrusion? Or +organized crime and international drug cartels? One, two, many Big +Brothers? Privacy for whom? + + William Gibson's vision in Neuromancer may read like heaven for +hackers, but for the rest of us the term "cyberpunk" seems about right. We +shudder at Gibson's future, where transnational corporations hold all the +wealth and all the information, and outcast data pirates must jack into +their cyberspace decks, maneuver around the "black ice" of corporate data +security systems, and forage for their livelihoods. It's rather like +children stealing food from garbage cans, but it all seems like ice cream +to the hackers who find this inspiring. + + The hacker ethic is a laissez-faire vision of total freedom to +microcompute and telecommute, a world of unbreakable encryption, anonymous +E-Money transfers, and lately talk of a fiber-optic data superhighway, +leading to a place in cyberspace where everyone can connect with anyone. +They even have their own Washington lobby. Electronic Frontier Foundation +(EFF) started out with funding from Mitch Kapor and a few other computer +millionaires, but is now underwritten by IBM, Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, MCI, +Bell Atlantic, Adobe, the Newspaper Association of America, and the +National Cable Television Association.[6] And the word "cyberspace" is +trumpeted in Scientific American, Time, Washington Post, and The New +Republic. We can expect to see it soon in Webster's. This is bigger than +a handful of hackers, and it's time to become conversant with the issues. + + There IS a new reality, and we needed a new word. But more than a +mere reality, it's a massive moving target careening blindly into the +future. No one has a handle on it. Cyberpunk novelist Bruce Sterling +worries about hacker ethics, one narrow slice of the big picture, but he +doesn't pretend to have many answers.[7] The Washington office of Computer +Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) is in the same building as +EFF, and both work against the NSA's efforts to mandate encryption +hardware that the government can break -- the so-called "Clipper Chip" +that was announced by the White House on April 16, 1993.[8] But on other +issues CPSR is suspicious of EFF's pro-corporate leanings. One imagines +CPSR arguing that our government, at least, can be petitioned and our +representatives are elected. Comparatively, how much input are we allowed +by major corporations? Given their priorities, how responsive will they +be to the information needs of the poor and underprivileged? What will +happen, for example, if public libraries and public schools get left +behind in the dust of the data superhighway? + + In Washington DC, the information capital of the world, the newest +game in town is Cyberspace Wars. Unfortunately, it's also the latest +buzzword. Pack journalists in this town are seemingly required to log +in on these, which invariably generates more heat than light. + + I don't have a graduate degree, but I spent three years in grad +school studying something they called "social ethics," which included much +philosophy. My undergraduate degree is in sociology. In high school I +had a ham radio license, and spent many evenings building equipment and +working traffic networks, a Morse Code version of "cyberspace." (These +days my transmitter is hooked to my computer.) After grad school I +retrained in electronics, and during the 1980s I held a variety of +hardware and software jobs in high-tech industries. The hardware ranged +from telephone interface circuits to digital switches at the senior tech +or junior engineer level. The software was generally written using +Assembly, dBase or BASIC to develop hardware control systems or database +programs. + + In other words, my career is so checkered that no one will ever refer +to me as an "expert," which is also why you are reading this in an obscure +little publication. But I am familiar with the territory. And could it be +that too many of the experts are too narrow? Furthermore, I can recognize +high-tech hype when I see it and I can recognize sloppy ethics; there's +too much of both in cyberspace. I can forgive EFF guru and co-founder +John Barlow, a former Grateful Dead songwriter, for being an "acid-head +ex-Republican county chairman" (Mitch Kapor's description). But when +he invokes Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "noosphere" as a model for +cyberspace, a "global brain that would seal humanity's spiritual +destiny,"[9] I have to draw the line. I studied enough of Teilhard to know +that his theology lacks any conception of evil. Where cyberspace and New +Age meet out in California's Silicon Valley somewhere, everything becomes +alarmingly mushy. + + Another example of sloppy ethics is found in the way the word +"privacy" is babbled about without qualification. I have yet to see any +suggestion that the right to privacy ought to be inversely proportional to +social power, and should be balanced against the right to know. Joe +Sixpack deserves more privacy than David Rockefeller, because Joe's simple +livelihood may be affected by Rocky's wheeling and dealing. Joe has more +of a right to know what Rocky is up to than vice-versa. It does not +require a philosophy degree to grasp this; libel law in the U.S., for +example, makes a similar distinction between a public figure and a private +figure. Every journalist knows this, but when writing about privacy issues +the same concept never makes it into print. Then again, my definition of +privacy does not justify hacker ethics (microcomputer vs. mainframe, +little guy vs. Big Brother), because hackers are motivated more by +malicious amusement than by genuine self-defense. + + More hype comes from a bizarre intersection of cyberspace with +conspiracy theory: the incredible PROMIS software by Inslaw, Inc. For +months I was reading accounts of how this software was revolutionary, and +could track everything about everyone. This is crazy, I thought, because +as a programmer I knew that software is painfully developmental, never +revolutionary. After ten years of inputting for NameBase I also knew that +until you key in good data, a mere database program is nothing at all. +Then it came out that there was a "back door" installed in PROMIS. This +made more sense, as a "back door" to get around password protection is +easy for any programmer, and it explained why the intelligence community +might be interested in peddling it to foreign governments. + + Please note, however, that you still need physical access to the +computer, either through a direct-connect terminal or a remote terminal +through the phone lines, in order to utilize a back door. Ari Ben-Menashe +wants us to believe that foreigners (Britain, Australia, Iraq, South +Korea, Canada, and "many others") allow technicians from another country +to install new computer systems in the heart of their intelligence +establishments, and don't even think to secure physical access to the +system before they start entering their precious data. + + Then he claims that PROMIS, "a sinister, Big Brother-like computer +program," can suck in every other database on earth, such as those used by +utility companies, and correlate everything automatically. The rest of his +book is frequently believable, but this example of hype is grating because +publisher Bill Schaap, who is not computer illiterate, should have done +Ben-Menashe a favor by deleting the chapter on PROMIS.[10] I generally +believe that "conspiracy is the normal continuation of normal politics by +normal means,"[11] so I don't like to see whistleblowers like Ben-Menashe +needlessly discredited by their own high-tech gullibility. + + The last example of hype is from a 1988 article, which suggests that +the right also suffers from an overactive technical imagination: + + Retired Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, a member of the board, says + Western Goals wanted to build a computer data base containing the + leadership structure and membership of every left-wing group in the + country. The right, he says, needed to match the left's ability to + mobilize on short notice and track the activities of conservative + Americans. 'The radical left,' he claims, 'in this country has an + incredible, computer-connected network that has enormous files + connected with them.'[12] + + Singlaub swallowed someone's line the same as Ben-Menashe did, and +just as journalists are inclined to do when it comes to high-tech issues. +It is no longer excusable for major players to remain ignorant of +important high-tech developments. The remainder of this article will +follow the battles and trends of the last few years -- the Cyberspace Wars +that unfolded as microprocessors robbed Big Brother of its monopoly on +data access and manipulation. Then I'll propose a somewhat expanded, more +useful definition of "cyberspace" to include all digitized information, +and consider the issues involved in the potential data networks that +worried Singlaub. His notion of the left was fantastic and his plans for +Western Goals never materialized. But the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai +B'rith, which is beginning to use computers, was caught this year in a +massive spying scandal. Their defense of spying is my ultimate example of +sloppy ethics. In another ten years there might not be scandals, because +the files will have been sucked into cyberspace, complete with unbreakable +encryption and access by anonymous players. It may not be the NSA, or the +ADL, or any current entity. But we will all be at risk, and Ben-Menashe, +Singlaub, and the cyberpunk novelists will finally seem prophetic. + + Privacy and domestic security are a zero-sum game. Society consists +of discrete individuals; if these individuals each have total privacy, +then society has zero security. Conversely, for the body politic to have +total security as an organism, the individuals within must have zero +privacy. Idealists may quibble with this scenario, but today we're +required to coexist with massive national security establishments, and +they tend to see things this way. Realistically, then, it's a useful +handle for understanding Cyberspace Wars. + + A 1992 Harris poll showed that 78 percent of Americans now express +concern about their personal privacy, and 68 percent perceive a threat +from computers. These figures have roughly doubled over the last twenty +years.[13] One area of concern is in the workplace, where U.S. privacy +laws lag behind those in Europe and Japan. Although the 1986 Electronic +Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) prohibits phone and data-line tapping, +law enforcement and employers are exempted, so an E-Mail system that is +paid for or run by the employer might not be secure. Macworld asked 301 +companies about snooping, and "about 22 percent of our sample have engaged +in searches of employee computer files, voice mail, E-Mail, or other +networking communications."[14] Job applicants sometimes find that the +company has a contract with a research service to scan credit reports, +workers' compensation claims, medical records, and criminal histories. +Access to some of this data for such a purpose has recently become +illegal, but employers say they need this data because of the rash of +"negligent hiring" lawsuits. + + Personal privacy is a problem outside the workplace as well. Surveys +of the data available from the big three credit bureaus -- TRW, Equifax, +and Trans Union -- find error rates of up to 43 percent. Federal laws have +addressed this issue for years, and more may be on the way. Lately the +credit bureaus have seen their monopoly on personal information eroded +from a variety of commercial information brokers (over 1,253 are listed in +the Burwell Directory). Most of these collect information on companies, +but some specialize in records such as address, marital, salary, driving, +and employment history, as well as corporate affiliations, who your +neighbors are, vehicle and real estate holdings, and civil and criminal +court records. Lotus Development Corporation (where Mitch Kapor made his +millions) and Equifax recently proposed to compile some of this data for +120 million consumers on CD-ROM, and market it for $700 as "Marketplace: +Households." But 30,000 angry letters killed their proposal.[15] + + If it's only name, address, and telephone number that interests +you, then check out ProPhone.[16] This is a set of seven CD-ROM disks +consisting of 70 million residential and 7 million business listings. +The software can access the listings through either the name, address, +or phone number, and the business listings are indexed by SIC code as +well. The listings tend to be at least several years old or otherwise +incomplete, but this will improve over the next few years. We bought it +because most NameBase users are investigative journalists. Zeroing in on a +neighborhood where you lived as a child in a little town in North Dakota, +and getting a printout of today's residents, feels something like what +hackers must feel when they break through password protection. It also +feels like an excellent reason to keep one's own number unlisted. + + While cyberspace trends give privacy advocates plenty to worry about, +the situation is equally alarming from the perspective of the government. +If you live in an apartment building and have a scanner, your neighbors' +cordless telephone conversations are easily monitored. Cellular phone +monitoring became illegal in 1986 but not cordless, which is reasonable +because no one HAS to use a cordless phone. The law against cellular +monitoring was opposed by hams and shortwave listeners, who generally feel +that if the signal makes it into their living rooms, they have a right to +tune it in. Last year President Bush signed a second law, prohibiting the +manufacture or import of scanners that are capable of cellular monitoring. +But in a demonstration for a congressional subcommittee last April, a +technician took three minutes to reprogram a cellular phone's codes so +that it could be used for eavesdropping. It turns out that you don't have +to use a scanner at all: "Every cellular phone is a scanner, and they +are completely insecure," John Gage of Sun Microsystems told the +subcommittee.[17] Congress keeps slipping off the back end of the +cyberspace curve, simply because the curve is moving so fast. + + Congress is caught in the middle, pulled in one direction by privacy +advocates and the other by our national security establishment. In March +1992 the FBI proposed legislation that would require private industry to +provide access ports in digital equipment for the purpose of tapping +specific conversations. Telephone carrier signals are increasingly +digitized and multiplexed, with specific channels interleaved among many +others in a continuous stream of ones and zeros. For decades, the FBI +needed only a pair of alligator clips to tap phones, and now they're +getting panicky. This particular proposal died, but the FBI is going to +try again. Several years ago I worked for a little company that made +analog long-distance equipment for export to Soviet bloc countries. +Frequently the specifications called for an access port for each channel, +which we dubbed the "KGB output." Now it turns out that the FBI wants the +same thing. + + Not to be outdone, the NSA played the major role in the development +of the "Clipper Chip" recently approved by President Clinton, and soon the +government will start requiring industry to provide phones and computers +equipped with it. This chip contains encryption algorithms that can be +broken by two halves of a secret master key. The idea is that someone with +a warrant will then go to each of two agencies to get the portion of the +key in their custody, like two pieces of a treasure map torn in half. This +chip will be used to scramble phone lines used for voice, modems, and fax +machines. Presumably the NSA already has both halves of the key, and +their record for self-restraint is not reassuring. Private industry is +not enthusiastic. For one thing, U.S. products containing NSA-breakable +encryption will not compete well on the international market. One person +asked, "Do you think I'm dumb enough to buy something endorsed by the +NSA?"[18] + + Some worry that the administration may try to ban encryption +altogether if this chip doesn't catch on. Ham radio operators, for +example, have for decades been prohibited from using encryption on the +air, and export of encryption software has been restricted for years +under COCOM regulations. Others are amused that the government is +even bothering along these lines, since encryption that is practically +unbreakable is already easily purchased, or even available as Shareware +by downloading it from a BBS. + + The most dramatic conflict between privacy and security occurred in +1990. Big Brother was already edgy, as BellSouth in Florida had discovered +in mid-1989 that microcomputer intruders had been harmlessly reprogramming +their digital switches. It seems that callers to the Palm Beach County +Probation Department were reaching "Tina," a phone-sex worker in another +state. BellSouth was not amused, and worried that their 911 system was +vulnerable. Then when the AT&T system half-crashed the following January +-- even though this was NOT hacker-related -- the Secret Service, which +had nothing if not an active imagination, began working closely with telco +cops. The federal effort started years earlier after Congress passed the +1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but in May 1990 it culminated in +Operation Sundevil, by far the largest series of high-profile raids ever +conducted against hackers. About 42 computer systems were seized around +the country, along with 23,000 floppy disks. + + Federal anti-hacker strategy involves a dramatic search and seizure. +Agents crash simultaneously through the front and back doors, everyone +is questioned, and then they carry off the evidence: computers, monitors, +keyboards, printers, modems, manuals, disks, notebooks, telephones, +answering machines, and even Sony Walkmans. There are no arrests and even +much later charges are rarely filed. In the meantime, however, the feds +study their "evidence" for months or even years. It's enough to bring many +hackers to their knees. + + EFF began defending these hackers, and by 1991 the steam had gone out +of the crackdown. One document, a description of 911 system administration +called "E911," was found on a BBS and came to the attention of AT&T +security. They considered it hot property worth exactly $79,449. E911 +later formed the basis of one of the hacker prosecutions, but the +government's case fell apart when the defense showed that more detailed +information about the 911 system was publicly available from AT&T for the +mere price of $13: + + The right hand of Bellcore knew not what the left hand was doing. The + right hand was battering hackers without mercy, while the left hand + was distributing Bellcore's intellectual property to anybody who was + interested in telephone technical trivia.... The digital underground + was so amateurish and poorly organized that it had never discovered + this heap of unguarded riches.[19] + + Another hacker legal victory resulted from a raid against Steve +Jackson Games of Austin, Texas. SJG published games that were played on +paper, with pencils, dice, and books. Jackson and his fifteen employees +used computers to run the business, not for hacking. One of the games he +developed was published as a book titled "GURPS Cyberpunk." Upon seeing +the word "cyberpunk," our fearless G-men assumed that the E911 document +was lurking on SJG's computers. The warrant was sealed, however, so for +months the SS led everyone to believe that they carted off SJG's computers +because SJG presumed to publish a science fiction book. This naturally +resulted in much sympathy for the defense. Without its computers the +company was crippled, and had to lay off half of its employees. + + In 1991 the company sued the government, and on 12 March 1993 a +federal judge in Austin awarded the company $42,000 for lost profits in +1990, plus expenses. He also ruled that the Secret Service violated the +1986 ECPA because it had seized stored messages from many users of the BBS +who were not suspected of anything. Several hackers in other cases have +actually gone to prison over the last few years. But considering how +sociopolitically stunted many hackers were until EFF finally sent in some +lawyers, it's amazing how little the government has to show for all of its +dramatic efforts. + + The term "cyberspace" is normally meant to convey that fuzzy area +between two digital devices, like the term "airwaves" that refers to a +thin slice of the spectrum most often used for communications. But only +a small portion of this accepted notion of cyberspace is in the form of +microwave links; the rest is plain old traces or wires, from inside the +microprocessor chip all the way to the telco office and beyond. Before +"cyberspace" finds its way into the dictionary, I propose an expanded +definition which will place the emphasis on the unique nature of digitized +information. Any digitized information is already in cyberspace, whether +it's in a file on a floppy, a CD-ROM at your local library, or a +minicomputer on an Internet node. Once digitized, information takes on an +entirely new quality; it is this quality that begs for a new word to +describe it. + + First and foremost, digitized information can be copied locally or +remotely an infinite number of times without any degradation. Secondly, +the physical space required for storage is minuscule by previous +standards. And finally, the software required to translate digitized +information between two devices with different functions is usually +trivial. However, if the data is converted to analog form, as when a file +is sent to a printer, then its "cyberspace" quality is lost. Converting +from the printed page back into ones and zeros is not trivial, and +generally causes information to be lost or degraded. + + NameBase resides in cyberspace, then, even though we send disks +through the mail. It's trivial to dump the results of searches into a new +file, and zap them by modem to another computer. Daisy-chain that file +between every computer in the world, and if the transfer software uses +error-correction protocol, at the end of the process you have exactly the +same file you started with. If it didn't infringe on our copyright, every +set of NameBase disks we've distributed could each generate an infinite +number of additional sets. Incidentally, another advantage to disk +distribution as opposed to on-line systems is its decentralized quality. +One of AT&T's computers in Dallas had so much extra capacity that they +generously allowed it to used as a BBS host. But as their paranoia +increased in 1990, AT&T considered it too risky and pulled the plug +without warning, leaving 1,500 little modems out there, searching and +chirping for their disconnected mother.[20] + + Any public or private intelligence agency that uses computers is +potentially more ominous than one that doesn't, and the public has a right +to expect certain standards for collection and dissemination. An example +of an intelligence agency that fails this test is the Anti-Defamation +League, whose San Francisco and Los Angeles offices were caught in a +scandal earlier this year. The tax-exempt ADL has 30 regional offices in +the U.S. (and offices in Canada, Paris, Rome, and Jerusalem), a staff of +400, and an annual budget of $32 million. For many decades they have been +gathering information on U.S. citizens, using public sources as well as +paid infiltrators, informants, investigators, and liaison with local law +enforcement and the FBI. There is also evidence of connections with Mossad +and South African intelligence. + + As a private agency the ADL enjoys no oversight, no requirements for +probable cause prior to political spying, and no Privacy Act or Freedom of +Information Act responsibilities to the public. By contrast, the FBI, CIA, +and some major police departments in the U.S. are held accountable by +various hard-won legal restrictions. Some observers feel that the ADL's +relationship with many local police, the FBI, and intelligence agencies +suggests that they are playing the role of a cutout. Government agencies +might be getting the information they want without incurring any legal +risk, simply by using the ADL. In exchange, the ADL apparently enjoys +privileged access to police and FBI files. + + This is what happened in San Francisco, where a police intelligence +officer (and former CIA agent in El Salvador) named Tom Gerard has been +indicted for passing confidential police intelligence files to the local +ADL office. Another principal in this case is Roy Bullock, who was a +secret employee of the ADL for 40 years, a close associate of Gerard, and +also an FBI informant. After learning that Gerard was meeting with South +African intelligence, the FBI investigated. This encouraged the +involvement of San Francisco prosecutors. They served two ADL offices with +search warrants, and Bullock's computer was seized from his home. +Interviews with Bullock revealed that he had tapped into one group's phone +message system, and his computer contained data on 9,876 individuals and +1,359 political groups, distributed about evenly on both the left and +right.[21] While it's evident that ADL spying is centrally coordinated +from New York by ADL spymaster Irwin Suall, at this writing it's unclear +whether San Francisco authorities will try to prosecute anyone from this +powerful organization. + + The ADL does not hail from any particular portion of the left-right +political spectrum. Such a classification is irrelevant once a group +becomes a private intelligence agency, as then they generally inbreed with +their adversaries and mutate into a peculiar political animal. John +Singlaub's Western Goals, and Political Research Associates (PRA) of +Cambridge, Massachusetts, both extremely tiny compared to the ADL, are two +additional examples of this phenomenon. All three groups identify with +certain constituencies as a flag of convenience: the ADL with the Jewish +community, Western Goals with the right, and PRA with the left. But by +using the same methods of collecting information -- garbage surveillance, +infiltration of target groups, and the use of guilt-by-association in +their propaganda -- each of these three groups has perverted itself with +clandestinism and denunciation for its own sake. + + This opinion of mine is based on statements from John Rees (formerly +of Western Goals and a person with extensive computer files on the left), +Chip Berlet of PRA (formerly a BBS operator, with extensive files on the +right), and testimony from Mira Boland of the ADL (extensive files on +everyone). All admit to attending one or more secret meetings in 1983-1984 +with U.S. intelligence operatives such as Roy Godson, representatives from +intelligence-linked funding sources, and journalists such as Patricia +Lynch from NBC. Besides Berlet, other leftists attending included Dennis +King and Russ Bellant. The purpose of these meetings was to plan a +campaign against Lyndon LaRouche. The LaRouche organization was another +private intelligence agency, but they had too many curious foreign +contacts and were getting too close to certain individuals at the National +Security Council. More importantly, LaRouche opposed U.S. intervention in +Nicaragua just as the NSC was planning an expanded role there.[22] In +another ten years, scenarios like this might be played out in cyberspace. +Instead of a fifteen-year prison sentence, a future incarnation of +LaRouche might jack into his cyberspace deck one day, and to his horror, +discover that his collection of hard-won access codes no longer works. + + ADL national director Abraham Foxman defends his organization by +claiming that the ADL's sources "function in a manner directly analogous +to investigative journalists" and "the information ADL obtains is placed +in the public domain."[23] He adds that "the very people making these +charges [of ADL spying] themselves maintain and use such files whether +they be journalists, lawyers or academics."[24] But as we begin to enter +the cyberspace age, his excuses seem particularly inadequate. + + We have only Foxman's dubious word that ADL's information is placed +in the public domain. Various investigative journalists, even those whose +interests parallel the ADL's, have told me that it's difficult to get +access to the ADL's main library in New York; you have to be connected +to their old-boy network before you can see their files. Secondly, +journalists seldom use the methods preferred by ADL's spies: going through +a target's garbage and using deception to infiltrate target groups. On +the rare occasions that a journalist does these things, it is implicitly +balanced against the public interest, and done only to develop a specific +story. Once published, the journalist's targets know what happened and +have recourse to civil litigation. Normally journalists are expected by +the standards of common decency to contact all parties criticized in +a story, and double source any dubious items. Journalists identify +themselves before soliciting any information, in order to provide the +choice of cooperating on the record, not for attribution, on background, +off the record, or refusing comment altogether. Finally, the public +reasonably expects that journalists are not secretly working with law +enforcement and intelligence agencies. + + Foxman is simply blowing smoke on this issue. At Public Information +Research we resent any hint of a comparison between his activities and +ours. NameBase is basically a value-added public library; it has a +citation from the public record for every bit of information, and is +available to every member of the public. The extra value comes from +the enhanced access to the public record. We don't consort with law +enforcement or intelligence agencies, and we don't use deception to +collect information. + + On one occasion in ten years, a person whose name we had indexed +complained to me that the source we cited misrepresented the facts. I +asked him for a copies of published material about him that he considered +more accurate, and cited these under his name along with the original +citation. (If he didn't have such sources, but could convince me that a +source we cited was mistaken, then I would I have deleted the citation.) +On another occasion a person with whom I had worked for two years was +upset to find her name in NameBase after I entered a book about the left +that was published by the right. Her name is still in NameBase because I +knew that the information about her in this book was true. I don't claim +to be objective; my subjectivity is seen in the annotations I write for +the sources, and in the selection of materials for inputting. This level +of subjectivity comes with the territory -- sometimes it's unavoidable, +and other times I like it, feeling that it's my only reason for +continuing. But at the same time I do try to use common sense. + + It would be comforting to have a Cyberspace Bill of Rights and +Responsibilities, if the target wasn't moving so rapidly. Even an issue as +self-evident as "privacy" is tricky, as the transnational corporations +join the chorus in an effort to preclude government regulation. The +international elites who control these corporations are well on their way +toward installing the New World Order, and are no friends of the little +guy who really needs privacy. Then again, our national security apparatus +has an equally poor record. Everyone is waiting to see where the chips +fall before they declare themselves. In the meantime we find ourselves +peering over the edge into cyberspace, surrounded by high-tech hype and +journalistic buzzwords. We need a better-informed public with a keener +sense of their own interests, but there's no time to wait. For those of us +who work in this new cyberspace, our ethical thinking -- the ability to +consider interests beyond our own -- must be honed to a new level. + + 1. David Burnham, The Rise of the Computer State. Forward by Walter + Cronkite. (New York: Random House, 1983), pp. 124, 130, 206. + + 2. Ibid., p. 139. + + 3. John Smith, "Public Key Cryptography," Byte Magazine, January 1983, + pp. 198-218. + + 4. Kevin Kelly, "Cypherpunks, E-Money, and the Technologies of + Disconnection," Whole Earth Review, Summer 1993, pp. 46-47. + + 5. Washington Times, 10 May 1993, p. A3, citing a recent issue of + Boardwatch, "a leading BBS magazine." + + 6. Robert Wright, "The New Democrat from Cyberspace," The New Republic, + 24 May 1993, p. 20. + + 7. Bruce Sterling, "A Statement of Principle," Science Fiction Eye, June + 1992, pp. 14-18. + + 8. John Mintz and John Schwartz, "Chipping Away at Privacy? Encryption + Device Widens Debate Over Rights of U.S. to Eavesdrop," Washington + Post, 30 May 1993, pp. H1, H4. + + 9. Wright, p. 26. + +10. Ari Ben-Menashe, Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms + Network (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992), pp. 127-141. + +11. Carl Oglesby, The Yankee and Cowboy War (Berkley Publishing, 1977), + p. 25. + +12. Doug Birch, "Master of the Politics of Paranoia," Baltimore Sun + Magazine, 5 June 1988, p. 26. + +13. Charles Piller, "Privacy in Peril," Macworld, July 1993, p. 124. + +14. Charles Piller, "Bosses With X-Ray Eyes," Macworld, July 1993, + p. 120. + +15. Piller, "Privacy in Peril," p. 126-127. + +16. Produced for IBM-compatibles with a CD-ROM drive by ProCD, 8 Doaks + Lane, Little Harbor, Marblehead MA 01945, Tel: 617-631-9200, Fax: + 617-631-9299. Suggested list for ProPhone is $449, but several + mail-order firms offer it for $179 or less. + +17. Cindy Skrzycki, "Dark Side of the Data Age," Washington Post, + Business Section, 3 May 1993, pp. 19, 28. + +18. Mintz and Schwartz, p. H4. + +19. Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the + Electronic Frontier (New York: Bantam books, 1992), p. 278. + +20. Ibid., pp. 125-126, 141-142. + +21. I obtained the 700 pages of documents which San Francisco prosecutors + released on 8 April 1993. For a summary of this case see Robert I. + Friedman, "The Enemy Within," Village Voice, 11 May 1993, pp. 27-32; + and Richard C. Paddock, "New Details of Extensive ADL Spy Operation + Emerge," Los Angeles Times, 13 April 1993, pp. A1, A16. + +22. For an outline of the conspiracy against LaRouche by the ADL and U.S. + intelligence operatives, see U.S. District Court for the Eastern + District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, Petitioners' Rebuttal to + the Government's Response and Memorandum. In United States v. Lyndon + H. LaRouche, Jr., William F. Wertz, Jr. and Edward W. Spannaus, Case + No. 88-243-A. Submitted by Odin Anderson, Ramsey Clark, and Scott T. + Harper, attorneys for the defense, 1 May 1992, pp. 1-16. For a + description of the secret meetings at the residence of John Train, + see Herbert Quinde, Affidavit, Commonwealth of Virginia, County of + Loudoun, 20 January 1992, pp. 1-28. Quinde describes interviews with + Rees, Berlet, and several others. For confirmation of Chip Berlet's + role, see Doug Birch, "Master of the Politics of Paranoia," Baltimore + Sun Magazine, 5 June 1988, p. 27. Birch's description of John Rees' + career includes a quotation from Chip Berlet, a longtime Rees + watcher, that inadvertently confirms Berlet's collusion with Rees at + an anti-LaRouche meeting. Berlet's spying is confirmed by his + quotations in David Miller, "Letter from Boston," Forward, 22 January + 1993, pp. 1, 14. This article also quotes ADL's Leonard Zakim: "The + information that Political Research Associates has shared with us has + been very useful." + +23. Abraham H. Foxman, "Letter to the Editor," Village Voice, 18 May + 1993, p. 5. + +24. Abraham H. Foxman, "It's a Big Lie, Hailed by Anti-Semites," New York + Times, 28 May 1993, p. A29. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cycles.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cycles.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f9df851a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cycles.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +In Kevin Phillip's new book (The Politics of Rich and Poor, 1990) +he argues that the Republican political cycle is coming to an end. +If not in George Bush's defeat in 92, then the next term. He +argued that the Republicans would come into their own in a book +published in '67 called The Emerging Republican Majority. In '68 +Nixon was elected and it has been a Republican White House since +with a "Carter blip" after Watergate. What Phillips argues is +that there are these long cycles of power in American politics +with "blips" or what he calls "minority interruptions" of oppo- +sition parties in for a term or two. Phillips was the chief Re- +publican strategist for the 1968 Presidential Campaign. + ________________________ + Cycles of American Presidential + Politics since 1800 + --------- + Initial period of Minority + One Party Interruption + Cycle Dominance +--------------------------------------------------------------- +Jeffersonian Jefferson 1800-08 + Era Madison 1808-16 Quincy Adams 1824-28 + Democratic- Monroe 1816-24 (National-Republican) + Republican (24 years) + 1800-28 + ---------------------------- +Jacksonian Jackson 1828-36 Harrison-Tyler (Whig) + Era Van Buren 1836-40 1840-44 + Democratic Polk 1844-48 Taylor-Fillmore (Whig) + 1828-1860 (16 of 20 Years) 1848-52 + ---------------------------- +Civil War Lincoln-Johnson Cleveland 1884-88 + Republican 1860-68 1892-96 + 1860-96 Grant 1868-76 (No presidential candidate + Hayes 1876-80 of either party won a + Garfield-Arthur majority of the popular + 1880-84 vote between 1876-92) + (24 years) + ---------------------------- +Industrial McKinley-T.R. Roosevelt + Republican 1896-1908 + 1896-1932 Taft 1908-1912 Wilson 1912-20 + Harding-Coolidge (Democratic) + 1920-28 + Hoover 1928-1932 + (28 of 36 years) + ---------------------------- +New Deal Roosevelt-Truman Eisenhower (Republican) + Democratic 1932-1952 1952-1960 + 1932-68 (20 years) + Kennedy-Johnson + 1960-68 + ---------------------------- +Civil Nixon-Ford + Disturbance 1968-76 Carter (Democrat) + Republican Reagan-Bush + 1968- ??? 1980-??? +. + All of these six eras began with watershed elections in which +(1) the previous incumbent party was defeated and (2) a new alignment +of party presidential voting--resting on a new coalition--was +established, which kept its essential shape for at least 20 years. +Interestingly, all three Republican hegemonies have produced a +"capitalist heyday" during the second half of the cycle. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/cypunk.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/cypunk.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e5a66077 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/cypunk.txt @@ -0,0 +1,609 @@ +GURPS LABOR LOST: The Cyberpunk Bust + +by Bruce Sterling +Copyright (c) by Bruce Sterling, 1991. +Reprinted by permission of the author. + + +Some months ago, I wrote an article about the raid on Steve Jackson +Games, which appeared in my "Comment" column in the British science +fiction monthly, Interzone(#44, February 1991). This updated version, +specially re-written for dissemination by EFF, reflects the somewhat +greater knowledge I've gained to date, in the course of research on an +upcoming nonfiction book, The Hacker Crackdown: The True Story of the +Digital Dragnet of 1990 and the Start of the Electronic Frontier +Foundation. + +The bizarre events suffered by Mr. Jackson and his co-workers, in my +own home town of Austin, Texas, were directly responsible for my +decision to put science fiction aside and to tackle the purportedly +real world of computer crime and electronic free-expression. + +The national crackdown on computer hackers in 1990 was the largest and +best-coordinated attack on computer mischief in American history. +There was Arizona's "Operation Sundevil," the sweeping May 8 +nationwide raid against outlaw bulletin boards. The BellSouth E911 +case (of which the Jackson raid was a small and particularly egregious +part) was coordinated out of Chicago. The New York State Police were +also very active in 1990. + +All this vigorous law enforcement activity meant very little to the +narrow and intensely clannish world of science fiction. All we knew +- and this perception persisted, uncorrected, for months - was that +Mr. Jackson had been raided because of his intention to publish a +gaming book about "cyberpunk" science fiction. The Jackson raid +received extensive coverage in science fiction news magazines (yes, we +have these) and became notorious in the world of SF as "the Cyberpunk +Bust." My INTERZONE article attempted to make the Jackson case +intelligible to the British SF audience. + +What possible reason could lead an American federal law enforcement +agency to raid the headquarters of a science-fiction gaming company? +Why did armed teams of city police, corporate security men, and +federal agents roust two Texan computer hackers from their beds at +dawn, and then confiscate thousands of dollars' worth of computer +equipment, including the hackers' common household telephones? Why +was an unpublished book called GURPS Cyberpunk seized by the US Secret +Service and declared "a manual for computer crime?" These weird +events were not parodies or fantasies; no, this was real. + +The first order of business in untangling this bizarre drama is to +know the players - who come in entire teams. + +PLAYER ONE: The Law Enforcement Agencies. + +America's defense against the threat of computer crime is a confusing +hodgepodge of state, municipal, and federal agencies. Ranked first, +by size and power, are the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the +National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of +Investigation (FBI), large, potent and secretive organizations who, +luckily, play almost no role in the Jackson story. + +The second rank of such agencies include the Internal Revenue Service +(IRS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the +Justice Department, the Department of Labor, and various branches of +the defense establishment, especially the Air Force Office of Special +Investigations (AFOSI). Premier among these groups, however, is the +highly-motivated US Secret Service (USSS),the suited, mirrorshades- +toting, heavily-armed bodyguards of the President of the United +States. + +Guarding high-ranking federal officials and foreign dignitaries is a +hazardous, challenging and eminently necessary task, which has won +USSS a high public profile. But Abraham Lincoln created this oldest +of federal law enforcement agencies in order to foil counterfeiting. +Due to the historical tribulations of the Treasury Department (of +which USSS is a part), the Secret Service also guards historical +documents, analyzes forgeries, combats wire fraud, and battles +"computer fraud and abuse." These may seem unrelated assignments, +but the Secret Service is fiercely aware of its duties. It is also +jealous of its bureaucratic turf, especially in computer-crime, where +it formally shares jurisdiction with its traditional rival, the +Johnny-come-lately FBI. + +As the use of plastic money has spread, and their long-established +role as protectors of the currency has faded in importance, the Secret +Service has moved aggressively into the realm of electronic crime. +Unlike the lordly NSA, CIA, and FBI, which generally can't be bothered +with domestic computer mischief, the Secret Service is noted for its +street-level enthusiasm. + + + + + +The third-rank of law enforcement are the local "dedicated computer +crime units." There are few such groups, pitifully under staffed. +They struggle hard for funding and the vital light of publicity. It's +difficult to make white-collar computer crimes seem pressing, to an +American public that lives in terror of armed and violent street- +crime. + +These local groups are small - often, one or two officers, computer +hobbyists, who have drifted into electronic crimebusting because they +alone are game to devote time and effort to bringing law to the +electronic frontier. California's Silicon Valley has three computer- +crime units. There are others in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, +Texas, Colorado, and a formerly very active one in Arizona - all told, +though, perhaps only fifty people nationwide. + +The locals do have one great advantage, though. They all know one +another. Though scattered across the country, they are linked by both +public-sector and private-sector professional societies, and have a +commendable subcultural esprit-de-corps. And in the well-manned +Secret Service, they have willing national-level assistance. + +PLAYER TWO: The Telephone Companies. + +In the early 80s, after years of bitter federal court battle, +America's telephone monopoly was pulverized. "Ma Bell," the national +phone company, became AT&T, AT&T Industries, and the regional "Baby +Bells," all purportedly independent companies, who compete with new +communications companies and other long-distance providers. As a +class, however, they are all sorely harassed by fraudsters, phone +phreaks, and computer hackers, and they all maintain computer-security +experts. In a lot of cases these "corporate security divisions" +consist of just one or two guys, who drifted into the work from +backgrounds in traditional security or law enforcement. But, linked +by specialized security trade journals and private sector trade +groups, they all know one another. + +PLAYER THREE: The Computer Hackers. + +The American "hacker" elite consists of about a hundred people, who +all know one another. These are the people who know enough about +computer intrusion to baffle corporate security and alarm police (and +who, furthermore, are willing to put their intrusion skills into +actual practice). The somewhat older subculture of "phone- +phreaking," once native only to the phone system, has blended into +hackerdom as phones have become digital and computers have been +netted-together by telephones. "Phone phreaks," always tarred with +the stigma of rip-off artists, are nowadays increasingly hacking PBX +systems and cellular phones. These practices, unlike computer- +intrusion, offer easy profit to fraudsters. + +There are legions of minor "hackers," such as the "kodez kidz," who +purloin telephone access codes to make free (i.e., stolen) phone +calls. Code theft can be done with home computers, and almost looks +like real "hacking," though "kodez kidz" are regarded with lordly +contempt by the elite. "Warez d00dz," who copy and pirate computer +games and software, are a thriving subspecies of "hacker," but they +played no real role in the crackdown of 1990 or the Jackson case. As +for the dire minority who create computer viruses, the less said the +better. + +The princes of hackerdom skate the phone-lines, and computer networks, +as a lifestyle. They hang out in loose, modem-connected gangs like +the "Legion of Doom" and the "Masters of Destruction." The craft of +hacking is taught through "bulletin board systems," personal computers +that carry electronic mail and can be accessed by phone. Hacker +bulletin boards generally sport grim, scary, sci-fi heavy metal names +like BLACK ICE - PRIVATE or SPEED DEMON ELITE. Hackers themselves +often adopt romantic and highly suspicious tough-guy monickers like +"Necron 99," "Prime Suspect," "Erik Bloodaxe," "Malefactor" and "Phase +Jitter." This can be seen as a kind of cyberpunk folk-poetry - after +all, baseball players also have colorful nicknames. But so do the +Mafia and the Medellin Cartel. + + PLAYER FOUR: The Simulation Gamers. + +Wargames and role-playing adventures are an old and honored pastime, +much favored by professional military strategists and H.G. Wells, and +now played by hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts throughout North +America, Europe and Japan. In today's market, many simulation games +are computerized, making simulation gaming a favorite pastime of +hackers, who dote on arcane intellectual challenges and the thrill of +doing simulated mischief. + +Modern simulation games frequently have a heavily science-fictional +cast. Over the past decade or so, fueled by very respectable +royalties, the world of simulation gaming has increasingly permeated +the world of science-fiction publishing. TSR, Inc., proprietors of +the best-known role-playing game, "Dungeons and Dragons," own the +venerable science-fiction magazine "Amazing." Gaming-books, once +restricted to hobby outlets, now commonly appear in chain-stores like +B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks, and sell vigorously. + +Steve Jackson Games, Inc., of Austin, Texas, is a games company of the +middle rank. In early 1990, it employed fifteen people. In 1989, SJG +grossed about half a million dollars. SJG's Austin headquarters is a +modest two-story brick office-suite, cluttered with phones, +photocopiers, fax machines and computers. A publisher's digs, it +bustles with semi-organized activity and is littered with glossy +promotional brochures and dog-eared SF novels. Attached to the +offices is a large tin-roofed warehouse piled twenty feet high with +cardboard boxes of games and books. This building was the site of the +"Cyberpunk Bust." + +A look at the company's wares, neatly stacked on endless rows of cheap +shelving, quickly shows SJG's long involvement with the Science +Fiction community. SJG's main product, the Generic Universal Role- +Playing System or GURPS, features licensed and adapted works from many +genre writers. There is GURPS Witch World, GURPS Conan, GURPS +Riverworld, GURPS Horseclans, many names eminently familiar to SF +fans. (GURPS Difference Engine is currently in the works.) GURPS +Cyberpunk, however, was to be another story entirely. + +PLAYER FIVE: The Science Fiction Writers. + +The "cyberpunk" SF writers are a small group of mostly college- +educated white litterateurs, without conspicuous criminal records, +scattered throughout the US and Canada. Only one, Rudy Rucker, a +professor of computer science in Silicon Valley, would rank with even +the humblest computer hacker. However, these writers all own +computers and take an intense, public, and somewhat morbid interest in +the social ramifications of the information industry. Despite their +small numbers, the "cyberpunk" writers all know one another, and are +linked by antique print-medium publications with unlikely names like +Science Fiction Eye, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Omni and +Interzone. + + PLAYER SIX: The Civil Libertarians. + +This small but rapidly growing group consists of heavily politicized +computer enthusiasts and heavily cyberneticized political activists: a +mix of wealthy high-tech entrepreneurs, veteran West Coast +troublemaking hippies, touchy journalists, and toney East Coast civil +rights lawyers. They are all getting to know one another. + +We now return to our story. By 1988, law enforcement officials, led +by contrite teenage informants, had thoroughly permeated the world of +underground bulletin boards, and were alertly prowling the nets +compiling dossiers on wrongdoers. While most bulletin board systems +are utterly harmless, some few had matured into alarming reservoirs of +forbidden knowledge. One such was BLACK ICE - PRIVATE, located +"somewhere in the 607 area code," frequented by members of the +"Legion of Doom" and notorious even among hackers for the violence of +its rhetoric, which discussed sabotage of phone-lines, drug- +manufacturing techniques, and the assembly of home-made bombs, as well +as a plethora of rules-of-thumb for penetrating computer security. + +Of course, the mere discussion of these notions is not illegal - many +cyberpunk SF stories positively dote on such ideas, as do hundreds of +spy epics, techno-thrillers and adventure novels. It was no +coincidence that "ICE," or "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics," +was a term invented by cyberpunk writer Tom Maddox, and "BLACK ICE," +or a computer-defense that fries the brain of the unwary trespasser, +was a coinage of William Gibson. + +A reference manual from the US National Institute of Justice, +Dedicated Computer Crime Units by J. Thomas McEwen, suggests that +federal attitudes toward bulletin-board systems are ambivalent at +best: + +"There are several examples of how bulletin boards have been used in +support of criminal activities.... (B)ulletin boards were used to +relay illegally obtained access codes into computer service companies. +Pedophiles have been known to leave suggestive messages on bulletin +boards, and other sexually oriented messages have been found on +bulletin boards. Members of cults and sects have also communicated +through bulletin boards. While the storing of information on bulletin +boards may not be illegal, the use of bulletin boards has certainly +advanced many illegal activities." + +Here is a troubling concept indeed: invisible electronic pornography, +to be printed out at home and read by sects and cults. It makes a +mockery of the traditional law-enforcement techniques concerning the +publication and prosecution of smut. In fact, the prospect of large +numbers of antisocial conspirators, congregating in cyberspace without +official oversight of any kind, is enough to trouble the sleep of +anyone charged with maintaining public order. + +Even the sternest free-speech advocate will likely do some +headscratching at the prospect of digitized "anarchy files" teaching +lock-picking, pipe-bombing, martial arts techniques, and highly +unorthodox uses for shotgun shells, especially when these neat-o +temptations are distributed freely to any teen (or pre-teen) with a +modem. + +These may be largely conjectural problems at present, but the use of +bulletin boards to foment hacker mischief is real. Worse yet, the +bulletin boards themselves are linked, sharing their audience and +spreading the wicked knowledge of security flaws in the phone network, +and in a wide variety of academic, corporate and governmental computer +systems. + +This strength of the hackers is also a weakness, however. If the +boards are monitored by alert informants and/or officers, the whole +wicked tangle can be seized all along its extended electronic vine, +rather like harvesting pumpkins. + +The war against hackers, including the "Cyberpunk Bust," was primarily +a war against hacker bulletin boards. It was, first and foremost, an +attack against the enemy's means of information. + +This basic strategic insight supplied the tactics for the crackdown +of 1990. The variant groups in the national subculture of cyber-law +would be kept apprised, persuaded to action, and diplomatically +martialled into effective strike position. Then, in a burst of energy +and a glorious blaze of publicity, the whole nest of scofflaws would +be wrenched up root and branch. Hopefully, the damage would be +permanent; if not, the swarming wretches would at least keep their +heads down. + +"Operation Sundevil," the Phoenix-inspired crackdown of May 8,1990, +concentrated on telephone code-fraud and credit-card abuse, and +followed this seizure plan with some success. Boards went down all +over America, terrifying the underground and swiftly depriving them of +at least some of their criminal instruments. It also saddled analysts +with some 24,000 floppy disks, and confronted harried Justice +Department prosecutors with the daunting challenge of a gigantic +nationwide hacker show-trial involving highly technical issues in +dozens of jurisdictions. As of July 1991, it must be questioned +whether the climate is right for an action of this sort, especially +since several of the most promising prosecutees have already been +jailed on other charges. + +"Sundevil" aroused many dicey legal and constitutional questions, but +at least its organizers were spared the spectacle of seizure victims +loudly proclaiming their innocence - (if one excepts Bruce Esquibel, +sysop of "Dr. Ripco," an anarchist board in Chicago). + +The activities of March 1, 1990, including the Jackson case, were the +inspiration of the Chicago-based Computer Fraud and Abuse Task Force. +At telco urging, the Chicago group were pursuing the purportedly vital +"E911 document" with headlong energy. As legal evidence, this Bell +South document was to prove a very weak reed in the Craig Neidorf +trial, which ended in a humiliating dismissal and a triumph for +Neidorf. As of March 1990, however, this purloined data-file seemed +a red-hot chunk of contraband, and the decision was made to track it +down wherever it might have gone, and to shut down any board that had +touched it - or even come close to it. + +In the meantime, however - early 1990 - Mr. Loyd Blankenship, an +employee of Steve Jackson Games, an accomplished hacker, and a +sometime member and file-writer for the Legion of Doom, was +contemplating a "cyberpunk" simulation-module for the flourishing +GURPS gaming-system. + +The time seemed ripe for such a product, which had already been proven +in the marketplace. The first games-company out of the gate, with a +product boldly called "Cyberpunk" in defiance of possible +infringement-of-copyright suits, had been an upstart group called R. +Talsorian. Talsorian's "Cyberpunk" was a fairly decent game, but the +mechanics of the simulation system sucked. But the game sold like +crazy. + +The next "cyberpunk" game had been the even more successful +"Shadowrun" by FASA Corporation. The mechanics of this game were +fine, but the scenario was rendered moronic by lame fantasy elements +like orcs, dwarves, trolls, magicians, and dragons - all highly +ideologically incorrect, according to the hard-edged, high-tech +standards of cyberpunk science fiction. No true cyberpunk fan could +play this game without vomiting, despite FASA's nifty T-shirts and +street-samurai lead figurines. + +Lured by the scent of money, other game companies were champing at the +bit. Blankenship reasoned that the time had come for a real +"Cyberpunk" gaming-book - one that the princes of computer-mischief in +the Legion of Doom could play without laughing themselves sick. This +book, GURPS Cyberpunk, would reek of on-line authenticity. + +Hot discussion soon raged on the Steve Jackson Games electronic +bulletin board, the "Illuminati BBS." This board was named after a +bestselling SJG card-game, involving antisocial sects and cults who +war covertly for the domination of the world. Gamers and hackers +alike loved this board, with its meticulously detailed discussions of +pastimes like SJG's "Car Wars," in which souped-up armored hot-rods +with rocket-launchers and heavy machine-guns do battle on the American +highways of the future. + +While working, with considerable creative success, for SJG, +Blankenship himself was running his own computer bulletin board, "The +Phoenix Project," from his house. It had been ages - months, anyway - +since Blankenship, an increasingly sedate husband and author, had last +entered a public phone-booth without a supply of pocket-change. +However, his intellectual interest in computer-security remained +intense. He was pleased to notice the presence on "Phoenix" of Henry +Kluepfel, a phone-company security professional for Bellcore. Such +contacts were risky for telco employees; at least one such gentleman +who reached out to the hacker underground has been accused of divided +loyalties and summarily fired. Kluepfel, on the other hand, was +bravely engaging in friendly banter with heavy-dude hackers and eager +telephone-wannabes. Blankenship did nothing to spook him away, and +Kluepfel, for his part, passed dark warnings about "Phoenix Project" +to the Chicago group. "Phoenix Project" glowed with the radioactive +presence of the E911 document, passed there in a copy of Craig +Neidorf's electronic hacker fan-magazine, Phrack. + +"Illuminati" was prominently mentioned on the Phoenix Project. +Phoenix users were urged to visit Illuminati, to discuss the upcoming +"cyberpunk" game and possibly lend their expertise. It was also +frankly hoped that they would spend some money on SJG games. + +Illuminati and Phoenix had become two ripe pumpkins on the criminal +vine. + +Hacker busts were nothing new. They had always been problematic for +the authorities. The offenders were generally high-IQ white juveniles +with no criminal record. Public sympathy for the phone companies was +limited at best. Trials often ended in puzzled dismissals or a slap +on the wrist. + +Through long experience, law enforcement had come up with an +unorthodox but workable tactic. This was to avoid any trial at all, +or even an arrest. Instead, somber teams of grim police would swoop +upon the teenage suspect's home and box up his computer as "evidence." +If he was a good boy, and promised contritely to stay out of trouble +forthwith, the highly expensive equipment might be returned to him in +short order. If he was a hard-case, though, his toys could stay +boxed-up and locked away for a couple of years. + +The busts in Austin were an intensification of this tried-and-true +technique. There were adults involved in this case, though, reeking +of a hardened bad attitude. The supposed threat to the 911 system, +apparently posed by the E911 document, had nerved law enforcement to +extraordinary effort. The 911 system is the emergency system used by +the police themselves. Any threat to it was a direct, insolent hacker +menace to the electronic home turf of American law enforcement. + +Had Steve Jackson been arrested and directly accused of a plot to +destroy the 911 system, the resultant embarrassment would likely have +been sharp, but brief. The Chicago group, instead, chose total +operational security. They may have suspected that their search for +E911, once publicized, would cause that "dangerous" document to spread +like wildfire throughout the underground. Instead, they allowed the +impression to spread that they had raided Steve Jackson to stop the +publication of a book: GURPS Cyberpunk. This was a grave public- +relations blunder which caused the darkest fears and suspicions to +spread - not in the hacker underground, but among the general public. + +On March 1, 1990, 21-year-old hacker Chris Goggans (aka "Erik +Bloodaxe") was wakened by a police revolver levelled at his head. He +watched, jittery, as Secret Service agents appropriated his 300 baud +terminal and, rifling his files, discovered his treasured source-code +for the notorious Internet Worm. Goggans, a co-sysop of "Phoenix +Project" and a wily operator, had suspected that something of the like +might be coming. All his best equipment had been hidden away +elsewhere. They took his phone, though, and considered hauling away +his hefty arcade-style Pac-Man game, before deciding that it was +simply too heavy. Goggans was not arrested. To date, he has never +been charged with a crime. The police still have what they took, +though. + +Blankenship was less wary. He had shut down "Phoenix" as rumors +reached him of a crackdown coming. Still, a dawn raid rousted him and +his wife from bed in their underwear, and six Secret Service agents, +accompanied by a bemused Austin cop and a corporate security agent +from Bellcore, made a rich haul. Off went the works, into the agents' +white Chevrolet minivan: an IBM PC-AT clone with and a 120-meg hard +disk; a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II printer; a completely legitimate +and highly expensive SCO-Xenix 286 operating system; Pagemaker disks +and documentation; the Microsoft Word word-processing program; Mrs. +Blankenship's incomplete academic thesis stored on disk; and the +couple's telephone. All this property remains in police custody +today. + +The agents then bundled Blankenship into a car and it was off the +Steve Jackson Games in the bleak light of dawn. The fact that this +was a business headquarters, and not a private residence, did not +deter the agents. It was still early; no one was at work yet. The +agents prepared to break down the door, until Blankenship offered his +key. + +The exact details of the next events are unclear. The agents would +not let anyone else into the building. Their search warrant, when +produced, was unsigned. Apparently they breakfasted from +"Whataburger," as the litter from hamburgers was later found inside. +They also extensively sampled a bag of jellybeans kept by an SJG +employee. Someone tore a "Dukakis for President" sticker from the +wall. + +SJG employees, diligently showing up for the day's work, were met at +the door. They watched in astonishment as agents wielding crowbars +and screwdrivers emerged with captive machines. The agents wore blue +nylon windbreakers with "SECRET SERVICE" stencilled across the back, +with running-shoes and jeans. Confiscating computers can be heavy +physical work. + +No one at Steve Jackson Games was arrested. No one was accused of any +crime. There were no charges filed. Everything appropriated was +officially kept as "evidence" of crimes never specified. Steve +Jackson will not face a conspiracy trial over the contents of his +science-fiction gaming book. On the contrary, the raid's organizers +have been accused of grave misdeeds in a civil suit filed by EFF, and +if there is any trial over GURPS Cyberpunk it seems likely to be +theirs. + +The day after the raid, Steve Jackson visited the local Secret Service +headquarters with a lawyer in tow. There was trouble over GURPS +Cyberpunk, which had been discovered on the hard-disk of a seized +machine. GURPS Cyberpunk, alleged a Secret Service agent to +astonished businessman Steve Jackson, was "a manual for computer +crime." + +"It's science fiction," Jackson said. + +"No, this is real." This statement was repeated several times, by +several agents. This is not a fantasy, no, this is real. Jackson's +ominously "accurate" game had passed from pure, obscure, small-scale +fantasy into the impure, highly publicized, large-scale fantasy of the +hacker crackdown. No mention was made of the real reason for the +search, the E911 document. Indeed, this fact was not discovered until +the Jackson search-warrant was unsealed months later. Jackson was +left to believe that his board had been seized because he intended to +publish a science fiction book that law enforcement considered too +dangerous to see print. This misconception was repeated again and +again, for months, to an ever-widening audience. The effect of this +statement on the science fiction community was, to say the least, +striking. + +GURPS Cyberpunk, now published and available from Steve Jackson Games +(Box 18957, Austin, Texas 78760), does discuss some of the +commonplaces of computer-hacking, such as searching through trash for +useful clues, or snitching passwords by boldly lying to gullible +users. Reading it won't make you a hacker, any more than reading +Spycatcher will make you an agent of MI5. Still, this bold +insistence by the Secret Service on its authenticity has made GURPS +Cyberpunk the Satanic Verses of simulation gaming, and has made +Steve Jackson the first martyr-to-the-cause for the computer world's +civil libertarians. + +From the beginning, Steve Jackson declared that he had committed no +crime, and had nothing to hide. Few believed him, for it seemed +incredible that such a tremendous effort by the government would be +spent on someone entirely innocent. + +Surely there were a few stolen long-distance codes in "Illuminati," a +swiped credit-card number or two - something. Those who rallied to +the defense of Jackson were publicly warned that they would be caught +with egg on their face when the real truth came out, "later." But +"later" came and went. The fact is that Jackson was innocent of any +crime. There was no case against him; his activities were entirely +legal. He had simply been consorting with the wrong sort of people. + +In fact he was the wrong sort of people. His attitude stank. He +showed no contrition; he scoffed at authority; he gave aid and comfort +to the enemy; he was trouble. Steve Jackson comes from subcultures - +gaming, science fiction - that have always smelled to high heaven of +troubling weirdness and deep-dyed unorthodoxy. He was important +enough to attract repression, but not important enough, apparently, to +deserve a straight answer from those who had raided his property and +destroyed his livelihood. + +The American law-enforcement community lacks the manpower and +resources to prosecute hackers successfully on the merits of the cases +against them. The cyber-police to date have settled instead for a +cheap "hack" of the legal system: a quasi-legal tactic of seizure and +"deterrence." Humiliate and harass a few ringleaders, the philosophy +goes, and the rest will fall into line. After all, most hackers are +just kids. The few grown-ups among them are sociopathic geeks, not +real players in the political and legal game. In the final analysis, +a small company like Jackson's lacks the resources to make any real +trouble for the Secret Service. + +But Jackson, with his conspiracy-obsessed bulletin board and his seedy +SF-fan computer-freak employees, is not "just a kid." He is a +publisher, and he was battered by the police in the full light of +national publicity, under the shocked gaze of journalists, gaming +fans, libertarian activists and millionaire computer entrepreneurs, +many of whom were not "deterred," but genuinely aghast. + +"What," reasons the author, "is to prevent the Secret Service from +carting off my word-processor as 'evidence' of some non-existent +crime?" + +"What would I do," thinks the small-press owner, "if someone took my +laser-printer?" + +Hence the establishment of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. + +Steve Jackson was provided with a high-powered lawyer specializing in +Constitutional freedom-of-the-press issues. Faced with this, a +markedly un-contrite Secret Service returned Jackson's machinery, +after months of delay - some of it broken, with valuable data lost. +Jackson sustained many thousands of dollars in business losses, from +failure to meet deadlines and loss of computer-assisted production. + +Half the employees of Steve Jackson Games were sorrowfully laid-off. +Some had been with the company for years - not statistics, these +people, not "hackers" of any stripe, but bystanders, citizens, +deprived of their livelihoods by the zealousness of the March 1 +seizure. Some have since been re-hired - perhaps all will be, if +Jackson can pull his company out of its now persistent financial hole. +Devastated by the raid, the company would surely have collapsed in +short order - but SJG's distributors, touched by the company's plight +and feeling some natural subcultural solidarity, advanced him money to +scrape along. + +In retrospect, it is hard to see much good for anyone at all in the +activities of March 1. Perhaps the Jackson case has served as a +warning light for trouble in our legal system; but that's not much +recompense for Jackson himself. His own unsought fame may be +helpful, but it doesn't do much for his unemployed co-workers. In +the meantime, "hackers" have been demonized as a national threat. +"Cyberpunk," a literary term, has become a synonym for computer +criminal. The cyber-police have leapt where angels fear to tread. +And the phone companies have badly overstated their case and deeply +embarrassed their protectors. + +Sixteen months later, Steve Jackson suspects he may yet pull through. +Illuminati is still on-line. GURPS Cyberpunk, while it failed to +match Satanic Verses, sold fairly briskly. And Steve Jackson Games +headquarters, the site of the raid, was the site of a Cyberspace +Weenie Roast to launch an Austin Chapter of The Electronic Frontier +Foundation.. - + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/d6mrd.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/d6mrd.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..604ba465 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/d6mrd.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4009 @@ + + + +TO ALL CANADIAN LAWYERS AND MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: + +This booklet is the type of material that the Attorney General of +British Columbia considers 'racist'. The Attorney General of Ontario, at +the behest of his B. C. colleague, is purportedly conducting an +investigation of Samisdat Publishers preparatory to the laying of a +criminal charge of "promoting hatred against an identifiable group. " + +Samisdat intends to use this opportunity, however, unwelcome, to test +the definition and hence, the validity of the so-called 'Hate Law' +section of the Canadian Criminal Code. What is now becoming clear to all +of us, even to those who enacted the so-called 'Hate Law', is that we +enacted not so much an instrument against hate as an instrument against +truth. + +Canada was a civilised country before the passage of the 'Hate Law'. +We already had laws against the incitement to riot, to murder, to arson, +to the commission of assault and bodily harm. Our laws protected and +still protect every citizen from libel, slander and defamation. But the +outlawing of 'hate' does not thereby abolish feelings of hate, as we all +know. To prohibit expressions of hatred may even cause such feelings to +go unvented until they become explosive and take the form of violence. +Prior to the 'Hate Law', we Canadians behaved with mature composure when +encountering hateful expressions. We simply shunned the haters and left +them to spew out their ire, unsupported and alone. In most cases, a +cold dose of healthy public ridicule would quench the more volcanic +vituperators and reason would be restored. But something happened to us, +for as we have grown older as a country, we have become less mature and +less secure. Our passage of the 'Hate Law' was a grave reflection upon +ourselves. It revealed a sudden lose of confidence in our own wisdom +and judgement and in the wisdom and judgement of the great majority of +Canadian voters and citizens. Suddenly, we had to be protected from +ourselves and just as suddenly, we became refugees from freedom. No +democracy that so distrusts the majority can long remain a democracy; it +becomes a police state in the worst tradition of police states. + +Unfortunately, only a few clearsighted and courageous individuals +protested the enactment of the 'Hate Law'. So thick were the clouds of +hysteria and half-truth over the matter that only these few perceived +the dangers inherent in a statute which could be used at the discretion +of a public official to suppress the freedom of enquiry and discussion +in regard to relevant public issues. Among these few protesters, I +proudly number myself, for I spoke out then and I speak out now, on +behalf of our basic freedom to act as thinking human beings. + + As we stumble along the road to the 1984 of George Orwell, we sometimes +receive a taste of his dismal future-fantasy well ahead of schedule. +Pernicious 'thought-crime' legislation like the 'Hate Law' has brought +us 1984 already. It has not outlawed hate, but it has outlawed truth on +behalf of those predatory vested interests whose archenemy is truth! + +This booklet has been sent to you free of charge as a public +service. After reading it, you are perfectly free to agree or to +disagree with its content. You may even ignore it and leave it unread. +Truth has no need of coercion. Those who choose to ignore the truth are +not punished by law--they punish themselves. We of Samisdat Publishers +do not believe that you should be forced to read something, any more +than we believe that you should be forced to read something, any more +than we believe that you should be forced not to read something. +Obviously, we have much more faith in your soundness of mind and good +judgement than do the enactors and enforcers of the 'Hate Law'! Whether +you agree or disagree with the facts presented in this booklet, we +invite you to assist us in reclaiming and safeguarding the freedoms we +have all so long enjoyed, until now, in Canada. + +Help us remove this shameful stain of tyranny from our otherwise +bright and shining land. Help us strike the terrible sword of censorship +from the hands of those who would slay truth in pursuit of their dubious +aims. Without freedom of enquiry and freedom of access to information we +cannot have freedom of thought and without freedom of thought, we cannot +be a free people. The matter is urgent. Can you help us restore and +protect the freedom of all Canadians? + +You can help decisively by sending your contribution to the +Samisdat Defense Fund. Legal fees are costly in the extreme. We +anticipate daily expenditures of $1,000. 00 in attorneys' fees and in the +reimbursement of witnesses who must be flown in from Australia, Israel, +Europe and from both American continents. Whatever help you can provide +will make 1984 a much better year for your children and grandchildren-a +year in which freedom of thought will not be a memory, but a beautiful +reality! + +(Signature) Ernst Zundel, Publisher SAMISDAT PUBLISHERS LTD. + +INTRODUCTION + +Of course, atrocity propaganda is nothing new. It has accompanied every +conflict of the 20th century and doubtless will continue to do so. +During the First World War, the Germans were actually accused of eating +Belgian babies, as well as delighting to throw them in the air and +transfix them on bayonets. The British also alleged that the German +forces were operating a "Corpse Factory", in which they boiled down the +bodies of their own dead in order to obtain glycerine and other +commodities, a calculated insult to the honour of an Imperial army. +After the war, however, came the retractions; indeed, a public statement +was made by the Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons apologising +for the insults to German honour, which were admitted to be war-time +propaganda. + +No such statements have been made after the Second World War. In +fact, rather than diminish with the passage of years, the atrocity +propaganda concerning the German occupation, and in particular their +treatment of the Jews, has done nothing but increase its virulence, and +elaborate its catalogue of horrors. Gruesome paperback books with lurid +covers continue to roll from the presses, adding continuously to a +growing mythology of the concentration camps and especially to the story +that no less than Six Million Jews were exterminated in them. The +ensuing pages will reveal this claim to be the most colossal piece of +fiction and the most successful of deceptions; but here an attempt may +be made to answer an important question: What has rendered the atrocity +stories of the Second World War so uniquely different from those of the +First? Why were the latter retracted while the former are reiterated +louder than ever? Is it possible that the story of the Six Million Jews +is serving a political purpose, even that it is a form of political +blackmail? + +So far as the Jewish people themselves are concerned, the deception +has been an incalculable benefit. Every conceivable race and nationality +had its share of suffering in the Second World War, but none has so +successfully elaborated it and turned it to such great advantage. The +alleged extent of their persecution quickly aroused sympathy for the +Jewish national homeland they had sought for so long; after the War the +British Government did little to prevent Jewish emigration to Palestine +which they had declared illegal, and it was not long afterwards that the +Zionists wrested ftom the Government the land of Palestine and created +their haven from persecution, the State of Israel. Indeed, it is a +remarkable fact that the Jewish people emerged from the Second World War +as nothing less than a triumphant minority. Dr. Max Nussbaum, the former +chief rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin, stated on April 11, 1953: +"The position the Jewish people occupy today in the world - despite the +enormous losses - is ten times stronger than what it was twenty years +ago. " It should be added, if one is to be honest, that this strength has +been much consolidated financially by the supposed massacre of the Six +Million, undoubtedly the most profitable atrocity allegation of all +time. To date, the staggering figure of six thousand million pounds has +been paid out in compensation by the Federal Government of West Germany, +mostly to the State of Israel (which did not even exist during the +Second World War), as well as to individual Jewish claimants. + +DISCOURAGEMENT OF NATIONALISM + + + +In terms of political blackmail, however, the allegation that Six +Million Jews died during the Second World War has much more far-reaching +implications for the people of Britain and Europe than simply the +advantages it has gained for the Jewish nation. And here one comes to +the crux of the question: Why the Big Lie? What is its purpose? In the +first place, it has been used quite unscrupulously to discourage any +form of nationalism. Should the people of Britain or any other European +country attempt to assert their patriotism and preserve their national +integrity in an age when the very existence of nation-states is +threatened, they are immediately branded as "neo-Nazis". Because, of +course, Nazism was nationalism, and we all know what happened then - Six +Million Jews were exterminated! So long as the myth is perpetuated, +peoples everywhere will remain in bondage to it; the need for +international tolerance and understanding will be hammered home by the +United Nations until nationhood itself, the very guarantee of freedom, +is abolished. + + A classic example of the use of the 'Six Million' as an anti-national +weapon appears in Manvell and Frankl's book, The Incomparable Crime +(London, 1967), which deals with 'Genocide in the Twentieth Century'. +Anyone with a pride in being British will be somewhat surprised by the +vicious attack made on the British Empire in this book. The authors +quote Pandit Nehru, who wrote the following while in a British prison in +India: "Since Hitler emerged from obscurity and became the Fhrer of +Germany, we have heard a great deal about racialism and the Nazi theory +of the "Herrenvolk" . . . But we in India have known racialism in all +its forms ever since the commencement of British rule. The whole +ideology of this rule was that of the "Herrenvolk" and the master race . +. . India as a nation and Indians as individuals were subjected to +insult, humiliation and contemptuous treatment. The English were an +imperial race, we were told, with the God-given right to govern us and +keep us in subjection; if we protested we were reminded of the 'tiger +qualities of an imperial race'. " The authors Manvell and Frankl then go +on to make the point perfectly clear for us: "The white races of Europe +and America," they write, "have become used during centuries to +regarding themselves as a "Herrenvolk". The twentieth century, the +century of Auschwitz, has also achieved the first stage in the +recognition of multi-racial partnership" (ibid. , p . 14). + +THE RACE PROBLEM SUPPRESSED + + + +One could scarcely miss the object of this diatribe, with its +insiduous hint about "multi-racial partnership". Thus the accusation of +the Six Million is not only used to undermine the principle of +nationhood and national pride, but it threatens the survival of the Race +itself. It is wielded over the heads of the populace, rather as the +threat of hellfire and damnation was in the Middle Ages. Many countries +of the Anglo-Saxon world, notably Britain and America, are today facing +the gravest danger in their history, the danger posed by the alien races +in their midst. Unless something is done in Britain to halt the +immigration and assimilation of Africans and Asians into our country, we +are faced in the near future, quite apart from the bloodshed of racial +conflict, with the biological alteration and destruction of the British +people as they have existed here since the coming of the Saxons. In +short, we are threatened with the irrecoverable loss of our European +culture and racial heritage. But what happens if a man dares to speak of +the race problem, of its biological and political implications? He is +branded as that most heinous of creatures, a "racialist". And what is +racialism:,of course, but the very hallmark of the Nazi! They (so +everyone is told, anyway) murdered Six Million Jews because of +racialism, so it must be a very evil thing indeed. When Enoch Powell +drew attention to the dangers posed by coloured immigration into Britain +in one of his early speeches, a certain prominent Socialist raised the +spectre of Dachau and Auschwitz to silence his presumption. + +Thus any rational discussion of the problems of Race and the effort +to preserve racial integrity is effectively discouraged. No one could +have anything but admiration for the way in which the Jews have sought +to preserve their race through so many centuries, and continue to do so +today. In this effort they have frankly been assisted by the story of +the Six . Million, which, almost like a religious myth, has stressed the +need for greater Jewish racial solidarity. Unfortunately, it has worked +in quite the opposite way for all other peoples, rendering them impotent +in the struggle for self-preservation. The aim in the following pages is +quite simply to tell the Truth. The distinguished American historian +Harry Elmer Barnes once wrote that "An attempt to make a competent, +objective and truthful investigation of the extermination question . . . +is surely the most precarious venture that an historian or demographer +could undertake today. " In attempting this precarious task, it is hoped +to make some contribution, not only to historical truth, but towards +lifting the burden of a lie from our own shoulders, so that we may +freely confront the dangers which threaten us all. Richard E. Harwood + +1. GERMAN POLICY TOWARDS THE JEWS PRIOR TO THE WAR + + + +Rightly or wrongly, the Germany of Adolf Hitler considered the +Jews to be a disloyal and avaricious element within the national +community, as well as a force of decadence in Germany's cultural life. +This was held to be particularly unhealthy since, during the Weimar +period, the Jews had risen to a position of remarkable strength and +influence in the nation, particularly in law, finance and the mass +media, even though they constituted only 5 per cent of the population. +The fact that Karl Marx was a Jew and that Jews such as Rosa Luxembourg +and Karl Liebknecht were disproportionately prominent in the leadership +of revolutionary movements in Germany, also tended to convince the Nazis +of the powerful internationalist and Communist tendencies of the Jewish +people themselves. + +It is no part of the discussion here to argue whether the German +attitude to the Jews was right or not, or to judge whether its +legislative measures against them were just or unjust. Our concern is +simply with the fact that, believing of the Jews as they did, the Nazis' +solution to the problem was to deprive them of their influence within +the nation by various legislative acts, and most important of all, to +encounge their emigration from the country altogether. By 1939, the +great majority of German Jews had emigrated, all of them with a sizeable +proportion of their assets. Never at any time had the Nazi leadership +even contemplated a policy of genocide towards them. + +JEWS CALLED EMIGRATION 'EXTERMINATION' + + + +It is very significant, however, that certain Jews were quick to +interpret these policies of internal discrimination as equivalent to +extermination itself. A 1936 anti-German propaganda book by Leon +Feuchtwanger and others entitled Der Gelbe Fleck: Die Austrotung von +500,000 deutschen Juden (The Yellow Spot: The Extermination of 500,000 +German Jews, Paris, 1936), presents a typical example. Despite its +baselessness in fact, the annihilation of the Jews is discussed from the +first pages - straightforward emigration being regarded as the physical +"extermination" of German Jewry. The Nazi concentration camps for +political prisoners are also seen as potential instruments of genocide, +and special reference is made to the 100 Jews still detained in Dachau +in 1936, of whom 60 had been there since 1933. A further example was the +sensational book by the German-Jewish Communist, Hans Beimler, called +Four Weeks in the Hands of Hitler's Hell-Hounds: The Nazi Murder Camp of +Dachau, which was published in New York as eady as 1933. Detained for +his Marxist affiliations, he claimed that Dachau was a death camp, +though by his own admission he was released after only a month there. +The presentregime in East Germany now issues a Hans Beimler Award for +services to Communism. + +The fact that anti-Nazi genocide propaganda was being disseminated at +this impossibly early date, therefore, by people biased on racial or +political grounds, should suggest extreme caution to the +independent-minded observer when approaching similar stories of the war +period. + +The encouragement of Jewish emigration should not be confused with +the purpose of concentration camps in pre-war Germany. These were used +for the detention of political opponents and subversives - principally +liberals, Social Democrats and Communists of all kinds, of whom a +proportion were Jews such as Hans Beimler. Unlike the millions enslaved +in the Soviet Union, the German concentration camp population was always +small; Reitinger admits that between 1934 and 1938 it seldom exceeded +20,000 throughout the whole of Germany, and the number of Jews was never +more than 3,000. (The S. S. : Alibi of a Nation, London, 1956, p. 253). + +ZIONIST POLICY STUDIED + + + +The Nazi view of Jewish emigration was not Iimited to a negative +policy of simple expulsion, but was formulated along the lines of modern +Zionism. The founder of political Zionism in the 19th century, Theodore +Herzl, in his work The Jewish State, had originally conceived of +Madagascar as a national homeland for the Jews, and this possibility was +seriously studied by the Nazis. It had been a main plank of the National +Socialist party platform before 1933 and was published by the party in +pamphlet form. This stated that the revival of Israel as a Jewish state +was much less acceptable since it would result in perpetual war and +disruption in the Arab world, which has indeed been the case. The +Germans were not original in proposing Jewish emigration to Madagascar; +the Polish Government had already considered the scheme in respect of +their own Jewish population, and in 1937 they sent the Michael Lepecki +expedition to Madagascar, accompanied by Jewish representatives, to +investigate the problems involved. + +The first Nazi proposals for a Madagascar solution were made in +association with the Schacht Plan of 1938. On the advice of Goering, +Hitler agreed to send the President of the Reichsbank, Dr. Hjaimar +Schacht, to London for discussions with Jewish representatives Lord +Bearsted and Mr. Rublee of New York (cf. Reitlinger, The Final Solution, +London, 1953, p. 20). The plan was that German Jewish assets would be +frozen as security for an international loan to finance Jewish +emigration to Palestine, and Schacht reported on these negotiations to +Hitler at Berchtesgaden on January 2, 1939. The plan, which failed due +to British refusal to accept the financial terms, was first put forward +on November 12, 1938 at a conference convened by Goering, who revealed +that Hitler was already considering the emigration of Jews to a +settlement in Madagascar (ibid. , p. 21). Later, in December, Ribbentrop +was told by M. Georges Bonnet, the French Foreign Secretary, that the +French Government itself was planning the evacuation of 10,000 Jews to +Madagascar. + + Prior to the Schacht Palestine proposals of 1938, which were +essentially a protraction of discussions that had begun as early as +1935, numerous attempts had been made to secure Jewish emigration to +other European nations, and these efforts culminated in the Evian +Conference of July, 1938. However, by 1939 the scheme of Jewish +emigration to Madagascar had gained the most favour in German circles. +It is true that in London Helmuth Wohltat of the German Foreign Office +discussed limited Jewish emigration to Rhodesia and British Guiana as +late as April 1939; but by January 24th, when Goering wrote to Interior +Minister Frick ordering the creation of a Central Emigration Office for +Jews, and commissioned Heydrich of the Reich Security Head Office to +solve the Jewish problem "by means of emigration and evacuation", the +Madagascar Plan was being studied in earnest. + +By 1939, the consistent efforts of the German Government to secure the +departure of Jews from the Reich had resulted in the emigration of +400,000 German Jews from a total population of about 600,000, and an +additional 480,000 emigrants from Austria and Czechoslovakia, which +constituted almost their entire Jewish populations. This was +accomplished through Offices of Jewish Emigration in Berlin, Vienna and +Prague established by Adolf Eichmann, the head of the Jewish +Investigation Office of the Gestapo. So eager were the Germans to secure +this emigration that Eichmann even established a training centre in +Austria, where young Jews could learn farming in anticipation of being +smuggled illegally to Palestine (Manvell & Frankl, S. S. and Gestapo, p. +60). Had Hitler cherished any intention of exterminating the Jews, it is +inconceivable that he would have allowed more than 800,000 to leave +Reich territory with the bulk of their wealth, much less considered +plans for their mass emigration to Palestine or Madagascar. What is +more, we shall see that the policy of emigration from Europe was still +under consideration well into the war period, notably the Madagascar +Plan, which Eichmann discussed in 1940 with French Colonial Office +experts after the defeat of France had made the surrender of the colony +a practical proposition. + +2. GERMAN POLICY TOWARDS THE JEWS AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF WAR + + + +With the coming of the war, the situation regarding the Jews +altered drastically. It is not widely known that world Jewry declared +itself to be a belligerent party in the Second World War, and there was +therefore ample basis under international law for the Germans to intern +the Jewish population as a hostile force. On September 5, 1939 Chaim +Weizmann, the principle Zionist leader, had declared war against Germany +on behalf of the world's Jews, stating that "the Jews stand by Great +Britain and will fight on the side of the democracies . . . The Jewish +Agency is ready to enter into immediate arrangements for utilizing +Jewish manpower, technical ability, resources etc . . . " (Jewish +Chronicle, September 8, 1939). + +DETENTION OF ENEMY ALIENS + + + +All Jews had thus been declared agents willing to prosecute a war +against the German Reich, and as a consequence, Himmler and Heydrich +were eventually to begin the policy of internment. It is worth noting +that the United States and Canada had already interned all Japanese +aliens and citizens of Japanese descent in detention camps before the +Germans applied the same security measures against the Jews of Europe. +Moreover, there had been no such evidence or declaration of disloyalty +by these Japanese Americans as had been given by Weizmann. The British, +too, during the Boer War, interned all the women and children of the +population, and thousands had died as a result, yet in no sense could +the British be charged with wanting to exterminate the Boers. + + The detention of Jews in the occupied territories of Europe served two +essential purposes from the German viewpoint. The first was to prevent +unrest and subversion; Himmler had informed Mussolini on October 11th, +1942, that German policy towards the Jews had altered during wartime +entirely for reasons of military security. He complained that thousands +of Jews in the occupied regions were conducting partisan warfare, +sabotage and espionage, a view confirmed by official Soviet information +given to Raymond Arthur Davis diat no less than 35,000 European Jews +were waging partisan war under Tito in Yugoslavia. As a result, Jews +were to be transported to restricted areas and detention camps, both in +Germany, and especially after March 1942, in the Government- General of +Poland. + +As the war proceeded, the policy developed of using Jewish +detainees for labour in the war-effort. The question of labour is +fundamental when considering the alleged plan of genocide against the +Jews, for on grounds of logic alone the latter would entail the most +senseless waste of manpower, time and energy while prosecuting a war of +survival on two fronts. Certainly after the attack on Russia, the idea +of compulsory labour had taken precedence over German plans for Jewisb +emigation. The protocol of a conversation between Hitler and the +Hungarian regent Horthy on April 17th, 1943, reveals that the German +leader personally requested Horthy to release 100,000 Hungarian Jews for +work in the "pursuit- plane programme" of the Luftwaffe at a time when +the aerial bombardment of Germany was increasing (Reitlinger, Die +Endl_sung, Berlin, 1956, p. 478). This took place at a time when, +supposedly, the Germans were already seeking to exterminate the Jews, +but Hitler's request clearly demonstrates the priority aim of expanding +his labour force. + +In harmony with this programme, concentration camps became, in +fact, industrial complexes. At every camp where Jews and other +nationalities were detained, there were. large industrial plants and +factories supplying material for the German war-effort - the Buna rubber +factory at Bergen-Belsen, for example, Buna and I. G. Farben Industrie +at Auschwitz and the electrical firm of Siemens at Ravensbruck. In many +cases, special concentration camp money notes were issued as payment for +labour, enabling prisoners to buy extra rations from camp shops. The +Germans were determined to obtain the maximum economic return from the +concentration camp system, an object wholly at variance with any plan to +exterminate millions of people in them. It was the function of the S. S. +Economy and Administration Office, headed by Oswald Pohl, to see that +the concentration camps became major industrial producers. + +EMIGRATION STILL FAVOURED + + + +It is a remarkable fact, however, that well into the war period, +the Germans continued to implement the policy of Jewish emigration. The +fall of France in 1940 enabled the German Government to open serious +negotiations with the French for the transfer of European Jews to +Madagascar. A memorandum of August, 1942 from Luther, Secretary-of- +State in the German Foreign Office, reveals that he had conducted these +negotiations between July and December 1940, when they were terminated +by the French. A circular from Luther's department dated August 15th, +1940 shows that the details of the German plan had been worked out by +Eichmann, for it is signed by his assistant, Dannecker. Eichmann had in +fact been commissioned in August to draw up a detailed Madagascar Plan, +and Dannecker was employed in research on Madagascar at the French +Colonial Office (Reitlinger, The Final ,Solution, p. 77). The proposals +of August 15th were that an inter-European bank was to finance the +emigration of four million Jews throughout a phased programme. Luther's +1942 memorandum shows that Heydrich had obtained Himmler's approval of +this plan before the end of August and had also submitted it to Goering. +It certainly met with Hitler's approval, for as early as June 17th his +interpreter, Schmidt, recalls Hitler observing to Mussolini that "One +could found a State of Israel in Madagascar" (Schmidt, Hitler's +lnterpreter, London,1951, p. 178). + +Although the French terminated the Madagascar negotiations in +December, 1940, Poliakov, the director of the Centre of Jewish +Documentation in Paris, admits that the Germans nevertheless pursued the +scheme, and that Eichmann was still busy with it throughout 1941. +Eventually, however, it was rendered impractical by the progress of the +war, in particular by the situation after the invasion of Russia, and on +February 10th, 1942, the Foreign Office was informed that the plan had +been temporarily shelved. This ruling, sent to the Foreign Office by +Luther's assistant, Rademacher, is of great importance, because it +demonstrates conclusively that the term "Final Solution" meant only the +emigration of Jews, and also that transportation to the eastern ghettos +and concentration camps such as Auschwitz constituted nothing but an +alternative plan of evacuation. The directive reads: "The war with the +Soviet Union has in the meantime created the possibility of disposing of +other territories for the Final Solution. In consequence the Fhrer has +decided that the Jews should be evacuated not to Madagascar but to the +East. Madagascar need no longer therefore be considered in connection +with the Final Solution" (Reitlinger, ibid. p. 79). The details of this +evacuation had been discussed a month earlier at the Wannsee Conference +in Berlin, which we shall examine below. + +Reitlinger and Poliakov both make the entirely unfounded supposition +that because the Madagascar Plan had been shelved, the Germans must +necessarily have been thinking of "extermination". Only a month later, +however, on March 7th, 1942, Goebbels wrote a memorandum in favour of +the Madagascar Plan as a "final solution" of the Jewish question +(Manvell & Frankl, Dr. Goebbels, London, 1960, p. 165). In the meantime +he approved of the Jews being "concentrated in the East". Later Goebbels +memoranda also stress deportation to the East (i. e. the +Government-General of Poland) and lay emphasis on the need for +compulsory labour there; once the policy of evacuation to the East had +been inaugurated, the use of Jewish labour became a fundamental part of +the operation. It is perfecdy clear from the foregoing that the term +"Final Solution" was applied both to Madagascar and to the Eastern +territories, and that therefore it meant only the deportation of the +Jews. + + Even as late as May 1944, the Germans were prepared to allow the +emigration of one million European Jews from Europe. An account of this +proposal is given by Alexander Weissberg, a prominent Soviet Jewish +scientist deported during the Stalin purges, in his book Die Geschichte +von Joel Brand (Cologne, 1956). Weissberg, who spent the war in Cracow +though he expected the Germans to intern him in a concentration camp, +explains that on the personal authorisation of Himmler, Eichmann had +sent the Budapest Jewish leader Joel Brand to Istanbul with an offer to +the Allies to permit the transfer of one million European Jews in the +midst of the war. (If the 'extermination' writers are to be believed, +there were scarcely one million Jews left by May, 1944). The Gestapo +admitted that the transportation involved would greatly inconvenience +the German war-effort, but were prepared to allow it in exchange for +10,000 trucks to be used exclusively on the Russian front. +Unfortunately, the plan came to nothing; the British concluded that +Brand must be a dangerous Nazi agent and immediately imprisoned him in +Cairo, while the Press denounced the offer as a Nazi trick. Winston +Churchill, though orating to the effect that the treatment of the +Hungarian Jews was probably "the biggest and most horrible crime ever +committed in the whole history of the world", never- theless told Chaim +Weizmann that acceptance of the Brand offer was impossible, since it +would be a betrayal of his Russian Allies. Although the plan was +fruitless, it well illustrates that no one allegedly carrying out +"thorough" extermination would permit the emigration of a million Jews, +and it demonstrates, too, the prime importance placed by the Germans on +the war-effort. + +3. POPULATION AND EMIGRATION + + + +Statistics relating to Jewish populations are not everywhere +known in precise detail, approximations for various countries differing +widely, and it is also unknown exactly how many Jews were deported and +interned at any one time between the years 1939-1945. In general, +however, what reliable statistics there are, especially those relating +to emigration, are sufficient to show that not a fraction of six million +Jews could have been exterminated. + +In the first place, this claim cannot remotely be upheld on +examination of the European Jewish population figures. According to +Chambers Encyclopaedia the total number of Jews living in pre-war Europe +was 6,500,000. Quite clearly, this would mean that almost the entire +number were exterminated. But the Baseler Nachrichten, a neutral Swiss +publication employing available Jewish statistical data, establishes +that between 1933 and 1945, 1,500,000 Jews emigrated to Britain, Sweden, +Spain, Portugal, Australia, China, India, Palestine and the United +Sutes. This is confirmed by the Jewish journalist Bruno Blau, who cites +the same figure in the New York Jewish paper Aufbau, August 13th, 1948. +Of these emigrants, approximately 400,000 came from Germany before +September 1939. This is acknowledged by the World Jewish Congress in its +publication Unity in Dispersion (p. 377), which states that: "The +majority of the German Jews succeeded in leaving Germany before the war +broke out. " In addition to the German Jews, 220,000 of the total 280,000 +Austrian Jews had emigrated by September, 1939, while from March 1939 +onwards the Institute for Jewish Emigration in Prague had secured the +emigration of 260,000 Jews from former Czechoslovakia. In all, only +360,000 Jews remained in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia after +September 1939. From Poland, an estimated 500,000 had emigrated prior to +the outbreak of war. These figures mean that the number of Jewish +emigrants from other European countries (France, the Netherlands, Italy, +the countries of eastern Europe etc. ) was approximately 120,000. + +This exodus of Jews before and during hostilities, therefore, +reduces the number of Jews in Europe to approximately 5,000,000. In +addition to these emigrants, we must also include the number of Jews who +fled to the Soviet Union after 1939, and who were later evacuated beyond +reach of the German invaders. It will be shown below that the majority +of these, about 1,250,000, were migrants from Poland. But apart from +Poland, Reitlinger admits that 300,000 other European Jews slipped into +Soviet territory between 1939 and 1941. This brings the total of Jewish +emigrants to the Soviet Union to about 1,550,000. In Colliers magazine, +June 9th, 1945, Freiling Foster, writing of the Jews in Russia, +explained that "2,200,000 have migrated to the Soviet Union since 1939 +to escape from the Nazis," but our lower estimate is probably more +accurate. + +Jewish migration to the Soviet Union, therefore, reduces the number +of Jews within the sphere of German occupation to around 3-1/2 million, +approximately 3,450,000. From these should be deducted those Jews living +in neutral European countries who escaped the consequences of the war. +According to the 1942 World Almanac (p. 594). the number of Jews living +in Gibraltar, Britain, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland and +Turkey was 413,128. + +3 MILLION JEWS IN EUROPE + + + +A figure, consequently, of around 3 million Jews in German- +occupied Europe is as accurate as the available emigration statistics +will allow. Approximately the same number, however, can be deduced in +another way if we examine statistics for the Jewish populations +remaining in countries occupied by the Reich. More than half of those +Jews who migrated to the Soviet Union after 1939 came from Poland. It is +frequently claimed that the war with Poland added some 3 million Jews to +the German sphere of influence and that almost the whole of this Polish +Jewish population was "exterminated". This is a major factual error. The +1931 Jewish population census for Poland put the number of Jews at +2,732,600 (Reitlinger, Die Endl_sung, p. 36). Reitlinger states that at +least 1,170,000 of these were in the Russian zone occupied in the autumn +of 1939, about a million of whom were evacuated to the Urals and south +Siberia after the German invasion of June 1941 (ibid. p. 50). As +described above, an estimated 500,000 Jews had emigrated from Poland +prior to the war. Moreover, the journalist Raymond Arthur Davis, who +spent the war in the Soviet Union, observed that approximately 250,000 +had already fled from German-occupied Poland to Russia between 1939 and +1941 and were to be encountered in every Soviet province (Odyssey +through Hell, N. Y. , 1946). Subtracting these figures from the population +of 2,732,600, therefore, and allowing for the normal population +increase, no more than 1,100,000 Polish Jews could have been under +German rule at the end of 1939. (Gutachen des Instituts fr +Zeitgeschichte, Munich, 1956, p. 80). + +To this number we may add the 360,000 Jews remaining in Germany, +Austria and former Czechoslovakia (Bohemia-Moravia and Slovakia) after +the extensive emigration from those countries prior to the war described +above. Of the 320,000 French Jews, the Public Prosecutor representing +that part of the indictment relating to France at the Nuremberg Trials, +stated that 120,000 Jews were deported, though. Reitlinger estimates +only about 50,000. Thus the total number of Jews under Nazi rule remains +below two million. Deportations from the Scandinavian countries were +few, and from Bulgaria none at all. When the Jewish populations of +Holland (140,000), Belgium (40,000), Italy (50,000), Yugoslavia +(55,000), Hungary (380,000) and Roumania (725,000) are included, the +figure does not much exceed 3 million. This excess is due to the fact +that the latter figures are pre-war estimates unaffected by emigration, +which from these countries accounted for about 120,000 (see above). This +cross-checking, therefore, confirms the estimate of approximately 3 +million European Jews under German occupation. + +RUSSIAN JEWS EVACUATED + + + +The precise figures concerning Russian Jews are unknown, and have +therefore been the subject of extreme exaggeration. The Jewish +statistician Jacob Leszczynski states that in 1939 there were 2,100,000 +Jews living in future German-occupied Russia, i. e. western Russia. In +addition, some 260,000 lived in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and +Lithuania. According to Louis Levine, President of the American Jewish +Council for Russian Relief, who made a post-war tour of the Soviet Union +and submitted a report on the status of Jews there, the majority of +these numbers were evacuated east after the German armies launched their +invasion. In Chicago, on October 30th, 1946, he declared that: "At the +outset of the war, Jews were amongst the first evacuated from the +western regions threatened by the Hitlerite invaders, and shipped to +safety east of the Urals. Two million Jews were thus saved. " This high +number is confirmed by the Jewish journalist David Bergelson, who wrote +in the Moscow Yiddish paper Ainikeit, December 5th, 1942, that "Thanks +to the evacuation, the majority (80%) of the Jews in the Ukraine, White +Russia, Lithuania and Latvia before the arrival of the Germans were +rescued. " Reitlinger agrees with the Jewish authority Joseph +Schechtmann, who admits that huge numbers were evacuated, though he +estimates a slightly higher number of Russian and Baltic Jews left under +German occupation, between 650,000 and 850,000 (Reitlinger, The Final +Solution, p. 499). In respect of these Soviet Jews remaining in German +territory, it will be proved later that in the war in Russia no more +than one hundred thousand persons were killed by the German Action +Groups as partisans and Bolshevik commissars, not all of whom were Jews. +By contrast, the partisans themselves claimed to have murdered five +times that number of German troops. + +'SIX MILLION' UNTRUE ACCORDING TO NEUTRAL SWISS + + + +It is clear, therefore, that the Germans could not possibly have +gained control over or exterminated anything like six million Jews. +Excluding the Soviet Union, the number of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe +after emigration was scarcely more than 3 million, by no means all of +whom were interned. To approach the extermination of even half of six +mfilion would have meant the liquidation of every Jew living in Europe. +And yet it is known that large numbers of Jews were alive in Europe +after 1945. Philip Friedmann in Their Brother's Keepers (N. Y. , 1957, p. +13), states that "at least a million Jews survived in the very crucible +of the Nazi hell," while the official figure of the Jewish Joint +Distribution Committee is 1,559,600. Thus, even if one accepts the +latter estimate, the number of possible wartime Jewish deaths could not +have exceeded a limit of one and a half million. Precisely this +conclusion was reached by the reputable journal Baseler Nachrichten of +neutral Switzerland. In an article entitled "Wie hoch ist die Zahl der +jdischen Opfer?" ("How high is the number of Jewish victims?", June +13th, 1946), it explained that purely on the basis of the population and +emigration figures described above, a maximum of only one and a half +million Jews could be numbered as casualties. Later on, however, it will +be demonstrated conclusively that the number was actually far less, for +the Baseler Nachrichten accepted the Joint Distribution Committee's +figure of 1,559,600 survivors after the war, but we shall show that the +number of claims for compensation by Jewish survivors is more than +double that figure. This information was not available to the Swiss in +1946. + + +IMPOSSIBLE BIRTH RATE + + + +Indisputable evidence is also provided by the post-war world +Jewish population statistics. The World Almanac of 1938 gives the number +of Jews in the world as 16,588,259. But after the war, the New York +Times, February 22nd, 1948 placed the number of Jews in the world at a +minimum of 15,600,000 and a maximum of 18,700,000. Quite obviously, +these figures make it impossible for the number of Jewish war-time +casualties to be measured in anything but thousands. 15- 1/2 million in +1938 minus the alleged six million leaves nine million; the New York +Times figures would mean, therefore, that the world's Jews produced +seven million births, almost doubling their numbers, in the space of ten +years. This is patently ridiculous. + +It would appear, therefore, that the great majority of the +missing "six million" were in fact emigrants - emigrants to European +countries, to the Soviet Union and the United States before, during and +after the war. And emigrants also, in vast nunibers to Palestine during +and especially at the end of the war. After 1945, boat-loads of these +Jewish survivors entered Palestine illegally from Europe, causing +considerable embarrassment to the British Government of the time; +indeed, so great were the numbers that the H. M. Stationery Office +publication No. 190 (November 5th, 1946) described them as "almost +amounting to a second Exodus. " It was these emigrants to all parts of +the world who had swollen the world Jewish population to between 15 and +18 millions by 1948, and probably the greatest part of them were +emigrants to the United States who entered in violation of the quota +laws. On August 16th, 1963 David Ben Gurion, President of Israel, stated +that although the official Jewish population of America was said to be +5,600,000, "the total number would not be estimated too high at +9,000,000" (Deutsche Wochenzeitung, November 23rd, 1963). The reason for +this high figure is underlined by Albert Maisal in his article "Our +Newest Americans" (Readers Digest, January, 1957), for he reveals that +"Soon after World War II, by Presidential decree, 90 per cent of all +quota visas for central and eastern Europe were issued to the uprooted. " + + +Reprinted on this page is just one extract from hundreds that +regularly appear in the obituary columns of Aufbau, the Jewish American +weekly published in New York (June 16th, 1972). It shows how Jewish +emigrants to the United States subsequently changed their names; their +former names when in Europe appear in brackets. For example, as below: +Arthur Kingsley (formerly Dr. K_nigsberger of Frankfurt). Could it be +that some or all of these people whose names are 'deceased' were +included in the missing six million of Europe? + +4. THE SIX MILLION: DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE + + + +From the foregoing it would seem certain that the figure of six +million murdered Jews amounts to nothing more than a vague compromise +between several quite baseless estimates; there is not a shred of +documentary evidence for it that is trustworthy. Occasionally, writers +narrow it down to give a disarming appearance of authenticity. Lord +Russell of Liverpool, for example, in his The Scourge of the Swastika +(London, 1954) claimed that "not less than five million" Jews died in +German concentration camps, having satisfied himself that he was +somewhere between those who estimated 6 million and those who preferred +4 million. But, he admitted, "the real number will never be known. " If +so, it is difficult to know how he could have asserted "not less than +five million. " The Joint Distribution Committee favours 5,012,000, but +the Jewish "expert" Reitlinger suggests a novel figure of 4,192,200 +"missing Jews" of whom an estimated one third died of natural causes. +This would reduce the number deliberately "exterminated" to 2,796,000. +However, Dr. M. Perlzweig, the New York delegate to a World Jewish +Congress press conference held at Geneva in 1948 stated: "The price of +the downfall of National Socialism and Fascism is the fact that seven +million Jews lost their lives thanks to cruel Anti-Semitism. " In the +Press and elsewhere, the figure is often casually lifted to eight +million or sometimes even nine million. As we have proved in the +previous chapter, none of these figures are in the remotest degree +plausible, indeed, they are ridiculous. + + +FANTASTIC EXAGGERATIONS + + + +So far as is known, the first accusation against the Germans of +the mass murder of Jews in war-time Europe was made by the Polish Jew +Rafael Lemkin in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, published in New +York in 1943. Somewhat coincidentally, Lemkin was later to draw up the +U. N. Genocide Convention, which seeks to outlaw "racialism". His book +claimed that the Nazis had destroyed millions of Jews, perhaps as many +as six millions. This, by 1943, would have been remarkable indeed, since +the action was allegedly started only in the summer of 1942. At such a +rate, the entire world Jewish population would have been exterminated by +1945. + + +After the war, propaganda estimates spiralled to heights even +more fantastic. Kurt Gerstein, an anti-Nazi who claimed to have +infiltrated the S. S. , told the French interrogator Raymond Cartier that +he knew that no less than forty million concentration camp internees had +been gassed. In his first signed memorandum of April 26th, 1945, he +reduced the figure to 25 million, but even this was too bizarre for +French Intelligence and in his second memorandum, signed at Rottweil on +May 4th, 1945, he brought the figure closer to the six million preferred +at the Nuremberg Trials. Gerstein's sister was congenitally insane and +died by euthenasia, which may well suggest a streak of mental +instability in Gerstein himself. He had, in fact, been convicted in 1936 +of sending eccentric mail through the post. After his two "confessions" +he hanged himself at Cherche Midi prison in Paris. + +Gerstein alleged that during the war he passed on information +concerning the murder of Jews to the Swedish Government through a German +baron but for some inexplicable reason his report was "filed away and +forgotten". He also claimed that in August 1942 he informed the Papal +nuncio in Berlin about the whole "extermination programme", but the +reverend person merely told him to "Get out. " The Gerstein statements +abound with claims to have witnessed the most gigantic mass executions +(twelve thousand in a single day at Belzec), while the second memorandum +describes a visit by Hitler to a concentration camp in Poland on June +6th, 1942 which is known never to have taken place. + +Gerstein's fantastic exaggerations have done little but discredit +the whole notion of mass extermination. Indeed, Evangelical Bishop +Wilhelm Dibelius of Berlin denounced his memoranda as "Untrustworthy" +(H. Rothfels, "Augenzeugenbericht zu den Massenvergasungen" in +Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte, April 1953). It is an incredible +fact, however, that in spite of this denunciation, the German Government +in 1955 issued an edition of the second Gerstein memorandum for +distribution in German chools (Dokumentation zur Massenvergasung, Bonn, +1955). In it they stated that Dibelius placed his special confidence in +Gerstein and that the memoranda were "valid beyond any doubt. " This is a +striking example of the way in which the baseless charge of genocide by +the Nazis is perpetuated in Germany, and directed especially to the +youth. + +The story of six million Jews exterminated during the war was +given final authority at the Nuremberg Trials by the statement of Dr. +Wilhelm Hoettl. He had been an assistant of Eichmann's, but was in fact +a rather strange person in the service of American Intelligence who had +written several books under the pseudonym of Walter Hagen. Hoettl also +worked for Soviet espionage, collaborating with two Jewish emigrants +from Vienna, Perger and Verber, who acted as U. S. officers during the +preliminary inquiries of the Nuremberg Trials. It is remarkable that the +testimony of this highly dubious person Hoettl is said to constitute the +only "proof' regarding the murder of six million Jews. In his affidavit +of November 26th, 1945 he stated, not that he knew but that Eichmann had +"told him" in August 1944 in Budapest that a total of 6 million Jews had +been exterminated. Needless to say, Eichmann never corroborated this +claim at his trial. Hoettl was working as an American spy during the +whole of the latter period of the war, and it is therefore very odd +indeed that he never gave the slightest hint to the Americans of a +policy to murder Jews, even though he worked directly under Heydrich and +Eichmann. + +ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE + + + +It should be emphasised straight away that there is not a single +document in existence which proves that the Germans intended to, or +carried out, the deliberate murder of Jews. In Poliakov and Wulf's Das +Dritte Reich und die Juden: Dokumente und Aufs_tze (Berlin, 1955), the +most that they can assemble are statements extracted after the war from +people like Hoettl, Ohlendorf and Wisliceny, the latter under torture in +a Soviet prison. In the absence of any evidence, therefore, Poliakov is +forced to write: "The three or four people chiefly involved in drawing +up the plan for total extermination are dead, and no documents survive. " +This seems very convenient. Quite obviously, both the plan and the +"three or four" people are nothing but nebulous assumptions on the part +of the writer, and are entirely unprovable. The documents which do +survive, of course, make no mention at all of extermination, so that +writers like Poliakov and Reitlinger again make the convenient +assumption that such orders were generally "verbal". Though lacking any +documentary proof, they assume that a plan to murder Jews must have +originated in 1941, coinciding with the attack on Russia. Phase one of +the plan is alleged to have involved the massacre of Soviet Jews, a +claim we shall disprove later. The rest of the programme is supposed to +have begun in March 1942, with the deportation and concentration of +European Jews in the eastern camps of the Polish Government-General, +such as the giant industrial complex at Auschwitz near Cracow. The +fantastic and quite groundless assumption throughout is that +transportation to the East, supervised by Eichmann's department, +actually meant immediate extermination in ovens on arrival. + +According to Manvell and Frankl (Heinrich Himmler. London, 1965), the +policy of genocide "seems to have been arrived at" after "secret +discussions" between Hitler and Himmler (p. 118), though they fail to +prove it. Reitlinger and Poliakov guess along similar "verbal" lines, +adding that no one else was allowed to be present at these discussions, +and no records were ever kept of them. This is the purest invention, for +there is not a shred of evidence that even suggests such outlandish +meetings took place. William Shirer, in his generally wild and +irresponsible book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, is similarly +muted on the subject of documentary proof. He states weakly that +Hitler's supposed order for the murder of Jews "apparently was never +committed to paper - at least no copy of it has yet been unearthed. It +was probably given verbally to Goering, Himmler and Heydrich, who passed +it down . . ,"(p. 1148). + +A typical example of the kind of "proof' quoted in support of the +extermination legend is given by Manvell and Frankl. They cite a +memorandum of 31st July, 1941 sent by Goering to Heydrich, who headed +the Reich Security Head Office and was Himmler's deputy. Significantly, +the memorandum begins: "Supplementing the task that was assigned to you +on 24th January 1939, to solve the Jewish problem by means of emigration +and evacuation in the best possible way according to present conditions +. . . " The supplementary task assigned in the memorandum is a "total +solution (Gesamtl_sung) of the Jewish question within the area of German +influence in Europe," which the authors admit means concentration in the +East, and it requests preparations for the "organisational, financial +and material matters" involved. The memorandum then requests a future +plan for the "desired final solution" (Endl_sung), which clearly refers +to the ideal and ultimate scheme of emigration and evacuation mentioned +at the beginning of the directive. No mention whatever is made of +murdering people, but Manvell and Frankl assure us that this is what the +memorandum is really about. Again, of course, the "true nature" of the +final as distinct from the total solution "was made known to Heydrich by +Goering verbafly" (ibid, p. 118). The convenience of these "verbal" +directives issuing back and forth is obvious. + + +THE WANNSEE CONFERENCE + + + +The final details of the plan to exterminate Jews were supposed +to have been made at a conference at Gross Wannsee in Berlin on 20th +January, 1942, presided over by Heydrich (Poliakov, Das Dritte Reich und +die Juden, p. 120 ff; Reitlinger, The Final Solution, p. 95 ff). +Officials of all German Ministries were present, and Mller and Eichmann +represented Gestapo Head Office. Reitlinger and Manvell and Frankl +consider tile minutes of this conference to be their trump card in +proving the existence of a genocide plan, but the truth is that no such +plan was even mentioned, and what is more, they freely admit this. +Manvell and Frankl explain it away rather lamely by saying that "The +minutes are shrouded in the form of officialdom that cloaks the real +significance of the words and terminolgoy that are used" (The +Incomparable Crime, London, 1967, p. 46), which really means that they +intend to interpret them in their own way. What Heydrich actually said +was that, as in the memorandum quoted above, he had been commissioned by +Goering to arrange a solution to the Jewish problem. He reviewed the +history of Jewish emigration, stated that the war had rendered the +Madagascar project impractical, and continued: "The emigration programme +has been replaced now by the evacuation of Jews to the east as a further +possible solution, in accordance with the previous authorisation of the +Fhrer. " Here, he explained, their labour was to be utilised. All this +is supposed to be deeply sinister, and pregnant with the hidden meaning +that the Jews were to be exterminated, though Prof. Paul Rassinier, a +Frenchman interned at Buchenwald who has done sterling work in refuting +the myth of the Six Million, explains that it means precisely what it +says, i. e. the concentration of the Jews for labour in the immense +eastern ghetto of the Polish Government-General. "There they were to +wait until the end of the war, for the re- opening of international +discussions which would decide their future. This decision was finally +reached at the interministerial Berlin-Wannsee conference . . . " +(Rassinier, Le V-ritable Proces Eichmann, p. 20). Manvell and Frankl, +however, remain undaunted by the complete lack of reference to +extermination. At the Wannsee conference, they write, "Direct references +to killing were avoided, Heydrich favouring the term "Arbeitseinsatz im +Osten" (labour assignment in the East)" (Heinrich Himmler, p. 209). Why +we should not accept labour assignment in the East to mean labour +assignment in the East is not explained. + +According to Reitlinger and others, innumerable directives +actually specifying extermination then passed between Himmler, Heydrich, +Eichmann and commandant Hoess in the subsequent months of 1942, but of +course, "none have survived". + + + +TWISTED WORDS AND GROUNDLESS ASSUMPTIONS The complete lack +of documentary evidence to support the existence of an extermination +plan has led to the habit of re-interpreting the documents that do +survive. For example, it is held that a document concerning deportation +is not about deportation at all, but a cunning way of talking about +extermination. Manvell and Frankl state that "various terms were used to +camouflage genocide. These included "Aussiedlung"(desettlement) and +"Abbef_rderung" (removal)" (ibid, p. 265). Thus, as we have seen +already, words are no longer assumed to mean what they say if they prove +too inconvenient. This kind of thing is taken to the most incredible +extremes, such as their interpretation of Heydrich's directive for +labour assignment in the East. Another example is a reference to +Himmler's order for sending deportees to the East, "that is, having them +killed" (ibid, p. 251). Reitlinger, equally at a loss for evidence, does +exactly the same, declaring that from the "circumlocutionary" words of +the Wannsee conference it is obvious that "the slow murder of an entire +race was intended" (ibid, p. 98). + +A review of the documentary situation is important, because it +reveals the edifice of guesswork and baseless assumptions upon which the +extermination legend is built. The Germans had an extraordinary +propensity for recording everything on paper in the most careful detail, +yet among the thousands of captured documents of the S. D. and Gestapo, +the records of the Reich Security Head Office, the files of Himmler's +headquarters and Hitler's own war directives there is not a single order +for the extermination of Jews or anyone else. It will be seen later that +this has, in fact, been admitted by the World Centre of Contemporary +Jewish Documentation at Tel-Aviv. Attempts to find "veiled allusions" to +genocide in speeches like that of Himmler's to his S. S. +Obergruppenfhrers at Posen in 1943 are likewise quite hopeless. +Nuremberg statements extracted after the war, invariably under duress, +are examined in the following chapter. + + + +5. THE NUREMBERG TRIALS + + + +The story of the Six Million was given judicial authority at the +Nuremberg Trials of German leaders between 1945 and 1949, proceedings +which proved to be the most disgraceful legal farce in history. For a +far more detailed study of the iniquities of these trials, which as +Field Marshal Montgomery said, made it a crime to lose a war, the reader +is referred to the works cited below, and particulary to the outstanding +book Advance to Barbarism (Nelson, 1953), by the distinguished English +jurist, F. J. P. Veale. + +From the very outset, the Nuremberg Trials proceeded on the basis +of gross statistical errors. In his speech of indictment on November +20th, 1945, Mr. Sidney Alderman declared that there had been 9,600,000 +Jews living in German occupied Europe. Our earlier study has shown this +figure to be wildly inaccurate. It is arrived at (a) by completely +ignoring all Jewish emigration between 1933 and 1945, and (b) by adding +all the Jews of Russia, including the two million or more who were never +in German-occupied territory. The same inflated figure, slightly +enlarged to 9,800,000, was produced again at the Eichmann Trial in +Israel by Prof. Shalom Baron. + +The alleged Six Million victims first appeared as the foundation for +the prosecution at Nuremberg, and after some dalliance with ten million +or more by the Press at the time, it eventually gained international +popularity and acceptance. It is very significant, however, that, +although this outlandish figure was able to win credence in the reckless +atmosphere of recrimination in 1945, it had become no longer tenable by +1961, at the Eichmann Trial. The Jerusalem court studiously avoided +mentioning the figure of Six Million, and the charge drawn up by Mr. +Gideon Haussner simply said "some" millions. + + +LEGAL PRINCIPLES IGNORED + + + +Should anyone be misled into believing that the extermination of +the Jews was "proved" at Nuremberg by "evidence", he should consider the +nature of the Trials themselves, based as they were on a total disregard +of sound legal principles of any kind. The accusers acted as +prosecutors, judges and executioners; "guilt" was assumed from the +outset. (Among the judges, of course, were the Russians, whose +numberless crimes included the massacre of 15,000 Polish officers, a +proportion of whose bodies were discovered by the Germans at Katyn +Forest, near Smolensk. The Soviet Prosecutor attempted to blame this +slaughter on the German defendants). At Nuremberg, ex post facto +legislation was created, whereby men were tried for "crimes" which were +only declared crimes after they had been allegedly committed. Hitherto +it had been the most basic legal principle that a person could only be +convicted for infringing a law that was in force at the time of the +infringement. "Nulla Poena Sine Lege. " + +The Rules of Evidence, developed by British jurisprudence over the +centuries in order to arrive at the truth of a charge with as much +certainty as possible, were entirely disregarded at Nuremberg. It was +decreed that "the Tribunal should not be bound by technical rules of +evidence" but could admit "any evidence which it deemed to have +probative value," that is, would support a conviction. In practise, this +meant the admittance of hearsay evidence and documents, which in a +normal judicial trial are always rejected as untrustworthy. That such +evidence was allowed is of profound significance, because it was one of +the principal methods by which the extermination legend was fabricated +through fraudulent "written affidavits". Although only 240 witnesses +were called in the course of the Trials, no less than 300,000 of these +"written affidavits" were accepted by the Court as supporting the +charges, without this evidence being heard under oath. Under these +circumstances, any Jewish deportee or camp inmate could make any +revengeful allegation that he pleased. Most incredible of all, perhaps, +was the fact that defence lawyers at Nuremberg were not permitted to +cross- examine prosecution witnesses. A somewhat similar situation +prevailed at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, when it was announced that +Eichmann's defence lawyer could be cancelled at any time "if an +intolerable situation should arise," which presumably meant if his +lawyer started to prove his innocence. The real background of the +Nuremberg Trials was exposed by the American judge, Justice Wenersturm, +President of one of Tribunals. He was so disgusted by the proceedings +that he resigned his appointment and flew home to America, leaving +behind a statement to the Chicago Tribune which ennumerated point by +point his objections to the Trials (cf Mark Lautern, Das Letzte Wort +ber Nrnberg, p. 56). Points 3 -8 are as follows: + +3. The members of the department of the Public Prosecutor, instead of +trying to formulate and reach a new guiding legal principle, were moved +only by personal ambition and revenge. 4. The prosecution did its utmost +in every way possible to prevent the defence preparing its case and to +make it impossible for it to furnish evidence. 5. The prosecution, led +by General Taylor, did everything in its power to prevent the unanimous +decision of the Military Court being carried out i. e. to ask Washington +to furnish and make available to the court further documentary evidence +in the possession of the American Government. 6. Ninety per cent of the +Nuremberg Court consisted of biased persons who, either on political or +racial grounds, furthered the prosecution's case. 7. The prosecution +obviously knew how to fill all the administrative posts of the Military +Court with "Americans" whose naturalisation certificates were very new +indeed, and who, whether in the administrative service or by their +translations etc. , created an atmposhere hostile to the accused persons. +8. The real aim of the Nuremberg Trials was to show the Germans the +crimes of their Fhrer, and this aim was at the same time the pretext on +which the trials were ordered . . . Had I known seven months earlier +what was happening at Nuremberg, I would never have gone there. + + + +Concerning Point 6, that ninety per cent of the Nuremberg Court +consisted of people biased on racial or political grounds, this was a +fact confirmed by others present. According to Earl Carrol, an American +lawyer, sixty per cent of the staff of the Public Prosecutor's Office +were German Jews who had left Germany after the promulgation of Hitler's +Race Laws. He observed that not even ten per cent of the Americans +employed at the Nuremberg courts were actually Americans by birth. The +chief of the Public Prosecutor's Office, who worked behind General +Taylor, was Robert M. Kempner, a German-Jewish emigrant. He was assisted +by Morris Amchan. Mark Lautern, who observed the Trials, writes in his +book: "They have all arrived: the Solomons, the Schlossbergers and the +Rabinovitches, members of the Public Prosecutor's staff . . . " (ibid. p. +68). It is obvious from these facts that the fundamental legal +principle: that no man can sit in judgement on his own case, was +abandoned altogether. Moreover, the majority of witnesses were also +Jews. According to Prof. Maurice Bardeche, who was also an observer at +the Trials, the only concern of these witnesses was not to show their +hatred too openly, and to try and give an impression of objectivity +(Nuremberg ou la Terre Promise, Paris, 1948, p. 149). + + +'CONFESSIONS' UNDER TORTURE + + + +Altogether more disturbing, however, were the methods employed to +extract statements and "confessions" at Nuremberg, particularly those +from S. S. officers which were used to support the extermination charge. +The American Senator, Joseph McCarthy, in a statement given to the +American Press on May 20th, 1949, drew attention to the following cases +of torture to secure such confessions. In the prison of the Swabisch +Hall, he stated, officers of the S. S. Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler were +flogged until they were soaked in blood, after which their sexual organs +were trampled on as they lay prostrate on the ground. As in the +notorious Malmedy Trials of private soldiers, the prisoners were hoisted +in the air and beaten until they signed the confessions demanded of +them. On the basis of such "confessions" extorted from S. S. Generals +Sepp Dietrich and Joachim Paiper, the Leibstandarte was convicted as a +"guilty organisation". S. S. General Oswald Pohl, the economic +administrator of the concentration camp system, had his face smeared +with faeces and was subsequently beaten until he supplied his +confession. In dealing with these cases, Senator McCarthy told the +Press: + + + +"I have heard evidence and read documentary proofs to the effect +that the accused persons were beaten up, maltreated and physically +tortured by methods which could only be conceived in sick brains. They +were subjected to mock trials and pretended executions, they were told +their families would be deprived of their ration cards. All these things +were carried out with the approval of the Public Prosecutor in order to +secure the psychological atmosphere necessary for the extortion of the +required confessions. If the United States lets such acts committed by a +few people go unpunished, then the whole world can rightly criticise us +severely and forever doubt the correctness of our motives and our moral +integrity. " + +The methods of intimidation described were repeated during trials at +Frankfurt-am-Mein and at Dachau, and large numbers of Germans were +convicted for atrocities on the basis of their admissions. The American +Judge Edward L. van Roden, one of the three members of the Simpson Army +Commission which was subsequently appointed to investigate the methods +of justice at the Dachau trials, revealed the methods by which these +admissions were secured in the Washington Daily News, January 9th, 1949. +His account also appeared in the British newspaper, the Sunday +Pictorial, January 23rd, 1949. The methods he described were: "Posturing +as priests to hear confessions and give absolution; torture with burning +matches driven under the prisoners finger-nails; knocking out of teeth +and breaking jaws; solitary confinement and near starvation rations. " +Van Roden explained: "The statements which were admitted as evidence +were obtained from men who had first been kept in solitary confinement +for three, four and five months . . . The investigators would put a +black hood over the accused's head and then punch him in the face with +brass knuckles, kick him and beat him with rubber hoses . . . All but +two of the Germans, in the 139 cases we investigated, had been kicked in +the testicles beyond repair. This was standard operating procedure with +our American investigators. " + +The "American" investigators responsible (and who later functioned as +the prosecution in the trials) were: Lt. -Col. Burton F. Ellis (chief of +the War Crimes Committee) and his assistants, Capt. Raphael Shumacker, +Lt. Robert E. Byrne, Lt. William R. Perl, Mr. Morris Ellowitz, Mr. Harry +Thon, and Mr. Kirschbaum. The legal adviser of the court was Col. A. H. +Rosenfeld. The reader will immediately appreciate from their names that +the majority of these people were "biased on racial grounds" in the +words of Justice Wenersturm - that is, were Jewish, and therefore should +never have been involved in any such investigation. + +Despite the fact that "confessions" pertaining to the extemination of +the Jews were extracted under these conditions, Nuremberg statements are +still regarded as conclusive evidence for the Six Million by writers +like Reitlinger and others, and the illusion is maintained that the +Trials were both impartial and impeccably fair. When General Taylor, the +Chief Public Prosecutor, was asked where he had obtained the figure of +the Six Million, he replied that it was based on the confession of S. S. +General Otto Ohlendorf. He, too, was tortured and his case is examined +below. But as far as such "confessions" in general are concerned, we can +do no better than quote the British Sunday Pictorial when reviewing the +report of Judge van Roden: "Strong men were reduced to broken wrecks +ready to mumble any admission demanded by their prosecutors. " + + +THE WISLICENY STATEMENT + + + +At this point, let us turn to some of the Nuremberg documents +themselves. The document quoted most frequently in support of the legend +of the Six Million, and which figures largely in Poliakov and Wulf's Das +Dritte Reich und die Juden: Dokumente und Aufs_tze, is the statement of +S. S. Captain Dieter Wisliceny, an assistant in Adolf Eichmann's office +and later the Gestapo chief in Slovakia. It was obtained under +conditions even more extreme than those described above, for Wisliceny +fell into the hands of Czech Communists and was "interrogated" at the +Soviet-controlled Bratislava Prison in November, 1946. Subjected to +torture, Wisliceny was reduced to a nervous wreck and became addicted to +uncontrollable fits of sobbing for hours on end prior to his execution. +Although the conditions under which his statement was obtained empty it +entirely of all pIausibility, Poliakov prefers to ignore this and merely +writes: "In prison he wrote several memoirs that contain information of +great interest" (Harvest of Hate, p. 3). These memoirs include some +genuine statements of fact to provide authenticity, such as that Himmler +was an enthusiastic advocate of Jewish emigration and that the +emigration of Jews from Europe continued throughout the war, but in +general they are typical of the Communist-style "confession" produced at +Soviet show-trials. Frequent reference is made to exterminating Jews and +a flagrant attempt is made to implicate as many S. S. leaders as +possible. Factual errors are also common, notably the statement that the +war with Poland added more than 3 million Jews to the German-occupied +territory, which we have disproved above. + +THE CASE OF THE EINSATZGRUPPEN + +The Wisliceny statement deals at some length with the activities of the +Einsatzgruppen or Action Groups used in the Russian campaign. These must +merit a detailed consideration in a survey of Nuremberg because the +picture presented of them at the Trials represents a kind of "Six +Million" in miniature, i. e. has been proved since to be the most +enormous exaggeration and falsification. The Einsatzgruppen were four +special units drawn from the Gestapo and the S. D. (S. S. Security +Service) whose task was to wipe out partisans and Communist commissars +in the wake of the advancing German armies in Russia. As early as 1939, +there had been 34,000 of these political commissars attached to the Red +Army. The activities of the Einsatzgruppen were the particular concern +of the Soviet Prosecutor Rudenko at the Nuremberg Trials. The 1947 +indictment of the four groups alleged that in the course of their +operations they had killed not less than one million Jews in Russia +merely because they were Jews. + +These allegations have since been elaborated; it is now claimed that the +murder of Soviet Jews by the Einsatzgruppen constituted Phase One in the +plan to exterminate the Jews, Phase Two being the transportation of +European Jews to Poland. Reitlinger admits that the original term "final +solution" referred to emigration and had nothing to do with the +liquidation of Jews, but he then claims that an extermination policy +began at the time of the invasion of Russia in 1941. He considers +Hitler's order of July 1941 for the liquidation of the Communist +commissars, and he concludes that this was accompanied by a verbal order +from Hitler for the Einsatzgruppen to liquidate all Soviet Jews (Die +Endl_sung, p. 91). If this assumption is based on anything at all, it is +probably the worthless Wisliceny statement, which alleges that the +Einsatzgruppen were soon receiving orders to extend their task of +crushing Communists and partisans to a "general massacre" of Russian +Jews. + +It is very significant that, once again, it is a "verbal order" for +exterminating Jews that is supposed to have accompanied Hitler's +genuine, written order - yet another nebulous and unprovable assumption +on the part of Reitlinger. An earlier order from Hitler, dated March +1941 and signed by Field Marshal Keitel, makes it quite clear what the +real tasks of the future Einsatzgruppen would be. It states that in the +Russian campaign, the Reichsfher S. S. (Himmler) is to be entrusted with +"tasks for the political administration, tasks which result from the +struggle which has to be carried out between two opposing political +systems" (Manvell & Frankl, ibid. , p. 115). This plainly refers to +eliminating Communism, especially the political commissars whose +specific task was Communist indoctrination. + +THE OHLENDORF TRIAL + + + +The most revealing trial in the "Einsatzgruppen Case" at +Nuremberg was that of S. S. General Otto Ohlendorf, the chief of the S. D. +who commanded Einsatzgruppe D in the Ukraine, attached to Field Marshal +von Manstein's Eleventh Army. During the last phase of the war he was +employed as a foreign trade expert in the Ministry of Economics. +Ohlendorf was one of those subjected to the torture described earlier, +and in his affidavit of November 5th, 1945 he was "persuaded" to confess +that 90,000 Jews had been killed under his command alone. Ohlendorf did +not come to trial until 1948, long after the main Nuremberg Trial, and +by that time he was insisting that his earlier statement had been +extracted from him under torture. In his main speech before the +Tribunal, Ohlendorf took the opportunity to denounce Philip Auerbach, +the Jewish attorney-general of the Bavarian State Office for +Restitution, who at that time was claiming compensation for "eleven +million Jews" who had suffered in German concentration camps. Ohlendorf +dismissed this ridiculous claim, stating that "not the minutest part" of +the people for whom Auerbach was demanding compensation had even seen a +concentration camp. Ohlendorf lived long enough to see Auerbach +convicted for embezzlement and fraud (forging documents purporting to +show huge payments of compensation to non-existent people) before his +own execution finally took place in 1951. + + Ohlendorf explained to the Tribunal that his units often had to prevent +massacres of Jews organised by anti-Semitic Ukrainians behind the German +front, and he denied that the Einsatzgruppen as a whole had inflicted +even one quarter of the casualties claimed by the prosecution. He +insisted that the illegal partisan warfare in Russia, which he had to +combat, had taken a far higher toll of lives from the regular German +army - an assertion confirmed by the Soviet Government, which boasted of +500,000 German troops killed by partisans. In fact, Franz Stahlecker, +commander of Einsatzgruppe A in the Baltic region and White Russia, was +himself killed by partisans in 1942. The English jurist F. J. P. Veale, +in dealing with the Action Groups, explains that in the fighting on the +Russian front no distinction could be properly drawn between partisans +and the civilian population, because any Russian civilian who maintained +his civilian status instead of acting as a terrorist was liable to be +executed by his countrymen as a traitor. Veale says of the Action +Groups: "There is no question that their orders were to combat terror by +terror", and he finds it strange that atrocities committed by the +partisans in the struggle were regarded as blameless simply because they +turned out to be on the winning side (ibid. p. 223). Ohlendorf took the +same view, and in a bitter appeal written before his execution, he +accused the Allies of hypocrisy in holding the Germans to account by +conventional laws of warfare while fighting a savage Soviet enemy who +did not respect those laws. + + +ACTION GROUP EXECUTIONS DISTORTED + + + +The Soviet charge that the Action Groups had wantonly +exterminated a million Jews during their operations has been shown +subsequently to be a massive falsification. In fact, there had never +been the slightest statistical basis for the figure. In this connection, +Poliakov and Wulf cite the statement of Wilhelm Hoettl, the dubious +American spy, double agent and former assistant of Eichmann. Hoettl, it +will be remembered, claimed that Eichmann had "told him " that six +million Jews had been exterminated - and he added that two million of +these had been killed bythe Einsatzgruppen. This absurd figure went +beyond even the wildest estimates of Soviet Prosecutor Rudenko, and it +was not. given any credence by the American Tribunal which tried and +condemned Ohlendorf. + + +The real number of casualties for which the Action Groups were +responsible has since been revealed in the scholarly work Manstein, his +Campaigns and his Trial (London, 1951), by the able English lawyer R. T. +Paget. Ohlendorf had been under Manstein's nominal command. Paget's +conclusion is that the Nuremberg Court, in accepting the figures of the +Soviet prosecution, exaggerated the number of casualties by more than +1000 per cent and that they distorted even more the situations in which +these casualties were infiicted. (These horrific distortions are the +subject of six pages of William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third +Reich, pp. 1140-46). Here, then, is the legendary 6 million in +miniature; not one million deaths, but one hundred thousand. Of course, +only a small proportion of these could have been Jewish partisans and +Communist functionaries. It is worth repeating that these casualties +were inflicted during savage partisan warfare on the Eastern front, and +that Soviet terrorists claim to have killed five times that number of +German troops. It has nevertheless remained a popular myth that the +extermination of the Jews began with the actions of the Einsatzgruppen +in Russia. + +In conclusion, we may briefly survey the Manstein trial itself, +typical in so many ways of Nuremberg proceedings. Principally because +Action Group D was attached to Manstein's command (though it was +responsible solely to Himmler), the sixty-two year old, invalid Field +Marshal, considered by most authorities to be the most brilliant German +general of the war, was subjected to the shameful indignity of a +"war-crimes" trial. Of the 17 charges, 15 were brought by the Communist +Russian Government and two by the Communist Polish Government. Only one +witness was called to give evidence at this trial, and he proved so +unsatisfactory that the prosecution withdrew his evidence. Reliance was +placed instead on 800 hearsay documents which were accepted by the court +without any proof of their authenticity or authorship. The prosecution +introduced written affidavits by Ohlendorf and other S. S. Leaders, but +since these men were still alive, Manstein's defence. lawyer Reginald +Paget K. C. demanded their appearance in the witness-box. This was +refused by the American authorities, and Paget declared that this +refusal was due to fear lest the condemned men revealed what methods had +been used to induce them to sign their affidavits. Manstein was +eventually acquitted on eight of the charges, including the two Polish +ones which, as Paget said, "were so flagrantly bogus that one was left +wondering why they had been presented at all. " + +THE OSWALD POHL TRIAL + + + +The case of the Action Groups is a revealing insight into the +methods of the Nuremberg Trials and the fabrication of the Myth of the +Six Million. Another is the trial of Oswald Pohl in 1948, which is of +great importance as it bears directly on the administration of the +concentration camp system. Pohl had been the chief disbursing officer of +the German Navy until 1934, when Himmler requested his transfer to the +S. S. For eleven years he was the principal administrative chief of the +entire S. S. in his position as head of the S. S. Economy and +Administration Office, which after 1941 was concerned with the +industrial productivity of the concentration camp system. A peak point +of hypocrisy was reached at the trial when. the prosecution said to Pohl +that "had Germany rested content with the exclusion of Jews from her own +territory, with denying them German citizenship, with excluding them +from public office, or any like domestic regulation, no other nation +could have been heard to complain. " The truth is that Germany was +bombarded with insults and economic sanctions for doing precisely these +things, and her internal measures against the Jews were certainly a +major cause of the declaration of war against Germany by the +democracies. + +Oswald Pohl was an extremely sensitive and intellectual individual who +was reduced to a broken man in the course of his trial. As Senator +McCarthy pointed out, Pohl had signed some incriminating statements +after being subjected to severe torture, including a bogus admission +that he had seen a gas chamber at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944. The +prosecution strenuously pressed this charge, but Pohl successfully +repudiated it. The aim of the prosecution was to depict this dejected +man as a veritable fiend in human shape, an impression hopelessly at +variance with the testimony of those who knew him . + +Such testimony was given by Heinrich Hoepker, an anti- Nazi friend +of Pohl's wife who came into frequent contact with him during the period +1942-45. Hoepker noted that Pohl was essentially a serene and +mild-mannered person. During a visit to Pohl in the spring of 1944, +Hoepker was brought into contact with concentration camp inmates who +were working on a local project outside the camp area. He noted that the +prisoners worked in a leisurely manner and relaxed atmosphere without +any pressure from their guards. Hoepker declared that Pohl did not hold +an emotional attitude to the Jews, and did not object to his wife +entertaining her Jewish friend Annemarie Jacques at their home. By the +beginning of 1945, Hoepker was fully convinced that the administrator of +the concentration camps was a humane, conscientious and dedicated +servant of his task, and he was astonished when he heard later in 1945 +of the accusations being made against Pohl and his colleagues. Frau Pohl +noted that her husband retained his serenity in the face of adversity +until March 1945, when he visited the camp at Bergen- Belsen at the time +of the typhus epidemic there. Hitherto the camp had been a model of +cleanliness and order, but the chaotic conditions at the close of the +war had reduced it to a state of extreme hardship. Pohl, who was unable +to alleviate conditions there because of the desperate pass which the +war had reached by that time, was deeply affected by the experience and, +according to his wife, never regained his former state of composure. + +Dr. Alfred Seidl, the highly respected lawyer who acted as +principal defence counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, went to work +passionately to secure the acquittal of Pohl. Seidl had been a personal +friend of the accused for many years, and was thoroughly convinced of +his innocence with respect to the fraudulent charge of planned genocide +against the Jews. The Allied judgement which condemned Pohl did not +prompt Seidl to change his opinion in the slightest. He declared that +the prosecution had failed to produce a single piece of valid evidence +against him. + +One of the most eloquent defences of Oswald Pohl was made by S. S. +Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Schmidt- Klevenow, a legal officer in the S. S. +Economy and Administration Office, in his affidavit of August 8th, 1947. +This affidavit has been deliberately omitted from the published +documents known as Trials of the War Criminals before the Nuremberg +Military Tribunals 1946 -1949. Schmidt-Klevenow pointed out that Pohl +had given his fullest support to Judge Konrad Morgen of the Reich +Criminal Police Office, whose job was to investigate irregularities at +the concentration camps. Later on we shall refer to a case in which Pohl +was in favour of the death penalty for camp commandant Koch, who was +accused by an S. S. court of misconduct. Schmidt- Klevenow explained that +Pohl was instrumental in arranging for local police chiefs to share in +the jurisdiction of concentration camps, and took personal initiative in +securing strict discipline on the part of camp personnel. In short, the +evidence given at the Pohl trial shows that the proceedings involved +nothing less than the deliberate defamation of a man's character in +order to support the propaganda legend of genocide against the Jews in +the concentration camps he administered. + +FALSIFIED EVIDENCE AND FRAUDULENT AFFIDAVITS + + + +Spurious testimony at Nuremberg which included extravagant +statements in support of the myth of the Six Million was invariably +given by former German officers because of pressure, either severe +torture as in the cases cited previously, or the assurance of leniency +for themselves if they supplied the required statements. An example of +the latter was the testimony of S. S. General Erich von dem +Bach-Zelewski. He was threatened with execution himself because of his +suppression of the revolt by Polish partisans at Warsaw in August 1944, +which he carried out with his S. S. brigade of White Russians. He was +therefore prepared to be "co-operative". The evidence of Bach-Zelewski +constituted the basis of the testimony against the Reichsfhrer of the +S. S. Heinrich Himmler at the main Nuremberg Trial (Trial of the Major +War Criminals, Vol. IV, pp, 29, 36). In March 1941, on the eve of the +invasion of Russia, Himmler invited the Higher S. S. Leaders to his +Castle at Wewelsburg for a conference, including Bach-Zelewski who was +an expert on partisan warfare. In his Nuremberg evidence, he depicted +Himmler speaking in grandiose terms at this conference about the +liquidation of peoples in Eastern Europe, but Goering, in the courtroom, +denounced Bach-Zelewski to his face for the falsity of this testimony. +An especially outrageous allegation concerned a supposed declaration by +Himmler that one of the aims of the Russian campaign was to "decimate +the Slav population by thirty millions. " What Himmler really said is +given by his Chief of Staff, Wolff - that war in Russia was certain to +result in millions of dead (Manvell & Frankl, ibid. p. 117). Another +brazen falsehood was Bach-Zelewski's accusation that on August 31st, +1942 Himmler personally witnessed the execution of one hundred Jews by +an Einsatz detachment at Minsk, causing him to nearly faint. It is +known, however, that on this date Himmler was in conference at his field +headquarters at Zhitomir in the Ukraine (cf K. Vowinckel, Die Wehrmacht +im Kampf, vol. 4, p. 275). + + +Much is made of Bach-Zelewski's evidence in all the books on +Himmler, especially Willi Frischauer's Himmler: Evil Genius of the Third +Reich (London, 1953, p. 148 ff). However, in April 1959, Bach-Zelewski +publicly repudiated his Nuremberg testimony before a West German court. +He admitted that his earlier statements had not the slightest foundation +in fact, and that he had made them for the sake of expediency and his +own survival. The German court, after careful deliberation, accepted his +retraction. Needless to say, what Veale calls the "Iron Curtain of +Discreet Silence" descended immediately over these events. They have had +no influence whatever on the books which propagate the myth of the Six +Million, and Bach-Zelewski's testimony on Himmler is still taken at its +face value. + +The truth concerning Himmler is provided ironically by an anti-Nazi - +Felix Kersten, his physician and masseur. Because Kersten was opposed to +the regime, he tends to support the legend that the internment of Jews +meant their extermination. But from his close personal knowledge of +Himmler he cannot help but tell the truth concerning him, and in his +Memoirs 1940-1945 (London, 1956, p. 119 ff) he is emphatic in stating +that Heinrich Himmler did not advocate liquidating the Jews but favoured +their emigration overseas. Neither does Kersten implicate Hitler. +However, the credibility of his anti-Nazi narrative is completely +shattered when, in search of an alternative villain, he declares that +Dr. Goebbels was the real advocate of "extermination". This nonsensical +allegation is amply disproved by the fact that Goebbels was still +concerned with the Madagascar project even after it had been temporarily +shelved by the German Foreign Office, as we showed earlier. + +So much for false evidence at Nuremberg. Reference has also been +made to the thousands of fraudulent "written affidavits" which were +accepted by the Nuremberg Court without any attempt to ascertain the +authenticity of their contents or even their authorship. These hearsay +documents, often of the most bizarre kind, were introduced as "evidence" +so long as they bore the required signature. A typical prosecution +affidavit contested by the defence in the Concentration Camp Trial of +1947 was that of Alois Hoellriegel, a member of the camp personnel at +Mauthausen in Austria. This affidavit, which the defence proved was +fabricated during Hoellriegel's torture, had already been used to secure +the conviction of S. S. General Ernst Kaltenbrunner in 1946. It claimed +that a mass gassing operation had taken place at Mauthausen and that +Hoellriegel had witnessed Kaltenbrunner ( the highest S. S. Leader in the +Reich excepting Himmler) actually taking part in it. + +By the time of the Concentration Camp Trial (Pohl's trial) a year later, +it had become impossible to sustain this piece of nonsense when it was +produced in court again. The defence not only demonstrated that the +affidavit was falsified, but showed that all deaths at Mauthausen were +systematically checked by the local police authorities. They were also +entered on a camp register, and particular embarrassment was caused to +the prosecution when the Mauthausen register, one of the few that +survived, was produced in evidence. The defence also obtained numerous +affidavits from former inmates of Mauthausen (a prison camp chiefly for +criminals) testifying to humane and orderly conditions there. + + +ALLIED ACCUSATIONS DISBELIEVED + + + +There is no more eloquent testimony to the tragedy and tyranny of +Nuremberg than the pathetic astonishment or outraged disbelief of the +accused persons themselves at the grotesque charges made against them. +Such is reflected in the affidavit of S. S. Major-General Heinz Fanslau, +who visited most of the German concentration camps during the last years +of the war. AIthough a front line soldier of the Waffen S. S. , Fanslau +had taken a great interest in concentration camp conditions, and he was +selected as a prime target by the Allies for the charge of conspiracy to +annihilate the Jews. It was argued, on the basis of his many contacts, +that he must have been fully involved. When it was first rumoured that +he would be tried and convicted, hundreds of affidavits were produced on +his behalf by camp inmates he had visited. When he read the full scope +of the indictment against the concentration camp personnel in +supplementary Nuremberg Trial No. 4 on May 6th, 1947, Fanslau declared +in disbelief: "This cannot be possible, because I, too, would have had +to know something about it. " + +It should be emphasised that throughout the Nuremberg proceedings, the +German leaders on trial never believed for a moment the allegations of +the Allied prosecution. Hermann Goering, who was exposed to the full +brunt of the Nuremberg atrocity propaganda, failed to be convinced by +it. Hans Fritzsche, on trial as the highest functionary of Goebbels' +Ministry, relates that Goering, even after hearing the Ohlendorf +affidavit on the Einsatzgruppen and the Hoess testimony on Auschwitz, +remained convinced that the extermination of Jews was entirely +propaganda fiction (The Sword in the Scales, London, 1953, p. 145). At +one point during the trial, Goering declared rather cogently that the +first time he had heard of it "was right here in Nuremberg" (Shirer, +ibid. p. 1147). The Jewish writers Poliakov, Reitlinger and Manvell and +Frankl all attempt to implicate Goering in this supposed extermination, +but Charles Bewley in his work Hermann Goering (Goettingen, 1956) shows +that not the slightest evidence was found at Nuremberg to substantiate +this charge. + +Hans Fritzsche pondered on the whole question during the trials, +and he concluded that there had certainly been no thorough investigation +of these monstrous charges. Fritzsche, who was acquitted, was an +associate of Goebbels and a skilled propagandist. He recognised that the +alleged massacre of the Jews was the main point of the indictment +against all defendants. Kaltenbrunner, who succeeded Heydrich as chief +of the Reich Security Head Office and was the main defendant for the +S. S. due to the death of Himmler, was no more convinced of the genocide +charges than was Goering. He confided to Fritzsche that the prosecution +was scoring apparent successes because of their technique of coercing +witnesses and suppressing evidence, which was precisely the accusation +of Judges Wenersturm and van Roden. + +6. AUSCHWITZ AND POLISH JEWRY + + + +The concentration camp at Auschwitz near Cracow in Poland has +remained at the centre of the alleged extermination of millions of Jews. +Later we shall see how, when it was discovered by honest observers in +the British and American zones after the war that no "gas chambers" +existed in the German camps such as Dachau and Bergen-Belsen, attention +was shifted to the eastern camps, particularly Auschwitz. Ovens +definitely existed here, it was claimed. Unfortunately, the eastem camps +were in the Russian zone of occupation, so that no one could verify +whether these allegations were true or not. The Russians refused to +allow anyone to see Auschwitz until about ten years after the war, by +which time they were able to alter its appearance and give some +plausibility to the claim that millions of people had been exterminated +there. If anyone doubts that the Russians are capable of such deception, +they should remember the monuments erected at sites where thousands of +people were murdered in Russia by Stalin's secret police -- but where +the monuments proclaim them to be victims of German troops in World War +Two. + +The truth about Auschwitz is that it wasthe largest and most important +industrial concentration camp, producing all kinds of material for the +war industry. The camp consisted of synthetic coal and rubber plants +built by I. G. Farben Industrie, for whom the prisoners supplied labour. +Auschwitz also comprised an agricultural research station, with +laboratories, plant nurseries and facilities for stock breeding, as well +as Krupps armament works. We have already remarked that this kind of +activity was the prime function of the camps; all major firms had +subsidiaries in them and the S. S. even opened their own factories. +Accounts of visits by Himmler to the camps show that his main purpose +was to inspect and assess their industrial efficiency. When he visited +Auschwitz in March 1941 accompanied by high executives of I. G. Farben, +he showed no interest in the problems of the camp as a facility for +prisoners, but merely ordered that the camp be enlarged to take 100,000 +detainees to supply labour for I. G. Farben. This hardly accords with a +policy of exterminating prisoners by the million. + +MORE AND MORE MILLIONS + + + +It was nevertheless at this single camp that about half of the +six million Jews were supposed to have been exterminated, indeed, some +writers claim 4 or even 5 million. Four million was the sensational +figure announced by the Soviet Government after the Communists had +"investigated" the camp, at the same time as they were attempting to +blame the Katyn massacre on the Germans. Reitlinger admits that +information regarding Auschwitz and other eastern camps comes from the +post-war Communist regimes of Eastem Europe: "The evidence concerning +the Polish death camps was mainly taken after the war by Polish State +commissions or by the Central Jewish Historical Commission of Poland" +(The Final Solution, p . 631). + +However, no living, authentic eye-witness of these "gassings" has ever +been produced and validated. Benedikt Kautsky, who spent seven years in +concentration camps, including three in Auschwitz, alleged in his book +Teufel und Verdammte (Devil and Damned, Zurich, 1946) that "not less +than 3,500,000 Jews" had been killed there. This was certainly a +remarkable statement, because by his own admission he had never seen a +gas chamber. He confessed: "I was in the big German concentration camps. +However, I must establish the truth that in no camp at any time did I +come across such an installation as a gas chamber" (p. 272- 3). The only +execution he actually witnessed was when two Polish inmates were +executed for killing two Jewish inmates. Kautsky, who was sent from +Buchenwald in October, 1942 to work at Auschwitz- Buna, stresses in his +book that the use of prisoners in war industry was a major feature of +concentration camp policy until the end of the war. He fails to +reconcile this with an alleged policy of massacring Jews. + +The exterminations at Auschwitz are alleged to have occurred +between March 1942 and October 1944; the figure of half of six million, +therefore, would mean the extermination and disposal of about 94,000 +people per month for thirty two months - approximately 3,350 people +every day, day and night, for over two and a half years. This kind of +thing is so ludicrous that it scarcely needs refuting. And yet +Reitlinger claims quite seriously that Auschwitz could dispose of no +less than 6,000 people a day. + +Although Reitlinger's 6,O00 a day would mean a total by October 1944 of +over 5 million, all such estimates pale before the wild fantasies of +Olga Lengyel in her book Five Chimneys (London, 1959). Claiming to be a +former inmate of Auschwitz, she asserts that the camp cremated no less +than "720 per hour, or 17,280 corpses per twenty-four hour shift. " She +also alleges that, in addition, 8,000 people were burned every day in +the "death-pits", and that therefore "In round numbers, about 24,000 +corpses were handled every day" (p. 80-1). This, of course, would mean a +yearly rate of over 8-1/2 million. Thus between March 1942 and October +1944 Auschwitz would finally have disposed of over 21 million people, +six million more than the entire world Jewish population. Comment is +superfluous. + +Although several millions, were supposed to have died at Auschwitz +alone, Reitlinger has to admit that only 363,000 inmates were registered +at the camp for the whole of the period between January 1940 and +February 1945 (The S. S. Alibi of a Nation, p. 268 ff), and by no means +all of them were Jews. It is frequently claimed that many prisoners were +never registered, but no one has offered any proof of this. Even if +there were as many unregistered as there were registered, it would mean +only a total of 750,000 prisoners -- hardly enough for the elimination +of 3 or 4 million. Moreover, large numbers of the camp population were +released or transported elsewhere during the war, and at the end 80,000 +were evacuated westward in January 1945 before the Russian advance. + +One example will suffice of the statistical frauds relating to +casualties at Auschwitz. Shirer claims that in the summer of 1944, no +less than 300,000 Hungarian Jews were done to death in a mere forty-six +days (ibid. p. 1156). This would have been almost the entire Hungarian +Jewish population, which numbered some 380,000. But according to the +Central Statistical Office of Budapest, there were 260,000 Jews in +Hungary in 1945 (which roughly conforms with the Joint Distribution +Committee figure of 220,000), so that only 120,000 were classed as no +longer resident. Of these, 35,000 were emigrants from the new Communist +regime, and a further 25,000 were still being held in Russia after +having worked in German labour battalions there. This leaves only 60,000 +Hungarian Jews unaccounted for, but M. E. Namenyi estimates that 60,000 +Jews retumed to Hungary from deportation in Germany, though Reitlinger +says this figure is too high (The Final Solution, p. 497). Possibly it +is, but bearing in mind the substantial emigration of Hungarian Jews +during the war (cf Report of the ICRC, Vol. I, p. 649), the number of +Hungarian Jewish casualties must have been very low indeed. + +AUSCHWITZ: AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT + + + +Some new facts about Auschwitz are at last beginning to make a +tentative appearance. They are contained in a recent work called Die +Auschwitz-Lge: Ein Erlebnisbericht von Theis Christopherson (The +Auschwitz Legends: An Account of his Experiences by Thies +Christopherson, Kritik Verlag/Mohrkirch, 1973). Published by the German +lawyer Dr. Manfred Roeder in the periodical Deutsche Brger-Iniative, it +is an eye-witness account of Auschwitz by Thies Christopherson, who was +sent to the Bunawerk plant laboratories at Auschwitz to research into +the production of synthetic rubber for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. In +May 1973, not long after the appearance of this account, the veteran +Jewish "Nazi-hunter" Simon Wiesenthal wrote to the Frankfurt Chamber of +Lawyers, demanding that the publisher and author of the Forward, Dr. +Roeder, a member of the Chamber, should be brought before its +disciplinary commission. Sure enough, proceedings began in July, but not +without harsh criticism even from the Press, who asked "Is Simon +Wiesenthal the new Gauleiter of Germany?" (Deutsche Wochenzeitung, July +27th, 1973). + +Christopherson's account is certainly one of the most important +documents for a re-appraisal of Auschwitz. He spent the whole of 1944 +there, during which time he visited all of the separate camps comprising +the large Auschwitz complex, including Auschwitz-Birkenau where it is +alleged that wholesale massacres of Jews took place. Christopherson, +however, is in no doubt that this is totally untrue. He writes: "I was +in Auschwitz from January 1944 until December 1944. After the war I +heard about the mass murders which were supposedly perpetrated by the +S. S. against the Jewish prisoners, and I was perfectly astonished. +Despite all the evidence of witnesses, all the newspaper reports and +radio broadcasts I still do not believe today in these horrible deeds. I +have said this many times and in many places, but to no purpose. One is +never believed" (p. 16). + +Space forbids a detailed summary here of the author's experiences at +Auschwitz, which include facts about camp routine and the daily life of +prisoners totally at variance with the allegations of propaganda (pp. +22-7). More important are his revelations about the supposed existence +of an extermination camp. "During the whole of my time at Auschwitz, l +never observed the slightest evidence of mass gassings. Moreover, the +odour of burning flesh that is often said to have hung over the camp is +a downright falsehood. In the vicinity of the main camp (Auschwitz I) +was a large farrier's works, from which the smell of molten iron was +naturally not pleasant" (p. 33-4). Reitlinger confirms that there were +five blast furnaces and five collieries at Auschwitz, which together +with the Bunawerk factories comprised Auschwitz III (ibid. p. 452). The +author agrees that a crematorium would certainly have existed at +Auschwitz, "since 200,000 people lived there, and in every city with +200,000 inhabitants there would be a crematorium. Naturally people died +there - but not only prisoners. In fact the wife of Obersturmbannfhrer +A. (Christopherson's superior) also died there" (p. 33). The author +explains: "There were no secrets at Auschwitz. In September 1944 a +commission of the International Red Cross came to the camp for an +inspection. They were particularly interested in the camp at Birkenau, +though we also had many inspections at Raisko" (Bunawerk section, p. +35). + +Christopherson points out that the constant visits to Auschwitz by +outsiders cannot be reconciled with allegations of mass extermination. +When describing the visit of his wife to the camp in May, he observes: +"The fact that it was possible to receive visits from our relatives at +any time demonstrates the openness of the camp administration. Had +Auschwitz been a great extermination camp, we would certainly not have +been able to receive such visits" (p. 27). + +After the war, Christopherson came to hear of the alleged existence +of a building with gigantic chimneys in the vicinity of the main camp. +"This was supposed to be the crematorium. However, I must record the +fact that when I left the camp at Auschwitz in December 1944, I had not +seen this building there" (p. 37). Does this mysterious building exist +today? Apparently not; Reitlinger claims it was demolished and +"completely burnt out in full view of the camp" in October, though +Christopherson never saw this public demolition. Although it is said to +have taken place "in full view of the camp", it was allegedly seen by +only one Jewish witness, a certain Dr. Bendel, and his is the only +testimony to the occurrence (Reitlinger, ibid, p. 457). This situation +is generally typical. When it comes down to hard evidence, it is +strangely elusive; the building was "demolished", the document is +"lost", the order was "verbal". At Auschwitz today, visitors are shown a +small furnace and here they are told that millions of people were +exterminated. The Soviet State Commission which "investigated" the camp +announced on May 12th, 1945 that "Using rectified coefficients . . . the +technical expert commission has ascertained that during the time that +the Auschwitz camp existed, the German butchers exterminated in this +camp not less than four million citizens . . . " Reitlinger's +surprisingly frank comment on this is perfectly adequate: "The world has +grown mistrustful of 'rectified coefficients' and the figure of four +millions has become ridiculous" (ibid, p. 460). + +Finally, the account of Mr. Christopherson draws attention to a +very curious circumstance. The only defendant who did not appear at the +Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial in 1963 was Richard Baer, the successor of +Rudolf Hoess as commandant of Auschwitz. Though in perfect health, he +died suddenly in prison before the trial had begun, "in a highly +mysterious way" according to the newspaper; Deutsche Wochenzeitung (July +27th, 1973). Baer's sudden demise before giving evidence is especially +strange, since the Paris newspaper Rivarol recorded his insistence that +"during the whole time in which he governed Auschwitz, he never saw any +gas chambers nor believed that such things existed," and from this +statement nothing would dissuade him. In short, the Christopherson +account adds to a mounting collection of evidence demonstrating that the +giant industrial complex of Auschwitz (comprising thirty separate +installations and divided by the main Vienna-Cracow railway line) was +nothing but a vast war production centre, which, while admittedly +employing the compulsory labour of detainees, was certainly not a place +of "mass extermination". + +THE WARSAW GHETTO + + + +In terms of numbers, Polish Jewry is supposed to have suffered +most of all from extermination, not only at Auschwitz, but at an endless +list of newly-discovered "death camps" such as Treblinka, Sobibor, +Belzec, Maidanek, Chelmno and at many more obscure places which seem +suddenly to have gained prominence. At the centre of the alleged +extermination of the Polish Jews is the dramatic uprising in April 1943 +of the Warsaw Ghetto. This is often represented as a revolt against +being deported to gas ovens; presumably the alleged subject of Hitler +and Himmler's "secret discussions" had leaked out and gained wide +publicity in Warsaw. The case of the Warsaw Ghetto is an instructive +insight into the creation of the extermination legend itself. Indeed, +its evacuation by the Germans in 1943 is often referred to as the +"extermination of the Polish Jews" although it was nothing of the kind, +and layers of mythology have tended to surround it after the publication +of sensational novels like John Hersey's The Wall and Leon Uris' Exodus. + + +When the Germans first occupied Poland, they confined the Jews, +not in detention camps but in ghettos for reasons of security. The +interior administration of the ghettos was in the hands of Jewish +Councils elected by themselves, and they were policed by an independent +Jewish police force. Special currency notes were introduced into the +ghettos to prevent speculation. Whether this system was right or wrong, +it was understandable in time of war, and although the ghetto is perhaps +an unpleasant social establishment, it is by no means barbaric. And it +is certainly not an organisation for the destruction of a race. But, of +course, it is frequently said that this is what the ghettos were really +for. A recent publication on the Warsaw Ghetto made the brazen assertion +that concentration camps "were a substitute for the practice of cramming +the Jews into overcrowded ghettos and starving them to death. " It seems +that whatever security system the Germans used, and to whatever lengths +they went to preserve a semblance of community for the Jews, they can +never escape the charge of "extermination". + +It has been established already that the 1931 Jewish population +census for Poland placed the number of Jews at 2,732,600, and that after +emigration and flight to the Soviet Union, no more than 1,100,000 were +under German control. These incontrovertible facts, however, do not +prevent Manvell and Frankl asserting that "there had been over three +million Jews in Poland when Germany began the invasion" and that in 1942 +"some two million still awaited death" (ibid, p. 140). In reality, of +the million or so Jews in Poland, almost half, about 400,000 were +eventually concentrated in the ghetto of Warsaw, an area of about two +and a half square miles around the old mediaeval ghetto. The remainder +had already been moved to the Polish Government-General by September +1940. In the summer of 1942, Himmler ordered the resettlement of all +Polish Jews in detention camps in order to obtain their labour, part of +the system of general concentration for labour assignment in the +Government-General. Thus between July and October 1942, over three +quarters of the Warsaw Ghetto's inhabitants were peacefully evacuated +and transported, supervised by the Jewish police themselves. As we have +seen, transportation to camps is alleged to have ended in +"extermination", but there is absolutely no doubt from the evidence +available that it involved only the effective procurement of labour and +the prevention of unrest. In the first place, Himmler discovered on a +surprise visit to Warsaw in January 1943 that 24,000 Jews registered as +armaments workers were in fact working illegally as tailors and furriers +(Manvell & Frankl, ibid, p. 140); the Ghetto was also being used as a +base for subversive forays into the main area of Warsaw. + +After six months of peaceful evacuation, when only about 60,000 +Jews remained in the residential ghetto, the Germans met with an armed +rebellion on 18th January, 1943. Manvell and Frankl admit that "The Jews +involved in planned resistance had for a long time been engaged in +smuggling arms from the outside world, and combat groups fired on and +killed S. S. men and militia in charge of a column of deportees. " The +terrorists in the Ghetto uprising were also assisted by the Polish Home +Army and the PPR - Polska Partia Robotnicza, the Communist Polish +Workers Party. It was under these circumstances of a revolt aided by +partisans and communists that the occupying forces, as any army would in +a similar situation, moved in to suppress the terrorists, if necessary +by destroying the residential area itself. It should be remembered that +the whole process of evacuation would have continued peacefully had not +extremists among the inhabitants planned an armed rebellion which in the +end was bound to fail. When S. S. Lieutenant-General Stroop entered the +Ghetto with armoured cars on 19th April, he immediately came under fire +and lost twelve men; German and Polish casualties in the battle, which +lasted four weeks, totalled 101 men killed and wounded. Stubborn +resistance by the Jewish Combat Organisation in the face of impossible +odds led to an estimated 12,000 Jewish casualties, the majority by +remaining in burning buildings and dug-outs. A total, however, of 56,065 +inhabitants were captured and peacefully resettled in the area of the +Government-General. Many Jews within the Ghetto had resented the terror +imposed on them by the Combat Organisation, and had attempted to inform +on their headquarters to the German authorities. + +SUDDEN SURVIVORS + + + +The circumstances surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, as well +as the deportations to eastern labour camps such as Auschwtiz, has led +to the most colourful tales concerning the fate of Polish Jews, the +largest bloc of Jewry in Europe. The Jewish Joint Distribution +Committee, in figures prepared by them for the Nuremberg Trials, stated +that in 1945 there were only 80,000 Jews remaining in Poland. They also +alleged that there were no Polish-Jewish displaced persons left in +Germany or Austria, a claim that was at some variance with the number of +Polish Jews arrested by the British and Americans for black market +activities. However, the new Communist regime in Poland was unable to +prevent a major anti- Jewish pogrom at Kielce on July 4th, 1946 and more +than 150,000 Polish Jews suddenly fled into Western Germany. Their +appearance was somewhat embarrassing, and their emigration to Palestine +and the United States was carried out in record time. Subsequently, the +number of Polish Jewish survivors underwent considerable revision; in +the American-Jewish Year Book 1948-1949 it was placed at 390,000 quite +an advance on the original 80,000. We may expect further revisions +upwards in the future. + +7. SOME CONCENTRATION CAMP MEMOIRS + + + +The most influential agency in the propagation of the +extermination legend has been the paper-back book and magazine industry, +and it is through their sensational publications, produced for +commercial gain, that the average person is made acquainted with a myth +of an entirely political character and purpose. The hey-day of these +hate-Germany books was in the 1950's, when virulent Germanophobia found +a ready market, but the industry continues to flourish and is +experiencing another boom today. The industry's products consist +generally of so-called "memoirs", and these fall into two basic +categories: those which are supposedly by former S. S. men, camp +commandants and the like, and those bloodcurdling reminiscences +allegedly by former concentration camp inmates. + +COMMUNIST ORIGINS + + + +Of the first kind, the most outstanding example is Commandant of +Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoess (London, 1960), which was originally published +in the Polish language as Wspomnienia by' the Communist Government. +Hoess, a young man who took over at Auschwitz in 1940, was first +arrested by the British and detained at Flensburg, but he was soon +handed over to the Polish Communist authorities who condemned him to +death in 1947 and executed him almost immediately. The so-called Hoess +memoirs are undoubtedly a forgery produced under Communist auspices, as +we shall demonstrate, though the Communists themselves claim that Hoess +was "ordered to write the story of his life" and a hand- written +original supposedly exists, but no one has ever seen it. Hoess was +subjected to torture and brain-washing techniques by the Communists +during the period of his arrest, and his testimony at Nuremberg was +delivered in a mindless monotone as he stared blankly into space. Even +Reitlinger rejects this testimony as hopelessly untrustworthy. It is +indeed remarkable how much of the "evidence" regarding the Six Million +stems from Communist sources; this includes the major documents such as +the Wisliceny statement and the Hoess "memoirs", which are undoubtedly +the two most quoted items in extermination literature, as well as all +the information on the so-called "death camps" such as Auschwitz. This +information comes from the Jewish Historical Commission of Poland; the +Central Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, Warsaw; and the +Russian State War Crimes Commission, Moscow. + +Reitlinger acknowledges that the Hoess testimony at Nuremberg was a +catalogue of wild exaggerations, such as that Auschwitz was disposing of +16,000 people a day, which would mean a total at the end of the war of +over 13 million. Instead of exposing such estimates for the +Soviet-inspired frauds they obviously are, Reitlinger and others prefer +to think that such ridiculous exaggerations were due to "pride" in doing +a professional job. Ironically, this is completely irreconcilable with +the supposedly authentic Hoess memoirs, which make a clever attempt at +plausibility by suggesting the opposite picture of distaste for the job. +Hoess is supposed to have "confessed" to a total of 3 million people +exterminated at Auschwitz, though at his own trial in Warsaw the +prosecution reduced the number to 1,135,000. However, we have already +noted that the Soviet Government announced an official figure of 4 +million after their "investigation" of the camp in 1945. This kind of +casual juggling with millions of people does not appear to worry the +writers of extermination literature. + +A review of the Hoess "memoirs" in all their horrid detail would be +tedious. We may confine ourselves to those aspects of the extermination +legend which are designed with the obvious purpose of forestalling any +proof of its falsity. Such, for example, is the manner in which the +alleged extermination of Jews is described. This was supposed to have +been carried out by a "special detachment" of Jewish prisoners. They +took charge of the newly arrived contingents at the camp, led them into +the enormous "gas-chambers" and disposed of the bodies afterwards. The +S. S. , therefore, did very little, so that most of the S. S. personnel at +the camp could be left in complete ignorance of the "extermination +programme". Of course, no Jew would ever be found who claimed to have +been a member of this gruesome "special detachment", so that the whole +issue is left conveniently unprovable. It is worth repeating that no +living, authentic eye-witness to these events has ever been produced. + +Conclusive evidence that the Hoess memoirs are a forgery lies in an +incredible slip by the Communist editors. Hoess is supposed to say that +the Jehovah's Witnesses at Auschwitz approved of murdering the Jews +because the Jews were the enemies of Christ. It is well known that in +Soviet Russia today and in all her satellite countries of eastern +Europe, the Communists conduct a bitter campaign of suppression against +the Jehovah's Witnesses whom they regard as the religious sect most +dangerous to Communist beliefs. That this sect is deliberately and +grossly defamed in the Hoess memoirs proves the document's Communist +origins beyond any doubt. + +INCRIMINATING REMINISCENCES + + + +Certainly the most bogus "memoirs" yet published are those of +Adolf Eichmann. Before his illegal kidnapping by the Israelis in May, +1960 and the attendant blaze of international publicity, few people had +ever heard of him . He was indeed a relatively unimportant person, the +head of Office A4b in Department IV (the Gestapo) of the Reich Security +Head Office. His office supervised the transportation to detention camps +of a particular section of enemy aliens, the Jews. A positive flood of +unadulterated rubbish about Eichmann showered the world in 1960, of +which we may cite as an example Comer Clarke's Eichmann: The Savage +Truth. ("The orgies often went on until six in the morning, a few hours +before consigning the next batch of victims to death," says Clarke in +his chapter "Streamlined Death and Wild Sex Orgies," p . 124). + + +Strangely enough, the alleged "memoirs" of Adolf Eichmann +suddenly appeared at the time of his abduction to Israel. They were +uncritically published by the American Life magazine (November 28th, +December 5th, 1960), and were supposed to have been given by Eichmann to +a journalist in the Argentine shortly before his capture - an amazing +coincidence. Other sources, however, gave an entirely different account +of their origin, claiming that they were a record based on Eichmann's +comments to an "associate" in 1955, though no one even bothered to +identify this person. By an equally extraordinary coincidence, war +crimes investigators claimed shortly afterwards to have just "found" in +the archives of the U. S. Library of Congress, more than fifteen years +after the war, the "complete file" of Eichmann's department. So far as +the "memoirs" themselves are concerned, they were made to be as horribly +incriminating as possible without straying too far into the realms of +the purest fantasy, and depict Eichmann speaking with enormous relish +about "the physical annihilation of the Jews. " Their fraudulence is also +attested to by various factual errors, such as that Himmler was already +in command of the Reserve Army by April of 1944, instead of after the +July plot against Hitler's life, a fact which Eichmann would certainly +have known. The appearance of these "memoirs" at precisely the right +moment raises no doubt that their object was to present a pre-trial +propaganda picture of the archetypal "unregenerate Nazi" and fiend in +human shape. + +The circumstances of the Eichmann trial in Israel do not concern us +here; the documents of Soviet origin which were used in evidence, such +as the Wisliceny statement, have been examined already, and for an +account of the third-degree methods used on Eichmann during his +captivity to render him "co-operative" the reader is referred to the +London Jewish Chronicle, September 2nd, 1960. More relevant to the +literature of the extermination legend are the contents of a letter +which Eichmann is supposed to have written voluntarily and handed over +to his captors in Buenos Aries. It need hardly be added that its Israeli +authorship is transparently obvious. Nothing in it stretches human +credulity further than the phrase "I am submitting this declaration of +my own free will"; but the most hollow and revealing statement of all is +his alleged willingness to appear before a court in Israel, "so that a +true picture may be transmitted to future generations. " + +TREBLINKA FABRICATIONS + + + +The latest reminiscences to appear in print are those of Franz +Stangl, the former commandant of the camp at Treblinka in Poland who was +sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1970. These were published in +an article by the London Daily Telegraph Magazine, October 8th, 1971, +and were supposed to derive from a series of interviews with Stangl in +prison. He died a few days after the interviews were concluded. These +alleged reminiscences are certainly the goriest and most bizarre yet +published, though one is grateful for a few admissions by the writer of +the article, such as that "the evidence presented in the course of his +trial did not prove Stangl himself to have committed specific acts of +murder" and that the account of Stangl's beginnings in Poland "was in +part fabrication. " + +A typical example of this fabrication was the description of +Stangl's first visit to Treblinka. As he drew into the railway station +there, he is supposed to have seen "thousands of bodies" just strewn +around next to the tracks, "hundreds, no, thousands of bodies +everywhere, putrefying, decomposing. " And "in the station was a train +full of Jews, some dead, some still alive . . . it looked as if it had +been there for days. " The account reaches the heights of absurdity when +Stangl is alleged to have got out of his car and "stepped kneedeep into +money: I didn't know which way to turn, which way to go. I waded in +papernotes, currency, precious stones, jewellery and clothes. They were +everywhere, strewn all over the square. " The scene is completed by +"whores from Warsaw weaving drunk, dancing, singing, playing music", who +were on the other side of the barbed wire fences. To literally believe +this account of sinking "kneedeep" in Jewish bank-notes and precious +stones amid thousands of putrefying corpses and lurching, singing +prostitutes would require the most phenomenal degree of gullibility, and +in any circumstances other than the Six Million legend it would be +dismissed as the most outrageous nonsense. + +The statement which certainly robs the Stangl memoirs of any vestige +of authenticity is his alleged reply when asked why he thought the Jews +were being exterminated: "They wanted the Jews' money," is the answer. +"That racial business was just secondary. " The series of interviews are +supposed to have ended on a highly dubious note indeed. When asked +whether he thought there had been "any conceivable sense in this +horror," the former Nazi commandant supposedly replied with enthusiasm: +"Yes, I am sure there was. Perhaps the Jews were meant to have this +enormous jolt to pull them together; to create a people; to identify +themselves with each other. " One could scarcely imagine a more perfect +answer had it been invented. + +BEST-SELLER A HOAX + + + +Of the other variety of memoirs, those which present a picture of +frail Jewry caught in the vice of Nazism, the most celebrated is +undoubtedly The Diary of Anne Frank, and the truth concerning this book +is only one appalling insight into the fabrication of a propaganda +legend . First published in 1952, The Diary of Anne Frank became an +immediate best-seller; since then it has been republished in paper-back, +going through 40 impressions, and was made into a successful Hollywood +film. In royalties alone, Otto Frank, the girl's father, has made a +fortune from the sale of the book, which purports to represent the +real-life tragedy of his daughter. With its direct appeal to the +emotions, the book and the film have influenced literally millions of +people, certainly more throughout the world than any other story of its +kind. And yet only seven years after its initial publication, a New York +Supreme Court case established that the book was a hoax. + +The Diary of Anne Frank has been sold to the public as the actual +diary of a young Jewish girl from Amsterdam, which she wrote at the age +of 12 while her family and four other Jews were hiding in the back room +of a house during the German occupation. Eventually, they were arrested +and detained in a concentration camp, where Anne Frank supposedly died +when she was 14. When Otto Frank was liberated from the camp at the end +of the war, he returned to the Amsterdam house and "found" his +daughter's diary concealed in the rafters. + +The truth about the Anne Frank Diary was first revealed in 1959 +by the Swedish journal Fria Ord. It established that the Jewish novelist +Meyer Levin had written the dialogue of the "diary" and was demanding +payment for his work in a court action against Otto Frank. A +condensation of the Swedish articles appeared in the American Economic +Council Letter, April 15th, 1959, as follows: + +"History has many examples of myths that live a longer and richer +life than truth, and may become more effective than truth. + +"The Western World has for some years been made aware of a Jewish +girl through the medium of what purports to be her personally written +story, Anne Frank's Diary. Any informed literary inspection of this book +would have shown it to have been impossible as the work of a teenager. + +"A noteworthy decision of the New York Supreme Court confirms this +point of view, in that the well known American Jewish writer, Meyer +Levin, has been awarded $50,000 to be paid him by the father of Anne +Frank as an honorarium for Levin's work on the Anne Frank Diary. + +"Mr. Frank, in Switzerland, has promised to pay to his race kin, Meyer +Levin, not less than $50,0OO because he had used the dialogue of Author +Levin just as it was and "implanted" it in the diary as being his +daughter's intellectual work. " + +Further inquiries brought a reply on May 7th, 1962 from a firm of New +York lawyers, which stated: + +"I was the attorney for Meyer Levin in his action against Otto +Frank, and others. It is true that a jury awarded Mr. Levin $50,000 in +damages, as indicated in your letter. That award was later set aside by +the trial justice, Hon. Samuel C. Coleman, on the ground that the +damages had not been proved in the manner required by law. The action +was subsequently settled while an appeal from Judge Coleman's decision +was pending. + +"I am afraid that the case itself is not officially reported, so far +as the trial itself, or even Judge Coleman's decision, is concerned. +Certain procedural matters were reported in 141 New York Supplement, +Second Series 170, and in 5 Second Series 181. The correct file number +in the New York County Clerk's office is 2241 - 1956 and the file is +probably a large and full one . . . " + +Here, then, is just one more fraud in a whole series of frauds +perpetrated in support of the "Holocaust" legend and the saga of the Six +Million. Of course, the court case bearing directly on the authenticity +of the Anne Frank Diary was "not officially reported". + +A brief reference may also be made to another "diary", published not +long after that of Anne Frank and entitled: Notes from the Warsaw +Ghetto: the Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum (New York, 1958). Ringelblum +had been a leader in the campaign of sabotage against the Germans in +Poland, as well as the revolt of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, before he +was eventually arrested and executed in 1944. The Ringelblum journal, +which speaks of the usual "rumours" allegedly circulating about the +extermination of the Jews in Poland, appeared under exactly the same +Communist auspices as the so-called Hoess memoirs. McGraw-Hill, the +publishers of the American edition, admit that they were denied access +to the uncensored original manuscript in Warsaw, and instead faithfully +followed the expurgated volume published by the Communist Government in +Warsaw in 1952. All the "proofs" of the Holocaust issuing from Communist +sources of this kind are worthless as historical documents. + +ACCUMULATING MYTHS + + + +Since the war, there has been an abundant growth of sensational +concentration camp literature, the majority of it Jewish, each book +piling horror upon horror, blending fragments of truth with the most +grotesque of fantasies and impostures, relentessly creating an edifice +of mythology in which any relation to historical fact has long since +disappeared. We have referred to the type already - Olga Lengyel's +absurd Five Chimneys ("24,000 corpses handled every day"), Doctor at +Auschwitz by Miklos Nyiszli, apparently a mythical and invented person, +This was Auschwitz: The Story of a Murder Camp by Philip Friedman, and +so on ad nauseam + +The latest in this vein is For Those I Loved by Martin Gray +(Bodley Head, 1973), which purports to be an account of his experiences +at Treblinka camp in Poland. Gray specialised in selling fake antiques +to America before turning to concentration camp memoirs. The +circumstances surrounding the publication of his book, however, have +been unique, because for the first time with works of this kind, serious +doubt was cast on the authenticity of its contents. Even Jews, alarmed +at the damage it might cause, denounced his book as fraudulent and +questioned whether he had ever been at Treblinka at all, while B. B. C. +radio pressed him as to why he had waited 28 years before writing of his +experiences. + +It was interesting to observe that the "Personal Opinion" column of +the London Jewish Chronicle, March 30th, 1973, although it roundly +condemned Gray's book, nevertheless made grandiose additions to the myth +of the Six Million. It stated that: "Nearly a million people were +murdered in Treblinka in the course of a year. 18,0OO were fed into the +gas chambers every day. " It is a pity indeed that so many people read +and accept this kind of nonsense without exercising their minds. If +18,000 were murdered every day, the figure of one million would be +reached in a mere 56 days, not "in the course of a year. " This gigantic +achievement would leave the remaining ten months of the year a total +blank. 18,000 every day would in fact mean a total of 6,480,000 "in the +course of a year. " Does this mean that the Six Million died in twelve +months at Treblinka? What about the alleged three or four million at +Auschwitz? This kind of thing simply shows that, once the preposterous +compromise figure of Six Million had scored a resounding success and +become internationally accepted, any number of impossible permutations +can be made and no one would even think to criticise them. In its review +of Gray's book, the Jewish Chronicle column also provides a revealing +insight into the fraudulent allegations concerning gas-chambers: "Gray +recalls that the floors of the gas chambers sloped, whereas another +survivor who helped to build them maintains that they were at a level . +. . " + +Occasionally, books by former concentration camp inmates appear which +present a totally different picture of the conditions prevailing in +them. Such is Under Two Dictators (London, 1950) by Margarete Buber. She +was. a German- Jewish woman who had experienced several years in the +brutal and primitive conditions of a Russian prison camp before being +sent to Ravensbrck, the German camp for women detainees, in August +1940. She noted that she was the only Jewish person in her contingent of +deportees from Russia who was not straight away released by the Gestapo. +Her book presents a striking contrast between the camps of Soviet Russia +and Germany; compared to the squalor, disorder and starvation of the +Russian camp, she found Ravensbrck to be clean, civilised and +well-administered. Regular baths and clean linen seemed a luxury after +her earlier experiences, and her first meal of white bread, sausage, +sweet porridge and dried fruit prompted her to inquire of another camp +inmate whether August 3rd, 1940 was some sort of holiday or special +occasion. She observed, too, that the barracks at Ravensbrck were +remarkably spacious compared to the crowded mud hut of the Soviet camp. +In the final months of 1945, she experienced the progressive decline of +camp conditions, the causes of which we shall examine later. + +Another account which is at total variance with popular propaganda is +Die Gestapo L_sst Bitten (The Gestapo Invites You) by Charlotte Bormann, +a Communist political prisoner who was also interned at Ravensbrck. +Undoubtedly its most important revelation is the author's statement that +rumours of gas executions were deliberate and malicious inventions +circulated among the prisoners by the Communists. This latter group did +not accept Margarete Buber because of her imprisonment in Soviet Russia. +A further shocking reflection on the post-war trials is the fact that +Charlotte Bormann was not permitted to testify at the Rastadt trial of +Ravensbrck camp personnel in the French occupation zone, the usual fate +of those who denied the extermination legend. + + +8. THE NATURE & CONDITION OF WAR-TIME CONCENTRATION CAMPS + + + +In his recent book Adolf Hitler (London, 1973), Colin Cross, who +brings more intelligence than is usual to many problems of this period, +observes astutely that "The shuffling of millions of Jews around Europe +and murdering them, in a time of desperate war emergency, was useless +from any rational point of view" (p. 307). Quite so, and at this point +we may well question the likelihood of this irrationalism, and whether +it was even possible. Is it likely, that at the height of the war, when +the Germans were fighting a desperate battle for survival on two fronts, +they would have conveyed millions of Jews for miles to supposedly +elaborate and costly slaughter houses? To have conveyed three or four +million Jews to Auschwitz alone (even supposing that such an inflated +number existed in Europe, which it did not), would have placed an +insuperable burden upon German transportation facilities which were +strained to the limit in supporting the farflung Russian front. To have +transported the mythical six million Jews and countless numbers of other +nationalities to internment camps, and to have housed, clothed and fed +them there, would simply have paralysed their military operations. There +is no reason to suppose that the efficient Germans would have put their +military fortunes at such risk. + +On the other hand, the transportation of a reasonable 363,000 +prisoners to Auschwitz in the course of the war (the number we know to +have been registered there) at least makes sense in terms of the +compulsory labour they supplied. In fact, of the 3 million Jews living +in Europe, it is certain that no more than two million were ever +interned at one time, and it is probable that the number was much closer +to 1,500,000. We shall see later, in the Report of the Red Cross, that +whole Jewish populations such as that of Slovakia avoided detention in +camps, while others were placed in community ghettos like +Theresienstadt. Moreover, from western Europe deportations were far +fewer. The estimate of Reitlinger that only about 50,000 French Jews +from a total population of 320,000 were deported and interned has been +noted already. + +The question must also be asked as to whether it could have been +physically possible to destroy the millions of Jews that are alleged. +Had the Germans enough time for it? Is it likely that they would have +cremated people by the million when they were so short of manpower and +required all prisoners of war for purposes of war production? Would it +have been possible to destroy and remove all trace of a million people +in six months? Could such enormous gatherings of Jews and executions on +such a vast scale have been kept secret? These are the kind of questions +that the critical, thinking person should ask. And he will soon discover +that not only the statistical and documentary evidence given here, but +simple logistics combine to discredit the legend of the six million. + +Although it was impossible for millions to have been murdered in +them, the nature and conditions of Germany's concentration camps have +been vastly exaggerated to make the claim plausible. William Shirer, in +a typically reckless passage, states that "All of the thirty odd +principal Nazi concentration camps were death camps" (ibid, p. 115O). +This is totally untrue, and is not even accepted now by the principal +propagators of the extermination legend. Shirer also quotes Eugen +Kogon's The Theory and Practice of Hell (N. Y. 195O, p. 227) which puts +the total number of deaths in all of them at the ridiculous figure of +7,125,000, though Shirer admits in a footnote that this is "undoubtedly +too high. " + +'DEATH CAMPS' BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN + + + +It is true that in 1945, Allied propaganda did claim that all the +concentration camps, particularly those in Germany itself, were "death +camps", but not for long. On this question, the eminent American +historian Harry Elmer Barnes wrote: "These camps were first presented as +those in Germany, such as Dachau, Belsen, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and +Dora, but it was soon demonstrated that there had been no systematic +extermination in those camps. Attention was then moved to Auschwitz, +Treblinka, Belzec, Chelmno, Jonowska, Tarnow, Ravensbrck, Mauthausen, +Brezeznia and Birkenau, which does not exhaust the list that appears to +have been extended as needed" (Rampart Journal, Summer 1967). What had +happened was that certain honest observers among the British and +American occupation forces in Germany, while admitting that many inmates +had died of disease and starvation in the final months of the war, had +found no evidence after all of "gas chambers". As a result, eastern +camps in the Russian zone of occupation such as Auschwitz and Treblinka +gradually came to the fore as horrific centres of extermination (though +no one was permitted to see them), and this tendency has lasted to the +present day. Here in these camps it was all supposed to have happened, +but with the Iron Curtain brought down firmly over them, no one has ever +been able to verify such charges. The Communists claimed that four +million people died at Auschwitz in gigantic gas chambers accommodating +2,000 people - and no one could argue to the contrary. + +What is the truth about so-called "gas chambers"? Stephen F. Pinter, who +served as a lawyer for the United States War Department in the +occupation forces in Germany and Austria for six years after the war, +made the following statement in the widely read Catholic magazine Our +Sunday Visitor, June 14th , 1959: + +"I was in Dachau for 17 months after the war, as a U. S. Department +Attorney, and can state that there was no gas chamber at Dachau. What +was shown to visitors and sightseers there and erroneously described as +a gas chamber was a crematory. Nor was there a gas chamber in any of the +other concentration camps in Germany. We were told that there was a gas +chamber at Auschwitz, but since that was in the Russian zone of +occupation, we were not permitted to investigate since the Russians +would not allow it. From what I was able to determine during six postwar +years in Germany and Austria, there were a number of Jews killed, but +the figure of a million was certainly never reached. I interviewed +thousands of Jews, former immates of concentration camps in Germany and +Austria, and consider myself as well qualified as any man on this +subject. " + +This tells a very different story from the customary propaganda. Pinter, +of course, is very astute on the question of the crematory being +represented as a gas chamber. This is a frequent ploy because no such +thing as a gas chamber has ever been shown to exist in these camps, +hence the deliberately misleading term a "gas oven", aimed at confusing +a gas chamber with a crematorium. The latter, usually a single furnace +and similar to the kind of thing employed today, were used quite simply +for the cremation of those persons who had died from various natural +causes within the camp, particularly infectious diseases. This fact was +conclusively proved by the German archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber of +Munich. He informed the Americans that during the Allied air raids on +Munich in September 1944, 30,000 people were killed. The archbishop +requested the authorities at the time to cremate the bodies of the +victims in the crematorium at Dachau. But he was told that, +unfortunately, this plan could not be carried out; the crematorium, +having only one furnace, was not able to cope with the bodies of the air +raid victims. Clearly, therefore, it could not have coped with the +238,000 Jewish bodies which were allegedly cremated there. In order to +do so, the crematorium would have to be kept going for 326 years without +stopping and 530 tons of ashes would have been recovered. + +CASUALTY FIGURES REDUCED + + + +The figures of Dachau casualties are typical of the kind of +exaggerations that have since had to be drastically revised. In 1946, a +memorial plaque was unveiled at Dachau by Philip Auerbach, the Jewish +State-Secretary in the Bavarian Government who was convicted for +embezzling money which he claimed as compensation for non-existent Jews. +The plaque read: "This area is being retained as a shrine to the 238,000 +individuals who were cremated here. " Since then, the official casualty +figures have had to be steadily revised downwards, and now stand at only +20,600 the majority from typhus and starvation only at the end of the +war. This deflation, to ten per cent of the original figure, will +doubtless continue, and one day will be applied to the legendary figure +of six million as a whole. + +Another example of drastic revision is the present estimate of +Auschwitz casualties. The absurd allegations of three or four million +deaths there are no longer plausible even to Reitlinger. He now puts the +number of casualties at only 600,000; and although this figure is still +exaggerated in the extreme, it is a significant reduction on four +million and further progress is to be expected. Shirer himself quotes +Reitlinger's latest estimate, but he fails to reconcile this with his +earlier statement that half of that figure, about 300,000 Hungarian Jews +were supposedly "done to death in forty-six days" - a supreme example of +the kind of irresponsible nonsense that is written on this subject. + +HUMANE CONDITIONS + + + +That several thousand camp inmates did die in the chaotic final +months of the war brings us to the question of their war-time +conditions. These have been deliberately falsified in innumerable books +of an extremely lurid and unpleasant kind. The Red Cross Report, +examined below, demonstrates conclusively that throughout the war the +camps were well administered. The working inmates received a daily +ration even throughout 1943 and 1944 of not less than 2,750 calories, +which was more than double the average civilian ration in occupied +Germany in the years after 1945. The internees were under regular +medical care, and those who became seriously ill were transferred to +hospital. All internees, unlike those in Soviet camps, could receive +parcels of food, clothing and pharmaceutical supplies from the Special +Relief Division of the Red Cross. The Office of the Public Prosecutor +conducted thorough investigations into each case of criminal arrest, and +those found innocent were released; those found guilty, as well as those +deportees convicted of major crimes within the camp, were sentenced by +military courts and executed. In the Federal Archives of Koblenz there +is a directive of January 1943 from Himmler regarding such executions, +stressing that "no brutality. is to be allowed" (Manvell & Frankl), +ibid, p. 312). Occasionally there was brutality, but such cases were +immediately scrutinised by S. S. Judge Dr. Konrad Morgen of the Reich +Criminal Police Office, whose job was to investigate irregularities at +the various camps. Morgen himself prosecuted commander Koch of +Buchenwald in 1943 for excesses at his camp, a trial to which the German +public were invited. It is significant that Oswald Pohl, the +administrator of the concentration camp system who was dealt with so +harshly at Nuremberg, was in favour of the death penalty for Koch. In +fact, the S. S. court did sentence Koch to death, but he was given the +option of serving on the Russian front. Before he could do this, +however, Prince Waldeck, the leader of the S. S. in the district, carried +out his execution. This case is ample proof of the seriousness with +which the S. S. regarded unnecessary brutality. Several S. S. court +actions of this kind were conducted in the camps during the war to +prevent excesses, and more than 800 cases were investigated before 1945. +Morgen testified at Nuremberg that he discussed confidentially with +hundreds of inmates the prevailing conditions in the camps. He found few +that were undernourished except in the hospitals, and noted that the +pace and achievement in compulsory labour by inmates was far lower than +among German civilian workers. The evidence of Pinter and Cardinal +Faulhaber has been shown to disprove the claims of extermination at +Dachau, and we have seen how the casualty figures of that camp have been +continuously revised downwards. The camp at Dachau near Munich, in fact, +may be taken as fairly typical of these places of internment. Compulsory +labour in the factories and plants was the order of the day, but the +Communist leader Ernst Ruff testified in his Nuremberg affidavit of +April 18th, 1947 that the treatment of prisoners on the work details and +in the camp of Dachau remained humane. The Polish underground leader, +Jan Piechowiak, who was at Dachau from May 22nd, 1940 until April 29th, +1945 also testified on March 21st, 1946 that prisoners there received +good treatment, and that the S. S. personnel at the camp were "well +disciplined". Berta Schirotschin, who worked in the food service at +Dachau throughout the war, testified that the working inmates, until the +beginning of 1945 and despite increasing privation in Germany, received +their customary second breakfast at 10 a. m. every morning. + +In general, hundreds of affidavits from Nuremberg testify to the +humane conditions prevailing in concentration camps; but emphasis was +invariably laid on those which reflected badly on the German +administration and could be used for propaganda purposes. A study of the +documents also reveals that Jewish witnesses who resented their +deportation and internment in prison camps tended to greatly exaggerate +the rigours of their condition, whereas other nationals interned for +political reasons, such as those cited above, generally presented a more +balanced picture. In many cases, prisoners such as Charlotte Bormann, +whose experiences did not accord with the picture presented at +Nuremberg, were not permitted to testify. + +UNAVOIDABLE CHAOS + + + +The orderly situation prevailing in the German concentration +camps slowly broke down in the last fearful months of 1945. The Red +Cross Report of 1948 explains that the saturation bombing by the Allies +paralysed the transport and communications system of the Reich, no food +reached the camps and starvation claimed an increasing number of +victims, both in prison camps and among the civilian population of +Germany. This terrible situation was compounded in the camps both by +great overcrowding and the consequent outbreak of typhus epidemics. +Overcrowding occurred as a result of prisoners from the eastern camps +such as Auschwitz being evacuated westward before the Russian advance; +columns of such exhausted people arrived at several German camps such as +Belsen and Buchenwald which had themselves reached a state of great +hardship. Belsen camp near Bremen was in an especially chaotic condition +in these months and Himmler's physician, Felix Kersten, an anti-Nazi, +explains that its unfortunate reputation as a "death camp" was due +solely to the ferocity of the typhus epidemic which broke out there in +March 1945 (Memoirs 1940-1945, London, . 1956). Undoubtedly these fearful +conditions cost several thousand lives, and it is these conditions that +are represented in the photographs of emaciated human beings and heaps +of corpses which the propagandists delight in showing, claiming, that +they are victims of "extermination". + +A surprisingly honest appraisal of the situation at Belsen in 1945 +appeared in Purnell's History of the Second World War (Vol. 7, No. 15) +by Dr. Russell Barton, now superintendent and consultant psychiatrist at +Severalls Hospital, Essex, who spent one month at the camp as a medical +student after the war. His account vividly illustrates the true causes +of the mortality that occurred in such camps towards the war's end, and +how such extreme conditions came to prevail there. Dr. Barton explains +that Brigadier Glyn Hughes, the British Medical Officer who took command +of Belsen in 1945, "did not think there had been any atrocities in the +camp" despite discipline and hard work "Most people," writes Dr. Barton, +"attributed the conditions of the inmates to deliberate intention on the +part of the Germans. . Inmates were eager to cite examples of brutality +and neglect, and visiting journalists from different countries +interpreted the situation according to the needs of propaganda at home. " + +However, Dr. Barton makes it quite clear that the conditions of +starvation and disease were unavoidable in the circumstances and that +they occurred only during the months of 1945. "From discussions with +prisoners it seemed that conditions in the camp were not too bad until +late 1944. The huts were set among pine trees and each was provided with +lavatories, wash basins, showers and stoves for heating. " The cause of +food shortage is also explained. "German medical officers told me that +it had been increasingly difficult to transport food to the camp for +some months. Anything that moved on the autobahns was likely to be +bombed . . . I was surprised to find records, going back for two or +three years, of large quantities of food cooked daily for distribution. +At that time I became convinced, contrary to popular opinion, that there +had never been a policy of deliberate starvation. This was confirmed by +the large numbers of well-fed inmates. Why then were so many people +suffering from mal-nutrition? . . . The major reasons for the state of +Belsen were disease, gross overcrowding by central authority, lack of +law and order within the huts, and inadequate supplies of food, water +and drugs. " The lack of order, which led to riots over food +distribution, was quelled by British machine-gun fire and a display of +force when British tanks and armoured cars toured the camp. + +Apart from the unavoidable deaths in these circumstances, Glyn Hughes +estimated that about "1,000 were killed through the kindness of English +soldiers giving them their own rations and chocolates. " As a man who was +at Belsen, Dr. Barton is obviously very much alive to the falsehoods of +concentration camp mythology, and he concludes: "In trying to assess the +causes of the conditions found in Belsen one must be alerted to the +tremendous visual display, ripe for purposes of propaganda, that masses +of starved corpses presented. " To discuss such conditions "naively in +terms of 'goodness' and 'badness' is to ignore the constituent +factors. . . " + +FAKE PHOTOGRAPHS + +Not only were situations such as those at Belsen unscrupulously +exploited for propaganda purposes, but this propaganda has also made use +of entirely fake atrocity photographs and films. The extreme conditions +at Belsen applied to very few camps indeed; the great majority escaped +the worst difficulties and all their inmates survived in good health. As +a result, outright forgeries were used to exaggerate conditions of +horror. A startling case of such forgery was revealed in the British +Catholic Herald of October 29th, 1948. It reported that in Cassel, where +every adult German was compelled to see a film representing the +"horrors" of Buchenwald, a doctor from Goettingen saw himself on the +screen looking after the victims. But he had never been to Buchenwald. +After an interval of bewilderment he realised that what he had seen was +part of a film taken after the terrible air raid on Dresden by the +Allies on 13th February, 1945 where the doctor had been working. The +film in question was shown in Cassel on 19th October, 1948. After the +air raid on Dresden, which killed a record 135 000 people, mostly +refugee women and children, the bodies of the victims were piled and +burned in heaps of 400 and 500 for several weeks. These were the scenes, +purporting to be from Buchenwald, which the doctor had recognised. + +The forgery of war-time atrocity photographs is not new. For further +information the reader is referred to Arthur Ponsonby's book Falsehood +in Wartime (London, 1928), which exposes the faked photographs of German +atrocities in the First World War. Ponsonby cites such fabrications as +"The Corpse Factory" and "The Belgian Baby without Hands", which are +strikingly reminiscent of the propaganda relating to Nazi "atrocities". +F. J. P. Veale explains in his book that the bogus 'jar of human soap" +solemnly introduced by the Soviet prosecution at Nuremberg was a +deliberate jibe at the famous British "Corpse Factory" myth, in which +the ghoulish Germans were supposed to have obtained various commodities +from processing corpses (Veale, ibid, p. 192). This accusation was one +for which the British Government apologised after 1918. It received new +Iife after 1945 in the tale of lamp shades of human skin, which was +certainly as fraudulent as the Soviet "human soap". In fact, from +Manvell and Frankl we have the grudging admission that the lamp shade +evidence at Buchenwald Trial "later appeared to be dubious" (The +Incomparable Crime, p. 84). It was given by a certain Andreas +Pfaffenberger in a "written affidavit" of the kind discussed earlier, +but in 1948 General Lucius Clay admitted that the affidavits used in the +trial appeared after more thorough investigation to have been mosdy +'hearsay'. + +An excellent work on the fake atrocity photographs pertaining to the +Myth of the Six Million is Dr. Udo Walendy's Bild 'Dokumente' fr die +Geschichtsschreibung? (Vlotho/Weser, 1973), and from the numerous +examples cited we illustrate one on this page. The origin of the first +photograph is unknown, but the second is a photomontage. Close +examination reveals immediately that the standing figures have been +taken from the first photograph, and a heap of corpses super-imposed in +front of them. The fence has been removed, and an entirely new horror +"photograph" created. This blatant forgery appears on page 341 of R. +Schnabel's book on the S. S. , Macht ohne Moral: eine Dokumentation ber +die SS (Frankfurt, 1957), with the caption "Mauthausen". (Walendy cites +eighteen other examples of forgery in Schnabel's book). The same +photograph appeared in the Proceedings of the International Military +Tribunal, Vol. XXX, p. 421, likewise purporting to illustrate Mauthausen +camp. It is also illustrated without a caption in Eugene Aroneanu's +Konzentrationlager Document F. 321 for the International Court at +Nuremberg; Heinz Khnrich's Der KZ-Staat (Berlin, 1960, p. 81); Vaclav +Berdych's Mauthausen (Prague, 1959); and Robert Neumann's Hitler - +Aufstieg und Untergang des Dritten Reiches (Munich, 1961). + +9. THE JEWS AND THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS: A FACTUAL APPRAISAL BY THE RED +CROSS + + + +There is one survey of the Jewish question in Europe during World +War Two and the conditions of Germany's concentration camps which is +almost unique in its honesty and objectivity, the three-volume Report of +the International Committee of the Red Cross on its Activities during +the Second World War, Geneva, 1948. This comprehensive account from an +entirely neutral source incorporated and expanded the findings of two +previous works: Documents sur I'activit- du CICR en faveur des civils +detenus dans les camps de concentration en Allemagne 1939- 1945 (Geneva, +1946), and Inter Arma Caritas: the Work of the ICRC during the Second +World War (Geneva, 1947). The team of authors, headed by Fr-d-ric +Siordet, explained in the opening pages of the Report that their object, +in the tradition of the Red Cross, had been strict political neutrality +, and herein lies its great value. + +The ICRC successfully applied the 1929 Geneva military convention in +order to gain access to civilian internees held in Central and Western +Europe by the Germany authorities. By contrast, the ICRC was unable to +gain any access to the Soviet Union, which had failed to ratify the +Convention. The millions of civilian and military internees held in the +USSR, whose conditions were known to be by far the worst, were +completely cut off from any international contact or supervision. + +The Red Cross Report is of value in that it first clarifies the +legitimate circumstances under which Jews were detained in concentration +camps, i. e. as enemy aliens. In describing the two categories. of +civilian internees, the Report distinguishes the second type as +"Civilians deported on administrative grounds (in German, +"Schutzh_ftlinge"), who were arrested for political or racial motives +because their presence was considered a danger to the State or the +occupation forces" (Vol. 111, p. 73). These persons, it continues, "were +placed on the same footing as persons arrested or imprisoned under +common law for security reasons. " (P. 74). + +The Report admits that the Germans were at first reluctant to +permit supervision by the Red Cross of people detained on grounds +relating to security, but by the latter part of 1942, the ICRC obtained +important concessions from Germany. They were permitted to distribute +food parcels to major concentration camps in Germany from August 1942, +and "from February 1943 onwards this concession was extended to all +other camps and prisons" (Vol. 111, p. 78). The ICRC soon established +contact with camp commandants and launched a food relief programme which +continued to function until the last months of 1945, letters of thanks +for which came pouring in from Jewish internees. + +RED CROSS RECIPIENTS WERE JEWS + + + +The Report states that "As many as 9,000 parcels were packed +daily. From the autumn of 1943 until May 1945, about 1,112,000 parcels +with a total weight of 4,500 tons were sent off to the concentration +camps" (Vol. III, p. 80). In addition to food, these contained clothing +and pharmaceutical supplies. "Parcels were sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, +Sangerhausen, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Flossenburg, +Landsberg-am-Lech, Fl_ha, Ravensbrck, Hamburg- Neuengamme, Mauthausen, +Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, to camps near Vienna and in +Central and Southern Germany. The principal recipients were Belgians, +Dutch, French, Greeks, Italians, Norwegians, Poles and stateless Jews" +(Vol. III, p. 83). In the course of the war, "The Committee was in a +position to transfer and distribute in the form of relief supplies over +twenty million Swiss francs collected by Jewish welfare organisations +throughout the world, in particular by the American Joint Distribution +Committee of New York" (Vol. I, p. 644). This latter organisation was +permitted by the German Government to maintain offices in Berlin until +the American entry into the war. The ICRC complained that obstruction of +their vast relief operation for Jewish internees came not from the +Germans but from the tight Allied blockade of Europe. Most of their +purchases of relief food were made in Rumania, Hungary and Slovakia. + + +The ICRC had special praise for the liberal conditions which +prevailed at Theresienstadt up to the time of their last visits there in +April 1945. This camp, "where there were about 40,000 Jews deported from +various countries was a relatively privileged ghetto" (Vol. III, p. 75). +According to the Report, "'The Committee's delegates were able to visit +the camp at Theresienstadt (Terezin) which was used exclusively for Jews +and was governed by special conditions. From information gathered by the +Committee, this camp had been started as an experiment by certain +leaders of the Reich . . . These men wished to give the Jews the means +of setting up a communal life in a town under their own administration +and possessing almost complete autonomy. . . two delegates were able to +visit the camp on April 6th, 1945. They confirmed the favourable +impression gained on the first visit" (Vol. I, p . 642). + +The ICRC also had praise for the regime of Ion Antonescu of +Fascist Rumania where the Committee was able to extend special relief to +183,000 Rumanian Jews until the time of the Soviet occupation. The aid +then ceased, and the ICRC complained bitterly that it never succeeded +"in sending anything whatsoever to Russia" (Vol. II, p. 62). The same +situation applied to many of the German camps after their "liberation" +by the Russians. The ICRC received a voluminous flow of mail from +Auschwitz until the period of the Soviet occupation, when many of the +internees were evacuated westward. But the efforts of the Red Cross to +send relief to internees remaining at Auschwitz under Soviet control +were futile. However, food parcels continued to be sent to former +Auschwitz inmates transferred west to such camps as Buchenwald and +Oranienburg. + +NO EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE + + + +One of the most important aspects of the Red Cross Report is that +it clarifies the true cause of those deaths that undoubtedly occurred in +the camps towards the end of the war. Says the Report: "In the chaotic +condition of Germany after the invasion during the final months of the +war, the camps received no food supplies at all and starvation claimed +an increasing number of victims. Itself alarmed by this situation, the +German Government at last informed the ICRC on February 1st, 1945 . . . +In March 1945, discussions between the President of the ICRC and General +of the S. S. Kaltenbrunner gave even more decisive results. Relief could +henceforth be distributed by the ICRC, and one delegate was authorised +to stay in each camp . . . " (Vol. III, p. 83). Clearly, the German +authorities were at pains to relieve the dire situation as far as they +were able. The Red Cross are quite explicit in stating that food +supplies ceased at this time due to the Allied bombing of German +transportation, and in the interests of interned Jews they had protested +on March 15th, 1944 against "the barbarous aerial warfare of the Allies" +(Inter Arma Caritas, p. 78). By October 2nd, 1944, the ICRC warned the +German Foreign Office of the impending collapse of the German +transportation system, declaring that starvation conditions for people +throughout Germany were becoming inevitable. + +In dealing with this comprehensive, three-volume Report, it is +important to stress that the delegates of the International Red Cross +found no evidence whatever at the camps in Axis- occupied Europe of a +deliberate policy to exterminate the Jews. In all its 1,600 pages the +Report does not even mention such a thing as a gas chamber. It admits +that Jews, like many other wartime nationalities, suffered rigours and +privations, but its complete silence on the subject of planned +extermination is ample refutation of the Six Million legend. Like the +Vatican representatives with whom they worked, the Red Cross found +itself unable to indulge in the irresponsible charges of genocide which +had become the order of the day. + +So far as the genuine mortality rate is concerned, the Report points +out that most of the Jewish doctors from the camps were being used to +combat typhus on the eastern front, so that they were unavailable when +the typhus epidemics of 1945 broke out in the camps (Vol. I, p. 204 ff)- +Incidentally, it is frequently claimed that mass executions were carried +out in gas chambers cunningly disguised as shower facilities. Again the +Report makes nonsense of this allegation. "Not only the washing places, +but installations for baths, showers and laundry were inspected by the +delegates. They had often to take action to have fixtures made less +primitive, and to get them repaired or enlarged" (Vol. III, p. 594). + +NOT ALL WERE INTERNED + +Volume III of the Red Cross Report, Chapter 3 (I. Jewish Civilian +Population) deals with the "aid given to the Jewish section of the free +population," and this chapter makes it quite plain that by no means all +of the European Jews were placed in internment camps, but remained, +subject to certain restrictions, as part of the free civilian +population. This conflicts directly with the "thoroughness" of the +supposed "extermination programme", and with the claim in the forged +Hoess memoirs that Eichmann was obsessed with seizing "every single Jew +he could lay his hands on. " In Slovakia, for examle, where Eichmann's +assistant Dieter Wisliceny was in charge, the Report states that "A +large proportion of the Jewish minority had permission to stay in the +country, and at certain periods Slovakia was looked upon as a +comparative haven of refuge for Jews, especially for those coming from +Poland. Those who remained in Slovakia seem to have been in comparative +safety until the end of August 1944, when a rising against the German +forces took place. While it is true that the law of May 15th, 1942 had +brought about the internment of several thousand Jews, these people were +held in camps where the conditions of food and lodging were tolerable, +and where the internees were allowed to do paid work on terms almost +equal to those of the free labour market" (Vol. I, p. 646). + +Not only did large numbers of the three million or so European Jews +avoid internment altogether, but the emigration of Jews continued +throughout the war, generally by way of Hungary, Rumania and Turkey. +Ironically, post-war Jewish emigration from German-occupied territories +was also facilitated by the Reich, as in the case of the Polish Jews who +had escaped to France before its occupation. "The Jews from Poland who, +whilst in France, had obtained entrance permits to the United States +were held to be American citizens by the German occupying authorities, +who further agreed to recognize the validity of about three thousand +passports issued to Jews by the consulates of South American countries" +(Vol. I, p. 645). As future U. S. citizens, these Jews were held at the +Vittel camp in southern France for American aliens. + +The emigration of European Jews from Hungary in particular proceeded +during the war unhindered by the German authorities. "Until March 1944," +says the. Red Cross Report, "Jews who had the privilege of visas for +Palestine were free to leave Hungary" (Vol. I, p. 648). Even after the +replacement of the Horthy Government in 1944 (following its attempted +armistice with the Soviet Union) with a govenment more dependent on +German authority, the emigration of Jews continued. The Committee +secured the pledges of both Britain and the United States "to give +support by every means to the emigration of Jews from Hungary," and from +the U. S. Govermnent the ICRC received a message stating that "The +Government of the United States . . . now specifically repeats its +assurance that arrangements will be made by it for the care of all Jews +who in the present circumstances are allowed to leave" (Vol. I, p . +649). + +10. THE TRUTH AT LAST: THE WORK OF PAUL RASSINIER + + + +Without doubt the most important contribution to a truthful study +of the extermination question has been the work of the French historian, +Professor Paul Rassinier. The pre-eminent value of this work lies +firstly in the fact that Rassinier actually experienced life in the +German concentration camps, and also that, as a Socialist intellectual +and anti-Nazi, nobody could be less inclined to defend Hitler and +National Socialism. Yet, for the sake of justice and historical truth, +Rassinier spent the remainder of his post-war years until his death in +1966 pursuing research which utterly refuted the Myth of the Six Million +and the legend of Nazi diabolism. + +From 1933 until 1943, Rassinier was a professor of history in the +College d'enseignement g-n-ral at Belfort, Academie de Besancon. During +the war he engaged in resistance activity until he was arrested by the +Gestapo on October 30th, 1943, and as a result was confined in the +German concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dora until 1945. At +Buchenwald, towards the end of the war, he contracted typhus, which so +damaged his health that he could not resume his teaching. After the war, +Rassinier was awarded the Medaille de la R-sistance and the +Reconnaisance Francaise, and was elected to the French Chamber of +Deputies, from which he was ousted by the Communists in November, 1946. + +Rassinier then embarked on his great work, a systematic analysis of +alleged German war atrocities, in particular the supposed +"extermination" of the Jews. Not surprisingly, his writings are little +known; they have rarely been translated from the French and none at all +have appeared in English. His most important works were: Le Mensonge +d'Ulysse (The Lies of Odysseus, Paris, 1949), an investigation of +concentration camp conditions based on his own experiences of them; and +Ulysse trahi par les Siens (1960), a sequel which further refuted the +impostures of propagandists concerning German concentration camps. His +monumental task was completed with two final volumes, Le V-ritable +Proces Eichmann (1962) and Le Drame des Juifs europ-en (1964), in which +Rassinier exposes the dishonest and reckless distortions concerning the +fate of the Jews by a careful statistical analysis. The last work also +examines the political and financial significance of the extermination +legend and its exploitation by Israel and the Communist powers. + +One of the many merits of Rassinier's work is exploding the myth +of unique German "wickedness"; and he reveals with devastating force how +historical truth has been obliterated in an impenetrable fog of partisan +propaganda. His researches demonstrate conclusively that the fate of the +Jews during World War Two, once freed from distortion and reduced to +proper proportions, loses its much vaunted "enormity" and is seen to be +only one act in a greater and much wider tragedy. In an extensive +lecture tour in West Germany in the spring of 1960, Professor Rassinier +emphasised to his German audiences that it was high time for a rebirth +of the truth regarding the extermination legend, and that the Germans +themselves should begin it since the allegation remained a wholly +unjustifiable blot on Germany in the eyes of the world. + +THE IMPOSTURE OF 'GAS CHAMBERS' + + + +Rassinier entitled his first book The Lies of Odysseus in +commemoration of the fact that travellers always return bearing tall +stories, and until his death he investigated all the stories of +extermination literature and attempted to trace their authors. He made +short work of the extravagant claims about gas chambers at Buchenwald in +David Rousset's The Other Kingdom (New York, 1947); himself an inmate of +Buchenwald, Rassinier proved that no such things ever existed there (Le +Mensonge d'Ulysse, p. 209 ff)Rassinier also traced Abbe Jean-Paul +Renard, and asked him how he could possibly have testified in his book +Chaines et Lumieres that gas chambers were in operation at Buchenwald. +Renard replied that others had told him of their existence, and hence he +had been willing to pose as a witness of things that he had never seen +(ibid, p. 209 ff). + +Rassinier also investigated Denise Dufournier's Ravensbrck. - The +Women's Camp of Death (London, 1948) and again found that the authoress +had no other evidence for gas chambers there than the vague "rumours" +which Charlotte Bormann stated were deliberately spread by communist +political prisoners. Similar investigations were made of such books as +Philip Friedman's This was Auschwitz: The Story of a Murder Camp (N. Y. , +1946) and Eugen Kogon's The Theory and Practice of Hell (N. Y. , 1950), +and he found that none of these authors could produce an authentic +eye-witness of a gas chamber at Auschwitz, nor had they themselves +actually seen one. Rassinier mentions Kogon's claim that a deceased +former inmate, Janda Weiss, had said to Kogon alone that she had +witnessed gas chambers at Auschwitz, but of course, since this person +was apparently dead, Rassinier was unable to investigate the claim. He +was able to interview Benedikt Kautsky, author of Teufel und Verdammte +who had alleged that millions of Jews were exterminated at Auschwitz. +However, Kautsky only confirmed to Rassinier the confession in his book, +namely that never at any time had he seen a gas chamber, and that he +based his information on what others had "told him". + +The palm for extermination literature is awarded by Rassinier to +Miklos Nyizli's Doctor at Auschwitz, in which the falsification of +facts, the evident contradictions and shameless lies show that the +author is speaking of places which it is obvious he has never seen (Le +Drame des Juifs europ-en, p. 52). According to this "doctor of +Auschwitz", 25,000 victims were exterminated every day for four and a +half years, which is a grandiose advance on Olga Lengyel's 24,000 a day +for two and a half years. It would mean a total of forty-one million +victims at Auschwitz by 1945, two and a half times the total pre- war +Jewish population of the world. When Rassinier attempted to discover the +identity of this strange "witness", he was told that "he had died some +time before the publication of the book. " Rassinier is convinced that he +was never anything but a mythical figure. + +Since the war, Rassinier has, in fact, toured Europe in search of +somebody who was an actual eye-witness of gas chamber exterminations in +German concentration camps during World War Two, but he has never found +even one such person. He discovered that not one of the authors of the +many books charging that the Germans had exterminated millions of Jews +had even seen a gas chamber built for such purposes, much less seen one +in operation, nor could any of these authors produce a living authentic +witness who had done so. Invariably, former prisoners such as Renard, +Kautsky and Kogon based their statements not upon what they had actually +seen, but upon what they "heard", always from "reliable" sources, who by +some chance are almost always dead and thus not in a position to confirm +or deny their statements. + +Certainly the most important fact to emerge from Rassinier's studies, +and of which there is now no doubt at all, is the utter imposture of +"gas chambers". Serious investigations carried out in the sites +themselves have revealed with irrefutable proof that, contrary to the +declarations of the surviving "witnesses" examined above, no gas +chambers whatever existed in the German camps at Buchenwald, +Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbrck, Dachau and Dora, or Mauthausen in Austria. +This fact, which we noted earlier was attested to by Stephen Pinter of +the U. S. War Office, has now been recognised and admitted officially by +the Institute of Contemporary History at Munich. However, Rassinier +points out that in spite of this, "witnesses" again declared at the +Eichmann trial that they had seen prisoners at Bergen-Belsen setting out +for the gas chambers. So far as the eastern camps of Poland are +concerned, Rassinier shows that the sole evidence attesting to the +existence of gas chambers at Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, Maidanek and +Sobibor are the discredited memoranda of Kurt Gerstein referred to +above. His original claim, it will be recalled was that an absurd 40 +million people had been exterminated during the war, while in his first +signed memorandum he reduced the number to 25 million. Further +reductions were made in his second memorandum. These documents were +considered of such dubious authenticity that they were not even admitted +by the Nuremberg Court, though they continue to circulate in three +different versions, one in German (distributed in schools) and two in +French, none of which agree with each other. The German version featured +as "evidence" at the Eichmann Trial in l961. + +Finally, Professor Rassinier draws attention to an important admission +by Dr. Kubovy, director of the World Centre of Contemporary Jewish +Documentation at Tel-Aviv, made in La Terre Retrouv-e, December 15th, +1960. Dr. Kubovy recognised that not a single order for extermination +exists from Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich or Goering (Le Drame des Juifs +europ-en, p. 31, 39). + +'SIX MILLION' FALSEHOOD REJECTED + + + +As for the fearful propaganda figure of the Six Million, +Professor Rassinier rejects it on the basis of an extremely detailed +statistical analysis. He shows that the number has been falsely +established, on the one hand through inflation of the pre-war Jewish +population by ignoring all emigration and evacuation, and on the other +by a corresponding deflation of the number of survivors after 1945. This +was the method used by the World Jewish Congress. Rassinier also rejects +any written or oral testimony to the Six Million given by the kind of +"witnesses" cited above, since they are full of contradictions, +exaggerations and falsehoods. He gives the example of Dachau casualties, +noting that in 1946, Pastor Niem_ller reiterated Auerbach's fraudulent +"238,000" deaths there, while in 1962 Bishop Neuh_usseler of Munich +stated in a speech at Dachau that only 30,000 people died "of the +200,000 persons from thirty-eight nations who were interned there" (Le +Drame des Juifs europ-en, p . 12). Today, the estimate has been reduced +by several more thousands, and so it goes on. Rassinier concludes, too, +that testimony in support of the Six Million given by accused men such +as Hoess, Hoettl, Wisliceny and Hoellriegel, who were faced with the +prospect of being condemned to death or with the hope of obtaining a +reprieve, and who were frequently tortured during their detention, is +completely untrustworthy. + +Rassinier finds it very significant that the figure of Six Million was +not mentioned in court during the Eichmann trial. "The prosecution at +the Jerusalem trial was considerably weakened by its central motif, the +six million European Jews alleged to have been exterminated in gas +chambers. It was an argument that easily won conviction the day after +the war ended, amidst the general state of spiritual and material chaos. +Today, many documents have been published which were not available at +the time of the Nuremberg trials, and which tend to prove that if the +Jewish nationals were wronged and persecuted by the Hitler regime, there +could not possibly have been six millions victims" (ibid, p. 125). + +With the help of one hundred pages of cross-checked statistics, +Professor Rassinier concludes in Le Drame des Juifs europ-en that the +number of Jewish casualties during the Second World War could not have +exceeded 1,200,000, and he notes that this has finally been accepted as +valid by the World Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation at Paris. +However, he regards such a figure as a maximum limit, and refers to the +lower estimate of 896,892 casualties in a study of the same problem by +the Jewish statistician Raul Hilberg. Rassinier points out that the +State of Israel nevertheless continues to claim compensation for six +million dead, each one representing an indemnity of 5,000 marks. + +EMIGRATION: THE FINAL SOLUTION + + + +Prof. Rassinier is emphatic in stating that the German Government +never had any policy other than the emigration of Jews overseas. He +shows that after the promulgation of the Nuremberg Race Laws in +September 1935, the Germans negotiated with the British for the transfer +of German Jews to Palestine on the basis of the Balfour Declaration. +When this failed, they asked other countries to take charge of them, but +these refused (ibid, p. 20). The Palestine project was revived in 1938, +but broke down because Germany could not negotiate their departure on +the basis of 3,000,000 marks, as demanded by Britain, without some +agreement for compensation. Despite these difficulties, Germany did +manage to secure the emigration of the majority of their Jews, mostly to +the United States. Rassinier also refers to the French refusal of +Germany's Madagascar plan at the end of 1940. "In a report of the 21st +August, 1942, the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs +of the Third Reich, Luther, decided that it would be possible to +negotiate with France in this direction and described conversations +which had taken place between July and December 1940, and which were +brought to a halt following the interview with Montoire on 13th December +1940 by Pierre-Etienne Flandin, Laval's successor. During the whole of +1941 the Germans hoped that they would be able to re-open these +negotiations and bring them to a happy conclusion" (ibid, p . 108). + +After the outbreak of war, the Jews, who, as Rassinier reminds us, +had declared economic and financial war on Germany as early as 1933, +were interned in concentration camps, "which is the way countries all +over the world treat enemy aliens in time of war . . . It was decided to +regroup them and put them to work in one immense ghetto which, after the +successful invasion of Russia, was situated towards the end of 1941 in +the so-called Eastern territories near the former frontier between +Russia and Poland: at Auschwitz, Chelmno, Belzec, Maidanek, Treblinka +etc . . . There they were to wait until the end of the war for the +re-opening of international discussions which would decide their future" +(Le V-ritable Proces Eichmann, p. 20). The order for this concentration +in the eastern ghetto was given by Goering to Heydrich, as noted +earlier, and it was regarded as a prelude to "the desired final +solution," their emigration overseas after the war had ended. + +ENORMOUS FRAUD + + + +Of great concern to Professor Rassinier is the way in which the +extermination legend is deliberately exploited for political and +financial advantage, and in this he finds Israel and the Soviet Union to +be in concert. He notes how, after 1950, an avalanche of fabricated +extermination literature appeared under the stamp of two organisations, +so remarkably synchronised in their activities that one might well +believe them to have been contrived in partnership. One was the +"Committee for the Investigation of War Crimes and Criminals" +established under Communist auspices at Warsaw, and the other, the +"World Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation" at Paris and +Tel-Aviv. Their publications seem to appear at favourable moments in the +political climate, and for the Soviet Union their purpose is simply to +maintain the threat of Nazism as a manoeuvre to divert attention from +their own activities. + + As for Israel, Rassinier sees the myth of the Six Million as inspired +by a purely material problem. In Le Drame des Juifs europ-en (P. 31, +39). he writes: + +" . . . It is simply a question of justifying by a proportionate +number of corpses the enormous subsidies which Germany has been paying +annually since the end of the war to the State of Israel by way of +reparation for injuries which moreover she cannot be held to have caused +her either morally or legally, since there was no State of Israel at the +time the alleged deeds took place; thus it is a purely and contemptibly +material problem. + +"Perhaps I may be allowed to recall here that the State of Israel was +only founded in May 1948 and that the Jews were nationals of all states +with the exception of Israel, in order to underline the dimensions of a +fraud which defies description in any language; on the one hand Germany +pays to Israel sums which are calculated on six million dead, and on the +other, since at least four-fifths of these six million were decidedly +alive at the end of the war, she is paying substantial sums by way of +reparation to the victims of Hitler's Germany to those who are still +alive in countries all over the world other than Israel and to the +rightful claimants of those who have since deceased, which means that +for the former (i. e. the six million), or in other words, for the vast +majority, she is paying twice. " + +CONCLUSION + + + +Here we may briefly summarise the data on Jewish war- time +casualties. + + +Contrary to the figure of over 9 million Jews in German- occupied +territory put forward at the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, it has +already been estabhshed that after extensive emigration, approximately 3 +million were living in Europe, excluding the Soviet Union. Even when the +Jews of German-occupied Russia are included (the majority of Russian +Jews were evacuated beyond German control), the overall number probably +does not exceed four million. Himmler's statistician, Dr. Richard +Korherr and the World Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation put +the number respectively at 5,550,000 and 5,294,000 when German- occupied +territory was at its widest, but both these figures include the two +million Jews of the Baltic and western Russia without paying any +attention to the large number of these who were evacuated. However, it +is at least an admission from the latter organisation that there were +not even six million Jews in Europe and western Russia combined. + + +Nothing better illustrates the declining plausibility of the Six +Million legend than the fact that the prosecution at the Eichmann trial +deliberately avoided mentioning the figure. Moreover, official Jewish +estimates of the casualties are being quietly revised downwards. Our +analysis of the population and emigration statistics, as well as the +studies by the Swiss Baseler Nachrichten and Professor Rassinier, +demonstrate that it would have been simply impossible for the number of +Jewish casualties to have exceeded a limit of one and a half million. It +is very significant, therefore, that the World Centre of Contemporary +Jewish Documentation in Paris now states that only 1,485,292 Jews died +from all causes during the Second World War, and although this figure is +certainly too high, at least it bears no resemblance at all to the +legendary Six Million. As has been noted earlier, the Jewish +statistician Raul Hilberg estimates an even lower figure of 896,892. +This is beginning to approach a realistic figure, and the process of +revision is certain to continue. + +Doubtless, several thousand Jewish persons did die in the course +of the Second World War, but this must be seen in the context of a war +that cost many millions of innocent victims on all sides. To put the +matter in perspective, for example, we may point out that 700,000 +Russian civiliansdied during the siege of Leningrad, and a total of +2,05O,OOO German civilians were killed in Allied air raids and forced +repatriation after the war. In 1955, another neutral Swiss source, Die +Tat of Zurich (January 19th, 1955), in a survey of all Second World War +casualties based on figures of the lnternational Red Cross, put the +"Loss of victims of persecution because of politics, race or religion +who died in prisons and concentration camps between 1939 and 1945" at +300,000, not all of whom were Jews, and this figure seems the most +accurate assessment. + +IMAGINARY SLAUGHTER + + + +The question most pertinent to the extermination legend is, of +course: how many of the 3 million European Jews under German control +survived after 1945? The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee estimated +the number of survivors in Europe to be only one and a half million, but +such a figure is now totally unacceptable. This is proved by the growing +number of Jews claiming compensation from the West German Government for +having allegedly suffered between 1939 and 1945. By 1965, the number of +these claimants registered with the West German Government had tripled +in ten years and reached 3,375,000 (Aufbau, June 30th, 1965). Nothing +could be a more devastating proof of the brazen fantasy of the Six +Million. Most of these claimants are Jews, so there can be no doubt that +the majority of the 3 million Jews who experienced the Nazi occupation +of Europe are, in fact, very much alive. It is a resounding confirmation +of the fact that Jewish casualties during the Second World War can only +be estimated at a figure in thousands. Surely this is enough grief for +the Jewish people? Who has the right to compound it with vast imaginary +slaughter, marking with eternal shame a great European nation, as well +as wringing fraudulent monetary compensation from them? + +RICHARD HARWOOD is a writer and specialist in political and diplomatic +aspects of the Second World War. At present he is with the University of +London. Mr. Harwood turned to the vexed subject of war crimes under the +influence of Professor Paul Rassineir, to whose monumental work this +little volume is greatly indebted. The author is now working on a sequel +in this series on the Main Nuremberg Trial, 1945 -1946. + + +Foreword to the new edition, published in _____entitled:"Zndel's +Story. " + +You have before you the most expensive little publication printed in the +English language in modern times. Millions of words have been spoken and +written about this publication as a result of the two Zndel Trials. +Many hours of television news reports were broadcast about the content +of this publication and the surrounding controversy and trial. The +Canadian government, its various branches like the police, the Attorney +General's office, the Canadian Department of Immigration, the courts +with staff, clerks, stenographers, court reporters and security +personnel spent millions of dollars for research, staff and courtroom +space. Ernst Zndel, the man at the centre of this controversy, did not +write this booklet. He merely supplied the four words on the original +cover, stating "Truth at last exposed. "He supplied the photos and news +clippings on the inside cover of the publication, plus one sentence +under his youthful photo on page two. He wrote and supplied the text on +page three headed:"To all Canadian Lawyers and Media representaives" +and signed it himself. That was his foreword to the publication. +Nothing whatsoever has been changed - not a single word of the text +which was written by an Englishman called Richard Harwood who, Zndel +thought until his trial, was teaching at the University of London. +During the trial, the witness Mark Weber revealed the real name of the +author as the former honours student of the University of London, +Richard Verrall - alias Richard Harwood. Ernst Zndel did not know this +at the time of publication. The original English publishers did not +permit Ernst Zndel to change a single line or sentence in the Canadian +"publication," which is what you now have in your hands. The Court +records reveal that Ernst Zndel reluctantly agreed to this, adding only +an order coupon on page 30, and two pages of an afterword (or some +closing remarks). This came as a response to the article reproduced on +the top right of page 31, which, at the time, appeared in many Canadian +newspapers from coast to coast. Ernst Zndel merely reprinted Did Six +Million Really Die? by a photo-offset method - an exact duplicate, plus +the already mentioned additions. In Court, he said he felt safe doing +that because the publication had already been translated into 12 +languages, and was being sold without any legal problems in 18 +countries. The only exception was South Africa, where the publication +was forbidden at the instigation of the Jewish lobby. A booklet +entitled Six Million Did Die was also published in South Africa;this +booklet figured prominently in the Zndel trial in 1988. Ernst Zndel +became a household word in Canada, beginning with his 1985 trial, which +lasted seven weeks, and his marathon 1988 trial which lasted for almost +four months. The booklet made Ernst Zndel and his revisionist +viewpoint famous across the globe. The Zndel case is now, for the +second time in 10 years, before the Supreme Court of Canada, because the +defence feels that the False News section of the Criminal Code in +Canada, under which Ernst Zndel was charged and convicted twice, is +unconstitutional, in that it offends against Canada's "Charter of Rights +and Freedoms" (a watered-down version of the American Bill of Rights). +Ernst Zndel now awaits the verdict of the highest court in the land - +will it be freedom, exoneration or jail? You can be Judge and Jury! Read +the booklet, and then ask yourself:should a man be beaten, spat upon, +terrorized, beset upon by frenzied mobs, bombed and charged with a +criminal offence, dragged through lengthy court cases and terribly +expensive legal costs, because of the few errors, made by a writer ten +years previous?What do you think?Was this persecution of Ernst +Zndel, through prosecution by the state, just to punish him for his +beliefs?"Persons who would spread hate in this community in order to +foster right-wing beliefs which attack the delicate balance of racial +and social harmony in our community must be punished" (Judge Thomas' +very own words on the day he sentenced Ernst Zndel, Transcript 10575) +What do you think? Did this German resident of Canada not do the natural +thing by attempting to answer all of the nasty accusations and smears +about his own people (in the media, on television, in school books etc. ) +by using an Englishman's writings to rebut these often outrageous claims +and charges? If somebody said similar things about your own ethnic +group, would you not want to respond? You be the judge. Read this and +pass it on. + + +COMMENTS ABOUT DID SIX MILLION REALLY DIE? + +Dr. Kuang Fann, Professor of Philosophy at York University of Canada, +formerly China:"The whole pamphlet . . . obviously should be +classified as a political opinion . . . " + +Ditlieb Felderer, Historical Researcher, Writer, Sweden:". . . the +booklet has proven to be more true as the years have gone by, and it is +exterminationists who are coming now to start arguing like Harwood did +when the booklet was first published, so the exterminationists are +moving . . . toward the booklet more and more. " + +Dr. Robert Faurisson, Expert of Ancient Texts and Documents, Lyon +University:"The thesis of the book is that it's not true that six +million Jews died, and it is not true that there was an extermination +plan, and it is not true that there were gas chambers. What I find +right is, first, the title. The title is good. Did Six Million Really +Die?"That's really the problem . . . This man, Richard Harwood, +brought plenty of information for the layman in '74. He said in '74 that +there were no order(s) from Hitler to exterminate the Jews. Three years +after, when David Irving said it, it was an uproar, so it was really new +and true. We know it now in 1988 . . . this . . . was so important that +when it was published in France, the man who distributed (it was) +murdered . . . Francoise Duprat. We don't know who exactly did that, +but the interesting point is, first, that it has been done by people +very clever in those kind of bomb handling, and what was published in +the journal Le Monde after was interesting. This murder was +revindicated by a so-called "Memory of Auschwitz" organization. It was +justified by a man called Patrick Chairoff - saying that Francoise +Duprat, in distributing this kind of pamphlet, had taken a +responsibility which kills. " + +David Irving, British Historian, author of over 30 books on WW II and +its aftermath:". . . I read it with great interest and I must say that +I was surprised by the quality of the arguments that it represented. It +has obvious flaws. It uses sources that I personally would not use. In +fact, the entire body of sources is different. This is based entirely +on secondary literature, books by other people, including some experts, +whereas I use no books. I use just the archives. But independently, +the author of this came to conclusions and asked questions of a logical +nature which I had arrived at by an entirely different route, so to +speak. . . And if I was to ask what is the value of a brochure like +this, I think it is that it provokes people to ask questions, rather as +my book on Hitler's War provoked the historians. . . This is the kind of +value which I found this brochure to have. It was asking proper +questions on the basis of an entirely different set of sources. " + +Mark Weber, American Historian, Author:"I believe that the thesis of +the booklet is accurate. . . that there was no German policy or program +to exterminate the Jews during the Second World War. . . The booklet is +a journalistic or a polemic account that is designed to convince people, +and it does not purport to be a work that can be held up to the same +standards of rigid scrutiny that a scholarly work and a detailed work by +someone who is a historian normally would be. . its main value lies in +encouraging further discussion and thought and debate on the subject it +raises. " + +Colin Wilson, well known British author:". . . I received in the post +a pamphlet. . . entitled Did Six Million Really Die?I must admit that +it has left me thoroughly bewildered. What Harwood says, briefly, is +that Hitler had no reason to murder Jews when he needed them for forced +labour. . . it is worth asking the question:Did the Nazis really +exterminate six million Jews?Or is this another sign of the emotional +historical distortion that makes nearly all the books on Hitler so far +almost worthless?. . . Is there, then, any reason why we should be +afraid to dig down until we get at the truth?" + + +WHAT'S WRONG WITH DID SIX MILLION REALLY DIE? + +After 10 years of wrangling, what follows is the essence of what was +found wrong with the pamphlet by the prosecution witnesses. In italics +are the primary parts of the pamphlet disputed by the prosecution +followed followed by evidence given by expert witnesses on both sides. + +1. + +By 1939, the great majority of German Jews had emigrated, all of +them with a sizeable proportion of their assets. Never at any time had +the Nazi leadership even contemplated a policy of genocide towards them. +. . Had Hitler cherished any intention of exterminating the Jews, it is +inconceivable that he would have allowed more than 800,000 to leave +Reich territory with the bulk of their wealth . . . (p. 5,6) + +Prosecution historian Christopher Browning's opinion was that slightly +over half of German Jews emigrated by 1939. Browning testified that the +figure 800,000 was an exaggeration;by 1941, the total of Jews who had +left Germany, Austria and the Protectorates was 530,000. Because of +measures taken against them, it was false to say they left with a +"sizeable proportion" of their assets. Browning admitted under +cross-examination, however, that he was not a demographer nor a +statistition and that any population statistics concerning Jews could +only be estimates. He also admitted that he could not give a precise +percentage or even proportion of their assets Jews left with. He only +knew that considerable efforts were made to prevent property getting +out. + +2. + +The founder of political Zionism in the 19th century, Theodore +Herzl, in his work The Jewish State, had originally conceived of +Madagascar as a national homeland for the Jews, and this possibility was +seriously studied by the Nazis. It had been a main plank of the National +Socialist party platform before 1933 and was published by the party in +pamphlet form. (p. 5) + +Browning testified it was not a plank of the Nazi Party platform before +1933 that the Jews go to Madagascar as a national homeland. The first +time a Nazi leader mentioned Madagascar was 1938. The first time there +was a plan for madagascar was 1940. + +3. + +The fall of France in 1940 enabled the German Government to open +serious negotiations with the French for the transfer of European Jews +to Madagascar. A memorandum of August, 1942 from Luther, +Secretary-of-State in the German Foreign Office, reveals that he had +conducted these negotiations between July and December 1940, when they +were terminated by the French. (p. 7) + +Browning testified that there were no such negotiations with the +French. The Madagascar Plan failed because of continuing British +control of the high seas. + +4. + +Reitlinger and Poliakov both make the entirely unfounded +supposition that because the Madagascar Plan had been shelved, the +Germans must necessarily have been thinking of "extermination". Only a +month later, however, on March 7th, 1942, Goebbels wrote a memorandum in +favour of the Madagascar Plan as a "final solution" of the Jewish +question (Manvell & Frankl, Dr. Goebbels, London, 1960, p. 165). In the +meantime he approved of the Jews being "concentrated in the East". Later +Goebbels memoranda also stress deportation to the East (i. e. the +Government-General of Poland) and lay emphasis on the need for +compulsory labour there; once the policy of evacuation to the East had +been inaugurated, the use of Jewish labour became a fundamental part of +the operation. (p. 7) + +Browning said that Goebbels did not write a "memorandum", he wrote a +"diary entry. "Goebbels did not lay emphasis on the need for compulsory +labour but said exactly the opposite;for example, on March 27, 1942, +he wrote that 60% of the Jews will have to be liquidated and 40% used +for forced labour. Browning admitted he had never checked the +authenticity of the original Goebbels diaries but had accepted the +commercial printed version. Historian Weber testified there was great +doubt about the authenticity of the entire Goebbels diaries because they +were typewritten. There was therefore no way to verify their +authenticity. The U. S. Government itself indicated that it would take +no responsibility for the accuracy of the diaries:the original +clothbound edition contained a U. S. Government statement that it +"neither warrants nor disclaims the authenticity of the manuscript". +Browning relied on other documents such as the Seraphim report to show +that the Germans did not put priority on using Jews for labour. +Historian Weber disagreed with this opinion. In his view, the Jews were +a valuable source of labour for the Germans;Himmler himself ordered +that concentration camp inmates be used as extensively as possible in +war production. + +5. + +Statistics relating to Jewish populations are not everywhere known +in precise detail, approximations for various countries differing +widely, and it is also unknown exactly how many Jews were deported and +interned at any one time between the years 1939-1945. In general, +however, what reliable statistics there are, especially those relating +to emigration, are sufficient to show that not a fraction of six million +Jews could have been exterminated. (p. 7) + +Browning testified that contemporary German statistical studies showed +that there were enough Jews in Europe to exterminate 6 million of them. +These studies were:(a)the Burgd_rfer Study (estimated that there +were about 10. 72 million Jews in Europe);(b) Madagascar Plan (4 +million Jews under German control in 1940);(c) Wannsee conference +protocol (11 million Jews). In Browning's opinion, even the German +studies done at the time showed in the area of 10 million Jews under +German control in Europe. Therefore, 6 million could have been +exterminated. He admitted, again, that he was not a demographer or a +statistician and that the problem of changing borders and the various +definitions of "Jew" made any conclusions in this area difficult to the +point that they could only be estimates. + +6. + +According to Chambers Encyclopaedia the total number of Jews living +in pre-war Europe was 6,500,000. (p. 7) + +Chambers Encyclopedia dealt only with the total number of Jews living +ont he continent of Europe apart from Russia, not the total number +living in pre-war Europe as stated by the pamphlet. + +7. + +In addition to the German Jews, 220,000 of the total 280,000 +Austrian Jews had emigrated by September, 1939, while from March 1939 +onwards the Institute for Jewish Emigration in Prague had secured the +emigration of 260,000 Jews from former Czechoslovakia. In all, only +360,000 Jews remained in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia after +September 1939. (p. 7,8) + +These numbers did not accord with the German studies done at the time, +Browning testified. A comparison with the Wannsee Conference protocol +statistics showed that 360,000 Jews had emigrated from Germany;147,000 +had emigrated from Austria;30,000 had emigrated from the +Protectorate. These figures were all much lower than Harwood's figures. + +8. + +In addition to these emigrants, we must also include the number of +Jews who fled to the Soviet Union after 1939, and who were later +evacuated beyond reach of the German invaders. It will be shown below +that the majority of these, about 1,250,000, were migrants from Poland. +But apart from Poland, Reitlinger admits that 300,000 other European +Jews slipped into Soviet territory between 1939 and 1941. This brings +the total of Jewish emigrants to the Soviet Union to about 1,550,000. +(p. 8) + +Browning testified that the reference to Reitlinger was a mis-cite; +Reitlinger said that 300,000 Polish Jews in total fled to the Soviet +Union, not "other European Jews" as stated by Harwood. The figure of +1,250,000 given by Harwood was therefore 5 times too high. + +9. + +The 1931 Jewish population census for Poland put the number of Jews +at 2,732,600 (Reitlinger, Die Endl_sung, p. 36). (p. 8) + +Hilberg testified that this was wrong;in fact, the figure of 2,732,600 +came from a census taken in the 1920s. + +10. + +When the Jewish populations of Holland (140,000), Belgium (40,000), +Italy (50,000), Yugoslavia (55,000), Hungary (380,000) and Roumania +(725,000) are included, the figure does not much exceed 3 million. (p. 8) + +These statistics were not in accord with the Nazis' own statistics, said +Browning. For example, the German statistics for 1942 listed the Jewish +population of Hungary at 743,800. German records of the deportations +from Hungary showed more Jews were deported than the number given by +Harwood as the Jewish population of Hungary. + +11. + +So far as is known, the first accusation against the Germans of the +mass murder of Jews in war-time Europe was made by the Polish Jew Rafael +Lemkin in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, published in New York +in 1943. (p. 9) + +The first accusation of mass murder of the Jews was made on December 17, +1942 by the Allies in a Joint Declaration. Lemkin, as far as Browning +knew, never used the 6 million figure in his book. Weber pointed out +this mistake made no difference to the substance of the thesis of the +pamphlet. + +12. + +Gerstein's sister was congenitally insane and died by euthenasia, +which may well suggest a streak of mental instability in Gerstein +himself. . . Gerstein's fantastic exaggerations have done little but +discredit the whole notion of mass extermination. Indeed, Evangelical +Bishop Wilhelm Dibelius of Berlin denounced his memoranda as +"Untrustworthy" (p. 9) + +It was not Gerstein's sister, but his sister-in-law, who was killed in +the euthenasia program. Dibelius in fact stated that he was convinced +of the trustworthiness of Gerstein, the opposite of what Harwood had +written. However, Hilberg admitted that he would not characterize +Gerstein as being totally rational and that there was no question that +he was capable of adding imagination to fact. Browning acknowledged +there were "problems" with Gerstein's testimony;his obvious +exaggerations resulted because he was "traumatized" by his experiences, +said Browning. + +13. + +It should be emphasised straight away that there is not a single +document in existence which proves that the Germans intended to, or +carried out, the deliberate murder of Jews. (p. 10) + +In Browning's opinion, there were such documents, including the Hans +Frank diary, the Wannsee Conference protocol, and the 1943 Posen speech +of Himmler. Historian Robert Faurisson pointed out that if these +documents "proved" the existence of a deliberate plan to murder the +Jews, there would be no debate between the "functionalists" and +"intentionalists" in the Holocaust academic circles. This debate in and +of itself showed that no proof of a deliberate plan existed. Hilberg +had testified in the 1985 Zndel trial that there were two oral orders +from Hitler for the extermination of the Jews. He denied that he had +changed this view in his then forthcoming second edition of his book The +Destruction of the European Jews, which was to be published shortly +thereafter. In 1988, Hilberg refused to testify at the second Zndel +trial, citing in a confidential letter to the prosecutor that he had +"grave doubts" about testifying again;'the defence,' he wrote, '. . . +would . . . make every attempt to entrap me by pointing to any seeming +contradiction, however trivial the subject might be, between my earlier +testimony and an answer that I might give in 1988. "Browning admitted +in his testimony that Hilberg had made a "significant" change regarding +the role of Hitler in the decision-making process between his first +edition and the second edition, published in 1985. In an article +entitled "The Revised Hilberg", Browning wrote that in his second +edition, Hilberg had "systematically excised" all references in the text +to a Hitler decision or a Hitler order for the "Final Solution". In the +new edition, wrote Browning, "decisions were not made and orders were +not given". + +14. + +Attempts to find "veiled allusions" to genocide in speeches like +that of Himmler's to his S. S. Obergruppenfhrers at Posen in 1943 are +likewise quite hopeless. (p. 11) + +Browning testified that the Posen speech contained explicit references +to exterminating the Jews. Historian David Irving testified, however, +that those portions of the original manuscript of the Posen speech which +dealt with "extermination" had been tampered with;they were written in +a different typescript using different carbon paper and were numbered in +pencil. Irving also pointed out that the Israelis had Himmler's private +diary but refused to allow any historians to have access to it. If +Himmler's diary supported the "Holocaust", Irving said, the Israelis +would be the first to release it. + +15. + +Most incredible of all, perhaps, was the fact that defence lawyers +at Nuremberg were not permitted to cross- examine prosecution witnesses. +(p. 12) + +Hilberg testified that defense lawyers were allowed to cross-examine +witnesses at Nuremberg. Weber testified that many affidavits were +entered into evidence, however, upon which no cross-examination was +possible. + +16. + +The Soviet charge that the Action Groups had wantonly exterminated a +million Jews during their operations has been shown subsequently to be a +massive falsification. In fact, there had never been the slightest +statistical basis for the figure. (p. 14) + +Browning testified that on the basis of the Einsatzgruppen reports and +the works of other historians that at least 1 million Jews were killed +by the Einsatztruppen. Historian Weber testified, however, that in the +major work on the Einsatztruppen, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges, +the two authors calculated that if all the figures in the Einsatztruppen +reports were added up, there would be a total of 2. 2 million Jewish +dead. The authors admitted this was impossible and conceded that the +Einsatztruppen report figures were exaggerated. In Weber's opinion, the +figure of about 1 million was not believable because it was known that +the great majority of Jews fled or were evacuated from the eastern +territories before the German invasion in 1941. + +17. + +Thus between July and October 1942, over three quarters of the +Warsaw Ghetto's inhabitants were peacefully evacuated and transported, +supervised by the Jewish police themselves. . . A total, however, of +56,065 inhabitants were captured and peacefully resettled in the area of +the Government-General. (p. 19) + +Browning stated that reports of the Warsaw Ghetto clearing indicated it +was done brutally and not "peacefully" as alleged by Harwood. In +Browning's opinion, they were not resettled but taken to Treblinka and +Majdanek and either gassed or shot. Historian Mark Weber testified that +the record as to what happened to these Jews was still unclear. In +Weber's opinion, Treblinka and Majdanek were simply concentration and/or +transit camps. + +18. Of course, no Jew would ever be found who claimed to have been a +member of this gruesome "special detachment", so that the whole issue is +left conveniently unprovable. It is worth repeating that no living, +authentic eye-witness to these events has ever been produced. (p. 20) + +One of Browning's main differences with the pamphlet was that it denied +the existence of the homcidal gas chambers for the purpose of killing +Jews. He testified Jews had come forward claiming to be members of the +Sonderkommando, such as Filip Mueller, whose accounts he found to be +"moving". Browning admitted under cross-examination, however, that he +had never seen a technical plan that purported to be either a gas +chamber or gas van. He had never enquired about cremation processes or +how much heat or how long it took to cremate a human body. Browning had +not looked at the aereal photographs taken by the Allies of Auschwitz +during the war except for one on the wall of Yad Vashem. Neither +Browning nor Hilberg knew of any autopsy report showing that any camp +inmate was killed by Zyklon B. Hilberg and Browning visited the +concentration camps only for the purpose of looking at memorials or as +members of Holocaust Commissions. Witnesses Leuchter and Roth gave +evidence which showed that samples taken from the walls and floor of the +alleged "gas chambers" at Auschwitz and Birkenau showed either no traces +or only minute traces of cyanide, while the walls of a known fumigation +chamber at Birkenau which had used Zyklon B had over 1000 times as much +traceable cyanide. In Leuchter's opinion, as an expert in gas chamber +technology, the alleged homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau +and Majdanek were incapable of being used as gas chambers for the +killing of human beings because of their structure, including such +factors as lack of exhaust systems, stacking and sealants. Ivan Lagace, +a cremation expert, testified that in modern crematories it took a +minimum of 1 1/2 hours to cremate a human body in one retort;he termed +"ludicrous" the extermination claim that over 4. 400 bodies were cremated +in 46 retorts at Birkenau per day. With respect to the veracity of +"eyewitness" testimony, Weber testified that Yad Vashem had admitted +that over half of the "survivor" accounts on record there were +unreliable as many had "let their imagination run away with them. " +Historian Faurisson quoted from the Jewish writer Michel de Bouard, who +admitted in 1986 that "the record is rotten to the core" with +obstinately repeated "fantasies' and inaccuracies. + +19. + +Of course, no Jew would ever be found who claimed to have been a +member of this gruesome "special detachment", so that the whole issue is +left conveniently unprovable. It is worth repeating that no living, +authentic eye- witness to these events has ever been produced. (p. 20) + +Browning believed Eichmann to be the highest central figure in the plan +to exterminate the Jews who survived the war and testified. Eichmann +testified that Heydrich told him that Hitler had ordered the +extermination of the Jews of Europe. Browning admitted, however, that +Eichmann had "more than a little trouble" in sorting out events in his +mind. In historian Irving's opinion Eichmann was on trial and under +considerable physical and mental coercion;such testimony did not +advance historical knowledge but polluted it. + +20. + +. . . only seven years after its initial publication, a New York +Supreme Court case established that the book was a hoax. . . It +established that the Jewish novelist Meyer Levin had written the +dialogue of the "diary" and was demanding payment for his work in a +court action against Otto Frank. (p. 21) + +This was not true;in fact Levin had sued for payment for writing a +play based on the diary itself. Faurisson and Irving testified that +other proof existed, however, that the diary's authenticity was +suspect. Expert examinations of the original diary by graphologists and +West German criminal laboratories showed that one person had written the +diary and part of it was written in ball-point pen ink, which only came +into use in the 1950s. Faurisson believed the diary was written by Otto +Frank, the father of Anne Frank. + +21. + +As a result, eastern camps in the Russian zone of occupation such as +Auschwitz and Treblinka gradually came to the fore as horrific centres +of extermination (though no one was permitted to see them), and this +tendency has lasted to the present day. (p. 23) + +Browning testified that it was false to say no one was permitted to see +the camps in the Soviet zone. He cited a New York Times article by +journalist W. Lawrence of a tour of Majdanek given to journalists by the +Soviets in 1944. Browning admitted that the article had significant +errors regarding the numbers of people who allegedly died there and how +Zyklon B worked. Historian Weber testified that Western Allied +investigators were not allowed to investigate concentration camps in the +Soviet zoneof occupation after the war. The visit to Majdanek by +newspaper reporters was a guided tour by the Soviets for propaganda +purposes;it was not an investigation by any specialized person. + +22. + +Finally, Professor Rassinier draws attention to an important +admission by Dr. Kubovy, director of the World Centre of Contemporary +Jewish Documentation at Tel-Aviv, made in La Terre Retrouv-e, December +15th, 1960. Dr. Kubovy recognised that not a single order for +extermination exists from Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich or Goering (Le Drame +des Juifs europ-en, p. 31, 39). (p. 29) + +Browning had never heard of Kubovy or the World Centre of Contemporary +Jewish Documentation. But both Faurisson and Irving knew of Kubovy and +Irving had cited Kubovy's quote from La Terre Retrouvee in his book, +Hitler's War. + +23. + +However, {Rassinier} regards such a figure as a maximum limit, and +refers to the lower estimate of 896,892 casualties in a study of the +same problem by the Jewish statistician Raul Hilberg. (p. 29) + +Hilberg testified that he was not a statistician and had never given an +estimate of 896,892. His own calculation in fact was over 5 million. +Weber testified that Harwood had taken this information from Paul +Rassinier's boos;the original mistake was therefore Rassinier's and +not Harwood's. + +24. . . . Professor Rassinier concludes . . . that the number of Jewish +casualties during the Second World War could not have exceeded +1,200,000, and he notes that this has finally been accepted as valid by +the World Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation at Paris. (p. 29) + +Hilberg testified he had never heard of this Centre or the figure cited +by Harwood. + +25. + +RICHARD HARWOOD is a writer and specialist in political and +diplomatic aspects of the Second World War. At present he is with the +University of London. (p. 30) + +Historian Weber testified that the author of the pamphlet was a man +named Richard Verrall, who had used the pseudonym "Richard Harwood". +Verrall was a graduate of the University of London with High Honours; he +was a writer and had a specialized interest in political and diplomatic +aspects of the Second World War. Verrall relied upon secondary sources +published in the 1950s and 1960s in writing the pamphlet, which was +published in 1974. Most errors made by the author were errors +originally made by Paul Rassinier, the pioneer revisionist historian, +whose works Verrall had relied upon heavily. + +(The text below consisted of the last two pages of the revised booklet +and read as follows:) + +An Appeal to the People in Canada + +The above article which casts aspersions on my publishing firm of +Samisdat appeared in the Toronto Sun on November 22, 1979. Similar +articles appeared in other major daily newspapers across Canada. The +article attributes statements allegedly made by Mr. Garde Gardom, +Attorney General of British Columbia, to the effect that literature, +pamphlets or other material was received from Samisdat Publishers which +promoted "hatred against an identifiable group. "The only material +which Mr. Gardom could have received from Samisdat was sent to all +Attorney Generals of Canada, all members of Federal and Provincial +Parliaments, all media representatives, all clergymen and to some 8000 +Canadians in all walks of life. The result of this mailing has been +worthwhile in terms of fruitful correspondence with numerous members of +Parliament of the three major parties as well as several newsmedia +interviews. If thousands of responsible Canadian citizens, clergymen, +media representatives and members of Parliament have not objected to my +materials, I would like to know what Mr. Gardom has found to be so +objectionable and "hateful" in the enclosed material. In the interests +of Freedom of Speech and Human Rights, I now ask you to evaluate this +information for yourself, before your right to be informed is denied you +through official action. + +HAVE WE GERMANS NO RIGHT TO DEFEND OURSELVES? + +My name is Ernst Zndel. I am a Toronto businessman of German descent +and I earn my living as a commercial artist. By avocation I write books +and give lectures on general topics of historical interest. In the +political field I have been involved with the issues of civil and human +rights on behalf of German-Canadians for over 20 years. In 1968, on +this basis, I ran for the post of Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada +(which meant the post of Prime Minister) as the youngest candidate and +only immigrant ever to attempt such a feat. + +Since that time I have devoted increasing research, study and effort +into illuminating the events of German and world history, particularly +in the 1933-45 period, with the view toward defending Germans and +German-Canadians against the hateful lies surrounding the alleged +gassing of six million Jews by the Nazi Government of Germany. In order +to satisfy my own curiosity and to resolve my own doubts on the subject, +I have travelled throughout the world, interviewed surviving inmates, +guards, officials, etc. , in the connection with the "six million" +story. I have studied the many relevant documents, books, eyewitness +accounts of both sides. My conclusion, after I had originally believed +the dogma of the "holocaust," is that no such extermination programme +ever existed and that it is war time hate propaganda masquerading as +history. This viewpoint is shared by such notable experts, historians +and researchers from around the world as: + +Prof. Faurisson, an expert historical analyst of ancient documents and +artifacts at Lyon University in France. His 4-year study at the Jewish +Documentation Centre in Paris drew him to conclude thusly; + +J. G. Burg, a German-Jewish author and former inmate of several German +concentration camps; + +Dr. Bernhard Katusky, the noted Austrian-Jewish man of letters; + +Dr. W. St_glich, retired judge and author of several books on the +subject. Dr. St_glich is a German of Hamburg; + +Mr. David Irving, English historian and author of many well-known books +about the 2nd World War. He offers a sizeable reward for any document +signed by Hitler which orders the extermination of the Jews; + +Dr. David Hoggan, American professor of history and author of several +extensive volumes on World War II history; + +Professor Arthur Butz, American researcher and author of the +controversial book, The Hoax of the 20th Century; + +Prof. A. J. App of the U. S. , a well-known writer and lecturer on the +topic of Hitler and the Jews; + +Prof. Rassinier, former inmate of several German concentration camps and +member of the French National Assembly, the author of several books +about the Jews in wartime Europe; + +Prof. Udo Walendy, German political science lecturer and historian; + +Thies Christopersen, German poet and journalist who worked at Auschwitz +and who has written several books and articles about Auschwitz and the +gas chamber myth; + +Felderer of Sweden who personally visited postwar Auschwitz in order to +prove that "gas chambers" had been constructed by the Communists after +the war; + +Attorney Bennett of Australia whose research was prompted by his work in +the Civil Rights Section of the Australian Attorney General's Office. + +There are hundreds of names of authorities on this topic, all of whom I +have met, interviewed, corresponded with or whose works I have read. +Most of these persons are willing to attend any trial or court +proceedings on this subject in the capacity of witnesses. + +ZIONISTS DOMINATE MEDIA. GERMANS ARE DENIED EQUAL TIME. + +As I see it, this matter is one of Freedom of Thought and Expression on +the one hand and the Suppression of Freedom and Enquiry on the other. To +seek officially to quell legitimate controversy through the use of +smear-words like "hate" and "racism" is neither just nor relevant to the +issue. Zionism is a political movement, not a racial movement. Zionists +like Elizabeth Taylor, Sammy Davis Jr. , Pat Boone, Billy Graham and +Attorney General of Ontario McMurthy are not Jews nor Semites; +therefore, any criticism of Zionist policy cannot be "racism. "When +Jews disagree as I do with the official Zionist version of Auschwitz, +are they accused of "racism" or "hate"? + +Many Jews are totally opposed to political, that is worldly, Zionism and +I am proud to number such outstandign figures as these among my friends +and supporters:Rabbi Elmer Berger, former president of the American +Council of Judaism;Haviv Schieber, former mayor of Beer Scheeba and +comrade-in-arms of Menachem Begin and Moise Dayan who is now living as a +refugee from Israeli persecution in Washington, D. C. , Benjamin Friedman, +former secretary to Henry Morgenthau Sr. who witnessed at firsthand the +Zionsit machinations of the First and Second World Wars. In addition to +these individual Jewish authorities, there are the thousands of Hasidic +Jews who protest against Zionism and the State of Israel as being "the +work of the Devil. "There are the Jews who demonstrated against +Menachem Begin as a leading proponent of Zionism. In brief, not all +Zionists are Jews and not all Jews are Zionists. Once again, how can +any criticism of Zionist tenets be constructed as "racism"?Because no +Zionist is "a member of an identifiable group" under the criminal code, +any more than Liberals or Conservatives, can such criticism constitute +"hate" under the Criminal Code? + +I believe that Zionists and their sympathizers are using the letter of +the law to defy the spirit of the law;that they are using words like +"hate" and "racism" to conceal their very real attempt to suppress the +truth. I do not believe that the so-called "Hate Law" section of the +Criminal Code was intended to be an instrument for the suppression of +free enquiry and discussion. The "Hate Law" was adopted by the Canadian +Parliament as a result of almost exclusively Jewish-Zionist agitation. +Now it appears that it is being invoked to prevent the exposure of the +biggest money-raising racket of all time, namely the Holocaust lie. The +real issues in this matter are not "anti-semitism," "racism," or "hate," +but Truth, Freedom of Speech and Press, Freedom of Enquiry and, +ultimately, Justice. Help us safeguard these precious freedoms now! + +EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS AND DUTIES AS FREE CITIZENS WHILE THERE IS STILL +TIME BY GIVING THIS ISSUE MAXIMUM ATTENTION AND PUBLICITY!CONTACT ME +FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING +APPEARANCES. + +Ernst Zndel 206 Carlton Street Toronto, Ontario M5A 2L1 +Tel. (416) 922-9850/HELP WITH DONATIONS TO THE SAMISDAT LEGAL DEFENSE FUND diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/danquayl.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/danquayl.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4b43b48d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/danquayl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,600 @@ + + +============================================================================ +Quayle Quotes Last updated July 16, 1992 +============================================================================ +Thanks to: + James Allenspach jima@buhub.bradley.edu + Ken Tubman dprkmt@arco.com + David K. Poulsen poulsen@csrd.uiuc.edu + Subodh Bapat mailrus!uflorida!rm1!bapat@uunet.uu.net + Tim Dodge dodgeT%moravian.edu@relay.cs.net + David Ruderman ruderman@sbcs.sunysb.edu + Ron Dippold rdippold@drzeus.qualcomm.com + Tim Antonsen antonsen@hpcndaw.CND.HP.COM + Dave Goldsman sman@zomboy.isye.gatech.edu + JV Heiskanen jvh@mits.mdata.fi + Matt Thomas tbirds@atlas.unm.edu + Matthew Wall wall@cc.swarthmore.edu + Stephen C. Miller stcmille@copper.ucs.indiana.edu + Yngve Raustein raustein@athena.mit.edu + Forrest Cahoon cahoon@cs.umn.edu + Jeff Frane gummitch@techbook.com + Michael L. Cole mlcole@nevada.edu + Lisa Henn lisa@boa.cis.ohio-state.edu + Eric McCaughrin mccaughe@cad.berkeley.edu + Daniel Ashlock Danwell@iastate.edu + Al Clark clark@netcom.com + Phil Corless apucorle@idbsu.idbsu.edu + Heather Blair h431@midway.uchicago.edu + dwhitney@hamp.hampshire.edu + Dave Stephenson dstephen@cmsa.gmr.com + Marc Wasserman mwasserm@diana.cair.du.edu + Jim Summers summers@asylum.cs.utah.edu + Brian Curran brian@meaddata.com + D. Alex Neilson neilson@skat.usc.edu + Scott Safier corwin+@cmu.edu + dascoser.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu + Sierra Sponaugle sponaugl@silver.ucs.indiana.edu + John Murray dylan@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu + Patricia Bender bender@riscee.pko.dec.com + Marc Andreessen marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu + Jerry Cox sasjec@asimov.unx.sas.com + Jan Peerson peerson@neyman.ucdavis.edu + Japan Info Soc jis@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu + Rick Zaccone zaccone@rigel.cs.bucknell.edu + + +and me: + + Mike Goldsman goldsman@cc.prism.gatech.edu + + 36004 Gatech Station + Atlanta, GA 30332 + (404) 894-7302 (w) + (404) 872-5146 (h) + +Please send me any additions/corrections to this list. +It seems to be growing faster than I can keep up with it!!! + +============================================================================ +Bobby Knight told me this: 'There is nothing that a good defense +cannot beat a better offense.' In other words a good offense wins. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle comparing the + offensive capabilities of the Warsaw Pact + with the defensive system of NATO + +Why wouldn't an enhanced deterrent, a more stable peace, a better +prospect to denying the ones who enter conflict in the first place +to have a reduction of offensive systems and an introduction to +defensive capability. I believe that is the route this country +will eventually go. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Mars is essentially in the same orbit... somewhat the same distance from the +Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, +we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If +oxygen, that means we can breathe. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is IN +the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that +is right here. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, + Hawaii, September 1989 + +What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind +at all. How true that is. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while + speaking to the United Negro College Fund + +You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy +campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you +will always be. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the American Samoans, + whose capital Quayle pronounces "Pogo Pogo" + +"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean +in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't +live in this century." + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + (The New Yorker, October 10, 1988, p.102) + +We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination +of human rights. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices +to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I have heard a +single voice. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and +democracy - but that could change. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, +and that one word is 'to be prepared'. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the Phoenix Republican + Forum, March 1990 + +It's rural America. It's where I came from. We always refer to ourselves +as real America. Rural America, real America, real, real, America. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Target prices? How that works? I know quite a bit about farm policy. +I come from Indiana, which is a farm state. Deficiency payments - +which are the key - that is what gets money into the farmer's hands. +We got loan, uh, rates, we got target, uh, prices, uh, I have worked +very closely with my senior colleague, (Indiana Sen.) Richard Lugar, +making sure that the farmers of Indiana are taken care of. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle on being asked to + define the term "target prices." + Quayle's press secretary then cut short the press + conference, after two minutes and 30 seconds. + +Why wouldn't an enhanced deterrent, a more stable peace, a better +prospect to denying the ones who enter conflict in the first place +to have a reduction of offensive systems and an introduction to +defensive capability. I believe that is the route this country +will eventually go. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I not going to focus on what I have done in the past +what I stand for, what I articulate to the American people. +The American people will judge me on what I am saying and what I +have done in the last 12 years in the Congress. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I want to be Robin to Bush's Batman. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have prevailed +without them in 'Red Storm Rising'. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +The US has a vital interest in that area of the country. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle Referring to Latin America. + +Japan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of +the Western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, +two countries. That's a statement in and of itself. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Who would have predicted... that Dubcek, who brought the tanks in in +Czechoslovakia in 1968 is now being proclaimed a hero in Czechoslovakia. +Unbelievable. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + Actually, Dubcek was the leader of the Prague Spring. + +May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world. + -- The Quayle's 1989 Christmas card. + [Not a beacon of literacy, though.] + +Well, it looks as if the top part fell on the bottom part. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle referring to + the collapsed section of the 880 freeway after + the San Francisco earthquake of 1989. + [this may be a joke; the source is unclear. + but it's still funny] + +getting [cruise missiles] more accurate so that we can have precise precision. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle referring to his legislative + work dealing with cruise missiles + +I can identify with steelworkers. I can identify with workers that +have had a difficult time. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle addressing workers at + an Ohio steel plant,1988 + +[I will never have] another Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy, +Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy Carter grain embargo. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle during the Benson debate + +Certainly, I know what to do, and when I am Vice President -- and +I will be -- there will be contingency plans under different sets of +situations and I tell you what, I'm not going to go out and hold a news +conference about it. I'm going to put it in a safe and keep it there! Does +that answer your question? + -- Vice President Dan Quayle when asked what he + would do if he assumed the Presidency (1988) + +Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn. I'm +my own handler. Any questions? Ask me ... There's not going to be any more +handler stories because I'm the handler ... I'm Doctor Spin. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle responding to press reports + his aides having to, in effect, "potty train" him. + +I would guess that there's adequate low-income housing in this +country. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +The real question for 1988 is whether we're going to go forward to +tomorrow or past to the -- to the back! + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +We will invest in our people, quality education, job opportunity, +family, neighborhood, and yes, a thing we call America. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 1988 + +We'll let the sunshine in and shine on us, because today we're +happy and tomorrow we'll be even happier. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 1988 + +We're going to have the best-educated American people in the +world. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +This election is about who's going to be the next President of the +United States! + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 1988 + + Don't forget about the importance of the family. It begins with +the family. We're not going to redefine the family. Everybody knows the +definition of the family. [Meaningful pause] A child. [Meaningful pause] A +mother. [Meaningful pause] A father. There are other arrangements of the +family, but that is a family and family values. + I've been very blessed with wonderful parents and a wonderful +family, and I am proud of my family. Anybody turns to their family. I have +a very good family. I'm very fortunate to have a very good family. I +believe very strongly in the family. It's one of the things we have in +our platform, is to talk about it. + I suppose three important things certainly come to my mind that we +want to say thank you. The first would be our family. Your family, my +family -- which is composed of an immediate family of a wife and three +children, a larger family with grandparents and aunts and uncles. We all +have our family, whichever that may be ... The very beginnings of +civilization, the very beginnings of this country, goes back to the family. +And time and time again, I'm often reminded, especially in this +Presidential campaign, of the importance of a family, and what a family +means to this country. And so when you pay thanks I suppose the first thing +that would come to mind would be to thank the Lord for the family. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +No, I had no problem communicating with Latin American heads of state - +though now I do wish I had paid more attention to Latin when I was in +high school. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + + +...Buzz Lukens took that fateful step... + -- Vice President Dan Quayle confusing the sexual + assaulter/congressman with Astronaut Buzz Aldren. + +Okay, I won't open it until then + -- Vice President Dan Quayle after having been + presented with an empty box that was to contain + a gift from a sailing team in South America. + He was told that the gift was not ready yet, + but that it would be presented to him when they + arrived in the United States. + +During the White House Easter Egg Roll of 1991, Quayle signed autographs +using only his finger. He had prepared pre-signed cards which his aides +handed out while he made signing gestures. This allowed him +to move briskly and efficiently through the crowd, said his spokesman. + +Dan Quayle, in April 1991, was concerned that his advisors +may be getting out of touch with "Real Americans." In order +to combat this, he suggested that they read People magazine. + +People that are really very wierd can get into sensative positions +and have a tremendous impact on history. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I stand by all the misstatements that I've made. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I'm going to be a vice president very much like George Bush was. +He proved to be a very effective vice president, perhaps the most effective +we've had in a couple of hundred years. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +The loss of life will be irreplaceable. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + after the San Francisco earthquake + +I have made good judgements in the Past. +I have made good judgements in the Future. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Let me tell you something. As we were walking around in the store, Marilyn +and I were just really impressed by all the novelties and the different types +of little things that you could get for Christmas. And all the people that +would help you, they were dressed up in things that said 'I believe in Santa +Claus.' And the only thing that I could think is that I believe in +George Bush. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle at a garden center and + produce store in Baltimore (from the Los Angeles Times, + Douglas Jehl, November 6, 1988) + + + +It's a very valuable function and requirement that you're performing, +so have a great day and keep a stiff upper lip. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + remarks to oil spill clean-up workers at Prince + William Sound, May, 1989 + +The President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him +when I arrive. + + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + remarks to oil spill clean-up workers at Prince + William Sound, May, 1989 + +It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the +impurities in our air and water that are doing it. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + + +We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a *part* of NATO. We +have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a *part* of Europe. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I would not have married Dan Quayle had I not thought he was an equal to me. + -- Marilyn Quayle + + +I could take this home, Marilyn. This is something teenage boys might find of +interest. + --Vice President Dan Quayle, when purchasing a South + African Indian Doll that, when lifted, displays an erection. + +When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away +from the text, it's always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and +there + -- Vice President Dan Quayle defending himself + (LA Herald Examiner 10/3/88) + +Public Speaking is very easy. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle to reporters in 10/88 + +I happen to be a Republican president- ah, the vice president. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle (Newsweek 4/9/90) + +I've never professed to be anything but an average student. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle during the + VP debate in Omaha, Nebraska (10/88) + +The other day [the President] said, I know you've had some rough times, and I +want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, +in your maturity and sense of responsibility. (He paused, then said) Would you +like a puppy? + -- Vice President Dan Quayle (LA Times 5/21/89) + +In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get- The Future! + -- Vice President Dan Quayle in eastern Illinois + (LA Times 10/19/88) + +I've been told to keep my remarks relatively brief. I understand Quayle-hunting +season begins at noon. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle to a crowd in Eau Claire, Wisc. + (LA Times 10/16/88) + +The destruction, it is just very heart-rendering. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle attempting to say the + SF earthquake wreckage was heart-rending + (Newsweek 10/30/89) + +I spend a great deal of time with the President. We have a very +close, personal,loyal relationship. I'm not, as they say, a potted +plant in these meetings. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle defending himself + (Tampa Tribune-Times 1/7/90) + +When I talked to him on the phone yetserday. I called him George rather than +Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it's Mr. Vice President, because that is +who he is. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle shortly after being named + Geo. Bush's running mate (8/28/88 the NY Times). + + + +I'm glad you asked me that. This gives me the perfect +opportunity to talk about the problems with this Congress... + -- Vice President Dan Quayle responding to reporter's + questions about his use of Air force 2 to + go on golf trips at the cost of $26,000/hour + +I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, +never, never surrender to what is right + + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, in a speech + to the Christian Coalition + +Maybe you guys will get lucky this year and face the Orioles in the +World Series + -- Vice President Dan Quayle encouraging the Milwaukee + Brewers after throwing out the opening pitch of the + season. (5/3/92 Sunday Detroit News) + +Are they taking DDT? + + -- Vice President Dan Quayle asking doctors at a Manhattan + AIDS clinic about their treatments of choice. + (NY Post, early May 92) + +We are leaders of the world of the space program. +We have been the leaders of the world of our... of the space program +and we're not going to continue where we're going to go, not withstanding +the Soviet Union's demise and collapse - the former Soviet Union - we now +have independent republics which used to be called the Soviet Union. +Space is the next frontier to be explored. And we're going to explore. +Think of all the things we rely upon in space today: communications +from... Japan, detection of potential ballistic missle attacks. Ballistic +missles are still here. Other nations do have ballistic missles. How do +you think we were able to detect some of the Scud missles and things like +that? Space, reconnaissance, weather, communications - you name it. We +use space a lot today. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +America is great, because America is free. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they +aren't. I don't know if its the way you say it, or how you look. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I just don't believe in the basic concept that someone should make their +whole career in public service. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +If you listen to the news, read the news, you'd think we were still +in a recession. Well, we're not in a recession. We've had growth; +people need to know that. They need to be more upbeat, more positive... + -- Vice President Dan Quayle in October 91 + +Need any help? + -- Vice President Dan Quayle in October 91 addressing + GM autoworkers in Southgate two weeks before GM + announced 74,000 layoffs + +The message of David Duke, is this, basically: Big government, anti-big +government, get out of my pocketbook, cut my taxes, put welfare people +back to work. That's a very popular message. The problem is the messenger. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I do have a political agenda. It's to have as few regulations as possible. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Sam, had a great time this weekend but the golf was lousey. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle in a handwritten note + written to Sam Snead in the summer of 1991, + after they had played a round of golf. + (Herald-Times, Bloomington, IN, July 15, 1992) + + +The cause of the riots were the rioters + -- Vice President Dan Quayle giving an intelligent + analysis of the LA riots. + +It's immoral to parent irresponsibly... And it doesn't help +matters any when prime time tv, like "Murphy Brown", a character +who is supposed to represent a successful career woman of today, +mocks the importance of the father by bearing a child alone, +and calling it just another "lifestyle choice." Marriage is +probably the best anti-poverty program there is... +Even though our cultural leaders in Hollywood, network TV, the +national newspapers routinely jeer at [such values] I think most of +us in this room know that some things are good, and other things are wrong. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle addressing the + Commonwealth Club of San Francisco and criticizing + Murphy Brown's decision to NOT have an abortion + and to be a single (highly successful) mother. + When told about Quayle's comments, a senior + Bush campaign official replied only "Oh, dear." + Bush's top aid said, "The world is a lot more complex + than Dan would like to believe" + + +I think especially in her position, a highly successful professional +woman, it would be a real exception to have an unwed child. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle to The Chron's Jerry Roberts. + +I don't watch it, but I know enough to comment on it. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle defending his opinions about + the TV show "Murphy Brown" [Las Vegas RJ 21 May 92] + +The intergenerational poverty that troubles us so much today is +predominantly a poverty of values. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of +not having it. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +Speaking as a man, it's not a woman's issue. Us men are tired +of losing our women + -- Vice President Dan Quayle talking about + breast cancer + +I want to show you an optimistic sign that things are beginning +to turn around. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle trying to convince reporters + that the economy was doing better because a + Burger King had a "now hiring" sign in the window. + He was campaigning for reelection in Ontario, CA + in January 1992. + +You have a part-time job and that's better to no job at all + -- Vice President Dan Quayle after the manager of the + Burger King had said that the jobs offered were part-time + minimum wage jobs, which didn't pay enough to live on, + and that "It's hard to find people who want to actually + show up for the job." + +Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a cure for AIDS in the marketplace +before Magic Johnson gets AIDS? + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, 11/13/91 (CNN) + +We're in Florida. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle explaining why he + had just purchased four peaches (and no citrus + fruits -- for which Florida is famous) at a Publix + supermarket in Oakland Park, Florida. Georgia (which + IS famous for peaches) did not gain from the transaction, + however; the peaches were from Chile. (The Sunstenial) + +I deserve respect for the things I did not do. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle + +I feel that this [1981] is my first year, that next year is an +election year, that the third year is the mid point and that the +fourth year is the last chance I'll have to make a record since the +last two years, I'll be a candidate again. Everything I do in those +last two years will be posturing for the election. But right now I +don't have to do that. + -- Senator Dan Quayle + +I don't have to experience tragedy to understand it. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle during a photo-op + in LA, responding to criticisms that he didn't + understand what it meant to live in the "inner + city." (WRAL 6/23/92) + +My position is that I understand from a medical situation, immediately +after a rape is reported, that a woman normally, in fact, can go to the +hospital and have a D and C. At that time... that is before the forming +of a life. That is not anything to do with abortion + -- Vice President Dan Quayle explaining that this + form of abortion which occurs after fertilization, + is not really abortion. + (the Washington post, 11/03/88) + +Add one little bit on the end... Think of 'potato,' how's it spelled? +You're right phonetically, but what else...? There ya go...alright! + -- Vice President Dan Quayle correcting a student's + correct spelling of the word "potatoe" during + a spelling bee at an elementary school in Trenton. + + +I should have caught the mistake on that spelling bee card. But +as Mark Twain once said, "You should never trust a man who has only +one way to spell a word." + -- Vice President Dan Quayle, actually quoting from + President Andrew Jackson. + +People who Bowl Vote. +Bowlers are not the cultural elite. + -- Vice President Dan Quayle while at a Las Vegas bowling + alley. the Vice-President bowled 5 times, and knocked + down 19 pins. (6/25/92, San Jose Mercury News) + The American Bowling Congress projected his score for a + full game to be 76. The Detroit average for amateur + players is 163 (USA Today, 7/6/92) + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/darrow1.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/darrow1.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c9aaab9b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/darrow1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1951 @@ + 30 page printout + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + The value of this 360K disk is $7.00. This disk, its printout, +or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. + + Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + + **** **** +LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1329 +Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + The Pessimistic Versus the Optimistic View of life + by + Clarence Darrow + + + HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS + GIRARD, KANSAS + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + (Report of a lecture delivered at the University of Chicago, +under the auspices of the Poetry Club, and the Liberal Club; +revised by Mr. Darrow.) + + I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mr. A.E. +Housman in the Summer of 1927. I spent two hours with him, and +before that I had been to the home of Thomas Hardy. Mr. Hardy told +me how much he thought of Housman, before I visited Housman; and +Housman was a frequent visitor at the Hardy home. Their ideas of +life were very much alike; they were what the orthodox people and +the Rotary Clubs would call pessimistic. They didn't live on pipe +dreams; they took the universe as they found it, and man as they +found him. They tried to see what beauty there was in each of them, +but didn't close their eyes to the misery and maladjustments of +either the universe or man, because they ware realists, honest, +thorough, and fearless. + + Hardy himself had received the censure of all the good people +of England and the world, who, in spite of that, bought his books. +They all condemned him when he wrote his 'Tess;' so he determined +not to write any more prose. He thought that people probably were +not intelligent enough to appreciate him; certainly not his +viewpoint, and he didn't wish to waste his time on them. + + Housman's viewpoint is much the same, as all of you know. He +has written very little. You can read all he has written in two +hours, and less than that; but everything is exquisitely finished. +met him he was in his study in Cambridge. He is a professor of +Latin. I can't Imagine anythINg more useless than that -- unless it +be Greek! He has been called the greatest Latin scholar in the +world, and he seemed to take some pride in his Latin; not so much +in his poetry. He said he didn't write poetry except when he felt +he had to, it was always hard work for him, although some of the +things he wrote very quickly; but as a rule he spent a great deal +of time on most of them. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + I asked him if it was true that the latest little volume was +what it is entitled -- 'Last Poems.' He said he thought it was +true; that it had been published as his last poems in 1922 -- five +years before -- and he had only written four lines since: so he +thought that would probably be the last. Upon my asking him to +recite the four lines, he said he had forgotten them. + + Both Hardy and Housman, and of course Omar, believed that man +is rather small in comparison with the universe, or even with the +earth; they didn't believe in human responsibility, in free will, +in a purposeful universe, in a Being who watched over and cared for +the people of the world. It is evident that if He does, He makes a +poor job of It! + + Neither Hardy nor Housman had any such delusions. They took +the world as they found it and never tried to guess at its origin. +They took man as they found him and didn't try to build castles for +him after be was dead. They were essentially realists, both of +them; and of course long before them Omar had gone over the same +field. + + It is hardly fair to call the Rubaiyat the work of Omar +Khayyam. I have read a good many different editions and several +different versions. I never read it in Persian, in which it was +first written, but I have read not only poetical versions but prose +ones. Justin McCarthy brought out a translation a number of years +ago which was supposed to be a literal translation of Omar's book. +There is no resemblance between that book and the classic under his +name that was really written by FitzGerald. There is nothing very +remarkable about the Omar Khayyam as found in Justin McCarthy's +translation. It is probably ten times as expansive as the one we +have, and no one would recognize it from the FitzGerald edition. + + The beauty of the Rubaiyat is Edward FitzGerald's. He +evidently was more or less modest or else he wanted to do great +homage to Omar, because no one would ever have suspected that Omar +had any more to do with the book than they would have suspected +Plato. But, under the magic touch of FitzGerald, it is not only one +of the wisest and most profound pieces of literature in the world, +but one of the most beautiful productions that the world has ever +known. + + I remember reading somewhere that when this poem was thrown on +the market in London, a long time ago, nobody bought it. They +finally put it out in front of the shop in the form in which it was +printed and sold it for a penny. One could make more money by +buying those books at a penny and selling them now than he could +make with a large block of Standard Oil! It took a long while for +Omar and FitzGerald to gain recognition, which makes it rather +comfortable for the rest of us who write books to give away, and +feel happy when somebody asks us for one, although we suspect they +will never read them. But we all think we will be discovered +sometime. Some of us hope so and some are fearful that they will +be. Neither Omar nor FitzGerald believed in human responsibility. +That is the rock on which most religions are founded, and all laws +-- that everybody is responsible for his conduct; that if he is +good he is good because he deliberately chooses to be good, and if + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + +he is bad it is pure cussedness on his part -- nobody had anything +to do with it excepting himself. If he hasn't free will, why, he +isn't anything! The English poet Henley, in one of his poems, +probably expressed this about as well as anybody. It looks to me as +if he had a case of the rabies or something like that. But people +are fond of repeating it. In his brief poem about Fate he says: + + I am the master of my fate + I am the captain of my soul. + + A fine captain of his soul; and a fine master of his fate! He +wasn't master enough of his fate to get himself born, which is +rather important, nor to do much of anything else, except brag +about it. Instead of being the captain of his soul, as I have +sometimes expressed it, man isn't even a deck-hand on a rudderless +ship! He is just floating around and trying to hang on, and hanging +on as long as he can. But if it does him any good to repeat Henley, +or other nonsense, it is all right to give him a chance to do it, +because he hasn't much to look forward to, any way. Free will never +was a scientific doctrine; it never can be. It is probably a +religious conception, which of course shows that it isn't a +scientific one. + + Neither one of these eminent men, Hardy or Housman, believed +anything in free will. There is eight hundred years between Omar +and Housman, and yet their, philosophy is wondrously alike. I have +no doubt but that Omar's philosophy was very like what we find in +the rendering of FitzGerald. It is not a strange and unusual +philosophy, except in churches and Rotary Clubs and places like +that. It is not strange in places where people think or try to, and +where they do not undertake to fool themselves. It is rather a +common philosophy; it is a common philosophy where people have any +realization of their own importance, or, rather, unimportance. A +realization of it almost invariably forces upon a human being his +own insignificance and the insignificance of all the other human +atoms that come and go. + + Men's ideas root pretty far back. Their religious creeds are +very old. By means of interest and hope and largely fear, they +manage to hang on to the old, even when they know it is not true. +The idea of man's importance came in the early history of the human +race. He looked out on the earth, and of course he thought it was +flat! It looks flat, and he thought it was. He saw the sun, and he +formed the conception that somebody moved it out every morning and +pulled it back in at night. He saw the moon, and he had the opinion +that somebody pulled that out at sundown and took it in in the +morning. He saw the stars, and all there was about the stars was, +"He made the stars also." They were just "also." They were close +by, and they were purely for man to look at, about like diamonds in +the shirt bosoms of people who like them. + + This was not an unreasonable idea, considering what they had +to go on. The people who still believe it have no more to go on. +Blind men can't be taught to see or deaf people to hear. The +primitive people thought that the stars were right near by and just +the size they seemed to be. Of course now we know that some of them +are so far away that light traveling at nearly 286,000 miles a + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + +second is several million light years getting to the earth, and +some of them are so large that our sun, even, would be a fly-speck +to them. The larger the telescopes the more of them we see, and the +imagination can't compass the end of them. It is just humanly +possible that somewhere amongst the infinite number of infinitely +larger and more important specks of mud in the universe there might +be some organisms of matter that are just as intelligent as our +people on the earth. So to have the idea that all of this was made +for man gives man a great deal of what Weber and Field used to +call "Proud flesh." + + Man can't get conceited from what he knows today, and he can't +get it from what intellectual people ever knew. You remember, in +those days the firmament was put in to divide the water below from +the water above. They didn't know exactly what it was made of, but +they knew what it was. Heaven was up above the firmament. They knew +what it was, because Jacob had seen the angels going up and down on +a ladder. Of course, a ladder was the only transportation for such +purposes known to Jacob. If he had been dreaming now, they would +have been going up in a flying machine and coming down in the same +way. + + Our conceptions of things root back; and that, of course, is +the reason for our crude religions, our crude laws, our crude +ideas, and our exalted opinion of the human race. + + Omar had it nearer right. He didn't much overestimate the +human race. He knew it for what it was, and that wasn't much. He +knew about what its power was; he didn't expect much from the human +race. He didn't condemn men, because he knew he couldn't do any +better. As he puts it. + + But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays + Upon this Chequer-Board of Nights and Days: + Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays + And one by one back in the Closet lays. + + Compare that conception with Mr. Henley's, with his glorious +boast that he is the captain of his soul and the master of his +fate. Anyone who didn't catch that idea from the ordinary thought +of the community, but carved it out for himself, would be a subject +for psychopathic analysis and examination. When you have an idea +that everybody else has, of course you are not crazy, but if you +have silly ideas that nobody else has, of course you are crazy. +That is the only way to settle it, + + Most people believe every day many things for which others are +sent to the insane asylum. The insane asylums are full of religious +exaltants who have just varied a little bit from the standard of +foolishness. It isn't the foolishness that places them in the bug- +house, it is the slight variations from the other fellows' +foolishness -- that is all. If a man says he is living with the +spirits today, he is insane. If he says that Jacob did, he is all +right. That is the only difference. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + Omar says we are simply "impotent pieces in the game He plays" +-- of course, he uses a capital letter when he spells, He which is +all right enough for the purpose -- "in the game He plays upon this +chequer-board of nights and days." And that is what man is. If one +could vision somebody playing a game with human pawns, one would +think that everyone who is moved around here and there was moved +simply at the will of a player and he had nothing whatever to do +with the game, any more than any other pawn. And he has nothing +more to do with it than any other pawn. + + Omar expresses this opinion over and over again. He doesn't +blame man; he knows the weakness of man. He knew the cruelty of +judging him. + + The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, + Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit + Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, + Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. + + Whatever the impulse calls one to do, whatever the baubles or +the baits that set in motion many acts, however quickly or +emotionally, the consequences of the acts, as far as he is +concerned, never end. All your piety and all your wit cannot wipe +out a word of it! Omar pities man; he doesn't exalt God, but he +pities man. He sees what man can do; and, more important still, he +sees what he cannot do. He condemns the idea that God could or +should judge man. The injustice of it, the foolishness of it all, +appeals to him and he puts it in this way: + + O Thou who didst with pitfall and with gin + Beset the Road I was to wander in. + Thou wilt not with Predestin'd Evil round + Enmesh, and then impute my Fall to Sin! + + Nothing ever braver and stronger and truer than that! +Preachers have wasted their time and their strength and such +intelligence and learning as they can command, talking about God +forgiving man, as if it was possible for man to hurt God, as if +there was anything to be forgiven from man's standpoint. They pray +that man be forgiven and urge that man should be forgiven. Nobody +knows for what, but still it has been their constant theme. Poets +have done it; Omar knew better. Brave and strong and clear and far- +seeing, although living and dying eight hundred years ago. This is +what he says about forgiveness: + + O thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make, + And ev'n with Paradise devised the Snake: + For all the sin wherewith the Face of Man + Is blacken'd -- Man's forgiveness give -- and take! + + "Man's forgiveness give -- and take!" If man could afford to +forgive God, He ought to be willing to forgive man. Omar knew it. +"Ev'n with paradise devised the snake." Taking the orthodox theory, +for all the sin with which the earth is blackened, "Man's +forgiveness give -- and take!" That is courage; it is science. It +is sense, and it isn't the weak, cowardly whining of somebody who +is afraid he might be hurt unless he whines and supplicates, which +he always does, simply hoping that some great power will have +compassion on him. Always cowardice and fear, and nothing else! + + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + Omar was wise enough to know that if there was any agency +responsible for it, that agency was responsible. He made us as we +are, and as He wished to make us, and to say that a weak, puny, +ignorant human being, here today and gone tomorrow, could possibly +injure God or be responsible for his own weakness and his +ignorance, of course is a travesty upon all logic; and of course it +does great credit to all superstition, for it couldn't come any +other way. + + Housman is equally sure about this. He knows about the +responsibility of man. Strange how wonderfully alike runs their +philosophy! Housman condemned nobody. No pessimist does -- only +good optimists. People who believe in a universe of law never +condemn or hate individuals. Only those who enthrone man believe in +free will, and make him responsible for the terrible crudities of +Nature and the force back of it, if there is such a force. Only +they are cruel to the limit. + + One can get Housman's idea of the responsibility of the human +being from his beautiful little poem, "The Culprit," the plaintive +wailing of a boy to be executed the next morning, when he, in his +blindness and terror, asked himself the question, "Why is it and +what does it all mean?" and thought about the forces that made him, +and what a blind path he traveled, as we all do. He says: + + The night my father got me + His mind was not on me; + He did not plague his fancy + To muse if I should be + The son you see. + + The day my mother bore me + She was a fool and glad, + For all the pain I cost her, + That she had borne the lad + That borne she had. + + My mother and my father + Out of the light they lie; + The warrant would not find them, + And here 'tis only I + Shall hang on high. + + Oh let no man remember + The soul that God forgot + But fetch the county kerchief + And noose me in the knot, + And I will rot. + + For so the game is ended + That should not have begun. + My father and my mother + They have a likely son, + And I have none. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + Nobody lives in this world to himself or any part of himself. +Nobody fashions his body, and still less is responsible for the +size or the fineness of his brain and the sensitiveness of his +nervous system. No one has anything to do with the infinite +manifestations of the human body that produce the emotions, that +force men here and there. And yet religion in its cruelty and its +brutality brands them all alike. And the religious teachers are so +conscious of their own guilt that they only seek to escape +punishment by loading their punishment onto someone else. They say +that the responsibility of the individual who in his weakness goes +his way is so great and his crimes are so large that there isn't a +possibility for him to be saved by his own works. + + **** **** + + The law is only the slightest bit more intelligent. No matter +who does it, or what it is, the individual is responsible. If he is +manifestly and obviously crazy they may make some distinction; but +no lawyer is wise enough to look into the human mind and know what +it means. The interpretations of the human judges were delivered +before we had any science on the subject whatever, and they +continue to enforce the old ideas of insanity, in spite of the fact +that there isn't an intelligent human being in the world who has +studied the question who ever thinks of it in legal terms. Judges +instruct the jury that if a man knows the difference between right +and wrong he cannot be considered insane. And yet an insane man +knows the difference better than an intelligent man, because he has +not the intelligence and the learning to know that this is one of +the hardest things to determine, and perhaps the most impossible. +You can ask the inmates of any insane asylum whether it is right to +steal, lie, or kill, and they will all say "No," just as little +children will say it, because they have been taught it. It +furnishes no test, but still lawyers and Judges persist in it, to +give themselves an excuse to wreak vengeance upon unfortunate +people. + + Housman knew better. He knew that in every human being is the +imprint of all that has gone before, especially the imprint of his +direct ancestors. And not only that, but that it is the imprint of +all the environment in which he has lived, and that human +responsibility is utterly unscientific, and besides that, horribly +cruel. + + Another thing that impressed itself upon all these poets alike +was the futility of life. I don't know whether a college succeeds +in making pupils think that they are very important in the scheme +of the universe. I used to be taught that we were all very +important. Most all the boys and girls who were taught it when I +was taught it are dead, and the world is going on just the same. I +have a sort of feeling that after I am dead it will go on just the +same, and there are quite a considerable number of people who think +it will go on better. But it won't; I haven't been important enough +even to harm it. It will go on just exactly the same. + + We are always told of the importance of the human being and +the importance of everything he does; the importance of his not +enjoying life, because if he is happy here of course he can't be + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + +happy hereafter, and if he is miserable here he must be happy +hereafter. Omar made short work of that, of those promises which +are not underwritten, at least not by any responsible people. He +did not believe in foregoing what little there is of life in the +hope of having a better time hereafter. + + He says, "Ah, take the Cash and let the Credit go." Good +advice that: "Ah, take the Cash and let the Credit go." If you take +the "Credit," likely as not you will miss your fun both here and +hereafter. Omar knew better. + + It is strange how the religious creeds have hammered that idea +into the human mind. They have always felt there was a kinship +between pleasure and sin. A smile on the face is complete evidence +of wickedness. A solemn, uninteresting countenance is a stamp of +virtue and goodness, of self-denial, that will surely be rewarded. +Of course, the religious people are strangely hedonistic without +knowing it! There are some of us who think that the goodness or +badness of an act in this world can be determined only by pain and +pleasure units. The thing that brings pleasure is good, and the +thing that brings pain is bad. There is no other way to determine +the difference between good and bad. Some of us think so: I think +so. + + Of coarse, the other class roll their eyes and declaim against +this heathen philosophy, the idea that pain and pleasure have +anything to do with the worth-whileness of existence. It isn't +important for you to be happy here. But why not? You are too +miserable here so you will be happy hereafter; and the hereafter is +long and the here is short. They promise a much bigger prize than +the pagan for the reward of conduct. They simply want you to trust +them. They take the pain and pleasure theory with a vengeance, but +they do business purely on credit. They are dealers in futures! I +could never understand, if it was admissible to have joy in heaven, +why you couldn't have it here, too. And if joy is admissible at +all, the quicker you get at it the better, and the surer you are of +the result. Omar thought that: "Ah, take the Cash, and let the +Credit go!" Take the Cash and let the other fellow have the Credit! +That was his philosophy, and I insist it is much better, and more +intelligent philosophy than the other. + + But Omar had no delusions about how important this human being +is. He had no delusions about the mind, about man's greatness. He +knew something about philosophy or metaphysics, whatever it is. He +knew the uncertainty of human calculations, no matter who arrived +at them. He knew the round-about way that people try to find out +something, and he knew the results. He knew the futility of all of +it. + + Myself When young did eagerly frequent + Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument + About it and about: but evermore + Came out by the same door where in I went. + + That is what Omar thought. Man evermore came out by the same +door where in he went. Therefore, "take the Cash and let the Credit +go!"' He put it even stronger than this. He knew exactly what these +values were worth, if anything. He knew what a little bit there is + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + +to the whole bag of tricks. What's the difference whether you were +born 75 years ago, or fifty or twenty-five? what's the difference +whether you are going to live ten years, or twenty or thirty, or +weather you are already dead? In that case you escape something! +This magnifying the importance of the human being is one of the +chief sins of man and results in all kinds of cruelty. + + If we took the human race for what it is worth, we could not +be so cruel. Omar Khayyam knew what it was, this life, that we talk +so much about: + + 'Tis but a Tent where takes his one day's rest + A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest; + The Sultan rises, and the dark Forrash + Strikes, and prepares it for another Guest. + + "Tis but a Tent where takes his one day's rest" -- is there +anything else, if one could just make a survey of the human being, +passing across the stage of life? I suppose man has been upon the +earth for over a million years. A million years, and perhaps his +generations may be thirty to thirty-five years long. Think of the +generations in a thousand years, in 5,000 years, in a hundred +thousand, in a million years! There are a billion and a half of +these important organisms on the earth at any one time. All of +them, all important -- kings, priests and professors, and doctors +and lawyers and presidents, and 100 per cent Americans, and +everything on earth you could think of -- Ku Kluxers, W.C.T.U.'s, +Knights of Columbus and Masons, everything. All of them important +in this scheme of things! All of them seeking to attract attention +to themselves, and not even satisfied when they get it! + + What is it all about? it is strange what little things will +interest the human mind -- baseball games, fluctuations of the +stock market, revivals, foot races, hangings, Anything will +interest them. And the wonderful importance of the human being! + + Housman knew the importance just as well as Omar. He has +something to say about it, too. He knew it was just practically +nothing. Strangely like him! The little affairs of life, the little +foolishnesses of life, the things that consume our lives without +any result whatever; he knew them and knew what they were worth. He +knew they were worth practically nothing. But we do them; the urge +of living keeps us doing them, even when we know how useless and +foolish they are. Housman understood them: + + Yonder see the morning blink: + The sun is up, and up must I. + To wash and dress and eat and drink + And look at things and talk and think + And work, and God knows why. + + Oh often have I washed and dressed + And what's to show for all my pain? + Let me lie abed and rest: + Ten thousand times I've done my best + And all's to do again. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + That is what life is, rising in the morning and washing and +dressing and going to recitations and studying and forgetting it, +and then going to bed at night, to get up the next morning and wash +and dress and go to recitation, and so on, world without end. + + One might get a focus on it from the flies. They are very busy +buzzing round. You don't exactly know what they are saying, because +we can't understand fly language. Professors can't teach you fly +language! We can't tell what they are saying, but they are probably +talking about the importance of being good, about what's going to +happen to their souls and, when. And when they are stiff in the +morning in the Autumn and can hardly move round, the housewife gets +up and builds the fire, and the heat limbers them up. She sets out +the bread and butter on the table. The flies come down and get into +it, and they think the housewife is working for them. Why not? + + Is there any difference? Only in the length of the agony. What +other? Apparently they have a good time while the sun is shining, +and apparently they die when they get cold. It is a proposition of +life and death, forms of matter clothed with what seems to be +consciousness, and then going back again into inert matter, and +that is all. There isn't any manifestation that we humans make that +we do not see in flies and in other forms of matter. + + Housman understands it; they have all understood it. Read any +of the great authors of the world -- any of them; their hopes and +their fears and their queries and their doubt, are, about the same. +There is only one man I know of that can answer everything, and +that is Dr Cadman. + + Housman saw it. He knew a little of the difference between age +and youth -- and there is some. The trouble is, the old men always +write the books; they write them not in the way they felt when they +were young, but in the way they feel now. And they preach to the +young, and condemn them for doing what they themselves did when +they had the emotion to do it. Great teachers, when they grow old! +Perhaps it is partly envy and the desire that no one shall have +anything they can't have. Likely it is, but they don't know it. +Housman says something about this: + + When first my way to fair I took + Few pence in purse hid I, + And long I used to stand and look + At things I could not buy. + + Now times are altered: if I care + To bay a thing I can; + The pence are here and here's the fair, + But where's the lost young man? + + The world is somewhat different. The lost young man was once +looking at the fair. He couldn't go in, and he liked it more for +that; but now he is tired of the fair and tired of the baubles that +once amused him and the riddles he once tried to guess, and he +can't understand that the young man still likes to go to the fair. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + We hear a great deal said by the ignorant about the wickedness +of the youth of today. Well, I don't know: some of us were wicked +when we were young. I don't know what is the matter with the youth +of today having their fling. I don't know that they are any +wickeder today. First, I don't know what the word wicked moans. Oh, +I do know what it means: It means unconventional conduct. But I +don't know whether unconventional conduct is wicked in the sense +they mean it is wicked, or whether conventional conduct is good in +the sense they mean it is good. Nobody else knows! + + But I remember when I was a boy -- it was a long time ago -- +I used to hear my mother complain. My mother would have been pretty +nearly 125 years old if she had kept on living, but luckily for her +she didn't! I used to hear her complain of how much worse the girls +were that she knew than the girls were when she was a girl. Of +course, she didn't furnish any bill of particulars; she didn't +specify, except not hanging up their clothes, and gadding, and +things like that. But at any rate, they were worse. And my father +used to tell about it, and I have an idea that Adam and Eve used to +talk the same fool way. + + The truth is, the world doesn't change, or the generations of +men or the human emotions. But the individual changes as he grows +old. You hear about the Revolt of Youth. Some people are pleased at +it and some displeased. Some see fine reasons for hope in what they +call the youth movement. They can put it over on the old people, +but not on the youth! There is a Revolt of Youth. + + Well, youth has always been in revolt. The greatest trouble +with youth is that it gets old. Age changes it. It doesn't bring +wisdom, though most old people think because they are old they have +wisdom. But you can't get wisdom by simply growing old. You can +even forget it that way! Age means that the blood runs slow, that +the emotions are not as strong, that you play safer, that you stay +closer to the hearth. You don't try to find new continents or even +explore old ones. You don't travel into unbeaten wilderness and lay +out new roads. You stick to the old roads when you go out at all. + + The world can't go on with old people. It takes young ones +that are daring, with courage and faith. + + The difference between youth and old age is the same in every +generation. The viewpoint is in growing old, that is all. But the +old never seem wise enough to know it, and forever the old have +been preaching to the young. Luckily, however, the young pay very +little attention to it. They sometimes pretend to, but they never +do pay much attention to it. Otherwise, life could not exist. + + Both of these poets saw the futility of life: the little +things of which it is made, scarcely worth the while. It is all +right to talk about futility. We all know it, if we know much of +anything. We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life +is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell. +Let anybody study the ordinary, everyday details of life; see how +closely he is bound and fettered; see how little it all amounts to. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + There are a billion and a half people in the world, all of +them trying to shout loud enough to be heard all at once, so as to +attract the attention of the public, so they may be happy. A +billion and a half of them, and if they all attracted attention +none of them would have attention! Of course, attention is only +valuable if the particular individual attracts it and nobody, else +can get it. That is what makes presidents and kings -- they get it +and nobody else. + + Then when you consider that it is all made up of little +things, what is life all about, anyway? We do keep on living. It is +easy enough to demonstrate to people who think that life is not +worth while. We could do it easier if we could only settle what +worth while means. But if we settle it and convince ourselves that +it is not worth while, we still keep on living. life does not come +from willing; rather it does not come from thought and reason. I +don't live because I think it is worth while; I live because I am +a going concern, and every going concern tries to keep on going, I +don't care whether it is a tree, or a plant, or what we call a +lower animal, or man, or the Socialist party. Anything that is +going tries to go on by its own momentum, and it does just keep on +going -- it is what Schopenhauer called the 'will to live.' So we +must assume that we will live anyhow as long as we can. When the +machine runs down we don't have to worry about it any longer. + + Hotisman asked himself this question, and Omar asked himself +this question. Life is of little value. What are we going to do +while we live? In other words, what is the purpose, if we can use +the word purpose in this way, which is an incorrect way? What +purpose are we going to put into it? Why should we live; and if we +must live, then what? Omar tells us what. He knew there was just +one thing important; he knew what most thinkers know today. He put +it differently -- he and FitzGerald together. It is a balance +between painful and pleasurable emotions. Every organized being +looks for pleasurable emotions and tries to avoid painful ones. The +seed planted in the ground seeks the light. The instinct of +everything is to move away from pain and toward pleasure. Human +beings are just like all the rest. The earth and all its +manifestations are simply that. Omar figured it out, and after +philosophizing and finding that he ever came out the same door +where in he went, he said: + + You know, my Friends, with what a brave Carouse + I made a Second Marriage in my house; + Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, + And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse. + + That is one way of forgetting life -- one way of seeking +pleasurable emotions: "I took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse." +A way that has been fairly popular down through the ages! Even in +spite of the worst that all the fanatics could possibly do, it has +been a fairly universal remedy for the ills of man. It would be +perfect If it were not for the day after! + + He says in his wild exuberance: + Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring + Your Winter-Garment of Repentance fling: + The Bird of Time has but a little way + To flutter -- and the Bird is on the Wing. + + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + There isn't much of it; but while it is fluttering, help it. +It has but a little way to flutter, and it is on the wing! + + To those who are not quite so strenuous, there is an appeal +more to beauty, a somewhat more permanent although not much more, +but a more beautiful conception of pleasure, which is all he could +get: + + A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, + A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread -- and Thou + Beside me singing in the Wilderness -- + Oh, Wilderness were Paradise now! + + Well, if you get the right jug and the right book and the rest +of the paraphernalia, it isn't so bad! + + It is strange that two so different human beings have sought +about the same thing. This physical emotional life that we hear so +much about is the only life we know anything about. They sought +their exaltation there, and Omar Khayyam pictured it very well. +Housman again does as well. What does he say about the way to spend +life and about life? + + Loveliest of trees, the cherry now + Is hung with bloom along the bough, + And stands about the woodland ride + Wearing white for Eastertide. + + Now, of my threescore, years and ten, + Twenty will not come again, + And take from seventy springs a score, + It only leaves me fifty more. + + And since to look at things in bloom + Fifty springs are little room, + About the woodlands I will go + To see the cherry hung with snow. + + What else is there? So while the light is still on and while +I can still go, and when the cherry is in bloom -- I will go to see +the cherries hung with snow. + + That is the whole philosophy of life for those who think; that +is all there is to it, and it is what everybody is trying to do, +without fully realizing it. Many are taking the Credit and letting +the Cash go. Housman is right about that. + + Since to look at things in bloom + Fifty springs are little room, + About the woodlands I will go + To see the cherry hung with snow. + + That is why I have so little patience with the old preaching +to the young. If youth, with its quick-flowing blood, its strong +imagination, its virile feeling; if youth, with its dreams and its +hopes and ambitions, can go about the woodland to see the cherry +hung with snow, why not? Who are the croakers, who have run their +race and lived their time, who are they to keep back expression and +hope and youth and joy from a world that is almost barren at the +best? + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + It has been youth that has kept the world alive; it will be, +because from the others emotion has fled; and with the fleeing of +emotion, through the ossification of the brain, all there is left +for them to do is to preach. I hope they have a good time doing +that, and I am so glad the young pay no attention to it! + + Of course, Housman and Omar and the rest of us are called +pessimist's. It is a horrible name. What is a pessimist, anyway? It +is a man or a woman who looks at life as life is. If you could, you +might take your choice, perhaps, as to being a pessimist or a pipe +dreamer. But you can't have it, because you look at the world +according to the way you are made. Those are the two extremes. The +pessimist takes life for what life is: not all sorrow, not all +pain, not all beauty, not all good. Life is not black; life is not +orange, red, or green, or all the colors of the rainbow. Life is no +one shade or hue. + + It is well enough to understand it. If pessimism could come as +the result of thought, I would think a pessimist was a wise man. +What is an optimist, anyway? He reminds "Me of a little boy running +through the woods and looking up at the sky and not paying any +attention to the brambles or thorns he is scrambling through. There +is a stone in front of him and he trips over the stone. Browning +said, "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world." Others +say, "God is love, love is God," and so on. A man who thinks that +is bound to be an optimist. He believes that things are good. + + The pessimist doesn't necessarily think that everything is +bad, but he looks for the worst. He knows it will come sooner or +later. When an optimist falls, he falls a long way; when a +pessimist falls it is a very short fall. When an optimist is +disappointed he is very, very sad, because he believed it was the +best of all possible worlds, and God's in his heaven and all's well +with the world. When a pessimist is disappointed he is happy, for +he wasn't looking for anything. + + This is the safest and by all odds it is the wisest outlook. +Housman has put it in a little poem. It is about the last thing I +shall give you. Housman is the only man I know of who has written +a poem about pessimism. Nearly all the people who are talking about +pessimism talk in prose; it is very prosy. Poems are generally +written about optimism: + + I am the master of my fate; + I am the captain of my soul. + +Those are the sort of poems. Of course there have been poems +written about pessimism. Poetry is really, to my way of thinking, +good only if it is beauty and if it is music. + + I don't mean tonight to discuss the question of free verse and +poetry, or the comparative merits of the two styles, or of prose, +but I do think that poetry is an exaltation and that you can't hold +it for long. Poetry ought to have beauty and it ought to have +music. It should have both. You can be the poet of sadness; sadness +lends itself to poetry as much as gladness, although few poets know +how to use it. Listen to this from Housman: + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + With rue my heart is laden; + For golden friends I had, + For many a rose-lipt maiden + And many a lightfoot lad. + + By brooks too broad for leading + The lightfoot boys are laid, + The rose-lipt girls are sleeping + In fields where raises fade. + + That is sad, isn't it? But it is beautiful. + + I remember once, years and years ago, reading Olive +Schreiner's Story of an African farm, in which she describes the +simple Boers of South Africa, with their sorrows and their +pleasures. She used this expression: which it took me some time to +understand, in describing pain and pleasure: "There is a depth of +emotion so broad and deep that pain and pleasure are the same." +They are the same, and I think they find their meeting in beauty. +The beauty, even if it is painful, is still beauty. You find the +meeting of pain and pleasure, and you can hardly distinguish +between the two emotions. + + Housman knew it; he knew how to do it. Here is his idea of the +young lad who dies: not passes on -- passes off. He dies: + + Now hollow fires burn out to black + And lights are guttering low: + Square your shoulders, lift your pack, + And leave your friends and go. + + Oh never fear man, nought's to dread, + Look not left or right: + In all the endless road you tread + There's nothing but the night. + + Does it bring you painful or pleasurable emotions? It is +beautiful; it is profound; it is deep. To me the painful and +pleasurable are blended in the beauty, and I think the two may be +one. + + Housman, as I have said, is the only one I know who wrote a +poem of pessimism; and this, like all of his, is very short, and I +will read it. Somebody else may have written one; but Housman +carries the philosophy of pessimism into poetry, perhaps the +philosophy that I have given you. This poem is supposed to be +introduced by somebody who complains of Housman's dark, almost +tragical verses. For in every line that he ever wrote there is no +let down. He is like Hardy; he never hauled down the flag. Life to +him was what he saw; what the world saw meant nothing. This was the +view in all of Housman's work. In all of his work there is not one +false note; and when I say a false note I mean one that is not in +tune with the rest. This is his idea of pessimism in poetry: + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + "Terence this is stupid stuff: + You eat your victuals fast enough; + There can't be much amiss, 'tis clear, + To see the rate you drink your beer. + But oh, good Lord, the verse you make, + It gives a chap the belly-ache. + + We poor lads, 'tis our turn now + To hear such tunes as killed the cow. + Pretty friendship 'tis to rhyme + Your friends to death before their time + Moping melancholy mad: + Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad." + + Why, if 'tis dancing you would be, + There's brisker pipes than poetry. + Say, for what were hop-yards meant, + Or why was Burton built on Trent? + Oh many a peer of England brews + Livelier liquor than the Muse, + And malt does more than Milton can + To justify God's ways to man. + Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink + For fellows whom it hurts to think: + Look into the pewter pot + To see the world as the world's not. + And faith, 'tis pleasant till 'tis past: + The mischief is that 'twill not last. + + Oh I have been to Ludlow fair + And left my necktie God knows where, + And carried half way home, or near. + Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer: + Then the world seemed none so bad, + And I myself a sterling lad; + And down in lovely muck I've lain, + Happy till I woke again. + Then I saw the morning sky: + Heigho, the tale was all a lie; + The world it was the old world yet, + I was I, my things were wet. + And nothing now, remained to do + But begin the game anew. + + Therefore, since the world has still + Much good, but much less good than Ill, + And while the sun and moon endure + Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure. + I'd face it as a wise man would, + And train for ill and not for good. + 'Tis true the stuff I bring for sale + Is not so brisk a brew as ale: + + Out of a stem that scored the hand + I wrung it in a weary land. + But take it: if the smack is sour, + The better for the embittered hour; + It should do good to heart and head + When your soul" is in my soul's stead; + And I will friend you, if I may, + In the dark and cloudy day. + 16 + + FACING LIFE FEARLESSLY + + "Luck's a chance but trouble's sure." The moral of it is to +"train for ill and not for good." + + If I had my choice, I would not like to be an optimist, even +assuming that people did not know that I was an idiot. I wouldn't +want to be an optimist because when I fell I would fall such a +terribly long way. The wise man trains for ill and not for good. He +is sure he will need that training, and the other will take care of +itself as it comes along. + + Of course, life is not all pleasant: it is filled with +tragedy. Housman has told us of it, and Omar Khayyam tells us of +it. No man and no woman can live and forget death. However much +they try. it is there, and it probably should be faced like +anything else. Measured time is very short. Life, amongst other +things, is full of futility. + + Omar Khayyam understood, and Housman understood. There are +other poets that have felt the same way. Omar Khayyam looked on the +shortness of life and understood it. He pictured himself as here +for a brief moment. He loved his friends; he loved companionship; +he loved wine. I don't know how much of it he drank. He talked +about it a lot. It might have symbolized more than it really meant +to him. It has been a solace, all down through the ages. Not only +that, but it has been the symbol of other things that mean as much +-- the wine of life, the joy of living. + + **** **** + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + by + CLARENCE DARROW + + This veteran of the Courts, who has spent fifty years tearing +deserved holes in the law, takes and swings his priceless irony +towards these professional Christians. When do we rest and when do +we play? Apparently we don't. What Price salvation? it's not worth +it. + + Among the various societies that are engaged in the business +of killing pleasure, the Lord's Day Alliance of New York deserves +a place of honor. If any poor mortal is caught enjoying life on +Sunday its agents gleefully hie themselves to the nearest +legislature and urge a law to stop the fun. Their literature and +periodicals tell very plainly the kind of business they are in. +This association of crape-hangers seems to be especially interested +in the State of New York, which contains about one-tenth of the +population of the Union, and among them an unusually large number +of foreigners and other heathen who have not been taught the proper +regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath. + + The activities of this Alliance in New York still leave them +ample time to watch the sinners in the other states and bring to +book the wicked who are bent on having pleasure on the holy Sabbath +Day. In their own language, the work is "In the interests of the +preservation and promotion of the Lord's Day as the American +Christian Sabbath ... to oppose all adverse measures seeking to + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 17 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + +weaken the law and to seek the passage of such measures as would +tend to strengthen it." The Alliance informs us that "in the last +four years it has furnished sixty-seven addresses per month, on an +average. During this time over three hundred and twenty institute +meetings have been held for the study of the Sabbath question. +Several million pages of literature have been distributed." it +"also furnishes press articles and syndicate matter for the +newspapers." Imagine an institute spending so much time in the +study of the Sabbath question! If they have learned anything on +that subject it is not revealed, in their tracts. + + These Lord's Day folk seek to protect the day "in the interest +of the home and the church," "to exalt Jesus Christ who is Lord of +the Sabbath Day and to spread the knowledge of the will of God that +His Kingdom may come and His will may be done." Though the +organization is still young it points to a long list of glorious +achievements. We are informed that "no adverse measure affecting +the Sabbath has passed at Albany during this time, although forty- +two such measures have been introduced in the legislature. ... A +representative of our organization has been present on each +occasion to oppose all such adverse measures." It boasts that it +"opposed the opening of the State Fair in 1925 on Sunday, by +vigorous protest to the members of the Commission and the Attorney +General." The result was a ruling from the Attorney General +sustaining the law. Of course, so long as no one could go to the +fair on Sunday the people were obliged to go to church. It "has +defeated annually an average of forty commercial and anti-Sunday +bills in our legislature and has brought about the closing of the +First and Second Class Post Offices on Sunday. ... As a result, +thousands are in our churches each Sunday." It has been thanked by +President Coolidge for the services rendered hundreds of thousands +of government employees in the District of Columbia and elsewhere +throughout the nation." What further honor could anybody get on +earth? It has "accepted the challenge and in scores of places +defeated ... commercial amusement forces which have declared a +nationwide fight to the finish for Sunday movies and are even +proposing to enlist the aid of the churches in their unholy +campaign." It succeeded in "changing the date of the gigantic air +carnival to which admission was charged, from Sunday, August 2, to +Saturday, August 1, 1925, held at Belling Field, Washington." No +one but a parson has the right to charge for his performance on +Sunday. Through its request "the War Department issued orders on +November 2, 1925, covering every military Post in the United +States, banning Sunday public air carnivals, and maneuvers." It is +now leading a country-wide movement for the enactment of a Sunday +rest law for the District of Columbia. Washington needs and must +have a Sunday rest law." It informs us that the "day must be kept +above the Dollar, Christ above Commercialism on the Lord's Day, the +person must have the right of way over the Pocketbook on our +American Sunday." + +Surely this is a great work and deserves the active support and +sympathy of all people who are really interested in driving +pleasure-seekers from golf grounds, automobile trips, baseball +parks, moving-picture houses and every other form of pleasure on + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 18 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + +Sunday. It is possible that for lack of any other place to go, some +of them might be compelled to park themselves in church. If America +does not succeed in bringing back the ancient Puritan Sabbath with +its manifold blessings, it will not be the fault of the Lord's Day +Alliance. + + As a part of this noble work the organization publishes +various pamphlets and leaflets and scatters them broadcast through +the land. As a rule, these pamphlets are the effusions of more or +less obscure parsons. These preachers have special knowledge of +God's plans and God's will. Their sermonettes are conflicting in +their statements and utterly senseless in their assertions. The +sentries of the Alliance on guard at the state capitals and in the +national Congress, while these wise bodies are in session, have no +doubt succeeded in coercing spineless members of legislative bodies +to yield to their will and their parade of votes; and thus spread +considerable gloom over the United States on the Sabbath Day. + + These Lord's Day Alliance gentlemen are not only religious but +scientific. For instance, they publish a pamphlet written by one +Dr. A. Haegler, of Basle, Switzerland, in which he says that +experiments have shown that during a day's work a laborer expends +more oxygen than he can inhale. True, he catches up with a large +part of this deficiency through the night time, but does not regain +it all. It follows, of course, that if he keeps on working six days +a week, for the same time each day, he will be out a considerable +amount of oxygen, and the only way he can make it up is to take a +day off on Sunday and go to church. This statement seems to be +flawless to the powerful intellects who put out this literature. +Any person who is in the habit of thinking might at once arrive at +the conclusion that if the workman could not take in enough oxygen +gas in the ordinary hours of work and sleep he might well cut down +his day's work and lengthen his sleep and thus start even every +morning. This ought to be better than running on a shortage of gas +all through the week. Likewise, it must occur to most people that +there are no two kinds of labor that consume the same amount of +oxygen gas per day, and probably no two human systems that work +exactly alike. Then, too, if the workman ran behind on his oxygen +gas in the days when men worked from ten to sixteen hours a day he +might break even at night, since working hours have been reduced to +eight or less, with a Saturday half-holiday thrown in. It might +even help the situation to raise the bedroom window at night. These +matters, of course, do not occur to the eminent doctor who wrote +the pamphlet and the scientific gentlemen who send it out. To them +the silly statement proves that a man needs to take a day off on +Sunday and attend church in order that he may catch up on his +oxygen. To them it is perfectly plain that for catching up on +oxygen the church has a great advantage over the golf links or the +baseball park, or any other place where the wicked wish to go. This +in spite of the fact that in crowded buildings the oxygen might be +mixed with halitosis. + + The exact proof that these patrons marshal for showing that +the need of a Sunday rest is manifest in the nature of things is +marvelous. If the need of Sunday rest was meant to be shown by +natural law it seems as if this should have been clearly indicated, +especially if the righteous God had determined to punish Sunday. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 19 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + +violations with death and hell. There was no reason why the Creator +should have been content to leave the proof to a revelation said to +have been made in a barbarous age to an unknown man, hidden in the +clouds on the top of a high mountain peak. humans would not have +graven such an important message on a tablet of stone and then +insisted that the tablet should be destroyed before any being +except Moses had set eye upon it. Even God should not ask for faith +that amounts to credulity and gross superstition. + + A deity could have written the Sabbath requirements plain on +the face of nature. For instance, he might have made the waves be +still on the seventh day of the week; the grass might have taken a +day off and rested from growing until Monday morning; the wild +animals of the forest and glen might have refrained from fighting +and eating and chasing and maiming and have been made to close +their eyes on the Sabbath Day, and to have kept peace and +tranquillity. The earth might have paused in its course around the +sun or stood still on its axis. It should have been as important to +make this gesture in homage of the day as it was to help Joshua +hold the sun in leash that a battle might be prolonged. If nature +had made plain provision for the Sabbath Day it would be patent to +others as well as to the medicine men who insist that the Sabbath +Day was made for their profit alone. + + But let us pass from the realm of science, where pastors never +did especially shine, into a field where they are more likely to +excel. Here it is fairly easy to see what it is all about. The +Reverend McQuilkin, Pastor at Orange, New Jersey, furnishes a +pamphlet for The Lord's Day Alliance. Read what the Doctor says: + + God claims the Sabbath for himself in a very unique, + distinctive way as a day of rest and worship. He again and + again commands you to spend its hours in the conservation of + our spiritual power in the exercise of public and private + worship. To spend this holy day in pleasure or unnecessary + secular labor is to rob God. We have got to be careful how we + take the hours of the Sabbath for secular study or work, for + God will surely bring us to judgment concerning the matter. + Church attendance is a definite obligation, a debt which we + owe to God. + + Here is where the Alliance seems to strike pay dirt! What +reason has God to Claim the Sabbath for Himself, and why is God +robbed if a man should work on Sunday? It can hardly be possible +that the puny insects that we call men could disturb God in His +Sunday rest. Is it not a little presumptuous even to parsons, to +say that a debt to the church is a debt to God? + + To emphasize the importance of leaving the Sabbath to the +preachers, we are warned of the fate of the sinner who profanes the +Sabbath by work or play. The Lords Day Alliance has issued a little +folder on which there is the following heading in large letters: +THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DEATH PENALTY. Under it is printed this +timely caution: "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh +day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Jehovah; whosoever doeth +any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death. Ex. +31-35." The pamphlet also states that a wealthy business man is +furnishing the money for the distribution of this sheet. If this + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 20 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + +barbarous statement represents the views of the Lord's Day Alliance +then what is the mental caliber of the Congressmen, members of the +legislatures, judges, and the public that are influenced by their +ravings? Can anyone but an idiot have any feeling but contempt for +men who seek to scare children and old women with such infamous +stuff? + + Let us see what the Bible says on this important subject. In +Exodus 19: 8-12 we find not only the commandment which was +delivered to Moses in reference to the Sabbath, but the reasons for +such a commandment: + + Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Six days shalt + thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the + Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no work, + thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant nor + thy maid servant nor the cattle which is within thy gates; for + in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sun and all + that is in them and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord + blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it. + + It is plain from this commandment that the Sabbath was not +instituted in obedience to any natural law or so that man might +catch up on his supply of oxygen, but because the Lord in six days +had performed the herculean task of creating the universe out of +nothing. Therefore, every man must rest on the seventh, no matter +whether he has been working and is tired or not. This is made even +more binding in Exodus 35: 2: + + Six days shall work be done, upon the seventh day there + shall be to you a holy day, the Sabbath of the rest of the + Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. + + In view of the commands of God, certainly his special agents +on the earth cannot be blamed for cruelty, no matter what ferocious +doctrine they may preach. In Numbers 28: 9-10 in connection with +various offerings that the Law required on the Sabbath, a provision +is made for meat offerings and drink offerings. The meat offerings +enjoin the sacrifice of lambs by fire as "a sweet savor unto the +Lord," and then the Lord provides that the pastor shall further: + + Sacrifice on the Sabbath Day two lambs of the first year + without spot and two-tenths of a part of an ephah of fine + flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil and the drink + offering thereof: this is the burnt-offering of every Sabbath, + besides the continual burnt-offering and his drink offering. + + It is evident that the lambs less than one year old, without +spot, were to be burned because they were so young and innocent and +would therefore make such a "sweet savor unto the Lord." Nothing is +lacking in this smell but mint sauce. If Moses's to be obeyed on +pain of hell in his command to abstain from work or play on the +Sabbath why is the rest of the program any less sacred? How can the +holy parsons release their congregations from the sacrifice of the +two spotless lambs and the two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour +mingled with oils? + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 21 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + In the Fifteenth Chapter of Numbers, it is related that while +the children of Israel were in the wilderness they found a man +gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day. The Hebrews were evidently at +a loss to know what should be done with him for this most heinous +offense, so they put him in "ward" to await the further orders of +the Lord. It is then related, "and the Lord said unto Moses: The +man shall surely he pat to death; all the congregation shall stone +him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought +him without the camp and stoned him to death with stones: as +Jehovah commanded Moses." In spite of manifold texts like this +there are persons who protest that they love this bloody, +barbarous, tribal God of the Jews. The literature of the Alliance +clearly indicates that its sponsors would follow this command of +Jehovah at the present time if they could only have their way. + + Dr. McQuilkin further tells us that the defenders of the day +have often been too superficial in their contentions on behalf of +this holy Sabbath; that they should soft-pedal the "thou shalt +nots" and "we should thunder our 'thou shalts' into the ears of the +foolish, wicked men who for the sake of pleasure or financial +profit would rob their fellow men or themselves of the precious +rest God had given them for the cultivation and nurture of their +immortal souls." "Such men," he continues, "must be identified with +murderers and suicides." The common punishment for murder is death, +and suicide is death, therefore Dr. McQuilkin, with the rest of his +associates and with his God, believes in the death penalty for +working or playing on the Sabbath. + + How one involuntarily loves this righteous Dr. McQuilkin of +Orange, New Jersey. He must be a man whose love and understanding +oozes from every pore of his body. No doubt the people of Orange +who are burdened with sorrow or sin bring their sore troubles and +lay them on his loving breast. I am sure that little children in +their grief rush to his outstretched arms for solace and relief. + + The Reverend Doctor McQuilkin makes short work of the idea +that you cannot make people good by law. In fact, that seems to him +to be the only way to make them good. Therefore people and +enterprises that commercialize Sundays by baseball games and moving +pictures, who "whine about the impossibility of making people good +by law, ought to go either to school or to jail." Probably the +pastor would be in favor of the Jail. The Reverend Doctor is very +much exercised about his idea that the Sabbath should be spent in +cultivating our "spiritual nature." From the gentle and kindly +character of the doctor's utterances, one judges that he must spend +several days a week cultivating his "spiritual nature." + + The godly doctor is indeed earnest about the church-going. He +says, "God will surely bring us to judgment in the matter of +staying away from church, for church attendance is a definite +obligation, a debt which we owe to God." The doctor has a naive way +of mixing up himself and his private business affairs with the +Lord. + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 22 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + Could it be possible that the Reverend Doctor McQuilkin's +serious case of rabies might be due to vacant pews? Such cases are +related in the following extract from a very disheartening +paragraph put out by the Lord's Day Alliance in a folder entitled +"Let's Save Our American Christian Sabbath." + + A significant part of this falling away from old American + ideals has been the neglect of the churches -- life among + Christian people dropping to a lower plane on Sunday. The lure + of pleasure and the drift to seven-day slavery within a few + years have utterly changed the character of the day. The, + average attendance at Sunday morning services, taken for all + the churches of New York State -- counting large city churches + as well as small country ones -- has steadily dropped until it + has now reached only fifty-three persons. This amounts to but + little more than one-fourth of their total enrolled + membership! The old days of tithes are gone. Lack of support + is making the situation more and more critical and many + churches have had to be abandoned. Is the church to survive? + Are we to remain a Christian nation? + + This is indeed distressing. I can well imagine the feeling of +chagrin that steals over the parson when he talks to fifty persons +on Sunday morning. Here are the few parishioners, solemn-visaged +and sitting impatiently in their pews while a joyous crowd rolls by +in automobiles on their road to hell. I cannot help thinking of the +parson on a Sunday morning, telling the same story over and over +again to his half hundred listeners. + + I have seen this pastor and this congregation in the country +church and the city church. What have they in common with the world +today? Who are these faithful fifty? One-third of them, at least, +are little boys and girls twisting and turning and yawning and +fussing in their stiff, uncomfortable clothes, in the hard church +pews. Then there are the usual fat old women, wearing their Sunday +finery. Their faces are dull and heavy and altogether unlovely. +They no longer think of the world; they are looking straight into +space at the Promised Land. They hold a hymn book or a Bible in +their time-worn hands. Perhaps there are ten full grown men in +church; two or three of these look consumptive; one or two are +merchants who think that being at church will help them sell +prunes; the rest are old and tottering. It has been long years +since a new thought or even an old one has found lodgment in their +atrophied brains. They are, decrepit and palsied and done; so far +as life and the world are concerned, they are already dead. One +feels sympathetic toward the old. But why should the aged, who have +lived their lives, grumble and complain about youth with its +glow and ambition and hope? Why should they sit in the fading light +and watch the world go by and vainly reach out their bony hands to +hold it back? + + Aside from the Lord's Day Alliance's way of appealing to the +law to make people go to church, I can think of only two plans to +fill the pews. First, to abandon a large number of the churches and +give the parsons a chance to find some useful and paying job. +Secondly, to get more up-to-date, human and intelligent preachers +into the church pulpits. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 23 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + The literature issued by the Alliance shows great concern +about Sunday newspapers. These papers consume a great deal of +valuable time on the Sabbath Day. They are in no way the proper +literature for Sunday reading. Automobile trips, too, are an +abomination on the Sabbath. One pamphlet records approval of the +conduct of the "venerable" John D. Paton who even refused to use +street-cars on Sunday while visiting America. He kept his +appointments by long walks, sometimes even having to run between +engagements. This sounds to me strangely like work. Still it might +have been necessary in order to get the proper amount of oxygen +gas. + + Playing golf on Sunday is a sacrilegious practice. A whole +leaflet is prepared by Dr. Jefferson on golf. "No one ought to play +golf on Sunday. ... The golf player may need oxygen but he should +not forget his caddie." The doctor calls our attention to the fact +that men in the days of Moses were mindful of even the least of +these. How our parsons do love Moses and his murderous laws! We are +told that a caddie works, that it is not play to trudge after a +golf ball with a bag of clubs on his back. The leaflets say that +the caddie does not work on Sunday for fun but, for money, and it +"isn't a manly thing for the golf player to hire him to work on +Sunday." We are told that "there are now over one hundred thousand +caddies on the golf links every Sunday. These caddies are making a +living." Of course this picture is pathetic. It is too bad that the +Lord's Day Alliance cannot get these hundred thousand caddies +discharged. Then possibly some of them would go to Church on +Sunday. They might even drop a nickel in the contribution box. + + Does anyone believe that if the caddies were offered the same +money for going to church that they get for hunting golf balls they +would choose the church? It takes a bright boy to be a caddie. + + The caddies do not inspire all the tears; we are told that +Chauffeurs and railroad employees are necessary to take the players +to and from the golf links. This is no doubt true. Still, we have +even seen chauffeurs sitting in automobiles outside a Church where +they had driven their employers to get their souls saved. On our +suburban railroads there are many trains put in service on Sunday +to take people to and from church, but these have not come under +the ban of the Lord's Day Alliance. Its complaint is that so few +trains are needed for this blessed work. + + There is some logic in this folder. We are told that "if golf +is allowable on Sunday, then, so is tennis, baseball basketball, +football, bowling and all other games which our generation is fond +of." "You can't forbid one without forbidding the others," says the +Alliance. We heartily agree with the Reverend Doctor on this +particular question. + + No one needs to go to ball games or movies or play golf on +Sunday unless he wants to spend his time that way. I have never +seen anybody who objected to the members of the Lord's Day Alliance +or any others from abstaining from all kinds of work and all sorts +of play and every method of enjoyment on Sunday. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 24 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + Dr. Robert E. Speer of Englewood, New Jersey, is very definite +and specific as to the proper way to spend Sunday and the sort of +recreation man should naturally enjoy on this holy day. Dr. Speer, +says, "God wants the worship of the Lord's Day and he wants us to +have the indispensable comforts and pleasure of It." One would +think that Dr. Speer got daily messages from God. "We need the day +for meditation and prayer and plans for better living." No one +questions the good doctor's right to satisfy his needs in such way +as seems necessary and pleasurable for him. All that I contend for +is that I, too, shall decide these questions for myself. + + Dr. Speer says: + + There are some things deadly in their power to spoil it + (referring to the Sabbath). One is the Sunday newspapers. I + pass by all that may be denounced as defiling in it. ... There + is harm enough in its "wallow of secularity." ... Look at the + men who feed their minds and souls on Sunday with this food. + They miss the calm and holy peace, the glowing divinity of the + day, + + It is just conceivable that one might read a Sunday newspaper +and still have time for "the glowing divinity of the day," to glow +long enough to satisfy every desire. + + Dr. Speer condemns those who berate the quality of the sermons +preached on Sunday and informs us that the wisest man can learn +something from the poorest preacher, although he neglects to say +Just what. He tells us that a country preacher's sermon is superior +to the country editor's writings or the country lawyer's speeches. +This may be true. It is, at all events, true to Dr. Speer and there +is no reason in the world why he should not hunt up the "poorest +Preacher" that he can find and listen to him on every Sunday. No +doubt Dr. Speer might learn something from him. + + Dr. Speer disapproves of riding on railroad trains on Sunday +if it can be avoided. "Certainly no one should take long railroad +journeys on Sunday." He tells us, "Sunday golf, newspapers, and all +that sort of thing are bad and weakening in their influence. There +are particular evidence of the trend of the man who thus abandons +his birthright." The doctor is more definite in his beautiful +picture of just what one ought to do on the Sabbath Day. On this +subject he says: + + I do not believe that anyone who grew up in a truly + Christian home in which the old ideas prevailed can have any + sympathy with this modern abuse of the old-fashioned + observance of Sunday. There, on Sunday, the demands of the + week were laid aside. The family gathered over the Bible and + the Catechism. There was a quiet calm through the house. + Innumerable things rendered it a marked day, as distinct from + other days, and probably it ended with a rare walk with the + father at the son's side and some sober talk over what is + abiding and what is of eternal worth. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 25 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + We could hazard a guess that the reason that the mother was +not present on this joyful occasion was because she was at home +washing the dishes from a big Sunday dinner that she had prepared. + + It is entirely possible that Dr. Speer's picture of the ideal +Sabbath is a good picture. Doubtless it is good to him. Still, +hidden in my mind and recalled by Dr. Speer's alluring language, is +the memory of his ideal Presbyterian Sunday. This was a day of +unmitigated pain. No spirit or life or joy relieved the boredom and +torture of the endless hours. The day meant misery to all the +young. Even now I can feel the blank despair that overcame youth +and hope as we children left our play on Saturday night and sadly +watched the sun go down and the period of gloom steal across the +world. Why should Dr. Speer and the other dead seek to force that +sort of a Sabbath upon men and women who want to take in their +oxygen gas in the baseball bleachers, or the golf links? + + From Dr. Speer's picture of the ideal Sabbath I infer that he +is a Presbyterian. This opinion has been confirmed by reference to +Who's Who. I find that for long years he has been a Presbyterian +preacher, not only in America, but be has carried the blessed +gospel even into China that the heathen of that benighted land +might not live and die without the consoling knowledge of eternal +hell. + + Dr. Speer's beautiful picture of the old-time Christian +Sabbath describes "the family gathered over the Bible and the +Catechism." I, too, sat under the ministrations of a Presbyterian +preacher and was duly instructed in the Westminster Catechism. In +spite of the aversion and terror that its reference inspired, I +took down the book to read once more the horrible creed of the +twisted and deformed minds who produced this monstrosity which has +neither sense, meaning, justice nor Mercy, but only malignant +depravity. A devilish creed which shocks every tender sentiment of +the human mind. I am inclined to think from their internal evidence +that most of the sermonettes circulated by the Lord's Day Alliance +had their origin in the warped minds of the Presbyterian clergy. I +would hazard a bet that the tender, gentle, loving Dr. McQuilkin is +a Presbyterian I sought to confirm this belief by consulting Who's +Who, but found that the editors had stupidly left out his name. +Still I am convinced that he is a Presbyterian. + + In this ancient Westminster Catechism which few men read I +quote question and answer number sixty: + + Question: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? + + Answer: The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting + all that day, even from such worldly employments and + recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the + whole time in public and private exercises of God's worship, + except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity + and mercy. + + Small wonder that these croakers should seek to call children +from joy and laughter to spend "the whole time in public and +private exercises of God's worship." The wonder is not that these +Divines should seek to place their palled hands upon the youth but + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 26 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + +that an intelligent people, who really do not worship a God of +malignancy and hate, would ever let these lovers of darkness invade +a legislative body. They have no more place in the sunlight and +pure air than croaking frogs and hooting owls. Here is the first +question and answer in this wondrous catechism: + + Question: What is the chief end of man? + + Answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy + Him forever. + + What sort of a God is this in which these parsons believe? A +God who can find no other work for man and no other use for the +emotions that nature placed in him, except to spend his life in +glorifying his maker? Imagine taking a child from play and the life +and activity that nature has made necessary for its being, and +seeking to make him understand something that no preacher can +possibly comprehend. + + Again, as to the simple nature of the Godhead, the catechism +says: "There are three persons in the God-head; the Father, the Son +and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in +substance, equal in power and glory." Imagine a family spending the +whole Sabbath unravelling a mystery like this. It is evident that +any child whose mind has been permanently twisted by this wondrous +logic would later be found visiting legislative bodies and +imploring them to pass laws to blot the sun from the sky on the +Sabbath Day. + + Here is Number 7: + + Question: What are the decrees of God? + + Answer: The decrees of God are His eternal purpose + according to the counsel of His will, where-by, for His own + glory, He has fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass. + + After the child had been made to thoroughly understand how to +harmonize freedom and responsibility of man with the statement that +God had foreordained whatever comes to pass, he might then on pain +of hell tackle number 8: + + Question: What is the work of creation? + + Answer: The work of the creation is God's making all + things of nothing, by word of His power, in the space if six + days, and all very good. + + Any child could understand how God, as the catechism says, is +a "spirit" and could make all things out of nothing, Himself +included. God's justice to man is lucidly explained in the +Westminster Catechism which tells the Sabbath Day student that "the +sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they +were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit." + + Question 16 and answer make this a living issue: + + Question: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first +transgression? + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 27 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + Answer: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for + himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from + him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, + in his first transgression. + + The answer to the seventeenth question says: "The fall brought +mankind into an estate of sin and misery." + + There are thousands of generations between the first man, if +there ever was one, and the boy who likes activity and play on the +Sabbath Day. Unless the boy is perverse and wicked he should +understand the justice of being condemned to an estate of sin and +misery because Adam made a covenant, not only for himself, but for +all his posterity. It is not worth while to quote further from the +Westminster Catechism. This brutal creed runs on for 107 questions +and answers. And this is the shorter catechism! + + It is amazing to think that any human being with ordinary +intelligence would accept such doctrine now. It is still more +amazing that in spite of the brazen effrontery of the Lord's Day +Alliance, legislative bodies should help to enforce such teaching +upon the young. But even this is not sufficiently terrible for a +Sabbath Day diversion. In answer to Question 19 we are told, "All +mankind, by their fall lost communion with God, are under His wrath +and curse and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to +death itself, and to the pains of hell forever." Of coarse, no one +would believe this today except on fear of eternal torture. Does +the fear never enter the minds of those parsons that God might +punish them eternally for believing that He is such a monster? + + When one thinks of this organization with its senseless +leaflets, its stern endeavors, its blank despair, its half-shut +eyes blinking at life, one is reminded of the frogs in the green +scum-covered pond in the woods who sit on their haunches in the +dark and croak all day. No doubt these frogs believe that the germ +infested pond is a sacred pool. They are oblivious of the rolling, +living ocean that lies just beyond. + + Dr. Speer, like the other members of the Lord's Day Alliance, +is very sure that one of the chief occupations of Sunday should be +attending church. Bat what church, pray? We are informed that any +preacher is better to listen to and read from than any Editor, +lawyer or other person, Most of us have heard all sorts of +preachers. We have listened to some whose churches could only be +filled if the lard's Day Alliance should succeed and make it an +offense punishable by death not to go to church. We have heard +preachers who had something to say and could say it well, There is +as much difference in the views and ability of preachers as in +other men. Would Dr. Speer think that we should go to hear the +Fundamentalists or the Unitarians? Should we listen to the Holy +Rollers or the Modernists? + + There are few men outside of the Lord's Day Alliance who would +care to listen to their favorite preacher for a full day and there +are few preachers who would undertake to talk for a whole day. +What, then, must one do for the rest of the time? One simply cannot +sleep all day on Sunday. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 28 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + In all this literature we are constantly urged to preserve our +"American Sabbath." Is there any special holiness that lurks around +an "American Sabbath"? Are not European Christians as competent to +determine the right way to employ their time on Sundays as American +Christians? The Lord's Day folk say that reading the Sunday +newspapers, playing golf, riding in automobiles, and witnessing +baseball games and movies is "un-American." This compound word has +been used to cover a multitude of sins. What it means nobody knows. +It is bunkum meant to serve every cause, good and bad alike. By +what license does the Lord's Day Alliance call its caricature of +Sunday an "American Sabbath?" On what grounds does it urge it as +against the European Sabbath? Is this nightmare which the Lord's +Day Alliance is so anxious to force upon the United States a +product of America? Everyone knows that Sunday, with the rest of +the Christian religion, came to us from Europe. The weird ideas of +the Lord's Day Alliance are European. When and how it came to us is +worth finding out. + + Jesus and His disciples did not believe in the Jewish Sabbath. +They neither abstained from work nor play. St. Paul, specially, +condemned the setting apart of days and said to his disciples, "Ye +observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of ye lest +I have bestowed upon ye labor in vain." + + The early fathers did not approve of any such day as the +Lord's Day Alliance insists shall be fastened upon America. St. +Jerome and his group attended church services on Sunday, but +otherwise pursued their usual occupations. St. Augustine calls +Sunday a festal day and says that the Fourth Commandment is in no +literal sense binding upon Christianity. Even Luther and Calvin +enjoined no such a day upon the Christians as these moderns wish to +fasten upon America that the churches may be filled. The righteous +John Knox "played bowls" on Sunday, and in his voluminous preaching +used no effort to make Sunday a day of gloom wherein people should +abstain from work and play. It was not until 1595 that an English +preacher of Suffolk first insisted that the Jewish Sabbath should +be maintained. The controversy over this question lasted for a +hundred years and resulted in a law proscribing every kind of +Sunday recreation, even "vainly and profanely walking for +pleasure." England Soon reacted against this blue Sabbath and +permitted trading, open theaters and frivolity in the afternoon and +evening. Under the leadership of the Church of England the Sabbath +no longer was a day of gloom and despair. + + The real American Sabbath was born in Scotland after the death +of John Knox. It fits the stern hills, the bleak moors and, the +unfriendly climate of this northern land. It was born of fear and +gloom and it lives by fear and gloom. Early in the Seventeenth +Century, Scotland adopted this stern theory of the Jewish Sabbath +and applied it ruthlessly. The Westminster Confession was adopted +by the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland in 1647 and has +remained the formal standard of faith to the present day. Ordinary +recreations were disallowed. Books and music were forbidden except +such as were recognized as religious in a narrow sense. No +recreation but whiskey-drinking remained, This Presbyterian Sabbath +of Scotland was brought to New England by the early settlers of +America and is, in fact, a Scotch Sabbath -- not an American +Sabbath. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 29 + + THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE + + Even in spite of the natural gloom and cold of Scotland, +Sunday strictness has been greatly modified there in the last fifty +years. It is not the present Scotch Sabbath that these modern +Puritans insist on forcing upon America. It is the old, ferocious, +Scotch Sabbath of the Westminster Confession. It was brought from +a land of gloom into a land of sunshine, and the Lord's Day +Alliance prefers the gloom and hardness of this outworn, out-lived +Scotch Sabbath to the sunshine and joy that comes with a fertile +soil, a mild climate and natural human emotions. + + It is almost unbelievable that a handful of men without reason +or humanity, should be able to force their cruel dogmas upon the +people. Not one in twenty of the residents of the United States +believes in the Sabbath of the Lord's Day Alliance. Our cities, +villages, and even country districts, protest against the bigotry +and intolerance of the lard's Day. Alliance and their kind. Still +in spite of this, by appeal to the obsolete statutes, religious +prejudice, crass ignorance and unfathomable fanaticism, they carry +on their mighty campaign of gloom. + + After long years of effort, with the lazy, cowardly public +that does not want to be disturbed, the Legislature of New York, in +the face of the opposition of the Lord's Day Alliance, managed to +pass a law providing that incorporated cities and towns should have +the right to legalize baseball games and moving picture shows on +Sunday after two o'clock in the afternoon and charge an admission +fee for seeing the entertainment. Why after two o'clock? The answer +is perfectly plain: It is possible that someone might be forced +into church in the morning if there was nowhere else to go. Were +the hours after two o'clock any less sacred in the laws of Moses +and the Prophets than the hours before two o'clock? Or was +Legislature induced to pass this law simply to give the minister a +privilege that it grants to no one else? + + Ours is a cosmopolitan country, made up of all sorts of people +with various creeds. There should be room enough to allow each +person to spend Sunday and every other day according to his own +pleasure and his own profit. In spite of the Lord's Day Alliance +and all other alliances, it is too late in the history of the world +to bring back the Mosaic Sabbath. Regardless of their best +endeavors it will probably never again be a crime punishable by +death to work or play on what they are pleased to call the Lord's +Day. Those ministers who have something to say that appeals to men +and women will be able to make themselves heard without a law +compelling people to go to church. If the Lords Day Alliance can +provide something equally attractive to compete with the Sunday +newspapers, golf, baseball games, movies and the open air, they +will get the trade. If they cannot provide such entertainment, then +in spite of all their endeavors the churches will be vacant. It is +time that those who do not believe in intolerance, but in freedom, +should make themselves heard in no uncertain way. It is time that +men should determine to defend their right to attend to their own +affairs and live their own lives, regardless of the bigots who in +all ages have menaced the welfare of the world and the liberty of +man. + **** **** + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 30 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ddt.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/ddt.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..547cc2e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ddt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ + +Phony Research Led to Ban on DDT + +THE ANGRY ENVIRONMENTALIST SPEAKS OUT +by `Fossil Bill' Kramer + +{DDT took a bum rap!} + + Does this shock you? It did me, but there is no doubt about the facts. + + As a result of America's ban of this cheapest, most effective pesticide +ever developed, millions of people around the world have died of pest-borne +disease. And though few realize it, DDT's absence has adversely affected this +nation as well. + + Who's to blame? In a measure, everyone who, 20 years ago, joined the +lockstep hysteria that brought this about. + + Especially guilty are environmental leaders who shaped public attitudes, +the media who sensationalized their propaganda, and federal bureaucrats who +made the final decision. + + Here I must acknowledge my own complicity. Only 18 months ago, I foolishly +published a column blaming DDT for the near-demise of bald eagles. + + I was still marching lockstep with my eyes closed. + + Now, however, I've examined the facts. It's been an eye-opener. + + There's an old adage: ``Figures don't lie; but liars figure.'' + + Even so, it was appalling to learn that some scientists deliberately +falsified their research, did phony studies aimed at producing misleading +results, and then proclaimed truth revealed. + + It's particularly evil that fraud was the basis for policies which caused +disaster to all sorts of people. + + - The Allegations - + + In 1972, the allegations against DDT were serious: + + 1. It was carcinogenic, and poisonous to humans. + + 2. It persisted in nature, continuing to kill for long periods. + + 3. It was driving bald eagles, brown pelicans, and other birds to +extinction, causing thin eggshells which broke before hatching. ``Birds are +laying omelettes instead of eggs,'' one report said. + + 4. Residues in the oceans threatened the algae which produce the planet's +oxygen. + + And there were other, equally devastating charges. The truth, though, was +quite the opposite. + + The first allegation was false. DDT is not carcinogenic. Nor is it +poisonous. To demonstrate this, people have publicly swallowed it by the +glassful. + + ``DDT hasn't killed anybody,'' says Dr. J. Gordon Edwards, professor of +entomology at San Jose State University. + + ``Even people that sprayed the DDT--130,000 spraymen every year--none of +them ever got sick,'' Edwards says. + + Allegation Number 2 was likewise false. Dr. George Woodwell (co-founder of +the Environmental Defense Fund, which spearheaded the drive against DDT) was a +prime source of derogatory information. He reported that an ``average of 13 +lbs. of DDT per acre'' had been found in the soil of a Long Island, N.Y. +marsh. + + But he didn't report that, to ``discover'' such amounts, ``scientists'' +deliberately sampled only ground where DDT was mixed, loaded into spray +trucks, and the sprayers tested. + + - They Lied - + + In public hearings, Woodwell conceded that his samplings were +``deliberately biased in order to find the highest residues we could find, +because at the time we wondered whether we could find any residues....'' + + EPA's hearing examiner, Edmund Sweeney, was irate. His report cited +``appalling instances'' such as ``publication of ... faulty information which +... was never corrected and apparently is still being relied upon.'' + + Meanwhile, ocean and soil studies by the Department of the Interior showed +that 90% of DDT residues disappeared within 40 days. + + Sweened recommended against banning DDT, but was overruled. EPA Director +William Ruckelshaus in 1970 had declared ``carcinogenic claims concerning DDT +are unproved speculation,'' but in 1972 issued the order banning it. + + Ruckelshaus later admitted the action was political. + + The third allegation--thin eggshells--also turned out to be phony. + + Shells were reported 40% thinner than normal. But ducks fed a diet laced +with DDT showed maximum shell thinning of 15% in one study, while in another, +conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game, they showed thicker +eggshells. + + Meanwhile, another study was deliberately biased by researchers who fed +birds DDT but withheld calcium--and then reported eggshell thinning. + + - And The Algae? - + + Most frightening of all were claims that residues of this supposedly +long-lasting toxin in the oceans would kill the algae which create most of the +Earth's oxygen supply. + + This was demonstrably false. Tests showed even saturated solutions of DDT +in ocean water had no effect on algae. + + Many details could be given if space permitted. But from a world well on +the way to ridding itself of malaria through use of DDT, we now have a planet +where mosquitoes proliferate and perhaps 200 to 300 million cases of malaria +occur each year, killing several million people annually. + + The question is, why do people perpetrate such frauds, and why do the rest +of us continue believing them? + + While spreading phony charges against DDT, doomsayers also were having +highly publicized conniptions about an ``imminent ice age.'' + + Now the identical crowd that prophesied global cooling tells us global +warming is coming. + + Are we going to believe them? + + Let us know your answer. Write: Environmentalist, Box 146, Silver Bay, +Minn. 55614. We'll print the best responses. + + + + + + + +reprinted with permission from + +THE NEW FEDERALIST + +subscriptions $35 per year +published weekly + +P.O. box 889 +Leesburg VA 22075 +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/deadanim.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/deadanim.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a43c09f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/deadanim.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ + Animal's Getted Treated + Like Trash All Over + The World + +ê I wrote this because something pissed me off. Right to life protestors are +not truly that. They think only a bunch of sells is life. But when it comes +to other life they don't say anything about it. They just speak about right +to life for some cells. + +þ The person that wrote that article on abortions and put in that animal get better +treatment is obviously a person that has not kept up with life. + +þ Comparing Unborn cell matter to live animals is like comparing water and land. +Live animals are used in experiments everyday. + +ù Since the ruling that dogs cannot be used in experiments about 12 years ago, +about 2 million live dogs are saved every year. Not counting the millions that +get destroyed in pounds every single year. Not counting the ones that are +killed by cars and all that "Nice stuff." Why don't these right to life protestors +say anything about that??? Dogs have the right for a normal existance like +we Human beings. + +ù Elephants are one example of animals that get treated like garbage. These animals +are intelligent and very carismatic. They love like we do, and feel. But they +have a major problem, they look different and they have a valuble ivory tusks. So +since they have these tusks they are hunted. Once there were 10 million but now only +700,000 roam in Africa. Because of man's hatred of animals these wonderful beings +are being slaugtered. Why don't these right to life protestors right about this??? + +ù Arctic Seals are our favorite coat animal. Why? because we think since they +are defensless we can kill them and take their so we can walk around looking pretty. +There were once millions, since because of brutal hunting these numbers have declined to +thousands. Why? because shmucks like these fetus protestors say that these +animals are not important to "USE." Why should they be. Since the laws that passed +to protect them the population has grown. + +ù Gorillas are our closest relative on this planet. But because of man's stupidity +these animals were almost wiped out because of how they look and myths. The sickness +is so wide spread. Example some had there heads and arms chopped off for collection +purposes. And these were live Gorrilas. Not a fetus gorilla. + +è In closing animals don't have it easy. They get hunted, killed and mutilated +because they are not human beings. I have only metioned a little bit while there is +so much else. The person that wrote that article deadbaby.txt is quite stupid +if he or she thinks animals get it easy. Don't compare there lives to the lives +of human beings. Remember there are 6 billion human beings on this planet while +ony 800 million animal types. You judge who has the most. And another thing, you +can kill a million cats or dogs and get fined only for the property you have destroyed +but when you kill a human being you get sent up the river and fed for a certain +amount of time. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/deadbaby.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/deadbaby.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ab5e4d0f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/deadbaby.txt @@ -0,0 +1,246 @@ + + 101 USES FOR A DEAD (or live) BABY + by Olga Fairfax, Ph.D + +. When I saw the first ad on TV advertising collagen-enriched +cosmetics I was speechless. We'll be apologizing to Hitler, I +thought; at least he didn't kill for money! +. Collagen is the gelatinous substance found in connective tissue, +bone and cartilage. Nick Thimmesch's syndicated column, "Our Grisly +Human Fetal Industry" documents that amniotic fluid and collagen can +come from fetal material, since the Food and Drug Administration does +not require pretesting or the identification of cosmetic ingredients. +. A glance through a local drug store revealed that the leading 12 +shampoos and five hand creams all contained collagen. +. Check your beauty products and you may be shocked! Unless your +beauty product specifies animal collagen or bovine collagen, the +product probably contains human collagen. The drug company should be +challenged at once. Even collagen taken from a human placenta raises +questions about respect of life and ownership of the placenta. +. A letter from Mary Kay Cosmetics emphasizes that their collagen +all comes from animals. A similar letter from Hask has also been +received. +. Since there are 1.5 million abortions every year, there is an +abundant source of fetuses for commercial use. +. There's triple profit to be had. The first is from the abortion +(estimated at a half billion dollars a year by Fortune magazine). The +second profit comes from the sale of aborted babies' bodies. The +third profit is from unsuspecting customers buying cosmetics. +. Babies' bodies are sold by the bag, $25 a batch or up to $5500 a +pound. The sale of later-term elective abortions at D.C. General +Hospital brought $68,000 between 1966 and 1976. The money was used to +buy a TV set and cookies and soft drinks for visiting professors. +Personally, I hope that they choked on the Kool-Aid! +. Call your local abortuary and hospital and ask them some pointed +questions about the disposal and possible sale of fetuses. Would an +abortionist who kills a baby think twice about selling its body? One +prenatal killer said, "A baby is becoming property. We kill, keep or +sell the property." +. In the Pittsburgh Women's Health Service there's a sign in the +lab areas asking doctors not to carry dead fetuses without wrapping +them since it disturbs the patients. + + Treated like trash + +. What have abortuaries done with fetuses in the past before they +realized that they could make another profit out of them? +. Well, "Richmond's shame" marked a new low in disposal of wastes. +An abortion center there filled a long bin on the rear of its property +with the remains of its day's nefarious doings. Its trash compactor +neatly mashed 100 babies' bodies which were then tied up in plastic +bags and thrown on top of the bin. +. "The hungry dogs came along and dragged the bags away. There +were frequent fights and the contents of the bags would be strewn up +and down the streets until the dogs separated the gauze, sponges and +pads and devoured the placenta, bones and flesh of the babies." said a +mother. +. She went to the police, health department and city hall and felt +that she got nowhere: but the bags, of warm human babies' mutilated +parts disappeared from the streets even though the clinic increased +its abortions from 25 to 150 a week. They've since moved to larger +quarters. +. The Jacksonville, Florida, Womens' Center for Reproductive +Health, which is run and owned by the Clergy Consultation Service, +advertises "celebrating a decade of service." + + Nothing to Celebrate + +. What they don't advertise is that they leave aborted babies out +for the trash pickup. Rev. Marvin Lutz, the director explained that +the practice of leaving the remains out was perfectly legal and +approved by the "good housekeeping" Judases, the National Abortion +Federation and the Florida Abortion Council. +. Dr. Jeronimo Dominguez of New York wrote that "on any Monday you +can see about 30 garbage bags with fetal material in them along the +sidewalks of several abortion clinics in New York." +. In Odessa, Texas, city ordinance 69-91 forbids placing a dead +animal in a dumpster. But that didn't stop one abortionist from +depositing large brown plastic bags full of sock like gauze bags into +the city dumpster prior to closing every night. +. A Baptist minister opened the bags and to his horror found a +little "perfectly formed hands and feet of a 13-week old baby and the +complete body, in pieces, of a 17-week old baby. Everything except +one foot was there: the rib cage, sexual organs, head, finger nails +and toe nails." +. He nearly died of shock. I nearly did too, reading about it. + + They Burn Babies, Don't They? + +. Babies used to be burned on the altar to Baal; now they're burned +in furnaces at the sites of their deaths. +. In Cincinnati, a prenatal killer allowed dense smoke to emanate +from his chimney. When firemen were called they were told, "They're +burning babies," as if that was routine. +. One wonders how life saving firemen could continue their +dedication amid such a contradiction! +. One pro-lifer overheard her children (ages five and seven) +discussing the infamous picture of the babies in the trash can the +first time they saw it. +. "It's dolls, It has to be dolls," said the kindergartner. "No," +said his pre-school sister, "it's babies." The older child couldn't +believe it. "It has to be dolls," he insisted. "Why would anyone +throw away babies?" +. When their mother explained to them that it was babies, both +children grew very quiet. Silently they studied the picture and then +recalled the times they had gone on trips to the city dump with the +family. "Will the rats eat the babies when they take them to the +dump?" the boy asked. + + Animals Fare Better + +. A wounded American eagle was found in Maryland recently and +rushed to emergency treatment but it was too late. He died. A $5000 +reward was offered for the arrest of its killer. +. Similarly, the Izaak Walton League's ethics fund has spent nearly +$60,000 in the last one and one half years to enhance outdoor ethics. +. It is illegal to ship pregnant lobsters (regardless of which +trimester!) to market. There's a $1000 fine and a year's jail term as +a penalty. +. The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that goldfish cannot be +awarded as prizes in games of chance. This violates the state's anti- +cruelty law to protect the "tendency to dull humanitarian feelings and +corrupt the morals of those who observe them." This same court upheld +mandatory state funding of abortions! +. If the human fetus were an animal, its welfare might be entrusted +to the Department of Agriculture or the Fish and Wildlife service +where it would be safer than at the mercy of the Health Department. +The hackles of the SPCA would rise at the physical treatment it +received. + + The New Laboratory Rat + +. Some researchers insist that the reason they must do research on +human fetuses is because they are human, not animal. +. In a it-shouldn't-happen to a dog story, 47 senators voted in +1974 to protect dogs from experimentation with poisonous gas but then +voted down Senator Jess Helm's amendment to prevent federal funds from +being used for abortion. One liberal, pro-abortion Senator gave an +emotion laden speech to protect dogs. Man's best friend came out +better than man himself! +. Who is pressing for the "right" to experiment? No one less than +the nation Institutes of Health. A stacked national commission gave +them the "right" and this experimentation is funded by you, the +taxpayer! +. There is another sequel to the erosion of the value of human +life. Abortion, fetal experimentation, infanticide and euthanasia are +four walls of the same coffin. +. Even Planned Parenthood's anti-life lawyer Harriet Pilpel was +shocked. "What mother (sic) would consent to an experiment on her +fetus?" she asked. + + A Few Choice Examples + +. Some of the more shocking facts that will give you heart +palpitations include: + +o The young couple who wanted to conceive a child to be aborted so +that the father to be could use the baby's kidneys for a transplant +that he needed himself. + +o In California, babies aborted at six months were submerged in jars +of liquid with high oxygen content to see if they could breathe +through their skins. They couldn't. + +o The hysterotomy aborted fetus in the seventh, eighth and ninth +months is removed intact (translation: the babe is alive). The trade +in fetal tissue is about $1 million annually. The high prices may +encourage unnecessary abortions on welfare patients as the surest way +of getting "salable tissue." + +o Dr. Robert Schwartz, chief of pediatrics at the Cleveland +Metropolitan Hospital, said that, "After a baby is delivered, while it +is still linked to its mother by the umbilical cord, I take a blood +sample, sever the cord and then as quickly as possible remove the +organs and tissues." + +o Magee Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh packed aborted babies in ice +for shipment to experimental labs. + +o Newsday reported that an Ohio medical research company tested the +brains and hearts of 100 fetuses as part of a $300,000 pesticide +contract. + + The Modern Scalp Display? + +o Human embryos and other organs have been encased in plastic and sold +as paperweight novelty items. + +o The Diabetes Treatment Project at UCLA depends for its existence on +the availability of pancreases from later term aborted fetuses. + +o A rabies vaccine is produced from viruses grown in the lungs of +aborted children, according to FDA. A polio vaccine was also grown +with cells from aborted kids. + +o Brain cells would be "harvested" from aborted babies for transplant. + +o Tissue cultures are obtained by dropping still living babies into +meat grinders and homogenizing them, according to the prestigious New +England Journal of Medicine. + +o The Village Voice reported estimates seven years ago that 20,000 to +100,000 fetuses are sold to drug companies each year in the U.S. + +o A $6000,000 grant from H.I.H. enabled one baby (among many others in +the experiment done in Finland to be sliced open without an anesthetic +so that a liver could be obtained. The researcher in charge said that +the baby was complete and "was even secreting urine." He disclaimed +the need for anesthetic, saying an aborted baby is just garbage." + + Don't tell God! + +o A study on the severed heads of 12 babies delivered by C-section who +were kept alive for months. + +o Even the baby's placenta is sold for 50 cents to drug companies. +Ever heard of Placenta Plus shampoo? + +. And the atrocities go on. Will the unborn be regarded as handy +little organ sources? Will our preborn brothers and sisters become a +source of spare body parts? +. Listen to the newscasters - they are already pleading nationwide +for organs. It's enough to make you tear up your organ donor card! +At least adults can consent to being inventorized like a body shop's +spare parts department but Little Bugger cannot! +. After reading that aborted babies' fat is being used to make soap +in England and the fact that the former head of the federal Centers +for Disease Control abortion surveillance branch proposed that +abortions should be charged for by the length of the baby's foot, are +we surprised that babies are treated this way in the Year of the Child +or the Year of the Disabled? +. After reading the above, if your heart is still beating, run, +don't walk, to your nearest prayer closet and start praying! + +. SYSOP's note: Everything you have just read is quite true. Dr. +Fairfax has documentation and clippings to support every point made in +this article. You may obtain a copy from her - Please send a donation +with your request for the 10 pages to Dr. Olga Fairfax, 12105 +Livingston St., Weaton, MD 20902. Olga Fairfax, Ph.D is director of +Methodist United for Life. + +. This article was transcribed from the Christian Contender Vol. 1, +No.3, April 1984 by Anton Johnson. They reprinted it by permission of +A.L.L. About Issues Magazine, P.O. Box 490 Stafford, Va. 22554. + +Computers for Christ - Chicago + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/decades.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/decades.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..72553419 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/decades.txt @@ -0,0 +1,184 @@ + The Esoteric Society presents + + Decades: Where Are We Headed? + + by King Diamond + +Centre of Eternity 615.552.5747 HQ of The Esoteric Society and Toxic Shock +___________________________________________________________________________ + + Loosely termed "the Eighties". The Eighties are almost over. Prepare +ourselves for the nineties. This has definitely been a decade of superior +change, needless to say. Reagan took to the Presidency. Negotiation with the +Soviet Union. Summits. Where are we headed? Gorbachev announces a situation of +"Glasnost". Openess? Where are we headed? + + A decade of music. Styles. Rock. Roll. Transformation from a period of good +solid music. Creedence Clearwater Revival. Led Zeppelin. Boston. From seventies +to eighties, our tastes and styles in music have changed. To soft rock, movie +soundtracks. Michael Jackson. Prince. Chicago. Duran Duran. Van Halen. +Madonna. Onto Whitesnake, Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Metallica. Onto Slayer, +Megadeth, AC/DC, Anthrax, Manilla Road, Tesla, Ozzy and Lita. Where are we +headed? + + An age of arms reductions. We want peace: can we achieve it? Where are we +headed? Long-range missles. Short-range missles. Are they needed? Can +peace be achieved to a point of total DEFENSELESSNESS? As Reagan's second +term ends, so begins the term of his vice-president, George Bush. + + Bush knew Reagan's aims. Bush strives to achieve the same peace, a commitment +to understanding the world and its problems. Is he screwing us over? Screwing +things up? Where are we headed? Bush may get a second term in office. Maybe +not. Should he? We can't even locate Manuel Noriega in Panama of all the +shitty embarrassing things. Did our great country find him? No. Noriega turned +HIMSELF in to political asylum. Where are we headed? Is this the kind of force +that will be our backbone in real war and chaos? Maybe so. + + The Middle East. The Gaza Strip. The Persian Gulf. Tankers and carriers +shredded, the warmth and essence of life within destroyed. Planes shot down. +Families torn. Is this any token of "world peace"? Can we stop it? Where are +we headed? Are we plunging headfirst into chaotic darkness? + + Lybia. The eighties held for us a time in the Mediterranean. Shooting down +planes. Defending ourselves and the morals we stand for. Khaddafi. Real +leader or egotistical son of a bitch? I imagine his mother WAS a bitch but +that's beside the point. He ran, he hid. Assumed dead. No. He was alive even +after our great men bombed the hole. Destroyed a city. Innocent bystanders +in the grip of an enemy. Where were we headed? We have achieved an amount of +peace but is it enough? + + The latter times. East Berlin. Citizens tasting a "freedom" for the first +time. Is it a real freedom? The Berlin Wall coming down (coming down, Berlin +Wall is coming down, my fair lady... oh excuse me that's "London Bridge"), +sledgehammers, concerned citizens, long for freedom. Is it real? Should it +be real? Recent chaos in Rumania. Further destruction in Europe? Where are +we headed? Is this peace we so strive to reach really grabbing hold and taking +effect? + + Drugs. They are here, they have been here. In the eighties the scare of +drugs has emerged and blown in our faces. Drugs are everywhere, can they be +stopped? The eighties brought on the scare of AIDS. AIDS. A seemingly +invincible killer. Science. It strives to annihilate the AIDS virus. +Breakthroughs are being made everyday in the field, treatments for AIDS, +cancer, leukemia, heart disease. Lasers. The medical field can use this +technology to a great advantage. The eighties is not entirely bad. Health. +Healthier lives lived. Longer lifespans for all. But Hunger. + + Hunger. The eighties brought about groups of concerned citizens of the world +to help relieve the hunger crisis in poor African third-world countries. +Money. Food. Supplies. Where did they go? Many reports say alot of money went +to fund huge office parties in England. To buy bullshit for RICH people. +Hunger. In Africa. World effort? They are still hunger. Were our efforts +fruitful? Where are we headed? Is this peace and bonding together holding in +our tie with Africa? No. They are hungry. But we have our own problems. +Problems that need to be solved above all others. + + Again drugs. Drug cartels forming armies to fight and take over Colombian +government. A cry for help. Can we not stop it? But we have our own problems. +But the problem in Colombia affects us. Drug imports. Drugs on the streets. +New drugs. Ecstacy. Ice. Crack. All of which have risen to popularity in the +so GLAMOROUS period of the eighties. Children dying. Children SELLING. No +more than ten years old, on the streets pushing dope. AIDS again. Drug users +sharing dirty needles. Spreading. + + Sexual spread of AIDS. Adult shops. Pornographic times. Kinky sex. Sex fads. +Can they be stopped? Should they be stopped? People are free to fuck as they +wish, yet the spread of AIDS and the death it can bring sheds no effect on +those who are at high risk? Prostitutes? Whores? + + Oliver North trials. A landmark in the eighties. A big deal. Was he a good +man? Some say he was. Others not. He "couldn't remember" jack SHIT. Was he +defending his country, or just fucking around? Where ARE we headed? + + Televangelists. As popular or even MORE popular than the Iran-Contra scandal, +it rose to a screaming popular high. Everyone knew about it. Jim Bakker. +His bitch Tammy Faye. Dripping make-up. Alot of it became a joke to many. But +a so-called "religious and God-fearing man" stole hundreds of millions of +dollars from his "ministry" for his own use. An air-conditioned dog house. +And people LIKED this man? Jimmmy Swaggart. Convulsive face shaking and +bawling and begging the church for his forgiveness? A man that some people +thought GOOD? Where are we headed? + + Saturday Night Live. Satires of all the events of the eighties. Many well +portrayed. There'll never be another John Belushi, but the new cast of the +show has portrayed Our Decade's events well. Political issues. Religious +issues. Moral issues. Hats off to Dennis Miller for Weekend Update. Hats +off to Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, John Lovitz and +Victoria Jackson for their acting ability and portrayal. Nora Dunn for +hers of one of the Sweenie sisters and of Leona Helmsley. Victoria Jackson +for being such a ditz, and for impersonating Zsa Zsa Gabor. Phil Hartman for +everything, Jan Hooks for Sweenie sister #2 and most of all - TAMMY FAYE BAKER. +Dana Carvey for Church Lady! John Lovitz for Tommy Flanagan and Master +Thespian. But enough of that bullshit. + + The eighties started off with a bang. Which is a bad choice of words since +the occurrence of the Challenger incident. Good people, going to space to +do great service in our space program. An explosion. A dream shattered. +Families and children shattered. It stayed with us. It was long before we +return on our space venture. We have sent up satellites. All kinds. But +much space junk. Star Wars. The first half of the eighties brought about the +Star Wars controversy. Our space program is improving rapidly as our +technology improves. Soon we may have manned missions to Mars. Shall +technology and science improved, our goal may be achieved. Does it serve +a purpose though? Maybe so. Where is our space program headed? + + The sun is ever expanding outward. It is supposed to, in several million +years, heat the Earth to lifelessness, finally expanding outward and +engulfing it. But will we burn our own selves up before the sun expands +any further? Greenhouse effect. A major issue. Chemicals, toxic fog. +Smog in cities. Dirty air. Carbon dioxide heating the Earth. Ozone holes. +Why are we destroying our major protection from the sun's harmful rays? We +WANT to stay alive, have a safe planet for our children and descendants to +live on. And now in our own lifetimes we are destroying our planet? Where +in the HELL are we HEADED? + + Save the whales. Greenpeace. I want to find out more about them and their +goals. They are not only saving whales but other animals. Certain endangered +types of marine life. Porpoises. Tuna fishermen killing porpoises uselessly. +Arbor Day Foundation. Plant trees. Rain forests. Leveled. We show concern +for our atmosphere but yet we burn down trees, trees which convert the heating +carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen and energy for animals? Why? Where are we +headed? + + Polar shift. Earthquakes. Tornadoes. Hurricanes. Some say these are reminders +from God that we are straying from a spiritual path. We are not worshipping +him like we should and are living sinful lives. Others say that these +occurrences reflect a major event to happen, possibly a sudden polar shift. +Who knows. Utter chaos on our planet. Churches preaching of Rapture. Where +are we headed? Only the future can tell us. +___________________________________________________________________________ + +I have asked so many questions. It's pitiful. To have so many things, so little +answers. Help us all unite and fight the destruction of our planet. A depleting +ozone layer that shields us from harm. Buy non-aerosol hairsprays (for you +bitches who use ten tons of a morning). Depletion of natural resources. +Adapt your lifestyles to that situation. I should practice what I preach, I +am beginning to. It sickens me to see the situation we are in. The world we +live in, doused in pitiful shame. The world our CHILDREN will live in. + +So many questions. So few answers. +___________________________________________________________________________ + +(c) December 24, 1989. End of the eighties. Where Are We Headed? + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/declarat.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/declarat.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..aac4b27a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/declarat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,337 @@ +DECLARATION OF THE CAUSES AND NECESSITY OF TAKING UP ARMS, + July 6, 1775 + +A declaration by the representatives of the united colonies of +North America, now met in Congress at Philadelphia, setting +forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms. + +If it was possible for men, who exercise their reason to +believe, that the divine Author of our existence intended a +part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an +unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite +goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never +rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the +inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the +parliament of Great-Britain some evidence, that this dreadful +authority over them, has been granted to that body. But a +reverance for our Creator, principles of humanity, and the +dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect +upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote +the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the +attainment of that end. The legislature of Great-Britain, +however, stimulated by an inordinate passion for a power not +only unjustifiable, but which they know to be peculiarly +reprobated by the very constitution of that kingdom, and +desparate of success in any mode of contest, where regard +should be had to truth, law, or right, have at length, +deserting those, attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic +purpose of enslaving these colonies by violence, and have +thereby rendered it necessary for us to close with their last +appeal from reason to arms. Yet, however blinded that +assembly may be, by their intemperate rage for unlimited +domination, so to sight justice and the opinion of mankind, +we esteem ourselves bound by obligations of respect to the +rest of the world, to make known the justice of our cause. +Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, +left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence +for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their +blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least +charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing +labour, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements +in the distant and unhospitable wilds of America, then filled +with numerous and warlike barbarians. -- Societies or +governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed +under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse +was established between the colonies and the kingdom from which +they derived their origin. The mutual benefits of this union +became in a short time so extraordinary, as to excite +astonishment. It is universally confessed, that the amazing +increase of the wealth, strength, and navigation of the realm, +arose from this source; and the minister, who so wisely and +successfully directed the measures of Great-Britain in the +late war, publicly declared, that these colonies enabled her +to triumph over her enemies. --Towards the conclusion of that +war, it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. +-- From that fatal movement, the affairs of the British empire +began to fall into confusion, and gradually sliding from the +summit of glorious prosperity, to which they had been advanced +by the virtues and abilities of one man, are at length +distracted by the convulsions, that now shake it to its deepest +foundations. -- The new ministry finding the brave foes of +Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still contending, took +up the unfortunate idea of granting them a hasty peace, and +then subduing her faithful friends. + +These colonies were judged to be in such a state, as to present +victories without bloodshed, and all the easy emoluments of +statuteable plunder. -- The uninterrupted tenor of their +peaceable and respectful behaviour from the beginning of +colonization, their dutiful, zealous, and useful services +during the war, though so recently and amply acknowledged in +the most honourable manner by his majesty, by the late king, +and by parliament, could not save them from the meditated +innovations. -- Parliament was influenced to adopt the +pernicious project, and assuming a new power over them, have +in the course of eleven years, given such decisive specimens +of the spirit and consequences attending this power, as to +leave no doubt concerning the effects of acquiescence under +it. They have undertaken to give and grant our money without +our consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive right +to dispose of our own property; statutes have been passed for +extending the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and +vice-admiralty beyond their ancient limits; for depriving us +of the accustomed and inestimable privilege of trial by jury, +in cases affecting both life and property; for suspending the +legislature of one of the colonies; for interdicting all +commerce to the capital of another; and for altering +fundamentally the form of government established by charter, +and secured by acts of its own legislature solemnly confirmed +by the crown; for exempting the "murderers" of colonists from +legal trial, and in effect, from punishment; for erecting in +a neighbouring province, acquired by the joint arms of +Great-Britain and America, a despotism dangerous to our very +existence; and for quartering soldiers upon the colonists in +time of profound peace. It has also been resolved in +parliament, that colonists charged with committing certain +offences, shall be transported to England to be tried. +But why should we enumerate our injuries in detail? By one +statute it is declared, that parliament can "of right make laws +to bind us in all cases whatsoever." What is to defend us +against so enormous, so unlimited a power? Not a single man of +those who assume it, is chosen by us; or is subject to our +control or influence; but, on the contrary, they are all of them +exempt from the operation of such laws, and an American revenue, +if not diverted from the ostensible purposes for which it is +raised, would actually lighten their own burdens in proportion, +as they increase ours. We saw the misery to which such despotism +would reduce us. We for ten years incessantly and ineffectually +besieged the throne as supplicants; we reasoned, we remonstrated +with parliament, in the most mild and decent language. + +Administration sensible that we should regard these oppressive +measures as freemen ought to do, sent over fleets and armies to +enforce them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is +true; but it was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal, and +affectionate people. A Congress of delegates from the United +Colonies was assembled at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of last +September. We resolved again to offer an humble and dutiful +petition to the King, and also addressed our fellow-subjects of +Great-Britain. We have pursued every temperate, every respectful +measure; we have even proceeded to break off our commercial +intercourse with our fellow-subjects, as the last peaceable +admonition, that our attachment to no nation upon earth should +supplant our attachment to liberty. -- This, we flattered +ourselves, was the ultimate step of the controversy: but +subsequent events have shewn, how vain was this hope of finding +moderation in our enemies. + +Several threatening expressions against the colonies were +inserted in his majesty's speech; our petition, tho' we were +told it was a decent one, and that his majesty had been pleased +to receive it graciously, and to promise laying it before his +parliament, was huddled into both houses among a bundle of +American papers, and there neglected. The lords and commons in +their address, in the month of February, said, that "a rebellion +at that time actually existed within the province of Massachusetts- +Bay; and that those concerned with it, had been countenanced and +encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements, entered into +by his majesty's subjects in several of the other colonies; and +therefore they besought his majesty, that he would take the most +effectual measures to inforce due obediance to the laws and +authority of the supreme legislature." -- Soon after, the +commercial intercourse of whole colonies, with foreign countries, +and with each other, was cut off by an act of parliament; by +another several of them were intirely prohibited from the +fisheries in the seas near their coasts, on which they always +depended for their sustenance; and large reinforcements of ships +and troops were immediately sent over to general Gage. + +Fruitless were all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an +illustrious band of the most distinguished peers, and commoners, +who nobly and strenuously asserted the justice of our cause, to +stay, or even to mitigate the heedless fury with which these +accumulated and unexampled outrages were hurried on. -- equally +fruitless was the interference of the city of London, of Bristol, +and many other respectable towns in our favor. Parliament +adopted an insidious manoeuvre calculated to divide us, to +establish a perpetual auction of taxations where colony should +bid against colony, all of them uninformed what ransom would +redeem their lives; and thus to extort from us, at the point of +the bayonet, the unknown sums that should be sufficient to +gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity, with the +miserable indulgence left to us of raising, in our own mode, the +prescribed tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating could +have been dictated by remorseless victors to conquered enemies? +in our circumstances to accept them, would be to deserve them. + +Soon after the intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this +continent, general Gage, who in the course of the last year had +taken possession of the town of Boston, in the province of +Massachusetts-Bay, and still occupied it a garrison, on the 19th +day of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his +army, who made an unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the +said province, at the town of Lexington, as appears by the +affidavits of a great number of persons, some of whom were +officers and soldiers of that detachment, murdered eight of the +inhabitants, and wounded many others. From thence the troops +proceeded in warlike array to the town of Concord, where they set +upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, +killing several and wounding more, until compelled to retreat by +the country people suddenly assembled to repel this cruel +aggression. Hostilities, thus commenced by the British troops, +have been since prosecuted by them without regard to faith or +reputation. -- The inhabitants of Boston being confined within +that town by the general their governor, and having, in order to +procure their dismission, entered into a treaty with him, it was +stipulated that the said inhabitants having deposited their arms +with their own magistrate, should have liberty to depart, taking +with them their other effects. They accordingly delivered up +their arms, but in open violation of honour, in defiance of the +obligation of treaties, which even savage nations esteemed +sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, +that they might be preserved for their owners, to be seized by a +body of soldiers; detained the greatest part of the inhabitants +in the town, and compelled the few who were permitted to retire, +to leave their most valuable effects behind. + +By this perfidy wives are separated from their husbands, children +from their parents, the aged and the sick from their relations +and friends, who wish to attend and comfort them; and those who +have been used to live in plenty and even elegance, are reduced +to deplorable distress. + +The general, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a +proclamation bearing date on the 12th day of June, after venting +the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of +these colonies, proceeds to "declare them all, either by name or +description, to be rebels and traitors, to supercede the course +of the common law, and instead thereof to publish and order the +use and exercise of the law martial." -- His troops have +butchered our countrymen, have wantonly burnt Charlestown, +besides a considerable number of houses in other places; our +ships and vessels are seized; the necessary supplies of +provisions are intercepted, and he is exerting his utmost power +to spread destruction and devastation around him. + +We have rceived certain intelligence, that general Carleton, the +governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province +and the Indians to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason +to apprehend, that schemes have been formed to excite domestic +enemies against us. In brief, a part of these colonies now feel, +and all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the vengeance of +administration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of +fire, sword and famine. [1] We are reduced to the alternative of +chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated +ministers, or resistance by force. -- The latter is our choice. +-- We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so +dreadful as voluntary slavery. -- Honour, justice, and humanity, +forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received +from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have +a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and +guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness +which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary +bondage upon them. + +Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources +are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly +attainable. -- We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of +the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not +permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we +were grown up to our present strength, had been previously +exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of +defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating +reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, +that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our +beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we +have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in +defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and +perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being +with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves. + +Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends +and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them +that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so +happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see +restored. -- Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate +measure, or induced us to excite any other nation to war against +them. -- We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of +separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent +states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to +mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by +unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of +offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and +yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death. + +In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our +birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of +it -- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the +honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against +violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay +them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the +aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be +removed, and not before. + +With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and +impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly +implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this +great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on +reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the +calamities of civil war. + + +Notes: +[1] From this point onwards thought to be the work of Jefferson. +[2] Journal of Congress, edited 1800, I, pp 134-139 + + +BACKGROUND: + +The Second Continental Congress was remarkable for several +things, not the least of which was selecting George Washington +as the Commander In Chief of the Continental Army being created +to fight the British Army assembled at Boston. You will recall +that the "Boston Massacre" and events at Lexington, Concord, and +Breeds Hill (next to Bunker Hill) had only recently stirred up +the fighting in the northeastern colonies. Once the business +of creating an army was taken care of, it was deemed necessary +to inform the world of the reasons why the colonies had taken +up arms. The first attempt at drafting such a declaration was +by Thomas Jefferson, but was ruled far too militant. A second +attempt was made by Colonel John Dickinson, known for earlier +pamphlets in which he called himself "The Farmer". The final +result was apparently a combination of both writers. + +Strange that Dickinson should create such a document; he was +under considerable pressure from both his wife and mother, both +Tory sympathizers, and he was no great fan of the New England +representatives to the Congress. An incident related in _A New +Age Now Begins_, written by Page Smith, marks him as an even +more unlikely choice for the writer of such a declaration: + + "Dickinson once more had his way when Congress approved + still another petition to the king. Dickinson was + delighted when it passed and rose to express his pleasure. + There was only one word to which he objected since it + might possibly offend His Majesty, and that was the word + 'Congress'. Whereupon Benjamin Harrison of Virginia + promptly rose and, inclining his head to John Hancock, + declared, 'There is but one word in the paper, Mr. + President, of which I approve, and that is the word + "Congress"." + +In any case, above is the complete text of that document +published almost exactly a year before the Declaration +of Independence. + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/decrypti b/textfiles.com/politics/decrypti new file mode 100644 index 00000000..63de606b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/decrypti @@ -0,0 +1,641 @@ +Decrypting the Puzzle Palace + +previously published in the July, 1992 issue of +Communications of the ACM + +by +John Perry Barlow + + +"A little sunlight is the best disinfectant." + --Justice Louis Brandeis + + +Over a year ago, in a condition of giddier innocence than I enjoy today, +I wrote the following about the discovery of Cyberspace: Imagine +discovering a continent so vast that it may have no other side. Imagine +a new world with more resources than all our future greed might exhaust, +more opportunities than there will ever be entrepreneurs enough to +exploit, and a peculiar kind of real estate which expands with +development. + +One less felicitous feature of this terrain which I hadn't noticed at +the time was a long-encamped and immense army of occupation. + +This army represents interests which are difficult to define. It guards +the area against unidentified enemies. It meticulously observes almost +every activity undertaken there, and continuously prevents most who +inhabit its domain from drawing any blinds against such observation. + +This army marshals at least 40,000 troops, owns the most advanced +computing resources in the world, and uses funds the dispersal of which +does not fall under any democratic review. + +Imagining this force won't require the inventive powers of a William +Gibson. The American Occupation Army of Cyberspace exists. Its name is +the National Security Agency. + +It can be argued that this peculiar institution inhibits free trade, has +damaged American competitiveness, and poses a threat to liberty anywhere +people communicate with electrons. Its principal function, as my +colleague John Gilmore puts it, is "wire-tapping the world." It is free +to do this without a warrant from any judge. + +It is legally constrained from domestic surveillance, but precious few +people are in a good position to watch what, how, or whom the NSA +watches. Those who are tend to be temperamentally sympathetic to its +objectives and methods. They like power, and power understands the +importance of keeping it own secrets and learning everyone else's. + +Whether it is meticulously ignoring every American byte or not, the NSA +is certainly pursuing policies which will render our domestic affairs +transparent to anyone who can afford big digital hardware. Such +policies could have profound consequences on our liberty and privacy. + +More to point, the role of the NSA in the area of domestic privacy needs +to be assessed in the light of other recent federal initiatives which +seem aimed at permanently denying privacy to the inhabitants of +Cyberspace, whether foreign or American. + +Finally it seems an opportune time, directly following our disorienting +victory in the Cold War, to ask if the threats from which the NSA +purportedly protects Americans from are as significant as the hazards +the NSA's activities present. + +Like most Americans I'd never given much thought to the NSA until +recently. (Indeed its very existence was a secret for much of my life. +Beltway types used to joke that NSA stood for "No Such Agency.") I +vaguely knew that the NSA was one of the twelve or so shadowy federal +spook houses erected shortly after the creation of the Iron Curtain with +the purpose of stopping its advance. + +The NSA originated in response to a memorandum sent by Harry Truman on +October 24, 1952 to Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Defense +Secretary Robert Lovatt. This memo, the very existence of which remained +secret for almost 40 years, created the NSA, placed it under the +authority of the Secretary of Defense, and charged it with monitoring +and decoding any signal transmission relevant to the security of the +United States. + +Even after I started noticing the NSA, my natural immunity to paranoia +combined with a belief in the incompetence of all bureaucracies +continued to mute any sense of alarm. This was before I began to +understand the subterranean battles raging over data encryption and the +NSA's role in them. Lately, I'm less sanguine. + +Encryption may be the only reliable method for securing privacy in the +inherently public domain of Cyberspace. I certainly trust it more than +privacy protection laws. Relying on government to protect your privacy +is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds. + +In fact, we already have a strong-sounding federal law protecting our +electronic privacy, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act or ECPA. +But this law is not very effective in those areas where electronic eaves +dropping is technically easy. This is especially true in the area of +cellular phone conversations, which, under the current analog +transmission standard, are easily accessible to anyone from the FBI to +you. + +The degree of present-day law enforcement apprehension over secure +cellular encryption provides evidence of how seriously they've been +taking ECPA. Law enforcement organizations are moving on a variety of +fronts to see that robust electronic privacy protection systems don't +become generally available to the public. Indeed, the current +administration may be so determined to achieve this end they may be +willing to paralyze progress in America's most promising technologies +rather than yield. + +Push is coming to shove in two areas of communications technology: +digital transmission of heretofore analog signals, and the encryption of +transmitted data. + +As the communications service providers move to packet switching, fiber +optic transmission lines, digital wireless, ISDN and other advanced +techniques, what have been discrete channels of continuous electrical +impulses, voices audible to anyone with alligator clips on the right +wires, are now becoming chaotic blasts of data packets, readily +intelligible only to the sender and receiver. This development +effectively forecloses traditional wire-tapping techniques, even as it +provides new and different opportunities for electronic surveillance. + +It is in the latter area where the NSA knows its stuff. A fair +percentage of the digital signals dispatched on planet Earth must pass +at some point through the NSA's big sieve in Fort Meade, Maryland, 12 +underground acres of the heaviest hardware in the computing world. +There, unless these packets are also encrypted with a particularly +knotty algorithm, sorting them back into their original continuity is +not very difficult. + +In 1991, alarmed at a future in which it would have to sort through an +endless fruit salad of encrypted bits, the FBI persuaded Senator Joseph +Biden to include certain language in Senate Bill 266. The new language +in the bill required electronic communications services and those who +created communications devices to implement only such encryption methods +as would assure government's ability to extract the plain text of any +voice or data communications in which it took a legal interest. It was +as if the government had responded to a technological leap in lock +design by requiring all building contractors to supply it with skeleton +keys to every door in America. + +The provision raised wide-spread concern in the computer community, +which was better equipped to understand its implications than the +general public. In August of last year, the Electronic Frontier +Foundation, in cooperation with Computer Professionals for Social +Responsibility and other industry groups, successfully lobbied to have +it removed from the bill. + +Our celebration was restrained. We knew we hadn't seen the last of it. +For one thing, the movement to digital communications does create some +serious obstacles to traditional wire-tapping procedures. I fully +expected that law enforcement would be back with new proposals, which I +hoped might be ones we could support. But what I didn't understand then, +and am only now beginning to appreciate, was the extent to which this +issue had already been engaged by the NSA in the obscure area of export +controls over data encryption algorithms. Encryption algorithms, +despite their purely defensive characteristics, have been regarded by +the government of this country as weapons of war for many years. If they +are to be employed for privacy (as opposed to authentication) and they +are any good at all, their export is licensed under State Department's +International Traffic in Arms Regulations or ITAR. + +The encryption watchdog is the NSA. It has been enforcing a policy, +neither debated nor even admitted to, which holds that if a device or +program contains an encryption scheme which the NSA canUt break fairly +easily, it will not be licensed for international sale. Aside for +marveling at the silliness of trying to embargo algorithms, a practice +about as pragmatic as restricting the export of wind, I didn't pay much +attention to the implications of NSA encryption policies until February +of this year. It was then that I learned about the deliberations of an +obscure group of cellular industry representatives called the Ad Hoc +Authentication Task Force, TR45.3 and of the influence which the NSA has +apparently exercised over their findings. + +In the stately fashion characteristic of standard-setting bodies, this +group has been working for several years on a standard for digital +cellular transmission, authentication, and privacy protection. This +standard is known by the characteristically whimsical telco moniker +IS-54B. + +In February they met near Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. At that +meeting, they recommended, and agreed not to publish, an encryption +scheme for American-made digital cellular systems which many +sophisticated observers believe to be intentionally vulnerable. It was +further thought by many observers that this Rdumbing downS had been done +indirect cooperation with the NSA. Given the secret nature of the new +algorithm, its actual merits were difficult to assess. But many +cryptologists believe there is enough in the published portions of the +standard to confirm that it isnUt any good. + +One cryptographic expert, who asked not to be identified lest the NSA +take reprisals against his company, said: +"The voice privacy scheme, as opposed to the authentication scheme, is +pitifully easy to break. It involves the generation of two `voice +privacy masks' each 260 bits long. They are generated as a byproduct of +the authentication algorithm and remain fixed for the duration of a +call. The voice privacy masks are exclusive_ORed with each frame of data +from the vocoder at the transmitter. The receiver XORs the same mask +with the incoming data frame to recover the original plain text. Anyone +familiar with the fundamentals of cryptanalysis can easily see how weak +this scheme is." + +And indeed, Whitfield Diffie, co-inventor of Public Key cryptography and +arguably the dean of this obscure field, told me this about the fixed +masks: +"Given that description of the encryption process, there is no need for +the opponents to know how the masks were generated. Routine +cryptanalytic operations will quickly determine the masks and remove +them." + +Some on the committee claimed that possible NSA refusal of export +licensing had no bearing on the algorithm they chose. But their decision +not to publish the entire method and expose it to cryptanalytical abuse +(not to mention ANSI certification) was accompanied by the following +convoluted justification: +"It is the belief of the majority of the Ad Hoc Group, based on our +current understanding of the export requirements, that a published +algorithm would facilitate the cracking of the algorithm to the extent +that its fundamental purpose is defeated or compromised." (Emphasis +added.) + +Now this is a weird paragraph any way you parse it, but its most +singular quality is the sudden, incongruous appearance of export +requirements in a paragraph otherwise devoted to algorithmic integrity. +In fact, this paragraph is itself code, the plain text of which goes +something like this: "We're adopting this algorithm because, if we +don't, the NSA will slam an export embargo on all domestically +manufactured digital cellular phones." + +Obviously, the cellular phone system manufacturers and providers are not +going to produce one model for overseas sale and another for domestic +production. Thus, a primary effect of NSA-driven efforts to deny some +unnamed foreign enemy secure cellular communications is on domestic +security. The wireless channels available to Americans will be cloaked +in a mathematical veil so thin that, as one crypto- expert put it, "Any +county sheriff with the right PC-based black box will be able to monitor +your cellular conversations." + +When I heard him say that, it suddenly became clear to me that, whether +consciously undertaken with that goal or not, the most important result +of the NSA's encryption embargoes has been the future convenience of +domestic law enforcement. Thanks to NSA export policies, they will be +assured that, as more Americans protect their privacy with encryption, +it will be of a sort easily penetrated by authority. + +I find it increasingly hard to imagine this is not their real objective +as well. Surely, the NSA must be aware of how ineffectual their efforts +have been in keeping good encryption out of inimical military +possession. An algorithm is somewhat less easily stopped at the border +than, say, a nuclear reactor. As William Neukom, head of Microsoft Legal +puts it, "The notion that you can control this technology is comical." + +I became further persuaded that this was the case upon hearing, from a +couple of sources, that the Russians have been using the possibly +uncrackable (and American) RSA algorithm in their missile launch codes +for the last ten years and that, for as little as five bucks, one can +get a software package called Crypto II on the streets of Saint +Petersburg which includes both RSA and DES encryption systems. + +Nevertheless, the NSA has been willing to cost American business a lot +of revenue rather than allow domestic products with strong encryption +into the global market. + +While it's impossible to set a credible figure on what that loss might +add up to, it's high. Jim Bidzos, whose RSA Data Security licenses RSA, +points to one major Swiss bid in which a hundred million dollar contract +for financial computer terminals went to a European vendor after +American companies were prohibited by the NSA from exporting a truly +secure network. + +The list of export software containing intentionally broken encryption +is also long. Lotus Notes ships in two versions. DonUt count on much +protection from the encryption in the export version. Both Microsoft and +Novell have been thwarted in their efforts to include RSA in their +international networking software, despite frequent publication of the +entire RSA algorithm in technical journals all over the world. + +With hardware, the job has been easier. NSA levied against the inclusion +of a DES chip in the AS/390 series IBM mainframes in late 1990 despite +the fact that, by this time, DES was in widespread use around the world, +including semi-official adoption by our official enemy, the USSR. + +I now realize that the Soviets have not been the NSA's main concern at +any time lately. Naively hoping that, with the collapse of the Evil +Empire, the NSA might be out of work, I learned that, given their own +vigorous crypto systems and their long use of some embargoed products, +the Russians could not have been the threat from whom this forbidden +knowledge was to be kept. Who has the enemy been then? I started to ask +around. + +Cited again and again as the real object of the embargoes were Third- +World countries, terrorists and... criminals. Criminals, most generally +drug-flavored, kept coming up, and nobody seemed concerned that some of +their operations might be located in areas supposedly off- limits to NSA +scrutiny. + +Presumably the NSA is restricted from conducting American surveillance +by both the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978(FISA) and a +series of presidential directives, beginning with one issued by +President Ford following Richard Nixon's bold misuse of the NSA, in +which he explicitly directed the NSA to conduct widespread domestic +surveillance of political dissidents and drug users. + +But whether or not FISA has actually limited the NSA's abilities to +conduct domestic surveillance seemed less relevant the more I thought +about it. A better question to ask was, "Who is best served by the NSA's +encryption export policies?" The answer is clear: domestic law +enforcement. Was this the result of some plot between NSA and, say, the +Department of Justice? Not necessarily. + +Certainly in the case of the digital cellular standard, cultural +congruity between foreign intelligence, domestic law enforcement, and +what somebody referred to as "spook wannabes on the TR45.3 committee" +might have a lot more to do with the its eventual flavor than any actual +whisperings along the Potomac. + +Unable to get anyone presently employed by the NSA to comment on this or +any other matter, I approached a couple of old hands for a highly +distilled sample of intelligence culture. + +I called Admirals Stansfield Turner and Bobby Ray Inman. Their Carter +administration positions as, respectively, CIA and NSA Directors, had +endowed them with considerable experience in such matters In addition, +both are generally regarded to be somewhat more sensitive to the limits +of democratic power than their successors. And their successors seemed +unlikely to return my calls. My phone conversations with Turner and +Inman were amiable enough, but they didn't ease my gathering sense that +the NSA takes an active interest in areas beyond its authorized field of +scrutiny. Turner started out by saying he was in no position to confirm +or deny any suspicions about direct NSA-FBI cooperation on encryption. +Still, he didn't think I was being irrational in raising the question. +In fact, he genially encouraged me to investigate the matter further. +He also said that while a sub rosa arrangement between the NSA and the +Department of Justice to compromise domestic encryption would be +"injudicious," he could think of no law, including FISA (which he helped +design), which would prevent it. + +Alarmingly, this gentleman who has written eloquently on the hazards of +surveillance in a democracy did not seem terribly concerned that our +digital shelters are being rendered permanently translucent by and to +the government. He said, "A threat could develop...terrorism, narcotics, +whatever...where the public would be pleased that all electronic traffic +was open to decryption. You can't legislate something which forecloses +the possibility of meeting that kind of emergency." + +Admiral Inman had even more enthusiasm for assertive governmental +supervision. Although he admitted no real knowledge of the events behind +the new cellular encryption standard, he wasn't disturbed to hear it +might be purposely flawed. + +And, despite the fact that his responsibilities as NSA Director had been +restricted to foreign intelligence, he seemed a lot more comfortable +talking about threats on the home front. "The Department of Justice," +Inman began, "has a very legitimate worry. The major weapon against +white collar crime has been the court-ordered wiretap. If the criminal +elements go to using a high quality cipher, the principal defense +against narcotics traffic is gone." This didn't sound like a guy who, +were he still head of NSA, would rebuff FBI attempts to get a little +help from his agency. + +He brushed off my concerns about the weakness of the cellular encryption +standard. "If all you're seeking is personal privacy, you can get that +with a very minimal amount of encipherment." Well, I wondered, Privacy +from whom? + +Inman seemed to regard real, virile encryption to be something rather +like a Saturday Night Special. "My answer," he said, "would be +legislation which would make it a criminal offense to use encrypted +communication to conceal criminal activity." + +Wouldn't that render all encrypted traffic automatically suspect? I +asked. + +"Well," he said, "you could have a registry of institutions which can +legally use ciphers. If you get somebody using one who isn't registered, +then you go after him." + +You can have my encryption algorithm, I thought to myself, when you pry +my cold dead fingers from its private key. + +It wasn't a big sample, but it was enough to gain an appreciation of the +cultural climate of the intelligence community. And these guys are the +liberals. What legal efficiencies might their Republican successors be +willing to employ to protect the American Way? Without the familiar +presence of the Soviets, we can expect a sharp increase in over-rated +bogeymen and virtual states of emergency. This is already well under +way. I think we can expect our drifting and confused hardliners to burn +the Reichstag repeatedly until they have managed to extract from our +induced alarm the sort of government which makes them feel safe. + +This process has been under way for some time. One sees it in the war on +terrorism, against which pursuit "no liberty is absolute," as Admiral +Turner put it. This, despite the fact that, during last year for which I +have a solid figure, 1987, only 7 Americans succumbed to terrorism. + +You can also see it clearly under way in the War on Some Drugs. The +Fourth Amendment to the Constitution has largely disappeared in this +civil war. And among the people I spoke with, it seemed a common canon +that drugs (by which one does not mean Jim Beam, Marlboros, Folger's, or +Halcion) were a sufficient evil to merit the government's holding any +keys it wanted. + +One individual close to the committee said that at least some of the +aforementioned "spook wannabes" on the committee were interested in weak +cellular encryption because they considered warrants not "practical" +when it came to pursuing drug dealers and other criminals using cellular +phones. + +In a fearful America, where the people cry for shorter chains and +smaller cages, such privileges as secure personal communications are +increasingly regarded as expendable luxuries. As Whitfield Diffie put +it, "From the consistent way in which Americans seem to put security +ahead of freedom, I fear that most would prefer that all electronic +traffic was open to government decryption." + +In any event, while I found no proof of an NSA-FBI conspiracy to gut the +American cellular phone encryption standard, it seemed clear to me that +none was needed. The same results can be delivered by a cultural +"auto-conspiracy" between like-minded hardliners and cellular companies +who will care about privacy only when their customers do. + +You don't have to be a hand-wringing libertarian like me to worry about +the domestic consequences of the NSA's encryption embargoes. They are +also, as stated previously, bad for business. Unless, of course, the +business of America is no longer business but, as sometimes seems the +case these days, crime control. + +As Ron Rivest (the "R" in RSA) said to me, "We have the largest +information-based economy in the world. We have lots of reasons for +wanting to protect information, and weakening our encryption systems for +the convenience of law enforcement doesn't serve the national interest." + +But by early March, it was clear that this "business-oriented" +administration had made a clear choice to favor cops over commerce even +if the costs to the American economy were to become extremely high. + +A sense of White House seriousness in this regard could be taken from +their response to the first serious effort by Congress to bring the NSA +to task for its encryption embargoes. Rep. Mel Levine (D- Calif.) +proposed an amendment to the Export Administration Act to transfer mass +market software controls to the Commerce Department, which would relax +the rules. The administration responded by saying that they would veto +the entire bill if the Levine amendment remained attached to it. + +Even though it appeared the NSA had little to fear from Congress, the +Levine amendment may have been part of what placed the agency in a +bargaining mood for the first time. They entered into discussions with +the Software Publishers Association who, acting primarily on behalf of +Microsoft and Lotus, got to them to agree "in principle" to a +streamlined process for export licensing of encryption which might +provide for more robust standards than previously allowed. + +But the negotiations between the NSA and the SPA were being conducted +behind closed doors. The NSA imposed an understanding that any agreement +would be set forth only in a "confidential" letter to Congress. As in +the case of the digital cellular standard, this would eliminate the +public scrutiny by cryptography researchers. + +Furthermore, some cryptographers worried that the encryption key lengths +to which the SPA appeared willing to restrict its members might be too +short for the sorts of brute-force decryption assaults which advances in +processor technology will yield in the near future. And brute force +decryption has always been the NSA's strong suit. The impression +engendered by the style of the NSA-SPA negotiations did not inspire +confidence. The lack of confidence will operate to the continued +advantage of foreign manufacturers in an era when more and more +institutions are going to be concerned about the privacy of their +digital communications. + +But the economic damage which the NSA-SPA agreement might cause would be +minor compared to what would result from a startling new federal +initiative, the Department of Justice's proposed legislation on digital +telephony. If you're wondering what happened to the snooping provisions +which were in Senate Bill 266, look no further. They're back. Bigger +and bolder than before. + +They are contained in a sweeping proposal by the Justice Department to +the Senate Commerce Committee. It proposes legislation which would +"require providers of electronic communications services and private +branch exchanges to ensure that the Government's ability to lawfully +intercept communications is unimpeded by the introduction of advanced +digital telecommunications technology or any other telecommunications +technology." + +This really means what it says: before any advance in telecommunications +technology can be deployed, the service providers and manufacturers must +assure the cops that they can tap into it. In other words, development +in digital communications technology must come to a screeching halt +until The Department of Justice can be assured that it will be able to +grab and examine data packets with the same facility they have long +enjoyed with analog wire-tapping. + +It gets worse. The initiative also provides that, if requested by the +Attorney General, "any Commission proceeding concerning regulations, +standards or registrations issued or to be issued under authority of +this section shall be closed to the public." This essentially places the +Attorney General in a position to shut down any telecommunications +advance without benefit of public hearing. + +When I first heard of the digital telephony proposal, I assumed it was a +kind of bargaining chip. I couldn't imagine it was serious. But it now +appears they are going to the mattresses on this one. + +Taken together with NSA's continued assertion of its authority over +encryption, a pattern becomes clear. The government of the United States +is so determined to maintain law enforcement's traditional wire-tapping +abilities in the digital age that it is willing to cripple the American +economy. This may sound hyperbolic, but I believe it is not. + +The greatest technological advantages this country presently enjoys are +in the areas of software and telecommunications. Furthermore, thanks in +large part to the Internet, much of America is already wired for bytes. +This is as significant an economic edge in the Information Age as the +existence of a railroad system was for England one hundred fifty years +ago. + +If we continue to permit the NSA to cripple our software and further +convey to the Department of Justice the right to stop development the +Net without public input, we are sacrificing both our economic future +and our liberties. And all in the name of combating terrorism and drugs. + +This has now gone far enough. I have always been inclined to view the +American government as fairly benign as such creatures go. I am +generally the least paranoid person I know, but there is something scary +about a government which cares more about putting its nose in your +business than it does about keeping that business healthy. As I write +this, a new ad hoc working group on digital privacy, coordinated by the +Electronic Frontier Foundation, is scrambling to meet the challenge. The +group includes representatives from organizations like AT&T, the +Regional Bells, IBM, Microsoft, the Electronic Mail Association and +about thirty other companies and public interest groups. + +Under the direction of Jerry Berman, EFF's Washington office director, +and John Podesta, a capable lobbyist and privacy specialist who helped +draft the ECPA, this group intends to stop the provisions in digital +telephony proposal from entering the statute books. + +We intend to work with federal law enforcement officials to address +their legitimate concerns. We donUt dispute their need to conduct some +electronic surveillance, but we believe this can be assured by more +restrained methods than they're proposing. We are also preparing a +thorough examination of the NSA's encryption export policies and looking +into the constitutional implications of those policies. Rather than +negotiating behind closed doors, as the SPA has been attempting to do, +America's digital industries have a strong self-interest in banding +together to bring the NSA's procedures and objectives into the sunlight +of public discussion. + +Finally, we are hoping to open a dialog with the NSA. We need to develop +a better understanding of their perception of the world and its threats. +Who are they guarding us against and how does encryption fit into that +endeavor? Despite our opposition to their policies on encryption export, +we assume that NSA operations have some merit. But we would like to be +able to rationally balance the merits against the costs. + +The legal right to express oneself is meaningless if there is no secure +medium through which that expression may travel. By the same token, the +right to hold unpopular opinions is forfeit unless one can discuss those +opinions with others of like mind without the government listening in. + +Even if you trust the current American government, as I am still +inclined to, there is a kind of corrupting power in the ability to +create public policy in secret while assuring that the public will have +little secrecy of its own. + +In its secrecy and technological might, the NSA already occupies a very +powerful position. And conveying to the Department of Justice what +amounts to licensing authority for all communications technology would +give it a control of information distribution rarely asserted over +English-speaking people since Oliver Cromwell's Star Chamber +Proceedings. + +Are there threats, foreign or domestic, which are sufficiently grave to +merit the conveyance of such vast legal and technological might? And +even if the NSA and FBI may be trusted with such power today, will they +always be trustworthy? Will we be able to do anything about it if they +aren't? + +Senator Frank Church said of NSA technology in 1975 words which are more +urgent today: +"That capability at any time could be turned around on the American +people and no American would have any privacy left. There would be no +place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, the +technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the +government could enable it to impose total tyranny. There would be no +way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together +in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is +within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capacity of this +technology." + +San Francisco, California +Monday, May 4, 1992 + + + + + + + + + +The EFF encourages any organization which might have a stake in +the future of cyberspace to become involved. +Letters expressing your concern may be addressed to: + +Sen. Ernest Hollings +Chairman, Senate Commerce Committee +U.S. Senate +Washington, DC +and to +Don Edwards +Chairman, Subcommitee on Constitutional Rights +House Judiciary Committee. +Washington, DC + +I would appreciate hearing those concerns myself. Feel free to copy +me with those letters at my physical address, + +John Perry Barlow +P.O. Box 1009 +Pinedale, WY 82941 +or in Cyberspace -- barlow@eff.org. + +If your organization is interested in becoming part of the digital +privacy working group, please contact the EFF's Washington office at: + +666 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, +Suite 303, +Washington, DC 20003 +202/544-9237 + +EFF also encourages individuals interested in these issues to join the +organization. Contact us at: + +Electronic Frontier Foundation +155 Second Street +Cambridge, MA 02141 +617/864-0665 +eff-request@eff.org. + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/defetirs.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/defetirs.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3afa5fd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/defetirs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,464 @@ +From: ajteel@dendrite.cs.Colorado.EDU (A.J. Teel) +Subject: IRS Suffers major defeat! +Message-ID: <1993Apr1.154516.20329@colorado.edu> +Organization: Universtiy of Coloardo, Boulder +Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 15:45:16 GMT +Lines: 457 + +Hello All: + Here is a definitive anti-tax package. This article proves many +recently contested (on Internet) contentions regarding the legality of +the income tax. There is no statute in the IRC that states that one +is liable to file a return or liable to pay tax. It is a VOLUNTARY +system. Thanks to certain naysayers who have attempted to get my Internet +access suspended, I cannot post the last few lines of the article as +they might be considered an "ad" as the article mentions where and for how +much this package may be obtained. I will be happy to email it to anyone +who is interested. This is HOT STUFF especially with april 15 approaching +fast. Very informative and to the point. I have spoken with the group +by phone as well as others who have used this technology. It is bullet- +proof. Enjoy! + +With Explicit Reservation Of All Rights (U.C.C. 1-207) +Regards, -A. J. Teel-, Sui Juris (ajteel@dendrite.cs.Colorado.EDU) + +[START OF DOCUMENT: hawaii.txt.lis ] + + FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE: + The IRS suffers a major defeat in Hawaii. + + On Wednesday August 8th, 1992 a Federal Jury acquitted Royal Lamarr +Hardy and Mike Harada of a seven count indictment which consisted of +conspiracy to launder drug money and structuring currency transactions to +avoid income reporting requirements. + This acquittal is a major victory for the entire "Patriot Movement," +and a serious blow to the I.R.S. who tried to frame Lamarr Hardy into this +hideous money laundering scheme (Danny Hashimotoi, National Commodity and +Barter Association, NCBA, Director for Hawaii). + Alexander Silvert, Hardy's Federal Public Defender, said that the +evidence in this case showed that the I.R.S. created the crime, supplied +the means to commit the crime, and even laundered the money themselves, and +by insistence and strong handed persuasion tried to induce Mr. Hardy to +become involved in this crime simply to be able to charge Mr. Hardy with a +hideous crime that the I.R.S. knew he had never committed in the past, nor +would he ever commit in the future if it wasn't for the government agents +pushing Hardy into the criminal actions. + The jury in this case made a tough decision. It was a tough case but +the jury saw the truth and set Mr. Hardy free on all counts. This is a +major loss for the I.R.S. and it will send shock waves clear back to +Washington to let them know individuals will not tolerate this kind of +action by the government or government representatives. + + Historical background. + Lamarr Hardy is the Executive Director and Co_Founder of "Corner +Stones to Freedom", and Unincorporated Research Foundation. Hardy is best +known in the "Patriot Movement" for the development of the "Reliance +Defense." His program became so successful that the I.R.S., according to +court documents, gave Hardy the coveted title of "one of the most dangerous +tax protesters in the country." Over 4,000 people are already building +their personal foundations. Is it any wonder that the I.R.S. considers +Hardy's "Reliance Defense" program as extremely dangerous to their +survival! + The "Reliance Defense", or Personal Foundation as Hardy calls it, is +based upon negating the "willfulness" portion in a 7203 "willful failure to +file" charge. The key in this case is if there's no evidence of +willfulness, there can be no criminal conviction. To accomplish this the +Research Foundation assists its members to acquire competent legal advice +on income tax issues. Over the last twelve years Hardy has built one of the +most powerful personal legal foundations ever put together in the Patriot +Movement. + In 1985 it was the prestigious Barrister Inn of Boise, Idaho who +first recognized this advanced technology. Later that year they published a +front page article in the October "Alert" newspaper entitled "Willful +Failure to File" is dead. The article went into depth to explain about the +"reliance Defense" technology and how important this strategy was for +certain types of individuals who choose not to file income tax returns. + Quoting from paragraph 11, they said "every patriot has to know that +intent is an element of the offense, but in the majority of cases patriots +have been unable to make use of that knowledge as a matter of law to +convince a jury. In the past, patriots have relief on their own knowledge +as a basis for their arguments---only to lose. + However, utilizing the "Reliance Defense" technology and not filing +because you sought and received sound legal professional advice is entirely +another matter., No one in the case of statutes requiring specific +performance can be held criminally liable because of legal advice provided +by counsel. + John Voss, Head of the NCBA, wrote to Hardy in 1989 and told him, "I +consider your position letters to the I.R.S. to be one of the best and most +comprehensive that I've seen to date! It is further strong testimony to +your continued research and commitment to education of all concerned." John +Voss used this same technology in his own "willful failure to file" case +and he was found not guilty on all counts in his case largely because of +using this strategy. + Bob Minarik, club leader of Patriots for Liberty, recommended to his +members to explore setting up their own "Reliance Defense." In their +November 1989 newsletter, Minarik said, "Lamarr Hardy has developed +position letters and a defense that is excellent in quality, superbly +researched, and well documented. In my opinion, the strength of his +strategy is that he establishes his position on the professional advice of +experts in the fields of tax law, and then shifts the burden of proof back +to the I.R.S. Further, our research confirmed his findings." + Martin Larson of the "Spotlight" also wrote an article in the +November 1989 issue about Hardy and his "Reliance Defense." He said, +"Lamarr Hardy of Honolulu, Hawaii has carried his research further than +anyone else I know of." Is it any wonder after all this that the I.R.S. +considered Mr. Hardy one of the "most dangerous" tax protesters, "the most +dangerous to them!" + For 10 years the Criminal Investigations Divisions (C.I.D.) of the +I.R.S. was unable to find a crack in Mr. Hardy's "Reliance Defense" +program. Then in 1987 the I.R.S. and the U.S. Attorney's office launched a +massive Grand Jury investigation into Hardy's activities which after two +full years resulted, interestingly, in no indictments. + At this point the I.R.S. was exasperated, so early in 1990 the local +I.R.S. office obtained permission from the Justice Department to set up a +"STING OPERATION" on Mr. Hardy, The I.R.S. brought in Special Agent Ralph +Jacoby to be the #1 drug money laundering specialist to come to Hawaii and +take Mr. Hardy out. + +I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY. + ROYAL LAMARR HARDY was arrested on August 16, 1990, and released on +bail. He was arraigned on an Indictment on September 28, 1990. On December +7, 1990, Hardy was Re-indicted and Arraigned on a new seven-count +Superseding Indictment which was pending before the court and was set for +trial on August 18, 1992. + On January 18, 1991, Hardy filed a motion to have all the charges +against him dismissed based upon outrageous government conduct. Oral +arguments and hearings of evidence were held on this motion on March 18th +and 19th, and April 10th and 11th of 91. On August 2, 1992, the Court +issued a written order denying this motion. + Meanwhile, the court granted Hardy's motion to continue the trial +based upon the fact that the case of Jacobson v United States, Federal +Public Defender Alexander Silvert, counsel for Hardy ordered transcripts of +all pertinent hearings bearing on the issue of outrageous government +conduct. Having received this material, Hardy respectfully asked the court +again to reconsider its previous order denying Hardy's motion to dismiss +the charges pending against Hardy. Again, the court issued a written order +denying Hardy's motion. + +II FACTS OF THE CASE. + The testimony and facts introduced in the case demonstrated that +prior to the "sting operation," the I.R.S. had labeled Hardy one of the +most dangerous tax protesters of the country due to his prominent role as +the main leader of the tax protester movement in Hawaii. {Stip.#1. Stip. # +refers to the numbered stipulation of fact reached by the parties which was +lodged with the Court on April 2, 1991, and which is attached as Exhibit B. +"Tr." refers to the transcript of the various hearings held on this motion +by date.} There had been I.R.S./C.I.D. investigations since 1981 and formal +grand jury proceedings into Hardy's "tax activities" since 1988. {Stip. #2. +The court granted, over defense objection, the government's request to seal +all the government papers which authorized the "sting operation" on the +basis that they did not constitute Brady material. However, independent of +the Brady issue, these materials are material and relevant to a +determination of the issue pending before the court and thus should have +been unsealed and made part of this record}. This information was +specifically mentioned in the papers filed by the local I.R.S. office to +their Washington office in order to gain approval to conduct the "sting +operation." {Tr. 4/10/91 at p. 60} Prior to conducting the "sting +operation" which was directed specifically against Hardy, the I.R.S. had no +information whatsoever that Hardy had ever laundered "drug monies." {Stip. +#11; Tr. 4/10/91 at pp. 60-61} In fact the very idea Hardy would be +targeted for a "sting" involving "drug money" was entirely made up and +designed by Special Agent Ralph Jacoby (an I.R.S./C.I.D. Sting Specialist) +just so the "crime" would fit under the more severe umbrella of the 18 +U.S.C. (1956). {Tr. 4/10/91 at p. 64} + The only information the government possessed about Hardy being +involved in simple "money laundering" was in Count 5 of the indictment. +However, this allegation was dismissed as a matter of law by Judge Pence on +March 19, 1991. {Tr. 4/10/91 at pp. 61-62} + The government claims and contends anyone involved in the "tax +protester" movement is per se guilty of "money laundering", but there was +no evidence provided to support this "argument, other than what was +contained in Count 5. Based upon the above information the I.R.S. launched +this hideous "sting" operation against Hardy in March of 1990 and brought +in the #1 I.R.S./C.I.D. Special Agent (Ralph Jacoby), who had 45 "stings" +to his credit, from California to implement and run the operation. + The evidence is clear at least two undercover I.R.S./C.I.D. agents +initiated contact with Hardy by phone on a number of occasions in April and +May of 1990. {Stip.#3; Tr. 4/10/91 at pp.49-50} The agents continued to +make a number of phone contacts with Hardy until Hardy finally agreed to a +meeting on May 3, 1991. It was a direct result of the insistence of the +I.R.S./C.I.D. undercover agents that the May 3rd meeting was held. {Stip. +$5} + The evidence shows Hardy was never informed prior to May 3, 1991, of +any illegal purpose for the meeting. {Tr. 4/10/91 at p. 52} At this +meeting, it was the I.R.S./C.I.D. agents who initiated the discussion abut +the possibility of "laundering money." It was the undercover I.R.S./C.I.D. +agents who wanted to "launder the money" by utilizing cashiers' checks and +not by any other means! + Hardy of course refused! {Stip. #7; Tr. 4/10/92 at p.88} Finally, +Special Agent Jacoby admitted that at this meeting, and every other meeting +when the issue of payment for Hardy's alleged service was mentioned, it was +always the agent's who brought it up, not Hardy. + +Court hearing: + Special agent Jacoby: "I believe there was conversation +about remuneration for services, yes." + Federal Public Defender Alexander Silvert: "And weren't those +conver- +sations always, in every instance, begun by you?" + Special Agent Jacoby: "Probably in all likelihood, yes." {Tr. +4/10/92 at p. 48} + + Special Agent Jacoby's testimony demonstrated that Hardy +consistently +rejected all offers of payment until finally, in an unrecorded +conversation, Agent Jacoby threw money down on Hardy's desk and strongly +suggested he take it! Despite Hardy's continued refusal to cooperate with +the undercover special agents on May 3, 1991, the I.R.S./C.I.D. agents +continued to phone him throughout May of 1991 and continued to "modify" +their plans to see if they could suck Hardy into their trap! {Tr. 4/10/91 +at pp. 49-50} Each time, Hardy politely rejected their invitations. + Nevertheless, in June of 1991, agents of the I.R.S., knowing full +well that Hardy had refused to help them over and over to launder money by +using illegal means, the I.R.S./C.I.D. agents contacted the D.E.A. Special +Agent who they knew from first hand experience to have a D.E.A. informant +who ran a check cashing business in Honolulu (Mike Harada) to help them +such Hardy into their trap! + +Court hearing: + Attorney: "In June of 1991, did you have a discussion with a Special +Agent of the I.R.S. regarding money laundering in the State of Hawaii?" + D.E.A.Special Agent: "Yes, I did." + Attorney: "And what was the extent of that conversation?" + D.E.A. Special Agent: "It was, as you say, in the month of June 1991 +when the Special Agent of the I.R.S. requested that I contact Mr. Mike +Harada of the Hawaii Check Cashing Company, to ascertain whether or not he +had a specific number of check cashing stores here in the State." + Attorney: "Do you know why the I.R.S. Special Agent asked you that?" + D.E.A. Special Agent: "For two reasons. I believe he asked me, one, +because he knew that I had a personal relationship with Mr. Harada and his +friends; and also because he knew Mr. Harada personally as well." He also +told me that I.R.S./C.I.D. was conducting a financial "sting operation" on +money laundering with the State; and that there was a ......it had come up +where someone was going to, a suspect was attempting or would be utilizing +a check cashing company to launder money: and the information further +indicated that it was going to be the largest check cashing chain in the +State." {Rt. 4/10/91 at pp. 12-13} + + The D.E.A. Special Agent did as requested and informed Harada (to +act as D.E.A. informant) and keep an eye out and report back if he became +aware of any suspicious activity. {Tr. 4/10/92 at p. 14} + Special Agent Jacoby testified he was aware of I.R.S./C.I.D. and +D.E.A. Special Agents directly involved in the "sting operation" being +conducted against Hardy. {Tr. 4/10/91 at pp. 46-47} + Finally, it was Harada (the D.E.A. informant) who set up and +initiated the first meeting with Hardy. During that meeting it was Harada +who brought up the idea of wanting to buy money in exchange for cashier's +checks to hardy during their July 1991 meeting, not Hardy.{Stip. #15 and +#16} + Only after these events did Hardy become sucked into and involved +with the unlawful activities hoisted upon him by the undercover +I.R.S./C.I.D. agents and the D.E.A. Special Agent informant. + +III. ARGUMENT: + The question of whether the actions of government special agents +amount to outrageous government conduct which arises to the level of +violation of a defendant's due process rights is a question of law for the +court to determine.United States v Bogart, (1986) and United States v +Ramirez, (1983) + Fundamental fairness will not permit any defendant to be convicted +of a crime in which police conduct is deemed "outrageous." United States v +Twigg. (1978) + The question whether police conduct sufficiently rises to the level +warranting dismissal of charges is examined in light of the totality of the +circumstances. United States v Twigg, (1978) + In Jacobson v United States (1992) the Court held that the +government had failed, as a matter of law, to give as a reason of proof any +evidence to support the jury's verdict that Jacobson was likely to +(independent of the government's acts) violate the law. + Hardy readily acknowledges Jacobson was "framed" as an "entrapment" +case. However, the nature of the decision and the analysis employed clearly +applies to this case and certainly to the issue of outrageous government +conduct. + In Jacobson the court acknowledged sting operations were still valid +investigative tools. However, the court made the following general +conclusion regarding catching those defendants who were already engaged in +illegal activity. Specifically, the Court states: "Likewise, there can be +no dispute that the Government may use undercover agents to enforce the +law. It is well settled that the fact that officers or employees of the +Government merely afford opportunities or facilities for the commission of +the offense does not defeat the prosecution. Artifice and stratagem may be +employed to catch those engaged in criminal enterprises. + Immediately upon the heels of this statement, the Court stated: "In +their zeal to enforce the law, however, Government agents may not originate +a criminal design, implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to +commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the +Government may prosecute." + The court held the government must prove beyond reasonable doubt +"that the defendant was disposed to commit the criminal act prior to first +being approached by Government agents." Of significance is the court said, +"THE criminal act," not A criminal act." Finally, the court stated in +conclusion: "When the Government's quest for convictions leads to the +apprehension of an otherwise law abiding citizen who, if left to his own +devices, likely would have never run afoul of the law, the courts should +intervene." + Thus, the Court's analysis in Jacobson, although worded in terms of +an "entrapment" case, leaves little doubt the legal issue of "outrageous +government conduct" is alive and well and should itself be analyzed under +the dictates of Jacobson. + In Jacobson the Supreme court has sent a clear message to the lower +courts that overreaching and illegal conduct by the government cannot and +should not be tolerated by any court. + The evidence could not be clearer in this case that the government +targeted Hardy, solely because the I.R.S. did not like how Hardy has chosen +to exercise his First Amendment right of free speech and political +expression. Indeed, the government is frighteningly brazen about their +reasons for going after Hardy. + The testimony in this case shows there was no evidence whatsoever to +support the fact that Hardy had previously been involved in "drug money +laundering" or even simple "money laundering" prior to the government's +operation. The only prior claim of "money laundering' which could be made +against Hardy was contained in Count 5 of the Indictment which was +dismissed. + In an act which rally shows the government's illegal intent Special +Agent Jacoby testified, simply to have the sting "fit" a more serious +criminal statute than the one applicable to simply money laundering,he +created the idea of drug money laundering out of his own head, even though +the I.R.S. in all the years of investigating Hardy had absolutely no +evidence to suggest Hardy had ever previously committed any sort of drug +crime in his entire life. This was not an "investigation" that the I.R.S. +was conducting, rather it was an exercise in 1990's McCarthyism! + The evidence also demonstrates over a period of months it was the +I.R.S./C.I.D. Special Agents who consistently contacted Hardy and gradually +turned the conversation to drug money laundering, not Hardy. Although +confronted with vague innuendoes the undercover agents wanted to "launder +monies from drug sources,: Hardy kept insisting he could only set up a +system of legitimate trusts so they could do it legally. + It was the special Agents who kept insisting the monies be converted +into cashier's checks. Special Agent Jacoby's testimony about the May 3rd +meeting clearly show it was the undercover I.R.S./C.I.D. agents who kept +demanding some sort of illegal, clandestine operation be established, +specifically using cashier's checks, not Hardy. Despite these repeated +attempts by the undercover agents to such Hardy into their trap, Hardy over +and over declined their overtures for several months. + However, it was in July of 1991, Hardy was approached by one, +Michael Harada, who ironically is a co-defendant in this case,who just +happened to own the largest check cashing business in Hawaii, and who just +happened to be a part-time D.E.A. informant and just happened to be working +with the same D.E.A. Special Agent whom the I.R.S. was working on this +sting operation. + As the evidence shows, it was Harada who searched out and set up a +meeting with Hardy for a discussion concerning the establishment of a +legitimate trust system for Harada by Hardy. Frankly, it was Harada who +brought up the subject whether Hardy knew anyone who had extra cash +available to help him in his check cashing business. Only and only at this +point did Hardy mention anything about exotic pawn dealers having extra +amounts of cash from their business who needed to exchange their cash for +cashier's checks. + Thus, even if Harada was not clearly working for the D.E.A. during +this time in terms of being under contract, although Hardy maintains he +was, Harada was acting in an agency capacity for the D.E.A and on behalf of +the I.R.S./C.I.D. covert sting operation. The D.E.A. Special Agent directly +involved in the sting operation had specifically gone to the D.E.A. Special +Agent to have him contact Harada, who just happened to have access to +hundreds of thousands of dollars of cashier's checks, in order to launder +the money of the undercover I.R.S./C.I.D. agents and make the operation +work. + The I.R.S./C.I.D. Agent did as testified in this case inform the +D.E.A. Special Agent there was a sting operation being conducted +specifically dealing with the need for cashier's checks. + The record shows this discussion took place after Hardy had declined +over and over again to get involved in any money laundering cashier's check +cashing scheme! + The evidence in this case clearly shows Hardy did introduce Harada +to the Special Agents and Hardy was present at the meetings between Harada +and the undercover agents when the arrangements were made as to how the +alleged drug money was to be laundered. But, Hardy made it very clear he +was simply hooking up two interested parties as a business favor and Hardy +was not interested in receiving any monies for helping the undercover +I.R.S./C.I.D. agents for putting the two "businessmen" together . + The evidence in this case proves it was the undercover I.R.S./C.I.D. +agents who insisted, time and time again, Hardy receive money for his +"part" in the scheme. Again, the evidence clearly shows Hardy again and +again kept refusing to take any money despite repeated attempts by the +undercover I.R.S./C.I.D. agents to force him to take a "cut." + Thus, the evidence shows the government created the crime, supplied +the means to commit the crime, even committed the crime themselves by +laundering over $300,000 in cash just because they couldn't get Hardy to do +it, and by insistence and strong handed persuasion tried over and over +again to induce Hardy to become somehow involved in this crime simply to be +able to charge him with a hideous crime they knew he had never committed in +the past nor would ever commit, if it wasn't for the I.R.S./C.I.D. agents +pushing him into their criminal activities. + On the point the Supreme Court has said: "In their zeal to enforce +the law, however, the Government agents may not originate a criminal +design, implant in an innocent person'[s mind the disposition to commit a +criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so the government may +prosecute." Jacobson, 1992. + The evidence in this case is clear this happened and "Jacobson" +dictates the result. This court or any court should not stand by and +condone the outrageous conduct committed by the I.R.S./C.I.D. Special +Agents in this case. The conduct by the I.R.S. and D.E.A. is even more +offensive than most cases because, as the government brazenly admits, this +entire "sting" operation was conceived of and conducted specifically +because the I.R.S. wanted to silence Mr. Lamarr Hardy for the technology +Hardy developed and in the way which Hardy has chosen to exercise his First +Amendment right, which was to speak out against the I.R.S. and their +criminal activities! + As the record shows the I.R.S./C.I.D. Special Agents even went so +far as to fabricate a drug money laundering scheme and "structure" their +"sting operation" so it would fall under the dictates of the "drug money +laundering" statute rather than the less serious criminal statute related +to evading I.R.S. reporting requirements (failing to file reports related +to monetary transactions over $10,000 in cash) because they knew the +punishment for drug money laundering is so much more severe. Again, such +behavior by agents of the government who have taken an oath and sworn to +catch criminals, not create them. should not be acceptable in a society of +supporting free men! + Under "Jacobson", the Supreme court recognized the government must +show a defendant was predisposed to commit "the crime," not "a crime." + Based on these facts, the court was requested to grant Hardy's +motion to reconsider and dismiss all or part of the charges presented +against him, even after all this the court denied his motion to dismiss and +set the case for trial on August 27, 1992. After two weeks of hearing +government agents tell their hideous story of how they framed and sucked +Hardy into their drug money laundering scheme---for the sole purpose of +silencing him---the jury on Thursday morning September 8th acquitted him of +all counts. + After the trial the members of the jury all came up to Lamarr Hardy +and shook his hand, some of the jury even hugged him. What a joyous moment! +The jury couldn't believe the government would go so far, just to get +someone. They felt the I.R.S./C.I.D./D.E.A. Special Agents were the ones +who committed the crime. In this case and tried every way they could to +induce Hardy into their scheme for the sole purpose of trying to induce and +honest citizen to commit a crime. "We weren't going to let that happen in +America. We made the right decision. We acquitted Lamarr Hardy and we're +proud of it." + We must also give a special thanks to Alexander Silvert, Hardy's +Federal Public Defender, and the whole staff at the Public Defender's +Office for their hard work fighting for justice in this case. They did an +awesome job. + Finally, I'd like to thank my precious Yahweh, our Creator, for +being with me throughout my trials and tribulations and finally setting me +free to continue to teach the truth about the crime that the I.R.S. is +perpetrating on his people. + If you'd like to contact Lamarr Hardy personally, you can reach him +by phone by calling (800)............. + If you'd like to get more information about how you can set up your +own "Reliance Defense" to protect yourself against the I.R.S., please send +your full legal name, address and phone number plus .........to P.O.Box +............................... Ask for the "Reliance Defense Packet." The +packet will explain in detail every thing you need to know about setting up +your own personal "Reliance Defense." Remember, this is the same +information the I.R.S. spent millions trying to stamp out--obviously for +some very good reason---they don't want you to have it. Why?! Because they +know it works! Hurry, order your packet today before it's too late! + +[END OF DOCUMENT: hawaii.txt.lis ] + + ++=============================================================================+ +| D I S C L A I M E R | ++------------------------------------oooOooo----------------------------------+ +| The sender of this message is not responsible for and does not necessarily | +| agree with the content or opinions contained herein. Mail will be forwarded | +| to the source identified, if any. This is for "information purposes only", | +| has not necessarily been verified or tested in any way, and "should not be | +| construed as legal advise". Your comments and responses are encouraged. | +| Please Email to "ajteel@dendrite.cs.colorado.EDU" instead of replying here. | +| With Explicit Reservation of All Rights, UCC 1-207, A. J. Teel, Sui Juris. | ++=============================================================================+ +| The American's Bulletin, Mr. Robert Kelly, Sui Juris, Editor (503) 779-7709 | +| c/o 3434 North Pacific Highway, Medford, Oregon, U.S.A. Postal Zone: 97501 | ++=============================================================================+ + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/deficit.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/deficit.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..36c1d54e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/deficit.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ + How to Solve the Deficit and Debt Problems in One Easy Lesson + +In 1980, our total national debt, accumulated by ALL "tax and spend" +Democrats and ALL "borrow and squander" Republicans in 200 years, +stood at something like $ 0.7 Trillion. Today, only a dozen years +later, total debt stands at more than $ 4 Trillion and it is +increasing at the rate of another $ Trillion every three years or so. +Even if President Clinton achieves what he is trying to do, the debt +will climb to $ 5 to 6 Trillion before the deficit is eliminated. And +there is another Trillion, hidden in our shift from biggest creditor +to biggest debtor. And there may be yet another Trillion, if the +rumored commercial bank and insurance scandals materialize. What a +nightmare! + +There is no way to give an analogy to our situation in the realm of +personal finance, but let's try anyway. Suppose that your salary is $ +60,000 and you live in a $ 200,000 house, on which you owe $ 10,500. +One fine day, you find that your pay has been cut to $ 50,000. So, to +cheer yourself up, you double what you have been spending on your +favorite hobby, to $ 1,000 per month, and you start making monthly +trips to the bank to increase your mortgage by $ 1,000 --- to keep the +bill collectors at bay. After some years, your salary is only +$ 48,000, but you now owe $ 60,000 and you are still going to the bank +every month to borrow another $ 1,000. You haven't been able to +maintain your house properly, so it is now worth only $ 120,000. Your +banker is getting nervous and thinking of foreclosing. What are your +options? Wouldn't it be absurd to speak of ``solving" this problem by +trying to stop borrowing $1,000 more every month, within 4 or 5 years? +Realistically, your only options are to declare bankruptcy or sell the +house. + +What happened to all the Trillions, that Reagan and Bush borrowed and +squandered? This money still exists in the form of T-Notes. Guys like +you and me now owe it and those who have the T-Notes now own it. Thus, +the practical result of Reagan-Bush economic policy was to effect the +by-far greatest transfer of wealth in history. This is what Reagan set +out to do, according to his first Budget Director Robert Stockman, but +he also hoped that the resulting debt would end social programs +forever. Nice fellow. Great Good Fortune was supposed to "trickle +down" to you and me, but it didn't. + +The experiment failed, so why don't we just undo it? The deficit is +just the amount by which taxes were reduced in 1981 and 1986, so that +can be fixed by just restoring 1980 tax schedule. The debt can also be +fixed, by just transferring the $ 3 or 4 Trillion, from those who +received it back to those from whom it was taken (stolen??). All we +have to do is cancel the T-Notes. + +"You can't do that," everybody will scream, "T-Notes are a contractual +obligation that cannot be abrogated". Well, our Social Security +Pensions are also a contractual obligation that cannot be abrogated. +But that hasn't stopped politicians from calling them "entitlements" +and "putting them on the table". And these same politicians speak of +"fairly shared sacrifice". Cancelling the T-Notes IS fairly shared +sacrifice: T-Notes also figure in the pension funds of ordinary +people. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/deity.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/deity.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6b36097c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/deity.txt @@ -0,0 +1,586 @@ + 9 page printout + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + The value of this 360K disk is $7.00. This disk, its printout, +or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. + + Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + + **** **** + + PAMPHLETS for the PEOPLE + No. 11 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + by + Chapman Cohen + + THE PIONEER PRESS + **** **** + + Deity and Design + + THE ONE certain thing about the history of the human intellect +is that it runs, from ignorance to knowledge. Man begins knowing +nothing of his own nature or of the nature of the world in which he +is living. He continues acquiring a little knowledge here and +there, with his vision broadening and his understanding deepening +as his knowledge increases. Had man commenced with but a very small +fraction of the knowledge he now possesses, the present state of +the human mind would be very different from what it is. But the +method by which knowledge is acquired is of the slowest. It is by +way of what is called trial and error. Blunders are made rapidly, +to be corrected slowly; some of the most primitive errors are not, +on a general scale, corrected even to-day. Man begins by believing, +on what appears to be sound evidence, that the earth is flat, only +to discover later that it is a sphere. He believes the sky to be a +solid something and the heavenly bodies but a short distance away. +His conclusions about himself are as fantastically wrong as those +he makes about the world at large. He mistakes the nature of the +diseases from which he suffers, and the causes of the things in +which he delights. He is as ignorant of the nature of birth as he +is of the cause of death. Thousands of generations pass before he +takes the first faltering steps along the road of verifiable +knowledge, and hundreds of thousands of generations have not +sufficed to wipe out from the human intellect the influence of +man's primitive blunders. + + Prominent among these primitive misunderstandings is the +belief that man is surrounded by hosts of mysterious ghostly +agencies that are afterwards given human form. These ghostly beings +form the raw material from which the gods of the various religions +are made, and they flourish best where knowledge is least. Of this +there can be no question. Atheism, the absence of belief in gods, +is a comparatively late phenomenon in history. It is the belief in +gods that begins by being universal. And even among civilized +peoples it is the least enlightened who are most certain about the +existence of the gods. The religions scientist or philosopher says: +"I believe "; the ignorant believer says: " I know." + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + + Now it would indeed be strange if primitive man was right on +the one thing concerning which exact knowledge is not to be gained, +and wrong about all other things on which knowledge has either +been, or bids fair to be, won. All civilized peoples reject the +world-theories that the savage first formulates. Is it credible +that with regard to gods he was at once and unmistakably correct? + + It is useless saying that we do not accept the gods of the +primitive world. In form, no; in essence, yes. The fact before us +is that all ideas of gods can be traced to the earliest stages of +human history. We have changed the names of the gods and their +characteristics; we even worship them in a way that is often +different from the primitive way; but there is an unbroken line of +descent linking the gods of the most primitive peoples to those of +modern man. We reject the world of the savage; but we still, in our +churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, perpetuate the theories +he built upon that world. + _____ + + In this pamphlet I am not concerned with all the so-called +evidences that are put forth to prove the existence of a God. I say +"so called evidences," because they are not grounds upon which the +belief in God rests; they are mere excuses why that belief should +be retained. Ninety per cent. of believers in God would not +understand these "proofs." Roman Catholic propagandists lately, as +one of the advertisements of the Church, have been booming the +arguments in favor of a God as stated by Thomas Aquinas. But they +usually preface their exposition -- which is very often +questionable -- by the warning that the subject is difficult to +understand. In the case of Roman Catholics I think we might well +raise the percentage of those who do not understand the arguments +to ninety-five per cent. In any case these metaphysical, +mathematical, and philosophic arguments do not furnish the grounds +upon which anyone believes in God. They are, as I have just said, +nothing more than excuses framed for the purpose of hanging on to +it. The belief in God is here because it is part of our social +inheritance. We are born into an environment in which each newcomer +finds the belief in God established, backed up by powerful +institutions, with an army of trained advocates committed to its +defence and to the destruction of everything that tends to weaken +the belief. And behind all are the countless generations during +which the belief in God lived on man's ignorance and fear. + + In spite of the alleged "proofs" of the existence of God, +belief in him, or it, does not grow in strength or certainty. These +proofs do not prevent the number of avowed disbelievers increasing +to such an extent that, whereas after Christians proclaiming for +several generations that Atheism -- real Atheism -- does not exist, +the defenders of godism are now shrieking against the growing +number of Atheists, and there is a call to the religious world to +enter upon a crusade against Atheism. The stage in which heresy +meant little more than all exchange of one god for another has +passed. It has become a case of acceptance or rejection of the idea +of God, and the growth is with those who reject. + + This is not the way in which proofs, real proofs, operate. A +theory may have to battle long for general or growing acceptance, +but it grows provided it can produce evidence in its support. A + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + +hypothesis is stated, challenged, discussed, and finally rejected +or accepted. On the question of the hypothesis of God the longer it +is discussed the less it is believed. No wonder that the ideal +attitude of the completely religious should be "on the knee," with +eyes closed and mouths full of nothing but petitions and grossly +fulsome praise. That is also the reason why every religions +organization in the world is so keen upon capturing the child. The +cry is: "If we lose the child we lose everything" -- which is +another way of saying that if we cannot implant a belief in God +before the child is old enough to understand something of what it +is being told, the belief may have to be given up altogether. Keep +the idea of God away from the child and it will grow up an Atheist. + + If there is a God, the evidence for his existence must be +found in this world. We cannot start with another world and work +back to this one. That is why the argument from design in nature is +really fundamental to the belief in deity. It is implied in every +argument in favor of Theism, although nowadays, in its simplest and +most honest form, it is not so popular as it was. But to ordinary +men and women it is still the decisive piece of evidence in favor +of the existence of a God. And when ordinary men and women cease to +believe in God, the class of religious philosophers who spend their +time seeing by what subtleties of thought and tricks of language +they can make the belief in deity appear intellectually respectable +will cease to function. + _____ + + But let it be observed that we are concerned with the +existence of God only. We are not concerned with whether he is good +or bad; whether his alleged designs are commendable or not. One +often finds people saying they cannot believe there is a God +because the works of nature are not cast in a benevolent mould. +That has nothing to do with the essential issue, and proves only +that Theists cannot claim a monopoly of defective logic. We are +concerned with weather nature, in whole, or in part, shows any +evidence of design. + + My case is, first, the argument is fallacious in its +structure; second, it assumes all that it sets out to prove, and +begs the whole question by the language employed; and, third, the +case against design in nature is, not merely that the evidence is +inadequate, but that the evidence produced is completely +irrelevant. If the same kind of evidence were produced in a court +of law, there is not a judge in the country who would not dismiss +it as having nothing whatever to do with the question at issue. I +do not say that the argument from design, as stated, fails to +convince; I say that it is impossible to produce any kind of +evidence that could persuade an impartial mind to believe in it. + + The argument from design professes to be one from analogy. +John Stuart Mill, himself without a belief in God, thought the +argument to be of a genuinely scientific character. The present +Dean of St. Paul's, Dr Matthews, says that "the argument from +design employs ideas which everyone possesses and thinks he +understands; and, moreover, it seems evident to the simplest +intelligence that if God exists he must be doing something, and +therefore must be pursuing some ends and carrying out some + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + +purpose." (The Purpose of God, p. 13.) And Immanuel Kant said the +argument from design was the, oldest, the clearest and the best +adapted to ordinary human reason. But as Kant proceeded to smash +the argument into smithereens, it is evident that he had not very +flattering opinion of the quality of the reason displayed by the +ordinary man. + + But what is professedly an argument from analogy turns out to +offer no analogy at all. A popular Non-conformist preacher, Dr. +Leslie Weatherhead, whose book, Why do Men Suffer? might be taken +as a fine text-book of religious foolishness, repeats the old +argument that if we were to find a number of letters so arranged +that they formed words we should infer design in the arrangement. +Agreed, but that is obviously because we know that letters and +words and the arrangement of words are due to the design of man. +The argument here is from experience. We infer that a certain +conjunction of signs are designed because we know beforehand that +such things are designed. But in the case of nature we have no such +experience on which to build. We do not know that natural objects +are made, we know of no one who makes natural objects. More, the +very division of objects into natural and artificial is all +admission that natural objects are not, prima facie, products of +design at all. To constitute an analogy we need to have the same +knowledge that natural objects are manufactured as we have that +man's works are manufactured. Design is not found in nature; it is +assumed. As Kant says, reason admires a wonder created by itself. + + The Theist cannot move a step in his endeavor to prove design +in nature without being guilty of the plainest of logical blunders. +It is illustrated in the very language employed. Thus, Dr. Matthews +cites a Roman Catholic priest as saying, "The adaptation of means +to ends is an evident sign of an intelligent cause. Now nature +offers on every side instances of adaptations of means to ends, +hence it follows that nature is the work of an intelligent cause." +Dr. Matthews does not like this way of putting the case, but his +own reasoning shows that he is objecting more to the argument being +stated plainly and concisely rather than to its substance. Nowadays +it is dangerous to make one's religious reasoning so plain that +everyone can understand the language used. + + Consider. Nature, we are told, shows endless adaptations of +means to ends. But nature shows nothing of the kind -- or, at +least, that is the point to be proved, and it must not be taken for +granted. If nature is full of adaptation of means to ends, then +there is nothing further about which to dispute. For adaptation +means the conscious adjustment of things or conditions to a desired +consummation. To adapt a thing is to make it fit to do this or +that, to serve this or that purpose. We adapt our conduct to the +occasion, our language to the person we are addressing, planks of +wood to the purpose we have in mind, and so forth. So, of course, +if nature displays an adaptation of means to ends, then the case +for an adapter is established. + + But nature shows nothing of the kind. What nature provides is +processes and results. That and nothing more. The structure of an +animal and its relation to its environment, the outcome of a +chemical combination, the falling of rain, the elevation of a +mountain, these things, with all other natural phenomena, do not + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + +show an adaptation of means to ends, they show simply a process and +its result. Nature exhibits the universal phenomenon of causation, +and that is all. Processes and results looked like adaptations of +means to ends so long as the, movements of nature were believed to +be the expression of the will of the gods. Bat when natural +phenomena are regarded as the inevitable product of the properties +of existence, such terms as "means" and "ends" are at best +misleading, and in actual practice often deliberately dishonest. +The situation was well expressed by the late W.H. Mallock, -- + + "When we consider the movements of the starry heavens to- + day, instead of feeling it to be wonderful that these are + absolutely regular, we should feel it to be wonderful if they + were ever anything else. We realize that the stars are not + bodies which, unless they are made to move uniformly, would be + floating in space motionless, or moving across it in random + courses. We realize that they are bodies which, unless they + moved uniformly, would not be bodies at all, and would exist + neither in movement nor in rest. We realize that order, + instead of being the marvel of the universe, is the + indispensable condition of its existence -- that it is a + physical platitude, not a divine paradox." + +But there are still many who continue to marvel at the wisdom of +God in so planning the universe that big rivers run by great towns, +and that death comes at the end of life instead of in the middle of +it. Divest the pleas of such men as the Rev. Dr. Matthews of their +semi-philosophic jargon, reduce his illustrations to homely +similes, and he is marvelling at the wisdom of God who so planned +things that the two extremities of a Piece of wood should come at +the ends instead of in the middle. + + The trick is, after all, obvious. The Theist takes terms that +can apply to sentient life alone, and applies them to the universe +at large. He talks about means, that is, the deliberate planning to +achieve certain ends, and then says that as there are means there +must be ends. Having, unperceived, placed the rabbit in the hat, he +is able to bring it forth to the admiration of his audience. The +so-called adaptation of means to ends -- property, the relation of +processes to results -- is not something that can be picked out +from phenomena as a whole as an illustration of divine wisdom; it +is an expression of a universal truism. The product implies the +process because it is the sum of the power of the factors expressed +by it. It is a physical, a chemical, a biological platitude. + _____ + + I have hitherto followed the lines marked out by the Theist in +his attempt to prove that there exists a "mind" behind natural +phenomena, and that the universe as we have it is, at least +generally, an evidence of a plan designed by this "mind." I have +also pointed out that the only datum for such a conclusion is the +universe we know. We must take that as a starting point. We can get +neither behind it nor beyond it. We cannot start with God and +deduce the universe from his existence; we must start with the +world as we know it, and deduce God from the world. And we can only +do this by likening the universe as a product that has come into +existence as part of the design of God, much as a table or a + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + +wireless-set comes into existence as part of the, planning of a +human "mind." But the conditions for doing this do not exist, and +it is remarkable that in many cases critics of the design argument +should so often have criticized it as though it were inconclusive. +But the true line of criticism, the criticism that is absolutely +fatal to the design argument is that there is no logical +possibility of deducing design from a study of natural phenomena. +And there is no other direction in which we can look for proof. The +Theist has never yet managed to produce a case for design which +upon examination might not rightly be dismissed as irrelevant to +the point at issue. + + In what way can we set about proving that a thing is a product +of design? We cannot do this by showing that a process ends in a +result, because every process ends in a result, and in every case +the result is an expression of the process. If I throw a brick, it +matters not whether the brick hits a man on the head and kills him, +or if it breaks a window, or merely falls to the,ground without +hurting anyone or anything. In each case the distance the brick +travels, the force of the impact on the head, the window, or the +ground, remains the same, and not the most exact knowledge of these +factors would enable anyone to say whether the result following the +throwing of the brick was designed or not. Shakespeare is credited +with having written a play called King Lear. But whether +Shakespeare sat down with the deliberate intention of writing Lear, +or whether the astral body of Bacon, or someone else, took +possession of the body of Shakespeare during the writing of Lear, +makes no difference whatever to the result. Again, an attendant on +a sick man is handling a number of bottles, some of which contain +medicine, others a deadly poison. Instead of giving his patient the +medicine, the poison is administered and the patient dies. An +inquest is held, and whether the poison was given deliberately, or, +as we say, by accident, there is the same sequence of cause and +effect, of process and result. So one might multiply the +illustrations indefinitely. No one observing the sequences could +possibly say whether any of these unmistakable results were +designed or not. One cannot in any of these cases logically infer +design. The material for such a decision is not present. + + Yet in each of these cases named we could prove design by +producing evidence of intention. If when throwing the brick I +intended to kill the man, I am guilty of murder. If I intend to +poison, I am also guilty of murder. If there existed in the mind of +Shakespeare a conception of the plan of Lear before writing, and if +the play carried out that intention, then the play was designed. In +every case the essential fact, without a knowledge of which it is +impossible logically to assume design, is a knowledge of intention. +We must know what was intended, and we must then compare the result +with the intention, and note the measure of agreement that exists +between the two. It is not enough to say that one man threw the +brick, and that, if it had not been thrown, the other would not +have been killed. It is not enough to say if the poison had not +been given the patient would not have died. And it certainly is not +enough to argue that the course of events can be traced from the +time the brick left the hands of the first man until it struck the +second one. That, as I have said, remains true in any case. The law +is insistent that in such cases the intent must be established; and +in this matter the law acts with scientific and philosophic Wisdom. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + + Now in all the cases mentioned, and they are, of course, +merely "samples from bulk," we look for design because we know that +men do write plays. men do poison other men, and men do throw +things at each other, with the purpose of inflicting bodily injury. +We are using what is known, as a means of tackling, for the time +being, the unknown. But our knowledge of world-builders, or +universe designers, is not on all-fours with the cases named. We +know nothing whatever about them, and therefore cannot reason from +what is known to what is unknown in the hopes of including the +unknown in the category of the known. + + Second, assuming there to be a God, we have no means of +knowing what his intentions were when he made the world -- assuming +that also. We cannot know what his intention was, and we contrast +that intention with the result. On the known facts, assuming God to +exist, we have no means of deciding whether the world we have is +part of his design or not. He might have set about creating and +intended something different. You Cannot, in short, start with a +physical, with a natural fact, and reach intention. Yet if we are +to prove purpose we must begin with intention, and having a +knowledge of that see how far the product agrees with the design. +It is the marriage of a psychical fact with a physical one that +alone can demonstrate intention, or design. Mere agreement of the +"end" with the "means" proves nothing at all. The end is the means +brought to fruition. The fundamental objection to the argument from +design is that it is completely irrelevant. + + The belief in God is not therefore based on the perception of +design in nature. Belief in design in nature is based upon the +belief in God. Things are as they are whether there is a God or +not. Logically, to believe in design one must start with God. He, +or it, is not a conclusion but a datum. You may begin by assuming +a creator, and then say he did this or that; but you cannot +logically say that because certain things exist, therefore there is +a God who made them. God is an assumption, not a conclusion. And it +is an assumption that explains nothing. if I may quote from my +book, Theism, or Atheism: -- + + "To warrant a logical belief in design, in nature, three + things are essential. First, one must assume that God exists. + Second, one must take it for granted that one has a knowledge + of the intention in the mind of the deity before the alleged + design is brought into existence. Finally, one must be able to + compare the result with the intention and demonstrate their + agreement. But the impossibility of knowing the first two is + apparent. And without the first two the third is of no value + whatever. For we, have no means of reaching the first except + through the third. And until we get to the first we cannot + make use of the third. We are thus in a hopeless impasse. No + examination of nature call lead back to God because we lack + the necessary starting point. All the volumes that have been + written and all the sermons that have been preached depicting + the wisdom of organic structures are so much waste of time and + breath. They prove nothing, and can prove nothing. They assume + at the beginning all they require at the end. Their God is not + something reached by way of inference, it is something assumed + at the very outset." + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + + _____ + + Finally, if there be a designing mind behind or in nature, +then we have a right to expect unity. The products of the design +should, so to speak, dovetail into each other. A plan implies this. +A gun so designed as to kill the one who fired it and the one at +whom it was aimed would be evidence only of the action of a lunatic +or a criminal. When we say we find evidence of a design we at least +imply the presence of an element of unity. What do we find? + + Taking the animal world as a whole, what strikes the observer, +even the religious observer, is the fact of the antagonisms +existing in nature. These are so obvious that religions opinion +invented a devil in order to account for them. And one of the +arguments used by religious people to justify the belief in a +future life is that God has created another world in which the +injustices and blunders of this life may be corrected. + + For his case the Theist Requires co-operative action in +nature. That does exist among the social animals, but only as +regards the individuals within the group, and even there in a very +imperfect form. But taking animal life, I do not know of any +instance where it can truthfully be said that different species of +animals are designed so as to help each other. It is probable that +some exceptions to this might be found in the relations between +insects and flowers, but the animal world certainly provides none. +The carnivora not only live on the herbivore, but they live, when +and where they can, on each other. And God, if we may use Theistic +language, prepares for this, by, on the one hand, so equipping the +one that it may often seize its prey, and the other, that it may +often escape. And when we speak of a creation that brings an animal +into greater harmony with its environment, it must not be forgotten +that the greater harmony, the perfection of the "adaptation" at +which the Theist is lost in admiration, is often the condition of +the destruction of other animals. If each were equally well adapted +one of the competing species would die out. If, therefore, we are +to look for design in nature we can, at most, see only the +manifestations of a mind that takes a delight in destroying on the +one hand what has been built upon the other. + + There, is also the myriads of parasites, as clear evidence of +design as an anything, that live by the infection and the +destruction of forms of life "higher" than their own. Of the number +of animals born only a very small proportion can ever hope to reach +maturity. If we reckon the number of spermatozoa that are "created" +then the number of those that live are ridiculously small. The +number would be one in millions. + + Is there any difference when we come to man? With profound +egotism the Theist argues that the process of evolution is +justified because it has produced him. But with both structure and +feeling there is the same suicidal fact before us. Of the human +structure it would seem that for every step man has, taken away +from mere animal nature God has laid a trap and provided a penalty. +If man will walk upright then he must be prepared for a greater +liability to hernia. If he will live in cities he must pay the +price in a greater liability to tuberculosis. If he will leave his + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + DEITY AND DESIGN + +animal brothers behind him, he must bear reminders of them in the +shape of a useless coating of hair that helps to contract various +diseases, A rudimentary second stomach that provides the occasion +for appendicitis, rudimentary "wisdom teeth" that give a chance for +mental disease. It has been calculated that man carries about with +him over one hundred rudimentary structures, each absorbing energy +and giving nothing in return. + + So one might go on. Nature taken from the point of view most +favorable to the Theist gives us no picture of unified design. Put +aside the impossibility of providing a logical case for the +inferring of design in nature, it remains that the only conception +we can have of a designer is, as W.H. Mallock, a staunch Roman +Catholic, has said, that of "a scatter-brained, semi-powerful, +semi-impotent monster ... kicking his heels in the sky, not perhaps +bent on mischief, but indifferent to the fact that he is causing +it." + ____________________ + + Issued for the Secular Society Limited, and + Printed and Published, by + The Pioneer Press (G.W. FOOTE & Co., LTD.) + 2 & 3, Furnival Street, London, E.C.4, + ENGLAND + + **** **** + PAMPHLETS FOR THE PEOPLE + By CHAPMAN COHEN + +(The purpose of this series is to give a bird's-eye view of the +bearing of Freethought on numerous theological, sociological and +ethical questions.) + + 1. Did Jesus Chit Ever Exist? + 2. Morality Without God. + 3. what is the Use of Prayer? + 4. Christianity and Woman. + 5. Must We Have a Religion? + 6. The Devil. + 7. What is Freethought? + 8. Gods and Their Makers. + 9. Giving 'em Hell. + 10. The Church's Fight for the Child. + 11. Deity and Design. + 12. What is the Use of a Future Life? + 13. Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live. + 14. Freethought and the Child. + 15. Agnosticism or ... ? + 16. Atheism. + 17. Christianity And Slavery. + + Price Twopence Postage One Penny + ___________ + + Read. "THE FREETHINKER" + Edited by CHAPMAN COHEN + Every Thursday Price Threepence + Specimen Copy Post Free + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/democ-pr.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/democ-pr.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f73fd1f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/democ-pr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ +PRODUCER INTERESTS VS. THE PUBLIC INTEREST: THE ORIGIN OF +DEMOCRATIZED PRIVILEGE + +By RICHARD M. EBELING + +In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith constructed some of the +most devastating arguments against the then-prevailing system +of economic policy--mercantilism. In practically every country +in Europe, governments regulated, controlled and planned the +economic activities of their subjects. In France, the +regulations were so detailed that they specified how many +stitches should be used in attaching a button to a shirt. In +Austria, the state limited the period in which people could be +in mourning so that the dye-makers would not lose the business +of selling colored cloth. + +Adam Smith demonstrated that rather than bringing prosperity, +mercantilism had retarded economic progress. Governments, he +argued, had neither the wisdom nor the ability to plan the +economic affairs of a multitude of people. If governments +primarily limited themselves to the protection of life, +liberty and property, Smith said, men could be trusted to +manage their own affairs. And when left to do so in an open, +competitive market, the natural forces of supply and demand +would generate a rising prosperity for all. Free men in free +markets were the ultimate source of the wealth of nations. + +But having presented the case for free markets, Adam Smith was +not optimistic about the future. To expect that a regime of +free trade would ever be established was, he said, as likely +as the establishment of a utopia. "Not only the prejudices of +the public," he despaired, "but what is much more +unconquerable, the private interests of many individuals +irresistibly oppose it." + +Governments had turned over many industries and trades to +private monopolies, whose interests were clearly opposed to +open competition. Special-interest groups, with their +government-bestowed privileges, were too strong ever to be +defeated. + +Within one lifetime, however, Smith was proven to be wrong. By +the middle of the 19th century, England was a free-trade +nation and many other nations were following its path. + +But in our century, governments once again use their power to +regulate the marketplace, protect various industries from +foreign and domestic competition, and limit entry into markets +through licensing procedures. Mercantilism has returned; and +it has returned stronger than ever. The older mercantilism was +a system that benefited a few privileged producers at the +expense of most of the society. But in our era of democratic +government, it is the many who lobby and politick in the +political arena. Almost every group in society now does battle +for a piece of the economic pie--not through open competition +for consumer business, but through the political process to +gain a greater share by manipulating the market. Ours is the +era of democratized privilege. + +Why have free societies all around the world become +battlegrounds for political privilege and economic plunder? + +The answer is to be found in one of Adam Smith's most famous +ideas: the division of labor. "The division of labor," Smith +explained, "so far as it can be introduced, occasions in every +art, a proportionate increase of the productive powers of +labor." By specializing in various lines of production, the +members of society are able to improve and increase their +skills and efficiency to do various things. Out of these +productive specializations comes an increased supply of all +kinds of goods and services. The members of society trade away +the large quantities of each commodity they respectively +produce for all the other goods offered by their fellows in +the market arena. + +Society's members give up the independence of economic self- +sufficiency for the interdependence of a social system of +division of labor. But the gain is a much higher standard of +living than any one of them could ever hope to attain just by +using his own capabilities to fulfill all his wants and +desires through his own labor. + +Each individual is now dependent upon others in the society +for the vast majority of the goods and services he wishes to +use and consume. But in a competitive market setting, this +works to his advantage. Sellers vie with one another for his +consumer business. + +They underbid each other and offer him attractively lower +prices; they devise ways to produce and market new and +improved products. As consumer, the individual is the master +of the market, whom all sellers must serve if they are to +obtain his business. + +Viewed from the perspective of the consumer, the competitive +market serves the public interest. The resources of society +are effectively applied and put to work to satisfy the various +wants and desires of the individuals of that society. The +products which are manufactured are determined by the free +choices of all of the demanders in the marketplace. +Production serves consumption. + +But the market looks totally different from the perspective of +the individual producers. They, too, are dependent upon the +market: they are dependent upon buyers willing to purchase +what they have for sale. While the market serves every one as +a consumer, no one can be a consumer unless he has been +successful as a producer. And his success as a producer +depends upon his ability to market and sell his products or to +find willing buyers for his particular labor skills and +abilities. + +As a consequence, for each producer the price of his own +product or labor service tends to be more important than the +prices of all of the multitude of consumer goods he might +purchase. Because unless he earns the necessary financial +wherewithal in his producer role, he cannot be a consumer. + +Being the consumer of many things, but the producer of usually +one thing, each seller tends to view competition as a +financial threat to his position in the market as well as to +his specific share of the market. The incentive for each +producer, therefore, is to want to limit entry into his corner +of the market, or to reduce the amount of competition +currently existing in his industry or profession. + +The only avenue for limiting competition, however, is the +government. Only the government has the ultimate authority to +permanently prohibit those who think they could do better in +the market and who desire to try. Producers, therefore, have +incentives to use portions of the resources and wealth at +their disposal in the political arena to gain or protect the +market position that they feel themselves unable to obtain or +maintain in an open field of competition. And as long as the +costs of acquiring political privileges and protections from +the government to secure profits are less than the costs of +earning profits by making better and less expensive products, +producers will resort to lobbying and politicking to achieve +their ends. + +The dilemma for the society is that when producers lobby in +the political process for profits via government privilege, +this results in a using-up of resources that otherwise could +have been invested in making products desired by consumers. +Furthermore, existing producers, sitting behind their walls of +political protections and privileges, have fewer incentives +for making product improvements. Therefore, the normal, +competitive forces that over time would result in better +and greater supplies of goods are retarded, + +When government is viewed as the means for acquiring income +"entitlements," job "guarantees" and "fair" (rather than open) +markets, producer interests will always win over the public, +i.e., consumer, interest. Because most individual sellers will +view that they have more to lose from competition as producers +than they have to gain from competition as consumers. + +Unfortunately, the pursuit of producer-protection policies +through government has a perverse outcome: the society as a +whole is poorer than it otherwise would be. Every privilege +and protection raises the prices, narrows the variety and +lowers the quality of the goods available to all of us as +consumers. + +How, then, do we reverse our age of democratized privilege, in +which politics is reduced to a free-for-all for mutual plunder +and economic power? The answer is not an easy one nor one that +offers a "quick fix." + +A turn from our era of neo-mercantilism, with its philosophy +of privileges for all who can win on the political battle +field, requires a moral revolution on the part of each of us. +It requires each and every one of us to apply the rules of +personal conduct to the arena of politics. + +In our personal conduct, few of us would feel morally right in +forcibly preventing a buyer from leaving our respective +business establishment until he paid the price we wanted him +to pay. Nor would we feel morally correct in taking a sum of +money out of another's pocket without his consent simply +because he considered our price for our products or labor +services too high. + +Yet this is done all of the time through the political +process. Not until we come to accept that the rules of +morality that apply in personal conduct must be the same rules +we follow in politics will the age of democratized privilege +and plunder come to an end. And, alas, we seem a long way off +from seeing that day! + +Professor Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of +Economics at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, and also +serves as vice-president of academic affairs for The Future of +Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the March 1991 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1991, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/demonreg.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/demonreg.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..30c03c0d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/demonreg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ + + Demonstration Regulation + by + Matt Giwer (c) 1994 <6/4> + + Abortion demonstrations got out of hand. Something had to +be done. We now have specific laws governing abortion protests. + It was done in a good cause. + Of course there was harassment. There were bombings. +There were even two murders. That would certainly appear to +justify the special laws. + Unless we consider it has been rather tame compared to +unions while on strike. Not much different from the Vietnam +or civil rights protests either. + Even though demonstrations are protected by the 1st +amendment as a matter of free speech it is reasonable to +have some minimal regulation simply to assure peace and +orderliness. For example, if people wish to speak in public +parks it is reasonable to ban loudspeakers. It is not reasonable +to ban loudspeakers only for particular subjects. That we call +censorship. + With demonstrations it is reasonable to provide regulations +that assure public access is not blocked save upon a specific +permit being granted such as to hold a parade or to for such a +large crowd in a park as to deny access to normal public use. + What is not reasonable is to apply unique requirements to +demonstrations based solely upon what is being protested. Thus +there is a large number of people, perhaps a majority, who are in +favor these unconstitutional laws because they are in a good +cause. + I have written many times of the loss of rights in a good +cause. Here is a clear and present good cause and loss of +rights. Which side do you fall on? + Rather I ask which good cause will approve of next time to +limit our right of free speech? If these laws pass +Constitutional muster or even if they are simply allowed to stand +then we have taken another step toward the end of the right of +free speech. + These steps have been coming slowly after decades of +establishing it completely. It was effectively won against +censorship of pornography when the omnipotent "for the children" +argument was raised and there are dozens of draconian state and +federal laws prohibiting it. Regulating, vice prohibiting, all +pornography has been argued and that form of regulation lost. +Now we have accepted strict censorship by type rather than by +nature. + These are two steps to clear and offensive censorship, +limitations upon the freedom of speech by subject matter. The +more often it is accept the easier it is to accept the next. +Watch for more to come. + + * * * * * + + Further distribution is encouraged by the author. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/dial911.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/dial911.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..33911ee1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/dial911.txt @@ -0,0 +1,509 @@ + + JPFO SPECIAL REPORT + + DIAL 911 AND DIE! + + By Aaron Zelman and Jay Simkin, JFPO + + Copyright 1992 by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership + + +THE BAD NEWS: YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN..... Most Americans believe that their +local police have a duty in law to protect them against criminals. They +are wrong.Some of them are dead wrong. And some of those who are dead +wrong are dead because they have been duped by ignorant or dishonest +politicians or police chiefs, who promise protection that they cannot give. +Some of these officials know that they have no legal duty to protect the +average person, and yet still support disarming law-abiding people, the +better "to protect" them from criminals! + Front-line police officers sometimes are verbally abused by victims of +criminals who wrongly believe that police officers have a duty to protect +the law-abiding. These good citizens blame the police officer for not +doing a job for which they have never been responsible: protecting the +average person against criminals. + +THE POLICE: WE SERVE EVERYONE, BUT NO ONE IN PARTICULAR.....U.S. law is +based on English common law. In English common law, "the Sheriff" is a +government employee whose main job is enforcement of government decisions: +Seizure of property, arrest of persons wanted by the authorities, +collection of taxes, etc. Maintenance of public order, a secondary duty, +was done to the extent resources allowed. + +POLICE PROTECTION = POLICE STATE.....It is obvious -- 500 years ago in +England and in America now -- that a sheriff could not be everywhere at +once. It was -- and is -- equally clear that to protect every person would +require an army of Sheriffs (or sheriff's deputies). + Maintaining an Army of police officers - in effect a police state - +would nullify the Freedoms set forth in the Bill of Rights. Neither the +Framers of the Constitution - nor their successors - wanted to avoid the +risk of harm to some in individuals arising from criminals' activity by +creating a police state that inevitably would harm every individual. + +POLICE STATE OR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS.....Instead, the Framers provided +for a judicial system to deal with criminals, persons who abused the +Freedoms provided by the Constitution. The Framers assumed that a law- +abiding person would largely be responsible for their safety. As a matter +of law, that assumption still is valid. + +THE GOOD NEWS: THE SECOND AMENDMENT PRESUMES INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP OF +ARMS..... + The Second Amendment reads: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary +to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear +Arms, shall not be infringed." + It is based on individual ownership of arms. Generally, the Framers +avoided stating the obvious. So, they did not word the amendment, "A +well...State, the right of EVERY PERSON...infringed." That is, the Framers +assumed that every person would look out after his own security, and of +necessity would be armed. They saw no need to state so obvious a truth. + +THE MILITIA: ARMED PERSONS ASSEMBLED FOR LAWFUL PURPOSES.....Rather, the +Framers wanted to emphasize what they felt would be unobvious: that armed +individuals may lawfully assemble to use their Arms only to defend the +State based on the U.S. Constitution (but not to overturn the +Constitution). This is, perhaps, why the words Militia, State, and Arms +are capitalized. + When armed individuals gather for lawful purposes - e.g., the defense +of the Constitution - they are "the Militia". A 20th Century derivative of +"the Militia" is the National Guard, which has existed since 1901. It is +an arm of the Federal Government: + + + "Since 1933, all persons who have enlisted in a state + National Guard unit have simultaneously enlisted in the + National Guard of the United States. In the latter + capacity, they have become a part of the Enlisted + Reserve Corps of the Army, but unless and until ordered + to active duty in the Army, they retained their status + as members of a separate state Guard unit." [Perpich + v. Department of Defense, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 89- + 542, (1990) L Ed 2d 312]. + + Thus, the National Guard exists to enforce government policy. It is +not THE "Militia", but A "militia". U.S. Law states that a "State may +provide and maintain at its own expense a defense force that is exempt from +being drafted into the Armed Forces of the United States". [32 U.S.C. Sec. +109(C)]. Nonetheless, no state now does so. If the Federal authorities +used the Army or National Guard to change the Constitutional order - or a +State governor so abused a state militia - a disarmed citizenry would be +helpless. The Framers did not want this. Generations of their successors +have agreed. + As a result, the Framers wanted the wording of the Second Amendment to +make it clear that armed individuals could gather together for specific +purposes, e.g., defense of the Constitution and the Liberties it proclaims. + +UNCONTROLLED CRIMINALS SUBVERT THE CONSTITUTION.....The Framers felt no +need to state that individuals would use arms to defend themselves against +whom the government never promised to provide, and indeed, never has had an +obligation to provide. It is only the failure of the government to control +criminals in recent decades that has called into question the validity of +the individual right to own arms for the essential purpose of defending the +Constitution. This is as much an individual duty as is personal self- +defense. + +THE LAW: THE POLICE ARE NOT THERE FOR *YOU*.....State and city governments +- rather than the Federal authorities - are responsible for local law +enforcement. So, only occasionally have Federal Courts ruled on the matter +of police protection. + However, in 1856 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that local law +enforcement had no duty to protect a particular person, but only a general +duty to enforce the laws. [South v. Maryland, 59 U.S. (HOW) 396,15 L.Ed., +433 (1856)]. + The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives you no right +to police protection. In 1982, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, +held that: + + "...there is no constitutional right to be protected by + the state against being murdered by criminals or + madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect + its residents against such predators but it does not + violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth + Amendment or, we suppose, any other provision of the + Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of + negative liberties: it tells the state to let people + alone; it does not require the federal government or + the state to provide services, even so elementary a + service as maintaining law and order." [Bowers v. + DeVito, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 686F.2d + 616 (1882) See also Reiff v. City of Philadelphia, + 477F.Supp.1262 (E.D.Pa. 1979)]. + + There are a few, very narrow exceptions. in 1983, the District of +Columbia Court of Appeals remarked that: + + "In a civilized society, every citizen at least tacitly + relies upon the constable for protection from crime. + Hence, more than general reliance is needed to require + the police to act on behalf of a particular individual. + ...Liability is established, therefore, if the police + have specifically undertaken to protect a particular + individual and the individual has specifically relied + upon the undertaking. ...Absent a special + relationship, therefore, the police may not be held + liable for failure to protect a particular individual + from harm caused by criminal conduct. A special + relationship exists if the police employ an individual + in aid of law enforcement, but does not exist merely + because an individual requests, or a police officer + promises to provide protection." [Morgan v. District of + Columbia, 468 A2d 1306 (D.C. App. 1983)]. + + As a result, the government - specifically, police forces - has no +legal duty to help any given person, even one whose life is in imminent +peril. The only exceptions are a person who: + + * Has helped the police force (e.g., as an informant or + as a witness). + + * Can prove that they have specifically been promised + protection and has, as a result, done things that they + otherwise would not have done. + +RELY ON THE POLICE: AND PAY HEAVILY.....Even someone repeatedly threatened +by another has no entitlement to police protection until they have been +physically harmed. In 1959, Linda Riss, a New Yorker, was terrorized by an +ex-boyfriend, who had a criminal record. Over several months, he +repeatedly threatened her: "If I can't have you, no one else will have you, +and when I get through with you, no one else will want you." She +repeatedly sought police protection, explaining her request in detail. +Nothing was done to protect her. + When he threatened her with immediate attack, she again urgently +begged the New York City Police Department for help: "Completely +distraught, she called the police, begging for help, but was refused." The +next day, she was attacked" A "thug" hired by her persecutor threw lye +(sodium hydroxide) in her face. She was blinded in one eye and her face +was permanently scarred. + The Court of Appeals of New York ruled that Linda Riss has no right to +protection. The Court refused to create such a right because that would +impose a crushing economic burden on the government. Only the legislature +could create a right to protection: + + "The amount of protection that may be provided is + limited by the resources of the community and by a + considered legislative-executive decision as to how + these resources may be deployed. For the courts to + proclaim a new and general duty of protection ...even + to those who may be the particular seekers of + protection based on specific hazards, could and would + inevitably determine how the limited police resources + of the community should be allocated and without + predictable limits." + + Judge Keating dissented, bitterly noting that Linda Riss was +victimized not only because she had relied on the police to protect her, +but because she obeyed New York laws that forbade her to own a weapon. +Judge Keating wrote: + + "What makes the city's position particularly difficult to understand +is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any +weapon for self-defense. Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required +to rely for protection on the City of New York, which now denies all +responsibility to her." [Riss v. City of New York, 293 N.Y. 2d 897 +(1968)]. + +CALIFORNIA: AN IMMINENT DEATH THREAT MEANS NOTHING.....Even a person whose +life is imminently in peril is not entitled to help. On 4 September 1972 +Ruth Bunnell called the San Jose (California) police department to report +that her estranged husband, Mack Bunnell, had telephoned her to tell her +that he was coming over to her house to kill her. + In the previous year, the San Jose police, "had made at least 20 calls +and responses to Mrs. Bunnell's home...allegedly related to complaints of +violent acts committed by Mack Bunnell on Mrs. Bunnell and her two +daughters." + +Even so, Ruth Bunnell was told to call back only when Mack Bunnell arrived. + Some 45 minutes later, Mack Bunnell arrived and stabbed Ruth Bunnell +to death. A neighbor called the police, who then came to the murder scene. +The California Court of Appeals held that any claim against the police +department: + + "...is barred by the provisions of the California Tort + Claims Act, particularly Section 845, which states: + `Neither a public entity nor a public employee is + liable for failure to establish a police department or + otherwise provide police protection or, if police + protection service is provided, for failure to provide + sufficient police protection." [Hartzler v. City of + San Jose, App., 120 Cal.Rptr 5 (1975)]. + +WASHINGTON, D.C.: RAPE IS NO CAUSE FOR CONCERN.....If direct peril to life +does not entitle one to police protection, clearly imminent peril of rape +merits no concern. + Carolyn Warren, of Washington, D.C., called the police on 16 March +1975: tow intruders had smashed the back door to her house and had attacked +a female house-mate. After calling the police, Warren and another house- +mate took refuge on a lower back roof of the building. The police went to +the front door and knocked. Warren, afraid to go downstairs, could not +answer. The police officers left without checking the back door. + Warren again called the police and was told that they would respond. +Assuming they had returned, Warren called out to the house-mate, thus +revealing her own location. + The two intruders then rounded up all three women. "For the next +fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced +to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual +demands of (the intruders - ed.) + The Superior Court of the District of Columbia held that: + + "...the fundamental principle (is -ed.) that a + government and its agents are under no general duty to + provide public services, such as police protection, to + any particular individual citizen...The duty to provide + public services is owed to the public at large, and, + absent a special relationship between the police and an + individual, no special legal duty exists." + + In an accompanying memorandum, the Court explained that the term +"special relationship" did not mean an oral promise to respond to a call +for help. Rather, it involved the provision of help to the police force. +[Warren v. District of Columbia, D.C. App., 444 A.2d 1 (1981)]. + +ILLINOIS: SCHOOL TEACHERS GET NO HELP EITHER.....On 20 April 1961, +Josephine M. Keane, a teacher in the Chicago City Public Schools was +assaulted and killed on school premises by a student enrolled in the +school. Keane's family sued the City of Chicago, claiming that: + + "...the City was negligent in failing to assign police + protection to the school, although it knew or should + have known that failure to provide this protection + would result in harm to persons lawfully on the + premises (because) it knew or should have known of the + dangerous condition then existing at the school." + + The Appeals Court affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court of Cook +County. Presiding Justice Burke of the Appeals Court held that, "Failure +on the part of a municipality to exercise a government function does not, +without more, expose the municipality to liability." Justice Burke went on +to say that: + + "To hold that under the circumstances alleged in the + complaint the City owed a `special duty' to Mrs. Keane + for the safety and well-being of her person would + impose an all but impossible burden upon the City, + considering the numerous police, fire, housing and + other laws, ordinances and regulations in force." + [Keane v. City of Chicago, 98 Ill App2d 460 (1968)]. + +NORTH CAROLINA: HELPLESS CHILDREN DON'T COUNT.....Even defenseless +children merit no special care. On 3 June 1985 police tried top arrest a +man and his "girl friend", both of whom were wanted on multiple murder +charges, and who were known to be heavily armed. + The alleged murderers - along with the "girl friend's" two sons, aged +nine and ten years, - tried to flee in a car. As the police closed in +after a running shoot-out, the children were poisoned with cyanide and then +shot in the head either by the mother or her "boy friend", one of whom then +blew up the vehicle, killing both. The boy's father - who had filed for +divorce -sued the law enforcement agencies and officers for "wrongful +death" of his sons. The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that: + + "...the defendant law enforcement agencies and officers + did not owe them (the children - ed.) any legal duty of + care, the breach of which caused their injury and + death...Our law is that in the absence of a special + relationship, such as exists when a victim is in + custody or the police have promised to protect a + particular person, law enforcement agencies and + personnel have no duty to protect individuals from the + criminal acts of others; instead their duty is to + preserve the peace and arrest law breakers for the + protection of the general public. In this instance, a + special relationship of the type stated did not + exist....Plaintiff's argument that the children's + presence required defendants to delay (the) arrest + until the children were elsewhere is incompatible with + the duty that the law has long placed on law + enforcement personnel to make the safety of the public + their first concern; for permitting dangerous criminals + to go unapprehended lest particular individuals be + injured or killed would inevitably and necessarily + endanger the public at large, a policy that the law + cannot tolerate, much less foster." [Lynch v. N.C. + Dept. of Justice, 376 S.E. 2nd 247 (N.C. App. 1989)]. + +VIRGINIA: WRONGFUL RELEASE = WRONGFUL DEATH? WRONG!.....Marvin Munday +murdered Jack Marshall in Virginia. Mundy - convicted for carrying a +concealed pistol - was sent to jail by a judge who expressed concern that +Munday, "might kill himself or a member of the public". Munday was +mistakenly released from jail 8 days later. Nine days later he was re- +arrested on a unrelated charge. Five hours later, the same jailer and +sheriff released him, apparently without checking to see if that was +proper. Three weeks later, Mundy robbed and murdered Marshall. Marshall's +widow sued, alleging negligence on the part of the sheriff and jailer, +asserting a violation of Jack Marshall's right to due process. The Court +rejected the claim: + + "....a distinction must be drawn between a public duty + owed by the officials to the citizenry at large and a + special duty owned to a specific identifiable person or + class of persons.....Only a violation of the latter + duty will give rise to civil liability of the + official....to hold a public official civilly liable + for violating a duty owed to the public at large would + subject the official to potential liability for every + action he undertook and would not be in society's best + interest.".....no special relationship existed that + would create a common law duty on the defendants to + protect the decedent (Marshall - ed.) from Mundy's + criminal acts. Similarly, without a special + relationship between the defendants and the decedent, + no constitutional duty can arise under the Due Process + Clause as codified by 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Therefore, + plaintiff's (Mrs. Marshall - ed.) due process claim + also must fall." [Marshall v. Winston, 389 S.E.2nd 902 + (Va. 1990)]. + + +THE BOTTOM LINE: YOUR LIFE IS IN YOUR OWN HANDS.....These cases - and +there are many others - show clearly that under U.S. law: + + * No individual has a right to police protection, even + when life is in clear and immediate peril; + + * There is no right to police protection simply because + there are not enough police resources available to + enable every person who feels threatened to be + protected; + + * To make police officers answerable to individual + citizens for a failure to provide protection would make + police officers afraid to do anything for fear that an + action - or inaction - would expose them to civil + liability. + + This is unavoidable: + + * Life is risky; + + * The police cannot be everywhere at once; + + * It is impossible to hire enough police officers to + protect every person who needs it or thinks they needs + it. + + No one can or should rely on the local police force to defend him or +herself, even against a specific threat coming from a known source. Each +of us is responsible for ensuring his or her personal safety. Anyone who +says "You don't need a gun, the police will protect you", at best is mis- +informed, and at worst is simply lying. To offer such advise suggests that +police have a duty to provide protection and usually will provide it. The +police have no such duty. And, while police may try hard to provide +protection - and a failure to do so can be castrophobic - there is no legal +recourse for a person harmed by that failure. + +WHAT WE NEED LEAST: GUN BANS AND WAITING PERIODS....."Gun Control" is +founded on a total misunderstanding of the role of police in our society. +"Gun control" advocates presuppose the police have a duty to protect every +individual. But, as proved above, the police never had this duty, and +indeed, cannot have it so long as the Constitution remains in force. + Therefore, bans on gun ownership - or imposition of a waiting period +before a gun may be purchased - simply give an attacker a legally-protected +Window of Opportunity to do you harm. Moreover, "gun control" makes the +law-abiding person less able and willing to take responsibility for their +own defense. We will never eliminate criminals. But we must do far more +to curb them. That is what the Constitution requires. + Many police forces are under-strength. But it is quite clear that to +enable the police to defend each and everyone of us , would require us to +set up here a police state that makes Joe Stalin's Russia look like a "Love +Boat" cruise ship. That is not the lesser of two evils - i.e., better than +letting criminals run free - it is the greater. + +WHAT WE NEED MOST: NATION-WIDE CONCEALED CARRY.....A law-abiding person's +security - as a matter of Law and a matter of Fact - is in their own hands. +Even if we had effective criminal control - and we are far from that happy +state of affairs - each law-abiding person would still be responsible for +their own safety. + Any law-abiding person should be able legally to carry firearms, +concealed, as this is the best way to enable such persons to protect +themselves. It is a potent deterrent: the criminal would not know who was, +and who wasn't, armed. It would enable a person who had been threatened - +and was not entitled to police protection - to have at hand the means to +protect themselves. + +THE FUTURE: NO MORE KILLEEN MASSACRES.....Concealed carry is not a +panacea. A criminal would always have the advantage of the first shot. But +if the intended victim(s) were lawfully entitled to carry a concealed +firearm, the criminal's first shot could be their last. If concealed carry +of a firearms were Federal Law, massacres such as occurred in Killeen, +Texas, would almost certainly become a thing of the past. The criminal +would be killed, quickly, by one of the intended victims. + Licensing is not needed, simply because criminals now carry concealed +weapons at will. Licensing would only affect the 99+% of Americans who own +firearms, and who do not abuse them. What purpose is served by the costly +building of huge files on law-abiding people? Moreover, is not the +presumption in U.S. Law that a person is presumed innocent until proven +guilty? + It is better that we enact and strictly enforce harsh penalties for +concealed carry by those legally debarred from firearms ownership - persons +with criminal records of violence - the more so if commission of a crime +were involved. + +LIFE OR DEATH: ITS' UP TO YOU.....Wise-up those who back "gun control" -- +Federal, State, and local law-makers. law-enforcement chiefs, prosecutors, +and Media personalities -- that the police have no duty to protect you. +Let them know that their support for "gun control" puts your life at risk. +Send them a copy of this Special Report. Urge them to ditch "gun control" +and to lobby urgently for nation-wide concealed carry. Your life depends +on it. + + + * * * * * * * + + A one-hour VHS video tape of "Dial 911 and Die", taped from "Cooper's +Corner", a community-orientated program from Highland Park, Illinois, +featuring Jay Simkin is available from: + + Mr. Aaron Zelman, + Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, + 2872 So. Wentworth Avenue, + Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53207 + + Telephone (414) 769 0760 + + Please enclose (check or money order) $14.95 for the + tape, and $3.50 handling and shipping. + + "Cooper's Corner" is not associated with Colonel Jeff + Cooper in any way. Cooper's Corner features Mr. + Kenneth Cooper of Highland Park, Illinois. + + A condensed version of this "Special Report" will + appear in the July issue of "GUNS & AMMO" magazine, + scheduled for a June release. + + + Composed and uploaded as a public service + + For the JFPO + + by + + George Wm. Everitt, Editor, + + TheIllinoisShooter, + + Official publication of the + + Illinois State Rifle Association. + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Salted Slug Systems Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/dictator.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/dictator.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..659a2d5d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/dictator.txt @@ -0,0 +1,184 @@ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + BLUEPRINT FOR U.S. DICTATORSHIP PLACES INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AT RISK + + By Mike Blair + Exclusive to The SPOTLIGHT + + +Washington, DC -- During the Persian Gulf war and the military buildup +leading to it, President George Bush began using the term "New World +Order," often suggesting that the commitment of so-called multinational +forces involved in the military effort was the beginning of this alleged +worldwide utopia. + + Supposedly using the vehicle of the United Nations, Bush's New World +Order would be the arbitrator of all world problems and the apparatus to +enforce globalist dictates through the use of armed forces combined from +the armies of member nations. The UN law would be, regardless of the +nationalist interests of individual countries, the final word. + + Actually, even the mention of a New World Order would normally be +anathema to thinking Americans and, in particular, conservative political +leaders and civil libertarians. + + SINISTER TECHNOLOGY + + It is also surprising to many critics of the move toward one-world +government that Bush would even dare choose the term "New World Order" to +define his globalist schemes. However, most Americans alive today were +born after World War II, when propaganda of the so-called Allied powers +used the terms of "New Order" or "New World Order" to describe in a +sinister way the military efforts of Japan and, in particular, Germany +under Adolf Hitler. + + Few, it seems, have taken the time to analyze just what Bush has in +mind for his New World Order, of which America is to become an integral +part, starting with supplying about 90 percent of the muscle, and young +lives, that tackled and defeated Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's Arab +legions. + + However, patriotic Constitutional scholars know that Bush's New World +Order is the worst attack ever on America as a sovereign, independent and +free nation. + + BEGAN WITH WILSON + + Efforts to form a global government are certainly nothing new. +American political leaders, who were concerned with America first, were +able to overcome the internationalist, one-world government machinations of +President Woodrow Wilson following World War I. Wilson was prevented from +realizing his visions of a New World Order, through the League of Nations, +by a powerful Senate opposition, which refused to rubber-stamp for Wilson +U.S. membership in the world body. + + A few decades later, however, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, +near the end of World War II, was able to get his one-world plans under way +by laying the groundwork for today's United Nations, which was completed +under his successor, Harry S. Truman. + + A few years later, that membership in an UN-mandated war in Korea cost +America 35,000 young lives. + + The problem that one-worlders have always encountered, of course, is +the U.S. Constitution, which has stood as a bulwark against any globalist +schemes. + + Nevertheless, American presidents since Roosevelt have insidiously +chipped away at the great powers of the people, written into the +Constitution by America's immortal Founding Fathers, with the use of so- +called executive orders. + + CAUSE FOR ALARM + + Americans should be deeply alarmed that those presidents have signed a +series of executive orders (EOs) which, under the guise of any national +emergency declared by the president serving at the time, can virtually +suspend the Constitution and convert the nation into a virtual +dictatorship. Dissent, peaceful or otherwise, is eliminated. + + Those backing efforts to circumvent the Constitution may have gotten +the idea from President Abraham Lincoln, whose use of various extraordinary +powers of his office -- which many Constitutional scholars still insist was +illegal -- suspended various civil rights to curb such problems as draft +riots during the Civil War. + + In 1862, Congress enacted the Enrollment Act to allow the drafting of +young men for the Union Army. The act was rife with inequities, such as +the provision which allowed a man to pay $300 or hire a substitute to take +his place. This hated "Rich Man's Exemption," as it was called, angered +the average American of military age and in particular young Irish +immigrants in New York City. + + A riot erupted in New York in 1863, and it resulted in Lincoln using +some extraordinary powers of his office to keep the Union from falling +apart from within. + + But over the years, presidents have used these powers for purposes +never intended by the Founding Fathers. + + INDIANS VICTIMIZED + + President John Tyler used such powers in 1842 to round up Seminole +Indians in Georgia and Florida and force-march them -- men, women and +children -- to Arkansas. This was probably the first use of internment in +America to deal with unpopular minorities. It was not the last. + + In 1886, the Geronimo Chiricahua Apache Indians surrendered to U.S. +troops in the West, were rounded up by order of President Grover Cleveland, +and shipped to internment in Florida and Alabama. + + Earlier, during the War Between the States, Sioux Indians in +Minnesota, when there was a delay in paying them their yearly allowance, +began attacking nearby white settlements. Lincoln sent in a hastily raised +force of volunteers under Col. H. H. Sibley. Little Crow, leader of the +Kaposia band, was decisively defeated by the Union troops on September 23, +1862, and more than 2,000 Sioux were taken captive, although Little Crow +himself and a few followers escaped. + + Through the process of a military tribunal, sanctioned by Lincoln, 36 +Sioux leaders were publicly hanged. Whether the Sioux executed were +innocent or guilty was apparently immaterial. The revolt was quelled, and +the Minnesota Sioux were all moved to reservations in Dakota. + + These instances of the nation's executive branch taking extraordinary +measures to confine, or intern, American Indians are just a few of many +examples. + + More recent examples of interning minorities by executive order +occurred during World War I and World War II. + + During World War I, an unknown number of German-Americans were rounded +up by federal authorities and interned until after the war. In addition, +regardless of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees +freedom of speech and of the press. German-language newspapers, published +within German-American communities in the United States, were banned. + + WW II INTERNMENTS + + After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, within +days the FBI rounded up tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans, guilty +only of being of Japanese ancestry, under the authority of an executive +order issued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The lists of those to +be apprehended had been drawn up months earlier, before the war. + + Held in concentration camps, the perimeters guarded by U.S. soldiers +armed with machine guns, the mostly innocent and patriotic Japanese- +Americans were not released until after the war. + + Congress has recently passed legislation extending the nation's +apologies to the Japanese-Americans and extending them compensation for +their years of confinement. + + However, no apology or compensation has ever been extended to the more +than 8,000 German-Americans who were confined in dozens of jails and camps +across the United States, also by order of Roosevelt. + + Many were not released until 1947, a full two years after the end of +the war, in total violation of the Geneva Conventions. + + "What happened to me and thousands of others is old history," said +Eberhard Fuhr of Cincinnati, who was interned at 17 years of age, "but the +next time it could be any other group, which is then not politically +correct, or out of favor for any other reason (SPOTLIGHT, May 20, 1991). + + Fuhr's warning, of course, had already been proved correct just +several months earlier when, under orders of Bush, the FBI hounded +thousands of innocent Arab-Americans as the U.S. prepared for the Persian +Gulf conflict. + + Only the efforts of a handful of irate U.S. Congressmen halted the +harassment but not until after a number of U.S. military bases were +selected as sites of internment camps for Arab-Americans and war +dissenters. + +----------------- + +Reproduced with permission from a special supplement to _The Spotlight_, +May 25, 1992. This text may be freely reproduced provided acknowledgement +to The Spotlight appears, including this address: + + The SPOTLIGHT + 300 Independence Avenue, SE + Washington, DC 20003 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/dicthere.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/dicthere.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9c1208c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/dicthere.txt @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + DICTATORSHIP POSSIBLE HERE + + By Lawrence Wilmot and Martin Mann + Exclusive to The SPOTLIGHT + + +Washington, DC -- Hidden in the bureaucratic maze Washington politicians +call "our Constitutional system of government," a little-known federal +agency is quietly making plans to turn the United States into a +dictatorship. + + There are "stacks of blueprints" in the top-secret safe of the Federal +Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) designed to convert American society +into a "command system," a former deputy administrator of the agency has +told The SPOTLIGHT's investigative team. + + In a private interview, allowing him to remain anonymous, this highly +placed source confirmed that the procedures developed by FEMA to "suspend" +the Constitution and to round up thousands of dissenters nationwide can be +activated by a simple phone call from the White House. + + "Even people who have become aware of FEMA's existence and know +something about its activities -- not many do -- think the word `Emergency' +in its designation means it will go into action only in case of a natural +disaster or perhaps a surprise nuclear attack," related this expert. + + "In reality, however, this outfit can be mobilized whenever the +politicians occupying the White House decide they need special -- and +extra-Constitutional -- powers to impose their will on the nation." + + As Liberty Lobby first revealed, FEMA's bureaucrats can then proceed +to: + + * Take over all farms, ranches or timberland in order to "utilize them + more effectively" as decreed in Executive Order (EO) 11490, the so- + called omnibus emergency preparedness decree promulgated by President + Richard Nixon on October 28, 1969. + + * Seize all sources of public power: electric, nuclear, petroleum, etc. + + * Freeze all wages, prices and bank accounts. + + * Take over all communications media. + + A FORCE OF FACELESS FEDS + + Such totalitarian measures can be imposed by bureaucrats under FEMA's +direction, not just in the face of a cataclysmic upheaval, but "[w]henever +necessary for assuring the continuity of the federal government in any +national emergency type situation," decreed a subsequent White House ukase, +EO 11921, issued by President Gerald Ford in April 1976. + + Can such a blueprint for tyranny be clamped on the United States by a +force of faceless federal officials? It is the role of FEMA has been +preparing for most intensively, says the former high agency administrator. + + "In recent years, despite talk of spending cuts, FEMA's budget has +been steadily increasing," revealed this knowledgeable source. "It now +stands at somewhere around $3 billion annually. I say `somewhere' because +part of this agency's funding is appropriated under so-called black +programs, submitted to Congress with the defense budget without an +explanation of its purpose, aping the secret CIA appropriation." + + FEMA can draw on the defense budget and on the protection of the +secrecy reserved for national security projects because it came into being +under President Jimmy Carter in a move that merged the civil defense and +disaster relief responsibilities formerly shared by the Pentagon, the +Commerce Department and the General Services Administration under a single +powerful agency. + + WHAT'S FEMA REALLY UP TO? + + But FEMA's real focus is not on disaster relief, knowledgeable sources +say. An investigation of this little-known agency, conducted earlier this +year by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the congressional watchdog +unit, has found that less than 10 percent of FEMA's staff -- 230 +bureaucrats out of an estimated 2,600 -- are assigned full-time to +preparing for and dealing with major natural disasters such as storms or +earthquakes. + + What, then, is FEMA really up to? The SPOTLIGHT's investigative team +has obtained an advance copy of the GAO report on this secretive agency. + + The study's surprising findings have been reviewed with the help of +well-placed confidential sources, in order to bring into full view, for the +first time, the federal bureaucracy's secret blueprint for tyranny in +America. + + +----------------- + +Reproduced with permission from a special supplement to _The Spotlight_, +May 25, 1992. This text may be freely reproduced provided acknowledgement +to The Spotlight appears, including this address: + + The SPOTLIGHT + 300 Independence Avenue, SE + Washington, DC 20003 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/dietsoap_05.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/dietsoap_05.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e403ec9f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/dietsoap_05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1904 @@ + Diet Soap #5 + + The Unemployment Issue + + or + + The Tragic Emancipation of the Wage Slave + + + + THE BOTTOM LINE + + + + In this realm of the commodified soul the only action more miserable + +than consumption is production. The job, career, profession is the central + +point of alienation in this society of individuals divorced from themselves. + +To work is to create, not out of need or desire, but out of fear and for mere + +survival in a world which is not your own. + + There are, however, brief moments of respite for the average wage + +slave; not so much in the form of weekends or lunchbreaks, but rather in the + +form of tragic emancipation, or unemployment. + + + + YOU'VE BEEN TERMINATED, FIRED, CANNED, LET GO, but most of all + +you've been freed. + + + + Our relationship with the world is so thoroughly manipulated by this + +system of prices, and trade offs, and SCARCITY (illusory or manufactured) + +that when this freedom does come most don't recognize that there are two + +words involved in the event: "tragic" and "emancipation." The tragedy is that + +the emancipated wage-slaves find themselves freed into a society immersed + +in work, just as the black slaves were freed into a society immersed in + +racism. + + There have been a few moments of supercession, however; rare + +instances of fully realized situations in which individuals or communities + +have either stepped out of, or removed the spectacle: + + + + Andre Breton sits in a Parisian cafe sipping lightly at the one coffee he + +could afford, and automatically writes on his napkin. He stands on the table, + +and looks down on the poor souls who have worked all day. + + "The time has come; I beg of you to do justice. At this very hour girls + +as lovely as the day are bruising their knees in the hiding places to which + +the ignoble white drone draws them one by one. They accuse themselves of + +sins that on occasion are charmingly mortal (as if there could be sins) while + +the other prophesies, stirs, or pardons. Who is being deceived here?" -pg. + +197, Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism, 1925 + + + + In Zurich, Tristan Tzara moves without aim or design, and creates + +anti-art which will only disrupt the museum. + + "We had lost confidence in our 'culture.' Everything had to be + +demolished," Marcel Janco yells over the screams of "Dada." + + + + And of course there is the month of May in the year 1968 on the + +European continent in Paris, + +France. + + "On May 14th, 200 men were on strike; on May 19th, 2,000,000; on + +May 22 more than 9,000,000. The paralysis spread with incredible speed + +and spontaneity. At no time did a general strike order go out from the Paris + +head-quarters of the union federations, and yet all over the country a calm, + +irrestible wave of working-class power engulfed the commanding heights of + +the French economy."-pg. 153, Patrick Seale, "The Great Strike; Red Flag, + +Black Flag: French Revolution, 1968 + + + + This last example is the most appealing and hence intriguing. During + +the operation of the spectacular society only those born with some amount of + +privilege can find life outside of work. And although those who decline the + +power their birth randomly gave them were noble and shined with insight, + +only when the realm of commodification is cast aside by all for all can one + +see the true potential for men to live rather than watch their lives. + + How can such a liberating state be sustained? Obviously, violent + +revolution is not an answer, for on the level of pure might the state has + +achieved a technological level which no amount of mere manpower can + +overcome. Further, violence seems to breed greed and a need to be led out + +of disorder even if this means that work prevails. Counter-revolution is + +almost always the end result of revolution. + + What we need is to put a bug in the system. A small glitch which + +spreads to the point of total meltdown is what's desirable. I suggest + +cultivating the excuse as an act of pure revolution. + + + + "What's happened to the work ethic? That's what I want to know. I + +got three calls from people who just aren't going to show up today," my boss + +tells me as we amicably smoke cigarrettes during the break. + + "Did they say why?" I ask. + + "Oh, they all had excuses, of course." + + + + What is needed for the worker is a sense of a Universal Revolutionary + +Excuse. Tell the boss anything, but don't show up on the day when the final + +presentation is due. Work very hard at establishing new clients, but let most + +of them slip through small cracks which open up, quite legitimately and + +unavoidably of course, in your schedule. Put the widget on the wrong gadget + +because your ex-wife is having puppies with another man, and you just can't + +concentrate. + + Or if even this is too degrading for you then simply act outside of + +categories. Come to work in a suit of tinfoil, bring a puppet with you to work + +and refuse to speak to anyone except via the puppet persona, spend the + +night at work and make a paper clip chain which blocks the door, or master + +the art of being the office non-sequitor and walk aimlessly from office to + +office interrupting real work with questions which seem to be valid but + +aren't. Make them laugh while the numbers fall and productivity reaches a + +near standstill. Organize your entire office to show up to work as the + +Rockettes, and have fun kicking everything over while you dance away the + +hours. Perhaps it's not too late to destroy the spectacle with dissident + +strangeness. + + + + "A group of people had moved a dining table out into the street and + +were sitting around it eating and talking. Were they protesting something, + +perhaps an eviction, or were they celebrating the absurdity of the + +moment...a reporter came up to the group, took out a pad of paper and a pen + +and began to ask them questions. With great solemnity someone at the table + +began to butter the reporters tie. The reporter stepped back."-pg.54, Lisa + +Goldstein, The Dream Years, 1986. + + + + This issue of Diet Soap is an attempt to look at the possibilities of + +unemployment and the consequences. To escape the prison of an everyday + +life not directly lived, and to replace the spectacle with a world which is + +actual, is the goal of this ultimate commodity. + + Read on, and enjoy... + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + A Letter From Noam Chomsky + + + + Noam Chomsky teaches linguistics at M.I.T. and is a well know political + +dissident. He has written such books as "Deterring Democracy," and + +"Manufacturing Consent." The Editor of Diet Soap recently contacted Mr. + +Chomsky to ask him a few questions and perhaps entice him into adding + +some respectablity to this fringe zine. This second effort was futile, + +however, the professor did have some comments (although none which he + +"trusted enough to convey," whatever that means) on pranks, surrealism, + +psychedelics and the "deeply personal." + + + +Dear Mr. Lain, + + + + Interested to hear about your journal. About your questions, I don't + +really have any opinions that I trust enough even to convey. Surrealism, + +pranks, and sabotage may have their place. Some of the Dutch provo + +"pranks" were quite imaginative, humorous, and effective I thought. + +Surrealism had its place as a movement in the arts, with many + +achievements, but little in the way of undermining indoctrination, as far as I + +can tell. Incidentally, immersion in the "deeply personal" is not counter to + +capitalist oppression; rather, it is a central component of it. Huge capitalist + +PR efforts are precisely designed to immerse people in the deeply personal, + +removing them from the arena of decision-making in the social, economic, + +and political spheres. + + As for drugs, my impression is that their effect was almost completely + +negative, simply removing people from meaningful struggle and + +engagement. Just the other day I was sitting in a radio studio waiting for a + +satellite arrangement abroad to be set up. The engineers were putting + +together interviews with Bob Dylan from about 1966-7 or so (judging by the + +references), and I was listening (I'd never heard him talk before -- if you + +can call that talking). He sounded as though he was so drugged he was + +barely coherent, but the message got through clearly enough through the + +haze. He said over and over that he'd been through all of this protest thing, + +realized it was nonsense, and that the only thing that was important was to + +live his own life happily and freely, not to "mess around with other people's + +lives" by working for civil and human rights, ending war and poverty, etc. + +He was asked what he thought about the Berkeley "free speech movement" + +and said that he didn't understand it. He said something like: "I have free + +speech, I can do what I want, so it has nothing to do with me. Period." If the + +capitalist PR machine wanted to invent someone for their purposes, they + +couldn't have made a better choice. + + Admittedly, that's one case -- though not a trivial one. It corresponds + +to what I saw over the years, though I admit I didn't see a lot. I did have a + +great deal of contact with young people in the resistance, the civil rights + +movement, and other popular efforts, and still do. But simply don't know + +much about the influences you mention, which were quite remote from any + +form of struggle that I knew anything about or had any contact with. + + Sincerely, + + Noam Chomsky + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + OBIT FOR HOLLYWOOD + + (Excerpt from the Film Journal of Jim Farris.) + + + +5-22-94 + +"Being Human" + +Lloyd Cinemas, 5:00 PM. $3.25. + + + +Unbeilivably dull look at man through the ages wastes Robin Williams + +talents. Bill Forsythe directed and wrote the film and after charming films + +like "Local Hero" and "Comfort and Joy," this was a shock. Tedious + +conversations sprinkled with diversions to nowhere. Awful. + + + +5-23-94 + +"Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" + +Lloyd Mall Cinemas, 10.20 PM. $3.25. + + + +Mind numbing adapdation of Tom Robbins novel directed by Gus Van Sant + +should be great fun but isn't. Great cast is wasted in cameos as we sit + +through the movie debut of pudgy, unattractive, untalented, Rainbow + +Sunshine Phoenix. This is the Titanic of 1994 movies. + + + +5-28-94 + +"Maverick" + +Lloyd Cinemas, 5:00 PM. $3.25. + + + +Oh my God, I'm on a roll. This makes three cow pies in a row. This movie is + +just so full of itself. It winks at itself for it's own amusement, and you get + +the feeling that if you knew these people you'd like the film more. Well, I + +don't know them and I didn't like it. All the scenes are too l-o-n-g. Richard + +Donner like the gags so much he lingers for the laughter he measured in the + +studio screening room. + +Everyone in it, Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and a tired looking James Garner, + +look like they've all seen "Ocean 11" too many times. Danny Glover's cameo + +belongs on a Bob Hope special from the 1960's. + +Mother of mercy, is this the end of movies? + + + +5-30-94 + +"The Flintstones" & "Jurrasic Park" + +Foster Road Drive-In, 9:20 PM. $4.00 + + + +"Maverick" is not the end of the movies..."The Flinstones" is. Let it be known + +that as of 9:32 PM, May 30th, 1994 I sat in a vacant lot, overgrown with high + +weeds, staring at a worn wall of metal and wood and witnessed the end of + +movies. Who knew that an industry that started with the likes of a racist + +like D.W. Griffith, and a man with taste to rival Margarine like C.B. + +Demille...an industry that could produce "Lawerence of Arabia," Elizabeth + +Taylor, "Earthquake," Martin Scorsese, and "Ma and Pa Kettle," would tip it's + +hat, give you a canned laugh, say "Yabba Dabba Do" and disappear into that + +good night? Alas poor movies...I knew them well. + + + +"Jurrasic Park" played as the second feature. Just a cruel joke to remind us + +that even last year Hollywood was still making movies that were + +entertaining and well done, that just last year we thought everything was + +fine. Movies were "better than ever." The sky was the limit. Well, my + +saturated fatted friends we were wrong. We have reached the sky now, + +we've gone the limit and what do we have to show for it? What's left? + +Scarlett O'Hara? "2001?" Bogie? + +Or maybe, in your heart of hears you know: Don Knotts, everything Universal + +made between 1963 and 1974...that's right all of it, and Troy Donahue. + +I should have hope. I want to believe. But the movies speak for themselves. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + Lettuce and Tomatoes and Sour Cream + + - Kate Schwab + + + + The odds are one in ten that a meteorite large enough to cause serious + +damage (in the catastrophic sense of the word "serious") will hit the earth + +within the next fifty years. + + + + And the most commonly spoken word in the English language is "I." + + + + And the enviroment. + + And subatomic particles. + + And child abuse. + + And animal testing. + + And the Industrial Revolution. + + And capitalism. + + And the state of education in America. + + And space. + + + + I am tired of this--too much time to think. My thoughts will kill me + +soon. + + + + Do most people look at the stars and see space as something + +conquerable, or do they gaze in wonder? I wonder. The Universe is infinite- + +so many things we can never know-but people keep trying. I am tired of + +thinking and never doing anything, never reaching an end. Thought, + +knowledge, has no end. It is an infinite universe. We will never know + +everything about the Universe. I've stopped believing that we can. Today. + + + + What I do: I collect unemployment. I am immobilized by freedom. By + +complete freedom. I don't know what to do with my time (I can't stand to + +just sit and think anymore, I'll go crazy). I've stopped reading, stopped + +writing, even stopped watching television. They make me think. + + I spend my time in a tiny, cold cafe, drinking coffee and smoking. I + +am here now. + + It's time for me to leave the cafe, for good. I learned today about the + +coffee industry being held up on the hunched backs of peasant laborers + +everywhere. The work, the chemicals...while I sit here calmly, leisurely + +sipping the sweat from their brows and the opportunity from their lives. I + +already knew about the horrors of the tobacco industry, but I already am + +addicted. + + + + Everytime I look up at the sky I think. I can't help it. It starts with + +the stars, then expands until I'm terrified that the CIA has a file on me and + +that the government is already taken over by the military industrial + +complex. My file is long and this file points out certain good and bad things + +about my life. + + Good: he supports the tobacco industry. + + Bad : he suspects the true controlling government. + + Bad: he thinks about the state of education, about the oppresion of + +women, about capitalism and class war. + + Bad: he does not think we can conquer space. + + + + I feel like I have something inside me that is twisting, it's going to + +twist until it breaks. It's made of molded plastic and it bends, stretches, and + +grows white at the juncture. This plastic is old and has been worked at for a + +long time. Like a Big Brother constantly tearing at the same favorite toy, + +tearing at it every day until it snaps and he laughs. But I can't stop the + +twisting. I don't know what stops it. I try not to think about it, about + +anything. + + + + I am free to do anything I wish, but I don't, I can't. Everything is + +harmful to someone. Coffee makes me sick now. I don't do anything, but I + +should. My form of protest is inactivity, boycott. But, I don't even tell + +anybody that I'm boycotting. I need to start doing something so I don't have + +to think all the time. My thoughts will kill me soon. + + + + If I get a job again, I won't have to think all the time. I can just work. + +I will try not to think about my job. + + I collect unemployment because the company I worked for went + +bankrupt. I worked at a biotech firm as a lab assistant where we genetically + +engineered organisms to clean up toxins in freshwater sources. It worked. I + +worked. I lived for it. It made me think and I loved it. + + Problem: no one wanted to buy it. + + It was a great idea. "Look, we made these organisms that will eat + +toxins in freshwater sources. We can clean up the enviroment to a limited + +degree and keep it from getting any worse." But it took too long. 10-15 + +years and that is too long to wait (We all want results now). + + + + I took the first job I could find, at Tasty Taco. My pay is low but the + +work interests me. I think about how many tacos I make a day and how + +many people eat the food I slip-shod together. I try not to think about + +what's in the food, how we get the food, and so many other things. I just + +work. + + Bob, my manager, tells me that I'm a good worker. I can make a taco + +--wrapped, bagged--in 22 seconds flat. I console myself on payday by + +remembering what Bob told me after my first week: "If you stick around, + +Carl, you're good enough to make management in six months." + + Space doesn't bother me much anymore. I get up and go to work now, + +I don't have time to think about the Universe. Just tacos and burritos and + +nachos. + + "Keep up the good work, Carl," says Bob. + + + + I met a girl. She works at another Tasty Taco store. She can make a + +taco in only 18 seconds. + + + + "Doesn't all this paper waste bother you?" Tim's only been working + +here for three weeks. + + "What do you mean?" + + "Well, we wrap every damn taco in paper, and then put them all in a + +paper bag with a handful of paper napkins." + + "They would all spill out if we didn't wrap them, Tim." + + "But what about all that trash, it has to go somewhere. Don't you think + +about the enviroment? The trash?" + + "I think about it, a little, but I don't let it get to me" + + He quit a week later. I knew he wouldn't last long. + + + + "Carl, your review is coming up in a week, buddy. I'm planning on + +recommending you as a managment trainee." + + "Great, Bob, did you know my taco times are down?" + + Life is good: I'm a management trainee, my work is only getting + +better, Carol and I are spending more time together. Thursday nights we go + +to her apartment to watch Blossom and eat popcorn. Afterward, we go + +outside. + + "The stars are out tonight," she says. "They sure look pretty." + + I look up. We sit in silence, gazing at the stars. + + "What are you thinking about?" she asks. + + "Nothing." + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + Tabarian Filmmakers and Microbrews + + -by Jerry White + + + + + +other reason, because the way that is similar in content to Italian Neo- + +Realism, while remaining totally distinct from an aesthetic point of view. + + But more significantly, this body of recent films from the tiny middle + +eastern nation of Tabaria is remarkable because of its raw emotional power. + +This modest journal provides insufficient space to list the large number of + +filmmakers doing important work within Tabarian borders, but there are a + +few who must not go without mention: Amir Labeliki, Hasfan El Jafarat, Tariq + +Ramouz, and especially Rhian Nonjones, one of the few women to produce a + +viable body of work within an Islamic country. Their films are marked by + +an impassioned social conscience, an attention to form, and frequently + +exhibit a meditative sensibility. Not to say that these filmmakers are all + +self-important stuffiness- El Jafarat, in particular, has made several hilarious + +slapstick comedies that owe as much to Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin as + +to his Iranian colleague Darius Mehrjui. While it's impossible to generalize + +about the cinema of an entire nation, certain tendencies are certainly visible + +within Tabarian cinema, and this development is without question + +deserving of discussion. + + With the rapidly deteriorating social conditions that are a reality of + +the post-colonial Islamic world, Tabarian cinema is frequently concerned + +with issues of day to day survival. Labeliki's film A JOB TODAY, A WAGE + +TOMORROW (1990) dramatizes the struggles of one man, Garash, to find + +work in the labyrinth that the capital city of Asmera has become. While he + +manages to pick up odd jobs, it's never quite enough to support his family, + +so his wife is forced to brew beer (forbidden by the country's extremely + +strict liquor laws) in the basement for sale to the desperate minions above. + +All the while Garash remains fiercely devoted to Islam, a dilemma of colossal + +proportions since his violations of its laws are what enable his family to eat. + +On a similar if more humorous tract, El Jafarat's first feature LET'S ALL SLAY + +THE BOSS (1983) details the oppressive rigors of office life and the elaborate + +plans that a bunch of meek accountants make to overthrow their tie-wearing + +tormentors. Both films portray employment in contemporary Tabaria to be + +an experience wrought with unseeable power relations while remaining the + +one boundary that keeps the proletariat from sliding into the tragic existence + +of the desperately poor. + + Both of these films are especially notable for the way that they + +develop rich characters while still giving a sense of how they fit into their + +greater urban landscape. Labeliki's protagonist is truly a man tormented, + +but his personal struggles are always placed within a specifically post- + +colonial context. While the film sometimes edges into the realm of the + +melodramatic, the struggle that it portrays is quite serious because of the + +questions it raises with relation to the role of the individual in a country + +struggling to define itself. If the Islamic revolution was supposed to be what + +liberated the Arab world from the legacy of European domination, Labeliki + +makes it clear that this revolution comes with a set of oppressions which + +are all its own. The focus here is on everyday life: how the precepts of Islam + +have the power to inspire on an abstract level, but tend to make basic + +struggles all the more difficult. + + El Jafarat's film also makes a point of making his + +accountants-cum-freedom fighters fully developed men and women, + +not merely pawns to be moved to advance his allegorical story. The group's + +leader, Kiman, at first comes across as a fairly conservative fellow, but it + +quickly becomes clear that his passions can be aroused if given the right + +circumstances. But his change of heart is far from sudden, and by the time + +he is stringing up his supervisor by the toes, the viewer has a real sense of + +what has driven him to these lengths. LET'S ALL SLAY THE BOSS is one of + +those rare films that works on both a comedic and allegorical level: El Jafarat + +has constructed his situations with great care and fit them together to form + +an almost seamless whole. + + + +films are the meditative, almost poetic works of both Tariq Ramouz and + +Rhian Nonjones. What we see in these films is a serious concern with issues + +of representation and form, and the result is sometimes remarkable + +beautiful, and in Nonjones' case, among the most rigorous in contemporary + +cinema. + + Ramouz has almost sixty feature films to his credit, many of which + +were made for Tabarian television. It is only in recent years that he has + +come into his own as a serious film artist, in addition to concerning himself + +primarily with rural Tabarian life. His 1987 film DAVSHAT OBSERVED + +marked the emergence of his new sensibility, if only in a nascent form. The + +film takes a day in the life of the small farming community of Davshat, + +which lies on the Tabarian border with Yemen. There are a quite remarkable + +number of characters, and it is a tribute to Ramouz's talent as a screenwriter + +that he is able to make it easy for the viewer to keep them all straight, in + +addition to keeping them all constantly interacting with each other. Italian + +Neo-realist Vittorio deSica once said that "the ideal film would be 24 hours + +in the life of a man to whom nothing happens." Here we have the realization + +of that aesthetic to its fullest: 24 hours in the life of an entire community to + +whom nothing happens. + + Ramouz followed this film with a trilogy of works on the day to day + +life of Yak herders which, through narrative invention, hemanages to invest + +with a universal significance. The three films, TALMAT AND HIS THREE + +SONS (1988), THE HERDS OF THE PLAINS (1990) and SKYWARD BOUND + +(1992) together chronicle almost sixty years in the life of these herders, and + +discuss both minutia and philosophy with equal depth. In THE HERDS OF THE + +PLAINS, two nameless characters move from a conversation about the uses + +of Yak shit to the true nature of Islam within a single shot, but in a way that + +is utterly smooth. In a similar vein, TALMAT AND HIS THREE SONS features + +a remarkable sequence of a baby being born, all shot in extreme close up + +with a minimum of cuts. The sequence lasts for almost forty minutes, but it + +seems to go by in a matter of moments. A more genuinely thoughtful + +collection of work is not to be found anywhere. + + Anywhere, expect perhaps for the epic documentaries of Rhian + +Nonjones. In contrast to Ramouz, Nonjones has made very few films, but her + +work must stand as among the most beautiful in the cinema. Her 1989 + +documentary HISTORY CENTURY 20 is deceptivelysimple in its form, but + +mind blowing by the time it has concluded. The film features a group of ten + +women who all live in El Kanatra, a working class quarter of the city of + +Tamas. + + Each woman directly addresses the camera and discusses her + +family's history. When all ten have taken their turn, the women re-tell each + +other's stories, trying to interpret them through their individual lenses, + +which have all been defined by differing experiences of class, ethnicity and + +countless other factors. The result is a stunning document of the way that + +oral histories can be molded and formed by various members of the same + +community. + + But Nonjones' most important work is her most recent: the 9 hour + +SACRED, PROFANE, AND THE WORLD. Completed in 1993, the film features + +interviews with people from all walks of Tabarian life talking about most + +everything. Spiritual matters are of key concern, and she continually + +returns to the interplay between Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, and how + +they can be joined to help to strengthen the East as we enter a new century. + +While her project is clearly an anti-colonialist one, Nonjones' politics are hard + +to put a finger on. She is above all concerned with the dignity and + +importance of average, working people, and has made a career out of + +collecting their stories. It is these collections, and the way that she + +masterfully assembles them, that add up to some of the most important + +stories of late twentieth century narrative art. + + Not surprising for a country which is simultaneously in a state of + +decay and re-building, Tabarian cinema echoes many concerns about social + +welfare and the future of working people. The films as a whole are + +important not only in the context of middle eastern cinema but also in terms + +of the construction of a viable body of work that rallies for the worldwide + +proletariat. These are films about the work that people do and the way that + +they relate to it, frequently made with an uncommon sense of respect for + +the subjects coupled with political awareness. In a nation in such a state of + +flux, this kind of holistic strategy is nothing short of an act of survival. + + Because of its isolation, Tabarian cinema has been unjustly neglected + +by film scholars and critics. But the time when the established sources of + +aesthetic wisdom could let this important movement in world Cinema pass + +them by is drawing to a close. Tabarian cinema has come of age. We can + +only hope that American criticism and exhibition will do the same. + + + +Postscript: Credit where credit is due + + + +city filmfest, I strike up a conversation with the press liaison, Robin. Pleased + +to hear of my status as a programmer, he tells me about a friend of his who + +is putting together a series of Tabarian cinema, but is having trouble getting + +the films out of the country. Censorship, it seems, is strict. Would he like + +to join me tonight for a beer at this little bar where I have been regularly + +having a nightcap, I ask. Perhaps we could discuss this further. He is not + +sure he can make it, so I leave him with my card to give to his friend. Tell + +her to send me some tapes, I say. And do try to come by the bar tonight. + + That evening, I drink a pint of Boreale, a dark Quebec beer that I have + +had each night of the festival, after the last screening is over. As it has been + +each night, I drink it alone. The train back to Philadelphia leaves early the + +next morning. I wait for a few months, but the tapes never appear. Then + +comes the news that civil war in Yemen has broken out. Neighboring + +countries, it seems, are nervous that fighting may spread. Borders are + +tightened. Clearly, a beer or two at a festival is no longer sufficient. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + + + Tone Deaf World + + or + + Why I Quit the Drag + + + + The owner of the St. Francis Residential Hotel wanted her zombie + +tenants to stay that way. Behind the cafeteria counter, behind the tubs of + +starch and gravy, she placed an old transistor radio with tin speakers. She'd + +twist the dial and --CREAK--there'd be noise in the dining hall. Muzack. Big + +Blands doing nothing to "Song Sung Blue," or "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My + +Head" except maybe smoothing out what few wrinkles the original songs + +had. + + Eleventh and Jefferson--residential hotel for the falling apart. A place + +of faded elegance for dust in the cracks of life, where old wooden chairs with + +flat cushions were lined like desks in a classroom. Up front, where the + +blackboard should've been, was an RCA color television with a sign taped + +underneath which read "don't touch the screen." War Veterans, old + +housewives who ran out onto the street with their curlers and smeared + +rouge faces, and the simply old "lived" there. + + Me, I hung around behind the counter at the feeding trough. Spooning + +up the mandated portions of bleached mashed potatoes and overcooked + +meat from six to nine and eleven to one and six to nine. Clockwork + +consumption, brought to the zombies via minimum wage. + + I did my time and bit dutifully, but when I worked the tin speakers + +didn't do their bit quite right. I'd turn the dial, you see, and add some bebop + +to the old folks fragile hips. I'd tune in 1101 am radio. The owner, Mrs. + +Winston, was too tone deaf to notice the jazz that infiltrated her zombie + +kitchen, and so I survived...for a while. + + Time and Place, space/time, historical locale, etc... + + January, 15th 1991. The man was hot, and his people crazy following. + +The radioactive chalkboard kept the powerless tenants up to date, and I kept + +myself in check by the thin thread of a Bird melody. + + Juxtapose this against the oil scene -- Of the veterans three were shell + +shocked out of reality. Jack, Ralph, and Bill were icons of insanity neatly + +separated by generation. Jack came out of World War II with a steel plate + +and voices, both in his head. He spit when he talked and was easily agitated + +by those on the kitchen staff who didn't reply to his sputtering preamble of + +"You know what? You know what?" I learned early to say, "what?" and then + +ignore the rants which followed. + + Ralph was pure appetite. After protecting the nation from + +communism in the Korean War, he was hungry, and seeing as that war never + +officially ended he probably needed the extra-calories. This single + +mindfulness, however, did catch the attention of the Boss Lady. A diet was + +instigated, and this led to a consistent conflict in the dining hall. Him always + +yelling for more meat, more meat, and me always conning him into a calm + +denial. + + Paranoia was Bill's staple. To call him by his name was to rile him, + +and to touch him was to incite riot. Vietnam left his bald scalp crawling and + +he always smelled of chemicals. This was most likely my imposed trip on + +him, but something scrambled his mind and napalm is a good a culprit as the + +jungle...or as simple war. + + These three didn't hang together as individuals, and so they didn't + +hang together. Still, they usually arrived at the trough at the same time and + +would often follow each other, if only in the Boss Lady's line. + + That's half the set-up. Three deranged ex-patriots to be served on the + +day war broke out in Iraq. But what of the server? Suffice to say that I was + +and am a twenty-two year old college dropout looking to drop some more. + +The real question is, did this sad melody have room for fine improvo? I only + +know that the way I jazzed the place definitely had a cost. + + I was up the night before with a bottle of wine and a fistful of stems + +and caps. I started sabotaging the paper at about nine and by eleven I + +needed a little extra-kick to make the words I was cutting out fit together. + +A swig of wine with a cap of psilocybin. A piece of bread with a stem. I + +wanted alien visions to be the paste I used to glue my revulsion down to + +paperboard and twist it into revolt. Mushrooms, wine and my own AM tin + +speakered radio seemed the perfect combination in order to wash my eyes + +and see Blake's infinity of possibilities which I deemed necessary if I was to + +escape the man. + + A simple sign with the appropriate slogan was far to appropriated to + +work, and so I tossed the standard "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" over and upside + +down in order to create the following message: + + "Cold World conducted for hi-tech Third war. New Media Order + +established as Gulf between Schwarzkopf and chemical weapons is bridged + +by menace in the United Nations. Desert desert DESERT desert!!" + + This found anti-war sign having been converted into true sentiment, I + +got the urge to walk. With my protest on a stick in one hand and my other + +hand pressing the small radio up against my ear I went into the streets. + + I arrived at Pioneer Square to find the place empty. A banner hung + +half twisted and soaked above Starbuck's, but otherwise the protest hadn't + +left a mark. Did the marchers for peace melt in the rain like their sugar- + +coated slogans? I wandered aimlessly and sank into a feeling of deja-vu + +before I found the note stuck on the brass business man. Held in place by + +this statue's pointing finger, and protected by its metal umbrella the note + +simply said "river." + + I walked to the water and held my radio under my jacket as it rained + +again. There, along the Willamette, I found the riled masses of pumped up + +teenagers, spectacled men in black sweaters, grey haired ex-suffragettes, + +and a pile of Birkenstocks all in formation around the waterfront fountain. + +It was cold, but while an Arab man pleaded for his people, water splashed + +as pale skin waded about and a harmonica blew. + + Myself, I found a patch of dry concrete and sat down to absorb. I + +surely couldn't stand. And I lost myself there among the tin saxophone + +loops from my pocket. + + "The United States wants this war, the United States has created this + +war--right on brother," a mix of voices. Miked and unmiked, and even + +farther to the side, "Did you hear about what happened in San Fransisco? + +We blocked off the Interstate there, 60,000 of us there...where is the media, + +why aren't they...they're on the other side, man...chemical weapons, we've + +got all kinds of...I couldn't stay home...I think that guy in the shades is with + +the NSA. No really see the wire? Is that Susan, I didn't know she did the + +protest thing...woooo...and when we invaded Panama where was the world + +court then? Where was the New World Order then? Not on television...I + +haven't been this stoned since...where is Kuwait anyway?" + + All of this gently pushed by a Lester Young melody muffled by my + +wool jacket and slowly from the fountain a green light rising up like oh my + +god its time and I'm not even packed. Psilocybin punching up humanity's + +last yelp before the world stops and runs backwards. + + "What does your sign say?" she asked. + + "What?" + + "Your sign?" + + "It says, 'this end up,'" I said. + + She was wrapped in paisley. She smoked a green cigarette with + +shaking hands and yawned and scratched at freckles. Her red hair blocked + +her face. + + "I cut up today's paper and stuck it on. Trying to gain some control of + +the damned image factory and maybe turn it around I guess," I recanted. + + "Interesting," she said. She held her sign down to me. A rainbow and + +magazine trees stuck to plywood. "I thought that too many people were + +letting the war twist them into negative space. I guess I wanted to show + +some positive alternatives." Children dancing around a sprinkler, a pigeon, + +some fish sticking up from the corner, nude sunbathers, and finally a + +trumpet under that. I liked her. + + "We're the alternative to the mainstream alternative," she said. + + "We're alive," I replied. + + Together we walked to the dock, and as we stepped onto the bobbing + +planks everything peaked. The world, the universe, ran through me and all + +was confirmed by the raspy lilt of Billie Holiday: + + + + Away from the city + + that hurts and mocks + + I'm standing alone + + by the desolate docks + + in the chill, in the chill + + of the night. + + + + I see the horizon + + the great unknown. + + My heart has weight + + it's as heavy as stone. + + Will the dawn coming on + + make it light? + + + + I cover the waterfront. + + I'm watching the sea. + + Will the one I love + + be coming back to me? + + + + I cover the waterfront + + In search of my love, + + And I'm covered + + by a starry sky above. + + + + We danced. That's all, we danced to it, and the waves rocked us. + +Maybe the highest protest of all is to live well, and to have a freckled girl in + +your arms. + + But, she knew someone who knew someone who was planning to go to + +Salem and block the doors or break some windows or something and I was + +left lying in the waves on the dock watching my inner-eye conjure up lights + +and sounds. Then the sun came up. + + I slipped down, and as outer light poured across the waterfront inner + +light slowed. Having seen the bouncing ball of being in its fullness and + +without dimension I floated gently back into the "here and now." + + Back to the hurts and mocks of SW Main, up to the work-house and at + +6:15 a.m. I checked into so called reality with its screaming cooks and + +glares. + + "Late!" the Boss Lady said from behind horn-rimmed glasses. + + "Yeah, yeah. They'll have to wait for their artificial scramble," I said. + +The glow was still with me. + + Placing all the grub into the steam and shoving tiny Dixies into the bin, + +I opened the doors and let the sleep walkers into the linoleum trough. + +Wheel chairs first, brain damage after. + + Jack, Ralph and Bill filed in; each jerking with their trays in pathetic + +pantomime. + + Jack was first. + + "You know what?" he asked. + + Now, one of the symptoms of psychedelic influence is a certain sort of + +earnestness. A willingness, more aptly, to see and respond. And so, in my + +haze of aftershock, I saw into Jack. I looked past the steam and lost my + +protection of plastic cynicism. + + "What?" I said, and for the first time meant the word as a question. + + "God woke me up this morning. He said, 'Wake up!' And I said, 'it's + +early.' " Jack was moving, squirming his wrinkled hands around and forcing + +the other patrons to step back. His hair glistened at the roots with grey + +sweat. + + "God slapped me awake. He said, 'Look at the clock!' It was six + +o'clock, six oh five, six twenty." + + I paused. + + "I guess that happens to everybody," Jack said. + + "Eggs?" I asked. + + "Yeah." + + Slop. From God to eating slop this man went on and I left the room + +through the colors I found in the steam. Work getting done by method of + +automatic pilot. It is said that Lester Young created his greatest improvs + +when he was so blitzed that his body could barely stay vertical. I found that + +my greatest monotonies were created when my mind could not flex, when a + +pale drone replaced any sort of inner dialogue. Psilocybin is not the best + +method by which to deaden the mind. + + "Don't spill it!" the dishwasher man yelled as I removed the now + +partially consumed bins of slush from the steam racks and moved them into + +the kitchen. The dishwasher carried the mop. + + "Don't spill what? The message, the beat, the line. Don't let the world + +you've created slip away from you," one part of my mind told the other. + + "Don't spill it!" the dishwasher said. His apron wrinkling as he rushed + +to my side and put out his tattooed arms to stop the catastrophe. + + Punched out at nine. Punched in at eleven. Fitful sleep between the + +blades of a miniature fan turned on strictly for repetitive and hypnotic noise. + + I punched in again at twelve to find the same crew of veterans + +waiting to be served. Like a Monk tune, harsh and striking. Is that the right + +chord? Did we miss a beat? No? + + "Do you know what? Do you know what?" + + Clank! Jingle! Clank! In tune by being totally out. + + "Can I have some more meat?" Ralph asked. + + "Sorry, but the boss lady put you on a diet." + + "Can I have another piece?" + + "Sorry, man." + + "May I have another portion, please. I'd like some more meatloaf. + +Can I have some more meat?" Ralph was hungry. + + "I can't do it," I said. A good robot. + + "You trying to starve me?" Bill asked. + + "Can I have an extra?" Ralph asked again. + + "Ummm..." + + And across the dining hall Jack asked the world, "You know what? + +You know what?" + + "Get out of my way!" Bill nudged Ralph, and I quickly prepared Bill's + +plate. + + And while I was turned away, while I concentrated on putting barely + +thawed vegetables onto Bill's plate, Ralph reached. He reached over the + +plastic shield and into the bins, and snatched two bits right into his mouth. + + "Caurmph I hauph umphvelmph meat?" Ralph asked. + + Bill took his plate as Ralph moved away, smiling around two patties. + + Clank! + + Half a world away, I imagine now, planes took off. Inside the cockpits + +sat Tom Cruise wannabes looking at Pac-Man video displays and preparing + +for the destruction to come. + + After this, I took a five hour sabbatical. In between the lunch hour + +and the catastrophe I paced the streets of Portland, and the simple feel of + +the asphalt under my feet triggered something...an itch which escalated as I + +walked on a ground I never chose. Five hours of walking, of protest, of + +scratching and itching and scratching. + + "You know what?" + + "You know what?" + + "You know what?" + + You know what happened already. This idea, this thing which + +happened already and is happening now, it's already in everyone's mind. + +What happened is that the war started, but more than that. I snapped. + + "Can I have some more?" + + Bill must be seven feet tall. His eyes are certainly bigger than + +average, and at supper his eyes were on me. You see, I prepared his plate + +before he got to the front of the line. Assembly line style, I jerked each + +tenant a plate trying to speed things up. + + "I'm not eating that poison," Bill said. + + "What?" + + "I'm not eating that poison, Joe!" + + "Okay, okay...for christ's sake." + + And behind this, tin speakers added irony. + + + + Don't stop to diddle daddle + + Stop this foolish prattle + + C'mon swing me Joe + + Swing me brother, swing + + + + Then a burst of static, and this just in: + + + + War is Peace! + + Ignorance is swing! + + Freedom is impossible! + + + + The war had started and it wouldn't be prudent at this juncture to + +consider the humanity of the situation. The man spoke through the tin + +speakers and not a soul noticed. Bill just tapped his foot and mumbled as + +yet another batch of veterans went out to lose their minds. There was a + +pause on my side though. + + I started to toss Bill's food back into the bins. + + "Sorry Bill, you'll have to eat the food I gave you." + + "Don't call me that, Joe!" + + "Eat the food I gave you...BILL!" + + "Don't call me...don't you call me..." he reached over, all seven feet of + +him, and grabbed my arm. + + "Who are you, Bill? Is there anybody in there? Uh? Who is Joe? Is + +Joe dead?" I asked. + + "I'M NOT EATING THAT POISON!" + + "Don't spill it!" + + He lifted me up, and shook me loose. Then a mob climbed all over me. + + "Call the police." + + "He's losing it again." + + "Let go!" + + And I dropped to the ground. I dropped back into place and while + +everyone ran and jerked and wrestled I grabbed a dish of gravy and strolled + +past the counter, past the dining tables, and to the front window. + + "You got him?" the cook asked the dishwasher as she started to let go + +of Bill's arms. + + "Don't...don't..." + + I dipped my fingers into the gravy, into the muck and started to + +spread lines onto glass. I smeared boiled brown guts onto the pane: + + + + "UNDERNEATH THE NOISE, THE BEAT" + + + + Exhausted I flung my apron off, and walked out...onto the road. I + +knew what time it was. It was six o'clock, six fifteen, six twenty. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + Being a Proletariat in the New Age + + + + -by Brian Nedweski + + + + It must be an employer's market. Not that it was ever an employee's + +market, but at least twenty years ago it wasn't as crazy as it is now. In 1964 + +it would've been unlikely that you would be asked for a resume when you + +applied for a position as a dishwasher. Now to look for a job makes you feel + +like a commodity and salesperson all at once: a member of the new age + +proletariat. + + I applied for a job serving espresso and coffee. The employer was + +looking for three or four people to man (or woman) her cart. I found the job + +in the want ads. The job only paid about five dollars an hour. Since m;y bills + +did not amount to much, I could get by on a low paying job. I love coffee, + +I'm sociable, so why not apply? It seemed pretentious that they wanted + +applicants to send resumes and letters of intent, but when I have a notion I + +usually follow through on it; off went the letter and a resume. + + Two weeks later a woman called and scheduled an interview with me + +for the job. When the time came, I put on some "going for an interview + +clothes," trimmed my beard, and drove out to the small liberal college to talk + +someone into giving me a job. The young woman who had contacted me by + +phone also interviewed me; the interview took place in a small room in an + +administration building. A room in which stood the modest coffee/espresso + +cart I would be working at, if all went well. + + I must've struck a sympathetic chord with her, because she called a + +day or so later and said I was one of the four chosen for the work. I was + +asked to attend three training sessions during the next week, which would + +each be two hours long and would include the others who had been selected. + +A short time after she notified me of the training sessions I recieved in the + +mail about ten or fifteen pages of written material about this espresso cart: + +rules on payment procedures, rules on employee behavior, rules on the + +operating of the machinery, etc... + + I thought this process to be a bit anal. For a meager five dollars an + +hour I had sent in a letter, a resume, references, had attended an interview, + +received a slew of written material, and would attend three training + +sessions. Was this all necessary? From what I'd gathered during the + +interview the customers were mostly faculty members whose offices stood + +near the small room with the espresso cart. This wasn't a Starbuck's in + +downtown Seattle. + + I went to the training, did my level best to learn where the cart went + +after hours, how to clean the espresso machine and cart, how to set up the + +espresso machine and cart, how to get water from the janitor closet, how + +they wanted their specialty drinks made, how their cash register worked, + +etc... After the training, I knew I could do a good job. I have spent a good + +portion of my free time in cafes slugging back caffeine laden drinks; names + +and terms such as doppio, con pana, americano, late', tall, skinny, cappuccino, + +mocha...these words don't frighten me. (Northwesterners know coffee; + +sometimes it seems like some Johnny Espresso Seed sowed a path from + +Portland to Seattle, even some 7-11's have espresso machines). Just coming + +from a high stress job where I had succesfully interacted with the public + +daily (i.e., political fundraising by going doo to door in all kinds of + +neighborhoods), I imagined that this job would be a restful one. + + Surprise, a day before I was to start this new job I got a call from a + +woman, not the young woman who had hired me (too chicken), informing me + +that on second thought they believed I was not the right person for the + +position. The only explanation she offered me before she so rudely hung up + +was that in such a small operation as theirs they could not afford to make a + +mistake. + + I was miffed. What I deduced after deciding not to go down to the + +snotty little college and take the espresso cart for a spin on the nearby + +highway, and after reflecting upon that profound question "what the hell did + +I do wrong," was that I had asked too many questions during the training. I + +remembered a nervous worried look on the young woman's face when I + +asked her to explain over the process for correctly starting the espresso + +machine. All the time I figured that the machine must be the owner's + +largest investment; I didn't want to screw it up. Maybe if I had prefaced my + +questions with something like, " Do you remember where it states on my + +resume that I have earned a university degree? Well, I found that asking + +questions helped me obtain that degree; I am asking questions now so I can + +do a good job for you." + + I spent a lot of time landing this job, sending in a resume, a letter, + +commuting back and forth to an interview and training sessions, reading all + +their materials, and they decide not to give me a chance at even one day of + +work. I think they feared I might scald the milk in their favorite professor's + +late'. + + It makes me wonder just how typical is my experience. This + +employer felt that a groomed list of qualifications, an extensive interviewing + +process, a long list of rules, lengthy training would insure against the wrong + +employee, but this was a job serving coffee not performing brain surgery. + +How about answering simple letters and telling the people whom they found + +appropriate to come on in and complete a basic application and be + +interviewed; let the people whom they trained have a chance at doing the + +job. Simpler, cheaper, more efficient. Who knows they may have been using + +the advice of some high-priced consultant. + + I haven't searched the want ads for some time now. I'm glad; doing it + +always unnerves me. So many employers want only employees that fit + +perfectly into a mode. Wouldn't the person hired who did fit the ideal be + +less likely to be a loyal employee than the one offered an opportunity even + +though he or she didn't fit the listed qualifications exactly. A person with + +just the right qualifications will likely know they were hired on the strength + +of their qualifications and not for much else. He or she will probably move + +quickly leave when they have improved their qualifications through + +experience or education; so long sucker, now that I have that degree, I don't + +need you anymore. On the other hand the person who feels the employer + +gave them a chance will probably thing twice before leaving their employer + +in a rough spot. + + If someone messes up big time fire them, but give a person a chance. + +If you don't they might write an article about you. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + +PEOPLE WHO DO THINGS: + + + +Editor: Doug Lain + +East Coast Editor: Jerry White + +Psychic Consultant/Internet Guide: Will Jenkins + + + +Jim Farris is a political activist who admires Hilary Clinton and her various + +hairstyles. + + + +Doug Lain wishes he was all three of the Marx Brothers. He edits this thing, + +and is a student of Philosophy at Portland State University. + + + +Brian Nedweski understands the proletariat as he has a real job. He lives in + +Portland. + + + +Kate Schwab is a student at Portland State University, a short story writer, + +and our future Washington D.C. correspondant. + + + +Jerry White publishes regularly for the Philadelphia City Paper. His is also a + +film smuggler with a base in West Philadelphia. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + SUBMIT! + + + +If you're ready for the fifth dimension then drop Diet Soap a line or two. + +Send us your poetry, fiction, rants, political theories and UFO photos. + +Donations are also acceptable. + + + + Diet SOap + + 2186 NW Glisan #44 + + Portland, OR 97210 + + + + e-mail submissions to: + + willjinx@teleport.com + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/digiphon.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/digiphon.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7db8af02 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/digiphon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +Posted By : Bozak (CCi 69:1305/1.1) +Subject : Digital Telephony and The Government + +At the annual "Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference" this Spring, the +FBI backed by longtime "hacker hunter" Dorothy Denning further tried to +convince the electronic world that 'Digital Telephony' is the way of the +future to fight crime. + +What it is is an invasion of some of our most basic rights. + +Digital Telephony is a proposal that states ALL future communications +technology, whether it be electronic or analog, MUST be able to FULLY and +EASILY (IE built in) accomodate wiretaps. This means now with a flip or a +switch the Feds could monitor a person's every electronic or voice +transmission/conversation. Wiretapping is extremely difficult to get a +warrant for, with only 1,000 or so warrants to wiretap issued last year. + +Those are the legal ones. + +It's fairly common knowledge that all law enforcement also uses illegal +wiretaps quite often, with little or no regard for the laws that are +supposed to protect our rights. This means an unscrupulous agent who may +have something to gain can simply monitor YOUR EVERY word and conversation +with the touch of a button, because now every phone, modem, cellular, +beeper, and anything else that communicates has the built in capacity to be +tapped. + +Guess who's paying for all of this? + +That's right. YOU. + +It will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to re tool factories and +product lines to meet this new standard. That cost will of course be passed +directly to you. You're going to be PAYING for this. + +The government wants to take away your right to privacy, and they want you +to pay them to do it. + +Think about it. The ability to trace your every move, built in to your +phone, modem, and anything else electronic that communicates. + +Now of course the FBI claims that this will save lives. They already said +that two serious crimes have been prevented, including a plan to 'shoot down +an airliner', and a snuff movie with a little kid as the victim. + +Mind if I ask what the HELL that has to do with electronic communications? +The goverment is eating your rights. + +Fight back, or you'll lose your freedom. + +This post might sound like some kind of a sermon, but I just finished +reading the article about it (July '93 Macworld) and I'm just sort of +stunned and pissed off. Why? Because not only are people like Dorothy +Denning who were supposedly moderates, and could see the 'freedom' side of +'hacking' going along with this shit with a big smile on their faces, it's +the fact this bill has made it to Congress, and actually stands a chance of +being passed. That's nothing short of frightening. + +That means we couldn't have CCi, because everyone's modem has the potential +to be listened in on illegally by someone whenever they choose. Just one +agent abusing his/her authority. + +The EFF, along with over 30 other groups and organizations has already filed +several protests against Digital Telephony. + +I reccommend you do the same, because this isn't the first time a bill like +this has come up, and it won't be the last. And one of these days a fucked +up bill like this just might pass. + +PGP anyone? + +ÄÍBozakÍÄÄÄÄÄ--ú + +-!- Oblivion/2 v2.10 + ! Origin: Imajica Private (69:1305/1.1) diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/digital.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/digital.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a4737a5e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/digital.txt @@ -0,0 +1,356 @@ + + +X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X +X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X +X/\/ \/\X +X\/X - Digital Underground - X\/X +X/\X Story by Mark Bennett. Published in i-D Technology Issue X/\X +X\/X X\/X +X/\X Transcribed by Phantasm. 12th September 1992 X/\X +X\/X X\/X +X/\X Unauthorised Access UK. Online 10.00pm-7.00am. +44-636-708063 X/\X +X\/\ /\/X +X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X +X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X + +They've got a file on you. It's on computer. And that computer is connected +to a global network. Who's going to stand up for our civil liberties in the +digital era? Can the anarchic activities of hackers and cyberpunks make them +freedom fighters for the information age? + +CYBERPUNK +TECHNOLOGY + +Cyberspace, the Net, Non-Space, or the Electronic Frontier call it what you +will, but it's out there now, spread across the world like an opulent +immaterial spider's web, growing as each new computer, telephone or fax +machine is plugged in, as satellites close continental divides, hooking +independent phone systems together. It's almost a living entity - the +backbone is the various telephone exchanges, the limbs the copper and fibre- +optic links. Increasingly the world is shifting to this unseen plane. Your +earnings, your purchasing patterns and your poll tax records are processed +there. You may not realise it exists, but it's part of everyday life. As +John Barlow, writer and electronic activist puts it, "Cyberspace is the place +you are when you're on the telephone." + +As life moves to this electronic frontier, politicians and corporations are +starting to exert increasing control over the new digital realm, policing +information highways with growing strictness. Before we even realise we're +there, we may find ourselves boxed into a digital ghetto, denied simple +rights of access, while corporations and governments agencies make out their +territory and roam free. So who will oppose the big guys? Who's going to +stand up for our digital civil liberties? Who has the techno-literacy +necessary to ask a few pertinent questions about what's going down in +cyberspace? Perhaps the people who have been living there the longest might +have a few answers. + +You could argue that hackers have been the most misrepresented of all sub- +cultures. In the mainstream press they've been cast as full-blown electronic +folk devils, either dangerous adolescents and electronic vandals or malevolent +masterminds in the pay of organised crime or evil foreign powers. Others have +tried to put forward a rather romantic view of hackers as freedom fighters +for the information age. And the cyberpunk media industry that grew from +William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's science fiction has mytholised them as +digital rebels, computer cowboys. + +The truthis more complex. As more and more people explore cyberspace, it's +becoming harder than ever to make generalisations about a hacker ethic, to +even figure out what hackers are doing and why. All you can say is that +between them they have created a genuine digital underground, an electronic +bohemia where diverse subcultures can take root, where new ideas, dodgy +tech and weird science can flourish. + +In Europe, the centres for hacking activity are Germany, Holland and +Italy. UK hacking remains relatively stagnant and disorganised. In part it's +down to the relatively high cost of computers and telephone calls. In part +it's down to a difference in attitude. It seems typical that the most famous +hack in Britain came when two hackers broke into Prince Philip's electronic +mailbox. As Andrew Ross points out in an essay on the subject in Strange +Weather, hacking in the UK has a quaint, 'Little England' air about it. Hugo +Cornwall, author of The Hacker's Handbook, has compared hacking to electronic +rambling and has suggested developing a kind of Country Code for computer +ramblers. It's all very benign, a matter of closing gates behind you, +respecting the lands you cross and never ignoring the 'No Trespassing' signs +you might encounter. As Ross says, this amounts to a kind of electronic +feudalism, with digital peasants respecting the inherited land rights of +information barons and never asking bigger questions about property, state +surveillance and the activity of corporations and governments. + +The Europeans tend to take a more politicised, sceptical stance. The focus +for most hacking activity on the continent is the Hamburg-based Chaos +Computer Club, which organises meetings, lectures, publishes magazines and +books on the politics of information and holds an annual conference which +usually draws hackers from around Europe. The club, who's motto is "access +public data freely while protecting private data firmly", was formed by +Wau Holland after the publication of the A5 hacking magazine Datenschleuder +in 1982. An article in the mainstream press stimulated interest and +subscribers decided to set up the club. + +With home computing a minority hobby in Germany during the mid-'80s, the +club couldn't really limit itself to one type of computer as a similar club +in the States might do. Instead it cut across product loyalties and hobbyist +pettines and brought together all computer users. Similarly, the club aimed +to be as open-minded about their activites. They weren't just interested in +swapping access codes and passwords. Instead Datenschleuder published +informed speculation about the way information technology might develop. + +Realising that the majority of the public were unaccustomed to, and in some +cases frightened of, the new technology, they attempted to open up and +demystify thre computerised landscape. Alongside the regular magazine, they +have published four books on computers and hacking, including the essential +Die Hacker Bible One which reprints back copies of Datenschleuder and the +first 50 issues of TAP (aka Technological Assistance Program), a magazine +put together back in the '70s by phone phreakers (early tech-pranksters who +gained free phonecalls with gadgets like Blue Boxes and touch pads). + +Like most hackers, the Chaos Club takes a critical stance towards the phone +companies of the world. As in the UK, the Germans have to live with high +prices for their phone services, something which has prevented the growth of +a network of computerised bulletin boards as in the US. In general, +communications regulations are very restrictive in Germany. Something as +simple as acquiring an extension telephone requires applications for +permission, excessive paperwork and extra charges. In this area the club acts +rather like a technoliterate consumer group, fighting to loosen the phone +company's monopoly and open up the system's potential to ordinary punters. + +In many ways, the Chaos Club is determinedly respectable, at times more like +a special interest pressure group than a hacking club. These days they're +particularly concerned to distance themselves from what they see as +irresponsible elements within the digital underground, perhaps because some +of their members have performed some of the most notorious hacks in the +past. Hackers from the Chaos Club bust into NASA's system in the mid-'80s. In +addition, three years ago, it became apparent that some of the club's +members had hacked into Western military computers and tried to sell what +they found to the KGB. This somewhat sullied the carefully cultivated image +of openness and responsibility and the club has been through something of a +crisis. More recently, confidence has picked up and the last two annual +conferences have attracted around 500 hackers and other interested parties. + +These annual get-togethers have become much more than just illicit swap meets +for Europe's computer intruders. They're part digital be-in, part electronic +think tank, part R&D lab, part informal high-tech trade fair. The centrepiece +is still usually the hacking rooms. Hooked into the phone system by means of +bundles of illegal extension cords, these feature rows of terminals on which +visitors could access networks around the world, call up the club's various +databases or tele-conference with members who couldn't make the event. + +The 1991 event featured a room housing various rudimentary explorations into +the world of 'brain hacking'. Here people were swapping ideas about the +possibilities of making a real life version of the electrodes which feature +in William Gibson's cyberpunk novels and which allow users to jack into a +network and move from computer to computer purely by thought. The technology +that was actually up and running was little more than a biofeedback system +(basically an EEG machine which displays a user's brain waves in order to +help them to achieve particular frequencies and corresponding mental +states). Some present were talking about actually developing a brain- +controlled system, in which information could be moved around the screen +via something like ESP or telekinesis. + +More functional future tech was demonstrated at the same conference by John +Draper, aka Captain Crunch, one of the first phone phreakers and a legend in +hacking circles, who had been flown in by the Virtual Travel Project, an +organisation designed to bring East and West together via technology. He +brought along an old Panasonic videophone which comes complete with a two +inch square display lens and a small camera. When hooked up to standard +telephone lines, the videophone can transmit still images taken by the built +in camera and transmit them to a similar telephone or computer equipped with +the right software. Draper was able to visually connect with the US in a +conference call that hooked up Hamburg, New York, the Electronic Cafe in +Santa Cruz in California and San Francisco. + +Although the Chaos Club is the best-known European hacking group, others are +beginning to achieve a higher profile, particularly the self-styled Italian +Cyberpunks, who are based in Milan and produce the magazine Decoder, which +reads like a politically tougher version of Mondo 2000 and mixes hacker info +and socio-political opinion pieces on information technology with interviews +with the likes of William Gibson, underground comics and scratchy DIY +graphics. With its roots in Italian anarchist traditions and connections to +the free radio movement of the '70's, the Cyberpunks have tried to theorise +hacker activity and present it as a coherent form of political +protest. They're taken relatively seriously by Italian society at large and +their recently published Cyberpunk Anthology managed to make it onto the +bestseller list for several weeks. They are currently working on an English +translation which they hope to publish here (in the UK) by the Summer. + +Like the Chaos Club, the Cyberpunks are less hung up on getting hold of the +latest technology and more interested in educating the public and spreading +information. Invited to participate in the Santarcangelo Arts Festival, held +in Rimini last Summer, they organised lectures on virtual reality and multi- +media, flying in speakers from Germany and Britain and running an +'information wall'. This comprised of a wall of old TVs playing feeds which +were processed by an Amiga video editing system and mixed raw footage of the +festival events, computer graphics and the Cyberpunks' own videos. There +were also plans to set up a pirate TV station and broadcast in a narrow 2km +band towards Rimini. Unfortunately, after technical problems and concern +voiced by members of the Mutoid Waste Company (also present at the festival) +that the material transmitted might be X rated, this had to be called off. + +Whilst groups in Europe seem to be gradually evolving into artful campaigners +and consciousness-raising pranksters, the majority of US hackers have +remained simple tech freaks. However, things may be changing. US hacker +culture has been going through a crisis in the last two years. In a full- +blown moral panic, they have been systematically hunted down by the Secret +Service and have become the focus for hysteria reminiscent of the red scares +of the '50s. (A time magazine cover from 1988 talked about "The Invasion Of +The Data Snatchers".) + +Things began to happen in January 1990 as the Secret Service began to arrest +members of The Legion Of Doom, one of the most celebrated US hacker groups, +on suspicion of having entered the computer systems of the Bell South +company. Although in many cases no charges were filed, electronic equipment +and discs were confiscated. things came to a head with Operation Sun Devil +in May 1990, which involved 28 raids in 14 days; 42 computers and 23,000 +discs were confiscated, many of which have never been returned. Government +agents carried out dawn raids on teenage bedrooms across the US, confiscating +calculators and answerphones. All quite comical. Except things began to get +more serious. Raids became like precision strikes on terrorists and teenagers +found themselves threatened with jail sentences for accessing computer +systems with no password, copying files or just being vaguely +mischievous. Their offence might have been no more than the electronic +equivalent of walking on the grass or breaking and entering, but the +punishment they faced was ten times more severe. + +In addition, the authorities began to target and close down electronic +bulletin boards. In the States, there are now boards for every obsession +going, every hobby, belief, vice or fad. So many that regulation of the kind +of information being circulated is increasingly difficult. For that reason, +it has been argued that the powers that be don't like the idea of boards +per se. Although a lot of the information that is circulated on some of the +more underground boards (how to build bombs, for example) is available +elsewhere, they feel spooked by the thougth that it can be accessed by +anyone with a computer. + +They feel particularly spooked by the idea of hacker bulletin boards, and +have begun to charge people merely for allowing 'dangerous information' to +pass through their systems. + +Hacker reaction to all this has been varied. After receiving prison sentences +for their activities, the majority of the Legion Of Doom have decided to go +legit and have set up as Comsec Data Security Corporation, a computer +protection consultancy. Others have taken a campaigning stance reminiscent +of the Europeans. The East Coast hacker quarterly 2600, which published +hardcore hacking info on phreaking and accessing computer networks, has tried +to highlight the hypocrisy of the hacker busts. "An individual cannot take +a big credit checking corporation like TRW to court because they collect +personal data on them without his or her permission," 2600 editor Emmanuel +Goldstein comments. "But TRW could claim its privacy was violated if a hacker +figures out how to access their system." Whats wrong with this picture... + +Other organisations have been set up to raise concern about civil liberties +and freedom of speech, the most high profile being the Electronic Frontier +Foundation, which was set up by Mitch Kapor, a millionaire software pioneer, +along with other big cheeses from the computer industry (including Steve +Wozniak of Apple, an ex-phone phreaker), as a direct response to anti-hacking +hysteria. A self-confessed hacker/software pirate in the '70s, Kapor is +worried that the current panic may lead to the formation of restrictive +regulations which may hamper the development of cyberspace in the +future. However he isn't in favour of legalising hacking. He thinks hackers +should still be punished. + +Although the EFF has had some success in its moves to end Secret Service +excesses, not all hackers are happy with the way it draws a line between the +old '60s hackers and modern computer intruders. "There are a lot of +similarities between these 15-year-olds who are playing around in corporate +computers and the 40-year-olds who played around with phones and are now +writing software somewhere," comments Emmanuel Goldstein. "They may be legit +now, but they weren't always legitimate". Goldstein is also sceptical of the +'cyberpunk' tag which hackers appropriated from the fiction of William Gibson +and Bruce Sterling, dismissing it as a fashion thing. Whilst it may have +helped to give hackers a sense of identity, the image of leather-clad +anti-social rebels backfired when the authorities started to take it +seriosly. + +Something which places original cyberpunk writers like Bruce Sterling in a +tricky position. "I've had law enforcement people tell me that if they see a +copy of (William Gibson's) Neuromancer in a kid's bedroom when they're doing +a raid, they know he's bad, he's gone," he observes. "There are people who +use the word 'cyberpunk' as a synonym for computer criminal now. There's +little that we can do about it really." Except write a book, something +Sterling decided to do when anti-hacker hysteria reached his home town of +Austin, Texas. The Chicago Computer Fraud and Abuse Task Force seized +hardware and software from a texas SF publisher and made statements to the +local press that cyberpunks were dangerous. "Being quite well-known as a +cyberpunk myself, I thought I'd better find out what was going on". The +results of his investigations will be published as The Hacker Crackdown in +October in the US. + +As an outsider, Sterling offers a refreshingly sceptical perspective on the +scene. Of the 5,000 or so hackers currently practicing in the States, he says +the majority are just mischievous teens, electronic joyriders who are more +curious than malicious. Most of them don't hack beyond the age of 22. They +get bored and get a life outside of cyberspace. He laughs off the idea that +hackers might be seen as radicals. "The idea that these are like fresh-faced +idealistic genius kids who are linked arm-in-arm to deal a telling blow to +the establishment is just bullshit. They all hate each other's guts. They +turn each other in at the drop of a hat." + +Far from being proto-political rebels, he argues that young US hackers are +actually political footballs, part of a larger game which is about the future +and management of cyberspace. Thats why the rich software entrepreneurs of +the Electronic Frontier Foundation have become involved. "The EFF and their +civil liberties fellow travellers are an interest group like any other. They +shouldn't be shrouded in this air of 'Oh they're old '60s people, look how +idealistic and non-materialistic they are. These guys are pretty sharp +operators who've made a lot of money in the computer industry, and would now +like to get their mouse gripping mitts on some lever of political power that +is consonant with the amount of money they have and the influence they wield +in the business world". + +A cynic might argue that the EFF aren't just concerned with the freedom of +speech. They really want to make sure that in the heat of hacker hysteria, a +set of excessive laws don't get passed which might restrict their business +operations in the future. This kind of thing is only to be expected, since +as Sterling says, the electronic community is expanding daily. In the rush to +go digital, hackers may even find themselves sidelined. "Every aspect of +society is moving into electronic networking and that includes hippies, +criminals, lawyers, politicians, bikers, knitting societies, even cops. Cops +have their own bulletin boards now. There are hacker cops. All these +subcultures and sub-groups are moving in, and in a while what was once called +hacker culture may get swamped by other kinds of electronic bohemia." + +US hackers may have acted as the pioneers of the new electronic +landscape. But like the real pioneers who first explored the American West, +they may find it difficult to find a foothold in the new communities they +helped to create. The simple thing is to go in to business for the people +they formerly thought of as the enemy. Alternatively they could band together +in informal vaguely politicised pressure groups like the Europeans. But they +need to update their act. Otherwise they could even wind up a dying +breed. "In the end the thing about American hackers that'll kill them off is +that they're dilettantes," Sterling concludes. "They're not getting any +money for this. They're doing it for free, because it's like a cool +subculture do. They're doing it for power and knowledge. But anything these +jerk-offs can do for power and knowledge, a real operator can do for a lot +of money." + +The pioneer age is over. The Net is here to grow. And as the digital +community expands and corporate control of computerised data increases, +hackers will have to raise their political consciousness if they intend to +fulfil their mythical role as electronic watchmen. + +CONTACTS + +Italian Cyberpunk magazine and book: Dutch hacking magazine: +Decoder Hack-Tic +Shake Edizioni PO Box 22953 +Via Cesare Balbo 10 1100 DL Amsterdam +20136 Milan, Italy The Netherlands + +2600 Magazine - subscriptions, back issues and uncut NTSC video: +2600 Subscription Dept +PO Box 752 +Middle Island +New York 11953-0752 +USA + +Tel: 0101 516 751 2600 + +Back issues of TAP can be found in the classified section of 2600. + +Die Hacker Bible 1 is available in bookshops in Germany. + + Transcribed by Phantasm. 12th September 1992 + +X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X/\X +X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X\/X + Downloaded From P-80 Systems 304-744-2253 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/doctsig.hrb b/textfiles.com/politics/doctsig.hrb new file mode 100644 index 00000000..77bdfd1d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/doctsig.hrb @@ -0,0 +1,280 @@ + An Introduction to the Doctrine of Signatures Tamarra S. James + + It is unthinkable that any serious student of herbal + medicine would be unaware of the existence of a diagnostic system + called, "The Doctrine of Signatures". Most people have read of + it in passing with little or no explanation. In the historical + perspective, it is one of the most important modes of medical + thinking to have evolved, and it was expounded in medical texts + from the middle of the sixteen hundreds right up to the end of + the nineteenth century. + + The Doctrine of Signatures is most notable in that it was not + originally formulated for the medical profession. It took shape + as a spiritual philosophy that had as its base the simple concept + that God had marked everything he had created with a sign. This + sign was a clear indicator of the item's true purpose as intended + by God. + + There are allusions to this sort of theory in the writings of + Galen A.D. 131-200. But it was not until the publication of + Jacob Boehme's Book "Signatura Rerum; The Signature of all + Things" was published in the first half of the seventeenth + century that it took form as a complete philosophy. + + Jacob Boehme was not a learned man, he was in fact, a + shoemaker from a poor family just outside Goerlitz, Germany. In + 1600, he was visited by a sudden illumination of the mind in + which was made clear to him the doctrine he espoused for the + remainder of his life. He published his revelations in the book, + "Aurora" 1612, and was promptly exiled from his home town by the + city council on the advice of the pastor of Goerlitz. The city + council reversed the banishment the next day on the condition + that he wrote no further books. He was apparently unable to + comply with the conditions and left for Prague the next year. He + died in 1624 having authored two books and several treatises on + the subject of his visions. + + The first person to look on Boehme's theories as something more + secularly useful than a method for spiritual meditations was + Paracelsus who was writing in the first half of the sixteen + hundreds. Paracelsus is considered by modern scholars to be the + father of modern chemistry, and he did much in his lifetime to + popularise the Doctrine of Signatures in its medical application. + + (Put in its simplest terms, the Doctrine states that by + careful observation one can learn the uses of a plant from some + aspect of its form or place of growing.) The level of signature + often got a little far fetched, and it would seem that this was a + case of attempting to make the known facts fit the popular + theory. In a period where most of the world was still largely + illiterate, it is likely that the Doctrine of Signatures was + useful as a mnemonic aid for the apprentice who was learning by + observation and rote. +  + + + I will give here a series of examples from William Cole who was + writing in the Seventeenth Century and was greatly influenced by + the teachings of Paracelsus. They will give you some idea of the + practical application of the Doctrine. These examples are taken + from notes that were intended to teach the practices of medicine. + His books are titled, "The Art of Simpling" and "Adam in Eden". + The distilled water of Hawthorn: "It is found by good experience, + that if cloathes and spunges be wet in the said water and applyed + to any place whereinto thornes, splinters etc. have entered and + be there abiding, it will notably draw forth, so that the thorn + gives a medicine for its own prickling." The signature is in the + thorn itself in this case. + + Lung wort, due to the spots on its leaves was related to + Pulmonary complaints. + Plants with yellow flowers or roots, such as Goldenrod were + believed to cure conditions of Jaundice by the signature of + colour. + Plants with a red signature were used for blood disorders. + John Gerard states in his herbal when speaking of St. John's + Wort, "The leaves, flowers and seeds stamped, and put into a + glass with oile olive, and set in the hot sunne for certaine + weeks togather and then strained from those herbes, and the like + quantity of new put in, and sunned in like manner, doth make an + oile of the colour of blood, which is a most precious remedy for + deep wounds..." In this sort of case, the doctrine goes a little + far in demanding that the preparation be made before the + signature evidences itself. + + The petals of the Iris were commonly used as a poultice for + bruising because of the signature of colour, the petals + resembling in hue the bruise they were to alleviate. + + Beyond the signature of colour was that of form. If a portion of + a plant resembled an organ or other part of the Human Anatomy, it + was believed to be beneficial to that part, thus, Cole speaks of + Lily of the Valley in the following terms, " It cureth apoplexy + by Signature; for as that disease is caused by the dropping of + humours into the principal ventricles of the brain: so the + flowers of this Lily hanging on the plants as if they were drops, + are of wonderful use herein." + + Poplar or "Quaking Aspen" leaves were used for shaking + Palsy, and Byrony root, which, with a little imagination could be + said to resemble a swollen human foot, was obviously signed for + use in cases of Dropsy which caused swelling of the foot. + There are many more examples of similar types, but this will + give a sort of general overview to the theory. + + The Doctrine of Signatures naturally led to the concept of + Astrological influence, and this was developed and put forward by + Nicolas Culpeper in his book, "Judgement of Diseases" in the mid + sixteen hundreds. This was a sort of scientific version of the + Doctrine of Signatures that set itself up in opposition to the + simpler folk style we have seen previously. In fact there were a + number of vituperative arguments and clashes between Cole and + Culpeper over the relative merits of the two systems. +  + + In short, the two systems weren't that far different from each + other, and their evaluations of the uses of herbs were generally + the same, the means of arriving at the interpretation was the + thing in dispute. Culpeper felt that only astrologers were fit + to study medicine, being an astrologer himself did not, I'm sure + hinder him in the formation of this bias. Cole was of the + "College of Physicians in London" whom Culpeper loudly decried + as, " A company of proud, insulting, domineering doctors, whose + wits were born about 500 years before themselves." Cole was also + the most avid proponent of the Doctrine of Signatures. + + They carried on a literary battle for supremacy which was + effectively won in 1649 by Culpeper, when he published, " a + physicall directory or a translation of the London dispensary + made by the College of Physicians in London..." In this book, he + had translated the College's main medical text from the Latin, + into the vernacular so that the common man could wean himself + away from dependance on the Doctors by delving into the mysteries + that were formerly known only to the learned physicians. He also + added his own commentary on the formulas, and included a healthy + dose of his astrological theories, seeming to give them the + credence of the College. The College was not amused and + proceeded to attack Culpeper in broadsides from this time, and + continued unceasingly, even after his death. + + The astrological system of diagnosis and treatment was set forth + in Culpeper's "complete herbal" in the following way: + + 1. Consider what planet causeth the disease; that thou mayest + find it in my aforesaid "Judgement of Diseases". (His other + book). + + 2. Consider what part of the body is affected by the disease and + whether it lies in the flesh or blood or bones or ventricles. + + 3. Consider by what planet the afflicted part of the body is + governed; that my "Judgement of Diseases" will inform you also. + + 4. You may oppose diseases by herbs of the planet opposite to the + planet that causes them; as diseases of the luminaries by the + herbs of Saturn and the contrary; diseases of Mars by the herbs + of Venus and the contrary. + + 5. There is a way to cure diseases sometimes by sympathy and so + every planet cures its own diseases; as the sun and moon by their + herbs cure the eyes, Saturn the spleen, Jupiter the liver, Mars + the gall and diseases of the choler, and by Venus diseases in the + instruments of generation." + + Astrology was consulted for diagnosis, classification of + medicinal plants and bodily functions, the preparation of + medicines, and the determination of the most favorable time to + administer the remedy. +  + + + I will briefly set down the basic planetary divisions of the + botanic kingdom. One will note how similar the method is to the + broader Doctrine of Signatures, in fact, there is little + deviation here from the planetary catalogue set down by + Paracelsus. + + SUN: + The sun was said to rule the heart, circulation, and the + vertebral column. All plants that appeared solar, such as + Calendula and Sunflower fell under its influence, as did those + plants that followed the sun in their growth such as Heliotrope. + + Plants that were heat producing, such as Clove and Pepper, and + all those having a tonic effect on the heart were classified + under the Sun. + + MOON: + The moon was held to influence growth, fertility, the breasts, + stomach, womb, and menstrual cycle. It also exerted control over + the brain and the memory. All body fluids and secretions were + believed to be under the lunar sway. To some extent, the entire + plant world was subject to the Moon, as harvesting and planting + was performed in accordance with the lunar phases. Most + especially lunar were those plants with a diaphoretic action, or + with juicy globular fruits. Moisturizing, cooling, or soothing + juices fell in here as well. + + MERCURY; + Mercury ruled the nervous system, and the organs of speech, + hearing, and respiration. Mercuric plants bore finely divided + leaves such as fennel, dill, and carrot. The smell was usually + sharp and distinctive. The most typical of Mercury's plants had + a mood elevating, slightly tonic effect. + + VENUS: + Venus ruled the complexion, the sexual organs, and the hidden + inner workings of the body cells. Venusian plants almost all bore + heavily scented, showy blossoms such as the Damascus Rose or the + + Apple Blossom. The medicinal effects were commonly emollient, + anti-nephritic, and alterative. Of course, many of the + aphrodesiac plants were included under the auspice of Venus as + well. + + MARS: + Mars ruled the muscles, body vitality, and the libido. It + also had influence in the combustion processes of the body and + the motor nerves. Its plants generally affected the blood, and + were stimulating, and in many cases aphrodesiac. Many were hot + and acrid in their nature. + + JUPITER: + Jupiter ruled the liver, the abdomen, the spleen, and the + kidney. Digestion was governed by this planet as was body + growth. Most of Jupiter's plants are edible, many bearing nuts + or fruit such as the chestnut and the apricot. Its medicinal + traits are antispasmodic, calmative, hepatic, and anthelmintic. +  + + SATURN: + Saturn ruled over aging, the bone structure, teeth, and all + hardening processes. Many of its plants are poisonous such as + Hemlock and Belladonna. The effects of Saturnian plants are + sedative, pain relieving, coagulant, or bone-forming. + + Beyond these seven planets, the proponents of this theory + had no knowledge of any other heavenly influences. + + To many of us, this method seems very arbitrary and unreliable, + but one must note, that it was more a system of catalogue than a + real formula for discovery. A budding herbalist may know that + Mercury has many plants with highly divided leaves like Parsley, + but he also knew, that Jupiter had the Hemlock, also with finely + divided leaves, and so he could not trust that all plants with + the leaf type would act the same. Most of the herbal apprentices + could read little and write less, and the Doctrine of Signatures + came to the rescue as a slightly more dignified mnemonic key than + the doggerel verse of the village witch-wife. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY + + "The Signature of All Things", Jacob Boehme: James Clarke & Co. + Ltd., Cambridge 1969. + + "The Golden Age of Herbs & Herbalists.", Rosetta E. Clarkson: + Dover Publications Inc., New York 1972. + + "Culpeper's Complete Herbal", Nicholas Culpeper; W. Foulsham & + Co. Ltd. London + + "The Herbal of General History of Plants": John Gerard: Dover + Publications Inc. 1975. + + "Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy": Manfred M. Junius: Inner + Traditions International Ltd., New York 1985. + + THANK YOU TAMARRA JAMES. + + THIS ARTICLE IS COPYWRITE. IT MAY BE COPIED AND DISTRIBUTED + PROVIDED THIS NOTICE IS NOT REMOVED. + + BOTANIC MEDICINE SOCIETY, BOX 82, STN. A, WILLOWDALE, ONTARIO, + CANADA. M2N 5S7. + + Membership in the Botanic Medicine Society is available. Mail + $25.00 to the above address and receive the quarterly magazine The + Herbalist for one year. An essential reference for all those with + an interest in herbs and herbalism. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/drug-cia.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/drug-cia.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8dae698e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/drug-cia.txt @@ -0,0 +1,466 @@ + + WBAI Pacifica Radio New York + Interview with Mark Swaney + By: Paul DeRienzo. + + -------------------------------- + + WBAI radio interview with Mark Swaney from "Faithful Arkansas" + a citizens group, speaking of Bill Clinton's and George Bush's + connection with the CIA covert drug smuggling operation in + Mena Arkansas in support of the Contras. + +MARK SWANEY: + . . . . [they] set up a front company in Guadalahara Mexico. + The purpose of which, he was told, was to smuggle weapons to + the Contra's in Central America. And he was to be the front man + -- he was to provide the front cover for this company, but he + was given to know that behind the scenes they [the CIA] would + be using this company to smuggle weapons. So he was ok with + that and he went down to Guadalahara and was down there until + the summer of '87 --actually the plane was shot down in '86 + so this operation in Mexico continued for a year after the + Iran-Contra story was breaking and that's something that a + lot of people don't know --they think that Iran-Contra/Contra + Resupply stopped when the revelations were made in '86, but + they actually continued. + + Anyway in the summer of '87, even as the hearings were going + on in Congress, Terry Reed began to suspect they were using + his front company for something other than smuggling weapons. + And one day he was looking for a lathe in one of his warehouses + by the airport there in Guadalahara and he went in and opened + up an air freight shipping container (which are very large, + they're about 28 feet long, 7 feet high, 8 feet wide), and he + found it packed full of Cocaine when he opened it up. He immediately + realized he was in a very precarious situation because he was + the only one on paper who had anything to do with that company, + and if they had ever gotten caught -- there was nobody to stand + up and say well this guy didn't know anything -- he was going + to be a patsy if anything went wrong. So he decided he wasn't + going to play the part of the patsy. The man who was his contact + man for the CIA in Mexico was Felix Rodrigez. So he confronted + Felix Rodrigez and said well listen I didn't bargain on getting + into Narcotics smuggling and I'm outa this all together guys + -- I'm leaving now -- I refuse to have anything further to do + with this. And Felix Rodrigez said ok fine if you want to be + out your out. Now before he was able to return even to Little + Rock Arkansas where his home was at the time, Governor Clinton's + Chief of Security, a man named Raymond Buddy Young, and + another man Tommy Baker, Private Investigator and I'm told + former member of the Arkansas State Police, were framing + Terry Reid for mail fraud. What this involved was the so + called project donation that Oliver North had set up. Terry + Reid's plane had been stolen a number of years earlier + -- and used in drug missions and such without his knowledge + -- and he claimed the insurance money for his plane being stolen + -- and so to set him up what they did was took the airplane + and put it back in his hangar before he got back to Arkansas. + Governor Clinton's Chief of Security just supposedly happened + --and this is what he tells the press -- he say's "one day I + just happened to be walking by this hangar, and the wind just + happened to blow the door open and I just happened to look in + and see this airplane that was stolen four years earlier in + another state and I realized -that was the plane." And so this + is how the case got started. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + How would he have known that was the plane? + +MARK SWANEY: + + Oh that's never been explained. Along with a number of aspects + in this famous story. We're in contact with Terry Reid's defense + attorney in Witchita and she's promised to send us all of the + documents --we have some of the documents already that indicate + --he was found not guilty --well he never went to trial. + + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Is that the same Buddy Young by the way who's head of Governor + Clinton's security detail. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Yes he is. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Buddy Young, let's keep his name in mind because I want to come + back to him. Let's jump now to the sight in Arkansas that was + used as the landing sight, the airport in Arkansas in the town + of Mena Arkansas --that was determinates of a lot of these + Iran-Contra resupply flights. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Yes, in fact Terry Reid has stated in that same article that + you have that it was the *hub* of the Contra resupply effort. + Many people are not aware that Arkansas was very heavily and + very deeply involved in the Iran-Contra affair all during the + time that Governor Clinton ???? Governor of the state. + And there were numerous stories written about it in the press. + Well the story about Mena is that Mena is a very small town + in the middle of the the Washitah (sp) mountains in Southwestern + Arkansas and not coincidentally it happens to be in Congressman + John Paul Hammerschmidt's district, the Third Congressional + district. John Paul Hammerschmidt just happens to be one + of George Bush's very closest friend's. He was George Bush's + Presidential Campaign Manager for Bush's campaign in '76 and + again in 1980. The two people are very close. Anyway Mena + has an airport and it looks from the outside like an ordinary, + normal airport. The thing that separates Mena's airport from + any other is the fact that there are row upon row of hangars + --buildings which house aircraft refitting facilities. Now + aircraft refitting is an industry that is in demand by two + principal paying customers. One of them is the CIA, and the + other one are drug smugglers. And the reason is, is because if + you're a CIA guy and you're going to do covert actions overseas + -- they're almost entirely relying on air transport of some kind. + Particularly if you're going to covertly resupply an army that's + over a thousand miles away. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Hassenfusse's plane was based there. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Pardon me. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Hassenfusse's plane, the plane that was shot down, was based + in Mena Arkansas. + +MARK SWANEY: + + That plane was based there formally before Barry Seal was + murdered just a few months before it was shot down. That + was Barry Seal's own personal airplane. But anyway what + you need to do, if you're a CIA or a drug smuggler is you + need an airplane that can do things that normally airplanes + of the civilian variety are not allowed to do. Things like + have cargo doors that open to the inside of the airplane so + that you can make in-flight drops - so that you can drop + things out of the airplane while it's flying -- which is + illegal on a commercial or civilian type of aircraft. You + need to do things like install advanced navigational equipment + sometimes even ??? You need things like roller matts to put + down on the floor so that you can roll the crates forward + in the fuselage of the airplane to kick them out. You need + to be able to modify a civilian aircraft that is not legally + allowed to have such capability so that it does have those + capabilities. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + And this was done in Mena -- a smalltown airport. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Right. Now Mena has the second or third largest --I don't + know which, but one of the largest aircraft refitting + facilities in the United States. And as such it was --long + before the Nicaruguan episode happened, it was a base of CIA + covert operation and remains to this very minute a base of + CIA covert operation. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Let's jump to another name that comes up in this -- a fella + by the name of Larry Nichols, former employee of the state + of Arkansas. He was a employee of the Arkansas Development + and Finance Authority now I have an Associated Press article + that came out just a couple of days ago that Larry Nichols + has dropped a lawsuit that he had instituted in 1990 against + Governor Clinton that came after his 1988 dismissal from that + state job for miss-use of agency telephones. + + Can you tell us who Larry Nichols was. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Yeah this is probably the most interesting part of the story + -- you see Larry Nichols is the source of all these rumors + and the Jennifer Flowers thing and the Governor's sex life. + The story that the press has yet not picked up on is the + fact that Larry Nichols was a big time Contra supporter. + He has close connections to Mario Collero, Adolpho Collero + and Jack Singlove. In fact he served with General Singlove + in Vietnam. He spent the first half of the decade working + for the Contras in a connection with an organization that + General Singlove had. He spent time with the Contra's on the + ground in Honduras. His job was to collect military information. + Now I've met with Larry Nichols -- this information that I'm + about to give you he has told me directly. And we have checked + out a great deal of what he's told us and everything that he + has told us has checked out totally accurate. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + So what we're seeing here is a connection between the mistress + sex scandal and the Iran-Contra and the Governor of Arkansas. + There's a connection. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Well what you find out here in a minute is that the sex + scandals really have nothing to do with it. I saw his lawsuit + several months ago when I was in Little Rock and it was of + no interest to me I didn't even bother to make a copy of it. + But Larry Nichols, the man, and his relationship to the + Governor is extremely interesting. You see what it is --is + that his job was to make military analysis of the situation + in Honduras with the Contras. And to take that information + back to the United States and package it and present it to + Congressmen who are in favor of Contra Aid with a view toward + convincing them that the Contra's were an effective military + fighting force --that they could win militarily against the + Sandanistas. At some point around '85 I believe this job for + Larry ran out, and he didn't have any money and he approached + Governor Clinton. Now according to Larry, he and Governor Clinton + are close friends, have known each other for a long time. In + fact before the Governor was the Governor. He asked Governor + Clinton --hey I'm broke I need a job. Well it's not too usual + that somebody could just call up the Governor and say I want + a job and the Governor says sure we'll make you Marketing + Director for ADFA. That's the Arkansas Development Finance + Authority --which figures centrally in Bill Clinton's + relationship to the Contra Resupply network that the state + of Arkansas was so heavily involved in. In any case he was + there working at ADFA and someone at ADFA a fellow employee + had found out about this guy that was working with them who + was this romantic jungle fighter type of character. And + eventually she began to talk to some friends about it and + word reached the ears of a reporter and a reporter began + to investigate Larry Nichols --wondering what this big Contra + supporter was doing working for ADFA. Everyone who holds a + top position at ADFA is directly appointed by Bill Clinton --in + fact ADFA is a total invention of Bill Clinton's --he created + the agency out of thin air and appoints all of the top + directors. In any case a reporter approached Bill Clinton + in Japan and started to question him about Larry Nichols + --wanted to know what this guy was doing on state payroll + --if he was lobbying for the Contra's or just what the story + was. Mr. Clinton, rather precipitously fired Larry Nichols + directly after that. And the story that was put out was that + he was fired for misusing state telephones that he'd supposedly + made hundreds of calls to the Contras and ran up thousands of + dollars worth of bills to the Contras -- uhmm that is an + unsubstantiated allegation --in fact on Larry Nichols suggestion + the organization I work with received his entire phone records + from ADFA through freedom of information act and went over + those phone records with him call by call and we did not find + any records of calls by him outside the United States on + those phone records so it was a phony charge and Larry Nichols + was in fact wrongfully fired and they made up this story that + he was calling the Contras in order to get rid of him. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Why do you think that was? + +MARK SWANEY: + + Well I don't know the exact reason but I can tell you this + that Larry Nichols and Buddy Young the man I mentioned earlier, + are very close friends. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Well that's a point that you just mentioned that Buddy Young was + the State Security man who discovered the airplane -- the allegedly + stolen airplane belonging to Terry Reid was in fact in a certain + airport hangar. + + +MARK SWANEY: + + Everything to do with that in fact the federal judge is on record + for calling Buddy Young a liar in Terry Reid's trial. But see Larry + Nichols and Buddy Young knew each other and are close friends + according to the newspaper accounts that were in the newspaper + down here in Arkansas yesterday -- they're old buddies. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Yes, well that's what the Associated Press report that I'm looking + at right now says that Nichols dropped his lawsuit after consulting + with Buddy Young. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Yes, Now I'm going to say something right now which is rather + shocking -- this is the first time this has been made public + to my knowledge. A member of my organization who is going to + be at a press conference that we're having tomorrow --spoke + with Larry Nichols --we've been in contact with him for several + months off and on on the telephone, and he's had a conversation + with him sometime around the first week of January -- during + which Larry Nichols tolde this member of my organization -- that + Buddy Young had called him and told him that he in fact was a + dead man -- that was under threat of death. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Buddy Young was? + +MARK SWANEY: + + No. Larry Nichols. And at that time Buddy Young was frightened + -- he was not threatening Larry Nichols personally he was saying + that we're all in trouble with this because there's a move in + the Governor's office to get rid of me. So Buddy Young was + afraid that Governor Clinton was about to axe him in the same + way that he axed Larry Nichols. And so serious did he take + this possibility that he informed Larry Nichols directly that + he was a dead man. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + So Larry Nichols is now saying that Buddy Young the Chief of + Governor Clinton's gubernatorial campaign has told him that + he's a dead man. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Yes, that is the information that Larry Nichols gave to us + -- now as I say that has not been reported anywhere else and + I would not bet a lot right now on Mr. Nichols backing that + statement up, but I back it up. + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + And this is prior to him dropping this lawsuit against Governor + Clinton. + +MARK SWANEY: + + Yes, the timing of his dropping the lawsuit is interesting to + us too, because we just recently were in contact with the Nation + Magazine, and it was approximately two days after the Nation + Magazine actually decided to take the information that we had + collected on this case very seriously and in fact are now + pursuing their own investigative journalism on this, it was + about two days after that that Larry Nichols declared that he + was going to drop his lawsuit. Uh, so there's some very strange + things that are going on. There's a great deal of other + information --uh, connecting Governor Clinton to the operation + in Mena. We don't have what you'd call a smoking gun on this + -- I have in front of me a piece of paper that I've written + 17 questions for the Governor on that the media has totally + overlooked in their haste to salivate over all these sexual + stories --they've totally missed what's available. For example, + the organization that I work for has been --I don't say I work for, + nobody pays us we're getting broke doing this, but in any case + we've collected just about everything that's publicly available + about Mena and all of its ramifications and its a tremendous + story, and I'd like to emphasize right now that Governor + Clinton's part in this is very minor -- the real big fish in this + story is George Bush. The damage that could come from this + information coming out is in fact far more damaging to George + Bush than anyone else, because he's directly responsible for this + -- this operation was run out of the then Vice President George + Bush's office. And I'd also like to add that the Arkansas chapter + of the Iran-Contra story was the one that was most heavily + covered up at the time -- it was part of the story they had + that they took the most care to see to it that nothing ever + came out about it. And that was for two reasons: 1) because + it involves massive cocaine smuggling -- we had one pilot that + came to the University and spoke directly to us and said + "I personally flew for the CIA, guns, Panamanian Defense + forces and approximately one ton of cocaine per flight. + I flew seven of these flights into Mena Arkansas." So they + wanted to cover it up because it was the one thing that would + have exposed the drug connection within the United States + most heavily. 2) And the other reason that they were very + anxious to coverup Mena's involvement was because the base + of operations that the CIA was using was in fact still active + at the time the hearings were going on. And that base of + operations supports covert operations all around the world + not just in Central America. For example, there's a current + covert operation that was going on there at least as late as + May of last year that killed a man from Arkansas and Angola -- + so the entire time that Barry Seal was operating out of that + airport the CIA was supporting there covert war with Jonason(sp) + and Manunita(sp) in Angola. And we have sources within the + United States government that there is covert activity going on + in it this very day. + + +PAUL DeRIENZO: + + Thank you very much Mark Swaney --this is an amazing story and + the amazing thing about it is that this is the *real* story about + Governor Bill Clinton and that what we're getting served to us from + all the media from start to finish from morning to night headlines + in all the New York papers, is this thing about Governor Clinton + and this woman Jennifer Flowers and her association with the + Governor who is married for 14 years, and the real story which + you get on WBAI underneath it all from our contacts in Arkansas + is that in fact the Governor of Arkansas is covering up an illegal + operation that began in the Vice President's office who is now + President of the United States -- George Bush. Which makes me + wonder why should I even bother voting -- who's there to vote for. + I mean both sides the Democrats and the Republicans are involved. + +MARK SWANEY: + + That's another part of the story --you know the best way to buy + off an election is to pay off both candidates. There's significant + Republican interest in seeing Bill Clinton get the nomination + from the standpoint that they will be assured then that none + of the issues of the Iran-Contra affair are likely to be talked + about. Certainly Clinton doesn't want to talk about them. + + We tried before we knew that Mr. Clinton was involved in this -- + we only came across this information 5 or 6 months ago and + for two years now we've been doing demonstrations, writing + letters collecting petitions holding informational gatherings + to try to get this story to the people, and we have on several + occasions sent Bill Clinton signatures, petitions of Arkansan's + asking for a state investigation and he refused to do anything + about them he would do nothing more than have an aide send us a + two sentence letter saying we have received your petition and + then this last September just one week before he decided to + run for the Presidency we contacted his office and said listen + we'd be willing to talk to you or any one of your aides so that + we could talk to you about this major crime problem in our state + that we're concerned about that we'd like to get to the bottom + of -- and he refused that. During the 4 or 5 years now that + the press has covered this story about Mena and Barry Seal -- + you know this is a story about people who have been murdered -- + this is a very, very serious affair and during all of this time + talk of massive Cocaine smuggling, corruption of local officials + corruption of Federal and State judicial system on and on and on + there was total silence from the Governor, not a word. And it + was not until our organization had a large demonstration + -- it wasn't really a large demonstration but it was very well + covered in the Arkansas press --that reporters approached + Mr. Clinton about Mena. He talked about it for the first time + in 4 or 5 years and what he had to say at that time was that + he had in fact authorized some money for lonely little Polk County, + which is a poor county in Southwestern Arkansas to run an + investigation and so we asked him for back up from the + Governor's office we said -freedom of information act + -- we'd like to know if you have any documentation whatsoever + to back up your statement that you are willing to help the + Polk County investigators do their own state investigation + in this affair. And he could not produce a single thing. + + + --------------------------- + +"Why of course the people don't want war... It is the leaders...who +determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the +people along...all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked +and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the +country to danger. It works the same in any country. + + Hermann Goering, 1936 + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/e-law.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/e-law.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..01c8e670 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/e-law.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ + + ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS REQUIRE CHANGES IN LAW + + by Benjamin Wright + + August 7, 1989 + Copyright 1989 by Network World Publishing/Inc., + 375 Cochituate Rd., Framingham, MA 01701. + Reprinted from _Network World_. + +Commerce is going paperless, but commercial law is stuck in the +days of pulp and ink. + +Many companies now contract and bill for goods and services with +electronic data interchange (EDI) purchase orders, bills of +lading and invoices. Consumers often buy products through +videotex. Securities traders also buy and sell via networks such +as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's forthcoming Globex system. + +But some statutes and regulations governing the enforceability +and recording of business transactions speak of documents, +writings and signatures rather than electronic messages, data +logs and authorization codes. + + +ELECTRONIC CONTRACTS + +The prime example is the Statute of Frauds, as rendered in +Section 2-201 of the Uniform Commercial Code (in force in all +states but Louisiana). It generally forbids the enforcement of a +contract for the sale of goods worth more than $500 unless the +contract is supported by a "signed writing." Unfortunately, +lawyers are locked in debate over whether a recorded electronic +message, authenticated with an electronic code, is a signed +writing. + +A similar statute appears in the law of federal government +procurement. Public Law 97-258, codified at 31 USC 1501, +requires that contracts with the federal government be +"supported by documentary evidence . . . that is . . . in +writing, in a way and form . . . authorized by law." + +This suggests that, to bind the government to an electronic +contract, an applicable law must specifically bless computer-to- +computer communication as an appropriate form of writing. The +government is making a large commitment to use EDI for +procurement, but Public Law 97-258 appears to require enactment +of special laws first. + +A third example: Businesses must keep records of transactions +for Internal Revenue Service auditors. Revenue Ruling 71-20 and +Revenue Procedure 86-19 provide guidelines for taxpayers keeping +accounting records on computers. But these assume that _hard +copy_ detail documents (invoices, vouchers and the like) are kept +to support the information in the accounting systems. The +guidelines are confusing -- to both taxpayers and IRS agents -- +when applied to EDI and other paperless transaction systems. + + +GOOD EVIDENCE + +Laws such as these were not written to prohibit electronic +transactions, but rather to require the accumulation of good +evidence. Although computers can generate good evidence (often +better than paper schemes), the laws were enacted before the +widespread adoption of computer transaction technology. +Lawmakers simply did not take the technology into account. + +This is not to say that transacting business electronically is +today illegal or unusually risky. Business law is always fraught +with some uncertainty and open questions. That is why companies +hire lawyers to minimize risk with contracts and advice. It is +also why there occasionally are commercial lawsuits. + +Companies using EDI today often try to skirt problems with +antiquated laws by entering special agreements with trading +partners or obtaining government waivers. Such contrivances +usually serve more or less satisfactorily, but they are only +stopgaps. Changes in law are needed. + +Knowing precisely how to change the laws will require wisdom and +foresight. The best changes will accommodate not only today's +applications but also tomorrow's. + +Much of the work to be done will be educational in nature. We +have been using paper and handwritten signatures to create and +store legal evidence for so long that some lawyers and auditors +regard them with almost holy reverence. + +The immediate objection will be that electronic information can +be altered and forged. But paper documents too can be, and +sometimes are, altered and forged. + +TAKING CONTROL + +The key to successful evidence creation in both the paper and +electronic environments is the imposition of controls over +information. We use controls such as notary seals to make paper- +written information more reliable, and we can use controls such +as passwords and secure data logs to do the same for computer +information. + +The user and vendor communities, represented by organizations +such as the EDI Council of the USA, should identify troublesome +laws and petition for change. Specific industry groups, such as +the Aerospace Industry Association, which has a keen interest in +government procurement law, should press for change in their +fields of interest. + +The American Bar Association, which can also play an important +role, has begun identifying some suspect laws. + +Electronic transactions would enjoy substantially more certainty +if Congress, regulatory agencies and state legislatures would +clarify some choice laws. + +Some movement in this direction is already underway. In April +the General Services Administration amended its regulations at 42 +CFR 101-41 to specifically permit federal agencies to use EDI +bills of lading and freightbills. + +Now agencies can electronically exchange bills with private +transporation carriers, provided that the bills are authenticated +with discrete codes, certified electronic records of transactions +are kept and appropriate controls are used to prevent abuse of +the billing and payment process. + +The process of reviewing and modifying laws would win the +technology the legitimacy it now lacks in the eyes of some +skeptical lawyers and auditors. Plus, the public attention would +be a boost to the industry. + + * * * + +Wright, a Dallas-based attorney, is author of _EDI and American +Law: A Practical Guide_, introduced this week by its publisher, +The Electronic Data Interchange Association of Alexandria, Va., +at the International Congress of EDI Users in Vancouver. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/earthist.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/earthist.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..775b4291 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/earthist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,428 @@ + + EARTH TIMELINE: 7000 BC - 700 AD + ================================ + (nc) Tod Foley 1991 + +7000 Jericho; Catal Huyuk; Proto-Minoans; -Aryans; -Taiwanese; + -Sumerians > SW toward Mesopotamia; + +7000-3000 Neolithic Age gives way to Bronze & Copper; Sumerian civ + develops Proto-Syrians; -Palestinians + +4000 Proto-Indus; -Persians; -Russian Turkestans; -Amerinds; + small villages in Mesoamerica & Peru + +3500 Upper Egypt consolidated; Khorat civ. developing + +3000 Troy; Iberians > W Europe; Minoans; Barrows in Europe; + Sumerian CityStates trade with Syrians, Elamites & + Amorites; Megalithic temples on Malta + +3000-1500 Old Egypt; Pyramids; Crete; Elamites freq raid Sumer; + Aryans; Large temple complexes in Peru (rectangular + mound-buildings) + +2700 Gilgamesh + +2700-1250 Stonehenge built + +2500 City of Ur; Akkad; migrating Amorites/Semites; Harrapans; + Longshan civ developing; Afghans; Sumeria unified; + Egypt/Nubia trade; Cult of Ra; the Great Pyramid; + Megaliths throughout Europe; Arameans + +2400 Sargon the Great of Akkad ! Elam, Syria & SE Anatolia; + Irrigation by the Chavins + +2300 Harrapan trade with Afghans, Persians, Sumerians & + Himilayans; Xia Dynasty; Gutians >! Sumeria (50 years); + Bronze Age in S Asia + +2100 Egyptian collapse (for 100 years); Sumeria reunited under + Ur-Nammu + +2000 Middle Egypt; Troy II; Proto-Iranians; Harrapan civ + thrives; Minoan trade/colonies flourishing; Chinese learn + metalworking from the Khorats; Elamites/Amorites >!+ + Sumerians = Babylonians; Bronze Age in Brit.Isles; + Assyrians; Aryans > NE Medit (Hurrians), Anatolia + (Hittites); India (IndoAryans) & Europe (Celts); New + temples in Peru (U-shaped complexes); Chavins expand and + conquer, > inland; Small farming settlements in + Mesoamerica + +1830-1810 Assyria under Babylonian rule + +1800 IndoEurs > Iran/Middle East; Harrapans abandon Indus + valley; Shang Dynasty; Hammurabi's Empire stretches from + Persian Gulf to Syria + +1700 Abraham; Hittites; Egypt controls Lebanon + +1700-1450 Minoan Golden Age: Palace destroyed, rebuilt; Colonies + thrive; Assyrians defend against Egyptians, Hittites & + Hurrians + +1650-1550 Hyksos occupy Egypt; Bronze Age in Italy; Myceneans + learn Bronzeworking & writing from Minoans + +1500 Tyre; Celts and Iberians in Spain; Aegean & Hittite + cities/trade; Hittites destroy Babylon; Minoan Linear + Alphabet; Chinese Glyphs + +1500-1100 New Egypt; Mycenaeans; Philistines; Bronze Age in + Balt/Scandinavia; Kassites rule Babylon + +1500-800 Chavin goldworking & jewelrymaking reach zenith + +1400 Crete, devastated by earthquakes, falls to the Aegeans; + Egyptian sea-power waning; Myceneans make aggressive + progress; Olmecs + +1300 Myceneans modify Minoan Alphabet + +1366-1334 Hittites ! Hurrians & Syria; Hittite Empire incl + Anatolia, N Lebanon & N Mesopotamia + +1250 Phoenicians; Hebrews; Aegean migrations; Hittites ! Syria + +1230 Exodus of the Israelites; Moses; the Ten Commandments + +1200 Hittite Empire falters; Assyrian Iron; Assyria ! + Babylonia; Israelites reach Canaan, the Promised Land + +1200-1190 Trojan War (Mycenae >! Troy); Medit filled with + war/piracy/revolt; N/C Myceneans >! Hittites & Lydians; + Philistines rule Palestine + +1200-900 San Lorenzo (Ceremonial/Urban site) is center of Olmec + culture; Olmec stone heads carved; Olmec culture spreads + north & south + +1150 Macedonian barbarians > Mycenea, displacing Dorians + +1100 "Sea Peoples" overrun the Mediterranean, destroying the + Mycenean and Hittite Empires; Hittite culture destroyed; + Athens & Arcadia become cities of refugees known as + Ionians; Philistine Kingdom at zenith; 3rd intermediate + period of Egypt; Arameans & Assyrians clash; Syrian + states of Hama & Damascus prosper; Mycenea enters Dark + Age; Aegean migrations begin; Dorians ! Pelopennese; + Chou Dynasty + +1000 Israelites subdue Canaanites/Philistines; Kings of Israel + & Judah; IndoAryans > E to Ganges; Phoenicians modify + Mycenean alphabet; Iron Age (no Bronze) in Africa + +1000-900 Ionian colonies in S Anatolia & Lebanon; Neo-Hittites in + N Anatolia + +1000-600 China expands throughout region + +975 David unites most of Lebanon & defeats Philistines + +933-745 Young Assyrian Empire controls W Asian & Mediterranean + traderoutes + +900-700 Phoenicians expand/trade throughout Medit, to Morocco & + Iberia; IndoAryans expand throughout India; Revolt + destroys San Lorenzo; New S American states arise + +800 Homer; Sparta; Carthage; Etruscans; IndoAryans write the + Upanishads + +800-700 Ionians learn writing from Phoenicians; remarkable + Spartan army expands territory; Dorian/Spartan & Ionian + civ development + +800-500 China balkanizes; Feuds are typical; Bronze coins minted + +776 1st Olympics + +750-650 Assyria ! Elam; Assyrian Empire incl N Egypt, Lebanon, S + Anatolia & all of Mesopotamia; Spartans grow introverted, + aggressive & xenophobic; Exploitation of Ionian lower + classes leads to overpopulation, food shortages & debt; + Many Ionians migrate to Black Sea, N Africa, Sicily, + Italy & Europe + +750-300 Greek CityStates; Rome (Pre-Latins); Vedas; Egypt + re-unified; Indus Republics; Olmecs + +734 Sparta founds Syracus + +700 Phrygia; early Celt culture; Celts work Iron; Greek coins; + Carthage wins independance from Phoenicia; Etruscans join + Phoen's as masters of Medit trade/colonization; Celts spread + through Europe + +650 Chinese coins; Brahmans maintain Vedas/castes; Saite Egypt + rules Nubia & Libya; Assyrian strife/dissolution; Lydia mints + electrum coins; Dioklos road (for hauling ships) btw C Greece + & Pelopennese + +600 Medes & Babylonians conquer Assyria (Empire falls); Truce btw + Medes, Lydia & Babylonia brings peace for 35 years; + Nebuchadnezzar; New Babylon Empire incl Sinai, Lebanon & + Mesopotamia; Greek CityStates incl Thessaly, Boeotia + (Thebes), Attica (Athens), Corinth, Euboea, Pelopennese + (Arcadia, Sparta) & Ionia; Sparta unifies Pelopennesian + League & expands; Despot tyrants reign throughout Aegean; + Etruria subjugates Latium; Latins adopt writing; Massala + (Greek trade town in S France) allows Celts to trade with + Greeks/Etruscans; Ganges Plain = center of Indus civ; Indus + aristocracy; Wars btw IndoAryan tribes; Dissemination of the + Upanishads + +600-430 Athens' glory; Socrates; Aeschylus; Hippocrates; Dionysus + festivals +þò +600-200 Olmec culture dissolves + +594 Solon named Lawgiver of Athens; Many Greek states undergo + broad reforms, others fall to tyranny + +586 Babylon conquers Jerusalem; Temple destroyed; Babylonian + Captivity + +550 Greek Drama; Jainism; Indus Mercantile; Zoroaster; Cyrus of + Persia ! Media, Lydia, Iran, Ionia & Turkestan; Persian + Empire + +550-500 Buddha; Mahavira (Jainism); Confucius; the powerful Magadha + kingdom becomes India's trade nexus + +540 Persia conquers Babylonia; Jews released; Carthaginians drive + Greek traders out of Iberia + +525-520 Persia conquers Egypt & NW India; Persian roads unite the + Empire; Persians standardize coinage; international commerce + thrives; the Capital city of Persepolis is built + +514 Persia conquers Macedonia & Thrace + +509 Rome wins independance from Etruria; Roman Republic begins + +500 The Latin League + +500-300 Mauryan India is unified; China undergoing slow unification + +490-480 Persian Wars (Greeks repel Persians & destroy military might) + +430-400 Pelopennesian Wars + +400 Plato; Aristotle; Delian League; the Pentateuch; Persian + decline; Athens surrenders to Sparta; Iron Age in Briton; + Rome annexes Etruscan lands from the south; Celts attack from + the north; Celtic coins; Chavin culture dissolves + +400-380 Corinthian Wars (Corinth/Athens/Thebes/Argos rival Sparta) + +390 Celts from Gaul seige Rome; Rome begins expanding throughout + Italian peninsula + +350 Aristotle; Plebian reforms; Philip II unites Greece by force; + Seleucid Dynasty in Persia; Nazca + +340 Latin Wars (Rome conquers most of Italy); Latin League + dissolved + +336 Alexander the Great takes throne of Macedonia/Greece + +334 Alexander begins Asian Campaign, liberating Ionia from + Persians, then Anatolia, Levant. Tyre, Palestine, Egypt, + Mesopotamia, Babylon, Persepolis, Bactria, Sogdiana & India + +323 Alexander dies; His Empire is divided into three: Ptolemaic + Egypt, Macedonia & Seleucia + +300 Carthage holds S Iberia, Sardinia, Sicily & N Africa; Rise of + Mauryan Empire; City of Pataliputra + +300-200 India & Afghanistan secede from Seleucia; Greeks resume + infighting; Greco-Asian culture= "Hellenism"; Archimides; + Euclid; Eratosthenes; Rome expanding; Greek Empire + dissolving/changing + +275-240 1st-4th Syrian Wars (Ptolemy takes Siria & Anatolia from + Seleucia) + +264-241 1st Punic War (Rome drives back the Phoenician/Carthaginians) + +250 Seleucia incl Anatolia, Lebanon, Mesopotamia & E Iran; Celts + move into Baltics, Anatolia & Greece; Rome controls all of + Italy; Bactria secedes from Seleucia and conquers Sogdiana + +250-230 Parthia, Syria, Anatolia & Armenia secede from Seleucia + +250-150 Parthians rise in power; Asoka expands Mauryan Empire; +û Buddhism becomes India's state religion; India prospers; Qin + dynasty; the Great Wall of China; Chinese Uniformity; Shi + huangdi searches for the "Isle of the Immortals" + +240-220 Carthaginians conquer Iberia; Ionian/Seleucid city of + Pergamum is the "Athens of Asia Minor" + +220-200 2nd Punic War; Hannibal leads Carthaginian Iberia against + Romans + +214-150 Macedonian Wars (Rome forces Greece to surrender) + +200 Rome possesses Iberia, Medit & N Africa; 5th Syrian War + (Seleucia regains Syria & S Anatolia); Han Dynasty; + Confucianism; Proto-Japan + +200-100 Citizens of Roman Empire flock to cities + +190 Rome takes Anatolia & Syria; Asoka becomes Emperor of India + +180 End of Mauryan Dynasty + +170 Rome takes Macedonia; Judas Maccabeus leads Jewish revolt + +170-140 Parthian Empire: Parthians take Babylonia, Media, Elam & + Persia from Seleucids, then conquer Bactria & extend to the + Persian Gulf + +150 3rd Punic War (Rome destroys Carthage & conquers Gaul); Rome + takes Greece; Greek art enthralls Romans; China expands; Silk + Road opened by Chinese traders + +150-62 Roman Republic collapses; Romans attack Parthia & fail; + Caesar + +135 Parthia beset by nomads from the N (Eurasians) & E (Sacae); + Sacaeans seize Bactria & Punjab + +130-120 Pergamum becomes Roman province; Gracchius brothers killed + for supporting agrarian land reforms + +100 Spartacus; 1st Triumvirate (Caesar/Pompey/Crassus); Armenians + fight the Parthians, greatly reducing size of Empire; Etruria + dissolving; Cimbri attack Gaul & Roman holdings, put down by + Rome; Trade btw China & Japan + +90 Babylonia and Armenia revolt from Parthian rule + +85 Civil War in Rome + +60 Caesar leads Roman forces against Helvetian Tribes and + conquers most of south-central Europe + +53 Crassus killed + +50-15 Caesar killed; Rome is officially an Empire; 2nd Triumvirate; + Antony & Cleopatra; Augustus; Silk Road controlled by + Parthians, who enjoy their role as middlemen btw Rome & + China; Rome annexes Egypt & N Europe, but fails to conquer + Teutonic Celts + +35 Marc Antony attacks Parthia & fails; conquers Armenia + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + >> THE FIRST (ALEPH) YEAR ZERO << +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +0-30 Reinterest in Greek culture; Tiberius; Christ; the Kushan + Kingdom; Parthia balkanizing, Empire dissolving + +0 to 300 Rise of Christianity + +35-40 Caligula + +40-55 Claudius; Rome struggles for Briton (no conquest until 85) + +55-65 Nero; Rome burns + +70 Judean revolt put down; Temple destroyed + +65-80 Christians persecuted; Jews/Judeans oppressed; Vespasian puts + the Empire on good ground again; Vesuvius erupts; Buddhism + spreads + +76-180 The "Five Good Emperors" + +100 Hadrian; Wall of Briton + +130-135 Judean revolt results in the denationalization of the Jews + ("The Dispersion"); Masada; Roman works throughout + Europe/Briton + +150 Marcus Arelius + +166-167 Great Pestilence in Rome (Smallpox from Parthia/Silk Road) + +200 Sassanian Empire (Persia); Zoroastrianism; Han Dynasty + crumbles; Civil Wars in China due to Han court intrigues + +200-280 Rome holds back Euro & Eurasian barbarians; Rome attacks E + Parthia; Persia >! Syria & Mesopotamia; Alamanni storm S + Europe, repelled repeatedly; Roman Govt begins to falter: + inflation, taxation, & brigandage rise; Chaotic succession of + despotic military leaders + +200-800 The Venidi (Slavs) differentiate: Poles/Chzecks/Slovaks; + Bulgarians/Serbs/Croats; Lithuanians; Russians/Ukrainians + +250 Kushan regime in India toppled by Sassanians + +250-260 Visigoths >! Balkans & SW Germany from a weakened Rome, and + freq raid N Italy; Franks >! Gaul & E Spain; Sassanians >! + Armenia, Mesopotamia & Syria, repelled by city of Palmyra; + Emperor-Worship required in Rome; Christians persecuted (by + law) + +260-270 Goth ships on Black Sea wreak havoc in Anatolia/N Greece + +267 Palmyra secedes & claims much of Rome's E holdings; At this + point, Rome controls only Italy, N Africa & Illyria + +270-280 Goths repelled from Balkans; Aurelian reclaims much of the + Empire; New walls of Rome; Palmyra sacked; Alamanni & Franks + repelled from Gaul; Goths deteated in Anatolia; Neo-Platonism + +280-325 Diocletian divides the Empire into 2 districts (E/W), + co-ruled by Maximian; City of Rome shifts into background of + Roman affairs; Roman Paganism; Empire socially/financially + united again; secret police; more Christians persecuted; + Diocletian & Maximian abdicate + +300-500 Mystery sects; Barbarian raids/border skirmishes; Scoti + (Irish) & Picts raid Roman holds; Vikings (Norwegians, Danes + & Swedes) begin expansion/travels; Gupta Era in India; + Hinduism; Indian science & literature; India expands + +325-350 Constantine accepts Christianity; Council of Nicaea; + Constantinople (built upon Byzantium) = "Nova Roma"; Peace + treaty with Visigoths; Visigoths accept Christianity; Hagia + Sophia built; Frankish battles + +370-380 Huns >W to Caspian, >! Alans, >! Ostrogoths, & raid + Visigoths, who appeal to Rome for protection, but are so + mistreated that they sack Constantinople; Church schisms (E/W + Theology); Ambrose; Augustine + +400 The "Split Empire" is by now a permanent structure; Vandals > + Gaul, Spain & Africa + +400-450 Attila; Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms; Arthur + +450 Attila defeated; Vandals raid Rome + +500 Islamic Empire; Rise of Irish monastic scholarship; + Ostrogoths invade Italy; Franks take Gaul; Buddhist cave + temples; Huns topple Guptas; Turks & Mongols invade China; + Teotihuacan playing feilds + +550 Justinian; Byzantine Empire; Mohammed; Koran; Buddhism in + Japan; Lombards take Italy + +600 Carolingians; Tang Dynasty; Moslem expansion begins (toward + Persia and Egypt); missionaries sent to convert Anglo-Saxons; + Mayan temple-pyramids + +700 Japan (Nara period); Fall of Lombards; Bulgars; Arab attack + on Constantinople fails due to newly-invented "Greek Fire." + +======================================================================= + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ec.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/ec.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..181b1e1b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ec.txt @@ -0,0 +1,209 @@ + +Subj: Electronic Communities Section: Networlds +From: Mike Godwin 76711,317 # 19, 1 Reply + To: all Date: 31-Jan-92 11:44:04 + +The following is an article I published in the Summer 1991 +issue of the WHOLE EARTH REVIEW. It's divided into bite-sized +chunks. + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Virtual Communities +By Mike Godwin + + +Introduction by Howard Rheingold: + +Mike Godwin is the staff counsel for The Electronic Frontier Foundation +(EFF). EFF has been established to help civilize the electronic frontier; +to make it truly useful and beneficial to everyone, not just an elite; and +to do this in a way that is in keeping with our society's highest +traditions of the free and open flow of information and communication. For +information about the EFF, email mnemonic@eff.org, write EFF, 155 Second +Street, Cambridge, MA 02141, or call 617 864 1550. + + The Electronic Frontier Foundation is living proof of the +existence and effectiveness of virtual digital communities. Not only did +EFF arise from the interactions of citizens who were, and are, "neighbors" +in electronic communities, but the EFF has also gone on to establish its +own communities, not the least of which is the EFF conference on the WELL +(Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link). + The WELL was a key community from the beginning. The way +communities normally shape their responses to outside events is for +neighbors to chat - perhaps even gossip Q over the fence. It was this kind +of informal exchange of information that led to two crystallizing events +behind EFF's formation. The first was an online WELL conference on +"hacking" sponsored by Harper's magazine. One result of that conference +was that WELL user and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow met and +befriended a couple of hackers who went by the cyberpunkish noms-de-hack +"Acid Phreak" and "Phiber Optik." Although they "knew" each other + + + + + +Subj: Electronic Communities Section: Networlds +From: Mike Godwin 76711,317 # 26, 1 Reply + To: Mike Godwin 76711,317 Date: 31-Jan-92 12:21:24 + + + +electronically, Barlow's face-to-face meeting with Acid and Optik was a +revelation: "Acid and Optik, as material beings, were well-scrubbed and +fashionably clad," Barlow later wrote. "They looked to be as dangerous as +ducks." Barlow soon concluded that law enforcement's characterization of +these hackers as major computer criminals was disproportionate to their +actions, which had more to do with intellectual curiosity and youthful +exploration than with genuine criminal intent. + The second crystallizing event occurred when Barlow and another +WELL user, Mitch Kapor (a founder of Lotus Development Corp. and On +Technology) compared notes about their respective visits by FBI agents. +The agents were investigating the unauthorized copying and distribution of +Apple's proprietary source code for the ROMs in Apple's Macintosh +computer, and both Kapor and Barlow were startled by how little the FBI +seemed to know about the nature of the alleged crimes they were +investigating, and Barlow later published an account of the visit on the +WELL (and print-published as "Crime and Puzzlement" in WER #68). + As Barlow later writes in the March issue of the Foundation's +print newsletter, the EFFector: "Mitch's experience had been as dreamlike +as mine. He had, in fact, filed the whole thing under General +Inexplicability until he read my tale on the WELL.... Several days later, +he found his bizjet about to fly over Wyoming on its way to San Francisco. +He called me from somewhere over South Dakota and asked if he might +literally drop in for a chat about [the agents' visits] and related +matters. So, while a late spring snow storm swirled outside my office, we +spent several hours hatching what became the Electronic Frontier +Foundation." + + + + + +Subj: Electronic Communities Section: Networlds +From: Mike Godwin 76711,317 # 27, 1 Reply + To: Mike Godwin 76711,317 Date: 31-Jan-92 12:25:14 + + + + Having met in person when Barlow interviewed Kapor for Microtimes, +the two future EFF co-founders had used the WELL to build on their +face-to-face contact. In effect, they had become next-door neighbors, +although Barlow lived in Pinedale, Wyoming, while Kapor lived in +Brookline, Massachusetts. Says Barlow: "There was a sense that what was +going on was a threat to our community." So Barlow and Kapor did what +neighbors often do in response to a neighborhood problem - they formed a +citizens' group. In this case, the citizens' group was the EFF. + I had a chance to play my own role in another example of such +concerned citizen action in my then-hometown, Austin, Texas, which has +more than its share of computer bulletin-board systems (BBSs). On March 1, +1990, one of those BBSs was seized by the United States Secret Service, +which claimed at the time that the system, run by the Austin-based +role-playing game company Steve Jackson Games. Although neither Jackson +nor his company turned out to be the targets of the Secret Service's +criminal investigation, Jackson was told that the manual for a +role-playing game they were about to publish (called GURPS Cyberpunk and +stored on the hard disk of the company's BBS computer) was a "handbook for +computer crime." + Austin's BBS community was startled, then outraged, by the +seizure, which had the potential of putting Jackson, an innocent third +party, out of business. On a BBS called "Flight" there was a hot debate +about the media's failure to pick up on Jackson's story. A third-year law +student and former journalist and Flight user, I theorized on Flight that +the media hadn't covered the story because they didn't know about it. Or, +at least, they didn't understand the issues. + + + + + +Subj: Electronic Communities Section: Networlds +From: Mike Godwin 76711,317 # 28, 1 Reply + To: Mike Godwin 76711,317 Date: 31-Jan-92 12:27:23 + + + + So, to test my theory, I gathered together several postings from +local BBSs and from Usenet, the distributed BBS that runs on the Internet +and connected computers, and trekked down to the Austin American-Statesman +office to talk to a friend of mine, Kyle Pope, who covered +computer-related stories. I also took him photocopies of the statutes that +give the Secret Service jurisdiction over computer crime and lots of phone +numbers of potential sources. At the same time, I called and modemed +materials to John Schwartz, a friend and former colleague who was now an +editor at Newsweek. + Pope's lengthy, copyrighted story on the Secret Service seizure +appeared in the American-Statesman the following weekend. John Schwartz's +story, which covered the Steve Jackson Games incident as well as the +Secret Service's involvement in a nationwide computer-crime "dragnet," +appeared in Newsweek's April 30 issue. The heavy-handed tactics and +overbroad seizure at Steve Jackson Games became a symbol of the +law-enforcement community's misconceptions and fears about young computer +hackers, and provided a context for Barlow's and Kapor's discussions about +creating the EFF. + Once they agreed on what needed to be done, Kapor and Barlow went +back to the WELL and drew upon the collective wisdom of that community for +input into the tactics and strategy of the newly formed foundation. The +same week they announced the EFF's formation in Washington, D.C., they +started the EFF conference on the WELL - sort of a community within a +community which quickly became one of the system's most active +conferences. + + + + + +Subj: Electronic Communities Section: Networlds +From: Mike Godwin 76711,317 # 29, 1 Reply + To: Mike Godwin 76711,317 Date: 31-Jan-92 12:33:10 + + + + Soon afterward, they created two new newsgroups on Usenet +Qcomp.org.eff.news and comp.org.eff.talk. The latter newsgroup, like all +active newsgroups, has become a community of sorts itself, with a diverse +collection of voices addressing - sometimes heatedly Q the issues that +arise as we proceed to explore and civilize the electronic frontier. + Almost immediately after the foundation was officially launched, +EFF's efforts to assist in the defense of electronic publisher Craig +Neidorf had tangible results. Neidorf had been prosecuted for publishing a +BellSouth text file relating to the E-911 system (see "Attacks on the Bill +of Rights," WER #70). EFF's law firm, Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, +Krinsky, Lieberman, submitted an amicus curiae brief defending Neidorf's +First Amendment rights as a publisher. We also helped Neidorf's defense +counsel assemble experts to testify on his client's behalf. And a member +of the WELL's EFF conference came up with the information that was +critical in persuading the prosecutors to drop their case. + It's clear that EFF is not only the product of electronic +communities, but has also produced some new communities while continuing +to contribute to old ones. It's also clear that the sense of community was +seeded by face-to-face contact at key points: when Barlow met Acid and +Optik, for example, and when he interviewed Kapor. The need for at least +occasional face-to-face contact, Kapor still stresses, means that current +networks and BBSs don't simply create community; instead, they amplify it. +Or, to be even more accurate, the two phenomena exist in a complex state +of coevolution, with face-to-face contacts fueling the electronic +relationships (and vice versa). + + + + + +Subj: Electronic Communities Section: Networlds +From: Mike Godwin 76711,317 # 30, * No Replies * + To: Mike Godwin 76711,317 Date: 31-Jan-92 12:34:23 + + + + One of the things you often see when you read discussions about +EFF on the WELL or on Usenet is a sense that the EFF has become a +representative body. While this is misleading - EFF is not yet a +membership organization - it's still the case that EFF is regarded as an +advocacy group for electronic communities generally. You'll often read +comments from Usenet folks who think the most appropriate pronouns when +talking about the EFF are "we," "us," and "our." + And if that neighborly sense of belonging doesn't prove the +existence of a community, I don't know what does. + + +--Mike Godwin + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/economy.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/economy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0f84faf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/economy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,757 @@ +"A New Covenant for Economic Change" +Governor Bill Clinton +Georgetown University +November 20, 1991 +: + Thank you for being here today. A better future for your +generation -- a better life for all who +will work for it -- is what this campaign is about. + + But I come here today convinced that your future -- the very +future of our country -- the +American Dream -- is in peril. This country is in trouble. As +I've travelled around this country, I've +seen too much pain on people's faces, too much fear in people's +eyes. We've got to do better. + + This month, I visited with a couple from New Hampshire named +David and Rita Springs. He's +a chemical engineer by training; she's studying to be a lab +technician. They told me that a month before +his pension was vested, the people who ran his company fired him to +cut their payrolls. Then they +turned around and sold the company, and bailed out with a golden +parachute while David Springs and +his family got the shaft. + + Last week, at a bowling alley in Manchester, I met a fireman +who was working two jobs and his +wife who was working 50 hours a week in a mill. They told me they +were worried that even though +both of them were working like this and their son was a straight A +student, they still wouldn't be able to +afford to send him to college because of the rising cost of college +education and because they were too +well-off to get government help. + + At a breakfast in a cafe in New Hampshire, I met a young man +whose 12-year-old child had had +open-heart surgery, and now no one will hire him because they can't +afford his health insurance. + + The families I met are from New Hampshire, but they could be +from anywhere in America. +They're the backbone of the country, the ones who do the work and +pay the taxes and send their children +off to war. They're a lot like people I've seen in Arkansas for +years, living with the real consequences +of our national neglect. These are the real victims of the Reagan +Revolution, the Bush Succession, and +this awful national recession. + + During this administration, the economy has grown more slowly +and fewer jobs have been +created than in any administration since World War II. People who +have jobs are working longer hours +for less money; people who don't are looking harder to find less. +Middle-class people are paying more +for health care, housing, education, and taxes, when government +services have been cut. + + And as these hard-working middle-class families look to their +President to make good on his +promises, his answer to them is: Tough luck. It's your fault. Go +buy a house or a car. + + Just this week, George Bush said we don't need a plan to end +this recession -- that if we wait +long enough, our problems will go away. Well, he's right about +that part: If he doesn't have a plan to +turn this country around by November of 1992, we're going to lay +George Bush off, put America back +to work, and our problems will go away. + + We need a President who will take responsibility for getting +this country moving again. A +President who will provide the leadership to pull us together and +challenge our nation to compete in the +world and win again. + + Ten years ago, America had the highest wages in the world. +Now we're 10th, and falling. Last +year, Germany and Japan had productivity growth rates three and +four times ours because they educate +their people better, invest more in their future, and organize +their economies for global competition and +we don't. + + For 12 years of this Reagan-Bush era, the Republicans have let +S&L crooks and self-serving +CEOs try to build an economy out of paper and perks instead of +people and products. It's the +Republican way: every man for himself and get it while you can. +They stacked the odds in favor of +their friends at the top, and told everybody else to wait for +whatever trickled down. + + And every step of the way, the Republicans forgot about the +very people they had promised to +help -- the very people who elected them in the first place -- the +forgotten middle class Americans who +still live by American values and whose hopes, hearts, and hands +still carry the American Dream. + + But Democrats forgot about real people, too. + + Democrats in Congress joined the White House in tripling the +national debt and raising the +deficit to the point of paralysis. Democrats and Republicans in +Congress joined the White House on the +sidelines, cheering on an S&L boom until it went bust to the tune +of $500 billion. + + For too many Americans, for too long, it's seemed that +Congress and the White House have +been more interested in looking out for themselves and for their +friends, but not for the country and not +for the people who make it great. + + And, now, after 12 years of Reagan-Bush, the forgotten middle +class is discovering that the +reward for 12 years of sacrifice and hard work is more sacrifice +and more hard times: They've paid +higher taxes on lower incomes for service cuts, while the rich got +tax cuts, while poverty increased, and +the President and Congress got pay raises and health insurance. + + We've got to move in a radically different direction. The +Republicans' failed experiment in +supply-side economics doesn't produce growth. It doesn't create +upward mobility. And most important, +it doesn't prepare millions and millions of Americans to compete +and win in the new world economy. + + And we've got to move away from the old Democratic theory that +says we can just tax and +spend our way out of any problem we face. Expanding government +doesn't expand opportunity. And +big deficits don't produce sustained economic growth, especially +when the borrowed money is spent on +yesterday's mistakes, not tomorrow's investments. + + Stale theories produce nothing but stalemate. The old +economic answers are obsolete. We've +seen the limits of Keynesian economics. We've seen the worst of +supply-side economics. We need a +new approach. + + For 12 years, we've had no economic vision, no economic +leadership, no national economic +strategy. What America needs is a President with a radical new +approach to our economic problems that +will give new life to the American Dream. + + We need a New Covenant for economic change, a new economics +that empowers people, +rewards work, and organizes America to compete and win again. A +national economic strategy to +liberate and energize the abilities of millions of Americans who +are paying more taxes when the +government is doing less for them, who are working harder while +their wages go down. + + This New Covenant isn't liberal or conservative. It's both +and it's different. The American +people don't care about the idle rhetoric of left and right. +They're real people, with real problems, and +they think no one in Washington wants to solve their problems or +stand up for them. + + The goals of our New Covenant for economic change are +straightforward: + + o We need a President who will put economic opportunity in the +hands of ordinary people, not +rich and powerful special interests; + o A President who will revolutionize government to invest more +in the future; + o A President who will encourage the private sector to +organize in new ways and cooperate to +produce economic growth; + o A President who will challenge and lead America to compete +and win in the global economy, +not retreat from the world; + + That's how we'll turn this country's economy around, recapture +America's leadership in the +world, and build a better future for our children. That's how +we'll show the forgotten middle class we +really understand their struggle. That's how we'll reduce poverty +and rebuild the ladder from poverty to +the middle class. And that, my friends, is why I'm running for +President of the United States. + + Our first responsibility under this New Covenant is to move +quickly to put this recession behind +us. Last week, I released a plan for what I would do right away to +help working people and get the +economy moving again. I'd not only extend unemployment benefits, +as Congress and the President have +finally done, but I'd push through a middle-class tax cut, an +accelerated highway bill to create 40-45,000 +new construction jobs over the next six months, and an increase in +the ceiling on FHA mortgage +guarantee so half a million families could pump up the economy by +buying their first home. I do think +good credit card customers should receive a break from the 18 and +19 percent rates of banks, which +have cut the rates the customers get paid on their deposit +accounts. And I'm proud to say that four of +the ten banks charging the lowest credit card rates nationwide are +in my state. + + I would also make sure federal regulators send a clear signal +to the financial community not to +call in loans that are performing, and not to fear making good +loans to local businesses. + + But even if we did all those things tomorrow, it wouldn't +change the fundamental challenge of +the 1990s. We need to get out of this recession, and soon. But we +also need a long-term national +strategy to create a high-wage, high-growth, high-opportunity +economy, not a hard-work, low-wage +economy that's sinking when it ought to be rising. + + It doesn't have to be that way. I believe we can win again. +In the global economy of the 1990s, +economic growth won't come from government spending. It will come +instead from individuals working +smarter and learning more, from entrepreneurs taking more risks and +going after new markets, and from +corporations designing better products and taking a longer view. +We're going to reward work, expand +opportunity, empower people, and we are going to win again. + + + +EMPOWERING EVERY AMERICAN + + There are two reasons why middle-class people today are +working harder for less pay. First, +their taxes have gone up -- but that's only 30% of their problem. +The other 70% of the problem is +America's loss of economic growth and world economic leadership. + + If we're going to turn this country around, we've not only got +to liberate ordinary people from +unfair taxes, we've got to empower every American with the +education and training essential to get +ahead. + + Let me make this clear: Education is economic development. +We can only be a high-wage, +high-growth country if we are a high-skills country. In a world in +which money and production are +mobile, the only way middle-class people can keep good jobs with +growing incomes is to be lifetime +learners and innovators. Without world-class skills, the middle +class will surely continue to decline. +With them, middle-class workers will generate more high-wage jobs +in America in the '90s. + + Empowering everybody begins with preschool for every child who +needs it, and fully funding +Head Start. It includes a national examination system to push our +students to meet world-class standards +in core subjects like math and science, and an annual report card +for every state, every school district, +and every school to measure our progress in meeting those +standards. + + Empowerment means training young people for high-wage jobs, +not dead-end ones. Young +Americans with only a high school education make 25 percent less +today than they would have 15 years +ago. In a Clinton Administration we'll have a national +apprenticeship program that will enable high +school students who aren't bound for college to enter a course of +study, designed by schools and local +businesses, to teach them valuable skills, with a promise of a real +job with growing incomes when they +graduate. + + Empowerment means challenging our students and every American +with a system of voluntary +national service. In a Clinton Administration we will offer a +domestic GI Bill that will say to middle +class as well as low income people: We want you to go to college +and we're glad to pay for it, but +you've got to give something back to your country in return. As +President, I'll ask Congress to establish +a trust fund out of which any American can borrow money for a +college education, so long as they pay it +back either as a small percentage of their income over time or with +a couple of years of national service +as teachers, police officers, child care workers -- doing work our +country urgently needs. The fund +would be financed with a portion of the peace dividend and by +redirecting the present student loan +program, which is nowhere near as cost-effective as it should be. +This program will pay for itself many +times over. + + But in an era when what you can earn depends largely on what +you can learn, education can't +stop at the schoolhouse door. From now on, anyone who's willing to +work will have a chance to learn. +In a Clinton Administration, we'll make adult literacy programs +available to all who need it, by working +with states to make sure every state has a clear, achievable plan +to teach everyone with a job to read, to +give them a chance to earn a GED, and wherever possible, to do it +where they work. In Arkansas we +had 14,000 people in adult education programs in 1983. Today we +have over 50,000. By 1993, we'll +have over 70,000. Every state can do the same for a modest cost +with a disciplined plan and a flexible +delivery system. + + And we will ensure that every working American has the +opportunity to learn new skills every +year. Today, American business spends billions of dollars on +training -- the equivalent of 1.5 percent of +the costs of their payrolls -- but 70 percent of it goes to the 10 +percent at the top of the ladder. In a +Clinton Administration, we'll require employers to offer every +worker his or her share of those training +dollars, or contribute the equivalent to a national training fund. +Workers will get the training they need, +and companies will learn that the more you train your workers, the +more your profits increase. + + We need special efforts to empower the poor to work their way +out of poverty. We'll make +work pay by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working +poor, and by supporting private +and public partnerships to give low-income entrepreneurs the tools +to start new businesses, through +innovative institutions like Shore Bank in Chicago and its rural +counterpart, the Southern Development +Bancorporation in Arkansas. We've got to break the cycle of +dependency and put an end to permanent +dependence on welfare as a way of life, by really investing in the +development of poor people and giving +them the means, the incentives, and the requirement to go to work. + + + Finally, empowering working Americans means letting them keep +more of what they earn. +Ronald Reagan and George Bush raised taxes on the middle class. I'm +going to cut them. In a Clinton +Administration, we'll cut income tax rates on the middle class: an +average family's tax bill will go +down 10 percent, a savings of $350 a year. And the deficit won't +go up -- instead, those earning over +$200,000 a year will pay more, though still a smaller percentage of +their incomes than they paid in the +'70s, not to soak the rich but to return to basic fairness. + + +A REVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT + + Besides empowering citizens, we must lead a revolution in +government so it becomes an engine +of opportunity again, not an obstacle to it. Voters who went to +the polls in this month's elections sent us +a clear message: People want more for their money. The experts in +Washington think that is a +contradiction. But I think the experts are wrong and the people are +right. People want a better deal from +government, and they'll get it in a Clinton Administration. + + Too many Washington insiders of both parties think the only +way to provide more services is to +spend more on programs already on the books in education, housing, +and health care. But if we reinvent +government to deliver new services in different ways, eliminate +unnecessary layers of management, and +offer people more choices, we really can give taxpayers more +services with fewer bureaucrats for the +same or less money. + + Every successful major corporation in America had to +restructure itself to compete in the last +decade, to decentralize, become more entrepreneurial, give workers +more authority to make decisions, +and offer customers more choices and better products. + + That's what we're trying to do in Arkansas -- balancing the +budget every year, improving +services, and treating taxpayers like our customers and our bosses, +because they are. Arkansas was the +first state to initiate a statewide total quality management +program. We've dramatically reduced the +number of reports the Department of Education requires of school +districts, slashed bureaucratic costs in +the Department of Human Services and put the money into direct +services that help real people, and +speeded up customer services in the Revenue Department. We measure +the job placement rate of +graduates from vocational-technical programs, and if a program +can't show results, we shut it down. + + So I know it can be done. But let us be clear: Serious +restructuring of government for greater +productivity is very different from the traditional top-down +reorganization plans that have been offered +over the last 20 years, including in this campaign. Those require +a lot of time and energy and generally +leave us with more of the same government, not less. + + What I am proposing is hard, unglamorous work. It will +require us to reexamine every dollar of +the taxpayers' money we spend and every minute of time that the +government puts in on business. It +will require us to enlist the energies of front-line public +servants who are often as frustrated as the rest +of us with bureaucracy. And if we do it in Arkansas, which has +among the lowest taxes in the country, +imagine how much more important and productive it will be at the +federal level. In a Clinton +Administration, we'll make government more effective by holding +ourselves to the same standard of +productivity growth as business and insisting on 3% +across-the-board cuts in the administrative costs of +the federal bureaucracy every year. + + If we're going to get more for our money, we ought to have a +federal budget which invests more +in the future and spends less on the present and the past. As +President, I'll throw out last year's budget +deal, which brought us the biggest deficits in American history and +the fastest-growing spending since +World War II. In its place, I'll establish a new three-part +federal budget: a past budget for interest +payments; a present budget for spending on current consumption, and +a future budget for investments in +things that will make us richer. + + Today the federal government spends only 9% of the budget on +investing in the future -- in +education, child health, environmental technology, infrastructure, +and basic research. We'll double that +in a Clinton Administration. We'll begin to finance the future +budget by converting resources no longer +needed for national defense to the investments needed to rebuild +our economic security, and by +controlling health care costs. + + We can bring the deficit down over time, but only if we +control spending on current +consumption programs by tying overall increases to real revenue +increases, not estimates. I propose to +limit overall increases in the consumption budget to increases in +personal income, so that the federal +budget can't go up any faster than the average American's paycheck. +Making Congress and the +President live by this rule will cut the deficit drastically in +five years, in a dramatic budget reform. + + Finally, if we're serious about reinventing government, we +must reinvent the way we deliver +health care in this country. We spend 30% more than any other +country on health care and do less with +it. For many Americans, the rising cost of health care and the +loss of it is the number one fear they face +on a daily basis. Thousands of American businesses are losing jobs +because health care costs are a 30% +handicap in the global marketplace. Two-thirds of the strikes +today are about health care, and no matter +how they come out, both sides lose. We are the only nation in the +world that doesn't help control health +care costs. + + We could cover every American with the money we're spending if +we had the courage to +demand insurance reform and slash health care bureaucracies, and if +we followed the lead of other +nations in controlling the unnecessary spread of technology, +stopping drug prices from going up three +times the rate of inflation, and forcing the people who send bills +and the people who pay them to agree +on how much health care should cost. We don't need to reduce +quality; we need to restructure the +system. And no nation has ever done it without a national +government that took the lead in controlling +costs and providing health care for all. + + In the first year of the Clinton Administration, Congress and +I will deliver quality, affordable +health care for all Americans. + + +A REVOLUTION IN THE WORKPLACE + + These changes are vital, but American workers and American +businesses are going to have to +change too, the private sector is where the jobs are created. Many +of the most urgent changes cannot be +legally mandated, but we know they're overdue after a decade in +which the stock market tripled and +average wages went down. + + Old economic arrangements are holding America back. It's time +for a revolution in the +American workplace that will radically raise the status of the +American worker and tear down the Berlin +Wall between labor and management. + + It's been years since the U.S. could outproduce the rest of +the world by treating workers like so +many cogs in a machine. We need a whole new organization of work, +where workers at the front lines +make decisions, not just follow orders, and entire levels of +bureaucratic middle management become +obsolete. And we need a new style of management, where front-line +workers and managers have more +responsibility to make decisions that improve quality and increase +productivity. + + Dynamic, flexible, well-trained workers who cooperate with +savvy, sensitive managers to make +changes every day are the keys to high growth in manufacturing and +in the service sector, including +government, education, and health care, areas where productivity +growth was very weak in the 1980s. + + Everyone will have to change, but everyone will get something +in return. Workers will gain +new prosperity and independence, but they'll have to give up +non-productive work rules and rigid job +classifications and be more open to change. Managers will reap +more profits but will have to manage +for the long-run, train all workers, and not treat themselves +better than their workers are treated. +Corporations will reach new heights in productivity, growth and +profitability, but CEOs will have to put +the long-term interests of their workers, their customers, and +their companies first. + + We should restore the link between pay and performance by +encouraging companies to provide +for employee ownership, profit-sharing for all employees, not just +executives. And executives should +profit when their companies do. We should all go up or down +together. We'll say to America's +corporate leaders: No more taking bonuses for yourselves if you +don't give bonuses to everybody. And +no more golden parachutes if you don't make good severance packages +available for your workers. + + It's wrong for executives to do what so many did in the '80s. +Executives at the biggest +companies raised their pay by four times the percentage their +workers' pay went up and three times the +percentage their profits went up. It's wrong to drive a company +into the ground and have the boss bail +out with a golden parachute to a cushy life. + + The average CEO at a major American corporation is paid 85 +times as much as the average +worker. And our government today rewards that excess with a tax +break for executive pay, no matter +how high it is, or whether it reflects increased performance. If +a company wants to overpay its +executives to perform less well, and underinvest in the future, it +shouldn't get any special treatment from +Uncle Sam. + + If a company wants to transfer jobs abroad and cut the +security of working people, it shouldn't +get special treatment from the Treasury. In the 1980s, we didn't +do enough to help our companies to +compete and win in a global economy. We did too much to transfer +wealth away from hard-working +middle-class people to the rich without good reason and too much to +weaken our country with debt that +wasn't invested in America. That's got to stop. There should be +no more deductibility for +irresponsibility. + + I believe in business. I believe in the marketplace. I +believe that the best jobs program this +country will ever have is economic growth. Most new jobs in this +country are created by small +businesses and entrepreneurs who get little help from the +government. + + Too often, especially in this environment, banks and other +investors won't take a chance on good +ideas and good people. I want to encourage small business people +and entrepreneurs. In a Clinton +Administration, we'll offer a tax incentive to those who take risks +by starting new businesses and +developing new technologies. Instead of offering a capital gains +tax cut for the wealthy who will churn +stocks on Wall Street anyway, we'll put forth a new enterprise tax +cut that rewards those with the +patience, the courage, and the determination to create new jobs. +Those who risk their savings on new +businesses that create most of the jobs in the country will receive +a 50% tax exclusion for gains held +more than five years. + + And I want to encourage investment here in America in other +ways -- by making the R&D tax +credit permanent, by taking away incentives for companies to shut +down their plants in the U.S. and +move their jobs overseas, and by offering a targeted investment tax +credit to medium and small-size +businesses who'll create new jobs with new plant and equipment. + + +A NEW STRATEGY TO COMPETE AND WIN + + Finally, we owe American workers, entrepreneurs, and industry +a pledge that all their hard work +will not go down the drain. + + We must have a national strategy to compete and win in the +global economy. The American +people aren't protectionists. Protectionism is just a fancy word +for giving up; we want to compete and +win. That is why our New Covenant must include a new trade policy +that says to Europe, Japan and our +other trading partners: we favor an open trading system, but if +you won't play by those rules, we'll play +by yours. That's why we need a stronger, sharper "Super 301" bill +as the means to enforce that policy. + + I supported fast track negotiations with Mexico for a free +trade agreement, but our negotiators +need to insist upon tough conditions that prevent our trading +partners from exploiting their workers or by +lowering costs through pollution to gain an advantage. We should +seek out similar agreements with all +of Latin America, because rich countries will get richer by helping +other countries grow into strong +trading partners. + + We also need a new energy policy to lower the trade deficit, +increase productivity, and improve +the environment. We must rely less on imported oil, and more on +cheap and abundant natural gas, and +on research and development into renewable energy resources. We +must achieve European standards of +energy efficiency in factories and office buildings. That will +free up billions of dollars to invest in the +American economy. + + If we want to help U.S. companies keep pace in the world +economy, we need to restore America +to the forefront not just in inventing products, but in bringing +them to market. Too often, we have won +the battle of the patents but lost the war of creating jobs, +profits, and wealth. American scientists +invented the microwave, the VCR, the color TV, and the memory chip, +and yet today the Koreans, the +Japanese, and other nations make most of those products. + + The research and development arm of the Defense Department did +a great job of developing +products and taking them to production because we didn't want them +produced overseas. We should +launch the civilian equivalent -- an agency to provide basic +research for new and critical technologies and +make it easier to move these ideas into the marketplace. And we +can pledge right now that for every +dollar we reduce the defense budget on research and development, +we'll increase the civilian R&D +budget by the same amount. We should commit ourselves to a +transitional plan for converting from a +defense to a domestic economy in a way that creates more high-wage +jobs, and doesn't destroy our most +successful high-wage industrial base, and with it the careers of +many thousands of our best scientists, +engineers, and workers. + + We must do all these things, and something more. The economic +challenges we confront today +are not just a matter of statistics and numbers. Behind them are +real human beings and real human +suffering. I have seen the pain in the faces of unemployed workers +in New Hampshire, policemen in +New York and Texas, computer company executives in California, +middle-class people everywhere. +They're all showing the same pain and worry I hear in the voices of +my own people in Arkansas, +including men and women I grew up with who played by the rules and +now see their dreams for the +future slipping away. + + That's why we're offering a new radical approach to economics. +Economics as if people were +really important. If we offer these hard-working families no hope +for the future, no solutions to their +problems, no relief for their pain, then fear and insecurity will +grow, and the politics of hate and +division will spread. If we do not act to bring this country +together in common cause to build a better +future, David Duke and his kind will be able to divide and destroy +our nation. Our streets will get +meaner, our families will be devastated, and our very social fabric +-- our goodness and tolerance and +decency as a people -- will be torn apart. + + The politics of division which the Republicans have parlayed +into the Presidency will turn on +even them. George Bush has forgotten the warning of our greatest +Republican President, Abraham +Lincoln: A house divided cannot stand. Lincoln gave his life for +the American community. The +Republicans have squandered his legacy. + + I want to be a President who will unite this country. This +morning, here at Georgetown, the +Robert Kennedy Human Rights Awards ceremony was held. Twenty-five +years ago, when I was +President of my class here, Robert Kennedy accepted our invitation +to come to Georgetown to give a +speech. In that same year, he gave a very different description of +what American politics should be all +about. And I would like to read that to you today, and ask you how +long it's been since you heard an +American President say and believe these things: + + Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve +the lot of others or + strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of +hope, and crossing each other + from a million different centers of energy and daring, those +ripples build a current that + can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and +resistance. + + That is the spirit I seek to bring to the Presidency. The +spirit of renewal of America. I believe +with all my heart that the very future of our country is on the +line. That is why these are not just +economic proposals. They are the way to save the very soul of our +nation. + + This is not just a campaign. This is a crusade to restore the +forgotten middle class, give +economic power back to ordinary people, and recapture the American +Dream. It is a crusade not just +for economic renewal, but for social and spiritual renewal as well. +It is a crusade to build a new +economic order of empowerment and opportunity that will preserve +our social order and make it possible +for our country once again to make the American Dream live at home +and to be strong enough to +triumph abroad. + + + +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ecpa-198 b/textfiles.com/politics/ecpa-198 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9472d074 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ecpa-198 @@ -0,0 +1,2383 @@ + + PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT 21, 1986 + + + + + ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY + ACT OF 1986 + + + + 100 STAT. 1848 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + PUBLIC LAW 99-508 + 99th Congress + + An Act + +Oct. 21, 1986 To amend title 18, United States Code, + with respect to the interception of + certain communications, other forms of + surveillance, and for other purposes. + +Electronic Be it enacted by the Senate and House of + Representatives of the United States of + America in Congress assembled, + +1986 SECTION 1.SHORT TITLE. +18 USC 2510 +note. This Act may be cited as the"Electronic + Communications Privacy Act of 1986". + + TITLE I--INTERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATIONS AND + RELATED MATTERS + + SEC. 101. FEDERAL PENALTIES FOR THE + INTERCEPTION OF COMMUNICATIONS. + + (a) DEFINITIONS--(1) Section 2510(1) of + title 18, United States Code is amended-- + (A) by striking out "any communications" + and inserting "any aural transfer" in lieu + thereof: + (B) by inserting "(including the use of + such connection in a switching station)" + after "reception". + (C) by striking out "as a common + carrier" and + (D) by inserting before the semicolon at + the end the following: "or communications + affecting interstate or foreign commerce and + such term includes any electronic storage of + such communication, but such term does not + include the radio portion of a cordless + telephone communication that is transmitted + between the cordless telephone handset and + the base unit". + (2)Section 2510(2) of title 18, United + States Code, is amended by inserting before + the semicolon at the end the following: + ",but such term does not include any + electronic communication". + (3)Section 2510(4) of title 18, United + States Code, is amended--- + (A)by inserting "or other" after + "aural";and + (B)by inserting ",electronic," after + "wire". + (4)Section 2510(5) of title 18, United + States Code, is amended in clause (a)(i) by + inserting before the semicolon the + following: "or furnished by such subscriber + or user for connection to the facilities of + such service and used in the ordinary + course of its business". + (5)Section 2510(8) of title 18, United + States Code, is amended by striking out + "identify of the parties to such + communication or the existence,". + (6)Section 2510 of title 18, United States + Code, is amended--- + (A)by striking out "and" at the end of + paragraph (10); + (B)by striking out the period at the + end of paragraph (11) and inserting + a semicolon in lieu thereof; and + (C)by adding at the end the following: + "(12)'electronic communication' means + any transfer of signs,signals, + + + + + 100 STAT. 1849 PUBLIC LAW 99-508---OCT. 21, 1986 + + + writing, images, sounds, data, or + intelligence of any nature + transmitted in whole or in part by + a wire, radio, electromagnetic, + photoelectronic or photooptical + system that affects interstate or + foreign commerce, but does not + include--- + "(A)the radio portion of a + cordless telephone communication that + is transmitted between the cordless + telephone handset and the base unit; + "(B)any wire or oral + communication; + "(C)any communication made + through a tone-only paging device; + or + "(D)any communication from a +18 USC 3117. tracking device (as defined in + section 3117 of this title); + "(13) 'user' means any person or + entity who--- + "(A)uses an electronic + communication service;and + "(B)is duly authorized by the + provider of such service to engage in + such use; + "(14) 'electronic communications + system' means any wire, radio, + electromagnetic, photooptical or + photoelectronic facilities for the + transmission of electronic + communications, and any computer + facilities or related electronic + equipment for the electronic storage + of such communications; + "(15) 'electronic communication + service' means any service which + provides to users thereof the + ability to send or receive wire or + electronic communications; + "(16) 'readily accessible to the + general public' means, with respect + to a radio communication, that such + communication is not--- + + "(A)scrambled or encrypted; + "(B)transmitted using modulation + techniques whose essential parameters + have been withheld from the public + with the intention of preserving the + privacy of such communication; + "(C)carried on a subcarrier or + other signal subsidiary to a radio + transmission; + "(D)transmitted over a + communication system provided by a + common carrier, unless the + communication is a tone only paging + system communication; or + "(E)transmitted on frequencies + allocated under part 25, subpart D,E, + or F of part 74, or part 94 of the + Rules of the Federal Communications + Commission, unless, in the case of a + communication transmitted on a + frequency allocated under part 74 + that is not exclusively allocated to + broadcast auxiliary services, the + communication is a two-way voice + communication by radio; + "(17)'electronic storage' means--- + "(A) any temporary, intermediate + storage of a wire or electronic + communication incidental to the + electronic transmission thereof; and + "(B) any storage of such + communication by an electronic + communication service for purpose of + backup protection of such + communication; and + "(18)'aural transfer' means a transfer + containing the human voice at any + point between and including the point + of origin and the point of reception". + (b)Exceptions With Respect to Electronic + Communications.-- + (1) Section 2511(2)(a)(ii) of title 18, + United States Code is amended-- + + + + 100 STAT. 1850 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT 21,1986 + + + (A) by striking out "violation of + this subparagraph by a communication + common carrier or an officer, + employee, or agent thereof" and + inserting in lieu thereof "such + disclosure"; + (B) by striking out "the carrier + and inserting in lieu thereof "such + person"; and + (C) by striking out "an order or + certification under this subparagraph" + and inserting in lieu thereof "a court + order or certification under this + chapter". + (2)Section 2511(2)(d) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended by + striking out "or for the purpose of + committing any other injurious act". + (3)Section 2511(2)(f) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended-- + (A) by inserting "or chapter 121" + after "this chapter"; and + (B) by striking out "by" the second + place it appears and inserting in lieu + thereof ", or foreign intelligence + activities conducted in accordance with + otherwise applicable Federal law + involving a foreign electronic + communications system, utilizing". + (4)Section 2511(2) of title 18, United + States Code, is amended by adding at the + end the following: + "(g)it shall not be unlawful under this + chapter or chapter 121 this title for +Post p. 1860 any person--- + "(i)to intercept or access an + electronic communication made through + an electronic communication system + that is configured so that such + electronic communication is readily + accessible to the general public; + "(ii) to intercept any radio + communication which is transmitted-- + "(I) by any station for the use + of the general public, or that + relates to ships, aircraft, vehicles, + or persons in distress; + "(II)by any governmental, law + enforcement, civil defense, private + land mobile, or public safety + communications system, including + police and fire, readily accessible + to the general public; + "(III) by a station operating on + an authorized frequency within the + bands allocated to the amateur, + citizens band, or general mobile + radio services; or + "(IV) by any marine or + aeronautical communications system; + "(iii) to engage in any conduct + which-- + "(I) is prohibited by section 633 +47 USC 553. of the Communications Act of 1934;or + "(II) is excepted from the + application of section 705(a) of the +47 USC 605. Communications Act of 1934 by section + 705(b) of that Act; + "(iv) to intercept any wire or + electronic communication the + transmission of which is causing + harmful interference to any lawfully + operating station or consumer + electronic equipment, to the extent + necessary to identify the source of + such interference; or + "(v) for other users of the same + frequency to intercept any radio + communication made through a system that + utilizes frequencies monitored by + individuals engaged in the provision or + the use of such system,, if such + communication is not scrambled or + encrypted + + + + 100 STAT. 1851 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + "(h)It shall not be unlawful under this + chapter--- + "(i)to use a pen register or a trap + and trace device (as those terms are +Post,p.1868. defined for the purposes of chapter 206 + (relating to pen registers and trap and + trace devices)of this title);or + "(ii) for a provider of electronic + communication service to record the + fact that a wire or electronic + communication was initiated or + completed in order to protect such + provider, another provider furnishing + service toward the completion of the + wire or electronic communication, or a + user of that service, from fraudulent, + unlawful or abusive use of such + service.". + (c)TECHNICAL AN CONFORMING + AMENDMENTS.--(1)Chapter 119 of title 18, +18 USC 2510 et United States Code is amended +seq. (A)in each of sections + 2510(5),2510(8),2510(11), and 2511 + through 2519 (except sections 2515, + 2516(1) and 2518(10)),by striking out + "wire or oral" each place it appears + (including in any section heading) and + inserting "wire, oral, or electronic" in + lieu thereof; and + (B)in section 2511(2)(b), by + inserting "or electronic" after "wire". + (2)The heading of chapter 119 of title + 18, United States Code, is amended by + inserting "and electronic + communications" after "wire". + (3)The item relating to chapter 119 in + the table of chapters at the beginning + of part I of title 18 of the United + States Code is amended by inserting "and + electronic communications" after "Wire". + (4)Section 2510(5)(a) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended by + striking out "communications common + carrier" and inserting "provider of wire + or electronic communication service" in + lieu thereof. + (5)Section 2511(2)(a)(i) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended-- + (A)by striking out "any communication + common carrier" and inserting "a + provider of wire or electronic + communication service" in lieu thereof; + (B)by striking out "of the carrier of + such communication" and inserting "of + the provider of that service" in lieu + thereof; and + (C)by striking out ": Provided, That + said communication common carriers", + except that a provider of wire + communication service to the public" in + lieu thereof. + (6)Section 2511(2)(a)(ii) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended-- + (A)by striking out "communications + common carriers" and inserting + "providers of wire or electronic + communication service" in lieu thereof; + (B)by striking out "communication + common carrier" each place it appears + and inserting "provider of wire or + electronic communication service" in + lieu thereof; and + (C)by striking out "if the common + carrier" and inserting "if such + provider" in lieu thereof. + (7)Section 2512(2)(a) of title 18, + United Code, is amended-- + (A)by striking out a communications + common carrier" the first place it + appears and inserting "a provider of + wire or electronic communication + service" in lieu thereof; and + (B)by striking out "a communications + common carrier" the second place it + appears and inserting "such a provider" + in lieu thereof; and + + + + 100 STAT. 1852 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + (C)by striking out "communications + common carrier's business" and + inserting "business of providing that + wire or electronic communication + service" in lieu thereof. + (8)Section 2518(4) of title 18, United + States Code, is amended-- + (A)by striking out "communication + common carrier" in both places it + appears and inserting "provider of wire + or electronic communications service" + in lieu thereof; and + (B)by striking out "carrier" and + inserting in lieu thereof "service + provider". + (d) PENALTIES MODIFICATION.--(1) Section + 2511(1) of title 18, United States + Code, is amended by striking out "shall + be" and all that follows through "or + both" and inserting in lieu thereof + "shall be punished as provided in + subsection (4) or shall be subject to + suit as provided in subsection (5)". + (2)Section 2511 of title 18, United + States Code, is amended by adding after + the material added by section 102 the + following: + "(4)(a)Except as provided in paragraph + (b) of this subsection or in subsection + (5), whoever violates subsection (1) of + this section shall be fined under the + title or imprisoned not more than five + years, or both. + "(b) If the offense is a first offense + under paragraph (a) of this subsection + and is not for a tortious or illegal + purpose or for purposes of direct or + indirect commercial advantage or + private commercial gain, and the wire + or electronic communication with + respect to which the offense under + paragraph (a) is a radio communication + that is not scrambled or encrypted, + then-- + + (C)by striking out "an order or + certification under this subparagraph" + and inserting in lieu thereof "a court + order or certification under this + chapter". + (2)Section 2511(2)(d) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended by + striking out "or for the purpose of + committing any other injurious act". + (3)Section 2511(2)(f) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended-- + "(i) if the communication is not the + radio portion of a cellular telephone + communication, a public land mobile + radio service communication or a + paging service communication, and the + conduct is not that described in + subsection (5), the offender shall be + fined under this title or imprisoned + not more than one year. or both;and + "(ii)if the communication is the + radio portion of a cellular telephone + communication, a public land mobile + radio service communication or a + paging service communication, the + offender shall be fined not more than + $500. + "(c) Conduct otherwise an offense under + this subsection that consists of or + relates to the interception of a + satellite transmission that is not + encrypted or scrambled and that is + transmitted + "(i)to a broadcasting station for + purposes of retransmission to the + general public or + "(ii)as an audio subcarrier intended + for redistribution to facilities open + to the public, but not including data + transmissions or telephone calls, + is not an offense under this + subsection unless the conduct is for + the purposes of direct or indirect + commercial advantage or private + financial gain. + "(5)(a)(i) If the communication is-- + "(A) a private satellite video + communication that is not scrambled or + encrypted and the + conduct in violation of this chapter + is the private + viewing of that communication and is + not for a tortious + or illegal purpose or for purposes of + direct or indirect commercial + advantage or private commercial gain; + or, + "(B)a radio communication that is + transmitted on frequencies allocated + under subpart D of part 74 of the + rules of the Federal Communications + Commission that is not scrambled or + encrypted and the conduct in violation + of this chapter is not for + + + + 100 STAT. 1853 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT.21,1986 + + + a tortious or illegal purpose or for + purposes of direct or indirect + commercial advantage or private + commercial gain, + then the person who engages in such + conduct shall be subject to suit by the + Federal Government in a court of + competent jurisdiction. + "(i)In an action under this + subsection-- + "(A) if the violation of this + chapter is a first offense for the + person under paragraph (a) of + subsection (4) and such person has not + been found liable in a civil action + under section 2520 of this title, the +Infra. Federal Government shall be entitled to + appropriate injunctive relief; and + "(B) if the violation of this + chapter is a second or subsequent + offense under paragraph (a) of + subsection (4) or such person has been + found liable in any prior civil action + under section 2520, the person shall be + subject to a mandatory $500 civil fine. + "(b) The court may use any means + within its authority to enforce an + injunction issued under paragraph + (i)(A), and shall impose a civil fine + of not less than $500 for each + violation of such an injunction.". + (e) EXCLUSIVITY OF REMEDIES WITH + RESPECT TO ELECTRONIC + COMMUNICATIONS--Section 2518(10) of + title 18, United States Code, is + amended by adding at the end the + following: + (c)The remedies and sanctions + described in this chapter with respect + to the interception of electronic + communications are the only judicial + remedies and sanctions for + nonconstitutional violations of this + chapter involving such communications". + (f)STATE OF MIND.--Paragraphs + (a),(b),(c), and (d) of subsection (1) + of section 2511 of title 18, United + States Code, are amended by striking + out "willfully" and inserting in lieu + thereof"intentionally". + (2)Subsection (1) of section 2512 of + title 18, United States Code, is + amended in the matter before paragraph + (a) by striking out "willfully" and + inserting in lieu thereof + "intentionally". + +SEC. 102. REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN DISCLOSURES. + + Section 2511 of title 18, United + States Code, is amended by adding at + the end of the following: + "(3)(a) Except as provided in + paragraph (b) of this subsection, a + person or entity providing an + electronic communication service to + the public shall not intentionally + divulge the contents of any + communication (other than one to such + person or entity, or an agent thereof) + while in transmission on that service + to any person or entity other than an + addressee or intended recipient of + such communication or an agent of such + addressee or intended recipient. + "(b) A person or entity providing + electronic communication service to + the public may divulge the contents of + any such communication-- + "(i) as otherwise authorized in + section 2511(2)(a) or 2517 of this + title; + "(ii)with the lawful consent of + the originator or any addressee or + intended recipient of such + communication; + "(iii) to a person employed or + authorized, or whose facilities are + used, to forward such communications + to its destination; or + "(iv) which were inadvertently + obtained by the service provider and + which appear to pertain to the + commission of a crime, if such + divulgence is made to a law + enforcement agency.". + +SEC. 103 RECOVERY OF CIVIL DAMAGES. + + Section 2520 of title 18, United States Code, is amended +to read as follows: + + + + 100 stat. 1854 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + "2520. Recovery of civil damages authorized + + "(a) IN GENERAL--Except as provided in + section 2511(2)(a)(ii), any person whose + wire, oral, or electronic communication + is intercepted, disclosed, or + intentionally used in violation of this + chapter may be in a civil action recover + from the person or entity which engaged + in that violation such relief as may be + appropriate. + "(b)RELIEF.--In an action under this + section, appropriate relief includes-- + "(1)such preliminary and other + equitable or declaratory relief may be + appropriate; + "(2) damages under subsection (c) and + punitive damages in appropriate cases; + and + "(3) a reasonable attorney's fee and + other litigation costs reasonably + incurred. + "(c)COMPUTATION OF DAMAGES--(1) In an + action under this section, if the + conduct in violation of this chapter is + the private viewing of a private + satellite video communication that is + not scrambled or encrypted or if the + communication is a radio communication + that is transmitted on frequencies + allocated under subpart D of part 74 of + the rules of the Federal Communications + Commission that is not scrambled or + encrypted and the conduct is not for a + tortious or illegal purpose or for + purposes of direct or indirect + commercial advantages or private + commercial gain, then the court shall + assess damages as follows: + "(A) If the person who engaged in that + conduct has not previously been enjoined + under section 2511(5) and has not been + found liable in a prior civil action + under this section, the court shall + assess the greater of the sum of actual + damages suffered by the plaintiff, or + statutory damages of not less than $50 + and not more than $500. + "(B) If on one prior occasion, the + person who engaged in that conduct has + been enjoined under section 2511(5) or + has been found liable in a civil action + under this section the court shall + assess the greater of the sum of actual + damages suffered by the plaintiff, or + statutory damages of not less than $100 + and not more than $1000. + "(2) In any other action under this + section, the court may assess as damages + whichever is the greater of-- + "(A) the sum of the actual damages + suffered by the plaintiff and any + profits made by the violator as a result + of the violation; or + "(B) statutory damages of whichever is + the greater of $100 a day for each day + of violation or $10,000. + "(d)DEFENSE--A good faith reliance on-- + "(1) a court warrant or order, a grand + jury subpoena, a legislative + authorization, or a statutory + authorization; + "(2)a request of an investigative or + law enforcement officer under section + 2518(7) of this title; or + "(3)a good faith determination that + section 2511(3) of this title permitted + the conduct complained of; + is a complete defense against any civil + or criminal action brought under this + chapter or any other law. + "(e) LIMITATION.--A civil action under + this section may not be commenced later + than two years after the date upon + which the claimant first has a + reasonable opportunity to discover the + violation". + + + + 100 STAT 1855 PUBLIC LAW 99-508 OCT.21, 1986 + + +SEC. 104. CERTAIN APPROVALS BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT + OFFICIALS. + + Section 2516(1) of title 18 of the + United States Code is amended by + striking out "or any Assistant Attorney + General" and inserting in lieu thereof + "any Assistant Attorney General, any + acting Assistant Attorney General, or + any Deputy Assistant Attorney General + in the Criminal Division". + + SEC. 105. ADDITION OF OFFENSES TO CRIMES FOR WHICH + INTERCEPTION IS AUTHORIZED. + + (a) WIRE AND ORAL +INTERCEPTIONS,--Section 2516(1) of title 18 of the United + States Code is amended-- + (1)in paragraph (c)--- + (A) by inserting "section 751 + (relating to escape)," after "wagering + information),"; + (B) by striking out "2314" and + inserting "2312,2313,2314," in lieu + thereof; +Motor vehicles. (C) by inserting "the second +Aircraft and section 2320 (relating to trafficking in +air carriers. certain motor vehicles or motor vehicle + parts), section 1203 (relating to + hostage taking), section 1029 (relating + to fraud and related activity in + connection with access devices), section + 3146 (relating to penalty for failure to + appear), section 3521(b)(3) (relating to + witness relocation and assistance), + section 32 (relating to destruction of + aircraft or aircraft facilities)," after + "stolen property),"; + (D) by inserting "section 1952A + (relating to use of interstate commerce + facilities in the commission of murder + for hire), section 1952B (relating to + violent crimes in aid of racketeering + activity). after "1952 (interstate and + foreign travel or transportation in aid + of racketeering enterprises),"; +Energy. (E) by inserting ",section 115 +Mail. (relating to threatening or retaliating +Fraud. against a Federal official), the section + in chapter 65 relating to destruction of + an energy facility, and section 1341 + (relating to mail fraud)," after + "section 1963 (violations with respect + to racketeer influenced and corrupt + organizations)"; and + (F) by-- +Hazardous (i) striking out "or" before +materials. "section 351" and inserting in lieu +Motor vehicles. thereof a comma; and + (ii) inserting before the + semicolon at the end thereof the + following: ", section 831 (relating to + prohibited transactions involving + nuclear materials), section 33 (relating + to destruction of motor vehicles or + motor vehicle facilities), or section + 1992 relating to wrecking trains)"; + (2)by striking out "or" at the end of + paragraph (g); + (3)by inserting after paragraph (g) the + following: + "(h) any felony violation of + sections 2511 and 2512 (relating to + interception and disclosure of certain + communications and to certain + intercepting devices) of this title; +Natural gas. "(i) any violation of section + 1679a(c)(2) (relating to destruction of + a natural gas pipeline) or subsection +Aircraft and air (i) or (n) of section 1472 (relating to +carriers. aircraft privacy) of title 49, of the + United States Code; + "(j) any criminal violation of +22 USC 2751 section 2778 of title 22 (relating to +note. the Arms Export Control Act); or "; + "(k) the location of any fugitive + from justice from an offense described + in this section; + + + + 100 STAT. 1856 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT 21, 1986 + + + (4)by redesignating paragraph (h) + as paragraph (1); and + (5)in paragraph (a) by-- +Hazardous (A) inserting after "Atomic +materials Energy Act of 1954)," the following: + "section 2284 of title 42 of the United + States Code (relating to sabotage of + nuclear facilities or fuel),"; + (B) striking out "or" after + "relating to treason),"; and +18 USC 1361 et (C) inserting before the +seq. semicolon at the end thereof the +18 USC 2271 et following chapter 65 (relating to +seq. malicious mischief), chapter 111 + (relating to destruction of vessels), or + chapter 81 (relating to piracy)". +Vessels. (b)INTERCEPTION OF ELECTRONIC +18 USC 1651 et COMMUNICATIONS.--Section 2516 of title +seq. 18 of the United States Code is amended + by adding at the end the following: + "(3)Any attorney for the Government (as +18 USC app. such term is defined for the purpose of + the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure) + may authorize an application to a + Federal judge of competent jurisdiction + for, and such judge may grant, in + conformity with section 2518 of this + title, an order authorizing or approving + the interception of electronic + communications by an investigative or + law enforcement officer having + responsibility for the investigation of + the offense as to which the application + is made, when such interception may + provide or has provided evidence of any + Federal felony.". + +SEC. 106. APPLICATIONS, ORDERS, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF +ORDERS. + (a) PLACE OF AUTHORIZED INTERCEPTION.-- + Section 2518(3) of title 18 of the + United States Code is amended by + inserting "(and outside that jurisdiction + but within the United States in the case + of a mobile interception device + authorized by a Federal court within + such jurisdiction)" after "within the + territorial jurisdiction of the court in + which the judge is sitting". + (b)REIMBURSEMENT FOR ASSISTANCE--Section + 2518(4) of title 18 of the United States + Code is amended by striking out "at the + prevailing rates" and inserting in lieu + thereof "for reasonable expenses + incurred in providing such facilities or + assistance". + (c)COMMENCEMENT OF THIRTY-DAY PERIOD AND + POSTPONEMENT OF MINIMIZATION.--Section + 2518(5) of title 18 of the United States + Code is amended-- + (1)by inserting after the first + sentence the following: "Such thirty-day + period begins on the earlier of the day + on which the investigative or law + enforcement officer first begins to + conduct an interception under the order + or ten days after the order is + entered.";and + (2)by adding at the end the + following: "In the event the intercepted + communication is in a code or foreign + language, and an expert in that foreign + language or code is not reasonably + available during the interception + period, minimization may be accomplished + as soon as practicable after such + interception. An interception under + this chapter may be conducted in whole + or in part by Government personnel, or + by an individual operating under a + contract with the Government, acting + under the supervision of an + investigative or law enforcement officer + authorized to conduct the + interception.". + (d)ALTERNATIVE TO DESIGNATING SPECIFIC + FACILITIES FROM WHICH COMMUNICATIONS ARE + TO BE INTERCEPTED.--(1) Section + 2518(1)(b)(ii) of title 18 of the United + States Code is amended by inserting + "except as provided in subsection (11)," + before a "a particular description". + + + + 100 STAT. 1857 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT.21, 1986 + + (2) Section 2518(3)(d) of title 18 of + the United States Code is amended by + inserting "except as provided in + subsection (11)," before "there is". + (3) Section 2518 of title 18 of the + United States Code is amended by adding + at the end the following: + "(11) The requirements of subsections + (1)(b)(ii) and (3)(d) of this section + relating to the specification of the + facilities from which, or the place + where, the communication is to be + intercepted do not apply if-- + "(a) in the case of an application with + respect to the interception of an oral + communication-- + "(i) the application is by a + Federal investigative or law + enforcement officer and is approved by + the Attorney General, the Deputy + Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney + General, the Associate Attorney + General, an Assistant Attorney General, + or an acting Assistant Attorney + General; + "(ii) the application contains a + full and complete statement as to why + such specification is not practical and + identifies the person committing the + offense and whose communications are to + be intercepted;and + "(iii) the judge finds that such + specification is not practical; and + "(b) in the case of an application with + respect to a wire or electronic + communication-- + "(i) the application is by a + Federal investigative or law enforcement + officer and is approved by the Attorney + General, the Deputy Attorney General, + the Associate Attorney General, an + Assistant Attorney General, or an acting + Assistant Attorney General; + "(ii) the application identifies + the person believed to be committing the + offense and whose communications are to + be intercepted and the applicant makes a + showing of a purpose, on the part of + that person, to thwart interception by + changing facilities;and + "(iii) the judge finds that such + purpose has been adequately shown. + "(12) An interception of a communication + under an order with respect to which the + requirements of subsections (1)(b)(ii) + and (3)(d) of this section do not apply + by reason of subsection (11) shall not + begin until the facilities from which, + or the place where, the communication is + to be intercepted is ascertained by the + person implementing the interception + order. A provider of wire or electronic + communications service that has received + an order as provided for in subsection + (11)(b) may move the court to modify or + quash the order on the ground that its + assistance with respect to the + interception cannot be performed in a + timely or reasonable fashion. The + court, upon notice to the government, + shall decide such a motion + expeditiously.". + (4)Section 2519(1)(b) of title 18, + United States Code, is amended by + inserting "(including whether or not the + order was an order with respect to which + the requirements of sections + 2518(1)(b)(ii) and 2518(3)(d) of this + title did not apply by reason of section + 2518(11) of this title)" after "applied + for", + + + + 100 STAT. 1858 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + +SEC. 107. INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES. + +18 USC 2510 (a) IN GENERAL.--Nothing in this act or +note. the amendments made by this Act + constitutes authority for the conduct of + any intelligence activity. + (b) CERTAIN ACTIVITIES UNDER PROCEDURES + APPROVED BY THE ATTORNEY + GENERAL.--Nothing in chapter 119 or +18 USC 2510 et chapter 121 of title 18, United States +seq.; Code, shall effect the conduct, by +post,p. 1860. officers or employees of the United + States Government in accordance with + other applicable Federal law, under + procedures approved by the Attorney + General of activities intended to-- + (1) intercept encrypted or other + official communications of United States + executive branch entitles or United + States Government contractors for + communications security purposes; + (2) intercept radio communications + transmitted between or among foreign + powers or agents of a foreign power as +50 USC 1801 defined by the Foreign Intelligence +note. Surveillance Act of 1978; or + (3) access an electronic communications + system used exclusively by a foreign + power or agent of a foreign power as + defined by the Foreign Intelligence + Surveillance Act of 1978. + + Sec. 108. MOBILE TRACKING DEVICES. + + (a) IN GENERAL.--Chapter 205 of title + 18, United States Code, is amended by + adding at the end the following: + +18 USC 3117. "3117. Mobile tracking devices + + "(a) IN GENERAL.--If a court is + empowered to issue a warrant or other + order for the installation of a mobile + tracking device, such order may + authorize the use of that device within + the jurisdiction of the court, and + outside that jurisdiction if the device + is installed in that jurisdiction.. + "(b) DEFINITION.--As used in this + section, the term "tracking device + means an electronic or mechanical + device which permits the tracking of + the movement of a person or object.". + (b)CLERICAL AMENDMENT.--The table of + contents at the beginning of chapter + 205 of title 18, United States Code, + is amended by adding at the end of the + following: + + "3117. Mobile tracking devices.". + + SEC.109. WARNING SUBJECT OF SURVEILLANCE. + + Section 2232 of title 18, United States + Code, is amended-- + (1)by inserting "(a) PHYSICAL + INTERFERENCE WITH SEARCH.--" + before "Whoever" the first place it + appears; + (2)by inserting "(b) NOTICE OF + SEARCH.--" before "Whoever" the second + place it appears; and + (3)by adding at the end the following: +Law (c) NOTICE OF CERTAIN ELECTRONIC +enforcement SURVEILLANCE.--Whoever, having +and crime. knowledge that a Federal investigative +18 USC 2510 et or law enforcement officer has been +seq.; authorized or has applied for +post,p. 1859. authorization under chapter 119 to + intercept a wire, oral, or electronic + communication, in order to obstruct, + impede, or prevent such interception, + gives notice or attempts to give notice + of the possible interception to any + person shall be fined under this title + or imprisoned not more than five years, + or both. + "Whoever, having knowledge that a + Federal officer has been authorized or + has applied for authorization to + conduct electronic surveillance under + the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance + Act (50) + + + + 100 STAT. 1859 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + U.S.C. 1801, et seq.), in order to + obstruct, impede, or prevent such + activity, gives notice or attempts to + give notice of the possible activity to + any person shall be fined under this + title or imprisoned not more than five + years, or both.". + + SEC. 110. INJUNCTIVE REMEDY. + + (a) IN GENERAL.--Chapter 119 of title + 18, United States Code, is amended by + adding at the end the following: + +18 USC 2521. "2521. Injunction against illegal + interception + + "Whenever it shall appear that any + person is engaged or is about to engage + in any act which constitutes or will + constitute a felony violation of this + chapter, the Attorney General may + initiate a civil action in a district + court of the United States to enjoin + such violation. The court shall + proceed as soon as practicable to the + hearing and determination of such an + action, and may, at any time before + final determination, enter such a + restraining order or prohibition, or + take such other action, as is warranted + to prevent a continuing and substantial + injury to the United States or to any + person or class of persons for whose + protection the action is brought. A + proceeding under this section is + governed by the Federal Rules of Civil +28 USC app. Procedure, except that, if an + indictment has been returned against + the respondent, discovery is governed + by the Federal Rules of Criminal +18 USC app. Procedure.". + (b)CLERICAL AMENDMENT.--The table of + sections at the beginning of chapter + 119 of title 18, United States Code, is + amended by adding at the end thereof + the following: + + "2521.Injunction against illegal + interception.". + +18 USC 2510 SEC. 111.EFFECTIVE DATE. +note. + (a) IN GENERAL.--Except as provided in + subsection (b) or (c), this title and + the amendments made by this title shall + take effect 90 days after the date of + the enactment of this Act and shall, in + the case of conduct pursuant to a court + order or extension, apply only with + respect to court orders or extensions + made after this title takes effect. + (b)SPECIAL RULE FOR STATE + AUTHORIZATIONS OF INTERCEPTIONS.-- + Any interception pursuant to section + 2516(2) of title 18 of the United + States Code which would be valid and + lawful without regard to the amendments + made by this title shall be valid and + lawful notwithstanding such amendments + if such interception occurs during the + period beginning on the date such + amendments take effect and ending on + the earlier of-- + (1)the day before the date of the + taking effect of State law conforming + the applicable State statue with + chapter 119 of title 18, United States +18 USC 2510 et Code, as so amended; or +seq. (2)the date two years after the + date of the enactment of this Act. + (c)EFFECTIVE DATE FOR CERTAIN APPROVALS + BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT + OFFICIALS.--Section 104 of this Act + shall take effect on the date of + enactment of this Act. + + + 100 STAT. 1860 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + TITLE II--STORED WIRE AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS + TRANSACTIONAL RECORDS ACCESS + + Sec.201. TITLE 18 AMENDMENT. + Title 18, United States Code,is + amended by inserting after chapter 119 + the following: + +"CHAPTER 121--STORED WIRE AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND + TRANSACTIONAL RECORDS ACCESS + + + "Sec. + "2701. Unlawful access to stored + communications. + "2702. Disclosure of contents. + "2703. Requirements for governmental + access. + "2704. Backup preservation. + "2705. Delayed notice. + "2706. Cost reimbursement. + "2707. Civil action. + "2708. Exclusivity of remedies. + "2709. Counterintelligence access to + telephone toll and transactional + records. + "2710. Definitions. + +18 USC 2701. "2701. Unlawful access to stored + communications + "(a)OFFENSE.--Except as provided in + subsection (c) of this section + whoever-- + "(1) intentionally accesses + without authorization a facility + through which an electronic + communication service is provided; or + "(2) intentionally exceeds an + authorization to access that facility; + and thereby obtains, alters, or + prevents authorized access to a wire or + electronic communication while it is in + electronic storage in such system shall + be punished as provided in subsection + (b) of this section. + "(b)PUNISHMENT.--The punishment for an + offense under subsection (a) of this + section is-- + "(1) if the offense is committed + for purposes of commercial advantage, + malicious destruction or damage, or + private commercial gain-- + "(A) a fine of not more than $250,000 or + imprisonment for not more than one year, + or both, in case of a first offense + under this subparagraph; and + "(B) a fine under this title or + imprisonment for not more than two + years, or both, for any subsequent + offense under this subparagraph; and + "(2) a fine of not more than $5,000 + or imprisonment for not more than six + months, or both, in any other case. + "(c)EXCEPTIONS.--Subsection (a) of this + section does not apply with respect to + conduct authorized-- + "(1) by the person or entity + providing a wire or electronic + communications service; + "(2) by a use of that service with + respect to a communication of or + intended for that user; or + "(3) in section 2703, 2704 or 2518 + of this title. + +18 USC 2702. "2702. Disclosure of contents + "(a) PROHIBITIONS.--Except as provided + in subsection(b)-- + + + + 100 STAT. 1861 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + "(1)a person or entity providing an + electronic communication service to the + public shall not knowingly divulge to + any person or entity the contents of a + communication while in electronic + storage by that service; and + "(2)a person or entity providing remote + computing service to the public shall + not knowingly divulge to any person or + entity the contents of any + communication which is carried or + maintained on that service-- + "(A) on behalf of, and received by + means of electronic transmission from + (or created by means of computer + processing of communications received + by means of electronic transmission + from), a subscriber or customer of such + service;and + "(B) solely for the purpose of + providing storage or computer + processing services to such subscriber + or customer, if the provider is not + authorized to access the contents of + any such communications for purposes of + providing any services other than + storage or computer processing. + "(b) EXCEPTIONS.--A person or entity + may divulge the contents of a + communication-- + "(1) to an addressee or intended + recipient of such communication or an + agent of such addressee or intended + recipient; + "(2)as otherwise authorized in section + 2516, 2511(2)(a), or 2703 of this + title; + "(3)with the lawful consent of the + originator or an addressee or intended + recipient of such communication, or the + subscriber in the case of remote + computing service; + "(4)to a person employed or authorized + or whose facilities are used to forward + such communication to its destination; + "(5)as may be necessarily incident to + the rendition of the service or to the + protection of the right or property of + the provider of that service; or + "(6)to a law enforcement agency, if + such contents-- + "(A)were inadvertently obtained by + the service provider; and + "(B) appear to pertain to the + commission of a crime. + +State and local "2703. Requirements for governmental +governments. access +18 USC 2703. "(a) CONTENTS OF ELECTRONIC + COMMUNICATIONS IN ELECTRONIC + STORAGE.--A governmental entity may + require the disclosure by a provider of + electronic communication service of the + contents of an electronic + communication, that is in electronic + storage in an electronic communications + system for one hundred and eighty days + or less, only pursuant to a warrant + issued under the Federal Rules of + Criminal Procedure or equivalent State +18 USC app. warrant. A governmental entity may + require the disclosure by a provider of + electronic communications services of + the contents of an electronic + communication that has been in + electronic storage in an electronic + communications system for more than one + hundred and eighty days by the means + available under subsection (b) of this + section. + "(b) CONTENTS OF ELECTRONIC + COMMUNICATIONS IN A REMOTE COMPUTING + SERVICE.--(1) A governmental entity may + require a provider of remote computing + service to disclose the contents of any + electronic communication to which this + paragraph is made applicable by + paragraph (2) of this subsection-- + "(A) without required notice to + the subscriber or customer, if the + governmental entity obtains a warrant + issued under the + + + + 100 STAT. 1862 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + +18 USC app. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or + equivalent State warrant; or + "(B) with prior notice from the + governmental entity to the subscriber or + customer if the governmental entity-- + "(i) uses an administrative + subpoena authorized by a Federal or + State statute or a Federal or State + grand jury subpoena; or +Post,p. 1864. "(ii) obtains a court order for + such disclosure under subsection (d) of + this section; + except that delayed notice may be given + pursuant to section 2705 of this title. + "(2) Paragraph (1) is applicable with + respect to any electronic communications + that is held or maintained on that + service-- + "(A) on behalf of, and received by + means of electronic transmission from + (or created by means of computer + processing of communications received by + means of electronic transmission from), + a subscriber or customer of such remote + computing service; and + "(B) solely for the purpose of + providing storage or computer processing + services to such subscriber or customer, + if the provider is not authorized to + access the contents of any such + communications for purposes of providing + any services other than storage or + computer processing. + "(c) RECORDS CONCERNING ELECTRONIC + COMMUNICATION SERVICE OR REMOTE + COMPUTING SERVICE.--(1)(A) Except as + provided in subparagraph (B), a provider + of electronic communication service or + remote computing service may disclose a + record or other information pertaining + to a subscriber to or customer of such + service (not including the contents of + communications covered by subsection (a) + or (b) of this section) to any person + other than a governmental entity. + "(B) a provider of electronic + communication service or remote + computing service shall disclose a + record or other information pertaining + to a subscriber to or customer of such + service (not including the contents of + communications covered by subsection (a) + or (b) of this section) to a + governmental entity only when the + governmental entity-- + "(i) uses an administrative + subpoena authorized by a Federal or + State statute, or a Federal or State + grand jury subpoena; + "(ii)obtains a warrant issued + under the Federal Rules of Criminal + Procedure or equivalent State warrant; + "(iii)obtains a court order for + such disclosure under subsection (d) of + this section; or + "(iv) has the consent of the + subscriber or customer to such + disclosure. + (2)A governmental entity receiving + records or information under this + subsection is not required to provide + notice to a subscriber or customer. +Records. "(d) REQUIREMENTS FOR COURT ORDER.--A + court order for disclosure under + subsection (b) or (c) of this section + shall issue only if the governmental + entity shows that there is reason to + believe the contents of a wire or + electronic communication, or the records + or other information sought, are + relevant to a legitimate law enforcement + inquiry. In the case of a State + governmental authority, such a court + order shall not issue if prohibited by + the law of such State. A court issuing + an order pursuant to this section, on a + motion made promptly by the service + provider, may quash or modify such + order, if + + + 100 STAT. 1863 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + the information or records requested are + unusually voluminous in nature or + compliance with such order otherwise + would cause an undue burden on such + provider. + "(e) NO CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST A + PROVIDER DISCLOSING INFORMATION UNDER + THIS CHAPTER.--No cause of action shall + lie in any court against any provider of + wire or electronic communication + service, its officers, employees, + agents, or other specified persons for + providing information, facilities, or + assistance in accordance with the terms + of a court order, warrant, subpoena, or + certification under this chapter. + +18 USC 2704. "2704. Backup preservation + + "(a) BACKUP PRESERVATION.--(1) A + governmental entity acting under section + 2703(b)(2) may include in its subpoena + or court order a requirement that the + service provider to whom the request is + directed create a backup copy of the + contents of the electronic + communications sought in order to + preserve those communications. Without + notifying the subscriber or customer of + such subpoena or court order, such + service provider shall create such + backup copy as soon as practicable + consistent with its regular business + practices and shall confirm to the + governmental entity that such backup + copy has been made. Such backup copy + shall be created within two business + days after receipt by the service + provider of the subpoena or court order. + "(2) Notice to the subscriber or + customer shall be made by the + governmental entity within three days + after receipt of such confirmation, + unless such notice is delayed pursuant + to section 2705(a). + "(3) The service provider shall not + destroy such backup copy until the later + of-- + "(A) the delivery of the + information; or + "(B) the resolution of any + proceedings (including appeals of any + proceeding) concerning the government's + subpoena or court order. + "(4) The service provider shall release + such backup copy to the requesting + governmental entity no sooner than + fourteen days after the governmental + entity's notice to the subscriber or + customer if such service provider-- + "(A) has not received notice from + the subscriber or customer that the + subscriber or customer has challenged + the governmental entity's request; and + "(B)has not initiated proceedings + to challenge the request of the + governmental entity. + "(5) A governmental entity may seek to + require the creation of a backup copy + under subsection (a)(1) of this section + if in its sole discretion such entity + determines that there is reason to + believe that notification under section + 2703 of this title of the existence of + the subpoena or court order may result + in destruction of or tampering with + evidence. This determination is not + subject to challenge by the subscriber + or customer or service provider. + "(b) CUSTOMER CHALLENGES.--(1) Within + days after notice by the governmental + entity to the subscriber or customer + under subsection (a)(2) of this + section, such subscriber or customer may + file a motion to quash such subpoena or + vacate such court order, with copies + served upon the governmental entity and + with written notice of such challenge to + the service provider. A motion to + vacate a court order shall be filed in + the court which issued such order. A + motion to quash a subpoena shall be + filed in the appropriate United States + + + + 100 STAT. 1864 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + district court or State court. Such + motion or application shall contain an + affidavit or sworn statement-- + "(A) stating that the applicant is + a customer or subscriber to the service + from which the contents of electronic + communications maintained for him have + been sought; and + "(B) stating the applicant's + reasons for believing that the records + sought are not relevant to a legitimate + law enforcement inquiry or that there + has not been substantial compliance with + the provisions of this chapter in some + other respect. + "(2)Service shall be made under this + section upon a governmental entity by + delivering or mailing by registered or + certified mail a copy of the papers to + the person, office, or department + specified in the notice which the + customer has received pursuant to this + chapter. For the purposes of this + section, the term 'delivery' has the +28 USC app. meaning given that term in the federal + rules of Civil Procedure. + "(3) If the court finds that the + customer has complied with paragraphs + (1) and (2) of this subsection, the + court shall order the governmental + entity to file a sworn response; which + may be filed in camera if the + governmental entity includes in its + response the reasons which make in + camera review appropriate. If the court + is unable to determine the motion or + application on the basis of the parties' + initial allegations and response, the + court may conduct such additional + proceedings as it deems appropriate. + All such proceedings shall be completed + and the motion or application decided as + soon as practicable after the filing of + the governmental entity's response. + "(4) If the court finds that the + applicant is not the subscriber or + customer for whom the communications + sought by the governmental entity are + maintained, or that there is a reason to + believe that the law enforcement inquiry + is legitimate and that the + communications sought are relevant to + that inquiry, it shall deny the motion + or application and order such process + enforced. If the court finds that the + applicant is the subscriber or customer + for whom the communications sought by + the governmental entity are maintained, + and that there is not a reason to + believe that the communications sought + are relevant to a legitimate law + enforcement inquiry, or that there has + not been substantial compliance with the + provisions of this chapter, it shall + order the process quashed. + "(5) A court order denying a motion or + application under this section shall not + be deemed a final order and no + interlocutory appeal may be taken + therefrom by the customer. +18 USC 2705. "2705. Delayed notice + "(a) DELAY OF NOTIFICATION.--(1) A + governmental entity acting under section + 2703(b) of this title may-- + "(A) where a court order is sought, + include in the application a request, + which the court shall grant, for an + order delaying the notification required + under section 2703(b) of this title for + a period not to exceed ninety days, if + the court determines that there is + reason to believe that notification of + the existence of the court order may + have an adverse result described in + paragraph + "(2)of this subsection; or +State and local "(B) where an administrative +governments. subpoena authorized by a Federal or + State statute or a Federal or State + grand jury subpoena is obtained, delay + the notification required under section + 2703(b) of this title for a period not + to exceed ninety days upon the execution + of a written certification of a + supervisory official that there is + reason to believe that notification of + the existence of the + + + + 100 STAT. 1865 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + subpoena may have an adverse result + described in paragraph (2) of this + subsection. + "(2) An adverse result for the purposes + of paragraph (1) of this subsection + is-- + "(A) endangering the life or + physical safety of an individual; + "(B) flight from prosecution; + "(C) destruction of or tampering + with evidence; + "(D) intimidation of potential + witnesses; or + "(E) otherwise seriously + jeopardizing an investigation or + unduly delaying a trial. + "(3)The governmental entity shall + maintain a true copy of + certification under paragraph (1)(B). + "(4) Extensions of the delay of + notification provided in section 2703 + of up to ninety days each may be + granted by the court upon + application,or by certification by a + governmental entity, but only in + accordance with subsection (b) of this + section. + "(5) Upon expiration of the period of + delay of notification under paragraph + (1) or (4) of this subsection, the + governmental entity shall serve upon, + or deliver by registered or first-class + mail to, the customer or subscriber a + copy of the process or request together + with notice that-- + "(A) states with reasonable + specificity the nature of the law + enforcement inquiry; and + "(B) informs such customer or + subscriber-- + "(i) that information maintained + for such customer or subscriber by the + service provider named in such process + or request was supplied to or requested + by that governmental authority and the + date on which the supplying or request + took place; + "(ii) that notification of such + customer or subscriber was delayed; + "(iii) what governmental entity + or court made the certification or + determination pursuant to which that + delay was made; and + "(iv) which provision of this + chapter allowed such delay; + "(6) As used in this subsection, the + term 'supervisory official means the + investigative agent in charge or + assistant investigative agent in charge + or an equivalent of an investigating + agency's headquarters or regional + office, or the chief prosecuting + attorney or the first assistant + prosecuting attorney or an equivalent of + a prosecuting attorney's headquarters or + regional office. + "(b) PRECLUSION OF NOTICE TO SUBJECT OF + GOVERNMENTAL ACCESS.--A governmental + entity acting under section 2703 when it + is not required to notify the subscriber + or customer under section 2703(b)(1), or + to the extent that it may delay such + notice pursuant to commanding a provider + of electronic communications service or + remote computing service to whom a + warrant subpoena, or court to notify any + other person of the existence of the + warrant subpoena, that there is reason + to believe that notification of the + existence of the warrant, subpoena, or + court order will result in-- + "(1) endangering the life or + physical safety of an individual; + "(2) flight from prosecution; + "(3) destruction of or tampering with + evidence; + + + + 100 STAT. 1866 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + "(4) intimidation of potential + witnesses; or + "(5) otherwise seriously + jeopardizing an investigation or unduly + delaying a trial. + +18 USC 2706. "2706. Cost reimbursement + + "(a) PAYMENT.--Except as otherwise + provided in subsection (c), a + governmental entity-obtaining the + contents of communications, records, or + other information under section 2702, + 2703, or 2704 of this title shall pay to + the person or entity assembling or + providing such information a fee for + reimbursement for such costs as are + reasonably necessary and which have been + directly incurred in searching for, + assembling, reproducing, or otherwise + providing such information. Such + reimbursable costs shall include any + costs due to necessary disruption of + normal operations of any electronic + communication service or remote + computing service in which such + information may be stored. + "(b) AMOUNT.--The amount of the fee + provided by subsection (a) shall be as + mutually agreed by the governmental + entity and the person or entity + providing the information, or, in the + absence of agreement, shall be as + determined by the court which issued the + order for production of such information + (or the court before which a criminal + prosecution relating to such information + would be brought, if no court order was + issued for production of the + information). + "(c) The requirement of subsection (a) + of this section does not apply with + respect to records or other information + maintained by a communications common + carrier that relate to telephone toll + records and telephone listings obtained + under section 2703 of this title. The + court may, however, order a payment as + described in subsection (a) if the court + determines the information required is + unusually voluminous in nature or + otherwise caused an undue burden on the + provider. + + "2707. Civil action + + "(a)CAUSE OF ACTION.--Except as provided + in section 2703(e), any provider of + electronic communication service, + subscriber, or customer aggrieved by any + violation of this chapter in which the + conduct constituting the violation is + engaged in with a knowing or intentional + state of mind may, in a civil action, + recover from the person or entity which + engaged in that violation such relief as + may be appropriate. + "(b)RELIEF.--In a civil action under + this section, appropriate relief + includes-- + "(1)such preliminary and other + equitable or declaratory relief as may + be appropriate; + "(2)damages under subsection + (c);and + "(3)a reasonable attorney's fee + and other litigation costs reasonably + incurred. + "(c)DAMAGES.--The court may assess as + damages in a civil action under this + section the sum of the actual damages + suffered by the plaintiff and any + profits made by the violator as a result + of the violation, but in no case shall a + person entitled to recover receive less + than the sum of $1,000. + "(d)DEFENSE.--A good faith reliance on-- + "(1) a court warrant or order, a + grand jury subpoena, a legislative + authorization, or a statutory + authorization; + "(2) a request of an investigative + or law enforcement officer under section + 2518(7) of this title; or + + + + 100 STAT. 1867 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + "(3) a good faith determination + that section 2511(3) of this title + permitted the conduct complained + of; + is a complete defense to any civil or + criminal action brought under this + chapter or any other law. + "(e) LIMITATION.--A civil action under + this section may not be commenced later + than two years after the date upon which + the claimant first discovered or had a + reasonable opportunity to discover the + violation. + +18 USC 2708. "2708. Exclusivity of remedies + + "The remedies and sanctions described in + this chapter are the only judicial + remedies and sanctions for + nonconstitutional violations of this + chapter. + +18 USC 2709. "2709. Counterintelligence access to + telephone toll and transactional + records + "(a)DUTY TO PROVIDE.--A wire or + electronic communication service + provider shall comply with a request for + subscriber information and toll billing + records information, or electronic + communication transactional records in + its custody or possession made by the + Director of the Federal Bureau of + Investigation under subsection (b) of + this section. + "(b) REQUIRED CERTIFICATION.--The + Director of the Federal Bureau of + Investigation (or an individual within + the Federal Bureau of Investigation + designated for this purpose by the + Director) may request any such + information and records if the Director + (or the Director's designee) certifies + in writing to the wire or electronic + communication service provider to which + the request is made that-- + "(1)the information sought is + relevant to an authorized foreign + counterintelligence investigation;and + "(2)there are specific and + articulable facts giving reason to + believe that the person or entity to + whom the information sought pertains is + a foreign power or an agent of a + foreign power as defined in section 101 + of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance + Act of 1978(50 U.S.C. 1801). + "(c) PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN + DISCLOSURE.--No wire or electronic + communication service provider, or + officer, employee, or agent thereof + shall disclose to any person that the + Federal Bureau of Investigation has + sought or obtained access to information + or records under this section. + "(d) DISSEMINATION BY BUREAU.--The + Federal Bureau of Investigation may + disseminate information and records + obtained under this section only as + provided in guidelines approved by the + Attorney General for foreign + intelligence collection and foreign + counterintelligence investigations + conducted by the Federal Bureau of + Investigation, and, with respect to + dissemination to an agency of the United + States, only if such information is + clearly relevant to the authorized + responsibilities of such agency. + "(e) REQUIREMENT THAT CERTAIN + CONGRESSIONAL BODIES BE INFORMED.--On a + semiannual basis the Director of the + Federal Bureau of Investigation shall + fully inform the Permanent Select + Committee + + + + 100 STAT. 1868 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + on Intelligence of the House of + Representatives and the Select Committee + on Intelligence of the Senate concerning + all requests made under subsection (b) of + this section. + +18 USC 2710. "2710. Definitions for chapter + + "As used in this chapter-- + "(1) the terms defined in section + 2510 of this title have, respectively, + the definitions given such terms in that + section; and + "(2) the term 'remote computing + service' means the provision to the + public of computer storage or processing + services by means of an electronic + communications system.". + (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.--The table of + chapters at the beginning of part I of + title 18, United States Code, is amended + by adding at the end of the following: + + "121. Stored Wire and Electronic + Communications and Transactional Records + Access...................2701". + +18 USC 2701 SEC. 202. EFFECTIVE DATE. +note. + This title and the amendments made by + this title shall take effect ninety days + after the date of the enactment of this + Act and shall, in the case of conduct + pursuant to a court order or extension, + apply only with respect to court orders + or extensions made after this title takes + effect. + + TITLE III--PEN REGISTERS AND TRAP AND TRACE DEVICES + + SEC.301. TITLE IS AMENDMENT. + (a) IN GENERAL.--Title 18 of the United + States Code is amended by inserting + after chapter 205 the following new + chapter: + + "CHAPTER 206--PEN REGISTERS AND TRAP AND TRACE DEVICES + + + "Sec. + "3121. General prohibition on pen + register and trap and trace + device use; exception. + "3122. Application for an order for a + pen register or a trap and + trace device. + "3123. Issuance of an order for a pen + register or a trap or trace + device. + "3124. Assistance in installation and + use of a pen register or + a trap and trace device. + "3125. Reports concerning pen registers + and trap and trace devices. + "3126. Definitions for chapter. + +18 USC 3121. "3121. General prohibition on pen + register and trap and trace device use; + exception + + (a) IN GENERAL--Except as provided in + this section, no person may install or + use a pen register or a trap and trace + device without first obtaining a court + order under section 3123 of this title + or under the Foreign Intelligence + Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C.1801 + et seq.). + (b) EXCEPTION.--The prohibition of + subsection (a) does not apply with + respect to the use of a pen register or + a trap and trace device by a provider of + electronic or wire communication + service-- + + + 100 STAT. 1869 PUBLIC LAW 99-508 + + "(1) relating to the operation, + maintenance, and testing of a wire or + electronic communication service or to + the protection of the rights or property + of such provider, or to the protection + of users of that service from abuse of + service or unlawful use of service; or + "(2) to record the fact that a wire + or electronic communication was + initiated or completed in order to + protect such provider, another provider + furnishing service toward the completion + of the wire communication, or a user of + that service, from fraudulent, unlawful + or abusive use4 of service; or (3) where + the consent of the user of that service + has been obtained. + "(c)PENALTY.--Whoever knowingly violates + subsection (a) shall be fined under this + title or imprisoned not more than one + year, or both. + +18 USC 3122. "3122. Application for an order for a pen + register or a trap and trace device + + "(a)APPLICATION.--(1) An attorney for + the Government may make application for + an order or an extension of an order + under section 3123 of this title + authorizing or approving the + installation and use of a pen register + or a trap and trace device under this + chapter, in writing under oath or + equivalent formation, to a court of + competent jurisdiction. +State and local "(2)Unless prohibited by State law, a +governments. State investigative or law enforcement + officer may make application for an + order or an extension of an order under + section 3123 of this title authorizing + or approving the installation and use of + a pen register or a trap and trace + device under this chapter, in writing + under oath or equivalent formation, to + a court of competent jurisdiction of + such State. + "(b)CONTENTS OF APPLICATION.--An + application under subsection (a) of this + section shall include-- + "(1) the identify of the attorney + for the Government or the State law + enforcement or investigative officer + making the application and the identify + of the law enforcement agency conducting + the investigation;and + "(2) a certification by the + applicant that the information likely to + be obtained is relevant to an ongoing + criminal investigation being conducted + by that agency. + + "3123. Issuance of an order for a pen + register or a trap and trace device + + "(a) IN GENERAL--Upon an application + made under section 3122 of this title, + the court shall enter an ex parte order + authorizing the installation and use of + a pen register or a trap and trace + device within the jurisdiction of the + court if the court finds that the + attorney for the Government or the state + law enforcement or investigative officer + has certified to the court that the + information likely to be obtained by + such installation and use is relevant to + an ongoing criminal investigation. + "(b) CONTENTS OF ORDER.--An order issued + under this section-- + "(1) shall specify-- + "(A) the identify, if known, of + the person to whom is leased or in whose + name is listed the telephone line to + which the pen register or trap and trace + device is to be attached; + "(B) the identify, if known, of + the person who is the subject of the + criminal investigation; + + + + 100 STAT. 1870 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + "(C) the number and, if known, + physical location of the telephone line + to which the pen register or trap and + trace device is to be attached and, in + the case of a trap and trace device, the + geographic limits of the trap and trace + order; and + "(D) a statement of the offense + to which the information likely to be + obtained by the pen register or trap and + trace device relates; and + "(2) shall direct, upon the request + of the applicant, the furnishing of + information, facilities, and technical + assistance necessary to accomplish the + installation of the pen register or trap + and trace device under section 3124 of + this title. + "(c) TIME PERIOD AND EXTENSIONS.--(1) An + order issued under this section shall + authorize the installation and use of a + pen register or a trap and trace device + for a period not to exceed sixty days. + "(2) Extensions of such an order may be + granted, but only upon an application + for an order under section 3122 of this + title and upon the judicial finding + required by subsection (a) of this + section. The period of extension shall + be for a period not to exceed sixty + days. + "(d) NONDISCLOSURE OF EXISTENCE OF PEN + REGISTER OR A TRAP AND TRACE DEVICE.--An + order authorizing or approving the + installation and use of a pen register + or a trap and trace device shall direct + that-- + "(1) the order be sealed until + otherwise + ordered by the court; and + "(2) the person owning or leasing + the line to which the pen register or a + trap and trace device is attached, or + who has been ordered by the court to + provide assistance to the applicant, not + disclose the existence of the pen + register or trap and trace device or the + existence of the investigation to the + listed subscriber, or to any other + person, unless or until otherwise + ordered by the court. + +18 USC 3124. "3124. Assistance in installation and + use of a pen register or a trap and + trace device + + "(a) PEN REGISTERS.--Upon the request of + an attorney for the Government or an + officer of a law enforcement agency + authorized to install and use a pen + register under this chapter, a provider + of a wire or electronic communication + service, landlord, custodian, or other + person shall furnish such investigative + or law enforcement officer forthwith all + information, facilities, and technical + assistance necessary to accomplish the + installation of the pen register + intrusively and with a minimum of + interference with the services that the + person so ordered by the court accords + the party with respect to whom the + installation and use is to take place, + if such assistance is directed by a + court order as provided in section + 3123(b)(2) of this title. + "(b) TRAP AND TRACE DEVICE.--Upon the + request of an attorney for the + Government or an officer of a law + enforcement agency authorized to receive + the results of a trap and trace device + under this chapter, a provider of a wire + or electronic communication service, + landlord,, custodian, or other person + shall install such device forthwith on + the appropriate line and shall furnish + such investigative or law enforcement + officer all additional information, + facilities and technical assistance + including installation and operation of + the + + + + 100 STAT. 1871 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + device intrusively and with a minimum + of interference with the services that + the person so ordered by the court + accords the party with respect to whom + the installation and use is to take + place, if such installation and + assistance is directed by a court order + as provided in section 3123(b)(2) of + this title . Unless otherwise ordered + by the court, the results of the trap + and trace device shall be furnished to + the officer of a law enforcement agency, + designated in the court, at reasonable + intervals during regular business hours + for the duration of the order. + "(c) COMPENSATION.--A provider of a wire + or electronic communication service, + landlord, custodian, or other person who + furnishes reasonably compensated for + such reasonable expenses incurred in + "(d) NO CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST A + PROVIDER DISCLOSING INFORMATION UNDER + THIS CHAPTER.--No cause of action shall + lie in any court against any provider of + a wire or electronic communication + service, its officers, employees, + agents, or other specified persons for + providing information, facilities or + assistance in accordance with the terms + of a court order under this chapter + (e)DEFENSE.--A good faith reliance on a + court order, a legislative authorization + or a statutory authorization is a + complete defense against any civil or + criminal action brought under this + chapter or any other law. + +18 USC 3125. "3125. Reports concerning pen registers + and trap and trace devices + + "The Attorney General shall annually + report to Congress on the number of pen + register orders and orders for trap and + trace devices applied for by law + enforcement agencies of the Department + of Justice. + + "3126. Definitions for chapter + + "As used in this chapter-- + "(1) the terms 'wire + communication', electronic + communication', and 'electronic + communication service' have the meanings + set forth for such terms in section 2510 + of this title; + "(2)the term 'court of competent + jurisdiction means-- + (A) a district court of the United + States (including a magistrate of such a + court) or a United States Court of + Appeals; or + (B) a court of general criminal + jurisdiction of a State authorizing the + use of a pen register or a trap and + trace device; + "(3)the term "pen register" means a + device which records or decodes + electronic or other impulses which + identify the numbers dialed or otherwise + transmitted on the telephone line to + which such device is attached, but such + term does not include any device used by + a provider or customer of a wire or + electronic communication service for + billing, or recording as an incident to + billing, for communications services + provided by such provider or any device + used by a provider or customer of a wire + communication service for cost + accounting or other like purposes in the + ordinary course of its business; + + + + 100 STAT. 1872 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + "(4) the term 'trap and trace + device' + means a device which captures the + incoming electronic or other impulses + which identify the originating number of + an instrument or device from which a + wire or electronic communication was + transmitted; + "(5) the term 'attorney for the + Government' has the meaning given such + term for the purposes of the Federal + Rules of Criminal Procedure; and + "(6) the term 'State' means a + State, the district of Columbia, Puerto + Rico, and any other possession or + territory of the United States.". + (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.--The table of + chapters for part II of title 18 of the + United States Code is amended by + inserting after the item relating to + chapter 205 the following new item: + + "206. Pen Registers and Trap and Trace + Devices. ....3121", + +18 USC 3121 SEC.302. EFFECTIVE DATE. +note. + (a)IN GENERAL--Except as provided in + subsection (b), this title and the + amendments made by this title shall take + effect ninety days after the date of the + enactment of this Act and shall, in the + case of conduct pursuant to a court + order or extension, apply only with + respect to court orders or extensions + made after this title takes effect. + (b)SPECIAL RULE FOR STATE AUTHORIZATIONS + OF INTERCEPTIONS.-- + Any pen register or trap and trace + device order or installation which would + be valid and lawful without regard to + the amendments made by this title shall + be valid and lawful notwithstanding such + amendments if such order or installation + occurs during the period beginning on + the date such amendments take effect and + ending on the earlier of-- + (1)the day before the date of the + taking effect of changes in State law + required in order to make orders or + installations under Federal law as + amended by this title; or + (2)the date two years after the + date of the enactment of this Act. + + SEC.303.INTERFERENCE WITH THE OPERATION + OF A SATELLITE. + + (a)OFFENSE--Chapter 65 of the 18, United + States Code, is amended by inserting at + the end of the following: + +18 USC 1367. "1367. Interference with the operation + of a satellite + + "(a) Whoever, without the authority of + the satellite operator, intentionally or + maliciously interferes with the + authorized operation of a communications + or weather satellite or obstructs or + hinders any satellite transmission shall + be fined in accordance with this title + or imprisoned not more than ten years or + both. + "(b) This section does not prohibit any + lawfully authorized investigative, + protective, or intelligence activity of + a law enforcement agency or of an + intelligence agency of the United + States." + + + + 100 STAT. 1873 PUBLIC LAW 99-508--OCT. 21, 1986 + + + (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.--The table of + sections for chapter 65 of title 18, + United States Code, is amended by adding + at the end the following new item: + +"1367. Interference with the operation of a satellite.". + + Approved October 21, 1986. + + +____________________________________________________________ + LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--H.R. 4952 (S. 2575): +___________________________________________ + +HOUSE REPORTS: No. 99-647 (Comm. on the Judiciary). +CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. Vol 132 (1986): + June 23, considered and passed House. + Oct. 1, considered and passed Senate, amended. + Oct. 2, House concurred in Senate amendments. + + + +91-139 O - 87 (526) diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ecpa-lay b/textfiles.com/politics/ecpa-lay new file mode 100644 index 00000000..82882ea2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ecpa-lay @@ -0,0 +1,167 @@ + THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT OF 1986 + + A LAYMAN'S VIEW + + by + Michael H. Riddle + + +(Copyright 1988, Michael H. Riddle. This article may be further reproduced +and disseminated provided that no fees are charged beyond normal +reproduction costs and further provided that the following disclaimer is +included.) + +DISCLAIMER: The author is not an lawyer. This article represents one +layman's views of the background and contents of PL 99-508, the Electronic +Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Anyone needing legal advice should +consult with the attorney of their choice. + + +Those of us who remember life before the Pepsi Generation can attest to the +change brought into our lives by advances in electronic technology. +Starting with the widespread use of the transistor, and continuing into the +integrated circuit, the large scale integrated circuit, the very large +scale integrated circuit, etc., electronic "miracles" have become +commonplace and cheap. Perhaps the single best illustration of that change +is in the field of "information technology." The advent of the personal +computer, the blurring of the lines between telecommunications and +computing, the breakup of the Bell system, and the growing technological +awareness of the general population have caused what can only be called a +revolution in the way we communicate with each other. Not too many years +ago, we learned of world events from newspapers--today from television and +radio. Not too many years ago we exchanged personal messages by mail--today +we telephone. Not too many years ago, businesses in a hurry would send mail +special delivery--today they use overnight express or facsimile. And, +increasingly, businesses and individuals use computer communications instead +of or in addition to these other means of passing information around our +society. + +Anytime someone passes what they hope to be a private communication to +another, they expect that their fellow citizens will respect its privacy. +Not only do the customs of society enforce this expectation, statute laws +have been enacted to insure it. Thus, everyone knows, or should know, not +to tamper with the mail. Everyone knows, or should know, not to +electronically eavesdrop ("bug") someone else's telephone calls. And +everyone knows, or should know, not to do likewise with computer +communications. + +Alas, not everyone knows that. If everyone did, we wouldn't need laws to +protect what ought to be our reasonable expectations of privacy. Not too +long ago, the Congress of the United States passed PL 99-508, the Electronic +Communications Privacy Act of 1986. In doing so, Congress was recognizing +the way technology has changed society and trying to react to that change. + +The Act contains two main parts, or Titles. Title I--Interception of +Communications and Related Matters, merely updates existing laws to reflect +what I've said above. Where the law used to say you can't bug private +telephone communications, it now says you can't bug private computer +communications. Where it preserved your right to listen in to public radio +transmissions, it preserves your right to "listen in" to public computerized +transmissions (here the Congress particularly was thinking of unencrypted +satellite television, although the law is written in more general terms). +It allows the "provider of electronic communication service" (sysops, to +electronic bulletin board users) to keep records of who called and when, to +protect themselves from the fraudulent, unlawful or abusive use of such +service. + +Title II--Stored Wire and Electronic Communications and Transactional +Records Access, is the section that has caused the biggest concern among +bulletin board system operators and users. Unfortunately, while a lot of +well-intentioned people knew that a law had been passed, most of them +started discussing it without taking the trouble to read it first. As a +result, there has been a lot of misinformation about what it says, and a lot +of reaction and overreaction that was unnecessary. + +The first thing we need to realize is that Title II adds a new chapter to +Title 18 of the United States Code (USC). The USC fills most of two shelves +in the Omaha library. It covers in general detail virtually everything the +federal government does. In many places it gives departments and agencies +to pass rules and regulations that have the force of law. If it didn't, +instead of filling two shelves it would probably fill two floors, and +Congress would be so bogged down in detail work it would get even less done +that it does now. Of all the USC, Title 18 deals with Crimes and Criminal +Procedure. That's where PL 99-508 talks about electronic communications. +It makes certain acts federal crimes. Equally important, it protects +certain common-sense rights of sysops. + +Under the Act, it is now a federal offense to access a system without +authorization. That's right. Using your "war-games dialer," you find a +modem tone on a number you didn't know about before and try to log on. From +the way I read the law, you can try to log on without penalty. After all, +you might not have used a war-games dialer. You might just have got a wrong +number. (Don't laugh, it's happened to me right here in Omaha!) At the +point you realize its not the board you think you called, you ought to hang +up, because at the point where you gain access to that neat, new, unknown +system, you've just violated 18 USC 2701. + +A lot of us are users of systems with "levels" of access. In the BBS world, +levels may distinguish between old and new users, between club members and +non-members, or sysops from users. In the corporate and government world, +levels may protect different types of proprietary information or trade +secrets. Section 2701 also makes it a federal offense to exceed your +authorized access on a system. + +What about electronic mail, or "e-mail?" E-Mail has been the single biggest +area of misinformation about the new law. First, section 2701 does make it +a federal offense to read someone else's electronic mail. That would be +exceeding your authorization, since "private" e-mail systems do not intend +for anyone other than the sender or receiver to see that mail. But, and a +big but, sysops are excluded. Whoever staffed the bill for Congress +realized that system operators were going to have access to information +stored on their systems. There are practical technical reasons for this, +but there are also practical legal reasons. While the Act does not directly +address the liability of sysops for the use of their systems in illegal +acts, it recognizes they might have some liability, and so allows them to +protect themselves from illegal use. Sysops are given a special +responsibility to go along with this special privilege. Just like a letter +carrier can't give your mail to someone else, just like a telegraph operator +can't pass your telegram to someone else, just like a telephone operator +overhearing your call can't tell someone else what it was about, so sysops +are prohibited from disclosing your e-mail traffic to anyone, unless you (or +the other party to the traffic) give them permission. + +Common sense, right. So far all I think we've seen is that the law has +changed to recognize changes in technology. But then, what about the +police? If they can legally bug phones with a court order, if they can +legally subpoena telephone records, what can they do with bulletin boards? +Pretty much the same things. The remaining sections of the Act go into +great detail about what the police can do and how they can do it. The +detail is too much to get into in this article, and I would suggest that if +a sysop or user ever needed to know this information, that would be a case +when they ought to be seeing their attorney. I will give a couple of +details, however: if a sysop is served, they can be required to make a +backup copy of whatever information is on their system (limited, of course, +to that listed in the warrant or subpoena). They must do this without +telling the persons under investigation. They do not at this point, +generally, give the police the records. They just tell the police that its +been done. Then, the courts notify the user that this information has been +requested and the user has a chance to challenge it. Eventually, after it +all gets sorted out, the information goes to the police or is destroyed, +whichever. Again, if a sysop or user ever finds themselves in this +situation, don't rely on this article--see your lawyer. And, see him/her +soon, because the Act imposes time limits. + +If the Act makes all of this stuff federal crimes, what penalties does it +establish? Again, generally, there are two cases. The first is the one +most BBS operators and users will be concerned with. "A fine of not more +than $5,000 or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both." +Actually, in the law, that's the second case. The first is where businesses +were conducting industrial espionage--"for purposes of commercial advantage, +malicious destruction or damage, or private commercial gain." In this case, +"a fine of not more that $250,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, +or both, in the case of a first offense," and "a fine or imprisonment for not +more that two years, or both, for a subsequent offense." + +What all this has said is that the federal criminal code now protects +electronic communications the way it previously protected written ones. It +understands that mailmen, physical or electronic, have access to the mail +they carry, so it tells them not to tell. It sets up some hefty penalties +for those who don't take privacy seriously enough. And finally, it sets up +procedures for the contents of bulletin board and other electronic systems +to be sought for official investigation. This is, of course, one layman's +opinion. As long as the reader doesn't have criminal intent or hasn't been +served with some type of request for system records, it's probably adequate. +If, however, the reader finds him/herself confronting the law "up close and +personal," then this article should be noted for one and only one piece of +advice: see a lawyer, and soon! + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/educ.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/educ.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9928b1ac --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/educ.txt @@ -0,0 +1,300 @@ +***** Reformated. Please distribute. + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON EDUCATION + + + +Government fails when our schools fail. For four +years we've heard a lot of talk about the Education +President but we've seen little government action +to invest in the collective talents of our people. +It's time for a change. + +Millions of our children go to school unprepared to +learn. The Republicans in Washington have promised +but never delivered full funding for Head Start, a +proven success that gives disadvantaged children +the opportunity to get ahead. And while states +move forward with innovative ideas to bring parents +and children together, Washington fails to insist +on responsibility from parents, teachers, students +or from itself. + +Putting people first demands a revolution in +lifetime learning because education today is more +than the key to climbing the ladder of economic +opportunity; it is an imperative for our nation. +Bill Clinton and Al Gore will invest in our people +at every stage of their lives. They will put +people first by dramatically improving the way +parents prepare their children for school, giving +students the chance to train for jobs or pay for +college, and providing workers with the training +and retraining they need to compete and win in +tomorrow's economy. + +Parents and children together + +* Inspire parents to take responsibility and + empower them with the knowledge they need to + help their children enter school ready to + learn; help disadvantaged parents work with + their children to build an ethic of learning + at home that benefits both. + +* Fully fund programs that save us several + dollars for every one spent -- Head Start, the + Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program and + other critical initiatives recommended by the + National Commission on Children. + +Establishing tough standards + +* Work with educators, parents, business leaders + and public officials to create a set of + National Standards for what students should + know. + +* Create a National Examination System to + measure our students' and schools' progress in + meeting the National Standards. + +* Achieve the 1989 Education Summit's "National + Education Goals" by the year 2000: every child + should begin school physically and mentally + ready to learn; our high school graduation + rate should rise from 71 percent to 90 + percent, the current international standard; + and students should be knowledgeable in math, + science, language, history and geography when + they graduate high school. + +Reforming our schools + +* Reduce the education gap between rich and poor + students by increasing Chapter One funding for + low-income students and giving schools greater + flexibility to spend money in ways they think + most effective, such as reducing class sizes + in early grades. + +* Grant expanded decision-making powers at the + school level -- empowering principals, + teachers and parents with increased + flexibility in educating our children. + +* Support better incentives to hire and keep + good teachers, including alternative + certification for those who want to take up + teaching as a second career and differential + pay to attract and retain educators in + shortage areas like math and science, in urban + schools, and in isolated or rural areas. + +* Help states develop public school choice + programs like Arkansas' with protection from + discrimination based on race, religion or + income. + +* Promote bilingual education programs that + teach substantive subjects in a child's native + language while at the same time teaching + English. Such efforts improve English fluency + and recognize the value of a child's native + language and culture. + +Making our schools safe again + +* Get drugs out of our schools: work with states + and local communities to bring parents, + educators, students, law enforcement personnel + and community service workers together to + provide comprehensive drug education, + prevention, intervention and treatment + programs. + +* Support a Safe Schools Initiative, which will + provide funds for violence-ridden schools to + hire security personnel and purchase metal + detectors, and help cities and states use + community policing to put more police officers + on the streets in high-crime areas where + schools are located. + + +Alternative and continuing education programs + +* Help communities open centers that give + dropouts a second chance through a Youth + Opportunity Corps. Teenagers will be matched + with adults who care about them and who will + help them develop self-discipline and valuable + skills. + +* Bring business, labor and education leaders + together to develop a national apprenticeship + program that offers non college-bound students + valuable skills training, with the promise of + good jobs when they graduate. + +* Maintain the Pell Grant program but scrap the + existing student loan program and establish a + National Service Trust Fund to guarantee every + American who wants a college education the + means to obtain one. Those who borrow from + the fund will pay it back either as a small + percentage of their income over time, or + through community service as teachers, law + enforcement officers, health care workers, or + peer counselors helping kids stay off drugs an + in school. + +* Invest in worker retraining programs that + require employers to spend 1.5 percent of + payroll for continuing education and training + for all workers, not just executives. + +Preparing children for school + +* Governor Clinton established the first + statewide Home Instructional Program for + Pre-School Youngsters. HIPPY helps + disadvantaged parents work with their children + to build an ethic of learning at home that + benefits both parent and child. + +* Introduced programs to provide low-income + women with access to comprehensive maternity + and infant care. Arkansas infant mortality + rate has dropped almost 50% since 1978. + +* Initiated the Better Chance Program, which + provides $5 million this fiscal year and $10 + million the next for early childhood programs + for at-risk children ages 3-5. + +* Senator Gore supported expanded full funding + for Head Start and other successful pre-school + programs. + +Reforming the schools + +* Clinton set higher standards for all Arkansas + schools: they must provide intensive + instruction in basic skills, offer a much + broader range of advanced courses, strictly + limit class size, and regularly test student + performance. + +* Directed the state to issue a yearly report + card on the schools. + +* Permitted parents to choose the public schools + their children attend as long as an acceptable + racial balance is maintained. + +* Provided a $4,000 average salary increase for + Arkansas teachers in 1991-- the highest + percentage increase in the nation that year. + +* Senator Gore voted for the Neighborhood + Schools Improvement Act, which provides + assistance to school based management efforts, + increases parental involvement, improves + teacher training and aids dropout prevention. + +* Supported innovative programs for + disadvantaged children, including expanded + Chapter One and Two funding and the Star + Schools program. + +Demanding responsibility + +* Governor Clinton required eighth graders to + pass an exam to go to high school. + +* Required teachers to take a basic competency + test to keep their jobs. + +* Revoked drivers licenses of students who drop + out of school for no good reason. + +* Authorized fines for parents who refuse to + attend a parent-teacher conference or allow + their children to be chronically truant. + +* Senator Gore supported legislation to create + National and Community Service programs. + +Getting results + +* Governor Clinton improved Arkansas math and + reading test scores. Between 1981 and 1991, + the average state percentile rank for 4th + grade students rose from the 46th to the 61st + percentile in reading and from the 44th to the + 69th percentile in math. + +* Helped Arkansas achieve the highest + high-school graduation rate in the region. + +* Increased the percentage of Arkansas seniors + attending colleges by 34 percent from 1982 to + 1991. + +Creating opportunity for all + +* With help from business, Governor Clinton + created a Youth Apprenticeship program to + motivate non college-bound students to stay in + school and do well. + +* Created Arkansas Academic Challenge + Scholarships to provide college scholarships + to middle income and poor students who achieve + 2.5 GPAs in high school taking the college + core curriculum, score 19 on the ACT, and stay + off drugs. + +* Established a college bond program allowing + parents to buy short- or long-term college + bonds, not taxed in Arkansas, to help finance + their childrens college education. + +* Helped develop the Arkansas Industrial + Training Program, which provides customized + training to potential workers at new plants, + expanding companies, or companies which are + upgrading technologically. + +* Established the Governors Dislocated Worker + Task Force, which identifies possible plant + closings and layoffs, develops an appropriate + plan, and offers retraining, placement, and + other supportive services. + +* Senator Gore voted for Higher Education Act + amendments to expand the Pell grant program. + +* Supported vocational education training + efforts that go beyond high school. + +* Wrote the Information Infrastructure and + Technology Act of 1992 to more quickly move + the new technologies developed under the High + Performance Computing Act into schools, + hospitals and businesses to improve education, + expand health care and provide jobs. + +* Introduced and steered into law the High + Performance Computing Act of 1990 to create a + national high-speed computer network linking + schools, research centers, and universities to + the nation's most powerful computers, and + making those computers accessible to people + who otherwise would not be able to take + advantage of their power and speed. It was + the result of more than a dozen years of work + by Gore. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/educate b/textfiles.com/politics/educate new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e377fdca --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/educate @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ + + + + + Chapter 15 + + EDUCATION AND GROWING UP + + The Chinese royalty used a disciplinary technique that would + straighten out any modern kid. A prince would be raised along with + another child. If the prince misbehaved, it was the other child, + not the prince who was punished. A child might be willing to risk + a spanking for outrageous behavior, but even a young kid would + feel some guilt if his spanking was administered to another kid. + + "Whether a school has or has not a special method for + teaching long division is of on significance, for long division is + of no importance except to those who want to learn it. And the + child who wants to learn long division will learn it no matter how + it is taught." - A. S. Neill + + The famous philosopher, Socrates, was illiterate. Of course, + this is no excuse for modern kids to drop out of school, unless + you want to be a philosopher when you grow up. + + Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Thomas Edison and Andrew + Carnegie never made it through grade school. + + Thomas Edison's total school education consisted of three + months. + + When Martin J. Spalding was fourteen years old, he was + appointed professor of mathematics at St. Mary's College in + Kentucky. + + At the age of ten, Francois Auguste de Thou was appointed + Chief Librarian of France. + + Sweden once had a supreme court justice who was nineteen + years old. When he was ten, he could speak fluently in 12 + languages. + + Law professor Ericus Aurivillius at the University of + Uppsala, Sweden held lectures for eighteen years, even though only + one student ever showed up in all that time. + + Braille was invented by Louis Braille in 1824. He was + fifteen years old at the time and blind since he was three years + old. + + The United States spends $353 billion for education every + year. That's $1,452 from every man, woman and child in America. + + And here's what we get for our money: + + Over two thousand random American adults were surveyed about + their understanding of science. 21 percent thought the sun + revolves around the earth, and 7 percent were unsure whether the + sun goes around the earth, or if it is the other way around. + + The National Science Foundation conducted a study and found + that only 33 percent of Americans know what a molecule is. + + Every year 700,000 students graduate, but when tested, they + cannot read as well as fourth-graders are supposed to. + + Three out of every ten American kids drop out of school + before graduating. + + It is tempting for American kids to drop out of school. Who + would want to finish school if their plans are only to build race + cars or marry somebody rich? But sometimes plans don't work out + the way you expected. More importantly, in the United States, + school is free, supported by taxpayers. It's free!! You might as + well take as much as you can get. + + In parts of the state of Mississippi, 44 percent of the adult + population is illiterate. + + In a recent Gallop survey, Americans were asked to identify + America on an unmarked world map. 14 percent couldn't do it. + + According to the Oregon Department of Education: "...For + every 100 pupils in the 5th grade... 99 enter 9th grade 88 enter + 11th grade 76 graduate from high school 47 go on to college 24 + earn a bachelor's degree" + + World wide, the figures are like this: For every 100 people, + 30 are literate, 1 goes to college. + + In Gujarat, India, school supplies are in short supply. The + kids write on their thighs with sharp wooden splinters. The marks + are good for about 12 hours before they fade away. + + There are 800,000 American children currently on Ritalin. + That is approximately one out of 125 kids. This drug is + prescribed to slow down "hyperactivity." Many doctors currently + think hyperactivity is normal in some children and they should not + be routinely treated with drugs. With other children, it has been + discovered that by eliminating refined sugar and artificial + chemicals from their diets, their behavior becomes much more + acceptable. + + Seventy-five percent of parents never visit their kids + school. + + There are 35 million step-parents in America. + + At graduation a child has logged 13,000 hours of school, and + 15,000 hours of television. + + Television sets outnumber bathtubs in America. + + If you paid $1 for every murder a child has watched on TV + until the age of 18, that child would have $15,000. + + 13,500 kids take guns to school everyday. + + Every day, 200 teachers are physically attacked by their + students. + + Of the 156 women who are college presidents, 105 are nuns. + + Approximately 66 percent of average prisoners end up in + prison again after release. In San Quentin prison where they + teach some of the prisoners computer programming, less than six + percent return to prison. + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/eff-hist b/textfiles.com/politics/eff-hist new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c9a93d35 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/eff-hist @@ -0,0 +1,565 @@ + + +A Not Terribly Brief History +of the Electronic Frontier Foundation + +by John Perry Barlow + +Thursday, November 8, 1990 + + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation was started by a visit from the FBI. + +In late April of 1990, I got a call from Special Agent Richard Baxter of the +Federal Bureau of Investigation. He asked if he could come by the next +day and discuss a certain investigation with me. His unwillingness to +discuss its nature over the phone left me with a sense of global guilt, but I +figured turning him down would probably send the wrong signal. + +On Mayday, he drove to Pinedale, Wyoming, a cow town 100 miles north +of his Rock Springs office (where he ordinarily investigates livestock theft +and other regional crimes). He brought with him a thick stack of +documents from the San Francisco office and a profound confusion about +their contents. + +He had been sent to find out if I might be a member of the NuPrometheus +League, a dread band of info-terrorists (or maybe just a disaffected former +Apple employee) who had stolen and wantonly distributed source code +normally used in the Macintosh ROMs. Agent Baxter's errand was +complicated by a fairly complete unfamiliarity with computer technology. +I realized right away that before I could demonstrate my innocence, I +would first have to explain to him what guilt might be. + +The three hours I passed doing this were surreal for both of us. Whatever +this source code stuff was, and whatever it was that happened to it, had +none of the cozy familiarity of a few yearling steers headed across the +Wyoming border in the wrong stock truck. + +What little he did know, thanks to the San Francisco office, was also pretty +well out of kilter. He had been told, for example, that Autodesk, the +publisher of AutoCAD, was a major Star Wars defense contractor and that +its CEO was none other than John Draper, the infamous phone phreak +also known as Cap'n Crunch. As soon as I quit laughing, I started to +worry. + +I realized in the course of this interview that I was seeing, in microcosm, +the entire law enforcement structure of the United States. Agent Baxter +was hardly alone in his puzzlement about the legal, technical, and +metaphorical nature of datacrime. + +I also found in his struggles a framework for understanding a series of +recent Secret Service raids on some young hackers I'd met in a Harper's +magazine forum on computers and freedom. And it occurred to me that +this might be the beginning of a great paroxysm of governmental +confusion during which everyone's liberties would become at risk. + +When Agent Baxter had gone, I wrote an account of his visit and placed it +on the WELL, a computer BBS in Sausalito which is digital home to a +large collection of technically hip folks, including Mitch Kapor, the father +of Lotus 1-2-3. + +Turns out Mitch had also been visited by the FBI, owing to his having +unaccountably received of one of the source code disks which +NuPrometheus scattered around. Mitch's experience had been as +dreamlike as mine. He had, in fact, filed the whole thing under General +Inexplicability until he read my tale on the WELL. Now he had enough +corroboration for his own strange sense of alarm to begin acting on it. + +Several days later, he found his bizjet about to fly over Wyoming on its +way to San Francisco. He called me from somewhere over South Dakota +and asked if he might literally drop in for a chat about Agent Baxter and +related matters. + +So, while a late spring snow storm swirled outside my office, we spent +several hours hatching what became the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I +told him about the sweep of Secret Service raids which had taken place +several months before and their apparent disregard for the Bill of Rights. + +Alarmed, he gave me the phone number of Harvey Silverglate, whose +willingness to champion unpopular causes was demonstrated by his +current defense of Leona Helmsley. He said that Harvey would probably +know if this were as bad as it was starting to sound. He also said that he +would be willing to pay the bills that generally start to appear whenever +you call a lawyer. + +I finally found Harvey in the New York offices of Rabinowitz, Boudin, +Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman, a firm whose long list of successfully +defended liberties includes the Pentagon Papers case. I told him and Eric +Lieberman what I knew about recent government flailings against +cybercrime. They were even less sanguine than I had been. + +The next day a trio code-named Acid Phreak, Phiber Optik, and Scorpion +entered the walnut-panelled chambers of Rabinowitz, Boudin and told +their tales to a young lawyer there named Terry Gross. While EFF as a +formal organization would not exist for another two months, its legal arm +was already flexing its muscle. + +A few days later I received a phone call from the technology writer for the +Washington Post. He was interested in following up on the Harper's +forum, and knew nothing of Mitch's and my joint endeavors. I filled him +in, hoping to expose the Secret Service. Several days later, the Post +published the first of many newspaper stories, all of which could have +shared the same headline: LOTUS FOUNDER DEFENDS HACKERS. + +While this was an irritating misrepresentation...we were more interested +in defending the Constitution than any digital miscreants...the publicity +produced a couple of major supporters: Steve Wozniak, who called and +offered an unlimited match to Mitch's contributions, and John Gilmore +(Sun Microsystems employee #5) who e-mailed me a six figure offer of +support. + +Meanwhile, the list of apparent outrages lengthened. We learned about +an Austin role-playing games publisher named Steve Jackson whose office +equipment had been confiscated by the Secret Service in an apparent effort +to restrain his publication of a game called Cyberpunk which they thought, +with ludicrous inaccuracy, to be " a handbook for computer crime. + +All over the country computer bulletins being confiscated, undelivered e- +mail and all. A Secret Service dragnet called Operation Sundevil seized +more than 40 computers and 23,000 data disks from teenagers in 14 +American cities, using levels of force and terror which would have been +more appropriate to the apprehension of urban guerrillas than barely post- +pubescent computer nerds. + +And there was the Craig Neidorf case. Neidorf, also known by the nom de +crack Knight Lightning, had published an internal BellSouth document in +his electronic magazine Phrack. For this constitutionally protected act, +Neidorf was being charged with interstate transport of stolen property +with a possible sentence of 60 years in jail and a $122,000 in fines. + +I wrote a piece about these events called Crime & Puzzlement. Although I +did so at the request of the Whole Earth Review...it made its first print +appearance in the Fall 1990 issue of WER...I " published" it on the Net in +June and was astonished by the response. It was like planting a fence-post +and discovering that the " ground" into which you've driven it is actually +the back of a giant animal which quivers and heaves at the irritation. + +By July, I was receiving up to 100 e-mail messages a day. They came from +all over the planet and expressed nearly universal indignation. I began to +experience datashock, but I also realized that Mitch and I were not alone in +our concerns. We had struck a chord. + +In Cambridge, Mitch was having something like the same experience. +Since the Washington Post story, he found himself bathed in media glare. +However, the more he learned about ambiguous nature of law in +Cyberspace, the more of his considerable intellectual and financial +resources he became willing to devote to the subject. + +In late June, Mitch and I threw several dinners in San Francisco, to which +we invited major figures from the computer industry. We weren't +surprised to learn than many of them had exploits in their past which, +undertaken today, would arouse plenty of Secret Service interest. It +appeared possible that one side-effect of current government practices +might be the elimination of the next generation of computer +entrepreneurs and digital designers. + +It also became clear that we were dealing with a set of problems which was +a great deal more complex and far-reaching than a few cases of +governmental confusion. The actions of the FBI and Secret Service were +symptoms of a growing social crisis: Future Shock. America was entering +the Information Age with neither laws nor metaphors for the appropriate +protection and conveyance of information itself. + +We realized that our legal actions on behalf of a few teen-age crackers +would go on indefinitely without much result unless something were +done to ease social tensions along the electronic frontier. The real task at +hand was the civilization of Cyberspace. Such an undertaking would +require more juice and stamina than two men could muster, even +amplified by the Net and a solid financial supply. We would need some +kind of organizational identity. + +With this in mind, we hired a press coordinator, Cathy Cook (who had +formerly done PR for Steve Jobs), set a squad of lawyers to work on +investigating the proper organizational tax status, and, over a San +Francisco dinner with Stewart Brand, Nat Goldhaber, Jaron Lanier, and +Chuck Blanchard, we selected a name and defined a mission. + +We announced the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the +National Press Club on July 10. Mitch and I were joined for the +announcement by Harvey Silverglate, Terry Gross, and Steve Jackson. + +We were also joined by Marc Rotenberg of the Washington office of +Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. One of our first official +acts had been to grant that organization $275,000 for a project on +computing and civil liberties. CPSR would keep a wary eye on +developments " inside the Beltway" and work in conjunction with +congressional staffers to see that any legislation dealing with access to +information was sensibly drafted. + +While in Washington, we also took inventory of the terrain, meeting +with congressional staffers, the Washington civil liberties establishment, +and officials from the Library of Congress and the White House. The area +to be covered, from intellectual property to telecommunications policy to +law enforcement technique, was daunting, as were the ambient levels of +confusion and indifference. + +We also generated an enormous amount of press. And it became apparent +that not everyone was persuaded of our cause. Business Week called Mitch +naive for his willingness to believe that computer crackers were somehow +less dangerous that drug kingpins. Various burghers of the computer +establishment, ranging from the executive director of the Software +Publishers Association to a columnist for ComputerWorld, called us fools +at best and, more likely, dangerous fools. + +The Wall Street Journal printed a particularly hysterical piece which alleged +that the document Craig Neidorf (into whose case we had entered a +supporting amicus brief) had published was a computer virus capable of +bringing down the emergency phone system for the entire country. In fact, +the text file which Neidorf distributed dealt with the bureaucratic +procedures of 911 administration in the BellSouth region and contained +nothing which could be used to crack a system. Indeed, it contained +nothing which could not be easily obtained through by legal means. + +We persevered. Our first major break came in late July. Thanks in part to +the expertise of John Nagel, a witness we introduced to Neidorf's lawyer, +the government was forced to abandon its case against Neidorf after 4 days +in Chicago's Federal Court. + +Although our briefs supporting Neidorf's activities under the 1st +Amendment were not admitted, it became apparent, before such loftier +matters could even be broached, that the Secret Service had indicted him +with no clear understanding of the purpose or availability of the +document he had distributed. Like Agent Baxter, they knew too little to +critically examine the misinformation they had been given by the +corporate masters, in this case, officials at Bellcore. + +Following the resolution of the Neidorf case, and, to some extent because +of it, skepticism of EFF has moderated considerably. If anything, the most +recent press accounts of our activities have been almost fulsome in their +praise. Recent favorable coverage has appeared in the New York Times, +The Economist, Infoworld, Information Week, PCweek, and Boston +Magazine. + +Since July, we have been absurdly busy on numerous fronts: We've +worked on raising public awareness of the issues at stake. We are +organizing legal responses to the original and continuing intemperance of +law enforcement. We have worked on the political front, developing and +lobbying for rational computer security legislation. We have started to +create a network of interested experts on computer security, intellectual +property, telecommunications policy, and international information +rights. And lately we've been attending to the organizational demands of +the non-profit equivalent of a hyper-successful computer startup. + +The following is a cursory digest of these activities. + + +The EFF in Public + +We believe that critical to taming the electronic frontier is creating a sense +of the stakes among both the computer literate and the general public. We +have combined public appearances, that incredibly blunt instrument, the +Media, and electronic interaction to cover a lot of consciousness since July. +It's a good thing Mitch has that airplane. + +We have continued to build a constituency within the computing +community, convening small gatherings of computer professionals from +across the hacker/suit spectrum. Mitch, Harvey, and I have also addressed +larger forums such as the CPSR Annual Meeting, the International +Information Integrity Institute meeting on computer security, the +Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National +Academy of Science and Engineering, Stewart Alsop's Agenda '91, +MacHack, the Boston Computer Society, Ars Electronica, the Kennedy +School of Government, and numerous others. + +We have done more press interviews and call-in radio shows than I can +remember. Woz appeared on Good Morning America with Assistant +Arizona AG (and Operation Sundevil architect) Gail Thackeray. EFF has +appeared prominently in national publications ranging from Newsweek to +Spin, most of the major daily newspapers, and nearly every computer trade +publication from Information Week to Mondo 2000. A writer for The New +York Times Magazine is currently at work on a major piece about EFF. + +I have agreed to write a regular column on the Electronic Frontier for the +Communications of the ACM. And Mitch and I have been invited to +submit pieces to Scientific American, Issues in Science and Technology, and +Whole Earth Review. + +We set up two Usenet newsgroups, comp.org.eff.news and +comp.org.eff.talk. eff.news is moderated by Glenn Tenney and contains a +selection of the best articles posted in eff.talk. We began an EFF forum on +the WELL (which soon became among the most active conferences there, +right behind Sex and the Grateful Dead). We are setting up our own +USENET node on the Net, eff.org, with a Sun IV in our Cambridge office +and the guidance of volunteer sysop Spike Ilacqua. When fully +operational, the machine will run the Caucus conferencing system and +should have a 56kb Internet connection. Finally, we are investigating the +possibility of setting up an EFF conference on Compuserve. + +We have read and personally generated over 4 megabytes of e-mail since +June. Lately, Jef Poskanzer has been maintaining the EFF's electronic +mailing list, which is now approaching 1000 names. Information +distributed through eff.news is also sent to the mailing list. + +Concerned that our approach is a little too electronic, we are now trying to +connect more directly with folks who might be interested in EFF but who +are not online. Our newsletter, the first edition of which you now have in +your hands, is part of that effort. Primarily the work of Rick Doherty and +Dan Sokol, we intend to publish The EFFector a minimum of 4 times a +year. + +Finally, we are working with Jim Warren and a variety of groups to +organize a major international conference on Communications, Privacy, +and Freedom to be held in San Francisco in March of 1991. This gathering +is being designed to include citizens who are not technologically +sophisticated. + + +Legal Issues + +In the beginning, we had thought that most of our activities would either +take place in court or on the way there. While this hasn't quite been the +case, legal matters still require much of our time and by far the lion's share +of our expenditures. + +Since the Neidorf case, most of our legal activity has been, of necessity, +low-profile. It is not strategically sound to announce lawsuits well in +advance of filing them, and, while there remains a lot of dubiously +confiscated equipment in constabulary storage, we are not going to +jeopardize our ends by telegraphing their means. We are currently +preparing cases on a variety of fronts, proceeding at the deliberate pace +characteristic of both geology and the law. + +We remain primarily interested in those cases in which constitutional +issues are at stake. We are investigating incidents in which the First +Amendment rights of computer users may have been abridged, where +searches and seizures appear to have exceeded the authority of the Fourth +Amendment, where the government seems to have violated the +Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and where warrants have been +issued with insufficient cause. There is no shortage of legal opportunities +here. The problem is picking the best ones. + +We are still working with two law firms, Silverglate and Good of Boston +and Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky, and Lieberman of New York. +We also have dealings with Katten, Muchin & Zavis, the Chicago firm of +Craig Neidorf's attorney, Sheldon Zenner, and are considering offers of pro +bono assistance from a number of other firms around the country. + +We recently hired Mike Godwin, a freshly minted Texas lawyer and +USENET adept, to sort through the factual and legal details of the many +cases we are being asked to intervene in. In his short time with us, he has +investigated several cases to determine their fit with EFF's constitutional +mission, their winnability, and their likelihood of producing clear legal +precedent. + +We have a conference call of the EFF Legal Committee every other +Wednesday to discuss the current state of our cases and any new +possibilities we might wish to take on. The Legal Committee includes +Mitch, Mike Godwin, Harvey Silverglate, Sharon Beckman (of Silverglate +& Good), Terry Gross (of Rabinowitz, Boudin), and myself. We also have +a private conference on the WELL to distribute briefs, documents, and +other legal information among the members of the committee. + +Mike Godwin is also EFF's liaison with a committee of the American Bar +Association which is investigating government actions in Operation +Sundevil. Chaired by Judge William McMahon of Ohio, the committee is +devising ABA guidelines for computer searches and seizures. EFF will +have an important role in establishing the committee's recommendations. + + +The Art of the Possible + +Despite the patience it requires, the political process offers many +opportunities to pursue EFF's agenda. We have been working on two +different fronts to promote government rationality toward computer use, +in Washington, where we are working closely with the CPSR Civil +Liberties and Computing Project which we funded, and in Massachusetts +where we have been successful in developing model legislation. + +CPSR, through the able efforts of Marc Rotenberg, has filed a lawsuit in +federal district court in the District of Columbia to obtain information +from the FBI about the monitoring of computer bulletin boards. This +follows similar efforts which forced the Treasury Department to admit +that the Secret Service was in fact monitoring BBS's. + +Marc also testified before the Subcommittee on Technology and Law of the +Senate Judiciary Committee on S. 2476, the Computer Abuse +Amendments Act of 1990. CPSR supported the proposed addition of a +recklessness misdemeanor provision, calling attention to problems +surrounding Operation Sun Devil and the civil liberties issues raised by +the investigation of computer crime. The testimony was well received +and widely reported in the press, but Congress adjourned before passing +the amendments. + +In Massachusetts, we headed off a misguided computer crime bill which +had made it all the way to the desk of Governor Dukakis. Not only did we +persuade the Governor not to sign it, we organized an effort to rewrite the +bill for re-submission to the Massachusetts Legislature. + +Sharon Beckman of Silverglate and Good drafted much of the new +legislation, which, if it passes, will serve as a model law for other states to +emulate. The new bill draws a clear distinction between computer trespass +and actual malice, proposing appropriate penalties for each. It also +instructs law enforcement agencies to be aware of the constitutional issues +involved in the investigation of computer crime. + + +Intellectual Property + +This phrase has always sounded like an oxymoron to me. " Property" +seems to imply something more tangible than the mysterious stuff to +which the term applies, and it is from this ambiguity that arises much of +the difficulty along the electronic frontier. Just as limited bandwidth was +the excuse for applying censorship to broadcast media, it appears that the +zealous protection of intellectual property presents the greatest threat to +free digital expression. + +For this reason, the definition and regulation of intellectual property is a +matter of great concern to EFF. However, we recognize that the +established canon of copyright and patent law is so fundamentally +inadequate to the demands of the Information Age that any effort to made +a significant difference in this area could consume all of EFF's resources. + +Nevertheless, both Mitch and I intend to devote a lot of our personal time +to this issue. Mitch is especially well situated to make a difference. As the +author of the most successful (as well the most pirated) piece of software +in history, he has an important and credible voice amid the babble of +obsolete legalisms which surrounds the discussion of intellectual property. + +Marc Rotenberg is also working in this area. He attended the first meeting +of the Office of Technology Assessment panel on intellectual property. +Marc recommended that the OTA give careful consideration to the public +interest issues that might be raised by various forms of intellectual +property protection. The OTA has agreed to host a workshop on this topic +and has asked CPSR to prepare a short report. + + +Designing the Future Net + +Sometimes it seems as if all of humanity is engaged in a Great +Work...which I imagine to be the hard-wiring of human consciousness. It +is as if we must literally connect ourselves electronically before we can +appreciate the connections which have always existed. + +As exalted as such an undertaking might sound, the actual wiring process +is as tedious as any endeavor I can imagine. In addition to building hard +infrastructure...fiber optic cabling, link stations, and microwave +towers...the policy process surrounding telecommunications and +information delivery is arcane and convoluted beyond ability of any but +the most dedicated student to understand it. As a consequence, those large +institutions with a clear financial stake are the only entities which have +taken the trouble. + +This leaves the average citizen with no voice in the some of the most +important decisions about how his future will be designed. Fortunately, +Mitch is also willing to take these issues on. Working with Jerry Berman +of the ACLU, Mitch and the EFF intend to create an " information +consumers communications policy forum" to bring together the Baby +Bells, AT&T, other telcos, the FCC, newspaper publishers, online +information services, and other stakeholders to discuss how their vision +of the future of the Net serves the public interest. + +Mitch is also meeting with Net hackers and visionaries to begin to +develop a sense of where we want to go and how we might get there. His +own vision: " a reliable digital network available to everyone with no +restrictions on content and policies which promote information +entrepreneurship.S He will be devoting a lot of his time to this issue. +Again, EFF will support his efforts to the extent it can do so without +diminishing its effectiveness on the civil liberties front. + + +An Information Bill of Rights + +When we first defined the mission of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, +we saw our task as assuring the application of the U.S. Constitution to +digital media. And this remains much of what we are about. + +However, information has little natural regard for national borders or +local ordinances. Cyberspace is transnational. During the tsunami of e- +mail which Crime & Puzzlement elicited, there were many items from +foreign countries. Their authors wanted to know how they could protect +or establish their rights of free expression. And I had no idea what to tell +them. + +The question arose again at Esther Dyson's recent East-West Technology +Conference in Budapest which Mitch and I attended. EFF was well-known +among the Soviets at this meeting, some of whom were already involved +in drafting what they called an Information Bill of Rights. (One young +Moscow programmer had managed to hack together an Internet +connection through Finland in order to contact me.) + +Like intellectual property and telecom policy, the development of +international principles of free digital speech is a large angel to wrestle +with. We will have to be careful not to allow this immense task to divert +EFF from its specific legal agenda. But neither can we ignore the fact that +Cyberspace is hardly an American territory. + + +Nuts and Bolts + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation grew from an effort to fight a specific +legal brushfire into a full-fledged Cause much faster than we could have +imagined. And, like any explosive start-up, it spends a lot of time playing +catch-up. + +Electronically amplified, Mitch and I were able to personally conduct +much of EFF's business in the first few months of operations. But +gradually we had to confront the fact that while the Net is very broad, it is +also quite shallow. Without even a sense of their physical location, we +have been unable to marshal the hundreds of people who have e-mailed +us with their volunteered services. Also, we found ourselves +administering a significant cash-flow in both donations and expenditures. +(By year's end, EFF will have spent around $220,000. Our tentative 1991 +budget predicts expenses of almost half a million.) + +So, despite a mutual terror of bureaucracy and organizational sclerosis, we +have started to adopt some institutional trappings. + +First, in order to satisfy the requirements for a 501c3 tax status (which we +should have in about six months), we found that we needed something +more substantial than two guys with modems. Thus, on October 9, we +held our first official board meeting and formally elected Stewart Brand, +Steve Wozniak, and John Gilmore to join us as board members. + +And we have started to take on staff. In addition to the aforementioned +Mike Godwin, we have contracted Judith Nies to come in to the office +once a week and work on correspondence the requests for information +which come in via the telephone and mail. + +We have also advertised for an Executive Director (see notice elsewhere in +this issue). We hope to hire this individual soon and expect him/her to +attend to the many administrative details which have begun to gobble our +time. (Mitch has been especially swamped.) Upon his/her arrival, we will +be able to devise policies regarding membership, coordination of +volunteers, local chapters, and other organizational dimensions. + +Finally, after many months as eff@well.sf.ca.us, we have established a +location in the material world. Our office is at: + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation +155 Second St. +Cambridge, MA 02141 +(617)864-0665 +(617)864-0866 fax + +We are determined that EFF will remain an agile, swift-moving sort of +outfit. We will adopt any new bureaucratic manifestations with the +greatest skepticism. But we are being bombarded with many legitimate +requests for assistance, advice, and information. In order to respond +rapidly and appropriately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has had to +become an institution. One method by which we hope to maintain +organizational lightness involves keeping a clear distinction between +strategy and tactics. + +On the strategic level, EFF has a very broad mission involving such +amorphous endeavors as defining intellectual property, helping establish +a transnational culture of information, designing telecommunications +policy, sponsoring humane software design... civilizing Cyberspace. With +an appropriate sense of their limitations, the board members will remain +responsible for these matters. + +This will prevent the staff's losing tactical focus on more tangible action +items like litigation, political action, communicating through the press +and across the Net, and organizational care and feeding. + + +The Kicker + +The problem with history is that it keeps happening. Today, as I was +working on this EFF mini-biography, I learned that Mitch has just had his +fingerprints subpoenaed by the FBI. Turns out they are now examining +the NuPrometheus distribution disks for fingerprints and want to be able +to sort his out. Or, perhaps, search for their appearance on other disks... + +So the Wheels of Justice grind blindly on. And we will go on trying to +prevent anyone's being ground up in them. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/effcrypt.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/effcrypt.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6b7cf11d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/effcrypt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +EFF Responds to the recent Clinton Crypto policy... +Polekat #1 @5285 +Thu Apr 22 18:19:18 1993 + + Electronic Frontier Foundation + + + April 16, 1993 + + INITIAL EFF ANALYSIS OF CLINTON PRIVACY AND SECURITY PROPOSAL + + The Clinton Administration today made a major announcement on + cryptography policy which will effect the privacy and security of millions + of Americans. The first part of the plan is to begin a comprehensive + inquiry into major communications privacy issues such as export controls + which have effectively denied most people easy access to robust encryption + as well as law enforcement issues posed by new technology. + + However, EFF is very concerned that the Administration has already + reach a conclusion on one critical part of the inquiry, before any public + comment or discussion has been allowed. Apparently, the Administration is + going to use its leverage to get all telephone equipment vendors to adopt a + voice encryption standard developed by the National Security Agency. The + so-called "Clipper Chip" is an 80-bit, split key escrowed encryption scheme + which will be built into chips manufactured by a military contractor. Two + separate escrow agents would store users' keys, and be required to turn + them over law enforcement upon presentation of a valid warrant. The + encryption scheme used is to be classified, but they chips will be + available to any manufacturer for incorporation into their communications + products. + + This proposal raises a number of serious concerns . + + First, the Administration appears to be adopting a solution before + conducting an inquiry. The NSA-developed clipper chip may not be the most + secure product. Other vendors or developers may have better schemes. + Furthermore, we should not rely on the government as the sole source for + clipper or any other chips. Rather independent chip manufacturers should + be able to produce chipsets based on open standards. + + + Second, an algorithm can not be trusted unless it can be tested. + Yet, the Administration proposes to keep the chip algorithm classified. + EFF believes that any standard adopted ought to be public and open. The + public will only have confidence in the security of a standard that is open + to independent, expert scrutiny. + + Third, while the use of the use of split-key, dual escrowed system + may prove to be a reasonable balance between privacy and law enforcement + needs, the details of this scheme must be explored publicly before it is + adopted. What will give people confidence in the safety of their keys? + Does disclose of keys to a third party waive individual's fifth amendment + rights in subsequent criminal inquiries? + + In sum, the Administration has shown great sensitivity to the + importance of these issues by planning a comprehensive inquiry into digital + privacy and security. However, the "Clipper chip" solution ought to be + considered as part of the inquiry, not be adopted before the discussion + even begins. + + DETAILS OF THE PROPOSAL: + + ESCROW + + The 80-bit key will be divided between two escrow agents, each of whom hold + 40-bits of each key. Upon presentation of a valid warrant, the two escrow + agents would have to turn the key parts over to law enforcement agents. + Most likely the Attorney General will be asked to identify appropriate + escrow agents. Some in the Administration have suggested one non-law + enforcement federal agency -- perhaps the Federal Reserve, and one + non-governmental organization. But, there is no agreement on the identity + of the agents yet. + + Key registration would be done by the manufacturer of the communications + device. A key is tied to the device, not the person using it. + + CLASSIFIED ALGORITHM AND THE POSSIBILITY OF BACK DOORS + + The Administration claims that there are no back doors -- means by which + the government or others could break the code without securing keys from + the escrow agents -- and that the President will be told there are no back + doors to this classified algorithm. In order to prove this, Administration + sources are interested in arranging for an all-star crypto cracker team to + come in, under a security arrangement, and examine the algorithm for trap + doors. The results of the investigation would then be made public. + + GOVERNMENT AS MARKET DRIVER + + In order to get a market moving, and the show that the government believes + in the security of this system, the feds will be the first big customers + for this product. Users will include the FBI, Secret Service, VP Al Gore, + and maybe even the President. + + + FROM MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: + + Jerry Berman, Executive Director + Daniel J. Weitzner, Senior Staff Counsel + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/effector.04 b/textfiles.com/politics/effector.04 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1034dd97 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/effector.04 @@ -0,0 +1,274 @@ + +************************************************************ +************************************************************ +*** EFFector Online #1.04 (May 1, 1991) *** +*** (Formerly EFF News) *** +*** The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc. *** +*** Net address: eff@eff.org *** +************************************************************ +************************************************************ + + +Editors: Gerard Van der Leun (gerard@eff.org) + Mike Godwin (mnemonic@eff.org) + +REPRINT PERMISSION GRANTED: Material in EFFector Online may be reprinted if +you cite the source. Where an individual author has asserted copyright in +an article, please contact her directly for permission to reproduce. + +E-mail subscription requests: eff-request@eff.org +Editorial submissions: eff@eff.org + + + + AND NOW THE NEWS + + +The following press release was Faxcast to over 1,500 media +organizations and interested parties this afternoon: + + +EXTENDING THE CONSTITUTION TO AMERICAN CYBERSPACE: + + +TO ESTABLISH CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION FOR ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND TO +OBTAIN REDRESS FOR AN UNLAWFUL SEARCH, SEIZURE, AND PRIOR RESTRAINT +ON PUBLICATION, STEVE JACKSON GAMES AND THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER +FOUNDATION TODAY FILED A CIVIL SUIT AGAINST THE UNITED STATES SECRET +SERVICE AND OTHERS. + + + On March 1, 1990, the United States Secret Service nearly +destroyed Steve Jackson Games (SJG), an award-winning publishing +business in Austin, Texas. + In an early morning raid with an unlawful and +unconstitutional warrant, agents of the Secret Service conducted a +search of the SJG office. When they left they took a manuscript +being prepared for publication, private electronic mail, and several +computers, including the hardware and software of the SJG Computer +Bulletin Board System. Yet Jackson and his business were not only +innocent of any crime, but never suspects in the first place. The +raid had been staged on the unfounded suspicion that somewhere in +Jackson's office there "might be" a document compromising the +security of the 911 telephone system. + In the months that followed, +Jackson saw the business he had built up over many years dragged to +the edge of bankruptcy. SJG was a successful and prestigious +publisher of books and other materials used in adventure role-playing +games. Jackson also operated a computer bulletin board system (BBS) +to communicate with his customers and writers and obtain feedback and +suggestions on new gaming ideas. The bulletin board was also the +repository of private electronic mail belonging to several of its +users. This private mail was seized in the raid. Despite repeated +requests for the return of his manuscripts and equipment, the Secret +Service has refused to comply fully. + Today, more than a year after that raid, The Electronic +Frontier Foundation, acting with SJG owner Steve Jackson, has filed +a precedent setting civil suit against the +United States Secret Service, Secret Service Agents Timothy Foley and +Barbara Golden, Assistant United States Attorney William Cook, and +Henry Kluepfel. + "This is the most important case brought to date," +said EFF general counsel Mike Godwin, "to vindicate the +Constitutional rights of the users of computer-based communications +technology. It will establish the Constitutional dimension of +electronic expression. It also will be one of the first cases that +invokes the Electronic Communications Privacy Act as a shield and +not as a sword -- an act that guarantees users of this digital +medium the same privacy protections enjoyed by those who use the +telephone and the U.S. Mail." + Commenting on the overall role of the Electronic +Frontier Foundation in this case and other matters, EFFs +president Mitch Kapor said, "We have been acting as an organization +interested in defending the wrongly accused. But the Electronic +Frontier Foundation is also going to be active in establishing +broader principles. We begin with this case, where the issues are +clear. But behind this specific action, the EFF also believes that +it is vital that government, private entities, and individuals who +have violated the Constitutional rights of individuals be held +accountable for their actions. We also hope this case will help +demystify the world of computer users to the general public and +inform them about the potential of computer communities." + + Representing Steve Jackson and The Electronic Frontier +Foundation in this suit are Harvey A. Silverglate and Sharon L. Beckman +of Silverglate & Good of Boston; Eric Lieberman and Nick Poser of +Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman of New York; +and James George,Jr. of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody of Austin, + + Copies of the complaint, the unlawful search warrant, +statements by Steve Jackson and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a +legal fact sheet and other pertinent materials are available by +request from the EFF. + + + @+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@ + + +Also made available to members of the press and electronic media on +request were the following statement by Mitchell Kapor and a legal +fact sheet prepared by Sharon Beckman and Harvey Silverglate of +Silverglate & Good, the law firm central to the filing of this +lawsuit. + + +WHY THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION IS BRINGING SUIT ON BEHALF OF +STEVE JACKSON. + + + With this case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation begins a new +phase of affirmative legal action. We intend to fight for broad +Constitutional protection for operators and users of computer +bulletin boards. + + It is essential to establish the principle that computer bulletin +boards and computer conferencing systems are entitled to the same +First Amendment rights enjoyed by other media. It is also critical +to establish that operators of bulletin boards -- whether +individuals or businesses -- are not subject to unconstitutional, +overbroad searches and seizures of any of the contents of their +systems, including electronic mail. + + The Electronic Frontier Foundation also believes that +it is vital to hold government, private entities, and individuals +who have violated the Constitutional rights of others accountable +for their actions. + + + Mitchell Kapor, + President, The Electronic Frontier Foundation + + + @+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@+@ + + +LEGAL FACT SHEET: STEVE JACKSON GAMES V. UNITED STATES SECRET +SERVICE, ET AL + + +This lawsuit seeks to vindicate the rights of a small, successful +entrepreneur/publisher to conduct its entirely lawful business, free +of unjustified governmental interference. It is also the goal of +this litigation to firmly establish the principle that lawful +activities carried out with the aid of computer technology, including +computer communications and publishing, are entitled to the same +constitutional protections that have long been accorded to the print +medium. Computers and modems, no less than printing presses, +typewriters, the mail, and telephones -being the methods selected by +Americans to communicate with one another -- are all protected by our +constitutional rights. + + +Factual Background and Parties: + +Steve Jackson, of Austin, Texas, is a successful small businessman. +His company, Steve Jackson Games, is an award- winning publisher of +adventure games and related books and magazines. In addition to its +books and magazines, SJG operates an electronic bulletin board system +(the Illuminati BBS) for its customers and for others interested in +adventure games and related literary genres. + +Also named as plaintiffs are various users of the Illuminati BBS. +The professional interests of these users range from writing to +computer technology. + +Although neither Jackson nor +his company were suspected of any criminal activity, the company was +rendered a near fatal blow on March 1, 1990, when agents of the +United States Secret Service, aided by other law enforcement +officials, raided its office, seizing computer equipment necessary to +the operation of its publishing business. The government seized the +Illuminati BBS and all of the communications stored on it, including +private electronic mail, shutting down the BBS for over a month. The +Secret Service also seized publications protected by the First +Amendment, including drafts of the about-to-be-released role playing +game book GURPS Cyberpunk. The publication of the book was +substantially delayed while SJG employees rewrote it from older +drafts. This fantasy game book, which one agent preposterously +called "a handbook for computer crime," has since sold over 16,000 +copies and been nominated for a prestigious game industry award. No +evidence of criminal activity was found. + +The warrant application, +which remained sealed at the government's request for seven months, +reveals that the agents were investigating an employee of the company +whom they believed to be engaged in activity they found questionable +at his home and on his own time. The warrant application further +reveals not only that the Secret Service had no reason to think any +evidence of criminal activity would be found at SJG, but also that +the government omitted telling the Magistrate who issued the warrant +that SJG was a publisher and that the contemplated raid would cause a +prior restraint on constitutionally protected speech, publication, +and association. + +The defendants in this case are the United States +Secret Service and the individuals who, by planning and carrying out +this grossly illegal search and seizure, abused the power conferred +upon them by the federal government. Those individuals include +Assistant United States Attorney William J. Cook, Secret Service +Agents Timothy M. Foley and Barbara Golden, as well Henry M. Kluepfel +of Bellcore, who actively participated in the unlawful activities as +an agent of the federal government. + +These defendants are the same +individuals and entities responsible for the prosecution last year of +electronic publisher Craig Neidorf. The government in that case +charged that Neidorf's publication of materials concerning the +enhanced 911 system constituted interstate transportation of stolen +property. The prosecution was resolved in Neidorf's favor in July of +1990 when Neidorf demonstrated that materials he published were +generally available to the public. + + +Legal Significance: + + +This case is about the constitutional and statutory rights of +publishers who conduct their activities in electronic media rather +than in the traditional print and hard copy media, as well as the +rights of individuals and companies that use computer technology to +communicate as well as to conduct personal and business affairs +generally. + +The government's wholly unjustified raid on SJG, and +seizure of its books, magazines, and BBS, violated clearly +established statutory and constitutional law, including: + + +. The Privacy Protection Act of 1980, which generally prohibits +the government from searching the offices of publishers for work +product and other documents, including materials that are +electronically stored; + + +. The First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which guarantees +freedom of speech, of the press and of association, and which +prohibits the government from censoring publications, whether in +printed or electronic media. + + +. The Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable governmental +searches and seizures, including both general searches and searches +conducted without probable cause to believe that specific evidence of +criminal activity will be found at the location searched. + + +. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Federal +Wiretap statute, which together prohibit the government from seizing +electronic communications without justification and proper +authorization. + + +#### + + +For more information, contact Gerard Van der Leun at 617-864-1550. + + + + +END OF EFFECTOR ONLINE 1.04 + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/effvirt b/textfiles.com/politics/effvirt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a2fe28c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/effvirt @@ -0,0 +1,147 @@ + + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Virtual Communities +By Mike Godwin + + +Introduction by Howard Rheingold: +Mike Godwin is the staff counsel for The Electronic Frontier Foundation +(EFF). EFF has been established to help civilize the electronic frontier; +to make it truly useful and beneficial to everyone, not just an elite; and +to do this in a way that is in keeping with our society's highest +traditions of the free and open flow of information and communication. For +information about the EFF, email mnemonic@eff.org, write EFF, 155 Second +Street, Cambridge, MA 02141, or call 617 864 1550. + + + + The Electronic Frontier Foundation is living proof of the +existence and effectiveness of virtual digital communities. Not only did +EFF arise from the interactions of citizens who were, and are, "neighbors" +in electronic communities, but the EFF has also gone on to establish its +own communities, not the least of which is the EFF conference on the WELL +(Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link). + The WELL was a key community from the beginning. The way +communities normally shape their responses to outside events is for +neighbors to chat - perhaps even gossip Q over the fence. It was this kind +of informal exchange of information that led to two crystallizing events +behind EFF's formation. The first was an online WELL conference on +"hacking" sponsored by Harper's magazine. One result of that conference +was that WELL user and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow met and +befriended a couple of hackers who went by the cyberpunkish noms-de-hack +"Acid Phreak" and "Phiber Optik." Although they "knew" each other +electronically, Barlow's face-to-face meeting with Acid and Optik was a +revelation: "Acid and Optik, as material beings, were well-scrubbed and +fashionably clad," Barlow later wrote. "They looked to be as dangerous as +ducks." Barlow soon concluded that law enforcement's characterization of +these hackers as major computer criminals was disproportionate to their +actions, which had more to do with intellectual curiosity and youthful +exploration than with genuine criminal intent. + The second crystallizing event occurred when Barlow and another +WELL user, Mitch Kapor (a founder of Lotus Development Corp. and On +Technology) compared notes about their respective visits by FBI agents. +The agents were investigating the unauthorized copying and distribution of +Apple's proprietary source code for the ROMs in Apple's Macintosh +computer, and both Kapor and Barlow were startled by how little the FBI +seemed to know about the nature of the alleged crimes they were +investigating, and Barlow later published an account of the visit on the +WELL (and print-published as "Crime and Puzzlement" in WER #68). + As Barlow later writes in the March issue of the Foundation's +print newsletter, the EFFector: "Mitch's experience had been as dreamlike +as mine. He had, in fact, filed the whole thing under General +Inexplicability until he read my tale on the WELL.... Several days later, +he found his bizjet about to fly over Wyoming on its way to San Francisco. +He called me from somewhere over South Dakota and asked if he might +literally drop in for a chat about [the agents' visits] and related +matters. So, while a late spring snow storm swirled outside my office, we +spent several hours hatching what became the Electronic Frontier +Foundation." + Having met in person when Barlow interviewed Kapor for Microtimes, +the two future EFF co-founders had used the WELL to build on their +face-to-face contact. In effect, they had become next-door neighbors, +although Barlow lived in Pinedale, Wyoming, while Kapor lived in +Brookline, Massachusetts. Says Barlow: "There was a sense that what was +going on was a threat to our community." So Barlow and Kapor did what +neighbors often do in response to a neighborhood problem - they formed a +citizens' group. In this case, the citizens' group was the EFF. + I had a chance to play my own role in another example of such +concerned citizen action in my then-hometown, Austin, Texas, which has +more than its share of computer bulletin-board systems (BBSs). On March 1, +1990, one of those BBSs was seized by the United States Secret Service, +which claimed at the time that the system, run by the Austin-based +role-playing game company Steve Jackson Games. Although neither Jackson +nor his company turned out to be the targets of the Secret Service's +criminal investigation, Jackson was told that the manual for a +role-playing game they were about to publish (called GURPS Cyberpunk and +stored on the hard disk of the company's BBS computer) was a "handbook for +computer crime." + Austin's BBS community was startled, then outraged, by the +seizure, which had the potential of putting Jackson, an innocent third +party, out of business. On a BBS called "Flight" there was a hot debate +about the media's failure to pick up on Jackson's story. A third-year law +student and former journalist and Flight user, I theorized on Flight that +the media hadn't covered the story because they didn't know about it. Or, +at least, they didn't understand the issues. + So, to test my theory, I gathered together several postings from +local BBSs and from Usenet, the distributed BBS that runs on the Internet +and connected computers, and trekked down to the Austin American-Statesman +office to talk to a friend of mine, Kyle Pope, who covered +computer-related stories. I also took him photocopies of the statutes that +give the Secret Service jurisdiction over computer crime and lots of phone +numbers of potential sources. At the same time, I called and modemed +materials to John Schwartz, a friend and former colleague who was now an +editor at Newsweek. + Pope's lengthy, copyrighted story on the Secret Service seizure +appeared in the American-Statesman the following weekend. John Schwartz's +story, which covered the Steve Jackson Games incident as well as the +Secret Service's involvement in a nationwide computer-crime "dragnet," +appeared in Newsweek's April 30 issue. The heavy-handed tactics and +overbroad seizure at Steve Jackson Games became a symbol of the +law-enforcement community's misconceptions and fears about young computer +hackers, and provided a context for Barlow's and Kapor's discussions about +creating the EFF. + Once they agreed on what needed to be done, Kapor and Barlow went +back to the WELL and drew upon the collective wisdom of that community for +input into the tactics and strategy of the newly formed foundation. The +same week they announced the EFF's formation in Washington, D.C., they +started the EFF conference on the WELL - sort of a community within a +community which quickly became one of the system's most active +conferences. + Soon afterward, they created two new newsgroups on Usenet +Qcomp.org.eff.news and comp.org.eff.talk. The latter newsgroup, like all +active newsgroups, has become a community of sorts itself, with a diverse +collection of voices addressing - sometimes heatedly Q the issues that +arise as we proceed to explore and civilize the electronic frontier. + Almost immediately after the foundation was officially launched, +EFF's efforts to assist in the defense of electronic publisher Craig +Neidorf had tangible results. Neidorf had been prosecuted for publishing a +BellSouth text file relating to the E-911 system (see "Attacks on the Bill +of Rights," WER #70). EFF's law firm, Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, +Krinsky, Lieberman, submitted an amicus curiae brief defending Neidorf's +First Amendment rights as a publisher. We also helped Neidorf's defense +counsel assemble experts to testify on his client's behalf. And a member +of the WELL's EFF conference came up with the information that was +critical in persuading the prosecutors to drop their case. + It's clear that EFF is not only the product of electronic +communities, but has also produced some new communities while continuing +to contribute to old ones. It's also clear that the sense of community was +seeded by face-to-face contact at key points: when Barlow met Acid and +Optik, for example, and when he interviewed Kapor. The need for at least +occasional face-to-face contact, Kapor still stresses, means that current +networks and BBSs don't simply create community; instead, they amplify it. +Or, to be even more accurate, the two phenomena exist in a complex state +of coevolution, with face-to-face contacts fueling the electronic +relationships (and vice versa). + One of the things you often see when you read discussions about +EFF on the WELL or on Usenet is a sense that the EFF has become a +representative body. While this is misleading - EFF is not yet a +membership organization - it's still the case that EFF is regarded as an +advocacy group for electronic communities generally. You'll often read +comments from Usenet folks who think the most appropriate pronouns when +talking about the EFF are "we," "us," and "our." + And if that neighborly sense of belonging doesn't prove the +existence of a community, I don't know what does. + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/einstein.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/einstein.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d7dcfabe --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/einstein.txt @@ -0,0 +1,193 @@ + T H E + ___ _ _ _____ _ _ _____ _____ _____ _____ _ _ + / || | | || || |_| || || || || || | | | + / | || | | || | | || | | || | || | ||_ _|| | | || |_| | + / | || |_| || | | || || | || _| _| |_ | | | || | | | + / /_| || ||_| |_|| |_| || || | \ | ||_| |_||_ _| + /_______||_____| |_| |_| |_||_____||__|\_\|_____| |_| |_| + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + + P R E S E N T S + + Quotations From Albert Einstein + + (In Alphabetical Order By Subject) + + Rel: 16 Apr 90/Three + =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= + Members Are: /\ngel Of Death & Prophet /\rmed + =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= + +On Bargains: +"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." + +On Class: +"The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the + last analysis they rest on force." + +On Conformity: +"It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an + incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed." + +On Curiosity: +"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its + own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he + contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous + structure of reality. It is enough if one merely to comprehend a +little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." + +On Future: +"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." + +On God: +"God is clever, but not dishonest." + +On Humanity: +"We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings." + +On Hunger: +"An empty stomach is not a good political advisor." + +On International Relations: +"In relations among seperate states complete anarchy still prevails. I do + not believe that we have made any genuine advance in this area during the + last thousand years." + +On Life: +"We are like shipwrecked people trying to keep their balance on a miserable + plank in the open sea...but once we fully accept this, life becomes + easier." + +"What I value in life is quality rather than quantity, just as in Nature the + overall principles represent a higher reality than does one single object." + +On Luxury: +"Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury--to me these have always + been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life + is best for every one, best for both the body and the mind." + +On Military Secrecy: +"Every citizen must make up his mind...if he accepts the premise of war he + must endure the consequences of military secrecy." + +On Mystery: +"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the + fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true + science." + +On Nationalism: +"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind." + +On Nuclear Energy: +"Since I do not forsee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long + time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is + well that it should be. It may intimidate the human race into bringing + order into its international affairs, which, without the pressure of fear, + it would not do." + +On Opposition: +"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre + minds." + +On Patriotism: +"The heroism at command, this senseless violence, this accursed bombast of + patriotism--how intensely I despise them!" + +On Power: +"What should be done to give the power into the hands of capable and well- + meaning persons has so far resisted all efforts." + +On Reason: +"Reason, of course, is weak, when measured against its never-ending task." + +On Religion: +"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." + +"What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses and Jesus ranks for + me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive + mind." + +On Simplicity: +"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." + +On Solitude: +"I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the + years of maturity." + +On Success: +"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of + value." + +On Testification: +"Every intellectual who is called before one of the committees ought to + refuse to testify, i.e. he must be prepared...for the sacrifice of his + personal welfare in the interest of the cultural welfare of his country.... + This kind of inquisition violates the spirit of the Constitution. + If enough people are ready to take this grave step they will be successful. + If not, then the intellectuals of this country deserve nothing better than + the slavery which is intended for them." + +On The Theory Of Relativity: +"I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the + theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never + stops to think about problems of space and time. These are things which he + has thought of as a child. But my intellectual development was retarded, + as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had + already grown up." + +On Tolerance: +"The most important kind of tolerance is tolerance of the individual by + society and the state." + +On Truth: +"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." + +"Truth resembles a statue of marble which stands in the desert and is + continuously threatened with burial by the shifting sand." + +On Tyranny: +"We may hope that even the dullest creature can be made to realize that, in + the long run, lies and tyranny cannot triumph." + +On Value: +"All that is valuable in human society depends on the opportunity for + development accorded the individual." + +On Violence: +"Degeneracy follows every automatic sysem of violence, for violence + inevitably attracts moral inferiors. Time has proven that illustrious + are succeeded by scoundrels." + +On War: +"As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is + inevitable." + +"I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with + the atomic bomb. Perhaps two thirds of the people on earth might be + killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left + to start again, and civilization would be restored." + +"The next World War will be fought with stones." + +On Wonder: +"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as + dead; his eyes are closed." + +------------------------- +------------------------- +Compiled And Typed By Prophet /\rmed + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/elder2.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/elder2.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..711f3e56 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/elder2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ + CUSTOM COMPUTING + 6815 DICKINSON COURT + TAMPA FLORIDA 33634-4707 + CIS: 71327,1251 + +Sat 08-14-1993 + +More on Clinton's nominee to the highest medical office in the land. +The Democrats did everything they could to get the vote on the floor +of the Senate before the August break. Fortunately, those opposed to +her were able to stall it until after they come back from break. She +is openly and actively anti-Catholic. We are researching one more source +of data on her activities. If we able to get the information, we will post +it here. + + EXCERPTS FROM DR. JOYCELYN ELDERS ADDRESS TO + ARKANSAS COALITION FOR CHOICE, JANUARY 18, 1992 + ARKANSAS STATE CAPITOL, LITTLE ROCK + +Re: Anti-Catholic bigotry + +"...and there the Church was silent when we talked about ... +[unintelligible] ... the first 400 years black people had their freedom +aborted, and the Church said nothing. The way of life for the Native +American was aborted; the Church was silent. We attempted to eradicate +a whole race of people through the Holocaust, and the Church was silent. +Women had no right to vote for years. We ask why. Why do these things +go on? ... [unintelligible] ... Any time when the right of choice is taken +away from all of us and put into the hands of a few, these are the kinds of +things that will happen, over and over again. Look at who's fighting the +pro-choice movement; a celibate, male-dominated Church ... " + +[COMMENT FROM THE UPLOADER] Elders nothwithstanding, I am getting a +little sick of hearing about NATIVE-Americans, BLACK-Americans, HISPANIC- +Americans, THESE-Americans, THOSE-Americans, and OTHER-Americans. I was +born in Oklahoma; therefore, I believe I am a native-American as well as +every other person in born in the U.S. My grandparents on both sides were +immigrants from Czechoslavakia, but, I would feel a little silly calling myself +a Czecho-American. + +More . . . . . . +======================================================================= + DR. JOYCELYN ELDERS SPEAKS + +"I don't know of any parent who wouldn't go out at midnight and try to +find contraceptives to start their children properly." (1) + +"We've taught them (teenagers) what to do in the front seat of a car, +but not what to do in the back seat of the car." (2) + +"An integral part of a comprehensive school-based health clinic today +is that we have sexuality education beginning in Kindergarten." (3) +[UPLOADER COMMENT] Not with MY kid, you're not. + +"Abortion has had an important, and positive, public health benefit." (4) + +"Abortion was the single most important factor in the significant +decrease in neonatal mortality between 1964 and 1977." (5) +[UPLOADER COMMENT] Yup, that'll do it. + +"We would like for the right to life and antichoice groups to really get +over their love affair with the fetus and start supporting the +children." (6) + +"Look who's fighting the pro-choice movement: a celibate, male-dominated +church." (7) + +"I would hope that we would provide them (prostitutes) Norplant so they +could still use sex if they must buy their drugs." (8) +[NORPLANT IS THE UNDER-THE-SKIN CONTRACEPTIVE IMPLANT] + +"If Medicaid does not pay for abortions, does not pay for family planning, +but pays for pre-natal care and delivery, that's saying: I'll pay for you +to have another good, healthy slave." (9) +[THIS WOMAN IS NOT ONLY RADICAL, SHE IS DEMENTED] + +"Poverty and ignorance and the Bible-Belt mentality are responsible for +the rise in teen pregnancy in Arkansas." (10) +[NOT ONLY IS THAT A STUPID STATEMENT, IT IS PARTICULARLY OFFENSIVE TO +CHRISTIANS OF ANY DENOMINATION. SHE IS SAYING WE ARE POOR OR IGNORANT +OR BOTH] + +(1) ARKANSAS GAZETTE, July 3, 1988 +(2) In video presentation to National Commission on Children, April 2, + 1993 +(3) ARKANSAS GAZETTE, July 3, 1988 +(4) Testimony before the Senate Labor and Human Resource Committee, + May 23, 1990 +(5) IBID +(6) ARKANSAS GAZETTE, January 19, 1992 +(7) To pro-abortion rights rally, January 1992 +(8) On CNBC television program "Talk Live", June 19, 1992 +(9) WASHINGTON POST, February 16, 1993 +(10) NATIONAL REVIEW, April 26, 1993 + +======================================================================= + +The following are some excerpts from a column by Pat Buchanan in the +WASHINGTON TIMES, July 21, 1993: + +"She also charges Christian conservatives, predominantly Protestant, with +having 'slave-master mentalities' and 'conducting a love affair with the +fetus'. These 'very religious non-Christians', says Dr. Elders, 'love little +babies so long as they are in someone else's uterus'." + +"Dr. Elders' financial arrangements have also attracted notice. Since +April, she has been paid $685 per day, in consulting fees and expenses, +by Donna Shalala's Department of Health and Human Services while still +being paid a salary by Arkansas as state health director and by the +University of Arkansas, where she is a tenured professor 'on loan' to the +state. She resigned as Arkansas health director on July 19." +======================================================================= + +[UPLOADER COMMENT] Folks, this nomination by Clinton, like others, +is an insult to all moral people of this great country. But, then, +what could we expect from a man who is totally DEVOID of any morals. + +I'm sure this nomination will be first on the agenda when the Senate +returns from break. It's not too late to let your senator know what +you believe about the nomination. + +The directory of the entire senate is posted here in another of our +files here, and the members of the senate labor committee are +listed in our original Elders file - ELDERS.TXT. + +Uploaded by Vern Semrad + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/elder3.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/elder3.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8c435af4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/elder3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,205 @@ + CUSTOM COMPUTING + 6815 DICKINSON COURT + TAMPA FLORIDA 33634-4707 + CIS: 71327,1251 + +Mon 08-30-1993 + +Here are some more facts about Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's nominee for +Surgeon General. Previous posts chronicling her past statements can be +found here in ELDERS.TXT and ELDER2.TXT. We believe she is not morally +fit to hold the highest medical office in the United States. + +More importantly, we believe his nomination of Elders is just one more +example of Bill Clinton's moral fitness to be the President. We've said +it before, and we'll say it again, "This man is totally devoid of any +morals." Just look at the people with whom he has surrounded himself and +the issues that he deemed to be the ones with which he must FIRST deal: +Gays in the Military, lifting the ban on fetal research, lifting the gag +rule on counseling for women seeking abortions, lifting the ban on abortions +in military hospitals, the appointment of a militant lesbian to his cabinet. +Someone asked, "Where is the soul of this man." We think it is time to ask +that question again. We also think that question should be asked of the +media people who continue to defend and support him. + +Back to Dr. Elders. Here is more. +======================================================================= + +HER SALARY ARRANGEMENT AS ARKANSAS HEALTH DIRECTOR. The State of Arkansas +places a cap on how much state employees can be paid. For several years +the Health Department has transferred the money it has available to pay +Dr. Elders to the University of Arkansas Medical School (UAMS). UAMS +has then paid her a considerably higher sum as a professor of pediatrics, +even though her position as state health director is a full-time, full- +year job. + +HER ALLEGEDLY LAX ENFORCEMENT OF A BAN ON STATE FUNDING OF CONTRACEPTIVE +DISTRIBUTION AT SCHOOL-BASED CLINICS. In 1991, the Arkansas legislature +adopted a prohibition on the use of state money to distribute contraceptives +at school-based clinics. Shortly after the restriction was adopted, Dr. +Elders announced that the school-based clinics would continue to distribute +contraceptives using federal and local money. But a pending lawsuit filed +by Rep. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) alleges that state funds are being used in +violation of the ban. + +HER CONDUCT AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF ARKANSAS. +Dr. Elders recently settled a lawsuit filed against her and four other +former directors of this bank. According to the NATIONAL REVIEW (April +26, 1993), the suit alleged that she had voted to give herself and other +directors an unsecured $230,000 line of credit and that she and her +colleagues had improperly moved to transfer money to an Illinois savings +and loan to cover bad lending practices in which they had engaged. + +THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. MALAK. In September, 1991, Dr. Elders named +Dr. Fahmy Malak, an embattled medical examiner for the State of Arkansas, +to a senior post in her department. Dr. Malak's appointment cam despite +a department-wide hiring freeze. + +Dr. Malak had been under fire since 1985 for a host of controversial +autopsy results, several of which were later reversed by grand juries. +Among his more maligned findings were that a man shot five times in the +chest had committed suicide, that two teenagers run over by a train had +fallen asleep on the tracks after smoking marijuana, that a man whom a +grand jury later ruled had been murdered had died accidentally while +strangling himself during a sexual act, and that a deputy coroner who had +ordered life support withdrawn from a brain-dead patient had committed +murder. Dr. Malak later apologized for falsely accusing the deputy +coroner, a charge that arose because Dr. Malak had misread a notation +in the deceased patient's medical chart. + +Elders, long one of Dr. Malak's staunchest defenders, noted that, "There +are a lot of medical symbols," and said of Malak, "If you don't make +mistakes, you're not doing anything.". + +======================================================================= + +If you've read our previous posts, you know Dr. Elders attacked the +Catholic church. Here is the text of a letter sent to Sen. Alphonse +D'Amato (R-NY) by John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York. + +August 5, 1993 + + + +Dear Senator D'Amato, + +I write to you as one deeply disturbed by remarks attributed to the +nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, revealing substantial +animosity toward the Catholic Church and Catholics generally. Dr. Elders +is quoted as stating: "The first 400 years black people had their freedom +aborted and the Church said nothing. The way of life for the Native +American as aborted: the Church was silent. We attempted to eradicate +a whole race of people through the Holocaust, and the Church as silent. +. . . . Look at who's fighting the pro-choice movement; a celibate, male- +dominated Church." + +Catholics throughout American history have suffered from the effects +of religious bigotry. It is a blot on our country's human rights record. +Such blatant and broad sweeping attacks as have been attributed to Dr. +Elders would be troubling on the lips of any citizen. To hear them from +one appointed to a national pulpit is even more profoundly disturbing. +This is particularly true considering that the stature of the Office of +the Surgeon General is great -- particularly in recent years in the +midst of a deepening national crisis over the effects of sexual +irresponsibility. + +Dr. Elders has also expressed contempt for the millions of Americans +who participate in the human rights struggle for the the unborn, and +and the disabled. She purportedly scorns pro-life Americans as having +a " love affair with the fetus," and is quoted as saying that they +"love little babies, as long they're in someone else's uterus, rather +than caring about children after they're born.". + +One traditionally associates the profession of medicine with special +concern for the small and defenseless human being. Yet nowhere do I +hear Dr. Elders acknowledge the slightest good will, the slightest +compassion toward the child in the womb. Her alleged statements +regarding unborn Down's Syndrome children are most disquieting in this +regard. She is also quoted as saying that "abortion has reduced the +number of children afflicted with severe defects: the number of Down's +Syndrome infants in Washington State in 1976 was 64% lower than it +would have been without legal abortion." Apparently Dr. Elders regards +the destruction of such children through abortion as part of the success +story of modern medicine. As one who has spent many years of his life +working with and for the retarded, I am deeply troubled by such an +attitude. + +Dr. Elders seems also to have clearly expressed an intent not only +to continue, but to intensify the utterly failed policy of offering +contraception freely to teenagers. Twenty years of this practice has +failed to improve our children's health and well-being. In fact, they are +associated with substantial declines in the quality of their lives, with +increases in teenage sexual activity, teen abortions, sexually transmitted +diseases, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Yet nowhere do I see Dr. +Elders required to assume the burden of proof as to why 20 years of +failed social policy should be followed by 4 more. + +Thank you for your vote on August 3 on the Nickles Amendment to the +Treasury/Postal Appropriations Bill. It was a tragedy that the +substance of Senator Nickles' proposal did not receive the full deliber- +ations it deserved, but I thank you for your part in seeking to obtain +Senate consideration. In future votes on the Hyde Amendment and National +Health Care, I hope that you will reflect on the conscience problems +inherent in requiring any taxpayer, any employer, any employee, to +contribute any amount, no matter how small, to an act they acknowledge +to be nothing less than the deliberate destruction of innocent human life. + +I do hope you will consider the points I have raised. Considering the +crisis of values our nation is now facing, I do not believe that concerns +about religious intolerance and moral responsibility are trivial. I look +forward to your reply. + + Faithfully in Christ + + /s/ John Cardinal O'Connor + + Archbishop of New York + +======================================================================= + +Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) spoke at some length on the floor of the +Senate about Dr. Elders and her radical ideas on health care. Following +are excerpts from his presentation. + +"She went further when she told the Labor Committee: 'Abortion was the single +most important factor in the significant decrease in neonatal mortality +between 1964 and 1977.' Dr. Elders says that abortion decreases infant +mortality. Well, I suppose it does. If your life is ended before you are +born, there is absolutely no chance you will die after birth. So she is +correct. But, what a solution." + +"In the February 16, 1993, edition of the Washington Post, it is reported +that she keeps an 'Ozark Rubber Plant' on her desk. 'Its stalks,' according +to the Washington Post, 'are sprouting condoms, and an attached note reads: +'Blooms mostly at night. Blooms vary in length, depending on owner. Blooms +may wilt in chilly atmosphere.' I do not think that being flippant about +condoms and condom distribution is really the kind of attitude we really +want a Surgeon General to have." + +"Elders' pay has come under scrutiny because she earns much more than the +maximum salary established for her health department job by the State +legislature. The legal maximum salary set for the health department +director is $76,440 a year, but Dr. Elders makes about $103,000 a year. +Her pay comes from both the health department and the University of +Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she formerly worked a a pediatric +endocrinologist." + +[UPLOADER COMMENT] Senator Nickles went on detail how her Arkansas +compensation was challenged by two different Attorneys-general of AR. +He also detailed how she had been paid both by the State of Arkansas and +the federal Department of Health and Human Services. He also chronicled +the issue of Dr. Elders and her husband having a nurse for her mother-in- +law and not paying taxes on the nurse. Throughout his presentation, he +brought up all the issues we have posted here and had them all put in +the Congressional Record. +======================================================================= + +Although we are adamantly opposed to appointment of this woman to +Surgeon General of the United States, this is more than a reflection +of Joycelyn Elders. This is also a reflection of the man who nominated +her, Bill Clinton. + +This information was provided by Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles + +UPLOADED BY: Vern Semrad + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/elect.art b/textfiles.com/politics/elect.art new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7504f800 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/elect.art @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ + + PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MEMORIES OF 1992 + + The 1992 presidential election sparked considerable commentary among +users of The Free American. Following are just a few excerpts from items +posted by users. + + POLL FROM ANOTHER BBS + + by King Friday, Raisa Sysop + +On the Raisa BBS, users have voted for their favorite candidates. There +is no sure winner yet, but it seems we have a front runner. + + Ross Perot 0% + George Bush 0% + Bill Clinton 0% + A deranged lunatic from St. Elizabeth's 35% + Bill the Cat (from Outland, not Arkansas) 5% + Spuds McKenzie 15% + The Doublemint Twins 20% + + + + + TO THOSE WHO SAY, "I'M NO FAN OF POLITICS..." + ("...I'LL WATCH BASEBALL INSTEAD OF POLITICAL DEBATES.") + + by Cliff Steward + + An odd position to hold (at least for a long time) is: "I'm no fan of +politics, nosiree. Fools, thieves, and shameless self promoters, that's +what an American in politics is to me." + + On the other hand, let's put aside all consideration of impotence, all +the cynical bitching, and even all thought that we could do better if we +wuz dem...Consider instead the raw humanity, foolishness and all, the hopes +and dreams, self-deceptions and eager-to-please leaps of logic that moments +like the national presidential candidates' debates offer to us all. There +will be so much there, said and unsaid, of life as we have done our best to +make it - so much more than in the diamond of the bases. + + So allow me to urge all you anti-political residents of this here year +of 1992 to tune in Sunday night, not for who wins but for what an intense +90 minutes can show of what we have become, and what we might like to be. +It's a "War and Peace" kind of novel playing against just another baseball +game show. As in "War and Peace," Sunday's debate is not about who wins a +skirmish, or even the entire war -- rather we turn to them both as an +intensification of life and human foibles. + + Thus, to paraphrase old Doc Johnson, "He who tires of politics has +tired of life." + + + TWO VIEWS OF ELECTION NIGHT + + by Chris Graham and Jeff Epstein + + Clinton wins! What a wonderful feeling! I have become so cynical about +how conservative this country is that I didn't do anything for this campaign +except buy a Clinton t-shirt. I was superstitious right to the end - but we +are going to have a Democratic president! Thank God. I really hope everyone +will give him a chance, and I hope he lives up to it. We can't afford +another Jimmy Carter debacle. But right now, there's hope again. Ironically, +it * is * morning in America. Halleluia! + -- Jeff Epstein + + Well, President Bill will be a disaster. I think the Democratic party +has yet to learn what the Russians, Eastern Europeans and East Germans have +learned at a great cost in human lives. Socialism * does * not * work. It +will not work in the U.S. either. Ever. The Senate candidates in California +- Boxer and Feingold - are both 60s rejects who are Socialist and +collectivist to the core. + -- Chris Graham + + + FAREWELL TO SYMBOLS OF THE REAGAN-BUSH YEARS... + + by Christian Williams and Jean Blevins + + Sleeping at Cabinet meetings. + Misspelling potato + Confusing TV and reality. + Learning Latin for trips to Latin America. + + -- Christian Williams + + A friend who works at the Pentagon tells me he learned from the + office custodial staff that the day after the election * many * + trash cans contained the formerly-framed pictures of President + Bush that had graced the office walls - until the returns came in. + + -- Jean Blevins + + + + PRESIDENT-ELECT CLINTON MAKES HIS FIRST VISIT TO WASHINGTON, D.C. + + by Jeff Epstein + + + I decided to make my stand at the West Gate Entrance to the White House +at Diplomatic Drive. Several other people had the same idea as me, but at +the last minute, the guard took pity on us and told us the motorcade would +be coming through the East Gate via E Street. + + So I stood on E Street. The car came around, up went my camera -- and +Bill Clinton gave me a thumbs up! + + Actually, I couldn't see him too well behind the glass, but it was him. +So that was cool. I then went around to the north side by the West Wing (the +place the reporters do their stand-ups.) But nothing was happening, so I +left. Apparently, bush and Clinton did go out to the Rose Garden for a +photo-op later. + + Later, I went up to Georgia Avenue, near Howard University, where +Clinton was to take his walk, but I was too far south. Where he actually +walked was so far north it's off the map. + + Tomorrow, I may try to see him at the Hay-Adams Hotel, although the +news reports tonight said the crowds are being kept half a block away. In +light of his walk around Georgia Avenue today, some of these security +regulations seem a little excessive. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/election.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/election.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b6c46da9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/election.txt @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +"An Elementary Look at Campaigns and Elections" + +(Every year, teacher Mike Wilson of Ballwin, Missouri has his +elementary-school students study the presidential election process in +America. From the resulting essays and exam papers, Wilson has culled +some gems of youthful insight and wisdom, not to mention skepticism +worth of a politics-weary adult. As the 1984 presidential election +grows near, we offer some of Wilson's treasures.) + +Did you ever think what I used to think about candidates running +neck-and-neck? Well it is not true. + +Universal suffrage means that even the illegible get to vote. + +Calling a person a runner-up is the polite way of saying you lost. + +The difference between a king and a president is that a king is the son +of his father but a president is not. + +What I learned about elections is that we aren't really getting to +elect the president. It is some people in a college who get to. I +have not decided what to do about it yet but I am not going to just sit +around. + +It is possible to get the majority of electoral votes without getting +the majority of popular votes. Anyone who can ever understand how this +works gets to be president. + +Some of our presidents never did much else and are famous only because +they became president. + +The more I think about trying to run for president the less I think of +it. + +The president has the power to appoint and disappoint the members of +his cabinet. + +Much has been said about balancing the budget. It has been found that +the budget is more talkable than balanceable. + +The campaign is when the candidate tells what he stand for and the +election is when the votes tell if they can stand for his being elected. + +Actually, elections are different from politics. Elections come and go +while politics are with us all the time. + +The winning candidate is elected and inoculated. + +In January, the president makes his Inaugural Address after he has been +sworn at. + +Once he is elected, sometimes the president has to work 24 hours a day +until he finds out what he is supposed to do. + +The nominees are usually called candidates or campaigners although I +have heard them called other things. + +One of the strictest rules is all dark horses running for president must +be people. + +Popular votes tell who is the most popular. Electoral votes tell who +is the most elected. + +Heredity is a bad thing in politics because it gets us kings instead of +presidents. + +A caucus is something people vote in. Sort of a small booth. + +An overwhelming favorite is a candidate that often comes over to the +convention and whelms the delegates. + +The jobs of delegates is to resent their states. + +Noncommittal is to be able to talk and talk without saying anything. + +When the radio mentions a landslide, cross your fingers and hope it is +talking about an election. + +A dark horse is a candidate that the delegates don't know enough about +to dislike yet. + +Political science is to try to figure out what makes candidates act +that way. + +A split ticket is when you don't like any of them on the ticket so you +tear it up. + +When they talk about the most promising presidential candidate, they +mean the one who can think of the most things to promise. + +Elephants and donkeys never fought until politics came along. + +Political strategy is when you don't let people know you have run out +of ideas and keep shouting anyway. + +A candidate should always renounce his words carefully. + +We are learning how to make our election results known quicker and +quicker. It is our campaigns we are having trouble getting any shorter. + +One of the mainest rules of campaigning is you are not allowed to go on +a whistle-stop tour without a train. + +Politician is the bawling out name for a candidate you don't like. + +Speaking of defeat, candidates are told never to. + +Campaigns give us a great deal of happiness by their finally ending. + + +[ Reported collection source, Ford Times ] + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/electrif b/textfiles.com/politics/electrif new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e6d405dd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/electrif @@ -0,0 +1,1039 @@ +July 1992 Vol. 4; Issue 5 + + ELECTRIFYING SPEECH + New Communications Technologies and Traditional Civil Liberties + + =------------------------------------------------------------= + |This document is Copyright (c) 1992 by Human Rights Watch. | + |It is reproduced in electronic form by permission of Human | + |Rights Watch. For printed versions of this document, contact| + |Human Rights Watch Publications, 485 Fifth Avenue, New York,| + |NY 10017. Printed copies are $3.00 with quantity discounts | + |available. This electronic copy of the document is being | + |made available as a service of Human Rights Watch and | + |The Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org). It originated | + |in the eff.org ftp library. Redistribution of this document | + |should always be accompanied by this header. | + =------------------------------------------------------------= + + + INTRODUCTION: NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES + + Since the personal computer ushered in a communication revolution +about 15 years ago, the accompanying technology has been likened to +everything from the printing press to Hyde Park Corner, from the +postal system to talk radio. Pungent as these analogies are, their +limitations point up the essential uniqueness of computer-mediated +communication. While the printing press made possible the mass +dissemination of information, computers can individualize information +and increase its flow a thousandfold. In the process, they change the +nature of communication itself. + + Few Americans are unaffected by this revolution, whether they +rely on computers to do their taxes, write a novel, serve up money +from a bank machine, or make airplane reservations -- and then guide +the plane safely back to land. Those who are "on-line" "talk" to +people whom they may never meet face-to-face and form "virtual +communities" in "Cyberspace" -- a place without physical dimensions, +but with the capacity to store vast amounts of facts, conversation, +messages, written or voice mail and graphic images. + + While it is axiomatic that these new capabilities can open up +faster, easier and more inclusive communication, they also call into +question long held assumptions about individual and communal rights. +Some are old questions in a new context: What, if any, is the role of +the government in regulating electronic communication? As more and +more information is recorded and stored automatically, how can the +right of privacy be balanced with the right to know? What happens to +individual protections when information is a salable commodity? Does +the form in which information is kept change the government's +obligation to inform its citizens? + + Other questions arise from the new technologies: When borders can +be breached by a keystroke and texts and images can be reproduced and +modified without ever being published, what happens to definitions of +intellectual property, scholarship, conversation, publication, +community, even knowledge itself? + + In 1983, Ithiel de Sola Pool began his seminal book, Technologies +of Freedom, with the warning that "Civil liberty functions today in a +changing technological context." As if to prove him right, the +government is now proposing a $2 billion investment in computer +networking technologies which will radically alter the way American +communicate. Because the technological context changes more rapidly +than the laws regulating it, the debate about how we want to live in +an electronic world is both volatile and urgent. + + ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND THE LAW + + United States law has not treated all communication technology +alike. As Pool notes, regulatory policy is based on different +assumptions and varies among print, common carriage and broadcasting, +which were the three prominent modes of mass communication when he +wrote. Thus, lawmakers and jurists delineating free speech sought to +minimize traditional controls on printed speech by rejecting the types +of censorship associated with it, such as prior restraint, taxation +and seditious libel. But early regulators, with an eye to the social +good, had no qualms about requiring common carriers, such as the +postal and telegraph systems, to provide universal service without +discrimination. Their successors, assuming that the broadcast spectrum +was a scarce commodity, designed a regulatory system for radio and TV +based on government licensing, business advertising and a limited +number of channels. Later regulations included the Fairness Doctrine +(imposing on licensed broadcasters an obligation to cover issues +fairly), which regulated the content of speech. But as technologies +merge, traditional distinctions among the modes are no longer +applicable. Today, for instance, anyone regulating electronic bulletin +boards is looking at a cross between a publisher and a bookstore that +operates by means of the telephone, a common carrier. + + Historically, the law has responded to, not anticipated, +technological changes, often reacting repressively when a new +technology challenges the status quo. As in the past, regulation of +electronic communication has been influenced more by market and +political forces than constitutional principles or legal issues. But +electronic communication policy is still fluid enough to allow for +questions about who should set the policy and to what end. + + The Constitution + + Among the most active participants in the policy discussion is +Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), a public +interest group formed to explore the impact of computers on society. +In March 1991, CPSR held the First Conference on Computers, Freedom & +Privacy in Burlingame, California. The concerns addressed at the +conference fell into three broad civil liberty categories: protecting +speech, protecting privacy, and gaining access to government +information. + + In an opening address, constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe +posed a question of his own: "When the lines along which our +Constitution is drawn warp or vanish, what happens to the Constitution +itself?" The sections of the Constitution Tribe was referring to in +relation to electronic communication are: + + # the First Amendment, with its prohibition against laws +abridging freedom of speech, assembly, or the press; + + # the Fourth Amendment, protecting people and their property from +unreasonable government intrusion; + + # the Fifth Amendment, guaranteeing due process of law and +exemption from self-incrimination; + + # the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, which reinforce other +rights and provisions in the Constitution. + + In applying these long-standing guarantees in the burgeoning +electronic forum, Tribe recommends that policy makers look not at what +technology makes possible, but at the core values the Constitution +enshrines. The overarching principles of that document, he maintains, +are its protection of people rather than places, and its regulation of +the actions of the government, not of private individuals. Other +central values Tribe notes are the ban on governmental control of the +content of speech; the principle that a person's body and property +belong to that person and not the public; and the invariability of +constitutional principles despite accidents of technology. + + To insure that these values prevail as technology changes, Tribe +proposes adding a 27th amendment to the Constitution to read: + "This Constitution's protections for the freedoms of speech, +press, petition and assembly, and its protections against unreasonable +searches and seizures and the deprivation of life, liberty or property +without due process of law, shall be construed as fully applicable +without regard to the technological method or medium through which +information content is generated, stored, altered, transmitted or +controlled." + + Who Regulates and How + + Speakers at the conference did not argue with Tribe's goal of an +enlightened electronic communication policy on the part of the +government, but some disagreed over who should be responsible for +formulating that policy and whatever regulations accompany it. + + Jerry Berman, a longtime privacy advocate who is now Director of +the Washington office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned +that, in light of the courts' current record on civil liberties, any +strategy giving them primary power to settle electronic speech +disputes was dangerous. He argued instead for legislative controls. + + Others worried that lawmakers, misunderstanding or +misinterpreting existing electronic speech problems, would push +through harsh and intrusive regulations. Steve McLellan, a special +assistant to the Washington Utilities Commission, cited efforts in his +state by phone companies wanting to institute caller ID systems. The +companies lobbied for authorization of that technology by portraying +it as customer protection, a way to combat obscene and crank phone +calls. The constitutional privacy issues got buried in politics until +the utilities commission announced that it would approve caller-ID +tariffs only if they provided for blocking mechanisms provided free +and at the discretion of the customer. + + Yet another potential regulatory force was posited by Eli Noam, +Director of the Center for Telecommunications and Information Studies +at Columbia University. Noam suggested that computer- based +information networks will become quasi-political entities, not +subordinated to other jurisdictions, as they tax, set standards of +behavior and mediate conflicts among their members, and band together +to influence economic and social policy. Current Regulation + + There are myriad laws on the federal and state levels with +potential impact in the electronic forum: the Privacy Protection Act, +Freedom of Information Act, Wiretap Act, Paperwork Reduction Act, +sunshine laws, obscenity laws, and laws regulating copyright, +trademark, interstate commerce, and product liability. As New York +attorney Lance Rose points out, this proliferation of laws tends to +reinforce the most restrictive standard -- because computer users and +service providers cannot inform themselves about all potentially +relevant rules, they are well-advised to stay within the boundaries of +the strictest regulation that may apply. + + Congress has also passed legislation aimed directly at electronic +communication within the government, including: + # the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988, +which prohibits government agencies from combining discrete +computerized personal records as a basis for taking adverse action +against an individual until the results of the match have been +verified independently; + # the Computer Security Act of 1987, designed to improve the +security and privacy of federal computer systems; + # the Electronic Communication Protection Act of 1986, which +safeguards electronic communication from interception, disclosure and +random monitoring without a court order; and stipulates that a court +order must be time-limited and must specify the information sought; + # the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 (revised in 1986), +which criminalizes unauthorized entry, and taking or alteration of +information from computers; authorizes fines and imprisonment up to 20 +years under certain circumstances; and gives the Secret Service +authority to investigate potential offenses. In an effort to balance +the punitive aspects of the Act, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced +an amendment to the 1991 crime bill that defines criminal liability in +electronic communication cases as intent to damage, rather than as the +technical concept of unauthorized access. The bill (S. 1322) will come +up for a vote again in 1992. + + Both the Computer Fraud and Electronic Communication Protection +Acts include exceptions to their non-disclosure provisions for service +providers who "may divulge" the content of a communication to a law +enforcement agency if the contents "appear to pertain to the +commission of a crime." Bulletin board operators have voiced concern +over the ambiguity of this provision, questioning if it implies a duty +on their part to report on the content of their boards. + + THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER: SOME SKIRMISHES + + It is by no means a foregone conclusion among potential +regulators of electronic speech that it is wholly protected by the +First Amendment, but even if that were agreed upon, the issue of how +to determine the limits of what is permissible, desirable and +necessary would still loom large. The discussion has been framed by a +set of paradigms, in which the electronic forum is portrayed as a mix +of the past - - the American frontier -- and a wholly new phenomenon, +Cyberspace. + + The term Cyberspace comes from William Gibson's novel, +Neuromancer. It is the "place" telephone conversations and most +financial transactions exist, the home of cyberpunks, and the bane of +those who prefer to keep personal information private. Though subject +to legal and social pressures, there is still something untamed about +it, and so, a writer in Wyoming named John Perry Barlow coined the +term "the electronic frontier." + + Hoping to seize the initiative in taming this territory, Barlow +teamed up with computer entrepreneur Mitch Kapor to create the +Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Since it began in July 1990, the +EFF has provided guidance to legislators and courts about civil +liberties on the frontier, and legal assistance to those whose +liberties have been threatened. + + Frontier Law + + Even with much of its territory up for grabs, Cyberspace has been +populated for some time, albeit by groups with widely divergent +perceptions of the communal good. On one side are "hackers," a +sometimes pejorative term, but used neutrally here to describe people +who gain unauthorized access to computers for whatever purpose. These +hackers see themselves as unfettered, adventuresome cowboys who, in +keeping with the frontier myth, are being fenced in by the settlers -- +the business interests who have staked claim to the terrain -- and by +the law that tends to protect these established interests. + + The cowboys defend computer hacking as a harmless pastime, as a +pioneering activity that expands the boundaries of what is +electronically possible, or as a political response to proprietary +interests and individual profit. The settlers attack it as criminal, +antisocial and malicious activity that costs everyone in money and +security. By some estimates, computer crime accounts for as much as $5 +billion in losses to government and business yearly. + + One of the most publicized cases of computer crime involved a +virus (a software program that can alter data or erase a computer's +memory) that was unleashed in 1988 over InterNet, an international +computer network. The virus, known as the Worm, was written by Robert +Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University, who claimed that he +had created it as a prank before it got loose and infected thousands +of government and academic computers. As a first-time offender, Morris +was given a light sentence, but the principle established by the case +has been allowed to remain: to get a conviction for computer abuse, +the government need only prove unauthorized access, not intent to +harm. This ruling has been compared to punishing a trespasser for the +more serious offense of burglary or arson. + + The Morris virus not withstanding, the bulk of computer crime is +not committed by hackers, but involves credit card fraud or theft by +people within large companies, which are often reluctant to report it +and publicize their vulnerability. In setting up the Electronic +Frontier Foundation, Barlow and Kapor were reacting most directly to +Operation Sun Devil, a part of a federal effort to combat computer +crime, which had as its most visible targets young computer hackers +and their systems of communication. + + On May 8, 1990, armed with 28 search warrants in 14 cities, +Secret Service agents seized at least 40 computers and over 50,000 +disks of data from individuals they suspected of possessing illegally- +obtained information. Only seven arrests resulted, although the +government kept and searched the computers and software of more who +were not charged. Information obtained by CPSR under a Freedom of +Information request reveals that the Secret Service had been +monitoring on-line communication and keeping files on individuals who +had committed no crime for several years prior to the raids. + + Steve Jackson Games + + The February before the Sun Devil raids, a grand jury indicted +Craig Neidorf, a student and the publisher of an electronic magazine +called Phrack, for reprinting a document stolen from a Bell South +computer. Three hackers had already been sentenced to prison for +stealing the document, which concerned a 911 emergency system. The +phone company claimed the document was highly sensitive and set its +value at $79,499. When Neidorf's case came to trial that July, +however, it was revealed that the document was publicly available at a +cost of $30. The government dropped the charges, but the magazine had +already ceased publication, and Neidorf had incurred about $100,000 in +legal costs. + + The Bell South file had been made available to bulletin board +systems (BBSs) around the country, including one operated by an +employee of Steve Jackson Games (SJG), a creator and publisher of +computer games in Austin, Texas. While looking for evidence against +the employee, Secret Service agents searched the bulletin board run by +Jackson and found the draft of a rule book for a fantasy game called +GURPS Cyberpunk. They decided it was a manual for breaking into +computers. + + On March 1, 1990, agents raided SJG and seized computers, drafts +of the game, and all the information and private communication stored +on the computer used for the bulletin board. Jackson was never charged +with a crime, but none of his equipment or files was returned until +nearly four months later. He was forced to lay off half of his +employees and estimates that the raid cost him $125,000 in publishing +delays. This is a small-scale equivalent of seizing the printing +presses and files of The New York Times because the Pentagon papers +were found on their premises; such raids are expressly forbidden by +the Privacy Protection Act. + + With the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Jackson is +suing the Secret Service for violating his Constitutional rights. +Specifically, his lawyers are arguing that the request for the search +warrant caused a prior restraint of a publication, was misleading +because it did not tell the judge that SJG was a publisher, did not +meet the specificity requirement of the Fourth Amendment, and failed +to establish probable cause that criminal activity was taking place. +The case is in litigation. + + Meanwhile, the EFF has been working on model search and seizure +guidelines, which they hope to persuade the American Bar Association +to adopt in place of its current guidelines for the issuance of search +warrants relating to business records. In an attempt to make searches +less intrusive and destructive, EFF recommends that: + + 1. computers used for publishing or electronic bulletin boards be +afforded the same First Amendment protections as other means of +publication; + 2. in determining if just cause for seizure of equipment and +software exists, judges shift the emphasis from what is +technologically possible (e.g. an electronic trip wire that can erase +all data) to what is likely to happen; + 3. the search of computer disks take place on a business's +premises, whenever possible; + 4. under most circumstances, computers be seized only when they +are the instruments of a crime. + + Bulletin Boards + + Electronic bulletin board systems are an increasingly pervasive +mode of electronic communication and probably the most vulnerable to +censorship. Part of the problem stems from a lack of definition. Are +bulletin boards publishers, common carriers, broadcasters, electronic +file cabinets, owners of intellectual property, private forums, +libraries, newsstands, a combination, or none of the above? How they +are categorized will determine if and how they are regulated. + + BBSs are relatively new, dating from about 1978; today, as many +as 60,000 may be operating in the U.S. Though most are small and +specialized, the government operates several big ones, such as +InterNet, and businesses run others, including the two largest: +Prodigy (owned by IBM and Sears) and CompuServe (a subsidiary of H & R +Block). These BBSs allow individuals to "log on" to a host computer by +use of a modem and telephone lines. Once they are hooked up, users can +participate in electronic conferences, or conversations, send +electronic or E-mail to specific individuals, and "post" messages +directed at a general audience. + + Most BBSs neither monitor nor control E-mail, but many edit or +otherwise restrict the messages on their bulletin boards. Some, such +as the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (the WELL) in Sausalito, CA, place +all responsibility for words posted on their system with the author, +removing only clearly illegal or libelous material. The WELL +community of about 5,000 members so far has regulated itself +effectively. Other systems are less tolerant. + + In 1988, Stanford University attempted to block a jokes section +of the bulletin board Usenet after becoming aware of an ethnically +derogatory joke posted on it. The ban, though official policy, could +not be implemented technically, and the jokes continued to be +available throughout the campus. After a protest by students and +faculty, the ban was lifted. + + Prodigy has been more successful in controlling the content of +its bulletin board. It claims the right to do so as a private company +contracting with customers to deliver a service, and as a publisher +selecting the content of its on-line publication much as an editor +edits a letters-to-the-editor page. Messages are first scanned by a +computer to catch words and phrases Prodigy deems offensive, then +vetted by employees before being posted. + + This editing has made for considerable controversy in Prodigy's +three years of existence. In 1989, Prodigy cut out a section of its +bulletin board called "health spa" after a yeasty exchange between +homosexuals and fundamentalists. The next year, it banned messages +from members protesting its pricing and editorial policies. Then this +past year, the Anti-Defamation League publicly condemned the bulletin +board for carrying grossly anti-Semitic messages. Prodigy responded +that the messages were protected speech, but added the puzzling +explanation that it made a distinction between derogatory messages +aimed at individuals and those aimed at groups. + + The question of what legal precedent to apply to bulletin boards +moved closer to resolution with a court ruling late in 1991. In Cubby +v. CompuServe, an electronic newsletter called Skuttlebut claimed that +it had been defamed by a competitor known as Rumorville, which +CompuServe publishes on its Journalism Forum. A federal judge in New +York likened electronic bulletin boards neither to publishers nor +common carriers, but to distributors of information such as +newsstands, bookstores and libraries to which a lower standard of +liability applies. He decided, therefore, that CompuServe could not be +held liable for statements published through its electronic library, +particularly because it had no reason to know what was contained +there. + + + ELECTRONIC INFORMATION AND PRIVACY + + Private facts about individuals are much easier to gather and +store on computer than on paper and are much more accessible to +unauthorized scrutiny. Thus, computer monitoring challenges +traditional expectations of privacy, exposes nearly every facet of an +individual's life to potential public view and commercial use, alters +the relationship between employers and employees, and opens the way +for unprecedented government surveillance of citizens. For these +reasons, concerns about the courts' vitiating the Fourth Amendment +intensify when computer-based communication and surveillance are +involved. + + Gary Marx, professor of sociology at MIT, notes ten +characteristics of new kinds of computer- based monitoring that make +them particularly intrusive: + They transcend boundaries...that traditionally protect privacy. + They permit the inexpensive and immediate sharing and merging + and reproducing of information. + They permit combining discrete types of information. + They permit altering data. + They involve remote access which complicates accountability issues + They may be done invisibly + They can be done without the subject's knowledge or consent. + They are more intensive. + They reveal previously inaccessible information. + They are also more extensive and they cover broader areas. + + Privacy and Property + + At a meeting of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility +held in Cambridge, MA October 1991, John Shattuck, Vice President for +Government, Community and Public Affairs at Harvard University, noted +that when the Bill of Rights was written, personal liberty was closely +linked to private property. Thus, the Fourth Amendment protected +concrete things and places from unreasonable government intrusion. + + This idea was first upheld in relation to electronic technology +in 1928, when the Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. United States +that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to wiretapping because +telephone communication was not a material thing. (It was in his +dissent on this ruling that Justice Brandeis defined privacy as "the +right to be left alone.") + + The principle of protection for tangible property remained +largely unchallenged until 1967. Then, in Katz v. United States, the +Supreme Court decided that the Fourth Amendment "protects people, not +places," and was, therefore, applicable to wiretapping and electronic +eavesdropping. This decision brought a person's ideas, politics and +communication under the Amendment's protection for the first time, and +set "reasonable expectation" as the standard by which to measure +privacy rights. According to Shattuck, it also began a revolution in +Fourth Amendment law. + + From 1967 until the Electronic Communication Protection Act was +passed in 1986, the only electronic communication covered by law was +what could be heard. Nearly all computer-based communication remained +outside traditional and legal privacy protections, even as it was +becoming the dominant technology. + + Much of digital communication in the U.S., including medical, +insurance, personnel and retail transactions still lacks firm legal +protection from intrusion, and the FBI recently proposed legislation +that would require that all new telephone systems be designed to allow +wiretapping, an ability the agency fears is endangered by new +technology. In the privacy arena, the United States still lags far +behind Canada, Australia and Western Europe, where at least six +countries have a constitutional right to privacy and data protection. +Commercial Uses + + The Fourth Amendment and the Privacy Protection Act apply only to +the federal government, leaving commercial intrusion to be addressed +piecemeal over the past two decades. For instance, the Supreme Court +ruled in 1976 that there was no constitutional protection for personal +information held by a bank because bank customers do not own these +documents. In response, Congress passed the Right to Financial Privacy +Act two years later to create a statutory protection for bank records. + + In 1977, the federal Privacy Protection Study Commission looked +at the Privacy Act, seen then as a flawed compromise, and issued over +100 recommendations, many of which died at birth. However, one +recommendation -- that the Privacy Act not be extended to the private +sector, which should be allowed to comply voluntarily -- was more or +less adopted by default. + + Other laws have since been passed to control private access to +personal information, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (1970), +the Debt Collection Act (1982), the Cable Communications Policy Act +(1984) and the Video Privacy Protection Act (1988). Recently, Rep. +Robert Wise (D- WV), chair of the Subcommittee on Government +Operations, tried to establish a Data Protection Commission, but +without giving it regulatory power. + + As technology makes its easier to match databases and repackage +personal information in commercially valuable forms, unease increases +over the amount of information gathered and retained, where it comes +from, how accurate it is, what use is made of it, and how individuals +can control that use, especially when it is reused. Again, computers +exacerbate the problem because they create a pervasive and long- +lasting information trail that is decreasingly under the control of +the individual involved. + + Often there is no direct relationship between individuals and the +keeper of information about them, as with credit bureaus. Other +businesses, such as telephone companies and airlines, collect +information routinely without external regulation of who sees the +records or how long they are kept. Even when there is an intimate +connection, as with medical information, the lack of legal protection +allows genetic information and records of job-related injuries, for +example, to end up in private databases that are available to +employers and insurance companies. + + Control over one's personal facts becomes even more tenuous when +data collected by one organization are sold to another, which happens +regularly without the individual's consent. This "second use" takes +place primarily among businesses, but non-profit groups sell their +mailing lists, and government agencies compare databases with +businesses and each other: tax returns with welfare or student-loan +records, for example. In 1991, Governor William Weld of Massachusetts +proposed selling computer access to state Registry of Motor Vehicles +records to private companies, but was dissuaded by vocal legislative +opposition to the plan. + + Privacy advocates are also troubled by deceptive data collection +techniques and inaccurate information that can be difficult and +expensive to correct. In July 1991, six state attorneys general sued +TRW, one of the three big credit-reporting companies, for failure to +correct major reporting errors. TRW eventually agreed to supply +individuals with free copies of their credit files on request; other +companies still charge for such reports. + + Computers also provide a mechanism for fighting this Big Brother +scenario. In 1990, Lotus Marketplace worked with Equifax, another +consumer data collector, to put portions of its database onto compact +disk so that marketing information about individuals could be sold in +a convenient format to businesses. When the plan became public, it +occasioned an outcry of surprising proportions -- about 30,000 +responses, many from people who had learned about the project through +electronic forums, and nearly all negative. In January 1991, Equifax +and Lotus bowed to the pressure and scrapped the project. Privacy +Protections + + For the past several years, privacy advocates have been working +to pass policies and laws to protect individuals from the unwanted +intrusions into their personal lives that computers make easy and +appealing to businesses. The guiding principles for privacy policy are +well summed up in a 1989 paper written by Jerry Berman and Janlori +Goldman for the Benton Foundation: + 1. Information collected for one purpose should not be used for a +different purpose without the individual's consent. + 2. Policy should be developed with an eye towards new advances in +information technology and telecommunications. + 3. Legal limits should be placed on the collection and use of +sensitive information -- the more sensitive the information, the more +rigorous the disclosure standard. + 4. Individuals must be provided with easy access to their +records, including access to computerized records, for the purpose of +copying, correcting, or completing information in the records. + 5. Exemptions for non-disclosure should be clearly justified and +narrowly tailored to suit the requester's need. + 6. Legislation should include enforcement mechanisms, such as +injunctive relief, damages, criminal penalties, and reimbursement of +attorney's fees and costs. + + Watching Employees + + Also in the private sector, computers are increasingly being used +to track employees' use of time, productivity, and communication with +each other and the public. According to Karen Nussbaum, Executive +Director of 9to5, the national organization of office workers, the +work of 26 million employees is monitored electronically, and the +evaluation and pay of 10 million is determined by computer-generated +statistics. This kind of monitoring is more intrusive than human +supervision, she points out, because it watches the personal habits of +employees and because it is constant. + + As a form of surveillance, employers often reserve the right to +read the electronic mail of employees and may do so because the +Electronic Communications Privacy Act protects electronic mail only on +public networks. The E-mail systems of large corporations, including +Federal Express and American Airlines, automatically inform workers +that the company may read mail sent over the systems. Other companies +do not inform, but read anyway. When an employee of Epson America, a +California- based computer company, learned that this was the +company's practice and complained, she was fired the next day. Her +lawsuit charging wrongful termination is in litigation. + + In the fall of 1991, Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL) introduced +legislation (S. 516) which would require that employees and customers +be notified if their electronic communication and telephone +conversations are being monitored, either in specific instances or as +a policy of their employer. Rep. Pat Williams (D-MT) has introduced +similar legislation in the House (HR. 1218), and both bills are in +committee. Government Surveillance + + The United States government is the largest collector of +information about people in this country and perhaps the largest +keeper of personal information in the world. This information consists +mostly of separate records, such as tax and social security files, but +in a 1986 study, Congress's Office of Technology Assessment determined +that, because these files can be matched and combined, a de facto +national database on Americans already exists. + + Other information is gathered by surveillance. The FBI's National +Crime Information System (NCIC) is a high-speed, computerized system +containing criminal justice information, including Secret Service +investigations, missing person files, and criminal histories or "rap +sheets." The system began in 1967 and now runs about one million +transactions each day. Information is maintained on a computer in +Washington, DC, which is connected to each state and to 60,000 offices +including those of sheriffs, prosecutors, courts, prisons, and +military investigators. For instance, a police officer using the NCIC +system to find out if a driver he or she has stopped is wanted for a +crime can call up fingerprints and photos on the database to make an +on-the-spot identification. + + The NCIC is proud of the efficiency of its system and claims that +it has built in safeguards against inaccuracy and abuse. Civil +libertarians, however, have doubts. In addition questioning whether +arrests for current actions should be made on the basis of past +behavior, they point out that data on arrests may be stored separately +from data on convictions, and that computers make it harder to control +the spread of inaccurate, outdated or ambiguous information. They also +fear that the ease in using the system will encourage police to be +less discerning in stopping people for investigation. + + There is concern too that the system can be used for purposes +other than criminal justice, with information shared when someone +applies for a government or military job or a professional license. In +1988, the FBI suggested connecting the NCIC to the computers of the +Department of Health and Human Services, the IRS, the Social Security +Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service; the +plan was eventually defeated. More recently, alarms were raised by +disclosures that the FBI conducted years of surveillance of political +opponents of the Reagan administration's Central American policy, +though they had committed no crime. + + Library Awareness Program + + On June 8, 1987, a clerk at Columbia University's Math/ Science +Library was approached by two FBI agents who asked for information +about "foreigners" using the library. This was, the agents said, part +of the Library Awareness Program under which the FBI tried to enlist +the assistance of librarians in monitoring the reading habits of +"suspicious" individuals, variously defined as people with Eastern +European or Russian-sounding names or accents, or coming from +countries hostile to the U.S. + + It is still unclear how extensive the program is -- FBI officials +have given contradictory information -- but the American Library +Association (ALA) has verified 22 visits in various parts of the +country that appear to have had the same purpose, and, in one +statement, the FBI said the program was 25 years old. The FBI has also +requested computerized check-out records from technical and science +libraries and has asked private information providers, including Mead +Data Central and Charles E. Simon Co., to help monitor use of their +databases. Although public and university libraries do not have +classified information, the FBI has justified its interest in library +use by a version of the "information mosaic" theory: that discrete and +benign pieces of information can be put together to present a danger +to national security and therefore need to be controlled. + + Monitoring library usage is illegal in 44 states and the District +of Columbia and violates an ALA policy, dating from 1970, that +prohibits the disclosure of information about patrons' reading habits. + + In July 1987, the ALA wrote the FBI to inquire about the Library +Awareness Program, and the National Security Archive filed an FOIA +request asking for records about the program. The FBI responded that +it had no records under that name, and Quin Shea, who was then Special +Counsel to the Archive, says they probably didn't, since the real name +of the program is classified. The Archive filed a second FOIA request +that September, and the ALA filed its own requests in October and +December. + + In September 1988, the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee met +with high-level representatives of the FBI. That same month, FBI +Director William Sessions wrote Rep. Don Edwards (D-CA) that the +program would be limited to technical libraries in the New York City +area, presumably where the concentration of spies is greatest, and +that cooperation of librarians would be voluntary. It was only in the +summer of 1989, after Edwards and other members of Congress had gotten +involved and the Archive had sued the FBI, that about 1200 pages of +documents were released. These showed, among other things, that some +librarians did cooperate. The Archive is again suing the FBI for the +release of more material. + + ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION + + Privacy advocates and policy makers have long emphasized the +importance of an individual's right to review information held about +him or her. But, though the federal government has been collecting +large amounts of information since the end of the last century, the +public's right to monitor that information and the government's +activities, has gained cache only fairly recently. + + The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed in 1966, and +strengthened in 1974, followed in 1976 by the Sunshine Act. These laws +gave the public greater access to information about government +practices and decision making. Significantly, this swing toward +openness in government took place at the same time that technological +developments provided the government with ever greater information- +collecting abilities. + + Information policy, the means by which government information is +made available, can be divided into three broad categories: +disclosure, access and dissemination. The past decade has seen +cutbacks in all three areas: for example, a 10% annual increase in +classification decisions since 1982; the elimination or privatization +of one in four government publications since 1981 under the Paperwork +Reduction Act; and foot dragging or outright hostility on Freedom of +Information requests. In addition, the computerization of government +operations has consistently been designed for bureaucratic efficiency +with little interest in increased openness or access. Electronic +Access and Freedom of Information + + One major area of debate in information policy is the effect of +computerization on the FOIA. Theoretically at least, it is easier to +search and retrieve records by computer than by hand, thereby +lessening the burden on the responding agency and making them more +amenable to FOI requests. But it is also likely that the volume and +variety of requests will grow as the possibilities of information +searches become apparent. + + The Act mandates that records of the executive branch of +government be available to the public on request, exempting only nine +narrowly-defined categories, and it is almost universally accepted by +now that electronic records are covered along with those on paper. +There have been legal decisions to the contrary, which have placed +privacy above disclosure concerns, but these have usually involved +requests for information to be used commercially. + + However, since the FOIA was written with paper records in mind, +it left unaddressed the questions of what constitutes a record and a +reasonable search, and what format is required for making information +available. These and other disputes are currently being arbitrated by +the courts, Congress and the agencies involved. The balancing act +between access and privacy also becomes trickier with electronic +storage of information. In 1977, the Supreme Court looked at a state's +records of people who obtained prescription drugs legally and +determined that this centralized file included sufficient safeguards +to protect privacy, making it constitutional. Still, the Court found +that government collection of personal information did pose a threat +to privacy because "that central computer storage of the data thus +collected...vastly increases the potential for abuse of that +information." A similar privacy concern informed a more recent Supreme +Court decision in which the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the +Press was denied access to FBI criminal history records in +computerized form. + + In addition to arguing against disclosure on privacy grounds, the +Justice Department has opposed requests for records analyzed and +combined by computer, maintaining that this is equivalent to creating +a new record, something the FOIA does not require an agency to do. +Independent studies, however, tend to conclude that this is more like +searching through an electronic filing cabinet and suggest that +disputes be settled by applying a standard of reasonable effort, a +term yet to be defined satisfactorily. + + A third major area of dispute is the form in which the requested +information is made available. This problem arises in two different +situations: where the data exist in more than one format and a +requester has a preference, and where they do not exist in the format +requested. The first is more common and more controversial. In 1984, a +district court ruled that the government does not have to provide +information in a requested format in order to fulfill its FOIA +obligation (Dismukes v. Department of Interior, 603 F. Supp. 760 (DDC +1984)). But in Department of Justice v. Tax Analysts (492 U.S. 136 +(1989)), the court determined that an agency can withhold a record +only if it falls under one of the delineated exemptions. This ruling +suggests that such a rationale would override Dismukes in a new court +case. + + In 1989, the Justice Department asked federal agencies how they +viewed their obligations under FOIA to provide electronic information. +The survey found wide variation among agencies, but a tendency against +disclosure: + # 76% of the respondents did not think the law required them to +create new, or modify existing, computer programs to search for +requested information; + # 47% did not think they had to create new programs to separate +disclosable from classified information; + # 59% did not think the FOIA required them to comply with the +requested format. + + Sen. Leahy is attempting to codify these requirements through a +proposed Electronic Freedom of Information Improvement Act (S. 1939), +which will come up for a hearing this spring. This amendment to the +FOIA would require agencies to provide records in the form requested +and make a reasonable effort to provide them in electronic form, if +requested, even if they are not usually kept that way. It defines +"record" to include "...computer programs, machine readable materials +and computerized, digitized, and electronic information, regardless of +the medium by which it is stored..." "Search" is defined to include +automated examination to locate records. + + While many researchers and journalists support Leahy's bill, some +public interest groups worry that, like other legislation targeting +electronic communication, this will draw unwelcome scrutiny to the +issue. Instead, they support an evolutionary process involving +education and specific appeals to agencies. + + Transactional Data and the IRS + + The manipulation of data in a usable format is a useful tool in +analyzing how government agencies really work. One particularly rich +vein is transactional information, data recorded by government +agencies in the course of their work. When this information is matched +with other statistics, it can be analyzed to reveal what might +otherwise be obscured about the activities of the government. + + A successful practitioner of this kind of investigation is +investigative journalist David Burnham. In A Law Unto Itself: Power, +Politics and the IRS, Burnham reports that computerized files obtained +from the IRS revealed that audit rates vary widely among sections of +the country, as does the likelihood of property seizure for delinquent +taxes. He also discovered that there had been no increase in non- +compliance rates over the past 15 years, although the IRS used the +threat of increasing tax evasion as a basis for requesting new money +for enforcement. The IRS had failed to adjust for inflation or margin +of error in their calculations. + + Burnham drew some of his conclusions from the work of Susan Long, +Director of the Center for Tax Studies at Syracuse University. Burnham +and Long founded the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) +with the goal of forcing the release of government data not available +before. Long, who began her siege on the IRS in 1969, filed 13 FOIA +requests to that agency and frequently took it to court to force it to +open its records. She won a precedent-setting victory in Long v. IRS +(596 F. 2nd 362 (9th Cir. 1979), with a ruling that the FOIA +definition of "record" covered data on computer tapes. Her lawsuit, +concerned the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program (TCMP), which +measures the effectiveness of the IRS system and determines who will +be audited. Although the data produced were kept so secret that they +were withheld even from the Government Accounting Office, Long found +that the information had little effect on the IRS's audit coverage, +even when it pointed up regions or classes that were under- audited. + + ENHANCING FREE EXPRESSION WITHIN THE ELECTRONIC FORUM + + The dangers of assuming that because a technology is value-free +and neutral, the uses to which it is put will also be benign are well- +documented and real. But for all the new or magnified threats to +individual liberties arising from computer-assisted communication, the +electronic forum also offers the means to increase those liberties by +expanding the possibilities for talking and working together and for +building political and social alliances. Widespread and fairly +allocated computerized resources can offer: increased citizen +participation in and oversight of government affairs; assembly, +organizing and debate unrestricted by geographical distances or +boundaries; decentralized decision making; a challenge to news and +publishing monopolies; rapid international exchange of information; +and individually-tailored, focused information to combat the +information glut that interferes with communication. + + Stewart Brand has said that information wants to be free, and +this may be nowhere more true than in electronic communication, which, +by its very design, abhors censorship and monopolies (though history +has proven that technology does not outsmart repression for long). It +is important that those concerned with civil liberties enter the +electronic forum with a mixture of optimism and vigilance and take +part in the debate on its future while that debate is still open. + + +FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: + + +Berman, Jerry and Janlori Goldman. +A Federal Right of Information Privacy: The Need for Reform. +Washington, DC: Benton Foundation, 1989. + +Berman, Jerry. "The Right to Know: Public Access to Electronic +Public Information." Software Law Journal +Summer 1989:491-530 (reprinted by The Markle Foundation). + +Burnham, David. A Law Unto Itself: Power, Politics and the IRS. NY: +Random House, 1989. + + " " The Rise of the Computer State. NY: Random House, 1983. + +Demac, Donna A. "The Electronic Book." American Writer Winter 1992. + +Ermann, M. David et al. Computers, Ethics, & Society. NY: Oxford UP, +1990. + +Index on Censorship July 1991. Section on computers and free speech. + +"Is Computer Hacking a Crime? A Debate From the Electronic +Underground." Harper's March 1990:45-57. + +Lacayo, Richard. "Nowhere to Hide." Time 11/11/91: 34-40. + +Office of Information and Privacy. Department of Justice Report on +"Electronic Record" Issues Under the Freedom of Information Act. +Washington, DC, 1990. + +Perritt, Henry H. Jr. (prepared report). Electronic Public Information +and the Public's Right to Know. +Washington, DC: Benton Foundation, 1990. + +Pool, Ithiel de Sola. Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge, MA: +Harvard UP, 1983. + +Proceedings of The First Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy. +Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer +Society Press, 1991. + +Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. +Access to Electronic Records. Washington, DC, 1990. + +Rosenberg, Roni. Selected and Annotated Bibliography on +Computers and Privacy. Palo Alto: Computer +Professionals for Social Responsibility. + +Scientific American. Special issue on communications, computers +and networks. Sept. 1991. + +Shattuck, John and Muriel Morisey Spence. Government Information +Controls: Implications for Scholarship, +Science and Technology. Association of American Universities +occasional paper, 1988. + +Westin, Alan. Privacy and Freedom. NY: Atheneum, 1967. + + +RESOURCES + +ACLU Project on Privacy and Technology +122 Maryland Avenue, NE +Washington, DC 20002 +(202) 675-2320 +privacy issues + +Computer Professionals for Social +Responsibility +National Office +P.O. Box 717 +Palo Alto, CA 94302 +415/322-3778 +general political and social issues + +Electronic Frontier Foundation +155 Second Street +Cambridge, MA 02141 +617/864-0665 +general political and legal issues + +National Writers Union +13 Astor Place, 7th floor +New York, NY 10003 +(212) 254-0279 +intellectual property issues + +Public Citizen +2000 P Street, Suite 700 +Washington, DC 20036 +(202) 833-3000 +privacy issues + +Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press +1735 Eye Street, NW, suite 504 +Washington, DC 20006 +(202) 466-6312 +access to government information + +Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse +478 Newhouse II +Syracuse, NY 13244 +(315) 443-3563 +access to government information + + +For more information, contact: +Gara LaMarche, (212) 972-8400 (o) +(718) 789-5808 (h) + * * * + + +This newsletter is a publication of the Fund for Free Expression, +which was created in 1975 to monitor and combat censorship around the +world and in the United States. It was researched and written by Nan +Levinson,a freelance writer based in Boston and the U.S. correspondent +for Index on Censorship. + +The Chair of the Fund for Free Expression is Roland Algrant; Vice +Chairs, Aryeh Neier and Robert Wedgeworth; Executive Director, Gara +LaMarche; Associate, Lydia Lobenthal. The members are Alice Arlen, +Robert L. Bernstein, Tom A. Bernstein, Hortense Calisher, Geoffrey +Cowan, Dorothy Cullman, Patricia Derian, Adrian DeWind, Irene Diamond, +E.L. Doctorow, Norman Dorsen, Alan Finberg, Francis FitzGerald, Jack +Greenberg, Vartan Gregorian, S. Miller Harris, Alice H. Henkin, Pam +Hill, Joseph Hofheimer, Lawrence Hughes, Ellen Hume, Anne M. Johnson, +Mark Kaplan, Stephen Kass, William Koshland, Judith F. Krug, Jeri +Laber, Anthony Lewis, William Loverd, Wendy Luers, John Macro, III, +Michael Massing, Nancy Meiselas, Arthur Miller, The Rt. Rev. Paul +Moore, Jr., Toni Morrison, Peter Osnos, Bruce Rabb, Geoffrey Cobb +Ryan, John G. Ryden, Steven R. Shapiro, Jerome Shestack, Nadine +Strossen, Rose Styron, Hector Timerman, John Updike, Luisa Valenzuela, +Nicholas A. Veliotes, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Gregory Wallance and Roger +Wilkins. + +The Fund for Free Expression is a division of Human Rights Watch, +which also includes Africa Watch, Americas Watch, Asia Watch, Helsinki +Watch, Middle East Watch, and special projects on Prisoners' Rights +and Women's Rights. The Chair is Robert L. Bernstein and the Vice +Chair is Adrian W. DeWind. Aryeh Neier is Executive Director; Kenneth +Roth, Deputy Director; Holly J. Burkhalter, Washington Director; Susan +Osnos, Press Director. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/elfwars.asc b/textfiles.com/politics/elfwars.asc new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a01a4c3b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/elfwars.asc @@ -0,0 +1,726 @@ + + + + + (word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) + Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 + Sponsored by Vangard Sciences + PO BOX 1031 + Mesquite, TX 75150 + + There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS + on duplicating, publishing or distributing the + files on KeelyNet except where noted! + + September 29, 1992 + + ELFWARS.ASC + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Don Kircher. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + MYSTERIOUS ELF SOUND AGONIZES NEW MEXICO; + SPREADS ACROSS THE NATION + By Jim Moore, Executive Director, The Phoenix Foundation + Copyright 1992 by the Phoenix Foundation. All rights reserved. + Reprinted with permission. + + In the desolate hills and canyons of New Mexico, the land is alive + with some strange phenomenon that pulsates in the hearts of the + people, driving them to exhaustion, distraction and illness. That + phenomenon is known simply as "The Sound". Is it some top-secret + underground operation in an area known for its legends about Area 51 + and alien bases? Is it an underground generator? Water? Wind? Or is, + as some claim, "the voice of God" demanding attention? + + The Phoenix Foundation was recently asked to conduct an + investigation by dozens of people whose lives are being torn apart + by a throbbing, pulsating noise that results in severe headaches, + nausea, illnesses and even broken marriages. There's no doubt "The + Sound" is real. + + Dana Hougland, an acoustic engineer with the firm of David L. Adams + Associates, Inc. of Denver, brought her equipment to Taos in + response to a plea for help from Catanya Saltzman and her husband, + Bob, who contacted the Phoenix Foundation. + + Hougland, who said her interest was sparked by Catanya's detailed + records of the sound, identified it as being some sort of powerful + pulse of 17 hertz, with overtones up to 70 hertz. The Environmental + Protection Agency has ruled these frequencies "psychoactive", + meaning they have pronounced and harmful biological effects. + + The story of "The Sound" reeks with drama. The Saltzmans have + received telephone threats warning them to "back off" and "don't + stick your nose into something that's none of your business." The + Taos News has also received anonymous threats. Marriages have been + ruined because some people hear it - or feel it - and others don't. + The normal range for human hearing begins at about 20-30 hertz, but + women and children are more sensitive to these frequencies - and to + higher frequencies - than men, according to video display terminal + and other studies. + + Hougland is very skeptical that the sound is related to underground + + Page 1 + + + + + + activities at nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory, about 56 miles + away. "That would be a world record," she said, citing the distance + a sound travels through any medium but open water before it + dissipates. The sound is low and the waves so elongated, she said, + that some people can feel it vibrating inside their chests. "Other + constant sound exposure with pure-tone components" - like prolonged + traffic noise or the sound one hears flying inside a jet - often + result in complainst of discomfort and illness similar to those + reported in several cities in New Mexico and now in other states, + such as Michigan and Texas. + + The most apparent culprits, Hougland says, are a local sewage + treatment plant, power lines spanning the Rio Grande Gorge, large + underground machinery, large tunnels or mine shafts through which + wind and/or water is moving in large volumes at high speeds. But + that fails to explain similar sounds in far-off locations. "I'm not + ruling anything out," she said. "It would take an awful lot of + energy to transfer the sound waves out of the ground and through the + air." + + Attempts to pinpoint a source, even with triangulation methods, have + been fruitless. Also, Hougland is skeptical about natural sources + because the sound wasn't noticed until suddenly in about June 1991. + "I'm sure the sound is there," she said. "There is a legitimate + problem here to be l;ooked at. But we're not dealing with something + horribly bizarre her4e. It's probably a very common source." Others + aren't so sure. + + "We've been inundated with people claiming there are aliens running + around in underground bases," Catanya said. "But I do not believe in + UFOs and aliens." Yet the possibility cannot be overlooked entirely. + Catanya and most of her Taos neighbors are not familiar with the + claims of people like Bill Hamilton who claim extraterrestrials are + living in huge underground bases near Groom Lake, Nevada, not far + from Taos. When I placed an overlay of a map pinpointing The Sound + locations over a map of alleged underground alien bases, they + matched almost precisely. + + The bizarre events at Groom Lake have been widely reported in People + Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Taos News and + elsewhere. Groom Lake is said to be a testing ground for alien + craft piloted by human pilots working with extraterrestrials. It is + known to be where the Stealth bomber and fighter were developed and + tested and where a new, saucer-shaped craft is being flown. Another + possibility - just as coinspiratorial - is that the government is + developing some kind of powerful, extremely low frequency "mind + control" weapon and testing it on an unwitting population. An Air + Force lieutenant at Kirtland Air Force Base guardedly acknowledged + that the Air Force was well aware of the complaints - and wanted to + know why we wanted to know more. + + The sound is hauntingly familiar to the Woodpecker Signal, a + psychoactive Soviet pulse beamed worldwide at 10 hertz that + disrupted global communications, aircraft flights, and even - some + say - the weather. It was the same signal beamed at the US Embassy + in Moscow since 1963 that caused a dramatic increase in birth + defects and cancer among embassy personnel. Two ambassadors in a row + died of cancer and a third, Walter Stoessel, left with bleeding + eyes. President Kennedy authorized Operation Pandora, a top-secret + + Page 2 + + + + + + investigation. The report is still top-secret. + + The Phoenix Foundation, through the Freedom of Information Act, has + obtained once-classified documents from the CIA and DIA (Defense + Intelligence Agency) that prove beyond a doubt that the United + States has developed this technology as a weapon "to mold human + behavior in a manner consonant with national plans." The judge in + the Judas Priest "subliminal music" trial a few years back cited a + litany of CIA use of "mind control" to influence national elections, + but those written comments never made it into the mainstream press - + or any news medium for that matter, until now. + + Catanya Saltzman, 44, who is leading efforts to identify the source + of this puzzle, first heard it in May 1991 in her home eight miles + south of Taos. "In the middle of the night, it woke me up and I + started running all over the house for a place to get away from it, + but I couldn't," she said. "At first, I thought somebody was digging + a well or something." Her husband, Bob, a photographer, couldn't + hear anything at first, then "snapped to it", he said. "Once you've + heard it, it's all over for you." + + The sound has been noted over a wide area - from Tres Piedras on the + west to U.S> Hill on the east, and from 10 miles south of to a few + miles north of Taos. It is heard at all times of the day, but mostly + during the night and early morning hours. Coincidentally perhaps, + that is the time of day when the most intense activity is observed + at Groom Lake. Power lines were the first suspect, but when + electricity was cut off in the area due to a faulty transformer, the + sound continued. "The military conspiracy is the only one which I + haven't entirely ruled out," Bob Saltzman said. To those who are + affected by it, it isn't funny. "People are suffering from this," + said Catanya. "It's real. Your concentration is thrown off. My hands + shake. It's hard to put words together . . . " "The hostility that's + been directed at us is coming from people who can't hear it and + don't want to know about it. It's like ostriches sticking their + heads in the sand." + + The written threat to "back off" was published in the June 18, 1992 + edition of the Taos News weekly newspaper: "Stop snooping where you + don't belong as far as 'the sound' is concerned. Someone may end up + getting hurt, so you'd better cease before it's too late. We mean + business. Don't pry into matters that don't concern you. You may + find something you don't want to know. Beware." + + Editor Jess Williams said the unsigned, typed letter with no return + address bore an Albuquerque postmark (common on internal Taos mail) + and could be either a joke or a serious warning to either the + Saltzmans or to the Taos News. Hougland's firm has worked on sound + insulation on 2,000 homes around Denver's Stapleton Airport and + recent modifications of the city's Boettcher Concert Hall. She said + the 17-hertz signal carries a "rising harmonic" reaching 70 hertz. + She said she, too, could plainly hear the sound. She said a similar + problem in Alabama was traced to a large ventilation fan in an + underground mine. Pumps on sewage equipment can also emit vibrations + in the sub-hearing range. + + Michael Valerio, water resource engineer for Taos, said no recent + additions have been made to the plant that could possibly explain + the noise. He also hears it at his home two miles from the plant. + + Page 3 + + + + + + State Environment Department environmentalist Juan Ortega visited + the area twice. He also heard it, but is baffled for an explanation. + U.S. Bureau of Land Management geologist Vickie Daniels said she and + her two children can hear the pulse from their home on the west side + of the Rio Grand Gorge. She has searched in vain for the cause, and + does not believe it is a natural phenomenon. Neither the Bureau of + Land Management nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has + equipment suitable to test for the source of the sound. + + "My hearing's very poor," said Sally Howell, 79, who lives near the + center of Taos, "but for maybe a year and a half I've been feeling + these weird vibrations in different parts of my body - right where + the ribs come together, inside my ears and headaches." Paul Loumena + and Alexandra Lorraine, owners of the Laughing Horse Inn, stay in a + motel two nights a week just to escape the terror. + + "My theory," Loumena says, "is the noise is above us and the town is + in a swale. Either that, ort the background noise of the town keeps + us from hearing it (when we stay at the motel)." He suspects high- + tension power lines. Jon Samuelson, assistant to the vice president + of external relations at Plains Electric Transmission and Generation + Cooperative in Albuequerque, discounts that. The last change in area + electricity transmission was when a new 345-kilovolt line was built + across the Rio Grand Gorge in 1981. + + K.C. Grams, of Taos' south side, said her husband doesn't hear + anything, but she does. She replaced her home heat pump - but the + sound continued, even from 15 miles away. She first suspected a + neurological problem. When during a function at her child's school, + another mother asked if she heard the hum, she said, "My jaw + dropped. I almost cried. It was very heartening . . . It's very hard + to describe, especially a sound that many people don't hear. All I + can say is that it affects me like scraping fingernails against the + blackboard. It's very irritating." + + "The Sound" has been reported in Albuquerque and in several other + northwest New Mexico cities. Schatzie Hubbell and her husband, of + Santa Fe, are among several who are trying to sell their home and + flee the state. The Hubbles are going to Arizona. "The most common + theory we've heard is, 'Jesus is making this sound to wake you up,'" + said Bob Saltzman. A Los Alamos resident, Helen F. Stanbro, + suggests a medical cause. "The description of the symptoms + accompanying the sound ("jaw joint pain, nausea, vertigo") + immediately suggest an inner ear problem (infection? Meniere's + disease? Temporomandibular joint inflammation - TMJ?)" + + "In the case of the man who described the sound as 'pulsating - + louder and softer - like a slow heartbeat', it alarms me to think + that it is very likely to be exactly that: such audible carotid + bruits are not uncommon and may signal serious condition s such as + arteriovenous fistula, carotid artery disease or even impending + stroke." + + Tom Ladig of Taos suggests wind: + "Out by the Stakeout Restaurant (site of the Saltzman occurence) + there are power poles running roughly east-west along the main + access road. These poles are set quite far apart and have dual lines + well above the trees. Also, there exists a perpendicular set of + poles running roughly north-south in the vicinity." "What may happen + + Page 4 + + + + + + is that the wind causes the wire to vibrate between the poles. Air + in turn is set in motion with waves radiating outwards at (for this + system) subsonic frequencies. + + "A secondary phenomena must alkso be happening. Waves from different + pole-line sets merge over distance and either reduce or add to their + amplitudes. This would account for the energy to rise and fall in + intensity over time but still be subsonic." + + This past May, Albuquerque TV station KOB-Channel 4 broadcast a news + brief about an underground geo-thermal shaft at Los Alamos which was + built to probe into the earth's hot inner core. Some suspect that. + "I live up at the Tierra Blanca," said Peggy S. SParks, "and have + for 50 years. The noise out here is real, fairly recent in origin + and irritating as hell." + + "I only hear the noise at night, when the world is quiet. However, I + had gotten to be quite an insomniac until I started using a fan or + humidifier to block the saound out. "I have spent hours outside at + night trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. By the process of + elimination, the only projects in the last year or so that could + create sound of this magnitude is the generator/pump at the golf + course or the apparatus on top of Picuris Peak." + + What is that "apparatus"? No one knows, beyond it being some sort of + radio transmission tower, perhaps for cellular phone transmissions. + J.C. McLoughlin of Talpa puts forth one of the most bizarre + theories: "I interviewed 'Moonhawk', a spiritual feminist. She says + that deep within the Picuris Mountains, a spaceship full of + immortals from Uranus has lain buried for some 10,000 years. This is + true; Moonhawk told me so. I'm not making this up. + + "The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of frigid clouds of ammonia, + methane and other gases toxic to earthly life. Moonhawk says the + aliens are digging their way up from their hundred centuries' + hiding; the basso profundo we hear are from their vast excavating + machines, and their emergence is at hand. "Not to worry, though, + for these are feminist aliens, Moonhawk says, come to obliterate the + patriarchy. + + "The Space Feminists are going to pour forth from their hole like a + horde of ammonia-quaffing killer hens from hell, to rid the world of + wars, oppression, meat-eating, social injustice, Republicans, + tourism-based economic inequality, suction-cup Garfields, airport + extensions, golf courses and all the other plagues visited upon + long-suffering humanity by the ancient ruling cabal of European + males. "Welcome to the UFO - Universal Feminist Order." + + Oh, well! Rose Woodell of Llano Quemado: "I, too, am hearing and + feeling a low-frequency vibration dating back several months. "When + I leave the Taos Valley my physical discomfort (such as headaches, + nausea, disorientation, etc.) disappear. I had previously thought it + might be some sort of fallout from the Los Alamos area or a chemical + spray. "Could it be aliens? Nah, we'd be sending them foreign aid." + + Secret Military Studies + + September 18, 1990 - A tight lid of secrecy has been clamped on U.S. + military studies of biological effects of electromagnetic field + + Page 5 + + + + + + (EMF) radiation. The Phoenix Foundation, through years of research, + has accumulated a large database of information dealing with the + biological effects of EMF and is the only civilian non-profit + research group in America specifically chartered to explore the + effects of Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) electromagnetic energy. + Over the past two months, the Foundation has released dozens of + documents from its files pertaining to the effects of EMF on + residents living near high-voltage power transmission lines. "The + time has come," says Foundation Executive DirectorJim Moore, "to + push this issue into the public consciousness. For too many years + the research has been classified 'for reasons of national security' + and has been used for advanced weapons research.' The Foundation + claims to have evidence that Americans may have been used as guinea + pigs in nationwide "mind control" experiments involving + electromagnetic fields. Adds Paul Brodeur, staff reporter for The + New Yorker and author of several books, including "The Zapping of + America": "Surely, if the questions that should have been asked + about the various applications of electromagnetic radiation continue + to go unasked about future applications, this nation will one day be + faced with a public health disaster of monumental and perhaps + irreversible proportions." + + The Phoenix Foundation claims that the reason that EMF health + effects continue to be denied is because the military and + electronics industry are in close cooperation over what to make + public about EMF biological studies. As an example, the Foundation + cites a report entitled "Biological Effects of Electromagnetic + Radiation (Radio- waves and Microwaves) -Eurasian Communist + Countries," prepared for the Defense Intelligence Agency by the Army + Medical and Information Agency (you can order a copy of Report No. + DST-181 0S- 074-76). This report was issued in March 1976 as a + classified document. Most of its contents, 26 pages, were + declassified in November of that year after Barton Reppert, of the + Associated Press, wrote letters to the Pentagon requesting that it + be made public under the Freedom of Information Act. The Pentagon + agreed, apparently to help win increased Congressional funding for + electronics warfare systems. After acknowledging in a summary + section that microwave exposure standards in Communist countries + ^'remain much more stringent than in the West," the report warned, + "If the more advanced nations of the West are strict in the + enforcement of stringent exposure standards, there could be unfavora + ble effects on industrial output and military functions." + + The DIA report presents the rationale that "the Eurasian Communist + countries could, on the other hand, give lip service to strict + standards, but allow their military to operate without restriction + and thereby gain the advantage in electronic warfare techniques and + the development of anti-personnel applications." Much of the + declassified portion of the document is filled with obviously + deliberate, but unintentionalIy comic, contradiction, + misinterpretation and omission, the Phoenix Foundation claims. For + example, the first page of the summary says that "Eurasian Communist + countries are actively involved in evaluation of the biological + significance of radiowaves and microwaves," while the next page + declares: "no significant research and development has been + identified that could be related to work in this field in the + People's Republic of China, North Korea and North Vietnam.^' The + Soviet Union, in contrast, was not even mentioned in this paragraph. + + + Page 6 + + + + + + The entire middle section of the report, entitled "Biological + Significance of Radiowaves and Microwaves," turns out to be little + more than a general review of well-known studies conducted by + Communist scientists from 1968 to 1975. Yet in its final paragraph + of a section entitled "Trends, Conclusions, and Forecast", the + authors reveal their most signifcant omission. Virtually alI of the + work whose usurpation by the Communists they are suggesting, and + whose potentially disastrous consequences they are describing, was + originally conducted by Allen Frey, published in the medical + literature of the United States, and financed by the Office of Naval + Research. That paragraph states: ^No Eurasian communist research + activity has been identified which can be clearly or directly + related to any military offensive weapons program. However, soviet + scientists are fully aware of the biological effects of low-level + microwave radiation which might have offensive weapons application. + Their internal sound perception research has great potential for + development into a system for disorienting or disrupting the + behavior patterns of military or diplomatic personnel; it could be + used equally well as an interrogation tool. + + The Soviets have also studied the psychophysiological and metabolic + changes and the alterations of brain function resulting from + exposure to mixed frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. One + physiological effect which has been demonstrated is heart seizure. + This has been acomplished experimentally in frogs by synchronizing a + pulsed ultra-high-frequency microwave signal of low-average power + density with the depolarization of the myocardium and beaming the + signal at the thoracic area. A frequency probably could be found + which would provide sufficient penetration of the chest wall of + humans to accomplish the same effect. Another possibility is the + alteration of the blood-brain barrier. This could allow neurotoxins + in the blood to cross. As a result, an individual could develop + severe neuropathological symptoms and either die or become seriously + impaired neurologically. + + The next paragraph is even more chilling: ^The potential for the + development of a numberofanti-personnel applications is suggested by + the research published in the USSR, East Europe and the West. Sounds + and possibly even words which appear to be originating + intercranially can be induced by signal modulation at very low + average power densities." + + (In the spring of 1973, Dr. Charles C. Sharp and some colleagues at + the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research conducted an experiment + in which the human brain received a message carried to it by a + pulsed microwave transmission. Sitting in an anechoic chamber - a + room with absorbent walls designed to prevent microwave reflection - + Dr. Sharp was able to recognize spoken words that were modulated by + an audiogram - a graphic representation of the sound waves that + humans can hear - and that were then sent into the chamber at a + microwave frequency of about two gigahertz.) Later in the DIA + report, the authors predict that the Soviets will continue to use + internal sound perception, perceptual distortion and other + psychophysiological effects, and that "the results of these + investigations could have military applications if the Soviets + develop methods for disrupting or disturbing human behavior." A + smalI portion of this DIA report remains classified. It clearly + indicates that the US has been in volved in the development of such + weapons for some years: ^A study published in 1972 by the U.S. Army + + Page 7 + + + + + + Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center, titled "Analysis + of Microwaves for Barrier Warfare^, examines the plausibility of + using radio frequency energy in barrier-counterbarrier warfare. It + discusses both anti-personnel and anti-materiel effects for lethal + and non-lethal applications for meeting the barrier requirements of + delay, immobilization and increased target exposure. The report + concludes that: + + a. It is possible to field a truck-portable microwave barrier + system that will completely immobilize personnel in the + open with present-day technology and equipment. + + b. There is a strong potential for a microwave system that + would be capable of delaying or immobilizing personnel in + vehicles. + + c. With present technology no method could be identified for a + microwave system to destroy the type of armored materiel + common to tanks." + + (NOTE: A television producer has told me that a friend of his who + was in a band, went to the Gulf to entertain the troops. Inflight, + their sound equipment was lost, but the military pulled up with a + truckload "of the most sophisticated sound equipment I have ever + seen in my life." When band members started to photograph the truck, + they were stopped by military guards who told them it was a highly- + classified piece of equipment and could not be photographed. Other + sources have told us they were puzzled when the Army placed powerful + speaker systems throughout the desert - "but no sound came out of + them." An estimated 20,000 Gulf War veterans are now suffering from + the same symptoms one would find in the victims of electromagnetic + non-ionizing radiation - aching teeth, jaws, joints, chronic fatigue + syndrome, destroyed immune system, etc. Still other sources tell us + that this top-secret ELF "barrier weapon" was used against Manuel + Noriega in Panama; the "loud rock music" blared at Noriega's + hideaway was just a cover to mask the real purpose of this powerful + new weapon.) + + A bit later in the same report, the authors reveal that the U.S. + Army Medical Research Laboratory at Fort Knox, Kentucky conducted + tests on microwave burns, using human guinea pigs: ^They have + produced third-degree burns on human skin with twenty watts per + square centimenter in two seconds, with frequencies of approximately + two Gigahertz.^ + + More than ten years ago, a CIA analyst suggested the same thing when + asked to review Project Pandora, the still-secret investigation into + the Soviet microwaves beamed at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. Dr, + Milton M. Zaret wrote: ^The primary emphasis of Soviet-bloc research + on the biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation + is concerned with induced neuro-physiological or behavioral + aberrations. These may be either inhibitory or excitatory; the + primary locus of action may be in either the peripheral or central + nervous system, and the effects may be reversible or irreversible. + Super-imposed upon these three sets of variable are the concepts of + thermal vs. non-thermal effects, the role of continuous versus + pulsed waveform, and the degree of wavelength specificity. + + Although the various reports appear, at first glance, to represent a + + Page 8 + + + + + + confused and conflicting mass of data, a logical, orderly and + meaningful pattern can be evolved in evaluating their data. The + basic factors which must constantly be borne in mind are + + (1) that microwave radiation is electromagnetic in nature, + (2) that the nervous system functions as an electronic network + normally shielded or protected from spurious fields and + (3) that when extraordinary electromagnetic fields are created + around neural elements this can produce functional or + organic neurological anomalies. + + Zaret pointed out that Soviet research showed pulsed fields (such as + those which appear around power lines) were more effective than + continuous radiation in affecting nervous system pathways. + + "For non-thermal irradiations, they believe that the electromagnetic + field induced by the microwave environment affects the cell + membrane, and this results in an increase of excitability or an + increase in the level of excitation of nerve cells. With repeated or + continued exposure, the increased excitability leads to a state of + exhaustion of the cells of the cerebral cortex. This results in the + Sechenov inhibition effect which is manifested by the elimination of + positive conditioned reflexes or behavior.^ + + This is the same result found in studies of the effects of power + line fields on human cell samples. One hesitates to quote such a + source as the National Enquirer, but the response this article + elicited from the Department of Defense warrants it. On June 22, + 1976, the tabloid reported that since 1973 the Advanced Research + Projects Agency had been sponsoring a program to develop a machine + that could read minds from a distance by deciphering the brain^s + magnetic waves. + + A scientist involved in the program had declared that the ultimate + goal of his work was to exercise control over the brain. According + to the article, scientists were studying various aspects of the + problem at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York + University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the + National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center + at Moffett AFB in California. The amazing thing is that on November + 19, 1976, in a letter published in Paul Brodeur's "The Zapping of + America^ and written by Robert L. Gilliat, Assistant General Counsel + for Manpower, Health, and Public Affairs for the Department of + Defense, the government confirmed such a machine actually exists: + "As indicated in my letter of November 12, information which I have + received from the Advanced Research Projects Agency is to the effect + that the so-called 'brain wave' machine, which was the subject of + the National Enquirer article . . . is not capable of reading brain + waves of anyone other than a willing participant in the laboratory + efforts to develop thatvparticularvdevice. Its technical + limitations, I am told, do not permit any long range use. I have no + reason to doubt that information." + + What assurances do Americans have that this will ONLY work on + willing participants? The implications are staggering. It is + technologically possible that the entire power grid of the nation + could be used not only as a means of mind control "in a manner + consonant with national plans" (as put in a top-secret document + submitted to the Warren Commission in 1964 by former CIA Director + + Page 9 + + + + + + Richard Helms), but could also be used as a national tool of + surveillance. Is it unreasonable to believe that efforts continued - + and possi- bly even succeeded - to utilize this weapon over long + ranges and on unwilling participants? An intriguing report that + links these effects to those power densities "that exist in a + typical urban environment" was recently compiled by William Bise, + director of the Pacific Northwest Center for the Study of Non- + Ionizing Radiation, in Portland, Oregon. Entitled "Radio-frequency + Induced Interference Responses in the Human Nervous System," the + report describes preliminary experiments conducted on ten human + volunteers - five men and five women -between July 1975 and June + 1976. According to Bise, these experiments, conducted without + controls, showed that "biological interference responses in the + human nervous system can be elicited not only by pulse-modulated but + by continuous wave radio-frequency at power densities substantially + below those levels that exist in a typical urban environment." + + Four of the male volunteers, subjected to irradiation by electric + fields of only 65-90 microvolts per meter, experienced short-term + memory impairment, followed by concentration inhibition and by + irritability, and three of the women volunteers expressed + apprehension and mild irritation during the course of the tests. In + the final section of his report, Bise suggested that since + approximately five percent of the urban population of the U.S. was + believed to be living in an environmental power density averaged + over several radio bands of about two volts per meter, his findings + indicated that "a meaningful risk factor for the general population + appears to exist." He then concluded that "since radio-frequency in + the environment continues to increase at a phenomenal rate, there is + a need for further clarifying research of radio-frequency effects on + biological systems." + + The importance of this research, claims the Phoenix Foundation, is + in the similarity of its effects to those found from power line + radiation. Dr. Zaret was likewise concerned about the Soviet + "woodpecker signal" that interrupted communications worldwide (New + York Times, October 30, 1976), not because of its interference with + radio and telecommunications, but because of its potential threat to + human health: "The broadband signal is being pulsed at an on -off + rate of ten times per second. When I analyzed the soviet literature + for Project Pandora back in the 1960s, it was very clear that such + an encoding impressed onto carrier wavelengths could have a central- + nervous-system effect. In the case of the present signal, I would + not be surprised to find that the on-off code at a repitition rate + of ten per second could have an effect on the brain's inherent alpha + rhythm. So whetever purpose the Russians may have for continuing + this transmission, the potential effect in human beings from + altering their alpha rhythm cannot be discounted." Powerline + radiation pulses at 60 times per second, a sixth-level harmonic of + the brain waves - same as six octaves higher. The biological and + cellular effects are the same, according to study after study after + study. + + As this article went to press, in the September 1992 issue of The + Omega Report ($15/year-The Phoenix FOundation, P.O. Box 92008, + Nashville, TN 37209), we continued to receive reports from around + the nation about the same or similar ELF "sounds". The latest + reports come from Burbank and San Anselmo, CA, near Hamilton Air + Force Base. + + Page 10 + + + + + + If any of you have information or knowledge about similar effects or + activity in that area (or any other) that may be related to ELF + military experiments, please tell us. We are trying to map the + locations of these incidents by computer. + + Before it becomes illegal to do so (I face a potential $1 million + fine and imprisonment under a propsoed FDA law), I would like to + give you a number of health approaches (natural, non-drug) that MAY + help combat the effects of this warfare in which we are the guinea + pigs. Exposure to ELF radiation will, among other things, weaken + the immune system and can cause skin problems, as well as the other + problems mentioned by Taos residents in this article. + + For skin problems, I recommend - on the advice of a doctor who does + not prescribe drugs - citricide (a concentrated cirtric acid), lay + off coffee and use cooler water in your bath (for skin problems). + You might also want to consider alpha- or delta-wave brain + relaxation tapes (not subliminal tapes) that will counteract the + theta-wave effect of ELF radiation. Our research indicates there may + be a link between ELF radiation and AIDS - as it destroys the immune + system. We have testified in federal court as an expert witness on + this issue and will be doing so again in a court case in Springer, + Mississippi in October 1992. + + By all means, consult your physician before taking any remedies. + Even vitamins, if over-used, can cause damage. We hope to have a + special report in the next issue on what you can do to combat ELF + radiation effects. Please note: ELF radiation is non-ionizing - + unlike nuclear radiation - so its effects are different. + + If you are one of the growing number of Americans whose health is + being seriously jeopardized by "The Sound", please let us know. + + The Phoenix Foundation + P.O. Box 92008 + Nashville, TN 37209 + FAX: 615-269-9881 + GLOBAL VILLAGE BBS: 615-297-0533 + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + If you have comments or other information relating to such topics + as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the + Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. + Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. + + Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson + Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + If we can be of service, you may contact + Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + + + Page 11 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/elko b/textfiles.com/politics/elko new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d6ccb6dc --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/elko @@ -0,0 +1,1400 @@ +"Fear and Loathing in Elko" is a short story by Hunter S. Thompson +that appeared in Rolling Stone #622, January 1992. In this sad screed, +our favorite gonzo journalist describes an alleged encounter with +Justice Clarence Thomas, prior to his nomination and appointment to +the U.S. Supreme Court. Shortly before this story's publication, +Thompson was tried and acquitted on charges of sexual harassment +and assault. He referred to his arrest as a "lifestyle bust." Readers +can draw their own conclusions regarding the moral of this tale. + +Some typographical errors and omissions were inevitable. Having +compromised HST's copyright protection, I expect him to pursue me like +a rat across the tundra... + + --Fontenelle + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +A Wild and Ugly Night With Judge Clarence Thomas...Bad Craziness in +Sheep Country...Sexual Harassment Then and Now...A Nasty Christmas +Flashback and a Nation of Jailers + +Fear and Loathing in Elko + +by Hunter S. Thompson + +from Rolling Stone #622, January 23, 1992 + +[Part I] Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Sexual Harassment Then +and Now..The Ghost of Long Dong Thomas...The Road Full of Forks + +Dear Jann, + + God damn, I wish you were here to enjoy this beautiful weather with +me. It is autumn, as you know, and things are beginning to die. It is +so wonderful to be out in the crisp fall air, with the leaves turning +gold and the grass turning brown, and the warmth going out of the +sunlight and big hot fires in the fireplace while Buddy rakes the +lawn. We see a lot of bombs on TV because we watch it a lot more, now +that the days get shorter and shorter, and darkness comes so soon, and +all the flowers die from freezing. + + Oh, God! You should have been with me yesterday when I finished my +ham and eggs and knocked back some whiskey and picked up my Weatherby +Mark V .300 Magnum and a ball of black Opium for dessert and went +outside with a fierce kind of joy in my heart because I was Proud to +be an American on a day like this. If felt like a goddamn Football +Game, Jann -- it was like Paradise.... You remember that bliss you +felt when we powered down to the farm and whipped Stanford? Well, it +felt like That. + + I digress. My fits of Joy are soiled by relentless flashbacks and +ghosts too foul to name....Oh no, don't ask Why. You could have been +president, Jann, but your road was full of forks, and I think of this +when I see the forked horns of these wild animals who dash back and +forth on the hillsides while rifles crack in the distance and fine +swarthy young men with blood on their hands drive back and forth in +the dusk and mournfully call our names.... + + O Ghost, O Lost, Lost and Gone, O Ghost, come back again. + + Right. and so much for autumn. The trees are diseased and the +Animals get in your way and the President is usually guilty and most +days are too long, anyway....So never mind my poem. It was wrong from +the start. I plagiarized it from an early work of Coleridge and then +tried to put my own crude stamp on it, but I failed. + + So what? I didn't want to talk about fucking autumn, anyway. I was +just sitting here at dawn on a crisp Sunday morning, waiting for the +football games to start and taking a goddamn very brief break from +this blizzard of Character Actors and Personal Biographers and sickly +Paparazzi that hovers around me these days (they are sleeping now, +thank Christ -- some even in my own bed). I was sitting here all +alone, thinking, for good or ill, about the Good Old Days. + + We were Poor, Jann. But we were Happy. Because we knew Tricks. We +were Smart. Not Crazy, like they said. (No. They never called us late +for dinner, eh?) + + Ho, ho. Laughs don't come cheap these days, do they? The only guy +who seems to have any fun in public is Prince Cromwell, my shrewd and +humorless neighbor -- the one who steals sheep and beats up women, +like Mike Tyson. + + Who knows why, Jann. Some people are too weird to figure. + + You have come a long way from the Bloodthirsty, Beady-eyed news Hawk +that you were in days of yore. Maybe you should try reading something +besides those goddamn motorcycle magazines -- or one of these days +you'll find hair growing in your palms. + + Take my word for it. You can only spend so much time "on the +throttle," as it were....Then the Forces of Evil will take over. +Beware.... + + Ah, but that is a different question, for now. Who gives a fuck? We +are, after all, Professionals....But our Problem is not. No. It is the +Problem of Everyman. It is Everywhere. The Question is our Wa; the +Answer is our Fate.... and the story I am about to tell you is +horrible, Jann. + + I came suddenly awake, weeping and jabbering and laughing like a +loon at the ghost on my TV set....Judge Clarence Thomas....Yes, I knew +him. But that was a long time ago. Many years, in fact, but I still +remember it vividly....Indeed, it has haunted me like a Golem, day and +night, for many years. + + It seemed normal enough, at the time, just another weird rainy night +out there on the high desert....What the Hell? We were younger, then. +Me and the Judge. And all the others, for that matter....It was a +Different Time. People were friendly. We trusted each other. Hell, you +afford to get mixed up with wild strangers in those days -- without +fearing for your life, or your eyes, or your organs, or all of your +money or even getting locked up in prison forever. There was a sense +of possibility. People were not so afraid, as they are now. + + You could run around naked without getting shot. You could check +into a motel in Winnemucca or Elko when you were lost in a midnight +rainstorm -- and nobody called the police on you, just to check out +your credit and your employment history and your medical records and +how many parking tickets you owed in California. + + There were Laws, but they were not feared. There were Rules, but +they were not worshiped....like Laws and Rules and Cops and Informants +are feared and worshiped today. + + Like I said: It was a different time. And I know the Judge would +tell you the same thing, tonight, if he wanted to tell you the Truth, +like I do. + + The first time I actually met the Judge was a long time ago, for +strange reasons, on a dark and rainy night in Elko, Nevada, when we +both ended up in the same sleazy roadside Motel, for no good reason at +all....Good God! What a night! + + I almost forgot about it, until I saw him last week on TV....and +then I saw it all over again. The horror! The horror! That night when +the road washed out and we all got stuck out there -- somewhere near +Elko in a place just off the highway, called Endicott's Motel -- and +we almost went really Crazy. + + +Yours, +HST + + +P.S. And, speaking of crazy, take a look at this riff on the Judge and +Sexual Harassment that I received yesterday from that brute who runs +the Sports Desk. He must have been drunk when he wrote it -- but +whiskey is no excuse for this kind of brainless, atavistic gibberish. + + I want that screwhead fired! He was harmless once, but ever since +Judge Thomas got confirmed for the High court, he has been mauling +women shamelessly. Last week he pinned my secretary against a hot wall +in the mainframe room and almost twisted her nipples off. Then he +laughed and said it was legal now, and if I didn't like it, I could +take him to court [see enclosed memo, below]. It was addressed to me, +but I have a feeling we'll be seeing it soon, taped up on the wall of +the Men's Room -- and probably the Women's Room too. + +Special Advisory From the Sports Desk +To: HST +From: Raoul Duke, Ed. + + + + I need your help, Doc. They're trying to bust me on Sex charges. The +snake has come out of the bag, and soon they'll be after you. Your +phone will be ringing all night with obscene calls from Radical +Lesbian Separatists. + + You know how I feel about Victims, Doc, and also how I worship the +First Amendment -- along with the Fourth, of course.... + + And all of the others, including our God-given Right to praise the +President when he pulls off a Great Victory and rips the nuts off the +Enemy. It was wonderful, Doc. We beat them like shit-eating dogs. They +came, they failed, and now we will gnaw on their skulls. When the +going gets tough, the tough get going, eh? Right! Fuck those people! +Death to the Weird! We will march on a road of bones! Sieg Heil! + + (Whoops. Strike that.) What I meant to say was Hot Damn! We're back +in the Saddle again! And I don't mean maybe....Right. You know me, +Doc. I'm a gracious Loser -- but when I win, I must Kick Ass! + + That is the Law of Nature: Life is a brainless struggle, and "the +Meek" will jabber and die like brain-damaged rats in a maze, long +before they will ever have time to even think about inheriting the +goddamn Earth -- much less the White House. + + No. don't worry about that, Doc. The Nigger is on the run all over +the World, and we want to keep him that way. (Or "her" or "it" or +"them" if you what I'm saying....) They are not necessarily Black, +Doc, and many are not of our Gender.... + + But so what? They are Niggers, and we're Not! Hell, yes! That's +what it comes down to. They were Fools! It was like the Charge of the +Light Brigade. They rode into the Valley of Death, and We stomped +them....They were Wrong from the start, but they fooled a lot of +people, for a while.... + + Thank God we got off that stinking Death Ship while we still had the +chance, eh?....They screeched like Hyenas for a while, but then they +ran like Rats. Shit on them. That's what I say. Those bitches got +their tits caught in a wringer. + + Okay. Congress is a sinkhole of Whores. We all know that. Shit. +Sexual Harassment is what Congress is all about. It was the Way of Our +Forefathers, and it is Right! + + Hot damn: I feel good about Myself today, Doc. I feel innocent for a +change.... and I guess you feel the Same Way, eh? + + Jesus. They had us on the run there, for a few days. The Fat Lady +was ready to sing, and I was starting to guilty about almost +Everything.... Especially touching Women -- or even myself, for a +while. It was Horrible. It got so I was afraid to ride the same +elevator with a woman. It was too risky. What if she was one of these +crazy New Age bitches that want to kick you in the nuts and then get +you busted for "fondling" them? + + What kind of life would it be if you went to jail or got ruined +every time you tried to flirt with a pretty woman? Let's face it, Doc. +We are all Rapists, one way or another. The trick is not to get Busted +for it....Which is almost what happened, Doc. BUT IT DIDN'T No! We +were NOT Guilty! They called us bullies and Mashers, but we were only +falling in Love.... + + + +--Raoul Duke, Sports + + +[Part II] Fear and Loathing in Elko: Bad Craziness in Sheep +Country....Side Entrance on Queer Street....O Black, O Wild, O +Darkness, Roll Over Me Tonight + + + It was just after midnight when I first saw the sheep. I was running +about eighty-eight or ninety miles an hour in a drenching, blinding +rain on U.S. 40 between Winnemucca and Elko with one light out. I was +soaking wet from the water that was pouring in through a hole in the +front roof of the car, and my fingers were like rotten icicles on the +steering wheel. + + It was a moonless night and I knew I was hydroplaning, which is +dangerous.... My front tires were no longer in touch with the asphalt +or anything else. My center of gravity was too high. There was no +visibility on the road, none at all. I could have tossed a flat rock a +lot farther than I could see in front of me that night though the rain +and the ground fog. + + So what? I though. I know this road -- a straight lonely run across +nowhere, with not many dots on the map except ghost towns and truck +stops with names like Beowawe and Lovelock and Deeth and +Winnemucca.... + + Jesus! Who made this map? Only a lunatic could have come up with a +list of places like this: Imlay, Valmy, Golconda, Nixon, Midas, +Metropolis, Jiggs, Judasville -- all of them empty, with no gas +stations, withering away in the desert like a string of old Pony +Express stations. The Federal Government owns ninety percent of this +land, and most of it is useless for anything except weapons testing +and poison-gas experiments. + + My plan was to keep moving. Never slow down. Keep the car aimed +straight ahead through the rain like a cruise missile....I felt +comfortable. There is a sense of calm and security that comes with +driving a very fast car on an empty road at night....Fuck this +thunderstorm, I thought. There is safety in speed. Nothing can touch +me as long as I keep moving fast, and never mind the cops: They're all +hunkered down in a truck stop or jacking off by themselves in a +culvert behind some dynamite shack in the wilderness beyond the +highway....Either way, they wanted no part of me, and I wanted no part +of them. Only trouble could come of it. They were probably nice +people, and so was I -- but we were not meant for each other. History +had long since determined that. There is a huge body of evidence to +support the notion that me and the police were put on this earth to do +extremely different things and never to mingle professionally with +each other, except at official functions, when we all wear ties and +drink heavily and whoop it up like the natural, good-humored wild boys +that we know in our hearts that we are..These occasions are rare, but +they happen -- despite the forked tongue of fate that has put us +forever on different paths....But what the hell? I can handle a wild +birthday party with cops, now and then. Or some unexpected orgy at a +gun show in Texas. Why not? Hell, I ran for Sheriff one time, and +almost got elected. They understand this, and I get along fine with +the smart ones. + + But not tonight, I thought, I sped along in the darkness. Not at 100 +miles an hour at midnight on a rain-slicked road in Nevada. Nobody +needs to get involved in a high-speed chase on a filthy night like +this. It would be dumb and extremely dangerous. Nobody driving a red +454 V-8 Chevrolet convertible was likely to pull over and surrender +peacefully at the first sight of a cop car behind him. All kinds of +weird shit might happen, from a gunfight with dope fiends to permanent +injury or death....It was a good night to stay indoors and be warm, +make a fresh pot of coffee and catch up on important paperwork. Lay +low and ignore these loonies. Anybody behind the wheel of a ca tonight +was far too crazy to fuck with, anyway. + + Which was probably true. There was nobody on the road except me and +a few big-rig Peterbilts running west to Reno and Sacramento by dawn. +I could hear them on my nine-band Super-Scan shortwave/CB/Police +radio, which erupted now and then with outbursts of brainless speed +gibberish about Big Money and Hot Crank and teenage cunts with huge +tits. + + They were dangerous Speed Freaks, driving twenty-ton trucks that +might cut loose and jackknife at any moment, utterly out of control. +There is nothing more terrifying than suddenly meeting a jackknifed +Peterbilt with no brakes coming at you sideways at sixty or seventy +miles per hour on a steep mountain road at three o'clock in the +morning. There is a total understanding, all at once, of how the +captain of the Titanic must have felt when he first saw the Iceberg. + + And not much different from the hideous feeling that gripped me when +the beam of my Long-Reach Super-Halogen headlights picked up what +appeared to be a massive rock slide across the highway -- right in +front of me, blocking the road completely. Big white rocks and round +boulders, looming up with no warning in a fog of rising steam or swamp +gas.... + + The brakes were useless, the car wandering. The rear end was coming +around. I jammed it down into Low, but it made no difference, so I +straightened it out and braced for a serious impact, a crash that +would probably kill me. This is It, I thought. This is how it happens +-- slamming into a pile of rocks at 100 miles an hour, a sudden brutal +death in a fast red car on a moonless night in a rainstorm somewhere +on the sleazy outskirts of Elko. I felt vaguely embarrassed, in that +long pure instant before I went into the rocks. I remembered Los Lobos +and that I wanted to call Maria when I got to Elko.... + + My heart was full of joy as I took the first hit, which was oddly +soft and painless. No real shock at all. Just a sickening thud, like +running over a body, a corpse -- or, ye fucking gods, a crippled 200- +pound sheep thrashing around in the road. + + Yes. These huge white lumps were not boulders. They were sheep. Dead +and dying sheep. More and more of them, impossible to miss at this +speed, piled up on each other like bodies at the battle of Shiloh. It +was like running over wet logs. Horrible, horrible.... + + And then I saw the man -- a leaping Human Figure in the glare of my +bouncing headlight, waving his arms and yelling, trying to flag me +down. I swerved to avoid hitting him, but he seemed not to see me, +rushing straight into my headlights like a blind man....or a monster +from Mars with no pulse, covered with blood and hysterical. + + It looked like a small black gentleman in a London Fog raincoat, +frantic to get my attention. It was so ugly that my brain refused to +accept it....Don't worry, I thought. This is only an Acid flashback. +Be calm. This is not really happening. + + I was down to about thirty-five or thirty when I zoomed past the man +in the raincoat and bashed the brains out of a struggling sheep, which +helped to reduce my speed, as the car went airborne again, then +bounced to a shuddering stop just before I hit the smoking, overturned +hulk of what looked like a white Cadillac limousine, with people still +inside. It was a nightmare. Some fool had crashed into a herd of sheep +at high speed and rolled into the desert like an eggbeater. + + We were able to laugh about it later, but it took a while to calm +down. What the hell? It was only an accident. The Judge had murdered +some strange animals. + + So what? Only a racist maniac would run sheep on the highway in a +thunderstorm at this hour of the night. "Fuck those people!" he +snapped, as I took off toward Elko with him and his two female +companions tucked safely into my car, which had suffered major +cosmetic damage but nothing serious. "They'll never get away with this +Negligence!" he said. "We'll eat them alive in court. Take my word for +it. We are about to become joint owners of a huge Nevada sheep ranch." + + Wonderful, I thought. But meanwhile we were leaving the scene of a +very conspicuous wreck that was sure to be noticed by morning, and the +whole front of my car was gummed up with wool and sheep's blood. There +was no way I could leave it parked on the street in Elko, where I'd +planned to stop for the night (maybe two or three nights, for that +matter) to visit with some old friends who were attending a kind of +Appalachian Conference for sex-film distributors at the legendary +Commercial Hotel.... + + Never mind that, I thought. Things have changed. I was suddenly a +Victim of Tragedy -- injured and on the run, far out in the middle of +sheep country -- 1000 miles from home with car full of obviously +criminal hitchhikers who were spattered with blood and cursing angrily +at each other as we zoomed through the blinding monsoon. + + Jesus, I though Who are these people? + + Who indeed? They seemed not to notice me. The two women fighting in +the back seat were hookers. No doubt about that. I had seen them in my +headlights as they struggled in the wreckage of the Cadillac, which +had killed about sixty sheep. They were desperate with Fear and +Confusion, crawling wildly across the sheep....One was a tall black +girl in a white minidress...and now she was screaming at the other +one, a young blond white woman. They were both drunk. Sounds of +struggle came from the back seat. "Get your hands off me, Bitch!" Then +a voice cried out, "Help me, Judge! Help! She's killing me!" + + What? I thought. Judge? Then she said it again, and a horrible chill +went through me....Judge? No. That would be over the line. +Unacceptable. + + He lunged over the back seat and whacked their heads together. "Shut +up!" he screamed. "Where are your fucking manners?" + + He went over the seat again. He grabbed one of them by the hair. +"God damn you," he screamed. "Don't embarrass this man. He saved our +lives. We owe him respect -- not this god damned squalling around like +whores." + + A shudder ran through me, but I gripped the wheel and stared +straight ahead, ignoring this sudden horrible freak show in my car. I +lit a cigarette, but I was not calm. Sounds of sobbing and the ripping +of cloth came from the back seat. The man they called Judge had +straightened himself out and was now resting easily in the front seat, +letting out long breaths of air....The silence was terrifying: I +quickly turned up the music. It was Los Lobos again -- something about +"One time One Night in America," a profoundly morbid tune about Death +and Disappointment: + + A lady dressed in white + With the man she loved + Standing along the side of their pickup truck + A shot rang out in the night + Just when everything seemed right + + Right. A shot. A shot rang out in the night. Just another headline +written down in America....Yes. There was a loaded .454 Magnum +revolver in a clearly marked oak box on the front seat, about halfway +between me and the Judge. He could grab it in a split second and blow +my head off. + + "Good work, Boss," he said suddenly. " I owe you a big one, for +this. I was done for, if you hadn't come along." He chuckled. "Sure as +hell, Boss, sure as hell. I was Dead Meat -- killed a lot worse than +those goddamn stupid sheep!" + + Jesus! I thought. Get ready to hit the brake. This man is a Judge on +the lam with two hookers. He has no choice but to kill me, and those +two floozies in the back seat too. We were the only witnesses.... This +eerie perspective made me uneasy....Fuck this, I thought. These people +are going to get me locked up. I'd be better off just pulling over +right here and killing all three of them. Bang, Bang, Bang! Terminate +the scum. + + "How far is town? the Judge asked. + + I jumped, and the car veered again. "Town?" I said. + + "What town?" My arms were rigid and my voice was strange and reedy. + + He whacked me on the knee and laughed. "Calm down, Boss," he said. +"I have everything under control. We're almost home." He pointed into +the rain, where I was beginning to see the dim lights of what I knew +to be Elko. + + "Okay," he snapped. "Take a left, straight ahead." He pointed again +and I slipped the car into low. There was a red and blue neon sign +glowing about a half-mile ahead of us, barely visible in the storm. +The only words I could make out were NO and VACANCY. + + "Slow down!" the Judge screamed. "This is it! Turn! Goddamnit, +turn!" His voice had the sound of a whip cracking. I recognized the +tone and did as he said, curling into the mouth of the curve with all +four wheels locked and the big engine snarling wildly in Compound Low +and the blue flames coming out of the tailpipe....It was one of those +long perfect moments in the human driving experience that makes +everybody quiet. Where is P.J.? I thought. This would bring him to his +knees. + + We were sliding sideways very fast and utterly out of control and +coming up on a white steel guardrail at seventy miles an hour in a +thunderstorm on a deserted highway in the middle of the night. + + Why not? On some nights Fate will pick you up like a chicken and +slam you around on the walls until your body feels like a +beanbag....BOOM! BLOOD! DEATH! So long, Bubba -- You knew it would End +like this.... + + We stabilized and shot down the loop. The Judge seemed oddly calm as +he pointed again. "This is it," he said. "This is my place. I keep a +few suites here." He nodded eagerly. "We're finally safe, Boss. We can +do anything we want in this place." + + The sign at the gate said: + + ENDICOTT'S MOTEL + DELUXE SUITES AND WATERBEDS + ADULTS ONLY/NO ANIMALS + + Thank god, I thought. It was almost too good to be true. A place to +dump these bastards. They were quiet now, but not for long. And I knew +I couldn't handle it when these women woke up. + + The Endicott was a string of cheap-looking bungalows, laid out in a +horseshoe pattern around a rutted gravel driveway. There were cars +parked in front of most of the units, but the slots in front of the +brightly lit places at the darker end of the horseshoe were empty. + + "Okay," said the Judge. "We'll drop the ladies down there at our +suite, then I'll get you checked in." He nodded. "We both need some +sleep, Boss -- or at least rest, if you know what I mean. Shit, it's +been a long night." + + I laughed, but it sounded like the bleating of a dead man. The +adrenalin rush of the sheep crash was gone, and now I was sliding into +pure Fatigue Hysteria. The Endicott "Office" was a darkened hut in the +middle of the horseshoe. We parked in front of it and then the Judge +began hammering on the wooden front door, but there was no immediate +response...."Wake up, goddamnit! It's me -- the Judge! Open up! This +is Life and Death! I need help!" + + He stepped back and delivered a powerful kick at the door, which +rattled the glass panels and shook the whole building. " I know you're +in there," he screamed. "You can't hide! I'll kick your ass till your +nose bleeds!" + + There was still no sign of life, and I quickly abandoned all hope. +Get out of here, I thought. This is wrong. I was still in the car, +half in and half out...The Judge put another fine snap-kick at a point +just over the doorknob and uttered a sharp scream in some language I +didn't recognize. Then I heard the sound of breaking glass. + + I leapt back into the car and started the engine. Get away! I +thought. Never mind sleep. It's flee or die, now. People get killed +for doing this kind of shit in Nevada. It was far over the line. +Unacceptable behavior. This is why God made shotguns... + + I saw lights come on in the Office. Then the door swung open and I +saw the Judge leap quickly through the entrance and grapple briefly +with a small bearded man in a bathrobe, who collapsed to the floor +after the Judge gave him a few blows to the head...Then he called back +to me. "Come on in, Boss," he yelled. "Meet Mister Henry." + + I shut off the engine and staggered up the gravel path. I felt sick +and woozy, and my legs were like rubber bands. + + The Judge reached out to help me. I shook hands with Mr. Henry, who +gave me a key and a form to fill out. "Bullshit," said the Judge. +"This man is my guest. He can have anything he wants. Just put it on +my bill." + + "Of course," said Mr. Henry. "Your bill. Yes. I have it right here." +He reached under his desk and came up with a nasty-looking bundle of +adding-machine tapes and scrawled Cash/Payment memos...."You got here +just in time," he said. "We were about to notify the Police." + + "What?" said the Judge. "Are you nuts? I have a goddamn platinum +American Express card! My credit is impeccable." + + "Yes," said Mr. Henry. "We know that. We have total respect for you. +Your signature is better than gold bullion." The Judge smiled and +whacked the flat of his hand on the counter. "You bet it is!" he +snapped. "So get out of my goddamn face! You must be crazy to fuck +with Me like this! You fool! Are you ready to go to court?" + + "Please, Judge," he said. Don't do this to me. All I need is your +card. Just let me run an imprint. That's all." He moaned and stared +more or less at the Judge, but I could see that his eyes were not +focused...."They're going to fire me," he whispered. "They want to put +me in jail." + + "Nonsense!" the Judge snapped. "I would never let that happen. You +can always plead." He reached out and gently gripped Mr. Henry's +wrist. "Believe me, Bro," he hissed. "You have nothing to worry about. +You are cool. They will never lock you up! They will Never take you +away! Not out of my courtroom!" + + "Thank you," Mr. Henry replied. "But all I need is your card and +your signature. That's the problem: I forgot to run it when you +checked in." + + "So what?" the Judge barked. "I'm good for it. How much do you +need?" + + "About $22,000," said Mr. Henry. "Probably $23,000 by now. You've +had those suites for nineteen days with total room service." + + "What?" the Judge yelled. "You thieving bastards! I'll have you +crucified by American Express. You are finished in this business. You +will never work again! Not anywhere in the world! Then he whipped Mr. +Henry across the front of his face so fast that I barely saw it. + + "Stop crying!" he said. "Get a grip on yourself! This is +embarrassing!" + + Then he slapped the man again. "Is that all you want?" he said. +"Only a card? A stupid little card? A piece of plastic shit?" + + Mr. Henry nodded. "Yes, Judge," he whispered. "That's all. Just a +stupid little card." + + The Judge laughed and reached into his raincoat, as if to jerk out a +gun or at least a huge wallet. "You want a card, whoreface? Is that +it? Is that all you want? You filthy little scumbag! Here it is!" + + Mr. Henry cringed and whimpered. Then he reached out to accept the +Card, the thing that would set him free...The Judge was still grasping +around in the lining of his raincoat. "What the fuck?" he muttered. +"This thing has too many pockets! I can feel it, but I can't find the +slit!" + + Mr. Henry seemed to believe him, and so did I, for a minute....Why +not? He was a judge with a platinum credit card -- a very high roller. +You don't find many Judges, these days, who can handle a full caseload +in the morning and run wild like a goat in the afternoon. That is a +very hard dollar, and very few can handle it....but the Judge was a +Special Case. + + Suddenly he screamed and fell sideways, ripping and clawing at the +lining of his raincoat. "Oh, Jesus!" he wailed. "I've lost my wallet! +It's gone. I left it out there in the Limo, when we hit the fucking +sheep." + + "So what?" I said. "We don't need it for this. I have many plastic +cards." + + He smiled and seemed to relax. "How many?" he said. "We might need +more than one." + + I woke up in the bathtub -- who knows how much later -- to the sound +of the hookers shrieking next door. The New York Times had fallen in +and blackened the water. For many hours I tossed and turned like a +crack baby in a cold hallway. I heard thumping Rhythm & Blues -- +serious rock & roll, and I knew that something wild was going on in +the Judge's suites. The smell of amyl nitrate came from under the +door. It was no use. It was impossible to sleep through this orgy of +ugliness. I was getting worried. I was already a marginally legal +person, and now I was stuck with some crazy Judge who had my credit +card and owed me $23,000. + + I had some whiskey in the car, so I went out into the rain to get +some ice. I had to get out. As I walked past the other rooms, I looked +in people's windows and feverishly tried to figure out how to get my +credit card back. Then from behind me I heard the sound of a tow-truck +winch. The Judge's white Cadillac was being dragged to the ground. The +Judge was whooping it up with the tow-truck driver, slapping him on +the back. + + "What the hell? It was only property damage," he laughed. + + "Hey, Judge," I called out. "I never got my card back." + + "Don't worry," he said. "It's in my room -- come on." + + I was right behind him when he opened the door to his room, and I +caught a glimpse of a naked woman dancing. As soon as the door opened, +the woman lunged for the Judge's throat. She pushed him back outside +and slammed the door in his face. + + "Forget that credit card -- we'll get some cash," the Judge said. +"Let's go down to the Commercial Hotel. My friends are there and they +have plenty of money. + + We stopped for a six-pack on the way. The Judge went into a sleazy +liquor store that turned out to be a front for kinky marital aids. I +offered him money for the beer, but he grabbed my whole wallet. + + Ten minutes later, the Judge came out with $400 worth of booze and a +bagful of Triple-X-Rated movies. "My buddies will like this stuff," he +said. "And don't worry about the money, I told you I'm good for it. +These guys carry serious cash." + + The marquee above the front door of the Commercial Hotel said: + + WELCOME: ADULT FILM PRESIDENTS + STUDEBAKER SOCIETY + FULL ACTION CASINO/KENO IN LOUNGE + + "Park right her in front, said the Judge. "Don't worry. I'm well +known in this place." + + Me too, but I said nothing. I have been well known at the Commercial +for many years, from the time when I was doing a lot of driving back +and forth between Denver and San Francisco -- usually for Business +reasons, or for Art, and on this particular weekend I was there to +meet quietly with a few old friends and business associates from the +Board of Directors of the Adult Film Association of America. I had +been, after all, the Night Manager of the famous O'Farrell Theatre, in +San Francisco -- "the Carnegie Hall of Sex in America." + + I was the Guest of Honor, in fact -- but I saw no point in confiding +these things to the Judge, a total stranger with no Personal +Identification, no money and a very aggressive lifestyle. We were on +our way to the Commercial Hotel to borrow money from some of his +friends in the Adult Film business. + + What the hell? I though. It's only Rock & Roll. And he was, after +all, a judge of some kind....Or maybe not. For all I knew he was a +criminal pimp with no fingerprints, or a wealthy black shepherd from +Spain. But it hardly mattered. He was good company (if you had a taste +for the edge work -- and I did, in those days. And so, I felt, did the +Judge). He had a bent sense of fun, a quick mind and no Fear of +anything. + + The front door of the Commercial looked strangely busy at this hour +of night in a bad rainstorm, so I veered off and drove slowly around +the block in low gear. + + "There's a side entrance on Queer Street," I said to the Judge, as +we hammered into a flood of black water. He seemed agitated, which +worried me a bit. + + "Calm down," I said. "We don't want to make a scene in this place. +All we want is money." + + "Don't worry," he said. "I know these people. They are friends. +Money is nothing. They will be happy to see me." + + We entered the hotel through the Casino entrance. The Judge seemed +calm and focused until we rounded the corner and came face to face +with an eleven-foot polar bear standing on its hind legs, ready to +pounce. The Judge turned to jelly at the sight of it. "I've had enough +of this goddamn beast," he shouted." It doesn't belong here. We should +blow its head off." + + I took him by the arm "Calm down, Judge," I told him. "That's White +King. He's been dead for about thirty-three years." + + The Judge had no use for animals. He composed himself and we swung +into the lobby, approaching the desk from behind. I hung back--it was +getting late and the lobby was full of suspicious-looking stragglers +from the Adult Film crowd. Private cowboy cops wearing six-shooters in +open holsters were standing around. Our entrance did not go unnoticed. + + The Judge looked competent, but there was something menacing in the +way he swaggered up to the desk clerk and whacked the marble +countertop with both hands. The lobby was suddenly filled with +tension, and I quickly moved away as the Judge began yelling and +pointing at the ceiling. + + "Don't give me that crap," he barked. "These people are my friends. +They're expecting me. Just ring the goddamn room again." The desk +clerk muttered something about his explicit instructions not to.... + + Suddenly the Judge reached across the desk for the house phone. +"What's the number? I'll ring it myself" The clerk moved quickly. He +shoved the phone out of the Judge's grasp and simultaneously drew his +index finger across his throat. The Judge took one look at the muscle +converging on him and changed his stance. + + "I want to cash a check," he said calmly. + + "A check?" the clerk said. "Sure thing, buster. I'll cash your +goddamned check." He seized the Judge by his collar and laughed. +"Let's get this Bozo out of her. And put him in jail." + + I was moving toward the door, and suddenly the Judge was right +behind me. "Let's go," he said. We sprinted for the car, but then the +Judge stopped in his tracks. He turned and raised his fist in the +direction of the hotel. "Fuck you!" he shouted. "I'm the Judge. I'll +be back, and I'll bust every one of you bastards. The next time you +see me coming, you'd better run." + + We jumped into the car and zoomed away into the darkness. The Judge +was acting manic. "Never mind those pimps," he said. "I'll have them +all on a chain gang in forty-eight hours." He laughed and slapped me +on the back. "Don't worry, Boss," he said. "I know where we're going." +He squinted into the rain and opened a bottle of Royal Salute. +"Straight ahead," he snapped. "Take a right at the next corner. We'll +go see Leach. He owes me $24,000." + + I slowed down and reached for the whiskey. What the hell, I thought. +Some days are weirder than others. + + "Leach is my secret weapon," the Judge said, "but I have to watch +him. He could be violent. The cops are always after him. He lives in a +balance of terror. But he has a genius for gambling. We win eight out +of ten every week." He nodded solemnly. "That is four of five, Doc. +That is Big. Very big. That is eighty percent of everything." He shook +his head sadly and reached for the whiskey. "It's a horrible habit. +But I can't give it up. It's like having a money machine." + + "That's wonderful," I said. "What are you bitching about?" + + "I'm afraid, Doc. Leach is a monster, a criminal hermit who +understands nothing in life except point spreads. He should be locked +up and castrated." + + "So what?" I said. "Where does he live? We are desperate. We have no +cash and no plastic. This freak is our only hope." + + The Judge slumped into himself, and neither one of us spoke for a +minute.... "Well," he said finally. "Why not? I can handle almost +anything for twenty-four big ones in a brown bag. What the fuck? Let's +do it. If the bastard gets ugly, we'll kill him." + + "Come on, Judge," I said. "Get a grip on yourself. This is only a +gambling debt." + + "Sure," he replied. "That's what they all say." + + +[Part III] Dead Meat in the Fast Lane: The Judge Runs Amok...Death of +a Poet, Blood Clots in the Revenue Stream...The Man Who Loved Sex +Dolls + + + We pulled into a seedy trailer court behind the stockyards. Leach +met us at the door with red eyes and trembling hands, wearing a soiled +bathrobe and carrying a half-gallon of Wild Turkey. + + "Thank God you're home," The Judge said. "I can't tell you what kind +of horrible shit has happened to me tonight....But now the worm has +turned. Now that we have cash, we will crush them all." + + Leach just stared. Then he took a swig of Wild Turkey. "We are +doomed," he muttered. "I was about to slit my wrists." + + "Nonsense," the Judge said. "We won Big. I bet the same way you did. +You gave me the numbers. You even predicted the Raiders would stomp +Denver. Hell, it was obvious. The Raiders are unbeatable on Monday +night." + + Leach tensed, then he threw his head back and uttered a high-pitched +quavering shriek. The Judge seized him. "Get a grip on yourself," he +snapped. "What's wrong?" + "I went sideways on the bet," Leach sobbed. "I went to that goddamn +sports bar up in Jackpot with some of the guys from the shop. We were +all drinking Mescal and screaming, and I lost my head." + + Leach was clearly a bad drinker and a junkie for mass hysteria. "I +got drunk and bet on the Broncos," he moaned, "then I doubled up. We +lost everything." + + A terrible silence fell on the room. Leach was weeping helplessly. +The Judge seized him by the sash of his greasy leather robe and +started jerking him around by the stomach. + + They ignored me and I tried to pretend it wasn't happening....It was +too ugly. There was and ashtray on the table in front of the couch. As +I reached for it, I noticed a legal pad of what appeared to be Leach's +poems, scrawled with a red Magic Marker in some kind of primitive +verse form. There was one that caught my eye. There was something +particularly ugly about it. There was something repugnant in the harsh +slant of the handwriting. It was about pigs. + + I TOLD HIM + IT WAS WRONG + By F.X. Leach + Omaha 1968 + + A filthy young pig + got tired of his gig + and begged for a transfer + to Texas. + Police ran him down + on the Outskirts of town + and ripped off his Nuts + with a coathanger. + Everything after that was like + coming home in a cage on the + back of at train from + New Orleans on a Saturday + night + with no money and cancer and + a dead girlfriend. + In the end it was no use + He died on his knees in a barn + yard + with all the others watching. + Res Ipsa Loquitur + + "They're going to kill me," Leach said. "They'll be here by +midnight. I'm doomed." He uttered another low cry and reached for the +Wild Turkey bottle, which had fallen over and spilled. + + "Hang on," I said. "I'll get more." + + On my way to the kitchen I was jolted by the sight of a naked woman +slumped awkwardly in the corner with a desperate look on her face, as +if she'd been shot. Her eyes bulged and her mouth was wide open and +she appeared to be reaching out for me. + + I leapt back and heard laughter behind me. My first thought was that +Leach, unhinged by his gambling disaster, had finally gone over the +line with his wife-beating habit and shot her in the mouth just before +we knocked. She appeared to be crying out for help, but there was no +voice. + + I ran into the kitchen to look for a knife thinking, that if Leach +had gone crazy enough to kill his wife, now he would have to kill me, +too, since I was the only witness. Except the Judge, who locked +himself in the bathroom. + + Leach appeared in the doorway holding the naked woman by the neck +and hurled her across the room at me.... + + Time stood still for an instant. The woman seemed to hover in the +air, coming at me in the darkness like a body in slow motion. I went +into a stance with the bread knife and braced for a fight to the +death. + + The thing hit me and bounced softly down to the floor. It was a +rubber blow-up doll: one of those things with five orifices that young +stockbrokers buy in adult bookstores after the singles bars close. + + "Meet Jennifer," he said. "She's my punching bag." He picked it up +by the hair and slammed it across the room. + + "Ho, ho," he chuckled, "no more wife beating. I'm cured, thanks to +Jennifer." He smiled sheepishly . "It's almost like a miracle. These +dolls saved my marriage. They're a lot smarter than you think." He +nodded gravely. "Sometimes I have to beat two at once. But it always +calms me down, you know what I mean?" + + Whoops, I thought. Welcome to the night train. "Oh, hell yes, I said +quickly. "How do the neighbors handle it?" + + "No problem," he said. "They love me." + + Sure, I thought. I tried to imagine the horror of living in a muddy +industrial slum full of tin-walled trailers and trying to protect your +family against brain damage from knowing that every night when you +look out your kitchen window there will be a man in a leather bathrobe +flogging two naked women around the room with a quart bottle of Wild +Turkey. Sometimes for two or three hours...It was horrible. + + "Where is your wife?" I asked. "Is she still here?" + + "Oh, yes." he said quickly. "She just went out for some cigarettes +She'll be back any minute." He nodded eagerly. "Oh, yes, she's very +proud of me. We're almost reconciled. She really loves these dolls." + + I smiled, but something about this story mad me nervous. "How many +do you have?" I asked him. + + "Don't worry," he said. "I have all we need." He reached into a +nearby broom closet and pulled out another one -- a half-inflated +Chinese-looking woman with rings in her nipples and two electric cords +attached to her head." This is Ling-Ling," he said. "She screams when +I hit her." He whacked the doll's head and it squawked stupidly. + + Just then I heard car doors slamming outside the trailer, then loud +knocking on the front door and a gruff voice shouting, "Open up! +Police!" + + Leach grabbed a .44 Magnum out of a shoulder holster inside his +bathrobe and fired two shots through the front door. "You bitch," he +screamed. "I should have killed you a long time ago." + + He fired two more shots, laughing calmly. Then he turned to face me +and put the barrel of the gun in his mouth. He hesitated for a moment, +staring directly into my eyes. Then he pulled the trigger and blew off +the back of his head. + + The dead man seemed to lunge at me, slumping headfirst against my +legs as he fell to the floor -- just as a volley of shotgun blasts +came through the front door, followed by harsh shouts on a police +bullhorn from outside. Then another volley of buckshot blasts that +exploded the TV set and set the living room on fire, filling the +trailer with dense brown smoke that I recognized instantly as the +smell of Cyanide gas being released by the burning plastic couch. + + Voices were screaming through the smoke, "Surrender! HANDS UP behind +your goddamn head! DEAD MEAT!" Then more shooting. Another deafening +fireball exploded out of the living room, I kicked the corpse off my +feet and leapt for the back door, which I'd noticed earlier when I +scanned the trailer for "alternative exits," as they say in the +business -- in case one might become necessary. I was halfway out the +door when I remembered the Judge. He was still locked in the bathroom, +maybe helpless in some kind of accidental drug coma, unable to get to +his feet as flames roared through the trailer.... + + Ye Fucking Gods! I thought. I can't let him burn. + + Kick the door off its hinges. Yes. Whack! The door splintered and I +saw him sitting calmly on the filthy aluminum toilet stool, pretending +to read a newspaper and squinting vacantly at me as I crashed in and +grabbed him by one arm. + + "Fool!" I screamed. "Get up! Run! They'll murder us!" + + He followed me through the smoke and burning debris holding his +pants up with one hand....The Chinese sex doll called Ling-Ling +hovered crazily in front of the door, her body swollen from heat and +her hair on fire. I slapped her aside and bashed the door open, +dragging the Judge outside with me. Another volley of shotgun blasts +and bullhorn yells erupted somewhere behind us. The Judge lost his +footing and fell heavily into the mud behind the doomed Airstream. + + "Oh, God!" he screamed. "who is it?" + + "The Pigs," I said. "They've gone crazy. Leach is dead! They're +trying to kill us. We have to get to the car!" + + He stood up quickly. "Pigs?" he said. "Pigs? Trying to kill me?" + + He seemed to stiffen, and the dumbness went out of his eyes. He +raised both fists and screamed in the direction of the shooting. "You +bastards! You scum! You will die for this. You stupid white-trash +pigs!" + + "Are they nuts?" he muttered. He jerked out of my grasp and reached +angrily into his left armpit, then down to his belt and around behind +his back like a gunfighter trying to slap leather....But there was no +leather there. Not even a sleeve holster. + + "Goddamnit!" he snarled. "Where's my goddamn weapon? Oh, Jesus! I +left it in the car!" He dropped into a running crouch and sprinted +into the darkness, around the corner of the flaming Airstream. "Let's +go!" he hissed. "I'll kill these bastards! I'll blow their fucking +heads off!" + + Right, I thought, as we took off in a kind of low-speed desperate +crawl through the mud and the noise and the gunfire, terrified +neighbors screaming frantically to each other in the darkness. The red +convertible was parked in the shadows, near the front of the trailer +right next to the State Police car, with its chase lights blinking +crazily and voices burping out of its radio. + + The Pigs were nowhere to be seen. They had apparently rushed the +place, guns blazing -- hoping to kill Leach before he got away. I +jumped into the car and started the engine. The Judge came through the +passenger door and reached for the loaded .454 Magnum....I watched in +horror as he jerked it out of its holster and ran around to the front +of the cop car and fired two shots into the grille. + + "Fuck you!" he screamed. "Take this, you Scum! Eat shit and die!" He +jumped back as the radiator exploded in a blast of steam and scalding +water. Then he fired three more times through the windshield and into +the squawking radio, which also exploded. + + "Hot damn!" he said as he slid back into the front seat. "Now we +have them trapped!" I jammed the car into reverse and lost control in +the mud, hitting a structure of some kind and careening sideways at +top speed until I got a grip on the thing and aimed it up the ramp to +the highway....The Judge was trying desperately to reload the .454, +yelling at me to slow down, so he could finish the bastards off! His +eyes were wild and his voice was unnaturally savage. + + I swerved hard left to Elko and hurled him sideways, but he quickly +recovered his balance and somehow got off five more thundering shots +in the general direction of the burning trailer behind us. + + "Good work, Judge," I said. "They'll never catch us now." He smiled +and drank deeply from our Whiskey Jug, which he had somehow picked up +as we fled.... Then he passed it over to me, and I too drank deeply as +I whipped the big V-8 into passing gear, and we went from forty-five +to ninety in four seconds and left the ugliness far behind us in the +rain. + + I glanced over at the Judge as he loaded five huge bullets into the +Magnum. He was very calm and focused, showing no signs of the drug +coma that had crippled him just moments before....I was impressed. The +man was clearly a Warrior. I slapped him on the back and grinned. +"Calm down, Judge," I said. "We're almost home." + + I knew better, of course. I was 1000 miles from home, and we were +almost certainly doomed. There was no hope of escaping the dragnet +that would be out for us, once those poor fools discovered Leach in a +puddle of burning blood with the top of his head blown off. The squad +car was destroyed -- thanks to the shrewd instincts of the Judge -- +but I knew it would not take them long to send out an all-points +alarm. Soon there would be angry police road-blocks at every exit +between Reno and Salt Lake City.... + + So what? I thought. There were many side roads, and we had a very +fast car. All I had to do was get the Judge out of his killing frenzy +and find a truck stop where we could buy a few cans of Flat Black +spray paint. Then we could slither out of the state before dawn and +find a place to hide. + + But it would not be an easy run. In the quick space of four hours we +had destroyed two automobiles and somehow participated in at least one +killing -- in addition to all the other random, standard-brand crimes +like speeding and arson and fraud and attempted murder of State Police +officers while fleeing the scene of a homicide.... + + No. We had a Serious problem on our hands. We were trapped in the +middle of Nevada like crazy rats, and the cops would shoot to Kill +when they saw us. No doubt about that. We were Criminally Insane....I +laughed and shifted up into Drive. The car stabilized at 115 or so.... + + The Judge was eager to get back to his women. He was still fiddling +with the Magnum, spinning the cylinder nervously and looking at his +watch. "Can't you go any faster?" he muttered. "How far is Elko?" + + Too far, I thought, which was true. Elko was fifty miles away and +there would be roadblocks. Impossible. They would trap us and probably +butcher us. + + Elko was out, but I was loath to break this news to the Judge. He +had no stomach for bad news. He had a tendency to flip out and flog +anything in sight when things weren't going his way. + + It was wiser, I thought, to humor him. Soon he would go to sleep. + + I slowed down and considered. Our options were limited. There would +be roadblocks on every paved road out of Wells. It was a main +crossroads, a gigantic full-on truck stop where you could get anything +you wanted twenty-four hours a day, within reason of course. And what +we needed was not in that category. We needed to disappear. That was +one option. + + We could go south on 93 to Ely, but that was about it. That would be +like driving into a steel net. A flock of pigs would be waiting for +us, and after that it would be Nevada State Prison. To the north on 93 +was Jackpot, but we would never make that either. Running east into +Utah was hopeless. We were trapped. They would run us down like dogs. +There were other options, but not all of them were mutual. The Judge +had his priorities, but they were not mine. I understood that me and +the Judge were coming up on a parting of the ways. This made me +nervous. There were other options, of course, but they were all High +Risk. I pulled over and studied the map again. the Judge appeared to +be sleeping, but I couldn't be sure. He still had the Magnum in his +lap. + + The Judge was getting to be a problem. There was no way to get him +out of the car without violence. He would not go willingly into the +dark and stormy night. The only other way was to kill him, but that +was out of the question as long as he had the gun. He was very quick +in emergencies. I couldn't get the gun away from him, and I was not +about to get into an argument with him about who should have the +weapon. If I lost, he would shoot me in the spine and leave me in the +road. + + I was getting too nervous to continue without chemical assistance. I +reached under the seat for my kit bag, which contained five or six +Spansules of Black Acid. Wonderful, I thought. This is just what I +need. I ate one and went back to pondering the map. There was a place +called Deeth, just ahead, where a faintly marked side road appeared to +wander uphill through the mountains and down along a jagged ridge into +Jackpot from behind. Good, I thought, this is it. We could sneak into +Jackpot by dawn. + + Just then I felt a blow on the side of my head as the Judge came +awake with a screech, flailing his arms around him like he was coming +out of nightmare. "What's happening, goddamnit?" he said. "Where are +we? They're after us." He was jabbering in a foreign language that +quickly lapsed into English as he tried to aim the gun. "Oh, God," he +screamed, "They're right on top of us. Get moving, goddamnit. I'll +kill every bastard I see." + + He was coming out of a nightmare. I grabbed him by the neck and put +him in a headlock until he went limp. I pulled him back up in the seat +and handed him a Spansule of acid. "Here, Judge, take this," I said. +"It'll calm you down." + + He swallowed the pill and said nothing as I turned onto the highway +and stood heavily on the accelerator. We were up to 115 when a green +exit sign that said DEETH NO SERVICES loomed suddenly out of the rain +just in front of us. I swerved hard to the right and tried to hang on. +But it was no use. I remember the sound of the Judge screaming as we +lost control and went into a full 360-degree curl and then backwards +at seventy-five or eighty through a fence and into a pasture. + + For some reason the near-fatal accident had a calming effect on the +Judge. Or maybe it was the acid. I didn't care one way or the other +after I took the gun from his hand. He gave it up without a fight. He +seemed to be more interested in reading the road signs and listening +to the radio. I knew that if we could slip into jackpot the back way, +I could get the car painted any color I wanted in thirty-three minutes +and put the Judge on a plane. I knew a small private airstrip there, +where nobody asks too many questions and they'll take a personal +check. + + At dawn we drove across the tarmac and pulled up to a seedy-looking +office marked AIR JACKPOT EXPRESS CHARTER COMPANY. "This is it Judge," +I said and slapped him on the back. "This is where you get off." He +seemed resigned to his fate until the woman behind the front desk told +him there wouldn't be a flight to Elko until lunch time. + + "Where is the pilot?" he demanded. + + "I am the pilot," the woman said, "but I can't leave until Debby +gets her to relieve me." + + "Fuck this!" the Judge shouted. "Fuck lunch time. I have to leave +now, you bitch." + + The woman seemed truly frightened by his mood swing, and when the +Judge leaned in and gave her a taste of the long knuckle, she +collapsed and began weeping uncontrollably. "There's more where that +came from," he told her. "Get up! I have to get out of here now." + + He jerked her out from behind the desk and was dragging her toward +the plane when I slipped out the back door. It was daylight now. The +car was nearly out of gas, but that wasn't my primary concern. The +police would be here in minutes, I thought. I'm doomed. But then, as I +pulled onto the highway, I saw a sign that said, WE PAINT ALL NIGHT. + + As I pulled into the parking lot, the Jackpot Express plane passed +overhead. So long, Judge, I thought to myself. You're a brutal hustler +and a Warrior and a great copilot, but you know how to get your way. +You will go far in the world. + + +[Part IV] Epilogue: Christmas Dreams and Cruel Memories...Nation of +Jailers...Stand Back! The Judge Will See You Now + + + That's about it for now, Jann. This story is too depressing to have +to confront professionally in these morbid weeks before Christmas....I +have only vague memories of what it's like there in New York, but +sometimes I have flashbacks about how it was to glide in perfect +speedy silence around the ice rink in front of NBC while junkies and +federal informants in white beards and sleazy red jumpsuits worked the +crowd mercilessly for nickels and dollars and dimes covered with Crack +residue. + + I remember one Christmas morning in Manhattan when we got into the +Empire State Building and went up to the Executive Suite of some +famous underwear company and shoved a 600-pound red, tufted-leather +Imperial English couch out of a corner window on something like the +eighty-fifth floor....The wind caught it, as I recall, and it sort of +drifted around the corner onto Thirty-fourth Street, picking up speed +on its way down, and hit the striped awning of a Korean market, you +know, the kind that sells everything from kimchi to Christmas trees. +The impact blasted watermelons and oranges and tomatoes all over the +sidewalk. We could barely see the impact from where we were, but I +remember a lot of activity on the street when we came out of the +elevator.... It looked like a war zone. A few gawkers were standing +around in a blizzard, muttering to each other and looking dazed. They +thought it was an underground explosion -- maybe a subway or a gas +main. + + Just as we arrived on the scene, a speeding cab skidded on some +watermelons and slammed into a Fifth Avenue bus and burst into flames. +There was a lot of screaming and wailing of police sirens Two cops +began fighting with a gang of looters who had emerged like ghosts out +of the snow and were running off with hams and turkeys and big jars of +caviar....Nobody seemed to think it was strange. What the hell? Shit +happens. Welcome to the Big Apple. Keep alert. Never ride in open cars +or walk to too close to a tall building when it snows ....There were +Christmas trees scattered all over the street and cars were stopping +to grab them and speeding away. We stole one and took it to Missy's +place on the Bowery, because we knew she didn't have one. But she +wasn't home, so we put the tree out on the fire escape and set it on +fire with kerosene. + + That's how I remember New York, Jann. It was always a time of angst +and failure and turmoil. Nobody ever seemed to have any money on +Christmas. Even rich people were broke and jabbering frantically on +their telephones about Santa Claus and suicide or joining a church +with no rules....The snow was clean and pretty for the first twenty or +thirty minutes around dawn, but after that it was churned into filthy +mush by drunken cabbies and garbage compactors and shitting dogs. + + Anybody who acted happy on Christmas was lying -- even the ones were +getting paid $500 an hour....The Jews were especially sulky, and who +could blame them? The birthday of Baby Jesus is always a nervous time +for people who know that ninety days later they will be accused of +murdering him. + + So what? We have our own problems, eh? Jesus! I don't know how you +can ride all those motorcycles around in the snow, Jann. Shit, we can +all handle the back wheel coming loose in a skid. But the front wheel +is something else -- and that's what happens when it snows. WHACKO. +One minute you feel as light and safe as a snowflake, and the next +minute you're sliding sideways under the wheels of a Bekins +van....Nasty traffic jams, horns honking, white limos full of naked +Jesus freaks going up on the sidewalk in low gear to get around you +and the mess you made on the street...Goddamn this scum. They are more +and more in the way. And why aren't they home with their families on +Xmas? Why do they need to come out here and die on the street like +iron hamburgers? + + I hate these bastards, Jann. And I suspect you feel the same....They +might call us bigots, but at least we are Universal bigots. Right? +Shit on those people. Everybody you see these days might have the +power to get you locked up....Who knows why? They will have reasons +straight out of some horrible Kafka story, but in the end it won't +matter any more than a full moon behind clouds. Fuck them. + + Christmas hasn't changed much in twenty-two years, Jann -- not even +2000 miles west and 8000 feet up in the Rockies. It is still a day +that only amateurs can love. It is all well and good for children and +acid freaks to still believe in Santa Claus -- but it is still a +profoundly morbid day for us working professionals. It is unsettling +to know that one out of every twenty people you meet on Xmas will be +dead this time next year....Some people can accept this, and some +can't. That is why God made whiskey, and also why Wild Turkey comes in +$300 shaped canisters during most of the Christmas season, and also +why criminal shitheads all over New York City will hit you up for $100 +tips or they'll twist your windshield wipers into spaghetti and +urinate on your door handles. + + People all around me are going to pieces, Jann. My whole support +system has crumbled like wet sugar cubes. That is why I try never to +employ anyone over the age of twenty. Every Xmas after that is like +another notch down on the ratchet, or maybe a few more teeth off the +flywheel....I remember on Xmas in New York when I was trying to sell a +Mark VII Jaguar with so many teeth off the flywheel that the whole +drivetrain would lock up and whine every time I tried to start the +engine for a buyer....I had to hire gangs of street children to muscle +the car back and forth until the throw-out gear on the starter was +lined up very precisely to engage the few remaining teeth on the +flywheel. On some days I would leave the car idling in a fireplug zone +for three or four hours at a time and pay the greedy little bastards a +dollar an hour to keep it running and wet-shined with fireplug water +until a buyer came along. + + We got to know each other pretty well after nine or ten weeks, and +they were finally able to unload it on a rich artist who drove as far +as the toll plaza at the far end of the George Washington Bridge, +where the engine seized up and exploded like a steam bomb. "They had +to tow it away with a firetruck," he said. "Even the leather seats +were on fire. They laughed at me." + + There is more and more Predatory bullshit in the air these days. +Yesterday I got a call from somebody who said I owed money to Harris +Wofford, my old friend from the Peace Corps. We were in Sierra Leone +together. + + He came out of nowhere like a heat-seeking missile and destroyed the +U.S. Attorney General in Pennsylvania. It was Wonderful. Harris is a +Senator now, and the White House creature is not. Thornburgh blew a +forty-four point lead in three weeks, like Humpty Dumpty....WHOOPS! +Off the wall like a big Lizard egg. The White House had seen no need +for a safety net. + + It was a major disaster for the Bush brain trust and every GOP +political pro in America, from the White House all the way down to +City Hall in places like Denver and Tupelo. The whole Republican party +was left stunned and shuddering like a hound dog passing a peach +pit....At least that's what they said in Tupelo, where one of the +local GOP chairmen flipped out and ran off to Biloxi with a fat young +boy from one of the rich local families....then he tried to blame it +on Harris Wofford when they arrested him in Mobile for aggravated +Sodomy and kidnapping. He was ruined, and his Bail was only $5000, but +none of his friends would sign for it. They were mainly professional +Republicans and bankers who had once been in the Savings and Loan +business, along with Neil Bush the manqu‚ son of the President. + + Neil had just walked on a serious Fraud bust in Colorado. But only +by the skin of his teeth, after his father said he would have to +abandon him to a terrible fate in the Federal Prison System if his son +was really a crook. The evidence was overwhelming, but Neil had a +giddy kind of talent negotiating -- like Colonel North and the +Admiral, who also walked....It was shameless and many people bitched. +But what the fuck do they expect from a Party of high-riding Darwinian +rich boys who've been running around in the White House for twelve +straight years? They can do whatever they want, and why not. "These +are Good Boys," John Sununu once said of this staff. "They only shit +in the pressroom." + + Well...Sununu is gone now, and so is Dick Thornburgh, who is +currently seeking night work in the bank business somewhere on the +outskirts of Pittsburgh. It is an ugly story. He decided to go out on +his own -- like Lucifer, who plunged into Hell -- and he got beaten +like a redheaded stepchild by my old Peace Corps buddy Harris Wofford, +who caught him from behind like a bull wolverine so fast that +Thornburgh couldn't even get out of the way....He was mangled and +humiliated. It was the worst public disaster since Watergate. + + The GOP was plunged into national fear. How could it happen? Dick +Thornburgh had sat on the right hand of God. As AG, he had stepped out +like some arrogant Knight form the Round Table and declared that his +boys -- 4000 or so Justice Department prosecutors -- were no longer +subject to the rules of the Federal Court System. + + But he was wrong, And now Wofford is using Thornburghs's corpse as a +landing pad for a run on the White House and hiring experts to collect +bogus debts from old buddies like me. Hell, I like the idea of Harris +being President. He always seemed honest and I knew he was smart, but +I am leery of giving him money. + + That is politics in the 1990s. Democratic presidential candidates +have not been a satisfying investment recently. Camelot was thirty +years ago, and we still don't know who killed Jack Kennedy. That lone +bullet on the stretcher in Dallas sure as hell didn't pass through two +human bodies, but it was the one that pierced the heart of the +American Dream in our century, maybe forever. + + Camelot is on Court TV now, limping into Rehab clinics and forced to +deny low-rent Rape accusations in the same sweaty West Palm Beach +courthouse where Roxanne Pulitzer went on trial for fucking a trumpet +and lost. + + It has been a long way down -- not just for the Kennedys and the +Democrats, but for all the rest of us. Even the rich and the powerful, +who are coming to understand that change can be quick in the Nineties +and one of these days it will be them in the dock on TV, fighting +desperately to stay out of prison. + + Take my word for it. I have been there, and it gave me an eerie +feeling.... Indeed. There are many cells in the mansion, and more are +being added every day. We are becoming a nation of jailers. + + And that's about it for now, Jann. Christmas is on us and it's all +downhill from here on....At least until Groundhog Day, which is +soon....So, until then, at least, take my advice as your family +doctor, and don't do anything that might cause either one of us to +have to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States. If you +know what I'm saying.... + + Yes. He is Up There, Jann. The Judge. And he will be there for a +long time, waiting to gnaw on our skulls....Right. put that in your +leather pocket the next time you feel like jumping on your new +motorcycle and screwing it all the way over thru traffic and passing +cop cars at 140. + + Remember F.X. Leach. He crossed the Judge, and he paid a terrible +price....And so will you, if you don't slow down and quit harassing +those girls in your office. The Judge is in charge now, and He won't +tolerate it. Beware. + + -To Be Continued- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/emagweap.asc b/textfiles.com/politics/emagweap.asc new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b120945c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/emagweap.asc @@ -0,0 +1,858 @@ + + + + + (word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) + Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 + Sponsored by Vangard Sciences + PO BOX 1031 + Mesquite, TX 75150 + + There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS + on duplicating, publishing or distributing the + files on KeelyNet! + + December 7, 1990 + + EMAGWEAP.ASC + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + NON-LINEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC EFFECTS WEAPONS: + IN THE CONTEXT OF SCIENCE & ECONOMY + ------------------------------------------- + + by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. + Milan, Dec. 1, 1987 + (written version--may diverge from delivered address) + + ================================================================ + CONFERENCE NOTE: Sixty-five-year-old economist LYNDON H. LA + ROUCHE, JR. is a candidate for the 1988 + presidential nomination of the Democratic Party + (U.S.A.). + He is best known in military science for his + leading international role, during 1982 and early + 1983, in proposing a western global strategic + ballistic missile defense based upon "new physical + principles." + ================================================================ + + During the past two years, there has been increasing attention + to the imminently dominant role of new types of electromagnetic- + pulse weapons as strategic and tactical assault weapons of general + warfare. + + Unfortunately, most of this discussion has been listed under + the somewhat misleading title of "radio-frequency weapons," a name + carried over from earlier years discussions of more primitive forms + of electronic warfare. + + One of our greatest difficulties in explaining these new + dimensions of warfare, is the popularity of the old opinion, that + microwaves might impair or destroy living tissues by inductive + heating. + + Unquestionably, microwaves can do this, but we are speaking of + lethal and other special effects achieved by a deposit of energy on + target even several orders of magnitude less than required to cook + that tissue to death. + + The new class of electromagnetic-pulse weaponry has other + military applications, in addition to uses as strategic and tactical + anti-personnel assault-weapons. Missions for non-organic targets + + Page 1 + + + + + + include increasingly sophisticated methods for rendering equipment + inoperative or dysfunctional; they include efficient means for + disrupting the structure of materials. + + However, general policy for the field as a whole can be fairly + discussed by limiting our attention to the case of strategic and + tactical anti-personnel assault weapons. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + A Branch of Optical Biophysics + ------------------------------ + + It is singularly appropriate that a discussion of this field + should occur in Milan, since it was here that the science of optical + biophysics was born about five hundred years ago, as an outgrowth of + the collaboration between Fra Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci. + + It is also to be stressed, that the founding of modern physical + science and biology, by that collaboration, was the outgrowth of the + pioneering work in establishing the methods of physical science by + the great Cardinal Nicolaus of Cusa, the Cusa whose writings served + as the starting-point for the collaboration of Pacioli and Cusa. + + The connection between the work of Cusa and of Pacioli and + Leonardo, places modern optical biophysics and its military and + other applications into the proper historical-scientific + perspective. + + In was in the context of the Council of Florence that Cusa + published his famous , within which is located + the most fundamental principle of modern physical science, what is + called today the principle of physical least action. + + In physical least action is introduced to + us as a "Maximum Minimum Principle," as the notion modern physics + associates with the "isoperimetric theorem" of topology as well as + Leibniz's principle of physical least action. It was on this basis + that Cusa became the first modern figure of science to show why the + solar hypothesis was necessary, and out of which the foundations of + modern relativistic physics were elaborated. + + The following points situate our subject-matter historically. + + Working from Cusa's principle of physical least action, Pacioli + reconstructed the proof that the five platonic solids are the limit + of construction of regular polyhedra in euclidean space. + + This proof, as later enriched by Leonhard Euler and others, + shows that the construction of the Golden Section is a limiting + value for construction of intelligible representation of forms in + euclidean space. + + Pacioli and his collaborators added a discovery which remains + confirmed in full today, that between the limits of the very large + and the very small, the difference between living and non-living + forms is that all healthy living processes are harmonically ordered + morphologically in a manner congruent with the Golden Section. + + + Page 2 + + + + + + Johannes Kepler applied that principle to the very large, to + demonstrate that the fundamental laws of astrophysics are congruent + with the Golden Section. + + In other words, the fundamental laws of physics are to be + adduced as reflections of the curvature of physical space-time + reflected in the limiting value of the Golden Section. + + Carl Gauss and his successors reworked Kepler's physics from a + more advanced standpoint, and that new physics of Gauss, Riemann, + and others found a home among such leading scientists of nineteenth- + century Italy as the great Betti and Beltrami, from which the great + Italian school of electrohydrodynamics and aeronautics emerged to + revive the heritage of Leonardo da Vinci in this field. + + Today, with aid of application of modern high-energy physics to + the phenomena of what are called "force free" states of plasmas, we + show that the Kepler-Gauss-Riemann curvature for astrophysics is the + curvature of physical space-time on the sub-atomic scale. + + Work is currently in progress, with some preliminary success, + to show that the ordering of the periodic table and the crystalline + and other physical characteristics associated with each element of + that table, is determined by synthetic methods coherent with the + Kepler-Gauss-Riemann notion of the curvature of physical space-time. + + If astrophysics, microphysics, and biophysics are each and all + determined by such a common curvature of physical space-time, then + we know several things of great practical importance from this fact + alone. + + First, we know that all of these processes are elementarily + non-linear, in the sense that the progress of physics through Gauss, + Riemann, and Beltrami implies. We also know which popular axiomatic + sorts of ontological assumptions in physics and biology today must + be discarded, if we are to render intelligible the elementary + actions and principles which govern the the sub-atomic and + astrophysical roots of these non-linear processes' behavior on the + macro-scale of applications. + + My own approach to these matters has proceeded from the + standpoint of my successful discoveries in my own profession, in the + field which Liebniz defined and established as . + + A brief description of my contributions to the science of + economy will render more accessible the connection between science + and economy, which I report to you today. + + My entry into economic science started approximately forty + years ago, as a product of my angered reaction to the notion of + "information theory" then being popularized by Professor Norbert + Wiener and others. + + Wiener, as many of you know, attempted to explain from the standpoint of the statistical gas theory of + the Professor Ludwig Boltzmann who died in 1901, allegedly of + suicide, at Duino castle. + + Since I had been a student of Leibniz since early adolsecence, + + Page 3 + + + + + + and an opponent of Immanuel Kant from Leibniz's standpoint, I + recognized immediately the nature of Professor Wiener's folly. I + chose the subject of the impact of scientific discovery upon + productivity of labor as the empirical standpoint in which to + situate my refutation of Wiener. + + Hence, I was able to show how, contrary to Kant, human creative + mentation could be given an intelligible representation, and to show + in what terms productivity might be measured, such that the + correlation between rates of technological progress and rates of + increase of potential productivity could be measured and predicted. + + In order to supply a mathematical representation of this + function I had defined, I turned to the work of Bernhard Riemann. + Hence, the method I have contributed to the work of economic science + is known as the LaRouche-Riemann method. + + It is more or less known that the scientific work of Cusa, + Pacioli, Leonardo, Kepler, Leibniz, Monge, Gauss, and Riemann, among + others, is situated within the methods of what is called synthetic + geometry, as opposed to the axiomatic-deductive methods commonly + popular among professionals today. + + The method of Gauss and Riemann, in which elementary physical + least action is represented by the conic form of self-similar-spiral + action, is merely a further perfection of the synthetic method based + upon circular least action, employed by Cusa, Leonardo, Kepler, and + so forth. + + It is from the standpoint of Gauss-Riemann, that we know that + the elementary existence of physical least action, ontologically, in + the complex domain, is reflected necessarily as the metrical + characteristic of Golden Section harmonics upon the apparent domain + of the discrete manifold. + + This indicates that Gauss did not overturn the earlier work of + Cusa, et al., but merely completed it, giving it a more adequate + representation. From that vantage-point, we are able to move + backward and forward in the history of physical science and biology, + to correlate the work of earlier scientists with the elaboration of + the complex domain by Gauss, Riemann, et al., during the nineteenth + century. + + It is feasible, from this standpoint, to restate propositions + in the language of axiomatic-deductive methods into the language of + the Gauss-Riemann domain. + + In this way, it is feasible to show rather directly, that + creative mentation, as typified by valid fundamental scientific + discoveries, is not only non-linear, but belongs to a domain whose + curvature is the same as that for a Kepler-Gauss-Riemann physical + and biological domain. + + Empirical studies also show, that continuous technological + progress causes the introduction of discontinuities ("non- + linearities") to any attempt at a linear representation of an + economic process. + + There is an analogous, but harmonically different sort of + + Page 4 + + + + + + ordered succession of discontinuities in a devolutionary process; + the upward course simulates the harmonic ordering of a living + process, the downward course, an inorganic one, both in the sense + famously stipulated by Kepler in his paper on the snowflake. + + So, I changed the definition of the terms "entropy" and + "negative entropy," from the statistical definition employed by + Wiener. "Negative entropy" or "negentropy" I supplied a synthetic, + rather than a deductive definition, as akin to Pacioli's definition + of the characteristic ordering of living processes. + + I divided the two kinds of process-directions, negentropy and + entropy, as Kepler did in his snowflake paper. + + As any physical economist must, who follows in the footsteps + of Leibniz, I focussed my work chiefly on the subject of technology. + + The principal question posed to the specialist in technology of + physical economy, is to establish metrical parameters which + correlate advances in scientific principle with advances in the + applied technology derived from such scientific principle. + + If we define the elementary notions of "energy" in the non- + linear way Riemannian physics demands, rather than the popular + scalar notions, all statements in physics can be cast in the form of + statements of energetics defined in that non-linear way. + + In this mode, statements of physical principle become usable as + statements defining technological progress in the functional terms + required by economic science. + + Hence, my interests in biology and physics generally have been + restricted to those matters in which these characteristics are + foremost. I have been concerned with those developments in biology + which correlate with my knowledge of the characteristics of creative + mentation, and with those matters of physics which are crucial for + significant technological advances in the productivity of labor. + + For this reason, my work in fields of technology significant + for military applications has emphasized the method of achieving + efficient spill-over of these technologies into the domain of + civilian economy. + + My encounter with the modern optical biophysics of non-linear + spectroscopy of living processes was a direct by-product of my + preoccupation with the intelligible representation of the form of + creative mental processes. + + It was clear that human memory, for example, is a holographic + sort of non-linear function, rather than digital linear one. It was + important to me, as an economist, to determine how the requirements + of nutrition and other physiological constraints must be seen as a + matter of social and economic policy, for the purpose of fostering + potential creativity among professionals and operatives. + + It is important, therefore, to correlate the characteristics of + creative mental activity with the biological processes upon which + mental activity is grounded. + + + Page 5 + + + + + + For that reason, it is those aspects of biological processes + which have the same general characteristics as creative mental + activity which were of greatest interest. Work in non-linear + spectroscopy provided a view of the elementary characteristics of + cellular and sub-cellular life which was uniquely in correspondence + with the characteristics of creative mental activity. + + How could it be different than that? The curvature of + astrophysical, microphysical, and biophysical space-time are the + same as the curvature of creative mental processes. This arrangement + is most convenient for us all, since if the curvature of our mental + creative processes were different than that of the universe in which + we live, our universe could not be intelligible for mankind. + + It should be noted that Leonardo da Vinci understood matters in + these same terms, as we may recall from his emphatic defense of the + principle of hypothesis. + + If we understand the way in which the self-bounding curvature + of our universe underlies all correct notions of elementary physical + laws, our power to discover with increasing perfection of knowledge + is limited only by the adequacy of our understanding of both the + correct curvature and its implications. + + On this point, as many others, modern evidence shows us that + Leonardo was correct, and his critics crippled by their own error. + + The modern view of biophysics today, is that the harmonic + ordering of non-linear electromagnetic processes is the physical + characteristic of living processes, and that biochemical reactions + are subsumed by this electromagnetic ordering. + + Moreover, this shows us that biological processes are not + properly defined in any away within the set of ontological + assumptions associated with either a Cartesian or any sort of a neo- + Cartesian discrete manifold. + + Modern biology turns our eyes to those aspects of astrophysical + phenomena, in which the process as a whole must be comprehended in + terms of included effects occurring at speeds greater than the speed + of light; there is there, as in the remarkable electromagnetic + coordination of tissues, a coherence of the process which defies the + notion of propagation of action between particles at distance. + + In biological processes, these integrative features of the + electromagnetic field are among the most interesting phenomena. + + This knowledge of modern biophysics leads us in two directions. + We derive from modern, electromagnetic studies of optical + biophysics, knowledge of new practicable principles, by means of + which life may either be more readily disrupted, or assisted. + + The degree of refinement of technique, by means of which living + processes might be maliciously affected, enables us to accomplish + such effects by a small fraction of the energy deposited to produce + thermal effects. + + Conversely, the potential to improve, to heal, is similarly + increased. The knowledge gained in the one application, is, for + + Page 6 + + + + + + better or for worse, inseparable from the other. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + As Weapons Systems + ------------------ + + For rather obvious reasons, including my desire that these + techniques remain out of the hands of terrorists, I shall not go + publicly into the technical details of this matter, except to say + that today nations have access to means by which either hordes of + locusts or large concentrations of human populations could be killed + or otherwise neutralized by use of a single weapon of this type. + + The prototypes of the beam-generators exist. The power-sources + adequate for this exist either off the shelf or as prototypes. With + improvements in higher temperature superconducting materials, and + use of such electrodes for gyratrons for example, strategic weapons + of this class are in reach. + + The computers need to guide the propagation of the pulses are + rather readily available with reasonable effort to develop + dedicated-application modules of the required type. The appropriate + wave-guides are a matter of ingenuity applied to a known field. + + The conveyances suited for the deployment of such assault + weaponry exist, and more suitable conveyances rather readily + designed and produced. + + In short, strategic anti-personnel assault weapons as effective + in their way as thermonuclear weapons, are an imminent potential. + Moreover, such strategic weapons are more readily deployed, and with + fewer constraints upon their use, than the thermonuclear weapons + they could often replace. + + Apart from the direct use of such technologies for military + purposes as obvious as that, the same technology is the basis for + special applications producing global effects upon much of the + earth's biosphere, or some local part of it. + + All of the most interesting effects are characteristically non- + linear, rather than being the kinds of actions, such as thermal + effects, we associate with the electrodynamics of the cartesian + discrete manifold. + + There is no prospect of putting such potentials back into a + bottle, to lock them away from military uses. + + The Soviets have long been dedicated to such weaponry, and have + the scientific capability of developing and producing them today. + + How rapidly they might produce such systems in strategically + significant numbers, is another question. However, we note that + there are currently occurring very significant changes in the Soviet + military order of battle, changes which correlate with the early + deployment of significant numbers of weapons of this general class. + + We should also note, that the Soviet military has been + dedicated to developing a global strategic ballistic missile defense + + Page 7 + + + + + + system--its own SDI--for about twenty-five years, and has been + developing such a system for deployment over the period of + approximately seventeen years to date. + + During the first half of the 1990s, the Soviets will deploy + their own version of the U.S. SDI. The technological base required + for the Soviet version of the SDI it is preparing to deploy, is an + adequate base for developing and producing the kinds of + electromagnetic assault weapons we are considering today. + + These new types are weapons are here, to all intents and + purposes. There are only two classes of nations which will not soon + deploy them: those which are already subjugated by Moscow, or about + to become subjugated. We shall develop them as rapidly as possible, + because we have no rational choice but to do so. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + The Economics of These Weapons + ------------------------------ + + There are some who will argue, that the present international + financial collapse is leading us into a new global depression, worse + than that of the 1930s. + + The financial collapse is now unstoppable; tens of trillions of + dollars of financial paper will be wiped out before the Spring of + 1989, and there is no means on Earth to prevent this from occurring. + However, this financial crash need not lead into an economic + depression, if the government of the United States comes to its + senses during the months immediately ahead. + + Some will argue, that because of the budget-cuts and other + depressive effects of the financial crash, the U.S. SDI will be + stopped, and no new technological breakthroughs launched. + + To that I respond, as I have done in my remarks to a Paris + conference, that often it is the case that only a profound crisis + permits the unleashing of sweeping improvements in policy, including + the unleashing of new scientific and technological revolutions. + + As long as leading institutions are complacently content with + current policies, they are unlikely to change those habits. It is + when a profound crisis brings the smug and complacent to their + knees, crying, "Save us!" that overdue advances are permitted to + occur. + + If we come to our senses, and rid ourselves of the habits which + have created the great financial bubble now collapsing upon us, if + we return, in despair of any other course, to a policy of promoting + technological progress in a capital-intensive and energy-intensive + mode, the present crisis were more likely to accelerate the kinds of + technological changes I indicate, than to delay them. + + Despite the increasing erosion of scientific and related + machine-tool capabilities during the past twenty years of "post- + industrial drift," we have accumulated a vast store of new, unused + technologies ready for immediate application. + + + Page 8 + + + + + + During this same time, we have entered into new dimensions of + scientific research, from which can pour the greatest advance in + human productivity ever known over the decades immediately ahead. + + Vis-a-vis the Soviet empire, we of the West have certain + inherent strategic advantages, among which is the fact that the + potential for productivity in the OECD nations is approximately + twice that in the Soviet empire. The OECD nations have twice the + population of the Russian empire. + + Our population has twice the productive potential of that of + the Russian empire, if we but employ it properly. In addition, there + are 350 millions in Ibero-America, predominantly members of our + Western European culture, and with similar productive potentials. We + have seas of population among our friends in Africa and non- + communist Asia. + + Together we represent the overwhelming majority of the land- + area, maritime choke-points, and population of this planet. + + Our greatest advantage is that which Moscow hates most bitterly + of all, as it has since muscovy was first founded against a + counterforce against Roman missionaries such as Cyril and Methodius. + + We have the gift of (prounounced ah-gah-pay), as the + New Testament apostles named it in their Greek, the law and + commandment that we must love God and our neighbor as ourselves. + + This is the emotion of love of God, love of mankind, + love of truth, and love of classical beauty. It is also the quality + which permeates and motivates creative thinking. + + For reason of the idea of the nature of God, the human + individual, and all else, which is the precious heritage of our + civilization, we have been given the greatest potential for + generation and assimilation of scientific and related progress of + any culture. + + This gift is not a property of our race, but something which, + with , we are properly destined to preserve and to share with + all humanity. This gift is also the means by which we may acquire + all the power we need to defend that for our nations and for + humanity as a whole. + + Our people have the cultural potential to generate and to + assimilate technological progress at the greatest rate possible + among all mankind. + + It is not only a means of power; it is our nature to order our + affairs in such a way that the creative powers of the individual + human mind are the quality with which we embed all our practice. + + It is the duty and the privilege of the leaders of our nations + to foster the education, the conditions of family life, and + opportunities for labor, which are consistent with that principle. + + The fostering of the increase of the average productive powers + of labor, to the benefit of all mankind, is the proper + characteristic of man's labor. + + Page 9 + + + + + + We must choose this course not merely because the very + existence of our civilization is menaced from the east today. + Rather, it is the enormity of the crisis which impels us to resume + a policy from which we should never have departed. + + It is the looming tragedy, threatening the existence of our + civilization which obliges us to affirm those policies of practice + which are the most natural way of life for our culture. + + Without overlooking the ominous threat from the East, let us + define the task before us, in Milan today, as the rebuilding of + Italy, as part of the rebuilding of Europe, and of continuing the + proper mission of western european culture to the benefit of all + mankind. + + Let us situate the employment of these new technologies within + the economic task of rebuilding Italy as Betti and Beltrami, and + Leonardo da Vinci before them, would have preferred we do. + + Let us assume that we are committed to large-scale capital + improvements in the basic economic infrastructure of Italy. In that + case, we may assume that the preconditions for capital improvement + and growth of the nation's agriculture and industry are being + satisfied. + + Under those conditions, what Italy must do is similar in a + general way to what I must do, if I become the next President, in + the United States, and what must be done throughout western Europe. + + However, let us situate what must be done in Italy itself in + relationship to the SDI and the new technologies under discussion + here today. + + The crux of industrial development of Italy is the efficient + coordination of precious handfuls of scientists and machine-tool + enterprises with the complex of larger enterprises which are the + centers of industrial production. Let us begin with the special + relationship between scientific teams and the machine-tool + enterprises. + + In the physics department of a well-organized university there + is a special sort of machine-tool shop. + + A scientist has devised an experimental hypothesis, perhaps a + test of some crucial scientific principle. + + The scientist works with the university's machine-tool + facility, to create his experimental apparatus. Once a new principle + has been established in that way, the same scientist is situated to + take the fruits of his work to a machine-tool facility, which will + translate the discovery into a new technology made available to + industry. + + If industry has available adequate flows of investment-capital, + retained earnings, and credit at reasonably low prices, and if + investment tax-credits are designed to encourage such investments, + industries will tend to gobble up new technologies produced, even + almost as rapidly as they are available. + + + Page 10 + + + + + + The integration of those combined efforts, of research, of + development of improved technologies in the machine-tool sector, and + improved productive capital for industry, is the triadic form of + optimal organization of technological industrial progress and + growth. + + The popular opinion of opposition to this course of actions + comes largely from those who have been infected with the ideology of + "consumerism." + + These misinformed persons imagine falsely, that it is consumer + purchases which generate growth of industry. On the contrary, what + prompts the growth of markets for households' goods, is the growth + of population and employment. + + The most important source of this growth in employment, + agriculture aside, is the combination of capital improvements in + basic economic infrastructure and employment in production of + capital goods. + + It is the vertical development of industry which makes possible + its horizontal development; it is chiefly the percentile of + operatives employed in infrastructure and production of capital + goods which enlarge the market for sale of households' goods. + + By basic economic infrastructure, I mean water-mangement, + general transportation, production and distribution of energy, urban + sanitation, and such crucial contributions to the productivity of + labor as education and medical services. + + The dynamic of growth is supplied by the increase of the + productivity of agricultural and industrial operatives, and the + transfer of unemployed and marginally employed into employment as + such skilled operatives. The average growth of productivity is the + true margin of real profit of a national economy as a whole. + + Since increase of productivity requires improved standards of + life for households, sustained growth and profitability can be + secured in only one way: through sustained technological progress in + capital-intensive and energy-intensive modes of production. + + So, whenever we integrate science, machine-tool sectors, and + general industrial investment in the way I have indicated, we have + turned that triadic relationship into s science-driver for raising + the incomes and productivity of the economy as a whole. + + Obviously, therefore, the greater the ration of scientists so + employed, the greater the ration of operatives employed in the + machine-tool sector, and the greater the ration of operatives + employed in capital goods production generally, the more prosperous + the economy will become. + + Thus, the vertical expansion of the division of labor in + industry, energized by the triadic relationship, yields the highest + potential rates of per-capita improvement of a national economy. + + The shrewdest policy for this case, is a commitment to + technological "leapfrogging." In general, it were wiser for a nation + not to try to compete with foreign industries on existing levels of + + Page 11 + + + + + + technology in use; instead make a leap ahead of the level of + technology currently practised in foreign nations. The worse the + competitive level of repair of one's economy, the more urgent such + "leapfrogging" is. + + Italy has a dwindling kernel of the quality of scientists and + related advanced machine-tool capabilities in the tradition of Betti + and Italy's aeronautics industry earlier during this century. + + Let us take a number of such diversified technological + capabilities, and group them under a single name: + "electrohydrodynamics." + + That represents the kernel of Italy's special scientific + potentials. This is a scientific potential well suited to the kinds + of technologies associated with SDI and the new dimensions of non- + linear electromagnetic biophysics and related fields. + + Link that to the machine-tool sector, concentrating scarce + resources along that technological breakthrough front. + + Link that to the vertical development of the industrial base + generally. + + This has become an obvious road toward applying limited + resources to the effect of fostering the optimal national result. + + It must be stressed, that the military application of these + technologies is only a small fraction of their potential. It is + spilling these technologies into the civilian sector as rapidly as + possible, which is the principal source of benefit to the nation as + a whole. + + At the same time, it is an intangible, but most powerful + economic benefit to the people of a nation, to associate their + nation with technological achievements of which to take pride before + the world. + + If a people says , finding its manifest national purpose + beautiful in that way, that people is happier, and more productive + for that reason. + + It is time for the nations of western european culture to rise + out of the quicksands of cultural pessimism, in which we have been + trapped these past twenty years, to assist one another in achieving + great works worthy of being admired by all humanity, and to rejoice + in such accomplishments by our neighbors. + + Today, we are faced with the grim business of continued + strategic conflict. Let us do what we must on the account, but let + us enjoy more the good we acomplish as contributions to the welfare + of mankind in the course of doing our duty to our civilization. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + this file taken from Weirdbase at 314-741-2231 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + If you have comments or other information relating to such topics + as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the + + Page 12 + + + + + + Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. + Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. + + Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson + Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + If we can be of service, you may contact + Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Page 13 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/emancipa.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/emancipa.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fba559cd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/emancipa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ + +THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION: + + +By the President of the United States of America: + +A PROCLAMATION + + Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation +was issued by the President of the United States, containing, +among other things, the following, to wit: + + "That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as +slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people +whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall +be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive +government of the United States, including the military and naval +authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such +persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any +of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. + + "That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, +by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, +in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in +rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State +or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith +represented in the Congress of the United States by members +chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified +voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the +absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive +evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then +in rebellion against the United States." + + Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United +States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief +of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed +rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, +and as a fit and necessary war measure for supressing said +rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in +accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the +full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned, +order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the +people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against +the United States the following, to wit: + + Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, +Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, +including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and +Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left +precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. + + And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do +order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said +designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall +be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, +including the military and naval authorities thereof, will +recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. + + And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to +abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and +I recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor +faithfully for reasonable wages. + + And I further declare and make known that such persons of +suitable condition will be received into the armed service of +the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and +other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. + + And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke +the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor +of Almighty God. + +------------------------------------- + +On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free +all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal +government. This Emancipation Proclamation actually freed few +people. It did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on +the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already +under Union control. Naturally, the states in rebellion did not +act on Lincoln's order. But the proclamation did show Americans-- +and the world--that the civil war was now being fought to end slavery. + +Lincoln had been reluctant to come to this position. A believer +in white supremacy, he initially viewed the war only in terms of +preserving the Union. As pressure for abolition mounted in +Congress and the country, however, Lincoln became more sympathetic +to the idea. On Sept. 22, 1862, he issued a preliminary proclamation +announcing that emancipation would become effective on Jan. 1, 1863, +in those states still in rebellion. Although the Emancipation +Proclamation did not end slavery in America--this was achieved +by the passage of the 13TH Amendment to the Constitution on Dec. +18, 1865--it did make that accomplishment a basic war goal and +a virtual certainty. + +DOUGLAS T. MILLER + +Bibliography: Commager, Henry Steele, The Great Proclamation +(1960); Donovan, Frank, Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation (1964); +Franklin, John Hope, ed., The Emancipation Proclamation (1964). + +------------------------------------- + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/emrhazrd.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/emrhazrd.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dd9d5434 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/emrhazrd.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ + TUNING OUT NON-IONIZING RADIATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH/SAFETY HAZARDS + + Growing evidence that long wave non-ionizing radiation used in + electromagnetic devices, microwave products, and TV/radio systems is + harmful to the public's health, hazardous to effective public safety + systems, and threatening to military security went largely unreported + by America's media in 1987. Also underreported were the related + issues of the Environmental Protection Agency's shut-down of its + funded programs to study non-ionizing radiation in light of a 1989 + deadline to establish safety standards for public exposure to radio + frequencies, and, the lawsuit brought against the Reagan + administration by a coalition of plaintiffs who charge that the + administration has violated the National Enviromental Policy act by + not adequately protecting the public and environment from the "Hazard + of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance" (HERO). + Studies that suggest links between electromagetic fields (such as + those produced by overhead power lines, broadcast towers, military + hardware, hairdryers, microwave ovens, computers, TV and two-way + radios, and radar), and cellular mutation, cancer, and childhood + leukemia have received little attention. University of North Carolina + epidemiologist David Savitz confirmed earlier reports about the + apparent public health hazard. Savitz emphasized the need for further + research and more federal funding to determine the extent of this + potential health risk. Fifteen of 17 occupational studies have + established links between exposure to low frequency electromagnetic + fields and cancer. Despite this mounting evidence, the EPA shut down + its program to study non-ionizing radiation which is supposed to set + acceptable levels of exposure for humans and the environment by 1989. + Meanwhile, total federal funding to study the health effects of low + frequency fields has dropped from $10 million to just $2.5 million. + A coalition of Pentagon watchdog organizations and individuals + has brought suit against the government charging Reagan administration + officials with willful negligence in protecting the public from the + HERO effect. Though the Navy and Army have been aware, for some 33 + years, of the hazard that electromagnetism poses to weapon systems, + the Pentagon has acknowledged very little about the hazards that + accidental explosions caused by various electromagnetic sources pose + to public and environmental safety. The plaintiffs cite five specific + HERO related accidents, including the 1967 explosion on board the USS + Forrestal which claimed 134 lives, along with a possible 25 other HERO + related accidents that have occurred over the past 25 k;years. + Finally, in a continuing conflict related to the issue of + electromagnetic radiation and its effects on public safety and health, + radar specialist veterans have been filing health claims, related to + their exposrue to low frequency radiation, against the Veterans + Administration. All claims to date have been rejected. + With such a newsworthy issue as the effects of electromagnetic + radiation on public health and safety so clearly being played out + during 1987, the news media, for the most part, failed to tune in. + + SOURCES: KQED-TV 9, "EXPRESS," 12/9/87, "Radiation Risk?," by + David Helvarg; RECON, Vol. 10, #4, January 1988, "HERO: Deadly Game of + Roulette," by Patricia Axelrod, pp 1,2,8. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/enerai.wh b/textfiles.com/politics/enerai.wh new file mode 100644 index 00000000..eaaacb96 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/enerai.wh @@ -0,0 +1,329 @@ + + + +August 6, 1992 + + + PRESIDENT BUSH ON ENERGY: + ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND INITIATIVES + + "The driving force behind [our National Energy Strategy] is + straightforward. It relies on the power of the marketplace, + the common sense of the American people and the responsible + leadership of industry and government." + + President George Bush + February 20, 1991 + + +Summary + +o The President introduced his National Energy Strategy (NES) + a year and a half ago. The NES is a comprehensive and + balanced approach toward energy production and efficiency + and will improve our Nation's energy security, enhance + environmental quality, and spur economic growth. + +o The NES builds on the President's record on energy and + includes incentives to increase domestic production of oil + and gas, promotes energy efficiency and conservation, + encourages development and use of renewable and alternate + sources of energy, and supports the clean use of our + Nation's abundant coal resources and the safe use of nuclear + power. + +o The President's NES includes measures to increase domestic + energy production and efficiency. It does not impose new + taxes or harsh command and control regulations on American + industry and consumers. Instead, the NES removes regulatory + barriers, relies on competition, and invests in research and + development to achieve our energy goals. For example, it + removes many of the current tax penalties on domestic + extraction investments and at the same time relieves many of + the regulatory burdens that prevent cleaner burning natural + gas from reaching the marketplace. + +Oil and Gas + +o From his business experience as an oilman in Texas, + President Bush understands how important the oil and gas + industry is to the United States. He is committed to + restoring jobs to this vital and valuable sector of our + economy by encouraging domestic production and reducing the + need for imports. + +Energy -- page 2 + +o President Bush has proposed that Congress reform the + Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) as it applies to domestic oil + and gas industries in order to remove serious disincentives + to production. He has also fought Congressional efforts to + restrict state prorationing and to expand the moratorium on + leasing in certain areas of the outer continental shelf. + +o President Bush opposes an amendment recently passed by the + House of Representatives which would prohibit certain forms + of state regulation of natural gas production. This + restriction on gas prorationing provides unnecessary Federal + regulation and would hinder states from conserving + resources, preventing waste, and protecting the correlative + rights of gas producers and land and royalty owners. + +o President Bush pushed for and signed the Natural Gas + Wellhead Decontrol Act of 1989, which will completely + eliminate natural gas wellhead price controls by January 1, + 1993. + +o The Bush Administration has proposed reducing royalties paid + by stripper wells on Federal lands. The revised regulation + will create a sliding royalty scale that will provide an + incentive to continue operating marginal wells that are in + danger of shutting down. + +o The President pushed through Congress $2.25 billion in oil + and gas tax incentives in 1990, about $1.9 billion of which + will accrue to the benefit of independents. + +o The Administration has proposed increased funding for + natural gas research and development, particularly for + technologies to increase utilization of natural gas for + environmental compliance. The Department of Energy has also + restructured its natural gas program to shift research and + development activities to meet nearer-term objectives and + cost-sharing investment with industry. + +o In order to free oil producers from unnecessary governmental + burdens, the President's NES includes measures to reduce + regulatory barriers and to enhance domestic energy + production which could increase U.S. oil production by 3.8 + million barrels per day over the next twenty years. The NES + as a whole will reduce projected oil imports by one-third. + +o The President strongly supports efforts to develop new oil + recovery technology as a means of keeping our oil industry + healthy in the long-term. A central component of the NES is + a new program of joint Federal/private investment to advance + oil recovery technology. The initial 14 projects were Energy -- page 3 + + approved in 1992 with a value of $97 million. The NES oil + research program includes an aggressive technology transfer + component specifically designed to assist independent + producers. + +o The President supports the expansion of worldwide strategic + petroleum stocks available to offset future oil supply + disruptions and has resumed fill of our Nation's Strategic + Petroleum Reserve. + +o As a part of his National Energy Strategy, the President has + announced measures which will allow the gas business to + operate with more flexibility and to seize market + opportunities by removing regulatory barriers which impede + natural gas use. + + -- Initiatives in President Bush's NES are expected to + increase consumption of clean burning natural gas by + 20% or about 3.8 trillion cubic feet by the year 2000. + + -- Revenue for domestic producers of natural gas is + projected to increase by over $50 billion during the + period 1992-2000. + +o President Bush knows that access is vital to the U.S. oil + and gas industry. His NES calls for access to the + previously restricted coastal plain of the Arctic National + Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and some Outer Continental Shelf + areas under strict environmental safeguards. At the same + time, the President has safeguarded the integrity of these + areas by signing the Oil Spill Pollution Act, which requires + double hull tankers, a $1 billion cleanup trust fund, and + increases polluter liability and enforcement tools. The NES + also supports an increase in the production of California + heavy oil and access to export markets. + +o To promote domestic gas production, the President's NES + proposes legislation which will streamline gas pipeline + construction regulations and develop more efficient + environmental review procedures. In addition, the Federal + Energy Regulatory Commission issued the most sweeping + reforms of natural gas transportation in fifty years (the + "restructuring" rule) and removed regulatory barriers to the + use of natural gas vehicles. + +o NES recommendations on alternative fuels and electricity + regulatory reform through amending the Public Utility and + Holding Company Act and issuance of the "WEPCo" rule will + also substantially increase utilization of natural gas. + Energy -- page 4 + +Nuclear Energy and Coal + +o The President's National Energy Strategy proposes + legislation to reform the nuclear licensing process and the + removal of other barriers to permit nuclear power to + contribute cleanly, economically, and safely to our future + electricity needs. In addition, the Administration + supported issuance by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of a + final rule for the renewal of existing nuclear powerplants' + licenses where safety can be assured. + +o The NES supports research on next generation and advanced + reactors. In February 1992, the Department of Energy signed + a cooperative agreement with industry to jointly fund a $200 + million effort to develop advanced light water designs to + the point of commercial standardization. + +o The NES also contains initiatives to ensure progress on the + management and disposal of nuclear waste, and the Department + of Energy has resumed investigative work at the Yucca + Mountain candidate site after successful conclusion of years + of legal dispute. + +o The President has supported full funding, including $500 + million in the fiscal year 1993 budget, for the Clean Coal + Technology Demonstration Program, a $5 billion industry + cost-shared demonstration program aimed at introducing + innovative methods of using our Nation's abundant coal + resources more cleanly, efficiently, and economically. + +o The Administration has expanded efforts to promote the + export of U.S. coals and clean coal technologies to enhance + the U.S. balance of trade, create American jobs, and aid + both economic growth and environmental protection in + countries facing rapid increases in electricity demand. + +o The Administration issued regulations (the "WEPCo" rule) to + facilitate compliance by the electric utility industry with + new Clean Air Act requirements and remove uncertainty about + power plant modifications under the new source review + requirements. + +Renewable Energy and Alternative Fuels + +o The Bush Administration has encouraged development and use + of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and + hydroelectric power and other energy sources like ethanol. + The President's FY93 budget increases renewable energy + research and development to $250 million, over 65% more than + when he took office. + Energy -- page 5 + + -- In addition, the President established the National + Renewable Energy Laboratory in September 1991, + indicating the importance attached by the + Administration to renewable energy research. + +o The President signed legislation extending tax incentives + for domestically produced ethanol through the year 2000. + These incentives, totalling more than $220 million over five + years, will help the farm economy and ensure the widespread + availability of this clean, secure fuel. The Administration + also supports legislation to remove an artificial barrier to + greater use of ethanol by expanding tax exemptions and + credits for ethanol blends. + + -- In addition, the Bush Administration has launched an + accelerated research effort to develop cost- + competitive, clean-burning domestic fuels from a wide + variety of agricultural products. The President + proposed spending more than $50 million on this + initiative in fiscal year 1993. + +o The President has supported legislation extending renewable + energy investment tax credits for solar and geothermal + facilities. + +o The President signed legislation amending the Public Utility + Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) to allow large facilities + using renewable energy projects to qualify for the benefits + PURPA provides. As part of the National Energy Strategy, + the Bush Administration proposes to further amend PURPA to + remove project size limits in PURPA and reduce fuel use + restrictions for such facilities. + +o The Administration issued new regulations to simplify the + process for improving efficiency at privately-owned but + Federally licensed hydroelectric projects and launched + Hydropower 2002 an initiative to improve efficiency and + increase production at Federal hydropower facilities. As + part of the National Energy Strategy, the Administration has + proposed substantial regulatory reform to enable us to take + advantage of our ample hydroelectric power resources, + especially those at existing dams, while protecting + environmental quality. + +o The NES further encourages the development and use of + alternative fuels and technologies through research and + development and by requiring centrally-fueled fleets to + purchase vehicles capable of using alternative fuels. The + President has directed all Federal agencies to maximize + their purchases of alternative fuel vehicles. The + government has already purchased over 3,000 such vehicles + and plans to acquire 5,000 more in FY93. + +Energy -- page 6 + +o In October 1991, the President announced the creation of the + U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium, a four-year, $260 million + joint research venture with the Nation's three largest + automobile manufactures, the electric utility industry and + others to develop a new generation of batteries to make + electric vehicles attractive and available by the year 2000. + +Increasing Energy and Economic Efficiency + +o Along with increasing energy production, President Bush is + committed to achieving greater efficiency in every element + of energy production and use. The President's FY93 budget + proposes over $330 million for conservation energy research + and development, double the amount when he took office. + +o The President, leading through example, issued an Executive + Order on Federal Energy Management, directing all Federal + agencies to reduce overall energy consumption in Federal + buildings by 20% by the year 2000 and to reduce fuel + consumption in Federal vehicles by 10% by 1995. These + conservation measures will save American taxpayers an + estimated $800 million in annual energy costs and cut + Federal energy consumption by about 100,000 barrels per day + of oil equivalent. + +o To increase efficient use of energy, the Department of + Energy has strengthened efficiency standards for many + energy-consuming household appliances. + +o The Administration also initiated a number of voluntary + programs to increase private investment in more efficient + lighting, building, computer and related technologies in + support of the energy, economic and environmental objectives + of the National Energy Strategy. + +o The President signed the National Affordable Housing Act, + which includes provisions for energy efficiency standards + for new construction of publicly-assisted housing and for + mortgage financing incentives for energy efficiency. + +o The Bush Administration has expanded efforts to support + development by States and utilities of integrated resource + planning, a process in which new supply resources and + investments in energy efficiency compete to satisfy + electricity needs. The Administration also provided tax + free treatment of utility discounts on consumers' + electricity bills for efficiency investments. + +o The Bush Administration has supported legislative and + regulatory changes to reduce electricity prices to consumers + through increased competition in wholesale power markets and + expanded access to electricity transmission services. + +Energy -- page 7 + +o The President proposed, negotiated, and signed into law + major new transportation legislation, the Intermodal Surface + Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, which will reduce oil + use in the transportation sector by increasing Federal + funding of mass transit and by giving State and local + governments flexibility to fund other energy conserving + transportation projects. + + # # # \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/energy.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/energy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9a3c53aa --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/energy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,183 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please distribute. + + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY + + + +For twelve years, the Republicans in Washington +have undermined our national security and cut short +our economic growth because they haven't had a +national energy policy. In the last decade, 8,000 +of our independent oil and gas producers have +closed their doors; 300,000 Americans have lost +their jobs. Of 4,500 domestic drilling rigs +operating in the United States in 1981 when Ronald +Reagan and George Bush took office, less than 700 +remain in operation today. We've fallen behind our +competitors in energy efficiency and are in danger +of leaving future generations of Americans in a +precarious position of overwhelming debt and +dependence. + +America needs a new national energy policy that +enables Americans to control Americas energy +future. Instead of coddling special interests +whose fortunes depend on Americas addiction to +foreign oil, the Clinton/Gore national energy +policy promotes national security, energy +diversity, economic prosperity, and environmental +protection. + +It's time to make the right energy choices. + +Increase energy efficiency and conservation + +* Increase corporate average fuel economy + standards from the current 27.5 miles per + gallon to 40-45 miles per gallon. + +* Develop and implement revenue-neutral market + incentives that reward conservation and + penalize polluters and energy-wasters. + +* Adopt transportation strategies and highway + spending programs that encourage car-pooling, + high-efficiency highway technology, and mass + transit by including conservation incentives + in the federal matching fund program. + +* Promote changes in utility regulation to make + energy efficiency profitable for both + utilities and customers. + +* Strengthen federal programs to encourage + energy-efficient housing, and to encourage + state and local governments to adopt building + codes that encourage conservation by calling + for thicker walls and windows, new compact + florescent bulbs, more efficient insulation + and new low-cost housing construction that + could cut domestic energy consumption by 25 + percent using measures that would pay for + themselves in 5 to 7 years. + +* Increase energy efficiency in every federal + agency and set standards to insure that + federal grants, contracts, and projects + support Americas national conservation goals. + +Increase natural gas use + +* Implement policies to expand markets for + natural gas in every sector homes, businesses, + industry, electrical generation, and + transportation. + +* Speed development and certification of new + natural gas pipelines to get natural gas to + market, with special emphasis on areas not + currently adequately served by natural gas. + +* Convert the enormous federal vehicle fleet to + natural gas. + +* Use federal research and development dollars + to develop new natural gas applications. + +Expand the use of renewable energy sources + +* Create a civilian advanced research agency + that will support civilian research and + development of renewable technologies and + renewable fuel programs. + +* Reorient the mission of hundreds of national + laboratories, moving from defense R&D to more + work on commercial renewable energy projects. + +* Change the tax code to create greater + incentives for renewable energy use. + +* Give incentives to utilities to adopt least + cost planning, which factors environmental, + social and economic costs into fuel-use + decisions. Least-cost planning is currently + employed by utility companies in 17 states. + +A safe, environmentally sound energy policy + +* Oppose increased reliance on nuclear power. + There is good reason to believe that we can + meet future energy needs -- with conservation + and the use of alternative fuels -- without + having to face the staggering costs, delays + and uncertainties of nuclear waste disposal. + +* Oppose federal excise gas tax increases. + Instead of a back-breaking federal gas tax, we + should try conservation, increased use of + natural gas, and increased use of alternative + fuels. + +* Prohibit drilling in the Arctic National + Wildlife Refuge in Alaska: work to expand the + ANWR to include the 1.5 acre Arctic Coastal + Plain while ensuring that Native Americans are + able to use these lands for traditional + subsistence hunting and fishing. Increased + energy efficiency and the use of natural gas + currently available in the lower 48 states can + easily negate the need for ANWR drilling. + +* In Governor Clinton's first term in 1979, he + created a state Department of Energy which + emphasized renewable resource development, + reduced institutional barriers to energy + conservation and encouraged the development of + new energy sources. + +* Established an Alternative Fuels Commission. + +* Arkansas ranks 10th in the nation in energy + research spending. + +* Gore amendments enacted by the Senate as part + of the 1992 energy bill: + + ! Help small businesses increase their + energy efficiency and cut their energy + bills by establishing energy diagnostic + centers where engineering students and + their professors can work with small + businesses. + + ! Accelerate the government's efforts to + procure the most energy efficient + products and to provide grant money to + states to fund energy efficiency and + conservation initiatives. + + ! Require the Tennessee Valley Authority of + conduct least-cost planning analyses of + energy supply and demand requirements. + + ! Provides assistance to states to develop + energy conservation and renewable energy + initiatives. + +* Senator Gore was a leader in the successful + efforts to kill provisions that would have + allowed drilling in the Arctic National + Wildlife Refuge. + +* Led efforts in the 1991 Interior + Appropriations for solar and renewable joint + venture programs. + +* Senator Gore introduced legislation to involve + America's national labs in developing and + disseminating energy efficient technologies + and practices. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/energy.wh b/textfiles.com/politics/energy.wh new file mode 100644 index 00000000..df0e4247 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/energy.wh @@ -0,0 +1,426 @@ + + + + +June 10, 1992 + + + PRESIDENT BUSH'S NATIONAL ENERGY STRATEGY + + + "The driving force behind [our National Energy Strategy] is + straightforward. It relies on the power of the marketplace, + the common sense of the American people and the responsible + leadership of industry and government." + + President George Bush + February 20, 1991 + + "When our administration developed our national energy + strategy, three principles guided our policy: reducing our + dependence on foreign oil, protecting our environment, and + promoting economic growth." + + President George Bush + October 25, 1991 + +Summary + +o On February 20, 1991, President Bush released to the + American people his National Energy Strategy (NES), a + comprehensive strategy designed to increase America's energy + security, enhance environmental quality, and fuel future + economic growth. + +o In early March 1991, the President sent to Congress + legislation to implement key aspects of his NES. The + Congress is currently considering energy legislation that is + substantially modeled upon the President's National Energy + Strategy. Recently, energy bills have passed the Senate 94 + to 4 votes and the House 381 to 37 votes. + +o The President is pleased that the Senate and House of + Representatives have made progress toward adopting a sound + national energy policy. The Senate and House energy bills + would implement several key elements of the President's NES. + By following the President's NES, they would make the United + States less vulnerable to the economic damage resulting from + excessive dependence on insecure foreign suppliers, through + initiatives designed to promote energy efficiency and + increase domestic production. While there is much work to + be done, the President believes the Senate and House bills + form a welcome bipartisan basis for moving to final action + in conference. + + +o The President's National Energy Strategy builds upon a + number of Bush Administration initiatives including the 1990 + revisions to the Clean Air Act, 1989 Natural Gas Wellhead + Decontrol Legislation and incentives provided in the 1990 + budget agreement for domestic producers of renewable and + fossil energy. + +The President's National Energy Strategy + +o President Bush released his NES on February 20, 1991. The + NES is a comprehensive and balanced strategy for an energy + future that is secure, efficient, and environmentally sound. + The NES is designed to: + + -- Diversify U.S. sources of energy supplies; + + -- Increase efficiency and flexibility in energy + consumption; + + -- Reduce the dependence of the U.S. economy on oil while + increasing domestic oil production; + + -- Increase the use of natural gas, a domestically + abundant source of clean energy; + + -- Increase the production and use of renewable energy + resources; + + -- Increase the use of alternative transportation fuels; + + -- Encourage efficiency and competition in electricity + generation and efficient use of electric power; + + -- Reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases from + projected levels; + + -- Improve air, land, and water quality by developing and + using environmentally superior technology; + + -- Create jobs and promote economic growth; and + + -- Maintain U.S. preeminence in fundamental science and + engineering research and accelerate commercialization + of technologies developed through Federally funded + research. + + + + + +Increasing Energy Conservation and Efficiency + +o President Bush is committed to achieving greater efficiency + in every element of energy production and use. Greater + energy efficiency can reduce energy costs to consumers, + enhance environmental quality, maintain and enhance our + standard of living, increase our freedom and energy + security, and promote a strong economy. + +o The President has proposed over $330 million in the FY 93 + budget for energy conservation research and development, + double the amount when he took office. The following are + examples of specific proposals in the President's NES to + increase our energy efficiency. + +Transportation: + +o Transportation efficiency is targeted by expanding efforts + to develop advanced transportation technologies, such as + more fuel efficient engines, electric vehicles, more + intelligent-vehicle highway systems, and magnetic-levitation + and other high speed transportation. These advanced + technologies hold the promise of significant energy savings + in the transportation sector. + +o The NES also promotes efforts to accelerate scrappage of + older, gas guzzling cars and increase use of public + transportation and ridesharing by raising the limit on tax- + free commuter subsidies that employers can give employees. + +o These and other measures directed at transportation are + projected to save the equivalent of 3.0 million barrels of + oil per day by the year 2010 without the harmful effects of + higher taxes, increased regulations or oil import fees. Even + though the number of passenger miles driven is estimated to + increase 60% by 2010, the volume of gasoline purchased by + consumers is projected to fall by 10%. + +Electricity: + +o Analysts forecast that over 90 gigawatts (about 90 large + power plants) will be needed over the next 10 years to meet + increased electricity demand. The President's NES will meet + this increased demand by both increasing efficiency and + expanding the range of fuels and technologies for + electricity generation. + + + + +o The President's NES will increase electricity efficiency and + competition among suppliers by amending the Public Utility + Holding Company Act to remove restrictions on electric + generators who wish to build, own, and operate power + facilities in more than one area, and by reforming the + Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to modify size and + fuel use restrictions for small power producers. + +o The NES also supports State and utility efforts to invest in + energy efficiency as an alternative to power plant additions + and provides tax-free treatment of utility discounts on + consumers' electricity bills for efficiency investments. It + will reduce Federal subsidies for the debt of Federal Power + Marketing Administrations and expand access to electricity + transmission for utility and non-utility wholesale buyers + and sellers. + +o The electricity efficiency measures in the President's NES + are projected to reduce electricity growth by over 10% in + 2010 and save consumers over $30 billion in electricity + costs. + +Residential and Commercial Building Conservation: + +o The NES targets residential and commercial buildings' + efficiency by increasing Federal funding for R&D in building + technologies. This is to develop and encourage the use of + cost-effective building efficiency standards. + +o The NES also encourages providers of home mortgages to + consider energy efficiency ratings in their pending + decisions with prospective home buyers and expands energy + efficiency labeling programs to include certain other + equipment, such as light bulbs. + +Industry: + +o The NES will increase industrial energy efficiency by + increasing research and development for industrial waste + reduction and recycling, supporting the use of industrial + energy audits at the state and local level, and modifying + regulations that inhibit the use of waste minimization + technologies. + +o Industrial output is expected to grow almost 80% by the year + 2010, but the United States is projected to use only 25% + more energy to power its industrial facilities. + + + +Federal Government: + +o President Bush has issued an Executive Order directing all + Federal agencies to reduce overall energy consumption in + Federal buildings 20% by the year 2000, and to reduce fuel + consumption in Federal vehicles 10% by 1995. + +o President Bush has directed Federal agencies to maximize + their purchases of alternative fuels vehicles. Over 3,000 + such vehicles have already been purchased and are in use. + + +Securing Future Energy Supplies + +o The U.S. is part of an energy interdependent world, but U.S. + vulnerability to supply disruptions must be reduced. One of + the objectives of the NES is to increase the environmentally + sound production of domestic energy resources. Initiatives + in the NES will increase domestic oil production by up to + 3.8 million barrels per day in 2010, and increase + economically recoverable resources by 25 to 70 billion + barrels. The NES also includes a major commitment to + advanced energy technology through research and development + initiatives for energy security. + +Oil: + +o President Bush has led efforts to reform alternative minimum + tax (AMT) as it applies to independent energy producers. + President Bush has actively supported measures to remove + serious disincentives to domestic production of oil and gas + that exist in current tax law. The President believes that + reform of AMT is absolutely necessary to help revitalize the + domestic oil and gas industry. + +o The NES establishes a new program of joint Federal/private + investment in advanced oil recovery technology. By 2010, + advanced oil recovery technologies are projected to increase + U.S. production by over 3 million barrels per day. + +o The President supports the expansion of worldwide strategic + petroleum stocks available to offset future oil supply + disruptions. + + + + + + +o The President's NES encourages oil production in America by + calling for the approval of access to the coastal plain of + the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and some Outer + Continental Shelf areas under strict environmental + safeguards. The President will continue to press Congress + to allow access to ANWR. The NES also supports an increase + in the production of California heavy oil and access to + export markets. + +o The NES supports the expansion of production capacity + throughout the world and the Administration has initiated + programs to achieve this end in the Western Hemisphere and + in the former Soviet Union. + +o The President supports Federal royalty reductions for on- + shore oil and gas producers. The Administration is + examining royalty reductions on off-shore production. + +Natural Gas: + +o On March 6, 1992, President Bush announced steps to bring + relief to the natural gas industry. The Administration will + remove regulatory barriers that impede the use of natural + gas by electric utilities. It will also encourage greater + usage of natural gas vehicles by removing regulatory + barriers to the sale of compressed natural gas for use in + motor vehicles, and will issue proposed emission standards + for natural gas vehicles that will allow them to compete on + an equal basis with other vehicles. + +o To promote domestic gas production, the President's NES + proposes legislation which will streamline gas pipeline + construction regulations and develop more efficient + environmental review procedures. And, pursuant to the NES, + the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently proposed + regulatory reforms which will deregulate pipeline sales + rates in competitive markets and reform gas pipeline rate + designs. + +o The Administration has proposed increased funding for + natural gas research and development, particularly for + technologies to increase utilization of natural gas for + environmental compliance. The Department of Energy has also + restructured its natural gas program to shift research and + development activities to meet nearer-term objectives and + cost-sharing investment with industry. + + + + +o NES recommendations relating to alternative fuels and + electricity regulatory reform (PUHCA) will also + substantially increase utilization of natural gas. + +o Initiatives in the NES are expected to increase natural gas + consumption by almost 1 trillion cubic feet by the year + 2000. + +Coal: + +o The President's NES promotes the use and exportation of + clean coal by promoting clean coal technology and by + creating favorable export markets for U.S. coal and coal- + burning technologies. The NES will clarify the + applicability of the Clean Air Act to refurbished power + plants, and pursue research and development on environmental + protection during mining. + +o Initiatives in the NES will help the U.S. coal industry + capture a major share of the growing international coal and + coal technology markets, while at the same time improving + our ability to more cleanly and efficiently utilize the + large U.S. supplies of low cost coal. + +o The President supports full funding of the Five-Round Clean + Coal Technology R&D program. This Federal-industry $5 + billion cost-shared program is developing high efficiency, + low-emission technology to meet the stringent air quality + standards of the next decade. + +Nuclear Power: + +o The NES proposes legislation which will preserve the nuclear + power option to meet electricity needs by reforming and + streamlining the nuclear plant licensing process. + +o The NES supports the renewal of licenses for existing + nuclear plants, where this can be done safely and + economically. It also supports standardized designs for + "next generation" power plants and accelerates research and + development of "next generation" passively safe design + nuclear reactors. + +o The NES contains initiatives to ensure progress on the + management and disposal of nuclear waste. + + + + + +Renewable and Alternative Energy: + +o The President's renewable energy research and development + budget for FY 93 was increased to nearly $250 million, a + more than 65% increase over the amount when he took office. + +o The NES encourages the development and use of alternative + fuels and technologies through research and development and + by requiring centrally-fueled fleets to purchase vehicles + capable of using alternative fuels. The Department of + Energy has teamed with industry to establish a joint + research venture to make possible a new generation of + batteries for electric vehicles. + +o The President's NES encourages hydropower projects by + proposing legislation which would eliminate unwarranted + Federal regulation and streamlining hydropower licensing + projects. + +o The Department of Energy has begun to test new ways to + produce ethanol at cost-competitive prices. Increasing the + use of ethanol in the transportation sector will make the + United States less dependent on oil imports. + +o The Department of Energy completed construction of the Wind + Energy Test Center in September 1991. Advances in + technology of wind as an energy source will enhance its + chances of becoming a competitive resource for electricity + in many areas of the country. The President requested $22 + million for wind energy research and development in the FY + 93 Budget. + +o The Department of Energy has entered into a joint venture + with private companies to develop a system that uses solar + power to operate generators. President Bush has requested + $27 million in his FY 93 Budget for the research and + development of solar energy. + +o The NES supports converting municipal solid waste to energy + as part of a comprehensive waste management strategy. + +o The NES proposes to intensify international collaboration in + fusion research to develop a demonstration plant by 2025 and + a commercial plant that could cost-effectively supply power + by 2040. + +o Electricity generation from renewable energy sources is + projected to increase 16% by 2010 under the NES. + + +Energy and the Quality of Air, Land and Water + +o Coupled with the Clean Air Act Amendments that the President + signed into law in 1990, the NES strives to enhance + environmental quality by reducing sulphur dioxide emissions + by 40%, nitrogen oxides by 30%, and volatile organic + compounds emissions by 25% from projected levels in 2030. + The NES will reduce the cost of achieving greater + environmental benefits. + +o The NES, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and + demonstrate U.S. international leadership on this issue. At + the same time, ongoing Federal research aimed at reducing + scientific uncertainty on the potential for global climate + change, will provide an improved basis for future policy. + + + + + # # # + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/entebbe.asc b/textfiles.com/politics/entebbe.asc new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cbd9426c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/entebbe.asc @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ + + + + + (word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) + Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 + Sponsored by Vangard Sciences + PO BOX 1031 + Mesquite, TX 75150 + + There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS + on duplicating, publishing or distributing the + files on KeelyNet except where noted! + + September 25, 1992 + + ENTEBBE.ASC + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + This fascinating file is from our archives and I finally + found time to type it up. We kind of sat on it due to the + nature but it is definitely Keely-type information since it + deals with the "centre of gravity" and how it can be + "artificially displaced". + I won't go into the details of that but will leave it to + the other Keely researchers who understand such concepts. + We have spoken with several people who felt the Israelis have + some kind of "secret weapon" ranging from UFO's to Scalar weapons. + This is the "hardest" evidence we have found of such claims. + As always, we would GREATLY APPRECIATE the sharing of any + information related to this file, particularly technically + based articles or hints of such, if you get the drift.... + ENJOY!...>>> Jerry + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + This file originated in WEEKEND MAGAZINE, December 19, 1977. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Israel's Secret Weapon? + A Toronto inventor may hold the key to Entebbe + by David Jones + + Two books have now been written on the daring raid which rescued 103 + hijack hostages from Entebbe Airport on July 3, 1976. Numerous + interviews and official explanations have been given, yet the puzzle + remains. How did the Israeli rescue mission manage to ELUDE the + radar of six nations lying beneath or alongside the flight path, + including that of Uganda. + + The answer to the Entebbe mystery may lie with a 64-year-old + appliance repairman and heart patient. The first hint of Sid + Hurwich's connection with the raid filtered out last June at a + ceremony in Toronto's Besh Tzedec synagogue, where Hurwich was + presented with the award of Protectors of the State of Israel on + behalf of the Zionist Organization of Canada for a secret military + device he had given Israel SEVEN YEARS EARLIER. Six weeks later an + item appeared in the Tornont Star linking the Hurwich device to the + raid on Entebbe. The wire services picked it up and the story took + off round the world. + + The most DETAILED ACCOUNT appeared in FOREIGN REPORT (we would LOVE + A COPY OF THIS ARTICLE at KEELYNET!, HINT, HINT!), a confidential + diplomatic journal produced by England's prestigious ECONOMIST + magazine. In an unsigned article apparently based on Israeli + sources, the publication reports that "all that could be learned + + Page 1 + + + + + + officially was that [Hurwich's] invention had been used in the + Israeli raid at Entebbe last year." The article claims the + invention + + "sends out electronic rays to ALTER the NATURAL COMPOSITION of + magnetic fields and CENTRES OF GRAVITY of weapons, instrument + dials and mechanical devices. + + On the Hurwich principle there was no reason why the new BEAMS + could not reach and DISABLE tanks, ground-to-ground missiles + and complete radar systems. + + The beams could also be TACKED TOGETHER to form a SCREEN that + would make WHOLE ZONES SAFE from bombs or missiles. The + Israeli's will NOT divulge what tests have been run, or how + the Hurwich RAY has been developed." + + According to his daughter, Sylvia Winkler, Hurwich "was around 9 + when he started buying broken bicycles and putting them together, + and when anybody threw out appliances, he would pick them up and put + them together." + + By 1934, with no training beyond high school, Hurwich had won a + reputation as the first private appliance repairmen in Canada - + before that only the manufacturers did repairs. By the beginning of + the Second World War he was known as a man "able to fix just about + anything." Ontario Hydro pulled strings to keep him out of the army + and built a public service department around him. + + Meanwhile, with government restrictions on metals used in + appliances, the repair business took off. By 1947 he had built it + up into Shock Electric, which remains one of the largest businesses + of its kind in Toronto. In another building, he started SidCo Co., + devoted to making electrical parts. When a heart attack in 1950 + just about killed him, he sold the business and went into a + comfortable retirement at the age of 36. + + The idea for the Hurwich ray came to him one evening in 1969 as he + read about a rash of robberies from bank night-deposit vaults. "It + just clicked what to do," Hurwich says. "I picked up the phone to + the police - I knew a lot of the boys - and I told them I think I + can stop those thieveries in about half a hour." + + Hurwich went to work in his basement with $50 worth of spare parts, + and within a week had assembled a working model to test his theory. + Inspector Bill Bolton, then head of the police hold-up squad, + assembled police and bank security officials at Hurwich's home. + "All I can recall," says Bolton "is that it was under the table - + the device, whatever it was - and there was a bedspread over the + table. He FROZE MY SERVICE REVOLVER. You COULDN'T PULL THE + TRIGGER, you COULDN'T LIFT IT UP OFF THE TABLE and even on the + table, you COULDN'T PULL THE TRIGGER." + + Hurwich continues: "And then I said 'Now take a look at your + watches.'" I remember one of them said, "When did this happen?" and + I said, "The minute you walked through that door. You walked in + there about 25 minutes ago. Now look at your watches. You're late + about 25 minutes." + + + Page 2 + + + + + + As the security officers filed out of his home, Hurwich's wife + overheard one of them suggest that the army should be told about the + device. "That was the first time it ever entered my mind for war or + army purposes or anything like that," Hurwich says. He went back to + work in his basement. When he felt the device was ready he + contacted a brother living in Israel. Hurwich has never been to + Israel himself but he felt "they needed it more than anybody, what + with the Arabs saying they'd push everyone into the sea." Hurwich + received a visit shortly afterward from two high-ranking Israeli + officers. After a brief demonstration they walked out with the + working model and every plan and design Hurwich had. + + Hurwich insists his device is not really an invention. He says he + simply "took one of the oldest BASIC principles of electricity and + put it to a different use." Which principle he won't say, just as + he refuses to discuss how the device works. It only works on + objects that WILL CARRY A CURRENT, he says. It can be aimed and its + range depends on its power source. + + "Any magnet will stop a watch," explains Dr. Howard White, a Toronto + consulting engineer. "It sounds to me like a very high-intensity + electromagnetic field that he is able to PROJECT, but I don't know + how he is generating it." White shakes his head skeptically. "From + jamming a few guns to jamming electronic equipment at long range is + a very large leap. But anything's possible." + + Hurwich has never patented the device - he doesn't believe in + patents. "It's so easy to copy," he says. "I've copied things from + patents. Just make a few minor changes where they'd have a tough + time in court proving I'd broken the patent." Nor has he received + any money for his invention. Oppenheimer and Co. of New York wrote + recently to "offer any service to assist you in determining the + commercial feasibility of your work, and exploring avenues to bring + your work to useful commercial purposes." Hurwich says, "at this + stage money doesn't enter my mind. I am not a youngster and I can't + take it with me." + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Vangard Note + + Assuming Mr. Hurwich is still alive, he would be about 74 years + old by now. We wonder if he might be willing to discuss the + device further NOW? If anyone out there in Toronto wants to + do some research, we would all appreciate any feedback you + could provide. Also, we understand that a beam can be + projected from a POLARIZED (usually circular) antenna. + However, how it could affect a field RATHER than just anything + in its beamed path is curious. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + If you have comments or other information relating to such topics + as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the + Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. + Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. + + Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson + Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + If we can be of service, you may contact + Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Page 3 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/envhoax.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/envhoax.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..952e135b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/envhoax.txt @@ -0,0 +1,485 @@ + + DEBUNKING MEDIA MITHS ABOUT THE OZONE HOLE AND GREENHOUSE WARMING + + The surface of this planet is covered by dry bits, called "land," and +wet bits, called "water." Where these two bodies meet is termed a "beach," +which may be sandy, rocky, cliff face, or any one of many other types. +Where these "beaches" occur, there is, to a greater or lesser extent, a +certain amount of wave activity called "surf." Imagine you are strolling +along a beach somewhere, minding your own business, and enjoying the view, +when, out of nowhere, comes a demented, hysterical character who wants to +enlist your help in freeing the beach of board-riders, because they are +"wearing down the surf." He goes on to earnestly explain that the thin line +of "surf" is the only thing "holding back" the ocean, and if the +board-riders wear it out enough, the "layer of surf" will become so +depleted that it can no longer "hold back" the ocean, and the ocean will +flood over the land and destroy mankind. What would be your reaction to +such a person? You'd quite possibly conclude, quite correctly, that such a +person should be confined to the local "funny farm" as quickly as possible, +wouldn't you? + + And yet, this is exactly the kind of logic being used to support the +"hole in the ozone layer" scam. And erstwhile intelligent people are +running around with varying versions of this Chicken Little story that the +"sky is falling," without ever making even the slightest attempt to find +out what is really happening, and why. As with the "greenhouse effect," it +is only necessary to understand a few very simple scientific facts, to +totally debunk this "scam." First of all, what exactly is the "ozone +layer," or "ozone mantle" as it is now being called, which supposedly +"protects" us from all that unwanted ultraviolet light? Well, quite simply +and bluntly, there ISN'T one!! Just as the surf is not a magical barrier to +the ocean flooding the land, and is, in reality simply an EFFECT of where +land a water meet, so too is the so-called "ozone layer" merely an area +where an effect can be detected, not a CAUSE. Let's start with a very +basic chemistry lesson, which again can be confirmed with junior high +school textbooks. First of all, existing on this planet Earth, and +probably elsewhere, is an element called "oxygen." According to my +dictionary, oxygen is an element, with the chemical symbol "O." Now, +oxygen, for reasons I won't go into here, but which you can readily find +out for yourself from the aforementioned junior high school chemistry book, +rarely, if ever, exists as the single atom "O." Such a single atom of +oxygen or most other "elements," is called an "ion," and it is very +difficult for most substances to exist freely in their "ionic" state. What +normally happens is that two atoms of "O" combine, or "stick" together, and +form the molecule "O2," of "oxygen" as you and I know it. This is the +stuff you and I and all other living creatures breathe in and expel as +"carbon dioxide," or CO2 (one carbon atom, two oxygen atoms). In yet +another of nature's wonderful balancing acts, green plants "breathe" in the +CO2, extract the atom of carbon (C) as a "building block" in their cellular +growth, and expel oxygen, or "O2." This is why it is so important that we +stop destroying all the green stuff on the land by overclearing, and stop +polluting up the oceans, and thereby killing all the little green plants +known as "plankton." + + "O2," or two oxygen atoms "stuck together" if you like, is the +"normal, or most prevalent form of oxygen in the atmosphere. But it is by +no means the only one. If one applies various forms of energy to the "O2" +molecule, it will break down to its ionic state and reform into another +configuration, one where THREE, not two, atoms of oxygen "stick together" +to form a new molecule called "O3," or "ozone." Now, the "energy" required +to perform this little trick can come from a variety of sources. An +electrical discharge through the air will do it. Unlike "oxygen" (O2), +which is odorless, "ozone" has a distinct, pungent smell. Pick up your +kid's electric train engine, or radio-controlled car, after it has been +operating a while, and you will smell this odor. The electrical discharge +where the bushes run on the motor turns a certain amount of "oxygen" (O2), +into "ozone" (O3). Electrical storms, or at least the subsequent bolts of +lightning, ionize a great deal of the surrounding air, and create a certain +amount of "ozone." + + By far and away the biggest "source" of energy for the conversion of +"oxygen" (O2) into "ozone" (O3), however, comes from the Sun, in the form +of ultraviolet light. What happens is a cycle something like this: You +and I breathe in oxygen (O2), and breathe out CO2, carbon dioxide. Plants +on the other hand "breathe in" carbon dioxide, and expel oxygen (O2). This +cycle is more or less endless. Oxygen (O2), however, is slightly lighter +than the other elements which make up the "air" (nitrogen, carbon dioxide, +and so on), and so a certain proportion of the molecules of oxygen drift +upwards to the outer fringes of that blanket of gases that surround the +planet, which we call our atmosphere. From the other direction, light from +the Sun streams in. A certain amount of this light is absorbed or +deflected by various elements, atoms, molecules, and particles of other +matter. The bulk of this light from the Sun, however, continues its +downward journey toward the planet's surface, until it encounters the +oxygen (O2) molecules rising up from the surface. At the point where the +sunlight reaches a sufficient concentration of O2 molecules, a "reaction" +takes place. A certain portion of the light from the Sun, that portion +known as the "ultraviolet" section, strikes the rising O2 molecules, and +imparts its energy to the oxygen molecule it has struck. This has two +effects. First, it greatly reduces the amount of ultraviolet light which +would otherwise reach the Earth's surface, because the "ray," or unit, or +"beam" of light loses energy and becomes light in the lower spectrums, the +ones we call "colors." This is one of the causes of that spectacular light +show called the "Southern," or "Northern" Lights. Second, it converts the +"oxygen" molecules (O2), into "ozone" molecules (O3). + + There is a portion of the atmosphere, from 10, to 50 kilometers up, +which does not, however, get this name because it contains some magical, +mysterious "layer" of matter known as "ozone" which exists, and has +existed, from the beginning of time to "protect" us from ultraviolet light, +and which is now under "dire threat" from various man-made products. It is +called this name because this is the region where rising O2 oxygen +molecules are struck by incoming ultraviolet light, and convert to O3 ozone +molecules, and it therefore has a higher proportion of "O3" molecules to +"O2" molecules. There will continue to be an "ozonosphere," or, as it is +incorrectly termed, an "ozone layer," for as long as the planet's surface +continues to manufacture oxygen to rise, and for as long as the Sun +continues to emit light to encounter that rising oxygen. Just as there +will always be "surf," for as long as there are places where "water" meets +"land." The misnamed "ozone layer" will continue to simply be the end +result of where two opposing forces and systems meet, until such time as +one or the other of those forces or systems ceases to exist. Just as there +will always be "surf," for as long as there is "land" and "water," there +will be an "ozonosphere" as long as there is "oxygen" and sunlight. If +either one of these packs up, we will have long since suffocated, or frozen +to death, before we develop skin cancer. As I said, this is stuff you can +check out for yourself with the simplest of reference books. + +FACTS ABOUT THE OZONOSPHERE + + Okay. What about the so-called "holes" in the "ozone layer"? Well, +as we have seen, there is no such thing as a magical, mysterious "ozone +layer," so there can't be any "holes" in it. There IS however, a region +called the "ozonosphere" which normally has a higher incidence of "O3" than +"O2" simply and purely because it is a region where a segment of sunlight +(ultraviolet light) strikes O2 molecules, and converts them into O2 +molecules. Now, given the chemical-physical explanation of the +ozonosphere, as opposed to the "hysterical" version currently being peddled +by the media, it becomes immensely easy to "predict" in said ozonosphere at +certain times of the year. As has been demonstrated, the so-called "ozone +layer" requires for its very existence, that oxygen (O2) molecules interact +with incoming sunlight (ultraviolet light), in order to create "O3" +molecules, which can then be measured and referred to as the magical "ozone +mantle." + + Now, there are two places on the face of the planet where, for a +portion of the year, NO ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT strikes rising O2 molecules, and +therefore, where there can be NO large formation of O3 molecules (ozone). +I am referring, of course, to the Northern (Arctic) Circle in the Northern +Hemisphere winter, and to the Southern (Antarctic) Circle in the Southern +Hemisphere winter. The Earth, thankfully, is not positioned exactly +perpendicular to the rays of the Sun. If it was, the Sun would be overhead +in the small place all the time, and the so-called tropical regions would +just get hotter and hotter, until they became uninhabitable deserts, and +the polar regions would just keep freezing. The bulk of the Earth's surface +would either be too hot, or too cold, to live in with only a thin region +where the two extremities met, capable of supporting life as we know it. + + Fortunately, this is not the case; the Earth is, in fact "tilted over" +to one side with respect to the Sun, and it is this tilt that gives us our +"seasons." In Figure 1 [figure deleted], we have a representation of the +Earth at what is known in the Northern Hemisphere as the "summer solstice," +that is, when the Sun is directly "overhead" at the Tropic of Cancer. This +is the height of the Northern Hemisphere summer. As can clearly be seen +from the diagram, NO sunlight is contacting the atmosphere above the +Antarctic Circle, and therefore there simply cannot be any conversion of +"O2" into "O3." Hence, there is a measurable "hole" in the amount of ozone +in the ozonosphere at that time. As the Sun's "overhead" position +gradually changes, and the Sun "moves" back across the Equator, the amount +of sunlight reaching the Antarctic Circle gradually increases, thus giving +rise to an increase in the incidence of ultraviolet light striking the +atmosphere, thus causing the "hole" to "shrink." + + In Figure 2 [figure deleted] we have the exact opposite conditions, +the "summer solstice" for the Southern Hemisphere. This occurs on Dec. 22 +each year, when the Sun is directly "overhead" at the Tropic of Capricorn. +Again, it can readily be seen that now the Arctic Circle lies completely in +the dark, and, surprise, surprise, there is a measurable "hole" there in +the amount of O3 in the ozonosphere. After the Southern Hemisphere +solstice, the Sun begins its journey northward again, and as we here in +Australia slip into our autumn, the "hole" at the Antarctic Circle starts +to "grow" again, and the one at the Arctic Circle starts to "shrink." This +is a natural cycle which has existed, and will continue to exist, for as +long as the Earth is tilted, the atmosphere contains O2 molecules, and +ultraviolet light continues to come from the Sun to convert them to O3 +molecules. There are no laws that puny men can pass to stop the awesome +forces and cycles of Nature, as King Canute learned when he attempted to +"order" the tides to turn back. "Laws" to attempt to prevent the natural +cycle of "holes" in the ozonosphere, fall into the same category, and +should be treated with equal contempt. + + So where did all this nonsense about "holes" in the ozone layer come +from, anyway? Well, back in 1985, the British Climatological Team in +Antarctica discovered the first "hole." There was a relatively short bout +of hysteria, as always, whipped up by a compliant media because the whole +thing was in "somebody's" interest; all front-page hype and speculation +about how half the world's population would be dead from skin cancer by the +year 2000, and similar preposterous stuff. If you think back to the late +1985-early 1986, you should be able to remember it all. You should also be +able to remember that it had all just died away by late 1986-early 1987, +and you heard nothing more about "holes" in the ozone layer until quite +recently. But do you know why? Well, I'll tell you. It all died away +because by the time the British scientists at the South Pole had been +studying the phenomenon long enough to realize that it was not some +hideous, dire threat to mankind's future, but part of a natural, endless, +repetitive cycle. This was actually reported in the papers, but naturally +enough, not in screaming page-one headlines, but buried up on page 53 or +so, somewhere between the comics and the obituaries. + + What was also reported at the time was that the scientists, who now +know exactly what they were dealing with, were packing up in Antarctica, +and moving camp to the Northern Polar regions to test their own prediction +that there would be a similar "hole" there, at the opposite time of the +year, thereby proving that the "holes" were not a new threat to the +environment and to mankind, but part of a natural cycle. And that, of +course, is exactly what they did, and that is exactly what they found. Of +course, such a reassurance would not suit those who wish us to live our +lives in a constant state of near panic, and therefore ever more prepared +to hand over control of our lives to some form of "Big Brother" to save us +from these imaginary "threats." + + And so, rather than the papers correctly reporting that the British +team had discovered a second hole above the Arctic Circle, a hole they had +already predicted and they had gone there specifically to confirm, thereby +proving their theory that such phenomena were part of a natural cycle, the +papers instead screamed out from their front pages, "Second Hole in Ozone +Layer Discovered: Dire Double Threat to Mankind," and other similar +hysterical drivel. And now, Maggie Thatcher, the head of government in +Britain, the person who was ultimately responsible for the team that +discovered the first "hole," and the person ultimately responsible for +sending the team to the Arctic Circle to substantiate their theories, the +person with access to ALL this information, and the person who should be +leading the way in debunking this scam, is the person inviting scientists +and leaders from all over the world, to formulate "policies," and +"agreements," and if necessary, "world laws" to be administered by the +United States, to tackle this new "threat." And there are STILL people +trying to convince me she's one of the "good guys." + + Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not in favor of ANY strange +laboratory-created substances polluting the air I have to breathe, and I +wholeheartedly endorse the current campaign to rid the atmosphere of +chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the atoms being blamed for the so-called +"holes" in the ozone layer. But just stop for a minute and think: If CFCs +caused the so-called "holes," why are they ONLY over the polar regions? +Are the polar explorers and scientists using too much spray-on deodorant +and fly-killer? Of course not. If CFCs had much to do at all with the +so-called "holes," then the "holes" would be over New York, or Tokyo, or +London, or at least somewhere relative to these places where it could be +shown that the air currents were causing the CFCs to accumulate. But they +are not. The "holes" only occur in two places, over the North and South +Polar regions, exactly in accordance with natural forces which create the +bulk of ozone, and exactly in accordance with the theories and predictions +of the scientists who discovered them in the first place. + +AEROSOL CANS AND JET PLANES + + Think about something else for a moment. Imagine a can of spray. If +you like, think about a whole supermarket shelf of cans of fly spray or +even an entire supermarket full of nothing else but cans of fly-spray. +Picture in you mind how much CFCs are involved, and will find their way +into the atmosphere to somehow (never actually explained) "destroy" ozone +(O3). Now picture in your mind a Boeing 747 jet, with its four massive +engines. Now imagine that jet hurling through the sky at hundreds of miles +an hour, scooping literally TONS of air into its jet engines every minute +or so. Now, what those jet engines are doing with that air, is extracting +the available oxygen, tons and tons of the stuff, and using it to burn +kerosene, thereby using up the oxygen and creating carbonic gases. And +where do these jets fly? Why, predominantly in the ozonosphere. + + That's right: The "oxygen" these jets destroy by the ton every minute +or so, is not the "O2" variety you and I breathe, it's the "O3" variety +which SUPPOSEDLY exists as some kind of "protective mantle" and which we +must now "save" at all costs, even at the sacrifice of democracy and +freedom. Every time a jet takes off and flies somewhere, it destroys more +ozone than you or I could ever imagine, let alone use, as CFCs, in a +lifetime. We're not talking about amounts that can even be conceived in +terms of fly-spray cans; we're talking volumes of ozone similar to the +amount of water in Sydney Harbor at any given time. And that's ONE Boeing. +Thousands, if not tens of thousands of such flights occur all over the +world each and every day (except in Australia at Christmas, when, as +everybody knows, all the airline staff go on strike). But have you heard +anybody suggest that jet flight be banned, or at least kept below the +ozonosphere? No, of course not. You are supposed to believe that all this +massive consumption, millions of tons of O3 (ozone) every day, is perfectly +safe and poses no threat, but the next time you reach for the can of +Mortein, you may just bring about the end of civilization as we know it. +If you accept this, then you probably really do believe that the surf +protects us from the ocean, and we should stop the board-riders from +"wearing it away." + + Now, I ask you, just who is kidding whom? + +------------------------------------------- +SCAM TWO: THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT +------------------------------------------- + + The other current "scare" is based on the so-called "greenhouse +effect." The scenario goes something like this; increases in the +atmosphere of various gasses, principally carbon dioxide, will cause an +increase in the Earth's mean atmospheric temperature. This, in turn, will +cause amongst other things, a melting of the ice caps, making the ocean +levels rise, thereby causing terrible coastal flooding; it will also turn +currently arable farmlands into deserts, because there will be less rain in +most places (but more in others). Now, just for a moment, forget all the +hysterical garbage you've been reading in the papers, most written by +"journalists" who can't even spell anymore, let alone actually "research" a +story, and let's have a look at the cold, hard facts. + + First of all, it hasn't even been fully accepted by the mainstream +scientific community, that levels of carbon dioxide are, in fact rising, +or, if they have, that they are continuing to rise. There is a narrow band +of statistical data that tends to suggest that this MAY be the case, but it +has been collated over such a short period of time that it is impossible +yet to accurately predict whether this is a "new" phenomenon, or part of a +cycle. Even amongst supporters of the theory that there has been a +significant increase, there is a sizable proportion who argue that the +situation has already stabilized, and that there is no further increase to +be expected. And even then, there is widespread scientific speculation as +to whether such an increase in carbon dioxide, has actually caused an +increase in temperatures. There is no doubt that such "increases" have +been recorded at least in some places. But whether it is "global" or not, +and regardless, whether increase in carbon dioxide have caused it or not, +are still mere speculation. One highly respected scientist has already +pointed out that these "high temperature" statistics have all been +collected in, or near, major cities, which not only have significantly +higher levels of many gases like carbon dioxide, but are also veritable +concrete and bitumen "jungles," which act as "heat-sinks," and will +invariably produce higher temperature readings than the surrounding rural +areas. While they may be bad news for people living in the very big +cities, it is hardly indicative of what is happening globally. + + For the moment, however, let us assume both factors needed to support +the "greenhouse effect": that the level of carbon dioxide IS increasing, +and that this WILL cause the Earth's mean temperature to rise, as accepted +facts, rather than speculation. Does it follow that sometime in the future +we will see our costal cities turned into new "Venices," and see the ocean +"rise," or that our rural farmlands will become dust bowls? No, in fact, +exactly the OPPOSITE would be true.... + + To understand what WOULD happen, if the Earth's temperature increased, +for whatever reason, one must first of all understand a few simple, +scientific facts. The first is that there is only a certain, relatively +fixed amount of "water" on the planet. This water exists in four physical +or geographical states. The bulk, of course exists in a liquid state as +oceans and seas. It also exists in its liquid state as lakes, rivers, and +ground water, most of which, at any given time, is involved in an +inexorable trip back to the oceans. Another large amount exists as vapor in +the form of clouds, and a certain amount is locked up as a solid, in the +form of ice, principally at the polar caps. Now, changes in the Earth's +mean temperature will change the PROPORTION of water found in each of these +states, but NOT the total amount. + + The second fact to understand is that three of these forms are in a +constant state of movement. The waters of the oceans are constantly +evaporated into clouds. The cloud move over the land, where, under certain +circumstances, it falls as rain. The rain becomes ground water of one form +or another, which starts its journey back to the oceans, where the process +starts all over again. So, at any given moment, there is a certain amount +of water lying in the oceans, a certain amount evaporate, on its way to +become rain, and a certain amount on the land for the farmers to use. Now, +the real scientific fact to understand, is that if you raise air +temperatures, you INCREASE the rate of evaporation. If you doubt this, +simply take two shallow beakers of tap water, put one in the refrigerator +(not the freezer), and the other on the kitchen window sill. The one on +the window sill will very quickly evaporate away; the one in the +refrigerator will last significantly longer. + + So what does this mean in terms of the "greenhouse effect"? Simply, +that if the Earth's temperature increases, it would rain MORE, not less. +Marginal farmland would become more abundant, temperate climates would +become subtropical, and so on. There would be far more fresh water in the +rivers, and lakes, for irrigation, and, if you think about it, the ocean +levels would drop (discounting for a moment, the "melting ice caps" which +we will come to). Conversely, if the temperature were to decrease, there +would be LESS evaporation, and therefore LESS rain, and therefore LESS +agriculture. This is substantiated historically, as well as +scientifically, in almost every major drought and famine in mankind's +history has been accompanied by severe WINTERS, not summers. Historically, +it is the COLD which destroys agriculture, not a rise in temperatures, +principally for the reasons cited above. (Incidentally, we all know it +rains a lot in the tropics, but do you know which is the driest--least +precipitation--continent on the planet? Antarctica!!!) + + So, all things being equal, a slight rise in temperature would lead to +a boom in world agriculture, not the desert wastelands scenario we are +currently being fed. But is such a situation likely, even if temperatures +are going up at the moment? As we have seen, if mean temperature goes up, +evaporation goes up. That means a great increase in cloud cover. Now ask +yourself, is it hotter on a sunny day or a cloudy day? You already know +the answer. IF the temperature were to go up, for whatever reason, there +would be a corresponding increase in cloud cover. This, in turn, would +cause a corresponding DECREASE in mean temperature. Within certain very +confined parameters, the overall "system" is self-regulating, and will +remain so as long as we don't replace too much green with concrete, stop +polluting the oceans with oil the interrupts the evaporation process, and +refrain from blowing ourselves and the planet to oblivion. Whoever +designed the place, howsoever you conceive Him, certainly knew what He was +doing. + + Ahh, you say. That's all very well. Okay, the crops won't fail, but +what about when the ice caps start to melt, and the oceans rise, and flood +all of us living by the coast? Well, as I have said above, I doubt that +such rises are sustainable over any period of time, and the polar regions +are well capable of bearing significant temperature rises for limited +periods. The Arctic regions of Alaska, for instance, enjoy temperatures of +around 20-25 degrees in the "month of the midnight Sun" each year. This is +comparable to a pleasant spring day. But even if the "greenhouse" scenario +were true, AND sustainable, and the ice caps melted, would that mean the +ocean levels would rise sufficiently to "flood us out." Again, no. Let's +look at the two ice caps separately, as they are very different. + +WHAT HAPPENS AT THE POLES + + First, the Northern ice cap, better known as Arctica. Contrary to +what many people believe, there is no "land" under the Arctic ice cap, it +consists entirely of frozen water, ice, "floating" on liquid water. Water +is a strange substance, in that instead of getting denser and denser as it +turns from a liquid to a solid, below 4 degrees C, which is just above +freezing, it begins to expand. Once it is "frozen" (becomes a solid), it +is actually 10% less dense than in its liquid form, and occupies 10% more +space. This is why ice cubes float, and bottles of beer explode in the +freezer. Taken in isolation, if the Northern ice-cap melted totally, +coupled to the increase in evaporation that would be associated with a +"greenhouse effect," the levels of the oceans would DROP. Of course, these +things can't be taken in isolation, and this "drop" would, in fact be +almost exactly offset by the corresponding melting of all the ice currently +existing in the form of glaciers and snow. (The Northern ice cap, plus ALL +the glaciers and snow on all the continents, together only account for 10% +of the Earth's frozen water. The other 90% in on Antarctica.) + + Now let's turn to the Southern ice-cap, Antarctica. Unlike Arctica, +Antarctic IS a continent; the ice there is sitting out of the water "up" on +land. If it all melted, it WOULD affect water levels, and quite +significantly. But how likely is this? The average temperature at +Antarctica is -50 degrees, with temperatures as low as -88 degrees, being +recorded. Even the most ardent supporters of the "greenhouse effect" only +claim sustained mean rises of 2 to 4 degrees. That would mean Antarctica +would enjoy an average of -46 degrees. Not much ice melts at -46 degrees. +Even if by some extraordinary convolution of all the known laws of physics, +a full 10% of the Antarctic could be induced to melt, at an average +temperature of -46 degrees, the end result wouldn't even raise the average +height of the world's oceans two feet!!! And if, by some as yet +undiscovered means such a feat could be induced to happen, the subsequent +changes to the weight distribution on the Earth's surface would probably +mean a total realignment of our rotational axis, with consequent volcanoes, +earthquakes, and possibly even whole continents sinking. Somehow, under +those circumstances, I doubt that we would be worrying too much about an +extra two feet of water where the beach at Surfer's Paradise used to be. + +"Inside News" is published by Cambaroora Publishing, P.O. Box 389, +Tewamtom. Queensland, Australia. Subscriptions to the U.S. cost US $65. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/enviro.wh b/textfiles.com/politics/enviro.wh new file mode 100644 index 00000000..303690d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/enviro.wh @@ -0,0 +1,817 @@ + + + + + +August 6, 1992 + +PRESIDENT BUSH ON THE ENVIRONMENT + + "I am here to make a case I feel very strongly about -- and + that is the case for a cleaner environment. It is a case + based not only on our own health and safety, and not only on + the obligation we have to future generations. It is based + on the knowledge that successful economic development and + environmental protection go hand in hand. You cannot have + one without the other." + + Vice President George Bush + August 31, 1988 + + "Through our firm commitment and our substantial + investment, we have improved significantly the quality + of our air, land and water resources. The United + States leads the world in environmental protection and + we intend to keep it that way." + + President George Bush + Earth Day 1990 + +Summary + +o Environmental protection is stronger than ever under the + Bush Presidency, whether measured by pollution reduced, + polluters punished, agreements reached, or Federal dollars + targeted to addressing high priority environmental problems. + +o President Bush believes that environmental protection and + economic development are inextricably linked -- + environmental stewardship requires that policies in each + area reflect this linkage. As the President has said on + many occasions, sound policies promote both while + compromising neither. + +o The President has more than doubled research and development + of technologies that will boost both economic performance + and environmental quality and has launched initiatives to + link increased trade with stronger environmental protection. + + +o The President has sponsored and implemented innovative, + cost-effective programs that use the power of the + marketplace to solve environmental problems. These include + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 2 + + programs such as "Green Lights" to promote energy + efficiency, the "33/50" toxic waste reduction program, + innovative clean air emissions credits, and "Cash-for- + Clunkers" to get the most polluting cars off the road. + +o The President believes that existing environmental laws + should be vigorously and firmly enforced. The Bush + Administration has stepped up efforts to ensure that "the + polluter pays" for environmental damage and has secured more + indictments and fines than any previous Administration. + +o President Bush has provided substantial international + leadership for environmental protection. Under President + Bush, the U.S. has actively participated in nearly two dozen + new environmental agreements. The President has + successfully negotiated treaties and agreements such as + those to protect the Antarctic, end driftnet fishing, and + halt CFC production. + +o In 1990, President Bush called on Congress to elevate the + Environmental Protection Agency to Cabinet status and + thereby create the U.S. Department of the Environment. + Despite widespread bipartisan support, Congress has not + passed this bill. + +o In the President's FY93 budget, which freezes overall + domestic discretionary spending, priority environmental + investment is increased by $3.2 billion, or 21 percent. + Since President Bush took office, EPA's operating program + has increased by 54 percent. + +o The U.S. has some of the toughest environmental laws in the + world and a record on environmental protection that is + second to none in areas ranging from clean air to endangered + species. The U.S. currently spends nearly $130 billion a + year (about 2 percent of our GDP) on controlling pollution + and protecting the environment, far more than any other + nation. + +And the President is committed to doing more: + + "Some will look at the record and say that it isn't enough. + I have a surprise for them. I couldn't agree more." + + President George Bush + July 14, 1992 + FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 3 + +Promoting Clean Air + +o President Bush proposed, negotiated, and then signed the + Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the most comprehensive and + innovative air pollution legislation in the world. + + -- The President's Clean Air Act will reduce toxic air + emissions by over 75 percent, cut acid rain emissions + in half, and significantly reduce smog in America's + cities. + + -- When fully implemented, the Clean Air Act will reduce + air pollutant emissions by 56 billion pounds annually, + roughly 224 pounds of pollutants for every man, woman, + and child in this country. + + -- The innovative system of tradable sulfur dioxide + emissions credits in the Clean Air Act will provide the + same cuts in emissions as old-style regulation, but + they will save the U.S. economy over $1 billion + annually. + +o The EPA will issue rules to reduce emissions of methane, a + greenhouse gas, from landfills and will pursue several other + methane reduction programs. In total, the Administration's + strategy projects methane emission reductions equivalent to + 25 to 58 million tons of carbon by the year 2000. + +o Under the Clean Air Act, oxygenated fuels must be sold in + the most polluted areas of the U.S. by 1993 to reduce the + carbon monoxide levels in cities where the levels are above + our national standards. Alternative fuels and reformulated + gasoline, to be introduced by 1995, will cut ozone-forming + hydrocarbons by 300 million pounds per year. + +o The Bush Administration is working to increase the + efficiency and use of alternative fuels. President Bush's + National Energy Strategy encourages the use and production + of natural gas through regulatory reform and promotes R&D to + increase use of renewable sources of energy and ethanol. + +o The Administration has reached agreements with industry + which will lead to a reduction in emissions of sulfur + dioxide by 90 percent at the Navajo power plant in northern + Arizona. This will provide cleaner air and improve + visibility in the Grand Canyon. + +o The Administration's "Cash-for-Clunkers" plan would help + remove old cars -- the biggest polluters and the biggest gas + guzzlers -- from the road. +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 4 + +Global Climate Change + +o The United States is the only nation besides the Netherlands + to have published a detailed action plan for limiting net + greenhouse gas emissions. + + -- This action plan is projected to hold net emissions in + the year 2000 to only 1 to 6 percent over 1990 levels. + +o President Bush favors greenhouse gas reduction plans + individually tailored for each country -- arbitrary targets + and timetables are inequitable, inefficient, and + environmentally inferior. + +o In order to determine what should be done to address global + climate change, the President's interdisciplinary Global + Change Research Program (GCRP), begun in 1989, invests more + in climate research -- $2.7 billion in the last three years + -- than the rest of the world combined. + + -- This year President Bush's budget requested almost $1.4 + billion for global climate change research, a 24 + percent increase over last year. The President has + accelerated research six-fold since 1989. + + -- As part of the GCRP, the Mission to Planet Earth uses + satellites to monitor changes in the environment, + recently providing data on the status of the + stratospheric ozone layer and the effects of the + eruption of Mount Pinatubo on the global climate. + +o The President proposed and implemented a new transportation + law which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving + automobile efficiency, increasing investment in public + transportation, and developing other means of + environmentally-friendly travel. + +o The President's National Energy Strategy contains numerous + provisions to increase energy conservation and efficiency in + transportation, industry, and electricity generation; in + residential, commercial, and Federal government buildings; + and to increase the use of improved energy technologies. + These steps will further help reduce greenhouse emissions. + +o The United States and ten other countries of the Americas + signed an agreement in May 1992 to establish the Inter- + American Institute for Global Change Research. + FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 5 + +o The U.S. has also committed $25 million for country studies + to help developing countries formulate action plans to + reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The U.S. has + committed to a supplemental contribution of $50 million to + the World Bank's Global Facility to assist countries in + implementing the Framework Convention on Global Climate + Change. + +o At the Rio conference, the United States made available to + governments and scientists around the world thousands of + computer disks containing billions of bytes of data on + global climate change. + +Protecting the Ozone Layer + +o In February 1992, President Bush accelerated the U.S. + deadline for phaseout of ozone-depleting substances + (including CFCs) to the end of 1995, four years ahead of + international deadlines set in the amended Montreal + Protocol, and called on other nations to match the U.S. + commitment. The Clean Air Act of 1990 also includes a + schedule for phase-out of HCFCs, which is not required under + the provisions of the Montreal Protocol. + +o The Bush Administration implemented a fee on U.S. production + of ozone-harming substances to accelerate reductions. + Today, U.S. CFC production levels are more than 42 percent + below the level allowed by the London amendments to the + Montreal Protocol. + +o The United States was the first nation to provide funds to + developing countries to help reduce CFCs. The U.S. will + provide $50 million over three years to assist developing + nations meet the terms of the Montreal Protocol. + +Enhancing Forests and Public Lands + +o At Home: President Bush has added over 1.5 million new acres + to our treasury of national parks, forests, and wildlife + refuges and added 6.4 million acres to the vast wilderness + system. + +o The President's budget requests for his "America the + Beautiful" initiative (including funds for improved + stewardship of national parks, wildlife refuges, forest and + public lands, and partnerships with states for parks and + outdoor recreation), has grown from $863 million in 1989 to + $1.8 billion in 1993. Unfortunately, Congress has refused + to provide full funding for key components of this program. + + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 6 + +o The Administration has ended clear-cutting as a standard + practice in national forests and adopted the principles of + "ecosystem management" for forests and other public lands. + +o The President has developed and begun implementing a long- + term campaign to enlist state and local participation in the + planting of one billion trees each year and to expand and + improve national parks, forests, and wildlife. Congress has + consistently shortchanged this initiative. + +o And Abroad: The President has proposed to double + international forestry assistance through his Forests for + the Future Initiative (which has as its goal halting net + global forest loss by the end of the century) from $1.35 + billion to $2.7 billion. The U.S. has already pledged a + "down payment" of $150 million to this effort. + + -- Since 1988, total U.S. bilateral forest conservation + assistance has increased by 156 percent. + +o At the Houston Economic Summit in 1990, President Bush + proposed, and the G-7 Industrialized Nations adopted, a call + for a global convention to protect and improve the world's + forests. + +o The President's Enterprise for the Americas Initiative + arranges debt-for-nature swaps and creates environmental + trust funds to protect critical forest habitat in Latin + America and the Caribbean. + +Preserving Wetlands + +o The President is committed to his goal of "no net loss of + wetlands." At the same time, he seeks to balance this + objective with the need to protect the legitimate rights of + farmers, small businesses, and other landowners. + +o The President has more than doubled Federal spending for + wetlands protection and restoration, from $295 million in + FY89 to $600 million in FY92 and $812 million requested for + FY93. + +o Since 1989, the Bush Administration, in conjunction with + state and private partners, has acquired and conserved + almost 2 million acres of wetlands. The Administration is + expanding the Everglades National Park by 106,000 acres. + +o President Bush signed the North American Wetlands + Conservation Act in which the United States, together with + Canada and Mexico, helps protect migratory waterfowl + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 7 + + populations. The President has once again proposed $15 + million to fully fund this North American Waterfowl + Management Plan in FY93, but Congress refused to fund the + plan in FY92 and cut the President's FY93 request in half. + +o The President has requested full funding for a voluntary + "wetlands reserve" of up to one million acres as provided + for in the 1990 Farm Bill, but Congress has not matched his + funding request. + +o The U.S. currently chairs the Convention on Wetlands of + International Importance, the major agreement on wetlands + conservation and wise use. The U.S. is the single largest + contributor to the Convention's Wetland Conservation Fund, + which assists developing countries in implementing the + Convention. + +o The Administration supports expansion of wetlands protection + under the Clean Water Act to cases in which wetlands may be + damaged by dredging operations -- the present protection + applies only when wetlands are filled. + +o The Bush Administration is developing a classification and + mitigation banking plan to reconcile environmental and + economic imperatives through an outright ban on development + of the most ecologically important wetlands, while allowing + some development in other areas provided that wetlands + losses are offset through the creation and improvement of + other wetlands. + +Protecting Endangered Species + +o President Bush is committed to the protection and + conservation of wildlife. The Endangered Species Act is one + of the strongest wildlife protection laws in the world. + + -- Since 1989, the Administration has completed recovery + plans for more than 110 species, revised plans for more + than 20 additional species, and expanded efforts to + identify candidate species. + + -- Since taking office, the Bush Administration has more + than doubled funding to protect endangered species. + +o The U.S. led the way to international bans on driftnet + fishing and trade in African elephant ivory and hawksbill + turtle shells. + FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 8 + +o Since 1989, land management agencies have adopted many + ecosystem management principles to do a better job of + conserving species and habitats. + +o The U.S. Forest Service has adopted a program called "Every + Species Counts" to recover and conserve over 200 Federally + listed threatened and endangered species. The Forest + Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the National Fish + and Wildlife Service are cooperating on a program called + "Bring Back the Natives" to restore native plant and animal + species in aquatic habitats. + +o The Department of Defense has taken over 100 separate + actions on 80 military installations to identify and protect + significant biological resources on DoD lands. + +o In preparation for the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio, the Bush + Administration pledged to establish a national center for + biodiversity information and to host a meeting of + international experts to advise nations on how to conduct + biodiversity inventories. + +o Spotted Owl: Perhaps no recent issue has demonstrated more + clearly the stringency of U.S. law on endangered species, or + the difficulty of balancing it with the economic costs to + human beings, than the case of the northern spotted owl. + +o President Bush has sought to achieve a balance in developing + a strategy to save the spotted owl and at the same time + mitigate the economic costs to the Pacific Northwest. To + this effect, the Administration has developed a + "Preservation Plan" which will save half the jobs which + would be lost under other plans, while still ensuring the + owl's survival. + +o The President has submitted the Preservation Plan to + Congress and hopes that Congress will consider both the + economic and the environmental ramifications of the decision + on the preservation of the spotted owl. + +o Florida Panther: The Fish and Wildlife Service, National + Park Service, Florida Department of Natural Resources, and + Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission are developing + a habitat preservation plan for the existing Florida panther + population (estimated to be 30-50 panthers). + FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 9 + +Vigorous Enforcement + +o During the Bush Administration, more indictments have been + sought; more civil, criminal, and administrative fines have + been imposed; and more prison sentences for violators have + been secured than in the prior 18 years combined. + +o The Bush Administration collected record monetary penalties + for water pollution violations in 1991, tripling the + previous record. + +o The Administration has filed landmark suits to protect + the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and the + Everglades. + +o The President's FY93 budget proposes to increase EPA + enforcement funding by $15 million; the EPA enforcement + budget has increased by 70 percent during President Bush's + administration. + +International Leadership + +o During the Bush Presidency, nearly two dozen new + international environmental agreements and initiatives have + been launched with active U.S. participation. These + agreements have ranged from the Montreal Protocol to end CFC + production to successful efforts to halt driftnet fishing. + +o At the 1991 London Economic Summit, an environmental + coalition issued a detailed scorecard on the environmental + performance of seven leading industrial nations. The United + States earned the highest score overall and top honors in 8 + out of 10 categories. + +o In 1991, the U.S. signed far-reaching international + agreements to prevent and clean up pollution, protect + wildlife, and monitor more closely the Antarctic and the + Arctic Ocean. + +o The Bush Administration has put together the U.S. - Asia + Environmental Partnership, a long-term private sector + initiative to bring government and business together to + address environmental problems in the Asia-Pacific Region + through education, information sharing, and loans for + environmental improvement. + +o In 1990, President Bush supported the creation of the East + European Environmental Center in Budapest, Hungary. Known + throughout the region as the "Bush Center," it will build a + community of private parties concerned with environmental + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 10 + + protection. The United States has already provided support + for several local projects on matters such as pesticide + disposal, removing lead from drinking water, and controlling + powerplant emissions. + +o The Bush Administration, working with private U.S. + interests, has established four energy efficiency centers in + Eastern Europe to provide improved information to these + countries to improve their energy efficiency programs and + practices as they transform their economies to market-based + programs. + +o The Administration has recently put in place the America's + 21st Century Program to help Latin American countries + introduce renewable energy technologies and the Assisting + Deployment of Energy Practices and Technologies program to + assist developing countries improve their procedures and + technologies for supply and use of energy. + +o To assist developing countries reduce growth in greenhouse + gas emissions, the Administration this year has announced + added funding for the General Environment Facility of the + World Bank, plus added funds to countries for improving + their forest maintenance and restoration programs. Further, + the U.S. will lead cooperative efforts with developing + countries to help them identify their critical problems and + available opportunities to deal with global climate and + environmental issues. + +o At the United Nations Conference on Environment and + Development (UNCED) at Rio, President Bush expanded U.S. + technical and financial assistance programs for + environmental purposes; offered a bold initiative to improve + protection of the world's forests; and promoted a brand of + environmentalism that sees market-oriented economic + development as the key to protecting the Earth. + +o In conjunction with his efforts to conclude a North American + Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), President Bush is pursuing an + ambitious program of cooperation with Mexico on a wide range + of environmental issues. + + -- The United States and Mexico have developed an + integrated border environmental plan to protect + environmental quality in the border area. + + -- The Bush Administration has committed $138 million in + FY92 to help protect the border environment and has + requested $241 million for FY93. Unfortunately, + Congress has cut the President's request. + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 11 + + -- The Mexican government has budgeted $460 million for + the first three years of the plan. + + -- The United States and Mexico are negotiating an + agreement to expand cooperation enforcement and + environmental protection programs beyond the border + area. + +Coastal and Ocean Stewardship + +o The President wants to ensure that coasts and oceans + continue to receive necessary attention. Almost half of the + U.S. population lives and works in coastal areas. + +o The Bush Administration has designated four new marine + sanctuaries (the marine equivalent of national parks), more + than doubling the area of these sanctuaries, and has + protected six new estuarine reserve access areas where + rivers meet the sea. He has also tripled the protection of + coastal barrier islands to encompass 1,211 miles of + shoreline. + +o President Bush declared a moratorium until the year 2000 on + offshore oil and gas development off most of the West Coast, + Southern Florida, and New England. + +o In 1990, the President signed the Oil Spill Pollution Act, + which requires double hulls on new tankers, creates a $1 + billion cleanup trust fund, and increases polluter liability + and enforcement tools. + +o At the Paris G-7 Summit in 1989, President Bush offered + proposals that resulted in 1991 in the 80-nation Convention + on Oil Spill Preparedness and Response. + +o The President budgeted new funds for the Gulf of Mexico and + increased funding for the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes + to improve water quality and to stop coastal degradation. + +o The President secured consent agreements from several states + to ban ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial wastes. + All ocean sludge dumping has been halted as of June 1992. + The Bush Administration also established a pilot tracking + system to prevent the dumping of medical waste. + +o The U.S. led successful U.N. efforts to halt driftnet + fishing, a highly destructive fishing technique that results + in large, wasteful takes of marine mammals, seabirds, and + other living marine resources. + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 12 + + +Providing Clean Water + +o The President has secured increased funding to clean up + those harbors which have the largest unmet sewage treatment + needs: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle and + Baltimore. + +o The first, second, and fourth largest penalties for + violations of the Clean Water Act were secured in 1991, + reflecting vigorous enforcement initiatives. + +o The President's FY93 budget includes $2.5 billion for + wastewater treatment grants, a $100 million increase over + FY92. + +o In 1991, the Administration issued a new regulation to + reduce lead, copper, and other harmful substances in our + drinking water, based on a standard that is ten times more + stringent than the previous standard, actions which will + give 138 million Americans cleaner drinking water. + +o In 1991, the Administration issued a strategy to develop + groundwater protection programs emphasizing adoption of + environmentally friendly agricultural practices to reduce + the general risk of groundwater contamination. + +o The Bush Administration launched a major new National Water + Quality Assessment Program addressing such topics as + pesticides, excess nutrients, and sediments. + +Increasing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy + +o The U.S. leads efforts to find cost-effective, market-based + methods for improving energy conservation and efficiency. + The Bush Administration's promotion of utility integrated + resource planning and the "Green Lights" program provide + information and incentives to encourage the use of energy- + efficient products. + +o President Bush's National Energy Strategy (NES), first + presented to Congress in the spring of 1991, is a + comprehensive strategy that includes equal measures of + increased energy efficiency and production. + + -- The President's program encourages greater use of + natural gas through regulatory reform and increased + research and development. Natural gas releases fewer + pollutants than other fossil fuels. + + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 13 + + -- The President has proposed $900 million in next year's + budget for research and development under the Strategy, + twice as much funding as when he took office. + + -- The President supports a new generation of safer + nuclear power through increased research and + development of safer designs, licensing reforms, public + education, and responsible waste management. + +o The President has increased funding 67% for the development + of renewable energy sources including hydroelectric, + biofuels, wind, geothermal, solar and waste-to-energy + facilities. + +o The President supports full funding of the Federal and + industry cost-shared Clean Coal Technology Demonstration + Program which demonstrates modern technologies to use our + abundant coal resources more cleanly and efficiently. + +o President Bush has directed Federal agencies to maximize + their purchases of cleaner running alternative fuels + vehicles. The government has already purchased over 3,000 + such vehicles and plans to acquire 5,000 more in FY93. + +o President Bush has ordered Federal agencies to reduce energy + use in Federal buildings 20 percent below 1985 levels by + 2000 and reduce gasoline and diesel use 10 percent below + 1991 levels by 1995. + +o The NES encourages state and utility efforts to treat + investment in energy efficiency as an alternative to new + power plants and provides tax-free treatment of utility + discounts on consumers' electricity bills for efficiency + investments. + +o The Administration has issued rules for improved efficiency + standards for energy-consuming home appliances such as + dishwashers and washing machines. + +o The Department of Energy has entered into a four-year, $260 + million partnership with the U.S. Advanced Battery + Consortium, a coalition of U.S. automakers and electric + utilities, to develop improved batteries that will + accelerate the commercialization of non-polluting electric + vehicles. + +o The Administration is working in partnership with U.S. + industry to develop improved manufacturing processes that + are more efficient and produce less waste, improving + productivity and competitiveness. +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 14 + + +Waste Reduction, Recycling and Disposal + +o In 1990, the Administration adopted a waste management + hierarchy that gives priority to source reduction and reuse, + followed by recycling and composting, incineration with + energy recovery, and environmentally-sound landfilling. + +o The Bush Administration has made pollution prevention, which + is preferable to cleanup, one of its basic environmental + principles. The EPA Office of Pollution Prevention reviews + all relevant regulatory proposals and requires EPA offices + to consider pollution prevention measures early in its rule- + making process. Pollution prevention incentives have been + established for land, water, and air pollution. + +o President Bush has sought international implementation of + the Basel Convention, which outlaws the dumping and + uncontrolled export of hazardous wastes to developing + countries. The United States now has bilateral agreements + established with all countries receiving U.S. hazardous + waste to assure that the receiving country will properly + recycle or dispose of the waste. + +o In 1991 President Bush ordered all Federal agencies to + implement waste reduction and recycling programs and to + increase purchases of items made from recycled materials. + The White House complex began recycling aluminum cans and + newspapers in 1990 and added white waste paper in 1991. + +o The Administration's "33/50" project encourages voluntary + industrial reductions of 17 high-priority toxic wastes -- 33 + percent reduction by 1992 and 50 percent by 1995. To date, + over 750 companies and the Departments of Energy and Defense + have committed to the program and will cut toxic pollutants + by almost 350 million pounds. + +o The Administration has tripled the rate of toxic waste site + cleanups since 1989. Final cleanup is now underway or + complete at over 500 Superfund sites around the country. + Congress has consistently cut the President's requests for + Superfund cleanups and has yet to provide his original + (FY90) request of $1.7 billion. + +o The President has worked at the national and international + levels to eliminate hazardous waste. Toxic releases to the + environment have fallen 26 percent since 1988. + FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 15 + +Federal Facilities Cleanup and Compliance + +o The Administration has made significant progress in meeting + the requirements of environmental laws and in cleaning up + the Nation's defense facilities. Since 1989, the Department + of Energy's budget for environmental restoration and + compliance activities has risen from $1.7 billion to a level + of $4.3 billion. Proposed funding in FY93 is $5.3 billion - + - a 23 percent increase over 1992. + +o The Administration has established enforceable agreements + with the EPA and state regulators which contain detailed + requirements and aggressive schedules for conducting + specific environmental compliance and cleanup activities. A + total of 84 agreements have been established to date and an + additional 27 are under negotiation. + +o President Bush also has supported an aggressive national + program within the Department of Energy for the development + and implementation of innovative waste-management + technologies. An integral element of this initiative is the + establishment of partnerships and consortiums with + commercial and educational organizations to support + cooperative research initiatives and information sharing. + +o The United States has made additional progress in the study + of disposal options for radioactive waste. In 1991, the + Department of Energy announced that the Waste Isolation + Pilot Plant in New Mexico was ready to begin a test phase to + determine the suitability of the underground facility for + waste disposal. + +Encouraging Private Sector Participation + +o Last year, President Bush selected 25 executives of major + business, academic, and environmental groups to form the + President's Commission on Environmental Quality. The + Commission's charge is to develop and pursue an + environmental improvement agenda using private sector + initiatives that integrate environmental, economic, and + quality-of-life goals. + +o The Commission has fostered relationships between the + business and nonprofit communities to collaborate on + solutions to pressing environmental problems of concern to + all Americans. Initiatives include: + + -- Pollution prevention initiatives to reduce waste in the + workplace and encourage more efficient and cost + effective manufacturing and production. + +FACT SHEET -- ENVIRONMENT Page 16 + + -- A voluntary program to encourage energy efficiency in + businesses and homes, reducing energy waste and + increasing consumer savings. + + -- A national program to improve understanding about the + hazards of lead and thus reduce lead poisoning in young + children. + + -- Working with the U.S. Environmental Training Institute, + a public-private sector program developed by the Bush + Administration to assist professionals from developing + countries with their environmental protection efforts. + + -- Partnerships to reconcile economic uses of land with + greater conservation of biodiversity. + +o Today, more EPA regulations are being written with input + from diverse interests early in the process to reduce the + likelihood of costly litigation and regulatory delay down + the road. But efforts to protect the environment also + depend on greater voluntary private sector initiatives. + +o President Bush has initiated development of the Technology + Cooperation Corps with the collaboration and participation + of representatives of U.S. businesses to share U.S. know-how + and expertise in environmental management and technology. + +Rewarding Environmental Accomplishment + +o Rewarding exemplary environmental achievement is very + important to President Bush. Last year he gave the first- + ever President's Environment and Conservation Challenge + Awards to nine organizations and Presidential Citations for + environmental achievement to an additional 23 organizations. + All award recipients had found innovative and economical + solutions to the Nation's environmental challenges. + +o President Bush has also encouraged environmental awareness + on the part of young people. Recently, ten Environmental + Youth Award winners (from grades K-12) were honored for + their efforts in helping to find solutions to today's and + tomorrow's environmental challenges. The winners met with + the President. + + +# # #  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/environ.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/environ.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e4f6fb51 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/environ.txt @@ -0,0 +1,143 @@ +The information in this file was taken from the compilation of +data presented in GAIA: An Atlas of Planet Management, edited by +Norman Myers, (London, Anchor Press, 1984)(New York: Doubleday +1987). + FOR THE RECORD + +The Disappearing Soil: + + The total land area on the globe is 13 billion hectares, +11% is arable land and 24% potentially arable. Each year about +11 million hectares are lost through erosion, becoming desert, +becoming toxic, and cropland conversion to non-agricultural uses. +We stand to lose 18% of the world's arable land by the year 2000. +Between 1945 and 1975 about 30 million hectares of land in the +U.S. were lost under concrete and asphalt - half was arable land. + +The Disappearing Fauna: + + Well over 90% of all species that have ever lived have +disappeared. About one species a year was lost in the early +20th. century. Some biologists argue that it is now higher than +one species a day. + +The Disappearing Flora: + + Botanists estimate that there are some 25,000 species +currently threatened with extinction. Africa's Cape region +contains one of the six most significant concentrations of flora +on Earth, including 68% of South Africa's 2,373 endangered +plants. Modern plant breeding has emphasized inbred, uniform +strains. Plant diseases and pest infestations can devastate +modern breeds. Only four varieties produce 75% of the wheat +grown on Canada's prairieland. Half of this land is covered by +just one variety, Neepawa. + +Loss of Green Cover: + + By 1975, the area covered by tropical forest was 12%. By +the year 2000 tropical forests may cover only 7% of the land. +This decline contrasts markedly with temperate forests whose area +remains constant around 20% thanks to reforestation. + +Sharing the Earth's Resources: + + The U.S., with just 6% of the population, uses 30% of all +energy produced--a stark contrast to India whose 20% of global +population uses only 2% of the energy. To sustain a reasonable +quality of life requires about 80 litres of water per person per +day. But the average consumption ranges from 5.4 litres a day in +Madagascar (barely enough to survive) to 500 litres a day in the +U.S. During the decade 1970-80, the numbers of rural people +without clean water increased by 67 million to 1.15 billion, +while those without proper sanitation rose by 300 million to +almost 1.4 billion. Numbers lacking sanitation in Third World +cities doubled during the period 1975-80. + +Recycling Our Resources: + + Recycling half of the world's paper consumption would meet +almost 75% of new paper demand, and would release 8 million +hectares of forest from paper production. Fibre-rich countries, +such as Canada and Sweden, are not in the front ranks of paper +recyclers. The energy required to produce one tonne of secondary +aluminum from scrap is only 5% of the energy used to extract and +process primary metal from ore. + +Industrial Damage: + + Each year 450,000 tonnes of lead are released into the +air by humans, compared with 3,500 tonnes from natural sources. +Acid rain ranks among the most serious threats to the environment +in the northern hemisphere.. heavily industrialized areas pump +some 90 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the air each year. +Although DDT was prohibited for use within the U.S. as long ago +as 1972, the U.S. still manufactures over 18 million kilogrammes +a year for export, largely to the Third World. + +Promising Beginnings: + +Third UN Conference on Law of the Sea 1973-82 + + UNCLOS III, for the first time, unites the Law of the Sea +into one "written constitution". Under UNCLOS III, the +traditional "Freedom of the Seas" remain for 60% of the ocean, +but 42% of this, the deep sea beds area, is designated the common +heritage of mankind, and will be controlled by an international +Seabed Authority. + +Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species + + Signed by over 80 countries since 1973, CITES prohibits +international commercial trade in the rarest 600 or so species of +animals and plants, and requires licences from the country of +origin for exports of about another 200 groups. (Illicit trade +continues to undermine the impact of the Convention.) + +World Conservation Strategy + + Launched in 1980, backed by IUCN,WWF, UNEP, FAO and +UNESCO, and cross-checked by 400 scientists it presents a single, +integrated approach to global problems. About 30 countries have +translated the global strategy into national action. + +The Regional Seas Programme + + The Regional Seas Programme, launched by the United +Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1974, is promoting +regional management of 11 regional seas. + +The Barcelona Convention + + In 1976, seventeen Mediterranean countries signed the +Barcelona Convention for concerted action to clean up the +Mediterranean. Under the convention mercury, cadmium and DDT are +completely banned. + +Biological Control + + China's Big Sand Commune raises 220,000 ducks to control +insect pests in fields of young rice. Ducklings consume about 200 +insects per hour and cut the use of chemical insecticides from +770,000 kg in 1973 to 6,700 kg in 1975. Imported parasitic +insects have saved the Florida citrus industry $35,000,000 a year +in pesticides, following an outlay of $35,000. + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/epa_osha.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/epa_osha.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a23129cf --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/epa_osha.txt @@ -0,0 +1,207 @@ + EPA/OSHA study on health and safety at hazwaste incinerators + + +On May 23, 1991, EPA and OSHA released their joint report, +"Evaluation of Compliance with On-site Health and Safety Require- +ments at Hazardous Waste Incinerators." This special investigation +was initiated in July 1990 after reports of serious worker exposure +to toxic chemicals at the now-closed Caldwell Systems incinerator in +Lenoir, NC. + +The study reveals both the dangers of incineration for workers +and the inability of incinerator operators to comply with regula- +tions. Especially notable is the extraordinary frequency of +emergency waste feed cut-offs and by-pass openings, which indi- +cates that upsets happen on a daily basis, at the very least. +The facilities with the worst records had averages of as many 60 +cut-offs and 29 by-passes per day. + +The report's executive summary reads as follows: + +"Background. + +"EPA and OSHA jointly established the Task Force to evaluate +compliance with on-site health and safety requirements at select- +ed hazardous waste incinerators. Unannounced inspections were +conducted at 29 of the approximately 140 operating hazardous +waste incinerators. These inspections focused on determining +compliance with worker health and safety training requirements, +and preparedness prevention and emergency response requirements. +Potential worker exposure routes from equipment and areas relat- +ing directly to the incinerator operations were also evaluated. + +"Findings. + +"1. OSHA identified a total of 320 violations in five major +areas of its regulations. These violations include 111 in the +health and safety training area; 22 in facility contingency +plans; 19 in workplace surveillance and monitoring; 20 in poten- +tial chemical exposure to workers during incinerator and waste +handling operations; and 148 in general health and safety (e.g., +lighting, fall protection, materials storage, electrical, etc.) +violations. + +"2. EPA identified a total of 75 violations of its standards at +the 29 facilities inspected. These violations include 14 for +failure to provide adequate information and/or training to em- +ployees; 16 for noncompliance with the contingency plans and +emergency response requirements; 29 for non-compliance with +general inspections and preparedness and prevention requirements; +and 16 for failure to comply with operational procedures require- +ments. Of these 16 violations, only 5 related specifically to +incinerator operations. + +"EPA also noted a significant number of waste feed cut-offs and +emergency by-pass openings. The waste feed cut-off system is +intended to stop waste entering the incinerator combustion unit +when certain operating conditions are exceeded. Emergency by- +passes are intended to prevent ground-level fugitive emissions +and possible explosions from excessive pressure in the combustion +unit. While both devices are designed for safety purposes, the +frequent use of these devices at some facilities may indicate a +need to improve operating practices." + + +"Conclusions. + +OSHA did not observe evidence of worker overexposure to chemicals +that could cause serious harm. However, EPA and OSHA are +concerned with the widespread deficiencies in the area of worker +health and safety training, which could potentially lead to +operational and exposure problems. EPA is also concerned about +the apparent overuse of waste feed cut-offs and emergency by- +passes at some facilities." + + *** + Facilities inspected + +Pfizer CT +Polaroid Corp. MA +Rollins Environmental NJ +BASF Corporation NJ +Occidental Chemical NY +General Electric Silicones NY +Schenectady Chemicals NY +Allied Signal AL +S&S Flying Services FL +Olin Chemical KY +Atochem North America KY +LWD KY +ThermalKEM SC +Thermal Oxidation Corp SC +CWM - Chicago IL +CWM - Sauget IL +Paxton Ave Lagoons Site IL +Upjohn Company MI +Ross Incineration Services OH +ENSCO AR +Dupont Co. LA +Rhone-Poulenc LA +Rollins Env. Services LA +CWM TX +Rhone-Poulenc TX +Rollins Env. Services TX +Blackfoot Pose and Pole Site MT +Livermore National Labs CA +Idaho Natl Engineering Lab ID + + + *** + +[Excerpts from the report] + +"OSHA noted a total of 320 violations of its standards at the 27 +inspected sites.... Of the violations cited, 214 were serious +and 106 other-than-serious. The violation rate was 5.1 total +violations and 3.4 serious violations per inspection. To put +this in context, OSHA's violation rate for all industries is 3.8 +total violations and 2.5 serious violations per inspection. + +"The most frequently cited violations (which account for +approximately one-third of the violations OSHA observed at the 27 +inspected hazardous waste incinerator facilities) were related to +deficiencies in communicating to workers the hazards of the +chemical substances present at their worksites and providing +adequate health and safety information to minimize those +hazards." + +"[EPA] also noted a significant number of automatic waste feed +cut-offs at about half of the hazardous waste incinerators + +inspected. The automatic waste feed cut-off system is required +by the regulation and is intended to stop hazardous waste +entering the incinerator combustion unit when certain operating +conditions as specified in the permit are exceeded. It is not +intended to be used as a routine measure to control operation of +a hazardous waste incinerator. EPA does not currently have data +indicating that these cut-offs affect hazardous waste incinerator +emissions; however, the Agency prefers steady uninterrupted +operations, as good operating practice for minimizing the +potential for harmful emissions." + +"In addition, EPA identified the use of emergency by-pass +openings at nine of the facilities. The emergency by-pass is +intended to prevent ground level fugitive emissions when pressure +in the combustion unit builds up too high, and it also is +intended to protect the air pollution control equipment when the +exit gas temperature is too hot. The use of emergency by-passes +is of more serious concern to EPA because it results in direct +venting to the air of emissions that normally are subject to air +pollution control devices. At a few facilities the number of +emergency by-passes was excessive, in the Agency's judgment." + +"Since the Task Force found worker training is inadequate in many +of the facilities inspected, the two Agencies strongly believe +that the hazardous waste incinerator industry must do more in the +area of personnel training to prevent potential operational and +exposure problems." + + *** + + + + Appendix A. + Frequency of Wastefeed Cutoff and Emergency By-pass Openings + + Wastefeed Emergency + Cutoffs By-pass openings +Facility (30 day period) (6 month period) +--------------------------------------------------------------- +A - - ** +B - - +C 9 9 +D 1800 0 +E 268 - +F 350 - +G 142 - +H 103 0 +I - - +J 1386 *** 0 +K 16 24 +L 0 0 +M 146 47 +N 13,325 (4 units) 867 +O 605 6 +P 63 18 *** +Q 24 91 *** +R 0 - +S 900 1 +T - - +U 150 *** - +V 0 - +W - - +X 6 - +Y 465 2 +Z 943 - +AA 0 2 +BB - - +CC 0 0 + + +The facilities are listed in an arbitrary order + +** A "-" could mean that the facility does not have the emergency + by-pass equipment or that it has no bypasses. + +*** Projected based on values observed for a shorter period of + time diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/eq-xstle.hch b/textfiles.com/politics/eq-xstle.hch new file mode 100644 index 00000000..425fc3ed --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/eq-xstle.hch @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +Title: A thiefs rights +Author: Equinox +Date:6-3-94 + + + Being your average, mischenous teenager, I've done my share +of stealing, and in turn, I've had my share of success, and of +mishaps, but I have never been prosecuted, sure, the quickie mart +guy, or the CompUsa Guy might have had me by the collar, and +dragged me into that supposedly hidden office that actually +sticks out like a green thumb, I've gotten the smack on the head, +and stern look, and of course, the constant yelling and +bickering, followed by the phone call to the cops. But if all +this is handled with a certain finess, no harm should come to +either party, or you might end up making that managers life a +living hell. Heres how... + + To er is human, correct? Well in government hands, to er is +freedom. Yes, my fine blooded American, this wonderful land of +the free, where the law is blind, the country where streets are +paved with gold, has a law system so fucked up, you'll proboly +get more time for spitting on a Taco Bell than you would for +killing someone. Anyways, you lets go through the average +planned theft. + + You walk into the quickie mart, you see that box of cigs +you've been craving lying there to the side of the counter. +Trying with all your might to be as composed as possible, you +glide your shaking, sweaty palms over the cold counter top, +gropeing for the slick plastic covering of those Marlboros, while +trying to look calmly over at the magazine section accross the +room. Suddenly you feel a tight grip on your right shoulder, +and the ear piercing sound of "Hey, what the hell are you +doin'?!?!," you turn your head, praying that somehow that this +was just some kind of dream, but alas, there lies the counterman +with a firm grip on your shoulder, blocking any chance of you +escaping. You try to speak in a normal, blas‚ manner, but of +course, your fear gets the better of you and you turn out a high +pitched, scrachy "What... What'd I do?" suddenly your dragged to +the back of the store, and are subjected to a constant array of +vocal blugeons. + + If this sounds typical of you, and is what you would expect +if such an event were to occur, then you're pretty much like +everyone else, you think that just because you did a bad thing, +they can rough house you, and push you around. + + Constant yelling (and remember, Constant can be a SUBJECTIVE +term.) can be classified as verbal abuse, a smack on the shoulder +(no matter how hard) can be turned into physical abuse, possibly +battery, especially if you don't mind getting a friend to punch +you in the arm to get that nice little black-and-blue effect. If +the sales person has caught you while inside the store, you +really havn't done anything wrong, and that can be proved in +court, the only way to be actually guilty of theft is if the +merchandise is found on you outside of the store. I do warn you +though, keep calm, don't start yelling this stuff out in the +middle of the store, the most deadly bullet is the silent one, if +you know what I mean. State your case if you are brought on +trial, or to a policeman, but never to someone who is just trying +to get something out of you. + + Well good luck. Theft can be a very profitable business, +espesially if you know what your doing. + + +"Love, hugs, and machine guns." +Equinox [HCH] `94 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/equaprot.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/equaprot.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..52c29e63 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/equaprot.txt @@ -0,0 +1,160 @@ + + + EQUAL PROTECTION? + + This illegal grab of power by all branches of government + is called usurpation. It is: "to seize and hold (a position, + power, etc.) by force or without legal right." As you can + see, this is exactly what has been happening in our great + country. + A law professor, Raoul Berger of Harvard University, + made the statement: "On the contrary, it is never too late + to challenge the usurpation of power. . -- Usurpation -- the + exercise of power not granted is not legitimated by repeti- + tion." + A great many people realize this but those in government + wouldn't be overjoyed for you and I to know it. And they + would be even less happy when we take the action that the + professor recommends. As he says, just because a practice + has been going on for a long time does not make it legal. + If it was against the law when it started, no amount of + talking or usage will make it within the law now. Ignoring + of our Constitution and the assuming of powers we did not + grant has to be stopped. + Carved in the stone face on the Supreme Court building + is the statement: "Equal Protection Under the Laws." + Compare that statement with the state of our protection + today. It's apparent that it was carved a long time ago. + Their decisions today just serve to justify some + government action, not to protect a citizen's rights. + Let's see, what did their oath say? That they will + "administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal + right to the poor and the rich.. " + Perhaps they are administering justice without respect + to persons and that's how they now use their power only to + justify some governmental action? + This is equal protection under the laws? + Can you think of any rich and/or powerful person who + gets the same justice as the average citizen? How about some + members of Congress who ignore (break) the law and nothing is + done to satisfy justice? How about Nixon? There was no + right for Ford to issue that pardon. How about Spiro Agnew? + (Spiro who?) Our ex-vice president pleaded guilty to tax + evasion. Anything happen to him? No! How about a Kennedy + who swam away from his car and didn't report the incident for + over eight hours? What if that were you or I? Does that + oath mean they can disrespect any person they choose and then + administer justice as they define it? Equal protection + indeed. + This is el toro caca and their duty is still to protect + the American citizen from illegal and unlawful practices by + the government. We have the absolute right to demand and + expect protection from the judicial branch, not persecution. + The issue of the independence of federal judges is of + importance to us. If they are not independent of the other + two branches of government, we can't expect protection from +  + them if their opinion will go against some other part of + government. + If they are not independent, we get into what is called + 'collusion' which is "acting together through a secret + understanding." The law dictionary is more specific in it's + definition: "A secret combination, conspiracy, or concert of + action between two or more persons for fraudulent or deceit- + ful purpose." + Look at what's been going on lately . . . with the + beginning of the so called tax rebellion, the Internal + Revenue Service, way back in 1973, has been conferring with + federal judges on the necessity of handing out prison + sentences in tax cases. + This has been revealed in IRS memos which were received + through the Freedom of Information Act. The minutes of a + meeting of IRS officials show that they have been conferring + with US attorneys and judges to point out the problems they + are having with 'tax protestors.' + One recommendation of the memo was to "Wage a campaign + to educate U.S. attorneys and federal judges with the + importance of prison sentences on cases." This is just one + area where the "secret combinations" are going on that we + know of . . . In how many other areas is our central govern- + ment conducting the same type educational campaigns for U.S. + attorneys and federal judges? + I guess the recommended prison sentences does not apply + to an ex-vice president. + Is there any way a citizen could feel they are being + afforded the protection of a judicial branch in a situation + as we have it today? Hardly. There would be only one in a + hundred judges that could make an honest decision after all + the brainwashing by the other branches of government. + This could easily be defined as "action of two or more + persons for a fraudulent or deceitful purpose." The very + definition of collusion! And judges are to make impartial + decisions? + Alexander Hamilton, in The Federalist Papers, had some + strong words on the function of the judicial branch of our + new government that judges are to be interpreters of the law + and "It is impossible to keep the judges too distinct from + every other avocation than that of expounding the laws. It + is peculiarly dangerous to place them in a situation to be + either corrupted or influenced by the executive." + With that statement in mind, to what branch of govern- + ment does the Internal Revenue Service belong? Why, to the + executive of course! + As was pointed out, an adverse decision can be appealed + to the next higher level of the judicial system. If the + answer of the higher court is the same, in face of signifi- + cant constitutional challenges, better check the definition + of the word collusion again. + It is a bit suspicious to note decisions in these + so-called case law books that are on similar issues around + the country all with the same decisions, even to many words +  + being similar. + These generally seem to occur after the judicial system + has had its annual conference. Strange? Is this where our + socially redeeming issues are discussed? The nature of the + decisions certainly suggest at least that. + It was reported in a book on American Jurisprudence that + the Supreme Court now wants to become involved in the area of + foreign affairs. Can you imagine the nerve of these people? + They must figure they have been able thus far to invade any + area they desire and their next target is to be foreign + affairs. Where do they find the authority for this trespass + on powers reserved to another branch of the central govern- + ment? Did the people authorize it? + Now the new chief justice, in a speech before a national + meeting of the Bar Association, (his fraternity buddies) asks + members to help stop this trend to 'federalize' crimes. He + insists the courts are now overworked and by making more + crime a federal issue, the courts will be overwhelmed. Aw... + makes you want to cry! Why doesn't he request the Congress + eliminate all federalized crimes for which they have no + authority to try? + One area we can point to that shows clearly the judicial + branch is amending the Constitution by decree to violate + Article V (Amendment process), is concerning the writ of + habeas corpus. The Constitution is plain and definite . . . + + "The Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, + unless when in cases of Rebellion or Invasion the + public Safety may require it." + + Congress is the only branch of government given power + in the Constitution to suspend the Writ. + The judicial department does it all the time by refusing + to consider the petition, refusing to grant the writ, + refusing to act on the petition or requiring specific forms + to apply for a writ, etc. Of course, their argument is that + they are overworked and underpaid so they have to concentrate + on important issues which is a load of hogwash. + The Writ cannot be suspended and if it is, it is only + the Congress who has the authority to do so! There are basic + requirements spelled out in our Constitution which must be + followed and not changed by edict by a branch of our govern- + ment which has no right to make a law. + + WHEN YOU REGISTER, PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT + + YOU THINK ABOUT A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER. + +  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/eslf0002.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/eslf0002.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..050c9681 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/eslf0002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ + + +...START DOKS + ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^ + ^THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS BEEN LOST.^ + ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^ + _________________________________________________________________________ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| + Despite decades of interdiction and enforcement efforts that have cost +illions of dollars, there are more drugs and more blood on the streets than +ver before. Our courts and prisons are crowded beyond capacity, corruption is +ampant at home, and governments abroad are under siege. + With all the hysteria and hypocrisy surrounding the issue of drugs, we +ave ignored the clear lessons of history. Prohibition financed the rise of +rganized crime and failed miserably as effective legal and social policy. +ikewise, the war on drugs has created new, highly financed criminal +onspiracies. + The latest round of antidrug hysteria has created a climate akin to the +nti-Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era. Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a +onservative legal scholar from Harvard University, was forced to withdraw from +onsideration for the Supreme Court after admitting he had smoked marijuana. +he constitutional guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure is being +outinely breached by judges across the country who uphold questionable +earches. Those courts, says University of Indiana law professor Craig Bradley, + Come on... Ain't Got All Day!! are influenced by the drug scare in much the same way courts were influenced +y the Red scare." And Bush's drug czar, William Bennet, has encouraged school +hildren who turn in friends and family suspected of taking drugs. + A society cannot long afford to have its laws widely and openly broken. +he urge to use some form of mind-altering substance is deeply ingrained in +uman nature. Attempting to legislate it out of existence can only lead us to +rant government the kind of power it should not have in a free society. + U.S. drugs laws are outdated and need total revamping. The arguments +gainst legalization are tired and invalid. Legalization does 'not' imply +overnment approval of drug use. It would not increase availability or result +n a massive wave of new addicts. Legalization 'would' eliminate inner-city +iolence associated with competitive drug dealing and allow billions of dollars +o be rechanneled for treatment, antidrug education and economic assistance for +ob training, day care and better schools. + Despite Richard Nixon's attempts to eradicate marijuana production in his +ountry, some 6O million Americans have smoked pot, and 21 million now smoke it +egularly. Eleven states have decrimminalized personal use, and not a single +eath has been attributed to a marijuana overdose. Yet as late as 1988, an +stimated $986 million in federal funds was used for anti-marijuana +nforcement. That same year, 391,6OO people were arrested for marijuana +ffenses, according to the FBI. + Attempts to control cocaine in the 198Os have likewise failed. In a +extbook case of innovative marketing, cocaine -- once considered a drug of the +lite -- trickled down to the poor in the form of crack, a cheap, potent high +nd a profitable, easily transportable product for the young entrepreneur. Even +hough cocaine prices fell throughout the Eighties, consumption increased so +reatly that crack profits made the drug barons of Latin America among the +ichest men in the history of the world. + The primary argument against legalization is that if drugs were suddenly +egalized, the result would be a significant increase in new addicts. With +rack, this arguments is simply irrelevant. Crack is abhorred by society at +arge, and its ready availability would not result in a meaningful increase in +ts use. In the areas where a large market exists, legalization would not + Come on... Ain't Got All Day!! ncrease availability in the least. The absurdity of this argument is apparent +o anyone who has seen the street-side dealing in the twenty-four hour, +pen-air drug bazaars in the major urban centers. + If the legalization of drugs results in a slight increase in the number of +busers, let us accept the consequences. Most middle-class Americans have +ccess to a social safety net that includes family, employers and social +ervices, as well as health insurance, education and treatment facilities. + In the ghettos, where the drug war is being wages, things are far more +esperate. The residents of inner cities are faced with harsh realities. Realm +ages for poor black men dropped fifty percent during the 197Os. Approximately +ne-third of black men from poor areas are arrested on drug charges bu the age +f thirty. Nearly one in four black males between the ages of twenty and +wenty-nine is in prison, on probation or parole, or awaiting trial. + Increasingly, the residents of our inner cities are losing hope. The +isintegration of the family structure, the poor job outlook, inadequate +ducation and government abandonment have left these citizens with few +lternatives. While middle-class white communities possess most of the things +hat the urban poor are lacking, while lawmakers have been slow to assist +inorities in achieving a kind of social parity. And this abandonment is +reating a permanent underclass of unemployable ghetto youths whose lives +ecome hopelessly interwoven with drug crime and who in turn are becoming +arents to another generation of seriously dysfunctional children. + The government's response to the plight of the poor has been far from +inisterial. Bush and Bennett's national drug strategy calls for an increase in +aw-enforcement officers and a massive increase in prison space. Indeed, the +99O drug-war budget of $9.5 billion allots $1.5 billion for prisons -- a 1OO +ercent increase -- and $876 million for the military's involvement. + Come on... Ain't Got All Day!! It is time for the government to offer more than punitive assistance to +his segment of society. The residents of inner cities don't need more police +fficers to help them obey the law or prison space to house them when they fail +o do so. They need opportunity and equality. Spend the billions that will +esult from a drug-peace dividend on education, job assistance, child care and +conomic redevelopment. + Legalizing drugs would also eliminate the bloodshed associated with all +evels of drug dealing and smuggling. Federal judges would find some 15,OOO +ewer cases a year on their dockets -- which is a small fraction of the burden +hat would be lifted from state and local courts. And since nearly fifty +ercent of all federal prisoners are now serving time for drug-related +ffenses, the national prison crisis would be forestalled. In addition, the +isk of death by overdose, hepatitis, AIDS and other illnesses resulting from +he use of street drugs would ne greatly reduced. Eliminating the black market +n illegal drugs would dry up the estimated $5O to $6O billion a year in +rofits for organized crime. + _________________________________________________________________________ | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + In seventy-five years of trying, the government has failed to control +rugs through prohibition. For the traffickers and barons, each successive wave +f hysteria has only increased their profits and power. Legalization can take +hese away and dethrone the dealer in his neighborhood. Let's strip away the +ypocrisy implicit in laws that are only enforced against the poor and +inorities. + Come on... Ain't Got All Day!! At the beginning of the Reagan administration, the United States spent $1 +illion to enforce laws against all drugs. Next year, Bush's drug war will cost +ver into an escalating, hopeless war, perhaps the history lessons can begin: + Like Vietnam, this is a quagmire. We are in a war that is tearing apart +he fabric of our country. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. And it +s time to admit we are wrong. And perhaps we can behave as a kinder, gentler +nd more mature society. + -Jann S. Wenner +An ASCII copy of a Rolling Stone editorial, June 199O. + + Typed by ROM [onstruct, for the ESLF. + 4:51 pm (June 24, 199O) +...END DOKS + +[23] Tfiles: (1-36,?,Q) : \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ess-wrig.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/ess-wrig.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4d489318 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ess-wrig.txt @@ -0,0 +1,227 @@ + + Richard Wright, American Hunger, and the Communist Party + +Richard Wright's flirtation with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) was not based + on idealism, strong beliefs, or rational judgment, but rather on Wright's need + to take off his mask and share his intelligence with the world. We see no + evidence that Wright looked to Communism because of its ideals. Instead, + Wright made his political foray because of his yearning to break out of his + shell and reveal his real self to others. + +Richard Wright lived most of his life through a mask. Rarely letting down his + guard: + +The essence of the irony of the plight of the Negro in America, to me, is that + he is doomed to live in isolation...[1] (p. 14) + +Though I had fled the pressure of the South, my outward conduct had not + changed. I had been schooled to present an unalteringly smiling face and + I continued to do so despite the fact that my environment allowed more open + expression. I hid my feelings and avoided all relationships with whites that + might cause me to reveal them.[1] (p. 14-15) + + +Here we see that Wright felt that he is trapped behind his mask and could not + express his feelings. Unlike some, Wright actually did have strong emotions + as we learn earlier: "All my life I had done nothing but feel and cultivate + my feelings [1]" (p. 13). Even though Wright was now in the North, he could + not even engage in an intelligent conversation with anyone besides himself + because of a combination of societal pressures and his own inner anxieties. + Bradley [3] concurs: + +These observations seems to reflect more than they illuminate; to me they + reveal a man horribly crippled, uneasy with emotion, unaccustomed to warmth. + The causes of that crippling are not totally clear. (p. 70) + +The illness that Wright suffered was not one with an easy cure. Though the + symptoms were apparent enough for even Wright to notice, Bradley [3] points + out that the causes were not clear. Societal pressures, like the underlying + racism in Chicago, may have been a large factor. In Chicago, in the 1920's + and 1930's, if you were black and you were lucky, maybe you would have the + opportunity to become a mailman. If you were black, you could not dream. + You could not even dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Even + today, Jesse Jackson has said that Chicago is the most racist city in + America. + +Wright was confused and unable to understand his inner emotions. Withdrawn, + Wright longed to open up to someone, but he did not have that someone. + + +I still had no friends, casual or intimate, and felt the need for none. I had + developed a self sufficiency that kept me distant from others, emotionally + and psychologically...Emotionally, I was withdrawn from the objective world; + my desires floated loosely within the walls of my consciousness, contained + and controlled. + +...Even though I reacted deeply, my true feelings raced along underground, + hidden.[1] (p. 20) + +Wright claimed that he had no need for friends but we know he only lied to + himself. People as intelligent as Richard Wright need an outlet for + conversation and others to stimulate their minds. Wright contradicts + himself less than a page later: + + +I did not act in this fashion deliberately; I did not prefer this kind + of relationship with people. I wanted a life in which there was a constant + oneness of feeling with others, in which the basic emotions of life were + shared...But I knew that no such thing was possible in my environment.[1] + (p. 20-21) [italics mine] + +Wright did not just want "a life in which there was a constant oneness of + feelings with others," he needed such a life. He had a strong need for + other people and for a sense of belonging even though he initially acted + in the opposite fashion. To live this life, Wright had to believe in + something larger than himself. Wright had to associate himself with a + higher being. Because he had already discounted God and religion, Wright + gravitated toward the Communist party. + +Wright joined the Party not because he admired socialism, but because he + needed people and because it was a vehicle for him to cultivate his writing. + Through the John Reed Club, Wright was able to show the world, or at least + other people associated with the Communist Party USA, his intellect and + insight. + +Not only did Wright not believe in Communism, but he made little effort to + learn what the Party really stood for. Wright had no trouble studying + Dostoevski or Sociology to cultivate his writings, but he could not find + the time to read Marx or Moore or even to pick up a newspaper or an + encyclopedia and learn about Trotsky. + +... I stammered, trying not to reveal my ignorance of politics, for I had + not followed the details of Trotsky's fight against the Communist party + of the Soviet Union ...[1] (p. 81) + +McCall [5] points out that Wright had little in common with the Communist + party: + +Doctrinal differences don't matter; ideas themselves scarcely matter; all + that counts is the blessed new feeling of belonging [5] (p. 363) + +What did Wright believe? What were his political views? Did he even agree + with socialism? American Hunger does not make any attempt to answer these + questions. Wright believed in the individual rather than the collective + body, an idea foreign to most members of the Communist party in those days. + The Communists were not looking to cultivate free thinkers - people who + they felt belonged to the bourgeoisie. Wright believed that one could not + be free until one could freely think. CPUSA was looking for men and women + of action, they were looking for soldiers. Wright was a man of action, but + he was not a soldier. A soldier shoots without asking "why?" A true member + of the Communist Party did not read books, a real member worked in the + factory by day and led protest marches by night. The Communists had two + basic essentials: food and shelter. Wright needed something else - he + needed books. + +The Party demanded that Wright subordinate his artistic goals for their + needs. Members attacked Wright's intellect as no good for their cause, + a cause that Wright either did not believe in or did not fully understand. + But Wright made a conscious, calculated, and rational decision to join the + Communist party. Wright used the Party as an umbilical cord to nurse his + writing and nurture his soul. Wright wanted to use CPUSA to make friends + and reveal his thoughts. Wright, however, had no intention of being used + by the Communist party - especially by those who did not appreciate his + talents. American Hunger reveals that Wright was mistrusted because he + was deemed an "intellectual." At one point Wright attends his first + Communist unit meeting and his serious report is followed by laughter + by the rank and file of those in attendance: + +During the following days I had learned through some discreet questioning + that I had seemed a fantastic element to the black Communists. I was + shocked to hear that I, who had been only to grammar school, had been + classified as an intellectual. What was an intellectual? I had never + heard the word used in the sense in which it was applied to me. I had + thought that they might refuse me on the grounds that I was not + politically advanced; I had thought they might place me on probation; + I had thought they might say I would have to be investigated. But they + had simply laughed.[1] (p. 77) + +The John Reed Club filled a large void which allowed Wright's writing to + feel and flourish. The Club was why Wright had associated himself with + CPUSA in the first place - it was a forum for thoughtful discussion and + it provided outlets for writers to publish their work. Wright's Communist + foray was all but over after the Communists decided to eliminate the John + Reed Club in the New York Conference: + +Debate started and I rose and explained what clubs had meant to young writers + and begged for their continuance. I sat down amid silence. Debate was closed. + The vote was called. The room filled with uplifting hands to dissolve. Then + came the call for those who disagreed and my hand went up alone.[1] (p. 98) + +Wright used the Communist party as a tool to dislodge the mask he had worn + for so long. Initially, CPUSA liberated him and enabled Wright to express + his feelings. However, it soon became apparent that the Party wanted to go + further and replace Wright's old mask with a new mask of their creation. + They sought to apply a filter to his mind which would sift through Wright's + thoughts and only allow him to express such feelings that were in line with + Communist mentality. Leibowitz [4] agrees: + +Any authority that usurps his liberty and brushes aside his feelings is + intolerable to Wright4 [ ](p. 351) + +Wright had come too far to be pressured to give up his individuality. And + his sense of himself, which initially attracted him to the Party, is what + led to his Communist demise. Ironically, Wright ultimately left the Party + for the same reason he joined it - to reach his artistic goals. + +An invisible wall was building slowly between me and the people with whom + I had cast my lot. Well, I would show them that all men who wrote books + were not their enemies. I would communicate the meaning of their lives + to people whom they could not reach; then, surely, my intentions would + merit their confidence... I had to win the confidence of people who had + been mislead so often that they were afraid of anybody who differed from + themselves. Yet deep down I feared their militant ignorance.[1] (p. 78) + +Leibowitz [4] remarks: + +That the Communists did not respect individuality wounded Wright in his + secret spot: his ambition to be a writer.[4] (p. 349) + +Wright probably would have never become a great writer if not for his foray + into Communism. The John Reed Club, the intelligent discussions, and even + his experience with petty politics gave him the tools, the vision, and the + confidence to write. Wright's entire life was destroyed by the Communist + party in a way, however. During the Red Scare, he chose to leave the + country rather than testify against those people who had oppressed him. + Wright's exodus from the United States ultimately lead to his life's + decline, + +The Communist party has been a mainstay with many of the great African- + American writers. As recent as the 1980's, Angela Davis was an active + Communist. Davis, a great writer, ran for Vice President under the + CPUSA ticket both in 1980 and in 1984. However, even Davis' involvement + became tragic. Gus Hall, the Communist party boss, purged her from the + party in 1991 after she complained about racial quotas.[6] + +As for Wright, he wrote half a book in the prime of his life about his + experience with Communism. His political experiences and traumas left a + profound mark on his conscious. It is as though he thought he found + himself only to realize that his search was far from over: + +Humbly now, with no vaulting dream of achieving a vast unity, I wanted + to try to build a bridge of words between me and the world outside, + that world which seemed so distant and elusive that it seemed unreal.[1] + (p. 135) + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Appendix - Bibliography + +1. Wright, Richard. American Hunger. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977. + +2. Reilly, John M. (p. 213-227). Critical Essays on Richard Wright. Edited + by Yoshinobu Hakutani. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1982. + +3. Bradley, David. "American Hunger (1977)," (p. 69-71). Richard Wright - + Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. + and K.A. Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993 + +4. Leibowitz, Herbert. "ÔArise, Ye Pris'ners of Starvation': Richard + Wright's Black Boy and American Hunger," (p. 328-358). Richard Wright - + Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. + and K.A. Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993 + +5. McCall, Dan. "Wright's American Hunger," (p. 359-368). Richard Wright - + Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. + and K.A. Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993 + +6. "California Honors Communist." Campus Fall 1995, Volume 7: 10-11 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/eugenie b/textfiles.com/politics/eugenie new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ad7d792a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/eugenie @@ -0,0 +1,2972 @@ + +Eugenie De Franval + +by Donatien Alfonse Francois, Marquis De Sade + + To instruct man and correct his morals: such is the sole goal we +set for ourselves in this story. In reading it, may the reader be +steeped in the knowledge of the dangers which forever dog the steps +of those who, to satisfy their desires, will stop at nothing! May +they be persuaded that the best education, wealth, talent, and the +gifts of Nature are likely to lead one astray unless they are +buttressed and brought to the fore by self- restraint, good conduct, +wisdom, and modesty. Such are the truths we intend to relate. May +the reader show himself indulgent for the monstrous details of the +hideous crime we are obliged to describe; but is it possible to make +others detest such aberrations unless one has the courage to lay +them bare, without the slightest embellishment? + + It is rare that everything conspires in one person to lead him to +prosperity; does Nature shower her gifts upon him? Then Fortune +refuses him her gifts. Does Fortune lavish her favours upon him? +Then Nature proves niggardly. It would appear that the hand of +Heaven has wished to show us that, in each individual as in the most +sublime operations, the laws of equilibrium are the prime laws of +the Universe, those which at the same time govern everything that +happens, everything that vegetates, and everything that breathes. + + Franval lived in Paris, the city of his birth, and possessed, among +a variety of other talents, an income of four hundred thousand +livres, a handsome figure, and a face to match. But beneath this +seductive exterior was concealed a plethora of vices, and +unfortunately among them those which, when adopted and practised, +quickly lead to crime. Franval's initial shortcoming was an +imagination the disorderliness of which defies description; that is, +a shortcoming that one cannot correct; its effects only worsen with +age. The less one can do, the more one undertakes; the less one +acts, the more one invents; each period of one's life brings new +ideas to the fore, and satiety, far from dampening one's ardour, +paves the way for even more baleful refinements. + + As we have said, Franval was generously endowed with all the charm +of youth and all the talents which embellish it; but so great was +his contempt of both moral and religious duties that it had become +impossible for his tutors to inculcate any of them in him. + + In an age when the most dangerous, the most insidious books are +available to children, as well as to their fathers and their tutors, +when rashness of thought passes for philosophy, when incredulity +passes for strength, and libertinage is mistaken for imagination, +Franval's wit provoked approving laughter. He may have been scolded +immediately afterward, but later he was praised for it. Franval's +father, an ardent advocate of fashionable sophisms, was the first to +encourage his son to think soundly on all these matters. He even +went so far as to personally lend his son the works most liable to +corrupt him all the more quickly. In the light of which, what +teacher would have dared to inculcate principles different from +those of the household wherein the young Franval was obliged to +please? + + Be that as it may, Franval lost his parents while he was still very +young, and when he was nineteen an elderly uncle, who also died +shortly thereafter, bequeathed him, upon the occasion of his +marriage, the full wealth due him from his inheritance. + + With such a fortune, Monsieur de Franval should have had not the +slightest difficulty in finding a wife. An infinite number of +possible matches were proposed, but since Franval had begged his +uncle to arrange a match for him with a girl younger than he, and +with as few relatives as possible, the old man directed his +attentions to a Mademoiselle de Farneille, the daughter of a +financier, who had lost her father and whose only family was her +widowed mother. The girl was actually quite young, only fifteen, +but she had sixty thousand very real livres annual income and one of +the most charming and delightful faces in all Paris... one of those +virgin-like faces in which the qualities of candour and charm vie +with each other beneath the delicate features of love and feminine +grace. Her long blond hair cascaded down below her waist and her +large blue eyes bespoke both tenderness and modesty; she had a +slender, lithe, and graceful figure, skin that was lily-white, and +the freshness of roses about her. She was blessed with many +talents, was possessed of a lively but slightly melancholy +imagination - that gentle melancholy which predisposes one to a love +of books and a taste for solitude, attributes which Nature seems to +accord to those whom she has fated for misfortune, as though to make +it less bitter for them by the sombre and touching pleasure it +brings them, a pleasure which makes them prefer tears to the +frivolous joy of happiness, which is a much less active and less +pervasive force. + + Madame de Farneille, who was thirty-two at the time of her +daughter's marriage, was also a witty and winning woman, but perhaps +a trifle too reserved and severe. Desirous to see her only child +happy, she had consulted all of Paris about this marriage. And +since she no longer had any family, she was obliged to rely for +advice on a few of those cold friends who care not a whit about +anything. They succeeded in convincing her that the young man who +was being proposed for her daughter was, beyond any shadow of a +doubt, the best match she could make in Paris, and that she would be +utterly and unpardonably foolish if she were to turn it down. And +so the marriage took place, and the young couple, wealthy enough to +take their own house, moved into it within a few days. + + Young Franval's heart did not contain any of those vices of levity, +disorder, or irresponsibility which prevent a man from maturing +before the age of thirty. Possessed of a fair share of +self-confidence, and being an orderly man who was at his best in +managing the affairs of a household, Franval had all the qualities +necessary for this aspect of a happy life. His vices, of a +different order altogether, were rather the failings of maturity +than the indiscretions of youth: he was artful, scheming, cruel, +base, self-centred, given to manoeuvring, deceitful, and cunning - +all of this he concealed not only by the grace and talent we have +previously mentioned but also by his eloquence, his uncommon wit, +and his most pleasing appearance. Such was the man we shall be +dealing with. + + Mademoiselle de Farneille, who in accordance with the custom had +only known her husband at most a month prior to their marriage, was +taken in by this sparkling exterior, and she had become his dupe. +She idolized him, and the days were not long enough for her to feast +her adoring eyes upon him; so great was her adoration in fact, that +had any obstacles intervened to trouble the sweetness of a marriage +in which, she said, she had found her only happiness in life, her +health, and even her life, might have been endangered. + + As for Franval, a philosopher when it came to women as he was with +regard to everything else in life, coolness and impassivity marked +his attitude toward this charming young woman. + + "The woman who belongs to us," he would say, "is a sort of +individual whom custom has given us in bondage. She must be gentle, +submissive... utterly faithful and obedient; not that I especially +share the common prejudice concerning the dishonour a wife can +impose upon us when she imitates our debaucheries. 'Tis merely that +a man does not enjoy seeing another usurp his rights. Everything +else is a matter of complete indifference, and adds not a jot to +happiness." + + With such sentiments in a husband, it is easy to predict that a +life of roses is not what lies in store for the poor girl who is +married to him. Honest, sensible, well-bred, lovingly anticipating +the every desire of the only man in the world she cared about, +Madame de Franval bore her chains during the early years without +ever suspecting her enslavement. It was easy for her to see that +she was merely gleaning meagre scraps in the fields of Hymen, but, +still too happy with what little he left her, she devoted her every +attention and applied herself scrupulously to make certain that +during those brief moments when Franval acknowledged her tenderness +he would at least find everything that she believed her beloved +husband required to make him happy. + + And yet the best proof that Franval had not been completely remiss +in his duties was the fact that, during the first year of their +marriage, his wife, then aged sixteen and a half, gave birth to a +daughter even more beautiful than her mother, a child whom her +father straightway named Eugenie - Eugenie, both the horror and the +wonder of Nature. + + Monsieur de Franval, who doubtless had formed the most odious +designs upon the child the moment she was born, immediately +separated her from her mother. Until she was seven, Eugenie was +entrusted to the care of some women on whom Franval could rely, and +they confined themselves to inculcating in her a good disposition +and to teaching her to read. They scrupulously avoided imparting to +her the slightest knowledge of any religious or moral principles of +the sort that a girl of that age normally receives. + + Madame de Farneille and her daughter, who were grieved and shocked +by such conduct, reproached Monsieur de Franval for it. He replied +imperturbably that his plan was to make his daughter happy, and he +had no intention of filling her mind with chimeras designed solely +to frighten men without ever proving of the least worth to them. He +also said that a girl who needed nothing more than to learn how to +make herself pleasing and attractive would be well advised to remain +ignorant of such nonsense, for such fantasies would only disturb the +serenity of her life without adding a grain of truth to her moral +character or a grain of beauty to her body. Such remarks were +sorely displeasing to Madame de Farneille, who was increasingly +attracted to celestial ideas the more she withdrew from worldly +pleasures. Piety is a failing inherent in periods of advancing age +or declining health. In the tumult of the passions, we generally +feel but slight concern over a future we gauge to be extremely +remote, but when passions' language becomes, less compelling, when +we advance on the final stages of life, when in a word everything +leaves us, then we cast ourselves back into the arms of the God we +have heard about when we were children. And if, according to +philosophy, these latter illusions are fully as fantastic as the +others, they are at least not as dangerous. + + Franval's mother-in-law had no close relatives, she herself had +little or no influence, and at the very most a few casual friends +who proved less than that when put to the test. Having to do battle +against an amiable, young, well-situated son-in-law, she very wisely +decided that it would be simpler to limit herself to remonstrating +than to undertake more vigorous measures with a man who could ruin +the mother and cause the daughter to be confined if they should dare +to pit themselves against him. In consideration of which a few +remonstrances were all she ventured, and as soon as she saw that +they were to no avail, she fell silent. + + Franval, certain of his superiority and perceiving that they were +afraid of him, soon threw all restraint to the winds and, only +thinly disguising his activities simply for the sake of appearances, +he advanced straight toward his terrible goal. + + When Eugenie was seven years old, Franval took her to his wife; and +that loving mother, who had not seen her child since the day she had +brought her into the world, could not get her fill of fondling and +caressing her. For two hours she hugged the child to her breast, +smothering her with kisses and bathing her with her tears. She +wanted to learn all her little talents and accomplishments; but +Eugenie had none except the ability to read fluently, to be blessed +with perfect health, and to be as pretty as an angel. Madame de +Franval was once again plunged into despair when she realized that +it was only too true that her daughter was quite ignorant of the +most basic principles of religion. + + "What are you doing, Sir," she said to her husband. "Do you mean to +say you are bringing her up only for this world? Deign to reflect +that she, like all of us, is destined to dwell but a second here, +afterward to plunge into an eternity, which will be disastrous if +you deprive her of the wherewithal to find happiness at the feet of +Him from whom all life cometh." + + "If Eugenie knows nothing, Madame," Franval replied, "if these +maxims are carefully concealed from her, there is no way she could +be made unhappy; for if they are true, the Supreme Being is too just +to punish her for her ignorance, and if they are false, what need is +there to speak to her about them? As for the rest of her education, +please have confidence in me. Starting today I shall be her tutor, +and I promise you that in a few years your daughter will surpass all +the children her own age." + + Madame de Franval wished to pursue the matter further; calling the +heart's eloquence to the aid of reason, a few tears expressed +themselves for her. But Franval, who was not in the least moved by +the tears, did not seem even to notice them. He had Eugenie taken +away, and informed his wife that if she tried to interfere in any +way with the education he planned to give his daughter, or if she +attempted to inculcate in the girl principles different from those +with which he intended to nourish her, she would by so doing deprive +herself of the pleasure of seeing her daughter, whom he would send +to one of those chateaux from which she would not re-emerge. Madame +de Franval, accustomed to submission, heard his words in silence. +She begged her husband not to separate her from such a cherished +possession and, weeping, promised not to interfere in any way with +the education that was being prepared for her. + + From that moment on, Mademoiselle de Franval was installed in a +very lovely apartment adjacent to that of her father, with a highly +intelligent governess, an assistant governess, a chambermaid, and +two girl companions her own age, solely intended for Eugenie's +amusement. She was given teachers of writing, drawing, poetry, +natural history, elocution, geography, astronomy, Greek, English, +German, Italian, fencing, dancing, riding and music. Eugenie arose +at seven every day, in summer as well as winter. For breakfast she +had a large piece of rye bread, which she took with her out into the +garden. She ran and played there till eight, when she came back +inside and spent a few moments with her father in his apartment, +while he acquainted her with the little tricks and games that +society indulges in. Till nine she worked on her lessons; at nine +her first tutor arrived. Between then and two she was visited by no +less than five teachers. She ate lunch with her two little friends +and her head governess. The dinner was composed of vegetables, fish, +pastries, and fruit; never any meat, soup, wine, liqueurs, or +coffee. From three to four, Eugenie went back out again to play +with her companions. There they exercised together, playing tennis, +ball, skittles, battledore and shuttlecock, or seeing how far they +could run and jump. They dressed according to the seasons; they +wore nothing that constricted their waists, never any of those +ridiculous corsets equally dangerous for the stomach and chest +which, impairing the breathing of a young person, perforce attack +the lungs. From four to six, Mademoiselle de Franval received other +tutors; and as all had not been able to appear the same day, the +others came the following day. Three times a week, Eugenie went to +the theatre with her father, in the little grilled boxes that were +rented for her by the year. At nine o'clock she returned home and +dined. All she then had to eat were vegetables and fruit. Four +times a week, from ten to eleven, she played with her two +governesses and her maid, read from one or more novels, and then +went to bed. The three other days, those when Franval did not dine +out, she spent alone in her father's apartment, and Franval devoted +this period to what he termed his conferences. During these +sessions he inculcated in his daughter his maxims on morality and +religion, presenting to her on the one hand what some men thought on +these matters, and then on the other expounding his own views. + + Possessed of considerable intelligence, a vast range of knowledge, +a keen mind, and passions that were already awakening, it is easy to +judge the progress that these views made in Eugenie's soul. But +since the shameful Franval's intention was not only to strengthen +her mind, these lectures rarely concluded without inflaming her +heart as well; and this horrible man succeeded so well in finding +the means to please his daughter, he corrupted her so cleverly, he +made himself so useful both to her education and her pleasures, he +so ardently anticipated her every desire that Eugenie, even in the +most brilliant circles, found no one as attractive as her father. +And even before he made his intentions explicit, the innocent and +pliant creature had filled her young heart with all the sentiments +of friendship, gratitude, and tenderness which must inevitably lead +to the most ardent love. She had eyes only for Franval; she paid no +attention to anyone but him, and rebelled at any idea that might +separate her from him. She would gladly have lavished upon him not +her honour, not her charms - all these sacrifices would have seemed +far too meagre for the object of her idolatry - but her blood, her +very life, if this tender friend of her heart had demanded it. + + Mademoiselle de Franval's feelings for her mother, her respectable +and wretched mother, were not quite the same. Her father, by +skillfully conveying to his daughter that Madame de Franval, being +his wife, demanded certain ministrations from him which often +prevented him from doing for his dear Eugenie everything his heart +dictated, had discovered the secret of implanting in the heart of +this young person much more hate and jealousy than the sort of +respectable and tender sentiments that she ought to have felt for +such a mother. + + "My friend, my brother," Eugenie sometimes used to say to Franval, +who did not want his daughter to employ other expressions with him, +"this woman you call your wife, this creature who, you tell me, +brought me into this world, is indeed most demanding, since in +wishing to have you always by her side, she deprives me of the +happiness of spending my life with you.... It is quite obvious to me +that you prefer her to your Eugenie. As for me, I shall never love +anything that steals your heart away from me." + + "You are wrong, my dear friend," Franval replied. "No one in this +world will ever acquire over me rights as strong as yours. The ties +which bind this woman and your best friend - the fruit of usage and +social convention, which I view philosophically- will never equal +the ties between us.... You will always be my favourite, Eugenie; +you will be the angel and the light of my life, the hearth of my +heart, the moving force of my existence." + + "Oh! how sweet these words are!" Eugenie replied. "Repeat them to +me often, my friend.... If only you knew how happy these expressions +of your tenderness make me !" + + And taking Franval's hand and clasping it to her heart, she went +on: + + "Here, feel, I can feel them all there...." + + "Your tender caresses assure me it's true," Franval answered, +pressing her in his arms.... And thus, without a trace of remorse, +the perfidious wretch concluded his plans for the seduction of this +poor girl. + + Eugenie's fourteenth year was the time Franval had set for the +consummation of his crime. Let us shudder !... He did it. + + The very day that she reached that age, or rather the day she +completed her fourteenth year, they were both in the country, +without the encumbering presence of family or other intrusions. The +Count, having that day attired his daughter in the manner that +vestal virgins had been clothed in ancient times upon the occasion +of their consecration to the goddess Venus, brought her upon the +stroke of eleven o'clock into a voluptuous drawing room wherein the +daylight was softened by muslin curtains and the furniture was +bedecked with flowers. In the middle of the room was a throne of +roses; Franval led his laughter over to it. + + "Eugenie," he said to her, helping her to sit down upon it, "today +be the queen of my heart and allow me, on bended knee, to worship +and adore thee." + + "You adore me, my brother, when it is to you that I owe everything, +you who are the author of my days, who has formed me.... ah! let me +rather fall down at your feet; that is the only place I belong, and +the only place I aspire to with you." + + "Oh my dear, my tender Eugenie," said the Count, seating himself +beside her on the flower-strewn chairs which were to serve as the +scene of his triumph, "if indeed it is true that you owe me +something, if your feelings toward me are as sincere as you say they +are, do you know by what means you can persuade me of your +sincerity?" + + "What are they, my brother? Tell them to me quickly, so that I may +be quick to seize them." + + "All these many charms, Eugenie, that Nature has lavished upon you, +all these physical charms with which She has embellished you - these +you must sacrifice to me without a moment's delay." + + "But what is it you ask of me? are you not already the master of +everything? Does not what you have wrought belong to you? Can +another delight in your handiwork?" + + "But you are not unaware of people's prejudices...." + + "You have never concealed them from me." + + "I do not wish to flout them without your consent." + + "Do you not despise them as much as I?" + + "Surely, but I do not want to be your tyrant, and even less your +seducer. The services I am soliciting, nay the rewards I request, I +wish to be won through love, and through love alone. You are +familiar with the world and with its ways; I have never Concealed +any of its lures from you. My habit of keeping other men from your +eyes, so that I alone will be the constant object of your vision, +has become a hoax, a piece of trickery unworthy of me. If in the +world there exists a being whom you prefer to me, name him without +delay, I shall go to the ends of the earth to find him and +straightway lead him back here into your arms. In a word, it is your +happiness I seek, my angel, yours much more than mine. These gentle +pleasures you can give me will be nothing to me, if they are not the +concrete proof of your love. Therefore, Eugenie, make up your mind. +The time has come for you to be immolated, and immolated you must +be. But you yourself must name the priest who shall perform the +sacrifice; I renounce the pleasures which this title assures me if +it is not your heart and soul which offer them to me. And, s1ill +worthy of your heart, if 'tis not I whom you most prefer, still I +shall, by bringing you him whom you can love and cherish, at least +have merited your tender affection though I may not have won the +citalel of your heart. And, failing to become Eugenie's lover, I +shall still be her friend." + + "You will be everything, my brother, you will be everything," +Eugenie said, burning with love and desire. "To whom do you wish me +to sacrifice myself if it is not to him whom I solely adore! What +creature in the entire universe can be more worthy than you of these +meagre charms that you desire... and over which your burning hands +are already roaming with great ardour! Can't you see by the fire +which inflames me that I am just as eager as you to know these +pleasures of which you have spoken? Ah! do, do what you will, my +dear brother, my best friend, make Eugenie your victim; immolated by +your beloved hands, she will always be triumphant." + + The fervent Franval who, considering the character we know him to +possess, had draped himself in so much delicacy only in order to +seduce his daughter all the more subtly, soon abused her credulity +and, with all the obstacles eliminated or overcome both by the +principles with which he had nourished that open and impressionable +heart and by the cunning with which he had ensnared her at this +final moment, he concluded his perfidious conquest and himself +became with impunity the ravisher of that virginity of which Nature +and the bonds of blood had made him the trusted defender. + + Several days passed in mutual intoxication. Eugenie, old enough to +experience the pleasures of love, her appetite whetted by his +doctrines, yielded herself to its transports. Franval taught her all +its mysteries; he traced for her all its paths and byways. The more +he paid obeisance, the more complete became his conquest. She would +have wished to receive him in a thousand temples simultaneously; she +accused her friend's imagination of being too timid, of not throwing +all caution to the winds. and she had the feeling that he was hiding +something from her. She complained of her age, and of a kind of +ingenuousness which perhaps kept her from being seductive enough. +And if she wished to further her amorous education, it was to insure +that no means of inflaming her lover remained unknown to her. + They returned to Paris, but the criminal pleasures which this +perverse man had reveled in had too delightfully flattered his moral +and physical faculties for that trait of character, inconstancy, +which generally caused him to break off his other affairs, to have +the least effect in breaking the bonds of this one. He had fallen +hopelessly in love, and from this dangerous passion there inevitably +ensued the cruelest abandonment of his wife.... Alas! what a victim. +Madame de Franval, who was then thirty-one, was in the full flower +of her beauty. An impression of sadness, the sort which inevitably +follows upon the sorrows which consumed her, made her even more +attractive. Bathed in her own tears, a constant prey to melancholy, +her beautiful hair carelessly scattered over an alabaster throat, +her lips lovingly pressed against the portraits of her faithless +daughter and tyrant-husband, she resembled one of those beautiful +virgins whom Michelangelo was wont to portray in the throes of +sorrow. As yet she was still unaware of that which was destined to +crown her affliction. The manner in which Eugenie was being +educated, the essential things to which Madame de Franval was not +privy or those she was told only to make her hate them; the +certainty that these duties, despised by Franval, would never be +permitted to her daughter; the little time she was allowed to spend +with the young person; the fear that the peculiar education that +Eugenie was being given might sooner or later lead her into the +paths of crime; and, finally, Franval's wild conduct, his daily +harshness toward her - she whose only concern in life was to +anticipate his every wish, who knew no other charms than those +resulting from her having interested or pleased him: these alone, +for the moment, were the only causes of her distress. But imagine +with what sorrow and pain this tender soul would be afflicted when +she learned the full truth! + + Meanwhile, Eugenie's education continued. She herself had expressed +a desire to follow her masters until she was sixteen, and her +talents, the broad scope of her knowledge, the graces which daily +developed in her - all these further tightened Franval's fetters. It +was easy to see that he had never loved anyone the way he loved +Eugenie. + + On the surface, nothing in Eugenie's daily routine had been changed +save the time of the lectures. These private discussions with her +father occurred much more frequently and lasted far into the night. +Eugenie's governess was the only person privy to the affair, and +they trusted her sufficiently not to be worried about her +indiscretion. There were also a few changes in Eugenie's meal +schedule: now she ate with her parents. In a house like Franval's, +this circumstance soon placed Eugenie in a position to meet people +and to be courted with a view toward marriage. Several men did ask +for her hand. Franval, certain of his daughter's heart and feeling +he had nothing to fear from these requests, had nonetheless failed +to realize that this virtual flood of proposals might end by +revealing everything. + + In one conversation with her daughter - a favour so devoutly +desired by Madame de Franval and so rarely obtained - this tender +mother informed Eugenie that Monsieur de Colunce had asked for her +hand. + + "You know the gentleman," Madame de Franval said. "He loves you; he +is young, agreeable, and one day he will be rich. He awaits your +consent... naught but your consent. What will my answer be?" + + Taken aback, Eugenie reddened and replied that as yet she did not +feel inclined toward marriage, but suggested the matter be referred +to her father; his wish would be her command. + + Seeing in this reply nothing but candour pure and simple, Madame de +Franval waited patiently for a few days until at last she found an +occasion to speak to her husband about it. She communicated to him +the intentions of the Colunce family, and those of young Colunce +himself, and told him what his daughter's reply had been. + + As one can imagine, Franval already knew everything; but he made +little effort to disguise his feelings. + + "Madame," he said dryly to his wife, "I must ask you to refrain +from interfering in matters pertaining to Eugenie. I should have +imagined that you would have surmised, from the care you saw me take +to keep her away from you, how deeply I desired to make certain that +anything relating to her should in no wise concern you. I reiterate +my orders on this subject. I trust you will not forget them again." + + "But what, Sir, shall I reply," she answered, "since the request +has been made through me?" + + "You will say that I appreciate the honour, and that my daughter +has certain cohgenital defects which make marriage impossible for +her." + + "But, Monsieur, these defects are not real. Why should I then +falsely saddle her with them, and why deprive your daughter of the +happiness she may find in marriage?" + + "Has marriage then made you so profoundly happy, Madame ?" + + "Doubtless all other wives have not failed so signally to win their +husband's devotion, or" (and this was accompanied by a sigh) "all +husbands are not like you." + + "Wives... wives are faithless, jealous, imperious, coquettish, or +pious.... Husbands are treacherous, inconstant, cruel, or despotic. +There, Madame, you have the summary of everyone on earth. Do not +expect to find a paragon." + + "Still, everyone gets married." + + "True, the fools and ne'er-do-wells. In the words of one +philosopher, 'People get married only when they do not know what +they are doing, or when they no longer know what to do.' " + + "Then you think the human race should be allowed to die out ?" + + "And why not? A planet whose only product is poison cannot be +rooted out too quickly." + + "Eugenie will not be grateful to you for your excessive sternness +toward her." + + "Has she evinced any desire to marry this young man?" + + "She said that your wishes were her commands." + + "In that case, Madame, my commands are that you pursue this matter +no further." + + And Monsieur de Franval left the room after reiterating most +vigorously to his wife that she never speak to him on the subject +again. + + Madame de Franval did not fail to inform her mother of the +conversation that she had just had with her husband, and Madame de +Farneille, a more subtle soul and one more versed in the effects of +the passions than was her attractive daughter, immediately suspected +something unnatural was involved. + + Eugenie saw her grandmother very seldom, no more than an hour, on +festive or important occasions, and always in the presence of her +father; Desirous of clarifying the matter, Madame de Farneille sent +word to her son-in-law asking him to accord her the presence of her +granddaughter one day, and requesting that he might allow her to +stay one entire afternoon, in order to distract her, she said, from +a migraine headache from which she was suffering. Franval sent back +an irritable reply saying that there was nothing Eugenie feared more +than the vapours, but that he would nonetheless bring her personally +to her grandmother whenever the latter desired. He added, however, +that Eugenie would not be able to remain for very long, since she +was obliged to go from her grandmother's to a physics course which +she was assiduously following. + + When they arrived at Madame de Farneille's, she did not hide from +her son-in-law her astonishment at his refusal of the proposed +marriage. + + "I imagine that you safely can allow your daughter to persuade me +herself," Madame de Farneille went on, "of this defect which, +according to you, must deprive her of marriage." + + "Whether this defect is real or not, Madame," said Franval, who was +slightly surprised by his mother-in-law's resolution, "the fact is +that it would cost me a small fortune to marry my daughter, and I am +still too young to consent to such sacrifices. When she is +twenty-five, she may do as she wishes. Until then, she cannot count +on me or my support." + + "And do you feel the same way, Eugenie?" said Madame de Farneille. + + "With this one difference," Eugenie said with considerable +firmness. "My father has given me permission to marry when I am +twenty-five. But to you both here present, Madame, I swear that I +shall never in my life take advantage of this permission, which with +my way of thinking would only lead to unhappiness." + + "At your age one does not have `a way of thinking,' said Madame de +Farneille, "and there is something quite out of the ordinary in all +this, which I intend to ferret out." + + "I urge you to try, Madame," Franval said, leading his daughter +away. "In fact, you would be well advised to seek the services of +your clergy to help you in solving the enigma. And when all your +powers have scraped and delved and you are at last enlightened in +the matter, please let me know whether or not I was right in +opposing Eugenie's marriage." + + Franval's sarcasm concerning his mother-in-law's ecclesiastical +advisers was aimed at a respectable personage whom it will be +appropriate to introduce at this point, since the sequence of events +will soon show him in action. + + He was the confessor both of Madame de Farneille and her daughter, +one of the most virtuous men in all France: honest, benevolent, a +paragon of candour and wisdom, Monsieur de Clervil, far from having +all the vices of men of the cloth, was possessed only of gentle and +useful qualities. The rod and the staff of the poor, the sincere +friend of the wealthy, the consoler of the wretched and downtrodden, +this worthy man combined all the gifts which make a person +agreeable, all the virtues which make one sensitive. + + When consulted, Clervil replied as a man of good common sense that +before taking a stand in the matter they would have to unravel the +reasons why Monsieur de Franval was opposed to his daughter's +marriage; and although Madame de Farneille offered a few remarks +suggesting the possibility of an affair - one which in fact existed +all too concretely - the prudent confessor rejected these ideas. And +finding them too outrageously insulting both for Madame de Franval +and for her husband, he indignantly refused even to consider the +possibility. + + "Crime is such a distressing thing, Madame," this honest man was +sometimes wont to say, "it is so highly unlikely that a decent +person should voluntarily exceed all the bounds of modesty and +virtue, that it is never with anything but the most extreme +repugnance that I make up my mind to ascribe such wrongs to someone. +Be wary in suspecting the presence of vice. Our suspicions are often +the handiwork of our pride and vanity, and almost always the fruit +of a secret comparison that takes place in the depths of our soul: +we hasten to assign evil, for this gives us the right to feel +superior. If we reflect seriously upon the matter, would it not be +better to leave a secret sin forever hidden rather than to dream up +imaginary ones because of our unforgivable haste, and thus, for no +reason, to sully in our eyes people who have never committed any +wrongs save those which our pride has ascribed to them? And would +our world not be a better place if this principle were always +followed? Is it not infinitely less necessary to punish a crime than +it is essential to prevent it from spreading? By leaving it in the +darkness it seeks, have we not as it were annihilated it? Scandal +noised abroad is certain scandal, and the recital of it awakens the +passions of those who are inclined toward the same kind of crime. +Crime being inevitably blind, the guilty party of the as yet +undiscovered crime flatters him self that he will be luckier than +the criminal whose crime has been found out. 'Tis not a lesson he +has been given, but a counsel, and he gives himself over to excesses +that he might never have dared to indulge in without the rash +revelations... falsely mistaken for justice, but which, in reality, +are nothing more than ill-conceived severity, or vanity in +disguise." + + This initial conference therefore led to no other resolution than +the decision to investigate carefully the reasons for Franval's +aversion to the marriage of his daughter, and the reasons why +Eugenie shared his opinions. It was decided not to undertake +anything until these motives were discovered. + + "Well, Eugenie," Franval said to his daughter 'that evening, "now +can you see for yourself that they want to separate us? And do you +think they'll succeed, my child?... Will they succeed in breaking +the sweetest bonds in my life?" + + "Never... never! Don't be afraid, my dearest friend! These bonds in +which you delight are as precious to me as they are to you. You did +not deceive me when you formed them; you clearly warned me how they +would shock the morality of our society. But I was hardly frightened +at the idea of breaking a custom which, varying from clime to clime, +cannot therefore be sacred. I wanted these bonds; I wove them +without remorse. Therefore you need have no fear that I shall break +them." + + "Alas, who knows?... Colunce is younger than I... He has everything +a man needs to win you. Eugenie, leave off listening to a vestige of +madness which doubtless blinds you. Age and the torch of reason will +soon dispel the aura and lead to regrets, you'll confide them to me, +and I shall never forgive myself for having been the cause of them.' + + "No," Eugenie said firmly, "no, I have made up my mind to love no +one but you. I should deem myself the most miserable of women if I +were obliged to marry... Can you imagine," she went on heatedly, +"me, me married to a stranger who, unlike you, would not have double +reason to love me and whose feelings therefore would at best be no +stronger than his desire... Abandoned and despised by him, what +would become of me thereafter? A prude, a sanctimonious person, or a +whore? No, no, I prefer being your mistress, my friend. Yes, I love +you a hundred times better than being reduced to playing one or the +other of these infamous roles in society... But what is the cause of +all this commotion?" Eugenie went on bitterly. "Do you know what it +is, my friend? Who is the cause of it?... Your wife?... She and she +alone. Her implacable jealousy... You may be sure of it: these are +the only reasons behind the disasters that threaten us.... Oh, I +don't blame her: everything is simple... everything conceivable... +one can resort to anything when it is a question of keeping you. +What would I not do if I were in her place, and someone were trying +to steal your affections from me ?" + + Deeply moved, Franval showered his daughter with a thousand kisses. +And Eugenie, finding the encouragement in these criminal caresses to +plumb more forcefully the depths of her appalling soul, chanced to +mention to her father, with an unforgivable impudence, that the only +way for either one of them to escape her mother's surveillance would +be to give her a lover. The idea amused Franval. But being a much +more evil person than his daughter, and wishing to prepare +imperceptibly this young heart for all the impressions of hatred for +his wife that he desired to implant therein, he answered that he +found this vengeance far too mild, adding that there were plenty of +other means of making a woman miserable when she put her husband +into a bad humour. + + Several weeks passed, during which Franval and his daughter finally +decided to put into effect the first plan conceived for the despair +of this monster's virtuous wife, rightly believing that before going +on to more drastic and shameful acts, they should at least try to +give her a lover. For not only would this furnish material for all +the other acts, but, if it succeeded, it would necessarily oblige +Madame de Franval to cease concerning herself with the faults of +others, since she would have her own to worry about. For the +execution of this project, Franval cast a careful eye upon all the +young men he knew and, after considerable reflection, came to the +conclusion that only Valmont could serve as his man. + + Valmont was thirty years old, had a charming face, considerable +intelligence and a vivid imagination, and no principles whatever. He +was, consequently, ideally suited to play the role they were going +to offer him. One day Franval invited him to dinner and, as they +were leaving the table, he took him aside: + + "My friend," he said to him, "I have always believed you worthy of +me. The time has come to prove that I have not erred in my judgment. +I demand a proof of your sentiments... a most extraordinary proof." + + "What kind of proof, my dear fellow? Explain yourself, and never +for a moment doubt of my eagerness to be of service to you! " + + "What do you think of my wife ?" + + "A delightful creature. And if you weren't her husband, I would +long since have made her my mistress." + + "This consideration is most delicate and discerning, Valmont, but +it does not touch me." + + "What do you mean?" + + "I am going to astound you... 'tis precisely because you are fond +of me, and because I am Madame de Franval's husband, that I demand +that you become her lover." + + "Are you mad?" + + "No, but given to whimsy... capricious. You've been aware of these +qualities in me for a long time. I want to bring about the downfall +of virtue, and I maintain that you are the one to snare it." + + "What nonsense!" + + "Not in the least, 'tis a masterpiece of reason." + + "What I You mean you really want me to make you a...?" + + "Yes, I want it, I demand it, and I shall cease to consider you my +friend if you refuse me this favour.... I shall help you.... I'll +arrange it so that you can be alone with her... more and more often, +if need be... and you will take advantage of these occasions. And +the moment I am quite certain of my destiny, I shall, if you like, +throw myself at your feet to thank you for your obliging kindness." + + "Franval, don't take me for an utter fool. There's something most +strange about all this.... I refuse to lift a finger until you tell +me the whole truth." + + "All right . . . but I suspect you're a trifle squeamish... I doubt +you have sufficient strength of mind to hear all the details of this +matter.... You're still a prey to prejudice ... still gallant, I +venture to say, eh?... If I tell you everything you'll tremble like +a child and refuse to do anything further." + + "Me, tremble?... In all honesty I must say I'm overwhelmed by the +way you judge me. Listen, my friend, I want you to know that there +is no aberration in the world, not a single vice, however strange or +abnormal, that is capable of alarming my heart for even a moment." + + "Valmont, have you ever taken the trouble to cast a careful eye on +Eugenie from time to time?" + + "Your daughter?" + + "Or, if you prefer, my mistress." + + "Ah, you scoundrel! Now I understand." + + "This is the first time in my life I find you perceptive." + + "What? On your word of honour, you're in love with your daughter ?" + + "Yes, my friend, exactly as Lot! I have always held the Holy +Scriptures in highest esteem, as I have always been persuaded that +one accedes to Heaven by emulating its heroes!... Ah! my friend, +Pygmalion's madness no longer amazes me.... Is the world not full of +such weaknesses? Was it not necessary to resort to such methods to +populate the world? And what was then not a sin, can it now have +become one? What nonsense! You mean to say that a lovely girl +cannot tempt me because I am guilty of having sired her? That what +ought to bind me more intimately to her should become the very +reason for my removal from her? 'Tis because she resembles me, +because she is flesh of my flesh, that is to say that she is the +embodiment of all the motives upon which to base the most ardent +love, that I should regard her with an icy eye? . . . Ah, what +sophistry!... How totally absurd! Let fools abide by such +ridiculous inhibitions, they arc not made for hearts such as ours. +The dominion of beauty, the holy rights of love are oblivious to +futile human conventions. In their ascendancy they annihilate these +conventions as the rays of the rising sun purge the earth of the +shrouds which cloak it by night. Let us trample underfoot these +abominable prejudices, which are always the enemies of happiness. If +at times they beguile the reason, it has always been at the expense +of the most exquisite pleasures.... May we forever despise them!" + + "I'm convinced," Valmont responded, "and I am willing to admit that +your Eugenie must be a delightful mistress. A beauty more lively +than her mother's, even though she does not possess, as does your +wife, that languor which seizes the soul with such voluptuousness. +But Eugenie has that piquant quality which breaks and subdues us, +which, as it were, seems to subjugate anything which would like to +offer resistance. While one seems to yield, the other demands; what +one allows, the other offers. Of the two, I much prefer the latter." + + "But it's not Eugenie I'm giving you, but her mother." + + "And what reasons do you have for resorting to such methods ?" + + "My wife is jealous, an albatross on my neck. She's forever spying +on me. She wants Eugenie to marry. I must saddle my wife with sins +in order to conceal my own. Therefore you must have her... amuse +yourself with her for a time... and then you'll betray her. Let me +surprise you in her arms... and then I shall punish her or, using +this discovery as a weapon, I shall barter it in return for an +armistice on both our parts. But no love, Valmont; with ice in your +veins, capture and win her, but do not let her gain mastery over +you. If you let sentiments become involved, my plans are as good as +finished." + + "Have no fear: she would be the first woman who had aroused my +heart." + + Thus our two villains came to a mutual agreement, and it was +resolved that in a very few days Valmont would undertake to seduce +Madame de Franval, with full permission to employ anything he wished +in order to succeed... even the avowal of Franval's love, as the +most powerful means of inducing this virtuous woman to seek +vengeance. + + Eugenie, to whom the plan was revealed, thought it monstrously +amusing. The infamous creature even dared declare that if Valmont +should succeed, to make her happiness as complete as possible she +would like to verify with her own eyes her mother's disgrace, she +absolutely had to witness that paragon of virtue incontestably +yielding to the charms of a pleasure that she so rigorously +condemned in others. + + At last the day arrived when the most virtuous, the best, and most +wretched of women was not only going to receive the most painful +blow that anyone can be dealt but also when her hideous husband was +destined to outrage her, abandoning her - handing her over himself - +to him by whom he had agreed to be dishonoured.... What madness!... +What utter disdain of all principles. With what view in mind does +Nature create hearts as depraved as these ?... + + A few preliminary conversations had set the stage for the present +scene. Furthermore, Valmont was on close enough terms with Franval +so that his wife had not the slightest compunction about remaining +alone with him, as indeed she had done on more than one occasion in +the past. The three of them were sitting in the drawing room. +Franval rose and said: + + "I must leave. An important matter requires my presence.... 'Tis to +leave you in the care of your governess," he said, laughing, +"leaving you with Valmont. The man's a pillar of virtue. But if he +should forget himself, please be kind enough to inform me. I still +do not love him enough to yield him my rights...." + + And the insolent fellow departed. + + After exchanging a few banalities, the aftereffects of Franval's +little joke, Valmont said that he had found his friend changed +during the past six months. + + "I haven't dared broach the subject, to ask him the reasons," +Valmont said, "but he seems to be upset and distressed." + + "One thing which is certain," Madame de Franval replied, "is that +he is upsetting and distressing those around him." + + "Good heavens! What are you saying?... that my friend has been +treating you badly?" + + "If it were still only that!" + + "Be so good as to inform me, you know how devoted I am... my +inviolable attachment." + + "A series of frightful disorders... moral corruption, in short +every kind of wrong... would you believe it? We received a most +advantageous offer to marry our daughter ... and he refused...." + + And here the artful Valmont averted his eyes, the expression of a +man who has understood... who sighs to himself... and is afraid to +explain. + + "What is the matter, Monsieur," Madame de Franval resumed, "what I +have told you does not surprise you? Your silence is most singular." + + "Ah, Madame, is it not better to remain silent than to say things +which will bring despair to someone one loves?" + + "And what, may I ask, is that enigma? Explain yourself, I beg of +you." + + "How can you expect me not to shudder if I should be the one who +causes the scales to fall from your eyes," Valmont said, warmly +seizing one of her hands. + + "Oh, Monsieur," Madame de Franval went on, with great animation, +"either explain yourself or say not another word, I beseech you. The +situation you leave me in is terrible." + + "Perhaps less terrible than the state to which you yourself reduce +me," said Valmont, casting a look of love at the woman he was intent +on seducing. + + "But what does all that mean, Sir? You begin by alarming me, you +make me desire an explanation, then daring to insinuate certain +things that I neither can nor should endure, you deprive me of the +means of learning from you what upsets me so cruelly. Speak, Sir, +speak or you shall reduce me to utter despair." + + "Very well, Madame, since you demand it I shall be less obscure, +even though it costs me dearly to break your heart.... Learn, if you +must, the cruel reason behind your husband's refusal to Monsieur +Colunce's request... Eugenie..." + + "Yes ?" + + "Well, the fact is, Madame, that Franval adores her. Today less her +father than her lover, he would rather give up his own life than +give up Eugenie." + + Madame de Franval had not heard this fatal revelation without +reacting, and she fell down in a faint. Valmont hastened to her +assistance, and as soon as she had come to her senses he pursued: + + "You see, Madame, the cost of the disclosure you demanded.... I +would have given anything in the world to..." + + "Leave me, Monsieur, leave me," said Madame de Franval, who was in +a state difficult to describe. "After a shock such as this I need to +be alone for a while." + + "And you expect me to leave you in this situation? Ah, your grief +is too fully felt in my own heart for me not to ask you the +privilege of sharing it with you. I have inflicted the wound. Let me +bind it up." + + "Franval, in love with his daughter! Just Heaven! This creature +whom I have borne in my womb, 'tis now she who breaks my heart so +grievously!... So horrible, so shocking a crime!... Ah, Monsieur, is +it possible?... Are you quite certain?" + + "Madame, had I the slightest doubt I should have remained silent. I +would a hundred times rather have preferred not to tell you anything +than to alarm you in vain. 'Tis from your own husband I have the +certitude of this infamy, which he confided to me. In any event, try +and be calm, I beg of you. Rather let us concentrate now on the +means of breaking off this affair than on those of bringing it to +light. And you alone hold the key to this rapture...." + + "Ah, tell me this minute what it is. This crime horrifies me." + + "Madame, a husband of Franval's character is not brought back by +virtue. He is little disposed to believe in the virtue of women. +Virtue, he maintains, is the fruit of their pride or their +temperament, and what they do to remain faithful to us is done more +to satisfy themselves than either to please or enchain us.... You +will excuse me, Madame, if I say that on this point I must admit +that I tend to share his opinion. Never in my experience has a wife +succeeded in destroying her husband's vices by means of virtue. What +would prick him, what would stimulate him much more would be a +conduct approximating his own, and by this would you bring him more +quickly back to you. Jealousy would be the inevitable result; how +many hearts have been restored to love by this infallible means. +Your husband, then seeing that this virtue to which he is +accustomed, and which he has been so insolent as to despise is +rather the work of reflection than of the organs' insouciance, will +really learn to esteem it in you, at the very moment when he +believes you capable of discarding it. He imagines... he dares to +say that if you have never had any lovers, it is because you have +never been assaulted. Prove to him that this is a decision which +lies solely in your own hands... to revenge yourself for his +wrongdoings and his contempt. Perhaps, according to your strict +principles, you will have committed a minor sin. But think of all +the sins you will have prevented! Think of the husband you will have +steered back to you! And for no more than the most minor outrage to +the goddess you revere, what a disciple you will have brought back +into her temple. Ah, Madame, I appeal only to your reason. By the +conduct I dare to prescribe to you, you will bring Franval back +forever, you will captivate him eternally. The reverse conduct - the +one you have been following - sends him flying away from you. He +will escape you, never to return. Yes, Madame, I dare to affirm that +either you do not love your husband or you should cease this +hesitation." + + Madame de Franval, very much taken aback by this declaration, +remained silent for some time. Then, remembering Valmont's earlier +looks, and his initial remarks, she managed to reply adroitly: + + "Monsieur, let us presume that I follow the advice you give me; +upon whom do you think I should cast my eye to upset my husband +further?" + + "Ah, my dear, my divine friend," Valmont cried, oblivious to the +trap she had set for him, "upon the one man in the world who loves +you most, upon him who has adored you since first he set eyes upon +you and who swears at your feet to die beneath your sway.... + + "Leave, Monsieur," Madame de Franval said imperiously, "leave and +never let me see you again. Your ruse has been discovered. You +accuse my husband of wrongs of which he can only be innocent merely +to advance your own treacherous schemes of seduction. And let me +tell you that even were he guilty, the means you offer me are too +repugnant to my heart for me to entertain them for a moment. Never +do the failings of a husband justify or exonerate those of a wife. +For her they must become the reasons for even greater virtue, so +that the Just and Righteous man, whom the Almighty will come upon in +the afflicted cities on the verge of suffering the effects of his +wrath, may divert the flames which are about to consume them." + + Upon these words Madame de Franval left the room and, calling for +Valmont's servants, obliged him to withdraw, much ashamed of his +initial efforts. + + Although this attractive woman had seen through Valmont's ruses, +what he had said coincided so well with her own and her mother's +fears that she resolved to do everything within her power to +ascertain these cruel facts. She paid a visit to Madame de +Farneille, recounted to her everything that had happened and +returned, her mind made up as to the steps that we are going to see +her undertake. + + It has long been said, and rightfully so, that we have no greater +enemies than our own servants; forever jealous, always envious, they +seem to seek to lighten the burden of their own yoke by discovering +wrongs in us which, then placing us in a position inferior to +themselves, allow them for the space of a few moments at least to +gratify their vanity by assuming a superiority over us which fate +has denied them. + + Madame de Franval bribed one of Eugenie's servants: the promise of +a fixed pension, a pleasant future, the appearance of doing a good +deed - all swayed this creature and she promised to arrange it the +following night so that Madame de Franval could dispel all doubts as +to her unhappiness. + + The moment arrived. The wretched mother was admitted to a room +adjoining the room wherein, each night, her perfidious husband +outraged both his nuptial bonds and the bonds of Heaven. Eugenie was +with her father; several candles remained lighted on a corner +cupboard; they were going to illuminate this crime.... The altar was +prepared, the victim took her place upon it, he who performs the +sacrifice followed her.... + + Madame de Franval was no longer sustained by anything save her +despair, her outraged love, and her courage.... She burst open the +doors restraining her, she hurled herself into the room, and there, +her face bathed in tears, she fell on her knees at the feet of the +incestuous Franval: + + "Oh, you," she cried, addressing herself to Franval, "you who fill +my life with misery and sorrow, I have not deserved such +treatment... However you have insulted and wronged me, I still +worship you. See my tears, and do not dismiss my appeal: I ask you +to have mercy on this poor wretched child who, deceived by her own +weakness and your seduction, thinks she can find happiness in +shamelessness and crime.... Eugenie, Eugenie, do you want to thrust +a sword into the heart of her who brought you into the world? No +longer consent to be the accomplice of this heinous crime whose full +horror has been concealed from you! Come... let me fold you in my +waiting arms. Look at your wretched mother on her knees before you, +begging you not to outrage both your honour and Nature.... But if +you both refuse," the distraught woman went on, bearing a dagger to +her heart, "this is the means I shall employ to escape the dishonour +with which you are trying to cover me. I shall make my blood flow +and stain you here, and you will have to consummate your crimes upon +my sad body." + + That Franval's hardened heart was able to resist this spectacle, +those who are beginning to know this scoundrel will have no trouble +believing; but that Eugenie remained unmoved by it is quite +inconceivable. + + "Madame," said this corrupted girl with the cruelest show of +impassivity, "I must admit I find it hard to believe you in full +possession of your reason, after the scene you have just made in +your husband's room. Is he not the master of his own actions ? And +when he approves of mine, what right have you to blame them? Do we +worry our heads or pry into your indiscretions with Monsieur +Valmont? Do we disturb you in the exercise of your pleasures? +Therefore deign to respect ours, or do not be surprised if I urge +your husband to take whatever steps are required to oblige you to do +so ...." + + At this point Madame de Franval could no longer control her +patience, and the full force of her anger was turned against the +unworthy creature who could so forget herself as to speak to her in +such terms. Struggling to her feet, Madame de Franval threw herself +furiously upon her daughter, but the odious and cruel Franval, +seizing his wife by the hair, dragged her in a rage away from her +daughter out of the room. He threw her violently down the stairs of +the house, and she fell, bloody and unconscious, at the door of one +of the chambermaids' rooms. Awakened by this terrible noise, the +maid quickly saved her mistress from the wrath of her tyrant, who +was already on his way downstairs to finish off his hapless +victim.... + + They took her to her room, locked her in, and began to administer +to her, while the monster who had just treated her with such utter +fury flew back to his detestable companion to spend the night as +peacefully as though he had not debased himself lower than the most +ferocious beasts by assaults so execrable, so designed to degrade +and humiliate her... so horrible, in a word, that we blush at the +necessity of having to reveal them. + + Poor Madame de Franval no longer had any illusions left, and there +was no other for her to espouse. It was all too clear that her +husband's heart, that is, the most beloved possession of her life, +had been taken from her. And by whom? By the very person who owed +her the most respect, and who had just spoken to her with utter +insolence. She also began to suspect strongly that the whole +adventure with Valmont had been nothing more than a detestable trap +set to ensnare her in a web of guilt, if 'twere possible or, failing +that, to ascribe the guilt to her in any event, in order to +counterbalance, and hence justify, the thousand times more serious +wrongs which they dared to heap upon her. + + Nothing could have been more certain. Franval, informed of +Valmont's failure, had prevailed upon him to replace the truth by +imposture and indiscretion, and to noise it abroad that he was +Madame de Franval's lover. And they had decided that they would +forge abominable letters which would document, in the most +unequivocal manner, the existence of the illicit commerce in which, +however, poor Madame de Franval had actually refused to involve +herself. + + Meanwhile, in deep despair, Madame de Franval, whose body was +covered with numerous wounds, fell seriously ill. Her barbarous +husband, refusing to see her and not even bothering to inform +himself of her condition, left with Eugenie for the country, on the +pretense that since there was fever in the house he did not care to +expose his daughter to it. + + During her illness, Valmont several times came to call at her door, +but was each time refused admission. Locked in her room with her +mother and Monsieur de Clervil, Madame de Franval absolutely refused +to see anyone else. Consoled by such dear friends as these, who were +so fully worthy of being able to influence her, and nourished back +to health by their loving care, forty days later Madame de Franval +was in a condition to see people again. At which time Franval +brought his daughter back to Paris and, with Valmont, mapped out a +campaign intended to counter the one it appeared that Madame de +Franval and her friends were preparing to direct against him. + + Our scoundrel paid his wife a visit as soon as he judged she was +well enough to receive him. + + "Madame," he said coldly, "you must be aware of my concern for your +condition. I cannot conceal from you the fact that your condition is +the sole factor restraining Eugenie. She was determined to bring a +complaint against you for the way you have treated her. However she +may be persuaded of the basic respect due a mother by her daughter, +still she cannot ignore the fact that this same mother threw herself +on her daughter with a drawn dagger. Such a violent and unseemly +act, Madame, could well open the eyes of the government to your +conduct and, inevitably, pose a serious threat to both your honour +and your liberty." + + "I was not expecting such recriminations, Monsieur," Madame de +Franval replied. "And when my daughter, seduced by you, becomes at +the same time guilty of incest, adultery, libertinage, and +ingratitude - of the most odious sort - toward her who brought her +into the world,... yes, I must confess, I did not imagine that after +this complexity of horrors that I would be the one against whom a +complaint would be brought. It takes all your cunning, all your +wickedness, Monsieur, to accuse innocence the while excusing crime +with such audacity." + + "I am not unaware, Madame, that the pretense for your scene was the +odious suspicion you dared to formulate regarding me. But chimeras +do not justify crimes. What you have imagined is false. But, +unfortunately, what you have done is only too real. You evinced +astonishment at the reproaches my daughter directed at you at the +time of your affair with Valmont. But, Madame, she has only +discovered the irregularities of your conduct since they have been +the talk of all Paris. This affair is so well known, and the proofs +of it unfortunately so solid, that those who speak to you about it +are at the very most guilty of indiscretion, but not of calumny." + + "I, Sir," said this respectable woman, rising to her feet, +indignantly, "I have an affair with Valmont! Just Heaven! 'Tis you +who have said it! " ( Breaking into tears :) + + "Ungrateful wretch! This is how you repay my tenderness.... This is +my recompense for having loved you so. It is not enough for you to +outrage me so cruelly. It is not enough that you seduce my daughter. +You have to go even further and, by ascribing crimes which for me +would be more terrible than death, dare to justify your own...." +(Regaining her composure:) "You say, Monsieur, that you have the +proofs of this affair. All right, show them. I demand that they be +made public, and I shall force you to show them to everyone if you +refuse to show them to me." + + "No, Madame, I shall not show them to the whole world; it is not +generally the husband who openly displays this sort of thing; he +bemoans it, and conceals it as best he can. But if you demand it, +Madame, I shall certainly not refuse you...." (And then taking a +letter case from his pocket:) "Sit down," he said, "this must be +verified calmly. Ill-humour and loss of temper would be harmful but +would not convince me. Therefore, I beg you to keep control of +yourself, and let us discuss this with composure." + + Madame de Franval, thoroughly convinced of her innocence, did not +know what to make of these preparatory remarks. And her surprise, +mingled with fright, kept her in a state of extreme agitation. + + "First of all, Madame," said Franval, emptying one side of the +letter case, "here is all your correspondence with Valmont over the +past six months. Do not accuse this worthy gentleman either of +imprudence or indiscretion. He is doubtless too honourable a man to +have dared fail you so badly. But one of his servants, more adroit +than Valmont is attentive, discovered the secret way to procure for +me this precious monument to your extreme fidelity and your eminent +virtue." (Then, leafing through the letters which he spread out on +the table :) "Please allow me," he went on, "to choose one from +among many of these ordinary displays of chitchat by an overheated +woman... overheated, I might add, by a most attractive man; one, I +say, which seemed to me more lascivious and decisive than the +others. Here it is, Madame: + + My boring husband is dining tonight in his maisonette + on the outskirts of Paris with that horrible + creature... a creature it is impossible I brought + into the world. Come, my love, come and comfort me + for all the sorrows which these two monsters give + me.... What am I saying? Is this not the greatest + service they could be doing me at present, and will + that affair not prevent my husband from discovering + ours? Let him then tighten the bonds as much as he + likes; but at least let him not bethink himself to + desire breaking those which attach me to the only man + whom I have ever adored in this world. + + "Well, Madame?" + + "Well, Monsieur, I must say I admire you," Madame de Franval +replied. "Each day adds to the incredible esteem you so richly +deserve. And however many fine qualities I have recognized in you +hitherto, I confess I was yet unaware you were also a forger and a +slanderer." + + "Ah, so you deny the evidence ?" + + "Not in the least. All I ask is to be persuaded. We shall have +judges appointed... experts. And, if you agree, we shall ask that +the most severe penalty be exacted against whichever of the two +parties is found guilty." + + "That is what I call effrontery! Well, the truth is I prefer it to +sorrow.... Now, where were we? Ah, yes; that you have a lover, +Madame," said Franval, shaking out the other side of the letter +case, "a lover with a handsome face, and a boring husband, is most +assuredly nothing so extraordinary. But that at your age you are +supporting this lover - at my expense - I trust you will allow me +not to find this quite so simple.... And yet here are 100,000 ecus +in notes, either paid by you or made out in your hand in favour of +Valmont. Please run through them, I beg of you," this monster added, +showing them to her without allowing her to touch them.... + + To Zaide, jeweller + By the present note I hereby agree to pay the sum of twenty-two + thousand livres on the account of Monsieur de Valmont, by + arrangement with him. + FARNEILLE DE FRANVAL + + "Here's another made out to Jamet, the horse merchant, for six +thousand livres. This is for the team of dark bay horses which today +are both Valmont's delight and the admiration of all Paris. . . . +Yes, Madame, the whole package comes to three hundred thousand, two +hundred and eighty-three 1ivres, and ten sous, a third of which +total you still owe, and the balance of which you have most loyally +paid.... Well, Madame ?" + + "Ah, Monsieur, this fraud is too crude and vulgar to cause me the +least concern. To confound those who have invented it against me, I +demand but one thing: that the people in whose names I have, so it +is alleged, made out these documents, appear personally and swear +under oath that I have had dealings with them." + + "They will, Madame, of that you may be sure. Do you think they +themselves would have warned me of your conduct if they were not +determined to back up their claims? Indeed, without my intervention, +one of them would have signed a writ against you today...." + + At this point poor Madame de Franval's beautiful eyes filled with +bitter tears. Her courage failed to sustain her any longer, and she +fell into a fit of despair with the most frightful symptoms: she +began to strike her head against the marble objects around her, +bruising her face horribly. + + "Monsieur," she cried out, throwing herself at her husband's feet, +"please do away with me, I beseech you, by means less slow and less +torturous. Since my life is an obstacle to your crimes, end it with +a single blow... refrain though from inching me into my grave.... Am +I guilty of having loved you? of having rebelled against what was so +cruelly stealing your heart from me ?... Well then, barbarian, +punish me for these transgressions. Yes, take this metal shaft," she +said, throwing herself on her husband's sword, "and pierce my breast +with it, with no pity. But at least let me die worthy of your +esteem, let me take as my sole consolation to the grave the +certainty that you believe me incapable of the infamies of which you +accuse me ... solely to cover your own...." + + She was on her knees at Franval's feet, her head and bust thrown +back, her hands wounded and bleeding from the naked steel she had +tried to seize and thrust into her breast. This lovely breast was +laid bare, her hair was in disarray, its strands soaked by the tears +that flowed abundantly. Never had sorrow been more pathetic and more +expressive, never had it been seen in a more touching, more noble, +and more attractive garb. + + "No, Madame," Franval said, resisting her movement, "no, 'tis not +your death I desire, but your punishment. I can understand your +repentance, your tears do not surprise me, you are furious at having +been discovered. I approve of this frame of mind, which leads me to +believe you plan to amend your ways, a change that the fate I have +in mind for you, and because of which I must depart in order to give +it my every care, will doubtless precipitate." + + "Stop, Franval," the unhappy woman cried, "do not voice abroad the +news of your dishonour, nor tell the world that you are a perjurer, +a forger, a slanderer, and guilty of incest into the bargain.... You +wish to have done with me, I shall run away, I shall leave in search +of some refuge where your very memory shall disappear from my +mind.... You will be free, you can exercise your criminal desires +with impunity.... Yes, I shall forget you, if I can, oh heartless +man. Or, if your painful image remains graven in my heart, if it +still pursues me in my distant darkness, I shall not obliterate it, +traitor, that effort is beyond my abilities; no, I shall not +obliterate it, but I shall punish my own blindness, and shall bury +in the horror of the grave the guilty altar which committed the +error of holding you too dear...." + + With these words, the final outcry of a soul overwhelmed by a +recent illness, the poor woman fainted and fell unconscious to the +floor. The cold shadows of death spread over the roses of her +beautiful complexion, already withered by the stings of despair. She +appeared little more than a lifeless mass, from which, however, +grace, modesty, and seemliness... all the attributes of virtue, had +refused to flee. The monster left the room and repaired to his own +chambers, there to enjoy, with his guilty daughter, the terrible +triumph which vice, or rather low villainy, dared to win over +innocence and unhappiness. + + Franval's abominable daughter infinitely savoured the details of +this encounter. She only wished she could have seen them. She would +have liked to carry the horror even further and see Valmont vanquish +her mother's resistance, and then have Franval surprise them in the +act. What means, if that were to happen, what means of justification +would their victim then have had left? And was it not important for +them to deprive her of any and all means? Such was Eugenie. + + Meanwhile, Franval's poor wife had only the refuge of her mother's +breast for her tears, and it was not long before she revealed to her +the reasons for her latest sorrow. It was at this juncture that +Madame de Farneille came to the conclusion that Monsieur de +Clervil's age, his calling, and his personal prestige perhaps might +exercise a certain good influence on her son-in-law. Nothing is more +confident than adversity. As best she could, she apprised this +worthy ecclesiastic of the truth about Franval's chaotic conduct; +she convinced him of the truth which he had hitherto been +disinclined to believe, and she beseeched him above all to employ +with such a scoundrel only that persuasive eloquence which appeals +to the heart rather than to the head. And after he had talked with +this traitor, she suggested that Monsieur de Clervil solicit a +meeting with Eugenie, during which he could similarly put to use +whatever he should deem most appropriate toward enlightening the +poor child as to the abyss that had opened beneath her feet and, if +possible, to bring her back to her mother's heart and to the path of +virtue. + + Franval, informed that Clervil intended to request to see both him +and his daughter, had time enough to conspire with Eugenie, and when +they had settled on their plans they sent word to Madame de +Farneille that both were prepared to hear him out. The credulous +Madame de Franval held out the highest hopes for the eloquence of +this spiritual guide. The wretched are wont to seize at straws with +such avidity, in order to procure for themselves a pleasure which +the truth disowns, that they fabricate most cunningly all sorts of +illusions! + + Clervil arrived. It was nine in the morning. Franval received him +in the room where he was accustomed to spending the night with his +daughter. He had embellished it with every imaginable elegance, but +had nonetheless allowed it to retain a certain disorder which bore +witness to his criminal pleasures. In a neighbouring room, Eugenie +could hear everything, the better to prepare herself for the +conversation with her which was due to follow. + + "It is only most reluctantly, and with the greatest fear of +disturbing you, Monsieur," Clervil began, "that I dare to present +myself before you. Persons of our calling are commonly so much a +burden to those who, like yourself, spend their lives tasting the +pleasures of this world, that I reproach myself for having consented +to Madame de Farneille's desires and having requested to converse +with you for a moment or two." + + "Please sit down, Monsieur, and so long as reason and justice hold +sway in your conversation, you need never fear of boring me." + + "Sir, you are beloved of a young wife full of charm and virtue and +whom, it is alleged, you make most miserable. Having as arms naught +but her innocence and her candour, and with only a mother's ear to +hear her complaints, still idolizing you despite your wrongs, you +can easily imagine the frightful position in which she finds +herself!" + + "If you please, Monsieur, I should like us to get down to the +facts. I have the feeling you are skirting the issue; pray tell me, +what is the purpose of your mission ?" + + "To bring you back to happiness, if that is possible." + + "Therefore, if I find myself happy in my present situation, may I +assume that you should have nothing further to say to me?" + + "It is impossible, Monsieur, to find happiness in the exercise of +crime." + + "I agree. But the man who, through profound study and mature +reflection, has been able to bring his mind to the point where he +does not see evil in anything, where he contemplates the whole of +human endeavour with the most supreme indifference and considers +every action of which man is capable as the necessary result of a +power, whatever its nature, which is at times good and at times bad, +but always imperious, inspires us alternately with what men approve +and what they condemn, but never anything that disturbs or troubles +it - that man, I say, and I'm sure you will agree, can be just as +happy living the way I do as you are in your chosen calling. +Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination. It is a +manner of being moved which relies solely upon the way we see +and feel. Except for the satisfaction of needs, there is nothing +which makes all men equally happy. Not a day goes by but that we +see one person made happy by something that supremely displeases +another. Therefore, there is no certain or fixed happiness, and the +only happiness possible for us is the one we form with the help of +our organs and our principles." + + "I know that, Monsieur, but though our mind may deceive us, our +conscience never leads us astray, and here is the book wherein +Nature has inscribed all our duties." + + "And do we not manipulate this factitious conscience at will? Habit +bends it, it is for us like soft wax which our fingers shape as they +choose. If this book were as certain as you pretend, would man not +be endowed with an invariable conscience? From one end of the earth +to the other, would not all of man's actions be the same for him? +And yet is such truly the case ? Does the Hottentot tremble at what +terrifies the Frenchman? And does the Frenchman not do daily what +would be punishable in Japan? No, Monsieur, no, there is nothing +real in the world, nothing deserving of praise or approbation, +nothing worthy of being rewarded or punished, nothing which, unjust +here, is not quite lawful five hundred leagues away. In a word, no +wrong is real, no good is constant." + + - "Do not believe it, Sir. Virtue is not an illusion. It is not a +matter of ascertaining whether something is good here, or bad a few +degrees farther away, in order to assign it a precise determination +of crime or virtue, and to make certain of finding happiness therein +by reason of the choice one has made of it. Man's only happiness +resides in his complete submission to the laws of his land. He has +either to respect them or to be miserable, there is no middle ground +between their infraction and misfortune. 'Tis not, if you prefer to +state it in these terms, these things in themselves which give rise +to the evils which overwhelm us whenever we allow ourselves free +reign to indulge in these forbidden practices, 'tis rather the +conflict between these things - which may be intrinsically either +good or bad - and the social conventions of the society in which we +live. One can surely do no harm by preferring to stroll along the +boulevards than along the Champs Elysees. And yet if a law were +passed forbidding our citizens from frequenting the boulevards, +whosoever should break this law might be setting in motion an +eternal chain of misfortunes for himself, although in breaking it he +had done something quite simple. Moreover, the habit of breaking +ordinary restrictions soon leads to the violation of more serious +ones, and from error to error one soon arrives at crimes of a nature +to be punished in any country under the sun and to inspire fear in +any reasonable creature on earth, no matter in what clime he may +dwell. If man does not have a universal conscience, he at least has +a national conscience, relative to the existence that we have +received from Nature, and in which her hand inscribes our duties in +letters which we cannot efface without danger. For example, +Monsieur, your family accuses you of incest. It makes no difference +what sophistries you employ to justify this crime or lessen the +horror, or what specious arguments you apply to it or what +authorities you call upon by buttressing these arguments with +examples drawn from neighbouring countries, the fact remains that +this crime, which is only a crime in certain countries, is most +assuredly dangerous wherever the law forbids it. It is no less +certain that it can give rise to the most frightful consequences, as +well as other crimes necessitated by this first one... crimes, I +might add, of a sort to be deemed abominable by all men. Had you +married your daughter on the banks of the Ganges, where such +marriages are permitted, perhaps you might have committed only a +minor wrong. But in a country where these unions are forbidden, by +offering this revolting spectacle to the public... and to the eyes +of a woman who adores you and who, by this treacherous act, is being +pushed to the edge of the grave, you are no doubt committing a +frightful act, a crime which tends to break the holiest bonds of +Nature: those which, attaching your daughter to her who gave her +life, ought to make this person the most respected, the most sacred +of all objects to her. You oblige this girl to despise her most +precious duties, you cause her to hate the very person who bore +her in her womb; without realizing it, you are preparing weapons +that she may one day direct against you. In every doctrine you +offer her, in every principle you inculcate in her, your +condemnation is inscribed. And if one day her arm is raised against +you in an attempt against your life, 'tis you who will have +sharpened the dagger." + + "Your way of reasoning, so different from that of most men of the +cloth," Franval replied, "compels me to trust in you, Monsieur. I +could deny your accusations. I hope that the frankness with which I +reveal myself to you will also oblige you to believe the wrongs I +impute to my wife when, to expose them, I employ the same +truthfulness with which I intend to characterize my own confessions. +Yes, Monsieur, I love my daughter, I love her passionately, she is +my mistress, my wife, my daughter, my confidante, my friend, my only +God on earth; in fine, she possesses all the homage that any heart +can ever hope to obtain, and all homage of which my heart is capable +is due her. These sentiments will endure as long as I live. Being +unable to give them up, I doubtless must therefore justify them. + + "A father's first duty toward his daughter is undeniably - I'm sure +you will agree, Monsieur - to procure for her the greatest happiness +possible. If he does not succeed in this task, then he has failed in +his obligations toward her; if he does succeed, then he is +blameless. I have neither seduced nor constrained Eugenie - this is +a noteworthy consideration, which I trust you will not forget. I did +not conceal the world from her. I expounded for her the good and bad +sides of marriage, the roses and the thorns it contains. It was then +I offered myself, and left her free to choose. She had adequate time +to reflect on the matter. She did not hesitate: she claimed that she +could find happiness only with me. Was I wrong to give her, in order +to make her happy, what she appeared in full knowledge to desire +above all else ?" + + "These sophistries justify nothing, Monsieur. You were wrong to +give your daughter the slightest inclination that the person she +could not prefer without crime might become the object of her +happiness. No matter how lovely a fruit might appear, would you +not regret having offered it to someone if you knew that lurking +within its flesh was death? No, Monsieur, no: in this whole wretched +affair you have had only one object in mind, and that object was +you, and you have made your daughter both an accomplice and a +victim. These methods are inexcusable.... And what wrongs, in your +eyes, do you ascribe to that virtuous and sensitive wife whose heart +you twist and break at will? What wrongs, unjust man, except the +wrong of loving you?" + + "This is the point I wish to discuss with you, Sir, and 'tis here I +expect and hope for your confidence. After the full candour to which +I have treated you, in making a full confession of all that is +ascribed to me, I trust I have some right to expect such confidence." + + And then Franval, showing Clervil the forged letters and notes he +had attributed to his wife, swore to him that nothing was more +authentic than these documents, and than the affair between Madame +de Franval and the person who was the subject of the papers. + + Clervil was familiar with the entire matter. + + "Well, Monsieur," he said firmly to Franval, "was I not right to +tell you that an error viewed at first as being without consequence +in itself can, by accustoming us to exceed limits, lead us to the +most extravagant excesses of Crime and wickedness? You have begun +with an act which, in your eyes, you deemed totally inoffensive, +and you see to what infamous lengths you are obliged to go in order +to justify or conceal it? Follow my advice, Monsieur, throw these +unpardonable atrocities into the fire and, I beg of you, let us forget +them, let us forget they ever existed." + + "These documents are authentic, Monsieur." + + "They are false." + + "You can only be in doubt about them. Is that sufficient reason for +you to contradict me ?" + + "Pardon me, Monsieur, but the only reason I have to suppose they +are authentic is your word on the matter, and you have good reason +indeed for buttressing your accusation. As for believing them false, +I have your wife's word for it, and she too would have good reason +to tell me if they were authentic, if they actually were. This, Sir, +is how I judge. Self-interest is the vehicle for all man's actions, +the wellspring of everything he does. Wherever I can discover it, +the torch of truth immediately lights up. This rule has never once +failed me, and I have been applying it for forty years. And +furthermore, will your wife's virtue not annihilate this loathsome +calumny in everyone's eyes? And is it possible that your wife, with +her frankness and her candour, with indeed the love for you which +still burns within her, could ever have committed such abominable +acts as those you charge her with? No, Monsieur, this is not how +crime begins. Since you are so familiar with its effects, you should +manoeuvre more cleverly." + + "That, Sir, is abusive language." + + "You'll forgive me, Monsieur, but injustice, calumny, libertinage +revolt my soul so completely that I sometimes find it hard to +control the agitation which these horrors incite in me. Let us burn +these papers, Monsieur, I most urgently beseech you... burn them for +your honour and your peace of mind." + + "I never suspected, Monsieur," said Franval, getting to his feet, +"that in the exercise of your ministry one could so easily become an +apologist... the protector of misconduct and of adultery. My wife is +dishonouring me, she is ruining me. I have proved it to you. Your +blindness concerning her makes you prefer to accuse me and rather +suppose that 'tis I who am the slanderer than she the treacherous +and debauched woman. All right, Monsieur, the law shall decide. +Every court in France shall resound with my accusations, I shall +come bearing proof, I shall publish my dishonour, and then we shall +see whether you will still be guileless enough, or rather foolish +enough, to protect so shameless a creature against me." + + "I shall leave you now, Monsieur," Clervil said, also getting to +his feet. "I did not realize to what extent the faults of your mind +had so altered the qualities of your heart and that, blinded by an +unjust desire for revenge, you had become capable of coolly +maintaining what could only derive from delirium.... Ah! Monsieur, +how all this has persuaded me all the more that when man oversteps +the bounds of his most sacred duties, he soon allows himself to +annihilate all the others.... If further reflection should bring you +back to your senses, I beg of you to send word to me, Monsieur, and +you will always find, in your family as well as in myself, friends +disposed to receive you. May I be allowed to see Mademoiselle your +daughter for a moment ?" + + "You, Sir, may do as you like. I would only suggest, nay urge you +that when talking with her you either employ more eloquent means or +draw upon sounder resources in presenting these luminous truths to +her, truths in which I was unfortunate enough to perceive naught but +blindness and sophistries." + + Clervil went into Eugenie's room. She awaited him dressed in the +most elegant and most coquettish negligee. This sort of indecency, +the fruit of self-negligence and of crime, reigned unashamedly in +her every gesture and look, and the perfidious girl, insulting the +graces which embellished her in spite of herself, combined both the +qualities susceptible of inflaming vice and those certain to revolt +virtue. + + Since it was not appropriate for a girl to engage in so detailed a +discussion as a philosopher such as Franval had done, Eugenie +confined herself to persiflage. She gradually became openly +provocative, but upon seeing that her seductions were in vain, and +that a man as virtuous as the one with whom she was dealing had not +the slightest intention of allowing himself to be ensnared in her +trap, she adroitly cut the knots holding the veil of her charms and, +before Clervil had the time to realize what she was doing, she had +arranged herself in a state of great disorder. + + "The wretch," she cried at the top of her lungs, "take this monster +away from me! And, above all, let not my father know of his crime. +Just Heaven! I was expecting pious counsel from him... and the vile +man assaulted my modesty.... Look," she cried to the servants who +had hastened to her room upon hearing her cries, "look at the +condition this shameless creature has put me in. Look at them, look +at these benevolent disciples of a divinity they insult and outrage. +Scandal, debauchery, seduction: there is the trinity of their +morality, while we, dupes of their false virtue, are foolish enough +to go on worshiping them." + + Clervil, although extremely annoyed by such a scene, nonetheless +succeeded in concealing his emotions. And as he left the room he +said, with great self-possession, to the crowd around him: + + "May heaven preserve this unfortunate child.... May it make her +better if it can, and let no one in this house offend her sentiments +of virtue more than I have done... sentiments that I came here less +to defile than to revive in her heart." + + Such were the only fruits which Madame de Farneille and her +daughter culled from a negotiation they had approached so hopefully. +They were far from realizing the degradations that crime works in +the souls of the wicked: what might have some effect on others only +embitters them, and it is in the very lessons of good that they find +encouragement to do evil. + + From then on, everything turned more venomous on both sides. +Franval and Eugenie clearly saw that Madame de Franval would have to +be persuaded of her alleged wrongs, in a way that would no longer +allow her to doubt of the matter. And Madame de Farneille, in +concert with her daughter, concocted serious plans to abduct +Eugenie. They discussed the project with Clervil; this worthy man +refused to have any part of such drastic resolutions. He had, he +said, been too badly treated in this affair to be able to undertake +anything more than imploring forgiveness for the guilty, and this he +urgently did pray for, steadfastly refusing to involve himself in +any other duty or effort of mediation. How sublime were his +sentiments! Why is it that this nobility is so rare among men of the +cloth? Or why had so singular a man chosen so soiled a calling? + + Let us begin with Franval's endeavours. + + Valmont reappeared. + + "You're an imbecile," Eugenie's guilty lover said to him, "you are +unworthy of being my student. And if you do not come off better in a +second meeting with my wife, I shall trumpet your name all over +Paris. You must have her, my friend, and I mean really have her, my +eyes must be persuaded of her defeat... in fine, I must be able to +deprive that loathsome creature of any means of excuse and of +defence." + + "And what if she resists?" Valmont responded. + + "Then employ violence... I shall make certain that there is no one +around.... Frighten her, threaten her, what does it matter?... I +shall consider all the means of your triumph as so many favours I owe +you." + + "Listen," Valmont then said, "I agree to everything you propose, I +give you my word of honour that your wife will yield. But I require +one condition, and if you refuse it then I refuse to play the game. +We agreed that jealousy is to have no part in our arrangements, as +you know. I therefore demand that you accord me half an hour with +Eugenie. You have no idea how I shall act after I have enjoyed the +pleasure of your daughter's company for a short while...." + + "But Valmont..." + + "I can understand your fears. But if you deem me your friend I +shall not forgive you for them. All I aspire to is the charm of +seeing Eugenie alone and talking with her for a few moments." + + "Valmont," said Franval, somewhat astonished, "you place too high a +fee on your services. I am as fully aware as you of the ridiculous +aspects of jealousy, but I idolize the girl you are referring to, +and I should rather give up my entire fortune than yield her +favours." + + "I am not claiming them, so set your mind at rest." + + And Franval, who realized that, among all his friends and +acquaintances, there was none capable of serving his purposes so +well as Valmont, was adamantly opposed to letting him escape: + + "All right," he said, a trifle testily, "but I repeat that your +services come very dear, and by discharging them in this manner you +have relieved me from any obligation toward you, and from any +gratitude." + + "Oh! gratitude is naught but the price paid for honest favours. It +will never be kindled in your heart for the services I am going to +render you. And I shall even go so far as to predict that these +selfsame services will cause us to quarrel before two months are +up. Come, my friend, I know the ways of men... their faults and +failings, and everything they involve. Place the human animal, the +most wicked animal of all, in whatever situation you choose, and I +shall predict every last result that will perforce ensue.... +Therefore I wish to be paid in advance, or the game is off." + + "I accept," said Franval. + + "Very well then," Valmont replied. "Now everything depends on you. +I shall act whenever you wish." + + "I need a few days to make my preparations," Franval said. "But +within four days at the most I am with you." + + Monsieur de Franval had raised his daughter in such a way that he +had no misgivings about any excessive modesty on her part which +would cause her to refuse to participate in the plans he was +formulating with his friend. But he was jealous, and this Eugenie +knew. She loved him at least as much as he adored her, and as +soon as she knew what was in the offing she confessed to Franval +that she was terribly afraid this tete-a-tete with Valmont might +have serious repercussions. Franval, who believed he knew Valmont +well enough to be persuaded that all this would only provide certain +nourishments for his head without any danger to his heart, reassured +his daughter as best he could, and went about his preparations. + + It was then that Franval learned, from servants in whom he had +complete confidence and whom he had planted in the service of his +mother-in-law, that Eugenie was in the gravest danger and that +Madame de Farneille was on the verge of obtaining a writ to have +her taken away from him. Franval had no doubt but that the whole +plot was Clervil's work. And momentarily putting aside his plans +involving Valmont, he turned his complete attention to ridding +himself of this poor ecclesiastic whom he wrongly judged to be the +instigator of everything. He sowed his gold; this powerful weapon of +every vice is properly planted in a thousand different hands, and +finally six trustworthy scoundrels are ready and willing to do his +bidding. + + One evening when Clervil, who was wont to dine rather frequently +with Madame de Farneille, was leaving her house alone and on foot, +he was surrounded and seized.... He was told that the arrest was +made upon the orders of the government, and shown a forged document. +Then he was thrown into a post chaise and he was driven in all haste +to the prison of an isolated chateau which Franval owned in the +depths of the Ardennes. There the poor man was turned over to the +concierge of the chateau as a scoundrel who was plotting to kill his +master. And the most careful precautions were taken to make certain +that this unfortunate victim, whose only wrong was to have shown +himself overly indulgent toward those who outraged him so cruelly, +could never again be seen. + + Madame de Farneille was on the brink of despair. She had not the +slightest doubt but that the whole affair was the work of her +son-in-law. Her efforts to ascertain the whereabouts of Clervil +slowed those touching upon Eugenie's abduction. Having at her +disposal only a limited amount of money, and with only a few +friends, it was difficult to pursue two equally important +undertakings at once. And furthermore, Franval's drastic action had +forced them onto the defensive. They directed all their energies, +therefore, toward finding the father confessor. But all their +efforts were in vain; our villain had executed his plan so cleverly +that it became impossible to uncover the slightest trace. + + Madame de Franval, who had not seen her husband since their last +scene, was hesitant to question him. But the intensity of one's +interest in a matter destroys any other considerations, and she +finally found the courage to ask her tyrant if he planned to add to +the already long list of grievances of which he was guilty on her +behalf by depriving her mother of the best friend she had in the +world. The monster protested his innocence. He even carried +hypocrisy so far as to offer to help in the search. And seeing that +he needed to mollify his wife's hardened heart and mind in +preparation for the scene with Valmont, he again promised her that +he would do everything in his power to find Clervil. He even +caressed his credulous wife, and assured her that, no matter how +unfaithful he might be to her, he found it impossible, deep in his +heart, not to adore her. And Madame de Franval, always gentle and +accommodating, always pleased by anything which brought her closer +to a man who was dearer to her than life itself, gave herself over +to all the desires of this perfidious husband; she anticipated them, +served them, shared them all, without daring, as she should have, to +profit from the occasion in order at least to extract a promise from +this barbarian to improve his ways, one which would not precipitate +his poor wife each day into an abyss of torment and sorrow. But even +had she extracted such a promise, would her efforts have been +crowned with success ? Would Franval, so false in every other +aspect of his life, have been any more sincere in the one which, +according to him, was only attractive to the extent one could go +beyond certain set limits. He would doubtless have made all sorts +of promises solely for the pleasure of being able to break them; and +perhaps he might even have made her demand that he swear to them, so +that to his other frightful pleasures he might add that of perjury. + + Franval, absolutely at peace, turned all his attention to troubling +others. Such was his vindictive, turbulent, impetuous nature when he +was disturbed; desiring to regain his tranquillity at any cost +whatever, he would awkwardly obtain it only by those means most +likely to make him lose it again. And if he regained it? Then he +bent all his physical and moral faculties to making certain he lost +it again. Thus, in a state of perpetual agitation, he either had to +forestall the artifices he obliged others to employ against him, or +else he had to use some of his own against them. + + Everything was arranged to Valmont's satisfaction; his tete-a-tete +took place in Eugenie's apartment and lasted for the better part of +an hour. + + There, in the ornate room, Eugenie, on a pedestal, portrayed a +young savage weary of the hunt, leaning on the trunk of a palm tree +whose soaring branches concealed an infinite number of lights +arranged in such a way that their reflections, which shone only on +the beautiful girl's physical charms, accentuated them most +artfully. The sort of miniature theatre wherein this tableau vivant +appeared was surrounded by a six-foot-wide moat which was filled +with water and acted as a barrier which prevented anyone from +approaching her on any side. At the edge of this circumvallation was +placed the throne of a knight, with a silk cord leading from the +base of the pedestal to the chair. By manipulating this string, the +person in the chair could cause the pedestal to turn in such a +manner that the object of his admiration could be viewed from every +angle by him, and the arrangement was such that, no matter which way +he turned her, she was always delightful to behold. The Count, +concealed behind a decorative shrub, was in a position to view both +his mistress and his friend. According to the agreement, Valmont was +free to examine Eugenie for half an hour.... Valmont took his place +in the chair... he is beside himself; never, he maintains, has he +seen so many allurements in one person. He yields to the transports +which inflame him, the constantly moving cord offers him an endless +succession of new angles and beauties. Which should he prefer above +all others, to which shall he sacrifice himself? He cannot make up +his mind: Eugenie is such a wondrous beauty! Meanwhile the fleeting +minutes pass; for time, in such circumstances, passes quickly. The +hour strikes, the knight abandons himself, and the incense flies to +the feet of a god whose sanctuary is forbidden him. A veil descends, +it is time to leave the room. + + "Well, are you content now ?" Franval said, rejoining his friend. + + "She is a delightful creature," Valmont replied. "But Franval, if I +may offer you one piece of advice, never chance such a thing with +any other man. And congratulate yourself for the sentiments I have +for you in my heart, which protect you from all danger." + + "I am counting on them," Franval said rather seriously. "And now, +you must act as soon as you can." + + "I shall prepare your wife tomorrow.... It is your feeling that a +preliminary conversation is required.... Four days later you can be +sure of me." + + They exchanged vows and took leave of each other. + + But after his hour with Eugenie, Valmont had not the slightest +desire to seduce Madame de Franval or further to assure his friend +of a conquest of which he had become only too envious. Eugenie +had made such a profound impression upon him that he was unable to +put her out of his mind, and he was resolved to have her, no matter +what the cost, as his wife. Recollecting upon the matter in +tranquillity, once he was no longer repelled by the idea of Eugenie's +affair with her father, Valmont was quite certain that his fortune +was equal to that of Colunce and that he had just as much right to +demand her hand in marriage. He therefore presumed that were he +to offer himself as her husband, he could not be refused. He also +concluded that by acting zealously to break Eugenie's incestuous +bonds, by promising her family that he could not but succeed in such +an undertaking, he would inevitably obtain the object of his +devotion. There would, of course, be a duel to be fought with +Franval, but Valmont was confident that his courage and skill would +successfully overcome that obstacle. + + Twenty-four hours sufficed for these reflections, and 'twas with +these thoughts crowding through his mind that Valmont set off to +visit Madame de Franval. She had been informed of his impending +call. It will be recalled that in her last conversation with her +husband, she had almost become reconciled with him; or, rather, +having yielded to the insidious cunning of this traitor, she was no +longer in a position to refuse to see Valmont. As an objection to +such a visit, she brought up the remarks and the ideas that Franval +had advanced, and the letters he had shown her; but he, with seeming +unconcern, had more than reassured her that the surest way of +convincing people that there was absolutely nothing to her alleged +affair with Valmont was to see him exactly as before; to refuse to +do so, he assured her, would only lend credence to their suspicions. +The best proof a woman can provide of her chastity, he told her, was +to continue seeing in public the man to whom her name had been +linked. All this was so much sophistry, and Madame de Franval was +perfectly well aware of it. Still, she was hoping for some +explanation from Valmont, and her desire to obtain it, coupled with +her desire not to anger her husband, had blinded her to all the good +reasons that should normally have kept her from seeing Valmont. + + Thus Valmont arrived to pay his call, and Franval quickly left them +alone as he had the previous time: the explanations and +clarifications were sure to be lively and long. Valmont, his head +bursting with the ideas which had filled it during the previous +twenty-four hours, cut short the formalities and came straight to +the point. + + "Oh, Madame! Do not think of me as the same man who, the last time +he saw you, conducted himself so guiltily in your eyes," he hastened +to say. "Then I was the accomplice of your husband's wrongdoings; +today I come to repair those wrongs. Have confidence in me, Madame, +I beseech you to believe my word of honour that I have come here +neither to lie to you nor to deceive you in any way." + + Then he confessed to the forged letters and promissory notes and +apologized profusely for having allowed himself to be implicated in +the affair. He warned Madame of the new horrors they had demanded of +him, and as a proof of his candour, he confessed his feelings for +Eugenie, revealed what had already been done, and pledged his word +to break off everything, to abduct Eugenie from Franval and spirit +her away to one of Madame de Farneille's estates in Picardy, if both +these worthy ladies would grant him the permission to do so, and as +a reward would bestow on him in marriage the girl whom he would thus +have rescued from the edge of the abyss. + + Valmont's declarations and confessions had such a ring of truth +about them that Madame de Franval could not help but be convinced. +Valmont was an excellent match for her daughter. After Eugenie's +wretched conduct, had she even a right to expect as much? Valmont +would assume the responsibility for everything; there was no other +way to put a stop to this frightful crime which was driving her to +distraction. Moreover, could she not flatter herself that, once the +only affair which could really become dangerous both for her and her +husband had been broken off, his sentiments might once again be +directed toward her? This last consideration tipped the scales in +favour of Valmont's plan, and she gave her consent, but only on +condition that Valmont give her his word not to fight a duel with +her husband and that, after he had delivered Eugenie into Madame de +Farneille's hands, he would go abroad and remain there until +Franval's fury had abated sufficiently to console himself for the +loss of his illicit love and finally consent to the marriage. +Valmont agreed to everything; and for her part, Madame de Franval +assured him of her mother's full co-operation and promised that she +would in no wise oppose or obstruct any of the decisions they came +to together. Upon which Valmont left, after again apologizing for +having acted so basely against her by participating in her +unprincipled husband's schemes. + + Madame de Farneille, who was immediately apprised of the affair, +left the following day for Picardy, and Franval, caught up in the +perpetual whirlwind of his pleasures, counting solidly on Valmont +and no longer fearful of Clervil, cast himself into the trap +prepared for him with the same guilelessness which he had so often +desired to see in others when, in his turn, he had been making his +preparations to ensnare them. + + For about six months Eugenie, who was now just shy of turning +seventeen, had been going out alone or in the company of a few of +her female friends. On the eve of the day when Valmont, in +accordance with the arrangements made with her father, was to launch +his assault upon Madame de Franval, Eugenie had gone alone to see a +new play at the Comedie-Francaise. She likewise left the theatre +alone, having arranged to meet her father at a given place from +which they were to drive elsewhere to dine together.... Shortly +after her carriage had left the Faubourg Saint-Germain, ten masked +men stopped the horses, opened the carriage door, seized Eugenie, +and bundled her into a post chaise beside Valmont who, taking every +precaution to keep her from crying out, ordered the post chaise to +set off with all possible speed, and in the twinkling of an eye they +were out of Paris. + + Unfortunately, it had been impossible to get rid of Eugenie's +retainers or her carriage, and as a result Franval was notified very +quickly. Valmont, to make a safe escape, had counted both on +Franval's uncertainty as to the route he would take and the two or +three hour advance that he would necessarily have. If only he could +manage to reach Madame de Farneille's estate, that was all he would +need, for from there two trustworthy women and a stage-coach were +waiting for Eugenie to drive her toward the border, to a sanctuary +with which even he was unfamiliar. Meanwhile, Valmont would go +immediately to Holland, returning only to marry Eugenie when Madame +de Farneille and her daughter informed him there were no further +obstacles. But fate allowed these well-laid plans to come to grief +through the designs of the horrible scoundrel with whom we are +dealing. + + When the news reached him, Franval did not lose a second. He rushed +to the post house and asked for what routes horses had been given +since six o'clock that evening. At seven, a traveling coach had +departed for Lyon; at eight, a post chaise for Picardy. Franval did +not hesitate: the coach for Lyon was certainly of no interest to +him, but a post chaise heading toward a province where Madame de +Farneille had an estate, yes, that was it: to doubt it would have +been madness. + + He therefore promptly had the eight best horses at the post hitched +up to the carriage in which he was riding, ordered saddles for his +servants and, while the horses were being harnessed, purchased and +loaded some pistols. And then he set off like an arrow, drawn by +love, despair, and a thirst for revenge. When he stopped to change +horses at Senlis, he learned that the post chaise he was pursuing +had only just left.... Franval ordered his men to proceed at top +speed. Unfortunately for him, he overtook the post chaise; both he +and his servants, with drawn pistols, stopped Valmont's coach, and +as soon as the impetuous Franval recognized his adversary, he blew +his brains out before Valmont had a chance to defend himself, seized +Eugenie, who was faint with fright, tossed her into his own +carriage, and was back in Paris before ten o'clock the following +morning. Not in the least apprehensive about all that had just +happened, Franval devoted his full attention to Eugenie.... Had the +traitorous Valmont tried to take advantage of the circumstances? Was +Eugenie still faithful, and were his guilty bonds still intact and +unsullied ? Mademoiselle de Franval reassured her father: Valmont +had done no more than reveal his plans to her and, full of hope that +he would soon be hers in marriage, he refrained from profaning the +altar whereon he wished to offer his pure vows. + + Franval was reassured by her solemn oaths.... But what about his +wife?... Was she aware of these machinations? was she involved in +them in any way? Eugenie, who had had ample time to inform herself +on this matter, guaranteed that the entire plot had been the work of +her mother, upon whom she showered the most odious names. She also +declared that that fateful meeting between Valmont and her mother, +wherein the former was, so Franval thought, preparing to serve him +so well, had in fact been the meeting during which Valmont had most +shamelessly betrayed him. + + "Ah!" said Franval, beside himself with anger, "if only he had a +thousand lives... I would wrench them from him one after the +other.... And my wife I Here I was trying to lull her, and she was +the first to deceive me;... that creature people think so soft and +gentle... that angel of virtue!... Ah, traitor, you female traitor, +you will pay dearly for your crime.... My revenge calls for blood, +and, if I must, I shall draw it with my own lips from your +treacherous veins.... Do not be upset, Eugenie," Franval went on +in a state of great agitation, "yes, calm yourself, you need some +rest. Go and take a few hours' rest, and I shall take care of +everything." + + Meanwhile Madame de Farneille, who had stationed spies along the +road, was soon informed of everything that had just happened. +Knowing that her granddaughter had been recaptured and Valmont +killed, she lost not a moment returning to Paris.... Furious, she +immediately called her advisers together; they pointed out to her +that Valmont's murder was going to deliver Franval into her hands, +and that the influence she feared was shortly going to vanish and +she would straightway regain control over both her daughter and +Eugenie. But they counselled her to avoid a public scandal, and, for +fear of a degrading trial, to solicit a writ that would put her +son-in-law out of the way. + + Franval was immediately informed of this counsel and of the +proceedings that were being taken as a result. Having learned both +that his crime was known and that his mother-in-law was, so they +told him, only waiting to take advantage of his disaster, Franval +left with all dispatch for Versailles, where he saw the Minister and +disclosed the whole affair to him. The Minister's reply was to +advise Franval to waste no time leaving for one of his estates in +Alsace, near the Swiss border. + + Franval returned home at once, having made up his mind not to leave +without both his wife and his daughter, for a number of reasons: to +make sure he would not miss out on his plans for revenge and the +punishment he had reserved for his wife's treason, and also to be in +possession of hostages dear enough to Madame de Farneille's heart so +that she would not dare, at least politically, to instigate actions +against him. But would Madame de Franval agree to accompany him to +Valmor, the estate to which the Minister had suggested he retire? +Feeling herself guilty of that kind of treason which had been the +cause of everything which had happened, would she be willing to +leave for such a distant place? Would she dare to entrust herself +without fear to the arms of her outraged husband? Such were the +considerations which worried Franval. To ascertain exactly where he +stood, Franval at once went in to see his wife, who already knew +everything. + + "Madame," he said to her coldly, "you have plunged me into an abyss +of woe by your thoughtless indiscretions. While I condemn the +effects, I nonetheless applaud the cause, which surely stems from +your love both for your daughter and myself. And since the initial +wrongs are mine, I must forget the second. My dear and tender wife, +who art half my life," he went on, falling to his knees, "will you +consent to a reconciliation which nothing can ever again disturb? I +come here to offer you that reconciliation, and to seal it here is +what I place in your hands...." + + So saying he lays at his wife's feet all the forged papers and +false correspondence with Valmont. + + "Burn all these, my dear friend, I beseech you," the traitor went +on, with feigned tears, "and forgive what jealousy drove me to. Let +us banish all this bitterness between us. Great are my wrongs, that +I confess. But who knows whether Valmont, to assure the success of +his plans, has not painted an even darker picture of me than I truly +deserve.... If he dared tell you that I have ever ceased to love +you... that you were other than the most precious object in the +world, and the one most worthy of respect - ah, my dear angel, if he +sullied himself with calumnies such as these, then I say I have done +well to rid the world of such a rogue and imposter!" + + "Oh! Monsieur," Madame de Franval said in tears, "is it possible +even to conceive the atrocities you devised against me? How do you +expect me to have the least confidence in you after such horrors ?" + + "Oh! most tender and loving of women, my fondest desire is that you +love me still! What I desire is that, accusing my head alone for the +multitude of my sins, you convince yourself that this heart, wherein +you reign eternally, has ever been incapable of betraying you.... +Yes, I want you to know that there is not one of my errors which has +not brought me closer to you.... The more I withdrew from my dear +wife, and the greater the distance between us became, the more I +came to realize how impossible it was to replace her in any realm +whatsoever. Neither the pleasures nor the sentiments equalled those +that my inconstancy caused me to lose with her, and in the very arms +of her image I regretted reality.... Oh! my dear, my divine friend, +where else could I find a heart such as yours? Where else savour the +pleasures one culls only in your arms? Yes, I forsake all my errors, +my failings... henceforth I wish to live only for you in this +world... to restore in your wounded heart that love which my wrongs +destroyed... wrongs whose very memory I now abjure. + + It was impossible for Madame de Franval to resist such tender +effusions on the part of the man she still adored. Is it possible to +hate what one has loved so dearly? Can a woman of her delicate and +sensitive soul have naught but cold, unfeeling looks for the object +which was once so precious to her, cast down at her feet, weeping +bitter tears of remorse? She broke down and began to sob.... + + "I who have never ceased adoring you, you cruel and wicked man," +she said, pressing her husband's hands to her heart, " 'tis I whom +you have wantonly driven to despair. Ah! Heaven is my witness that +of all the scourges with which you might have afflicted me, the fear +of losing your heart, of being suspected by you, became the most +painful of all to bear.... And what object do you choose to outrage +me with?... My daughter... 'tis with her hands you pierce my +heart... do you wish to oblige me to hate her whom Nature has made +so dear to me ?" + + "Listen to me," Franval said, his tone waxing ever more ardent, "I +want to bring her back to you on her knees, humbled, I want her to +abjure, as I have done, both her shamelessness and her sins; I want +her to obtain, as I have, your pardon. Let us henceforth concern +ourselves, all three of us, with nothing but our mutual happiness. I +am going to return your daughter to you... return my wife to me... +and let us flee." + + "Flee, Great God!" + + "My adventure is stirring up trouble . . . tomorrow may already be +too late.... My friends, the Minister, everyone has advised me to +take a voyage to Valmor.... Please come with me, my love! Is it +possible that at the very moment when I prostrate myself before you +asking for your forgiveness you could break my heart by your +refusal?" + + "You frighten me.... What, this adventure ..." + + "... is being treated not as a duel but as a murder." + + "Dear God! And I am the cause of it!... Give me your orders, do: +dispose of me as you will, my dear husband. I am ready to follow +you, to the ends of the earth, if need be.... Ah! I am the most +wretched woman alive!" + + "Consider yourself rather the most fortunate, since every moment of +my life is henceforth going to be dedicated to changing into flowers +the thorns which in the past I have strewn in your path.... Is a +desert not enough, when two people love each other? Moreover, this +is a situation which cannot last forever. I have friends who have +been apprised... who are going to act." + + "But my mother... I should like to see her...." + + "No, my love, above all not that. I have positive proof that 'tis +she who is stirring up Valmont's family against me, and that, with +them, 'tis she who is working toward my destruction...." + + "She is incapable of such baseness. Stop imagining such perfidious +horrors. Her soul, totally disposed toward love, has never known +deceit.... You never did appreciate her, Franval. If only you had +learned to love her as I do! In her arms we both would have found +true happiness on earth. She was the angel of peace that Heaven +offered to the errors of your life. Your injustice rejected her +proffered heart, which was always open to tenderness, and by +inconsequence or caprice, by ingratitude or libertinage, you +voluntarily turned your back on the best and most loving friend +that Nature ever created for you.... Is it true then, you really +don't want me to see her ?" + + "No. I'm afraid I must insist. Time is too precious! You will write +her, you will describe my repentance to her. Perhaps she will +be moved by my remorse... perhaps I shall one day win back her love +and esteem. The storm will one day abate, and we shall come back to +Paris, and there, in her arms, we shall revel in her forgiveness and +tenderness.... But now, let us be off, dear friend, we must be gone +within the hour at most, the carriage awaits without...." + + Terrified, Madame de Franval did not dare raise any further +objections. She went about her preparations. Were not Franval's +slightest wishes her commands. The traitor flew back to his daughter +and brought her back to her mother. There the false creature throws +herself at her mother's feet with full as much perfidy as had her +father. She weeps, she implores her forgiveness, and she obtains it. +Madame de Franval embraces her; how difficult it is to forget one is +a mother, no matter how one's children have sinned against her. In a +sensitive soul, the voice of Nature is so imperious that the +slightest tear from these sacred objects of a mother's affection is +enough to make her forget twenty years of faults and failings. + + They set off for Valmor. The extreme haste with which this voyage +had been prepared justified in Madame de Franval's eyes, which were +still as blind and credulous as ever, the paucity of servants that +they took along with them. Crime shuns a plethora of eyes, and fears +them all; feeling its security possible only in the darkness of +mystery, it envelops itself in shadow whenever it desires to act. + + When they reached the country estate, nothing was changed, all was +as he had promised: constant attentions, respect, solicitous care, +evidence of tenderness on the one hand... and on the other, the most +ardent love - all this was lavished on poor Madame de Franval, who +easily succumbed to it. At the end of the world, far removed from +her mother, in the depths of a terrible solitude, she was happy +because, as she would say, she had her husband's heart again and +because her daughter, constantly at her knees, was concerned solely +with pleasing her. + + Eugenie's room and that of her father were no longer adjoining. +Franval's room was at the far end of the chateau, Eugenie's was next +to her mother's. At Valmor, the qualities of decency, regularity, +and modesty replaced to the utmost degree all the disorders of the +capital. Night after night Franval repaired to his wife's room and +there, in the bosom of innocence, candour, and love, the scoundrel +shamelessly dared to nourish her hopes with his horrors. Cruel +enough not to be disarmed by those naive and ardent caresses which +the most delicate of women lavished upon him, it was at the torch of +love itself that the villain lighted the torch of vengeance. + + As one can easily imagine, however, Franval's attentions toward +Eugenie had not diminished. In the morning, while her mother was +occupied with her toilet, Eugenie would meet her father at the far +end of the garden, and from him she would receive the necessary +instructions and the favours which she was far from willing to cede +completely to her rival. + + No more than a week after their arrival in this retreat, Franval +learned that Valmont's family was prosecuting him unremittingly, and +that the affair was going to be dealt with in a most serious manner. +It was becoming difficult, so they said, to pass it off as a duel, +for unfortunately there had been too many witnesses. Furthermore, so +Franval was informed, beyond any shadow of a doubt Madame de +Farneille was leading the pack of her son-in-law's enemies, her +clear intention being to complete his ruin by putting him behind +bars or obliging him to leave France, and thus to restore to her as +soon as possible the two beloved creatures from whom she was +presently separated. + + Franval showed these missives to his wife. She at once took out pen +and paper to calm her mother, to urge her to see matters in a +different light, and to depict for her the happiness she had been +enjoying ever since misfortune had succeeded in mollifying the soul +of her poor husband. Furthermore, she assured her mother that +all her efforts to force her back to Paris with her daughter would +be quite in vain, for she had resolved not to leave Valmor until her +husband's difficulties had been settled, and ended by saying that if +ever the malice of his enemies or the absurdity of his judges should +cause a warrant for his arrest to be issued which was degrading to +him, she had fully made up her mind to accompany him into exile. + + Franval thanked his wife. But having not the least desire to sit +and wait for the fate that was being prepared for him, he informed +her that he was going to spend some time in Switzerland. He would +leave Eugenie in her care, and he begged both women, nay made them +promise, not to leave Valmor so long as his fate was still in doubt. +No matter what fate might decide for him, he said, he would still +return to spend twenty-four hours with his dear wife, to consult +with her as to the means for returning to Paris if nothing stood in +the way or, if fortune had turned against him, for leaving to go and +live somewhere in safety. + + Having taken these decisions, Franval, who had not for a moment +forgotten that the sole cause of his misfortunes was his wife's rash +and imprudent plot with Valmont, and who was still consumed with a +desire for revenge, sent word to his daughter that he was waiting +for her in the remote part of the park. He locked himself in an +isolated summer house with her, and after having made her swear +blind obedience to everything he was going to order her to do, he +kissed her and spoke to her in the following manner: + + "You are about to lose me, my daughter, perhaps forever." + + And seeing tears welling up into Eugenie's eyes: + + "Calm yourself, my angel," he said to her, "our future happiness is +in your hands, and in yours alone. Only you can determine whether we +can again find the happiness that once was ours, whether it be in +France or somewhere else. You, Eugenie, I trust are as persuaded as +one can possibly be that your mother is the sole cause of our +misfortunes. You know that I have not lost sight of my plans for +revenge. If I have concealed these plans from my wife, you have been +aware of my reasons and have approved of them; in fact 'twas you who +helped me fashion the blindfold with which it seemed prudent to +cover her eyes. The time has come to act, Eugenie, the end is at +hand. Your future peace of mind and body depends on it, and what you +are going to undertake will assure mine forever as well. You will, I +trust, hear me out, and you are too intelligent a girl to be in the +least alarmed by what I am about to propose. Yes, my child, the time +has come to act, and act we must, without delay and without remorse, +and this must be your work. + + "Your mother has wished to make you miserable, she has defiled the +bonds to which she lays claim, and by so doing she has lost all +rights to them. Henceforth she is not only no longer anything more +than an ordinary woman for you, but she has even become your worst, +your mortal enemy. Now, the law of Nature most deeply graven in our +hearts is that we must above all rid ourselves, if we can, of those +who conspire against us. This sacred law, which constantly moves and +inspires us, does not instill within us the love of our neighbour as +being above the love we owe ourselves. First ourselves, then the +others: this is nature's order of progression. Consequently, we must +show no respect, no quarter for others as soon as they have shown +that our misfortune or our ruin is the object of their desires. To +act differently, my daughter, would be to show preference for others +above ourselves, and that would be absurd. Now, let me come to the +reasons behind the action I shall counsel you to take. + + "I am obliged to leave, and you know the reasons why. If I leave +you with this woman, Eugenie, within the space of a month her mother +will have enticed her back to Paris, and since, after the scandal +that has just occurred, you can no longer marry, you can rest +assured that these two cruel persons will gain ascendancy over you +only to send you to a convent, there to weep over your weakness and +repent of our pleasures. 'Tis your grandmother who hounds and +pursues me, Eugenie, 'tis she who joins hands with my enemies to +complete my destruction. Can such zeal, such methods have any +purpose other than to regain possession of you, and can you doubt +that once she has you she will have you confined? The worse things +go with me, the more those who are persecuting and tormenting us +will grow strong and increasingly influential. Now, it would be +wrong to doubt that, inwardly, your mother is the brains behind this +group, as it would be wrong to doubt that, once I have gone, she +will rejoin them. And yet this faction desires my ruin only in order +to make you the most wretched woman alive. Therefore we must lose no +time in weakening it, and it will be deprived of its most sturdy +pillar if your mother is removed from it. Can we opt for another +course of action? Can I take you with me? Your mother will be most +annoyed, will run back to her mother, and from that day on, Eugenie, +we will never know another moment's peace. We will be persecuted and +pursued from place to place, no country will have the right to offer +us asylum, no refuge on the face of the earth will be held sacred... +inviolable, in the eyes of the monsters whose fury will pursue us. +Do you have any idea how far these odious arms of despotism and +tyranny can stretch when they have the weight of gold behind them +and are directed by malice? But with your mother dead, on the +contrary, Madame de Farneille, who loves her more than she loves you +and who has acted solely for her sake in this whole endeavour, seeing +her faction deprived of the only person to whom she was really +attached in the group, will abandon everything, will stop goading my +enemies and arousing them against me. At this juncture, one of two +things will happen: either the Valmont incident will be settled and +we shall be able to return to Paris in safety, or else the case will +become more serious, in which case we shall be obliged to leave +France and go to another country, but at least we shall be safe from +Madame de Farneille's machinations. But as long as her daughter is +still alive, Madame de Farneille will have but a single purpose in +mind, and that will be our ruin, because, once again, she believes +that her daughter's happiness can be obtained only at the price of +our downfall. + + "No matter from what angle we view our situation, then, you will +see that Madame de Franval is the constant thorn in the side of our +security, and her loathsome presence is the most certain obstacle to +our happiness. + + "Eugenie, Eugenie," Franval continued warmly, taking his daughter's +hands in his, "my dear Eugenie, you do love me? Do you therefore +consent to lose forever the person who adores you, for fear of an +act as essential to our interests? My dear and loving Eugenie, you +must decide: you can keep only one of us. You are obliged to kill +one of your parents, only the choice of which heart you shall choose +as the target of your dagger yet remains. Either your mother must +perish, or else you must give me up.... What am I saying? You will +have to slit my throat.... Alas, could I live without you? Do you +think it would be possible for me to live without my Eugenie? Could +I endure the memory of the pleasures I have tasted in these arms, +these delightful pleasures that I shall have lost forever? Your +crime, Eugenie, your crime is the same in either case: either you +must destroy a mother who loathes you and who lives only to make you +unhappy, or else you must murder a father whose every breath is +drawn only for you. Choose, Eugenie, go ahead and choose, and if +'tis I you condemn, then do not hesitate, ungrateful daughter: show +no pity when you pierce this heart whose only wrong has been to love +you too deeply; strike, and I shall bless the blows you strike, and +with my last breath I shall say again how I adore you. + + Franval fell silent, to hear what his daughter would reply, but she +seemed to be lost in deep thought. Finally she threw herself into +her father's arms. + + "Oh, you, you whom I shall love all my life, can you doubt of the +choice I shall make? Can you suspect my courage? Arm me at once, and +she who, by her terrible deeds and the threat she poses to your +safety, is proscribed will soon fall beneath my blows. Instruct me, +Franval, tell me what to do; leave, since your safety demands it, +and I shall act while you are gone. I shall keep you apprised of +everything. But no matter what turn things may take, once our enemy +has been disposed of, do not leave me alone in this chateau.... Come +back for me, or send for me to come and join you wherever you may +be." + + "My darling daughter," said Franval, kissing this monster who had +shown herself to be an all too apt pupil of his seductions, "I knew +that I would find in you all the sentiments of love and +steadfastness of purpose necessary to our mutual happiness.... +Take this box. Death lies within its lid...." + + Eugenie took the fatal box and repeated her promises to her father. +Other decisions were taken: it was decided that Eugenie would await +the outcome of the trial, and that the decision as to whether the +projected crime would take place or not would be dependent upon +whether the decision was for or against her father.... They took +leave of each other, Franval went to pay a call upon his wife, and +there carried audacity and deceit so far as to inundate her with his +tears, the while receiving from this heavenly angel, without once +giving himself away, the touching caresses so full of candour which +she lavished upon him. Then, having been given her solemn promise +that she would most assuredly remain in Alsace with Eugenie no +matter what the outcome of his case, the scoundrel mounted his horse +and rode away, leaving behind him the innocence and virtue which his +crimes had sullied so long. + + Franval proceeded to Basel, and there procured lodgings, for at +Basel he was safe from any legal actions that might be instituted +against him and at the same time was as close to Valmor as one +could possibly be, so that his letters might maintain Eugenie in the +frame of mind he desired to keep her in while he was away.... Basel +and Valmor were about twenty-five leagues apart, and although the +road between them went through the Black Forest, communications were +easy enough, so that he was able to receive news of his daughter +once a week. As a measure of precaution, Franval brought an enormous +sum of money with him, but more in paper than in cash. Let us leave +him then, getting settled in Switzerland, and return to his wife. + + Nothing could have been purer or more sincere than this excellent +woman's intentions. She had promised her husband to remain in the +country until he had given her further orders, and nothing in the +world could have made her change her mind, as she was wont to assure +Eugenie every day.... Unfortunately too far removed from her mother +to place her trust in this worthy woman, still a party to Franval's +injustice - the seeds of which he nourished by his letters sent +regularly once a week - Eugenie did not for a moment entertain the +thought that she could have a worse enemy in the world than her +mother. And yet there was nothing her mother did not do to try and +break down the invincible antipathy that this ungrateful child kept +buried deep in her heart. She showered friendship and caresses on +her, she expressed tender satisfaction with her over her husband's +fortunate change of heart, she even went so far in her +manifestations of gentleness and meekness as to thank Eugenie at +times and give her all the credit for the happy conversion. And then +she would grieve at being the innocent cause of the new calamities +that were threatening Franval; far from accusing Eugenie, she put +the entire onus on herself and, clasping Eugenie to her heart, she +would tearfully ask her whether she could ever forgive her +mother.... Eugenie's heart remained hardened to these angelic +advances, and her perverse soul was deaf to the voice of Nature, for +vice had closed off every avenue by which one might reach her.... +Coldly withdrawing from her mother's arms, she would look at her +with eyes that were often wild and would say to herself, by way of +encouragement: How false this woman is... how full of deceit and +treachery. The day she had me abducted she caressed me in exactly +the same way. But these unjust reproaches were naught but the +abominable sophisms with which crime steadies and supports itself +whenever it tries to smother the conscience. Madame de Franval, +whose motives in having Eugenie abducted were her own happiness and +peace of mind, and in the interest of virtue, had, it is true, +concealed her plans. But such pretense is condemned only by the +guilty party who is deceived by it, and in no wise offends probity. +Thus Eugenie resisted all her mother's proffered tenderness because +she wanted to commit an atrocity, and not in the least because of +any wrongs on the part of a mother who had surely committed none +with regard to her. + + Toward the end of the first month of their stay at Valmor, Madame +de Farneille wrote to her daughter that her husband's case was +becoming increasingly serious and that, in view of the fear of an +unfavourable decision by the court, the return of both Madame de +Franval and Eugenie had become a matter of urgent necessity, not +only to make an impression on the public, which was spreading the +worst kind of gossip, but also to join forces with her and together +seek some sort of arrangement that might be able to disarm the +forces of justice, and answer for the culprit without sacrificing +him. + + Madame de Franval, who had resolved not to conceal anything from +her daughter, immediately showed her this letter. Staring coldly at +her mother, Eugenie asked her evenly what she intended to do in view +of this sad news? + + "I don't know," Madame de Franval replied. "But the fact is I +wonder what good we are doing here? Would we not be serving my +husband's interests far better by taking my mother's advice?" + + "'Tis you who are in full charge, Madame," Eugenie replied. "My +role is to obey, and you may rest assured of my obedience." + + But Madame de Franval, clearly seeing from the curt manner of her +daughter's reply that she was dead set against it, told her that she +was going to wait, that she would write again, and that Eugenie +could be quite sure that if ever she were to fail to follow +Franval's intentions, it would only be when she was completely +certain that she could serve him better in Paris than at Valmor. + + Another month passed in this manner, during which Franval continued +to write both to his wife and daughter, and from whom he received +letters that could not help but please him, since he saw in those +from his wife naught but the most perfect acquiescence to his every +desire, and in those from his daughter an unwavering determination +to carry out the projected crime as soon as the turn of events +required it, or whenever Madame de Franval seemed on the verge of +complying with her mother's solicitations. + + For, as Eugenie noted in one of her letters, "If I see in your wife +naught but the qualities of honesty and candour, and if the friends +working on your case in Paris succeed in bringing it to a happy +conclusion, I shall turn over to you the task you have entrusted me +and you can accomplish it yourself when we are together, if you deem +it advisable then. But of course if you should in any case order me +to act, and should find it indispensable that I do so, then I shall +assume the full responsibility for it by myself, of that you may be +sure." + + In his reply, Franval approved of everything she reported to him, +and these were the last two letters he received and sent. The +following mail brought him no more. Franval grew worried. And when +the succeeding mail proved equally unsatisfactory, he grew +desperate, and since his natural restlessness no longer allowed him +to wait for further mails, he immediately decided to pay a personal +visit to Valmor to ascertain the reasons for the delays in the mails +that were upsetting him so cruelly. + + He set off on horseback, followed by a faithful valet. He had +calculated his voyage to arrive the second day, late enough at night +not to be recognized by anyone. At the edge of the woods which +surrounds the Valmor chateau and which, to the east, joins the Black +Forest, six well-armed men stopped Franval and his servant and +demanded their money. These rogues had been well informed; they knew +with whom they were dealing and were fully aware that Franval, being +implicated in an unpleasant affair, never travelled without his +paper money and immense amounts of gold.... The servant resisted, +and was laid out lifeless at the feet of his horse. Franval, drawing +his sword, leapt to the ground and attacked these scurvy creatures. +He wounded three of them, but found himself surrounded by the +others. They stripped him of everything he had, without however +being able to disarm him, and as soon as they had despoiled him the +thieves escaped. Franval followed them, but the brigands had +vanished so swiftly with their booty and horses that it was +impossible to tell in which direction they had gone. + + The weather that night was miserable. The cutting blast of the +north wind was accompanied by a driving hail - all the elements +seemed to be conspiring against this poor wretch. There are perhaps +cases in which Nature, revolted by the crimes of the person she is +pursuing, desires to overwhelm him with all the scourges at Her +command before drawing him back again into her bosom.... Franval, +half-naked but still holding onto his sword, directed his footsteps +as best he could away from this baleful place, and toward Valmor. +But as he was ill-acquainted with this estate, which he had visited +only the one time we have seen him there, he lost his way on the +darkened roads of this forest with which he was totally +unfamiliar.... completely exhausted, and racked by pain and worry, +tormented by the storm, he threw himself to the ground; and there +the first tears he had ever shed in his life flowed abundantly from +his eyes.... + + "Ill-fated man," he cried out, "now is everything conspiring to +crush me at last... to make me feel the pangs of remorse. It took +the hand of disaster to pierce my heart. Deceived by the +blandishments of good fortune, I should have always gone on failing +to recognize it. Oh you, whom I have outraged so grievously, you who +at this very moment are perhaps becoming the victim of my fury and +barbarous plans, you my adorable wife... does the world, +vainglorious of your existence, still possess you? Has the hand of +Heaven put a stop to my horrors?... Eugenie! my too credulous +daughter... too basely seduced by my abominable cunning... has +Nature softened your heart?... Has she suspended the cruel effects +of my ascendancy and your weakness? Is there still time? Is there +still time, Just Heaven?..." + + Suddenly the plaintive and majestic sound of several pealing bells, +rising sadly heavenward, came to add to the horror of his fate.... +He was deeply affected ... he grew terrified.... + + "What is this I hear?" he cried out, getting to his feet. +"Barbarous daughter... is it death?... is it vengeance?... Are the +Furies of hell come then to finish their work? Do these sounds +announce to me...? Where am I? Can I hear them?... Finish, oh +Heaven, finish the task of destroying the culprit...." + + And, prostrating himself: + + "Almighty God, suffer me to join my voice to those who at this +moment are imploring Thee... see my remorse and Thy power, and +pardon me for disowning Thee. I beseech Thee to grant me this +prayer, the first prayer I dare to direct at Thee! Supreme Being, +preserve virtue, protect her who was Thy most beautiful image on +this earth. I pray that these sounds, these mournful sounds, may not +be those I fear and dread." + + And Franval, completely distraught, no longer aware of what he was +doing nor where he was going, his speech but an incoherent mumble, +followed whatever path he chanced across.... He heard someone ... he +regained control of himself and listened.... It was a man on +horseback. + + "Whoever you are," Franval called out, advancing toward this man, +"whoever you may be, take pity on a poor wretch whom pain and sorrow +has rendered distraught. I am ready to take my own life.... Instruct +me, help me, if you are a man, and a man of any compassion... deign +to save me from myself." + + "Good God!" replied a voice too well-known to poor Franval. "What! +You here?... For the sake of all that is holy, leave, go away!" + + And Clervil - for 'twas he, this worthy mortal, who had escaped +from Franval's prison, whom fate had sent toward this miserable +creature in the saddest moment of his life - Clervil jumped down off +his horse and fell into the arms of his enemy. + + "So 'tis you, Monsieur," Franval said, clasping the honourable man +to his breast, "you upon whom I have wrought so many horrible acts +which weigh so heavily on my conscience!" + + "Calm yourself, Monsieur, you must calm yourself. I put away from +me all the misfortunes that have recently surrounded me, nor do I +remember those which you wished to inflict upon me when Heaven +allows me to serve you... and I am going to be of service to you, +Monsieur, doubtless in a manner which will be rather cruel, but +necessary.... Here, let us sit down at the foot of this cypress, for +now its sinister boughs alone shall be a fitting wreath for you. Oh, +my dear Franval, what reverses of fortune I must acquaint you +with!... Weep, my friend, for tears will relieve you, and I must +cause even more bitter tears to flow from your eyes.... Your days of +delight are over... they have vanished as a dream. And all you have +left to you are days of sorrow and grief." + + "Oh, Monsieur, I understand you... those bells..." + + "Those bells are bearing the homage, the prayers of the inhabitants +of Valmor to the feet of Almighty God, for He has allowed them to +know an angel only so that they might pity and mourn her all the +more." + + At which point Franval, placing the tip of his sword at his heart, +was about to cut the frail thread of his days, but Clervil +forestalled this desperate act: + + "No, no, my friend," he cried, " 'tis not death that is needed, but +reparation. Hear what I have to say, I have much to tell you, and to +tell it, an atmosphere of calm is required." + + "Very well, Monsieur, speak. I am listening. Plunge the dagger by +slow degrees into my heart. It is only just that he who has tried to +torment others should in his turn be oppressed." + + "I shall be brief as regards myself, Monsieur," Clervil said. +"After several months of the frightful detention to which you +subjected me, I was fortunate enough to move my guard to pity. I +strongly advised him meticulously to conceal the injustice which you +committed regarding me. He will not reveal it, my dear Franval, he +will never reveal that secret." + + "Oh, Monsieur..." + + "Hear me out. I repeat that I have much to tell you. Upon my return +to Paris I learned of your sorry adventure... your departure.... I +shared Madame de Farneille's tears, which were more sincere than you +ever believed. Together with this worthy lady, I conspired to +persuade Madame de Franval to bring Eugenie back to us, her presence +being more necessary in Paris than in Alsace.... You had forbidden +her to leave Valmor.... she obeyed you. She apprised us of these +orders and of her reluctance to contradict them. She hesitated as +long as she could. You were found guilty, Franval, and the sentence +still stands. You have been sentenced to death as guilty of a +highway murder. Neither Madame de Farneille's entreaties nor the +efforts of your family and friends could alter the decision of +justice: you have been worsted... dishonoured forever... you are +ruined... all your goods and estates have been seized...." (And in +response to a second, violent movement on Franval's part:) "Listen +to me, Monsieur, hear me out, I say, I demand this of you in +expiation of your crimes; I demand it too in the name of Heaven, +which may still be moved to forgiveness by your repentance. At this +time we wrote to Madame de Franval to apprise her of all this: her +mother informed her that, as her presence had become absolutely +indispensable, she was sending me to Valmor to persuade her once and +for all to return to Paris. I set off immediately after the letter +was posted, but unfortunately it reached Valmor before me. When I +arrived, it was already too late; your horrible plot had succeeded +only too well; I found Madame de Franval dying.... Oh, Monsieur, +what base, what foul villainy!... But I am touched by your abject +state, I shall refrain from reproaching you any further for your +crimes. Let me tell you everything. Eugenie was unable to bear the +sight, and when I arrived her repentance was already expressed by a +flood of tears and bitter sobs.... Oh, Monsieur, how can I describe +to you the cruel effect of this varied scene. Your wife, disfigured +by convulsions of pain, was dying.... Eugenie, having been reclaimed +by Nature, was uttering frightful cries, confessing her guilt, +invoking death, wanting to kill herself, in turn falling at the feet +of those whom she was imploring and fastening herself to the breast +of her mother, trying desperately to revive her with her own breath, +to warm her with her tears, to move her by the spectacle of her +remorse; such, Monsieur, was the sinister scene that struck my eyes +when I arrived at Valmor. + + "When I entered the house, Madame de Franval recognized me. She +pressed my hands in hers, wet them with her tears, and uttered a few +words which I had great difficulty hearing, for they could scarcely +escape from her chest which was constricted from the effects of the +poison. She forgave you.... She implored Heaven's forgiveness for +you, and above all she asked for her daughter's forgiveness.... See +then, barbarous man, that the final thoughts, the final prayers of +this woman whose heart you broke and whose virtue you vilified were +yet for your happiness. + + "I gave her every care I could, and revived the flagging spirits of +the servants to do the same, I called upon the most celebrated +practitioners of medicine available... and I employed all my +resources to console your Eugenie. Touched by the terrible state she +was in, I felt I had no right to refuse her my consolations. But +nothing succeeded. Your poor wife gave up the ghost amid such +convulsions and torments as are impossible to describe. At that +fatal moment, Monsieur, I witnessed one of the sudden effects of +remorse which till then had been unknown to me. Eugenie threw +herself on her mother and died at the same moment as she. We all +thought she had merely fainted.... No, all her faculties were +extinguished. The situation had produced such a shock to her vital +organs that they had all ceased simultaneously to function, and she +actually died from the violent impact of remorse, grief, and +despair.... Yes, Monsieur, both are lost to you. And the bells which +you yet hear pealing are celebrating simultaneously two creatures, +both of whom were born to make you happy, whom your hideous crimes +have made the victims of their attachment to you, and whose bloody +images will pursue you to your grave. + + "Oh, my dear Franval, was I wrong then in times past to try and +save you from the abyss into which your passions were plunging you? +Will you still condemn, still cover with ridicule the votaries of +virtue? And are virtue's disciples wrong to burn incense at its +altars when they see crime so surrounded by troubles and scourges ?" + + Clervil fell silent. He glanced at Franval and saw that he was +petrified with sorrow. His eyes were fixed and from them tears were +flowing, but no expression managed to cross his lips. Clervil asked +him why he had found him in this half-naked state. In two words, +Franval related to him what had happened. + + "Ah, Monsieur," cried the generous Clervil, "how happy I am, even +in the midst of all the horrors which surround me, to be able at +least to ease your situation. I was on my way to Basel in search of +you, I was going to acquaint you with all that had happened, I was +going to offer you the little I possess.... Take it, I beg you to. +As you know, I am not rich, but here are a hundred louis, my life's +savings, they are all I own. I demand that you..." + + "Oh noble and generous man," Franval cried, embracing the knees of +that rare and honourable friend, "why me? Do I need anything, after +the losses I have suffered? And from you, you whom I have treated so +miserably, 'tis you who fly to my help." + + "Must we remember past wrongs when misfortune overwhelms him who +has done them to us? When this happens, the only revenge we owe is +to alleviate his suffering. And what point is there in adding to his +grief when his heart is burdened with his own reproaches?... +Monsieur, that is the voice of Nature. You can see that the sacred +cult of a Supreme Being does not run counter to it as you had +supposed, since the counsel offered by the one is naught but the +holy writ of the other." + + "No," said Franval, getting to his feet, "no, Monsieur, I no longer +have need for anything at all. Since Heaven has left me this one +last possession," he went on, displaying his sword, "teach me what +use I must put it to...." (Looking at the sword :) "This, my dear, +my only friend, this is the same sword that my saintly wife seized +one day to plunge into her breast when I was overwhelming her with +horrors and calumnies.... 'Tis the very same.... Perhaps I may even +discover traces of her sacred blood on it... blood which my own must +efface.... Come, let us walk awhile, until we come to some cottages +wherein I may inform you of my last wishes ... and then we shall +take leave of each other forever...." + + They began walking, keeping a look out for a road that would lead +them to some habitation.... Night still enveloped the forest in its +darkest veils. Suddenly the sound of mournful hymns was heard, and +the men saw several torches rending the dark shadows and lending the +scene a tinge of horror that only sensitive souls will understand. +The pealing of bells grew louder, and to these mournful accents, +which were still only scarcely audible, were joined flashes of +lightning, which had hitherto been absent from the sky, and the +ensuing thunder which mingled with the funereal sounds they had +previously heard. The lightning which flashed across the skies, +occasionally eclipsing the sinister flames of the torches, seemed to +be vying with the inhabitants of the earth for the right to conduct +to her grave this woman whom the procession was accompanying. +Everything gave rise to horror, everything betokened desolation, and +it seemed that Nature herself had donned the garb of eternal +mourning. + + "What is this ?" said Franval, who was deeply moved + + "Nothing, nothing," Clervil said, taking his friend's hand and +leading him in another direction. + + "Nothing? No, you're misleading me. I want to see what it is..." + + He dashed forward... and saw a coffin. + + "Merciful Heaven," he cried. "There she is; it is she, it is she. +God has given me one last occasion to see her...." + + At the bidding of Clervil, who saw that it was impossible to calm +the poor man down, the priests departed in silence.... Completely +distraught, Franval threw himself on the coffin, and from it he +seized the sad remains of the woman whom he had so gravely offended. +He took the body in his arms and laid it at the foot of a tree, and +in a state of delirium threw himself upon it, crying in utter +despair: + + "Oh you whose life has been snuffed out by my barbarous cruelty, oh +touching creature whom I still adore, see at your feet your husband +beseeching your pardon and your forgiveness. Do not imagine that I +ask this in order to outlive you. No, no, 'tis in order that the +Almighty, touched by your virtues, might deign to forgive me as you +have done, if such be possible.... You must have blood, my sweet +wife, you must have blood to be avenged... and avenged you shall +be.... Ah! first see my tears and witness my repentance; I intend to +follow you, beloved shade... but who will receive my tortured soul +if you do not intercede for it? Rejected alike from the arms of God +and from your heart, do you wish to see it condemned to the hideous +tortures of Hell when it is so sincerely repentant of its crimes? +Forgive, dear soul, forgive these crimes, and see how I avenge +them." + + With these words Franval, eluding Clervil's gaze, plunged the sword +he was holding twice through his body. His impure blood flowed onto +his victim and seemed to sully her much more than avenge her. + + "Oh my friend," he said to Clervil, "I am dying, but I am dying in +the bosom of remorse.... Apprise those who remain behind both of my +deplorable end and of my crimes, tell them that is the way that a +man who is a miserable slave of his passions must die, a man vile +enough to have stifled in his heart the cry of duty and of Nature. +Do not deny me half of my wretched wife's coffin; without my remorse +I would not have been worthy of sharing it, but now my remorse +renders me full worthy of that favour, and I demand it. Adieu." + + Clervil granted poor Franval's dying wish, and the procession +continued on its way. An eternal refuge soon swallowed up a husband +and wife born to love each other, a couple fashioned for happiness +and who would have savoured it in its purest form if crime and its +frightful disorders had not, beneath the guilty hand of one of the +two, intervened to change their life from a garden of delight into a +viper's nest. + + The worthy ecclesiastic soon carried back to Paris the frightful +details of these different calamities. No one was distressed by the +death of Franval; only his life had been a cause of grief. But his +wife was mourned, bitterly mourned. And indeed what creature is more +precious, more appealing in the eyes of men than the person who has +cherished, respected, and cultivated the virtues of the earth and, +at each step of the way, has found naught but misfortune and grief? + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/euthnsia.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/euthnsia.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8337ceef --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/euthnsia.hum @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ + + = = = = = = = *** = = = = = = = + EUTHANASIA: STILL A CRIME + = = = = = = = *** = = = = = = = + + The case of Roswell Gilbert is closed. A Florida clemency board recently +refused to commute or otherwise mitigate his conviction and imprisonment for +the murder of his wife. + + Although Mr. Gilbert has been celebrated in the media, the decision of the +clemency board was correct. It certainly seems harsh in this particular case +since it's obvious Gilbert loved his wife very much and just couldn't stand to +see her continue to disintegrate in his presence. The unique factors in this +case are, in many ways, compelling for Gilbert's view. + + But unique factors are not what the law is made for. He was convicted by a +jury of his peers. The conviction stands. + + Mercy killing--euthanasia--has long been a subject of great controversy. Our +sympathies tend to sway in the direction of less suffering for the affected +individual. Sometimes, our sympathetic emotions override our sense of moral +and ethical right. + + This was the case for Mr. Gilbert. Right or wrong, in terms of conventional +wisdom, didn't affect his decision to kill his wife. He has the satisfaction +of knowing he did what he, in his particular situation, needed to do. Although +unhappy that his appeals couldn't change the world, Mr. Gilbert, if we can put +thoughts in his head, will not suffer the kind of guilt another would, if put +into his shoes. In a sense, the recent decision to uphold his conviction has +exonerated him. + + This case will no doubt become a keystone of future legislation on +euthanasia. For years to come, mercy killing will not be tolerated unless some +way is found to do it by committee. Think for a moment! There must be +thousands of people suffering the anguish and disorientation of Alzheimer's +disease, and other debilitating maladies which cause the affected persons to +lose complete touch with reality. Few of them are being mercy-killed. Many of +them are being held captive in institutions across the country. + + Even a minor lessening of Mr. Gilbert's punishment might have opened the +floodgates, so to speak, for dozens--even hundreds--of similar killings by +family members or doctors of those who are terminally ill. + + There's a good chance other cases of this kind will begin to appear in the +near future. Many people will have begun to think about Roswell Gilbert, and +will choose to follow his path. There will be many tests of the law, and, from +those future cases, there will gradually emerge a pattern and new legislation +to deal with such sad, and difficult, circumstances. + + Certainly, it is no comfort for those of us growing older to suspect that +someday we may be arbitrarily put to death by well-meaning relatives. +Certainly, it is no comfort to those suffering agonizing pain, whether mental +or physical, to know that they will be left in pain to die on their own, for +society's inability to find a quick and fair solution to the problem of +euthanasia. + + But, wait! I'll confess here and now for many of us. I have ordered a mercy +killing on my own. And, I'll bet you--or YOU, over there in the corner--have +done the same. I still feel no guilt about it, and, furthermore, I would, and +probably shall, do it again. + + Yes, I ordered the murder of my beagle, Poochie, one day many years ago. I +led Poochie into the chamber unknowing, comforting him all the way. I saw the +injection puncture his fur and I watched him die. + + I felt bad for a week or so, but, with the help of family and friends was +able to rationalize my actions. "It was for his own good," they comforted. +"He was almost blind, couldn't control his bladder, could hardly walk," they +moralized. + + Any guilt I felt faded quickly. But. I still think about Poochie. I still +think about how he looked at me with those big, brown eyes as he lay on the +veterinarian's table. + + I, myself, have big, brown eyes. + + I'll tell you right now: I don't ever want to be in a supine position, +unable to speak for myself--for any reason whatsoever--and watch someone, no +matter how well-meaning, put me to death. + + I could stop here, but I have one other thing to tell you. Countless humans +throughout our long and bloody history have died horrible, lingering deaths, +sometimes only for the pleasure of another. We all die; it's one of the few +rights we have which is truly inalienable. + + No matter how much a burden I may become to someone, I still believe I will +have enough human pride left to want--even though I may not be able to +communicate my desires--to exercise my right to die without outside assistance. +Whether my body or mind becomes corrupt; whether an enemy tortures me; whether, +or not, someone else wants me to die--I'll fight it to the very end, when the +lights of my soul go out. + + Roswell Gilbert stands by his actions. His lawyers may continue to pursue +some remedy for his plight. His wife was undoubtedly failing fast. + + But... + The 'but' is the problem. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/euthnsia.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/euthnsia.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c0b3aac8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/euthnsia.txt @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ + + = = = = = = = *** = = = = = = = + EUTHANASIA: STILL A CRIME + = = = = = = = *** = = = = = = = + + The case of Roswell Gilbert is closed. A Florida clemency board recently +refused to commute or otherwise mitigate his conviction and imprisonment for +the murder of his wife. + + Although Mr. Gilbert has been celebrated in the media, the decision of the +clemency board was correct. It certainly seems harsh in this particular case +since it's obvious Gilbert loved his wife very much and just couldn't stand to +see her continue to disintegrate in his presence. The unique factors in this +case are, in many ways, compelling for Gilbert's view. + + But unique factors are not what the law is made for. He was convicted by a +jury of his peers. The conviction stands. + + Mercy killing--euthanasia--has long been a subject of great controversy. Our +sympathies tend to sway in the direction of less suffering for the affected +individual. Sometimes, our sympathetic emotions override our sense of moral +and ethical right. + + This was the case for Mr. Gilbert. Right or wrong, in terms of conventional +wisdom, didn't affect his decision to kill his wife. He has the satisfaction +of knowing he did what he, in his particular situation, needed to do. Although +unhappy that his appeals couldn't change the world, Mr. Gilbert, if we can put +thoughts in his head, will not suffer the kind of guilt another would, if put +into his shoes. In a sense, the recent decision to uphold his conviction has +exonerated him. + + This case will no doubt become a keystone of future legislation on +euthanasia. For years to come, mercy killing will not be tolerated unless some +way is found to do it by committee. Think for a moment! There must be +thousands of people suffering the anguish and disorientation of Alzheimer's +disease, and other debilitating maladies which cause the affected persons to +lose complete touch with reality. Few of them are being mercy-killed. Many of +them are being held captive in institutions across the country. + + Even a minor lessening of Mr. Gilbert's punishment might have opened the +floodgates, so to speak, for dozens--even hundreds--of similar killings by +family members or doctors of those who are terminally ill. + + There's a good chance other cases of this kind will begin to appear in the +near future. Many people will have begun to think about Roswell Gilbert, and +will choose to follow his path. There will be many tests of the law, and, from +those future cases, there will gradually emerge a pattern and new legislation +to deal with such sad, and difficult, circumstances. + + Certainly, it is no comfort for those of us growing older to suspect that +someday we may be arbitrarily put to death by well-meaning relatives. +Certainly, it is no comfort to those suffering agonizing pain, whether mental +or physical, to know that they will be left in pain to die on their own, for +society's inability to find a quick and fair solution to the problem of +euthanasia. + + But, wait! I'll confess here and now for many of us. I have ordered a mercy +killing on my own. And, I'll bet you--or YOU, over there in the corner--have +done the same. I still feel no guilt about it, and, furthermore, I would, and +probably shall, do it again. + + Yes, I ordered the murder of my beagle, Poochie, one day many years ago. I +led Poochie into the chamber unknowing, comforting him all the way. I saw the +injection puncture his fur and I watched him die. + + I felt bad for a week or so, but, with the help of family and friends was +able to rationalize my actions. "It was for his own good," they comforted. +"He was almost blind, couldn't control his bladder, could hardly walk," they +moralized. + + Any guilt I felt faded quickly. But. I still think about Poochie. I still +think about how he looked at me with those big, brown eyes as he lay on the +veterinarian's table. + + I, myself, have big, brown eyes. + + I'll tell you right now: I don't ever want to be in a supine position, +unable to speak for myself--for any reason whatsoever--and watch someone, no +matter how well-meaning, put me to death. + + I could stop here, but I have one other thing to tell you. Countless humans +throughout our long and bloody history have died horrible, lingering deaths, +sometimes only for the pleasure of another. We all die; it's one of the few +rights we have which is truly inalienable. + + No matter how much a burden I may become to someone, I still believe I will +have enough human pride left to want--even though I may not be able to +communicate my desires--to exercise my right to die without outside assistance. +Whether my body or mind becomes corrupt; whether an enemy tortures me; whether, +or not, someone else wants me to die--I'll fight it to the very end, when the +lights of my soul go out. + + Roswell Gilbert stands by his actions. His lawyers may continue to pursue +some remedy for his plight. His wife was undoubtedly failing fast. + + But... + The 'but' is the problem. + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/evol.d b/textfiles.com/politics/evol.d new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fe324502 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/evol.d @@ -0,0 +1,1105 @@ + 17 page printout + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + This disk, its printout, or copies of either + are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. + + Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + **** **** + + Pamphlets by Charles Watts, Vol. I. + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + + by + Charles Watts + Vice-President of the National Secular Society + + Watts & Co. 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street. + London, England. + + 1880? + + **** **** + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + + TAKING a retrospective view of the dark and unenlightened +past, when the mighty forces of nature were almost entirely hidden +from the human gaze; contemplating the sad spectacle of our +forefathers being sunken in gross superstition, ere the light of +to-day had arisen above the horizon of mental ignorance, and +contrasting the then limitation of knowledge with the extensive +educational acquirements now existing, what a pleasing contrast the +intellectual advancement presents to the modern observer! +Recognizing the glories of nature, and finding ourselves possessed +of an amazing amount of information respecting the laws of nature +and the phenomena with which these laws are connected -- such +information being for ages unknown to the great masses of the +people -- we are prompted to inquire what has produced this +marvelous transformation, and to what agency we are indebted for +this grand and stupendous revolution of the nineteenth century. +Whatever may be the reply of the theologian, whose intellect is too +often clouded with dreamy imaginations, the answer of the patient +and unfettered student of nature will be that it is to science we +owe the magic power which has substituted for the dense darkness of +the past the brilliant light of the present. The marvels of +astronomy, the revelations of geology, the splendors of botany, the +varieties of zoology, the wonders of anatomy, the useful +discoveries of physiology, and the rapid strides which have been +made in the development of the mental sciences, all combine to +unravel the once mysterious operations of mind and matter. While +each of the modern sciences has corrected long-cherished errors and +opened new paths of investigation, one or two of them have +especially tended to unfold to our view the nature, affinity, and +development of man, and the wonderful universe to which he belongs. +For instance, without the science of geology we should, in all +probability, forever have remained in ignorance of the various +changes which had taken place on the earth previous to the +appearance of man, and the different forms of animal and vegetable + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +life that were then distributed over its surface. We now examine +the various strata of the earth, and there discover the fossil +remains of animals and plants which existed in the ages that rolled +by when no historian lived to pen the mighty transactions of nature +and hand them down to future generations. The science of +electricity, too, still only in its infancy, promises to confer an +amount of benefit upon mankind too vast to be conceived. We hear +the thunder roar, and behold the vivid flash of lightning darting +before our eyes like an arrow from the bow of the archer; but while +we regard this phenomenon we have learned not to look upon it with +dread as the vengeance of an angry God, but as a natural result of +the operation of known forces. It was for Dr. Watts to sing: -- + + "There all his stores of lightning lie + Till vengeance darts them down." + +But it remained for a Franklin and a Priestley to inform us that +tempests were not to be beheld as indicating the wrath of an +offended God, but as the effect of an unequal diffusion of the +electric fluid. Thus science has been, and is, our benefactor, our +enlightener, our improver, and our redeemer. Without its aid we +should still have been in a state of mental darkness and physical +degradation. Deprived of its discoveries, we should still have been +bound down with the ties of superstition, ignorance, and +fanaticism. As Pope observes : -- + + "Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind + Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; + His soul proud Science never taught to stray + Far as the solar walk or milky way." + +Perhaps there is no domain of human thought where the advantages of +scientific investigation are more clear and pronounced than in +connection with what is termed " Evolution " -- a word which, +within the last few years, has become very popular as representing +a theory of man and the universe opposed to the old orthodox notion +of special creation and supernatural government. There are, of +course, some professedly religious people who avow their belief in +Evolution, and who maintain that it is what they call God's mode of +working; and there are those who even go so far as to say that the +power and wisdom of God are seen more thoroughly displayed in the +process of Evolution than in the method, so long believed in, of +special and supernatural creation. But the number of these is +comparatively small, and, consequently, the great mass of those who +accept the word in its legitimate signification may be looked upon +as of a skeptical turn of mind. It will not be difficult to +demonstrate that the popular theological idea of creation finds no +support in the theory of Evolution, which, if not a demonstrated +thesis, has, at least, in its favor the "science of probabilities +" -- an advantage that cannot fairly be claimed for the Biblical +account of the origin of phenomena. + + The term "evolution" may be defined as an unfolding, opening +out, or unwinding; a disclosure of something which was not +previously known, but which existed before in a more condensed or +hidden form. 'There is no new existence called into being, but a +making conspicuous to our eyes that which was previously concealed. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +"Evolution teaches that the universe and man did not always exist +in their present form; neither are they the product of a sudden +creative act, but rather the result of innumerable changes from the +lower to the higher, each step in advance being an evolution from +a preexisting condition." On the other hand, the special creation +doctrine teaches that, during a limited period, God created the +universe and man, and that the various phenomena are not the result +simply of natural law, but the outcome of supernatural design. +According to Mr. Herbert Spencer, the whole theory of Evolution is +based upon three principles -- namely, that matter is +indestructible, motion continuous, and force persistent. Two +contending processes will be seen everywhere in operation in the +physical universe, the one antagonistic to the other, each one for +a time triumphing over its opposite. These are termed "evolution" +and "dissolution." Spencer remarks that "Evolution, under its +simplest aspect, is the integration of matter and the dissipation +of motion, while dissolution is the absorption of motion and the +concomitant disintegration of matter." Thus it will be seen that +Herbert Spencer regards evolution as the concentration or +transition of matter from a diffused to a more condensed and +perceptible form. This change he traces in the systems of the +stars; in the geological history of the earth; in the growth and +development of plants and animals; in the history of language and +the fine arts, and in the condition of civilized states. Briefly, +the theory is that the matter of which the universe is composed has +progressed from a vague, incoherent, and, perhaps, all but +homogeneous nebula of tremendous extent, to complete systems of +suns, worlds, comets, sea, and land, and countless varieties of +living things, each composed of many very different parts, and of +complex organizations. + + Coming to the organic bodies, there may be included under the +term "evolution" many different laws, some of which we may not even +know as yet, and a great number of processes, acting sometimes in +unison and often in antagonism, the one to the other. This, +however, in no way weakens the theory of evolution, which, beyond +doubt, is the process by which things have been brought to their +present condition. It will tend, perhaps, to elucidate this truth +the more readily and clearly if a brief exposition of the theory be +given under the chief divisions of this extensive subject. + + The Formation of Worlds. -- According to Evolution, the +present cosmos began its development at an immeasurably remote +date, and any attempt to comprehend the periods that have rolled by +since would paralyse our highest intellectual powers. When the +matter which is now seen shaped into suns and stars of vast +magnitude, and of incompressible number, was diffused over the +whole of the space in which those bodies are now seen moving -- of +extreme variety, and, perhaps, of nearly homogeneous character -- +the human mind is unable to comprehend. This matter, by virtue of +the very laws now seen in operation in the physical universe, would +in time shape itself into bodies with which the heavens are +strewed, shining with a glory that awes while it charms. What is +called in these days the nebular cosmogony may be said to have +arisen with Sir William Herschel, who discovered with his telescope +what seemed to be worlds and systems in course of formation -- that +is, they were in various states which appeared to mark different +degrees of condensation. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + + M. Laplace, without any knowledge of Herschel's speculations, +arrived at a similar idea upon a totally different ground -- +namely, the uniformity of the heavenly bodies. He showed that, if +matter existed in such a different state as the nebular theory +assumed, and if nuclei existed in it, they would become centers of +aggregation in which a rotary motion would increase as the +agglomeration proceeded. Further, Laplace urged that at certain +intervals the centrifugal force acting in the rotating mass would +overcome the force of agglomeration, and the result would be a +series of rings existing apart from the mass to which they +originally adhered, each of which would retain the motion which it +possessed at the moment of separation. These rings would again +break up into spherical bodies, and hence come what are termed +primary bodies and their satellites. This Laplace showed to be at +least possible, and the results, in the case of our solar system, +are just what would have been expected from the operations of this +law. For example, everyone knows that the rapidity of the motions +in the planets is in the ratio of their nearness to the sun. + + Many facts seem to support this theory, such as the existence +of the hundred and more small bodies, called asteroids, observed +between Mars and Jupiter, which doubtless indicate a zone of +agglomeration at several points, and the rings of Saturn give an +example of zones still preserved intact. This theory has been held +by some of the most aminate astronomers, and is most ably advocated +by the late Professor Nicol in his "Architecture of the Heavens." +Some experiments have also been tried -- as, for example, that of +Plateau on a rotating globe of oil -- which showed the operation of +the law by which the suns, planets, and their moons were formed. +Such is the evolution of worlds, and it is unnecessary to point out +how diametrically it is opposed to the special creation described +in Genesis, where the heavens and the earth are called suddenly +into being by the fiat of God, and the sun stated to be created +four days afterwards. Which theory should, in these days of +thought, commend itself to a rational mind? + + The Beginning of Life upon the Earth. -- Evolution has been +subjected to many severe attacks at this point. Those who contend +for special creation have maintained, with a dogmatism which but +ill accords with the knowledge they possess upon the subject, that +nothing but the hypothesis of the supernatural origin of things is +sufficient to account for the first appearance of life upon the +earth, that evolution completely breaks down here, and that all the +experiments which have been conducted with a view to lend it +support have turned out positive failures. Such is the allegation +of orthodox opponents. Let us see what grounds they have for these +reckless and dogmatic statements. The two views of the origin of +living beings have been called respectively Biogenesis and +Abiogenesis, the first meaning that life can spring only from prior +life, and the latter that life may sometimes have its origin in +dead matter. Dr. Charlton Bastian, whose experiments will be +hereafter referred to, substitutes for Abiogenesis another word, +Archebiosis. + + Now, it is well known and admitted on all hands that there was +a time when no life existed on the earth. Not the most minute +animal, or the most insignificant plant, found a place on the +surface of what was probably at that time a globe heated up to a + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +temperature at which no living thing could exist. The life, +therefore, that did afterwards appear could not have sprung from +germs of prior living bodies. True, the whimsical theory was put +forward by an eminent scientific man, some years ago, that the +first germs that found their way to the earth were probably thrown +off with meteoric matter from some other planet. But on the face of +it this is absurd, because such matter would be of too high a +temperature to admit of the existence upon it of living bodies of +any kind; and, besides, were it otherwise, it would explain +nothing. It would only transfer the difficulty from this world to +some other, For life must have had a beginning somewhere, and the +question is as to that beginning somewhere. The supernaturalist +seeks to get out of the difficulty rather by cutting the Gordian +knot than by untying it, and falls back upon a special creation, +thereby avoiding any further trouble about the matter, But the +evolutionist thinks that he can see his way clearly in what must +necessarily be to some extent a labyrinth, because no one lived at +that time to observe and record what was taking place. One thing is +plain, which is, that living things were made or came into +existence -- whatever the mode may have been, or the power by which +it occurred -- out of non-living matter. Even the believers in +special creation will not deny this. The only question is, +therefore, whether the process occurred in accordance with natural +law, and whether the forces by which it was brought about were +those which exist, or, at all events, which did exist, in material +nature. For it does not follow that, if such phenomena do not occur +to-day, they could never have taken place in the past. The +conditions of the earth were different then from what they are now; +and forces may have been in operation that are now quiescent. +Professor Huxley, who thinks that no instance has occurred in +modern times of the evolution of a living organism from dead +matter, and that the experiments which have been conducted on the +subject are inconclusive -- who, in fact, ranks himself on the side +of the advocates of Bio-genesis -- yet says that, if we could go +back millions of years to the dawn of life, we should, no doubt, +behold living bodies springing from non-living matter. + + But, of course, it will be argued that, if it happened then, +it might take place now and although, as I have said, this is not +conclusive, yet to some it has much weight. What Nature has done +once, it is insisted, she can do again. Quite so; but, then, all +the conditions must be the same. Dr. Bastian himself asks the +question: "If such synthetic processes took place then, why should +they not take place now? Why should the inherent molecular +properties of various kinds of matter have undergone so much +alteration?" ("Beginnings of life"). And the question is likely to +be repeated, with, to say the least of it, some show of reason. + + It must never be forgotten, as Tyndall has very ably pointed +out, that the matter of which the organic body is built up "is that +of inorganic nature. There is no substance in the animal tissues +that is not primarily derived from the rocks, the water, and the +air." And the forces operating in the one are those which we see +working in the other, vitality only excepted, which is probably but +another manifestation of the one great force of the universe. +Indeed, Professor Huxley does not make an exception even in the +case of vitality, which, he maintains, has no more actual existence + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +than the imaginary aquosity of water. Mr. Herbert Spencer thinks +that life, under all its forms, has arisen by an unbroken +evolution, and through natural causes alone; and this view accords +with the highest reason and philosophy. + + Nor have the experiments performed with a view to solve the +problem been so conclusive as would appear to some. At all events, +the question is an open one as to whether the origin of living +things in non-living matter has not been experimentally +demonstrated. The old doctrine of "spontaneous generation" can, in +its new form and under its recent name of Abiogenesis, or +Archebiosis, claim the support of men of great eminence in the +scientific world at the present time, Pouchet, a very illustrious +Frenchman, performed a large number of experiments, and in all or +most of them he succeeded, according to his own opinion, in +producing living things. The objection that there were germs in the +air, or water, or the materials that he employed, he met by +manufacturing artificial water out of oxygen and hydrogen, and +submitting the whole of the material employed to a temperature +above boiling-water point, which would certainly destroy any living +germ, either of an animal or vegetable character. Then, in England +a series of experiments have been performed by Dr. Bastian, one of +the leading scientists of our time; and the results have been given +to the world in some voluminous and masterly books. "These +volumes," says an opponent -- Dr. Elam -- "are full of the records +of arduous, thoughtful, and conscientious work, and must ever +retain a conspicuous place in the literature of biological +science." Dr. Bastian maintains that he has succeeded, in +innumerable instances, in producing living organisms from non- +living matter. Hence the doctrine of Evolution, which is in +accordance with true philosophy, finds its support in that physical +science where we should expect to meet with it, and to which it +really belongs. + + The Origin of Man. -- It has already been stated that the +remains of man are met with only in the most recent geological +deposits. On this point there will be no dispute. No doubt human +beings have been in existence for a much longer period than is +generally supposed; the short term of six thousand years, which our +fathers considered to cover man's entire history, pales into +insignificance before the vast periods which we know to have rolled +their course since human life began. But that fact in no way +affects the question before us. Man was certainly the last animal +that appeared, as he was the highest. If it be asked, Why highest +as well as last? the answer is, Because, by the process of +evolution, the highest must come last. This is the law that we have +seen operating all through the physical universe, so far as that +universe has disclosed to us its mighty secrets, hidden for ages, +but now revealed to scientific observation and experiment. Man +came, as other organic bodies came, by no special creation, but by +the great forces of nature, which move always in the same +direction, and work to the same end. As far as the physical powers +are concerned, it will not be difficult to conceive the same laws +operating in his production as originated the various other forms +of organic beings. His body is built up of the same materials, upon + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +precisely the same plan: during life he is subject to the same +growth and decay, the same building up and pulling down of tissues; +and it is but reasonable to suppose that the same forces originated +his beginning, as we know they will some day terminate his +existence. + + Mr. Darwin made a bold stroke when he gave the world his +"Descent of Man." In 1859 he had published the first edition of his +work on "The Origin of Species," which fell like a thunderbolt into +the religious camp. The commotion it caused was tremendous, and the +effect can to-day hardly be imagined; so tolerant have we grown of +late, and such a change has passed over the scene within the past +quarter of a century. The most violent opposition raged against the +new views; ridicule, denunciation, and abuse were hurled at the +head of the man who had propounded so preposterous a theory as that +all organic things had sprung from a few simple living forms very +low down in the scale of being. Then came a larger work, entitled +"Animals and Plants under Domestication," brimful of facts of a +most startling character, supporting the theory advanced in the +previous book, and challenging refutation on all hands. In the face +of these facts, the public mind cooled down a little, opposition +became milder, some adversaries were converted, and others +manifested indifference. The major part of those who still adhered +to the supernatural and special creations held that, even if the +theory of Evolution turned out to be true, it would not apply to +man, who was a being possessed of an immortal soul, and, therefore, +belonged to a different order of creatures from any other animals, +and that Mr. Darwin never intended to include human beings in the +organic structures thus originated. + + ln this state the controversy remained until 1872, when Mr. +Darwin took the bull by the horns, and at one stroke swept away the +last stronghold of special creation by showing that humanity was no +exception to the great law of evolution; for man, like other +animals, had originated in natural selection. The facts given in +the book on "The Descent of Man" are both powerful and pertinent. +This, however, is not the place to dwell upon natural selection, +and it is only referred to so far as it supports evolution. The +difficulties that have been placed in the way of the application of +this principle to man have not had much reference to his bodily +organs, but mainly to his mental and moral powers, his social +faculties, and the emotional side of his nature. True, a +controversy raged for a short time between Huxley and Owen as to +whether there was a special structure in the human brain not to be +found in the next animals lower in the scale of being; But this +contention has long since died out, and to-day no anatomist of any +note will be found contending for the existence of any such organ. +That the human brain differs considerably from the brain of any +lower animal no one who is at all acquainted with the subject will +deny; but this is difference in degree, and not arising from the +presence of any special structure in the one which is absent in the +other. Man, therefore, must look for his origin just where he seeks +for that of the inferior creatures. + + The science of embryology, which is now much more carefully +studied, and, consequently, much better known than at any period in +the past, lends very powerful support to evolution, though, +perhaps, little to natural selection. "The primordial germs," says + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +Huxley, "of a man, a dog, a bird, a fish, a beetle, a snail, and a +polyp are in no essential structural respects distinguishable" +("Lay Sermons"). Each organism, in fact, commences its individual +career at the same point -- that is, in a single cell. These cells +are of the same chemical composition, approximately of the same +size, and appear to be in all respects identical. Yet the one +develops into a fish, another into a reptile, a third into a bird, +a fourth into a dog, and a fifth into a man. The process is the +same in all up to a certain point. First, the cell divides into +two, then into four, eight, sixteen, and so on, until a particular +condition is reached, called by Haeckel morula, when a totally +different set of changes occur. In the case of the higher animals +the development of the embryo exhibits, up to a very late period, +a remarkable resemblance to that of man. + + The Diversity of Living Things. -- A mere glance at the +geological records will show at once that the order in which +animals and plants have appeared on the earth is that which accords +with evolution. The lowest came first, the highest last, and a +regular gradation between the two extremes,. In the early rocks in +which life appears we meet with polyps, coral, sea-worms, etc., and +no trace of land animals or plants. Then, passing upwards, we come +upon fishes, then reptiles, afterwards birds, subsequently mammals, +and, last of all, man. These are undisputed facts, as the most +elementary works on geology, whether written by a professing +Christian or an unbeliever, will clearly show. + + The only objection, perhaps, of any weight that can be urged +against the changes which evolution asserts to have taken place, is +the fact that we do not see them occur. But this, in the first +place, is hardly correct, since we see the tadpole -- which is a +fish breathing through gills, and living in the water -- pass up +into a reptile, the frog, which is a land animal breathing through +lungs, and inhaling its oxygen from the atmosphere. Secondly, the +fact that we do not see a change actually occur, which took +millions of years to become effected, can surely amount to little. +An ephemeral insect, whose life only lasts for a day, might object, +if able to reason, that an acorn could not grow into an oak tree, +because it had not seen it occur. But the evidence would be there +still in the numerous gradations that might be seen between the +acorn and the sturdy old tree that had weathered the storms of a +century. And in this case we see all the gradations between a monad +and a man in the rocks which furnish us with the history of the +past, although, as our lives are so short, we are not able to see +the whole change effected. Plants were not all suddenly called into +existence at one particular period, and then animals at another and +later time. This we know, because the remains of plants and animals +are found side by side throughout all the rocks. If there be an +exception, it is an unfortunate one for the Christian +supernaturalist, since it shows that animals were first; for +certain it is that animal remains are met with in the oldest rocks. + + The objection to evolution, that no transformation of one +species into another has been seen within recorded history, is +entirely groundless, and betrays utter carelessness on the part of +the objectors. The truth is, such transformations have taken place, +as mentioned above in reference to the tadpole. Professor Huxley + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +and other scientists have proved this to be the case. It should, +however, be remembered that in most instances these great changes +are the work of time. As Dr. David Page observes: "It is true that, +to whatever process we ascribe the introduction of new species, its +operation is so slow and gradual that centuries may pass away +before its results become discernible. But, no matter how slow, +time is without limit; and, if we can trace a process of variation +at work, it is sure to widen in the long run into what are regarded +as specific distinctions. It is no invalidation of this argument +that science cannot point to the introduction of any new species +within the historic era; for till within a century or so science +took no notice of either the introduction or extinction of species, +nor was it sufficiently acquainted with the flora and fauna of the +globe to determine the amount of variation that was taking place +among their respective families. Indeed, influenced by the belief +that the life of the globe was the result of one creative act, men +were unwilling to look at the long past which the infant science of +paleontology was beginning to reveal, and never deigned to doubt +that the future would be otherwise than the present. Even still +there are certain minds who ignore all that geology has taught +concerning the extinction of old races and the introduction of +newer ones, and who, shutting their eyes to the continuity of +nature, cannot perceive that the same course of extinction and +creation must ever be in progress" ("Man: Where, Whence, and +Whither?"). + + Let us now apply a test to the creative theory with a similar +demand, and what will be the result? An utter failure on the part +of the creationists to substantiate their dogmatic pretensions. +Suppose we exclaimed, "Show us a single creative act of one species +within recorded history." It would be impossible for them to do so, +for there is not a shadow of evidence drawn from human experience +in favor of what theologians call creation. "We perceive a certain +order and certain method in nature; we see that under new +conditions certain variations do take place in vegetable and animal +structures, and by an irresistible law of our intellect we +associate the variations with the conditions in the way of cause +and effect. Of such a method we can form some notion, and bring it +within the realm of reason; of any other plan, however it may be +received, we can form no rational conception." + + "The whole analogy of natural operations," says Professor +Huxley, "furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the +intervention of any but what are called secondary causes in the +production of all the phenomena of the universe that, in view of +the intimate relations between man and the rest of the living +world, and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other +forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are coordinated +terms of nature's great progression, from the formless to the +formed, from the inorganic to the organic, from blind force to +conscious intellect and will." The most that can be said of the +creative theory is that it is a question of belief; but of +knowledge never. + + Dr. Page observes: "We may believe in a direct act of +creation; but we cannot make it a subject of research. Faith may +accept, but reason cannot grasp it. On the other hand, a process of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +derivation by descent is a thing we can trace as of a kind with +other processes; and, though unable to explain, we can follow it as +an indication, at least, of the method which Nature has adopted in +conformity with her ordinary and normal course of procedure. We can +admit possibilities, but must reason from probabilities, and the +probable can only be judged of from what is already known. Than +this there is clearly no other course for philosophy. Everywhere in +nature it sees nothing but processes, means, and results, causes +and effects, and it cannot conceive, even if it wished, of anything +being brought about unless through the instrumentality of means and +processes." + + To me it has always been a difficulty to understand how an +infinite being could possibly have been the creator of all things. +For this reason: if he is infinite, he is everywhere if everywhere, +he is in the universe; if in the universe now, he was always there. +If he were always in the universe, there never was a time when the +universe was not; therefore, it could never have been created. + + If it be said that this being was not always in the universe, +then there must have been a period when he occupied less space than +he did subsequently. But "lesser" and "greater" cannot be applied +to that which is eternally infinite. Further before we can +recognize the soundness of the position taken by the advocates of +special creation, we have to think of a time when there was no time +-- of a place where there was no place. Is this possible? If it +were, it would be interesting to learn where an infinite God was at +that particular period, and how, in "no time," he could perform his +creative act. Besides, if a being really exists who created all +things, the obvious question at once is, "Where was this being +before anything else existed?" "Was there a time when God over all +was God over nothing? Can we believe that a God over nothing began +to be out of nothing, and to create all things when there was +nothing?" Moreover, if the universe was created, from what did it +emanate? From nothing? But "from nothing, nothing can come." Was it +created from something that already was? If so, it was no creation +at all, but only a continuation of that which was in existence. +Further, "creation needs action; to act is to use force; to use +force implies the existence of something upon which that force can +be used. But if that 'something' were there before creation, the +act of creating was simply the reforming of preexisting materials." +Here three questions may be put to the opponents of evolution who +affirm the idea of special creation: -- (1) Is it logical to affirm +the existence of that of which nothing is known, either of itself +or by analogy? Now, it cannot be alleged that anything is known of +the supposed supernatural power of creation. On the other hand, +sufficient is known of the facts of evolution to prevent the +careful student of Nature from attempting to rob her of that force +and life-giving principle which undoubtedly belongs to her. (2) Is +it logical to ascribe events to causes the existence of which is +unknown, and more particularly when such events can be reasonably +explained upon natural principles with the aid of the science of +probabilities"? Dr. Page forcibly remarks "Man has his natural +history relations -- of that there can be no gainsaying -- and we +merely seek to apply to the determination of these the same methods +of research which by common consent are applied to the +determination of the relations of other creatures ... Scientific + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +research must abide by scientific methods; scientific convictions +must rest on scientific investigations." To assert that life is +associated with something that is immaterial and immortal, and that +this force could only have been brought into existence by a special +act of "the one great creator," is to prostrate reason and +experience before the assumptions of an over-satisfied theology. To +once more use the words of Dr. Page: "Science knows nothing of life +save through its manifestations. With the growth of physical +organization it comes; with the decay of organization it +disappears. While life endures, mind is its accompaniment; when +life ceases, mental activity comes to a close. Thus far we can +trace; beyond this science is utterly helpless. No observation from +the external world; no analogy, however plausible; no analysis, +however minute, can solve the problem of an immaterial and immortal +existence." (3) Is it logical to urge the theory of special +creation when science proclaims the stability of natural law, and +its sufficiency for the production of all phenomena? Professor +Tyndall, in his lecture on "Sound," remarks that, if there is one +thing that science has demonstrated more clearly than another, it +is the stability of the operations of the laws of nature. We feel +assured from experience that this is so, and we act upon such +assurance in our daily life. The same eminent scientist, in his +Belfast address, says: "Now, as science demands the radical +extirpation of caprice, and the absolute reliance upon law in +nature, there grew with the growth of scientific notions a desire +and determination to sweep from the field of theory this mob of +gods and demons, and to place natural phenomena on a basis more +congruent with themselves." Again: "Is there not a temptation to +close to some extent with Lucretius when he affirms that 'Nature is +seen to do all things spontaneously of herself without the meddling +of the gods,' or with Bruno when he declares that Matter is not +'that mere empty capacity which philosophers have pictured her to +be, but the universal mother who brings forth all things as the +fruit of her own womb ... By an intellectual necessity I cross the +boundary of the experimental evidence, and discern in that matter +which we, in our ignorance of its latent powers, and +notwithstanding our professed reverence for its creator, have +hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and potency of all +terrestrial life." + + Psychical Powers. -- This is the great stronghold of the +opponents of evolution. They maintain that, whatever may have taken +place with regard to physical powers and bodily organs, it is clear +that the higher intellectual faculties of man could not so have +originated; that those, at least, must be the result of a special +creation, and must have been called into existence by some +supernatural power when human beings first appeared upon the stage +of life. Such persons further urge that, even if it could be shown +beyond doubt that the marvelously constructed body of man, with its +beautifully adjusted parts of bone and muscle, nerve and brain, +skin and mucous membrane, had its origin in evolution, yet no light +whatever would be thrown upon the source of the wondrous powers of +judgment and memory, understanding and will, perception and +conception. This argument, no doubt, to some at first appears +specious; but the question is, Is it sound? The assumption seems to +be that we meet with these powers now for the first time, and that, +therefore, it is here that a special creation must be called in to + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +account for their origin, their character being so different from +anything that has previously crossed our path in this +investigation, But assuredly this is not correct. Some of these +powers are certainly to be met with in the lower animals -- a few +of them low down in the scale -- and for the rest the difference +will be one of degree more than of quality. + + It will not surely be maintained that perception is peculiar +to man it must exist wherever there are organs of sense, and these +extend in some form or other to the lowest phase of animal life. +Volition is also met with in all the higher animals; and memory may +be observed in the dog, horse, elephant, cat, camel, and numerous +other mammals, with whose habits every-day life makes us familiar. +Even judgment in the form of comparison is often displayed by the +domestic animals, the dog in particular. Dr. H. Bischoff, in his +"Essay on the Difference between Man and Brutes," says, "It is +impossible to deny the animals, qualitatively and quantitatively, +as many mental faculties a as we find in man. They possess +consciousness. They feel, think, and judge; they possess a will +which determines their actions and motions. Animals possess +attachment; they are grateful, obedient, good-natured and, again, +false treacherous, disobedient, revengeful, jealous, etc. Their +actions frequently evince deliberation and memory. It is in vain to +derive such actions from so-called instinct, which unconsciously +compels them so to act." Max Maller also, in his "Science of +Language," admits that brutes have five senses like ourselves; that +they have sensations of pain and pleasure; that they have memory; +that they are able to compare and distinguish; have a will of their +own, show signs of shame and pride, and are guided by intellect as +well as by instinct. + + With such facts as these before us, what reason have we for +supposing that these psychical powers are not as likely to have +been evolved as the bodily organs? There is no break whatever to be +seen in the chain at the point of their appearance in man. If the +mental powers of the lower animals have come by evolution, there is +not a shadow of reason for supposing that those of man arose in any +other way, for they are all of the same quality, differing only in +degree. No doubt, as Mr. Darwin says, "the difference between the +mind of man and that of the highest ape is immense." And yet, as he +also remarks, "great as it is, it is certainly one of degree, and +not of kind." The highest powers of which man can boast -- memory, +judgment, love, attention, curiosity, imitation, emotion -- may all +be met with in an incipient form in lower animals. Let any man +analyze his mental faculties one by one -- not look at them in a +state of combination, for that will be calculated to mislead -- and +then say which of them is peculiar to man as man, and not to be +found in a smaller degree much lower in the scale of being. Even +the capacity for improvement -- in other words, for progress -- is +not peculiar to man, as Mr. Darwin has shown by innumerable +examples of great force and beauty. + + The emotions have often been spoken of as being peculiar to +man, but evidently with no regard to accuracy. Terror exists in all +the highest of the lower animals as surely as it does in man, and +shows itself in the same way. it causes the heart to palpitate, a +tremor to pass along the muscles, and even the hair to undergo that + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +change which is called "standing on end," in the horse, the dog, +and other animals, as in the human species. "Courage and timidity," +observes Darwin, "are extremely variable qualities in the +individuals of the same species, as is plainly seen in our dogs. +Some dogs and horses are ill-tempered and easily turn sulky; others +are good-tempered; and these qualities are certainly inherited. +Everyone knows how liable animals are to furious rage, and how +plainly they show it." The love of the dog for his master is +proverbial; indeed, this noble animal has been known to lick the +hand of the vivisector while undergoing at his hands (he severest +torture. And revenge is often manifested by the lowest animals -- +not simply the sudden impulse which revenges itself at the moment +for pain inflicted but long, or wrongs done, but long brooding +feeling, which may smoulder for months, waiting for the opportunity +for manifesting itself, and, when that comes, bursting out into a +flame violent and hateful. There are thousands of cases on record +in which this has happened, especially in the case of monkeys which +have been kept tame. And, perhaps, the personal experience of most +persons can furnish an example of the truth of this allegation. + +The social instincts are plainly seen in many of the lower animals; +not, of course, in that perfect form in which they are met with in +man; but the difference here again is one of degree only. Many +animals experience pleasure in the company of their fellows, and +are unhappy at a Separation being effected. They will show sympathy +one for another, and even perform services for each other's +benefit. Some animals lie together in large numbers, and never +separate except for a very short time, and then only for a purpose +which they clearly understand. This is the case with sheep, rats, +American monkeys, and also with rooks, jackdaws, and starlings. +Darwin observes: "Everyone must have noticed how miserable horses, +dogs, sheep, etc., are when separated from their companions, and +what affection the two former kind will show on their re-union. It +is curious to speculate upon the feelings of a dog who will rest +peacefully for hours in a room with his master or any of the family +without the least notice being taken of him, but who, if left for +a short time by himself, barks and howls dismally." Here we find +the origin of the social faculty in man. It is very easy to imagine +the course of development which this must have taken in order to +have culminated in the highest form as we see it in the human +species. The psychical powers appear first in an incipient form, +and then gradually develop through a long course of ages, until +they attain their height in humanity. Other influences, such as the +power of language, further the development, these powers themselves +being the result of the process of evolution. The question how far +language is confined to man is one of great interest to the student +of evolution. In replying to the inquiry, "What is the difference +between the brute and man?" Max Maller says: "Man speaks, and no +brute has ever uttered a word. Language is our Rubicon, and no +brute has ever crossed it." Referring to this statement, Dr. Page +remarks: "Are not these powers of abstraction and language a matter +of degree rather than of kind? Do not the actions of many of the +lower animals sufficiently indicate that they reason from the +particular to the general? And have they not the power of +communicating their thoughts to one another by vocal sounds which +cannot be otherwise regarded than as language? No one who has +sufficiently studied the conduct of our domestic animals but must + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +be convinced of this power of generalization; no one who has +listened attentively to the various calls of mammals and birds can +doubt they have the power of expressing their mental emotions in +language. Their powers of abstraction may be limited, and the range +of their language restricted; but what shall we say of the mental +capacity of the now extinct Tasmanian, which could not carry him +beyond individual conceptions, or of the monosyllabic click-cluck +of the Bushman, as compared with the intellectual grasp and the +inflectional languages of modern Europe? If it shall be said that +these are matters merely of degree, then are the mental processes +and languages of the lower animals, as compared with those of man, +also matters of degree -- things that manifest themselves in the +same way and by the same organs, but differing in power according +to the perfection of the organs through which they are manifested." + + The Doctor's view of this matter receives a striking +corroboration from the following excerpt from the introduction to +Agassiz's "Contributions to the Natural History of the United +States": "The intelligibility of the voice of animals to one +another, and all their actions connected with such calls, are also +a strong argument of their perceptive power, and of their ability +to act spontaneously and with logical sequence in accordance with +these perceptions. There is a vast field open for investigation in +the relations between the voice and the actions of animals, and a +still more interesting subject of inquiry in the relationship +between the cycle of intonations which different species of animals +of the same family are capable of uttering, and which, so far as I +have yet been able to trace them, stand to one another in the same +relations as the different, so-called , families of languages." + + The moral powers of man have been evolved in a manner similar +to that in which the other forces belonging to the human race were +evolved. All that we see in the evolution of human conduct is the +result of the great and potent law of evolution. "it is said," +writes M.J. Savage in his suggestive book, "The Morals of +Evolution," "that there can be no permanent and eternal law of +morality unless we believe in a God and a future life. But I +believe that this moral law stands by virtue of its own right, and +would stand just the same without any regard to the question of +immortality or the discussion between Theism and Atheism. If there +be no God at all, am I not living? Are there not laws according to +which my body is constructed -- laws of health, laws of life, laws +that I must keep in order to live and in order to be well? If there +be no God at all, are you not existing? Have I right to steal your +property, to injure you, to render you unhappy, because, forsooth, +I choose to doubt whether there is a God, or because you choose to +doubt whether there is a God? Are not the laws of society existing +in themselves, and by their own nature? Suppose all the world +should suddenly lose its regard for truth and become false through +and through, so that no man could depend upon his brother, would +not society become disintegrated, disorganized? Would not all +commercial and social life suddenly become impossible? Would not +humanity become a chaos and a wreck, and that without any sort of +regard to the question as to whether men believed in a God or did +not believe in one? These laws are essential in the nature of +things; and they stand, and you live by keeping them, and die by + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +breaking them, whether there is a God or not." These are the +accurate and ennobling views of existence born of minds which +evolution has raised from the ignorant depths of the past to the +intellectual heights of the present. + + On all sides the candid and impartial observer may behold +undoubted evidence in favor of the doctrine of evolution. We see it +in the various changes of the solar system, There are (1) fire +mists; (2) globes of gas; (3) condensed oceans; (4) crust +formation; (5) mountains and rivers, and (6) its present phenomena. +What is this but evolution? Is it not a manifestation of changes +from the lower to the higher, from the simple to the complex, and +from the chaotic to the consolidated? The same principle is +illustrated, as before indicated, by the science of embryology, +with its clearly-marked stages of development -- the fish, reptile, +bird, quadruped, and, finally, the human form. The relationship of +the species gives its proof in favor of the evolution theory. The +different types of to-day had their one starting point, the +variations now seen having been produced by altered conditions. +Moreover, we find that in the process of evolution some organs in +animals become useless, while others change their use, thus proving +that the animal kingdom possess structural affinities, and that the +subsequent differentiation depends upon the opportunity afforded +for evolution. Then, again, man's ability to divert animal +instincts and intelligence from their original sphere, as shown in +the training of certain of the lower animals; of improving the eye +as an optical instrument; of rendering less antagonistic the +natures and instincts we discover in different species constantly +at war with each other, all point to one process -- that of +evolution. + + There is the old sentimental objection to this theory, that it +is humiliating to think that we have evolved from forms lower down +in the scale of animal life. But, as Dr. Page points out, there is +nothing in this view necessarily degrading "If, in virtue of some +yet unexplained process, man has derived his descent from any of +the lower orders, he is clearly not of them -- his higher +structural adaptations and improvable reason defining at once the +specialty of his place, and the responsibility of his functions. It +can be no degradation to have descended from some antecedent form +of life, any more than it can be an exaltation to have been +fashioned directly from the dust of the earth. There can be nothing +degrading or disgusting in the connection which nature has +obviously established between all that lives, and those who employ +such phrases must have but a poor and by no means very reverent +conception of the scheme of creation. The truth is, there is +nothing degrading in nature save that which, forgetful of its own +functions, debases and degrades itself. The jibing and jeering at +the idea of an 'ape-ancestry,' so often resorted to by the +ignorant, has in reality no significance to the mind of the +philosophic naturalist. There is evidently one structural plan +running throughout the whole of vitality, after which its myriad +members have been ascensively developed, just as there is one great +material plan pervading the planetary system; and science merely +seeks to unfold that plan, and to determine the principles upon +which it is constructed. If there be no generic connection between +man and the order that stands next beneath him, there is at all +events a marvelous similarity in structural organization, and this + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +similarity is surely suggestive of something more intimate than +mere coincidence." Evolution, therefore, although unable to supply +the solution to every problem presented to the student of nature, +is, so far as can be discovered at the present day, the truest +theory of man and the universe, and is sufficient for all practical +purposes. Further, it satisfies the intellect as no other theory +does, and is assuredly more reasonable than that of special +creation. + + One question of great importance will probably suggest itself +to those who have given the theory of evolution much consideration. +It is this: What is to be the position of things, and especially of +man, in the future? Will there be evolved higher beings after him, +as he is higher than those who preceded him? He stands now as the +lord of creation; but so stood many mighty reptiles of the past in +their day and generation. Could they have reasoned, would they not +have concluded that they were the final end of creation, and that +all that had gone before was simply to prepare for their entrance +into the world? In that they would have erred; and it may be asked, +Shall we not equally err if we hastily decide that no higher being +than man can ever come on earth -- that he is, and will ever +remain, the highest of organic existences? Now, the cases are not +quite analogous, as a little reflection will show. The earlier +animals were entirely the creatures of evolution; man is largely +the director of the process. He can, by his intellect, control the +law itself, just as he bends gravitation to his will, though, in a +sense, he is as much subject to its power as the earth on which he +treads. Before man arose, the animals and plants then existing were +molded by the great power operating upon them from within and +without; hence the form they took and the functions they performed. +When they had to contend with an unfortunate environment they +became modified; or, failing that, they disappeared. Now man, by +his mental resource, can supply natural deficiencies, and thus not +defeat evolution, but direct its current into a new channel. He can +bring his food from a distance, and thus avoid scarcity in the +country where he dwells; he can successfully contend against +climate, disease, and a thousand other destructive agencies which +might otherwise sweep him away. It is, therefore, no longer a +contest between physical powers, but between physical and mental. +No higher physical development is likely to occur, because it would +not meet the case, since, however perfect it might be, it could not +hold its own in the struggle for existence against man with his +intellect. The development in the future must be one of mind, not +of body. We do not, consequently, look forward to the time when +organized beings, higher and more perfect physically than man, +shall take his place on the earth; but we do believe that a period +will arrive when the intellectual powers shall be refined, +expanded, and exalted beyond anything of which at present we can +form a conception. The future of man is a topic of all-absorbing +interest, and it needs no prophetic insight to enable us to form +some dim and vague idea of what it will be. Mind will grapple with +the great forces of nature, making them subservient to man's +comfort and convenience. Virtue shall array herself more resolutely +than ever against vice, and rid the world of its malignant power. +Brother shall cease slaying brother at the command of kingly +despots, and thus the world shall be crowned with the laurels of +peace. Priestcraft shall lose its power over humanity, and mental + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 16 + + EVOLUTION AND SPECIAL CREATION. + +liberty shall have a new birth. The barriers of social caste shall +be broken down, and the brotherhood of man thereby consolidated. +Woman shall no longer be a slave, but free in her own right. +Capital and labor shall cease to be antagonistic, and shall be +harmoniously employed to enrich the comforts and to augment the +happiness of the race. Education shall supplant ignorance, and +justice take the place of oppression. Then the era shall have +arrived of which the philosopher has written and the poet has sung. +Freedom shall be the watchword of man, reason shall reign supreme, +and happiness prevail throughout the earth. + + "When from the lips of Truth one mighty breath + Shall, like a whirlwind, scatter in its breeze + The whole dark pile of human miseries, + Then shall the reign of mind commence on earth + And, starting forth as from a second birth, + Man, in the sunrise of the world's new spring, + Shall walk transparent like some holy thing." + + + + + **** **** + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + **** **** + + + + + The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful, +scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of +suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the +Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our +nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and +religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to +the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so +that America can again become what its Founders intended -- + + The Free Market-Place of Ideas. + + The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old, +hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts +and information for today. If you have such books, magazines, +newspapers, pamphlets, etc. please contact us, we need to give them +back to America. If you have such books please send us a list that +includes Title, Author, publication date, condition and price. + + **** **** + + + + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 17 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/excited.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/excited.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9e4987b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/excited.txt @@ -0,0 +1,205 @@ + + Getting Excited + (c)1992 by Lois B. Laulicht + Valley Head, WV + + Let me explain! In addition to the huge economic and social problems + which complicate our stretched out lives, we must also deal with our + national affliction. We are burdened with national cool and maybe even + international cool! It stalks our universe in politics, business, and + even in the family. It invades our relationships with bosses and + workers, parents and children, and particularly so, in the areas of + commerce and services. Conventional wisdom seems to hold the view that + without cool there cannot be objectivity! + + To begin. There is a social expectation to maintain a polite and mild + response to major and minor impositions upon one's freedom, psyche, + pocket book, and time. One can almost expect a surprised recoil of + shock when these varied assumptions go too far and reaction to them + becomes blunt, angry and honest. When one refuses to accept the + stereotypes of race, class, sex or age and reacts with impatience, + communicating an unwillingness to put up with this expensive and + demeaning behavior, the reflexive excuses pour out. It is rarely the + responsibility of the provider of the service but something that + you did that wasn't quite correct. And with a quick sleight of hand, + the victim becomes guilty of the blunder or worse. Within this context + is the most insulting and infuriating expectation...that one is expected + not to fight back. + + This social behavior is pervasive. As information technology has + become ever more sophisticated it appears there are more and more + areas where transactions are fouled up. From charge card credits to + accurate prescriptions to delivery of ordered merchandise -- you name + it. Most of us have shared this kind of experience. Some of us are + much less tolerant to the increasing time spent re-doing tasks and + correcting an ever increasing list of mistakes. The information age + appears to have created huge bottlenecks where many of us feel + ripped off and still more turned off. + + In important areas touching upon the restriction of social freedom + the reaction is almost always defensive surprise when strong rebuttal + challenges cold war tactics of guilt by association. Very recently a + group of writers with whom I was associated either actively engaged + or went along in defining me an anarchist and Un-American because I + was critical of various computer industry marketing strategies. I not + only refused to go along with their definition of me but took steps to + remind others that this bunch of computer professionals were equating + product criticism with the political ideology of Joseph McCarthy. + (See "The Politics of Technology and PC Sales" by Jerome & Lois Laulicht + or Right.Zip) We were expected to fold our computerized tent and slink + away. That's the problem with not being cool. One cannot, should not, + and shall not play by the rules of "cool". + + An example: When I recently saw that this same bunch were putting out + an on-line magazine I asked myself do you roll over and play dead or do + you act in your normal non-cool manner? The fact of the matter is that + covering up important social issues with cool posturing often ignores + the blatant abuse of the social rules we say we respect. + + The forum of the BBS, like the radio talk show, reaches many people + and preserves a caller's ability to speak their minds. They are different + platforms but share many of the same characteristics as politicians like + Ross Perot and Jerry Brown understand. These forums provide a place to + help create public positions on a variety of issues and easily + disseminate information and new ideas. One of the things we know for sure + is that the audience is far greater than the number of active participants + and is growing. For whatever the reasons most people do not expose + themselves this way. They prefer anonymity and usually respond with + silence. + + There are several very active conferences on ILink, Opinion and + Politics, which are home to a number of people who like to create + controversy and attack other members by making racial, national or + religious aspersions. The belief is that these are depersonalized + descriptions of various groups of people. All of this occurs within + the framework of defending the right to hold and offer differing + opinions or views. One does not lose one's cool in these kinds of + forums because it is both bad form and self defeating. Cool has won + again and we all have all become losers in the process. I turned these + conferences off when Jewish women were characterized as loud, pushy, and + aggressive. I will be offended by that blatant piece of anti-Semitism and + anti-feminism for a long time. + + What are some of the areas we are "cool" about? Scales and charts are + pretentious for a non-scholar, so let's put it the terms of our + childhood - getting warm, warmer, hot and hottest! The ultimate + question is the one which deals with the relationship between the + reaction of "hottest" and how one behaves. Perhaps that uneasy relation- + ship is still another measure of our national cool; doing a lot of + talking and taking little action like a TV media event. + + In terms of my first example - McCarthy type behavior from my former + associates in California - I was definitely uncool. My reaction to + their slurs upon my character were somewhere between warm and hot, + notwithstanding a call for a name check to the FBI to ascertain any + Neo-Nazi involvement. Will the Fascists on the aforementioned ILink + conferences be surprised at my uncool reaction to their bigotry + relating to my religious orientation or my sex? The Senate was + certainly surprised at the uncool stance of women all over America + when several women upset establishment politicians in Illinois and + in Pennsylvania. That process has just begun! The reaction to the jury + decision relating to Rodney King and the pounding he took in the name of + law and order is dangerously very uncool! The loss of life, the trauma + inflicted upon the innocent, the shame of decent law enforcement + officials around the country has become the symptom of our own national + neglect and responsibility. + + And finally, my beloved son told me that a draft of a letter to the + Editor of Newsweek magazine was "rather emotional" The article I + responded to was a critique of Sen. Robt. C. Byrd of WV and his + porking tactics for his constituents. The letter was never sent but + was buried in son's computer and is good example of warmer on my own + personal continuum. + + Senator Robert C.Byrd of WV is indeed, a very powerful man, but he is + also a man who has not forgotten his own beginnings. " The Anatomy of + Pork "; Newsweek: April 13, 1992 by Brian Kelly missed the point + thoroughly re: a four laner in remote WV. When this highway project + is completed it will represent one of the FEW successful economic + development strategies that the Fed has financed. This remote and under + developed area in WV has needed a project of this magnitude to make + possible easy and quick access for industry and tourism. Sen. Byrd has + converted a bit of his Congressional credit into a useful opportunity + for the hardworking and under paid people in this part of the state. + If this simple minded definition of pork is carried to its logical + conclusion all congressional activity which helps the few at a cost + to the many becomes pork. It seems to me that the question becomes + what community is in most need of "pork", how these fundamental + distinctions are made, and is there any equity in the crude horse + trading that goes on in the name of local constituencies. When business + is the beneficiary and the pork become rancid, it seems to take much + too long for corrective management action to get into high gear. The + profits are sucked up and the public is left holding a very expensive + bag with almost nothing to show for huge expenditures. The country will + be far better off when more of the heavily larded pork leaves the DC + metropolitan area to provide at least a floor of economic stability + to the many depression ridden communities in the country. + + Many of the people who live and work in the Washington metropolitan area + do not live in America any more than do the affluent in California. + They live in the world of prestige, influence, and high living where + their country club fees would feed a small family for a year! Moreover, + the power structure inside the Washington beltway have little interest + in the needs of the American people any more than the upper middle class + in California have in the working people of Watts or San Francisco. The + rest of the society are simply not important others except perhaps + in an election year. Maybe! + + That part of the society which objects to rich and pungent adjectives + consider all of this commentary bad form. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt + recently teed off at William Greider's "The Betrayal of American + Democracy"; Simon & Schuster in the April 27, 1992 issue of the New York + Times. Mr. Greider's adjectives are referred to as the "mud slide of the + author's prose". I think what caught my attention was the observation + that Greider's treatise was "the not altogether startling or original + contention that the wishes of the American people are no longer + expressed by what goes on in Washington". Obviously, as experts at + gauging national cool, Washington is of the opinion that we will not be + GETTING EXCITED, a reality underlined by Mr. Greider. Does the Times + book critic find the truth of our social condition redundant? That + may be, but some public issues don't disappear because they have been + analyzed, criticized or politicized. + + Accepting the fact that being cool is often a social compromise of not + wanting to be different, sticking one's neck out, and compromising + one's economic or social condition-- we must ask again: + + Do we get excited about the wholesale acceptance of drug abuse in the + society with a concerted "hottest" response? + + Do we get excited over the spreading of AIDS into the population at + large with a concerted "hottest" response? + + Do we get excited about S&L fraud and demand restitution with a + a strident "hottest" response? + + Do we get excited about the shambles of our public education with a + consistent "hot" response? + + Do we get excited that both national political parties are owned + body and soul by special interests and demand, by registering and + voting and with our "hottest" response, full loyalty to us-- their + constituents? + + Do we get excited over a spiraling deficit and then fight Washington + to free up defense dollars for debt reduction with an imperative + "hottest" response? + + Do we get excited over a recent Commerce Department definition of high + wages pegged at six bucks an hour and react with a dismayed "hot" + response? + + Do we refuse to accept the mythology that issues of structural poverty, + infant mortality, illiteracy, and sub-standard housing are not local + questions and must be addressed with a national committed "hottest" + response? + + Is the nation asleep or do we all need training in getting + excited? Is that not the message being sent to us by the tragedy of + South Los Angeles... with the"hottest" response which will alarm us + all. + + + May 3, 1992 + Lois Laulicht + PCRelay->Ch1 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/execord.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/execord.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2c31c640 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/execord.txt @@ -0,0 +1,353 @@ + + + EXECUTIVE ORDERS + + Let's eyeball the executive branch of the national + government. This will be a beauty! Caesar is alive and + well in Washington, D.C. You better believe it. + Earlier mention was made of executive orders. Our + research shows the first use of these orders was by + President George Washington for household expenses. It was + an order signed by him for normal expenses which would be + accepted by the Treasury Department and paid. Simple + enough. + The Federal Bureau of Investigation was formed under + an executive order by Teddy Roosevelt on July 26, 1908. + The first time it was used to make a law was in 1916 + by President Woodrow Wilson. It was said to be an + 'emergency' measure and Congress was encouraged to validate + it. They did. + The door was now open to ignore the Constitution. + This is the same method used by Franklin Roosevelt in + 1933 to close all the banks in the country. Remember our + gold? Americans were ordered to turn in all their gold to + local banks. AFTER this was done, King Roosevelt, by exec- + utive order, raised the value of an ounce of gold from + $20.00 to $35.00! Guess who that benefitted? International + bankers and central banks around the world . . that's who. + Americans who turned in their gold were royally screwed. + What are the duties of the executive branch? To make + laws or to see that they are faithfully executed? + Nothing in our Constitution allows the president to + pass a law or make a law under any circumstances. Nor is + there any suggestion that the Congress can delegate their + lawmaking authority to the executive branch, emergency or no + emergency! + Yet they have done it and they continue to do it + without any permission in the Constitution or any amendment. + How do they ignore their oath to uphold and support the + Constitution? Why not ask them? + Let's explore their law making activities . . . govern- + ment uses a publication called the Federal Register where + all regulations are published daily. (Regulations? Where + the hell did that come from?) This publication amounts to + more than 70,000 pages a year. Here is where the executive + orders are published. + When they appear, they remain in limbo for 30 days and + the Congress or any citizen can write and object to it. + 70,000 pages a year would take a full-time staff member of + each member of the Congress to watch and study these + 'regulations'. Congress pays no attention to the Federal + Register. + At the end of the required thirty days, all these + regulations become 'law' and have the full effect of law! + There are occasions where these are challenged in courts + when they have affected some individual and a few have been +  + overturned. See how simple they have made it? Write it, + put it in a federal publication and if no one says anything + about it, it mysteriously becomes law. + All sorts of regulations from every division of the + executive branch are published in the Federal Register and + this is where all the goodies are listed. If you doubt the + 'laws' in the Federal Register have teeth, write the Govern- + ment Printing Office and request a copy. + What happened to the concept that only the Congress can + make a law? Did you say it was OK or was there an amendment + passed by the people allowing this to go on? + Now let's look at some of the real dirty work they have + done with executive orders. . There are over 12,000 laws of + this type on the books now. Congress, when asked, does not + even know what they are. This is our lawmaking body. Part + of the government that is supposed to "establish justice, + insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, + promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of lib- + erty" . . . snicker, snicker . . . + This one is really scary . . . A blueprint for a dicta- + torship! + Executive Order No. 11921 was published in the Federal + Register in June 1976 and updated since. This is the mas- + ter plan for tyranny and the death of our Constitution. + All the President has to do is declare a national + emergency and big brother will or can take over every form + of newspaper, radio and television stations. They will + confiscate your CB's, weapons, tell you where to live, work, + how much food you can have, establish rationing and + price controls. In effect, they can declare martial law and + you will not be able to do anything about it. Neither can + the Congress. + Can you imagine a law like this on the books in this + country? + All they are waiting for is a certain set of + circumstances and someone who wants to be a dictator and + away we go. + If you haven't heard or read about Executive Orders, + this one especially, let me break the bad news. It's on the + books. + Most bureaucrats and their egghead lackeys, when asked + about this executive order, will say it only concerns the + orderly control of the country if we have a nuclear attack. + This is a cockeyed lie! + The opening words of Executive Order 11921 are blunt: + "WHEREAS our national security is dependent upon our ability + to assure continuity of government, at every level, in any + national emergency type situation that might conceivably + confront the nation; and WHEREAS effective national + preparedness planning to meet such an emergency, including a + massive nuclear attack. . ." + Look closely at the words they are using, "any national + emergency . . . including massive nuclear . . . " is + clear.  + They can decide what the emergency is and it does NOT + have to be nuclear attack. + Congressional investigators began to look into this + subject and found 470 special statutes which can be invoked + by the President in a declared national emergency. Where + the hell did they find the power for him to be able to + declare a national emergency? + Senator Mathias testified before a House Judiciary + committee in 1975: + "Under the authority delegated by these statutes, the + President may seize property; organize and control the means + of production; seize commodities; assign military forces + abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all trans- + portation and communication; regulate the operation of + private enterprise; restrict travel; and in a plethora of + particular ways, control the lives of all American + citizens." + This is only the frosting . . . Wait until we look at + the real powers they will have when they decide which day + will be 'X-Day'. + How can this be? From this 1975 testimony, Congress is + aware of what can be done yet they do nothing to control + this power. Are they all part of this 'mutual admiration + society' in the cesspool known as Washington DC? Most will + probably tell you "I don't know this, so it must be false." + Where did we go wrong? How did they assume this power in + absolute violation of the Constitution and all the oaths + they have taken before they took office? + + What was it the President swore? "That I will faith- + fully execute the office of the President of the United + States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, + protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." + + Is this preserving, protecting and defending the + Constitution? Is their oath just a bunch of words to be + recited when they take office? If he were going to do what + his oath requires, why hasn't a president told Congress to + pass a law abolishing executive orders? + Why hasn't the Congress simply taken the lawmaking + ability away from the president? Why hasn't Congress + assumed their duties as required by the Constitution? + Looks like we have allowed things to get away from us in + the last few years, doesn't it? What do our kids have to + look forward to if we don't stop this horse dung now? + Let's take a look at some of the powers they will + assume if there is "any national emergency, including + nuclear attack": + Part 9-Department of Commerce + Section 901. Resume of Responsibilities. The Secretary + of Commerce shall prepare national emergency plans and + develop preparedness programs covering: + (1) The production and distribution of all materials, the + use of all production facilities (except those owned by, +  + controlled by, or under the jurisdiction of the Department + of Defense or the Atomic Energy Commission), the control of + all construction materials, and the furnishing of basic in- + dustrial services except those otherwise assigned, in- + cluding: + (a) Production and distribution of and use of facilities + for petroleum, solid fuels, gas, electric power and water; + (b) Production, processing, distribution, and storage of + food resources and the use of food resource facilities for + such production, processing, distribution and storage; + (c) Domestic distribution of farm equipment and fer- + tilizer; + (d) Use of communications services and facilities, + housing and lodging facilities, and health, education, and + welfare facilities; + (e) Production, and related distribution, of minerals as + defined in Subsection 702(5), and source materials as + defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; and + the construction and use of facilities designated as + within the responsibilities of the Secretary of the + Interior; + (f) Distribution of items in the supply systems of, or + controlled by, the Department of Defense and the Atomic + Energy Commission; + (g) Construction, use, and management of civil aviation + facilities; and + (h) Construction, use and management of highways, + streets, and appurtenant structures; and + (i) Domestic distribution of health resources. + + Scary? Unbelievable? You bet it is. And this is on + the books right now just waiting for the moment to declare + any type of national emergency. + Do you believe for a moment that we will still be using + our computers with the freedom we enjoy today? Chuckle . . + Let's just suppose there were several major bank + failures and powers that be decided that they couldn't + afford any more failures. A national emergency was called. + Under part 17 of the same executive order, they will + take over the complete supervision of all banks and banking + operations . . . To the point that they will decide if you + can take any money out of your account. They will demand to + know what you will spend it for and decide how much you can + have. However, if they do not have enough funds to give + the full amount, they can ration the funds. If they + figure you want your money to hoard it, they can simply + refuse to give it to you. Cute? + This includes all banking facilities, so don't feel + safe just because your money is in a credit union. They + have everything covered! Each check they honor for over + $1000 will have to have both sides photographed and of + course, none of these regulations will apply to any + transactions between banks. Just who does this money belong + to?  + Is it still the United States? Makes you wonder . . . + For those who dabble in the stock market, under part + 25 they will assume the power to close the market, suspend + any redemption rights, freeze prices of stocks and bonds. + Then they will allow it to reopen only when they decide + conditions permit and under their complete control. + Remember when Roosevelt changed the value of an ounce of + gold from $20 to $35? Who benefitted then? Not us. + And for you readers who own property and believe that + property belongs to you, we have a little surprise. Not if + this executive order becomes effective. You will own + nothing then. Here's what Part 22 of the Executive Order + has to say about that: + (9) National industrial reserve and machine tool program. + Develop plans for the custody of the Industrial plants and + production equipment in the national industrial reserve and + assist the Department of Defense, in collaboration with the + Department of Commerce, in the development of plans and + procedures for the disposition, emergency reactivation, and + utilization of the plants and equipment of this reserve in + the custody of the Administrator. + (10) Excess and surplus real and personal property. + Develop plans and emergency operating procedures for the + utilization of excess and surplus real and personal property + by Federal Government agencies with emergency assignments or + by State and local governmental units as directed, including + review of the property holdings of Federal agencies which do + not possess emergency functions to determine the avail- + ability of property for emergency use, and including the + disposal of real and personal property and the rehabilita- + tion of personal property. + What do they mean by excess property? Will they tell + you what of your property is excess? Are these decisions + meant to punish people who had the foresight to put away + coins or food for bad times? If you have been wise enough + to sock these items away, please don't tell anyone. + And what is 'rehabilitation of personal property?' If + someone doesn't like the way you use your property, will + they take it from you and give it to someone else? + Rehabilitation is 'restoring to good operation or good + management'. + Are these powers we granted to the central government + under the Constitution? Where do they get the idea that + they can issue Executive Orders and decide a certain day + that the Constitution is dead? + Did you notice that the Department of Commerce will + take over all housing and lodging facilities, does that mean + your home also? Maybe it also needs rehabilitation? + They will assume control of all health, education and + welfare facilities. You'd better believe it will include + all schools, public and private, elementary and secondary. + There will be no arguments about school prayer or momentary + silence anymore. The decision will be made for us. + The implications are staggering. This is a blueprint +  + for a dictatorship and slavery. No, I haven't been smoking + loco weed . . . this is for real. + Plans are all set "to assist civilian educational + institutions, both public and private, to adjust to demands + laid on them by a large expansion of government activities + during any type of emergency. This includes advice and + assistance to schools, colleges, universities, and other + educational institutions whose facilities may be temporarily + needed for Federal, State, or local programs in an emer- + gency." + Wonder what they mean by "adjust to demands laid upon + them by a large expansion of government activities?" Again + notice the special words: "during any type of emergency." + They didn't even mention major nuclear attack. + Since "large expansion of government activities" is not + defined, do they have any limitation? All this is in store + for American citizens. + They have established what they call the 'Federal + Preparedness Agency' under the General Services Administra- + tion which has the responsibility to see that this program + is carried out. We should keep our eye on the GSA. + Better yet, get after Congress to get this law making + ability taken away from the executive branch of government. + This program of executive orders is the most dangerous + weapon in the hands of government designed to make us all + slaves. If "X" day is called, America will be no more and + we will be powerless to do anything about it. Our action + has to be NOW. Waiting one day too long will be one day too + late. + Many will not believe this could happen in our country. + Write Congress and raise questions about this. Ask how + they delegated their law making powers to the executive + branch. + Ask where they found this authority. Ask your + Congressman for a copy of this particular executive order. + Imagine 12,000 laws of this type on the books at the + present . . . All without any authority from us. And of + course, no need to tell the American people about these, + they wouldn't understand them anyway. + Is this part of the glory of the position in govern- + ment? Congress has delegated emergency powers to the + president . . . Congress has no power or right to delegate + any of their powers. No where in our Constitution does it + say anything about giving 'emergency powers to the presi- + dent'. + The argument goes that in today's world, time could be + important and the president has to be able to act quickly. + It may be true, however, it cannot be in this country with- + out a grant for that authority from the people. + No where does the right appear to do any thing in case + of a mistake or an emergency. The procedures are well + defined and it is our duty to see that they are observed. + There is no other way in America! + If they feel granting emergency powers is so +  + important, propose an amendment to the Constitution and see + if we will agree to the importance. Of course the amemd- + ment procedure is slow and cumbersome. It was meant to be + that way. We have ordained and established the authority + for our government and only we can agree to changes. + Just because a practice has been used for a long period + does not make it right. If the practice was unconstitu- + tional when it began, it is still unconstitutional. + George Washington wrote in his Farewell Address: "The + basis of our political systems is the right of the people to + make and alter their constitutions of government. But the + constitution which at the time exists till changed by an + explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly + obligatory upon all." + He plainly recognized the basis for our government. + When did this change occur? It has been said that tyranny + comes on slowly. Before anyone realizes it, it's present. + Is that what we have today? + Is this the vehicle to make our sovereignty disappear + and for the USA to become a full fledged member of the + United Nations under Bush's New World Order? + + + PLEASE READ THE 'SALES PITCH' CHAPTER. THANKS!  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/exist.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/exist.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c7dab3b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/exist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,218 @@ +EXISTENTIALISM Downloaded from The Void, Auckland 699-579 +************** + +First a word of warning, this bulletin is more than 200 lines in length. +Below is an article writen by Jean-Paul Sartre, first published as +"A More Precise Characterization of Existentialism" in a newspaper called +"Action", December 29, 1944. Satre is commonly considered to be the +most important of this centuries existentialists. He wrote the article +as a reply to various criticisms of existentialism that were common at the +time. I have reproduced a translation of it here, mainly because it gives +a very clear statement of the central themes of existentialist philosophy. + + * * * * * + +Newspapers - including "Action" itself - are only too willing these days to +publish articles attacking existentialism. 'Action' has already been kind +enough to ask me to reply. I doubt that many readers will be interested in +the debate; they have many more urgent concerns. Yet if, among the persons +who might have found principles of thinking and rules of conduct in this +philosophy but have been dissuaded by these absurd criticisms, there were +just one I could reach and straighten out, it would still be worth for him. +In any case I want to make it clear that I am replying in my own name only: +I would hesitate to involve other existentialists in this polemic. + +What do you reproach us for? To begin with, for being inspired by Heidigger, +a German and a Nazi philosopher. Next for preaching, in the name of +existentialism, a quietism of anguish. Are we not trying to corrupt the +youth and turn it aside from action by urging it to cultivate a refined +dispair? Are we not upholding nihilistic doctrines (for an editorial writer +in L'Aube, the proof is that I entitled a book "Being and Nothingness". +Nothingness; imagine!) during these years when everything has to be redone +or simply done, when the war is still going on, and when each man needs all +the strength that he has to win it and to win the peace? Finally your third +complaint is that existentialism likes to poke about in muck and is much +readier to show men's wickedness and baseness than their higher feelings. + +I'll give it to you straight: your attacks seem to me to stem from ignorance +and bad faith. It's not even certain that you have read any of the books +you're talking about. You need a scapegoat because you bless so many things +you can't help chewing out someone from time to time. You've picked +existentialism because it's an abstract doctrine few people know, and you +think no one will verify what you say. But I am going to reply to your +accusations point by point. + +Heiddegger was a philosopher well before he was a Nazi. His adherence to +Hitlerism is to be explained by fear, perhaps ambition, and certainly +conformism. Not pretty to look at, I agree; but enough to invalidate your +neat reasoning. "Heidegger," you say, "is a member of the National Socialist +Party; thus his philosophy must be Nazi." That's not it: Heidegger has no +character; there's the truth of the matter. Are you going to have the nerve +to conclude from this that his philosophy is an apology for cowardice? Don't +you know that sometimes a man does not come up to the level of his works? +And are you going to condemn "The Social Contract" because Rousseau +abandoned his children? And what difference does Heidegger make anyhow? If +we discover our own thinking in that of another philosopher, if we ask him +for techniques and methods that can give us access to new problems, does +this mean that we espouse every one of his theories? Marx borrowed his +dialectic from Hegel. Are you going to say that "Capital" is a Prussian +work? We've seen the deplorable consequences of ecconomic autarky; let's +not fall into intellectual autarky. + +During the Occupation, the slavish newspapers used to lump together the +existentialists and the philosophers of the absurd in the same reproving +breath. A venomous little ill-manered pedant named Alberes, who wrote for +the Petainist "Echo des etudiants", used to yap at our heals every week. +In those days this kind of obfuscation was to be expected; the lower and +stupider the blow, the happier we were. + +But why have you taken up the methods of the Vichyssoise press again? + +Why this helter-skelter way of writing if it's not because the confusion +you create makes it easier for you to attack both philosophies at once? The +philosophy of the absurd is coherent and profound. Albert Camus has shown +that he was big enough to defend it all by himself. I too shall speak all by +myself for existentialism. Have you ever defined it for your readers? And +yet it's rather simple. + +In philosophical terminology, every object has an essence and an existence. +An essence is an intelligible and unchanging unity of properties; an +existence is a certain actual presence in the world. Many people think +that the essence comes first and then the existence: that peas, for example, +grow and become round in conformity with the idea of peas, and that gherkins +are gherkins because they participate in the essence of gherkins. This idea +originated in religious thought: it is a fact that the man who wants to +build a house has to know exactly what kind of object he's going to +create - essence precedes existence - and for all those who believe that +God created men, he must have done so by refering to his idea of them. But +even those who have no religious faith have maintained this traditional view +that the object never exists except in conformity with its existence; and +everyone in the eighteenth century thoght that all men had a common essence +called 'human nature'. Existentialism, on the contrary, maintains that in +man - and in man alone - existence precedes essense. + +This simply means that man first 'is', and only subsequently is this orthat. +In a word, man must create his own essense: it is in throwing himself into +the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines +himself. And the definition always remains open ended: we cannot say what +this man is before he dies, or what mankind is before it has disappeared. +It is absurd in this light to ask whether existentialism is facist, +conservative, Communist, or democratic. At this level of generality +existentialism is nothing but a certain way of envisaging human questions by +refusing to grant man an eternally established nature. It used to be, in +Kierkegaard's thought, on par with religious faith. Today, French +existentialism tends to be accompanied by a declaration of atheism, but this +is not absolutely neccessary. All I can say - without wanting to insist too +much on the similarities - is that it isn't too far from the conception of +man found in Marx. For is it not a fact that Marx would accept "this motto +of ours for man: make, and in making make yourself, and be nothing but what +you have made of yourself?" + +Since existentialism defines man by action, it is evident that this +philosophy is not a quietism. In fact, man cannot help acting; his thoughts +are projects and commitments, his feelings are undertakings, he is nothing +other than his life, and his life is the unity of his behavior. "But what +about anguish?" you'll say. Well, this rather solemn word refers to a very +simple everyday reality. If man 'is' not but 'makes himself', and if in +making himself he makes himself responsible for the whole species - if there +is no value or morality given a priori, so that we must in every instance +decide alone and without any basis or guide lines, yet 'for everyone' - how +could we possibly help feeling anguished when we have to act? Each of our +acts puts the world's meaning and man's place in the universe in question. +With each of them, whether we want to or not, we constitute a universal +scale of values. And you want us not to be seized with fear in the face of +such a total responsibility? Ponge, in a very beautiful piece of writing, +said that man is the future of man. The future is not yet created, not yet +decided upon. We are the ones who will make it; each of our gestures will +help fashion it. It would take a lot of pharisaism to avoid anguished +awareness of the formidable mission given to each of us. But you people, +in order to refute us more convincingly, you people have deliberately +confused anguish and neurasthenia, making who knows what pathological terror +out of this virile uneasiness extistentialism speaks of. Since I have to dot +my i's, I'll say then that 'anguish, far from being an obstacle to action, +is the very condition for it, and is identicle with the sense of that +crushing responsibility of all before all which is the source of both our +torment and our granduer.' + +As for despair, we have to understand one another. It's true that man would +be wrong 'to hope'. But what does this mean except that hope is the greatest +impediment to action? Should we hope that the war will stop all by itself +without us, that the Nazis will extend the hand of friendship to us, that +the privilaged of capitalist society will give up their privilages in the +joy of a new "night of August 4"? If we hope for all of this, all we have +to do is cross our arms and wait. Man cannot will unless he has first +understood that he can count on nothing but himself: that he is alone, left +alone on earth in the middle of his infinite responsibilities, with neither +help nor succor, with no other goal but the one he will set for himself, +with no other destiny but the one he will forge on this earth. It is this +certainty, this intuitive understanding of his situation, that we call +despair. You can see that it is no fine romantic frenzy but the sharp lucid +conciousness of the human condition. 'Just as anguish is indistinguishable +from a sense of responsiblity, despair is inseparable from will.' With +dispair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, +who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in +counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all. + +Are you going to condemn existentialism for saying men are free? But you +need that freedom, all of you. You hide it from yourselves hypocritically, +and yet you incessantly come back to it in spite of yourselves. When you +have explained a man's behavior by its causes, by his social situation and +his interests, you suddenly become indignant at him and you bitterly reproach +him for his conduct. And there are other men, on the contrary, whom you +admire and whose acts serve as models for you. All right then, that means +you don't compare the bad ones to plant lice and the good ones to useful +animals. If you blame them, or praise them, you do so because they could have +acted differently. The class struggle is a fact to which I subscribe +completely, but how can you fail to see that it is situated on the level of +freedom? You call us social traitors, saying that our conception of freedom +keeps man from loosening his chains. What stupidity! When we say a man who's +out of work is free, we don't mean that he can do whatever he wants and +change himself into a rich and tranquil bourgeois on the spot. 'He is free +because he can always choose to accept his lot with resignation or to rebel +against it.' And undoubtably he will be unable to avoid great poverty; but +in the very midst of his destitution, which is dragging him under, he is +able to choose to struggle - in his own name and in the name of +others - against all forms of destitution. He can also choose to be a man +who refuses to let destitution be man's lot. Is a man a social traitor just +because from time to time he remindes others of these basic truths? Then the +Marx who said, "We want to change the world," and who in this simple +sentence said that man is master of his destiny, is a social traitor. Then +all of you are social traitors, because that's what you think too just as +soon as you let go the apron strings of a materialism that was useful once +but now has gotten old. And if you didn't think so, then man would be a +thing - a bit of carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and nothing more - and you +wouldn't have to lift a finger for him. + +You tell me that I work in filth. That's what Alain Laubreaux used to say, +too. I could refrain from answering here, because this reproach is dirrected +at me as a person and not an existentialist. But you are so quick to +generalize that I must nevertheless defend myself for fear that the +opprobrium you cast upon me will redound to the philosophy I have adopted. +There is only one thing to say: I don't trust people who claim that +literature uplifts them by displaying noble sentiments, people who want the +theater to give them a 'show' of heroism and purity. What they really want +is to be pursuaded that it's easy to do good. Well no! It isn't easy. +Vichyssoise literature and, alas, some of today's literature would like to +make us think it is: it's so nice to be self satisfied. But it's an outright +lie. Heroism, greatness, generosity, abnegation; I agree that there is +nothing better and that in the end they are all what make sense out of human +action. But if you pretend that all a person has to do to be a hero is to +belong to the 'ajistes,' the 'jocistes,' or a political party you favour, +to sing innocent songs and go to the country on Sundays, you are cheapening +the virtues that you claim to uphold and are simply making fun of everyone. + +Have said enough to make it clear that 'existentialism is no mournful +delectation but a humanist philosophy of action, effort, combat, solidarity? +After my attempt to make things clear, will we still find journalists making +allusions to the "despair of our eminent ones" and other claptrap? We'll +see. I want to tell my critics openly: it all depends on you now. After all +you're free too. And those of you who are fighting for the Revolution, as we +think we are fighting too: you are just as able as we are to decide whether +it shall be made in good or bad faith. The case of existentialism, an +abstract philosophy upheld by a few powerless men, is very slight and +scarcely worthy. But in this case as in thousands of others, depending on +whether you keep on lying about it or do it justice even as you attack it, +you will decide what man shall be. May you grasp this fact and feel a little +salutary anguish. + + * * * * * diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/existgod.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/existgod.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..06930de4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/existgod.txt @@ -0,0 +1,521 @@ + 8 page printout + + V. + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + + A DISCOURSE AT THE SOCIETY OF THEOPHILANTHROPISTS, + PARIS. + + [NOTE: Theophilanthropy, in its six years in France, gave rise +to a considerable literature, of which Paine's account, in the +Letter to Erskine, is the friendliest chapter. The wrath with which +the Catholic Church saw this Theistic Church and Ethical Society +sharing its edifices, even Notre Dame, has been transmitted even to +Protestant dictionaries, and Napoleon I. has won some repute for +piety by their ejection. As to this, an anecdote is related in the +Theophilanthropist (New York, 1810). M. Dupuis, author of "The +Origin of all Religious Worship," reproached Napoleon for +reinstating Catholicism, and Napoleon said that "as for himself, he +did not believe that such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed; +but as the people were inclined to superstition, he thought proper +not to oppose them." "This fact," adds the Theophilanthropist, "Mr. +Dupuis related to Thomas Paine and Chancellor Livingston, then +Minister of the United States in Paris, as the former informed the +writer of this note." This note was probably written by Colonel +John Fellows, who with other friends of Paine had formed in New +York a Society free from the defects which their departed leader +had seen developed in the movement in Paris. Of the Society in +Paris he was one of the founders (Sherwin's "Life of Paine," p. +180. Henri Gregoire's "Histoire des Sectes," tom. i., livre 2), and +his Discourse was probably read at their first public meeting, +January 16, 1797. Mr. J.G. Alger, to whom I am indebted for various +information, sends me a list of the meetings of the Society in +1797, by which it appears that this first meeting was in the St. +Catherine Hospital, and no meeting was held elsewhere until June +25. Paine's Discourse speaks of the Society (formed in September, +1796) as "in its infancy," as without enemies, and in no danger of +persecution, which could hardly have been said after the first +public meeting; be proposes a plan of procedure; and he does not +allude to the swift development of the Society, after the President +Larevelliere-Lepeaux had eulogized it (May 2). The first volume of +the "Annee Religieuse des Theophilantropes" (whose table of +contents Paine enclosed with his Letter to Erskine) extends into +September, 1797, and Paine's Discourse is not mentioned, nor was it +ever translated into French. The probable reason of this is +suggested by Count Gregoire ("Hist. des Sectes"), who says: "Thomas +Payne, qui adressa une lettre aux Theophilantropes, eut ete regarde +comme profes s'il ne les avait censures sur divers points." What +were these different points to which Paine objected cannot be +gathered from Gregoire, a rather hostile historian of the movement +though the best authority as to its personnel: this very Discourse, +as well as Paine's other writings, will sufficiently suggest the +misgivings he felt at the ceremonies which soon invested a religion +which seemed to grow out of "Le Siecle de la Raison," and beside +whose cradle he watched with his friends Bernardin St. Pierre and +Dupuis. The St. Catharine Hospital had been allotted to the blind, +early in the Revolution, and their instructor, M. Hauy, was also +the manager of the Theophilanthropic services there. Grigoire says +that Hally never really ceased to be a Roman Catholic. Instead of +the scientific lectures and apparatus of Paine's programme for the +Society, the Theophilanthropists were seen laying floral offerings + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +on altars, and occupied with ceremonies in which those of the +Church were blended with those of Robespierre's adoration of the +Supreme Being. These developments had not gone very far when Paine +wrote his Letter to Erskine, but it will be observed that near the +close of that letter he remarks on the silence of the +Theophilanthropists concerning the things they do not profess to +believe, such as the "sacredness of the books called the Bible, +etc," adding, "The author of the 'Age of Reason' gives reasons for +everything he disbelieves as well as for those he believes." (Cf. +A sentence at the end of the third paragraph of the "Precise +History," in the preceding chapter.) + + As for this Discourse of Paine's it appears to be a +composition of early life with two or three paragraphs added. The +use of the word "infidelity" in the first paragraph, to describe a +philosophical opinion, could not have been written after his +profound definition in the 'Age of Reason:' "Infidelity does not +consist in believing or disbelieving; it consists in pretending to +believe what he does not believe." It is still more crude as +compared with Part 11. of the 'Age of Reason' in which the moral +nature of man is part of the foundation of his faith in deity. The +Discourse is a digest of Newton's Letters to Bentley, in which he +postulates a divine power as necessary to explain planetary motion, +and its literary style appears more like Paine's articles in his +Pennsylvania Magazine in the early months of 1775 than like the +works written after the American Revolution had, as he states, made +him an author. In my Introduction to the 'Age of Reason' I +mentioned that this Discourse was circulated in England as a +religious tract ("Atheism Refuted"); my copy of which is marked +with sharp contradictions by some freethinker, unaware that he is +criticising Paine. A Discourse so harmless was naturally welcomed +by the deistical booksellers, just after the conviction of +Williams, and it was detached from the Letter to Erskine and +published by Rickman (1798) with three quotations in the title, +among these, "I had as lief have the foppery of Freedom, as the +Morality of Imprisonment." -- Shakespeare. This cheap pamphlet +(4d.) had a page of inscription in capitals and uneven lines. -- +"The following little Discourse is dedicated to the Enemies of +Thomas Paine, by one who has known him long, and intimately, and +who is convinced that he is the enemy of no man. By a well wisher +to the whole wurld. By one who thinks that Discussion should be +unlimited, that all coercion is error; and that human beings should +adopt no other conduct towards each other but an appeal to truth +and reason. -- CLIO." + + In the present volume the Discourse is printed, like the +Letter to Erskine, from Paine's own original Paris edition. -- +Editer. (Conway)] + + RELIGION has two principal enemies, Fanatism and Infidelity, +or that which is called Atheism. The first requires to be combated +by reason and morality, the other by natural philosophy. + + The existence of a God is the first dogma of the +Theophilanthropists. It is upon this subject that I solicit your +attention; for though it has been often treated of, and that most +sublimely, the subject is inexhaustible; and there will always + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +remain something to be said that has not been before advanced. I go +therefore to open the subject, and to crave your attention to the +end. + + The Universe is the bible of a true Theophilanthropist. It is +there that he reads of God. It is there that the proofs of his +existence are to be sought and to be found. As to written or +printed books, by whatever name they are called, they are the works +of man's hands, and carry no evidence in themselves that God is the +author of any of them. It must be in something that man could not +make that we must seek evidence for our belief, and that something +is the universe, the true Bible, -- the inimitable work of God. + + Contemplating the universe, the whole system of Creation, in +this point of light, we shall discover, that all that which is +called natural philosophy is properly a divine study. It is the +study of God through his works. It is the best study, by which we +can arrive at a knowledge of his existence, and the only one by +which we can gain a glimpse of his perfection. + + Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the +immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We +see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible +WHOLE is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We +see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want +to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that +abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know +what GOD is? Search not written or printed books, but the Scripture +called the 'Creation.' + + It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and +all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as +accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, +or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all +the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or +invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he +ought to look through the discovery to the author. + + When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an +astonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue, or an +highly finished painting, where life and action are imitated, and +habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for +cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the +extensive genius and talents of the artist. When we study the +elements of geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of +gravitation, we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study +the works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think +of GOD? It is from the error of the schools in having taught those +subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the study +of them from the 'Being' who is the author of them. + + The schools have made the study of theology to consist in the +study of opinions in written or printed books; whereas theology +should be studied in the works or books of the creation. The study +of theology in books of opinions has often produced fanatism, +rancour, and cruelty of temper; and from hence have proceeded the +numerous persecutions, the fanatical quarrels, the religious + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +burnings and massacres, that have desolated Europe. But the study +of theology in the works of the creation produces a direct contrary +effect. The mind becomes at once enlightened and serene, a copy of +the scene it beholds: information and adoration go hand in hand; +and all the social faculties become enlarged. + + The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in +teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been +that of generating in the pupils a species of Atheism. Instead of +looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they +stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts +of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe +every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump +over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal. + + Let us examine this subject; it is worth examining; for if we +examine it through all its cases, the result will be, that the +existence of a SUPERIOR CAUSE, or that which man calls GOD, will be +discoverable by philosophical principles. + + In the first place, admitting matter to have properties, as we +see it has, the question still remains, how came matter by those +properties? To this they will answer, that matter possessed those +properties eternally. This is not solution, but assertion; and to +deny it is equally as impossible of proof as to assert it. It is +then necessary to go further; and therefore I say, -- if there +exist a circumstance that is 'not' a property of matter, and +without which the universe, or to speak in a limited degree, the +solar system composed of planets and a sun, could not exist a +moment, all the arguments of Atheism, drawn from properties of +matter, and applied to account for the universe, will be +overthrown, and the existence of a superior cause, or that which +man calls God, becomes discoverable, as is before said, by natural +philosophy. + + I go now to shew that such a circumstance exists, and what it +is. + + The universe is composed of matter, and, as a system, is +sustained by motion. Motion is 'not a property' of matter, and +without this motion, the solar system could not exist. Were motion +a property of matter, that undiscovered and undiscoverable thing +called perpetual motion would establish itself. It is because +motion is not a property of matter, that perpetual motion is an +impossibility in the hand of every being but that of the Creator of +motion. When the pretenders to Atheism can produce perpetual +motion, and not till then, they may expect to be credited. + + The natural state of matter, as to place, is a state of rest. +Motion, or change of place, is the effect of an external cause +acting upon matter. As to that faculty of matter that is called +gravitation, it is the influence which two or more bodies have +reciprocally on each other to unite and be at rest. Every thing +which has hitherto been discovered, with respect to the motion of +the planets in the system, relates only to the laws by which motion +acts, and not to the cause of motion. Gravitation, so far from +being the cause of motion to the planets that compose the solar + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +system, would be the destruction of the solar system, were +revolutionary motion to cease; for as the action of spinning +upholds a top, the revolutionary motion upholds the planets in +their orbits, and prevents them from gravitating and forming one +mass with the sun. In one sense of the word, philosophy knows, and +atheism says, that matter is in perpetual motion. But the motion +here meant refers to the state of matter, and that only on the +surface of the earth. It is either decomposition, which is +continually destroying the form of bodies of matter, or +recomposition, which renews that matter in the same or another +form, as the decomposition of animal or vegetable substances enter +into the composition of other bodies. But the motion that upholds +the solar system is of an entire different kind, and is not a +property of matter. It operates also to an entire different effect. +It operates to 'perpetual preservation,' and to prevent any change +in the state of the system. + + Giving then to matter all the properties which philosophy +knows it has, or all that atheism ascribes to it, and can prove, +and even supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account for +the system of the universe, or of the solar system, because it will +not account for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. When, +therefore, we discover a circumstance of such immense importance, +that without it the universe could not exist, and for which neither +matter, nor any nor all the properties can account, we are by +necessity forced into the rational comformable belief of the +existence of a cause superior to matter, and that cause man calls +GOD. + + As to that which is called nature, it is no other than the +laws by which motion and action of every kind, with respect to +unintelligible matter, is regulated. And when we speak of looking +through nature up to nature's God, we speak philosophically the +same rational language as when we speak of looking through human +laws up to the power that ordained them. + + God is the power of first cause, nature is the law, and matter +is the subject acted upon. + + But infidelity, by ascribing every phmnomenon to properties of +matter, conceives a system for which it cannot account, and yet it +pretends to demonstration. It reasons from what it sees on the +surface of the earth, but it does not carry itself on the solar +system existing by motion. It sees upon the surface a perpetual +decomposition and recomposition of matter. It sees that an oak +produces an acorn, an acorn an oak, a bird an egg, an egg a bird, +and so on. In things of this kind it sees something which it calls +a natural cause, but none of the causes it sees is the cause of +that motion which preserves the solar system. + + Let us contemplate this wonderful and stupendous system +consisting of matter, and existing by motion. It is not matter in +a state of rest, nor in a state of decomposition or recomposition. +It is matter systematized in perpetual orbicular or circular +motion. As a system that motion is the life of it: as animation is +life to an animal body, deprive the system of motion, and, as a +system, it must expire. Who then breathed into the system the life + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +of motion? What power impelled the planets to move, since motion is +not a property of the matter of which they are composed? If we +contemplate the immense velocity of this motion, our wonder becomes +increased, and our adoration enlarges itself in the same +proportion. To instance only one of the planets, that of the earth +we inhabit, its distance from the sun, the centre of the orbits of +all the planets, is, according to observations of the transit of +the planet Venus, about one hundred million miles; consequently, +the diameter of the orbit, or circle in which the earth moves round +the sun, is double that distance; and the measure of the +circumference of the orbit, taken as three times its diameter, is +six hundred million miles. The earth performs this voyage in three +hundred and sixty-five days and some hours, and consequently moves +at the rate of more than one million six hundred thousand miles +every twenty-four hours. + + Where will infidelity, where will atheism, find cause for this +astonishing velocity of motion, never ceasing, never varying, and +which is the preservation of the earth in its orbit? It is not by +reasoning from an acorn to an oak, from an egg to a bird, or from +any change in the state of matter on the surface of the earth, that +this can be accounted for. Its cause is not to be found in matter, +nor in any thing we call nature. The atheist who affects to reason, +and the fanatic who rejects reason, plunge themselves alike into +inextricable difficulties. The one perverts the sublime and +enlightening study of natural philosophy into a deformity of +absurdities by not reasoning to the end. The other loses himself in +the obscurity of metaphysical theories, and dishonours the Creator, +by treating the study of his works with contempt. The one is a +half-rational of whom there is some hope, the other a visionary to +whom we must be charitable. + + When at first thought we think of a Creator, our ideas appear +to us undefined and confused; but if we reason philosophically, +those ideas can be easily arranged and simplified. 'It is a Being +whose power is equal to his will.' Observe the nature of the will +of man. It is of an infinite quality. We cannot conceive the +possibility of limits to the will. Observe, on the other hand, how +exceedingly limited is his power of acting compared with the nature +of his will. Suppose the power equal to the will, and man would be +a God. He would will himself eternal, and be so. He could will a +creation, and could make it. In this progressive reasoning, we see +in the nature of the will of man half of that which we conceive in +thinking of God; add the other half, and we have the whole idea of +a being who could make the universe, and sustain it by perpetual +motion; because he could create that motion. + + We know nothing of the capacity of the will of animals, but we +know a great deal of the difference of their powers. For example, +how numerous are the degrees, and bow immense is the difference of +power, from a mite to a man. Since then every thing we see below us +shows a progression of power, where is the difficulty in supposing +that there is, 'at the summit of all things,' a Being in whom an +infinity of power unites with the infinity of the will. When this +simple idea presents itself to our mind, we have the idea of a +perfect Being, that man calls God. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + + It is comfortable to live under the belief of the existence of +an infinite protecting power; and it is an addition to that comfort +to know that such a belief is not a mere conceit of the +imagination, as many of the theories that is called religious are; +nor a belief founded only on tradition or received opinion; but is +a belief deducible by the action of reason upon the things that +compose the system of the universe; a belief arising out of visible +facts: and so demonstrable is the truth of this belief, that if no +such belief had existed, the persons who now controvert it would +have been the persons who would have produced and propagated it; +because by beginning to reason they would have been led to reason +progressively to the end, and thereby have discovered that matter +and the properties it has will not account for the system of the +universe, and that there must necessarily be a superior cause. + + It was the excess to which imaginary systems of religion had +been carried, and the intolerance, persecutions, burnings and +massacres they occasioned, that first induced certain persons to +propagate infidelity; thinking, that upon the whole it was better +not to believe at all than to believe a multitude of things and +complicated creeds that occasioned so much mischief in the world. +But those days are past, persecution hath ceased, and the antidote +then set up against it has no longer even the shadow of apology. We +profess, and we proclaim in peace, the pure, unmixed, comfortable, +and rational belief of a God, as manifested to us in the universe. +We do this without any apprehension of that belief being made a +cause of persecution as other beliefs have been, or of suffering +persecution ourselves. [NOTE: A few years after this was uttered +the TheophiIanthropist Societies were suppressed by Napoleon. -- +Editor.] To God, and not to man, are all men to account for their +belief. + + It has been well observed, at the first institution of this +Society, that the dogmas it professes to believe are from the +commencement of the world; that they are not novelties, but are +confessedly the basis of all systems of religion, however numerous +and contradictory they may be. All men in the outset of the +religion they profess are Theophilanthropists. It is impossible to +form any system of religion without building upon those principles, +and therefore they are not sectarian principles, unless we suppose +a sect composed of all the world. + + I have said in the course of this discourse, that the study of +natural philosophy is a divine study, because it is the study of +the works of God in the creation. If we consider theology upon this +ground, what an extensive field of improvement in things both +divine and human opens itself before us! All the principles of +science are of divine origin. It was not man that invented the +principles on which astronomy, and every branch of mathematics, are +founded and studied. It was not man that gave properties to the +circle and the triangle. Those principles are eternal and +immutable. We see in them the unchangeable nature of the Divinity. +We see in them immortality, an immortality existing after the +material figures that express those properties are dissolved in +dust. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + + The Society is at present in its infancy, and its means are +small; but I wish to hold in view the subject I allude to, and +instead of teaching the philosophical branches of learning as +ornamental accomplishments only, as they have hitherto been taught, +to teach them in a manner that shall combine theological knowledge +with scientific instruction. To do this to the best advantage, some +instruments will be necessary, for the purpose of explanation, of +which the Society is not yet possessed. But as the views of this +Society extend to public good as well as to that of the individual, +and as its principles can have no enemies, means may be devised to +procure them. + + If we unite to the present instruction a series of lectures on +the ground I have mentioned, we shall, in the first place, render +theology the most delightful and entertaining of all studies. In +the next place we shall give scientific instruction to those who +could not otherwise obtain it. The mechanic of every profession +will there be taught the mathematical principles necessary to +render him a proficient in his art; the cultivator will there see +developed the principles of vegetation; while, at the same time, +they will be led to see the hand of God in all these things. + + **** **** + + + + + + + + + + **** **** + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful, +scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of +suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the +Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our +nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and +religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to +the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so +that America can again become what its Founders intended -- + + The Free Market-Place of Ideas. + + The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old, +hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts +and information for today. If you have such books please contact +us, we need to give them back to America. + + **** **** + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/f-fascis.lyr b/textfiles.com/politics/f-fascis.lyr new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b661f0fb --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/f-fascis.lyr @@ -0,0 +1,339 @@ + + Consolidated - Friendly Fascism + + Brutal Equation + + Yo Pistel, activate the bass. One fnal rime make a beat for a +society in decline. Those who want us suppressed will ay to make this my +last repon, but it won't be cut shon. You need to know why this project +failed why the forces oi weakness prevailed. And that we're all trapped in +this vicious cycle. I get on the phone to my friend Michael, his theory's +called Hiphoprisy. Oun is based on the culture industry. Keeping the +public distracted. Paralyzing the artists' Potential impact. While the +fascist elite accumulate all the wealth. And me and my posse sit and +ponder our heslth. Which is failing. Just like our career. But at that +moment our hardness has never been so severe. You can see our career going +down the toilet. \o industry slime is going to spoil it. Then you won't +question my convictions. You'll know music's a contradiction. Where +everybody loses no win situation. Brutal equation. I used to be young like +you but look where that got me. Blink once and now I got a family that I +can't provide for. Get no support fascists shoot us down for sport. Living +hands to mouth on welfare that's absurd, none can sustain this. Your +living condition is unacceptable. You got to make a value change +Fundamental. Wake up and exhibit some maturity. That still don't give you +no job sccurity. You can say "What do you do?"I can tell your whole life +is collapsing around. Don't tell me you're anxiety ridden. I know the +symptoms; the pain is still hidden. Looking at a world of alienation with +no explanation. Brual equation. People! This ain't no job, it's a missinn. +And we don't give a fuck about recognition. They can't censor us with +their threats and psychological war of attrition. Being a commodity is +weak. But it might be our last chance to speak,. Try to get a simple point +across but too often the message is lost. Meanwhile, the industry +continues to grind out the cheeu whiz. if that ain't censorship, I don't +know what is. What can you do when you're too old and too Caucasian? +Brutal equation. This is why your family will starve. Can't pay the rent +so die in your ride. Lose your credibility and clout. Too much self doubt +to get out. What are you going to do to change this violent situation? I +don't know. Brual equation. Anyone can turn politics into exchange. The +point hnwever is to change. We don't play that female degradation. We +won't buy into that exploitation. \ot to get our record played on some +radio station. Word. Brual equation. + + Unity of Oppression + + The history ofoppression. You know we can't erase it in a pop +song but the facts we gotta face it. Men rape women and man rapes the +environment. And people with opposed religious views are violent. How can +we advance with a memory so short. We live in a society that kills animals +for sport. How can we dixuss gender, class, or race when we can't respect +the rights of lesbians and gays. In our efforts to make a difference we +specialize but the contradiction arise we fail to realize the damages done +to the native American singular issues I just don't understand how you can +love one and have hatred for annther you torture your sisters while saying +peace to your brothers. As long as we insist on being so aggressive, we +wili continue to play the role ofthe oppressor. When men and women, +straight and gay, whites and non-whites begin to unite when humans can +treat non-human species with fairness and dignity, then only then is there +unity, of oppression. Gotta understand the concept of unity. A sacrifce +for the price of unity. To all the white liberals and non-white militants +that over-simplify the impact of prejudice. Blame it on the whites and +you're right but it keeps us divided that agenda becomes short sighted. I +hear you condemning all racist sentiments and then I hear you making +anti-Semetic comments. Instead ofallowing only one type ofequality. Place +the blame on each other we should be expanding our scope of understanding +and hope posing some questions and make some suggestions. We don't claim +to speak from a position of authority, we only want one thing and that's +unity of oppression. + + The Sexual Politics of Meat + + The Sexual Politics of Meat + Eating animals acts as mere and representation of patriarchal +values. Meat eating is the re-inscription of male power at every meal. The +patriarchal gaze sees not the fragmented Besh of dead animals but +appetizing food. Vegearian activities counter patriarchal consumption and +challenge the consumption of death. Feminist Vegetarian activity declares +that an alternative world view exists, one which celebrates life rather +than consuming death, one which does not rely on resurrected animals but +empowered people. If meat is a symbol of male dominance then the presence +of meat proclaims the disempowering of women. It takes the notion of +objectifcation one step further not only have we objectified anim%ls but +in objectifying them we take what we want from them and leave the rest out +we leave their death out and we take their bodies we leave images of their +death out but take the meaning of meat and apply it to women. The sexual +politics of meat. We need not choose between one liberation cause and the +other women's rights and animal rights sufTer a common oppression: a +patriarchal world. Male dominance attacks feminism, they say we are bra +burners, they say we are house wreckers, they say we are man-haters. Human +dominance attacks animal rights they say we are terrorists, they say we +are people haters. The sexual politics of meat. + + Typical Male + + Typical male thinks with his dick. The continuing saga of male +controi and domination of psycho-sexual and economic manipulation in our +society. The historical male condition is one of deceptive coercion and +violence and the woman's fate is too often one ofresignation and silence. +The typical male thinks with his dick. That's how he rationalizes shallow +sexual conquest as a means of self expression and fulflment in a world of +alienation and emptiness under modern capitalism. However, the typical +male considers a similarly promiscuous woman a whore, a slut, or a skeez. +The typical male likes a submissive woman, one wh 's into shallow sexual +experience but who's not demanding. A woman who demands respect or demands +commitment in a relationship is often facing rejection by the typical +male. Hiswrically, some of the characteristics of the typical male are as +follows: There is the stereotypical brutal, assaulting, barbaric male. + + The one who's obsessed with violence. The one we see in Hollywood +movies and are most accustomed to. We also have what is known as the +sensitive rapist. The one who wants to feel like there's a mutual +understanding before he entraps the woman in a cycle of co-dependent +sexual service. Then there's the pseudo feminist, who may be committed to +a woman. He may even be involved in the women's movement, but still +oppresses by including his own self serving patriarchal agenda in thc +situation. tle may be from any racial or class background. From any +religious or sexual orientation. All ofthese characteristics may and often +do overlap thereby adding a deceptively complex dimension w the typical +male analysis. The typical male listens to a woman from the position +ofdominance or privilege. What that mcans to the woman is that the typical +malc does not listen. The typical male conditions women to blame +themaelves for a failing relationship or for male infidelity. The typical +male enslaves women in the working pl%ce aa well. Forcing women to +tolerate sexual harassment in exchange for unequal compensation and +status. The typical male is a reactionary, conservative, a Klansman +standing in Operation Rescue picket lines. The typical male is also a +liberal. He supports pro-choice. Why not? He impregnates women and can't +deal with the consequences of parenthood. In a society where the incidence +of rape and sexual assault are staggering, the typical male will still +say, "lf she don't want to get pregnant she shouldn't spread her legs." In +the US alonc, where four women a day are killed by men, and every eighteen +seconds a woman is battered, the typical male still fnd misogynistic music +and comedy appropri%te. In a potentially sexual situation the typical male +cannot act responsibly. The typical male thinks "no means yes." + + + + Dominion + + Meat is good and if you don't like America go live in Russia. +Good comment, you'll make the next record for sure. OK why is meat good? +Meat is good because, well. Apparently y'all are saying, you seem to be +making this radical statement. Radicalism is in, let's get against this, +everybody together, dumb American mentality, OK that's what 1 just got out +of this, well now the new trend is let's be a vegetarian let's be a little +hippychick, Peace love all this shit. Well that's just another way of +following a trend. The Lord God said thou shalt have dominion over the +animals of the eaah he didn't say say thou shalt have dominion over a big +wad of tofu. He also said the men shall have dominion over the women. so +do you believe that, do you huy that line too? (You goddamn right) Thank +you Zero, you're on the next record already. What do you think about that? +I'm serious. It depends on how you interpret it. Ah it sure does. You +interpret dominion as domination? Dominion gives you a right to do what +you want. \o dominion actually means stewardship which actually means +companionship and working tugether, dominion does not mean domination. I +just want to say - why do you think - being a vegetarian is a trend and +meat eating is not a bigger trend to follow. I just want to say one thing +anyone who quotes the bible - that's bullshit I'm sorry, because the bible +is a book that has fucked up the world more than any other single book. A +book that was written by a bunch of male chauvinists. Fine, fine, you have +your opinion and I have mine, you're going to hell and I'm not. Have a +nice life. I'm gonna go to hell with the lid off that's defnitely true, +eh. You've been brain washed into following a male dominated violent trend +and that's eating and killing animals. I don't understand why our +aggression is bad but the aggression of a man like Saddam Hussien is +conscionable. I also don't understand why you can come up here and say +that we are wrong in defending your right to come up here and say what you +want, that's fne I got no problem with that I get paid to do it everyday. +I'm going to the Gulf, a lot ofmy friends are already there...I'm going to +the Gulfso you guys can do this, I'm going to the Gulfyou guys can get the +oil to travel, I'm going to the Gulf so you guys can afford to play your +shows. So, I think you guys are hypocrites and I'd like you to defend +yourselves. Did we not learn something in Vietnam, did we not learn that +it was not a complete waste of human lives, and time and resources? I +don't think we should be there. What we need to do - wait...I'm answering +his question - WE NEED TO FIND ALTERNATlVES TO WAR! Send somebody over... + + Meat Kills + + The driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rain +forests is the American meat habit. The rain forests are cleared then +planted with grass for grazing livestock to create hamburger for fast food +restaurants. More than half of all the water used in the United States is +used for raising animals for food. 25 gallons of water is needed to +produce a pound ofwheat. 2500 gallons ofwater is needed to produce a pound +ofmeat. Dependence on foreign oil is one ofthe principle reasons for CS +intervention in the Persian Gulf. The length of time the world's oil +reserves would last if all humnn beings ate a meat based diet would be +approximately 13 years. The length oftime the world's oil reserves would +last if all human beings ate a plant based diet would be approximately 260 +years. Feedlots and slaughterhouses are both major polluters of rivers and +streams. Filling them with poisonous residues and animal wastes. 250,000 +pounds of animal excrement is produced every second in the CS and there +are no sewage systems to treat the wastes. In l989, over 40% of the +world's grain harvest was fed to animals going to slaughter. If the same +grain was fed directly to human beings, there would be more than enough +grain to feed the entire world. Over ZD million people will die as a +result of malnutrition this ytar. In thc third worid private and +government money has gone to developing cash crops for export while food +production for the poor majority is neglected. 80% of the corn grown in +the CS is fed ro animals raised for food rather than going to hungry +people. On a purely vegetarian diet the world can support a population +many times its present size. On a meat based diet the current world +population could not be sustained. Cattle ranching has always competed +with wildlife. Coyotes and wolves would not be shot and poisoned by +ranchers if people did not eat steak and lambchops. Destroying the +rainforests to raise cattle is causing millions of birds, monkeys, snakes +and other species to lose their homes and lives. In the US this year alone +thirty seven and one half million cattle, eighty fve and one half million +pigs, five and one half million sheep, two hundred forty two million +turkeys, four billion, une hundred fony seven million chickens will be +murdered for thc taste of their Resh. Pain, frustration, stress, fear, +abuse, neglect, and deprivation are realities of the raising of animals in +today's factory farms. Animals are artiFcially inseminated, fed growth +hormones, overcrowded, chained and caged. Raising livestock for profit is +a competitive business. Being humane means costs will go up. These animals +are kicked, prodded, electroshocked, dragged, and finally transported to +their deaths. A vegetarian diet promotes superior health, endurance, and +longevity. Animal products have 3 nutritional disadvantages. They contain +too much protein, too much fat, and no fber. Do not believe the protein +myth. It was based on a study done by the meat and dairy industries to +rats, animals who need 1000 times more protein in their diet than humans. + + Stoned + + We live in America in the 90's. We get no fulfliment except from +commodities. Why is it we derive no satisfaction from things based on +human interaction? When there's no reality, there's nothing to escape +from. If it makes you stupid you've got to have some. Doesn't matter if +you stick it in your hole or smoke it in a bowl. America you know you're +so stoned. Stoned on television, music, and print. Stoned on alcohol, +religion, and drugs. Terms like freedom and democracy. Stoned on violence +and a war economy. Stoned on a nation's addiction to meat. Stoned on a +nation's addiction to oil. America is based out of its mind. + + + + Friendly Fascism + + Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the end of the twentieth century +and the arrival of friendly fascism. Regrettably, millions will die as +before. But just think of the tremendous selection and savings you'll +gain. Of course the loss of freedom and democracy are tragedies, I know, +but consider the enterainment value contained within and to remind you, it +is you, the people, who have mandated this course of our fate so please +come with me...l.ook at the new face of power in America. This is your +future you can never leave. Who said tyranny can't be fun? Ftiendly +fascism having so much fun, what else do you need? You'll learn to like +what you must do. Ifyou resist you are suppressed. You are told who to +fght and when by Bush the Nazi Fascist Friend. Alienating technology wipes +out our sense ofcommunity. Millions will die just like before. We +disconnect and start the war. We make life a commodity. We turn animals +into machines. Kinder and gentler slaughter house. Big business and big +government distract us with entertainment. They manufacture our consent +while we destroy the environment. + + College Radio + + College Radio, you make me feel so different now and even though +during the day you're a stock broker but at night we read french symbolist +poetry. Oh girl together we can change the worid or at least the music +industry. Alternative, progressive. the cutting edge. And girl with you I +feel so safe and liberal and you could never be a fascist I know College +Radio you wouldn't lie to me and turn out to be a top forty station that's +been bought by the major labels...? Yeah. Ycah. Yeah. College Radio. + + We Gotta Have Peace + + America #1 is a lie still, How many innocent people are killed? +Do our soldiers believe in the fascism? No, they couldn't get a job, so +they had to go get ground up in Bush's war machine. What the fuck do the +polls on TV mean? We won't give our consent to blow up foreign soil, no +blood for oil. + + Chorus: + + War, what is it good for? Nothing, Absolutely nothing. Nothing +from nothing leaves nothing. You've gotta have something. You gotta have +peace. January 15, I99I, the deadline Curious George gave Saddam Hussein +to evacuate his troops from Kuwait...Ah. yes Curious Ceorge Bush, the same +Curious George that vetoed the civil rights bili, ironic enough the birth +date of Dr. Martin Luther King, the drum major for peace. War is not the +answer. I don't understand it, it makes my blood boil on foreign soil, +trading blood for oil. How many heroes will there be from this war, what +ehe heil are we really fghting for? Why in the hell should I serve my time +for SAM when SAM don't givc a damnl Here's an opportunity for peace and +unit.y. Cease fre in the middle East, it's time to increase peace. The +ISth ofa new decade, midnight even though I prayed. There's a war goin' on +across the sea. it's not a war for Democracy. Crusading Rap Cuys + + Oh no here they come again whining and complaining about the sate +of the world. They're criticizing everything where else could they go and +get away with saying these things? They're always on their soapbox telling +us things we already know. Life is hard enough and we don't want this +serious shit. We just want to party. We just want to have a good time. +Nauseating middle class white guys in a political band. Annoying commie +sympathizing feminist vegearians. They're hypocrites and liberals and +worst of all they're on a major label. All of you crusading rap guys +you're such a downer. They say they don't like censorship but they won't +let us slam dance at their shows. + + White American Male `91 (The truth hurts) Part 2 + + I'm a white guy. + + Music Has No Meaning + + Today in the West, of the many criais we face, critical is the +nature of the Culture Industry's monopolistic conaol over our expressive +domain. The interests that control the state have effectively neutralized +any mode of public expression that in the past we have found empowering +Along this course the nature of music itself has become twisted, alured, +distorted to suit the needs ofcapital. If we want music to conain any +positive revelance to us again, we must ake it back. Until then it ain't +jack, hit it, that music has no meaning. No value. No power. Minus one. +Zero. Our tastes have become so standardized and regulated that we no +longer make any choices for ourselves, the Culture Industry does all this +for us. We've become a nation of blindly accepting consumers, latching on +to meaningless terms like "alternative," "progressive," "industrial" +"techno," "rap," "house." We're promised liberation but all we get is +empty distraction. In our society music is just a measure of forced +consumption. Cntil we change the social conditions under which music is +made that music has no meaning No value. No power. Minus one. Zero. What +can we do about it? In the 90's as Big Business and Big Government realiu +that they needn't demonstrate any longer the intimidation and violent +suppression of past authoritarian states, they prove conclusively that +friendly fascism clearly exists in this society and the rulers of +Corporate America have manufactured within its own pcople an addiction to +pop culture so strong it renders us incapable of any action as individual +or collective citizens and the real tragedy is that we have no problem +with this. Every fascist era has its giant spectacles to keep the people +pacifed. With us it's just the MTV Video Music Awarda and the Grammy's. As +long as we're willing to go on just passively marching and singing then we +know that music has no meaning. + + + + Scanned At The Cell + ------------------- + GOD 143:817/0 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/facts.art b/textfiles.com/politics/facts.art new file mode 100644 index 00000000..07a18b82 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/facts.art @@ -0,0 +1,354 @@ +The following article is part of a library of articles from +The Beyond War/IPPNW BBS in Cambridge, MA. Comments or +suggestions should be directed to the Beyond War/IPPNW BBS +at (617) 731-1575, 300/1200, 8/N/1. or call Andy at +(617) 739-4869 (voice). + + +The Following fact sheet is provided by the Beyond War Project: + +Trident Nuclear Submarine- + +The Trident nuclear submarine ("Boomer"), the largest submarine +in the United States Navy packs more explosive power in its 24 +missiles than all the gunpowder exploded in all the wars man has +fought to date. ("Christian Science Monitor", 10-14-82) + +The Trident is 560 feet long; it weighs 18,750 tons. Each of the +24 nuclear missiles it carries weighs 65,000 pounds. Each nuclear +missile has 8 independently targeted warheads (nuclear bombs), +which means that one Trident nuclear submarine can hit 192 +targets (8 x 24 = 192). ("Nuclear Weapons Data Book", Natural +Resources Defense Council, 1984.) + +The firepower in one Trident nuclear submarine can effectively +destroy Soviet society. The United States has four Tridents: +the Ohio, the Michigan, the Florida, the Georgia. We plan to +build 15 of them. (Department of Defense, Selected Acquisition +Report, 6-30-82). + + +Typhoon Nuclear Submarine- + +The Soviet Typhoon nuclear submarine is the largest in the Soviet +fleet. It 561 feet long and weighs 25,000 tons. Each of its 20 +nuclear missiles carries 8 independently targeted warheads +(nuclear bombs). One Typhoon can hit 160 targets (8 x 20 = 160) +and can effectively destroy American society. The Soviet Union +has two Typhoon submarines and is planning to build 6 more by the +early 1990's. (Plomar, Norman. "Guide to the Soviet Navy-3rd +Edition." Annapolis, Md. Naval Institute Press, 1983). ("Soviet +Military Power, 1984." Dept. of Defense. Superintendent of +Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. +20402.) + + +Nuclear Winter- + +The "nuclear winter" phenomenon could be triggered when only 1% +of the current nuclear weapons arsenal is detonated. When the +nuclear bombs explode near the ground they generate a fine dust; +those that explode in the air create fire and smoke. The dust +and the smoke will block out the sunlight for months; +photosynthesis will stop; temperatures on earth will drop +drastically; plants, crops, animals and people will die. During +this time the lingering radiation will be extremely high, causing +serious illness and death. + +As the nuclear soot and dust settle, deadly solar ultraviolet +light will pour over the earth now unprotected by the ozone which +will have been damaged by the nuclear bombs. Ultraviolet +sunlight will be extremely dangerous to any form of life that +remains, These effects will initially begin in the Northern +Hemisphere, where it is assumed most of the bombs will be +detonated. The environmental effects will find their way to the +Southern Hemisphere as the breezes blow the dust and soot across +the equator. There is no nation on Earth that will not be +affected by a "nuclear winter". + +Only one of the the superpower countries needs to launch its +nuclear weapons to trigger a "nuclear winter". (Ehrlich, Paul; +Sagan, Carl; Kennedy, Donald; Roberts, Walter Orr. "the Cold and +the Dark.: W.W. Norton & co. 1984). + + +Star Wars- + +The "Star Wars" program proposes to launch satellite weapons into +space that would intercept and destroy strategic ballistic +missiles (nuclear bomb) directed against the United States before +they reach their targets in this country. + +This space-based defense system would trigger a further massive +build-up of new weapons by each side which would only escalate +the present danger. (Scientific American, Oct. 1984). + +Even if the "Star Wars" system worked as designed, 5% of the +incoming nuclear missiles would still get through and explode on +their targets. Detonation of only 1% of the nuclear weapons will +create the possibility of a "nuclear winter". (Institute for +Space and Security Studies, 7720 Mary Cassat Drive, Potomac, MD +20854). + +The "Star Wars" program is in the research stage. $26 billion +has been allocated for research and development for a 5 year +period. (Scientific American, Oct. 1984). + +Right now the technology does not exist to build such a system. +It is estimated that the "Star Wars" defense system would cost in +excess of $1 trillion. (San Francisco Chronicle, 8-10-84). + + +Arms Build-Up / Social Cost- + +There is a social cost we pay for weapons development. There are +social programs that need support and do not receive it. In the +face of staggering military costs, we must acknowledge the +needless death of 40,000 children every day. UNICEF reported the +death of 15 million children last year. Most deaths could have +been avoided by simple methods at low cost: 5 million died from +dehydration caused by simple diarrhea. More than 3 million died +from pneumonia. Two million died from measles. A million and a +half died from whooping cough. A million died from tetnus. And +for every child who dies many more live on in hunger and ill +health. (San Francisco Chronicle, 10-26-83). + +It would cost $6 billion to eliminate most infant deaths +worldwide through the use of vaccines and training of community +health workers. (San Francisco Chronicle, 10-26-83). $6 billion +is the cost of 6 Navy destroyer ships. (U.S. News and World +Report, 9-17-84). + +The government of the world spent $650 billion in 1982 on +armaments. Each minute of every day the world spends $1,300,000 +for military purposes. In that same time, 30 children die for +lack of food and inexpensive vaccines. (Sivard, Ruth. World +Military & Social Expenditures, 1982. World Priorities, Box +25140, Washington DC 20007). + +Ten years ago, the U.N. World Conference pledged itself to +eliminate world hunger within a decade - a goal that has not been +realized. If 4% of the world's military budget were spent each +year on agricultural development, by the year 2000, world hunger +could be eliminated. (World Military and Social Expenditures, +1982). + +Military assistance to the Third World by the developed countries +has far outpaced economic aid in the last 20 years - $400 billion +in military aid compared to $25 billion in economic aid. (World +Military & Social Expenditures, 1983). + +For every 100,000 people in the world, there are 556 trained +soldiers and 85 trained doctors. (World Military & Social +Expenditures, 1982). + +In 32 countries of the world, governments spend more for military +purposes than for education and health care combined. (World +Military & Social Expenditures, 1982). + +More than 50% of all our scientists and engineers are engaged in +defense related research. (Simon Ramo, founder TRW; Science +advisor to President Reagan; in Fortune, 5-16-83). + +It was once believed that military spending had positive effects +on the economy but there is growing evidence that its influence +is negative. Military spending does not provide as many jobs for +the dollar as compared to the needed areas of our economy. A +study done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics discovered that the +expenditure of $1 billion would create the following number of +jobs in the given sectors of the economy: + + Military Weapons Production 75,700 jobs + Mass Transit 92,000 jobs + Construction 100,000 jobs + Health 138,000 jobs + Education 187,300 jobs + +(Bureau of Labor Statistics Study. "Structure of the U.S. +Economy in 1980 and 1985"). + +In the 35 years proceeding 1982, the United States spent $2.3 +trillion for military purposes. THe current proposal for the +Dept. of Defense budget is $2.6 trillion for the next 8 years. +(Defense Monitor published by the Center for Defense +Information). If we spent $2 million a day every day since the +year 1 A.D. we would still not have spent $2 trillion. + + +Warning Time- + +THe nuclear powers of the world are like two scorpions in a +bottle-operating under a strategy known as "mutually assured +destruction" MAD. The destruction of one country will mean, in +the end, the destruction of both the attacked and the attacker. +To lessen such a blow we began to think about "counterforce" an +attack made against the weapons of our adversary to hopefully cut +down on the destructive power of the attack. This attitude +inevitably lead to the discussion of "first strike". the idea +that we must use our weapons first to assure that they are +launched before destroyed in their launchers by our adversary. + +We, therefore, find ourselves sitting on a razor's edge. If our +computers detect a launch by an adversary (accurately or +inaccurately - see False Alarms) we have only 25 minutes (the +launch and impact time) in the case of land launched missiles - +Titan II, Pershing II, MX, Minuteman I & II - and only 7 to 10 +minutes (the launch and impact time) in the case of submarine +launched missiles - Poseidon, Trident I & II - to decide if we +will launch our missiles or not. If we hesitate longer our +missiles will be destroyed by the incoming missiles of our +adversary. This strategy is often known as the "use them or lose +them" strategy. + +Nuclear War in the 1980's? Christopher Chant & Ian Hogg, 1983. +The Nuclear Almanac-Confronting the Atom in War and Peace. +Compiled and edited by faculty members at M.I.T., 1984. + + +False Alarms- + +The North American Defense Command reported 151 computer false +alarms in an 18 month period. One had American forces on alert +for a full 6 minutes before the error was discovered. (New York +Times 11-23-82). + +In 1979 and the first half of 1980 there were 3,703 "routine +missile display conferences", low-level false alerts. Those +listed below were sufficiently serious to come within minutes of +launching a nuclear war: + + October 3, 1979 - A radar designed to detect submarine- + launched ballistic missiles picked up a low-orbit rocket body + that was close to decay and generated a false launch and + impact report. + + November 9, 1979 - The central NORAD computer system + indicated a mass attack by incoming missiles as a result of + an "inadvertent introduction of simulated data" into the + computer. + + March 15, 1980 - A false warning of major nuclear attack was + generated by one of four Soviet submarine launched ballistic + missiles being tested during troop training exercises in the + Kuril Islands of North Japan. + + June 3, 1980 - A false warning of a major nuclear attack + was generated by a "bad chip in a communications processor + computer." + + June 6, 1980 - The same warning was repeated when the June 3 + incident was simulated during investigation of the computer + problem. + +The Nuclear Almanac - Confronting the Atom in War and Peace. +Compiled and edited by faculty members at M.I.T., 1984. + + +Proliferation- + +India, Israel, South Africa, Libya, Pakistan, Iraq, Argentina and +Brazil are listed as "emerging nuclear powers" in a recent study +done by the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Because key data with +regard to the functioning of a nuclear weapon is now determined +by computer analysis, any of the emerging nuclear powers could +possess a bomb without having to test it. San Jose Mercury 10- +31-84. + + +Faulty Equipment- + +Microchips used in the United States weapons arsenal are under +suspect because of possible insufficient testing by their +manufacturers. One modern jet fighter can carry as many as +10,000 microchips. Peninsula Times Tribune 12-26-83. + + +Other Indicators of Urgency- + +The respected Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its "Doomsday +Clock" to 3 minutes before midnight at the beginning of 1984. +This clock has been used as an indicator for the last 37 years; +measuring how close the world is ti a global nuclear +confrontation. Only once before in those 37 years has that +publication seen fit to place the warning hand any closer to +midnight than in stands today. That was done in 1953 in response +to the advent of the Hydrogen bomb. Bulletin of Atomic +Scientists, January 1984. + +More than 100,000 American Military personnel have some form of +access to or responsibility for nuclear weapons. A House +subcommittee reported that in 1977 - a typical year - 1,219 of +them had to be removed from such duty because of mental +disorders, 256 for alcohol abuse and 1,365 for drug abuse. New +York Times 11-23-82. + Reading List + +Beyond War: A New Way of Thinking. Beyond War Project, Palo Alto, 1984 + + This workbook published by the staff of Beyond War can be + ordered from the Distribution Dept., 222 High St., Palo Alto 94301 + +Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 5801 South Kenwood Ave., Chicago, +IL 60637 + + Every issue of this magazine has pertinent articles on the + latest developments in nuclear weapons and the efforts to + control them. + +The Cold and the Dark. Paul Ehrlich, Carl Sagan, Donald Kennedy, +Walter Orr Roberts. W.W. Norton & Co., 1984. + + Written by some of the major scientists involved in the + research, this book contains the latest detailed description + of "nuclear winter". + +The Fate of the Earth. Jonathan Schell. Avon, New York, 1982. + + A beautifully written and comprehensive book on the effects of + nuclear war on our planet, and the necessity to save the earth + for future generations. + +People's Guide to National Defense. Shelia Tobias, Peter +Goudinoff, Stephan Leader. William & March, New York, 1982. + + What kind of guns are they buying for your butter? A + beginners' guide to defense, weaponry and military spending. + +The Trimtab Factor. Harold Willens. William Morrow Co., Inc., +New York, 1984. + + The business community is asked to get involved in the effort + to prevent nuclear war, and especially the effort to improve + U.S.-Soviet relations. This book makes clear the imperative + for an end to the nuclear arms race. + +What About the Russians - And Nuclear War? Ground Zero. Pocket +Books, 1982. + + A survey of essential background information on the Soviet + Union and U.S.-Soviet relationships. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/family.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/family.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..075ec4da --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/family.txt @@ -0,0 +1,384 @@ +######## updated format + + + CLINTON/GORE ON AMERICAN FAMILIES + + + +Washington has abandoned working families. While +taxes fall and incomes rise for those at the top of +the totem pole, middle class families have worked +harder for less money and paid more taxes to a +government that failed to produce what we need: +good jobs in a growing economy, world-class +education, affordable health care and safe streets +and neighborhoods. + +The Republicans have lectured America on the +importance of family values. But their policies +have made life harder for working families: They +have forced parents to choose between the jobs they +need and the families they love, and they've +slashed funding for programs that prepare kids for +kindergarten, send teens on to college, and save us +all money. They have stood idly by as neighborhoods +collapse, violent crime rises, and health costs +skyrocket. + +A Clinton/Gore Administration will demand more from +families, but it will offer more, too. It will +demand that parents pay the child support they owe. +But it will offer their children the pre-schooling +they need. It will demand that young people stay +in school and off drugs. But it will offer all +Americans safer streets and the chance to borrow +for college. A Clinton/Gore Administration will +demand that people work hard and play by the rules. +It will honor and reward those who do. + +We cannot afford another four years of a President +who doesn't have a plan to help Americas families +and who backs down from the promises he does make. +It is time for a change -- time to put people +first. + +Treat families right + +* Grant additional tax relief to families with + children. + +* Sign into law the Family and Medical Leave + Act, which George Bush vetoed in 1990, so that + no worker is forced to choose between keeping + his or her job and caring for a newborn child + or sick family member. + +* Create a child care network as complete as the + public school network, tailored to the needs + of working families; give parents choices + between competing public and private + institutions. + +* Establish more rigorous standards for + licensing child care facilities and implement + improved methods for enforcing them. + +* Crack down on deadbeat parents by reporting + them to credit agencies, so they cant borrow + money for themselves when they're not taking + care of their children. Use the Internal + Revenue Service to collect child support, + start a national deadbeat databank, and make + it a felony to cross state lines to avoid + paying support. + +Educate our children + +* Send children to school ready to learn by + fully funding pre-school programs which save + us several dollars for every one we spend -- + Head Start, the Women Infants and Children + (WIC) program, and other critical initiatives + recommended by the National Commission on + Children. + +* Develop national parenting programs like + Arkansas Home Instructional Program for + Pre-school Youngsters to help disadvantaged + parents work with their children to build an + ethic of learning at home that benefits both. + +* Dramatically improve K-12 education by + establishing tough standards and a national + examination system in core subjects, leveling + the playing field for disadvantaged students, + and reducing class sizes. + +* Give every parent the right to choose the + public school his or her child attends, as + they have in Arkansas; in return, demand that + parents work with their children to keep them + in school, off drugs, and headed toward + graduation. + +* Establish a Youth Opportunity Corps to give + teenagers who drop out of school a second + chance. Community youth centers will match + teenagers with adults who care about them, and + will give kids a chance to develop + self-discipline and skills. + +* Give every American the right to borrow for + college by scrapping the existing student loan + program and establishing a National Service + Trust Fund. Those who borrow from the fund + will be able to repay the balance either as a + small percentage of their earnings over time, + or through community service as teachers, law + enforcement officers, health care workers or + peer counselors helping kids stay off drugs + and in school. + +Guarantee every family the right to quality, +affordable health care + +* Control costs, improve quality and cover + everybody under a national health care plan + that requires insurers to offer a core + benefits package, including pre-natal care and + other important preventive treatments. + +* Take on the insurance industry by simplifying + financial and accounting procedures; banning + underwriting practices that waste billions + trying to discover which patients are bad + risks; and prohibiting companies from denying + coverage to individuals with pre-existing + conditions. + +* Stop drug price gouging by eliminating tax + breaks for drug companies that raise their + prices faster than Americans incomes rise. + +Make our homes, streets and schools safe again + +* Crack down on violence against women and + children by signing the Violence Against Women + Act, which would provide tougher enforcement + and stiffer penalties to deter domestic + violence. + +* Put 100,000 new police officers on the streets + by establishing a National Police Corps drawn + partly from military veterans and active + military personnel. + +* Expand community policing to stop crimes + before they happen by taking officers out of + patrol cars and putting them back on the beat. + +* Sign the Brady Bill to create a waiting period + for handgun purchases and allow authorities to + conduct background checks to prevent guns from + falling into the wrong hands; work to ban + assault rifles that have no legitimate hunting + purpose. + +* Launch a Safe Schools Initiative to help + schools take back their facilities as places + of learning: make schools eligible for federal + assistance to pay for metal detectors and + security personnel if they need them; + encourage states to get tougher with in-school + crime; and fund mentoring, counseling, and + outreach programs so kids in trouble with + crime, drugs or gangs have some place to turn. + +Reward working families + +* Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to + guarantee a working wage so that no American + with a family who works full-time is forced to + live in poverty. + +* Put an end to welfare as we know it by making + welfare a second chance, not a way of life; + empower people on welfare with the education, + training and child care they need, for up to + two years, so they can break the cycle of + dependence after that, those who can work will + have to find a job either in the private + sector or in community service. + +Providing fairness for families + +* Governor Clinton proposed and passed a measure + which reduced or eliminated state income taxes + for 374,000 Arkansans. Because of his + leadership, Arkansas tax burden is the second + lowest in the country. + +* Directed the Arkansas Child Support + Enforcement Unit in aggressively enforcing + child support laws. The Unit has received + national recognition for its success. + Collections totalled more than $41 million in + 1991, a 20 percent increase from 1990. + +* Senator Gore cosponsored the Family and + Medical Leave Act of 1991, which George Bush + vetoed. + +* Cosponsored the Child Welfare and Preventive + Services Act which establishes innovative + child welfare and family support services that + strengthen families, keep children out of + foster care, promote the development of + comprehensive substance abuse programs for + pregnant women, and provide improved health + care services for low-income children. + +* Sponsored the Gore/Downey Working Families Tax + Relief Act for families with children to + expand the earned income tax credit program to + help lift working families out of poverty. + +* In 1992 Gore sponsored the Family Reunion + Conference in Nashville, TN, which brought + together 600 people including social workers, + teachers and psychologists to exchange ideas + and develop solutions to the challenges facing + our families and children. The conference + resulted in the formation of the Tennessee + Family Action Network + +Improving education + +* Governor Clinton established the first + state-wide Home Instructional Program for + Pre-school Youngsters in 1986, which helps + welfare mothers teach their children to read. + +* Fought to establish tough standards for + teachers, students, and schools; increased + parental involvement; raised teacher salaries; + developed a new curriculum, including advanced + college preparation courses in math and + science; revoked the drivers licenses of + students who drop out of school before age 18 + for no good reason. + +* Increased education funding; Arkansas ranks + fifth in the nation over the last decade in + percentage increase of funding for higher + education. + +* Guided Arkansas to the highest high school + graduation rate in the region; and helped to + increase the college attendance rate from 38.2 + percent in 1982 to 41.3 in 1991. + +* Created a youth apprenticeship program to aid + and motivate non college-bound students. + +* Established the Arkansas Academic Challenge + Scholarship program to provide scholarships to + middle-income and poor students who maintain a + minimum GPA, score 19 on the ACT, and stay off + drugs. + +* Created a college bond program to allow + parents to buy short- or long-term college + bonds, not taxed in Arkansas, to finance their + childrens education. + +* Senator Gore supported the Neighborhood + Schools Improvement Act, which affirms the + national education goals and establishes an + assessment panel to report on reaching these + goals; improves teacher and school leader + training; strengthens parental involvement; + provides for school year and day extension; + expands dropout prevention efforts; and + increases the use of educational technology. + +* Voted for legislation to expand Pell Grants + eligibility, increase grant levels, and + increase the availability of grants and loans + to middle-income families. + +* Voted for the Vocational Education which funds + education in skilled trades beyond high + school. + +Protecting health + +* Governor Clinton launched Arkansas first + school-based health clinics. Today there are + 21 such clinics, reaching thousands of + Arkansas' children who wouldn't otherwise have + access to health care. + +* Cut Arkansas infant mortality rate almost in + half through improved pre-natal and post-natal + care. + +* Proposed and passed a Health Care Access Law + designed to provide, among other things, + universal health coverage for all Arkansas + children under age 16, regardless of family + income. The law emphasizes preventive and + primary care. + +* Sharply increased efforts to improve rural + health: the Rural Physician Recruitment and + Retention Program encourages physicians to + locate and practice family medicine in small + Arkansas communities; the Rural Medical + Practice Student Loans and Scholarships + provide support for medical students agreeing + to practice in rural communities. + +* Senator Gore was the principal sponsor of the + Infant Formula Act to improve nutrition and + safety standards. + +* Authored legislation that resulted in FDA + regulations banning the use of + life-threatening sulfites on fresh fruits and + vegetables. + +* Led the successful fight for warning labels on + alcohol beverages that provide consumers -- + particularly pregnant women -- with critical + information. + +* Wrote and steered to passage the Cigarette + Labeling Act to require stronger warning + labels. + +* In August 1992, Arkansas was one of twelve + states which received funding as part of the + Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State + Initiatives in Health Care Financing Reform + Programs. Arkansas was chosen for its + innovative approach to increase health care + insurance coverage to residents and to contain + the escalating costs of care. + +Getting tough on crime + +* Governor Clinton Increased penalties for drug + dealing and violent crime. + +* Established innovative +boot camps to instill discipline in non-violent +first-time offenders. + +* Built more prisons and kept costs down. + +* Senator Gore cosponsored legislation to + provide a mandatory 5-year prison sentence for + anyone who used a gun to commit a federal + crime. + +* Supported the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 + which attacks drug abuse in our country with + reinforced interdiction efforts, expanded + prevention, education and treatment programs, + assistance to local law enforcement, and + stiffer criminal penalties. + +Fighting dependency + +* Governor Clinton helped draft and Senator Gore + supported the most significant welfare reform + legislation ever, the Family Support Act of + 1988. Arkansas welfare-to-work program, + Project Success was one of the first three + such efforts implemented, and has helped + almost 10,000 Arkansans find work in one year + alone. + +* Removed a quarter of a million low-income + Arkansans from the tax rolls. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fbi-file.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fbi-file.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9125339c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fbi-file.txt @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ + + +The Federal Bureau of Investigations keeps files on almost +every person in the entire +country. They must send you your file if you want them to. +There will not be any charge if the file is under fifty pages. +If it is over 50 pages, then there will be a copying charge of +ten cents per page. Your file can be obtained by +simply mailing a letter to them. However, +the letter must be worded properly or else they will not comply, or +may only send you part of it. Here is the address which you may +use to contact the F.B.I.: + +Director +Federal Bureau of Investigations +Washington D.C., 20535 + +Here is the letter: + + + + + + + +Dear Sir: + I am requesting a copy of any personal file which you may +have on myself (SSN ). +In addition, I am requesting +copies of all files, dossiers, documents, or materials referring +to myself. If you consider some material exempt from diclosure, +release the material to me with deletions indicated and specify +your legal support for having made those deletions. Finally, I +require a response within ten working days, as provided by the +Freedom of Information Act. I appreciate your time and your +compliance with my request and the law. + + Thank you, + + + + +This letter must be notarized. To notarize a letter go to some +bank, NOT the Post Office. The bank will check your +identification a stamp your letter, then go to the PO and mail +this letter. The C.I.A. also has files, but I believe they stopped +updating information in 81. A similar request can be made of ANY +government agency. Knock your self out! + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fbialert.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fbialert.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8d487c5a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fbialert.txt @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +Downloaded from AMNET 312-436-3062 Chicago's Civil Liberties BBS + + >>> Civil Liberties Under Threat <<< + by + Brian Glick + + Part One + +INTRODUCTION + +Activists across the country report increasing government harassment +and disruption of their work: + +-In the Southwest, paid informers infiltrate the church services, Bible +classes and support networks of clergy and lay workers giving +sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador and Guatamala. + +-In Alabama, elderly Black people attempting for the first time +to exercise their right to vote are interrogated by FBI agents and +hauled before federal grand juries hundreds of miles from their +homes. + +-In New England, a former CIA case officer cites examples from +his own past work to warn college students of efforts by +undercover operatives to misdirect and discredit protests against +South African and US racism. + +-In the San Francisco Bay Area, activists planning anti-nuclear +civil disobedience learn that their meetings have been infiltrated by +the US Navy. + +-In Detroit, Seattle, and Philadelphia, in Cambridge, MA, +Berkeley,CA., Phoenix, AR., and Washington, DC., churches and +organizations opposing US policies in Central America report +obviously political break-ins in which important papers are stolen +or damaged, while money and valuables are left untouched. License +plates on a car spotted fleeing one such office have been traced +to the US National Security Agency. + +-In Puerto Rico, Texas and Massachusetts, labor leaders, +community organizers, writers and editors who advocate Puerto +Rican independence are branded by the FBI as "terrorists," +brutally rounded-up in the middle of the night, held incommunicado +for days and then jailed under new preventive detention laws. + +-The FBI puts the same "terrorist" label on opponents of US +intervention in El Salvador, but refuses to investigate the +possibility of a political conspiracy behind nation-wide bombings +of abortion clinics. + +-Throughout the country, people attempting to see Nicaragua for +themselves find their trips disrupted, their private papers +confiscated, and their homes and offices plagued by FBI agents +who demand detailed personal and political information. + +These kinds of government tactics violate our fundamental +constitutional rights. They make it enormously difficult to +sustain grass-roots organizing. They create an atmosphere of fear +and distrust which undermines any effort to challenge official +policy. + +Similar measures were used in the 1960s as part of a secret +FBI program known as "COINTELPRO." COINTELPRO was later exposed +and officially ended. But the evidence shows that it actually +persisted and that clandestine operations to discredit and +disrupt opposition movements have become an institutional feature +of national and local government in the US. This pamphlet is +designed to help current and future activists learn from the +history of COINTELPRO, so that our movements can better withstand +such attack. + +The first section gives a brief overview of what we know the FBI +did in the 60s. It explains why we can expect similar government +intervention in the 80s and beyond, and offers general guidelines +for effective response. + +The main body of the pamphlet describes the specific methods which +have previously been used to undermine domestic dissent and +suggests steps we can take to limit or deflect their impact. + +A final chapter explores ways to mobilize broad public protest +against this kind of repression. + +It also draws on the post-60s confessions of disaffected +government agents, and on the testimony of public officials before +Congress and the courts. Though the information from these sources +is incomplete, and much of what was done remains secret, we +now know enough to draw useful lessons for future organizing. + +The suggestions included in the pamphlet are based on the +author's 20 years experience as an activist and lawyer, and on +talks with long-time organizers in a broad range of movements. +They are meant to provide starting points for discussion, so we +can get ready before the pressure intensifies. Most are a matter +of common sense once the methodology of covert action is +understood. Please take these issues seriously. Discuss the +recommendations with other activists. Adapt them to the conditions +you face. Point out problems and suggest other approaches. + +IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE BEGIN NOW TO PROTECT OUR MOVEMENTS AND +OURSELVES. + + +A HISTORY TO LEARN FROM + + +WHAT WAS COINTELPRO? + +"COINTELPRO" was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular +upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name +stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not +enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political +opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression +(exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political +crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped +to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and +secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally- +protected political activity.Its methods ranged far beyond +surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert +action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world. + + +HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT? + +COINTELPRO was discovered in March, 1971, when some secret files +were removed from an FBI office and released to news media. +Freedom of Information requests, lawsuits, and former agents' +pub \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fcc-netw b/textfiles.com/politics/fcc-netw new file mode 100644 index 00000000..93dab75b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fcc-netw @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ +Testimony Summary for "Networks of the Future" +FCC Hearing +Mitchell Kapor, Electronic Frontier Foundation +May 1, 1991 + + +By the end of the next decade, today's computer networks and telephone +systems will evolve into a web of digital links connecting nearly all homes +and businesses in the U.S. This "National Public Network" will support +commerce, learning, education, and entertainment in our society. + +At its best, this National Public Network could be the source of immense +social benefits. As a means of increasing cohesiveness, while retaining +the diversity that is an American strength, the network could help +revitalize this country's business and culture. + +To design the NPN we must nurture a diverse community of participants, who +together will evolve the National Public Network to its fullest potential. +The Commission is to be congratulated for seeking a diversity of counsel by +undertaking such programs as today's "Networks of the Future". I am +pleased to appear before the Commission today as an entrepreneur, software +designer, and concerned citizen. + +I want to share my vision of the applications which will drive demand for +services on the National Public Network. Applications are so important +because users are interested in doing something new with technology in +order to make a difference in their lives. They have an aversion to +technology itself. We should therefore give as much attention to +applications as we do to the construction of the underlying network. + +Key Applications + +We don't know and probably can't know the key applications of the NPN. The +users and entrepreneurs of the network will surprise us, in the same way +that the electronic spreadsheet came as a complete surprise. Just as the +Apple II personal computer was a platform that allowed others to invent new +applications, the NPN can be a platform for information entrepreneurship. + +While we can't predict which applications will open up huge new markets, we +can make a few educated guesses, based on today's prototypes. These +include the Internet, a decentralized, anarchic web of computers and +electronic mailboxes, linking major universities and industrial research +labs around the world. Other "Petri dishes" of social ferment include +smaller, regional computer conferencing systems like the Whole Earth +'Lectronic Link (the WELL) and a turbulent mass of tens of thousands +non-commercial computer bulletin board systems linked in the Fidonet +network. + +Messaging will be popular: time and time again, from the ARPAnet to +Prodigy, people have surprised network planners with their eagerness to +exchange mail. "Mail" will not just mean voice and text, but also pictures +and video -- no doubt with many new variations. + +We know from past demand that the network will be used for electronic +assembly -- virtual town halls, village greens, and coffee houses, again +taking place not just through shared text (as in today's computer +networks), but with multi-media transmissions, including images, voice, and +video. Unlike the telephone, this network will also be a publications +medium, distributing electronic newsletters, video clips and interpreted +reports. It will also be an information marketplace which will include +electronic invoicing, billing, listing, brokering, advertising, +comparison-shopping, and matchmaking of various kinds. + +Innovation Enablers + +I believe it is possible to identify several key innovation enablers which, +if applied in the context of the NPN, will result in a more rapid emergence +of high-demand applications. These factors strongly imply directions for +national policy and business strategy which are mentioned under each point. + +1. Design the NPN as an Applications Platform + +The most valuable contribution of the computer industry in the past ten +years is not a machine, but an idea -- the principle of open architecture. +In computing, the hardware and system software companies create a +"platform" whose specifications are published openly and which seeks to +attract independent third parties to develop applications for it. +Similarly, we need to think how to make the NPN into an attractive platform +for the development of new information products and services. + +The most useful role of Apple's famous "software evangelists" is not +selling the virtues of the Macintosh to application developers, but +listening to them to help Apple improve the design of its platform. +Perhaps the RBOC's need evangelists too. + +It isn't possible for the platform vendor to identify an appropriate set of +application developers, but a well-designed commercial platform will +naturally attract developers. + +The platform must be designed to be appealing to the application +developers. It cannot be thought up in isolation and foisted onto the +market in the hope that it will be found interesting. + +A computer platform is more than the hardware. The NPN platform will be +far more than the wires. It must include a basket of basic services for +directories and billing that are accessible and available to all providers. + +2. Understand and Capitalize on Market-mediated Innovation. + +In the early stages of development of an industry, low barriers to entry +stimulate competition. They enable a very large initial set of products +for consumers to choose from. Out of these the market will learn to ignore +almost all in order to standardize on a few, such as a Lotus 1-2-3. The +winners will be widely emulated in the next generation of products, which +will in turn generate a more refined form of marketplace feedback. In this +fashion, early chaos evolves quickly a set of high-demand products and +product categories. + +This process of market-mediated innovation is best catalyzed by creating an +environment in which it is inexpensive and easy for entrepreneurs to +develop products. The greater the number of independent enterprises, each +of which puts at voluntary risk the intellectual and economic capital of +risk-takers, is the best way to find out what the market really wants. The +businesses which succeed in this are the ones which will prosper. + +It is worthwhile to note that not a single major PC software company today +dates from the mainframe era. Yesterday's garage shop is today's +billion-dollar enterprise. Policies for the NPN should therefore not only +accommodate existing information industry interests, but anticipate and +promote the next generate of entrepreneurs. + +There should be thousands of information proprietors on the net, just as +there are thousands of producers of personal computer software and +thousands of publishers of books and magazines. It should be as easy to +provide an information service as to order a business telephone. Just as +every business is automatically listed in the Yellow Pages, every online +provider should be listed in a national digital Yellow Pages. + +3. Design the NPN for Transparency and Ease of Use + +"Transparency," in computer circles, is a subjective state of awareness -- +and a desirable one. When a program is perfectly transparent, people +forget about the fact that they are using a computer. The most successful +computer programs are nearly always transparent: a spreadsheet, for +instance, is as self-evident as a ledger page. + +Personal computer communications, by contrast, are practically opaque. +Users must be aware of baud rates, parity, duplex, and file transfer +protocols -- all of which a reasonably well-designed network could handle +for them. When newcomers find themselves confronting what John Perry +Barlow calls a "savage user interface" the excitement about being part of +an extended community quickly vanishes. On a National Public Network, that +would be a disaster. + +Therefore it is crucial the NPN platform be designed with the proper basic +functions and capabilities to promote ease of use. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fdr10.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fdr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..eb6e00e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fdr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,248 @@ + Inaugural Speech of Franklin Delano Roosevelt + Given in Washington, D.C. + March 4th, 1933 + + +President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends: + + This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain +that my fellow-Americans expect that on my induction into the +Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which +the present situation of our nation impels. + +This is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, +frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions +in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, +will revive and will prosper. + +So first of all let me assert my firm belief that +the only thing we have to fear. . .is fear itself. . . +nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes +needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. + +In every dark hour of our national life a leadership +of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding +and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. +I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership +in these critical days. +In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our +common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. +Values have shrunken to fantastic levels: taxes have risen, +our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by +serious curtailment of income, the means of exchange are frozen +in the currents of trade, the withered leaves of industrial enterprise +lie on every side, farmers find no markets for their produce, +the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. + +More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem +of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. +Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. + +Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. +We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with +the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed +and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. +Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. +Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes +in the very sight of the supply. + +Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods +have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, +have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the +unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, +rejected by the hearts and minds of men. + +True, they have tried, but their efforts have been cast +in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure +of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money. + +Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people +to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, +pleading tearfully for restored conditions. They know only the rules +of a generation of self-seekers. + +They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. + +The money changers have fled their high seats in the temple +of our civilization. We may now restore that temple +to the ancient truths. + +The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which +we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. + +Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money, it lies +in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. + +The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer +must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. +These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they +teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto +but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow-men. + +Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard +of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false +belief that public office and high political position are to be values +only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit, +and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business +which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness +of callous and selfish wrongdoing. + +Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, +on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, +on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live. + +Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. +This nation asks for action, and action now. + +Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is +no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. + +It can be accompanied in part by direct recruiting by the +government itself, treating the task as we would treat the +emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this +employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate +and reorganize the use of our national resources. + +Hand in hand with this, we must frankly recognize the over-balance +of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national +scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land +for those best fitted for the land. + +The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values +of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase +the output of our cities. + +It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy +of the growing loss, through foreclosure, of our small homes +and our farms. + +It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and +local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost +be drastically reduced. + +It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today +are often scattered, uneconomical and unequal. It can be helped +by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation +and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely +public character. + +There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never +be helped merely by talking about it. We must act, and act quickly. + +Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require +two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order: +there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; +there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must +be provision for an adequate but sound currency. + +These are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress +in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek +the immediate assistance of the several States. + +Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting +our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. + +Our international trade relations, though vastly important, +are, to point in time and necessity, secondary to the establishment +of a sound national economy. + +I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. +I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic +readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment. + +The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery +is not narrowly nationalistic. + +It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence +of the various elements in and parts of the United States. . . +a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation +of the American spirit of the pioneer. + +It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest +assurance that the recovery will endure. + +In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy +of the good neighbor. . .the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, +because he does so, respects the rights of others. . .the neighbor +who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements +in and with a world of neighbors. + +If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, +as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other: +that we cannot merely take, but we must give as well, +that if we are to go forward we must move as a trained and loyal +army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, +because, without such discipline, no progress is made, +no leadership becomes effective. + +We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property +to such discipline because it makes possibly a leadership which aims +at a larger good. + +This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes +will hind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity +of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife. + +With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great +army of our people, dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems. + +Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government +which we have inherited from our ancestors. + +Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible +always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis +and arrangement without loss of essential form. + +That is why our constitutional system has proved itself +the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world +has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, +of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. + +It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive +and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet +the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an +unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call +for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure. + +I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures +that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. + +But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these courses, +and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, +I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. + +I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument +to meet the crisis. . .broad executive power to wage a war +against the emergency as great as the power that would be given +to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. + +For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage +and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less. + +We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm +courage of national unity, with the clear consciousness +of seeking old and precious moral values, with the clean +satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty +by old and young alike. + +We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life. + +We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. +The people of the United States have not failed. +In their need they have registered a mandate +that they want direct, vigorous action. + +They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. +They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. +In the spirit of the gift I will take it. + +In this dedication of a nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. +May He protect each and every one of us! May He guide me in the +days to come! + +*** +End of: + +President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First Inaugural Speech + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fed-c1.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fed-c1.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..85de2cf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fed-c1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,263 @@ +============================================= +The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070 +============================================= + +The Creature from Jekyll Island ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +(Excerpts from Chapter 1) + +(Specifically addressing the creation of the Federal Reserve System.) + +-- + +The secret meeting on Jekyll Island in Georgia at which the Federal +Reserve was conceived; the birth of a banking cartel to protect its +members from competition; the strategy of how to convince Congress +and the public that this cartel was an agency of the United States +government. + +-- + +...were seven men who represented an estimated one-forth of the total +wealth of the entire world. + +1. Nelson W. Aldrich, Republican "whip" in the Senate, Chairman of the +National Monetary Commission, business associate of J.P. Morgan, father- +in-law to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; + +2. Abraham Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury; + +3. Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, +the most powerful of the banks at that time, representing William Rockefeller +and the international investment banking house of Kuhn, Loeb & Company; + +4. Henry P. Davison, senior partner of the J.P Morgan Company; + +5. Charles D. Norton, president of J.P. Morgan's First National Bank of +New York; + +6. Benjamin Strong, head of J.P. Morgan's Bankers Trust Company; +and +7. Paul M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Company, a representative +of the Rothschild banking dynasty in England and France, and brother to +Max Warburg who was head of the Warburg banking consortium in Germany +and the Netherlands. + +-- + +In 1913, the same year that the Federal Reserve Act was passed into law, +a subcommittee of the House Committee on Currency and Banking, under the +chairmanship of Arsene Pujo of Louisiana, completed its investigation into +the concentration of financial power in the United States. Pujo was +considered to be a spokesman for the oil interests, part of the very group +under investigation, and did everything possible to sabotage the hearings. +In spite of his efforts, however, the final report of the committee at +large was devastating. It stated: + + Your committee is satisfied from the proofs submitted, even in the + absence of data from the banks, that there is an established and + well defined identity and community of interest between a few leaders + of finance...which has resulted in great and rapidly growing concen- + tration of the control of money and credit in the hands of these few + men... + + When we consider, also, in this connection that into these reservoirs + of money and credit there flow a large part of the reserves of the + banks of the country, that they are also the agents and correspondents + of the out-of-town banks in the loaning of their surplus funds in the + only public money market of the country, and that a small group of men + and their partners and associates have now further strengthened their + hold upon the resources of these institutions by acquiring large stock + holdings therein, by representation on their boards and through valuable + patronage, we begin to realize something of the extent to which this + practical and effective domination and control over our greatest + financial, railroad and industrial corporations has developed, largely + within the past five years, and that it is fraught with peril to the + welfare of the country. + +-- + +The purpose of this meeting on Jekyll Island was...to come to an agreement +on the structure and operation of a banking cartel. The goal of the cartel, +as is true with all of them, was to maximize profits by minimizing competition +between members, to make it difficult for new competitors to enter the field, +and to utilize the police power of government to enforce the cartel agreement. +In more specific terms, the purpose and, indeed, the actual outcome of this +meeting was to create the blueprint for the Federal Reserve System. + +-- + +The first leak regarding this meeting found its way into print in 1916. It +appeared in Leslie's Weekly and was written by a young financial reporter by +the name of B.C. Forbes, who later founded Forbes Magazine. The article was +primarily in praise of Paul Warburg, and it is likely that Warburg let the +story out during conversations with the writer. At any rate, the opening +paragraph contained a dramatic but highly accurate summary of both the nature +and purpose of the meeting: + + Picture a party of the nation's greatest bankers stealing out of New + York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily + hieing hundreds of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, + sneaking on to an island deserted by all but a few servants, living + there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one + of them was once mentioned lest the servants learn the identity and + disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the + history of American finance. + + I am not ramancing. I am giving to the world, for the first time, + the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation + of our new currency system, was written. + +-- + +In 1930, Paul Warburg wrote a massive book - 1750 pages in all - entitled +The Federal Reserve System, Its Origin and Growth. In this tome, he +described the meeting and its purpose but did not mention either its +location or the names of those who attended. But he did say: + + "The results of the conference were entirely confidential. Even + the fact there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public." + +Then in a footnote he added: + + "Though eighteen years have since gone by, I do not feel free to + give a description of this most interesting conference concerning + which Senator Aldrich pledged all participants to secrecy." + +-- + +In the February 9, 1935, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, an article +appeared written by Frank Vanderlip. In it he said: + + Despite my views about the value to society of greater publicity + for the affairs of corporations, there was an occasion, near the close + of 1910, when I was as secretive - indeed, as furtive - as any + conspirator....I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our + secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual + conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System.... + + We were told to leave our last names behind us. We were told, further, + that we should avoid dining together on the night of our departure. + We were instructed to come one at a time and as unobtrusively as + possible to the railroad terminal on the New Jersy littoral of the + Hudson, where Senator Aldrich's private car would be in readiness, + attached to the rear end of a train for the South.... + + Once aboard the private car we began to observe the taboo that had + been fixed on last names. we addressed one another as "Ben," "Paul," + "Nelson," "Abe" - it is Abraham Piatt Andrew. Davison and I adopted + even deeper disguises, abandoning our first names. On the theory that + we were always right, he became Wilbur and I became Orville, after + those two aviation pioneers, the Wright brothers.... + + The servants and train crew may have known the identities of one + or two of us, but they did not know all, and it was the names of all + printed together that would have made our mysterious journey significant + in Washington, in Wall Street, even in London. Discovery, we knew, + simply must not happen, or else all our time and effort would be wasted. + If it were to be exposed publicly that our particular group had got + together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance + whatever of passage by Congress. + +-- + +As with all cartels, it had to be created by legislation and sustained by +the power of goverment under the deception of protecting the consumer. + +-- + +As John Kenneth Galbraith explained it: + + "It was his [Aldrich's] thought to outflank the opposition by + having not one central bank but many. And the word bank would + itself be avoided." + +-- + +Galbraith says + + "...Warburg has, with some justice, been called the father of + the system." + +Professor Edwin Seligman, a member of the international banking family of +J. & W. Seligman, and head of the Department of Economics at Columbia +University, writes that + + "...in its fundamental features, the Federal Reserve Act is the work + of Mr. Warburg more than any other man in the country." + +-- + +A third brother, Max Warburg, was the financial adviser of the Kaiser and +became Director of the Reichsbank in Germany. This was, of course, a central +bank, and it was one of the cartel models used in the construction of the +Federal Reserve System. The Reichsbank, incidentally, a few years later +would create the massive hyperinflation that occured in Germany, wiping +out the middle class and the entire German economy as well. + +-- + +...A. Barton Hepburn of Chase National Bank was even more candid. He said: + + "The measure recognizes and adopts the principles of a central bank. + Indeed, if all works out as the sponsers of the law hope, it will make + all incorporated banks together joint owners of a central dominating + power" + +And that is about as good a definition of a cartel as one is likely to find. + +-- + +...it is incapable of achieving its stated objectives. + +-- + +...why is the System incapable of achieving its stated objectives? +The painful answer is: those were never its true objectives. + +-- + +Anthony Sutton, former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, +Revolution and Peace, and also Professor of Economics at California State +University, Los Angeles, provides a somewhat deeper analysis. He writes: + + Warburg's revolutionary plan to get American Society to go to work + for Wall Street was astonishingly simple. Even today,...academic + theoreticians cover their blackboards with meaningless equations, + and the general public struggles in bewildered confusion with + inflation and the coming credit collapse, while the quite simple + explanation of the problem goes undiscussed and almost entirely + uncomprehended. The Federal Reserve System is a legal private + monopoly of the money supply operated for the benefit of the few + under the guise of protecting and promoting the public interest. + +-- + +The real significance of the journey to Jekyll Island and the creature that +was hatched there was inadvertantly summarized by the words of Paul Warburg's +admiring biographer, Harold Kellock: + + Paul M. Warburg is probably the mildest-mannered man that ever + personally conducted a revolution. It was a bloodless revolution: + he did not attempt to rouse the populace to arms. He stepped forth + armed simply with an idea. And he conquered. That's the amazing + thing. A shy, sensitive man, he imposed his idea on a nation of a + hundred million people. + +-- + +The Creature from Jekyll Island: +A Second Look at the Federal Reserve +By G. Edward Griffin (C)1994 + +Published by: American Opinion Publishing, Inc. +P.O.Box 8040 +Appleton, WI 54913-8040 + +-- + +[end] + +============================================ +The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070 +============================================ \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fedagncy.con b/textfiles.com/politics/fedagncy.con new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fc1d47fe --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fedagncy.con @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: +: : +: THE LAYMAN'S GUIDE : +: : +: TO : +: : +: FEDERAL AGENCIES : +: : +::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: + +CIA: STANDS FOR CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. THIS GROUP IS + RESPONSIBLE FOR INTERNATIONAL INTELLIGENCE GATHERING, + AS WELL AS THE SPREAD OF DEMOCRACY, NOT TO FORCE IT + DOWN THEIR THROATS... + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (703) 351-1000 + NEW YORK CITY (212) 755-0027 + CHICAGO (312) 353-2980 + LOS ANGELOS (213) 622-6875 + BOSTON (617) 354-5965 + MIAMI (305) 445-3658 + HOUSTON (713) 229-2739 + ST. LOUIS (314) 621-6902 + +DON'T ASK ME WHAT THEY NEED OFFICES IN THE U.S. FOR... + + +DOD: STANDS FOR DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE THESE ARE THE BOYS WHO + RENT OFFICE SPACE IN THE PENTAGON... THEY ARE THE + ARMED FORCES, HERE TO PROTECT US FROM THE VILE ARMIES + OF OTHER NATIONS... + + PENTAGON (202) 545-6700 + + +DARPA: STANDS FOR DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY. + THESE ARE THE BOYS WHO MAKE WEAPONS FOR THE + MILITARY. THEY ARE VERY UP ON PARTICLE BEAM + WEAPONS, LASERS, MISSLE TRACKING, AND EVEN + BIOCYBERNETICS (THE DIRECT INTERFACING OF MAN AND + MACHINE-IMAGING HACKING AS FAST AS YOU CAN THINK + ABOUT IT... THIS HAS POTENTIAL). + + ARLINGTON, VA (202) 694-3007 + + +NSA: STANDS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY. THESE ARE THE + BRAIN BOYS, THE THINK TANKS FOR THE THE MILITARY. IF + YOU HAVE NIGHTMARES, THESE PEOPLE ARE THE ONES WHO + SHOULD BE STARRING. THEY ARE THE GOVT. COMP. AND + TELECOM EXPERTS. + + SOMEWHERE IN MARYLAND (301) 688-6311 + + + + + + + +DOJ: STANDS FOR DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE THIS IS THE COURT + SYSTEM, HOWEVER I DO NOT AGREE WITH THEIR IDEA OF + JUSTICE (WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM A MAN WHO THINKS G. + GORDON LIDDY IS COOL?). + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 633-2000 + + +FBI: STANDS FOR FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS. THESE ARE + THE NOSY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO BUST IN DOORS. + BELIEVE IT OR NOT, MOST OF THEM KNOW NOTHING ABOUT + WHAT THEY DO SINCE THEIR COLLEGE DEGREES ARE IN + ECONOMICS AND ACCOUNTING AND THE LIKE. FRANKLY, THESE + GUYS DON'T SCARE ME... THEY ARE PRETTY DUMB, AND ARE + TOTALLY OUT OF THEIR CLASS WHEN IT COMES TO COMPUTERS. + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 324-3000 + +(A SIDE NOTE: LOOK AT A TOUCH TONE PAD. 324 EITHER SPELLS + 'FBI' OR 'FAG'. I WONDER IF SOMEONE IN THE + TELCO HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR?) + + +DEA: STANDS FOR DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. IF YOU WAKE UP ONE + MORNING AND THERE IS SOMEONE DIGGING IN YOUR 'GARDEN' + IT IS THEM. THEY DON'T LIKE YOU TO ENJOY YOURSELF, OR + ENGAGE IN A LITTLE RECREATIONAL SOARING... + + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 633-1249 + + +DOS: STANDS FOR DEPARTMENT OF STATE. WHEN YOU HACK THE + RUSSIAN COMPUTER, THEY AREN'T PLEASED, ONE OF TWO + GROUPS WILL KNOCK AT YOUR DOOR. THE TELCO OR THE + STATE DEPARTMENT. THE KGB IS A GROUP OF GUYS WHO ARE + VERY GOOD LIARS AND VERY GOOD AT READING PEOPLE. THEY + KEEP WATCH FROM THE EMBASSY... + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 655-4000 + + +DOT: STANDS FOR DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY. THROW AWAY THE COLOR + XEROX MACHIN WHEN THESE PEOPLE KNOCK, SINCE THEY DON'T + LIKE YOU PASSING BAD BILLS. THEY KEEP TRACK AND PRINT + ALL THE MONEY IN THE COUNTRY (EXCEPT FOR A FEW FRIENDS + OF MINE WHO...) + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 566-2000 + + +SS: STANDS FOR SECRET SERVICE. FOR THE MOST PART, THE + SECRET SERVICE PROTECTS THE PRESIDENT (THAT'S WHY WE + HAVE LOST A FEW), GRABS COUNTERFEITERS, AND USED TO + BUST MOBSTERS. + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 535-5708 + +(NOTE: DO THE INITIALS 'SS' MEAN MUCH TO THOSE OF YOU UP ON + THE NAZIS????) + + +ATF: STANDS FOR BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND FIREARMS. + FRANKLY, I COULD DO WITHOUT THESE DO-GOODERS. THEY + ENFORCE ALL LAWS PERTAINING TO ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND + FIREARMS (IF IT WASN'T OBVIOUS). + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 566-7511 + + +IRS: STANDS FOR INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE. ARG! THE TAX + MAN! THE ONLY THING IS, THEIR COMPUTER WOULD BE THE + ULTIMATE HACK. THINK ABOUT IT... + + WASHINGTON, D.C. (202) 566-5000 + + +THIS FILE IS A PUBLIC SERVICE PROVIDED BY THE KNIGHTS OF +SHADOW. + +THE GOVERNMENT IS A PUBLIC SERVICE PROVIDING FOR ITSELF... + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/feder15.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/feder15.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..82d43ae2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/feder15.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19220 @@ + The Federalist Papers + + + + + + +FEDERALIST. No. 1 + +General Introduction +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the + subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on + a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject + speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences + nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare + of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many + respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently + remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this + country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important + question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of + establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether + they are forever destined to depend for their political + constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the + remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be + regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a + wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve + to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind. +This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of + patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and + good men must feel for the event. Happy will it be if our choice + should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, + unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the + public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished than + seriously to be expected. The plan offered to our deliberations + affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local + institutions, not to involve in its discussion a variety of objects + foreign to its merits, and of views, passions and prejudices little + favorable to the discovery of truth. +Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new + Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the + obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist + all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, + and consequence of the offices they hold under the State + establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men, + who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of + their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of + elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial + confederacies than from its union under one government. +It is not, however, my design to dwell upon observations of this + nature. I am well aware that it would be disingenuous to resolve + indiscriminately the opposition of any set of men (merely because + their situations might subject them to suspicion) into interested or + ambitious views. Candor will oblige us to admit that even such men + may be actuated by upright intentions; and it cannot be doubted + that much of the opposition which has made its appearance, or may + hereafter make its appearance, will spring from sources, blameless + at least, if not respectable--the honest errors of minds led astray + by preconceived jealousies and fears. So numerous indeed and so + powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the + judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the + wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first + magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would + furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much + persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy. And a + further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the + reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate the + truth are influenced by purer principles than their antagonists. + Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many + other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as + well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a + question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, + nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which + has, at all times, characterized political parties. For in + politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making + proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be + cured by persecution. +And yet, however just these sentiments will be allowed to be, we + have already sufficient indications that it will happen in this as + in all former cases of great national discussion. A torrent of + angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To judge from the + conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that + they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, + and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of + their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives. An + enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be + stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power and + hostile to the principles of liberty. An over-scrupulous jealousy + of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the + fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere + pretense and artifice, the stale bait for popularity at the expense + of the public good. It will be forgotten, on the one hand, that + jealousy is the usual concomitant of love, and that the noble + enthusiasm of liberty is apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow + and illiberal distrust. On the other hand, it will be equally + forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security + of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed + judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a + dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal + for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of + zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will + teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to + the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men + who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number + have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; + commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants. +In the course of the preceding observations, I have had an eye, + my fellow-citizens, to putting you upon your guard against all + attempts, from whatever quarter, to influence your decision in a + matter of the utmost moment to your welfare, by any impressions + other than those which may result from the evidence of truth. You + will, no doubt, at the same time, have collected from the general + scope of them, that they proceed from a source not unfriendly to the + new Constitution. Yes, my countrymen, I own to you that, after + having given it an attentive consideration, I am clearly of opinion + it is your interest to adopt it. I am convinced that this is the + safest course for your liberty, your dignity, and your happiness. I + affect not reserves which I do not feel. I will not amuse you with + an appearance of deliberation when I have decided. I frankly + acknowledge to you my convictions, and I will freely lay before you + the reasons on which they are founded. The consciousness of good + intentions disdains ambiguity. I shall not, however, multiply + professions on this head. My motives must remain in the depository + of my own breast. My arguments will be open to all, and may be + judged of by all. They shall at least be offered in a spirit which + will not disgrace the cause of truth. +I propose, in a series of papers, to discuss the following + interesting particulars: +THE UTILITY OF THE UNION TO YOUR POLITICAL PROSPERITY +THE INSUFFICIENCY OF THE PRESENT CONFEDERATION + TO PRESERVE THAT UNION THE NECESSITY OF A GOVERNMENT AT LEAST + EQUALLY ENERGETIC WITH THE ONE PROPOSED, TO THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS + OBJECT THE CONFORMITY OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION TO THE TRUE + PRINCIPLES OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT + ITS ANALOGY TO YOUR OWN STATE CONSTITUTION + and lastly, THE ADDITIONAL SECURITY WHICH ITS + ADOPTION WILL AFFORD TO THE PRESERVATION OF THAT SPECIES OF + GOVERNMENT, TO LIBERTY, AND TO PROPERTY. +In the progress of this discussion I shall endeavor to give a + satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made + their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention. +It may perhaps be thought superfluous to offer arguments to + prove the utility of the UNION, a point, no doubt, deeply engraved + on the hearts of the great body of the people in every State, and + one, which it may be imagined, has no adversaries. But the fact is, + that we already hear it whispered in the private circles of those + who oppose the new Constitution, that the thirteen States are of too + great extent for any general system, and that we must of necessity + resort to separate confederacies of distinct portions of the + whole.1 This doctrine will, in all probability, be gradually + propagated, till it has votaries enough to countenance an open + avowal of it. For nothing can be more evident, to those who are + able to take an enlarged view of the subject, than the alternative + of an adoption of the new Constitution or a dismemberment of the + Union. It will therefore be of use to begin by examining the + advantages of that Union, the certain evils, and the probable + dangers, to which every State will be exposed from its dissolution. + This shall accordingly constitute the subject of my next address. + PUBLIUS. +1 The same idea, tracing the arguments to their consequences, is + held out in several of the late publications against the new + Constitution. + + + +FEDERALIST No. 2 + +Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence +For the Independent Journal. + +JAY + +To the People of the State of New York: +WHEN the people of America reflect that they are now called upon + to decide a question, which, in its consequences, must prove one of + the most important that ever engaged their attention, the propriety + of their taking a very comprehensive, as well as a very serious, + view of it, will be evident. +Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of + government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however + it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural + rights in order to vest it with requisite powers. It is well worthy + of consideration therefore, whether it would conduce more to the + interest of the people of America that they should, to all general + purposes, be one nation, under one federal government, or that they + should divide themselves into separate confederacies, and give to + the head of each the same kind of powers which they are advised to + place in one national government. +It has until lately been a received and uncontradicted opinion + that the prosperity of the people of America depended on their + continuing firmly united, and the wishes, prayers, and efforts of + our best and wisest citizens have been constantly directed to that + object. But politicians now appear, who insist that this opinion is + erroneous, and that instead of looking for safety and happiness in + union, we ought to seek it in a division of the States into distinct + confederacies or sovereignties. However extraordinary this new + doctrine may appear, it nevertheless has its advocates; and certain + characters who were much opposed to it formerly, are at present of + the number. Whatever may be the arguments or inducements which have + wrought this change in the sentiments and declarations of these + gentlemen, it certainly would not be wise in the people at large to + adopt these new political tenets without being fully convinced that + they are founded in truth and sound policy. +It has often given me pleasure to observe that independent + America was not composed of detached and distant territories, but + that one connected, fertile, widespreading country was the portion + of our western sons of liberty. Providence has in a particular + manner blessed it with a variety of soils and productions, and + watered it with innumerable streams, for the delight and + accommodation of its inhabitants. A succession of navigable waters + forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together; + while the most noble rivers in the world, running at convenient + distances, present them with highways for the easy communication of + friendly aids, and the mutual transportation and exchange of their + various commodities. +With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence + has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united + people--a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same + language, professing the same religion, attached to the same + principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, + and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side + by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established + general liberty and independence. +This country and this people seem to have been made for each + other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an + inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united + to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a + number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties. +Similar sentiments have hitherto prevailed among all orders and + denominations of men among us. To all general purposes we have + uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere + enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a + nation we have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished + our common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made + treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with + foreign states. +A strong sense of the value and blessings of union induced the + people, at a very early period, to institute a federal government to + preserve and perpetuate it. They formed it almost as soon as they + had a political existence; nay, at a time when their habitations + were in flames, when many of their citizens were bleeding, and when + the progress of hostility and desolation left little room for those + calm and mature inquiries and reflections which must ever precede + the formation of a wise and wellbalanced government for a free + people. It is not to be wondered at, that a government instituted + in times so inauspicious, should on experiment be found greatly + deficient and inadequate to the purpose it was intended to answer. +This intelligent people perceived and regretted these defects. + Still continuing no less attached to union than enamored of + liberty, they observed the danger which immediately threatened the + former and more remotely the latter; and being pursuaded that ample + security for both could only be found in a national government more + wisely framed, they as with one voice, convened the late convention + at Philadelphia, to take that important subject under consideration. +This convention composed of men who possessed the confidence of + the people, and many of whom had become highly distinguished by + their patriotism, virtue and wisdom, in times which tried the minds + and hearts of men, undertook the arduous task. In the mild season + of peace, with minds unoccupied by other subjects, they passed many + months in cool, uninterrupted, and daily consultation; and finally, + without having been awed by power, or influenced by any passions + except love for their country, they presented and recommended to the + people the plan produced by their joint and very unanimous councils. +Admit, for so is the fact, that this plan is only RECOMMENDED, + not imposed, yet let it be remembered that it is neither recommended + to BLIND approbation, nor to BLIND reprobation; but to that sedate + and candid consideration which the magnitude and importance of the + subject demand, and which it certainly ought to receive. But this + (as was remarked in the foregoing number of this paper) is more to + be wished than expected, that it may be so considered and examined. + Experience on a former occasion teaches us not to be too sanguine + in such hopes. It is not yet forgotten that well-grounded + apprehensions of imminent danger induced the people of America to + form the memorable Congress of 1774. That body recommended certain + measures to their constituents, and the event proved their wisdom; + yet it is fresh in our memories how soon the press began to teem + with pamphlets and weekly papers against those very measures. Not + only many of the officers of government, who obeyed the dictates of + personal interest, but others, from a mistaken estimate of + consequences, or the undue influence of former attachments, or whose + ambition aimed at objects which did not correspond with the public + good, were indefatigable in their efforts to pursuade the people to + reject the advice of that patriotic Congress. Many, indeed, were + deceived and deluded, but the great majority of the people reasoned + and decided judiciously; and happy they are in reflecting that they + did so. +They considered that the Congress was composed of many wise and + experienced men. That, being convened from different parts of the + country, they brought with them and communicated to each other a + variety of useful information. That, in the course of the time they + passed together in inquiring into and discussing the true interests + of their country, they must have acquired very accurate knowledge on + that head. That they were individually interested in the public + liberty and prosperity, and therefore that it was not less their + inclination than their duty to recommend only such measures as, + after the most mature deliberation, they really thought prudent and + advisable. +These and similar considerations then induced the people to rely + greatly on the judgment and integrity of the Congress; and they + took their advice, notwithstanding the various arts and endeavors + used to deter them from it. But if the people at large had reason + to confide in the men of that Congress, few of whom had been fully + tried or generally known, still greater reason have they now to + respect the judgment and advice of the convention, for it is well + known that some of the most distinguished members of that Congress, + who have been since tried and justly approved for patriotism and + abilities, and who have grown old in acquiring political + information, were also members of this convention, and carried into + it their accumulated knowledge and experience. +It is worthy of remark that not only the first, but every + succeeding Congress, as well as the late convention, have invariably + joined with the people in thinking that the prosperity of America + depended on its Union. To preserve and perpetuate it was the great + object of the people in forming that convention, and it is also the + great object of the plan which the convention has advised them to + adopt. With what propriety, therefore, or for what good purposes, + are attempts at this particular period made by some men to + depreciate the importance of the Union? Or why is it suggested that + three or four confederacies would be better than one? I am + persuaded in my own mind that the people have always thought right + on this subject, and that their universal and uniform attachment to + the cause of the Union rests on great and weighty reasons, which I + shall endeavor to develop and explain in some ensuing papers. They + who promote the idea of substituting a number of distinct + confederacies in the room of the plan of the convention, seem + clearly to foresee that the rejection of it would put the + continuance of the Union in the utmost jeopardy. That certainly + would be the case, and I sincerely wish that it may be as clearly + foreseen by every good citizen, that whenever the dissolution of the + Union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of + the poet: ``FAREWELL! A LONG FAREWELL TO ALL MY GREATNESS.'' +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 3 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence) +For the Independent Journal. + +JAY + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT IS not a new observation that the people of any country (if, + like the Americans, intelligent and wellinformed) seldom adopt and + steadily persevere for many years in an erroneous opinion respecting + their interests. That consideration naturally tends to create great + respect for the high opinion which the people of America have so + long and uniformly entertained of the importance of their continuing + firmly united under one federal government, vested with sufficient + powers for all general and national purposes. +The more attentively I consider and investigate the reasons + which appear to have given birth to this opinion, the more I become + convinced that they are cogent and conclusive. +Among the many objects to which a wise and free people find it + necessary to direct their attention, that of providing for their + SAFETY seems to be the first. The SAFETY of the people doubtless + has relation to a great variety of circumstances and considerations, + and consequently affords great latitude to those who wish to define + it precisely and comprehensively. +At present I mean only to consider it as it respects security + for the preservation of peace and tranquillity, as well as against + dangers from FOREIGN ARMS AND INFLUENCE, as from dangers of the LIKE + KIND arising from domestic causes. As the former of these comes + first in order, it is proper it should be the first discussed. Let + us therefore proceed to examine whether the people are not right in + their opinion that a cordial Union, under an efficient national + government, affords them the best security that can be devised + against HOSTILITIES from abroad. +The number of wars which have happened or will happen in the + world will always be found to be in proportion to the number and + weight of the causes, whether REAL or PRETENDED, which PROVOKE or + INVITE them. If this remark be just, it becomes useful to inquire + whether so many JUST causes of war are likely to be given by UNITED + AMERICA as by DISUNITED America; for if it should turn out that + United America will probably give the fewest, then it will follow + that in this respect the Union tends most to preserve the people in + a state of peace with other nations. +The JUST causes of war, for the most part, arise either from + violation of treaties or from direct violence. America has already + formed treaties with no less than six foreign nations, and all of + them, except Prussia, are maritime, and therefore able to annoy and + injure us. She has also extensive commerce with Portugal, Spain, + and Britain, and, with respect to the two latter, has, in addition, + the circumstance of neighborhood to attend to. +It is of high importance to the peace of America that she + observe the laws of nations towards all these powers, and to me it + appears evident that this will be more perfectly and punctually done + by one national government than it could be either by thirteen + separate States or by three or four distinct confederacies. +Because when once an efficient national government is + established, the best men in the country will not only consent to + serve, but also will generally be appointed to manage it; for, + although town or country, or other contracted influence, may place + men in State assemblies, or senates, or courts of justice, or + executive departments, yet more general and extensive reputation for + talents and other qualifications will be necessary to recommend men + to offices under the national government,--especially as it will have + the widest field for choice, and never experience that want of + proper persons which is not uncommon in some of the States. Hence, + it will result that the administration, the political counsels, and + the judicial decisions of the national government will be more wise, + systematical, and judicious than those of individual States, and + consequently more satisfactory with respect to other nations, as + well as more SAFE with respect to us. +Because, under the national government, treaties and articles of + treaties, as well as the laws of nations, will always be expounded + in one sense and executed in the same manner,--whereas, adjudications + on the same points and questions, in thirteen States, or in three or + four confederacies, will not always accord or be consistent; and + that, as well from the variety of independent courts and judges + appointed by different and independent governments, as from the + different local laws and interests which may affect and influence + them. The wisdom of the convention, in committing such questions to + the jurisdiction and judgment of courts appointed by and responsible + only to one national government, cannot be too much commended. +Because the prospect of present loss or advantage may often + tempt the governing party in one or two States to swerve from good + faith and justice; but those temptations, not reaching the other + States, and consequently having little or no influence on the + national government, the temptation will be fruitless, and good + faith and justice be preserved. The case of the treaty of peace + with Britain adds great weight to this reasoning. +Because, even if the governing party in a State should be + disposed to resist such temptations, yet as such temptations may, + and commonly do, result from circumstances peculiar to the State, + and may affect a great number of the inhabitants, the governing + party may not always be able, if willing, to prevent the injustice + meditated, or to punish the aggressors. But the national + government, not being affected by those local circumstances, will + neither be induced to commit the wrong themselves, nor want power or + inclination to prevent or punish its commission by others. +So far, therefore, as either designed or accidental violations + of treaties and the laws of nations afford JUST causes of war, they + are less to be apprehended under one general government than under + several lesser ones, and in that respect the former most favors the + SAFETY of the people. +As to those just causes of war which proceed from direct and + unlawful violence, it appears equally clear to me that one good + national government affords vastly more security against dangers of + that sort than can be derived from any other quarter. +Because such violences are more frequently caused by the + passions and interests of a part than of the whole; of one or two + States than of the Union. Not a single Indian war has yet been + occasioned by aggressions of the present federal government, feeble + as it is; but there are several instances of Indian hostilities + having been provoked by the improper conduct of individual States, + who, either unable or unwilling to restrain or punish offenses, have + given occasion to the slaughter of many innocent inhabitants. +The neighborhood of Spanish and British territories, bordering + on some States and not on others, naturally confines the causes of + quarrel more immediately to the borderers. The bordering States, if + any, will be those who, under the impulse of sudden irritation, and + a quick sense of apparent interest or injury, will be most likely, + by direct violence, to excite war with these nations; and nothing + can so effectually obviate that danger as a national government, + whose wisdom and prudence will not be diminished by the passions + which actuate the parties immediately interested. +But not only fewer just causes of war will be given by the + national government, but it will also be more in their power to + accommodate and settle them amicably. They will be more temperate + and cool, and in that respect, as well as in others, will be more in + capacity to act advisedly than the offending State. The pride of + states, as well as of men, naturally disposes them to justify all + their actions, and opposes their acknowledging, correcting, or + repairing their errors and offenses. The national government, in + such cases, will not be affected by this pride, but will proceed + with moderation and candor to consider and decide on the means most + proper to extricate them from the difficulties which threaten them. +Besides, it is well known that acknowledgments, explanations, + and compensations are often accepted as satisfactory from a strong + united nation, which would be rejected as unsatisfactory if offered + by a State or confederacy of little consideration or power. +In the year 1685, the state of Genoa having offended Louis XIV., + endeavored to appease him. He demanded that they should send their + Doge, or chief magistrate, accompanied by four of their + senators, to FRANCE, to ask his pardon and receive his terms. They + were obliged to submit to it for the sake of peace. Would he on any + occasion either have demanded or have received the like humiliation + from Spain, or Britain, or any other POWERFUL nation? +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 4 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence) +For the Independent Journal. + +JAY + +To the People of the State of New York: +MY LAST paper assigned several reasons why the safety of the + people would be best secured by union against the danger it may be + exposed to by JUST causes of war given to other nations; and those + reasons show that such causes would not only be more rarely given, + but would also be more easily accommodated, by a national government + than either by the State governments or the proposed little + confederacies. +But the safety of the people of America against dangers from + FOREIGN force depends not only on their forbearing to give JUST + causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and + continuing themselves in such a situation as not to INVITE hostility + or insult; for it need not be observed that there are PRETENDED as + well as just causes of war. +It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, + that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect + of getting anything by it; nay, absolute monarchs will often make + war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the + purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military + glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts + to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans. + These and a variety of other motives, which affect only the mind of + the sovereign, often lead him to engage in wars not sanctified by + justice or the voice and interests of his people. But, independent + of these inducements to war, which are more prevalent in absolute + monarchies, but which well deserve our attention, there are others + which affect nations as often as kings; and some of them will on + examination be found to grow out of our relative situation and + circumstances. +With France and with Britain we are rivals in the fisheries, and + can supply their markets cheaper than they can themselves, + notwithstanding any efforts to prevent it by bounties on their own + or duties on foreign fish. +With them and with most other European nations we are rivals in + navigation and the carrying trade; and we shall deceive ourselves + if we suppose that any of them will rejoice to see it flourish; + for, as our carrying trade cannot increase without in some degree + diminishing theirs, it is more their interest, and will be more + their policy, to restrain than to promote it. +In the trade to China and India, we interfere with more than one + nation, inasmuch as it enables us to partake in advantages which + they had in a manner monopolized, and as we thereby supply ourselves + with commodities which we used to purchase from them. +The extension of our own commerce in our own vessels cannot give + pleasure to any nations who possess territories on or near this + continent, because the cheapness and excellence of our productions, + added to the circumstance of vicinity, and the enterprise and + address of our merchants and navigators, will give us a greater + share in the advantages which those territories afford, than + consists with the wishes or policy of their respective sovereigns. +Spain thinks it convenient to shut the Mississippi against us on + the one side, and Britain excludes us from the Saint Lawrence on the + other; nor will either of them permit the other waters which are + between them and us to become the means of mutual intercourse and + traffic. +From these and such like considerations, which might, if + consistent with prudence, be more amplified and detailed, it is easy + to see that jealousies and uneasinesses may gradually slide into the + minds and cabinets of other nations, and that we are not to expect + that they should regard our advancement in union, in power and + consequence by land and by sea, with an eye of indifference and + composure. +The people of America are aware that inducements to war may + arise out of these circumstances, as well as from others not so + obvious at present, and that whenever such inducements may find fit + time and opportunity for operation, pretenses to color and justify + them will not be wanting. Wisely, therefore, do they consider union + and a good national government as necessary to put and keep them in + SUCH A SITUATION as, instead of INVITING war, will tend to repress + and discourage it. That situation consists in the best possible + state of defense, and necessarily depends on the government, the + arms, and the resources of the country. +As the safety of the whole is the interest of the whole, and + cannot be provided for without government, either one or more or + many, let us inquire whether one good government is not, relative to + the object in question, more competent than any other given number + whatever. +One government can collect and avail itself of the talents and + experience of the ablest men, in whatever part of the Union they may + be found. It can move on uniform principles of policy. It can + harmonize, assimilate, and protect the several parts and members, + and extend the benefit of its foresight and precautions to each. In + the formation of treaties, it will regard the interest of the whole, + and the particular interests of the parts as connected with that of + the whole. It can apply the resources and power of the whole to the + defense of any particular part, and that more easily and + expeditiously than State governments or separate confederacies can + possibly do, for want of concert and unity of system. It can place + the militia under one plan of discipline, and, by putting their + officers in a proper line of subordination to the Chief Magistrate, + will, as it were, consolidate them into one corps, and thereby + render them more efficient than if divided into thirteen or into + three or four distinct independent companies. +What would the militia of Britain be if the English militia + obeyed the government of England, if the Scotch militia obeyed the + government of Scotland, and if the Welsh militia obeyed the + government of Wales? Suppose an invasion; would those three + governments (if they agreed at all) be able, with all their + respective forces, to operate against the enemy so effectually as + the single government of Great Britain would? +We have heard much of the fleets of Britain, and the time may + come, if we are wise, when the fleets of America may engage + attention. But if one national government, had not so regulated the + navigation of Britain as to make it a nursery for seamen--if one + national government had not called forth all the national means and + materials for forming fleets, their prowess and their thunder would + never have been celebrated. Let England have its navigation and + fleet--let Scotland have its navigation and fleet--let Wales have its + navigation and fleet--let Ireland have its navigation and fleet--let + those four of the constituent parts of the British empire be be + under four independent governments, and it is easy to perceive how + soon they would each dwindle into comparative insignificance. +Apply these facts to our own case. Leave America divided into + thirteen or, if you please, into three or four independent + governments--what armies could they raise and pay--what fleets could + they ever hope to have? If one was attacked, would the others fly + to its succor, and spend their blood and money in its defense? + Would there be no danger of their being flattered into neutrality + by its specious promises, or seduced by a too great fondness for + peace to decline hazarding their tranquillity and present safety for + the sake of neighbors, of whom perhaps they have been jealous, and + whose importance they are content to see diminished? Although such + conduct would not be wise, it would, nevertheless, be natural. The + history of the states of Greece, and of other countries, abounds + with such instances, and it is not improbable that what has so often + happened would, under similar circumstances, happen again. +But admit that they might be willing to help the invaded State + or confederacy. How, and when, and in what proportion shall aids of + men and money be afforded? Who shall command the allied armies, and + from which of them shall he receive his orders? Who shall settle + the terms of peace, and in case of disputes what umpire shall decide + between them and compel acquiescence? Various difficulties and + inconveniences would be inseparable from such a situation; whereas + one government, watching over the general and common interests, and + combining and directing the powers and resources of the whole, would + be free from all these embarrassments, and conduce far more to the + safety of the people. +But whatever may be our situation, whether firmly united under + one national government, or split into a number of confederacies, + certain it is, that foreign nations will know and view it exactly as + it is; and they will act toward us accordingly. If they see that + our national government is efficient and well administered, our + trade prudently regulated, our militia properly organized and + disciplined, our resources and finances discreetly managed, our + credit re-established, our people free, contented, and united, they + will be much more disposed to cultivate our friendship than provoke + our resentment. If, on the other hand, they find us either + destitute of an effectual government (each State doing right or + wrong, as to its rulers may seem convenient), or split into three or + four independent and probably discordant republics or confederacies, + one inclining to Britain, another to France, and a third to Spain, + and perhaps played off against each other by the three, what a poor, + pitiful figure will America make in their eyes! How liable would + she become not only to their contempt but to their outrage, and how + soon would dear-bought experience proclaim that when a people or + family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 5 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning Dangers From Foreign Force and Influence) +For the Independent Journal. + +JAY + +To the People of the State of New York: +QUEEN ANNE, in her letter of the 1st July, 1706, to the Scotch + Parliament, makes some observations on the importance of the UNION + then forming between England and Scotland, which merit our attention. + I shall present the public with one or two extracts from it: ``An + entire and perfect union will be the solid foundation of lasting + peace: It will secure your religion, liberty, and property; remove + the animosities amongst yourselves, and the jealousies and + differences betwixt our two kingdoms. It must increase your + strength, riches, and trade; and by this union the whole island, + being joined in affection and free from all apprehensions of + different interest, will be ENABLED TO RESIST ALL ITS ENEMIES.'' + ``We most earnestly recommend to you calmness and unanimity in this + great and weighty affair, that the union may be brought to a happy + conclusion, being the only EFFECTUAL way to secure our present and + future happiness, and disappoint the designs of our and your + enemies, who will doubtless, on this occasion, USE THEIR UTMOST + ENDEAVORS TO PREVENT OR DELAY THIS UNION.'' +It was remarked in the preceding paper, that weakness and + divisions at home would invite dangers from abroad; and that + nothing would tend more to secure us from them than union, strength, + and good government within ourselves. This subject is copious and + cannot easily be exhausted. +The history of Great Britain is the one with which we are in + general the best acquainted, and it gives us many useful lessons. + We may profit by their experience without paying the price which it + cost them. Although it seems obvious to common sense that the + people of such an island should be but one nation, yet we find that + they were for ages divided into three, and that those three were + almost constantly embroiled in quarrels and wars with one another. + Notwithstanding their true interest with respect to the continental + nations was really the same, yet by the arts and policy and + practices of those nations, their mutual jealousies were perpetually + kept inflamed, and for a long series of years they were far more + inconvenient and troublesome than they were useful and assisting to + each other. +Should the people of America divide themselves into three or + four nations, would not the same thing happen? Would not similar + jealousies arise, and be in like manner cherished? Instead of their + being ``joined in affection'' and free from all apprehension of + different ``interests,'' envy and jealousy would soon extinguish + confidence and affection, and the partial interests of each + confederacy, instead of the general interests of all America, would + be the only objects of their policy and pursuits. Hence, like most + other BORDERING nations, they would always be either involved in + disputes and war, or live in the constant apprehension of them. +The most sanguine advocates for three or four confederacies + cannot reasonably suppose that they would long remain exactly on an + equal footing in point of strength, even if it was possible to form + them so at first; but, admitting that to be practicable, yet what + human contrivance can secure the continuance of such equality? + Independent of those local circumstances which tend to beget and + increase power in one part and to impede its progress in another, we + must advert to the effects of that superior policy and good + management which would probably distinguish the government of one + above the rest, and by which their relative equality in strength and + consideration would be destroyed. For it cannot be presumed that + the same degree of sound policy, prudence, and foresight would + uniformly be observed by each of these confederacies for a long + succession of years. +Whenever, and from whatever causes, it might happen, and happen + it would, that any one of these nations or confederacies should rise + on the scale of political importance much above the degree of her + neighbors, that moment would those neighbors behold her with envy + and with fear. Both those passions would lead them to countenance, + if not to promote, whatever might promise to diminish her + importance; and would also restrain them from measures calculated + to advance or even to secure her prosperity. Much time would not be + necessary to enable her to discern these unfriendly dispositions. + She would soon begin, not only to lose confidence in her neighbors, + but also to feel a disposition equally unfavorable to them. + Distrust naturally creates distrust, and by nothing is good-will + and kind conduct more speedily changed than by invidious jealousies + and uncandid imputations, whether expressed or implied. +The North is generally the region of strength, and many local + circumstances render it probable that the most Northern of the + proposed confederacies would, at a period not very distant, be + unquestionably more formidable than any of the others. No sooner + would this become evident than the NORTHERN HIVE would excite the + same ideas and sensations in the more southern parts of America + which it formerly did in the southern parts of Europe. Nor does it + appear to be a rash conjecture that its young swarms might often be + tempted to gather honey in the more blooming fields and milder air + of their luxurious and more delicate neighbors. +They who well consider the history of similar divisions and + confederacies will find abundant reason to apprehend that those in + contemplation would in no other sense be neighbors than as they + would be borderers; that they would neither love nor trust one + another, but on the contrary would be a prey to discord, jealousy, + and mutual injuries; in short, that they would place us exactly in + the situations in which some nations doubtless wish to see us, viz., + FORMIDABLE ONLY TO EACH OTHER. +From these considerations it appears that those gentlemen are + greatly mistaken who suppose that alliances offensive and defensive + might be formed between these confederacies, and would produce that + combination and union of wills of arms and of resources, which would + be necessary to put and keep them in a formidable state of defense + against foreign enemies. +When did the independent states, into which Britain and Spain + were formerly divided, combine in such alliance, or unite their + forces against a foreign enemy? The proposed confederacies will be + DISTINCT NATIONS. Each of them would have its commerce with + foreigners to regulate by distinct treaties; and as their + productions and commodities are different and proper for different + markets, so would those treaties be essentially different. + Different commercial concerns must create different interests, and + of course different degrees of political attachment to and + connection with different foreign nations. Hence it might and + probably would happen that the foreign nation with whom the SOUTHERN + confederacy might be at war would be the one with whom the NORTHERN + confederacy would be the most desirous of preserving peace and + friendship. An alliance so contrary to their immediate interest + would not therefore be easy to form, nor, if formed, would it be + observed and fulfilled with perfect good faith. +Nay, it is far more probable that in America, as in Europe, + neighboring nations, acting under the impulse of opposite interests + and unfriendly passions, would frequently be found taking different + sides. Considering our distance from Europe, it would be more + natural for these confederacies to apprehend danger from one another + than from distant nations, and therefore that each of them should be + more desirous to guard against the others by the aid of foreign + alliances, than to guard against foreign dangers by alliances + between themselves. And here let us not forget how much more easy + it is to receive foreign fleets into our ports, and foreign armies + into our country, than it is to persuade or compel them to depart. + How many conquests did the Romans and others make in the characters + of allies, and what innovations did they under the same character + introduce into the governments of those whom they pretended to + protect. +Let candid men judge, then, whether the division of America into + any given number of independent sovereignties would tend to secure + us against the hostilities and improper interference of foreign + nations. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 6 + +Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE three last numbers of this paper have been dedicated to an + enumeration of the dangers to which we should be exposed, in a state + of disunion, from the arms and arts of foreign nations. I shall now + proceed to delineate dangers of a different and, perhaps, still more + alarming kind--those which will in all probability flow from + dissensions between the States themselves, and from domestic + factions and convulsions. These have been already in some instances + slightly anticipated; but they deserve a more particular and more + full investigation. +A man must be far gone in Utopian speculations who can seriously + doubt that, if these States should either be wholly disunited, or + only united in partial confederacies, the subdivisions into which + they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests with + each other. To presume a want of motives for such contests as an + argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are + ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. To look for a continuation of + harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties + in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course + of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience + of ages. +The causes of hostility among nations are innumerable. There + are some which have a general and almost constant operation upon the + collective bodies of society. Of this description are the love of + power or the desire of pre-eminence and dominion--the jealousy of + power, or the desire of equality and safety. There are others which + have a more circumscribed though an equally operative influence + within their spheres. Such are the rivalships and competitions of + commerce between commercial nations. And there are others, not less + numerous than either of the former, which take their origin entirely + in private passions; in the attachments, enmities, interests, + hopes, and fears of leading individuals in the communities of which + they are members. Men of this class, whether the favorites of a + king or of a people, have in too many instances abused the + confidence they possessed; and assuming the pretext of some public + motive, have not scrupled to sacrifice the national tranquillity to + personal advantage or personal gratification. +The celebrated Pericles, in compliance with the resentment of a + prostitute,1 at the expense of much of the blood and treasure of + his countrymen, attacked, vanquished, and destroyed the city of the + SAMNIANS. The same man, stimulated by private pique against the + MEGARENSIANS,2 another nation of Greece, or to avoid a + prosecution with which he was threatened as an accomplice of a + supposed theft of the statuary Phidias,3 or to get rid of the + accusations prepared to be brought against him for dissipating the + funds of the state in the purchase of popularity,4 or from a + combination of all these causes, was the primitive author of that + famous and fatal war, distinguished in the Grecian annals by the + name of the PELOPONNESIAN war; which, after various vicissitudes, + intermissions, and renewals, terminated in the ruin of the Athenian + commonwealth. +The ambitious cardinal, who was prime minister to Henry VIII., + permitting his vanity to aspire to the triple crown,5 + entertained hopes of succeeding in the acquisition of that splendid + prize by the influence of the Emperor Charles V. To secure the + favor and interest of this enterprising and powerful monarch, he + precipitated England into a war with France, contrary to the + plainest dictates of policy, and at the hazard of the safety and + independence, as well of the kingdom over which he presided by his + counsels, as of Europe in general. For if there ever was a + sovereign who bid fair to realize the project of universal monarchy, + it was the Emperor Charles V., of whose intrigues Wolsey was at once + the instrument and the dupe. +The influence which the bigotry of one female,6 the + petulance of another,7 and the cabals of a third,8 had in + the contemporary policy, ferments, and pacifications, of a + considerable part of Europe, are topics that have been too often + descanted upon not to be generally known. +To multiply examples of the agency of personal considerations in + the production of great national events, either foreign or domestic, + according to their direction, would be an unnecessary waste of time. + Those who have but a superficial acquaintance with the sources from + which they are to be drawn, will themselves recollect a variety of + instances; and those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature + will not stand in need of such lights to form their opinion either + of the reality or extent of that agency. Perhaps, however, a + reference, tending to illustrate the general principle, may with + propriety be made to a case which has lately happened among + ourselves. If Shays had not been a DESPERATE DEBTOR, it is much to + be doubted whether Massachusetts would have been plunged into a + civil war. +But notwithstanding the concurring testimony of experience, in + this particular, there are still to be found visionary or designing + men, who stand ready to advocate the paradox of perpetual peace + between the States, though dismembered and alienated from each other. + The genius of republics (say they) is pacific; the spirit of + commerce has a tendency to soften the manners of men, and to + extinguish those inflammable humors which have so often kindled into + wars. Commercial republics, like ours, will never be disposed to + waste themselves in ruinous contentions with each other. They will + be governed by mutual interest, and will cultivate a spirit of + mutual amity and concord. +Is it not (we may ask these projectors in politics) the true + interest of all nations to cultivate the same benevolent and + philosophic spirit? If this be their true interest, have they in + fact pursued it? Has it not, on the contrary, invariably been found + that momentary passions, and immediate interest, have a more active + and imperious control over human conduct than general or remote + considerations of policy, utility or justice? Have republics in + practice been less addicted to war than monarchies? Are not the + former administered by MEN as well as the latter? Are there not + aversions, predilections, rivalships, and desires of unjust + acquisitions, that affect nations as well as kings? Are not popular + assemblies frequently subject to the impulses of rage, resentment, + jealousy, avarice, and of other irregular and violent propensities? + Is it not well known that their determinations are often governed + by a few individuals in whom they place confidence, and are, of + course, liable to be tinctured by the passions and views of those + individuals? Has commerce hitherto done anything more than change + the objects of war? Is not the love of wealth as domineering and + enterprising a passion as that of power or glory? Have there not + been as many wars founded upon commercial motives since that has + become the prevailing system of nations, as were before occasioned + by the cupidity of territory or dominion? Has not the spirit of + commerce, in many instances, administered new incentives to the + appetite, both for the one and for the other? Let experience, the + least fallible guide of human opinions, be appealed to for an answer + to these inquiries. +Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Carthage were all republics; two of + them, Athens and Carthage, of the commercial kind. Yet were they as + often engaged in wars, offensive and defensive, as the neighboring + monarchies of the same times. Sparta was little better than a + wellregulated camp; and Rome was never sated of carnage and + conquest. +Carthage, though a commercial republic, was the aggressor in the + very war that ended in her destruction. Hannibal had carried her + arms into the heart of Italy and to the gates of Rome, before + Scipio, in turn, gave him an overthrow in the territories of + Carthage, and made a conquest of the commonwealth. +Venice, in later times, figured more than once in wars of + ambition, till, becoming an object to the other Italian states, Pope + Julius II. found means to accomplish that formidable league,9 + which gave a deadly blow to the power and pride of this haughty + republic. +The provinces of Holland, till they were overwhelmed in debts + and taxes, took a leading and conspicuous part in the wars of Europe. + They had furious contests with England for the dominion of the + sea, and were among the most persevering and most implacable of the + opponents of Louis XIV. +In the government of Britain the representatives of the people + compose one branch of the national legislature. Commerce has been + for ages the predominant pursuit of that country. Few nations, + nevertheless, have been more frequently engaged in war; and the + wars in which that kingdom has been engaged have, in numerous + instances, proceeded from the people. +There have been, if I may so express it, almost as many popular + as royal wars. The cries of the nation and the importunities of + their representatives have, upon various occasions, dragged their + monarchs into war, or continued them in it, contrary to their + inclinations, and sometimes contrary to the real interests of the + State. In that memorable struggle for superiority between the rival + houses of AUSTRIA and BOURBON, which so long kept Europe in a flame, + it is well known that the antipathies of the English against the + French, seconding the ambition, or rather the avarice, of a favorite + leader,10 protracted the war beyond the limits marked out by + sound policy, and for a considerable time in opposition to the views + of the court. +The wars of these two last-mentioned nations have in a great + measure grown out of commercial considerations,--the desire of + supplanting and the fear of being supplanted, either in particular + branches of traffic or in the general advantages of trade and + navigation. +From this summary of what has taken place in other countries, + whose situations have borne the nearest resemblance to our own, what + reason can we have to confide in those reveries which would seduce + us into an expectation of peace and cordiality between the members + of the present confederacy, in a state of separation? Have we not + already seen enough of the fallacy and extravagance of those idle + theories which have amused us with promises of an exemption from the + imperfections, weaknesses and evils incident to society in every + shape? Is it not time to awake from the deceitful dream of a golden + age, and to adopt as a practical maxim for the direction of our + political conduct that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the + globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and + perfect virtue? +Let the point of extreme depression to which our national + dignity and credit have sunk, let the inconveniences felt everywhere + from a lax and ill administration of government, let the revolt of a + part of the State of North Carolina, the late menacing disturbances + in Pennsylvania, and the actual insurrections and rebellions in + Massachusetts, declare--! +So far is the general sense of mankind from corresponding with + the tenets of those who endeavor to lull asleep our apprehensions of + discord and hostility between the States, in the event of disunion, + that it has from long observation of the progress of society become + a sort of axiom in politics, that vicinity or nearness of situation, + constitutes nations natural enemies. An intelligent writer + expresses himself on this subject to this effect: ``NEIGHBORING + NATIONS (says he) are naturally enemies of each other unless their + common weakness forces them to league in a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC, and + their constitution prevents the differences that neighborhood + occasions, extinguishing that secret jealousy which disposes all + states to aggrandize themselves at the expense of their + neighbors.''11 This passage, at the same time, points out the + EVIL and suggests the REMEDY. +PUBLIUS. +1 Aspasia, vide ``Plutarch's Life of Pericles.'' +2 Ibid. +3 Ibid. +4 ] Ibid. Phidias was supposed to have stolen some public + gold, with the connivance of Pericles, for the embellishment of the + statue of Minerva. +5 P Worn by the popes. +6 Madame de Maintenon. +7 Duchess of Marlborough. +8 Madame de Pompadour. +9 The League of Cambray, comprehending the Emperor, the King of + France, the King of Aragon, and most of the Italian princes and + states. +10 The Duke of Marlborough. +11 Vide ``Principes des Negociations'' par 1'Abbe de Mably. + + +FEDERALIST. No. 7 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States) +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT IS sometimes asked, with an air of seeming triumph, what + inducements could the States have, if disunited, to make war upon + each other? It would be a full answer to this question to + say--precisely the same inducements which have, at different times, + deluged in blood all the nations in the world. But, unfortunately + for us, the question admits of a more particular answer. There are + causes of differences within our immediate contemplation, of the + tendency of which, even under the restraints of a federal + constitution, we have had sufficient experience to enable us to form + a judgment of what might be expected if those restraints were + removed. +Territorial disputes have at all times been found one of the + most fertile sources of hostility among nations. Perhaps the + greatest proportion of wars that have desolated the earth have + sprung from this origin. This cause would exist among us in full + force. We have a vast tract of unsettled territory within the + boundaries of the United States. There still are discordant and + undecided claims between several of them, and the dissolution of the + Union would lay a foundation for similar claims between them all. + It is well known that they have heretofore had serious and animated + discussion concerning the rights to the lands which were ungranted + at the time of the Revolution, and which usually went under the name + of crown lands. The States within the limits of whose colonial + governments they were comprised have claimed them as their property, + the others have contended that the rights of the crown in this + article devolved upon the Union; especially as to all that part of + the Western territory which, either by actual possession, or through + the submission of the Indian proprietors, was subjected to the + jurisdiction of the king of Great Britain, till it was relinquished + in the treaty of peace. This, it has been said, was at all events + an acquisition to the Confederacy by compact with a foreign power. + It has been the prudent policy of Congress to appease this + controversy, by prevailing upon the States to make cessions to the + United States for the benefit of the whole. This has been so far + accomplished as, under a continuation of the Union, to afford a + decided prospect of an amicable termination of the dispute. A + dismemberment of the Confederacy, however, would revive this + dispute, and would create others on the same subject. At present, a + large part of the vacant Western territory is, by cession at least, + if not by any anterior right, the common property of the Union. If + that were at an end, the States which made the cession, on a + principle of federal compromise, would be apt when the motive of the + grant had ceased, to reclaim the lands as a reversion. The other + States would no doubt insist on a proportion, by right of + representation. Their argument would be, that a grant, once made, + could not be revoked; and that the justice of participating in + territory acquired or secured by the joint efforts of the + Confederacy, remained undiminished. If, contrary to probability, it + should be admitted by all the States, that each had a right to a + share of this common stock, there would still be a difficulty to be + surmounted, as to a proper rule of apportionment. Different + principles would be set up by different States for this purpose; + and as they would affect the opposite interests of the parties, + they might not easily be susceptible of a pacific adjustment. +In the wide field of Western territory, therefore, we perceive + an ample theatre for hostile pretensions, without any umpire or + common judge to interpose between the contending parties. To reason + from the past to the future, we shall have good ground to apprehend, + that the sword would sometimes be appealed to as the arbiter of + their differences. The circumstances of the dispute between + Connecticut and Pennsylvania, respecting the land at Wyoming, + admonish us not to be sanguine in expecting an easy accommodation of + such differences. The articles of confederation obliged the parties + to submit the matter to the decision of a federal court. The + submission was made, and the court decided in favor of Pennsylvania. + But Connecticut gave strong indications of dissatisfaction with + that determination; nor did she appear to be entirely resigned to + it, till, by negotiation and management, something like an + equivalent was found for the loss she supposed herself to have + sustained. Nothing here said is intended to convey the slightest + censure on the conduct of that State. She no doubt sincerely + believed herself to have been injured by the decision; and States, + like individuals, acquiesce with great reluctance in determinations + to their disadvantage. +Those who had an opportunity of seeing the inside of the + transactions which attended the progress of the controversy between + this State and the district of Vermont, can vouch the opposition we + experienced, as well from States not interested as from those which + were interested in the claim; and can attest the danger to which + the peace of the Confederacy might have been exposed, had this State + attempted to assert its rights by force. Two motives preponderated + in that opposition: one, a jealousy entertained of our future + power; and the other, the interest of certain individuals of + influence in the neighboring States, who had obtained grants of + lands under the actual government of that district. Even the States + which brought forward claims, in contradiction to ours, seemed more + solicitous to dismember this State, than to establish their own + pretensions. These were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and + Connecticut. New Jersey and Rhode Island, upon all occasions, + discovered a warm zeal for the independence of Vermont; and + Maryland, till alarmed by the appearance of a connection between + Canada and that State, entered deeply into the same views. These + being small States, saw with an unfriendly eye the perspective of + our growing greatness. In a review of these transactions we may + trace some of the causes which would be likely to embroil the States + with each other, if it should be their unpropitious destiny to + become disunited. +The competitions of commerce would be another fruitful source of + contention. The States less favorably circumstanced would be + desirous of escaping from the disadvantages of local situation, and + of sharing in the advantages of their more fortunate neighbors. + Each State, or separate confederacy, would pursue a system of + commercial policy peculiar to itself. This would occasion + distinctions, preferences, and exclusions, which would beget + discontent. The habits of intercourse, on the basis of equal + privileges, to which we have been accustomed since the earliest + settlement of the country, would give a keener edge to those causes + of discontent than they would naturally have independent of this + circumstance. WE SHOULD BE READY TO DENOMINATE INJURIES THOSE + THINGS WHICH WERE IN REALITY THE JUSTIFIABLE ACTS OF INDEPENDENT + SOVEREIGNTIES CONSULTING A DISTINCT INTEREST. The spirit of + enterprise, which characterizes the commercial part of America, has + left no occasion of displaying itself unimproved. It is not at all + probable that this unbridled spirit would pay much respect to those + regulations of trade by which particular States might endeavor to + secure exclusive benefits to their own citizens. The infractions of + these regulations, on one side, the efforts to prevent and repel + them, on the other, would naturally lead to outrages, and these to + reprisals and wars. +The opportunities which some States would have of rendering + others tributary to them by commercial regulations would be + impatiently submitted to by the tributary States. The relative + situation of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey would afford an + example of this kind. New York, from the necessities of revenue, + must lay duties on her importations. A great part of these duties + must be paid by the inhabitants of the two other States in the + capacity of consumers of what we import. New York would neither be + willing nor able to forego this advantage. Her citizens would not + consent that a duty paid by them should be remitted in favor of the + citizens of her neighbors; nor would it be practicable, if there + were not this impediment in the way, to distinguish the customers in + our own markets. Would Connecticut and New Jersey long submit to be + taxed by New York for her exclusive benefit? Should we be long + permitted to remain in the quiet and undisturbed enjoyment of a + metropolis, from the possession of which we derived an advantage so + odious to our neighbors, and, in their opinion, so oppressive? + Should we be able to preserve it against the incumbent weight of + Connecticut on the one side, and the co-operating pressure of New + Jersey on the other? These are questions that temerity alone will + answer in the affirmative. +The public debt of the Union would be a further cause of + collision between the separate States or confederacies. The + apportionment, in the first instance, and the progressive + extinguishment afterward, would be alike productive of ill-humor and + animosity. How would it be possible to agree upon a rule of + apportionment satisfactory to all? There is scarcely any that can + be proposed which is entirely free from real objections. These, as + usual, would be exaggerated by the adverse interest of the parties. + There are even dissimilar views among the States as to the general + principle of discharging the public debt. Some of them, either less + impressed with the importance of national credit, or because their + citizens have little, if any, immediate interest in the question, + feel an indifference, if not a repugnance, to the payment of the + domestic debt at any rate. These would be inclined to magnify the + difficulties of a distribution. Others of them, a numerous body of + whose citizens are creditors to the public beyond proportion of the + State in the total amount of the national debt, would be strenuous + for some equitable and effective provision. The procrastinations of + the former would excite the resentments of the latter. The + settlement of a rule would, in the meantime, be postponed by real + differences of opinion and affected delays. The citizens of the + States interested would clamour; foreign powers would urge for the + satisfaction of their just demands, and the peace of the States + would be hazarded to the double contingency of external invasion and + internal contention. +Suppose the difficulties of agreeing upon a rule surmounted, and + the apportionment made. Still there is great room to suppose that + the rule agreed upon would, upon experiment, be found to bear harder + upon some States than upon others. Those which were sufferers by it + would naturally seek for a mitigation of the burden. The others + would as naturally be disinclined to a revision, which was likely to + end in an increase of their own incumbrances. Their refusal would + be too plausible a pretext to the complaining States to withhold + their contributions, not to be embraced with avidity; and the + non-compliance of these States with their engagements would be a + ground of bitter discussion and altercation. If even the rule + adopted should in practice justify the equality of its principle, + still delinquencies in payments on the part of some of the States + would result from a diversity of other causes--the real deficiency of + resources; the mismanagement of their finances; accidental + disorders in the management of the government; and, in addition to + the rest, the reluctance with which men commonly part with money for + purposes that have outlived the exigencies which produced them, and + interfere with the supply of immediate wants. Delinquencies, from + whatever causes, would be productive of complaints, recriminations, + and quarrels. There is, perhaps, nothing more likely to disturb the + tranquillity of nations than their being bound to mutual + contributions for any common object that does not yield an equal and + coincident benefit. For it is an observation, as true as it is + trite, that there is nothing men differ so readily about as the + payment of money. +Laws in violation of private contracts, as they amount to + aggressions on the rights of those States whose citizens are injured + by them, may be considered as another probable source of hostility. + We are not authorized to expect that a more liberal or more + equitable spirit would preside over the legislations of the + individual States hereafter, if unrestrained by any additional + checks, than we have heretofore seen in too many instances + disgracing their several codes. We have observed the disposition to + retaliation excited in Connecticut in consequence of the enormities + perpetrated by the Legislature of Rhode Island; and we reasonably + infer that, in similar cases, under other circumstances, a war, not + of PARCHMENT, but of the sword, would chastise such atrocious + breaches of moral obligation and social justice. +The probability of incompatible alliances between the different + States or confederacies and different foreign nations, and the + effects of this situation upon the peace of the whole, have been + sufficiently unfolded in some preceding papers. From the view they + have exhibited of this part of the subject, this conclusion is to be + drawn, that America, if not connected at all, or only by the feeble + tie of a simple league, offensive and defensive, would, by the + operation of such jarring alliances, be gradually entangled in all + the pernicious labyrinths of European politics and wars; and by the + destructive contentions of the parts into which she was divided, + would be likely to become a prey to the artifices and machinations + of powers equally the enemies of them all. Divide et + impera1 must be the motto of every nation that either hates or + fears us.2 PUBLIUS. +1 Divide and command. +2 In order that the whole subject of these papers may as soon as + possible be laid before the public, it is proposed to publish them + four times a week--on Tuesday in the New York Packet and on + Thursday in the Daily Advertiser. + + +FEDERALIST No. 8 + +The Consequences of Hostilities Between the States +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, November 20, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +ASSUMING it therefore as an established truth that the several + States, in case of disunion, or such combinations of them as might + happen to be formed out of the wreck of the general Confederacy, + would be subject to those vicissitudes of peace and war, of + friendship and enmity, with each other, which have fallen to the lot + of all neighboring nations not united under one government, let us + enter into a concise detail of some of the consequences that would + attend such a situation. +War between the States, in the first period of their separate + existence, would be accompanied with much greater distresses than it + commonly is in those countries where regular military establishments + have long obtained. The disciplined armies always kept on foot on + the continent of Europe, though they bear a malignant aspect to + liberty and economy, have, notwithstanding, been productive of the + signal advantage of rendering sudden conquests impracticable, and of + preventing that rapid desolation which used to mark the progress of + war prior to their introduction. The art of fortification has + contributed to the same ends. The nations of Europe are encircled + with chains of fortified places, which mutually obstruct invasion. + Campaigns are wasted in reducing two or three frontier garrisons, + to gain admittance into an enemy's country. Similar impediments + occur at every step, to exhaust the strength and delay the progress + of an invader. Formerly, an invading army would penetrate into the + heart of a neighboring country almost as soon as intelligence of its + approach could be received; but now a comparatively small force of + disciplined troops, acting on the defensive, with the aid of posts, + is able to impede, and finally to frustrate, the enterprises of one + much more considerable. The history of war, in that quarter of the + globe, is no longer a history of nations subdued and empires + overturned, but of towns taken and retaken; of battles that decide + nothing; of retreats more beneficial than victories; of much + effort and little acquisition. +In this country the scene would be altogether reversed. The + jealousy of military establishments would postpone them as long as + possible. The want of fortifications, leaving the frontiers of one + state open to another, would facilitate inroads. The populous + States would, with little difficulty, overrun their less populous + neighbors. Conquests would be as easy to be made as difficult to be + retained. War, therefore, would be desultory and predatory. + PLUNDER and devastation ever march in the train of irregulars. The + calamities of individuals would make the principal figure in the + events which would characterize our military exploits. +This picture is not too highly wrought; though, I confess, it + would not long remain a just one. Safety from external danger is + the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent + love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The + violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the + continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, + will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for + repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy + their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length + become willing to run the risk of being less free. +The institutions chiefly alluded to are STANDING ARMIES and the + correspondent appendages of military establishments. Standing + armies, it is said, are not provided against in the new + Constitution; and it is therefore inferred that they may exist + under it.1 Their existence, however, from the very terms of the + proposition, is, at most, problematical and uncertain. But standing + armies, it may be replied, must inevitably result from a dissolution + of the Confederacy. Frequent war and constant apprehension, which + require a state of as constant preparation, will infallibly produce + them. The weaker States or confederacies would first have recourse + to them, to put themselves upon an equality with their more potent + neighbors. They would endeavor to supply the inferiority of + population and resources by a more regular and effective system of + defense, by disciplined troops, and by fortifications. They would, + at the same time, be necessitated to strengthen the executive arm of + government, in doing which their constitutions would acquire a + progressive direction toward monarchy. It is of the nature of war + to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative + authority. +The expedients which have been mentioned would soon give the + States or confederacies that made use of them a superiority over + their neighbors. Small states, or states of less natural strength, + under vigorous governments, and with the assistance of disciplined + armies, have often triumphed over large states, or states of greater + natural strength, which have been destitute of these advantages. + Neither the pride nor the safety of the more important States or + confederacies would permit them long to submit to this mortifying + and adventitious superiority. They would quickly resort to means + similar to those by which it had been effected, to reinstate + themselves in their lost pre-eminence. Thus, we should, in a little + time, see established in every part of this country the same engines + of despotism which have been the scourge of the Old World. This, at + least, would be the natural course of things; and our reasonings + will be the more likely to be just, in proportion as they are + accommodated to this standard. +These are not vague inferences drawn from supposed or + speculative defects in a Constitution, the whole power of which is + lodged in the hands of a people, or their representatives and + delegates, but they are solid conclusions, drawn from the natural + and necessary progress of human affairs. +It may, perhaps, be asked, by way of objection to this, why did + not standing armies spring up out of the contentions which so often + distracted the ancient republics of Greece? Different answers, + equally satisfactory, may be given to this question. The + industrious habits of the people of the present day, absorbed in the + pursuits of gain, and devoted to the improvements of agriculture and + commerce, are incompatible with the condition of a nation of + soldiers, which was the true condition of the people of those + republics. The means of revenue, which have been so greatly + multiplied by the increase of gold and silver and of the arts of + industry, and the science of finance, which is the offspring of + modern times, concurring with the habits of nations, have produced + an entire revolution in the system of war, and have rendered + disciplined armies, distinct from the body of the citizens, the + inseparable companions of frequent hostility. +There is a wide difference, also, between military + establishments in a country seldom exposed by its situation to + internal invasions, and in one which is often subject to them, and + always apprehensive of them. The rulers of the former can have a + good pretext, if they are even so inclined, to keep on foot armies + so numerous as must of necessity be maintained in the latter. These + armies being, in the first case, rarely, if at all, called into + activity for interior defense, the people are in no danger of being + broken to military subordination. The laws are not accustomed to + relaxations, in favor of military exigencies; the civil state + remains in full vigor, neither corrupted, nor confounded with the + principles or propensities of the other state. The smallness of the + army renders the natural strength of the community an over-match for + it; and the citizens, not habituated to look up to the military + power for protection, or to submit to its oppressions, neither love + nor fear the soldiery; they view them with a spirit of jealous + acquiescence in a necessary evil, and stand ready to resist a power + which they suppose may be exerted to the prejudice of their rights. + The army under such circumstances may usefully aid the magistrate + to suppress a small faction, or an occasional mob, or insurrection; + but it will be unable to enforce encroachments against the united + efforts of the great body of the people. +In a country in the predicament last described, the contrary of + all this happens. The perpetual menacings of danger oblige the + government to be always prepared to repel it; its armies must be + numerous enough for instant defense. The continual necessity for + their services enhances the importance of the soldier, and + proportionably degrades the condition of the citizen. The military + state becomes elevated above the civil. The inhabitants of + territories, often the theatre of war, are unavoidably subjected to + frequent infringements on their rights, which serve to weaken their + sense of those rights; and by degrees the people are brought to + consider the soldiery not only as their protectors, but as their + superiors. The transition from this disposition to that of + considering them masters, is neither remote nor difficult; but it + is very difficult to prevail upon a people under such impressions, + to make a bold or effectual resistance to usurpations supported by + the military power. +The kingdom of Great Britain falls within the first description. + An insular situation, and a powerful marine, guarding it in a great + measure against the possibility of foreign invasion, supersede the + necessity of a numerous army within the kingdom. A sufficient force + to make head against a sudden descent, till the militia could have + time to rally and embody, is all that has been deemed requisite. No + motive of national policy has demanded, nor would public opinion + have tolerated, a larger number of troops upon its domestic + establishment. There has been, for a long time past, little room + for the operation of the other causes, which have been enumerated as + the consequences of internal war. This peculiar felicity of + situation has, in a great degree, contributed to preserve the + liberty which that country to this day enjoys, in spite of the + prevalent venality and corruption. If, on the contrary, Britain had + been situated on the continent, and had been compelled, as she would + have been, by that situation, to make her military establishments at + home coextensive with those of the other great powers of Europe, + she, like them, would in all probability be, at this day, a victim + to the absolute power of a single man. 'T is possible, though not + easy, that the people of that island may be enslaved from other + causes; but it cannot be by the prowess of an army so + inconsiderable as that which has been usually kept up within the + kingdom. +If we are wise enough to preserve the Union we may for ages + enjoy an advantage similar to that of an insulated situation. + Europe is at a great distance from us. Her colonies in our + vicinity will be likely to continue too much disproportioned in + strength to be able to give us any dangerous annoyance. Extensive + military establishments cannot, in this position, be necessary to + our security. But if we should be disunited, and the integral parts + should either remain separated, or, which is most probable, should + be thrown together into two or three confederacies, we should be, in + a short course of time, in the predicament of the continental powers + of Europe --our liberties would be a prey to the means of defending + ourselves against the ambition and jealousy of each other. +This is an idea not superficial or futile, but solid and weighty. + It deserves the most serious and mature consideration of every + prudent and honest man of whatever party. If such men will make a + firm and solemn pause, and meditate dispassionately on the + importance of this interesting idea; if they will contemplate it in + all its attitudes, and trace it to all its consequences, they will + not hesitate to part with trivial objections to a Constitution, the + rejection of which would in all probability put a final period to + the Union. The airy phantoms that flit before the distempered + imaginations of some of its adversaries would quickly give place to + the more substantial forms of dangers, real, certain, and formidable. +PUBLIUS. +1 This objection will be fully examined in its proper place, and + it will be shown that the only natural precaution which could have + been taken on this subject has been taken; and a much better one + than is to be found in any constitution that has been heretofore + framed in America, most of which contain no guard at all on this + subject. + + +FEDERALIST No. 9 + +The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +A FIRM Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and + liberty of the States, as a barrier against domestic faction and + insurrection. It is impossible to read the history of the petty + republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror + and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually + agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they + were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of + tyranny and anarchy. If they exhibit occasional calms, these only + serve as short-lived contrast to the furious storms that are to + succeed. If now and then intervals of felicity open to view, we + behold them with a mixture of regret, arising from the reflection + that the pleasing scenes before us are soon to be overwhelmed by the + tempestuous waves of sedition and party rage. If momentary rays of + glory break forth from the gloom, while they dazzle us with a + transient and fleeting brilliancy, they at the same time admonish us + to lament that the vices of government should pervert the direction + and tarnish the lustre of those bright talents and exalted + endowments for which the favored soils that produced them have been + so justly celebrated. +From the disorders that disfigure the annals of those republics + the advocates of despotism have drawn arguments, not only against + the forms of republican government, but against the very principles + of civil liberty. They have decried all free government as + inconsistent with the order of society, and have indulged themselves + in malicious exultation over its friends and partisans. Happily for + mankind, stupendous fabrics reared on the basis of liberty, which + have flourished for ages, have, in a few glorious instances, refuted + their gloomy sophisms. And, I trust, America will be the broad and + solid foundation of other edifices, not less magnificent, which will + be equally permanent monuments of their errors. +But it is not to be denied that the portraits they have sketched + of republican government were too just copies of the originals from + which they were taken. If it had been found impracticable to have + devised models of a more perfect structure, the enlightened friends + to liberty would have been obliged to abandon the cause of that + species of government as indefensible. The science of politics, + however, like most other sciences, has received great improvement. + The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which + were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients. + The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the + introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of + courts composed of judges holding their offices during good + behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by + deputies of their own election: these are wholly new discoveries, + or have made their principal progress towards perfection in modern + times. They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences + of republican government may be retained and its imperfections + lessened or avoided. To this catalogue of circumstances that tend + to the amelioration of popular systems of civil government, I shall + venture, however novel it may appear to some, to add one more, on a + principle which has been made the foundation of an objection to the + new Constitution; I mean the ENLARGEMENT of the ORBIT within which + such systems are to revolve, either in respect to the dimensions of + a single State or to the consolidation of several smaller States + into one great Confederacy. The latter is that which immediately + concerns the object under consideration. It will, however, be of + use to examine the principle in its application to a single State, + which shall be attended to in another place. +The utility of a Confederacy, as well to suppress faction and to + guard the internal tranquillity of States, as to increase their + external force and security, is in reality not a new idea. It has + been practiced upon in different countries and ages, and has + received the sanction of the most approved writers on the subject of + politics. The opponents of the plan proposed have, with great + assiduity, cited and circulated the observations of Montesquieu on + the necessity of a contracted territory for a republican government. + But they seem not to have been apprised of the sentiments of that + great man expressed in another part of his work, nor to have + adverted to the consequences of the principle to which they + subscribe with such ready acquiescence. +When Montesquieu recommends a small extent for republics, the + standards he had in view were of dimensions far short of the limits + of almost every one of these States. Neither Virginia, + Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, nor Georgia + can by any means be compared with the models from which he reasoned + and to which the terms of his description apply. If we therefore + take his ideas on this point as the criterion of truth, we shall be + driven to the alternative either of taking refuge at once in the + arms of monarchy, or of splitting ourselves into an infinity of + little, jealous, clashing, tumultuous commonwealths, the wretched + nurseries of unceasing discord, and the miserable objects of + universal pity or contempt. Some of the writers who have come + forward on the other side of the question seem to have been aware of + the dilemma; and have even been bold enough to hint at the division + of the larger States as a desirable thing. Such an infatuated + policy, such a desperate expedient, might, by the multiplication of + petty offices, answer the views of men who possess not + qualifications to extend their influence beyond the narrow circles + of personal intrigue, but it could never promote the greatness or + happiness of the people of America. +Referring the examination of the principle itself to another + place, as has been already mentioned, it will be sufficient to + remark here that, in the sense of the author who has been most + emphatically quoted upon the occasion, it would only dictate a + reduction of the SIZE of the more considerable MEMBERS of the Union, + but would not militate against their being all comprehended in one + confederate government. And this is the true question, in the + discussion of which we are at present interested. +So far are the suggestions of Montesquieu from standing in + opposition to a general Union of the States, that he explicitly + treats of a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC as the expedient for extending the + sphere of popular government, and reconciling the advantages of + monarchy with those of republicanism. +``It is very probable,'' (says he1) ``that mankind would + have been obliged at length to live constantly under the government + of a single person, had they not contrived a kind of constitution + that has all the internal advantages of a republican, together with + the external force of a monarchical government. I mean a + CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC. +``This form of government is a convention by which several + smaller STATES agree to become members of a larger ONE, which they + intend to form. It is a kind of assemblage of societies that + constitute a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new + associations, till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be + able to provide for the security of the united body. +``A republic of this kind, able to withstand an external force, + may support itself without any internal corruptions. The form of + this society prevents all manner of inconveniences. +``If a single member should attempt to usurp the supreme + authority, he could not be supposed to have an equal authority and + credit in all the confederate states. Were he to have too great + influence over one, this would alarm the rest. Were he to subdue a + part, that which would still remain free might oppose him with + forces independent of those which he had usurped and overpower him + before he could be settled in his usurpation. +``Should a popular insurrection happen in one of the confederate + states the others are able to quell it. Should abuses creep into + one part, they are reformed by those that remain sound. The state + may be destroyed on one side, and not on the other; the confederacy + may be dissolved, and the confederates preserve their sovereignty. +``As this government is composed of small republics, it enjoys + the internal happiness of each; and with respect to its external + situation, it is possessed, by means of the association, of all the + advantages of large monarchies.'' +I have thought it proper to quote at length these interesting + passages, because they contain a luminous abridgment of the + principal arguments in favor of the Union, and must effectually + remove the false impressions which a misapplication of other parts + of the work was calculated to make. They have, at the same time, an + intimate connection with the more immediate design of this paper; + which is, to illustrate the tendency of the Union to repress + domestic faction and insurrection. +A distinction, more subtle than accurate, has been raised + between a CONFEDERACY and a CONSOLIDATION of the States. The + essential characteristic of the first is said to be, the restriction + of its authority to the members in their collective capacities, + without reaching to the individuals of whom they are composed. It + is contended that the national council ought to have no concern with + any object of internal administration. An exact equality of + suffrage between the members has also been insisted upon as a + leading feature of a confederate government. These positions are, + in the main, arbitrary; they are supported neither by principle nor + precedent. It has indeed happened, that governments of this kind + have generally operated in the manner which the distinction taken + notice of, supposes to be inherent in their nature; but there have + been in most of them extensive exceptions to the practice, which + serve to prove, as far as example will go, that there is no absolute + rule on the subject. And it will be clearly shown in the course of + this investigation that as far as the principle contended for has + prevailed, it has been the cause of incurable disorder and + imbecility in the government. +The definition of a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC seems simply to be ``an + assemblage of societies,'' or an association of two or more states + into one state. The extent, modifications, and objects of the + federal authority are mere matters of discretion. So long as the + separate organization of the members be not abolished; so long as + it exists, by a constitutional necessity, for local purposes; + though it should be in perfect subordination to the general + authority of the union, it would still be, in fact and in theory, an + association of states, or a confederacy. The proposed Constitution, + so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes + them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them + a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their + possession certain exclusive and very important portions of + sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import + of the terms, with the idea of a federal government. +In the Lycian confederacy, which consisted of twenty-three + CITIES or republics, the largest were entitled to THREE votes in the + COMMON COUNCIL, those of the middle class to TWO, and the smallest + to ONE. The COMMON COUNCIL had the appointment of all the judges + and magistrates of the respective CITIES. This was certainly the + most, delicate species of interference in their internal + administration; for if there be any thing that seems exclusively + appropriated to the local jurisdictions, it is the appointment of + their own officers. Yet Montesquieu, speaking of this association, + says: ``Were I to give a model of an excellent Confederate + Republic, it would be that of Lycia.'' Thus we perceive that the + distinctions insisted upon were not within the contemplation of this + enlightened civilian; and we shall be led to conclude, that they + are the novel refinements of an erroneous theory. +PUBLIUS. +1 ``Spirit of Lawa,'' vol. i., book ix., chap. i. + + +FEDERALIST No. 10 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and + Insurrection) +From the New York Packet. +Friday, November 23, 1787. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a wellconstructed + Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its + tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend + of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their + character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this + dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on + any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is + attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, + injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, + in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments + have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and + fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their + most specious declamations. The valuable improvements made by the + American constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and + modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an + unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually + obviated the danger on this side, as was wished and expected. + Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and + virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, + and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too + unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of + rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not + according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, + but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. + However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no + foundation, the evidence, of known facts will not permit us to deny + that they are in some degree true. It will be found, indeed, on a + candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under + which we labor have been erroneously charged on the operation of our + governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other + causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes; + and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing distrust of + public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed + from one end of the continent to the other. These must be chiefly, + if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which + a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations. +By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether + amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united + and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, + adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and + aggregate interests of the community. +There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the + one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects. +There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: + the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its + existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, + the same passions, and the same interests. +It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that + it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to + fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could + not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to + political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to + wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, + because it imparts to fire its destructive agency. +The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be + unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is + at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As + long as the connection subsists between his reason and his + self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal + influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which + the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties + of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an + insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection + of these faculties is the first object of government. From the + protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, + the possession of different degrees and kinds of property + immediately results; and from the influence of these on the + sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a + division of the society into different interests and parties. +The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; + and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of + activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. + A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning + government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of + practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending + for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions + whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in + turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual + animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress + each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is + this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that + where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous + and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their + unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts. But + the most common and durable source of factions has been the various + and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who + are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. + Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a + like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a + mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, + grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into + different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The + regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the + principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of + party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the + government. +No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his + interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, + corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body + of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; + yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so + many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of + single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of + citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but + advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law + proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the + creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. + Justice ought to hold the balance between them. Yet the parties + are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous + party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be + expected to prevail. Shall domestic manufactures be encouraged, and + in what degree, by restrictions on foreign manufactures? are + questions which would be differently decided by the landed and the + manufacturing classes, and probably by neither with a sole regard to + justice and the public good. The apportionment of taxes on the + various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require + the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative + act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a + predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every + shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a + shilling saved to their own pockets. +It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to + adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to + the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the + helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all + without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which + will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may + find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole. +The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of + faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in + the means of controlling its EFFECTS. +If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is + supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to + defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the + administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable + to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution. + When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular + government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling + passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other + citizens. To secure the public good and private rights against the + danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the + spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object + to which our inquiries are directed. Let me add that it is the + great desideratum by which this form of government can be rescued + from the opprobrium under which it has so long labored, and be + recommended to the esteem and adoption of mankind. +By what means is this object attainable? Evidently by one of + two only. Either the existence of the same passion or interest in a + majority at the same time must be prevented, or the majority, having + such coexistent passion or interest, must be rendered, by their + number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect + schemes of oppression. If the impulse and the opportunity be + suffered to coincide, we well know that neither moral nor religious + motives can be relied on as an adequate control. They are not found + to be such on the injustice and violence of individuals, and lose + their efficacy in proportion to the number combined together, that + is, in proportion as their efficacy becomes needful. +From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure + democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of + citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can + admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or + interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the + whole; a communication and concert result from the form of + government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to + sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is + that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and + contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal + security or the rights of property; and have in general been as + short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. + Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of + government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a + perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same + time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, + their opinions, and their passions. +A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of + representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises + the cure for which we are seeking. Let us examine the points in + which it varies from pure democracy, and we shall comprehend both + the nature of the cure and the efficacy which it must derive from + the Union. +The two great points of difference between a democracy and a + republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the + latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; + secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of + country, over which the latter may be extended. +The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to + refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the + medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern + the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of + justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial + considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that + the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, + will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the + people themselves, convened for the purpose. On the other hand, the + effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local + prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, + or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the + interests, of the people. The question resulting is, whether small + or extensive republics are more favorable to the election of proper + guardians of the public weal; and it is clearly decided in favor of + the latter by two obvious considerations: +In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the + republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain + number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, + however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, + in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude. Hence, the + number of representatives in the two cases not being in proportion + to that of the two constituents, and being proportionally greater in + the small republic, it follows that, if the proportion of fit + characters be not less in the large than in the small republic, the + former will present a greater option, and consequently a greater + probability of a fit choice. +In the next place, as each representative will be chosen by a + greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, + it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with + success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; + and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more + likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and + the most diffusive and established characters. +It must be confessed that in this, as in most other cases, there + is a mean, on both sides of which inconveniences will be found to + lie. By enlarging too much the number of electors, you render the + representatives too little acquainted with all their local + circumstances and lesser interests; as by reducing it too much, you + render him unduly attached to these, and too little fit to + comprehend and pursue great and national objects. The federal + Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great + and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local + and particular to the State legislatures. +The other point of difference is, the greater number of citizens + and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of + republican than of democratic government; and it is this + circumstance principally which renders factious combinations less to + be dreaded in the former than in the latter. The smaller the + society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and + interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and + interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same + party; and the smaller the number of individuals composing a + majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, + the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of + oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of + parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of + the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other + citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more + difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to + act in unison with each other. Besides other impediments, it may be + remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or + dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust + in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary. +Hence, it clearly appears, that the same advantage which a + republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of + faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic,--is enjoyed by + the Union over the States composing it. Does the advantage consist + in the substitution of representatives whose enlightened views and + virtuous sentiments render them superior to local prejudices and + schemes of injustice? It will not be denied that the representation + of the Union will be most likely to possess these requisite + endowments. Does it consist in the greater security afforded by a + greater variety of parties, against the event of any one party being + able to outnumber and oppress the rest? In an equal degree does the + increased variety of parties comprised within the Union, increase + this security. Does it, in fine, consist in the greater obstacles + opposed to the concert and accomplishment of the secret wishes of an + unjust and interested majority? Here, again, the extent of the + Union gives it the most palpable advantage. +The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within + their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general + conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may + degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; + but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must + secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A + rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal + division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, + will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a + particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is + more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire + State. +In the extent and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we + behold a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to + republican government. And according to the degree of pleasure and + pride we feel in being republicans, ought to be our zeal in + cherishing the spirit and supporting the character of Federalists. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 11 + +The Utility of the Union in Respect to Commercial Relations and a + Navy +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE importance of the Union, in a commercial light, is one of + those points about which there is least room to entertain a + difference of opinion, and which has, in fact, commanded the most + general assent of men who have any acquaintance with the subject. + This applies as well to our intercourse with foreign countries as + with each other. +There are appearances to authorize a supposition that the + adventurous spirit, which distinguishes the commercial character of + America, has already excited uneasy sensations in several of the + maritime powers of Europe. They seem to be apprehensive of our too + great interference in that carrying trade, which is the support of + their navigation and the foundation of their naval strength. Those + of them which have colonies in America look forward to what this + country is capable of becoming, with painful solicitude. They + foresee the dangers that may threaten their American dominions from + the neighborhood of States, which have all the dispositions, and + would possess all the means, requisite to the creation of a powerful + marine. Impressions of this kind will naturally indicate the policy + of fostering divisions among us, and of depriving us, as far as + possible, of an ACTIVE COMMERCE in our own bottoms. This would + answer the threefold purpose of preventing our interference in their + navigation, of monopolizing the profits of our trade, and of + clipping the wings by which we might soar to a dangerous greatness. + Did not prudence forbid the detail, it would not be difficult to + trace, by facts, the workings of this policy to the cabinets of + ministers. +If we continue united, we may counteract a policy so unfriendly + to our prosperity in a variety of ways. By prohibitory regulations, + extending, at the same time, throughout the States, we may oblige + foreign countries to bid against each other, for the privileges of + our markets. This assertion will not appear chimerical to those who + are able to appreciate the importance of the markets of three + millions of people--increasing in rapid progression, for the most + part exclusively addicted to agriculture, and likely from local + circumstances to remain so--to any manufacturing nation; and the + immense difference there would be to the trade and navigation of + such a nation, between a direct communication in its own ships, and + an indirect conveyance of its products and returns, to and from + America, in the ships of another country. Suppose, for instance, we + had a government in America, capable of excluding Great Britain + (with whom we have at present no treaty of commerce) from all our + ports; what would be the probable operation of this step upon her + politics? Would it not enable us to negotiate, with the fairest + prospect of success, for commercial privileges of the most valuable + and extensive kind, in the dominions of that kingdom? When these + questions have been asked, upon other occasions, they have received + a plausible, but not a solid or satisfactory answer. It has been + said that prohibitions on our part would produce no change in the + system of Britain, because she could prosecute her trade with us + through the medium of the Dutch, who would be her immediate + customers and paymasters for those articles which were wanted for + the supply of our markets. But would not her navigation be + materially injured by the loss of the important advantage of being + her own carrier in that trade? Would not the principal part of its + profits be intercepted by the Dutch, as a compensation for their + agency and risk? Would not the mere circumstance of freight + occasion a considerable deduction? Would not so circuitous an + intercourse facilitate the competitions of other nations, by + enhancing the price of British commodities in our markets, and by + transferring to other hands the management of this interesting + branch of the British commerce? +A mature consideration of the objects suggested by these + questions will justify a belief that the real disadvantages to + Britain from such a state of things, conspiring with the + pre-possessions of a great part of the nation in favor of the + American trade, and with the importunities of the West India + islands, would produce a relaxation in her present system, and would + let us into the enjoyment of privileges in the markets of those + islands elsewhere, from which our trade would derive the most + substantial benefits. Such a point gained from the British + government, and which could not be expected without an equivalent in + exemptions and immunities in our markets, would be likely to have a + correspondent effect on the conduct of other nations, who would not + be inclined to see themselves altogether supplanted in our trade. +A further resource for influencing the conduct of European + nations toward us, in this respect, would arise from the + establishment of a federal navy. There can be no doubt that the + continuance of the Union under an efficient government would put it + in our power, at a period not very distant, to create a navy which, + if it could not vie with those of the great maritime powers, would + at least be of respectable weight if thrown into the scale of either + of two contending parties. This would be more peculiarly the case + in relation to operations in the West Indies. A few ships of the + line, sent opportunely to the reinforcement of either side, would + often be sufficient to decide the fate of a campaign, on the event + of which interests of the greatest magnitude were suspended. Our + position is, in this respect, a most commanding one. And if to this + consideration we add that of the usefulness of supplies from this + country, in the prosecution of military operations in the West + Indies, it will readily be perceived that a situation so favorable + would enable us to bargain with great advantage for commercial + privileges. A price would be set not only upon our friendship, but + upon our neutrality. By a steady adherence to the Union we may + hope, erelong, to become the arbiter of Europe in America, and to be + able to incline the balance of European competitions in this part of + the world as our interest may dictate. +But in the reverse of this eligible situation, we shall discover + that the rivalships of the parts would make them checks upon each + other, and would frustrate all the tempting advantages which nature + has kindly placed within our reach. In a state so insignificant our + commerce would be a prey to the wanton intermeddlings of all nations + at war with each other; who, having nothing to fear from us, would + with little scruple or remorse, supply their wants by depredations + on our property as often as it fell in their way. The rights of + neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an + adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even + the privilege of being neutral. +Under a vigorous national government, the natural strength and + resources of the country, directed to a common interest, would + baffle all the combinations of European jealousy to restrain our + growth. This situation would even take away the motive to such + combinations, by inducing an impracticability of success. An active + commerce, an extensive navigation, and a flourishing marine would + then be the offspring of moral and physical necessity. We might + defy the little arts of the little politicians to control or vary + the irresistible and unchangeable course of nature. +But in a state of disunion, these combinations might exist and + might operate with success. It would be in the power of the + maritime nations, availing themselves of our universal impotence, to + prescribe the conditions of our political existence; and as they + have a common interest in being our carriers, and still more in + preventing our becoming theirs, they would in all probability + combine to embarrass our navigation in such a manner as would in + effect destroy it, and confine us to a PASSIVE COMMERCE. We should + then be compelled to content ourselves with the first price of our + commodities, and to see the profits of our trade snatched from us to + enrich our enemies and p rsecutors. That unequaled spirit of + enterprise, which signalizes the genius of the American merchants + and navigators, and which is in itself an inexhaustible mine of + national wealth, would be stifled and lost, and poverty and disgrace + would overspread a country which, with wisdom, might make herself + the admiration and envy of the world. +There are rights of great moment to the trade of America which + are rights of the Union--I allude to the fisheries, to the navigation + of the Western lakes, and to that of the Mississippi. The + dissolution of the Confederacy would give room for delicate + questions concerning the future existence of these rights; which + the interest of more powerful partners would hardly fail to solve to + our disadvantage. The disposition of Spain with regard to the + Mississippi needs no comment. France and Britain are concerned with + us in the fisheries, and view them as of the utmost moment to their + navigation. They, of course, would hardly remain long indifferent + to that decided mastery, of which experience has shown us to be + possessed in this valuable branch of traffic, and by which we are + able to undersell those nations in their own markets. What more + natural than that they should be disposed to exclude from the lists + such dangerous competitors? +This branch of trade ought not to be considered as a partial + benefit. All the navigating States may, in different degrees, + advantageously participate in it, and under circumstances of a + greater extension of mercantile capital, would not be unlikely to do + it. As a nursery of seamen, it now is, or when time shall have more + nearly assimilated the principles of navigation in the several + States, will become, a universal resource. To the establishment of + a navy, it must be indispensable. +To this great national object, a NAVY, union will contribute in + various ways. Every institution will grow and flourish in + proportion to the quantity and extent of the means concentred + towards its formation and support. A navy of the United States, as + it would embrace the resources of all, is an object far less remote + than a navy of any single State or partial confederacy, which would + only embrace the resources of a single part. It happens, indeed, + that different portions of confederated America possess each some + peculiar advantage for this essential establishment. The more + southern States furnish in greater abundance certain kinds of naval + stores--tar, pitch, and turpentine. Their wood for the construction + of ships is also of a more solid and lasting texture. The + difference in the duration of the ships of which the navy might be + composed, if chiefly constructed of Southern wood, would be of + signal importance, either in the view of naval strength or of + national economy. Some of the Southern and of the Middle States + yield a greater plenty of iron, and of better quality. Seamen must + chiefly be drawn from the Northern hive. The necessity of naval + protection to external or maritime commerce does not require a + particular elucidation, no more than the conduciveness of that + species of commerce to the prosperity of a navy. +An unrestrained intercourse between the States themselves will + advance the trade of each by an interchange of their respective + productions, not only for the supply of reciprocal wants at home, + but for exportation to foreign markets. The veins of commerce in + every part will be replenished, and will acquire additional motion + and vigor from a free circulation of the commodities of every part. + Commercial enterprise will have much greater scope, from the + diversity in the productions of different States. When the staple + of one fails from a bad harvest or unproductive crop, it can call to + its aid the staple of another. The variety, not less than the + value, of products for exportation contributes to the activity of + foreign commerce. It can be conducted upon much better terms with a + large number of materials of a given value than with a small number + of materials of the same value; arising from the competitions of + trade and from the fluctations of markets. Particular articles may + be in great demand at certain periods, and unsalable at others; but + if there be a variety of articles, it can scarcely happen that they + should all be at one time in the latter predicament, and on this + account the operations of the merchant would be less liable to any + considerable obstruction or stagnation. The speculative trader will + at once perceive the force of these observations, and will + acknowledge that the aggregate balance of the commerce of the United + States would bid fair to be much more favorable than that of the + thirteen States without union or with partial unions. +It may perhaps be replied to this, that whether the States are + united or disunited, there would still be an intimate intercourse + between them which would answer the same ends; this intercourse + would be fettered, interrupted, and narrowed by a multiplicity of + causes, which in the course of these papers have been amply detailed. + A unity of commercial, as well as political, interests, can only + result from a unity of government. +There are other points of view in which this subject might be + placed, of a striking and animating kind. But they would lead us + too far into the regions of futurity, and would involve topics not + proper for a newspaper discussion. I shall briefly observe, that + our situation invites and our interests prompt us to aim at an + ascendant in the system of American affairs. The world may + politically, as well as geographically, be divided into four parts, + each having a distinct set of interests. Unhappily for the other + three, Europe, by her arms and by her negotiations, by force and by + fraud, has, in different degrees, extended her dominion over them + all. Africa, Asia, and America, have successively felt her + domination. The superiority she has long maintained has tempted her + to plume herself as the Mistress of the World, and to consider the + rest of mankind as created for her benefit. Men admired as profound + philosophers have, in direct terms, attributed to her inhabitants a + physical superiority, and have gravely asserted that all animals, + and with them the human species, degenerate in America--that even + dogs cease to bark after having breathed awhile in our + atmosphere.1 Facts have too long supported these arrogant + pretensions of the Europeans. It belongs to us to vindicate the + honor of the human race, and to teach that assuming brother, + moderation. Union will enable us to do it. Disunion will will add + another victim to his triumphs. Let Americans disdain to be the + instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound + together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one + great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic + force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection + between the old and the new world! +PUBLIUS. +``Recherches philosophiques sur les Americains.'' + + +FEDERALIST No. 12 + +The Utility of the Union In Respect to Revenue +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, November 27, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE effects of Union upon the commercial prosperity of the + States have been sufficiently delineated. Its tendency to promote + the interests of revenue will be the subject of our present inquiry. +The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by + all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most + productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a + primary object of their political cares. By multipying the means of + gratification, by promoting the introduction and circulation of the + precious metals, those darling objects of human avarice and + enterprise, it serves to vivify and invigorate the channels of + industry, and to make them flow with greater activity and + copiousness. The assiduous merchant, the laborious husbandman, the + active mechanic, and the industrious manufacturer,--all orders of + men, look forward with eager expectation and growing alacrity to + this pleasing reward of their toils. The often-agitated question + between agriculture and commerce has, from indubitable experience, + received a decision which has silenced the rivalship that once + subsisted between them, and has proved, to the satisfaction of their + friends, that their interests are intimately blended and interwoven. + It has been found in various countries that, in proportion as + commerce has flourished, land has risen in value. And how could it + have happened otherwise? Could that which procures a freer vent for + the products of the earth, which furnishes new incitements to the + cultivation of land, which is the most powerful instrument in + increasing the quantity of money in a state--could that, in fine, + which is the faithful handmaid of labor and industry, in every + shape, fail to augment that article, which is the prolific parent of + far the greatest part of the objects upon which they are exerted? + It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever have had an + adversary; and it is one, among a multitude of proofs, how apt a + spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and + refinement, is to lead men astray from the plainest truths of reason + and conviction. +The ability of a country to pay taxes must always be + proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity of money in + circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates. + Commerce, contributing to both these objects, must of necessity + render the payment of taxes easier, and facilitate the requisite + supplies to the treasury. The hereditary dominions of the Emperor + of Germany contain a great extent of fertile, cultivated, and + populous territory, a large proportion of which is situated in mild + and luxuriant climates. In some parts of this territory are to be + found the best gold and silver mines in Europe. And yet, from the + want of the fostering influence of commerce, that monarch can boast + but slender revenues. He has several times been compelled to owe + obligations to the pecuniary succors of other nations for the + preservation of his essential interests, and is unable, upon the + strength of his own resources, to sustain a long or continued war. +But it is not in this aspect of the subject alone that Union + will be seen to conduce to the purpose of revenue. There are other + points of view, in which its influence will appear more immediate + and decisive. It is evident from the state of the country, from the + habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point + itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums + by direct taxation. Tax laws have in vain been multiplied; new + methods to enforce the collection have in vain been tried; the + public expectation has been uniformly disappointed, and the + treasuries of the States have remained empty. The popular system of + administration inherent in the nature of popular government, + coinciding with the real scarcity of money incident to a languid and + mutilated state of trade, has hitherto defeated every experiment for + extensive collections, and has at length taught the different + legislatures the folly of attempting them. +No person acquainted with what happens in other countries will + be surprised at this circumstance. In so opulent a nation as that + of Britain, where direct taxes from superior wealth must be much + more tolerable, and, from the vigor of the government, much more + practicable, than in America, far the greatest part of the national + revenue is derived from taxes of the indirect kind, from imposts, + and from excises. Duties on imported articles form a large branch + of this latter description. +In America, it is evident that we must a long time depend for + the means of revenue chiefly on such duties. In most parts of it, + excises must be confined within a narrow compass. The genius of the + people will ill brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of + excise laws. The pockets of the farmers, on the other hand, will + reluctantly yield but scanty supplies, in the unwelcome shape of + impositions on their houses and lands; and personal property is too + precarious and invisible a fund to be laid hold of in any other way + than by the inperceptible agency of taxes on consumption. +If these remarks have any foundation, that state of things which + will best enable us to improve and extend so valuable a resource + must be best adapted to our political welfare. And it cannot admit + of a serious doubt, that this state of things must rest on the basis + of a general Union. As far as this would be conducive to the + interests of commerce, so far it must tend to the extension of the + revenue to be drawn from that source. As far as it would contribute + to rendering regulations for the collection of the duties more + simple and efficacious, so far it must serve to answer the purposes + of making the same rate of duties more productive, and of putting it + into the power of the government to increase the rate without + prejudice to trade. +The relative situation of these States; the number of rivers + with which they are intersected, and of bays that wash there shores; + the facility of communication in every direction; the affinity of + language and manners; the familiar habits of intercourse; --all + these are circumstances that would conspire to render an illicit + trade between them a matter of little difficulty, and would insure + frequent evasions of the commercial regulations of each other. The + separate States or confederacies would be necessitated by mutual + jealousy to avoid the temptations to that kind of trade by the + lowness of their duties. The temper of our governments, for a long + time to come, would not permit those rigorous precautions by which + the European nations guard the avenues into their respective + countries, as well by land as by water; and which, even there, are + found insufficient obstacles to the adventurous stratagems of + avarice. +In France, there is an army of patrols (as they are called) + constantly employed to secure their fiscal regulations against the + inroads of the dealers in contraband trade. Mr. Neckar computes the + number of these patrols at upwards of twenty thousand. This shows + the immense difficulty in preventing that species of traffic, where + there is an inland communication, and places in a strong light the + disadvantages with which the collection of duties in this country + would be encumbered, if by disunion the States should be placed in a + situation, with respect to each other, resembling that of France + with respect to her neighbors. The arbitrary and vexatious powers + with which the patrols are necessarily armed, would be intolerable + in a free country. +If, on the contrary, there be but one government pervading all + the States, there will be, as to the principal part of our commerce, + but ONE SIDE to guard--the ATLANTIC COAST. Vessels arriving directly + from foreign countries, laden with valuable cargoes, would rarely + choose to hazard themselves to the complicated and critical perils + which would attend attempts to unlade prior to their coming into + port. They would have to dread both the dangers of the coast, and + of detection, as well after as before their arrival at the places of + their final destination. An ordinary degree of vigilance would be + competent to the prevention of any material infractions upon the + rights of the revenue. A few armed vessels, judiciously stationed + at the entrances of our ports, might at a small expense be made + useful sentinels of the laws. And the government having the same + interest to provide against violations everywhere, the co-operation + of its measures in each State would have a powerful tendency to + render them effectual. Here also we should preserve by Union, an + advantage which nature holds out to us, and which would be + relinquished by separation. The United States lie at a great + distance from Europe, and at a considerable distance from all other + places with which they would have extensive connections of foreign + trade. The passage from them to us, in a few hours, or in a single + night, as between the coasts of France and Britain, and of other + neighboring nations, would be impracticable. This is a prodigious + security against a direct contraband with foreign countries; but a + circuitous contraband to one State, through the medium of another, + would be both easy and safe. The difference between a direct + importation from abroad, and an indirect importation through the + channel of a neighboring State, in small parcels, according to time + and opportunity, with the additional facilities of inland + communication, must be palpable to every man of discernment. +It is therefore evident, that one national government would be + able, at much less expense, to extend the duties on imports, beyond + comparison, further than would be practicable to the States + separately, or to any partial confederacies. Hitherto, I believe, + it may safely be asserted, that these duties have not upon an + average exceeded in any State three per cent. In France they are + estimated to be about fifteen per cent., and in Britain they exceed + this proportion.1 There seems to be nothing to hinder their + being increased in this country to at least treble their present + amount. The single article of ardent spirits, under federal + regulation, might be made to furnish a considerable revenue. Upon a + ratio to the importation into this State, the whole quantity + imported into the United States may be estimated at four millions of + gallons; which, at a shilling per gallon, would produce two hundred + thousand pounds. That article would well bear this rate of duty; + and if it should tend to diminish the consumption of it, such an + effect would be equally favorable to the agriculture, to the + economy, to the morals, and to the health of the society. There is, + perhaps, nothing so much a subject of national extravagance as these + spirits. +What will be the consequence, if we are not able to avail + ourselves of the resource in question in its full extent? A nation + cannot long exist without revenues. Destitute of this essential + support, it must resign its independence, and sink into the degraded + condition of a province. This is an extremity to which no + government will of choice accede. Revenue, therefore, must be had + at all events. In this country, if the principal part be not drawn + from commerce, it must fall with oppressive weight upon land. It + has been already intimated that excises, in their true + signification, are too little in unison with the feelings of the + people, to admit of great use being made of that mode of taxation; + nor, indeed, in the States where almost the sole employment is + agriculture, are the objects proper for excise sufficiently numerous + to permit very ample collections in that way. Personal estate (as + has been before remarked), from the difficulty in tracing it, cannot + be subjected to large contributions, by any other means than by + taxes on consumption. In populous cities, it may be enough the + subject of conjecture, to occasion the oppression of individuals, + without much aggregate benefit to the State; but beyond these + circles, it must, in a great measure, escape the eye and the hand of + the tax-gatherer. As the necessities of the State, nevertheless, + must be satisfied in some mode or other, the defect of other + resources must throw the principal weight of public burdens on the + possessors of land. And as, on the other hand, the wants of the + government can never obtain an adequate supply, unless all the + sources of revenue are open to its demands, the finances of the + community, under such embarrassments, cannot be put into a situation + consistent with its respectability or its security. Thus we shall + not even have the consolations of a full treasury, to atone for the + oppression of that valuable class of the citizens who are employed + in the cultivation of the soil. But public and private distress + will keep pace with each other in gloomy concert; and unite in + deploring the infatuation of those counsels which led to disunion. +PUBLIUS. +1 If my memory be right they amount to twenty per cent. + + +FEDERALIST No. 13 + +Advantage of the Union in Respect to Economy in Government +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +As CONNECTED with the subject of revenue, we may with propriety + consider that of economy. The money saved from one object may be + usefully applied to another, and there will be so much the less to + be drawn from the pockets of the people. If the States are united + under one government, there will be but one national civil list to + support; if they are divided into several confederacies, there will + be as many different national civil lists to be provided for--and + each of them, as to the principal departments, coextensive with that + which would be necessary for a government of the whole. The entire + separation of the States into thirteen unconnected sovereignties is + a project too extravagant and too replete with danger to have many + advocates. The ideas of men who speculate upon the dismemberment of + the empire seem generally turned toward three confederacies--one + consisting of the four Northern, another of the four Middle, and a + third of the five Southern States. There is little probability that + there would be a greater number. According to this distribution, + each confederacy would comprise an extent of territory larger than + that of the kingdom of Great Britain. No well-informed man will + suppose that the affairs of such a confederacy can be properly + regulated by a government less comprehensive in its organs or + institutions than that which has been proposed by the convention. + When the dimensions of a State attain to a certain magnitude, it + requires the same energy of government and the same forms of + administration which are requisite in one of much greater extent. + This idea admits not of precise demonstration, because there is no + rule by which we can measure the momentum of civil power necessary + to the government of any given number of individuals; but when we + consider that the island of Britain, nearly commensurate with each + of the supposed confederacies, contains about eight millions of + people, and when we reflect upon the degree of authority required to + direct the passions of so large a society to the public good, we + shall see no reason to doubt that the like portion of power would be + sufficient to perform the same task in a society far more numerous. + Civil power, properly organized and exerted, is capable of + diffusing its force to a very great extent; and can, in a manner, + reproduce itself in every part of a great empire by a judicious + arrangement of subordinate institutions. +The supposition that each confederacy into which the States + would be likely to be divided would require a government not less + comprehensive than the one proposed, will be strengthened by another + supposition, more probable than that which presents us with three + confederacies as the alternative to a general Union. If we attend + carefully to geographical and commercial considerations, in + conjunction with the habits and prejudices of the different States, + we shall be led to conclude that in case of disunion they will most + naturally league themselves under two governments. The four Eastern + States, from all the causes that form the links of national sympathy + and connection, may with certainty be expected to unite. New York, + situated as she is, would never be unwise enough to oppose a feeble + and unsupported flank to the weight of that confederacy. There are + other obvious reasons that would facilitate her accession to it. + New Jersey is too small a State to think of being a frontier, in + opposition to this still more powerful combination; nor do there + appear to be any obstacles to her admission into it. Even + Pennsylvania would have strong inducements to join the Northern + league. An active foreign commerce, on the basis of her own + navigation, is her true policy, and coincides with the opinions and + dispositions of her citizens. The more Southern States, from + various circumstances, may not think themselves much interested in + the encouragement of navigation. They may prefer a system which + would give unlimited scope to all nations to be the carriers as well + as the purchasers of their commodities. Pennsylvania may not choose + to confound her interests in a connection so adverse to her policy. + As she must at all events be a frontier, she may deem it most + consistent with her safety to have her exposed side turned towards + the weaker power of the Southern, rather than towards the stronger + power of the Northern, Confederacy. This would give her the fairest + chance to avoid being the Flanders of America. Whatever may be the + determination of Pennsylvania, if the Northern Confederacy includes + New Jersey, there is no likelihood of more than one confederacy to + the south of that State. +Nothing can be more evident than that the thirteen States will + be able to support a national government better than one half, or + one third, or any number less than the whole. This reflection must + have great weight in obviating that objection to the proposed plan, + which is founded on the principle of expense; an objection, + however, which, when we come to take a nearer view of it, will + appear in every light to stand on mistaken ground. +If, in addition to the consideration of a plurality of civil + lists, we take into view the number of persons who must necessarily + be employed to guard the inland communication between the different + confederacies against illicit trade, and who in time will infallibly + spring up out of the necessities of revenue; and if we also take + into view the military establishments which it has been shown would + unavoidably result from the jealousies and conflicts of the several + nations into which the States would be divided, we shall clearly + discover that a separation would be not less injurious to the + economy, than to the tranquillity, commerce, revenue, and liberty of + every part. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 14 + +Objections to the Proposed Constitution From Extent of Territory + Answered +From the New York Packet. +Friday, November 30, 1787. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +WE HAVE seen the necessity of the Union, as our bulwark against + foreign danger, as the conservator of peace among ourselves, as the + guardian of our commerce and other common interests, as the only + substitute for those military establishments which have subverted + the liberties of the Old World, and as the proper antidote for the + diseases of faction, which have proved fatal to other popular + governments, and of which alarming symptoms have been betrayed by + our own. All that remains, within this branch of our inquiries, is + to take notice of an objection that may be drawn from the great + extent of country which the Union embraces. A few observations on + this subject will be the more proper, as it is perceived that the + adversaries of the new Constitution are availing themselves of the + prevailing prejudice with regard to the practicable sphere of + republican administration, in order to supply, by imaginary + difficulties, the want of those solid objections which they endeavor + in vain to find. +The error which limits republican government to a narrow + district has been unfolded and refuted in preceding papers. I + remark here only that it seems to owe its rise and prevalence + chiefly to the confounding of a republic with a democracy, applying + to the former reasonings drawn from the nature of the latter. The + true distinction between these forms was also adverted to on a + former occasion. It is, that in a democracy, the people meet and + exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and + administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, + consequently, will be confined to a small spot. A republic may be + extended over a large region. +To this accidental source of the error may be added the artifice + of some celebrated authors, whose writings have had a great share in + forming the modern standard of political opinions. Being subjects + either of an absolute or limited monarchy, they have endeavored to + heighten the advantages, or palliate the evils of those forms, by + placing in comparison the vices and defects of the republican, and + by citing as specimens of the latter the turbulent democracies of + ancient Greece and modern Italy. Under the confusion of names, it + has been an easy task to transfer to a republic observations + applicable to a democracy only; and among others, the observation + that it can never be established but among a small number of people, + living within a small compass of territory. +Such a fallacy may have been the less perceived, as most of the + popular governments of antiquity were of the democratic species; + and even in modern Europe, to which we owe the great principle of + representation, no example is seen of a government wholly popular, + and founded, at the same time, wholly on that principle. If Europe + has the merit of discovering this great mechanical power in + government, by the simple agency of which the will of the largest + political body may be concentred, and its force directed to any + object which the public good requires, America can claim the merit + of making the discovery the basis of unmixed and extensive republics. + It is only to be lamented that any of her citizens should wish to + deprive her of the additional merit of displaying its full efficacy + in the establishment of the comprehensive system now under her + consideration. +As the natural limit of a democracy is that distance from the + central point which will just permit the most remote citizens to + assemble as often as their public functions demand, and will include + no greater number than can join in those functions; so the natural + limit of a republic is that distance from the centre which will + barely allow the representatives to meet as often as may be + necessary for the administration of public affairs. Can it be said + that the limits of the United States exceed this distance? It will + not be said by those who recollect that the Atlantic coast is the + longest side of the Union, that during the term of thirteen years, + the representatives of the States have been almost continually + assembled, and that the members from the most distant States are not + chargeable with greater intermissions of attendance than those from + the States in the neighborhood of Congress. +That we may form a juster estimate with regard to this + interesting subject, let us resort to the actual dimensions of the + Union. The limits, as fixed by the treaty of peace, are: on the + east the Atlantic, on the south the latitude of thirty-one degrees, + on the west the Mississippi, and on the north an irregular line + running in some instances beyond the forty-fifth degree, in others + falling as low as the forty-second. The southern shore of Lake Erie + lies below that latitude. Computing the distance between the + thirty-first and forty-fifth degrees, it amounts to nine hundred and + seventy-three common miles; computing it from thirty-one to + forty-two degrees, to seven hundred and sixty-four miles and a half. + Taking the mean for the distance, the amount will be eight hundred + and sixty-eight miles and three-fourths. The mean distance from the + Atlantic to the Mississippi does not probably exceed seven hundred + and fifty miles. On a comparison of this extent with that of + several countries in Europe, the practicability of rendering our + system commensurate to it appears to be demonstrable. It is not a + great deal larger than Germany, where a diet representing the whole + empire is continually assembled; or than Poland before the late + dismemberment, where another national diet was the depositary of the + supreme power. Passing by France and Spain, we find that in Great + Britain, inferior as it may be in size, the representatives of the + northern extremity of the island have as far to travel to the + national council as will be required of those of the most remote + parts of the Union. +Favorable as this view of the subject may be, some observations + remain which will place it in a light still more satisfactory. +In the first place it is to be remembered that the general + government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and + administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain + enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, + but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any. + The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all + those other subjects which can be separately provided for, will + retain their due authority and activity. Were it proposed by the + plan of the convention to abolish the governments of the particular + States, its adversaries would have some ground for their objection; + though it would not be difficult to show that if they were + abolished the general government would be compelled, by the + principle of self-preservation, to reinstate them in their proper + jurisdiction. +A second observation to be made is that the immediate object of + the federal Constitution is to secure the union of the thirteen + primitive States, which we know to be practicable; and to add to + them such other States as may arise in their own bosoms, or in their + neighborhoods, which we cannot doubt to be equally practicable. The + arrangements that may be necessary for those angles and fractions of + our territory which lie on our northwestern frontier, must be left + to those whom further discoveries and experience will render more + equal to the task. +Let it be remarked, in the third place, that the intercourse + throughout the Union will be facilitated by new improvements. Roads + will everywhere be shortened, and kept in better order; + accommodations for travelers will be multiplied and meliorated; an + interior navigation on our eastern side will be opened throughout, + or nearly throughout, the whole extent of the thirteen States. The + communication between the Western and Atlantic districts, and + between different parts of each, will be rendered more and more easy + by those numerous canals with which the beneficence of nature has + intersected our country, and which art finds it so little difficult + to connect and complete. +A fourth and still more important consideration is, that as + almost every State will, on one side or other, be a frontier, and + will thus find, in regard to its safety, an inducement to make some + sacrifices for the sake of the general protection; so the States + which lie at the greatest distance from the heart of the Union, and + which, of course, may partake least of the ordinary circulation of + its benefits, will be at the same time immediately contiguous to + foreign nations, and will consequently stand, on particular + occasions, in greatest need of its strength and resources. It may + be inconvenient for Georgia, or the States forming our western or + northeastern borders, to send their representatives to the seat of + government; but they would find it more so to struggle alone + against an invading enemy, or even to support alone the whole + expense of those precautions which may be dictated by the + neighborhood of continual danger. If they should derive less + benefit, therefore, from the Union in some respects than the less + distant States, they will derive greater benefit from it in other + respects, and thus the proper equilibrium will be maintained + throughout. +I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, these considerations, in + full confidence that the good sense which has so often marked your + decisions will allow them their due weight and effect; and that you + will never suffer difficulties, however formidable in appearance, or + however fashionable the error on which they may be founded, to drive + you into the gloomy and perilous scene into which the advocates for + disunion would conduct you. Hearken not to the unnatural voice + which tells you that the people of America, knit together as they + are by so many cords of affection, can no longer live together as + members of the same family; can no longer continue the mutual + guardians of their mutual happiness; can no longer be + fellowcitizens of one great, respectable, and flourishing empire. + Hearken not to the voice which petulantly tells you that the form + of government recommended for your adoption is a novelty in the + political world; that it has never yet had a place in the theories + of the wildest projectors; that it rashly attempts what it is + impossible to accomplish. No, my countrymen, shut your ears against + this unhallowed language. Shut your hearts against the poison which + it conveys; the kindred blood which flows in the veins of American + citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defense of their + sacred rights, consecrate their Union, and excite horror at the idea + of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. And if novelties are to + be shunned, believe me, the most alarming of all novelties, the most + wild of all projects, the most rash of all attempts, is that of + rendering us in pieces, in order to preserve our liberties and + promote our happiness. But why is the experiment of an extended + republic to be rejected, merely because it may comprise what is new? + Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they + have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other + nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, + for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own + good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of + their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be + indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the + numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of + private rights and public happiness. Had no important step been + taken by the leaders of the Revolution for which a precedent could + not be discovered, no government established of which an exact model + did not present itself, the people of the United States might, at + this moment have been numbered among the melancholy victims of + misguided councils, must at best have been laboring under the weight + of some of those forms which have crushed the liberties of the rest + of mankind. Happily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole + human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They + accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of + human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no + model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great + Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve + and perpetuate. If their works betray imperfections, we wonder at + the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure of the + Union, this was the work most difficult to be executed; this is the + work which has been new modelled by the act of your convention, and + it is that act on which you are now to deliberate and to decide. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 15 + +The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the + Union +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York. +IN THE course of the preceding papers, I have endeavored, my + fellow-citizens, to place before you, in a clear and convincing + light, the importance of Union to your political safety and + happiness. I have unfolded to you a complication of dangers to + which you would be exposed, should you permit that sacred knot which + binds the people of America together be severed or dissolved by + ambition or by avarice, by jealousy or by misrepresentation. In the + sequel of the inquiry through which I propose to accompany you, the + truths intended to be inculcated will receive further confirmation + from facts and arguments hitherto unnoticed. If the road over which + you will still have to pass should in some places appear to you + tedious or irksome, you will recollect that you are in quest of + information on a subject the most momentous which can engage the + attention of a free people, that the field through which you have to + travel is in itself spacious, and that the difficulties of the + journey have been unnecessarily increased by the mazes with which + sophistry has beset the way. It will be my aim to remove the + obstacles from your progress in as compendious a manner as it can be + done, without sacrificing utility to despatch. +In pursuance of the plan which I have laid down for the + discussion of the subject, the point next in order to be examined is + the ``insufficiency of the present Confederation to the preservation + of the Union.'' It may perhaps be asked what need there is of + reasoning or proof to illustrate a position which is not either + controverted or doubted, to which the understandings and feelings of + all classes of men assent, and which in substance is admitted by the + opponents as well as by the friends of the new Constitution. It + must in truth be acknowledged that, however these may differ in + other respects, they in general appear to harmonize in this + sentiment, at least, that there are material imperfections in our + national system, and that something is necessary to be done to + rescue us from impending anarchy. The facts that support this + opinion are no longer objects of speculation. They have forced + themselves upon the sensibility of the people at large, and have at + length extorted from those, whose mistaken policy has had the + principal share in precipitating the extremity at which we are + arrived, a reluctant confession of the reality of those defects in + the scheme of our federal government, which have been long pointed + out and regretted by the intelligent friends of the Union. +We may indeed with propriety be said to have reached almost the + last stage of national humiliation. There is scarcely anything that + can wound the pride or degrade the character of an independent + nation which we do not experience. Are there engagements to the + performance of which we are held by every tie respectable among men? + These are the subjects of constant and unblushing violation. Do we + owe debts to foreigners and to our own citizens contracted in a time + of imminent peril for the preservation of our political existence? + These remain without any proper or satisfactory provision for their + discharge. Have we valuable territories and important posts in the + possession of a foreign power which, by express stipulations, ought + long since to have been surrendered? These are still retained, to + the prejudice of our interests, not less than of our rights. Are we + in a condition to resent or to repel the aggression? We have + neither troops, nor treasury, nor government.1 Are we even in a + condition to remonstrate with dignity? The just imputations on our + own faith, in respect to the same treaty, ought first to be removed. + Are we entitled by nature and compact to a free participation in + the navigation of the Mississippi? Spain excludes us from it. Is + public credit an indispensable resource in time of public danger? + We seem to have abandoned its cause as desperate and irretrievable. + Is commerce of importance to national wealth? Ours is at the + lowest point of declension. Is respectability in the eyes of + foreign powers a safeguard against foreign encroachments? The + imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us. + Our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic sovereignty. + Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land a symptom + of national distress? The price of improved land in most parts of + the country is much lower than can be accounted for by the quantity + of waste land at market, and can only be fully explained by that + want of private and public confidence, which are so alarmingly + prevalent among all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to + depreciate property of every kind. Is private credit the friend and + patron of industry? That most useful kind which relates to + borrowing and lending is reduced within the narrowest limits, and + this still more from an opinion of insecurity than from the scarcity + of money. To shorten an enumeration of particulars which can afford + neither pleasure nor instruction, it may in general be demanded, + what indication is there of national disorder, poverty, and + insignificance that could befall a community so peculiarly blessed + with natural advantages as we are, which does not form a part of the + dark catalogue of our public misfortunes? +This is the melancholy situation to which we have been brought + by those very maxims and councils which would now deter us from + adopting the proposed Constitution; and which, not content with + having conducted us to the brink of a precipice, seem resolved to + plunge us into the abyss that awaits us below. Here, my countrymen, + impelled by every motive that ought to influence an enlightened + people, let us make a firm stand for our safety, our tranquillity, + our dignity, our reputation. Let us at last break the fatal charm + which has too long seduced us from the paths of felicity and + prosperity. +It is true, as has been before observed that facts, too stubborn + to be resisted, have produced a species of general assent to the + abstract proposition that there exist material defects in our + national system; but the usefulness of the concession, on the part + of the old adversaries of federal measures, is destroyed by a + strenuous opposition to a remedy, upon the only principles that can + give it a chance of success. While they admit that the government + of the United States is destitute of energy, they contend against + conferring upon it those powers which are requisite to supply that + energy. They seem still to aim at things repugnant and + irreconcilable; at an augmentation of federal authority, without a + diminution of State authority; at sovereignty in the Union, and + complete independence in the members. They still, in fine, seem to + cherish with blind devotion the political monster of an imperium + in imperio. This renders a full display of the principal defects + of the Confederation necessary, in order to show that the evils we + experience do not proceed from minute or partial imperfections, but + from fundamental errors in the structure of the building, which + cannot be amended otherwise than by an alteration in the first + principles and main pillars of the fabric. +The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing + Confederation is in the principle of LEGISLATION for STATES or + GOVERNMENTS, in their CORPORATE or COLLECTIVE CAPACITIES, and as + contradistinguished from the INDIVIDUALS of which they consist. + Though this principle does not run through all the powers delegated + to the Union, yet it pervades and governs those on which the + efficacy of the rest depends. Except as to the rule of appointment, + the United States has an indefinite discretion to make requisitions + for men and money; but they have no authority to raise either, by + regulations extending to the individual citizens of America. The + consequence of this is, that though in theory their resolutions + concerning those objects are laws, constitutionally binding on the + members of the Union, yet in practice they are mere recommendations + which the States observe or disregard at their option. +It is a singular instance of the capriciousness of the human + mind, that after all the admonitions we have had from experience on + this head, there should still be found men who object to the new + Constitution, for deviating from a principle which has been found + the bane of the old, and which is in itself evidently incompatible + with the idea of GOVERNMENT; a principle, in short, which, if it is + to be executed at all, must substitute the violent and sanguinary + agency of the sword to the mild influence of the magistracy. +There is nothing absurd or impracticable in the idea of a league + or alliance between independent nations for certain defined purposes + precisely stated in a treaty regulating all the details of time, + place, circumstance, and quantity; leaving nothing to future + discretion; and depending for its execution on the good faith of + the parties. Compacts of this kind exist among all civilized + nations, subject to the usual vicissitudes of peace and war, of + observance and non-observance, as the interests or passions of the + contracting powers dictate. In the early part of the present + century there was an epidemical rage in Europe for this species of + compacts, from which the politicians of the times fondly hoped for + benefits which were never realized. With a view to establishing the + equilibrium of power and the peace of that part of the world, all + the resources of negotiation were exhausted, and triple and + quadruple alliances were formed; but they were scarcely formed + before they were broken, giving an instructive but afflicting lesson + to mankind, how little dependence is to be placed on treaties which + have no other sanction than the obligations of good faith, and which + oppose general considerations of peace and justice to the impulse of + any immediate interest or passion. +If the particular States in this country are disposed to stand + in a similar relation to each other, and to drop the project of a + general DISCRETIONARY SUPERINTENDENCE, the scheme would indeed be + pernicious, and would entail upon us all the mischiefs which have + been enumerated under the first head; but it would have the merit + of being, at least, consistent and practicable Abandoning all views + towards a confederate government, this would bring us to a simple + alliance offensive and defensive; and would place us in a situation + to be alternate friends and enemies of each other, as our mutual + jealousies and rivalships, nourished by the intrigues of foreign + nations, should prescribe to us. +But if we are unwilling to be placed in this perilous situation; + if we still will adhere to the design of a national government, or, + which is the same thing, of a superintending power, under the + direction of a common council, we must resolve to incorporate into + our plan those ingredients which may be considered as forming the + characteristic difference between a league and a government; we + must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the + citizens, --the only proper objects of government. +Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to + the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in + other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience. If there be + no penalty annexed to disobedience, the resolutions or commands + which pretend to be laws will, in fact, amount to nothing more than + advice or recommendation. This penalty, whatever it may be, can + only be inflicted in two ways: by the agency of the courts and + ministers of justice, or by military force; by the COERCION of the + magistracy, or by the COERCION of arms. The first kind can + evidently apply only to men; the last kind must of necessity, be + employed against bodies politic, or communities, or States. It is + evident that there is no process of a court by which the observance + of the laws can, in the last resort, be enforced. Sentences may be + denounced against them for violations of their duty; but these + sentences can only be carried into execution by the sword. In an + association where the general authority is confined to the + collective bodies of the communities, that compose it, every breach + of the laws must involve a state of war; and military execution + must become the only instrument of civil obedience. Such a state of + things can certainly not deserve the name of government, nor would + any prudent man choose to commit his happiness to it. +There was a time when we were told that breaches, by the States, + of the regulations of the federal authority were not to be expected; + that a sense of common interest would preside over the conduct of + the respective members, and would beget a full compliance with all + the constitutional requisitions of the Union. This language, at the + present day, would appear as wild as a great part of what we now + hear from the same quarter will be thought, when we shall have + received further lessons from that best oracle of wisdom, experience. + It at all times betrayed an ignorance of the true springs by which + human conduct is actuated, and belied the original inducements to + the establishment of civil power. Why has government been + instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to + the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. Has it been + found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater + disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been + inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and + the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation + has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to + be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. + A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the + deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of + whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which + they would blush in a private capacity. +In addition to all this, there is, in the nature of sovereign + power, an impatience of control, that disposes those who are + invested with the exercise of it, to look with an evil eye upon all + external attempts to restrain or direct its operations. From this + spirit it happens, that in every political association which is + formed upon the principle of uniting in a common interest a number + of lesser sovereignties, there will be found a kind of eccentric + tendency in the subordinate or inferior orbs, by the operation of + which there will be a perpetual effort in each to fly off from the + common centre. This tendency is not difficult to be accounted for. + It has its origin in the love of power. Power controlled or + abridged is almost always the rival and enemy of that power by which + it is controlled or abridged. This simple proposition will teach us + how little reason there is to expect, that the persons intrusted + with the administration of the affairs of the particular members of + a confederacy will at all times be ready, with perfect good-humor, + and an unbiased regard to the public weal, to execute the + resolutions or decrees of the general authority. The reverse of + this results from the constitution of human nature. +If, therefore, the measures of the Confederacy cannot be + executed without the intervention of the particular administrations, + there will be little prospect of their being executed at all. The + rulers of the respective members, whether they have a constitutional + right to do it or not, will undertake to judge of the propriety of + the measures themselves. They will consider the conformity of the + thing proposed or required to their immediate interests or aims; + the momentary conveniences or inconveniences that would attend its + adoption. All this will be done; and in a spirit of interested and + suspicious scrutiny, without that knowledge of national + circumstances and reasons of state, which is essential to a right + judgment, and with that strong predilection in favor of local + objects, which can hardly fail to mislead the decision. The same + process must be repeated in every member of which the body is + constituted; and the execution of the plans, framed by the councils + of the whole, will always fluctuate on the discretion of the + ill-informed and prejudiced opinion of every part. Those who have + been conversant in the proceedings of popular assemblies; who have + seen how difficult it often is, where there is no exterior pressure + of circumstances, to bring them to harmonious resolutions on + important points, will readily conceive how impossible it must be to + induce a number of such assemblies, deliberating at a distance from + each other, at different times, and under different impressions, + long to co-operate in the same views and pursuits. +In our case, the concurrence of thirteen distinct sovereign + wills is requisite, under the Confederation, to the complete + execution of every important measure that proceeds from the Union. + It has happened as was to have been foreseen. The measures of the + Union have not been executed; the delinquencies of the States have, + step by step, matured themselves to an extreme, which has, at + length, arrested all the wheels of the national government, and + brought them to an awful stand. Congress at this time scarcely + possess the means of keeping up the forms of administration, till + the States can have time to agree upon a more substantial substitute + for the present shadow of a federal government. Things did not come + to this desperate extremity at once. The causes which have been + specified produced at first only unequal and disproportionate + degrees of compliance with the requisitions of the Union. The + greater deficiencies of some States furnished the pretext of example + and the temptation of interest to the complying, or to the least + delinquent States. Why should we do more in proportion than those + who are embarked with us in the same political voyage? Why should + we consent to bear more than our proper share of the common burden? + These were suggestions which human selfishness could not withstand, + and which even speculative men, who looked forward to remote + consequences, could not, without hesitation, combat. Each State, + yielding to the persuasive voice of immediate interest or + convenience, has successively withdrawn its support, till the frail + and tottering edifice seems ready to fall upon our heads, and to + crush us beneath its ruins. +PUBLIUS. +1 ``I mean for the Union.'' + + +FEDERALIST No. 16 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the + Union) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, December 4, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE tendency of the principle of legislation for States, or + communities, in their political capacities, as it has been + exemplified by the experiment we have made of it, is equally + attested by the events which have befallen all other governments of + the confederate kind, of which we have any account, in exact + proportion to its prevalence in those systems. The confirmations of + this fact will be worthy of a distinct and particular examination. + I shall content myself with barely observing here, that of all the + confederacies of antiquity, which history has handed down to us, the + Lycian and Achaean leagues, as far as there remain vestiges of them, + appear to have been most free from the fetters of that mistaken + principle, and were accordingly those which have best deserved, and + have most liberally received, the applauding suffrages of political + writers. +This exceptionable principle may, as truly as emphatically, be + styled the parent of anarchy: It has been seen that delinquencies + in the members of the Union are its natural and necessary offspring; + and that whenever they happen, the only constitutional remedy is + force, and the immediate effect of the use of it, civil war. +It remains to inquire how far so odious an engine of government, + in its application to us, would even be capable of answering its end. + If there should not be a large army constantly at the disposal of + the national government it would either not be able to employ force + at all, or, when this could be done, it would amount to a war + between parts of the Confederacy concerning the infractions of a + league, in which the strongest combination would be most likely to + prevail, whether it consisted of those who supported or of those who + resisted the general authority. It would rarely happen that the + delinquency to be redressed would be confined to a single member, + and if there were more than one who had neglected their duty, + similarity of situation would induce them to unite for common + defense. Independent of this motive of sympathy, if a large and + influential State should happen to be the aggressing member, it + would commonly have weight enough with its neighbors to win over + some of them as associates to its cause. Specious arguments of + danger to the common liberty could easily be contrived; plausible + excuses for the deficiencies of the party could, without difficulty, + be invented to alarm the apprehensions, inflame the passions, and + conciliate the good-will, even of those States which were not + chargeable with any violation or omission of duty. This would be + the more likely to take place, as the delinquencies of the larger + members might be expected sometimes to proceed from an ambitious + premeditation in their rulers, with a view to getting rid of all + external control upon their designs of personal aggrandizement; the + better to effect which it is presumable they would tamper beforehand + with leading individuals in the adjacent States. If associates + could not be found at home, recourse would be had to the aid of + foreign powers, who would seldom be disinclined to encouraging the + dissensions of a Confederacy, from the firm union of which they had + so much to fear. When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men + observe no bounds of moderation. The suggestions of wounded pride, + the instigations of irritated resentment, would be apt to carry the + States against which the arms of the Union were exerted, to any + extremes necessary to avenge the affront or to avoid the disgrace of + submission. The first war of this kind would probably terminate in + a dissolution of the Union. +This may be considered as the violent death of the Confederacy. + Its more natural death is what we now seem to be on the point of + experiencing, if the federal system be not speedily renovated in a + more substantial form. It is not probable, considering the genius + of this country, that the complying States would often be inclined + to support the authority of the Union by engaging in a war against + the non-complying States. They would always be more ready to pursue + the milder course of putting themselves upon an equal footing with + the delinquent members by an imitation of their example. And the + guilt of all would thus become the security of all. Our past + experience has exhibited the operation of this spirit in its full + light. There would, in fact, be an insuperable difficulty in + ascertaining when force could with propriety be employed. In the + article of pecuniary contribution, which would be the most usual + source of delinquency, it would often be impossible to decide + whether it had proceeded from disinclination or inability. The + pretense of the latter would always be at hand. And the case must + be very flagrant in which its fallacy could be detected with + sufficient certainty to justify the harsh expedient of compulsion. + It is easy to see that this problem alone, as often as it should + occur, would open a wide field for the exercise of factious views, + of partiality, and of oppression, in the majority that happened to + prevail in the national council. +It seems to require no pains to prove that the States ought not + to prefer a national Constitution which could only be kept in motion + by the instrumentality of a large army continually on foot to + execute the ordinary requisitions or decrees of the government. And + yet this is the plain alternative involved by those who wish to deny + it the power of extending its operations to individuals. Such a + scheme, if practicable at all, would instantly degenerate into a + military despotism; but it will be found in every light + impracticable. The resources of the Union would not be equal to the + maintenance of an army considerable enough to confine the larger + States within the limits of their duty; nor would the means ever be + furnished of forming such an army in the first instance. Whoever + considers the populousness and strength of several of these States + singly at the present juncture, and looks forward to what they will + become, even at the distance of half a century, will at once dismiss + as idle and visionary any scheme which aims at regulating their + movements by laws to operate upon them in their collective + capacities, and to be executed by a coercion applicable to them in + the same capacities. A project of this kind is little less romantic + than the monster-taming spirit which is attributed to the fabulous + heroes and demi-gods of antiquity. +Even in those confederacies which have been composed of members + smaller than many of our counties, the principle of legislation for + sovereign States, supported by military coercion, has never been + found effectual. It has rarely been attempted to be employed, but + against the weaker members; and in most instances attempts to + coerce the refractory and disobedient have been the signals of + bloody wars, in which one half of the confederacy has displayed its + banners against the other half. +The result of these observations to an intelligent mind must be + clearly this, that if it be possible at any rate to construct a + federal government capable of regulating the common concerns and + preserving the general tranquillity, it must be founded, as to the + objects committed to its care, upon the reverse of the principle + contended for by the opponents of the proposed Constitution. It + must carry its agency to the persons of the citizens. It must stand + in need of no intermediate legislations; but must itself be + empowered to employ the arm of the ordinary magistrate to execute + its own resolutions. The majesty of the national authority must be + manifested through the medium of the courts of justice. The + government of the Union, like that of each State, must be able to + address itself immediately to the hopes and fears of individuals; + and to attract to its support those passions which have the + strongest influence upon the human heart. It must, in short, + possess all the means, and have aright to resort to all the methods, + of executing the powers with which it is intrusted, that are + possessed and exercised by the government of the particular States. +To this reasoning it may perhaps be objected, that if any State + should be disaffected to the authority of the Union, it could at any + time obstruct the execution of its laws, and bring the matter to the + same issue of force, with the necessity of which the opposite scheme + is reproached. +The pausibility of this objection will vanish the moment we + advert to the essential difference between a mere NON-COMPLIANCE and + a DIRECT and ACTIVE RESISTANCE. If the interposition of the State + legislatures be necessary to give effect to a measure of the Union, + they have only NOT TO ACT, or to ACT EVASIVELY, and the measure is + defeated. This neglect of duty may be disguised under affected but + unsubstantial provisions, so as not to appear, and of course not to + excite any alarm in the people for the safety of the Constitution. + The State leaders may even make a merit of their surreptitious + invasions of it on the ground of some temporary convenience, + exemption, or advantage. +But if the execution of the laws of the national government + should not require the intervention of the State legislatures, if + they were to pass into immediate operation upon the citizens + themselves, the particular governments could not interrupt their + progress without an open and violent exertion of an unconstitutional + power. No omissions nor evasions would answer the end. They would + be obliged to act, and in such a manner as would leave no doubt that + they had encroached on the national rights. An experiment of this + nature would always be hazardous in the face of a constitution in + any degree competent to its own defense, and of a people enlightened + enough to distinguish between a legal exercise and an illegal + usurpation of authority. The success of it would require not merely + a factious majority in the legislature, but the concurrence of the + courts of justice and of the body of the people. If the judges were + not embarked in a conspiracy with the legislature, they would + pronounce the resolutions of such a majority to be contrary to the + supreme law of the land, unconstitutional, and void. If the people + were not tainted with the spirit of their State representatives, + they, as the natural guardians of the Constitution, would throw + their weight into the national scale and give it a decided + preponderancy in the contest. Attempts of this kind would not often + be made with levity or rashness, because they could seldom be made + without danger to the authors, unless in cases of a tyrannical + exercise of the federal authority. +If opposition to the national government should arise from the + disorderly conduct of refractory or seditious individuals, it could + be overcome by the same means which are daily employed against the + same evil under the State governments. The magistracy, being + equally the ministers of the law of the land, from whatever source + it might emanate, would doubtless be as ready to guard the national + as the local regulations from the inroads of private licentiousness. + As to those partial commotions and insurrections, which sometimes + disquiet society, from the intrigues of an inconsiderable faction, + or from sudden or occasional illhumors that do not infect the great + body of the community the general government could command more + extensive resources for the suppression of disturbances of that kind + than would be in the power of any single member. And as to those + mortal feuds which, in certain conjunctures, spread a conflagration + through a whole nation, or through a very large proportion of it, + proceeding either from weighty causes of discontent given by the + government or from the contagion of some violent popular paroxysm, + they do not fall within any ordinary rules of calculation. When + they happen, they commonly amount to revolutions and dismemberments + of empire. No form of government can always either avoid or control + them. It is in vain to hope to guard against events too mighty for + human foresight or precaution, and it would be idle to object to a + government because it could not perform impossibilities. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 17 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the + Union) +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +AN OBJECTION, of a nature different from that which has been + stated and answered, in my last address, may perhaps be likewise + urged against the principle of legislation for the individual + citizens of America. It may be said that it would tend to render + the government of the Union too powerful, and to enable it to absorb + those residuary authorities, which it might be judged proper to + leave with the States for local purposes. Allowing the utmost + latitude to the love of power which any reasonable man can require, + I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons + intrusted with the administration of the general government could + ever feel to divest the States of the authorities of that + description. The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State + appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition. + Commerce, finance, negotiation, and war seem to comprehend all the + objects which have charms for minds governed by that passion; and + all the powers necessary to those objects ought, in the first + instance, to be lodged in the national depository. The + administration of private justice between the citizens of the same + State, the supervision of agriculture and of other concerns of a + similar nature, all those things, in short, which are proper to be + provided for by local legislation, can never be desirable cares of a + general jurisdiction. It is therefore improbable that there should + exist a disposition in the federal councils to usurp the powers with + which they are connected; because the attempt to exercise those + powers would be as troublesome as it would be nugatory; and the + possession of them, for that reason, would contribute nothing to the + dignity, to the importance, or to the splendor of the national + government. +But let it be admitted, for argument's sake, that mere + wantonness and lust of domination would be sufficient to beget that + disposition; still it may be safely affirmed, that the sense of the + constituent body of the national representatives, or, in other + words, the people of the several States, would control the + indulgence of so extravagant an appetite. It will always be far + more easy for the State governments to encroach upon the national + authorities than for the national government to encroach upon the + State authorities. The proof of this proposition turns upon the + greater degree of influence which the State governments if they + administer their affairs with uprightness and prudence, will + generally possess over the people; a circumstance which at the same + time teaches us that there is an inherent and intrinsic weakness in + all federal constitutions; and that too much pains cannot be taken + in their organization, to give them all the force which is + compatible with the principles of liberty. +The superiority of influence in favor of the particular + governments would result partly from the diffusive construction of + the national government, but chiefly from the nature of the objects + to which the attention of the State administrations would be + directed. +It is a known fact in human nature, that its affections are + commonly weak in proportion to the distance or diffusiveness of the + object. Upon the same principle that a man is more attached to his + family than to his neighborhood, to his neighborhood than to the + community at large, the people of each State would be apt to feel a + stronger bias towards their local governments than towards the + government of the Union; unless the force of that principle should + be destroyed by a much better administration of the latter. +This strong propensity of the human heart would find powerful + auxiliaries in the objects of State regulation. +The variety of more minute interests, which will necessarily + fall under the superintendence of the local administrations, and + which will form so many rivulets of influence, running through every + part of the society, cannot be particularized, without involving a + detail too tedious and uninteresting to compensate for the + instruction it might afford. +There is one transcendant advantage belonging to the province of + the State governments, which alone suffices to place the matter in a + clear and satisfactory light,--I mean the ordinary administration of + criminal and civil justice. This, of all others, is the most + powerful, most universal, and most attractive source of popular + obedience and attachment. It is that which, being the immediate and + visible guardian of life and property, having its benefits and its + terrors in constant activity before the public eye, regulating all + those personal interests and familiar concerns to which the + sensibility of individuals is more immediately awake, contributes, + more than any other circumstance, to impressing upon the minds of + the people, affection, esteem, and reverence towards the government. + This great cement of society, which will diffuse itself almost + wholly through the channels of the particular governments, + independent of all other causes of influence, would insure them so + decided an empire over their respective citizens as to render them + at all times a complete counterpoise, and, not unfrequently, + dangerous rivals to the power of the Union. +The operations of the national government, on the other hand, + falling less immediately under the observation of the mass of the + citizens, the benefits derived from it will chiefly be perceived and + attended to by speculative men. Relating to more general interests, + they will be less apt to come home to the feelings of the people; + and, in proportion, less likely to inspire an habitual sense of + obligation, and an active sentiment of attachment. +The reasoning on this head has been abundantly exemplified by + the experience of all federal constitutions with which we are + acquainted, and of all others which have borne the least analogy to + them. +Though the ancient feudal systems were not, strictly speaking, + confederacies, yet they partook of the nature of that species of + association. There was a common head, chieftain, or sovereign, + whose authority extended over the whole nation; and a number of + subordinate vassals, or feudatories, who had large portions of land + allotted to them, and numerous trains of INFERIOR vassals or + retainers, who occupied and cultivated that land upon the tenure of + fealty or obedience, to the persons of whom they held it. Each + principal vassal was a kind of sovereign, within his particular + demesnes. The consequences of this situation were a continual + opposition to authority of the sovereign, and frequent wars between + the great barons or chief feudatories themselves. The power of the + head of the nation was commonly too weak, either to preserve the + public peace, or to protect the people against the oppressions of + their immediate lords. This period of European affairs is + emphatically styled by historians, the times of feudal anarchy. +When the sovereign happened to be a man of vigorous and warlike + temper and of superior abilities, he would acquire a personal weight + and influence, which answered, for the time, the purpose of a more + regular authority. But in general, the power of the barons + triumphed over that of the prince; and in many instances his + dominion was entirely thrown off, and the great fiefs were erected + into independent principalities or States. In those instances in + which the monarch finally prevailed over his vassals, his success + was chiefly owing to the tyranny of those vassals over their + dependents. The barons, or nobles, equally the enemies of the + sovereign and the oppressors of the common people, were dreaded and + detested by both; till mutual danger and mutual interest effected a + union between them fatal to the power of the aristocracy. Had the + nobles, by a conduct of clemency and justice, preserved the fidelity + and devotion of their retainers and followers, the contests between + them and the prince must almost always have ended in their favor, + and in the abridgment or subversion of the royal authority. +This is not an assertion founded merely in speculation or + conjecture. Among other illustrations of its truth which might be + cited, Scotland will furnish a cogent example. The spirit of + clanship which was, at an early day, introduced into that kingdom, + uniting the nobles and their dependants by ties equivalent to those + of kindred, rendered the aristocracy a constant overmatch for the + power of the monarch, till the incorporation with England subdued + its fierce and ungovernable spirit, and reduced it within those + rules of subordination which a more rational and more energetic + system of civil polity had previously established in the latter + kingdom. +The separate governments in a confederacy may aptly be compared + with the feudal baronies; with this advantage in their favor, that + from the reasons already explained, they will generally possess the + confidence and good-will of the people, and with so important a + support, will be able effectually to oppose all encroachments of the + national government. It will be well if they are not able to + counteract its legitimate and necessary authority. The points of + similitude consist in the rivalship of power, applicable to both, + and in the CONCENTRATION of large portions of the strength of the + community into particular DEPOSITS, in one case at the disposal of + individuals, in the other case at the disposal of political bodies. +A concise review of the events that have attended confederate + governments will further illustrate this important doctrine; an + inattention to which has been the great source of our political + mistakes, and has given our jealousy a direction to the wrong side. + This review shall form the subject of some ensuing papers. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 18 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the + Union) +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON AND MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +AMONG the confederacies of antiquity, the most considerable was + that of the Grecian republics, associated under the Amphictyonic + council. From the best accounts transmitted of this celebrated + institution, it bore a very instructive analogy to the present + Confederation of the American States. +The members retained the character of independent and sovereign + states, and had equal votes in the federal council. This council + had a general authority to propose and resolve whatever it judged + necessary for the common welfare of Greece; to declare and carry on + war; to decide, in the last resort, all controversies between the + members; to fine the aggressing party; to employ the whole force + of the confederacy against the disobedient; to admit new members. + The Amphictyons were the guardians of religion, and of the immense + riches belonging to the temple of Delphos, where they had the right + of jurisdiction in controversies between the inhabitants and those + who came to consult the oracle. As a further provision for the + efficacy of the federal powers, they took an oath mutually to defend + and protect the united cities, to punish the violators of this oath, + and to inflict vengeance on sacrilegious despoilers of the temple. +In theory, and upon paper, this apparatus of powers seems amply + sufficient for all general purposes. In several material instances, + they exceed the powers enumerated in the articles of confederation. + The Amphictyons had in their hands the superstition of the times, + one of the principal engines by which government was then + maintained; they had a declared authority to use coercion against + refractory cities, and were bound by oath to exert this authority on + the necessary occasions. +Very different, nevertheless, was the experiment from the theory. + The powers, like those of the present Congress, were administered + by deputies appointed wholly by the cities in their political + capacities; and exercised over them in the same capacities. Hence + the weakness, the disorders, and finally the destruction of the + confederacy. The more powerful members, instead of being kept in + awe and subordination, tyrannized successively over all the rest. + Athens, as we learn from Demosthenes, was the arbiter of Greece + seventy-three years. The Lacedaemonians next governed it + twenty-nine years; at a subsequent period, after the battle of + Leuctra, the Thebans had their turn of domination. +It happened but too often, according to Plutarch, that the + deputies of the strongest cities awed and corrupted those of the + weaker; and that judgment went in favor of the most powerful party. +Even in the midst of defensive and dangerous wars with Persia + and Macedon, the members never acted in concert, and were, more or + fewer of them, eternally the dupes or the hirelings of the common + enemy. The intervals of foreign war were filled up by domestic + vicissitudes convulsions, and carnage. +After the conclusion of the war with Xerxes, it appears that the + Lacedaemonians required that a number of the cities should be turned + out of the confederacy for the unfaithful part they had acted. The + Athenians, finding that the Lacedaemonians would lose fewer + partisans by such a measure than themselves, and would become + masters of the public deliberations, vigorously opposed and defeated + the attempt. This piece of history proves at once the inefficiency + of the union, the ambition and jealousy of its most powerful + members, and the dependent and degraded condition of the rest. The + smaller members, though entitled by the theory of their system to + revolve in equal pride and majesty around the common center, had + become, in fact, satellites of the orbs of primary magnitude. +Had the Greeks, says the Abbe Milot, been as wise as they were + courageous, they would have been admonished by experience of the + necessity of a closer union, and would have availed themselves of + the peace which followed their success against the Persian arms, to + establish such a reformation. Instead of this obvious policy, + Athens and Sparta, inflated with the victories and the glory they + had acquired, became first rivals and then enemies; and did each + other infinitely more mischief than they had suffered from Xerxes. + Their mutual jealousies, fears, hatreds, and injuries ended in the + celebrated Peloponnesian war; which itself ended in the ruin and + slavery of the Athenians who had begun it. +As a weak government, when not at war, is ever agitated by + internal dissentions, so these never fail to bring on fresh + calamities from abroad. The Phocians having ploughed up some + consecrated ground belonging to the temple of Apollo, the + Amphictyonic council, according to the superstition of the age, + imposed a fine on the sacrilegious offenders. The Phocians, being + abetted by Athens and Sparta, refused to submit to the decree. The + Thebans, with others of the cities, undertook to maintain the + authority of the Amphictyons, and to avenge the violated god. The + latter, being the weaker party, invited the assistance of Philip of + Macedon, who had secretly fostered the contest. Philip gladly + seized the opportunity of executing the designs he had long planned + against the liberties of Greece. By his intrigues and bribes he won + over to his interests the popular leaders of several cities; by + their influence and votes, gained admission into the Amphictyonic + council; and by his arts and his arms, made himself master of the + confederacy. +Such were the consequences of the fallacious principle on which + this interesting establishment was founded. Had Greece, says a + judicious observer on her fate, been united by a stricter + confederation, and persevered in her union, she would never have + worn the chains of Macedon; and might have proved a barrier to the + vast projects of Rome. +The Achaean league, as it is called, was another society of + Grecian republics, which supplies us with valuable instruction. +The Union here was far more intimate, and its organization much + wiser, than in the preceding instance. It will accordingly appear, + that though not exempt from a similar catastrophe, it by no means + equally deserved it. +The cities composing this league retained their municipal + jurisdiction, appointed their own officers, and enjoyed a perfect + equality. The senate, in which they were represented, had the sole + and exclusive right of peace and war; of sending and receiving + ambassadors; of entering into treaties and alliances; of + appointing a chief magistrate or praetor, as he was called, who + commanded their armies, and who, with the advice and consent of ten + of the senators, not only administered the government in the recess + of the senate, but had a great share in its deliberations, when + assembled. According to the primitive constitution, there were two + praetors associated in the administration; but on trial a single + one was preferred. +It appears that the cities had all the same laws and customs, + the same weights and measures, and the same money. But how far this + effect proceeded from the authority of the federal council is left + in uncertainty. It is said only that the cities were in a manner + compelled to receive the same laws and usages. When Lacedaemon was + brought into the league by Philopoemen, it was attended with an + abolition of the institutions and laws of Lycurgus, and an adoption + of those of the Achaeans. The Amphictyonic confederacy, of which + she had been a member, left her in the full exercise of her + government and her legislation. This circumstance alone proves a + very material difference in the genius of the two systems. +It is much to be regretted that such imperfect monuments remain + of this curious political fabric. Could its interior structure and + regular operation be ascertained, it is probable that more light + would be thrown by it on the science of federal government, than by + any of the like experiments with which we are acquainted. +One important fact seems to be witnessed by all the historians + who take notice of Achaean affairs. It is, that as well after the + renovation of the league by Aratus, as before its dissolution by the + arts of Macedon, there was infinitely more of moderation and justice + in the administration of its government, and less of violence and + sedition in the people, than were to be found in any of the cities + exercising SINGLY all the prerogatives of sovereignty. The Abbe + Mably, in his observations on Greece, says that the popular + government, which was so tempestuous elsewhere, caused no disorders + in the members of the Achaean republic, BECAUSE IT WAS THERE + TEMPERED BY THE GENERAL AUTHORITY AND LAWS OF THE CONFEDERACY. +We are not to conclude too hastily, however, that faction did + not, in a certain degree, agitate the particular cities; much less + that a due subordination and harmony reigned in the general system. + The contrary is sufficiently displayed in the vicissitudes and fate + of the republic. +Whilst the Amphictyonic confederacy remained, that of the + Achaeans, which comprehended the less important cities only, made + little figure on the theatre of Greece. When the former became a + victim to Macedon, the latter was spared by the policy of Philip and + Alexander. Under the successors of these princes, however, a + different policy prevailed. The arts of division were practiced + among the Achaeans. Each city was seduced into a separate interest; + the union was dissolved. Some of the cities fell under the tyranny + of Macedonian garrisons; others under that of usurpers springing + out of their own confusions. Shame and oppression erelong awaken + their love of liberty. A few cities reunited. Their example was + followed by others, as opportunities were found of cutting off their + tyrants. The league soon embraced almost the whole Peloponnesus. + Macedon saw its progress; but was hindered by internal dissensions + from stopping it. All Greece caught the enthusiasm and seemed ready + to unite in one confederacy, when the jealousy and envy in Sparta + and Athens, of the rising glory of the Achaeans, threw a fatal damp + on the enterprise. The dread of the Macedonian power induced the + league to court the alliance of the Kings of Egypt and Syria, who, + as successors of Alexander, were rivals of the king of Macedon. + This policy was defeated by Cleomenes, king of Sparta, who was led + by his ambition to make an unprovoked attack on his neighbors, the + Achaeans, and who, as an enemy to Macedon, had interest enough with + the Egyptian and Syrian princes to effect a breach of their + engagements with the league. +The Achaeans were now reduced to the dilemma of submitting to + Cleomenes, or of supplicating the aid of Macedon, its former + oppressor. The latter expedient was adopted. The contests of the + Greeks always afforded a pleasing opportunity to that powerful + neighbor of intermeddling in their affairs. A Macedonian army + quickly appeared. Cleomenes was vanquished. The Achaeans soon + experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally + is but another name for a master. All that their most abject + compliances could obtain from him was a toleration of the exercise + of their laws. Philip, who was now on the throne of Macedon, soon + provoked by his tyrannies, fresh combinations among the Greeks. The + Achaeans, though weakenened by internal dissensions and by the + revolt of Messene, one of its members, being joined by the AEtolians + and Athenians, erected the standard of opposition. Finding + themselves, though thus supported, unequal to the undertaking, they + once more had recourse to the dangerous expedient of introducing the + succor of foreign arms. The Romans, to whom the invitation was + made, eagerly embraced it. Philip was conquered; Macedon subdued. + A new crisis ensued to the league. Dissensions broke out among it + members. These the Romans fostered. Callicrates and other popular + leaders became mercenary instruments for inveigling their countrymen. + The more effectually to nourish discord and disorder the Romans + had, to the astonishment of those who confided in their sincerity, + already proclaimed universal liberty1 throughout Greece. With + the same insidious views, they now seduced the members from the + league, by representing to their pride the violation it committed on + their sovereignty. By these arts this union, the last hope of + Greece, the last hope of ancient liberty, was torn into pieces; and + such imbecility and distraction introduced, that the arms of Rome + found little difficulty in completing the ruin which their arts had + commenced. The Achaeans were cut to pieces, and Achaia loaded with + chains, under which it is groaning at this hour. +I have thought it not superfluous to give the outlines of this + important portion of history; both because it teaches more than one + lesson, and because, as a supplement to the outlines of the Achaean + constitution, it emphatically illustrates the tendency of federal + bodies rather to anarchy among the members, than to tyranny in the + head. +PUBLIUS. +1 This was but another name more specious for the independence + of the members on the federal head. + + +FEDERALIST No. 19 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the + Union) +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON AND MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE examples of ancient confederacies, cited in my last paper, + have not exhausted the source of experimental instruction on this + subject. There are existing institutions, founded on a similar + principle, which merit particular consideration. The first which + presents itself is the Germanic body. +In the early ages of Christianity, Germany was occupied by seven + distinct nations, who had no common chief. The Franks, one of the + number, having conquered the Gauls, established the kingdom which + has taken its name from them. In the ninth century Charlemagne, its + warlike monarch, carried his victorious arms in every direction; + and Germany became a part of his vast dominions. On the + dismemberment, which took place under his sons, this part was + erected into a separate and independent empire. Charlemagne and his + immediate descendants possessed the reality, as well as the ensigns + and dignity of imperial power. But the principal vassals, whose + fiefs had become hereditary, and who composed the national diets + which Charlemagne had not abolished, gradually threw off the yoke + and advanced to sovereign jurisdiction and independence. The force + of imperial sovereignty was insufficient to restrain such powerful + dependants; or to preserve the unity and tranquillity of the empire. + The most furious private wars, accompanied with every species of + calamity, were carried on between the different princes and states. + The imperial authority, unable to maintain the public order, + declined by degrees till it was almost extinct in the anarchy, which + agitated the long interval between the death of the last emperor of + the Suabian, and the accession of the first emperor of the Austrian + lines. In the eleventh century the emperors enjoyed full + sovereignty: In the fifteenth they had little more than the symbols + and decorations of power. +Out of this feudal system, which has itself many of the + important features of a confederacy, has grown the federal system + which constitutes the Germanic empire. Its powers are vested in a + diet representing the component members of the confederacy; in the + emperor, who is the executive magistrate, with a negative on the + decrees of the diet; and in the imperial chamber and the aulic + council, two judiciary tribunals having supreme jurisdiction in + controversies which concern the empire, or which happen among its + members. +The diet possesses the general power of legislating for the + empire; of making war and peace; contracting alliances; assessing + quotas of troops and money; constructing fortresses; regulating + coin; admitting new members; and subjecting disobedient members to + the ban of the empire, by which the party is degraded from his + sovereign rights and his possessions forfeited. The members of the + confederacy are expressly restricted from entering into compacts + prejudicial to the empire; from imposing tolls and duties on their + mutual intercourse, without the consent of the emperor and diet; + from altering the value of money; from doing injustice to one + another; or from affording assistance or retreat to disturbers of + the public peace. And the ban is denounced against such as shall + violate any of these restrictions. The members of the diet, as + such, are subject in all cases to be judged by the emperor and diet, + and in their private capacities by the aulic council and imperial + chamber. +The prerogatives of the emperor are numerous. The most + important of them are: his exclusive right to make propositions to + the diet; to negative its resolutions; to name ambassadors; to + confer dignities and titles; to fill vacant electorates; to found + universities; to grant privileges not injurious to the states of + the empire; to receive and apply the public revenues; and + generally to watch over the public safety. In certain cases, the + electors form a council to him. In quality of emperor, he possesses + no territory within the empire, nor receives any revenue for his + support. But his revenue and dominions, in other qualities, + constitute him one of the most powerful princes in Europe. +From such a parade of constitutional powers, in the + representatives and head of this confederacy, the natural + supposition would be, that it must form an exception to the general + character which belongs to its kindred systems. Nothing would be + further from the reality. The fundamental principle on which it + rests, that the empire is a community of sovereigns, that the diet + is a representation of sovereigns and that the laws are addressed to + sovereigns, renders the empire a nerveless body, incapable of + regulating its own members, insecure against external dangers, and + agitated with unceasing fermentations in its own bowels. +The history of Germany is a history of wars between the emperor + and the princes and states; of wars among the princes and states + themselves; of the licentiousness of the strong, and the oppression + of the weak; of foreign intrusions, and foreign intrigues; of + requisitions of men and money disregarded, or partially complied + with; of attempts to enforce them, altogether abortive, or attended + with slaughter and desolation, involving the innocent with the + guilty; of general inbecility, confusion, and misery. +In the sixteenth century, the emperor, with one part of the + empire on his side, was seen engaged against the other princes and + states. In one of the conflicts, the emperor himself was put to + flight, and very near being made prisoner by the elector of Saxony. + The late king of Prussia was more than once pitted against his + imperial sovereign; and commonly proved an overmatch for him. + Controversies and wars among the members themselves have been so + common, that the German annals are crowded with the bloody pages + which describe them. Previous to the peace of Westphalia, Germany + was desolated by a war of thirty years, in which the emperor, with + one half of the empire, was on one side, and Sweden, with the other + half, on the opposite side. Peace was at length negotiated, and + dictated by foreign powers; and the articles of it, to which + foreign powers are parties, made a fundamental part of the Germanic + constitution. +If the nation happens, on any emergency, to be more united by + the necessity of self-defense, its situation is still deplorable. + Military preparations must be preceded by so many tedious + discussions, arising from the jealousies, pride, separate views, and + clashing pretensions of sovereign bodies, that before the diet can + settle the arrangements, the enemy are in the field; and before the + federal troops are ready to take it, are retiring into winter + quarters. +The small body of national troops, which has been judged + necessary in time of peace, is defectively kept up, badly paid, + infected with local prejudices, and supported by irregular and + disproportionate contributions to the treasury. +The impossibility of maintaining order and dispensing justice + among these sovereign subjects, produced the experiment of dividing + the empire into nine or ten circles or districts; of giving them an + interior organization, and of charging them with the military + execution of the laws against delinquent and contumacious members. + This experiment has only served to demonstrate more fully the + radical vice of the constitution. Each circle is the miniature + picture of the deformities of this political monster. They either + fail to execute their commissions, or they do it with all the + devastation and carnage of civil war. Sometimes whole circles are + defaulters; and then they increase the mischief which they were + instituted to remedy. +We may form some judgment of this scheme of military coercion + from a sample given by Thuanus. In Donawerth, a free and imperial + city of the circle of Suabia, the Abb 300 de St. Croix enjoyed + certain immunities which had been reserved to him. In the exercise + of these, on some public occasions, outrages were committed on him + by the people of the city. The consequence was that the city was + put under the ban of the empire, and the Duke of Bavaria, though + director of another circle, obtained an appointment to enforce it. + He soon appeared before the city with a corps of ten thousand + troops, and finding it a fit occasion, as he had secretly intended + from the beginning, to revive an antiquated claim, on the pretext + that his ancestors had suffered the place to be dismembered from his + territory,1 he took possession of it in his own name, disarmed, + and punished the inhabitants, and reannexed the city to his domains. +It may be asked, perhaps, what has so long kept this disjointed + machine from falling entirely to pieces? The answer is obvious: + The weakness of most of the members, who are unwilling to expose + themselves to the mercy of foreign powers; the weakness of most of + the principal members, compared with the formidable powers all + around them; the vast weight and influence which the emperor + derives from his separate and heriditary dominions; and the + interest he feels in preserving a system with which his family pride + is connected, and which constitutes him the first prince in Europe; + --these causes support a feeble and precarious Union; whilst the + repellant quality, incident to the nature of sovereignty, and which + time continually strengthens, prevents any reform whatever, founded + on a proper consolidation. Nor is it to be imagined, if this + obstacle could be surmounted, that the neighboring powers would + suffer a revolution to take place which would give to the empire the + force and preeminence to which it is entitled. Foreign nations have + long considered themselves as interested in the changes made by + events in this constitution; and have, on various occasions, + betrayed their policy of perpetuating its anarchy and weakness. +If more direct examples were wanting, Poland, as a government + over local sovereigns, might not improperly be taken notice of. Nor + could any proof more striking be given of the calamities flowing + from such institutions. Equally unfit for self-government and + self-defense, it has long been at the mercy of its powerful + neighbors; who have lately had the mercy to disburden it of one + third of its people and territories. +The connection among the Swiss cantons scarcely amounts to a + confederacy; though it is sometimes cited as an instance of the + stability of such institutions. +They have no common treasury; no common troops even in war; no + common coin; no common judicatory; nor any other common mark of + sovereignty. +They are kept together by the peculiarity of their topographical + position; by their individual weakness and insignificancy; by the + fear of powerful neighbors, to one of which they were formerly + subject; by the few sources of contention among a people of such + simple and homogeneous manners; by their joint interest in their + dependent possessions; by the mutual aid they stand in need of, for + suppressing insurrections and rebellions, an aid expressly + stipulated and often required and afforded; and by the necessity of + some regular and permanent provision for accomodating disputes among + the cantons. The provision is, that the parties at variance shall + each choose four judges out of the neutral cantons, who, in case of + disagreement, choose an umpire. This tribunal, under an oath of + impartiality, pronounces definitive sentence, which all the cantons + are bound to enforce. The competency of this regulation may be + estimated by a clause in their treaty of 1683, with Victor Amadeus + of Savoy; in which he obliges himself to interpose as mediator in + disputes between the cantons, and to employ force, if necessary, + against the contumacious party. +So far as the peculiarity of their case will admit of comparison + with that of the United States, it serves to confirm the principle + intended to be established. Whatever efficacy the union may have + had in ordinary cases, it appears that the moment a cause of + difference sprang up, capable of trying its strength, it failed. + The controversies on the subject of religion, which in three + instances have kindled violent and bloody contests, may be said, in + fact, to have severed the league. The Protestant and Catholic + cantons have since had their separate diets, where all the most + important concerns are adjusted, and which have left the general + diet little other business than to take care of the common bailages. +That separation had another consequence, which merits attention. + It produced opposite alliances with foreign powers: of Berne, at + the head of the Protestant association, with the United Provinces; + and of Luzerne, at the head of the Catholic association, with + France. +PUBLIUS. +1 Pfeffel, ``Nouvel Abreg. Chronol. de l'Hist., etc., + d'Allemagne,'' says the pretext was to indemnify himself for the + expense of the expedition. + + +FEDERALIST No. 20 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Insufficiency fo the Present Confederation to Preserve the + Union) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, December 11, 1787. + +HAMILTON AND MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE United Netherlands are a confederacy of republics, or rather + of aristocracies of a very remarkable texture, yet confirming all + the lessons derived from those which we have already reviewed. +The union is composed of seven coequal and sovereign states, and + each state or province is a composition of equal and independent + cities. In all important cases, not only the provinces but the + cities must be unanimous. +The sovereignty of the Union is represented by the + States-General, consisting usually of about fifty deputies appointed + by the provinces. They hold their seats, some for life, some for + six, three, and one years; from two provinces they continue in + appointment during pleasure. +The States-General have authority to enter into treaties and + alliances; to make war and peace; to raise armies and equip + fleets; to ascertain quotas and demand contributions. In all these + cases, however, unanimity and the sanction of their constituents are + requisite. They have authority to appoint and receive ambassadors; + to execute treaties and alliances already formed; to provide for + the collection of duties on imports and exports; to regulate the + mint, with a saving to the provincial rights; to govern as + sovereigns the dependent territories. The provinces are restrained, + unless with the general consent, from entering into foreign + treaties; from establishing imposts injurious to others, or + charging their neighbors with higher duties than their own subjects. + A council of state, a chamber of accounts, with five colleges of + admiralty, aid and fortify the federal administration. +The executive magistrate of the union is the stadtholder, who is + now an hereditary prince. His principal weight and influence in the + republic are derived from this independent title; from his great + patrimonial estates; from his family connections with some of the + chief potentates of Europe; and, more than all, perhaps, from his + being stadtholder in the several provinces, as well as for the + union; in which provincial quality he has the appointment of town + magistrates under certain regulations, executes provincial decrees, + presides when he pleases in the provincial tribunals, and has + throughout the power of pardon. +As stadtholder of the union, he has, however, considerable + prerogatives. +In his political capacity he has authority to settle disputes + between the provinces, when other methods fail; to assist at the + deliberations of the States-General, and at their particular + conferences; to give audiences to foreign ambassadors, and to keep + agents for his particular affairs at foreign courts. +In his military capacity he commands the federal troops, + provides for garrisons, and in general regulates military affairs; + disposes of all appointments, from colonels to ensigns, and of the + governments and posts of fortified towns. +In his marine capacity he is admiral-general, and superintends + and directs every thing relative to naval forces and other naval + affairs; presides in the admiralties in person or by proxy; + appoints lieutenant-admirals and other officers; and establishes + councils of war, whose sentences are not executed till he approves + them. +His revenue, exclusive of his private income, amounts to three + hundred thousand florins. The standing army which he commands + consists of about forty thousand men. +Such is the nature of the celebrated Belgic confederacy, as + delineated on parchment. What are the characters which practice has + stamped upon it? Imbecility in the government; discord among the + provinces; foreign influence and indignities; a precarious + existence in peace, and peculiar calamities from war. +It was long ago remarked by Grotius, that nothing but the hatred + of his countrymen to the house of Austria kept them from being + ruined by the vices of their constitution. +The union of Utrecht, says another respectable writer, reposes + an authority in the States-General, seemingly sufficient to secure + harmony, but the jealousy in each province renders the practice very + different from the theory. +The same instrument, says another, obliges each province to levy + certain contributions; but this article never could, and probably + never will, be executed; because the inland provinces, who have + little commerce, cannot pay an equal quota. +In matters of contribution, it is the practice to waive the + articles of the constitution. The danger of delay obliges the + consenting provinces to furnish their quotas, without waiting for + the others; and then to obtain reimbursement from the others, by + deputations, which are frequent, or otherwise, as they can. The + great wealth and influence of the province of Holland enable her to + effect both these purposes. +It has more than once happened, that the deficiencies had to be + ultimately collected at the point of the bayonet; a thing + practicable, though dreadful, in a confedracy where one of the + members exceeds in force all the rest, and where several of them are + too small to meditate resistance; but utterly impracticable in one + composed of members, several of which are equal to each other in + strength and resources, and equal singly to a vigorous and + persevering defense. +Foreign ministers, says Sir William Temple, who was himself a + foreign minister, elude matters taken ad referendum, by + tampering with the provinces and cities. In 1726, the treaty of + Hanover was delayed by these means a whole year. Instances of a + like nature are numerous and notorious. +In critical emergencies, the States-General are often compelled + to overleap their constitutional bounds. In 1688, they concluded a + treaty of themselves at the risk of their heads. The treaty of + Westphalia, in 1648, by which their independence was formerly and + finally recognized, was concluded without the consent of Zealand. + Even as recently as the last treaty of peace with Great Britain, + the constitutional principle of unanimity was departed from. A weak + constitution must necessarily terminate in dissolution, for want of + proper powers, or the usurpation of powers requisite for the public + safety. Whether the usurpation, when once begun, will stop at the + salutary point, or go forward to the dangerous extreme, must depend + on the contingencies of the moment. Tyranny has perhaps oftener + grown out of the assumptions of power, called for, on pressing + exigencies, by a defective constitution, than out of the full + exercise of the largest constitutional authorities. +Notwithstanding the calamities produced by the stadtholdership, + it has been supposed that without his influence in the individual + provinces, the causes of anarchy manifest in the confederacy would + long ago have dissolved it. ``Under such a government,'' says the + Abbe Mably, ``the Union could never have subsisted, if the provinces + had not a spring within themselves, capable of quickening their + tardiness, and compelling them to the same way of thinking. This + spring is the stadtholder.'' It is remarked by Sir William Temple, + ``that in the intermissions of the stadtholdership, Holland, by her + riches and her authority, which drew the others into a sort of + dependence, supplied the place.'' +These are not the only circumstances which have controlled the + tendency to anarchy and dissolution. The surrounding powers impose + an absolute necessity of union to a certain degree, at the same time + that they nourish by their intrigues the constitutional vices which + keep the republic in some degree always at their mercy. +The true patriots have long bewailed the fatal tendency of these + vices, and have made no less than four regular experiments by + EXTRAORDINARY ASSEMBLIES, convened for the special purpose, to apply + a remedy. As many times has their laudable zeal found it impossible + to UNITE THE PUBLIC COUNCILS in reforming the known, the + acknowledged, the fatal evils of the existing constitution. Let us + pause, my fellow-citizens, for one moment, over this melancholy and + monitory lesson of history; and with the tear that drops for the + calamities brought on mankind by their adverse opinions and selfish + passions, let our gratitude mingle an ejaculation to Heaven, for the + propitious concord which has distinguished the consultations for our + political happiness. +A design was also conceived of establishing a general tax to be + administered by the federal authority. This also had its + adversaries and failed. +This unhappy people seem to be now suffering from popular + convulsions, from dissensions among the states, and from the actual + invasion of foreign arms, the crisis of their distiny. All nations + have their eyes fixed on the awful spectacle. The first wish + prompted by humanity is, that this severe trial may issue in such a + revolution of their government as will establish their union, and + render it the parent of tranquillity, freedom and happiness: The + next, that the asylum under which, we trust, the enjoyment of these + blessings will speedily be secured in this country, may receive and + console them for the catastrophe of their own. +I make no apology for having dwelt so long on the contemplation + of these federal precedents. Experience is the oracle of truth; + and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be + conclusive and sacred. The important truth, which it unequivocally + pronounces in the present case, is that a sovereignty over + sovereigns, a government over governments, a legislation for + communities, as contradistinguished from individuals, as it is a + solecism in theory, so in practice it is subversive of the order and + ends of civil polity, by substituting VIOLENCE in place of LAW, or + the destructive COERCION of the SWORD in place of the mild and + salutary COERCION of the MAGISTRACY. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 21 + +Other Defects of the Present Confederation +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +HAVING in the three last numbers taken a summary review of the + principal circumstances and events which have depicted the genius + and fate of other confederate governments, I shall now proceed in + the enumeration of the most important of those defects which have + hitherto disappointed our hopes from the system established among + ourselves. To form a safe and satisfactory judgment of the proper + remedy, it is absolutely necessary that we should be well acquainted + with the extent and malignity of the disease. +The next most palpable defect of the subsisting Confederation, + is the total want of a SANCTION to its laws. The United States, as + now composed, have no powers to exact obedience, or punish + disobedience to their resolutions, either by pecuniary mulcts, by a + suspension or divestiture of privileges, or by any other + constitutional mode. There is no express delegation of authority to + them to use force against delinquent members; and if such a right + should be ascribed to the federal head, as resulting from the nature + of the social compact between the States, it must be by inference + and construction, in the face of that part of the second article, by + which it is declared, ``that each State shall retain every power, + jurisdiction, and right, not EXPRESSLY delegated to the United + States in Congress assembled.'' There is, doubtless, a striking + absurdity in supposing that a right of this kind does not exist, but + we are reduced to the dilemma either of embracing that supposition, + preposterous as it may seem, or of contravening or explaining away a + provision, which has been of late a repeated theme of the eulogies + of those who oppose the new Constitution; and the want of which, in + that plan, has been the subject of much plausible animadversion, and + severe criticism. If we are unwilling to impair the force of this + applauded provision, we shall be obliged to conclude, that the + United States afford the extraordinary spectacle of a government + destitute even of the shadow of constitutional power to enforce the + execution of its own laws. It will appear, from the specimens which + have been cited, that the American Confederacy, in this particular, + stands discriminated from every other institution of a similar kind, + and exhibits a new and unexampled phenomenon in the political world. +The want of a mutual guaranty of the State governments is + another capital imperfection in the federal plan. There is nothing + of this kind declared in the articles that compose it; and to imply + a tacit guaranty from considerations of utility, would be a still + more flagrant departure from the clause which has been mentioned, + than to imply a tacit power of coercion from the like considerations +. The want of a guaranty, though it might in its consequences + endanger the Union, does not so immediately attack its existence as + the want of a constitutional sanction to its laws. +Without a guaranty the assistance to be derived from the Union + in repelling those domestic dangers which may sometimes threaten the + existence of the State constitutions, must be renounced. Usurpation + may rear its crest in each State, and trample upon the liberties of + the people, while the national government could legally do nothing + more than behold its encroachments with indignation and regret. A + successful faction may erect a tyranny on the ruins of order and + law, while no succor could constitutionally be afforded by the Union + to the friends and supporters of the government. The tempestuous + situation from which Massachusetts has scarcely emerged, evinces + that dangers of this kind are not merely speculative. Who can + determine what might have been the issue of her late convulsions, if + the malcontents had been headed by a Caesar or by a Cromwell? Who + can predict what effect a despotism, established in Massachusetts, + would have upon the liberties of New Hampshire or Rhode Island, of + Connecticut or New York? +The inordinate pride of State importance has suggested to some + minds an objection to the principle of a guaranty in the federal + government, as involving an officious interference in the domestic + concerns of the members. A scruple of this kind would deprive us of + one of the principal advantages to be expected from union, and can + only flow from a misapprehension of the nature of the provision + itself. It could be no impediment to reforms of the State + constitution by a majority of the people in a legal and peaceable + mode. This right would remain undiminished. The guaranty could + only operate against changes to be effected by violence. Towards + the preventions of calamities of this kind, too many checks cannot + be provided. The peace of society and the stability of government + depend absolutely on the efficacy of the precautions adopted on this + head. Where the whole power of the government is in the hands of + the people, there is the less pretense for the use of violent + remedies in partial or occasional distempers of the State. The + natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or + representative constitution, is a change of men. A guaranty by the + national authority would be as much levelled against the usurpations + of rulers as against the ferments and outrages of faction and + sedition in the community. +The principle of regulating the contributions of the States to + the common treasury by QUOTAS is another fundamental error in the + Confederation. Its repugnancy to an adequate supply of the national + exigencies has been already pointed out, and has sufficiently + appeared from the trial which has been made of it. I speak of it + now solely with a view to equality among the States. Those who have + been accustomed to contemplate the circumstances which produce and + constitute national wealth, must be satisfied that there is no + common standard or barometer by which the degrees of it can be + ascertained. Neither the value of lands, nor the numbers of the + people, which have been successively proposed as the rule of State + contributions, has any pretension to being a just representative. + If we compare the wealth of the United Netherlands with that of + Russia or Germany, or even of France, and if we at the same time + compare the total value of the lands and the aggregate population of + that contracted district with the total value of the lands and the + aggregate population of the immense regions of either of the three + last-mentioned countries, we shall at once discover that there is no + comparison between the proportion of either of these two objects and + that of the relative wealth of those nations. If the like parallel + were to be run between several of the American States, it would + furnish a like result. Let Virginia be contrasted with North + Carolina, Pennsylvania with Connecticut, or Maryland with New + Jersey, and we shall be convinced that the respective abilities of + those States, in relation to revenue, bear little or no analogy to + their comparative stock in lands or to their comparative population. + The position may be equally illustrated by a similar process + between the counties of the same State. No man who is acquainted + with the State of New York will doubt that the active wealth of + King's County bears a much greater proportion to that of Montgomery + than it would appear to be if we should take either the total value + of the lands or the total number of the people as a criterion! +The wealth of nations depends upon an infinite variety of causes. + Situation, soil, climate, the nature of the productions, the + nature of the government, the genius of the citizens, the degree of + information they possess, the state of commerce, of arts, of + industry, these circumstances and many more, too complex, minute, or + adventitious to admit of a particular specification, occasion + differences hardly conceivable in the relative opulence and riches + of different countries. The consequence clearly is that there can + be no common measure of national wealth, and, of course, no general + or stationary rule by which the ability of a state to pay taxes can + be determined. The attempt, therefore, to regulate the + contributions of the members of a confederacy by any such rule, + cannot fail to be productive of glaring inequality and extreme + oppression. +This inequality would of itself be sufficient in America to work + the eventual destruction of the Union, if any mode of enforcing a + compliance with its requisitions could be devised. The suffering + States would not long consent to remain associated upon a principle + which distributes the public burdens with so unequal a hand, and + which was calculated to impoverish and oppress the citizens of some + States, while those of others would scarcely be conscious of the + small proportion of the weight they were required to sustain. This, + however, is an evil inseparable from the principle of quotas and + requisitions. +There is no method of steering clear of this inconvenience, but + by authorizing the national government to raise its own revenues in + its own way. Imposts, excises, and, in general, all duties upon + articles of consumption, may be compared to a fluid, which will, in + time, find its level with the means of paying them. The amount to + be contributed by each citizen will in a degree be at his own + option, and can be regulated by an attention to his resources. The + rich may be extravagant, the poor can be frugal; and private + oppression may always be avoided by a judicious selection of objects + proper for such impositions. If inequalities should arise in some + States from duties on particular objects, these will, in all + probability, be counterbalanced by proportional inequalities in + other States, from the duties on other objects. In the course of + time and things, an equilibrium, as far as it is attainable in so + complicated a subject, will be established everywhere. Or, if + inequalities should still exist, they would neither be so great in + their degree, so uniform in their operation, nor so odious in their + appearance, as those which would necessarily spring from quotas, + upon any scale that can possibly be devised. +It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption, + that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. + They prescribe their own limit; which cannot be exceeded without + defeating the end proposed, that is, an extension of the revenue. + When applied to this object, the saying is as just as it is witty, + that, ``in political arithmetic, two and two do not always make four +.'' If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the + collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so + great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. + This forms a complete barrier against any material oppression of + the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself a natural + limitation of the power of imposing them. +Impositions of this kind usually fall under the denomination of + indirect taxes, and must for a long time constitute the chief part + of the revenue raised in this country. Those of the direct kind, + which principally relate to land and buildings, may admit of a rule + of apportionment. Either the value of land, or the number of the + people, may serve as a standard. The state of agriculture and the + populousness of a country have been considered as nearly connected + with each other. And, as a rule, for the purpose intended, numbers, + in the view of simplicity and certainty, are entitled to a + preference. In every country it is a herculean task to obtain a + valuation of the land; in a country imperfectly settled and + progressive in improvement, the difficulties are increased almost to + impracticability. The expense of an accurate valuation is, in all + situations, a formidable objection. In a branch of taxation where + no limits to the discretion of the government are to be found in the + nature of things, the establishment of a fixed rule, not + incompatible with the end, may be attended with fewer inconveniences + than to leave that discretion altogether at large. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 22 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Other Defects of the Present Confederation) +From the New York Packet. +Friday, December 14, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IN ADDITION to the defects already enumerated in the existing + federal system, there are others of not less importance, which + concur in rendering it altogether unfit for the administration of + the affairs of the Union. +The want of a power to regulate commerce is by all parties + allowed to be of the number. The utility of such a power has been + anticipated under the first head of our inquiries; and for this + reason, as well as from the universal conviction entertained upon + the subject, little need be added in this place. It is indeed + evident, on the most superficial view, that there is no object, + either as it respects the interests of trade or finance, that more + strongly demands a federal superintendence. The want of it has + already operated as a bar to the formation of beneficial treaties + with foreign powers, and has given occasions of dissatisfaction + between the States. No nation acquainted with the nature of our + political association would be unwise enough to enter into + stipulations with the United States, by which they conceded + privileges of any importance to them, while they were apprised that + the engagements on the part of the Union might at any moment be + violated by its members, and while they found from experience that + they might enjoy every advantage they desired in our markets, + without granting us any return but such as their momentary + convenience might suggest. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at + that Mr. Jenkinson, in ushering into the House of Commons a bill for + regulating the temporary intercourse between the two countries, + should preface its introduction by a declaration that similar + provisions in former bills had been found to answer every purpose to + the commerce of Great Britain, and that it would be prudent to + persist in the plan until it should appear whether the American + government was likely or not to acquire greater consistency.%n1%n +Several States have endeavored, by separate prohibitions, + restrictions, and exclusions, to influence the conduct of that + kingdom in this particular, but the want of concert, arising from + the want of a general authority and from clashing and dissimilar + views in the State, has hitherto frustrated every experiment of the + kind, and will continue to do so as long as the same obstacles to a + uniformity of measures continue to exist. +The interfering and unneighborly regulations of some States, + contrary to the true spirit of the Union, have, in different + instances, given just cause of umbrage and complaint to others, and + it is to be feared that examples of this nature, if not restrained + by a national control, would be multiplied and extended till they + became not less serious sources of animosity and discord than + injurious impediments to the intcrcourse between the different parts + of the Confederacy. ``The commerce of the German empire%n2%n is in + continual trammels from the multiplicity of the duties which the + several princes and states exact upon the merchandises passing + through their territories, by means of which the fine streams and + navigable rivers with which Germany is so happily watered are + rendered almost useless.'' Though the genius of the people of this + country might never permit this description to be strictly + applicable to us, yet we may reasonably expect, from the gradual + conflicts of State regulations, that the citizens of each would at + length come to be considered and treated by the others in no better + light than that of foreigners and aliens. +The power of raising armies, by the most obvious construction of + the articles of the Confederation, is merely a power of making + requisitions upon the States for quotas of men. This practice in + the course of the late war, was found replete with obstructions to a + vigorous and to an economical system of defense. It gave birth to a + competition between the States which created a kind of auction for + men. In order to furnish the quotas required of them, they outbid + each other till bounties grew to an enormous and insupportable size. + The hope of a still further increase afforded an inducement to + those who were disposed to serve to procrastinate their enlistment, + and disinclined them from engaging for any considerable periods. + Hence, slow and scanty levies of men, in the most critical + emergencies of our affairs; short enlistments at an unparalleled + expense; continual fluctuations in the troops, ruinous to their + discipline and subjecting the public safety frequently to the + perilous crisis of a disbanded army. Hence, also, those oppressive + expedients for raising men which were upon several occasions + practiced, and which nothing but the enthusiasm of liberty would + have induced the people to endure. +This method of raising troops is not more unfriendly to economy + and vigor than it is to an equal distribution of the burden. The + States near the seat of war, influenced by motives of + self-preservation, made efforts to furnish their quotas, which even + exceeded their abilities; while those at a distance from danger + were, for the most part, as remiss as the others were diligent, in + their exertions. The immediate pressure of this inequality was not + in this case, as in that of the contributions of money, alleviated + by the hope of a final liquidation. The States which did not pay + their proportions of money might at least be charged with their + deficiencies; but no account could be formed of the deficiencies in + the supplies of men. We shall not, however, see much reason to + reget the want of this hope, when we consider how little prospect + there is, that the most delinquent States will ever be able to make + compensation for their pecuniary failures. The system of quotas and + requisitions, whether it be applied to men or money, is, in every + view, a system of imbecility in the Union, and of inequality and + injustice among the members. +The right of equal suffrage among the States is another + exceptionable part of the Confederation. Every idea of proportion + and every rule of fair representation conspire to condemn a + principle, which gives to Rhode Island an equal weight in the scale + of power with Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or New York; and to + Deleware an equal voice in the national deliberations with + Pennsylvania, or Virginia, or North Carolina. Its operation + contradicts the fundamental maxim of republican government, which + requires that the sense of the majority should prevail. Sophistry + may reply, that sovereigns are equal, and that a majority of the + votes of the States will be a majority of confederated America. But + this kind of logical legerdemain will never counteract the plain + suggestions of justice and common-sense. It may happen that this + majority of States is a small minority of the people of + America%n3%n; and two thirds of the people of America could not + long be persuaded, upon the credit of artificial distinctions and + syllogistic subtleties, to submit their interests to the management + and disposal of one third. The larger States would after a while + revolt from the idea of receiving the law from the smaller. To + acquiesce in such a privation of their due importance in the + political scale, would be not merely to be insensible to the love of + power, but even to sacrifice the desire of equality. It is neither + rational to expect the first, nor just to require the last. The + smaller States, considering how peculiarly their safety and welfare + depend on union, ought readily to renounce a pretension which, if + not relinquished, would prove fatal to its duration. +It may be objected to this, that not seven but nine States, or + two thirds of the whole number, must consent to the most important + resolutions; and it may be thence inferred that nine States would + always comprehend a majority of the Union. But this does not + obviate the impropriety of an equal vote between States of the most + unequal dimensions and populousness; nor is the inference accurate + in point of fact; for we can enumerate nine States which contain + less than a majority of the people%n4%n; and it is constitutionally + possible that these nine may give the vote. Besides, there are + matters of considerable moment determinable by a bare majority; and + there are others, concerning which doubts have been entertained, + which, if interpreted in favor of the sufficiency of a vote of seven + States, would extend its operation to interests of the first + magnitude. In addition to this, it is to be observed that there is + a probability of an increase in the number of States, and no + provision for a proportional augmentation of the ratio of votes. +But this is not all: what at first sight may seem a remedy, is, + in reality, a poison. To give a minority a negative upon the + majority (which is always the case where more than a majority is + requisite to a decision), is, in its tendency, to subject the sense + of the greater number to that of the lesser. Congress, from the + nonattendance of a few States, have been frequently in the situation + of a Polish diet, where a single VOTE has been sufficient to put a + stop to all their movements. A sixtieth part of the Union, which is + about the proportion of Delaware and Rhode Island, has several times + been able to oppose an entire bar to its operations. This is one of + those refinements which, in practice, has an effect the reverse of + what is expected from it in theory. The necessity of unanimity in + public bodies, or of something approaching towards it, has been + founded upon a supposition that it would contribute to security. + But its real operation is to embarrass the administration, to + destroy the energy of the government, and to substitute the + pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, or + corrupt junto, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a + respectable majority. In those emergencies of a nation, in which + the goodness or badness, the weakness or strength of its government, + is of the greatest importance, there is commonly a necessity for + action. The public business must, in some way or other, go forward. + If a pertinacious minority can control the opinion of a majority, + respecting the best mode of conducting it, the majority, in order + that something may be done, must conform to the views of the + minority; and thus the sense of the smaller number will overrule + that of the greater, and give a tone to the national proceedings. + Hence, tedious delays; continual negotiation and intrigue; + contemptible compromises of the public good. And yet, in such a + system, it is even happy when such compromises can take place: for + upon some occasions things will not admit of accommodation; and + then the measures of government must be injuriously suspended, or + fatally defeated. It is often, by the impracticability of obtaining + the concurrence of the necessary number of votes, kept in a state of + inaction. Its situation must always savor of weakness, sometimes + border upon anarchy. +It is not difficult to discover, that a principle of this kind + gives greater scope to foreign corruption, as well as to domestic + faction, than that which permits the sense of the majority to + decide; though the contrary of this has been presumed. The mistake + has proceeded from not attending with due care to the mischiefs that + may be occasioned by obstructing the progress of government at + certain critical seasons. When the concurrence of a large number is + required by the Constitution to the doing of any national act, we + are apt to rest satisfied that all is safe, because nothing improper + will be likely TO BE DONE, but we forget how much good may be + prevented, and how much ill may be produced, by the power of + hindering the doing what may be necessary, and of keeping affairs in + the same unfavorable posture in which they may happen to stand at + particular periods. +Suppose, for instance, we were engaged in a war, in conjunction + with one foreign nation, against another. Suppose the necessity of + our situation demanded peace, and the interest or ambition of our + ally led him to seek the prosecution of the war, with views that + might justify us in making separate terms. In such a state of + things, this ally of ours would evidently find it much easier, by + his bribes and intrigues, to tie up the hands of government from + making peace, where two thirds of all the votes were requisite to + that object, than where a simple majority would suffice. In the + first case, he would have to corrupt a smaller number; in the last, + a greater number. Upon the same principle, it would be much easier + for a foreign power with which we were at war to perplex our + councils and embarrass our exertions. And, in a commercial view, we + may be subjected to similar inconveniences. A nation, with which we + might have a treaty of commerce, could with much greater facility + prevent our forming a connection with her competitor in trade, + though such a connection should be ever so beneficial to ourselves. +Evils of this description ought not to be regarded as imaginary. + One of the weak sides of republics, among their numerous + advantages, is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign + corruption. An hereditary monarch, though often disposed to + sacrifice his subjects to his ambition, has so great a personal + interest in the government and in the external glory of the nation, + that it is not easy for a foreign power to give him an equivalent + for what he would sacrifice by treachery to the state. The world + has accordingly been witness to few examples of this species of + royal prostitution, though there have been abundant specimens of + every other kind. +In republics, persons elevated from the mass of the community, + by the suffrages of their fellow-citizens, to stations of great + pre-eminence and power, may find compensations for betraying their + trust, which, to any but minds animated and guided by superior + virtue, may appear to exceed the proportion of interest they have in + the common stock, and to overbalance the obligations of duty. Hence + it is that history furnishes us with so many mortifying examples of + the prevalency of foreign corruption in republican governments. How + much this contributed to the ruin of the ancient commonwealths has + been already delineated. It is well known that the deputies of the + United Provinces have, in various instances, been purchased by the + emissaries of the neighboring kingdoms. The Earl of Chesterfield + (if my memory serves me right), in a letter to his court, intimates + that his success in an important negotiation must depend on his + obtaining a major's commission for one of those deputies. And in + Sweden the parties were alternately bought by France and England in + so barefaced and notorious a manner that it excited universal + disgust in the nation, and was a principal cause that the most + limited monarch in Europe, in a single day, without tumult, + violence, or opposition, became one of the most absolute and + uncontrolled. +A circumstance which crowns the defects of the Confederation + remains yet to be mentioned, the want of a judiciary power. Laws + are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true + meaning and operation. The treaties of the United States, to have + any force at all, must be considered as part of the law of the land. + Their true import, as far as respects individuals, must, like all + other laws, be ascertained by judicial determinations. To produce + uniformity in these determinations, they ought to be submitted, in + the last resort, to one SUPREME TRIBUNAL. And this tribunal ought + to be instituted under the same authority which forms the treaties + themselves. These ingredients are both indispensable. If there is + in each State a court of final jurisdiction, there may be as many + different final determinations on the same point as there are courts. + There are endless diversities in the opinions of men. We often + see not only different courts but the judges of the came court + differing from each other. To avoid the confusion which would + unavoidably result from the contradictory decisions of a number of + independent judicatories, all nations have found it necessary to + establish one court paramount to the rest, possessing a general + superintendence, and authorized to settle and declare in the last + resort a uniform rule of civil justice. +This is the more necessary where the frame of the government is + so compounded that the laws of the whole are in danger of being + contravened by the laws of the parts. In this case, if the + particular tribunals are invested with a right of ultimate + jurisdiction, besides the contradictions to be expected from + difference of opinion, there will be much to fear from the bias of + local views and prejudices, and from the interference of local + regulations. As often as such an interference was to happen, there + would be reason to apprehend that the provisions of the particular + laws might be preferred to those of the general laws; for nothing + is more natural to men in office than to look with peculiar + deference towards that authority to which they owe their official + existence. The treaties of the United States, under the present + Constitution, are liable to the infractions of thirteen different + legislatures, and as many different courts of final jurisdiction, + acting under the authority of those legislatures. The faith, the + reputation, the peace of the whole Union, are thus continually at + the mercy of the prejudices, the passions, and the interests of + every member of which it is composed. Is it possible that foreign + nations can either respect or confide in such a government? Is it + possible that the people of America will longer consent to trust + their honor, their happiness, their safety, on so precarious a + foundation? +In this review of the Confederation, I have confined myself to + the exhibition of its most material defects; passing over those + imperfections in its details by which even a great part of the power + intended to be conferred upon it has been in a great measure + rendered abortive. It must be by this time evident to all men of + reflection, who can divest themselves of the prepossessions of + preconceived opinions, that it is a system so radically vicious and + unsound, as to admit not of amendment but by an entire change in its + leading features and characters. +The organization of Congress is itself utterly improper for the + exercise of those powers which are necessary to be deposited in the + Union. A single assembly may be a proper receptacle of those + slender, or rather fettered, authorities, which have been heretofore + delegated to the federal head; but it would be inconsistent with + all the principles of good government, to intrust it with those + additional powers which, even the moderate and more rational + adversaries of the proposed Constitution admit, ought to reside in + the United States. If that plan should not be adopted, and if the + necessity of the Union should be able to withstand the ambitious + aims of those men who may indulge magnificent schemes of personal + aggrandizement from its dissolution, the probability would be, that + we should run into the project of conferring supplementary powers + upon Congress, as they are now constituted; and either the machine, + from the intrinsic feebleness of its structure, will moulder into + pieces, in spite of our ill-judged efforts to prop it; or, by + successive augmentations of its force an energy, as necessity might + prompt, we shall finally accumulate, in a single body, all the most + important prerogatives of sovereignty, and thus entail upon our + posterity one of the most execrable forms of government that human + infatuation ever contrived. Thus, we should create in reality that + very tyranny which the adversaries of the new Constitution either + are, or affect to be, solicitous to avert. +It has not a little contributed to the infirmities of the + existing federal system, that it never had a ratification by the + PEOPLE. Resting on no better foundation than the consent of the + several legislatures, it has been exposed to frequent and intricate + questions concerning the validity of its powers, and has, in some + instances, given birth to the enormous doctrine of a right of + legislative repeal. Owing its ratification to the law of a State, + it has been contended that the same authority might repeal the law + by which it was ratified. However gross a heresy it may be to + maintain that a PARTY to a COMPACT has a right to revoke that + COMPACT, the doctrine itself has had respectable advocates. The + possibility of a question of this nature proves the necessity of + laying the foundations of our national government deeper than in the + mere sanction of delegated authority. The fabric of American empire + ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The + streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, + original fountain of all legitimate authority. +PUBLIUS. +FNA1@@1 This, as nearly as I can recollect, was the sense of his + speech on introducing the last bill. +FNA1@@2 Encyclopedia, article ``Empire.'' +FNA1@@3 New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Georgia, + South Carolina, and Maryland are a majority of the whole number of + the States, but they do not contain one third of the people. +FNA1@@4 Add New York and Connecticut to the foregoing seven, and they + will be less than a majority. + + +FEDERALIST No. 23 + +The Necessity of a Government as Energetic as the One Proposed to + the Preservation of the Union +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, December 18, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE necessity of a Constitution, at least equally energetic with + the one proposed, to the preservation of the Union, is the point at + the examination of which we are now arrived. +This inquiry will naturally divide itself into three + branches the objects to be provided for by the federal government, + the quantity of power necessary to the accomplishment of those + objects, the persons upon whom that power ought to operate. Its + distribution and organization will more properly claim our attention + under the succeeding head. +The principal purposes to be answered by union are these the + common defense of the members; the preservation of the public peace + as well against internal convulsions as external attacks; the + regulation of commerce with other nations and between the States; + the superintendence of our intercourse, political and commercial, + with foreign countries. +The authorities essential to the common defense are these: to + raise armies; to build and equip fleets; to prescribe rules for + the government of both; to direct their operations; to provide for + their support. These powers ought to exist without limitation, + BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FORESEE OR DEFINE THE EXTENT AND VARIETY + OF NATIONAL EXIGENCIES, OR THE CORRESPONDENT EXTENT AND VARIETY OF + THE MEANS WHICH MAY BE NECESSARY TO SATISFY THEM. The circumstances + that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this + reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power + to which the care of it is committed. This power ought to be + coextensive with all the possible combinations of such + circumstances; and ought to be under the direction of the same + councils which are appointed to preside over the common defense. +This is one of those truths which, to a correct and unprejudiced + mind, carries its own evidence along with it; and may be obscured, + but cannot be made plainer by argument or reasoning. It rests upon + axioms as simple as they are universal; the MEANS ought to be + proportioned to the END; the persons, from whose agency the + attainment of any END is expected, ought to possess the MEANS by + which it is to be attained. +Whether there ought to be a federal government intrusted with + the care of the common defense, is a question in the first instance, + open for discussion; but the moment it is decided in the + affirmative, it will follow, that that government ought to be + clothed with all the powers requisite to complete execution of its + trust. And unless it can be shown that the circumstances which may + affect the public safety are reducible within certain determinate + limits; unless the contrary of this position can be fairly and + rationally disputed, it must be admitted, as a necessary + consequence, that there can be no limitation of that authority which + is to provide for the defense and protection of the community, in + any matter essential to its efficacy that is, in any matter + essential to the FORMATION, DIRECTION, or SUPPORT of the NATIONAL + FORCES. +Defective as the present Confederation has been proved to be, + this principle appears to have been fully recognized by the framers + of it; though they have not made proper or adequate provision for + its exercise. Congress have an unlimited discretion to make + requisitions of men and money; to govern the army and navy; to + direct their operations. As their requisitions are made + constitutionally binding upon the States, who are in fact under the + most solemn obligations to furnish the supplies required of them, + the intention evidently was that the United States should command + whatever resources were by them judged requisite to the ``common + defense and general welfare.'' It was presumed that a sense of + their true interests, and a regard to the dictates of good faith, + would be found sufficient pledges for the punctual performance of + the duty of the members to the federal head. +The experiment has, however, demonstrated that this expectation + was ill-founded and illusory; and the observations, made under the + last head, will, I imagine, have sufficed to convince the impartial + and discerning, that there is an absolute necessity for an entire + change in the first principles of the system; that if we are in + earnest about giving the Union energy and duration, we must abandon + the vain project of legislating upon the States in their collective + capacities; we must extend the laws of the federal government to + the individual citizens of America; we must discard the fallacious + scheme of quotas and requisitions, as equally impracticable and + unjust. The result from all this is that the Union ought to be + invested with full power to levy troops; to build and equip fleets; + and to raise the revenues which will be required for the formation + and support of an army and navy, in the customary and ordinary modes + practiced in other governments. +If the circumstances of our country are such as to demand a + compound instead of a simple, a confederate instead of a sole, + government, the essential point which will remain to be adjusted + will be to discriminate the OBJECTS, as far as it can be done, which + shall appertain to the different provinces or departments of power; + allowing to each the most ample authority for fulfilling the + objects committed to its charge. Shall the Union be constituted the + guardian of the common safety? Are fleets and armies and revenues + necessary to this purpose? The government of the Union must be + empowered to pass all laws, and to make all regulations which have + relation to them. The same must be the case in respect to commerce, + and to every other matter to which its jurisdiction is permitted to + extend. Is the administration of justice between the citizens of + the same State the proper department of the local governments? + These must possess all the authorities which are connected with + this object, and with every other that may be allotted to their + particular cognizance and direction. Not to confer in each case a + degree of power commensurate to the end, would be to violate the + most obvious rules of prudence and propriety, and improvidently to + trust the great interests of the nation to hands which are disabled + from managing them with vigor and success. +Who is likely to make suitable provisions for the public + defense, as that body to which the guardianship of the public safety + is confided; which, as the centre of information, will best + understand the extent and urgency of the dangers that threaten; as + the representative of the WHOLE, will feel itself most deeply + interested in the preservation of every part; which, from the + responsibility implied in the duty assigned to it, will be most + sensibly impressed with the necessity of proper exertions; and + which, by the extension of its authority throughout the States, can + alone establish uniformity and concert in the plans and measures by + which the common safety is to be secured? Is there not a manifest + inconsistency in devolving upon the federal government the care of + the general defense, and leaving in the State governments the + EFFECTIVE powers by which it is to be provided for? Is not a want + of co-operation the infallible consequence of such a system? And + will not weakness, disorder, an undue distribution of the burdens + and calamities of war, an unnecessary and intolerable increase of + expense, be its natural and inevitable concomitants? Have we not + had unequivocal experience of its effects in the course of the + revolution which we have just accomplished? +Every view we may take of the subject, as candid inquirers after + truth, will serve to convince us, that it is both unwise and + dangerous to deny the federal government an unconfined authority, as + to all those objects which are intrusted to its management. It will + indeed deserve the most vigilant and careful attention of the + people, to see that it be modeled in such a manner as to admit of + its being safely vested with the requisite powers. If any plan + which has been, or may be, offered to our consideration, should not, + upon a dispassionate inspection, be found to answer this + description, it ought to be rejected. A government, the + constitution of which renders it unfit to be trusted with all the + powers which a free people OUGHT TO DELEGATE TO ANY GOVERNMENT, + would be an unsafe and improper depositary of the NATIONAL INTERESTS. + Wherever THESE can with propriety be confided, the coincident + powers may safely accompany them. This is the true result of all + just reasoning upon the subject. And the adversaries of the plan + promulgated by the convention ought to have confined themselves to + showing, that the internal structure of the proposed government was + such as to render it unworthy of the confidence of the people. They + ought not to have wandered into inflammatory declamations and + unmeaning cavils about the extent of the powers. The POWERS are not + too extensive for the OBJECTS of federal administration, or, in + other words, for the management of our NATIONAL INTERESTS; nor can + any satisfactory argument be framed to show that they are chargeable + with such an excess. If it be true, as has been insinuated by some + of the writers on the other side, that the difficulty arises from + the nature of the thing, and that the extent of the country will not + permit us to form a government in which such ample powers can safely + be reposed, it would prove that we ought to contract our views, and + resort to the expedient of separate confederacies, which will move + within more practicable spheres. For the absurdity must continually + stare us in the face of confiding to a government the direction of + the most essential national interests, without daring to trust it to + the authorities which are indispensible to their proper and + efficient management. Let us not attempt to reconcile + contradictions, but firmly embrace a rational alternative. +I trust, however, that the impracticability of one general + system cannot be shown. I am greatly mistaken, if any thing of + weight has yet been advanced of this tendency; and I flatter + myself, that the observations which have been made in the course of + these papers have served to place the reverse of that position in as + clear a light as any matter still in the womb of time and experience + can be susceptible of. This, at all events, must be evident, that + the very difficulty itself, drawn from the extent of the country, is + the strongest argument in favor of an energetic government; for any + other can certainly never preserve the Union of so large an empire. + If we embrace the tenets of those who oppose the adoption of the + proposed Constitution, as the standard of our political creed, we + cannot fail to verify the gloomy doctrines which predict the + impracticability of a national system pervading entire limits of the + present Confederacy. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 24 + +The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +To THE powers proposed to be conferred upon the federal + government, in respect to the creation and direction of the national + forces, I have met with but one specific objection, which, if I + understand it right, is this, that proper provision has not been + made against the existence of standing armies in time of peace; an + objection which, I shall now endeavor to show, rests on weak and + unsubstantial foundations. +It has indeed been brought forward in the most vague and general + form, supported only by bold assertions, without the appearance of + argument; without even the sanction of theoretical opinions; in + contradiction to the practice of other free nations, and to the + general sense of America, as expressed in most of the existing + constitutions. The proprietory of this remark will appear, the + moment it is recollected that the objection under consideration + turns upon a supposed necessity of restraining the LEGISLATIVE + authority of the nation, in the article of military establishments; + a principle unheard of, except in one or two of our State + constitutions, and rejected in all the rest. +A stranger to our politics, who was to read our newspapers at + the present juncture, without having previously inspected the plan + reported by the convention, would be naturally led to one of two + conclusions: either that it contained a positive injunction, that + standing armies should be kept up in time of peace; or that it + vested in the EXECUTIVE the whole power of levying troops, without + subjecting his discretion, in any shape, to the control of the + legislature. +If he came afterwards to peruse the plan itself, he would be + surprised to discover, that neither the one nor the other was the + case; that the whole power of raising armies was lodged in the + LEGISLATURE, not in the EXECUTIVE; that this legislature was to be + a popular body, consisting of the representatives of the people + periodically elected; and that instead of the provision he had + supposed in favor of standing armies, there was to be found, in + respect to this object, an important qualification even of the + legislative discretion, in that clause which forbids the + appropriation of money for the support of an army for any longer + period than two years a precaution which, upon a nearer view of it, + will appear to be a great and real security against the keeping up + of troops without evident necessity. +Disappointed in his first surmise, the person I have supposed + would be apt to pursue his conjectures a little further. He would + naturally say to himself, it is impossible that all this vehement + and pathetic declamation can be without some colorable pretext. It + must needs be that this people, so jealous of their liberties, have, + in all the preceding models of the constitutions which they have + established, inserted the most precise and rigid precautions on this + point, the omission of which, in the new plan, has given birth to + all this apprehension and clamor. +If, under this impression, he proceeded to pass in review the + several State constitutions, how great would be his disappointment + to find that TWO ONLY of them%n1%n contained an interdiction of + standing armies in time of peace; that the other eleven had either + observed a profound silence on the subject, or had in express terms + admitted the right of the Legislature to authorize their existence. +Still, however he would be persuaded that there must be some + plausible foundation for the cry raised on this head. He would + never be able to imagine, while any source of information remained + unexplored, that it was nothing more than an experiment upon the + public credulity, dictated either by a deliberate intention to + deceive, or by the overflowings of a zeal too intemperate to be + ingenuous. It would probably occur to him, that he would be likely + to find the precautions he was in search of in the primitive compact + between the States. Here, at length, he would expect to meet with a + solution of the enigma. No doubt, he would observe to himself, the + existing Confederation must contain the most explicit provisions + against military establishments in time of peace; and a departure + from this model, in a favorite point, has occasioned the discontent + which appears to influence these political champions. +If he should now apply himself to a careful and critical survey + of the articles of Confederation, his astonishment would not only be + increased, but would acquire a mixture of indignation, at the + unexpected discovery, that these articles, instead of containing the + prohibition he looked for, and though they had, with jealous + circumspection, restricted the authority of the State legislatures + in this particular, had not imposed a single restraint on that of + the United States. If he happened to be a man of quick sensibility, + or ardent temper, he could now no longer refrain from regarding + these clamors as the dishonest artifices of a sinister and + unprincipled opposition to a plan which ought at least to receive a + fair and candid examination from all sincere lovers of their + country! How else, he would say, could the authors of them have + been tempted to vent such loud censures upon that plan, about a + point in which it seems to have conformed itself to the general + sense of America as declared in its different forms of government, + and in which it has even superadded a new and powerful guard unknown + to any of them? If, on the contrary, he happened to be a man of + calm and dispassionate feelings, he would indulge a sigh for the + frailty of human nature, and would lament, that in a matter so + interesting to the happiness of millions, the true merits of the + question should be perplexed and entangled by expedients so + unfriendly to an impartial and right determination. Even such a man + could hardly forbear remarking, that a conduct of this kind has too + much the appearance of an intention to mislead the people by + alarming their passions, rather than to convince them by arguments + addressed to their understandings. +But however little this objection may be countenanced, even by + precedents among ourselves, it may be satisfactory to take a nearer + view of its intrinsic merits. From a close examination it will + appear that restraints upon the discretion of the legislature in + respect to military establishments in time of peace, would be + improper to be imposed, and if imposed, from the necessities of + society, would be unlikely to be observed. +Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet + there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of + confidence or security. On one side of us, and stretching far into + our rear, are growing settlements subject to the dominion of Britain. + On the other side, and extending to meet the British settlements, + are colonies and establishments subject to the dominion of Spain. + This situation and the vicinity of the West India Islands, + belonging to these two powers create between them, in respect to + their American possessions and in relation to us, a common interest. + The savage tribes on our Western frontier ought to be regarded as + our natural enemies, their natural allies, because they have most to + fear from us, and most to hope from them. The improvements in the + art of navigation have, as to the facility of communication, + rendered distant nations, in a great measure, neighbors. Britain + and Spain are among the principal maritime powers of Europe. A + future concert of views between these nations ought not to be + regarded as improbable. The increasing remoteness of consanguinity + is every day diminishing the force of the family compact between + France and Spain. And politicians have ever with great reason + considered the ties of blood as feeble and precarious links of + political connection. These circumstances combined, admonish us not + to be too sanguine in considering ourselves as entirely out of the + reach of danger. +Previous to the Revolution, and ever since the peace, there has + been a constant necessity for keeping small garrisons on our Western + frontier. No person can doubt that these will continue to be + indispensable, if it should only be against the ravages and + depredations of the Indians. These garrisons must either be + furnished by occasional detachments from the militia, or by + permanent corps in the pay of the government. The first is + impracticable; and if practicable, would be pernicious. The + militia would not long, if at all, submit to be dragged from their + occupations and families to perform that most disagreeable duty in + times of profound peace. And if they could be prevailed upon or + compelled to do it, the increased expense of a frequent rotation of + service, and the loss of labor and disconcertion of the industrious + pursuits of individuals, would form conclusive objections to the + scheme. It would be as burdensome and injurious to the public as + ruinous to private citizens. The latter resource of permanent corps + in the pay of the government amounts to a standing army in time of + peace; a small one, indeed, but not the less real for being small. + Here is a simple view of the subject, that shows us at once the + impropriety of a constitutional interdiction of such establishments, + and the necessity of leaving the matter to the discretion and + prudence of the legislature. +In proportion to our increase in strength, it is probable, nay, + it may be said certain, that Britain and Spain would augment their + military establishments in our neighborhood. If we should not be + willing to be exposed, in a naked and defenseless condition, to + their insults and encroachments, we should find it expedient to + increase our frontier garrisons in some ratio to the force by which + our Western settlements might be annoyed. There are, and will be, + particular posts, the possession of which will include the command + of large districts of territory, and facilitate future invasions of + the remainder. It may be added that some of those posts will be + keys to the trade with the Indian nations. Can any man think it + would be wise to leave such posts in a situation to be at any + instant seized by one or the other of two neighboring and formidable + powers? To act this part would be to desert all the usual maxims of + prudence and policy. +If we mean to be a commercial people, or even to be secure on + our Atlantic side, we must endeavor, as soon as possible, to have a + navy. To this purpose there must be dock-yards and arsenals; and + for the defense of these, fortifications, and probably garrisons. + When a nation has become so powerful by sea that it can protect its + dock-yards by its fleets, this supersedes the necessity of garrisons + for that purpose; but where naval establishments are in their + infancy, moderate garrisons will, in all likelihood, be found an + indispensable security against descents for the destruction of the + arsenals and dock-yards, and sometimes of the fleet itself. +PUBLIUS. +FNA1@@1 This statement of the matter is taken from the printed + collection of State constitutions. Pennsylvania and North Carolina + are the two which contain the interdiction in these words: ``As + standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, THEY + OUGHT NOT to be kept up.'' This is, in truth, rather a CAUTION than + a PROHIBITION. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Maryland + have, in each of their bils of rights, a clause to this effect: + ``Standing armies are dangerous to liberty, and ought not to be + raised or kept up WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE LEGISLATURE''; which + is a formal admission of the authority of the Legislature. New York + has no bills of rights, and her constitution says not a word about + the matter. No bills of rights appear annexed to the constitutions + of the other States, except the foregoing, and their constitutions + are equally silent. I am told, however that one or two States have + bills of rights which do not appear in this collection; but that + those also recognize the right of the legislative authority in this + respect. + + +FEDERALIST No. 25 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further Considered) +From the New York Packet. +Friday, December 21, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT MAY perhaps be urged that the objects enumerated in the + preceding number ought to be provided for by the State governments, + under the direction of the Union. But this would be, in reality, an + inversion of the primary principle of our political association, as + it would in practice transfer the care of the common defense from + the federal head to the individual members: a project oppressive to + some States, dangerous to all, and baneful to the Confederacy. +The territories of Britain, Spain, and of the Indian nations in + our neighborhood do not border on particular States, but encircle + the Union from Maine to Georgia. The danger, though in different + degrees, is therefore common. And the means of guarding against it + ought, in like manner, to be the objects of common councils and of a + common treasury. It happens that some States, from local situation, + are more directly exposed. New York is of this class. Upon the + plan of separate provisions, New York would have to sustain the + whole weight of the establishments requisite to her immediate + safety, and to the mediate or ultimate protection of her neighbors. + This would neither be equitable as it respected New York nor safe + as it respected the other States. Various inconveniences would + attend such a system. The States, to whose lot it might fall to + support the necessary establishments, would be as little able as + willing, for a considerable time to come, to bear the burden of + competent provisions. The security of all would thus be subjected + to the parsimony, improvidence, or inability of a part. If the + resources of such part becoming more abundant and extensive, its + provisions should be proportionally enlarged, the other States would + quickly take the alarm at seeing the whole military force of the + Union in the hands of two or three of its members, and those + probably amongst the most powerful. They would each choose to have + some counterpoise, and pretenses could easily be contrived. In this + situation, military establishments, nourished by mutual jealousy, + would be apt to swell beyond their natural or proper size; and + being at the separate disposal of the members, they would be engines + for the abridgment or demolition of the national authcrity. +Reasons have been already given to induce a supposition that the + State governments will too naturally be prone to a rivalship with + that of the Union, the foundation of which will be the love of + power; and that in any contest between the federal head and one of + its members the people will be most apt to unite with their local + government. If, in addition to this immense advantage, the ambition + of the members should be stimulated by the separate and independent + possession of military forces, it would afford too strong a + temptation and too great a facility to them to make enterprises + upon, and finally to subvert, the constitutional authority of the + Union. On the other hand, the liberty of the people would be less + safe in this state of things than in that which left the national + forces in the hands of the national government. As far as an army + may be considered as a dangerous weapon of power, it had better be + in those hands of which the people are most likely to be jealous + than in those of which they are least likely to be jealous. For it + is a truth, which the experience of ages has attested, that the + people are always most in danger when the means of injuring their + rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the + least suspicion. +The framers of the existing Confederation, fully aware of the + danger to the Union from the separate possession of military forces + by the States, have, in express terms, prohibited them from having + either ships or troops, unless with the consent of Congress. The + truth is, that the existence of a federal government and military + establishments under State authority are not less at variance with + each other than a due supply of the federal treasury and the system + of quotas and requisitions. +There are other lights besides those already taken notice of, in + which the impropriety of restraints on the discretion of the + national legislature will be equally manifest. The design of the + objection, which has been mentioned, is to preclude standing armies + in time of peace, though we have never been informed how far it is + designed the prohibition should extend; whether to raising armies + as well as to KEEPING THEM UP in a season of tranquillity or not. + If it be confined to the latter it will have no precise + signification, and it will be ineffectual for the purpose intended. + When armies are once raised what shall be denominated ``keeping + them up,'' contrary to the sense of the Constitution? What time + shall be requisite to ascertain the violation? Shall it be a week, + a month, a year? Or shall we say they may be continued as long as + the danger which occasioned their being raised continues? This + would be to admit that they might be kept up IN TIME OF PEACE, + against threatening or impending danger, which would be at once to + deviate from the literal meaning of the prohibition, and to + introduce an extensive latitude of construction. Who shall judge of + the continuance of the danger? This must undoubtedly be submitted + to the national government, and the matter would then be brought to + this issue, that the national government, to provide against + apprehended danger, might in the first instance raise troops, and + might afterwards keep them on foot as long as they supposed the + peace or safety of the community was in any degree of jeopardy. It + is easy to perceive that a discretion so latitudinary as this would + afford ample room for eluding the force of the provision. +The supposed utility of a provision of this kind can only be + founded on the supposed probability, or at least possibility, of a + combination between the executive and the legislative, in some + scheme of usurpation. Should this at any time happen, how easy + would it be to fabricate pretenses of approaching danger! Indian + hostilities, instigated by Spain or Britain, would always be at hand. + Provocations to produce the desired appearances might even be + given to some foreign power, and appeased again by timely + concessions. If we can reasonably presume such a combination to + have been formed, and that the enterprise is warranted by a + sufficient prospect of success, the army, when once raised, from + whatever cause, or on whatever pretext, may be applied to the + execution of the project. +If, to obviate this consequence, it should be resolved to extend + the prohibition to the RAISING of armies in time of peace, the + United States would then exhibit the most extraordinary spectacle + which the world has yet seen, that of a nation incapacitated by its + Constitution to prepare for defense, before it was actually invaded. + As the ceremony of a formal denunciation of war has of late fallen + into disuse, the presence of an enemy within our territories must be + waited for, as the legal warrant to the government to begin its + levies of men for the protection of the State. We must receive the + blow, before we could even prepare to return it. All that kind of + policy by which nations anticipate distant danger, and meet the + gathering storm, must be abstained from, as contrary to the genuine + maxims of a free government. We must expose our property and + liberty to the mercy of foreign invaders, and invite them by our + weakness to seize the naked and defenseless prey, because we are + afraid that rulers, created by our choice, dependent on our will, + might endanger that liberty, by an abuse of the means necessary to + its preservation. +Here I expect we shall be told that the militia of the country + is its natural bulwark, and would be at all times equal to the + national defense. This doctrine, in substance, had like to have + lost us our independence. It cost millions to the United States + that might have been saved. The facts which, from our own + experience, forbid a reliance of this kind, are too recent to permit + us to be the dupes of such a suggestion. The steady operations of + war against a regular and disciplined army can only be successfully + conducted by a force of the same kind. Considerations of economy, + not less than of stability and vigor, confirm this position. The + American militia, in the course of the late war, have, by their + valor on numerous occasions, erected eternal monuments to their + fame; but the bravest of them feel and know that the liberty of + their country could not have been established by their efforts + alone, however great and valuable they were. War, like most other + things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by + perserverance, by time, and by practice. +All violent policy, as it is contrary to the natural and + experienced course of human affairs, defeats itself. Pennsylvania, + at this instant, affords an example of the truth of this remark. + The Bill of Rights of that State declares that standing armies are + dangerous to liberty, and ought not to be kept up in time of peace. + Pennsylvania, nevertheless, in a time of profound peace, from the + existence of partial disorders in one or two of her counties, has + resolved to raise a body of troops; and in all probability will + keep them up as long as there is any appearance of danger to the + public peace. The conduct of Massachusetts affords a lesson on the + same subject, though on different ground. That State (without + waiting for the sanction of Congress, as the articles of the + Confederation require) was compelled to raise troops to quell a + domestic insurrection, and still keeps a corps in pay to prevent a + revival of the spirit of revolt. The particular constitution of + Massachusetts opposed no obstacle to the measure; but the instance + is still of use to instruct us that cases are likely to occur under + our government, as well as under those of other nations, which will + sometimes render a military force in time of peace essential to the + security of the society, and that it is therefore improper in this + respect to control the legislative discretion. It also teaches us, + in its application to the United States, how little the rights of a + feeble government are likely to be respected, even by its own + constituents. And it teaches us, in addition to the rest, how + unequal parchment provisions are to a struggle with public necessity +. +It was a fundamental maxim of the Lacedaemonian commonwealth, + that the post of admiral should not be conferred twice on the same + person. The Peloponnesian confederates, having suffered a severe + defeat at sea from the Athenians, demanded Lysander, who had before + served with success in that capacity, to command the combined fleets. + The Lacedaemonians, to gratify their allies, and yet preserve the + semblance of an adherence to their ancient institutions, had + recourse to the flimsy subterfuge of investing Lysander with the + real power of admiral, under the nominal title of vice-admiral. + This instance is selected from among a multitude that might be + cited to confirm the truth already advanced and illustrated by + domestic examples; which is, that nations pay little regard to + rules and maxims calculated in their very nature to run counter to + the necessities of society. Wise politicians will be cautious about + fettering the government with restrictions that cannot be observed, + because they know that every breach of the fundamental laws, though + dictated by necessity, impairs that sacred reverence which ought to + be maintained in the breast of rulers towards the constitution of a + country, and forms a precedent for other breaches where the same + plea of necessity does not exist at all, or is less urgent and + palpable. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 26 + +The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the + Common Defense Considered +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT WAS a thing hardly to be expected that in a popular + revolution the minds of men should stop at that happy mean which + marks the salutary boundary between POWER and PRIVILEGE, and + combines the energy of government with the security of private + rights. A failure in this delicate and important point is the great + source of the inconveniences we experience, and if we are not + cautious to avoid a repetition of the error, in our future attempts + to rectify and ameliorate our system, we may travel from one + chimerical project to another; we may try change after change; but + we shall never be likely to make any material change for the better. +The idea of restraining the legislative authority, in the means + of providing for the national defense, is one of those refinements + which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than + enlightened. We have seen, however, that it has not had thus far an + extensive prevalency; that even in this country, where it made its + first appearance, Pennsylvania and North Carolina are the only two + States by which it has been in any degree patronized; and that all + the others have refused to give it the least countenance; wisely + judging that confidence must be placed somewhere; that the + necessity of doing it, is implied in the very act of delegating + power; and that it is better to hazard the abuse of that confidence + than to embarrass the government and endanger the public safety by + impolitic restrictions on the legislative authority. The opponents + of the proposed Constitution combat, in this respect, the general + decision of America; and instead of being taught by experience the + propriety of correcting any extremes into which we may have + heretofore run, they appear disposed to conduct us into others still + more dangerous, and more extravagant. As if the tone of government + had been found too high, or too rigid, the doctrines they teach are + calculated to induce us to depress or to relax it, by expedients + which, upon other occasions, have been condemned or forborne. It + may be affirmed without the imputation of invective, that if the + principles they inculcate, on various points, could so far obtain as + to become the popular creed, they would utterly unfit the people of + this country for any species of government whatever. But a danger + of this kind is not to be apprehended. The citizens of America have + too much discernment to be argued into anarchy. And I am much + mistaken, if experience has not wrought a deep and solemn conviction + in the public mind, that greater energy of government is essential + to the welfare and prosperity of the community. +It may not be amiss in this place concisely to remark the origin + and progress of the idea, which aims at the exclusion of military + establishments in time of peace. Though in speculative minds it may + arise from a contemplation of the nature and tendency of such + institutions, fortified by the events that have happened in other + ages and countries, yet as a national sentiment, it must be traced + to those habits of thinking which we derive from the nation from + whom the inhabitants of these States have in general sprung. +In England, for a long time after the Norman Conquest, the + authority of the monarch was almost unlimited. Inroads were + gradually made upon the prerogative, in favor of liberty, first by + the barons, and afterwards by the people, till the greatest part of + its most formidable pretensions became extinct. But it was not till + the revolution in 1688, which elevated the Prince of Orange to the + throne of Great Britain, that English liberty was completely + triumphant. As incident to the undefined power of making war, an + acknowledged prerogative of the crown, Charles II. had, by his own + authority, kept on foot in time of peace a body of 5,000 regular + troops. And this number James II. increased to 30,000; who were + paid out of his civil list. At the revolution, to abolish the + exercise of so dangerous an authority, it became an article of the + Bill of Rights then framed, that ``the raising or keeping a standing + army within the kingdom in time of peace, UNLESS WITH THE CONSENT OF + PARLIAMENT, was against law.'' +In that kingdom, when the pulse of liberty was at its highest + pitch, no security against the danger of standing armies was thought + requisite, beyond a prohibition of their being raised or kept up by + the mere authority of the executive magistrate. The patriots, who + effected that memorable revolution, were too temperate, too + wellinformed, to think of any restraint on the legislative + discretion. They were aware that a certain number of troops for + guards and garrisons were indispensable; that no precise bounds + could be set to the national exigencies; that a power equal to + every possible contingency must exist somewhere in the government: + and that when they referred the exercise of that power to the + judgment of the legislature, they had arrived at the ultimate point + of precaution which was reconcilable with the safety of the + community. +From the same source, the people of America may be said to have + derived an hereditary impression of danger to liberty, from standing + armies in time of peace. The circumstances of a revolution + quickened the public sensibility on every point connected with the + security of popular rights, and in some instances raise the warmth + of our zeal beyond the degree which consisted with the due + temperature of the body politic. The attempts of two of the States + to restrict the authority of the legislature in the article of + military establishments, are of the number of these instances. The + principles which had taught us to be jealous of the power of an + hereditary monarch were by an injudicious excess extended to the + representatives of the people in their popular assemblies. Even in + some of the States, where this error was not adopted, we find + unnecessary declarations that standing armies ought not to be kept + up, in time of peace, WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE LEGISLATURE. I + call them unnecessary, because the reason which had introduced a + similar provision into the English Bill of Rights is not applicable + to any of the State constitutions. The power of raising armies at + all, under those constitutions, can by no construction be deemed to + reside anywhere else, than in the legislatures themselves; and it + was superfluous, if not absurd, to declare that a matter should not + be done without the consent of a body, which alone had the power of + doing it. Accordingly, in some of these constitutions, and among + others, in that of this State of New York, which has been justly + celebrated, both in Europe and America, as one of the best of the + forms of government established in this country, there is a total + silence upon the subject. +It is remarkable, that even in the two States which seem to have + meditated an interdiction of military establishments in time of + peace, the mode of expression made use of is rather cautionary than + prohibitory. It is not said, that standing armies SHALL NOT BE kept + up, but that they OUGHT NOT to be kept up, in time of peace. This + ambiguity of terms appears to have been the result of a conflict + between jealousy and conviction; between the desire of excluding + such establishments at all events, and the persuasion that an + absolute exclusion would be unwise and unsafe. +Can it be doubted that such a provision, whenever the situation + of public affairs was understood to require a departure from it, + would be interpreted by the legislature into a mere admonition, and + would be made to yield to the necessities or supposed necessities of + the State? Let the fact already mentioned, with respect to + Pennsylvania, decide. What then (it may be asked) is the use of + such a provision, if it cease to operate the moment there is an + inclination to disregard it? +Let us examine whether there be any comparison, in point of + efficacy, between the provision alluded to and that which is + contained in the new Constitution, for restraining the + appropriations of money for military purposes to the period of two + years. The former, by aiming at too much, is calculated to effect + nothing; the latter, by steering clear of an imprudent extreme, and + by being perfectly compatible with a proper provision for the + exigencies of the nation, will have a salutary and powerful + operation. +The legislature of the United States will be OBLIGED, by this + provision, once at least in every two years, to deliberate upon the + propriety of keeping a military force on foot; to come to a new + resolution on the point; and to declare their sense of the matter, + by a formal vote in the face of their constituents. They are not AT + LIBERTY to vest in the executive department permanent funds for the + support of an army, if they were even incautious enough to be + willing to repose in it so improper a confidence. As the spirit of + party, in different degrees, must be expected to infect all + political bodies, there will be, no doubt, persons in the national + legislature willing enough to arraign the measures and criminate the + views of the majority. The provision for the support of a military + force will always be a favorable topic for declamation. As often as + the question comes forward, the public attention will be roused and + attracted to the subject, by the party in opposition; and if the + majority should be really disposed to exceed the proper limits, the + community will be warned of the danger, and will have an opportunity + of taking measures to guard against it. Independent of parties in + the national legislature itself, as often as the period of + discussion arrived, the State legislatures, who will always be not + only vigilant but suspicious and jealous guardians of the rights of + the citizens against encroachments from the federal government, will + constantly have their attention awake to the conduct of the national + rulers, and will be ready enough, if any thing improper appears, to + sound the alarm to the people, and not only to be the VOICE, but, if + necessary, the ARM of their discontent. +Schemes to subvert the liberties of a great community REQUIRE + TIME to mature them for execution. An army, so large as seriously + to menace those liberties, could only be formed by progressive + augmentations; which would suppose, not merely a temporary + combination between the legislature and executive, but a continued + conspiracy for a series of time. Is it probable that such a + combination would exist at all? Is it probable that it would be + persevered in, and transmitted along through all the successive + variations in a representative body, which biennial elections would + naturally produce in both houses? Is it presumable, that every man, + the instant he took his seat in the national Senate or House of + Representatives, would commence a traitor to his constituents and to + his country? Can it be supposed that there would not be found one + man, discerning enough to detect so atrocious a conspiracy, or bold + or honest enough to apprise his constituents of their danger? If + such presumptions can fairly be made, there ought at once to be an + end of all delegated authority. The people should resolve to recall + all the powers they have heretofore parted with out of their own + hands, and to divide themselves into as many States as there are + counties, in order that they may be able to manage their own + concerns in person. +If such suppositions could even be reasonably made, still the + concealment of the design, for any duration, would be impracticable. + It would be announced, by the very circumstance of augmenting the + army to so great an extent in time of profound peace. What + colorable reason could be assigned, in a country so situated, for + such vast augmentations of the military force? It is impossible + that the people could be long deceived; and the destruction of the + project, and of the projectors, would quickly follow the discovery. +It has been said that the provision which limits the + appropriation of money for the support of an army to the period of + two years would be unavailing, because the Executive, when once + possessed of a force large enough to awe the people into submission, + would find resources in that very force sufficient to enable him to + dispense with supplies from the acts of the legislature. But the + question again recurs, upon what pretense could he be put in + possession of a force of that magnitude in time of peace? If we + suppose it to have been created in consequence of some domestic + insurrection or foreign war, then it becomes a case not within the + principles of the objection; for this is levelled against the power + of keeping up troops in time of peace. Few persons will be so + visionary as seriously to contend that military forces ought not to + be raised to quell a rebellion or resist an invasion; and if the + defense of the community under such circumstances should make it + necessary to have an army so numerous as to hazard its liberty, this + is one of those calamaties for which there is neither preventative + nor cure. It cannot be provided against by any possible form of + government; it might even result from a simple league offensive and + defensive, if it should ever be necessary for the confederates or + allies to form an army for common defense. +But it is an evil infinitely less likely to attend us in a + united than in a disunited state; nay, it may be safely asserted + that it is an evil altogether unlikely to attend us in the latter + situation. It is not easy to conceive a possibility that dangers so + formidable can assail the whole Union, as to demand a force + considerable enough to place our liberties in the least jeopardy, + especially if we take into our view the aid to be derived from the + militia, which ought always to be counted upon as a valuable and + powerful auxiliary. But in a state of disunion (as has been fully + shown in another place), the contrary of this supposition would + become not only probable, but almost unavoidable. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 27 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to + the Common Defense Considered) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, December 25, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT HAS been urged, in different shapes, that a Constitution of + the kind proposed by the convention cannot operate without the aid + of a military force to execute its laws. This, however, like most + other things that have been alleged on that side, rests on mere + general assertion, unsupported by any precise or intelligible + designation of the reasons upon which it is founded. As far as I + have been able to divine the latent meaning of the objectors, it + seems to originate in a presupposition that the people will be + disinclined to the exercise of federal authority in any matter of an + internal nature. Waiving any exception that might be taken to the + inaccuracy or inexplicitness of the distinction between internal and + external, let us inquire what ground there is to presuppose that + disinclination in the people. Unless we presume at the same time + that the powers of the general government will be worse administered + than those of the State government, there seems to be no room for + the presumption of ill-will, disaffection, or opposition in the + people. I believe it may be laid down as a general rule that their + confidence in and obedience to a government will commonly be + proportioned to the goodness or badness of its administration. It + must be admitted that there are exceptions to this rule; but these + exceptions depend so entirely on accidental causes, that they cannot + be considered as having any relation to the intrinsic merits or + demerits of a constitution. These can only be judged of by general + principles and maxims. +Various reasons have been suggested, in the course of these + papers, to induce a probability that the general government will be + better administered than the particular governments; the principal + of which reasons are that the extension of the spheres of election + will present a greater option, or latitude of choice, to the people; + that through the medium of the State legislatures which are select + bodies of men, and which are to appoint the members of the national + Senate there is reason to expect that this branch will generally be + composed with peculiar care and judgment; that these circumstances + promise greater knowledge and more extensive information in the + national councils, and that they will be less apt to be tainted by + the spirit of faction, and more out of the reach of those occasional + ill-humors, or temporary prejudices and propensities, which, in + smaller societies, frequently contaminate the public councils, beget + injustice and oppression of a part of the community, and engender + schemes which, though they gratify a momentary inclination or + desire, terminate in general distress, dissatisfaction, and disgust. + Several additional reasons of considerable force, to fortify that + probability, will occur when we come to survey, with a more critical + eye, the interior structure of the edifice which we are invited to + erect. It will be sufficient here to remark, that until + satisfactory reasons can be assigned to justify an opinion, that the + federal government is likely to be administered in such a manner as + to render it odious or contemptible to the people, there can be no + reasonable foundation for the supposition that the laws of the Union + will meet with any greater obstruction from them, or will stand in + need of any other methods to enforce their execution, than the laws + of the particular members. +The hope of impunity is a strong incitement to sedition; the + dread of punishment, a proportionably strong discouragement to it. + Will not the government of the Union, which, if possessed of a due + degree of power, can call to its aid the collective resources of the + whole Confederacy, be more likely to repress the FORMER sentiment + and to inspire the LATTER, than that of a single State, which can + only command the resources within itself? A turbulent faction in a + State may easily suppose itself able to contend with the friends to + the government in that State; but it can hardly be so infatuated as + to imagine itself a match for the combined efforts of the Union. If + this reflection be just, there is less danger of resistance from + irregular combinations of individuals to the authority of the + Confederacy than to that of a single member. +I will, in this place, hazard an observation, which will not be + the less just because to some it may appear new; which is, that the + more the operations of the national authority are intermingled in + the ordinary exercise of government, the more the citizens are + accustomed to meet with it in the common occurrences of their + political life, the more it is familiarized to their sight and to + their feelings, the further it enters into those objects which touch + the most sensible chords and put in motion the most active springs + of the human heart, the greater will be the probability that it will + conciliate the respect and attachment of the community. Man is very + much a creature of habit. A thing that rarely strikes his senses + will generally have but little influence upon his mind. A + government continually at a distance and out of sight can hardly be + expected to interest the sensations of the people. The inference + is, that the authority of the Union, and the affections of the + citizens towards it, will be strengthened, rather than weakened, by + its extension to what are called matters of internal concern; and + will have less occasion to recur to force, in proportion to the + familiarity and comprehensiveness of its agency. The more it + circulates through those channls and currents in which the passions + of mankind naturally flow, the less will it require the aid of the + violent and perilous expedients of compulsion. +One thing, at all events, must be evident, that a government + like the one proposed would bid much fairer to avoid the necessity + of using force, than that species of league contend for by most of + its opponents; the authority of which should only operate upon the + States in their political or collective capacities. It has been + shown that in such a Confederacy there can be no sanction for the + laws but force; that frequent delinquencies in the members are the + natural offspring of the very frame of the government; and that as + often as these happen, they can only be redressed, if at all, by war + and violence. +The plan reported by the convention, by extending the authority + of the federal head to the individual citizens of the several + States, will enable the government to employ the ordinary magistracy + of each, in the execution of its laws. It is easy to perceive that + this will tend to destroy, in the common apprehension, all + distinction between the sources from which they might proceed; and + will give the federal government the same advantage for securing a + due obedience to its authority which is enjoyed by the government of + each State, in addition to the influence on public opinion which + will result from the important consideration of its having power to + call to its assistance and support the resources of the whole Union. + It merits particular attention in this place, that the laws of the + Confederacy, as to the ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE objects of its + jurisdiction, will become the SUPREME LAW of the land; to the + observance of which all officers, legislative, executive, and + judicial, in each State, will be bound by the sanctity of an oath. + Thus the legislatures, courts, and magistrates, of the respective + members, will be incorporated into the operations of the national + government AS FAR AS ITS JUST AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY EXTENDS; + and will be rendered auxiliary to the enforcement of its laws.%n1%n + Any man who will pursue, by his own reflections, the consequences + of this situation, will perceive that there is good ground to + calculate upon a regular and peaceable execution of the laws of the + Union, if its powers are administered with a common share of + prudence. If we will arbitrarily suppose the contrary, we may + deduce any inferences we please from the supposition; for it is + certainly possible, by an injudicious exercise of the authorities of + the best government that ever was, or ever can be instituted, to + provoke and precipitate the people into the wildest excesses. But + though the adversaries of the proposed Constitution should presume + that the national rulers would be insensible to the motives of + public good, or to the obligations of duty, I would still ask them + how the interests of ambition, or the views of encroachment, can be + promoted by such a conduct? +PUBLIUS. +FNA1@@1 The sophistry which has been employed to show that this will + tend to the destruction of the State governments, will, in its will, + in its proper place, be fully detected. + + +FEDERALIST No. 28 + +The Same Subject Continued +(The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to + the Common Defense Considered) +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THAT there may happen cases in which the national government may + be necessitated to resort to force, cannot be denied. Our own + experience has corroborated the lessons taught by the examples of + other nations; that emergencies of this sort will sometimes arise + in all societies, however constituted; that seditions and + insurrections are, unhappily, maladies as inseparable from the body + politic as tumors and eruptions from the natural body; that the + idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we + have been told is the only admissible principle of republican + government), has no place but in the reveries of those political + doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental + instruction. +Should such emergencies at any time happen under the national + government, there could be no remedy but force. The means to be + employed must be proportioned to the extent of the mischief. If it + should be a slight commotion in a small part of a State, the militia + of the residue would be adequate to its suppression; and the + national presumption is that they would be ready to do their duty. + An insurrection, whatever may be its immediate cause, eventually + endangers all government. Regard to the public peace, if not to the + rights of the Union, would engage the citizens to whom the contagion + had not communicated itself to oppose the insurgents; and if the + general government should be found in practice conducive to the + prosperity and felicity of the people, it were irrational to believe + that they would be disinclined to its support. +If, on the contrary, the insurrection should pervade a whole + State, or a principal part of it, the employment of a different kind + of force might become unavoidable. It appears that Massachusetts + found it necessary to raise troops for repressing the disorders + within that State; that Pennsylvania, from the mere apprehension of + commotions among a part of her citizens, has thought proper to have + recourse to the same measure. Suppose the State of New York had + been inclined to re-establish her lost jurisdiction over the + inhabitants of Vermont, could she have hoped for success in such an + enterprise from the efforts of the militia alone? Would she not + have been compelled to raise and to maintain a more regular force + for the execution of her design? If it must then be admitted that + the necessity of recurring to a force different from the militia, in + cases of this extraordinary nature, is applicable to the State + governments themselves, why should the possibility, that the + national government might be under a like necessity, in similar + extremities, be made an objection to its existence? Is it not + surprising that men who declare an attachment to the Union in the + abstract, should urge as an objection to the proposed Constitution + what applies with tenfold weight to the plan for which they contend; + and what, as far as it has any foundation in truth, is an + inevitable consequence of civil society upon an enlarged scale? Who + would not prefer that possibility to the unceasing agitations and + frequent revolutions which are the continual scourges of petty + republics? +Let us pursue this examination in another light. Suppose, in + lieu of one general system, two, or three, or even four + Confederacies were to be formed, would not the same difficulty + oppose itself to the operations of either of these Confederacies? + Would not each of them be exposed to the same casualties; and when + these happened, be obliged to have recourse to the same expedients + for upholding its authority which are objected to in a government + for all the States? Would the militia, in this supposition, be more + ready or more able to support the federal authority than in the case + of a general union? All candid and intelligent men must, upon due + consideration, acknowledge that the principle of the objection is + equally applicable to either of the two cases; and that whether we + have one government for all the States, or different governments for + different parcels of them, or even if there should be an entire + separation of the States, there might sometimes be a necessity to + make use of a force constituted differently from the militia, to + preserve the peace of the community and to maintain the just + authority of the laws against those violent invasions of them which + amount to insurrections and rebellions. +Independent of all other reasonings upon the subject, it is a + full answer to those who require a more peremptory provision against + military establishments in time of peace, to say that the whole + power of the proposed government is to be in the hands of the + representatives of the people. This is the essential, and, after + all, only efficacious security for the rights and privileges of the + people, which is attainable in civil society.%n1%n +If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, + there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original + right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of + government, and which against the usurpations of the national + rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success + than against those of the rulers of an individual state. In a + single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become + usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which + it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no + regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously + to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except + in their courage and despair. The usurpers, clothed with the forms + of legal authority, can too often crush the opposition in embryo. + The smaller the extent of the territory, the more difficult will it + be for the people to form a regular or systematic plan of + opposition, and the more easy will it be to defeat their early + efforts. Intelligence can be more speedily obtained of their + preparations and movements, and the military force in the possession + of the usurpers can be more rapidly directed against the part where + the opposition has begun. In this situation there must be a + peculiar coincidence of circumstances to insure success to the + popular resistance. +The obstacles to usurpation and the facilities of resistance + increase with the increased extent of the state, provided the + citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them. + The natural strength of the people in a large community, in + proportion to the artificial strength of the government, is greater + than in a small, and of course more competent to a struggle with the + attempts of the government to establish a tyranny. But in a + confederacy the people, without exaggeration, may be said to be + entirely the masters of their own fate. Power being almost always + the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand + ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these + will have the same disposition towards the general government. The + people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly + make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they + can make use of the other as the instrument of redress. How wise + will it be in them by cherishing the union to preserve to themselves + an advantage which can never be too highly prized! +It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, + that the State governments will, in all possible contingencies, + afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by + the national authority. Projects of usurpation cannot be masked + under pretenses so likely to escape the penetration of select bodies + of men, as of the people at large. The legislatures will have + better means of information. They can discover the danger at a + distance; and possessing all the organs of civil power, and the + confidence of the people, they can at once adopt a regular plan of + opposition, in which they can combine all the resources of the + community. They can readily communicate with each other in the + different States, and unite their common forces for the protection + of their common liberty. +The great extent of the country is a further security. We have + already experienced its utility against the attacks of a foreign + power. And it would have precisely the same effect against the + enterprises of ambitious rulers in the national councils. If the + federal army should be able to quell the resistance of one State, + the distant States would have it in their power to make head with + fresh forces. The advantages obtained in one place must be + abandoned to subdue the opposition in others; and the moment the + part which had been reduced to submission was left to itself, its + efforts would be renewed, and its resistance revive. +We should recollect that the extent of the military force must, + at all events, be regulated by the resources of the country. For a + long time to come, it will not be possible to maintain a large army; + and as the means of doing this increase, the population and natural + strength of the community will proportionably increase. When will + the time arrive that the federal government can raise and maintain + an army capable of erecting a despotism over the great body of the + people of an immense empire, who are in a situation, through the + medium of their State governments, to take measures for their own + defense, with all the celerity, regularity, and system of + independent nations? The apprehension may be considered as a + disease, for which there can be found no cure in the resources of + argument and reasoning. +PUBLIUS. +FNA1@@1 Its full efficacy will be examined hereafter. + + +FEDERALIST No. 29 + +Concerning the Militia +From the Daily Advertiser. +Thursday, January 10, 1788 + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE power of regulating the militia, and of commanding its + services in times of insurrection and invasion are natural incidents + to the duties of superintending the common defense, and of watching + over the internal peace of the Confederacy. +It requires no skill in the science of war to discern that + uniformity in the organization and discipline of the militia would + be attended with the most beneficial effects, whenever they were + called into service for the public defense. It would enable them to + discharge the duties of the camp and of the field with mutual + intelligence and concert an advantage of peculiar moment in the + operations of an army; and it would fit them much sooner to acquire + the degree of proficiency in military functions which would be + essential to their usefulness. This desirable uniformity can only + be accomplished by confiding the regulation of the militia to the + direction of the national authority. It is, therefore, with the + most evident propriety, that the plan of the convention proposes to + empower the Union ``to provide for organizing, arming, and + disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may + be employed in the service of the United States, RESERVING TO THE + STATES RESPECTIVELY THE APPOINTMENT OF THE OFFICERS, AND THE + AUTHORITY OF TRAINING THE MILITIA ACCORDING TO THE DISCIPLINE + PRESCRIBED BY CONGRESS.'' +Of the different grounds which have been taken in opposition to + the plan of the convention, there is none that was so little to have + been expected, or is so untenable in itself, as the one from which + this particular provision has been attacked. If a well-regulated + militia be the most natural defense of a free country, it ought + certainly to be under the regulation and at the disposal of that + body which is constituted the guardian of the national security. If + standing armies are dangerous to liberty, an efficacious power over + the militia, in the body to whose care the protection of the State + is committed, ought, as far as possible, to take away the inducement + and the pretext to such unfriendly institutions. If the federal + government can command the aid of the militia in those emergencies + which call for the military arm in support of the civil magistrate, + it can the better dispense with the employment of a different kind + of force. If it cannot avail itself of the former, it will be + obliged to recur to the latter. To render an army unnecessary, will + be a more certain method of preventing its existence than a thousand + prohibitions upon paper. +In order to cast an odium upon the power of calling forth the + militia to execute the laws of the Union, it has been remarked that + there is nowhere any provision in the proposed Constitution for + calling out the POSSE COMITATUS, to assist the magistrate in the + execution of his duty, whence it has been inferred, that military + force was intended to be his only auxiliary. There is a striking + incoherence in the objections which have appeared, and sometimes + even from the same quarter, not much calculated to inspire a very + favorable opinion of the sincerity or fair dealing of their authors. + The same persons who tell us in one breath, that the powers of the + federal government will be despotic and unlimited, inform us in the + next, that it has not authority sufficient even to call out the + POSSE COMITATUS. The latter, fortunately, is as much short of the + truth as the former exceeds it. It would be as absurd to doubt, + that a right to pass all laws NECESSARY AND PROPER to execute its + declared powers, would include that of requiring the assistance of + the citizens to the officers who may be intrusted with the execution + of those laws, as it would be to believe, that a right to enact laws + necessary and proper for the imposition and collection of taxes + would involve that of varying the rules of descent and of the + alienation of landed property, or of abolishing the trial by jury in + cases relating to it. It being therefore evident that the + supposition of a want of power to require the aid of the POSSE + COMITATUS is entirely destitute of color, it will follow, that the + conclusion which has been drawn from it, in its application to the + authority of the federal government over the militia, is as uncandid + as it is illogical. What reason could there be to infer, that force + was intended to be the sole instrument of authority, merely because + there is a power to make use of it when necessary? What shall we + think of the motives which could induce men of sense to reason in + this manner? How shall we prevent a conflict between charity and + judgment? +By a curious refinement upon the spirit of republican jealousy, + we are even taught to apprehend danger from the militia itself, in + the hands of the federal government. It is observed that select + corps may be formed, composed of the young and ardent, who may be + rendered subservient to the views of arbitrary power. What plan for + the regulation of the militia may be pursued by the national + government, is impossible to be foreseen. But so far from viewing + the matter in the same light with those who object to select corps + as dangerous, were the Constitution ratified, and were I to deliver + my sentiments to a member of the federal legislature from this State + on the subject of a militia establishment, I should hold to him, in + substance, the following discourse: +``The project of disciplining all the militia of the United + States is as futile as it would be injurious, if it were capable of + being carried into execution. A tolerable expertness in military + movements is a business that requires time and practice. It is not + a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of it. + To oblige the great body of the yeomanry, and of the other classes + of the citizens, to be under arms for the purpose of going through + military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary to + acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the + character of a well-regulated militia, would be a real grievance to + the people, and a serious public inconvenience and loss. It would + form an annual deduction from the productive labor of the country, + to an amount which, calculating upon the present numbers of the + people, would not fall far short of the whole expense of the civil + establishments of all the States. To attempt a thing which would + abridge the mass of labor and industry to so considerable an extent, + would be unwise: and the experiment, if made, could not succeed, + because it would not long be endured. Little more can reasonably be + aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them + properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not + neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in + the course of a year. +``But though the scheme of disciplining the whole nation must be + abandoned as mischievous or impracticable; yet it is a matter of + the utmost importance that a well-digested plan should, as soon as + possible, be adopted for the proper establishment of the militia. + The attention of the government ought particularly to be directed + to the formation of a select corps of moderate extent, upon such + principles as will really fit them for service in case of need. By + thus circumscribing the plan, it will be possible to have an + excellent body of well-trained militia, ready to take the field + whenever the defense of the State shall require it. This will not + only lessen the call for military establishments, but if + circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an + army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the + liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, + little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of + arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their + fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be + devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against + it, if it should exist.'' +Thus differently from the adversaries of the proposed + Constitution should I reason on the same subject, deducing arguments + of safety from the very sources which they represent as fraught with + danger and perdition. But how the national legislature may reason + on the point, is a thing which neither they nor I can foresee. +There is something so far-fetched and so extravagant in the idea + of danger to liberty from the militia, that one is at a loss whether + to treat it with gravity or with raillery; whether to consider it + as a mere trial of skill, like the paradoxes of rhetoricians; as a + disingenuous artifice to instil prejudices at any price; or as the + serious offspring of political fanaticism. Where in the name of + common-sense, are our fears to end if we may not trust our sons, our + brothers, our neighbors, our fellow-citizens? What shadow of danger + can there be from men who are daily mingling with the rest of their + countrymen and who participate with them in the same feelings, + sentiments, habits and interests? What reasonable cause of + apprehension can be inferred from a power in the Union to prescribe + regulations for the militia, and to command its services when + necessary, while the particular States are to have the SOLE AND + EXCLUSIVE APPOINTMENT OF THE OFFICERS? If it were possible + seriously to indulge a jealousy of the militia upon any conceivable + establishment under the federal government, the circumstance of the + officers being in the appointment of the States ought at once to + extinguish it. There can be no doubt that this circumstance will + always secure to them a preponderating influence over the militia. +In reading many of the publications against the Constitution, a + man is apt to imagine that he is perusing some ill-written tale or + romance, which instead of natural and agreeable images, exhibits to + the mind nothing but frightful and distorted shapes ``Gorgons, hydras, + and chimeras dire''; discoloring and disfiguring whatever it represents, + and transforming everything it touches into a monster. +A sample of this is to be observed in the exaggerated and + improbable suggestions which have taken place respecting the power + of calling for the services of the militia. That of New Hampshire + is to be marched to Georgia, of Georgia to New Hampshire, of New + York to Kentucky, and of Kentucky to Lake Champlain. Nay, the debts + due to the French and Dutch are to be paid in militiamen instead of + louis d'ors and ducats. At one moment there is to be a large army + to lay prostrate the liberties of the people; at another moment the + militia of Virginia are to be dragged from their homes five or six + hundred miles, to tame the republican contumacy of Massachusetts; + and that of Massachusetts is to be transported an equal distance to + subdue the refractory haughtiness of the aristocratic Virginians. + Do the persons who rave at this rate imagine that their art or + their eloquence can impose any conceits or absurdities upon the + people of America for infallible truths? +If there should be an army to be made use of as the engine of + despotism, what need of the militia? If there should be no army, + whither would the militia, irritated by being called upon to + undertake a distant and hopeless expedition, for the purpose of + riveting the chains of slavery upon a part of their countrymen, + direct their course, but to the seat of the tyrants, who had + meditated so foolish as well as so wicked a project, to crush them + in their imagined intrenchments of power, and to make them an + example of the just vengeance of an abused and incensed people? Is + this the way in which usurpers stride to dominion over a numerous + and enlightened nation? Do they begin by exciting the detestation + of the very instruments of their intended usurpations? Do they + usually commence their career by wanton and disgustful acts of + power, calculated to answer no end, but to draw upon themselves + universal hatred and execration? Are suppositions of this sort the + sober admonitions of discerning patriots to a discerning people? Or + are they the inflammatory ravings of incendiaries or distempered + enthusiasts? If we were even to suppose the national rulers + actuated by the most ungovernable ambition, it is impossible to + believe that they would employ such preposterous means to accomplish + their designs. +In times of insurrection, or invasion, it would be natural and + proper that the militia of a neighboring State should be marched + into another, to resist a common enemy, or to guard the republic + against the violence of faction or sedition. This was frequently + the case, in respect to the first object, in the course of the late + war; and this mutual succor is, indeed, a principal end of our + political association. If the power of affording it be placed under + the direction of the Union, there will be no danger of a supine and + listless inattention to the dangers of a neighbor, till its near + approach had superadded the incitements of selfpreservation to the + too feeble impulses of duty and sympathy. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 30 + +Concerning the General Power of Taxation +From the New York Packet. +Friday, December 28, 1787. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT HAS been already observed that the federal government ought + to possess the power of providing for the support of the national + forces; in which proposition was intended to be included the + expense of raising troops, of building and equipping fleets, and all + other expenses in any wise connected with military arrangements and + operations. But these are not the only objects to which the + jurisdiction of the Union, in respect to revenue, must necessarily + be empowered to extend. It must embrace a provision for the support + of the national civil list; for the payment of the national debts + contracted, or that may be contracted; and, in general, for all + those matters which will call for disbursements out of the national + treasury. The conclusion is, that there must be interwoven, in the + frame of the government, a general power of taxation, in one shape + or another. +Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of + the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and + enables it to perform its most essential functions. A complete + power, therefore, to procure a regular and adequate supply of it, as + far as the resources of the community will permit, may be regarded + as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution. From a + deficiency in this particular, one of two evils must ensue; either + the people must be subjected to continual plunder, as a substitute + for a more eligible mode of supplying the public wants, or the + government must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of + time, perish. +In the Ottoman or Turkish empire, the sovereign, though in other + respects absolute master of the lives and fortunes of his subjects, + has no right to impose a new tax. The consequence is that he + permits the bashaws or governors of provinces to pillage the people + without mercy; and, in turn, squeezes out of them the sums of which + he stands in need, to satisfy his own exigencies and those of the + state. In America, from a like cause, the government of the Union + has gradually dwindled into a state of decay, approaching nearly to + annihilation. Who can doubt, that the happiness of the people in + both countries would be promoted by competent authorities in the + proper hands, to provide the revenues which the necessities of the + public might require? +The present Confederation, feeble as it is intended to repose in + the United States, an unlimited power of providing for the pecuniary + wants of the Union. But proceeding upon an erroneous principle, it + has been done in such a manner as entirely to have frustrated the + intention. Congress, by the articles which compose that compact (as + has already been stated), are authorized to ascertain and call for + any sums of money necessary, in their judgment, to the service of + the United States; and their requisitions, if conformable to the + rule of apportionment, are in every constitutional sense obligatory + upon the States. These have no right to question the propriety of + the demand; no discretion beyond that of devising the ways and + means of furnishing the sums demanded. But though this be strictly + and truly the case; though the assumption of such a right would be + an infringement of the articles of Union; though it may seldom or + never have been avowedly claimed, yet in practice it has been + constantly exercised, and would continue to be so, as long as the + revenues of the Confederacy should remain dependent on the + intermediate agency of its members. What the consequences of this + system have been, is within the knowledge of every man the least + conversant in our public affairs, and has been amply unfolded in + different parts of these inquiries. It is this which has chiefly + contributed to reduce us to a situation, which affords ample cause + both of mortification to ourselves, and of triumph to our enemies. +What remedy can there be for this situation, but in a change of + the system which has produced it in a change of the fallacious and + delusive system of quotas and requisitions? What substitute can + there be imagined for this ignis fatuus in finance, but that of + permitting the national government to raise its own revenues by the + ordinary methods of taxation authorized in every well-ordered + constitution of civil government? Ingenious men may declaim with + plausibility on any subject; but no human ingenuity can point out + any other expedient to rescue us from the inconveniences and + embarrassments naturally resulting from defective supplies of the + public treasury. +The more intelligent adversaries of the new Constitution admit + the force of this reasoning; but they qualify their admission by a + distinction between what they call INTERNAL and EXTERNAL taxation. + The former they would reserve to the State governments; the + latter, which they explain into commercial imposts, or rather duties + on imported articles, they declare themselves willing to concede to + the federal head. This distinction, however, would violate the + maxim of good sense and sound policy, which dictates that every + POWER ought to be in proportion to its OBJECT; and would still + leave the general government in a kind of tutelage to the State + governments, inconsistent with every idea of vigor or efficiency. + Who can pretend that commercial imposts are, or would be, alone + equal to the present and future exigencies of the Union? Taking + into the account the existing debt, foreign and domestic, upon any + plan of extinguishment which a man moderately impressed with the + importance of public justice and public credit could approve, in + addition to the establishments which all parties will acknowledge to + be necessary, we could not reasonably flatter ourselves, that this + resource alone, upon the most improved scale, would even suffice for + its present necessities. Its future necessities admit not of + calculation or limitation; and upon the principle, more than once + adverted to, the power of making provision for them as they arise + ought to be equally unconfined. I believe it may be regarded as a + position warranted by the history of mankind, that, IN THE USUAL + PROGRESS OF THINGS, THE NECESSITIES OF A NATION, IN EVERY STAGE OF + ITS EXISTENCE, WILL BE FOUND AT LEAST EQUAL TO ITS RESOURCES. +To say that deficiencies may be provided for by requisitions + upon the States, is on the one hand to acknowledge that this system + cannot be depended upon, and on the other hand to depend upon it for + every thing beyond a certain limit. Those who have carefully + attended to its vices and deformities as they have been exhibited by + experience or delineated in the course of these papers, must feel + invincible repugnancy to trusting the national interests in any + degree to its operation. Its inevitable tendency, whenever it is + brought into activity, must be to enfeeble the Union, and sow the + seeds of discord and contention between the federal head and its + members, and between the members themselves. Can it be expected + that the deficiencies would be better supplied in this mode than the + total wants of the Union have heretofore been supplied in the same + mode? It ought to be recollected that if less will be required from + the States, they will have proportionably less means to answer the + demand. If the opinions of those who contend for the distinction + which has been mentioned were to be received as evidence of truth, + one would be led to conclude that there was some known point in the + economy of national affairs at which it would be safe to stop and to + say: Thus far the ends of public happiness will be promoted by + supplying the wants of government, and all beyond this is unworthy + of our care or anxiety. How is it possible that a government half + supplied and always necessitous, can fulfill the purposes of its + institution, can provide for the security, advance the prosperity, + or support the reputation of the commonwealth? How can it ever + possess either energy or stability, dignity or credit, confidence at + home or respectability abroad? How can its administration be any + thing else than a succession of expedients temporizing, impotent, + disgraceful? How will it be able to avoid a frequent sacrifice of + its engagements to immediate necessity? How can it undertake or + execute any liberal or enlarged plans of public good? +Let us attend to what would be the effects of this situation in + the very first war in which we should happen to be engaged. We will + presume, for argument's sake, that the revenue arising from the + impost duties answers the purposes of a provision for the public + debt and of a peace establishment for the Union. Thus + circumstanced, a war breaks out. What would be the probable conduct + of the government in such an emergency? Taught by experience that + proper dependence could not be placed on the success of + requisitions, unable by its own authority to lay hold of fresh + resources, and urged by considerations of national danger, would it + not be driven to the expedient of diverting the funds already + appropriated from their proper objects to the defense of the State? + It is not easy to see how a step of this kind could be avoided; + and if it should be taken, it is evident that it would prove the + destruction of public credit at the very moment that it was becoming + essential to the public safety. To imagine that at such a crisis + credit might be dispensed with, would be the extreme of infatuation. + In the modern system of war, nations the most wealthy are obliged + to have recourse to large loans. A country so little opulent as + ours must feel this necessity in a much stronger degree. But who + would lend to a government that prefaced its overtures for borrowing + by an act which demonstrated that no reliance could be placed on the + steadiness of its measures for paying? The loans it might be able + to procure would be as limited in their extent as burdensome in + their conditions. They would be made upon the same principles that + usurers commonly lend to bankrupt and fraudulent debtors, with a + sparing hand and at enormous premiums. +It may perhaps be imagined that, from the scantiness of the + resources of the country, the necessity of diverting the established + funds in the case supposed would exist, though the national + government should possess an unrestrained power of taxation. But + two considerations will serve to quiet all apprehension on this + head: one is, that we are sure the resources of the community, in + their full extent, will be brought into activity for the benefit of + the Union; the other is, that whatever deficiences there may be, + can without difficulty be supplied by loans. +The power of creating new funds upon new objects of taxation, by + its own authority, would enable the national government to borrow as + far as its necessities might require. Foreigners, as well as the + citizens of America, could then reasonably repose confidence in its + engagements; but to depend upon a government that must itself + depend upon thirteen other governments for the means of fulfilling + its contracts, when once its situation is clearly understood, would + require a degree of credulity not often to be met with in the + pecuniary transactions of mankind, and little reconcilable with the + usual sharp-sightedness of avarice. +Reflections of this kind may have trifling weight with men who + hope to see realized in America the halcyon scenes of the poetic or + fabulous age; but to those who believe we are likely to experience + a common portion of the vicissitudes and calamities which have + fallen to the lot of other nations, they must appear entitled to + serious attention. Such men must behold the actual situation of + their country with painful solicitude, and deprecate the evils which + ambition or revenge might, with too much facility, inflict upon it. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 31 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the General Power of Taxation) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, January 1, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IN DISQUISITIONS of every kind, there are certain primary + truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasonings + must depend. These contain an internal evidence which, antecedent + to all reflection or combination, commands the assent of the mind. + Where it produces not this effect, it must proceed either from some + defect or disorder in the organs of perception, or from the + influence of some strong interest, or passion, or prejudice. Of + this nature are the maxims in geometry, that ``the whole is greater + than its part; things equal to the same are equal to one another; + two straight lines cannot enclose a space; and all right angles + are equal to each other.'' Of the same nature are these other + maxims in ethics and politics, that there cannot be an effect + without a cause; that the means ought to be proportioned to the + end; that every power ought to be commensurate with its object; + that there ought to be no limitation of a power destined to effect + a purpose which is itself incapable of limitation. And there are + other truths in the two latter sciences which, if they cannot + pretend to rank in the class of axioms, are yet such direct + inferences from them, and so obvious in themselves, and so agreeable + to the natural and unsophisticated dictates of common-sense, that + they challenge the assent of a sound and unbiased mind, with a + degree of force and conviction almost equally irresistible. +The objects of geometrical inquiry are so entirely abstracted + from those pursuits which stir up and put in motion the unruly + passions of the human heart, that mankind, without difficulty, adopt + not only the more simple theorems of the science, but even those + abstruse paradoxes which, however they may appear susceptible of + demonstration, are at variance with the natural conceptions which + the mind, without the aid of philosophy, would be led to entertain + upon the subject. The INFINITE DIVISIBILITY of matter, or, in other + words, the INFINITE divisibility of a FINITE thing, extending even + to the minutest atom, is a point agreed among geometricians, though + not less incomprehensible to common-sense than any of those + mysteries in religion, against which the batteries of infidelity + have been so industriously leveled. +But in the sciences of morals and politics, men are found far + less tractable. To a certain degree, it is right and useful that + this should be the case. Caution and investigation are a necessary + armor against error and imposition. But this untractableness may be + carried too far, and may degenerate into obstinacy, perverseness, or + disingenuity. Though it cannot be pretended that the principles of + moral and political knowledge have, in general, the same degree of + certainty with those of the mathematics, yet they have much better + claims in this respect than, to judge from the conduct of men in + particular situations, we should be disposed to allow them. The + obscurity is much oftener in the passions and prejudices of the + reasoner than in the subject. Men, upon too many occasions, do not + give their own understandings fair play; but, yielding to some + untoward bias, they entangle themselves in words and confound + themselves in subtleties. +How else could it happen (if we admit the objectors to be + sincere in their opposition), that positions so clear as those which + manifest the necessity of a general power of taxation in the + government of the Union, should have to encounter any adversaries + among men of discernment? Though these positions have been + elsewhere fully stated, they will perhaps not be improperly + recapitulated in this place, as introductory to an examination of + what may have been offered by way of objection to them. They are in + substance as follows: +A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to + the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to + the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, + free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to + the sense of the people. +As the duties of superintending the national defense and of + securing the public peace against foreign or domestic violence + involve a provision for casualties and dangers to which no possible + limits can be assigned, the power of making that provision ought to + know no other bounds than the exigencies of the nation and the + resources of the community. +As revenue is the essential engine by which the means of + answering the national exigencies must be procured, the power of + procuring that article in its full extent must necessarily be + comprehended in that of providing for those exigencies. +As theory and practice conspire to prove that the power of + procuring revenue is unavailing when exercised over the States in + their collective capacities, the federal government must of + necessity be invested with an unqualified power of taxation in the + ordinary modes. +Did not experience evince the contrary, it would be natural to + conclude that the propriety of a general power of taxation in the + national government might safely be permitted to rest on the + evidence of these propositions, unassisted by any additional + arguments or illustrations. But we find, in fact, that the + antagonists of the proposed Constitution, so far from acquiescing in + their justness or truth, seem to make their principal and most + zealous effort against this part of the plan. It may therefore be + satisfactory to analyze the arguments with which they combat it. +Those of them which have been most labored with that view, seem + in substance to amount to this: ``It is not true, because the + exigencies of the Union may not be susceptible of limitation, that + its power of laying taxes ought to be unconfined. Revenue is as + requisite to the purposes of the local administrations as to those + of the Union; and the former are at least of equal importance with + the latter to the happiness of the people. It is, therefore, as + necessary that the State governments should be able to command the + means of supplying their wants, as that the national government + should possess the like faculty in respect to the wants of the Union. + But an indefinite power of taxation in the LATTER might, and + probably would in time, deprive the FORMER of the means of providing + for their own necessities; and would subject them entirely to the + mercy of the national legislature. As the laws of the Union are to + become the supreme law of the land, as it is to have power to pass + all laws that may be NECESSARY for carrying into execution the + authorities with which it is proposed to vest it, the national + government might at any time abolish the taxes imposed for State + objects upon the pretense of an interference with its own. It might + allege a necessity of doing this in order to give efficacy to the + national revenues. And thus all the resources of taxation might by + degrees become the subjects of federal monopoly, to the entire + exclusion and destruction of the State governments.'' +This mode of reasoning appears sometimes to turn upon the + supposition of usurpation in the national government; at other + times it seems to be designed only as a deduction from the + constitutional operation of its intended powers. It is only in the + latter light that it can be admitted to have any pretensions to + fairness. The moment we launch into conjectures about the + usurpations of the federal government, we get into an unfathomable + abyss, and fairly put ourselves out of the reach of all reasoning. + Imagination may range at pleasure till it gets bewildered amidst + the labyrinths of an enchanted castle, and knows not on which side + to turn to extricate itself from the perplexities into which it has + so rashly adventured. Whatever may be the limits or modifications + of the powers of the Union, it is easy to imagine an endless train + of possible dangers; and by indulging an excess of jealousy and + timidity, we may bring ourselves to a state of absolute scepticism + and irresolution. I repeat here what I have observed in substance + in another place, that all observations founded upon the danger of + usurpation ought to be referred to the composition and structure of + the government, not to the nature or extent of its powers. The + State governments, by their original constitutions, are invested + with complete sovereignty. In what does our security consist + against usurpation from that quarter? Doubtless in the manner of + their formation, and in a due dependence of those who are to + administer them upon the people. If the proposed construction of + the federal government be found, upon an impartial examination of + it, to be such as to afford, to a proper extent, the same species of + security, all apprehensions on the score of usurpation ought to be + discarded. +It should not be forgotten that a disposition in the State + governments to encroach upon the rights of the Union is quite as + probable as a disposition in the Union to encroach upon the rights + of the State governments. What side would be likely to prevail in + such a conflict, must depend on the means which the contending + parties could employ toward insuring success. As in republics + strength is always on the side of the people, and as there are + weighty reasons to induce a belief that the State governments will + commonly possess most influence over them, the natural conclusion is + that such contests will be most apt to end to the disadvantage of + the Union; and that there is greater probability of encroachments + by the members upon the federal head, than by the federal head upon + the members. But it is evident that all conjectures of this kind + must be extremely vague and fallible: and that it is by far the + safest course to lay them altogether aside, and to confine our + attention wholly to the nature and extent of the powers as they are + delineated in the Constitution. Every thing beyond this must be + left to the prudence and firmness of the people; who, as they will + hold the scales in their own hands, it is to be hoped, will always + take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the + general and the State governments. Upon this ground, which is + evidently the true one, it will not be difficult to obviate the + objections which have been made to an indefinite power of taxation + in the United States. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 32 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the General Power of Taxation) +From the Daily Advertiser. +Thursday, January 3, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +ALTHOUGH I am of opinion that there would be no real danger of + the consequences which seem to be apprehended to the State + governments from a power in the Union to control them in the levies + of money, because I am persuaded that the sense of the people, the + extreme hazard of provoking the resentments of the State + governments, and a conviction of the utility and necessity of local + administrations for local purposes, would be a complete barrier + against the oppressive use of such a power; yet I am willing here + to allow, in its full extent, the justness of the reasoning which + requires that the individual States should possess an independent + and uncontrollable authority to raise their own revenues for the + supply of their own wants. And making this concession, I affirm + that (with the sole exception of duties on imports and exports) they + would, under the plan of the convention, retain that authority in + the most absolute and unqualified sense; and that an attempt on the + part of the national government to abridge them in the exercise of + it, would be a violent assumption of power, unwarranted by any + article or clause of its Constitution. +An entire consolidation of the States into one complete national + sovereignty would imply an entire subordination of the parts; and + whatever powers might remain in them, would be altogether dependent + on the general will. But as the plan of the convention aims only at + a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would + clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, + and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United + States. This exclusive delegation, or rather this alienation, of + State sovereignty, would only exist in three cases: where the + Constitution in express terms granted an exclusive authority to the + Union; where it granted in one instance an authority to the Union, + and in another prohibited the States from exercising the like + authority; and where it granted an authority to the Union, to which + a similar authority in the States would be absolutely and totally + CONTRADICTORY and REPUGNANT. I use these terms to distinguish this + last case from another which might appear to resemble it, but which + would, in fact, be essentially different; I mean where the exercise + of a concurrent jurisdiction might be productive of occasional + interferences in the POLICY of any branch of administration, but + would not imply any direct contradiction or repugnancy in point of + constitutional authority. These three cases of exclusive + jurisdiction in the federal government may be exemplified by the + following instances: The last clause but one in the eighth section + of the first article provides expressly that Congress shall exercise + ``EXCLUSIVE LEGISLATION'' over the district to be appropriated as + the seat of government. This answers to the first case. The first + clause of the same section empowers Congress ``TO LAY AND COLLECT + TAXES, DUTIES, IMPOSTS AND EXCISES''; and the second clause of the + tenth section of the same article declares that, ``NO STATE SHALL, + without the consent of Congress, LAY ANY IMPOSTS OR DUTIES ON + IMPORTS OR EXPORTS, except for the purpose of executing its + inspection laws.'' Hence would result an exclusive power in the + Union to lay duties on imports and exports, with the particular + exception mentioned; but this power is abridged by another clause, + which declares that no tax or duty shall be laid on articles + exported from any State; in consequence of which qualification, it + now only extends to the DUTIES ON IMPORTS. This answers to the + second case. The third will be found in that clause which declares + that Congress shall have power ``to establish an UNIFORM RULE of + naturalization throughout the United States.'' This must + necessarily be exclusive; because if each State had power to + prescribe a DISTINCT RULE, there could not be a UNIFORM RULE. +A case which may perhaps be thought to resemble the latter, but + which is in fact widely different, affects the question immediately + under consideration. I mean the power of imposing taxes on all + articles other than exports and imports. This, I contend, is + manifestly a concurrent and coequal authority in the United States + and in the individual States. There is plainly no expression in the + granting clause which makes that power EXCLUSIVE in the Union. + There is no independent clause or sentence which prohibits the + States from exercising it. So far is this from being the case, that + a plain and conclusive argument to the contrary is to be deduced + from the restraint laid upon the States in relation to duties on + imports and exports. This restriction implies an admission that, if + it were not inserted, the States would possess the power it + excludes; and it implies a further admission, that as to all other + taxes, the authority of the States remains undiminished. In any + other view it would be both unnecessary and dangerous; it would be + unnecessary, because if the grant to the Union of the power of + laying such duties implied the exclusion of the States, or even + their subordination in this particular, there could be no need of + such a restriction; it would be dangerous, because the introduction + of it leads directly to the conclusion which has been mentioned, and + which, if the reasoning of the objectors be just, could not have + been intended; I mean that the States, in all cases to which the + restriction did not apply, would have a concurrent power of taxation + with the Union. The restriction in question amounts to what lawyers + call a NEGATIVE PREGNANT that is, a NEGATION of one thing, and an + AFFIRMANCE of another; a negation of the authority of the States to + impose taxes on imports and exports, and an affirmance of their + authority to impose them on all other articles. It would be mere + sophistry to argue that it was meant to exclude them ABSOLUTELY from + the imposition of taxes of the former kind, and to leave them at + liberty to lay others SUBJECT TO THE CONTROL of the national + legislature. The restraining or prohibitory clause only says, that + they shall not, WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF CONGRESS, lay such duties; + and if we are to understand this in the sense last mentioned, the + Constitution would then be made to introduce a formal provision for + the sake of a very absurd conclusion; which is, that the States, + WITH THE CONSENT of the national legislature, might tax imports and + exports; and that they might tax every other article, UNLESS + CONTROLLED by the same body. If this was the intention, why not + leave it, in the first instance, to what is alleged to be the + natural operation of the original clause, conferring a general power + of taxation upon the Union? It is evident that this could not have + been the intention, and that it will not bear a construction of the + kind. +As to a supposition of repugnancy between the power of taxation + in the States and in the Union, it cannot be supported in that sense + which would be requisite to work an exclusion of the States. It is, + indeed, possible that a tax might be laid on a particular article by + a State which might render it INEXPEDIENT that thus a further tax + should be laid on the same article by the Union; but it would not + imply a constitutional inability to impose a further tax. The + quantity of the imposition, the expediency or inexpediency of an + increase on either side, would be mutually questions of prudence; + but there would be involved no direct contradiction of power. The + particular policy of the national and of the State systems of + finance might now and then not exactly coincide, and might require + reciprocal forbearances. It is not, however a mere possibility of + inconvenience in the exercise of powers, but an immediate + constitutional repugnancy that can by implication alienate and + extinguish a pre-existing right of sovereignty. +The necessity of a concurrent jurisdiction in certain cases + results from the division of the sovereign power; and the rule that + all authorities, of which the States are not explicitly divested in + favor of the Union, remain with them in full vigor, is not a + theoretical consequence of that division, but is clearly admitted by + the whole tenor of the instrument which contains the articles of the + proposed Constitution. We there find that, notwithstanding the + affirmative grants of general authorities, there has been the most + pointed care in those cases where it was deemed improper that the + like authorities should reside in the States, to insert negative + clauses prohibiting the exercise of them by the States. The tenth + section of the first article consists altogether of such provisions. + This circumstance is a clear indication of the sense of the + convention, and furnishes a rule of interpretation out of the body + of the act, which justifies the position I have advanced and refutes + every hypothesis to the contrary. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 33 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the General Power of Taxation) +From the Daily Advertiser. +January 3, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE residue of the argument against the provisions of the + Constitution in respect to taxation is ingrafted upon the following + clause. The last clause of the eighth section of the first article + of the plan under consideration authorizes the national legislature + ``to make all laws which shall be NECESSARY and PROPER for carrying + into execution THE POWERS by that Constitution vested in the + government of the United States, or in any department or officer + thereof''; and the second clause of the sixth article declares, + ``that the Constitution and the laws of the United States made IN + PURSUANCE THEREOF, and the treaties made by their authority shall be + the SUPREME LAW of the land, any thing in the constitution or laws + of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.'' +These two clauses have been the source of much virulent + invective and petulant declamation against the proposed Constitution. + They have been held up to the people in all the exaggerated colors + of misrepresentation as the pernicious engines by which their local + governments were to be destroyed and their liberties exterminated; + as the hideous monster whose devouring jaws would spare neither sex + nor age, nor high nor low, nor sacred nor profane; and yet, strange + as it may appear, after all this clamor, to those who may not have + happened to contemplate them in the same light, it may be affirmed + with perfect confidence that the constitutional operation of the + intended government would be precisely the same, if these clauses + were entirely obliterated, as if they were repeated in every article. + They are only declaratory of a truth which would have resulted by + necessary and unavoidable implication from the very act of + constituting a federal government, and vesting it with certain + specified powers. This is so clear a proposition, that moderation + itself can scarcely listen to the railings which have been so + copiously vented against this part of the plan, without emotions + that disturb its equanimity. +What is a power, but the ability or faculty of doing a thing? + What is the ability to do a thing, but the power of employing the + MEANS necessary to its execution? What is a LEGISLATIVE power, but + a power of making LAWS? What are the MEANS to execute a LEGISLATIVE + power but LAWS? What is the power of laying and collecting taxes, + but a LEGISLATIVE POWER, or a power of MAKING LAWS, to lay and + collect taxes? What are the propermeans of executing such a power, + but NECESSARY and PROPER laws? +This simple train of inquiry furnishes us at once with a test by + which to judge of the true nature of the clause complained of. It + conducts us to this palpable truth, that a power to lay and collect + taxes must be a power to pass all laws NECESSARY and PROPER for the + execution of that power; and what does the unfortunate and + culumniated provision in question do more than declare the same + truth, to wit, that the national legislature, to whom the power of + laying and collecting taxes had been previously given, might, in the + execution of that power, pass all laws NECESSARY and PROPER to carry + it into effect? I have applied these observations thus particularly + to the power of taxation, because it is the immediate subject under + consideration, and because it is the most important of the + authorities proposed to be conferred upon the Union. But the same + process will lead to the same result, in relation to all other + powers declared in the Constitution. And it is EXPRESSLY to execute + these powers that the sweeping clause, as it has been affectedly + called, authorizes the national legislature to pass all NECESSARY + and PROPER laws. If there is any thing exceptionable, it must be + sought for in the specific powers upon which this general + declaration is predicated. The declaration itself, though it may be + chargeable with tautology or redundancy, is at least perfectly + harmless. +But SUSPICION may ask, Why then was it introduced? The answer + is, that it could only have been done for greater caution, and to + guard against all cavilling refinements in those who might hereafter + feel a disposition to curtail and evade the legitimatb authorities + of the Union. The Convention probably foresaw, what it has been a + principal aim of these papers to inculcate, that the danger which + most threatens our political welfare is that the State governments + will finally sap the foundations of the Union; and might therefore + think it necessary, in so cardinal a point, to leave nothing to + construction. Whatever may have been the inducement to it, the + wisdom of the precaution is evident from the cry which has been + raised against it; as that very cry betrays a disposition to + question the great and essential truth which it is manifestly the + object of that provision to declare. +But it may be again asked, Who is to judge of the NECESSITY and + PROPRIETY of the laws to be passed for executing the powers of the + Union? I answer, first, that this question arises as well and as + fully upon the simple grant of those powers as upon the declaratory + clause; and I answer, in the second place, that the national + government, like every other, must judge, in the first instance, of + the proper exercise of its powers, and its constituents in the last. + If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its + authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose + creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and + take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as + the exigency may suggest and prudence justify. The propriety of a + law, in a constitutional light, must always be determined by the + nature of the powers upon which it is founded. Suppose, by some + forced constructions of its authority (which, indeed, cannot easily + be imagined), the Federal legislature should attempt to vary the law + of descent in any State, would it not be evident that, in making + such an attempt, it had exceeded its jurisdiction, and infringed + upon that of the State? Suppose, again, that upon the pretense of + an interference with its revenues, it should undertake to abrogate a + landtax imposed by the authority of a State; would it not be + equally evident that this was an invasion of that concurrent + jurisdiction in respect to this species of tax, which its + Constitution plainly supposes to exist in the State governments? If + there ever should be a doubt on this head, the credit of it will be + entirely due to those reasoners who, in the imprudent zeal of their + animosity to the plan of the convention, have labored to envelop it + in a cloud calculated to obscure the plainest and simplest truths. +But it is said that the laws of the Union are to be the SUPREME + LAW of the land. But what inference can be drawn from this, or what + would they amount to, if they were not to be supreme? It is evident + they would amount to nothing. A LAW, by the very meaning of the + term, includes supremacy. It is a rule which those to whom it is + prescribed are bound to observe. This results from every political + association. If individuals enter into a state of society, the laws + of that society must be the supreme regulator of their conduct. If + a number of political societies enter into a larger political + society, the laws which the latter may enact, pursuant to the powers + intrusted to it by its constitution, must necessarily be supreme + over those societies, and the individuals of whom they are composed. + It would otherwise be a mere treaty, dependent on the good faith of + the parties, and not a goverment, which is only another word for + POLITICAL POWER AND SUPREMACY. But it will not follow from this + doctrine that acts of the large society which are NOT PURSUANT to + its constitutional powers, but which are invasions of the residuary + authorities of the smaller societies, will become the supreme law of + the land. These will be merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve + to be treated as such. Hence we perceive that the clause which + declares the supremacy of the laws of the Union, like the one we + have just before considered, only declares a truth, which flows + immediately and necessarily from the institution of a federal + government. It will not, I presume, have escaped observation, that + it EXPRESSLY confines this supremacy to laws made PURSUANT TO THE + CONSTITUTION; which I mention merely as an instance of caution in + the convention; since that limitation would have been to be + understood, though it had not been expressed. +Though a law, therefore, laying a tax for the use of the United + States would be supreme in its nature, and could not legally be + opposed or controlled, yet a law for abrogating or preventing the + collection of a tax laid by the authority of the State, (unless upon + imports and exports), would not be the supreme law of the land, but + a usurpation of power not granted by the Constitution. As far as an + improper accumulation of taxes on the same object might tend to + render the collection difficult or precarious, this would be a + mutual inconvenience, not arising from a superiority or defect of + power on either side, but from an injudicious exercise of power by + one or the other, in a manner equally disadvantageous to both. It + is to be hoped and presumed, however, that mutual interest would + dictate a concert in this respect which would avoid any material + inconvenience. The inference from the whole is, that the individual + States would, under the proposed Constitution, retain an independent + and uncontrollable authority to raise revenue to any extent of which + they may stand in need, by every kind of taxation, except duties on + imports and exports. It will be shown in the next paper that this + CONCURRENT JURISDICTION in the article of taxation was the only + admissible substitute for an entire subordination, in respect to + this branch of power, of the State authority to that of the Union. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 34 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the General Power of Taxation) +From the New York Packet. +Friday, January 4, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +I FLATTER myself it has been clearly shown in my last number + that the particular States, under the proposed Constitution, would + have COEQUAL authority with the Union in the article of revenue, + except as to duties on imports. As this leaves open to the States + far the greatest part of the resources of the community, there can + be no color for the assertion that they would not possess means as + abundant as could be desired for the supply of their own wants, + independent of all external control. That the field is sufficiently + wide will more fully appear when we come to advert to the + inconsiderable share of the public expenses for which it will fall + to the lot of the State governments to provide. +To argue upon abstract principles that this co-ordinate + authority cannot exist, is to set up supposition and theory against + fact and reality. However proper such reasonings might be to show + that a thing OUGHT NOT TO EXIST, they are wholly to be rejected when + they are made use of to prove that it does not exist contrary to the + evidence of the fact itself. It is well known that in the Roman + republic the legislative authority, in the last resort, resided for + ages in two different political bodies not as branches of the same + legislature, but as distinct and independent legislatures, in each + of which an opposite interest prevailed: in one the patrician; in + the other, the plebian. Many arguments might have been adduced to + prove the unfitness of two such seemingly contradictory authorities, + each having power to ANNUL or REPEAL the acts of the other. But a + man would have been regarded as frantic who should have attempted at + Rome to disprove their existence. It will be readily understood + that I allude to the COMITIA CENTURIATA and the COMITIA TRIBUTA. + The former, in which the people voted by centuries, was so arranged + as to give a superiority to the patrician interest; in the latter, + in which numbers prevailed, the plebian interest had an entire + predominancy. And yet these two legislatures coexisted for ages, + and the Roman republic attained to the utmost height of human + greatness. +In the case particularly under consideration, there is no such + contradiction as appears in the example cited; there is no power on + either side to annul the acts of the other. And in practice there + is little reason to apprehend any inconvenience; because, in a + short course of time, the wants of the States will naturally reduce + themselves within A VERY NARROW COMPASS; and in the interim, the + United States will, in all probability, find it convenient to + abstain wholly from those objects to which the particular States + would be inclined to resort. +To form a more precise judgment of the true merits of this + question, it will be well to advert to the proportion between the + objects that will require a federal provision in respect to revenue, + and those which will require a State provision. We shall discover + that the former are altogether unlimited, and that the latter are + circumscribed within very moderate bounds. In pursuing this + inquiry, we must bear in mind that we are not to confine our view to + the present period, but to look forward to remote futurity. + Constitutions of civil government are not to be framed upon a + calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these + with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and + tried course of human affairs. Nothing, therefore, can be more + fallacious than to infer the extent of any power, proper to be + lodged in the national government, from an estimate of its immediate + necessities. There ought to be a CAPACITY to provide for future + contingencies as they may happen; and as these are illimitable in + their nature, it is impossible safely to limit that capacity. It is + true, perhaps, that a computation might be made with sufficient + accuracy to answer the purpose of the quantity of revenue requisite + to discharge the subsisting engagements of the Union, and to + maintain those establishments which, for some time to come, would + suffice in time of peace. But would it be wise, or would it not + rather be the extreme of folly, to stop at this point, and to leave + the government intrusted with the care of the national defense in a + state of absolute incapacity to provide for the protection of the + community against future invasions of the public peace, by foreign + war or domestic convulsions? If, on the contrary, we ought to + exceed this point, where can we stop, short of an indefinite power + of providing for emergencies as they may arise? Though it is easy + to assert, in general terms, the possibility of forming a rational + judgment of a due provision against probable dangers, yet we may + safely challenge those who make the assertion to bring forward their + data, and may affirm that they would be found as vague and uncertain + as any that could be produced to establish the probable duration of + the world. Observations confined to the mere prospects of internal + attacks can deserve no weight; though even these will admit of no + satisfactory calculation: but if we mean to be a commercial people, + it must form a part of our policy to be able one day to defend that + commerce. The support of a navy and of naval wars would involve + contingencies that must baffle all the efforts of political + arithmetic. +Admitting that we ought to try the novel and absurd experiment + in politics of tying up the hands of government from offensive war + founded upon reasons of state, yet certainly we ought not to disable + it from guarding the community against the ambition or enmity of + other nations. A cloud has been for some time hanging over the + European world. If it should break forth into a storm, who can + insure us that in its progress a part of its fury would not be spent + upon us? No reasonable man would hastily pronounce that we are + entirely out of its reach. Or if the combustible materials that now + seem to be collecting should be dissipated without coming to + maturity, or if a flame should be kindled without extending to us, + what security can we have that our tranquillity will long remain + undisturbed from some other cause or from some other quarter? Let + us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our + option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot + count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of + others. Who could have imagined at the conclusion of the last war + that France and Britain, wearied and exhausted as they both were, + would so soon have looked with so hostile an aspect upon each other? + To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to + conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the + human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and + beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political + systems upon speculations of lasting tranquillity, is to calculate + on the weaker springs of the human character. +What are the chief sources of expense in every government? What + has occasioned that enormous accumulation of debts with which + several of the European nations are oppressed? The answers plainly + is, wars and rebellions; the support of those institutions which + are necessary to guard the body politic against these two most + mortal diseases of society. The expenses arising from those + institutions which are relative to the mere domestic police of a + state, to the support of its legislative, executive, and judicial + departments, with their different appendages, and to the + encouragement of agriculture and manufactures (which will comprehend + almost all the objects of state expenditure), are insignificant in + comparison with those which relate to the national defense. +In the kingdom of Great Britain, where all the ostentatious + apparatus of monarchy is to be provided for, not above a fifteenth + part of the annual income of the nation is appropriated to the class + of expenses last mentioned; the other fourteen fifteenths are + absorbed in the payment of the interest of debts contracted for + carrying on the wars in which that country has been engaged, and in + the maintenance of fleets and armies. If, on the one hand, it + should be observed that the expenses incurred in the prosecution of + the ambitious enterprises and vainglorious pursuits of a monarchy + are not a proper standard by which to judge of those which might be + necessary in a republic, it ought, on the other hand, to be remarked + that there should be as great a disproportion between the profusion + and extravagance of a wealthy kingdom in its domestic + administration, and the frugality and economy which in that + particular become the modest simplicity of republican government. + If we balance a proper deduction from one side against that which + it is supposed ought to be made from the other, the proportion may + still be considered as holding good. +But let us advert to the large debt which we have ourselves + contracted in a single war, and let us only calculate on a common + share of the events which disturb the peace of nations, and we shall + instantly perceive, without the aid of any elaborate illustration, + that there must always be an immense disproportion between the + objects of federal and state expenditures. It is true that several + of the States, separately, are encumbered with considerable debts, + which are an excrescence of the late war. But this cannot happen + again, if the proposed system be adopted; and when these debts are + discharged, the only call for revenue of any consequence, which the + State governments will continue to experience, will be for the mere + support of their respective civil list; to which, if we add all + contingencies, the total amount in every State ought to fall + considerably short of two hundred thousand pounds. +In framing a government for posterity as well as ourselves, we + ought, in those provisions which are designed to be permanent, to + calculate, not on temporary, but on permanent causes of expense. If + this principle be a just one our attention would be directed to a + provision in favor of the State governments for an annual sum of + about two hundred thousand pounds; while the exigencies of the + Union could be susceptible of no limits, even in imagination. In + this view of the subject, by what logic can it be maintained that + the local governments ought to command, in perpetuity, an EXCLUSIVE + source of revenue for any sum beyond the extent of two hundred + thousand pounds? To extend its power further, in EXCLUSION of the + authority of the Union, would be to take the resources of the + community out of those hands which stood in need of them for the + public welfare, in order to put them into other hands which could + have no just or proper occasion for them. +Suppose, then, the convention had been inclined to proceed upon + the principle of a repartition of the objects of revenue, between + the Union and its members, in PROPORTION to their comparative + necessities; what particular fund could have been selected for the + use of the States, that would not either have been too much or too + little too little for their present, too much for their future + wants? As to the line of separation between external and internal + taxes, this would leave to the States, at a rough computation, the + command of two thirds of the resources of the community to defray + from a tenth to a twentieth part of its expenses; and to the Union, + one third of the resources of the community, to defray from nine + tenths to nineteen twentieths of its expenses. If we desert this + boundary and content ourselves with leaving to the States an + exclusive power of taxing houses and lands, there would still be a + great disproportion between the MEANS and the END; the possession + of one third of the resources of the community to supply, at most, + one tenth of its wants. If any fund could have been selected and + appropriated, equal to and not greater than the object, it would + have been inadequate to the discharge of the existing debts of the + particular States, and would have left them dependent on the Union + for a provision for this purpose. +The preceding train of observation will justify the position + which has been elsewhere laid down, that ``A CONCURRENT JURISDICTION + in the article of taxation was the only admissible substitute for an + entire subordination, in respect to this branch of power, of State + authority to that of the Union.'' Any separation of the objects of + revenue that could have been fallen upon, would have amounted to a + sacrifice of the great INTERESTS of the Union to the POWER of the + individual States. The convention thought the concurrent + jurisdiction preferable to that subordination; and it is evident + that it has at least the merit of reconciling an indefinite + constitutional power of taxation in the Federal government with an + adequate and independent power in the States to provide for their + own necessities. There remain a few other lights, in which this + important subject of taxation will claim a further consideration. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 35 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the General Power of Taxation) +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +BEFORE we proceed to examine any other objections to an + indefinite power of taxation in the Union, I shall make one general + remark; which is, that if the jurisdiction of the national + government, in the article of revenue, should be restricted to + particular objects, it would naturally occasion an undue proportion + of the public burdens to fall upon those objects. Two evils would + spring from this source: the oppression of particular branches of + industry; and an unequal distribution of the taxes, as well among + the several States as among the citizens of the same State. +Suppose, as has been contended for, the federal power of + taxation were to be confined to duties on imports, it is evident + that the government, for want of being able to command other + resources, would frequently be tempted to extend these duties to an + injurious excess. There are persons who imagine that they can never + be carried to too great a length; since the higher they are, the + more it is alleged they will tend to discourage an extravagant + consumption, to produce a favorable balance of trade, and to promote + domestic manufactures. But all extremes are pernicious in various + ways. Exorbitant duties on imported articles would beget a general + spirit of smuggling; which is always prejudicial to the fair + trader, and eventually to the revenue itself: they tend to render + other classes of the community tributary, in an improper degree, to + the manufacturing classes, to whom they give a premature monopoly of + the markets; they sometimes force industry out of its more natural + channels into others in which it flows with less advantage; and in + the last place, they oppress the merchant, who is often obliged to + pay them himself without any retribution from the consumer. When + the demand is equal to the quantity of goods at market, the consumer + generally pays the duty; but when the markets happen to be + overstocked, a great proportion falls upon the merchant, and + sometimes not only exhausts his profits, but breaks in upon his + capital. I am apt to think that a division of the duty, between the + seller and the buyer, more often happens than is commonly imagined. + It is not always possible to raise the price of a commodity in + exact proportion to every additional imposition laid upon it. The + merchant, especially in a country of small commercial capital, is + often under a necessity of keeping prices down in order to a more + expeditious sale. +The maxim that the consumer is the payer, is so much oftener + true than the reverse of the proposition, that it is far more + equitable that the duties on imports should go into a common stock, + than that they should redound to the exclusive benefit of the + importing States. But it is not so generally true as to render it + equitable, that those duties should form the only national fund. + When they are paid by the merchant they operate as an additional + tax upon the importing State, whose citizens pay their proportion of + them in the character of consumers. In this view they are + productive of inequality among the States; which inequality would + be increased with the increased extent of the duties. The + confinement of the national revenues to this species of imposts + would be attended with inequality, from a different cause, between + the manufacturing and the non-manufacturing States. The States + which can go farthest towards the supply of their own wants, by + their own manufactures, will not, according to their numbers or + wealth, consume so great a proportion of imported articles as those + States which are not in the same favorable situation. They would + not, therefore, in this mode alone contribute to the public treasury + in a ratio to their abilities. To make them do this it is necessary + that recourse be had to excises, the proper objects of which are + particular kinds of manufactures. New York is more deeply + interested in these considerations than such of her citizens as + contend for limiting the power of the Union to external taxation may + be aware of. New York is an importing State, and is not likely + speedily to be, to any great extent, a manufacturing State. She + would, of course, suffer in a double light from restraining the + jurisdiction of the Union to commercial imposts. +So far as these observations tend to inculcate a danger of the + import duties being extended to an injurious extreme it may be + observed, conformably to a remark made in another part of these + papers, that the interest of the revenue itself would be a + sufficient guard against such an extreme. I readily admit that this + would be the case, as long as other resources were open; but if the + avenues to them were closed, HOPE, stimulated by necessity, would + beget experiments, fortified by rigorous precautions and additional + penalties, which, for a time, would have the intended effect, till + there had been leisure to contrive expedients to elude these new + precautions. The first success would be apt to inspire false + opinions, which it might require a long course of subsequent + experience to correct. Necessity, especially in politics, often + occasions false hopes, false reasonings, and a system of measures + correspondingly erroneous. But even if this supposed excess should + not be a consequence of the limitation of the federal power of + taxation, the inequalities spoken of would still ensue, though not + in the same degree, from the other causes that have been noticed. + Let us now return to the examination of objections. +One which, if we may judge from the frequency of its repetition, + seems most to be relied on, is, that the House of Representatives is + not sufficiently numerous for the reception of all the different + classes of citizens, in order to combine the interests and feelings + of every part of the community, and to produce a due sympathy + between the representative body and its constituents. This argument + presents itself under a very specious and seducing form; and is + well calculated to lay hold of the prejudices of those to whom it is + addressed. But when we come to dissect it with attention, it will + appear to be made up of nothing but fair-sounding words. The object + it seems to aim at is, in the first place, impracticable, and in the + sense in which it is contended for, is unnecessary. I reserve for + another place the discussion of the question which relates to the + sufficiency of the representative body in respect to numbers, and + shall content myself with examining here the particular use which + has been made of a contrary supposition, in reference to the + immediate subject of our inquiries. +The idea of an actual representation of all classes of the + people, by persons of each class, is altogether visionary. Unless + it were expressly provided in the Constitution, that each different + occupation should send one or more members, the thing would never + take place in practice. Mechanics and manufacturers will always be + inclined, with few exceptions, to give their votes to merchants, in + preference to persons of their own professions or trades. Those + discerning citizens are well aware that the mechanic and + manufacturing arts furnish the materials of mercantile enterprise + and industry. Many of them, indeed, are immediately connected with + the operations of commerce. They know that the merchant is their + natural patron and friend; and they are aware, that however great + the confidence they may justly feel in their own good sense, their + interests can be more effectually promoted by the merchant than by + themselves. They are sensible that their habits in life have not + been such as to give them those acquired endowments, without which, + in a deliberative assembly, the greatest natural abilities are for + the most part useless; and that the influence and weight, and + superior acquirements of the merchants render them more equal to a + contest with any spirit which might happen to infuse itself into the + public councils, unfriendly to the manufacturing and trading + interests. These considerations, and many others that might be + mentioned prove, and experience confirms it, that artisans and + manufacturers will commonly be disposed to bestow their votes upon + merchants and those whom they recommend. We must therefore consider + merchants as the natural representatives of all these classes of the + community. +With regard to the learned professions, little need be observed; + they truly form no distinct interest in society, and according to + their situation and talents, will be indiscriminately the objects of + the confidence and choice of each other, and of other parts of the + community. +Nothing remains but the landed interest; and this, in a + political view, and particularly in relation to taxes, I take to be + perfectly united, from the wealthiest landlord down to the poorest + tenant. No tax can be laid on land which will not affect the + proprietor of millions of acres as well as the proprietor of a + single acre. Every landholder will therefore have a common interest + to keep the taxes on land as low as possible; and common interest + may always be reckoned upon as the surest bond of sympathy. But if + we even could suppose a distinction of interest between the opulent + landholder and the middling farmer, what reason is there to + conclude, that the first would stand a better chance of being + deputed to the national legislature than the last? If we take fact + as our guide, and look into our own senate and assembly, we shall + find that moderate proprietors of land prevail in both; nor is this + less the case in the senate, which consists of a smaller number, + than in the assembly, which is composed of a greater number. Where + the qualifications of the electors are the same, whether they have + to choose a small or a large number, their votes will fall upon + those in whom they have most confidence; whether these happen to be + men of large fortunes, or of moderate property, or of no property at + all. +It is said to be necessary, that all classes of citizens should + have some of their own number in the representative body, in order + that their feelings and interests may be the better understood and + attended to. But we have seen that this will never happen under any + arrangement that leaves the votes of the people free. Where this is + the case, the representative body, with too few exceptions to have + any influence on the spirit of the government, will be composed of + landholders, merchants, and men of the learned professions. But + where is the danger that the interests and feelings of the different + classes of citizens will not be understood or attended to by these + three descriptions of men? Will not the landholder know and feel + whatever will promote or insure the interest of landed property? + And will he not, from his own interest in that species of property, + be sufficiently prone to resist every attempt to prejudice or + encumber it? Will not the merchant understand and be disposed to + cultivate, as far as may be proper, the interests of the mechanic + and manufacturing arts, to which his commerce is so nearly allied? + Will not the man of the learned profession, who will feel a + neutrality to the rivalships between the different branches of + industry, be likely to prove an impartial arbiter between them, + ready to promote either, so far as it shall appear to him conducive + to the general interests of the society? +If we take into the account the momentary humors or dispositions + which may happen to prevail in particular parts of the society, and + to which a wise administration will never be inattentive, is the man + whose situation leads to extensive inquiry and information less + likely to be a competent judge of their nature, extent, and + foundation than one whose observation does not travel beyond the + circle of his neighbors and acquaintances? Is it not natural that a + man who is a candidate for the favor of the people, and who is + dependent on the suffrages of his fellow-citizens for the + continuance of his public honors, should take care to inform himself + of their dispositions and inclinations, and should be willing to + allow them their proper degree of influence upon his conduct? This + dependence, and the necessity of being bound himself, and his + posterity, by the laws to which he gives his assent, are the true, + and they are the strong chords of sympathy between the + representative and the constituent. +There is no part of the administration of government that + requires extensive information and a thorough knowledge of the + principles of political economy, so much as the business of taxation. + The man who understands those principles best will be least likely + to resort to oppressive expedients, or sacrifice any particular + class of citizens to the procurement of revenue. It might be + demonstrated that the most productive system of finance will always + be the least burdensome. There can be no doubt that in order to a + judicious exercise of the power of taxation, it is necessary that + the person in whose hands it should be acquainted with the general + genius, habits, and modes of thinking of the people at large, and + with the resources of the country. And this is all that can be + reasonably meant by a knowledge of the interests and feelings of the + people. In any other sense the proposition has either no meaning, + or an absurd one. And in that sense let every considerate citizen + judge for himself where the requisite qualification is most likely + to be found. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 36 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the General Power of Taxation) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday January 8, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +WE HAVE seen that the result of the observations, to which the + foregoing number has been principally devoted, is, that from the + natural operation of the different interests and views of the + various classes of the community, whether the representation of the + people be more or less numerous, it will consist almost entirely of + proprietors of land, of merchants, and of members of the learned + professions, who will truly represent all those different interests + and views. If it should be objected that we have seen other + descriptions of men in the local legislatures, I answer that it is + admitted there are exceptions to the rule, but not in sufficient + number to influence the general complexion or character of the + government. There are strong minds in every walk of life that will + rise superior to the disadvantages of situation, and will command + the tribute due to their merit, not only from the classes to which + they particularly belong, but from the society in general. The door + ought to be equally open to all; and I trust, for the credit of + human nature, that we shall see examples of such vigorous plants + flourishing in the soil of federal as well as of State legislation; + but occasional instances of this sort will not render the reasoning + founded upon the general course of things, less conclusive. +The subject might be placed in several other lights that would + all lead to the same result; and in particular it might be asked, + What greater affinity or relation of interest can be conceived + between the carpenter and blacksmith, and the linen manufacturer or + stocking weaver, than between the merchant and either of them? It + is notorious that there are often as great rivalships between + different branches of the mechanic or manufacturing arts as there + are between any of the departments of labor and industry; so that, + unless the representative body were to be far more numerous than + would be consistent with any idea of regularity or wisdom in its + deliberations, it is impossible that what seems to be the spirit of + the objection we have been considering should ever be realized in + practice. But I forbear to dwell any longer on a matter which has + hitherto worn too loose a garb to admit even of an accurate + inspection of its real shape or tendency. +There is another objection of a somewhat more precise nature + that claims our attention. It has been asserted that a power of + internal taxation in the national legislature could never be + exercised with advantage, as well from the want of a sufficient + knowledge of local circumstances, as from an interference between + the revenue laws of the Union and of the particular States. The + supposition of a want of proper knowledge seems to be entirely + destitute of foundation. If any question is depending in a State + legislature respecting one of the counties, which demands a + knowledge of local details, how is it acquired? No doubt from the + information of the members of the county. Cannot the like knowledge + be obtained in the national legislature from the representatives of + each State? And is it not to be presumed that the men who will + generally be sent there will be possessed of the necessary degree of + intelligence to be able to communicate that information? Is the + knowledge of local circumstances, as applied to taxation, a minute + topographical acquaintance with all the mountains, rivers, streams, + highways, and bypaths in each State; or is it a general + acquaintance with its situation and resources, with the state of its + agriculture, commerce, manufactures, with the nature of its products + and consumptions, with the different degrees and kinds of its + wealth, property, and industry? +Nations in general, even under governments of the more popular + kind, usually commit the administration of their finances to single + men or to boards composed of a few individuals, who digest and + prepare, in the first instance, the plans of taxation, which are + afterwards passed into laws by the authority of the sovereign or + legislature. +Inquisitive and enlightened statesmen are deemed everywhere best + qualified to make a judicious selection of the objects proper for + revenue; which is a clear indication, as far as the sense of + mankind can have weight in the question, of the species of knowledge + of local circumstances requisite to the purposes of taxation. +The taxes intended to be comprised under the general + denomination of internal taxes may be subdivided into those of the + DIRECT and those of the INDIRECT kind. Though the objection be made + to both, yet the reasoning upon it seems to be confined to the + former branch. And indeed, as to the latter, by which must be + understood duties and excises on articles of consumption, one is at + a loss to conceive what can be the nature of the difficulties + apprehended. The knowledge relating to them must evidently be of a + kind that will either be suggested by the nature of the article + itself, or can easily be procured from any well-informed man, + especially of the mercantile class. The circumstances that may + distinguish its situation in one State from its situation in another + must be few, simple, and easy to be comprehended. The principal + thing to be attended to, would be to avoid those articles which had + been previously appropriated to the use of a particular State; and + there could be no difficulty in ascertaining the revenue system of + each. This could always be known from the respective codes of laws, + as well as from the information of the members from the several + States. +The objection, when applied to real property or to houses and + lands, appears to have, at first sight, more foundation, but even in + this view it will not bear a close examination. Land taxes are co + monly laid in one of two modes, either by ACTUAL valuations, + permanent or periodical, or by OCCASIONAL assessments, at the + discretion, or according to the best judgment, of certain officers + whose duty it is to make them. In either case, the EXECUTION of the + business, which alone requires the knowledge of local details, must + be devolved upon discreet persons in the character of commissioners + or assessors, elected by the people or appointed by the government + for the purpose. All that the law can do must be to name the + persons or to prescribe the manner of their election or appointment, + to fix their numbers and qualifications and to draw the general + outlines of their powers and duties. And what is there in all this + that cannot as well be performed by the national legislature as by a + State legislature? The attention of either can only reach to + general principles; local details, as already observed, must be + referred to those who are to execute the plan. +But there is a simple point of view in which this matter may be + placed that must be altogether satisfactory. The national + legislature can make use of the SYSTEM OF EACH STATE WITHIN THAT + STATE. The method of laying and collecting this species of taxes in + each State can, in all its parts, be adopted and employed by the + federal government. +Let it be recollected that the proportion of these taxes is not + to be left to the discretion of the national legislature, but is to + be determined by the numbers of each State, as described in the + second section of the first article. An actual census or + enumeration of the people must furnish the rule, a circumstance + which effectually shuts the door to partiality or oppression. The + abuse of this power of taxation seems to have been provided against + with guarded circumspection. In addition to the precaution just + mentioned, there is a provision that ``all duties, imposts, and + excises shall be UNIFORM throughout the United States.'' +It has been very properly observed by different speakers and + writers on the side of the Constitution, that if the exercise of the + power of internal taxation by the Union should be discovered on + experiment to be really inconvenient, the federal government may + then forbear the use of it, and have recourse to requisitions in its + stead. By way of answer to this, it has been triumphantly asked, + Why not in the first instance omit that ambiguous power, and rely + upon the latter resource? Two solid answers may be given. The + first is, that the exercise of that power, if convenient, will be + preferable, because it will be more effectual; and it is impossible + to prove in theory, or otherwise than by the experiment, that it + cannot be advantageously exercised. The contrary, indeed, appears + most probable. The second answer is, that the existence of such a + power in the Constitution will have a strong influence in giving + efficacy to requisitions. When the States know that the Union can + apply itself without their agency, it will be a powerful motive for + exertion on their part. +As to the interference of the revenue laws of the Union, and of + its members, we have already seen that there can be no clashing or + repugnancy of authority. The laws cannot, therefore, in a legal + sense, interfere with each other; and it is far from impossible to + avoid an interference even in the policy of their different systems. + An effectual expedient for this purpose will be, mutually, to + abstain from those objects which either side may have first had + recourse to. As neither can CONTROL the other, each will have an + obvious and sensible interest in this reciprocal forbearance. And + where there is an IMMEDIATE common interest, we may safely count + upon its operation. When the particular debts of the States are + done away, and their expenses come to be limited within their + natural compass, the possibility almost of interference will vanish. + A small land tax will answer the purpose of the States, and will be + their most simple and most fit resource. +Many spectres have been raised out of this power of internal + taxation, to excite the apprehensions of the people: double sets of + revenue officers, a duplication of their burdens by double + taxations, and the frightful forms of odious and oppressive + poll-taxes, have been played off with all the ingenious dexterity of + political legerdemain. +As to the first point, there are two cases in which there can be + no room for double sets of officers: one, where the right of + imposing the tax is exclusively vested in the Union, which applies + to the duties on imports; the other, where the object has not + fallen under any State regulation or provision, which may be + applicable to a variety of objects. In other cases, the probability + is that the United States will either wholly abstain from the + objects preoccupied for local purposes, or will make use of the + State officers and State regulations for collecting the additional + imposition. This will best answer the views of revenue, because it + will save expense in the collection, and will best avoid any + occasion of disgust to the State governments and to the people. At + all events, here is a practicable expedient for avoiding such an + inconvenience; and nothing more can be required than to show that + evils predicted to not necessarily result from the plan. +As to any argument derived from a supposed system of influence, + it is a sufficient answer to say that it ought not to be presumed; + but the supposition is susceptible of a more precise answer. If + such a spirit should infest the councils of the Union, the most + certain road to the accomplishment of its aim would be to employ the + State officers as much as possible, and to attach them to the Union + by an accumulation of their emoluments. This would serve to turn + the tide of State influence into the channels of the national + government, instead of making federal influence flow in an opposite + and adverse current. But all suppositions of this kind are + invidious, and ought to be banished from the consideration of the + great question before the people. They can answer no other end than + to cast a mist over the truth. +As to the suggestion of double taxation, the answer is plain. + The wants of the Union are to be supplied in one way or another; + if to be done by the authority of the federal government, it will + not be to be done by that of the State government. The quantity of + taxes to be paid by the community must be the same in either case; + with this advantage, if the provision is to be made by the + Union that the capital resource of commercial imposts, which is the + most convenient branch of revenue, can be prudently improved to a + much greater extent under federal than under State regulation, and + of course will render it less necessary to recur to more + inconvenient methods; and with this further advantage, that as far + as there may be any real difficulty in the exercise of the power of + internal taxation, it will impose a disposition to greater care in + the choice and arrangement of the means; and must naturally tend to + make it a fixed point of policy in the national administration to go + as far as may be practicable in making the luxury of the rich + tributary to the public treasury, in order to diminish the necessity + of those impositions which might create dissatisfaction in the + poorer and most numerous classes of the society. Happy it is when + the interest which the government has in the preservation of its own + power, coincides with a proper distribution of the public burdens, + and tends to guard the least wealthy part of the community from + oppression! +As to poll taxes, I, without scruple, confess my disapprobation + of them; and though they have prevailed from an early period in + those States%n1%n which have uniformly been the most tenacious of + their rights, I should lament to see them introduced into practice + under the national government. But does it follow because there is + a power to lay them that they will actually be laid? Every State in + the Union has power to impose taxes of this kind; and yet in + several of them they are unknown in practice. Are the State + governments to be stigmatized as tyrannies, because they possess + this power? If they are not, with what propriety can the like power + justify such a charge against the national government, or even be + urged as an obstacle to its adoption? As little friendly as I am to + the species of imposition, I still feel a thorough conviction that + the power of having recourse to it ought to exist in the federal + government. There are certain emergencies of nations, in which + expedients, that in the ordinary state of things ought to be + forborne, become essential to the public weal. And the government, + from the possibility of such emergencies, ought ever to have the + option of making use of them. The real scarcity of objects in this + country, which may be considered as productive sources of revenue, + is a reason peculiar to itself, for not abridging the discretion of + the national councils in this respect. There may exist certain + critical and tempestuous conjunctures of the State, in which a poll + tax may become an inestimable resource. And as I know nothing to + exempt this portion of the globe from the common calamities that + have befallen other parts of it, I acknowledge my aversion to every + project that is calculated to disarm the government of a single + weapon, which in any possible contingency might be usefully employed + for the general defense and security. +I have now gone through the examination of such of the powers + proposed to be vested in the United States, which may be considered + as having an immediate relation to the energy of the government; + and have endeavored to answer the principal objections which have + been made to them. I have passed over in silence those minor + authorities, which are either too inconsiderable to have been + thought worthy of the hostilities of the opponents of the + Constitution, or of too manifest propriety to admit of controversy. + The mass of judiciary power, however, might have claimed an + investigation under this head, had it not been for the consideration + that its organization and its extent may be more advantageously + considered in connection. This has determined me to refer it to the + branch of our inquiries upon which we shall next enter. +PUBLIUS. +FNA1@@1 The New England States. + + +FEDERALIST No. 37 + +Concerning the Difficulties of the Convention in Devising a Proper + Form of Government +From the Daily Advertiser. +Friday, January 11, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IN REVIEWING the defects of the existing Confederation, and + showing that they cannot be supplied by a government of less energy + than that before the public, several of the most important + principles of the latter fell of course under consideration. But as + the ultimate object of these papers is to determine clearly and + fully the merits of this Constitution, and the expediency of + adopting it, our plan cannot be complete without taking a more + critical and thorough survey of the work of the convention, without + examining it on all its sides, comparing it in all its parts, and + calculating its probable effects. +That this remaining task may be executed under impressions + conducive to a just and fair result, some reflections must in this + place be indulged, which candor previously suggests. +It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public + measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation + which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to + advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is more + apt to be diminished than promoted, by those occasions which require + an unusual exercise of it. To those who have been led by experience + to attend to this consideration, it could not appear surprising, + that the act of the convention, which recommends so many important + changes and innovations, which may be viewed in so many lights and + relations, and which touches the springs of so many passions and + interests, should find or excite dispositions unfriendly, both on + one side and on the other, to a fair discussion and accurate + judgment of its merits. In some, it has been too evident from their + own publications, that they have scanned the proposed Constitution, + not only with a predisposition to censure, but with a + predetermination to condemn; as the language held by others betrays + an opposite predetermination or bias, which must render their + opinions also of little moment in the question. In placing, + however, these different characters on a level, with respect to the + weight of their opinions, I wish not to insinuate that there may not + be a material difference in the purity of their intentions. It is + but just to remark in favor of the latter description, that as our + situation is universally admitted to be peculiarly critical, and to + require indispensably that something should be done for our relief, + the predetermined patron of what has been actually done may have + taken his bias from the weight of these considerations, as well as + from considerations of a sinister nature. The predetermined + adversary, on the other hand, can have been governed by no venial + motive whatever. The intentions of the first may be upright, as + they may on the contrary be culpable. The views of the last cannot + be upright, and must be culpable. But the truth is, that these + papers are not addressed to persons falling under either of these + characters. They solicit the attention of those only, who add to a + sincere zeal for the happiness of their country, a temper favorable + to a just estimate of the means of promoting it. +Persons of this character will proceed to an examination of the + plan submitted by the convention, not only without a disposition to + find or to magnify faults; but will see the propriety of + reflecting, that a faultless plan was not to be expected. Nor will + they barely make allowances for the errors which may be chargeable + on the fallibility to which the convention, as a body of men, were + liable; but will keep in mind, that they themselves also are but + men, and ought not to assume an infallibility in rejudging the + fallible opinions of others. +With equal readiness will it be perceived, that besides these + inducements to candor, many allowances ought to be made for the + difficulties inherent in the very nature of the undertaking referred + to the convention. +The novelty of the undertaking immediately strikes us. It has + been shown in the course of these papers, that the existing + Confederation is founded on principles which are fallacious; that + we must consequently change this first foundation, and with it the + superstructure resting upon it. It has been shown, that the other + confederacies which could be consulted as precedents have been + vitiated by the same erroneous principles, and can therefore furnish + no other light than that of beacons, which give warning of the + course to be shunned, without pointing out that which ought to be + pursued. The most that the convention could do in such a situation, + was to avoid the errors suggested by the past experience of other + countries, as well as of our own; and to provide a convenient mode + of rectifying their own errors, as future experiences may unfold + them. +Among the difficulties encountered by the convention, a very + important one must have lain in combining the requisite stability + and energy in government, with the inviolable attention due to + liberty and to the republican form. Without substantially + accomplishing this part of their undertaking, they would have very + imperfectly fulfilled the object of their appointment, or the + expectation of the public; yet that it could not be easily + accomplished, will be denied by no one who is unwilling to betray + his ignorance of the subject. Energy in government is essential to + that security against external and internal danger, and to that + prompt and salutary execution of the laws which enter into the very + definition of good government. Stability in government is essential + to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well + as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which + are among the chief blessings of civil society. An irregular and + mutable legislation is not more an evil in itself than it is odious + to the people; and it may be pronounced with assurance that the + people of this country, enlightened as they are with regard to the + nature, and interested, as the great body of them are, in the + effects of good government, will never be satisfied till some remedy + be applied to the vicissitudes and uncertainties which characterize + the State administrations. On comparing, however, these valuable + ingredients with the vital principles of liberty, we must perceive + at once the difficulty of mingling them together in their due + proportions. The genius of republican liberty seems to demand on + one side, not only that all power should be derived from the people, + but that those intrusted with it should be kept in independence on + the people, by a short duration of their appointments; and that + even during this short period the trust should be placed not in a + few, but a number of hands. Stability, on the contrary, requires + that the hands in which power is lodged should continue for a length + of time the same. A frequent change of men will result from a + frequent return of elections; and a frequent change of measures + from a frequent change of men: whilst energy in government requires + not only a certain duration of power, but the execution of it by a + single hand. +How far the convention may have succeeded in this part of their + work, will better appear on a more accurate view of it. From the + cursory view here taken, it must clearly appear to have been an + arduous part. +Not less arduous must have been the task of marking the proper + line of partition between the authority of the general and that of + the State governments. Every man will be sensible of this + difficulty, in proportion as he has been accustomed to contemplate + and discriminate objects extensive and complicated in their nature. + The faculties of the mind itself have never yet been distinguished + and defined, with satisfactory precision, by all the efforts of the + most acute and metaphysical philosophers. Sense, perception, + judgment, desire, volition, memory, imagination, are found to be + separated by such delicate shades and minute gradations that their + boundaries have eluded the most subtle investigations, and remain a + pregnant source of ingenious disquisition and controversy. The + boundaries between the great kingdom of nature, and, still more, + between the various provinces, and lesser portions, into which they + are subdivided, afford another illustration of the same important + truth. The most sagacious and laborious naturalists have never yet + succeeded in tracing with certainty the line which separates the + district of vegetable life from the neighboring region of + unorganized matter, or which marks the ermination of the former and + the commencement of the animal empire. A still greater obscurity + lies in the distinctive characters by which the objects in each of + these great departments of nature have been arranged and assorted. +When we pass from the works of nature, in which all the + delineations are perfectly accurate, and appear to be otherwise only + from the imperfection of the eye which surveys them, to the + institutions of man, in which the obscurity arises as well from the + object itself as from the organ by which it is contemplated, we must + perceive the necessity of moderating still further our expectations + and hopes from the efforts of human sagacity. Experience has + instructed us that no skill in the science of government has yet + been able to discriminate and define, with sufficient certainty, its + three great provinces the legislative, executive, and judiciary; or + even the privileges and powers of the different legislative branches. + Questions daily occur in the course of practice, which prove the + obscurity which reins in these subjects, and which puzzle the + greatest adepts in political science. +The experience of ages, with the continued and combined labors + of the most enlightened legislatures and jurists, has been equally + unsuccessful in delineating the several objects and limits of + different codes of laws and different tribunals of justice. The + precise extent of the common law, and the statute law, the maritime + law, the ecclesiastical law, the law of corporations, and other + local laws and customs, remains still to be clearly and finally + established in Great Britain, where accuracy in such subjects has + been more industriously pursued than in any other part of the world. + The jurisdiction of her several courts, general and local, of law, + of equity, of admiralty, etc., is not less a source of frequent and + intricate discussions, sufficiently denoting the indeterminate + limits by which they are respectively circumscribed. All new laws, + though penned with the greatest technical skill, and passed on the + fullest and most mature deliberation, are considered as more or less + obscure and equivocal, until their meaning be liquidated and + ascertained by a series of particular discussions and adjudications. + Besides the obscurity arising from the complexity of objects, and + the imperfection of the human faculties, the medium through which + the conceptions of men are conveyed to each other adds a fresh + embarrassment. The use of words is to express ideas. Perspicuity, + therefore, requires not only that the ideas should be distinctly + formed, but that they should be expressed by words distinctly and + exclusively appropriate to them. But no language is so copious as + to supply words and phrases for every complex idea, or so correct as + not to include many equivocally denoting different ideas. Hence it + must happen that however accurately objects may be discriminated in + themselves, and however accurately the discrimination may be + considered, the definition of them may be rendered inaccurate by the + inaccuracy of the terms in which it is delivered. And this + unavoidable inaccuracy must be greater or less, according to the + complexity and novelty of the objects defined. When the Almighty + himself condescends to address mankind in their own language, his + meaning, luminous as it must be, is rendered dim and doubtful by the + cloudy medium through which it is communicated. +Here, then, are three sources of vague and incorrect + definitions: indistinctness of the object, imperfection of the + organ of conception, inadequateness of the vehicle of ideas. Any + one of these must produce a certain degree of obscurity. The + convention, in delineating the boundary between the federal and + State jurisdictions, must have experienced the full effect of them + all. +To the difficulties already mentioned may be added the + interfering pretensions of the larger and smaller States. We cannot + err in supposing that the former would contend for a participation + in the government, fully proportioned to their superior wealth and + importance; and that the latter would not be less tenacious of the + equality at present enjoyed by them. We may well suppose that + neither side would entirely yield to the other, and consequently + that the struggle could be terminated only by compromise. It is + extremely probable, also, that after the ratio of representation had + been adjusted, this very compromise must have produced a fresh + struggle between the same parties, to give such a turn to the + organization of the government, and to the distribution of its + powers, as would increase the importance of the branches, in forming + which they had respectively obtained the greatest share of influence. + There are features in the Constitution which warrant each of these + suppositions; and as far as either of them is well founded, it + shows that the convention must have been compelled to sacrifice + theoretical propriety to the force of extraneous considerations. +Nor could it have been the large and small States only, which + would marshal themselves in opposition to each other on various + points. Other combinations, resulting from a difference of local + position and policy, must have created additional difficulties. As + every State may be divided into different districts, and its + citizens into different classes, which give birth to contending + interests and local jealousies, so the different parts of the United + States are distinguished from each other by a variety of + circumstances, which produce a like effect on a larger scale. And + although this variety of interests, for reasons sufficiently + explained in a former paper, may have a salutary influence on the + administration of the government when formed, yet every one must be + sensible of the contrary influence, which must have been experienced + in the task of forming it. +Would it be wonderful if, under the pressure of all these + difficulties, the convention should have been forced into some + deviations from that artificial structure and regular symmetry which + an abstract view of the subject might lead an ingenious theorist to + bestow on a Constitution planned in his closet or in his + imagination? The real wonder is that so many difficulties should + have been surmounted, and surmounted with a unanimity almost as + unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for + any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking + of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious + reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand + which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in + the critical stages of the revolution. +We had occasion, in a former paper, to take notice of the + repeated trials which have been unsuccessfully made in the United + Netherlands for reforming the baneful and notorious vices of their + constitution. The history of almost all the great councils and + consultations held among mankind for reconciling their discordant + opinions, assuaging their mutual jealousies, and adjusting their + respective interests, is a history of factions, contentions, and + disappointments, and may be classed among the most dark and degraded + pictures which display the infirmities and depravities of the human + character. If, in a few scattered instances, a brighter aspect is + presented, they serve only as exceptions to admonish us of the + general truth; and by their lustre to darken the gloom of the + adverse prospect to which they are contrasted. In revolving the + causes from which these exceptions result, and applying them to the + particular instances before us, we are necessarily led to two + important conclusions. The first is, that the convention must have + enjoyed, in a very singular degree, an exemption from the + pestilential influence of party animosities the disease most + incident to deliberative bodies, and most apt to contaminate their + proceedings. The second conclusion is that all the deputations + composing the convention were satisfactorily accommodated by the + final act, or were induced to accede to it by a deep conviction of + the necessity of sacrificing private opinions and partial interests + to the public good, and by a despair of seeing this necessity + diminished by delays or by new experiments. + + +FEDERALIST No. 38 + +The Same Subject Continued, and the Incoherence of the Objections + to the New Plan Exposed +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, January 15, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT IS not a little remarkable that in every case reported by + ancient history, in which government has been established with + deliberation and consent, the task of framing it has not been + committed to an assembly of men, but has been performed by some + individual citizen of preeminent wisdom and approved integrity. +Minos, we learn, was the primitive founder of the government of + Crete, as Zaleucus was of that of the Locrians. Theseus first, and + after him Draco and Solon, instituted the government of Athens. + Lycurgus was the lawgiver of Sparta. The foundation of the + original government of Rome was laid by Romulus, and the work + completed by two of his elective successors, Numa and Tullius + Hostilius. On the abolition of royalty the consular administration + was substituted by Brutus, who stepped forward with a project for + such a reform, which, he alleged, had been prepared by Tullius + Hostilius, and to which his address obtained the assent and + ratification of the senate and people. This remark is applicable to + confederate governments also. Amphictyon, we are told, was the + author of that which bore his name. The Achaean league received its + first birth from Achaeus, and its second from Aratus. +What degree of agency these reputed lawgivers might have in + their respective establishments, or how far they might be clothed + with the legitimate authority of the people, cannot in every + instance be ascertained. In some, however, the proceeding was + strictly regular. Draco appears to have been intrusted by the + people of Athens with indefinite powers to reform its government and + laws. And Solon, according to Plutarch, was in a manner compelled, + by the universal suffrage of his fellow-citizens, to take upon him + the sole and absolute power of new-modeling the constitution. The + proceedings under Lycurgus were less regular; but as far as the + advocates for a regular reform could prevail, they all turned their + eyes towards the single efforts of that celebrated patriot and sage, + instead of seeking to bring about a revolution by the intervention + of a deliberative body of citizens. +Whence could it have proceeded, that a people, jealous as the + Greeks were of their liberty, should so far abandon the rules of + caution as to place their destiny in the hands of a single citizen? + Whence could it have proceeded, that the Athenians, a people who + would not suffer an army to be commanded by fewer than ten generals, + and who required no other proof of danger to their liberties than + the illustrious merit of a fellow-citizen, should consider one + illustrious citizen as a more eligible depositary of the fortunes of + themselves and their posterity, than a select body of citizens, from + whose common deliberations more wisdom, as well as more safety, + might have been expected? These questions cannot be fully answered, + without supposing that the fears of discord and disunion among a + number of counsellors exceeded the apprehension of treachery or + incapacity in a single individual. History informs us, likewise, of + the difficulties with which these celebrated reformers had to + contend, as well as the expedients which they were obliged to employ + in order to carry their reforms into effect. Solon, who seems to + have indulged a more temporizing policy, confessed that he had not + given to his countrymen the government best suited to their + happiness, but most tolerable to their prejudices. And Lycurgus, + more true to his object, was under the necessity of mixing a portion + of violence with the authority of superstition, and of securing his + final success by a voluntary renunciation, first of his country, and + then of his life. If these lessons teach us, on one hand, to admire + the improvement made by America on the ancient mode of preparing and + establishing regular plans of government, they serve not less, on + the other, to admonish us of the hazards and difficulties incident + to such experiments, and of the great imprudence of unnecessarily + multiplying them. +Is it an unreasonable conjecture, that the errors which may be + contained in the plan of the convention are such as have resulted + rather from the defect of antecedent experience on this complicated + and difficult subject, than from a want of accuracy or care in the + investigation of it; and, consequently such as will not be + ascertained until an actual trial shall have pointed them out? This + conjecture is rendered probable, not only by many considerations of + a general nature, but by the particular case of the Articles of + Confederation. It is observable that among the numerous objections + and amendments suggested by the several States, when these articles + were submitted for their ratification, not one is found which + alludes to the great and radical error which on actual trial has + discovered itself. And if we except the observations which New + Jersey was led to make, rather by her local situation, than by her + peculiar foresight, it may be questioned whether a single suggestion + was of sufficient moment to justify a revision of the system. There + is abundant reason, nevertheless, to suppose that immaterial as + these objections were, they would have been adhered to with a very + dangerous inflexibility, in some States, had not a zeal for their + opinions and supposed interests been stifled by the more powerful + sentiment of selfpreservation. One State, we may remember, + persisted for several years in refusing her concurrence, although + the enemy remained the whole period at our gates, or rather in the + very bowels of our country. Nor was her pliancy in the end effected + by a less motive, than the fear of being chargeable with protracting + the public calamities, and endangering the event of the contest. + Every candid reader will make the proper reflections on these + important facts. +A patient who finds his disorder daily growing worse, and that + an efficacious remedy can no longer be delayed without extreme + danger, after coolly revolving his situation, and the characters of + different physicians, selects and calls in such of them as he judges + most capable of administering relief, and best entitled to his + confidence. The physicians attend; the case of the patient is + carefully examined; a consultation is held; they are unanimously + agreed that the symptoms are critical, but that the case, with + proper and timely relief, is so far from being desperate, that it + may be made to issue in an improvement of his constitution. They + are equally unanimous in prescribing the remedy, by which this happy + effect is to be produced. The prescription is no sooner made known, + however, than a number of persons interpose, and, without denying + the reality or danger of the disorder, assure the patient that the + prescription will be poison to his constitution, and forbid him, + under pain of certain death, to make use of it. Might not the + patient reasonably demand, before he ventured to follow this advice, + that the authors of it should at least agree among themselves on + some other remedy to be substituted? And if he found them differing + as much from one another as from his first counsellors, would he not + act prudently in trying the experiment unanimously recommended by + the latter, rather than be hearkening to those who could neither + deny the necessity of a speedy remedy, nor agree in proposing one? +Such a patient and in such a situation is America at this moment. + She has been sensible of her malady. She has obtained a regular + and unanimous advice from men of her own deliberate choice. And she + is warned by others against following this advice under pain of the + most fatal consequences. Do the monitors deny the reality of her + danger? No. Do they deny the necessity of some speedy and powerful + remedy? No. Are they agreed, are any two of them agreed, in their + objections to the remedy proposed, or in the proper one to be + substituted? Let them speak for themselves. This one tells us that + the proposed Constitution ought to be rejected, because it is not a + confederation of the States, but a government over individuals. + Another admits that it ought to be a government over individuals to + a certain extent, but by no means to the extent proposed. A third + does not object to the government over individuals, or to the extent + proposed, but to the want of a bill of rights. A fourth concurs in + the absolute necessity of a bill of rights, but contends that it + ought to be declaratory, not of the personal rights of individuals, + but of the rights reserved to the States in their political capacity. + A fifth is of opinion that a bill of rights of any sort would be + superfluous and misplaced, and that the plan would be + unexceptionable but for the fatal power of regulating the times and + places of election. An objector in a large State exclaims loudly + against the unreasonable equality of representation in the Senate. + An objector in a small State is equally loud against the dangerous + inequality in the House of Representatives. From this quarter, we + are alarmed with the amazing expense, from the number of persons who + are to administer the new government. From another quarter, and + sometimes from the same quarter, on another occasion, the cry is + that the Congress will be but a shadow of a representation, and that + the government would be far less objectionable if the number and the + expense were doubled. A patriot in a State that does not import or + export, discerns insuperable objections against the power of direct + taxation. The patriotic adversary in a State of great exports and + imports, is not less dissatisfied that the whole burden of taxes may + be thrown on consumption. This politician discovers in the + Constitution a direct and irresistible tendency to monarchy; that + is equally sure it will end in aristocracy. Another is puzzled to + say which of these shapes it will ultimately assume, but sees + clearly it must be one or other of them; whilst a fourth is not + wanting, who with no less confidence affirms that the Constitution + is so far from having a bias towards either of these dangers, that + the weight on that side will not be sufficient to keep it upright + and firm against its opposite propensities. With another class of + adversaries to the Constitution the language is that the + legislative, executive, and judiciary departments are intermixed in + such a manner as to contradict all the ideas of regular government + and all the requisite precautions in favor of liberty. Whilst this + objection circulates in vague and general expressions, there are but + a few who lend their sanction to it. Let each one come forward with + his particular explanation, and scarce any two are exactly agreed + upon the subject. In the eyes of one the junction of the Senate + with the President in the responsible function of appointing to + offices, instead of vesting this executive power in the Executive + alone, is the vicious part of the organization. To another, the + exclusion of the House of Representatives, whose numbers alone could + be a due security against corruption and partiality in the exercise + of such a power, is equally obnoxious. With another, the admission + of the President into any share of a power which ever must be a + dangerous engine in the hands of the executive magistrate, is an + unpardonable violation of the maxims of republican jealousy. No + part of the arrangement, according to some, is more inadmissible + than the trial of impeachments by the Senate, which is alternately a + member both of the legislative and executive departments, when this + power so evidently belonged to the judiciary department. ``We + concur fully,'' reply others, ``in the objection to this part of the + plan, but we can never agree that a reference of impeachments to the + judiciary authority would be an amendment of the error. Our + principal dislike to the organization arises from the extensive + powers already lodged in that department.'' Even among the zealous + patrons of a council of state the most irreconcilable variance is + discovered concerning the mode in which it ought to be constituted. + The demand of one gentleman is, that the council should consist of + a small number to be appointed by the most numerous branch of the + legislature. Another would prefer a larger number, and considers it + as a fundamental condition that the appointment should be made by + the President himself. +As it can give no umbrage to the writers against the plan of the + federal Constitution, let us suppose, that as they are the most + zealous, so they are also the most sagacious, of those who think the + late convention were unequal to the task assigned them, and that a + wiser and better plan might and ought to be substituted. Let us + further suppose that their country should concur, both in this + favorable opinion of their merits, and in their unfavorable opinion + of the convention; and should accordingly proceed to form them into + a second convention, with full powers, and for the express purpose + of revising and remoulding the work of the first. Were the + experiment to be seriously made, though it required some effort to + view it seriously even in fiction, I leave it to be decided by the + sample of opinions just exhibited, whether, with all their enmity to + their predecessors, they would, in any one point, depart so widely + from their example, as in the discord and ferment that would mark + their own deliberations; and whether the Constitution, now before + the public, would not stand as fair a chance for immortality, as + Lycurgus gave to that of Sparta, by making its change to depend on + his own return from exile and death, if it were to be immediately + adopted, and were to continue in force, not until a BETTER, but + until ANOTHER should be agreed upon by this new assembly of + lawgivers. +It is a matter both of wonder and regret, that those who raise + so many objections against the new Constitution should never call to + mind the defects of that which is to be exchanged for it. It is not + necessary that the former should be perfect; it is sufficient that + the latter is more imperfect. No man would refuse to give brass for + silver or gold, because the latter had some alloy in it. No man + would refuse to quit a shattered and tottering habitation for a firm + and commodious building, because the latter had not a porch to it, + or because some of the rooms might be a little larger or smaller, or + the ceilings a little higher or lower than his fancy would have + planned them. But waiving illustrations of this sort, is it not + manifest that most of the capital objections urged against the new + system lie with tenfold weight against the existing Confederation? + Is an indefinite power to raise money dangerous in the hands of the + federal government? The present Congress can make requisitions to + any amount they please, and the States are constitutionally bound to + furnish them; they can emit bills of credit as long as they will + pay for the paper; they can borrow, both abroad and at home, as + long as a shilling will be lent. Is an indefinite power to raise + troops dangerous? The Confederation gives to Congress that power + also; and they have already begun to make use of it. Is it + improper and unsafe to intermix the different powers of government + in the same body of men? Congress, a single body of men, are the + sole depositary of all the federal powers. Is it particularly + dangerous to give the keys of the treasury, and the command of the + army, into the same hands? The Confederation places them both in + the hands of Congress. Is a bill of rights essential to liberty? + The Confederation has no bill of rights. Is it an objection + against the new Constitution, that it empowers the Senate, with the + concurrence of the Executive, to make treaties which are to be the + laws of the land? The existing Congress, without any such control, + can make treaties which they themselves have declared, and most of + the States have recognized, to be the supreme law of the land. Is + the importation of slaves permitted by the new Constitution for + twenty years? By the old it is permitted forever. +I shall be told, that however dangerous this mixture of powers + may be in theory, it is rendered harmless by the dependence of + Congress on the State for the means of carrying them into practice; + that however large the mass of powers may be, it is in fact a + lifeless mass. Then, say I, in the first place, that the + Confederation is chargeable with the still greater folly of + declaring certain powers in the federal government to be absolutely + necessary, and at the same time rendering them absolutely nugatory; + and, in the next place, that if the Union is to continue, and no + better government be substituted, effective powers must either be + granted to, or assumed by, the existing Congress; in either of + which events, the contrast just stated will hold good. But this is + not all. Out of this lifeless mass has already grown an excrescent + power, which tends to realize all the dangers that can be + apprehended from a defective construction of the supreme government + of the Union. It is now no longer a point of speculation and hope, + that the Western territory is a mine of vast wealth to the United + States; and although it is not of such a nature as to extricate + them from their present distresses, or for some time to come, to + yield any regular supplies for the public expenses, yet must it + hereafter be able, under proper management, both to effect a gradual + discharge of the domestic debt, and to furnish, for a certain + period, liberal tributes to the federal treasury. A very large + proportion of this fund has been already surrendered by individual + States; and it may with reason be expected that the remaining + States will not persist in withholding similar proofs of their + equity and generosity. We may calculate, therefore, that a rich and + fertile country, of an area equal to the inhabited extent of the + United States, will soon become a national stock. Congress have + assumed the administration of this stock. They have begun to render + it productive. Congress have undertaken to do more: they have + proceeded to form new States, to erect temporary governments, to + appoint officers for them, and to prescribe the conditions on which + such States shall be admitted into the Confederacy. All this has + been done; and done without the least color of constitutional + authority. Yet no blame has been whispered; no alarm has been + sounded. A GREAT and INDEPENDENT fund of revenue is passing into + the hands of a SINGLE BODY of men, who can RAISE TROOPS to an + INDEFINITE NUMBER, and appropriate money to their support for an + INDEFINITE PERIOD OF TIME. And yet there are men, who have not only + been silent spectators of this prospect, but who are advocates for + the system which exhibits it; and, at the same time, urge against + the new system the objections which we have heard. Would they not + act with more consistency, in urging the establishment of the + latter, as no less necessary to guard the Union against the future + powers and resources of a body constructed like the existing + Congress, than to save it from the dangers threatened by the present + impotency of that Assembly? +I mean not, by any thing here said, to throw censure on the + measures which have been pursued by Congress. I am sensible they + could not have done otherwise. The public interest, the necessity + of the case, imposed upon them the task of overleaping their + constitutional limits. But is not the fact an alarming proof of the + danger resulting from a government which does not possess regular + powers commensurate to its objects? A dissolution or usurpation is + the dreadful dilemma to which it is continually exposed. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 39 + +The Conformity of the Plan to Republican Principles +For the Independent Journal. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE last paper having concluded the observations which were + meant to introduce a candid survey of the plan of government + reported by the convention, we now proceed to the execution of that + part of our undertaking. +The first question that offers itself is, whether the general + form and aspect of the government be strictly republican. It is + evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of + the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the + Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates + every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on + the capacity of mankind for self-government. If the plan of the + convention, therefore, be found to depart from the republican + character, its advocates must abandon it as no longer defensible. +What, then, are the distinctive characters of the republican + form? Were an answer to this question to be sought, not by + recurring to principles, but in the application of the term by + political writers, to the constitution of different States, no + satisfactory one would ever be found. Holland, in which no particle + of the supreme authority is derived from the people, has passed + almost universally under the denomination of a republic. The same + title has been bestowed on Venice, where absolute power over the + great body of the people is exercised, in the most absolute manner, + by a small body of hereditary nobles. Poland, which is a mixture of + aristocracy and of monarchy in their worst forms, has been dignified + with the same appellation. The government of England, which has one + republican branch only, combined with an hereditary aristocracy and + monarchy, has, with equal impropriety, been frequently placed on the + list of republics. These examples, which are nearly as dissimilar + to each other as to a genuine republic, show the extreme inaccuracy + with which the term has been used in political disquisitions. +If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on + which different forms of government are established, we may define a + republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government + which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great + body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their + offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good + behavior. It is ESSENTIAL to such a government that it be derived + from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable + proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of + tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of + their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for + their government the honorable title of republic. It is SUFFICIENT + for such a government that the persons administering it be + appointed, either directly or indirectly, by the people; and that + they hold their appointments by either of the tenures just + specified; otherwise every government in the United States, as well + as every other popular government that has been or can be well + organized or well executed, would be degraded from the republican + character. According to the constitution of every State in the + Union, some or other of the officers of government are appointed + indirectly only by the people. According to most of them, the chief + magistrate himself is so appointed. And according to one, this mode + of appointment is extended to one of the co-ordinate branches of the + legislature. According to all the constitutions, also, the tenure + of the highest offices is extended to a definite period, and in many + instances, both within the legislative and executive departments, to + a period of years. According to the provisions of most of the + constitutions, again, as well as according to the most respectable + and received opinions on the subject, the members of the judiciary + department are to retain their offices by the firm tenure of good + behavior. +On comparing the Constitution planned by the convention with the + standard here fixed, we perceive at once that it is, in the most + rigid sense, conformable to it. The House of Representatives, like + that of one branch at least of all the State legislatures, is + elected immediately by the great body of the people. The Senate, + like the present Congress, and the Senate of Maryland, derives its + appointment indirectly from the people. The President is indirectly + derived from the choice of the people, according to the example in + most of the States. Even the judges, with all other officers of the + Union, will, as in the several States, be the choice, though a + remote choice, of the people themselves, the duration of the + appointments is equally conformable to the republican standard, and + to the model of State constitutions The House of Representatives is + periodically elective, as in all the States; and for the period of + two years, as in the State of South Carolina. The Senate is + elective, for the period of six years; which is but one year more + than the period of the Senate of Maryland, and but two more than + that of the Senates of New York and Virginia. The President is to + continue in office for the period of four years; as in New York and + Delaware, the chief magistrate is elected for three years, and in + South Carolina for two years. In the other States the election is + annual. In several of the States, however, no constitutional + provision is made for the impeachment of the chief magistrate. And + in Delaware and Virginia he is not impeachable till out of office. + The President of the United States is impeachable at any time + during his continuance in office. The tenure by which the judges + are to hold their places, is, as it unquestionably ought to be, that + of good behavior. The tenure of the ministerial offices generally, + will be a subject of legal regulation, conformably to the reason of + the case and the example of the State constitutions. +Could any further proof be required of the republican complexion + of this system, the most decisive one might be found in its absolute + prohibition of titles of nobility, both under the federal and the + State governments; and in its express guaranty of the republican + form to each of the latter. +``But it was not sufficient,'' say the adversaries of the + proposed Constitution, ``for the convention to adhere to the + republican form. They ought, with equal care, to have preserved the + FEDERAL form, which regards the Union as a CONFEDERACY of sovereign + states; instead of which, they have framed a NATIONAL government, + which regards the Union as a CONSOLIDATION of the States.'' And it + is asked by what authority this bold and radical innovation was + undertaken? The handle which has been made of this objection + requires that it should be examined with some precision. +Without inquiring into the accuracy of the distinction on which + the objection is founded, it will be necessary to a just estimate of + its force, first, to ascertain the real character of the government + in question; secondly, to inquire how far the convention were + authorized to propose such a government; and thirdly, how far the + duty they owed to their country could supply any defect of regular + authority. +First. In order to ascertain the real character of the + government, it may be considered in relation to the foundation on + which it is to be established; to the sources from which its + ordinary powers are to be drawn; to the operation of those powers; + to the extent of them; and to the authority by which future + changes in the government are to be introduced. +On examining the first relation, it appears, on one hand, that + the Constitution is to be founded on the assent and ratification of + the people of America, given by deputies elected for the special + purpose; but, on the other, that this assent and ratification is to + be given by the people, not as individuals composing one entire + nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to + which they respectively belong. It is to be the assent and + ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme + authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. + The act, therefore, establishing the Constitution, will not be a + NATIONAL, but a FEDERAL act. +That it will be a federal and not a national act, as these terms + are understood by the objectors; the act of the people, as forming + so many independent States, not as forming one aggregate nation, is + obvious from this single consideration, that it is to result neither + from the decision of a MAJORITY of the people of the Union, nor from + that of a MAJORITY of the States. It must result from the UNANIMOUS + assent of the several States that are parties to it, differing no + otherwise from their ordinary assent than in its being expressed, + not by the legislative authority, but by that of the people + themselves. Were the people regarded in this transaction as forming + one nation, the will of the majority of the whole people of the + United States would bind the minority, in the same manner as the + majority in each State must bind the minority; and the will of the + majority must be determined either by a comparison of the individual + votes, or by considering the will of the majority of the States as + evidence of the will of a majority of the people of the United + States. Neither of these rules have been adopted. Each State, in + ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, + independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary + act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if + established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution. +The next relation is, to the sources from which the ordinary + powers of government are to be derived. The House of + Representatives will derive its powers from the people of America; + and the people will be represented in the same proportion, and on + the same principle, as they are in the legislature of a particular + State. So far the government is NATIONAL, not FEDERAL. The Senate, + on the other hand, will derive its powers from the States, as + political and coequal societies; and these will be represented on + the principle of equality in the Senate, as they now are in the + existing Congress. So far the government is FEDERAL, not NATIONAL. + The executive power will be derived from a very compound source. + The immediate election of the President is to be made by the States + in their political characters. The votes allotted to them are in a + compound ratio, which considers them partly as distinct and coequal + societies, partly as unequal members of the same society. The + eventual election, again, is to be made by that branch of the + legislature which consists of the national representatives; but in + this particular act they are to be thrown into the form of + individual delegations, from so many distinct and coequal bodies + politic. From this aspect of the government it appears to be of a + mixed character, presenting at least as many FEDERAL as NATIONAL + features. +The difference between a federal and national government, as it + relates to the OPERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT, is supposed to consist + in this, that in the former the powers operate on the political + bodies composing the Confederacy, in their political capacities; in + the latter, on the individual citizens composing the nation, in + their individual capacities. On trying the Constitution by this + criterion, it falls under the NATIONAL, not the FEDERAL character; + though perhaps not so completely as has been understood. In + several cases, and particularly in the trial of controversies to + which States may be parties, they must be viewed and proceeded + against in their collective and political capacities only. So far + the national countenance of the government on this side seems to be + disfigured by a few federal features. But this blemish is perhaps + unavoidable in any plan; and the operation of the government on the + people, in their individual capacities, in its ordinary and most + essential proceedings, may, on the whole, designate it, in this + relation, a NATIONAL government. +But if the government be national with regard to the OPERATION + of its powers, it changes its aspect again when we contemplate it in + relation to the EXTENT of its powers. The idea of a national + government involves in it, not only an authority over the individual + citizens, but an indefinite supremacy over all persons and things, + so far as they are objects of lawful government. Among a people + consolidated into one nation, this supremacy is completely vested in + the national legislature. Among communities united for particular + purposes, it is vested partly in the general and partly in the + municipal legislatures. In the former case, all local authorities + are subordinate to the supreme; and may be controlled, directed, or + abolished by it at pleasure. In the latter, the local or municipal + authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, + no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general + authority, than the general authority is subject to them, within its + own sphere. In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot + be deemed a NATIONAL one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain + enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a + residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects. It is + true that in controversies relating to the boundary between the two + jurisdictions, the tribunal which is ultimately to decide, is to be + established under the general government. But this does not change + the principle of the case. The decision is to be impartially made, + according to the rules of the Constitution; and all the usual and + most effectual precautions are taken to secure this impartiality. + Some such tribunal is clearly essential to prevent an appeal to the + sword and a dissolution of the compact; and that it ought to be + established under the general rather than under the local + governments, or, to speak more properly, that it could be safely + established under the first alone, is a position not likely to be + combated. +If we try the Constitution by its last relation to the authority + by which amendments are to be made, we find it neither wholly + NATIONAL nor wholly FEDERAL. Were it wholly national, the supreme + and ultimate authority would reside in the MAJORITY of the people of + the Union; and this authority would be competent at all times, like + that of a majority of every national society, to alter or abolish + its established government. Were it wholly federal, on the other + hand, the concurrence of each State in the Union would be essential + to every alteration that would be binding on all. The mode provided + by the plan of the convention is not founded on either of these + principles. In requiring more than a majority, and principles. In + requiring more than a majority, and particularly in computing the + proportion by STATES, not by CITIZENS, it departs from the NATIONAL + and advances towards the FEDERAL character; in rendering the + concurrence of less than the whole number of States sufficient, it + loses again the FEDERAL and partakes of the NATIONAL character. +The proposed Constitution, therefore, is, in strictness, neither + a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both. + In its foundation it is federal, not national; in the sources from + which the ordinary powers of the government are drawn, it is partly + federal and partly national; in the operation of these powers, it + is national, not federal; in the extent of them, again, it is + federal, not national; and, finally, in the authoritative mode of + introducing amendments, it is neither wholly federal nor wholly + national. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 40 +The Powers of the Convention to Form a Mixed Government Examined +and Sustained +From the New York Packet. +Friday, January 18, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE SECOND point to be examined is, whether the convention were +authorized to frame and propose this mixed Constitution. The +powers of the convention ought, in strictness, to be determined +by an inspection of the commissions given to the members by their +respective constituents. As all of these, however, had reference, +either to the recommendation from the meeting at Annapolis, in +September, 1786, or to that from Congress, in February, 1787, it +will be sufficient to recur to these particular acts. The act +from Annapolis recommends the ``appointment of commissioners to +take into consideration the situation of the United States; to +devise SUCH FURTHER PROVISIONS as shall appear to them necessary +to render the Constitution of the federal government ADEQUATE TO +THE EXIGENCIES OF THE UNION; and to report such an act for that +purpose, to the United States in Congress assembled, as when +agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the legislature of +every State, will effectually provide for the same. ''The +recommendatory act of Congress is in the words +following:``WHEREAS, There is provision in the articles of +Confederation and perpetual Union, for making alterations +therein, by the assent of a Congress of the United States, and of +the legislatures of the several States; and whereas experience +hath evinced, that there are defects in the present +Confederation; as a mean to remedy which, several of the States, +and PARTICULARLY THE STATE OF NEW YORK, by express instructions +to their delegates in Congress, have suggested a convention for +the purposes expressed in the following resolution; and such +convention appearing to be the most probable mean of establishing +in these States A FIRM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT:``Resolved, That in +the opinion of Congress it is expedient, that on the second +Monday of May next a convention of delegates, who shall have been +appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the +sole and express purpose OF REVISING THE ARTICLES OF +CONFEDERATION, and reporting to Congress and the several +legislatures such ALTERATIONS AND PROVISIONS THEREIN, as shall, +when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render +the federal Constitution ADEQUATE TO THE EXIGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT +AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION. ''From these two acts, it +appears, 1st, that the object of the convention was to establish, +in these States, A FIRM NATIONAL GOVERNMENT; 2d, that this +government was to be such as would be ADEQUATE TO THE EXIGENCIES +OF GOVERNMENT and THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION; 3d, that these +purposes were to be effected by ALTERATIONS AND PROVISIONS IN THE +ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, as it is expressed in the act of +Congress, or by SUCH FURTHER PROVISIONS AS SHOULD APPEAR +NECESSARY, as it stands in the recommendatory act from Annapolis; +4th, that the alterations and provisions were to be reported to +Congress, and to the States, in order to be agreed to by the +former and confirmed by the latter. From a comparison and fair +construction of these several modes of expression, is to be +deduced the authority under which the convention acted. They were +to frame a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, adequate to the EXIGENCIES OF +GOVERNMENT, and OF THE UNION; and to reduce the articles of +Confederation into such form as to accomplish these purposes. +There are two rules of construction, dictated by plain reason, as +well as founded on legal axioms. The one is, that every part of +the expression ought, if possible, to be allowed some meaning, +and be made to conspire to some common end. The other is, that +where the several parts cannot be made to coincide, the less +important should give way to the more important part; the means +should be sacrificed to the end, rather than the end to the +means. Suppose, then, that the expressions defining the +authority of the convention were irreconcilably at variance with +each other; that a NATIONAL and ADEQUATE GOVERNMENT could not +possibly, in the judgment of the convention, be affected by +ALTERATIONS and PROVISIONS in the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION; +which part of the definition ought to have been embraced, and +which rejected? Which was the more important, which the less +important part? Which the end; which the means? Let the most +scrupulous expositors of delegated powers; let the most +inveterate objectors against those exercised by the convention, +answer these questions. Let them declare, whether it was of most +importance to the happiness of the people of America, that the +articles of Confederation should be disregarded, and an adequate +government be provided, and the Union preserved; or that an +adequate government should be omitted, and the articles of +Confederation preserved. Let them declare, whether the +preservation of these articles was the end, for securing which a +reform of the government was to be introduced as the means; or +whether the establishment of a government, adequate to the +national happiness, was the end at which these articles +themselves originally aimed, and to which they ought, as +insufficient means, to have been sacrificed. But is it necessary +to suppose that these expressions are absolutely irreconcilable +to each other; that no ALTERATIONS or PROVISIONS in THE ARTICLES +OF THE CONFEDERATION could possibly mould them into a national +and adequate government; into such a government as has been +proposed by the convention? No stress, it is presumed, will, in +this case, be laid on the TITLE; a change of that could never be +deemed an exercise of ungranted power. ALTERATIONS in the body of +the instrument are expressly authorized. NEW PROVISIONS therein +are also expressly authorized. Here then is a power to change the +title; to insert new articles; to alter old ones. Must it of +necessity be admitted that this power is infringed, so long as a +part of the old articles remain? Those who maintain the +affirmative ought at least to mark the boundary between +authorized and usurped innovations; between that degree of change +which lies within the compass of ALTERATIONS AND FURTHER +PROVISIONS, and that which amounts to a TRANSMUTATION of the +government. Will it be said that the alterations ought not to +have touched the substance of the Confederation? The States +would never have appointed a convention with so much solemnity, +nor described its objects with so much latitude, if some +SUBSTANTIAL reform had not been in contemplation. Will it be said +that the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES of the Confederation were not +within the purview of the convention, and ought not to have been +varied? I ask, What are these principles? Do they require that, +in the establishment of the Constitution, the States should be +regarded as distinct and independent sovereigns? They are so +regarded by the Constitution proposed. Do they require that the +members of the government should derive their appointment from +the legislatures, not from the people of the States? One branch +of the new government is to be appointed by these legislatures; +and under the Confederation, the delegates to Congress MAY ALL +be appointed immediately by the people, and in two States1 are +actually so appointed. Do they require that the powers of the +government should act on the States, and not immediately on +individuals? In some instances, as has been shown, the powers of +the new government will act on the States in their collective +characters. In some instances, also, those of the existing +government act immediately on individuals. In cases of capture; +of piracy; of the post office; of coins, weights, and measures; +of trade with the Indians; of claims under grants of land by +different States; and, above all, in the case of trials by +courts-marshal in the army and navy, by which death may be +inflicted without the intervention of a jury, or even of a civil +magistrate; in all these cases the powers of the Confederation +operate immediately on the persons and interests of individual +citizens. Do these fundamental principles require, particularly, +that no tax should be levied without the intermediate agency of +the States? The Confederation itself authorizes a direct tax, to +a certain extent, on the post office. The power of coinage has +been so construed by Congress as to levy a tribute immediately +from that source also. But pretermitting these instances, was it +not an acknowledged object of the convention and the universal +expectation of the people, that the regulation of trade should be +submitted to the general government in such a form as would +render it an immediate source of general revenue? Had not +Congress repeatedly recommended this measure as not inconsistent +with the fundamental principles of the Confederation? Had not +every State but one; had not New York herself, so far complied +with the plan of Congress as to recognize the PRINCIPLE of the +innovation? Do these principles, in fine, require that the +powers of the general government should be limited, and that, +beyond this limit, the States should be left in possession of +their sovereignty and independence? We have seen that in the new +government, as in the old, the general powers are limited; and +that the States, in all unenumerated cases, are left in the +enjoyment of their sovereign and independent jurisdiction. The +truth is, that the great principles of the Constitution proposed +by the convention may be considered less as absolutely new, than +as the expansion of principles which are found in the articles of +Confederation. The misfortune under the latter system has been, +that these principles are so feeble and confined as to justify +all the charges of inefficiency which have been urged against it, +and to require a degree of enlargement which gives to the new +system the aspect of an entire transformation of the old. In one +particular it is admitted that the convention have departed from +the tenor of their commission. Instead of reporting a plan +requiring the confirmation OF THE LEGISLATURES OF ALL THE STATES, +they have reported a plan which is to be confirmed by the PEOPLE, +and may be carried into effect by NINE STATES ONLY. It is worthy +of remark that this objection, though the most plausible, has +been the least urged in the publications which have swarmed +against the convention. The forbearance can only have proceeded +from an irresistible conviction of the absurdity of subjecting +the fate of twelve States to the perverseness or corruption of a +thirteenth; from the example of inflexible opposition given by a +MAJORITY of one sixtieth of the people of America to a measure +approved and called for by the voice of twelve States, comprising +fifty-nine sixtieths of the people an example still fresh in the +memory and indignation of every citizen who has felt for the +wounded honor and prosperity of his country. As this objection, +therefore, has been in a manner waived by those who have +criticised the powers of the convention, I dismiss it without +further observation. The THIRD point to be inquired into is, how +far considerations of duty arising out of the case itself could +have supplied any defect of regular authority. In the preceding +inquiries the powers of the convention have been analyzed and +tried with the same rigor, and by the same rules, as if they had +been real and final powers for the establishment of a +Constitution for the United States. We have seen in what manner +they have borne the trial even on that supposition. It is time +now to recollect that the powers were merely advisory and +recommendatory; that they were so meant by the States, and so +understood by the convention; and that the latter have +accordingly planned and proposed a Constitution which is to be of +no more consequence than the paper on which it is written, unless +it be stamped with the approbation of those to whom it is +addressed. This reflection places the subject in a point of view +altogether different, and will enable us to judge with propriety +of the course taken by the convention. Let us view the ground on +which the convention stood. It may be collected from their +proceedings, that they were deeply and unanimously impressed with +the crisis, which had led their country almost with one voice to +make so singular and solemn an experiment for correcting the +errors of a system by which this crisis had been produced; that +they were no less deeply and unanimously convinced that such a +reform as they have proposed was absolutely necessary to effect +the purposes of their appointment. It could not be unknown to +them that the hopes and expectations of the great body of +citizens, throughout this great empire, were turned with the +keenest anxiety to the event of their deliberations. They had +every reason to believe that the contrary sentiments agitated the +minds and bosoms of every external and internal foe to the +liberty and prosperity of the United States. They had seen in the +origin and progress of the experiment, the alacrity with which +the PROPOSITION, made by a single State (Virginia), towards a +partial amendment of the Confederation, had been attended to and +promoted. They had seen the LIBERTY ASSUMED by a VERY FEW +deputies from a VERY FEW States, convened at Annapolis, of +recommending a great and critical object, wholly foreign to their +commission, not only justified by the public opinion, but +actually carried into effect by twelve out of the thirteen +States. They had seen, in a variety of instances, assumptions by +Congress, not only of recommendatory, but of operative, powers, +warranted, in the public estimation, by occasions and objects +infinitely less urgent than those by which their conduct was to +be governed. They must have reflected, that in all great changes +of established governments, forms ought to give way to substance; +that a rigid adherence in such cases to the former, would render +nominal and nugatory the transcendent and precious right of the +people to ``abolish or alter their governments as to them shall +seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness,''2 since +it is impossible for the people spontaneously and universally to +move in concert towards their object; and it is therefore +essential that such changes be instituted by some INFORMAL AND +UNAUTHORIZED PROPOSITIONS, made by some patriotic and respectable +citizen or number of citizens. They must have recollected that it +was by this irregular and assumed privilege of proposing to the +people plans for their safety and happiness, that the States +were first united against the danger with which they were +threatened by their ancient government; that committees and +congresses were formed for concentrating their efforts and +defending their rights; and that CONVENTIONS were ELECTED in THE +SEVERAL STATES for establishing the constitutions under which +they are now governed; nor could it have been forgotten that no +little ill-timed scruples, no zeal for adhering to ordinary +forms, were anywhere seen, except in those who wished to indulge, +under these masks, their secret enmity to the substance contended +for. They must have borne in mind, that as the plan to be framed +and proposed was to be submitted TO THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES, the +disapprobation of this supreme authority would destroy it +forever; its approbation blot out antecedent errors and +irregularities. It might even have occurred to them, that where a +disposition to cavil prevailed, their neglect to execute the +degree of power vested in them, and still more their +recommendation of any measure whatever, not warranted by their +commission, would not less excite animadversion, than a +recommendation at once of a measure fully commensurate to the +national exigencies. Had the convention, under all these +impressions, and in the midst of all these considerations, +instead of exercising a manly confidence in their country, by +whose confidence they had been so peculiarly distinguished, and +of pointing out a system capable, in their judgment, of securing +its happiness, taken the cold and sullen resolution of +disappointing its ardent hopes, of sacrificing substance to +forms, of committing the dearest interests of their country to +the uncertainties of delay and the hazard of events, let me ask +the man who can raise his mind to one elevated conception, who +can awaken in his bosom one patriotic emotion, what judgment +ought to have been pronounced by the impartial world, by the +friends of mankind, by every virtuous citizen, on the conduct and +character of this assembly? Or if there be a man whose +propensity to condemn is susceptible of no control, let me then +ask what sentence he has in reserve for the twelve States who +USURPED THE POWER of sending deputies to the convention, a body +utterly unknown to their constitutions; for Congress, who +recommended the appointment of this body, equally unknown to the +Confederation; and for the State of New York, in particular, +which first urged and then complied with this unauthorized +interposition? But that the objectors may be disarmed of every +pretext, it shall be granted for a moment that the convention +were neither authorized by their commission, nor justified by +circumstances in proposing a Constitution for their country: does +it follow that the Constitution ought, for that reason alone, to +be rejected? If, according to the noble precept, it be lawful to +accept good advice even from an enemy, shall we set the ignoble +example of refusing such advice even when it is offered by our +friends? The prudent inquiry, in all cases, ought surely to be, +not so much FROM WHOM the advice comes, as whether the advice be +GOOD. The sum of what has been here advanced and proved is, that +the charge against the convention of exceeding their powers, +except in one instance little urged by the objectors, has no +foundation to support it; that if they had exceeded their powers, +they were not only warranted, but required, as the confidential +servants of their country, by the circumstances in which they +were placed, to exercise the liberty which they assume; and that +finally, if they had violated both their powers and their +obligations, in proposing a Constitution, this ought nevertheless +to be embraced, if it be calculated to accomplish the views and +happiness of the people of America. How far this character is due +to the Constitution, is the subject under investigation. PUBLIUS. + +Connecticut and Rhode Island. Declaration of Independence. + + +FEDERALIST No. 41 +General View of the Powers Conferred by The Constitution +For the Independent Journal. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE Constitution proposed by the convention may be considered +under two general points of view. The FIRST relates to the sum or +quantity of power which it vests in the government, including +the restraints imposed on the States. The SECOND, to the +particular structure of the government, and the distribution of +this power among its several branches. Under the FIRST view of +the subject, two important questions arise: 1. Whether any part +of the powers transferred to the general government be +unnecessary or improper? 2. Whether the entire mass of them be +dangerous to the portion of jurisdiction left in the several +States? Is the aggregate power of the general government greater +than ought to have been vested in it? This is the FIRST +question. It cannot have escaped those who have attended with +candor to the arguments employed against the extensive powers of +the government, that the authors of them have very little +considered how far these powers were necessary means of attaining +a necessary end. They have chosen rather to dwell on the +inconveniences which must be unavoidably blended with all +political advantages; and on the possible abuses which must be +incident to every power or trust, of which a beneficial use can +be made. This method of handling the subject cannot impose on the +good sense of the people of America. It may display the subtlety +of the writer; it may open a boundless field for rhetoric and +declamation; it may inflame the passions of the unthinking, and +may confirm the prejudices of the misthinking: but cool and +candid people will at once reflect, that the purest of human +blessings must have a portion of alloy in them; that the choice +must always be made, if not of the lesser evil, at least of the +GREATER, not the PERFECT, good; and that in every political +institution, a power to advance the public happiness involves a +discretion which may be misapplied and abused. They will see, +therefore, that in all cases where power is to be conferred, the +point first to be decided is, whether such a power be necessary +to the public good; as the next will be, in case of an +affirmative decision, to guard as effectually as possible +against a perversion of the power to the public detriment. That +we may form a correct judgment on this subject, it will be proper +to review the several powers conferred on the government of the +Union; and that this may be the more conveniently done they may +be reduced into different classes as they relate to the following +different objects: 1. Security against foreign danger; 2. +Regulation of the intercourse with foreign nations; 3. +Maintenance of harmony and proper intercourse among the States; +4. Certain miscellaneous objects of general utility; 5. +Restraint of the States from certain injurious acts; 6. +Provisions for giving due efficacy to all these powers. The +powers falling within the FIRST class are those of declaring war +and granting letters of marque; of providing armies and fleets; +of regulating and calling forth the militia; of levying and +borrowing money. Security against foreign danger is one of the +primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential +object of the American Union. The powers requisite for attaining +it must be effectually confided to the federal councils. Is the +power of declaring war necessary? No man will answer this +question in the negative. It would be superfluous, therefore, to +enter into a proof of the affirmative. The existing Confederation +establishes this power in the most ample form. Is the power of +raising armies and equipping fleets necessary? This is involved +in the foregoing power. It is involved in the power of +self-defense. But was it necessary to give an INDEFINITE POWER +of raising TROOPS, as well as providing fleets; and of +maintaining both in PEACE, as well as in war? The answer to these +questions has been too far anticipated in another place to admit +an extensive discussion of them in this place. The answer indeed +seems to be so obvious and conclusive as scarcely to justify such +a discussion in any place. With what color of propriety could the +force necessary for defense be limited by those who cannot limit +the force of offense? If a federal Constitution could chain the +ambition or set bounds to the exertions of all other nations, +then indeed might it prudently chain the discretion of its own +government, and set bounds to the exertions for its own safety. +How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely +prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the +preparations and establishments of every hostile nation? The +means of security can only be regulated by the means and the +danger of attack. They will, in fact, be ever determined by these +rules, and by no others. It is in vain to oppose constitutional +barriers to the impulse of self-preservation. It is worse than in +vain; because it plants in the Constitution itself necessary +usurpations of power, every precedent of which is a germ of +unnecessary and multiplied repetitions. If one nation maintains +constantly a disciplined army, ready for the service of ambition +or revenge, it obliges the most pacific nations who may be within +the reach of its enterprises to take corresponding precautions. +The fifteenth century was the unhappy epoch of military +establishments in the time of peace. They were introduced by +Charles VII. of France. All Europe has followed, or been forced +into, the example. Had the example not been followed by other +nations, all Europe must long ago have worn the chains of a +universal monarch. Were every nation except France now to disband +its peace establishments, the same event might follow. The +veteran legions of Rome were an overmatch for the undisciplined +valor of all other nations and rendered her the mistress of the +world. Not the less true is it, that the liberties of Rome +proved the final victim to her military triumphs; and that the +liberties of Europe, as far as they ever existed, have, with few +exceptions, been the price of her military establishments. A +standing force, therefore, is a dangerous, at the same time that +it may be a necessary, provision. On the smallest scale it has +its inconveniences. On an extensive scale its consequences may be +fatal. On any scale it is an object of laudable circumspection +and precaution. A wise nation will combine all these +considerations; and, whilst it does not rashly preclude itself +from any resource which may become essential to its safety, will +exert all its prudence in diminishing both the necessity and the +danger of resorting to one which may be inauspicious to its +liberties. The clearest marks of this prudence are stamped on +the proposed Constitution. The Union itself, which it cements and +secures, destroys every pretext for a military establishment +which could be dangerous. America united, with a handful of +troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding +posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a +hundred thousand veterans ready for combat. It was remarked, on a +former occasion, that the want of this pretext had saved the +liberties of one nation in Europe. Being rendered by her insular +situation and her maritime resources impregnable to the armies of +her neighbors, the rulers of Great Britain have never been able, +by real or artificial dangers, to cheat the public into an +extensive peace establishment. The distance of the United States +from the powerful nations of the world gives them the same happy +security. A dangerous establishment can never be necessary or +plausible, so long as they continue a united people. But let it +never, for a moment, be forgotten that they are indebted for this +advantage to the Union alone. The moment of its dissolution will +be the date of a new order of things. The fears of the weaker, or +the ambition of the stronger States, or Confederacies, will set +the same example in the New, as Charles VII. did in the Old +World. The example will be followed here from the same motives +which produced universal imitation there. Instead of deriving +from our situation the precious advantage which Great Britain has +derived from hers, the face of America will be but a copy of that +of the continent of Europe. It will present liberty everywhere +crushed between standing armies and perpetual taxes. The fortunes +of disunited America will be even more disastrous than those of +Europe. The sources of evil in the latter are confined to her own +limits. No superior powers of another quarter of the globe +intrigue among her rival nations, inflame their mutual +animosities, and render them the instruments of foreign ambition, +jealousy, and revenge. In America the miseries springing from her +internal jealousies, contentions, and wars, would form a part +only of her lot. A plentiful addition of evils would have their +source in that relation in which Europe stands to this quarter of +the earth, and which no other quarter of the earth bears to +Europe. This picture of the consequences of disunion cannot be +too highly colored, or too often exhibited. Every man who loves +peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves +liberty, ought to have it ever before his eyes, that he may +cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America, +and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it. +Next to the effectual establishment of the Union, the best +possible precaution against danger from standing armies is a +limitation of the term for which revenue may be appropriated to +their support. This precaution the Constitution has prudently +added. I will not repeat here the observations which I flatter +myself have placed this subject in a just and satisfactory +light. But it may not be improper to take notice of an argument +against this part of the Constitution, which has been drawn from +the policy and practice of Great Britain. It is said that the +continuance of an army in that kingdom requires an annual vote of +the legislature; whereas the American Constitution has lengthened +this critical period to two years. This is the form in which the +comparison is usually stated to the public: but is it a just +form? Is it a fair comparison? Does the British Constitution +restrain the parliamentary discretion to one year? Does the +American impose on the Congress appropriations for two years? On +the contrary, it cannot be unknown to the authors of the fallacy +themselves, that the British Constitution fixes no limit whatever +to the discretion of the legislature, and that the American ties +down the legislature to two years, as the longest admissible +term. Had the argument from the British example been truly +stated, it would have stood thus: The term for which supplies +may be appropriated to the army establishment, though unlimited +by the British Constitution, has nevertheless, in practice, been +limited by parliamentary discretion to a single year. Now, if in +Great Britain, where the House of Commons is elected for seven +years; where so great a proportion of the members are elected by +so small a proportion of the people; where the electors are so +corrupted by the representatives, and the representatives so +corrupted by the Crown, the representative body can possess a +power to make appropriations to the army for an indefinite term, +without desiring, or without daring, to extend the term beyond a +single year, ought not suspicion herself to blush, in pretending +that the representatives of the United States, elected FREELY by +the WHOLE BODY of the people, every SECOND YEAR, cannot be safely +intrusted with the discretion over such appropriations, expressly +limited to the short period of TWO YEARS? A bad cause seldom +fails to betray itself. Of this truth, the management of the +opposition to the federal government is an unvaried +exemplification. But among all the blunders which have been +committed, none is more striking than the attempt to enlist on +that side the prudent jealousy entertained by the people, of +standing armies. The attempt has awakened fully the public +attention to that important subject; and has led to +investigations which must terminate in a thorough and universal +conviction, not only that the constitution has provided the most +effectual guards against danger from that quarter, but that +nothing short of a Constitution fully adequate to the national +defense and the preservation of the Union, can save America from +as many standing armies as it may be split into States or +Confederacies, and from such a progressive augmentation, of these +establishments in each, as will render them as burdensome to the +properties and ominous to the liberties of the people, as any +establishment that can become necessary, under a united and +efficient government, must be tolerable to the former and safe to +the latter. The palpable necessity of the power to provide and +maintain a navy has protected that part of the Constitution +against a spirit of censure, which has spared few other parts. It +must, indeed, be numbered among the greatest blessings of +America, that as her Union will be the only source of her +maritime strength, so this will be a principal source of her +security against danger from abroad. In this respect our +situation bears another likeness to the insular advantage of +Great Britain. The batteries most capable of repelling foreign +enterprises on our safety, are happily such as can never be +turned by a perfidious government against our liberties. The +inhabitants of the Atlantic frontier are all of them deeply +interested in this provision for naval protection, and if they +have hitherto been suffered to sleep quietly in their beds; if +their property has remained safe against the predatory spirit of +licentious adventurers; if their maritime towns have not yet +been compelled to ransom themselves from the terrors of a +conflagration, by yielding to the exactions of daring and sudden +invaders, these instances of good fortune are not to be ascribed +to the capacity of the existing government for the protection of +those from whom it claims allegiance, but to causes that are +fugitive and fallacious. If we except perhaps Virginia and +Maryland, which are peculiarly vulnerable on their eastern +frontiers, no part of the Union ought to feel more anxiety on +this subject than New York. Her seacoast is extensive. A very +important district of the State is an island. The State itself is +penetrated by a large navigable river for more than fifty +leagues. The great emporium of its commerce, the great reservoir +of its wealth, lies every moment at the mercy of events, and may +almost be regarded as a hostage for ignominious compliances with +the dictates of a foreign enemy, or even with the rapacious +demands of pirates and barbarians. Should a war be the result of +the precarious situation of European affairs, and all the unruly +passions attending it be let loose on the ocean, our escape from +insults and depredations, not only on that element, but every +part of the other bordering on it, will be truly miraculous. In +the present condition of America, the States more immediately +exposed to these calamities have nothing to hope from the phantom +of a general government which now exists; and if their single +resources were equal to the task of fortifying themselves against +the danger, the object to be protected would be almost consumed +by the means of protecting them. The power of regulating and +calling forth the militia has been already sufficiently +vindicated and explained. The power of levying and borrowing +money, being the sinew of that which is to be exerted in the +national defense, is properly thrown into the same class with +it. This power, also, has been examined already with much +attention, and has, I trust, been clearly shown to be necessary, +both in the extent and form given to it by the Constitution. I +will address one additional reflection only to those who contend +that the power ought to have been restrained to external +taxation by which they mean, taxes on articles imported from +other countries. It cannot be doubted that this will always be a +valuable source of revenue; that for a considerable time it must +be a principal source; that at this moment it is an essential +one. But we may form very mistaken ideas on this subject, if we +do not call to mind in our calculations, that the extent of +revenue drawn from foreign commerce must vary with the +variations, both in the extent and the kind of imports; and that +these variations do not correspond with the progress of +population, which must be the general measure of the public +wants. As long as agriculture continues the sole field of labor, +the importation of manufactures must increase as the consumers +multiply. As soon as domestic manufactures are begun by the hands +not called for by agriculture, the imported manufactures will +decrease as the numbers of people increase. In a more remote +stage, the imports may consist in a considerable part of raw +materials, which will be wrought into articles for exportation, +and will, therefore, require rather the encouragement of +bounties, than to be loaded with discouraging duties. A system of +government, meant for duration, ought to contemplate these +revolutions, and be able to accommodate itself to them. Some, +who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have +grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the +language in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, +that the power ``to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and +excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and +general welfare of the United States,'' amounts to an unlimited +commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be +necessary for the common defense or general welfare. No stronger +proof could be given of the distress under which these writers +labor for objections, than their stooping to such a +misconstruction. Had no other enumeration or definition of the +powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the +general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection +might have had some color for it; though it would have been +difficult to find a reason for so awkward a form of describing an +authority to legislate in all possible cases. A power to destroy +the freedom of the press, the trial by jury, or even to regulate +the course of descents, or the forms of conveyances, must be very +singularly expressed by the terms ``to raise money for the +general welfare. ''But what color can the objection have, when a +specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms +immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause +than a semicolon? If the different parts of the same instrument +ought to be so expounded, as to give meaning to every part which +will bear it, shall one part of the same sentence be excluded +altogether from a share in the meaning; and shall the more +doubtful and indefinite terms be retained in their full extent, +and the clear and precise expressions be denied any signification +whatsoever? For what purpose could the enumeration of particular +powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be +included in the preceding general power? Nothing is more natural +nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to +explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars. But the idea +of an enumeration of particulars which neither explain nor +qualify the general meaning, and can have no other effect than to +confound and mislead, is an absurdity, which, as we are reduced +to the dilemma of charging either on the authors of the objection +or on the authors of the Constitution, we must take the liberty +of supposing, had not its origin with the latter. The objection +here is the more extraordinary, as it appears that the language +used by the convention is a copy from the articles of +Confederation. The objects of the Union among the States, as +described in article third, are ``their common defense, security +of their liberties, and mutual and general welfare. '' The terms +of article eighth are still more identical: ``All charges of war +and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common +defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in +Congress, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury,'' etc. A +similar language again occurs in article ninth. Construe either +of these articles by the rules which would justify the +construction put on the new Constitution, and they vest in the +existing Congress a power to legislate in all cases whatsoever. +But what would have been thought of that assembly, if, attaching +themselves to these general expressions, and disregarding the +specifications which ascertain and limit their import, they had +exercised an unlimited power of providing for the common defense +and general welfare? I appeal to the objectors themselves, +whether they would in that case have employed the same reasoning +in justification of Congress as they now make use of against the +convention. How difficult it is for error to escape its own +condemnation! PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 42 +The Powers Conferred by the Constitution Further Considered +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, January 22, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE SECOND class of powers, lodged in the general government, +consists of those which regulate the intercourse with foreign +nations, to wit: to make treaties; to send and receive +ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to define and +punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and +offenses against the law of nations; to regulate foreign +commerce, including a power to prohibit, after the year 1808, the +importation of slaves, and to lay an intermediate duty of ten +dollars per head, as a discouragement to such importations. This +class of powers forms an obvious and essential branch of the +federal administration. If we are to be one nation in any +respect, it clearly ought to be in respect to other nations. The +powers to make treaties and to send and receive ambassadors, +speak their own propriety. Both of them are comprised in the +articles of Confederation, with this difference only, that the +former is disembarrassed, by the plan of the convention, of an +exception, under which treaties might be substantially frustrated +by regulations of the States; and that a power of appointing and +receiving ``other public ministers and consuls,'' is expressly +and very properly added to the former provision concerning +ambassadors. The term ambassador, if taken strictly, as seems to +be required by the second of the articles of Confederation, +comprehends the highest grade only of public ministers, and +excludes the grades which the United States will be most likely +to prefer, where foreign embassies may be necessary. And under no +latitude of construction will the term comprehend consuls. Yet it +has been found expedient, and has been the practice of Congress, +to employ the inferior grades of public ministers, and to send +and receive consuls. It is true, that where treaties of commerce +stipulate for the mutual appointment of consuls, whose functions +are connected with commerce, the admission of foreign consuls may +fall within the power of making commercial treaties; and that +where no such treaties exist, the mission of American consuls +into foreign countries may PERHAPS be covered under the +authority, given by the ninth article of the Confederation, to +appoint all such civil officers as may be necessary for managing +the general affairs of the United States. But the admission of +consuls into the United States, where no previous treaty has +stipulated it, seems to have been nowhere provided for. A supply +of the omission is one of the lesser instances in which the +convention have improved on the model before them. But the most +minute provisions become important when they tend to obviate the +necessity or the pretext for gradual and unobserved usurpations +of power. A list of the cases in which Congress have been +betrayed, or forced by the defects of the Confederation, into +violations of their chartered authorities, would not a little +surprise those who have paid no attention to the subject; and +would be no inconsiderable argument in favor of the new +Constitution, which seems to have provided no less studiously for +the lesser, than the more obvious and striking defects of the +old. The power to define and punish piracies and felonies +committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of +nations, belongs with equal propriety to the general government, +and is a still greater improvement on the articles of +Confederation. These articles contain no provision for the case +of offenses against the law of nations; and consequently leave +it in the power of any indiscreet member to embroil the +Confederacy with foreign nations. The provision of the federal +articles on the subject of piracies and felonies extends no +further than to the establishment of courts for the trial of +these offenses. The definition of piracies might, perhaps, +without inconveniency, be left to the law of nations; though a +legislative definition of them is found in most municipal codes. +A definition of felonies on the high seas is evidently +requisite. Felony is a term of loose signification, even in the +common law of England; and of various import in the statute law +of that kingdom. But neither the common nor the statute law of +that, or of any other nation, ought to be a standard for the +proceedings of this, unless previously made its own by +legislative adoption. The meaning of the term, as defined in the +codes of the several States, would be as impracticable as the +former would be a dishonorable and illegitimate guide. It is not +precisely the same in any two of the States; and varies in each +with every revision of its criminal laws. For the sake of +certainty and uniformity, therefore, the power of defining +felonies in this case was in every respect necessary and proper. +The regulation of foreign commerce, having fallen within several +views which have been taken of this subject, has been too fully +discussed to need additional proofs here of its being properly +submitted to the federal administration. It were doubtless to be +wished, that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves +had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had +been suffered to have immediate operation. But it is not +difficult to account, either for this restriction on the general +government, or for the manner in which the whole clause is +expressed. It ought to be considered as a great point gained in +favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate +forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so +loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that +period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the +federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a +concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural +traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so +great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the +unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of +being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren! +Attempts have been made to pervert this clause into an objection +against the Constitution, by representing it on one side as a +criminal toleration of an illicit practice, and on another as +calculated to prevent voluntary and beneficial emigrations from +Europe to America. I mention these misconstructions, not with a +view to give them an answer, for they deserve none, but as +specimens of the manner and spirit in which some have thought fit +to conduct their opposition to the proposed government. The +powers included in the THIRD class are those which provide for +the harmony and proper intercourse among the States. Under this +head might be included the particular restraints imposed on the +authority of the States, and certain powers of the judicial +department; but the former are reserved for a distinct class, and +the latter will be particularly examined when we arrive at the +structure and organization of the government. I shall confine +myself to a cursory review of the remaining powers comprehended +under this third description, to wit: to regulate commerce among +the several States and the Indian tribes; to coin money, regulate +the value thereof, and of foreign coin; to provide for the +punishment of counterfeiting the current coin and secureties of +the United States; to fix the standard of weights and measures; +to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws +of bankruptcy, to prescribe the manner in which the public acts, +records, and judicial proceedings of each State shall be proved, +and the effect they shall have in other States; and to establish +post offices and post roads. The defect of power in the existing +Confederacy to regulate the commerce between its several members, +is in the number of those which have been clearly pointed out by +experience. To the proofs and remarks which former papers have +brought into view on this subject, it may be added that without +this supplemental provision, the great and essential power of +regulating foreign commerce would have been incomplete and +ineffectual. A very material object of this power was the relief +of the States which import and export through other States, from +the improper contributions levied on them by the latter. Were +these at liberty to regulate the trade between State and State, +it must be foreseen that ways would be found out to load the +articles of import and export, during the passage through their +jurisdiction, with duties which would fall on the makers of the +latter and the consumers of the former. We may be assured by past +experience, that such a practice would be introduced by future +contrivances; and both by that and a common knowledge of human +affairs, that it would nourish unceasing animosities, and not +improbably terminate in serious interruptions of the public +tranquillity. To those who do not view the question through the +medium of passion or of interest, the desire of the commercial +States to collect, in any form, an indirect revenue from their +uncommercial neighbors, must appear not less impolitic than it is +unfair; since it would stimulate the injured party, by resentment +as well as interest, to resort to less convenient channels for +their foreign trade. But the mild voice of reason, pleading the +cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often +drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the +clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate +gain. The necessity of a superintending authority over the +reciprocal trade of confederated States, has been illustrated by +other examples as well as our own. In Switzerland, where the +Union is so very slight, each canton is obliged to allow to +merchandises a passage through its jurisdiction into other +cantons, without an augmentation of the tolls. In Germany it is a +law of the empire, that the princes and states shall not lay +tolls or customs on bridges, rivers, or passages, without the +consent of the emperor and the diet; though it appears from a +quotation in an antecedent paper, that the practice in this, as +in many other instances in that confederacy, has not followed the +law, and has produced there the mischiefs which have been +foreseen here. Among the restraints imposed by the Union of the +Netherlands on its members, one is, that they shall not establish +imposts disadvantageous to their neighbors, without the general +permission. The regulation of commerce with the Indian tribes is +very properly unfettered from two limitations in the articles of +Confederation, which render the provision obscure and +contradictory. The power is there restrained to Indians, not +members of any of the States, and is not to violate or infringe +the legislative right of any State within its own limits. What +description of Indians are to be deemed members of a State, is +not yet settled, and has been a question of frequent perplexity +and contention in the federal councils. And how the trade with +Indians, though not members of a State, yet residing within its +legislative jurisdiction, can be regulated by an external +authority, without so far intruding on the internal rights of +legislation, is absolutely incomprehensible. This is not the only +case in which the articles of Confederation have inconsiderately +endeavored to accomplish impossibilities; to reconcile a partial +sovereignty in the Union, with complete sovereignty in the +States; to subvert a mathematical axiom, by taking away a part, +and letting the whole remain. All that need be remarked on the +power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign +coin, is, that by providing for this last case, the Constitution +has supplied a material omission in the articles of +Confederation. The authority of the existing Congress is +restrained to the regulation of coin STRUCK by their own +authority, or that of the respective States. It must be seen at +once that the proposed uniformity in the VALUE of the current +coin might be destroyed by subjecting that of foreign coin to the +different regulations of the different States. The punishment of +counterfeiting the public securities, as well as the current +coin, is submitted of course to that authority which is to secure +the value of both. The regulation of weights and measures is +transferred from the articles of Confederation, and is founded on +like considerations with the preceding power of regulating coin. +The dissimilarity in the rules of naturalization has long been +remarked as a fault in our system, and as laying a foundation for +intricate and delicate questions. In the fourth article of the +Confederation, it is declared ``that the FREE INHABITANTS of each +of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice, +excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of +FREE CITIZENS in the several States; and THE PEOPLE of each State +shall, in every other, enjoy all the privileges of trade and +commerce,'' etc. There is a confusion of language here, which is +remarkable. Why the terms FREE INHABITANTS are used in one part +of the article, FREE CITIZENS in another, and PEOPLE in another; +or what was meant by superadding to ``all privileges and +immunities of free citizens,'' ``all the privileges of trade and +commerce,'' +cannot easily be determined. It seems to be a construction +scarcely avoidable, however, that those who come under the +denomination of FREE INHABITANTS of a State, although not +citizens of such State, are entitled, in every other State, to +all the privileges of FREE CITIZENS of the latter; that is, to +greater privileges than they may be entitled to in their own +State: so that it may be in the power of a particular State, or +rather every State is laid under a necessity, not only to confer +the rights of citizenship in other States upon any whom it may +admit to such rights within itself, but upon any whom it may +allow to become inhabitants within its jurisdiction. But were an +exposition of the term ``inhabitants'' to be admitted which +would confine the stipulated privileges to citizens alone, the +difficulty is diminished only, not removed. The very improper +power would still be retained by each State, of naturalizing +aliens in every other State. In one State, residence for a short +term confirms all the rights of citizenship: in another, +qualifications of greater importance are required. An alien, +therefore, legally incapacitated for certain rights in the +latter, may, by previous residence only in the former, elude his +incapacity; and thus the law of one State be preposterously +rendered paramount to the law of another, within the jurisdiction +of the other. We owe it to mere casualty, that very serious +embarrassments on this subject have been hitherto escaped. By the +laws of several States, certain descriptions of aliens, who had +rendered themselves obnoxious, were laid under interdicts +inconsistent not only with the rights of citizenship but with the +privilege of residence. What would have been the consequence, if +such persons, by residence or otherwise, had acquired the +character of citizens under the laws of another State, and then +asserted their rights as such, both to residence and citizenship, +within the State proscribing them? Whatever the legal +consequences might have been, other consequences would probably +have resulted, of too serious a nature not to be provided +against. The new Constitution has accordingly, with great +propriety, made provision against them, and all others proceeding +from the defect of the Confederation on this head, by authorizing +the general government to establish a uniform rule of +naturalization throughout the United States. The power of +establishing uniform laws of bankruptcy is so intimately +connected with the regulation of commerce, and will prevent so +many frauds where the parties or their property may lie or be +removed into different States, that the expediency of it seems +not likely to be drawn into question. The power of prescribing +by general laws, the manner in which the public acts, records and +judicial proceedings of each State shall be proved, and the +effect they shall have in other States, is an evident and +valuable improvement on the clause relating to this subject in +the articles of Confederation. The meaning of the latter is +extremely indeterminate, and can be of little importance under +any interpretation which it will bear. The power here established +may be rendered a very convenient instrument of justice, and be +particularly beneficial on the borders of contiguous States, +where the effects liable to justice may be suddenly and secretly +translated, in any stage of the process, within a foreign +jurisdiction. The power of establishing post roads must, in +every view, be a harmless power, and may, perhaps, by judicious +management, become productive of great public conveniency. +Nothing which tends to facilitate the intercourse between the +States can be deemed unworthy of the public care. PUBLIUS. + +FEDERALIST No. 43 +The Same Subject Continued(The Powers Conferred by the +Constitution Further Considered) +For the Independent Journal. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE FOURTH class comprises the following miscellaneous powers:1. +A power ``to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by +securing, for a limited time, to authors and inventors, the +exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. +''The utility of this power will scarcely be questioned. The +copyright of authors has been solemnly adjudged, in Great +Britain, to be a right of common law. The right to useful +inventions seems with equal reason to belong to the inventors. +The public good fully coincides in both cases with the claims of +individuals. The States cannot separately make effectual +provisions for either of the cases, and most of them have +anticipated the decision of this point, by laws passed at the +instance of Congress. 2. ``To exercise exclusive legislation, in +all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles +square) as may, by cession of particular States and the +acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the +United States; and to exercise like authority over all places +purchased by the consent of the legislatures of the States in +which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, +arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings. ''The +indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of +government, carries its own evidence with it. It is a power +exercised by every legislature of the Union, I might say of the +world, by virtue of its general supremacy. Without it, not only +the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings +interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the +general government on the State comprehending the seat of the +government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might +bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, +equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the +other members of the Confederacy. This consideration has the more +weight, as the gradual accumulation of public improvements at the +stationary residence of the government would be both too great a +public pledge to be left in the hands of a single State, and +would create so many obstacles to a removal of the government, as +still further to abridge its necessary independence. The extent +of this federal district is sufficiently circumscribed to satisfy +every jealousy of an opposite nature. And as it is to be +appropriated to this use with the consent of the State ceding it; +as the State will no doubt provide in the compact for the rights +and the consent of the citizens inhabiting it; as the inhabitants +will find sufficient inducements of interest to become willing +parties to the cession; as they will have had their voice in the +election of the government which is to exercise authority over +them; as a municipal legislature for local purposes, derived from +their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them; and as the +authority of the legislature of the State, and of the inhabitants +of the ceded part of it, to concur in the cession, will be +derived from the whole people of the State in their adoption of +the Constitution, every imaginable objection seems to be +obviated. The necessity of a like authority over forts, +magazines, etc. , established by the general government, is not +less evident. The public money expended on such places, and the +public property deposited in them, requires that they should be +exempt from the authority of the particular State. Nor would it +be proper for the places on which the security of the entire +Union may depend, to be in any degree dependent on a particular +member of it. All objections and scruples are here also obviated, +by requiring the concurrence of the States concerned, in every +such establishment. 3. ``To declare the punishment of treason, +but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or +forfeiture, except during the life of the person attained. ''As +treason may be committed against the United States, the authority +of the United States ought to be enabled to punish it. But as +new-fangled and artificial treasons have been the great engines +by which violent factions, the natural offspring of free +government, have usually wreaked their alternate malignity on +each other, the convention have, with great judgment, opposed a +barrier to this peculiar danger, by inserting a constitutional +definition of the crime, fixing the proof necessary for +conviction of it, and restraining the Congress, even in punishing +it, from extending the consequences of guilt beyond the person of +its author. 4. ``To admit new States into the Union; but no new +State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any +other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or +more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the +legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress. +''In the articles of Confederation, no provision is found on this +important subject. Canada was to be admitted of right, on her +joining in the measures of the United States; and the other +COLONIES, by which were evidently meant the other British +colonies, at the discretion of nine States. The eventual +establishment of NEW STATES seems to have been overlooked by the +compilers of that instrument. We have seen the inconvenience of +this omission, and the assumption of power into which Congress +have been led by it. With great propriety, therefore, has the new +system supplied the defect. The general precaution, that no new +States shall be formed, without the concurrence of the federal +authority, and that of the States concerned, is consonant to the +principles which ought to govern such transactions. The +particular precaution against the erection of new States, by the +partition of a State without its consent, quiets the jealousy of +the larger States; as that of the smaller is quieted by a like +precaution, against a junction of States without their consent. +5. ``To dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations +respecting the territory or other property belonging to the +United States, with a proviso, that nothing in the Constitution +shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United +States, or of any particular State. ''This is a power of very +great importance, and required by considerations similar to those +which show the propriety of the former. The proviso annexed is +proper in itself, and was probably rendered absolutely necessary +by jealousies and questions concerning the Western territory +sufficiently known to the public. 6. ``To guarantee to every +State in the Union a republican form of government; to protect +each of them against invasion; and on application of the +legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be +convened), against domestic violence. ''In a confederacy founded +on republican principles, and composed of republican members, the +superintending government ought clearly to possess authority to +defend the system against aristocratic or monarchial +innovations. The more intimate the nature of such a union may be, +the greater interest have the members in the political +institutions of each other; and the greater right to insist that +the forms of government under which the compact was entered into +should be SUBSTANTIALLY maintained. But a right implies a remedy; +and where else could the remedy be deposited, than where it is +deposited by the Constitution? Governments of dissimilar +principles and forms have been found less adapted to a federal +coalition of any sort, than those of a kindred nature. ``As the +confederate republic of Germany,'' says Montesquieu, ``consists +of free cities and petty states, subject to different princes, +experience shows us that it is more imperfect than that of +Holland and Switzerland. '' ``Greece was undone,'' he adds, ``as +soon as the king of Macedon obtained a seat among the +Amphictyons. '' In the latter case, no doubt, the +disproportionate force, as well as the monarchical form, of the +new confederate, had its share of influence on the events. It may +possibly be asked, what need there could be of such a +precaution, and whether it may not become a pretext for +alterations in the State governments, without the concurrence of +the States themselves. These questions admit of ready answers. If +the interposition of the general government should not be +needed, the provision for such an event will be a harmless +superfluity only in the Constitution. But who can say what +experiments may be produced by the caprice of particular States, +by the ambition of enterprising leaders, or by the intrigues and +influence of foreign powers? To the second question it may be +answered, that if the general government should interpose by +virtue of this constitutional authority, it will be, of course, +bound to pursue the authority. But the authority extends no +further than to a GUARANTY of a republican form of government, +which supposes a pre-existing government of the form which is to +be guaranteed. As long, therefore, as the existing republican +forms are continued by the States, they are guaranteed by the +federal Constitution. Whenever the States may choose to +substitute other republican forms, they have a right to do so, +and to claim the federal guaranty for the latter. The only +restriction imposed on them is, that they shall not exchange +republican for antirepublican Constitutions; a restriction +which, it is presumed, will hardly be considered as a grievance. +A protection against invasion is due from every society to the +parts composing it. The latitude of the expression here used +seems to secure each State, not only against foreign hostility, +but against ambitious or vindictive enterprises of its more +powerful neighbors. The history, both of ancient and modern +confederacies, proves that the weaker members of the union ought +not to be insensible to the policy of this article. Protection +against domestic violence is added with equal propriety. It has +been remarked, that even among the Swiss cantons, which, properly +speaking, are not under one government, provision is made for +this object; and the history of that league informs us that +mutual aid is frequently claimed and afforded; and as well by +the most democratic, as the other cantons. A recent and +well-known event among ourselves has warned us to be prepared for +emergencies of a like nature. At first view, it might seem not +to square with the republican theory, to suppose, either that a +majority have not the right, or that a minority will have the +force, to subvert a government; and consequently, that the +federal interposition can never be required, but when it would be +improper. But theoretic reasoning, in this as in most other +cases, must be qualified by the lessons of practice. Why may not +illicit combinations, for purposes of violence, be formed as +well by a majority of a State, especially a small State as by a +majority of a county, or a district of the same State; and if +the authority of the State ought, in the latter case, to protect +the local magistracy, ought not the federal authority, in the +former, to support the State authority? Besides, there are +certain parts of the State constitutions which are so interwoven +with the federal Constitution, that a violent blow cannot be +given to the one without communicating the wound to the other. +Insurrections in a State will rarely induce a federal +interposition, unless the number concerned in them bear some +proportion to the friends of government. It will be much better +that the violence in such cases should be repressed by the +superintending power, than that the majority should be left to +maintain their cause by a bloody and obstinate contest. The +existence of a right to interpose, will generally prevent the +necessity of exerting it. Is it true that force and right are +necessarily on the same side in republican governments? May not +the minor party possess such a superiority of pecuniary +resources, of military talents and experience, or of secret +succors from foreign powers, as will render it superior also in +an appeal to the sword? May not a more compact and advantageous +position turn the scale on the same side, against a superior +number so situated as to be less capable of a prompt and +collected exertion of its strength? Nothing can be more +chimerical than to imagine that in a trial of actual force, +victory may be calculated by the rules which prevail in a census +of the inhabitants, or which determine the event of an election! +May it not happen, in fine, that the minority of CITIZENS may +become a majority of PERSONS, by the accession of alien +residents, of a casual concourse of adventurers, or of those whom +the constitution of the State has not admitted to the rights of +suffrage? I take no notice of an unhappy species of population +abounding in some of the States, who, during the calm of regular +government, are sunk below the level of men; but who, in the +tempestuous scenes of civil violence, may emerge into the human +character, and give a superiority of strength to any party with +which they may associate themselves. In cases where it may be +doubtful on which side justice lies, what better umpires could +be desired by two violent factions, flying to arms, and tearing a +State to pieces, than the representatives of confederate States, +not heated by the local flame? To the impartiality of judges, +they would unite the affection of friends. Happy would it be if +such a remedy for its infirmities could be enjoyed by all free +governments; if a project equally effectual could be established +for the universal peace of mankind! Should it be asked, what is +to be the redress for an insurrection pervading all the States, +and comprising a superiority of the entire force, though not a +constitutional right? the answer must be, that such a case, as +it would be without the compass of human remedies, so it is +fortunately not within the compass of human probability; and +that it is a sufficient recommendation of the federal +Constitution, that it diminishes the risk of a calamity for which +no possible constitution can provide a cure. Among the +advantages of a confederate republic enumerated by Montesquieu, +an important one is, ``that should a popular insurrection happen +in one of the States, the others are able to quell it. Should +abuses creep into one part, they are reformed by those that +remain sound. ''7. ``To consider all debts contracted, and +engagements entered into, before the adoption of this +Constitution, as being no less valid against the United States, +under this Constitution, than under the Confederation. ''This +can only be considered as a declaratory proposition; and may have +been inserted, among other reasons, for the satisfaction of the +foreign creditors of the United States, who cannot be strangers +to the pretended doctrine, that a change in the political form of +civil society has the magical effect of dissolving its moral +obligations. Among the lesser criticisms which have been +exercised on the Constitution, it has been remarked that the +validity of engagements ought to have been asserted in favor of +the United States, as well as against them; and in the spirit +which usually characterizes little critics, the omission has been +transformed and magnified into a plot against the national +rights. The authors of this discovery may be told, what few +others need to be informed of, that as engagements are in their +nature reciprocal, an assertion of their validity on one side, +necessarily involves a validity on the other side; and that as +the article is merely declaratory, the establishment of the +principle in one case is sufficient for every case. They may be +further told, that every constitution must limit its precautions +to dangers that are not altogether imaginary; and that no real +danger can exist that the government would DARE, with, or even +without, this constitutional declaration before it, to remit the +debts justly due to the public, on the pretext here condemned. 8. +``To provide for amendments to be ratified by three fourths of +the States under two exceptions only. ''That useful alterations +will be suggested by experience, could not but be foreseen. It +was requisite, therefore, that a mode for introducing them should +be provided. The mode preferred by the convention seems to be +stamped with every mark of propriety. It guards equally against +that extreme facility, which would render the Constitution too +mutable; and that extreme difficulty, which might perpetuate its +discovered faults. It, moreover, equally enables the general and +the State governments to originate the amendment of errors, as +they may be pointed out by the experience on one side, or on the +other. The exception in favor of the equality of suffrage in the +Senate, was probably meant as a palladium to the residuary +sovereignty of the States, implied and secured by that principle +of representation in one branch of the legislature; and was +probably insisted on by the States particularly attached to that +equality. The other exception must have been admitted on the same +considerations which produced the privilege defended by it. 9. +``The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be +sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the +States, ratifying the same. ''This article speaks for itself. +The express authority of the people alone could give due validity +to the Constitution. To have required the unanimous ratification +of the thirteen States, would have subjected the essential +interests of the whole to the caprice or corruption of a single +member. It would have marked a want of foresight in the +convention, which our own experience would have rendered +inexcusable. Two questions of a very delicate nature present +themselves on this occasion: 1. On what principle the +Confederation, which stands in the solemn form of a compact among +the States, can be superseded without the unanimous consent of +the parties to it? 2. What relation is to subsist between the +nine or more States ratifying the Constitution, and the remaining +few who do not become parties to it? The first question is +answered at once by recurring to the absolute necessity of the +case; to the great principle of self-preservation; to the +transcendent law of nature and of nature's God, which declares +that the safety and happiness of society are the objects at which +all political institutions aim, and to which all such +institutions must be sacrificed. PERHAPS, also, an answer may be +found without searching beyond the principles of the compact +itself. It has been heretofore noted among the defects of the +Confederation, that in many of the States it had received no +higher sanction than a mere legislative ratification. The +principle of reciprocality seems to require that its obligation +on the other States should be reduced to the same standard. A +compact between independent sovereigns, founded on ordinary acts +of legislative authority, can pretend to no higher validity than +a league or treaty between the parties. It is an established +doctrine on the subject of treaties, that all the articles are +mutually conditions of each other; that a breach of any one +article is a breach of the whole treaty; and that a breach, +committed by either of the parties, absolves the others, and +authorizes them, if they please, to pronounce the compact +violated and void. Should it unhappily be necessary to appeal to +these delicate truths for a justification for dispensing with +the consent of particular States to a dissolution of the federal +pact, will not the complaining parties find it a difficult task +to answer the MULTIPLIED and IMPORTANT infractions with which +they may be confronted? The time has been when it was incumbent +on us all to veil the ideas which this paragraph exhibits. The +scene is now changed, and with it the part which the same motives +dictate. The second question is not less delicate; and the +flattering prospect of its being merely hypothetical forbids an +overcurious discussion of it. It is one of those cases which must +be left to provide for itself. In general, it may be observed, +that although no political relation can subsist between the +assenting and dissenting States, yet the moral relations will +remain uncancelled. The claims of justice, both on one side and +on the other, will be in force, and must be fulfilled; the +rights of humanity must in all cases be duly and mutually +respected; whilst considerations of a common interest, and, +above all, the remembrance of the endearing scenes which are +past, and the anticipation of a speedy triumph over the obstacles +to reunion, will, it is hoped, not urge in vain MODERATION on one +side, and PRUDENCE on the other. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 44 + +Restrictions on the Authority of the Several States +From the New York Packet. Friday, January 25, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +A FIFTH class of provisions in favor of the federal authority +consists of the following restrictions on the authority of the +several States:1. ``No State shall enter into any treaty, +alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; +coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and +silver a legal tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of +attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of +contracts; or grant any title of nobility. ''The prohibition +against treaties, alliances, and confederations makes a part of +the existing articles of Union; and for reasons which need no +explanation, is copied into the new Constitution. The prohibition +of letters of marque is another part of the old system, but is +somewhat extended in the new. According to the former, letters of +marque could be granted by the States after a declaration of war; +according to the latter, these licenses must be obtained, as well +during war as previous to its declaration, from the government of +the United States. This alteration is fully justified by the +advantage of uniformity in all points which relate to foreign +powers; and of immediate responsibility to the nation in all +those for whose conduct the nation itself is to be responsible. +The right of coining money, which is here taken from the States, +was left in their hands by the Confederation, as a concurrent +right with that of Congress, under an exception in favor of the +exclusive right of Congress to regulate the alloy and value. In +this instance, also, the new provision is an improvement on the +old. Whilst the alloy and value depended on the general +authority, a right of coinage in the particular States could have +no other effect than to multiply expensive mints and diversify +the forms and weights of the circulating pieces. The latter +inconveniency defeats one purpose for which the power was +originally submitted to the federal head; and as far as the +former might prevent an inconvenient remittance of gold and +silver to the central mint for recoinage, the end can be as well +attained by local mints established under the general authority. +The extension of the prohibition to bills of credit must give +pleasure to every citizen, in proportion to his love of justice +and his knowledge of the true springs of public prosperity. The +loss which America has sustained since the peace, from the +pestilent effects of paper money on the necessary confidence +between man and man, on the necessary confidence in the public +councils, on the industry and morals of the people, and on the +character of republican government, constitutes an enormous debt +against the States chargeable with this unadvised measure, which +must long remain unsatisfied; or rather an accumulation of guilt, +which can be expiated no otherwise than by a voluntary sacrifice +on the altar of justice, of the power which has been the +instrument of it. In addition to these persuasive +considerations, it may be observed, that the same reasons which +show the necessity of denying to the States the power of +regulating coin, prove with equal force that they ought not to be +at liberty to substitute a paper medium in the place of coin. Had +every State a right to regulate the value of its coin, there +might be as many different currencies as States, and thus the +intercourse among them would be impeded; retrospective +alterations in its value might be made, and thus the citizens of +other States be injured, and animosities be kindled among the +States themselves. The subjects of foreign powers might suffer +from the same cause, and hence the Union be discredited and +embroiled by the indiscretion of a single member. No one of these +mischiefs is less incident to a power in the States to emit paper +money, than to coin gold or silver. The power to make any thing +but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts, is withdrawn +from the States, on the same principle with that of issuing a +paper currency. Bills of attainder, ex-post-facto laws, and laws +impairing the obligation of contracts, are contrary to the first +principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound +legislation. The two former are expressly prohibited by the +declarations prefixed to some of the State constitutions, and all +of them are prohibited by the spirit and scope of these +fundamental charters. Our own experience has taught us, +nevertheless, that additional fences against these dangers ought +not to be omitted. Very properly, therefore, have the convention +added this constitutional bulwark in favor of personal security +and private rights; and I am much deceived if they have not, in +so doing, as faithfully consulted the genuine sentiments as the +undoubted interests of their constituents. The sober people of +America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed +the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation +that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases +affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of +enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the +more-industrious and lessinformed part of the community. They +have seen, too, that one legislative interference is but the +first link of a long chain of repetitions, every subsequent +interference being naturally produced by the effects of the +preceding. They very rightly infer, therefore, that some thorough +reform is wanting, which will banish speculations on public +measures, inspire a general prudence and industry, and give a +regular course to the business of society. The prohibition with +respect to titles of nobility is copied from the articles of +Confederation and needs no comment. 2. ``No State shall, without +the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports +or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing +its inspection laws, and the net produce of all duties and +imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the +use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall +be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. No State +shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, +keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any +agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, +or engage in war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent +danger as will not admit of delay. ''The restraint on the power +of the States over imports and exports is enforced by all the +arguments which prove the necessity of submitting the regulation +of trade to the federal councils. It is needless, therefore, to +remark further on this head, than that the manner in which the +restraint is qualified seems well calculated at once to secure to +the States a reasonable discretion in providing for the +conveniency of their imports and exports, and to the United +States a reasonable check against the abuse of this discretion. +The remaining particulars of this clause fall within reasonings +which are either so obvious, or have been so fully developed, +that they may be passed over without remark. The SIXTH and last +class consists of the several powers and provisions by which +efficacy is given to all the rest. 1. Of these the first is, the +``power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for +carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other +powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the +United States, or in any department or officer thereof. ''Few +parts of the Constitution have been assailed with more +intemperance than this; yet on a fair investigation of it, no +part can appear more completely invulnerable. Without the +SUBSTANCE of this power, the whole Constitution would be a dead +letter. Those who object to the article, therefore, as a part of +the Constitution, can only mean that the FORM of the provision is +improper. But have they considered whether a better form could +have been substituted? There are four other possible methods +which the Constitution might have taken on this subject. They +might have copied the second article of the existing +Confederation, which would have prohibited the exercise of any +power not EXPRESSLY delegated; they might have attempted a +positive enumeration of the powers comprehended under the general +terms ``necessary and proper''; they might have attempted a +negative enumeration of them, by specifying the powers excepted +from the general definition; they might have been altogether +silent on the subject, leaving these necessary and proper powers +to construction and inference. Had the convention taken the +first method of adopting the second article of Confederation, it +is evident that the new Congress would be continually exposed, as +their predecessors have been, to the alternative of construing +the term ``EXPRESSLY'' with so much rigor, as to disarm the +government of all real authority whatever, or with so much +latitude as to destroy altogether the force of the restriction. +It would be easy to show, if it were necessary, that no important +power, delegated by the articles of Confederation, has been or +can be executed by Congress, without recurring more or less to +the doctrine of CONSTRUCTION or IMPLICATION. As the powers +delegated under the new system are more extensive, the government +which is to administer it would find itself still more distressed +with the alternative of betraying the public interests by doing +nothing, or of violating the Constitution by exercising powers +indispensably necessary and proper, but, at the same time, not +EXPRESSLY granted. Had the convention attempted a positive +enumeration of the powers necessary and proper for carrying their +other powers into effect, the attempt would have involved a +complete digest of laws on every subject to which the +Constitution relates; accommodated too, not only to the existing +state of things, but to all the possible changes which futurity +may produce; for in every new application of a general power, the +PARTICULAR POWERS, which are the means of attaining the OBJECT of +the general power, must always necessarily vary with that object, +and be often properly varied whilst the object remains the same. +Had they attempted to enumerate the particular powers or means +not necessary or proper for carrying the general powers into +execution, the task would have been no less chimerical; and would +have been liable to this further objection, that every defect in +the enumeration would have been equivalent to a positive grant of +authority. If, to avoid this consequence, they had attempted a +partial enumeration of the exceptions, and described the residue +by the general terms, NOT NECESSARY OR PROPER, it must have +happened that the enumeration would comprehend a few of the +excepted powers only; that these would be such as would be least +likely to be assumed or tolerated, because the enumeration would +of course select such as would be least necessary or proper; and +that the unnecessary and improper powers included in the +residuum, would be less forcibly excepted, than if no partial +enumeration had been made. Had the Constitution been silent on +this head, there can be no doubt that all the particular powers +requisite as means of executing the general powers would have +resulted to the government, by unavoidable implication. No axiom +is more clearly established in law, or in reason, than that +wherever the end is required, the means are authorized; wherever +a general power to do a thing is given, every particular power +necessary for doing it is included. Had this last method, +therefore, been pursued by the convention, every objection now +urged against their plan would remain in all its plausibility; +and the real inconveniency would be incurred of not removing a +pretext which may be seized on critical occasions for drawing +into question the essential powers of the Union. If it be asked +what is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall +misconstrue this part of the Constitution, and exercise powers +not warranted by its true meaning, I answer, the same as if they +should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them; as +if the general power had been reduced to particulars, and any one +of these were to be violated; the same, in short, as if the State +legislatures should violate the irrespective constitutional +authorities. In the first instance, the success of the usurpation +will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are +to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in the +last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people who can, by +the election of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of +the usurpers. The truth is, that this ultimate redress may be +more confided in against unconstitutional acts of the federal +than of the State legislatures, for this plain reason, that as +every such act of the former will be an invasion of the rights of +the latter, these will be ever ready to mark the innovation, to +sound the alarm to the people, and to exert their local influence +in effecting a change of federal representatives. There being no +such intermediate body between the State legislatures and the +people interested in watching the conduct of the former, +violations of the State constitutions are more likely to remain +unnoticed and unredressed. 2. ``This Constitution and the laws +of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, +and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the +authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the +land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any +thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary +notwithstanding. ''The indiscreet zeal of the adversaries to the +Constitution has betrayed them into an attack on this part of it +also, without which it would have been evidently and radically +defective. To be fully sensible of this, we need only suppose for +a moment that the supremacy of the State constitutions had been +left complete by a saving clause in their favor. In the first +place, as these constitutions invest the State legislatures with +absolute sovereignty, in all cases not excepted by the existing +articles of Confederation, all the authorities contained in the +proposed Constitution, so far as they exceed those enumerated in +the Confederation, would have been annulled, and the new Congress +would have been reduced to the same impotent condition with their +predecessors. In the next place, as the constitutions of some of +the States do not even expressly and fully recognize the existing +powers of the Confederacy, an express saving of the supremacy of +the former would, in such States, have brought into question +every power contained in the proposed Constitution. In the third +place, as the constitutions of the States differ much from each +other, it might happen that a treaty or national law, of great +and equal importance to the States, would interfere with some and +not with other constitutions, and would consequently be valid in +some of the States, at the same time that it would have no effect +in others. In fine, the world would have seen, for the first +time, a system of government founded on an inversion of the +fundamental principles of all government; it would have seen the +authority of the whole society every where subordinate to the +authority of the parts; it would have seen a monster, in which +the head was under the direction of the members. 3. ``The +Senators and Representatives, and the members of the several +State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both +of the United States and the several States, shall be bound by +oath or affirmation to support this Constitution. ''It has been +asked why it was thought necessary, that the State magistracy +should be bound to support the federal Constitution, and +unnecessary that a like oath should be imposed on the officers of +the United States, in favor of the State constitutions. Several +reasons might be assigned for the distinction. I content myself +with one, which is obvious and conclusive. The members of the +federal government will have no agency in carrying the State +constitutions into effect. The members and officers of the State +governments, on the contrary, will have an essential agency in +giving effect to the federal Constitution. The election of the +President and Senate will depend, in all cases, on the +legislatures of the several States. And the election of the House +of Representatives will equally depend on the same authority in +the first instance; and will, probably, forever be conducted by +the officers, and according to the laws, of the States. 4. Among +the provisions for giving efficacy to the federal powers might be +added those which belong to the executive and judiciary +departments: but as these are reserved for particular examination +in another place, I pass them over in this. We have now +reviewed, in detail, all the articles composing the sum or +quantity of power delegated by the proposed Constitution to the +federal government, and are brought to this undeniable +conclusion, that no part of the power is unnecessary or improper +for accomplishing the necessary objects of the Union. The +question, therefore, whether this amount of power shall be +granted or not, resolves itself into another question, whether or +not a government commensurate to the exigencies of the Union +shall be established; or, in other words, whether the Union +itself shall be preserved. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 45 + +The Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State +Governments Considered +For the Independent Fournal. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +HAVING shown that no one of the powers transferred to the federal +government is unnecessary or improper, the next question to be +considered is, whether the whole mass of them will be dangerous +to the portion of authority left in the several States. The +adversaries to the plan of the convention, instead of considering +in the first place what degree of power was absolutely necessary +for the purposes of the federal government, have exhausted +themselves in a secondary inquiry into the possible consequences +of the proposed degree of power to the governments of the +particular States. But if the Union, as has been shown, be +essential to the security of the people of America against +foreign danger; if it be essential to their security against +contentions and wars among the different States; if it be +essential to guard them against those violent and oppressive +factions which embitter the blessings of liberty, and against +those military establishments which must gradually poison its +very fountain; if, in a word, the Union be essential to the +happiness of the people of America, is it not preposterous, to +urge as an objection to a government, without which the objects +of the Union cannot be attained, that such a government may +derogate from the importance of the governments of the individual +States? Was, then, the American Revolution effected, was the +American Confederacy formed, was the precious blood of thousands +spilt, and the hard-earned substance of millions lavished, not +that the people of America should enjoy peace, liberty, and +safety, but that the government of the individual States, that +particular municipal establishments, might enjoy a certain extent +of power, and be arrayed with certain dignities and attributes of +sovereignty? We have heard of the impious doctrine in the Old +World, that the people were made for kings, not kings for the +people. Is the same doctrine to be revived in the New, in another +shape that the solid happiness of the people is to be sacrificed +to the views of political institutions of a different form? It is +too early for politicians to presume on our forgetting that the +public good, the real welfare of the great body of the people, is +the supreme object to be pursued; and that no form of government +whatever has any other value than as it may be fitted for the +attainment of this object. Were the plan of the convention +adverse to the public happiness, my voice would be, Reject the +plan. Were the Union itself inconsistent with the public +happiness, it would be, Abolish the Union. In like manner, as far +as the sovereignty of the States cannot be reconciled to the +happiness of the people, the voice of every good citizen must be, +Let the former be sacrificed to the latter. How far the sacrifice +is necessary, has been shown. How far the unsacrificed residue +will be endangered, is the question before us. Several important +considerations have been touched in the course of these papers, +which discountenance the supposition that the operation of the +federal government will by degrees prove fatal to the State +governments. The more I revolve the subject, the more fully I am +persuaded that the balance is much more likely to be disturbed by +the preponderancy of the last than of the first scale. We have +seen, in all the examples of ancient and modern confederacies, +the strongest tendency continually betraying itself in the +members, to despoil the general government of its authorities, +with a very ineffectual capacity in the latter to defend itself +against the encroachments. Although, in most of these examples, +the system has been so dissimilar from that under consideration +as greatly to weaken any inference concerning the latter from the +fate of the former, yet, as the States will retain, under the +proposed Constitution, a very extensive portion of active +sovereignty, the inference ought not to be wholly disregarded. In +the Achaean league it is probable that the federal head had a +degree and species of power, which gave it a considerable +likeness to the government framed by the convention. The Lycian +Confederacy, as far as its principles and form are transmitted, +must have borne a still greater analogy to it. Yet history does +not inform us that either of them ever degenerated, or tended to +degenerate, into one consolidated government. On the contrary, we +know that the ruin of one of them proceeded from the incapacity +of the federal authority to prevent the dissensions, and finally +the disunion, of the subordinate authorities. These cases are the +more worthy of our attention, as the external causes by which the +component parts were pressed together were much more numerous and +powerful than in our case; and consequently less powerful +ligaments within would be sufficient to bind the members to the +head, and to each other. In the feudal system, we have seen a +similar propensity exemplified. Notwithstanding the want of +proper sympathy in every instance between the local sovereigns +and the people, and the sympathy in some instances between the +general sovereign and the latter, it usually happened that the +local sovereigns prevailed in the rivalship for encroachments. +Had no external dangers enforced internal harmony and +subordination, and particularly, had the local sovereigns +possessed the affections of the people, the great kingdoms in +Europe would at this time consist of as many independent princes +as there were formerly feudatory barons. The State government +will have the advantage of the Federal government, whether we +compare them in respect to the immediate dependence of the one on +the other; to the weight of personal influence which each side +will possess; to the powers respectively vested in them; to the +predilection and probable support of the people; to the +disposition and faculty of resisting and frustrating the measures +of each other. The State governments may be regarded as +constituent and essential parts of the federal government; whilst +the latter is nowise essential to the operation or organization +of the former. Without the intervention of the State +legislatures, the President of the United States cannot be +elected at all. They must in all cases have a great share in his +appointment, and will, perhaps, in most cases, of themselves +determine it. The Senate will be elected absolutely and +exclusively by the State legislatures. Even the House of +Representatives, though drawn immediately from the people, will +be chosen very much under the influence of that class of men, +whose influence over the people obtains for themselves an +election into the State legislatures. Thus, each of the principal +branches of the federal government will owe its existence more or +less to the favor of the State governments, and must consequently +feel a dependence, which is much more likely to beget a +disposition too obsequious than too overbearing towards them. On +the other side, the component parts of the State governments will +in no instance be indebted for their appointment to the direct +agency of the federal government, and very little, if at all, to +the local influence of its members. The number of individuals +employed under the Constitution of the United States will be much +smaller than the number employed under the particular States. +There will consequently be less of personal influence on the side +of the former than of the latter. The members of the legislative, +executive, and judiciary departments of thirteen and more States, +the justices of peace, officers of militia, ministerial officers +of justice, with all the county, corporation, and town officers, +for three millions and more of people, intermixed, and having +particular acquaintance with every class and circle of people, +must exceed, beyond all proportion, both in number and influence, +those of every description who will be employed in the +administration of the federal system. Compare the members of the +three great departments of the thirteen States, excluding from +the judiciary department the justices of peace, with the members +of the corresponding departments of the single government of the +Union; compare the militia officers of three millions of people +with the military and marine officers of any establishment which +is within the compass of probability, or, I may add, of +possibility, and in this view alone, we may pronounce the +advantage of the States to be decisive. If the federal government +is to have collectors of revenue, the State governments will have +theirs also. And as those of the former will be principally on +the seacoast, and not very numerous, whilst those of the latter +will be spread over the face of the country, and will be very +numerous, the advantage in this view also lies on the same side. +It is true, that the Confederacy is to possess, and may exercise, +the power of collecting internal as well as external taxes +throughout the States; but it is probable that this power will +not be resorted to, except for supplemental purposes of revenue; +that an option will then be given to the States to supply their +quotas by previous collections of their own; and that the +eventual collection, under the immediate authority of the Union, +will generally be made by the officers, and according to the +rules, appointed by the several States. Indeed it is extremely +probable, that in other instances, particularly in the +organization of the judicial power, the officers of the States +will be clothed with the correspondent authority of the Union. +Should it happen, however, that separate collectors of internal +revenue should be appointed under the federal government, the +influence of the whole number would not bear a comparison with +that of the multitude of State officers in the opposite scale. +Within every district to which a federal collector would be +allotted, there would not be less than thirty or forty, or even +more, officers of different descriptions, and many of them +persons of character and weight, whose influence would lie on the +side of the State. The powers delegated by the proposed +Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those +which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and +indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external +objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with +which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be +connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend +to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, +concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and +the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State. The +operations of the federal government will be most extensive and +important in times of war and danger; those of the State +governments, in times of peace and security. As the former +periods will probably bear a small proportion to the latter, the +State governments will here enjoy another advantage over the +federal government. The more adequate, indeed, the federal powers +may be rendered to the national defense, the less frequent will +be those scenes of danger which might favor their ascendancy over +the governments of the particular States. If the new Constitution +be examined with accuracy and candor, it will be found that the +change which it proposes consists much less in the addition of +NEW POWERS to the Union, than in the invigoration of its ORIGINAL +POWERS. The regulation of commerce, it is true, is a new power; +but that seems to be an addition which few oppose, and from which +no apprehensions are entertained. The powers relating to war and +peace, armies and fleets, treaties and finance, with the other +more considerable powers, are all vested in the existing Congress +by the articles of Confederation. The proposed change does not +enlarge these powers; it only substitutes a more effectual mode +of administering them. The change relating to taxation may be +regarded as the most important; and yet the present Congress have +as complete authority to REQUIRE of the States indefinite +supplies of money for the common defense and general welfare, as +the future Congress will have to require them of individual +citizens; and the latter will be no more bound than the States +themselves have been, to pay the quotas respectively taxed on +them. Had the States complied punctually with the articles of +Confederation, or could their compliance have been enforced by as +peaceable means as may be used with success towards single +persons, our past experience is very far from countenancing an +opinion, that the State governments would have lost their +constitutional powers, and have gradually undergone an entire +consolidation. To maintain that such an event would have ensued, +would be to say at once, that the existence of the State +governments is incompatible with any system whatever that +accomplishes the essental purposes of the Union. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 46 + +The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, January 29, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +RESUMING the subject of the last paper, I proceed to inquire +whether the federal government or the State governments will have +the advantage with regard to the predilection and support of the +people. Notwithstanding the different modes in which they are +appointed, we must consider both of them as substantially +dependent on the great body of the citizens of the United States. +I assume this position here as it respects the first, reserving +the proofs for another place. The federal and State governments +are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, +constituted with different powers, and designed for different +purposes. The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost +sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this +subject; and to have viewed these different establishments, not +only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any +common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each +other. These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They +must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative +may be found, resides in the people alone, and that it will not +depend merely on the comparative ambition or address of the +different governments, whether either, or which of them, will be +able to enlarge its sphere of jurisdiction at the expense of the +other. Truth, no less than decency, requires that the event in +every case should be supposed to depend on the sentiments and +sanction of their common constituents. Many considerations, +besides those suggested on a former occasion, seem to place it +beyond doubt that the first and most natural attachment of the +people will be to the governments of their respective States. +Into the administration of these a greater number of individuals +will expect to rise. From the gift of these a greater number of +offices and emoluments will flow. By the superintending care of +these, all the more domestic and personal interests of the people +will be regulated and provided for. With the affairs of these, +the people will be more familiarly and minutely conversant. And +with the members of these, will a greater proportion of the +people have the ties of personal acquaintance and friendship, and +of family and party attachments; on the side of these, +therefore, the popular bias may well be expected most strongly to +incline. Experience speaks the same language in this case. The +federal administration, though hitherto very defective in +comparison with what may be hoped under a better system, had, +during the war, and particularly whilst the independent fund of +paper emissions was in credit, an activity and importance as +great as it can well have in any future circumstances whatever. +It was engaged, too, in a course of measures which had for their +object the protection of everything that was dear, and the +acquisition of everything that could be desirable to the people +at large. It was, nevertheless, invariably found, after the +transient enthusiasm for the early Congresses was over, that the +attention and attachment of the people were turned anew to their +own particular governments; that the federal council was at no +time the idol of popular favor; and that opposition to proposed +enlargements of its powers and importance was the side usually +taken by the men who wished to build their political consequence +on the prepossessions of their fellow-citizens. If, therefore, +as has been elsewhere remarked, the people should in future +become more partial to the federal than to the State governments, +the change can only result from such manifest and irresistible +proofs of a better administration, as will overcome all their +antecedent propensities. And in that case, the people ought not +surely to be precluded from giving most of their confidence where +they may discover it to be most due; but even in that case the +State governments could have little to apprehend, because it is +only within a certain sphere that the federal power can, in the +nature of things, be advantageously administered. The remaining +points on which I propose to compare the federal and State +governments, are the disposition and the faculty they may +respectively possess, to resist and frustrate the measures of +each other. It has been already proved that the members of the +federal will be more dependent on the members of the State +governments, than the latter will be on the former. It has +appeared also, that the prepossessions of the people, on whom +both will depend, will be more on the side of the State +governments, than of the federal government. So far as the +disposition of each towards the other may be influenced by these +causes, the State governments must clearly have the advantage. +But in a distinct and very important point of view, the advantage +will lie on the same side. The prepossessions, which the members +themselves will carry into the federal government, will generally +be favorable to the States; whilst it will rarely happen, that +the members of the State governments will carry into the public +councils a bias in favor of the general government. A local +spirit will infallibly prevail much more in the members of +Congress, than a national spirit will prevail in the legislatures +of the particular States. Every one knows that a great proportion +of the errors committed by the State legislatures proceeds from +the disposition of the members to sacrifice the comprehensive and +permanent interest of the State, to the particular and separate +views of the counties or districts in which they reside. And if +they do not sufficiently enlarge their policy to embrace the +collective welfare of their particular State, how can it be +imagined that they will make the aggregate prosperity of the +Union, and the dignity and respectability of its government, the +objects of their affections and consultations? For the same +reason that the members of the State legislatures will be +unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, +the members of the federal legislature will be likely to attach +themselves too much to local objects. The States will be to the +latter what counties and towns are to the former. Measures will +too often be decided according to their probable effect, not on +the national prosperity and happiness, but on the prejudices, +interests, and pursuits of the governments and people of the +individual States. What is the spirit that has in general +characterized the proceedings of Congress? A perusal of their +journals, as well as the candid acknowledgments of such as have +had a seat in that assembly, will inform us, that the members +have but too frequently displayed the character, rather of +partisans of their respective States, than of impartial guardians +of a common interest; that where on one occasion improper +sacrifices have been made of local considerations, to the +aggrandizement of the federal government, the great interests of +the nation have suffered on a hundred, from an undue attention to +the local prejudices, interests, and views of the particular +States. I mean not by these reflections to insinuate, that the +new federal government will not embrace a more enlarged plan of +policy than the existing government may have pursued; much less, +that its views will be as confined as those of the State +legislatures; but only that it will partake sufficiently of the +spirit of both, to be disinclined to invade the rights of the +individual States, or the preorgatives of their governments. The +motives on the part of the State governments, to augment their +prerogatives by defalcations from the federal government, will be +overruled by no reciprocal predispositions in the members. Were +it admitted, however, that the Federal government may feel an +equal disposition with the State governments to extend its power +beyond the due limits, the latter would still have the advantage +in the means of defeating such encroachments. If an act of a +particular State, though unfriendly to the national government, +be generally popular in that State and should not too grossly +violate the oaths of the State officers, it is executed +immediately and, of course, by means on the spot and depending on +the State alone. The opposition of the federal government, or the +interposition of federal officers, would but inflame the zeal of +all parties on the side of the State, and the evil could not be +prevented or repaired, if at all, without the employment of means +which must always be resorted to with reluctance and difficulty. +On the other hand, should an unwarrantable measure of the federal +government be unpopular in particular States, which would seldom +fail to be the case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which +may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition to it are +powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the people; their +repugnance and, perhaps, refusal to co-operate with the officers +of the Union; the frowns of the executive magistracy of the +State; the embarrassments created by legislative devices, which +would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any +State, difficulties not to be despised; would form, in a large +State, very serious impediments; and where the sentiments of +several adjoining States happened to be in unison, would present +obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing +to encounter. But ambitious encroachments of the federal +government, on the authority of the State governments, would not +excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States +only. They would be signals of general alarm. Every government +would espouse the common cause. A correspondence would be +opened. Plans of resistance would be concerted. One spirit would +animate and conduct the whole. The same combinations, in short, +would result from an apprehension of the federal, as was produced +by the dread of a foreign, yoke; and unless the projected +innovations should be voluntarily renounced, the same appeal to +a trial of force would be made in the one case as was made in the +other. But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal +government to such an extremity. In the contest with Great +Britain, one part of the empire was employed against the other. +The more numerous part invaded the rights of the less numerous +part. The attempt was unjust and unwise; but it was not in +speculation absolutely chimerical. But what would be the contest +in the case we are supposing? Who would be the parties? A few +representatives of the people would be opposed to the people +themselves; or rather one set of representatives would be +contending against thirteen sets of representatives, with the +whole body of their common constituents on the side of the +latter. The only refuge left for those who prophesy the downfall +of the State governments is the visionary supposition that the +federal government may previously accumulate a military force for +the projects of ambition. The reasonings contained in these +papers must have been employed to little purpose indeed, if it +could be necessary now to disprove the reality of this danger. +That the people and the States should, for a sufficient period of +time, elect an uninterupted succession of men ready to betray +both; that the traitors should, throughout this period, +uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the +extension of the military establishment; that the governments +and the people of the States should silently and patiently behold +the gathering storm, and continue to supply the materials, until +it should be prepared to burst on their own heads, must appear to +every one more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious +jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, +than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism. +Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a +regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be +formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal +government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the +State governments, with the people on their side, would be able +to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to +the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any +country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number +of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear +arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an +army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these +would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of +citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from +among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united +and conducted by governments possessing their affections and +confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus +circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of +regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last +successful resistance of this country against the British arms, +will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the +advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the +people of almost every other nation, the existence of +subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by +which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against +the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a +simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the +military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which +are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the +governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is +not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to +shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the +additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, +who could collect the national will and direct the national +force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these +governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may +be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every +tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the +legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant +citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less +able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual +possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be +to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us +rather no longer insult them with the supposition that they can +ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment, +by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious +measures which must precede and produce it. The argument under +the present head may be put into a very concise form, which +appears altogether conclusive. Either the mode in which the +federal government is to be constructed will render it +sufficiently dependent on the people, or it will not. On the +first supposition, it will be restrained by that dependence from +forming schemes obnoxious to their constituents. On the other +supposition, it will not possess the confidence of the people, +and its schemes of usurpation will be easily defeated by the +State governments, who will be supported by the people. On +summing up the considerations stated in this and the last paper, +they seem to amount to the most convincing evidence, that the +powers proposed to be lodged in the federal government are as +little formidable to those reserved to the individual States, as +they are indispensably necessary to accomplish the purposes of +the Union; and that all those alarms which have been sounded, of +a meditated and consequential annihilation of the State +governments, must, on the most favorable interpretation, be +ascribed to the chimerical fears of the authors of them. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 47 + +The Particular Structure of the New Government and the +Distribution of Power Among Its Different Parts +From the New York Packet. Friday, February 1, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +HAVING reviewed the general form of the proposed government and +the general mass of power allotted to it, I proceed to examine +the particular structure of this government, and the distribution +of this mass of power among its constituent parts. One of the +principal objections inculcated by the more respectable +adversaries to the Constitution, is its supposed violation of the +political maxim, that the legislative, executive, and judiciary +departments ought to be separate and distinct. In the structure +of the federal government, no regard, it is said, seems to have +been paid to this essential precaution in favor of liberty. The +several departments of power are distributed and blended in such +a manner as at once to destroy all symmetry and beauty of form, +and to expose some of the essential parts of the edifice to the +danger of being crushed by the disproportionate weight of other +parts. No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic +value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened +patrons of liberty, than that on which the objection is founded. +The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and +judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and +whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be +pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Were the federal +Constitution, therefore, really chargeable with the accumulation +of power, or with a mixture of powers, having a dangerous +tendency to such an accumulation, no further arguments would be +necessary to inspire a universal reprobation of the system. I +persuade myself, however, that it will be made apparent to every +one, that the charge cannot be supported, and that the maxim on +which it relies has been totally misconceived and misapplied. In +order to form correct ideas on this important subject, it will be +proper to investigate the sense in which the preservation of +liberty requires that the three great departments of power should +be separate and distinct. The oracle who is always consulted and +cited on this subject is the celebrated Montesquieu. If he be not +the author of this invaluable precept in the science of politics, +he has the merit at least of displaying and recommending it most +effectually to the attention of mankind. Let us endeavor, in the +first place, to ascertain his meaning on this point. The British +Constitution was to Montesquieu what Homer has been to the +didactic writers on epic poetry. As the latter have considered +the work of the immortal bard as the perfect model from which the +principles and rules of the epic art were to be drawn, and by +which all similar works were to be judged, so this great +political critic appears to have viewed the Constitution of +England as the standard, or to use his own expression, as the +mirror of political liberty; and to have delivered, in the form +of elementary truths, the several characteristic principles of +that particular system. That we may be sure, then, not to mistake +his meaning in this case, let us recur to the source from which +the maxim was drawn. + On the slightest view of the British +Constitution, we must perceive that the legislative, executive, +and judiciary departments are by no means totally separate and +distinct from each other. The executive magistrate forms an +integral part of the legislative authority. He alone has the +prerogative of making treaties with foreign sovereigns, which, +when made, have, under certain limitations, the force of +legislative acts. All the members of the judiciary department are +appointed by him, can be removed by him on the address of the two +Houses of Parliament, and form, when he pleases to consult them, +one of his constitutional councils. One branch of the legislative +department forms also a great constitutional council to the +executive chief, as, on another hand, it is the sole depositary +of judicial power in cases of impeachment, and is invested with +the supreme appellate jurisdiction in all other cases. The +judges, again, are so far connected with the legislative +department as often to attend and participate in its +deliberations, though not admitted to a legislative vote. From +these facts, by which Montesquieu was guided, it may clearly be +inferred that, in saying ``There can be no liberty where the +legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, +or body of magistrates,'' or, ``if the power of judging be not +separated from the legislative and executive powers,'' he did not +mean that these departments ought to have no PARTIAL AGENCY in, +or no CONTROL over, the acts of each other. His meaning, as his +own words import, and still more conclusively as illustrated by +the example in his eye, can amount to no more than this, that +where the WHOLE power of one department is exercised by the same +hands which possess the WHOLE power of another department, the +fundamental principles of a free constitution are subverted. This +would have been the case in the constitution examined by him, if +the king, who is the sole executive magistrate, had possessed +also the complete legislative power, or the supreme +administration of justice; or if the entire legislative body had +possessed the supreme judiciary, or the supreme executive +authority. This, however, is not among the vices of that +constitution. The magistrate in whom the whole executive power +resides cannot of himself make a law, though he can put a +negative on every law; nor administer justice in person, though +he has the appointment of those who do administer it. The judges +can exercise no executive prerogative, though they are shoots +from the executive stock; nor any legislative function, though +they may be advised with by the legislative councils. The entire +legislature can perform no judiciary act, though by the joint act +of two of its branches the judges may be removed from their +offices, and though one of its branches is possessed of the +judicial power in the last resort. The entire legislature, again, +can exercise no executive prerogative, though one of its branches +constitutes the supreme executive magistracy, and another, on the +impeachment of a third, can try and condemn all the subordinate +officers in the executive department. The reasons on which +Montesquieu grounds his maxim are a further demonstration of his +meaning. ``When the legislative and executive powers are united +in the same person or body,'' says he, ``there can be no liberty, +because apprehensions may arise lest THE SAME monarch or senate +should ENACT tyrannical laws to EXECUTE them in a tyrannical +manner. '' Again: ``Were the power of judging joined with the +legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed +to arbitrary control, for THE JUDGE would then be THE LEGISLATOR. +Were it joined to the executive power, THE JUDGE might behave +with all the violence of AN OPPRESSOR. '' Some of these reasons +are more fully explained in other passages; but briefly stated as +they are here, they sufficiently establish the meaning which we +have put on this celebrated maxim of this celebrated author. + +If we look into the constitutions of the several States, we find +that, notwithstanding the emphatical and, in some instances, the +unqualified terms in which this axiom has been laid down, there +is not a single instance in which the several departments of +power have been kept absolutely separate and distinct. New +Hampshire, whose constitution was the last formed, seems to have +been fully aware of the impossibility and inexpediency of +avoiding any mixture whatever of these departments, and has +qualified the doctrine by declaring ``that the legislative, +executive, and judiciary powers ought to be kept as separate +from, and independent of, each other AS THE NATURE OF A FREE +GOVERNMENT WILL ADMIT; OR AS IS CONSISTENT WITH THAT CHAIN OF +CONNECTION THAT BINDS THE WHOLE FABRIC OF THE CONSTITUTION IN ONE +INDISSOLUBLE BOND OF UNITY AND AMITY. '' Her constitution +accordingly mixes these departments in several respects. The +Senate, which is a branch of the legislative department, is also +a judicial tribunal for the trial of impeachments. The +President, who is the head of the executive department, is the +presiding member also of the Senate; and, besides an equal vote +in all cases, has a casting vote in case of a tie. The executive +head is himself eventually elective every year by the +legislative department, and his council is every year chosen by +and from the members of the same department. Several of the +officers of state are also appointed by the legislature. And the +members of the judiciary department are appointed by the +executive department. The constitution of Massachusetts has +observed a sufficient though less pointed caution, in expressing +this fundamental article of liberty. It declares ``that the +legislative department shall never exercise the executive and +judicial powers, or either of them; the executive shall never +exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; +the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive +powers, or either of them. '' This declaration corresponds +precisely with the doctrine of Montesquieu, as it has been +explained, and is not in a single point violated by the plan of +the convention. It goes no farther than to prohibit any one of +the entire departments from exercising the powers of another +department. In the very Constitution to which it is prefixed, a +partial mixture of powers has been admitted. The executive +magistrate has a qualified negative on the legislative body, and +the Senate, which is a part of the legislature, is a court of +impeachment for members both of the executive and judiciary +departments. The members of the judiciary department, again, are +appointable by the executive department, and removable by the +same authority on the address of the two legislative branches. +Lastly, a number of the officers of government are annually +appointed by the legislative department. As the appointment to +offices, particularly executive offices, is in its nature an +executive function, the compilers of the Constitution have, in +this last point at least, violated the rule established by +themselves. I pass over the constitutions of Rhode Island and +Connecticut, because they were formed prior to the Revolution, +and even before the principle under examination had become an +object of political attention. The constitution of New York +contains no declaration on this subject; but appears very +clearly to have been framed with an eye to the danger of +improperly blending the different departments. It gives, +nevertheless, to the executive magistrate, a partial control over +the legislative department; and, what is more, gives a like +control to the judiciary department; and even blends the +executive and judiciary departments in the exercise of this +control. In its council of appointment members of the +legislative are associated with the executive authority, in the +appointment of officers, both executive and judiciary. And its +court for the trial of impeachments and correction of errors is +to consist of one branch of the legislature and the principal +members of the judiciary department. The constitution of New +Jersey has blended the different powers of government more than +any of the preceding. The governor, who is the executive +magistrate, is appointed by the legislature; is chancellor and +ordinary, or surrogate of the State; is a member of the Supreme +Court of Appeals, and president, with a casting vote, of one of +the legislative branches. The same legislative branch acts again +as executive council of the governor, and with him constitutes +the Court of Appeals. The members of the judiciary department are +appointed by the legislative department and removable by one +branch of it, on the impeachment of the other. According to the +constitution of Pennsylvania, the president, who is the head of +the executive department, is annually elected by a vote in which +the legislative department predominates. In conjunction with an +executive council, he appoints the members of the judiciary +department, and forms a court of impeachment for trial of all +officers, judiciary as well as executive. The judges of the +Supreme Court and justices of the peace seem also to be removable +by the legislature; and the executive power of pardoning in +certain cases, to be referred to the same department. The members +of the executive counoil are made EX-OFFICIO justices of peace +throughout the State. In Delaware, the chief executive magistrate +is annually elected by the legislative department. The speakers +of the two legislative branches are vice-presidents in the +executive department. The executive chief, with six others, +appointed, three by each of the legislative branches constitutes +the Supreme Court of Appeals; he is joined with the legislative +department in the appointment of the other judges. Throughout the +States, it appears that the members of the legislature may at the +same time be justices of the peace; in this State, the members of +one branch of it are EX-OFFICIO justices of the peace; as are +also the members of the executive council. The principal officers +of the executive department are appointed by the legislative; and +one branch of the latter forms a court of impeachments. All +officers may be removed on address of the legislature. Maryland +has adopted the maxim in the most unqualified terms; declaring +that the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of +government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each +other. Her constitution, notwithstanding, makes the executive +magistrate appointable by the legislative department; and the +members of the judiciary by the executive department. The +language of Virginia is still more pointed on this subject. Her +constitution declares, ``that the legislative, executive, and +judiciary departments shall be separate and distinct; so that +neither exercise the powers properly belonging to the other; nor +shall any person exercise the powers of more than one of them at +the same time, except that the justices of county courts shall be +eligible to either House of Assembly. '' Yet we find not only +this express exception, with respect to the members of the +irferior courts, but that the chief magistrate, with his +executive council, are appointable by the legislature; that two +members of the latter are triennially displaced at the pleasure +of the legislature; and that all the principal offices, both +executive and judiciary, are filled by the same department. The +executive prerogative of pardon, also, is in one case vested in +the legislative department. The constitution of North Carolina, +which declares ``that the legislative, executive, and supreme +judicial powers of government ought to be forever separate and +distinct from each other,'' refers, at the same time, to the +legislative department, the appointment not only of the executive +chief, but all the principal officers within both that and the +judiciary department. In South Carolina, the constitution makes +the executive magistracy eligible by the legislative department. +It gives to the latter, also, the appointment of the members of +the judiciary department, including even justices of the peace +and sheriffs; and the appointment of officers in the executive +department, down to captains in the army and navy of the State. +In the constitution of Georgia, where it is declared ``that the +legislative, executive, and judiciary departments shall be +separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers +properly belonging to the other,'' we find that the executive +department is to be filled by appointments of the legislature; +and the executive prerogative of pardon to be finally exercised +by the same authority. Even justices of the peace are to be +appointed by the legislature. In citing these cases, in which +the legislative, executive, and judiciary departments have not +been kept totally separate and distinct, I wish not to be +regarded as an advocate for the particular organizations of the +several State governments. I am fully aware that among the many +excellent principles which they exemplify, they carry strong +marks of the haste, and still stronger of the inexperience, under +which they were framed. It is but too obvious that in some +instances the fundamental principle under consideration has been +violated by too great a mixture, and even an actual +consolidation, of the different powers; and that in no instance +has a competent provision been made for maintaining in practice +the separation delineated on paper. What I have wished to evince +is, that the charge brought against the proposed Constitution, of +violating the sacred maxim of free government, is warranted +neither by the real meaning annexed to that maxim by its author, +nor by the sense in which it has hitherto been understood in +America. This interesting subject will be resumed in the ensuing +paper. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 48 + +These Departments Should Not Be So Far Separated as to Have No +Constitutional Control Over Each Other +From the New York Packet. Friday, February 1, 1788. + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT WAS shown in the last paper that the political apothegm there +examined does not require that the legislative, executive, and +judiciary departments should be wholly unconnected with each +other. I shall undertake, in the next place, to show that unless +these departments be so far connected and blended as to give to +each a constitutional control over the others, the degree of +separation which the maxim requires, as essential to a free +government, can never in practice be duly maintained. It is +agreed on all sides, that the powers properly belonging to one of +the departments ought not to be directly and completely +administered by either of the other departments. It is equally +evident, that none of them ought to possess, directly or +indirectly, an overruling influence over the others, in the +administration of their respective powers. It will not be denied, +that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be +effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it. +After discriminating, therefore, in theory, the several classes +of power, as they may in their nature be legislative, executive, +or judiciary, the next and most difficult task is to provide some +practical security for each, against the invasion of the others. +What this security ought to be, is the great problem to be +solved. Will it be sufficient to mark, with precision, the +boundaries of these departments, in the constitution of the +government, and to trust to these parchment barriers against the +encroaching spirit of power? This is the security which appears +to have been principally relied on by the compilers of most of +the American constitutions. But experience assures us, that the +efficacy of the provision has been greatly overrated; and that +some more adequate defense is indispensably necessary for the +more feeble, against the more powerful, members of the +government. The legislative department is everywhere extending +the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its +impetuous vortex. The founders of our republics have so much +merit for the wisdom which they have displayed, that no task can +be less pleasing than that of pointing out the errors into which +they have fallen. A respect for truth, however, obliges us to +remark, that they seem never for a moment to have turned their +eyes from the danger to liberty from the overgrown and +all-grasping prerogative of an hereditary magistrate, supported +and fortified by an hereditary branch of the legislative +authority. They seem never to have recollected the danger from +legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power in the +same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by +executive usurpations. In a government where numerous and +extensive prerogatives are placed in the hands of an hereditary +monarch, the executive department is very justly regarded as the +source of danger, and watched with all the jealousy which a zeal +for liberty ought to inspire. In a democracy, where a multitude +of people exercise in person the legislative functions, and are +continually exposed, by their incapacity for regular deliberation +and concerted measures, to the ambitious intrigues of their +executive magistrates, tyranny may well be apprehended, on some +favorable emergency, to start up in the same quarter. But in a +representative republic, where the executive magistracy is +carefully limited; both in the extent and the duration of its +power; and where the legislative power is exercised by an +assembly, which is inspired, by a supposed influence over the +people, with an intrepid confidence in its own strength; which is +sufficiently numerous to feel all the passions which actuate a +multitude, yet not so numerous as to be incapable of pursuing the +objects of its passions, by means which reason prescribes; it is +against the enterprising ambition of this department that the +people ought to indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their +precautions. The legislative department derives a superiority in +our governments from other circumstances. Its constitutional +powers being at once more extensive, and less susceptible of +precise limits, it can, with the greater facility, mask, under +complicated and indirect measures, the encroachments which it +makes on the co-ordinate departments. It is not unfrequently a +question of real nicety in legislative bodies, whether the +operation of a particular measure will, or will not, extend +beyond the legislative sphere. On the other side, the executive +power being restrained within a narrower compass, and being more +simple in its nature, and the judiciary being described by +landmarks still less uncertain, projects of usurpation by either +of these departments would immediately betray and defeat +themselves. Nor is this all: as the legislative department alone +has access to the pockets of the people, and has in some +constitutions full discretion, and in all a prevailing influence, +over the pecuniary rewards of those who fill the other +departments, a dependence is thus created in the latter, which +gives still greater facility to encroachments of the former. I +have appealed to our own experience for the truth of what I +advance on this subject. Were it necessary to verify this +experience by particular proofs, they might be multiplied +without end. I might find a witness in every citizen who has +shared in, or been attentive to, the course of public +administrations. I might collect vouchers in abundance from the +records and archives of every State in the Union. But as a more +concise, and at the same time equally satisfactory, evidence, I +will refer to the example of two States, attested by two +unexceptionable authorities. The first example is that of +Virginia, a State which, as we have seen, has expressly declared +in its constitution, that the three great departments ought not +to be intermixed. The authority in support of it is Mr. +Jefferson, who, besides his other advantages for remarking the +operation of the government, was himself the chief magistrate of +it. In order to convey fully the ideas with which his experience +had impressed him on this subject, it will be necessary to quote +a passage of some length from his very interesting ``Notes on the +State of Virginia,'' p. 195. ``All the powers of government, +legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative +body. The concentrating these in the same hands, is precisely the +definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation, +that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and +not by a single one. One hundred and seventy-three despots would +surely be as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it, turn +their eyes on the republic of Venice. As little will it avail us, +that they are chosen by ourselves. An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not +the government we fought for; but one which should not only be +founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government +should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of +magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, +without being effectually checked and restrained by the others. +For this reason, that convention which passed the ordinance of +government, laid its foundation on this basis, that the +legislative, executive, and judiciary departments should be +separate and distinct, so that no person should exercise the +powers of more than one of them at the same time. BUT NO BARRIER +WAS PROVIDED BETWEEN THESE SEVERAL POWERS. The judiciary and the +executive members were left dependent on the legislative for +their subsistence in office, and some of them for their +continuance in it. If, therefore, the legislature assumes +executive and judiciary powers, no opposition is likely to be +made; nor, if made, can be effectual; because in that case they +may put their proceedings into the form of acts of Assembly, +which will render them obligatory on the other branches. They +have accordingly, IN MANY instances, DECIDED RIGHTS which should +have been left to JUDICIARY CONTROVERSY, and THE DIRECTION OF THE +EXECUTIVE, DURING THE WHOLE TIME OF THEIR SESSION, IS BECOMING +HABITUAL AND FAMILIAR. ''The other State which I shall take for +an example is Pennsylvania; and the other authority, the Council +of Censors, which assembled in the years 1783 and 1784. A part of +the duty of this body, as marked out by the constitution, was +``to inquire whether the constitution had been preserved +inviolate in every part; and whether the legislative and +executive branches of government had performed their duty as +guardians of the people, or assumed to themselves, or exercised, +other or greater powers than they are entitled to by the +constitution. '' In the execution of this trust, the council were +necessarily led to a comparison of both the legislative and +executive proceedings, with the constitutional powers of these +departments; and from the facts enumerated, and to the truth of +most of which both sides in the council subscribed, it appears +that the constitution had been flagrantly violated by the +legislature in a variety of important instances. A great number +of laws had been passed, violating, without any apparent +necessity, the rule requiring that all bills of a public nature +shall be previously printed for the consideration of the people; +although this is one of the precautions chiefly relied on by the +constitution against improper acts of legislature. The +constitutional trial by jury had been violated, and powers +assumed which had not been delegated by the constitution. +Executive powers had been usurped. The salaries of the judges, +which the constitution expressly requires to be fixed, had been +occasionally varied; and cases belonging to the judiciary +department frequently drawn within legislative cognizance and +determination. Those who wish to see the several particulars +falling under each of these heads, may consult the journals of +the council, which are in print. Some of them, it will be found, +may be imputable to peculiar circumstances connected with the +war; but the greater part of them may be considered as the +spontaneous shoots of an ill-constituted government. It appears, +also, that the executive department had not been innocent of +frequent breaches of the constitution. There are three +observations, however, which ought to be made on this head: +FIRST, a great proportion of the instances were either +immediately produced by the necessities of the war, or +recommended by Congress or the commander-in-chief; SECONDLY, in +most of the other instances, they conformed either to the +declared or the known sentiments of the legislative department; +THIRDLY, the executive department of Pennsylvania is +distinguished from that of the other States by the number of +members composing it. In this respect, it has as much affinity +to a legislative assembly as to an executive council. And being +at once exempt from the restraint of an individual responsibility +for the acts of the body, and deriving confidence from mutual +example and joint influence, unauthorized measures would, of +course, be more freely hazarded, than where the executive +department is administered by a single hand, or by a few hands. +The conclusion which I am warranted in drawing from these +observations is, that a mere demarcation on parchment of the +constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a +sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a +tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the +same hands. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 49 + +Method of Guarding Against the Encroachments of Any One +Department of Government by Appealing to the People Through a +Convention +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 5, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE author of the ``Notes on the State of Virginia,'' quoted in +the last paper, has subjoined to that valuable work the draught +of a constitution, which had been prepared in order to be laid +before a convention, expected to be called in 1783, by the +legislature, for the establishment of a constitution for that +commonwealth. The plan, like every thing from the same pen, marks +a turn of thinking, original, comprehensive, and accurate; and is +the more worthy of attention as it equally displays a fervent +attachment to republican government and an enlightened view of +the dangerous propensities against which it ought to be guarded. +One of the precautions which he proposes, and on which he appears +ultimately to rely as a palladium to the weaker departments of +power against the invasions of the stronger, is perhaps +altogether his own, and as it immediately relates to the subject +of our present inquiry, ought not to be overlooked. His +proposition is, ``that whenever any two of the three branches of +government shall concur in opinion, each by the voices of two +thirds of their whole number, that a convention is necessary for +altering the constitution, or CORRECTING BREACHES OF IT, a +convention shall be called for the purpose. ''As the people are +the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that +the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of +government hold their power, is derived, it seems strictly +consonant to the republican theory, to recur to the same original +authority, not only whenever it may be necessary to enlarge, +diminish, or new-model the powers of the government, but also +whenever any one of the departments may commit encroachments on +the chartered authorities of the others. The several departments +being perfectly co-ordinate by the terms of their common +commission, none of them, it is evident, can pretend to an +exclusive or superior right of settling the boundaries between +their respective powers; and how are the encroachments of the +stronger to be prevented, or the wrongs of the weaker to be +redressed, without an appeal to the people themselves, who, as +the grantors of the commissions, can alone declare its true +meaning, and enforce its observance? There is certainly great +force in this reasoning, and it must be allowed to prove that a +constitutional road to the decision of the people ought to be +marked out and kept open, for certain great and extraordinary +occasions. But there appear to be insuperable objections against +the proposed recurrence to the people, as a provision in all +cases for keeping the several departments of power within their +constitutional limits. In the first place, the provision does not +reach the case of a combination of two of the departments against +the third. If the legislative authority, which possesses so many +means of operating on the motives of the other departments, +should be able to gain to its interest either of the others, or +even one third of its members, the remaining department could +derive no advantage from its remedial provision. I do not dwell, +however, on this objection, because it may be thought to be +rather against the modification of the principle, than against +the principle itself. In the next place, it may be considered as +an objection inherent in the principle, that as every appeal to +the people would carry an implication of some defect in the +government, frequent appeals would, in a great measure, deprive +the government of that veneration which time bestows on every +thing, and without which perhaps the wisest and freest +governments would not possess the requisite stability. If it be +true that all governments rest on opinion, it is no less true +that the strength of opinion in each individual, and its +practical influence on his conduct, depend much on the number +which he supposes to have entertained the same opinion. The +reason of man, like man himself, is timid and cautious when left +alone, and acquires firmness and confidence in proportion to the +number with which it is associated. When the examples which +fortify opinion are ANCIENT as well as NUMEROUS, they are known +to have a double effect. In a nation of philosophers, this +consideration ought to be disregarded. A reverence for the laws +would be sufficiently inculcated by the voice of an enlightened +reason. But a nation of philosophers is as little to be expected +as the philosophical race of kings wished for by Plato. And in +every other nation, the most rational government will not find it +a superfluous advantage to have the prejudices of the community +on its side. The danger of disturbing the public tranquillity by +interesting too strongly the public passions, is a still more +serious objection against a frequent reference of constitutional +questions to the decision of the whole society. Notwithstanding +the success which has attended the revisions of our established +forms of government, and which does so much honor to the virtue +and intelligence of the people of America, it must be confessed +that the experiments are of too ticklish a nature to be +unnecessarily multiplied. We are to recollect that all the +existing constitutions were formed in the midst of a danger which +repressed the passions most unfriendly to order and concord; of +an enthusiastic confidence of the people in their patriotic +leaders, which stifled the ordinary diversity of opinions on +great national questions; of a universal ardor for new and +opposite forms, produced by a universal resentment and +indignation against the ancient government; and whilst no spirit +of party connected with the changes to be made, or the abuses to +be reformed, could mingle its leaven in the operation. The future +situations in which we must expect to be usually placed, do not +present any equivalent security against the danger which is +apprehended. But the greatest objection of all is, that the +decisions which would probably result from such appeals would not +answer the purpose of maintaining the constitutional equilibrium +of the government. We have seen that the tendency of republican +governments is to an aggrandizement of the legislative at the +expense of the other departments. The appeals to the people, +therefore, would usually be made by the executive and judiciary +departments. But whether made by one side or the other, would +each side enjoy equal advantages on the trial? Let us view their +different situations. The members of the executive and judiciary +departments are few in number, and can be personally known to a +small part only of the people. The latter, by the mode of their +appointment, as well as by the nature and permanency of it, are +too far removed from the people to share much in their +prepossessions. The former are generally the objects of jealousy, +and their administration is always liable to be discolored and +rendered unpopular. The members of the legislative department, on +the other hand, are numberous. They are distributed and dwell +among the people at large. Their connections of blood, of +friendship, and of acquaintance embrace a great proportion of the +most influential part of the society. The nature of their public +trust implies a personal influence among the people, and that +they are more immediately the confidential guardians of the +rights and liberties of the people. With these advantages, it can +hardly be supposed that the adverse party would have an equal +chance for a favorable issue. But the legislative party would not +only be able to plead their cause most successfully with the +people. They would probably be constituted themselves the judges. +The same influence which had gained them an election into the +legislature, would gain them a seat in the convention. If this +should not be the case with all, it would probably be the case +with many, and pretty certainly with those leading characters, on +whom every thing depends in such bodies. The convention, in +short, would be composed chiefly of men who had been, who +actually were, or who expected to be, members of the department +whose conduct was arraigned. They would consequently be parties +to the very question to be decided by them. It might, however, +sometimes happen, that appeals would be made under circumstances +less adverse to the executive and judiciary departments. The +usurpations of the legislature might be so flagrant and so +sudden, as to admit of no specious coloring. A strong party +among themselves might take side with the other branches. The +executive power might be in the hands of a peculiar favorite of +the people. In such a posture of things, the public decision +might be less swayed by prepossessions in favor of the +legislative party. But still it could never be expected to turn +on the true merits of the question. It would inevitably be +connected with the spirit of pre-existing parties, or of parties +springing out of the question itself. It would be connected with +persons of distinguished character and extensive influence in the +community. It would be pronounced by the very men who had been +agents in, or opponents of, the measures to which the decision +would relate. The PASSIONS, therefore, not the REASON, of the +public would sit in judgment. But it is the reason, alone, of the +public, that ought to control and regulate the government. The +passions ought to be controlled and regulated by the government. +We found in the last paper, that mere declarations in the written +constitution are not sufficient to restrain the several +departments within their legal rights. It appears in this, that +occasional appeals to the people would be neither a proper nor an +effectual provision for that purpose. How far the provisions of a +different nature contained in the plan above quoted might be +adequate, I do not examine. Some of them are unquestionably +founded on sound political principles, and all of them are framed +with singular ingenuity and precision. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 50 + +Periodical Appeals to the People Considered +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 5, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT MAY be contended, perhaps, that instead of OCCASIONAL appeals +to the people, which are liable to the objections urged against +them, PERIODICAL appeals are the proper and adequate means of +PREVENTING AND CORRECTING INFRACTIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION. It +will be attended to, that in the examination of these expedients, +I confine myself to their aptitude for ENFORCING the +Constitution, by keeping the several departments of power within +their due bounds, without particularly considering them as +provisions for ALTERING the Constitution itself. In the first +view, appeals to the people at fixed periods appear to be nearly +as ineligible as appeals on particular occasions as they emerge. +If the periods be separated by short intervals, the measures to +be reviewed and rectified will have been of recent date, and will +be connected with all the circumstances which tend to vitiate and +pervert the result of occasional revisions. If the periods be +distant from each other, the same remark will be applicable to +all recent measures; and in proportion as the remoteness of the +others may favor a dispassionate review of them, this advantage +is inseparable from inconveniences which seem to counterbalance +it. In the first place, a distant prospect of public censure +would be a very feeble restraint on power from those excesses to +which it might be urged by the force of present motives. Is it to +be imagined that a legislative assembly, consisting of a hundred +or two hundred members, eagerly bent on some favorite object, and +breaking through the restraints of the Constitution in pursuit of +it, would be arrested in their career, by considerations drawn +from a censorial revision of their conduct at the future distance +of ten, fifteen, or twenty years? In the next place, the abuses +would often have completed their mischievous effects before the +remedial provision would be applied. And in the last place, where +this might not be the case, they would be of long standing, would +have taken deep root, and would not easily be extirpated. The +scheme of revising the constitution, in order to correct recent +breaches of it, as well as for other purposes, has been actually +tried in one of the States. One of the objects of the Council of +Censors which met in Pennsylvania in 1783 and 1784, was, as we +have seen, to inquire, ``whether the constitution had been +violated, and whether the legislative and executive departments +had encroached upon each other. '' This important and novel +experiment in politics merits, in several points of view, very +particular attention. In some of them it may, perhaps, as a +single experiment, made under circumstances somewhat peculiar, be +thought to be not absolutely conclusive. But as applied to the +case under consideration, it involves some facts, which I venture +to remark, as a complete and satisfactory illustration of the +reasoning which I have employed. First. It appears, from the +names of the gentlemen who composed the council, that some, at +least, of its most active members had also been active and +leading characters in the parties which pre-existed in the State. +Secondly. It appears that the same active and leading members of +the council had been active and influential members of the +legislative and executive branches, within the period to be +reviewed; and even patrons or opponents of the very measures to +be thus brought to the test of the constitution. Two of the +members had been vice-presidents of the State, and several other +members of the executive council, within the seven preceding +years. One of them had been speaker, and a number of others +distinguished members, of the legislative assembly within the +same period. Thirdly. Every page of their proceedings witnesses +the effect of all these circumstances on the temper of their +deliberations. Throughout the continuance of the council, it was +split into two fixed and violent parties. The fact is +acknowledged and lamented by themselves. Had this not been the +case, the face of their proceedings exhibits a proof equally +satisfactory. In all questions, however unimportant in +themselves, or unconnected with each other, the same names stand +invariably contrasted on the opposite columns. Every unbiased +observer may infer, without danger of mistake, and at the same +time without meaning to reflect on either party, or any +individuals of either party, that, unfortunately, PASSION, not +REASON, must have presided over their decisions. When men +exercise their reason coolly and freely on a variety of distinct +questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions on some +of them. When they are governed by a common passion, their +opinions, if they are so to be called, will be the same. +Fourthly. It is at least problematical, whether the decisions of +this body do not, in several instances, misconstrue the limits +prescribed for the legislative and executive departments, instead +of reducing and limiting them within their constitutional places. +Fifthly. I have never understood that the decisions of the +council on constitutional questions, whether rightly or +erroneously formed, have had any effect in varying the practice +founded on legislative constructions. It even appears, if I +mistake not, that in one instance the contemporary legislature +denied the constructions of the council, and actually prevailed +in the contest. This censorial body, therefore, proves at the +same time, by its researches, the existence of the disease, and +by its example, the inefficacy of the remedy. This conclusion +cannot be invalidated by alleging that the State in which the +experiment was made was at that crisis, and had been for a long +time before, violently heated and distracted by the rage of +party. Is it to be presumed, that at any future septennial epoch +the same State will be free from parties? Is it to be presumed +that any other State, at the same or any other given period, will +be exempt from them? Such an event ought to be neither presumed +nor desired; because an extinction of parties necessarily implies +either a universal alarm for the public safety, or an absolute +extinction of liberty. Were the precaution taken of excluding +from the assemblies elected by the people, to revise the +preceding administration of the government, all persons who +should have been concerned with the government within the given +period, the difficulties would not be obviated. The important +task would probably devolve on men, who, with inferior +capacities, would in other respects be little better qualified. +Although they might not have been personally concerned in the +administration, and therefore not immediately agents in the +measures to be examined, they would probably have been involved +in the parties connected with these measures, and have been +elected under their auspices. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 51 + +The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks +and Balances Between the Different Departments +From the New York Packet. Friday, February 8, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +TO WHAT expedient, then, shall we finally resort, for maintaining +in practice the necessary partition of power among the several +departments, as laid down in the Constitution? The only answer +that can be given is, that as all these exterior provisions are +found to be inadequate, the defect must be supplied, by so +contriving the interior structure of the government as that its +several constituent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the +means of keeping each other in their proper places. Without +presuming to undertake a full development of this important idea, +I will hazard a few general observations, which may perhaps place +it in a clearer light, and enable us to form a more correct +judgment of the principles and structure of the government +planned by the convention. In order to lay a due foundation for +that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of +government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to +be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that +each department should have a will of its own; and consequently +should be so constituted that the members of each should have as +little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of +the others. Were this principle rigorously adhered to, it would +require that all the appointments for the supreme executive, +legislative, and judiciary magistracies should be drawn from the +same fountain of authority, the people, through channels having +no communication whatever with one another. Perhaps such a plan +of constructing the several departments would be less difficult +in practice than it may in contemplation appear. Some +difficulties, however, and some additional expense would attend +the execution of it. Some deviations, therefore, from the +principle must be admitted. In the constitution of the judiciary +department in particular, it might be inexpedient to insist +rigorously on the principle: first, because peculiar +qualifications being essential in the members, the primary +consideration ought to be to select that mode of choice which +best secures these qualifications; secondly, because the +permanent tenure by which the appointments are held in that +department, must soon destroy all sense of dependence on the +authority conferring them. It is equally evident, that the +members of each department should be as little dependent as +possible on those of the others, for the emoluments annexed to +their offices. Were the executive magistrate, or the judges, not +independent of the legislature in this particular, their +independence in every other would be merely nominal. But the +great security against a gradual concentration of the several +powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who +administer each department the necessary constitutional means and +personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The +provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be +made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made +to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be +connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be +a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be +necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is +government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human +nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If +angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal +controls on government would be necessary. In framing a +government which is to be administered by men over men, the great +difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to +control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control +itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary +control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the +necessity of auxiliary precautions. This policy of supplying, by +opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might +be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as +well as public. We see it particularly displayed in all the +subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to +divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that +each may be a check on the other that the private interest of +every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights. These +inventions of prudence cannot be less requisite in the +distribution of the supreme powers of the State. But it is not +possible to give to each department an equal power of +self-defense. In republican government, the legislative +authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this +inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different +branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and +different principles of action, as little connected with each +other as the nature of their common functions and their common +dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary +to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further +precautions. As the weight of the legislative authority requires +that it should be thus divided, the weakness of the executive may +require, on the other hand, that it should be fortified. An +absolute negative on the legislature appears, at first view, to +be the natural defense with which the executive magistrate should +be armed. But perhaps it would be neither altogether safe nor +alone sufficient. On ordinary occasions it might not be exerted +with the requisite firmness, and on extraordinary occasions it +might be perfidiously abused. May not this defect of an absolute +negative be supplied by some qualified connection between this +weaker department and the weaker branch of the stronger +department, by which the latter may be led to support the +constitutional rights of the former, without being too much +detached from the rights of its own department? If the principles +on which these observations are founded be just, as I persuade +myself they are, and they be applied as a criterion to the +several State constitutions, and to the federal Constitution it +will be found that if the latter does not perfectly correspond +with them, the former are infinitely less able to bear such a +test. There are, moreover, two considerations particularly +applicable to the federal system of America, which place that +system in a very interesting point of view. First. In a single +republic, all the power surrendered by the people is submitted to +the administration of a single government; and the usurpations +are guarded against by a division of the government into distinct +and separate departments. In the compound republic of America, +the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two +distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each +subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a +double security arises to the rights of the people. The different +governments will control each other, at the same time that each +will be controlled by itself. Second. It is of great importance +in a republic not only to guard the society against the +oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society +against the injustice of the other part. Different interests +necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a +majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the +minority will be insecure. There are but two methods of +providing against this evil: the one by creating a will in the +community independent of the majority that is, of the society +itself; the other, by comprehending in the society so many +separate descriptions of citizens as will render an unjust +combination of a majority of the whole very improbable, if not +impracticable. The first method prevails in all governments +possessing an hereditary or self-appointed authority. This, at +best, is but a precarious security; because a power independent +of the society may as well espouse the unjust views of the major, +as the rightful interests of the minor party, and may possibly be +turned against both parties. The second method will be +exemplified in the federal republic of the United States. Whilst +all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the +society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, +interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of +individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from +interested combinations of the majority. In a free government +the security for civil rights must be the same as that for +religious rights. It consists in the one case in the +multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity +of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on +the number of interests and sects; and this may be presumed to +depend on the extent of country and number of people comprehended +under the same government. This view of the subject must +particularly recommend a proper federal system to all the sincere +and considerate friends of republican government, since it shows +that in exact proportion as the territory of the Union may be +formed into more circumscribed Confederacies, or States +oppressive combinations of a majority will be facilitated: the +best security, under the republican forms, for the rights of +every class of citizens, will be diminished: and consequently the +stability and independence of some member of the government, the +only other security, must be proportionately increased. Justice +is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It +ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or +until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the +forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress +the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state +of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the +violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the +stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their +condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak +as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more +powerful factions or parties be gradnally induced, by a like +motive, to wish for a government which will protect all parties, +the weaker as well as the more powerful. It can be little +doubted that if the State of Rhode Island was separated from the +Confederacy and left to itself, the insecurity of rights under +the popular form of government within such narrow limits would be +displayed by such reiterated oppressions of factious majorities +that some power altogether independent of the people would soon +be called for by the voice of the very factions whose misrule had +proved the necessity of it. In the extended republic of the +United States, and among the great variety of interests, parties, +and sects which it embraces, a coalition of a majority of the +whole society could seldom take place on any other principles +than those of justice and the general good; whilst there being +thus less danger to a minor from the will of a major party, there +must be less pretext, also, to provide for the security of the +former, by introducing into the government a will not dependent +on the latter, or, in other words, a will independent of the +society itself. It is no less certain than it is important, +notwithstanding the contrary opinions which have been +entertained, that the larger the society, provided it lie within +a practical sphere, the more duly capable it will be of +self-government. And happily for the REPUBLICAN CAUSE, the +practicable sphere may be carried to a very great extent, by a +judicious modification and mixture of the FEDERAL PRINCIPLE. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 52 + +The House of Representatives +From the New York Packet. Friday, February 8, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +FROM the more general inquiries pursued in the four last papers, +I pass on to a more particular examination of the several parts +of the government. I shall begin with the House of +Representatives. The first view to be taken of this part of the +government relates to the qualifications of the electors and the +elected. Those of the former are to be the same with those of the +electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. +The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded +as a fundamental article of republican government. It was +incumbent on the convention, therefore, to define and establish +this right in the Constitution. To have left it open for the +occasional regulation of the Congress, would have been improper +for the reason just mentioned. To have submitted it to the +legislative discretion of the States, would have been improper +for the same reason; and for the additional reason that it would +have rendered too dependent on the State governments that branch +of the federal government which ought to be dependent on the +people alone. To have reduced the different qualifications in the +different States to one uniform rule, would probably have been as +dissatisfactory to some of the States as it would have been +difficult to the convention. The provision made by the convention +appears, therefore, to be the best that lay within their option. +It must be satisfactory to every State, because it is conformable +to the standard already established, or which may be established, +by the State itself. It will be safe to the United States, +because, being fixed by the State constitutions, it is not +alterable by the State governments, and it cannot be feared that +the people of the States will alter this part of their +constitutions in such a manner as to abridge the rights secured +to them by the federal Constitution. The qualifications of the +elected, being less carefully and properly defined by the State +constitutions, and being at the same time more susceptible of +uniformity, have been very properly considered and regulated by +the convention. A representative of the United States must be of +the age of twenty-five years; must have been seven years a +citizen of the United States; must, at the time of his election, +be an inhabitant of the State he is to represent; and, during the +time of his service, must be in no office under the United +States. Under these reasonable limitations, the door of this part +of the federal government is open to merit of every description, +whether native or adoptive, whether young or old, and without +regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of +religious faith. The term for which the representatives are to be +elected falls under a second view which may be taken of this +branch. In order to decide on the propriety of this article, two +questions must be considered: first, whether biennial elections +will, in this case, be safe; secondly, whether they be necessary +or useful. First. As it is essential to liberty that the +government in general should have a common interest with the +people, so it is particularly essential that the branch of it +under consideration should have an immediate dependence on, and +an intimate sympathy with, the people. Frequent elections are +unquestionably the only policy by which this dependence and +sympathy can be effectually secured. But what particular degree +of frequency may be absolutely necessary for the purpose, does +not appear to be susceptible of any precise calculation, and must +depend on a variety of circumstances with which it may be +connected. Let us consult experience, the guide that ought always +to be followed whenever it can be found. The scheme of +representation, as a substitute for a meeting of the citizens in +person, being at most but very imperfectly known to ancient +polity, it is in more modern times only that we are to expect +instructive examples. And even here, in order to avoid a research +too vague and diffusive, it will be proper to confine ourselves +to the few examples which are best known, and which bear the +greatest analogy to our particular case. The first to which this +character ought to be applied, is the House of Commons in Great +Britain. The history of this branch of the English Constitution, +anterior to the date of Magna Charta, is too obscure to yield +instruction. The very existence of it has been made a question +among political antiquaries. The earliest records of subsequent +date prove that parliaments were to SIT only every year; not that +they were to be ELECTED every year. And even these annual +sessions were left so much at the discretion of the monarch, +that, under various pretexts, very long and dangerous +intermissions were often contrived by royal ambition. To remedy +this grievance, it was provided by a statute in the reign of +Charles II. , that the intermissions should not be protracted +beyond a period of three years. On the accession of William III. +, when a revolution took place in the government, the subject was +still more seriously resumed, and it was declared to be among the +fundamental rights of the people that parliaments ought to be +held FREQUENTLY. By another statute, which passed a few years +later in the same reign, the term ``frequently,'' which had +alluded to the triennial period settled in the time of Charles +II. , is reduced to a precise meaning, it being expressly enacted +that a new parliament shall be called within three years after +the termination of the former. The last change, from three to +seven years, is well known to have been introduced pretty early +in the present century, under on alarm for the Hanoverian +succession. From these facts it appears that the greatest +frequency of elections which has been deemed necessary in that +kingdom, for binding the representatives to their constituents, +does not exceed a triennial return of them. And if we may argue +from the degree of liberty retained even under septennial +elections, and all the other vicious ingredients in the +parliamentary constitution, we cannot doubt that a reduction of +the period from seven to three years, with the other necessary +reforms, would so far extend the influence of the people over +their representatives as to satisfy us that biennial elections, +under the federal system, cannot possibly be dangerous to the +requisite dependence of the House of Representatives on their +constituents. Elections in Ireland, till of late, were regulated +entirely by the discretion of the crown, and were seldom +repeated, except on the accession of a new prince, or some other +contingent event. The parliament which commenced with George II. +was continued throughout his whole reign, a period of about +thirty-five years. The only dependence of the representatives on +the people consisted in the right of the latter to supply +occasional vacancies by the election of new members, and in the +chance of some event which might produce a general new election. +The ability also of the Irish parliament to maintain the rights +of their constituents, so far as the disposition might exist, was +extremely shackled by the control of the crown over the subjects +of their deliberation. Of late these shackles, if I mistake not, +have been broken; and octennial parliaments have besides been +established. What effect may be produced by this partial reform, +must be left to further experience. The example of Ireland, from +this view of it, can throw but little light on the subject. As +far as we can draw any conclusion from it, it must be that if the +people of that country have been able under all these +disadvantages to retain any liberty whatever, the advantage of +biennial elections would secure to them every degree of liberty, +which might depend on a due connection between their +representatives and themselves. Let us bring our inquiries nearer +home. The example of these States, when British colonies, claims +particular attention, at the same time that it is so well known +as to require little to be said on it. The principle of +representation, in one branch of the legislature at least, was +established in all of them. But the periods of election were +different. They varied from one to seven years. Have we any +reason to infer, from the spirit and conduct of the +representatives of the people, prior to the Revolution, that +biennial elections would have been dangerous to the public +liberties? The spirit which everywhere displayed itself at the +commencement of the struggle, and which vanquished the obstacles +to independence, is the best of proofs that a sufficient portion +of liberty had been everywhere enjoyed to inspire both a sense of +its worth and a zeal for its proper enlargement This remark holds +good, as well with regard to the then colonies whose elections +were least frequent, as to those whose elections were most +frequent Virginia was the colony which stood first in resisting +the parliamentary usurpations of Great Britain; it was the first +also in espousing, by public act, the resolution of independence. +In Virginia, nevertheless, if I have not been misinformed, +elections under the former government were septennial. This +particular example is brought into view, not as a proof of any +peculiar merit, for the priority in those instances was probably +accidental; and still less of any advantage in SEPTENNIAL +elections, for when compared with a greater frequency they are +inadmissible; but merely as a proof, and I conceive it to be a +very substantial proof, that the liberties of the people can be +in no danger from BIENNIAL elections. The conclusion resulting +from these examples will be not a little strengthened by +recollecting three circumstances. The first is, that the federal +legislature will possess a part only of that supreme legislative +authority which is vested completely in the British Parliament; +and which, with a few exceptions, was exercised by the colonial +assemblies and the Irish legislature. It is a received and +well-founded maxim, that where no other circumstances affect the +case, the greater the power is, the shorter ought to be its +duration; and, conversely, the smaller the power, the more safely +may its duration be protracted. In the second place, it has, on +another occasion, been shown that the federal legislature will +not only be restrained by its dependence on its people, as other +legislative bodies are, but that it will be, moreover, watched +and controlled by the several collateral legislatures, which +other legislative bodies are not. And in the third place, no +comparison can be made between the means that will be possessed +by the more permanent branches of the federal government for +seducing, if they should be disposed to seduce, the House of +Representatives from their duty to the people, and the means of +influence over the popular branch possessed by the other branches +of the government above cited. With less power, therefore, to +abuse, the federal representatives can be less tempted on one +side, and will be doubly watched on the other. PUBLIUS. + +FEDERALIST No. 53 + +The Same Subject Continued(The House of Representatives) +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 12, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +I SHALL here, perhaps, be reminded of a current observation, +``that where annual elections end, tyranny begins. '' If it be +true, as has often been remarked, that sayings which become +proverbial are generally founded in reason, it is not less true, +that when once established, they are often applied to cases to +which the reason of them does not extend. I need not look for a +proof beyond the case before us. What is the reason on which this +proverbial observation is founded? No man will subject himself to +the ridicule of pretending that any natural connection subsists +between the sun or the seasons, and the period within which human +virtue can bear the temptations of power. Happily for mankind, +liberty is not, in this respect, confined to any single point of +time; but lies within extremes, which afford sufficient latitude +for all the variations which may be required by the various +situations and circumstances of civil society. The election of +magistrates might be, if it were found expedient, as in some +instances it actually has been, daily, weekly, or monthly, as +well as annual; and if circumstances may require a deviation from +the rule on one side, why not also on the other side? Turning our +attention to the periods established among ourselves, for the +election of the most numerous branches of the State legislatures, +we find them by no means coinciding any more in this instance, +than in the elections of other civil magistrates. In Connecticut +and Rhode Island, the periods are half-yearly. In the other +States, South Carolina excepted, they are annual. In South +Carolina they are biennial as is proposed in the federal +government. Here is a difference, as four to one, between the +longest and shortest periods; and yet it would be not easy to +show, that Connecticut or Rhode Island is better governed, or +enjoys a greater share of rational liberty, than South Carolina; +or that either the one or the other of these States is +distinguished in these respects, and by these causes, from the +States whose elections are different from both. In searching for +the grounds of this doctrine, I can discover but one, and that is +wholly inapplicable to our case. The important distinction so +well understood in America, between a Constitution established by +the people and unalterable by the government, and a law +established by the government and alterable by the government, +seems to have been little understood and less observed in any +other country. Wherever the supreme power of legislation has +resided, has been supposed to reside also a full power to change +the form of the government. Even in Great Britain, where the +principles of political and civil liberty have been most +discussed, and where we hear most of the rights of the +Constitution, it is maintained that the authority of the +Parliament is transcendent and uncontrollable, as well with +regard to the Constitution, as the ordinary objects of +legislative provision. They have accordingly, in several +instances, actually changed, by legislative acts, some of the +most fundamental articles of the government. They have in +particular, on several occasions, changed the period of election; +and, on the last occasion, not only introduced septennial in +place of triennial elections, but by the same act, continued +themselves in place four years beyond the term for which they +were elected by the people. An attention to these dangerous +practices has produced a very natural alarm in the votaries of +free government, of which frequency of elections is the +corner-stone; and has led them to seek for some security to +liberty, against the danger to which it is exposed. Where no +Constitution, paramount to the government, either existed or +could be obtained, no constitutional security, similar to that +established in the United States, was to be attempted. Some +other security, therefore, was to be sought for; and what better +security would the case admit, than that of selecting and +appealing to some simple and familiar portion of time, as a +standard for measuring the danger of innovations, for fixing the +national sentiment, and for uniting the patriotic exertions? The +most simple and familiar portion of time, applicable to the +subject was that of a year; and hence the doctrine has been +inculcated by a laudable zeal, to erect some barrier against the +gradual innovations of an unlimited government, that the advance +towards tyranny was to be calculated by the distance of departure +from the fixed point of annual elections. But what necessity can +there be of applying this expedient to a government limited, as +the federal government will be, by the authority of a paramount +Constitution? Or who will pretend that the liberties of the +people of America will not be more secure under biennial +elections, unalterably fixed by such a Constitution, than those +of any other nation would be, where elections were annual, or +even more frequent, but subject to alterations by the ordinary +power of the government? The second question stated is, whether +biennial elections be necessary or useful. The propriety of +answering this question in the affirmative will appear from +several very obvious considerations. + No man can be a +competent legislator who does not add to an upright intention and +a sound judgment a certain degree of knowledge of the subjects on +which he is to legislate. A part of this knowledge may be +acquired by means of information which lie within the compass of +men in private as well as public stations. Another part can only +be attained, or at least thoroughly attained, by actual +experience in the station which requires the use of it. The +period of service, ought, therefore, in all such cases, to bear +some proportion to the extent of practical knowledge requisite to +the due performance of the service. The period of legislative +service established in most of the States for the more numerous +branch is, as we have seen, one year. The question then may be +put into this simple form: does the period of two years bear no +greater proportion to the knowledge requisite for federal +legislation than one year does to the knowledge requisite for +State legislation? The very statement of the question, in this +form, suggests the answer that ought to be given to it. In a +single State, the requisite knowledge relates to the existing +laws which are uniform throughout the State, and with which all +the citizens are more or less conversant; and to the general +affairs of the State, which lie within a small compass, are not +very diversified, and occupy much of the attention and +conversation of every class of people. The great theatre of the +United States presents a very different scene. The laws are so +far from being uniform, that they vary in every State; whilst the +public affairs of the Union are spread throughout a very +extensive region, and are extremely diversified by t e local +affairs connected with them, and can with difficulty be correctly +learnt in any other place than in the central councils to which a +knowledge of them will be brought by the representatives of every +part of the empire. Yet some knowledge of the affairs, and even +of the laws, of all the States, ought to be possessed by the +members from each of the States. How can foreign trade be +properly regulated by uniform laws, without some acquaintance +with the commerce, the ports, the usages, and the regulatious of +the different States? How can the trade between the different +States be duly regulated, without some knowledge of their +relative situations in these and other respects? How can taxes +be judiciously imposed and effectually collected, if they be not +accommodated to the different laws and local circumstances +relating to these objects in the different States? How can +uniform regulations for the militia be duly provided, without a +similar knowledge of many internal circumstances by which the +States are distinguished from each other? These are the +principal objects of federal legislation, and suggest most +forcibly the extensive information which the representatives +ought to acquire. The other interior objects will require a +proportional degree of information with regard to them. It is +true that all these difficulties will, by degrees, be very much +diminished. The most laborious task will be the proper +inauguration of the government and the primeval formation of a +federal code. Improvements on the first draughts will every year +become both easier and fewer. Past transactions of the +government will be a ready and accurate source of information to +new members. The affairs of the Union will become more and more +objects of curiosity and conversation among the citizens at +large. And the increased intercourse among those of different +States will contribute not a little to diffuse a mutual knowledge +of their affairs, as this again will contribute to a general +assimilation of their manners and laws. But with all these +abatements, the business of federal legislation must continue so +far to exceed, both in novelty and difficulty, the legislative +business of a single State, as to justify the longer period of +service assigned to those who are to transact it. A branch of +knowledge which belongs to the acquirements of a federal +representative, and which has not been mentioned is that of +foreign affairs. In regulating our own commerce he ought to be +not only acquainted with the treaties between the United States +and other nations, but also with the commercial policy and laws +of other nations. He ought not to be altogether ignorant of the +law of nations; for that, as far as it is a proper object of +municipal legislation, is submitted to the federal government. +And although the House of Representatives is not immediately to +participate in foreign negotiations and arrangements, yet from +the necessary connection between the several branches of public +affairs, those particular branches will frequently deserve +attention in the ordinary course of legislation, and will +sometimes demand particular legislative sanction and +co-operation. Some portion of this knowledge may, no doubt, be +acquired in a man's closet; but some of it also can only be +derived from the public sources of information; and all of it +will be acquired to best effect by a practical attention to the +subject during the period of actual service in the legislature. +There are other considerations, of less importance, perhaps, but +which are not unworthy of notice. The distance which many of the +representatives will be obliged to travel, and the arrangements +rendered necessary by that circumstance, might be much more +serious objections with fit men to this service, if limited to a +single year, than if extended to two years. No argument can be +drawn on this subject, from the case of the delegates to the +existing Congress. They are elected annually, it is true; but +their re-election is considered by the legislative assemblies +almost as a matter of course. The election of the representatives +by the people would not be governed by the same principle. A few +of the members, as happens in all such assemblies, will possess +superior talents; will, by frequent reelections, become members +of long standing; will be thoroughly masters of the public +business, and perhaps not unwilling to avail themselves of those +advantages. The greater the proportion of new members, and the +less the information of the bulk of the members the more apt will +they be to fall into the snares that may be laid for them. This +remark is no less applicable to the relation which will subsist +between the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is an +inconvenience mingled with the advantages of our frequent +elections even in single States, where they are large, and hold +but one legislative session in a year, that spurious elections +cannot be investigated and annulled in time for the decision to +have its due effect. If a return can be obtained, no matter by +what unlawful means, the irregular member, who takes his seat of +course, is sure of holding it a sufficient time to answer his +purposes. Hence, a very pernicious encouragement is given to the +use of unlawful means, for obtaining irregular returns. Were +elections for the federal legislature to be annual, this practice +might become a very serious abuse, particularly in the more +distant States. Each house is, as it necessarily must be, the +judge of the elections, qualifications, and returns of its +members; and whatever improvements may be suggested by +experience, for simplifying and accelerating the process in +disputed cases, so great a portion of a year would unavoidably +elapse, before an illegitimate member could be dispossessed of +his seat, that the prospect of such an event would be little +check to unfair and illicit means of obtaining a seat. All these +considerations taken together warrant us in affirming, that +biennial elections will be as useful to the affairs of the public +as we have seen that they will be safe to the liberty of the +people. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 54 + +The Apportionment of Members Among the States + +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 12, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE next view which I shall take of the House of Representatives +relates to the appointment of its members to the several States +which is to be determined by the same rule with that of direct +taxes. + It is not contended that the number of people in each +State ought not to be the standard for regulating the proportion +of those who are to represent the people of each State. The +establishment of the same rule for the appointment of taxes, will +probably be as little contested; though the rule itself in this +case, is by no means founded on the same principle. In the former +case, the rule is understood to refer to the personal rights of +the people, with which it has a natural and universal connection. +In the latter, it has reference to the proportion of wealth, of +which it is in no case a precise measure, and in ordinary cases a +very unfit one. But notwithstanding the imperfection of the rule +as applied to the relative wealth and contributions of the +States, it is evidently the least objectionable among the +practicable rules, and had too recently obtained the general +sanction of America, not to have found a ready preference with +the convention. All this is admitted, it will perhaps be said; +but does it follow, from an admission of numbers for the measure +of representation, or of slaves combined with free citizens as a +ratio of taxation, that slaves ought to be included in the +numerical rule of representation? Slaves are considered as +property, not as persons. They ought therefore to be comprehended +in estimates of taxation which are founded on property, and to be +excluded from representation which is regulated by a census of +persons. This is the objection, as I understand it, stated in its +full force. I shall be equally candid in stating the reasoning +which may be offered on the opposite side. ``We subscribe to the +doctrine,'' might one of our Southern brethren observe, ``that +representation relates more immediately to persons, and taxation +more immediately to property, and we join in the application of +this distinction to the case of our slaves. But we must deny the +fact, that slaves are considered merely as property, and in no +respect whatever as persons. The true state of the case is, that +they partake of both these qualities: being considered by our +laws, in some respects, as persons, and in other respects as +property. In being compelled to labor, not for himself, but for +a master; in being vendible by one master to another master; and +in being subject at all times to be restrained in his liberty and +chastised in his body, by the capricious will of another, the +slave may appear to be degraded from the human rank, and classed +with those irrational animals which fall under the legal +denomination of property. In being protected, on the other hand, +in his life and in his limbs, against the violence of all +others, even the master of his labor and his liberty; and in +being punishable himself for all violence committed against +others, the slave is no less evidently regarded by the law as a +member of the society, not as a part of the irrational creation; +as a moral person, not as a mere article of property. The +federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on +the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixed character +of persons and of property. This is in fact their true +character. It is the character bestowed on them by the laws +under which they live; and it will not be denied, that these are +the proper criterion; because it is only under the pretext that +the laws have transformed the negroes into subjects of property, +that a place is disputed them in the computation of numbers; and +it is admitted, that if the laws were to restore the rights which +have been taken away, the negroes could no longer be refused an +equal share of representation with the other inhabitants. ``This +question may be placed in another light. It is agreed on all +sides, that numbers are the best scale of wealth and taxation, as +they are the only proper scale of representation. Would the +convention have been impartial or consistent, if they had +rejected the slaves from the list of inhabitants, when the shares +of representation were to be calculated, and inserted them on the +lists when the tariff of contributions was to be adjusted? Could +it be reasonably expected, that the Southern States would concur +in a system, which considered their slaves in some degree as men, +when burdens were to be imposed, but refused to consider them in +the same light, when advantages were to be conferred? Might not +some surprise also be expressed, that those who reproach the +Southern States with the barbarous policy of considering as +property a part of their human brethren, should themselves +contend, that the government to which all the States are to be +parties, ought to consider this unfortunate race more completely +in the unnatural light of property, than the very laws of which +they complain? ``It may be replied, perhaps, that slaves are not +included in the estimate of representatives in any of the States +possessing them. They neither vote themselves nor increase the +votes of their masters. Upon what principle, then, ought they to +be taken into the federal estimate of representation? In +rejecting them altogether, the Constitution would, in this +respect, have followed the very laws which have been appealed to +as the proper guide. ``This objection is repelled by a single +abservation. It is a fundamental principle of the proposed +Constitution, that as the aggregate number of representatives +allotted to the several States is to be determined by a federal +rule, founded on the aggregate number of inhabitants, so the +right of choosing this allotted number in each State is to be +exercised by such part of the inhabitants as the State itself may +designate. The qualifications on which the right of suffrage +depend are not, perhaps, the same in any two States. In some of +the States the difference is very material. In every State, a +certain proportion of inhabitants are deprived of this right by +the constitution of the State, who will be included in the census +by which the federal Constitution apportions the representatives. +In this point of view the Southern States might retort the +complaint, by insisting that the principle laid down by the +convention required that no regard should be had to the policy of +particular States towards their own inhabitants; and +consequently, that the slaves, as inhabitants, should have been +admitted into the census according to their full number, in like +manner with other inhabitants, who, by the policy of other +States, are not admitted to all the rights of citizens. A +rigorous adherence, however, to this principle, is waived by +those who would be gainers by it. All that they ask is that +equal moderation be shown on the other side. Let the case of the +slaves be considered, as it is in truth, a peculiar one. Let the +compromising expedient of the Constitution be mutually adopted, +which regards them as inhabitants, but as debased by servitude +below the equal level of free inhabitants, which regards the +SLAVE as divested of two fifths of the MAN. ``After all, may not +another ground be taken on which this article of the +Constitution will admit of a still more ready defense? We have +hitherto proceeded on the idea that representation related to +persons only, and not at all to property. But is it a just idea? +Government is instituted no less for protection of the property, +than of the persons, of individuals. The one as well as the +other, therefore, may be considered as represented by those who +are charged with the government. Upon this principle it is, that +in several of the States, and particularly in the State of New +York, one branch of the government is intended more especially to +be the guardian of property, and is accordingly elected by that +part of the society which is most interested in this object of +government. In the federal Constitution, this policy does not +prevail. The rights of property are committed into the same hands +with the personal rights. Some attention ought, therefore, to be +paid to property in the choice of those hands. ``For another +reason, the votes allowed in the federal legislature to the +people of each State, ought to bear some proportion to the +comparative wealth of the States. States have not, like +individuals, an influence over each other, arising from superior +advantages of fortune. If the law allows an opulent citizen but a +single vote in the choice of his representative, the respect and +consequence which he derives from his fortunate situation very +frequently guide the votes of others to the objects of his +choice; and through this imperceptible channel the rights of +property are conveyed into the public representation. A State +possesses no such influence over other States. It is not probable +that the richest State in the Confederacy will ever influence the +choice of a single representative in any other State. Nor will +the representatives of the larger and richer States possess any +other advantage in the federal legislature, over the +representatives of other States, than what may result from their +superior number alone. As far, therefore, as their superior +wealth and weight may justly entitle them to any advantage, it +ought to be secured to them by a superior share of +representation. The new Constitution is, in this respect, +materially different from the existing Confederation, as well as +from that of the United Netherlands, and other similar +confederacies. In each of the latter, the efficacy of the +federal resolutions depends on the subsequent and voluntary +resolutions of the states composing the union. Hence the states, +though possessing an equal vote in the public councils, have an +unequal influence, corresponding with the unequal importance of +these subsequent and voluntary resolutions. Under the proposed +Constitution, the federal acts will take effect without the +necessary intervention of the individual States. They will depend +merely on the majority of votes in the federal legislature, and +consequently each vote, whether proceeding from a larger or +smaller State, or a State more or less wealthy or powerful, will +have an equal weight and efficacy: in the same manner as the +votes individually given in a State legislature, by the +representatives of unequal counties or other districts, have +each a precise equality of value and effect; or if there be any +difference in the case, it proceeds from the difference in the +personal character of the individual representative, rather than +from any regard to the extent of the district from which he +comes. ''Such is the reasoning which an advocate for the +Southern interests might employ on this subject; and although it +may appear to be a little strained in some points, yet, on the +whole, I must confess that it fully reconciles me to the scale of +representation which the convention have established. In one +respect, the establishment of a common measure for representation +and taxation will have a very salutary effect. As the accuracy +of the census to be obtained by the Congress will necessarily +depend, in a considerable degree on the disposition, if not on +the co-operation, of the States, it is of great importance that +the States should feel as little bias as possible, to swell or to +reduce the amount of their numbers. Were their share of +representation alone to be governed by this rule, they would have +an interest in exaggerating their inhabitants. Were the rule to +decide their share of taxation alone, a contrary temptation would +prevail. By extending the rule to both objects, the States will +have opposite interests, which will control and balance each +other, and produce the requisite impartiality. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 55 + +The Total Number of the House of Representatives +From the New York Packet. Friday, February 15, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE number of which the House of Representatives is to consist, +forms another and a very interesting point of view, under which +this branch of the federal legislature may be contemplated. +Scarce any article, indeed, in the whole Constitution seems to be +rendered more worthy of attention, by the weight of character and +the apparent force of argument with which it has been assailed. +The charges exhibited against it are, first, that so small a +number of representatives will be an unsafe depositary of the +public interests; secondly, that they will not possess a proper +knowledge of the local circumstances of their numerous +constituents; thirdly, that they will be taken from that class of +citizens which will sympathize least with the feelings of the +mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at a permanent +elevation of the few on the depression of the many; fourthly, +that defective as the number will be in the first instance, it +will be more and more disproportionate, by the increase of the +people, and the obstacles which will prevent a correspondent +increase of the representatives. In general it may be remarked on +this subject, that no political problem is less susceptible of a +precise solution than that which relates to the number most +convenient for a representative legislature; nor is there any +point on which the policy of the several States is more at +variance, whether we compare their legislative assemblies +directly with each other, or consider the proportions which they +respectively bear to the number of their constituents. Passing +over the difference between the smallest and largest States, as +Delaware, whose most numerous branch consists of twenty-one +representatives, and Massachusetts, where it amounts to between +three and four hundred, a very considerable difference is +observable among States nearly equal in population. The number of +representatives in Pennsylvania is not more than one fifth of +that in the State last mentioned. New York, whose population is +to that of South Carolina as six to five, has little more than +one third of the number of representatives. As great a disparity +prevails between the States of Georgia and Delaware or Rhode +Island. In Pennsylvania, the representatives do not bear a +greater proportion to their constituents than of one for every +four or five thousand. In Rhode Island, they bear a proportion of +at least one for every thousand. And according to the +constitution of Georgia, the proportion may be carried to one to +every ten electors; and must unavoidably far exceed the +proportion in any of the other States. Another general remark to +be made is, that the ratio between the representatives and the +people ought not to be the same where the latter are very +numerous as where they are very few. Were the representatives in +Virginia to be regulated by the standard in Rhode Island, they +would, at this time, amount to between four and five hundred; and +twenty or thirty years hence, to a thousand. On the other hand, +the ratio of Pennsylvania, if applied to the State of Delaware, +would reduce the representative assembly of the latter to seven +or eight members. Nothing can be more fallacious than to found +our political calculations on arithmetical principles. Sixty or +seventy men may be more properly trusted with a given degree of +power than six or seven. But it does not follow that six or seven +hundred would be proportionably a better depositary. And if we +carry on the supposition to six or seven thousand, the whole +reasoning ought to be reversed. The truth is, that in all cases a +certain number at least seems to be necessary to secure the +benefits of free consultation and discussion, and to guard +against too easy a combination for improper purposes; as, on the +other hand, the number ought at most to be kept within a certain +limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a +multitude. In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character +composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. +Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian +assembly would still have been a mob. + It is necessary also to +recollect here the observations which were applied to the case of +biennial elections. For the same reason that the limited powers +of the Congress, and the control of the State legislatures, +justify less frequent elections than the public safely might +otherwise require, the members of the Congress need be less +numerous than if they possessed the whole power of legislation, +and were under no other than the ordinary restraints of other +legislative bodies. With these general ideas in our mind, let us +weigh the objections which have been stated against the number of +members proposed for the House of Representatives. It is said, in +the first place, that so small a number cannot be safely trusted +with so much power. The number of which this branch of the +legislature is to consist, at the outset of the government, will +be sixtyfive. Within three years a census is to be taken, when +the number may be augmented to one for every thirty thousand +inhabitants; and within every successive period of ten years the +census is to be renewed, and augmentations may continue to be +made under the above limitation. It will not be thought an +extravagant conjecture that the first census will, at the rate of +one for every thirty thousand, raise the number of +representatives to at least one hundred. Estimating the negroes +in the proportion of three fifths, it can scarcely be doubted +that the population of the United States will by that time, if it +does not already, amount to three millions. At the expiration of +twenty-five years, according to the computed rate of increase, +the number of representatives will amount to two hundred, and of +fifty years, to four hundred. This is a number which, I presume, +will put an end to all fears arising from the smallness of the +body. I take for granted here what I shall, in answering the +fourth objection, hereafter show, that the number of +representatives will be augmented from time to time in the +manner provided by the Constitution. On a contrary supposition, I +should admit the objection to have very great weight indeed. The +true question to be decided then is, whether the smallness of the +number, as a temporary regulation, be dangerous to the public +liberty? Whether sixty-five members for a few years, and a +hundred or two hundred for a few more, be a safe depositary for a +limited and well-guarded power of legislating for the United +States? I must own that I could not give a negative answer to +this question, without first obliterating every impression which +I have received with regard to the present genius of the people +of America, the spirit which actuates the State legislatures, and +the principles which are incorporated with the political +character of every class of citizens I am unable to conceive that +the people of America, in their present temper, or under any +circumstances which can speedily happen, will choose, and every +second year repeat the choice of, sixty-five or a hundred men who +would be disposed to form and pursue a scheme of tyranny or +treachery. I am unable to conceive that the State legislatures, +which must feel so many motives to watch, and which possess so +many means of counteracting, the federal legislature, would fail +either to detect or to defeat a conspiracy of the latter against +the liberties of their common constituents. I am equally unable +to conceive that there are at this time, or can be in any short +time, in the United States, any sixty-five or a hundred men +capable of recommending themselves to the choice of the people at +large, who would either desire or dare, within the short space of +two years, to betray the solemn trust committed to them. What +change of circumstances, time, and a fuller population of our +country may produce, requires a prophetic spirit to declare, +which makes no part of my pretensions. But judging from the +circumstances now before us, and from the probable state of them +within a moderate period of time, I must pronounce that the +liberties of America cannot be unsafe in the number of hands +proposed by the federal Constitution. From what quarter can the +danger proceed? Are we afraid of foreign gold? If foreign gold +could so easily corrupt our federal rulers and enable them to +ensnare and betray their constituents, how has it happened that +we are at this time a free and independent nation? The Congress +which conducted us through the Revolution was a less numerous +body than their successors will be; they were not chosen by, nor +responsible to, their fellowcitizens at large; though appointed +from year to year, and recallable at pleasure, they were +generally continued for three years, and prior to the +ratification of the federal articles, for a still longer term. +They held their consultations always under the veil of secrecy; +they had the sole transaction of our affairs with foreign +nations; through the whole course of the war they had the fate of +their country more in their hands than it is to be hoped will +ever be the case with our future representatives; and from the +greatness of the prize at stake, and the eagerness of the party +which lost it, it may well be supposed that the use of other +means than force would not have been scrupled. Yet we know by +happy experience that the public trust was not betrayed; nor has +the purity of our public councils in this particular ever +suffered, even from the whispers of calumny. Is the danger +apprehended from the other branches of the federal government? +But where are the means to be found by the President, or the +Senate, or both? Their emoluments of office, it is to be +presumed, will not, and without a previous corruption of the +House of Representatives cannot, more than suffice for very +different purposes; their private fortunes, as they must allbe +American citizens, cannot possibly be sources of danger. The +only means, then, which they can possess, will be in the +dispensation of appointments. Is it here that suspicion rests +her charge? Sometimes we are told that this fund of corruption +is to be exhausted by the President in subduing the virtue of the +Senate. Now, the fidelity of the other House is to be the +victim. The improbability of such a mercenary and perfidious +combination of the several members of government, standing on as +different foundations as republican principles will well admit, +and at the same time accountable to the society over which they +are placed, ought alone to quiet this apprehension. But, +fortunately, the Constitution has provided a still further +safeguard. The members of the Congress are rendered ineligible +to any civil offices that may be created, or of which the +emoluments may be increased, during the term of their election. +No offices therefore can be dealt out to the existing members but +such as may become vacant by ordinary casualties: and to suppose +that these would be sufficient to purchase the guardians of the +people, selected by the people themselves, is to renounce every +rule by which events ought to be calculated, and to substitute an +indiscriminate and unbounded jealousy, with which all reasoning +must be vain. The sincere friends of liberty, who give +themselves up to the extravagancies of this passion, are not +aware of the injury they do their own cause. As there is a +degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of +circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in +human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and +confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of +these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the +pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some +among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the +inference would be, that there is not sufficient virtue among men +for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of +despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one +another. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 56 + +The Same Subject Continued(The Total Number of the House of +Representatives) +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 19, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE SECOND charge against the House of Representatives is, that +it will be too small to possess a due knowledge of the interests +of its constituents. As this objection evidently proceeds from a +comparison of the proposed number of representatives with the +great extent of the United States, the number of their +inhabitants, and the diversity of their interests, without taking +into view at the same time the circumstances which will +distinguish the Congress from other legislative bodies, the best +answer that can be given to it will be a brief explanation of +these peculiarities. It is a sound and important principle that +the representative ought to be acquainted with the interests and +circumstances of his constituents. But this principle can extend +no further than to those circumstances and interests to which the +authority and care of the representative relate. An ignorance of +a variety of minute and particular objects, which do not lie +within the compass of legislation, is consistent with every +attribute necessary to a due performance of the legislative +trust. In determining the extent of information required in the +exercise of a particular authority, recourse then must be had to +the objects within the purview of that authority. What are to be +the objects of federal legislation? Those which are of most +importance, and which seem most to require local knowledge, are +commerce, taxation, and the militia. A proper regulation of +commerce requires much information, as has been elsewhere +remarked; but as far as this information relates to the laws and +local situation of each individual State, a very few +representatives would be very sufficient vehicles of it to the +federal councils. Taxation will consist, in a great measure, of +duties which will be involved in the regulation of commerce. So +far the preceding remark is applicable to this object. As far as +it may consist of internal collections, a more diffusive +knowledge of the circumstances of the State may be necessary. But +will not this also be possessed in sufficient degree by a very +few intelligent men, diffusively elected within the State? Divide +the largest State into ten or twelve districts, and it will be +found that there will be no peculiar local interests in either, +which will not be within the knowledge of the representative of +the district. Besides this source of information, the laws of the +State, framed by representatives from every part of it, will be +almost of themselves a sufficient guide. In every State there +have been made, and must continue to be made, regulations on this +subject which will, in many cases, leave little more to be done +by the federal legislature, than to review the different laws, +and reduce them in one general act. A skillful individual in his +closet with all the local codes before him, might compile a law +on some subjects of taxation for the whole union, without any aid +from oral information, and it may be expected that whenever +internal taxes may be necessary, and particularly in cases +requiring uniformity throughout the States, the more simple +objects will be preferred. To be fully sensible of the facility +which will be given to this branch of federal legislation by the +assistance of the State codes, we need only suppose for a moment +that this or any other State were divided into a number of parts, +each having and exercising within itself a power of local +legislation. Is it not evident that a degree of local information +and preparatory labor would be found in the several volumes of +their proceedings, which would very much shorten the labors of +the general legislature, and render a much smaller number of +members sufficient for it? The federal councils will derive great +advantage from another circumstance. The representatives of each +State will not only bring with them a considerable knowledge of +its laws, and a local knowledge of their respective districts, +but will probably in all cases have been members, and may even at +the very time be members, of the State legislature, where all the +local information and interests of the State are assembled, and +from whence they may easily be conveyed by a very few hands into +the legislature of the United States. The observations made on +the subject of taxation apply with greater force to the case of +the militia. For however different the rules of discipline may be +in different States, they are the same throughout each particular +State; and depend on circumstances which can differ but little in +different parts of the same State. The attentive reader will +discern that the reasoning here used, to prove the sufficiency of +a moderate number of representatives, does not in any respect +contradict what was urged on another occasion with regard to the +extensive information which the representatives ought to possess, +and the time that might be necessary for acquiring it. This +information, so far as it may relate to local objects, is +rendered necessary and difficult, not by a difference of laws and +local circumstances within a single State, but of those among +different States. Taking each State by itself, its laws are the +same, and its interests but little diversified. A few men, +therefore, will possess all the knowledge requisite for a proper +representation of them. Were the interests and affairs of each +individual State perfectly simple and uniform, a knowledge of +them in one part would involve a knowledge of them in every +other, and the whole State might be competently represented by a +single member taken from any part of it. On a comparison of the +different States together, we find a great dissimilarity in their +laws, and in many other circumstances connected with the objects +of federal legislation, with all of which the federal +representatives ought to have some acquaintance. Whilst a few +representatives, therefore, from each State, may bring with them +a due knowledge of their own State, every representative will +have much information to acquire concerning all the other States. +The changes of time, as was formerly remarked, on the comparative +situation of the different States, will have an assimilating +effect. The effect of time on the internal affairs of the States, +taken singly, will be just the contrary. At present some of the +States are little more than a society of husbandmen. Few of them +have made much progress in those branches of industry which give +a variety and complexity to the affairs of a nation. These, +however, will in all of them be the fruits of a more advanced +population, and will require, on the part of each State, a fuller +representation. The foresight of the convention has accordingly +taken care that the progress of population may be accompanied +with a proper increase of the representative branch of the +government. The experience of Great Britain, which presents to +mankind so many political lessons, both of the monitory and +exemplary kind, and which has been frequently consulted in the +course of these inquiries, corroborates the result of the +reflections which we have just made. The number of inhabitants in +the two kingdoms of England and Scotland cannot be stated at less +than eight millions. The representatives of these eight millions +in the House of Commons amount to five hundred and fifty-eight. +Of this number, one ninth are elected by three hundred and +sixty-four persons, and one half, by five thousand seven hundred +and twenty-three persons. 1 It cannot be supposed that the half +thus elected, and who do not even reside among the people at +large, can add any thing either to the security of the people +against the government, or to the knowledge of their +circumstances and interests in the legislative councils. On the +contrary, it is notorious, that they are more frequently the +representatives and instruments of the executive magistrate, than +the guardians and advocates of the popular rights. They might +therefore, with great propriety, be considered as something more +than a mere deduction from the real representatives of the +nation. We will, however, consider them in this light alone, and +will not extend the deduction to a considerable number of +others, who do not reside among their constitutents, are very +faintly connected with them, and have very little particular +knowledge of their affairs. With all these concessions, two +hundred and seventy-nine persons only will be the depository of +the safety, interest, and happiness of eight millions that is to +say, there will be one representative only to maintain the rights +and explain the situation OF TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED +AND SEVENTY constitutents, in an assembly exposed to the whole +force of executive influence, and extending its authority to +every object of legislation within a nation whose affairs are in +the highest degree diversified and complicated. Yet it is very +certain, not only that a valuable portion of freedom has been +preserved under all these circumstances, but that the defects in +the British code are chargeable, in a very small proportion, on +the ignorance of the legislature concerning the circumstances of +the people. Allowing to this case the weight which is due to it, +and comparing it with that of the House of Representatives as +above explained it seems to give the fullest assurance, that a +representative for every THIRTY THOUSAND INHABITANTS will render +the latter both a safe and competent guardian of the interests +which will be confided to it. PUBLIUS. Burgh's ``Political +Disquisitions. '' + + +FEDERALIST No. 57 + +The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the +Expense of the Many Considered in Connection with Representation +From the New York Packet. Tuesday, February 19, 1788. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE THIRD charge against the House of Representatives is, that it +will be taken from that class of citizens which will have least +sympathy with the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim +at an ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of +the few. Of all the objections which have been framed against the +federal Constitution, this is perhaps the most extraordinary. +Whilst the objection itself is levelled against a pretended +oligarchy, the principle of it strikes at the very root of +republican government. The aim of every political constitution +is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess +most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common +good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most +effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they +continue to hold their public trust. The elective mode of +obtaining rulers is the characteristic policy of republican +government. The means relied on in this form of government for +preventing their degeneracy are numerous and various. The most +effectual one, is such a limitation of the term of appointments +as will maintain a proper responsibility to the people. Let me +now ask what circumstance there is in the constitution of the +House of Representatives that violates the principles of +republican government, or favors the elevation of the few on the +ruins of the many? Let me ask whether every circumstance is not, +on the contrary, strictly conformable to these principles, and +scrupulously impartial to the rights and pretensions of every +class and description of citizens? Who are to be the electors of +the federal representatives? Not the rich, more than the poor; +not the learned, more than the ignorant; not the haughty heirs of +distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscurity and +unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of +the people of the United States. They are to be the same who +exercise the right in every State of electing the corresponding +branch of the legislature of the State. Who are to be the objects +of popular choice? Every citizen whose merit may recommend him to +the esteem and confidence of his country. No qualification of +wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil profession is +permitted to fetter the judgement or disappoint the inclination +of the people. If we consider the situation of the men on whom +the free suffrages of their fellow-citizens may confer the +representative trust, we shall find it involving every security +which can be devised or desired for their fidelity to their +constituents. In the first place, as they will have been +distinguished by the preference of their fellow-citizens, we are +to presume that in general they will be somewhat distinguished +also by those qualities which entitle them to it, and which +promise a sincere and scrupulous regard to the nature of their +engagements. In the second place, they will enter into the public +service under circumstances which cannot fail to produce a +temporary affection at least to their constituents. There is in +every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of +esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations +of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns. +Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human +nature; and it must be confessed that instances of it are but too +frequent and flagrant, both in public and in private life. But +the universal and extreme indignation which it inspires is itself +a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment. +In the third place, those ties which bind the representative to +his constituents are strengthened by motives of a more selfish +nature. His pride and vanity attach him to a form of government +which favors his pretensions and gives him a share in its honors +and distinctions. Whatever hopes or projects might be entertained +by a few aspiring characters, it must generally happen that a +great proportion of the men deriving their advancement from their +influence with the people, would have more to hope from a +preservation of the favor, than from innovations in the +government subversive of the authority of the people. All these +securities, however, would be found very insufficient without the +restraint of frequent elections. Hence, in the fourth place, the +House of Representatives is so constituted as to support in the +members an habitual recollection of their dependence on the +people. Before the sentiments impressed on their minds by the +mode of their elevation can be effaced by the exercise of power, +they will be compelled to anticipate the moment when their power +is to cease, when their exercise of it is to be reviewed, and +when they must descend to the level from which they were raised; +there forever to remain unless a faithful discharge of their +trust shall have established their title to a renewal of it. I +will add, as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the House +of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures, +that they can make no law which will not have its full operation +on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of +the society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest +bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people +together. It creates between them that communion of interests and +sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished +examples; but without which every government degenerates into +tyranny. If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of +Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of +themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer: the +genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional +laws; and above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates +the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in +return is nourished by it. If this spirit shall ever be so far +debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, +as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate +any thing but liberty. Such will be the relation between the +House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty, gratitude, +interest, ambition itself, are the chords by which they will be +bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people. +It is possible that these may all be insufficient to control the +caprice and wickedness of man. But are they not all that +government will admit, and that human prudence can devise? Are +they not the genuine and the characteristic means by which +republican government provides for the liberty and happiness of +the people? Are they not the identical means on which every State +government in the Union relies for the attainment of these +important ends? What then are we to understand by the objection +which this paper has combated? What are we to say to the men who +profess the most flaming zeal for republican government, yet +boldly impeach the fundamental principle of it; who pretend to be +champions for the right and the capacity of the people to choose +their own rulers, yet maintain that they will prefer those only +who will immediately and infallibly betray the trust committed to +them? Were the objection to be read by one who had not seen the +mode prescribed by the Constitution for the choice of +representatives, he could suppose nothing less than that some +unreasonable qualification of property was annexed to the right +of suffrage; or that the right of eligibility was limited to +persons of particular families or fortunes; or at least that the +mode prescribed by the State constitutions was in some respect or +other, very grossly departed from. We have seen how far such a +supposition would err, as to the two first points. Nor would it, +in fact, be less erroneous as to the last. The only difference +discoverable between the two cases is, that each representative +of the United States will be elected by five or six thousand +citizens; whilst in the individual States, the election of a +representative is left to about as many hundreds. Will it be +pretended that this difference is sufficient to justify an +attachment to the State governments, and an abhorrence to the +federal government? If this be the point on which the objection +turns, it deserves to be examined. Is it supported by REASON? +This cannot be said, without maintaining that five or six +thousand citizens are less capable of choosing a fit +representative, or more liable to be corrupted by an unfit one, +than five or six hundred. Reason, on the contrary, assures us, +that as in so great a number a fit representative would be most +likely to be found, so the choice would be less likely to be +diverted from him by the intrigues of the ambitious or the +ambitious or the bribes of the rich. Is the CONSEQUENCE from +this doctrine admissible? If we say that five or six hundred +citizens are as many as can jointly exercise their right of +suffrage, must we not deprive the people of the immediate choice +of their public servants, in every instance where the +administration of the government does not require as many of them +as will amount to one for that number of citizens? Is the +doctrine warranted by FACTS? It was shown in the last paper, that +the real representation in the British House of Commons very +little exceeds the proportion of one for every thirty thousand +inhabitants. Besides a variety of powerful causes not existing +here, and which favor in that country the pretensions of rank and +wealth, no person is eligible as a representative of a county, +unless he possess real estate of the clear value of six hundred +pounds sterling per year; nor of a city or borough, unless he +possess a like estate of half that annual value. To this +qualification on the part of the county representatives is added +another on the part of the county electors, which restrains the +right of suffrage to persons having a freehold estate of the +annual value of more than twenty pounds sterling, according to +the present rate of money. Notwithstanding these unfavorable +circumstances, and notwithstanding some very unequal laws in the +British code, it cannot be said that the representatives of the +nation have elevated the few on the ruins of the many. But we +need not resort to foreign experience on this subject. Our own +is explicit and decisive. The districts in New Hampshire in +which the senators are chosen immediately by the people, are +nearly as large as will be necessary for her representatives in +the Congress. Those of Massachusetts are larger than will be +necessary for that purpose; and those of New York still more so. +In the last State the members of Assembly for the cities and +counties of New York and Albany are elected by very nearly as +many voters as will be entitled to a representative in the +Congress, calculating on the number of sixty-five representatives +only. It makes no difference that in these senatorial districts +and counties a number of representatives are voted for by each +elector at the same time. If the same electors at the same time +are capable of choosing four or five representatives, they cannot +be incapable of choosing one. Pennsylvania is an additional +example. Some of her counties, which elect her State +representatives, are almost as large as her districts will be by +which her federal representatives will be elected. The city of +Philadelphia is supposed to contain between fifty and sixty +thousand souls. It will therefore form nearly two districts for +the choice of federal representatives. It forms, however, but +one county, in which every elector votes for each of its +representatives in the State legislature. And what may appear to +be still more directly to our purpose, the whole city actually +elects a SINGLE MEMBER for the executive council. This is the +case in all the other counties of the State. Are not these facts +the most satisfactory proofs of the fallacy which has been +employed against the branch of the federal government under +consideration? Has it appeared on trial that the senators of New +Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, or the executive council +of Pennsylvania, or the members of the Assembly in the two last +States, have betrayed any peculiar disposition to sacrifice the +many to the few, or are in any respect less worthy of their +places than the representatives and magistrates appointed in +other States by very small divisions of the people? But there are +cases of a stronger complexion than any which I have yet quoted. +One branch of the legislature of Connecticut is so constituted +that each member of it is elected by the whole State. So is the +governor of that State, of Massachusetts, and of this State, and +the president of New Hampshire. I leave every man to decide +whether the result of any one of these experiments can be said to +countenance a suspicion, that a diffusive mode of choosing +representatives of the people tends to elevate traitors and to +undermine the public liberty. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 58 +Objection That The Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the +Progress of Population Demands Considered + +MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE remaining charge against the House of Representatives, which +I am to examine, is grounded on a supposition that the number of +members will not be augmented from time to time, as the progress +of population may demand. It has been admitted, that this +objection, if well supported, would have great weight. The +following observations will show that, like most other objections +against the Constitution, it can only proceed from a partial view +of the subject, or from a jealousy which discolors and disfigures +every object which is beheld. 1. Those who urge the objection +seem not to have recollected that the federal Constitution will +not suffer by a comparison with the State constitutions, in the +security provided for a gradual augmentation of the number of +representatives. The number which is to prevail in the first +instance is declared to be temporary. Its duration is limited to +the short term of three years. Within every successive term of +ten years a census of inhabitants is to be repeated. The +unequivocal objects of these regulations are, first, to readjust, +from time to time, the apportionment of representatives to the +number of inhabitants, under the single exception that each State +shall have one representative at least; secondly, to augment the +number of representatives at the same periods, under the sole +limitation that the whole number shall not exceed one for every +thirty thousand inhabitants. If we review the constitutions of +the several States, we shall find that some of them contain no +determinate regulations on this subject, that others correspond +pretty much on this point with the federal Constitution, and that +the most effectual security in any of them is resolvable into a +mere directory provision. 2. As far as experience has taken place +on this subject, a gradual increase of representatives under the +State constitutions has at least kept pace with that of the +constituents, and it appears that the former have been as ready +to concur in such measures as the latter have been to call for +them. 3. There is a peculiarity in the federal Constitution which +insures a watchful attention in a majority both of the people and +of their representatives to a constitutional augmentation of the +latter. The peculiarity lies in this, that one branch of the +legislature is a representation of citizens, the other of the +States: in the former, consequently, the larger States will have +most weight; in the latter, the advantage will be in favor of the +smaller States. From this circumstance it may with certainty be +inferred that the larger States will be strenuous advocates for +increasing the number and weight of that part of the legislature +in which their influence predominates. And it so happens that +four only of the largest will have a majority of the whole votes +in the House of Representatives. Should the representatives or +people, therefore, of the smaller States oppose at any time a +reasonable addition of members, a coalition of a very few States +will be sufficient to overrule the opposition; a coalition which, +notwithstanding the rivalship and local prejudices which might +prevent it on ordinary occasions, would not fail to take place, +when not merely prompted by common interest, but justified by +equity and the principles of the Constitution. It may be +alleged, perhaps, that the Senate would be prompted by like +motives to an adverse coalition; and as their concurrence would +be indispensable, the just and constitutional views of the other +branch might be defeated. This is the difficulty which has +probably created the most serious apprehensions in the jealous +friends of a numerous representation. Fortunately it is among +the difficulties which, existing only in appearance, vanish on a +close and accurate inspection. The following reflections will, +if I mistake not, be admitted to be conclusive and satisfactory +on this point. Notwithstanding the equal authority which will +subsist between the two houses on all legislative subjects, +except the originating of money bills, it cannot be doubted that +the House, composed of the greater number of members, when +supported by the more powerful States, and speaking the known and +determined sense of a majority of the people, will have no small +advantage in a question depending on the comparative firmness of +the two houses. This advantage must be increased by the +consciousness, felt by the same side of being supported in its +demands by right, by reason, and by the Constitution; and the +consciousness, on the opposite side, of contending against the +force of all these solemn considerations. It is farther to be +considered, that in the gradation between the smallest and +largest States, there are several, which, though most likely in +general to arrange themselves among the former are too little +removed in extent and population from the latter, to second an +opposition to their just and legitimate pretensions. Hence it is +by no means certain that a majority of votes, even in the +Senate, would be unfriendly to proper augmentations in the number +of representatives. It will not be looking too far to add, that +the senators from all the new States may be gained over to the +just views of the House of Representatives, by an expedient too +obvious to be overlooked. As these States will, for a great +length of time, advance in population with peculiar rapidity, +they will be interested in frequent reapportionments of the +representatives to the number of inhabitants. The large States, +therefore, who will prevail in the House of Representatives, will +have nothing to do but to make reapportionments and augmentations +mutually conditions of each other; and the senators from all the +most growing States will be bound to contend for the latter, by +the interest which their States will feel in the former. These +considerations seem to afford ample security on this subject, and +ought alone to satisfy all the doubts and fears which have been +indulged with regard to it. Admitting, however, that they should +all be insufficient to subdue the unjust policy of the smaller +States, or their predominant influence in the councils of the +Senate, a constitutional and infallible resource still remains +with the larger States, by which they will be able at all times +to accomplish their just purposes. The House of Representatives +cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies +requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold +the purse that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the +history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble +representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of +its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it +seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other +branches of the government. This power over the purse may, in +fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with +which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of +the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for +carrying into effect every just and salutary measure. But will +not the House of Representatives be as much interested as the +Senate in maintaining the government in its proper functions, and +will they not therefore be unwilling to stake its existence or +its reputation on the pliancy of the Senate? Or, if such a trial +of firmness between the two branches were hazarded, would not the +one be as likely first to yield as the other? These questions +will create no difficulty with those who reflect that in all +cases the smaller the number, and the more permanent and +conspicuous the station, of men in power, the stronger must be +the interest which they will individually feel in whatever +concerns the government. Those who represent the dignity of their +country in the eyes of other nations, will be particularly +sensible to every prospect of public danger, or of dishonorable +stagnation in public affairs. To those causes we are to ascribe +the continual triumph of the British House of Commons over the +other branches of the government, whenever the engine of a money +bill has been employed. An absolute inflexibility on the side of +the latter, although it could not have failed to involve every +department of the state in the general confusion, has neither +been apprehended nor experienced. The utmost degree of firmness +that can be displayed by the federal Senate or President, will +not be more than equal to a resistance in which they will be +supported by constitutional and patriotic principles. In this +review of the Constitution of the House of Representatives, I +have passed over the circumstances of economy, which, in the +present state of affairs, might have had some effect in lessening +the temporary number of representatives, and a disregard of which +would probably have been as rich a theme of declamation against +the Constitution as has been shown by the smallness of the number +proposed. I omit also any remarks on the difficulty which might +be found, under present circumstances, in engaging in the federal +service a large number of such characters as the people will +probably elect. One observation, however, I must be permitted to +add on this subject as claiming, in my judgment, a very serious +attention. It is, that in all legislative assemblies the greater +the number composing them may be, the fewer will be the men who +will in fact direct their proceedings. In the first place, the +more numerous an assembly may be, of whatever characters +composed, the greater is known to be the ascendency of passion +over reason. In the next place, the larger the number, the +greater will be the proportion of members of limited information +and of weak capacities. Now, it is precisely on characters of +this description that the eloquence and address of the few are +known to act with all their force. In the ancient republics, +where the whole body of the people assembled in person, a single +orator, or an artful statesman, was generally seen to rule with +as complete a sway as if a sceptre had been placed in his single +hand. On the same principle, the more multitudinous a +representative assembly may be rendered, the more it will partake +of the infirmities incident to collective meetings of the people. +Ignorance will be the dupe of cunning, and passion the slave of +sophistry and declamation. The people can never err more than in +supposing that by multiplying their representatives beyond a +certain limit, they strengthen the barrier against the government +of a few. Experience will forever admonish them that, on the +contrary, AFTER SECURING A SUFFICIENT NUMBER FOR THE PURPOSES OF +SAFETY, OF LOCAL INFORMATION, AND OF DIFFUSIVE SYMPATHY WITH THE +WHOLE SOCIETY, they will counteract their own views by every +addition to their representatives. The countenance of the +government may become more democratic, but the soul that animates +it will be more oligarchic. The machine will be enlarged, but the +fewer, and often the more secret, will be the springs by which +its motions are directed. As connected with the objection against +the number of representatives, may properly be here noticed, that +which has been suggested against the number made competent for +legislative business. It has been said that more than a majority +ought to have been required for a quorum; and in particular +cases, if not in all, more than a majority of a quorum for a +decision. That some advantages might have resulted from such a +precaution, cannot be denied. It might have been an additional +shield to some particular interests, and another obstacle +generally to hasty and partial measures. But these considerations +are outweighed by the inconveniences in the opposite scale. In +all cases where justice or the general good might require new +laws to be passed, or active measures to be pursued, the +fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It +would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would +be transferred to the minority. Were the defensive privilege +limited to particular cases, an interested minority might take +advantage of it to screen themselves from equitable sacrifices to +the general weal, or, in particular emergencies, to extort +unreasonable indulgences. Lastly, it would facilitate and foster +the baneful practice of secessions; a practice which has shown +itself even in States where a majority only is required; a +practice subversive of all the principles of order and regular +government; a practice which leads more directly to public +convulsions, and the ruin of popular governments, than any other +which has yet been displayed among us. PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 59 + +Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of +Members +From the New York Packet. Friday, February 22, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE natural order of the subject leads us to consider, in this +place, that provision of the Constitution which authorizes the +national legislature to regulate, in the last resort, the +election of its own members. It is in these words: ``The TIMES, +PLACES, and MANNER of holding elections for senators and +representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the +legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, +make or alter SUCH REGULATIONS, except as to the PLACES of +choosing senators. ''1 This provision has not only been declaimed +against by those who condemn the Constitution in the gross, but +it has been censured by those who have objected with less +latitude and greater moderation; and, in one instance it has been +thought exceptionable by a gentleman who has declared himself the +advocate of every other part of the system. I am greatly +mistaken, notwithstanding, if there be any article in the whole +plan more completely defensible than this. Its propriety rests +upon the evidence of this plain proposition, that EVERY +GOVERNMENT OUGHT TO CONTAIN IN ITSELF THE MEANS OF ITS OWN +PRESERVATION. Every just reasoner will, at first sight, approve +an adherence to this rule, in the work of the convention; and +will disapprove every deviation from it which may not appear to +have been dictated by the necessity of incorporating into the +work some particular ingredient, with which a rigid conformity to +the rule was incompatible. Even in this case, though he may +acquiesce in the necessity, yet he will not cease to regard and +to regret a departure from so fundamental a principle, as a +portion of imperfection in the system which may prove the seed of +future weakness, and perhaps anarchy. It will not be alleged, +that an election law could have been framed and inserted in the +Constitution, which would have been always applicable to every +probable change in the situation of the country; and it will +therefore not be denied, that a discretionary power over +elections ought to exist somewhere. It will, I presume, be as +readily conceded, that there were only three ways in which this +power could have been reasonably modified and disposed: that it +must either have been lodged wholly in the national legislature, +or wholly in the State legislatures, or primarily in the latter +and ultimately in the former. The last mode has, with reason, +been preferred by the convention. They have submitted the +regulation of elections for the federal government, in the first +instance, to the local administrations; which, in ordinary +cases, and when no improper views prevail, may be both more +convenient and more satisfactory; but they have reserved to the +national authority a right to interpose, whenever extraordinary +circumstances might render that interposition necessary to its +safety. Nothing can be more evident, than that an exclusive +power of regulating elections for the national government, in the +hands of the State legislatures, would leave the existence of the +Union entirely at their mercy. They could at any moment +annihilate it, by neglecting to provide for the choice of persons +to administer its affairs. It is to little purpose to say, that +a neglect or omission of this kind would not be likely to take +place. The constitutional possibility of the thing, without an +equivalent for the risk, is an unanswerable objection. Nor has +any satisfactory reason been yet assigned for incurring that +risk. The extravagant surmises of a distempered jealousy can +never be dignified with that character. If we are in a humor to +presume abuses of power, it is as fair to presume them on the +part of the State governments as on the part of the general +government. And as it is more consonant to the rules of a just +theory, to trust the Union with the care of its own existence, +than to transfer that care to any other hands, if abuses of power +are to be hazarded on the one side or on the other, it is more +rational to hazard them where the power would naturally be +placed, than where it would unnaturally be placed. Suppose an +article had been introduced into the Constitution, empowering the +United States to regulate the elections for the particular +States, would any man have hesitated to condemn it, both as an +unwarrantable transposition of power, and as a premeditated +engine for the destruction of the State governments? The +violation of principle, in this case, would have required no +comment; and, to an unbiased observer, it will not be less +apparent in the project of subjecting the existence of the +national government, in a similar respect, to the pleasure of the +State governments. An impartial view of the matter cannot fail +to result in a conviction, that each, as far as possible, ought +to depend on itself for its own preservation. As an objection to +this position, it may be remarked that the constitution of the +national Senate would involve, in its full extent, the danger +which it is suggested might flow from an exclusive power in the +State legislatures to regulate the federal elections. It may be +alleged, that by declining the appointment of Senators, they +might at any time give a fatal blow to the Union; and from this +it may be inferred, that as its existence would be thus rendered +dependent upon them in so essential a point, there can be no +objection to intrusting them with it in the particular case under +consideration. The interest of each State, it may be added, to +maintain its representation in the national councils, would be a +complete security against an abuse of the trust. This argument, +though specious, will not, upon examination, be found solid. It +is certainly true that the State legislatures, by forbearing the +appointment of senators, may destroy the national government. But +it will not follow that, because they have a power to do this in +one instance, they ought to have it in every other. There are +cases in which the pernicious tendency of such a power may be far +more decisive, without any motive equally cogent with that which +must have regulated the conduct of the convention in respect to +the formation of the Senate, to recommend their admission into +the system. So far as that construction may expose the Union to +the possibility of injury from the State legislatures, it is an +evil; but it is an evil which could not have been avoided without +excluding the States, in their political capacities, wholly from +a place in the organization of the national government. If this +had been done, it would doubtless have been interpreted into an +entire dereliction of the federal principle; and would certainly +have deprived the State governments of that absolute safeguard +which they will enjoy under this provision. But however wise it +may have been to have submitted in this instance to an +inconvenience, for the attainment of a necessary advantage or a +greater good, no inference can be drawn from thence to favor an +accumulation of the evil, where no necessity urges, nor any +greater good invites. It may be easily discerned also that the +national government would run a much greater risk from a power in +the State legislatures over the elections of its House of +Representatives, than from their power of appointing the members +of its Senate. The senators are to be chosen for the period of +six years; there is to be a rotation, by which the seats of a +third part of them are to be vacated and replenished every two +years; and no State is to be entitled to more than two senators; +a quorum of the body is to consist of sixteen members. The joint +result of these circumstances would be, that a temporary +combination of a few States to intermit the appointment of +senators, could neither annul the existence nor impair the +activity of the body; and it is not from a general and permanent +combination of the States that we can have any thing to fear. The +first might proceed from sinister designs in the leading members +of a few of the State legislatures; the last would suppose a +fixed and rooted disaffection in the great body of the people, +which will either never exist at all, or will, in all +probability, proceed from an experience of the inaptitude of the +general government to the advancement of their happiness in which +event no good citizen could desire its continuance. But with +regard to the federal House of Representatives, there is intended +to be a general election of members once in two years. If the +State legislatures were to be invested with an exclusive power of +regulating these elections, every period of making them would be +a delicate crisis in the national situation, which might issue in +a dissolution of the Union, if the leaders of a few of the most +important States should have entered into a previous conspiracy +to prevent an election. I shall not deny, that there is a degree +of weight in the observation, that the interests of each State, +to be represented in the federal councils, will be a security +against the abuse of a power over its elections in the hands of +the State legislatures. But the security will not be considered +as complete, by those who attend to the force of an obvious +distinction between the interest of the people in the public +felicity, and the interest of their local rulers in the power and +consequence of their offices. The people of America may be +warmly attached to the government of the Union, at times when the +particular rulers of particular States, stimulated by the natural +rivalship of power, and by the hopes of personal aggrandizement, +and supported by a strong faction in each of those States, may be +in a very opposite temper. This diversity of sentiment between a +majority of the people, and the individuals who have the +greatest credit in their councils, is exemplified in some of the +States at the present moment, on the present question. The +scheme of separate confederacies, which will always nultiply the +chances of ambition, will be a never failing bait to all such +influential characters in the State administrations as are +capable of preferring their own emolument and advancement to the +public weal. With so effectual a weapon in their hands as the +exclusive power of regulating elections for the national +government, a combination of a few such men, in a few of the most +considerable States, where the temptation will always be the +strongest, might accomplish the destruction of the Union, by +seizing the opportunity of some casual dissatisfaction among the +people (and which perhaps they may themselves have excited), to +discontinue the choice of members for the federal House of +Representatives. It ought never to be forgotten, that a firm +union of this country, under an efficient government, will +probably be an increasing object of jealousy to more than one +nation of Europe; and that enterprises to subvert it will +sometimes originate in the intrigues of foreign powers, and will +seldom fail to be patronized and abetted by some of them. Its +preservation, therefore ought in no case that can be avoided, to +be committed to the guardianship of any but those whose situation +will uniformly beget an immediate interest in the faithful and +vigilant performance of the trust. PUBLIUS. Ist clause, 4th +section, of the Ist article. + + +FEDERALIST No. 60 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of + Members) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, February 26, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +WE HAVE seen, that an uncontrollable power over the elections to + the federal government could not, without hazard, be committed to + the State legislatures. Let us now see, what would be the danger on + the other side; that is, from confiding the ultimate right of + regulating its own elections to the Union itself. It is not + pretended, that this right would ever be used for the exclusion of + any State from its share in the representation. The interest of all + would, in this respect at least, be the security of all. But it is + alleged, that it might be employed in such a manner as to promote + the election of some favorite class of men in exclusion of others, + by confining the places of election to particular districts, and + rendering it impracticable to the citizens at large to partake in + the choice. Of all chimerical suppositions, this seems to be the + most chimerical. On the one hand, no rational calculation of + probabilities would lead us to imagine that the disposition which a + conduct so violent and extraordinary would imply, could ever find + its way into the national councils; and on the other, it may be + concluded with certainty, that if so improper a spirit should ever + gain admittance into them, it would display itself in a form + altogether different and far more decisive. +The improbability of the attempt may be satisfactorily inferred + from this single reflection, that it could never be made without + causing an immediate revolt of the great body of the people, headed + and directed by the State governments. It is not difficult to + conceive that this characteristic right of freedom may, in certain + turbulent and factious seasons, be violated, in respect to a + particular class of citizens, by a victorious and overbearing + majority; but that so fundamental a privilege, in a country so + situated and enlightened, should be invaded to the prejudice of the + great mass of the people, by the deliberate policy of the + government, without occasioning a popular revolution, is altogether + inconceivable and incredible. +In addition to this general reflection, there are considerations + of a more precise nature, which forbid all apprehension on the + subject. The dissimilarity in the ingredients which will compose + the national government, and Õstill more in the manner in which they + will be brought into action in its various branches, must form a + powerful obstacle to a concert of views in any partial scheme of + elections. There is sufficient diversity in the state of property, + in the genius, manners, and habits of the people of the different + parts of the Union, to occasion a material diversity of disposition + in their representatives towards the different ranks and conditions + in society. And though an intimate intercourse under the same + government will promote a gradual assimilation in some of these + respects, yet there are causes, as well physical as moral, which + may, in a greater or less degree, permanently nourish different + propensities and inclinations in this respect. But the circumstance + which will be likely to have the greatest influence in the matter, + will be the dissimilar modes of constituting the several component + parts of the government. The House of Representatives being to be + elected immediately by the people, the Senate by the State + legislatures, the President by electors chosen for that purpose by + the people, there would be little probability of a common interest + to cement these different branches in a predilection for any + particular class of electors. +As to the Senate, it is impossible that any regulation of ``time + and manner,'' which is all that is proposed to be submitted to the + national government in respect to that body, can affect the spirit + which will direct the choice of its members. The collective sense + of the State legislatures can never be influenced by extraneous + circumstances of that sort; a consideration which alone ought to + satisfy us that the discrimination apprehended would never be + attempted. For what inducement could the Senate have to concur in a + preference in which itself would not be included? Or to what + purpose would it be established, in reference to one branch of the + legislature, if it could not be extended to the other? The + composition of the one would in this case counteract that of the + other. And we can never suppose that it would embrace the + appointments to the Senate, unless we can at the same time suppose + the voluntary co-operation of the State legislatures. If we make + the latter supposition, it then becomes immaterial where the power + in question is placed whether in their hands or in those of the + Union. +But what is to be the object of this capricious partiality in + the national councils? Is it to be exercised in a discrimination + between the different departments of industry, or between the + different kinds of property, or between the different degrees of + property? Will it lean in favor of the landed interest, or the + moneyed interest, or the mercantile interest, or the manufacturing + interest? Or, to speak in the fashionable language of the + adversaries to the Constitution, will it court the elevation of + ``the wealthy and the well-born,'' to the exclusion and debasement + of all the rest of the society? +If this partiality is to be exerted in favor of those who are + concerned in any particular description of industry or property, I + presume it will readily be admitted, that the competition for it + will lie between landed men and merchants. And I scruple not to + affirm, that it is infinitely less likely that either of them should + gain an ascendant in the national councils, than that the one or the + other of them should predominate in all the local councils. The + inference will be, that a conduct tending to give an undue + preference to either is much less to be dreaded from the former than + from the latter. +The several States are in various degrees addicted to + agriculture and commerce. In most, if not all of them, agriculture + is predominant. In a few of them, however, commerce nearly divides + its empire, and in most of them has a considerable share of + influence. In proportion as either prevails, it will be conveyed + into the national representation; and for the very reason, that + this will be an emanation from a greater variety of interests, and + in much more various proportions, than are to be found in any single + State, it will be much less apt to espouse either of them with a + decided partiality, than the representation of any single State. +In a country consisting chiefly of the cultivators of land, + where the rules of an equal representation obtain, the landed + interest must, upon the whole, preponderate in the government. As + long as this interest prevails in most of the State legislatures, so + long it must maintain a correspondent superiority in the national + Senate, which will generally be a faithful copy of the majorities of + those assemblies. It cannot therefore be presumed, that a sacrifice + of the landed to the mercantile class will ever be a favorite object + of this branch of the federal legislature. In applying thus + particularly to the Senate a general observation suggested by the + situation of the country, I am governed by the consideration, that + the credulous votaries of State power cannot, upon their own + principles, suspect, that the State legislatures would be warped + from their duty by any external influence. But in reality the same + situation must have the same effect, in the primative composition at + least of the federal House of Representatives: an improper bias + towards the mercantile class is as little to be expected from this + quarter as from the other. +In order, perhaps, to give countenance to the objection at any + rate, it may be asked, is there not danger of an opposite bias in + the national government, which may dispose it to endeavor to secure + a monopoly of the federal administration to the landed class? As + there is little likelihood that the supposition of such a bias will + have any terrors for those who would be immediately injured by it, a + labored answer to this question will be dispensed with. It will be + sufficient to remark, first, that for the reasons elsewhere + assigned, it is less likely that any decided partiality should + prevail in the councils of the Union than in those of any of its + members. Secondly, that there would be no temptation to violate the + Constitution in favor of the landed class, because that class would, + in the natural course of things, enjoy as great a preponderancy as + itself could desire. And thirdly, that men accustomed to + investigate the sources of public prosperity upon a large scale, + must be too well convinced of the utility of commerce, to be + inclined to inflict upon it so deep a wound as would result from the + entire exclusion of those who would best understand its interest + from a share in the management of them. The importance of commerce, + in the view of revenue alone, must effectually guard it against the + enmity of a body which would be continually importuned in its favor, + by the urgent calls of public necessity. +I the rather consult brevity in discussing the probability of a + preference founded upon a discrimination between the different kinds + of industry and property, because, as far as I understand the + meaning of the objectors, they contemplate a discrimination of + another kind. They appear to have in view, as the objects of the + preference with which they endeavor to alarm us, those whom they + designate by the description of ``the wealthy and the well-born.'' + These, it seems, are to be exalted to an odious pre-eminence over + the rest of their fellow-citizens. At one time, however, their + elevation is to be a necessary consequence of the smallness of the + representative body; at another time it is to be effected by + depriving the people at large of the opportunity of exercising their + right of suffrage in the choice of that body. +But upon what principle is the discrimination of the places of + election to be made, in order to answer the purpose of the meditated + preference? Are ``the wealthy and the well-born,'' as they are + called, confined to particular spots in the several States? Have + they, by some miraculous instinct or foresight, set apart in each of + them a common place of residence? Are they only to be met with in + the towns or cities? Or are they, on the contrary, scattered over + the face of the country as avarice or chance may have happened to + cast their own lot or that of their predecessors? If the latter is + the case, (as every intelligent man knows it to be,1) is it not + evident that the policy of confining the places of election to + particular districts would be as subversive of its own aim as it + would be exceptionable on every other account? The truth is, that + there is no method of securing to the rich the preference + apprehended, but by prescribing qualifications of property either + for those who may elect or be elected. But this forms no part of + the power to be conferred upon the national government. Its + authority would be expressly restricted to the regulation of the + TIMES, the PLACES, the MANNER of elections. The qualifications of + the persons who may choose or be chosen, as has been remarked upon + other occasions, are defined and fixed in the Constitution, and are + unalterable by the legislature. +Let it, however, be admitted, for argument sake, that the + expedient suggested might be successful; and let it at the same + time be equally taken for granted that all the scruples which a + sense of duty or an apprehension of the danger of the experiment + might inspire, were overcome in the breasts of the national rulers, + still I imagine it will hardly be pretended that they could ever + hope to carry such an enterprise into execution without the aid of a + military force sufficient to subdue the resistance of the great body + of the people. The improbability of the existence of a force equal + to that object has been discussed and demonstrated in different + parts of these papers; but that the futility of the objection under + consideration may appear in the strongest light, it shall be + conceded for a moment that such a force might exist, and the + national government shall be supposed to be in the actual possession + of it. What will be the conclusion? With a disposition to invade + the essential rights of the community, and with the means of + gratifying that disposition, is it presumable that the persons who + were actuated by it would amuse themselves in the ridiculous task of + fabricating election laws for securing a preference to a favorite + class of men? Would they not be likely to prefer a conduct better + adapted to their own immediate aggrandizement? Would they not + rather boldly resolve to perpetuate themselves in office by one + decisive act of usurpation, than to trust to precarious expedients + which, in spite of all the precautions that might accompany them, + might terminate in the dismission, disgrace, and ruin of their + authors? Would they not fear that citizens, not less tenacious than + conscious of their rights, would flock from the remote extremes of + their respective States to the places of election, to voerthrow + their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge + the violated majesty of the people? +PUBLIUS. +1 Particularly in the Southern States and in this State. + + +FEDERALIST No. 61 + +The Same Subject Continued +(Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of + Members) +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, February 26, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE more candid opposers of the provision respecting elections, + contained in the plan of the convention, when pressed in argument, + will sometimes concede the propriety of that provision; with this + qualification, however, that it ought to have been accompanied with + a declaration, that all elections should be had in the counties + where the electors resided. This, say they, was a necessary + precaution against an abuse of the power. A declaration of this + nature would certainly have been harmless; so far as it would have + had the effect of quieting apprehensions, it might not have been + undesirable. But it would, in fact, have afforded little or no + additional security against the danger apprehended; and the want of + it will never be considered, by an impartial and judicious examiner, + as a serious, still less as an insuperable, objection to the plan. + The different views taken of the subject in the two preceding + papers must be sufficient to satisfy all dispassionate and + discerning men, that if the public liberty should ever be the victim + of the ambition of the national rulers, the power under examination, + at least, will be guiltless of the sacrifice. +If those who are inclined to consult their jealousy only, would + exercise it in a careful inspection of the several State + constitutions, they would find little less room for disquietude and + alarm, from the latitude which most of them allow in respect to + elections, than from the latitude which is proposed to be allowed to + the national government in the same respect. A review of their + situation, in this particular, would tend greatly to remove any ill + impressions which may remain in regard to this matter. But as that + view would lead into long and tedious details, I shall content + myself with the single example of the State in which I write. The + constitution of New York makes no other provision for LOCALITY of + elections, than that the members of the Assembly shall be elected in + the COUNTIES; those of the Senate, in the great districts into + which the State is or may be divided: these at present are four in + number, and comprehend each from two to six counties. It may + readily be perceived that it would not be more difficult to the + legislature of New York to defeat the suffrages of the citizens of + New York, by confining elections to particular places, than for the + legislature of the United States to defeat the suffrages of the + citizens of the Union, by the like expedient. Suppose, for + instance, the city of Albany was to be appointed the sole place of + election for the county and district of which it is a part, would + not the inhabitants of that city speedily become the only electors + of the members both of the Senate and Assembly for that county and + district? Can we imagine that the electors who reside in the remote + subdivisions of the counties of Albany, Saratoga, Cambridge, etc., + or in any part of the county of Montgomery, would take the trouble + to come to the city of Albany, to give their votes for members of + the Assembly or Senate, sooner than they would repair to the city of + New York, to participate in the choice of the members of the federal + House of Representatives? The alarming indifference discoverable in + the exercise of so invaluable a privilege under the existing laws, + which afford every facility to it, furnishes a ready answer to this + question. And, abstracted from any experience on the subject, we + can be at no loss to determine, that when the place of election is + at an INCONVENIENT DISTANCE from the elector, the effect upon his + conduct will be the same whether that distance be twenty miles or + twenty thousand miles. Hence it must appear, that objections to the + particular modification of the federal power of regulating elections + will, in substance, apply with equal force to the modification of + the like power in the constitution of this State; and for this + reason it will be impossible to acquit the one, and to condemn the + other. A similar comparison would lead to the same conclusion in + respect to the constitutions of most of the other States. +If it should be said that defects in the State constitutions + furnish no apology for those which are to be found in the plan + proposed, I answer, that as the former have never been thought + chargeable with inattention to the security of liberty, where the + imputations thrown on the latter can be shown to be applicable to + them also, the presumption is that they are rather the cavilling + refinements of a predetermined opposition, than the well-founded + inferences of a candid research after truth. To those who are + disposed to consider, as innocent omissions in the State + constitutions, what they regard as unpardonable blemishes in the + plan of the convention, nothing can be said; or at most, they can + only be asked to assign some substantial reason why the + representatives of the people in a single State should be more + impregnable to the lust of power, or other sinister motives, than + the representatives of the people of the United States? If they + cannot do this, they ought at least to prove to us that it is easier + to subvert the liberties of three millions of people, with the + advantage of local governments to head their opposition, than of two + hundred thousand people who are destitute of that advantage. And in + relation to the point immediately under consideration, they ought to + convince us that it is less probable that a predominant faction in a + single State should, in order to maintain its superiority, incline + to a preference of a particular class of electors, than that a + similar spirit should take possession of the representatives of + thirteen States, spread over a vast region, and in several respects + distinguishable from each other by a diversity of local + circumstances, prejudices, and interests. +Hitherto my observations have only aimed at a vindication of the + provision in question, on the ground of theoretic propriety, on that + of the danger of placing the power elsewhere, and on that of the + safety of placing it in the manner proposed. But there remains to + be mentioned a positive advantage which will result from this + disposition, and which could not as well have been obtained from any + other: I allude to the circumstance of uniformity in the time of + elections for the federal House of Representatives. It is more than + possible that this uniformity may be found by experience to be of + great importance to the public welfare, both as a security against + the perpetuation of the same spirit in the body, and as a cure for + the diseases of faction. If each State may choose its own time of + election, it is possible there may be at least as many different + periods as there are months in the year. The times of election in + the several States, as they are now established for local purposes, + vary between extremes as wide as March and November. The + consequence of this diversity would be that there could never happen + a total dissolution or renovation of the body at one time. If an + improper spirit of any kind should happen to prevail in it, that + spirit would be apt to infuse itself into the new members, as they + come forward in succession. The mass would be likely to remain + nearly the same, assimilating constantly to itself its gradual + accretions. There is a contagion in example which few men have + sufficient force of mind to resist. I am inclined to think that + treble the duration in office, with the condition of a total + dissolution of the body at the same time, might be less formidable + to liberty than one third of that duration subject to gradual and + successive alterations. +Uniformity in the time of elections seems not less requisite for + executing the idea of a regular rotation in the Senate, and for + conveniently assembling the legislature at a stated period in each + year. +It may be asked, Why, then, could not a time have been fixed in + the Constitution? As the most zealous adversaries of the plan of + the convention in this State are, in general, not less zealous + admirers of the constitution of the State, the question may be + retorted, and it may be asked, Why was not a time for the like + purpose fixed in the constitution of this State? No better answer + can be given than that it was a matter which might safely be + entrusted to legislative discretion; and that if a time had been + appointed, it might, upon experiment, have been found less + convenient than some other time. The same answer may be given to + the question put on the other side. And it may be added that the + supposed danger of a gradual change being merely speculative, it + would have been hardly advisable upon that speculation to establish, + as a fundamental point, what would deprive several States of the + convenience of having the elections for their own governments and + for the national government at the same epochs. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 62 + +The Senate +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +HAVING examined the constitution of the House of + Representatives, and answered such of the objections against it as + seemed to merit notice, I enter next on the examination of the + Senate. +The heads into which this member of the government may be + considered are: I. The qualification of senators; II. The + appointment of them by the State legislatures; III. The equality of + representation in the Senate; IV. The number of senators, and the + term for which they are to be elected; V. The powers vested in the + Senate. +I. The qualifications proposed for senators, as distinguished + from those of representatives, consist in a more advanced age and a + longer period of citizenship. A senator must be thirty years of age + at least; as a representative must be twenty-five. And the former + must have been a citizen nine years; as seven years are required + for the latter. The propriety of these distinctions is explained by + the nature of the senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent + of information and tability of character, requires at the same time + that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to + supply these advantages; and which, participating immediately in + transactions with foreign nations, ought to be exercised by none who + are not thoroughly weaned from the prepossessions and habits + incident to foreign birth and education. The term of nine years + appears to be a prudent mediocrity between a total exclusion of + adopted citizens, whose merits and talents may claim a share in the + public confidence, and an indiscriminate and hasty admission of + them, which might create a channel for foreign influence on the + national councils. +II. It is equally unnecessary to dilate on the appointment of + senators by the State legislatures. Among the various modes which + might have been devised for constituting this branch of the + government, that which has been proposed by the convention is + probably the most congenial with the public opinion. It is + recommended by the double advantage of favoring a select + appointment, and of giving to the State governments such an agency + in the formation of the federal government as must secure the + authority of the former, and may form a convenient link between the + two systems. +III. The equality of representation in the Senate is another + point, which, being evidently the result of compromise between the + opposite pretensions of the large and the small States, does not + call for much discussion. If indeed it be right, that among a + people thoroughly incorporated into one nation, every district ought + to have a PROPORTIONAL share in the government, and that among + independent and sovereign States, bound together by a simple league, + the parties, however unequal in size, ought to have an EQUAL share + in the common councils, it does not appear to be without some reason + that in a compound republic, partaking both of the national and + federal character, the government ought to be founded on a mixture + of the principles of proportional and equal representation. But it + is superfluous to try, by the standard of theory, a part of the + Constitution which is allowed on all hands to be the result, not of + theory, but ``of a spirit of amity, and that mutual deference and + concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered + indispensable.'' A common government, with powers equal to its + objects, is called for by the voice, and still more loudly by the + political situation, of America. A government founded on principles + more consonant to the wishes of the larger States, is not likely to + be obtained from the smaller States. The only option, then, for the + former, lies between the proposed government and a government still + more objectionable. Under this alternative, the advice of prudence + must be to embrace the lesser evil; and, instead of indulging a + fruitless anticipation of the possible mischiefs which may ensue, to + contemplate rather the advantageous consequences which may qualify + the sacrifice. +In this spirit it may be remarked, that the equal vote allowed + to each State is at once a constitutional recognition of the portion + of sovereignty remaining in the individual States, and an instrument + for preserving that residuary sovereignty. So far the equality + ought to be no less acceptable to the large than to the small + States; since they are not less solicitous to guard, by every + possible expedient, against an improper consolidation of the States + into one simple republic. +Another advantage accruing from this ingredient in the + constitution of the Senate is, the additional impediment it must + prove against improper acts of legislation. No law or resolution + can now be passed without the concurrence, first, of a majority of + the people, and then, of a majority of the States. It must be + acknowledged that this complicated check on legislation may in some + instances be injurious as well as beneficial; and that the peculiar + defense which it involves in favor of the smaller States, would be + more rational, if any interests common to them, and distinct from + those of the other States, would otherwise be exposed to peculiar + danger. But as the larger States will always be able, by their + power over the supplies, to defeat unreasonable exertions of this + prerogative of the lesser States, and as the faculty and excess of + law-making seem to be the diseases to which our governments are most + liable, it is not impossible that this part of the Constitution may + be more convenient in practice than it appears to many in + contemplation. +IV. The number of senators, and the duration of their + appointment, come next to be considered. In order to form an + accurate judgment on both of these points, it will be proper to + inquire into the purposes which are to be answered by a senate; and + in order to ascertain these, it will be necessary to review the + inconveniences which a republic must suffer from the want of such an + institution. +First. It is a misfortune incident to republican + government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that + those who administer it may forget their obligations to their + constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust. In + this point of view, a senate, as a second branch of the legislative + assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with, a first, must + be in all cases a salutary check on the government. It doubles the + security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct + bodies in schemes of usurpation or perfidy, where the ambition or + corruption of one would otherwise be sufficient. This is a + precaution founded on such clear principles, and now so well + understood in the United States, that it would be more than + superfluous to enlarge on it. I will barely remark, that as the + improbability of sinister combinations will be in proportion to the + dissimilarity in the genius of the two bodies, it must be politic to + distinguish them from each other by every circumstance which will + consist with a due harmony in all proper measures, and with the + genuine principles of republican government. +Secondly. The necessity of a senate is not less indicated + by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to + the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by + factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions. + Examples on this subject might be cited without number; and from + proceedings within the United States, as well as from the history of + other nations. But a position that will not be contradicted, need + not be proved. All that need be remarked is, that a body which is + to correct this infirmity ought itself to be free from it, and + consequently ought to be less numerous. It ought, moreover, to + possess great firmness, and consequently ought to hold its authority + by a tenure of considerable duration. +Thirdly. Another defect to be supplied by a senate lies in + a want of due acquaintance with the objects and principles of + legislation. It is not possible that an assembly of men called for + the most part from pursuits of a private nature, continued in + appointment for a short time, and led by no permanent motive to + devote the intervals of public occupation to a study of the laws, + the affairs, and the comprehensive interests of their country, + should, if left wholly to themselves, escape a variety of important + errors in the exercise of their legislative trust. It may be + affirmed, on the best grounds, that no small share of the present + embarrassments of America is to be charged on the blunders of our + governments; and that these have proceeded from the heads rather + than the hearts of most of the authors of them. What indeed are all + the repealing, explaining, and amending laws, which fill and + disgrace our voluminous codes, but so many monuments of deficient + wisdom; so many impeachments exhibited by each succeeding against + each preceding session; so many admonitions to the people, of the + value of those aids which may be expected from a well-constituted + senate? +A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the + object of government, which is the happiness of the people; + secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best + attained. Some governments are deficient in both these qualities; + most governments are deficient in the first. I scruple not to + assert, that in American governments too little attention has been + paid to the last. The federal Constitution avoids this error; and + what merits particular notice, it provides for the last in a mode + which increases the security for the first. +Fourthly. The mutability in the public councils arising + from a rapid succession of new members, however qualified they may + be, points out, in the strongest manner, the necessity of some + stable institution in the government. Every new election in the + States is found to change one half of the representatives. From + this change of men must proceed a change of opinions; and from a + change of opinions, a change of measures. But a continual change + even of good measures is inconsistent with every rule of prudence + and every prospect of success. The remark is verified in private + life, and becomes more just, as well as more important, in national + transactions. +To trace the mischievous effects of a mutable government would + fill a volume. I will hint a few only, each of which will be + perceived to be a source of innumerable others. +In the first place, it forfeits the respect and confidence of + other nations, and all the advantages connected with national + character. An individual who is observed to be inconstant to his + plans, or perhaps to carry on his affairs without any plan at all, + is marked at once, by all prudent people, as a speedy victim to his + own unsteadiness and folly. His more friendly neighbors may pity + him, but all will decline to connect their fortunes with his; and + not a few will seize the opportunity of making their fortunes out of + his. One nation is to another what one individual is to another; + with this melancholy distinction perhaps, that the former, with + fewer of the benevolent emotions than the latter, are under fewer + restraints also from taking undue advantage from the indiscretions + of each other. Every nation, consequently, whose affairs betray a + want of wisdom and stability, may calculate on every loss which can + be sustained from the more systematic policy of their wiser + neighbors. But the best instruction on this subject is unhappily + conveyed to America by the example of her own situation. She finds + that she is held in no respect by her friends; that she is the + derision of her enemies; and that she is a prey to every nation + which has an interest in speculating on her fluctuating councils and + embarrassed affairs. +The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more + calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself. It will be + of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of + their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be + read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be + repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such + incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can + guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of + action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less + fixed? +Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable + advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the + moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people. + Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way + affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a + new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its + consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils + and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a + state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws + are made for the FEW, not for the MANY. +In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable + government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps + every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend + on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant + will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows + not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be + executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the + encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, + when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and + advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? + In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go + forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national + policy. +But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of + attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, + towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, + and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, + any more than an individual, will long be respected without being + truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a + certain portion of order and stability. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST. No. 63 + +The Senate Continued +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON OR MADISON + +To the People of the State of New York: +A FIFTH desideratum, illustrating the utility of a senate, is + the want of a due sense of national character. Without a select and + stable member of the government, the esteem of foreign powers will + not only be forfeited by an unenlightened and variable policy, + proceeding from the causes already mentioned, but the national + councils will not possess that sensibility to the opinion of the + world, which is perhaps not less necessary in order to merit, than + it is to obtain, its respect and confidence. +An attention to the judgment of other nations is important to + every government for two reasons: the one is, that, independently + of the merits of any particular plan or measure, it is desirable, on + various accounts, that it should appear to other nations as the + offspring of a wise and honorable policy; the second is, that in + doubtful cases, particularly where the national councils may be + warped by some strong passion or momentary interest, the presumed or + known opinion of the impartial world may be the best guide that can + be followed. What has not America lost by her want of character + with foreign nations; and how many errors and follies would she not + have avoided, if the justice and propriety of her measures had, in + every instance, been previously tried by the light in which they + would probably appear to the unbiased part of mankind? +Yet however requisite a sense of national character may be, it + is evident that it can never be sufficiently possessed by a numerous + and changeable body. It can only be found in a number so small that + a sensible degree of the praise and blame of public measures may be + the portion of each individual; or in an assembly so durably + invested with public trust, that the pride and consequence of its + members may be sensibly incorporated with the reputation and + prosperity of the community. The half-yearly representatives of + Rhode Island would probably have been little affected in their + deliberations on the iniquitous measures of that State, by arguments + drawn from the light in which such measures would be viewed by + foreign nations, or even by the sister States; whilst it can + scarcely be doubted that if the concurrence of a select and stable + body had been necessary, a regard to national character alone would + have prevented the calamities under which that misguided people is + now laboring. +I add, as a SIXTH defect the want, in some important cases, of a + due responsibility in the government to the people, arising from + that frequency of elections which in other cases produces this + responsibility. This remark will, perhaps, appear not only new, but + paradoxical. It must nevertheless be acknowledged, when explained, + to be as undeniable as it is important. +Responsibility, in order to be reasonable, must be limited to + objects within the power of the responsible party, and in order to + be effectual, must relate to operations of that power, of which a + ready and proper judgment can be formed by the constituents. The + objects of government may be divided into two general classes: the + one depending on measures which have singly an immediate and + sensible operation; the other depending on a succession of + well-chosen and well-connected measures, which have a gradual and + perhaps unobserved operation. The importance of the latter + description to the collective and permanent welfare of every + country, needs no explanation. And yet it is evident that an + assembly elected for so short a term as to be unable to provide more + than one or two links in a chain of measures, on which the general + welfare may essentially depend, ought not to be answerable for the + final result, any more than a steward or tenant, engaged for one + year, could be justly made to answer for places or improvements + which could not be accomplished in less than half a dozen years. + Nor is it possible for the people to estimate the SHARE of + influence which their annual assemblies may respectively have on + events resulting from the mixed transactions of several years. It + is sufficiently difficult to preserve a personal responsibility in + the members of a NUMEROUS body, for such acts of the body as have an + immediate, detached, and palpable operation on its constituents. +The proper remedy for this defect must be an additional body in + the legislative department, which, having sufficient permanency to + provide for such objects as require a continued attention, and a + train of measures, may be justly and effectually answerable for the + attainment of those objects. +Thus far I have considered the circumstances which point out the + necessity of a well-constructed Senate only as they relate to the + representatives of the people. To a people as little blinded by + prejudice or corrupted by flattery as those whom I address, I shall + not scruple to add, that such an institution may be sometimes + necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary + errors and delusions. As the cool and deliberate sense of the + community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in all free + governments, ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so + there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, + stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or + misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call + for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready + to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will + be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of + citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the + blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, + justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind? + What bitter anguish would not the people of Athens have often + escaped if their government had contained so provident a safeguard + against the tyranny of their own passions? Popular liberty might + then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same + citizens the hemlock on one day and statues on the next. +It may be suggested, that a people spread over an extensive + region cannot, like the crowded inhabitants of a small district, be + subject to the infection of violent passions, or to the danger of + combining in pursuit of unjust measures. I am far from denying that + this is a distinction of peculiar importance. I have, on the + contrary, endeavored in a former paper to show, that it is one of + the principal recommendations of a confederated republic. At the + same time, this advantage ought not to be considered as superseding + the use of auxiliary precautions. It may even be remarked, that the + same extended situation, which will exempt the people of America + from some of the dangers incident to lesser republics, will expose + them to the inconveniency of remaining for a longer time under the + influence of those misrepresentations which the combined industry of + interested men may succeed in distributing among them. +It adds no small weight to all these considerations, to + recollect that history informs us of no long-lived republic which + had not a senate. Sparta, Rome, and Carthage are, in fact, the only + states to whom that character can be applied. In each of the two + first there was a senate for life. The constitution of the senate + in the last is less known. Circumstantial evidence makes it + probable that it was not different in this particular from the two + others. It is at least certain, that it had some quality or other + which rendered it an anchor against popular fluctuations; and that + a smaller council, drawn out of the senate, was appointed not only + for life, but filled up vacancies itself. These examples, though as + unfit for the imitation, as they are repugnant to the genius, of + America, are, notwithstanding, when compared with the fugitive and + turbulent existence of other ancient republics, very instructive + proofs of the necessity of some institution that will blend + stability with liberty. I am not unaware of the circumstances which + distinguish the American from other popular governments, as well + ancient as modern; and which render extreme circumspection + necessary, in reasoning from the one case to the other. But after + allowing due weight to this consideration, it may still be + maintained, that there are many points of similitude which render + these examples not unworthy of our attention. Many of the defects, + as we have seen, which can only be supplied by a senatorial + institution, are common to a numerous assembly frequently elected by + the people, and to the people themselves. There are others peculiar + to the former, which require the control of such an institution. + The people can never wilfully betray their own interests; but they + may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people; and + the danger will be evidently greater where the whole legislative + trust is lodged in the hands of one body of men, than where the + concurrence of separate and dissimilar bodies is required in every + public act. +The difference most relied on, between the American and other + republics, consists in the principle of representation; which is + the pivot on which the former move, and which is supposed to have + been unknown to the latter, or at least to the ancient part of them. + The use which has been made of this difference, in reasonings + contained in former papers, will have shown that I am disposed + neither to deny its existence nor to undervalue its importance. I + feel the less restraint, therefore, in observing, that the position + concerning the ignorance of the ancient governments on the subject + of representation, is by no means precisely true in the latitude + commonly given to it. Without entering into a disquisition which + here would be misplaced, I will refer to a few known facts, in + support of what I advance. +In the most pure democracies of Greece, many of the executive + functions were performed, not by the people themselves, but by + officers elected by the people, and REPRESENTING the people in their + EXECUTIVE capacity. +Prior to the reform of Solon, Athens was governed by nine + Archons, annually ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE AT LARGE. The degree of + power delegated to them seems to be left in great obscurity. + Subsequent to that period, we find an assembly, first of four, and + afterwards of six hundred members, annually ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE; + and PARTIALLY representing them in their LEGISLATIVE capacity, + since they were not only associated with the people in the function + of making laws, but had the exclusive right of originating + legislative propositions to the people. The senate of Carthage, + also, whatever might be its power, or the duration of its + appointment, appears to have been ELECTIVE by the suffrages of the + people. Similar instances might be traced in most, if not all the + popular governments of antiquity. +Lastly, in Sparta we meet with the Ephori, and in Rome with the + Tribunes; two bodies, small indeed in numbers, but annually ELECTED + BY THE WHOLE BODY OF THE PEOPLE, and considered as the + REPRESENTATIVES of the people, almost in their PLENIPOTENTIARY + capacity. The Cosmi of Crete were also annually ELECTED BY THE + PEOPLE, and have been considered by some authors as an institution + analogous to those of Sparta and Rome, with this difference only, + that in the election of that representative body the right of + suffrage was communicated to a part only of the people. +From these facts, to which many others might be added, it is + clear that the principle of representation was neither unknown to + the ancients nor wholly overlooked in their political constitutions. + The true distinction between these and the American governments, + lies IN THE TOTAL EXCLUSION OF THE PEOPLE, IN THEIR COLLECTIVE + CAPACITY, from any share in the LATTER, and not in the TOTAL + EXCLUSION OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE from the + administration of the FORMER. The distinction, however, thus + qualified, must be admitted to leave a most advantageous superiority + in favor of the United States. But to insure to this advantage its + full effect, we must be careful not to separate it from the other + advantage, of an extensive territory. For it cannot be believed, + that any form of representative government could have succeeded + within the narrow limits occupied by the democracies of Greece. +In answer to all these arguments, suggested by reason, + illustrated by examples, and enforced by our own experience, the + jealous adversary of the Constitution will probably content himself + with repeating, that a senate appointed not immediately by the + people, and for the term of six years, must gradually acquire a + dangerous pre-eminence in the government, and finally transform it + into a tyrannical aristocracy. +To this general answer, the general reply ought to be + sufficient, that liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty + as well as by the abuses of power; that there are numerous + instances of the former as well as of the latter; and that the + former, rather than the latter, are apparently most to be + apprehended by the United States. But a more particular reply may + be given. +Before such a revolution can be effected, the Senate, it is to + be observed, must in the first place corrupt itself; must next + corrupt the State legislatures; must then corrupt the House of + Representatives; and must finally corrupt the people at large. It + is evident that the Senate must be first corrupted before it can + attempt an establishment of tyranny. Without corrupting the State + legislatures, it cannot prosecute the attempt, because the + periodical change of members would otherwise regenerate the whole + body. Without exerting the means of corruption with equal success + on the House of Representatives, the opposition of that coequal + branch of the government would inevitably defeat the attempt; and + without corrupting the people themselves, a succession of new + representatives would speedily restore all things to their pristine + order. Is there any man who can seriously persuade himself that the + proposed Senate can, by any possible means within the compass of + human address, arrive at the object of a lawless ambition, through + all these obstructions? +If reason condemns the suspicion, the same sentence is + pronounced by experience. The constitution of Maryland furnishes + the most apposite example. The Senate of that State is elected, as + the federal Senate will be, indirectly by the people, and for a term + less by one year only than the federal Senate. It is distinguished, + also, by the remarkable prerogative of filling up its own vacancies + within the term of its appointment, and, at the same time, is not + under the control of any such rotation as is provided for the + federal Senate. There are some other lesser distinctions, which + would expose the former to colorable objections, that do not lie + against the latter. If the federal Senate, therefore, really + contained the danger which has been so loudly proclaimed, some + symptoms at least of a like danger ought by this time to have been + betrayed by the Senate of Maryland, but no such symptoms have + appeared. On the contrary, the jealousies at first entertained by + men of the same description with those who view with terror the + correspondent part of the federal Constitution, have been gradually + extinguished by the progress of the experiment; and the Maryland + constitution is daily deriving, from the salutary operation of this + part of it, a reputation in which it will probably not be rivalled + by that of any State in the Union. +But if any thing could silence the jealousies on this subject, + it ought to be the British example. The Senate there instead of + being elected for a term of six years, and of being unconfined to + particular families or fortunes, is an hereditary assembly of + opulent nobles. The House of Representatives, instead of being + elected for two years, and by the whole body of the people, is + elected for seven years, and, in very great proportion, by a very + small proportion of the people. Here, unquestionably, ought to be + seen in full display the aristocratic usurpations and tyranny which + are at some future period to be exemplified in the United States. + Unfortunately, however, for the anti-federal argument, the British + history informs us that this hereditary assembly has not been able + to defend itself against the continual encroachments of the House of + Representatives; and that it no sooner lost the support of the + monarch, than it was actually crushed by the weight of the popular + branch. +As far as antiquity can instruct us on this subject, its + examples support the reasoning which we have employed. In Sparta, + the Ephori, the annual representatives of the people, were found an + overmatch for the senate for life, continually gained on its + authority and finally drew all power into their own hands. The + Tribunes of Rome, who were the representatives of the people, + prevailed, it is well known, in almost every contest with the senate + for life, and in the end gained the most complete triumph over it. + The fact is the more remarkable, as unanimity was required in every + act of the Tribunes, even after their number was augmented to ten. + It proves the irresistible force possessed by that branch of a free + government, which has the people on its side. To these examples + might be added that of Carthage, whose senate, according to the + testimony of Polybius, instead of drawing all power into its vortex, + had, at the commencement of the second Punic War, lost almost the + whole of its original portion. +Besides the conclusive evidence resulting from this assemblage + of facts, that the federal Senate will never be able to transform + itself, by gradual usurpations, into an independent and aristocratic + body, we are warranted in believing, that if such a revolution + should ever happen from causes which the foresight of man cannot + guard against, the House of Representatives, with the people on + their side, will at all times be able to bring back the Constitution + to its primitive form and principles. Against the force of the + immediate representatives of the people, nothing will be able to + maintain even the constitutional authority of the Senate, but such a + display of enlightened policy, and attachment to the public good, as + will divide with that branch of the legislature the affections and + support of the entire body of the people themselves. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 64 + +The Powers of the Senate +From the New York Packet. +Friday, March 7, 1788. + +JAY + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT IS a just and not a new observation, that enemies to + particular persons, and opponents to particular measures, seldom + confine their censures to such things only in either as are worthy + of blame. Unless on this principle, it is difficult to explain the + motives of their conduct, who condemn the proposed Constitution in + the aggregate, and treat with severity some of the most + unexceptionable articles in it. +The second section gives power to the President, ``BY AND WITH + THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE, TO MAKE TREATIES, PROVIDED TWO + THIRDS OF THE SENATORS PRESENT CONCUR.'' +The power of making treaties is an important one, especially as + it relates to war, peace, and commerce; and it should not be + delegated but in such a mode, and with such precautions, as will + afford the highest security that it will be exercised by men the + best qualified for the purpose, and in the manner most conducive to + the public good. The convention appears to have been attentive to + both these points: they have directed the President to be chosen by + select bodies of electors, to be deputed by the people for that + express purpose; and they have committed the appointment of + senators to the State legislatures. This mode has, in such cases, + vastly the advantage of elections by the people in their collective + capacity, where the activity of party zeal, taking the advantage of + the supineness, the ignorance, and the hopes and fears of the unwary + and interested, often places men in office by the votes of a small + proportion of the electors. +As the select assemblies for choosing the President, as well as + the State legislatures who appoint the senators, will in general be + composed of the most enlightened and respectable citizens, there is + reason to presume that their attention and their votes will be + directed to those men only who have become the most distinguished by + their abilities and virtue, and in whom the people perceive just + grounds for confidence. The Constitution manifests very particular + attention to this object. By excluding men under thirty-five from + the first office, and those under thirty from the second, it + confines the electors to men of whom the people have had time to + form a judgment, and with respect to whom they will not be liable to + be deceived by those brilliant appearances of genius and patriotism, + which, like transient meteors, sometimes mislead as well as dazzle. + If the observation be well founded, that wise kings will always be + served by able ministers, it is fair to argue, that as an assembly + of select electors possess, in a greater degree than kings, the + means of extensive and accurate information relative to men and + characters, so will their appointments bear at least equal marks of + discretion and discernment. The inference which naturally results + from these considerations is this, that the President and senators + so chosen will always be of the number of those who best understand + our national interests, whether considered in relation to the + several States or to foreign nations, who are best able to promote + those interests, and whose reputation for integrity inspires and + merits confidence. With such men the power of making treaties may + be safely lodged. +Although the absolute necessity of system, in the conduct of any + business, is universally known and acknowledged, yet the high + importance of it in national affairs has not yet become sufficiently + impressed on the public mind. They who wish to commit the power + under consideration to a popular assembly, composed of members + constantly coming and going in quick succession, seem not to + recollect that such a body must necessarily be inadequate to the + attainment of those great objects, which require to be steadily + contemplated in all their relations and circumstances, and which can + only be approached and achieved by measures which not only talents, + but also exact information, and often much time, are necessary to + concert and to execute. It was wise, therefore, in the convention + to provide, not only that the power of making treaties should be + committed to able and honest men, but also that they should continue + in place a sufficient time to become perfectly acquainted with our + national concerns, and to form and introduce a a system for the + management of them. The duration prescribed is such as will give + them an opportunity of greatly extending their political + information, and of rendering their accumulating experience more and + more beneficial to their country. Nor has the convention discovered + less prudence in providing for the frequent elections of senators in + such a way as to obviate the inconvenience of periodically + transferring those great affairs entirely to new men; for by + leaving a considerable residue of the old ones in place, uniformity + and order, as well as a constant succession of official information + will be preserved. +There are a few who will not admit that the affairs of trade and + navigation should be regulated by a system cautiously formed and + steadily pursued; and that both our treaties and our laws should + correspond with and be made to promote it. It is of much + consequence that this correspondence and conformity be carefully + maintained; and they who assent to the truth of this position will + see and confess that it is well provided for by making concurrence + of the Senate necessary both to treaties and to laws. +It seldom happens in the negotiation of treaties, of whatever + nature, but that perfect SECRECY and immediate DESPATCH are + sometimes requisite. These are cases where the most useful + intelligence may be obtained, if the persons possessing it can be + relieved from apprehensions of discovery. Those apprehensions will + operate on those persons whether they are actuated by mercenary or + friendly motives; and there doubtless are many of both + descriptions, who would rely on the secrecy of the President, but + who would not confide in that of the Senate, and still less in that + of a large popular Assembly. The convention have done well, + therefore, in so disposing of the power of making treaties, that + although the President must, in forming them, act by the advice and + consent of the Senate, yet he will be able to manage the business of + intelligence in such a manner as prudence may suggest. +They who have turned their attention to the affairs of men, must + have perceived that there are tides in them; tides very irregular + in their duration, strength, and direction, and seldom found to run + twice exactly in the same manner or measure. To discern and to + profit by these tides in national affairs is the business of those + who preside over them; and they who have had much experience on + this head inform us, that there frequently are occasions when days, + nay, even when hours, are precious. The loss of a battle, the death + of a prince, the removal of a minister, or other circumstances + intervening to change the present posture and aspect of affairs, may + turn the most favorable tide into a course opposite to our wishes. + As in the field, so in the cabinet, there are moments to be seized + as they pass, and they who preside in either should be left in + capacity to improve them. So often and so essentially have we + heretofore suffered from the want of secrecy and despatch, that the + Constitution would have been inexcusably defective, if no attention + had been paid to those objects. Those matters which in negotiations + usually require the most secrecy and the most despatch, are those + preparatory and auxiliary measures which are not otherwise important + in a national view, than as they tend to facilitate the attainment + of the objects of the negotiation. For these, the President will + find no difficulty to provide; and should any circumstance occur + which requires the advice and consent of the Senate, he may at any + time convene them. Thus we see that the Constitution provides that + our negotiations for treaties shall have every advantage which can + be derived from talents, information, integrity, and deliberate + investigations, on the one hand, and from secrecy and despatch on + the other. +But to this plan, as to most others that have ever appeared, + objections are contrived and urged. +Some are displeased with it, not on account of any errors or + defects in it, but because, as the treaties, when made, are to have + the force of laws, they should be made only by men invested with + legislative authority. These gentlemen seem not to consider that + the judgments of our courts, and the commissions constitutionally + given by our governor, are as valid and as binding on all persons + whom they concern, as the laws passed by our legislature. All + constitutional acts of power, whether in the executive or in the + judicial department, have as much legal validity and obligation as + if they proceeded from the legislature; and therefore, whatever + name be given to the power of making treaties, or however obligatory + they may be when made, certain it is, that the people may, with much + propriety, commit the power to a distinct body from the legislature, + the executive, or the judicial. It surely does not follow, that + because they have given the power of making laws to the legislature, + that therefore they should likewise give them the power to do every + other act of sovereignty by which the citizens are to be bound and + affected. +Others, though content that treaties should be made in the mode + proposed, are averse to their being the SUPREME laws of the land. + They insist, and profess to believe, that treaties like acts of + assembly, should be repealable at pleasure. This idea seems to be + new and peculiar to this country, but new errors, as well as new + truths, often appear. These gentlemen would do well to reflect that + a treaty is only another name for a bargain, and that it would be + impossible to find a nation who would make any bargain with us, + which should be binding on them ABSOLUTELY, but on us only so long + and so far as we may think proper to be bound by it. They who make + laws may, without doubt, amend or repeal them; and it will not be + disputed that they who make treaties may alter or cancel them; but + still let us not forget that treaties are made, not by only one of + the contracting parties, but by both; and consequently, that as the + consent of both was essential to their formation at first, so must + it ever afterwards be to alter or cancel them. The proposed + Constitution, therefore, has not in the least extended the + obligation of treaties. They are just as binding, and just as far + beyond the lawful reach of legislative acts now, as they will be at + any future period, or under any form of government. +However useful jealousy may be in republics, yet when like bile + in the natural, it abounds too much in the body politic, the eyes of + both become very liable to be deceived by the delusive appearances + which that malady casts on surrounding objects. From this cause, + probably, proceed the fears and apprehensions of some, that the + President and Senate may make treaties without an equal eye to the + interests of all the States. Others suspect that two thirds will + oppress the remaining third, and ask whether those gentlemen are + made sufficiently responsible for their conduct; whether, if they + act corruptly, they can be punished; and if they make + disadvantageous treaties, how are we to get rid of those treaties? +As all the States are equally represented in the Senate, and by + men the most able and the most willing to promote the interests of + their constituents, they will all have an equal degree of influence + in that body, especially while they continue to be careful in + appointing proper persons, and to insist on their punctual + attendance. In proportion as the United States assume a national + form and a national character, so will the good of the whole be more + and more an object of attention, and the government must be a weak + one indeed, if it should forget that the good of the whole can only + be promoted by advancing the good of each of the parts or members + which compose the whole. It will not be in the power of the + President and Senate to make any treaties by which they and their + families and estates will not be equally bound and affected with the + rest of the community; and, having no private interests distinct + from that of the nation, they will be under no temptations to + neglect the latter. +As to corruption, the case is not supposable. He must either + have been very unfortunate in his intercourse with the world, or + possess a heart very susceptible of such impressions, who can think + it probable that the President and two thirds of the Senate will + ever be capable of such unworthy conduct. The idea is too gross and + too invidious to be entertained. But in such a case, if it should + ever happen, the treaty so obtained from us would, like all other + fraudulent contracts, be null and void by the law of nations. +With respect to their responsibility, it is difficult to + conceive how it could be increased. Every consideration that can + influence the human mind, such as honor, oaths, reputations, + conscience, the love of country, and family affections and + attachments, afford security for their fidelity. In short, as the + Constitution has taken the utmost care that they shall be men of + talents and integrity, we have reason to be persuaded that the + treaties they make will be as advantageous as, all circumstances + considered, could be made; and so far as the fear of punishment and + disgrace can operate, that motive to good behavior is amply afforded + by the article on the subject of impeachments. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 65 + +The Powers of the Senate Continued +From the New York Packet. +Friday, March 7, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE remaining powers which the plan of the convention allots to + the Senate, in a distinct capacity, are comprised in their + participation with the executive in the appointment to offices, and + in their judicial character as a court for the trial of impeachments. + As in the business of appointments the executive will be the + principal agent, the provisions relating to it will most properly be + discussed in the examination of that department. We will, + therefore, conclude this head with a view of the judicial character + of the Senate. +A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an + object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a + government wholly elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction are + those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, + in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. + They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be + denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done + immediately to the society itself. The prosecution of them, for + this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole + community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or + inimical to the accused. In many cases it will connect itself with + the pre-existing factions, and will enlist all their animosities, + partialities, influence, and interest on one side or on the other; + and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the + decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of + parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt. +The delicacy and magnitude of a trust which so deeply concerns + the political reputation and existence of every man engaged in the + administration of public affairs, speak for themselves. The + difficulty of placing it rightly, in a government resting entirely + on the basis of periodical elections, will as readily be perceived, + when it is considered that the most conspicuous characters in it + will, from that circumstance, be too often the leaders or the tools + of the most cunning or the most numerous faction, and on this + account, can hardly be expected to possess the requisite neutrality + towards those whose conduct may be the subject of scrutiny. +The convention, it appears, thought the Senate the most fit + depositary of this important trust. Those who can best discern the + intrinsic difficulty of the thing, will be least hasty in condemning + that opinion, and will be most inclined to allow due weight to the + arguments which may be supposed to have produced it. +What, it may be asked, is the true spirit of the institution + itself? Is it not designed as a method of NATIONAL INQUEST into the + conduct of public men? If this be the design of it, who can so + properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of + the nation themselves? It is not disputed that the power of + originating the inquiry, or, in other words, of preferring the + impeachment, ought to be lodged in the hands of one branch of the + legislative body. Will not the reasons which indicate the propriety + of this arrangement strongly plead for an admission of the other + branch of that body to a share of the inquiry? The model from which + the idea of this institution has been borrowed, pointed out that + course to the convention. In Great Britain it is the province of + the House of Commons to prefer the impeachment, and of the House of + Lords to decide upon it. Several of the State constitutions have + followed the example. As well the latter, as the former, seem to + have regarded the practice of impeachments as a bridle in the hands + of the legislative body upon the executive servants of the + government. Is not this the true light in which it ought to be + regarded? +Where else than in the Senate could have been found a tribunal + sufficiently dignified, or sufficiently independent? What other + body would be likely to feel CONFIDENCE ENOUGH IN ITS OWN SITUATION, + to preserve, unawed and uninfluenced, the necessary impartiality + between an INDIVIDUAL accused, and the REPRESENTATIVES OF THE + PEOPLE, HIS ACCUSERS? +Could the Supreme Court have been relied upon as answering this + description? It is much to be doubted, whether the members of that + tribunal would at all times be endowed with so eminent a portion of + fortitude, as would be called for in the execution of so difficult a + task; and it is still more to be doubted, whether they would + possess the degree of credit and authority, which might, on certain + occasions, be indispensable towards reconciling the people to a + decision that should happen to clash with an accusation brought by + their immediate representatives. A deficiency in the first, would + be fatal to the accused; in the last, dangerous to the public + tranquillity. The hazard in both these respects, could only be + avoided, if at all, by rendering that tribunal more numerous than + would consist with a reasonable attention to economy. The necessity + of a numerous court for the trial of impeachments, is equally + dictated by the nature of the proceeding. This can never be tied + down by such strict rules, either in the delineation of the offense + by the prosecutors, or in the construction of it by the judges, as + in common cases serve to limit the discretion of courts in favor of + personal security. There will be no jury to stand between the + judges who are to pronounce the sentence of the law, and the party + who is to receive or suffer it. The awful discretion which a court + of impeachments must necessarily have, to doom to honor or to infamy + the most confidential and the most distinguished characters of the + community, forbids the commitment of the trust to a small number of + persons. +These considerations seem alone sufficient to authorize a + conclusion, that the Supreme Court would have been an improper + substitute for the Senate, as a court of impeachments. There + remains a further consideration, which will not a little strengthen + this conclusion. It is this: The punishment which may be the + consequence of conviction upon impeachment, is not to terminate the + chastisement of the offender. After having been sentenced to a + prepetual ostracism from the esteem and confidence, and honors and + emoluments of his country, he will still be liable to prosecution + and punishment in the ordinary course of law. Would it be proper + that the persons who had disposed of his fame, and his most valuable + rights as a citizen in one trial, should, in another trial, for the + same offense, be also the disposers of his life and his fortune? + Would there not be the greatest reason to apprehend, that error, in + the first sentence, would be the parent of error in the second + sentence? That the strong bias of one decision would be apt to + overrule the influence of any new lights which might be brought to + vary the complexion of another decision? Those who know anything of + human nature, will not hesitate to answer these questions in the + affirmative; and will be at no loss to perceive, that by making the + same persons judges in both cases, those who might happen to be the + objects of prosecution would, in a great measure, be deprived of the + double security intended them by a double trial. The loss of life + and estate would often be virtually included in a sentence which, in + its terms, imported nothing more than dismission from a present, and + disqualification for a future, office. It may be said, that the + intervention of a jury, in the second instance, would obviate the + danger. But juries are frequently influenced by the opinions of + judges. They are sometimes induced to find special verdicts, which + refer the main question to the decision of the court. Who would be + willing to stake his life and his estate upon the verdict of a jury + acting under the auspices of judges who had predetermined his guilt? +Would it have been an improvement of the plan, to have united + the Supreme Court with the Senate, in the formation of the court of + impeachments? This union would certainly have been attended with + several advantages; but would they not have been overbalanced by + the signal disadvantage, already stated, arising from the agency of + the same judges in the double prosecution to which the offender + would be liable? To a certain extent, the benefits of that union + will be obtained from making the chief justice of the Supreme Court + the president of the court of impeachments, as is proposed to be + done in the plan of the convention; while the inconveniences of an + entire incorporation of the former into the latter will be + substantially avoided. This was perhaps the prudent mean. I + forbear to remark upon the additional pretext for clamor against the + judiciary, which so considerable an augmentation of its authority + would have afforded. +Would it have been desirable to have composed the court for the + trial of impeachments, of persons wholly distinct from the other + departments of the government? There are weighty arguments, as well + against, as in favor of, such a plan. To some minds it will not + appear a trivial objection, that it could tend to increase the + complexity of the political machine, and to add a new spring to the + government, the utility of which would at best be questionable. But + an objection which will not be thought by any unworthy of attention, + is this: a court formed upon such a plan, would either be attended + with a heavy expense, or might in practice be subject to a variety + of casualties and inconveniences. It must either consist of + permanent officers, stationary at the seat of government, and of + course entitled to fixed and regular stipends, or of certain + officers of the State governments to be called upon whenever an + impeachment was actually depending. It will not be easy to imagine + any third mode materially different, which could rationally be + proposed. As the court, for reasons already given, ought to be + numerous, the first scheme will be reprobated by every man who can + compare the extent of the public wants with the means of supplying + them. The second will be espoused with caution by those who will + seriously consider the difficulty of collecting men dispersed over + the whole Union; the injury to the innocent, from the + procrastinated determination of the charges which might be brought + against them; the advantage to the guilty, from the opportunities + which delay would afford to intrigue and corruption; and in some + cases the detriment to the State, from the prolonged inaction of men + whose firm and faithful execution of their duty might have exposed + them to the persecution of an intemperate or designing majority in + the House of Representatives. Though this latter supposition may + seem harsh, and might not be likely often to be verified, yet it + ought not to be forgotten that the demon of faction will, at certain + seasons, extend his sceptre over all numerous bodies of men. +But though one or the other of the substitutes which have been + examined, or some other that might be devised, should be thought + preferable to the plan in this respect, reported by the convention, + it will not follow that the Constitution ought for this reason to be + rejected. If mankind were to resolve to agree in no institution of + government, until every part of it had been adjusted to the most + exact standard of perfection, society would soon become a general + scene of anarchy, and the world a desert. Where is the standard of + perfection to be found? Who will undertake to unite the discordant + opinions of a whole commuity, in the same judgment of it; and to + prevail upon one conceited projector to renounce his INFALLIBLE + criterion for the FALLIBLE criterion of his more CONCEITED NEIGHBOR? + To answer the purpose of the adversaries of the Constitution, they + ought to prove, not merely that particular provisions in it are not + the best which might have been imagined, but that the plan upon the + whole is bad and pernicious. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 66 + +Objections to the Power of the Senate To Set as a Court for + Impeachments Further Considered +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, March 11, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +A REVIEW of the principal objections that have appeared against + the proposed court for the trial of impeachments, will not + improbably eradicate the remains of any unfavorable impressions + which may still exist in regard to this matter. +The FIRST of these objections is, that the provision in question + confounds legislative and judiciary authorities in the same body, in + violation of that important and wellestablished maxim which requires + a separation between the different departments of power. The true + meaning of this maxim has been discussed and ascertained in another + place, and has been shown to be entirely compatible with a partial + intermixture of those departments for special purposes, preserving + them, in the main, distinct and unconnected. This partial + intermixture is even, in some cases, not only proper but necessary + to the mutual defense of the several members of the government + against each other. An absolute or qualified negative in the + executive upon the acts of the legislative body, is admitted, by the + ablest adepts in political science, to be an indispensable barrier + against the encroachments of the latter upon the former. And it + may, perhaps, with no less reason be contended, that the powers + relating to impeachments are, as before intimated, an essential + check in the hands of that body upon the encroachments of the + executive. The division of them between the two branches of the + legislature, assigning to one the right of accusing, to the other + the right of judging, avoids the inconvenience of making the same + persons both accusers and judges; and guards against the danger of + persecution, from the prevalency of a factious spirit in either of + those branches. As the concurrence of two thirds of the Senate will + be requisite to a condemnation, the security to innocence, from this + additional circumstance, will be as complete as itself can desire. +It is curious to observe, with what vehemence this part of the + plan is assailed, on the principle here taken notice of, by men who + profess to admire, without exception, the constitution of this + State; while that constitution makes the Senate, together with the + chancellor and judges of the Supreme Court, not only a court of + impeachments, but the highest judicatory in the State, in all + causes, civil and criminal. The proportion, in point of numbers, of + the chancellor and judges to the senators, is so inconsiderable, + that the judiciary authority of New York, in the last resort, may, + with truth, be said to reside in its Senate. If the plan of the + convention be, in this respect, chargeable with a departure from the + celebrated maxim which has been so often mentioned, and seems to be + so little understood, how much more culpable must be the + constitution of New York?1 +A SECOND objection to the Senate, as a court of impeachments, + is, that it contributes to an undue accumulation of power in that + body, tending to give to the government a countenance too + aristocratic. The Senate, it is observed, is to have concurrent + authority with the Executive in the formation of treaties and in the + appointment to offices: if, say the objectors, to these + prerogatives is added that of deciding in all cases of impeachment, + it will give a decided predominancy to senatorial influence. To an + objection so little precise in itself, it is not easy to find a very + precise answer. Where is the measure or criterion to which we can + appeal, for determining what will give the Senate too much, too + little, or barely the proper degree of influence? Will it not be + more safe, as well as more simple, to dismiss such vague and + uncertain calculations, to examine each power by itself, and to + decide, on general principles, where it may be deposited with most + advantage and least inconvenience? +If we take this course, it will lead to a more intelligible, if + not to a more certain result. The disposition of the power of + making treaties, which has obtained in the plan of the convention, + will, then, if I mistake not, appear to be fully justified by the + considerations stated in a former number, and by others which will + occur under the next head of our inquiries. The expediency of the + junction of the Senate with the Executive, in the power of + appointing to offices, will, I trust, be placed in a light not less + satisfactory, in the disquisitions under the same head. And I + flatter myself the observations in my last paper must have gone no + inconsiderable way towards proving that it was not easy, if + practicable, to find a more fit receptacle for the power of + determining impeachments, than that which has been chosen. If this + be truly the case, the hypothetical dread of the too great weight of + the Senate ought to be discarded from our reasonings. +But this hypothesis, such as it is, has already been refuted in + the remarks applied to the duration in office prescribed for the + senators. It was by them shown, as well on the credit of historical + examples, as from the reason of the thing, that the most POPULAR + branch of every government, partaking of the republican genius, by + being generally the favorite of the people, will be as generally a + full match, if not an overmatch, for every other member of the + Government. +But independent of this most active and operative principle, to + secure the equilibrium of the national House of Representatives, the + plan of the convention has provided in its favor several important + counterpoises to the additional authorities to be conferred upon the + Senate. The exclusive privilege of originating money bills will + belong to the House of Representatives. The same house will possess + the sole right of instituting impeachments: is not this a complete + counterbalance to that of determining them? The same house will be + the umpire in all elections of the President, which do not unite the + suffrages of a majority of the whole number of electors; a case + which it cannot be doubted will sometimes, if not frequently, happen. + The constant possibility of the thing must be a fruitful source of + influence to that body. The more it is contemplated, the more + important will appear this ultimate though contingent power, of + deciding the competitions of the most illustrious citizens of the + Union, for the first office in it. It would not perhaps be rash to + predict, that as a mean of influence it will be found to outweigh + all the peculiar attributes of the Senate. +A THIRD objection to the Senate as a court of impeachments, is + drawn from the agency they are to have in the appointments to office. + It is imagined that they would be too indulgent judges of the + conduct of men, in whose official creation they had participated. + The principle of this objection would condemn a practice, which is + to be seen in all the State governments, if not in all the + governments with which we are acquainted: I mean that of rendering + those who hold offices during pleasure, dependent on the pleasure of + those who appoint them. With equal plausibility might it be alleged + in this case, that the favoritism of the latter would always be an + asylum for the misbehavior of the former. But that practice, in + contradiction to this principle, proceeds upon the presumption, that + the responsibility of those who appoint, for the fitness and + competency of the persons on whom they bestow their choice, and the + interest they will have in the respectable and prosperous + administration of affairs, will inspire a sufficient disposition to + dismiss from a share in it all such who, by their conduct, shall + have proved themselves unworthy of the confidence reposed in them. + Though facts may not always correspond with this presumption, yet + if it be, in the main, just, it must destroy the supposition that + the Senate, who will merely sanction the choice of the Executive, + should feel a bias, towards the objects of that choice, strong + enough to blind them to the evidences of guilt so extraordinary, as + to have induced the representatives of the nation to become its + accusers. +If any further arguments were necessary to evince the + improbability of such a bias, it might be found in the nature of the + agency of the Senate in the business of appointments. +It will be the office of the President to NOMINATE, and, with + the advice and consent of the Senate, to APPOINT. There will, of + course, be no exertion of CHOICE on the part of the Senate. They + may defeat one choice of the Executive, and oblige him to make + another; but they cannot themselves CHOOSE, they can only ratify or + reject the choice of the President. They might even entertain a + preference to some other person, at the very moment they were + assenting to the one proposed, because there might be no positive + ground of opposition to him; and they could not be sure, if they + withheld their assent, that the subsequent nomination would fall + upon their own favorite, or upon any other person in their + estimation more meritorious than the one rejected. Thus it could + hardly happen, that the majority of the Senate would feel any other + complacency towards the object of an appointment than such as the + appearances of merit might inspire, and the proofs of the want of it + destroy. +A FOURTH objection to the Senate in the capacity of a court of + impeachments, is derived from its union with the Executive in the + power of making treaties. This, it has been said, would constitute + the senators their own judges, in every case of a corrupt or + perfidious execution of that trust. After having combined with the + Executive in betraying the interests of the nation in a ruinous + treaty, what prospect, it is asked, would there be of their being + made to suffer the punishment they would deserve, when they were + themselves to decide upon the accusation brought against them for + the treachery of which they have been guilty? +This objection has been circulated with more earnestness and + with greater show of reason than any other which has appeared + against this part of the plan; and yet I am deceived if it does not + rest upon an erroneous foundation. +The security essentially intended by the Constitution against + corruption and treachery in the formation of treaties, is to be + sought for in the numbers and characters of those who are to make + them. The JOINT AGENCY of the Chief Magistrate of the Union, and of + two thirds of the members of a body selected by the collective + wisdom of the legislatures of the several States, is designed to be + the pledge for the fidelity of the national councils in this + particular. The convention might with propriety have meditated the + punishment of the Executive, for a deviation from the instructions + of the Senate, or a want of integrity in the conduct of the + negotiations committed to him; they might also have had in view the + punishment of a few leading individuals in the Senate, who should + have prostituted their influence in that body as the mercenary + instruments of foreign corruption: but they could not, with more or + with equal propriety, have contemplated the impeachment and + punishment of two thirds of the Senate, consenting to an improper + treaty, than of a majority of that or of the other branch of the + national legislature, consenting to a pernicious or unconstitutional + law, a principle which, I believe, has never been admitted into any + government. How, in fact, could a majority in the House of + Representatives impeach themselves? Not better, it is evident, than + two thirds of the Senate might try themselves. And yet what reason + is there, that a majority of the House of Representatives, + sacrificing the interests of the society by an unjust and tyrannical + act of legislation, should escape with impunity, more than two + thirds of the Senate, sacrificing the same interests in an injurious + treaty with a foreign power? The truth is, that in all such cases + it is essential to the freedom and to the necessary independence of + the deliberations of the body, that the members of it should be + exempt from punishment for acts done in a collective capacity; and + the security to the society must depend on the care which is taken + to confide the trust to proper hands, to make it their interest to + execute it with fidelity, and to make it as difficult as possible + for them to combine in any interest opposite to that of the public + good. +So far as might concern the misbehavior of the Executive in + perverting the instructions or contravening the views of the Senate, + we need not be apprehensive of the want of a disposition in that + body to punish the abuse of their confidence or to vindicate their + own authority. We may thus far count upon their pride, if not upon + their virtue. And so far even as might concern the corruption of + leading members, by whose arts and influence the majority may have + been inveigled into measures odious to the community, if the proofs + of that corruption should be satisfactory, the usual propensity of + human nature will warrant us in concluding that there would be + commonly no defect of inclination in the body to divert the public + resentment from themselves by a ready sacrifice of the authors of + their mismanagement and disgrace. +PUBLIUS. +In that of New Jersey, also, the final judiciary authority is in + a branch of the legislature. In New Hampshire, Massachusetts, + Pennsylvanis, and South Carolina, one branch of the legislature is + the court for the trial of impeachments. + + +FEDERALIST No. 67 + +The Executive Department +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, March 11, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE constitution of the executive department of the proposed + government, claims next our attention. +There is hardly any part of the system which could have been + atten ed with greater difficulty in the arrangement of it than this; + and there is, perhaps, none which has been inveighed against with + less candor or criticised with less judgment. +Here the writers against the Constitution seem to have taken + pains to signalize their talent of misrepresentation. Calculating + upon the aversion of the people to monarchy, they have endeavored to + enlist all their jealousies and apprehensions in opposition to the + intended President of the United States; not merely as the embryo, + but as the full-grown progeny, of that detested parent. To + establish the pretended affinity, they have not scrupled to draw + resources even from the regions of fiction. The authorities of a + magistrate, in few instances greater, in some instances less, than + those of a governor of New York, have been magnified into more than + royal prerogatives. He has been decorated with attributes superior + in dignity and splendor to those of a king of Great Britain. He has + been shown to us with the diadem sparkling on his brow and the + imperial purple flowing in his train. He has been seated on a + throne surrounded with minions and mistresses, giving audience to + the envoys of foreign potentates, in all the supercilious pomp of + majesty. The images of Asiatic despotism and voluptuousness have + scarcely been wanting to crown the exaggerated scene. We have been + taught to tremble at the terrific visages of murdering janizaries, + and to blush at the unveiled mysteries of a future seraglio. +Attempts so extravagant as these to disfigure or, it might + rather be said, to metamorphose the object, render it necessary to + take an accurate view of its real nature and form: in order as well + to ascertain its true aspect and genuine appearance, as to unmask + the disingenuity and expose the fallacy of the counterfeit + resemblances which have been so insidiously, as well as + industriously, propagated. +In the execution of this task, there is no man who would not + find it an arduous effort either to behold with moderation, or to + treat with seriousness, the devices, not less weak than wicked, + which have been contrived to pervert the public opinion in relation + to the subject. They so far exceed the usual though unjustifiable + licenses of party artifice, that even in a disposition the most + candid and tolerant, they must force the sentiments which favor an + indulgent construction of the conduct of political adversaries to + give place to a voluntary and unreserved indignation. It is + impossible not to bestow the imputation of deliberate imposture and + deception upon the gross pretense of a similitude between a king of + Great Britain and a magistrate of the character marked out for that + of the President of the United States. It is still more impossible + to withhold that imputation from the rash and barefaced expedients + which have been employed to give success to the attempted imposition. +In one instance, which I cite as a sample of the general spirit, + the temerity has proceeded so far as to ascribe to the President of + the United States a power which by the instrument reported is + EXPRESSLY allotted to the Executives of the individual States. I + mean the power of filling casual vacancies in the Senate. +This bold experiment upon the discernment of his countrymen has + been hazarded by a writer who (whatever may be his real merit) has + had no inconsiderable share in the applauses of his party1; and + who, upon this false and unfounded suggestion, has built a series of + observations equally false and unfounded. Let him now be confronted + with the evidence of the fact, and let him, if he be able, justify + or extenuate the shameful outrage he has offered to the dictates of + truth and to the rules of fair dealing. +The second clause of the second section of the second article + empowers the President of the United States ``to nominate, and by + and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint + ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the + Supreme Court, and all other OFFICERS of United States whose + appointments are NOT in the Constitution OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR, and + WHICH SHALL BE ESTABLISHED BY LAW.'' Immediately after this clause + follows another in these words: ``The President shall have power to + fill up ?? VACANCIES that may happen DURING THE RECESS OF THE + SENATE, by granting commissions which shall EXPIRE AT THE END OF + THEIR NEXT SESSION.'' It is from this last provision that the + pretended power of the President to fill vacancies in the Senate has + been deduced. A slight attention to the connection of the clauses, + and to the obvious meaning of the terms, will satisfy us that the + deduction is not even colorable. +The first of these two clauses, it is clear, only provides a + mode for appointing such officers, ``whose appointments are NOT + OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR in the Constitution, and which SHALL BE + ESTABLISHED BY LAW''; of course it cannot extend to the + appointments of senators, whose appointments are OTHERWISE PROVIDED + FOR in the Constitution2, and who are ESTABLISHED BY THE + CONSTITUTION, and will not require a future establishment by law. + This position will hardly be contested. +The last of these two clauses, it is equally clear, cannot be + understood to comprehend the power of filling vacancies in the + Senate, for the following reasons: First. The relation in + which that clause stands to the other, which declares the general + mode of appointing officers of the United States, denotes it to be + nothing more than a supplement to the other, for the purpose of + establishing an auxiliary method of appointment, in cases to which + the general method was inadequate. The ordinary power of + appointment is confined to the President and Senate JOINTLY, and can + therefore only be exercised during the session of the Senate; but + as it would have been improper to oblige this body to be continually + in session for the appointment of officers and as vacancies might + happen IN THEIR RECESS, which it might be necessary for the public + service to fill without delay, the succeeding clause is evidently + intended to authorize the President, SINGLY, to make temporary + appointments ``during the recess of the Senate, by granting + commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.'' + Secondly. If this clause is to be considered as supplementary + to the one which precedes, the VACANCIES of which it speaks must be + construed to relate to the ``officers'' described in the preceding + one; and this, we have seen, excludes from its description the + members of the Senate. Thirdly. The time within which the + power is to operate, ``during the recess of the Senate,'' and the + duration of the appointments, ``to the end of the next session'' of + that body, conspire to elucidate the sense of the provision, which, + if it had been intended to comprehend senators, would naturally have + referred the temporary power of filling vacancies to the recess of + the State legislatures, who are to make the permanent appointments, + and not to the recess of the national Senate, who are to have no + concern in those appointments; and would have extended the duration + in office of the temporary senators to the next session of the + legislature of the State, in whose representation the vacancies had + happened, instead of making it to expire at the end of the ensuing + session of the national Senate. The circumstances of the body + authorized to make the permanent appointments would, of course, have + governed the modification of a power which related to the temporary + appointments; and as the national Senate is the body, whose + situation is alone contemplated in the clause upon which the + suggestion under examination has been founded, the vacancies to + which it alludes can only be deemed to respect those officers in + whose appointment that body has a concurrent agency with the + President. But lastly, the first and second clauses of the + third section of the first article, not only obviate all possibility + of doubt, but destroy the pretext of misconception. The former + provides, that ``the Senate of the United States shall be composed + of two Senators from each State, chosen BY THE LEGISLATURE THEREOF + for six years''; and the latter directs, that, ``if vacancies in + that body should happen by resignation or otherwise, DURING THE + RECESS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF ANY STATE, the Executive THEREOF may + make temporary appointments until the NEXT MEETING OF THE + LEGISLATURE, which shall then fill such vacancies.'' Here is an + express power given, in clear and unambiguous terms, to the State + Executives, to fill casual vacancies in the Senate, by temporary + appointments; which not only invalidates the supposition, that the + clause before considered could have been intended to confer that + power upon the President of the United States, but proves that this + supposition, destitute as it is even of the merit of plausibility, + must have originated in an intention to deceive the people, too + palpable to be obscured by sophistry, too atrocious to be palliated + by hypocrisy. +I have taken the pains to select this instance of + misrepresentation, and to place it in a clear and strong light, as + an unequivocal proof of the unwarrantable arts which are practiced + to prevent a fair and impartial judgment of the real merits of the + Constitution submitted to the consideration of the people. Nor have + I scrupled, in so flagrant a case, to allow myself a severity of + animadversion little congenial with the general spirit of these + papers. I hesitate not to submit it to the decision of any candid + and honest adversary of the proposed government, whether language + can furnish epithets of too much asperity, for so shameless and so + prostitute an attempt to impose on the citizens of America. +PUBLIUS. +1 See CATO, No. V. +2 Article I, section 3, clause I. + + +FEDERALIST No. 68 + +The Mode of Electing the President +From the New York Packet. +Friday, March 14, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United + States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, + which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the + slightest mark of approbation from its opponents. The most + plausible of these, who has appeared in print, has even deigned to + admit that the election of the President is pretty well + guarded.1 I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to + affirm, that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least + excellent. It unites in an eminent degree all the advantages, the + union of which was to be wished for. +It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in + the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be + confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of + making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the + people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture. +It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be + made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the + station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, + and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements + which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of + persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, + will be most likely to possess the information and discernment + requisite to such complicated investigations. +It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity + as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be + dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so + important an agency in the administration of the government as the + President of the United States. But the precautions which have been + so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an + effectual security against this mischief. The choice of SEVERAL, to + form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to + convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, + than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the + public wishes. And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to + assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this + detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats + and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, + than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place. +Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable + obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. + These most deadly adversaries of republican government might + naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than + one querter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain + an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better + gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief + magistracy of the Union? But the convention have guarded against + all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious + attention. They have not made the appointment of the President to + depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with + beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in + the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to + be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole + purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from + eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be + suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. No + senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or + profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the + electors. Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the + immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task + free from any sinister bias. Their transient existence, and their + detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory + prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it. The + business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a + number of men, requires time as well as means. Nor would it be + found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over + thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which + though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be + of a nature to mislead them from their duty. +Another and no less important desideratum was, that the + Executive should be independent for his continuance in office on all + but the people themselves. He might otherwise be tempted to + sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was + necessary to the duration of his official consequence. This + advantage will also be secured, by making his re-election to depend + on a special body of representatives, deputed by the society for the + single purpose of making the important choice. +All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by + the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall + choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of + senators and representatives of such State in the national + government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some + fit person as President. Their votes, thus given, are to be + transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person + who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will + be the President. But as a majority of the votes might not always + happen to centre in one man, and as it might be unsafe to permit + less than a majority to be conclusive, it is provided that, in such + a contingency, the House of Representatives shall select out of the + candidates who shall have the five highest number of votes, the man + who in their opinion may be best qualified for the office. +The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the + office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not + in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. + Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may + alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single + State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of + merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole + Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary + to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of + President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, + that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station + filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue. And this + will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the + Constitution, by those who are able to estimate the share which the + executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or + ill administration. Though we cannot acquiesce in the political + heresy of the poet who says: ``For forms of government let fools + contest That which is best administered is best,'' + yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good + government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good + administration. +The Vice-President is to be chosen in the same manner with the + President; with this difference, that the Senate is to do, in + respect to the former, what is to be done by the House of + Representatives, in respect to the latter. +The appointment of an extraordinary person, as Vice-President, + has been objected to as superfluous, if not mischievous. It has + been alleged, that it would have been preferable to have authorized + the Senate to elect out of their own body an officer answering that + description. But two considerations seem to justify the ideas of + the convention in this respect. One is, that to secure at all times + the possibility of a definite resolution of the body, it is + necessary that the President should have only a casting vote. And + to take the senator of any State from his seat as senator, to place + him in that of President of the Senate, would be to exchange, in + regard to the State from which he came, a constant for a contingent + vote. The other consideration is, that as the Vice-President may + occasionally become a substitute for the President, in the supreme + executive magistracy, all the reasons which recommend the mode of + election prescribed for the one, apply with great if not with equal + force to the manner of appointing the other. It is remarkable that + in this, as in most other instances, the objection which is made + would lie against the constitution of this State. We have a + Lieutenant-Governor, chosen by the people at large, who presides in + the Senate, and is the constitutional substitute for the Governor, + in casualties similar to those which would authorize the + Vice-President to exercise the authorities and discharge the duties + of the President. +PUBLIUS. +1 Vide FEDERAL FARMER. + + +FEDERALIST No. 69 + +The Real Character of the Executive +From the New York Packet. +Friday, March 14, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +I PROCEED now to trace the real characters of the proposed + Executive, as they are marked out in the plan of the convention. + This will serve to place in a strong light the unfairness of the + representations which have been made in regard to it. +The first thing which strikes our attention is, that the + executive authority, with few exceptions, is to be vested in a + single magistrate. This will scarcely, however, be considered as a + point upon which any comparison can be grounded; for if, in this + particular, there be a resemblance to the king of Great Britain, + there is not less a resemblance to the Grand Seignior, to the khan + of Tartary, to the Man of the Seven Mountains, or to the governor of + New York. +That magistrate is to be elected for FOUR years; and is to be + re-eligible as often as the people of the United States shall think + him worthy of their confidence. In these circumstances there is a + total dissimilitude between HIM and a king of Great Britain, who is + an HEREDITARY monarch, possessing the crown as a patrimony + descendible to his heirs forever; but there is a close analogy + between HIM and a governor of New York, who is elected for THREE + years, and is re-eligible without limitation or intermission. If we + consider how much less time would be requisite for establishing a + dangerous influence in a single State, than for establishing a like + influence throughout the United States, we must conclude that a + duration of FOUR years for the Chief Magistrate of the Union is a + degree of permanency far less to be dreaded in that office, than a + duration of THREE years for a corresponding office in a single State. +The President of the United States would be liable to be + impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other + high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would + afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary + course of law. The person of the king of Great Britain is sacred + and inviolable; there is no constitutional tribunal to which he is + amenable; no punishment to which he can be subjected without + involving the crisis of a national revolution. In this delicate and + important circumstance of personal responsibility, the President of + Confederated America would stand upon no better ground than a + governor of New York, and upon worse ground than the governors of + Maryland and Delaware. +The President of the United States is to have power to return a + bill, which shall have passed the two branches of the legislature, + for reconsideration; and the bill so returned is to become a law, + if, upon that reconsideration, it be approved by two thirds of both + houses. The king of Great Britain, on his part, has an absolute + negative upon the acts of the two houses of Parliament. The disuse + of that power for a considerable time past does not affect the + reality of its existence; and is to be ascribed wholly to the + crown's having found the means of substituting influence to + authority, or the art of gaining a majority in one or the other of + the two houses, to the necessity of exerting a prerogative which + could seldom be exerted without hazarding some degree of national + agitation. The qualified negative of the President differs widely + from this absolute negative of the British sovereign; and tallies + exactly with the revisionary authority of the council of revision of + this State, of which the governor is a constituent part. In this + respect the power of the President would exceed that of the governor + of New York, because the former would possess, singly, what the + latter shares with the chancellor and judges; but it would be + precisely the same with that of the governor of Massachusetts, whose + constitution, as to this article, seems to have been the original + from which the convention have copied. +The President is to be the ``commander-in-chief of the army and + navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, + when called into the actual service of the United States. He is to + have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the + United States, EXCEPT IN CASES OF IMPEACHMENT; to recommend to the + consideration of Congress such measures as he shall judge necessary + and expedient; to convene, on extraordinary occasions, both houses + of the legislature, or either of them, and, in case of disagreement + between them WITH RESPECT TO THE TIME OF ADJOURNMENT, to adjourn + them to such time as he shall think proper; to take care that the + laws be faithfully executed; and to commission all officers of the + United States.'' In most of these particulars, the power of the + President will resemble equally that of the king of Great Britain + and of the governor of New York. The most material points of + difference are these: First. The President will have only the + occasional command of such part of the militia of the nation as by + legislative provision may be called into the actual service of the + Union. The king of Great Britain and the governor of New York have + at all times the entire command of all the militia within their + several jurisdictions. In this article, therefore, the power of the + President would be inferior to that of either the monarch or the + governor. Secondly. The President is to be commander-in-chief + of the army and navy of the United States. In this respect his + authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great + Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to + nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military + and naval forces, as first General and admiral of the Confederacy; + while that of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and + to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all which, by + the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the + legislature.1 The governor of New York, on the other hand, is + by the constitution of the State vested only with the command of its + militia and navy. But the constitutions of several of the States + expressly declare their governors to be commanders-in-chief, as well + of the army as navy; and it may well be a question, whether those + of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in particular, do not, in this + instance, confer larger powers upon their respective governors, than + could be claimed by a President of the United States. Thirdly. + The power of the President, in respect to pardons, would extend to + all cases, EXCEPT THOSE OF IMPEACHMENT. The governor of New York + may pardon in all cases, even in those of impeachment, except for + treason and murder. Is not the power of the governor, in this + article, on a calculation of political consequences, greater than + that of the President? All conspiracies and plots against the + government, which have not been matured into actual treason, may be + screened from punishment of every kind, by the interposition of the + prerogative of pardoning. If a governor of New York, therefore, + should be at the head of any such conspiracy, until the design had + been ripened into actual hostility he could insure his accomplices + and adherents an entire impunity. A President of the Union, on the + other hand, though he may even pardon treason, when prosecuted in + the ordinary course of law, could shelter no offender, in any + degree, from the effects of impeachment and conviction. Would not + the prospect of a total indemnity for all the preliminary steps be a + greater temptation to undertake and persevere in an enterprise + against the public liberty, than the mere prospect of an exemption + from death and confiscation, if the final execution of the design, + upon an actual appeal to arms, should miscarry? Would this last + expectation have any influence at all, when the probability was + computed, that the person who was to afford that exemption might + himself be involved in the consequences of the measure, and might be + incapacitated by his agency in it from affording the desired + impunity? The better to judge of this matter, it will be necessary + to recollect, that, by the proposed Constitution, the offense of + treason is limited ``to levying war upon the United States, and + adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort''; and that + by the laws of New York it is confined within similar bounds. + Fourthly. The President can only adjourn the national legislature + in the single case of disagreement about the time of adjournment. + The British monarch may prorogue or even dissolve the Parliament. + The governor of New York may also prorogue the legislature of this + State for a limited time; a power which, in certain situations, may + be employed to very important purposes. +The President is to have power, with the advice and consent of + the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators + present concur. The king of Great Britain is the sole and absolute + representative of the nation in all foreign transactions. He can of + his own accord make treaties of peace, commerce, alliance, and of + every other description. It has been insinuated, that his authority + in this respect is not conclusive, and that his conventions with + foreign powers are subject to the revision, and stand in need of the + ratification, of Parliament. But I believe this doctrine was never + heard of, until it was broached upon the present occasion. Every + jurist2 of that kingdom, and every other man acquainted with its + Constitution, knows, as an established fact, that the prerogative of + making treaties exists in the crown in its utomst plentitude; and + that the compacts entered into by the royal authority have the most + complete legal validity and perfection, independent of any other + sanction. The Parliament, it is true, is sometimes seen employing + itself in altering the existing laws to conform them to the + stipulations in a new treaty; and this may have possibly given + birth to the imagination, that its co-operation was necessary to the + obligatory efficacy of the treaty. But this parliamentary + interposition proceeds from a different cause: from the necessity + of adjusting a most artificial and intricate system of revenue and + commercial laws, to the changes made in them by the operation of the + treaty; and of adapting new provisions and precautions to the new + state of things, to keep the machine from running into disorder. In + this respect, therefore, there is no comparison between the intended + power of the President and the actual power of the British sovereign. + The one can perform alone what the other can do only with the + concurrence of a branch of the legislature. It must be admitted, + that, in this instance, the power of the federal Executive would + exceed that of any State Executive. But this arises naturally from + the sovereign power which relates to treaties. If the Confederacy + were to be dissolved, it would become a question, whether the + Executives of the several States were not solely invested with that + delicate and important prerogative. +The President is also to be authorized to receive ambassadors + and other public ministers. This, though it has been a rich theme + of declamation, is more a matter of dignity than of authority. It + is a circumstance which will be without consequence in the + administration of the government; and it was far more convenient + that it should be arranged in this manner, than that there should be + a necessity of convening the legislature, or one of its branches, + upon every arrival of a foreign minister, though it were merely to + take the place of a departed predecessor. +The President is to nominate, and, WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT + OF THE SENATE, to appoint ambassadors and other public ministers, + judges of the Supreme Court, and in general all officers of the + United States established by law, and whose appointments are not + otherwise provided for by the Constitution. The king of Great + Britain is emphatically and truly styled the fountain of honor. He + not only appoints to all offices, but can create offices. He can + confer titles of nobility at pleasure; and has the disposal of an + immense number of church preferments. There is evidently a great + inferiority in the power of the President, in this particular, to + that of the British king; nor is it equal to that of the governor + of New York, if we are to interpret the meaning of the constitution + of the State by the practice which has obtained under it. The power + of appointment is with us lodged in a council, composed of the + governor and four members of the Senate, chosen by the Assembly. + The governor CLAIMS, and has frequently EXERCISED, the right of + nomination, and is ENTITLED to a casting vote in the appointment. + If he really has the right of nominating, his authority is in this + respect equal to that of the President, and exceeds it in the + article of the casting vote. In the national government, if the + Senate should be divided, no appointment could be made; in the + government of New York, if the council should be divided, the + governor can turn the scale, and confirm his own nomination.3 + If we compare the publicity which must necessarily attend the mode + of appointment by the President and an entire branch of the national + legislature, with the privacy in the mode of appointment by the + governor of New York, closeted in a secret apartment with at most + four, and frequently with only two persons; and if we at the same + time consider how much more easy it must be to influence the small + number of which a council of appointment consists, than the + considerable number of which the national Senate would consist, we + cannot hesitate to pronounce that the power of the chief magistrate + of this State, in the disposition of offices, must, in practice, be + greatly superior to that of the Chief Magistrate of the Union. +Hence it appears that, except as to the concurrent authority of + the President in the article of treaties, it would be difficult to + determine whether that magistrate would, in the aggregate, possess + more or less power than the Governor of New York. And it appears + yet more unequivocally, that there is no pretense for the parallel + which has been attempted between him and the king of Great Britain. + But to render the contrast in this respect still more striking, it + may be of use to throw the principal circumstances of dissimilitude + into a closer group. +The President of the United States would be an officer elected + by the people for FOUR years; the king of Great Britain is a + perpetual and HEREDITARY prince. The one would be amenable to + personal punishment and disgrace; the person of the other is sacred + and inviolable. The one would have a QUALIFIED negative upon the + acts of the legislative body; the other has an ABSOLUTE negative. + The one would have a right to command the military and naval forces + of the nation; the other, in addition to this right, possesses that + of DECLARING war, and of RAISING and REGULATING fleets and armies by + his own authority. The one would have a concurrent power with a + branch of the legislature in the formation of treaties; the other + is the SOLE POSSESSOR of the power of making treaties. The one + would have a like concurrent authority in appointing to offices; + the other is the sole author of all appointments. The one can + confer no privileges whatever; the other can make denizens of + aliens, noblemen of commoners; can erect corporations with all the + rights incident to corporate bodies. The one can prescribe no rules + concerning the commerce or currency of the nation; the other is in + several respects the arbiter of commerce, and in this capacity can + establish markets and fairs, can regulate weights and measures, can + lay embargoes for a limited time, can coin money, can authorize or + prohibit the circulation of foreign coin. The one has no particle + of spiritual jurisdiction; the other is the supreme head and + governor of the national church! What answer shall we give to those + who would persuade us that things so unlike resemble each other? + The same that ought to be given to those who tell us that a + government, the whole power of which would be in the hands of the + elective and periodical servants of the people, is an aristocracy, a + monarchy, and a despotism. +PUBLIUS. +1 A writer in a &ennsylvania paper, under the signature of + TAMONY, has asserted that the king of Great Britain oweshis + prerogative as commander-in-chief to an annual mutiny bill. The + truth is, on the contrary, that his prerogative, in this respect, is + immenmorial, and was only disputed, ``contrary to all reason and + precedent,'' as Blackstone vol. i., page 262, expresses it, by the + Long Parliament of Charles I. but by the statute the 13th of Charles + II., chap. 6, it was declared to be in the king alone, for that the + sole supreme government and command of the militia within his + Majesty's realms and dominions, and of all forces by sea and land, + and of all forts and places of strength, EVER WAS AND IS the + undoubted right of his Majesty and his royal predecessors, kings and + queens of England, and that both or either house of Parliament + cannot nor ought to pretend to the same. +2 Vide Blackstone's ``Commentaries,'' vol i., p. 257. +3 Candor, however, demands an acknowledgment that I do not think + the claim of the governor to a right of nomination well founded. + Yet it is always justifiable to reason from the practice of a + government, till its propriety has been constitutionally questioned. + And independent of this claim, when we take into view the other + considerations, and pursue them through all their consequences, we + shall be inclined to draw much the same conclusion. + +*There are two slightly different versions of No. 70 included here. + +FEDERALIST No. 70 + +The Executive Department Further Considered +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, March 18, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THERE is an idea, which is not without its advocates, that a + vigorous Executive is inconsistent with the genius of republican + government. The enlightened well-wishers to this species of + government must at least hope that the supposition is destitute of + foundation; since they can never admit its truth, without at the + same time admitting the condemnation of their own principles. + Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of + good government. It is essential to the protection of the community + against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady + administration of the laws; to the protection of property against + those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes + interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of + liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of + faction, and of anarchy. Every man the least conversant in Roman + story, knows how often that republic was obliged to take refuge in + the absolute power of a single man, under the formidable title of + Dictator, as well against the intrigues of ambitious individuals who + aspired to the tyranny, and the seditions of whole classes of the + community whose conduct threatened the existence of all government, + as against the invasions of external enemies who menaced the + conquest and destruction of Rome. +There can be no need, however, to multiply arguments or examples + on this head. A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the + government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad + execution; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in + theory, must be, in practice, a bad government. +Taking it for granted, therefore, that all men of sense will + agree in the necessity of an energetic Executive, it will only + remain to inquire, what are the ingredients which constitute this + energy? How far can they be combined with those other ingredients + which constitute safety in the republican sense? And how far does + this combination characterize the plan which has been reported by + the convention? +The ingredients which constitute energy in the Executive are, + first, unity; secondly, duration; thirdly, an adequate provision + for its support; fourthly, competent powers. +The ingredients which constitute safety in the repub lican sense + are, first, a due dependence on the people, secondly, a due + responsibility. +Those politicians and statesmen who have been the most + celebrated for the soundness of their principles and for the justice + of their views, have declared in favor of a single Executive and a + numerous legislature. They have with great propriety, considered + energy as the most necessary qualification of the former, and have + regarded this as most applicable to power in a single hand, while + they have, with equal propriety, considered the latter as best + adapted to deliberation and wisdom, and best calculated to + conciliate the confidence of the people and to secure their + privileges and interests. +That unity is conducive to energy will not be disputed. + Decision, activity, secrecy, and despatch will generally + characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent + degree than the proceedings of any greater number; and in + proportion as the number is increased, these qualities will be + diminished. +This unity may be destroyed in two ways: either by vesting the + power in two or more magistrates of equal dignity and authority; or + by vesting it ostensibly in one man, subject, in whole or in part, + to the control and co-operation of others, in the capacity of + counsellors to him. Of the first, the two Consuls of Rome may serve + as an example; of the last, we shall find examples in the + constitutions of several of the States. New York and New Jersey, if + I recollect right, are the only States which have intrusted the + executive authority wholly to single men.1 Both these methods + of destroying the unity of the Executive have their partisans; but + the votaries of an executive council are the most numerous. They + are both liable, if not to equal, to similar objections, and may in + most lights be examined in conjunction. +The experience of other nations will afford little instruction + on this head. As far, however, as it teaches any thing, it teaches + us not to be enamoured of plurality in the Executive. We have seen + that the Achaeans, on an experiment of two Praetors, were induced to + abolish one. The Roman history records many instances of mischiefs + to the republic from the dissensions between the Consuls, and + between the military Tribunes, who were at times substituted for the + Consuls. But it gives us no specimens of any peculiar advantages + derived to the state from the circumstance of the plurality of those + magistrates. That the dissensions between them were not more + frequent or more fatal, is a matter of astonishment, until we advert + to the singular position in which the republic was almost + continually placed, and to the prudent policy pointed out by the + circumstances of the state, and pursued by the Consuls, of making a + division of the government between them. The patricians engaged in + a perpetual struggle with the plebeians for the preservation of + their ancient authorities and dignities; the Consuls, who were + generally chosen out of the former body, were commonly united by the + personal interest they had in the defense of the privileges of their + order. In addition to this motive of union, after the arms of the + republic had considerably expanded the bounds of its empire, it + became an established custom with the Consuls to divide the + administration between themselves by lot one of them remaining at + Rome to govern the city and its environs, the other taking the + command in the more distant provinces. This expedient must, no + doubt, have had great influence in preventing those collisions and + rivalships which might otherwise have embroiled the peace of the + republic. +But quitting the dim light of historical research, attaching + ourselves purely to the dictates of reason and good se se, we shall + discover much greater cause to reject than to approve the idea of + plurality in the Executive, under any modification whatever. +Wherever two or more persons are engaged in any common + enterprise or pursuit, there is always danger of difference of + opinion. If it be a public trust or office, in which they are + clothed with equal dignity and authority, there is peculiar danger + of personal emulation and even animosity. From either, and + especially from all these causes, the most bitter dissensions are + apt to spring. Whenever these happen, they lessen the + respectability, weaken the authority, and distract the plans and + operation of those whom they divide. If they should unfortunately + assail the supreme executive magistracy of a country, consisting of + a plurality of persons, they might impede or frustrate the most + important measures of the government, in the most critical + emergencies of the state. And what is still worse, they might split + the community into the most violent and irreconcilable factions, + adhering differently to the different individuals who composed the + magistracy. +Men often oppose a thing, merely because they have had no agency + in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom + they dislike. But if they have been consulted, and have happened to + disapprove, opposition then becomes, in their estimation, an + indispensable duty of self-love. They seem to think themselves + bound in honor, and by all the motives of personal infallibility, to + defeat the success of what has been resolved upon contrary to their + sentiments. Men of upright, benevolent tempers have too many + opportunities of remarking, with horror, to what desperate lengths + this disposition is sometimes carried, and how often the great + interests of society are sacrificed to the vanity, to the conceit, + and to the obstinacy of individuals, who have credit enough to make + their passions and their caprices interesting to mankind. Perhaps + the question now before the public may, in its consequences, afford + melancholy proofs of the effects of this despicable frailty, or + rather detestable vice, in the human character. +Upon the principles of a free government, inconveniences from + the source just mentioned must necessarily be submitted to in the + formation of the legislature; but it is unnecessary, and therefore + unwise, to introduce them into the constitution of the Executive. + It is here too that they may be most pernicious. In the + legislature, promptitude of decision is oftener an evil than a + benefit. The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties in + that department of the government, though they may sometimes + obstruct salutary plans, yet often promote deliberation and + circumspection, and serve to check excesses in the majority. When a + resolution too is once taken, the opposition must be at an end. + That resolution is a law, and resistance to it punishable. But no + favorable circumstances palliate or atone for the disadvantages of + dissension in the executive department. Here, they are pure and + unmixed. There is no point at which they cease to operate. They + serve to embarrass and weaken the execution of the plan or measure + to which they relate, from the first step to the final conclusion of + it. They constantly counteract those qualities in the Executive + which are the most necessary ingredients in its composition, vigor + and expedition, and this without anycounterbalancing good. In the + conduct of war, in which the energy of the Executive is the bulwark + of the national security, every thing would be to be apprehended + from its plurality. +It must be confessed that these observations apply with + principal weight to the first case supposed that is, to a plurality + of magistrates of equal dignity and authority a scheme, the + advocates for which are not likely to form a numerous sect; but + they apply, though not with equal, yet with considerable weight to + the project of a council, whose concurrence is made constitutionally + necessary to the operations of the ostensible Executive. An artful + cabal in that council would be able to distract and to enervate the + whole system of administration. If no such cabal should exist, the + mere diversity of views and opinions would alone be sufficient to + tincture the exercise of the executive authority with a spirit of + habitual feebleness and dilatoriness. +But one of the weightiest objections to a plurality in the + Executive, and which lies as much against the last as the first + plan, is, that it tends to conceal faults and destroy responsibility. + Responsibility is of two kinds to censure and to punishment. The + first is the more important of the two, especially in an elective + office. Man, in public trust, will much oftener act in such a + manner as to render him unworthy of being any longer trusted, than + in such a manner as to make him obnoxious to legal punishment. But + the multiplication of the Executive adds to the difficulty of + detection in either case. It often becomes impossible, amidst + mutual accusations, to determine on whom the blame or the punishment + of a pernicious measure, or series of pernicious measures, ought + really to fall. It is shifted from one to another with so much + dexterity, and under such plausible appearances, that the public + opinion is left in suspense about the real author. The + circumstances which may have led to any national miscarriage or + misfortune are sometimes so complicated that, where there are a + number of actors who may have had different degrees and kinds of + agency, though we may clearly see upon the whole that there has been + mismanagement, yet it may be impracticable to pronounce to whose + account the evil which may have been incurred is truly chargeable. +``I was overruled by my council. The council were so divided in + their opinions that it was impossible to obtain any better + resolution on the point.'' These and similar pretexts are + constantly at hand, whether true or false. And who is there that + will either take the trouble or incur the odium, of a strict + scrunity into the secret springs of the transaction? Should there + be found a citizen zealous enough to undertake the unpromising task, + if there happen to be collusion between the parties concerned, how + easy it is to clothe the circumstances with so much ambiguity, as to + render it uncertain what was the precise conduct of any of those + parties? +In the single instance in which the governor of this State is + coupled with a council that is, in the appointment to offices, we + have seen the mischiefs of it in the view now under consideration. + Scandalous appointments to important offices have been made. Some + cases, indeed, have been so flagrant that ALL PARTIES have agreed in + the impropriety of the thing. When inquiry has been made, the blame + has been laid by the governor on the members of the council, who, on + their part, have charged it upon his nomination; while the people + remain altogether at a loss to determine, by whose influence their + interests have been committed to hands so unqualified and so + manifestly improper. In tenderness to individuals, I forbear to + descend to particulars. +It is evident from these considerations, that the plurality of + the Executive tends to deprive the people of the two greatest + securities they can have for the faithful exercise of any delegated + power, first, the restraints of public opinion, which lose their + efficacy, as well on account of the division of the censure + attendant on bad measures among a number, as on account of the + uncertainty on whom it ought to fall; and, secondly, the + opportunity of discovering with facility and clearness the + misconduct of the persons they trust, in order either to their + removal from office or to their actual punishment in cases which + admit of it. +In England, the king is a perpetual magistrate; and it is a + maxim which has obtained for the sake of the pub lic peace, that he + is unaccountable for his administration, and his person sacred. + Nothing, therefore, can be wiser in that kingdom, than to annex to + the king a constitutional council, who may be responsible to the + nation for the advice they give. Without this, there would be no + responsibility whatever in the executive department an idea + inadmissible in a free government. But even there the king is not + bound by the resolutions of his council, though they are answerable + for the advice they give. He is the absolute master of his own + conduct in the exercise of his office, and may observe or disregard + the counsel given to him at his sole discretion. +But in a republic, where every magistrate ought to be personally + responsible for his behavior in office the reason which in the + British Constitution dictates the propriety of a council, not only + ceases to apply, but turns against the institution. In the monarchy + of Great Britain, it furnishes a substitute for the prohibited + responsibility of the chief magistrate, which serves in some degree + as a hostage to the national justice for his good behavior. In the + American republic, it would serve to destroy, or would greatly + diminish, the intended and necessary responsibility of the Chief + Magistrate himself. +The idea of a council to the Executive, which has so generally + obtained in the State constitutions, has been derived from that + maxim of republican jealousy which considers power as safer in the + hands of a number of men than of a single man. If the maxim should + be admitted to be applicable to the case, I should contend that the + advantage on that side would not counterbalance the numerous + disadvantages on the opposite side. But I do not think the rule at + all applicable to the executive power. I clearly concur in opinion, + in this particular, with a writer whom the celebrated Junius + pronounces to be ``deep, solid, and ingenious,'' that ``the + executive power is more easily confined when it is ONE'';2 that + it is far more safe there should be a single object for the jealousy + and watchfulness of the people; and, in a word, that all + multiplication of the Executive is rather dangerous than friendly to + liberty. +A little consideration will satisfy us, that the species of + security sought for in the multiplication of the Executive, is + nattainable. Numbers must be so great as to render combination + difficult, or they are rather a source of danger than of security. + The united credit and influence of several individuals must be more + formidable to liberty, than the credit and influence of either of + them separately. When power, therefore, is placed in the hands of + so small a number of men, as to admit of their interests and views + being easily combined in a common enterprise, by an artful leader, + it becomes more liable to abuse, and more dangerous when abused, + than if it be lodged in the hands of one man; who, from the very + circumstance of his being alone, will be more narrowly watched and + more readily suspected, and who cannot unite so great a mass of + influence as when he is associated with others. The Decemvirs of + Rome, whose name denotes their number,3 were more to be dreaded + in their usurpation than any ONE of them would have been. No person + would think of proposing an Executive much more numerous than that + body; from six to a dozen have been suggested for the number of the + council. The extreme of these numbers, is not too great for an easy + combination; and from such a combination America would have more to + fear, than from the ambition of any single individual. A council to + a magistrate, who is himself responsible for what he does, are + generally nothing better than a clog upon his good intentions, are + often the instruments and accomplices of his bad and are almost + always a cloak to his faults. +I forbear to dwell upon the subject of expense; though it be + evident that if the council should be numerous enough to answer the + principal end aimed at by the institution, the salaries of the + members, who must be drawn from their homes to reside at the seat of + government, would form an item in the catalogue of public + expenditures too serious to be incurred for an object of equivocal + utility. I will only add that, prior to the appearance of the + Constitution, I rarely met with an intelligent man from any of the + States, who did not admit, as the result of experience, that the + UNITY of the executive of this State was one of the best of the + distinguishing features of our constitution. +PUBLIUS. +1 New York has no council except for the single purpose of + appointing to offices; New Jersey has a council whom the governor + may consult. But I think, from the terms of the constitution, their + resolutions do not bind him. +2 De Lolme. +3 Ten. + +*There are two slightly different versions of No. 70 included here. + +FEDERALIST No. 70 + +The Executive Department Further Considered +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, March 18, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THERE is an idea, which is not without its advocates, that a + vigorous Executive is inconsistent with the genius of republican + government. The enlightened well-wishers to this species of + government must at least hope that the supposition is destitute of + foundation; since they can never admit its truth, without at the + same time admitting the condemnation of their own principles. + Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of + good government. It is essential to the protection of the community + against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady + administration of the laws; to the protection of property against + those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes + interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of + liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of + faction, and of anarchy. Every man the least conversant in Roman + story, knows how often that republic was obliged to take refuge in + the absolute power of a single man, under the formidable title of + Dictator, as well against the intrigues of ambitious individuals who + aspired to the tyranny, and the seditions of whole classes of the + community whose conduct threatened the existence of all government, + as against the invasions of external enemies who menaced the + conquest and destruction of Rome. +There can be no need, however, to multiply arguments or examples + on this head. A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the + government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad + execution; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in + theory, must be, in practice, a bad government. +Taking it for granted, therefore, that all men of sense will + agree in the necessity of an energetic Executive, it will only + remain to inquire, what are the ingredients which constitute this + energy? How far can they be combined with those other ingredients + which constitute safety in the republican sense? And how far does + this combination characterize the plan which has been reported by + the convention? +The ingredients which constitute energy in the Executive are, + first, unity; secondly, duration; thirdly, an adequate provision + for its support; fourthly, competent powers. +The ingredients which constitute safety in the repub lican sense + are, first, a due dependence on the people, secondly, a due + responsibility. +Those politicians and statesmen who have been the most + celebrated for the soundness of their principles and for the justice + of their views, have declared in favor of a single Executive and a + numerous legislature. They have with great propriety, considered + energy as the most necessary qualification of the former, and have + regarded this as most applicable to power in a single hand, while + they have, with equal propriety, considered the latter as best + adapted to deliberation and wisdom, and best calculated to + conciliate the confidence of the people and to secure their + privileges and interests. +That unity is conducive to energy will not be disputed. + Decision, activity, secrecy, and despatch will generally + characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent + degree than the proceedings of any greater number; and in + proportion as the number is increased, these qualities will be + diminished. +This unity may be destroyed in two ways: either by vesting the + power in two or more magistrates of equal dignity and authority; or + by vesting it ostensibly in one man, subject, in whole or in part, + to the control and co-operation of others, in the capacity of + counsellors to him. Of the first, the two Consuls of Rome may serve + as an example; of the last, we shall find examples in the + constitutions of several of the States. New York and New Jersey, if + I recollect right, are the only States which have intrusted the + executive authority wholly to single men.1 Both these methods + of destroying the unity of the Executive have their partisans; but + the votaries of an executive council are the most numerous. They + are both liable, if not to equal, to similar objections, and may in + most lights be examined in conjunction. +The experience of other nations will afford little instruction + on this head. As far, however, as it teaches any thing, it teaches + us not to be enamoured of plurality in the Executive. We have seen + that the Achaeans, on an experiment of two Praetors, were induced to + abolish one. The Roman history records many instances of mischiefs + to the republic from the dissensions between the Consuls, and + between the military Tribunes, who were at times substituted for the + Consuls. But it gives us no specimens of any peculiar advantages + derived to the state from the circumstance of the plurality of those + magistrates. That the dissensions between them were not more + frequent or more fatal, is a matter of astonishment, until we advert + to the singular position in which the republic was almost + continually placed, and to the prudent policy pointed out by the + circumstances of the state, and pursued by the Consuls, of making a + division of the government between them. The patricians engaged in + a perpetual struggle with the plebeians for the preservation of + their ancient authorities and dignities; the Consuls, who were + generally chosen out of the former body, were commonly united by the + personal interest they had in the defense of the privileges of their + order. In addition to this motive of union, after the arms of the + republic had considerably expanded the bounds of its empire, it + became an established custom with the Consuls to divide the + administration between themselves by lot one of them remaining at + Rome to govern the city and its environs, the other taking the + command in the more distant provinces. This expedient must, no + doubt, have had great influence in preventing those collisions and + rivalships which might otherwise have embroiled the peace of the + republic. +But quitting the dim light of historical research, attaching + ourselves purely to the dictates of reason and good se se, we shall + discover much greater cause to reject than to approve the idea of + plurality in the Executive, under any modification whatever. +Wherever two or more persons are engaged in any common + enterprise or pursuit, there is always danger of difference of + opinion. If it be a public trust or office, in which they are + clothed with equal dignity and authority, there is peculiar danger + of personal emulation and even animosity. From either, and + especially from all these causes, the most bitter dissensions are + apt to spring. Whenever these happen, they lessen the + respectability, weaken the authority, and distract the plans and + operation of those whom they divide. If they should unfortunately + assail the supreme executive magistracy of a country, consisting of + a plurality of persons, they might impede or frustrate the most + important measures of the government, in the most critical + emergencies of the state. And what is still worse, they might split + the community into the most violent and irreconcilable factions, + adhering differently to the different individuals who composed the + magistracy. +Men often oppose a thing, merely because they have had no agency + in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom + they dislike. But if they have been consulted, and have happened to + disapprove, opposition then becomes, in their estimation, an + indispensable duty of self-love. They seem to think themselves + bound in honor, and by all the motives of personal infallibility, to + defeat the success of what has been resolved upon contrary to their + sentiments. Men of upright, benevolent tempers have too many + opportunities of remarking, with horror, to what desperate lengths + this disposition is sometimes carried, and how often the great + interests of society are sacrificed to the vanity, to the conceit, + and to the obstinacy of individuals, who have credit enough to make + their passions and their caprices interesting to mankind. Perhaps + the question now before the public may, in its consequences, afford + melancholy proofs of the effects of this despicable frailty, or + rather detestable vice, in the human character. +Upon the principles of a free government, inconveniences from + the source just mentioned must necessarily be submitted to in the + formation of the legislature; but it is unnecessary, and therefore + unwise, to introduce them into the constitution of the Executive. + It is here too that they may be most pernicious. In the + legislature, promptitude of decision is oftener an evil than a + benefit. The differences of opinion, and the jarrings of parties in + that department of the government, though they may sometimes + obstruct salutary plans, yet often promote deliberation and + circumspection, and serve to check excesses in the majority. When a + resolution too is once taken, the opposition must be at an end. + That resolution is a law, and resistance to it punishable. But no + favorable circumstances palliate or atone for the disadvantages of + dissension in the executive department. Here, they are pure and + unmixed. There is no point at which they cease to operate. They + serve to embarrass and weaken the execution of the plan or measure + to which they relate, from the first step to the final conclusion of + it. They constantly counteract those qualities in the Executive + which are the most necessary ingredients in its composition, vigor + and expedition, and this without anycounterbalancing good. In the + conduct of war, in which the energy of the Executive is the bulwark + of the national security, every thing would be to be apprehended + from its plurality. +It must be confessed that these observations apply with + principal weight to the first case supposed that is, to a plurality + of magistrates of equal dignity and authority a scheme, the + advocates for which are not likely to form a numerous sect; but + they apply, though not with equal, yet with considerable weight to + the project of a council, whose concurrence is made constitutionally + necessary to the operations of the ostensible Executive. An artful + cabal in that council would be able to distract and to enervate the + whole system of administration. If no such cabal should exist, the + mere diversity of views and opinions would alone be sufficient to + tincture the exercise of the executive authority with a spirit of + habitual feebleness and dilatoriness. +But one of the weightiest objections to a plurality in the + Executive, and which lies as much against the last as the first + plan, is, that it tends to conceal faults and destroy responsibility. +Responsibility is of two kinds to censure and to punishment. The + first is the more important of the two, especially in an elective + office. Man, in public trust, will much oftener act in such a + manner as to render him unworthy of being any longer trusted, than + in such a manner as to make him obnoxious to legal punishment. But + the multiplication of the Executive adds to the difficulty of + detection in either case. It often becomes impossible, amidst + mutual accusations, to determine on whom the blame or the punishment + of a pernicious measure, or series of pernicious measures, ought + really to fall. It is shifted from one to another with so much + dexterity, and under such plausible appearances, that the public + opinion is left in suspense about the real author. The + circumstances which may have led to any national miscarriage or + misfortune are sometimes so complicated that, where there are a + number of actors who may have had different degrees and kinds of + agency, though we may clearly see upon the whole that there has been + mismanagement, yet it may be impracticable to pronounce to whose + account the evil which may have been incurred is truly chargeable. +``I was overruled by my council. The council were so divided in + their opinions that it was impossible to obtain any better + resolution on the point.'' These and similar pretexts are + constantly at hand, whether true or false. And who is there that + will either take the trouble or incur the odium, of a strict + scrunity into the secret springs of the transaction? Should there + be found a citizen zealous enough to undertake the unpromising task, + if there happen to be collusion between the parties concerned, how + easy it is to clothe the circumstances with so much ambiguity, as to + render it uncertain what was the precise conduct of any of those + parties? +In the single instance in which the governor of this State is + coupled with a council that is, in the appointment to offices, we + have seen the mischiefs of it in the view now under consideration. + Scandalous appointments to important offices have been made. Some + cases, indeed, have been so flagrant that ALL PARTIES have agreed in + the impropriety of the thing. When inquiry has been made, the blame + has been laid by the governor on the members of the council, who, on + their part, have charged it upon his nomination; while the people + remain altogether at a loss to determine, by whose influence their + interests have been committed to hands so unqualified and so + manifestly improper. In tenderness to individuals, I forbear to + descend to particulars. +It is evident from these considerations, that the plurality of + the Executive tends to deprive the people of the two greatest + securities they can have for the faithful exercise of any delegated + power, first, the restraints of public opinion, which lose their + efficacy, as well on account of the division of the censure + attendant on bad measures among a number, as on account of the + uncertainty on whom it ought to fall; and, secondly, the + opportunity of discovering with facility and clearness the + misconduct of the persons they trust, in order either to their + removal from office or to their actual punishment in cases which + admit of it. +In England, the king is a perpetual magistrate; and it is a + maxim which has obtained for the sake of the pub lic peace, that he + is unaccountable for his administration, and his person sacred. + Nothing, therefore, can be wiser in that kingdom, than to annex to + the king a constitutional council, who may be responsible to the + nation for the advice they give. Without this, there would be no + responsibility whatever in the executive department an idea + inadmissible in a free government. But even there the king is not + bound by the resolutions of his council, though they are answerable + for the advice they give. He is the absolute master of his own + conduct in the exercise of his office, and may observe or disregard + the counsel given to him at his sole discretion. +But in a republic, where every magistrate ought to be personally + responsible for his behavior in office the reason which in the + British Constitution dictates the propriety of a council, not only + ceases to apply, but turns against the institution. In the monarchy + of Great Britain, it furnishes a substitute for the prohibited + responsibility of the chief magistrate, which serves in some degree + as a hostage to the national justice for his good behavior. In the + American republic, it would serve to destroy, or would greatly + diminish, the intended and necessary responsibility of the Chief + Magistrate himself. +The idea of a council to the Executive, which has so generally + obtained in the State constitutions, has been derived from that + maxim of republican jealousy which considers power as safer in the + hands of a number of men than of a single man. If the maxim should + be admitted to be applicable to the case, I should contend that the + advantage on that side would not counterbalance the numerous + disadvantages on the opposite side. But I do not think the rule at + all applicable to the executive power. I clearly concur in opinion, + in this particular, with a writer whom the celebrated Junius + pronounces to be ``deep, solid, and ingenious,'' that ``the + executive power is more easily confined when it is ONE'';2 that + it is far more safe there should be a single object for the jealousy + and watchfulness of the people; and, in a word, that all + multiplication of the Executive is rather dangerous than friendly to + liberty. +A little consideration will satisfy us, that the species of + security sought for in the multiplication of the Executive, is + nattainable. Numbers must be so great as to render combination + difficult, or they are rather a source of danger than of security. + The united credit and influence of several individuals must be more + formidable to liberty, than the credit and influence of either of + them separately. When power, therefore, is placed in the hands of + so small a number of men, as to admit of their interests and views + being easily combined in a common enterprise, by an artful leader, + it becomes more liable to abuse, and more dangerous when abused, + than if it be lodged in the hands of one man; who, from the very + circumstance of his being alone, will be more narrowly watched and + more readily suspected, and who cannot unite so great a mass of + influence as when he is associated with others. The Decemvirs of + Rome, whose name denotes their number,3 were more to be dreaded + in their usurpation than any ONE of them would have been. No person + would think of proposing an Executive much more numerous than that + body; from six to a dozen have been suggested for the number of the + council. The extreme of these numbers, is not too great for an easy + combination; and from such a combination America would have more to + fear, than from the ambition of any single individual. A council to + a magistrate, who is himself responsible for what he does, are + generally nothing better than a clog upon his good intentions, are + often the instruments and accomplices of his bad and are almost + always a cloak to his faults. +I forbear to dwell upon the subject of expense; though it be + evident that if the council should be numerous enough to answer the + principal end aimed at by the institution, the salaries of the + members, who must be drawn from their homes to reside at the seat of + government, would form an item in the catalogue of public + expenditures too serious to be incurred for an object of equivocal + utility. I will only add that, prior to the appearance of the + Constitution, I rarely met with an intelligent man from any of the + States, who did not admit, as the result of experience, that the + UNITY of the executive of this State was one of the best of the + distinguishing features of our constitution. +PUBLIUS. +1 New York has no council except for the single purpose of + appointing to offices; New Jersey has a council whom the governor + may consult. But I think, from the terms of the constitution, their + resolutions do not bind him. +2 De Lolme. +3 Ten. + + +FEDERALIST No. 71 + +The Duration in Office of the Executive +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, March 18, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +DURATION in office has been mentioned as the second requisite to + the energy of the Executive authority. This has relation to two + objects: to the personal firmness of the executive magistrate, in + the employment of his constitutional powers; and to the stability + of the system of administration which may have been adopted under + his auspices. With regard to the first, it must be evident, that + the longer the duration in office, the greater will be the + probability of obtaining so important an advantage. It is a general + principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever + he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the + tenure by which he holds it; will be less attached to what he holds + by a momentary or uncertain title, than to what he enjoys by a + durable or certain title; and, of course, will be willing to risk + more for the sake of the one, than for the sake of the other. This + remark is not less applicable to a political privilege, or honor, or + trust, than to any article of ordinary property. The inference from + it is, that a man acting in the capacity of chief magistrate, under + a consciousness that in a very short time he MUST lay down his + office, will be apt to feel himself too little interested in it to + hazard any material censure or perplexity, from the independent + exertion of his powers, or from encountering the ill-humors, however + transient, which may happen to prevail, either in a considerable + part of the society itself, or even in a predominant faction in the + legislative body. If the case should only be, that he MIGHT lay it + down, unless continued by a new choice, and if he should be desirous + of being continued, his wishes, conspiring with his fears, would + tend still more powerfully to corrupt his integrity, or debase his + fortitude. In either case, feebleness and irresolution must be the + characteristics of the station. +There are some who would be inclined to regard the servile + pliancy of the Executive to a prevailing current, either in the + community or in the legislature, as its best recommendation. But + such men entertain very crude notions, as well of the purposes for + which government was instituted, as of the true means by which the + public happiness may be promoted. The republican principle demands + that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct + of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs; but + it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden + breeze of passion, or to every transient impulse which the people + may receive from the arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to + betray their interests. It is a just observation, that the people + commonly INTEND the PUBLIC GOOD. This often applies to their very + errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should + pretend that they always REASON RIGHT about the MEANS of promoting + it. They know from experience that they sometimes err; and the + wonder is that they so seldom err as they do, beset, as they + continually are, by the wiles of parasites and sycophants, by the + snares of the ambitious, the avaricious, the desperate, by the + artifices of men who possess their confidence more than they deserve + it, and of those who seek to possess rather than to deserve it. + When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the + people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of + the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those + interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give + them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. + Instances might be cited in which a conduct of this kind has saved + the people from very fatal consequences of their own mistakes, and + has procured lasting monuments of their gratitude to the men who had + courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at the peril of their + displeasure. +But however inclined we might be to insist upon an unbounded + complaisance in the Executive to the inclinations of the people, we + can with no propriety contend for a like complaisance to the humors + of the legislature. The latter may sometimes stand in opposition to + the former, and at other times the people may be entirely neutral. + In either supposition, it is certainly desirable that the Executive + should be in a situation to dare to act his own opinion with vigor + and decision. +The same rule which teaches the propriety of a partition between + the various branches of power, teaches us likewise that this + partition ought to be so contrived as to render the one independent + of the other. To what purpose separate the executive or the + judiciary from the legislative, if both the executive and the + judiciary are so constituted as to be at the absolute devotion of + the legislative? Such a separation must be merely nominal, and + incapable of producing the ends for which it was established. It is + one thing to be subordinate to the laws, and another to be dependent + on the legislative body. The first comports with, the last + violates, the fundamental principles of good government; and, + whatever may be the forms of the Constitution, unites all power in + the same hands. The tendency of the legislative authority to absorb + every other, has been fully displayed and illustrated by examples in + some preceding numbers. In governments purely republican, this + tendency is almost irresistible. The representatives of the people, + in a popular assembly, seem sometimes to fancy that they are the + people themselves, and betray strong symptoms of impatience and + disgust at the least sign of opposition from any other quarter; as + if the exercise of its rights, by either the executive or judiciary, + were a breach of their privilege and an outrage to their dignity. + They often appear disposed to exert an imperious control over the + other departments; and as they commonly have the people on their + side, they always act with such momentum as to make it very + difficult for the other members of the government to maintain the + balance of the Constitution. +It may perhaps be asked, how the shortness of the duration in + office can affect the independence of the Executive on the + legislature, unless the one were possessed of the power of + appointing or displacing the other. One answer to this inquiry may + be drawn from the principle already remarked that is, from the + slender interest a man is apt to take in a short-lived advantage, + and the little inducement it affords him to expose himself, on + account of it, to any considerable inconvenience or hazard. Another + answer, perhaps more obvious, though not more conclusive, will + result from the consideration of the influence of the legislative + body over the people; which might be employed to prevent the + re-election of a man who, by an upright resistance to any sinister + project of that body, should have made himself obnoxious to its + resentment. +It may be asked also, whether a duration of four years would + answer the end proposed; and if it would not, whether a less + period, which would at least be recommended by greater security + against ambitious designs, would not, for that reason, be preferable + to a longer period, which was, at the same time, too short for the + purpose of inspiring the desired firmness and independence of the + magistrate. +It cannot be affirmed, that a duration of four years, or any + other limited duration, would completely answer the end proposed; + but it would contribute towards it in a degree which would have a + material influence upon the spirit and character of the government. + Between the commencement and termination of such a period, there + would always be a considerable interval, in which the prospect of + annihilation would be sufficiently remote, not to have an improper + effect upon the conduct of a man indued with a tolerable portion of + fortitude; and in which he might reasonably promise himself, that + there would be time enough before it arrived, to make the community + sensible of the propriety of the measures he might incline to pursue. + Though it be probable that, as he approached the moment when the + public were, by a new election, to signify their sense of his + conduct, his confidence, and with it his firmness, would decline; + yet both the one and the other would derive support from the + opportunities which his previous continuance in the station had + afforded him, of establishing himself in the esteem and good-will of + his constituents. He might, then, hazard with safety, in proportion + to the proofs he had given of his wisdom and integrity, and to the + title he had acquired to the respect and attachment of his + fellow-citizens. As, on the one hand, a duration of four years will + contribute to the firmness of the Executive in a sufficient degree + to render it a very valuable ingredient in the composition; so, on + the other, it is not enough to justify any alarm for the public + liberty. If a British House of Commons, from the most feeble + beginnings, FROM THE MERE POWER OF ASSENTING OR DISAGREEING TO THE + IMPOSITION OF A NEW TAX, have, by rapid strides, reduced the + prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the nobility within + the limits they conceived to be compatible with the principles of a + free government, while they raised themselves to the rank and + consequence of a coequal branch of the legislature; if they have + been able, in one instance, to abolish both the royalty and the + aristocracy, and to overturn all the ancient establishments, as well + in the Church as State; if they have been able, on a recent + occasion, to make the monarch tremble at the prospect of an + innovation1 attempted by them, what would be to be feared from + an elective magistrate of four years' duration, with the confined + authorities of a President of the United States? What, but that he + might be unequal to the task which the Constitution assigns him? I + shall only add, that if his duration be such as to leave a doubt of + his firmness, that doubt is inconsistent with a jealousy of his + encroachments. +PUBLIUS. +1 This was the case with respect to Mr. Fox's India bill, which + was carried in the House of Commons, and rejected in the House of + Lords, to the entire satisfaction, as it is said, of the people. + + +FEDERALIST No. 72 + +The Same Subject Continued, and Re-Eligibility of the Executive + Considered +From the New York Packet. +Friday, March 21, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE administration of government, in its largest sense, + comprehends all the operations of the body politic, whether + legislative, executive, or judiciary; but in its most usual, and + perhaps its most precise signification. it is limited to executive + details, and falls peculiarly within the province of the executive + department. The actual conduct of foreign negotiations, the + preparatory plans of finance, the application and disbursement of + the public moneys in conformity to the general appropriations of the + legislature, the arrangement of the army and navy, the directions of + the operations of war, these, and other matters of a like nature, + constitute what seems to be most properly understood by the + administration of government. The persons, therefore, to whose + immediate management these different matters are committed, ought to + be considered as the assistants or deputies of the chief magistrate, + and on this account, they ought to derive their offices from his + appointment, at least from his nomination, and ought to be subject + to his superintendence. This view of the subject will at once + suggest to us the intimate connection between the duration of the + executive magistrate in office and the stability of the system of + administration. To reverse and undo what has been done by a + predecessor, is very often considered by a successor as the best + proof he can give of his own capacity and desert; and in addition + to this propensity, where the alteration has been the result of + public choice, the person substituted is warranted in supposing that + the dismission of his predecessor has proceeded from a dislike to + his measures; and that the less he resembles him, the more he will + recommend himself to the favor of his constituents. These + considerations, and the influence of personal confidences and + attachments, would be likely to induce every new President to + promote a change of men to fill the subordinate stations; and these + causes together could not fail to occasion a disgraceful and ruinous + mutability in the administration of the government. +With a positive duration of considerable extent, I connect the + circumstance of re-eligibility. The first is necessary to give to + the officer himself the inclination and the resolution to act his + part well, and to the community time and leisure to observe the + tendency of his measures, and thence to form an experimental + estimate of their merits. The last is necessary to enable the + people, when they see reason to approve of his conduct, to continue + him in his station, in order to prolong the utility of his talents + and virtues, and to secure to the government the advantage of + permanency in a wise system of administration. +Nothing appears more plausible at first sight, nor more + ill-founded upon close inspection, than a scheme which in relation + to the present point has had some respectable advocates, I mean that + of continuing the chief magistrate in office for a certain time, and + then excluding him from it, either for a limited period or forever + after. This exclusion, whether temporary or perpetual, would have + nearly the same effects, and these effects would be for the most + part rather pernicious than salutary. +One ill effect of the exclusion would be a diminution of the + inducements to good behavior. There are few men who would not feel + much less zeal in the discharge of a duty when they were conscious + that the advantages of the station with which it was connected must + be relinquished at a determinate period, than when they were + permitted to entertain a hope of OBTAINING, by MERITING, a + continuance of them. This position will not be disputed so long as + it is admitted that the desire of reward is one of the strongest + incentives of human conduct; or that the best security for the + fidelity of mankind is to make their interests coincide with their + duty. Even the love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest + minds, which would prompt a man to plan and undertake extensive and + arduous enterprises for the public benefit, requiring considerable + time to mature and perfect them, if he could flatter himself with + the prospect of being allowed to finish what he had begun, would, on + the contrary, deter him from the undertaking, when he foresaw that + he must quit the scene before he could accomplish the work, and must + commit that, together with his own reputation, to hands which might + be unequal or unfriendly to the task. The most to be expected from + the generality of men, in such a situation, is the negative merit of + not doing harm, instead of the positive merit of doing good. +Another ill effect of the exclusion would be the temptation to + sordid views, to peculation, and, in some instances, to usurpation. + An avaricious man, who might happen to fill the office, looking + forward to a time when he must at all events yield up the emoluments + he enjoyed, would feel a propensity, not easy to be resisted by such + a man, to make the best use of the opportunity he enjoyed while it + lasted, and might not scruple to have recourse to the most corrupt + expedients to make the harvest as abundant as it was transitory; + though the same man, probably, with a different prospect before + him, might content himself with the regular perquisites of his + situation, and might even be unwilling to risk the consequences of + an abuse of his opportunities. His avarice might be a guard upon + his avarice. Add to this that the same man might be vain or + ambitious, as well as avaricious. And if he could expect to prolong + his honors by his good conduct, he might hesitate to sacrifice his + appetite for them to his appetite for gain. But with the prospect + before him of approaching an inevitable annihilation, his avarice + would be likely to get the victory over his caution, his vanity, or + his ambition. +An ambitious man, too, when he found himself seated on the + summit of his country's honors, when he looked forward to the time + at which he must descend from the exalted eminence for ever, and + reflected that no exertion of merit on his part could save him from + the unwelcome reverse; such a man, in such a situation, would be + much more violently tempted to embrace a favorable conjuncture for + attempting the prolongation of his power, at every personal hazard, + than if he had the probability of answering the same end by doing + his duty. +Would it promote the peace of the community, or the stability of + the government to have half a dozen men who had had credit enough to + be raised to the seat of the supreme magistracy, wandering among the + people like discontented ghosts, and sighing for a place which they + were destined never more to possess? +A third ill effect of the exclusion would be, the depriving the + community of the advantage of the experience gained by the chief + magistrate in the exercise of his office. That experience is the + parent of wisdom, is an adage the truth of which is recognized by + the wisest as well as the simplest of mankind. What more desirable + or more essential than this quality in the governors of nations? + Where more desirable or more essential than in the first magistrate + of a nation? Can it be wise to put this desirable and essential + quality under the ban of the Constitution, and to declare that the + moment it is acquired, its possessor shall be compelled to abandon + the station in which it was acquired, and to which it is adapted? + This, nevertheless, is the precise import of all those regulations + which exclude men from serving their country, by the choice of their + fellowcitizens, after they have by a course of service fitted + themselves for doing it with a greater degree of utility. +A fourth ill effect of the exclusion would be the banishing men + from stations in which, in certain emergencies of the state, their + presence might be of the greatest moment to the public interest or + safety. There is no nation which has not, at one period or another, + experienced an absolute necessity of the services of particular men + in particular situations; perhaps it would not be too strong to + say, to the preservation of its political existence. How unwise, + therefore, must be every such self-denying ordinance as serves to + prohibit a nation from making use of its own citizens in the manner + best suited to its exigencies and circumstances! Without supposing + the personal essentiality of the man, it is evident that a change of + the chief magistrate, at the breaking out of a war, or at any + similar crisis, for another, even of equal merit, would at all times + be detrimental to the community, inasmuch as it would substitute + inexperience to experience, and would tend to unhinge and set afloat + the already settled train of the administration. +A fifth ill effect of the exclusion would be, that it would + operate as a constitutional interdiction of stability in the + administration. By NECESSITATING a change of men, in the first + office of the nation, it would necessitate a mutability of measures. + It is not generally to be expected, that men will vary and measures + remain uniform. The contrary is the usual course of things. And we + need not be apprehensive that there will be too much stability, + while there is even the option of changing; nor need we desire to + prohibit the people from continuing their confidence where they + think it may be safely placed, and where, by constancy on their + part, they may obviate the fatal inconveniences of fluctuating + councils and a variable policy. +These are some of the disadvantages which would flow from the + principle of exclusion. They apply most forcibly to the scheme of a + perpetual exclusion; but when we consider that even a partial + exclusion would always render the readmission of the person a remote + and precarious object, the observations which have been made will + apply nearly as fully to one case as to the other. +What are the advantages promised to counterbalance these + disadvantages? They are represented to be: 1st, greater + independence in the magistrate; 2d, greater security to the people. + Unless the exclusion be perpetual, there will be no pretense to + infer the first advantage. But even in that case, may he have no + object beyond his present station, to which he may sacrifice his + independence? May he have no connections, no friends, for whom he + may sacrifice it? May he not be less willing by a firm conduct, to + make personal enemies, when he acts under the impression that a time + is fast approaching, on the arrival of which he not only MAY, but + MUST, be exposed to their resentments, upon an equal, perhaps upon + an inferior, footing? It is not an easy point to determine whether + his independence would be most promoted or impaired by such an + arrangement. +As to the second supposed advantage, there is still greater + reason to entertain doubts concerning it. If the exclusion were to + be perpetual, a man of irregular ambition, of whom alone there could + be reason in any case to entertain apprehension, would, with + infinite reluctance, yield to the necessity of taking his leave + forever of a post in which his passion for power and pre-eminence + had acquired the force of habit. And if he had been fortunate or + adroit enough to conciliate the good-will of the people, he might + induce them to consider as a very odious and unjustifiable restraint + upon themselves, a provision which was calculated to debar them of + the right of giving a fresh proof of their attachment to a favorite. + There may be conceived circumstances in which this disgust of the + people, seconding the thwarted ambition of such a favorite, might + occasion greater danger to liberty, than could ever reasonably be + dreaded from the possibility of a perpetuation in office, by the + voluntary suffrages of the community, exercising a constitutional + privilege. +There is an excess of refinement in the idea of disabling the + people to continue in office men who had entitled themselves, in + their opinion, to approbation and confidence; the advantages of + which are at best speculative and equivocal, and are overbalanced by + disadvantages far more certain and decisive. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 73 +The Provision For The Support of the Executive, and the Veto Power +From the New York Packet. +Friday, March 21, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE third ingredient towards constituting the vigor of the + executive authority, is an adequate provision for its support. It + is evident that, without proper attention to this article, the + separation of the executive from the legislative department would be + merely nominal and nugatory. The legislature, with a discretionary + power over the salary and emoluments of the Chief Magistrate, could + render him as obsequious to their will as they might think proper to + make him. They might, in most cases, either reduce him by famine, + or tempt him by largesses, to surrender at discretion his judgment + to their inclinations. These expressions, taken in all the latitude + of the terms, would no doubt convey more than is intended. There + are men who could neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of + their duty; but this stern virtue is the growth of few soils; and + in the main it will be found that a power over a man's support is a + power over his will. If it were necessary to confirm so plain a + truth by facts, examples would not be wanting, even in this country, + of the intimidation or seduction of the Executive by the terrors or + allurements of the pecuniary arrangements of the legislative body. +It is not easy, therefore, to commend too highly the judicious + attention which has been paid to this subject in the proposed + Constitution. It is there provided that ``The President of the + United States shall, at stated times, receive for his services a + compensation WHICH SHALL NEITHER BE INCREASED NOR DIMINISHED DURING + THE PERIOD FOR WHICH HE SHALL HAVE BEEN ELECTED; and he SHALL NOT + RECEIVE WITHIN THAT PERIOD ANY OTHER EMOLUMENT from the United + States, or any of them.'' It is impossible to imagine any provision + which would have been more eligible than this. The legislature, on + the appointment of a President, is once for all to declare what + shall be the compensation for his services during the time for which + he shall have been elected. This done, they will have no power to + alter it, either by increase or diminution, till a new period of + service by a new election commences. They can neither weaken his + fortitude by operating on his necessities, nor corrupt his integrity + by appealing to his avarice. Neither the Union, nor any of its + members, will be at liberty to give, nor will he be at liberty to + receive, any other emolument than that which may have been + determined by the first act. He can, of course, have no pecuniary + inducement to renounce or desert the independence intended for him + by the Constitution. +The last of the requisites to energy, which have been + enumerated, are competent powers. Let us proceed to consider those + which are proposed to be vested in the President of the United + States. +The first thing that offers itself to our observation, is the + qualified negative of the President upon the acts or resolutions of + the two houses of the legislature; or, in other words, his power of + returning all bills with objections, to have the effect of + preventing their becoming laws, unless they should afterwards be + ratified by two thirds of each of the component members of the + legislative body. +The propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the + rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments, has been + already suggested and repeated; the insufficiency of a mere + parchment delineation of the boundaries of each, has also been + remarked upon; and the necessity of furnishing each with + constitutional arms for its own defense, has been inferred and + proved. From these clear and indubitable principles results the + propriety of a negative, either absolute or qualified, in the + Executive, upon the acts of the legislative branches. Without the + one or the other, the former would be absolutely unable to defend + himself against the depredations of the latter. He might gradually + be stripped of his authorities by successive resolutions, or + annihilated by a single vote. And in the one mode or the other, the + legislative and executive powers might speedily come to be blended + in the same hands. If even no propensity had ever discovered itself + in the legislative body to invade the rights of the Executive, the + rules of just reasoning and theoretic propriety would of themselves + teach us, that the one ought not to be left to the mercy of the + other, but ought to possess a constitutional and effectual power of + selfdefense. +But the power in question has a further use. It not only serves + as a shield to the Executive, but it furnishes an additional + security against the enaction of improper laws. It establishes a + salutary check upon the legislative body, calculated to guard the + community against the effects of faction, precipitancy, or of any + impulse unfriendly to the public good, which may happen to influence + a majority of that body. +The propriety of a negative has, upon some occasions, been + combated by an observation, that it was not to be presumed a single + man would possess more virtue and wisdom than a number of men; and + that unless this presumption should be entertained, it would be + improper to give the executive magistrate any species of control + over the legislative body. +But this observation, when examined, will appear rather specious + than solid. The propriety of the thing does not turn upon the + supposition of superior wisdom or virtue in the Executive, but upon + the supposition that the legislature will not be infallible; that + the love of power may sometimes betray it into a disposition to + encroach upon the rights of other members of the government; that a + spirit of faction may sometimes pervert its deliberations; that + impressions of the moment may sometimes hurry it into measures which + itself, on maturer reflexion, would condemn. The primary inducement + to conferring the power in question upon the Executive is, to enable + him to defend himself; the secondary one is to increase the chances + in favor of the community against the passing of bad laws, through + haste, inadvertence, or design. The oftener the measure is brought + under examination, the greater the diversity in the situations of + those who are to examine it, the less must be the danger of those + errors which flow from want of due deliberation, or of those + missteps which proceed from the contagion of some common passion or + interest. It is far less probable, that culpable views of any kind + should infect all the parts of the government at the same moment and + in relation to the same object, than that they should by turns + govern and mislead every one of them. +It may perhaps be said that the power of preventing bad laws + includes that of preventing good ones; and may be used to the one + purpose as well as to the other. But this objection will have + little weight with those who can properly estimate the mischiefs of + that inconstancy and mutability in the laws, which form the greatest + blemish in the character and genius of our governments. They will + consider every institution calculated to restrain the excess of + law-making, and to keep things in the same state in which they + happen to be at any given period, as much more likely to do good + than harm; because it is favorable to greater stability in the + system of legislation. The injury which may possibly be done by + defeating a few good laws, will be amply compensated by the + advantage of preventing a number of bad ones. +Nor is this all. The superior weight and influence of the + legislative body in a free government, and the hazard to the + Executive in a trial of strength with that body, afford a + satisfactory security that the negative would generally be employed + with great caution; and there would oftener be room for a charge of + timidity than of rashness in the exercise of it. A king of Great + Britain, with all his train of sovereign attributes, and with all + the influence he draws from a thousand sources, would, at this day, + hesitate to put a negative upon the joint resolutions of the two + houses of Parliament. He would not fail to exert the utmost + resources of that influence to strangle a measure disagreeable to + him, in its progress to the throne, to avoid being reduced to the + dilemma of permitting it to take effect, or of risking the + displeasure of the nation by an opposition to the sense of the + legislative body. Nor is it probable, that he would ultimately + venture to exert his prerogatives, but in a case of manifest + propriety, or extreme necessity. All well-informed men in that + kingdom will accede to the justness of this remark. A very + considerable period has elapsed since the negative of the crown has + been exercised. +If a magistrate so powerful and so well fortified as a British + monarch, would have scruples about the exercise of the power under + consideration, how much greater caution may be reasonably expected + in a President of the United States, clothed for the short period of + four years with the executive authority of a government wholly and + purely republican? +It is evident that there would be greater danger of his not + using his power when necessary, than of his using it too often, or + too much. An argument, indeed, against its expediency, has been + drawn from this very source. It has been represented, on this + account, as a power odious in appearance, useless in practice. But + it will not follow, that because it might be rarely exercised, it + would never be exercised. In the case for which it is chiefly + designed, that of an immediate attack upon the constitutional rights + of the Executive, or in a case in which the public good was + evidently and palpably sacrificed, a man of tolerable firmness would + avail himself of his constitutional means of defense, and would + listen to the admonitions of duty and responsibility. In the former + supposition, his fortitude would be stimulated by his immediate + interest in the power of his office; in the latter, by the + probability of the sanction of his constituents, who, though they + would naturally incline to the legislative body in a doubtful case, + would hardly suffer their partiality to delude them in a very plain + case. I speak now with an eye to a magistrate possessing only a + common share of firmness. There are men who, under any + circumstances, will have the courage to do their duty at every + hazard. +But the convention have pursued a mean in this business, which + will both facilitate the exercise of the power vested in this + respect in the executive magistrate, and make its efficacy to depend + on the sense of a considerable part of the legislative body. + Instead of an absolute negative, it is proposed to give the + Executive the qualified negative already described. This is a power + which would be much more readily exercised than the other. A man + who might be afraid to defeat a law by his single VETO, might not + scruple to return it for reconsideration; subject to being finally + rejected only in the event of more than one third of each house + concurring in the sufficiency of his objections. He would be + encouraged by the reflection, that if his opposition should prevail, + it would embark in it a very respectable proportion of the + legislative body, whose influence would be united with his in + supporting the propriety of his conduct in the public opinion. A + direct and categorical negative has something in the appearance of + it more harsh, and more apt to irritate, than the mere suggestion of + argumentative objections to be approved or disapproved by those to + whom they are addressed. In proportion as it would be less apt to + offend, it would be more apt to be exercised; and for this very + reason, it may in practice be found more effectual. It is to be + hoped that it will not often happen that improper views will govern + so large a proportion as two thirds of both branches of the + legislature at the same time; and this, too, in spite of the + counterposing weight of the Executive. It is at any rate far less + probable that this should be the case, than that such views should + taint the resolutions and conduct of a bare majority. A power of + this nature in the Executive, will often have a silent and + unperceived, though forcible, operation. When men, engaged in + unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a + quarter which they cannot control, they will often be restrained by + the bare apprehension of opposition, from doing what they would with + eagerness rush into, if no such external impediments were to be + feared. +This qualified negative, as has been elsewhere remarked, is in + this State vested in a council, consisting of the governor, with the + chancellor and judges of the Supreme Court, or any two of them. It + has been freely employed upon a variety of occasions, and frequently + with success. And its utility has become so apparent, that persons + who, in compiling the Constitution, were violent opposers of it, + have from experience become its declared admirers.1 +I have in another place remarked, that the convention, in the + formation of this part of their plan, had departed from the model of + the constitution of this State, in favor of that of Massachusetts. + Two strong reasons may be imagined for this preference. One is + that the judges, who are to be the interpreters of the law, might + receive an improper bias, from having given a previous opinion in + their revisionary capacities; the other is that by being often + associated with the Executive, they might be induced to embark too + far in the political views of that magistrate, and thus a dangerous + combination might by degrees be cemented between the executive and + judiciary departments. It is impossible to keep the judges too + distinct from every other avocation than that of expounding the laws. + It is peculiarly dangerous to place them in a situation to be + either corrupted or influenced by the Executive. +PUBLIUS. +1 Mr. Abraham Yates, a warm opponent of the plan of the + convention is of this number. + + +FEDERALIST No. 74 + +The Command of the Military and Naval Forces, and the Pardoning + Power of the Executive +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, March 25, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE President of the United States is to be ``commander-in-chief + of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the + several States WHEN CALLED INTO THE ACTUAL SERVICE of the United + States.'' The propriety of this provision is so evident in itself, + and it is, at the same time, so consonant to the precedents of the + State constitutions in general, that little need be said to explain + or enforce it. Even those of them which have, in other respects, + coupled the chief magistrate with a council, have for the most part + concentrated the military authority in him alone. Of all the cares + or concerns of government, the direction of war most peculiarly + demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a + single hand. The direction of war implies the direction of the + common strength; and the power of directing and employing the + common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition + of the executive authority. +``The President may require the opinion, in writing, of the + principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any + subject relating to the duties of their respective officers.'' This + I consider as a mere redundancy in the plan, as the right for which + it provides would result of itself from the office. +He is also to be authorized to grant ``reprieves and pardons for + offenses against the United States, EXCEPT IN CASES OF + IMPEACHMENT.'' Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that + the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible + fettered or embarrassed. The criminal code of every country + partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access + to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a + countenance too sanguinary and cruel. As the sense of + responsibility is always strongest, in proportion as it is + undivided, it may be inferred that a single man would be most ready + to attend to the force of those motives which might plead for a + mitigation of the rigor of the law, and least apt to yield to + considerations which were calculated to shelter a fit object of its + vengeance. The reflection that the fate of a fellow-creature + depended on his sole fiat, would naturally inspire + scrupulousness and caution; the dread of being accused of weakness + or connivance, would beget equal circumspection, though of a + different kind. On the other hand, as men generally derive + confidence from their numbers, they might often encourage each other + in an act of obduracy, and might be less sensible to the + apprehension of suspicion or censure for an injudicious or affected + clemency. On these accounts, one man appears to be a more eligible + dispenser of the mercy of government, than a body of men. +The expediency of vesting the power of pardoning in the + President has, if I mistake not, been only contested in relation to + the crime of treason. This, it has been urged, ought to have + depended upon the assent of one, or both, of the branches of the + legislative body. I shall not deny that there are strong reasons to + be assigned for requiring in this particular the concurrence of that + body, or of a part of it. As treason is a crime levelled at the + immediate being of the society, when the laws have once ascertained + the guilt of the offender, there seems a fitness in referring the + expediency of an act of mercy towards him to the judgment of the + legislature. And this ought the rather to be the case, as the + supposition of the connivance of the Chief Magistrate ought not to + be entirely excluded. But there are also strong objections to such + a plan. It is not to be doubted, that a single man of prudence and + good sense is better fitted, in delicate conjunctures, to balance + the motives which may plead for and against the remission of the + punishment, than any numerous body whatever. It deserves particular + attention, that treason will often be connected with seditions which + embrace a large proportion of the community; as lately happened in + Massachusetts. In every such case, we might expect to see the + representation of the people tainted with the same spirit which had + given birth to the offense. And when parties were pretty equally + matched, the secret sympathy of the friends and favorers of the + condemned person, availing itself of the good-nature and weakness of + others, might frequently bestow impunity where the terror of an + example was necessary. On the other hand, when the sedition had + proceeded from causes which had inflamed the resentments of the + major party, they might often be found obstinate and inexorable, + when policy demanded a conduct of forbearance and clemency. But the + principal argument for reposing the power of pardoning in this case + to the Chief Magistrate is this: in seasons of insurrection or + rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a welltimed offer + of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquillity + of the commonwealth; and which, if suffered to pass unimproved, it + may never be possible afterwards to recall. The dilatory process of + convening the legislature, or one of its branches, for the purpose + of obtaining its sanction to the measure, would frequently be the + occasion of letting slip the golden opportunity. The loss of a + week, a day, an hour, may sometimes be fatal. If it should be + observed, that a discretionary power, with a view to such + contingencies, might be occasionally conferred upon the President, + it may be answered in the first place, that it is questionable, + whether, in a limited Constitution, that power could be delegated by + law; and in the second place, that it would generally be impolitic + beforehand to take any step which might hold out the prospect of + impunity. A proceeding of this kind, out of the usual course, would + be likely to be construed into an argument of timidity or of + weakness, and would have a tendency to embolden guilt. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 75 +The Treaty-Making Power of the Executive +For the Independent Journal. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE President is to have power, ``by and with the advice and + consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the + senators present concur.'' +Though this provision has been assailed, on different grounds, + with no small degree of vehemence, I scruple not to declare my firm + persuasion, that it is one of the best digested and most + unexceptionable parts of the plan. One ground of objection is the + trite topic of the intermixture of powers; some contending that the + President ought alone to possess the power of making treaties; + others, that it ought to have been exclusively deposited in the + Senate. Another source of objection is derived from the small + number of persons by whom a treaty may be made. Of those who + espouse this objection, a part are of opinion that the House of + Representatives ought to have been associated in the business, while + another part seem to think that nothing more was necessary than to + have substituted two thirds of ALL the members of the Senate, to two + thirds of the members PRESENT. As I flatter myself the observations + made in a preceding number upon this part of the plan must have + sufficed to place it, to a discerning eye, in a very favorable + light, I shall here content myself with offering only some + supplementary remarks, principally with a view to the objections + which have been just stated. +With regard to the intermixture of powers, I shall rely upon the + explanations already given in other places, of the true sense of the + rule upon which that objection is founded; and shall take it for + granted, as an inference from them, that the union of the Executive + with the Senate, in the article of treaties, is no infringement of + that rule. I venture to add, that the particular nature of the + power of making treaties indicates a peculiar propriety in that + union. Though several writers on the subject of government place + that power in the class of executive authorities, yet this is + evidently an arbitrary disposition; for if we attend carefully to + its operation, it will be found to partake more of the legislative + than of the executive character, though it does not seem strictly to + fall within the definition of either of them. The essence of the + legislative authority is to enact laws, or, in other words, to + prescribe rules for the regulation of the society; while the + execution of the laws, and the employment of the common strength, + either for this purpose or for the common defense, seem to comprise + all the functions of the executive magistrate. The power of making + treaties is, plainly, neither the one nor the other. It relates + neither to the execution of the subsisting laws, nor to the enaction + of new ones; and still less to an exertion of the common strength. + Its objects are CONTRACTS with foreign nations, which have the + force of law, but derive it from the obligations of good faith. + They are not rules prescribed by the sovereign to the subject, but + agreements between sovereign and sovereign. The power in question + seems therefore to form a distinct department, and to belong, + properly, neither to the legislative nor to the executive. The + qualities elsewhere detailed as indispensable in the management of + foreign negotiations, point out the Executive as the most fit agent + in those transactions; while the vast importance of the trust, and + the operation of treaties as laws, plead strongly for the + participation of the whole or a portion of the legislative body in + the office of making them. +However proper or safe it may be in governments where the + executive magistrate is an hereditary monarch, to commit to him the + entire power of making treaties, it would be utterly unsafe and + improper to intrust that power to an elective magistrate of four + years' duration. It has been remarked, upon another occasion, and + the remark is unquestionably just, that an hereditary monarch, + though often the oppressor of his people, has personally too much + stake in the government to be in any material danger of being + corrupted by foreign powers. But a man raised from the station of a + private citizen to the rank of chief magistrate, possessed of a + moderate or slender fortune, and looking forward to a period not + very remote when he may probably be obliged to return to the station + from which he was taken, might sometimes be under temptations to + sacrifice his duty to his interest, which it would require + superlative virtue to withstand. An avaricious man might be tempted + to betray the interests of the state to the acquisition of wealth. + An ambitious man might make his own aggrandizement, by the aid of a + foreign power, the price of his treachery to his constituents. The + history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of + human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit + interests of so delicate and momentous a kind, as those which + concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole + disposal of a magistrate created and circumstanced as would be a + President of the United States. +To have intrusted the power of making treaties to the Senate + alone, would have been to relinquish the benefits of the + constitutional agency of the President in the conduct of foreign + negotiations. It is true that the Senate would, in that case, have + the option of employing him in this capacity, but they would also + have the option of letting it alone, and pique or cabal might induce + the latter rather than the former. Besides this, the ministerial + servant of the Senate could not be expected to enjoy the confidence + and respect of foreign powers in the same degree with the + constitutional representatives of the nation, and, of course, would + not be able to act with an equal degree of weight or efficacy. + While the Union would, from this cause, lose a considerable + advantage in the management of its external concerns, the people + would lose the additional security which would result from the + co-operation of the Executive. Though it would be imprudent to + confide in him solely so important a trust, yet it cannot be doubted + that his participation would materially add to the safety of the + society. It must indeed be clear to a demonstration that the joint + possession of the power in question, by the President and Senate, + would afford a greater prospect of security, than the separate + possession of it by either of them. And whoever has maturely + weighed the circumstances which must concur in the appointment of a + President, will be satisfied that the office will always bid fair to + be filled by men of such characters as to render their concurrence + in the formation of treaties peculiarly desirable, as well on the + score of wisdom, as on that of integrity. +The remarks made in a former number, which have been alluded to + in another part of this paper, will apply with conclusive force + against the admission of the House of Representatives to a share in + the formation of treaties. The fluctuating and, taking its future + increase into the account, the multitudinous composition of that + body, forbid us to expect in it those qualities which are essential + to the proper execution of such a trust. Accurate and comprehensive + knowledge of foreign politics; a steady and systematic adherence to + the same views; a nice and uniform sensibility to national + character; decision, SECRECY, and despatch, are incompatible with + the genius of a body so variable and so numerous. The very + complication of the business, by introducing a necessity of the + concurrence of so many different bodies, would of itself afford a + solid objection. The greater frequency of the calls upon the House + of Representatives, and the greater length of time which it would + often be necessary to keep them together when convened, to obtain + their sanction in the progressive stages of a treaty, would be a + source of so great inconvenience and expense as alone ought to + condemn the project. +The only objection which remains to be canvassed, is that which + would substitute the proportion of two thirds of all the members + composing the senatorial body, to that of two thirds of the members + PRESENT. It has been shown, under the second head of our inquiries, + that all provisions which require more than the majority of any body + to its resolutions, have a direct tendency to embarrass the + operations of the government, and an indirect one to subject the + sense of the majority to that of the minority. This consideration + seems sufficient to determine our opinion, that the convention have + gone as far in the endeavor to secure the advantage of numbers in + the formation of treaties as could have been reconciled either with + the activity of the public councils or with a reasonable regard to + the major sense of the community. If two thirds of the whole number + of members had been required, it would, in many cases, from the + non-attendance of a part, amount in practice to a necessity of + unanimity. And the history of every political establishment in + which this principle has prevailed, is a history of impotence, + perplexity, and disorder. Proofs of this position might be adduced + from the examples of the Roman Tribuneship, the Polish Diet, and the + States-General of the Netherlands, did not an example at home render + foreign precedents unnecessary. +To require a fixed proportion of the whole body would not, in + all probability, contribute to the advantages of a numerous agency, + better then merely to require a proportion of the attending members. + The former, by making a determinate number at all times requisite + to a resolution, diminishes the motives to punctual attendance. The + latter, by making the capacity of the body to depend on a PROPORTION + which may be varied by the absence or presence of a single member, + has the contrary effect. And as, by promoting punctuality, it tends + to keep the body complete, there is great likelihood that its + resolutions would generally be dictated by as great a number in this + case as in the other; while there would be much fewer occasions of + delay. It ought not to be forgotten that, under the existing + Confederation, two members MAY, and usually DO, represent a State; + whence it happens that Congress, who now are solely invested with + ALL THE POWERS of the Union, rarely consist of a greater number of + persons than would compose the intended Senate. If we add to this, + that as the members vote by States, and that where there is only a + single member present from a State, his vote is lost, it will + justify a supposition that the active voices in the Senate, where + the members are to vote individually, would rarely fall short in + number of the active voices in the existing Congress. When, in + addition to these considerations, we take into view the co-operation + of the President, we shall not hesitate to infer that the people of + America would have greater security against an improper use of the + power of making treaties, under the new Constitution, than they now + enjoy under the Confederation. And when we proceed still one step + further, and look forward to the probable augmentation of the + Senate, by the erection of new States, we shall not only perceive + ample ground of confidence in the sufficiency of the members to + whose agency that power will be intrusted, but we shall probably be + led to conclude that a body more numerous than the Senate would be + likely to become, would be very little fit for the proper discharge + of the trust. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 76 +The Appointing Power of the Executive +From the New York Packet. +Tuesday, April 1, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE President is ``to NOMINATE, and, by and with the advice and + consent of the Senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public + ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other + officers of the United States whose appointments are not otherwise + provided for in the Constitution. But the Congress may by law vest + the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper, in + the President alone, or in the courts of law, or in the heads of + departments. The President shall have power to fill up ALL + VACANCIES which may happen DURING THE RECESS OF THE SENATE, by + granting commissions which shall EXPIRE at the end of their next + session.'' +It has been observed in a former paper, that ``the true test of + a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good + administration.'' If the justness of this observation be admitted, + the mode of appointing the officers of the United States contained + in the foregoing clauses, must, when examined, be allowed to be + entitled to particular commendation. It is not easy to conceive a + plan better calculated than this to promote a judicious choice of + men for filling the offices of the Union; and it will not need + proof, that on this point must essentially depend the character of + its administration. +It will be agreed on all hands, that the power of appointment, + in ordinary cases, ought to be modified in one of three ways. It + ought either to be vested in a single man, or in a SELECT assembly + of a moderate number; or in a single man, with the concurrence of + such an assembly. The exercise of it by the people at large will be + readily admitted to be impracticable; as waiving every other + consideration, it would leave them little time to do anything else. + When, therefore, mention is made in the subsequent reasonings of an + assembly or body of men, what is said must be understood to relate + to a select body or assembly, of the description already given. The + people collectively, from their number and from their dispersed + situation, cannot be regulated in their movements by that systematic + spirit of cabal and intrigue, which will be urged as the chief + objections to reposing the power in question in a body of men. +Those who have themselves reflected upon the subject, or who + have attended to the observations made in other parts of these + papers, in relation to the appointment of the President, will, I + presume, agree to the position, that there would always be great + probability of having the place supplied by a man of abilities, at + least respectable. Premising this, I proceed to lay it down as a + rule, that one man of discernment is better fitted to analyze and + estimate the peculiar qualities adapted to particular offices, than + a body of men of equal or perhaps even of superior discernment. +The sole and undivided responsibility of one man will naturally + beget a livelier sense of duty and a more exact regard to reputation. + He will, on this account, feel himself under stronger obligations, + and more interested to investigate with care the qualities requisite + to the stations to be filled, and to prefer with impartiality the + persons who may have the fairest pretensions to them. He will have + FEWER personal attachments to gratify, than a body of men who may + each be supposed to have an equal number; and will be so much the + less liable to be misled by the sentiments of friendship and of + affection. A single well-directed man, by a single understanding, + cannot be distracted and warped by that diversity of views, + feelings, and interests, which frequently distract and warp the + resolutions of a collective body. There is nothing so apt to + agitate the passions of mankind as personal considerations whether + they relate to ourselves or to others, who are to be the objects of + our choice or preference. Hence, in every exercise of the power of + appointing to offices, by an assembly of men, we must expect to see + a full display of all the private and party likings and dislikes, + partialities and antipathies, attachments and animosities, which are + felt by those who compose the assembly. The choice which may at any + time happen to be made under such circumstances, will of course be + the result either of a victory gained by one party over the other, + or of a compromise between the parties. In either case, the + intrinsic merit of the candidate will be too often out of sight. In + the first, the qualifications best adapted to uniting the suffrages + of the party, will be more considered than those which fit the + person for the station. In the last, the coalition will commonly + turn upon some interested equivalent: ``Give us the man we wish for + this office, and you shall have the one you wish for that.'' This + will be the usual condition of the bargain. And it will rarely + happen that the advancement of the public service will be the + primary object either of party victories or of party negotiations. +The truth of the principles here advanced seems to have been + felt by the most intelligent of those who have found fault with the + provision made, in this respect, by the convention. They contend + that the President ought solely to have been authorized to make the + appointments under the federal government. But it is easy to show, + that every advantage to be expected from such an arrangement would, + in substance, be derived from the power of NOMINATION, which is + proposed to be conferred upon him; while several disadvantages + which might attend the absolute power of appointment in the hands of + that officer would be avoided. In the act of nomination, his + judgment alone would be exercised; and as it would be his sole duty + to point out the man who, with the approbation of the Senate, should + fill an office, his responsibility would be as complete as if he + were to make the final appointment. There can, in this view, be no + difference others, who are to be the objects of our choice or + preference. Hence, in every exercise of the power of appointing to + offices, by an assembly of men, we must expect to see a full display + of all the private and party likings and dislikes, partialities and + antipathies, attachments and animosities, which are felt by those + who compose the assembly. The choice which may at any time happen + to be made under such circumstances, will of course be the result + either of a victory gained by one party over the other, or of a + compromise between the parties. In either case, the intrinsic merit + of the candidate will be too often out of sight. In the first, the + qualifications best adapted to uniting the suffrages of the party, + will be more considered than those which fit the person for the + station. In the last, the coalition will commonly turn upon some + interested equivalent: ``Give us the man we wish for this office, + and you shall have the one you wish for that.'' This will be the + usual condition of the bargain. And it will rarely happen that the + advancement of the public service will be the primary object either + of party victories or of party negotiations. +The truth of the principles here advanced seems to have been + felt by the most intelligent of those who have found fault with the + provision made, in this respect, by the convention. They contend + that the President ought solely to have been authorized to make the + appointments under the federal government. But it is easy to show, + that every advantage to be expected from such an arrangement would, + in substance, be derived from the power of NOMINATION, which is + proposed to be conferred upon him; while several disadvantages + which might attend the absolute power of appointment in the hands of + that officer would be avoided. In the act of nomination, his + judgment alone would be exercised; and as it would be his sole duty + to point out the man who, with the approbation of the Senate, should + fill an office, his responsibility would be as complete as if he + were to make the final appointment. There can, in this view, be no + difference between nominating and appointing. The same motives + which would influence a proper discharge of his duty in one case, + would exist in the other. And as no man could be appointed but on + his previous nomination, every man who might be appointed would be, + in fact, his choice. +But might not his nomination be overruled? I grant it might, + yet this could only be to make place for another nomination by + himself. The person ultimately appointed must be the object of his + preference, though perhaps not in the first degree. It is also not + very probable that his nomination would often be overruled. The + Senate could not be tempted, by the preference they might feel to + another, to reject the one proposed; because they could not assure + themselves, that the person they might wish would be brought forward + by a second or by any subsequent nomination. They could not even be + certain, that a future nomination would present a candidate in any + degree more acceptable to them; and as their dissent might cast a + kind of stigma upon the individual rejected, and might have the + appearance of a reflection upon the judgment of the chief + magistrate, it is not likely that their sanction would often be + refused, where there were not special and strong reasons for the + refusal. +To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I + answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a + powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an + excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and + would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters + from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal + attachment, or from a view to popularity. In addition to this, it + would be an efficacious source of stability in the administration. +It will readily be comprehended, that a man who had himself the + sole disposition of offices, would be governed much more by his + private inclinations and interests, than when he was bound to submit + the propriety of his choice to the discussion and determination of a + different and independent body, and that body an entier branch of + the legislature. The possibility of rejection would be a strong + motive to care in proposing. The danger to his own reputation, and, + in the case of an elective magistrate, to his political existence, + from betraying a spirit of favoritism, or an unbecoming pursuit of + popularity, to the observation of a body whose opinion would have + great weight in forming that of the public, could not fail to + operate as a barrier to the one and to the other. He would be both + ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or + lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of + coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of + being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of + possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them + the obsequious instruments of his pleasure. +To this reasoning it has been objected that the President, by + the influence of the power of nomination, may secure the + complaisance of the Senate to his views. This supposition of + universal venalty in human nature is little less an error in + political reasoning, than the supposition of universal rectitude. + The institution of delegated power implies, that there is a portion + of virtue and honor among mankind, which may be a reasonable + foundation of confidence; and experience justifies the theory. It + has been found to exist in the most corrupt periods of the most + corrupt governments. The venalty of the British House of Commons + has been long a topic of accusation against that body, in the + country to which they belong as well as in this; and it cannot be + doubted that the charge is, to a considerable extent, well founded. + But it is as little to be doubted, that there is always a large + proportion of the body, which consists of independent and + public-spirited men, who have an influential weight in the councils + of the nation. Hence it is (the present reign not excepted) that + the sense of that body is often seen to control the inclinations of + the monarch, both with regard to men and to measures. Though it + might therefore be allowable to suppose that the Executive might + occasionally influence some individuals in the Senate, yet the + supposition, that he could in general purchase the integrity of the + whole body, would be forced and improbable. A man disposed to view + human nature as it is, without either flattering its virtues or + exaggerating its vices, will see sufficient ground of confidence in + the probity of the Senate, to rest satisfied, not only that it will + be impracticable to the Executive to corrupt or seduce a majority of + its members, but that the necessity of its co-operation, in the + business of appointments, will be a considerable and salutary + restraint upon the conduct of that magistrate. Nor is the integrity + of the Senate the only reliance. The Constitution has provided some + important guards against the danger of executive influence upon the + legislative body: it declares that ``No senator or representative + shall during the time FOR WHICH HE WAS ELECTED, be appointed to any + civil office under the United States, which shall have been created, + or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such + time; and no person, holding any office under the United States, + shall be a member of either house during his continuance in + office.'' +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 77 + +The Appointing Power Continued and Other Powers of the Executive + Considered +From the New York Packet. +Friday, April 4, 1788. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IT HAS been mentioned as one of the advantages to be expected + from the co-operation of the Senate, in the business of + appointments, that it would contribute to the stability of the + administration. The consent of that body would be necessary to + displace as well as to appoint. A change of the Chief Magistrate, + therefore, would not occasion so violent or so general a revolution + in the officers of the government as might be expected, if he were + the sole disposer of offices. Where a man in any station had given + satisfactory evidence of his fitness for it, a new President would + be restrained from attempting a change in favor of a person more + agreeable to him, by the apprehension that a discountenance of the + Senate might frustrate the attempt, and bring some degree of + discredit upon himself. Those who can best estimate the value of a + steady administration, will be most disposed to prize a provision + which connects the official existence of public men with the + approbation or disapprobation of that body which, from the greater + permanency of its own composition, will in all probability be less + subject to inconstancy than any other member of the government. +To this union of the Senate with the President, in the article + of appointments, it has in some cases been suggested that it would + serve to give the President an undue influence over the Senate, and + in others that it would have an opposite tendency, a strong proof + that neither suggestion is true. +To state the first in its proper form, is to refute it. It + amounts to this: the President would have an improper INFLUENCE + OVER the Senate, because the Senate would have the power of + RESTRAINING him. This is an absurdity in terms. It cannot admit of + a doubt that the entire power of appointment would enable him much + more effectually to establish a dangerous empire over that body, + than a mere power of nomination subject to their control. +Let us take a view of the converse of the proposition: ``the + Senate would influence the Executive.'' As I have had occasion to + remark in several other instances, the indistinctness of the + objection forbids a precise answer. In what manner is this + influence to be exerted? In relation to what objects? The power of + influencing a person, in the sense in which it is here used, must + imply a power of conferring a benefit upon him. How could the + Senate confer a benefit upon the President by the manner of + employing their right of negative upon his nominations? If it be + said they might sometimes gratify him by an acquiescence in a + favorite choice, when public motives might dictate a different + conduct, I answer, that the instances in which the President could + be personally interested in the result, would be too few to admit of + his being materially affected by the compliances of the Senate. The + POWER which can ORIGINATE the disposition of honors and emoluments, + is more likely to attract than to be attracted by the POWER which + can merely obstruct their course. If by influencing the President + be meant RESTRAINING him, this is precisely what must have been + intended. And it has been shown that the restraint would be + salutary, at the same time that it would not be such as to destroy a + single advantage to be looked for from the uncontrolled agency of + that Magistrate. The right of nomination would produce all the good + of that of appointment, and would in a great measure avoid its evils. + Upon a comparison of the plan for the appointment of the + officers of the proposed government with that which is established + by the constitution of this State, a decided preference must be + given to the former. In that plan the power of nomination is + unequivocally vested in the Executive. And as there would be a + necessity for submitting each nomination to the judgment of an + entire branch of the legislature, the circumstances attending an + appointment, from the mode of conducting it, would naturally become + matters of notoriety; and the public would be at no loss to + determine what part had been performed by the different actors. The + blame of a bad nomination would fall upon the President singly and + absolutely. The censure of rejecting a good one would lie entirely + at the door of the Senate; aggravated by the consideration of their + having counteracted the good intentions of the Executive. If an ill + appointment should be made, the Executive for nominating, and the + Senate for approving, would participate, though in different + degrees, in the opprobrium and disgrace. +The reverse of all this characterizes the manner of appointment + in this State. The council of appointment consists of from three to + five persons, of whom the governor is always one. This small body, + shut up in a private apartment, impenetrable to the public eye, + proceed to the execution of the trust committed to them. It is + known that the governor claims the right of nomination, upon the + strength of some ambiguous expressions in the constitution; but it + is not known to what extent, or in what manner he exercises it; nor + upon what occasions he is contradicted or opposed. The censure of a + bad appointment, on account of the uncertainty of its author, and + for want of a determinate object, has neither poignancy nor duration. + And while an unbounded field for cabal and intrigue lies open, all + idea of responsibility is lost. The most that the public can know, + is that the governor claims the right of nomination; that TWO out + of the inconsiderable number of FOUR men can too often be managed + without much difficulty; that if some of the members of a + particular council should happen to be of an uncomplying character, + it is frequently not impossible to get rid of their opposition by + regulating the times of meeting in such a manner as to render their + attendance inconvenient; and that from whatever cause it may + proceed, a great number of very improper appointments are from time + to time made. Whether a governor of this State avails himself of + the ascendant he must necessarily have, in this delicate and + important part of the administration, to prefer to offices men who + are best qualified for them, or whether he prostitutes that + advantage to the advancement of persons whose chief merit is their + implicit devotion to his will, and to the support of a despicable + and dangerous system of personal influence, are questions which, + unfortunately for the community, can only be the subjects of + speculation and conjecture. +Every mere council of appointment, however constituted, will be + a conclave, in which cabal and intrigue will have their full scope. + Their number, without an unwarrantable increase of expense, cannot + be large enough to preclude a facility of combination. And as each + member will have his friends and connections to provide for, the + desire of mutual gratification will beget a scandalous bartering of + votes and bargaining for places. The private attachments of one man + might easily be satisfied; but to satisfy the private attachments + of a dozen, or of twenty men, would occasion a monopoly of all the + principal employments of the government in a few families, and would + lead more directly to an aristocracy or an oligarchy than any + measure that could be contrived. If, to avoid an accumulation of + offices, there was to be a frequent change in the persons who were + to compose the council, this would involve the mischiefs of a + mutable administration in their full extent. Such a council would + also be more liable to executive influence than the Senate, because + they would be fewer in number, and would act less immediately under + the public inspection. Such a council, in fine, as a substitute for + the plan of the convention, would be productive of an increase of + expense, a multiplication of the evils which spring from favoritism + and intrigue in the distribution of public honors, a decrease of + stability in the administration of the government, and a diminution + of the security against an undue influence of the Executive. And + yet such a council has been warmly contended for as an essential + amendment in the proposed Constitution. +I could not with propriety conclude my observations on the + subject of appointments without taking notice of a scheme for which + there have appeared some, though but few advocates; I mean that of + uniting the House of Representatives in the power of making them. I + shall, however, do little more than mention it, as I cannot imagine + that it is likely to gain the countenance of any considerable part + of the community. A body so fluctuating and at the same time so + numerous, can never be deemed proper for the exercise of that power. + Its unfitness will appear manifest to all, when it is recollected + that in half a century it may consist of three or four hundred + persons. All the advantages of the stability, both of the Executive + and of the Senate, would be defeated by this union, and infinite + delays and embarrassments would be occasioned. The example of most + of the States in their local constitutions encourages us to + reprobate the idea. +The only remaining powers of the Executive are comprehended in + giving information to Congress of the state of the Union; in + recommending to their consideration such measures as he shall judge + expedient; in convening them, or either branch, upon extraordinary + occasions; in adjourning them when they cannot themselves agree + upon the time of adjournment; in receiving ambassadors and other + public ministers; in faithfully executing the laws; and in + commissioning all the officers of the United States. +Except some cavils about the power of convening EITHER house of + the legislature, and that of receiving ambassadors, no objection has + been made to this class of authorities; nor could they possibly + admit of any. It required, indeed, an insatiable avidity for + censure to invent exceptions to the parts which have been excepted + to. In regard to the power of convening either house of the + legislature, I shall barely remark, that in respect to the Senate at + least, we can readily discover a good reason for it. AS this body + has a concurrent power with the Executive in the article of + treaties, it might often be necessary to call it together with a + view to this object, when it would be unnecessary and improper to + convene the House of Representatives. As to the reception of + ambassadors, what I have said in a former paper will furnish a + sufficient answer. +We have now completed a survey of the structure and powers of + the executive department, which, I have endeavored to show, + combines, as far as republican principles will admit, all the + requisites to energy. The remaining inquiry is: Does it also + combine the requisites to safety, in a republican sense, a due + dependence on the people, a due responsibility? The answer to this + question has been anticipated in the investigation of its other + characteristics, and is satisfactorily deducible from these + circumstances; from the election of the President once in four + years by persons immediately chosen by the people for that purpose; + and from his being at all times liable to impeachment, trial, + dismission from office, incapacity to serve in any other, and to + forfeiture of life and estate by subsequent prosecution in the + common course of law. But these precautions, great as they are, are + not the only ones which the plan of the convention has provided in + favor of the public security. In the only instances in which the + abuse of the executive authority was materially to be feared, the + Chief Magistrate of the United States would, by that plan, be + subjected to the control of a branch of the legislative body. What + more could be desired by an enlightened and reasonable people? +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST No. 78 + +The Judiciary Department +From McLEAN'S Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +WE PROCEED now to an examination of the judiciary department of + the proposed government. +In unfolding the defects of the existing Confederation, the + utility and necessity of a federal judicature have been clearly + pointed out. It is the less necessary to recapitulate the + considerations there urged, as the propriety of the institution in + the abstract is not disputed; the only questions which have been + raised being relative to the manner of constituting it, and to its + extent. To these points, therefore, our observations shall be + confined. +The manner of constituting it seems to embrace these several + objects: 1st. The mode of appointing the judges. 2d. The tenure by + which they are to hold their places. 3d. The partition of the + judiciary authority between different courts, and their relations to + each other. +First. As to the mode of appointing the judges; this is + the same with that of appointing the officers of the Union in + general, and has been so fully discussed in the two last numbers, + that nothing can be said here which would not be useless repetition. +Second. As to the tenure by which the judges are to hold + their places; this chiefly concerns their duration in office; the + provisions for their support; the precautions for their + responsibility. +According to the plan of the convention, all judges who may be + appointed by the United States are to hold their offices DURING GOOD + BEHAVIOR; which is conformable to the most approved of the State + constitutions and among the rest, to that of this State. Its + propriety having been drawn into question by the adversaries of that + plan, is no light symptom of the rage for objection, which disorders + their imaginations and judgments. The standard of good behavior for + the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy, is certainly + one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice + of government. In a monarchy it is an excellent barrier to the + despotism of the prince; in a republic it is a no less excellent + barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of the representative + body. And it is the best expedient which can be devised in any + government, to secure a steady, upright, and impartial + administration of the laws. +Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power + must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated + from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, + will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the + Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or + injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds + the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the + purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of + every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, + has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction + either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can + take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have + neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately + depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of + its judgments. +This simple view of the matter suggests several important + consequences. It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond + comparison the weakest of the three departments of power1; that + it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that + all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself against + their attacks. It equally proves, that though individual oppression + may now and then proceed from the courts of justice, the general + liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter; I + mean so long as the judiciary remains truly distinct from both the + legislature and the Executive. For I agree, that ``there is no + liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the + legislative and executive powers.''2 And it proves, in the last + place, that as liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary + alone, but would have every thing to fear from its union with either + of the other departments; that as all the effects of such a union + must ensue from a dependence of the former on the latter, + notwithstanding a nominal and apparent separation; that as, from + the natural feebleness of the judiciary, it is in continual jeopardy + of being overpowered, awed, or influenced by its co-ordinate + branches; and that as nothing can contribute so much to its + firmness and independence as permanency in office, this quality may + therefore be justly regarded as an indispensable ingredient in its + constitution, and, in a great measure, as the citadel of the public + justice and the public security. +The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly + essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution, I + understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the + legislative authority; such, for instance, as that it shall pass no + bills of attainder, no ex-post-facto laws, and the like. + Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way + than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be + to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the + Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular + rights or privileges would amount to nothing. +Some perplexity respecting the rights of the courts to pronounce + legislative acts void, because contrary to the Constitution, has + arisen from an imagination that the doctrine would imply a + superiority of the judiciary to the legislative power. It is urged + that the authority which can declare the acts of another void, must + necessarily be superior to the one whose acts may be declared void. + As this doctrine is of great importance in all the American + constitutions, a brief discussion of the ground on which it rests + cannot be unacceptable. +There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than + that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of + the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative + act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny + this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his + principal; that the servant is above his master; that the + representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; + that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their + powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. +If it be said that the legislative body are themselves the + constitutional judges of their own powers, and that the construction + they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may + be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it + is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the + Constitution. It is not otherwise to be supposed, that the + Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the + people to substitute their WILL to that of their constituents. It + is far more rational to suppose, that the courts were designed to be + an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in + order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits + assigned to their authority. The interpretation of the laws is the + proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in + fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It + therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the + meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. + If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the + two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of + course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought + to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the + intention of their agents. +Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of + the judicial to the legislative power. It only supposes that the + power of the people is superior to both; and that where the will of + the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to + that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought + to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to + regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by + those which are not fundamental. +This exercise of judicial discretion, in determining between two + contradictory laws, is exemplified in a familiar instance. It not + uncommonly happens, that there are two statutes existing at one + time, clashing in whole or in part with each other, and neither of + them containing any repealing clause or expression. In such a case, + it is the province of the courts to liquidate and fix their meaning + and operation. So far as they can, by any fair construction, be + reconciled to each other, reason and law conspire to dictate that + this should be done; where this is impracticable, it becomes a + matter of necessity to give effect to one, in exclusion of the other. + The rule which has obtained in the courts for determining their + relative validity is, that the last in order of time shall be + preferred to the first. But this is a mere rule of construction, + not derived from any positive law, but from the nature and reason of + the thing. It is a rule not enjoined upon the courts by legislative + provision, but adopted by themselves, as consonant to truth and + propriety, for the direction of their conduct as interpreters of the + law. They thought it reasonable, that between the interfering acts + of an EQUAL authority, that which was the last indication of its + will should have the preference. +But in regard to the interfering acts of a superior and + subordinate authority, of an original and derivative power, the + nature and reason of the thing indicate the converse of that rule as + proper to be followed. They teach us that the prior act of a + superior ought to be preferred to the subsequent act of an inferior + and subordinate authority; and that accordingly, whenever a + particular statute contravenes the Constitution, it will be the duty + of the judicial tribunals to adhere to the latter and disregard the + former. +It can be of no weight to say that the courts, on the pretense + of a repugnancy, may substitute their own pleasure to the + constitutional intentions of the legislature. This might as well + happen in the case of two contradictory statutes; or it might as + well happen in every adjudication upon any single statute. The + courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be + disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would + equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the + legislative body. The observation, if it prove any thing, would + prove that there ought to be no judges distinct from that body. +If, then, the courts of justice are to be considered as the + bulwarks of a limited Constitution against legislative + encroachments, this consideration will afford a strong argument for + the permanent tenure of judicial offices, since nothing will + contribute so much as this to that independent spirit in the judges + which must be essential to the faithful performance of so arduous a + duty. +This independence of the judges is equally requisite to guard + the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects of + those ill humors, which the arts of designing men, or the influence + of particular conjunctures, sometimes disseminate among the people + themselves, and which, though they speedily give place to better + information, and more deliberate reflection, have a tendency, in the + meantime, to occasion dangerous innovations in the government, and + serious oppressions of the minor party in the community. Though I + trust the friends of the proposed Constitution will never concur + with its enemies,3 in questioning that fundamental principle of + republican government, which admits the right of the people to alter + or abolish the established Constitution, whenever they find it + inconsistent with their happiness, yet it is not to be inferred from + this principle, that the representatives of the people, whenever a + momentary inclination happens to lay hold of a majority of their + constituents, incompatible with the provisions in the existing + Constitution, would, on that account, be justifiable in a violation + of those provisions; or that the courts would be under a greater + obligation to connive at infractions in this shape, than when they + had proceeded wholly from the cabals of the representative body. + Until the people have, by some solemn and authoritative act, + annulled or changed the established form, it is binding upon + themselves collectively, as well as individually; and no + presumption, or even knowledge, of their sentiments, can warrant + their representatives in a departure from it, prior to such an act. + But it is easy to see, that it would require an uncommon portion of + fortitude in the judges to do their duty as faithful guardians of + the Constitution, where legislative invasions of it had been + instigated by the major voice of the community. +But it is not with a view to infractions of the Constitution + only, that the independence of the judges may be an essential + safeguard against the effects of occasional ill humors in the + society. These sometimes extend no farther than to the injury of + the private rights of particular classes of citizens, by unjust and + partial laws. Here also the firmness of the judicial magistracy is + of vast importance in mitigating the severity and confining the + operation of such laws. It not only serves to moderate the + immediate mischiefs of those which may have been passed, but it + operates as a check upon the legislative body in passing them; who, + perceiving that obstacles to the success of iniquitous intention are + to be expected from the scruples of the courts, are in a manner + compelled, by the very motives of the injustice they meditate, to + qualify their attempts. This is a circumstance calculated to have + more influence upon the character of our governments, than but few + may be aware of. The benefits of the integrity and moderation of + the judiciary have already been felt in more States than one; and + though they may have displeased those whose sinister expectations + they may have disappointed, they must have commanded the esteem and + applause of all the virtuous and disinterested. Considerate men, of + every description, ought to prize whatever will tend to beget or + fortify that temper in the courts: as no man can be sure that he + may not be to-morrow the victim of a spirit of injustice, by which + he may be a gainer to-day. And every man must now feel, that the + inevitable tendency of such a spirit is to sap the foundations of + public and private confidence, and to introduce in its stead + universal distrust and distress. +That inflexible and uniform adherence to the rights of the + Constitution, and of individuals, which we perceive to be + indispensable in the courts of justice, can certainly not be + expected from judges who hold their offices by a temporary + commission. Periodical appointments, however regulated, or by + whomsoever made, would, in some way or other, be fatal to their + necessary independence. If the power of making them was committed + either to the Executive or legislature, there would be danger of an + improper complaisance to the branch which possessed it; if to both, + there would be an unwillingness to hazard the displeasure of either; + if to the people, or to persons chosen by them for the special + purpose, there would be too great a disposition to consult + popularity, to justify a reliance that nothing would be consulted + but the Constitution and the laws. +There is yet a further and a weightier reason for the permanency + of the judicial offices, which is deducible from the nature of the + qualifications they require. It has been frequently remarked, with + great propriety, that a voluminous code of laws is one of the + inconveniences necessarily connected with the advantages of a free + government. To avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts, it is + indispensable that they should be bound down by strict rules and + precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty in every + particular case that comes before them; and it will readily be + conceived from the variety of controversies which grow out of the + folly and wickedness of mankind, that the records of those + precedents must unavoidably swell to a very considerable bulk, and + must demand long and laborious study to acquire a competent + knowledge of them. Hence it is, that there can be but few men in + the society who will have sufficient skill in the laws to qualify + them for the stations of judges. And making the proper deductions + for the ordinary depravity of human nature, the number must be still + smaller of those who unite the requisite integrity with the + requisite knowledge. These considerations apprise us, that the + government can have no great option between fit character; and that + a temporary duration in office, which would naturally discourage + such characters from quitting a lucrative line of practice to accept + a seat on the bench, would have a tendency to throw the + administration of justice into hands less able, and less well + qualified, to conduct it with utility and dignity. In the present + circumstances of this country, and in those in which it is likely to + be for a long time to come, the disadvantages on this score would be + greater than they may at first sight appear; but it must be + confessed, that they are far inferior to those which present + themselves under the other aspects of the subject. +Upon the whole, there can be no room to doubt that the + convention acted wisely in copying from the models of those + constitutions which have established GOOD BEHAVIOR as the tenure of + their judicial offices, in point of duration; and that so far from + being blamable on this account, their plan would have been + inexcusably defective, if it had wanted this important feature of + good government. The experience of Great Britain affords an + illustrious comment on the excellence of the institution. +PUBLIUS. +1 The celebrated Montesquieu, speaking of them, says: ``Of the + three powers above mentioned, the judiciary is next to + nothing.'' ``Spirit of Laws.'' vol. i., page 186. +2 Idem, page 181. +3 Vide ``Protest of the Minority of the Convention of + Pennsylvania,'' Martin's Speech, etc. + + +FEDERALIST No. 79 + +The Judiciary Continued +From MCLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +NEXT to permanency in office, nothing can contribute more to the + independence of the judges than a fixed provision for their support. + The remark made in relation to the President is equally applicable + here. In the general course of human nature, A POWER OVER A MAN's + SUBSISTENCE AMOUNTS TO A POWER OVER HIS WILL. And we can never hope + to see realized in practice, the complete separation of the judicial + from the legislative power, in any system which leaves the former + dependent for pecuniary resources on the occasional grants of the + latter. The enlightened friends to good government in every State, + have seen cause to lament the want of precise and explicit + precautions in the State constitutions on this head. Some of these + indeed have declared that PERMANENT1 salaries should be + established for the judges; but the experiment has in some + instances shown that such expressions are not sufficiently definite + to preclude legislative evasions. Something still more positive and + unequivocal has been evinced to be requisite. The plan of the + convention accordingly has provided that the judges of the United + States ``shall at STATED TIMES receive for their services a + compensation which shall not be DIMINISHED during their continuance + in office.'' +This, all circumstances considered, is the most eligible + provision that could have been devised. It will readily be + understood that the fluctuations in the value of money and in the + state of society rendered a fixed rate of compensation in the + Constitution inadmissible. What might be extravagant to-day, might + in half a century become penurious and inadequate. It was therefore + necessary to leave it to the discretion of the legislature to vary + its provisions in conformity to the variations in circumstances, yet + under such restrictions as to put it out of the power of that body + to change the condition of the individual for the worse. A man may + then be sure of the ground upon which he stands, and can never be + deterred from his duty by the apprehension of being placed in a less + eligible situation. The clause which has been quoted combines both + advantages. The salaries of judicial officers may from time to time + be altered, as occasion shall require, yet so as never to lessen the + allowance with which any particular judge comes into office, in + respect to him. It will be observed that a difference has been made + by the convention between the compensation of the President and of + the judges, That of the former can neither be increased nor + diminished; that of the latter can only not be diminished. This + probably arose from the difference in the duration of the respective + offices. As the President is to be elected for no more than four + years, it can rarely happen that an adequate salary, fixed at the + commencement of that period, will not continue to be such to its end. + But with regard to the judges, who, if they behave properly, will + be secured in their places for life, it may well happen, especially + in the early stages of the government, that a stipend, which would + be very sufficient at their first appointment, would become too + small in the progress of their service. +This provision for the support of the judges bears every mark of + prudence and efficacy; and it may be safely affirmed that, together + with the permanent tenure of their offices, it affords a better + prospect of their independence than is discoverable in the + constitutions of any of the States in regard to their own judges. +The precautions for their responsibility are comprised in the + article respecting impeachments. They are liable to be impeached + for malconduct by the House of Representatives, and tried by the + Senate; and, if convicted, may be dismissed from office, and + disqualified for holding any other. This is the only provision on + the point which is consistent with the necessary independence of the + judicial character, and is the only one which we find in our own + Constitution in respect to our own judges. +The want of a provision for removing the judges on account of + inability has been a subject of complaint. But all considerate men + will be sensible that such a provision would either not be practiced + upon or would be more liable to abuse than calculated to answer any + good purpose. The mensuration of the faculties of the mind has, I + believe, no place in the catalogue of known arts. An attempt to fix + the boundary between the regions of ability and inability, would + much oftener give scope to personal and party attachments and + enmities than advance the interests of justice or the public good. + The result, except in the case of insanity, must for the most part + be arbitrary; and insanity, without any formal or express + provision, may be safely pronounced to be a virtual disqualification. +The constitution of New York, to avoid investigations that must + forever be vague and dangerous, has taken a particular age as the + criterion of inability. No man can be a judge beyond sixty. I + believe there are few at present who do not disapprove of this + provision. There is no station, in relation to which it is less + proper than to that of a judge. The deliberating and comparing + faculties generally preserve their strength much beyond that period + in men who survive it; and when, in addition to this circumstance, + we consider how few there are who outlive the season of intellectual + vigor, and how improbable it is that any considerable portion of the + bench, whether more or less numerous, should be in such a situation + at the same time, we shall be ready to conclude that limitations of + this sort have little to recommend them. In a republic, where + fortunes are not affluent, and pensions not expedient, the + dismission of men from stations in which they have served their + country long and usefully, on which they depend for subsistence, and + from which it will be too late to resort to any other occupation for + a livelihood, ought to have some better apology to humanity than is + to be found in the imaginary danger of a superannuated bench. +PUBLIUS. +1 Vide ``Constitution of Massachusetts,'' chapter 2, section + I, article 13. + + +FEDERALIST No. 80 +The Powers of the Judiciary +From McLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +To JUDGE with accuracy of the proper extent of the federal + judicature, it will be necessary to consider, in the first place, + what are its proper objects. +It seems scarcely to admit of controversy, that the judicary + authority of the Union ought to extend to these several descriptions + of cases: 1st, to all those which arise out of the laws of the + United States, passed in pursuance of their just and constitutional + powers of legislation; 2d, to all those which concern the execution + of the provisions expressly contained in the articles of Union; 3d, + to all those in which the United States are a party; 4th, to all + those which involve the PEACE of the CONFEDERACY, whether they + relate to the intercourse between the United States and foreign + nations, or to that between the States themselves; 5th, to all + those which originate on the high seas, and are of admiralty or + maritime jurisdiction; and, lastly, to all those in which the State + tribunals cannot be supposed to be impartial and unbiased. +The first point depends upon this obvious consideration, that + there ought always to be a constitutional method of giving efficacy + to constitutional provisions. What, for instance, would avail + restrictions on the authority of the State legislatures, without + some constitutional mode of enforcing the observance of them? The + States, by the plan of the convention, are prohibited from doing a + variety of things, some of which are incompatible with the interests + of the Union, and others with the principles of good government. + The imposition of duties on imported articles, and the emission of + paper money, are specimens of each kind. No man of sense will + believe, that such prohibitions would be scrupulously regarded, + without some effectual power in the government to restrain or + correct the infractions of them. This power must either be a direct + negative on the State laws, or an authority in the federal courts to + overrule such as might be in manifest contravention of the articles + of Union. There is no third course that I can imagine. The latter + appears to have been thought by the convention preferable to the + former, and, I presume, will be most agreeable to the States. +As to the second point, it is impossible, by any argument or + comment, to make it clearer than it is in itself. If there are such + things as political axioms, the propriety of the judicial power of a + government being coextensive with its legislative, may be ranked + among the number. The mere necessity of uniformity in the + interpretation of the national laws, decides the question. Thirteen + independent courts of final jurisdiction over the same causes, + arising upon the same laws, is a hydra in government, from which + nothing but contradiction and confusion can proceed. +Still less need be said in regard to the third point. + Controversies between the nation and its members or citizens, can + only be properly referred to the national tribunals. Any other plan + would be contrary to reason, to precedent, and to decorum. +The fourth point rests on this plain proposition, that the peace + of the WHOLE ought not to be left at the disposal of a PART. The + Union will undoubtedly be answerable to foreign powers for the + conduct of its members. And the responsibility for an injury ought + ever to be accompanied with the faculty of preventing it. As the + denial or perversion of justice by the sentences of courts, as well + as in any other manner, is with reason classed among the just causes + of war, it will follow that the federal judiciary ought to have + cognizance of all causes in which the citizens of other countries + are concerned. This is not less essential to the preservation of + the public faith, than to the security of the public tranquillity. + A distinction may perhaps be imagined between cases arising upon + treaties and the laws of nations and those which may stand merely on + the footing of the municipal law. The former kind may be supposed + proper for the federal jurisdiction, the latter for that of the + States. But it is at least problematical, whether an unjust + sentence against a foreigner, where the subject of controversy was + wholly relative to the lex loci, would not, if unredressed, be + an aggression upon his sovereign, as well as one which violated the + stipulations of a treaty or the general law of nations. And a still + greater objection to the distinction would result from the immense + difficulty, if not impossibility, of a practical discrimination + between the cases of one complexion and those of the other. So + great a proportion of the cases in which foreigners are parties, + involve national questions, that it is by far most safe and most + expedient to refer all those in which they are concerned to the + national tribunals. +The power of determining causes between two States, between one + State and the citizens of another, and between the citizens of + different States, is perhaps not less essential to the peace of the + Union than that which has been just examined. History gives us a + horrid picture of the dissensions and private wars which distracted + and desolated Germany prior to the institution of the Imperial + Chamber by Maximilian, towards the close of the fifteenth century; + and informs us, at the same time, of the vast influence of that + institution in appeasing the disorders and establishing the + tranquillity of the empire. This was a court invested with + authority to decide finally all differences among the members of the + Germanic body. +A method of terminating territorial disputes between the States, + under the authority of the federal head, was not unattended to, even + in the imperfect system by which they have been hitherto held + together. But there are many other sources, besides interfering + claims of boundary, from which bickerings and animosities may spring + up among the members of the Union. To some of these we have been + witnesses in the course of our past experience. It will readily be + conjectured that I allude to the fraudulent laws which have been + passed in too many of the States. And though the proposed + Constitution establishes particular guards against the repetition of + those instances which have heretofore made their appearance, yet it + is warrantable to apprehend that the spirit which produced them will + assume new shapes, that could not be foreseen nor specifically + provided against. Whatever practices may have a tendency to disturb + the harmony between the States, are proper objects of federal + superintendence and control. +It may be esteemed the basis of the Union, that ``the citizens + of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities + of citizens of the several States.'' And if it be a just principle + that every government OUGHT TO POSSESS THE MEANS OF EXECUTING ITS + OWN PROVISIONS BY ITS OWN AUTHORITY, it will follow, that in order + to the inviolable maintenance of that equality of privileges and + immunities to which the citizens of the Union will be entitled, the + national judiciary ought to preside in all cases in which one State + or its citizens are opposed to another State or its citizens. To + secure the full effect of so fundamental a provision against all + evasion and subterfuge, it is necessary that its construction should + be committed to that tribunal which, having no local attachments, + will be likely to be impartial between the different States and + their citizens, and which, owing its official existence to the + Union, will never be likely to feel any bias inauspicious to the + principles on which it is founded. +The fifth point will demand little animadversion. The most + bigoted idolizers of State authority have not thus far shown a + disposition to deny the national judiciary the cognizances of + maritime causes. These so generally depend on the laws of nations, + and so commonly affect the rights of foreigners, that they fall + within the considerations which are relative to the public peace. + The most important part of them are, by the present Confederation, + submitted to federal jurisdiction. +The reasonableness of the agency of the national courts in cases + in which the State tribunals cannot be supposed to be impartial, + speaks for itself. No man ought certainly to be a judge in his own + cause, or in any cause in respect to which he has the least interest + or bias. This principle has no inconsiderable weight in designating + the federal courts as the proper tribunals for the determination of + controversies between different States and their citizens. And it + ought to have the same operation in regard to some cases between + citizens of the same State. Claims to land under grants of + different States, founded upon adverse pretensions of boundary, are + of this description. The courts of neither of the granting States + could be expected to be unbiased. The laws may have even prejudged + the question, and tied the courts down to decisions in favor of the + grants of the State to which they belonged. And even where this had + not been done, it would be natural that the judges, as men, should + feel a strong predilection to the claims of their own government. +Having thus laid down and discussed the principles which ought + to regulate the constitution of the federal judiciary, we will + proceed to test, by these principles, the particular powers of + which, according to the plan of the convention, it is to be composed. + It is to comprehend ``all cases in law and equity arising under + the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, + or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases + affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to all + cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to + which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between + two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; + between citizens of different States; between citizens of the same + State claiming lands and grants of different States; and between a + State or the citizens thereof and foreign states, citizens, and + subjects.'' This constitutes the entire mass of the judicial + authority of the Union. Let us now review it in detail. It is, + then, to extend: +First. To all cases in law and equity, ARISING UNDER THE + CONSTITUTION and THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. This corresponds + with the two first classes of causes, which have been enumerated, as + proper for the jurisdiction of the United States. It has been + asked, what is meant by ``cases arising under the Constitution,'' in + contradiction from those ``arising under the laws of the United + States''? The difference has been already explained. All the + restrictions upon the authority of the State legislatures furnish + examples of it. They are not, for instance, to emit paper money; + but the interdiction results from the Constitution, and will have + no connection with any law of the United States. Should paper + money, notwithstanding, be emited, the controversies concerning it + would be cases arising under the Constitution and not the laws of + the United States, in the ordinary signification of the terms. This + may serve as a sample of the whole. +It has also been asked, what need of the word ``equity What + equitable causes can grow out of the Constitution and laws of the + United States? There is hardly a subject of litigation between + individuals, which may not involve those ingredients of FRAUD, + ACCIDENT, TRUST, or HARDSHIP, which would render the matter an + object of equitable rather than of legal jurisdiction, as the + distinction is known and established in several of the States. It + is the peculiar province, for instance, of a court of equity to + relieve against what are called hard bargains: these are contracts + in which, though there may have been no direct fraud or deceit, + sufficient to invalidate them in a court of law, yet there may have + been some undue and unconscionable advantage taken of the + necessities or misfortunes of one of the parties, which a court of + equity would not tolerate. In such cases, where foreigners were + concerned on either side, it would be impossible for the federal + judicatories to do justice without an equitable as well as a legal + jurisdiction. Agreements to convey lands claimed under the grants + of different States, may afford another example of the necessity of + an equitable jurisdiction in the federal courts. This reasoning may + not be so palpable in those States where the formal and technical + distinction between LAW and EQUITY is not maintained, as in this + State, where it is exemplified by every day's practice. +The judiciary authority of the Union is to extend: +Second. To treaties made, or which shall be made, under the + authority of the United States, and to all cases affecting + ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls. These belong to + the fourth class of the enumerated cases, as they have an evident + connection with the preservation of the national peace. +Third. To cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. + These form, altogether, the fifth of the enumerated classes of + causes proper for the cognizance of the national courts. +Fourth. To controversies to which the United States shall be + a party. These constitute the third of those classes. +Fifth. To controversies between two or more States; between + a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of + different States. These belong to the fourth of those classes, and + partake, in some measure, of the nature of the last. +Sixth. To cases between the citizens of the same State, + CLAIMING LANDS UNDER GRANTS OF DIFFERENT STATES. These fall within + the last class, and ARE THE ONLY INSTANCES IN WHICH THE PROPOSED + CONSTITUTION DIRECTLY CONTEMPLATES THE COGNIZANCE OF DISPUTES + BETWEEN THE CITIZENS OF THE SAME STATE. +Seventh. To cases between a State and the citizens thereof, + and foreign States, citizens, or subjects. These have been already + explained to belong to the fourth of the enumerated classes, and + have been shown to be, in a peculiar manner, the proper subjects of + the national judicature. +From this review of the particular powers of the federal + judiciary, as marked out in the Constitution, it appears that they + are all conformable to the principles which ought to have governed + the structure of that department, and which were necessary to the + perfection of the system. If some partial inconviences should + appear to be connected with the incorporation of any of them into + the plan, it ought to be recollected that the national legislature + will have ample authority to make such EXCEPTIONS, and to prescribe + such regulations as will be calculated to obviate or remove these + inconveniences. The possibility of particular mischiefs can never + be viewed, by a wellinformed mind, as a solid objection to a general + principle, which is calculated to avoid general mischiefs and to + obtain general advantages. +PUBLIUS. + + +FEDERALIST. No. 81 + +The Judiciary Continued, and the Distribution of the Judicial + Authority +From McLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +LET US now return to the partition of the judiciary authority + between different courts, and their relations to each other, + ``The judicial power of the United States is'' (by the plan of + the convention) ``to be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such + inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and + establish.''1 +That there ought to be one court of supreme and final + jurisdiction, is a proposition which is not likely to be contested. + The reasons for it have been assigned in another place, and are too + obvious to need repetition. The only question that seems to have + been raised concerning it, is, whether it ought to be a distinct + body or a branch of the legislature. The same contradiction is + observable in regard to this matter which has been remarked in + several other cases. The very men who object to the Senate as a + court of impeachments, on the ground of an improper intermixture of + powers, advocate, by implication at least, the propriety of vesting + the ultimate decision of all causes, in the whole or in a part of + the legislative body. +The arguments, or rather suggestions, upon which this charge is + founded, are to this effect: ``The authority of the proposed + Supreme Court of the United States, which is to be a separate and + independent body, will be superior to that of the legislature. The + power of construing the laws according to the SPIRIT of the + Constitution, will enable that court to mould them into whatever + shape it may think proper; especially as its decisions will not be + in any manner subject to the revision or correction of the + legislative body. This is as unprecedented as it is dangerous. In + Britain, the judical power, in the last resort, resides in the House + of Lords, which is a branch of the legislature; and this part of + the British government has been imitated in the State constitutions + in general. The Parliament of Great Britain, and the legislatures + of the several States, can at any time rectify, by law, the + exceptionable decisions of their respective courts. But the errors + and usurpations of the Supreme Court of the United States will be + uncontrollable and remediless.'' This, upon examination, will be + found to be made up altogether of false reasoning upon misconceived + fact. +In the first place, there is not a syllable in the plan under + consideration which DIRECTLY empowers the national courts to + construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution, or + which gives them any greater latitude in this respect than may be + claimed by the courts of every State. I admit, however, that the + Constitution ought to be the standard of construction for the laws, + and that wherever there is an evident opposition, the laws ought to + give place to the Constitution. But this doctrine is not deducible + from any circumstance peculiar to the plan of the convention, but + from the general theory of a limited Constitution; and as far as it + is true, is equally applicable to most, if not to all the State + governments. There can be no objection, therefore, on this account, + to the federal judicature which will not lie against the local + judicatures in general, and which will not serve to condemn every + constitution that attempts to set bounds to legislative discretion. +But perhaps the force of the objection may be thought to consist + in the particular organization of the Supreme Court; in its being + composed of a distinct body of magistrates, instead of being one of + the branches of the legislature, as in the government of Great + Britain and that of the State. To insist upon this point, the + authors of the objection must renounce the meaning they have labored + to annex to the celebrated maxim, requiring a separation of the + departments of power. It shall, nevertheless, be conceded to them, + agreeably to the interpretation given to that maxim in the course of + these papers, that it is not violated by vesting the ultimate power + of judging in a PART of the legislative body. But though this be + not an absolute violation of that excellent rule, yet it verges so + nearly upon it, as on this account alone to be less eligible than + the mode preferred by the convention. From a body which had even a + partial agency in passing bad laws, we could rarely expect a + disposition to temper and moderate them in the application. The + same spirit which had operated in making them, would be too apt in + interpreting them; still less could it be expected that men who had + infringed the Constitution in the character of legislators, would be + disposed to repair the breach in the character of judges. Nor is + this all. Every reason which recommends the tenure of good behavior + for judicial offices, militates against placing the judiciary power, + in the last resort, in a body composed of men chosen for a limited + period. There is an absurdity in referring the determination of + causes, in the first instance, to judges of permanent standing; in + the last, to those of a temporary and mutable constitution. And + there is a still greater absurdity in subjecting the decisions of + men, selected for their knowledge of the laws, acquired by long and + laborious study, to the revision and control of men who, for want of + the same advantage, cannot but be deficient in that knowledge. The + members of the legislature will rarely be chosen with a view to + those qualifications which fit men for the stations of judges; and + as, on this account, there will be great reason to apprehend all the + ill consequences of defective information, so, on account of the + natural propensity of such bodies to party divisions, there will be + no less reason to fear that the pestilential breath of faction may + poison the fountains of justice. The habit of being continually + marshalled on opposite sides will be too apt to stifle the voice + both of law and of equity. +These considerations teach us to applaud the wisdom of those + States who have committed the judicial power, in the last resort, + not to a part of the legislature, but to distinct and independent + bodies of men. Contrary to the supposition of those who have + represented the plan of the convention, in this respect, as novel + and unprecedented, it is but a copy of the constitutions of New + Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, + Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; and the + preference which has been given to those models is highly to be + commended. +It is not true, in the second place, that the Parliament of + Great Britain, or the legislatures of the particular States, can + rectify the exceptionable decisions of their respective courts, in + any other sense than might be done by a future legislature of the + United States. The theory, neither of the British, nor the State + constitutions, authorizes the revisal of a judicial sentence by a + legislative act. Nor is there any thing in the proposed + Constitution, more than in either of them, by which it is forbidden. + In the former, as well as in the latter, the impropriety of the + thing, on the general principles of law and reason, is the sole + obstacle. A legislature, without exceeding its province, cannot + reverse a determination once made in a particular case; though it + may prescribe a new rule for future cases. This is the principle, + and it applies in all its consequences, exactly in the same manner + and extent, to the State governments, as to the national government + now under consideration. Not the least difference can be pointed + out in any view of the subject. +It may in the last place be observed that the supposed danger of + judiciary encroachments on the legislative authority, which has been + upon many occasions reiterated, is in reality a phantom. Particular + misconstructions and contraventions of the will of the legislature + may now and then happen; but they can never be so extensive as to + amount to an inconvenience, or in any sensible degree to affect the + order of the political system. This may be inferred with certainty, + from the general nature of the judicial power, from the objects to + which it relates, from the manner in which it is exercised, from its + comparative weakness, and from its total incapacity to support its + usurpations by force. And the inference is greatly fortified by the + consideration of the important constitutional check which the power + of instituting impeachments in one part of the legislative body, and + of determining upon them in the other, would give to that body upon + the members of the judicial department. This is alone a complete + security. There never can be danger that the judges, by a series of + deliberate usurpations on the authority of the legislature, would + hazard the united resentment of the body intrusted with it, while + this body was possessed of the means of punishing their presumption, + by degrading them from their stations. While this ought to remove + all apprehensions on the subject, it affords, at the same time, a + cogent argument for constituting the Senate a court for the trial of + impeachments. +Having now examined, and, I trust, removed the objections to the + distinct and independent organization of the Supreme Court, I + proceed to consider the propriety of the power of constituting + inferior courts,2 and the relations which will subsist between + these and the former. +The power of constituting inferior courts is evidently + calculated to obviate the necessity of having recourse to the + Supreme Court in every case of federal cognizance. It is intended + to enable the national government to institute or AUTHORUZE, in each + State or district of the United States, a tribunal competent to the + determination of matters of national jurisdiction within its limits. +But why, it is asked, might not the same purpose have been + accomplished by the instrumentality of the State courts? This + admits of different answers. Though the fitness and competency of + those courts should be allowed in the utmost latitude, yet the + substance of the power in question may still be regarded as a + necessary part of the plan, if it were only to empower the national + legislature to commit to them the cognizance of causes arising out + of the national Constitution. To confer the power of determining + such causes upon the existing courts of the several States, would + perhaps be as much ``to constitute tribunals,'' as to create new + courts with the like power. But ought not a more direct and + explicit provision to have been made in favor of the State courts? + There are, in my opinion, substantial reasons against such a + provision: the most discerning cannot foresee how far the + prevalency of a local spirit may be found to disqualify the local + tribunals for the jurisdiction of national causes; whilst every man + may discover, that courts constituted like those of some of the + States would be improper channels of the judicial authority of the + Union. State judges, holding their offices during pleasure, or from + year to year, will be too little independent to be relied upon for + an inflexible execution of the national laws. And if there was a + necessity for confiding the original cognizance of causes arising + under those laws to them there would be a correspondent necessity + for leaving the door of appeal as wide as possible. In proportion + to the grounds of confidence in, or distrust of, the subordinate + tribunals, ought to be the facility or difficulty of appeals. And + well satisfied as I am of the propriety of the appellate + jurisdiction, in the several classes of causes to which it is + extended by the plan of the convention. I should consider every + thing calculated to give, in practice, an UNRESTRAINED COURSE to + appeals, as a source of public and private inconvenience. +I am not sure, but that it will be found highly expedient and + useful, to divide the United States into four or five or half a + dozen districts; and to institute a federal court in each district, + in lieu of one in every State. The judges of these courts, with the + aid of the State judges, may hold circuits for the trial of causes + in the several parts of the respective districts. Justice through + them may be administered with ease and despatch; and appeals may be + safely circumscribed within a narrow compass. This plan appears to + me at present the most eligible of any that could be adopted; and + in order to it, it is necessary that the power of constituting + inferior courts should exist in the full extent in which it is to be + found in the proposed Constitution. +These reasons seem sufficient to satisfy a candid mind, that the + want of such a power would have been a great defect in the plan. + Let us now examine in what manner the judicial authority is to be + distributed between the supreme and the inferior courts of the Union. + The Supreme Court is to be invested with original jurisdiction, + only ``in cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and + consuls, and those in which A STATE shall be a party.'' Public + ministers of every class are the immediate representatives of their + sovereigns. All questions in which they are concerned are so + directly connected with the public peace, that, as well for the + preservation of this, as out of respect to the sovereignties they + represent, it is both expedient and proper that such questions + should be submitted in the first instance to the highest judicatory + of the nation. Though consuls have not in strictness a diplomatic + character, yet as they are the public agents of the nations to which + they belong, the same observation is in a great measure applicable + to them. In cases in which a State might happen to be a party, it + would ill suit its dignity to be turned over to an inferior tribunal. + Though it may rather be a digression from the immediate subject + of this paper, I shall take occasion to mention here a supposition + which has excited some alarm upon very mistaken grounds. It has + been suggested that an assignment of the public securities of one + State to the citizens of another, would enable them to prosecute + that State in the federal courts for the amount of those securities; + a suggestion which the following considerations prove to be without + foundation. +It is inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable + to the suit of an individual WITHOUT ITS CONSENT. This is the + general sense, and the general practice of mankind; and the + exemption, as one of the attributes of sovereignty, is now enjoyed + by the government of every State in the Union. Unless, therefore, + there is a surrender of this immunity in the plan of the convention, + it will remain with the States, and the danger intimated must be + merely ideal. The circumstances which are necessary to produce an + alienation of State sovereignty were discussed in considering the + article of taxation, and need not be repeated here. A recurrence to + the principles there established will satisfy us, that there is no + color to pretend that the State governments would, by the adoption + of that plan, be divested of the privilege of paying their own debts + in their own way, free from every constraint but that which flows + from the obligations of good faith. The contracts between a nation + and individuals are only binding on the conscience of the sovereign, + and have no pretensions to a compulsive force. They confer no right + of action, independent of the sovereign will. To what purpose would + it be to authorize suits against States for the debts they owe? How + could recoveries be enforced? It is evident, it could not be done + without waging war against the contracting State; and to ascribe to + the federal courts, by mere implication, and in destruction of a + pre-existing right of the State governments, a power which would + involve such a consequence, would be altogether forced and + unwarrantable. +Let us resume the train of our observations. We have seen that + the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court would be confined to + two classes of causes, and those of a nature rarely to occur. In + all other cases of federal cognizance, the original jurisdiction + would appertain to the inferior tribunals; and the Supreme Court + would have nothing more than an appellate jurisdiction, ``with such + EXCEPTIONS and under such REGULATIONS as the Congress shall make.'' +The propriety of this appellate jurisdiction has been scarcely + called in question in regard to matters of law; but the clamors + have been loud against it as applied to matters of fact. Some + well-intentioned men in this State, deriving their notions from the + language and forms which obtain in our courts, have been induced to + consider it as an implied supersedure of the trial by jury, in favor + of the civil-law mode of trial, which prevails in our courts of + admiralty, probate, and chancery. A technical sense has been + affixed to the term ``appellate,'' which, in our law parlance, is + commonly used in reference to appeals in the course of the civil law. + But if I am not misinformed, the same meaning would not be given + to it in any part of New England. There an appeal from one jury to + another, is familiar both in language and practice, and is even a + matter of course, until there have been two verdicts on one side. + The word ``appellate,'' therefore, will not be understood in the + same sense in New England as in New York, which shows the + impropriety of a technical interpretation derived from the + jurisprudence of any particular State. The expression, taken in the + abstract, denotes nothing more than the power of one tribunal to + review the proceedings of another, either as to the law or fact, or + both. The mode of doing it may depend on ancient custom or + legislative provision (in a new government it must depend on the + latter), and may be with or without the aid of a jury, as may be + judged advisable. If, therefore, the re-examination of a fact once + determined by a jury, should in any case be admitted under the + proposed Constitution, it may be so regulated as to be done by a + second jury, either by remanding the cause to the court below for a + second trial of the fact, or by directing an issue immediately out + of the Supreme Court. +But it does not follow that the re-examination of a fact once + ascertained by a jury, will be permitted in the Supreme Court. Why + may not it be said, with the strictest propriety, when a writ of + error is brought from an inferior to a superior court of law in this + State, that the latter has jurisdiction of the fact as well as the + law? It is true it cannot institute a new inquiry concerning the + fact, but it takes cognizance of it as it appears upon the record, + and pronounces the law arising upon it.3 This is jurisdiction + of both fact and law; nor is it even possible to separate them. + Though the common-law courts of this State ascertain disputed facts + by a jury, yet they unquestionably have jurisdiction of both fact + and law; and accordingly when the former is agreed in the + pleadings, they have no recourse to a jury, but proceed at once to + judgment. I contend, therefore, on this ground, that the + expressions, ``appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact,'' do + not necessarily imply a re-examination in the Supreme Court of facts + decided by juries in the inferior courts. +The following train of ideas may well be imagined to have + influenced the convention, in relation to this particular provision. + The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (it may have been + argued) will extend to causes determinable in different modes, some + in the course of the COMMON LAW, others in the course of the CIVIL + LAW. In the former, the revision of the law only will be, generally + speaking, the proper province of the Supreme Court; in the latter, + the re-examination of the fact is agreeable to usage, and in some + cases, of which prize causes are an example, might be essential to + the preservation of the public peace. It is therefore necessary + that the appellate jurisdiction should, in certain cases, extend in + the broadest sense to matters of fact. It will not answer to make + an express exception of cases which shall have been originally tried + by a jury, because in the courts of some of the States ALL CAUSES + are tried in this mode4; and such an exception would preclude + the revision of matters of fact, as well where it might be proper, + as where it might be improper. To avoid all inconveniencies, it + will be safest to declare generally, that the Supreme Court shall + possess appellate jurisdiction both as to law and FACT, and that + this jurisdiction shall be subject to such EXCEPTIONS and + regulations as the national legislature may prescribe. This will + enable the government to modify it in such a manner as will best + answer the ends of public justice and security. +This view of the matter, at any rate, puts it out of all doubt + that the supposed ABOLITION of the trial by jury, by the operation + of this provision, is fallacious and untrue. The legislature of the + United States would certainly have full power to provide, that in + appeals to the Supreme Court there should be no re-examination of + facts where they had been tried in the original causes by juries. + This would certainly be an authorized exception; but if, for the + reason already intimated, it should be thought too extensive, it + might be qualified with a limitation to such causes only as are + determinable at common law in that mode of trial. +The amount of the observations hitherto made on the authority of + the judicial department is this: that it has been carefully + restricted to those causes which are manifestly proper for the + cognizance of the national judicature; that in the partition of + this authority a very small portion of original jurisdiction has + been preserved to the Supreme Court, and the rest consigned to the + subordinate tribunals; that the Supreme Court will possess an + appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, in all the cases + referred to them, both subject to any EXCEPTIONS and REGULATIONS + which may be thought advisable; that this appellate jurisdiction + does, in no case, ABOLISH the trial by jury; and that an ordinary + degree of prudence and integrity in the national councils will + insure us solid advantages from the establishment of the proposed + judiciary, without exposing us to any of the inconveniences which + have been predicted from that source. +PUBLIUS. +1 Article 3, sec. I. +2 This power has been absurdly represented as intended to + abolish all the county courts in the several States, which are + commonly called inferior courts. But the expressions of the + Constitution are, to constitute ``tribunals INFERIOR TO THE SUPREME + COURT''; and the evident design of the provision is to enable the + institution of local courts, subordinate to the Supreme, either in + States or larger districts. It is ridiculous to imagine that county + courts were in contemplation. +3 This word is composed of JUS and DICTIO, juris dictio or a + speaking and pronouncing of the law. +4 I hold that the States will have concurrent jurisdiction with + the subordinate federal judicatories, in many cases of federal + cognizance, as will be explained in my next paper. + + +FEDERALIST No. 82 + +The Judiciary Continued +From McLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE erection of a new government, whatever care or wisdom may + distinguish the work, cannot fail to originate questions of + intricacy and nicety; and these may, in a particular manner, be + expected to flow from the establishment of a constitution founded + upon the total or partial incorporation of a number of distinct + sovereignties. 'T is time only that can mature and perfect so + compound a system, can liquidate the meaning of all the parts, and + can adjust them to each other in a harmonious and consistent WHOLE. +Such questions, accordingly, have arisen upon the plan proposed + by the convention, and particularly concerning the judiciary + department. The principal of these respect the situation of the + State courts in regard to those causes which are to be submitted to + federal jurisdiction. Is this to be exclusive, or are those courts + to possess a concurrent jurisdiction? If the latter, in what + relation will they stand to the national tribunals? These are + inquiries which we meet with in the mouths of men of sense, and + which are certainly entitled to attention. +The principles established in a former paper1 teach us that + the States will retain all PRE-EXISTING authorities which may not be + exclusively delegated to the federal head; and that this exclusive + delegation can only exist in one of three cases: where an exclusive + authority is, in express terms, granted to the Union; or where a + particular authority is granted to the Union, and the exercise of a + like authority is prohibited to the States; or where an authority + is granted to the Union, with which a similar authority in the + States would be utterly incompatible. Though these principles may + not apply with the same force to the judiciary as to the legislative + power, yet I am inclined to think that they are, in the main, just + with respect to the former, as well as the latter. And under this + impression, I shall lay it down as a rule, that the State courts + will RETAIN the jurisdiction they now have, unless it appears to be + taken away in one of the enumerated modes. +The only thing in the proposed Constitution, which wears the + appearance of confining the causes of federal cognizance to the + federal courts, is contained in this passage: ``The JUDICIAL POWER + of the United States SHALL BE VESTED in one Supreme Court, and in + SUCH inferior courts as the Congress shall from time to time ordain + and establish.'' This might either be construed to signify, that + the supreme and subordinate courts of the Union should alone have + the power of deciding those causes to which their authority is to + extend; or simply to denote, that the organs of the national + judiciary should be one Supreme Court, and as many subordinate + courts as Congress should think proper to appoint; or in other + words, that the United States should exercise the judicial power + with which they are to be invested, through one supreme tribunal, + and a certain number of inferior ones, to be instituted by them. + The first excludes, the last admits, the concurrent jurisdiction of + the State tribunals; and as the first would amount to an alienation + of State power by implication, the last appears to me the most + natural and the most defensible construction. +But this doctrine of concurrent jurisdiction is only clearly + applicable to those descriptions of causes of which the State courts + have previous cognizance. It is not equally evident in relation to + cases which may grow out of, and be PECULIAR to, the Constitution to + be established; for not to allow the State courts a right of + jurisdiction in such cases, can hardly be considered as the + abridgment of a pre-existing authority. I mean not therefore to + contend that the United States, in the course of legislation upon + the objects intrusted to their direction, may not commit the + decision of causes arising upon a particular regulation to the + federal courts solely, if such a measure should be deemed expedient; + but I hold that the State courts will be divested of no part of + their primitive jurisdiction, further than may relate to an appeal; + and I am even of opinion that in every case in which they were not + expressly excluded by the future acts of the national legislature, + they will of course take cognizance of the causes to which those + acts may give birth. This I infer from the nature of judiciary + power, and from the general genius of the system. The judiciary + power of every government looks beyond its own local or municipal + laws, and in civil cases lays hold of all subjects of litigation + between parties within its jurisdiction, though the causes of + dispute are relative to the laws of the most distant part of the + globe. Those of Japan, not less than of New York, may furnish the + objects of legal discussion to our courts. When in addition to this + we consider the State governments and the national governments, as + they truly are, in the light of kindred systems, and as parts of ONE + WHOLE, the inference seems to be conclusive, that the State courts + would have a concurrent jurisdiction in all cases arising under the + laws of the Union, where it was not expressly prohibited. +Here another question occurs: What relation would subsist + between the national and State courts in these instances of + concurrent jurisdiction? I answer, that an appeal would certainly + lie from the latter, to the Supreme Court of the United States. The + Constitution in direct terms gives an appellate jurisdiction to the + Supreme Court in all the enumerated cases of federal cognizance in + which it is not to have an original one, without a single expression + to confine its operation to the inferior federal courts. The + objects of appeal, not the tribunals from which it is to be made, + are alone contemplated. From this circumstance, and from the reason + of the thing, it ought to be construed to extend to the State + tribunals. Either this must be the case, or the local courts must + be excluded from a concurrent jurisdiction in matters of national + concern, else the judiciary authority of the Union may be eluded at + the pleasure of every plaintiff or prosecutor. Neither of these + consequences ought, without evident necessity, to be involved; the + latter would be entirely inadmissible, as it would defeat some of + the most important and avowed purposes of the proposed government, + and would essentially embarrass its measures. Nor do I perceive any + foundation for such a supposition. Agreeably to the remark already + made, the national and State systems are to be regarded as ONE WHOLE. + The courts of the latter will of course be natural auxiliaries to + the execution of the laws of the Union, and an appeal from them will + as naturally lie to that tribunal which is destined to unite and + assimilate the principles of national justice and the rules of + national decisions. The evident aim of the plan of the convention + is, that all the causes of the specified classes shall, for weighty + public reasons, receive their original or final determination in the + courts of the Union. To confine, therefore, the general expressions + giving appellate jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, to appeals from + the subordinate federal courts, instead of allowing their extension + to the State courts, would be to abridge the latitude of the terms, + in subversion of the intent, contrary to every sound rule of + interpretation. +But could an appeal be made to lie from the State courts to the + subordinate federal judicatories? This is another of the questions + which have been raised, and of greater difficulty than the former. + The following considerations countenance the affirmative. The plan + of the convention, in the first place, authorizes the national + legislature ``to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme + Court.''2 It declares, in the next place, that ``the JUDICIAL + POWER of the United States SHALL BE VESTED in one Supreme Court, and + in such inferior courts as Congress shall ordain and establish''; + and it then proceeds to enumerate the cases to which this judicial + power shall extend. It afterwards divides the jurisdiction of the + Supreme Court into original and appellate, but gives no definition + of that of the subordinate courts. The only outlines described for + them, are that they shall be ``inferior to the Supreme Court,'' and + that they shall not exceed the specified limits of the federal + judiciary. Whether their authority shall be original or appellate, + or both, is not declared. All this seems to be left to the + discretion of the legislature. And this being the case, I perceive + at present no impediment to the establishment of an appeal from the + State courts to the subordinate national tribunals; and many + advantages attending the power of doing it may be imagined. It + would diminish the motives to the multiplication of federal courts, + and would admit of arrangements calculated to contract the appellate + jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The State tribunals may then be + left with a more entire charge of federal causes; and appeals, in + most cases in which they may be deemed proper, instead of being + carried to the Supreme Court, may be made to lie from the State + courts to district courts of the Union. +PUBLIUS. +1 No. 31. +2 Sec. 8th art. 1st. + + +FEDERALIST No. 83 + +The Judiciary Continued in Relation to Trial by Jury +From MCLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +THE objection to the plan of the convention, which has met with + most success in this State, and perhaps in several of the other + States, is THAT RELATIVE TO THE WANT OF A CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION + for the trial by jury in civil cases. The disingenuous form in + which this objection is usually stated has been repeatedly adverted + to and exposed, but continues to be pursued in all the conversations + and writings of the opponents of the plan. The mere silence of the + Constitution in regard to CIVIL CAUSES, is represented as an + abolition of the trial by jury, and the declamations to which it has + afforded a pretext are artfully calculated to induce a persuasion + that this pretended abolition is complete and universal, extending + not only to every species of civil, but even to CRIMINAL CAUSES. To + argue with respect to the latter would, however, be as vain and + fruitless as to attempt the serious proof of the EXISTENCE of + MATTER, or to demonstrate any of those propositions which, by their + own internal evidence, force conviction, when expressed in language + adapted to convey their meaning. +With regard to civil causes, subtleties almost too contemptible + for refutation have been employed to countenance the surmise that a + thing which is only NOT PROVIDED FOR, is entirely ABOLISHED. Every + man of discernment must at once perceive the wide difference between + SILENCE and ABOLITION. But as the inventors of this fallacy have + attempted to support it by certain LEGAL MAXIMS of interpretation, + which they have perverted from their true meaning, it may not be + wholly useless to explore the ground they have taken. +The maxims on which they rely are of this nature: ``A + specification of particulars is an exclusion of generals''; or, + ``The expression of one thing is the exclusion of another.'' Hence, + say they, as the Constitution has established the trial by jury in + criminal cases, and is silent in respect to civil, this silence is + an implied prohibition of trial by jury in regard to the latter. +The rules of legal interpretation are rules of COMMONSENSE, + adopted by the courts in the construction of the laws. The true + test, therefore, of a just application of them is its conformity to + the source from which they are derived. This being the case, let me + ask if it is consistent with common-sense to suppose that a + provision obliging the legislative power to commit the trial of + criminal causes to juries, is a privation of its right to authorize + or permit that mode of trial in other cases? Is it natural to + suppose, that a command to do one thing is a prohibition to the + doing of another, which there was a previous power to do, and which + is not incompatible with the thing commanded to be done? If such a + supposition would be unnatural and unreasonable, it cannot be + rational to maintain that an injunction of the trial by jury in + certain cases is an interdiction of it in others. +A power to constitute courts is a power to prescribe the mode of + trial; and consequently, if nothing was said in the Constitution on + the subject of juries, the legislature would be at liberty either to + adopt that institution or to let it alone. This discretion, in + regard to criminal causes, is abridged by the express injunction of + trial by jury in all such cases; but it is, of course, left at + large in relation to civil causes, there being a total silence on + this head. The specification of an obligation to try all criminal + causes in a particular mode, excludes indeed the obligation or + necessity of employing the same mode in civil causes, but does not + abridge THE POWER of the legislature to exercise that mode if it + should be thought proper. The pretense, therefore, that the + national legislature would not be at full liberty to submit all the + civil causes of federal cognizance to the determination of juries, + is a pretense destitute of all just foundation. +From these observations this conclusion results: that the trial + by jury in civil cases would not be abolished; and that the use + attempted to be made of the maxims which have been quoted, is + contrary to reason and common-sense, and therefore not admissible. + Even if these maxims had a precise technical sense, corresponding + with the idea of those who employ them upon the present occasion, + which, however, is not the case, they would still be inapplicable to + a constitution of government. In relation to such a subject, the + natural and obvious sense of its provisions, apart from any + technical rules, is the true criterion of construction. +Having now seen that the maxims relied upon will not bear the + use made of them, let us endeavor to ascertain their proper use and + true meaning. This will be best done by examples. The plan of the + convention declares that the power of Congress, or, in other words, + of the NATIONAL LEGISLATURE, shall extend to certain enumerated + cases. This specification of particulars evidently excludes all + pretension to a general legislative authority, because an + affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd, as well as + useless, if a general authority was intended. +In like manner the judicial authority of the federal judicatures + is declared by the Constitution to comprehend certain cases + particularly specified. The expression of those cases marks the + precise limits, beyond which the federal courts cannot extend their + jurisdiction, because the objects of their cognizance being + enumerated, the specification would be nugatory if it did not + exclude all ideas of more extensive authority. +These examples are sufficient to elucidate the maxims which have + been mentioned, and to designate the manner in which they should be + used. But that there may be no misapprehensions upon this subject, + I shall add one case more, to demonstrate the proper use of these + maxims, and the abuse which has been made of them. +Let us suppose that by the laws of this State a married woman + was incapable of conveying her estate, and that the legislature, + considering this as an evil, should enact that she might dispose of + her property by deed executed in the presence of a magistrate. In + such a case there can be no doubt but the specification would amount + to an exclusion of any other mode of conveyance, because the woman + having no previous power to alienate her property, the specification + determines the particular mode which she is, for that purpose, to + avail herself of. But let us further suppose that in a subsequent + part of the same act it should be declared that no woman should + dispose of any estate of a determinate value without the consent of + three of her nearest relations, signified by their signing the deed; + could it be inferred from this regulation that a married woman + might not procure the approbation of her relations to a deed for + conveying property of inferior value? The position is too absurd to + merit a refutation, and yet this is precisely the position which + those must establish who contend that the trial by juries in civil + cases is abolished, because it is expressly provided for in cases of + a criminal nature. +From these observations it must appear unquestionably true, that + trial by jury is in no case abolished by the proposed Constitution, + and it is equally true, that in those controversies between + individuals in which the great body of the people are likely to be + interested, that institution will remain precisely in the same + situation in which it is placed by the State constitutions, and will + be in no degree altered or influenced by the adoption of the plan + under consideration. The foundation of this assertion is, that the + national judiciary will have no cognizance of them, and of course + they will remain determinable as heretofore by the State courts + only, and in the manner which the State constitutions and laws + prescribe. All land causes, except where claims under the grants of + different States come into question, and all other controversies + between the citizens of the same State, unless where they depend + upon positive violations of the articles of union, by acts of the + State legislatures, will belong exclusively to the jurisdiction of + the State tribunals. Add to this, that admiralty causes, and almost + all those which are of equity jurisdiction, are determinable under + our own government without the intervention of a jury, and the + inference from the whole will be, that this institution, as it + exists with us at present, cannot possibly be affected to any great + extent by the proposed alteration in our system of government. +The friends and adversaries of the plan of the convention, if + they agree in nothing else, concur at least in the value they set + upon the trial by jury; or if there is any difference between them + it consists in this: the former regard it as a valuable safeguard + to liberty; the latter represent it as the very palladium of free + government. For my own part, the more the operation of the + institution has fallen under my observation, the more reason I have + discovered for holding it in high estimation; and it would be + altogether superfluous to examine to what extent it deserves to be + esteemed useful or essential in a representative republic, or how + much more merit it may be entitled to, as a defense against the + oppressions of an hereditary monarch, than as a barrier to the + tyranny of popular magistrates in a popular government. Discussions + of this kind would be more curious than beneficial, as all are + satisfied of the utility of the institution, and of its friendly + aspect to liberty. But I must acknowledge that I cannot readily + discern the inseparable connection between the existence of liberty, + and the trial by jury in civil cases. Arbitrary impeachments, + arbitrary methods of prosecuting pretended offenses, and arbitrary + punishments upon arbitrary convictions, have ever appeared to me to + be the great engines of judicial despotism; and these have all + relation to criminal proceedings. The trial by jury in criminal + cases, aided by the habeas-corpus act, seems therefore to be + alone concerned in the question. And both of these are provided + for, in the most ample manner, in the plan of the convention. +It has been observed, that trial by jury is a safeguard against + an oppressive exercise of the power of taxation. This observation + deserves to be canvassed. +It is evident that it can have no influence upon the + legislature, in regard to the AMOUNT of taxes to be laid, to the + OBJECTS upon which they are to be imposed, or to the RULE by which + they are to be apportioned. If it can have any influence, + therefore, it must be upon the mode of collection, and the conduct + of the officers intrusted with the execution of the revenue laws. +As to the mode of collection in this State, under our own + Constitution, the trial by jury is in most cases out of use. The + taxes are usually levied by the more summary proceeding of distress + and sale, as in cases of rent. And it is acknowledged on all hands, + that this is essential to the efficacy of the revenue laws. The + dilatory course of a trial at law to recover the taxes imposed on + individuals, would neither suit the exigencies of the public nor + promote the convenience of the citizens. It would often occasion an + accumulation of costs, more burdensome than the original sum of the + tax to be levied. +And as to the conduct of the officers of the revenue, the + provision in favor of trial by jury in criminal cases, will afford + the security aimed at. Wilful abuses of a public authority, to the + oppression of the subject, and every species of official extortion, + are offenses against the government, for which the persons who + commit them may be indicted and punished according to the + circumstances of the case. +The excellence of the trial by jury in civil cases appears to + depend on circumstances foreign to the preservation of liberty. The + strongest argument in its favor is, that it is a security against + corruption. As there is always more time and better opportunity to + tamper with a standing body of magistrates than with a jury summoned + for the occasion, there is room to suppose that a corrupt influence + would more easily find its way to the former than to the latter. + The force of this consideration is, however, diminished by others. + The sheriff, who is the summoner of ordinary juries, and the clerks + of courts, who have the nomination of special juries, are themselves + standing officers, and, acting individually, may be supposed more + accessible to the touch of corruption than the judges, who are a + collective body. It is not difficult to see, that it would be in + the power of those officers to select jurors who would serve the + purpose of the party as well as a corrupted bench. In the next + place, it may fairly be supposed, that there would be less + difficulty in gaining some of the jurors promiscuously taken from + the public mass, than in gaining men who had been chosen by the + government for their probity and good character. But making every + deduction for these considerations, the trial by jury must still be + a valuable check upon corruption. It greatly multiplies the + impediments to its success. As matters now stand, it would be + necessary to corrupt both court and jury; for where the jury have + gone evidently wrong, the court will generally grant a new trial, + and it would be in most cases of little use to practice upon the + jury, unless the court could be likewise gained. Here then is a + double security; and it will readily be perceived that this + complicated agency tends to preserve the purity of both institutions. + By increasing the obstacles to success, it discourages attempts to + seduce the integrity of either. The temptations to prostitution + which the judges might have to surmount, must certainly be much + fewer, while the co-operation of a jury is necessary, than they + might be, if they had themselves the exclusive determination of all + causes. +Notwithstanding, therefore, the doubts I have expressed, as to + the essentiality of trial by jury in civil cases to liberty, I admit + that it is in most cases, under proper regulations, an excellent + method of determining questions of property; and that on this + account alone it would be entitled to a constitutional provision in + its favor if it were possible to fix the limits within which it + ought to be comprehended. There is, however, in all cases, great + difficulty in this; and men not blinded by enthusiasm must be + sensible that in a federal government, which is a composition of + societies whose ideas and institutions in relation to the matter + materially vary from each other, that difficulty must be not a + little augmented. For my own part, at every new view I take of the + subject, I become more convinced of the reality of the obstacles + which, we are authoritatively informed, prevented the insertion of a + provision on this head in the plan of the convention. +The great difference between the limits of the jury trial in + different States is not generally understood; and as it must have + considerable influence on the sentence we ought to pass upon the + omission complained of in regard to this point, an explanation of it + is necessary. In this State, our judicial establishments resemble, + more nearly than in any other, those of Great Britain. We have + courts of common law, courts of probates (analogous in certain + matters to the spiritual courts in England), a court of admiralty + and a court of chancery. In the courts of common law only, the + trial by jury prevails, and this with some exceptions. In all the + others a single judge presides, and proceeds in general either + according to the course of the canon or civil law, without the aid + of a jury.1 In New Jersey, there is a court of chancery which + proceeds like ours, but neither courts of admiralty nor of probates, + in the sense in which these last are established with us. In that + State the courts of common law have the cognizance of those causes + which with us are determinable in the courts of admiralty and of + probates, and of course the jury trial is more extensive in New + Jersey than in New York. In Pennsylvania, this is perhaps still + more the case, for there is no court of chancery in that State, and + its common-law courts have equity jurisdiction. It has a court of + admiralty, but none of probates, at least on the plan of ours. + Delaware has in these respects imitated Pennsylvania. Maryland + approaches more nearly to New York, as does also Virginia, except + that the latter has a plurality of chancellors. North Carolina + bears most affinity to Pennsylvania; South Carolina to Virginia. I + believe, however, that in some of those States which have distinct + courts of admiralty, the causes depending in them are triable by + juries. In Georgia there are none but common-law courts, and an + appeal of course lies from the verdict of one jury to another, which + is called a special jury, and for which a particular mode of + appointment is marked out. In Connecticut, they have no distinct + courts either of chancery or of admiralty, and their courts of + probates have no jurisdiction of causes. Their common-law courts + have admiralty and, to a certain extent, equity jurisdiction. In + cases of importance, their General Assembly is the only court of + chancery. In Connecticut, therefore, the trial by jury extends in + PRACTICE further than in any other State yet mentioned. Rhode + Island is, I believe, in this particular, pretty much in the + situation of Connecticut. Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in + regard to the blending of law, equity, and admiralty jurisdictions, + are in a similar predicament. In the four Eastern States, the trial + by jury not only stands upon a broader foundation than in the other + States, but it is attended with a peculiarity unknown, in its full + extent, to any of them. There is an appeal OF COURSE from one jury + to another, till there have been two verdicts out of three on one + side. +From this sketch it appears that there is a material diversity, + as well in the modification as in the extent of the institution of + trial by jury in civil cases, in the several States; and from this + fact these obvious reflections flow: first, that no general rule + could have been fixed upon by the convention which would have + corresponded with the circumstances of all the States; and + secondly, that more or at least as much might have been hazarded by + taking the system of any one State for a standard, as by omitting a + provision altogether and leaving the matter, as has been done, to + legislative regulation. +The propositions which have been made for supplying the omission + have rather served to illustrate than to obviate the difficulty of + the thing. The minority of Pennsylvania have proposed this mode of + expression for the purpose ``Trial by jury shall be as + heretofore'' and this I maintain would be senseless and nugatory. + The United States, in their united or collective capacity, are the + OBJECT to which all general provisions in the Constitution must + necessarily be construed to refer. Now it is evident that though + trial by jury, with various limitations, is known in each State + individually, yet in the United States, AS SUCH, it is at this time + altogether unknown, because the present federal government has no + judiciary power whatever; and consequently there is no proper + antecedent or previous establishment to which the term HERETOFORE + could relate. It would therefore be destitute of a precise meaning, + and inoperative from its uncertainty. +As, on the one hand, the form of the provision would not fulfil + the intent of its proposers, so, on the other, if I apprehend that + intent rightly, it would be in itself inexpedient. I presume it to + be, that causes in the federal courts should be tried by jury, if, + in the State where the courts sat, that mode of trial would obtain + in a similar case in the State courts; that is to say, admiralty + causes should be tried in Connecticut by a jury, in New York without + one. The capricious operation of so dissimilar a method of trial in + the same cases, under the same government, is of itself sufficient + to indispose every wellregulated judgment towards it. Whether the + cause should be tried with or without a jury, would depend, in a + great number of cases, on the accidental situation of the court and + parties. +But this is not, in my estimation, the greatest objection. I + feel a deep and deliberate conviction that there are many cases in + which the trial by jury is an ineligible one. I think it so + particularly in cases which concern the public peace with foreign + nations that is, in most cases where the question turns wholly on + the laws of nations. Of this nature, among others, are all prize + causes. Juries cannot be supposed competent to investigations that + require a thorough knowledge of the laws and usages of nations; and + they will sometimes be under the influence of impressions which will + not suffer them to pay sufficient regard to those considerations of + public policy which ought to guide their inquiries. There would of + course be always danger that the rights of other nations might be + infringed by their decisions, so as to afford occasions of reprisal + and war. Though the proper province of juries be to determine + matters of fact, yet in most cases legal consequences are + complicated with fact in such a manner as to render a separation + impracticable. +It will add great weight to this remark, in relation to prize + causes, to mention that the method of determining them has been + thought worthy of particular regulation in various treaties between + different powers of Europe, and that, pursuant to such treaties, + they are determinable in Great Britain, in the last resort, before + the king himself, in his privy council, where the fact, as well as + the law, undergoes a re-examination. This alone demonstrates the + impolicy of inserting a fundamental provision in the Constitution + which would make the State systems a standard for the national + government in the article under consideration, and the danger of + encumbering the government with any constitutional provisions the + propriety of which is not indisputable. +My convictions are equally strong that great advantages result + from the separation of the equity from the law jurisdiction, and + that the causes which belong to the former would be improperly + committed to juries. The great and primary use of a court of equity + is to give relief IN EXTRAORDINARY CASES, which are EXCEPTIONS2 + to general rules. To unite the jurisdiction of such cases with the + ordinary jurisdiction, must have a tendency to unsettle the general + rules, and to subject every case that arises to a SPECIAL + determination; while a separation of the one from the other has the + contrary effect of rendering one a sentinel over the other, and of + keeping each within the expedient limits. Besides this, the + circumstances that constitute cases proper for courts of equity are + in many instances so nice and intricate, that they are incompatible + with the genius of trials by jury. They require often such long, + deliberate, and critical investigation as would be impracticable to + men called from their occupations, and obliged to decide before they + were permitted to return to them. The simplicity and expedition + which form the distinguishing characters of this mode of trial + require that the matter to be decided should be reduced to some + single and obvious point; while the litigations usual in chancery + frequently comprehend a long train of minute and independent + particulars. +It is true that the separation of the equity from the legal + jurisdiction is peculiar to the English system of jurisprudence: + which is the model that has been followed in several of the States. + But it is equally true that the trial by jury has been unknown in + every case in which they have been united. And the separation is + essential to the preservation of that institution in its pristine + purity. The nature of a court of equity will readily permit the + extension of its jurisdiction to matters of law; but it is not a + little to be suspected, that the attempt to extend the jurisdiction + of the courts of law to matters of equity will not only be + unproductive of the advantages which may be derived from courts of + chancery, on the plan upon which they are established in this State, + but will tend gradually to change the nature of the courts of law, + and to undermine the trial by jury, by introducing questions too + complicated for a decision in that mode. +These appeared to be conclusive reasons against incorporating + the systems of all the States, in the formation of the national + judiciary, according to what may be conjectured to have been the + attempt of the Pennsylvania minority. Let us now examine how far + the proposition of Massachusetts is calculated to remedy the + supposed defect. +It is in this form: ``In civil actions between citizens of + different States, every issue of fact, arising in ACTIONS AT COMMON + LAW, may be tried by a jury if the parties, or either of them + request it.'' +This, at best, is a proposition confined to one description of + causes; and the inference is fair, either that the Massachusetts + convention considered that as the only class of federal causes, in + which the trial by jury would be proper; or that if desirous of a + more extensive provision, they found it impracticable to devise one + which would properly answer the end. If the first, the omission of + a regulation respecting so partial an object can never be considered + as a material imperfection in the system. If the last, it affords a + strong corroboration of the extreme difficulty of the thing. +But this is not all: if we advert to the observations already + made respecting the courts that subsist in the several States of the + Union, and the different powers exercised by them, it will appear + that there are no expressions more vague and indeterminate than + those which have been employed to characterize THAT species of + causes which it is intended shall be entitled to a trial by jury. + In this State, the boundaries between actions at common law and + actions of equitable jurisdiction, are ascertained in conformity to + the rules which prevail in England upon that subject. In many of + the other States the boundaries are less precise. In some of them + every cause is to be tried in a court of common law, and upon that + foundation every action may be considered as an action at common + law, to be determined by a jury, if the parties, or either of them, + choose it. Hence the same irregularity and confusion would be + introduced by a compliance with this proposition, that I have + already noticed as resulting from the regulation proposed by the + Pennsylvania minority. In one State a cause would receive its + determination from a jury, if the parties, or either of them, + requested it; but in another State, a cause exactly similar to the + other, must be decided without the intervention of a jury, because + the State judicatories varied as to common-law jurisdiction. +It is obvious, therefore, that the Massachusetts proposition, + upon this subject cannot operate as a general regulation, until some + uniform plan, with respect to the limits of common-law and equitable + jurisdictions, shall be adopted by the different States. To devise + a plan of that kind is a task arduous in itself, and which it would + require much time and reflection to mature. It would be extremely + difficult, if not impossible, to suggest any general regulation that + would be acceptable to all the States in the Union, or that would + perfectly quadrate with the several State institutions. +It may be asked, Why could not a reference have been made to the + constitution of this State, taking that, which is allowed by me to + be a good one, as a standard for the United States? I answer that + it is not very probable the other States would entertain the same + opinion of our institutions as we do ourselves. It is natural to + suppose that they are hitherto more attached to their own, and that + each would struggle for the preference. If the plan of taking one + State as a model for the whole had been thought of in the + convention, it is to be presumed that the adoption of it in that + body would have been rendered difficult by the predilection of each + representation in favor of its own government; and it must be + uncertain which of the States would have been taken as the model. + It has been shown that many of them would be improper ones. And I + leave it to conjecture, whether, under all circumstances, it is most + likely that New York, or some other State, would have been preferred. + But admit that a judicious selection could have been effected in + the convention, still there would have been great danger of jealousy + and disgust in the other States, at the partiality which had been + shown to the institutions of one. The enemies of the plan would + have been furnished with a fine pretext for raising a host of local + prejudices against it, which perhaps might have hazarded, in no + inconsiderable degree, its final establishment. +To avoid the embarrassments of a definition of the cases which + the trial by jury ought to embrace, it is sometimes suggested by men + of enthusiastic tempers, that a provision might have been inserted + for establishing it in all cases whatsoever. For this I believe, no + precedent is to be found in any member of the Union; and the + considerations which have been stated in discussing the proposition + of the minority of Pennsylvania, must satisfy every sober mind that + the establishment of the trial by jury in ALL cases would have been + an unpardonable error in the plan. +In short, the more it is considered the more arduous will appear + the task of fashioning a provision in such a form as not to express + too little to answer the purpose, or too much to be advisable; or + which might not have opened other sources of opposition to the great + and essential object of introducing a firm national government. +I cannot but persuade myself, on the other hand, that the + different lights in which the subject has been placed in the course + of these observations, will go far towards removing in candid minds + the apprehensions they may have entertained on the point. They have + tended to show that the security of liberty is materially concerned + only in the trial by jury in criminal cases, which is provided for + in the most ample manner in the plan of the convention; that even + in far the greatest proportion of civil cases, and those in which + the great body of the community is interested, that mode of trial + will remain in its full force, as established in the State + constitutions, untouched and unaffected by the plan of the + convention; that it is in no case abolished3 by that plan; and + that there are great if not insurmountable difficulties in the way + of making any precise and proper provision for it in a Constitution + for the United States. +The best judges of the matter will be the least anxious for a + constitutional establishment of the trial by jury in civil cases, + and will be the most ready to admit that the changes which are + continually happening in the affairs of society may render a + different mode of determining questions of property preferable in + many cases in which that mode of trial now prevails. For my part, I + acknowledge myself to be convinced that even in this State it might + be advantageously extended to some cases to which it does not at + present apply, and might as advantageously be abridged in others. + It is conceded by all reasonable men that it ought not to obtain in + all cases. The examples of innovations which contract its ancient + limits, as well in these States as in Great Britain, afford a strong + presumption that its former extent has been found inconvenient, and + give room to suppose that future experience may discover the + propriety and utility of other exceptions. I suspect it to be + impossible in the nature of the thing to fix the salutary point at + which the operation of the institution ought to stop, and this is + with me a strong argument for leaving the matter to the discretion + of the legislature. +This is now clearly understood to be the case in Great Britain, + and it is equally so in the State of Connecticut; and yet it may be + safely affirmed that more numerous encroachments have been made upon + the trial by jury in this State since the Revolution, though + provided for by a positive article of our constitution, than has + happened in the same time either in Connecticut or Great Britain. + It may be added that these encroachments have generally originated + with the men who endeavor to persuade the people they are the + warmest defenders of popular liberty, but who have rarely suffered + constitutional obstacles to arrest them in a favorite career. The + truth is that the general GENIUS of a government is all that can be + substantially relied upon for permanent effects. Particular + provisions, though not altogether useless, have far less virtue and + efficacy than are commonly ascribed to them; and the want of them + will never be, with men of sound discernment, a decisive objection + to any plan which exhibits the leading characters of a good + government. +It certainly sounds not a little harsh and extraordinary to + affirm that there is no security for liberty in a Constitution which + expressly establishes the trial by jury in criminal cases, because + it does not do it in civil also; while it is a notorious fact that + Connecticut, which has been always regarded as the most popular + State in the Union, can boast of no constitutional provision for + either. +PUBLIUS. +1 It has been erroneously insinuated. with regard to the court + of chancery, that this court generally tries disputed facts by a + jury. The truth is, that references to a jury in that court rarely + happen, and are in no case necessary but where the validity of a + devise of land comes into question. +2 It is true that the principles by which that relief is + governed are now reduced to a regular system; but it is not the + less true that they are in the main applicable to SPECIAL + circumstances, which form exceptions to general rules. +3 Vide No. 81, in which the supposition of its being + abolished by the appellate jurisdiction in matters of fact being + vested in the Supreme Court, is examined and refuted. + + +FEDERALIST No. 84 + +Certain General and Miscellaneous Objections to the Constitution + Considered and Answered +From McLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +IN THE course of the foregoing review of the Constitution, I + have taken notice of, and endeavored to answer most of the + objections which have appeared against it. There, however, remain a + few which either did not fall naturally under any particular head or + were forgotten in their proper places. These shall now be + discussed; but as the subject has been drawn into great length, I + shall so far consult brevity as to comprise all my observations on + these miscellaneous points in a single paper. +The most considerable of the remaining objections is that the + plan of the convention contains no bill of rights. Among other + answers given to this, it has been upon different occasions remarked + that the constitutions of several of the States are in a similar + predicament. I add that New York is of the number. And yet the + opposers of the new system, in this State, who profess an unlimited + admiration for its constitution, are among the most intemperate + partisans of a bill of rights. To justify their zeal in this + matter, they allege two things: one is that, though the + constitution of New York has no bill of rights prefixed to it, yet + it contains, in the body of it, various provisions in favor of + particular privileges and rights, which, in substance amount to the + same thing; the other is, that the Constitution adopts, in their + full extent, the common and statute law of Great Britain, by which + many other rights, not expressed in it, are equally secured. +To the first I answer, that the Constitution proposed by the + convention contains, as well as the constitution of this State, a + number of such provisions. +Independent of those which relate to the structure of the + government, we find the following: Article 1, section 3, clause 7 + ``Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to + removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any + office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the + party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to + indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.'' + Section 9, of the same article, clause 2 ``The privilege of the + writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in + cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.'' + Clause 3 ``No bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be + passed.'' Clause 7 ``No title of nobility shall be granted by the + United States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust + under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of + any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from + any king, prince, or foreign state.'' Article 3, section 2, clause + 3 ``The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall + be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the + said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed + within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the + Congress may by law have directed.'' Section 3, of the same + article ``Treason against the United States shall consist only in + levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving + them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, + unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or + on confession in open court.'' And clause 3, of the same + section ``The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of + treason; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of + blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.'' + It may well be a question, whether these are not, upon the + whole, of equal importance with any which are to be found in the + constitution of this State. The establishment of the writ of + habeas corpus, the prohibition of ex-post-facto laws, and of + TITLES OF NOBILITY, TO WHICH WE HAVE NO CORRESPONDING PROVISION IN + OUR CONSTITUTION, are perhaps greater securities to liberty and + republicanism than any it contains. The creation of crimes after + the commission of the fact, or, in other words, the subjecting of + men to punishment for things which, when they were done, were + breaches of no law, and the practice of arbitrary imprisonments, + have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments + of tyranny. The observations of the judicious Blackstone,1 in + reference to the latter, are well worthy of recital: ``To bereave a + man of life, Õsays he,å or by violence to confiscate his estate, + without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act + of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout + the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly + hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, + is a less public, a less striking, and therefore A MORE DANGEROUS + ENGINE of arbitrary government.'' And as a remedy for this fatal + evil he is everywhere peculiarly emphatical in his encomiums on the + habeas-corpus act, which in one place he calls ``the BULWARK of + the British Constitution.''2 +Nothing need be said to illustrate the importance of the + prohibition of titles of nobility. This may truly be denominated + the corner-stone of republican government; for so long as they are + excluded, there can never be serious danger that the government will + be any other than that of the people. +To the second that is, to the pretended establishment of the + common and state law by the Constitution, I answer, that they are + expressly made subject ``to such alterations and provisions as the + legislature shall from time to time make concerning the same.'' + They are therefore at any moment liable to repeal by the ordinary + legislative power, and of course have no constitutional sanction. + The only use of the declaration was to recognize the ancient law + and to remove doubts which might have been occasioned by the + Revolution. This consequently can be considered as no part of a + declaration of rights, which under our constitutions must be + intended as limitations of the power of the government itself. +It has been several times truly remarked that bills of rights + are, in their origin, stipulations between kings and their subjects, + abridgements of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of + rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was MAGNA CHARTA, + obtained by the barons, sword in hand, from King John. Such were + the subsequent confirmations of that charter by succeeding princes. + Such was the PETITION OF RIGHT assented to by Charles I., in the + beginning of his reign. Such, also, was the Declaration of Right + presented by the Lords and Commons to the Prince of Orange in 1688, + and afterwards thrown into the form of an act of parliament called + the Bill of Rights. It is evident, therefore, that, according to + their primitive signification, they have no application to + constitutions professedly founded upon the power of the people, and + executed by their immediate representatives and servants. Here, in + strictness, the people surrender nothing; and as they retain every + thing they have no need of particular reservations. ``WE, THE + PEOPLE of the United States, to secure the blessings of liberty to + ourselves and our posterity, do ORDAIN and ESTABLISH this + Constitution for the United States of America.'' Here is a better + recognition of popular rights, than volumes of those aphorisms which + make the principal figure in several of our State bills of rights, + and which would sound much better in a treatise of ethics than in a + constitution of government. +But a minute detail of particular rights is certainly far less + applicable to a Constitution like that under consideration, which is + merely intended to regulate the general political interests of the + nation, than to a constitution which has the regulation of every + species of personal and private concerns. If, therefore, the loud + clamors against the plan of the convention, on this score, are well + founded, no epithets of reprobation will be too strong for the + constitution of this State. But the truth is, that both of them + contain all which, in relation to their objects, is reasonably to be + desired. +I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and + to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only + unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be + dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not + granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable + pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that + things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for + instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not + be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be + imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a + regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men + disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power. + They might urge with a semblance of reason, that the Constitution + ought not to be charged with the absurdity of providing against the + abuse of an authority which was not given, and that the provision + against restraining the liberty of the press afforded a clear + implication, that a power to prescribe proper regulations concerning + it was intended to be vested in the national government. This may + serve as a specimen of the numerous handles which would be given to + the doctrine of constructive powers, by the indulgence of an + injudicious zeal for bills of rights. +On the subject of the liberty of the press, as much as has been + said, I cannot forbear adding a remark or two: in the first place, + I observe, that there is not a syllable concerning it in the + constitution of this State; in the next, I contend, that whatever + has been said about it in that of any other State, amounts to + nothing. What signifies a declaration, that ``the liberty of the + press shall be inviolably preserved''? What is the liberty of the + press? Who can give it any definition which would not leave the + utmost latitude for evasion? I hold it to be impracticable; and + from this I infer, that its security, whatever fine declarations may + be inserted in any constitution respecting it, must altogether + depend on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people + and of the government.3 And here, after all, as is intimated + upon another occasion, must we seek for the only solid basis of all + our rights. +There remains but one other view of this matter to conclude the + point. The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that + the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every + useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS. The several bills of rights in + Great Britain form its Constitution, and conversely the constitution + of each State is its bill of rights. And the proposed Constitution, + if adopted, will be the bill of rights of the Union. Is it one + object of a bill of rights to declare and specify the political + privileges of the citizens in the structure and administration of + the government? This is done in the most ample and precise manner + in the plan of the convention; comprehending various precautions + for the public security, which are not to be found in any of the + State constitutions. Is another object of a bill of rights to + define certain immunities and modes of proceeding, which are + relative to personal and private concerns? This we have seen has + also been attended to, in a variety of cases, in the same plan. + Adverting therefore to the substantial meaning of a bill of rights, + it is absurd to allege that it is not to be found in the work of the + convention. It may be said that it does not go far enough, though + it will not be easy to make this appear; but it can with no + propriety be contended that there is no such thing. It certainly + must be immaterial what mode is observed as to the order of + declaring the rights of the citizens, if they are to be found in any + part of the instrument which establishes the government. And hence + it must be apparent, that much of what has been said on this subject + rests merely on verbal and nominal distinctions, entirely foreign + from the substance of the thing. +Another objection which has been made, and which, from the + frequency of its repetition, it is to be presumed is relied on, is + of this nature: ``It is improper Õsay the objectorså to confer such + large powers, as are proposed, upon the national government, because + the seat of that government must of necessity be too remote from + many of the States to admit of a proper knowledge on the part of the + constituent, of the conduct of the representative body.'' This + argument, if it proves any thing, proves that there ought to be no + general government whatever. For the powers which, it seems to be + agreed on all hands, ought to be vested in the Union, cannot be + safely intrusted to a body which is not under every requisite + control. But there are satisfactory reasons to show that the + objection is in reality not well founded. There is in most of the + arguments which relate to distance a palpable illusion of the + imagination. What are the sources of information by which the + people in Montgomery County must regulate their judgment of the + conduct of their representatives in the State legislature? Of + personal observation they can have no benefit. This is confined to + the citizens on the spot. They must therefore depend on the + information of intelligent men, in whom they confide; and how must + these men obtain their information? Evidently from the complexion + of public measures, from the public prints, from correspondences + with theirrepresentatives, and with other persons who reside at the + place of their deliberations. This does not apply to Montgomery + County only, but to all the counties at any considerable distance + from the seat of government. +It is equally evident that the same sources of information would + be open to the people in relation to the conduct of their + representatives in the general government, and the impediments to a + prompt communication which distance may be supposed to create, will + be overbalanced by the effects of the vigilance of the State + governments. The executive and legislative bodies of each State + will be so many sentinels over the persons employed in every + department of the national administration; and as it will be in + their power to adopt and pursue a regular and effectual system of + intelligence, they can never be at a loss to know the behavior of + those who represent their constituents in the national councils, and + can readily communicate the same knowledge to the people. Their + disposition to apprise the community of whatever may prejudice its + interests from another quarter, may be relied upon, if it were only + from the rivalship of power. And we may conclude with the fullest + assurance that the people, through that channel, will be better + informed of the conduct of their national representatives, than they + can be by any means they now possess of that of their State + representatives. +It ought also to be remembered that the citizens who inhabit the + country at and near the seat of government will, in all questions + that affect the general liberty and prosperity, have the same + interest with those who are at a distance, and that they will stand + ready to sound the alarm when necessary, and to point out the actors + in any pernicious project. The public papers will be expeditious + messengers of intelligence to the most remote inhabitants of the + Union. +Among the many curious objections which have appeared against + the proposed Constitution, the most extraordinary and the least + colorable is derived from the want of some provision respecting the + debts due TO the United States. This has been represented as a + tacit relinquishment of those debts, and as a wicked contrivance to + screen public defaulters. The newspapers have teemed with the most + inflammatory railings on this head; yet there is nothing clearer + than that the suggestion is entirely void of foundation, the + offspring of extreme ignorance or extreme dishonesty. In addition + to the remarks I have made upon the subject in another place, I + shall only observe that as it is a plain dictate of common-sense, so + it is also an established doctrine of political law, that ``STATES + NEITHER LOSE ANY OF THEIR RIGHTS, NOR ARE DISCHARGED FROM ANY OF + THEIR OBLIGATIONS, BY A CHANGE IN THE FORM OF THEIR CIVIL GOVERNMENT.''4 + The last objection of any consequence, which I at present + recollect, turns upon the article of expense. If it were even true, + that the adoption of the proposed government would occasion a + considerable increase of expense, it would be an objection that + ought to have no weight against the plan. +The great bulk of the citizens of America are with reason + convinced, that Union is the basis of their political happiness. + Men of sense of all parties now, with few exceptions, agree that it + cannot be preserved under the present system, nor without radical + alterations; that new and extensive powers ought to be granted to + the national head, and that these require a different organization + of the federal government a single body being an unsafe depositary + of such ample authorities. In conceding all this, the question of + expense must be given up; for it is impossible, with any degree of + safety, to narrow the foundation upon which the system is to stand. + The two branches of the legislature are, in the first instance, to + consist of only sixty-five persons, which is the same number of + which Congress, under the existing Confederation, may be composed. + It is true that this number is intended to be increased; but this + is to keep pace with the progress of the population and resources of + the country. It is evident that a less number would, even in the + first instance, have been unsafe, and that a continuance of the + present number would, in a more advanced stage of population, be a + very inadequate representation of the people. +Whence is the dreaded augmentation of expense to spring? One + source indicated, is the multiplication of offices under the new + government. Let us examine this a little. +It is evident that the principal departments of the + administration under the present government, are the same which will + be required under the new. There are now a Secretary of War, a + Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a Secretary for Domestic Affairs, a + Board of Treasury, consisting of three persons, a Treasurer, + assistants, clerks, etc. These officers are indispensable under any + system, and will suffice under the new as well as the old. As to + ambassadors and other ministers and agents in foreign countries, the + proposed Constitution can make no other difference than to render + their characters, where they reside, more respectable, and their + services more useful. As to persons to be employed in the + collection of the revenues, it is unquestionably true that these + will form a very considerable addition to the number of federal + officers; but it will not follow that this will occasion an + increase of public expense. It will be in most cases nothing more + than an exchange of State for national officers. In the collection + of all duties, for instance, the persons employed will be wholly of + the latter description. The States individually will stand in no + need of any for this purpose. What difference can it make in point + of expense to pay officers of the customs appointed by the State or + by the United States? There is no good reason to suppose that + either the number or the salaries of the latter will be greater than + those of the former. +Where then are we to seek for those additional articles of + expense which are to swell the account to the enormous size that has + been represented to us? The chief item which occurs to me respects + the support of the judges of the United States. I do not add the + President, because there is now a president of Congress, whose + expenses may not be far, if any thing, short of those which will be + incurred on account of the President of the United States. The + support of the judges will clearly be an extra expense, but to what + extent will depend on the particular plan which may be adopted in + regard to this matter. But upon no reasonable plan can it amount to + a sum which will be an object of material consequence. +Let us now see what there is to counterbalance any extra expense + that may attend the establishment of the proposed government. The + first thing which presents itself is that a great part of the + business which now keeps Congress sitting through the year will be + transacted by the President. Even the management of foreign + negotiations will naturally devolve upon him, according to general + principles concerted with the Senate, and subject to their final + concurrence. Hence it is evident that a portion of the year will + suffice for the session of both the Senate and the House of + Representatives; we may suppose about a fourth for the latter and a + third, or perhaps half, for the former. The extra business of + treaties and appointments may give this extra occupation to the + Senate. From this circumstance we may infer that, until the House + of Representatives shall be increased greatly beyond its present + number, there will be a considerable saving of expense from the + difference between the constant session of the present and the + temporary session of the future Congress. +But there is another circumstance of great importance in the + view of economy. The business of the United States has hitherto + occupied the State legislatures, as well as Congress. The latter + has made requisitions which the former have had to provide for. + Hence it has happened that the sessions of the State legislatures + have been protracted greatly beyond what was necessary for the + execution of the mere local business of the States. More than half + their time has been frequently employed in matters which related to + the United States. Now the members who compose the legislatures of + the several States amount to two thousand and upwards, which number + has hitherto performed what under the new system will be done in the + first instance by sixty-five persons, and probably at no future + period by above a fourth or fifth of that number. The Congress + under the proposed government will do all the business of the United + States themselves, without the intervention of the State + legislatures, who thenceforth will have only to attend to the + affairs of their particular States, and will not have to sit in any + proportion as long as they have heretofore done. This difference in + the time of the sessions of the State legislatures will be clear + gain, and will alone form an article of saving, which may be + regarded as an equivalent for any additional objects of expense that + may be occasioned by the adoption of the new system. +The result from these observations is that the sources of + additional expense from the establishment of the proposed + Constitution are much fewer than may have been imagined; that they + are counterbalanced by considerable objects of saving; and that + while it is questionable on which side the scale will preponderate, + it is certain that a government less expensive would be incompetent + to the purposes of the Union. +PUBLIUS. +1. Vide Blackstone's ``Commentaries,'' vol. 1., p. 136. +2. Vide Blackstone's ``Commentaries,'' vol. iv., p. 438. +3. To show that there is a power in the Constitution by which + the liberty of the press may be affected, recourse has been had to + the power of taxation. It is said that duties may be laid upon the + publications so high as to amount to a prohibition. I know not by + what logic it could be maintained, that the declarations in the + State constitutions, in favor of the freedom of the press, would be + a constitutional impediment to the imposition of duties upon + publications by the State legislatures. It cannot certainly be + pretended that any degree of duties, however low, would be an + abridgment of the liberty of the press. We know that newspapers + are taxed in Great Britain, and yet it is notorious that the press + nowhere enjoys greater liberty than in that country. And if duties + of any kind may be laid without a violation of that liberty, it is + evident that the extent must depend on legislative discretion, + respecting the liberty of the press, will give it no greater + security than it will have without them. The same invasions of it + may be effected under the State constitutions which contain those + declarations through the means of taxation, as under the proposed + Constitution, which has nothing of the kind. It would be quite as + significant to declare that government ought to be free, that taxes + ought not to be excessive, etc., as that the liberty of the press + ought not to be restrained. + + +FEDERALIST No. 85 + +Concluding Remarks +From MCLEAN's Edition, New York. + +HAMILTON + +To the People of the State of New York: +ACCORDING to the formal division of the subject of these papers, + announced in my first number, there would appear still to remain for + discussion two points: ``the analogy of the proposed government to + your own State constitution,'' and ``the additional security which + its adoption will afford to republican government, to liberty, and + to property.'' But these heads have been so fully anticipated and + exhausted in the progress of the work, that it would now scarcely be + possible to do any thing more than repeat, in a more dilated form, + what has been heretofore said, which the advanced stage of the + question, and the time already spent upon it, conspire to forbid. +It is remarkable, that the resemblance of the plan of the + convention to the act which organizes the government of this State + holds, not less with regard to many of the supposed defects, than to + the real excellences of the former. Among the pretended defects are + the re-eligibility of the Executive, the want of a council, the + omission of a formal bill of rights, the omission of a provision + respecting the liberty of the press. These and several others which + have been noted in the course of our inquiries are as much + chargeable on the existing constitution of this State, as on the one + proposed for the Union; and a man must have slender pretensions to + consistency, who can rail at the latter for imperfections which he + finds no difficulty in excusing in the former. Nor indeed can there + be a better proof of the insincerity and affectation of some of the + zealous adversaries of the plan of the convention among us, who + profess to be the devoted admirers of the government under which + they live, than the fury with which they have attacked that plan, + for matters in regard to which our own constitution is equally or + perhaps more vulnerable. +The additional securities to republican government, to liberty + and to property, to be derived from the adoption of the plan under + consideration, consist chiefly in the restraints which the + preservation of the Union will impose on local factions and + insurrections, and on the ambition of powerful individuals in single + States, who may acquire credit and influence enough, from leaders + and favorites, to become the despots of the people; in the + diminution of the opportunities to foreign intrigue, which the + dissolution of the Confederacy would invite and facilitate; in the + prevention of extensive military establishments, which could not + fail to grow out of wars between the States in a disunited + situation; in the express guaranty of a republican form of + government to each; in the absolute and universal exclusion of + titles of nobility; and in the precautions against the repetition + of those practices on the part of the State governments which have + undermined the foundations of property and credit, have planted + mutual distrust in the breasts of all classes of citizens, and have + occasioned an almost universal prostration of morals. +Thus have I, fellow-citizens, executed the task I had assigned + to myself; with what success, your conduct must determine. I trust + at least you will admit that I have not failed in the assurance I + gave you respecting the spirit with which my endeavors should be + conducted. I have addressed myself purely to your judgments, and + have studiously avoided those asperities which are too apt to + disgrace political disputants of all parties, and which have been + not a little provoked by the language and conduct of the opponents + of the Constitution. The charge of a conspiracy against the + liberties of the people, which has been indiscriminately brought + against the advocates of the plan, has something in it too wanton + and too malignant, not to excite the indignation of every man who + feels in his own bosom a refutation of the calumny. The perpetual + changes which have been rung upon the wealthy, the well-born, and + the great, have been such as to inspire the disgust of all sensible + men. And the unwarrantable concealments and misrepresentations + which have been in various ways practiced to keep the truth from the + public eye, have been of a nature to demand the reprobation of all + honest men. It is not impossible that these circumstances may have + occasionally betrayed me into intemperances of expression which I + did not intend; it is certain that I have frequently felt a + struggle between sensibility and moderation; and if the former has + in some instances prevailed, it must be my excuse that it has been + neither often nor much. +Let us now pause and ask ourselves whether, in the course of + these papers, the proposed Constitution has not been satisfactorily + vindicated from the aspersions thrown upon it; and whether it has + not been shown to be worthy of the public approbation, and necessary + to the public safety and prosperity. Every man is bound to answer + these questions to himself, according to the best of his conscience + and understanding, and to act agreeably to the genuine and sober + dictates of his judgment. This is a duty from which nothing can + give him a dispensation. 'T is one that he is called upon, nay, + constrained by all the obligations that form the bands of society, + to discharge sincerely and honestly. No partial motive, no + particular interest, no pride of opinion, no temporary passion or + prejudice, will justify to himself, to his country, or to his + posterity, an improper election of the part he is to act. Let him + beware of an obstinate adherence to party; let him reflect that the + object upon which he is to decide is not a particular interest of + the community, but the very existence of the nation; and let him + remember that a majority of America has already given its sanction + to the plan which he is to approve or reject. +I shall not dissemble that I feel an entire confidence in the + arguments which recommend the proposed system to your adoption, and + that I am unable to discern any real force in those by which it has + been opposed. I am persuaded that it is the best which our + political situation, habits, and opinions will admit, and superior + to any the revolution has produced. +Concessions on the part of the friends of the plan, that it has + not a claim to absolute perfection, have afforded matter of no small + triumph to its enemies. ``Why,'' say they, ``should we adopt an + imperfect thing? Why not amend it and make it perfect before it is + irrevocably established?'' This may be plausible enough, but it is + only plausible. In the first place I remark, that the extent of + these concessions has been greatly exaggerated. They have been + stated as amounting to an admission that the plan is radically + defective, and that without material alterations the rights and the + interests of the community cannot be safely confided to it. This, + as far as I have understood the meaning of those who make the + concessions, is an entire perversion of their sense. No advocate of + the measure can be found, who will not declare as his sentiment, + that the system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, + upon the whole, a good one; is the best that the present views and + circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as + promises every species of security which a reasonable people can + desire. +I answer in the next place, that I should esteem it the extreme + of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national + affairs, and to expose the Union to the jeopardy of successive + experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a perfect plan. I never + expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the + deliberations of all collective bodies must necessarily be a + compound, as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense + and wisdom, of the individuals of whom they are composed. The + compacts which are to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common + bond of amity and union, must as necessarily be a compromise of as + many dissimilar interests and inclinations. How can perfection + spring from such materials? +The reasons assigned in an excellent little pamphlet lately + published in this city,1 are unanswerable to show the utter + improbability of assembling a new convention, under circumstances in + any degree so favorable to a happy issue, as those in which the late + convention met, deliberated, and concluded. I will not repeat the + arguments there used, as I presume the production itself has had an + extensive circulation. It is certainly well worthy the perusal of + every friend to his country. There is, however, one point of light + in which the subject of amendments still remains to be considered, + and in which it has not yet been exhibited to public view. I cannot + resolve to conclude without first taking a survey of it in this + aspect. +It appears to me susceptible of absolute demonstration, that it + will be far more easy to obtain subsequent than previous amendments + to the Constitution. The moment an alteration is made in the + present plan, it becomes, to the purpose of adoption, a new one, and + must undergo a new decision of each State. To its complete + establishment throughout the Union, it will therefore require the + concurrence of thirteen States. If, on the contrary, the + Constitution proposed should once be ratified by all the States as + it stands, alterations in it may at any time be effected by nine + States. Here, then, the chances are as thirteen to nine2 in + favor of subsequent amendment, rather than of the original adoption + of an entire system. +This is not all. Every Constitution for the United States must + inevitably consist of a great variety of particulars, in which + thirteen independent States are to be accommodated in their + interests or opinions of interest. We may of course expect to see, + in any body of men charged with its original formation, very + different combinations of the parts upon different points. Many of + those who form a majority on one question, may become the minority + on a second, and an association dissimilar to either may constitute + the majority on a third. Hence the necessity of moulding and + arranging all the particulars which are to compose the whole, in + such a manner as to satisfy all the parties to the compact; and + hence, also, an immense multiplication of difficulties and + casualties in obtaining the collective assent to a final act. The + degree of that multiplication must evidently be in a ratio to the + number of particulars and the number of parties. +But every amendment to the Constitution, if once established, + would be a single proposition, and might be brought forward singly. + There would then be no necessity for management or compromise, in + relation to any other point no giving nor taking. The will of the + requisite number would at once bring the matter to a decisive issue. + And consequently, whenever nine, or rather ten States, were united + in the desire of a particular amendment, that amendment must + infallibly take place. There can, therefore, be no comparison + between the facility of affecting an amendment, and that of + establishing in the first instance a complete Constitution. +In opposition to the probability of subsequent amendments, it + has been urged that the persons delegated to the administration of + the national government will always be disinclined to yield up any + portion of the authority of which they were once possessed. For my + own part I acknowledge a thorough conviction that any amendments + which may, upon mature consideration, be thought useful, will be + applicable to the organization of the government, not to the mass of + its powers; and on this account alone, I think there is no weight + in the observation just stated. I also think there is little weight + in it on another account. The intrinsic difficulty of governing + thirteen States at any rate, independent of calculations upon an + ordinary degree of public spirit and integrity, will, in my opinion + constantly impose on the national rulers the necessity of a spirit + of accommodation to the reasonable expectations of their + constituents. But there is yet a further consideration, which + proves beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the observation is + futile. It is this that the national rulers, whenever nine States + concur, will have no option upon the subject. By the fifth article + of the plan, the Congres will be obliged ``on the application of the + legislatures of two thirds of the States Õwhich at present amount to + nineå, to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be + valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution, + when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the States, or + by conventions in three fourths thereof.'' The words of this + article are peremptory. The Congress ``shall call a convention.'' + Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that body. + And of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to + a change vanishes in air. Nor however difficult it may be supposed + to unite two thirds or three fourths of the State legislatures, in + amendments which may affect local interests, can there be any room + to apprehend any such difficulty in a union on points which are + merely relative to the general liberty or security of the people. + We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to + erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority. +If the foregoing argument is a fallacy, certain it is that I am + myself deceived by it, for it is, in my conception, one of those + rare instances in which a political truth can be brought to the test + of a mathematical demonstration. Those who see the matter in the + same light with me, however zealous they may be for amendments, must + agree in the propriety of a previous adoption, as the most direct + road to their own object. +The zeal for attempts to amend, prior to the establishment of + the Constitution, must abate in every man who is ready to accede to + the truth of the following observations of a writer equally solid + and ingenious: ``To balance a large state or society Õsays heå, + whether monarchical or republican, on general laws, is a work of so + great difficulty, that no human genius, however comprehensive, is + able, by the mere dint of reason and reflection, to effect it. The + judgments of many must unite in the work; experience must guide + their labor; time must bring it to perfection, and the feeling of + inconveniences must correct the mistakes which they INEVITABLY fall + into in their first trials and experiments.''3 These judicious + reflections contain a lesson of moderation to all the sincere lovers + of the Union, and ought to put them upon their guard against + hazarding anarchy, civil war, a perpetual alienation of the States + from each other, and perhaps the military despotism of a victorious + demagogue, in the pursuit of what they are not likely to obtain, but + from time and experience. It may be in me a defect of political + fortitude, but I acknowledge that I cannot entertain an equal + tranquillity with those who affect to treat the dangers of a longer + continuance in our present situation as imaginary. A nation, + without a national government, is, in my view, an awful spectacle. + The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by + the voluntary ocnsent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the + completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I can + reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have, + in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of the thirteen States, + and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground, + to recommence the course. I dread the more the consequences of new + attempts, because I know that powerful individuals, in this and in + other States, are enemies to a general national government in every + possible shape. +PUBLIUS. +1 Entitled ``An Address to the People of the State of New + York.'' +2 It may rather be said TEN, for though two thirds may set on + foot the measure, three fourths must ratify. +3 Hume's ``Essays,'' vol. i., page 128: ``The Rise of Arts and + Sciences.'' + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fedres.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fedres.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..499749fc --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fedres.txt @@ -0,0 +1,319 @@ + + + TAXES AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE + + How would you like to own a business where no one in + government knew who you are . . . where the IRS never + questioned you and only the lowest of lower minor bureau- + crats has his hand in your pocket . . . for real estate + taxes only . . . and no one in government dared to approach + or reproach you ? . . . You are indeed the king of the + mountain and the ignorant American citizens are paying you + over 17 1/2 million dollars PER HOUR OF EVERY DAY! NO taxes + . . no control . . . how sweet. This is not science fiction + nor a story about fairies or leprechauns . . . there is such + an outfit in our country that pays no taxes except real + estate taxes. + If they pay no federal income, state income or other + taxes, guess who has to make up the difference? That's + right . . . you and I are the jerks who pay the 17 mil per + hour and make up their share of taxes. Who is this evader + of taxes? The Federal Reserve System! + But you say they're part of the Federal Government-- + at least under some government control. WRONG! This is + what they want you to believe but it's a fairy tale! The + Fed is NOT an agency of the federal government and neither + does any division of government control their actions or + policies. It has the same relationship to the federal + government as the Federal Express or your local Federal Meat + Market. NONE. It is a privately owned banking system. + The Federal Reserve is a central bank, similar to + central banks around the world. These include the Bank of + England, the Bank of France, the Bundesbank of Germany and + Banco de Mexico. No government in the world controls a + central bank; the opposite is true. These banks tell people + and governments where to go . . what to do and they answer + to no one! + Banks conjure images of vaults overflowing with stacks + of money. What is money? ". . . (a) Standard pieces of + gold, silver, copper, nickel, etc., stamped by government + authority and used as a medium of exchange and measure of + value; coin or coins; also called hard money. (b) any paper + note issued by a government or an authorized bank and used + in the same way; bank notes; bills; also called paper + money." (Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary). + Random House dictionary defines a note as "any of + various types of instruments covering debts, as a promissory + note." Now take a fast look at the dollar bill in your + pocket. It tells you it's a 'Federal Reserve Note'! It's + an instrument covering debt, created out of thin air, only a + credit entry on bank books. This secret outfit controls our + money and tells us what it's worth. + Is that legal? Let's find out. What does our + Constitution have to say about money? First, Congress has + the authority to "borrow money on the credit of the United + States." This corrects a defect in the original Articles of +  + Confederation. Today, we see the result of unrestrained use + of this power when Congress proposes raising the debt + ceiling. + Next we find "Congress shall have the Power . . . To + coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin + . ." + Not one word in our Constitution allows our money to be + a piece of paper with numbers printed on it. To coin money + does not mean to print money. + The colonists had over one hundred years experience + with paper money. They were known as Bills of Credit back + then. Bad money experiences left a nasty taste in the + mouths of most at the Constitutional Convention in Philadel- + phia. Their plan was to stop the use of paper money. They + added a monetary constraint to the document which prohibits + any state from 'making any Thing but gold and silver Coin a + Tender in the Payment of Debts'. This requirement slapped + the responsibility right on the states to keep our money + honest. We have a constitutional right to real money. + Debasement of our money is so complete that we now have + ersatz pennies and coated copper coins replace our silver + coins. This is a travesty! + Paper money is a good deal for government. A worthless + piece of paper with a number printed on it tells us it's + worth ten dollars, one hundred dollars . . . or one thousand + dollars. + In the upper left corner of that paper dollar in your + pocket is the statement, "This note is legal tender for all + debts, public and private". That's a cockeyed lie! Gold + and silver coin are the ONLY legal tender allowed by the + Constitution. + The Coinage Act of 1792 defined our money and specifies + our coins are to be of gold and silver. This is still a + valid act of the Congress . . . Congress has never repealed + it. + Congress is ordered to regulate the value of foreign + coin. Yet today we have foreign exchange markets where the + value of our dollar floats in relationship to foreign + currency. This is so unconstitutional as to border on the + edge of criminal. + How did we get into this situation concerning our + money? Let's unravel a web of intrigue and deceit. Central + banks were common in Europe before World War I and they + decided to set up the same system in the United States. + Earlier in our history, we had two central banks. Fortu- + nately, at those times, we had Presidents who valued and + respected their oath to preserve the Constitution. Our + government did not renew these bank charters and they died a + quiet death. However, there is no charter requiring renewal + under the Federal Reserve Act. They have a perpetual + license to steal. + The late eighteen and early nineteen hundreds saw a + major campaign by international bankers to get a new central + bank established in this country. The first character we +  + find in this story is Paul Moritz Warburg from Hamburg, + Germany. He represented a large European banking family, + the Rothschilds. These are the people who once said, + "Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I + care not who makes the laws!" + The Rothschilds bankrolled Warburg in 1902. His + mission? To convince major bankers and industrialists that + a private central bank was the answer to America's economic + ills. In addition to whatever money Warburg needed to buy + into New York money houses, they paid him half a million a + year . . . a tidy sum even today. Rothschild knew what + fabulous profits there would be after they set up the + private bank. And they were right . . . 17 million bucks + per hour ain't shabby. + Warburg spent eight years around the country preaching + his false economics. There were many conspirators in this + goal to control the United States' economy. One greedy and + powerful character was US Senator Nelson Aldrich. (Yes, + Nelson Rockefeller's grandfather.) Congress often denounced + Aldrich for the disregard of his oath of office as he + devoted his power and energies to the program of inter- + national finance. + Strange happenings began the night of November 22, 1910 + when reporters received a tip that some very important + people from New York city would be arriving at the train + station in Hoboken, New Jersey. Along with Warburg and + Aldrich, reporters identified the biggest names in banking + and industry and included many government officials. These + men controlled the oil, railroads, communications and heavy + industry in this country. + Not one man would talk to reporters. They all dis- + appeared into the last car on the train, a private car owned + by Aldrich. Drawing all shades, they left reporters + scratching their heads on the reason for these movers and + shakers being there. There wasn't a hint on the destination + of the train or reasons for the secrecy. + Thirty years later, some details of that trip emerged. + Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, was where these big + shots travelled and came up with the bill creating the pri- + vately owned bank for United States. True to Rothschilds, + they knew once they had control of our money, it wouldn't + make any difference who makes the laws. + Deception was immediate. The conspirators knew that + the representatives from Southern and Western states would + never agree to any bill suggesting a central bank or control + by Wall Street money. The first try to get the private bank + bill through Congress was called the Aldrich Plan. People + fought back and in 1911, they defeated the bill. + This kind of greed doesn't die. It was only a minor + set back. Their final triumph occurred in 1913. Warburg + insisted the bill go back into Congress as the Federal + Reserve Act to hide that it was the same bill defeated + earlier. + The lackeys pushed the bill through Congress on +  + December 22, 1913 after most members had gone home for the + Christmas holidays. President Woodrow Wilson signed it into + law the very next day. America's independence disappeared. + The preamble to the Federal Reserve Act tells us the + purposes of the Act are "to provide for the establishment of + Federal Reserve Banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to + afford a means of rediscounting commercial paper, to + establish a more effective supervision of banking in the + United States, and for other purposes." + 'Elastic currency'? That's the same as rubber money. + Rediscounting is a system where member banks borrow credit + from the central bank. This allows fluctuations in the + discount rate and enables the Fed to control the money + supply of the nation. Rediscounting influences the total + outstanding credit on commercial paper and government bonds. + In this way, the central reserve bank can expand or contract + the money supply at will. They can now manufacture boom + times or depressions whenever it strikes their fancy. + And with all the bank and Savings and Loan closures, + it's clear they were effective in their duty to exercise + supervision of banking in the United States. Or . . . was + that planned? + 'And for other purposes' -- what does that mean? Is + that the all encompassing clause which removes all restric- + tions? Warburg and his lackeys knew exactly what they were + doing. + The Act gave authority (?) for a private banking system + to create 'money' out of thin air. We find proof of this + from hearings before the House Committee on Banking and + Currency, September 30, 1941. Representative Wright Patman + of Texas asked Federal Reserve Governor Marriner Eccles: + "How did you get the money to buy those two billion dollars + worth of Government securities in 1933?" + Eccles replied: "We created it." + Patman asks: "Out of what?" + Eccles: "Out of the right to issue credit money." + Patman: "And there is nothing behind it, is there, + except our Government's credit?" + Eccles: "That is what our money system is. If there + were no debts in our money system, there wouldn't be any + money." + See now why your dollar bill is called a note? + This interview is from the Congressional Record and is + also in an exceptional book by Eustace Mullins, called The + Federal Reserve Conspiracy, (Omni Publications, Hawthorne, + CA., 1971). + The money we use today has its basis in debt, not + wealth. This funny money, contrived by a private banking + cartel for their profit, now controls our economy. And, + speaking of profit, our government does NOT know who owns + The Federal Reserve system or whether they are even American + citizens for that matter. How does that grab you? + Let's check interest payments again. They demand + payment in full and on time every year. Breaking down the +  + $17.6 million per hour means we shell out over $226,000 + every time your heart beats. Over a quarter of a million of + our bucks! + One requirement of the Federal Reserve Act orders the + system to have an annual public audit. The Fed has NEVER + had a public audit. When questioned about this, the Fed + answers that they are continually audited . . . BY THEM- + SELVES! They do not address the word 'public'. It's like + having the fox count the hens in the chicken house. + When someone questions their legality, the Fed responds + with, "Would you rather have the control of money in the + hands of politicians and politics?" Politicians are, at + least in theory, responsible to the people. But what's more + important, the Constitution orders Congress [politicians] to + control the value of our money! Honest money is a guaran- + tee. There is not one instance in history to show that + politicians have ever destroyed the value of money . . . + it's only been done by international bankers. + We read that Congress shall coin money and regulate its + value. Whenever you see the words 'Congress shall', it's a + COMMAND! There is NO option or permission in our Constitu- + tion to delegate congressional duties to another govern- + mental body, and certainly not to a private cartel. + If this isn't clear thus far, let's take a quick look + at the Tenth Amendment . . THE POWERS NOT DELEGATED TO THE + UNITED STATES BY THE CONSTITUTION, NOR PROHIBITED BY IT TO + THE STATES, ARE RESERVED TO THE STATES RESPECTIVELY OR TO + THE PEOPLE. If we didn't precisely grant the power, they + don't have it. + Our Constitution gives NO authority for the Federal + Reserve system. Neither is there any permission for our + government to be in any type of banking business. (FDIC, + FSLIC, IMF, World Bank, etc, etc.) Congress is breaking the + law . . . and their oath to support our Constitution. As a + result, they saddle us with debt which they call money. + This control of Americans is so thorough, it effects even + the little kid with pennies in a piggy bank. + Write a letter to any Fed Reserve bank and ask a + question about money. The question is unimportant, but pay + attention to the return envelope. It will bear a stamp. + All government mail has a Roman styled eagle printed in the + upper right corner. If the Fed was a government entity, it + would also use a franked envelope! + To show that no one in our government has any say-so in + the activities of the Fed, an under-secretary of the + Treasury appeared on PBS. He said the government would like + to see the Federal Reserve increase the money supply to + allow for a more moderate growth. More wishful thinking is + for the Fed to lower the discount rate . . . the rate they + charge member banks when they borrow money. What drivel! + They have just been forced to lower the discount rate. + It has to be that the economy has gone much more sour than + even the Fed expected. Strange, isn't it? The condition of + the economy is all a result of previous actions by the Fed! +  + There are a lot of theories out there . . . please make up + your own mind as events unfold. + This brings up another point Americans should question + ... ownership of gold by the Federal government. Our gold + is supposedly at Ft. Knox, Kentucky safely stored under- + ground. But, is it? No one really knows and congressmen + have been unable to get into the vaults to be sure of its + existence. Why is it that we've heard nothing about this + alleged storage lately? + These are public monies entrusted to the government. + Just where is our gold? If it's not at Ft. Knox, what + happened to it? Is it possible it's already in a secret + vault under the Seine River in Paris? Letters to the + Secretary of the Treasury and members of Congress might just + revive interest on this crucial issue. Answers should be + very interesting. + Is it also possible that our gold is no longer at Ft. + Knox because of shady manipulations involving the Federal + Reserve System? International bankers have been moving our + gold out of the country for over 100 years. What went wrong + is clear. Our money problems are all a result of a law + which Congress had no power to enact which permits this + financial fiasco. + Question your Senators and Representatives about this + violation of constitutional powers. The only way our + government can make ANY change in the basic operation is + with our consent through the amendment process! We have to + demand that Congress take away the power to create 'money' + from a private bank and fulfill their constitutional duty to + issue honest money. + If Congress refuses to perform its duty, we should + throw them all out of office and elect honest people to the + positions. + Your taxes have gone wild ONLY because of unconstitu- + tional practices by our government. I have pointed out + another one of their illegal deals. When do we get a handle + on this crap? It's up to you! Today we're holding the + dirty end of a short stick! + + + YOUR SUPPORT OF SHAREWARE IS IMPORTANT AND APPRECIATED! + + PLEASE REGISTER . . . ONLY $19.95  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fedtimes.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fedtimes.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..74c06dfa --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fedtimes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,190 @@ +** This is an interesting article which appeared in Federal Times +Magazine a few years ago. This article has some good information, but +it also shows how the IRS and the Media work together to spread fear +and misinformation. + + + + + FEDERAL TIMES + + JUNE 3, 1991 + +The Independent Newspaper +For Those in Public Service + + +One Man Who Refuses to Pay Taxes + +NASA Engineer in "Voluntary Non-Compliance" Since 1984 + +By Anne Laurent + + + Have you ever looked at your pay stub and dreamed what it would +be like to take hone the before-tax amount? + + Doug Ross doesn't dream about it, he does it. And he doesn't pay +the income taxes later, either. + + Ross, 35, is a GS-13 electrical engineer with NASA's Goddard +Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. Ross says he take home as much +as most GS-15s because he has neither filed nor paid income taxes +since 1984. + + "The system is based on voluntary compliance, and I stopped +volunteering," Ross said. + + Not only has he stopped paying taxes, but Ross is encouraging +others, including other federal employees, not to file returns or pay +taxes, either. Since 1989, Ross has held seminars on not paying taxes +every other Saturday from September to April. + + Recently, Ross said he spoke to a lunchtime crowd in an +auditorium at Goddard, where the Black History Club presented the +seminar. + + Larry Watson, Goddard general counsel, said there are 40 private +groups operating at Goddard with authority to use the center's +facilities to promote the welfare of employees. The center would not +try to control the speech of any of the groups, Watson said. + + "If people have control over their financial resources over their +financial resources they are essentially slaves and can't prosper in +capitalist society," Ross said. + + Ross said his inspiration not to pay taxes came when he saw Irwin +Schiff (*) on television. Schiff counsels citizens not to pay and has +written books on the subject. "How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Tax" +was the title that first caught Ross's eye. + + "I called the IRS and asked questions about it, and they hung up +on me. I thought, okay, when the IRS hangs up on you, you must be +asking the right questions," said Ross. + + Ross said he has received innumerable notices of tax liability +and penalties from the IRS, but his salary keeps on coming. + + "They send you notices, but, like I tell people, I get junk mail +every day. Once I stopped filing they sent form letters asking me +why. But we tell people how to respond: "I have no tax liability.'" +Ross said. + + So how does he get away with it? + + Ross said he simply filed a W-4 form with NASA saying he was +exempt from taxes, and they have not been withheld since. + + "When I started, people I work with would say, 'I'll see you in +jail.' Now when I tell people I saved another $18,000 this year, I'm +single and I make over $50,000 a year...I am a government employee. +If I was violating any law my agency would be an accomplice," Ross +said. + + "Also, I'm the easiest type of person to get to. All they would +have to say is 'stop the checks.'" + + In fact, through the tax system is based on voluntary compliance, +citizens are legally bound to pay income taxes if they meet the filing +standards, and employers are required to withhold taxes, according to +Frank Keith, IRS spokesman. + + Only those who had no tax liability for the prior year and expect +none in the current year are candidates for exemption, Keith said. + + Further, employers are supposed to send IRS the W-4s of employees +claiming exemption at a certain salary level, or above, and those +employees claiming an excessive number of withholding allowances. + + IRS determines whether W-4s claiming exemption should be honored +and informs the employer. Employers who fail to withhold may face +penalties, Keith said. + + "The current system is described as voluntary. You complete the +tax form, no one tells you what the tax is. Are you legally required +to pay? Yes," Keith added. + + Thats where Doug Ross disagrees. + + "It's either voluntary or it's not. The attorney general doesn't +say criminal statutes are voluntary. You don't hear of traffic laws +being based on voluntary compliance. + + "Voluntary means done of your own volition without coercion or +legal obligation. No one forces the IRS to say it's voluntary. + + "You don't figure out your own sales, taxes, real estate taxes, +property taxes. You're not required to figure them out, and it's +under your control because you can choose whether or not to buy stuff +or own property," Ross said. + + Nonetheless, Ross is under IRS investigation. + + He said the last IRS report of tax examination changer he +remembers looking at said he owed $15,000 or $16,000 in 1989. + + +SEE TAXES, PAGE 17 + + + TAXES + + From Page 3 + + + Keith said citizens who are liable for taxes and fail to file +face civil prosecution. The IRS can assess taxes using the +information it has about a person's salary level from W-2 forms and +other income reporting forms from financial institutions. + + IRS can levy bank accounts, seize property and take other +collection actions against those who fail to pay taxes. If the agency +determines a willful, egregious intent not to pay, it can refer to +case to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, Keith said. + + Though the IRS hasn't taken Ross to court, he has a lawsuit +pending against the agency in New York district court. He is fighting +a summons the agency issued against one of his financial institutions +headquartered in New York. + + Ross, who calls himself a "tax system educator," said the best +proof of the correctness of his position is his own experience. + + "The best proof is that I work for the federal government, and +I'm still getting paid," he said. + + In fact, Ross said everything he tells people is straight from +government documents. And Ross is so sure of himself, he plans to +challenge his agency next. + + "I got a [financial] award for a technical brief, and they took +out tax withholding. I'm going to jump on them," he said. + + Goddard's Watson said he could not discuss the specifics of Ross' +case because the Privacy Act forbids it. He did say he has personally +informed Ross he disagrees with Ross' position on taxes. + + Goddard reports employee W-4s to the IRS, Watson said, and it is +up to the tax agency to take action. + + "We have done everything we believe we can," Watson said. + + Watson also said to his knowledge Goddard has not been instructed +to take any "unusual action" regarding an employee W-4s. + + + +** Irwin Schiff is the Author of "How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income +Taxes" A little note, because he published this book and 'embarrassed +' the government he was thrown in jail at a "RIGGED" court hearing. A +txt file will be available soon. + + +These files are free to all, the Sixth Column provides these copied +documents at no charge to the public. In an effort to "Educate" the +public to what the Law actually means. All information is duplicated +EXACTLY as in the original. + + Lestat De Lioncourt + The Sixth Column + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/femaact.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/femaact.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8c2db104 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/femaact.txt @@ -0,0 +1,205 @@ + + +FEMA's activation sets the stage for rule by decree +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +By Kathleen Klenetsky + + + "In the developed countries there will be a bitter struggle for + the control of their diminished resources. This struggle will + merely worsen a bad situation; it will somehow have to be + stopped. If left unchecked, it would lead to anarchy and to a + drastic reduction of the size of the population by civil war, + famine, and pestilence, the historic reducers of populations that + have outgrown their means of subsistence. Consequently in all + developed countries, a new way of life -- a severely regimented + way -- will have to be imposed by a ruthless authoritarian + government." + + -- Arnorld Toynbee ("After the age of affluence," _The Skeptic_, + July-Aug 1974) + + +Of all the signs during early November that the Bush administration was +lunging toward a cataclysmic conflict in the Persian Gulf, one of the most +ominous was the five day, closed-door meeting with the Federal Emergency +Management Agency (FEMA) convened in Atlanta during the week of November 5. + +Despite its innocuous-sounding name, FEMA serves as a framework for the +anti-constitutional, authoritarian regime envisioned by British strategic +games master Arnold Toynbee in the article quoted above. It is now +mobilizing for precisely that purpose. + +Since Bush launched his "Operation Desert Shield" in August, preparations +for a FEMA dictatorship, under the guise of a national security crisis +induced by either an oil shortage or a war, have dominated +behind-the-scenes planning at the National Security Council, which controls +FEMA and it's activation. + +The process has been shrouded in secrecy. FEMA spokesmen adamantly refused +to provide any information about the agency's Atlanta meeting, other than +to confirm that it was taking place. However, enough information has leaked +out to fuel speculation that Bush will soon utilize the vast array of +stand-by emergency powers available to him. + +Over the last few weeks, FEMA has drafted new legislation that would expand +its already formidable powers, allowing it, for example, to set up +operations in any state or locality, without the prior permission of local +or state authorities, as is currently required. + +'Emergency' fascism? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +WE are not arguing in this report that emergency preparedness or emergency +measures are unnecessary and inappropriate under any and all circumstances. +What we are saying is that the Bush administration is dead set on using the +pretext of a national security crisis to carry out a set of policies which +violate the U.S. constitution, and are inimical to the interests of the +vast majority of the U.S. population. Bush is being impelled toward +exercising emergency powers by the same circumstances that are behind his +drive for war: the economic collapse of the Anglo-American financial +superstructure. The principle reason that Bush wants a war with Iraq, is to +set a precedent for reviving the savage colonialist policy of looting Third +World countries. + +This is deemed necessary by the Anglo-American elite, because their failed +policies of "post-industrialism" and speculation have made it impossible to +pay Third World countries a just and fair price for their oil, minerals, +and other commodities. Rather than change their own economic policies, +Bush, Thatcher, and their elite controllers have opted for misery on a +global scale. + +By the same token, Bush needs an excuse to wield emergency powers because +of the economic depression in the United States. As exemplified by the +budget wranglings of the past six months, the administration has decided to +deal with the nation's economic woes not by stimulating investment in +agriculture, manufacturing, and hi-tech industries, but by looting the +living standard of the middle, and working class. + +But the depths of the depression the United States has entered will require +austerity on a scale that cannot be accomplished within the framework of +constitutional government -- at least not without risking a popular upsurge +that could overturn the administration and its policies. + +Thus, the Iraq conflict -- which, as EIR has documented, was deliberately +setup by the United States and Great Britain -- has provided Bush with the +long-sought-for chance to ram austerity down the throats of Americans, +while establishing a genocidal U.S. policy towards the nations of the Third +World. + +FEMA's police state +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Should the American people resist, FEMA is prepared to step in with +police-state measures. In its July 5, 1987 issue, the Miami Herald +published a revealing expose on FEMA's plans to rip up the Constitution in +the event of a national crisis. + +Written by Alfonso Chardy, the article reported that between 1982-1984, +FEMA revised its contingency plans for dealing with "nuclear war, +insurrection, or a massive mobilization." [See HERALD.TXT.] + +Chardy reported that National Security Council staffer LT. COL. Oliver +North assisted FEMA in drawing up "a controversial plan to suspend the +constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as nuclear war, +violent and wide spread internal dissent or _national opposition to a U.S. +military invasion abroad_" (Emphasis added). The last eventuality is of +special significance under the present circumstances of growing domestic +opposition to Bush's war plans in the Gulf. + +The Plan "also advocated the roundup and transfer to 'assembly centers or +relocation camps' of at least 21 million" black Americans. In 1984, FEMA +ran its "Rex 84" exercise (one of many such exercises, almost all of them +classifies, which FEMA regularly carries out in conjunction with the +Defense Department), to test its upgraded capabilities and powers. The +"Rex 84" scenario was based on a superpower confrontation over Central +America which would lead to a nuclear war. Included in the scenario was a +roundup of Central American refugees who had poured over the boarders into +the United States, and who were placed in detention camps located on U.S. +military bases. The scenario also called for the imposition of martial law +in the United States, to quell an anti-war movement. + +Substitute Middle East for Central America, and war with Iraq for a +superpower confrontation, and you've got the Bush Administration -- FEMA +script for suppressing any opposition to U.S. participation in the Gulf +conflict. A still-secret National Security Directive decision (No. 52), +issued by President Reagan in August 1982, pertains to the "Use of National +Guard Troops to Quell Disturbances." + +Bush: The American Mussolini +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Bush is the perfect candidate to be the American Mussolini. His patrician +background and intimate ties to the U.S. Intelligence community (he served +as the director of the CIA in the mid-1970s), have inculcated in him a +contempt for constitutional and representational government. That has been +nowhere more evident than in his recent response from pleadings from +Capital Hill that he consult with Congress on the Gulf conflict. In +defiance of the constitutions provision that only Congress has the right to +declare war, Bush has refused. + +During the Reagan years, Bush insinuated himself into the heart of the +administration's vast crisis-planning apparatus, getting himself appointed +the head of Special Situations Group, which effectively placed him in +charge of all crisis management. + +Bush signaled his intention to use crisis management as the means of +imposing emergency police-state rule just a week after the election. One +of his first acts after winning the presidency was to persuade Ronald +Reagan to issue Executive Order 12656, which we excerpted at length in the +_Documentation_ section -- a chilling blueprint for an emergency +dictatorship with FEMA at the helm. + +Blank check for crisis management +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +If Bush does decide to use the Gulf crisis as an excuse to declare a +national emergency, he has a virtual blank check to do what he pleases +period. "The President has a broad range of emergency powers available to +him in a crisis," a White House spokesman confirmed. According to Harold +Relyea, a specialist at the Congressional Research Service, the powers +available to the President under conditions of a national security crisis +are "wide open. . . there is probably not a whole lot circumscribing the +Presidents's authority to use certain statutes, some of which require a +declaration of national emergency, some of which don't." + +These powers are based on a huge body of executive orders, national +security directives, and legislation that has evolved since WWII. In +addition to the various executive orders and national security directives +described elsewhere in the report, some of the most important of these +include: + +* the National Security Act of 1947, under which FEMA draws its authority, +among other things, to effect the strategic relocation of industries, +services, government, and other essential activities, and to rationalize the +requirements for manpower, resources, and productive facilities. + +* the 1950 Defense Production Act, which gives the president sweeping +powers over all aspects of the economy; + +* the Act of August 29, 1916, which authorizes the Secretary of the Army, +in time of war, to take possession of any transportation system for +transportation of troops, materiel, or any other purpose related to the +emergency; + +* the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which enables the +President to seize the property of a Foreign capital or national. + +In addition, numerous measures exist that are specifically designed to be +invoked in event of a cutoff of U.S. energy supplies, which would likely +occur should fighting break out in the Gulf. + +These include: the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which establishes +the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and establishes separate energy priorities +and allocation authority to be coordinated with the national defense +authorities and allocations system set up by the Defense Production Act; +the Energy Security Act of 1980; the Naval Petroleum Reserve Act, which +establishes the naval petroleum and oil shale reserve and authorizes the +Navy to seize or acquire transportation pipelines to transport the +petroleum; the Export Administration Act and the Trade Expansion Act, which +authorize the President to control exports and imports; and the Energy +Emergency Preparedness Act of 1982. + +EIR, Nov 23, 1990, (pg.20) + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/femabust.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/femabust.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..31e61dab --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/femabust.txt @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + HELP BUNGLED AND DISORGANIZED + + By Martin Mann and George Nicholas + Exclusive to The SPOTLIGHT + + +Washington, DC -- One after another, two violent, cataclysmic disasters +struck the United States in the fall of 1989. Hurricane Hugo roared +through the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Carolinas in September. +Within weeks, northern California was shaken by the Loma Prieta earthquake +that left hundreds of thousands of victims and billions of dollars in +damage in its wake. + + Having spent "over $25 billion on setting up FEMA," American taxpayers +were entitled to expect "quick and efficient help" from it in the face of +such shattering calamities. But the response by the Federal Emergency +Management Agency (FEMA) to these upheavals was "bungled" and +"disorganized," says Ray Groover, who reported on the hurricane for a San +Juan, Puerto Rico, newspaper and is now studying for a graduate degree in +journalism at Columbia University in New York. + + Since the Disaster Relief Act of 1988, FEMA has been responsible for +coordinating the "[disaster] preparedness, response and recovery actions of +state and local governments." Unable to live up to these responsibilities +during the 1989 crisis, the agency drew sharp criticism from the press and +from Congress, whose leaders assigned the General Accounting Office (GAO) +to conduct the first-ever detailed investigation of FEMA. + + For a year, GAO field examiners interviewed hundreds of disaster +victims, state and local relief workers, journalists and other witnesses. +The agency has assembled a 71-page report on U.S. relief operations. + + WATCHDOG AGENCY RATES FEMA + + Having obtained an advance copy of that survey, a team of SPOTLIGHT +reporters found that the congressional watchdog agency rated FEMA's ability +to deal with natural disasters as being "inefficient," "weak" and +"dilatory." + + Noting that "emergency management includes three phases: +preparedness, response and recovery," GAO probers warned that FEMA failed +to operate "as efficiently as possible" in all these areas. + + There was evidence of "inadequate planning ... inadequate or no +standard operating procedures ... [and a] lack of coordination" wherever +FEMA's bureaucrats intervened, the GAO report concluded. Among the results +of these botched relief attempts were "delays in providing disaster +assistance and duplicate payments for some [of FEMA's] activities," the +congressional overseers discovered. + + One example of FEMA's failure cited by the GAO survey team involved +4,000 low-income units wholly destroyed in California's devastating October +1989 earthquake. "Thirteen months later, only 114 units had been processed +and approved for [rehabilitation] funding," the report reveals. Similarly, +10 months after Hurricane Hugo, most of the families left homeless "had not +yet been provided with housing assistance from FEMA." + + DIRECTORS SHELL GAME + + Warned that the GAO report will expose FEMA as incompetent and +wasteful, President George Bush fired agency Director Julius Becton, an +elderly three-star general, whose principal qualifications for flag rank +was Henry Kissinger's wish to promote "minority" officers, Defense +Department sources say. + + Becton was replace by Wallace Stickney, a former New Hampshire state +official whose colorless and low-profile reputation is expected to dampen +the fireworks the GAO report might otherwise touch off about the inadequacy +of federal relief operations. + + But simply shifting directors "does not answer the real question: If +[FEMA officials] seem uninterested and negligent when it comes to disaster +response, what are FEMA's thousands of bureaucrats working on?" asked +Groover. + + The answer, a SPOTLIGHT investigation has found, is that FEMA's +leadership is developing programs that will not merely "[ensure] the +continuity of the federal government in any national emergency-type +situation," as decreed by President Gerald Ford in Executive Order 11921, +but REPLACE the nation's Constitutional statecraft with a centralized +"command system." + + +----------------- + +Reproduced with permission from a special supplement to _The Spotlight_, +May 25, 1992. This text may be freely reproduced provided acknowledgement +to The Spotlight appears, including this address: + + The SPOTLIGHT + 300 Independence Avenue, SE + Washington, DC 20003 + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/femarule.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/femarule.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a4ca0ad2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/femarule.txt @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@ + + +FEMA's structure for fascist rule +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +By Kathleen Klenetsky and Herbert Quinde + + "You have an authoritarian structure. . .with FEMA." + + --Harold Relyea, chief specialist on presidential + directives at the Congressional Research Service, + in an interview with EIR. + +The Federal Emergency Management Agency was founded during the presidency +of one Trilateral Commission member, Jimmy Carter, and it seems +increasingly likely that its fundamental purpose -- to seize control of the +reins of government through emergency fiat -- will be realized under the +presidency of another, George Bush. + +The Trilateral link is no accident. Together with the other leading +Eastern Establishment think tank, the New York Council on Foreign Relations +(CFR), the Trilateral Commission effectively brought FEMA into existence. + +The leading theoreticians behind the creation of FEMA were Samuel +Huntington, a National Security Council consultant under Carter, and +Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as Carter's national security advisor. +Before that, Brzezinski was executive director at the Trilateral +Commission, a "New Ager" who envisioned a "technetronic society" in the +United States. Nominally a Democrat, Brzezinski nevertheless became a +leading adviser on strategic policy to George Bush's 1988 campaign, and +continues to serve as an informal consultant to the Bush administration. +Huntington is currently a member of the FEMA Advisory Board. Both +Huntington and Brzezinski belong to the CFR. + +FEMA was established in March 1979 by presidential Review Memorandum 32, +with the mandate to maintain "the continuity of government" (COG) during a +national security emergency. PRM 32 bypassed the U.S. Constitution, and +awarded power to the _unelected_ officials at the National Security Council +to direct U.S. government operations by emergency decree. By placing FEMA +under the NSC's control, Huntington, Brzezinski, et al., turning the NSC +into a shadow technocratic dictatorship, waiting for a real or manufactured +crisis to seize control of the country. + +Although FEMA was sold to Congress and the public as the vehicle through +which the United States could mount an adequate, centralized response to +natural and other disasters, the agency has consistently failed to fulfill +that purpose. In its last major interventions, in 1989's San Francisco +earthquake and Hurricane Hugo, FEMA's ineptness and bungling enraged +disaster victims and local officials. FEMA was more interested in +psychologically profiling the population's response to the disasters, than +it was in assisting their physical survival. That was typical of FEMA's +10-year record, which began with its panic-mongering handling of the Three +Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979. + +Burying the Constitution +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +FEMA has proven by it's own actions that it is not a disaster preparedness +agency. Its true purpose is found in the 1970s policy decisions of the CFR +and the Trilateral Commission, decisions which ushered in the +"post-industrial society" and "limits to growth" era which brought the +United States into the current depression. + +It is clear from viewing these policy decisions, that the Establishment had +made a conscious decision to deal with economic contraction and concomitant +social unrest by resorting to fascist emergency rule and other forms of +"fascism with a democratic face." + +In one of the earliest Trilateral Commission reports, "The Crisis of +Democracy," published in 1975, Huntington demanded that democratic +government be curbed in times of economic crisis. "We have come to +recognize that there are potentially desirable limits to economic growth," +he stated. "There are also potentially desirable _limits to the indefinite +extension of political democracy_. . . . A government which lacks +authority. . .will have little ability, short or cataclysmic crisis to +_impose on its people the sacrifice which may be necessary_" (emphasis +added). + +In 1973, the Council of Foreign Relations launched its "1980s Project," +which it called the "largest single effort in our 55-year history." By its +own account, the 1980s Project was aimed at "describing how world trends +might be steered toward a particular desirable future outcome." Zbigniew +Brzezinski belonged to the 1980s Project's governing body, and Samuel +Huntington served on its coordinating group. + +Among the most important products of the project was _Alternatives to +Monetary Disorder_, by the late Fred Hirsch, senior adviser to the +International Monetary Fund. Hirsch wrote: "A degree of controlled +disintegration in the world of economy is a legitimate objective for the +1980s and may be order. A central normative problem for the international +economic order in the years ahead is how to ensure that the disintegration +indeed occurs in a controlled way and does not rather spiral into damaging +restrictionism." + +"Controlled disintegration" became the policy of Jimmy Carter's Federal +Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, whose high interest rates wrecked the U.S. +industrial and farm base during the Carter and Reagan years. + +Another Key 1980s Project document was _International Disaster Relief_, by +Stephen Green. It predicted that the future will bring about +"megadisasters" that will "create conditions of political instability and, +in all likelihood, of conflict, which will further erode the capacity of +societies to cope with natural disasters." + +Green recommended rapid implementation of new disaster preparedness +efforts. He called for the creation of a central, global agency, under the +United Nations, with a mandate to intervene in disaster situations, despite +opposition from local governments. "Such a shift," he wrote, "would +reflect increasingly widespread _dissatisfaction with the constraints posed +by the recognition of sovereign national jurisdictions" and the "abstract +notion of national sovereignty" (emphasis added). + +"Disaster relief" thus became an excuse for tossing out existing forms of +government which stand in the way of fascist economic policies (for which +"sacrifice" and "controlled disintegration" are merely euphemisms) which +the Eastern Establishment has decided must be imposed. + +Oliver North and FEMA +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +FEMA's powers have been enhanced during the Reagan and Bush administrations +to the point that the agency is now positioned to take over the country in +the event of a national security crisis, such as a war with Iraq or an +interruption of oil-imports. + +A preview of FEMA dictatorship can be found in the Iran-Contra affair. One +of the key components of the FEMA apparatus is a group of 100 persons it +has positioned throughout the government bureaucracy. Known as the +"continuity of government" (COG) structure, these 100 individuals are +charged with running government departments in times of crisis. One member +of this group was none other than Oliver North -- whom President Bush +called a "national hero." + +Bush was at the center of both the Iran-Contra fiasco, and the broader +FEMA-linked crisis management apparatus set up during the Reagan years. In +early 1982, Reagan created the Special Situations Group (SSG), designating +Vice President Bush as chairman. + +In May 1982, the Reagan administration is sued a memorandum which announced +that the SSG "is charged, _inter alia_ with formulating plans in +anticipation of crisis. In order to facilitate this crisis pre-planned +responsibility, a Standing Crisis Pre-Planning Group (CPPG) is hereby +established." + +North was assigned to the CPPG -- and later helped to write the 1984 "Rex" +exercise for police-state rule in the United States. + +Through an outgrowth of this structure, the Iran-Contra controllers wielded +extraordinary power and ran various foreign and domestic initiates, +including the overthrow of President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines +through what became the Project Democracy apparatus, the Iran-Contra +affair, and the government's effort to jail Lyndon LaRouche, who was +rightly seen as a major threat to the FEMA network's "government by fiat" +scheme. (As EIR has previously reported, Buster Horton, the foreman of the +jury which found LaRouche guilty on trumped-up charges in December 1988, +belonged to the same 100-man COG structure as North.) + +On July 22, 1982, President Reagan issued his National Security Decision +Directive 47 to complement the operations of the SSG and CPPG. Titled +"Emergency Mobilization Preparedness," NSDD 47 defined the responsibilities +of federal departments and branches of the U.S. government to respond to a +national security crisis or domestic emergency. The president charged the +Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board with implementing the programs +detailed in the directive, which included a restriction of civil rights, +bordering on explicit police-state measures (see accompanying article -- +"12656.TXT"). + +As one of his first acts in office, Bush issued National Security Directive +1, which boosted the powers of the National Security Council, the body that +runs FEMA. + +Bush also stacked the FEMA leadership with "old boys" from the intelligence +and covert operations networks, among them Jerry Jennings, who was +confirmed as a FEMA deputy director in May. Jenning's background includes +nearly a decade of White House service as an advisor to the President's +national security adviser under four administrations, beginning in 1973. +Before that, he worked with the CIA in the Far East during the gear up for +the Vietnam War (1965-68), and for the FBI, where he specialized in drugs. + +EIR Nov 23, 1990 (pg.23) + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/feudal.dic b/textfiles.com/politics/feudal.dic new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e1454f5d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/feudal.dic @@ -0,0 +1,748 @@ +TERMS (By Michael Adams aka Morgoth, c. November 1988) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + FEUDAL TERMS OF ENGLAND + (and other places) + A +========================================================================== +ABBEY: A monastic community of either monks or nuns. Ruled by an (m.) +Abbot or (f.) Abbess Usually founded by a particular monastic order and +bound by their rules. Abbeys many times owe some form of feudal obligation +to a lord/lady or higher organization. Basically they are self contained +with all basic function performed by the residents and needs from the +local area. + +ABJURATION: A renunciation, under oath, of heresy to the Christian faith, +made by a Christian wishing to be reconciled with the church. + +ADULTERINE CASTLE: A castle build with out a persons liege lords approval. + +AMERCEMENT: A financial penalty inflicted at the MERCY of the king or his +justices for various minor offences. The offender is said to be "IN MERCY" +and the monies paid to the crown to settle the matter is called +"amercement" (See also Fines). + +ANATHEMA: A condemnation of heretics, similar in effect to major +excommunication. It inflicts the penalty of complete exclusion from +Christian society. + +APOSTATE: The term used to describe one who leaves religious orders after +making solemn profession. It is considered a serious crime in the eyes of +the church, being not only a breach of faith with God but also with the +founders and benefactors of their religious house. + +ARD-RIGH (Ir.): High King in Gaelic. RIGH meaning King. + +ARPENT: A measure of land roughly equal to a modern acre. + +ASSART: To turn woodlands into pasture or cropland. To assart lands within +a forest with out license is a grave offence. + +ASSIZE: The meeting of feudal vassals with the king it also refers to +decrees issued by the king after such meetings. + +ASYLUM (Right of/Also called Right of Sanctuary) The right for a Bishop to +protect an fugitive from justice or to intercede on his behalf. Once +asylum is granted the fugitive cannot be removed, until after a months +time. Fugitives who find Asylum must pledge an oath of adjuration never to +return to the realm, after which they are free to find passage to the +borders of the realm by the fastest way. If found within the borders after +a months time they may be hunted down as before with no right of asylum to +be granted ever again. + +AUGUSTINIAN CANONS: Religious/Monastic rules based on Love of God and +Neighbor, respect for authority, care of the sick, and self-discipline. +========================================================================== +. +========================================================================== + B +========================================================================== +BAN: A King's power to command and prohibit under pain of punishment or +death, mainly used because of a break in the King's Peace. Also a royal +proclamation, either of a call to arms, or a decree of outlawry. In +clerical terms, an excommunication on condemnation by the church. + +BANALITIES: Fees which a feudal lord imposes on his serfs for the use of +his mill, oven, wine press, or similar facilities. It some times includes +part of a fish catch or the proceeds from a rabbit warren. + +BARBER-SURGEON: Monastic who shaves faces/heads and performs light surgery. + +BARD: A minstrel or poet who glorifies the virtues of the people and +chieftains. + +BARON: A vassal who holds directly from the crown and serves as a member +of the king's great council. It is not, of itself, a title, but rather a +description of the Tenants in Chief class of nobility. + +BARROW: An earthen burial mound. + +BELTANE EVE: The night of April 30, one of the two times of the year when +mortal rules are believed to be suspended and supernatural occurrences are +most common. Sometimes called May Day Eve. See Samhain Eve. + +BENEDICTINE ORDER: Monastic order founded by St. Benedictine. Monks take +vows of personal poverty, chastity and obedience to their abbot and the +Benedictine Rule. + +BENEFICE (L. beneficium): A grant of land given to a member of the +aristocracy, a Bishop, or a monastery, for limited or hereditary use in +exchange for services. In ecclesiastic terms, a benefice is a church +office that returns revenue. Also known as a the fee, feud, or fief coming +from the Germanic feofum which comes from the Frankish "fehu" and "od" +meaning live stock and movable possessions or property "chattel". + +BENEFIT OF CLERGY: A privilege enjoyed by members of the clergy, including +tonsured clerks, placing them beyond the jurisdiction of secular courts. + +BLACK CANON: A common name for Augustinian Canons, derived from the color +of their robes. + +BLACK MONKS: A common name for members of the Benedictine Order derived +from the color of the habits. + +BORDERS (The): Name given to the Border lands between the Avalonian Empire +and else where. + +BOROUGH (also burg, burgh and burh): A tow with the right of self +government granted by royal charter. + +BOROUGH-ENGLISH: A term which designates the custom of ultimogeniture +(All lands inherited by the youngest son). + +BREHON LAWS (also called Feinechus): An ancient Gaelic legal system. + +BURGESS: The holder of land or house within a borough. +========================================================================== +. +========================================================================== + C +=========================================================================== +CANONS: See elsewhere for definition. + +CANTREF: A welsh political and administrative division, similar to English +shires. + +CARDINAL VIRTUES: Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice. + +CARUCATE: A measurement of land, equal to a hide (used in Danelaw) + +CASTLE: Fortification: + Arrow Loop: A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which + arrows could be fired from inside. + Bailey: Castle year or Ward. + Barbican: The gateway or outworks defending the drawbridge. + Bastion: A small tower at the end of a curtain wall or in the middle of + the outside wall. + Batter: A sloping part of a curtain wall. The sharp angle at the base + of all walls and towers along their exterior surface. + Battlement: A narrow wall built along the outer edge of the wall walk + to protect the soldiers against attack. + Berm: Flat space between the base of the curtain wall and the inner + edge of the moat. + Cesspit: The opening in a wall in which the waste from one or more + garderobes was collected. + Corbel: A projecting block of stone built into a wall during + construction. + Crenelation: Battlement. + Daub: A mud of clay mixture applied over wattle to strengthen and seal + it. + Drawbridge: A heavy timber platform built to span a moat between a gate + house and surrounding land that could be raised when required to block + an entrance. + Dungeon: The jail, usually found in one of the towers. + Embrasure: The low segment of the altering high and low segments of a + battlement. + Finial: A slender piece of stone used to decorate the tops of the + merlons. + Foundation: + Garderobe: A small latrine or toilet either built into the thickness of + the wall or projected out from it. + Gate House: The complex of towers, bridges, and barriers built to + protect each entrance through a castle or town wall. + Great Hall: The building in the inner ward that housed the main meeting + and dining area for the castle's residence. + Half-timber: The common form of medieval construction in which walls + were made of a wood frame structure filled with wattle and daub. + Hoarding: A temporary wooden balcony suspended from the tops of walls + and towers before a battle, from which missiles and arrows could be + dropped or fired accurately toward the base of the wall. + Inner Curtain: The high wall the surrounds the inner ward. + Inner Ward: The open area in the center of a castle. + Merlon: The high segment of a alternating high and low segments of a + battlement. + Moat: A deep trench dug around a castle to prevent access from the + surrounding land. It could be either left dry or filled with water. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + C +=========================================================================== + Mortar: A mixture of sand, water, and lime used to bind stones together + permanently. + Outer Curtain: The wall the encloses the outer ward. + Outer Ward: The area around the outside of and adjacent to the inner + curtain. + +CASTLE: + Palisade: A sturdy wooden fence usually built to enclose a site until + a permanent stone wall can be constructed. + Portcullis: A heavy timber grille that could be raised or lowered + between the towers of each gate house to open or close the passage. + Postern Gate: A side or less important gate into a castle. + Putlog Hole: A hole intentionally left in the surface of a wall for + insertion of a horizontal pole. + Rubble: A random mixture of rocks and mortar. + Scaffolding: The temporary wooden frame work built next to a wall to + support both workers and materials. + Siege: The military tactic that involves the surrounding and + isolation + of a castle, town or army by another army until the trapped forces are + starved into surrender. + Steward: The man responsible for running the day to day affairs of the + castle in absence of the lord. + Truss: One of the timber frames built to support the roof over the + great hall. + Turret: A small tower rising above and resting on one of the main + towers, usually used as a look out point. + Wall Walk: The area along the tops of the walls from which soldiers + defend both castle and town. + Wattle: A mat of woven sticks and weeds. + +CATHEDRAL CHURCH: The church of the diocese where a Bishop has the throne +(cathedra) and where he presides. Simplified to Cathedral. + +CHAMBERLAIN: An officer of the royal household. He is responsible for the +Chamber, meaning that he controls access to the person of the King. He is +also responsible for administration of the household and the privates +estates of the king. The Chamberlain is one of the four main officers of +the court, the others being the Chancellor, the Justiciar, and the +Treasurer. + +CHANCELLOR: The officer of the royal household who serves as the monarch's +secretary or notary. The chancellor is responsible for the Chancery, the +arms of the royal government dealing with domestic and foreign affairs. +Usually the person filling this office is a Bishop chosen for his +knowledge of the law. + +CHARTER OF FRANCHISE: Documents granting liberty to a serf by his lord. The +term also applies to the freedom granted to the inhabitants of a town or +borough. the issue of a Charter of Franchise frees the town from servitude +to feudal lords. + +CLERGY: Term used to include all members of religious orders. The clergy +are generally exempt from jurisdiction of civil courts as well as from +military service. +. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + C +========================================================================== +COMMON LAW: The term referring to the legal procedures that are becoming +universal. + +COMMUNE CONCILIUM: Norman equivalent of Anglo Saxon Witan. Decision taken +at such meetings, either judicial or military, are binding on the vassals. + +CONFESSION: The public or private acknowledgment of sinfulness regarded as +necessary to obtain divine forgiveness. + +CONSTABLE: The title of an officer given command of an army or an important +garrison. Also the officer who commands in the king's absence. + +COTTAGER: A peasant of lower class, with a cottage, but with little or no +land. + +COUNT: The continental equivalent of the English Earl. Ranks second only to +Duke. + +COUNTY: The English Shire. + +COUNTY PALATINE: See PALATINATE + +COURT OF COMMON PLEAS: A common law court to hear please involving disputes +between individuals. Almost all civil litigation is within its term of +reference, as is supervision of manorial and local courts. + +CRANNOG: An Irish dwelling residing on a natural or man-made island. + +CRUSADES: Self explanatory. + +CULDEES: Religious ascetics "Culdee means servant of god" Irish/Scottish +preservers of old Gaelic Customs. + +CYMRAEG: Welsh Language Name for itself. + +CYMRU: Welsh name for the Welsh. (CUMREE) +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + D +=========================================================================== +DANEGELD: Tribute paid to the Danes (Dane Gold). + +DEMESNE: The part of the lord's manorial lands reserved for his own use an +not allocated to his serfs or freeholder tenants. Serfs work the demesne +for a specified numbers of days per week. The demesne may either be +scattered among the serfs land, or a separate area, the latter being more +common for meadow and orchard lands. + +DENARIUS: The English silver penny, hence the abbreviation "d" and the coin +most common circulation. + +DIOCESE: A district subject to the jurisdiction of a Bishop/Archbishop. +The name is derived from the administrative districts created by the roman +emperor Diocletian + +DOUBLE MONASTERY: Combined monastery for men and women but sexually +separated. Ruled by either an abbot or abbess. + +DRENG: The name given to a free peasant in Northumbria and sometimes in +Yorkshire and Lancashire. The name usually implies that land is held in +return for military service. + +DUKE: A title from the Roman Dux, which has been held over from roman time +by the ruler of a district called a duchy. In England the title is reserved +for members of the royal family. + +DUN: Scottish single family hill fort. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + E +============================================================================ +EARL: The highest title attainable by an English nobleman who is not of +royal blood. Also known in earlier times as Ealdorman. Word related to Jarl. + +EIRE: Ireland. + +ERSE: Irish Language. + +ESCHEAT: The right of a feudal lord to the return of lands held by his +vassal, or the holding of a serf, should either die with out lawful heirs +or suffer outlawry. + +EXCHEQUER: The financial department of the royal government. The chief +officers of the Exchequer are the Treasurer, the Chancellor and the +Justiciar. Sheriffs, in their role as regional chief accountants, present +reports to the exchequer at Easter and Michaelmass. + +EXCOMMUNICATION: Exclusion from the membership of the church or from +communion with faithful Christians. Those judged "tolerati" may still +mingle with the faithful, but those "vitandi" cannot and are exiled. + +EYRE: The right of the king (or justices acting in his name) to visit and +inspect the holdings of any vassal. this is done periodically, usually at +irregular intervals of a few years. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + F +=========================================================================== +FAIR: A market held at regular intervals, usually once to twice a year. +Fairs tend to offer a wider range of goods than normal markets. +They are generally licenced by either the king/a local lord or a chartered +town. + +FARM: A fixed sum, usually paid annually, for the right to collect all +revenues from land; in effect, rent. Lords may farm land to vassals, +receiving a fixed annual rent in place of the normal feudal obligation. +Many sheriffs farm out their shires, contracting in advance to pay a fixed +annual sum to the crown, thus obtaining the right to collect any additional +royal revenues for their own profit. + +FEALTY (Oath of): The oath by which a vassal swore loyalty to his lord, +usually on a relic of saints or on the bible. + +FELONY: In feudal law, any grave violation of the feudal contract between +lord and vassal. Later it was expanded in common law to include any crime +against the King's peace and has come to mean any serious crime. +Example: Murder is now a Felony, taking the burden off prosecution from the +victim's family and giving it to the crown. + +FEUDALISM: The system of governing whereby semiautonomous landed nobility +have certain well defined responsibilities to the king, in return for the +use of grants of land (fiefs) exploited with the labor of a semi-free +peasantry (serfs). + +FIEF: Heritable lands held under feudal tenure; the lands of a tenant in +chief. Sometimes this can apply to an official position. Often called a +Holding. +FIEF: Normally a land held by a vassal* of a lord in return for stipulated +services, chiefly military. Sometimes unusual requirements were stipulated +for transferring a fief. For example: Henry de la Wade held 42 acres* of +land in Oxfordby the service of carrying a gyrfalcon (see: falconry birds) +when ever Kind Edward I wished to go hawking.* + +FIEF DE HAUBERT: 11 cent French term equivelant to the knight term Knights +Fee (see: knighthood) becuase of the the coat (hauberk*) of mail* which +it entitled and required every tenant to own and wear when his services +were needed. This provided a definite estate in france, for only persons +who had this estate or greater were allowed to wear hauberks. + +FIEF-RENTE: money paid by a lord in an annual manner to a vassal in return +for homage*, fealty*, and military service (usually knight service) and +it could include various other things than money, such as wine, cheese. +provide chickens, or wood + +FINE: A sum of money paid to the Crown to obtain some grant, concession, or +privilege. Unlike amercement, a fine os not a monetary penalty, although +failure to offer and pay a customary fine for some right, will undoubtedly +lead to an amercement. + +FITZ: An Anglo Norman prefix meaning son. + +FORFEITURE: The right of a feudal lord to recover a fief when a vassal +fails to honor his obligations under the feudal contract. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + F +=========================================================================== +FORMARIAGE (also called merchet): The sum commonly paid by a serf to his +lord when the serf's daughter marries a man from another manor. + +FRANK PLEDGE: The legal condition under which each male member of a +tithing (district) over the age of twelve is responsible for the good +conduct of all other members of the tithing. + +FYRD: The Anglo Saxon Militia. Special King's Peace prevailed while to or +from or during Fyrd service. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + G +=========================================================================== +GAEL: A name given to Celtic inhabitants of Scotland, Ireland and the Isle +of Mann. + +GUILDS: A term applied to trade associations. The aims of such association +are to protect members from the competition of foreign merchants and +maintain commercial standards. The first guilds where merchant guilds, +later came craft guilds as industry has gotten more specialized. Guilds +maintain a system of education, whereby apprentices serve a master for +five to seven years before becoming a journeyman at about age nineteen. +Journeymen work in the shop of a master until they can demonstrate to the +leaders of his guild that they are ready for master status. Guild members +are forbidden to compete with each other, and merchants are required to +sell at a "just price". +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + H +=========================================================================== +HANSEATIC LEAGUE: An association of merchants and towns of northern Germany. + +HEPTARCHY (seven kingdoms of the): Names given to the seven pre-Viking +Kingdoms of England. Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, East Anglia, +Essex and Sussex. + +HERESY: Any religious doctrine inconsistent with, or inimical to, the +orthodox beliefs of the church. + +HERIOT: A payment which a feudal lord may claim from the possessions of a +dead serf or other tenant, essentially a death tax. There are various +forms of heriot. Generally if a tenant dies in battle the heriot is +forgiven. + +HIDE: A unit of measurement for assessment of tax, theoretically 120 acres, +although it may vary between 60 and 240 acres. It is by custom the land +that can be cultivated by one eight ox plow in one year. + +HOMAGE: The ceremony by which a vassal pledges his fealty to his liege, +and acknowledges all other feudal obligations, in return for a grant of +land. + +HONOR: A holding or group of holdings forming a large estate, such as the +land held by an Earl. + +HOUSESTEADS: Housesteads are forts strategically placed on a craggy +precipice. + +HOWDEN: A college of secular priests. + +HUE AND CRY: The requirement of all members of a village to pursue a +criminal with horn and voice. It is a duty of any person discovering a +felony to raise the hue and cry and his neighbors are bound to assist him +in pursuit and capture of the offender. + +HUNDRED: Anglo Saxon institution. Subdivision of a Shire. Theoretically +equals one hundred hides but hardly ever. Generally has their own court +which meets monthly to handle civil and criminal law. In Danish is called +a wapentakes (weapons taking?). +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + I +=========================================================================== +INFIDEL: Any one having a strong adversity to Christianity. + +INTERDICT: The ecclesiastical banning in an area of all sacraments except +for baptism and extreme unction. In general it does not ban high feast days. +Used to force persons/institution/community or secular lords to a view +dictated by the church/pope. + +INLAND: Land exempt from tax (See Warland). +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + J +=========================================================================== +JUS PRIMAE NOCTIS: the right by which a lord may sleep first night with the +bride of a newly married serf, although the custom maybe avoided by the +payment of a fine. + +JUSTICIAR: The head of the royal judicial system and the king's viceroy when +absent from the country. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + K +=========================================================================== +KNIGHT: The retainer of a feudal lord who owes military service for his +fief, usually the service of one fully equipped, mounted warrior. +The ideals to which a knight may aspire are notably prowess, loyalty, +generosity and courtesy. + +KNIGHT'S FEE: In theory, a fief which provides sufficient revenue to +equip and support one knight. This is approximately twelve hides or 1500 +acres, although the terms applies more to revenue a fief can generate +than its size; it requires about thirty marks per year to support a +knight. + +KNIGHT HOSPITALLER: Holy order knights pledged to administer to the sick +and protect the holy places. + +KNIGHT TEMPLAR: Similar to the KNIGHT HOSPITALLER. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + L +=========================================================================== +LEASE FOR THREE LIVES: A term of lease of land, usually for the life of +its holder, his son or wife, and a grandson. + +LEET: The term used for a subdivision of land in Kent equivalent to a +hundred. + +LIVERY: To be given land as a gift from the king. Also means to be given +the right to wear a lord livery (modified form of his coat of arms). +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + M +=========================================================================== +MAN: In this sense to be a lord's man, to owe obligations to, in the +forms of labor or service. A woman can be someone's man. + +MAN-AT-ARMS: A soldier holding his land, generally 60-120 acres, +specifically in exchange for military service. Sometimes called a Yeoman. + +MANOR: A small holding, typically 1200-1800 acres, with its own court and +probably its own hall, but not necessarily having a manor house. The manor +as a unit of land is generally held by a knight (knight's fee) or managed +by a bailiff for some other holder. + +MARCHER LORDS: The name commonly given to Norman landholders on the Welsh +border. + +MARK: A measure of solver, generally eight ounces, accepted throughout +western Europe. In England is worth thirteen shillings and four pence, two +thirds of one pound. + +MARKET: A place where goods may be bought or sold, established in a +village or town with the authorization of a king or lord. This noble +extends his protection to the market for a fee, and allows its merchants +various economic and judicial privileges. See also fair. + +MICHAELMASS: Feast of St. Michael on 29 Sept. + +MILITARY RELIGIOUS ORDERS: See Knights Templar and Hospitaller. + +MINSTREL: A poet and singer, also called a jongleur, who lives and travels +off of the largess of the aristocracy. + +MONASTERY: A place where Monks or Nuns live for a religious life. + +MONEYER: A person licenced by the crown to strike coins, receiving the +dies from the crown, and keeping 1/240 of the money coined for him self. + +MORMAER: A Gaelic Title (Great Steward) given to the rulers of the seven +provinces of Celtic Scotland. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + N +=========================================================================== +NUN: Women dedicated to the religious life usually a member of a religious +order. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + O +=========================================================================== +ORDEAL: A method of trail in which the accused is given a physical test +(usually painful and/or dangerous) which can only be met successfully if he +is innocent. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + P +=========================================================================== +PALATINATE: In England, a county in which the tenant in chief exercises +powers normally reserved for the king, including the exclusive right to +appoint justiciar, hold courts of chancery and exchequer, and to coin +money. The kings writ is not valid in a County Palatinate. + +PRIMOGENITURE: The right of the eldest son to inherit the estate or office +of his father. + +PRIORY: Any religious house administered by a prior or prioress. If the +prior was subject to a resident abbot, the house is called an abbey or +monastery. The title prioress is held in certain religious houses for women. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + R +=========================================================================== +RAPE: The Sussex equivalent of a "hundred". + +REEVE: A royal official, or a manor official appointed by the lord or +elected by the peasants. + +RELIEF: The fee paid by the heir of a deceased person on securing +possession of a fief. Tradition determines the amount demanded. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + S +=========================================================================== +SCUTAGE: The sum that the holder of a knight's fee may pay his lord in +lieu of military service. Sometimes used as a form of tax. + +SERF: A Semi-free peasant who works his lord's demesne and pays him +certain dues in return for the use of land, the possession (not +ownership) of which is heritable. These dues, usually called corvee, are +almost in the form of labor on the lord's land. Generally this averages to +three days a week. Generally subdivided into classes called: Cottagers, +small holders, or villeins although the later originally meant a free +peasant who was burdened with additional rents and services. + +SERGEANT: A servant who accompanies his lord to battle, or a horseman of +lower status used as light cavalry. Also means a type of tenure in service +of a nonknightly character is owed a lord. Such persons might carry the +lords banner, serve in the wine cellar, make bows/arrows or any other +dozen occupations. Sergeants pay the feudal dues of wardship, marriage, +and relief but are exempt from scutage (nonknightly). + +SHERIFF: The official who is the chief administrative and judicial officer +of a shire. Many of its jobs where taken over by the itinerant justice, +coroner, and justice of the peace. Collected taxes and forwarded them on +to the exchequer, after taking his share. Also many times responsible for +making sure that the Kings table is well stocked while king is in his +county (I.e.. Royal Game Preserve). + +SHILLING: Measure of money used only for accounting purposes and equal to +12 pennies. + +SHIRE: English county. The shire court conduct the administrative, judicial +and financial business of of people living in the county. + +SIMONY: The buying or selling of spiritual things, particularly church +offices and benefice. + +SMALL HOLDER: A middle class peasant, farming more land than a cottager but +less than a villein. A typical small holder would have 10-20 acres. + +SOKEMAN: Another name for a free villager. + +SULONG: A measurement of land in Kent. Equal to two "hides". +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + T +=========================================================================== +TALLAGE: A tax levied on boroughs and on the tenants living on royal +estates. + +TENANT IN CHIEF: A lord or institution (the Church being most common) +holding land directly from the king. All Earls are Tenants in Chief. + +TEUTONIC KNIGHTS: German Fighting Order with main bases in Prussia, +Hungary and Germany. Recruits almost exclusively from German Speaking +peoples of Europe. + +THANE: Originally meaning a Military Companion to the King. It has come to +mean a land holding administrative office. + +THIRD PENNY: the local earls one third share of fines in shire or hundred +courts, often allocated afterwards to a particular manor or church as +income. + +TITHE: One tenth of a persons income given to support the church. + +TONSURE: The rite of shaving the crown of the head of the person joining a +monastic order or the secular clergy. It symbolizes admission to the +clerical state. + +TOURNEY: Mock combat for knights. + +TOWN AIR IS FREE AIR: Words used in many town charters to proclaim freedom +any serf who lives there for a year and a day with out being claimed by his +lord. + +TREASURER: The chief financial officer of the realm, and senior officer of +the "Exchequer". +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + U +=========================================================================== +USURY: The interest charged on a loan. Forbidden by church law (based upon +biblical). Commonly used by Knight Hospitallers and Knight Templars in +Later Medieval Times. +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + V +=========================================================================== +VASSAL: A free man who holds land (fief) from a lord to whom he pays homage +and swears fealty. He owes various services and obligations, primarily +military. But he is also required to advise his lord and pay him the +traditional feudal aids required on the knighting of the lords eldest son, +the marriage of the lords eldest daughter and the ransoming of the lord +should he be held captive. + +VILLEIN: The wealthiest class of peasant. they usually cultivate 20-40 +acres of land, often in isolated strips. + +VIRGATE: One quarter of a "hide". +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + W +=========================================================================== +WAPENTAKE: See Hide + +WARDSHIP: The right of a feudal lord to the income of a fief during the +minority of its heir. The lord is required to maintain the fief and to +take care of the material needs of the ward. When the ward come of age, +the lord is required to release the fief to him in the same condition in +which it was received. + +WARLAND: Land liable for tax, as opposed to inland, which is generally +exempt from tax. + +WASTE: The term generally given to land which is unusable or uncultivated +with in a holding. It is not taxed. It is sometimes referred to land +destroyed by war or raids, which is like wise not subject to tax. + +WITAN (also called the Witenagemot): Council composed of nobles and +ecclesiastics which advised the Anglo Saxon Kings of England. Also chose +the successor to the throne. Resembles the "commune concilium". +=========================================================================== +. +=========================================================================== + Y +=========================================================================== +YOKE: A measurement of land in Kent equal to one quarter of a "sulong". +=========================================================================== +. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fgn-plcy.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fgn-plcy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..216319d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fgn-plcy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,200 @@ +FOREIGN POLICY AND FOREIGN WARS + +By RICHARD M. EBELING + +When the Founding Fathers wrote and then defended the case for +passage of the Constitution in 1787-1788, they did so with a +strong belief in the natural rights of man, rights that Thomas +Jefferson had so eloquently expressed in the Declaration of +Independence in 1776. But their idealism was tempered with +stark realism, based on historical knowledge and personal +experience, about both human nature and the nature of +governments. + +The separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers +was considered essential if the human inclination toward +political abuse of power was to be prevented. "No political +truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped +with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty," +stated James Madison in The Federalist Papers, "than that +. . . [t]he accumulation of all power, legislative, executive +and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or +many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may +justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." + +Division of power and responsibilities, therefore, was seen as +an essential--though neither a perfect nor guaranteed--tool to +assure that the freedom and property of individuals would not +become political plunder to be devoured by either majorities +or minorities. + +Issues concerning war and peace and individual liberty were of +deep concern to the Founding Fathers for the same reason. When +the matter came up at the convention as to which branch of +government would have the authority to "make war," +disagreement arose. Pierce Butler of South Carolina wanted +that power to reside in the President who, he said, "will have +all the requisite qualities." James Madison and Elbridge Gerry +of Massachusetts were for "leaving to the Executive the power +to repel sudden attacks" but proposed changing the wording to +"declare" rather than "make war," and then only with the +approval of both Houses of Congress. Oliver Ellsworth of +Connecticut agreed, saying that "It should be more easy to get +out of war than into it." And George Mason of Virginia also +was "against giving the power of war to the Executive, because +[he was] not safely to be trusted with it." Mason "was for +clogging rather than facilitating war." + +Thus, in the final, ratified Constitution, the Congress, in +Article I, Section 8, was given the sole authority, "To +Declare War," while the President, in Article II, Section 2, +was made "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the +United States, and the Militia of the several States, when +called into the actual service of the United States." Civilian +authority over the military was established, with +Constitutionally divided power over its application in war: +Congress declared war, and the President oversaw its +execution. + +The Founding Fathers possessed no misconceptions about the +potentially aggressive nature of governments toward their +neighbors. John Jay, in The Federalist Papers, insightfully +enumerated the various motives, rationales and passions that +had led nations down the road to war through the ages. + +But neither did they have any illusions that Americans could +be any less susceptible to similar motives and passions. The +Constitution, through a division of powers, was meant to put +procedural hurdles and delays in the way before the passions +of the moment could result in declarations of war and the +initiation of hostilities against other nations. + +Yet, in spite of these Constitutional restraints, the United +States has participated in four foreign wars in the 20th +century--two World Wars, the Korean "police action" and the +Vietnam conflict--and in three of these, the United States was +neither directly attacked nor threatened by a foreign enemy. +Why, then, did we intervene? + +The answer lies in the ideology of the welfare state. First in +the years preceding World War I, and then again in the 1930s, +American intellectuals and politicians undertook grand +experiments in social engineering. The Progressive Era of +Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and the New Deal days +of Franklin D. Roosevelt, were the crucial decades for the +implementation of the politics of government intervention and +economic regulation. It was the duty and responsibility of the +state to manage, oversee and control the social and economic +affairs of the citizenry. + +The social engineers believed that people left alone to manage +their own affairs invariably went astray, with the result +being poverty, economic exploitation and social decay. +Enlightened leadership, under wise government, would provide +the population with the economic prosperity and social harmony +that the governmental policy-makers knew, in their hearts, +that they had the knowledge and expertise to provide. The +good wanted state power so they could benefit their fellow +men. + +And what was good for Americans at home, surely would be no +less beneficial for the masses of people across the oceans. +Was not Europe a caldron of political intrigue and corruption? +Were not the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America +suffering in squalor and ignorance, the victims of tribal +despots and imperialist exploitors--easy prey to that even +greater threat of communist propaganda and revolution? + +America's first crusade was in 1917, when Woodrow Wilson, +insisting that the United States had the moral duty to take +the lead and "make the world safe for democracy," had asked +for, and got, a declaration of war from Congress. Americans, +however, were repulsed in the years following World War I, +when instead of democracy, they saw that all that came out of +our participation in that noble crusade had been communism in +Russia, fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and imperialist +spoils for the victorious European allies. + +But World War II seemed to offer the opportunity for a second +chance. The American "arsenal of democracy" would free the +world of Hitler and Imperial Japan and then pursue an +international course of permanent foreign intervention to +create "a better world." What the world got was the Cold War, +with the Soviet Union gaining an Eastern European empire, and +with China being lost behind what became known as the +communist "Bamboo Curtain." + +America's rewards were global commitments that required +hundreds of thousands of American soldiers permanently +stationed in Europe; two bloody wars in Asia that cost the +lives of over a hundred thousand Americans; a huge defense +budget that siphoned off hundreds of billions of dollars from +the private sector for four decades; and even more tens of +billions of dollars in military and foreign aid to any +government, in any part of the world, no matter how corrupt, +just as long as it declared itself "anti-communist." And as +one of the founders of Human Events, Felix Morley, pointed out +in his book, Freedom and Federalism, in the heyday of +Keynesian economics in the 1950s and 1960s, defense spending +became a tool for "priming the pump" and guaranteeing "full +employment" through government expenditures. + +But communism is now dying under the weight of its own +political corruption and economic failures. And the European +and Asian countries that benefited from decades of being on +the American defense and foreign aid dole have decided they +want to grow up and manage their own affairs. + +But rather than be delighted that the Cold War Welfare State +can finally be ended, American political and foreign policy +makers are petrified. The global social engineers in +Washington are suddenly faced with a world that doesn't want +to be under the tutelage of American paternalism and +dominance. They are busy scrambling for some way to "keep +America in Europe," maintain Washington's political control +and influence over international affairs and guarantee that +America will remain "in harm's way," potentially drawn into +numerous controversies and conflicts around the world. + +If it is undesirable for the United States government to +intervene in the economic and social affairs of its citizenry +--as the advocate of individual freedom steadfastly believes +--then it is equally undesirable for the United States +government to intervene in the internal affairs of other +nations, or the conflicts that sometimes arise among nations. + +The first duty of the American government is to protect the +life, liberty and property of the citizens of the United +States from foreign aggressors. Once a government sets itself +the task of trying to rectify the errors and choices of its +own citizens, it soon begins sliding down a slippery slope in +which the end result is state supervision and regulation of +all of its citizens' activities, and all in the name of a +higher "social good." + +Just as our neighbors often do things of which we do not +approve, or which we do not consider good or wise, so do other +nations. But to follow the path of attempting to set the world +straight can lead to nothing but perpetual intervention and +war in the name of world peace and global welfare. And these +have been precisely the results of America's global crusade to +save the world since 1945. + +The end of communism, and the economic growth of Europe and +Asia, give us a new opportunity to foreswear the global +welfare state, free ourselves from foreign political and +military entanglements, and follow George Washington's wise +advice of free commercial relationships with all, but foreign +alliances and intrigues with none. + +Professor Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of +Economics at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, and also +serves as vice-president of academic affairs of The Future of +Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the November 1990 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1990, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/figallo b/textfiles.com/politics/figallo new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0db22a56 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/figallo @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ ++=========+=================================================+===========+ +| F.Y.I. |Newsnote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation|July 14,1992| ++=========+=================================================+===========+ + + CLIFF FIGALLO OF THE WELL NAMED DIRECTOR OF EFF's CAMBRIDGE OFFICE + +Cambridge, Massachusetts July 14,1992 + +Cliff Figallo, former director of the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (The +WELL), has accepted the position of Director of the Electronic Frontier +Foundation's Cambridge office. His duties will include developing that +office's outreach programs, increasing active EFF membership, and +expanding overall awareness of EFF's programs in the computer- +conferencing community and the world at large. + +In announcing the appointment today, Mitchell Kapor, President of EFF, +said: "I'm delighted that Cliff Figallo will be joining the EFF to head +its Cambridge office. Cliff brings 20 years of experience in forming +both intentional and virtual communities. We know he will put these +skills to excellent use in helping EFF build its ties to the online +community.We're all looking forward to working with him closely." + +Figallo is well-known in computer conferencing circles as the one who +from 1986 to the present guided the WELL through its formative years. +Working with a small staff, many volunteers and limited funding, he +helped develop the WELL into one of the world's most influential +computer conferencing systems. When EFF was founded it used the WELL as +its primary means of online communication. + +Commenting on the appointment of Figallo, Stewart Brand, creator of The +Whole Earth Catalogue, one of the founders of The WELL and a member of +the EFF Board of Directors, said: "As an exemplary manager of EFF's +initial habitat, the WELL, Cliff brings great contextual experience to +his new job. Best of all for us on the WELL, he won't even be leaving, +electronically speaking. Cambridge is only several keystrokes from +Sausalito." + +Contacted at his home in Mill Valley today, Figallo stated: "I'm very +thankful for the opportunity to take part one of the critical missions +of our time -- the opening of new channels of person-to-person +communication in the world, and the protection of existing channels from +naive or excessive regulation and restriction. + +"Pioneers in electronic or telecommunications media are establishing new +definitions and structures for education, community, and co-operation +every day. They are developing tools and systems which may prove to be +vital to the salvation of the planet. This work must go on. + +"I look forward to helping EFF communicate the importance of events on +the Electronic Frontier to current and future settlers, and to those who +would, through unwise use of power, stifle the continued exploration and +settling of this new realm of the mind and the human spirit." + +Figallo will assume his duties in September of this year. + +For more information contact: +Gerard Van der Leun +Electronic Frontier Foundation +155 Second Street +Cambridge, MA 02141 +Phone: +1 617 864 0665 +FAX: +1 617 864 0866 +Internet: van@eff.org + ++=====+===================================================+=============+ +| EFF |155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141 (617)864-0665| eff@eff.org | ++=====+===================================================+=============+ diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fightbck.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fightbck.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a2d15f85 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fightbck.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +WAYS FOR WOMEN TO FIGHT BACK + + +Be aware as you walk down the street. +Be uppity. +Be loud. +Yell strong. +Wear sensible running shoes. +Suround yourself with light. +Teach your children self-defense. +Carry mace, keys, rolling pin or another possible weapon. +Educate yourself and others about male violence. +Educate yourself and others about women's empowerment. +Learn self-defense. +Voice your opinions, feelings, options. +Share stories with other women. +Publicize your anger; write to newspapers, legislators, etc., expressing your +experiences. +Engage in community with other women. +Advocate for and validate each other. +Don't participate in women-hating. +Question men's tastes in women's fashions; stop dressing and dieting to please +men. +Throw your weight around. +Volunteer at the Rape Crisis Center and battered women's shelters. +Stop protecting men. +Be pro-choice. +Have a strong, positive attitude that you are capable. +Recognize and oppose violence in male sports. +Call men on their behavior. +Use graffiti, visual arts, etc. to educate. +Stop giving money to patriarchal causes. +Stop paying taxes; stop supporting our violent male culture. +Read and listen to alternative media sources. +Speak out against racism, sexism, classism, sizeism, homophobia, ableism, +capitalism, heterosexism, etc. +Celebrate women's spirituality. +Name rapists everywhere. +Heal from rape/incest/violence. +Live your politics. +Tell on men. +Support women's businesses. +Don't patronize patriarchy. +Listen to women who are trying to speak. +Make posters and flyers. +Be healers. +Become economically independent. +Leave abusive relationships. +Walk tall. +Demand respect. +Take charge of the situation. +Get physical. +Create women-only space. +Demand justice for rape, murder and bettering crimes. +Don't be accomodating. +Throw out your TV. +Don't buy war toys. +Boycott movies and products that objectify women. +LEARN TO SAY "NO." + + +from Labrys, reprinted in "off our backs" feb 1991 + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/filipino.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/filipino.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..642b428c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/filipino.hum @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ + +WHY THEY'RE CALLED FILIPINOS + +(Editor's Note: The following may be deemed racist by certain readers. If you +are certainly a certain reader to whom this piece appears racist, well, sorry. +If you're a Filipino, we think you're cute.) + +Even in the echoing halls of government, Filipinos wear sport shirts and +jackets. On TV last week, during the heist of the Marcos government, it looked +like everyone had just come off the golf course to conduct a little bit of +casual government business like, say, a revolution. + +Compared with the Filipinos we saw on TV, even the laid-backest of Californians +would look like a Type A workaholic, for sure you know? + +Look how Filipinos conducted their revolution! Did they shoot each other up? +Was the revolution protracted and angry? Are we kidding? + +Marcos' tanks, rolling through the streets of Manila, obeyed traffic signals. +Citizens, rampaging through his palace, changed their minds and deposited loot +at the door before leaving. Was there an effigy dangling from a streetlamp? +If so, we didn't see it and it probably had its shirt tail tucked in. + +Is the new government going after Marcos with venegance? Absolutely--by +Filipino standards. Corazon Aquino herself appointed a Minister of Good +Government to go over the books. The Minister will probably cut Marcos' +pension or something equally strident. + +All of this, while amusing, points out how civilized people of the Philippines +are, compared with almost any other nation. Can the South Africans solve their +racial problems so peacefully? No. Could the U.S. settle its civil rights +problems so efficiently? Uh-uh, no way. Was Baby Doc DuValier kicked out of +Haiti with such grace? + +Philippine political tactics may not be sweet, but, compared with Chicago for +instance, even the reports of widespread tampering pale. And, although Cory +Aquino's new government is not exactly constitutionally kosher, it is being +quickly recognized by other nations simply because Filipinos are so nice. +Nice. + +A member of our domestic federal government, George Shultz, called the change +in government a dramatic example of the democratic process, and it was. Look: +Marcos called the elections a couple of months in advance, did his best to +manipulate it to his advantage, won but lost the confidence of the electorate +and therefore lost and left the country. + +Compare that dramatic example with U.S. presidential elections: Democrats +fight with other Democrats for 18 months--likewise the Republicans. Then, +Republicans and Democrats fight with each other for four months. If the wrong +candidate wins by losing he wins anyway and stays in office without even +thinking about giving the winning loser a vacation in Hawaii. Ex-presidents +stay on the payroll for life instead of being conveniently exiled to another +country. + +Wouldn't you have felt better if Nixon or Carter had been exiled? + +We personally know a few Filipinos living in America and they are among our +treasured acquaintances. Were they up in arms about the turmoil in their +homeland? We called the other day and heard their phone-answering machine say: +"We're not home right now but leave a message and we'll call you right back. +Oh, by the way, we support Corazon Aquino as the duly elected leader of our +country, but when Ferdy calls in a couple of weeks we'll probably have him over +for Bar-b-que. Beep!" + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fingrprn.fun b/textfiles.com/politics/fingrprn.fun new file mode 100644 index 00000000..abbfe0d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fingrprn.fun @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ +Copyright 1983 +NPG,Ltd. + FINGERPRINTING KIDS + + Issue: Should parents voluntarily create detailed identification records +(including fingerprints) on their children in anticipation of possible runaway +problems or abductions? (1) Yes. You can never tell when terrible things will +happen to a child, so its best to be prepared. (2) No. The vast majority of +missing children are not abducted. Whether abducted or not, fingerprinting will +do no good. It wastes time and money and pushes us that much closer to the +creation of the Orwellian National Data Center that Congress rejected fifteen +years ago. + + BACKGROUND: As of early 1983, 11 states had launched programs to fingerprint +children.( These were New York, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, +California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Connecticut, Rhode Island, +Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana.) + + Most of this activity was stimulated by the passage of the Missing Children +Act in October 1982. What the new law did was to legitimize the use of the +FBI's national computer network,the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) for +non-criminal purposes. + + All of the programs are voluntary. In some cases the police departments +retain the records, while in others the fingerprint cards are turned over to the +parents for safekeeping. The apparent purpose of the program is to help provide +positive identification to link either children picked up, or bodies recovered, +with missing person notices. + + Every year about 1 million children are reported missing. Of these most, +about 800,000, are away from home for less than two weeks. About 150,000 of the +total missing are abducted; of these two thirds are abducted by a divorced +parent. + + Some of the reasons behind the missing children are not pretty. According to +an article in Parade, "about 35 percent of runaways leave home because of +incest, 53 percent because of physical neglect. The rest are "throwaways," +children kicked out or simply abandoned by parents who move away. Every state +has laws against incest, child abuse, abandonment, child pornography and the +procuring of children, but they are rarely enforced." + + POINT: Conscientious parents should have their childrens' fingerprints +recorded to help in the event of an abduction; they shouldn't wait until after +something terrible happens, but should take reasonable steps now. Thousands of +children are runaways, and in many cases it is all but impossible to determine +clearly who they really are. People change, but fingerprints don't. +Well-intentioned but misguided civil libertarians worry about Big Brother. But +they tend to overlook the obvious benefits of the program and concentrate on +wildly imaginative fantasies about Big Brother. If they would come down to +earth once in a while, and visit with and share the anguish of a family of an +abducted child, they would quickly change their attitudes. Besides, in most +cases the police do not keep the records, the parents do. + + COUNTERPOINT: Absent some showing that the fingerprinting will actually help +keep children safe and help capture criminals who harm or abduct them, parents +should refuse to have their children fingerprinted. In promoting the child +fingerprinting program, police officials tend to be vague about how the program +will increase the average child's safety. How does it improve children's safety +to be fingerprinted? Surely, it may help identify a body, but that is not much +help. Besides, dental records do the same thing and probably do a better job. +People forget that this program is geared to eventually entering the child's +identification data into the National Crime Information Center. That is a +criminal records databank, and it could be very harmful to a child in the future +to have what many employers will automatically take to be a "criminal record." +And that is not far fetched. In April 1983 the Congress' General Accounting +Office released a report saying that in some states children picked up as +runaways are jailed along with real criminals. GAO found that in five states +(Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Oregon) 39 percent +of the juveniles incarcerated had not been charged with a serious offense, +despite federal standards requiring that. Running away from home, shoplifting +and other minor thefts made up most of the offenses. Even advocates admit to +the possibility of a stigma. A PTA Council President in Virginia spoke out in +favor of the program: "I can't think at this point of a practical reason for +not having your fingerprints taken. It seems to me the higher the percentage of +the population that has its fingerprints on file, the less stigma will be +attached to it." Another mother, as her child was being fingerprinted, told a +New York Times reporter, "Unless you're planning a life of crime for your child, +I can't see why any parent would object." If we are really serious about +reducing the runaway problem, we should demand that our police officials start +looking closely into the family situations from which the runaway came from. If +there is evidence of incest or abuse, the offendor should be prosecuted. Maybe +if more abusive parents got that message, they would be less inclined to do the +things that cause the vast majority of runaway cases in the first place. + +QUESTIONS: +o Do you think that the police will be more effective in locating missing +children if there are copies of their fingerprints on record? + +o Do you think that there is any problem with having your own records stored in +a criminal record computer system? Would anyone assume from such records that +you have done something wrong? + +o If a child runs away from home because of incest or physical abuse, should +the police help put him back in that home? + +o Do you think that the voluntary fingerprinting program will make the next +generation of American citizens less reluctant to let government keep more +records on them? Or will it have the opposite effect and make people used to +having this kind of record kept? + +REFERENCES: + Fingerprinting of Children Spreading, New York Times, +February 22, 1983 + Fingerprinting the Kids Won't Solve the Problem, The Fairfax +Journal (editorial), April 15, 1983, p.A6 + Reston Kids Ink Up for Fingerprints, Adrian Higgins, The +Fairfax Journal, September 19, 1983, p.A1 + Jersey County Fingerprints Pupils, Franklin Whitehouse, The +New York Times, January 26, 1983, p.B1 + Alexandria Cops To Fingerprint School Kids, Joe O'Neill, The +Fairfax Journal, February 23, 1983, p.A4 + Child Abductions A Rising Concern, Associated Press, The New +York Times, December 5, 1983 + Finding Missing Children, The Washington Post (editorial), +May 28, 1982 + +(Note: Please leave your thoughts -- message or uploaded comments -- on this +issue on Tom Mack's RBBS, The Second Ring --- (703) 759-5049. Please address +them to Terry Steichen of New Perspectives Group, Ltd.) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/floride.yes b/textfiles.com/politics/floride.yes new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4b50ef98 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/floride.yes @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + SWORN STATEMENT BY FORMER COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBER + +To Whom it May Concern: + + I, Oliver Kenneth Goff, was a member of the Communist Party and the +Young Communist League, from May 2, 1936, to October 9,1939. During this +period of time, I operated under the alias of John Kreats and the number +18-13-2. My testimony before the Government is incorporated in Volumn 9 of +the Un-American Activities Reports for the year 1939. + + White a member of the Communist Party, I attend Communist underground +training schools outside the City of New York; in the Bues Hall, and 113 East +Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The East Wells Street Schools operated +under the name of the Eugene Debs School. Here,under the tutoring of Eugene +Dennis, M. Sparks, Morris Childs, Jack Kling and others, we were schooled in +the art of revolutionary overthrow of the established Government. + + We were trained on how to dismantle and assemble mimeograph machines, +to use for propaganda purpose during the revolution; how to work on guide +wires and fuel lines of airplanes so that they would either burst into flames +or crash to the ground because of lack of control; how to work on ties and +rails to wreck trains; and also the art of poisoning water supplies. + + We discussed quite thoroughly the floridation of water supplies and +how we were using it in Russia as a tranquilizer in the prison camps. The +leaders of our school felt that if it could be induced into the American +water supply, if would bring about a spirit of lethargy in the nation; +where it would keep the general public docile during a steady encroachment +of Communism. We also discussed the fact that keeping a store of deadly +floride near the water reservoir would be advantageous during the time of +the revolution as it would give us opportunity to dump this poison into the +water supply and either kill off the populace or threaten them with +liquidation, so that they would surrender to obtain fresh water. + + We discussed in these schools, the complete art of revolution; the +seizure of the main utiilties, such as light, power, gas and water;but it was +felt by the leadership, that if a program of fluoridating of the water could +be carried out in the nation, it would go a long way toward the advancement +of the revolution. + + The above statements are true. + + His signature was here + -------------------------------- + Oliver Kenneth Goff +STATE OF COLORADO ) + ) SS +COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE ) + OLIVER KENNETH GOFF, being first duly sworn upon his oath, deposes +and says that he has the above and foregoing instrument and knows the +contents thereof, and that the same are true of his own knowledge except +as to those matters stated on information and belief and as to those he +believed to be true. + His signature was here + ----------------------- +seal and sworn to before me this 22nd day of June, A.D.,1957. +here ssion expires April 14, 1958. + Joe R. Ateucio + ----------------------- + Notary Public + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +| THE END | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/foiasmal.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/foiasmal.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..47ed7618 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/foiasmal.txt @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ + + How to get YOUR FBI File + by: Frodo + Call The Last Homely House + 314-394-1306 + ========================== +Ok... You have to write a letter. It goes a little something like this.. +Attn: F.B.I. + +This is a request under provisions of Title 5 USC, Sec. 552, the Freedom of +Information Act, and Title 5 USC, Sec 552a, the Privacy Act. + +Please furnish me with copies of all records on me retrievable by the use of +an individual identifier and by the use of any combination of identifiers +(e.g. name + date of birth + social security number, etc.) that are contained +in the following systems of records: + +In order to identify myself and to facilitate your search of records systems, +I provide the following information: + +Name +Address +City, State, Zip +Birthdate +Birthplace +Sex +Social Security Number + +In the event that any part of my records are withheld, I request a complete +list of all records being withheld and the specific exemption claimed for the +withholding of each. + +In the event that the search and copying fees are estimated to exceed $25, I +request an opportunity to review such records, or to have a duly authorized +representative review such records, in order to select those to be copied. + +If you have any questions regarding this request, please telephone me at +(daytime phone number) weekdays or write to me at the above address. + +As provided for by Sec. 552(a)(6)(i) of the Freedom of Information Act, I +shall expect to recieve a reply within ten (10) business days. + +Ok, now on the back of this letter, you must have a NOTARIZED signature, which +means you have to go to a notary (there's one at the DMV), sign it in front of +him/her, and present a picture ID, usually drivers license, and have them +stamp it. + +Send the letter to: + F.B.I. + FOIA Section + 10th Street and Pennsylvania Ave, NW + Room 6296 + Washington, D.C. 20535 +That's it. And please, if anyone else does this, tell me if your envelope was +opened and resealed with fucking scotch tape before it was delivered to you. +Mine was, and it really makes me wonder.. +°±²³Ÿ_FrodO_Ÿ³²±° + 1 @3473 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/foreign.aid b/textfiles.com/politics/foreign.aid new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1fc49262 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/foreign.aid @@ -0,0 +1,383 @@ + + FOREIGN AID + + Look at this strange picture of a grown man with a + white beard. He's wearing an odd looking suit consisting of + blue and white striped pants and old styled cutaway jacket. + He's wearing high hat with stars on it. Why, it's our old + buddy, Uncle Sam. + He's grinning from ear to ear and holding a heavy money + sack in one hand. From the top of the globe, he is throwing + our money all over the earth. He kinda looks like a farmer + feeding the chickens. + Look at all the leaders of the nations with their hands + outstretched. They're screaming at him telling him they + will be happy to be his friend. No wonder he's grinning. + Foreign Aid -- doesn't it have a pleasant ring to it? + Try it again . . . FOREIGN AID. Such pretty sounding words. + A real warm phrase . . . Allows us to buy friends all over + the world. It makes no difference to us whether the country + is a communist block nation or if they support the United + States. No . . . We simply send the grant after our private + discussions and determination. + It doesn't make any difference if the foreign officials + to whom we give the money use it for themselves. There is + an outside chance they might use it for the benefit of their + countries. Look at Marcos as an example. You don't really + think he would take American foreign aid payments and buy + expensive properties in the United States, do you? No, he + wouldn't have done anything like that. + The American people are now conditioned to accept the + foreign aid budget as a legalized expenditure. No one any + longer questions the government. Not even our media raises + any question marks. And it doesn't matter who we give these + monies to because Americans don't understand foreign policy + at all. It's to our advantage if we keep them ignorant on + these issues. + I don't want to be called ignorant any longer. Let's + question their authority to dole out our money from the + Treasury. We hear all this talk about the federal deficit + and being a debtor nation for the first time in our history. + It's time we began our education. The admitted foreign aid + package last year allocated some $15.7 billion. Here's how + it would look if you wrote the figures in your check book, + that's $15,700,000,000! No question that puts a big chunk + into the deficits column! + They throw these billion dollar figures around as + though they were talking about a 10 dollar bill. Let's see + what a billion is. Actually, a billion seconds ago we + didn't even have an atomic weapon. That's a billion! And + now we are hearing the word trillion. One trillion minutes + ago should take us back to the days of the dinosaurs! + Let's begin our search and see if we can find a shred + of legality for these monstrous expenditures from our public + treasury.  + First, we'll look through the Constitution. Is there + any permission to give it to any country whatever story they + give us to justify the expense? + One instance of the word 'foreign' in Article I (the + law making bodies) appears in Section 8. These concern only + the value of foreign money in relationship to our own and + the regulation of commerce with foreign nations. + Foreign shows up again in Section 9 of Article I but + only about any person holding an office of trust under the + United States. He/she shall not receive any present, office + or title from a foreign state. + Nothing so far to show there is any permission to + spread joy around the world via our money. To refresh our + minds, it is the House of Representatives which is respon- + sible to introduce any bill to expend money. (Art 1, Sec 7, + cl 1) Yet our investigation of the entire legislative + branch shows no consent from us to send one thin dime to any + other country. Not even an ersatz dime they force the + people to use today. + Before we chastise the legislative branch for throwing + American money helter-skelter around the world, perhaps + there is authority in one of the other sections of the + Constitution. + Article II concerns the executive branch so let's take + a look-see. + The only thing which shows up which remotely suggests + any international involvement are joint duties the executive + shares with the Senate. The first is the power to make + treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate. The + second duty is to appoint ambassadors. (Art II, Sec 2, cl 2) + And, in section 3, it is the duty of the executive to + receive ambassadors and other public ministers. + Sorry, nothing in Article II to show any legality for + foreign aid. Why do we keep hearing the President talking + about foreign aid? I'm certain I read he often argues with + Congress about money for some foreign country. + Checking the next articles in our constitution, we do + find ambassadors mentioned under the judicial article (III). + Surely judges have no authority to expend public monies. + All Article III says is the Supreme Court will have original + jurisdiction in all cases affecting ambassadors. + Art IV, Sect 3, cl 2 might be something we are looking + for . . ."Congress shall have power to dispose of and make + all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory + or other property belonging to the United States." + Could it be possible our Congress considers all those + countries as our territories? Noo o o o o ... A quick check + of the amendments shows nothing at all concerning the word + foreign or foreign aid. + Do you think it might be conceivable they have + purposely kept us ignorant about foreign policy? Maybe they + have a different copy of the Constitution than we have? + Surely, there must be authorization somewhere for our + elected 'representatives' to approve an expenditure of +  + billions! + All Senators, Representatives, ALL executive and judi- + cial officers take an oath to support our Constitution. Is + it likely they are all violating their oaths and breaking + the law? One day, those who have said "So help me, God" and + in the same breath have denied that oath will have to + explain that to someone. + A possible answer to these questions came innocently + from the pen of one of our freshman Congressmen. In + personal correspondence, he said when an issue on which they + expect to vote concerns constitutional issues they don't + take the initiative to check our Constitution. Instead, + they refer the issue to a committee with an impressive name, + the Committee on Constitutional rights. Isn't that + outstanding? + If that august body doesn't say it's unconstitutional, + the bill will sail through the Congress. How does that grab + you? We demand they take an oath to support the document + and they don't even know what it says. Nor do they make the + effort to find out what it says! And they feel we are + ignorant. + We must be mistaken. Certainly they wouldn't break the + law? They keep telling us that ignorance of the law is no + excuse . . . what do you suppose is their excuse for this + ignorance? + A look through The Federalist Papers is in order. + Perhaps there is something in the old writings to point out + where they have permission to throw our money away. + James Madison points out in paper No. 42 ". . powers + lodged in the central government consist of those which + regulate the intercourse with foreign nations, to wit: to + make treaties; to send and receive ambassadors, other public + ministers, and consuls; to define and punish piracies and + felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against + the law of nations; to regulate foreign commerce, . . ." + (All references to 'paper no.' means The Federalist + Papers.) + Well, so far we have found where the government is to + regulate foreign commerce. Yet not a word about throwing + our money at them. Let's keep looking. + John Jay in paper No. 64, speaks of the integrity of + the Senate and the President to make treaties. He rambles + on a bit but says nothing about any permission in the + Constitution to give, grant, donate or lend money to any + foreign country. + In paper No. 53, James Madison states: "A branch of + knowledge which belongs to the acquirements of a federal + representative and which has not been mentioned is that of + foreign affairs. In regulating our own commerce, he ought + to be not only acquainted with the treaties between the + United States and other nations, but also with the commer- + cial policy and laws of other nations." + The Founding Fathers NEVER considered they could take + our money from public funds and give it to a foreign power +  + no matter how puny. + We know the House of Representatives and the Senate + have "Foreign Relations Committees." We hear enough in the + media from individual members when they want to interfere in + the internal affairs of another country. This is not only + immoral, it's also without authority in our Constitution. + And they have much to say about foreign aid. + Another point we should consider . . . it sure gives + these clucks a reason to hop on an aircraft for a foreign + junket (vacation) at out expense, doesn't it? + If these "foreign affair" committees were concerned + with foreign trade and treaties it would be in keeping with + the intent of the powers which were bestowed. Hypocrisy + abounds in Washington. Must be a special meal in congress- + ional dining halls! + Our former ambassador to the UN, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, + wrote an article which appeared in the national press + entitled "The Foreign Aid Puzzle." She makes the following + observation: "Obviously, foreign assistance is one of the + instruments of foreign policy that can be used along with + diplomacy, information, and military strength to accomplish + our nations purposes and protect our national interests." + Is that statement designed to make us feel stupid or + does it show their ignorance of our supreme law? Isn't it + unique whenever they want to justify something, we are + protecting our national interests? This the muttering of + idiots and pure gobbledegook. + Our national interest (which should be their national + interest also) is the preservation of our Constitution and + the Republic. + How can they justify protecting our national interests + when they propose to give $25 million to help Marxist + Mozambique? Or $25 million for Zimbabwe which is a + one-party state that arrests and tortures its opponents? + Zimbabwe consistently opposes US foreign policy. It's + obvious what the result was concerning our foreign policy + towards Saddam. One might ask, just what is our governments + conception of our national interest? + Cow paddies. The great American scam is still in + operation. + This idea of foreign aid really began in earnest during + the reign of Franklin Roosevelt. They called it the + "Lend-Lease Program." Can you please define the term lend- + lease? What in blazes does it mean? Was it intended to be + conditioning for future foreign aid shenanigans? And this + gobbledegook continues unabated! + The Lend-Lease Act was passed March 11, 1941. "In + President Roosevelt's words, this act made the republic the + arsenal for world democracy." Tough to find a statement + that sounds more stupid. It does point to the conditioning + of the American people to accept the word democracy. + George Washington in his farewell address recommended + we observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Also + we should cultivate peace and harmony with all. Does this +  + unlawful expenditure of our money lean toward those sugges- + tions? How about the meddling in the internal affairs of a + foreign nation? Hardly! + He also strongly urged the United States to steer clear + of permanent alliances with the foreign world. Another + admonition ignored. + He spoke eloquently about our republic and its future. + It requires repeating because of the operation of our + government today . . . + "To the efficacy and permanency of your union a + government for the whole is indispensable . . . This + Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced + and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature + deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the + distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, + and containing within itself a provision for its own + amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your + support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its + laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by + the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our + political systems is the right of the people to make and + alter their constitutions of government. But the constitu- + tion which at any time exists till changed by an explicit + and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory + upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the + people to establish government presupposes the duty of every + individual to obey the established government." (Messages & + Papers of the Presidents, J. D. Richardson, 1898.) + It is the responsibility of everyone to obey the + established government. It doesn't exempt those who work + for government. Washington pointed out the constitution + exists till changed by an EXPLICIT and AUTHENTIC act. Until + then it is a sacred obligation on all Americans. + The Constitution cannot be changed unless you and I + agree to the change. The amendment process (Art V) is in + place and they must follow it before ANY process of our + government can be modified. + The Tenth Amendment, the last one in the Bill of + Rights, forbids the federal government from taking on ANY + power which we did not specifically delegate. No ifs, no + ands, no buts! + Each reader should write his Senators and Representa- + tives and ask where they find authority to dispense foreign + aid. Point out to them voting for foreign aid is a + violation of their oaths to support the Constitution. It is + the Supreme Law of the Land. The violation of the trust we + gave to them when we elected them to office is official + misconduct. We MUST remove them from office as soon as + possible. This comes under the definition of malconduct + which Hamilton spoke of in paper No. 79 which makes them + subject to impeachment. + To quote Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers + No. 78: "There is no position which depends on clearer + principles than that every act of a delegated authority, +  + contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is + exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary + to the Constitution can be valid. To deny this would be to + affirm that the deputy is greater than his principle; that + the servant is above his master; that the representative of + the people are superior to the people themselves; that men + acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers + do not authorize, but what they forbid." + There has been much talk lately about the foreign + policy of the president. It has become the prerogative of + the president to conduct foreign affairs. In reality it is + the designated job of the president in cooperation with the + Senate since it is their joint function to appoint ambas- + sadors. + The president is authorized to receive ambassadors yet + as pointed out in the Federalist Papers, this requirement is + more a matter of dignity than of authority. The framers + felt that it would be easier for the president to perform + this function than to call the entire Congress into session. + The Framers of our Constitution were so certain that + the Congress would have nothing to do that they included the + requirement in Art I, Sect 4, cl 2: "The Congress shall + assemble at least once in every year. . " This was the + reason they felt that it would be a problem to call the + entire Congress into session to receive ambassadors. + Today we can actually feel safer when they are not in + session passing some unconstitutional law to take away more + of our rights and liberties or raising taxes! + Do you really feel that these people do not realize + that they have no authority in the Constitution to dole out + these huge sums? It is possible I suppose, yet on the + other hand, more than likely that's not probable! They do + know and don't give a damn if we do find out! + Just another one of those practices that has gone on + for a long, long time. Since they feel it buys friends, + let's continue it. The American people don't understand + foreign affairs and foreign aid anyway. + To see how foolish this idea of giving the executive + the power to commit troops to a foreign country without + Congress declaring war as required in the Constitution, we + don't have to look far! How about Vietnam, Lebanon or + Granada or this fiasco with Saddam? + Care to total the number of our young men that died in + these illegal uses of power? It doesn't take much courage + for an old man to send a young man into battle. If + constitutional requirements had been followed, much of this + wouldn't have happened! + There is no argument that the president is the command- + er-in-chief of the military forces. However, ONLY when the + Congress has declared war, not when they have delegated + their authority to the executive branch. + It is not suggested any where in the Constitution that + the president can commit troops! + George Washington suggested strongly that America never +  + become permanently allied with any foreign nation. Another + point he brought out firmly was that we should "observe good + faith and justice toward all nations." + Has this advice been followed? How about our present + attitude toward South Africa, China, Iran, Libya or Iraq? + What business is it of our government what the internal + policy these nations follow? Are any sanctions, implied or + real, an illegal and immoral use of power? + Is this "good faith and justice" toward South Africa? + The same question could be applied toward Rhodesia. That + country is solidly in the communist camp now and this + happened because of our government meddling in the internal + affairs of that country. By what right? Simply because + they say it is in our interests? Special money has now + been allotted to the CIA to 'get rid of Saddam Hussein'. He + went into Kuwait . . . what business is that of ours? Is + this blood money? Find one iota of right in our Constitu- + tion to say we can assassinate a leader of another country. + These people have gone mad. It this what Bush wants in his + 'New World Order'? + Now we have a Secretary of State who advocates the use + of the military in attacks on "terrorist bases" even before + they have committed any acts of terrorism. It would not + matter, according to him, if innocent civilians would be + killed or injured in the 'pre-emptive' attacks. + It's hard to believe that a high ranking official of + the executive branch could even suggest such a barbarous + act. Even the Secretary of State has to take an oath to + uphold the Constitution. So where does he suggest the + authority for such acts are found? Can you find any? + There seems to be genuine concern for terrorist + activities. Much of what is going on today is a result of + past actions of our government. + There is no doubt that some situations are dangerous + yet to ignore constitutional authority and limitations is + also dangerous! + Look at their concern about the terrorists . . . They + have built all sorts of barriers in front of government + buildings around the world. More of our money at work. + Must protect our 'leaders' they say. No one has forced them + to work for the government. If they feel it is too + dangerous, go back home and go to work! We won't miss them. + All this talk about the terrorists and terrorist + activity is strangely reminiscent of Boston in 1774 when the + British called the people who were causing problems 'incen- + diaries.' They were inciting trouble hence the name incen- + diaries. The British reacted with 'pre-emptive' strikes and + look at the result of that! Their pre-emptive strikes were + without authority also! + Do We The People create deficits? Of course not. + IT'S YOUR MONEY! + Any wonder why they revised the tax laws to increase + their revenues? Now the talk is to raise taxes again in + spite of the talk about tax cuts. WAKE UP!  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/forignaf.rpt b/textfiles.com/politics/forignaf.rpt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3be1a0bb --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/forignaf.rpt @@ -0,0 +1,594 @@ + + + + + + + Foreign Affairs Timeline : American relations with Latin- + America from 1850 to 1920 + + 1850 May 25 New Mexico, impatient for statehood, formed own + state government. Convention set boundaries of + state, banned slavery, applied for statehood. + + July 9 President Zachary Taylor died. Vice-President + Millard Fillmore became president on July 10th. + Taylor was the 2nd and last of the Whig party to + be elected to presidency. + + Sept 9 Texas and New Mexico act passed. The act + established the Texas boundaries, authorized + payment of $10 million for relinquishing her + claims to territories beyond the new state + lines, and established the boundaries of New + Mexico territory. Part of Compromise of 1850. + + 1851 Aug 24 Lopez Expedition, a group unauthorized by the + federal government formed for the purpose of + taking Cuba by force. General Narciso Lopez was + a leader of Spanish refugees agitating for the + liberation of Cuba. Lopez attracted a group + from New Orleans who thought that Cuba could be + annexed to the U.S. + + 1853 Gadsden Purchase negotiated for $10 million. + Southern Arizona and New Mexico, the territory + acquired, was the last addition to the present + U.S. boundaries. Congress passed legislation, + and on June 30, 1854 the treaty was mutually + ratified. Under final terms, the U.S. received + the Mesila Valley, about 20 million unfertile + acres of land and was able to adjust the + disputed U.S. Mexican boundary. The treaty made + it unnecessary for the U.S. to protect Mexico + from Indian invasions. + + Mar 4 Franklin Pierce, 14th president inaugurated. He + was a Democrat and served one term in office. + + 1854 Oct 18 Drafting of the Ostend Manifesto, declaring that + in order to preserve slavery, U.S. should obtain + Cuba. William Marcy had ordered the conference + to establish policy toward Cuba. + + 1855 William Walker landed a company of men in + Nicaragua, overthrew the government, and set + himself up as ruler. Walker, a lawyer, doctor, + and newspaper editor had seized Lower California + in 1853, and made himself by proclamation + president. Walker was executed in Nicaragua in + 1860 by a Honduras court when a new invasion of + + + + + + + + + + + + + Nicaragua failed. + + 1857 Feb 21 Foreign coins declared no longer legal tender by + Act of Congress. + + Mar 3 Foreign duties lower to level of about 20% by + Tariff Act, and free list enlarged. + + Mar 4 James Buchanan, 15th president, sworn to office. + He was a Democrate and served one term in + office. + + 1861 Feb 18 Jefferson Davis inaugurated president of the + confederacy. Capital first established in + Montgomery, Alabama. Later moved to Richmond, + Virginia. + + Mar 4 Abraham Lincoln inaugurated president of what + was no longer the United States. + + 1862 July 22 1st draft of Emancipation Proclamation submitted + to cabinet by President Lincoln. + + 1863 Jan 1 Lincoln issued Emancipation Proclamation. + + 1865 Apr 15 Andrew Johnson, 17th president inaugurated. + + 1867 Feb 25 Survey for canal at Darien, Panama, connecting + the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans provided for by + a resolution adopted by Congress. + + 1869 Mar 4 Ulysses S. Grant inaugurated as 18th president. + He was a Republican and served two terms. + + 1877 Jan 2 Carpetbag government ended in South Carolina + when Federal troops evacuated Columbia. + + 1877 Mar 4 Rutherford B. Hayes inaugurated, 19th president, + served one term as Republican. + + 1878 Jan 17 Commercial Treaty with Samoa signed. Pago Pago + harbor reserved for a coaling station for U.S. + Naval vessels. + + 1881 James A. Garfield, 20th president, inaugurated. + He was a Republican and died 6 months., 15 days + in office. Vice-president Chester A. Arthur + succeeded him. On July 2nd, Garfield was shot. + He died September 19th, 1881. + + Sept 20 Chester A. Arthur inaugurated as 21st president, + Republican, he served 3 years, 5 months in + office. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Nov 22 Pan-American movement launched. + + 1885 Mar 4 Grover Cleveland, 22nd president inaugurated. He + was a Democrat. + + 1889 Mar 4 Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president inaugurated. + He was a Republican and served one term. + + 1890 High protective tariffs issued by President + McKinley in order to cut down on imports. + + Feb 4 Senate ratified the Samoan treaty with Germany + and Great Britain. This treaty placed Samoan + Islands under the joint control of the three + powers, and provided the U.S. with a fueling + station for it's Pacific fleet. + + Apr 14 Resolution of Pan-American Conference held in + Washington between Oct. 2nd, 1889, and April + 21st, 1890, established the Pan-American Union. + + 1892 Boll Weevil, of Mexican or Central American + origin, first seen in Texas; pest spread widely + and has caused as much as $200,000,000 damage a + year to U.S. cotton crops. + + 1893 Mar 4 Grover Cleveland, 24th president, inaugurated + for second time. He was a Democrate and served + one term. + + 1895 Feb 24 Revolt against Spanish rule broke out in Cuba. + On June 12 President Cleveland called on the + U.S. citizens to avoid giving aid to + insurgents. Part of the cause of the rebellion + was the panic of 1893 which caused severe + economic depression in the Cuban sugar industry. + Repressive measures taken by the Spanish aroused + American sympathy, which was inflamed to a war + pitch by the "yellow journalism" of William + Randolph Hearst's New Your Journal and Joseph + Pulitzer's New York World. + + Dec 21 Congress authorized President Cleveland to + appoint Venezuelan Boundary Commission. + + 1897 Mar 4 William McKinley, 25th president inaugurated. + He was a Republican and died by assassination + after serving 6 months of his 2nd term. + + May 24 Congress voted $50,000 for relief of Americans + in Cuba. Time of Cuban rebellion. + + 1898 Jan 25 U.S. battleship Maine arrived at Havana on + friendly visit. The real purpose of the Maine + + + + + + + + + + + + + was to protect American life and property. + + Feb 15 American battleship Maine blown up in Havana + harbor; 260 seamen lost. U.S. sympathies were + already strong for Cuba in the revolt against + Spanish tyranny; the Maine disaster made U.S. + intervention inevitable, though the cause of the + sinking was never established. + + Apr 5 President McKinley recalled U.S. consuls in + Cuba. + + Apr 19 Congress adopted resolutions declaring Cuba + independent and directing the president to use + forces to put an end to Spanish authority in + Cuba. + + Apr 22 U.S. instituted a blockade of all Cuban ports. + + 1st prize of the Spanish-American War taken by + gunboat Nashville, which captured the Spanish + ship, Buena Ventura. + + Apr 24 Spain recognized state of war. U.S. declared + that state of war existed since April 21st when + Spain broke diplomatic relations with U.S. + + June 11 About 600 marines landed at Guantanamo, Cuba, + and made contact with the enemy the next day. + + June 12 (thru 14th) 17,000 Americans embarked under + General Shafter at Key West, Florida to attempt + an invasion of Santiago. + + June 15 Battle at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where the U.S. + marines repulsed a Spanish force. + + Pacific island of Guam was taken over. No + ammunition was on the island, and they had not + yet received word of war. + + June 22 General Shafer's invasion forces landed at + Daiquiri, 15 miles from Santiago. American + casualties were 1 killed, 4 wounded. + + July 1 (thru begining of August) Many battles occured + leaving many cities and towns surrendering to + U.S. troops. Included in these: Ponce, Puerto + Rico; Guanica, Puerto Rico; Cuban harbor of + Nipe, and Coamo, Puerto Rico + + Aug 9 Spanish government formally accepted peace + terms. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Dec 10 Treaty ending Spanish-American War signed in + Paris. U.S. acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and + Spain relinquished claim to Cuba. Treaty was + ratified by congress Jan. 9, 1899. U.S. paid + Spain $20 million for the Philippines. + + 1901 Mar 2 Platt Amendment adopted by Congress. + Amendment established a quasi-protectorate over + Cuba. It was abrogated May 29, 1934. + + Apr 19 Rebellion in the Philippines ended by + proclamation. + + Sept 6 President McKinley shot during public reception + at Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. + He died on September 14th, and Theodore + Roosevelt was sworn in as 26th president serving + McKinleys remaining term of 3 years, 5 months + and was elected another term in 1904. + + 1902 May 20 U.S. flag lowered from government buildings in + Cuba and replaced with flag of new Cuban + government. Cuban independence achived 4 years + after end of Spanish-American war. + + June 28 Isthmian Canal Act passed by Congress. It + authorized the financing and building of the + canal across the Isthmian of Panama. Negotiated + with Columbia to authorize canal through + Nicargua. + + July 1 Philippine Government Act passed by Congress. + It declared the Philippine Islands an + unorganized territory. + + 1903 Jan 22 Hay-Herran Treaty (Panama Canal) signed with + Columbia. The U.S. Senate ratified it on March + 17th, but on August 12th, the Columbian state + rejected it. + + Nov 2 President Roosevelt ordered warships to Panama + to maintain "free and uninterrupted transit " + across isthmus. This insured success of + revolution, which was engineered in part by + officers of the Panama Company and in part by + native groups, all with tacit approval of + Roosevelt's administration. Separatist movement + in Panama was directed against Colombia. + + Nov 3 Quickest recognition ever offered a foreign + county by U.S. came when Republic of Panama was + recognized 3 days after it was proclaimed. + Roosevelt's opponents openly hinted that he was + involved in the Panamanian revolution in order + + + + + + + + + + + + + to speed negotiations for the Panama Canal. + + Nov 18 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty negotiated. It gave + U.S. complete control over a 10-mile strip of + land in Panama in return for $10 million in gold + plus yearly payments of $250,000 + + 1904 Jan 4 Citizens of Puerto Rico are not aliens, ruled + the U.S. Supreme Court. Although they are not + classified as citizens of the U.S., they can not + be denied or refused admission to the + continental limits of the U.S. + + Feb 29 Panama Canal Commission appointed by President + Roosevelt. The 7-man board was in charge of the + construction of the waterway. + + 1905 Jan 21 Protocol signed with Santo Domingo which gave + the U.S. complete charge of customs finances + with the purpose of satifying European creditors + of Santo Domingo. This was an example of + Roosevelt's corollary to Monroe Doctrine in + action. + + 1906 Aug 23 Tomas Estrada Palma, 1st president of Cuba, + requested U.S intervention to quell a revolt + arising from election disputes. Order was + finaly restored after troops took over Cuban + government for 13 days in October. + + Sept 29 Platt Amendment applied in Cuba when the U.S. + assumed military control. + + Nov 9 1st time a U.S. president left the country while + in office occurred when President Roosevelt + sailed on battleship Louisiana to visit Isthmus + of Panama and inspect the Canal. He returned on + Nov. 26, 1906. + + 1907 Feb 8 Treaty with Santo Domingo signed. + + Mar 21 U.S. Marines landed in Honduras to protect life + and property from revolutionary hazards. + + 1909 Mar 4 William H. Taft, 27th president inaugurated. He + was a Republican and served one term. + + Nov 18 U.S. Warships and troops ordered to Nicaragua + after it was reported that 500 revolutionists, + with 2 Americans among them, were executed by + dictator Zelaya. + + 1911 Mar 7 20,000 U.S. troops were ordered to the Mexican + boarder. Conditions in Mexico were still + + + + + + + + + + + + + chaotic; fighting sometimes occured so close to + the border that crowds of U.S. citizens + gathered to watch. Troops recalled June 24th. + Apr 14 President Taft sent a message to the Mexican + Government demanding that fighting cease along + the American border. + + June 5 U.S. Marines landed in Cuba to protect American + intrests. + + 1912 Oct 14 President Roosevelt shot from a distance of 6 ft + while in New York making a speech. He insisted + on delivering his speech before being taken to + the hospital. + + 1913 Mar 4 Woodrow Wilson, 28th president inaugurated. He + was a Democrat and served 2 terms. + + Aug 27 President Wilson announced his policy on + "watchful waiting" in respect to Mexico. + + 1914 Jan 27 Permanent Civil government established in the + Panama Canal Zone by an executive order. + + Apr 9 Small party of U.S. Marines, landing at Tampico, + Mexico, to obtain supplies were arrested and + detained for one and a half hours by the Mexican + authorities. + + Apr 11 A breach of diplomatic relations with Mexico + occured because of an apology without a special + salute to the American flag. + + Apr 14 President Wilson ordered American fleet to + Tampico Bay, Mexico, as result of incident + involving arrest of U.S. troops. + + Apr 21 U.S. fleet seized the custom house at Vera Cruz, + Mexico, and Marines occupied the city. U.S. + losses: 4 dead; 20 wounded. + + Apr 22 Mexico severed diplomatic relations with U.S. + + Apr 25 So-called "ABC" countries - Argentina, Brazil, + and Chile - offered to arbitrate U.S.-Mexico + dispute. President Wilson quickly accepted. + General Huerta was forced to resign presidency + of Mexico on July 15th. + + May 18 Panama Canal opened to barge service. + + July 28 (thru August 6th) Outbreak of World War I in + Europe occured. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Aug 15 Panama Canal formally opened. + + Nov 23 U.S. forces left Vera Cruz. + 1915 May 24 Pan-American Finacial Conference opened at + Washing D.C. + + Aug 5 Latin-American Conference to debate means of + ending unrest in Mexico opened at Washington + D.C.; attended by Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, + Chile, Guatemala, Uruguay, and U.S. + + Sept 16 Haiti becomes U.S. protectorate under terms of + treaty signed with that country. U.S. senate + approved February 28, 1916. + + Oct 19 U.S. government recognized General Venustiano + Carranza as President of Mexico. + + 1916 May 1 U.S. Marines landed in Santo Domingo to settle + internal violence. Occupation continued untill + 1924. + + May 9 President Wilson ordered militia of Texas, New + Mexico, and Arizona to be mobilized for duty on + the Mexican border. 4500 regular army troops + were also sent to supplement the militia. + + 1917 Feb 19 War department issued an order for the + demobilization of U.S troops stationed along the + Mexican boarder. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Bibliography: + + American Foreign Policy - edited by Robert A. Divine + THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY, N.Y. (c)1960 + + + A History of American Foreign Policy - Alexander Deconde + CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, N.Y. (c)1963 + + + An Interpretive History of American Foreign Relations - Cole + THE DORSEY PRESS, Homewood, Ill. (c)1968 + + + The Latin American Policy of the United States: An Historical + Interpretation - Samual Flagg Bemis + HARCOURT, BRACE & Co., N.Y. (c)1943 + + + History of A Free People - Bragdon, McCutchen, Cole + MACMILLAN PUBLISHING Co., Inc., N.Y. (c)1973 + + + Class notes were also used as a resource. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fr9401.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fr9401.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e7ee95cd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fr9401.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2526 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + FUTURE REFLECTIONS + + + Winter, 1994 + + + THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLInd + MAGAZINE FOR PARENTS OF BLIND CHILDREN + + + + +Barbara Cheadle, Editor + + + + Published by the + national Federation of the Blind + 1800 Johnson Street + Baltimore, MD 21230 + (410) 659-9314 + + + + +ISSN 0883-3419 + Vol. 13, No. 1Barbara Cheadle, Editor Winter, 1994 +Contents +Snapshots from the 1993 NFB National Convention + +Michigan: Host of the 1994 National Parents Seminar and National +Federation of the Blind Annual Convention + +Reflections from Home: Report on the 1993 National Convention of +the National Federation of the Blind, Dallas, Texas +by Jude Lincicome + +Through the Screen Door +A poem by Nancy Scott + +NFB Recognizes Outstanding Individuals + +Gift of Independence: Teacher Helps Blind Find Their Own Way + +1994 Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award +by Sharon Maneki + +1994 Application + +Childhood on the Lower East Side +by Dr. Abraham Nemeth + +Meeting the Needs of the Deaf-Blind Child + +1993 Gus Gisser Memorial Braille Readers Contest Report +by Sandy Halverson + +Chesnee Girl Wins Braille Award + +The Scholarship Class of 1993 + +NAPUB Plans National Braille-A-Thon for Detroit +by Jerry Whittle and Betty Niceley + +The Nature of Independence +by Dr. Kenneth Jernigan + + MICHIGAN: HOST OF THE 1994 NATIONAL PARENTS SEMINAR AND NATIONAL +FEDERATION OF THE BLIND ANNUAL CONVENTION + +Each year the National Parents of Blind Children Seminar gets +bigger and better. This day-long seminar has become one of the +traditional kickoff events of the annual convention of the National +Federation of the Blind. Sponsored by the National Organization of +Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), (formerly the Parents of Blind +Children Division), the seminar attracts parents, educators, and +interested members of the Federation from all over the country, and +a few foreign nations as well. And the 1994 seminar and convention +in Detroit, Michigan, promises to be the best, the biggest, and the +most informative we have ever had. +The focal point of the convention activities will be the Westin +Hotel at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. From Friday, July 1, to +Thursday, July 7, over 2,500 blind people and hundreds of parents +of blind children will converge upon the hotel to listen, learn, +share, discuss, debate, and otherwise participate in the week's +activities. It is a unique opportunity for parents and educators to +learn about blindness from the real experts on blindnessþthe blind +themselves. +For parents, the first big event is the National Parents of Blind +Children Seminar on Friday, July 1. The seminar agenda includes +topics that are always appropriateþ"Planning Your Child's +Individualized Education Program (IEP)" and "How to Choose the +Right Technology for Your Child"þas well as some topics never (or +seldom) explored in previous national parent seminars, such as +"Readers and Drivers: The Other Alternative Techniques" and +"Learning Through Play: A Panel Discussion about Toys, Games, +Hobbies, Recreation, and Sports." Other subjects on the agenda +include: "Parents: The Blind Child's First Mobility Teachers" and +"From Taking Notes to Taking Out the Trash." +Registration for the seminar will begin at 8:00 a.m. The seminar +will begin at 9:00 with the keynote address, "Cheap Mistakes: When +Children Need to Fail." The registration fee for the seminar is +$8.00 per family for those who wish to join, or renew their +membership in, the NOPBC. The fee is $5.00 per person for those who +do not wish to become members. The seminar will conclude at 5:00 +p.m. +As usual, a special field trip has been planned for children ages +five to twelve. Donna Posont of Michigan is organizing and +supervising this year's trip to Greenfield Village. Donna Posont is +a blind mother, an active member of her local chapter and state +affiliate of the NFB, and an active member of the Parents of Blind +Children Division of Michigan as well. She has conducted many local +field trips and other activities for children for the Michigan +parent division. Here is what she has to say about the field trip: + +On Friday, July 1, 1994, children between the ages of five and +twelve are invited to take a field trip to Greenfield Village, +which is one of the most extraordinary places you can visit. It +provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, +stories, and lives of America's famous inventors. On this +ninety-three-acre outdoor exhibit stand the Wright brothers' +bicycle shop, Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory, and the Logan +County Courthouse in which Abraham Lincoln worked as a lawyer. +These are not replicasþthey are the actual buildings. You will also +find a working blacksmith's shop, an 1880's farm, and a 1913 +carousel. These are one-of-a-kind exhibits you don't just look +atþyou experience them! And, because of a contact we have with a +member of the Greenfield Village staff, we will have a special +guide for our group who will be dressed in colonial costume and who +will explain the exhibits as we examine them. +We will gather in the hotel near the parents' seminar room on +Friday morning between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. The price for the trip is +$20.00 per child. This includes the cost of transportation and +lunch. We will return by 5:00 p.m. or before. Parents will be told +Friday morning where to pick up their children. +Since the number of children who can be accommodated for this trip +is limited, we urge you to pre-register your child(ren) for the +Greenfield Village daytrip. Children will be accepted on a +first-come, first-served basis. Please contact Donna Posont if you +have any questions about the day-trip, if you want more information +about pre-registration, or if you have a child with special needs. +To pre-register your child(ren), send your check for $20.00 per +child and the names, ages, and indication of special needs of each +youngster (including whether the child is blind or sighted) to +Donna Posont. Her contact information is 20812 Ann Arbor Trail, +Dearborn Heights, Michigan 48127; phone (313) 271-3058. + +Two other very special workshops for qualified parents, teachers, +and other members of the Federation will take place Friday +concurrently with the afternoon session of the 1994 National +Parents of Blind Children Seminar. These workshops, "Braille +Methods," and "The Nature and Nurture of Cane Travel and +Independent Movement in the Early Years" will be conducted from +1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. These workshops are open to two groups of +people: blind adults and parents of blind children who are willing +and able to work within their Federation affiliates to use and +share their new knowledge for the benefit of others and teachers +and others who work professionally with blind children. +The "Braille Methods" workshop will be conducted by Claudell +Stocker, a nationally known Braille expert. The National Library +Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped's (NLS) Literary +Braille Competency Test was developed under her direction as the +former head of the NLS Braille Development Section. Mrs. Stocker +also conducted the very popular "Beginning Braille for Parents" +workshops at our last three national conventions. Participants must +be able to read and write Grade II Braille. A maximum of twenty +persons may register for this workshop. +Joe Cutter, who is both an early childhood specialist and an +orientation and mobility instructor, will be conducting the cane +travel workshop with the help of Carol Castellano, President of the +Parents of Blind Children Division of the NFB of New Jersey, and +George Binder, a children's cane travel instructor in New Mexico. +Mr. Cutter assisted Fred Schroeder with a cane travel workshop at +National Convention a few years ago. He has been a proponent of +giving canes to blind preschoolers, and even toddlers, for many +years. The purpose of this workshop is to train participants in the +concepts, philosophy, and strategies which undergird the successful +nurture of independent movement, confident cane travel, and good +orientation and mobility for young blind children. With this +knowledge participants will be better able to advocate for quality +cane travel and O&M programs for children; and the teachers, O&M +specialists, and other professionals who attend the workshop will +be better prepared to provide these quality programs. The maximum +number of participants in this workshop is fifty. We urge NFB +parent's divisions and state affiliates to consider sending a +representative to this workshop. +To pre-register for either of these workshops, send your name, +address (including city, state, and zip code), telephone number, +and a check in the amount of $10.00 (made payable to National +Organization of Parents of Blind Children) to NOPBC Convention +Workshops, National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, +Baltimore, Maryland 21230. Also, please indicate if you are a +parent, teacher, or other professional and whether you are blind or +sighted. If you are registering for the Braille Workshop, please +describe your level of Braille knowledge or experience. +Other activities during the convention will include an opportunity +for blind youth to get together for a discussion. This will also +take place the afternoon of Friday, July 1. Friday evening the +NOPBC will sponsor a Parent Hospitality Room in the NFB Camp room +from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. There will be food for everyone (specifics +will be announced at the seminar) and plenty of toys and space for +the kids to play. Susan Benbow of New Mexico and other teachers and +blind adults will be on hand to talk to parents one-on-one about +particular educational concerns. If you wish, they will also +demonstrate the use of the slate and stylus or other simple +activities to you and your child. +As usual, the annual meeting of the NOPBC will also take place +during the convention. The meeting will be on Sunday afternoon, +July 3, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. An IEP workshop will also be held +for parents on the evening of Monday, July 4, from 7:00 p.m. to +10:00 p.m. + +General Child Care Information +As usual, child care will be available during the 1994 convention. +Again this year the volunteer director of child care services +(christened last year and now known as NFB Camp) is Mary Willows. +Mrs. Willows is an experienced educator, the mother of two +children, and a long-time leader in the National Federation of the +Blind of California. This volunteer job is a major undertaking. It +takes a tremendous amount of time from many Federation parents who +care deeply about making the NFB Convention an enjoyable and +enriching experience for every member of the family who attends. +Child care is provided not only during the parent seminar on +Friday, July 1, 1994, but also during the convention sessions, the +banquet, and other special meeting times (as resources allow). +Parents are asked to make these donations for child care: $50 for +the week (including the banquet) for the first child and $25 for +each additional child. Or, if you do not need the full week of NFB +Camp, $10 per child per day and $10 per child for the banquet +night. Parents who cannot contribute the suggested donation should +contact Mary Willows to discuss what donation they are able to +make. Mary will be available in the NFB Camp room before and after +sessions. Please contact Mary as soon as possible to indicate the +number of youngsters in your family who will be participating in +NFB Camp during the week. Be sure to tell her about each child's +special needs, if any. We also need to know the age of each +youngster and whether each is blind or sighted. Checks for child +care (made payable to NOPBC) and registration information should be +sent to Mary Willows, 3934 Kern Court, Pleasanton, California +94558; (510) 462-8557. Since the suggested donation does not cover +all expenses, other donations from individuals and groups will be +much appreciated. + +Hotel Reservations +As usual, our hotel rates are the envy of all who hear about them. +For the 1994 convention they are: singles, $38; doubles and twins, +$43; triples, $45; and quads, $48. In addition to the room rates, +there will be a tax, which at present is twelve percent. There will +be no charge for children in the room with parents as long as no +extra bed is required. +To make hotel reservations for the 1994 convention you should write +directly to Westin Hotel, Renaissance Center, Detroit, Michigan +48243, Attention: Reservations; or call (313) 568-8000. Westin has +a national toll-free number, but do not (we emphasize NOT) use it. +Reservations made through this national number will not be valid. +They must be made directly with the Westin in Detroit. The hotel +will want a deposit of $45 or a credit card number. If a credit +card is used, the deposit will be charged against your card +immediately, just as would be the case with a $45 check. If a +reservation is canceled prior to June 20, 1994, the entire amount +of your deposit will be returned to you by the hotel. Requests for +refunds after June 20, 1994, will not be honored. + +Convention Dates and Schedule +Here is the general outline of convention activities: +Friday, July 1þseminars for parents of blind children, blind job +seekers, vendors and merchants, several other workshops and +meetings, and Parents' Hospitality (evening). +Saturday, July 2þconvention registration, exhibit hall open for +business, first meeting of the Resolutions Committee (open to +observers), some other committees, and some divisions. +Sunday, July 3þexhibit hall open all day, meeting of the Board of +Directors (open to all), division meetings (including the National +Organization of Parents of Blind Children annual meeting), +committee meetings, continuing registration. +Monday, July 4þopening general session, exhibit hall open before +session and during lunch, evening picnic and gala, and evening IEP +Workshop. +Tuesday, July 5þgeneral sessions, exhibit hall open before session +and all afternoon, tours. +Wednesday, July 6þgeneral sessions, exhibit hall open before +session and during lunch, banquet. +Thursday, July 7þgeneral sessions, exhibit hall open before +session, adjournment. +Miscellaneous Information +NFB information tables will be set up in the hotel (usually near +the hotel registration area). Details about where the Friday, July +1, workshops will be held, location of the NFB Camp for kids, and +so forth will be available at these tables. The complete convention +agenda, in print or Braille, is available to all those who register +for the convention. Registration opens on Saturday, July 2. The fee +is $5 per person. There is no pre-registration for the convention. +Each person must be present to register him- or herself. +Banquet tickets generally do not exceed $25 to $30 and should be +purchased at the time you register. We have a system called the +Banquet Ticket Exchange which gives you the option of selecting in +advance the people with whom you wish to sit at the banquet. The +procedure is explained at registration and again early in the +convention session. +Hospitality and convention information will be available at the +Presidential Suite and the NFB of Michigan Suite throughout the +convention. The location and phone numbers of these suites will be +listed in both the pre-convention and convention agendas. +The NFB of Michigan is putting together some wonderful tour +packages for convention. Details will be in the Braille Monitor and +at the NFB Convention Information table when you arrive. If you do +not get the Monitor and would like some information in advance, +write or call: + +National Organization ofParents of Blind Children Convention +Information 1800 Johnson Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230 (410) +659-9314. +REFLECTIONS FROM HOME Report on the 1993 National Convention of the +National Federation of the Blind Dallas, Texas +by Jude Lincicome +Editor's Note: Jude Lincicome, a parent from Maryland, received a +scholarship from the Parents of Blind Children Division of the NFB +of Maryland (POBC/MD) for herself and her son, Jeremy, to attend +the 1993 NFB Convention. Jude later gave a fascinating report about +their convention experiences to the annual meeting of the POBC/MD. +That report (which was published in Horizons, the Maryland +Parent Division newsletter) became the basis for the following +article. Here is Jude's "Reflections from Home": + +Jeremy and I arrived in Texas on Friday afternoon, July 2, feeling +a little bit of apprehension and a lot of excitement. The Hyatt +Regency DFW was quite comfortable, and we found our room easily. We +stayed in the West Tower. NFB Camp and the swimming pool were also +in the West Tower. Across a quarter-mile corridor was the East +Tower where the majority of convention activities were held. +While parents were attending sessions, children went to NFB Camp, +which was directed by Mary Willows, a blind educator. The week was +abundant with activities in the hotel and about the Dallas area. +The children had a great time not only sharing adventures but +making new friends with true peersþother blind children and/or +siblings of blind children. For one week they were just like +everybody else. +Our busy week began early Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. with the +Parents of Blind Children all-day seminar for parents and teachers, +"Meeting the Needs of the Blind Youngster." How reassuring to hear +speaker after speaker reinforce the importanceþno, the +necessityþfor early Braille and cane travel instruction. It was +during this seminar that I realized that I was not demanding enough +independence in cane walking for Jeremy. For those who do not know +us, Jeremy is five years old and attends the Maryland School for +the Blind. How about that! Me, the one most folks who know me say +demands too much from her children, guilty of not expecting enough. +Just for this, the whole trip seemed worthwhile. +The morning included recognition of the Braille Readers Are Leaders +contestants, discussion of the role of parents, blind role models, +and alternative techniques. There was also an excellent panel on +the needs of deaf-blind children. Dr. Abraham Nemeth, inventor of +the Nemeth Braille code for mathematics, spoke of his upbringing +and education as a blind child in an earlier era. Both the progress +we have made and, sadly, the regression since his days as a youth +were most enlightening. +For the afternoon we broke into specialty groups. The choices +included: Current Trends and Legislation in Special Education; +Deaf-Blind Children; Integrating Braille at Home and in the +Classroom; Alternative Techniques for Junior High, Middle, and High +School Students; IEP Workshop; Blind Multiply Handicapped Children; +Cane Travel; and Personal Independence and Daily Living Skills. +Since I write a column for parents of the multiply handicapped +blind child for the POBC of Maryland newsletter, I attended the +group led by Colleen Roth, who chairs the POBC Network for the +Blind Multiply Handicapped Child. +While I was busy learning all I could about how to be my son's best +advocate and how to more effectively meet his needs, Jeremy spent +the day at a Dude Ranch with his friends from NFB Camp. His +favorite story about the trip is about the hayride and what +happened on the way to the petting zoo. "...The wheel came off and +we tipped." What an exciting start of NFB Camp! For me the most +impressive part of the ranch trip was that all the children +participating were given canes (if they did not already have one), +no matter what level of vision they had. What a great message to +everyone about the importance of using a cane. Since this trip, +Jeremy uses his cane everywhere he goes; a habit I've tried for a +year to instill in him. Saturday evening we went to a pizza party +with high-steppin' fiddle music. We made new friends at the party, +then went for a swim before bedtime. +Sunday was less structured, giving us time to go into town for a +whataburger and shop for a few forgotten items. Then it was on to +the convention exhibit hall to shop againþ-this time for +information, ideas, trinkets, gifts for friends and family, and a +tee shirt in Braille. This was my first of many trips around the +exhibit hall, and I dare say I probably still missed a few things +to see. Registration was quick and easy with one stop to register +and purchase tickets for trips and the banquet. Lines were only a +couple deep despite the fact that over 2,500 persons registered +during the week. Sunday afternoon Jeremy and I took our turn +working the POBC table in the exhibit hall. Toys we thought would +be attractive for kids were a hit with the adults. Our +print/Braille tee shirts with the cartoon Pluggers<191> character +Zacharoo (a blind kangaroo) and the words "Braille is Finger-food +for the Blind," were liked by young and not-so-young. We sold out +of several items the first couple of days. +Monday morning was spent again at the exhibit hall and the Sensory +Safari, a hands-on exhibit of stuffed animals sponsored by the +Safari Club International. Jeremy had a rare and wonderful +opportunity to touch and explore, in detail, huge elephant tusks, +tiny squirrel feet, hippo teeth, wolf fur, mountain lion claws, +monkey tails, and bird feathers, just to name a few. Each animal +had a knowledgeable guide to answer any question. Some animals had +tape recordings of their special call or sound. How many of us can +say they have plunged their whole hand into the mane of a buffalo +or felt the tongue and back teeth of a hyena? +Monday afternoon was our Parents of Blind Children Annual Meeting. +Speakers again reinforced the necessity of Braille and cane +independence for blind children, giving example after example of +kids successful at learning Braille or cane walking. We vicariously +experienced each child's triumph and were all encouraged by these +examples to renew our own resolve to have our child be the best +that he or she can be. +Ruby Ryles, who is currently working on her Ph.D. in the education +of blind children, gave an enlightening presentation of her +research which documents the positive link between Braille literacy +and employment of the blind. Officers and board members were +elected and state POBC reports were given. Networkingþexchanging +names and addressesþwas also a highlight of the meeting. +A swim in the pool after dinner was about all the activity Jeremy +and I could handle as by now we were both feeling the effects of +early to rise, late to bed. Reluctantly we missed the "Yah Sure Can +Do Carnival" sponsored by the NFB of Minnesota affiliate and +BLIND, Incorporated (the NFB of Minnesota orientation and training +center for the blind). +Tuesday morning the magnitude of the convention became evident. +Eight halls were joined to form a huge room to accommodate some +2,500 registrants from not only our 50 states, Puerto Rico, and +D.C. but from many other countries,þsuch as Thailand, Japan, +Canada, and Saudi Arabiaþas well. People of every variety, size, +color, shape, ethnicity, and station who carried canes or used dogs +(and some who used wheelchairs, too) were coming together in one +place for a common cause. It was truly an awesome sight! +As I sat watching the people in the room, it occurred to me that +something seemed to be missingþsomething that perhaps had not +happenedþyet. Then it came to me. We had been here for four days +now, here in a strange place with people we've never seen before, +doing things we've never done before, among people who like my son +are blind. How strange that my level of stress and anxiety was so +low. There were a few people who during the first days seemed to +carry a lot of emotional baggage. But they, too, seemed to have +been able to leave it behind and join the spirit of our single +purposeþlearning about blindness and how to be the best that we can +be. And whatever each of us is, is okay. As if this realization was +not exciting enough, the roll call of the states brought my +awareness back to the convention hall. +As each state represented was called forward, conventioneers +responded with a resounding cheer. Our tiny state was third in +numbers attending. Not bad! Albeit, it does seem most fitting that +the state of Maryland, under our President, Sharon Maneki, should +assume a role of leadership since we are the home of the National +Center for the Blind, headquarters of the National Federation of +the Blind. If only we can sustain that enthusiasm when we get home! +Just think what we can accomplish. +The afternoon session was highlighted by the Presidential Report by +Marc Maurer. The scope and power of the National Federation of the +Blind seems to touch us at all levels of our lives. I hope you will +read his report in the Braille Monitor. No less inspiring was an +address by the Honorable Sam Johnson, Member of Congress, Third +District, Texas: "Blindness: Meeting the Challenge Through +Self-Organization and a Fighting SpiritþLessons From One Who +Knows!" Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, President Emeritus of the National +Federation of the Blind, both amused and instructed us with his +presentation of "The Nature of Independence." Dr. Jernigan gave a +very personal, sensitive, and instructive answer to a group of +letters he received from blind students at a training center for +the blind concerned about what they perceived to be a rift between +Dr. Jernigan's choice of using sighted-guide techniques over +independent cane walking at convention, and the position of the +National Federation of the Blind concerning the importance of +independent cane travel. Again, I hope you will read this also. +[Editor's note: This speech is reprinted in this issue on page 44.] + +Tuck Tinsley, III, Ed.D., President of the American Printing House +for the Blind, Louisville, Kentucky, gave us a good look at what we +can expect from the American Printing House in his talk "Tomorrow's +News Today." Some of the joint projects now taking place between +the National Federation of the Blind and the American Printing +House for the Blind will help prepare the future generation to meet +the challenge of competitive employment in the age of computers and +technology. +As my head was reeling with possibilities for my son, I hurried to +pick him up from NFB Camp to go to the Texas Barbecue Under the +Stars. To think I had to travel all the way to Texas to meet the +President of my NFB Baltimore County Chapter. That night Ken +Canterbury met my son Jeremy. This was Ken's first real experience +with a blind child. I have asked Ken to be my son's big brother. +Role models are important for children, and I am glad to find a +blind man for my son to look up to. Just think, several times I +almost gave up on coming to the barbecue. Food, friends, fun, +dancing, and music were abundant. We had a great time. I'm so +grateful we went. +Wednesday morning came all too soon, beginning with election of NFB +Board Members. Greetings from the Congress of the United States +were then delivered to the convention by the Honorable Greg +Laughlin, Congress member from the fourteenth district, Texas. His +remarks were a firm reminder of the responsibility the National +Federation of the Blind has to lead the nation's blind and to +advocate for them and the high regard held for the National +Federation of the Blind by those who govern this great nation. +Turning to other serious matters, the remainder of the morning was +spent in a discussion of issues around "Fair Labor Standards þ Fact +or Fiction for Blind Workers in the Sheltered Workshop." James +Gashel was moderator of a panel which included: Joe D. Cordova, +Assistant Director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind and +Administrator of the Industries Division; Richard J. Edlund, Member +of the Kansas House of Representatives; Fred Puente, Chairman of +the Board of Trustees of Blind Industries and Services of +Maryland; Donald Ellisburg, labor lawyer and consultant; William +Gross, Assistant Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the +Employment Standards Administration in the U.S. Department of +Labor; and Austin Murphy, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor +Standards, Occupational Health and Safety of the Committee on +Education and Labor in the House of Representatives. +General consensus was that there is a serious double standard in +the wage earnings of blind and sighted employees in workshops for +the blind. Ironically, the majority of the monies allocated to a +workshop go to the salaries of the sighted administrators and +supervisors, and what is left is paid to the blind employees. The +legislation, which was originally designed with the intention of +increasing employment possibilities for the blind by allowing +employers to pay sub-minimum wages, is now responsible for unfairly +keeping blind employees in sub-minimum-wage-paying jobs. However, +studies show that productivity is higher when wages are at or above +minimum-wage standards. This was a very sobering panel. Reality +shock has certainly made me concerned, even frightened for my son's +future. I'm really glad I insisted on a strong Braille component +for Jeremy's IEP this year! His opportunities in the future will be +better with good Braille skills and cane independence. +Wednesday afternoon and evening was left open for Federationists to +relax, enjoy local sights, or do whatever they wished. Our +afternoon was spent riding the train to the airport and exploring +the shops. This was Jeremy's choice, and I'm so proud that he is +telling me what he wants to do. During our afternoon he wanted to +go about with his cane "all by myself." Before, when we were in the +mall or the airport and even when he had his cane, he has always +wanted to touch either myself or his brother's wheelchair. So this +was a real gain. +Most of Thursday morning's general session was devoted to issues of +education. Those speaking included Frank Kurt Cylke, Director of +the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically +Handicapped of the Library of Congress, and Ramona Walhof, +Secretary of the National Federation of the Blind. Mr. Cylke's +presentation was entitled, "Twenty Years of Service and Twenty +Years to Come." Ramona Walhof's inspiring speech was called, +"Braille: A Renaissance." +Next was a panel discussion called "Mainstreaming, Schools for the +Blind, and Full Inclusion: What Shall the Future of Education for +Blind Children Be?" Panel members were: Fred Schroeder, Executive +Director of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind and formerly +Director of Low-Incidence Programs in the Albuquerque Schools; Dr. +Phil Hatlen, Superintendent of the Texas School for the Blind and +Visually Impaired; Dr. Michael Bina, Superintendent of the Indiana +School for the Blind and President of the Association for Education +and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER); and +Dr. Ralph Bartley, Superintendent of the Arizona State Schools for +the Deaf and the Blind. The morning ended with a presentation by +Patricia Stenger, Senior Vice President of the American Diabetes +Association; the title was "Diabetes: A Leading Cause of Blindness +in the United States." +Issues of modernizing the Social Security and SSI systems were +addressed by Louis Enoff, Acting Commissioner of the Social +Security Administration, first thing during the afternoon session. +Excellence in the workplace was demonstrated by the next panel of +speakers: Richard Realmuto, teacher of technology, Stuyvesant High +School in Manhattan, New York; Kathy Kannenberg, teacher of +mathematics in Raleigh, North Carolina; Michael Gosse, Ph.D., +Electrical Engineer at Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation +in Greenbelt, Maryland; and Alan R. Downing, a high-performance +engine builder. Under the topic, "Diversified Tasks: The Blind in +the Workplace," each spoke of their success as blind professionals +in a diverse cross section of employment. +Finally the Honorable Jim Ramstad, Member of Congress, Third +District of Minnesota spoke about pending legislation, the +Americans with Disabilities Business Development Act, and what it +could mean to the blind for self-employment opportunities. Reports +from Dr. Kenneth Jernigan as representative of the World Blind +Union of North America/Caribbean Region were deferred to Friday +because of time. +Thursday night's banquet was a most phenomenal success due to an +incredible banquet address presented by President Marc Maurer. A +look at the past and people's perceptions of blindness were +presented in a hilarious walk through the writings of several +scholars of the day. It was clear that President Maurer enjoyed +presenting his address as much as we enjoyed hearing it. +Neither Jeremy nor I had the energy left for the Colorado Hoe-down +following the banquet. The spirit was ready, the flesh weak. Jeremy +had stayed busy at NFB Camp with trips to the park, puppet shows, +and fun in the Oyngo-Boyngo, a marvelous net-enclosed trampoline. +And Friday would bring with it a field trip to the Science Center +and lunch at McDonald's. +Friday's general session was devoted to the business of running a +big organization. Reports, finances, resolutions, and a report from +our NFB Director of Governmental Affairs, James Gashel, filled both +morning and afternoon sessions. +I made a last trip to the exhibit hall to make sure nothing was +overlooked, then went to the NFB Camp to collect my son for the +last time. The tears in the eyes of his caretakers were a sure sign +of the loving care my son received while at Camp. After exchanging +addresses and promising to write, we left for one more ride on the +airport train, dinner, then bed. +My only disappointment from the entire week was that we had not won +any of the hundreds of door prizes, ranging from chips to $1000 in +a leather briefcase. My secret wish was to take home a box of +Armadillo Droppings, the caramel and pecan confections that had +been taste-tested in general session by President Maurer himself. +Saturday's return trip was spent enjoying the quiet and remembering +the past week with friends. How richly blessed we are by the +vision, wisdom, information, friendships, networking with other +families, and the reassurances we received at the Federation +Convention that after all is said and done, blindness need not be +a crippling handicap. And with Braille literacy and competence in +cane walking, blindness may be reduced to nothing more than a +nuisance. I returned home with a renewed hope for my son and his +future, and a resolve to make certain he has the Braille and cane +skills he must have. I, too, am learning Braille. +In closing I would like to share a funny anecdote from our final +train ride to the airport on Saturday. I sat across from a father +with his young daughter. The man sat staring at me for quite a +while before he spoke. I answered his questions about where we had +been and where we were going. Then he asked "What do you use that +for?" looking at my purse with his eyes. "What do you mean?" I +asked, "That's my purse." +"Then what do you keep in that?" he asked, again pointing with his +eyes, but now at Jeremy's book-bag with noticeable Braille on the +flap. Confused by his odd questions, I said, "It's my son's +book-bag." +"You see well" replied the man, seeming pleased with his test of my +vision. I was simultaneously amused by his `beat-around-the-bush' +way of determining my visual acuity, and offended by his obvious +thought that because I was also carrying a cane (Jeremy's small +cane that we replaced at convention) that he needed to determine by +trickery whether I was really blind or merely pretending by also +carrying a cane. For a brief moment, I felt like I could have been +proud to be blind like Jeremy. And then I wondered if it was that +I would be proud to be blind or proud to be associated with the +blind; for I had just spent eight days in the company of the blind +learning about blindness, and I had been privy to some measure of +their courage, determination, and caring for one another. And I do +feel proud to have been at the conventionþthe National Convention +of the National Federation of the Blind. + + + + + +THROUGH THE SCREEN DOOR +by Nancy Scott + +I am on my back steps, my squirt gun ready, but I need something +good to shoot. I already shot the house. The water thuds if I get +close, but that's no fun anymore. + +I hear the hiss of Mom's iron in the pantry. I could shoot her, but +not really. There's a door for the water to hit so I could shoot +her in my head. I aim at the spitting iron. + +I fire. The water sisses with the force of my wishing. Buzz against +the screen so I know its going where I want. Buzz. Siss. Pull. Feel +the water going from the gun. Siss. Buzz. +"Stop that." What? That's not supposed to happen. Mom must be +hearing me think. I know she can do that sometimes. "There's water +all over the floor." No. There's a door there. + +I'm six and I'm not stupid. "You're shooting through the screen. +Water goes through the door." That can't be. Water is big. It stays +in one place, not like air and noise. I tell her. +Mom sighs from mad to show-and-tell; puts my left hand inside, my +right with the gun out and says "shoot." Pull. Buzz. Wet against +my inside hand. "Yes. Come look." She puts my right hand in the +puddle on the floor. + +I could have shot her after all. How far wouldwater go through the +door? How high could I make it reach? Good thing she isn't hearing +me think. Maybe if I reach real high No, I'll try for the tree. +NFB RECOGNIZES OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUALS + +Three special awards were presented at the 1993 NFB Convention. +They were: the Blind Educator of the Year Award, the Distinguished +Educator of Blind Children Award, and the Golden Keys Award. These +awards are not bestowed lightly. If a worthy recipient does not +emerge from the pool of candidates for a particular award, it is +simply not presented that year. These awards are, therefore, +meaningful expressions of recognition and gratitude to outstanding +individuals who have made a difference in the lives of blind +people. +The Golden Keys Award was presented for the first time in 1993 at +the Convention banquet Thursday evening. The National Association +to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB), a division of the National +Federation of the Blind, created the award; and Betty Niceley, +President of NAPUB, made the presentation to the 1993 winner. The +winner had, in Mrs. Niceley's words, " worked for us and with us to +increase the use of Braille. [He] sought us out, wanted our +comments, listened to us, and put into action the suggestions we +made." She then presented a beautiful plaque with seven gold keys +emulating the keyboard of the Braille writer to Deane Blazie, +inventor of the Braille 'n Speak and many other outstanding Braille +products for the blind. +The two educator awards were presented at the Monday morning +meeting of the Board of Directors. Emerson Foulke was the 1993 +winner of the Blind Educator of the Year Award. Stephen Benson, +Chairman of the Selection Committee, described Dr. Foulke's many +accomplishments, then presented him with a plaque and a check for +$500. Dr. Foulke has a Ph.D. in psychology from Washington +University in St. Louis. He has written literally hundreds of +articles, authored and co-authored many books, and taught at the +university level for thirty-three years. He has long been involved +in technical research and research on human perception. Beyond +that, he has done extensive work in Braille and is involved in the +construction of the Braille Code. +Sharon Maneki, Chairperson of the Distinguished Educator of Blind +Children Selection Committee, presented that award. She said: + +We in the National Federation of the Blind constantly challenge +ourselves to find new ways to meet our goals. In 1987 we created +the Distinguished Educator of Blind Children Award because we not +only believed in excellence in education, but we believed that the +best way to help blind people is to make it better for the next +generation. The members of the Committee have a difficult task. +Those members were Jacquilyn Billey, Allen Harris, Fred Schroeder, +Joyce Scanlan, and I. We were able to find a candidate who reflects +what we stand for. She is a candidate who has been teaching for +nine years in the classroom. Some may say that's like combat duty, +but she is a person who believes in students and passes on the +torch, not only of knowledge, but of confidence in their abilities. +This year's Distinguished Educator of Blind Children is a teacher +in Zia Elementary School in the district of Albuquerque, New +Mexico, Gail Katona.[applause] I'm going to present Ms. Katona with +a check for $500 and also with a plaque, and I will read the +plaque: + +DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND CHILDREN + +The National Federation of the Blind honors +GAIL KATONA +LIST = for your skill in teaching Braille and the use of the white +cane, for generously donating extra time to meet the needs of your +students and for inspiring your students to perform beyond their +expectations. Our colleague, our friend, our ally on the +barricades, you champion our movement, you strengthen our hopes, +you share our dreams. July, 1993 + +After Ms. Katona accepted her plaque, she said: + +I'm overwhelmed. Thank you very much for this wonderful award. It +is a great pleasure and honor to receive it from an organization +such as yourselves. I would like to thank Mrs. Maneki and the +members of the selection committee for selecting me this year. I +would also like to say thank you to Mr. Fred Schroeder, who, when +I was first hired into Albuquerque, was the coordinator of the +program. So Fred was the one who hired me initially and gave me the +opportunity to start the program in Albuquerque and to teach these +wonderful blind children. + +I'm a niece of Karen Mayry from South Dakota, so it's no wonder +that I've been a member of the NFB since I was about sixteen or +seventeen years old, and it is through this organization that I +have learned my philosophy and my attitude about teaching blind +children. Blind children are children firstþthey're kids. They're +little. They need to be taught. Our blind children need to be +taught the skills of blindness. I do my best to make sure that all +of my students get the opportunities to learn and to grow to their +full potential. I think that is done through the use of teaching +Braille so that we have proficient Braille readers, and we always +encourage the use of a long white cane so the students can become +very independent cane travelers. Thank you again. This is a +wonderful honor. +GIFT OF INDEPENDENCE Teacher Helps Blind Find Their Own Way + +From the Albuquerque Journal, September 21, 1993, by Tracy +Dingmann. + +Jefferson Middle School student Jennifer Espinoza shuffles down the +crowded hallway, tapping her white cane uncertainly and hunching +her shoulders as if to shield her body form students charging +around her toward class. Her eyes see nothing, and her ears strain +to hear clues from her cane over the din. +From a spot down the hall, Jennifer's teacher Gail Katona watches +but makes no move to help. "If I walk with her, then she depends on +me," she whispers, as Jennifer slowly makes her way to class. +For the ten years Katona's been teaching visually handicapped +children, that's been her passion: to keep such students from +thinking they must depend on others to live happy, educated, and +successful lives. +This past summer the National Federation of the Blind named Katona +its 1993 Distinguished Educator of Blind Children. The prize means +a lot to a woman who grew up inspired by a blind aunt, a "really +regular, normal person" who skied, golfed and worked as a probation +officer. +"Through her and the National Federation of the Blind, I met blind +people from all walks of lifeþsuccessful, capable people," said +Katona, 30. "Then I met some blind people who were not very +independent, and I tried to figure out what the difference between +them was." +What did she find? "It all boils down to education, attitude, and +the expectations others have of them," she said. +Katona learned Braille at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and +earned a degree in elementary education of the visually +handicapped. Her first job was at Zia Elementary in Albuquerque, +where she co-founded a program to teach visually handicapped +children from throughout the district in one classroom. The program +is the only one of its kind in New Mexico public schools and has +been nationally recognized, Katona said. It was for her work +thereþher last year at Ziaþthat Katona won the Federation's top +honor. +This year Katona moved to Jefferson to start a program that +concentrates services for visually handicapped middle school +students at one school. Four students from Zia, including Jennifer, +came with her. +For most of the school day, Katona follows her students to the +classes they attend with regular students, staying to help them +with especially difficult subjects such as math and science. +"Middle school is tough for any kid. It's been a rough transition +for both of us," said Katona last week while watching Jennifer +navigate the crowded halls. +But the Jefferson program makes it easier for such students. +Visually impaired students at other middle schools have only the +help of one part-time special teacher, who travels from school to +school, Katona said. +At Jefferson, Katona also tells staffers about the special needs of +blind students. And she punches out all of her students' lessons in +Braille and translates their work from Braille for their regular +teachers. +Katona spends considerable time dispelling the fears and +stereotypes kids have about blind people. "We sure had some stares +the first week. We had kids stopping dead in the hallway," she +said, smiling wryly. Katona has since talked to all sixth-graders +about what it's like to be blind. "I've had several students say, +`Can you teach me Braille?'" she said. +Kids at the Jefferson program can also look to each other for +support, Katona said. Jennifer and her best friend, Michelle Lopez, +went to school together at Zia for years, and now they help each +other at Jefferson. Michelle is legally blind but can make out +large letters. Like Jennifer, she walks with a cane and reads +Braille. But they can't be together every minute. +Jennifer's sighted lab partner in science class Friday happens to +be Abby Browder. The taskþlooking at various objects through a +microscope. +"You're going to have to be Jennifer's eyes as you actually look at +it," Katona tells Abby. "You've got to give good verbal +descriptions." +"It's veiny," says Abby, peering through the microscope at a leaf. +Abby said later she enjoys working with Jennifer. +"I've never really had any experience with blind people, but +Jennifer's nice," she said. "It's different. It's interesting." +Across the room, Michelle scrutinizes a hair and crystals of salt +with her lab partner. +Jennifer doesn't say much, but bubbly Michelle makes it clear how +they feel about their special teacher."Very fun, very intelligent," +she says. "She's a really neat person." +1994 DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND CHILDREN AWARD +by Sharon Maneki +Editor's Note: Sharon Maneki is President of the National +Federation of the Blind of Maryland. She also chairs the committee +to select the Distinguished Educator of Blind Children for 1994. + +The National Federation of the Blind will recognize an outstanding +teacher of blind children at our 1994 convention, July 1 to July 8, +in Detroit, Michigan. The winner of this award will receive an +expense-paid trip to the convention, a check for $500, an +appropriate plaque at the banquet, and an opportunity to make a +presentation about the education of blind children to the National +Organization of Parents of Blind Children, a Division of the +National Federation of the Blind, early in the convention. +Anyone who is currently teaching or counseling blind children or +administering a program for blind children is eligible to receive +this award. It is not necessary to be a member of the National +Federation of the Blind to apply. However, the winner must attend +the National Convention. Teachers may be nominated by colleagues, +supervisors, or friends. The letter of nomination should explain +why the teacher is being recommended for this award. +The education of blind children is one of our most important +concerns. Attendance at a National Federation of the Blind +convention will enrich a teacher's experience by affording the +opportunity to meet other teachers who work with blind children, to +meet parents, and to meet blind adults who have had experiences in +a variety of educational programs. Help us recognize a +distinguished teacher by distributing this form and encouraging +teachers to submit their credentials. We are pleased to offer this +award and look forward to applications from many well-qualified +educators. +DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR OF BLIND CHILDREN AWARD 1994 APPLICATION +Name: +Home address: +City: +State: Zip: +Day phone: Evening phone: +School: +Address: +City: State: Zip: +List your degrees, the institutions from which they were received, and your +major area or areas of study. + +How long and in what programs have you taught blind +children?__________________________________ + + +In what setting do you teach? Itinerant program[ ] Residential school +classroom[ ] Special education classroom [ ] Other [ ] Please +explain____________________________ + +How many students do you teach regularly this +year?____________________________________ +What subjects do you teach?_____________________ + +How many of your students read and write primarily using: Braille [ ] +large print [ ] closed circuit television [ ] recorded materials [ + ] small print [ ]. +Please complete this application and attach your letter of nomination; one +additional recommendation, written by someone who knows your work and +philosophy of teaching; and a personal letter discussing your beliefs and +approach to teaching blind students. You may wish to include such topics as +the following: + +What are your views on the importance to your students of Braille, large +print, and magnification devices, and what issues do you consider when making +recommendations about learning media for your students? +When do you recommend that your students begin the following: reading Braille, +writing with a slate and stylus, using a Braille writer, and learning to +travel independently with a white cane? +How should one determine which children should learn cane travel and which +should not? +When should typing be introduced, and when should a child be expected to hand +in typed assignments? + +Send all material by May 15, 1994, to Sharon Maneki, Chairman, +Teacher Award Committee, 9736 Basket Ring Road, Columbia, Maryland +21045; telephone (410) 992-9608. +CHILDHOOD ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE +y Dr. Abraham Nemeth +From the Editor: A basic ingredient in every NFB National Parents +Seminar is the blind adults who talk about what it is like to grow +up as blind children. Parentsþincluding myself, and I have been +organizing and attending these seminars for the last ten +yearsþnever get tired of these talks. Year after year I have been +inspired, informed, and challenged by Federationists who are +willing to share their insights into blindness. What I find +especially intriguing is that despite the different circumstances +and environment in which these speakers grew up, they always have +something to say which is relevant to the problems weþtoday's +generation of parentsþstruggle with. +As relevant and as inspiring as any of our speakers was Dr. Abraham +Nemeth who gave the following presentation at the NFB Convention, +July, 1993, Parents Seminar in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Nemeth, +distinguished college math professor and creator of the Nemeth code +for Braille mathematics, grew up on the Lower East Side of +Manhattan, New York nearly 70 years ago. Here is his inspirational +story: + +I was very lucky. I had parents who knew nothing about blindness +but who had an innate understanding of what was necessary to do to +raise a blind child. I was also lucky because I went to the New +York City public schools, where I had a very, very good resource +teacher. Not only was I integrated, but I was really integrated. +Let me tell you a little about that. +The New York City public schools had a resource room for blind kids +in each of the five boroughs. It so happened that the one in +Manhattan was within walking distance of where I lived, so I went +there. Every day my aunt (my father and mother were busy taking +care of the store they operated) walked me to school and walked me +home. We had a wonderful teacher. Her name was Miss Roberts. She +taught me Braille, and she made sure that I learned it. +There were other kids in the resource room; some of them with no +sight, some of them with a lot of sight; and everyone learned +Braille. There was no such a thing as you didn't learn Braille. +Even those who could ride bikes learned Braille. +Now I did not go to the resource room for arithmetic, or geography, +or history. I went to my regular classroom for these subjects. I +went to the resource room during times when the other kids were +doing penmanship, drawing, art, and so forth. It was there that the +resource teacher would teach me blindness skills; for example how +to read a map. I remember one day she put me at a large globe of +the world. This huge globe had nice smooth surfaces for the oceans, +was raised for the land masses, and was even more highly raised for +the mountain areas. And then she put a problem to me. You know the +sun rises in the east and sets in the west, she said. Now, this +globe spins. Which way should the globe spin in order for the sun +to rise in the east and set in the west? Finally I figured that +out, and it was a wonderful educational experience. +My father, (maybe some of you heard me tell this story in Denver +four years ago at the NFB Convention) whenever we were out walking, +he would tell me, "Now we are walking west, and when we make a left +turn, we will be walking south. Listen to the traffic. All of it is +going in the same direction on this street. But when we get to the +next street you will notice that all the traffic starts traveling +in the opposite direction." And he would let me touch mailboxes, +fire hydrants, police call boxes, and fire call boxes and let me +read the lettering on them. You know in our neighborhood on the +Lower East Side the kids would all open the fire hydrants in the +hot summer. He never encouraged me to open a fire hydrant, but he +showed me where and what the firemen would do if they had to open +the fire hydrant. +Anyway, my mother was equally perceptive. She would send me on a +trip to the grocery store. She would give me five or six items to +memorize when I was six years old, tell me exactly what to buy and +in what quantity, and send me to the grocery store for them. Where +was the grocery store? Around the corner, no streets to cross. And +who was the grocer? My grandfather. Anyway, I was very diligent in +remembering every single item and would bring back everything she +sent me for. This was wonderful memory training. +I had an uncle who was a handyman. He taught me how to fish +electrical wire through a wall, how to replace a burnt out bulb and +screw in the new one, and just generally how to do electrical work. +I developed a wonderful sense of mechanics. I knew how things had +to go together. My grandfather, I told you, had a grocery store. +And he had an icebox, not a refrigerator, but an icebox. A large +block of ice kept all the cheeses and butter and things cold. And +from the icebox, which was high overhead, there was a rubber hose. +As the ice melted the water would drain through that rubber hose +into the sink below. Well I was a curious little fellow, and one +day I went around the back of the store and discovered this hose +trailing in the sink. Now my mechanical sense told me that no +mechanical mechanism could work right if there were loose parts +around. Things had to be connected. It was clear to me that the end +of that hose had to be connected somewhere. So, I felt around. Aha, +I thought, the faucet, that's where it goes. So, I connected the +hose to the faucet and, proud of myself for having corrected my +grandfather's obvious oversight, I walked out of the grocery store. +A few hours later I was confronted by my grandfather. I will end +the story at that point. +As a boy I had a tricycle. Now, remember, I had no sight at all. My +father told me that I could ride the tricycle around the block, but +to remember to make a right turn every time I came to a corner. +Ride slowly, he told me, don't bump into anybody, and come back +here. That's what I did. I rode my tricycle around the block and I +came back where I was supposed to. One time my younger brother and +I went on some kind of an expedition. We got separated, and my +brother, who had perfect sight, got lost. I came home. +When I grew up on the Lower East Side I had a wonderful playmate. +We used to filch empty orange crates from the grocery stores, and +then we would go to the junk yards and take the wheels off +discarded baby buggies. Then we would find planks of wood and make +a wagon or a skateboard. I would hop on the back of it, and he +would drive it. Now that little buddy of mine became famous. He was +Zero Mostel. I spent almost every Saturday night in his home. Why +did I spend every Saturday night in his home? Because my father +took me there. What was my father doing? He and all the other men +were poring over the account books. What were they doing in those +account books? They were making interest-free loans to immigrants +coming into this country. After a year or two these people had +acquired furniture and a business and were as affluent as you could +be in those days. They would repay the loan with a little +appreciative addition, and then we would have more money to lend to +more immigrants. And that's what my father and those men were doing +on those Saturday nightsþkeeping records of those free loans. It +was a wonderful experience in morality, in human feeling. And so I +knew all of Zero Mostel's family. I knew his mother and father and +his brothers and sisters and so on. +Because of my family, because of their expectations and what they +taught me, it never occurred to me that I couldn't do whatever I +wanted to do. I just had to think of a way of doing it. +Take this problem, for example. A lady who was blind called me one +day in desperation. She's having a problem. She has a family and +she wants to broil a pan of hamburgers. She knows she has to turn +those hamburgers over. But she can't see which ones she has turned +over and which ones she hasn't. How can she solve this problem? I +told her it's very simple. You make the hamburger patties and you +put them in the broiler pan. Then you take some toothpicks and you +implant one in each patty. You time the hamburgers and when they +are half done you pull out the broiler pan, pick up the spatula, +and feel above the hamburger. When you locate a toothpick, take it +out and turn the burger over. When there are no more toothpicks, +all the burgers have been turned. The lady was very thankful for +this idea. +There are all kinds of ways of doing things. Let your kids +participate in household activities. Let them change a bulb. Let +them do the dishes. Teach them to pour water from a bottle into a +glass. Let them do this over the sink at first if you don't want a +mess. Pretty soon they will be able to pour any liquidþhot or +coldþwithout spills. It's not a problem. They will learn if you +expect them to do it and you give them the chance to experiment and +learn. But don't give them the idea that they are wonderful because +they are able to pour a glass of water. Everybody pours a glass of +water. +I once had a teacher, a vision teacher as they call them these +days, who told me I was a genius because I was able to read Braille +at the rate of a high school student. Now maybe I have other +qualifications that would rate me as a genius, but certainly +reading at the rate of a high school student is not one of them! +Expect your kids to do the normal things, and then react normally +when they do. Encourage them and do not overprotect them. +My father did not overprotect me. You know kids will tease a blind +kid in the streetþparticularly on the Lower East Side where I grew +up. They would get after me, and I would want some protection from +my father. I would say, "Pa, he hit me." My father would say, "So, +why didn't he hit me?" In other words, my father was trying to +teach me to fend for myself. Which I was very well able to do. One +time, in the park, a sighted kid was teasing me. When I ran after +him, he shimmied up a ladder on one of these jungle gyms which had +a trapeze, a pair of rings, a chinning bar, and all that stuff. I +went right after him. Well he wanted to get out of my way so with +his hands he grabbed the upper bar and moved himself to the right. +He ended up dangling above the ground some distance from the +ladder. The poor fellow got so scared he was unable to move back to +the ladder and get down. However, I wasn't scared so I did get back +to the ladder and get down. But somebody from the park had to come +with a ladder and get him down. He didn't start up with me too much +after that. +I did participate in physical activities. I was on the high school +swimming team (I'm still a good swimmer). I climbed ropes and +jumped and did all kinds of physical activities. It was very good +for me. +Well, all I can tell you is that I have led quite a normal life. I +think I have been able to do this because I was not overprotected +as a child. I had a wonderful, wonderful support system in the form +of relatives, parents, and teachers who expected me to be normal +and do the normal things. They gave me opportunities to learn. And +that's what made it all possible. And that's what can make it +possible for your kids to have a normal childhood and life, too. +MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE DEAF-BLIND CHILD + +"At first everything looked real bleak for us. We cried a lot the +first few years. But our child is now thirteen and she's absolutely +wonderful!" +Those who met Keri-Ann Ruemmler at the 1993 NFB National Convention +couldn't help but agree with this statement by her mom. Keri-Ann is +a delightful young teenager. Her engaging smile, lively curiosity, +and pleasing personality captivated everyone who crossed her path +at the 1993 NFB National Convention, which she attended with her +mother, Sally Ruemmler of Kansas. Deaf-blindness was certainly no +deterrent to Keri-Ann in making friends and generally having a +great time at the convention. +But it was no easy journey for the Ruemmlers to go from a bleak to +a wonderful outlook for their daughter. It required attitude +adjustment, information, courage, persistence, some very specific +training strategies, alternative techniques in communications and +mobility, and support from the National Federation of the Blind. +Sally Ruemmler shared some of her experiences with other parents at +the NFB Convention through the panel discussion "Meeting the Needs +of the Deaf-blind Child." This panel was one of the items on the +agenda of the all-day Parents Seminar. Sally shared the podium with +Kathy Arthurs, the mother of a three-year-old deaf-blind and +multiply-handicapped daughter; Kathleen Spear; and Don Pettyþboth +of whom are deaf-blind adults who grew up as deaf-blind children. +Julie Hunter, president of the NFB Parents Division in Colorado and +chairman of the Concerns of Parents of Deaf-Blind Children +Committee, moderated the panel discussion. +Julie began the discussion by giving a little bit of background on +deaf-blindness. She pointed out that most of us think immediately +of Helen Keller when we think about deaf-blindness. But this image +is inaccurate. Helen Keller, Julie explained, is representative of +only one of four general categories of deaf-blindness. The four +categories, according to Julie, are based upon when the individual +became deaf, and when he or she became blind. Helen Keller +represents the category made up of those who are born both deaf and +blind or who lose both vision and hearing very early in life, +before the development of language. Another category is made up of +those who are born deaf (or, again, become deaf very early in +life), then later lose their vision. Ushers Syndrome is a common +medical condition among persons in this category. Sally Ruemmler's +daughter, Keri-Ann, fit into this category. Then there are those +who are blind from early childhood and only later in life (after +the development of language) lose a significant amount of hearing. +Julie explained that her teenage daughter, Lauren, fell into this +category. The fourth category consists of adults who became deaf +and blind through disease or injury. These individuals had learned +language and developed life skills as seeing and hearing children. +Julie Hunter explained that the significance of these categories +lies in the manner in which the children who are deaf-blind have +historically received services. What has happened, and still +happens, is that children who are primarily deaf have their special +education programs planned by educators of the deaf, and children +who are primarily blind have their programs initiated and conducted +by educators of the blind and visually impaired. This was the +pattern of education, for example, for both Lauren Hunter and +Keri-Ann Ruemmler. Keri-Ann, being first and primarily deaf, for +many years received services from only the deaf program. Lauren, +who was blind many years before she began to lose her hearing, had +her special education planned by the teachers of the visually +impaired. As a consequence, the programs for these children are +often inadequate. Sally Ruemmler, in her presentation, explained +that it wasn't until her daughter attended a program for the blind +at the Kansas School for the Visually Handicapped, that they +understood the nature of Keri-Ann's vision loss. It turned out that +she has tunnel vision, which affects her mobility (she couldn't see +to the side or straight down without turning her head). This +explained why she frequently fell and bumped into things and why +she had trouble with interpreters who signed so broadly that much +of it was outside her field of vision. +As troublesome as it was for the Ruemmlers to piece together a +program for their daughter, parents of congenitally deaf-blind +children have far more difficulties in finding suitable programs +for their children. Mrs. Hunter pointed out that very little has +been available to these children, in spite of what was learned from +Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan regarding the need for +intensive total-waking-hour intervention. The lack of an +appropriate education for these children, Julie explained, has +often led to a misdiagnosis of mental retardation. This problem +highlights the need, Julie Hunter explained, for public recognition +of the special character of deaf-blindness as a unique disability +distinct from both deafness and blindness. +This basic information set the stage for the four panel speakers. +The first speaker was Kathleen Spear, a congenitally deaf-blind +mother, grandmother, and college graduate. Kathleen addressed the +crowd in her own voice without an interpreter. Kathleen explained +that her parents knew that she was blind by the time she was six +months old. At first, they feared she was also brain-damaged. +Although all but one doctor advised her parents to put her in an +institution, she was raised at home with her six brothers and +sisters. When she was four, her parents were told that there was no +evidence of brain damage but that she was deaf. This was +devastating to her parents. "Until the day my father died," +Kathleen said, "he could not say the word deaf-blind." +Nevertheless, her parents demonstrated considerable insight and +good sense in raising her in those early years. "My dad was an +immigrant, my mother the child of immigrants. Neither had any +experience with disabilities. [But] my first speech therapist, +believe it or not, was my dad, who had the equivalent of a +sixth-grade education. He would sit with me by the window in his +armchair after going through the comics with my brothers. Putting +his hand under my chin, he would point to his pipe and say, `What +is this?' Then he would say, `Who am I?' He would give me the +answersþpipe and dadþand I would try to emulate him. I didn't do a +very good job then. The only people who could really understand me +were my parents. But it was the beginning of the idea of language +for me." +The frustrations she must have experienced in learning to +communicate as a small child were poignantly expressed in her +description of going to Mass on Sunday. "As a little girl the thing +I looked forward to all week was going to church. In church I could +sit for an hour and watch the glow of the candles (I had some +residual vision in my right eye then) and smell the incense. And +for one solid hour nobody pulled me or pushed me or tried to make +me understand." +Even as a toddler, Kathleen had an independent spirit. "I was a +tenement kid. I learned independence by roaming the neighborhood by +myself. Years later my father would say that I was the only +four-year-old on the block with a police record because sometimes +the cops had to go and find me and bring me home." +Education consisted of a series of five different schools before +she entered an apartment for the deaf-blind at the age of eleven. +By then, however, Kathleen explained, she had learned Braille. "A +blind person can talk about Braille as an alternative technique, +but to me it is not an alternative technique. It is salvation. I +read Braille faster than most people read print. I went through +college using Braille." +Of her college experience, Kathleen said, "I didn't graduate summa +cum laude, but I did graduate in four years with a B average. I can +tell you I didn't sleep much during those four years." +It was while she was in college that Kathleen learned to use a +cane. "I had not learned to use a cane because the deaf-blind +weren't supposed to be able to do this. But while I was in +Manhattan attending Hunter's College I taught myself to use the +cane and went about the city with it." +Of all the successes in her life Kathleen stated that she most +valued the fact that she had been a successful parent. As a child +she never believed she would ever marry or have a child, but she +did. Tragically, however, she was widowed when her son was nine +years old. She raised her son, who is now 30 years old and a +lieutenant in the United States Navy, as a single parent. Kathleen +ended her presentation with a poem she had written about Helen +Keller. In one line of the poem, Kathleen refers to the message of +Helen Keller's life. But she could just as well have been referring +to her own life. Here is the line: "The message that she left to us +who are both deaf and blind is symbolized in hope that life need +not leave us behind. If people would accept us, life wouldn't be so +hard. For we possess potential; who knows how much save God." +Don Petty was our next speaker. When Julie Hunter introduced him +and his wife, Marilyn, (who was interpreting for him), she +explained that Don and his parents, Bob and Charlene Petty, had +written a book called Out of the Shadows. The book described their +difficulties in getting education and services for Don when he was +a child. +Don explained that his speech would be given by reverse +interpretation. He would speak first, then his wife would repeat +his speech for the audience. Don's disability came about because of +a bout of encephalitis he had as a baby. The loss of vision came +first. He learned Braille in the third grade, but he could +understand speech until about the eighth grade. By age eighteen he +was learning to sign. +Don especially emphasized the importance of his parents in his +life. At one point, as a young adult, he was doing nothing but +sitting at home, depressed about his life. His father came into his +room where he was sitting in front of the t.v. and asked him, "Do +you want to spend your life in front of the television?" Don +decided that this was not what he wanted to do with his life. +Today, he is married and has a job. After his brief presentation +Don invited everyone to come and speak with him, his wife, and his +parents at the exhibit hall where they had copies of his book for +sale. +Our first two panelists were living proof of the ability of +deaf-blind children to grow up and become happy, productive adults. +They were representative of what can be if parents dare to dream +and expect the most from their child. +But we all know that dreams are not achieved without hard work and +persistence. Our next panelist, parent Kathy Arthurs, described the +nitty-gritty reality of life with a deaf-blind infant and toddler. +Here is the edited text of her remarks: +My name is Kathy Arthurs. I have two children. Kristin is eight, +and Kaylee is three and a half. Kaylee is here with me at the +convention. She is a spunky three-year-old. You'll hear me calling +her as she runs and runs down the hallway. Kaylee was born blind +deaf. She was born with a cleft-lip palate. She has epilepsy. It's +a depressing thing to hear the doctors tell you that your child +will never see well, hear well, speak well, or even develop +cognitive skillsþthat she'll never do much of anything. Naturally, +I went home depressed. My husband didn't know what to do with me. +But I thought about it, and I came to the conclusion early on that +the only person who should put limitations on my daughter was my +daughter. I decided I had to be positive. I know that's been said +a lot today, but it is so true. You have to be positive. You have +to be positive, and you have to understand what your child needs. +For example, I decided that Kaylee needed to know when I was +around, even when I wasn't touching her. So, from the time she was +a small infant I wore the same perfume so that no matter where I +was, she could smell me. It just seemed like common sense to me +that Kaylee needed to learn to use her hands to explore things +around her. So I wore interesting jewelry and interesting clothing. +I painted t-shirts with fabric paint. I sewed appliques on my +clothing and on hers. I did anything I could so she couldn't avoid +touching different textures from the very earliest age. I had a +rule when she was an infant: If you wanted to admire my baby, you +held my baby. This way she could see your glasses, your beardþGod +help you if you had false teeth! +When she was a little older, we needed to find a way to get her +interested in moving about. Kaylee does have light perception, so +for stimulation we used a small flashlight. We used it to help her +pick up her head and to motivate her to move across the floor. My +husband would push on her feet, and I would use the light in front +of her. We strung Christmas lights from toy, to toy, to toy. This +really motivated her and got her moving. Then I put my Christmas +lights around my child's room so she could see the perimeter of the +room. This has made for an interesting childhood, let me tell you. +She thinks Christmas is year-round. +Dealing with food was terrible! She was scared to death of touching +her food. So I devised a method of putting plastic wrap across the +food so she could feel the food through the wrap. This way she +could discover a lot of things about the foodþshape, temperature, +hard, soft, thin, thick, even bumpy or smoothþwithout actually +getting her hands on its surface. And little by little I pulled +back the wrap so that, with a lot of encouragement from me, she +began to feel the unwrapped part. We still have some trouble with +gooey stuff, but for the most part she is feeling everything now. +Very early on I Brailled all of her children's books with clear +contact paper and a slate and stylus. I didn't know Braille well, +so I found a Braille chartþa cheat sheetþand used that to help me. +When Kaylee started to cruise around and walk on her own at +eighteen months, I gave her a cane. I had three rules: she had to +hold onto it, she had to hold it in front of her, and she had to +keep the point down. I confess my shins were definitely raw for the +first six months or so after she got her cane, but she finally got +the idea. Now she has confidence and independence. The cane is an +extension of herself. She doesn't leave home without it. We keep it +in the same place by the door so when we go someplace she always +knows where it is. +When she runs into something she hasn't seen before, I take the +time to let her feel that object. We spent an hour at last year's +convention on a grate on the sidewalk in downtown Charlotte. +Parents, please, I urge you, get your child a cane. If it doesn't +work at first, put it up for a while and give it to them later. +Education and IEP'sþwhat a nightmare it was at first! My school +system said "We've never had a deaf-blind child in our preschool +classroom," and I said that's okay, Kaylee's going to be the first. +I stood my ground and the school system, when they realized they +couldn't push me around or make me change my belief in Kaylee, +backed down. From that experience I learned that parents have +power. This is my advice to parents: Get yourself educated. Know +the rules. Stand your ground. +Kaylee is now in preschool. Regular, ordinary, +toddlers-running-everywhere preschool. For support she has me and +an interpreter in the classroom in addition to the regular +preschool teacher. And all the children in there love her. She has +taught them as much as they have taught her. With the right +support, why not regular preschool for the deaf-blind child? +Everybody asks me how I deal with Kaylee's disabilities, how do I +raise her? The answer is simple. Mostly it's just like raising any +other three-year-old. We go places together as other families do: +to church, to the YMCA, to the park, to the mall, wherever. I don't +tell Kaylee she can't do something. I've always said she can try. +Yes, she can play with other kids in school, the neighborhood, or +at church. Yes, she can ride her tricycleþeven if it means crashing +into a few things. And Kaylee has rules and regulations to follow +just like other kids her age. She has to pick up her own toys. She +has a regular bedtime. She has chores. For example, she takes the +clothes out of the dryer and puts them in a clothes basket. She +puts the silverware in the drawer. (Mind you, it doesn't always get +in the right place, but it gets in the drawer.) I always remember +that Kaylee is first and foremost a child like any other child. +Yes, she is deaf-blind, but that comes second. First, she is a +child. +In our three-year journey with Kay, I have discovered that I can +still have the same dreams for her that I had before she was born, +before we knew about her physical disabilities. I expect her +...[emotionally overcome and cannot speak for awhile, applause] I'm +sorry. I expect her to get a higher education. I expect her to have +a career, to marry, to have children, and to aid her community. +And if you see my little toddler at this convention, please say +hello to herþthat is, if you can catch up to her as she's running +through the hallways. [applause] Thank you. +Sally Ruemmler, who was introduced at the beginning of this article +as the mother of deaf-blind teenager, Keri-Ann, concluded the panel +with her remarks. Unlike the other panelists, Keri-Ann was deaf +first. The gradual loss of peripheral vision did more than create +a mobility problem for her. Because of her blindness, she began to +lose friends and was rejected by many in the deaf community. +Interpreters at the public school she attended did not understand +why they needed to modify their signing for her. (Interpreters, +Sally explained, tend to sign widely and Keri-Ann, because of the +loss of her side vision, could only see signs if they were kept +within the very narrow range of her central vision.) +Finally, with the help of their new friends in the Federation, +Keri-Ann got a cane and some mobility training. Her parents +enrolled her in a private residential oral school where her +specific communication needs were accepted and understood. Although +many parents are understandably reluctant to send their child away +from home to school, Sally said that for Keri-Ann this move "was +absolutely the beginning of independence for her." "I am," Sally +explained "the original overprotective mother. Now my child flies +home every other weekend by herself. She is quite independent." To +further increase that independence Keri-Ann, her mother explained, +had enrolled in a summer program for youth at the National +Federation of the Blind's Colorado Center for the Blind. She would +be attending that program after the NFB Convention. "She is very +excited [about going]," Sally said. "She is going to come back more +independent than she left, I'm positive." +Sally concluded her remarks with a declaration of her commitment +and gratitude to the organizationþthe National Federation of the +Blindþwhich truly changed what it means to be deaf-blind for +Keri-Ann and her family. She also invited everyone to take a moment +at the convention to stop and talk with her daughter. "She's quite +a character," Sally proudly boasted. "You will be in for a treat." +It was obvious from the audience's warm, enthusiastic response to +this panel that one did not need to be the parent of a deaf-blind +child to draw inspiration and increased understanding from the +deaf-blind and their parents who have become an important part of +this movement. +FAMILY SUPPORT OF EMERGENT LITERACY PRACTICES FOR CHILDREN WITH +VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS +by Chris Craig +I am a doctoral student in the Special Education department at +Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, majoring in visual +impairment. I strongly believe that research involving families of +children with disabilities should center on the needs of the +family, rather than the needs of the researcher. Thus, I deeply +appreciate the cooperation of the NFB on some research which I hope +will benefit children with visual impairments and their families. +The professional literature has discussed how reading aloud to +children is the most important way to foster literacy development. +Selecting stories with repetitive passages, using tactual books and +material which adequately represents visual concepts, and promoting +Braille awareness through exposure to the medium in a variety of +contexts have all been identified as ways to enhance the shared +reading experience for parents and their children who are blind. In +general, the literature has emphasized the importance of family +involvement in the literacy development of young children with +visual impairments. Unfortunately, there is very little research on +how children with visual impairments "emerge" into literacy or how +home literacy experiences impact on learning to read and write in +either print or Braille. Thus, my doctoral dissertation will +examine the nature of family support of emergent literacy practices +in the homes of children with visual impairments. +Fifteen families attending a week-long preschool evaluation program +at the Tennessee School for the Blind assisted in the development +of a survey instrument for the study. The survey measures family +support of literacy practices, home literacy opportunities, and +parental attitudes toward Braille and low vision devices. Over a +three week period, these families reviewed drafts of the survey and +made suggestions as to how to improve the instrument. In addition, +the research staff at the American Printing House for the Blind +(APH) has provided both technical and financial assistance for this +research, and I am very grateful for their support as well. +During the month of September, 1993, the NFB assisted me in my +research by sending out survey packets to over 250 of its members. +The study includes primarily families who have a child with a +visual impairment ages two to eight and who believe that their +child has the ability to learn to read and write in either print or +Braille at some level. Families who received the packets were asked +to fill out the survey and return it using the self-addressed +stamped envelope enclosed in each packet. +I am very excited about beginning my dissertation as I believe the +outcome of this research will help to increase literacy +opportunities for children with visual impairments. I hope to be +able to share with you the preliminary findings of this study +sometime in 1994 through the Braille Monitor or Future Reflections. +1993 GUS GISSER MEMORIAL BRAILLE READERS CONTEST REPORT +by Sandy Halverson +Editor's Note: Sandy and John Halverson of Kansas City, Missouri, +voluntarily serve as the judges for the annual Braille Readers are +Leaders Contest co-sponsored by the National Association to Promote +the Use of Braille (NAPUB) and the National Organization of Parents +of Blind Children (NOPBC). Sandy is a Braille teacher, and both she +and John have been Braille readers since childhood. + +Ten years ago, the boards of NAPUB and NOPBC established the +Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest for the purpose of promoting +Braille reading among school-age children. The members of our +organizations were appalled by, and deeply concerned about, the +growing Braille illiteracy among our blind youth. Even bright +children were in danger of remaining mediocre or poor Braille +readers. For numerous reasons, blind children were not catching on +to the excitement and thrill of reading via Braille. +We finally decided that if the kids were motivated to read, they +could overcome other obstacles to reading Braille (such as less +instruction time with teachers, fewer books, and so forth). And +they have! Once motivated by the contest we have seen both good +readers and lackadaisical readers catch fire with the excitement +and pleasure of reading. Although originally motivated by the cash +prizes and other awards, the students soon become self-motivated as +reading becomes its own reward. +In the 1993 contest we had 226 contestantsþour largest number +everþfrom 35 states plus Canada. We had a nice mixture of students +who have been in the contest off and on for several years, and +students who were entering the contest for the first time. We also +had four deaf-blind contestants who were given special recognition +and prizes in honor of Gus Gisser, a deaf-blind, long-time member +of the National Federation of the Blind. A memorial donation from +the National Federation of the Blind of New York made these special +prizes possible. +Judging for the contest is based entirely upon the number of +Braille pages read by the contestant. All students competed in one +of five categories: grades kindergarten through first, second +through fourth grades, fifth through eighth grades, ninth through +twelfth, and Print to Braille. Those who had participated in +previous contests were also eligible to compete in the Most +Improved category. This category honors students who show the most +improvement in number of Braille pages read from one year to the +next. First-, second-, and third-place winners in each category +receive cash prizesþ$75, $50, and $25 respectivelyþa contest +t-shirt, and a certificate. Most Improved winners also receive a +cash prize and a certificate. All contestants receive a Braille +certificate and a ribbon of participation. Here is the list of +winners by category: + + +KindergartenþFirst Grade +First place: Krystle Zamudioþ1,656 pages Salinas, California +Second place: Jessica Culleyþ1,329 pages Steubenville, Ohio +Third place: Amber Jo Kineardþ1,268 pages Pineville, Louisiana + +SecondþFourth Grade +First place: Blake Earl Robertsþ8,366 pages Felton, Delaware +Second place: Gabriela Gonzalezþ6,317pages Alexander, Alabama +Third place: Jessica Leigh McCrackenþ5,678 pages Dorchester, South +Carolina + +FifthþEighth Grade + First place: Stacy Krugerþ13,694 pages Worthington, Minnesota +Second place: James Konechneþ12,510 pages White Lake, South Dakota +Third place: Jennifer Espinozaþ10,643 pages Albuquerque, New Mexico + + +NinthþTwelfth Grade +First place: Chastity Morseþ15,838 pages Anoka, Minnesota +Second place: April Swaimþ12,649 pages Arlinton, Texas +Third place: Matthew E. Weaverþ6,955 pages Berlin, New Jersey + +Print to Braille +First place: Hillary Anne Batesþ2,361 pages Ceville, Indiana +Second place: Joshua Jungwirthþ2,044 pages Ishpeming, Michigan +Third place: Laura Ann LaDukeþ1,802 pages Frankfort, Michigan + +Most Improved +Jocelyn Dore, Ontario, Canada +J.T. Fetter, Sterling, Virginia +Katherine Gresh, Flourton, Pennsylvania +Melissa Saylor, Kentucky +Jennifer Warner, Green Springs, Ohio + +Deaf-Blind Award Winners +SecondþFourth Grade +First place: Robert Riddleþ3,498 pages Vancouver, Washington +FifthþEighth Grade +First place: Janna Nelsonþ2,699 pages Aliquippa, Pennsylvania +NinthþTwelfth Grade +First place: Jennifer Bakerþ4,884 pages Rockville, Maryland +Print to Braille +First place: Hillary Anne Batesþ2,361 pages Ceville, Indiana +CHESNEE GIRL WINS BRAILLE AWARD + +Editor's Note: The following article by Steven Shultz appeared in +a South Carolina paper, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. It +was later reprinted in The Palmetto Blind, the newsletter of +the NFB of South Carolina. Jessica is the daughter of Mrs. Sarah +Jane McCracken, president of the Parents of Blind Children Division +of the NFB of South Carolina. The contest is, of course, the +National Federation of the Blind's Braille Readers are Leaders +Contest. Jessica was one of the fifteen national winners in the +1992-1993 annual contest. + +For third-grader Jessica McCracken, learning to read was more than +just another accomplishment on the way through school. Blind since +she was born, Jessica struggled with Braille reading for years. She +and her teachers worked at it month after month with little +success. Then Jessica suddenly had a breakthrough, and the +meaningless mass of bumps that had been so frustrating opened up +into a whole new world of meaning. +Now Jessica reads every spare moment she has. And last week, the +South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind where she studies +honored her for having won third place in the National Braille +Literacy Reading Contest. +Between November and February, Jessica read 5,678 pages of Braille. +She reads stories, poems, children's booksþeverything she can put +her fingertips to. +"She just zooms through everything," her teacher, Terrie Randolph, +said, as Jessica sat nearby, her hand flying over a maze of raised +dots on a white page. She's insatiable for a dot." +Jessica's parents, Joel and Sarah Jane McCracken of Chesnee, said +learning to triumph had changed their daughter's life. +"We thought she'd never learn to read," she said. "Then one day, +after three years, it was like a light came on. It's been so +wonderful." +Both her parents teach in Spartanburg County public schools and +knew the importance of not giving up on teaching Jessica to read. +"She is such a good example," Mrs. McCracken said. "That's what I +tell my students: Reading opens so many doors." +Like other children her age, Jessica reads Nancy Drew mysteries, +the "Ramona" books by Beverly Cleary, and Judy Bloom. +Even though the McCrackens learned a little bit of Braille, +Jessica's abilities are in a different league. Mrs. McCracken said, +"People say, `How on earth is she reading?' And I say I have no +idea. It's a miracle." +THE SCHOLARSHIP CLASS OF 1993 + +Reprinted from the September-October, 1993, issue of the Braille +Monitor. + +The task of the National Federation of the Blind Scholarship +Selection and Award Committees is never easy. During the spring the +members of the selection committee must pore over many hundreds of +scholarship applications to choose the group of finalists, who will +attend the convention to compete for the various awards. Then +during convention week, when there are always at least five things +one wants to do with every free moment, the awards committee +members must find the time to get to know each of the twenty-six +winners in order to make the final judgments in the competition. +This year the job was particularly difficult. The Class of '93 is +talented and energetic. A number of its members are already active +in the Federation, and during the convention many others began to +demonstrate deep interest in and personal response to our +philosophy and commitment to changing what it means to be blind. +Here are the 1993 scholarship winners as they presented themselves +to the Board of Directors at its Monday, July 5, meeting. Peggy +Pinder, Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, introduced each +person and listed first the state from which the winner comes and +then the state in which he or she would be a student this past +fall. This is what the winners had to say in the few seconds they +were given in which to introduce themselves: + +Jack Allord, Wisconsin, Wisconsin: "Good morning, everyone. I'm +Jack Allord from Shawano, Wisconsin. I went to Illinois School of +Technology and studied mechanical engineering. After that I went +into the Army, and they saw fit to make a Korean interpreter out of +me. After the Army I went to Northern Illinois University and got +a degree in biology, studying genetics. After that I went to +Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and got a doctor of dental +surgery degree. Right now I'm at the University of Wisconsin in +Green Bay, studying administration science. I hope to go into +health care administration. Extracurricularly, I'm on the +Independent Living Council of Wisconsin. I'm a speaker for the +visual impairment program at North Central Technical College. I am +very active in Free MasonryþI'll be the Grand Master of Free Masons +in Wisconsin in 1996. Thank you." +Laura Biro, Michigan, Michigan: "Good morning, fellow +Federationists. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the +National Federation of the Blind not only for honoring me with a +scholarship, but for your continued love and support. I am +currently a junior at Sienna Heights College in Adrian, Michigan, +where I'm pursuing a career in social work. My ultimate goal is to +obtain a master's degree and work with handicapped children. Thank +you." +Matthew Brink, Michigan, Michigan: "Thank you, Miss Pinder, and +good morning to you all. I am presently at Western Michigan +University, academically focused right now in psychology, +specifically working with clients with traumatic brain injury. I +also co-instruct in a class in abnormal psychology and just +finished an internship in Battle Creek. I am also learning from the +National Federation of the Blind, for which I am grateful and hope +to contribute to the '93 convention, as well." +Maren Christensen, Montana, Montana: "Hello. My name is Maren +Christensen. I'm currently a student at the University of Montana. +I'm enrolled in a joint degree program, receiving my law degree and +a master's in public administration. I intend to work as a lawyer +with particular emphasis on implementing progressive public +policies. I am honored to be here. I have enjoyed the last two days +of meeting, talking with, and listening to this group of dynamic, +intelligent, and active, dedicated individuals. I'm real pleased to +be here, and I'm particularly pleased with my new NFB long white +cane. Finally I can move as fast as I want to. Thanks." +Bill Cuttle, Massachusetts, Massachusetts: "Hello, everyone. This +is my first convention. I'm very grateful to be here, not only for +the scholarship, but also I have just met so many nice people. To +be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed with everything that's here. +I'm going to be going to Boston College Law School in September, +and I'm going to be focusing on the field of family and juvenile +law. I received my bachelor's degree at Bridgewater State College +in psychology and a master's degree also in counseling psychology +from the University of Massachusetts and have been working in the +field of mental health for the past seven years as a clinical +director of programs for kids. I'm thirty-one, and I'm going to be +trying a new career. I'm hoping to combine my background with law +to help other people. Thank you." +Marvelena Desha, California, California: "Hello. My name is +Marvelena Desha, and I'm from San Francisco, California. This is my +first convention, and I must say that I am very impressed with the +Federation. In September I am going to be attending the University +of California at Berkeley with a major in linguistics and foreign +language. I hope to pursue a career as a foreign language +interpreter." +Brigid Doherty, Oregon, Oregon: "Good morning, everyone. I am a +junior at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. I am +majoring in international studies. I have been out in the work +force for the past twelve years, working as a legal secretary and +office manager among other things. I'm very pleased to be back in +school, working toward a better understanding between cultures. I +would like very much to work either in a governmental capacity or +in business, helping people to learn to communicate with other +cultures as they are traveling overseasþalso just to have a better +understanding door to door, neighbor to neighbor. We're all living +in an increasingly interdependent world, and I think it's very, +very important that we learn to understand one another better. I +thank you for the opportunity of being here." +Ann Edie, New York, Massachusetts: "Good morning and thank you all +for the opportunity to be here at the NFB convention. My background +is teaching Asian studies and Chinese. In the fall I'll be going to +Boston College to study teaching of the blind. I hope eventually to +combine these two interests by teaching blind people the skills +that they need, by teaching sighted people Braille and other skills +that will help them understand the abilities of blind people, and +by teaching both sighted and blind people Chinese and Asian studies +and Asian cultures. I'm very happy to be here, and thank you very +much." +Tina Ektermanis, Missouri, Missouri: "Hi. My name is Tina +Ektermanis. I'm a senior at Northwest Missouri State University +with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. I +ultimately plan to go on for a master's degree. I'm not exactly +sure where yet, but I plan to work in the field of adaptive +technology or network administration. Thank you." +Al Fogel, New York, (Washington, D.C. this summer) and New Jersey: +"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Al Fogel. I've just +completed my first year at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New +Jersey. This summer I'm working at the Department of Justice with +the ADA. I have a bachelor's degree in accounting and Talmudic law. +I hope to be a corporate attorney with an emphasis on bringing more +disabled people into the corporate field. I can say that starting +next year, working with Rutgers, we'll be getting the first +disabled student to go into a New Jersey law firm. I'm glad to be +here. I'd like to thank the Scholarship Committee, and I'd really +like to thank the Texas people for some down-home hospitality. +Thank you." +Christopher Foster, California, California: "Good morning. I'd like +to thank the Federation as well as the committee. This is my first +convention, and I have learned a lot in the last few days. I also +have my brand new long white cane. Again I'd like to thank you all. +I'm going to be a freshman at Sierra Community College in Rockland, +California, where I will start my studies in English and computer +science. I hope to then go on to the University of California at +Davis, where I will continue and hope to get a master's in computer +science. I would like to go into possibly design engineering or +something like that, just to sort things out and do the +follow-through work at companies and things. Thank you very much." +Saeed Golnabi, Ohio, Ohio: "Good morning, everybody. My name is +Saeed Golnabi. I am very happy and pleased to be here. This week I +have had the best experience in my whole thirty-two years. Right +now I am at the University of Cincinnati. I'm working on my Ph.D. +in mathematics, and I hope I will graduate in a couple of years. +Thank you." +Kathleen Hart, New York, Washington: "Thank you. Good morning. I +previously have been a teacher of special education and a +counselor. I hold both a bachelor's and a master's in education. I +am currently a senior at Colgate Rochester Bexley Crozerþthat is a +seminary. I am working on my master's in divinity and will be +graduating next May 14. I am looking for ordination in the +Episcopal Church as a deacon and have about four more years to go +till that happens. I have been a Federationist for two years. My +first convention was two years ago. About a month after that my +state affiliate's president invited me to a state leadership +conference, and I also met my fiance at my first convention, so the +Federation has been wonderful!" +Denise Howard, Georgia, Georgia: "Good morning. My name is Denise +Howard, and I'm from Savannah, Georgia. I recently graduated from +high school. In the fall I'll be a freshman at Spelman College. I +plan to double major in English and elementary education. Thank +you." +Mary Hurt, Kentucky, Kentucky: "I'm Mary Hurt from Louisville, +Kentucky. My first convention was in '87. I'm a past treasurer of +the Diabetics Division and Kentucky State representative for the +Diabetics Division. In 1991 I raised $10,000 for that group, and I +am a senior at the University of Louisville, studying business +administration. I plan to pursue a career in the world of corporate +finance, and I'm very honored to be here." +Jennifer Lehman, Wisconsin, Minnesota: "Good morning, everyone. My +name is Jennifer Lehman. I'm a recent graduate of BLIND, Inc. in +Minnesota. I am President of the Minnesota Association of Blind +Students, and I was elected last night to be the Secretary of the +National Association of Blind Students. I'm also a member of the +Metro Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. +Right now I am a junior at the University of Minnesota. My major is +sociology. My minor is communication and speech and hearing +science. I would eventually like to be a speech clinician, working +with preschoolers. I want to say that I am very honored to be a +scholarship winner and very glad to be here for my third +convention." +Zuhair Mah'd, Florida, Florida: "Good morning, fellow +Federationists. I've always been told how hard it was to speak in +public, but I guess I know now what it means. My name is Zuhair, +and I am studying computer science at Florida Atlantic University. +I also work for the Office for Students with Disabilities as a +computer consultant in assistive technology. I'd like to take the +opportunity here to thank the National Federation of the Blind +very, very much for the help and the honor it has bestowed upon me. +I'd like to make a pledge here to be, for everyone else that I +meet, as helpful as the National Federation of the Blind has been +to me. Thank you very much." +Angie Matney, West Virginia, Virginia: "Good morning. My name is +Angie Matney. I recently graduated from Iager High School in Iager, +West Virginia, and I will be attending Washington and Lee +University in the fall, where I plan to major in English and/or +computer science to pursue a career either in post-secondary +education or in the field of adaptive technology for the blind. I +would just like to thank each and every one of you for the +opportunity that you have given me to attend my first NFB +convention as a national scholarship winner and also to thank you +for my new long white cane. Thank you very much." +Janelle McEachern, Arizona, Arizona: "Good morning, everybody, and +greetings from the great state of Arizona, the home of the almost +world champion Phoenix Sunsþalmost, I say. My name is Janelle +McEachern, and I hold my bachelor of arts degree from Arizona State +University. It's a history degree in American and European military +history. I am currently in law school, ASU College of Law. I'm +studying to be a lawyer, and I am also taking my master's degree in +American and British constitutional and legal history. I'm doing +both at the same time, so I'm either desperate or crazyþI haven't +figured out which yet. I hope to be both an attorney and a +professor of constitutional and legal history for either American +or BritishþI haven't figured out which. I guess I'll cross that +bridge when I get to it. In my spare time I do disability advocacy. +I am a prospective board member for the Arizona Bridge to +Independent Living. I am a volunteer consultant on ADA +accessibility guidelines for area historical museums and zoos. I +also do local missionary work for my church, and I am a civil war +history buff. Thank you." +Jonathon Mize, Texas, Texas: "Good late morning, close-to-lunch +late morning. Welcome to Texas, where you have wide-open spaces and +always pleasant-smiling facesþthe only place where it costs a $10 +cab fare just to get out of the airport. My previous background in +educationþI got an associate in science degree with emphasis in +public administration from South Plains College in Levelland, +Texas, and transferred to Stephen F. Austin University as a junior +majoring in public administration. I will continue to get my +master's degree at the University of Texas at Austin, where I will +also have the public administration master's. In the near future I +plan to be a city manager or work in some of the state +agenciesþLord knows they need help. Thank you." +Sally Nemeth, West Virginia, Ohio: "Good morning. How y'all doing +out there? Good, I hope. I thought I'd try a little bit of Texan. +This is my first NFB experience, and I have to say, what an +incredible initiation! My background is in communication and +psychology. I have a strong interest in the area of wellness. I am +a member of the ADA Training and Implementation Network. This fall +I'll be beginning a degree in counseling at the Franciscan +University of Steubenville. I hope eventually to obtain a Ph.D. in +either counseling or counseling psych and with that to teach, to +conduct seminars on a national basis, to write, counsel, engage in +community service, and eventually join the Peace Corps. I thank you +for your generosity in helping me to obtain my goals." +Jim Salas, New Mexico, New Mexico: "Good morning, everybody. I'm +Jim Salas. I'm attending Webster University, pursuing a master's +degree in human resources development. I'm interested in the people +side of organizational effectiveness. For the last four years I've +been the associates program chairman in New Mexico. Over that +period of time we've quadrupled the number of associate recruiters, +and we are the two-time defending national champion. They're going +to be telling us in a little while who the champion is for this +year, and we have some pretty good numbers again. If we win, great, +congratulations to us. If Missouri or Maryland or California or one +of those pretenders happens to get in this year, well +congratulations to them; but remember there is always next year! In +the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, `Vi'll be back!'" +Carolyn Scharkey, Missouri, Missouri: "Hi. It's good to be here. I +was the first licensed hairdresser in the state of Missouri as a +blind person, and I then had three children of my own, two foster +children, and just loved people. I decided to go into social work +so will be entering the University of Missouri, St. Louis, in the +fall. Thank you." +Christopher Smith, New Jersey, Rhode Island: "I just recently +graduated from Ridgewood High School in northern New Jersey. I'll +be a freshman at Brown University this September, and I plan to +major in English, creative writing, with the goal to become a +professional writer. This is my first experience with the +Federation. I'd like to thank everyone for their truly sincere +welcome, and I look forward to a long and committed future with the +Federation. Thank you." +Chuck Strickland, California, California: "I have a master's degree +in physics with a minor in computer science from Southwest Texas +State University, which is where I've mostly been, in Texas. I was +a participant in the Young Scholars program sponsored by the +National Science Foundation, and I was a science counselor there. +It was held at SWT. I'm now going for a Ph.D. in physics. I hope to +teach at the university level and do theoretical physics, make some +contribution. I'm attending the University of California at +Riverside. Thanks for your consideration." +Colleen Wunderlich, Illinois, Indiana: "Good morning. I would like +to begin by thanking the Federation for the opportunity they have +given me to be here today. I feel very fortunate to have received +influence from these Federationists. I feel that they have a great +sense of inner strength and pride, and I hope that I will achieve +my dream of becoming a psychiatrist. Right now I will be attending +Purdue University in the fall, where I will major in pre-med and +psychology. Then I plan to go to medical school. I believe that the +Federation will be here to help me achieve my dream. When I do so, +I'd like to give that back to future generations to come. Thank you +very much." + +Peggy Pinder: "And there, Mr. President and members of the National +Federation of the Blind, are the twenty-six scholarship winners +this year." + +As you will observe, it was an impressive group of students this +year. Here are the awards they received: +$2,000 NFB Merit Scholarships: Marvelena Desha, Tina Ektermanis, Al +Fogel, Saeed Golnabi, Kathleen Hart, Denise Howard, Jonathon Mize, +Christopher Smith, and James Strickland. +$2,000 Ellen Setterfield Memorial Scholarship: Janelle McEachern, +$2,000 Hermione Grant Calhoun Scholarship: Angela Matney. +$2,000 Kuchler-Killian Memorial Scholarship: Ann Edie. +$2,500 NFB Scholarships: Jack Allord, William Cuttle, Christopher +Foster, Mary Hurt, and Zuhair Mah'd. +$2,500 NFB Educator of Tomorrow Scholarship: Sally Nemeth. +$2,500 NFB Humanities Scholarship: Colleen Wunderlich. +$2,500 Frank Walton Horn Memorial Scholarship: Carolyn Scharkey. +$2,500 Howard Brown Rickard Scholarship: Maren Christensen. +$3,000 Melva T. Owen Memorial Scholarship: Matthew Brink. +$4,000 NFB Scholarships: Brigid Doherty and James Salas. +$4,000 Anne Pekar Memorial Scholarship: Laura Biro. +$10,000 American Action Fund Scholarship: Jennifer Lehman + +In introducing Jennifer during the banquet for brief remarks, Peggy +Pinder said: +Jennifer took time out during her undergraduate years to go to a +training center for blind people when she met the Federation and +realized that she needed what the Federation and its training +centers have. She hasn't been in school this last year. She's going +for the first time to the University of Minnesota (ranked as a +junior), where she is earning a bachelor of science degree in +sociology. As I think many of you know, Jennifer is an active and +loved member of both the Minnesota and the Wisconsin affiliates and +intends to be a pre-school speech clinician. Now here, for a few +remarks, is this year's $10,000 scholarship winner, Jennifer +Lehman. +Jennifer Lehman: Thank you all so much. I am very, very honored to +be chosen as this year's top scholarship winner. I want to thank +President Maurer and Dr. Jernigan and everyone in the National +Federation of the Blind for all the help and support you have given +me during the past three years. +I would not have been able to make it through a lot of situations +that have happened in the past three years if it had not been for +all the support from the members of the Federation family. I can't +even tell you how I feel right now or how much the NFB means to me. +So I just want to say that I will continue to be active in this +organization and help to change what it means to be blind. I want +to help get more people into the movement so that everyone's life +can be changed as much as mine has been by this wonderful +organization. Thank you all.[applause] +NAPUB PLANS NATIONAL BRAILLE-A-THON FOR DETROIT +by Jerry Whittle and Betty Niceley +For the past five years, the National Federation of the Blind of +Louisiana has held a Braille-A-Thon at its state convention as a +means both to promote Braille literacy and to raise funds for the +state affiliate. During the past five years, the NFBL has raised +over five thousand dollars and has received some excellent +publicity about Braille literacy in almost every major city in +Louisiana. +Volunteer Braille readers pledge to read a set number of Braille +pages between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on the Friday before a state +convention begins. For several weeks prior to the state convention, +these volunteer readers procure sponsors, and then the volunteers +gather in a large room in the hotel where the state convention is +held and complete their page goals. Some read as many as three +hundred pages, and others read just a few pages. For example, +Harold Wilson raised over $1,300 on just ten pages the first year +the event was held. +Because of the success of the Louisiana Braille-A-Thon, the +National Association to Promote the use of Braille (NAPUB) has +decided to hold a similar event at the 1994 NFB Convention in +Detroit, and if successful, it will be continued at each National +Convention. "We expect to have excellent Braille readers and +brand-new Braille readers participating on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. +to 4:00 p.m. in Detroit," said Betty Niceley, President of NAPUB. +"We should have at least two hundred people reading Braille in one +room in Detroit, and we will try our best to have every major +television station and newspaper in the Detroit area there to cover +the event. We will be calling on our membership in NAPUB to pledge +to read their pages and to find sponsors in their home states who +would be willing to pay them handsomely for their hard work. Half +of the money will go to NAPUB and half will go to the national +organization. If Louisiana can raise two thousand for state +convention, there is no reason why we couldn't raise over one +hundred thousand for national Braille-A-Thon," said Niceley, +smiling. "We want to make this an annual event. I bet it will be +one of the quietest fund raisers we could ever have." +If you would like to participate and receive some sponsor sheets, +you may contact either Betty Niceley, 3618 Dayton Avenue, +Louisville, Kentucky 70402, (502) 897-2632, or Jerry Whittle, 101 +South Trenton Street, Ruston, Louisiana 71270, 1-(800)-234-4166. +THE NATURE OF INDEPENDENCE +An Address Delivered By Kenneth Jernigan At the Convention of the +National Federation of the Blind Dallas, Texas, July 6, 1993 +Shortly after last year's convention, I received a number of +letters from students at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. It was +clear that the letters were written as the result of discussions +held at the Center and that, although the apparent topic was +independent mobility, the real issue was independence in general, +and how blind persons should live and behave. I want to share those +letters with you, then tell you how I answered them, and finally +say a few things about what I think independence really is. The +letters are all dated July 23, 1992. Here is a composite of them: + +Dear Dr. Jernigan: +I am a sophomore in high school. Right now, I am in a teenage +program that the Louisiana Center for the Blind is sponsoring. It +is the STEP program. That means Summer Training and Employment +Project. We are allowed to get jobs and make money as well as have +classes. +A few weeks ago I attended the national convention. I really +enjoyed all your speeches and everything. People noticed that you +and Mr. Maurer walked sighted guide sometimes, [I interrupt to call +your attention to the almost code-word use of the term "sighted +guide." Not "walking with a sighted guide" or "walking with a +sighted person" or "holding the arm of a sighted person," but +"walking sighted guide." This makes it clear that the concept of +"sighted guide" has been the topic of considerable conversation. +But back to the letter.] and we thought you all would never walk +sighted guide, because you all are so highly involved in the NFB. +I never thought sighted guide was OK until then. So why did you all +use sighted guide? I know there are many reasons why this might be. +We discussed this in one of our talk times and came up with one +reason this might be. We know that you all have to be at meetings +all the time, and it would be faster if you would use sighted +guide. [I interrupt again to call your attention to the use in the +following sentences of the depersonalized "it." Now, back to the +letter.] I am sure you don't use it so much that you lose your cane +travel skills. I am not trying to say this is wrong. I was just +wondering why you do this. Someone brought up that if we, as the +people being trained at the moment, were caught using sighted +guide, they would fuss at us. And I realize that you are not the +one in training, so it is not wrong. We couldn't use sighted guide, +because we might want to use it more than the cane if we use too +much of it. + +Yours truly, ____________________ + +Dear Dr. Jernigan: +During this past convention in North Carolina some of us noticed +that you did not walk with a cane. I do not understand this at all. +I can understand that you have to be in many places in a short +amount of time at the conventions, and that might be the reason you +went sighted guide. But I also know that when you came for a tour +of the Center, you also went sighted guide. We do not understand +this. +We all have our own theories as to why you went sighted guide, but +we want to get the correct answer straight from the horse's mouth. + +Your fellow Federationist, ____________________ +That's a very clear-cut letter, and I am pleased to be called that +end of the horse. Here is the last one: +Dear Dr. Jernigan: +This year I came to Charlotte to attend my third national +convention of the NFB. I am currently a student at the Louisiana +Center for the Blind in the STEP program for blind teenagers. This +program stresses cane use, Braille literacy, employment readiness, +and self-confidence based on achievement. While at the convention +I heard from a friend that you were never actually seen using your +cane. I discussed this with a group of friends, and it was decided +that you most likely had many places to go and had to get to them +quickly. This made sense, and the question seemed settled. Then one +of the group remembered you using sighted guide during a tour you +took of the Center while passing through Ruston on the way to the +Dallas convention in 1990. This was such a hectic situation, and +the question was no longer settled because the only alternative +travel technique anyone noticed you using was sighted guide. +I do not mean this letter to imply any disrespect towards you, the +Federation, or its many achievements. If the Federation had not +pushed so hard for independence for the blind, I would have no +grounds on which to write this letter. It is because of my own +personal convictions about independence that I ask why the +figurehead of the NFB is not himself using the alternative +techniques that his student, Joanne Wilson, has been teaching for +nearly ten years in Ruston. +I would prefer to end the letter on a positive note. I realize that +you are responsible for the training I am currently receiving, and +I am grateful for it. I am not implying that you have no cane +skills, because I do not honestly know. +Sincerely, ____________________ +These are straightforward letters, seriously written. They raise +fundamental questions, questions that deserve a reasoned answer. +Here is the expanded substance of what I wrote: +Baltimore, Maryland July 29, 1992 +Under date of July 23, 1992, the three of you wrote to ask me why +I didn't travel alone with a cane during the national convention in +Charlotte and why on a visit to the Louisiana Center in 1990 I took +a sighted person's arm instead of walking alone with a cane. I +appreciate your letters and will tell you why I do what I do. +In the first place let us assume that I didn't have any cane travel +skills at all. This might be comparable to the situation of a +parent who had no education but dreamed of an education for his or +her child. That parent might preach the value of education and +might work to send the child to high school and then to college. +The parent might, though personally uneducated, feel tremendous +satisfaction at the learning and accomplishment which his or her +effort had made possible. In such circumstances what attitude +should the child have toward the parent? The child might be +critical of the parent for his or her poor grammar and lack of +education and might even be ashamed to associate with the parentþor +the child might feel gratitude for the sacrifice and the work that +had made the education possible. +This is not an apt analogy since I have perfectly good cane skills, +but it has elements of truth about it. When I was a child, there +were no orientation centers or mobility training. The only canes +available were the short, heavy, wooden type, and we youngsters +associated carrying a cane with begging, shuffling along, and being +helpless. +It was not until I finished college and had taught for four years +in Tennessee that I first carried a cane. It was made of wood and +had a crook handle. I might also say that it was longer than most +of those in vogue at the time, forty inches. I started using it in +1953, just before going to California to work at the newly +established state orientation center for the blind. The Center had +been in operation for only a few months and had enrolled only four +or five students by the time of my arrival. +In those days the California Center was using 42-inch aluminum +canes. They were a tremendous improvement over the 40-inch wooden +cane I had been carrying, and I immediately adopted the new model. +Even so, it seemed that something better was needed. I worked with +the person who had been employed as the travel teacher, and we +experimented with different techniques and canes. +In the mid-1950's the solid fiberglass cane was developed. It was +first made by a blind man in Kansas, but we at the California +Center popularized it and brought it into general use. We also +worked to improve the tip. Our students received intensive +training, those with any sight using blindfolds (or, as we called +them, sleep shades), and our students and graduates were +identifiable in any group of blind persons because of their +competence and ease in travel. Since they had enjoyed the benefit +of our study and experimentation, as well as intensive instruction +and the time to practice, many of them probably became better +travelers than Iþand I felt pride and satisfaction in the fact. We +were advancing on the road to freedom and independence. +In 1958 I went to Iowa as director of the state commission for the +blind, and I carried with me the experience and knowledge I had +acquired in California plus a 48-inch fiberglass cane and a head +full of new ideas and hopes for the future. I hired a young sighted +man who had no experience at all with blindness and spent several +days giving him preliminary instruction in mobility, using blind +techniques. First I had him follow me all over Des Moines, watching +me use the cane while crossing streets and going to various places. +Then, he put on sleep shades, and I worked with him to learn basic +skills. Next I sent him to California for three or four weeks to +gain further experience and to compare what I had taught him with +what the California Center was doing. Finally he came back to Des +Moines, and I spent several more weeks working with him until +(though sighted) he could (under blindfold) go anywhere he wanted +safely and comfortably using a cane. +During all of that time I worked with him on attitudes, for unless +one believes that he or she is capable of independence as a blind +person, independence in travel (as in other areas) is not truly +achievable. This travel instructor's name is Jim Witte, and he +developed into one of the best I have ever known. +Iowa students rapidly became the envy of the nation. You could +single them out in any group because of their bearing, their +confidence, and their skill in travel. As had been the case in +California, some of them undoubtedly traveled better than I, and I +felt a deep sense of fulfillment in the fact. Joanne Wilson (the +director of your own Louisiana Center) was one of those students, +and I am sure she has told you how it was at the Iowa Centerþhow +students were treated, what was expected of them, the relationship +between staff and students, our dreams for the future, and how we +set about accomplishing those dreams. Arlene Hill (one of your +teachers) was also an Iowa student. Both Joanne and Arlene are +living examples of what we taught and how it worked. So are +President Maurer, Mrs. Maurer, Peggy Pinder, Ramona Walhof, Jim +Gashel, Jim Omvig, and at least fifty others in this audience. +It was in Iowa that we developed the hollow fiberglass cane. It was +an improvement over the solid cane, lighter and more flexible. We +also gradually began to use longer and longer canes. They enabled +us to walk faster without diminishing either safety or grace. As I +have already told you, I started with a 40-inch wooden cane. Then +I went to 42-inch aluminumþand after that to solid fiberglass, then +to hollow fiberglass, and (three or four years ago) to hollow +carbon fiber. As to length, I went from 40 inches to 42, then to +45, 48, 49, 51, 53, 55, and 57. At present I use a 59-inch cane. It +seems about right to me for my height and speed of travel. Will I +ever use a still longer cane? I don't knowþbut at this stage I +don't think so. Obviously there comes a time when a longer cane is +a disadvantage instead of a help. +I've told you all of this so that you may understand something of +my background and approach to independence in travel, and +independence in general. The doctors who established the medical +schools a hundred years ago were (with notable exceptions) not +generally as competent and skilled as the doctors they trained, for +they did not have the benefit of the kind of concentrated teaching +they themselves were providing. Obviously they could not stand on +their own shoulders. Through their students they extended their +dreams into the future, building possibilities that they themselves +had not known and could never hope to realize. +So it is with me in relation to you. You are the third generation +of our mobility trainees, having the benefit of what I have learned +and also of what Joanne and the other Iowa graduates have learned. +Unless you make advances over what we have done, you will, in a +very real sense, fail to keep faith with those who have gone before +you and those who will follow. In this context I would expect and +hope that some of you will become better travelers (and, perhaps, +better philosophers and teachers) than I, and if you do, I will +take joy in it. +Having said all of this, let me come back to my own travel skills. +During the 1950's I traveled completely alone on a constant basis +throughout this entire country, going to almost every state and +dealing with almost every kind of environmentþurban area, city bus, +taxi, complicated street crossing, rural setting, hired private +car, country road, and almost anything else you can imagine. During +late December and early January of 1956 and 1957, for example, I +traveled alone to fourteen states in eleven days, writing testimony +for the NFB's Right to Organize bill. It was no big deal, and not +something I thought about very much. It was simply a job that had +to be done, and the travel was incidental and taken for granted. I +have taught travel instructors and have developed new techniques +and canes. I travel whenever and wherever I want to go in the most +convenient way to get thereþand sometimes that means alone, using +a cane. +Once when I was in Iowa, students observed that I walked to a +barber shop one day with another staff member, and they raised with +me some of the same questions you have raised. That afternoon in +our business class (you may call it by some other nameþphilosophy +or something else) I dealt with the matter. I told the students +some of the things I have told you, and then I went on to say +something like this: +"Although what I have told you should mean that even if I couldn't +travel with much skill at all I might still not merit your +criticism, we don't need to leave it at that. Follow me. We are +going to take a walk through downtown trafficþand see that you keep +up." +I took the lead, and we walked for eight or ten blocks at a fast +clip. When we got back to the classroom, I didn't need to tell them +what kind of travel skills I had. They knew. +Then, we talked about why I had walked to the barber shop with +another staff member. In that particular instance I had matters to +discuss, and I felt I couldn't afford the luxury of doing nothing +while going for a hair cut. As a matter of fact, in those days I +often made a practice of taking my secretary with me to the barber +shop and dictating letters while getting my hair cut. Of course, I +could have made a point of walking alone each time just to make a +visible demonstration of my independence, but somehow I think that +such insecurity might have made the opposite point and would +certainly have been counterproductive. +In the Iowa days I was not only director of the state Commission +for the Blind but also First Vice President and then President of +the National Federation of the Blind. Both were full-time jobs, +requiring me to use to best advantage every waking minute. +I was up before 6:00 to go to the gym with the men students; I +wrote over a hundred letters a week; I entertained legislators and +other civic leaders an average of two or three nights a week to +gain support for our program; I traveled throughout the state to +make speeches; and I spent long hours working individually with +students. Besides that, I handled the administrative details of the +Commission and the NFB on a daily basis. At the same time I was +doing organizing in other states and dealing with problems brought +to me by Federationists throughout the country. +In that context it would have been a bad use of my time (and both +Federationists and Iowa students and staff would have thought so) +for me to spend much of my day walking down the street to make a +visible show of my independent travel skills. I traveled alone when +I needed to, and I gave demonstrations to students, legislators, +and others when I needed to do thatþbut I never did either to +convince myself or to establish in my own mind the fact of my +capacity or independence. It didn't seem necessary. +So what about the NFB convention in Charlotte? I was in charge of +convention organization and arrangements, and there were a thousand +details to handle. There were four hotels and a convention center, +each with its own staff and each requiring separate handling and a +myriad of decisions. Sometimes I had not only one but two or three +people with me as I went from place to place, talking about what +had to be done and sending this person here and that person yonder. +Even so, I might (you may say) have refused to take the arm of one +of the persons with me and used my cane to walk alone. But for what +reason? When a blind person is walking through a crowd or down a +street with somebody else and trying to carry on a meaningful +conversation, it is easier to take the other person's arm. This is +true even if you are the best traveler in the world and even if +both of you are blind. +In fact, I contend that there are times when refusing to take an +arm that is offered may constitute the very opposite of +independence. If, for instance, you are a blind person accompanying +a sighted person through a busy restaurant closely packed with +tables and chairs, do you create a better image of independence by +trying to get through the maze alone, with the sighted person going +in front and constantly calling back, "This way! This way!" or by +simply taking the sighted person's arm and going to the table? What +is better about following a voice than following an arm? From what +I have said, I presume it is clear which method I favor. Of course, +if no arm is conveniently available, you should be prepared to use +another method, regardless of how crowded the restaurant or how +labyrinthine the path. In either case you should do it without +losing your cool. But I'll tell you what alternative is not +acceptable in such circumstanceþpretending that you don't want +anything to eat and not going at all. That's not acceptable. +But back to the convention. When you are trying to get through +crowds quickly to go from meeting to meeting, and possibly also +trying to find different people in those crowds in a hurry, the +efficiency of sighted assistance multiplies. Incidentally, even if +I were sighted and doing the things I do at national conventions, +I would want two or three persons with meþto look for people in +crowds, to send for this and that, and to talk and advise with. +As an example, consider what happened at last year's convention +with respect to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander. He has +normal eyesight and is in every other way, so far as I know, +able-bodied and energetic. I am sure that he can drive a car and +walk vigorously. Yet, he sent an assistant to Charlotte a day in +advance of his arrival. The assistant scouted out the convention +and then went to the airport to meet the Secretary. The assistant +drove the car from the airport to the convention, accompanied the +Secretary into the meeting hall, went with him to the platform, met +him at the edge of the platform when he finished speaking, and +drove him back to the airport. If the Secretary had been blind, I +wonder if somebody would have said, "Just look! He's not +independent. He has to have a sighted person with him at all times, +accompanying him everywhere he goes and driving his car." +Since I am not a student trying to learn to travel independently or +to establish within my own mind that I can compete on terms of +equality with others, and since I can and do travel by myself when +that is most convenient, I feel no particular obligation to make a +demonstration when it is more efficient to do otherwise. If I were +a student, I should and would behave differently. As an example, I +think a student should always use a rigid (not a collapsible) cane. +But I generally use one that is collapsible. Why? Students often +are uncomfortable with canes, and if they are allowed to use those +that fold or telescope, they may tend to hide or conceal them +because they think (even if subconsciously) that it will make them +look less conspicuous. I have carried a cane for so long that I +would feel naked without it, and I always carry one whether I am +with somebody or not. Because they were so rickety, I refused to +carry a collapsible cane until we developed the telescoping carbon +fiber model. I pull it to such a tight fit that it doesn't collapse +as I use it, and I almost never collapse it unless I'm in close +quarters. Again, it is a convenience, and my sense of independence +is not so brittle that I think I have to carry the rigid cane to +prove to myself or others that I am not ashamed to be seen with it +or uncomfortable about blindness. +When I was teaching orientation classes in California and Iowa, I +often said to those in attendance that students at a center tend to +go through three stages: fear and insecurity, rebellious +independence, and normal independenceþFI, RI, and NI. During fear +and insecurity one tends to be ultracautious and afraid of +everything, even if at times putting on a good front. During +rebellious independence one tends to be overly touchy, resenting +anybody who attempts to offer him or her any kind of assistance at +all, even when the assistance is appropriate and needed. In the +rebellious independence stage one is likely to be a pain in the +neck, both to himself or herself and othersþbut this is a necessary +step on the road from fear and insecurity to normal independence. +Unfortunately some people never get beyond it. +Hopefully one will eventually arrive at the stage of normal +independence, with relatively little need constantly to prove +either to oneself or others that one is capable of independence and +first-class citizenship. This means maturity in dealing with +condescending treatment, and it also means flexibility in accepting +or rejecting offers of assistance, kindness, or generosity. +Sometimes such things should be graciously or silently taken, +sometimes endured, and sometimes rejected out of handþbut the +reason should never be because you doubt your own worth, have inner +feelings of insecurity, or wonder whether you are inferior because +of blindness. +Normal independence also means not rationalizing your fear or +inability by saying that you are just doing what is convenient and +efficient and that you don't feel the need to prove something when +in reality you are just covering up the fact that you are as +helpless as a babyþand it means not going so far the other way and +being so touchy about your so-called independence that nobody can +stand to be around you. It means getting to the place where you are +comfortable enough with yourself and secure enough with your own +inner feelings that you don't have to spend much time bothering +about the matter one way or another. It means reducing blindness to +the level of a mere inconvenience and making it just one more of +your everyday characteristicsþa characteristic with which you must +deal just as you do with how strong you are, how old you are, how +smart you are, how personable you are, and how much money you have. +These are the goals, and probably none of us ever achieves all of +them all of the time. Nevertheless, we are making tremendous +progressþand we are farther along the road now than we have ever +been. +I am pleased that you wrote me, and I am especially pleased that +you are able to receive training at the Louisiana Center. It is +grounded in Federation philosophy, and it is one of the best. You +are getting the chance while you are young to learn what blindness +is really like, and what it isn't like. You have the opportunity to +profit from the collective experience of all of usþthe things we +tried that didn't work, and those that did. On the foundation of +love and organizational structure which we have established, you +can make for yourselves better opportunities than we have ever +knownþand I pray that you will. The future is in the hands of your +generation, and I hope you will dream and work and build wisely and +well. +Sincerely, + + Keith died of alcohol poisoning in May of 1989 at the + age of 34. + "Don't Close Your Eyes" was the song of the year for + 1988, and + just a glimmer of what we'd have gotten from him, had + he lived.32 + + Of course, Usenet newsgroups are not limited to + + recreational topics. Many newsgroups are devoted to + + political discussions,33 as shown by these examples from two + + threads in the newsgroup talk.politics.misc: + + From: enbal@tamu.edu (James L. Heilman) + Subject: Pat Buchanan and David Duke + Date: 18 Nov 91 21:42:06 GMT + + + + + 31Article posted to Usenet newsgroup + rec.music.country.western on November 7, 1991. Newsgroup + articles have been edited slightly for cosmetic reasons, but + errors in grammar and spelling -- arguably part of the + unique flavor of Usenet -- have been left intact. + + 32Article posted to Usenet newsgroup + rec.music.country.western on Nov. 8, 1991. + + 33These include talk.politics.drugs, + talk.politics.mideast, talk.politics.soviet, + talk.politics.theory, soc.politics, + alt.politics.homosexuality, and others. + + + 41 + + + + + + Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc + + Given the fact that Pat Buchanan and David Duke will + likely run + for president, a columnist recently wrote that for + George Bush to + get elected, he must run to the right of Buchanan and + to the left + of Duke. Sounds like a Bozo sandwich to me. As to the + remarkably + high voter turnout in Louisiana, George Will stated on + This Week + With David Brinkley that the way to increase voter + turnout in the + U.S. is to run a crook against a Nazi. + + + From: bard@cutter.ssd.loral.com (James Woodyatt) + Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.censorship + Subject: Re: Censorship of 'Doonesbury' + Date: 19 Nov 91 01:43:37 GMT + + In article <1991Nov17.014025.527@desire.wright.edu>, + demon@desire.wright.edu (Enemy of Totalitarianism) + writes: + + > Great, if you want to play word games, then we'll + play along: + > Newspapers have every right to censor their + publication. + > Newspapers are exercising their right to censor their + > publication. Newspapers ARE NOT CENRSORING Mr. + Trudeau. + > In the context of the censorship of Mr. Trudeau, + there is no + > censorship. He can continue to spout his views, he + can talk to + > people in the street, pass out leaflets, get + published in + > sympathetic newspapers, but freedom of speech does + not garauntee + > access to any and all printed material. It protects + individuals + > and organizations from being prevented from airing + their + > views in a public forum, which is not happening to + Mr. Trudeau. + > He can not force people to listen to him, or to print + his views. + > Let him start his own newspaper if he wants to repeat + lies. + + Oh, if only it were so bloody simple. It's not. + + + + 42 + + + + + + The San Jose Metro wanted to print the strips that the + San Jose + Mercury News wouldn't run, so they went to United Press + Syndicate + and told them what they wanted to do. UPS said it was + fine with + them as long as the Merc, which has exclusive rights to + print + Doonesbury in the South Bay Area here, signed a waiver + allowing + the Metro to print the strips that the Merc wouldn't. + The Merc + refused saying that their intention was to prevent the + strip from + being read in the South Bay. + + Tell me with a straight face that is not censorship. It + is not + illegal. It can be argued that it is not even immoral + on its face. + But it is certainly censorship. + + > But they do not send people around to the sources + saying "don't + > try to publish anywhere else, either". That's why + this form of + > "censorship" is more commonly known as "editing". + + The S.J. Mercury News effectively "edited" the strips + out of all the papers in the South Bay area.34 + + The decentralized and uncontrolled nature of Usenet + + permits disagreements between participants to become quite + + heated. This is probably exacerbated by the fact that + + posters may forget social niceties when communication is not + + face to face. A personal attack on another poster is called + + a flame, and flaming is one of the hazards of life on the + + network. + + + + + + + 34Articles posted to Usenet newsgroup talk.politics.misc + on Nov. 18 and 19, 1991. In a reply to another article, net + convention is to place the ">" symbol to the left of quoted + passages from the article being replied to. + + + 43 + + + + + + + Electronic Magazines Electronic Magazines Electronic Magazines + + BBS message areas and Usenet newsgroups are propagated to + + many people and are themselves a form of publishing. But + + even closer analogies exist to conventional, printed media + + such as newsletters and magazines. Numerous electronic + + magazines and newsletters are published regularly and + + distributed to subscribers via computer. + + Bitnet, the mainframe network connecting educational + + institutions, features a number of electronic journals and + + magazines. These include academic journals covering topics + + such as computers, psychology, medicine and education; they + + also include magazines of fiction, music reviews and + + environmental issues.35 + + BBSs also feature a number of online publications. + + Boardwatch, a magazine devoted to news related to BBSs and + + online services, is published monthly in both printed and + + online formats; it can be found both on newsstands and on + + BBSs that subscribe to it. Another magazine, Info-Mat, is + + published only electronically and covers general computer- + + industry news. FidoNet BBSs carry Fido News, a newsletter + + covering FidoNet and BBS topics. + + + + + + + + + + 35Bitnet Servers (text file distributed via Bitnet); see + also E. Parker, "Computer Conferencing Offers Boundless + Geography, Time," Journalism Educator, Winter 1991, at 49. + + + 44 + + + + + + + The Hacker Culture The Hacker Culture The Hacker Culture + + An important subset of the culture of "the Net" is what + + has been called the computer underground, particularly the + + "hacker" subculture. Chiefly because of its prominent + + involvement in cases and controversies that have contributed + + to the development of policies affecting free speech, this + + part of the online community warrants special consideration. + + To discuss computer hackers, it is necessary first to + + explain what is meant by the term. The word hacker has many + + different meanings and is used differently by different + + groups. The online Jargon File, an extensive lexicon of + + hacker slang distributed via computer networks, defines the + + word hacker thus: + + [originally, someone who makes furniture with + an axe] n. 1. A person who enjoys exploring the + details of programmable systems and how to stretch + their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who + prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. + One who programs enthusiastically (even + obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than + just theorizing about programming. 3. A person + capable of appreciating {hack value}. 4. A person + who is good at programming quickly. 5. An expert + at a particular program, or one who frequently + does work using it or on it; as in 'a UNIX + hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, + and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert + or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an + astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys + the intellectual challenge of creatively + overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8. + [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to + discover sensitive information by poking around. + Hence 'password hacker', 'network hacker'.36 + + + + + + 36Jargon File, supra note 8, at line 8397. + + + 45 + + + + + + + The word hacker originated in the early computer labs at + + MIT in the late 1950s. Originally, it did not even + + necessarily involve computers but referred generally to a + + person who derived pleasure from mastering complex + + technological systems (such as the telephone network or even + + a subway system). Soon, however, the word came to mean a + + person who compulsively programmed a computer, usually + + ingeniously, and did so for its own sake rather than to + + achieve any goal (other than the program itself).37 + + More recently, however, the word has most commonly been + + understood to mean a person who gains unauthorized access to + + computer systems. This has been the preferred usage in the + + mainstream media, although in computer-enthusiast circles + + this meaning is often frowned upon. The word cracker, + + according to the Jargon File, was coined in the mid-1980s to + + take this meaning in an attempt to stave off the distortion + + of hacker brought about by the popular press.38 Cracker is + + not widely understood outside hacker circles but is used + + within that culture. + + To some degree, the ambiguity of the word hacker is + + unavoidable. The two senses are not mutually exclusive: An + + "unsavory" hacker (a cracker) is also a hacker in the + + classic sense, a person who enjoys exploring and mastering + + + + + + 37See generally Levy, supra note 4. + + 38Jargon File, supra note 8, at line 4725. + + + 46 + + + + + + + the complex systems of computers and telecommunications. + + Therefore, while all hackers might not break into computer + + systems, it is not generally inaccurate to apply the word + + hacker to someone who does. + + Despite the potential ambiguity, this thesis will use the + + word hacker mainly in its popular sense: a person who, using + + stolen passwords or other security breaches, gains + + unauthorized access to a computer system. Most available + + sources use the word in this sense, and continual shifting + + of terminology would not be useful. However, it is + + necessary first to discuss the elements of hacker culture + + that are common to all hackers, crackers and "classic" + + hackers alike. In this context, where such distinctions are + + necessary, the word cracker will be used to specify a hacker + + who breaks into computer systems. + + That computer hackers have a culture all their own seems + + beyond question. The introduction to the Jargon File + + explains the justification for a lexicon of hacker + + terminology: + + The 'hacker culture' is actually a loosely + networked collection of subcultures that is + nevertheless conscious of some important shared + experiences, shared roots, and shared values. It + has its own myths, heroes, villains, folk epics, + in-jokes, taboos, and dreams. Because hackers as + a group are particularly creative people who + define themselves partly by rejection of 'normal' + values and working habits, it has unusually rich + + + + + + + + + 47 + + + + + + and conscious traditions for an intentional + culture less than 35 years old.39 + + The history and evolution of this culture was traced by + + Steven Levy in his book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer + + Revolution (1984). The beliefs and values of the hacker + + culture Levy summed up in what he called the "Hacker Ethic": + + Access to computers -- and anything which might + teach you something about the way the world works + -- should be unlimited and total.... + + All information should be free.... + + Mistrust Authority -- Promote + Decentralization....40 + + Ideas such as these help to explain the motivations of + + modern crackers as they break in to computer systems "just + + to look around" and attempt to wrest control of large + + systems away from their owners. + + More recently Gordon Meyer, a sociology student at + + Northern Illinois University, examined the social + + organization of the computer underground.41 Meyer defines + + the computer underground as including not only hackers + + (crackers) but also phone phreaks, people who obtain and use + + unauthorized information about the telephone system, and + + pirates, people who collect and trade illegitimate copies of + + + + + + + 39Id. at line 55. + + 40Levy, supra note 4, at 40-41. + + 41G. Meyer, The Social Organization of the Computer + Underground, unpublished master's thesis, Northern Illinois + University, Aug. 1989. + + + 48 + + + + + + + commercial software.42 These groups are related and, + + especially in the case of phone phreaks and hackers, + + overlapping.43 + + While the ethics of hackers and phreakers might be + + questioned, their attitudes seem clearly descended from + + Levy's "Hacker Ethic" and motivated not by malice, but by a + + desire for knowledge: + + The phone system is the most interesting, + fascinating thing that I know of. There is so + much to know.... + + Phreaking involves having the dedication to + commit yourself to learning as much about the + phone system/network as possible. Since most of + this information is not made public, phreaks have + to resort to legally questionable means to obtain + the knowledge they want.44 + + Meyer's study demonstrates that the computer underground + + exhibits characteristics of a loosely organized social + + group, including association, sharing of information and + + socialization, all through the media of BBSs and computer + + networks.45 This degree of contact between individuals, + + together with the existence of specialized language and + + conduct, indicate clearly that the computer underground is + + + + + + + + + 42Id. at 25. + + 43Id. at 28. + + 44Phreaker quoted by Meyer, id. at 29. + + 45Id. at 63. + + + 49 + + + + + + + truly a culture.46 But this culture is dependent upon + + computer-based communication for its existence. + + + + Conclusions Conclusions Conclusions + + It is beyond question that this medium falls squarely + + within the Supreme Court's definition of "the press": "The + + press in its historical connotation comprehends every sort + + of publication which affords a vehicle of information and + + opinion."47 + + Rather than a "niche" medium of interest only to + + scientists, or a medium of only potential value to society + + at large, computer-based communication is used today by + + countless thousands of people to engage in speech at the + + very heart of that protected by the First Amendment. + + Furthermore, the ready availability of the technology means + + that anyone with a few hundred dollards and the desire to do + + so can become a "publisher" with a potential audience of + + vast size. "The new computer-based forums for debate and + + information exchange," writes attorney Mike Godwin, "are + + perhaps the greatest exercise of First Amendment freedoms + + this country has ever seen."48 Unencumbered by the + + governmental regulation and financial barriers associated + + + + + + 46Id. at 76. + + 47Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 U.S. 444, 452 (1938). + + 48Godwin, supra note 25, at 18. + + + 50 + + + + + + + with other media -- few people can afford to own a newspaper + + or broadcast station -- computer-based communication + + represents the epitome of a "robust and wide-open" debate.49 + + It is also a medium that has spawned its own unique culture, + + and it is that culture's primary means of First-Amendment- + + protected communication and association. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 49"[W]e consider this case against the background of a + profound national commitment to the principle that debate on + public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, + and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and + sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and + public officials." New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. + 254 (1964), at 270. + + + 51 + + + + + + + CHAPTER THREE: CHAPTER THREE: CHAPTER THREE: + + Hackerphobia Hackerphobia Hackerphobia + + Recent controversies involving computers and the First + + Amendment have been the culmination of a conflict that has + + been building since at least the early 1980s. It was then + + that the activities of computer hackers first came to the + + attention of Congress, leading eventually to the passage of + + laws addressing the perceived problem and opening the door + + to the kind of zealous prosecution that came later. + + The important computer crime legislation passed by + + Congress during the 1980s consisted of the Counterfeit + + Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984, + + later amended by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.1 + + The 1984 act, part of an omnibus crime bill, was aimed + + primarily at credit card fraud, but also established new + + computer crime offenses. It created several new offenses + + for unauthorized access to a "federal interest computer"2 + + resulting in at least $5,000 or more in illegal gains, + + unauthorized access to classified government data, or + + unauthorized access to confidential financial data. The + + 1986 act made some technical adjustments to the wording of + + + + + + 118 U.S.C. S1029, 1030 (1988). + + 2A federal interest computer is defined in the act as a + computer used by the government or a federally insured + financial institution or a computer used in committing an + offense involving computers in more than one state. 18 + U.S.C. S1030(e)(2) (1988). + + + + + + + these offenses and added two new ones: one for "malicious + + damage" involving access to a federal interest computer, and + + one proscribing trafficking in stolen passwords. + + These laws only incidentally affected free speech by + + providing law enforcement agencies with broad new authority + + to prosecute computer crime. In order to understand whether + + that authority has been abused, it is necessary first to + + identify Congress's intentions. + + By examining the committee hearings held throughout the + + 1980s on the subject of computer crime, this chapter will + + identify the attitudes and concerns that contributed to + + these computer crime laws. It will examine the roles not + + only of the legislators themselves, but also of witnesses + + from the industry, law enforcement community and hacker + + culture. + + + + Government Takes Notice Government Takes Notice Government Takes Notice + + The number and variety of information services and other + + forms of computer-based communication available in this + + country suggest a vigorous and almost totally free medium of + + expression. But this freedom has been the freedom of a + + frontier -- only fairly recently have government regulators + + begun to notice what goes on in the virtual world. Writer + + John Perry Barlow (a cofounder of the Electronic Frontier + + Foundation) has drawn comparisons between the "electronic + + frontier" of cyberspace and the Old West: + + + + + 53 + + + + + + Cyberspace, in its present condition, has a lot + in common with the 19th Century West. It is vast, + unmapped, culturally and legally ambiguous, + verbally terse (unless you happen to be a court + stenographer), hard to get around in, and up for + grabs. Large institutions already claim to own + the place, but most of the actual natives are + solitary and independent, sometimes to the point + of sociopathy. It is, of course, a perfect + breeding ground for both outlaws and new ideas + about liberty.3 + + It was only a matter of time before government at some + + level became interested in the activities associated with + + computer communication. In the words of policy analyst Eli + + Noam, "The problems involving the increased computerization + + of society are somewhat analogous to those that occurred + + with the advent of the automobile. The car was a wonderful + + thing until we discovered that it produced something called + + pollution. Then we had to do something about it, or we were + + going to choke on its fumes."4 In the case of computer + + communication, the "pollution" that first drew the attention + + of regulators was computer hacking. + + + + WarGames WarGames WarGames + + Widespread public awareness of computer hacking can be + + traced to 1983 and the release of the movie WarGames, which + + tells the story of David Lightman, a high-school student who + + breaks into a military computer and nearly starts World War + + + + + 3Barlow, "Crime and Puzzlement," Whole Earth Review, Fall + 1990, at 45. + + 4Daly, "Group Tries Taming 'Electronic Frontier,'" + Computerworld, Mar. 25, 1991, at 77. + + + 54 + + + + + + + III.5 Lightman, trying to reach a game company's system, + + accesses a fictitious Defense Department computer called the + + WOPR (War Operations Planned Response, pronounced + + "whopper"), which has just been given direct control of the + + nation's nuclear missiles. Playing what he thinks is a + + game, Lightman initiates a program that brings the world to + + the brink of nuclear war. + + The movie, while entertaining, depicts events ranging + + from highly unlikely to utterly impossible -- in the words + + of one expert, "nothing more than very interesting + + fantasy."6 Despite its implausibility, however, the movie + + contributed to a heightened awareness of computer security + + issues.7 + + Only months after the release of WarGames, the FBI, with + + much publicity, arrested a group of young computer hackers + + from Minneapolis who called themselves the 414s (after their + + telephone area code). Over the course of several months, + + they had broken into numerous computer systems ranging from + + military computers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to + + + + + 5MGM/UA 1983. + + 6Computer and Communications Security and Privacy: + Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation + and Materials of the Committee on Science and Technology, + House of Representatives, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. (1983) + (statement of Stephen Walker, president, Trusted Information + Systems, Inc.) + + 7See, e.g., McLellan, "The Hacker's Bane," Inc., Dec. + 1983, at 55; Heins, "Foiling the Computer Snoops," Forbes, + Nov. 21, 1983, at 58. + + + 55 + + + + + + + a medical records system at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering + + cancer research hospital.8 The hackers had apparently been + + inspired at least partly by WarGames, although their + + activities had begun prior to the film's release.9 They had + + done no damage to most of the systems they had infiltrated, + + though files were erased on a few. Certainly no real danger + + of the sort depicted in WarGames ever existed.10 + + Nonetheless, the arrests seemed to confirm the fears that + + movie had created. + + The cumulative effect of WarGames and the arrests of the + + 414s was to catapult hacking into the public eye. It seemed + + that hacking -- which had, in one form or another, been + + around for decades -- was no longer as harmless as it may + + once have been. Society's increasing dependence on + + computers was a new vulnerability. Arizona prosecutor Gail + + Thackeray, a key player in the later Operation Sun Devil, + + returned to the Old West analogy to describe this feeling: + + Out here in the Wild West, when it was just a + few settlers on the land, frontier justice had its + place.... You could rustle up wild horses, have + Saturday night shoot-'em-ups, do whatever you + wanted. But as the West became more settled, + there were still a few guys who wanted to go out + + + + + 8See, e.g., Markoff, "Teen Hackers' Antics Prompt House + Hearing," InfoWorld, Nov. 7, 1983, at 26; DeWitt, "The 414 + Gang Strikes Again," Time, Aug. 29, 1983, at 75. + + 9Gillard and Smith, "Computer Crime: A Growing Threat," + Byte, Oct. 1983, at 398. + + 10See, e.g., Alpern and Lord, "Preventing WarGames," + Newsweek, Sep. 5, 1983, at 48. + + + 56 + + + + + + and have shoot-'em-ups on Saturday night. But now + they also wanted to shoot at the telegraph poles. + And as the shooters began to attack things the + community valued, the community acted to protect + its rights.11 + + It was not long before Congress responded to this sudden + + awareness of the threats of hacking in a computer-dependent + + society. Several committees in the House of Representatives + + and the Senate began holding hearings on computer crime.12 + + All shared a recognition of the pervasiveness of computers + + in American society and the drawbacks associated with that + + pervasiveness, as illustrated by Rep. Dan Glickman's (D- + + Kansas) remarks at one of the earliest hearings, in the fall + + of 1983: + + We are in an era where we cannot live without + computers. Now, of course, we must learn to live + with them. But have we lost control? Have we + created a monster? Are we, in effect, the modern- + day Dr. Frankenstein? Do we have a technical + problem or is there an ethical problem? And I + suspect the answer is probably both.13 + + + + + + + + + + 11Bromberg, "In Defense of Hackers," The New York Times + Magazine, April 21, 1991, at 45. + + 12These included the Subcommittee on Civil and + Constitutional Rights and the Subcommittee on Crime of the + House Judiciary Committee, the Subcommittee on + Transportation, Aviation and Matterials of the House + Committee on Science and Technology, the Subcommittee on + Health and the Environment of the House Energy and Commerce + Committee, and the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government + Management of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. + + 13Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 2. + + + 57 + + + + + + + To illustrate the danger, the subcommittee then proceeded + + to watch an excerpt from WarGames.14 + + When that subcommittee issued its report a few months + + later, among its findings were that computers were pervasive + + in American society; that they represented "assets of + + incalculable value"; and that their vulnerability presented + + "a problem of national significance."15 But its + + recommendations were not drastic: It suggested that Congress + + charter a national commission to gather more information on + + the subject and to ultimately recommend a policy + + framework.16 And seemingly recognizing that more was at + + stake than just computer crime, the report said that the + + commission should consider not only the vulnerabilities of + + "critical national systems," but should also take into + + account "the implications of technological innovation on + + government, society and the individual."17 + + The Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights of + + the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing in late 1983 to + + explore the question of whether a federal law would be an + + + + + + 14Id. at 13. + + 15Computer and Communications Security and Privacy: + Report Prepared by the Subcommittee on Transportation, + Aviation and Materials, Transmitted to the Committee on + Science and Technology, House of Representatives, 98th + Cong., 2d Sess. (1984), at 1. + + 16Id. + + 17Id. + + + 58 + + + + + + + appropriate remedy to this potential epidemic of computer + + crime.18 Rep. Glickman advised the committee members that + + the subject was more complicated than they thought, though + + he stopped short of suggesting a First Amendment problem: + + [This subject] goes far beyond the issue of + whether there ought to be a Federal crime against + accessing illegally a computer of somebody else's + system. It involves privacy issues, it involves + management questions both in the private sector + and in the Federal Government.... I would tell you + that with technology changing so dramatically, + electronic mail, a variety of things, I would just + urge you to be somewhat cautious in how you + proceed in this area.19 + + The onward march of technology was at the heart of the + + problem: It was evident that the government was ill-equipped + + to deal with a technology it didn't understand. Rep. Dan + + Mica (D-Florida) reported that the committee's legislative + + drafting service was having difficulty drafting a computer- + + crime bill because it didn't have any attorneys + + knowledgeable about computers.20 "We have to grope and we + + have to patch and paste from [existing law], and there isn't + + much," he said. "It is all new ground."21 + + + + + + + + 18Computer Crime: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on + Civil and Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the + Judiciary, House of Representatives, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. + (1983). + + 19Id. at 3. + + 20Id. at 10. + + 21Id. + + + 59 + + + + + + + "Falling Through The Cracks" "Falling Through The Cracks" "Falling Through The Cracks" + + What were the objectives of legislators as they + + approached this new form of crime? Why did they feel that a + + new federal law was called for? The basic idea seemed to be + + that computer criminals would somehow "fall through the + + cracks" between existing laws covering fraud, theft and + + embezzlement.22 Rep. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) summed up the + + concern: + + [T]here is [a] new kind of criminal that is + lurking in the shadows of criminal activity. He + is a highly sophisticated criminal. He is a high- + technology criminal, and he is one who, when faced + by the Nation's prosecutors, often find they do + not have the adequate tools to prosecute.23 + + Support for this statement, however, seemed lacking. + + Prosecutors at several hearings testified about their + + experience with computer crime, and universally, they had + + succeeded in prosecuting every case they had pursued. An + + FBI witness listed crimes committed by computer in terms of + + the existing statutes under which they were already being + + prosecuted: wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen + + property, bank fraud and embezzlement, destruction of + + government property, and theft of government property.24 + + + + + + 22Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 3-5. + + 23130 CONG. REC. H7632 (daily ed. July 24, 1984) + (statement of Rep. Nelson). + + 24Id. at 24 (statement of Floyd I. Clarke, Deputy + Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, Federal + Bureau of Investigation). + + + 60 + + + + + + + "We in the FBI have not had, to date, any significant + + problems in prosecution of computer related crime under + + already existing statutes over which we have jurisdiction, + + such as the Fraud by Wire Statute."25 Indeed, although + + prosecutors expressed fears about the difficulty of + + prosecuting computer crime under existing laws, there were + + many examples provided at the hearings of computer crimes + + that had been successfully prosecuted.26 + + Nonetheless, the FBI and other law-enforcement witnesses + + went on record as supporting new laws to prevent potential + + future problems. One prosecutor who had been involved in + + successful computer-crime prosecutions summed up this + + attitude: "It is my view that any additional tool that can + + assist the prosecutor, albeit one that has not so far been + + needed, is not something that I would turn down."27 + + Victoria Toensing, a federal deputy assistant attorney + + general, explained in more detail: + + I am quite certain that sooner or later, we are + going to run into some factual situations where we + cannot slip the step-sister's foot into + + + + + 25Ibid. + + 26See, e.g., Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 15-17 + (statement of Rep. Coughlin) (youths who stole $100,000 in + merchandise by computer and were successfully prosecuted); + at 18-19 (statement of John Keeney, Deputy Assistant + Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Justice) + (two "difficult" cases nonetheless prosecuted under existing + law). + + 27Id. at 25 (statement of William Block, Assistant U.S. + Attorney for the District of Columbia). + + + 61 + + + + + + Cinderella's slipper, and we will need a statute + that really covers computer fraud.... + I stress that this is a potential problem + because so far at least we have been able to + prosecute computer fraud cases under existing + statutes.28 + + + + The "Hacker Threat" The "Hacker Threat" The "Hacker Threat" + + The hearings also revealed that, despite the excitement + + caused by WarGames and the 414s, the hacker threat was not + + great. Several witnesses, including 414 hacker Neal + + Patrick,29 testified that the most rudimentary of security + + precautions would have prevented their break-ins. Asked if + + it was possible for hackers to do extensive damage, Patrick + + responded, "I think it is. But I also think it's very easy + + to prevent that. There is no need for million-dollar + + security measures, but just commonsense ideas and attitudes + + would prevent most of this, if not all of this, from + + happening."30 Robert Morris, a prominent computer security + + expert who had worked with the National Security Agency, + + agreed: + + The notion that we are raising a generation of + children so technically sophisticated that they + can outwit the best efforts of the security + + + + + 28Computer Fraud Legislation: Hearing Before the + Subcommittee on Criminal Law of the Committee on the + Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (1985), at 34- + 5 (statement of Victoria Toensing, Deputy Assistant Attorney + General, Criminal Division, Department of Justice). + + 29Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 17. + + 30Id. at 19. + + + 62 + + + + + + specialists of America's largest corporations and + of the military is utter nonsense. I wish it were + true. That would bode well for the technological + future of the country.... These kids appear to be + having fun and, in most cases, the techniques + involved, the techniques required have almost no + sophistication whatever. They are the moral + equivalent of stealing a car for joy riding + purposes when the keys have been left in the + ignition.31 + + By and large, most legislators seemed to understand this + + -- that the success of hackers such as the 414s was due + + almost entirely to poor password control and other lax + + security procedures.32 And they were reassured by + + government witnesses that rigorous security measures made + + sensitive national-security data such as that at Los Alamos + + impervious to access by outsiders.33 Nonetheless, many + + seemed to favor a "brute force" approach to solving the + + immediate problem: + + I have learned that this problem is largely the + result of poor and/or lax computer security. + However, until computer security is improved and + installed I believe we owe it to our citizenry to + protect those records and the vital information + which is so stored. This protection can best be + afforded with a federal statute ...34 + + + + + + 31Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 507 (statement of Robert Morris). + + 32See, e.g., Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 7 + (statement of Rep. Glickman). + + 33Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 34 (statement of Jimmy McClary, Division Leader + for Operation Security and Safeguards Division, Los Alamos + National Laboratory). + + 34Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 17 (statement of Rep. + Coughlin (R-Pennsylvania)). + + + 63 + + + + + + + Others continued to believe that hackers were a serious + + threat to American businesses and to national security. + + Legislators spoke of the "underground culture of people + + known as computer hackers who continuously try to defeat the + + security measures programmed into modern computers."35 But + + attempts to uncover a hacker conspiracy capable of bringing + + down the entire national infrastructure were unsuccessful. + + Rep. William Carney (R-New York) asked hacker Neal Patrick + + if he was aware of any "professional groups" of hackers who + + worked to break into computers for personal gain. When + + Patrick said no, Carney reminded him of TAP, which he + + described as "an organization [with] bulletins, letters, and + + communications back and forth."36 In fact, TAP was not an + + organization at all, but a four-page newsletter + + (Technological Assistance Program) providing technical + + information of interest to hackers.37 Rep. Glickman asked + + witness Donn Parker, who described himself as a hacker (but + + not of what he called the "unsavory" variety), if there was + + a "hackers organization,"38 to which Parker said no. Parker + + went on to say that he had been approached by military + + + + + 35Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 2. + + 36Id. at 21. + + 37Hafner and Markoff, Cyberbunk: Outlaws and Hackers on + the Computer Frontier 20-21 (1991). + + 38Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 81. + + + 64 + + + + + + + officials who were also concerned about organized hacker + + conspiracies: + + I was paid a visit by some of the Office of + Special Investigations of the Air Force on this + exact concern of theirs.... [I]n the future what + they were concerned about was sort of a type of an + electronic Messiah, a charismatic figure being + able to rally the unsavory hacker forces together, + and in effect direct them towards the penetration + -- organized penetration -- of computer systems.39 + + The potential danger from such an "electronic Messiah" -- + + or in Rep. Glickman's words, "a 21st century Adolf Hitler"40 + + -- was evidently perceived as great. One study cited by + + Parker had tackled the question of whether computer crime + + could bring about "national collapse" in the United States. + + While the study's conclusion was negative, it said that + + great damage could still be done; and Parker added that many + + experts disagreed with the conclusion and felt that the + + nation had already reached "a critical stage of + + vulnerability."41 + + Despite these fears, it became clear as the hearings + + progressed that hackers generally were merely mischievous + + rather than malicious. As one witness cautioned, "You don't + + want to lock up some kid who is just fooling with his + + computer and all of a sudden he is guilty of a felony and + + + + + + + 39Id. + + 40Id. + + 41Id. at 77. + + + 65 + + + + + + + you have an obligation to go after him, like in that movie + + we saw."42 + + Most legislators seemed ultimately to conclude that the + + real threat was not from hackers at all, but from a less + + spectacular source: employees and others who already had + + authorized access and misused it.43 + + + + Exaggerated Fears: The "WarGames Scenario" Exaggerated Fears: The "WarGames Scenario" Exaggerated Fears: The "WarGames Scenario" + + There remained those, however, whose fear of computers + + and of mysterious, shadowy hackers -- perhaps reinforced, or + + even caused, by WarGames -- led to a tendency to exaggerate + + the danger of hackers. Legislators couldn't resist the + + temptation to compare real-life hacking incidents to + + WarGames, despite assurances that the events in the film + + were impossible. While certainly there may have been a real + + computer-crime problem, that problem -- fraud perpetrated by + + insiders -- was in reality less spectacular and exciting. + + And legislators tended to see grave problems where there + + were, at best, only potential problems. + + This tendency is perhaps best illustrated by the hearings + + and debates surrounding one of the post-WarGames computer- + + + + + 42Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 28 (statement of Mr. + Edwards). + + 43See, e.g., Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 49-50 + (statement of James F. Falco, Assistant State Attorney, + Consumer Fraud and Economic Crime Division, Eleventh + Judicial Circuit of Florida); Computer and Communications + Security and Privacy, supra note 15, at 4. + + + 66 + + + + + + + crime bills. The Medical Computer Crime Act of 198444 was a + + response to the 414s' computer break-in at the Memorial + + Sloan-Kettering cancer research center45 and was designed to + + provide medical institutions specific legal recourse to help + + protect their computerized medical records. This break-in + + was a popular example of the "hacker problem," and it was + + frequently cited as having been a "life-threatening" + + incident.46 + + At a hearing in April 1984,47 the Subcommittee on Health + + and the Environment of the Committee of Energy and Commerce + + of the House of Representatives explored the supposedly + + pervasive problem of illegal access to medical records. + + Despite this supposed pervasiveness, however, witness Robert + + Coburn -- whose company provided computer services to + + hospitals -- could cite only two examples of illegal access + + to hospital computers. One was the 414s' Sloan-Kettering + + + + + + + + + + + 44H.R. 4954, 98th Cong. (1984). + + 45132 CONG. REC. H9262 (daily ed. Oct. 6, 1986) + (statement of Rep. Wyden). + + 46See, e.g., Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 12 + (statement of Rep. Mica). + + 47Health and the Environment Miscellaneous -- Part 4: + Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Health and the + Environment of the Committee of Energy and Commerce, House + of Representatives, 98th Cong. (1984). + + + 67 + + + + + + + break-in. The other was in an episode of the television + + show St. Elsewhere.48 + + Furthermore, while the St. Elsewhere break-in did result + + in a patient's death, the Sloan-Kettering incident was + + decidedly less exciting. "This situation demonstrated the + + potential for a War Games scenario to occur, albeit on a + + less dramatic scale in the hospital setting," Coburn + + testified. "We understand that the data base that was + + accessed and tampered with at Sloan Kettering was actually + + billing data, and therefore probably did not pose a life- + + threatening situation."49 + + When asked if he was aware of any other such break-ins, + + Coburn's answer was probably not what the committee wanted + + to hear: + + In discussions with various hospitals around + the country, we have not been able to find + evidence of other similar instances of medical + computer crime. We have noted that as hospitals + are becoming more technologically sophisticated, + they are recognizing the need to safeguard their + data from this possibility by instituting ... more + sophisticated security measures on the computer + systems themselves.50 + + Several witnesses, while favoring the bill, spoke only of + + a potential problem. Coburn explained, "We are not aware + + that the problem is as yet widespread or pervasive. As you + + + + + 48Id. at 350 (statement of Robert W. Coburn, President, + Commons Management Group). + + 49Id. + + 50Id. + + + 68 + + + + + + + have indicated, however, it is a potentially disastrous + + situation...."51 Another witness predicted that + + "[p]otential problems will become real problems. + + Unauthorized tampering with medical records will result in + + incorrect -- and possibly life threatening -- changes in + + treatment."52 But none cited any incidents where this had + + already happened. + + Indeed, witness Meryl Bloomrosen of the American Medical + + Record Association testified that "[i]t is unlikely that + + unauthorized access and tampering with information such as + + that used for billing would result in interference with the + + patient's treatment."53 + + The consensus seemed to be that only the potential for a + + problem existed, and the Sloan-Kettering break-in appeared + + to be the only case anyone knew about of an actual illegal + + access to a hospital computer. Furthermore, it became clear + + that even the Sloan-Kettering break-in did not threaten + + lives. A report from the hospital submitted for another + + hearing explained that + + [i]n no way did any of the tampering affect the + treatment of patients receiving radiation therapy. + + + + + + + 51Id. at 355 (emphasis added). + + 52Id. at 423 (statement of Robert B. Conaty, on behalf of + American Hospital Association). + + 53Id. at 427 (statement of Meryl Bloomrosen, on behalf of + American Medical Record Association). + + + 69 + + + + + + Only the accounting information -- billing records + to [hospitals using the system] -- was affected.54 + + Hacker Neal Patrick of the 414s, testifying at that + + same hearing, agreed that only "doctor's bills, where ... + + doctors would be billed for services or would be billed for + + the time that he used" on the computer system had been + + accessed.55 + + Despite all this, however, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Ron + + Wyden (D-Oregon), reported back to the full House that "last + + summer, with just a few taps of a computer keyboard, a group + + of adolescents put at risk the health of thousands of cancer + + patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New + + York." He said that the 414s had "gained access to the + + radiation treatment records for 6,000 past and present + + patients and had at their fingertips the ability to control + + the radiation levels that every patient received.... + + Luckily, no one was hurt -- this time."56 + + Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) contributed to the + + excitement, speaking of "the large and growing problem of + + outsiders gaining access to hospital records"57 -- a problem + + none of the expert witnesses had been able to see. + + + + + 54Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 6, at 546 (statement submitted for the record by the + Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center). + + 55Id. at 27 (statement of Neal Patrick). + + 56130 CONG. REC. H9637 (daily ed. Sept. 17, 1984) + (statement of Rep. Wyden). + + 57Ibid. (statement of Rep. Waxman). + + + 70 + + + + + + + Perhaps not surprisingly, the bill was passed. Though it + + never became law independently, it contributed to the + + Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, the law under which + + Craig Neidorf would be indicted in 1990. + + + + Mistrust of Computers Mistrust of Computers Mistrust of Computers + + A recurring theme throughout new proposals like the + + Medical Computer Crime Act was a tendency to focus on the + + tool of the crime -- the computer -- rather than on the + + crime itself. The computer was seen as super-powerful and a + + crime committed by computer as somehow worse than the same + + crime committed by more conventional means. "[C]omputer + + embezzlement is to traditional embezzlement as a nuclear + + bomb is to a slingshot," one witness said. "They are both + + weapons in the latter and they are both offenses in the + + former, but other than that they have nothing in common."58 + + It appeared that to some, the crime itself was less + + important than the tool used to commit it. According to + + Rep. Don Edwards (D-California), "It might be easier to + + convict somebody for stealing money from a bank by charging + + the person with computer crime, rather than the crime of + + + + + + + + + 58Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 35 (statement of + James Falco, Assistant State Attorney, Consumer Fraud and + Economic Crime Division, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of + Florida). + + + 71 + + + + + + + embezzlement or stealing money from it."59 This sort of + + emphasis on the computer rather than the theft was evidently + + already practiced under existing state computer crime laws; + + a Florida woman, for instance, was convicted of stealing + + more than $100,000 from her employer, an insurance company. + + For insurance fraud and grand theft, she was sentenced to + + five years, but for computer fraud, she was sentenced to + + seven years.60 + + Some legislators commented on this evident misdirection + + of their attention, pointing out that the computer was + + merely a tool like a gun or a forger's pen61 and therefore + + capable of being misused. Rep. Bill Nelson pointed out that + + even the terminology used was misleading: + + Computer-assisted crime is the way we should + refer to this particular type of wrongdoing. But + I doubt that the simpler, less accurate term + 'computer-crime' will disappear from popular + reports of the problem. + Nevertheless, what we are talking about is not + crimes committed by computers, but crimes + committed by people with the assistance of + computers.62 + + + + + + + + 59Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 27 (statement of Mr. + Edwards). + + 60Conputer Crime, supra note 18, at 35. + + 61Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 27 (statement of Mr. + Clarke); Computer Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 15, at 20. + + 62132 CONG. REC. H3277 (daily ed. June 3, 1986) + (statement of Rep. Nelson). + + + 72 + + + + + + + There was some recognition that the tool used to commit + + these crimes was not the real issue at all. Though no one + + spoke of cyberspace or the Hacker Ethic, some legislators + + and witnesses did recognize that what was new was an + + attitude about information. Indeed, at one of the earliest + + hearings, Rep. Dan Glickman cautioned his colleagues: + + We need to respond to a very real problem, but + the real issue is abuse of information. The bills + tend to focus on the device or instrumentation of + the crime. Perhaps we should be looking at more + all-encompassing ways to address the violation, + the misuse of information.63 + + Others also advocated a comprehensive approach: + + [W]e need to shift attention in our statutes + from concepts such as "tangible property" and + credit and debt instruments to concepts of + "information" and "access to information."64 + + Others also spoke of the intricacies and difficulties of + + adapting property law to an information-based society. + + We also need better legal definitions for our + electronic information society. Such terms as + "property," "property rights," "theft of + property," "malicious access," and "manipulation + of contents" need to be defined with our current + and future electronic information society in + mind.65 + + + + + + + 63Computer Crime, supra note 18, at 8. + + 64Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse + Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Crime of the + Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 98th + Cong., 1st and 2d Sess. (1983-84), at 1. + + 65Id. at 299 (statement of George Minot, Senior Vice + President, CompuServe); see also Computer Crime, supra note + 18, at 25 (statement of William Block). + + + 73 + + + + + + + One witness spoke of "crimes of information" and the need + + to "properly value, assess, and protect information as an + + asset."66 It would be just such an assessment that would + + lead to the prosecution of Craig Neidorf. + + + + Financial Impact Financial Impact Financial Impact + + Ultimately, the financial impact of computer crime seems + + to have been Congress's primary motive for moving ahead with + + computer crime legislation. Though the issue of computer + + crime was originally brought to its attention by the + + spectacular exploits of hackers such as the 414s and David + + Lightman in WarGames, it became clear that the largest + + threat came not from hackers (whose motives, it seemed, were + + rarely avaricious), but from "insiders" -- employees and + + others with authorized access who committed fraud by + + computer.67 The danger to national security -- the + + possibility of a "WarGames scenario" -- turned out to be + + very slight, but less-exciting computer crime did exist. + + Such crime, according to an American Bar Association survey + + + + + + + + + + + + 66Id. at 256 (statement of Henry Dreifus, President, + Corpra Research). + + 67Computer and Communications Security and Privacy, supra + note 15, at 4. + + + 74 + + + + + + + cited at several hearings, cost American businesses $730 + + million in one year.68 + + Rep. Peter Rodino summed up the economic approach by + + arguing that attacking white-collar crime such as computer + + crime would be + + more productive, economically, to this country + than the more publicized emphasis on violent + crime. + The prosecution of this type of crime, which + silently robs millions of dollars from all of the + taxpayers, a few dollars at a time, we believe, + must remain a high priority for Federal law + enforcement.69 + + In the end, then, it seems that the computer-crime laws + + that were passed in the wake of the hacker fears of 1983 + + were intended not so much to deter hacking as to provide + + law-enforcement officials with tools to prosecute thieves. + + The economic intent of these laws is perhaps illustrated by + + the fact that in the new laws Congress gave primary + + authority to the Secret Service -- an arm of the Treasury + + Department -- to investigate computer crime. + + + + First Amendment Concerns First Amendment Concerns First Amendment Concerns + + It is evident that for the most part, Congress did not + + perceive any First Amendment implications in the bills it + + + + + + 68See, e.g., The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986: + Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, + 99th Cong., 2d Sess. (1986), at 1. + + 69130 CONG. REC. H7634 (daily ed. July 24, 1984) + (statement of Rep. Rodino). + + + 75 + + + + + + + considered. Indeed, only one computer-crime bill of the + + mid-1980s appears to have turned Congress's attention to the + + First Amendment. In July 1985, the Judiciary Committee's + + Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism held a hearing to + + consider the reported problem of computer networking by + + pedophiles.70 The bill under consideration would have + + explicitly proscribed obscene interstate computer + + transmissions, as well as transmissions "whose purpose is to + + facilitate the sexual abuse or sexually explicit depiction + + of a child."71 + + Deputy Assistant Attorney General Victoria Toensing of + + the Department of Justice's criminal division evaluated the + + bill in constitutional terms: + + It is abundantly clear that neither obscene + material nor child pornography is protected by the + first amendment. It is also clear that indecent + material which is not obscene, but which is in and + of itself offensive, may be regulated civilly if + not banned. The extent to which legislation may + go beyond this point to ban material which is + merely communicative in nature and not per se + obscene or indecent is somewhat more problematic. + As a general rule, the first amendment + prohibits the Government from interfering in + communication of purely factual information even + where the material communicated is of a commercial + nature. Thus, in our view, legislation which + seeks to ban the transmission of only descriptive + or factual information about juveniles with + + + + + + 70The Use of Computers to Transmit Material Inciting + Crime: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Security and + Terrorism of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States + Senate, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (1985). + + 71Id. at 12. + + + 76 + + + + + + nothing more, without a specific intent, would + raise serious constitutional problems.... + Of course we are all repulsed by the fact that + people are using information like this. However, + we do not have a Supreme Court case that allows us + to do that yet.72 + + This statement indicates -- albeit indirectly -- that if + + nothing else, the Justice Department does (or did in 1985) + + recognize computer-based communication as deserving of First + + Amendment rights. Furthermore, the model Toensing applied + + seemed closer to that of print than that of broadcast: "The + + written word has not been considered exempt from first + + amendment protection," she testified. "And that is the + + problem there, Senator."73 + + + + Summary Summary Summary + + The release of the movie WarGames, followed closely by + + the highly visible arrests of the 414s, initiated the early + + phase of the regulatory process regarding computer + + communication. This early phase saw the involvement of + + three important players: Congress, which set the stage for + + later controversy with its computer crime legislation; + + computer hackers, who sparked the whole controversy; and law + + enforcement agencies, which encouraged Congress to pass laws + + covering crimes that might otherwise "fall through the + + cracks." The latter two would continue to play an important + + + + + + 72Id. at 27-34. + + 73Id. at 34. + + + 77 + + + + + + + part in the ongoing controversy of freedom of speech and + + computer communications. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 78 + + + + + + + CHAPTER FOUR: CHAPTER FOUR: CHAPTER FOUR: + + Operation Sun Devil Operation Sun Devil Operation Sun Devil + + The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the emergence of + + several major players in the controversy over computer-based + + communication. During the early 1980s, when Congress was + + considering and passing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Acts of + + 1984 and 1986, law enforcement agencies, though interested, + + remained largely on the sidelines. They made it clear to + + legislators that they would not turn down new laws to help + + them fight computer crimes but otherwise kept a low profile. + + During the late 1980s and especially 1990, however, law + + enforcers -- particularly the Secret Service, which was + + given primary authority to enforce computer crime laws under + + the 1984 and 1986 statutes -- took their duties to lengths + + some thought excessive. While the passage of computer crime + + laws had not caused much controversy, the way in which the + + laws were executed caused many to fear for the future of the + + First Amendment.1 + + Other major players who emerged prominently during this + + time include the hacker community, which suddenly found + + itself at the middle of a constitutional controversy; a new + + political action group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, + + which championed the cause of freedom in cyberspace; and + + + + + 1See, e.g., Costikyan, "Closing the Net," Reason, Jan. + 1991, at 22; Kapor, "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace," + Scientific American, Sept. 1991, at 116; Barlow, "Crime and + Puzzlement," Whole Earth Review, Fall 1990, at 45. + + + + + + + federal courts, which for the first time had the opportunity + + to rule on the First Amendment questions associated with + + computer-based communication. + + This chapter will examine the contributions of these + + players in the hacker crackdown controversy that exploded + + during 1990. After a survey of the events surrounding the + + crackdown and the two major cases that emerged from it, this + + chapter will identify the positions and agendas of these + + players, based upon policy statements, legal documents, news + + stories and other material. + + + + Crackdown Crackdown Crackdown + + On May 9, 1990, the United States Department of Justice + + announced the culmination of Operation Sun Devil, a two-year + + investigation into computer hacking.2 The operation had + + involved "sophisticated investigative techniques" and + + targeted "computer hackers who were alleged to have + + trafficked in and abuse [sic] stolen credit card numbers, + + unauthorized long distance dialing codes, and who conduct + + unauthorized access and damage to computers."3 + + On the two days immediately before the announcement, the + + Secret Service, under the authority bestowed upon it by the + + Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act + + + + + 2U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney, + District of Arizona, Press Release (May 9, 1990). + + 3Id. + + + 80 + + + + + + + of 1984,4 had executed 27 search warrants in cities across + + the United States.5 Forty computers and 23,000 computer + + disks were seized by federal agents and local law + + enforcement officials.6 No arrests were immediately made + + and no charges filed; the searches and seizures were part of + + the ongoing investigation of Operation Sun Devil. The + + operation was the latest development in a crackdown that had + + been going on at least since 1987.7 + + Communications on BBSs from the time show that the Secret + + Service's enforcement efforts were having an effect on the + + hacker community. The feeling in the computer underground + + during the late 1980s and 1990 was one of siege: + + We can now expect a crackdown.... I just hope + that I can pull through this one and that my + friends can also. This is the time to watch + yourself. No matter what you are into.... + Apparently the government has seen the last straw + in their point of view.... I think they are going + after all the 'teachers' [of hacking techniques] + ... and so that is where their energies will be + put: to stop all hackers, and stop people before + they can become threats.8 + + + + + + 418 U.S.C. S1030 (1988). + + 5Press release, supra note 2. + + 6"Probe Focuses on Entry, Theft by Computers," Chicago + Tribune, May 10, 1990, at sec. 1, p. 6. + + 7See, e.g., Betts, "Hackers Under the Gun: Secret Service + Sweep Yields Arrests Nationwide," Computerworld, Aug. 17, + 1987, at 2. + + 8Posting from a computer BBS, quoted in E. Goldstein, "An + Overview," 2600 Magazine, Spring 1990 (as reproduced in + Computer Underground Digest, Issue 1.10, at lines 87-92). + + + 81 + + + + + + + One of the sysops of a BBS called the Phoenix Project, + + concerned about his users' privacy, posted the following + + announcement in the spring of 1990, months before the + + announcement of Operation Sun Devil: + + I will be adding a secure encryption routine9 + into the e-mail in the next 2 weeks -- I haven't + decided exactly how to implement it, but it'll let + two people exchange mail encrypted by a password + only known to the two of them.... Anyway, I do not + think I am due to be busted.... I don't do + anything but run a board. Still, there is that + possibility. I assume that my lines are all + tapped until proven otherwise. There is some + question to the wisdom of leaving the board up at + all, but I have personally phoned several + government investigators and invited them to join + us here on the board. If I begin to feel that the + board is putting me in any kind of danger, I'll + pull it down with no notice -- I hope everyone + understands. It looks like it's sweeps-time again + for the feds. Let's hope all of us are still + around in 6 months to talk about it.10 + + The Phoenix Project BBS was shut down within a few days + + as part of the Steve Jackson Games raid.11 + + Another Sun Devil target was the Ripco BBS, operated in + + Chicago by Bruce Esquibel ("Dr. Ripco"), who was not a + + + + + + + + + 9Encryption is "the encoding of data for security + purposes by converting the standard data code into a + proprietary code before transmission over a network. The + encrypted data must be decoded at the receiving station." + Essentially, encryption renders computer data unintelligible + until it is decrypted using the correct mathematical key. + A. Freedman, The Computer Glossary 259 (4th ed. 1989). + + 10Quoted in Goldstein, supra note 8, at lines 224-235. + + 11Id. See infra notes 54-61 and surrounding text. + + + 82 + + + + + + + hacker and claimed no interest in hacking.12 Ripco, + + however, was a popular "hangout" in the computer + + underground, largely because of its extensive collection of + + text files, and was a popular "chat" BBS covering wide- + + ranging topics. It had a reputation as being a "legal and + + above-board" BBS.13 In fact, Ripco had an explicit policy + + forbidding the posting of stolen credit card numbers or + + specific instructions on how to "phreak" a phone call, as + + sysop Esquibel explained later: + + It is no secret that many of the posts of board + 5 (fone phun) either solicited for the need of or + said they had and would share such information. I + never considered this wrongful for a number of + reasons. The primary one would be most people on + there were blowing smoke as far as really knowing + anything either fraudulent or important.... Many + people who wish to raise their status will often + come up with outlandish claims in an attempt to + convince others he or she is an expert on one + matter or another. + Any attempt to suppress this act I felt would + of [sic] damaged Ripco's open door policy since + people do have to start somewhere and eventually + learn their peers will catch on fast if someone is + pulling a bluff. Thus this type of activity was + tolerated but the line was crossed if anyone + attempted to really do it. For example if a + message contained something like 'just dial 1-800- + 555-1212 and punch in 123456 at the tone', the + entire message was removed or in more cases re- + edited especially if other parts were about non- + related matters.14 + + + + + 12Sulski, "Crackdown on Crime Is Raising Question of + Computer Rights," Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1990, at 17. + + 13"Update on Ripco BBS and Dr. Ripco," Computer + Underground Digest, Issue 1.26, at lines 574-607. + + 14Esquibel, "Dr. Ripco Speaks Out," Computer Underground + Digest Issue 1.27, at lines 342-370. + + + 83 + + + + + + + On May 8, 1990, Secret Service awakened Esquibel and + + seized his BBS.15 In addition to the BBS computer, they + + also confiscated several other computers that had no + + connection to the BBS but were physically close to it. + + Esquibel was not charged with a crime, but during the + + agents' questioning, they told him they had printouts of + + stolen credit card numbers and long-distance access codes + + that had apparently been posted to the BBS without + + Esquibel's knowledge. They also commented on files that + + contained instructions on constructing bombs, telling him + + that making such information available was "wrong."16 + + Those affected by Operation Sun Devil seemed keenly aware + + of the implications of such shutdowns. "Does the First + + Amendment come into play at all?" Esquibel asked. "[W]hy + + isn't a newspaper's printing press taken when a reporter + + refuses to name his sources about a sensitive story?"17 + + "Raiding Ripco seems to be throwing the baby out with the + + bath water by intimidating sysops willing to allow + + provocative discussions," wrote the editors of one online + + newsletter. "In our view, this is no long a computer + + + + + + + + + + 15E.g., Sulski, supra note 12, at 17. + + 16Esquibel, supra note 14, at lines 328, 388. + + 17Id. at line 520. + + + 84 + + + + + + + underground issue, but one of First Amendment + + protections."18 + + Closing down BBSs, however, did not seem to attract very + + much attention, perhaps because the First Amendment's + + applicability to the medium remained untested. The most + + visible and controversial "busts" resulting from the Secret + + Service's hacker crackdown were the related cases of Craig + + Neidorf, a Missouri college student, and Steve Jackson + + Games, a small publishing company in Austin, Texas -- cases + + in which the First Amendment issues seemed clearer than ever + + before.19 + + + + The Case of Craig Neidorf The Case of Craig Neidorf The Case of Craig Neidorf + + The legal troubles of Craig Neidorf centered around a + + computer text file that originated at the Atlanta offices of + + the Bell South telephone company. The E911 (Enhanced 911) + + file, as it was called, contained "a description of the + + purposes, operation, installation, and maintenance of the + + emergency 911 telephone service operated by Bell South [and] + + a glossary of the terminology needed to understand the + + + + + + + 18"Moderators' Corner," Computer Underground Digest Issue + 1.09 (May 16, 1990), at lines 108-117. + + 19See, e.g., "Group to Defend Civil Rights of Hackers + Founded by Computer Industry Pioneer," Wall Street Journal, + July 11, 1990, at B4, col. 1; "Enforcement Questions Raised + After Hacker Case Dismissed," Washington Post, Aug. 2, 1990, + at C13, col.1. + + + 85 + + + + + + + operation of the 911 system."20 Sometime around December of + + 1988, Robert Riggs, a member of a hacker group called the + + Legion of Doom,21 gained unauthorized access to Bell South's + + Atlanta computer system, from which he downloaded22 a copy + + of the E911 file to his home computer in Decatur, Georgia. + + He then transferred the file to a public BBS in Lockport, + + Illinois. Neidorf downloaded the file from the Illinois BBS + + to his home computer in Missouri, edited it and published + + its contents in Issue 24 of his electronic magazine Phrack, + + which was distributed to subscribers and BBSs via computer + + networks.23 + + On February 7, 1990, Riggs and Neidorf were indicted by + + an Illinois grand jury on charges of wire fraud,24 violation + + of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 198625 and interstate + + transportation of stolen property.26 The indictment alleged + + + + + 20 + Memorandum of Law of Amicus Electronic Frontier + Foundation at 2, U.S. v. Riggs, 743 F.Supp. 556 (N.D. Ill. + 1990). + + 21Costikyan, supra note 1, at 23. + + 22To download is "to transmit data from a central + computer to a remote computer." Freedman, supra note 9, at + 232. + + 23Costikyan, supra note 1. at 2-3. + + 2418 U.S.C.A. S1343 (1990). + + 2518 U.S.C.A. S1030 (1990). + + 2618 U.S.C.A. S2314 (1990). Riggs/Neidorf indictment + reproduced in Computer Underground Digest, Issue 1.00 (Mar. + 1990). + + + 86 + + + + + + + that the E911 file was proprietary27 and confidential, that + + it was worth $79,449 to Bell South, and that it contained + + information hackers could use to disrupt the operation of + + the 911 system.28 Four months later the grand jury revised + + that indictment, relying now only upon charges of wire fraud + + and interstate transportation of stolen property.29 + + The charges against Neidorf fell generally into three + + categories: those alleging a broad conspiracy to commit wire + + fraud; those connected with the transfer of the E911 file + + from Georgia, through Illinois, to Missouri; and those + + connected with the publication of Phrack -- not only the + + issue containing the E911 file, but also two previous issues + + that allegedly advocated hacking activity.30 + + One of these issues had contained an article titled "The + + Phoenix Project."31 This project, according to the + + government, was "a plan to solidify the hacker community by + + publishing hacking tutorials and disseminating other items + + + + + + 27"Belonging to ownership; belonging or pertaining to a + proprietor; relating to a certain owner or proprietor. Made + and marketed by a person or persons having the exclusive + right to manufacture and sell such; as a proprietary + article, medicine, or food." Black's Law Dictionary 637 + (Abridged 5th ed. 1983). + + 28Indictment, supra note 26. + + 29U.S. v. Riggs superseding indictment reproduced in + Computer Underground Digest Issue 1.15 (June 16, 1990). + + 30U.S. v. Riggs, 743 F.Supp. 556, 559 (N.D. Ill. 1990). + + 31Costikyan, supra note 1, at 26. + + + 87 + + + + + + + of interest to hackers, such as information on how to + + prevent law enforcement authorities from discovering hacking + + activity."32 Another charge related to a later issue of + + Phrack that allegedly contained such tutorials.33 + + Shortly after Neidorf's trial began in July 1990, the + + prosecution's case began to come apart. A Bell South + + employee testified that the supposedly confidential document + + -- which Bell South had originally valued at $79,449, though + + it later reduced that figure to $20,000 -- was, in fact, + + available for $13 to anyone calling an 800 number.34 + + Prosecutors dropped the charges against Neidorf on July 27. + + Robert Riggs had already pleaded guilty.35 + + The Steve Jackson Games Case The Steve Jackson Games Case The Steve Jackson Games Case + + Steve Jackson Games (SJG), a small, privately owned + + company in Austin, Texas, designs and manufactures role- + + playing adventure games of the type played with dice and + + elaborate rule books. Many of these games have been part of + + GURPS, the Generic Universal Role Playing System, a series + + that includes such titles as GURPS Witch World, GURPS Conan + + and GURPS Riverworld. The company also operates a BBS called + + Illuminati, which SJG uses to facilitate communication + + + + + 32743 F.Supp. 556, 558. + + 33Id. + + 34Costikyan, supra note 1, at 26. + + 35Markoff, "U.S. Drops Computer Case Against Student," + The New York Times, July 28, 1990, at 9, col. 3. + + + 88 + + + + + + + between its customers and game authors. In the spring of + + 1990, SJG was preparing to publish a new game, GURPS + + Cyberpunk, a game in the tradition of William Gibson's + + award-winning science fiction novel Neuromancer and other + + fiction of the "cyberpunk" genre.36 The introduction to + + GURPS Cyberpunk describes this genre: + + "Cyberpunk" is the term applied to a science + fiction literary "movement" of the 1980s. + Although there are several authors from the 1960s + and 1970s whose work appears cyberpunk in + retrospect, the term wasn't coined until the + publication in 1984 of William Gibson's novel + Neuromancer.... + Neuromancer presented a view of the future that + was different. Gone were the glass-domed cities + and utopias of Golden Age science fiction. The + domes are still there in cyberpunk, but they're + occupied by the rich and guarded by security + forces that shoot first and don't bother to ask + questions.... + The cyberpunk future is vibrant -- pulsating + with life, from the streets to the high-rises.... + Cyberpunk is a style defined by two elements. + The first is the interaction of man with + technology. Computers are as common as + dishwashers in the cyberpunk future, and the + dividing line between man and machine is sometimes + blurred.... + The second element found in most cyberpunk work + is that of struggle. The world is divided into + two groups -- the haves and the have-nots -- with + a vast chasm between them.37 + + More familiar examples of cyberpunk include the movie + + Blade Runner and the short-lived television series Max + + + + + + + 36Sterling, "Gurps' Labor Lost: The Cyberpunk Bust," + Effector (newsletter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation), + Vol. 1 Number 2, at 1-2. + + 37L. Blankenship, GURPS Cyberpunk 4 (1990). + + + 89 + + + + + + + Headroom.38 It is easy to understand why the genre, with + + its pervasive themes of technology and fighting against + + centralized authorities, is popular among computer hackers. + + Hacking, in fact, is itself a component of the genre. + + On March 1, 1990, agents of the Secret Service, search + + warrant in hand, raided the offices of Steve Jackson Games. + + The authorities seized from the company three computers, two + + laser printers and all of the drafts of GURPS Cyberpunk, + + both on computer disk and on paper. The computers included + + not only the ones used in the drafting of GURPS Cyberpunk, + + but also the system that ran the Illuminati BBS.39 A total + + of about $10,000 worth of computer hardware and software was + + confiscated.40 The officers left behind broken locks, + + damaged filing cabinets and a ransacked warehouse.41 They + + refused to say what they were looking for.42 + + When Steve Jackson visited the local Secret Service + + office in an attempt to recover some of his equipment, he + + was told by the agents that GURPS Cyberpunk was "a handbook + + + + + 38Hafner and Markoff, Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on + the Computer Frontier 9 (1991). + + 39Electronic Frontier Foundation, Legal Case Summary, + July 10, 1990; Lewis, "The Executive Computer: Can Invaders + Be Stopped But Civil Liberties Upheld?" The New York Times, + Sept. 9, 1990, at F12. + + 40J. Wilson, "It CAN Happen Here," Computer Gaming World, + June 1990, at 8. + + 41Costikyan, supra note 1, at 23. + + 42Lewis, supra note 39. + + + 90 + + + + + + + for computer crime." When he explained that it was science + + fiction, they insisted, "This is real."43 + + The confiscation of the company's computers and all the + + existing drafts of GURPS Cyberpunk nearly put Steve Jackson + + Games out of business. Callers to the company's Illuminati + + BBS saw only the following message: + + Before the start of work on March 1, Steve + Jackson Games was visited by agents of the United + States Secret Service. They searched the building + thoroughly, tore open several boxes in the + warehouse, broke a few locks, and damaged a couple + of filing cabinets (which we would gladly have let + them examine, had they let us into the building), + answered the phone discourteously at best, and + confiscated some computer equipment, including the + computer that the BBS was running on at the time. + So far we have not received a clear explanation + of what the Secret Service was looking for, what + they expected to find, or much of anything else. + We are fairly certain that Steve Jackson Games is + not the target of whatever investigation is being + conducted; in any case, we have done nothing + illegal and have nothing whatsoever to hide. + However, the equipment that was seized is + apparently considered to be evidence in whatever + they're investigating, so we aren't likely to get + it back any time soon. It could be a month, it + could be never. + To minimize the possibility that this system + will be confiscated as well, we have set it up to + display this bulletin, and that's all. There is + no message base at present. We apologize for the + inconvenience, and we wish we dared to do more + than this.44 + + Forced to miss the publication deadline for GURPS + + Cyberpunk, Jackson had to lay off half of his staff, and for + + + + + + 43L. Blankenship, GURPS Cyberpunk (1990), at 5 + (introduction by Steve Jackson). + + 44E. Goldstein, supra note 8, at lines 253-275. + + + 91 + + + + + + + a while SJG operated on a precarious financial basis.45 + + Eventually, using some old backups of their computer data + + and some fragments of early drafts that had been distributed + + to testers -- as well as reconstructing much from memory -- + + Jackson and his staff were able to complete and publish + + GURPS Cyberpunk.46 But Jackson estimated that the raid and + + the delays it caused cost his small company more than + + $125,000.47 + + The Secret Service returned most of Steve Jackson Games' + + property in June of 1990.48 Some of the equipment was + + irreparably damaged,49 and the Secret Service retained the + + drafts of GURPS Cyberpunk.50 Furthermore, the Secret + + Service's affidavit and application for the search warrant + + remained sealed, leaving it a mystery what the Secret + + Service had been looking for.51 There was no evidence, nor + + any formal accusation, that Steve Jackson Games had ever + + been involved in any kind of illegal activity. + + + + + + 45 + Legal Case Summary, supra note 39; Costikyan, supra + note 1, at 24. + + 46Barlow, supra note 1, at 52. + + 47Costikyan, supra note 1, at 24. + + 48Sterling, supra note 36, at 3. + + 49Costikyan, supra note 1, at 24. + + 50Legal Case Summary, supra note 39. + + 51Id. + + + 92 + + + + + + + When the warrant was finally unsealed several months + + later, it confirmed that Steve Jackson Games was never + + suspected of anything illegal.52 Furthermore, GURPS + + Cyberpunk had had nothing to do with the raid. In fact, the + + object of the search had been none other than the E911 file + + published by Craig Neidorf in Phrack.53 + + The link between the E911 file and Steve Jackson Games + + was an employee of the company named Loyd Blankenship and + + his association with a shadowy hacker group called the + + Legion of Doom, a group that was targeted by the Secret + + Service's crackdown. Blankenship, known also as The Mentor, + + was a former hacker and the author of GURPS Cyberpunk.54 + + During the time he was working on GURPS Cyberpunk, he had + + been in contact with some members of the Legion of Doom for + + the purpose of verifying the game's faithfulness to its + + genre.55 (In fact, the title page of the published book + + credits the Legion of Doom as "Hacking Consultants."56) + + From his home, Blankenship operated a BBS called The + + Phoenix Project, which took its name from the "Phoenix + + + + + + + 52Kapor, supra note 1, at 116. + + 53Sterling, supra note 36, at 3. + + 54Id. at 2. + + 55From commentary by SJG employee Walter Milliken posted + to the Usenet newsgroup comp.risks. + + 56Blankenship, supra note 43, at 1. + + + 93 + + + + + + + Project" announced in Phrack #19.57 Blankenship's BBS, like + + many others, had on it a copy of Phrack #24, the issue + + containing the edited E911 file. The file was identified + + and reported to the Secret Service by Henry Kluepfel, a Bell + + security manager who was working with investigators.58 + + Furthermore, the affidavit alleged, e-mail messages + + posted on the Phoenix Project BBS indicated that Blankenship + + and Legion of Doom member Chris Goggans (Erik Bloodaxe) had + + "established a password decryption service"59 for hackers + + attacking computer systems, a service to be provided through + + The Phoenix Project BBS.60 + + Based on these facts, the Secret Service alleged + + interstate transportation of stolen property and computer + + fraud.61 On this basis it raided both the home and + + workplace of Loyd Blankenship, shutting down Steve Jackson + + Games in the process. + + + + + + + + 57Costikyan, supra note 1, at 24. + + 58Application and affidavit for search warrant for Steve + Jackson Games (case #A-90-54m), Feb. 28, 1990, at 11. + + 59On most multiuser computer systems, users' logon + passwords are stored in an encrypted file for security + reasons. Decryption of passwords stored in this file would + reveal the passwords of all users, allowing the person + possessing the decrypted passwords to freely access any + account on the system. + + 60Id. at 7. + + 61Id. at 17. + + + 94 + + + + + + + The Hunt for the Legion of Doom The Hunt for the Legion of Doom The Hunt for the Legion of Doom + + The troubles of Craig Neidorf and Steve Jackson resulted + + from what was apparently one of the central objectives of + + the Secret Service's hacker crackdown: the eradication of + + the hacker group the Legion of Doom (LOD).62 The government + + perceived the Legion of Doom as "a closely knit group of + + hackers" engaged in disruption of telephone services, credit + + card fraud and theft of proprietary information.63 These + + descriptions of a highly organized and malevolent group of + + hackers echo the fears expressed at Congressional hearings + + during the 1980s of hacker conspiracies and "professional" + + hacker groups.64 + + The reality, however, is that the Legion of Doom was far + + less dangerous and far less organized than the government + + apparently believed. The membership of the Legion of Doom + + is probably impossible to determine. One member said that + + the group never had more than 15 to 20 members and that + + "it's almost like if you say you're in, you are."65 And as + + is the custom in hacking circles, members generally used + + + + + + 62Markoff, "Drive to Counter Computer Crime Aims At + Invaders," The New York Times, June 3, 1990, at 30. + + 63E.g., Riggs/Neidorf indictment, infra note 26; + Riggs/Neidorf superseding indictment, infra note 29; SJG + search affidavit, infra note 58. + + 64See Chapter 3, notes 35-41 and surrounding text. + + 65Schatz, "The Terminal Men," The Washington Post, June + 24, 1990, at H6. + + + 95 + + + + + + + pseudonyms, though the true identities of some were revealed + + when they became ensnared in the crackdown. A list of + + Legion of Doom members might include Robert Riggs (The + + Prophet), Loyd Blankenship (The Mentor), Chris Goggans (Erik + + Bloodaxe) and Len Rose (Terminus), as well as such + + mysterious figures as Acid Phreak, Phiber Optik and Lex + + Luthor. + + The group's foreboding name was taken from a group of + + comic-book villains that frequently clashed with Superman. + + "You wouldn't want a fairy kind of thing like Legion of + + Flower Pickers or something," one member explained. "But + + the media ate it up too. Probing the Legion of Doom like it + + was a gang or something, when really it was just a bunch of + + geeks behind terminals."66 + + The Legion of Doom was not a "closely knit group,"67 and + + its agenda was not nearly so malevolent as the Sun Devil + + investigators alleged. "We're just out to learn," Acid + + Phreak explained. "We transfer data about records that we + + find in systems. But we draw the line on how we use that + + data. We use it to play around, not abuse it."68 + + + + + + + + + + 66Barlow, supra note 1, at 49. + + 67Goldstein, supra note 8, at line 214. + + 68Schatz, supra note 65, at H1. + + + 96 + + + + + + + Exaggerated Fears Exaggerated Fears Exaggerated Fears + + The government's belief that the Legion of Doom was + + actively engaged in theft and fraud and disruption of + + telephone services may help to explain why the E911 file was + + seen as so dangerous. Prosecutors, however, seemed not to + + have a clear idea of exactly what the file was. The Secret + + Service, in the affidavit and application for the Steve + + Jackson Games search warrant, refers to the E911 file + + variously as a "document," as "source code" and as a + + "program."69 Similarly, the press release issued by the + + Department of Justice upon the indictment of Riggs and + + Neidorf said that the two "stole a copy of Bell South's + + highly proprietary and closely held computer program that + + controlled and maintained the E911 system."70 The + + government further claimed that Neidorf published the file + + "so that [other hackers] could unlawfully access the E911 + + system and potentially disrupt or halt ... 911 service in + + the United States."71 William Cook, the assistant United + + States attorney who led the prosecution of Neidorf, + + described the E911 file to the jury as a "road map" to the + + emergency telephone system. He explained that the file + + + + + + 69Affidavit, supra note 58. + + 70Indictment, supra note 26 (emphasis added). + + 71U.S. Dept. of Justice, Press Release, Feb. 6, 1990 + (reproduced in Computer Underground Digest, Issue 1.00, Mar. + 1990). + + + 97 + + + + + + + "described in vivid detail each of the locations along the + + E911 path to an emergency call."72 + + In fact, the E911 file, titled "Control Office + + Administration Of Enhanced 911 Services For Special Services + + And Major Account Centers," is an administrative document + + containing little technical information. The document + + describes the 911 system very generally and defines some of + + the terms used in administration of the system -- terms like + + PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point), "an agency or facility + + which is authorized by a municipality to receive and respond + + to police, fire and/or ambulance services."73 It defines + + the responsibilities of the various entities involved in the + + 911 system with regard to maintenance, testing and problem + + reporting. The document is dry reading, filled with + + acronyms and other bureaucratic jargon: + + The MMOC should notify the appropriate SSC/MAC + when the Host, Node, or all Node circuits are down + so that the SSC/MAC can reply to customer reports + that may be called in by the PSAPs. This will + eliminate duplicate reporting of troubles. On + complete outages the MMOC will follow escalation + procedures for a Node after two (2) hours and for + a PSAP after four (4) hours. Additionally the + MMOC will notify the appropriate SSC/MAC when the + Host, Node, or all Node circuits are down.74 + + + + + + 72Transcript of William Cook's opening statement at trial + of Craig Neidorf, reproduced in Computer Underground Digest + Issue 3.41 (Nov. 16, 1991), at lines 108, 482. + + 73E911 file as reproduced in Phrack Issue 24, at line + 1071. + + 74Id. at lines 1270-1276. + + + 98 + + + + + + + It also includes a glossary of terms used to describe the + + E911 system -- terms such as PSAP, selective routing and + + night service.75 Nothing in the file appears to provide any + + technical information that could be used to actually + + interfere with the operation of the system. + + Rather than a tool for sabotage, the republished E911 + + file was more likely seen as a kind of trophy, an + + interesting glimpse at part of the complex telephone system + + with which hackers were fascinated. In response to + + Neidorf's arrest, hacker Chris Goggans, known as Erik + + Bloodaxe, said, "No member of LOD has ever (to my knowledge) + + broken into another system and used any information gained + + from it for personal gain of any kind ... with the exception + + of maybe a big boost in his reputation around the + + underground.... The information [in the E911 file] is hardly + + something anyone could possibly gain anything from except + + knowledge about how a certain aspect of the telephone + + company works."76 + + Like its descriptions of the E911 file, the government's + + charges of conspiracy against Craig Neidorf similarly + + reflected an exaggerated threat. The indictment against + + Neidorf prominently mentions an article in Phrack #19 titled + + "The Phoenix Project," described by the government as "a + + + + + + 75Id. beginning at line 1438. + + 76Goldstein, supra note 8, at lines 185-192. + + + 99 + + + + + + + plan to solidify the hacker community by publishing hacking + + tutorials and disseminating other items of interest to + + hackers, such as information on how to prevent law + + enforcement authorities from discovering hacking + + activity."77 In fact, the "project" announced in Phrack #19 + + seemed more likely intended to boost morale in the besieged + + hacker community than anything else. It was mostly devoted + + to announcing an upcoming convention for hackers, as well as + + the new Phoenix Project BBS: + + SummerCon '88 is a celebration of a new + beginning. Preparations are currently underway to + make this year's convention twice as fun as last + year's and the greater the turnout the greater the + convention shall be. No one is directly excluded + from the festivities and the practice of passing + illegal information is not a part of this + convention.... + Any security consultants or members of law + enforcement agencies that wish to attend should + contact the organizing committee as soon as + possible to obtain an invitation to the actual + convention itself.... + The first step in what is called The Phoenix + Project, which is a re-birth of the hack/phreak + community is underway. This first step is a + public education bulletin board system dedicated + to teaching the public about telecommunications + and computer systems. The board is called The + Phoenix Project, and the number is (XXX)XXX-XXXX. + No illegal information is to be posted on this + system. Our SysOp is The Mentor. Thank you, and + call if you're interested.78 + + + + + + + + 77743 F.Supp. 556, 558. + + 78Knight Lightning (Craig Neidorf), "Phrack World News," + Phrack, Issue 19 (no date given), at lines 1531-1651 + (telephone number removed). + + + 100 + + + + + + + In addition to the E911 file, the Secret Service also + + expected to find at Steve Jackson Games a program providing + + a "password decryption service" established by Loyd + + Blankenship and Chris Goggans.79 But the evidence presented + + in the agency's own affidavit suggests that this service + + was, in fact, little more than idle chatter; it was neither + + "established" nor operational in any way. It was merely an + + apparently half-serious suggestion made on the BBS by co- + + sysop Chris Goggans (under the pseudonym Erik Bloodaxe): + + 13/58 things... + Name: Erik Bloodaxe #2 + Date: Tue Jan 23 22:57:29 1990 + + I think it's time for your friend at the Legion of + Doom to start a new service...(with great help + from friends) + Decryption service! On any unix or Prime, send the + etc/passwd file, or the UAF file to the sysop + directory, and you will be mailed back the + encrypted passwords...(on UNIX( any pw that the + deszip could bust) + The Prime UAF must be in binary, so kermit it from + the site, and xmodem it here. + In return, we will not distribute any information + gained from your site, but we will probably look + around it anyway...but it will remain between you + and us. + What do you people think? Bad idea? Good idea? + Hell...It is just another attempt by me to piss + everyone off. + + ->ME80 + + + + + + + + 79Affidavit, supra note 58. + + 80Messages from The Phoenix Project BBS, attached to + search affidavit and reproduced in Computer Underground + Digest 2.11, Nov. 13, 1990. + + + 101 + + + + + + + Even if this "service" had been operational, Loyd + + Blankenship's connection to it was tenuous. The Secret + + Service's conclusion that he was involved in trafficking in + + stolen passwords was apparently based entirely on a + + Blankenship's answer to another user's question about what + + "Kermit," mentioned in Goggan's message, was:81 + + 23/47: kermit + Name: The Mentor #1 + Date: Fri Jan 26 10:11:23 1990 + + Kermit is a 7-bit transfer protocol that is used + to transfer files to/from machines. It is mostly + found on mainframes (it's a standard command on + VAX, for instance). Kermit has the added advantage + of being able to work through an outdial (because + it is 7-bit). + + Mentor82 + + Kermit is a commonly used file transfer protocol83 and is + + certainly not limited to use in stealing passwords. But + + based upon this straightforward technical explanation, the + + Secret Service alleged that Loyd Blankenship was involved in + + Chris Goggan's proposed password decryption scheme. + + + + + + + 81Indictment as quoted in Computer Underground Digest + Issue 2.11, Nov. 13, 1990. + + 82Id. + + 83A file transfer protocol is a set of standards + regarding the transmission of data from one computer to + another and how errors in transmission should be handled. + The Kermit protocol is noted for its ability to complete + file transfers over even noisy telephone connections and its + ability to communicate between personal computers and large + mainframes that may have different data formats. See + Freedman, supra note 9, at 385. + + + 102 + + + + + + + This tendency toward exaggeration was also demonstrated + + by the agents who raided Steve Jackson Games. When he + + attempted to recover some of his equipment, agents insisted + + to Steve Jackson that GURPS Cyberpunk was a "handbook for + + computer crime" and that the techniques it described were + + real. While the technology described in the book is + + extrapolated from that of today, no specific real-world + + techniques, only game rules, are described. A roll of the + + dice, for instance, determines whether a player has + + successfully broken into a computer system.84 And much of + + the technology is fantastically futuristic, such as this + + description of the "Icon Interface": + + This interface is very similar to the icon- + based operating systems used on personal computers + in the 1980s and early 1990s. A two-dimensional + "screen" is projected directly onto the + character's optic nerve. When he wishes to + execute a program or examine a database, he + mentally "selects" the appropriate icon. To + connect to another computer, for instance, he + selects a telephone; to disconnect from a system, + he selects a door.... + Installation requires a major surgical facility + and a minimum of 10 days.85 + + About the only realistic hacking technique the book + + describes is searching through trash to find useful data + + (the success of which is still dependent upon a roll of the + + dice).86 + + + + + 84Blankenship, supra note 43, at 69. + + 85Id. at 73. + + 86Id. at 86-87. + + + 103 + + + + + + + + + The Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation + + Another major player to emerge during 1990 -- as a direct + + result of the government's hacker crackdown -- was the + + Electronic Frontier Foundation, founded by Mitch Kapor, + + author of the popular spreadsheet program 1-2-3 and former + + CEO of the software company Lotus, and writer John Perry + + Barlow. The EFF was founded shortly after Barlow was + + visited by an FBI agent investigating another (possibly + + mythical) hacker group called the NuPrometheus League. The + + mysterious group had stolen some Macintosh source code87 + + from the Apple computer company and distributed it widely to + + members of the computer industry and the press, and was the + + subject of an FBI investigation in 1989 and 1990.88 + + According to Barlow, an FBI agent who visited him at his + + home in Wyoming -- evidently suspecting that Barlow might be + + part of the NuPrometheus League -- knew almost nothing about + + computers. Barlow found himself explaining computer + + technology to the agent. "You know things have rather + + jumped the groove when potential suspects must explain to + + law enforcers the nature of their alleged perpetrations," + + + + + 87Source code is "the language a program is written in by + the programmer." Freedman, supra note 9, at 641. Because + source code reveals the inner workings of a program, and + because it can be easily modified and adapted by other + programmers, it is generally considered highly confidential + and proprietary by its owner. + + 88Markoff, supra note 62, at 30. + + + 104 + + + + + + + Barlow later wrote. Much of the agent's visit was devoted + + to Barlow's explanation to the agent of exactly what had + + been stolen.89 + + The FBI agent's visit demonstrated to Barlow one of the + + fundamental problems of the recent hacker crackdown: the + + lack of technical expertise among law enforcement officials. + + I realized in the course of this interview that + I was seeing, in microcosm, the entire law + enforcement structure of the United States. Agent + Baxter was hardly alone in his puzzlement about + the legal, technical, and metaphorical nature of + datacrime. + I also found in his struggles a framework for + understanding [the] series of recent Secret + Service raids on some young hackers.... And it + occurred to me that this might be the beginning of + a great paroxysm of governmental confusion during + which everyone's liberties would become at risk.90 + + Mitch Kapor had received one of the copies of the + + NuPrometheus League's stolen Macintosh code and was also + + paid a visit by an FBI agent. After hearing about Barlow's + + similar experience, Kapor began to see a larger problem: + + I suddenly realized I wasn't alone, that I had + some direct connection to this, that NuPrometheus + was connected to all the other arrests of computer + hackers at the time, and I began to see how great + an injustice could be taking place within such a + huge investigation as Sun Devil.91 + + + + + + + + 89Barlow, supra note 1, at 53-4. + + 90Barlow, "A Man From the FBI: The Origins of the + Electronic Frontier Foundation," Effector, March 1991, at 1. + + 91Bromberg, "In Defense of Hackers," The New York Times + Magazine, April 21, 1991, at 47. + + + 105 + + + + + + + These concerns led Barlow and Kapor to found the + + Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF's mission statement + + recognized the "new world" of cyberspace and the difficulty + + of applying old laws to a new medium such as computer-based + + communication. The EFF, the statement said, would "help + + civilize the electronic frontier," both through educational + + activities to increase understanding of the new media, and + + through supporting litigation to preserve First Amendment + + rights in the realm of computer-based communication.92 But + + the EFF's founders resisted the suggestion that the EFF was + + a "hacker defense fund": + + I regard unauthorized entry into computer + systems as wrong and deserving of punishment. + People who break into computer systems and cause + harm should be held accountable for their actions. + We need to make appropriate distinctions in the + legal code among various forms of computer crime, + based on such factors as intent and the degree of + actual damage.... + As I began to find out the real story behind + government raids and indictments last summer, I + became incensed at the fact that innocent + individuals were getting caught up in the + blundering machinations of certain law enforcement + agencies....93 + + The EFF immediately became involved in the case of Steve + + Jackson Games.94 Its attorneys helped Jackson obtain the + + + + + + + 92Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mission Statement, July + 10, 1990. + + 93Kapor, "Why Defend Hackers?", Effector, March 1991, at + 1, 3. + + 94Electronic Frontier Foundation, supra note 39. + + + 106 + + + + + + + return of his confiscated equipment95 and successfully + + sought to have the SJG search affidavit unsealed.96 + + The EFF's most prominent early role, however, was + + probably its involvement in the defense of Craig Neidorf. + + With the aid of the EFF's attorneys, Neidorf moved to have + + the charges against him dropped on First Amendment grounds. + + In support of this motion the EFF filed an amicus brief in + + which it explained the importance of the issues in the case: + + The indictment in this case has raised a + significant concern among BBS operators and users + as to the liability that they might face for the + communication of information that may turn out to + have originally been obtained without + authorization. . . . [M]any of these bulletin + board systems have ongoing discussions, or + conferences, about a wide variety of subjects, and + often, in the spirit of free and open + communication, individuals put postings on the + bulletin boards which could be construed as + advocating or supporting illegal activity. While + the operators of these BBSs do not support such + activity, they would like to maintain a free, open + and robust interchange of ideas, and are concerned + about the liability they may face.97 + + In challenging these charges stemming from Neidorf's + + publication of the E911 file, EFF's brief emphasized that + + Neidorf had been uninvolved in the illegal removal of the + + E911 file from the Bell South computer. Neidorf, it said, + + acted as publisher, "much as the publisher of the Chicago + + + + + 95Sterling, supra note 36, at 3. + + 96Bromberg, supra note 91, at 49. + + 97Motion of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for Leave + to Appear as Amicus Curiae at 3-4, U.S. v. Riggs, 743 + F.Supp. 556 (N.D. Ill. 1990). + + + 107 + + + + + + + Tribune does when printing and distributing that + + newspaper."98 Therefore, the EFF maintained, Neidorf + + should be accorded the full protection of the First + + Amendment. This protection, the EFF argued, extended not + + only to the actual publication of Phrack, but also to the + + transfer of the E911 file from Illinois to Missouri, because + + that transfer was incidental to publication. "If ... the + + publication of the E911 text was protected by the First + + Amendment, the transmittal of the information to and from a + + bulletin board prior to publication triggers First Amendment + + protections."99 + + The EFF then argued that any statute criminalizing + + publication of information must serve an overriding + + governmental interest, must be narrowly tailored to serve + + that interest and bears a heavy presumption against + + constitutionality. The interest in protecting confidential + + business information, it argued, was not an overriding + + governmental interest, and thus the government interest did + + not outweigh Neidorf's First Amendment rights to receive and + + republish the E911 file, which was of "public + + significance."100 + + + + + + + + 98Memorandum, supra note 20, at 4. + + 99Id. at 4. + + 100Id. at 4-9. + + + 108 + + + + + + + In support of its argument, the EFF cited Smith v. Daily + + Mail Publishing Co.101 In that case, a newspaper had been + + prosecuted for violating a state law prohibiting publication + + of the name of a juvenile defendant without prior approval + + of a judge. The Supreme Court struck down the law as + + unconstitutional. Chief Justice Burger wrote that state + + action to punish publication of truthful information must + + serve a state interest "of the highest order."102 The + + interest here -- protecting the anonymity of juvenile + + offenders -- was recognized by the Court as legitimate, but + + not sufficiently compelling to outweigh First Amendment + + rights. The EFF also cited similar decisions in Worrell + + Newspapers of Indiana, Inc. v. Westhafer,103 which declared + + unconstitutional a law prohibiting publication of a + + suspect's name before an arrest had been made, and Landmark + + Communications Inc. v. Virginia,104 which struck down a + + newspaper's indictment for publishing the name of a judge + + who was under investigation. + + Surely, the EFF argued in its brief, the interests + + involved in these cases -- protecting the anonymity of + + juvenile offenders in Smith, for instance, and apprehending + + + + + + 101443 U.S. 97 (1979). + + 102Id. at 103. + + 103739 F.2d 1219 (7th Cir. 1984). + + 104435 U.S. 829 (1978). + + + 109 + + + + + + + criminals in Worrell -- were more compelling than the + + governmental interest in protecting confidential business + + information such as that supposedly contained in the E911 + + file. Yet even those higher state interests had failed to + + outweigh the First Amendment's protection for the + + publisher.105 The information published by Neidorf related + + to a matter of public significance -- relating, as it did, + + to the availability of emergency service to the public -- so + + the First Amendment interest in publication outweighed the + + interest advanced by the government,106 the EFF argued. And + + far narrower means of protecting that interest are + + available, such as imposing liability upon the person who + + actually stole the information rather than upon the + + republisher.107 To punish Neidorf for publishing + + information he knew to be stolen, the EFF argued, would be + + analogous to prosecuting The New York Times for publishing + + the Pentagon Papers, "which it may have known or had reason + + to know had been stolen by Daniel Ellsberg."108 + + + + + + + 105Memorandum, supra note 20, at 6. + + 106Id. at 8. + + 107Id. at 9. + + 108Id. at 13. The EFF also cited Pearson v. Dodd, 410 + F.2d 701 (D.C. Cir. 1969), and Dietemann v. Time, Inc., 449 + F.2d 245 (9th Cir. 1971), to support a "distinction between + publishing information one has stolen [as in Dietemann] and + publishing information stolen by others [as in Pearson]." + Memorandum, supra note 20, at 12. + + + 110 + + + + + + + Some of the charges against Neidorf related not to the + + publication of the E911 file but to two issues of Phrack + + that supposedly advocated hacking activity, one announcing + + "The Phoenix Project" and the other allegedly containing + + hacker tutorials. Neidorf and the EFF challenged these + + counts of the indictment on First Amendment grounds as well. + + Since the charges centered around advocacy of illegal + + conduct, the brief argued, they had to meet the incitement + + standard established by Brandenburg v. Ohio.109 The Supreme + + Court's per curiam opinion in Brandenburg enunciated that + + test as follows: "[T]he constitutional guarantee of free + + speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or + + proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation + + except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or + + producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or + + produce such action."110 + + + + The Court Responds The Court Responds The Court Responds + + The United States District Court for the Northern + + District of Illinois, where the case went to trial, + + recognized that with the Neidorf case it was plotting "a + + course on uncharted waters."111 In his decision ruling on + + + + + + 109395 U.S. 444 (1969). + + 110395 U.S. 444, 447. + + 111U.S. v. Riggs, 739 F.Supp. 414, 419 (N.D. Ill. 1990). + + + 111 + + + + + + + the first of two motions by the defendants to have the + + charges dismissed,112 Judge Nicholas Bua wrote: + + Over the course of the past decade, advances in + technology and growing respect and acceptance for + the powers of computers have created a true + explosion in the computer industry. Quite + naturally, the growth of computer availability and + application has spawned a host of new legal + issues. This case requires the court to wrestle + with some of these novel legal issues which are a + product of the marriage between law and + computers.113 + + In responding to the EFF's arguments, however, the court + + stayed within familiar territory, avoiding the more + + difficult questions of First Amendment applicability to a + + new medium. The First Amendment, Judge Bua ruled, would not + + be a defense in any case. "[T]he law is clear," he wrote, + + "that where an individual violates an otherwise valid + + criminal statute, the First Amendment does not act as a + + shield to preclude the prosecution of that individual simply + + because his criminal conduct involves speech."114 Chief + + support for this position came from United States v. + + Rowlee,115 a Second Circuit case that upheld the defendant's + + conviction for mail fraud based upon his activities in a + + society devoted to promoting tax evasion. Rowlee's conduct, + + + + + 112The first motion to dismiss was not on constitutional + grounds, but rather alleged insufficiency of the indictment + under the statutes involved. + + 113739 F.Supp. 414, 416. + + 114Id. at 559-560. + + 115899 F.2d 1275 (2d Cir. 1990). + + + 112 + + + + + + + the circuit court had written, "was not protected by the + + First Amendment merely because, in part, it may have + + involved the use of language."116 If Neidorf had indeed + + participated in the scheme to defraud as alleged, Bua wrote, + + "then he is criminally responsible for his conduct in + + furtherance of the scheme, and the First Amendment does not + + shield him from that responsibility."117 According to + + Rowlee, Bua wrote, "the Brandenburg test cannot be + + reasonably applied to violations of the mail fraud or wire + + fraud statutes, which usually 'involve long-term, slowly- + + developing wrongs, not "imminent lawless action."'"118 + + With the EFF's motions all denied by the court, Neidorf's + + trial began on July 23, 1990. Within four days, testimony + + had revealed the E911 file to be largely in the public + + domain, and the charges against Neidorf were dropped.119 + + + + Summary Summary Summary + + The explosive controversies of 1990, resulting from the + + Secret Service's crackdown on computer hackers, revealed the + + changing roles of some of the players in the regulatory + + process and the emergence of an entirely new player. + + + + + 116Id. at 1278. + + 117743 F.Supp. 556, 562. + + 118Id. (quoting U.S. v. Rowlee, 899 F.2d 1275, 1280 (2d + Cir. 1990)). + + 119Markoff, supra note 35. + + + 113 + + + + + + + Where it had previously remained quietly on the + + sidelines, law enforcement agencies, particularly the Secret + + Service, initiated the controversies over free speech and + + computers in the process of executing computer crime laws. + + The hacker community continued to act chiefly as catalyst, + + but by necessity found itself taking a more active role in + + the debate. And in response to the evident disregard by law + + enforcement of the civil liberties of those it was + + investigating, the Electronic Frontier Foundation appeared + + to raise awareness of the civil-liberties issues that law + + enforcers appeared to be missing. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 114 + + + + + + + CHAPTER FIVE: CHAPTER FIVE: CHAPTER FIVE: + + Conclusions Conclusions Conclusions + + The events of 1983-1990, beginning with the release of + + the movie WarGames and culminating in Operation Sun Devil + + and the legal controversies surrounding Craig Neidorf and + + Steve Jackson, reveal a chaotic interplay of political + + forces, some of them new to the scene. With a new and still + + largely unfamiliar technology, such chaos is understandable, + + and it is possible that expressions of fear for the future + + of the First Amendment have been overstated. + + Computer-based communication is, however, a troubled + + medium, and it is by no means certain that it will receive + + the First Amendment protection it deserves. That it + + deserves First Amendment protection should not be doubted. + + The broad availability of the technology and the freedom and + + diversity of the content make computer-based communication + + possibly the purest expression of the First Amendment in + + existence today. If, as A.J. Liebling said, freedom of the + + press belongs to those who own one, then thanks to computers + + and networking, today anyone with a few hundred dollars can + + own one and can have access to a broader audience than any + + mimeographed newsletter or handbill could ever reach. A + + threat to the freedom of computer-based communication does + + indeed represent a threat to the very heart of the First + + Amendment. + + Threats to the medium's freedom have resulted not from + + affirmative governmental desires to censor so much as from + + + + + + + governmental failure to fully consider and recognize the + + nature of the medium. An examination of the contribution of + + each of the important players considered in this thesis + + reveals a need to raise awareness of First Amendment issues + + and educate the uneducated about the powers (and + + limitations) of computer technology. + + + + Congress Congress Congress + + By and large, Congress did not intend the Counterfeit + + Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 and + + the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 laws to be aimed + + primarily at hackers. Although deterrence and "sending a + + message" were part of their purpose, Congress realized that + + hackers were a minor threat at best to well-maintained + + computer systems. Furthermore, witnesses and legislators + + seemed quite cautious about targeting only truly malicious + + criminals -- those who intended damage or sought financial + + gain -- rather than the merely mischievous. + + The primary thrust of this legislation was economic; it + + was to provide prosecutors the means to pursue white-collar + + criminals, usually insiders, whose crimes were strictly + + financial in nature. These laws ultimately had little to do + + with the hacker subculture and certainly did not call for a + + wholesale persecution of hackers. + + Nonetheless, the hearings did demonstrate a fear of + + computers and of hackers. The "hacker problem" was often + + exaggerated, and legislators tended to focus more upon the + + + 116 + + + + + + + mysterious technology rather than the act itself. This may + + explain why it was felt prosecutors needed new laws + + explicitly covering computer crime despite the fact that + + they had evidently not had great difficulty prosecuting + + computer criminals under the old laws. + + Perhaps because the 1984 and 1986 laws were narrowly + + tailored to apply to computer criminals, Congress apparently + + did not perceive a First Amendment concern connected with + + computer communication. There did appear to be a + + recognition among some legislators and experts that the + + field was complicated, and that the question of placing + + monetary value upon information was a tricky one. But the + + First Amendment did not itself appear to be implicated. + + That Congress failed to consider the First Amendment may + + have contributed to subsequent problems, because prosecutors + + and courts were left with no clear idea of legislative + + intent in that area. Furthermore, although Congress was + + concerned with computer crime rather than speech, its + + emphasis upon the technology of an act (the computer) rather + + than upon the act itself may be symptomatic of the same + + conceptual problems facing computer communication. By + + singling out computers for special legal treatment, even + + though the crime may be the same as one committed with a pen + + and paper, Congress has set a precedent that could deny + + computer-based communication the constitutional protection + + other media receive. + + + + + 117 + + + + + + + Law Enforcement Law Enforcement Law Enforcement + + The early role of law enforcement agencies was largely to + + tell Congress what it wanted to hear: that it would be happy + + to have a new weapon to use in the fight against white- + + collar crime. But enforcers were chiefly concerned with + + financial crimes such as embezzlement and fraud, crimes + + committed almost universally by "insiders" rather than + + hackers. It is also significant that despite their + + willingness to add another statute to their arsenal, + + enforcers generally reported universal success in + + prosecuting computer crime under existing laws. + + Armed with the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer + + Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 and the Computer Fraud and Abuse + + Act of 1986, however, law enforcement agencies in the United + + States -- particularly the Secret Service -- apparently + + interpreted these laws as a mandate to eradicate computer + + hackers of every stripe. The sweeping crackdown of + + Operation Sun Devil and particularly the cases of Craig + + Neidorf and Steve Jackson Games suggest that in their zeal + + to root out the Legion of Doom, enforcers may have taken + + their authority beyond what Congress intended or the + + Constitution should allow. + + The actions of law enforcers during the events of 1990 + + again reveal a basic fear and misunderstanding of computers + + and computer hackers. This fear is almost certainly a + + result of simple ignorance. Familiarity with computers and + + network technology reveals material such as the E911 file, + + + 118 + + + + + + + GURPS Cyberpunk or Loyd Blankenship's comments about the + + Kermit protocol to be harmless. Yet the Secret Service + + evidently believed each of these to be dangerous -- and in + + the case of the E911 file and Blankenship's Kermit comments, + + these beliefs led the agency to take disruptive action that + + deprived Craig Neidorf and Steve Jackson of their rights. + + However, despite the sinister images painted by some in + + the computer underground, law enforcement agencies such as + + the Secret Service have acted not out of any desire to + + abridge First Amendment rights, but out of ignorance. The + + errors made by the agents who raided Steve Jackson Games, + + like the confusion of the FBI agent who visited John Perry + + Barlow, are indeed "in microcosm, the entire law enforcement + + structure of the United States" -- they are struggling to + + enforce laws regarding a technology that is, by and large, + + alien to them. Where they have overreacted with + + exaggeration and fear, it is ultimately because they do not + + understand. + + + + Electronic Frontier Foundation Electronic Frontier Foundation Electronic Frontier Foundation + + The Electronic Frontier Foundation, then, appears to be + + on the right track with its stated goals to "engage in and + + support educational activities that increase popular + + understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by + + computing and telecommunications" and "develop among policy- + + makers a clear understanding of the issues underlying free + + + + + 119 + + + + + + + and open telecommunications."1 While coming to the legal + + defense of people like Craig Neidorf and Steve Jackson is a + + worthy goal -- and probably necessary if formal legal + + safeguards are to be put in place -- such legal struggles + + cannot alone solve the underlying problem. + + Indeed, the EFF's most important role in 1990 may have + + been that of educator and consciousness-raiser rather than + + litigator, as some of its legal arguments in the Neidorf + + case left something to desired. For instance, its amicus + + brief asserted without support that information-gathering + + activity (such as Neidorf's receipt of the E911 file) enjoys + + the same First Amendment status as publication, a suggestion + + that would make a sweeping change in First Amendment law. A + + long list of cases (chiefly Branzburg v. Hayes2 and Zemel v. + + Rusk3) shows that information gathering has never received + + + + + + 1"Goals of the Electronic Frontier Foundation," Effector, + Sept. 1991, at 4. + + 2"It is clear that the First Amendment does not + invalidate every incidental burdening of the press that may + result from the enforcement of civil or criminal statutes of + general applicability." 408 U.S. 665, 682 (1971) (opinion of + Justice White). + + 3"There are few restrictions on action which could not be + clothed by ingenious argument in the garb of decreased data + flow. For example, the prohibition of unauthorized entry + into the White House diminishes the citizen's opportunities + to gather information he might find relevant to his opinion + of the way the country is being run but that does not make + entry into the White House a First Amendment right. The + right to speak and publish does not carry with it the + unrestrained right to gather information." 381 U.S. 1, 16-17 + (1964). + + + 120 + + + + + + + the First Amendment protection given to publication. + + Equally questionable is the EFF's reliance on Smith v. Daily + + Mail and Landmark Communications v. Virginia to support the + + requirement of an overriding governmental interest. These + + cases provide shaky support in a case such as Neidorf's, + + where the legality of the information gathering is in + + dispute, because both cases are explicitly limited to + + publication of information obtained legally.4 + + Although Neidorf was vindicated, the outcome of his case + + was not the victory sought by the EFF. Neidorf did not win + + his case by virtue of First Amendment protection, nor did he + + win it by virtue of innocence; the prosecution dropped the + + case primarily because it had received incorrect information + + from Bell South about the availability of the E911 file.5 + + The case raised questions to which it provided no answers. + + Could publication of confidential information really be + + transporting stolen goods? What liability was faced by the + + republisher of information that had been obtained illegally + + by someone else? + + + + + + 4"If the information is lawfully obtained, as it was + here, the state may not punish its publication except when + necessary to further an interest more substantial than is + present here." Smith v. Daily Mail, 443 U.S. 97 (1979) + (emphasis added); "We are not here concerned with the + possible applicability of the statute to one who secures the + information by illegal means and thereafter divulges it." + Landmark Communications v. Virginia, 435 U.S. 829 (1978). + + 5"Enforcement Questions Raised After Hacker Case + Dismissed," Washington Post, Aug. 2, 1990, at C13, col. 1. + + + 121 + + + + + + + + + Hackers Hackers Hackers + + From the very beginning, computer hackers, a group that + + shuns attention, took on a central role in the controversy + + over computer security. At first, their role was mainly + + that of catalyst. The exploits of fictional hacker David + + Lightman in WarGames, given an air of authenticity by the + + subsequent arrests of the 414s, called public attention to + + the problems of computer security and the vulnerability of a + + computer-dependent society. A few hackers, such as Neal + + Patrick of the 414s, did play a direct role in the early + + policymaking process by testifying before Congressional + + committees. But such testimony -- which attempted to calm + + the hysteria by downplaying the danger and mystery of + + hacking -- had less of an effect on Congressional attitudes + + than did the perceived threat of an "electronic Messiah" or + + a "WarGames scenario." + + Later, it became clear that hackers, like the other + + players in this process, do have an agenda. Actions such as + + Craig Neidorf's redistribution of the E911 file are not + + mindless vandalism, but are part of the hacker quest for a + + sort of ultimate "freedom of information," part of Levy's + + "Hacker Ethic." Neidorf did not stand to gain anything + + personally -- except perhaps an enhanced reputation among + + hackers -- from his actions. He sought merely to further + + the goals of decentralization and shared information. + + Whether or not these goals are wise, their advocacy is a + + + 122 + + + + + + + position entitled to the opportunity to compete in the + + marketplace of ideas. Neidorf's alleged advocacy of hacking + + in Phrack was not in furtherance of any scheme to defraud, + + as the government alleged; it was in pursuit of political, + + social and economic change, based on the belief that all + + information should be free. Brandenburg v. Ohio explicitly + + affirmed that the First Amendment does not permit government + + to forbid advocacy even of violence to effect social + + change.6 Can the government forbid advocacy of unauthorized + + access to computers in pursuit of such goals? + + + + The Courts The Courts The Courts + + Although courts will likely have a strong influence upon + + the formation of policy regarding the freedom of computer- + + based communication -- as they have for other media -- the + + events of 1990 do not provide an adequate sample by which to + + judge what this influence will be. The only judicial + + opinion addressing the First Amendment issues connected to + + the Secret Service's hacker crackdown was that of Judge Bua + + in the Neidorf case, an opinion in which the First Amendment + + questions were sidestepped. Because a trial court's opinion + + carries no precedential weight and the subsequent dropping + + of the charges against Neidorf left no opportunity for + + + + + + + + 6395 U.S. 444, 447-448 (1969). + + + 123 + + + + + + + appeal, the courts have yet to speak decisively in this + + matter. + + + + Recent Developments Recent Developments Recent Developments + + Two recent events may have significant implications for + + the future of computer-communication law. On May 1, 1991, + + Steve Jackson Games and the Electronic Frontier Foundation + + filed a lawsuit against the United States Secret Service, + + citing, among other offenses, violations of the First and + + Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.7 The First Amendment + + charges were based upon the prior restraint that resulted + + from the confiscation of the GURPS Cyberpunk materials and + + from the seizure of SJG's BBS system. Among many other + + charges, the lawsuit alleges that the Secret Service's + + affidavit was invalid because it swept within its scope + + numerous forms of First-Amendment-protected expression. + + Perhaps most significantly, the lawsuit specifically + + includes in that category "a BBS that was a forum for speech + + and association protected by the First Amendment."8 + + The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the + + western district of Texas, was hailed by EFF attorney Mike + + Godwin as "the most important case brought to date to + + + + + 7Electronic Frontier Foundation, Press Release, May 1, + 1991. + + 8Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial, Steve Jackson Games + Inc. et al. v. U.S. Secret Service et al., U.S. District + Court, Western District of Texas, Austin Division. + + + 124 + + + + + + + vindicate the Constitutional rights of the users of + + computer-based communication technology."9 The SJG lawsuit + + may succeed where the Neidorf trial failed: It may provide + + the watershed case in which a court could define the First + + Amendment's applicability to computer-based communication. + + In an unrelated case, on October 29, 1991, the U.S. + + District Court for the Southern District of New York handed + + down a ruling that may prove to be a significant development + + in the law regarding computer communication. In Cubby v. + + CompuServe, Inc.,10 Judge Peter K. Leisure dismissed a libel + + suit against the CompuServe information service regarding + + allegedly defamatory statements posted in one of its many + + forums, tackling the sticky question of sysop liability: + + The requirement that a distributor must have + knowledge of the contents of a publication before + liability can be imposed for distributing that + publication is deeply rooted in the First + Amendment.... + While CompuServe may decline to carry a given + publication altogether, in reality, once it does + decide to carry a publication, it will have little + or no editorial control over that publication's + contents.... + CompuServe has no more editorial control over + such a publication than does a public library, + book store, or newsstand, and it would be no more + feasible for CompuServe to examine every + publication it carries for potentially defamatory + statements than it would be for any other + distributor to do so.11 + + + + + 9Press Release, supra note 7. + + 101991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15545 (unreported as of November + 1991, retrieved from the LEXIS online database). + + 11Id. at 9-11. + + + 125 + + + + + + + Judge Leisure's reliance upon the First Amendment seems a + + clearer affirmation than ever that the First Amendment + + applies unequivocally to computer-based media (though it + + remains unclear which existing model, if any, is the best + + fit). The decision seems to adopt the "knowing" test for + + sysop liability: that the sysop can only be held responsible + + if he is aware, or could reasonably be expected to be aware, + + of the defamatory material. + + + + The Direction of the Law The Direction of the Law The Direction of the Law + + Concerns over the First Amendment rights of computer + + communicators are legitimate. But the overall direction of + + the law leaves room for optimism. The Secret Service's + + crackdown on hackers in 1990 served to bring the questions + + of free speech and computer media into the public eye, and + + it was directly responsible for the creation of the + + Electronic Frontier Foundation. Although individuals such + + as Steve Jackson and Craig Neidorf may have been injured by + + the persecution they endured, their cases demonstrated the + + need for greater understanding of computers and computer- + + based communication. The controversies of 1990 have + + ensured that the formation of policy regarding computer + + communication will receive the attention it deserves from + + not only special-interest groups like the Electronic + + Frontier Foundation, but from the mainstream legal community + + as well. Noted constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe has + + + + + 126 + + + + + + + gone so far as to propose a constitutional amendment + + explicitly protecting computer communication: + + If my own life as a lawyer and legal scholar + could leave just one legacy, I'd like it to be the + recognition that the Constitution as a whole + "protects people, not places." If that is to come + about, the Constitution as a whole must be read + through a technologically transparent lens. That + is, we must embrace, as a rule of construction or + interpretation, a principle one might call the + "cyberspace corollary." It would make a suitable + Twenty-seventh Amendment to the Constitution, one + befitting the 200th anniversary of the Bill of + Rights.... + The Twenty-seventh Amendment, to be proposed + for at least serious debate in 1991, would read + simply: + "This Constitution's protections for the + freedoms of speech, press, petition, and assembly, + and its protections against unreasonable searches + and seizures and the deprivation of life, liberty, + or property without due process of law, shall be + construed as fully applicable without regard to + the technological method or medium through which + information content is generated, stored, altered, + transmitted, or controlled."12 + + Such a proposal, along with recent events such as Cubby + + v. CompuServe and the potential of Steve Jackson Games v. + + United States Secret Service, show that some of the + + strongest regulatory players may be on the side of freedom + + in cyberspace. + + + + + + + + + + + + + 12L. Tribe, "The Constitution in Cyberspace," prepared + remarks, keynote address at the First Conference on + Computer, Freedom and Privacy, Mar. 26, 1991. + + + 127 + + + + + + + BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + + Books Books Books + + De Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom (1983) + + Krasnow, Longley, and Terry, The Politics of Broadcast + Regulation (3d. ed. 1982). + + Levy, Hackers (Paperback ed. 1984). + + Freedman, The Computer Glossary (4th ed. 1989) + + Hafner and Markoff, Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the + Computer Frontier (1991). + + Dvorak and Anis, Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications + (1990). + + + + Magazine Articles Magazine Articles Magazine Articles + + Costikyan, "Closing the Net," Reason, Jan. 1991, at 22. + + Kapor, "Civil Liberties in Cyberspace," Scientific American, + Sept. 1991, at 116. + + Barlow, "Crime and Puzzlement," Whole Earth Review, Fall + 1990, at 45. + + + + Law Review Articles Law Review Articles Law Review Articles + + R. Neustadt, G. Skall, M. Hammer, "The Regulation of + Electronic Publishing," 33 Fed. Comm. L.J. 331 (1981). + + K. Uyehara, "Computer Bulletin Boards: Let the Operator + Beware," 14 Student Lawyer, April 1986, at 30. + + M. E. Katsh, "The First Amendment and Technological Change: + The New Media Have a Message," 57 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1459 + (1989). + + R. Charles, "Computer Bulletin Boards and Defamation: Who + Should Be Liable? Under What Standard?" 2 J. of Law and + Technology, Winter 1987, at 121. + + E. Jensen, "An Electronic Soapbox: Computer Bulletin Boards + and the First Amendment," 39 Fed. Comm. L.J. 217 (1987). + + + + + + E. Di Cato, "Operator Liability Associated With Maintaining + a Computer Bulletin Board," 4 Software L.J. 147 (1990). + + J. Soma, P. Smith, R. Sprague, "Legal Analysis of Electronic + Bulletin Board Activities," 7 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 571 + (1985). + + R. Beall, "Developing a Coherent Approach to the Regulation + of Computer Bulletin Boards," 7 Computer/Law Journal 499 + (1987). + + J. Hurwitz, "Teletext and the FCC: Turning the Content + Regulatory Clock Backwards," 64 Boston Univ. L. Rev. 1057 + (1984). + + R. Hindman, "The Diversity Principle and the MFJ Information + Services Restriction: Applying Time-Worn First Amendment + Assumptions to New Technologies," 38 Catholic Univ. L. + Rev. 471 (1989). + + L. Becker, "Electronic Publishing: First Amendment Issues in + the Twenty-First Century," 13 Fordham Urban L.J. 801 + (1985). + + + + Congressional Hearings and Reports Congressional Hearings and Reports Congressional Hearings and Reports + + Computer and Communications Security and Privacy: Hearings + Before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation and + Materials of the Committee on Science and Technology, + House of Representatives, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. (1983). + + Computer and Communications Security and Privacy: Report + Prepared by the Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation + and Materials, Transmitted to the Committee on Science + and Technology, House of Representatives, 98th Cong., 2d + Sess. (1984). + + Computer Crime: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Civil and + Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, + House of Representatives, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. (1983). + + Computer Fraud Legislation: Hearing Before the Subcommittee + on Criminal Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. + Senate, 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (1985). + + Health and the Environment Miscellaneous -- Part 4: Hearings + Before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of + the Committee of Energy and Commerce, House of + Representatives, 98th Cong. (1984). + + Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: + Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Crime of the + + + 129 + + + + + + Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, + 98th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess. (1983-84). + + Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986: Hearing Before the + Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 99th Cong., 2d + Sess. (1986). + + Use of Computers to Transmit Material Inciting Crime: + Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism + of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, + 99th Cong., 1st Sess. (1985). + + + + Cases Cases Cases + + U.S. v. Riggs, 739 F.Supp. 414 (N.D. Ill. 1990). + + U.S. v. Riggs, 743 F.Supp. 556 (N.D. Ill. 1990). + + + + Online Sources Online Sources Online Sources + + Jargon File version 2.9.6 (Aug. 16, 1991), distributed via + the Internet. + + G. Spafford, What Is Usenet? (Sept. 9, 1991), distributed + via Usenet. + + Computer Underground Digest, published every two to three + weeks via Usenet. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 130 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/free-trd.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/free-trd.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..764ffb77 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/free-trd.txt @@ -0,0 +1,193 @@ +FREE TRADE VERSUS PROTECTIONISM + +By RICHARD M. EBELING + +A specter is haunting the economies of the world. It is the +specter of protectionism. In one country after the other, +cries are heard that international trade, rather than bringing +mutual prosperity, imposes economic hardship on some nations +so that others may gain. Trading practices among nations are +declared to be "unfair." Jobs are supposedly lost through +"cheap" imports flooding domestic markets. Balance of trade +deficits threaten the financial stability of not only third- +world countries, but the United States as well. + +And the solutions proposed are the same everywhere: demands +are made for the imposition or stiffening of trade +restrictions--the raising of barriers in the path of trade +among nations. It is claimed that limitations on amounts of +foreign supplies entering the domestic market, through either +tariffs that make foreign goods more costly or quotas that +prohibit the quantities which may be imported, will increase +the market share of domestic companies as well as enhance +employment opportunities at home. + +The reasoning seems straightforward and sensible. However, it +suffers from one handicap: It is dead wrong! When implemented, +protectionist policies bring economic harm, as well as lower +standards of living, for the people of every nation choosing +to follow this path. + +If the protectionist argument is correct, that buying Japanese +goods, for example, is harmful to American industry and jobs +as a whole, then the same logic would have to imply that +importing New Mexico goods is harmful to Texas industry and +jobs; and that buying Fort Worth goods is harmful to Dallas +industry and jobs. Why does the Japanese-U.S. argument seem +plausible, while the Fort Worth-Dallas argument appears +suspect? Because people still suffer from the tribal notion +that suggests that the accident of a political boundary across +the face of a map must imply antagonism between the human +beings who live on different sides of that boundary. + +International trade is nothing more than an extension of the +social division of labor across national borders. And the same +advantages that arise from a division of labor between members +of the same nation apply among members of different nations. +It enables a specialization of skills and abilities, with each +member of the world economic community tending to specialize +in that line of production in which he has a comparative +advantage (a relative superiority) in relation to his trading +neighbors. + +Through such a division of tasks and activities, the wealth +and prosperity of every nation is increased, as compared to a +situation in which individuals or nations are required to +obtain what they desire through their own efforts, in economic +isolation from their fellow men. + +But what of the particular charges presently leveled against +our foreign trading partners? What about the detrimental +effects which supposedly result from the trading policies of +other nations? Let us examine some of these charges: + +1. Unfair Trading Practices. A number of nations have been +accused of unfairly subsidizing the export of goods to +America, i.e., at prices which are below their "actual" cost +of production. + +The world is going through a dramatic technological and +economic revolution, with many underdeveloped nations finally +entering the industrialized era. Their lower prices often +merely reflect their lower costs of production, as they shift +into positions in the international division of labor which +reflect those areas where their relative economic efficiencies +are greatest. As these nations sell more in the United States, +they earn the purchasing power to buy more from America. +American exports, therefore, increase because the only way for +foreigners to buy more from Americans is for Americans to sell +more to foreigners. + +To the extent that foreign governments do subsidize some +products sold in the U.S., this means that Americans are able +to buy them below what would have otherwise been the market +price. In other words, we are given a bargain, a bargain that +saves us resources that would have been devoted to the making +of more products to pay for what otherwise would have been +higher-priced imports. And these resources are now available +to make other things that we would not have been able to +produce without this bargain. It is the citizens of those +other nations who should be outraged since they, not us, have +to foot the tax bill to pay for the subsidies. + +2. Foreign Products Cause Loss of Jobs. The charge is made +that the sale of foreign goods in America "steals" markets +away from American companies, with a resulting loss of jobs in +America. + +This argument ignores the fact that these foreign goods must +be paid for. It is true that jobs in those sectors of the +economy which directly compete against certain foreign +products may be lost. But other jobs are created in those +industries which manufacture goods which foreigners are +interested in purchasing from Americans. The sale of foreign +goods in America may change the locale and types of +employments in the U.S., but it need not result, over time, in +any net loss of jobs. + +Furthermore, with free trade, Americans end up spending less +of their income on certain products because they are bought +more cheaply from foreign suppliers. This leaves them with +extra dollars by which they are able to increase their demand +for other goods on the market. The net effect, therefore, is +to stimulate even more employment opportunities than +previously existed. + +3. The Balance of Trade Deficit and Foreign Investment. The +leading issue during the last several years has been the +charge that America buys more abroad than it sells, resulting +in a trade deficit that threatens the economic stability of +the United States. + +It is true that in terms of tangible or visible goods, the +U.S. has been buying more than it has sold. But this overlooks +the overall trade "balance sheet." Instead of buying American +commodities with the dollars they have earned, foreign earners +of dollars have returned some of them to America in the form +of savings in the credit markets, or as direct investment in +U.S. industry. The overall balance of payments between the +United States and the rest of the world has balanced. + +When this is pointed out, the concern expressed is that +foreigners are "buying up America." "They" will control "us." +Actually, however, when the foreign investment is "indirect," +i.e., loaned to Americans through the banking system, this +merely increases the pool of savings in the United States; and +this pool of savings is available to domestic businessmen who +desire to expand or improve their plant and equipment. If +wisely used, the money borrowed will be paid back, with +interest. And, in a few years, the productive capital in +America will be greater and more efficient. Industry will +still be in "our" hands. + +But what if the investment is direct? Won't foreigners +"control" America by buying out existing companies or starting +up new businesses which successfully compete against American- +owned firms? Again, this reflects the collectivist notions of +past ages, notions which think of those who belong to other +nations--"tribes"--as inherently dangerous enemies. + +But those of other nations who invest in America are actually +"our" captives--if one wishes to use this form of reasoning. +They have invested their savings in America because it has +offered the most attractive economic and political +environment. Their own fortunes and futures are linked to +continuing American prosperity; and they must manage their +investments in judicious, market-oriented directions if they +are to generate the profits for which they hope. + +But what if "they" pulled out? Would that not hurt "us" by +disrupting "our" economy? In such a case, the physical plant +and equipment remain in America. To "pull out," they would +have to find willing buyers. And to do that, they would have +to offer attractive prices to prospective buyers. And they +would only want to sell out if either the political or +economic climate in the U.S. became less attractive as +compared to other countries. But are these not the same +incentives and motives which guide Americans who invest and +save in New York rather than California, or in the U.S. rather +than some other country? + +While there will always be necessary adjustments to new and +changing circumstances, free trade between nations ultimately +benefits all who participate. Protectionism can only lead us +down a road of impoverishment and international commercial +tensions. To paraphrase the great 18th century, free-market +thinker, David Hume, when he criticized the protectionists of +his time: Not only as a man, but as an American, I pray for +the flourishing commerce of Germany, France, England and even +Japan. Why? Because America's prosperity and economic future +are dependent upon the economic prosperity of all of those +with whom it trades in the international division of labor. + +Professor Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of +Economics at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, and also +serves as vice-president of academic affairs for The Future of +Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the January 1991 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1991, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/freedom1.asc b/textfiles.com/politics/freedom1.asc new file mode 100644 index 00000000..49efac68 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/freedom1.asc @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ + + + + + (word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) + Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 + Sponsored by Vangard Sciences + PO BOX 1031 + Mesquite, TX 75150 + + There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS + on duplicating, publishing or distributing the + files on KeelyNet! + + December 7, 1990 + + Freedom1.ASC + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Freedom and a Piece of String + + by Conyers Read + + As I grow old, I decide not to bother about things I can do nothing + about. + + When I was young I spent much time in search of the KEY which would + UNLOCK ALL DOORS. I never found it and have given up looking for + it. + + I do no regret the search. It brought me into close aquaintance + with a large company of good and great men and women. But, so far + as I am concerned, I find it more fruitful to direct my attention to + those elements in this mysterious world around us which are, or may + be, subject to human control, those elements in which the creative + force is the MIND OF MAN. + + There, if anywhere on this earth, lies the hope of the future. For + that reason, I believe, first of all, that IT IS OUR BUSINESS to + provide an environment in which the mind of man can enjoy the + MAXIMUM amount of FREEDOM to THINK, to EXCHANGE THOUGHTS with his + fellows, to produce the BEST THAT IS IN HIM. + + I admit no distinction between the WHITE mind and the BLACK mind, or + the YELLOW mind or the BROWN mind, or the mind MALE or the mind + FEMALE. + + Wherever there is a mind there is the POTENTIAL of great and good + things. + + Freedom of the mind I put first of all. But I recognize that men + live together in society and that social obligations transcend + individual interests. + + No one man's freedom can be ALLOWED AT THE EXPENSE OF ANOTHER man's + freedom. What we have to aim at is the MAXIMUM OF INDIVIDUAL + FREEDOM consistent with the larger social interest. + + I believe that the finest exercise of freedom is IN THE SERVICE OF + ONE'S FELLOW MAN. + + I believe that we spend too much of our leisure WATCHING OTHER + + Page 1 + + + + + + PEOPLE WORK AND PLAY, at the ball parks, in the theater, on the + screen. + + In my opinion, the major satisfactions of life proceed from the + EXERCISE OF OUR OWN CREATIVE IMPULSES. + + For this reason I regret the increasing REGIMENTATION AND + MECHANIZATION OF LIFE as a MENACE TO HUMAN GROWTH. + + It seems to me, as I look back upon my own boyhood, that I got more + fun out of a piece of string than my grandchildren get out of their + more elaborate and much more expensive gadgets. You can really do + things with a piece of string. + + I believe in DEVOTION TO CAUSES outside ourselves and in the service + of which we are cheerfully ready to sacrifice our individual + welfare. + + This, in its highest form becomes religion, though many men find + their God in strange places and in strange company. + + I believe that immortality will be measured in terms of what, + through OUR OWN WORKS or OUR OWN INFLUENCE, we pass on to those who + follow us. + + I believe that there are standards of right and wrong, though I + think these standards are too often confused with what is socially + proper or socially expedient. I believe that these standards can be + and should be defined. + + I regard it as one of the important FUNCTIONS of educators, from the + PULPIT, in the CLASSROOM and ON THE AIR, to PRESENT, EXPLAIN and + SUPPORT THESE STANDARDS. + + I believe that a life lived in accordance with these standards will + be a happy and a fruitful life. + + "It is not LIFE that matters, but the COURAGE we bring to it." + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + If you have comments or other information relating to such topics + as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the + Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. + Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. + + Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson + Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + If we can be of service, you may contact + Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + + + Page 2 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/freetrd2.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/freetrd2.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fc9a2195 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/freetrd2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,185 @@ +A CAPITALIST LOOKS AT FREE TRADE + +By WILLIAM L. LAW + + +Protectionists seeking relief from the rigors of foreign +competition bring to mind Milton Friedman's dictum, "The great +enemies of free enterprise are businessmen and intellectuals-- +businessmen because they want socialism for themselves and +free enterprise for everyone else; intellectuals, because they +want free enterprise for themselves and socialism for everyone +else." + +I speak from personal experience. Baseball-glove leather was +the principal product of our firm until 1957 when ball gloves +of Japanese manufacture appeared and ultimately gained seventy +percent of the United States' market. Today, we tan no +baseball-glove leather. Sentiment in the ball-glove industry +at that time was very strong for protective action. I +investigated the matter in some depth and found that I could +not in good faith urge protectionist action on my political +representatives; such action would have been wrong +economically, politically and morally. + +My sentiments stem from the fact that I look upon myself not +as a tanner whose product is leather, but as a capitalist +whose product is profit. That climate most beneficial to +capitalists--and to workers--is one in which there exists a +minimum of governmental interference. + +The protectionist argument is almost as widespread today as it +was two hundred years ago when Adam Smith in his treatise An +Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations so +brilliantly demonstrated its fallacies. Fortunately, we have +the work of Smith and his many successors, plus the empirical +lessons on the benefits of free trade--our fifty states united +in one common market are a notable example--to demonstrate the +advantages of free exchange. + +No improvement can be made on Smith's understanding: + + It is the highest impertinence of kings and + ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of + private people, and to restrain their expense, either + by sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation + of foreign luxuries. They are themselves always, and + without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in + society. Let them look well after their own expense, + and they may safely trust private people with theirs. + If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, + that of their subjects never will. . . . + + To give the monopoly of the home market to the + produce of domestic industry . . . must, in almost + all cases be either a useless or a hurtful regulation. + If the produce of domestic industry can be bought + there as cheap as that of foreign industry, the + regulation is evidently useless. If it cannot, it + must generally be hurtful. + + It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, + never to attempt to make at home what it will cost + him more to make than to buy. The tailor does not + attempt to make his own shoes, but buys them of a + shoemaker. The shoemaker does not attempt to make his + own clothes, but employs a tailor. The farmer attempts + to make neither the one nor the other, but employs + those different artificers. All of them find it in + their interests to employ their whole industry in a way + in which they have some advantage over their neighbors, + and to purchase with a part of its produce, or what is + the same thing, with the price of a part of it, whatever + else they have occasion for. What is prudence in the + conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in + that of a great kingdom. . . . + + That it was the spirit of monopoly which originally + both invented and propagated this [protectionist] + doctrine cannot be doubted; and they who first taught + it were by no means such fools as they who believed it. + In every country it always is and must be the interest + of the great body of the people to buy whatever they + want of those who sell it cheapest. The proposition is + so very manifest, that it seems ridiculous to take any + pains to prove it; nor could it ever have been called + in question had not the interested sophistry of + merchants and manufacturers confounded the common sense + of mankind. + +The "sophistry" of which Smith speaks is in essence that being +advanced today by protectionists: "The U.S. is a high-wage +country; its industry is unable to compete with that in low- +wage countries; imports are increasing, and unless remedial +measures are adopted, our industries will be destroyed and +large-scale unemployment will ensue." + +But fortunately, we have the the rationale and arguments for +free trade. + +We trade to obtain goods that are either unobtainable +domestically, such as chrome ore, diamonds, and teak wood, or +that can be obtained more cheaply abroad, such as baseball +gloves or textiles. + +And free trade raises wages! Trade between individuals, +between states, between nations is beneficial, and far from +reducing the living standards of the participants, greatly +improves them. And the country with the freest trade policy +enjoys the maximum advantage. + +I repeat: trade raises wages! Those who think otherwise fail +to understand that wages in the U.S. are the world's highest +for a reason: American industry has the world's highest +average-capital investment per worker ($125,000) and, +therefore, has the highest average productivity per worker. +And while we have high wages, because of the multiplier-- +tools, we also have low labor costs! + +Certainly, labor-intensive industries, i.e., textiles, find it +difficult to compete inside a capital-intensive country. +After all, a Chinese worker with minimal capital--a needle-- +and working for $20 a week, will produce handmade lace at a +lower cost than an American worker using the same needle and +receiving $200 a week. While their productivity will be the +same, the Chinese labor cost will be one-tenth of the U.S. +cost. + +But give the American worker a giant mechanical shovel and, at +the world's highest wage, he will produce the world's cheapest +coal. With advanced technology, workers will produce the +lowest-cost coal, wheat, jet aircraft and countless other +goods. And so, we import lace and ball gloves and petroleum, +and we export jet planes and wheat and chemicals. To attempt +to "retaliate" against lower costs in certain foreign +industries is an exercise in folly. + +Moreover, contrary to popular belief, imports don't cause +unemployment, nor do immigration or automation. Unemployment +exists only when money wages are arbitrarily raised or held +above the market price. + +The Great Depression is the classic case of "iatrogenic" +unemployment, i.e., induced by the economic doctor. For +example, when the stock market crashed in 1929, it +precipitated a deflation and concomitant lowering of all +prices. Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, believing in the so- +called "purchasing power theory," cooperated with major +industrialists and union leaders to do everything in their +power to prevent wages from falling--even though prices in +general had dropped by one-third from 1929 to 1932! The result +was that twenty-five to thirty percent of the work force was +unemployed. The situation was not ameliorated until 1941 when +the government printed massive amounts of money to support the +war effort; and instead of trying to support wages, the +government took the opposite position and introduced controls +to hold wages down. Unemployment soon disappeared and industry +expanded. + +Unfortunately, a false lesson was learned--that war is the +health of the economy. (Our current secretary of state, +justifying the military intervention in the Middle East, +reflected this when he stated, "If you want to sum it up in +one word, it's jobs.") The truth, of course, is that war is +actually the enemy of prosperity (and freedom) and that full +employment is actually the normal condition of a truly free +economy. + +Protectionism is the age-old road to reduced exports, +increased unemployment, lower standards of living, war, and so +many other problems associated with government intervention in +economic activity. Free trade, on the other hand, is the way +to increased exports, full employment, higher standards of +living, peace, and so many other benefits associated with +economic freedom. + +Mr. Law is chairman of the board of Cudahy Tanning Company in +Cudahy, Wisconsin. + + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the June 1991 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1991, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/freewill.asc b/textfiles.com/politics/freewill.asc new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5092b24c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/freewill.asc @@ -0,0 +1,528 @@ + + + + + (word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) + Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 + Sponsored by Vangard Sciences + PO BOX 1031 + Mesquite, TX 75150 + + There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS + on duplicating, publishing or distributing the + files on KeelyNet! + + February 24, 1991 + + FREEWILL.ASC + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + This file courteousy of Double Helix BBS at 212 865 7043. + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + We all seem to have the belief that we live in a world ruled by + knowledge of what is right, and that mankind, as a whole, is + advancing because of this. In other words, greater knowledge and + understanding is accumulating daily in all the disciplines of study; + we discover first the laws of physics, then we invent the airplane, + now we gain deeper insights into ourselves and the world through the + arts and humanities. + + Our civilization, now more than ever before, places a premium + on the excavation of knowledge and the means by which that knowledge + is excavated. What this all seems to imply is that this should + propel our civilization onward to a better way of living, of + governing ourselves and running our society. The more we know, and + the more we apply our ways of knowing, the more advanced we should + become. Nothing could be farther from the truth. + + The reason for this is we haven't developed a criteria for + deciding, in an objective fashion, what is *right*. The argument I + propose is that for any given situation, a set of rules can be + adopted which will determine the *proper* course of action to be + taken. If these rules, having been determined to be the best course + of action, are followed, then we can advance, if decisions are not + based on such rules, then the wrong course of action is taken, and + we fail to advance. + + The difficulty then, is in determining the proper set of rules + or criteria by which to act, while abandoning the improper ones. + Such rules will undoubtably differ depending upon the situation for + which they are formulated, but commonalities should run through all. + Civilization, as it exists today, abounds with these rules; they + tell us that nature acts in particular ways, which are seldom + violated, and that we and the systems of government which rule us + must act in particular ways, or else risk punishment or change. + + However, these laws are not used to guide us, either as + individuals, or as a society, in making decisions and determining + plans of action. + + What is used instead is the simple judgement of the individual, + or the mass judgement of many individuals in the form of a vote. It + is through these two means that our future as a civilization is + + Page 1 + + + + + determined. The problem is that we place greater faith in free will + and personal judgement when the decision is to be made by the + individual, and on the democratic process when the decision is to be + made by a group, than on the rules. + + Let us start at the level of the individual. Everyday, each of + us faces numerous decisions, some of which are of little + consequence, others which will change the course of our lives + depending on their outcome. + + How are these decisions made? Well, it appears that we think + of all the possible actions which we could take, and then evaluate + what the outcomes of these actions are. The outcomes are then + evaluated in terms of those which are most beneficial to the + organism. + + One plan may save time, another money, another effort. The + organism concludes, for example, that it would rather stick with one + of the possible plans over another because it considers its outcome + the most beneficial. + + In order to illustrate this, an example is needed. Let us + suppose that after breakfast, you consider what you plan on doing + for the day. You know that you must study, go grocery shopping, and + visit the bank, but are expecting an important call sometime late in + the morning. What should you do? + + A set of rules can be followed in such cases to make the + correct decision, if all the possibilities are specified, and the + outcomes, in terms of their beneficence to the organism are known. + If we abbreviate studying S, groceries G, and bank, B, then the + possibilities are as follows: + + Figure 1. + + possibility criteria satisfied beneficiality + (1-best, 4-worst) + + 1) SGB CE, not T............. 2 + 2) SBG CTE................... 1 + 3) GBS TE not C.............. 2 + 4) GSB neither CTE........... 4 + 5) BSG T not C or E.......... 3 + 6) BGS TE not C.............. 2 + + We next impose an order of beneficiality on the possibilities, by + forming constraints. + + The first constraint we have already mentioned, and is the + telephone call. + + The second is that going to the bank cannot be performed + last, because it closes early. + + The third is that it is a waste of both effort and gas to + leave the house, come back, and leave again. + + If these are the only constraints and possibilites, making the + correct decision becomes possible. We see that choice 2 is the best, + because you stay in to receive the call, get to the bank on time, + + Page 2 + + + + + + and waste neither gas nor effort in leaving and returning only once. + + Choices 1, 3 and 6 are second best, because in each you satisfy + two of the constraints, but not the third, time being sacrificed in + 1, and the call in 3 and 6. + + Choice 5 is third best, because only the time constraint is + satified. 4 is our worst choice; none of our constraints are + satisfied. + + If we abbreviate our 3 constraints as C for making the call, T + for having the time to get to the bank, and E for the effort, either + of car or person, then which of these possibilities satisfy which of + these constraints may be illustrated in the second column of figure + 1. + + Most people, in making such a decision would have decided which + they thought constitued the most important of the criteria, and + would have simply studied first, in giving the phone call priority, + or gone to the bank first and came back if giving this ultimate + priority. + + The point of this example is that all the criteria can be + satisfied and the best decision made if the possibilities and the + criteria are known. In other words, the more we know about these + important qualities of the decision, the better the decision we are + able to make. Obviously, as decisions become more complex, so do the + means of solving them efficiently. But this is just the point. + + Most people, in performing even the simplest of decisions, fail + to follow any such ideal process or rule, either giving one criteria + ultimate importance, or not using any criteria at all, as when + emotion or instinct form the basis for a decision. + + The way in which theories are formed in science also fail to + show any sort of systematicity, or rule-governed behavior. This is + especially intriguing, because it is the job of the sciences to + describe nature according to these very principles. + + Scientific theories have traditionally been either accepted or + rejected on the basis of inductionism and falsificationism. + Inductionism is the process of reasoning from particular empirical + results to more abstract, generalized ones. Falsificationism is the + process of rejecting theories by proving them wrong, also only on + the basis of empirical evidence. + + Pursuing science in accordance with inductivism is profoundly + damaging in that it leads to the acquisition of vast amounts of + observational and experimental data devoid of any theoretical + interest or importance, while falsificationism, because it only + allows empirical evidence as grounds for falsifying a theory, + excludes all non-empirical means, such as philosophical, + metaphysical and methodological considerations from science. + + (see Maxwell, 1976 and 1984, for a complete criticism of + these methodologies and of the way in which science is + conducted, also see Kuhn, 19?? for a good discussion of + scientific progress) + + + Page 3 + + + + + + Other problems exist in the sciences. One is that in trying to + explain their field of study, scientists often fail to address large + issues. After tackling a smaller problem in the field which they + hope will shed light on the larger issues, they often become + absorbed by these smaller issues, failing to relate them to the + general issues of the field as a whole. This results in a + fragmentation, in which scientists end up formulating models for + particular phenomenon, without regard to the functioning of these + phenomenon in relation to the larger systems of which they are a + part, and the other systems with which they must interact. + + Even worse, scientists have, in the past, decided the course + with which science progresses through personal choice and + popularity. A new theory, even a good one, is always slow in being + accepted by the scientific community. + + Frequently, older theories will continue to be relied on, even + though newer, competing ones can better explain the data. A case in + point is the development of Einsteinian physics during the early + part of the 20th century. + + Einstein's theories were scoffed at initially, because they + were so different, but were eventually accepted because they were + better able to explain the physical phenomenon. One wonders what + would have occurred had the opinion of the scientific community been + less in his favor. Thus we see that a true theory may die, because + the scientific community as a whole, votes to support a different + one. + + This method of 'voting', where the majority of people favoring + one issue decide the outcome in favor of that issue, constitutes the + second means by which decisions are usually made. Individual + scientists, in making their own decisions as to which theory they + favor, may decide its future. Those with the greatest reputations + play a greater stake in this, but the overall number in each of the + opposing camps is just as important. + + We have already seen that individuals are usually incapable of + making correct decisions, because they fail to take into account all + of the information, as well as the pros and cons of each piece of + information, in order to perform the appropriate evaluations and + conclusions. Are we to let science be run by the whims and decisions + of a few people? + + If one person is unlikely to make a correct decision, then + increasing the number of people having to make the decision does + nothing to increase the likelihood that the correct decision will be + made, because more people will make correct decisions, but the + number of people making incorrect decisions also increases, with the + net result no more appoximating the truth. + + In fact, the situation is made even worse when a number of + people together vote on an issue by taking sides, because many + individuals become swayed by the opinions of others. + + This process of voting to make decisions is hardly limited to + the realm of science. We see it everywhere. In the legal system, a + person is proven innocent or guilty by a jury of 12 men and women, + where the sum of their decisions determine the verdict. + + Page 4 + + + + + + In government elections, the sum of the decisions by the people + determine who will run the country. In all these cases, decisions + are made subjectively, through the pooled opinions and decisions of + the many. + + Clearly, something should be done about how decisions are made, + such that mankind may benefit and progress. If we have learned + anything at all in this information age, it should be how to use the + vast amounts of information and problem-solving skills we have + acquired, and apply them to these decision making processes. It is + the decisions which we, as people, make which determine our lives + and whether or not we ultimately progress as a civilization. + + Therefore, what I propose is that we develop methods of + decision making which will permit us to overcome these inadequacies. + + To begin, personal decision-making could benefit from early + instruction. Different methods of problem-solving could be taught to + children and then practiced on in-class examples. In this way, more + objective and logical evaluation skills could be learned and + engrained early on, so that as adults, such thinking would come more + easily. + + Such training might emphasize the ways in which emotions might + interfere with, or cloud our decisions, and ways in which to be + aware of, and prevent such interference. Too often, the curricula + in our schools emphasize the memorization of facts over the training + of analytic and critical thinking. + + Also, there have been proposed new methodological means for how + science should go about its business. Dobson and Rose (1984) + elaborate on a model which eliminates many of the previously + mentioned problems of scientific advancement. Their proposal + consists of the following stages: + + 1) Define the problem or phenomenon to be studied. If we are + interested in studying the visual cortex, then a complete + definition of what the visual cortex is and does, as well as + its relations with other brain areas, needs to be accounted + for. This all-inclusive definition must be agreed to by all + those studying it. + + 2) Formulate an exhaustive range of functional theories to + explain the phenomenon in question. Since all possible + models should be built and tested, we need a way to prevent + the numbers of these models from becoming infinitely large. + + 3) Discriminate among models starting first at the highest, or + most abstract, level of explanation, and then work downwards + on more specific models. For example, one theory might + explain very well how we perceive a number of visual + illusions, but less well the more general phenomenon of the + visual cortex, such as pattern recognition, locomotion, etc. + + 4) After finding out which low-level specialized models are + successful and which are not, the merits of higher-level + solutions can be assessed and appraised. In this way, the + success of more specific models can serve as feedback to + determine which of the higher level models are best. This + + Page 5 + + + + + + stage alone can eliminate the tendency for scientists to + become focused on smaller issues. + + Through this process, we will eventually come to one or a few + models which will best describe the phenomenon in question. Theories + at any level in this process can be evaluated against each other + according to a number of criteria: + + 1) Efficiency - again, sticking with the example of the visual + cortex, the most efficient model would be one which would + require a minimum amount of information processing, + biochemical energy required to work it, and amount of gene + space demanded to reproduce it. + + 2) Reliability - how well does the model function in the face + of adverse, or difficult conditions? Here, we could build a + connectionist model, introduce random informational 'noise' + into the inputs or circuitry and then measure the extent to + which the model's ability to perform its overall function + deteriorates. + + 3) Simplicity - models should be no more complicated than + neccesary. A model with fewer parameters should be favored + over one with more. + + 4) Developmental coherence - can the system develop from + previous stages? This is especially important when the + theory is driven from an evolutionary or developmental + standpoint. + + 5) Working coherence - do the subsystems which compromise the + system work cooperatively, or 'pull in different + directions'? + + 6) Logical coherence - does the sytem function in the same + metaphysical state as other models of related systems? For + example, does this model of visual processing work according + to the same fundamental principles as the similiar model + which specifies auditory processing? + + 7) Completeness - how much of the phenomenon in question does + the model cover? It can explain orientation selectivity, + sure, but can it explain spatial frequency selectivity, + aftereffects, etc. + + 8) Empirical evidence - does the evidence obtained from + experimental work support the theory? + + Thus we see that there do exist models for systematically + determining choices. Of course even these models in no sense permit + us to come up with the *right* choice, but they do enable us to more + closely approximate the truth, and in reaching a decision which is + certainly more *correct* than those obtained through individual + choice or votes. + + The idea here is that we can come up with working models, which + can themselves later be modified after we have learned more about + them through use. These models may differ, depending upon their + application. + + Page 6 + + + + + For example, the methods for making personal decisions, + deciding among scientific theories, determining guilt or innocence, + electing government officials, running the government itself etc., + will all differ, although they should contain some common elements. + We have already seen that the following principles will play an + important role: + + 1) Define the problem - if all that is needed is the + performance of 3 tasks, as in the personal decision problem + given at the outset of this paper, then the tasks themselves + define the problem. In trying to discover how the visual + cortex functions, though, defining the problem space is much + more difficult. + + 2) Enumerate all the possibilites or theories - again, in + working within a limited domain, as when given 3 tasks, the + number of possibilites is mathematically specified, but when + dealing with more complex issues, this number may become + infinite. Even one theory may be split up into an almost + infinite variety, if subtle changes are introduced. + + 3) Establish criteria by which to distinguish among the + possibilities or theories - this is a tricky issue, because + in some instances, or depending upon your theoretical + viewpoint, some criteria become more important than others. + + 4) Discriminate among the possibilities or theories using the + criteria to arrive at the single best or several best - if + we arrive at a tie, then how do we decide what is ultimately + the best? + + Clearly, then, what I suggest for the future is the adoption of + these 'decision-methods'. An important task for the future is to + discover such methods, elaborate upon them, improve them, and adapt + them for use in particular domains. We put too much faith in free- + will, and in our ability to make choices, using only our innate + abilities, and only further complicate this problem by + institutionalizing free-will in the process of a democratic vote. + + What is needed is an objective system of decision-making free + from subjective biases. This is the take home lesson that we should + be receiving from this age of information and technology and method, + but is one which we blatantly ignore. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Vangard Notes... + + This paper is highly reminescent of the political system + devised in the 40's and which was known as the TECHNOCRAT + party. + + The TECHNOCRATIC movement believed that ALL government should + be run by Scientists and Engineers. This would ensure that all + operations of Supply and Demand would be optimized to achieve + their most efficient mode through the use of mathematics, + cycles, statistics and all aspects of the sciences. + + It was a most admirable system not only because it sought the + greatest good without the acquisition of power or the inflation + + + Page 7 + + + + + + of ego, but even included members of the ministerial ranks to + assist in decisions relating to moral issues. + + We have a very rare book about the movement which will someday + result in a file detailing some of their proposed methods. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + REFERENCES: + + Dobson & Rose. (19??). Models of the Visual Cortex. + + Kuhn. (19??). The Structure of Scientific revolutions. + + Maxwell, N. (1976). What's Wrong with Science? Bran's Head Books, + Middlesex. + + Maxwell, N. (1984). From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution in the + Aims and Methods of Science, Blackwell, Oxford. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + If you have comments or other information relating to such topics + as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the + Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. + + Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. + Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson + Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + If we can be of service, you may contact + Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Page 8 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/frgtimpt.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/frgtimpt.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a1387a03 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/frgtimpt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,193 @@ +THE FORGOTTEN IMPORTANCE OF CIVIL LIBERTIES + +By JACOB G. HORNBERGER + + +One of the real tragedies in the struggle for freedom in the +United States in the latter part of the 20th century has been +the forgotten importance of civil liberties. While economic +liberty provides the focal point of most of the efforts of +freedom devotees, and rightfully so, it is vitally important +that we never forget that all aspects of freedom are +intertwined--if we lose one, we stand in danger of losing all +of them. + +Advocates of economic liberty and limited government recognize +that the purpose of government is to protect peaceful and law- +abiding people from violence and fraud. If a person inflicts +direct harm such as murder, rape, or theft on another person, +he should be punished by the State for violating the rights of +others. + +But many freedom devotees believe that the analysis stops +there--that criminals should be punished and that's all there +is to it. Many of them, especially those on "the +Right," view the procedural safeguards in the Constitution as +mere "technicalities" or "obstructions" whose design and +effect are to help criminals go free. They see these +safeguards as 18th century "horse and buggy" anachronisms +which are inappropriate to the more complex life of the 20th +century. + +They are sadly mistaken. And they do not do justice to the +intelligence and insight of their American ancestors who +fought so hard to ensure that these restrictions on government +power were expressly enunciated in the Constitution. + +Tragically, the forgotten, or perhaps abandoned, importance of +civil liberties characterizes many freedom organizations in +the United States which are devoted to achieving economic +freedom. Recognizing the vital importance of economic liberty, +and giving lip service to the Constitution and the Bill of +Rights, they scoff at the importance of civil liberties as a +part of freedom in general. + +For example, a tremendous intellectual assault on civil +liberties took place last year in a series of articles +entitled "Crime and Punishment" by Robert James Bidinotto. +The assault was made more meaningful because the articles +appeared in The Freeman, a journal published by The Foundation +for Economic Education of Irvington, New York, an organization +long known for its principled commitment to economic freedom. + +Concerned with ever-increasing crime rates in America, Mr. +Bidinotto argued that the solution, at least in part, turned +on the curtailment of the safeguards enunciated in the Fourth, +Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. +Mr. Bidinotto suggested that if Americans just loosened some +of the strictures in the Bill of Rights which enabled so many +criminals to go free, the crime problem could be significantly +alleviated. Unspared from Mr. Bidinotto's attack were civil +liberties lawyers as well as such rights as trial by jury, +right to bail, right to counsel, protection from unreasonable +searches and seizures, and protection from self-incrimination. + +Contrary to popular opinion and what Americans are so often +taught by their government officials, the procedural +safeguards in the Constitution are not mere technicalities to +protect the guilty. They are instead well-established +safeguards to protect the innocent--those who have been +falsely accused of a crime by their own government officials. +If Americans in the latter part of this century forget this +vital principle, they do so at their peril. + +I used to be a civil and criminal trial attorney. I was often +asked, "Don't you lose sleep when you get guilty people off +the hook?" My answer was, "Never." In fact, of all the +criminal cases I handled--drug, murder, theft, assault, +embezzlement, fraud--I lost sleep for several weeks in only +one case. That was the case in which I believed, and still +believe, that I had lost an innocent man to ten years in the +federal penitentiary. + +What many criminal defense lawyers recognize is what our +American ancestors recognized, but unfortunately what so few +Americans today do: that the government sometimes falsely +accuses a person of a crime. When that happens, such +fundamental rights as the presumption of innocence, legal +counsel, trial by jury, and cross examination lose all +semblance of "technicalities" and become the obstacles, the +obstructions, the entanglements which interfere with the +government's ability to convict a person who has done nothing +wrong. The reason I never lost sleep at getting a "guilty" +person off the hook (which actually happened only rarely) is +that I knew that if it was this difficult to convict a +"guilty" person, that meant that it was that much more +difficult to convict an innocent person. + +I once represented a security guard for a national railroad +line. He was one of the most competent law enforcement +officers I had ever encountered. His credentials included a +commission from the State of Texas as a Special Ranger. + +The railroad had been suffering a series of burglaries of its +railroad cars. One day my client caught a juvenile breaking +into a railroad car which contained the household goods of +some American family. The boy resisted arrest and, after a +struggle, was taken into custody by my client. + +For various reasons, some of which we were convinced were +extra-legal, the prosecutor decided to charge my client with +assault rather than the juvenile for burglary and attempted +theft. It is this type of situation which creates the +sleepless nights for the defense attorney--the specter of an +innocent client, and a law enforcement officer at that, being +sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. + +Fortunately, my client was acquitted. It is impossible to +understate my gratitude (and that of my client) in having the +benefits of the presumption of innocence, trial by jury (we +didn't trust the judge either), and the right to cross-examine +the juvenile. + +In another case, I was summoned to a local hotel by a client +who was being accused of murder. His girlfriend had died after +falling from their tenth floor hotel room. When I arrived at +the hotel, the police were already questioning my client; +yet, having just lost his girlfriend, he was obviously in no +state of mind to be answering questions. I immediately advised +him to stop responding and asked the police to stop +interrogating him. + +The reaction of the police? Intent on not allowing the +"technicality" of the Fifth Amendment to impede the "proper +administration of justice," they arrested me for "disorderly +conduct," removed me for booking, and continued the +interrogation of my client. I at least had the solace of +believing that no court would admit my client's answers, no +matter how "voluntary," in any criminal proceeding. + +The inquest ultimately established, and the district attorney +conceded, that the girl's death was a suicide, not a murder. +The grand jury did not see fit to even issue an indictment, +which of course, is simply a legal accusation. The truth was +that the man was innocent. (The truth was that so was I. I +hired one of the foremost criminal defense lawyers in the +United States who represented me for free--he had recently +suffered the same type of experience in a Miami court; +ultimately, after I refused a plea bargain, the prosecutor +dismissed the charges against me and apologized.) + +To this day, when I hear an American judge instructing a jury +to presume the defendant innocent and not to convict him +unless convinced of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, I take +great pride in being an American; in living under a criminal +justice system that towers above those in other countries +whose criminal justice system unfortunately is the ideal of +many American "anti-crime fighters"--a system of presumption +of guilt, pretrial incarceration without bail, non-jury +trials, involuntary confessions, and unrestricted searches and +seizures, all with the single-minded purpose of punishing the +guilty no matter what the cost to the innocent. + +The Founding Fathers, and the American people of the 1700s, +were not naive. They knew that the procedural safeguards in +the Bill of Rights would result in the release of many guilty +people. But they were willing to accept that price in order to +ensure that innocent people were never, or rarely, convicted. +They fully recognized that which freedom devotees on the Right +recognized--that those who violate the rights of others need +to be punished. But what they also recognized is what those on +the Right so often do not: that sometimes people are wrongly +accused of violating the rights of others. + +Mr. Bidinotto is right to be concerned about crime and other +crises which periodically beset us. However, historically it +is crises that have furnished the excuse for some of +government's most monumental assaults on human freedom. It is +during these times that we must be most on our guard to +protect our civil liberties, not surrender them. Otherwise, +freedom devotees, and especially those on the Right, will find +that economic liberty, which they have fought so hard to +achieve, has been sacrificed back to government under the +guise of the criminal law. + +Mr. Hornberger is the founder and president of The Future of +Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the July 1990 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1990, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fundamen.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/fundamen.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a1be35bc --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fundamen.txt @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ +THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF 1639 + + +January 14, 1639 + + For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God by the wise +disposition of his divine providence so to order and dispose of +things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, +Hartford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in +and upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto +adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered +together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace +and union of such a people there should be an orderly and +decent Government established according to God, to order and +dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion +shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to +be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and do for ourselves +and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any +time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation +together, to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of +the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also, the +discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the +said Gospel is now practiced amongst us; as also in our civil +affairs to be guided and governed accordinbg to such Laws, +Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and +decreed as followeth: + +1. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there shall +be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts, the one the second +Thursday in April, the other the second Thursday in September +following; the first shall be called the Court of Election, +wherein shall be yearly chosen from time to time, so many +Magistrates and other public Officers as shall be found +requisite: Whereof one to be chosen Governor for the year +ensuing and until another be chosen, and no other Magistrate +to be chosen for more than one year: provided always there be +six chosen besides the Governor, which being chosen and sworn +according to an Oath recorded for that purpose, shall have +the power to administer justice according to the Laws here +established, and for want thereof, according to the Rule of +the Word of God; which choice shall be made by all that are +admitted freemen and have taken the Oath of Fidelity, and do +cohabit within this Jurisdiction having been admitted +Inhabitants by the major part of the Town wherein they live +or the major part of such as shall be then present. + +2. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the election +of the aforesaid Magistrates shall be in this manner: every +person present and qualified for choice shall bring in (to the +person deputed to receive them) one single paper with the name +of him written in it whom he desires to have Governor, and that +he that hath the greatest number of papers shall be Governor +for that year. And the rest of the Magistrates or public +officers to be chosen in this manner: the Secretary for the +time being shall first read the names of all that are to be put +to choice and then shall severally nominate them distinctly, +and every one that would have the person nominated to be chosen +shall bring in one single paper written upon, and he that would +not have him chosen shall bring in a blank; and every one that +hath more written papers than blanks shall be a Magistrate for +that year; which papers shall be received and told by one or +more that shall be then chosen by the court and sworn to be +faithful therein; but in case there should not be six chosen +as aforesaid, besides the Governor, out of those which are +nominated, than he or they which have the most writen papers +shall be a Magistrate or Magistrates for the ensuing year, to +make up the aforesaid number. + +3. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Secretary +shall not nominate any person, nor shall any person be chosen +newly into the Magistracy which was not propounded in some +General Court before, to be nominated the next election; and to +that end it shall be lawful for each of the Towns aforesaid by +their deputies to nominate any two whom they conceive fit to be +put to election; and the Court may add so many more as they +judge requisite. + +4. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that no person be +chosen Governor above once in two years, and that the Governor +be always a member of some approved Congregation, and formerly +of the Magistracy within this Jurisdiction; and that all the +Magistrates, Freemen of this Commonwealth; and that no +Magistrate or other public officer shall execute any part of +his or their office before they are severally sworn, which +shall be done in the face of the court if they be present, +and in case of absence by some deputed for that purpose. + +5. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that to the +aforesaid Court of Election the several Towns shall send their +deputies, and when the Elections are ended they may proceed in +any public service as at other Courts. Also the other General +Court in September shall be for making of laws, and any other +public occasion, which concerns the good of the Commonwealth. + +6. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the Governor +shall, either by himself or by the Secretary, send out summons +to the Constables of every Town for the calling of these two +standing Courts one month at least before their several times: +And also if the Governor and the greatest part of the +Magistrates see cause upon any special occasion to call a +General Court, they may give order to the Secretary so to do +within fourteen days' warning: And if urgent necessity so +required, upon a shorter notice, giving sufficient grounds for +it to the deputies when they meet, or else be questioned for +the same; And if the Governor and major part of Magistrates +shall either neglect or refuse to call the two General standing +Courts or either of them, as also at other times when the +occasions of the Commonwealth require, the Freemen thereof, or +the major part of them, shall petition to them so to do; if +then it be either denied or neglected, the said Freemen, or the +major part of them, shall have the power to give order to the +Constables of the several Towns to do the same, and so may meet +together, and choose to themselves a Moderator, and may proceed +to do any act of power which any other General Courts may. + +7. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that after there +are warrants given out for any of the said General Courts, the +Constable or Constables of each Town, shall forthwith give +notice distinctly to the inhabitants of the same, in some +public assembly or by going or sending from house to house, +that at a place and time by him or them limited and set, they +meet and assemble themselves together to elect and choose +certain deputies to be at the General Court then following to +agitate the affairs of the Commonwealth; which said deputies +shall be chosen by all that are admitted Inhabitants in the +several Towns and have taken the oath of fidelity; provided +that none be chosen a Deputy for any General Court which is +not a Freeman of this Commonwealth. + The aforesaid deputies shall be chosen in manner +following: every person that is present and qualified as +before expressed, shall bring the names of such, written in +several papers, as they desire to have chosen for that +employment, and these three or four, more or less, being the +number agreed on to be chosen for that time, that have the +greatest number of papers written for them shall be deputies +for that Court; whose names shall be endorsed on the back side +of the warrant and returned into the Court, with the Constable +or Constables' hand unto the same. + +8. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that Windsor, +Hartford, and Wethersfield shall have power, each Town, to send +four of their Freemen as their deputies to every General Court; +and Whatsoever other Town shall be hereafter added to this +Jurisdiction, they shall send so many deputies as the Court +shall judge meet, a reasonable proportion to the number of +Freemen that are in the said Towns being to be attended +therein; which deputies shall have the power of the whole Town +to give their votes and allowance to all such laws and orders +as may be for the public good, and unto which the said Towns +are to be bound. + +9. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the +deputies thus chosen shall have power and liberty to appoint +a time and a place of meeting together before any General +Court, to advise and consult of all such things as may concern +the good of the public, as also to examine their own Elections, +whether according to the order, and if they or the greatest +part of them find any election to be illegal they may seclude +such for present from their meeting, and return the same and +their reasons to the Court; and if it be proved true, the +Court may fine the party or parties so intruding, and the Town, +if they see cause, and give out a warrant to go to a new +election in a legal way, either in part or in whole. Also the +said deputies shall have power to fine any that shall be +disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming in due time or +place according to appointment; and they may return the said +fines into the Court if it be refused to be paid, and the +Treasurer to take notice of it, and to escheat or levy the +same as he does other fines. + +10. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that every General +Court, except such as through neglect of the Governor and the +greatest part of the Magistrates the Freemen themselves do +call, shall consist of the Governor, or some one chosen to +moderate the Court, and four other Magistrates at least, with +the major part of the deputies of the several Towns legally +chosen; and in case the Freemen, or major part of them, +through neglect or refusal of the Governor and major part of +the Magistrates, shall call a Court, it shall consist of the +major part of Freemen that are present or their deputiues, +with a Moderator chosen by them: In which said General Courts +shall consist the supreme power of the Commonwealth, and they +only shall have power to make laws or repeal them, to grant +levies, to admit of Freemen, dispose of lands undisposed of, +to several Towns or persons, and also shall have power to call +either Court or Magistrate or any other person whatsoever into +question for any misdemeanor, and may for just causes displace +or deal otherwise according to the nature of the offense; and +also may deal in any other matter that concerns the good of +this Commonwealth, except election of Magistrates, which shall +be done by the whole body of Freemen. + In which Court the Governor or Moderator shall have power +to order the Court, to give liberty of speech, and silence +unseasonable and disorderly speakings, to put all things to +vote, and in case the vote be equal to have the casting voice. +But none of these Courts shall be adjourned or dissolved +without the consent of the major part of the Court. + +11. It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that when any +General Court upon the occasions of the Commonwealth have +agreed upon any sum, or sums of money to be levied upon the +several Towns within this Jurisdiction, that a committee be +chosen to set out and appoint what shall be the proportion of +every Town to pay of the said levy, provided the committee be +made up of an equal number out of each Town. + + 14th January 1639 the 11 Orders above said are voted. + +------------------------------------ + +The Fundamental Orders OF 1639 are often credited as being the +first written Constitution in the new world. However, see also +the Iroquois Constitution and the Mayflower Compact of earlier times. + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/funny.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/funny.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..42c16551 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/funny.txt @@ -0,0 +1,272 @@ + + + FUNNY MONEY + + + I was rummaging through an antique chest in our attic. + I found an old dollar bill which said "Silver Certificate" + redeemable at any bank for one silver dollar. + I looked at a dollar bill which I had in my pocket but + it only said Federal Reserve Note. Not a word that I could + redeem in silver dollars. I thought a note was a debt. I + figured, Hell, I'll take it to my bank the next time I go + and get a silver dollar for it. Would be nice to have an + old silver dollar for a change. + The next time I was at the bank, I gave the teller the + old silver certificate. I asked for a silver dollar to + replace it. + Her mouth dropped open. She said, "I'm sorry, sir, I + have no authority to give you a silver dollar for this + bill." + "What do you mean? It says right on the bill that it + can be redeemed at any bank for a silver dollar!" + "Yes sir, it does. Just a minute while I ask the + Vice-President to look at it and to give you his decision." + The Vice-President came to the window with the dollar + in his hand. He said he was sorry but the redemption of + these old bills stopped in 1964. + "How did that happen?" I asked. + "Congress passed a law taking us off the silver stan- + dard. They set a date to allow for the exchange of these + old bills for silver. That ended in 1964. I can only + suggest if you want a silver coin, you'll have to go to a + coin shop." + I stopped at a coin shop on the way home. I found that + I would have to pay 7 Federal Reserve Note dollars to + purchase a one dollar silver coin. + "What a lot of nonsense." I said, "Just what in blazes + is going on with our money?" + GOLD--MONEY--SILVER--DOLLARS! What did our Founding + Fathers have in mind concerning money when they set up our + Constitution? + Was it to be a piece of paper with different numbers + printed on it? No. Do you think they had experience with + paper money? You bet they did. + In our Constitution, (Art I, Sec 8), we gave Congress + authority "to coin money". Further, they are to regulate + the value of our money. Nowhere in our agreement for this + business of government was the power given to "print money." + The money experience of the colonists under the + Articles of Confederation was disastrous! Each of the + original colonies had gone through periods of coined money + and paper money. They had over 100 years of experience with + money which varied from day to day and from state to state. + Paper money was no stranger to the men who went to Philadel- + phia in 1787.  + Roger Sherman was one of the delegates from Connecti- + cut. He was largely responsible for the restriction in our + Constitution that money had to be coins and not a piece of + paper. Roger Sherman had the distinction of being the only + man to sign three major documents in the early history of + our country. + His signature appears on the Articles of Confederation, + Declaration of Independence and of course, our Constitution. + In 1752, he wrote a blistering article against paper + money titled A CAVEAT AGAINST INJUSTICE. He had spent many + years trying to run businesses in the private sector and + experienced the evils of paper money first hand. The book + has been reprinted by Publisher Spencer Judd. It is + available from the publisher at Post Office Box 143, + Sewanee, TN 37375. + Major William Pierce, a delegate from Georgia, wrote + sketches of all the men who attended the Constitutional + Convention. This is his description of Roger Sherman: + "Mr. Sherman exhibits the oddest shaped character I + ever remember to have met with. He is awkward, un-meaning, + and unaccountably strange in his manner. But in his train + of thinking there is something regular, deep, and comprehen- + sive; yet the oddity of his address, the vulgarisms that + accompany his public speaking, and that strange new England + cant which runs through his public and private speaking make + everything that is connected with him grotesque and laugh- + able; -and yet he deserves infinite praise; -no Man has a + better Heart or a clearer Head. If he cannot embellish he + can furnish thoughts that are wise and useful. He is an + able politician, and extremely artful in accomplishing any + particular object; -it is remarked that he seldom fails." + (Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the + American States, House Document No. 398, 69th Congress, 1st + Session) (1965). + There was a lot of debate during the convention about + permission to issue "bills of credit" or paper money. The + other delegate from Connecticut was Mr. Oliver Ellsworth. + During debates on money he declared this was a good time to + shut the door against the future use of paper money. He + further stated, "The mischiefs of the various experiments + which had been made, were now fresh in the public mind and + had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of Amer- + ica." On the motion to deny permission for the government + allowing the issuance of paper money, only New Jersey and + Maryland voted no. + Roger Sherman was on the committee which considered the + prohibitions against state governments. Mr. Sherman felt + this was just the right situation for crushing paper money. + One proposition was to allow the issuance of paper money by + the states with the consent of the legislature. He said, + "If the consent of the Legislature could authorize emissions + of it, the friends of paper money, would make every exertion + to get into the Legislature in order to license it." + He and Mr. Wilson of Pennsylvania moved to add some +  + special words. "Nor emit bills of credit, nor make any + thing but gold & silver coin a tender in the payment of + debts." + The entire convention agreed to this clause and + included it in our Constitution in Article I, Section 10. + Let's examine that command. No State shall emit bills + of credit nor make any Thing but gold and silver coin a + tender in the payment of debts! + I point out a small yet important item in that restric- + tion. Any Thing is two separate words and the word thing is + capitalized. Our Founding Fathers were determined that only + gold and silver coin could be legal tender. By capitalizing + thing, they were certain no one could raise a question in + that aspect. + If you have a debt with the state in which you live, + they cannot make any thing a tender. This includes + repayment of debt in other than gold and silver coin. You + can volunteer, of course, to pay the debt in anything your + state will accept. Be it money orders, checks, federal + reserve notes, wampum, bingo chips or beads. + But we know there is no gold or silver coin in circula- + tion. For any state to force you to pay in any Thing but + gold or silver is a violation of your rights. It is also a + violation of a specific state duty under Art. I, Section 10. + The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and is + binding on all states. The supremacy clause makes it very + clear. + On March 3, 1884, the United States Supreme Court + changed all that. In a case called Juilliard vs Greenman, + they said the restriction against the issuance of paper + money was against the states. It did not apply against the + federal government. The so-called interpreters of law have + again taken it on themselves to change our Constitution in + violation of our amendment process. + A book written in 1886 by a historian named George + Bancroft called "A PLEA FOR THE CONSTITUTION" clearly points + out the illegality and fallacy of the decision by the + Supreme Court. I recommend it highly and it is also avail- + able in reprint from Publisher Spencer Judd, whose address + appears above. + Another authorization we did not allow is for the + legislative body to delegate any of their duties to any + other body, under ANY circumstances. However, in 1913, + Congress gave permission to a private corporation called the + Federal Reserve System to control our money. More on this + in a later chapter. + Looking back to Section 8 of Article I, we find + Congress is to "fix the Standard of Weights and Measures." + For the sake of our illustration, and to show how idiotic it + was to hand over the control of our money, let's pretend + Congress also gave that required duty of weights to a + private company. This outfit (whoever it might be) has + decided an ounce is now a pound and a liquid ounce is now + and forever a gallon.  + They are controlling only weights and measures . . . + not the value of an article. Now a gallon of gasoline costs + you $32.00 instead of one dollar. The cost of a rib steak + is now about $64.00 a pound. Can you imagine how the people + would explode if this had happened? Only because Congress + reneged on its duties to fix the standard of weights and + measures. + We know they didn't give this duty to a private outfit. + They DID give the mandated duty to regulate the value of our + money to a private company. Now who is breaking the law? + The same thing happens to the value of our dollar as in the + above illustration of variations in weights and measures. + The effect is not as dramatic because they complete money + manipulation slowly and it is carried on behind closed + doors. People are mostly ignorant on money issues. The + bureaucracy and the Fed prefer it that way. + We often hear the phrase "ignorance of the law is no + excuse." What do you suppose their excuse is for violating + our basic law? Ignorance on our part of this dereliction of + congressional duty is also no excuse. + Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, No. 42 + equates the value of coins with weights and measures. "The + regulation of weights and measures is transferred from the + Articles of Confederation, and is founded on like considera- + tions with the preceding power of regulating coin." + All the gobbledegook in Washington DC will not change + the fact our elected people in Congress did and are + violating their oaths. They are breaking the law. And we + are the victims! + James Madison, in paper No. 44, speaks of the restric- + tions against the states (Art I, Sec 10) by saying "The + extension of the prohibition to bills of credit must give + pleasure to every citizen in proportion to his love of + justice and his knowledge of the true springs of public + prosperity. The loss which America has sustained since the + peace, from the pestilent effects of paper money on the + necessary confidence between man and man, on the necessary + confidence in the public councils, on the industry and + morals of the people, and on the character of republican + government, constitutes an enormous debt against the States + chargeable with this unadvised measure - . . it may now be + observed that the same reasons which show the necessity of + denying to the States the power of regulating coin prove + with equal force that they ought not to be at liberty to + substitute a paper medium in place of coin." + Yet the states cry they have to use whatever the + federal government issues for money. From what we have + looked at so far, we all know this is pure horse manure. + The relationship of the states to the national government is + turned upside down. The states were jealous of their + sovereignty and that was apparent throughout the convention. + This was to be a union of states, not an all powerful + federal government which could do no wrong. + We've let it get away from us. What consideration can +  + our elected officials give to their oath? Perhaps it's just + a ritual now, only so many words which have to be recited + each time we return them to the funny farm in Washington. + If they were honorable men, the oath would be all + important and binding on them. Then we would not have to + worry if our Constitution were being obeyed. + Okay, now what do we have to do? Throw them all out of + office whenever they come up for election. We certainly + don't need Republicans, Democrats, liberals, right wingers, + conservatives or left wingers. There is no requirement that + a member of Congress be a lawyer either! We need those + bakers, butchers and computer operators. We need honest + Americans as our representatives who will restore our + Republic to the greatness our Founding Fathers intended. + Get on the phone and call the local offices of all + Senators and Congressmen. Ask where they found authority to + delegate their duties to a private company like the Federal + Reserve or to any other body for that matter. Write letters + to their Washington offices and ask the same questions. + Write your Governors and ask if the United States + Constitution is still binding on the state. Ask specifical- + ly about the restriction in Art I, section 10! Letters + every couple of weeks would not be too often to let them + know you know what is going on. You want it changed. + Certainly it wouldn't be too much to require them to obey a + document they swore to uphold. + Reports are that some of the State Supreme Courts have + decided that the restriction does not apply to their + particular states. By what right? Did you agree to allow + the judiciary of your state to decide that the oaths to + support the Constitution is no longer binding on them? They + need to be denied their offices also. + We now have lawyers running and manipulate our lives. + Let's make it stop. These sort of decisions only show that + lawyers are taking care of their own in the mutual admira- + tion society called government. + If government thinks we would agree to paper money + instead of gold and silver, submit a proposed amendment to + our Constitution. Let's find out if we will allow for the + change. The amendment process is spelled out in Art V. + Make them use it and stop these violations of our basic law. + They really have a good deal. They can issue a piece + of paper with the number one on it followed by as many zeros + as they feel necessary. Then it can be called money. They + also are aware that gold and silver cannot be counterfeited! + They prefer the paper method. + AFTER ALL . . . IT'S YOUR MONEY! But then, they will + probably ask . . . just who are you? Simply remind them. + + + REGISTRATION IS ONLY $19.95 + + PLEASE READ 'SALES PITCH' CHAPTER  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/future.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/future.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..308f9aed --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/future.txt @@ -0,0 +1,793 @@ + FUTURE + THE + SECOND COMING OF CHRIST + + I. Introduction + + The Bible tells us that as Christians we are only pilgrims in this + world, citizens of a Heavenly Kingdom, looking forward to our + salvation in the Second Coming of Christ and Eternity. In the + book of 1 Thessalonians and in the Gospel of Matthew we are told + that the coming of Christ will be on a day much like today; a day + when people will be eating and drinking, marrying and being given + in marriage (Mat 24:38). It will come like a thief in the night + and at an hour when we do not expect it (1 Thess 5:2). So that it + does not take us by surprise we are warned to be ready for Him, to + keep watch, (Mat 24:42,44), and to encourage one another to live + godly lives (1 Thess 5:8,11). According to God's calendar of + events it could begin at anytime, today, tonight, or tommorow. + + In light of this I would like us to consider some of the major + passages of the Bible concerning the Second Coming of Our Lord + Jesus Christ and the events of the end times so that we may more + eagerly look forward to our coming salvation in the return of + Christ. + + I have linked many Scriptures together chronologically to form a + picture of the end time events as I believe they will happen. I + would like you to take a trip forward in time right where you are + and view the events of the end times as history, as if you are + hearing a story that has already occurred. Can you picture us in + eternity future, looking backwards toward this era? Let me be + your guide. + + A. Voice from the Future + + Picture us standing right now in the Father's House, in the + city called the New Jerusalem. The walls of our city are + crystal clear like a diamond and the streets are made of + pure gold like transparent glass. There is no night here + for brilliant light shines everywhere. Neither is there + death nor sin for the old order of things has passed away. + + The New Jerusalem is extremely large. It measures + approximately 1400 miles square and is an unbelievable 1400 + miles high (Rev 21:4). It is surrounded by a jeweled wall + 200 feet high which has twelve gates made from pearls and + the gates are attended by angels. In the city is the Tree + of Life just like the one that was in the Garden of Eden, + and we all eat of its fruit. We drink from the spring of + the Water of Life that flows down the main street of the + city. The glory of God is the illumination of the city. + We experience total joy and perfect peace here with God. + + Now permit me to share some of the chronological account of + the major events that have taken place since Jesus came for + us at the end of the Church Age. + + II. Events Prior to Second Coming + + A. Rapture + + 1) The Promise (John 14:2-3) + + When the beloved Jesus ministered on the earth during His + first coming, He had promised His followers in the Church + that He would return to Heaven for a while and then come + back for His bride. In fact His exact words were, "In my + Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would + have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for + you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come + back and take you to be with me that you also may be where + I am." + + Because it had been so long, some in the Church Age had + struggled with the fact that Jesus would come back. They + knew that He said He would return but life seemed so normal + and therefore highly unlikely He would return in their + generation. Yet, as Jesus said in the Book of John, "I will + not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (14:18). + + 2) The Event (1Thess 4:16-17) + + Yes, Jesus came back exactly as it was recorded in the + Scriptures. Jesus had told us to, "...keep watch, because + you do not know on what day your Lord will come...the Son of + Man will come at an hour when you least expect Him" (Mat + 24:42,44). + + It was a day that was like many others on the earth. Some + Christians were at their jobs busily involved in their + assignments, mothers were changing diapers and cleaning the + home; in other parts of the earth the Christians were asleep + in their beds. Many young believers were busy in their + classrooms at school, some Christians were in prayer + meetings at church, and there were the persecuted Christians + around the world that were being tortured because of their + faith in Jesus. + + There were even some believers who were involved in acts of + sin when their Master returned for them, but everyone in + every situation was taken by utter surprise when suddenly, a + loud thundering voice was clearly heard from up in the sky. + Every Christian on earth instantly looked up and could see + the magnificent splendor of our Glorious Savior Jesus + Christ. "He was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet + and with a golden sash around His chest. His head and hair + were white like wool, as white as snow,...His face was like + the sun shining in all its brilliance" (Rev 1:13-14,16). + + The loud command that we heard was comparable to the time + when Jesus called Lazarus from the grave with "a loud + voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'" (John 11:43). Jesus called + each Christian to come up to Him. At about the same + time there was a voice of an archangel and a resounding + trumpet call and then all those who had died believing in + Christ rose from the grave in immortal bodies and ascended + up to Jesus. Then in what seemed to be a "twinkling of an + eye" all the believers who were alive suddenly lifted off + the earth to also join their Savior, and were gloriously + changed into beautiful immortal bodies. + + Then Jesus led us, His resurrected and glorified followers + back to the third heaven. We traveled faster than the speed + of light and were in the Father's House in a moment's time. + + + B. Chaos and Wrath On Earth + + 1) The Chaos + + Our sudden disappearance caused widespread chaos throughout + the world, for we were approximately 5,000,000 people in + number, not counting the multitude of resurrected saints. + Airplanes crashed because essential crewmembers were + missing. Cars were strewn on many freeways for lack of + drivers. Husbands were frantically searching for wives who + had vanished. Wives too were left waiting for husbands who + would not be returning home. Teen-agers were searching for + parents, and likewise, some parents were also looking for + their teen-age sons and daughters. + + Some world leaders were also among the missing, many + people speculated that they were abducted by terrorists. + Behind the Iron Curtain the authorities were furious over + the unexplained disappearance of their "religious + prisoners." Some churches were left nearly empty and + others were full of the "falsely religious" including the + Pastor and the Elders. + + + 2) The Explanation + + The world sought answers for the millions of missing + persons. Some guessed that it may have been the Rapture + that some Christians had mentioned would occur some day, + but this was quickly discounted by the leading false + religions which remained, such as, the Roman Catholic + Church, the Mormons, and the Jehovah Witnesses to mention a + few. It was then decided that the Christians who had + disappeared were the "fanatics," the ones who were always + talking about Jesus, the Bible and the need to be Born + Again. It was assumed that we had all gathered in giant + communes somewhere to pursue our religious zeal. + + But while the world was still in a state of shock and + chaos, a man arose who offered solutions to the problems, + promising "Peace and Safety." He was the one the Bible had + said would come someday--the Antichrist. But soon the + world discovered that his peace was only superficial and + temporary. + + 3) The Seal Judgments + + The Antichrist was bent on conquering the world. He had + easily conquered Europe by deceit and began the conquest of + the rest of the nations. But other nations were not so + easily overcome and soon a full scale world war broke out + which caused tremendous destruction over the entire globe. + + Food supplies became critical because of the many destroyed + agricultural areas. The famine was so severe over the + world that a man had to work one day just to earn enough + money to buy a day's meal for himself; his family often + went hungry. During the war, chemical weapons and germ + warfare were utilized causing widespread disease. Even the + wild animals were affected and those animals that survived + became savage towards men. The casualties resulting from + the war, the famine, the plagues and the from the attacks + of the wild beasts accounted for the deaths of over one and + one-quarter billion people, one-fourth of the earth's + population (Rev 6:1-8). + + The Antichrist took advantage of the war and gained in + power and began to establish a one-world government. He + established his own religion and was opposed to the gospel + of Jesus Christ and engineered one of the greatest + persecutions of Christianity the world had ever seen. Many + Christians were murdered, because they would not partake in + the government sponsored one-world religion (Rev 6:5-11). + Then the wrath of God was again poured out on all the world + because of its sin and rebellion against the Holy and True + One. + + + 4) The Trumpet Judgments + + God sent hail and fire mixed with blood down to the earth. + Nuclear war continued and, "A third of the earth was burned + up, a third of the trees were burned up and all the green + grass was burned up" (Rev 8:7). + + As God continued to punish the earth and its people with + each new judgment, He also continued to give man the + opportunity to repent by allowing a period of time to pass + before the next curse. But instead of the unbelievers + crying out to God for mercy, they, "...called to the + mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the + face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the + lamb...'" (Rev 6:16). + + Jesus then turned one-third of the seas into literal blood, + killing one third of the sea creatures. He also caused + one-third of the ships to be destroyed. Then His judgment + fell on a third of the rivers and springs of waters causing + them to become polluted and many more people died (Rev + 8:10-11). After a period of time Jesus reduced the hours of + sunlight and moonlight by one-third, and even caused a third + of the stars to turn dark (Rev 8:12). Crops all over the + world died because of the sudden imbalance between night and + day. + + Life on earth had become very difficult. Stealing, murder, + rape and sexual immoralities were common occurrences as law + and order began to "breakdown." Still man did not turn to + God but continued to openly worship demons (Rev 9:20-21). + Fittingly, Jesus then ordered the "Bottomless Pit" to be + opened which allowed millions of wicked demons to infest the + world. This judgment was so severe that men and women tried + to commit suicide but God would not let them die (Rev 9:1-6). + + Then the armies from the East began to march across the land + to Israel the place of their final battle, "Armageddon." The + army slaughtered over one billion people while enroute (Rev + 9:13-18). At this point over one-half of the world's total + population had been destroyed. + + + 5) The Two Witnesses (Rev 11:1-13) + + Our Most Beloved Savior continued to show mercy in the midst + of His wrath when He sent two prophets to the earth to + powerfully declare the truths of the gospel. For three and + one-half years these two brothers preached the Good News of + salvation through Christ. They also inflicted severe plagues + and droughts upon the earth as part of God's judgments. Fire + destroyed anyone who attempted to take their lives. + + Finally, God allowed them to be killed, and the people of the + earth were so pleased that they had worldwide celebrations + and sent gifts to one another. They left the dead bodies of + these two saints lying in the streets of Jerusalem, refusing + them burial. The entire world watched the bodies on + Satellite TV for three and one-half days. Then Our Sweet and + Precious Savior raised them to life and caused them to ascend + up through the heavens in full view of a watching world. + Suddenly an earthquake "hit" Jerusalem and one-tenth of the + city collapsed. + + + 6) The Bowl Judgments + + Now, as the world's dictator, the Antichrist, demanded that + he and an image of himself be worshipped as god by all men. + He was aided by one who could perform many signs and wonders + by the power of the devil. Because of his power he deceived + most people on earth and ordered that no one could buy or + sell any item unless they had the "Mark of the Antichrist" on + their forehead or right-hand. These two also decreed that + anyone refusing to worship the Antichrist would be killed + (Rev 13). Many dear brothers and sisters in Christ were + beheaded because they would not worship the Antichrist or his + image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or + their hands (Rev 20:4). + + God too had a mark, but only for the followers of the + Antichrist, "...ugly and painful sores broke out on the + people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image" + (Rev 16:2). God also gave men blood to drink! Because the + world had shed the blood of God's saints and prophets + throughout history, Jesus turned the oceans, the rivers, and + the springs of water into real blood (which killed every + living thing in the waters) (Rev 16:3-7). + + The world was staggering under the weight of all of God's + judgments, yet men and women still refused to repent and + glorify God. God then caused the sun to scorch the earth and + its people with intense heat. This judgment was quickly + followed by total darkness yet men and women, "gnawed their + tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of + their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of + their sins" (Rev 16:8-11). + + God then sent his final judgment upon the earth. This was + the most severe yet. A violent earthquake occurred that was + so strong that all the cities of the nations collapsed. New + York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, London, + Copenhagen, Cairo, Rome, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Indianapolis, + yes every city of the world was destroyed by the earthquake! + Coupled with this was a terrible hailstorm that dropped huge + hailstones weighing about a hundred pounds each. What was + man's response? It was to curse God because the plague was so + terrible (Rev 16:17-21). + + Chaos reigned on the earth. The food supply had all but + disappeared, there was only blood to drink, and most of + mankind was without shelter. The only organizations that had + any structure left were the armies that were fighting outside + of Jerusalem at the Battle of Armageddon. The earth was + enclosed in utter darkness for the sun no longer shone and + the stars had disappeared. It was cold and only the light + and heat of weapons exploding jarred the terror of the + continuous night (Mat 24:29). + + + III. Second Coming of Christ + + While the earth was cloaked in darkness and terror, there was + light and bliss up in the third heaven. The redeemed of God + had been there in their glorified bodies for seven years. + They were living in their Father's house, which is the New + Jerusalem, the vast city of beauty and light. Each saint has + his own room designed and decorated by his God and Lord--Jesus + Christ. + + One day, suddenly there appeared something very unusual in + heaven, horses, white horses which came silently and stately + down the golden streets. There were millions of them and each + horse seemed to know exactly where they were to go. For one + white horse stopped by each room of the redeemed. The saints + joyfully mounted their horses and all rode to the gates of the + city. The horses and riders rode out through the pearly gates + and all gathered in columns outside the city. Then Jesus + joined the army of saints riding His own white horse. + + On His head were many crowns and He was clothed in a robe + which had his name written on it: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF + LORDS. All of the saints and the chorus of angels sang praise + unto His Name. He looked at the redeemed with a deep love in + His eyes and said, "Follow Me." Although there were millions + upon millions of saints on white horses and all following + Jesus, each believer could see Jesus. It was as if each was + riding right next to Him! This is the way heaven is, for + although there is only one Jesus and He is in bodily form, He + seems to be visible and accessible to everyone at once. + + It was so wonderful that Our Precious Lord Jesus would allow + His saints to be a part of that moment in history. Jesus was + assembling His army to conquer the earth. In His army were + the Holy Angels and all those who had hungered and thirsted + for righteousness. There was Moses, Joseph, David, Bathsheba, + Rahab, Peter, James, John, Mary, Martha, and Paul. I could + see Moody, Spurgeon, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and many + other great men and women of God. + + But there was also great joy in seeing those in the Lord's + army who were former great sinners such as former homosexuals, + former murderers, former fornicators and former liars, all had + been redeemed and restored, and were sitting on their horses + dressed in pure white fine linen because of the cleansing + power of the Blood of Jesus Christ. There were even those who + had never walked on the earth but were murdered by the act of + abortion, they too were sitting pure from the original sin of + Adam because of the Cross of Calvary. What an incredible + sight it was! + + As we rode out we traveled faster than the speed of light and + suddenly, as Jesus turned His eyes to the earth they changed, + becoming like blazing fire. We could then see the planet, but + the darkened sun did not illumine it; it was the light of + Jesus as He emanated a brilliant radiance (Rev 19:11). Then + fire began to appear all around us, along with loud thundering + sounds and blinding flashes of lightning. + + + A. Rider on White Horse (Rev 19:11-16) + + On earth, those fighting in the darkness of Armageddon were + suddenly blinded by the light of Jesus Christ and His army. + In an instant, the Lord Almighty came with, "thunder and + earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and + flames of a devouring fire" (Isa 29:5-6). + + It was Isaiah who prophesied, "See, the Lord is coming with + fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind; He will bring + down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of + fire. For with fire and with His sword the Lord will + execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain + by the Lord" (Isa 66:15-16). + + + B. Return to the Earth + + 1) Response of Those on the Earth + + Every eye on earth saw Jesus return and mankind began to + mourn for their own lives knowing that the hour of judgment + had come (Mat 24:30). They fled, "...to caves in the rocks + and to holes in the ground from the dread of the Lord and + the splendor of His majesty..." (Isa 2:19). + + 2) Standing on Mount of Olives + + Jesus Christ, the King of the Earth, dismounted from His + White Horse directly upon the Mount of Olives. As soon as + His feet touched the mountain it split in two, exactly as + prophesied in Zechariah 14, "...His feet will stand on the + Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives + will be split in two from east to west, forming a great + valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half + moving south" (v. 4). + + When the mountain split it created a large valley which was + called the Valley of Decision (Joel 3:14). + + + C. Judgment of Earthly Wicked + + 1) Armies Set to Attack Christ + + Then the Antichrist and "...the kings of the earth and their + armies gathered together to make war against the rider on + the horse and His army" (Rev 19:19) It seemed incredible + that those who were fighting on the earth could be confronted + with the supernatural return of Jesus Christ from Heaven and + yet turn their weapons on the Savior and His army as if God + could be destroyed. + + + 2) Beast, False Prophet, and Armies Judged + + But before they could fire one weapon, the Lord struck + them with great fear and a plague that caused their flesh, + their eyes and their tongues to decompose while they were + still standing on their feet. This caused great panic and + some soldiers attacked and killed one another (Zech 14:12- + 13). The Antichrist and the false prophet were then captured + and thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. + Then the rest of the wicked army was killed by the command + of Jesus. Their flesh was given to be eaten by the birds of + the air (Rev 19:21). + + D. Chaining of Satan + + While the birds gorged themselves on the defeated armies, Satan + was captured, bound with a chain and locked away for 1,000 + years. The place of his torment is the "Abyss" which means the + "bottomless pit." The demons were also bound with Satan, just + as Isaiah had revealed would happen when the Lord returned, + saying "In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the + heavens above...They will be herded together like prisoners + bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be + released after many days" (Isa 24:21-22). + + E. The Judgment of the Living + + Then all the remaining people, the noncombatants, of the + earth were transported to the Valley of Decision where Jesus + judged them. He sat on a throne in all of His heavenly glory + and separated the people one from another, placing the + Christians on His right and the unbelievers on His left (Mat + 25:31-33). + + Then King Jesus said to the Christians on His right, "Come, + you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the + kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world..." + (Mat 25:34). The kingdom He gave to them was the Millennial + Kingdom that was about to begin. + + Then the King said to those on His left, "Depart from me, + you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the + devil and his angels..." (Mat 25:41). Then the unbelievers + went away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to + eternal life (Mat 25:46). + + + F. Thousand Years + + There was a 75 day transition time after the battle ended + before the 1,000 year reign of the Lord began. In fact, it + took seven months just to bury the remains of the dead. And + some of the weapons from the war were used for fuel in Israel + and lasted for seven years (Ezek 39:9-16). + + 1) Earth is Restored to Beauty + + Jesus began to remove the curse of sin from the earth. The + earth was restored, every valley was raised up, every + mountain and hill was made low, and the rough ground became + level, the rugged places became a plain (Isa 40:4). Mt. + Zion was established as the chief among the mountains; it was + raised above the hills (Isa 2:2). The desert regions were + covered with many pools of waters from the new rivers and + springs. Jesus set beautiful trees everywhere. There were + pines, firs, cedars, olives, and many other kinds of trees + (Isa 41:18-19). Beautiful flowers burst in bloom, just like + the crocus, all over the earth (Isa 35:1-2), and every land + was fertile and cultivated (Ezek 36:36). + + + 2) A Kingdom of Light + + The Millennium was truly a kingdom of light. The moon was + as bright as the original premillennial sun and the sunlight + of the kingdom was seven times brighter than before, like + the light of seven full days (Isa 30:26). The night of + the Millennium was as bright as the old noonday sun. + + 3) The Inhabitants of the Kingdom - Parents + + Now, the only people that were left alive in the Millennium + were the believing Gentiles and Jews. The entire world + consisted of Christians with Jesus Christ reigning as the + King of the earth. But there were also young unsaved + children who were under the age of accountability, who could + still choose to reject the gospel. And the adult christians + had many children born during the Millennium who like all + children since Cain and Able, were born into the world as + sinners. + + 4) The Inhabitants of the Kingdom - Children + + The children living in the Kingdom all needed salvation, but + they were given plenty of opportunities to hear the gospel, + for their parents were Christians, Jesus Christ was visibly + on the earth as King, and there were a multitude of immortal + glorified saints (you and me) ruling and reigning with Our + Master Jesus Christ. + + 5) Life in the Kingdom + + a) Long Life + + Most mortals who lived on the earth during the Millennium + lived out their years (Isa 65:20). Their life spans were + like those in the days prior to the Flood when, for example, + Methuselah lived for 969 years! Those born at the beginning + of the Millennium lived for 1,000 years. + + b) Death in the Kingdom + + Yet, there was death in the glorious Kingdom of Light, just + as the Bible had revealed to us, "...he who dies at a + hundred will be thought a mere youth...and he who fails to + reach a hundred will be considered accursed [condemned to + Hell]" (Isa 65:20). Jesus gave children up to the age of 100 + to make a decision for Him and at that point, if they + remained in unbelief, Jesus took their lives in judgment. + + c) Peace on Earth + + The earth was a place of great peace and safety just as God + had declared in the Book of Isaiah, "They will neither harm + nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be + full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the + sea" (Isa 11:9) + + Jesus was enthroned in His headquarters in Jerusalem; the + law went out from Zion, the word of the Lord went from + Jerusalem. He judged between the nations and settled + disputes for many peoples. The nations recycled their + weapons of war into farming equipment. Nation did not + take up sword against nation, nor did they train for war + anymore (Isa 2:3-4). + + d) Peace in the Animal Kingdom + + Truly peace reigned everywhere, even in the animal kingdom. + The lion did lie down with the lamb. The wolf and the lamb + fed together, and the lion ate straw like an ox (Isa 65:25). + The wolf lived with the lamb, the leopard laid down with the + goat, the calf and the lion and the colt together; and + little children led them around. The cow ate with the bear + and the young calves and the cubs laid down together (Isa + 11:6-7). + + Infants played near the holes of cobras, and young children + put their hands into the nests of vipers to play with them + (Isa 11:8). + + Life in the Kingdom was indeed very blissful, and we the + immortal redeemed, were there assisting Our Savior in His + rule. We were daily interacting with the mortals and enjoyed + with them this time of true peace on earth. + + + G. Satan's Doom + + At the end of the one thousand year Kingdom, Jesus ordered + Satan to be released from prison. Immediately the devil + went out to deceive the nations to make war against Jesus + and His people. Satan actually got an attacking force to + surround the city of Jerusalem. But fire came down from + heaven and devoured them. Satan was then thrown into the + lake of burning sulfur, his final resting place, to be + tormented for ever and ever (Rev 20:7-11). The devil was + never to be seen or heard of again. He would never again + trouble God's people. Amen. + + H. The Total Destruction of Heaven and Earth + + Immediately following this judgment of Satan, Jesus then + removed all the mortal believers from the earth. They were + translated into their glorified bodies and given their room + in the Father's House. He then raised from the graves "the + rest of the Dead" (Rev 20:5). These were those who had + died throughout the ages of time and had failed to believe + God's word for salvation. They had been held in torment + since the day of their deaths, awaiting the day of final + judgment. + + Then God destroyed the earth and the heavens by fire. The + heavens disappeared with an explosive thundering sound; the + elements were destroyed by fire, melting in the intense + heat (2 Pet 3:10-12). + + + I. Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15). + + It was now time for God to judge the sins of all the + generations of unsaved people. God brought them to stand + before His Great White Throne for judgment by Jesus Christ + who was seated there. Each person was judged according to + what he had done in his life as recorded in the books. + These deeds were compared with God's perfect Word as He had + revealed it to each generation. + + The judgment was simple. The standard by which one could + enter into heaven was a life on earth without one recorded + sin. One sin would result in the eternal judgment of Hell + and any additional sins would increase the amount of torment + and agony he would eternally receive. As each person was + brought before the judge his sins were revealed. Then the + Lamb's Book of Life was open to see if the person had allowed + Jesus to pay for their sins. None were found to have trusted + Jesus for salvation. Therefore, each unbeliever was found + guilty and then thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented + for ever an ever (Rev 20:11-15). + + As we, the redeemed watched, we knew that we too had sinned + in our own earthly lives, but we remembered that at the + Cross of Calvary all of our sins were charged to the account + of the sinless one Jesus Christ. Because He took our sins + upon Himself our books of sins contained nothing but pure + white blank pages, washed clean by the Blood of Jesus + Christ. + + No one could ever fault the Judge Jesus at the Great White + Throne for not showing mercy, for even as He sentenced the + unsaved to torment, one could clearly see the scars on His + hands and on His feet from the nails of crucifixion and the + scar in His side from the Roman spear. Jesus offered mercy + to all when they were on earth and for those who desired to + remain in their sins He could only then give His wrath. + + + J. Eternity + + After the Great White Throne Judgment only the Trinity, the + angels, and the redeemed saints remained in Heaven. The + old earth and heavens had been destroyed and all those who + had rejected Christ were forever bound in the Lake of Fire. + Jesus then created a new heaven and a new earth and brought + "the Father's House," the New Jerusalem down from heaven and + placed it on the new earth. Then God Himself came down to + earth to live forever with redeemed man (Rev 21:1-3). + + Life in the Eternal State is perfect. There is no more + death, no more mourning, no more crying or pain (Rev 21:4). + But the most magnificent sight in all of Eternity is the + Precious Lord Jesus Christ. His beauty is without equal and + His love for each believer is never ending. We never tire + of worshipping Jesus and learning more about Him. + + + IV. Conclusion + + We have heard the record of God's future accomplishments. As + we now step backward in time to the present, the scenario I + have just painted has not yet occurred. But the Scriptures are + clear, that it will indeed happen, with perhaps some slight + changes from this chronology. It only awaits the Rapture of + the Church to set it all in motion. And the Bible indicates + that this event could happen at any moment. + + What should be our response to these truths of Scripture? + What should we do from now until the Rapture? + + A. If Unsaved + + If you are not saved then seek salvation today. There are + no salvation opportunities after our moment of death. The + Bible declares, "...man is destined to die once, and after + that to face judgment" (Heb 9:27). Jesus Christ has + revealed these truths to warn you of the tribulations to + come. He wants to cleanse you of your sins and receive you + into His Kingdom. Repent of your sins, confess Jesus + Christ as Lord and Savior, receiving His glorious free gift + of salvation. + + + B. If Saved + + 1) Renewed Desire to Serve Jesus + + For those of us who are saved, we should feel humbled + that God would love us and save us from the wrath that + our sins deserve. He will give us a new and glorious + body, a room in the Father's House, and an eternal + blissful future. We should renew our dedication to Him + and strive to serve Him with all our mind, soul, and + strength. + + 2) Renewed Compassion for the Lost + + Let us show compassion for the lost. We have seen what + awaits the unbeliever when Jesus returns to the earth. + And those judgments, as terrible as they are, are mild + compared to the endless torment and agony of the eternal + Fiery Lake of Burning Sulfur. + + We must attempt, by the power of the Holy Spirit within + us, to live holy lives before our lost families, friends, + coworkers, and neighbors. We are their only hope, for if + they do not see Jesus Christ in us, then they will not + see Jesus at all. This will cost us, for we must be + different than the world in order to "stand out as light." + + + a) Our Conversation + + Our speech must be gracious and yet seasoned with the salt + of the truths of the Bible. In Ephesians 5:4 God reminds us + that for a Christian there must never be obscenity, foolish + talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather + thanksgiving." + + + b) Our Life Styles + + We must be a holy people in order to lead others to Christ. + + In this age of sexual freedom God reminds the Christian that + in our lives, "...there must not be even a hint of sexual + immorality, or of any kind of impurity..." (Eph 5:3). + + In fact, God clearly tells us, what we should have uppermost + in our thinking, "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, + whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, + whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or + praiseworthy--think about such things..." (Philippians 4:8). + + We must keep ourselves pure, for the evil one is constantly + attempting to corrupt us. Let us not be deceived, nearly all + that is on television, in popular magazines and in books today + are things that do not please God. A Christian cannot be + entertained by the world and still please God. To watch and + be entertained by TV murders, TV adulteries, TV violence, TV + drunkenness, and TV crime is to partake in what God calls sin. + Even when we drive our cars we must maintain the high + Christian standard and never purposefully exceed the posted + speed limits. Radar detectors have no place in a car + belonging to one of God's children. + + + C. Final Thoughts + + Jesus is coming back for us soon with the Rapture, at an + hour when we least expect Him. Once we are gone the horrors + of the tribulation period will be unleashed. Many of our + loved ones, friends and acquaintances would be left behind to + face God's wrath if Jesus came for us today. He has + privileged us to know the future and to play integral parts + in His plan. May we do all that we can by the power of the + Holy Spirit to help those around us who are lost to share in + the wondrous salvation we possess. + + +Tony Capoccia +Bible Bulletin Board +Box 130 +Shreveport, LA 71110 +MODEM (318)-949-1456 +300/1200/2400/9600 Baud \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/fwks1984.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/fwks1984.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fe7d6916 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/fwks1984.hum @@ -0,0 +1,448 @@ +FIREWORKS IN THESE UNITED STATES - 1984 - + + Through no fault of my own, the land area of the 48 contiguous United States +is some 32 times larger then that of England. Each of these 48 states has its +own laws regulating fireworks, so fireworks activity in the country as a whole +can be described only in general. Here in New York State, for example, the +fireworks law during the 42 years of my lifetime has been simply, NO! However, +as you will see, the public will have fireworks with which to celebrate festive +occasions, such as, Independence Day (The Fourth of July). [Despite the fact +that our Fourth of July is set aside to celebrate the "founding of a new nation +and freedom from Great Britain's tyrannical rule," in most of this country the +use of fireworks as part of these festivities is forbidden, while in +"tyrannical Great Britain," fireworks are legal!] + + There are two categories of fireworks in these United States. The type most +often used by the general public is legally described as "Class C or common +fireworks, devices suitable for use by the public and designed primarily to +produce visible effect by combustion." Some small devices designed to produce +audible effects, such as firecrackers and pyrotechnic whistles, are also +included in this class. (In England these would be called "Shop Goods.") + + The second category is termed "Class B or Special Fireworks, those man +ufactured articles designed primarily for the purpose of producing vis ible or +audible pyrotechnic effects by combustion or explosion." As these are limited +to use by professionals at public displays, I will have little more to say +about them. + + Until 1976 there were few federal (nationwide) laws pertaining to fire works +for use by the public. However as bureaucrats abhor legislative vacuums, it +came to pass that: + + "On June 8, 1976 the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) pub lished in +the Federal Register its Final Order for Fireworks Devices. The order, +constituting regulations pursuant to the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, +became effective on December 6, 1976. In response to injuries caused by +fireworks, the order deals with Class C fireworks, intended for consumer use, +but has no effect on existing state bans on fireworks or generally on fireworks +used for public display (Class B fireworks). [Please note that this and what +follows are quotes and not my wording or ideas.] The order regulates common +fireworks by specify ing: + + "What fireworks devices may not be sold to consumers + + "The prohibited chemicals which cannot be used in regulated fireworks devices + + "The physical specifications for the regulated fireworks devices + + "Labeling of fireworks" + +PERMISSIBLE AND BANNED FIREWORKS + + "The regulations promulgated by the [CPSC] pursuant to the Hazardous +Substances Act ban the following articles as hazardous substances because they +possess such a degree of danger or nature of hazard that adequate cautionary +labeling cannot be written and the public health and safety can be served only +by keeping such articles out of inter state commerce." + +BANNED FIREWORKS + + "Fireworks devices designed to produce an audible effect if the effect is +produced by more than 2 grains of pyrotechnic composition (including but not +limited to cherry bombs, M-80 salutes, silver salutes, and other large +firecrackers, aerial bombs, and other fireworks designed to produce audible +effects, including kits and components to produce fire works) + + "Firecrackers designed to produce audible effects, if the effect is produced +by more then 50 milligrams + + (0.772 grains) of pyrotechnic composition + + "Aerial bombs, and devices that can be confused with food, i.e., dragon eggs, +cracker balls (ball-type caps)" + +BANNED CHEMICALS + + "Arsenic sulfide, arsenates, or arsenites, boron, chlorates (permitted in +coloured smoke, party poppers and caps, and small spinning devices), gallates +or gallic acid, magnesium, mercury salts, red or white phos phorus, picrates or +picric acid, thiocyanates, titanium finer then 100 mesh, and zirconium." + + The state of South Dakota also prohibits the manufacture of "Firecrack ers +longer than 3 inches, made wholly or in part of dynamite, nitro glycerine, [or] +giant powder." [It would be interesting to know what prompted them to pass this +law!] + + There are several more pages of regulations setting forth physical spe +cifications for Class C fireworks, that are on the whole rather dull and +because their enumeration would not appreciably help your under standing of the +American fireworks scene, I will not trouble you with the details. + + The determination that a fireworks device conforms to all of the varied +requirements allowing its sale as class C, is for the most part done by the +Bureau of Explosives, which despite its official sounding name is a private +company sponsored by the Association of American Railroads. The BOE's most +important function as concerns fireworks is the issuing of "EX" and "BX" +numbers to both Class B and C fireworks of domestic manu facture and imported, +as proof that these items meet all shipping requirements (BX numbers) or that +they are Class C (EX numbers). + + Unfortunately, there have been some past problems with imported items +admitted without "EX" numbers, which, when later tested were found to be Class +B rather then Class C, and therefore not permitted to be sold to the public. +As a result, the authorities have become more vigilant in assuring that +imported items have the required "EX" numbers assigned to them. + + The 50-mg limit on the amount of powder permitted in firecrackers and the +total abolition of "cherry bombs," "M-80's," and like devices, has resulted in +the creation of a black market to satisfy the public desire for these infernal +devices. Unfortunately, as profit increases geome trically with device size +and power, even larger "ground bombs" have found their way into the public +hands or what's left of them! Several years ago a number of rather large +salutes (commonly called "block bus ters") were produced using a normal-looking +fuse manufactured using the wrong type of powder. This fuse burned for only an +instant rather than for the expected three, or more seconds! The results of +this mistake are obvious, and therefore I will spare the reader the sordid +details. + + With the explosion of an illicit "fireworks factory" located in Benton, +Tennessee May 27, 1983, killing ten persons, one could posit a consid erable +market for these devices, and one could further speculate that the distribution +of such a large number of devices would require a well organized group. + + The 50-mg limit has resulted in the production and marketing of a num ber of +ersatz "ground bombs," called variously "M-800's," "M70's," and "Ozark +crackers." These are devices having external dimensions equal those of banned +large salutes, while containing only the legal maximum 50-mg powder content, to +the great disappointment of many a purchaser. + + LOCAL LAWS + + Laws vary from state to state, with some states having no laws regulat ing +the use of fireworks and therefore presumably allowing all that are legal under +federal law, while other states allow NO fireworks for pub lic use. My native +New York is included in this list - NO ANYTHING - not even sparklers. Some +here in New York are reduced to lighting steel wool pads and twirling them on +the end of a string for fun! Others, in a small Connecticut town, stand around +the lake at night holding red highway flares as a Fourth of July celebration. +AUUGGGHHHH! + + Some states have "safe and sane" laws (e.g., California and Washington) +allowing only those devices approved by the State Fire Marshal, but none that +explode, shoot fireballs or rise in the air. Still others prohibit only those +that "leave the ground" and firecrackers. In many states the dates on which +fireworks may be purchased and used are also specified, the most common times +of permitted use being around the July Fourth Independence Day holiday. (I +don't know if King George III liked fireworks or not, but he really gave us on +this side of the Atlantic a handy excuse to display ours!). + + Christmas, and/or New Year's are the second most common times for the public +to display fireworks. Indeed, in the southern United States, most fireworks +activity takes place at Christmas and New Year. Two rea sons have been +suggested for this difference in timing: (1) The Fourth of July falls on the +anniversary of the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi to Union forces under General +Grant on July 4, 1863, effectively ending the Civil War, and (2) "No fireworks +were used at Christmas time in the Northeastern United States because of the +background of the settlers. The Church of England forbade such demonstrations +as fireworks for celebrating Christmas. In the South the predominant culture +was Spanish and French, and both of these nationalities celebrated Christmas +and New Year's with fireworks as early as the 14th century." + + A number of avenues are open for those living in "closed states" to obtain +fireworks for use on the "Fourth" and other festive occasions. Probably the +most common way is to obtain them from your local bootleg ger, as almost +everyone seems to know of someone with a garage/basement/trunk full of +fireworks he is willing to sell for a handsome markup. Indeed, photocopied +price lists circulate freely through the populace, here in the East around the +Fourth of July. + + No doubt the second most common means for one to obtain fireworks is simply +to drive to a state permitting their retail sale, e.g., South Carolina where +along the main roads may be found stores with so large a selection that they +supply shopping carts for their customers' use! Other states, while +prohibiting sale to residents, allow sales to those residing out-of-state; +therefore it is possible for those able to prove out-of-state residence to +purchase fireworks where otherwise prohi bited. + + There are, as can be expected a number of companies who will fill mail orders +for fireworks. Whether they will arrive at your home is prob lematical if you +live in a closed state as large numbers of shipments are "confiscated" by local +authorities upon arrival. The "Church Act", a federal law prohibiting the +"transportation of fireworks into any state in which the sale or use of such +fireworks is prohibited," has been in existence since 1954, but it has never +been vigorously enforced, assuming there could be found a way to enforce it! + + While I, for one would not agree that "laws are made to be broken," there is +always the classic, "while it may be illegal de facto,.... de jure ....." That +is to say, if you and half of the neighborhood chil dren (children are great +"cover") are out on July Fourth shooting off your goods, few if any peace +officers in this county are going to bother you (assuming you haven't broken +any windows with your ground bombs). In fact, some years ago the New York City +Police Department announced that it was senseless to call them and complain +about fire works on the Fourth, as they had more important things to do! +Indeed, come July Fourth, my neighbors and I "truck on down" to the local park +and proceed to "DISPLAY" fireworks with great abandon. I am rather keen on the +park as with its lake and large amounts of open space, it is possible to shoot +rockets and such with out having to worry where they will impact, and since so +far none of the local children have demon strated the ability to walk on water, +keeping them at a safe distance and out of the line of fire is that much +easier. Aside from the rockets our activities cause little nuisance in the +park, in the form of lit ter, &c. + + An interesting "convenience" has arisen concerning the sale and posses sion +of fireworks here in New York State. The law provides that posses sion of more +than $50 worth of fireworks is considered prima-facie evi dence of intent to +sell and therefore is a misdemeanor (i.e., a crime with a maximum sentence of +less than one year in jail and/or a maximum fine of $500, although nothing +approaching either penalty is common), but it is still a criminal offense and +not the kind of thing one would want on his record. To prevent this from +happening either at the time of "arrest" or before the trial, the quantity of +fireworks "seized as evidence" is "reduced," seemingly by magic to a quantity +having a value of less than $50. Therefore no "arrest" need be effected or +trial held, as one can simply be issued a summons (like a traffic ticket), let +go with a verbal warning or if need be, plead guilty at the appropriate time to +"possession of fireworks," which is not a crime but an "offense" (in the sense +that a parking ticket is not crime), and simply pay the $25 to $50 fine levied. +Whole truckloads of fireworks have been known to disappear in this manner. I +will allow the reader to form his own opinion as to the morality of this +arrangement, and as to the final disposition of the missing material! + + Here in New York City, starting in early June, one may venture to the corners +of Broadway and Canal Street, (the confluence of the rapidly expanding +Chinatown and Little Italy) and, while taking in the local colour, notice on +each of the four corners individuals rather boldly asking passing pedestrians +and drivers if they wish to purchase fire works. This trade will be carried +out until a day or so before the Fourth of July, when the outraged dignity of +those who disdain fire works forces the officers of the local Precinct House (2 +blocks away) to take some token action, generally confiscations of the +remaining merchandise. + + The large Chinese population of New York is provides good excuse for those of +us wishing a respite from the "winter fireworks doldrums" to venture forth in +early February to help the Chinese ward off our common "devils" and bad luck +during the Chinese Lunar New Year. For a five- day period this year, Chinatown +streets were closed to traffic at night to provide a clear area for the Dragon +Dancers to perform, and on which to light [illegal] fireworks and such. My +fellow aftificier and I, in a spirit of most complete altruism, help the +Chinese celebrate with our fireworks as a way of thanking their ancestors for +inventing gun pow der! As an aid in helping the natives celebrate this year, I +had the foresight to obtain some "Horse Brand" All Red Crackers, which even the +natives had to admit were "very authentic." As the festivities take place under +the watchful eye of the local constabulary, one is wise to limit himself to +"legal" illegal fireworks: i.e., no large salutes, so as not to offend the +sensibilities of the local populace and officials. Last year, despite numbing +cold and the 2 - 3 feet of snow on the ground that severely limited the +functioning of various small ground spinning items, not to mention one's +fingers, we managed to "carry on." + + Strange as it may seem, there is little in the way of fireworks avail able in +Chinatown, other then the ubiquitous firecrackers and bottle rockets, perhaps +because as has been pointed out to me, "the Chinese may make the fireworks, but +the Italians work the docks." Indeed, although it is often difficult to +determine the ethnic background of individuals in this polyglot metropolis, the +persons selling fireworks on the street corners surrounding Chinatown are +obviously not Orien tals. However during the Chinese New Year celebrations a +small numbers of locals set up stands (cardboard boxes in some cases) from +which to sell fireworks to the passing tourist trade. + + There are, of course, those true aficionados who enjoy setting off not only +commercial fireworks but their own handcrafted devices. As a means to this end +there have arisen a number of local fireworks clubs, such as the Catskill +Mountains Pyrotechnics Association (CMPA), a not- for-profit New York +corporation, of which I am member number 13. (The exact reason for the club's +incorporation has been forgotten by me, but, if nothing else, it provides a +patina of legitimacy to our hard- to-hide activities!) Weather permitting, on +the first Saturday of each month starting with March and ending in October, +members meet under cover of darkness atop a shale bank overlooking a small dirt +strip air port in the Catskill Mountains of New York, to "do their thing." + + The production of fireworks by an individual for his own use is some what of +a legal gray area (to put it politely). The Pyrotechnics Guild International +Incorporated (PGII) has obtained an opinion from the Director of the Bureau of +Alcohol, Tax and Firearms (BATF), the agency in charge of enforcing federal +fireworks laws, that if one is making fireworks for his own use, and not for +commercial sale, he can reason ably expect to be left alone. (Avoiding +activities that might call attention to one's offbeat hobby in a way that +cannot be ignored, is generally considered advantageous. Smoke pouring out of +your windows accompanied by the sound of exploding fireworks is a phenomenon +quite likely to be noticed!) + + The CMPA has obtained a federal permit to possess and store Class B +fireworks, which covers members while attending club shoots, and to a lesser +extent while traveling to and from club shoots. Possession of a copy of both +the federal and local permits has worked wonders with the local police forces, +in rare cases where members have been stopped en route. + + On the local level, unless one has an accident or the neighbors com plain +loudly, one can do his thing in peace. As a matter of personal conviction, and +for reasons of personal as well as political safety I for one do not make +exploding fireworks. To facilitate the production of homemade devices a number +of establishments have arisen willing to supply the budding pyro with both the +tools and supplies of his trade. Items such as star pumps, fuse, drifts, +sundry paper goods (tubes, caps, end-plugs and discs), plus otherwise difficult +to obtain chemi cals, are readily available through mail order. + + Prior to each shoot, the club secretary obtains a permit from the local town +to "display fireworks." Then on the night of the shoot he notifies the State +Police of our activities, the notification being a courtesy, as it's hard to +hide when you have 30 or more people shooting fireworks on top of a mountain! +Although the area consists almost entirely of dairy farms, we try to keep the +production of large KA-BOOMS (aerial salutes) down after 2100 hours in the fall +and spring and 2200 in the summer, because the local farmers are of necessity +early risers. + + During club shoots one is likely to see anything. (While members are free to +bring any item they desire, assuming that it's not radioactive (!), we try to +discourage LARGE ground bombs, for reasons of safety and as these devices are +long on pyro and short on technique.) This means anything from the profound +such as the three-inch salute that burned to the ground, bounced up to a height +of three feet ! and only then deto nated !), to the profane: a three-inch +shell from which only one star ignited! But then there are those whose efforts +result in devices that would not go unnoticed at a professional display, +including such effects as glitter -flitter, strobe stars, lamp black stars, +electric spreader mines, colour changing stars, large whistling rockets &c., +all hand-crafted by members. Although the most common sized aerial shell is +one three inches in diameter, four-, five-,and six-inch diameter shells are not +unknown. Other members in keeping with bigger-is-not- always-better, have +produced spectacular effects using only 1-1/4" diameter shells. + + The club has used its expertise to put on several commercial displays for +both fun and profit. The free shoot was a gift to the town of Prattsville, New +York for its bicentennial. (Good fireworks make for good neighbors!) Other +clubs in the country are even more active in putting together shows, and +several have competed at the annual PGII convention. + + As can be expected with so many persons gathered in one place regularly for a +single purpose, a supplier of common fireworks has been found willing to keep +our larders filled, at case lot (wholesale) prices. + + Some members, feeling that fireworks are not only for the enjoyment of us +Brahmins, have consented to supply various members of the public, and friends, +with fireworks, presumably at a profit. So far, no grief has come from their +activities. + + An interesting relationship has developed between several of the club members +and the owner of the airport and surrounding farm. The club secretary is a +licensed blaster among his other trades, and therefore has legal access to +explosive materials. As a result several members have donated their labor and +offset the cost of the explosives neces sary to remove a number of large rocks +from the fields surrounding the airport. They have also blasted down a large +part of the shale bank, providing the airports owner with broken rock for use +as paving mate rial for the runway, &c. As a result of these operations there +has been the created a large flat stone area for those wishing to shoot Class C +well separated from those igniting Class B. The blasting oper ations have had +an added benefit in that they provide a legitimate out let to those members +whose interest in fireworks has manifested itself in the form of larger and +larger salutes, more and louder noise. (This seems to be a problem we have in +common with of other clubs.) Further, after spending the better part of a day +drilling holes in assorted rocks in preparation for blasting operations, when +drilling and blast ing operations are completed they have satisfied a burning +desire for loud noises and are too tired to do ground bombs or much else. They +have also come to find that the loneliest job in the world is that of the guy +who lights the fuse! + + In an effort to provide a medium for communication among pyro-hobbyists +across the nation, Max P. Vander Horck in San Diego, California stared the +first monthly newsletter entirely devoted to such activities in November, 1966, +titled simply Pyronews. The response to this first ten tative effort was so +enthusiastic that in January of 1968 Van (as he is now familiarly known) began +publishing a small magazine-format monthly under the more elegant -- if less +pronounceable -- name of American Pyrotechnist. + + True to the axiom that success breeds success, Van's second attempt to +promote communications in a hitherto notoriously uncommunicative field was +joined in January, 1970 by Fireworks News, "A Monthly Magazine on Fireworks, +Explosives & Pyrotechnics" published by Peter N. Colonnese in Lexington, +Kentucky. Then, in October, 1970, apparently deferring to that other old axiom +that two heads are better then one, Van and Pete joined forces under the banner +of American Pyrotechnist Fireworks News, "A Monthly Journal on Fireworks & +Pyrotechnics," which continued with Van as editor and Pete as publisher until +November, 1976 (final issue numbered 102). + + As a direct outgrowth of the enthusiasm and correspondence generated by these +joint and several publications, Van founded the Pyrotechnics Guild +International (PGI) in March, 1969, a name reflecting the fact that his +readership by then extended far beyond the boundaries of these United States. +In announcing formation of the Guild in that issue (AP, Vol.2,#3) he stated +that he felt the time had come to establish a nucleus for a non-commercial +organization devoted to the common (or uncommon) cause: the love of fireworks. + + As a representative symbol thereof, he went back to the seventeenth century +for the grizzled image on the venerable "Green Man" with his "fyre clubbe," who +traditionally led processions of fireworkers at royal (and sometimes +not-so-royal) celebrations in Jolly Olde England. + + As noted below, the Guild has thrived and survived numerous changes of hands +and scribes during the 15 years since its inception, as has its Green Man +emblem. It even survived a name change to the tongue-twisting "Pyrotechnics +Guild International, Incorporated" (PGII) and accompany ing assessment of +annual dues beginning in 1975! Another change came at the end of America's +Bicentennial year, when Pete gave up publication of the APFN in November, as +previously mentioned, and Van took it over again under the original name of +American Pyrotechnist from January, 1977 through June, 1981 (AP issues +#103-153), jokingly referring to it as "its own grandpa"! At that point +history again demonstrated its repetitive nature when Van passed the +pyro-publishing torch on to Jack Drewes, who himself had already established a +reputation for pyro- journalism in previous issues of the Catskill Mountain +Fireworks News and in succeeding ones with that geographical reference dropped. + + Starting July 1981 the new publication in turn became the current Amer ican +Fireworks News, "An International Newsletter for Fireworks People," for which I +am a "special correspondent," this being a fancy way of saying that I work for +nothing. Published twelve times a year, the American Fireworks News is a +newsletter-format publication dealing with less technical fireworks activities. +Jack also reproduces and dis tributes John Bennett's Fireworks as a service to +American readers. As a service to those with professional interests in +fireworks Jack has begun publication of Fireworks Business (Issue No.1, +February 1984). + + To disseminate information of a more technical nature, Robert G. Card well +in 1977 founded Pyrotechnica, "Occasional Papers in Pyrotechnics," of which to +date nine numbers have been published. + + The Guild at present has over 600 members throughout the country. To keep +members informed of Guild activities, and as a medium for articles dealing with +construction of an array of devices, safety, history of fireworks, the +collection of fireworks related items and various other facets of interest to +members, the Guild publishes the PGI Bulletin, January/February 1984 being +issue number 40. + + Since 1973 the Guild has held annual conventions. At the 1983 conven tion, +contests were held for: Grand Master, Advanced - Intermediate - Novice Aerial, +Best Large -Medium Large - Medium Shell, Advanced Rocket, Novice Rocket, Novice +Ground, Class "C" Commercial, Best Comet, Best Wheel, Best Movie Special +Effect, and Best New Aerial Effect. A "SUPER STRING" of 293,000 firecrackers +was *****. (There seems no appropriate word in my dictionary to describe the +"*****" of a 293,000-cracker string!) Various seminars and workshops covering +the diverse interests of the membership in fireworks are also held. As the +highlight of the 1983 convention a 24"-diameter 118 lb. ($1000!) "Thousand +Flower Blooming" shell was launched with great success and effect, even though +after firing, it took three days of concerted effort to pluck the mortar tube +from the ground! + + In closing, even though I and others like myself may live in states that +allow no fireworks, by the use of simple common courtesy, i.e., no loud noises +at odd hours, superior timing, the use of national, local, religious, and +ethnic celebrations as "cover," and the formation of common-interest clubs, +such as the CMPA, Northern Lighters, Cracker Jacks, Great Lakes Pyrotechnics +Assn. et al, we have our fireworks. + + Although others residing within political divisions having more under +standing and liberal fireworks laws may have an easier time obtaining and +displaying their fireworks, I doubt that they have as much fun as we, for our +Independence Day, like your Guy Fawkes Day had its origins with people of an +independent and rebellious nature; what more appro priate way to express this +than with fireworks, to the pleasure of us "fireworkers" and our audience! + +Call The Works BBS - 1600+ Textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always Open + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/g-washng.ton b/textfiles.com/politics/g-washng.ton new file mode 100644 index 00000000..38263837 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/g-washng.ton @@ -0,0 +1,287 @@ +Newsgroups: freenet.shrine.songs +From: aa300 (Jerry Murphy) +Subject: George Washington, biography +Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 15:52:48 EST + +WASHINGTON, GEORGE + + +EARLY LIFE AND CAREER + +Born in Westmoreland County, Va., on Feb. 22, 1732, George Washington was the +eldest son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, +who were prosperous Virginia gentry of English descent. George spent his early +years on the family estate on Pope's Creek along the Potomac River. His early +education included the study of such subjects as mathematics, surveying, the +classics, and "rules of civility." His father died in 1743, and soon thereafter +George went to live with his half brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's +plantation on the Potomac. Lawrence, who became something of a substitute +father for his brother, had married into the Fairfax family, prominent and +influential Virginians who helped launch George's career. An early ambition to +go to sea had been effectively discouraged by George's mother; instead, he +turned to surveying, securing (1748) an appointment to survey Lord Fairfax's +lands in the Shenandoah Valley. He helped lay out the Virginia town of Belhaven +(now Alexandria) in 1749 and was appointed surveyor for Culpeper County. George +accompanied his brother to Barbados in an effort to cure Lawrence of tuber- +culosis, but Lawrence died in 1752, soon after the brothers returned. George +ultimately inherited the Mount Vernon estate. + +By 1753 the growing rivalry between the British and French over control of the +Ohio Valley, soon to erupt into the French and Indian War (1754-63), created new +opportunities for the ambitious young Washington. He first gained public notice +when, as adjutant of one of Virginia's four military districts, he was dis- +patched (October 1753) by Gov. Robert Dinwiddie on a fruitless mission to warn +the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf against further encroachment on territory +claimed by Britain. Washington's diary account of the dangers and difficulties +of his journey, published at Williamsburg on his return, may have helped win him +his ensuing promotion to lieutenant colonel. + +Although only 22 years of age and lacking experience, he learned quickly, +meeting the problems of recruitment, supply, and desertions with a combination +of brashness and native ability that earned him the respect of his superiors. + +FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR + +In April 1754, on his way to establish a post at the Forks of the Ohio (the +current site of Pittsburgh), Washington learned that the French had already +erected a fort there. Warned that the French were advancing, he quickly threw up +fortifications at Great Meadows, Pa., aptly naming the entrenchment Fort Neces- +sity, and marched to intercept advancing French troops. In the resulting +skirmish the French commander the sieur de Jumonville was killed and most of his +men were captured. Washington pulled his small force back into Fort Necessity +where he was overwhelmed (July 3) by the French in an all-day battle fought in a +drenching rain. Surrounded by enemy troops, with his food supply almost ex- +hausted and his dampened ammunition useless, Washington capitulated. Under the +terms of the surrender signed that day, he was permitted to march his troops +back to Williamsburg. + +Discouraged by his defeat and angered by discrimination between British and +colonial officers in rank and pay, he resigned his commission near the end of +1754. The next year, however, he volunteered to join British general Edward +Braddock's expedition against the French. When Braddock was ambushed by the +French and their Indian allies on the Monongahela River, Washington, although +seriously ill, tried to rally the Virginia troops. Whatever public criticism +attended the debacle, Washington's own military reputation was enhanced, and in +1755, at the age of 23, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander in +chief of the Virginia militia, with responsibility for defending the frontier. +In 1758 he took an active part in Gen. John Forbes's successful campaign against +Fort Duquesne. + + >From his correspondence during these years, Washington can be seen + evolving from a brash, vain, and opinionated young officer, impatient + with restraints and given to writing admonitory letters to his + superiors, to a mature soldier with a grasp of administration and a + firm understanding of how to deal effectively with civil authority. + + +VIRGINIA POLITICIAN + +Assured that the Virginia frontier was safe from French attack, Washington left +the army in 1758 and returned to Mount Vernon, directing his attention toward +restoring his neglected estate. He erected new buildings, refurnished the house, +and experimented with new crops. With the support of an ever-growing circle of +influential friends, he entered politics, serving (1759-74) in Virginia's House +of Burgesses. In January 1759 he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy and +attractive young widow with two small children. It was to be a happy and satis- +fying marriage. + +After 1769, Washington became a leader in Virginia's opposition to Great Bri- +tain's colonial policies. At first he hoped for reconciliation with Britain, +although some British policies had touched him personally. Discrimination +against colonial military officers had rankled deeply, and British land policies +and restrictions on western expansion after 1763 had seriously hindered his +plans for western land speculation. In addition, he shared the usual planter's +dilemma in being continually in debt to his London agents. As a delegate +(1774-75) to the First and Second Continental Congress, Washington did not +participate actively in the deliberations, but his presence was undoubtedly a +stabilizing influence. In June 1775 he was Congress's unanimous choice as com- +mander-in-chief of the Continental forces. + +AMERICAN REVOLUTION + +Washington took command of the troops surrounding British-occupied Boston on +July 3, devoting the next few months to training the undisciplined 14,000-man +army and trying to secure urgently needed powder and other supplies. Early in +March 1776, using cannon brought down from Ticonderoga by Henry Knox, Washington +occupied Dorchester Heights, effectively commanding the city and forcing the +British to evacuate on March 17. He then moved to defend New York City against +the combined land and sea forces of Sir William Howe. In New York he committed a +military blunder by occupying an untenable position in Brooklyn, although he +saved his army by skillfully retreating from Manhattan into Westchester County +and through New Jersey into Pennsylvania. In the last months of 1776, desperate- +ly short of men and supplies, Washington almost despaired. He had lost New York +City to the British; enlistment was almost up for a number of the troops, and +others were deserting in droves; civilian morale was falling rapidly; and Cong- +ress, faced with the possibility of a British attack on Philadelphia, had with- +drawn from the city. + +Colonial morale was briefly revived by the capture of Trenton, N.J., a bril- +liantly conceived attack in which Washington crossed the Delaware River on +Christmas night 1776 and surprised the predominantly Hessian garrison. Advancing +to Princeton, N.J., he routed the British there on Jan. 3, 1777, but in Septem- +ber and October 1777 he suffered serious reverses in Pennsylvania--at Brandywine +and Germantown. The major success of that year--the defeat (October 1777) of the +British at Saratoga, N.Y.--had belonged not to Washington but to Benedict Arnold +and Horatio Gates. The contrast between Washington's record and Gates's bril- +liant victory was one factor that led to the so-called Conway Cabal--an intrigue +by some members of Congress and army officers to replace Washington with a more +successful commander, probably Gates. Washington acted quickly, and the plan +eventually collapsed due to lack of public support as well as to Washington's +overall superiority to his rivals. + +After holding his bedraggled and dispirited army together during the difficult +winter at Valley Forge, Washington learned that France had recognized American +independence. With the aid of the Prussian Baron von Steuben and the French +marquis de Lafayette, he concentrated on turning the army into a viable fighting +force, and by spring he was ready to take the field again. In June 1778 he +attacked the British near Monmouth Courthouse, N.J., on their withdrawal from +Philadelphia to New York. Although American general Charles Lee's lack of enter- +prise ruined Washington's plan to strike a major blow at Sir Henry Clinton's +army at Monmouth, the commander in chief's quick action on the field prevented +an American defeat. + +In 1780 the main theater of the war shifted to the south. Although the campaigns +in Virginia and the Carolinas were conducted by other generals, including +Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan, Washington was still responsible for the +overall direction of the war. After the arrival of the French army in 1780 he +concentrated on coordinating allied efforts and in 1781 launched, in cooperation +with the comte de Rochambeau and the comte d'Estaing, the brilliantly planned +and executed Yorktown Campaign against Charles Cornwallis, securing (Oct. 19, +1781) the American victory. + +Washington had grown enormously in stature during the war. A man of unquestioned +integrity, he began by accepting the advice of more experienced officers such as +Gates and Charles Lee, but he quickly learned to trust his own judgment. He +sometimes railed at Congress for its failure to supply troops and for the bung- +ling fiscal measures that frustrated his efforts to secure adequate materiel. +Gradually, however, he developed what was perhaps his greatest strength in a +society suspicious of the military--his ability to deal effectively with civil +authority. Whatever his private opinions, his relations with Congress and with +the state governments were exemplary--despite the fact that his wartime powers +sometimes amounted to dictatorial authority. On the battlefield Washington +relied on a policy of trial and error, eventually becoming a master ofimprov- +isation. Often accused of being overly cautious, he could be bold when success +seemed possible. He learned to use the short-term militia skillfully and to +combine green troops with veterans to produce an efficient fighting force. + +After the war Washington returned to Mount Vernon, which had declined in his +absence. Although he became president of the Society of the Cincinnati, an +organization of former Revolutionary War officers, he avoided involvement in +Virginia politics. Preferring to concentrate on restoring Mount Vernon, he added +a greenhouse, a mill, an icehouse, and new land to the estate. He experimented +with crop rotation, bred hunting dogs and horses, investigated the development +of Potomac River navigation, undertook various commercial ventures, and traveled +(1784) west to examine his land holdings near the Ohio River. His diary notes a +steady stream of visitors, native and foreign; Mount Vernon, like its owner, +had already become a national institution. + +In May 1787, Washington headed the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional +Convention in Philadelphia and was unanimously elected presiding officer. His +presence lent prestige to the proceedings, and although he made few direct +contributions, he generally supported the advocates of a strong central govern- +ment. After the new Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification +and became legally operative, he was unanimously elected president (1789). + +THE PRESIDENCY + +Taking office (Apr. 30, 1789) in New York City, Washington acted carefully and +deliberately, aware of the need to build an executive structure that could +accommodate future presidents. Hoping to prevent sectionalism from dividing the +new nation, he toured the New England states (1789) and the South (1791). An +able administrator, he nevertheless failed to heal the widening breach between +factions led by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the +Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Because he supported many of Hamilton's controver- +sial fiscal policies--the assumption of state debts, the Bank of the United +States, and the excise tax--Washington became the target of attacks by Jeffer- +sonian Democratic-Republicans. + +Washington was reelected president in 1792, and the following year the most +divisive crisis arising out of the personal and political conflicts within his +cabinet occurred--over the issue of American neutrality during the war between +England and France. Washington, whose policy of neutrality angered the pro- +French Jeffersonians, was horrified by the excesses of the French Revolution and +enraged by the tactics of Edmond Genet, the French minister in the United +States, which amounted to foreign interference in American politics. Further, +with an eye toward developing closer commercial ties with the British, the +president agreed with the Hamiltonians on the need for peace with Great Britain. +His acceptance of the 1794 Jay's Treaty, which settled outstanding differences +between the United States and Britain but which Democratic-Republicans viewed +as an abject surrender to British demands, revived vituperation against the +president, as did his vigorous upholding of the excise law during the Whiskey +Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. + +RETIREMENT AND ASSESSMENT + +By March 1797, when Washington left office, the country's financial system was +well established; the Indian threat east of the Mississippi had been largely +eliminated; and Jay's Treaty and Pinckney's Treaty (1795) with Spain had +enlarged U.S. territory and removed serious diplomatic difficulties. In spite of +the animosities and conflicting opinions between Democratic-Republicans and +members of the Hamiltonian Federalist party, the two groups were at least united +in acceptance of the new federal government. Washington refused to run for a +third term and, after a masterly Farewell Address in which he warned the United +States against permanent alliances abroad, he went home to Mount Vernon. He was +succeeded by his vice-president, Federalist John Adams. + +Although Washington reluctantly accepted command of the army in 1798 when war +with France seemed imminent, he did not assume an active role. He preferred to +spend his last years in happy retirement at Mount Vernon. In mid-December, +Washington contracted what was probably quinsy or acute laryngitis; he declined +rapidly and died at his estate on Dec. 14, 1799. + +Even during his lifetime, Washington loomed large in the national imagination. +His role as a symbol of American virtue was enhanced after his death by Mason L. +Weems, in an edition of whose Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington +(c.1800) first appeared such legends as the story about the cherry tree. Later +biographers of note included Washington Irving (5 vols., 1855-59) and Woodrow +Wilson (1896). Washington's own works have been published in various editions, +including THE DIARIES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy +Twohig (6 vols., 1976-79), and THE WRITINGS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON . . ., +1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick (39 vols., 1931-44). + DOROTHY TWOHIG + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + Cunliffe, Marcus - GEORGE WASHINGTON: MAN AND MONUMENT (1958) + Davis, Burke - GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1975) + Dupuy, Trevor N. - THE MILITARY LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON (1969) + Flexner, James T. - GEORGE WASHINGTON, 4 vols. (1965-72) + Freeman, Douglas S. - GEORGE WASHINGTON, 7 vols. (1949-57) +Knollenberg, Bernhard - GEORGE WASHINGTON: THE VIRGINIA PERIOD, 1732-1775 (1964) + - WASHINGTON AND THE REVOLUTION (1940; repr. 1968) + McDonald, Forrest - THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON (1974) + Nettels, Curtis P. - GEORGE WASHINGTON AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE + (1951; repr. 1977) + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON + +1st President of the United States (1789-97) +Nickname: "Father of His Country" +Born: Feb. 22, 1732, Pope's Creek, Va. +Profession: Soldier, Planter +Religious Affiliation: Episcopalian +Marriage: Jan. 6, 1759, to Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802) +Children: None +Political Affiliation: Federalist +Writings: WRITINGS (39 vols., 1931-44), ed. by John C. Fitzpatrick +Died: Dec. 14, 1799, Mount Vernon, Va +Buried: Mount Vernon, Va. (family vault) +Vice-President: John Adams +Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson (1790-93) + Edmund Randolph (1794-95) + Timothy Pickering (1795-97) +Secretary of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton (1789-95) + Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1795-97) +Secretary of War: Henry Knox (1789-94) + Timothy Pickering (1795-96) + James McHenry (1796-97) +Attorney General: Edmund Randolph (1790-94) + William Bradford (1794-95) + Charles Lee (1795-97) + +'Copyright 1987, Grolier Inc, Academic American Encyclopedia, +Electronic Version' + +USED BY PERMISSION, granted January 9, 1988 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gatt.wh b/textfiles.com/politics/gatt.wh new file mode 100644 index 00000000..528865ca --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gatt.wh @@ -0,0 +1,162 @@ + + + + + +April 29, 1992 + + PRESIDENT BUSH ON THE URUGUAY ROUND + NEGOTIATIONS OF THE GATT + + + + "The Uruguay Round offers a vital opportunity to eliminate + barriers to our goods, investment, services, and ideas." + + President George Bush + May 1, 1991 + +Summary + +o Under President Bush's leadership, the United States is + spearheading efforts to complete the Uruguay Round of + multilateral trade negotiations, the most ambitious round in + the history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade + (GATT). The 108 nation members of GATT represent over 90 + percent of world trade. The objective of the Uruguay Round + negotiations is to strengthen and expand the global trading + system by reducing trade barriers. + +o The Bush Administration's goals in the Round include sharply + reducing trade barriers worldwide; extending GATT rules to + services, investment, and intellectual property; and curbing + trade subsidies that undercut American farm and industrial + exports, while not reducing the effectiveness of U.S. laws + against unfair trade. + +o President Bush is committed to obtaining a GATT agreement + that will benefit American workers, farmers, and consumers; + he will not accept an inadequate agreement just for the sake + of an agreement. + + +A Sound GATT Agreement Would Benefit the U.S. Economy + +o An open multilateral trading system is the best guarantee + that U.S. export opportunities will continue to expand into + the next century. The Uruguay Round is the most important + initiative to expand these opportunities. A successful + Uruguay Round would provide substantial benefits to the U.S. + economy, including: + + + -more- + GATT -- page 2 + + + -- Lower tariff and non-tariff barriers to manufactured + products and other goods, which would substantially + boost U.S. exports and could increase U.S. output by + over $1 trillion over the next ten years; + + -- Rules to protect the intellectual property of U.S. + entrepreneurs to reduce the $60 billion lost each year + through theft and counterfeiting; + + -- New markets for U.S. services firms, which export over + $140 billion annually and generate 90 percent of new + U.S. jobs; + + -- Fair competition and open markets in agriculture to + create new opportunities for American farmers, who lead + the world with more than $40 billion in annual exports; + -- Full participation of developing countries in the + global trading system, which could increase U.S. + exports by $200 billion between now and the year 2000; + and + + -- Effective rules on dispute settlement, anti-dumping, + subsidies, and import safeguards, to expand U.S. access + to foreign markets and ensure fair trade in the U.S. + market. + +Agriculture + +o One of President Bush's key objectives is to obtain a GATT + agreement that contains major agricultural policy reforms, + including commitments by GATT member nations to reduce trade- + distorting internal support to farmers, open markets to + imports, and cut export subsidies. + +o Agricultural reforms in the Uruguay Round would mark an + historic departure from the costly protectionist measures + that have flourished in that sector, largely outside GATT + disciplines. These reforms would have significant benefits + for farmers, taxpayers, and consumers in the United States + and the rest of the world. + +o These reforms have been opposed by the European Community, + which refuses to reduce subsidies that give EC farmers an + unfair advantage in the world market. President Bush, + supported by other GATT members, has demanded that any final + GATT agreement include a commitment by all parties including + the EC to drastically reduce these subsidies and to require + their farmers to compete in the world market. + + -more- + GATT -- page 3 + + +Services + +o President Bush has insisted that global trade rules for + services be established to expand access to global markets + for U.S. services providers. President Bush is confident + that U.S. services, such as banking, insurance, + telecommunications, motion pictures, tourism, and + construction, can out-compete their foreign counterparts if + only they are allowed to compete on a level playing field. + + -- The United States already leads the world with $140 + billion in services exports annually. + +Intellectual PropertyIntellectual Property Rules + +o Patented, copyrighted, and trademarked products are a + growing source of foreign earnings to the U.S. economy. + President Bush has pressed for a GATT agreement that will + afford the highest level of protection to copyrights, + patents, and other forms of intellectual property held by + U.S. firms. The President also has insisted that the + agreement must include strong sanctions for those countries + that condone the piracy, infringement or violation of these + rights. + +o The President's efforts to protect American know-how have + already paid off. For example, in the most recent draft of + the proposed agreement, computer software would be protected + as literary work, the highest form of copyright protection + allowed. + +Textile and Apparel +Textile and Apparel + +o The current draft GATT agreement calls for removal of the + quota system established by the 1974 Multi-Fiber Arrangement + (MFA). One of President Bush's main objectives in the GATT + negotiations has been to ensure that any such quota removal + be conducted on a smooth and gradual basis in order to + minimize the disruption to the U.S. textile and apparel + industry. + +o The President's call for a sensible, responsible phaseout of + the quotas has prevailed. The proposed draft agreement + calls for a gradual phaseout of the MFA, which will allow + the U.S. textile industry time to adjust to import + competition and avoid severe disruption, appropriate + safeguard procedures, improved procedures to deal with + circumvention of quotas and important market-opening + measures for U.S. textile and apparel exporters. + + # # # + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gay.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/gay.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c6e0b995 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gay.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ +##### Updated format + + + +CLINTON/GORE ON ISSUES OF CONCERN TO GAYS AND LESBIANS + + + +Stop discrimination against gays and lesbians at +all levels of government: As President, Bill +Clinton would issue executive orders to repeal the +ban on gays and lesbians from military or foreign +service and to prohibit discrimination in federal +employment, federal contracts and government +services. + +Support federal civil rights legislation for gays +and lesbians: A Clinton/Gore Administration would +support a federal gay civil rights bill that +respects freedom of religion by exempting religious +organizations; and that provides clear evidentiary +standards to be used in court. + +Make the fight against AIDS a real national +priority and implement a coordinated national AIDS +strategy with a 6-point plan: Bill Clinton and Al +Gore believe that continued indifference and +further delay in the fight against AIDS is +unconscionable. + +The Clinton/Gore Plan + +* Appoint an AIDS policy director to head a + "Manhattan Project" that coordinates federal + AIDS policies, cuts through bureaucratic red + tape and implements recommendations made by + the National Commission on AIDS. + +* Speed up the drug approval process and commit + increased government resources to research and + development of AIDS-related treatments and + vaccines, and ensure that women and people of + color are included in research and drug + trials. + +* Fully fund the Ryan White CARE Act. + +* Promote a national AIDS education and + prevention initiative that disseminates frank + and accurate information to reduce the spread + of the disease, and educates our children + about the nature and threat of AIDS. + +* Provide quality health coverage to all + Americans with HIV as part of a broader + national health care program; work vigorously + to improve access to promising experimental + therapies for people with life-threatening + illnesses; and improve preventive and + long-term care. + +* Combat AIDS-related discrimination and oppose + needless mandatory HIV testing in federal + organizations such as the Peace Corps, Job + Corps and the Foreign Service; stop the + cynical politicization of immigration policies + by directing the Justice Department to follow + the Department of Health and Human Services' + recommendation that HIV be removed from the + immigration restrictions list. + +Crack down on hate crimes: A Clinton/Gore +Administration will be tough on anti-gay violence. +As President, Bill Clinton would direct the Justice +Department to aggressively prosecute hate crimes +perpetrated against any individuals because of +their sexual orientation, race, creed or religion. + + +The Record + +* Senator Gore supported the Hate Crimes + Statistics Act which provides for the + collection and publication of data about + crimes that manifest prejudice based on race, + religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. + +* Supported the AIDS Federal Policy Act of 1987 + which bans discrimination against persons with + AIDS or the HIV infection. + +* Al Gore has supported legislation to remove + HIV from the immigration restrictions list. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/genepool.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/genepool.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..24735abd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/genepool.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ + DECLINE IN GENETIC DIVERSITY: GLOBAL DISASTER IN THE MAKING + + Diversity in the gene pool is shrinking at an alarming rate and + could lead to what Robert Cowen, science editor of the CHRISTIAN + SCIENCE MONITOR, says "could become a mass extinction of Earth's plant + and animal species." Species extinction of both plants and animals has + accelerated rapidly in the 20th century and has reached what many feel + is a state of crisis. From 1600 to 1900, one species disappeared every + four years; now perhaps 1,000 species become extinct each year. The + Worldwatch Institute pamphlet on conserving the diversity of life, + published in June 1987, predicts the extinction rate in 20 years will + reach more than 100 species per day. + The loss of life forms is more than an aesthetic issue. The + rapid extinction of food crop germplasm represents a disaster in the + making. Unless the trend is slowed, mass famine on a global scale is + a real possibility. The International Board for Plant Genetic + Resources has issued warnings that the genetic diversity of many of + the staple crops that feed the world such as wheat, rice, barley, + millet, and sorghum is imperiled. 72% of the U.S. potato crop is + concentrated in four genetic strains. Six varieties account for 71% + of the corn crop. Of the cataloged vegetables grown in the U.S. in + 1901/02, less than four percent still existed in 1985. + Genetic diversity is a prerequisite for agricultural success. + Genetic uniformity makes crops vulnerable to environmental threats + such as pests, blight, and drought. The Irish potato famine was the + result of genetic uniformity. The U.S. lost 75% of its durum wheat + crop in 1953/54 and 50% of its corn crop in 1970, both due to genetic + uniformity. + The dimunition of diversity has led to what some researchers call + the global "seed wars." As plant species disappear around the world, + "access to, control over and preservation of plant genetic resources + becomes a matter of international concern and conflict." The vast + majority of the world's genetic resources is concentrated in the Third + World. In order to prevent crop stains from inbreeding, the industrial + nations resort to "germplasm appropriation," a strategy for collecting + plant genetic material from Third World countries. The fact that the + "collection" is done without recompense further exacerbates tensions + between industrial and developing nations. + The Plant Variety Protection Act legislation of 1970, which + broadened the interpretation of U.S. patent laws to allow corporations + to patent seed varieties, has accelerated the extinction rate of food + crop germplasm. Germplasm appropriated from the Third World is sold + back to developing countries in the form of hybridized, patented seed. + Farmers in the world's centers of diversity are planting genetically + uniform crops more and more frequently, thus causing further loss of + indigenous seed. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization + estimates that two thirds of all Third World crops will be from + uniform strains by the year 2000. + The disappearance of genetic diversity either by accident or + design is a critical issue that has had little media coverage or + public debate. Germplasm has not made headlines. There are no "Save + the Barley" bumperstickers. Yet every day, more and more of our + precious food sources disappear forever. + + SOURCES: UTNE READER, Jan/Feb 1988, "Conserving the Diversity of + Life," by Jeremiah Creedon, pp 15-16; MOTHER JONES, December 1982, + "Seeds of Disaster," by Mark Schapiro, pp 11-15, 36-37. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/genetic.fun b/textfiles.com/politics/genetic.fun new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9d736cb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/genetic.fun @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ +Copyright 1983 +NPG,Ltd. + GENETIC WORKER TESTING + + ISSUE: Should private companies be allowed to screen job applicants on the +basis of genetic tests? (1) Yes. Companies should be free to use genetic or +any other kind of testing; if workers object, they are free to work elsewhere. +(2) No. It is unfair to reject job applicants on the basis of their genetic +structure, something that they can do nothing about. + + BACKGROUND: Recent advances in genetic research allow researchers to +identify many genetic flaws that create tendencies toward diseases such as +emphysema, arteriosclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and others. Many of these +flaws are apparently randomly generated, giving no advance warning as to who +wll be affected. But some genetic flaws are not evenly distributed throughout +the population; rather they are concentrated in certain groups, including +certain minority groups. Businesses are becoming interested in genetic testing +as a way of identifying workers who are particularly susceptible to certain +substances By such early identification, precautions can be taken to improve +workers' safety. But business is also aware that workers with diseases +(genetically caused or not) are an economic burden on industry because they +miss more work than their healthy counterparts. Thus there is an economic +interest in screening job applicants for genetic defects. + + POINT: If genetic tests are available that allow businesses to do a better +and more efficient job, then they should be allowed to use them. All consumers +benefit when business works better. It is wrong to burden others with the +problems of some individuals. And it is not a one-sided issue. Workers +benefit from having advance warning of susceptibilities. It allows them to +choose occupations which are less dangerous to them, and it allows them to +begin treatment earlier. You also have to be realistic. It is impractical, +bordering on impossible, to halt genetic testing for employment or other +business purposes while retaining it for the voluntary detection and early +treatment of diseases. People who have a tendency toward certain diseases +often have a shorter life expectancy than normal. If they share equally in +company-sponsored benefit programs including life and disability insurance, +they (or their estate) will statistically realize a greater return than the +average policy holder. That is unfair to every other participant in these +programs. + + COUNTERPOINT: Business uses of genetic engineering, if allowed at all, +should be limited to voluntary ones, and any discrimination by business against +people who choose not to submit to the testing should be severely punished. A +certain amount of individual freedom is an essential part of working, and you +cannot allow companies to take that away just because they think it would be +more "efficient." No one is perfect, and this would just provide a credible +basis for otherwise unacceptable discrimination. Because some genetic defects +are tied to a person's racial or cultural background, the indiscriminate use of +genetic testing could result in a sharp resurgence of racial or other forms of +discrimination. Businesses will tend to view the genetic test results as +definitive. But that is not always true. Tests can be wrong. Even more +important, people have overcome genetically-caused problems in the past; they +ought to be given a fair chance to do so in the future. Widespread, +uncontrolled screening will not give them that chance. The fundamental +unfairness of genetic screening cannot be avoided. Unlike educational and +training deficiencies, genetic traits cannot be changed. People should not be +punished (and that is what a denial of employment really is) for things that +they cannot change, just as they cannot legally be discriminated against now on +the basis of race, religion or sex. This is not just a matter of philosophy; +it also has a fundamental legal dimension. To allow unrestricted involuntary +testing would violate an individual's Constitutional protection against +self-incrimination, because the results of that kind of test might be crucial +to his livelihood. + + +QUESTIONS: + o What would happen if government tried to impose controls on genetic +screening tests? Do you think they would work, that they would be able to +permit beneficial research while barring that which poses high risks? + + o If a person has a genetically-based physical handicap such as +arteriosclerosis, should business be allowed to discriminate on the basis of +that handicap? + + o Do you think that it is fair to say that you are really punishing a person +when you deny him or her a job because you think doing that job would be +injurious to that person? + +REFERENCES: + + o The Question of Genetic Tinkering, Nicholas Wade, +Technology Illustrated, November 1983, p.6 + + o NIH Weighing Plans to Release Altered Bacteria, Philip J. +Hilts, The Washington Post, September 20, 1983, p.A1 + + o Man-Made Life:An Overview of the Science, Technology and +Commerce of Genetic Engineering, Jeremy Cherfas, Pantheon Books, +1983 + + o Keeping Up With The Genetic Revilution, Kathleen McAuliffe +and Sharon McAuliffe, The New York Times Magazine, November 6, +1983, p.41 + + o New Technique to Produce Proteins May Alter Biotechnology +Industry, Jerry E. Bishop, The Wall Street Journal, November 10, +1983, Section 2 + + + (Note: Please leave your thoughts -- message or uploaded comments -- on this +issue on Tom Mack's RBBS, The Second Ring --- (703) 759-5049. Please address +them to Terry Steichen of New Perspectives Group, Ltd.) + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/george.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/george.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..08cd2559 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/george.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ + George Bush is my shepard, I shall not want. + He leadeth me beside still factories. + He restoreth my faith in the Democratic Party, + Yea tho I walk through the valley of the breadline, + I shall not go hungry. + For Bush hath annointed my income with taxes, + My expenses runneth over my income. + Surely poverty and hard living will follow me all the + days of my life. + The Republicans & I will live in a rented house forever. + But I am glad I'm an American, + And I am surely glad that I am free. + But I surely wish I were a dog, + And George Bush was a tree. + + author unknown + +--- + * Origin: The Star Port - 805-297-2310 (85:805/401) diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/german_s.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/german_s.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..17345bc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/german_s.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1544 @@ +THE GERMAN SURRENDER DOCUMENTS - WWII: + + + Instrument of Surrender + of + All German armed forces in HOLLAND, in + northwest Germany including all islands, + and in DENMARK. + + +1. The German Command agrees to the surrender of all armed + forces in HOLLAND, in northwest GERMANY including the + FRISLIAN ISLANDS and HELIGOLAND and all islands, in + SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, and in DENMARK, to the C.-in-C. 21 + Army Group. + + =This to include all naval ships in these areas= + + These forces to lay down their arms and to surrender + unconditionally. + + +2. All hostilities on land, on sea, or in the air by German + forces in the above areas to cease at 0800 hrs. British + Double Summer Time on Saturday 5 May 1945. + + +3. The German command to carry out at once, and without + argument or comment, all further orders that will be issued + by the Allied Powers on any subject. + + +4. Disobedience of orders, or failure to comply with them, will + be regarded as a breach of these surrender terms and will be + dealt with by the Allied Powers in accordance with the laws + and usages of war. + + +5. This insturment of surrender is independent of, without pre- + judice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument + of surrender imposed by or on behalf of the Allied Powers + and applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a + whole. + + +6. This instument of surrender is written in English and in German. + + The English version is the authentic text. + + +7. The decision of the Allied Powers will be final if any doubt + or dispute arise as to the meaning or intrepretation of the + surrender terms. + + + =HANS GEORG von FRIEDBERG= + + =KINZEL= + + =G. WAGNER= +=B. L. MONTGOMERY= + =Field - Marshal= =POLECK= + + =FRIEDEL= + =4 May 1945= + + =1830 hrs.= +--------------------------------------- + +{Reichspresident Donitz's authorization to Colonel General Jodl} +{to conclude a general surrender:} + + + Hauptquartier, den 6. Mai 1945 + + + + + Ich bevollmachtige Generaloberst J o d l , + + Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes in Oberkommando + + der Wehrmact, zum Abschluss eines Waffenstill- + + standsbkommens mit dem Hauptquartier des Generals + + E i s e n h o w e r . + + + [ SEAL ] =DONITZ= + + GroBadmiral. +--------------------------------------- + + Only this text in English is authoritative + + + + ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER + + + + 1. We the undersigned, acting by authority + + of the German High Command, hereby surrender + + unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied + + Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the + + Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea and in + + the air who are at this date under German control. + + 2. The German High Command will at once + + issue orders to all German military, naval and + + air authorties and to all forces under German + + control to cease active operations at =2301= hours + + Central European time on = 8 May = and to + + remain in the positions occupied at that time. No + + ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any + + damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment. + + 3. The German High Command will at once + + issue to the appropriate commander, and ensure + + the carrying out of any further orders issued by + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and by the Soviet High Command. + + 4. This act of military surrender is without + + prejudice to, and will be superseded by any + + general instrument of surrender imposed by, or + + on behalf of the United Nations and applicable + + to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole. + + 5. In the event of the German High Command + + or any of the forces under their control failing + + to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive + + or other action as they deem appropriate. + + + + + Signed at =RHEIMS at 0241= on the =7th= day of May, 1945. + =France= + + + On behalf of the German High Command. + + + =JODL= + + + IN THE PRESENCE OF + + +On behalf of the Supreme Commander, On behalf of the Soviet + Allied Expeditionary Force. High Command + + =W. B. SMITH= =SOUSLOPAROV= + + + =F SEVEZ= +Major General, French Army + (Witness) +--------------------------------------- + + SUPREME HEADQUARTERS + ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE + + + SERIAL 1 + + ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, + + ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE RELATING TO + + ARMY AND AIR FORCES UNDER GERMAN CONTROL + + + + 1. Local commanders of the Army and Air Force + + under German control on the Western Front, in + + NORWAY and in the CHANNEL ISLANDS will hold themselves + + in readiness to receive detailed orders for the + + surrender of their forces from the Supreme Commander's + + subordinate commanders opposite their front. + + 2. In the case of NORWAY the Supreme + + Commander's representatives will be the General + + Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Scottish Command and + + Air Officer Commanding 13 Group RAF. + + 3. In the case of the CHANNEL ISLANDS the + + Supreme Commander's representatives will be the + + General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern + + Command and Air Officer Commanding 10 Group RAF. + + + + + =WALTER B SMITH= + Signed.................... + For the Supreme Commander, RAF + + + Dated =0241 7th= May, 1945 + =Rheims France= + +--------------------------------------- + + SPECIAL ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED + + EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND + + RELATING TO NAVAL FORCES + + + + For the purpose of these orders the term "Allied + Representatives" shall be deemed to include the + Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, + and any subordinate commander, staff officer or + agent acting pursuant to his orders. + + + + SPECIAL ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED + + EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND + + RELATING TO NAVAL FORCES + + PART I GENERAL + + + Definition of Naval Forces + + 1. For the purpose of these orders all formations, + + units, and personnel of the German Navy together with the + + Marine Kusten Polizie shall be refered to as the German + + Naval Forces. + + 2. Members of the Marine Kusten Polizie will + + immediately be placed under the command of the appropriate + + German Naval Commanders who will be responsible for their + + maintenance and supply where applicable, to the same + + extent and degree as for units of the German Navy. + + German Naval Representatives and information required + + immediately + + 3. The German High Command will dispatch within + + 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a res- + + ponsible Flag Officer to the Allied Naval Commander, + + Expeditionary Force at his headquarters. This + + Flag Officer will furnish the Allied Naval Commander, + + Expeditionary Force, with:- + + a. Corrected copies of charts showing all + + minefields in Western Europe waters, including the + + BALTIC as far as LUBECK (inclusive) which have been laid + + by German and German-controlled vessels or aircraft, + + positions of all wrecks, booms and other underwater + + obstructions in this area, details of the German convoy + + routes and searched channels and of all bouys, lights + + and other navigational aids in this area. The appropriate + + navigational publications are also required. + + b. Details of the exact location of all + + departments and branches of the German Admiralty (OKM). + + c. All available information concerning + + the numbers and types of German minesweepers and sperr- + + brechers in German controlled Dutch ports and German + + NORTH SEA ports that can be obtained without delaying + + his departure. This German Flag Officer is to be + + accompanied by a Communications Officer who is familiar + + with the German Naval W/T organization and who is to + + bring with him the current naval communications Orders, + + including allocation of frequencies, list of W/T and + + R/T call signs in force, and a list of all codes and + + cyphers in use, and intended to be brought into use. + + d. Location of all surface warships down + + to and including "Elbing" class Torpedo Boats, and of + + all submarines and "E" Boats. + + 4. The German High Command will also dispatch + + within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective + + a responsibile officer, not below the rank of Captain, + + by coastal craft to report to the Admiral Commanding + + at DOVER for onward routing to Commander-in-Chief, + + THE NORE, with:- + + a. Corrected copies of charts showing all + + minefields in the NORTH SEA SOUTH of 54 30' NORTH and + + EAST of 1 30' EAST laid by German and German-controlled + + vessels or aircraft, positions of all wrecks, booms and + + all other underwater obstructions; details of all + + German Convoy routes and searched channels in this area, + + and of all bouys, lights and other navigational aids + + which are under German control. Appropriate naviga- + + tional publications are also required. + + b. All available information concerning + + the numbers and types of German minesweepers and + + sperrbrechers in German contolled Dutch ports and + + German NORTH SEA ports that can be obtained without + + delaying his departure. + + 5. Another responsible German Naval Officer, + + with similar information is to be dispatched by un- + + escorted aircraft painted white to MANSTON Areodrome + + position 51 20' NORTH, 1 20' EAST for onward routing + + to Commander-in-Chief, THE NORE. + + 6. The German High Command will issue instruc- + + tions to certain German naval commands as indicated + + below:- + + a. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORTH + + SEA will dispatch by coastal craft within 48 hours + + after the surrender becomes effective a responsible + + officer, not below the rank of Captain, to the + + Admiral Commanding at DOVER for onward routing to + + Commander-in-Chief, THE NORE, with:- + + (1) details of minesweeping operations + + carried out in the German convoy route + + between the HOOK OF HOLLAND and + + HAMBURG and in approaches to harbours + + between these two ports during the + + previous 60 days; + + (2) numbers and postions of all + + British mines swept during these + + operations; + + (3) details of all controlled mine- + + fields in this area and information + + whether they have been rendered + + ineffective; + + (4) details of all other mining and + + types of mines employed in the harbours + + and harbour approaches of CUXHAVEN, + + EMDEN, TERSCHELLING, TEXEL, IJMUIDEN, + + AMSTERDAM, SCHEVENINGEN, HOOK OF + + HOLLAND and ROTTERDAM; + + (5) berthing facilities in the harbours + + enumerated in paragraph (6a). (4) above + + and the numbers of auxiliary minesweepers + + which can be accomodated; + + (6) a list of all W/T and R/T call signs + + in use by the German Navy. + + Any of the above information which cannot be obtained without + + delaying the departure of this officer will be forwarded + + subsequently as soon as it is available. + + b. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORTH SEA, will + + also dispatch as soon as possible by coastal craft to DOVER + + thirteen German Naval Officers who must be familiar with the + + German swept channels between the HOOK OF HOLLAND and + + CUXHAVEN. These officers will bring with them all the charts + + and books required for naviagation in this area and will be + + accompanied by pilots (and interpreters if necessary). + + c. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORWAY, will + + dispatch by sea within 48 hours after the surrender becomes + + effective, a responsible officer, not below the rank of + + Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, with corrected copies + + of charts showing all German minefields in the NORTH SEA, NORTH + + of 56 NORTH, all wrecks, booms and other underwater + + obstructions, details of German convoy routes and searched + + channels in this area, of the approach channels to the principal + + Norwegian ports and of all bouys, lights and other navigational + + aids in this area. This officer will also bring with him the + + disposition of all "U" Boats and details of all orders affecting + + their future movements. He will be accompanied by six German + + Naval Officers with pilots (and interpreters if necessary) who + + are familiar with the coastal swept channels between OSLO and + + TROMSO. These officers will bring with them all the charts + + and books required for navigation in Norwegian waters, and a + + list of all W/T and R/T call signs in use by the German Navy. + + d. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORWAY, will + + dispatch a duplicate party to the above with similar informa- + + tion by an unescorted aircraft painted white to DREM Airfield + + 56 02' NORTH 02 48' WEST. + + e. The Naval Commander-in-Chief, NORWAY, will + + report by W/T to the Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, within 48 hours + + after the surrender becomes effective, the following information:- + + (1) Berthing facilities at OSLO, + + CHRISTIANSAND, STAVANGER, BERGEN, TRONDHEIM, + + NARVIK, and TROMSO. + + (2) The appropriate quantities of furnace + + oil fuel, diesel oil fuel, and coal at all the + + principal Norwegian ports between OSLO and + + TROMSO. + + 7. The German Admiral SKGGERAK will dispatch by sea + + within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a + + responsible officer not below the rank of Captain, to the + + Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, with corrected copies of charts + + showing all German minefields, wrecks, booms, and other underwater + + obstructions, details of German convoy routes and searched + + channels, bouys, lights and other navigational aids in the + + SKAGGERAK, KATTEGAT, THE BEITS AND SOUND, KIEL + + BAY and BALTIC WATERS WEST of 14 EAST. This + + officer will also bring with him the disposition + + of all "U" boats in the above area and details + + of all orders affecting their future move- + + ments. He will be accompanied by three German Naval + + officers with pilots (and interpreters if necessary) + + who are familiar with the coastal swept channels, and + + channels in the Swedish territorial waters, in the waters + + referred to above. These officers will bring with + + them all the charts and books required for navigation + + in these waters, and a list of all W/T and R/T call + + signs in use by the German Navy. + + The German Admiral SKAGGERAK will dispatch + + a duplicate party to that specified above, with similar + + information, by air in unescorted aircraft painted + + white to DREM Airfield 56 02' NORTH 02 48' WEST. + + 8. The German Naval Officers who will be dis- + + patched to DOVER and ROSYTH by sea will proceed to + + positions in latitude 51 19' NORTH longitude 1 43' EAST + + and latitude 56 47' NORTH longitude 1 13' WEST respectively, + + where they will be met by British warships and escorted + + to their destination. The ships or craft in which they + + travel are to fly a large white flag at the masthead by + + day and are to illuminate these white flags by night. + + These ships are to broadcast their positions hourly by + + W/T on 500 ks. (600 meters) whilst on passage. + + Information required within fourteen days + + 9. The German High Command will furnish the + + following information to the Allied Naval Commander, + + Expeditionary Force, at by + + within fourteen days of cessation of hostilities. + + a. Locations of all warships, auxiliaries and armed + + coastal craft operating under the orders of the German Naval + + Command stating particulars of the operational unit to which they + + are attached, giving approximate totals of all naval personal + + embarked in each vessel, (including naval flak and merchant ship + + flak). + + b. A statement of the organizations of all naval + + shore Commands, giving location of all naval establishments, + + including establishments for experiment and research, names of + + all Commanding Officers and Principal Staff Officers of the rank + + of Commander in each establishment. + + c. A statement of the strength and location of all + + naval land forces including naval infrantry, naval flak, merchant + + ship flak and naval personnel manning naval coast artillery and + + full particulars of all Coastal and port defenses giving nature + + and locations. + + d. Lists of stocks of furnace oil fuels, diesel oil + + fuel, petrol, and coal of 500 tons or more at, or in the vicinity + + of, all ports between IJMUIDEN and HAMBURG inclusive. + + e. A statement of location of the principal naval + + armament depots with approximate overall stocks of each major + + item held. + + f. The following communications information:- + + (1) location and details concerning all + + V/S, W/T (including D/F) and radar + + stations in use by, and under constuc- + + tion for the German Navy, these details + + to include types and capabilities of all + + equipment fitted. + + (2) details of the current naval W/T + + organization, lists of W/T and R/T call + + signs in force, and allocation of all + + frequencies for communication and radar + + purposes. + + (3) location and details of all naval + + communications (including Infra-Red) + + and naval radar training and research + + establishments. + + g. Full details of all German minefields in + + the NORTH SEA, SKAGGERAK, KATTEGAT, BEITS, and SOUND. + + h. Full details of the German naval minesweeping + + organization including the communications organization. + + j. Full details of the communications (including + + Infra-Red) and radar equipment fitted in all German minesweepers + + and sperrbrechers. + + k. Technical details of all types of minesweeping + + gear used by the German Navy. + + l. Details of all mining and types of mines employed + + and of berthing facilities available for ships of 150 feet in + + length and 16 feet draught at:- + + BREMERHAVEN + + WILHELMSHAVEN + + SCHIERMONNIKOOG + + DELFZIJL + + 10. The German High Command will also furnish the Allied + + Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force, with two copies of all + + coding and cyphering systems which have been, are being, or were + + to be used by the German Navy with the necessary instructions for + + their use and the dates between which they have been, or were to + + have been used. + + + + PART II - CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT + + Orders to warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft + + + 11. The German High Command will forthwith direct all + + German and German-controlled warships, auxiliaries, + + merchant ships and other craft to comply with the following + + instructions:- + + a. All warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and + + other craft in harbours are to remain in harbour pending + + further directions from the Allied Representatives. + + b. All warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships + + and other craft at sea are to report their positions in plain + + language immediately to the nearest British, US or Soviet Coast + + Wireless Telegraphy station on 500 kc/s (600 metres), and are to + + proceed to the nearest German or Allied port or such ports as + + the Allied Representatives may direct, and remain there pending + + further directions from the Allied Representatives. At night + + they are to show lights and to display searchlights with beams + + held vertically. + + c. All warships and merchant ships whether in port + + or at sea will immediately train all weapons fore and aft. All + + torpedo tubes will be unloaded and breech blocks will be removed + + from all guns. + + d. All warships and merchant ships in German or + + German-controlled harbours will immediately land and store in + + safety all ammunition, warheads and other explosives. They + + will land all portable weapons but, pending further instuctions, + + warships will retain onboard the fixed armament. Fire control + + and all other equipment will be maintained on board intact and + + fully efficient. + + e. All minesweeping vessels are to carry out the + + means of disarmament prescribed in c. and d. above, + + (except that they will however, retain on board such portable + + weapons and explosives as are required for minesweeping + + purposes) and are to be prepared immediately for minesweeping + + service under the direction of the Allied Representatives. + + They will complete with fuel where necessary. + + f. All German salvage vessels are to carry out + + the measures of disarmament prescribed in c. and d. above + + (except that they will retain on board such explosives as are + + required for salvage purposes.) These vessels, together with + + all salvage equipment and personnel, are to be prepared for + + immediate salvage operations under the direction of the Allied + + Representatives, completing with fuel where necessary for this + + purpose. + + g. The movement of transport on the inland waterways + + of GERMANY may continue, subject to orders from the Allied + + Representatives. No vessels moving on inland waterways will + + proceed to neutral waters. + +Submarines + + 12. The German High Command will tranmit by W/T on + + appropriate frequencies the two messages in Annexures 'A' and + + 'B' which contain instructions to submarines at sea. + +Naval Aircraft + + 13. The German High Command will forthwith direct that:- + + a. German naval aircraft are not to leave the + + ground or water or ship pending directions from the Allied + + Representatives; + + b. naval aircraft in the air are to return + + immediately to their bases. + +Neutral shipping + + 14. The German High Command will forthwith direct + + that all neutral merchant ships in German and German- + + controlled ports are to be detained pending further + + directions from the Allied Representatives. + +Orders relating to sabotage, scuttling, safety measures, + +pilotage and personnel + + 15. The German High Command will forthwith issue + + categorical directions that:- + + a. No ship, vessel or aircraft of any + + description is to be scuttled, or any damage done + + to their hull, machinery or equipment. + + b. all harbour works and port facilities + + of whatever nature, including telecommunications and + + radar stations, are to be preserved and kept free from + + destruction or damage pending further directions from the + + Allied Representatives, and all necessary steps taken and + + all necessary orders issued to prohibit any act of + + scuttling, sabotage, or other willful damage. + + + c. all boom defenses at all ports and + + harbours are to be opened and kept open at all times; + + where possible, they are to be removed. + + d. all controlled minefields at all ports + + and harbours are to be disconnected and rendered + + ineffective. + + e. all demolition charges in all ports + + and harbour works are to be removed or rendered + + ineffective and their presence indicated. + + f. the existing wartime sustem of navigational + + lighting is to be maintained, except that all dimmed lights + + are to be shown at full brilliancy, and lights only shown + + by special arrangement are to be exhibited continously. + + In particular:- + + (1) HELIGOLAND Light is to be burnt + + at full brilliancy. + + (2) The bouyage of the coastal convoy + + route from the HOOK OF HOLLAND to + + HAMBURG is to be commenced, mid-channel + + light bouys being laid six miles apart. + + (3) Two ships are to be anchored as + + mark vessels in the following positions:- + + 54 20' N, 5 00' E. + 54 20' N, 6 30' E. + + Thse ships are to fly a large black flag at the mast- + + head by day and by night are to flash a searchlight + + vertically every 30 seconds. + + g. All pilotage services are to continue + + to operate and all pilots are to be held at their normal + + stations ready for service and equipped with their charts. + + h. German Naval and other personnel concerned + + in the operation of ports and administrative services in + + ports are to remain at their stations and to continue to + + carry out their normal duties. + +Personnel + + 16. The German High Command will forthwith direct + + that except as may be required for the purpose of giving + + effect to the above special orders:- + + a. all personnel in German warships, + + auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft, are to remain + + on board their ships pending further directions from the + + Allied Representatives. + + b. all Naval personnel ashore are to remain + + in their establishments. + + 17. The German High Command will be responsible for + + the immediate and total disarmament of all naval personnel + + on shore. The orders issued to the German High Command in + + respect of the disarmament and war material of land forces + + will apply also to naval personnel on shore. + + + + =H. M. BURROUGH= + Signed....................... + For the Supreme Commander, AEF. + + + =Dated 0241 7th May 1945= + =Rheims, France= + + + + ANNEXURE 'A' + + + SURRENDER OF GERMAN "U" BOAT FLEET + + + To all "U" Boats at sea: + + Carry out the following instuctions forthwith which + + have been given by the Allied Representatives + + (A) Surface immediately and remain surfaced. + + (B) Report immediately in P/L your position in + + latitude and longitude and number of your "U" Boat + + to nearest British, US, Canadian or Soviet coast W/T + + station on 500 kc/s (600 metres) and to call sign GZZ 10 + + on one of the following high frequencies: 16845 - 12685 + + or 5970 kc/s. + + (C) Fly a large black or blue flag by day. + + (D) Burn navigation lights by night. + + (E) Jettison all ammunition, remove breachblocks from + + guns and render torpedos safe by removing pistols. + + All mines are to be rendered safe. + + (F) Make all signals in P/L. + + (G) Follow strictly the instructions for proceeding + + to Allied ports from your present area given in + + immediately following message. + + (H) Observe strictly the orders of Allied Representatives + + to refrain from scuttling or in any way damaging your + + "U" Boat. + + 2. These instructions will be repeated at two-hour + + intervals until further notice. + + + ANNEXURE 'B' + + + To all "U" Boats at sea. Observe strictly the + + instructions already given to remain fully surfaced. + + Report your position course and speed every 8 hours. + + Obey any instructions that may be given to you by any + + Allied authority. + + The following are the areas and routes for "U" Boats + + surrendering- + + (1) Area 'A'. + + a. Bound on West by meridian 026 degs West and South by + + parallel 043 degs North in Barents Sea by meridian 020 degs + + East in Baltic Approaches by line joining the Naze and Hantsholm + + but excludes Irish Sea between 051 degs thirty mins and 055 degs + + 00 mins North and English Channel between line of Lands End + + Scilly Islands Ushant and line of Dover-Calais. + + b. Join one of following routes at nearest point and + + procceed along it to Loch Eriboll (058 degs 33 minutes North + + 004 degs 37 mins West) + + Blue route: All positions North and West unless otherwise + + indicated + + 049 degs 00 mins 009 degs 00 mins 053 degs 00 mins + + 012 degs 00 mins 058 degs 00 mins 011 degs 00 mins + + 059 degs 00 mins 005 degs 30 mins thence to Loch Eriboll. + + Red route: 053 degs 45 mins North 003 degs 00 mins East + + 059 degs 45 mins 001 degs 00 mins 059 degs 45 mins + + 003 degs 00 mins thence to Loch Eriboll. + + c. Arrive at Loch Eriboll between sunrise and 3 hours + + before sunset. + + (2) Area 'B' + + a. The Irish Sea between parallel of 051 degs 30 mins + + and 055 degs 00 mins North. + + b. Proceed Beaumaris Bay (053 degs 19 mins North 003 + + degs 58 mins West) to arrive between sunrise and 3 hours + + before sunset. + + (3) Area 'C' + + a. The English Channel between line of Lands End - + + Scilly Isles - Ushant and line of Dover - Calais. + + b. 'U' Boats in area 'C' are to join one of following + + routes at nearest point: Green route: position 'A' 049 degs + + 10 mins North 005 degs 40 mins West position 'B' 050 degs 00 + + mins North 003 degs 00 mins West thence escorted to Weymouth. + + Orange route: position 'X' 050 degs 30 mins North 000 degs 50 + + mins East position 'Y' 050 degs 10 mins North 001 degs 50 mins + + West thence escorted to Weymouth. + + c. Arrive at either 'B' or 'Y' between sunrise and 3 hours + + before sunset. + + (4) Area 'D' + + a. Bound on West by lines joining The Naze and Hantsholm + + and on East by lines joining Lubeck and Trelleborg. + + b. Proceed to Kiel. + + (5) Area 'E' + + a. Mediterranean Approaches bound on North by 043 degs + + North on South by 026 degs North and on West by 026 degs West. + + b. Proceed to a rendezvous in position 'A' 036 degs 00 + + mins North 011 degs 00 mins West and await escort reporting + + expected time of arrival in plain language to Admiral Gibraltar + + on 500 kc/s. + + c. Arrive in position 'A' between sunrise and noon G.M.T. + + (6) Area 'F' + + a. The North and South Atlantic West of 026 degs West. + + b. Proceed to nearest of one of following points + + arriving between sunrise and 3 hours before sunset: W 043 + + degs 30 mins North 070 degs 00 mins West approach from a + + point 15 miles due East X 038 degs 20 mins North 074 degs + + 25 mins West approach from a point 047 degs 18 mins North + + 051 30 mins West on a course 270 degs Z 043 31 mins North + + 065 degs 05 mins West approach from point 042 degs 59 mins + + North 054 degs 28 mins West on a course 320 degs. +--------------------------------------- + + UNDERTAKING + + GIVEN BY CERTAIN GERMAN EMISSARIES + + TO THE ALLIED HIGH COMMANDS + + + + It is agreeed by the German emissaries + + undersigned that the following German officers will + + arrive at a place and time designated by the Supreme + + Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, and the Soviet + + High Command prepared, with planary powers, to execute + + a formal ratification on behalf of the German High + + Command of this act of Unconditional Surrender of the + + German armed forces. + + Chief of the High Command + + Commander-in-Chief of the Army + + Commander-in-Chief of the Navy + + Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces. + + + + SIGNED + + + =JODL= + + + + Representing the German High Command. + + + DATED =0241 7th May 1945= + =Rheims, France= +--------------------------------------- + +{Reichspresident Donitz's authorization to German representatives + to execute ratification} + + A b s c h r i f t. + + +Der Oberste Befehlshaber + Hauptquartier, den 7.5.45. + der Wehrmact + +/Bitte in der Antwort vorstehendes + Geschaftszeichen, das Datum und + kurzen Inhalt anzugegen./ + + + ICH BEVOLLMACHTIGE + + GENERALFELDMARSCHALL K E I T E L + + ALS CHEF DES OBERKOMMANDOS DER + + WEHRMACHT UND ZUGLEICH ALS OBER- + + BEFEHLSHABER DES HEERES, + + GENERALADMIRAL VON FRIEDBERG + + ALS OBERBEFEHLSHABER DER KRIEGSMARINE, + + GENERALOBERST S T U M P F + + ALS VERTRETER DES OBERBEFEHLSHABERS + + DER LUFTWAFFE + + + ZUR RATIFIZIERUNG DER BEDINGUNGSLKSEN + + KAPITULATION DER DEUTSCHEN STREITKRAFTE GEGEN- + + UBER DEM OBERBEFEHLSHABER DER ALLIIERTEN + + EXPEDITIONSSTREITKRAFTE UND DEM SOWYET-OBER- + + KOMMANDO. + + + DONITZ + + GROBADMIRAL. + +Siegel. +--------------------------------------- + + ACT OF MULITARY SURRENDER + + + 1. We the undersigned, acting by authority + + of the German High Command, hereby surrender + + unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied + + Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the + + Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces + + on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this + + date under German control. + + 2. The German High Command will at once + + issue order to all German military, naval and + + air authorities and to all forces under German + + control to cease active operations at 2301 hours + + Central European time on 8th May 1945, to remain + + in all positions occupied at that time and to + + disarm completely, handing over their weapons and + + equipment to the local allied commanders or officers + + designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme + + Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be + + scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, + + machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all + + kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical + + means of prosecution of war in general. + + 3. The German High Command will at once + + issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure + + the carrying out of any further orders issued by + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army. + + 4. This act of military surrender is without + + prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general + + instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of + + the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and + + the German armed forces as a whole. + + 5. In the event of the German High Command + + or any of the forces under their control failing + + to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will + + take such punitive or other action as they deem + + appropriate. + + 6. This Act is drawn up in the English, + + Russian and German languages. The English and + + Russian are the only authentic texts. + + + + Signed at =Berlin= on the =8 . = day of May, 1945 + + + + =Von Friedeburg= =Keitel= =Stumpff= + + On behalf of the German High Command + + + + IN THE PRESENCE OF: + + + =A.W.Tedder= + On behalf of the On behalf of the + Supreme Commander Supreme High Command of the + Allied Expeditionary Force Red Army + =Georgi Zhukov= + + At the signing also were present as witnesses: + + + =F. de Lattre-Tassigny= =Carl Spaatz= + General Commanding in Chief General, Commanding + First French Army United States Strategic Air Force + + +--------------------------------------- + + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + A PROCLAMATION + + + + The Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with + +God's help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional + +surrender. The western world has been freed of the evil forces + +which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and + +broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. + +They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, cor- + +rupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies + +of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, + +whose spirit and will the oppressors could never enslave. + + Much remains to be done. The victory won in the West must + +now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the + +evil from which half the world has been freed. United, the + +peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms + +are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of + +military cliques that once called us soft and weak. The power of + +our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved + +in the Pacific was as it has been proved in Europe. + + For the trimuph of spirit and of arms which we have won, and + +of its promise to peoples everywhere who join us in the love of + +freedom, it is fitting that we, as a nation, give thanks to + +Almighty God, who has strengthened us and given us the victory. + + NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United + +States of America, do hereby appoint Sunday, May 13, 1945 to be a + +day of prayer. + + I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their + +faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory + +we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our + +present struggle and guide us into the way of peace. + + I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer + +to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible + +our victory. + + IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused + +the seal of the United States of America to be affixed. + + Done at the City of Washington this eighth day of May in + .. the year of our Lord + + ----------------------------------- + | | nineteen hundred + | | + | | and forty-five + | T H E G R E A T S E A L | + | | and of the + | | + | O F T H E | Independence + | | + | | of the United + | U N I T E D S T A T E S | + | | States of America + | O F | + | | the one hundred + | A M E R I C A | + | | and sixty-ninth. + | | + ----------------------------------- + + By the President: =Harry S. Truman= + + + +------------------------------------- + +Prepared by Monty "Doc" White (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa201) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/germsur.cap b/textfiles.com/politics/germsur.cap new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fb51c80e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/germsur.cap @@ -0,0 +1,1194 @@ + + +THE GERMAN SURRENDER DOCUMENTS - WWII: + + + Instrument of Surrender + of + All German armed forces in HOLLAND, in + northwest Germany including all islands, + and in DENMARK. + + +1. The German Command agrees to the surrender of all armed + forces in HOLLAND, in northwest GERMANY including the + FRISLIAN ISLANDS and HELIGOLAND and all islands, in + SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, and in DENMARK, to the C.-in-C. 21 + Army Group. + + =This to include all naval ships in these areas= + + These forces to lay down their arms and to surrender + unconditionally. + + +2. All hostilities on land, on sea, or in the air by German + forces in the above areas to cease at 0800 hrs. British + Double Summer Time on Saturday 5 May 1945. + + +3. The German command to carry out at once, and without + argument or comment, all further orders that will be issued + by the Allied Powers on any subject. + + +4. Disobedience of orders, or failure to comply with them, will + be regarded as a breach of these surrender terms and will be + dealt with by the Allied Powers in accordance with the laws + and usages of war. + + +5. This insturment of surrender is independent of, without pre- + judice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument + of surrender imposed by or on behalf of the Allied Powers + and applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a + whole. + + +6. This instument of surrender is written in English and in German. + + The English version is the authentic text. + + +7. The decision of the Allied Powers will be final if any doubt + or dispute arise as to the meaning or intrepretation of the + surrender terms. + + + =HANS GEORG von FRIEDBERG= + + =KINZEL= + + =G. WAGNER= +=B. L. MONTGOMERY= + =Field - Marshal= =POLECK= + + =FRIEDEL= + =4 May 1945= + + =1830 hrs.= +--------------------------------------- + +{Reichspresident Donitz's authorization to Colonel General Jodl} +{to conclude a general surrender:} + + + Hauptquartier, den 6. Mai 1945 + + + + + Ich bevollmachtige Generaloberst J o d l , + + Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes in Oberkommando + + der Wehrmact, zum Abschluss eines Waffenstill- + + standsbkommens mit dem Hauptquartier des Generals + + E i s e n h o w e r . + + + [ SEAL ] =DONITZ= + + GroBadmiral. +--------------------------------------- + + Only this text in English is authoritative + + + + ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER + + + + 1. We the undersigned, acting by authority + + of the German High Command, hereby surrender + + unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied + + Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the + + Soviet High Command all forces on land, sea and in + + the air who are at this date under German control. + + 2. The German High Command will at once + + issue orders to all German military, naval and + + air authorties and to all forces under German + + control to cease active operations at =2301= hours + + Central European time on = 8 May = and to + + remain in the positions occupied at that time. No + + ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any + + damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment. + + 3. The German High Command will at once + + issue to the appropriate commander, and ensure + + the carrying out of any further orders issued by + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and by the Soviet High Command. + + 4. This act of military surrender is without + + prejudice to, and will be superseded by any + + general instrument of surrender imposed by, or + + on behalf of the United Nations and applicable + + to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole. + + 5. In the event of the German High Command + + or any of the forces under their control failing + + to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and the Soviet High Command will take such punitive + + or other action as they deem appropriate. + + + + + Signed at =RHEIMS at 0241= on the =7th= day of May, 1945. + =France= + + + On behalf of the German High Command. + + + =JODL= + + + IN THE PRESENCE OF + + +On behalf of the Supreme Commander, On behalf of the Soviet + Allied Expeditionary Force. High Command + + =W. B. SMITH= =SOUSLOPAROV= + + + =F SEVEZ= +Major General, French Army + (Witness) +--------------------------------------- + + SUPREME HEADQUARTERS + ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE + + + SERIAL 1 + + ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, + + ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE RELATING TO + + ARMY AND AIR FORCES UNDER GERMAN CONTROL + + + + 1. Local commanders of the Army and Air Force + + under German control on the Western Front, in + + NORWAY and in the CHANNEL ISLANDS will hold themselves + + in readiness to receive detailed orders for the + + surrender of their forces from the Supreme Commander's + + subordinate commanders opposite their front. + + 2. In the case of NORWAY the Supreme + + Commander's representatives will be the General + + Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Scottish Command and + + Air Officer Commanding 13 Group RAF. + + 3. In the case of the CHANNEL ISLANDS the + + Supreme Commander's representatives will be the + + General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern + + Command and Air Officer Commanding 10 Group RAF. + + + + + =WALTER B SMITH= + Signed.................... + For the Supreme Commander, RAF + + + Dated =0241 7th= May, 1945 + =Rheims France= + +--------------------------------------- + + SPECIAL ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED + + EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND + + RELATING TO NAVAL FORCES + + + + For the purpose of these orders the term "Allied + Representatives" shall be deemed to include the + Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, + and any subordinate commander, staff officer or + agent acting pursuant to his orders. + + + + SPECIAL ORDERS BY THE SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED + + EXPEDITIONARY FORCE TO THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND + + RELATING TO NAVAL FORCES + + PART I GENERAL + + + Definition of Naval Forces + + 1. For the purpose of these orders all formations, + + units, and personnel of the German Navy together with the + + Marine Kusten Polizie shall be refered to as the German + + Naval Forces. + + 2. Members of the Marine Kusten Polizie will + + immediately be placed under the command of the appropriate + + German Naval Commanders who will be responsible for their + + maintenance and supply where applicable, to the same + + extent and degree as for units of the German Navy. + + German Naval Representatives and information required + + immediately + + 3. The German High Command will dispatch within + + 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a res- + + ponsible Flag Officer to the Allied Naval Commander, + + Expeditionary Force at his headquarters. This + + Flag Officer will furnish the Allied Naval Commander, + + Expeditionary Force, with:- + + a. Corrected copies of charts showing all + + minefields in Western Europe waters, including the + + BALTIC as far as LUBECK (inclusive) which have been laid + + by German and German-controlled vessels or aircraft, + + positions of all wrecks, booms and other underwater + + obstructions in this area, details of the German convoy + + routes and searched channels and of all bouys, lights + + and other navigational aids in this area. The appropriate + + navigational publications are also required. + + b. Details of the exact location of all + + departments and branches of the German Admiralty (OKM). + + c. All available information concerning + + the numbers and types of German minesweepers and sperr- + + brechers in German controlled Dutch ports and German + + NORTH SEA ports that can be obtained without delaying + + his departure. This German Flag Officer is to be + + accompanied by a Communications Officer who is familiar + + with the German Naval W/T organization and who is to + + bring with him the current naval communications Orders, + + including allocation of frequencies, list of W/T and + + R/T call signs in force, and a list of all codes and + + cyphers in use, and intended to be brought into use. + + d. Location of all surface warships down + + to and including "Elbing" class Torpedo Boats, and of + + all submarines and "E" Boats. + + 4. The German High Command will also dispatch + + within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective + + a responsibile officer, not below the rank of Captain, + + by coastal craft to report to the Admiral Commanding + +****POSSIBLE DATA LOSS 00 55**** +at OSLO, + + CHRISTIANSAND, STAVANGER, BERGEN, TRONDHEIM, + + NARVIK, and TROMSO. + + (2) The appropriate quantities of furnace + + oil fuel, diesel oil fuel, and coal at all the + + principal Norwegian ports between OSLO and + + TROMSO. + + 7. The German Admiral SKGGERAK will dispatch by sea + + within 48 hours after the surrender becomes effective, a + + responsible officer not below the rank of Captain, to the + + Commander-in-Chief, ROSYTH, with corrected copies of charts + + showing all German minefields, wrecks, booms, and other underwater + + obstructions, details of German convoy routes and searched + + channels, bouys, lights and other navigational aids in the + + SKAGGERAK, KATTEGAT, THE BEITS AND SOUND, KIEL + + BAY and BALTIC WATERS WEST of 14 EAST. This + + officer will also bring with him the disposition + + of all "U" boats in the above area and details + + of all orders affecting their future move- + + ments. He will be accompanied by three German Naval + + officers with pilots (and interpreters if necessary) + + who are familiar with the coastal swept channels, and + + channels in the Swedish territorial waters, in the waters + + referred to above. These officers will bring with + + them all the charts and books required for navigation + + in these waters, and a list of all W/T and R/T call + + signs in use by the German Navy. + + The German Admiral SKAGGERAK will dispatch + + a duplicate party to that specified above, with similar + + information, by air in unescorted aircraft painted + + white to DREM Airfield 56 02' NORTH 02 48' WEST. + + 8. The German Naval Officers who will be dis- + + patched to DOVER and ROSYTH by sea will proceed to + + positions in latitude 51 19' NORTH longitude 1 43' EAST + + and latitude 56 47' NORTH longitude 1 13' WEST respectively, + + where they will be met by British warships and escorted + + to their destination. The ships or craft in which they + + travel are to fly a large white flag at the masthead by + + day and are to illuminate these white flags by night. + + These ships are to broadcast their positions hourly by + + W/T on 500 ks. (600 meters) whilst on passage. + + Information required within fourteen days + + 9. The German High Command will furnish the + + following information to the Allied Naval Commander, + + Expeditionary Force, at by + + within fourteen days of cessation of hostilities. + + a. Locations of all warships, auxiliaries and armed + + coastal craft operating under the orders of the German Naval + + Command stating particulars of the operational unit to which they + + are attached, giving approximate totals of all naval personal + + embarked in each vessel, (including naval flak and merchant ship + + flak). + + b. A statement of the organizations of all naval + + shore Commands, giving location of all naval establishments, + + including establishments for experiment and research, names of + + all Commanding Officers and Principal Staff Officers of the rank + + of Commander in each establishment. + + c. A statement of the strength and location of all + + naval land forces including naval infrantry, naval flak, merchant + + ship flak and naval personnel manning naval coast artillery and + + full particulars of all Coastal and port defenses giving nature + + and locations. + + d. Lists of stocks of furnace oil fuels, diesel oil + + fuel, petrol, and coal of 500 tons or more at, or in the vicinity + + of, all ports between IJMUIDEN and HAMBURG inclusive. + + e. A statement of location of the principal naval + + armament depots with approximate overall stocks of each major + + item held. + + f. The following communications information:- + + (1) location and details concerning all + + V/S, W/T (including D/F) and radar + + stations in use by, and under constuc- + + tion for the German Navy, these details + + to include types and capabilities of all + + equipment fitted. + + (2) details of the current naval W/T + + organization, lists of W/T and R/T call + + signs in force, and allocation of all + + frequencies for communication and radar + + purposes. + + (3) location and details of all naval + + communications (including Infra-Red) + + and naval radar training and research + + establishments. + + g. Full details of all German minefields in + + the NORTH SEA, SKAGGERAK, KATTEGAT, BEITS, and SOUND. + + h. Full details of the German naval minesweeping + + organization including the communications organization. + + j. Full details of the communications (including + + Infra-Red) and radar equipment fitted in all German minesweepers + + and sperrbrechers. + + k. Technical details of all types of minesweeping + + gear used by the German Navy. + + l. Details of all mining and types of mines employed + + and of berthing facilities available for ships of 150 feet in + + length and 16 feet draught at:- + + BREMERHAVEN + + WILHELMSHAVEN + + SCHIERMONNIKOOG + + DELFZIJL + + 10. The German High Command will also furnish the Allied + + Naval Commander, Expeditionary Force, with two copies of all + + coding and cyphering systems which have been, are being, or were + + to be used by the German Navy with the necessary instructions for + + their use and the dates between which they have been, or were to + + have been used. + + + + PART II - CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT + + Orders to warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and other craft + + + 11. The German High Command will forthwith direct all + + German and German-controlled warships, auxiliaries, + + merchant ships and other craft to comply with the following + + instructions:- + + a. All warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships and + + other craft in harbours are to remain in harbour pending + + further directions from the Allied Representatives. + + b. All warships, auxiliaries, merchant ships + + and other craft at sea are to report their positions in plain + + language immediately to the nearest British, US or Soviet Coast + + Wireless Telegraphy station on 500 kc/s (600 metres), and are to + + proceed to the nearest German or Allied port or such ports as + + the Allied Representatives may direct, and remain there pending + + further directions from the Allied Representatives. At night + + they are to show lights and to display searchlights with beams + + held vertically. + + c. All warships and merchant ships whether in port + + or at sea will immediately train all weapons fore and aft. All + + torpedo tubes will be unloaded and breech blocks will be removed + + from all guns. + + d. All warships and merchant ships in German or + + German-controlled harbours will immediately land and store in + + safety all ammunition, warheads and other explosives. They + + will land all portable weapons but, pending further instuctions, + + warships will retain onboard the fixed armament. Fire control + + and all other equipment will be maintained on board intact and + + fully efficient. + + e. All minesweeping vessels are to carry out the + + means of disarmament prescribed in c. and d. above, + + (except that they will however, retain on board such portable + + weapons and explosives as are required for minesweeping + + purposes) and are to be prepared immediately for minesweeping + + service under the direction of the Allied Representatives. + + They will complete with fuel where necessary. + + f. All German salvage vessels are to carry out + + the measures of disarmament prescribed in c. and d. above + + (except that they will retain on board such explosives as are + + required for salvage purposes.) These vessels, together with + + all salvage equipment and personnel, are to be prepared for + + immediate salvage operations under the direction of the Allied + + Representatives, completing with fuel where necessary for this + + purpose. + + g. The movement of transport on the inland waterways + + of GERMANY may continue, subject to orders from the Allied + + Representatives. No vessels moving on inland waterways will + + proceed to neutral waters. + +Submarines + + 12. The German High Command will tranmit by W/T on + + appropriate frequencies the two messages in Annexures 'A' and + + 'B' which contain instructions to submarines at sea. + +Naval Aircraft + + 13. The German High Command will forthwith direct that:- + + a. German naval aircraft are not to leave the + + ground or water or ship pending directions from the Allied + + Representatives; + + b. naval aircraft in the air are to return + + immediately to their bases. + +Neutral shipping + + 14. The German High Command will forthwith direct + + that all neutral merchant ships in German and German- + + controlled ports are to be detained pending further + + directions from the Allied Representatives. + +Orders relating to sabotage, scuttling, safety measures, + +pilotage and personnel + + 15. The German High Command will forthwith issue + + categorical directions that:- + + a. No ship, vessel or aircraft of any + + description is to be scuttled, or any damage done + + to their hull, machinery or equipment. + + b. all harbour works and port facilities + + of whatever nature, including telecommunications and + + radar stations, are to be preserved and kept free from + + destruction or damage pending further direct +****POSSIBLE DATA LOSS 00 55**** +ish Channel between line of Lands End + + Scilly Islands Ushant and line of Dover-Calais. + + b. Join one of following routes at nearest point and + + procceed along it to Loch Eriboll (058 degs 33 minutes North + + 004 degs 37 mins West) + + Blue route: All positions North and West unless otherwise + + indicated + + 049 degs 00 mins 009 degs 00 mins 053 degs 00 mins + + 012 degs 00 mins 058 degs 00 mins 011 degs 00 mins + + 059 degs 00 mins 005 degs 30 mins thence to Loch Eriboll. + + Red route: 053 degs 45 mins North 003 degs 00 mins East + + 059 degs 45 mins 001 degs 00 mins 059 degs 45 mins + + 003 degs 00 mins thence to Loch Eriboll. + + c. Arrive at Loch Eriboll between sunrise and 3 hours + + before sunset. + + (2) Area 'B' + + a. The Irish Sea between parallel of 051 degs 30 mins + + and 055 degs 00 mins North. + + b. Proceed Beaumaris Bay (053 degs 19 mins North 003 + + degs 58 mins West) to arrive between sunrise and 3 hours + + before sunset. + + (3) Area 'C' + + a. The English Channel between line of Lands End - + + Scilly Isles - Ushant and line of Dover - Calais. + + b. 'U' Boats in area 'C' are to join one of following + + routes at nearest point: Green route: position 'A' 049 degs + + 10 mins North 005 degs 40 mins West position 'B' 050 degs 00 + + mins North 003 degs 00 mins West thence escorted to Weymouth. + + Orange route: position 'X' 050 degs 30 mins North 000 degs 50 + + mins East position 'Y' 050 degs 10 mins North 001 degs 50 mins + + West thence escorted to Weymouth. + + c. Arrive at either 'B' or 'Y' between sunrise and 3 hours + + before sunset. + + (4) Area 'D' + + a. Bound on West by lines joining The Naze and Hantsholm + + and on East by lines joining Lubeck and Trelleborg. + + b. Proceed to Kiel. + + (5) Area 'E' + + a. Mediterranean Approaches bound on North by 043 degs + + North on South by 026 degs North and on West by 026 degs West. + + b. Proceed to a rendezvous in position 'A' 036 degs 00 + + mins North 011 degs 00 mins West and await escort reporting + + expected time of arrival in plain language to Admiral Gibraltar + + on 500 kc/s. + + c. Arrive in position 'A' between sunrise and noon G.M.T. + + (6) Area 'F' + + a. The North and South Atlantic West of 026 degs West. + + b. Proceed to nearest of one of following points + + arriving between sunrise and 3 hours before sunset: W 043 + + degs 30 mins North 070 degs 00 mins West approach from a + + point 15 miles due East X 038 degs 20 mins North 074 degs + + 25 mins West approach from a point 047 degs 18 mins North + + 051 30 mins West on a course 270 degs Z 043 31 mins North + + 065 degs 05 mins West approach from point 042 degs 59 mins + + North 054 degs 28 mins West on a course 320 degs. +--------------------------------------- + + UNDERTAKING + + GIVEN BY CERTAIN GERMAN EMISSARIES + + TO THE ALLIED HIGH COMMANDS + + + + It is agreeed by the German emissaries + + undersigned that the following German officers will + + arrive at a place and time designated by the Supreme + + Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, and the Soviet + + High Command prepared, with planary powers, to execute + + a formal ratification on behalf of the German High + + Command of this act of Unconditional Surrender of the + + German armed forces. + + Chief of the High Command + + Commander-in-Chief of the Army + + Commander-in-Chief of the Navy + + Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces. + + + + SIGNED + + + =JODL= + + + + Representing the German High Command. + + + DATED =0241 7th May 1945= + =Rheims, France= +--------------------------------------- + +{Reichspresident Donitz's authorization to German representatives + to execute ratification} + + A b s c h r i f t. + + +Der Oberste Befehlshaber + Hauptquartier, den 7.5.45. + der Wehrmact + +/Bitte in der Antwort vorstehendes + Geschaftszeichen, das Datum und + kurzen Inhalt anzugegen./ + + + ICH BEVOLLMACHTIGE + + GENERALFELDMARSCHALL K E I T E L + + ALS CHEF DES OBERKOMMANDOS DER + + WEHRMACHT UND ZUGLEICH ALS OBER- + + BEFEHLSHABER DES HEERES, + + GENERALADMIRAL VON FRIEDBERG + + ALS OBERBEFEHLSHABER DER KRIEGSMARINE, + + GENERALOBERST S T U M P F + + ALS VERTRETER DES OBERBEFEHLSHABERS + + DER LUFTWAFFE + + + ZUR RATIFIZIERUNG DER BEDINGUNGSLKSEN + + KAPITULATION DER DEUTSCHEN STREITKRAFTE GEGEN- + + UBER DEM OBERBEFEHLSHABER DER ALLIIERTEN + + EXPEDITIONSSTREITKRAFTE UND DEM SOWYET-OBER- + + KOMMANDO. + + + DONITZ + + GROBADMIRAL. + +Siegel. +--------------------------------------- + + ACT OF MULITARY SURRENDER + + + 1. We the undersigned, acting by authority + + of the German High Command, hereby surrender + + unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied + + Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the + + Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces + + on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this + + date under German control. + + 2. The German High Command will at once + + issue order to all German military, naval and + + air authorities and to all forces under German + + control to cease active operations at 2301 hours + + Central European time on 8th May 1945, to remain + + in all positions occupied at that time and to + + disarm completely, handing over their weapons and + + equipment to the local allied commanders or officers + + designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme + + Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be + + scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, + + machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all + + kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical + + means of prosecution of war in general. + + 3. The German High Command will at once + + issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure + + the carrying out of any further orders issued by + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army. + + 4. This act of military surrender is without + + prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general + + instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of + + the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and + + the German armed forces as a whole. + + 5. In the event of the German High Command + + or any of the forces under their control failing + + to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, + + the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force + + and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will + + take such punitive or other action as they deem + + appropriate. + + 6. This Act is drawn up in the English, + + Russian and German languages. The English and + + Russian are the only authentic texts. + + + + Signed at =Berlin= on the =8 . = day of May, 1945 + + + + =Von Friedeburg= =Keitel= =Stumpff= + + On behalf of the German High Command + + + + IN THE PRESENCE OF: + + + =A.W.Tedder= + On behalf of the On behalf of the + Supreme Commander Supreme High Command of the + Allied Expeditionary Force Red Army + =Georgi Zhukov= + + At the signing also were present as witnesses: + + + =F. de Lattre-Tassigny= =Carl Spaatz= + General Commanding in Chief General, Commanding + First French Army United States Strategic Air Force + + +--------------------------------------- + + BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + A PROCLAMATION + + + + The Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with + +God's help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional + +surrender. The western world has been freed of the evil forces + +which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and + +broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. + +They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, cor- + +rupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies + +of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, + +whose spirit and will the oppressors could never enslave. + + Much remains to be done. The victory won in the West must + +now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the + +evil from which half the world has been freed. United, the + +peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms + +are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of + +military cliques that once called us soft and weak. The power of + +our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved + +in the Pacific was as it has been proved in Europe. + + For the trimuph of spirit and of arms which we have won, and + +of its promise to peoples everywhere who join us in the love of + +freedom, it is fitting that we, as a nation, give thanks to + +Almighty God, who has strengthened us and given us the victory. + + NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United + +States of America, do hereby appoint Sunday, May 13, 1945 to be a + +day of prayer. + + I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their + +faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory + +we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our + +present struggle and guide us into the way of peace. + + I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer + +to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible + +our victory. + + IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused + +the seal of the United States of America to be affixed. + + Done at the City of Washington this eighth day of May in + .. the year of our Lord + + ----------------------------------- + | | nineteen hundred + | | + | | and forty-five + | T H E G R E A T S E A L | + | | and of the + | | + | O F T H E | Independence + | | + | | of the United + | U N I T E D S T A T E S | + | | States of America + | O F | + | | the one hundred + | A M E R I C A | + | | and sixty-ninth. + | | + ----------------------------------- + + By the President: =Harry S. Truman= + + + +------------------------------------- + +Prepared by Monty "Doc" White (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa201) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. + + + + + + +<<< POST-CONSTITUTION DOCUMENTS >>> + + 1 1787 - The Northwest Ordinance + 2 1789 - French Declaration of Rights + 3 1793 - The Proclamation of Neutrality + 4 1795 - The Treaty of Greenville + 5 1796 - Washington's Farewell Address + 6 1801 - Jefferson's First Inaugural Address + 7 1823 - The Monroe Doctrine + 8 1862 - The Emancipation Proclamation + 9 1863 - The Gettysburg Address + 10 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address + 11 1945 - German Surrender Documents + 12 1945 - Japanese Surrender Documents + 13 1963 - M.L. King's: "I have a dream" Speech +------------------------------------------------ +h=Help, x=Exit Free-Net, "go help"=extended help + +Your Choice ==> \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gestapo.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/gestapo.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3a707d58 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gestapo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + AMERICANS ARE PUTTING UP WITH A SPIRALING GESTAPO STATE + By Paul Craig Roberts + Special to the Los Angeles Times + +What will become of "law and order conservatism" now that we know +that our law-enforcement agencies -- from the Justice Department to +local police forces -- can be as criminal as the miscreants that they +are supposed to pursue? + +Unspeakable acts of cold-blooded murder and fabricated evidence now +routinely characterize everyday acts of law enforcement in the United +States. + +In Malibu, Calif., a 30-person raiding party of sheriff's deputies, +federal drug agents and the California National Guard broke into the +home of Donald Scott and shot him dead. Scott, it turns out, was a +reclusive man, heir to a European fortune, whose $5 million, 200-acre +ranch was targeted by federal agents under drug-forfeiture laws. No +drugs or marijuana plants were found, but an alert Ventura County +prosecutor, Michael Bradbury, did find that the raiding party had an +appraisal of Scott's ranch, along with notes on the sale price of +nearby property. Gideon Kanner, a Los Angeles law professor who has +examined the case, concluded that the feds thought Scott might have a +wife who indulged in drugs and decided to see if they could bag a $5 +million piece of property for the Treasury. + +In pre-democratic times, this was known as "tax farming". Government +officials simply seized whatever they could and raked off a +commission. Today, the commission is in the form of the +bureaucracy's budget. Ever since President Reagan's budget director, +David Stockman, invented "budget savings" from tougher Internal +Revenue Service and drug enforcement, the pressure has been on these +marauders to farm more revenues. The results are mounting abuses of +citizens and occasional deaths. + +What will be done about it? Nothing. Scott, awakened from sleep by +the sound of his door crashing in, made the mistake of walking out of +his bedroom with a gun in his hand. The military force got off with +a self-defense plea. Shades of Waco, Texas, where the FBI and the +Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms folks killed 86 men, women +and children, while the attorney general took all the credit to show +how tough she is. + +Noted defense attorney Gerry Spence told the Montana Trial Lawyers +Association in July that he had never been involved in a case with +the federal government in which the government had not lied and +manufactured evidence to gain a conviction. "These are not the good +guys", he said. "These are people who do what they believe is +necessary to do to bring about a conviction." The law gets hung with +the victim. + +What, you might protest, about the Los Angeles and Detroit +convictions of police officers who beat black motorists? Aren't +these signs that checks and balances work and that we are free from +the arbitrary application of power that medieval serfs had to endure? +Alas, these police offers were not done in because they abused their +power, but because they were charged with racism and violating the +civil rights of a member of a "preferred minority". As incredible as +it may seem, in the United States only blacks have any protection +from abusive state power. They have a special, racial civil-rights +shield. The rest of us must make do with happenstance. + +Formally, a person could protect himself by getting rich. But today +that just makes you more of a target. Witness the fates of +billionaires Michael Milken and Leona Helmsley -- and of Donald +Scott. Politically ambitious prosecutors need drama, and they don't +get that from the local drug pusher. Federal drug agents are not +going to waste their time and risk their lives rounding up Jamaican +drug gangs (who shoot back) -- especially when inner-city juries may +not convict either out of fear or feelings of racial solidarity -- +when they can pick soft targets like Scott. + +Nothing makes it clearer that the United States is no longer a +"nation of laws" than federal wetlands regulations. These "laws" +have been created entirely by bureaucrats and courts. All over +America, people are finding their uses of their property circumvented +and themselves in jail because of these regulatory police and their +"laws". + +Recently, the Clinton administartion said: "Congress should amend the +Clean Water Act to make it consistent with the agencies' rule- +making." And Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and John H. Chaff, R-R.I., +have introduced a bill to codify all the wetlands regulations that +are being enforced without any legal basis. + +Note that the two senators did not introduce a bill to stop unelected +bureaucrats from illegally creating laws and running all over our +constitutional protections. Not even a wrist slap. To hell with the +U.S. Constitution, say the senators. Let's pass a law that future +courts will use to give carte blanche to the regulatory police. +Let's ennoble the bureaucrats. Divine rule cannot be blocked by +special-interest lobbying. + +Roberts, former assistant Trasury secretary, is chairman of the +Institute for Political Economy. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/getkahl.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/getkahl.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..784a23cd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/getkahl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1266 @@ + + + THE TRUTH ABOUT GORDON KAHL + + RADICAL TAX PROTESTOR + + AND + + MILITANT POSSE COMITATUS MEMBER + + BY + + LEN MARTIN + + This book is dedicated to Gordon Kahl, a man who gave his +life trying to restore America's freedoms as stated in the U.S. +Constitution by our Founding Fathers. + It is hoped that his spirit will be a guiding force for other +Americans to follow--united with other patriots in the battle +against the common enemy and their "agents." + So that HIS and OUR children and grandchildren might live in +freedom, we must ensure that Gordon Kahl did not die in vain. + + Like other patriotic Americans, Gordon Kahl was NOT against +paying taxes. He realized that if we are to have a strong, free +country, all who enjoy the freedoms our country offers must pay +their "fair share" to support legitimate government activities +in order to preserve these freedoms. + When he learned that our government was no longer a +government of, by, and for the people but had been taken over by +subversive forces, he decided to do something about it. + Yes, Gordon Kahl had been fighting on many fronts, trying to +stop the un-American activities taking place in our country; but +his main effort was to expose "WHO" are the groups of people +behind these un-American activities. In this, he was being +successful. In fact, he was being TOO successful. So, "they" had +to stop him. The easiest way was to bring in the IRS "Goon +Squads" and their flunkie police force, the U.S. marshals. + To eliminate this thorn in their side (Gordon Kahl), one of +the enforcement arms of the IRS, the U.S. marshals, struck north +of Medina, North Dakota. But they bit off more than they +bargained for. After seeing his son shot by so-called +"protectors of the citizens," he reacted as would any protective +parent and "took care" of these law-breaking U.S. marshals. +(Careful documentation of the violations by the U.S. marshals +and other government figures has been made.) + To cover up these violations, government officers started a +smear campaign. This campaign was aided and abetted by the Money +Czar-controlled news media. If you have read the papers, watched +TV, or listened to the radio, you are aware that in referring to +Gordon Kahl, these terms were used: + + "Militant tax protestor," "fanatic tax-protester," "an +extremist tax protestor," "right wing anarchist," "militant +survivalist," "anti-tax," "a threat to national law and order," +etc., etc. + Government officials, news reporters, and editors in their +smear campaign zeroed in on two groups--the tax rebels and the +Posse Comitatus. Since these government and news-media jokers +have used these derogatory labels in referring to tax rebels and +the Posse Comitatus, it is necessary for us to address these +areas and set the record straight for people who are looking for +the truth. To believe what these government and most news media +characters are saying is like believing in fairy tales. + Since the income tax is the most familiar to the average +American, lets start with it. + + HOW WOULD OUR GOVERNMENT OPERATE WITHOUT THE INCOME TAX? + + In trying to combat the destructive income tax, the greatest +problem pro-Americans face is misinformation. The question +usually asked by average Americans who don't know the score is, +"How would our government operate without the income tax?" OK. +Here is what Congressman Larry McDonald wrote in 1975: + + "The latest federal budget shows that individual income taxes +supply only 42 percent of the federal budget revenues; the rest +comes from other sources. There is ample documentation to prove +that getting the federal government out of unauthorized +businesses would cut the cost of government by at least 50 +percent, while revenue is reduced 42 percent, which would give +us a surplus of 8 percent." + + Both this and much more material by Congressman McDonald, +proving that we DO NOT NEED the income tax, appeared in the +publication "The Freeman." + Before 1913, when the income tax was put into effect, our +nation got along very well without it. This was because our +government engaged in just activities that were lawful-- +activities as outlined in the Constitution. + At first, the tax on income was small and no one complained, +but it has been the history of governments to begin oppression +in a small way and then little by little expand this oppression. +This has been proven to be the case with the income tax. + Few people felt the impact of the income tax until President +F.D. Roosevelt started a multitude of social programs in the +1930's. It was then that the downhill skid towards Socialism in +the United States began. + To carry out these Socialist programs, the size and powers of +our government expanded rapidly. In the early 1940's, there were +sixteen workers in private enterprise supporting one government +employee. Now the ratio is 4-1 -- four workers in the private +field supporting one government employee. + The sad truth of the matter is this: the Socialist activities +in which these government workers are engaged are +unconstitutional. It doesn't take much imagination to realize +that OUR NATION'S PROBLEMS ARE CAUSED BECAUSE THE FEDERAL +GOVERNMENT IS PROMOTING TOO MANY UNCONSTITUTIONAL PROGRAMS. The +income tax is probably the most destructive of all. + In case you are wondering why such information hasn't been +carried by the national news media, just remember that the Money +Czars who instigated the income tax are the same jokers who own +or otherwise control the press, TV, and radio. Sadly, our +educational system is also being used to distort or omit the +truth about the income tax. This is because the companies that +print the textbooks used in our public and many private schools +are owned by the same Money Czars who own or control the +national news media. Naturally, they don't want the truth known, +so it is left out or distorted. + Now you can disregard Congressman McDonald's statement and +continue to let the "agents" of the Money Czars dip into your +pockets, or you can go a little farther and do a little digging +on your own. Later in this booklet are listed some sources to +help you get started. + + WE MUST PAY OUR FAIR SHARE + + When it comes to condemning what the "agents" of the Money +Czars call "tax rebels," many people say, "everyone should pay +their fair share," or "I pay my taxes, why shouldn't they?" But, +damn it! Are the rich paying their fair share? + In 1971, the year before I finally wised up, the IRS suckered +me for $1400. IT WAS THAT SAME YEAR THAT ONE OF THE "MONEY +CZARS," NELSON ROCKEFELLER, WAS REPORTED TOP HAVE PAID $1400 IN +INCOME TAX. Now, I pay my fair share. Did Nelson Rockefeller pay +his share? + For seventy years the Money Czars, who control our nation's +money supply through their ownership of the Federal Reserve, +have had their grubby hands in the pockets of the working people +in America--in taking larger and larger portions of their +earnings through the income tax. + In recent years, the portion of earnings has become so great +that many concerned citizens started looking into the makeup of +the income tax and the IRS. They found: + + 1) There is evidence to prove the Internal Revenue Service, +which collects the income tax, is a PRIVATE CORPORATION and NOT +an agency of the federal government. Isn't it ironic that both +the federal reserve and the income tax came into existence the +same year, 1913; and neither are under the control of our U.S. +government? + + 2) The manner in which money is confiscated from tax-paying +suckers is unconstitutional. The IRS "goon Squads" don't even +follow their own IRS agents handbook. + + 3) The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gave us +the income tax, was not legally ratified by three-fourths of +the states as required by the U.S. Constitution; only twelve +states legally ratified the Income Tax Amendment. Also, nowhere +can be found a President's signature as required. + + The illegality of the income tax and the manner by which it +is collected is so ROTTEN that it is amazing the Money Czars +have gotten away with it for so long. But, don't just believe +me; read what others are saying: + + Dr. Martin A. Larsen, one of America's leading authorities +on taxes and money: "THE AMERICAN TAX REBELLION IS IN NO SENSE A +MOVEMENT TO OVERTHROW THE LAW; on the contrary its purpose is to +enforce the Constitution against those who would destroy it... +Our only hope consists in a middle class rebellion which will be +so strong that unless a majority of Congress fails to heed its +mandate, they will be replaced by others that will. That is the +political solution for which we hope... The only other recourse +will be a bloody revolution, and perhaps the destruction not +only of our culture, but of civilization itself." + + Various patriotic organizations have put together pamphlets +of statements by former IRS officials that are revealing--very +revealing. Here are a few of the choice ones: + + T. Coleman Andrews, former IRS Commissioner: "I believe that +a better way to raise revenue not only can be found but must be +found, because I am convinced the present system is leading us +right back to the very tyranny for which those who established +this land of freedom risked their lives, their fortunes, and +their sacred honor to forever free themselves." + +B.C. "Bill" Clifton, former IRS fraud investigator: "NO TAXPAYER +SHOULD EVER COOPERATE WITH IT (IRS) in any way because every +agent has taken an oath to overcome any love he might develop +for the taxpayer during the course of an investigation. THE +WORST THING A TAXPAYER CAN DO IS TO BE TOO COOPERATIVE. THAT CAN +GET HIM SHAFTED--EVEN INDICTED." + + Those are pretty strong statements. Since they formerly +worked for the cut-throat IRS, they should know what they are +talking about. If you still think you can get a fair shake from +the IRS by trying to cooperate with i t, here is another goodie: + + The Seventh Circuit Court in Chicago: "Who would believe the +ironic truth that the taxpayer who cooperates with the IRS and +supplies information fares much worse than the individual who +relies upon his Constitutional rights." + + There are many other statements by concerned government +officials. Former Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee is one of those +concerned officials. The following letter written by +Governor Lee was taken, in part, from the book "The Rise and +Fall of the United States": + + "There has never been anything more destructive to our form +of government than the Sixteenth Amendment. Had those who +brought about its passage been interested in the American +people, they would not have lied, cheated, and tricked them into +adopting anything so completely incompatible with our +Constitution. When they say the government needs this to get +money, THEY LIE, because there are other means of collecting the +needed funds without destroying the freedom, or taking away the +rights which the people had while the courts still honored our +Constitution. + "I do not believe that the government should have all the +money it demands; and it is certain that no other tax confers +upon it the power to exploit its people and destroy their +freedom as does the income tax. Some form of national sales tax +would produce more income with very minor collection cost, and, +what is more important, would free the American people from +harassment by the most corrupt of all government agencies. Under +this substitute tax, the rich would pay more than they pay now, +and the poor would pay less, and there would be no +discrimination, no loopholes, no special privileges. + "The Congress has granted to the courts and to the Collector +of Internal Revenue the right to ride roughshod over the +taxpayer in order to collect the income tax. Our legislators +know and our courts realize that THIS TAX COULD NOT BE COLLECTED +IF THEY WERE TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF THE +TAXPAYING CITIZENS as they do those who are guilty of heinous or +violent crimes. + "History should convince our elected leaders that revolution + becomes inevitable when those who govern assume special +privileges an d display the arrogance, the rank injustice, the +dishonesty, the corruption, the complete disregard for the +rights of the people now exercised by the Internal Revenue +Department. THE EVILS OF WHICH IT IS GUILTY HAVE INFILTRATED TO +SOME DEGREE TO EVERY OTHER BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT. The attitude +of this department is, " The public be damned," and this is +lowly but surely expanding to a point that if the leaders do not +act, the people most certainly will." (Emphasis added.) + + In 1979, the American Mercury printed an article written by +Dr. Martin A. Larson. This article has been reproduced and +circulated by many patriotic organizations. Dr. Larson has been +recognized as America's foremost authority on taxes and money; +so listen to what he has to say, in part: + + ARE YOU STILL PAYING INCOME TAXES? + + "This title may sound odd or ironic, but when we explain its +implications, you will not, perhaps, be surprized. The fact is +that literally MILLIONS of Americans, are either refusing to pay +federal income tax entirely or are drastically reducing the +amounts they are surrendering to Big Brother in Washington. + + TAX AVOIDANCE THROUGH LOOPHOLES + + "In the first place, let me remind the reader of what we +wrote a dozen years ago in a book called "The Great Tax Fraud", +which demonstrated that even at that time there were enough +loopholes (or truckholes) in the Internal Revenue Code to enable +the WEALTHY AND FAVORED CORPORATIONS to escape about $45 billion +in taxation, a sum which since--in spite of highly publicized +attempts to establish tax equity--has increased to not less than +$80 billion. Mr J. Paul Getty in 1969 and 1970 paid tax of +$6,000 ON A PERSONAL INCOME OF $70 MILLION. + + TAXPAYERS NOW HAVE MORE PROTECTION + + "It is indeed interesting to note that, as a result, various +and successive exposes of the IRS and its high-handed methods of +extortion, one claw after another has been extracted from its +talons... The taxpayer now has many means of self-defense--if he +will merely learn how to use them--which he did not possess +before the Tax Rebellion began a few years ago. + + WIDESPREAD TAX-EVASION + + "However, as increasing members of the wage and salaried +classes and especially the great, independent middle class +become more aware of the immunities conferred upon the American +elite, they, too, began to resist or rebel in one way or +another. As early as 1972, a Gallop Poll revealed that 74 +percent of the American public would be in complete sympathy +with a general tax strike; in 1973, the commissioner of Internal +Revenue testified before a congressional committee that the +agency knew of at least five million taxpayers who had ceased +making reports; that it had been able to establish contact with +less than one-third of them; and that the losses to the +treasury totalled $5 or $6 billion. However, other knowledgeable +sources placed the actual loss somewhere between $25 and $30 +billion because of the phenomenon alone. + "Shortly thereafter, the then Secretary of the Treasury, John +Connelly declared that in the southwestern portion of the United +States, 74 PERCENT OF ALL RETURNS PREPARED BY TAX PREPARERS +WERE, to a greater or lesser degree, FRAUDULENT AND THAT THE +GOVERNMENT WAS POWERLESS TO PROSECUTE BECAUSE OF THE NUMBER OF +DELINQUENTS; and another official declared that in other parts +of the country, fraud was even WORSE and more prevalent. + "All this, nevertheless, was only the beginning of the tax +revolt now sweeping the nation. Individually, highly articulate +tax rebels began formulating techniques by which total and legal +refusal to pay federal income tax might be achieved. Some of +these were prosecuted and convicted, and some were acquitted. +But this was purely a matter of selective prosecution or +persecution; those indicted were charged, not because of failure +to pay taxes, but because of their public proclamations in +regard to the tax laws and their enforcement. The IRS hoped, by +obtaining a few convictions, that it would be able to suppress +the tax rebellion and cow the masses into submission and +obedience. Such, however, has not been the result. + + THE REBELLION SPREADS AND DEEPENS + + "The rebellion has spread throughout the nation and now +involves great numbers of people in every stratum of society. +Let us summarize the most common techniques of resistance. + "More millions have simply stopped making any returns at all +and these include: +(1) Wage workers who have reported enough exemptions and +allowances so that no income tax is taken from their pay or at +least so that no refund would be due even if a conventional +return were filed; +(2) Self-employed persons who have ceased making any estimated +payments or final returns; and +(3) Proprietors and others classified as self-employed who make +returns but who drastically understate their income and thus +exempt themselves from most of the taxation which would +otherwise be levied upon their incomes. + + WHAT HAPPENS THEN + + "You may wonder what action the government takes when the +wage earner or self employed person makes no return at all. +Since there are millions of these, the IRS simply places their +names in what is known as the Correspondence File, sends a +series of form letters demanding a full return with all payments +due within ten days, and hopes for the best. In many cases, the +addressee has moved and left no forwarding address; if the form +letter reaches the intended recipient, he usually throws it into +the waste basket; sometimes he writes DECEASED on the envelope +and returns it to the IRS, without opening it. + "For the great majority of these cases, the IRS is quite +helpless; it cannot spend hundreds of hours tracking down each +delinquent and then hundreds more attempting to prosecute the +elusive evader. Remember that IRS agents must produce $100 an +hour for all time spent in making audits--otherwise their +efforts are counterproductive. + "Then there are other millions who claim one or two or three +additional allowances when they file their W-4 forms with their +employers; by so doing they not only prevent the government from +keeping their money interest-free until it is time for refunds; +often they have less taken from their pay than is actually due, +and then "forget" to make a return or pay any additional taxes +on the due date. + + THE SELF-EMPLOYED PROPRIETORS + + "And then we have the self-employed, especially business +proprietors. the number of these increased from 5, 689,000 in +1945 to 10,874,000 in 1974; their receipts from $79 to $328 +billion; and the average reported receipts from $13,870 to +$30,280. Almost 96 percent of these businesses reported receipts +of less than $50,000; and all of them reported net taxable +incomes averaging only $4,217.00 + "The conclusion seems obvious that they must have been +understating their gross and net incomes drastically. The IRS is +well aware of this, but is powerless to do much about the +situation because of the vast numbers involved and even more +because of the recently developed expertise among these +taxpayers in concealing cash flow and reducing taxable income. +this is done by keeping two sets of books and by diverting a +portion of cash income from destinations where it might be +traced and documented without great difficulty. + + "A remarkable and comparatively new phenomenon has developed +in recent years and has now reached dimensions where it +CONSTITUTES a definite threat to the entire Federal system of +taxation; this is known as the Underground Economy. When a +painter does a house job for $350 instead of $500 but does not +report the income to taxing authorities, he has joined the +Underground. When a girl baby-sits and her pay goes unreported, +the employer and employee have both done the same. When a +mechanic repairs a neighbor's car in his home garage and fails +to report his compensation for the job, he, too, has become a +member of the Economic Underground. + + "It is now freely admitted that at least $100 billion of +unreported and untaxed income goes to the Underground; some +estimates place the total at not less than $200 billion. How +great it is, no one knows; but that it is enormous is +incontestable, as is the fact that it is growing rapidly and +that the IRS is quite incapable of coping with the problem. + + "So again, ARE YOU STILL PAYING TAXES TO THE FEDERAL +GOVERNMENT ON ALL YOUR "TAXABLE" INCOME? If so, YOU BELONG TO A +DIMINISHING SEGMENT OF THE POPULATION. Inflation and +confiscatory taxation together with a general disenchantment +with the federal government have combined to drive millions or +tens of millions into a mental state in which they are ready to +take any step they can in order to preserve for themselves a +larger share of the money they earn so that they can survive in +decency -- even if this means that they must risk the danger of +prosecution and prison. More and more of them, however, are +learning the techniques long practiced by their European +counterparts by which they avoid a large fraction -- often all +-- of the demands made upon them by their central government. + + "Again and finally: Are YOU still paying all the taxes +demanded by Big Brother in Washington?" + + Take special note of what Dr. Larson has written; he knows +what he's talking about. Dr. Larson has written many books on +the subject of the income tax. he also writes a weekly column +for the Spotlight, 300 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington D.C. +20003, an excellent weekly patriotic publication. + + INCOME TAX IS COMMUNIST PLANK + + What Dr. Larson, Gov. Lee, and the other public figures have +said should make you plenty angry about the income tax. If not, +here's the capper: The Second Plank of the Communist Manifesto +advocates A HEAVY PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX. + + In other words, the writer of the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, Karl +Marx, was saying i.e. one of the things that will bring about +the downfall of a nation is to impose a progressive income tax +on the working class of people. So, anyone who keeps on paying +income taxes is playing right into the hands of the Communist +(Money Czars) schemers. + + Isn't it odd that none of this information is reported by the +mass news media? But, of course, we average Joes and Janes +aren't supposed to know these things. The Money Czars, who +control the news media, figure if they can keep us ignorant of +the facts, they can buffalo us into a lifetime of work and pay +taxes -- work and pay taxes -- work and pay taxes. + + You can do what you wish, but millions of people have already +said, "Enough!" and have become tax rebels. Most groups call +themselves "tax patriots." It is certainly an apt name. Leslie +Snyder in her book Justice or Revolution wrote, "To become a tax +rebel at this time is one's patriotic duty." + + THE TAX REBELLION IS BIG AND GROWING + + 1972 -- Secretary of the Treasury john Connelly declared that +a survey found that in the southeastern part of the United +States, 97 percent of all returns prepared by tax preparers were +fraudulent and that the government was powerless to prosecute +because of the enormous number of delinquents; and another +official declared that in other parts of the country, the fraud +was even worse. (By cheating on their tax returns these +taxpayers are rebelling; they just haven't had the nerve to go +all the way.) + + 1973 -- IRS Commissioner Johnnie Walters admitted the tax +strike was frightening -- that the number of fraud cases +increased 4000 percent in three years. If the IRS admitted to +that many, it's a sure bet the number of cases is much higher.) + + 1975 -- More than 100 million persons paid into Social +Security for that year. Yet, there were only 82,177,000 income +tax returns; and of these only 61,753,000 paid any tax. (1977 SA +p. 259) let's put it another way; In 1975, nearly 38 million +workers paid no federal income taxes and 18 million didn't even +file. Since that time, the tax rebellion has grown tremendously. +This is due to three reasons: + + 1) More people have learned how to legally defend themselves +against the criminal acts committed by the IRS and are no longer +afraid to be a tax rebel. + + 2) The depressed state of the economy has forced many +taxpayers to decide whether to pay the IRS or to feed their +families. They decide the welfare of their families comes first. + + 3) Since the tax rebellion has grown so large, the chances of +IRS prosecution is very small, especially if the taxpayer knows +how to defend him or herself. + + THE IRS OPERATES ON FEAR + + The reason there hasn't been a mass tax rebellion before now +is "fear." + + A common reaction of the uninformed taxpayer is, "They (IRS) +will put me in jail." The news media cooperates in creating this +fear. During the period preceding April 15th, the deadline for +paying taxes, it can be expected the news media will play up the +conviction of a tax patriot. Oddly, nothing is mentioned of the +MILLIONS of others who are defying the IRS. + + This fear among the taxpayers is largely unwarranted. Note +this statement by Senator Bellmon of Oklahoma, speaking before a +Senate Committee a few years ago: + + "In a recent conversation, with an official at the Internal +Revenue Service, I was amazed when He told me, 'If the taxpayers +of this country ever discover that the Internal Revenue Service +operates on 90 percent bluff, the entire income tax system will +collapse.'" + + Did you get that? just in case you didn't, here it is again: + + Senator Bellmon of Oklahoma speaking before a Senate +Committee said, "IN A RECENT CONVERSATION WITH AN OFFICIAL AT +THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, I WAS AMAZED WHEN HE TOLD ME, 'IF +THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS COUNTRY EVER DISCOVER THAT THE INTERNAL +REVENUE SERVICE OPERATES IN 90 PERCENT BLUFF, THE ENTIRE INCOME +SYSTEM WILL COLLAPSE.'" + + As far as the IRS putting anyone in jail, forget it! The IRS +can't put anyone in jail for not paying income taxes. Only a +JURY can do that; and that leads us to the ultimate solution to +the income tax scam. + + Even if the taxpayers learn their rights and exert them, the +IRS will break every law on the books to try to "railroad" a FEW +individuals in order to create FEAR among the rest; and the +judges practically always play along with the IRS criminals. The +judges even break a few laws themselves in the process of +helping the IRS. + + Due to the high-handed criminal manner in which judges now +run trials involving tax rebels, there is only one PEACEFUL way +to stop them. The best way to explain it is to tell the "Montana +Story." + + THE MONTANA STORY + + In July of 1979, the IRS put out a news release which was +carried by newspapers across the state of Montana. It said that +it was very risky to be a tax protestor because the IRS had won +twelve of thirteen cases tried in courts by juries in the +previous two years. The news release was designed to create FEAR +among the taxpayers of Montana. + + A few months after the news of these convictions hit the +papers, a disgusted taxpayer, Martin L. (Red) Beckman and some +of his patriotic friends went to work to put out a TV special +called "People and Taxes." This TV special was shown across the +state of Montana and it woke up a lot of people. + + In January of the following year, 1980, Red Beckman made +another TV special, "People-Controlled Government." This also, +was shown across the state. + + the result of these TV Specials was that in 1980 the IRS lost +four out of five cases tried before a jury; and since that time, +in 1981, 1982, and so far in 1983, there have been NO +convictions of a tax rebel brought before a jury. In fact, the +IRS has been able to get only three indictments of which I am +aware -- and the IRS has lost all of these. + + How did this all happen? Well, Red Beckman in the TV specials +told the truth -- something our news media and schools were +supposed to be doing. Basically, this is what Red Beckman was +saying: Through the power of the jury, the people are the final +judge of whether a law is just or not just. An unconstitutional +law is in reality "no law." No one is bound to obey an +unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it. + + In a jury trial, just one jurist voting "not guilty" can +nullify any law. + + In a jury trial, the "Jury is the Judge." The judge is merely +the headmaster on charge of proceedings. + + When the jurists leave the courtroom to decide on the guilt +or innocence of a accused person, they are completely out of the +reach of the judge. Regardless of what the judge told them +regarding his interpretation of the law and the criteria on +which they could base their decision, the JURY IS FREE TO DECIDE +AS THEY PLEASE AND NO EXPLANATION IS NECESSARY. + + In a jury trial, if one person feels the law under which a +defendant is charged is unjust for whatever reason, he and she +HAS THE RIGHT TO VOTE "NOT GUILTY," the one "Not Guilty" vote +causes a hung jury. + + It has become common practice for the courts to try to pack +the jury with the people who are in the "Hen House" with the +enemies of America, but it takes only one person with concern +for his or her country and fellow neighbor voting "Not guilty" +to protect this fellow countryman from a bad law and from those +who try to enforce it. + + One person on a trial jury has more power than Congress, the +President, and the Supreme Court put together. Congress can pass +a law, the President can sigh it, and the Supreme Court can +uphold it. BUT -- one person sitting on a trial jury can vote +"Not Guilty" and the law has been nullified. + + Red Beckman, affectionately known as "Montana's Fighting +Redhead" has been traveling into many other states showing these +TV specials, and the American people are finally finding out how +they can completely stop the IRS and other government agencies +that are making life miserable for the average Americans. + + Like Gordon Kahl, Mr. Beckman believes everyone should pay +their fair share of taxes. he also believes, "We are committing +national suicide. we are destroying ourselves by allowing tax +consumers (government officials) to decide what is a fair share. +We also give our consent when fear and force is used by tax +consumers (government officials) to collect taxes. This is +insanity which is discouraging the production of jobs and +wealth." + + Red is solution oriented, and his best selling book, Born +Again republic, and now, So Unto the IRS as They Would Do Unto +You, were written to help the people stop the insanity which +grips our tax-consuming public servants. We can protect each +other by using our Grand Jury and Trial Jury votes to control +our government. + + One of the saddest situations has been that too many +ministers in the churches have been telling their parishioners +that it is their duty to pay the income tax. Some have done so +out of ignorance -- completely unaware that the income tax is +illegal, unnecessary, and destructive to the economy; some are +spineless and fear that if they speak out, they will lose their +tax-exempt status; and others are intentially misleading their +congregations. Red Beckman calls them all "Pious Puppets." These +ministers are speaking in the name of God; and yet; by urging +the payment of income tax, they are serving the goals of the +Money Czars whose intentions and actions are Anti-Christ. + + One must especially suspect the ministers on TV who say we +must pay the income tax. Certainly, if they told the truth +during their programs, the Money Czars who own the TV networks +would boot these "Pious Puppets" off the air. One must wonder +which god they are serving -- our Heavenly Father or the Money +Czars. + + However, a heartening development is taking place of late. A +growing number of ministers have become aware that the main +intent of the income tax is to control the productive class of +Americans, and they are speaking out. Some are openly urging +their parishioners to refuse to pay this scourge of the working +people. + + WHERE CAN YOU GET IMMEDIATE HELP IN COMBATING THE IRS? + + There are many publications devoted to the tax rebellion -- +too many to list here. So, I'll give you the two best-known +ones: + +JUSTICE TIMES, P.O. BOX 562, Clinton, Ar 72031 + +T.R.U.E., P.O. BOX 424, Altadena, CA 91001 + + The tax rebellion has grown so large, and because so many +organizations fighting the illegal income tax have been started, +it would take a large book to even begin to tell the story. It +is not the intent of this booklet to tell the whole story; it is +merely intended to counteract the lies put out by the IRS and +the national news media "parrots" and to steer you in the right +direction. + + Many good organizations place ads in the two above +newspapers. But, a word of caution -- like any group of +organizations, there are GOOD ONES and there are some that are +NOT SO GOOD. So, do some checking. + + Well, fellas and gals, that's a birds-eye view of what the +tax rebellion is all about. It's a lot different from what +you've been getting from TV, radio, and the daily newspapers, +isn't it? But remember, the various big-time news media is owned +or otherwise controlled by the Money Czars; and they tell us +only what they want us to believe. + + We've been taken for suckers, haven't we? + + PRIVATE BANKERS CONTROL U.S. MONEY SYSTEM + + In telling about the illegal and destructive income tax, it +is appropriate, even necessary, for you to know about another +cute trick the Money Czars put over on us that same year, 1913. +They succeeded in getting Congress to pass the Federal Reserve +Act. + + Now remember, 1913 was the same year the Money Czars stuck us +with the income tax. + + The year 1913 was the bad one for us average Americans but +one for the Money Czars. The income tax gave them the right to +STEAL from us, and the Federal Reserve gave them the right to +CREATE MONEY, OUT OF NOTHING! Thats right -- out of nothing! + + Our U.S. Constitution states that Congress has the power to +coin money and regulate the value thereof. But, in 1913, +Congress gave the private bankers that power. Put simply, +Congress gave these Money Czars the power to create money out of +nothing and then LEND IT TO OUR GOVERNMENT -- and even CHARGE US +INTEREST ON IT! + + Now, the Federal Reserve is a corporation, NOT an agency of +our government; and it has been learned that the income tax is +collected by a private corporation, NOT an agency of our +government. It seems that Money Czars and their agents have been +mighty busy screwing s while we have been busting our butts +trying to operate under their private money-making scheme. + + Your local banker operates under the same system. When you +finance the purchase of a house for instance, the banks don't +lend you any money, they just credit your account with "X" +number of so-called dollars, and you can write checks on it. +It's a case of fancy paper shuffling by your local friendly (??) +banker. Yet, you are required to pay them the amount they +created out of nothing -- plus interest. + + President Andrew Jackson in the 1830's said, "You bankers are +a bunch of vipers and I will rout you out. If the American +people should ever find out how you operate, there would be a +revolution before morning." + + I'll bet you didn't learn any of this in school or from the +daily newspapers. + + The bandits for the Money Czars (the IRS) and the banks are +"bed partners." How many of you have had the IRS come into the +bank where you do business and take funds out of your account? +It's illegal, but it's done anyway. + + Then too, the IRS can go into the bank and get a record of +your deposits and checks you have written and, from this, figure +out what you would owe in income tax -- without this +information, the IRS would have a hell of a time building a case +against you; and believe me, sooner or later the IRS agents will +be knocking on your door in an effort to "suck" as much money +from you as they can. + + Because the banks and the IRS are sleeping in the same bed, +people who know the score have stopped doing business with any +banks. + + It is true, withdrawing from banking does create a problem; +but there is an alternative to doing business with your FRIENDLY +(?) local banker. + + The alternative banking method has the advantage of providing +privacy from the IRS and other snoopy government agencies. Also, +the money on deposit is backed with silver, which is more than +you can say for the regular banks. + + Take special note: When the nation's economy finally takes a +dive, the silver-backed deposits you have in the alternative +banking system will be worth much more than when you made the +deposit. BUT -- anyone who has their earnings deposited in the +regular banks -- well, tough going, Buddy -- your deposits are +backed by NOTHING. The piddling F.D.I.C. won't even cover an +ant's eye worth of the lost deposits. For information on this +alternative banking, send me a self-addressed envelope at P.O. +Box 1015, Detroit Lakes, MN 56501. + + There is a strong move to force Congress to get rid of the +Federal Reserve -- to take back the control of our nation's +money supply from the Money Czars. + + Wouldn't it be nice to be able to borrow money without having +to pay a high rate of interest? OK, then write to Jim Townsend, +Editor, National Educator, P.O. Box 333, 1110 South Panora +Avenue, Fullerton, CA 92632. + + LAW OFFICERS NOT UPHOLDING OATH OF OFFICE + + In counties where the Sheriff upholds his oath of office, he +welcomes the assistance of the Posse Comitatus. In counties +where the sheriff gets involved in shady activities, he +naturally doesn't want to have a posse group organized. He wants +to keep breaking the law without opposition. + + In recent years there has been an alarming change in the +attitude and actions of the law enforcement officials from the +F.B.I. and U.S. marshals down to the county sheriffs and city +police. They seem to have fallen under the influence of the +Money Czars and have become, in effect, their private police +force. This is particularly true when it comes to going after +tax protesters. It is also true in the case of farm foreclosures +which is nothing more than theft by the Money Czars and their +"agents." This gets into the illegality of our money which is a +ROTTEN MESS that I can't even begin to explain it in this short +pamphlet; but the sheriff is INVOLVED in helping the Money Czars +in their dirty work. You see, it has now become one of the main +duties of the county sheriff to be "errand boy" for LAW-BREAKING +JUDGES. So it is understandable that the sheriffs do not want a +posse around to see that they uphold the law; nor do judges want +them around for the same reason. + + Since, in recent years, law enforcement officers are not +upholding their oath of office, which is to uphold the +Constitution, the Posse Comitatus groups have been viewed by +law-breaking officers and judges as enemies and have been +treated as such. + + MONEY CZARS USE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS + + It would be wrong to accuse all persons entering the U.S. +Marshal's Service or the F.B.I. as having the criminal intent to +help destroy America. Certainly, to get a government job is the +goal of many average Americans. The jobs are secure, the pay is +good, and there are many side benefits. People working in the +private industry must work up to 45 years before being able to +retire with any type of pension, but a government employee can +work as little as twenty years to retire with excellent +benefits. So the enticement to enter government service is great +indeed. this is especially true in such positions as those with +the F.B.I. and the U.S. Marshal's Service. But -- + + After serving in these law enforcement positions for a period +of time, these officials often find their duties quite different +from what they imagined. They find their efforts to apprehend +criminals hampered by restrictive laws to protect the criminal +rather than the law-abiding citizens. They also find that a big +part of their job is to carry out acts if suppression against +people who are trying to expose and stop the criminal, +unconstitutional acts by government officials and others of +influence. They are required to carry out illegal acts against +patriotic individuals -- even conduct clandestine acts such as +the attack on Gordon Kahl at Medina, North Dakota. + + Facing the alternative of either committing such an un- +American, even treasonous acts OR giving up their good +government jobs, most choose to obey the order. It is amazing +the depths to which some people sill stoop for financial gain. + + There are many "BAD" law enforcement officers who know that +what they are doing is wrong and seem to relish doing it. But +in all honesty, it must be said that most are innocently unaware +that they are being USED to weaken America -- in the case of tax +rebels, for instance. These officers believe that the income tax +is legal and necessary. So, they help the IRS "goon squads" zero +in on a law abiding citizens rather than protect the citizen. + + AID AND ABET + + There is an excellent newsletter to which every law +enforcement officer should subscribe. In fact, it is a +newsletter that EVERY American should read. It is called "AID +and ABET." What makes it so potent is that it is written for law +enforcement officers by a man who, for six years, has been a law +enforcement officer. This concerned officer is Jack McLamb. What +Mr. McLamb writes is so relative to what is happening in the law +enforcement field in America that it is my hope that a copy +reaches the eyes of every mature American. here is a part of his +"AID and ABET" #3: + + "Brother and Sister Officers, you and I are being played for +fools! We are being used to commit illegal acts against our +country and fellow citizens under the pretext of serving and +protecting society. + + "We are being kept uninformed as to the real dangers facing +America today. I am about to share some information with you +that will shock you. When I'm through, you will be burning mad +at some of our state and national leaders. + + "How do I know this? Because I reacted the SAME WAY, and so +have many of our fellow officers who are now INFORMED as to the +treacherous plans that have been put into action in America -- a +plan in which we have played a very important part so far, and, +if not stopped, in which we will play a MAJOR role in the near +future. + + "When you are through digesting this information, you will +have this compelling drive to prove it FALSE, to put it out of +your mind. And that's good...because, if you are the kind of +American as the officers I've been working with for over six +years, you will not even be able to sleep, you will not even be +able to SLEEP until you find out some ANSWERS as to HOW this +could happen in our beloved country. + + "...if, after you read this letter, the first thing out of +your mouth isn't "THEY'LL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS WHILE THERE IS +A BREATH LEFT IN MY BODY!!!...you don't deserve to be called a +law officer, much less an American." + + Later in the newsletter he writes, "How many of us (lawmen) +have gone to WAR and faced the ENEMY on another shore, believing +we were insuring our families' continued right to FREEDOM here +in America? How many of us have clutched a dying friend to our +breast during the last few seconds of his life on some faraway, +bloody battlefield? Many lawmen have. And, what is so amazing is +that these traitors to America are using US (many of whom are +VETS) as their "ENFORCERS" against fellow countrymen." + + Jack McLamb has also written a booklet entitled "Sanction +America." It's great! I'd like to print the whole booklet for +you, but space prohibits doing this, so I'll just print some of +the key material: + + "...if one were really to get down into history books, they +would find that on every occasion where a country was subverted +and the citizens put into slavery by their own government +leaders...the 'local police'...(those who were the neighbors and +relatives of 'those enslaved') were the FORCE ('army') that was +used to control and check any attempts by their fellow citizens +from regaining control of their government. + + "It is at this time...that I, as one of those on the +'INSIDE', (serving as one of the SUBROSA government's +'ENFORCERS') must inform you...that any hope of the patriots +winning back our 'Land of the Free,' WITHOUT BLOODSHED, IS +ALMOST AT AN END!" + + But, "At this moment, there IS STILL TIME to take back +control of our lives and government by 'non-violent' means..." + + It is "...the sincere HOPE that by UNITING the people to +stand against these evil men who have gained control of our +economy and government, we may still, in a 'NON-VIOLENT MANNER,' +take back our and our children's sacred heritage before it is +too late!" + + Jack McLamb has done a terrific job in awakening his fellow +officer. Now, he asks that we join in helping. Since law +enforcement has a key position in the PRESERVATION OR LOSS of +our freedoms, I am reprinting his request: + + "There are many good, INFORMED patriots in every community in +the U.S., but many do not know that there is 'NOW' a method of +reaching into their local law enforcement agencies with the +TRUTH. They must be aware of our plan for CRIPPLING the +OPPOSITION'S ARMY and restoring it to the PEOPLE. + + "NOW, BE SURE TO GET THIS...if even one fourth of one percent +of the millions of patriots across this land would 'PLANT A +SEED'...by donating a year's subscription of 'AID and ABET' +NEWSLETTERS for Lawmen to one of their local police officers, in +just a few months the PLANNED TAKE OVER OF AMERICA WOULD +'LITERALLY COLLAPSE.' + + THINK OF IT + + "If the patriots acted on this request, every police officer +would have read of this PLANNED DESTRUCTION! FIFTY PERCENT WOULD +TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO STOP THEIR OWN ACTIONS OF SUPPORT FOR +THESE TRAITORS! Other officers, who are 'PROFESSIONAL +FOLLOWERS,' would soon FOLLOW THEIR LEAD! REMEMBER, these guys +and gals are already GOOD AMERICANS, they just are MISDIRECTED! + + "So...what in God' Green Earth could the PLANNERS enforce +without their OBEDIENT ENFORCERS'? What could they do? If the +President used his secret 'Executive Orders' to declare 'MARTIAL +LAW,' because the patriots (THE PEOPLE), started demanding a +CONSTITUTIONAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT instead of the current style, +WHO WOULD ENFORCE IT UPON THE PEOPLE...? + + "If the I.R.S. came out to 'fraudulently' take YOUR business, +trailer, farm, or house -- 'IMAGINE' your local 'friends and +neighbors,' THE POLICE, arresting THEM for CONSPIRACY and +attempted THEFT. + + "Is it not TIME WE UNITE AND REGAIN WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS? + + "Join with us as we reach out to our fellow American lawmen +and save them from the grips of the WORLD PLANNERS. And in so +doing, 'strike a blow' at the very heart of their "WELL OILED +SOCIAL MACHINE." + + "SOUND EXCITING? Let me tell you, I have never, NEVER done +ANYTHING in the Constitutional movement that warms the cockles +of this ole patriots heart MORE than FINALLY hitting these +SUCKERS where it really HURTS! I LOVE IT, AND YOU WILL TOO!" + + Yours in Freedom, + Officer Jack J. McLamb + + Ok, now. Take that first step. Help Jack McLamb, help +yourself, and help America: order Issue #3 of "AID and ABET." +Just send $1.00 to AID and ABET, P.O. BOX 8787, Phoenix AZ +85066. + + The importance of Officer McLamb's efforts to alert his +fellow officers cannot be over emphasized. certainly, if law +enforcement officers continue to so the bidding of the Money +Czars and supress the actions of patriotic Americans, the Money +Czars will have ALL of America in their web. + + Evidence indicates that at least some of the U.S. Marshals +who attacked Gordon Kahl at Medina did so knowing that they were +acting unlawfully. As a result of this unlawful act initiated by +the U.S. Marshals or on the orders from higher up, Gordon Kahl +is dead and three others are in prison. + + It can hardly be denied that Gordon Kahl and the three +imprisoned victims of Medina were defending themselves in the +unwarranted and illegal attack. During the attack, Gordon Kahl +admirably acted to protect the lives of his son and friends. +Yet, in spite of all the evidence proving the U.S. Marshals +acted illegally, the government took the attitude that two U.S. +Marshals are dead and SOMEONE MUST BE BLAMED. + + Regarding the deaths of the two U.S. marshals who obviously +were acting unlawfully, thee are two interesting court cases for +us average Americans to seriously consider: + + "Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking +the Officers life if necessary": Plummer V. State, 135 Ind 308. +The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld this ruling twice after +citizens killed officers in this manner: John Bad Elk V. U.S. +(1900) 177 U.S. 529; L.S. V. Di Re (1948) 332 U.S. 581. + + "An arrest made with defective warrant; or one issues without +warrant; or one issued without affidavit; or one that fails to +allege a crime is without jurisdiction, and one who is being +arrested may RESIST ARREST AND BREAK AWAY. If the arresting +officer is killed by one so resisting, the killing will be no +more than an involuntary manslaughter": Housh V. People 75 III +491; reaffirmed and quoted in State V. Leach, 7 Conn 452; State +V. Gleason, 32 Kan 245. + + Yet, in spite of the court cases, the Benson Court in Fargo, +North Dakota, found the three victims guilty. In view of the +attack at Medina, and the trial that followed, we law-abiding, +freedom loving Americans evidently face two critical, +interlocking conditions: + + 1) Many law enforcement officers (some knowingly, some + unknowingly) are breaking the law in taking aggressive + actions against patriots, who are trying to force, in a + peaceful manner, our government officials to operate under + Constitutional Law. + + 2) U.S. Attorneys and federal district judges are acting in + support of the law enforcement officers who commit these + illegal, aggressive acts. (Again, I repeat Red Beckman's + charge, "The U.S. attorneys and federal district judges + are the greatest coverup gang in history.") + + If law enforcement officers, backed by the courts, are +allowed to continue to engage in illegal acts, we law-abiding +citizens don't have a chance of stopping the Money Czars. In +viewing the critical situation. There seems to be three +alternatives facing us: 1. Surrender to the Money Czars and +their agents; 2. Resort to Firearms; 3. Help Jack McLamb wake up +his fellow law enforcement officers. Personally, I prefer number +3. + + Many people are buying copies of Officer McLamb's newsletters +and giving them to their local officers, but first get one for +yourself. It'll open your eyes. + + If Jack McLamb's newsletter "AID and ABET" continues to +expand in circulation, law enforcement will once again hold the +respect of the American Citizenry. With law enforcement +officials upholding the law, the Posse Comitatus can once again +take its rightful place in helping the Sheriff protect the +citizens of their counties. + + MEDINA BLUNDER STARTS NEWS MEDIA SMEAR + + The attack on Gordon Kahl at Median backfired; so the various +"agents" of the Money Czars started a smear campaign in order to +try to cover up their crimes. They referred to Gordon Kahl and +ALL tax rebels in derogatory terms; and since Gordon had once +been involved in the Posse Comitatus, the "agents" also started +to slander the Posse. + + It is understandable that the Money Czars want to stop the +Posse Comitatus movement because the Posse is one of the most +powerful forces standing in the way of a takeover of the United +States by the Money Czars. + + I was told by one high-ranking Posse member that right now +they are strong enough to stop a take over of our country. + + One other Posse leader said, "To ensure the freedoms of our +country, EVERY MAN AND WOMAN fifteen years and over should have +a gun and know how to use it -- AND BE WILLING TO USE IT IF +NECESSARY. ONLY THEN CAN WE BE SURE OF KEEPING OUR COUNTRY +FREE." + + His assistant added, "It is also necessary to know who the +enemy 'agents' are." + + OTHER DEFENDERS OF AMERICA'S FREEDOM + + The Posse Comitatus is a formidable force in stopping the +enemy forces trying to destroy America. But there are others. + + One is made of fairly young men who have had their eyes +opened. They are the veterans of the Viet Nam War. They got a +royal screwing by the Money Czars and their "agents" who planned +and directed that war. + + These Viet Nam veterans are organized in many areas of the +country. They realize that the Money Czars can cause a collapse +of the economy in America any time they wish and are only +waiting until the time is ideal. Realizing this, they are +getting prepared. + + In North Dakota these Viet Nam War veterans wouldn't come to +any of our meetings. They were in agreement with what we were +doing, but they didn't want to be known. We were assured they +are armed and ready. + + The strength of this Viet Nam War veteran force is unknown to +me, and it is well that it remains secretive. What the +anti-american Money Czars and their "agents" don't know is to +the advantage of the pro-American forces. + + Another major force designed to stop the Money Czars and +their "agents" is even more secretive. It is known as +"Leaderless Resistance" or more commonly as "Phantom Teams." + + In any organization there is always the danger of +infiltration by "agents" of the Money Czars. To avoid this +danger the "Phantom teams" movement was initiated. This is the +way it works: + + Two to four persons, who know and trust each other, decide to +form a "team." The number is to exceed no more than four people. +No one outside their "team" knows that it is in existence. the +purpose of the "team" is to work together to protect their +families in case of an ATTEMPTED TAKEOVER. But their actions +are also aggressive in nature -- to take action at an opportune +time. This action may be the destruction of property of an +"agent" or even "eliminating" that agent. These "teams" operate +individually and anything they decide to do is entirely on their +own. + + Then there is the "33" and the many similar militant groups, +highly organized and highly trained. + + A new welcome force is emerging to bolster the fight against +the anti-american forces. It is made up of segments of the +religious community headed in many cases by members of the +clergy. + + Many religious people have become disgusted with the +"watering down" of their denomination and the lack of "guts" on +the part of most of the clergy to face the dangers facing +religion in general and their parishioners in particular. Large +numbers have dropped out of their churches. Even the once-strong +bond of Catholics to their church has been broken and new +militant Catholic churches formed. Their strength is kept +secret, and this seems to be worrying the Money Czars and their +"agents." + + THE POSSE COMITATUS + + Until the attack by U.S. marshals and other law officers at +Medina, North Dakota, most people in America had never heard of +the Posse Comitatus. + + Because, at one time, Gordon Kahl had been involved in Posse +Comitatus activities, the "agents" of the Money Czars used the +Medina blunder by the marshals as an opportunity to smear the +Posse groups -- just as they did the tax rebels. + + What you read in the daily newspapers about the Posse +Comitatus is just what the Money Czars wanted printed; and since +they control the news media, they can print (any and) all the +bull chips they want. So, what IS the truth about the Posse +Comitatus? You can just about imagine that it is 100% opposite +from what the "funny" boys are saying. + + THE TRUTH ABOUT THE POSSE COMITATUS + + The legality of the Posse Comitatus goes back to the +beginning of out country's history. It is based on Common Law -- +the same base as that upon which our U.S. Constitution was +written. + + Early in our country's history, it was common for a country +sheriff to call on men in their country to help enforce the law. +It was, and STILL IS, the right of the sheriff of a county to +call on any male in the county between the ages of 15 and 55 to +help enforce the law; those older than 55 could volunteer. This +group of sheriff's deputies is called the Posse Comitatus which, +in Latin, means "power of the county." + + It can be expected that occasionally a county elects a +sheriff that does not do his duty. In this case the Posse can +take action. But first, the Posse must ask the county coroner to +issue an arrest warrant. If the coroner refuses, the Posse has +the right to arrest the sheriff and take him before a jury for +trial. + + "AGENTS" OF THE MONEY CZARS FEAR GUNS + + There are some individuals who are outspoken in their +intentions. One eastern North Dakota tax rebel was last visited +in 1969. At that time he said to the IRS agents who visited him, +"Do you see those guns hanging on the wall? The next time you +come through my door, they'll carry you out feet first." It has +been over fourteen years; and no IRS agents have dared to go +back, because they know he meant what he said. He confided to +me, "I know that when our country falls, they (the "agents" of +the Money Czars) will be out to get me; but you can be damn sure +I'll get some of those bastards first." + + While most are not as outspoken as he, there are many who are +planning to so the same as the above described tax rebel. + + In all the operations I have discussed, there is one thing +they all have in common: those involved realize that the +greatest danger we face is from within and the only way to stop +a takeover by the Money Czars and their "agents" is to be +prepared -- armed prepared-ness. + + The jokers who are trying to shut down the Posse Comitatus +are the same bunch of anti-Americans who are behind the move to +take away guns from law-abiding citizens. + + IF THEY SHOULD SUCCEED, WE WILL BE IN NO BETTER SHAPE THAN +THE PEOPLE IN POLAND. IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE FACT THAT MILLIONS +OF AMERICANS HAVE GUNS, THE MONEY CZARS WOULD HAVE HAD US IN +COMPLETE BONDAGE YEARS AGO. + + An "Agent" is anyone that acts in an unconstitutional, un- +American manner. To this must be added certain segments of the +educational system that have intentionally been feeding lies to +the American people and to members of the mass news media who +distort or omit important events and information. + + BLOODSHED LIKELY + + The patriotic Americans who are striving to stop the anti- +American forces working from within and without the country are +trying to do so by legal means. But, since the Money Czars and +their "agents" are so entrenched and so close to accomplishing +their goal, there are a good number of patriots who believe that +bloodshed cannot be avoided because they feel the Money Czars +and their 'agents" will not back off peacefully. the hope and +aim is to minimize the bloodshed. Realizing that bloodshed is +inevitable, they want to make sure that the blood that is shed +will be that of the 'agents" and not their own. + + Alexandyr Solzhenitsyn the Russian author, wrote words to the +effect that when the Bolsheviks were taking over Russia, they +cowered. They were afraid they would be next. They hoped it +would all blow over. Once in prison, they thought about the +things they could have done to stop the Bolsheviks. + + In America, most people are like those Russians; but they are +millions who are already aware of the aims of the Money Czars +and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to stop them. It is +this group of modern-day patriots who offer hope that the United +States of America will not experience the fate that fell upon +Russia. + + * * * * * * * * * * * + + The IRS agents and other agents of the Money Czars called +Gordon Kahl a "radical tax protestor" and a member of the "anti- +government Posse Comitatus" and other "bad guy" names. After +reading just the information in this little booklet, you can +decide who is the "bad guy" -- Gordon Kahl or the Money Czars +and their "agents" -- plus most of the news media characters +who, like parrots, repeatedly use these "bad guy" labels. + + It is better to fight while there is a chance of winning, +than to wait and be forced to fight when all hope is lost. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/getty.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/getty.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..878f57ee --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/getty.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ + +Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863 +on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA + + +Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth +upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and +dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. + +Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether +that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . +can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. + +We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place +for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. +It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . +we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, +who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power +to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, +what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. + +It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished +work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. +It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining +before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion +to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . +that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . +that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . +and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . +shall not perish from this earth. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/global-c b/textfiles.com/politics/global-c new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7e26ce6f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/global-c @@ -0,0 +1,634 @@ +Computer Networks and the +Emergence of Global Civil Society: +The Case of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) + +Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the +Peace Studies Association +Boulder, CO February 28, 1992 +Workshop on "How to Utilize Communications Networks for Peace Studies" + +Copyright 1992 +by Howard H. Frederick, Ph.D.(1) + +To be published in Globalizing Networks: Computers and International +Communication, eds. Linda Harasim and Jan Walls (Oxford, forthcoming) + +WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS it becomes possible to dissolve the +communication frontiers that have divided peoples one from another and to +assume among the Powers of the Earth the interdependent and balanced +communication relations to which the Development of Technology has entitled +them, + +WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, that all human communicators are +created equally, endowed with certain Unalienable Rights, among them the +right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart +information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The +Right to Communicate includes the right to be informed and well as to +inform, the right to reply as well as to listen, the right to be addressed +as well as to speak and the right for communication resources to satisfy +human social, economic and cultural needs. + +THAT TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, a global computer communications network has +now arisen benefiting the Common Good of Humankind by loosing the bonds of +the marketplace and the strictures of government on the media of +communications and allowing that part of human endeavor known as global +civil society to communicate outside the barriers imposed by commercial or +governmental interests. + +*** + +These are possible opening lines of what might be called a Charter of +Communication Interdependence of the global nongovernmental movements for +peace, human rights and environmental preservation. The growth of such +global interdependent communication relations has been greatly accelerated +by the advent of decentralizing communication technologies such as computer +networking. Global civil society as represented by the "NGO Movement" +(nongovernmental organizations) now represents a force in international +relations, one that circumvents hegemony of markets and of governments. +This paper outlines the concept of global civil society and the NGO +Movement, describes the obstacles that they face from governments and +transnational corporations, and sketches the emergence of the Association +for Progressive Communications network as an illustration of this worldwide +phenomenon. + +*** + +What we call "community" used to be limited to face-to-face dialogue among +people in the same physical space, a dialogue that reflected mutual +concerns and a common culture. For thousands of years, people had little +need for long-distance communication because they lived very close to one +another. The medieval peasant's entire life was spent within a radius of no +more twenty-five miles from the place of birth. Even at the beginning of +our century, the average person still lived in the countryside and knew of +the world only through travelers' tales. + +Today, of course, communications technologies have woven parts of the world +together into an electronic web. No longer is community or dialogue +restricted to a geographical place. With the advent of the fax machine, +telephones, international publications, and computers, personal and +professional relationships can be maintained irrespective of time and +place. Communication relationships are no longer restricted to place, but +are distributed through space. Today we are all members of many global +"non-place" communities. + +In the last decade there has emerged a new kind of global community, one +that has increasingly become a force in international relations. We speak +of the emergence of a global civil society, that part of our collective +lives that is neither market nor government but is so often inundated by them. Still somewhat inarticulate and flexing its muscles, +global civil society is best represented in the global "NGO Movement," +nongovernmental organizations and citizens advocacy groups uniting to fight +planetary problems whose scale confound local or even national solutions. +Previously isolated from one another, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) +are flexing their muscles at the United Nations and other world forums as +their power and capacity to communicate increase. + +The concept of civil society arose with John Locke, the English philosopher +and political theorist. It implied a defense of human society at the +national level against the power of the state and the inequalities of the +marketplace. For Locke, civil society was that part of civilization--from +the family and the church to cultural life and education--that was outside +of the control of government or market but was increasingly marginalized by +them. Locke saw the importance of social movements to protect the public +sphere from these commercial and governmental interests. + +>From the industrial age to the present, mercantilist and power-political +interests pushed civil society to the edge. In most countries, civil +society even lacked its own channels of media communication. It was +speechless and powerless, isolated behind the artifice of national +boundaries, rarely able to reach out and gain strength in contact with +counterparts around the world. What we now call the "NGO Movement" began in +the middle of the last century with a trickle of organizations and has now +become a flood of activity. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) today +encompass private citizens and national interest groups from all spheres of +human endeavor. Their huge increase in number and power is due in no small +measure to the development of globe-girdling communications +technologies.(2) + +As Dutch social theorist Cees J. Hamelink has written, we are seeing a new +phenomenon emerging on the world scene--global civil society, best +articulated by the NGO movement.(3) New communications technologies now +facilitate communication among and between the world's national civil +societies, especially within the fields of human rights, consumer +protection, peace, gender equality, racial justice, and environmental +protection. >From Earth Summit to GATT, from the United Nations General +Assembly to the Commission on Human Rights, NGOs have become the most +important embodiment of this new force in international relations. + +The development of communications technologies has vastly transformed the +capacity of global civil society to build coalitions and networks. In times +past, communication transaction clusters formed among nation-states, +colonial empires, regional economies and alliances--for example, medieval +Europe, the Arab world, China and Japan, West African kingdoms, the +Caribbean slave and sugar economies. Today new and equally powerful forces +have emerged on the world stage--the rain forest protection movement, the +human rights movement, the campaign against the arms trade, alternative +news agencies, and planetary computer networks. + +*** + +The continued growth and influence of global civil society face two +fundamental problems: increasing monopolization of global information and +communication by transnational corporations; and the increasing disparities +between the world's info-rich and info-poor populations. Global computer +networking makes an electronic "end-run" around the first problem and +provides an appropriate technological solution to overcome the second. + +Hamelink observed that the very powers that obstructed civil society at the +national level--markets and governments--also con- trolled most of the +communication flows at the global level. Government monopolies still +control a huge share of the world's air waves and telecommunications flows. +Even worse, a handful of immense corporations now dominate the world's mass +media. If present trends continue, Bagdikian predicted, by the turn of the +century "five to ten corporate giants will control most of the world's +important newspapers, magazines, books, broadcast stations, movies, recordings and +videocassettes."(4) Telecommunications infrastructures and data networks +must also be included in this gloomy account. Today's "lords of the global +village" are huge corporations that "exert a homogenizing power over ideas, +culture and commerce that affects populations larger than any in history. +Neither Caesar nor Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt nor any Pope, has commanded +as much power to shape the information on which so many people depend to +make decisions about everything from whom to vote for to what to eat."(5) + +Why is this happening? The most fundamental reason is that fully integrated +corporate control of media production and dissemination reaps vast profits +and creates huge corporate empires. Already more than two-thirds of the +U.S. work force is now engaged in information-related jobs.(6) Almost half +the Gross National Product of the 14 most industrialized countries, and +one-quarter of all international trade, comes from services.(7) +Telecommunications services grew by 800 percent worldwide in the 1980s. +According to Unesco, the total world information and communication economy +in 1986 was $1,185 billion, about 8 to 9 percent of total world output, of +which $515 billion was in the United States.(8) Growth in this sector is +accelerat- ing and it is no surprise that a few large corporations now +predominate in the world's information flow. While there are more than one +hundred news agencies around the world, only five--Associated Press, United +Press International, Reuters, Agence France Presse, and TASS--control about +ninety-six percent of the world's news flows.(9) Such corporations as +Sears, IBM, H&R Block, and Lockheed control the bulk of the videotex +information markets. + +In addition to transnational control of information, global civil society +and the NGO movements confront the increasing gap between the world's +info-rich and info-poor populations. In virtually every medium, the +disparities are dramatic. + +Ninety-five percent of all computers are in the developed countries. + +While developing countries have three-quarters the world's population, they +can manage only thirty percent of the world's newspaper output. + +About sixty-five percent of the world's population experiences an acute +book shortage. + +Readers of the New York Times consume more newsprint each Sunday than the +average African does in one year. + +The only Third World country to meet Unesco's basic media standards for per +capita numbers of newspapers, radio, and cinema is Cuba. + +Only seventeen countries in the world had a Gross National Product larger +than total U.S. advertising expenditures. + +The United States and Commonwealth of Independent States, with only 15 +percent of the world's population, use more than 50 percent of the +geostationary orbit. The Third World uses less than 10 percent. + +Ten developed countries, with 20 percent of the world's population, +accounted for almost three-quarters of all telephone lines. The United +States had as many telephone lines as all of Asia; the Netherlands, as many +as all of Africa; Italy, as many as all of Latin America; Tokyo as many as +all of Africa.(10) + +Even within the United States we have the info-rich and the info-poor. From +the streets of Manhattan to the barrios of Los Angeles, from the homeless +to the immigrants populations, from Appalachia to the inner cities, there +are millions upon millions of our fellow Americans who cannot read or type, +do not have access to computers, do not consume newsprint, cannot afford a +book. + +*** + +To counter these twin trends that threaten to engulf civil society with a +highly controlled of commercialization, there has arisen a worldwide +metanetwork of highly decentralized technologies--computers, fax machines, +amateur radio, packet data satellites, VCRs, video cameras and the like. +They are "decentralized" in the sense that they democratize information +flow, break down hierarchies of power, and make communication from top and +bottom just as easy as from horizon to horizon. For the first time in +history, the forces of peace and environmental preservation have acquired the +communication tools and intelligence gathering technologies previously the +province of the military, government and transnational corporations. + +Many people, organizations and technologies are responsible for this +development, but one organization has distinguished itself by specializing +in the communication needs of the global NGO Movement. The history of the +Association for Progressive Communication (APC) dates back to 1984, when +Ark Communications Institute, the Center for Innovative Diplomacy, +Community Data Processing, and the Foundation for the Arts of Peace--all +located in the San Francisco Bay Area near Silicon Valley, +California--joined forces to create what was then called PeaceNet, the +world's first computer network dedicated exclusively to serve the needs of +the movements for peace, human rights and social justice. In 1987, PeaceNet +became a division of the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, and the +Institute for Global Communications (IGC) was formed to direct and support +its activities. + +Parallel to this, with seed money from Apple Computer and the San Francisco +Foundation, in 1982 the Farallones Institute created EcoNet to advance the +cause of planetary environmental protection and sustainability. Farallones +transferred EcoNet to the newly-formed Institute for Global Communications +in 1987. ConflictNet, dedicated to serving nonviolent conflict resolution, +dispute mediation and arbitration, joined IGC in 1990. Together, these +three networks--PeaceNet, EcoNet and Conflict--make up what we now refer to +as the IGC Networks, the largest computer system in the world dedicated to +peace, human rights and environmental preservation. + +Inspired by the technological success of establishing these networks in the +United States, the Institute for Global Communications began collaborating +with a similar network in the United Kingdom, London-based GreenNet. To +raise funds, rock stars Little Steven and Peter Garbriel performed two +"Hurricane Irene" concerts in Tokyo in December 1986. Thus we can say that +the idea of a global network for peace, human rights, and the environment +was born in Peter Gabriel's New York hotel room in 1987 when the money was +distributed and the original charter was drafted on a laptop computer. + +With this impetus, in 1987 GreenNet and the IGC Networks joined together +seamlessly demonstrating that transnational electronic communications could +serve the these communities. This transatlantic link was so successful +that, with the support of the MacArthur, Ford and General Service +foundations and the United Nations Development Program, IGC helped to +establish five more networks, in Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Nicaragua and +Australia. This quickly led in 1990 to the founding of the Association for +Progressive Communications (APC) to coordinate this global operation. +Today, more than 15,000 subscribers in 90 countries are fully +interconnected through low-cost personal computers and software provided +free of charge to APC partners. These groups constitute a veritable honor +role of nongovernmental organizations working in these fields, including +Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Greenpeace and many +labor unions. + +*** + +APC members are fond of saying that they "dial locally and act globally." +Today, there are APC partner networks in the United States, Nicaragua, +Brazil, Russia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Germany +and affiliated systems in Uruguay, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Bolivia, +Kenya and other countries (see "APC Network Topology"). The APC now even +has an affiliated network in Cuba and can boast of providing the first free +flow of information between the United States and Cuba in thirty years. +Dozens of FidoNet system connect with the APC through "gateways" located at +the main nodes. At the hub of this system is APC's largest computer, known +as "cdp" or Community Data Processing, located in Silicon Valley, +California. + +The APC Networks can now set up complete electronic mail and conferencing systems on small, inexpensive appropriate-technology microcomputers for +between $5,000 and $15,000 with software developed since 1984 and available +to partner systems at no charge. Individual users typically make a local +phone call to connect to their host machine, which stores up mail and +conference postings until contacted by a partner computer in the network, +typically about every two hours. Aside from its low cost, this +technological configuration is appropriate for countries whose +telecommunications infrastructure is still poor. The file transfer +protocols used between the computers have a high level of resiliency to +line noise and satellite delays, and if an interruption does occur, they +are able to resume a transfer right at the point it was interrupted. This +is particularly important for transporting large binary files, when the +chances of losing the connection over poor quality telephone lines is +significant. + +Within the APC, main nodes at London (GreenNet), Stockholm (NordNet), +Toronto (Web) and San Francisco (IGC Networks) bring the communication flow +in from regional nodes. Messages are then exchanged and distributed around +the world so that a message from Australia can end up on a screen in +Estonia in two to four hours. Messages can be sent through these machines +to outbound fax and telex servers, to commercial hosts such as Dialcom and +GeoNet, and to academic networks such as Janet, BitNet, EARN, and +UseNet/UUCP. The entire network is funneled on to the Internet through the +IGC Networks, which are a full Internet host (igc.org). The price is low by +any standard; in the United States hourly connect charges range as low as +$3 per hour. + +Simply put, electronic mail (or "email") connects two correspondents +through a computer and a modem to a "host" computer. One user, let's say a +peace researcher in Finland, uses her computer to dial into a local data +network (analogous to the telephone network but for data traffic instead of +voice). She either types in a message or "uploads" a prepared text, into +her host computer, in this case, NordNet in Stockholm. Within a short time +that message is transferred via high-speed modems through the telephone +lines to the host system of her correspondent, a university peace studies +professor in Hawaii. His host system is the PeaceNet computer in +California. At his convenience, he connects to his host and "downloads" the +message. This miraculous feat, near instantaneous communication across half +the globe, costs each user only the price of a local phone call plus a +small transmission charge. + +Unlike systems used by the large commercial services, the APC Networks are +highly decentralized and preserve local autonomy. One microcomputer serves +a geographical region and is in turn connected with other "nodes." The +local node collects the international mail, bundles and compresses it, then +sends it to the appropriate foreign messaging system for distribution using +a special high-speed connection. + +In addition to email, the APC Networks also oversee about 900 electronic +"conferences"--basically a collective mailbox open to all users--on +subjects from AIDS to Zimbabwe. It is here that people can publicize +events, prepare joint proposals, disseminate vital information and find the +latest data. APC conferences carries a number of important alternative news +sources, including Inter Press Service (the Third World's largest news +agency); Environmental News Service (Vancouver), the United Nations +Information Centre news service ; Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion +(Ecuador, in Spanish); Alternet (Washington, DC); Moscow News (Russia, in +English); New Liberation News Service (Cambridge, MA); Pacific News Service +(San Francisco, CA); World Perspectives Shortwave Monitoring Service +(Madison, WI); and Yugofax Information Services (London). + +*** + +The first large-scale impact of these decentralizing technologies on +international politics happened in 1989. When the Chinese government +massacred its citizens near Tianamen Square, Chinese students transmitted +the most detailed, vivid reports instantly by fax, telephone and computer networks to activists throughout the +world. They organized protests meetings, fundraising, speaking tours and +political appeals. Their impact was so immense and immediate that the +Chinese government tried to cut telephone links to the exterior and started +to monitor the Usenet computer conferences where much of this was taking +place.(11) + +Another example is the 1991 Gulf War, where computer networks such as +PeaceNet and its partner networks in the APC exploded with activity. While +mainstream channels of communication were blocked by Pentagon censorship, +the APC Networks were carrying accurate reports of the effects of the Gulf +War on the Third World, Israel and the Arab countries and the worldwide +anti-war movement. For a movement caught off- guard, amazingly smooth +coordination took place rapidly across the country and the world. Competing +groups agreed on common platforms, set synchronized action dates, and +planned large-scale events across vast distances. Computerists seized the +technology and made it work. + +During the attempted coup in the Soviet Union in August 1990, the APC +partners used telephone circuits to circumvent official control. Normally, +the outdated Russian telephone system requires hordes of operators to +connect international calls by hand, and callers must compete fiercely for +phone lines. But the APC partner networks found other routes for data flow. +While the usual link with Moscow is over international phone lines, APC +technicians also rigged a link over a more tortuous route. That plan saw +Soviet news dispatches gathered through a loose network of personal +computer bulletin board systems in Moscow and Leningrad. The dispatches +which were sent by local phone calls to the Baltic states, then to NordNet +Sweden, and then to London-based GreenNet, which maintains an open link +with the rest of the APC. + +Later this year, the Association for Progressive Communications will play a +major role in providing communications services for environmentalists, +non-governmental organizations and citizen activists before, during, and +after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment at Development +(UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The largest United Nations conference in +history, UNCED is the first global gathering on the environment since 1972. +It is also the first global summit to take place fully within the age of +the NGO and computer technologies. APC maintains over 30 electronic +conferences on UNCED documents, agendas, reports, discussion and debate. +This information sharing service allows official UN documents to be +accessible to citizens around the world, thus providing broader citizen +participation in a heads-of-state summit than has ever been possible +before. APC's Brazilian member network, AlterNex, was chosen to spearhead +communications services for non-governmental organizations at UNCED itself. + +Around the globe, other APC networks are working on issues of peace, social +justice, and environmental protection. In Australia, the members of the +Pegasus network are working to hook up the affluent 18 percent of the +electorate that votes Green, which would make the party more powerful. Back +in the United States, EcoNet is helping high school students monitor water +quality in local rivers. One such experiment involved 50 students along the +Rouge River in Michigan. When in 1991 neo-Nazi skinheads ransacked a +Dresden neighborhood populated by foreigners, users of the German partner +network ComLink posted news of the event. Soon Dresden newspapers were +flooded with faxes from around the world deploring the action. All in all, +tens of thousands of messages a day pass back and forth within the "APC +village," and the number grows every day. + +*** + +The partner networks of the Association for Progressive Communications have +built a truly global network dedicated to the free and balanced flow of +information. The APC Charter mandates its partners to serve people working +toward "peace, the prevention of warfare, elimination of militarism, +protection of the environment, furtherance of human rights and the rights of peoples, achievement of social and economic +justice, elimination of poverty, promotion of sustainable and equitable +development, advancement of participatory democracy, and nonviolent +conflict resolution." + +The APC Networks are trying to make an "end-run" around the information +monopolies and to construct a truly alternative information infrastructure +for the challenges that lie ahead. By providing a low-cost, appropriate +solution for nongovernmental organizations and poor countries, they are +attempting to civilize and democratize cyberspace. + +We are moving into a "new world order." The age of democracy may have had +its beginnings in the French and the American revolutions, but only today +is it finally reaching the hearts and minds of sympathetic populations +around the world. This "preferred" world order of democratic change depends +heavily on the efficiency of communication systems. + +Perhaps the most durable impact of the APC Networks is their promotion of +that illusive phenomenon known as "world public opinion." One way that we +can confirm the ascendance of global civil society is to examine the +accumulating evidence for world public opinion, a cosmopolitan convergence +of interactively communicating national civil societies. The MacBride +Report observed that world public opinion is "still in the process of +formation, and thus fragile, heterogeneous, easily abused."(12) As we +approach the third millennium, communications technologies such as the +Association for Progressive Communication (APC) networks are transforming +international relations. They have greatly accelerated the rise of global +civil society and the NGO Movement. Not only do they report violations and +victories of human rights; they are also demonstrating that communication +and information are central to human rights and to the emergence of +democratic, decentralized planet-loving movements. + +NOTES + +(1) Permission to reprint granted individually by author. Howard H. +Frederick has taught communications and international relations for more +than a decade. Recently he was Fulbright Professor of Communication at the +University of Salzburg in Austria. Previously he taught at Ohio University, +Mary Baldwin College, San Francisco State University, and California State +University. The author of Global Communication and International Relations +(Brooks-Cole, 1992) and Cuban-American Radio Wars (Ablex, 1986) and +numerous articles, he has lectured and worked in Europe and Latin America. +Frederick was formerly Director of PeaceNet and currently directs news +services at the Institute for Global Communications, a worldwide computer +network based in San Francisco, California. He is President of the +International Communication Section of the International Association for +Mass Communication Research (IAMCR/AIERI). He also serves in an advisory +capacity with the Center for Media and Values in Los Angeles, and Radio for +Peace International in Costa Rica. He lives in Los Angeles and works in San +Francisco, commuting across California weekly by airplane. + +(2) International Encyclopedia of Communications, s.v. "International +Organi- zations," by Hamid Mowlana. See also Union of International +Associations, Yearbook of International Organizations, 1987-88 (Munich: +K.G. Saur, 1987), Volume 1, Appendix 7, Table 4. + +(3) Cees J. Hamelink, "Global Communication: Plea for Civil Action," in +Informatics in Food and Nutrition, B. V. Hofsten, ed. (Stockholm: Royal +Academcy of Sciences, 1991), pp. 5-8. + +See also "Communication: The Most Violated Human Right," Inter Press +Service dispatch, May 9, 1991, below. + +amsterdam, may 9 (ips) -- the most violated human right in the world today +is the right to freedom of expression, cees hamelink, head of the +international association for mass communication research, argued here +thursday. + +speaking at a seminar on 'communication, democracy and development', +hamelink said that when channels for expression were left in the hands of +those who control either the state or the market, ''we have lost our +freedom of speech''. + +''nothing less than a revolt of the communications clients against the forces +that keep us ignorant is needed,'' he argued. + +''if any company had begun to produce the kind of sub- standard product +that cnn (cable news network) gave us day after day during the gulf war, we +would refuse to buy it,'' hamelink said. + +both the state and the market had failed to provide cheap, reliable +information, and the opportunity for participation, he said. + +the new social movements which had campaigned in other fields had only now +begun to realize that culture and information were too important to be left +to these two agencies, prof. hamelink stated. + +for too long they were caught up in the atmosphere of powerlessness created +by the ubiquitous nature of media. + +two important elements had come into existence, he noted. the first was the +diverse forms of cheap information technology which could be used by +sufficiently skilled social movements. + +the other was the increasing awareness around the world that values need to +be defended. ''there is less trust in political systems at present than +there was in the social movements of the 60s and 70s. + +''then, they believed that if they tried to grab some of the power of the +state, they could change society. but today, their consciousness is +different. they are more wary of the state.'' + +hamelink argued that the gulf war would further this process. ''it was an +enormous demonstration of the deliberate use of disinformation and +propaganda,'' he said. + +the issue of communication had been overlooked in the development debate +because it was much more personal and individual and more difficult to +mobilize people around. + +halle hansen, head of the norwegian development agency, norad, provided +evidence for this view from experience in india and africa. + +he said that the failure of democracy and development efforts in africa was +the direct result of the lack of communication and information on that +continent. + +''the contrasts between the two regions is startling,'' he said. ''in +india, you have about 20,000 non-governmental organizations. there are +about 20,000 functioning newspapers and periodicals there, leading to a +fantastic plurality in the society.'' + +hansen rejected arguments that the mass media have ever been an agent for +social change. ''they were propelled to take up issues such as environment +and peace by the social movements,'' he argued. ''they have always been the +partner of the establishment.'' + +but roberto savio, director-general of inter press service (ips), warned +that the issue of information and communication was slowly and steadily +disappearing from the development debate. + +ministries of information were disappearing all over the third world, he +said. governments felt that to touch the issue of information was +counterproductive. + +the state was no longer investing in information and communication +infrastructure. there was no longer any discussion of communication policy. + +this, he revealed, was also happening at the level of the international +donor agencies. only 0.4 percent of development aid was devoted to +communications development. + +new publications on development fail to make any mention of the issue of +communication. + +''at the same time, newspapers are shrinking in the third world,'' savio +stated. ''the prevailing theory is that the market place will put +everything in order, with the formula that the united states will teach the +world how to develop itself.'' + +this was creating serious distortions in the south, he warned. +(end/ips/ic/nm/fn) + +(4) Ben Bagdikian, "The Lords of the Global Village," The Nation, June 12, +1989, p. 805. + +(5) Ben H. Bagdikian, "The Lords of the Global Village," The Nation, June +12, 1989, p. 807. + +(6) "U.S. International Communication and Information Policy," Gist +(Depart- ment of State), December 1988, p. 1. + +(7) Meheroo Jussawalla, "Can We Apply New Trade Rules to Information +Trade?" in International Information Economy Handbook, eds. G. Russell Pipe +and Chris Brown (Springfield, VA: Transnational Data Reporting Service, +1985), p. 11. + +(8) Unesco, World Communication Report (Paris: Unesco, 1990), p. 83. + +(9) Sources: Hamid Mowlana, Global Information and World "Communication: +New Frontiers in International Relations (New York: Longman, 1986), p. 28; +International Journalism Institute, The Mass Media in the World, 1987, p. +40, citing World Communication Report (draft), UNESCO, 1988, p. 1.54; World +Commu- nication Report (Paris: UNESCO, 1989), pp. 136-141. + +There are more than one hundred news agencies around the world, yet five +transnational news agencies controlled about ninety-six percent of the +world's news flows. + +WORDS PER DAY OF MAJOR NEWS AGENCIES, 1986-87 +(MILLIONS) + +17.000 Associated Press (AP) +14.000 United Press International (UPI) +4.000 TASS +1.500 Reuters +1.000 Agence France Presse (AFP) + +.500 EFE (Spain) +.300 Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (Italy) .115 Deutsche Presse +Agentur (Germany) +.150 Inter Press Service (Rome, New York) .100 Non-Aligned News Pool +.075 Telegrafska Agencia Nova Jugoslavya (Tanjug) .025 Caribbean News +Agency +.020 Pan African News Agency +.018 Gulf News Agency + +Source: World Communication Report (Paris: UNESCO, 1989), pp. 136-141; +Draft World Communication Report (Paris: UNESCO, 1988), p. 1.54. + + +(10) Howard H. Frederick, Global Communications and International Relations +(Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks-Cole, 1992), chapter on "The Dimensions of +Global Communication. + +(11) John S. Quarterman, The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing +Systems Worldwide (Bedford, MA: Digital Press, 1990), pp. xxiii-xxiv. + +(12) International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems +[MacBride Commission], One World, Many Voices (Paris: Unesco, 1980), p. +198. + + +Contact: +Howard Frederick +Institute for Global Communications +18 De Boom Street +San Francisco, CA 94107 + +Email: hfrederick@igc.org diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/goodlife.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/goodlife.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dd429fab --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/goodlife.hum @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +TO MANY MORE GOOD LIVES + +It was not the start of the third millenium but the first day of a new year +when frivolity took a time-out. + +Almost 70 years into the revolution, a faded but steadfast dream anchored to +the past by an immense bureaucracy, breached the missile gap with a tentative +message to the people of the other side. The steward of this dream, a balding +man in his late 50s with a discolored spot on his forehead glanced occasionally +to the prompter on his left as he delivered stiff greetings to the enemy. + +Hours earlier, on the other side of the world, the snow was interrupted first +by a flicker, then a picture of a man who nodded his head as he spoke. The man +calmly delivered his speech, looking directly out from the television as if he +could see each viewer. + +The words came forth, separated by the distance between two markedly divergent +national cultures; separated by mutual distrust; separated by the technology +which transmitted them. + +The words came forth, so similar in context that style of delivery became the +only rule by which measure of their impact could be taken. + +In America, Mikhail Gorbachev's appearance was a last-minute side show in a +carnival of sport. Across the vast expanse of the Soviet Union, Ronald +Reagan's appearance caromed like a billiard ball. + +The only tangible results of the November Summit meetings in Geneva, these New +Year's greetings were heard and forgotten by publics which had long since +relinquished their title to the arsenals; rather, they sought the pleasures +and trials of daily living, electing the continuity of family and clan. + +"Plus ca change, c'est la meme chose." Peasants, the politically powerless, +know war will come some day. Peasants are the continuity of the civilized +world; they have survived horrors; they have survived governments. + +Many generations of good lives have been lived in the grey shadow of +Armageddon. + +A toast: "To many more good lives." + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gore-sp b/textfiles.com/politics/gore-sp new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5ab80e3e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gore-sp @@ -0,0 +1,259 @@ + Text of Gore's Acceptance Speech + The following is the full text of the acceptance speech + given by vice presidential nominee Sen Al Gore Thursday at + the Democratic Natl Convention in New York. + + SEN AL GORE: "I've been dreaming of this moment since I + was a kid growing up in Tennessee: that one day, I'd have + the chance to come here to Madison Square Garden and be the + warm-up act for Elvis. + My friends, I thank you for your confidence expressed in + the vote this evening, I pledge to pour my heart and soul + into this crusade on behalf of the American people, and I + accept your nomination. + I did not seek this nomination or expect it. But I am + here to join this team because I love my country. and I + believe in my heart that together, we offer the American + people the best chance we have to move this nation forward + in the right direction again. + I am here because the country I love has a government + that is failing our people: the forgotten majority in your + hometown and mine who work hard and play by the rules, who + scrimp and save to build a better life for their children. + I am here to renew a journey our Founders began more than + 200 years ago. In my lifetime, I have seen America's ideals + and dreams change the world, and I believe that now is the + time to bring those ideals and dreams home again to change + America. + Our country is in trouble. And while George Bush and Dan + Quayle have been making excuses for deadlock and decay, + people in other nations--inspired by the eternal promise of + America--have torn down the Berlin Wall, brought communism + to its knees, and forced a racist government in South + Africa to turn away from apartheid. Throughout the world, + obstacles to liberty that many thought might stand forever + turned out to be no match for men and women who decided in + their hearts that their future could be much greater than + their past would let them dream. + Their faith in the power of conscience and the force of + truth required a leap of the human spirit. Can we say + truthfully that their chance for change was better than + ours? Yet we face our own crisis of the spirit here and now + in America. We're told we can no longer change, we've seen + our better days, they even say we're history. + The cynics are having a field day because across this + country, millions of American families have been betrayed by + a government out of touch with our values and beholden only + to the privileged few. Millions of people are losing faith + in the very idea of democracy, and are even in danger of + losing heart, because they fear their lives may no longer + have any deeper meaning or purpose. + But you can't kill hope that easily, not here, not in + America, where a cynic is just a disappointed idealist in + disguise, a dreamer yearning to dream again. In every + American, no matter how badly betrayed or poorly led, there + is always hope. Even now, if you listen, you can hear the + pulse of America's true spirit. + No, the American spirit isn't gone. But we vow here + tonight that in November, George Bush and Dan Quayle will + be. + They've had their chance, and they have failed. They have + taxed the many to enrich the few. It is time for them to go. + + They have given us false choices, bad choices, and no + choice. It is time for them to go. + They have ignored the suffering of those who are victims, + of AIDS, of crime, of poverty, of hatred and harassment. It + is time for them to go. + They have nourished and appeased tyrannies, and + endangered America's deepest interests while betraying our + cherished ideals. It is time for them to go. + They have mortgaged our children's future to avoid the + decisions they lack the courage to make. It is time for + them to go. + They have demeaned our democracy with the politics of + distraction, denial, and despair. It is time for them to go. + The American people are disgusted with excuses and tired + of blame. They know that throughout American history, each + generation has passed on leadership to the next. That time + has come again. The time for a new generation of leadership + for the US of America to take over from George Bush and Dan + Quayle. And that means it is time for them to go. + + In 1992, our challenge is not to elect the last president + of the 20th century, but to elect the first president of the + 21st century, Bill Clinton. + Bill Clinton has a plan that offers real answers for the + real problems of real people, a bold new Natl Economic + Strategy to rebuild this country and put our people back to + work. + And if you want to know what Bill Clinton can do, take a + look at what he has already done. For more than a decade, + he's been fighting against incredible odds to bring good + jobs, better skills, and genuine hope to one of the poorest + states in this country. + A decade ago, when his state needed dramatic reform to + shake up one of the worst school systems in America, Bill + Clinton took on the established interests and made Arkansas + the first state to require teacher testing. He has cut + classroom size, raised test scores, and earned the support + of both teachers and parents. They know Bill Clinton will be + the real education president. + + For most of the last decade, while the Republicans have + been trying to use welfare to divide us, Bill Clinton has + led the fight to reform the welfare system to move people + off welfare and into the work force. + And Bill Clinton did all this while balancing eleven + budgets in a row, and giving the people of Arkansas one of + the lowest tax burdens in this country. No wonder Arkansas + under Bill Clinton has created manufacturing jobs at ten + times the national rate. And no wonder when all of the + nation's governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, were + asked to vote on who was the most effective governor in + America, they chose Bill Clinton by an overwhelming margin. + What we need in America in 1992 is a president who will + unleash the best in us by putting faith in the decency and + good judgment of our people. A president who will challenge + us to be true to our values and examine the ways in which + our own attitudes are barriers to the progress we seek. + America is ready to be inspired and lifted again, by + leaders committed to seeking out the best in our society, + developing it and strengthening it. I have spent much of my + career working to protect the environment, not only because + it is vital to the future of my state of Tennessee, our + country, and our earth, but because I believe there is a + fundamental link between our current relationship to the + earth and the attitudes that stand in the way of human + progress. + For generations, we have believed we could abuse the + earth because we weren't really connected to it. But now we + must face the truth. The task of saving the earth's + environment must and will become the central organizing + principle of the post-Cold War world. + And just as the false assumption that we are not + connected to the earth has led to the ecological crisis, so + the equally false assumption that we are not connected to + each other has led to our social crisis. Even worse, the + evil and mistaken assumption that we have no connection to + those generations preceding us or those who will follow us + has led to the crisis of values we face today. + Those are the connections that are missing from our + politics today. Those are the bridges we must rebuild if we + are to rebuild our country. And those are the values we must + honor in order to recapture that faith in the future which + has always been the heart of the American Dream. + We have another challenge as well. In the wake of the + Cold War, with the re-emergence of ancient ethnic and racial + hatreds throughout the world, the US must once again prove + that there is a better way. Just as we accepted on behalf of + humankind the historic mission of proving that political + freedom is the best form of government and economic freedom + is the best engine of prosperity, and must now accept the + obligation of proving that freedom from prejudice is the + heart and soul of community, that yes, we can get along, + yes, people of all backgrounds can not only live together + peacefully, but enrich one another, celebrate diversity and + come together as one. Yes, we will be one people, and live + the dream that will make his world free. + In the end, this election isn't about politics. It isn't + even about winning, though that's what we are going to do. + It's about the responsibilities we owe one another and we + owe our children, the calling we hear to serve our country + and to be part of a community larger than ourselves. + You've heard a lot in the past week about how much Bill + Clinton and I have in common. Indeed, we both share the + values we learned in our hometowns: individual + responsibility, faith, family, and the belief that hard work + should be rewarded. We're both fathers with young children, + children who are part of a generation whose very future is + at stake in this election. And we're both proud of our + wives, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, 2 women who have + done more for the children of this country in the last 12 + years than the last 2 men who have sat in the Oval Office + have done in their lifetimes. + I'm proud my father and mother could be here tonight to + see me join a ticket that will make good on the best advice + they ever gave me: to tell the truth and always love my + country. My sister and I were born to 2 wonderful people who + worked hard to give us a better life. 1992 is the Year of + the Woman. It is also the 46th anniversary of the year my + mother, born in a time when women weren't even allowed to + vote, became one of the first women to graduate from + Vanderbilt Law School. + My father was a teacher in a 1-room school who worked his + way to the US Senate. I was 8 years old when my father's + name was placed in nomination for the vice presidency before + the Democratic convention of 1956. Growing up, I watched him + stand courageously for civil rights and economic opportunity + and a government that worked for ordinary people. + I don't know what it's like to lose a father, but I know + what it's like to lose a sister and almost lose a son. I + wish my late sister Nancy could be here this evening, but I + am grateful beyond words for the blessings my family has + shared. Three years ago, my son Albert was struck by a car + crossing the street after watching a baseball game in + Baltimore. + He was thrown 30 feet in the air on impact and scraped + along another 20 feet on the pavement after he hit the + ground. I ran to his side and held him and called his name, + but he was limp and still, without breath or pulse. His eyes + were open with the empty stare of death, and we prayed, the + 2 of us, there in the gutter, with only my voice. + His injuries, inside and out, were massive, and for + terrible days he lingered between life and death. Tipper and + I spent the next 30 days and nights at his bedside. Our + family was lifted and healed, in no small measure by the + love, compassion, and prayers of thousands of people, most + of whom we never even knew. + Albert is plenty brave and strong, and with the support + of 3 wonderful sisters--Karenna, Kristin, and Sarah--and 2 + loving parents who helped him with his exercises every + morning and prayed for him every night, he pulled through. + And now, thank God, he has fully recovered, and he runs and + plays and torments his older sisters like any little boy. + But that experience changed me forever. When you've seen + your 6-year-old son fighting for his life, you realize that + some things matter more than winning, and you lose patience + with the lazy assumption of so many in politics that we can + always just muddle through. When you've seen your reflection + in the empty stare of a boy waiting for a 2d breath of life, + you realize that we weren't put here on earth to look out + for our needs alone; we're part of something much larger + than ourselves. + My friends, if you look up for a moment from the rush of + your daily lives, you will hear the quiet voices of your + country crying out for help. You will see your reflection in + the weary eyes of those who are losing hope in America. And + you will see that our democracy is lying there in the + gutter, waiting for us to give it a 2d breath of life. + I don't care what party you're in, whether you are an + independent, whether your have been tempted to give up on + the whole political process or not, or give up on our party + or not, we want you to join this common effort to unite our + country behind a higher calling. If you have been supporting + Ross Perot, I want to make a special plea to you this + evening: don't give up on your fight for change. The time + has come for all Americans to be part of the healing. In the + words of the Bible, "Do not lose heart. This nation will be + renewed." + In order to renew our nation, we must renew ourselves. + Just as America has always transcended the hopes and dreams + of every other nation on earth, so must we transcend + ourselves, and in Gandhi's words, become the change we wish + to see in the world. Let those of us alive today resolve + with one another that we will so conduct ourselves--in this + campaign and in our lives--that 200 years from now, + Americans will say of our labors that this nation and this + earth were healed by people they never even knew. + I'm told that Hope, Ark, is a lot like my hometown of + Carthage, Tenn: It's a place where people know about it when + you're born and care about it when you die. That's the + America Bill Clinton and I grew up in. That's the kind of + nation we want our children to grow up in. Just as Hope is a + community, so is America. When we bring the community of + America together, we will rekindle the American spirit and + renew this nation for generations to come. And the way to + begin is to elect Bill Clinton President of the US of + America. + Thank you." diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gorecrpt.rec b/textfiles.com/politics/gorecrpt.rec new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2f504602 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gorecrpt.rec @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +FLASH: Vice President Gore Questions Current Key Escrow Policy +Date: 10 Feb 1994 23:40:13 GMT + + +National Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee met today in +Washington at the Old Executive Office Building. In comments made after +a question and answer period, Vice President Al Gore said that key +escrow policy announced last Friday (2/4/94) had serious flaws and that +he hope the issue of who holds the keys and under what terms would be +given more serious, careful consideration. + +Gore made it clear that some amount of control of cryptography technology +was necessary for national security. However, the key escrow policies +announced by the Departments of Justice, Commerce & State, and the NSA, +were "low level decisions" that got out before thorough analysis. In a +conversation with Mitchell Kapor, Esther Dyson, and Mike Nelson (of the +White House Staff), Gore said that he would prefer that the keys be held +by some part of the Judiciary branch, or perhaps even by trusted, private +escrow agents. He made it clear that he believed that the escrow agents +named in last Friday's announcement (National Institute of Standards & +Technology and the Treasure Department) were no appropriate key holders. +Mike Nelson also indicated that there was real interest in a +software-based escrow system instead of the hardware-based SKIPJACK +standard + +Those of us who heard Gore were quite surprised. His remarks suggest +that the key escrow policies to date do not have full support of the +White House. + +Still, Gore was quite firm in asserting that some control of encryption +technology is essential to national security. "Encryption and +codebreaking have determined the outcome of world wars. He stated +(incorrectly) that most our industrialized allies place must stricter +controls in encryption that the US does. In fact, almost all COCOM +countries allow the export of DES-based products, though some do not +allow DES to be imported. + +The whole question of encryption was raised when Mitchell Kapor told the +Vice President that over half of the Advisory Council members had serious +reservations about the current Clipper/Skipjack policies. Gore and Kapor +agreed that the Advisory Council should be used to have a serious +dialogue about encryption policy. Given Gore's departure from the +current Clipper proposals, there might actually be something to talk +about. + +========== +NOTE: This DOES NOT mean that Clipper is going away. Part of stopping +Clipper is to lift export controls on encryption and enable US companies +to start producing products that enable all of us to protect our privacy +with strong encryption. + +I urge you to write to Rep. Cantwell today at cantwell@eff.org. In the +Subject header of your message, type "I support HR 3627." In the body of +your message, express your reasons for supporting the bill. EFF will +deliver printouts of all letters to Rep. Cantwell. With a strong showing +of support from the Net community, Rep. Cantwell can tell her colleagues +on Capitol Hill that encryption is not only an industry concern, but also +a grassroots issue. *Again: remember to put "I support HR 3627" in your +Subject header.* + +P.S. If you want additional information about the Cantwell bill, send +e-mail to cantwell-info@eff.org. To join EFF, write membership@eff.org. +For introductory info about EFF, send any message to info@eff.org. + +The text of the Cantwell bill can be found on the Internet with the any of +the following URLs (Universal Resource Locaters): + +ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Legislation/cantwell.bill +http://www.eff.org/ftp/EFF/Policy/Legislation/cantwell.bill +gopher://gopher.eff.org/00/EFF/legislation/cantwell.bill + +Danny Weitzner Senior Staff Counsel, EFF + +1 202 347-5400 + +*** Become a member of EFF!!! Write to membership@eff.org *** diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gorillia.ana b/textfiles.com/politics/gorillia.ana new file mode 100644 index 00000000..afa7e531 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gorillia.ana @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ + +This file is excerpted from a CIA manual titled: + + PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS IN GUERRILLA WARFARE + +From the folks at: Congressional Research Service of The Library Of Congress + +PREFACE + + Guerrilla warfare is essentially a political war. Therefore, its area of +operations exceeds the territorial limits of conventional warfare. To +penetrate the political entity itself: The "Political Animal" the Aristotle +defined. + + In effect, the human being should be considered the priority objective in a +political war. And concieved as the military target of guerrilla war, the +human has his most critical point in his mind. Once his mind has been reached, +the "politica l animal" has been defeated, without necessarily recieving +bullets. + + Guerrilla warfare is born and grows in the political envirnment: in the +constant combat to dominate that area of political mentality that is inherent +to all human beings and which collectively constitutes the "environment" in +which guerrilla warfare moves, and which is where precisely its victory or +failure is defined. + + This conception of guerrilla warfare as political war turns psychological +Operations into the decisive factor of the results. The target, then, is the +minds of the population, all the population: our troops, the enemy troops, and +the civilian population. + + This book is a manual for the training of guerrillas in psychological +operations, and its application to the concrete case of the Christian and +democratic crusade being waged in Nicaragua by the Freedom Commandos. + + +CONTENTS: + +Preface + +I Introduction 1 +II Combatant-Propagandist Guerrilla 4 +III Armed Propaganda 10 +IV Armed Propaganda Teams 16 +V Development and Control of Front Organizations 26 +VI Control of Mass Concentrations and Meetings 31 +VII Massive In-depth Support Through Psychological + Operations 36 + +APPENDIX: Techniques of Oratory 37 + + + + PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELEGENCE + PRESS RELEASE + +DECEMBER 5, 1984 + + This manual was written and printed up in several editions by the CIA. The +manual talks of overthrowing the Sandanistas. This raises the question of +whether the Boland Amendment was violated. The manual talks of "nuetralizing" +Sandanista officials and creating martyrs. This raises question to whether +Executive order 12333, which prohibits assassinations, was violated. The +manual also talks about shooting civilians trying to leave a captured town, +blackmailing others to work for the contras, and endangering innocent people by +inciting violence in mass demonstrations. These matters raise the issue of +whether they are consistant with United States policy. + + The committee believes that the manual caaused embarrassment to the United +States and should never have been released in any of its various forms. +Specific actions that it describes are repugnant to American values. + + The committee believes that this record also reflects insufficient concern +about congressional and legal restrictions on CIA activities. A majority of +the committee concludes that the manual represents a violation of the Boland +Amendment. CIA officials up the chain of command either never read the manual +or were never made aware of it. Neglegence, not intent to violate the law, +marked the manuals history. +**************************************************************** + + FOR A COMPLETE COPY OF THE CIA'S MANUAL: + PSYCOLOGICAL OPERATIONS IN GUERRILLA WARFARE + + SEND FIVE DOLLARS TO: + OSUNY-BBS + P.O. BOX 149 + White Plains, NY 10602 + +NOTE: This has nothing to do with donations, it is just a public service + brought to you. +Call The Works BBS - 1600+ Textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always Open + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/govtovrt.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/govtovrt.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..41a52ee4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/govtovrt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,243 @@ +v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v +v^v^ ^v^v +v^v^ How to Overthrow a country ^v^v +v^v^ An objective essay written by Senator Bunker ^v^v +v^v^ ^v^v +v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^^ + +Introduction by Someone Else +---------------------------- + +I've been meaning to write this file for months, but it looks like the +good Senator from California has put forth that extra effort I was too +lazy to make in putting this together. This is not a humorous article, to +bluntly say; it is designed to inform you of proper execution of coup +d'etat, that 'stroke of state' that topples governments so often these +days. Enjoy. + + +I. Before you begin +------------------- + +Subjugation of a nation is a tremendous undertaking requiring foresight, +ingenuity, and careful thought. The first task of many is to decide +whether the country is a suitable candidate for a drastic and sudden +change in government. The degree of difficulty varies with size, +population, political awareness, and literacy. + +The large state, tending to contain a greater number of persons, differs +substantially from the small state in that the body politic is much more +complex and hence more difficult to seize control of. It is generally +advisable to tackle a smaller, unimportant regime rather than a country +that, if seized, might draw a foreign power into the coup hence rendering +it a failure. + +One thing to do before attempting anything of this kind is to make sure +who your friends and allies are. With a little effort, it is possible to +gain a mass of supporters such that it is quite difficult to quell your +actions. A way to do this is to select (if possible) a nation whose +government does not have support of all of its classes (poor, rich, +middle). Or, if neccesary, lure to your cause a religious minority, or +ethnic minority, that already has grievances against the current regime. +Perhaps you might form a coalition. Summarizing, it is a requisite to get +at least some support besides from soldiers of fortune, who are generally +"gung-ho" incompetents anyway. + +Ideally, you should be part of some branch of the armed forces, police, +national guard, or some government agency equipped with personnel trained +in the use of weoponry. In the public's eye, you already have some sort of +authority, so a little more authority couldn't hurt, could it? + +So, now what kind of government should we tackle? A democratic? Maybe. +They are usually fragile, anyway. But much of the international community +will frown on your taking a small, helpless, struggling democracy, and +perhaps take actions that are unfavorable. How about a Marxist +dictatorship? Now, that's a good idea. Most of the time these are +anti-communist, even though they receive aid from the U.S.S.R., so it is a +very good probability that Russia will not jump to help them. The Soviet +Union waits to see if the new government will be pro-Soviet, not +pro-Marxist, so you will be safe for the first few days. Also, not much of +the world likes Marxist dictatorships. + +If you have a choice of which nation to put down (you usually don't), do +not select a NATO country, or some other nation that receives $4 billion +annually, because superpowers do not like to see their money to go down +the drain so suddenly. Pick Martinique, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, or +Surinam. If you're white, don't go in an African dump unless you have a +deathwish. Plus, if the country has low literacy levels, good, for the +people there won't know what is happening. + + Things to avoid: + + - High literacy rate + - Large per capita income + - Voter participation + - An "established" nation + - Countries with allies + + Things to look for: + + - Civilian unrest + - Minority in control + - Centralized government + - Political apathy + + Note: An OK from Washington or Moscow couldn't hurt. + +II. The Mechanism of the Coup d'Etat +------------------------------------- + +The first thing that should be done is the neutralization of all relevent +political forces, including the general infrastructure of the state. This +includes, among other things, highways, telecommunications facilities +(including radio, TV, etc.), airports, and so on. The reason these are +political forces is that they are controlled by nonmilitary portions of +the state (in the event you were wondering). Unfortunately, these are a +large and spread apart group of targets, so if you have no tactical or +popular support your attemps will be fruitless. + +Undoubtedly the absolute first thing you should do is to cut all forms of +communcations with the outside world off at once. Be sure to include: +Telephone, Telex, Wireless, Radio, etc. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT. It will +prevent the present government from mobilizing its forces, deploying their +forces in strategic locations that are not normally guarded, etc. It will +also prevent them from calling outside for emergency help, jeopardizing +your hard work, not to mention your life. Soon the rest of the world will +know something has happened, but they will not know who has taken the +government, how the coup is progressing, and so forth. Make sure all forms +of communications are completely cut. + +One other important thing to do is remove air facilities from the use of +the loyalist forces. It is not necessary to seize control of the airports; +all that is needed to be done is to close the airports. A bomb or two in +the middle of the runways will do nicely, or perhaps a couple of cars +parked there, with snipers preventing their removal. You should not rely +on airfields for your coup; if you rely on them and they are shut down, +you will encounter problems. The old government will probably rely on +them, and you will easily be able to prevent their usage of them. + +At an early time during the coup it should be evident as to its success. +Government officials and employees of higher rank have a choice to make-- +whether to remain loyal to the old government, or to join the new attempt +at government. If they stay loyal, they may be richly rewarded; if they +defect, and the coup fails, they will be out of a job mighty quick. The +success of your coup depends much on whether many of these officials +decide to join the coup. + +In addition to those people who remain loyal and those who join your +cause, there is a "wait and see" element involved. Often this is the +majority of the population, especially if the present regime is somewhat +repressive. They don't want to show too much enthusiasm for either side, +until it is more or less decided who will gain control. It's best to plan +a sudden, abrupt seizure of all facilities to make the coup seem a +smashing success; if this is done, the undecided will know to whom to turn. + +When you take power from the original government, it is best to know who +actually runs it. In most of the world (but not in the U.S.) there are two +governments: 1- a largely ceremonial government, the part that people see +on television and at most public events. They are, for the most part, what +is known as a "figurehead", set off to the side to keep the government's +"alter- ego" working on policy. 2- the "real" government, the government +that formulates domestic and foreign policy, makes all executive +decisions, and basically controls the infrastructure of the nation. The +part of the government you will need to take is (obviously) the latter. It +is composed of the executive head (called by whatever title he may hold- +Prime Minister, President, General Secretary, etc.), ministers, and +various deputy and second ministers who make small yet influential +decisions. + +The people you are most interested in detaining (or bumping off) are the +Minister of the Interior (he normally supervises the police forces), the +party leaders (of the ruling party, or of the only party, if a one-party +state), the Minister of Defense, and the central figure of the "real" +government. Once these people are neutralized, in one way or another, the +basic functions of the state will be under your command, at least +temporarily. + +What is often done is to detain (under house arrest, of course) the +aforementioned officials, and leave the ceremonial portion of the +government alone. This is done to give an aire of legitimacy and +continuity after such an abrupt turn of events. Later, these may be kept +or allowed/forced to leave, as need arises. + +You will not stay in power for long if you do not exert some sort of +influence over the armed forces. The military has the ability to remove +virtually any threat if perceives from within the boundaries of the +nation-- especially YOU. If you are a foreigner, and do not have (or used +to have but have now lost) support of the militia, prepare to die. You as +a person will cease to exist, unless you leave the country. And, always +have several prepared escape routes planned out in advance-- even the +perfect coup d'etat will have its complicatons, and there will be things +that you have overlooked. That is why it is best to have thoroughly +studied the past and recent history of that state. Do your homework! If +you do you will be richly rewarded. + +III. After the Coup +-------------------- + +Once you have removed the major functions of the government and +bureaucracy from the Loyalist government, you will not yet be in solid +control of them yourself. You will want to retain your control, and thus +prevent a counter-coup from ensuing. Your new regime will be weakest at +this time, and many times some other group seizes the reins of government +hours after a coup d'etat-- and this group is not necessarily the old +loyalists. The military, political forces within the nation, and the +public must all be satisfied to some extent in order for you to continue +your rule. This can be attained either by a show of force, or by +concessions made to any of these groups, such as a democratically elected +government in the near future, or granting the military more influence +over political decisions, and perhaps quickly promoting a number of young +officers that proved faithful during the crisis. "Promote" those officers +who have clout but you suspect might try to take more power for themselves +to desk jobs, or remote outposts. And give them all pay raises, if at all +possible. + +The goal of the new regime is to "shear" off the top layer of government, +and more or less retain the old bureaucracy. Lower officials should be +made to feel as if little or no change has taken place, and whatever +change that has occurred is for the better. After a short while these +people will realize that the new government is fully in control, and all +will be calm and orderly. + +Mass media will act as a vehicle to assert your control. Write the first +communique as a positive, necessary step for a long-needed change. +Reassure the people that the coup is a revolt for the masses-- not +inspired by communists, or an extremist group, but by the public in +general. Display the national symbols, and inspire the feeling of +patriotism and unity. These techniques were used quite successfully so +recently in the 1985 coup d'etat in the Sudan. People poured into the +streets, waving the old flag of the country, and having an all-around good +time. A popular general was instated as the new chief of state, and a +democratic government was promised. + +Lastly, your new regime has to be made to look legitimate in the eyes of +the international community. Show evidence of atrocities made by the +former government, witnesses, etc. Take positive steps in the direction of +popular democracy, promise elections, and invite the foreign (especially +American) press into the country to see these steps. Soon the world will +forget about your coup, but whenever your country is in the news, they +will remember this. + +IV. A Final Word +---------------- + +You will probably realize now that the fast, simple coup was actually the +result of much swift planning and hard work. The coup is not an easy +thing to accomplish-- should you be planning one of your own, know what +you are doing and be sure to succeed. Hopefully I have been of some help. + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/great-wo b/textfiles.com/politics/great-wo new file mode 100644 index 00000000..caa71719 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/great-wo @@ -0,0 +1,334 @@ + The Great Work + For the January, 1992 Electronic Frontier column + in Communications of the ACM + by John Perry Barlow + +Earlier in this century, the French philosopher and anthropologist +Teilhard de Chardin wrote that evolution was an ascent toward what he +called "The Omega Point," when all consciousness would converge into +unity, creating the collective organism of Mind. When I first +encountered the Net, I had forgotten my college dash through Teilhard's +Phenomenon of Man. It took me a while to remember where I'd first +encountered the idea of this immense and gathering organism. + +Whether or not it represents Teilhard's vision, it seems clear we are +about some Great Work here...the physical wiring of collective human +consciousness. The idea of connecting every mind to every other mind in +full-duplex broadband is one which, for a hippie mystic like me, has +clear theological implications, despite the ironic fact that most of the +builders are bit wranglers and protocol priests, a proudly prosaic lot. +What Thoughts will all this assembled neurology, silicon, and optical +fiber Think? + +Teilhard was a Roman Catholic priest who never tried to forge a SLIP +connection, so his answers to that question were more conventionally +Christian than mine, but it doesn't really matter. We'll build it and +then we'll find out. + +And however obscure our reasons, we do seem determined to build it. +Since 1970, when the Arpanet was established, it has become, as +Internet, one of the largest and fastest growing creations in the +history of human endeavor. Internet is now expanding as much as 25% a +month, a curve which plotted on a linear trajectory would put every +single human being online in a few decades. + +Or, more likely, not. Indeed, what we seem to be making at the moment is +something which will unite only the corporate, military, and academic +worlds, excluding the ghettos, hick towns, and suburbs where most human +minds do their thinking. We are rushing toward a world in which there +will be Knows, constituting the Wired Mind, and the Know Nots, who will +count for little but the labor and consumption necessary to support it. + +If that happens, the Great Work will have failed, since, theological +issues aside, its most profound consequence should be the global +liberation of everyone's speech. A truly open and accessible Net will +become an environment of expression which no single government could +stifle. + +When Mitch Kapor and I first founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, +we were eager to assure that the rights established by the First +Amendment would be guaranteed in Cyberspace. But it wasn't long before +we realized that in such borderless terrain, the First Amendment is a +local ordinance. + +While we haven't abandoned a constitutional strategy in assuring free +digital commerce, we have also come to recognize that, as Mitch put it, +"Architecture is politics." In other words, if the Net is ubiquitous, +affordable, easy to access, tunnelled with encrypted passageways, and +based on multiple competitive channels, no local tyranny will be very +effective against it. + +A clear demonstration of this principle was visible during the recent +coup in the Soviet Union. Because of the decentralized and redundant +nature of digital media, it was impossible for the geriatric plotters in +the Kremlin to suppress the delivery of truth. Faxes and e-mail messages +kept the opposition more current with developments than the KGB, with +its hierarchical information systems, could possibly be. Whatever legal +restraints the aspiring dictators might have imposed were impotent +against the natural anarchy of the Net. + +Well, I could have myself a swell time here soliloquizing about such +notions as the Great Work or the assurance of better living through +electronics, but all great journeys proceed by tedious increments. +Though the undertaking is grand, it is the nuts and bolts...the +regulatory and commercial politics, the setting of standards, the +technical acceleration of bits...that matter. They are so complex and +boring as to erode the most resolute enthusiasm, but if they don't get +done, It doesn't. + +So we need to be thinking about what small steps must be undertaken +today. Even while thinking globally, we must begin, as the bumper +sticker fatuously reminds us, by acting locally. Which is why I will +focus the remainder of this column on near-term conditions, +opportunities, and preferred courses of action within the boundaries of +the United States. + +To a large extent, America is the Old Country of Cyberspace. The first +large interconnected networks were developed here as was much of the +supporting technology. Leaving aside the estimable French Minitel +system, Cyberspace is, in is present condition, highly American in +culture and language. Though fortunately this is increasingly less the +case, much of the infrastructure of the Net still sits on American soil. +For this reason, the United States remains the best place to enact the +policies upon which the global electronic future will be founded. + +In the opinion of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the first order of +business is the creation of what we call the National Public +Network...named with the hope that the word "National" should become +obsolete as soon as possible. By this, we mean a ubiquitous digital web, +accessible to every American in practical, economic, and functional +terms. This network would convey, in addition to traditional telephone +service, e-mail, software, faxes, such multimedia forms of communication +as "video postcards," and, in time, High Definition Television as well +as other media as yet barely imagined. + +Its services should be extended by a broad variety of providers, +including the existing telephone, cable, publishing, broadcast, and +digital network companies. Furthermore, if its architecture is +appropriately open to free enterprise, we can expect the emergence of +both new companies and new kinds of companies. Properly designed, the +National Public Network will constitute a market for goods and services +which will make the $100 billion a year personal computer business look +like a precursor to the Real Thing. + +As a first step, we are proposing that Congress and state agencies +establish regulatory mechanisms and incentives that will: + + Establish an open platform for information services by speedy +nation-wide deployment of "Personal ISDN". + + Ensure competition in local exchange services in order to +provide equitable access to communications media. + + Promote free expression by reaffirming principles of common +carriage. + + Foster innovations that make networks and information services +easier to use. + + Protect personal privacy. + +That's a tall bill, most of which I will have to take up in +subsequent columns. I will focus now on the first two. + + +Personal ISDN + +For the last two years, the Internet community has generally regarded +Senator Albert Gore's proposed National Research and Education Network +as the next major component of the Great Work. This has been +regrettable. NREN, as presently envisioned, would do little to enable +the settlement of ordinary folks in Cyberspace. Rather it would make +plusher accommodations for the "mountain men" already there. + +Actually, NREN has been and may continue to be useful as a "policy +testbed." By giving Congress a reason to study such legal connundra as +unregulated common carriage and the intermingling of public and private +networks, NREN may not be a waste of time and focus. But, as of this +writing, it has become a political football. If the House version (H656) +of the High Performance Computing Act passes with Dick Gephart's "Buy +American" provisions in it, the Administration will surely veto it, and +we'll be back to Square One. + +Meanwhile, ISDN, a technology available today, has languished. ISDN or +Integrated Services Digital Network is a software-based system based on +standard digital switching. Using ISDN, an ordinary copper phone line +can provide two full-duplex 64 kbs digital channels. These can be used +independently, concurrently, and simultaneously for voice and/or data. +(Actually, it's a bit more complex than that. Garden variety ISDN +contains three channels. The third is a 16 kbs "signal" channel, used +for dialing and other services.) + + +It isn't new technology, and, unlike fiber and wireless systems, it +requires little additional infrastructure beyond the digital switches, +which most telcos, under an FCC mandate, have installed anyway or will +install soon. Even at the currently languid development rate, the telcos +estimate that 60% of the nation's phones could be ISND ready in two +years. + +While those who live their lives at the end of a T1 connection may +consider 64 kbs to be a glacial transfer rate, the vast majority of +digital communications ooze along at a pace twenty-seven times slower, +or 2400 baud. We believe that the ordinary modem is both too slow and +too user-hostile to create "critical mass" in the online market. + +We also believe that ISDN, whatever its limitations, is rapid enough to +jump start the greatest free market the world has ever known. Widespread +deployment of ISDN, combined with recent developments in compression +technology, could break us out of what Adobe's John Warnock calls the +"ascii jail", delivering to the home graphically rich documents, +commercial software objects, and real- time multimedia. Much of the +information which is now inappropriately wedged into physical +objects...whether books, shrink-wrapped software, videos, or +CD's...would enter the virtual world, its natural home. Bringing +consumers to Cyberspace would have the same invigorating effect on +online technology which the advent of the PC had on computing. + +We admit that over the long term only fiber has sufficient bandwidth for +the future we imagine. But denying "civilian" access to Cyberspace until +the realization of a megabillion buck end-to- end fiber network leaves +us like the mainframe users in the 60's waiting for the supercomputer. +The real juice came not from the Big Iron but from user adaptable +consumer "toys" like the Apple II and the original PC. + +Just as consumers were oblivious to the advantages of FAX technology +until affordable equipment arrived, we believe there is a great sleeping +demand for both ISDN and the tools which will exploit it. And then +there's the matter of affording the full fiber national network. Until +the use of digital services has become as common as, say, the use of +VCR's, Joe Sixpack's willingness to help pay fiber's magnificent cost +will be understandably restrained. + +Given that most personal modem users are unaware that ISDN even exists +while the old elite of Internet grossly underestimates its potential +benefits, it's not surprising that the telcos have been able to claim +lack of consumer demand in their reluctance to make it available. A +cynic might also point to its convenience as a hostage in their +struggles with Judge Green and the newspaper publishers. They wanted +into the information business and something like "Allow us to be +information providers or we starve this technology," has been one of +their longest levers. + +This issue should now be moot. Judge Greene ruled in July that the +telcos could start selling information. They got what they wanted. Now +we must make them honor their side of the bargain. + +Unfortunately it still seems they will only let us use their playing +field if they can be guaranteed to win the game. To this end, they have +managed to convince several state Public Utility Commissions that they +should be allowed to charge tariffs for ISDN delivery which are +grotesquely disproportionate to its actual costs. In Illinois, for +example, customers are paying 10 to 12 cents a minute for an ISDN +connection. This, despite evidence that the actual telco cost of a +digitally switched phone connection, whether voice or data, runs at +about a penny a minute. Even in the computer business, 1200% is not an +ethical gross margin. And yet the telcos claim that more appropriate +pricing would require pensioners to pay for the plaything of a few +computer geeks. + +Unfortunately, the computer industry has been either oblivious to the +opportunities which ISDN presents or reluctant to enter the regulatory +fray before Congress, the FCC, and the PUC's. The latter is +understandable. National telecommunications policy has long been an +in-house project of AT&T. It is brain-glazingly prolix by design and is +generally regarded as a game you can't win unless you're on the home +team. The AT&T breakup changed all that, but the industry has been slow +to catch on. + +Assurance of Local Competition + +In the wake of Ma Bell's dismemberment, the world is a richer and vastly +more complex place. Who provides what services to whom, and under what +conditions, is an open question in most local venues. Even with a +scorecard you can't tell the players since many of them don't exist yet. + +Legislation is presently before the Edward Markey's (D-MA) Subcommittee +on Telecommunications and Finance (a subset of the House Energy and +Commerce Committee) which would regulate the entry of the Regional Bells +into the information business. The committee is correctly concerned that +the RBOC's will use their infrastructure advantage to freeze out +information providers. In other words, rather as Microsoft uses DOS and +Windows. + +Somewhat hysterical over this prospect, the Newspaper Publishers +Association and the cable television companies have seen to the +introduction of a House Bill 3515 by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) which would +essentially cripple telco delivery of information services for the next +decade. The bill would bar existing telephone service providers from +information provision until 50% of subscribers in a given area had +access to alternative infrastructures. + +Of course neither approach would serve the public interest. The telcos +have had so little experience with competition that we can't expect them +to welcome it. And while eventually there will be local phone connection +competition through wireless technologies, it's silly to wait until that +distant day. + +We need a bill which would require the telcos to make ISDN open and +affordable to all information providers, conditioning their entry into +the information business to the willing delivery of such service. + +The computer industry has an opportunity to break the gridlock between +the telcos and the publishers. By representing consumer interests, which +are, in this case, equivalent to our own, we can shape legislation which +would be to everyone's benefit. What's been missing in the debate has +been technical expertise which serves neither of the existing +contenders. + +Finally, the Public Utilities Commissions seem unaware of the hidden +potential demand for digital services to the home. What on earth would a +housewife want with a 64 kbs data line? This is another area in which +both consumers and computer companies need to be heard from. + + +What You Can Do + +Obviously, the first task upon entering a major public campaign is +informing oneself and others. In this, many Communications readers have +a great advantage. Most of us have access to such online fora as RISKS +digest, Telecom Digest, and the EFFectors regularly published in the +EFF's newsgroup comp.org.eff.news. I strongly recommend that those +interested in assisting this effort begin monitoring those newsgroups. +I'm tempted to tell you to join the EFF and support our Washington +lobbying efforts, but I probably abuse this podium with our message too +much as it is. + +Once you're up to speed on these admittedly labyrinthine issues, there +are three levers you can start leaning against. + +First, Congress will be actively studying these matters for the +remainder of the year and is eagerly soliciting viewpoints other than +those self-servingly extended by the telcos and the publishers. Rep. +Markey said recently in a letter to the EFF, + +"Please let me and my staff know what policies you and others in the +computer industry believe would best serve the public interest in +creating a reasonably priced, widely available network, in which +competition is open and innovation is rewarded. I also want to learn +what lessons from the computer industry over the past 10 to 15 years +should apply to the current debate on structuring the information and +communication networks of the future." + +Second, it is likely that the Public Utility Commission in your state +will be taking up the question of ISDN service and rates sometime in the +next year. They will likely be grateful for your input. + +Finally, you can endeavor to make your own company aware of the +opportunities which ISDN deployment will provide it as well as the +political obstacles to its provision. No matter what region of the +computer business employs your toils, ISDN will eventually provide a new +market for its products. + +Though these matters are still on the back pages of public awareness, we +are at the threshold of one of the great passages in the history of both +computing and telecommunications. This is the eve of the electronic +frontier's first land rush, a critical moment for The Great Work. + + +Pinedale, Wyoming +Friday, November 15, 1991 + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/guellia.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/guellia.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f14c0ccd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/guellia.hum @@ -0,0 +1,108 @@ + + + //////////////////////////////// + //=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-// + //- Guerilla Warfare -// + //= and its uses in todays =// + //- S O C I E T Y -// + //=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-// + //////////////////////////////// + + +<<<<<<<<>>>>>>><<<<<<<>>>>>> (all the Wyverns Den <<<<<<<<>>>>>>><<<<<<>>>>>> +<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 904-686-4957 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + Written by: Robin Hood + Thanx to: Mental Mortician + Special tanx to: Nobody! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Guerilla:(Websters dictionary) A member of a band of irregular troops taking +part in independant warfare. + + Today many people turn away from guerilla warfare,blaming most of the worlds +problems on it. Terrorism, hijacking, and petty wars are all associated with +this unique form of war tactics,but here we have arrangeds the stereotyping of +the well trained militia to suit our needs...and yours. We have discovered that +the same tactics and techniques apply to great fun, with some unique twists. +Here we have arranged conventional Guerilla techniques to suit your limited +supplies and economy. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ you will need... + +(Camouflage) + dark clothing (camies if you wish) + dark soft soled shoes (with good traction) + a dark canvas or denim bag (or any prefibly dark sturdy bag) + a mask (optional) + a pair of gloves (this is nessacary for some of the feats) + +(Utensils) + strong rope (about 10-15 feet) + fishing line (10 feet or so;5-10 pound test is best) + wire cutters and/or pliers (both would be nice) + combination or padlock locks (as many as you want) + some old newspapers (in very good shape) + hair spray or most any aerosal + camera with flash + film + flashlight + matches + lighter + a few cigarettes + a role of movie type tickets + posterboard and pictures of your favorite cars + gas (bottles of this are easiest to carry) + small can of vaseline (not for any bad habits!) + tacks,jack,or crushed glass (preferalby a box of taxs) + food cloring + water + crazy glue + a clump of wax (in your favourite color) + a spool of thread +(Weapons) + + a small sharp pocket knife (an old one should be used) + and onion + a bottle of coke (and a bottle opener) + a roman candle + 10 ballons + 6 eggs + bottle rockets + a few smoke bombs + and of course a pack or two of fire crakcers + + These are but a few of the many items you can use.With imagination and +practice you can invent new and better ideas. We suggest doing this with a +friend,or at least having one on hand in case help is needed (they also make +good alibies) Once you have gathered all or most of these items you're ready to +plague war on your nieghbor. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + (Starting out) Most of these feats are best executed during nighttime...thats +what the dark clothing is for right? Some of the tricks can and must be +performed in the early morning, and some can be done in the daytime (as long as +you-know-who isn't around) Begin by filling your bag full of it's goodies and +get dressed in your dark clothing. On a dark quiet night,slip out your window +into the neighborhood, pick the desired neighbor and his/her house and begin +your independant war... + + (Warnings) Ok,your outside of the culpricks house and your wondering what to +do.So we'll tell you what to do...First of all, do you want to give him a +warning and then get really big? If so then keep reading, if not then skip this +section and goto the next s Replacing Mr.Neighbors new newspapers with the old +ones in good shape would keep him guessing at whats going on in the world. You +can of course get a little bit more drastic by taking your clump of wax and +melting it all over his doorstep. This is best acclomplished by using your +lighter and aerosal can. Light your lighter and hold it about 1 to 2 feet away +from your ae Make sure the wax gets everywhere and it melts real good, and I +guarrentee, that when Mr.Nieghbor comes home, he's gonna throw a fit, in fact if +you look closely you may see steam rising up from his ears. Heres where you use +your camera...from a safe dist Another effective warning would be taking +Mrs.Neighbors undies and bras and littering the street with them...or run them +up the nearest flag pole, but don't forget to put her name on them...so they can +be returned. + +(end of file) + +Call The Works BBS - 1600+ Textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always Open + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/guerrill.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/guerrill.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..734440c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/guerrill.txt @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ + + THE GUERRILLA FIJA FIGHTER + + A few more ideas you can use to spread the word and help us +get this job done: + + 1. Attend candidate forums and ask the candidates what they +think of FIJA. + + 2. If a group that you belong to sends questionnaires out +to political candidates, try to get a question about FIJA +included, to the effect that you want to know whether he or she +would, if elected, support or sponsor a FIJA amendment. + + 3. If you have access to a booth or table at a fair, swap +meet, gun show, or any other public event or gathering, pass out +FIJA literature (and talk to and recruit activists). + + FIJA volunteers staffing a table can have a supply of +writing paper and envelopes, sample letters to editors and sample +requests for legislative action, accompanied by lists of +legislators and their districts, and extra chairs. Then when an +enthusiast is identified, hand that person a pen! + + 4. A tactic which has been used by constitutionalists for +years is to show up at the local courthouse with pamphlets on +jury rights (lately, with FIJA brochures). It's easier, more +educational and less dangerous to give the literature to +everyone, not just jurors. That makes it harder to accuse you of +"jury tampering", as happened to Chuck Bower of California. +(Want to help him out with court expenses? His mailing address +is P.O. Box 457, Pine Grove, CA 95665). + + 5. Similarly, if you can get a copy of the current district +jury pool (it's part of the public record), mail FIJA literature +to prospective jurors. Notice that this does nothing to interfere +with or influence any particular jury trial, which is what must +be proven if you are to be convicted of jury tampering. + + IF YOU'RE CALLED FOR JURY DUTY... + + Show up, of course. If this happens before FIJA becomes +law, just remember that it is always your right to decide on the +justice of any law you're being asked to apply to the accused. +So if the judge insists that you must consent to follow and apply +the law as he or she describes it, do not be intimidated: you may +in fact safely follow your conscience. + + You can't be punished for voting your conscience, but may be +harassed (interrogated before or after serving, reprimanded, or +possibly even disempaneled if you urge other jurors to do +likewise; unbelievably, it has happened). But jurors are not +bound to do anything against their wills, nor bound by oaths +given under duress, nor required to return a unanimous verdict. + + You shouldn't look at jury duty as an onerous task which is +to be avoided if possible. For one thing, it's your chance to do +some real good for yourself and the community. In many cases, +this may mean voting to convict someone whose behavior is truly +dangerous to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. + + In other cases, it may mean acquitting someone because the +evidence to convict is not convincing, or because the law or its +application to the accused person appears wrong. Defense of the +rights of the citizens of your community is the whole point of a +jury system, and those include the rights of the accused and of +the jurors themselves. Justice therefore demands that common law +jurors insist on their right to consider both the facts of the +case and the merits of the law. + + For these reasons, we urge you to regard jury service as an +opportunity, a right worth defending, or a personal duty, despite +whatever obstacles may be thrown in your path. Since most states +select jurors from voter registration lists, consider the chance +to serve on a jury as another reason to register to vote! diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gulfeds.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/gulfeds.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4f29eadb --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gulfeds.txt @@ -0,0 +1,256 @@ + Here are excerpts from editorials in U.S. newspapers about the beginning of +the ground offensive in the Persian Gulf War. + + + + --- + + + + The New York Times: + + + + Americans can hope that the war will be both swift and limited. But it will +not be damage-free. It will exact a price on the battlefield and, however +successful the outcome, it could well exact a price diplomatically, especially +in America's relations with the Soviet Union. On this point Mr. Bush's advisers +have displayed not euphoria but an admirable practicality. + + + + --- + + + + The Dallas Morning News: + + + + ``Although half-promises of peace were at times achingly close, President +Bush was right to order the commencement of this final phase of the war. Iraqi +dictator Saddam Hussein has proven himself a merciless, calculating despot +whose word is nothing more than another weapon. He cannot be trusted to +implement a peace agreement. There was little reason to see the last-minute +maneuvering of his government as anything but an attempt to buy time, and that +would have escalated the danger to allied troops if zero hour finally arrived +during treacherous weather...Yet even if Saddam Hussein leaves the mass of his +troops to collapse in Kuwait, the allies should not pursue him to his bunker in +Baghdad. Although tempting, such a move would turn a just war into a war of +conquest. That would risk a loss of global support and would risk fracturing +the coalition which George Bush has so masterfully assembled and maintained. + + Whether President Hussein is chased to Baghdad or not - he is finished.'' + + + + --- + + + + Dallas Times Herald: + + + + ``It's too soon to claim victory, of course. There is much still to be done. +But the first 18 hours of ground battle leave every reason for optimism. It's +especially gratifying to see how well the coalition has worked together. The +British and French have delivered for the alliance, and so have the Saudis and +Egyptians. President Bush can take justifiable pride in the cohesion of these +forces. + + There is much anguish in any war. No doubt that will be true of the Persian +Gulf as well. But so far allied forces have acquitted themselves with great +distinction.'' + + + + --- + + + + The Courier-Tribune, Asheboro, N.C.: + + + + ``Yes, Saddam must be left humiliated and powerless - the president and our +allies know that. + + It would be very bad and dangerous for us if Saddam Hussein remained in +power in Iraq with a substantial part of his huge army still intact, warned +Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. + + .... + + If left in power and well armed, his vindictiveness - when it came - would +be appalling. + + + + --- + + + + The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, Tenn.: + + + + The U.N. coalition had no choice but to launch an all-out ground offensive +after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ignored an ultimatum to begin withdrawing +his forces...The time for talk was over, and the people of Kuwait were begging +for liberation.... + + Ultimately, Iraq has found itself without friends to call upon during this +war. The Arab masses in other countries never did rise up and rally to Iraq's +cause. In fact, the only Arab country that showed much sympathy to Iraq was +Jordan; but if it has made any contribution to Iraq's war effort, the effect +has been negligible... + + ...The country prays for the U.N. combatants and for their families. We also +pray for those innocent people who have suffered in Kuwait. And we pray that +after this is all over, peace and stability will come to the Middle East. + + + + --- + + + + The Oakland Press, Pontiac, Mich.: + + + + While easy early successes can be misleading, it seems that the liberation +of Kuwait could come in days rather than weeks or months... + + The urgent question is not whether a ground war is wise or necessary. That +has been answered, for better or worse, by George Bush and Saddam Hussein. + + The question now is what happens after the last Iraqi soldier straggles back +across the Kuwaiti border and into Iraq? + + Will the allied forces pursue him? And, if so, how far? + + Then, what mechanism, if any, will be put in place in an attempt to head off +further military adventures in the region, by Saddam or anybody else?.... + + ...So it is clear that an international conference should be convened to +deal with such questions as arms control for the region, recognition of the +right of Israel to exist and a permanent, humane solution to the Palestinian +problem in the occupied territories. + + Ouside nations cannot continue to attempt to achieve stability by playing +off one Middle Eastern country against another. + + That is how and why Saddam rose to power and prominence. And it was as much +the cynical doing of the United States as of anyone else. + + + + --- + + + + Los Angeles Times: + + + + Until it's evident that the Republican Guard has been neutralized as a +battlefield threat, and until it's clear that bloody street-to-street fighting +in Kuwait City can be avoided, the danger to allied forces will remain, and +anticipation of a quick and low-cost victory must be held in check. + + Quite soon the world will get a firsthand look at Kuwait as it emerges from +more than six months of Iraqi subjugation. The stories and pictures are +expected to be grim. Even in the final hours of their occupation Iraqi forces +were reported to be heaping atrocity upon atrocity, murdering Kuwaitis, +stealing what had not earlier been looted, wantonly destroying the oil +installations and buildings. These are war crimes by any definition. If Kuwait +presses for the reparations that the U.N. resolutions and international law +allow it to claim, Iraq faces years of enormous compensations payments. + + + + --- + + + + The Orange County Register: + + + + ...Beyond that, and this comes as one more corroboration of Saddam's +unceasing diabolism, hundreds of men and women of Kuwait City were being +rounded up by their occupiers, tortured, and executed. + + The moral impulse to stop the genocide which came on top of the torching of +Kuwait oil fields became all the more urgent. Other factors such as the looming +sand storm season no doubt factored in of course. And there was the weekend +story (confirmed) that the White House had established this timetable weeks +ago, authorizing Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf to launch the attack when ready. + + That scandalized a small corps of reflexive Bush bashers who concluded that +the president was clearly not serious about the Saturday deadline and intended +to pursue some sort of sinister private agenda. + + But those are uncomplicated minds at work, and, happily, they do not reflect +the overwhelming number of Americans who share the president's moral +sensibility. It is altogether reasonable to have planned a punitive timetable, +at the same time preparing to abandon it if the object of your enterprise +suddenly, and surprisingly, agrees to conduct himself in a civilized fashion. +Saddam responded to the Bush ultimatum with (1) some stalling-for-time joint +diplomacy with the Soviet Union and (2) more Scud attacks on Israel and Saudi +Arabia along with more hideous bloodletting in Kuwait City. + + Astonishingly enough, the peacenik gallery complained that President Bush +failed to blind himself to the second part of Saddam's response which calls +into question their own morale posturing. That they invested an iota of +reliability in the Saddam-Gorbachev maneuvering called into question their +grasp of history. + + + + --- + + + + Los Angeles Daily News: + + + + The fear that Saddam inspired was simply the fear of the what-if: What if he +has chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction? What if he can get the +Arab masses to overthrow America's allies? What if his ground troops are +fanatics who will fight to the death? + + The power in these questions is the power of the unknown. Once the answers +are known - once Saddam is forced to deliver and fails to measure up to the +worst + + + + + Another file downloaded from: + + ! + -$- + ! . + /_\ /-o-\ & the Temple of the Screaming Electron + (o..) | * Walnut Creek, California + + |:| /^\ /~\ + ! |:|/\ _| |____|:| 2400/1200/300 baud 415-935-5845 + /^\ / O |/...\ /_-_\ Jeff Hunter, Sysop + |@ \_| @ /:::::|/|- : -| \ + | | | /~ |/| _ | - - - - - - - - - * + |____|/~ @ /~\ |/|_(_)_| Aaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! / + /_______|_|_|/ + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. An ALL-TEXT BBS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gun-ctrl.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/gun-ctrl.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dad3e107 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gun-ctrl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,197 @@ +GUN CONTROL, PATRIOTISM, AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE + +By JACOB G. HORNBERGER + +The State of California recently enacted a law which requires +owners of semiautomatic weapons to register their guns with +the state. But when the law went into effect, thousands of +California gun owners, although risking a felony conviction, +refused to comply with its requirements. + +The gun owners were immediately showered with harsh criticism, +not only from their public officials but from many of their +fellow citizens as well. The critics implied, among other +things, that since the law had been passed by the duly elected +representatives of the people, the gun owners, as members of +society, had a duty to comply with its terms. + +The controversy raises important issues concerning liberty, +property, government, patriotism, and civil disobedience. + +As I have repeatedly emphasized, by adopting the welfare- +state, planned-economy way of life, the American people of our +time have rejected and abandoned the principles of individual +freedom and limited government on which our nation was +founded. But they have also rejected and abandoned something +of equal importance: the concept of patriotism which +characterized America's Founding Fathers. + +There have been two different notions of patriotism in +American history. The one which characterizes the American +people of the 20th century--the one which is taught in our +public schools--is this: patriotism means the support of one's +own government and the actions which the government takes on +behalf of the citizenry. The idea is that since we live in a +democratic society, the majority should have the political +power to take any action it desires. And although those in the +minority may not like the laws, they are duty-bound, as "good" +citizens, to obey and support them. + +The distinguishing characteristic of this type of patriotism +is that the citizen does not make an independent, personal +judgment of the rightness or wrongness of a law. Instead, he +does what he has been taught to do since the first grade in +his government schools: he places unwavering faith and trust +in the judgment of his popularly elected public officials. + +The other concept of patriotism was the type which +characterized the British colonists during the late 1700s. +These individuals believed that patriotism meant a devotion to +certain principles of rightness and morality. They believed +that the good citizen had the duty to make an independent +judgment as to whether his own government's laws violated +these principles. And so, unlike their counterparts in America +today, these individuals refused to automatically accept the +legitimacy of the actions of their public officials. + +Let us examine how "real-world" applications of these two +concepts of patriotism differ dramatically. + +In the late 1700s, the British colonists were suffering under +the same type of oppressive regulatory and tax system under +which present-day Americans are suffering. What was the +reaction of the colonists to this regulatory and tax tyranny? +They deliberately chose to ignore and disobey their +government's regulations and tax acts. Smuggling and tax +evasion were the order of the day! And the more that their +government tried to enforce the restrictions, the more it met +with disregard and disobedience from the citizenry. + +Sometimes smugglers or tax evaders would be caught and brought +to trial. The result? Despite conclusive evidence of guilt and +the judges' instructions to convict, the defendants' fellow +citizens on the juries regularly voted verdicts of acquittal. + +And civil disobedience was not limited to economic regulations +and taxation. There was also widespread resistance to +conscription, especially during the French and Indian War. +Those who were conscripted deserted the army in large numbers. +And those who had not been conscripted hid the deserters in +their homes. + +This was what it once meant to be a patriot--the devotion to a +certain set of principles regarding rightness, morality, +individualism, liberty, and property; and it meant a firm +stand against one's own government when it violated these +principles. + +If an American of today were magically transported back to +colonial America of the late 1700s, he would immediately find +himself at odds with the colonists who were resisting the +tyranny of their government. How do we know this? By the way +which Americans of today respond to what is a much more +oppressive and tyrannical economic system: with either +meekness or, even worse, with ardent, "flag-waving" support +for the actions of their rulers. + +And what is their attitude toward their fellow citizens who +are caught violating the rules and regulations? Again, either +meekness or fervent support of their rulers. After all, what +was the reaction to the conviction of Michael Milken for +violating such ridiculous economic regulations that even King +George would have been embarrassed? "He got what's coming to +him--he shouldn't have made so much money anyway!" And to +Leona Helmsley's conviction for having taken improper +deductions on her income tax return? "She's obnoxious--she +should go to jail." The thought of rising to the defense of +these victims of political tyranny is an anathema to the +present-day American "patriot." + +And what about jury trials involving economic crimes? Like the +good, little citizens they have been taught to be, especially +in their public schools, American "patriots" dutifully comply +with the judge's instructions to convict their fellow citizens +of violating this regulatory and tax tyranny. Although they +have the same power as their ancestors to disregard the +judge's instructions and to acquit their fellow citizens, the +thought of doing so is repugnant to present-day "patriots." +They choose instead to do their "duty" and thereby become +"patriotic" agents of their own government's tyranny. + +Therefore, there is no doubt that the American of today would +feel very uncomfortable if, all of a sudden, he found himself +in the British colonies in 1775--in the midst of smugglers, +tax evaders, draft resisters, and other patriots of that time. + +This brings us back to the individuals in California who are +refusing to register their guns. + +As our American ancestors understood so well, the bedrock of a +free society is private ownership of property. And there are +fewer more important rights of private ownership than the +unfettered right to own weapons. + +Why is ownership of weapons so vitally important? Not for +hunting. And not even to resist aggression by domestic +criminals or foreign invaders. No, as history has repeatedly +shown, the vital importance of the fundamental right to own +arms is to resist tyranny by one's own government, should such +tyranny ever become unendurably evil and oppressive. + +The lesson which Americans of today have forgotten or have +never learned--the lesson which our ancestors tried so hard to +teach us--is that the greatest threat to our lives, liberty, +property, and security lies not with some foreign government, +as our rulers so often tell us; instead, the greatest threat +to the well-being of all of us lies with our own government! + +Of course, there are those who suggest that democratically +elected public officials would never do anything seriously +harmful to the American people. But let's look at just a few +twentieth-century examples. They confiscated people's gold. +They repudiated gold clauses in government debts. They +provoked the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor and then +acted like they were surprised. They incarcerated Japanese- +Americans for no crime at all. They injected dangerous, mind- +altering drugs into American servicemen without their +knowledge. They radiated the American people in the Northwest +and then deliberately hid it from them. They have +surreptitiously confiscated and plundered people's income and +savings through the Federal Reserve System. They have +terrorized the citizenry through the IRS. And, most recently, +they have sent our fellow citizens to their deaths thousands +of miles away in the pursuit of a relatively insignificant +cause. + +Those who believe that democratically elected rulers lack the +potential and inclination for destructive conduct against +their citizenry are living in la-la land. + +Of course, the proponents of political tyranny are usually +well motivated. Those who enacted the gun-registration law in +California point to those who have used semiautomatic weapons +to commit horrible, murderous acts. But the illusion--the +pipe-dream--is that bad acts can be prevented through the +deprivation of liberty. They cannot be! Life is insecure-- +whether under liberty or enslavement. The only choice is +between liberty and insecurity, on the one hand, and +insecurity and enslavement on the other. + +The true patriot scrutinizes the actions of his own government +with unceasing vigilance. And when his government violates the +morality and rightness associated with principles of +individual freedom and private property, he immediately rises +in opposition to his government. This is why the gun owners of +California might ultimately go down in history as among the +greatest and most courageous patriots of our time. + +Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of +Freedom Foundation. + + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the May 1991 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1991, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gun.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/gun.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..933beb10 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gun.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please distribute + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON GUN CONTROL + + + +Every year, more than 20,000 Americans are killed +with handguns; many thousands more are injured. A +large and growing number of these victims are +killed by semi-automatic assault weapons which have +no legitimate sporting purpose. The streets of our +cities have become gun bazaars. We must make them +safe again. + +The large majority of gun owners are law-abiding +citizens who use their guns in a responsible +manner. Bill Clinton and Al Gore know that the +Constitution guarantees an individuals basic right +to keep and bear arms, and they will uphold that +right. + +Support the Brady Bill + +Sign the Brady Bill, which mandates a 5-day waiting +period for handgun purchases to allow police +sufficient time to determine whether intended +purchasers are underage or have criminal +backgrounds, drug histories, or mental health +histories. Al Gore was a primary author and +cosponsor of the Senate version of the Brady Bill, +which includes a background check. Bill Clinton +has endorsed the Brady Bill. + +Ban assault weapons + +* Ban semi-automatic assault weapons that have + no legitimate hunting purpose and support the + right of local law enforcement officials to + ban such weapons when gangs move into their + neighborhoods. + +* Limit access to multiple-round clips like the + ones used in the tragic killings in Killeen, + Texas. + +Get tough on crime + +* Create a National Police Corps and offer + veterans and active military personnel a + chance to become law enforcement officers at + home. This will add 100,000 new police + officers to the streets. + +* Enact tougher sentences for criminals who use + guns. + +* Implement a federal program for safe schools + so children can concentrate on learning. + +* Create boot camps for first-time non-violent + offenders. + +* Develop strong anti-gang initiatives, and + empower public housing residents to get rid of + drug dealers. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gurps-la b/textfiles.com/politics/gurps-la new file mode 100644 index 00000000..50a3da2e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gurps-la @@ -0,0 +1,572 @@ + GURPS LABOR LOST: The Cyberpunk Bust + + by Bruce Sterling + Copyright (c) by Bruce Sterling, 1991. + Reprinted by permission of the author. + +Some months ago, I wrote an article about the raid on Steve Jackson +Games, which appeared in my "Comment" column in the British science +fiction monthly, Interzone(#44, February 1991). This updated version, +specially re-written for dissemination by EFF, reflects the somewhat +greater knowledge I've gained to date, in the course of research on an +upcoming nonfiction book, The Hacker Crackdown: The True Story of the +Digital Dragnet of 1990 and the Start of the Electronic Frontier +Foundation. + +The bizarre events suffered by Mr. Jackson and his co-workers, in my own +home town of Austin, Texas, were directly responsible for my decision to +put science fiction aside and to tackle the purportedly real world of +computer crime and electronic free-expression. + +The national crackdown on computer hackers in 1990 was the largest and +best-coordinated attack on computer mischief in American history. There +was Arizona's "Operation Sundevil," the sweeping May 8 nationwide raid +against outlaw bulletin boards. The BellSouth E911 case (of which the +Jackson raid was a small and particularly egregious part) was +coordinated out of Chicago. The New York State Police were also very +active in 1990. + +All this vigorous law enforcement activity meant very little to the +narrow and intensely clannish world of science fiction. All we knew - +and this perception persisted, uncorrected, for months - was that Mr. +Jackson had been raided because of his intention to publish a gaming +book about "cyberpunk" science fiction. The Jackson raid received +extensive coverage in science fiction news magazines (yes, we have +these) and became notorious in the world of SF as "the Cyberpunk Bust." +My INTERZONE article attempted to make the Jackson case intelligible to +the British SF audience. + +What possible reason could lead an American federal law enforcement +agency to raid the headquarters of a science-fiction gaming company? +Why did armed teams of city police, corporate security men, and federal +agents roust two Texan computer hackers from their beds at dawn, and +then confiscate thousands of dollars' worth of computer equipment, +including the hackers' common household telephones? Why was an +unpublished book called GURPS Cyberpunk seized by the US Secret Service +and declared "a manual for computer crime?" These weird events were not +parodies or fantasies; no, this was real. + +The first order of business in untangling this bizarre drama is to know +the players - who come in entire teams. + +PLAYER ONE: The Law Enforcement Agencies. + +America's defense against the threat of computer crime is a confusing +hodgepodge of state, municipal, and federal agencies. Ranked first, by +size and power, are the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National +Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), +large, potent and secretive organizations who, luckily, play almost no +role in the Jackson story. + +The second rank of such agencies include the Internal Revenue Service +(IRS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the +Justice Department, the Department of Labor, and various branches of the +defense establishment, especially the Air Force Office of Special +Investigations (AFOSI). Premier among these groups, however, is the +highly-motivated US Secret Service (USSS),the suited, mirrorshades- +toting, heavily-armed bodyguards of the President of the United States. + +Guarding high-ranking federal officials and foreign dignitaries is a +hazardous, challenging and eminently necessary task, which has won USSS +a high public profile. But Abraham Lincoln created this oldest of +federal law enforcement agencies in order to foil counterfeiting. Due +to the historical tribulations of the Treasury Department (of which USSS +is a part), the Secret Service also guards historical documents, +analyzes forgeries, combats wire fraud, and battles "computer fraud and +abuse." These may seem unrelated assignments, but the Secret Service is +fiercely aware of its duties. It is also jealous of its bureaucratic +turf, especially in computer-crime, where it formally shares +jurisdiction with its traditional rival, the Johnny-come-lately FBI. + +As the use of plastic money has spread, and their long-established role +as protectors of the currency has faded in importance, the Secret +Service has moved aggressively into the realm of electronic crime. +Unlike the lordly NSA, CIA, and FBI, which generally can't be bothered +with domestic computer mischief, the Secret Service is noted for its +street-level enthusiasm. + +The third-rank of law enforcement are the local "dedicated computer +crime units." There are few such groups, pitifully under staffed. They +struggle hard for funding and the vital light of publicity. It's +difficult to make white-collar computer crimes seem pressing, to an +American public that lives in terror of armed and violent street crime. + +These local groups are small - often, one or two officers, computer +hobbyists, who have drifted into electronic crimebusting because they +alone are game to devote time and effort to bringing law to the +electronic frontier. California's Silicon Valley has three computer- +crime units. There are others in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, +Texas, Colorado, and a formerly very active one in Arizona - all told, +though, perhaps only fifty people nationwide. + +The locals do have one great advantage, though. They all know one +another. Though scattered across the country, they are linked by both +public-sector and private-sector professional societies, and have a +commendable subcultural esprit-de-corps. And in the well-manned Secret +Service, they have willing national-level assistance. + +PLAYER TWO: The Telephone Companies. + +In the early 80s, after years of bitter federal court battle, America's +telephone monopoly was pulverized. "Ma Bell," the national phone +company, became AT&T, AT&T Industries, and the regional "Baby Bells," +all purportedly independent companies, who compete with new +communications companies and other long-distance providers. As a class, +however, they are all sorely harassed by fraudsters, phone phreaks, and +computer hackers, and they all maintain computer-security experts. In a +lot of cases these "corporate security divisions" consist of just one or +two guys, who drifted into the work from backgrounds in traditional +security or law enforcement. But, linked by specialized security trade +journals and private sector trade groups, they all know one another. + +PLAYER THREE: The Computer Hackers. + +The American "hacker" elite consists of about a hundred people, who all +know one another. These are the people who know enough about computer +intrusion to baffle corporate security and alarm police (and who, +furthermore, are willing to put their intrusion skills into actual +practice). The somewhat older subculture of "phone-phreaking," once +native only to the phone system, has blended into hackerdom as phones +have become digital and computers have been netted-together by +telephones. "Phone phreaks," always tarred with the stigma of rip-off +artists, are nowadays increasingly hacking PBX systems and cellular +phones. These practices, unlike computer-intrusion, offer easy profit +to fraudsters. + +There are legions of minor "hackers," such as the "kodez kidz," who +purloin telephone access codes to make free (i.e., stolen) phone calls. +Code theft can be done with home computers, and almost looks like real +"hacking," though "kodez kidz" are regarded with lordly contempt by the +elite. "Warez d00dz," who copy and pirate computer games and software, +are a thriving subspecies of "hacker," but they played no real role in +the crackdown of 1990 or the Jackson case. As for the dire minority who +create computer viruses, the less said the better. + +The princes of hackerdom skate the phone-lines, and computer networks, +as a lifestyle. They hang out in loose, modem-connected gangs like the +"Legion of Doom" and the "Masters of Destruction." The craft of hacking +is taught through "bulletin board systems," personal computers that +carry electronic mail and can be accessed by phone. Hacker bulletin +boards generally sport grim, scary, sci-fi heavy metal names like BLACK +ICE - PRIVATE or SPEED DEMON ELITE. Hackers themselves often adopt +romantic and highly suspicious tough-guy monickers like "Necron 99," +"Prime Suspect," "Erik Bloodaxe," "Malefactor" and "Phase Jitter." This +can be seen as a kind of cyberpunk folk-poetry - after all, baseball +players also have colorful nicknames. But so do the Mafia and the +Medellin Cartel. + + PLAYER FOUR: The Simulation Gamers. + +Wargames and role-playing adventures are an old and honored pastime, +much favored by professional military strategists and H.G. Wells, and +now played by hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts throughout North +America, Europe and Japan. In today's market, many simulation games are +computerized, making simulation gaming a favorite pastime of hackers, +who dote on arcane intellectual challenges and the thrill of doing +simulated mischief. + +Modern simulation games frequently have a heavily science-fictional +cast. Over the past decade or so, fueled by very respectable royalties, +the world of simulation gaming has increasingly permeated the world of +science-fiction publishing. TSR, Inc., proprietors of the best-known +role-playing game, "Dungeons and Dragons," own the venerable +science-fiction magazine "Amazing." Gaming-books, once restricted to +hobby outlets, now commonly appear in chain-stores like B. Dalton's and +Waldenbooks, and sell vigorously. + +Steve Jackson Games, Inc., of Austin, Texas, is a games company of the +middle rank. In early 1990, it employed fifteen people. In 1989, SJG +grossed about half a million dollars. SJG's Austin headquarters is a +modest two-story brick office-suite, cluttered with phones, +photocopiers, fax machines and computers. A publisher's digs, it +bustles with semi-organized activity and is littered with glossy +promotional brochures and dog-eared SF novels. Attached to the offices +is a large tin-roofed warehouse piled twenty feet high with cardboard +boxes of games and books. This building was the site of the "Cyberpunk +Bust." + +A look at the company's wares, neatly stacked on endless rows of cheap +shelving, quickly shows SJG's long involvement with the Science Fiction +community. SJG's main product, the Generic Universal Role- Playing +System or GURPS, features licensed and adapted works from many genre +writers. There is GURPS Witch World, GURPS Conan, GURPS Riverworld, +GURPS Horseclans, many names eminently familiar to SF fans. (GURPS +Difference Engine is currently in the works.) GURPS Cyberpunk, however, +was to be another story entirely. + +PLAYER FIVE: The Science Fiction Writers. + +The "cyberpunk" SF writers are a small group of mostly college-educated +white litterateurs, without conspicuous criminal records, scattered +throughout the US and Canada. Only one, Rudy Rucker, a professor of +computer science in Silicon Valley, would rank with even the humblest +computer hacker. However, these writers all own computers and take an +intense, public, and somewhat morbid interest in the social +ramifications of the information industry. Despite their small numbers, +the "cyberpunk" writers all know one another, and are linked by antique +print-medium publications with unlikely names like Science Fiction Eye, +Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Omni and Interzone. + + PLAYER SIX: The Civil Libertarians. + +This small but rapidly growing group consists of heavily politicized +computer enthusiasts and heavily cyberneticized political activists: a +mix of wealthy high-tech entrepreneurs, veteran West Coast troublemaking +hippies, touchy journalists, and toney East Coast civil rights lawyers. +They are all getting to know one another. + +We now return to our story. By 1988, law enforcement officials, led by +contrite teenage informants, had thoroughly permeated the world of +underground bulletin boards, and were alertly prowling the nets +compiling dossiers on wrongdoers. While most bulletin board systems are +utterly harmless, some few had matured into alarming reservoirs of +forbidden knowledge. One such was BLACK ICE - PRIVATE, located +"somewhere in the 607 area code," frequented by members of the "Legion +of Doom" and notorious even among hackers for the violence of its +rhetoric, which discussed sabotage of phone-lines, drug- manufacturing +techniques, and the assembly of home-made bombs, as well as a plethora +of rules-of-thumb for penetrating computer security. + +Of course, the mere discussion of these notions is not illegal - many +cyberpunk SF stories positively dote on such ideas, as do hundreds of +spy epics, techno-thrillers and adventure novels. It was no coincidence +that "ICE," or "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics," was a term +invented by cyberpunk writer Tom Maddox, and "BLACK ICE," or a +computer-defense that fries the brain of the unwary trespasser, was a +coinage of William Gibson. + +A reference manual from the US National Institute of Justice, Dedicated +Computer Crime Units by J. Thomas McEwen, suggests that federal +attitudes toward bulletin-board systems are ambivalent at best: + +"There are several examples of how bulletin boards have been used in +support of criminal activities.... (B)ulletin boards were used to relay +illegally obtained access codes into computer service companies. +Pedophiles have been known to leave suggestive messages on bulletin +boards, and other sexually oriented messages have been found on bulletin +boards. Members of cults and sects have also communicated through +bulletin boards. While the storing of information on bulletin boards +may not be illegal, the use of bulletin boards has certainly advanced +many illegal activities." + +Here is a troubling concept indeed: invisible electronic pornography, to +be printed out at home and read by sects and cults. It makes a mockery +of the traditional law-enforcement techniques concerning the publication +and prosecution of smut. In fact, the prospect of large numbers of +antisocial conspirators, congregating in cyberspace without official +oversight of any kind, is enough to trouble the sleep of anyone charged +with maintaining public order. + +Even the sternest free-speech advocate will likely do some +headscratching at the prospect of digitized "anarchy files" teaching +lock-picking, pipe-bombing, martial arts techniques, and highly +unorthodox uses for shotgun shells, especially when these neat-o +temptations are distributed freely to any teen (or pre-teen) with a +modem. + +These may be largely conjectural problems at present, but the use of +bulletin boards to foment hacker mischief is real. Worse yet, the +bulletin boards themselves are linked, sharing their audience and +spreading the wicked knowledge of security flaws in the phone network, +and in a wide variety of academic, corporate and governmental computer +systems. + +This strength of the hackers is also a weakness, however. If the boards +are monitored by alert informants and/or officers, the whole wicked +tangle can be seized all along its extended electronic vine, rather like +harvesting pumpkins. + +The war against hackers, including the "Cyberpunk Bust," was primarily a +war against hacker bulletin boards. It was, first and foremost, an +attack against the enemy's means of information. + +This basic strategic insight supplied the tactics for the crackdown of +1990. The variant groups in the national subculture of cyber-law would +be kept apprised, persuaded to action, and diplomatically martialled +into effective strike position. Then, in a burst of energy and a +glorious blaze of publicity, the whole nest of scofflaws would be +wrenched up root and branch. Hopefully, the damage would be permanent; +if not, the swarming wretches would at least keep their heads down. + +"Operation Sundevil," the Phoenix-inspired crackdown of May 8,1990, +concentrated on telephone code-fraud and credit-card abuse, and followed +this seizure plan with some success. Boards went down all over America, +terrifying the underground and swiftly depriving them of at least some +of their criminal instruments. It also saddled analysts with some +24,000 floppy disks, and confronted harried Justice Department +prosecutors with the daunting challenge of a gigantic nationwide hacker +show-trial involving highly technical issues in dozens of jurisdictions. +As of July 1991, it must be questioned whether the climate is right for +an action of this sort, especially since several of the most promising +prosecutees have already been jailed on other charges. + +"Sundevil" aroused many dicey legal and constitutional questions, but at +least its organizers were spared the spectacle of seizure victims loudly +proclaiming their innocence - (if one excepts Bruce Esquibel, sysop of +"Dr. Ripco," an anarchist board in Chicago). + +The activities of March 1, 1990, including the Jackson case, were the +inspiration of the Chicago-based Computer Fraud and Abuse Task Force. +At telco urging, the Chicago group were pursuing the purportedly vital +"E911 document" with headlong energy. As legal evidence, this Bell +South document was to prove a very weak reed in the Craig Neidorf trial, +which ended in a humiliating dismissal and a triumph for Neidorf. As of +March 1990, however, this purloined data-file seemed a red-hot chunk of +contraband, and the decision was made to track it down wherever it might +have gone, and to shut down any board that had touched it - or even come +close to it. + +In the meantime, however - early 1990 - Mr. Loyd Blankenship, an +employee of Steve Jackson Games, an accomplished hacker, and a sometime +member and file-writer for the Legion of Doom, was contemplating a +"cyberpunk" simulation-module for the flourishing GURPS gaming-system. + +The time seemed ripe for such a product, which had already been proven +in the marketplace. The first games-company out of the gate, with a +product boldly called "Cyberpunk" in defiance of possible +infringement-of-copyright suits, had been an upstart group called R. +Talsorian. Talsorian's "Cyberpunk" was a fairly decent game, but the +mechanics of the simulation system sucked. But the game sold like crazy. + +The next "cyberpunk" game had been the even more successful "Shadowrun" +by FASA Corporation. The mechanics of this game were fine, but the +scenario was rendered moronic by lame fantasy elements like orcs, +dwarves, trolls, magicians, and dragons - all highly ideologically +incorrect, according to the hard-edged, high-tech standards of cyberpunk +science fiction. No true cyberpunk fan could play this game without +vomiting, despite FASA's nifty T-shirts and street-samurai lead +figurines. + +Lured by the scent of money, other game companies were champing at the +bit. Blankenship reasoned that the time had come for a real "Cyberpunk" +gaming-book - one that the princes of computer-mischief in the Legion of +Doom could play without laughing themselves sick. This book, GURPS +Cyberpunk, would reek of on-line authenticity. + +Hot discussion soon raged on the Steve Jackson Games electronic bulletin +board, the "Illuminati BBS." This board was named after a bestselling +SJG card-game, involving antisocial sects and cults who war covertly for +the domination of the world. Gamers and hackers alike loved this board, +with its meticulously detailed discussions of pastimes like SJG's "Car +Wars," in which souped-up armored hot-rods with rocket-launchers and +heavy machine-guns do battle on the American highways of the future. + +While working, with considerable creative success, for SJG, Blankenship +himself was running his own computer bulletin board, "The Phoenix +Project," from his house. It had been ages - months, anyway - since +Blankenship, an increasingly sedate husband and author, had last entered +a public phone-booth without a supply of pocket-change. However, his +intellectual interest in computer-security remained intense. He was +pleased to notice the presence on "Phoenix" of Henry Kluepfel, a +phone-company security professional for Bellcore. Such contacts were +risky for telco employees; at least one such gentleman who reached out +to the hacker underground has been accused of divided loyalties and +summarily fired. Kluepfel, on the other hand, was bravely engaging in +friendly banter with heavy-dude hackers and eager telephone-wannabes. +Blankenship did nothing to spook him away, and Kluepfel, for his part, +passed dark warnings about "Phoenix Project" to the Chicago group. +"Phoenix Project" glowed with the radioactive presence of the E911 +document, passed there in a copy of Craig Neidorf's electronic hacker +fan-magazine, Phrack. + +"Illuminati" was prominently mentioned on the Phoenix Project. Phoenix +users were urged to visit Illuminati, to discuss the upcoming +"cyberpunk" game and possibly lend their expertise. It was also frankly +hoped that they would spend some money on SJG games. + +Illuminati and Phoenix had become two ripe pumpkins on the criminal vine. + +Hacker busts were nothing new. They had always been problematic for the +authorities. The offenders were generally high-IQ white juveniles with +no criminal record. Public sympathy for the phone companies was limited +at best. Trials often ended in puzzled dismissals or a slap on the wrist. + +Through long experience, law enforcement had come up with an unorthodox +but workable tactic. This was to avoid any trial at all, or even an +arrest. Instead, somber teams of grim police would swoop upon the +teenage suspect's home and box up his computer as "evidence." If he was +a good boy, and promised contritely to stay out of trouble forthwith, +the highly expensive equipment might be returned to him in short order. +If he was a hard-case, though, his toys could stay boxed-up and locked +away for a couple of years. + +The busts in Austin were an intensification of this tried-and-true +technique. There were adults involved in this case, though, reeking of +a hardened bad attitude. The supposed threat to the 911 system, +apparently posed by the E911 document, had nerved law enforcement to +extraordinary effort. The 911 system is the emergency system used by +the police themselves. Any threat to it was a direct, insolent hacker +menace to the electronic home turf of American law enforcement. + +Had Steve Jackson been arrested and directly accused of a plot to +destroy the 911 system, the resultant embarrassment would likely have +been sharp, but brief. The Chicago group, instead, chose total +operational security. They may have suspected that their search for +E911, once publicized, would cause that "dangerous" document to spread +like wildfire throughout the underground. Instead, they allowed the +impression to spread that they had raided Steve Jackson to stop the +publication of a book: GURPS Cyberpunk. This was a grave public- +relations blunder which caused the darkest fears and suspicions to +spread - not in the hacker underground, but among the general public. + +On March 1, 1990, 21-year-old hacker Chris Goggans (aka "Erik Bloodaxe") +was wakened by a police revolver levelled at his head. He watched, +jittery, as Secret Service agents appropriated his 300 baud terminal +and, rifling his files, discovered his treasured source-code for the +notorious Internet Worm. Goggans, a co-sysop of "Phoenix Project" and a +wily operator, had suspected that something of the like might be coming. +All his best equipment had been hidden away elsewhere. They took his +phone, though, and considered hauling away his hefty arcade-style +Pac-Man game, before deciding that it was simply too heavy. Goggans was +not arrested. To date, he has never been charged with a crime. The +police still have what they took, though. + +Blankenship was less wary. He had shut down "Phoenix" as rumors reached +him of a crackdown coming. Still, a dawn raid rousted him and his wife +from bed in their underwear, and six Secret Service agents, accompanied +by a bemused Austin cop and a corporate security agent from Bellcore, +made a rich haul. Off went the works, into the agents' white Chevrolet +minivan: an IBM PC-AT clone with and a 120-meg hard disk; a +Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II printer; a completely legitimate and highly +expensive SCO-Xenix 286 operating system; Pagemaker disks and +documentation; the Microsoft Word word-processing program; Mrs. +Blankenship's incomplete academic thesis stored on disk; and the +couple's telephone. All this property remains in police custody today. + +The agents then bundled Blankenship into a car and it was off the Steve +Jackson Games in the bleak light of dawn. The fact that this was a +business headquarters, and not a private residence, did not deter the +agents. It was still early; no one was at work yet. The agents +prepared to break down the door, until Blankenship offered his key. + +The exact details of the next events are unclear. The agents would not +let anyone else into the building. Their search warrant, when produced, +was unsigned. Apparently they breakfasted from "Whataburger," as the +litter from hamburgers was later found inside. They also extensively +sampled a bag of jellybeans kept by an SJG employee. Someone tore a +"Dukakis for President" sticker from the wall. + +SJG employees, diligently showing up for the day's work, were met at the +door. They watched in astonishment as agents wielding crowbars and +screwdrivers emerged with captive machines. The agents wore blue nylon +windbreakers with "SECRET SERVICE" stencilled across the back, with +running-shoes and jeans. Confiscating computers can be heavy physical work. + +No one at Steve Jackson Games was arrested. No one was accused of any +crime. There were no charges filed. Everything appropriated was +officially kept as "evidence" of crimes never specified. Steve Jackson +will not face a conspiracy trial over the contents of his +science-fiction gaming book. On the contrary, the raid's organizers +have been accused of grave misdeeds in a civil suit filed by EFF, and if +there is any trial over GURPS Cyberpunk it seems likely to be theirs. + +The day after the raid, Steve Jackson visited the local Secret Service +headquarters with a lawyer in tow. There was trouble over GURPS +Cyberpunk, which had been discovered on the hard-disk of a seized +machine. GURPS Cyberpunk, alleged a Secret Service agent to astonished +businessman Steve Jackson, was "a manual for computer crime." + +"It's science fiction," Jackson said. + +"No, this is real." This statement was repeated several times, by +several agents. This is not a fantasy, no, this is real. Jackson's +ominously "accurate" game had passed from pure, obscure, small-scale +fantasy into the impure, highly publicized, large-scale fantasy of the +hacker crackdown. No mention was made of the real reason for the +search, the E911 document. Indeed, this fact was not discovered until +the Jackson search-warrant was unsealed months later. Jackson was left +to believe that his board had been seized because he intended to publish +a science fiction book that law enforcement considered too dangerous to +see print. This misconception was repeated again and again, for months, +to an ever-widening audience. The effect of this statement on the +science fiction community was, to say the least, striking. + +GURPS Cyberpunk, now published and available from Steve Jackson Games +(Box 18957, Austin, Texas 78760), does discuss some of the commonplaces +of computer-hacking, such as searching through trash for useful clues, +or snitching passwords by boldly lying to gullible users. Reading it +won't make you a hacker, any more than reading Spycatcher will make you +an agent of MI5. Still, this bold insistence by the Secret Service on +its authenticity has made GURPS Cyberpunk the Satanic Verses of +simulation gaming, and has made Steve Jackson the first +martyr-to-the-cause for the computer world's civil libertarians. + +From the beginning, Steve Jackson declared that he had committed no +crime, and had nothing to hide. Few believed him, for it seemed +incredible that such a tremendous effort by the government would be +spent on someone entirely innocent. + +Surely there were a few stolen long-distance codes in "Illuminati," a +swiped credit-card number or two - something. Those who rallied to the +defense of Jackson were publicly warned that they would be caught with +egg on their face when the real truth came out, "later." But "later" +came and went. The fact is that Jackson was innocent of any crime. +There was no case against him; his activities were entirely legal. He +had simply been consorting with the wrong sort of people. + +In fact he was the wrong sort of people. His attitude stank. He showed +no contrition; he scoffed at authority; he gave aid and comfort to the +enemy; he was trouble. Steve Jackson comes from subcultures - gaming, +science fiction - that have always smelled to high heaven of troubling +weirdness and deep-dyed unorthodoxy. He was important enough to attract +repression, but not important enough, apparently, to deserve a straight +answer from those who had raided his property and destroyed his +livelihood. + +The American law-enforcement community lacks the manpower and resources to +prosecute hackers successfully on the merits of the cases against them. +The cyber-police to date have settled instead for a cheap "hack" of the +legal system: a quasi-legal tactic of seizure and "deterrence." Humiliate +and harass a few ringleaders, the philosophy goes, and the rest will fall +into line. After all, most hackers are just kids. The few grown-ups among +them are sociopathic geeks, not real players in the political and legal +game. In the final analysis, a small company like Jackson's lacks the +resources to make any real trouble for the Secret Service. + +But Jackson, with his conspiracy-obsessed bulletin board and his seedy +SF-fan computer-freak employees, is not "just a kid." He is a publisher, +and he was battered by the police in the full light of national publicity, +under the shocked gaze of journalists, gaming fans, libertarian activists +and millionaire computer entrepreneurs, many of whom were not "deterred," +but genuinely aghast. + +"What," reasons the author, "is to prevent the Secret Service from carting +off my word-processor as 'evidence' of some non-existent crime?" + +"What would I do," thinks the small-press owner, "if someone took my +laser-printer?" + +Hence the establishment of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. + +Steve Jackson was provided with a high-powered lawyer specializing in +Constitutional freedom-of-the-press issues. Faced with this, a markedly +un-contrite Secret Service returned Jackson's machinery, after months of +delay - some of it broken, with valuable data lost. Jackson sustained many +thousands of dollars in business losses, from failure to meet deadlines and +loss of computer-assisted production. + +Half the employees of Steve Jackson Games were sorrowfully laid-off. Some +had been with the company for years - not statistics, these people, not +"hackers" of any stripe, but bystanders, citizens, deprived of their +livelihoods by the zealousness of the March 1 seizure. Some have since +been re-hired - perhaps all will be, if Jackson can pull his company out of +its now persistent financial hole. Devastated by the raid, the company +would surely have collapsed in short order - but SJG's distributors, +touched by the company's plight and feeling some natural subcultural +solidarity, advanced him money to scrape along. + +In retrospect, it is hard to see much good for anyone at all in the +activities of March 1. Perhaps the Jackson case has served as a warning +light for trouble in our legal system; but that's not much recompense for +Jackson himself. His own unsought fame may be helpful, but it doesn't do +much for his unemployed co-workers. In the meantime, "hackers" have been +demonized as a national threat. "Cyberpunk," a literary term, has become a +synonym for computer criminal. The cyber-police have leapt where angels +fear to tread. And the phone companies have badly overstated their case +and deeply embarrassed their protectors. + +Sixteen months later, Steve Jackson suspects he may yet pull through. +Illuminati is still on-line. GURPS Cyberpunk, while it failed to match +Satanic Verses, sold fairly briskly. And Steve Jackson Games headquarters, +the site of the raid, was the site of a Cyberspace Weenie Roast to launch +an Austin Chapter of The Electronic Frontier Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/gwen.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/gwen.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5b9dee59 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/gwen.txt @@ -0,0 +1,241 @@ + Ground Wave Emergency Network + + GWEN-A Threat + +According to environmental documents we have received, the United +States Air Force is actively preparing for fighting and winning a +protracted nuclear war. Across America, the Air Force is +constructing up to 400 towers specifically designed to allow the +transmission of trigger-release codes for B-1 bomber and MX +missile nuclear warheads at the beginning of nuclear war. This +system of radio towers is called the Ground Wave Emergency +Network(GWEN). Neither the Air Force, Congress, nor the American +public has adequately informed itself about what the use of GWEN +would mean to life on the planet. Nor, consequently, have we +been able to make a considered decision on whether we should +pursue such a politically and environmentally dangerous system. + +There has been an important change in American plans for fighting +nuclear war since the early days of nuclear planning. The early +goal of massive retaliation was replaced in the Kennedy era with a +policy of "flexible response." More recently, selective use of +nuclear weapons was seen to be impaired by lack of real time +Presidential control over our nuclear warfighting capability. +Carter's Presidential Directive 59(July 25, 1980) set out to +ensure that improved communication would allow the President or a +successor to actively pursue nuclear war for a prolonged period. +These changes in nuclear policy have moved the U.S. toward the +use of nuclear weapons for war fighting, not war prevention. GWEN +is part of the system being built to allow nuclear war fighting. + + What is GWEN? + +GWEN is a network of low frequency radio towers whose purpose is +to send release messages to U.S. strategic forces at the beginning +of and during a nuclear conflict. The Air Force states two main +rationales for the system: GWEN is resistant to electromagnetic +pulse (although not hardened against nuclear blasts themselves) +and is an internally redundant system (messages can be switched +along various paths when certain towers are destroyed during a +nuclear war). + +The network consists of three types of communications stations: + +Input-Output Stations: These stations can both enter messages +for transmission through the GWEN network and receive messages +from the network. An example of such a station is the Strategic +Air Command headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. + +Receive Only Stations: These stations will be located at missile +command centers and Air Force bases. Emergency Action Messages, +such as those that order the use of nuclear weapons, will be +received at these stations. + +Relay Stations: These stations will make up the bulk of the GWEN +network and will consist of automated radio relays. These +stations will be located in areas that are currently not high +priority military targets (such as Eugene). The relay stations +will be organized so that messages can be routed around the +network even if large numbers of the relays are destroyed during +nuclear war. This will require several hundred relay stations. + +The GWEN network is currently under construction, although a +small part of it is already operational. Construction of GWEN is +to take place in three phases. These phases are: + +Phase 1: A limited number of test sites, presumably input/output +stations, have already been built at existing military +installations. + +Phase 2: The Thin Line Connectivity Capability, currently under +construction, consists of 95 towers and would perform the GWEN +function temporarily. + +Phase 3: Final Operational Capacity will involve towers +variously numbered at 158, 240, or "approximately 400," depending +on the Air Force document/informant cited. This phase has not +yet been built, nor funds for it appropriated, although the Army +Corps of Engineers has completed lease negotiations for some of +the sites. + +Each site would consist of a 299 foot tower (presumably to get +around automatic imposition of the National Environmental Policy +Act requirement for an environmental impact statement for any +federally-funded 300 foot tower), a concrete building, and a +series of fences on a 700 foot square site. Underground, a +"ground screen" of copper wire would radiate to 330 feet at +regular intervals. Physically unimpressive, the towers are +presented to the public by the Air Force as radio towers for +"emergency communications." + +Each tower will cost $1.4 million, the entire system a billion +dollars. Other systems such as AFSATCOM, Milstar, Green Pine, +and Giant Talk are designed to provide nuclear war communications +at other electromagnetic frequencies and with the same or other +weapons systems. Because of GWEN's relatively simplistic +technology, the Air Force presumes that GWEN will be replaced in +15 years by a satellite system. + + GWEN and Environmental Law + +The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that +significant environmental or human health impacts of any proposed +federal project be assessed and described in an environmental +impact statement so that the public and decisionmakers can judge +whether the projects should be undertaken. As a federal project +funded by public money, the GWEN system and each GWEN tower fall +under the mandates of this law (whether or not the 300 foot tower +height is reached). + +An environmental assessment is less complete than an +environmental impact statement, involves less public input, ad is +written for projects that are expected to have no significant +health or environmental impact. The Generic Environmental +Assessment for GWEN describes the environmental effects of +constructing the GWEN towers. It takes into account the +possibility of encountering "Indian" graves during excavation. +It states that no weed killers will be used that would +permanently damage the soil. Portable chemical toilets will be +used while building te tower. It describes the general range or +radio wave radiation that will emanate from the tower when in +use. + +Despite other Air Force documents clearly demonstrating GWEN is +being built to assist with nuclear war, the Environmental +Assessment never mentions the words "nuclear war", nor does it +describe the role GWEN is to play in nuclear warfighting +strategy. THe National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) demands, +however, that the effects of a project in use be assessed and +discussed. In the case of a roadbuilding project, for instance, +NEPA requires more than an examination of the environmental +impact of road materials and road construction. NEPA requires a +discussion of the secondary impacts of using the road, e.g. +increased auto emissions or alteration of local community life. + +The impacts of the GWEN system in use as yet remain unaddressed. +The only time GWEN will be put into use is to either start +nuclear war, or shortly after nuclear war has started. Its sole +function is to ensure that nuclear warfighting capability will +endure through what a Joint Chiefs of Staff publication calls +"graceful degradation, restart and recovery." On this basis, the +Air Force is required to review the impacts of a prolonged +nuclear war on the environment and on human health. + +The environmental implications of at least four aspects of the +GWEN system need to be addressed in an environmental impact +statement: + +1. GWEN contributes to the execution of prolonged nuclear war. + +2. Any site on which a GWEN tower is built becomes a higher +priority target in the event of nuclear war. + +3. Communications systems such as GWEN are essential for +conducting a prolonged nuclear war. + +4. Systems such as GWEN contribute to the illusion that a nuclear +war is winnable, and therefore thinkable, and therefore more +likely. + + + What Now? + +Citizens are currently suffering from the schizophrenic situation +in which scientists ad other technicians develop military +hardware to fill Caspar Weinberger's prescription that U.S. +nuclear forces should "prevail even under the conditions of a +prolonged war", while at the same time being told by other +scientists (biologists, climatologists, physicians, etc. that +really very little will prevail under the condition of nuclear +war except subfreezing temperatures, darkness, exposure to +ionizing and ultraviolet radiation, starvation, and mass +extinction. + +We have reached the point where the mutual concerns of both peace +activists ad environmentalists are intertwined. There is no +greater threat to our environment than nuclear war. As our +government contrives new and more threatening systems for mass +destruction, the horrifying ad inevitable effects of the use +these systems must be enumerated if the public and the government +are to make meaningful and informed decisions. + +The No-GWEN Alliance contends that the Air Force needs to prepare +an environmental impact statement that discusses the possibly +environmental effects of using GWEN to facilitate a prolonged +nuclear war. On June 27, we filed suit against the Air Force, +asking the court to enjoin the Air Force from continuing +construction on the GWEN system until it has described te +possible effects of GWEN in use, i.e., the effects of prolonged +nuclear war, and the likelihood that communities such as ours will +be a high priority for retaliation because of the GWEN system. + +Several suits have been brought against the military regarding +weapons systems and they are relevant to our proposed suit: +Concerned About Trident v. Rumsfeld, Wisconsin v. Weinberger, +Catholic Action v. Weinberger, and Foundation on Economic Trends +v. Weinberger. These suits have addressed such issues as the +applicability of NEPA to the military, the need for assessment of +alternative sites and longterm effects of the weapon system in +place, and contemplated versus stated use for a weapons site. +Western Solidarity v. Reagan is a suit that has not yet been ruled +on; a minor emphasis of the suit involves the claim that the +effects of nuclear war must be addressed in the environmental +impact statement for the MX missile. + +We have been joined in our efforts by citizens'groups in Chico, +California, and Amherst, Massachusetts, and by the Commissioners +of Lane Country, Oregon. Nationally renowned figures, such as +William Arkin of the Institute for Policy Studies ad Starley +Thompson of the TTAPS Report on Nuclear Winter have agreed to +give expert testimony on our behalf. + + + How Can You Help? + +We need your financial support. As you know, legal suits are +expensive. The Air Force has virtually limitless funds to +subvert the intent and process of NEPA. We are a small group of +citizens who have come together to fight the arms race that is +being thrust into our backyards, but our goal is to force public +discussion of the entire concept of prolonged nuclear war rather +than to merely block the placement of one tower in Eugene. We +ask you to send a generous personal contribution ad to ask your +affiliated group to join and/or sponsor our effort. + +Time is of the essence. The Air Force plans to conclude +construction of the TLCC phase before the end of the year. + +It is only through coordinated commitment that this country's +citizens can seek to hold the military accountable for its +actions. + +Thank you for taking the time to inform yourself on this issue of +vital concern to us. Thank you, also, in advance, for your +considered aid and generosity. + +For more information, please contact: + + NO-GWEN ALLIANCE of Lane County + P.O. Box 3197 + Eugene, OR 97403 + (503) 344-8052 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/habits.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/habits.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fb3839c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/habits.txt @@ -0,0 +1,205 @@ + +CHAOS' NOTE: THIS WAS DOWNLOADED FROM GREENPEACE BBS, AND HAS BEEN +EDITED SOMEWHAT TO MAKE IT CLEARER AND EASIER TO READ. IF YOU WANT +THE ORIGINAL LET ME KNOW. + CHAOS + +I've compiled the following list of small, everyday things ordinary +people can do to lessen environmental damage. + +I've tried to keep it to simple, uncontroversial suggestions that you +can quickly implement in your life. Some of them are not that simple, +so I've included a "compromise" suggestion that you can do initially. +Some of them are not that uncontroversial either. For example, I've +followed the debate here on disposable vs cloth diapers and made the +suggestion that I consider to be best. + +No, I don't practice all of the practices on this list, but I'm +getting there. I'm not an environmental expert, and I'm receptive to +corrections, additions, and other comments on this list. +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +Suggestions for living in a manner that is respectful of the +environment. + + - Think globally, act locally. + + - Don't buy products from or invest in businesses that harm + the environment. Explain to them why. + + - Don't buy cosmetics from companies that abuse animals. + + - Recycle. Start with newspapers, glass, clear plastic, and + aluminum cans. + + - Use recycled products. Buy greeting cards made from + recycled paper. + + - Purchase drinks in glass or cans instead of plastic + containers. Glass and aluminum are easier to recycle. + + - Ask for paper instead of plastic bags at the supermarket. + Ask that your frozen foods not be wrapped in plastic wrap. + Don't use a bag when you can easily carry your purchase by + hand. + + - Refill drinking water instead of buying a new plastic + container each time. + + - Cut up the plastic rings that hold together 6-packs so that + there are no loops. (Birds get caught on them.) + + - Cut up plastic bags you dispose of, especially clear ones. + (Sea turtles mistake them for jellyfish and die from + ingesting them.) + + - Purchase items in bulk packaging. + + - Avoid aerosol cans. + + - Buy organic produce. + + - Avoid clothes that need dry cleaning. + + - Use cloth diapers. Compromise: use disposables on + vacation. Use disposables at night. + + - Use a laundry detergent that is low in phosphorus. + + - Use a clothes line. + + - Avoid products packaged in plastic. E.g. buy margarine in + paper/wax wrappers instead of the plastic tubs. Reuse + the plastic containers you do buy. + + - Wash your dishes by hand. + + - Don't let the water run when you brush your teeth. + + - Limit offspring. Consider adoption. Compromise: make the + first, adopt the rest. + + - Teach your children the importance of the environment. + + - Dress according to the weather, and set the thermostat + appropriately. + + - Live close enough to work that you can walk or bicycle + there. Compromise: Carpool. Use public transit. + + - Carpool. Use public transit. Compromise: buy a fuel- + efficient car. + + - Don't buy a car air conditioner. + + - If it's within walking distance, walk to it. + + - Don't flood your house/yard with insecticide, chemical + fertilizers, etc. + + - Dispose of toxics properly (paint [thinner], motor oil, + ...). + + - Have only as much lawn as you're willing to cut with a push + mower. + + - Water your yard at night. + + - Plant trees. Garden; use your garbage as compost. + + - Shop by mail. + + - Avoid products made of animal parts (ivory, leather + wallets and belts, snake skin boots, etc, etc). + + - Donate to environmental groups. + + Environmental Defense Fund: Dept P, 257 Park Av + South, NY NY 10010. + + Environmental Action Foundation: 1525 New Hampshire Avenue, + NW, Washington, DC 20036. + + Sierra Club: 730 Polk St, SF CA 94109. + + Conservation Foundation: 1250 24th St NW, Suite 500, + Washington DC, 20037. + + - Encourage the easing of world tensions, so as to + increase the opportunity for arms reductions. + + - (Publicly) congratulate and encourage reformed + polluters and those with good environmental records. + + - Support measures that will mitigate population + pressure. + + - Encourage your town/city to start a curbside recycling + program. + + - Discourage the attitude that the Earth and the life forms on + it exist to be plundered and shaped for the pleasure of + humans. + + - Discourage the attitude that the future is destined, --that + events are beyond our influence, that we can not solve the + problems we have created. + + - Encourage the viewpoint that it is immoral to future + generations for us to not move the human race toward a + sustainable lifestyle. + + - Discourage over reliance on technological fixes. + + - Emphasize that much of the problem is due to everyday + activities of ordinary people. + + +SOME COMMENTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE ABOVE FROM REPLIES ON ENVIRONET. + CHAOS + +> - Ask for paper instead of plastic bags at the supermarket. + +Bring your own sturdy, reusable bag(s) (backpacks work very well). +(Note: this is the norm in Europe, from what my German teacher said.) + +Actually asking for paper bags at the supermarket is not really the +answer. The brown paper bags are composed of paper with the longest +fibers which only come from fresh trees. Bags like this are not made +of recycled paper, but they can be recycled. The newest plastic ones +(with cornstarch) do degrade faster in the environment than the old +ones, however, the above suggestion is the best. + Chaos + +> - Carpool. Use public transit. +> Compromise: buy a fuel-efficient car. + +Compromise: buy a motorcycle, scooter, or moped. They're generally +far more fuel-efficient, from what little I've seen. (Best of all, +walk or bicycle, but that was mentioned in a suggestion I clipped. . . + +> - Avoid clothes that need dry cleaning. + +Don't buy synthetics -- cotton is generally more comfortable, anyway. + +> - Discourage over reliance on technological fixes. + +Depends on what the "technological fix" is. Wind power is a TF, +as is the bicycle. Also houses/apartments, telephones, mail- +order shopping. . . . +(i.e. Think about the technology you use, not all technology is +environmentally damaging.) + +>Avoid products made of animal parts (ivory, leather wallets and +belts, snake skin boots, etc, etc). + +While I (mostly) agree, this has more to do with being kind to animals +than helping the environment. Leather, after all, is a durable and +non-environmentally-harmful material (as opposed to, say, nylon or +rayon). The leather belt I'm wearing has been in daily use for about +the past fifteen (15) years, and is still in good condition; it may +well last five more. On the other hand, if a company is doing animal +testing, chances are their product isn't exactly what one would call +environmentally safe. Cosmetics, Drano. . . . Yeesh. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hacking.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hacking.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..153479d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hacking.txt @@ -0,0 +1,454 @@ +Mail-From: ARPAnet host SRI-CSL rcvd at Wed Sep 28 15:58-PDT +Date: 26 Sep 1983 20:08-PDT +Sender: GEOFF@SRI-CSL +Subject: Telecommunications Security and Privacy. +From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow +Reply-To: Geoff@SRI-CSL +To: Human-nets:, +To: Telecom:, +To: Security-Forum:, +To: Info-Micro: +Cc: csl:, +Cc: others: +Message-ID: <[SRI-CSL]26-Sep-83 20:08:20.GEOFF> +Redistributed-To: dist: +Redistributed-By: GEOFF at SRI-CSL +Redistributed-Date: 28 Sep 1983 + +On Monday, September 26th, I appeared before and presented invited +testimony at the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on +Transportation, Aviation and Materials on the subject of Telecommunications +Security and Privacy. + +Due to the activities of the Milwaukee 414s and the subsequent hoopla that +has been generated in the media, HACKING has been getting a bad name. I +therefore decided to address my testimony to the TRUE nature of computer +hackers and hacking (in an attempt to put the entire situation in some type +of perspective). I also addressed what can and should be done to help +abate the 'unsavory' hacking problem. And lastly, how low tech the current +hackings have been and what we might be seeing more of in the future. + +I'm told the hearings went out live over CNN -- there were at least 16 +video cameras that I could count and the rest of the room was jammed to +standing room only with reporters and other media. + +Individuals who presented testimony were: Neal Patrick (of the 414s); Jimmy +McClary (Los Alamos Division leader for Security); Donn Parker and myself +(from SRI); and Steve Walker (formerly of DARPA/Pentagon). + +Those interested in what I had to say about hacking and such are invited to +FTP a copy of my prepared testimony from [SRI-CSL]HOUSE.DOC; There +is also a .LPT version with line-printer overstriking, should you want +that. If you cannot FTP a copy for whatever reason, I'll be able to send +one by netmail if you mail a request to Geoff@SRI-CSL. + +Geoff +............................................................................... +............................................................................... + + + + + TESTIMONY BY GEOFFREY S. GOODFELLOW + + Before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation and Materials +on the subject of Telecommunications Security and Privacy. + + 26 September 1983 + + + +1. Introduction + +My name is Geoffrey S. Goodfellow. I am primarily employed by the +Computer Science Laboratory at SRI International, Menlo Park, California. +For the past 10 years at SRI, I have been involved in research efforts +related with packet switched computer network communication systems, +protocols and security technologies. I have also been involved in +various operating and sub-system development projects. Currently, my +responsibilities include a position as Principle Investigator of SRI's +involvement in a Department of Defense program aimed at developing and +proving secure computer systems, that operate at different security +levels and communicate via networks. A detailed biography of my career +from 7th grade school where I discovered computers (which +eventually lead to my permanent abandonment of the formal educational +system during high school) to how I got to where I am today with no +degrees or any type of equivalency to my name is included at the end of +my testimony. + +I am a coauthor of the Hacker's Dictionary -- A Guide to the World of +Computer Wizards, a new book being published this fall. + +THE STATEMENTS INCLUDED HEREIN ARE MY OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY +REPRESENT THOSE OF SRI INTERNATIONAL OR ANY CLIENTS OF SRI. + +2. The Nature of Computer Hackers and Hacking. + +The primary nature of a computer hacker can be defined as follows: + + - A person who enjoys learning or knowing the details of computer + systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most + users of computers, who prefer to learn or know only the minimum + amount necessary in order to get their job done. + + - One who programs computers enthusiastically, for the sheer fun of it, + and gets a non professional amount of enjoyment out of using them. + + - A person capable of appreciating the irony and beauty (i.e. `hack + value') of a program. + + - A person who is good at programming quickly or is an expert on a + particular program. (This definition and the proceeding ones are + correlated, and people who fit them congregate). + +Unfortunately, though, hacking has an unsavory faction to it: + + - A malicious or inquisitive meddler (i.e. `poacher') who tries to + discover information by poking around. For example, a "password + hacker" is one who tries, possibly by deceptive or illegal means, to + discover other people's computer passwords. A "network hacker" is + one who tries to learn about the computer network (possibly because + he wants to interfere--one can tell the difference only by context, + tone of voice and manner of approach). + +Hackers of all factions, whether benign or of the unsavory flavor, +consider themselves somewhat of an elite, though one to which new members +are gladly welcome. Hacking is meritocracy based on ability. +There is a certain self-satisfaction in identifying yourself as a hacker +(but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labelled +`bogus'). + +The hacker is intensely interested in technology and is a very +inquisitive person. Many are social outcasts who don't enjoy the same +things as most other kids their age. Hackers of the unsavory flavor are a +very curious breed of individual -- many can best be described as +loners looking for someone to appreciate their talents. They know full +well that what they're doing errs on the `dark side (of the force)' -- +to coin a phrase. Unsavory hackers want to get caught so they can be given +the appreciation they desire -- and the process of getting caught adds an +essence of thrill to their endeavor. + +I would like to state for the record, that benign hackers, such as I, +deplore the unsanctioned entry and subsequent rummaging of mainframe +computer systems and networks. These types of activities are tarnishing +the profession of hacking and giving it a bad name. + +In the Real World, computer system organizations are generally run +like totalitarian police states. This unfortunate reality fosters +resentment in hackers and a desire to challenge the reverence of +authority develops. As a result, the way hackers bring themselves to a +system managers attention is via the medium they know and relate to best: +a terminal and modem and your computer system. In most cases, the hacker +wouldn't personally think of or know how to go about calling up the +director of a computer system and offering his services to you as a bright +young guy for the fear of reprisals or not being taken seriously. +Instead, they choose to `introduce' you to them by meddling with your +computer system, cavalierly circumventing security and protection +mechanisms, in order to satiate their hunger for knowledge and +develop an understanding of how things work. + +The organization will respond in kind by trying to `plug the leak' of +an intrusion into their system by erecting barriers. This type of +reaction is precisely the wrong approach to take, because the hacker +will notice the beefed-up defenses and see them as a further +challenge of his prowess and ingenuity and legitimate users are subjected +to greater inconvenience. + +Instead, what an organization should do is try to befriend hackers which +have penetrated their inner sanctums. The perspective that should be +taken is one of "Is it helpful or useful for you to do this?" rather +than "Are you authorized to do this?". You must in effect come down to +the hackers level and circulate among them. Show them that you appreciate +their talents. If you ask them nonforeboding questions and take a genuine +interest in what they're doing, most of the time you'll find they're more +than happy to tell you exactly what it is they're looking for or +interested in. The hacker wants to learn and you can be their +guide/teacher. This is how I was dealt with by the firm that caught +me during my unsavory hacking days in 1973 when I breached security on a +large commercial timesharing network and many of its host computer +systems. I was very much inspired by this method of catching and steering +unsavory hackers towards more constructive use of their talents. + +There is, however, a more virulent strain of the unsavory faction, namely +the electronic vandals or joy-riders (N.B. NOT HACKERS). This strain +includes, for example, kids whose parents are of an affluent nature. As a +result, these kids have an inflated world picture and little or no true +sense of reality, due to the nature of their care-free life styles and +upbringing. These kids plague computer systems and networks as they +would spray paint on school walls, t-p someone's house, or engage in the +use of so called 'recreational' drugs. In other words, these illicit +activities are engaged in with absolute reckless abandon and disregard for +the rights or sovereignty of other people's property. As with regular +vandalism, the primary motivators seems to be simply doing it because +they can get away with it, and because of the respect it brings them +among their equally disrespectful peers. This differs from the unsavory +hacker in that there is no constructive purpose or motive involved, such +as learning or acquiring knowledge. This problem is further +exacerbated by the juvenile age of the perpetrators and the unlikelihood of +prosecution, even if caught. The perpetrators are smugly aware of their +immunity in most cases! + +3. What Can and Should Be Done to Help Abate The Unsavory Hacking Problem? + +From my own observations and inspections of systems and from what I have +been reading in the press, I have come to the conclusion that +computer site administrators are not taking reasonable and prudent +measures to protect their computer systems from even the most casual +methods of circumvention. A rather egregious example of this would be the +installation of which the 414s allegedly logged into with username "test" +and password "test". Usernames and passwords of this sort are not uncommon +and sites which set up logins like this are just asking for a break in +-- just as someone who would leave a key in the lock on the front door of +their house, complete with the WELCOME! mat out for all to see, invites +the casual burglar. + +The way I view `reasonable and prudent' measures of protection from the +casual penetration is by drawing a paradigm with the way DoD classified +information is handled. + +With respect to the handling and use of classified information, it is +the responsibility of the organization to which you belong, in conformance +with DoD guidelines, to provide you with rules and regulations in +the handling of classified information. It is also the responsibility of +your organization to provide you with a safe place (i.e. a vault) to +store said information and to provide adequate safeguards (such as alarm +systems, security personnel and patrols) to prevent unauthorized access. + +The same methodology should be taken to heart by administrators of +computer systems. It's their responsibility to provide reasonable and +prudent measures to prevent unauthorized access attempts from gaining +access to the system. This means a few very basic things like: + + - Forcing users to choose reasonable passwords - not their spouse's + name or their dog's name. + + - Setting up proper modem controls on dial-up/remote access ports so + that disconnection causes any jobs (or trojan horses left on the + port) to be flushed and results in resetting the port to not-logged + in status. + + - Reporting incorrect password attempts to the system console or log + file. + + - Causing line disconnection after a few successively repeated + incorrect password attempts. + + - Using encrypted passwords, so it is not possible to compromise an + entire systems password list when circumvention of a systems + protection mechanisms is attained. This is analogous to the DoD's + compartmentalization of information -- so a breach in one area does + not sacrifice security in all areas. + +The second facet of the paradigm is the users' responsibility. I don't go +out to lunch and leave my secrets sitting on my desk. I put them in a +vault. And I don't go throwing them over the embassy walls. So it is +the same for the computer system user. It is the users +responsibility to choose reasonable passwords and not leave them written +down anywhere, such as on their desk blotter or white board or to +pass them out to others. + +The third matter is a paradigm of a different nature. This has to do +with socially acceptable values. Namely, when I was brought up, I was +taught about trespassing. If I went to someone's house and found the front +door wide open, I don't really know of anyone who would walk right in +and look around. They would instead stand at the door, ring the doorbell +or knock or call out. This type of responsibility or sense of morals +has to be applied to the computer technology field. + +Research into methods of improving the safeguarding of information flow +through technology should be pursued. One such project is the one of which +I am the Principle Investigator of at SRI, which has to do with this type +of technology. Our involvement has to do with developing and proving +technologies that will absolutely assure that I will only have access to +information in a computer system database of which my clearance and +my `need to know' entitles me too, while prohibiting me from information I +am not cleared or permitted to access. However, one must carefully weigh +the value of increased security with the cost in user convenience and +flexibility. + +Explicit federal and state criminal statutes should be enacted to +allow a vehicle for vigorous prosecution, should it be warranted or +desired, by injured parties. These explicit laws would also hopefully +act as a method of deterrence. + +4. Let Us Not Lull Ourselves into a False Sense of Security. + +In general unsanctioned computer system penetrations can be +performed by individuals who possess three basic aspects of computer +knowledge: access, skill and information. + +Access can be defined as a terminal and modem. Skill can be +defined as ingenuity or familiarity with computer systems, especially +with the given system type that the penetration is directed +towards. Information can be defined as dial-up phone numbers, network +address or means of accessing a given computer system -- perhaps even +physical. Information can also include various methods, most likely in the +form of 'bugs' (i.e. shortcomings) or 'features' (i.e. an aspect +inherent to the hardware or software design of the system) which will +permit the holder to circumvent the operating system security and +protection mechanisms, and in effect gain carte blanche access to the +computer. Carte blanche can be defined as allowing the holder to override +file security and protection considerations, in that you can read or alter +any data and even change the nature of the computer operating system +software itself. + +In the good ol' days such skill and information was not widely known. +However, with the ever increasing number of computer systems, both +personal and mainframe alike, information and skill is spreading to an +ever increasing number of individuals and institutions. +Unfortunately, not all of the individuals are as scrupulous as they +should be. Such instruments as `Pirate Bulletin Board' systems are +being used to disseminate this information on a nationwide, on-call, as +needed basis. + +What does this mean? + +Up until now most unsanctioned computer system penetrations have not been +the high technological acts of chicanery the media has made them out to +be. They were primarily performed by individuals who were as familiar +with computer technology as, say, an auto enthusiast is with what goes +on under the hood of your car. The 'auto whiz' has the breadth of +knowledge necessary to 'hot wire' a motor vehicle, just as your computer +literate individual has the breadth necessary to perform a +technological 'hot wire' inside a computer system. + +However, the current low to medium technological approaches to +system penetrations are likely to change. + +I define the technological levels as follows: high tech is defined as a +new method of circumvention. High tech methods are primarily +invented by individuals or a group of individuals who have an in depth +understanding of the desired technology the caper is directed against. +Medium tech can be defined as an individual who has the same basic level +of understanding as the high tech guy, but uses the knowledge and +perhaps fine tunes or refines it a bit (i.e. the medium tech individual is +a knowledgeable user). The low tech individual is just a user of +the knowledge with little or no understanding of what is involved in making +the technology perform its desired function. + +In the not to distant future with higher stakes, increased levels of +knowledge and other aspects better understood, I believe we will see a +trend towards a more 'higher tech' level of system penetrations and +circumventions. These capers will be harder to detect and deter. + +The further development of formal specification and verification techniques +and associated technologies will permit the system developers, +reviewers or specifier himself to verify that a given system +specification is consistent with a given model of desired operation. + +5. Recommendations + +In conclusion, I would like to say that I believe the scale of the +hacking problem is going to escalate dramatically as more of the technology +makes its way into the mass market. There is no one easy solution to +these problems. The directions that need to be taken are technological, +ethical/moral and social. Hopefully an increased awareness of the +vulnerability of our systems to penetration and circumvention will allow us +to see the light, in the form of solutions, at the end of the tunnel. And +hopefully that light, is not a train. + +6. Biography (The Making of a Hacker) + +My first experience with computers (and the world of `hacking') +manifested itself during my 7th grade school when I discovered a room +full of teletypes connected to a computer system at Stanford University +which offered Computer Assisted Instruction/drill programs. + +Having discovered `The Computer Room', I started arriving at school early +each day to be able to play with them. I would also spend the lunch +hour, recess and as long as I could after school in the computer room, as +well. + +Luckily, that summer I was permitted to hang-out at the Stanford facility +which had the computer system that served our school and others. This +allowed me the opportunity to interact with the system designers and +learn how everything worked. At the facility, I quickly began to +develop a keen interest in system-level software, such as the +operating system and privileged type programs which only `the wizards' +could run or know the inner workings of. However, I did not let this +fact keep me from learning about the system. + +During the 8th grade, my parents wishing to contribute to their son's +apparent avid absorption of computer technology, procured a used teletype +machine and modem from a large time-sharing computer firm. I don't +know how, but in the process, they managed to talk the firm out of `free' +account for after hours and weekend use. The firm then promptly +forgot about me. After running the usual course of computer games, which +quickly became quite boring, my attention turned towards the operating +system and its protection mechanism, which I took delight in finding +ways around. This of course, was noticed by the time-sharing +company and one summer evening, after they were sure it was me inside +their system, their vice president and district manager came knocking at +our door, and in effect said, "gotcha!". The result of being caught was +that I was hired for the summer to help them make their system more +secure and plug the holes that I had uncovered in my wanderings. + +While employed for the summer, 1973, I chanced to meet up with another +summer hire who had done some work at NASA-AMES and had knowledge of a +Department of Defense computer network, called the ARPANET, which linked +together computers all over the country at various research +establishments, universities and military bases. My new-found friend +passed me a dial-up number, and on a scrap of paper, wrote a few commands +that would allow me to connect up to various systems on the network. + +In these early days of the ARPANET (which pioneered packet +switching technology, a method for allowing computers of different flavors +and types to `talk' to one-another), the majority of the computers had +`guest' accounts on them with purposefully obvious and published passwords. +This was done in order to promote the free use of resources at other host +systems and to let users of the network have a chance to explore, learn and +use said systems. + +Needless to say, this was a gold mine that no hacker, such as myself, +could pass up. So I spent the better part of the summer learning and +using as many different computer systems as possible, all over the country. + +One of my favorite systems to use was the guest login account on a host +called SRI-AI, a PDP-10 running the Tenex operating system, which +belonged to the Stanford Research Institute's Artificial Intelligence +Center. I thought it nice to have a system right in my very own home +town. I made it a point to get to know the operations of this system as +well as I could in hopes that perhaps someday I might have a login account +of my own to use and it would be nice to be familiar with it in such an +event. + +Well, that day came when, as usual, I logged into the public guest account, +and out popped a message of the form "Welcome to the SRI-AI computer +public guest account. If you think you have a need for your own account, +send a note (with the on-line electronic mail program, of course) to +the system administrator, explaining your need." + +Such an invitation was just to good to pass up and having my very own +login account is something I had dreamed about. So, I took it upon myself +to send a message saying I was a hacker who had been spending time on the +public guest account learning about their system and wanted to have an +increased level of access and login area of my own to store files. In +return, I would freely help improve the systems capabilities thru my +hacking. + +After some initial trepidation on the part of the systems administrator +was overcome, my account was granted. This allowed me to make SRI-AI my +home base of network operations. I immediately proceeded to hack +away to my heart's content, now that, in effect, I had become a legitimate +network user. + +After demonstrating my competence and some semblance of responsibility, I +was granted system privileges (i.e. carte blanche access to all system +resources). This permitted me to learn and develop a further understanding +of the system. + +So, I hung around SRI for about 9 months. I was given a building pass, so +as to have physical as well as electronic (remote) access to the computer +systems. This allowed me to come and go at odd hours, which are the +hours hackers are best known to keep. + +Then, there was an opening for a part-time weekend computer operator's job, +and since I had demonstrated my competence, I was immediately hired +for the position. I was now in my senior year of high school, and as a +result of my increased access to computers, my grade average followed the +typical hacker curve, i.e. down. until, two weeks into the final quarter +of my senior year in high school, I dropped out, and became full-time at +SRI. I have never returned to a classroom since the day I left school in +1974. +I dropped out, and became full-time at +SRI. I have never re \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hallhigh b/textfiles.com/politics/hallhigh new file mode 100644 index 00000000..600e4702 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hallhigh @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +>>>>>>>>>>> FROM THE AUGUST HALLS OF HIGHER LEARNING <<<<<<<<<<< + (7/25) + If you have no college degree, or at least not one from an Ivy- +league college, you are really ignorant and uneducated. You have been +missing the lectures by such scholars as tenured Dartmouth professor +of music Bill Cole, who teaches "American Music in the Oral Tradi- +tion." + One of his handouts exhorts his students to "read little, think +deeply... and much." He tells his students to meditate deeply, to +become one with the universe and then write very important feelings in +their notebooks. + Meditate about music? No, about poverty, sexism, racism, nuclear +war, nuclear waste, and what a horrible place the US is. People are so +poor that they are forced to become criminals. Like the burglar whom +this scholar knew personally and whom he extols in a lecture on music. + Cole is black, which is probably unimportant to any of his stu- +dents, but appears to be the only thing important to him. The nearest +he came to music in a long "lecture" recorded and reprinted in the +DARTMOUTH REVIEW of 2/24/88 was his explanation of why there were +comparatively few women in music. + "You know," he expounded, "it makes it real difficult, you know, +because it gets down to, if you'll excuse the expression, pussy or no +play... You're talking about an art form that has a very small part of +the economic pie. Very small, man. People are gangsterin' to keep +people out all the time. People, like, physically hurting other peo- +ple, they don't like them to play." + But of course there are other things more subtly connected with +American Music in the Oral Tradition. For example, + "Why are we willing to put nuclear waste in the ground and say to +ourselves `It's cool, because it won't really contaminate things for a +thousand years.' Come one, is that cool? And, man, it's going to keep +on..." + DARTMOUTH REVIEW editor Christopher Baldwin was decent enough to +ask for Cole's comments before printing an article on his lectures +with long extracts taped in his class. Cole hung up. When Baldwin +phoned again, asking "Why did you hang up on me, sir?" the scholar had +a scholarly explanation. + "You're going to put your racist bullsh*t in the paper anyhow, it +doesn't make any difference what I say... I knew you motherf**kers +were going to do the same thing you always do...!" + "I am astounded," replied the DARTMOUTH REVIEW (the conversation +was taped), "that a professor at Dartmouth College, one who is +tenured, would use language like that..." + To which the august Dartmouth scholar replied,"You're all Goddamn +f*ck*n'-*ss white-boy-racists!" + - - - + Readers would probably expect me to say once again, "Stop giving +to the college of your choice," and I do. + However, there is more to it. For publishing the truth, backed up +by tapes of Cole's lectures, the Dartmouth administration staged a +kangaroo hearing, which was prejudged by Dartmouth President Freedman +and was severely restricted in attendance (not even an ACLU represen- +tative was allowed in). In an unusual candid display of what the con- +temporary professoriat understands by academic freedom, all involved +members of the Dartmouth Review were found guilty. Two were suspended +for six terms (including one who would have graduated in June), a +photographer (whose flash was knocked to the ground by Cole) was sus- +pended for two terms, and a freshman reporter was put on probation. + Friends and alumni have set up a fund for their vindication. Send +tax-deductible contributions to Dartmouth Review Fund, Box 343, Ha- +nover, NH 03755. A donation of $25 entitles you to a subscription to +the very readable DARTMOUTH REVIEW, one of the few campus papers that +are not a local edition of PRAVDA. + + * * * + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hardones.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hardones.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b9a8d0ad --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hardones.txt @@ -0,0 +1,270 @@ + ANSWERING THE HARD QUESTIONS + by Larry Dodge + + While on my road trips, in meetings, talk shows, and media +interviews, the same or similar questions come up again and +again, which has encouraged me to come up with a repertoire of +satisfying answers. These I want to share with you, since you +may need to answer similar questions during the campaigns ahead, +though I make no claim that mine are the best or only answers. + + +Won't FIJA lead to anarchy, with juries judging the law? + + FIJA is actually an antidote to the anarchy we've already +got, where there are too many laws for people to obey, and we're +experiencing soaring crime rates and overcrowded prisons as +direct results. When juries consistently refuse to convict +people of breaking a certain law, the incentive is for lawmakers +to change or erase it, lest they lose the next election. When +the law books are cleansed of unpopular laws, the rate of +obedience to the remaining laws will be high, thus reducing +anarchy. + + Likewise, whenever jurors feel compelled to apologize to a +defendant for convicting him (which is quite often, nowadays), +and then later find out they had the authority to vote according +to conscience, but weren't told about it, their own respect for +the law and our legal system can only diminish. In other words, +failure to inform juries of their rights breeds anarchy. + + Four states (Indiana, Oregon, Maryland, and Georgia) already +have general provisions in their constitutions acknowledging that +juries may judge law, and 26 states have the same provision +included in their sections on freedom of speech and libel. To my +knowledge, no chaos has resulted because of these provisions. + + +Couldn't the jury convict someone of a worse crime than the one +he is charged with? + + No. Juries do not and would not have the power to escalate +charges against a defendant. Their power may only be exerted in +the direction of mercy, never of vengeance. Nor can juries "make +law" by which to convict a defendant. That remains the job of +the legislature. They may, however, reduce charges against an +accused person, provided the lower charge is a less serious form +of the same crime he was originally charged with. The decisions +of juries do not and would not establish precedent for future +cases. + + +What if the jury is prejudiced in favor of the defendant, and +lets him go even though he's clearly guilty? + + This is the "corrupt jury" problem, and happens periodically +with or without jury instruction in the right to judge law. Any +jury so poorly selected that all its members are determined to +acquit a guilty person is likely to do just that, no matter what +it's told or not told. For this to happen virtually requires +that both the prosecutor and judge be corrupt, as well, taking no +steps to see that at least some of the jurors are not prejudiced. +In short, if the defendant faces fourteen people, all of whom +favor letting him go free regardless of the evidence, he will go +free. + + Even under these circumstances, if jurors were instructed +that each of them could vote according to his own conscience, as +FIJA provides, there is at least a possibility that one or more +jurors would not go along with the rest, thus hanging the jury +with one or more guilty votes. Chances for justice might then +improve, via another trial, perhaps a change of venue, or a +different judge, and certainly another jury. + + Further, victims of crimes who do not find satisfaction in a +criminal trial verdict have, with fair success, been able to sue +perpetrators for damages. In other instances, crime victims who +were unhappy with verdicts handed down in state courts have been +able to have defendants tried in federal courts on other charges, +often for violating their civil rights. + + +Do jurors have the right, or just the power, to judge the law?" + + They have both. They have the power, because in a jury +system, no one can tell the jury what verdict it must reach, nor +restrict what goes on in jury-room deliberations, nor punish +jurors for the verdict they bring in, nor demand to know why they +reached that verdict. + + They have the right, because each juror is partially +responsible for the verdict returned, thus for the fate of the +accused individual--and for every responsibility there is a +corresponding right. In this case, that is the right to consider +everything necessary for him or her to vote for a just verdict. +That includes evidence, the defendant's motives, testimony, law, +circumstances--whatever, including the juror's own conscience. + + Additionally, any restrictions placed upon the options the +jury may exercise in fulfilling its responsibility to judge the +defendant may be considered violations of his or her right to a +fair trial. + + Finally, when one gets right down to it, there is precious +little difference, except in academic legal discourse, between a +right and a power. Most dictionaries recognize this by listing +them as synonyms. + + +Wouldn't our courts be flooded with jury trials if FIJA were to +become law?" + + It's possible that trials involving some of the worst and +most frequently broken laws would increase, until prosecutors +began choosing not to attempt convictions on them any more, +police began letting up on enforcement, and legislators began +reading the writing on the jury-room walls. But the peak should +soon pass. And appeals to higher courts should soon diminish, +since more people would feel they'd received justice from their +original trials. + + Ultimately, though, one must ask what's more important, fast +service at the courthouse, or justice for the individual and +real-world feedback to the lawmakers? + + + Wouldn't there be a lot of variation from place to place in +jury verdicts, according to community standards? + + Perhaps, though it could hardly compete with the variations +in verdicts and sentences handed down by different judges... + + It may prove true that jury verdicts would vary more from +place to place with respect to certain types of offenses. +Abortion, drugs, pornography, gun ownership, etc. might find more +acceptance in some communities than others. But then, what's the +merit in trying to force a diverse society into a homogeneous +mold, in obliging every person or every community to conform to +some centralized notion of how to behave? We suggest that if +your act doesn't go over locally, walk. + + Actually, the overall thrust and effect of FIJA should be to +promote consistency--in the form of tolerance--everywhere. It's +already happening, as "unholy" coalitions form to make FIJA into +law. Most people, it turns out, would rather secure their own +liberty than damage someone else's--it's just that currently, our +political system fosters competing interest groups, where one +group's gain is generally another's loss. Beyond unstrategic, +FIJA will also make it more difficult for majorities to deny the +rights of minorities, because any minority (and we're all +minorities) will be able to defend itself via jury veto power. + + The real payoff is that government, which grows in power and +intrusiveness with every escalation of distrust and intolerance +between warring factions of citizens, may lose its grip as trial +juries resume their check-and-balance function, and "live and let +live" re-emerges as the American ethos. + + + What happens if the jury nullifies a good law? + + This is not generally a problem. We have centuries of +experience with jury veto power, and generally laws that protect +people against invasions of their property or threats against +their safety, are supported by the community as a whole, and are +enforced by jurors. Maryland and Indiana report good success +with nullification instructions. + + It is elitist to accuse the ordinary people of this country +of not being able to govern themselves. Political science +studies demonstrate that rarely do people exhibit such +conscientious concern, such caution and such responsible +behavior, as when they sit on a jury. + + +What would become of the practice of basing verdicts upon legal +precedents? + + The role of case law, or precedent, would remain useful as +advice for all parties to a trial, but its use as a basis for +verdicts in current jury trials would end. A major objective in +fully informing juries of their rights and powers is to provide +ever-evolving feedback to our lawmakers, so that regular +adjustments can be made in the rules that we live by. + + The idea is to match our laws to our standards of right and +wrong on an ongoing basis, so that gaps no longer develop between +them. This kind of consistency cannot be had when "precedent +requires" that the same verdict be found for a modern case as was +found in similar cases in the past. When gaps between what's +moral and what's legal get too large, we risk "anarchy" on the +one hand, totalitarian intervention on the other. + + +Would FIJA violate our fourteenth amendment right to equal +protection under the law?" + + "Equal protection" is already tough to guarantee, given the +differences in quality between judges, prosecutors and defenders +who may come to play in any given case. Add to them our media- +assisted fads and fashions in law enforcement, and the very +unequal kinds of deals which are regularly pushed upon defendants +by prosecutors and judges outside the courtroom (often based upon +the accused person's appearance, background, and ability to pay), +and "equal protection" takes on the appearance of an ideal which +draws a lot more lip service than real concern. + + Juries generally become part of the problem only to the +extent that both prosecution and defense have done everything in +their power to select the least knowledgeable and most +manipulable jurors possible. That is, equal treatment by trial +juries, when it happens at all, may do so as much by default as +design. + + Still, chances of equal treatment of defendants would appear +to increase if the jury were to receive complete and accurate +instruction in its veto powers, not because information begets +fairness, but for at least two other reasons: (1) if jurors are +lied to (equally) about their rights and powers, a certain +percentage of them can be expected to see through the lie, then +to rationalize reciprocating that dishonesty by lying to one or +both attorneys and the judge during the selection process. What +they may be covering up, and why, will certainly vary from jury +to jury, and that's exactly what the doctrine of equal protection +rails against; + + (2) When both prosecution and defense know in advance that the +jurors will be fully informed of their power to judge both law +and fact, their jury selection criteria can be expected to change +accordingly. Both sides would face an incentive to find jurors +capable and willing to consider not only factual but also moral- +philosophical questions in search of justice, especially in those +cases where the merits or the applicability of the law may be at +issue. The result should be both better quality juries and more +equality under the laws that they work with. + + +Wouldn't FIJA cause a great increase in the number of hung +juries?" + + Probably yes, at least in the short run, as laws which are +hard for people to understand, identify with, or apply came into +question by juries. But juries always face a built-in incentive +for consensus, because their members generally have to explain +themselves afterward in their communities. On the one hand, they +are, sociologically speaking, a mercy buffer between the power of +the state and the accused individual. But on the other, they +have a responsibility sanction people who damage the social +fabric of their communities. Fully informed or otherwise, they +can be expected to try to achieve unanimity. + + Additionally, a series of hung juries on cases involving a +particular law sends a powerful message to lawmakers that reform +is necessary. Such a series may clamor for more precision, +fairness, latitude, appropriateness or other attributes of the +law, but the beauty of feedback from juries is that it is rarely +a statement of special interest: hardly ever do all twelve people +on a jury share a single political goal or viewpoint, and the +chances that all the people on a series of juries will do so are +infinitesimal. + + The relative frequency of hung juries should therefore be +read as a valuable measurement of public sentiment about the law. +The more responsive the legislature is to that measurement, the +closer the association between community moral standards and the +law will become, and the fewer hung juries there will be. + + + +Larry Dodge is the National Field Representative for the Fully +Informed Jury Association, P.O. Box 59, Helmville, Montana 59843. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hawaii.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hawaii.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f125acf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hawaii.txt @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ + + + + CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF HAWAII + (as amended to 1968) + + PREAMBLE + + We, the people of the State of Hawaii, grateful for Divine + Guidance, and mindful of our Hawaiian heritage, reaffirm our + belief in a government of the people, by the people and for + the people, and with an understanding heart toward all + peoples of the earth do hereby ordain and establish this + constitution for the State of Hawaii. + + FEDERAL CONSTITUTION ADOPTED + + The Constitution of the United States of America is adopted + on behalf of the people of the State of Hawaii. + + ARTICLE I + + BILL OF RIGHTS + +Sec. 1. All political power of this State is inherent in the people; + and the responsibility for the exercise thereof rests with + the people. All government is founded on this authority. + +Sec. 2. All persons are free by nature and are equal in their inher- + ent and inalienable rights. Among these rights are the en- + joyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and + the acquiring and possessing property. These rights cannot + endure unless the people recognize their corresponding obli- + gations and responsibilities. + +Sec. 3. No law shall be enacted respecting an establishment of reli- + gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging + the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the + people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government + for a redress of grievances. + +Sec. 4. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property + without due process of law, nor be denied the equal protec- + tion of the laws, nor be denied the enjoyment of his civil + rights or be discriminated against in the exercise thereof + because of race, religion, sex or ancestry. + +Sec. 5. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, + houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches, + seizures, and invasions of privacy shall not be violated; + and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, sup- + ported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the + place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized + or the communications sought to be intercepted. + +Sec. 6. No citizen shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the + rights or privileges secured to other citizens, unless by + the law of the land. + +Sec. 7. No citizen shall be denied enlistment in any military organ- + ization of this State nor be segregated therein because of + race, religious principles or ancestry. + +Sec. 8 No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise + infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a + grand jury, except in cases arising in the armed forces when + in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall + any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put + in jeopardy; nor shall any person be compelled in any crimi- + nal case to be a witness against himself. + +Sec. 9. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines + imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishment inflicted. The + court may dispense with bail if reasonably satisfied that + the defendant or witness will appear when directed, except + for a defendant charged with an offense punishable by life + imprisonment. + +Sec. 10. In suits at common law where the value in controversy shall + exceed one hundred dollars, the right of trial by jury shall + be preserved. The legislature may provide for a verdict by + not less than three-fourths of the members of the jury. + +Sec. 11. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the + right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of + the district wherein the crime shall have been committed, + which district shall have been previously ascertained by + law, or of such other district to which the prosecution may + be removed with the consent of the accused; to be informed + of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted + with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process + for obtaining witnesses in his favor; to have the assistance + of counsel for his defense. The State shall provide counsel + for an indigent defendant charged with an offense punishable + by imprisonment for more than sixty days. + +Sec. 12. No person shall be disqualified to serve as a juror because + of sex. + +Sec. 13. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus- + pended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the + public safety may require it. The power of suspending the + privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and the laws or the + execution thereof, shall never be exercised except by the + legislature, or by authority derived from it to be exer- + cised in such particular cases only as the legislature shall + expressly prescribe. + +Sec. 14. The military shall be held in strict subordination to the + civil power. + +Sec. 15. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of + a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms + shall not be infringed. + +Sec. 16. No soldier or member of the militia shall, in time of peace, + be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner + or occupant, nor in time of war, except in a manner pre- + scribed by law. + +Sec. 17. There shall be no imprisonment for debt. + +Sec. 18. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public + use without just compensation. (amended 1968) + +Sec. 19. The power of the State to act in the general welfare shall + never be impaired by the making of any irrevocable grant of + special privileges or immunities. + +Sec. 20. The enumeration of rights and privileges shall not be con- + strued to impair or deny others retained by the people. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hcinews.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hcinews.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0d5ba799 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hcinews.txt @@ -0,0 +1,797 @@ + +Subject: HCI Semi-Annual Progress Report + + Handgun Control Semi-Annual Progress Report + December 1992 + +X HCI's agenda for action in the 103rd Congress detailed - the Brady Bill + and beyond! + +X HCI's '92 PAC victories: Welcoming new friends + +X Hollywood celebs highlight Center to Prevent Handgun Violence's + first Washington, DC, gala, honoring Jim Brady + +X Center's anti-violence curriculum launched in key school districts + across country + +X Gun dealers beware: CPHV's Legal Action Project is watching you + +X It's not too late to vote! HCI's Board of Directors ballot enclosed + +X HCI lobbyists shut out the NRA hired guns on the state level this year + +X Sign up for HCI's '93 Annual Members' Meeting + +------ + +"Free the Brady Bill" Succeeds, But Measure Left Unfinished as +Congress Adjourns + + Despite getting off to a great start in the 102nd Congress, with +passage of the Brady Bill - for the first time - in the U.S. House of +Representatives in May 1991, the 102nd Congress adjourned without +sending this important bill to the President. + + The U.S. Senate, which had passed the Brady Bill as part of its +larger, more comprehensive omnibus crime bill, ultimately failed to get +enough votes to send the conference (final version) crime bill to the +President in the last days of the session. Senate leaders had tried +unsuccessfully throughout 1992 to break a Republican filibuster to move +the bill. The U.S. House passed the conference version ten months +earlier. + + When it became clear that the Brady Bill was being held hostage to a +stalled crime bill, Handgun Control launched a massive, national +grassroots effort to "Free the Brady Bill" and move it separately. At +more than three dozen news conferences from coast to coast during the +month of September, local handgun control advocates, doctors, teachers, +mayors, law enforcement officers, clergy and victims joined together in +an unprecedented effort to persuade Congress to send the Brady Bill to +the President. On the kick-off day, Sarah Brady joined Coretta Scott +King and other civil rights leaders in Atlanta, and Jim Brady joined +Mayor David Dinkins and law enforcement leaders in New York City to call +for action. Ten other cities from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine, +hosted events that first day. + + Our efforts paid off when, on September 28th, Senate Majority Leader +George Mitchell (ME) "freed" the Brady Bill, by reintroducing it as a +free-standing measure. However, under strong threat of a filibuster, +orchestrated by NRA-backed Senators Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Larry Craig +(R-ID), an NRA Board Member, Mitchell was not able to bring the bill up +for a separate vote before adjournment. + + While a handful of Republican Senators blocked votes on both the +crime bill containing the Brady Bill, and the Brady Bill as a separate +measure, President Bush attempted to posture himself as "moderate" on +the Brady Bill. Appearing on a national television talk show, Bush said +that he supported the Mitchell-Dole measure (the final Senate Brady +Bill language). However, his true position became clear when on October +2nd, the day the Senate failed to move the omnibus crime bill, NBC News +reported that "the President's aides have told Senate Republicans to +stand firm - no separate vote on handgun controls, no action this year." + + With President Bush no longer able to clock this important bill, we +are confident we will see the Brady Bill become law very soon. + + [picture] Coretta Scott King joins Sarah Brady in Atlanta for kick-off + "Free the Brady Bill" news conference. + +------ + + 102nd Congress Yields Gun Control Victories + + Although the 102nd Congress adjourned without sending the Brady Bill +to the President, it did produce two key gun control victories. + + Congress stopped the restoration of gun rights to convicted felons, a +program which had been administered by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, +Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). This program, which cost ATF more than $4 +million per year, and involved more than 40 full-time federal employees, +had restored the right to possess firearms to more than 2,000 felons +between 1985 and 1990. In committee, Rep. Larry Smith (D-FL) added a +provision to the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government +Appropriations Bill which forbids ATF from spending any money on this +program. The bill subsequently cleared both Houses of Congress, was +signed into law, and the money and staff will now be directed toward +enforcing federal gun laws. + + And, in a major victory for District of Columbia residents, who +overwhelmingly passed an assault weapon dealer liability law a year ago, +a serious challenge to this landmark law was rebuffed. NRA supporter, +Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), offered an amendment to repeal the District's +law to the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary Appropriations Bill on +the Senate floor, where it was adopted. Fortunately, Sen. Howard +Metzenbaum (D-OH) crafted an agreement to get the repeal language +removed from the final appropriations bill, saving the law, which holds +that gun dealers and sellers can be held civilly liable for the deaths +and injuries caused by assault weapons in Washington, D.C. + +------ + +HCI On The Move Across America + +In 1992, Handgun Control state legislative efforts resulted in a shutout +against the National Rifle Association. In every previous year, the NRA +has passed at least one state bill - preemption legislation, carrying +concealed weapons legislation, or Constitutional "right to bear arms" +amendments. This year, Handgun Control, Inc., and our allies have +defeated the NRA's legislation in every state, with major battles +occurring Indiana, Louisiana and Missouri. On the state and local +level, we are beating the NRA across the nation. In what appears to be +an important trend toward saving the lives of children, many states have +passed child accident protection (CAP) laws, which hold adults liable if +a child gets hold of a loaded, accessible handgun. + +FLORIDA The legislature passed a bill banning shotgun ammunition +marketed as "Dragon's Breath." + +HAWAII Capping a two-year effort, the legislature passed a landmark bill +banning assault pistols and pistol ammunition magazines holding more +than ten rounds. This bill is significant because it is the first +_state_ law to use a generic definition of assault weapons, and its +magazine ban is the most restrictive in the nation. The legislature +also passed a child accident prevention bill and a bill to increase the +State's waiting period to 14 days. After meeting with Sarah Brady in +Washington, D.C., Governor John Waihee signed all three bills last +spring. + +INDIANA After the Senate passed an NRA bill which would have preempted +all local gun control laws, we focussed attention on how absurd it was +to wipe out effective laws when crime is on the rise, and managed to +defeat the NRA proposal on the House floor. + +LOUISIANA The NRA suffered a tremendous setback in the South when the +Louisiana House of Representatives defeated a bill to allow citizens to +carry concealed weapons. The measure was the subject of an intense +lobbying effort by HCI, law enforcement, and activists in the State. + +MARYLAND The legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law, the +broadest state child accident prevention law to date, stating that +adults can be held liable even if no injury occurs. HCI worked closely +with Governor Schaefer and Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse in this +successful two-year effort. + +MINNESOTA The Minnesota legislature passed a first-in-the-nation law +prohibiting the sale of firearms to persons convicted of spousal abuse. +This new law was skillfully ushered through the legislature by Citizens +for a Safer Minnesota. + +MISSOURI An NRA bill to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons passed +the House, but was killed in a Senate committee after HCI worked with +the local law enforcement community to explain how dangerous this +measure was to the public safety. + +NEW JERSEY Completing a two-year effort, the legislature passed, and the +Governor signed into law, a child accident prevention bill. + + Also in New Jersey, it appears that the legislature will not succeed +in its NRA-backed effort to overturn Governor Florio's veto of +legislation designed to repeal the State's historic ban on assault +weapons. However, since the NRA has invested more than $300,000 in a +attempt to elect pro-gun lawmakers, we must be prepared for another +attempt to defeat this public safety law. + +WISCONSIN Completing a three-year effort, the legislature passed, and +Governor Tommy Thompson signed into law, a child accident prevention +bill. + +CHICAGO, ILLINOIS The City of Chicago enacted a ban on the possession +of both assault weapons and ammunition magazines holding more than 12 +rounds. + +HOUSTON, TEXAS In response to a series of tragedies, the City Council +passed a strong child accident prevention bill. + +------ + +HCI's Legislative Agenda for the 103rd Congress + + HCI lobbyists will hit the ground running in January, as the new +Congress convenes. With a new Administration and many new advocates in +Congress, we have an unprecedented opportunity to advance out +life-saving agenda. + + First we must quickly pass the Brady Bill, the cornerstone of an +effective federal gun policy. In 1991, we stunned the gun lobby by +pushing this important measure through both the House and Senate by huge +margins. We must ensure that this bill becomes law early in the +session. + + The Brady Bill alone will save many, many lives and prevent countless +injuries. But after this measure is law, we have many other important +battles to fight. + +Banning Crime Guns + + There are whole categories of guns and gun accessories which are +primarily used in crime - not for law enforcement, sport, or +self-protection. In the next Congress we will work to: + +* Ban military-style, semi-automatic assault weapons like the UZI and +the AK-47. + +* Ban large-capacity ammunition magazines, such as "banana clips," which +hold 30-40 rounds, and "drum" magazines, which hold 75-90 rounds of +ammunition at a time. + +* Ban low-quality, easily concealable Saturday Night Special handguns. +These are already banned from import. They should not be produced +domestically. + +Curbing Interstate Gun Running + + The Brady Bill will make it much tougher for gun traffickers to buy +weapons on a "cash-and-carry" basis in one state and take them to +another to sell on the black market. But we will also work for +legislation to: + +* Stop the sale of unlimited numbers of handguns to the same buyer. + +* Stop the issuance of federal gun licenses to individuals who are not +operating retail businesses. + +* Stop unregulated private sales of handguns, such as sales by +unlicensed individuals at gun shows. + +Protecting Children Through Safety Requirements + + Too many children are killed or maimed in gun accidents every year. +HCI lobbyists will work to: + +* Require safety devices be built into all new guns, to minimize the +chances of accidental shootings. + +* Require handgun buyers to complete a training course on safety, just +as automobile drivers must do to obtain licenses. + + Finally, we know the ever-more-extreme NRA will not sit idle next +year. Over the past year, their aggressive membership drive, which +played on fears over the L.A. riots, has recruited many new members and +raised millions of dollars. The new NRA President, Bob Corbin, has +vowed to double the NRA membership - to over 5 million. The NRA will +continue to be a formidable foe in our fight for a sensible national gun +policy. + + But the future is bright, and with hard work and your help, we will +succeed. + +------ + +HCI/CPHV Name New President + + Richard Aborn, a New York City-based attorney was elected President +of Handgun Control and its sister organization, The Center to Prevent +Handgun Violence, in June. Aborn, who had served on HCI's Board of +Directors for four years and the Center's for one, has been involved in +the gun control movement since 1979. A former homicide prosecutor in +the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Aborn has been directly +involved in a wide range of activities promoting gun control - from +testifying in support of legislation to lobbying on Capitol Hill. Aborn +has served to two commissions dedicated to utilizing the public health +profession in violence prevention, and has worked with law enforcement +on methods to stop illegal gun trafficking. + +------ + +Guns Don't Die... People Do + +> In Tampa, FL, at their wedding reception, an angry bride threw a plate +of macaroni at her new husband, who responded by shooting her in the +stomach with a handgun. + +> A 16-year-old Japanese exchange student living in Baton Rouge, LA, was +shot to death when he failed to understand a warning to "Freeze!" after +mistakenly approaching the wrong house for a Halloween party. + +> A Milwaukee man said he was "just being stupid" when he tried to shoot +a beer can off the head of a 16-year-old, who died from the stunt. + +> A 15-year-old honor student was murdered while gardening at his +Washington, D.C., home. He was apparently chosen at random by a gunman +who said he "had the urge to do it." + +> A Philadelphia, PA, executive fatally shot himself at his New Mexico +ranch while apparently using a loaded shotgun as a crutch. + +> A Miami, FL, clubgoer who was chased into a men's room and doused with +beer by a woman, shot a man to death for laughing at him. + +> "I'm the NRA" posterboy, actor Jameson Parker, was shot in a dispute +with his neighbor over dog waste. + +------ + +Members' Page + +New Materials to Help Spread Message + + Our 1990 "God Bless America" poster is now available. As in years +past, it makes a powerful statement on the need for sensible gun laws. +If you would like a copy, please contact Shawn Taylor at (202) 898-0792. + + HCI bumper stickers are here! Show your support by putting one on +your car, hanging it in your office, or passing them out to your +friends. To receive a bumper sticker, send a stamped, self-addressed +envelope to "Bumper Sticker," 1225 Eye Street, NW, Suite 1100. +Washington, D.C. 20005 + +[poster] IN 1990, HANDGUNS KILLED + 22 PEOPLE IN GREAT BRITAIN + 13 IN SWEDEN + 91 IN SWITZERLAND + 87 IN JAPAN + 10 IN AUSTRALIA + 68 IN CANADA + AND 10,567 IN THE UNITED STATES. + + GOD BLESS AMERICA. + +[snub-nose revolver painted red, white, and blue] +[fine print unreadable in newsletter] + + STOP HANDGUNS BEFORE THEY STOP YOU. + +------ + +HCI Rocks at Lollapalooza + + Once again, HCI participated in the summer concert series, +Lollapalooza, in an effort to reach America's young people - those most +at risk of gun violence. Lollapalooza was organized by former Jane's +Addiction lead singer Perry Farrell to promote political activism among +young, progressive music lovers. The 32-date tour travelled from San +Francisco to Florida, featuring bands, local artists, local musicians, +and performers. HCI staff and volunteers distributed "NRA-NOT!" and +"I'm for Gun Control and I Vote" stickers and HCI material to the +concert-goers. + + We'd like to thank everyone who volunteered at our booths, all across +the country. We couldn't have done it without you. See you again, next +year! + +------ + +Citizen Action Groups Form in Wake of Gun Violence. + + Gun control advocates are countering the powerful lobbying efforts of +the NRA with grassroots citizen action. + + "Virginians Against Handgun Violence" was formed earlier this year by +citizens outraged at the rising incidents of gun violence in the +Tidewater area. Armed with HCI's House Party video kits, VAHV enlisted +more than 200 new HCI members in less than 60 days! VAHV is now +actively building coalitions around the state to encourage state +legislators to enact tougher gun laws. + + In Iowa, the "November First Coalition" was formed in the wake of a +gunman's shooting spree on the University of Iowa campus, which left +five people dead and one woman permanently paralyzed. Organizer Dennis +Smith declared, "A statewide network of concerned citizens has a +profound influence with lawmakers and a tremendous education impact on +local communities." + + Gun violence prevention and education groups have also formed this +year in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. They join +already established groups in Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, +Ohio, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri, and Washington, which have become an +indispensable part of our grassroots campaign. Kudos to all of you! + + For more information on HCI's House Party video kit, call Jane Kelso +at 202-989-0792. + +------ + +Don't Miss the 1993 Handgun Control, Inc. Members' Meeting and Lobby Day + +Annual Members' Meeting - Monday, June 7th +Lobby Day - Tuesday, June 8th + + The Annual Member's Meeting and Lobby day are two days of valuable +information on the gun control movement and HCI's lobbying strategy. +You can attend workshops led by HCI Chair Sarah Brady and HCI staff, +learn more about the education and legal action work of the Center to +Prevent Handgun Violence, and visit your federal legislators. It's also +a great time to meet other gun violence victims and gun control +advocates to share views and ideas on how to build our movement. You +don't want to miss it! + + [] I'd like more information on HCI's Annual Member's Meeting and +Lobby Day. Please send an information packet to me at the address +listed below. [space for Name, Address, City/State/Zip, Phone Number] +Return these coupons to: Handgun Control, 1225 Eye St., NW, Room 1100, +Washington, DC 20005 + +------ + +Dear Sarah, + +I want to help you and Jim in your lobbying efforts to enact the Brady +Bill and an assault weapons ban early in the 103rd Congress. + +I'm enclosing a special contribution to assist Handgun Control, Inc., in +its aggressive lobbying campaign for 1993 and beyond. + +Enclosed is my contribution for: [check-off boxes for $15/25/50/other] +[space for Name, Address, City/State/Zip, Phone Number] + +------ + +CENTER TO PREVENT HANDGUN VIOLENCE +CENTER REPORT + +[picture of baby playing with pistol] + + Founded in 1983 by Pete Shields, also a founder of Handgun Control, +Inc., the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence is a national 501 (c)(3) +education, research and legal action organization. Its mission is to +educate the public about the scope of handgun violence and ways to +prevent it. + + This initiative is base on the Center's recognition that fundamental +change in public attitudes - and an increased level of public outrage - +is necessary to reduce the wave of gun violence endangering today's +society. + +LAP Outgunning NRA + + In its first three years of existence, the Center's Legal Action +Project (LAP) has become the guardian of our nation's gun control laws +and the champion of the legal rights of victims against the gun +industry. + + Facing a relentless gun lobby legal attack on new state and local gun +laws passed with HCI support, Legal Action Project lawyers have been in +courtrooms from coast to coast defending these hardwon legislative +victories. + +> California: A federal appeals court upheld California's assault +weapon ban, dismissing the NRA's lawsuit attempting to overturn the law. +The Legal Action Project had filed a brief in support of the law, along +with a coalition of nine police groups. _The_NRA_is_expected_to_ +_appeal_the_decision_to_the_Supreme_Court_. + +> New York City: A federal judge rebuffed the NRA's attempt to stop New +York's assault rifle ban from going into effect. The Legal Action +Project entered the case as amicus curiae, with eight New York police +groups. + +> Columbus, Ohio: With the Project's help, the Columbus assault weapon +ban survived a federal suit by gun makers Colt's Manufacturing and +Springfield Armory. + + The Legal Action Project is also taking the offensive against gun +violence by helping victims and their families in liability lawsuits +against irresponsible gun dealers. In Farley v. Guns Unlimited, in +Virginia Beach, Virginia, Project lawyers helped to achieve the +nation's first jury verdict against a gun dealer for selling a pistol +to a minor through an adult "straw purchaser." The Project's help also +was instrumental in the Goldfarb v. The Grant Boys case, which resulted +in a $900,000 settlement against a California dealer who sold a shotgun +to a woman who showed obvious signs of mental instability while in the +gun shop. The woman shot and killed an acquaintance several hours +later. The price tag was still attached to the gun. + + Groundbreaking victims' cases like these are sending a strong message +to the gun industry: putting profit ahead of public safety can carry a +high price. As a Washington Post editorial put it, "Those who supply +these weapons must bear the costs of marketing decisions that expose +society to extraordinary risks." + + Finally, Project lawyers are exposing NRA lies and distortions of the +Second Amendment wherever they are found. Last year, the Center's +landmark study of high school social studies texts found widespread +ignorance by textbook writers about court decisions limiting the Second +Amendment right to the "well-regulated militia." We are working to +ensure that those who publish textbooks, and the educators who by them, +understand the truth: that the Second Amendment _does_not_ guarantee an +individual right to own guns. + +------ + +First CPHV Gala a Smashing Success + + "Be a Life Saver - Help Stop the Violence" was the theme of the +Center's first-ever Washington fundraising gala, held on June 8th. +Actor Beau Bridges emceed the event, which honored Former White House +Press Secretary James Brady. Mr. Brady received the first annual "Pete +Shields" award, which recognizes the outstanding work of one individual +who has made a difference in the campaign for a safer America. The +award, named for the Center's founder, Pete Shields, was presented to +Jim by Pete's wife, Jeanne. Mrs. Shields expressed Pete's regrets that +he was unable to attend. + + Hundreds of supporters showed up, including Washington, D.C. Mayor +Sharon Pratt Kelly, Senator Paul Simon (D-IL), D.C. Delegate Eleanor +Holmes Norton, Daniel Shea, President of the American Academy of +Pediatrics, and D.C. Police Chief Isaac Fulwood. Entertainment was +provided by Comedy Central's Paul Provenza. + +[picture] Actress Mariette Hartley, Wendy Bridges, Beau Bridges and D.C. + Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton greet Jim Brady at CPHV gala. + +------ + +Docs Help Parents Keep Kids Safe + + Parents can now learn from the pediatricians how to prevent childhood +gun injuries, a leading cause of death for children. Under a new +partnership program of the Center and the American Academy of Pediatrics +(AAP), pediatricians across the country will be counseling parents and +distributing safety information. + + Just as doctors warn parents of other household dangers and potential +hazards, they will explain to parents that guns in the home are a danger +to children and that their children may be at risk where they play and +visit, as well. Doctors will counsel parents on the risks guns in the +home present to children, and provide clear prevention steps to avoid +gun accidents. + + The Center worked with the AAP, with its 44,000 member pediatricians, +to develop effective educational tools for doctors, and for parents. +Pediatricians will be provided with a kit containing posters for their +waiting rooms, brochures to distribute to parents, and background +information for their use, including an audiotape discussion by C. +Everett Koop, MD, former U.S. Surgeon General. + + In November, "Child Safety and Protection Month," the Center and the +AAP began distributing these educational kits to a random sample of +pediatric practices nationwide to evaluate the materials before +embarking on a large scale national distribution. + +------ + +"Straight Talk" About Guns and Kids + +[picture] Jim Brady is joined by school children + at STAR kick-off in New York City + + Daily headlines are a harrowing reminder of the violence striking our +children, our communities and our schools. Every day, 12 American +children under the age of 19 are killed in gun homicides, suicides and +accidents. Many more are wounded. + + The Center has undertaken a multi-year effort to educate American +schoolchildren about avoiding the danger of guns and to provide ways to +prevent gun violence. We have developed and introduced the nation's +first comprehensive gun violence prevention program for Pre-K-12 +students. + + Straight Talk About Risks (STAR) helps students build life-saving +skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, resisting peer +pressure and managing anger or conflicts nonviolently. STAR +demonstrates that gun fights and shooting accidents between children and +teens _can_ be prevented - when young children recognize the dangers of +guns and know how to stay away from them - when teens learn to resist +peer pressure to carry or handle weapons - and when parents unload and +lock up guns in the home, away from children. + + The STAR program is considered by school teachers and administrators +across the country as a proactive step towards reducing gun violence +among children, both at home and in the community. New York City public +schools adopted STAR last spring to combat a rising tide of gun violence +in schools. The State of New Jersey followed by putting STAR in more +than 25 middle schools, statewide. STAR is also reaching thousands of +students in Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and Ventura County, +California. Plans for a national expansion are underway. + + STAR services and materials, often paid for by grant funding, include +teacher training, a curriculum guide for teachers, videos for middle and +high school students, and tools for educating parents. STAR is +available in English and Spanish to maximize student and parent +involvement. + +------ + +Entertainers Join Fight Against Gun Violence + + The Center's Los Angeles-base Entertainment Resources Division is +working with entertainers, writers and producers in an effort to get gun +violence prevention themes incorporated into television, music and +films. + + In August, the Center held its first "lot briefing" at Universal +Studios, attended by more than 100 writers, producers, actors, and +entertainment executives, to familiarize them with the issue of gun +violence and to share ideas. CPHV Chair Sarah Brady was joined by +Michael Chitwood, Police Chief of Portland, Maine, and Garen Wintemute, +MD, a nationally recognized health and gun violence prevention expert. +The briefing included motivating and informative sessions on the issues +of guns in the home, guns in schools, guns and self-protection, and +children and guns. + + A similar briefing was held in November at Warner Brothers Studios. +The Entertainment Resources Division will continue to encourage industry +professionals to portray the tragic consequences of gun violence in +their creative projects. + +------ + +Where There's a Will, There's a Way + + Through your will or through planned giving of assets, you guarantee +that your commitment to preventing gun violence will carry into the +future and become a lasting memorial for a safer society. + + If you would like to receive additional information on giving through +your will - or through other giving plans - please complete the +information, right, and mail to our Development Office at 1225 Eye +Street, N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20005 or call us as (202) +289-7319. All gifts made to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence are +tax deductible to the full extent of the law. + +[space for Name, Address, City/State/Zip, Daytime telephone] + +------ + +NRA Fails to "Clinton-Proof" 103rd Congress + +New Gun Control Supporters Elected + + Long before the first ballots were cast in this year's Presidential +election, the NRA had already conceded the contest to Arkansas Governor +Bill Clinton, an outspoken advocate of the Brady Bill and a ban on +semi-automatic assault weapons. + + With their grip on the White House slipping away, the NRA focussed +its efforts on the U.S. Congressional races, with a nearly $3 million +campaign to "Clinton-proof" the Congress. + + The NRA's goal was to win enough seats in the House and Senate to +block any new control proposals. They did not succeed. + + In the Senate, the NRA failed to make any significant gains. Of the +36 seats up this year, Brady Bill supports won 18 - a not loss of only +one for us. However, we expect we'll have to face a major battle to +defeat an NRA-backed effort to substitute legislation for the Brady +Bill, and may still have to fight a filibuster. + + Newly elected HCI supporters include Senators-elect Carol Moseley +Braun (D-IL), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patty +Murray (D-WA), and Bruce Feingold (D-WI). + + In the House, of the top 24 incumbents in the NRA's "hit list," +_only_two_were_defeated_. Gun control leaders like Congressmen Bill +Hughes (D-NJ), Herb Bateman (R-VA), Vic Fazio (D-CA), and Tom Andrews +(D-ME) all beat back fierce challenges by well-funded, pro-NRA +candidates. + + HCI's Voter Education Fund ran hard-hitting radio and print ads in a +number of key House and Senate races, highlighting the candidates' +positions on the gu issue. We won in four of the six most hotly +contested House races. + + Governor Clinton's victory, and his strong support for sensible gun +laws, greatly improves the chances for passing meaningful legislation in +the 103rd Congress. And while we still face tremendous opposition from +the NRA, we no longer need to overcome the added obstacle of an +administration bent on frustrating our efforts. + +[picture] Senator-Elect Carol Moseley Braun, a strong handgun control + advocate, was endorsed by Illinois native Jim Brady in September. + +------ + +Ballot: Handgun Control, Inc., Board of Directors + +Please detach and mail this entire page by December 31. +Return to: Handgun Control, Inc., 1225 Eye Street, NW, Suite 1100, +Washington, D.C. 20005 +Vote for ONE candidate: To ensure that the gun lobby cannot disrupt +this election, only original ballots will be accepted. Please do not +return copies of this page. + + +[] WILLIAM BLOOMFIELD, Jr. Los Angeles, California + + President of Web Service Company, Inc. Raised in Los Angeles, +degrees from University of California Berkeley & Harvard University. + + "I am involved in Handgun Control to help level the playing field. +The NRA's deleterious effect on the legislative process needs to be +neutralized so the people can be protected by the firearm legislation +they need. + + I purchased a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard. It ran for seven +months on one of the busiest streets in Los Angeles. Hundreds of +thousands of area residents witnessed Handgun Control's powerful +message. I will bring to the Board my experience gained from running a +large, successful corporation, and my passion for the cause." + + +[] VINCENT DEMARCO Baltimore, Maryland + + Assistant Attorney General of Maryland; Author of Maryland's landmark +law banning Saturday Night Special handguns. Baltimore _Sunpapers_ +"Marylander of the Year," 1988. Current Chairman of Marylanders Against +Handgun Abuse. + + "I first became seriously involved in the gun control movement in +late 1985. Our preemptive lobbying paid off when, as predicted, the NRA +mounted a massive effort for a bill in the 1986 Session of the Maryland +General Assembly to overturn the _Kelley_ case, the MD Court of Appeals +decision holding distributors of Saturday Night Special handguns liable +for damages caused by these crime guns. + + The bill to ban Saturday Night Specials was presented to the 1988 +General Assembly and passed by wide margins in both Houses and was +signed by the Governor. This new measure was recognized around the +country as a landmark gun control law. During the 1992 session, I +organized a coalition of law enforcement, community, religious, +education, medical, and child advocacy groups behind a landmark child +accident prevention law. Our new law took effect on October 1, 1992." + + +[] MICHAEL GARNER Seattle, Washington + + Partner, Short, Cressman & Burgess; volunteer attorney with the +Center to Prevent Handgun Violence + + "I see Handgun Control's agenda as having three key items - to +educate, to persuade and to advocate. The educational process has +largely succeeded, but must continue. However, our next step is to +persuade our lawmakers to enact legislation we so desperately need. +This requires marshalling public efforts and one-on-one meetings with +our representatives. The third stage will be to provide the legal +defense necessary to withstand the inevitable attacks which come on the +constitutionality of the legislation after it has been enacted. + + We need to move more aggressively and confidently into the second and +third areas. As a lawyer, I have had a chance to work with legislators +and defend legislation in our courts. I believe I can contribute my +professional experience and personal commitment to serve Handgun +Control, and would welcome the opportunity to do so." + + +[] NELSON GOODMAN, MD Crownsville, Maryland + + Doctor since 1954; Bowie Internal Medicine Associates, 1970 to +present. Member since 1982 and long-time HCI Network Activist. + + "As a physician, I have witnessed firsthand the results of handgun +violence, and have sought to emphasize the medical aspects of the +handgun problem. I have sought support for study, dialogue, and +legislative initiatives on the part of organized medicine to promote +handgun control. I have been successful (along with others) in gaining +AMA endorsement of gun control statutes on a national level, and Med Chi +(the state medical society of Maryland) help, locally. + + As a native of Baltimore, I have long recognized the need to control +the distribution and the use of handguns because of the devastation they +wreak and the fear the engender. The are a major factor in the decline +of our cities; and their havoc continues to escalate and spread. + + I have written many letters and resolutions, have testified before +the Maryland legislature several times, and currently work for control +of handguns on several committees of the Medical Society." + + +[] DANIEL SEIGEL Havertown, Pennsylvania + + Attorney, Gay & Chacker, Member since 1983 and along-time HCI Network +Activist and local spokesperson. + + "I frequently participate - both on my own and at HCI's request - in +radio and television programs discussing the issue of gun control. + + In addition, I write extensively about both gun control and Second +Amendment issues. Last year, I authored "The Second Amendment: +Judicial Unanimity, Gun Owner Dissent," a chapter in The Bill of Rights: +a Bicentennial View, a book published by the Pennsylvania Bar +Association. + + My legal practice provides me with an opportunity to assist and +represent victims of handgun violence. In these cases, it becomes +increasingly obvious why we need laws to prevent persons who should not +have guns from obtaining them. Stiff sentences for crimes committed +with a gun may remove the criminal from the streets, but they do +absolutely nothing for the innocent victim. The only thing that could +have assisted the victim is a pre-sale background check. My diverse +experience will be an asset to HCI's Board." + +------ + +VOTE! + +------ + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hckrslg.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hckrslg.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..68ff59d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hckrslg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,244 @@ +The Hacker's League +Lee Felsenstein +18 March 1992 + +Theory + + The Hacker's League is modeled loosely after the American +Radio Relay League (A.R.R.L.), an organization of technological +adventurers of the Edwardian period. In its heyday, the radio +amateurs moved from being nuisances to being important +contributors to the development of radio technology. In a field +which demanded governmental regulation for orderly operation, the +A.R.R.L. represented the interests of amateurs in the councils of +government and organized ongoing educational activities through +which newcomers to the field could learn not only the technology +involved, but also the human interactions which connect the +technology to the outside world. + + The most recent triumph of radio amateurs has been the +development of packet radio, which has recently been adopted by +Motorola as the basis for its "wireless local loop" for wireless +telephone operation. Thanks to the amateurs, it was developed +and tried out in an open environment outside of commercial +pressures which tend toward secrecy and exclusion. + + In the area of computers and telecommunication, there are +several parallels between today's hackers and the radio amateurs +of 1915. Hackers are seen by the respectable technological +players as nuisances capable of doing great damage and generally +without redeeming qualitites. They were indistinguishable from +rogue broadcasters who trampled on other signals in their urge to +cover the longest distance. In the corridors of power there was +a movement toward outlawing them. Nontechnical people did not +know quite what to think about this problem and its suggested +solution. + + The A.R.R.L. was more than a lobbying organization, though. +It provided a means for the mutual education essential to the +growth of any technology, a route of entry open to all comers, +and a social scene to accompany the technological forum. Through +the A.R.R.L. green kids could encounter grizzled oldtimers who +would be unapproachable in their positions the industry. At +field days and other events the cameraderie of being explorers +overcame the barriers of class and position as well as those +engendered by commercial competition. Networking was possible in +the amateur environment which forwarded the operation in the +commercial and professional environments. + + The concept of the Hacker's League is similar but different +as befits the different nature of the technology. The aim is to +provide a situation in which otherwise unqualified entrants to +the field can engage in informal learning situations, test their +skills as a means of exercising their craft, gain hands-on +experience with systems which would be unobtainable otherwise, +and participate on both sides of mentoring and tutorial +relationships. + + The Hacker's League would provide an outlet for the creative +energies which are otherwise expended making life worse for +perceived or imagined enemies through unauthorized entry to +systems and other illegal or unethical conduct. Such energies +would be turned toward projects which advance the state of the +art, and in a way which undermines the arrogance and exclusivity +of the corporate managers which hackers find so tempting a +target. + + To the charge that the Hacker's League would become a front +for the interests of industry may be raised the defense that by +exploiting industry's fear of low-level disorder it would provide +an organizing platform for higher-level attack upon the +technological underpinnings of the existing structure. Consider +the difference between outcomes had hackers in the 1970's been +content to organize politically for access to mainframes. There +would have been no personal computer industry, and the power +relationships would not have undergone the radical changes +brought about by the triumph of open architecture. One might +well have said then that the amateur computer activity was a +distraction from the true task of tugging at the sleeve of power, +yet we can all see the effects of that activity. + + The Hacker's League could be seen as a guild serving to +restrict entry to the membership of the technical elite. In +fact, the League would be far more open than the current system +of university education. It would provide a means of testing to +see whether one is suited to the demands of the technology +without exacting years of commitment to learning prerequisites. +Within the Hacker's League there would be much more mobility +among specialties than exists in university curricula, and the +doors would be open to underage entrants and those who come later +in life after entrance to a university becomes difficult or +impossible. + + Still, the human tendencies which lead toward exclusivity +and the formation of cliques will always be with us, and we must +bear themin mind as we proceed in conceptualizing and realizing +the Hacker's League. The technology in which we work tends to +eliminate the need for centralization, and one of the important +outcomes of the Leagues's development would be the demonstration +of the decentralized mode of organization, as noble an +exploration as might be contemplated, int he opinion of many. + + After all, the primary challenge is not so much in the +hardware, or the physical form of the systems of +intercommunication and interaction around which society develops. +The important work is in developing the social forms of use of +this technology which forwards the common good as well as that of +the individual. New ways of thinking, as Einstein said, are the +urgently needed ingredient for the humanization and survivalof +society. The Hacker's League would not only provide a +development bed for social innovations involving the use of +information technology, but it would empower those innovations +through the parallel development of the technology and, most +importantly, of the human network through which the technology is +made to come alive. + +Practice + + The Hacker's League would be membership organization open +to nonmembers for certain functions. It would be organized as a +nonprofit educational and scientific organization. Its +publications would be freely available to all interested readers. + + The League would hold periodic local events demonstrating +technical achievements of members or chapters, and offering +places for individuals outside the League to exhibit or to engage +in low-level trade, such as swap meets. A newcomer would most +probably make first contact at such events, and might decide to +attend a local chapter meeting. + + Meetings of local chapters would be high in information +exchange and low in structure. Newcomers would be acknowledged +and provided with a brief orientation so that they would not feel +put off by displays of technical virtuosity or cliquishness. If +the newcomer desired further involvement, there would be a set of +course tracks available as suggested paths for establishing, +through achievement, one's level of skill. These might be +thought of as Scout Merit Badges, although the name would +probably not be used. + + In the early stages of involvement, the newcomer might +interact with a designated instructor who is also working to +establish skill in teaching and coaching. Later, as the newcomer +gains skill and established competence, he or she would be +recommended for more individual instruction and consultation from +more highly skilled mentors. Such mentoring relationships would +be an important feature of the League, both as a means and and +end. + + The League at the local level would acquire maintain +obsolescent equipment which would be operated and imporved by the +members through development projects proposed from the +membership. Telecommunication resource would also be solicited +as donations from carriers, on the none-too-subtle suggestion +that the availability of such resource in such a context is +conducive to the developmentof skilled citizens instead of +antisocial attackers. Through this resource the League would +maintain its larger structure, which would be a communication- +based overlay of networks and ad-hocracies. + + Through these structures conflicitng positions could be +discussed and debated in a functioning participatory democracy. +Informed plebiscites would be conducted both as a means of +determining the senseof the League on issues of importsnce and as +development projects testing the capabilities of information +technology under various arrangements of use. The highest +structure of orgnization would be at the local level, and the +administrators at wider levels might be given titles, such as +Janitor, which tend to prevent puffery and self-glorification. +Sapiential authority would be fostered within the League as +opposed to positional authority. + + The newcomer would progress from establishing his or her +level of skill to a process of exploring the available courses of +self-development. It would be possible to propose a specific +course different from the recommended courses. The newcomer +would then engage in projects which require the improvement in +skill level under the supervision or review of competent skilled +members. + + This should be seen as professional development (where the +word has no connotation of "earning a livelihood") and since it +is a responsibility of all professionals to teach adn transmit +their skills, the newcomer would along the way be expected to +perform as an instructor and later a supervisor and mentor to future +newcomers. Thus, progress in self-development would not be +simply a matter of the "neat hacks" one could accomplish, but +would require an integration into the society first of hackers, +then the broader society. There is no reason why technologists +must rely on others to represent their work to the public or the +polity. + + One of the public service functions performed by the +members of the Hacker's League (and this performance would be +explicitly carried out by the members and not by the +"organization") would be consultation on informational security +and integrity of communications within everyday society. Members +of the League would provide a service of analysis of proposals, +investigations of system misuse and pursuit of abusers which +would rest on itsown professional foundation rather than serving +direct commercial ends which might distort the conclusions of +investigations. + + To use a popular metaphor, members ofthe HAcker's League +might be compared to doctors on the Electronic Frontier, with +their own loose medical association to keep quackery at bay and +serving a public health function. Or perhaps the analogy might +be to schoolteachers who also write literature and literary +criticism, as well as turningout works of art and organizing +criticism of the same. Obviously, this metaphoric space needs +work. + + One can expect to betterone's material condition through +participating inthe networks of relationships which would be the +Hacker's League, if one has the skill and aptitude to improve +one's skills. If not, it would be no shame to cease +participation. An important function of the League would be to +encourage the incompetent to go elsewhere without opprobium. +They may well turn up as administrators within industry, and it +is in no ones' interest for there to be hostile relations based +upon "loser" status. + + In fact, the Hacker's League would be a way to do away with +the "winner/loser" dichotomy. If you try, you win to some +degree, and younger members less secure in themselves need to +learn this, at times to a desperate degree. One can take on more +thnone can handle, be allowed to fail with support from those +more experienced, and not incur actual or emotional costs which +would otherwise drive one away from such experimentation. The +Hacker's League wouldn't be working without a measurable degree +of honestly won failure on the partofits members. + + What types of projects would be undertaken? Perhaps the +development of distributed operating systems suitable for +networks of variegated intelligent devices; elegant user front- +ends and development environments for intuitive system +configuration; pidgin speech (unnatural language) recognition +systems; new structures of groupware; posibly neural networks at +higher levels. + + But these are my own conjectures, and what would actually +transpire would almost certainly make these guesses look +ridiculously quaint and primitive. Let's give it a chance to +happen. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/health.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/health.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4aeac8e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/health.txt @@ -0,0 +1,538 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please Redistribute. + + + + + CLINTON/GORE ON + AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE + + + +We can't afford four more years without a president +with a plan and the will to guarantee affordable, +quality health care for every American. The +American health care system costs too much and does +not work. It leaves 60 million Americans without +adequate health insurance and bankrupts our +families, our businesses, and our federal budget. +Instead of putting people first, Washington favors +the insurance companies the drug companies, and the +health care bureaucracies. They are strangling the +most advanced health care system in the world. + +And working Americans are paying the price. Since +1980, the average cost of individual health +insurance rose from $1000 to $3000 a year. Today +health care costs are the number one cause of +labor disputes, bankruptcies, and growth in the +federal deficit. People can't change jobs because +insurance companies will deny them coverage because +of "pre-existing conditions." Small businesses are +caught between going broke and doing right by their +employees. Working men and women are forced to pay +more while their employers cover less. + +Health care should be a right, not a privilege. +And it can be. We are going to preserve what's +best in our system: your family's right to choose +who provides care and coverage, American innovation +and technology, and the world's best private +doctors and hospitals. But we will take on the +bureaucracies and corporate interests to make +health care accessible to every American. + +The United States is the only advanced country in +the world without a national health care plan. In +the first year of a Clinton/Gore Administration, +that will change. We will send a national health +care plan to Congress, and we will fight to pass +it. No American family should have to go from the +doctor's office to the poorhouse. + +Cap national spending to control health care costs + +* Create a health standards board made up of + consumers, providers, business, labor and + government. The health standards board will + establish an annual health budget for the + nation to limit both public and private + expenditures. + +* Crack down on billing fraud and eliminate + incentives that invite abuse. + +Take on the insurance industry + +* Ban underwriting practices that waste billions + trying to discover which patients are bad + risks; prohibit companies from denying + coverage to individuals with pre-existing + conditions. + +* Protect small businesses through "community + rating," which requires insurers to spread + risks evenly among all companies. + +* Shut down the "paper hospital" and replace + expensive and complex financial forms and + accounting procedures with a simplified, + streamlined billing system with one claim + form. Under the current system, 1,500 + companies waste millions of dollars processing + 1,500 sets of forms. + +* Work to provide everyone with "smart cards" + coded with personal medical information. + +Stop drug price gouging + +* Eliminate tax breaks for drug companies that + raise their prices faster than Americans + incomes rise to protect American consumers and + bring down prescription drug prices. + +* Discourage drug companies from spending more + on marketing than on research and development + because saving lives must come before making + money. + +Establish a core benefits package + +* Through the health standards board, guarantee + a basic health benefits package that includes + ambulatory physician care, inpatient hospital + care, prescription drugs, and basic mental + health services. The package will also + include expanded preventive treatments such as + pre-natal care, mammograms, and routine health + screenings. + +* Allow consumers to choose where they receive + care to ensure a better fit between provider + strengths and consumer needs. + +* Expand Medicare for elderly and disabled + Americans to include more long-term care; + place special emphasis on home- and + community-based care, and make funding + flexible so that those who need care can + decide what serves them best. + +Develop health networks + +* Give consumers access to a variety of local + health networks made up of insurers, + hospitals, clinics and doctors to end the + costly duplication of services and encourage + the shared use of key technologies. + +* Allocate to networks a fixed amount of money + for each consumer, the networks the necessary + incentive to control costs. + +Guarantee universal coverage + +* Guarantee every American a core benefits + package set by the health standards board + either through their employer or by buying + into a high-quality public program. No one + will be cut off, cancelled, denied or forced + to accept inferior care. + +* Limit costs for small employers by allowing + them to group together and form larger groups + to purchase less costly health insurance, or + to buy into the public program if it is the + cheapest option. + +* Phase in business responsibilities, covering + employees through the public program until the + transition is complete. + +* Improve preventive and primary care through + community-based health solutions. A + successful health plan must provide all + Americans with adequate access to health + facilities. The Clinton/Gore plan will expand + school-based clinics and community health + centers in medically under-served areas. + +Giving children a healthier future + +* Bill Clinton provided outspoken support for + school-based health clinics. The state now + funds 21 such clinics reaching thousands of + Arkansas children who wouldn't otherwise have + access to health care. Clinic services range + from health screenings to immunizations to + education. + +* Increased Early Periodic Screenings, Diagnosis + and Treatment (EPSDT) screenings by more than + 2,000 percent. + +* Helped reduce the Arkansas infant mortality + rate by 43 percent. Arkansas' infant + mortality rate dropped from 20 percent above + the national average in 1978 to virtual parity + in 1990. + +* Introduced the Healthy Beginnings/Nurse + Midwife Program to provide low-income women in + East Arkansas with access to comprehensive + maternity care. + +* Established the "Good Beginnings" program, + which took advantage of new federal + regulations to provide basic health services + to more low-income women and their children; + Arkansas was the first state to launch such a + program. + +* Proposed and passed a "Health Care Access Law" + designed, among other things, to provide + universal health coverage for all Arkansas + children under age 16, regardless of family + income. The law emphasizes preventive and + primary care. + +* Senator Gore was the principal sponsor of the + Infant Formula Act to improve nutrition and + safety standards. + + +Providing better care and more choice for the +elderly + +* Bill Clinton established the ElderChoices + program to allow the state Department of Human + Services to give senior citizens alternatives + to nursing home care -- including personal and + home health care, adult day-care services, and + more -- with funds formerly available only for + nursing home care. + +* Imposed strict regulations on nursing homes in + his first term, before strict federal + regulations were implemented, and has since + strengthened these regulations. + +* Initiated a broad range of cost-effective + in-home health care and supportive services + for people recovering from serious or chronic + illnesses, or who require assistance with + daily living activities, to avoid + institutionalization. + +* Increased funding for in-home services from + $2.4 million in fiscal year 1981 to a budgeted + $38 million for 1992-93. + +* Senator Gore led the fight for the "Medigap" + law to protect seniors from buying worthless + insurance coverage. + +* Sponsored a law establishing Alzheimer's + treatment centers. + +* Senator Gore was a leader in the fight to make + generic drugs more available and reduce the + cost of prescription drugs. + +Responding to the AIDS crisis + +* As chairman of the National Governors' + Association, Governor Clinton formed the first + working group of governors to develop an AIDS + policy. Clinton was a moving force in the + creation of an AIDS action plan adopted by the + Governors' Association, which called for + education and prevention efforts at the local, + state and federal levels. + +* Established the AIDS Advisory Committee for + Arkansas, which makes recommendations on HIV + policy and program services. + +* Developed confidential AIDS testing in all 75 + Arkansas counties. + +* Al Gore supported funding for Ryan White AIDS + programs, including research and education. + +* Voted to provide emergency relief to + metropolitan areas hardest hit by AIDS. + +* Promoted development of a full range of + services including in-home assistance such as + chore services, personal care, home nursing + care, and home delivered meals, and + community-based services such as + transportation, respite care, and friendly + visiting. + +Improving the health of all Americans + +* Strengthened the Arkansas State Employees + Health Insurance Program. Between 1982 and + 1991, Arkansas' contribution increased by 335 + percent while the state employees' premium for + family coverage grew by only 89 percent. + Because the program is self-insured, it does + not pay premium taxes or produce a profit. + Currently, for every $1 collected, 97 cents + are paid in claims and only 3 cent in + administrative fees. The $200 yearly + deductible, 80/20 co-payment scheme and $5,000 + Stop-Loss provision provide some of the best + coverage in the nation to current and retired + public employees. + +* Proposed and passed a "bare bones" health + insurance coverage program, which will allow + employers who have not provided employee + health insurance for the previous 12 months to + offer a package without some services usually + thought to increase costs for employers and + employees. + +* Developed key programs to improve rural + health: the Rural Physician Recruitment and + Retention Program encourages physicians to + locate and practice family medicine in small + Arkansas communities; Rural Medical Practice + Student Loans and Scholarships provide support + for medical students agreeing to practice in + rural communities. + +* Enacted a 1989 law requiring the Director of + the Department of Health to establish and + administer quality standards for X-ray + facilities conducting mammography. + +* Appointed Dr. Joycelyn Elders State Health + Department Director. She has received the + National Governors' Association Distinguished + Service Award, the National Endowment of the + Arts' Mary Futrell Award for Creative + Leadership in Women's Rights, and the American + Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award. + +* In August 1992, Arkansas was one of twelve + states which received funding as part of the + Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State + Initiatives in Health Care Financing Reform + Programs. Arkansas was chosen for its + innovative approach to increase health + insurance coverage to residents and to contain + the escalating costs of health care. + +* Senator Gore conducted hearings that led to + the passage of the National Organ Transplant + Act, which Gore also helped write. The Act + established a national network to match organ + donors and recipients. + +* Led efforts to establish and expand the + National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, which now + lists more than 200,000 potential donors. + +* Co-sponsored legislation to help strengthen + rural hospitals. + +* Wrote and steered to passage the Cigarette + Labeling Act to require stronger warning + labels on the health effects of smoking. + +Giving children a healthier future + +* Bill Clinton provided outspoken support for + school-based health clinics. The state now + funds 21 such clinics reaching thousands of + Arkansas children who wouldn't otherwise have + access to health care. Clinic services range + from health screenings to immunizations to + education. + +* Increased Early Periodic Screenings, Diagnosis + and Treatment (EPSDT) screenings by more than + 2,000 percent. + +* Helped reduce the Arkansas infant mortality + rate by 43 percent. Arkansas' infant + mortality rate dropped from 20 percent above + the national average in 1978 to virtual parity + in 1990. + +* Introduced the Healthy Beginnings/Nurse + Midwife Program to provide low-income women in + East Arkansas with access to comprehensive + maternity care. + +* Established the "Good Beginnings" program, + which took advantage of new federal + regulations to provide basic health services + to more low-income women and their children; + Arkansas was the first state to launch such a + program. + +* Proposed and passed a "Health Care Access Law" + designed, among other things, to provide + universal health coverage for all Arkansas + children under age 16, regardless of family + income. The law emphasizes preventive and + primary care. + +* Senator Gore was the principal sponsor of the + Infant Formula Act to improve nutrition and + safety standards. + + +Providing better care and more choice for the +elderly + +* Bill Clinton established the ElderChoices + program to allow the state Department of Human + Services to give senior citizens alternatives + to nursing home care -- including personal and + home health care, adult day-care services, and + more -- with funds formerly available only for + nursing home care. + +* Imposed strict regulations on nursing homes in + his first term, before strict federal + regulations were implemented, and has since + strengthened these regulations. + +* Initiated a broad range of cost-effective + in-home health care and supportive services + for people recovering from serious or chronic + illnesses, or who require assistance with + daily living activities, to avoid + institutionalization. + +* Increased funding for in-home services from + $2.4 million in fiscal year 1981 to a budgeted + $38 million for 1992-93. + +* Senator Gore led the fight for the "Medigap" + law to protect seniors from buying worthless + insurance coverage. + +* Sponsored a law establishing Alzheimer's + treatment centers. + +* Senator Gore was a leader in the fight to make + generic drugs more available and reduce the + cost of prescription drugs. + +Responding to the AIDS crisis + +* As chairman of the National Governors' + Association, Governor Clinton formed the first + working group of governors to develop an AIDS + policy. Clinton was a moving force in the + creation of an AIDS action plan adopted by the + Governors' Association, which called for + education and prevention efforts at the local, + state and federal levels. + +* Established the AIDS Advisory Committee for + Arkansas, which makes recommendations on HIV + policy and program services. + +* Developed confidential AIDS testing in all 75 + Arkansas counties. + +* Al Gore supported funding for Ryan White AIDS + programs, including research and education. + +* Voted to provide emergency relief to + metropolitan areas hardest hit by AIDS. + +* Promoted development of a full range of + services including in-home assistance such as + chore services, personal care, home nursing + care, and home delivered meals, and + community-based services such as + transportation, respite care, and friendly + visiting. + +Improving the health of all Americans + +* Strengthened the Arkansas State Employees + Health Insurance Program. Between 1982 and + 1991, Arkansas' contribution increased by 335 + percent while the state employees' premium for + family coverage grew by only 89 percent. + Because the program is self-insured, it does + not pay premium taxes or produce a profit. + Currently, for every $1 collected, 97 cents + are paid in claims and only 3 cent in + administrative fees. The $200 yearly + deductible, 80/20 co-payment scheme and $5,000 + Stop-Loss provision provide some of the best + coverage in the nation to current and retired + public employees. + +* Proposed and passed a "bare bones" health + insurance coverage program, which will allow + employers who have not provided employee + health insurance for the previous 12 months to + offer a package without some services usually + thought to increase costs for employers and + employees. + +* Developed key programs to improve rural + health: the Rural Physician Recruitment and + Retention Program encourages physicians to + locate and practice family medicine in small + Arkansas communities; Rural Medical Practice + Student Loans and Scholarships provide support + for medical students agreeing to practice in + rural communities. + +* Enacted a 1989 law requiring the Director of + the Department of Health to establish and + administer quality standards for X-ray + facilities conducting mammography. + +* Appointed Dr. Joycelyn Elders State Health + Department Director. She has received the + National Governors' Assocation Distinguished + Service Award, the National Endowment of the + Arts' Mary Futrell Award for Creative + Leadership in Women's Rights, and the American + Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award. + +* In August 1992, Arkansas was one of twelve + states which received funding as part of the + Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State + Initiatives in Health Care Financing Reform + Programs. Arkansas was chosen for its + innovative approach to increase health + insurance coverage to residents and to contain + the escalating costs of health care. + +* Senator Gore conducted hearings that led to + the passage of the National Organ Transplant + Act, which Gore also helped write. The Act + established a national network to match organ + donors and recipients. +* Led efforts to establish and expand the + National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, which now + lists more than 200,000 potential donors. + +* Co-sponsored legislation to help strengthen + rural hospitals. + +* Wrote and steered to passage the Cigarette + Labeling Act to require stronger warning + labels on the health effects of smoking. + +* Gore authored and helped enact into law the + Trauma Core Revitalization Act, which makes + grants to hospital trauma incurring + substantial uncompensated costs in providing + trauma care in areas of high rates of crime + related drug trafficking. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hertecon.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hertecon.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..81627b44 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hertecon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,185 @@ +THE HERITAGE OF ECONOMIC LIBERTY + +By RICHARD M. EBELING + +For the Founding Fathers, economic liberty was inseparable +from the case for political freedom. Many of the grievances +enumerated in the Declaration of Independence concern British +infringements on the free movement of goods and men between +the thirteen colonies and the rest of the world. + +It was not a coincidence that the same year that saw the +Declaration of Independence also saw the publication of Adam +Smith's Wealth of Nations. Both represented the ideas of the +age. When Smith spoke of a "system of natural liberty" in +which, "every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of +justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interests +his own way and to bring both his industry and capital into +competition with those of other men," he was expressing the +economic vision of most of those who fought for freedom from +British imperialism in the thirteen colonies. + +Following independence, the thirteen independent states were +loosely bound together by the Articles of Confederation. Many +of the Founding Fathers, however, raised concerns about +economic policies which the sovereign states were +implementing. They had introduced various forms of economic +nationalism into their relationships with not only European +countries, but also among themselves. + +They imposed tariffs against the goods of other states. They +gave monopoly trading privileges to their respective citizens +in various lines of manufacturing and commerce. They passed +legal tender laws excluding or hampering the free choice in +media of exchange by private individuals. They entered into +trade wars with each other. Having broken free from the +shackles of British mercantilism when they declared their +independence in 1776, by the late 1780s the sovereign states +were all practicing that against which they had fought in the +war for independence. + +To overcome these economic barriers, the writers of the +Constitution (that replaced the Articles of Confederation in +1787) included in Article 1, Section 8 that, "the Congress +shall have the Power . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign +Nations, and among the several States . . ." + +For many, the meaning of "to regulate" in the Constitution was +meant to prohibit economic nationalism and make the several +states a single, unified free trade area. Most of the Founding +Fathers were very familiar with the free trade ideas of +Scotsmen like Adam Smith and David Hume and their French +colleagues, the Physiocrats. They knew that these free traders +were correct when they advocated the free movement of goods, +men, and ideas from one part of the globe to another. Freedom +and prosperity were to be linked together in one system of +human liberty. + +The philosophy of wide economic freedom was believed in and +advocated during most of the 19th century. Said Daniel +Webster, for example, in 1814: "It is the true policy of +government to suffer the different pursuits of society to take +their own course, and not to give excessive bounty or +encouragement to one over another. This also is the true +spirit of the Constitution. It has not, in my opinion, +conferred on the government the power of changing the +occupation of the people of different states and sections and +of forcing them into other employments." + +The same view was still respectable and defended toward the +end of the nineteenth century. President Grover Cleveland, in +his 1893 inaugural address, "condemned the injustice of +maintaining protection . . . . It perverts the patriotic +sentiment of our countrymen, and tempts them to a pitiful +calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from their +government maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of our +people, and substitutes in its place dependence upon +governmental favoritism." It created, President Cleveland +said, the spirit of governmental "paternalism." + +While the United States government never completely removed +itself from the economic affairs of the people, broad economic +freedom was more the rule than the exception in the last +century. Why? To quote Daniel Webster once more, "The general +sense of this age sets with a strong current in favor of +freedom of commercial intercourse and unrestrained action." +Economic liberty, Webster argued, was "the general tide of +opinion." + +In our time, the general tide of opinion in the United States +has not been kind to either freedom of commercial intercourse +or unrestrained individual action. The reverse has been the +case. Listen to two voices from the contemporary business +community. + +Lee Iacocca believes that, "the 1980s were a time of quick +bucks, greed, and a lot of corruption . . . . [W]e've got to +work and pull this country up by its bootstrap." And Mr. +Iacocca sees an important role for government in guiding us +away from our "lustful and greedy" ways. + +Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, argues that, "getting +rid of General Noriega is important, but I wish the computer +industry would get a tenth of the space on our national agenda +that he has. We have to make these issues national +priorities." Technological achievements are still possible for +America, he believes, through "government leadership." The +problem is that "the private sector [is] dancing to its short- +run tune," while government leadership can offer us the long- +term vision for intelligent decision-making. + +Many economists no longer share Adam Smith's vision. Lester +Thurow, dean of the Sloan School of Management at MIT, says +that the Japanese "pick out an industry to conquer" and unless +we (read: the government) do something to stop their invasion +of America, "they" will own and control and "we" will work and +obey. Edward Ellwood, of the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of +Government, insists that, "We also need to make sure everybody +has medical protection outside of the welfare state. Every +other major industrialized country has found a way to do this. +In the next ten years, we will do the same . . . . We ought to +move toward a uniform national system of child support with +payments deducted automatically by the government from the +employer." + +For one hundred years, Adam Smith's economic system of natural +liberty has been under attack. The idea that men, left to +their own decisions, can make better choices for themselves +than a paternalistic government, and that free men interacting +with each other through voluntary exchange can produce more +wealth and prosperity than any form of government planning or +intervention, has been denied and often ridiculed. + +At the same time, the Marxist view of society has permeated +the conscience of the world, including America. Great wealth +and financial success bear the stigma of unscrupulous behavior +and deceitful conduct. How could a person or company have +accumulated so much wealth and influence in a market unless +they have been dishonest and exploitive? Besides, why does +anyone need so much while so many in the society still have so +little? + +The only solution to government regulation and redistribution +of wealth in 20th century America is an amendment to the +Constitution that recognizes and guarantees a separation of +the economy and the State. Only the establishment of economic +freedom on a par with freedom of speech, religion and the +press can assure that there will be fewer ambiguities +concerning the rights of the people and their economic +affairs. + +But such a constitutional reform will not be possible until +there occurs a change in "the general tide of opinion." Not +until people fully realize that the cherished freedoms under +the Constitution are truly protected only with inviolatable +private ownership of all property; not until people are +convinced that each man is a better judge of his own affairs +than any economic planner or social engineer; not until there +is a firm belief that a man has a right to that which he has +honestly produced or acquired through voluntary exchange; not +until it is recognized that redistribution of wealth through +the political process is merely one person plundering another +via the use of an elected middle man--will we be able to +remove the power of Congress to regulate and intrude into +peaceful and mutually-beneficial economic activities of the +American people. + +This Fourth of July, as we wave the flag and watch the rockets +red glare, let us also, as the Founding Fathers, "mutually +pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred +Honor" to awaken in ourselves, and all those with whom we +interact, a renewed faith in free men and an understanding of +the peace and prosperity that can only come from unhampered +free markets and free trade. + +Professor Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of +Economics at Hillsdale College in Michigan and also serves as +Vice-President of Academic Affairs of The Future of Freedom +Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the July 1990 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1990, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hestar.wh b/textfiles.com/politics/hestar.wh new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9cb7f0cc --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hestar.wh @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ + + + + + + + + +August 6, 1992 + + PRESIDENT BUSH ON HEAD START + + + "Many children need a Head Start, and we're going to make + sure they get it...[I]n Head Start we found a government + program that works...to strengthen families and + communities for the future." + -- President George Bush + January 21, 1992 + + + +Summary: Head Start -- A Program That Works. + +o Head Start now provides 622,200 pre-school children from low- + income families with a comprehensive child development + program. Stressing parental involvement, Head Start helps to + meet families' educational, health, nutritional, and social + needs. + +o President Bush believes deeply in the values of parental + involvement and volunteerism which Head Start promotes. The + program also reflects his stated goal that, by the year 2000, + all American children will begin school ready to learn. + +o Children enrolled in Head Start receive immunizations, medical + and dental care, speech and hearing screening, and social + services. Every program provides at least one meal per + session for enrolled children. A typical program lasts nine + months, with children benefiting from three to four hours of + services each day. It can take place in their homes, at a + central location, or in a combination of sites. + +o President Bush has more than doubled Head Start funding. His + Administration has proposed the largest single year funding + increase in Head Start's history -- $600 million -- in his FY + 1993 budget. The President also has worked to assure that the + parents of every interested eligible and disadvantaged child + have the opportunity to enroll their child in Head Start for + one year before starting school. + + + -more- + +Fact Sheet: Head Start page 2 + + +President Bush's Initiatives + +o The Bush Administration has improved Head Start in numerous + ways during his first term. + + -- Increased Funding -- When President Bush took office, + funding appropriated for Head Start was $1.235 billion. + The President proposed increased funding each year, with + the FY 1992 funding totalling $2.2 billion. If Congress + approves his request for next year, funding will increase + another 27%, to $2.8 billion, a 127% increase since the + President took office. + + -- Increased Participation -- When President Bush took + office, 448,000 children were enrolled in Head Start. + His funding proposal for next year would enable the + program to serve 157,000 more children than this year, + for a total of 779,200 children -- a record expansion of + 74% under President Bush. Over 800,000 Americans also + lent their time last year as Head Start volunteers, and + the President encourages more to do so. + +o Increased Effectiveness -- In addition to funding increases, + the President supports initiatives to make Head Start a better + program. These initiatives include: + + -- Drug Prevention -- The President's proposed FY 1993 + budget includes $30.6 million, $9 million more than this + year, to help Head Start families who face or are at risk + of facing problems stemming from alcohol or drug abuse. + + -- Evaluation -- The budget includes $12 million to monitor + the effectiveness of Head Start. + + -- Parental Involvement and Support -- The Administration + will continue to support and expand Head Start's new + Family Service Centers, which provide parents with + literacy, job training, and substance abuse prevention + services. + + + + + + + + + + -more- +Fact Sheet: Head Start page 3 + + + -- Easing the Transition -- To assure that Head Start + presents long-term benefits, the Bush Administration is + working to strengthen links between Head Start programs + and the schools Head Start children will enter. + President Bush has awarded $20 million to 32 communities + to develop collaboration strategies between Head Start + and local schools. The Department of Education is + working closely with Head Start to ensure that the + elementary school system builds on the accomplishments of + Head Start. + + ### + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hijack b/textfiles.com/politics/hijack new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ebadc50f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hijack @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ + + +**************************************************************************** + NUCLEAR TRANSIT + ON THE HIGHWAYS + + A PRIMER + BY + DATA LINE +**************************************************************************** + +Nuclear material doesn't magically appear at plants that make missiles and +bombs. It has to be transported by truck or train. The media has seen fit +to portray a totally false picture of the security surrounding the operation. +Getting enriched Uranium or Plutonium is seen as marginally difficult, just +force a lone semi off the road and loot it. I hope to give the true picture +of the task and of the equipment. +This report has been compiled with the help (knowing and unknowing) of the US +Department of Energy, the APCO Journal, and a source in FEMA. + + The Locations + +Oak Ridge,TN. Union Carbide runs a Uranium enrichment plant here. It has a + sister complex in Paducah Ky. that makes Uranium Hexafluoride, + a deadly gas that is sometimes transported on the Interstates. + +Amarillo,TX. The most dangerous city on earth. A little known factory, the + Pantex Company, takes the enriched fissionable materials and + assembles them into warheads. The equipment is vintage 1950. + Accidents are unheard of. They may happen, but the press + sure never gets word of them. + +Albuquerque, +NM. Sandia National Labs, under contract to the Depatment of Ener- + gy, performs research on weapons and radioactive materials. + Kirkland AFB, communications command center for the DOE is + also located here. + +San Francisco, +CA. Lawrence Livermore Lab also performs research on the more + classified aspects of nuclear ahemistry. + +Chicago, IL. Argonne Labs research "peaceful" applications of highly + radioactive metals and gases. Sure thing... + +Joplin, MO. The largest contractor of freight-hauling for DOE is based + in the Southwestern tip of MO. I'd like to take a tour of + Tri-State Motor Transit (TSMT) sometime. I'd also like an + unescorted day in the Pentagon. I have as much chance at + getting either one. + + The Transit Process. + +A surprise in store: the actual drivers are heavily armed, excellently +trained DOE Special Couriers. The ride to a spelly equipped sem 2 +ormi's and 4 to 5 support vehicles to a convoy. The support staff also +consists of Couriers in a variety of vehicles. Most of the time they include +a Motorhome, a Suburban (armored) and possibly a station wagon or two. +If a cop tries to pull over a semi, the entire convoy pulls over. A courier +in the offending vehicle uses the PA to announce the nature of the convoy, and + +will exit the truck if requested. The driver NEVER exits. + + Spotting a Convoy + + The actual semi's are usually unmarked (DOE-owned), or are turquoise with +regular silver trailers that may bear the logo TSMT. In NO case will they +bear a yellow & black "Radioactive" Placard. DOE vehicles bear a single +license tag, blue on white, that starts with an "E". The semi's have what +appears to be a luggage rack on the top. This is an antenna. They may +stop at weigh stations, but will be waved on through. + + The Weapons + + Couriers are trained in use of the standard issue M-16, the M-60, and the +LAW rocket. They carry at least that amount of weapons with them, and +possibly the new Viper Antitank weapon. Other items include gas (BZ, CS) +and maybe a few goodies from the Farm... Their training in Colorado Springs, +CO. takes about 3 months and covers everything from evasive driving with a +130,000 pound armored tractor-trailer to recovery of fissionable material +from adversaries to emergency field evacuation and containment. Their +trucks are probably the best weapons. DOE-owned vehicles, used for the most +hazardous materials (transit of old warheads for reconditioning) are totally +covered by a classified thickness of nickel or aluminium armor (That's right, +Aluminium in an alloy form with other metals). The trailers are rigged with +nozzles that will envelop a terrorist who manages to open the doors with a +mountain of fast-hardening urea (insulating) foam, suffocating him and hiding +the warhead/Plutonium with a thick coat of the stuff. + + Forget it. + The condition of each truck on the road is updated by couriers every 15 +minutes by Shortwave to the Command Post in NM. The transmissions are in +encrypted digital bursts on 11.555, 7.700 and 3.335 MHz, USB. Rarely you +can hear the base speak with a Courier. Intra-convoy communications are +handled with low-power VHF radios on 164.375 and 164.225 MHz. They were +duped by those shitheads at Motorola into buying Digital Voice protection, +a scrambling system. Granted, you can't understand what they're saying +(probably stuff like "Wanna eat at Denny's or go to the Truck Stop?"). +Basic SIGINT still tells you that prescence of ANY transmissions means a +convoy is close. Listen for what sounds like a squelch burst and a tone +at the end, that's the DVP. + If a trouble signal is transmitted to the CP, a number of things happen. +First, the dispatcher attempts to reach the convoy by SW to find the nature +of the problem; accident, out of beer, or terrorist atta#k. The first re- +sponse will bring out an EOD team from the nearest Army base and added +Albuquerque. They contact the respective State Police agency for local +coordination. In case of attack, I can't really say what will hn be- +cause I don't know. Speculating, I believe the Army's response will be much +greater. Instead of MP's, combat troops will be airlifted along with the +Decon. and Emergency Ordnance Disposal troops. State police will also flood +the area and seal if off, with local units merely handling roadblocks at +the perimeters. Any non-authorized (non-government) aircraft passing near +the area will be either escorted out by the TAC, or be downed. This includes +news media choppers. NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) will be called at +once to aid in locating possibly contaminated areas and assist in finding any +missing fissionable material. If an intact warhead is found to be missing, +a national state of emergency will be declared until the situation is re- +solved. This means a callup of National Guard and the Reserves, as well as +placing all active military personnel on full alert. It also means that +various civil rights will be curtailed and c sehis is soe +siou shit. TheNational Emrgny omand Alet Post (NECP, a.k.a +FlyWhouse willbeoe ctive, as wel ALL U.S. Miitto pull sometricks sine wed be +rathy ae. + The terrorists wouldn't have a chance in hell. Detonating a bomb would +probably wipe ou the entire unch of asholes and hey wouldn'thave +gained hing. A good ngotiator wold stretch theordeal outso hat +our maren wouldget a shot. Ormore likely, tey woud evacuate he +area (There'd be no wy o imdive off wih the omb h Coriers' +first job shouldbetoeliminll mens of escam th area). Per +sonally,I'dus poiso gas or I's nontening, saferthan +shooting and silent as we for "th +cause" in front of AmericaI doubtif the grop would eve be iinti- +fied or their true demands known. A large number of both real terrorists +(e.g. FALN, M-19, Animal rights and splinter anti-abortion factions) and +Intelligence (CIA and DOE) created groups would claim responsibility so +the organizations would see how unproductive pulling such a stunt would +be in the future - no exclusive media attention means no gain. + +Note to any Federal agency who gets hold of this. I want to work for +DOE intelligence. All of this is put together from unclassified sources. +If it's good enough to get me in trouble, wouldn't you agree I'd be good +to have working for your organization?? Think of this as a Resume. +You know how to get hold of me, I'm sure. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hoffman.edt b/textfiles.com/politics/hoffman.edt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fa83e050 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hoffman.edt @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ + + + + In Memoriam + + ABBIE HOFFMAN + + 1937-1989 + +Abbie Hoffman, founder of the Youth International Party, (The Yippies) +was found dead in bed late last night. Pending an autopsy, it appears + he died of natural causes. + +Abbie was perhaps the archetype of a "Sixties Radical" - a member of +the CHICAGO SEVEN, went underground after being convicted of "selling +cocaine" (believed by many to have been framed) and after plastic +surgery to alter his appearance, became an environmental activist in +upstate New York. He surfaced and served a reduced sentence, and had +been lecturing and writing for the last few years. + + +Abbie Hoffman, founder of the Youth International Party, (The Yippies) +was found dead in bed late last night. Pending an autopsy, it appears + he died of natural causes. + +Abbie was perhaps the archetype of a "Sixties Radical" - a member of +the CHICAGO SEVEN, went underground after being convicted of "selling +cocaine" (believed by many to have been framed) and after plastic +surgery to alter his appearance, became an environmental activist in +upstate New York. He surfaced and served a reduced sentence, and had +been lecturing and writing for the last few years. + +His work (notably a book titled STEAL THIS BOOK) should be required +reading for every 14-year-old. + + My world just got a little darker. + +Michael Hofer +SysOp, The Ancient Pond +516-935-2027 + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hogs.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hogs.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4db81816 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hogs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ + Honorable Secretary of Agriculture + Washington, DC + + Dear Sir: + + My friend, Ed Peterson, over at Wells, Iowa, received a check + for $1,000.00 from the government for not raising hogs. So, I + want to go into the "not raising hogs" business next year. + + What I want to know is, in your opinion, what is the best kind + of farm not to raise hogs on, and what is the best breed of hogs + not to raise? I want to be sure that I approach this endeavor in + keeping with all government policies. I would prefer not to raise + Razorbacks, but if that is not a good breed not to raise, then I + will just as gladly not raise Yorkshires or Durocs. + + As I see it, the hardest part of this program will be keeping + an accurate inventory of how many hogs I haven't raised. + + My friend, Peterson, is very joyful about the futures of the + business. He has been raising hogs for twenty years or so, and + the best he ever made on them was $422.00 in 1968, until this + year, when he got your check for $1000.00 for not raising hogs. + + If I get $1,000.00 for not raising 50 hogs, will I get $2,000. + for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small scale at + first, holding myself down to about 4,000 hogs not raised, which + will mean about $80,000.00 for the first year. Then I can afford + an airplane. + + Now another thing, these hogs that I will not raise, will not + eat 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you pay farmers + not to raise corn and wheat. Will I qualify for payments for not + raising corn and wheat not to feed the 4,000 hogs I am not going + to raise? + + Also, I am considering the "not milking cows" business, so + send me any information you have on that also. + + In view of these circumstances, you understand that I will be + totally unemployed and plan to file for unemployment and food + stamps. + + Be assured you will have my vote in the coming election. + + Patriotically yours: + + xxxxxxxxx + + P.S. Would you please notify me when you plan to distribute + more free cheese?? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hormesis b/textfiles.com/politics/hormesis new file mode 100644 index 00000000..86da63c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hormesis @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +~ ====================================== + | Radiation Hormesis After 85 Years | + |------------------------------------| + | Background Radiation | + | is Good For You | + ====================================== + + Why does your pancreas secrete only when food has passed through the stomach? In 1902, an English physiologist, E. Starling, discovered that an acid estract of duodenum contained "secretin" that, when discharged into blood, stimulated the pancreas to secrete. By 1904, he coined the word "hormone" to designate any substance produced in small amounts, but carried in blood to influence some other organ. It is from the Greek "Hormo," meaning, "To excite." + + A pharmaceutical principal practiced by the ancients was: A weak stimulus might stimulate what the same, but stronger, stimulus inhibits. No medieval poisoner would dare kill somebody without first tasting the poison. Alchemists all knew that a poison taken in small dosage was dangerous. A few generations ago, physicians carried strychnine in their bags for aged 50 year old patients. Only in high dose was it considered a harmful poison; prescriptions were intended to be for a stimulating tonic. + + ================================= + | Toxicity is a matter of dose. | + ================================= + + No substance is without toxic effects at improper dose. Consider the most dangerous substance known to man: Oxygen. It adversely affects the body at 5% too low a concentration. Moderate oxygen deficiency however, stimulates RBC production. Many common substances, such as nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, and even water, have mild effects in low doses, but are deadly with large dosage. + + For a hundred years, pharmacologists gave groups of animals various doses and plotted the percent killed against the dosage. The amount of a drug that killed 50% of the animals became the drug's LD-50 (Lethal Dose for 50%). The complete curve was sigmoid, but an LD-90 could be "statistically significant" in a very small population. With few dead at LD-10, it took many animals and lots of time to find "significance." Hence, the low end of the curve was often "approximated." Few pharmacologists paid attention to very low-dose effects. + + ====================================== + | The Word "Hormesis" is Introduced. | + ====================================== + + However, physiological chemistry (biochemistry's proper name during the 1920's) blossomed around vitamins and hormones, both low dose materials. C. Southam and J. Erlich found that concentrations of oak bark extract inhibited fungal growth, but in low dose it stimulated fungal growth. Publishing in Phytopathology 33:517, 1943, the modified Starling's word to "Hormesis" which described stimulation by low doses of agents that are harmful, even lethal at high dose. + + After World War II, antibiotics were released to agricultural chemists. During the 1950's, T. Luckey and colleagues were feeding antibiotics to livestock, expecting that the suppression of intestinal flora would decrease growth. Instead, they discovered that low dose dietary antibiotics caused a surge in growth. Since then, feeding antibiotics has become standard practice for poultry, pigs and cattle. Experiments in germ free birds demonstrated a true chemical hormesis. In surveying the literature, T. Luckey found that hormesis was common, particularly when the "dose" was of ionizing radiation. + + One of the first studies in radio-biology (1898) found that X-irradiated algae grew faster than unirradiated control groups. Stimulated growth was noted in trees (1908) and increased life span in invertebrates (1918) and insects (1919). X-Rays stimulated seedlings (1927), plant growth (1937), along with guinea pigs, rabbits and mice (1940's). Increased life span was the rule in low dose irradiated rats, dogs, and even house flies (1950's). In a 1981 monograph (CRC Press), T. Luckey revived the term "hormesis," but this time with ionizing radiation and backed it up with a review of over 1250 articles from 85 years of experimental biology. + + ======================= + | Radiation Danger | + | Takes the Spotlight | + ======================= + + Before 1900, about ten articles mentioned a probable hormetic response to X-rays, then two or three articles were published each year, until the death, in 1906, of an English radiotherapist from overexposure caused the first radiation hysteria. (ArRR, 1906-1910) Skin damage to number of German and French radiotherapists led to a new emphasis on protection from damage. Before World War I, and into the thirties, about ten articles a year mentioned a hormetic effect, but the idea did not grow. + + ================================== + | Why Didn't Hormesis Take Hold? | + ================================== + + A Russian histologist, Alexander Gurwitsch, had discovered in 1923 that living cells gave off a form of radiant energy that stimulated other growing tissues. (RA 100:11, 1923) "Gurwitsch" rays were confirmed outside of Russia, then denied. During the 1930's, major WPA radiobiology programs studied these "mitogenetic rays," but with World War II, geneticists and biologists dismissed the idea with shame. The rays taught radiobiologists how to juggle numbers and live off a government dole. + + In 1925, H. Martland described 18 female radium dial (like those glow in the dark watch faces, etc.) painters. After tipping brushes with their lips for five years, these high dose recipients developed necrosis of the jaw bones and profound anemia. Other high dose patients, including possible osteosarcomas were, and still are, described in tabloid scandal sheets. No newspaper ever featured the 30 year followup of 1155 low dose radium dial painters who had fewer cancers than the general population and lived longer. + + In 1926, H. Muller published his work on genetic damage from irradiation of fruit flies. X-rays soon became standard for producing fruit fly mutations. In the 1930's, "Radiation" became synonymous among geneticists, with chromosome damage. Chromosome defects of unknown significance occur in man after high dose, but postulated mutations after low dose are all mathematical extrapolations from data on fruit flies and mice. + + =============================== + | Health Physics is Invented. | + =============================== + + The Manhattan Project expected large amounts of radioisotopes. Robert Stone gathered a new group, that he called Health Physicists, to monitor this largely unknown, possibly dangerous phenomenon. Their first experiment, rasing mice in an atmosphere of uranium dust, showed exposed mice living longer than controls. They set up an arbitrary Maximum Permissible Dose (MPD) after proving that mice in radiation fields ten times the MPD lived longer than controls. Thus Health Physics began with a high MPD, and ended the war with record safety. + + After World War II, almost 20 articles per year mentioned a hormetic effect in spite of a budding fallout hysteria. Health Physicists soon learned that their livelihood depended upon scaring the pants off Congress. H. Muller predicted a genetic catastrophe from A-Bomb exposure in a 1955 flurry of headline publicity. [No publicity was given the disproof 35 years later.] This was (at least for the media) scientific proof that radiation cause such things as two headed babies. In 1957, a fire in a power reactor at Windscale, England, released 20 curies of I-131 into the atmosphere. Newspapers predicted thousands of thyroid cancers in end-of-the-world headlines (but failed to mention, 25 years later, that no biologic effect has ever been detected). + + ========================= + | Health Physics | + | is Self-Perpetuating. | + ========================= + + Health Physics and Genetics were supported lavishly by radiation hysteria, and Radiation Biology was the most intensely researched science in history. At the 1955 Atoms-for-Peace conference an English geneticist uttered heresy at the opening session. Background radiation, he said, was probably the cause of most mutations throughout evolution, and the human race had not done too bad. He was almost read out of science for this heresy. Every Genetics budget meeting, from 1955 to 1981 opened its request for funds wht an anti-nuclear litany. + + In spite of this atmosphere, during the 1960's and 1970's, about 40 articles per year described hormesis. In 1963, the AEC repeatedly confirmed lower mortality in guinea pigs, rats and mice irradiated at low dose. In 1964, the cows exposed to about 150 rads after the Trinity A-Bomb in 1946 were quietly euthenized because of extreme old age. + + ====================== + | A Little Radiation | + | Is Good for You. | + ====================== + + In 1981, T. Luckey revived a very obvious radiation hormesis. No experimental evidence of damage at low-dose existed; self-serving extrapolations from high-dose data dominated Health Physics. One New York Health Physics bureaucrat passed off hormesis as a "theory" similar to evolution. But, in 1983, M. Brucer published an article in the Health Physics Newsletter entitled "Radiation is Good For You," and over 200 reprint requests indicated agreement with his position. + + In August 1985, a Conference on Radiation Hormesis in Oakland, California, recognized the reversal in concepts of radiation effects. Its Proceedings, published in the Health Physics journal in 1987, finally recognized that low dose radiation is not only good for you, it is essential to life. But how will Health Physicists now earn a living? + + =================================== + | This manuscript was typed | + | by | + | No Problem | + | Word Processing | + | | + | Academic, literary and business | + | are our specialties | + | | + | (314) 863-8931 24 Hrs. | + =================================== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/hous95.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/hous95.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5e2d04cd --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/hous95.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1391 @@ + 5-23-95 + + UNITED STATES CONGRESS + + HOUSE DIRECTORY + + 104th Congress + 1995-96 + + + Cannon=Cannon Building + LHOB=Longworth House Office Bulding + RHOB=Rayburn House Office Building + + Address: Washington, D.C. 20515 + + E-Mail correspondence may be limited to constituents. Include your + mailing address with your e-mail message if a response is desired. + + + DS ST Representative (Party) Phone & E-Mail Fax + == == ============================= ============== ============== + + 0 AK Young, Don (R) 1-202-225-5765 1-202-225-0425 + 2331 RHOB + + 1 AL Callahan, H. L. (R) 1-202-225-4931 1-202-225-0562 + 2418 RHOB + + 2 AL Everett, Terry (R) 1-202-225-2901 na + 208 Cannon everett@hr.house.gov + + 3 AL Browder, Glen (D) 1-202-225-3261 1-202-225-9020 + 2344 RHOB + + 4 AL Bevill, Thomas (D) 1-202-225-4876 1-202-225-1604 + 2302 RHOB + + 5 AL Cramer Jr, Robert E. (D) 1-202-225-4801 1-202-225-4392 + 236 Cannon budmail@hr.house.gov + + 6 AL Bachus, Spencer (R) 1-202-225-4921 1-202-225-2082 + 127 Cannon + + 7 AL Hilliard, Earl F. (D) 1-202-225-2665 1-202-226-0772 + 1007 LHOB + + + 1 AR Lincoln, Blanche Lambert (D) 1-202-225-4076 1-202-225-4654 + 1204 LHOB + + 2 AR Thornton, Raymond (D) 1-202-225-2506 1-202-225-9273 + 1214 LHOB + + 3 AR Hutchinson, Tim (R) 1-202-225-4301 1-202-226-1163 + 1005 LHOB + + 4 AR Dickey, Jay (R) 1-202-225-3772 1-202-225-1314 + 230 Cannon jdickey@hr.house.gov + + + AS Faleomavaega, Eni F.H. (D) 1-202-225-8577 1-202-225-8757 + 2422 RHOB + + + 1 AZ Salmon, Matthew (R) 1-202-225-2635 1-202-225-3405 + 115 Cannon + + 2 AZ Pastor, Ed (D) 1-202-225-4065 1-202-225-1655 + 223 Cannon edpastor@hr.house.gov + + 3 AZ Stump, Robert (R) 1-202-225-4576 1-202-225-6328 + 211 Cannon + + 4 AZ Shadegg, John (R) 1-202-225-3361 1-202-225-3462 + 503 Cannon + + 5 AZ Kolbe, James T. (R) 1-202-225-2542 1-202-225-0378 + 205 Cannon + + 6 AZ Hayworth, John (R) 1-202-225-2190 1-202-225-3263 + 1023 LHOB + + 1 CA Riggs, Frank (R) 1-202-225-3311 1-202-225-3403 + 1714 LHOB + + 2 CA Herger, Walter W. (R) 1-202-225-3076 1-202-225-3245 + 2433 RHOB + + 3 CA Fazio, Vic (D) 1-202-225-5716 1-202-225-0354 + 2113 RHOB + + 4 CA Doolittle, John T. (R) 1-202-225-2511 1-202-225-5444 + 1526 LHOB + + 5 CA Matsui, Robert T. (D) 1-202-225-7163 1-202-225-0566 + 2311 RHOB + + 6 CA Woolsey, Lynn (D) 1-202-225-5161 1-202-225-5163 + 439 Cannon woolsey@hr.house.gov + + 7 CA Miller, George (D) 1-202-225-2095 1-202-225-5609 + 2205 RHOB gmiller@hr.house.gov + + 8 CA Pelosi, Nancy (D) 1-202-225-4965 1-202-225-8259 + 2457 RHOB sfnancy@hr.house.gov + + 9 CA Dellums, Ronald V. (D) 1-202-225-2661 1-202-225-9817 + 2108 RHOB + http://www.house.gov/dellums/welcome.html + + 10 CA Baker, Bill (R) 1-202-225-1880 1-202-225-2150 + 1724 LHOB + + 11 CA Pombo, Richard (R) 1-202-225-1947 1-202-226-0861 + 1519 LHOB + + 12 CA Lantos, Thomas (D) 1-202-225-3531 1-202-225-3127 + 2217 RHOB talk2tom@hr.house.gov + + 13 CA Stark, Pete (D) 1-202-225-5065 1-202-225-0902 + 239 Cannon petemail@hr.house.gov + + 14 CA Eshoo, Anna G. (D) 1-202-225-8104 1-202-225-8890 + 308 Cannon annagram@hr.house.gov + + 15 CA Mineta, Norman Y. (D) 1-202-225-2631 na + 2221 RHOB tellnorm@hr.house.gov + + 16 CA Lofgren, Zoe (D) 1-202-225-3072 1-202-225-3336 + 118 Cannon + + 17 CA Farr, Sam (D) 1-202-225-2861 1-202-225-6791 + 1117 LHOB samfarr@hr.house.gov + + 18 CA Condit, Gary (D) 1-202-225-6131 1-202-225-0819 + 2444 RHOB + + 19 CA Radanovich, George (R) 1-202-225-4540 1-202-225-3402 + 313 Cannon george@hr.house.gov + + 20 CA Dooley, Calvin M. (D) 1-202-225-3341 1-202-225-9308 + 1227 LHOB + + 21 CA Thomas, Bill (R) 1-202-225-2915 1-202-225-8798 + 2208 RHOB + + 22 CA Seastrand, Andrea (R) 1-202-225-3601 1-202-225-3426 + 1216 RHOB andrea22@hr.house.gov + + 23 CA Gallegly, Elton (R) 1-202-225-5811 1-202-225-1100 + 2441 RHOB + + 24 CA Beilenson, Anthony (D) 1-202-225-5911 na + 2465 RHOB + + 25 CA McKeon, Howard P. (R) 1-202-225-1956 1-202-226-0683 + 307 Cannon tellbuck@hr.house.gov + + 26 CA Berman, Howard L. (D) 1-202-225-4695 1-202-225-5279 + 2231 RHOB + + 27 CA Moorhead, Carlos J. (R) 1-202-225-4176 1-202-226-1279 + 2346 RHOB + + 28 CA Dreier, David (R) 1-202-225-2305 1-202-225-4745 + 411 Cannon + + 29 CA Waxman, Henry A. (D) 1-202-225-3976 1-202-225-4099 + 2408 RHOB + + 30 CA Becerra, Xavier (D) 1-202-225-6235 1-202-225-2202 + 1119 LHOB + + 31 CA Martinez, Matthew G. (D) 1-202-225-5464 1-202-225-5467 + 2239 RHOB + + 32 CA Dixon, Julian C. (D) 1-202-225-7084 1-202-225-4091 + 2252 RHOB + + 33 CA Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D) 1-202-225-1766 1-202-226-0350 + 324 Cannon + + 34 CA Torres, Esteban E. (D) 1-202-225-5256 1-202-225-9711 + 2368 RHOB + + 35 CA Waters, Maxine (D) 1-202-225-2201 1-202-225-7854 + 330 Cannon + + 36 CA Harman, Jane (D) 1-202-225-8220 1-202-226-0684 + 325 Cannon jharman@hr.house.gov + + 37 CA Tucker III, Walter R. (D) 1-202-225-7924 1-202-225-7926 + 419 Cannon tucker96@hr.house.gov + http://www.house.gov/tucker/welcome.html + + 38 CA Horn, Steve (R) 1-202-225-6676 1-202-226-1012 + 129 Cannon + + 39 CA Royce, Ed (R) 1-202-225-4111 1-202-226-0335 + 1133 LHOB + + 40 CA Lewis, Jerry (R) 1-202-225-5861 1-202-225-6498 + 2112 RHOB + + 41 CA Kim, Jay C. (R) 1-202-225-3201 1-202-226-1485 + 435 Cannon + + 42 CA Brown Jr., George E. (D) 1-202-225-6161 1-202-225-8671 + 2300 RHOB + + 43 CA Calvert, Ken (R) 1-202-225-1986 1-202-225-2004 + 1034 LHOB + + 44 CA Bono, Sonny (R) 1-202-225-5330 1-202-225-2961 + 512 Cannon + + 45 CA Rohrabacher, Dana (R) 1-202-225-2415 1-202-225-0145 + 2338 RHOB + + 46 CA Dornan, Robert K. 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(R) 1-202-225-5435 1-202-225-6440 + 2400 RHOB + + 3 TN Wamp, Zach (R) 1-202-225-3271 1-202-225-3494 + 423 Cannon + + 4 TN Hilleary, Van (R) 1-202-225-6831 1-202-225-3272 + 114 Cannon + + 5 TN Clement, Robert (D) 1-202-225-4311 1-202-226-1035 + 2229 RHOB + + 6 TN Gordon, Bart (D) 1-202-225-4231 1-202-225-6887 + 2201 RHOB + + 7 TN Bryant, Ed (R) 1-202-225-2811 1-202-225-2989 + 1516 LHOB + + 8 TN Tanner, John S. (D) 1-202-225-4714 1-202-225-1765 + 1127 LHOB + + 9 TN Ford, Harold E. (D) 1-202-225-3265 1-202-225-9215 + 2111 RHOB + + 1 TX Chapman, Jim (D) 1-202-225-3035 1-202-225-7265 + 2417 RHOB + + 2 TX Wilson, Charles (D) 1-202-225-2401 1-202-225-1764 + 2256 RHOB cwilson@hr.house.gov + + 3 TX Johnson, Sam (R) 1-202-225-4201 1-202-225-1485 + 1030 LHOB samtx03@hr.house.gov + + 4 TX Hall, Ralph M. (D) 1-202-225-6673 1-202-225-3332 + 2236 RHOB + + 5 TX Bryant, John (D) 1-202-225-2231 1-202-225-9721 + 2330 RHOB + + 6 TX Barton, Joseph (R) 1-202-225-2002 1-202-225-3052 + 2264 RHOB barton06@hr.house.gov + + 7 TX Archer, William (R) 1-202-225-2571 1-202-225-4381 + 1236 LHOB + + 8 TX Fields, Jack (R) 1-202-225-4901 1-202-225-2772 + 2228 RHOB + + 9 TX Stockman, Steve (R) 1-202-225-6565 1-202-225-3483 + 417 Cannon + + 10 TX Doggett, Lloyd (D) 1-202-225-4865 1-202-225-3073 + 126 Cannon doggett@hr.house.gov + + 11 TX Edwards, Chet (D) 1-202-225-6105 1-202-225-0350 + 328 Cannon + + 12 TX Geren, Peter (D) 1-202-225-5071 1-202-225-2786 + 2448 RHOB + + 13 TX Thornberry, William (R) 1-202-225-3706 1-202-225-3486 + 1535 LHOB + + 14 TX Laughlin, Gregory H. (D) 1-202-225-2831 1-202-225-1108 + 442 Cannon + + 15 TX de la Garza, E. (D) 1-202-225-2531 1-202-225-2534 + 1401 LHOB + + 16 TX Coleman, Ronald D. (D) 1-202-225-4831 1-202-225-4825 + 2312 RHOB + + 17 TX Stenholm, Charles W. (D) 1-202-225-6605 1-202-225-2234 + 1211 LHOB + + 18 TX Lee, Sheila Jackson (D) 1-202-225-3816 1-202-225-3317 + 1520 LHOB + + 19 TX Combest, Larry (R) 1-202-225-4005 1-202-225-9615 + 1511 LHOB + + 20 TX Gonzalez, Henry B. (D) 1-202-225-3236 1-202-225-1915 + 2413 RHOB + + 21 TX Smith, Lamar S. (R) 1-202-225-4236 1-202-225-8628 + 2443 RHOB + + 22 TX DeLay, Thomas (R) 1-202-225-5951 1-202-225-5241 + 203 Cannon + + 23 TX Bonilla, Henry (R) 1-202-225-4511 1-202-225-2237 + 1427 LHOB + + 24 TX Frost, Martin (D) 1-202-225-3605 1-202-225-4951 + 2459 RHOB + + 25 TX Bentsen, Ken (D) 1-202-225-7508 1-202-225-7492 + 128 Cannon (or 225-2947?) + + 26 TX Armey, Richard K. (R) 1-202-225-7772 1-202-225-7614 + 301 Cannon + + 27 TX Ortiz, Solomon P. (D) 1-202-225-7742 1-202-226-1134 + 2136 RHOB + + 28 TX Tejeda, Frank (D) 1-202-225-1640 1-202-225-1641 + 323 Cannon + + 29 TX Green, Gene (D) 1-202-225-1688 1-202-225-9903 + 1024 LHOB ggreen@hr.house.gov + + 30 TX Johnson, Eddie Bernice (D) 1-202-225-8885 1-202-226-1477 + 1123 LHOB + + 1 UT Hansen, James V. (R) 1-202-225-0453 1-202-225-5857 + 2466 RHOB + + 2 UT Waldholtz, Enid (R) 1-202-225-3011 1-202-225-3491 + 515 Cannon enidutah@hr.house.gov + + 3 UT Orton, William H. (D) 1-202-225-7751 1-202-226-7683 + 440 Cannon ortonut3@hr.house.gov + + 1 VA Bateman, Herbert H. (R) 1-202-225-4261 1-202-225-4382 + 2350 RHOB + + 2 VA Pickett, Owen B. (D) 1-202-225-4215 1-202-225-4218 + 2430 RHOB opickett@hr.house.gov + + 3 VA Scott, Robert C. (D) 1-202-225-8351 1-202-225-8354 + 501 Cannon + + 4 VA Sisisky, Norman (D) 1-202-225-6365 1-202-226-1170 + 2371 RHOB + + 5 VA Payne Jr., Lewis F. (D) 1-202-225-4711 1-202-226-1147 + 2412 RHOB + + 6 VA Goodlatte, Robert W. (R) 1-202-225-5431 1-202-225-9681 + 123 Cannon talk2bob@hr.house.gov + + 7 VA Bliley Jr., Thomas J. (R) 1-202-225-2815 1-202-225-0011 + 2241 RHOB + + 8 VA Moran Jr., James P. (D) 1-202-225-4376 1-202-225-0017 + 405 Cannon + + 9 VA Boucher, Rick (D) 1-202-225-3861 1-202-225-0442 + 2245 RHOB ninthnet@hr.house.gov + + 10 VA Wolf, Frank R. (R) 1-202-225-5136 1-202-225-0437 + 241 Cannon + + 11 VA Davis, Thomas (R) 1-202-225-1492 1-202-225-3071 + 415 Cannon + + VI Frazer, Victor (I) 1-202-225-1790 1-202-225-3171 + 1711 LHOB + + VT Sanders, Bernard (I) 1-202-225-4115 1-202-225-6790 + 213 Cannon bsanders@igc.apc.org + + 1 WA White, Rick (R) 1-202-225-6311 1-202-225-3524 + 116 Cannon repwhite@hr.house.gov + + 2 WA Metcalf, Jack (R) 1-202-225-2605 1-202-225-4420 + 507 Cannon + + 3 WA Smith, Linda (R) 1-202-225-3536 1-202-225-3478 + 1217 LHOB asklinda@hr.house.gov + + 4 WA Hastings, Doc (R) 1-202-225-5816 1-202-225-3252 + 1229 LHOB + + 5 WA Nethercutt, George (R) 1-202-225-2006 1-202-225-3392 + 1527 LHOB + + 6 WA Dicks, Norman D. (D) 1-202-225-5916 1-202-226-1176 + 2467 RHOB + + 7 WA McDermott, James A. (D) 1-202-225-3106 1-202-225-9212 + 2349 RHOB + + 8 WA Dunn, Jennifer (R) 1-202-225-7761 1-202-225-8673 + 432 Cannon dunnwa08@hr.house.gov + + 9 WA Tate, Randy (R) 1-202-225-8901 1-202-225-3484 + 1118 LHOB rtate@hr.house.gov + + 1 WI Neumann, Mark (R) 1-202-225-3031 1-202-225-3393 + 1725 LHOB + + 2 WI Klug, Scott (R) 1-202-225-2906 1-202-225-6942 + 1113 LHOB + + 3 WI Gunderson, Steve (R) 1-202-225-5506 1-202-225-6195 + 2185 RHOB + + 4 WI Kleczka, Gerald D. (D) 1-202-225-4572 1-202-225-8135 + 2301 RHOB + + 5 WI Barrett, Thomas M. (D) 1-202-225-3571 1-202-225-2185 + 1224 LHOB + + 6 WI Petri, Thomas E. (R) 1-202-225-2476 1-202-225-2356 + 2262 RHOB + + 7 WI Obey, David R. (D) 1-202-225-3365 1-202-225-3240 + 2462 RHOB + + 8 WI Roth, Toby (R) 1-202-225-5665 1-202-225-0087 + 2234 RHOB + + 9 WI Sensenbrenner, F. J. (R) 1-202-225-5101 1-202-225-3190 + 2332 RHOB + + 1 WV Mollohan, Alan B. (D) 1-202-225-4172 1-202-225-7564 + 2427 RHOB + + 2 WV Wise Jr., Robert E. (D) 1-202-225-2711 1-202-225-7856 + 2434 RHOB + + 3 WV Rahall II, Nick Joe (D) 1-202-225-3452 1-202-225-9061 + 2269 RHOB + + + WY Cubin, Barbara (R) 1-202-225-2311 1-202-225-3057 + 1338 LHOB + + + corrections to grace.york@um.cc.umich.edu + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/housing.lft b/textfiles.com/politics/housing.lft new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a1262f2b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/housing.lft @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ + + + AFFORDABLE HOUSING + + A Libertarian Outlook + + by Gerald Schneider, Ph.D. + + + With housing costs so high, I am reminded of the need for +affordable housing, especially for the poor. What we lack are +public policies that provide affordable but sound shelter in +honest and competent ways. + Government money and oversight are not the answer. +Government housing programs, in fact, are unfair, inept, and +counterproductive. They reward government bureaucrats with high- +salaried jobs taken from tax revenues intended for the needy, not +the greedy. But not nearly enough of that money filters down to +the poor to solve their housing dilemma. + What can be done? Some suggestions follow: + + Get Government Out of Housing + + Phase out all government-owned housing, giving title to +apartments and buildings to tenants. Allow tenants to arrange +whatever ownership pattern they want (condominium, cooperative, +etc.). Alert nonprofit and other private organizations that +counsel tenants on ownership about the phase-out. + Dissolve the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban +Development (HUD) at the same time. Ditto for local government +housing agencies. Those expensive government bureaucracies, of +doubtful value to begin with, would no longer be necessary. +Millions of dollars would be saved! + + Establish Individual Ownership + + Assure "squatters" living in abandoned buildings that +government authorities will not toss them out just for living +there. This assurance of a "home" might even encourage squatters +to upgrade their living quarters through "sweat equity." Self- +pride of "ownership," even if temporary, could give new +incentives to squatters to improve their lives, too. + Permanent ownership by serious, long-term squatters on +genuinely abandoned or government-owned vacated property should +be allowed. Programs of urban and rural "homesteading" could be +renewed and expanded. + + Relax Apartment Regulations + + Laws that restrict or restrain homeowners from creating +apartments in underused single-family houses should be relaxed. +Such apartments could be provided quickly at low cost in contrast +to the time and expense for new construction. And apartments +added in that manner require no new infrastructure of streets, +sewers, and public amenities. + Also, the extra income from secondary apartments in single- +family houses could help needy homeowners become financially +independent. The elderly, for example, may live in houses larger +than they need because their children are gone. While the houses +may be mortgage free, the burden of government taxes can be +unbearable. Rental money from secondary apartments in their +houses can make the difference. + Properly enforced nuisance and negligence laws would resolve +neighborhood problems, if any, that secondary apartments in +single-family houses cause. Government licensing and approval +laws for these secondary apartments only frighten people away +from creating them. + More boarding houses should be allowed by local government +authorities. There is nothing wrong with people who have their +own bedrooms sharing a bathroom and kitchen. Costs for such +units would be relatively low, and, while this arrangement is not +for everyone, it would be better than many street alternatives. + + Eliminate Zoning Obstacles + + Finally, zoning laws and building codes that make new +housing needlessly costly should be ended. This includes +politically determined land-use density and building height +rules. Government should not stifle innovation for low-cost +housing through enforcement of outmoded and rigid construction +standards. + + Reprinted from THE WHEATON NEWS of Wheaton, Maryland, Nov. +25, 1987. For a one year subscription to Mr. Schneider's biweekly +"Libertarian Outlook" column, send $15 to: Gerald Schneider, 8750 +Georgia Ave., Suite 1410-B, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Copyright +1987 Gerald Schneider, Ph.D. + +(This is the text of one of a series of eight topical Libertarian +outreach leaflets produced by the Libertarian Party of Skagit +County, WA. The leaflets have a panel with National LP member- +ship information, with a space for other LP groups to stamp their +own address and phone number. Samples and a bulk price list/ +order form are available from: Libertarian Party of Skagit +County, P.O. Box 512, Anacortes, WA 98221.) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/housing.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/housing.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5f1d273b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/housing.txt @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ +***** Reformatted. Please distribute. + + + + CLINTON/GORE + ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL AMERICANS + + + +Home ownership and decent housing are an essential +part of the American Dream. For too many +Americans, that dream is unobtainable. + +Home prices have climbed out of the reach of +middle class Americans. Affordable housing is +often difficult to find for the working poor and +urban residents. During the Reagan-Bush years, +federal appropriations for low-income housing +assistance has dropped dramatically -- and a +massive housing shortage has been the result. +Millions of Americans have been left homeless on +our streets. + +We can reverse the trend by renewing our commitment +to provide decent, safe and affordable homes to all +Americans, and by forging a new alliance between +federal officials, local community leaders, +residents, and housing professionals. Bill Clinton +and Al Gore have a plan to make home ownership more +than a dream for millions of hard-working +Americans. We can't afford to do without it. + +Make home ownership a reality + +* Raise the ceiling on FHA mortgage insurance to + 95 percent of the price of a home in an + average metropolitan area. The increase will + enable half a million American families to buy + their first homes. + +* Make home ownership possible for more + Americans through federal support for + low-income, long-term housing buyout programs, + like Tampa's innovative Resurrection of + Affordable Housing Program. Innovative + packages of long-term subsidized financing + encourage low-income buyers to purchase, + restore and sell condemned housing. + +* Require HUD and the Department of Justice + Civil Rights Division to aggressively enforce + existing fair housing civil rights laws, to + open up housing opportunities currently closed + by discrimination. + +* Maintain the mortgage revenue bond program to + make affordable housing a reality for + thousands of Americans. + +Help America's renters + +* Strengthen the HOME program by giving more + authority and flexibility to the state and + local officials who administer it. Congress + created HOME in 1990 to provide additional, + quality rental housing for low-income + Americans, but at the Administrations urging + it limited localities choices in the use of + HOME funds. + +* Permanently extend the Low Income Housing Tax + Credit to spur private development of low- and + very low-income housing; the credit helps + produce more than 120,000 homes a year. + +Revitalize America through community development + + +* Put neighborhoods at the center of our efforts + to revitalize America by coordinating existing + housing, education, employment training, + health care, drug treatment and crime + prevention programs. Target resources + community by community to make the most of + scarce federal housing funds. + +* Create a nationwide network of community + development banks to provide small loans to + low-income businesses and entrepreneurs in the + inner cities. These banks will also invest in + affordable housing, and help mobilize private + lenders. + +* Create urban enterprise zones in stagnant + inner cities, but only for companies willing + to take responsibility. Business taxes and + federal regulations will be minimized to + provide incentives to set up shop. In return, + companies will have to make jobs for local + residents a top priority. + +* Ease the credit crunch in our inner cities by + passing a more progressive Community + Reinvestment Act to prevent redlining ; + require financial institutions to invest in + homes in their communities. + +New hope for low-income housing and public housing +residents + +* Empower low-income housing residents to expel + drug dealers and criminals from the buildings + in which they live: encourage programs like + the Chicago Housing Authorities Operation + Clean Sweep, which has helped housing + residents clean up buildings and kick out + criminals; give tenants a greater role in + building management to instill pride and + responsibility, and reduce bureaucracy. +* Preserve our nations multi-billion dollar + investment in public housing by ensuring that + adequate funding for maintenance and upkeep is + included in the HUD budget. + +Fighting homelessness + +* Transfer 10 percent of HUD and other + government-controlled housing to community + non-profit organizations and churches to house + the homeless. + +* Use the housing available at closed military + bases to house the homeless, giving preference + to homeless military veterans. + +* Develop targeted strategies to help different + homeless populations those who need + supported living environments, those who need + residential drug and alcohol treatment, and + those who need housing for their families + because they can't afford it. + +* Hold a Housing and Homelessness Summit with + urban leaders and mayors to create a new + consensus for poverty programs, funding + levels, and federal assistance for innovative + housing crisis solutions. + +The Record + +* Governor Clinton created the Arkansas + Development Finance Authority in 1985. ADFA + has a national reputation for developing + innovative and result-oriented housing + programs which have made possible the purchase + of thousands of homes for low and moderate + income Arkansans. ADFA also initiated a + five-state, first-of-its-kind bond issue which + preserved 46,000 low-income housing units + across the nation. + +* Founded the Arkansas Interagency Council for + the Homeless in order to prepare a plan to + address homelessness in Arkansas. As a + result, thirty state agencies have worked + together in efforts to help the homeless. + +* Senator Gore was an active supporter and + cosponsor of the National Affordable Housing + Act, which provides more affordable housing + for all Americans. The legislation also + encourages more partnerships between the + federal government, the private sector, and + state and local governments. + +* Cosponsored Fair Housing Amendments which add + families and handicapped individuals to the + list of protected groups and streamline the + procedures for enforcing fair housing + legislation. + +* Coauthored the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless + Assistance Act which authorized health care, + emergency food and shelter, child care + services and training for the homeless. + Senator Gore was also an original cosponsor + of the Stewart McKinney Reauthorization Act. + As the number of Americans who are homeless + increases, Senator Gore continues the effort + to fully fund Stewart McKinney homeless + assistance programs. + +* Cosponsored the Rural Homelessness Assistance + Act, which creates a grant program to treat + and prevent rural homelessness. The + legislation also makes FHA inventory housing + available for use as transitional permanent + housing. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ieee b/textfiles.com/politics/ieee new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3e15dec3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ieee @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +>>>>>>>>>>>>> THE IEEE REWARDS A STALINISTA STOOGE <<<<<<<<<<<<<< + +Russel C. Drew, +President, IEEE +345 E.47th Street +New York, NY 10017 + + 20 July 1988 +Dear Mr. Drew: + + As a Fellow of the IEEE, I would like to congratulate you on your +August column "The Doomsdayers Are Winning," though I think the IEEE +in general, and SPECTRUM editor Christiansen in particular, deserve +much blame for leaving the moral high ground to the politically moti- +vated charlatans by failing to point out the superior safety, health- +fulness and environmental blessings of nuclear power in comparison +with our present sources of electric power. + At the same time I wish to record my deep revulsion and disgust +over the IEEE Award for Outstanding Service in the Public Interest to +an armed supporter of the Nicaraguan totalitarians who was killed by +an unknown marksman, but presumably a guerrilla fighting against the +denial of freedom and human rights by the Sandinista oppressors. + The article in the August INSTITUTE report failed to point out +that Benjamin Linder was, at the time of his death, in the company of +armed Sandinista militiamen, and was himself armed with an AK-47 gun. +In mentioning the suit brought by his family, it failed to point out +that the family, as was Linder himself, are active members of the +extreme radical left (both parents active in Soviet-subservient pro- +Sandinista organizations, their children members of the Socialist +Workers Party, the largest of the US Communist parties of the +Trotskyite persuasion). + The circumstances of Linder's death are known from Nicaraguan +villagers and have been confirmed by the US government, but the IEEE +apparently prefers to believe a group with the revealing name IEEE +Society on Social Implications of Technology. + The Sandinista oppressors are sponsored, armed and trained by +the rulers of the Soviet Empire, the nearest thing to the Nazis (have +they invaded fewer countries? Have they killed fewer people?). The +main difference is that they clothe their totalitarianism in noble +talk about human rights, peace and brotherhood of nations. + Had Linder been shot, 44 years ago, by the Maquis as an armed +helper of the Nazi stooges in Vichy France, would the IEEE have cited +him for his "high moral standard ... [that] will inspire others to +follow his idealism?" + Sincerely, + + + Petr Beckmann + Fellow IEEE + memb.no.5207493F + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/imps-soc.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/imps-soc.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a1e1383a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/imps-soc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,182 @@ +THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SOCIALISM + +BY RICHARD M. EBELING + +In May, 1988, the Soviet newspaper, Pravda, ran an article +which summarized the condition of the Soviet socialist +economy: "Not one of the 170 essential sectors has fulfilled +the objectives of the Plan a single time over the last 20 +years . . . this has brought about a chain reaction of +hardship and imbalance which has led to 'planned anarchy' +. . . the disequilibrium has affected every pore of our +economy, and has become legendary." + +The term used in the article -- "planned anarchy" -- captures +the essence of socialism. But it also rings out as a +vindication of one of the greatest critics of socialism in the +20th century: the Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises. + +Seventy years ago, in 1920, the Soviet experience was only +three years old. But already, under the name of "War +Communism," Lenin's Bolsheviks had nationalized industry, done +away with market prices and wages, declared the end of a money +economy and introduced planning in the form of a centrally- +directed command economy. + +That same year, 1920, Ludwig von Mises published one of the +most important essays in the history of economics: "Economic +Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." In less than fifty +pages, Mises demonstrated clearly and irrefutably that +socialism was doomed to fail. He incorporated his argument +into his 1922 treatise, Socialism, An Economic and +Sociological Analysis. Here, the economic principles of a +socialist system were analyzed in the wider context of the +social, political and cultural pathologies of a collectivist +order. + +It is not an accident that every experiment with socialism has +created what Pravda called "planned anarchy," or as Mises +entitled one of his own books in the 1940s, Planned Chaos. +Even if we ignore the fact that the rulers of socialist +countries have cared very little for the welfare of their own +subjects; even if we discount the lack of personal incentives +in socialist economies; and even if we disregard the total +lack of concern for the consumer under socialism; the basic +problem remains the same: the most well-intentioned socialist +planner just does not know what to do. + +The heart of Mises' argument against socialism is that central +planning by the government destroys the essential tool -- +competitively-formed market prices -- by which people in a +society make rational economic decisions. + +A modern economy with an advanced system of division of labor, +sophisticated technologies and a wide variety of capital +equipment is just too complex for planners to successfully +organize and oversee. There is just too much knowledge (and +too many different types of knowledge) dispersed among too +many people. The planner is unable to centralize all of the +relevant and ever-changing information in a complex society. +He is unable to arrange everything in the economy in just the +right way in order to "get it right." + +Mises explained that in a market economy free of government +intervention, this problem which the socialist planner faces +is non-existent. The key, Mises said, is private property and +individual freedom. In a system of division of labor, in which +all of the transactions require the voluntary consent of +buyers and sellers, self-interest is (as Adam Smith argued +long ago) harnessed to the common good. No one can acquire +what someone else possesses unless he, in turn, offers that +person something he is willing to take in trade. Thus, +improvement in each individual's condition requires that he +consider the wants and desires of his fellow men. + +But in a far-flung, world-encompassing system of division of +labor, in which potential trading partners are separated by +time and space, how do people discover what they should +produce in order to satisfy the consumer demands of others? +And how do they produce efficiently, i.e., with the least +economic waste? + +Mises explained that the institution of private property made +all of this possible. Ownership and voluntary exchange create +opportunities for gains from trade. Competitive bids and +offers for various goods and services generate market prices +at which transactions are consummated. And these prices convey +useful information to everyone in the market about what +products are in demand in the rest of the world. + +At the same time, private ownership of the means of production +permits the acquisition and hire of resources and labor for +the production of goods that consumers may desire to purchase. +The competitive bids of entrepreneurs for the purchase of +those means of production generate market prices for the +necessary resources. These prices enable businessmen to +evaluate the relative value and profitability of using means +of production in alternative ways. They provide the means to +determine which products to produce in the economically least- +costly manner. + +Also, since money serves as the common medium through which +all transactions are undertaken, the market value of all goods +and services, and all means of production, are reduced to a +common denominator for simplified comparison and evaluation -- +their money prices on the market. + +This, Mises said, is what makes possible "economic +calculation" in a market economy. Men are free to make their +own choices. Market prices that arise out of those choices +enable each individual to acquire and share information about +what others desire in the market. The market provides the +method by which people can make their own free decisions in an +economically efficient manner. The entire process redounds to +the benefit of society as a whole. + +The problem with socialism, Mises insisted, is that it short- +circuits the "economic calculation" process. And it does so by +abolishing private ownership of the means of production and +eliminating peaceful, voluntary exchange. With no legal right +of ownership, there is neither ability nor incentive to buy +and sell; with nothing to buy and sell, there are no bids and +offers for commodities or resources; with no bids and offers, +there are no consummated exchanges; with no consummated +exchanges, there arise no market prices; and without market +prices expressing the relative values of commodities and +resources, there exists no rational way of knowing what they +are actually worth to people; therefore, businessmen cannot +know how they should economically and efficiently be used to +satisfy the wants and desires of the consuming public. + +The socialist planner, therefore, is left trying to steer the +collectivist economy blindfolded. He cannot know what products +to produce, the relative quantities to produce, and the +economically most appropriate way to produce them with the +resources and labor at his central command. This leads to +"planned chaos," as Mises called it, or to "planned anarchy" +to which Pravda referred. + +Ludwig von Mises was born on September 29, 1881. This month +marks the 109th anniversary of his birth. (He died on October +10, 1973 at the age of 92.) His greatest work, Human Action, A +Treatise on Economics, was published on September 14, 1949, +forty-one years ago this month. Throughout most of his life, +he was one of the most uncompromising defenders of human +liberty and the free market economy. And he was the most +important critic of socialism in the 20th century. + +But during his life, he was vilified and hated by a large part +of the intellectual community, including many in the economics +profession, around the world. What was his "crime"? In an era +in which the reigning ideology has been collectivism of one +form or another, in which the State has been worshipped as a +god, and in which unswerving obedience to the State is to be +given, Ludwig von Mises defended the individual and his +freedom against omnipotent governments. + +But he did more than that. He also tore to shreds the +socialist fantasy that proclaimed that prosperity could come +from central planning. He not only argued that prosperity and +freedom were compatible, he proved that prosperity could come +only through freedom and free markets. Socialism as a means +for improving the condition of man is impossible. + +Socialism is dying around the world. Those who have lived +under socialism are trying to rediscover the rules and +institutions of a market economy. Ludwig von Mises' life was +dedicated to showing why socialism had to die and why there is +no substitute for a free economy. His courage and devotion to +the principles of freedom shall stand as a model and ideal for +all of us to emulate in future ages. + +Professor Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of +Economics at Hillsdale College and also serves as Vice- +President of Academic Affairs of The Future of Freedom +Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the September 1990 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1990, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/independ.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/independ.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..040bd88b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/independ.txt @@ -0,0 +1,164 @@ + + + + DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE + In Congress July 4, 1776 + +The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America + + When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one +people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them +with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate +and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God +entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that +they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. + + We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created +equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable +rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of +happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted +among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; +that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, +it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to +institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and +organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely +to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate +that governments long established should not be changed for light and +transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that +mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to +right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. +But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably +the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute +despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such +government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such +has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the +necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of +government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a +history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct +object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To +prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. + + He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary +for the public good. + + He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and +pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his +assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly +neglected to attend to them. + + He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large +districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of +representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and +formidable to tyrants only. + + He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual +uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public +records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with +his measures. + + He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, +with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. + + He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause +others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of +annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; +the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of +invasions from without and convulsions within. + + He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for +that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; +refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and +raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. + + He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his +assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. + + He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of +their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. + + He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of +officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. + + He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the +consent of our legislatures. + + He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior +to, the civil power. + + He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign +to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent +to their acts of pretended legislation: + + For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; + + For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders + which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; + For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; + For imposing taxes on us without our consent; + For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; + For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses; + For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, + establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging + its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit + instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; + For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, + and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; + For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested + with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. + + He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his + protection and waging war against us. + + He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and +destroyed the lives of our people. + + He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries +to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun +with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the +most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized +nation. + + He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high +seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners +of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. + + He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to +bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, +whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all +ages, sexes, and conditions. + + In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in +the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only +by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every +act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free +people. + + Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. +We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their +legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have +reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement +here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we +have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these +usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and +correspondence. They too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of +consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which +denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, +enemies in war, in peace friends. + + We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, +in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the +world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the +authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and +declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE +AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all allegiance to +the British crown and that all political connection between them and +the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and +that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, +conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all +other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And +for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the +protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our +lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. + +[Signed by] JOHN HANCOCK [President] + [and fifty-five others] diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/indians b/textfiles.com/politics/indians new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0f8c1cba --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/indians @@ -0,0 +1,534 @@ + INDIAN ADDRESSES + + _To Brother John Baptist de Coigne_ + + Charlottesville, June 1781 + + BROTHER JOHN BAPTIST DE COIGNE, -- I am very much pleased with +the visit you have made us, and particularly that it has happened +when the wise men from all parts of our country were assembled +together in council, and had an opportunity of hearing the friendly +discourse you held to me. We are all sensible of your friendship, +and of the services you have rendered, and I now, for my countrymen, +return you thanks, and, most particularly, for your assistance to the +garrison which was besieged by the hostile Indians. I hope it will +please the great being above to continue you long in life, in health +and in friendship to us; and that your son will afterwards succeed +you in wisdom, in good disposition, and in power over your people. I +consider the name you have given as particularly honorable to me, but +I value it the more as it proves your attachment to my country. We, +like you, are Americans, born in the same land, and having the same +interests. I have carefully attended to the figures represented on +the skins, and to their explanation, and shall always keep them +hanging on the walls in remembrance of you and your nation. I have +joined with you sincerely in smoking the pipe of peace; it is a good +old custom handed down by your ancestors, and as such I respect and +join in it with reverence. I hope we shall long continue to smoke in +friendship together. You find us, brother, engaged in war with a +powerful nation. Our forefathers were Englishmen, inhabitants of a +little island beyond the great water, and, being distressed for land, +they came and settled here. As long as we were young and weak, the +English whom we had left behind, made us carry all our wealth to +their country, to enrich them; and, not satisfied with this, they at +length began to say we were their slaves, and should do whatever they +ordered us. We were now grown up and felt ourselves strong, we knew +we were free as they were, that we came here of our own accord and +not at their biddance, and were determined to be free as long as we +should exist. For this reason they made war on us. They have now +waged that war six years, and have not yet won more land from us than +will serve to bury the warriors they have lost. Your old father, the +king of France, has joined us in the war, and done many good things +for us. We are bound forever to love him, and wish you to love him, +brother, because he is a good and true friend to us. The Spaniards +have also joined us, and other powerful nations are now entering into +the war to punish the robberies and violences the English have +committed on them. The English stand alone, without a friend to +support them, hated by all mankind because they are proud and unjust. +This quarrel, when it first began, was a family quarrel between us +and the English, who were then our brothers. We, therefore, did not +wish you to engage in it at all. We are strong enough of ourselves +without wasting your blood in fighting our battles. The English, +knowing this, have been always suing to the Indians to help them +fight. We do not wish you to take up the hatchet. We love and +esteem you. We wish you to multiply and be strong. The English, on +the other hand, wish to set you and us to cutting one another's +throats, that when we are dead they may take all our land. It is +better for you not to join in this quarrel, unless the English have +killed any of your warriors or done you any other injury. If they +have, you have a right to go to war with them, and revenge the +injury, and we have none to restrain you. Any free nation has a +right to punish those who have done them an injury. I say the same, +brother, as to the Indians who treat you ill. While I advise you, +like an affectionate friend, to avoid unnecessary war, I do not +assume the right of restraining you from punishing your enemies. If +the English have injured you, as they have injured the French and +Spaniards, do like them and join us in the war. General Clarke will +receive you and show you the way to their towns. But if they have +not injured you, it is better for you to lie still and be quiet. +This is the advice which has been always given by the great council +of the Americans. We must give the same, because we are but one of +thirteen nations, who have agreed to act and speak together. These +nations keep a council of wise men always sitting together, and each +of us separately follow their advice. They have the care of all the +people and the lands between the Ohio and Mississippi, and will see +that no wrong be committed on them. The French settled at +Kaskaskias, St. Vincennes, and the Cohos, are subject to that +council, and they will punish them if they do you any injury. If you +will make known to me any just cause of complaint against them, I +will represent it to the great council at Philadelphia, and have +justice done you. + + Our good friend, your father, the King of France, does not lay +any claim to them. Their misconduct should not be imputed to him. +He gave them up to the English the last war, and we have taken them +from the English. The Americans alone have a right to maintain +justice in all the lands on this side the Mississippi, -- on the +other side the Spaniards rule. You complain, brother, of the want of +goods for the use of your people. We know that your wants are great, +notwithstanding we have done everything in our power to supply them, +and have often grieved for you. The path from hence to Kaskaskias is +long and dangerous; goods cannot be carried to you in that way. New +Orleans has been the only place from which we could get goods for +you. We have bought a great deal there; but I am afraid not so much +of them have come to you as we intended. Some of them have been sold +of necessity to buy provisions for our posts. Some have been +embezzled by our own drunken and roguish people. Some have been +taken by the Indians and many by the English. + + The Spaniards, having now taken all the English posts on the +Mississippi, have opened that channel free for our commerce, and we +are in hopes of getting goods for you from them. I will not boast to +you, brother, as the English do, nor promise more than we shall be +able to fulfil. I will tell you honestly, what indeed your own good +sense will tell you, that a nation at war cannot buy so many goods as +when in peace. We do not make so many things to send over the great +waters to buy goods, as we made and shall make again in time of +peace. When we buy those goods, the English take many of them, as +they are coming to us over the great water. What we get in safe, are +to be divided among many, because we have a great many soldiers, whom +we must clothe. The remainder we send to our brothers the Indians, +and in going, a great deal of it is stolen or lost. These are the +plain reasons why you cannot get so much from us in war as in peace. +But peace is not far off. The English cannot hold out long, because +all the world is against them. When that takes place, brother, there +will not be an Englishman left on this side the great water. What +will those foolish nations then do, who have made us their enemies, +sided with the English, and laughed at you for not being as wicked as +themselves? They are clothed for a day, and will be naked forever +after; while you, who have submitted to short inconvenience, will be +well supplied through the rest of your lives. Their friends will be +gone and their enemies left behind; but your friends will be here, +and will make you strong against all your enemies. For the present +you shall have a share of what little goods we can get. We will +order some immediately up the Mississippi for you and for us. If +they be little, you will submit to suffer a little as your brothers +do for a short time. And when we shall have beaten our enemies and +forced them to make peace, we will share more plentifully. General +Clarke will furnish you with ammunition to serve till we can get some +from New Orleans. I must recommend to you particular attention to +him. He is our great, good, and trusty warrior; and we have put +everything under his care beyond the Alleghanies. He will advise you +in all difficulties, and redress your wrongs. Do what he tells you, +and you will be sure to do right. You ask us to send schoolmasters +to educate your son and the sons of your people. We desire above all +things, brother, to instruct you in whatever we know ourselves. We +wish to learn you all our arts and to make you wise and wealthy. As +soon as there is peace we shall be able to send you the best of +schoolmasters; but while the war is raging, I am afraid it will not +be practicable. It shall be done, however, before your son is of an +age to receive instruction. + + This, brother, is what I had to say to you. Repeat it from me +to all your people, and to our friends, the Kickapous, Piorias, +Piankeshaws and Wyattanons. I will give you a commission to show +them how much we esteem you. Hold fast the chain of friendship which +binds us together, keep it bright as the sun, and let them, you and +us, live together in perpetual love. + + + + + + _To Brother Handsome Lake_ + + Washington, November 3, 1802 + + TO BROTHER HANDSOME LAKE: -- + I have received the message in writing which you sent me +through Captain Irvine, our confidential agent, placed near you for +the purpose of communicating and transacting between us, whatever may +be useful for both nations. I am happy to learn you have been so far +favored by the Divine spirit as to be made sensible of those things +which are for your good and that of your people, and of those which +are hurtful to you; and particularly that you and they see the +ruinous effects which the abuse of spirituous liquors have produced +upon them. It has weakened their bodies, enervated their minds, +exposed them to hunger, cold, nakedness, and poverty, kept them in +perpetual broils, and reduced their population. I do not wonder +then, brother, at your censures, not only on your own people, who +have voluntarily gone into these fatal habits, but on all the nations +of white people who have supplied their calls for this article. But +these nations have done to you only what they do among themselves. +They have sold what individuals wish to buy, leaving to every one to +be the guardian of his own health and happiness. Spirituous liquors +are not in themselves bad, they are often found to be an excellent +medicine for the sick; it is the improper and intemperate use of +them, by those in health, which makes them injurious. But as you +find that your people cannot refrain from an ill use of them, I +greatly applaud your resolution not to use them at all. We have too +affectionate a concern for your happiness to place the paltry gain on +the sale of these articles in competition with the injury they do +you. And as it is the desire of your nation, that no spirits should +be sent among them, I am authorized by the great council of the +United States to prohibit them. I will sincerely cooperate with your +wise men in any proper measures for this purpose, which shall be +agreeable to them. + + You remind me, brother, of what I said to you, when you visited +me the last winter, that the lands you then held would remain yours, +and shall never go from you but when you should be disposed to sell. +This I now repeat, and will ever abide by. We, indeed, are always +ready to buy land; but we will never ask but when you wish to sell; +and our laws, in order to protect you against imposition, have +forbidden individuals to purchase lands from you; and have rendered +it necessary, when you desire to sell, even to a State, that an agent +from the United States should attend the sale, see that your consent +is freely given, a satisfactory price paid, and report to us what has +been done, for our approbation. This was done in the late case of +which you complain. The deputies of your nation came forward, in all +the forms which we have been used to consider as evidence of the will +of your nation. They proposed to sell to the State of New York +certain parcels of land, of small extent, and detached from the body +of your other lands; the State of New York was desirous to buy. I +sent an agent, in whom we could trust, to see that your consent was +free, and the sale fair. All was reported to be free and fair. The +lands were your property. The right to sell is one of the rights of +property. To forbid you the exercise of that right would be a wrong +to your nation. Nor do I think, brother, that the sale of lands is, +under all circumstances, injurious to your people. While they +depended on hunting, the more extensive the forest around them, the +more game they would yield. But going into a state of agriculture, +it may be as advantageous to a society, as it is to an individual, +who has more land than he can improve, to sell a part, and lay out +the money in stocks and implements of agriculture, for the better +improvement of the residue. A little land well stocked and improved, +will yield more than a great deal without stock or improvement. I +hope, therefore, that on further reflection, you will see this +transaction in a more favorable light, both as it concerns the +interest of your nation, and the exercise of that superintending care +which I am sincerely anxious to employ for their subsistence and +happiness. Go on then, brother, in the great reformation you have +undertaken. Persuade our red brethren then to be sober, and to +cultivate their lands; and their women to spin and weave for their +families. You will soon see your women and children well fed and +clothed, your men living happily in peace and plenty, and your +numbers increasing from year to year. It will be a great glory to +you to have been the instrument of so happy a change, and your +children's children, from generation to generation, will repeat your +name with love and gratitude forever. In all your enterprises for +the good of your people, you may count with confidence on the aid and +protection of the United States, and on the sincerity and zeal with +which I am myself animated in the furthering of this humane work. +You are our brethren of the same land; we wish your prosperity as +brethren should do. Farewell. + + + + + + _To the Brothers of the Choctaw Nation_ + + December 17, 1803 + + BROTHERS OF THE CHOCTAW NATION: -- + We have long heard of your nation as a numerous, peaceable, and +friendly people; but this is the first visit we have had from its +great men at the seat of our government. I welcome you here; am glad +to take you by the hand, and to assure you, for your nation, that we +are their friends. Born in the same land, we ought to live as +brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening +to wicked men, who may endeavor to make us enemies. By living in +peace, we can help and prosper one another; by waging war, we can +kill and destroy many on both sides; but those who survive will not +be the happier for that. Then, brothers, let it forever be peace and +good neighborhood between us. Our seventeen States compose a great +and growing nation. Their children are as the leaves of the trees, +which the winds are spreading over the forest. But we are just also. +We take from no nation what belongs to it. Our growing numbers make +us always willing to buy lands from our red brethren, when they are +willing to sell. But be assured we never mean to disturb them in +their possessions. On the contrary, the lines established between us +by mutual consent, shall be sacredly preserved, and will protect your +lands from all encroachments by our own people or any others. We +will give you a copy of the law, made by our great Council, for +punishing our people, who may encroach on your lands, or injure you +otherwise. Carry it with you to your homes, and preserve it, as the +shield which we spread over you, to protect your land, your property +and persons. + + It is at the request which you sent me in September, signed by +Puckshanublee and other chiefs, and which you now repeat, that I +listen to your proposition to sell us lands. You say you owe a great +debt to your merchants, that you have nothing to pay it with but +lands, and you pray us to take lands, and pay your debt. The sum you +have occasion for, brothers, is a very great one. We have never yet +paid as much to any of our red brethren for the purchase of lands. +You propose to us some on the Tombigbee, and some on the Mississippi. +Those on the Mississippi suit us well. We wish to have +establishments on that river, as resting places for our boats, to +furnish them provisions, and to receive our people who fall sick on +the way to or from New Orleans, which is now ours. In that quarter, +therefore, we are willing to purchase as much as you will spare. But +as to the manner in which the line shall be run, we are not judges of +it here, nor qualified to make any bargain. But we will appoint +persons hereafter to treat with you on the spot, who, knowing the +country and quality of the lands, will be better able to agree with +you on a line which will give us a just equivalent for the sum of +money you want paid. + + You have spoken, brothers, of the lands which your fathers +formerly sold and marked off to the English, and which they ceded to +us with the rest of the country they held here; and you say that, +though you do not know whether your fathers were paid for them, you +have marked the line over again for us, and do not ask repayment. It +has always been the custom, brothers, when lands were bought of the +red men, to pay for them immediately, and none of us have ever seen +an example of such a debt remaining unpaid. It is to satisfy their +immediate wants that the red men have usually sold lands; and in such +a case, they would not let the debt be unpaid. The presumption from +custom then is strong; so it is also from the great length of time +since your fathers sold these lands. But we have, moreover, been +informed by persons now living, and who assisted the English in +making the purchase, that the price was paid at the time. Were it +otherwise, as it was their contract, it would be their debt, not +ours. + + I rejoice, brothers, to hear you propose to become cultivators +of the earth for the maintenance of your families. Be assured you +will support them better and with less labor, by raising stock and +bread, and by spinning and weaving clothes, than by hunting. A +little land cultivated, and a little labor, will procure more +provisions than the most successful hunt; and a woman will clothe +more by spinning and weaving, than a man by hunting. Compared with +you, we are but as of yesterday in this land. Yet see how much more +we have multiplied by industry, and the exercise of that reason which +you possess in common with us. Follow then our example, brethren, +and we will aid you with great pleasure. + + The clothes and other necessaries which we sent you the last +year, were, as you supposed, a present from us. We never meant to +ask land or any other payment for them; and the store which we sent +on, was at your request also; and to accommodate you with necessaries +at a reasonable price, you wished of course to have it on your land; +but the land would continue yours, not ours. + + As to the removal of the store, the interpreter, and the agent, +and any other matters you may wish to speak about, the Secretary at +War will enter into explanations with you, and whatever he says, you +may consider as said by myself, and what he promises you will be +faithfully performed. + + I am glad, brothers, you are willing to go and visit some other +parts of our country. Carriages shall be ready to convey you, and +you shall be taken care of on your journey; and when you shall have +returned here and rested yourselves to your own mind, you shall be +sent home by land. We had provided for your coming by land, and were +sorry for the mistake which carried you to Savannah instead of +Augusta, and exposed you to the risks of a voyage by sea. Had any +accident happened to you, though we could not help it, it would have +been a cause of great mourning to us. But we thank the Great Spirit +who took care of you on the ocean, and brought you safe and in good +health to the seat of our great Council; and we hope His care will +accompany and protect you, on your journey and return home; and that +He will preserve and prosper your nation in all its just pursuits. + + + + + + _To the Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation_ + + Washington, January 10, 1806 + + MY FRIENDS AND CHILDREN, CHIEFLY OF THE CHEROKEE NATION, -- +Having now finished our business an to mutual satisfaction, I cannot +take leave of you without expressing the satisfaction I have received +from your visit. I see with my own eyes that the endeavors we have +been making to encourage and lead you in the way of improving your +situation have not been unsuccessful; it has been like grain sown in +good ground, producing abundantly. You are becoming farmers, +learning the use of the plough and the hoe, enclosing your grounds +and employing that labor in their cultivation which you formerly +employed in hunting and in war; and I see handsome specimens of +cotton cloth raised, spun and wove by yourselves. You are also +raising cattle and hogs for your food, and horses to assist your +labors. Go on, my children, in the same way and be assured the +further you advance in it the happier and more respectable you will +be. + + Our brethren, whom you have happened to meet here from the West +and Northwest, have enabled you to compare your situation now with +what it was formerly. They also make the comparison, and they see +how far you are ahead of them, and seeing what you are they are +encouraged to do as you have done. You will find your next want to +be mills to grind your corn, which by relieving your women from the +loss of time in beating it into meal, will enable them to spin and +weave more. When a man has enclosed and improved his farm, builds a +good house on it and raised plentiful stocks of animals, he will wish +when he dies that these things shall go to his wife and children, +whom he loves more than he does his other relations, and for whom he +will work with pleasure during his life. You will, therefore, find +it necessary to establish laws for this. When a man has property, +earned by his own labor, he will not like to see another come and +take it from him because he happens to be stronger, or else to defend +it by spilling blood. You will find it necessary then to appoint +good men, as judges, to decide contests between man and man, +according to reason and to the rules you shall establish. If you +wish to be aided by our counsel and experience in these things we +shall always be ready to assist you with our advice. + + My children, it is unnecessary for me to advise you against +spending all your time and labor in warring with and destroying your +fellow-men, and wasting your own members. You already see the folly +and iniquity of it. Your young men, however, are not yet +sufficiently sensible of it. Some of them cross the Mississippi to +go and destroy people who have never done them an injury. My +children, this is wrong and must not be; if we permit them to cross +the Mississippi to war with the Indians on the other side of that +river, we must let those Indians cross the river to take revenge on +you. I say again, this must not be. The Mississippi now belongs to +us. It must not be a river of blood. It is now the water-path along +which all our people of Natchez, St. Louis, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, +Kentucky and the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia are +constantly passing with their property, to and from New Orleans. +Young men going to war are not easily restrained. Finding our people +on the river they will rob them, perhaps kill them. This would bring +on a war between us and you. It is better to stop this in time by +forbidding your young men to go across the river to make war. If +they go to visit or to live with the Cherokees on the other side of +the river we shall not object to that. That country is ours. We +will permit them to live in it. + + My children, this is what I wished to say to you. To go on in +learning to cultivate the earth and to avoid war. If any of your +neighbors injure you, our beloved men whom we place with you will +endeavor to obtain justice for you and we will support them in it. +If any of your bad people injure your neighbors, be ready to +acknowledge it and to do them justice. It is more honorable to +repair a wrong than to persist in it. Tell all your chiefs, your +men, women and children, that I take them by the hand and hold it +fast. That I am their father, wish their happiness and well-being, +and am always ready to promote their good. + + My children, I thank you for your visit and pray to the Great +Spirit who made us all and planted us all in this land to live +together like brothers that He will conduct you safely to your homes, +and grant you to find your families and your friends in good health. + + + + + + _To the Wolf and People of the Mandan Nation_ + + Washington, December 30, 1806 + + MY CHILDREN, THE WOLF AND PEOPLE OF THE MANDAN NATION: -- I +take you by the hand of friendship hearty welcome to the seat of the +government of the United States. The journey which you have taken to +visit your fathers on this side of our island is a long one, and your +having undertaken it is a proof that you desired to become acquainted +with us. I thank the Great Spirit that he has protected you through +the journey and brought you safely to the residence of your friends, +and I hope He will have you constantly in his safe keeping, and +restore you in good health to your nations and families. + + My friends and children, we are descended from the old nations +which live beyond the great water, but we and our forefathers have +been so long here that we seem like you to have grown out of this +land. We consider ourselves no longer of the old nations beyond the +great water, but as united in one family with our red brethren here. +The French, the English, the Spaniards, have now agreed with us to +retire from all the country which you and we hold between Canada and +Mexico, and never more to return to it. And remember the words I now +speak to you, my children, they are never to return again. We are +now your fathers; and you shall not lose by the change. As soon as +Spain had agreed to withdraw from all the waters of the Missouri and +Mississippi, I felt the desire of becoming acquainted with all my red +children beyond the Mississippi, and of uniting them with us as we +have those on this side of that river, in the bonds of peace and +friendship. I wished to learn what we could do to benefit them by +furnishing them the necessaries they want in exchange for their furs +and peltries. I therefore sent our beloved man, Captain Lewis, one +of my own family, to go up the Missouri river to get acquainted with +all the Indian nations in its neighborhood, to take them by the hand, +deliver my talks to them, and to inform us in what way we could be +useful to them. Your nation received him kindly, you have taken him +by the hand and been friendly to him. My children, I thank you for +the services you rendered him, and for your attention to his words. +He will now tell us where we should establish trading houses to be +convenient to you all, and what we must send to them. + + My friends and children, I have now an important advice to give +you. I have already told you that you and all the red men are my +children, and I wish you to live in peace and friendship with one +another as brethren of the same family ought to do. How much better +is it for neighbors to help than to hurt one another; how much +happier must it make them. If you will cease to make war on one +another, if you will live in friendship with all mankind, you can +employ all your time in providing food and clothing for yourselves +and your families. Your men will not be destroyed in war, and your +women and children will lie down to sleep in their cabins without +fear of being surprised by their enemies and killed or carried away. +Your numbers will be increased instead of diminishing, and you will +live in plenty and in quiet. My children, I have given this advice +to all your red brethren on this side of the Mississippi; they are +following it, they are increasing in their numbers, are learning to +clothe and provide for their families as we do. Remember then my +advice, my children, carry it home to your people, and tell them that +from the day that they have become all of the same family, from the +day that we became father to them all, we wish, as a true father +should do, that we may all live together as one household, and that +before they strike one another, they should go to their father and +let him endeavor to make up the quarrel. + + My children, you are come from the other side of our great +island, from where the sun sets, to see your new friends at the sun +rising. You have now arrived where the waters are constantly rising +and falling every day, but you are still distant from the sea. I +very much desire that you should not stop here, but go and see your +brethren as far as the edge of the great water. I am persuaded you +have so far seen that every man by the way has received you as his +brothers, and has been ready to do you all the kindness in his power. +You will see the same thing quite to the sea shore; and I wish you, +therefore, to go and visit our great cities in that quarter, and see +how many friends and brothers you have here. You will then have +travelled a long line from west to east, and if you had time to go +from north to south, from Canada to Florida, you would find it as +long in that direction, and all the people as sincerely your friends. +I wish you, my children, to see all you can, and to tell your people +all you see; because I am sure the more they know of us, the more +they will be our hearty friends. I invite you, therefore, to pay a +visit to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and the cities still +beyond that, if you are willing to go further. We will provide +carriages to convey you and a person to go with you to see that you +want for nothing. By the time you come back the snows will be melted +on the mountains, the ice in the rivers broken up, and you will be +wishing to set out on your return home. + + My children, I have long desired to see you; I have now opened +my heart to you, let my words sink into your hearts and never be +forgotten. If ever lying people or bad spirits should raise up +clouds between us, call to mind what I have said, and what you have +seen yourselves. Be sure there are some lying spirits between us; +let us come together as friends and explain to each other what is +misrepresented or misunderstood, the clouds will fly away like +morning fog, and the sun of friendship appear and shine forever +bright and clear between us. + + My children, it may happen that while you are here occasion may +arise to talk about many things which I do not now particularly +mention. The Secretary at War will always be ready to talk with you, +and you are to consider whatever he says as said by myself. He will +also take care of you and see that you are furnished with all +comforts here. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/inf b/textfiles.com/politics/inf new file mode 100644 index 00000000..515bdc7e --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/inf @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +March 1988 (vol. 4, #3) +1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9, Tucson, AZ 85716 c 1988 J Orient + + MAKING THE WORLD "SAFE" + + -The INF Treaty promises to accomplish what the "peace" +movement failed to do with demonstrations: the removal of the +Pershing II missiles from Europe. Many cherish hope that this is +a step toward peace in our time. But a look at the arithmetic is +far from reassuring. + + Number of nuclear warheads to be dismantled: exactly +zero (0). + + Soviet ballistic missiles to be banned: approximately +eight (8)% of the total capable of reaching Free Europe +("approxi-mately" because the exact number of such missiles is +unknown). + + American ballistic missiles to be banned: one hundred +percent (100%) of those based in Europe and capable of reaching +the Soviet Union. + + Soviet leaders will sleep better at night once the +Pershing IIs are gone. The reason is that these missiles are +just a few minutes away from the Kremlin, and are accurate enough +to find their way down a preselected chimney, or to destroy a +Fuehrer bunker by a direct hit with a ground burst. They +threaten what the Soviet leaders value most themselves. + + The Pershing II also threatens vitally important military +targets: antiballistic missile sites and hardened command and +control centers. And unlike the MX and other American ICBMs, +which are deployed in sitting)duck mode, the Pershing II is +mobile, i.e. survivable. + + It is thought that Soviet compliance (or noncompliance) +with the deal can be verified. (According to the CIA, the +probability of detecting illegally deployed Soviet SS-20s, by +improved satellites not yet in orbit, is as high as 20%.) The +penalty for noncompliance is that we might not want to sign +another treaty with them. (Past noncompliance, however, hasn't +caused us to carry out such a dire threat.) + + It is quite possible that this deal might make Europe +safe from an actual Soviet strike. European hostages would +remain alive, their wealth undamaged, ready to be plundered at +will. If deterrence fails (due to absence of the deterrent +force), unconditional surrender is the back)up plan for +preventing nuclear war. + + But there will still be nuclear armed ballistic missiles +on Soviet and American soil and beneath the high seas. So the +possibility of nuclear conflict remains. + + Nonetheless, the INF Treaty is a necessary step in making +the rest of the world safe -- for a Soviet first strike against +the US. + + One year ago, Robert Jastrow warned that the US had five +years in which to construct a defense. March 23, 1988, will be +the fifth anniversary of President Reagan's "Star Wars" speech. + + As yet, no strategic defenses have been deployed. + + Only the government can construct a strategic defense. +But you can help with the first layer of "passive" defense. Have +you built your shelter yet? Or stored food for your family and +neighbors? + + +Arizona Calendar + +June 9. Arizona Medical Association Continuing Medical Education +Program, Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort, Tucson. To implement last +year's resolution favoring civil defense, a half)day educational +program on topics related to civil defense will be presented both +morning and afternoon. Dr. Petr Beckmann will discuss +"Chernobyl, Etc.: Nuclear Accidents and Terror." Dr. Arthur +Robinson will discuss "Radiation Effects from Nuclear Weapons." +Dr. Kenneth Lucas will speak on "Shelters: Lessons from the +Hamburg Firestorm." Mr. Eugene Zutell of the Arizona Division of +Emergency Services will describe "Nuclear Weapons Effects: Myths +and Realities." Dr. Jane Orient will show slides from the USSR +Department of Civil Defense, and a videotape describing actual +blast shelter tests. Mark your calendar and plan to take +advantage of this unique educational opportunity. + +Food Storage PlanKuoK + + A supply of food that would provide a balanced diet for +one person for a year can be purchased for about $100 plus +freight, if ordered in 20-person quantities from Prepared,ness +Products, telephone 801-292-3481. One truckload would provide +for 73 persons. Arizona residents interested in purchasing a +part of a truckload please telephone 325-2689. Make a purchase +before April 30, and get a discount on a subscrip,tion to the +Fighting Chance Newsletter. (If you can get a better price, by +all means take advantage of it.) + +Petition Your Government + + The least costly contribution you can make to the cause +of homeland defense is to obtain signatures on the enclosed +petition and mail it to the address at the bottom of the page. +Even a few signatures would be appreciated but be sure to xerox +the entire page if you'd like to obtain more. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/infohway.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/infohway.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0b042c2d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/infohway.txt @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ + + The Information Superhighways of Tomorrow + +Albert Gore, Jr. (C) ACADEMIC COMPUTING Magazine +U.S. Senate from November 1989 Volume 4 Number 3 +Tennessee Reprinted by permission + + In the next decade, we'll face many great challenges -- from finding +shelter for two million homeless men, women, and children to giving the +next generation of Americans the best schools on earth. But there will +be no greater economic challenge than the battle to ensure America's +leadership in advanced computer technology. + Supercomputers and networks to connect them are not just another +modern convience. I believe they will soon prove to ge the steam engines +of the Information Age. + In the next century, American competitiveness will depend largely on +how well we exploit our advantage in high performance computing. Super- +computers are going to change the way America thinks and does business. +In the next few years, supercomputers will enable us to design more +efficent car engines and home appliances, forcast the weather more +accurately and further in advance, test new kinds of molecules with +miraculous medical potential, and enhance oil recovery. With high speed +computer networks, a surgeon in Nashville can send a CAT-scan picture +to a colleague at the Mayo Clinic and get a second opinion instantly. +We'll even be able to use computers to design better chips. + But supercomputers will never be able to do all these things in the +future unless we increase access through high speed networks right away. +Last year, I chaired the first major Senate hearing on the state of +supercomputer technology and policy. The message of that hearing was +overwhelmingly clear: If the United States is going to be a supercomputer +superpower in the 1990's we had better start building a high capacity +national research computer network today. + Three years ago, I sponcered the Supercomputer Network Study Act to +explore a fiber optic network to link the nation's supercomputers into +one system. I introduced the bill on the 30th anniversary of the +Interstate Highway System because I believe that high capacity fiber +optic netowrks will be the information superhighways of tomorrow. I +envision a national network linking academic researchers and industry, +clustering research centers and businesses arund network interchanges, +and using the nation's vast data banks as the building blocks for +increasing industrial productivity and creating new products. My +legislation, which was passed as part of the 1986 National Science +Foundation authorization, led to a wide-ranging report on high performance +and supercomputer networks by the Office of Science and Technology Policy. + There are more than one hundred networks in the country, but coordination +among them is limited. The OSTP report found that these superhighways of +tomorrow were more like left-turn lanes at rush hour today -- low capacity, +overloaded, and unable to keep up with demand. Anyone who has used one +can attest to the difficulty of shifting from network to network to find +the right data bank, supercomputer, or colleague. + Dr. John Connolly from the University of Kentucky's Center for +Computational Sciences testified at my hearing that computer users will +be able to send high quality pictures and graphics through supercomputer +networks, but that demand for capacity far exceeds supply. He said the +nation may soon find itself in a "graphic jam". + Obviously, we cannot afford to let American competitiveness die of +frustration on the turnpike. We're making some progress. NSFNET, which +links regional networks to the five national supercomputer centers, now +transmits 1.5 megabits -- the equivalent of 50 pages of single spaced text +per second. By next year, the NSF expects to be running this network 45 +megabits, or an entire Sunday newspaper every second. + The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Academy of +Sciences have proposed a three-stage, multibillion-dollar program to +boost data transmission speed on the national research network to 3 gigabits +per second - 2,000 times the current speed -- over the next 15 years. In +my legislation, I called for making the 3-gigabit network a top priority. + The federal government is going to have to take the lead in making sure +our high-performance computing needs are met. We cannot afford to be +Complacement. Can we rely on the market system to provide this kind of +infastructure? We certianly couldn't where the Interstate Highway System +was concerned. Private industry benefited a great deal from the government's +leadership and investment. If companies are not yet interested in building +the networks we need, the federal government needs to get them interested. + This year, in May, I introduced the National High-Preformance Computer +Technology Act of 1989 which will accelerate the development of a national +information infrastructure. We must promote networks, services, databases, +and the common standards to develope a coherent national network. We must +forge ahead with research and development into artificial intelligence, +software, and hardware. And we must train our students to use and apply +technology. We must also examine telecommunicatins regulations that may +hinder the development of a network, and ease any unnecessary restrictions +that may stand in the way. + We manufacture 72 percent of the supercomputers in the world and we like +to tell ourselves that we're "ahead". But the real benifits of super- +computing don't come from making the machines. They come from using the +machines. + That is something our competitors understand. In France, for example, the +Minitel network of small home computer terminals has become a national +obsession. In Japan, the organization that targets key technologies came +up with a list of top priority projects that include a ten billion bit per +second fiber optic network. + Another reason to begin developing a bigger, faster, national network is +that our progress in other scientific fields is generating unprecedented +amounts of data. For instance, the mission to Planet Earth, an immensely +important project ot study the earth's environment from space, is going to +provide more information about the planet than we can handle. The Magellan +probe scheduled to depart for Venus later this year will send back a +trillion bytes of data -- enough information to fill 25,000 hard disks, +with more image data than has been collected by all previous planetary +probes combined. + America has made great strides in computer network technology and +development in the recent years. But for all our progress, we are still +just a few steps ahead of our competitors. + When you're in high speed, high stakes competition with the Japenese, +words of encouragement aren't good enough. Those who invent, build, perfect, +and apply the supercomputers that are going to make the American economy +more productive tomorrow deserve to know that the United States government +is ready to go all out for them today. + The Japenese have proved what a nation can accomplish with one powerful +idea and boundless determination. Now, it's America's turn to do the same - +- and after all, we were the ones who showed them how. Its up to us to renew +the American spirit, and make sure that the American people are ready for +the choice:to ride the bullet train of technological progress or shake our +heads in wonder as we watch it whizzing by. + +Note: This article is based on remarks prepared for National Net `89. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Albert Gore, Jr +U.S. Senate +Tennessee + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/intabort.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/intabort.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..800a17c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/intabort.txt @@ -0,0 +1,148 @@ + "Each day of the week this medical drama, or one very similar is + enacted in communities. Perhaps it is taking place at this very minute + in your town or city. + + Mr. and Mrs. R. live in a northern Ontario city, have three + children and sought permanent protection against unwanted + pregnancy. Mr. R. had a vasectomy, and although he was found to + be infertile on a subsequent sperm count, Mrs. R. became + pregnant a few months later. A repeat sperm count was positive + and a physical examination showed that the vans deferens, had + been severed on one side only. The other side had been + temporarily occluded due to swelling at the operative site,thus + leading to the previously false negative sperm count. + Mrs. R. sough an abortion of this pregnancy that she and her + husband had tried so hard to prevent. He physician informed her + that this was not possible in their city since the theraputic + abortion committee passed very few applications, and then only + in instances where the woman already had six or more children, + or where a psychiatrist had concluded that she was likely to + become insane if she could not have an abortion. + Mrs. R. was forced to make two trips to Toronto, hundreds of + miles away, at her own expense, to procure an abortion. The + first trip was necessary in order for her to be seen by the + gynecologist. She then returned home to await the deliberation + of the the theraputic abortion committee. On the second trip the + procedure was carried out in a Toronto hospital. + + Mr. and Mrs. R. were fortunate. They had the financial resources +that enabled Mrs. R. to go to such extraordinary lengths to get the help +she needed. But many Canadians are not so fortunate. These are the women +who do not have the money to travel great distances to get abortions +denied them in their own communities. They include married women who +have children and whose contraceptive methods prove ineffective, as well +as adolescent girls who get pregnant unwittingly, out of sexual +ignorance. + What are the options open to such a woman? She is unable to get +a legal medical service from her local hospital because that instution +interprets our abortion law in a manner which denies her the treatment +that her physician recommends. Keep in mind that her health insurance +premiums support that hospital. She cannot afford to travel to a larger +centre where the same abortion law is interpreted in a manner which +might enable her to receive help. + Her list of options has already shrunk considerably. Unless she +is willing to seek out and pay for the services of an illegal +abortionist, she must submit to a state of compulsory pregnancy. Since +very few married women with children are prepared to give up their +new-born babies for adoption, this woman and her mate become, by +definition, parents by compulsion. + As Garret Hardin ("Abortion - Or Compulsory Pregnancy?" Journal +of Marriage and the Family, xxx (May, 1968) 246-251) has pointed out, if +the state denies a woman a safe legal abortion in the early stages of +pregnancy before viability, it is accurate to say that she enters a +state of compulsory pregnancy. By the same token, abortion laws which +allow hospital abortion committees to deny women safe legal abortions +are actually compulsory pregnancy laws, even thought that legislation is +interpreted elsewhere in a way which makes abortion services available +to unwillingly pregnant women. + At first glance, the label "compulsory pregnancy" seems unduly +emotive. Phrases like "pro-abortion" and "pro-life" inflame the passions +and raise the temperature of the debate as well as the blood pressure of +the debaters, but they shed little light on this complex subject. Is the +term "compulsory pregnancy" all that inflammatory? It is true that the +state did not force these couples to have sexual intercourse on the +night that the woman became unwillingly pregnant; nor did the physicians +on the theraputic abortion committee do anything to thwart the couple's +attempts to contracept. Yet a hospital's legally constituted theraputic +abortion committee, in denying any woman a safe medical abortion in the +early stages of pregnancy, clearly intends her to remain pregnant +against her will. Is not the label "compulsory pregnant" an appropriate +one to attach to that state of affairs?" + +Compulsory Parenthood - The Truth about Abortion +(Wendell W. Watters, M.D.) 1976 + + Family planning has been called "a new and important freedom in +the world." (Frank W. Notestein, "Zero Population Growth: What is it?" +Family Planning Perspective, II, (June 1970) No. 3, 22.) In 1968 the UN +International Conference on Human Rights declared that "Any choice or +decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest +with the family itself and cannot be made by anyone else." It then went +on to state that this parental right to free choice would remain +illusory unless couples were aware of the alternatives. + On the basis of availability fo adequate educational and +clinical services alone, family planning has a long way to go. Any +freedom of choice is only a paper right unless the individual has the +knowledge and the tools with which to exercise that freedom. But even if +adequated educational and clinical services were universally available, +would family planning, in the presence of restrictive abortion laws, +become the human freedom envisioned in the United Nations Declaration of +Human Rights? Contraceptives are not always available, unwanted +pregnancy still occurs because of human fallibility, and because no +known method of contraception is completely foolproof, a fact to which +thousands of couples can testify. In family planning, a freedom that +stops at conception is a non-freedom. Until safe legal abortion +services, completely free of all medico-legal harassment, are available +to all womean who choose to use the abortion option, the UN +Declaration's family planning clause confers a paper right on the women +of the world. + + (Cont'd next message) +Compulsory Parenthood - The Truth about Abortion +Wendell W. Watters, M.D. (1976) + + In a few jurisdictions abortion is available on the request +of the woman herself, and at the recommendation of her physician. In +many countries abortion is illegal under all circumstances. In other +countries it is legal under certain circumstances, but never simply on +the grounds that the woman wishes not to be pregnant. IN CANADA, FOR +EXAMPLE, UNDER SECTION 251 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE, ABORTIONS ARE LEGAL IF +THERE IS A RISK TO THE WOMAN'S HEALTH IN CONTINUING THE PREGNANCY, AND +ONLY IF THE ABORTION IS APPROVED BY A THERAPUTIC ABORTION COMMITTEE IN A +HOSPITAL. + The criteria by which a committee operates are never made public +and the committees rarely interview the women herself who, +interestingly, cannot appeal a negative decision. The physician members +of a committee that denies a woman a safe, legal abortion are not +charged with any medico-legal responsibility for her subsequent welfare +of that of the child. Peculiarly, this responsibility continues to +reside with her own physician, whose attempts to have the pregnancy +terminated have been blocked. Few Canadians realize how effectively the +government and various power blocs make it almost impossible for many +Canadian women to take advantage of our ostensibly liberal abortion law. +The law does not require a hospital to provide abortion services, and +many do not, especially in areas where anti-abortion power blocs control +local hospital policies. + + Abortion is a moral issue; more accurately, it is many moral +issues. The central question is the value placed on the foetus. Can +there be such a thing as foetal rights? This one question has pushed +aside other ethical issues. + Abortion is not an acceptable means of birth control, nor is it +individually or socially desirable. We need to reduce the need for +abortion through improved sex education programs in schools, additional +training for health-care professionals in family planning, and research +into contraceptive technology. Unless a technically perfect +contraceptive, and a perfectly motivated human being are developed, the +need for abortion services will stay. + The abortion issue also forces us to deal with other questions +about human reproductivity; questions that go beyond the matter of +whether a nonviable foetus is human or has a soul. How important is the +act of creating a new human life? Should society persist in the +'laissea-faire' approach in which a new life is an almost automatic +consequence of unprotected sex? Or should society expect some judgment +on the part of the sexually active couple who choose to become parents? + + +-(Compulsory Parenthood - The Truth about Abortion) +Author: Wendell W. Watters, M.D. 1976 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/iranna.hum b/textfiles.com/politics/iranna.hum new file mode 100644 index 00000000..32df33fe --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/iranna.hum @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ + The New American + Review of the News Inc. + 395 Concord Ave. + Belmont, MA 02178 + (617) 489-0605 + $39 year, bi-weekly + + + + + AS THE CAULDRON BOILS + (The New American, October 12, 1987, p.25) + By John F. McManus + + Things are heating up in the Persian Gulf. + + +The cauldron that is the Persian Gulf continues to boil; it increases to boil; +it increasingly threatens to erupt into a major conflagration. Trying to +figure out what is happening requires some historical background. + + Religion the Key. + +Iran and Iraq share a border that begins at the western edge of the Gulf. Once +known as Persia, Iran has a history as an independent nation streaching back +into biblical times. On the other hand, Iraq's independence was recognized +only as recently as 1930. + +During the past 30 years, Iraq has become strongly allied to the Soviet Union. +But Iran, until 1979, was a firm U.S. ally. When the Carter Administration +paved the way for the American-hating Ayatollah Khomeini to take power in Iran +by betraying the Shah, a Soviet-backed alliance between Iran and Iraq seemed +likely. Intense religious differences not only prevented it, but led to war +between the two nations. + +Iran under Khomeini is a Shite Moslem theocratic dictatorship. As much as +Moslems despise the "infidels" who practice other religions, they have even +more contempt for dissident Moslems. And Iraq, with a population that is +almost 60 percent Shiite Moslem, is led by men who are Sunni Moslem. When +Khomeini began to encourage the spread of his Shiite revolution into Iraq in +1980, the Iraqi leaders took up arms against a very real threat. Thus began +this bloody conflict that continues today. + + U.S. Enters the Fray + +If there is anything a Westerner ought to avoid, it is a holy war between +competing Moslem factions. Yet, we have stuck our nose into this one in a +really big way. + +One of the casualties of the war has been the Iraq oil-exporting port of Basra. +As a consequence, Iraq now ships its black gold through neighboring Kuwait. +Not surprisingly, Kuwait's political stance mirrors its Iraqi Big Brother's- +pro-Soviet Union. + +Only four months ago, an Iraqi attack on the USS Stark left 37 American sailors +dead. Amazingly, the U.S. response has included placing American flags on +Kuwaiti tankers, thereby greatly aiding Iraq in its struggle with Iran. And we +have beefed up our own naval presence to guard Kuwait's vessels from possible +Iranian attack. In many ways, the United States is now a participant - on the +side of the pro-Soviet Iraq - in the is holy war between Shiites and Sunnis. + +In a peculiar gesture of gratitude, Kuwait has refused landing rights to the +U.S. helicopters working to protect Kuwait's ships. And a high percentage of +those ships that our forces are protecting are leased from the USSR! + +Many Questions + +President Reagan has inserted our forces into this battle zone in order to +protect "the free flow of oil." But why must the United States do the +protecting? Our nation imports close to half of its oil, but only five percent +of it comes from this area. Western Europe and Japan are the large users of +Persian Gulf oil. + +Because the United States has chosen to side with Iraq, Khomeini's virulent +anti-Americanism has risen to white-heat proportions. What will he and the +fanatical hordes he controls now do? What American is comfortable having a +husband or a son aboard one of our ships in these dangerous waters? + +Present U.S. policy is unsupportable and should be reversed. It seems as +though we are determined to provoke Khomeini into attacking U.S. vessels. If +he does, American pressure to topple the independent, fanatical, Iranian +religious zealot will grow. Then, a successor will be named who is more +acceptable to the Washinton-led builders of the "new world order," who +installed Khomeini in the first place and turned Iran away from the West. This +is hardly a proper use of U.S. military forces. + + + Electronic reprint courtesy of Genesis 1.28 (206) 361-0751 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/iraqhist.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/iraqhist.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c1bc5b29 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/iraqhist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,299 @@ + What follows is a short history lesson about the peoples and +countries of the mid-east. The present conflict did not start in +August of 1990 but rather began about 4000 years ago. In addition to +territory claims by the different people in the area this conflict also +is spiritual. Three major religious systems are clashing, they are +Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. + + The mid-east is the center of Islam, or Moslem people, the western +people come from a Christian heritage, and of course Israel is a +predominately Jewish nation. These differences have lead to mistrust +and actual hatred between people in the past that continues to some +extent today. + + During the last 4000 years many different people and nations have +called the same lands home. Many of the present boundaries were not +drawn up until after World War I, and in some cases after World War +II. + + Some of the problems that now exist are because outside powers +imposed borders and created countries without fully understanding the +area. This is not just limited to this immediate area, but also +includes for instance West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and East Pakistan +(now Bangladesh). We tend to think that we can group people together +just because they are the same color or religion. The people of the +mid-east are just as diverse as we are. We have problems getting along +with each other as well. + + I do not claim to be an expert in this area, but thought that I +could share some information from a different perspective than seen on +the evening news. The goal of this article is to help us understand +the situation in an historical context and help us to pray +effectively. I am a Christian. I believe that we need God's wisdom +and patience to bring lasting peace to the area. I am not making a +judgment on our need to be there, or the actions we need to take. + + + A Middle Eastern Time Line + + +Note: Early dates are approximate + The flood occurs, Noah's + Ark runs aground in what is now + Turkey. + + Gen 9:22-27 Ham cursed for + shaming his father Noah. Ham's + descendants are the Canaanites + who later intermarry w + Ishmeal's + descendants to become the Arab + peoples. + + Genesis 10:10 Nimrod, Noah's + son, founds Babylon. + +>2700 BC The tower of Babel built in + what is now Iraq. Ruin is + between the present cities of + Baghdad and Bazra. + +2150 BC Abraham born + Abraham leaves Ur which is + south east of Babylon by + about 150 mi. to go to Caanan + +2080 BC Abraham enters Canaan Abraham is promised the land + of Canaan by God as his + inheritance in Gen 12:7. + + Famine forces Abraham to flee + to Egypt. Has run in with + Pharaoh over wife. Diseases + sent by the Lord. Gen 12:10-20 + + Area City states in constant + state of war. Alliances change + every few years. Abraham + rescues his relative, Lot, from + the fighting. + + Abraham in a bid to take + matters into his own hands has + son Ishmael by Egyptian + maidservant Hagar. Sarai + Abraham's wife mistreates both. + Ishmael receives blessing from + God that his descendants will + be to numerous to count. + Descendants are the Arabs. +1880 BC Jacobs family enters Egypt + because of famine. In the beginning Jacob's family + enjoys the best of the land + because of God's blessing of + Egypt through Jacob. In time + later rulers forget this. + +1450 BC The Exodus of Israel from Israel moves out of Egypt to + Egypt. posses their promised land. + This of course was not good + news to the people living there + at the time. Israel almost + immediately attacked by the + Amalekites who are defeated + with God's help. +1400 BC The conquest of Canaan by + Israel begins. + + + +980 BC Solomon begins his reign, Under Solomon the nation grows + After several years he in size, power, and wealth. + starts the temple building Territory extended to tip of + gulf of Agaba, north to beyond + Damascus. The area governed is + now Israel and Jordan, and part + of Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. +900 BC Damascus rises to power + +825 BC Hazael of Syria oppresses + Israel. + +730 BC The fall of Damascus + +625 BC The rise of Babylon + +600 BC Assyria collapses + +580 BC Kingdom of Judah falls + to Nebuchadnezzar + +540 BC Babylon falls to Cyrus + Egypt falls under control of + Persians. Independent nation + of Israel ceases to exist. +485 BC The Persians are defeated + by the Greeks. + Nehemmiah allowed to rebuild + Jerusalem. + +325 BC Alexander the Great de- + feats Darius III. + + +50 BC The Romans take Palestine + Roman rule of area during this + time enabled new ideas, and +0 Christ is born trade to flourish. Had much to + do with enabling rapid spread + of Christianity. +33 AD Christ crucified + +500s Roman empire in decline + +570 Mohammed is born in Mecca Islam which means "submission + to Allah" is based on the + revelations of Mohammed. He + did not read or write, his + ideas were recorded by his + followers who had committed + them to memory. + +600s Arabs overrun area + Baghdad is made the capital + in 762. +1258 Mongols devastate country + +1401 Mongols again conquer area + +1534 Ottoman Turks capture Ottoman Turks capture Egypt + Baghdad, stayed under Turkish + control till WW I. Kuwait founded by Arab nomads + +1798 Napoleon invades Egypt + British protect Kuwait from a + holy war from another Muslim + sect. +1869 Suez canal completed by French + Later purchased by British + Egypt revolts, Britain sends +1897 Kuwait becomes a British forces to protect interests and + protectorate remains in control till 1922 + +1918 Britain and the sharif of Country of Trans-Jordan formed + Mecca gain control and Iraq by Britain from Biblical lands + is formed as a country of Ammon, Bashan, Edom, and + Moab. +1919 Saudi Arabia invades Kuwait + British repel Saudis, who + blockade country for 20 yrs. + +1920 League of Nations made Iraq Islam first brought to US. + a territory under British + administration + + +1932 League of Nations mandate + ends, Iraq gains independence + Jordan receives independence. + +1947 UN creates two nations from First Arab Israeli war. + Palestine, one Jewish, and + one Arabic. On the same day + that British withdraw Arab + countries attack. + +1952 Iraq renews ancient claim to + Kuwait. Rejected by British. + +1955 Pro western Iraqi president + Nuri es-Said joins Turkey, + Iran, Pakistan, and Britain Second Arab-Israeli war + in opposition of Egypt in + "Baghdad Pact". + +1958 Gen. Kassem overthrows govt. + Later withdraws Iraq from pact. + +1961 Kuwait becomes independent + +1963 Military coup overthrows + Kassem. Arab Baath Party + gains control. Abdul Salem + Arif as president. + +1966 Abdul Salem Arif dies in + Helicopter crash, succeeded Third Arab-Israeli war + by his brother. + +1968 Bloodless coup installes + former premier Ahmed Hassan + al-Bakr as president. + +1969 Kuwait and Saudi Arabia agree + on a boundary in the disputed + area from 1919. + +1973 Iraq joins war against Forth Arab-Israeli war + Israel + +1973 Iraq invades Kuwait, withdraws + after Saudi Arabia sends 15000 + Troops to aid Kuwait. + +1975 Iran agrees to stop providing + arms to rebelling Kurdish + minority in Iraq. + + +1976 Iraq and Syria at odds over + Syria's intervention in + Lebanon. + + +1977 UN states that Iraq is sys- + tematically destroying + Kurdish minority. + +1978 Iraq plans to spend $36 mil + to restore ancient city of + Babylon, about 55 mi south + of Baghdad. + +1979 Gen Saddam Hussein becomes + president, Bakr resigns due + to illness. + +1980 Iraq and Iran begin open war Israel moves capitol to + after skermishing for 10 Jerusalem which is supposed to + months. Iraq has early be a shared city. + Success. + Israel bombs Iraqi reactor +1982 Iraq has been pushed back to + pre-war boundary. + +1984 War expands into gulf area + Shipping threatened. + +1987 USS Stark hit by missile from + Iraqi plane. 37 sailors die, + Iraq apologises for mistaken. + launch of missile. + +1988 Iran and Iraq begin cease + fire. + +1990 Iraq invades Kuwait in dis- An oil field extends across + pute over oil field and the Kuwait-Iraq border with + shipping access to gulf. both countries pumping from + it. Iraq has been demanding + that Kuwait decrease production + to help increase oil price. +1991 UN forces attack Iraq + 17 hours after UN deadline + for Iraqi withdrawal from + Kuwait expires. + +Compiled by Herb Guenther from NIV Holy Bible, 1980 Reader's Digest +Almanac, The World Almanac and Book of Facts - 1988, and other +sources. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/iroquois.con b/textfiles.com/politics/iroquois.con new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c376b185 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/iroquois.con @@ -0,0 +1,1482 @@ + <<< THE IROQUOIS CONSTITUTION >>> + +ABOUT THE IROQUOIS CONSTITUTION + +During the bi-centennial year of The Constitution of the United States, +a number of books were written concerning the origin of that long-re- +vered document. One of these, The Genius of the People, alleged that +after the many weeks of debate a committee sat to combine the many +agreements into one formal document. The chairman of the committee +was John Rutledge of South Carolina. He had served in an earlier time, +along with Ben Franklin and others, at the Stamp Act Congress, held in +Albany, New York. This Committee of Detail was having trouble deciding +just how to formalize the many items of discussion into one document +that would satisfy one and all. Rutledge proposed they model the new +government they were forming into something along the lines of the +Iroquois League of Nations, which had been functioning as a democratic +government for hundreds of years, and which he had observed in Albany. +While there were many desirable, as well as undesirable, models from +ancient and modern histories in Europe and what we know now as the +Middle East, only the Iroquois had a system that seemed to meet most of +the demands espoused by the many parties to the debates. The Genius of +the People alleged that the Iroquois had a Constitution which began: +"We the people, to form a union. . ." + +That one sentence was enough to light a fire under me, and cause me to +do some deep research into ancient Iroquoian lore. I never did find +that one sentence backed up in what writings there are concerning the +ancient Iroquois. But I DID find sufficient data and evidence to +convince me that the Iroquois most certainly did have a considerable +influence on the drafting of our own Constitution, and we present-day +Americans owe them a very large debt. At the time of the founding of +the Iroquois League of Nations, no written language existed; we have +only the early stories which were passed down from generation to +generation, until such time as there was a written language, and +interpreters available, to record that early history. One such +document is listed below. + +There are several other documents now available in various places which +refer to the original founding of the Iroquois, and they seem to +substantiate this document as probably truthful and accurate. This +version was prepared by Arthur C. Parker, Archeologist of the State +Museum in New York in 1915, and published by the University of the +State of New York as Bulletin 184 on April 1, 1916. It is entitled: +The Constitution of the Five Nations - or - The Iroquois Book of the +Great Law. In it, you will find close parallels to our Executive, +Legislative and Judiciary branches of government as originally des- +cribed in our U. S. Constitution. + +You will find it very difficult to keep in mind that it survives after +some 500 or 600 years, and was originated by people that our ancestors +mistakenly considered as "savages". Some sources place the origin of +the Five Nation Confederacy as early as 1390 AD, but others insist it +was prepared about 1450-1500 AD; in any case, it was well before any +possible contamination by European invaders. Early explorers and +colonists found the Iroquois well established, as they had been for +many generations: with a democratic government; with a form of religion +that acknowledged a Creator in heaven; with a strong sense of family +which was based on, and controlled by, their women; and many other +surprises you will soon discover. + +It must also be pointed out that this document refers to to the "Five" +Nations, while other references to the Confederacy speak of the "Six" +nations. From the inception, there were the Five Nations discussed in +this Constitution. In about 1715, the Tuscarora Nation, once part of +the Iroquois peoples in a much earlier period of their history, moved +up from North Carolina to avoid warfare with the invading white +settlers, and were adopted into the Confederacy. At this point in +time, the Iroquois controlled many parts of our now eastern states from +their homelands in what is now New York state. The original Five +Nations were: + + Mohawk: People Possessors of the Flint + Onondaga: People on the Hills + Seneca: Great Hill People + Oneida: Granite People + Cayuga: People at the Mucky Land + + Tuscarora: Shirt Wearing People became the Sixth Nation. + +The founder of the Confederacy of the Five Nations is generally ack- +nowledged to be Dekanawida, born near the Bay of Quinte, in south- +eastern Ontario, Canada. During his travels, he associated himself +with a Mohawk tribal lord in what is now New York, and named him +Hahyonhwatha (Hiawatha) (He who has misplaced something, but knows +where to find it). Hiawatha left his family and friends, and joined +Dekanawida in his travels, becoming his chief spokesman. One legend +has it that Dekanawida, while brilliant, had a speech impediment, and +depended on Hiawatha to do his public speaking for him. Together, they +traveled the length and breadth of the lands on the south shores of +Lakes Erie and Ontario, as well as the river to the sea, now known as +the St. Lawrence. These were the homelands of tribes with a common +heritage, but who had been warring with one another for many years. +Dekanawida united them into a League of Nations that we now call the +Iroquois League. Centuries later, Longfellow "borrowed" the name of +Hiawatha to be his hero in a fictional legend; there is no other +connection between the two Hiawathas nor their stories. + +Here is their original Constitution, as best it can be recontructed +from legend and spoken history. Read it and be amazed...keep in mind +it is over 500 years old! + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) + +------------------------------------ + + +THE CONSTITUTION OF THE IROQUOIS NATIONS + +THE GREAT BINDING LAW, GAYANASHAGOWA + + 1. I am Dekanawidah and with the Five Nations' Confederate Lords I +plant the Tree of Great Peace. I plant it in your territory, Adodar- +hoh, and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of you who are Fire- +keepers. + +I name the tree the Tree of the Great Long Leaves. Under the shade of +this Tree of the Great Peace we spread the soft white feathery down of +the globe thistle as seats for you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords. + +We place you upon those seats, spread soft with the feathery down of +the globe thistle, there beneath the shade of the spreading branches of +the Tree of Peace. There shall you sit and watch the Council Fire of +the Confederacy of the Five Nations, and all the affairs of the Five +Nations shall be transacted at this place before you, Adodarhoh, and +your cousin Lords, by the Confederate Lords of the Five Nations. + + 2. Roots have spread out from the Tree of the Great Peace, one to +the north, one to the east, one to the south and one to the west. The +name of these roots is The Great White Roots and their nature is Peace +and Strength. + +If any man or any nation outside the Five Nations shall obey the laws +of the Great Peace and make known their disposition to the Lords of the +Confederacy, they may trace the Roots to the Tree and if their minds +are clean and they are obedient and promise to obey the wishes of the +Confederate Council, they shall be welcomed to take shelter beneath the +Tree of the Long Leaves. + +We place at the top of the Tree of the Long Leaves an Eagle who is able +to see afar. If he sees in the distance any evil approaching or any +danger threatening he will at once warn the people of the Confederacy. + + 3. To you Adodarhoh, the Onondaga cousin Lords, I and the other +Confederate Lords have entrusted the caretaking and the watching of the +Five Nations Council Fire. + +When there is any business to be transacted and the Confederate Council +is not in session, a messenger shall be dispatched either to Adodarhoh, +Hononwirehtonh or Skanawatih, Fire Keepers, or to their War Chiefs with +a full statement of the case desired to be considered. Then shall +Adodarhoh call his cousin (associate) Lords together and consider +whether or not the case is of sufficient importance to demand the +attention of the Confederate Council. If so, Adodarhoh shall dispatch +messengers to summon all the Confederate Lords to assemble beneath the +Tree of the Long Leaves. + +When the Lords are assembled the Council Fire shall be kindled, but not +with chestnut wood, and Adodarhoh shall formally open the Council. + +[ed note: chestnut wood throws out sparks in burning, thereby creating +a disturbance in the council ] + +Then shall Adodarhoh and his cousin Lords, the Fire Keepers, announce +the subject for discussion. + +The Smoke of the Confederate Council Fire shall ever ascend and pierce +the sky so that other nations who may be allies may see the Council +Fire of the Great Peace. + +Adodarhoh and his cousin Lords are entrusted with the Keeping of the +Council Fire. + + 4. You, Adodarhoh, and your thirteen cousin Lords, shall faithfully +keep the space about the Council Fire clean and you shall allow neither +dust nor dirt to accumulate. I lay a Long Wing before you as a broom. +As a weapon against a crawling creature I lay a staff with you so that +you may thrust it away from the Council Fire. If you fail to cast it +out then call the rest of the United Lords to your aid. + + 5. The Council of the Mohawk shall be divided into three parties as +follows: Tekarihoken, Ayonhwhathah and Shadekariwade are the first +party; Sharenhowaneh, Deyoenhegwenh and Oghrenghrehgowah are the second +party, and Dehennakrineh, Aghstawenserenthah and Shoskoharowaneh are +the third party. The third party is to listen only to the discussion +of the first and second parties and if an error is made or the proceed- +ing is irregular they are to call attention to it, and when the case is +right and properly decided by the two parties they shall confirm the +decision of the two parties and refer the case to the Seneca Lords for +their decision. When the Seneca Lords have decided in accord with the +Mohawk Lords, the case or question shall be referred to the Cayuga and +Oneida Lords on the opposite side of the house. + + 6. I, Dekanawidah, appoint the Mohawk Lords the heads and the leaders +of the Five Nations Confederacy. The Mohawk Lords are the foundation +of the Great Peace and it shall, therefore, be against the Great +Binding Law to pass measures in the Confederate Council after the +Mohawk Lords have protested against them. + +No council of the Confederate Lords shall be legal unless all the +Mohawk Lords are present. + + 7. Whenever the Confederate Lords shall assemble for the purpose of +holding a council, the Onondaga Lords shall open it by expressing their +gratitude to their cousin Lords and greeting them, and they shall make +an address and offer thanks to the earth where men dwell, to the +streams of water, the pools, the springs and the lakes, to the maize +and the fruits, to the medicinal herbs and trees, to the forest trees +for their usefulness, to the animals that serve as food and give their +pelts for clothing, to the great winds and the lesser winds, to the +Thunderers, to the Sun, the mighty warrior, to the moon, to the +messengers of the Creator who reveal his wishes and to the Great +Creator who dwells in the heavens above, who gives all the things +useful to men, and who is the source and the ruler of health and life. + +Then shall the Onondaga Lords declare the council open. + +The council shall not sit after darkness has set in. + + 8. The Firekeepers shall formally open and close all councils of the +Confederate Lords, and they shall pass upon all matters deliberated +upon by the two sides and render their decision. + +Every Onondaga Lord (or his deputy) must be present at every Con- +federate Council and must agree with the majority without unwarrantable +dissent, so that a unanimous decision may be rendered. + +If Adodarhoh or any of his cousin Lords are absent from a Confederate +Council, any other Firekeeper may open and close the Council, but the +Firekeepers present may not give any decisions, unless the matter is of +small importance. + + 9. All the business of the Five Nations Confederate Council shall be +conducted by the two combined bodies of Confederate Lords. First the +question shall be passed upon by the Mohawk and Seneca Lords, then it +shall be discussed and passed by the Oneida and Cayuga Lords. Their +decisions shall then be referred to the Onondaga Lords, (Fire Keepers) +for final judgement. + +The same process shall obtain when a question is brought before the +council by an individual or a War Chief. + + 10. In all cases the procedure must be as follows: when the Mohawk and +Seneca Lords have unanimously agreed upon a question, they shall report +their decision to the Cayuga and Oneida Lords who shall deliberate upon +the question and report a unanimous decision to the Mohawk Lords. The +Mohawk Lords will then report the standing of the case to the Fire- +keepers, who shall render a decision as they see fit in case of a +disagreement by the two bodies, or confirm the decisions of the two +bodies if they are identical. The Fire Keepers shall then report their +decision to the Mohawk Lords who shall announce it to the open council. + + 11. If through any misunderstanding or obstinacy on the part of the +Fire Keepers, they render a decision at variance with that of the Two +Sides, the Two Sides shall reconsider the matter and if their decisions +are jointly the same as before they shall report to the Fire Keepers +who are then compelled to confirm their joint decision. + + 12. When a case comes before the Onondaga Lords (Fire Keepers) for +discussion and decsion, Adodarho shall introduce the matter to his +comrade Lords who shall then discuss it in their two bodies. Every +Onondaga Lord except Hononwiretonh shall deliberate and he shall listen +only. When a unanimous decision shall have been reached by the two +bodies of Fire Keepers, Adodarho shall notify Hononwiretonh of the fact +when he shall confirm it. He shall refuse to confirm a decision if it +is not unanimously agreed upon by both sides of the Fire Keepers. + + 13. No Lord shall ask a question of the body of Confederate Lords when +they are discussing a case, question or proposition. He may only +deliberate in a low tone with the separate body of which he is a +member. + + 14. When the Council of the Five Nation Lords shall convene they shall +appoint a speaker for the day. He shall be a Lord of either the +Mohawk, Onondaga or Seneca Nation. + +The next day the Council shall appoint another speaker, but the first +speaker may be reappointed if there is no objection, but a speaker's +term shall not be regarded more than for the day. + + 15. No individual or foreign nation interested in a case, question or +proposition shall have any voice in the Confederate Council except to +answer a question put to him or them by the speaker for the Lords. + + 16. If the conditions which shall arise at any future time call for an +addition to or change of this law, the case shall be carefully con- +sidered and if a new beam seems necessary or beneficial, the proposed +change shall be voted upon and if adopted it shall be called, "Added to +the Rafters". + + + RIGHTS, DUTIES AND QUALIFICATIONS OF LORDS + + 17. A bunch of a certain number of shell (wampum) strings each two +spans in length shall be given to each of the female families in which +the Lordship titles are vested. The right of bestowing the title shall +be hereditary in the family of the females legally possessing the bunch +of shell strings and the strings shall be the token that the females of +the family have the proprietary right to the Lordship title for all +time to come, subject to certain restrictions hereinafter mentioned. + + 18. If any Confederate Lord neglects or refuses to attend the Con- +federate Council, the other Lords of the Nation of which he is a member +shall require their War Chief to request the female sponsors of the +Lord so guilty of defection to demand his attendance of the Council. +If he refuses, the women holding the title shall immediately select +another candidate for the title. + +No Lord shall be asked more than once to attend the Confederate +Council. + + 19. If at any time it shall be manifest that a Confederate Lord has +not in mind the welfare of the people or disobeys the rules of this +Great Law, the men or women of the Confederacy, or both jointly, shall +come to the Council and upbraid the erring Lord through his War Chief. +If the complaint of the people through the War Chief is not heeded the +first time it shall be uttered again and then if no attention is given +a third complaint and warning shall be given. If the Lord is contuma- +cious the matter shall go to the council of War Chiefs. The War Chiefs +shall then divest the erring Lord of his title by order of the women in +whom the titleship is vested. When the Lord is deposed the women shall +notify the Confederate Lords through their War Chief, and the Con- +federate Lords shall sanction the act. The women will then select +another of their sons as a candidate and the Lords shall elect him. +Then shall the chosen one be installed by the Installation Ceremony. + +When a Lord is to be deposed, his War Chief shall address him as +follows: + + "So you, __________, disregard and set at naught the warnings + of your women relatives. So you fling the warnings over your + shoulder to cast them behind you. + + "Behold the brightness of the Sun and in the brightness of + the Sun's light I depose you of your title and remove the + sacred emblem of your Lordship title. I remove from your + brow the deer's antlers, which was the emblem of your + position and token of your nobility. I now depose you and + return the antlers to the women whose heritage they are." + +The War Chief shall now address the women of the deposed Lord and say: + + "Mothers, as I have now deposed your Lord, I now return to + you the emblem and the title of Lordship, therefore repossess + them." + +Again addressing himself to the deposed Lord he shall say: + + "As I have now deposed and discharged you so you are now no + longer Lord. You shall now go your way alone, the rest of + the people of the Confederacy will not go with you, for we + know not the kind of mind that possesses you. As the Creator + has nothing to do with wrong so he will not come to rescue + you from the precipice of destruction in which you have cast + yourself. You shall never be restored to the position which + you once occupied." + +Then shall the War Chief address himself to the Lords of the Nation to +which the deposed Lord belongs and say: + + "Know you, my Lords, that I have taken the deer's antlers + from the brow of ___________, the emblem of his position and + token of his greatness." + +The Lords of the Confederacy shall then have no other alternative than +to sanction the discharge of the offending Lord. + + 20. If a Lord of the Confederacy of the Five Nations should commit +murder the other Lords of the Nation shall assemble at the place where +the corpse lies and prepare to depose the criminal Lord. If it is +impossible to meet at the scene of the crime the Lords shall discuss +the matter at the next Council of their Nation and request their War +Chief to depose the Lord guilty of crime, to "bury" his women relatives +and to transfer the Lordship title to a sister family. + +The War Chief shall address the Lord guilty of murder and say: + + "So you, __________ (giving his name) did kill __________ + (naming the slain man), with your own hands! You have + comitted a grave sin in the eyes of the Creator. Behold the + bright light of the Sun, and in the brightness of the Sun's + light I depose you of your title and remove the horns, the + sacred emblems of your Lordship title. I remove from your + brow the deer's antlers, which was the emblem of your + position and token of your nobility. I now depose you and + expel you and you shall depart at once from the territory of + the Five Nations Confederacy and nevermore return again. We, + the Five Nations Confederacy, moreover, bury your women + relatives because the ancient Lordship title was never + intended to have any union with bloodshed. Henceforth it + shall not be their heritage. + +By the evil deed that you have done they have forfeited it forever.." + +The War Chief shall then hand the title to a sister family and he shall +address it and say: + + "Our mothers, ____________, listen attentively while I + address you on a solemn and important subject. I hereby + transfer to you an ancient Lordship title for a great + calamity has befallen it in the hands of the family of a + former Lord. We trust that you, our mothers, will always + guard it, and that you will warn your Lord always to be + dutiful and to advise his people to ever live in love, poeace + and harmony that a great calamity may never happen again." + + 21. Certain physical defects in a Confederate Lord make him ineligible +to sit in the Confederate Council. Such defects are infancy, idiocy, +blindness, deafness, dumbness and impotency. When a Confederate Lord +is restricted by any of these condition, a deputy shall be appointed by +his sponsors to act for him, but in case of extreme necessity the +restricted Lord may exercise his rights. + + 22. If a Confederate Lord desires to resign his title he shall notify +the Lords of the Nation of which he is a member of his intention. If +his coactive Lords refuse to accept his resignation he may not resign +his title. + +A Lord in proposing to resign may recommend any proper candidate which +recommendation shall be received by the Lords, but unless confirmed and +nominated by the women who hold the title the candidate so named shall +not be considered. + + 23. Any Lord of the Five Nations Confederacy may construct shell +strings (or wampum belts) of any size or length as pledges or records +of matters of national or international importance. + +When it is necessary to dispatch a shell string by a War Chief or other +messenger as the token of a summons, the messenger shall recite the +contents of the string to the party to whom it is sent. That party +shall repeat the message and there has been a sumons he shall make +ready for the journey. + +Any of the people of the Five Nations may use shells (or wampum) as the +record of a pledge, contract or an agreement entered into and the same +shall be binding as soon as shell strings shall have been exchanged by +both parties. + + 24. The Lords of the Confederacy of the Five Nations shall be mentors +of the people for all time. The thickness of their skin shall be seven +spans -- which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, +offensive actions and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace +and good will and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of +the people of the Confederacy. With endless patience they shall carry +out their duty and their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness +for their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodgement in their +minds and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm delibera- +tion. + + 25. If a Lord of the Confederacy should seek to establish any author- +ity independent of the jurisdiction of the Confederacy of the Great +Peace, which is the Five Nations, he shall be warned three times in +open council, first by the women relatives, second by the men relatives +and finally by the Lords of the Confederacy of the Nation to which he +belongs. If the offending Lord is still obdurate he shall be dismissed +by the War Chief of his nation for refusing to conform to the laws of +the Great Peace. His nation shall then install the candidate nominated +by the female name holders of his family. + + 26. It shall be the duty of all of the Five Nations Confederate Lords, +from time to time as occasion demands, to act as mentors and spiritual +guides of their people and remind them of their Creator's will and +words. They shall say: + + "Hearken, that peace may continue unto future days! + + "Always listen to the words of the Great Creator, for he has + spoken. + + "United people, let not evil find lodging in your minds. + + "For the Great Creator has spoken and the cause of Peace shall not + become old. + + "The cause of peace shall not die if you remember the Great + Creator." + +Every Confederate Lord shall speak words such as these to promote +peace. + + 27. All Lords of the Five Nations Confederacy must be honest in all +things. They must not idle or gossip, but be men possessing those +honorable qualities that make true royaneh. It shall be a serious wrong +for anyone to lead a Lord into trivial affairs, for the people must +ever hold their Lords high in estimation out of respect to their +honorable positions. + + 28. When a candidate Lord is to be installed he shall furnish four +strings of shells (or wampum) one span in length bound together at one +end. Such will constitute the evidence of his pledge to the Con- +federate Lords that he will live according to the constitution of the +Great Peace and exercise justice in all affairs. + +When the pledge is furnished the Speaker of the Council must hold the +shell strings in his hand and address the opposite side of the Council +Fire and he shall commence his address saying: "Now behold him. He has +now become a Confederate Lord. See how splendid he looks." An address +may then follow. At the end of it he shall send the bunch of shell +strings to the oposite side and they shall be received as evidence of +the pledge. Then shall the opposite side say: + + "We now do crown you with the sacred emblem of the deer's + antlers, the emblem of your Lordship. You shall now become a + mentor of the people of the Five Nations. The thickness of + your skin shall be seven spans -- which is to say that you + shall be proof against anger, offensive actions and criti- + cism. Your heart shall be filled with peace and good will + and your mind filled with a yearning for the welfare of the + people of the Confederacy. With endless patience you shall + carry out your duty and your firmness shall be tempered with + tenderness for your people. Neither anger nor fury shall + find lodgement in your mind and all your words and actions + shall be marked with calm deliberation. In all of your + deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at + law making, in all your official acts, self interest shall be + cast into oblivion. Cast not over your shoulder behind you + the warnings of the nephews and nieces should they chide you + for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of + the Great Law which is just and right. Look and listen for + the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not + only the present but also the coming generations, even those + whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground -- the + unborn of the future Nation." + + 29. When a Lordship title is to be conferred, the candidate Lord shall +furnish the cooked venison, the corn bread and the corn soup, together +with other necessary things and the labor for the Conferring of Titles +Festival. + + 30. The Lords of the Confederacy may confer the Lordship title upon a +candidate whenever the Great Law is recited, if there be a candidate, +for the Great Law speaks all the rules. + + 31. If a Lord of the Confederacy should become seriously ill and be +thought near death, the women who are heirs of his title shall go to +his house and lift his crown of deer antlers, the emblem of his +Lordship, and place them at one side. If the Creator spares him and he +rises from his bed of sickness he may rise with the antlers on his +brow. + The following words shall be used to temporarily remove the +antlers: + "Now our comrade Lord (or our relative Lord) the + time has come when we must approach you in your + illness. We remove for a time the deer's antlers + from your brow, we remove the emblem of your + Lordship title. The Great Law has decreed that no + Lord should end his life with the antlers on his + brow. We therefore lay them aside in the room. If + the Creator spares you and you recover from your + illness you shall rise from your bed with the + antlers on your brow as before and you shall resume + your duties as Lord of the Confederacy and you may + labor again for the Confederate people." + + 32. If a Lord of the Confederacy should die while the Council of the +Five Nations is in session the Council shall adjourn for ten days. No +Confederate Council shall sit within ten days of the death of a Lord of +the Confederacy. + +If the Three Brothers (the Mohawk, the Onondaga and the Seneca) should +lose one of their Lords by death, the Younger Brothers (the Oneida and +the Cayuga) shall come to the surviving Lords of the Three Brothers on +the tenth day and console them. If the Younger Brothers lose one of +their Lords then the Three Brothers shall come to them and console +them. And the consolation shall be the reading of the contents of the +thirteen shell (wampum) strings of Ayonhwhathah. At the termination of +this rite a successor shall be appointed, to be appointed by the women +heirs of the Lordship title. If the women are not yet ready to place +their nominee before the Lords the Speaker shall say, "Come let us go +out." All shall leave the Council or the place of gathering. The +installation shall then wait until such a time as the women are ready. +The Speaker shall lead the way from the house by saying, "Let us depart +to the edge of the woods and lie in waiting on our bellies." + +When the women title holders shall have chosen one of their sons the +Confederate Lords will assemble in two places, the Younger Brothers in +one place and the Three Older Brothers in another. The Lords who are +to console the mourning Lords shall choose one of their number to sing +the Pacification Hymn as they journey to the sorrowing Lords. The +singer shall lead the way and the Lords and the people shall follow. +When they reach the sorrowing Lords they shall hail the candidate Lord +and perform the rite of Conferring the Lordship Title. + 33. When a Confederate Lord dies, the surviving relatives shall +immediately dispatch a messenger, a member of another clan, to the +Lords in another locality. When the runner comes within hailing +distance of the locality he shall utter a sad wail, thus: "Kwa-ah, +Kwa-ah, Kwa-ah!" The sound shall be repeated three times and then +again and again at intervals as many times as the distance may require. + +When the runner arrives at the settlement the people shall assemble and +one must ask him the nature of his sad message. He shall then say, +"Let us consider." Then he shall tell them of the death of the Lord. +He shall deliver to them a string of shells (wampum) and say "Here is +the testimony, you have heard the message." He may then return home. + +It now becomes the duty of the Lords of the locality to send runners to +other localities and each locality shall send other messengers until +all Lords are notified. Runners shall travel day and night. + + 34. If a Lord dies and there is no candidate qualified for the office +in the family of the women title holders, the Lords ofthe Nation shall +give the title into the hands of a sister family in the clan until such +a time as the original family produces a candidate, when the title +shall be restored to the rightful owners. + +No Lordship title may be carried into the grave. The Lords of the +Confederacy may dispossess a dead Lord of his title even at the grave. + + + ELECTION OF PINE TREE CHIEFS + + 35. Should any man of the Nation assist with special ability or show +great interest in the affairs of the Nation, if he proves himself wise, +honest and worthy of confidence, the Confederate Lords may elect him to +a seat with them and he may sit in the Confederate Council. He shall +be proclaimed a 'Pine Tree sprung up for the Nation' and shall be +installed as such at the next assembly for the installation of Lords. +Should he ever do anything contrary to the rules of the Great Peace, he +may not be deposed from office -- no one shall cut him down -- but +thereafter everyone shall be deaf to his voice and his advice. Should +he resign his seat and title no one shall prevent him. A Pine Tree +chief has no authority to name a successor nor is his title hereditary. + + + NAMES, DUTIES AND RIGHTS OF WAR CHIEFS + + 36. The title names of the Chief Confederate Lords' War Chiefs +shall be: + + Ayonwaehs, War Chief under Lord Takarihoken (Mohawk) + Kahonwahdironh, War Chief under Lord Odatshedeh (Oneida) + Ayendes, War Chief under Lord Adodarhoh (Onondaga) + Wenenhs, War Chief under Lord Dekaenyonh (Cayuga) + Shoneradowaneh, War Chief under Lord Skanyadariyo (Seneca) + +The women heirs of each head Lord's title shall be the heirs of the War +Chief's title of their respective Lord. + +The War Chiefs shall be selected from the eligible sons of the female +families holding the head Lordship titles. + + 37. There shall be one War Chief for each Nation and their duties +shall be to carry messages for their Lords and to take up the arms of +war in case of emergency. They shall not participate in the proceed- +ings of the Confederate Council but shall watch its progress and in +case of an erroneous action by a Lord they shall receive the complaints +of the people and convey the warnings of the women to him. The people +who wish to convey messages to the Lords in the Confederate Council +shall do so through the War Chief of their Nation. It shall ever be +his duty to lay the cases, questions and propositions of the people +before the Confederate Council. + + 38. When a War Chief dies another shall be installed by the same rite +as that by which a Lord is installed. + + 39. If a War Chief acts contrary to instructions or against the +provisions of the Laws of the Great Peace, doing so in the capacity of +his office, he shall be deposed by his women relatives and by his men +relatives. Either the women or the men alone or jointly may act in +such a case. The women title holders shall then choose another +candidate. + 40. When the Lords of the Confederacy take occasion to dispatch a +messenger in behalf of the Confederate Council, they shall wrap up any +matter they may send and instruct the messenger to remember his errand, +to turn not aside but to proceed faithfully to his destination and +deliver his message according to every instruction. + + 41. If a message borne by a runner is the warning of an invasion he +shall whoop, "Kwa-ah, Kwa-ah," twice and repeat at short intervals; +then again at a longer interval. + +If a human being is found dead, the finder shall not touch the body but +return home immediately shouting at short intervals, "Koo-weh!" + + + CLANS AND CONSANGUINITY + + 42. Among the Five Nations and their posterity there shall be the +following original clans: Great Name Bearer, Ancient Name Bearer, Great +Bear, Ancient Bear, Turtle, Painted Turtle, Standing Rock, Large +Plover, Deer, Pigeon Hawk, Eel, Ball, Opposite-Side-of-the-Hand, and +Wild Potatoes. These clans distributed through their respective +Nations, shall be the sole owners and holders of the soil of the +country and in them is it vested as a birthright. + + 43. People of the Five Nations members of a certain clan shall +recognize every other member of that clan, irrespective of the Nation, +as relatives. Men and women, therefore, members of the same clan are +forbidden to marry. + + 44. The lineal descent of the people of the Five Nations shall run in +the female line. Women shall be considered the progenitors of the +Nation. They shall own the land and the soil. Men and women shall +follow the status of the mother. + + 45. The women heirs of the Confederated Lordship titles shall be +called Royaneh (Noble) for all time to come. + + 46. The women of the Forty Eight (now fifty) Royaneh families shall be +the heirs of the Authorized Names for all time to come. + +When an infant of the Five Nations is given an Authorized Name at the +Midwinter Festival or at the Ripe Corn Festival, one in the cousinhood +of which the infant is a member shall be appointed a speaker. He shall +then announce to the opposite cousinhood the names of the father and +the mother of the child together with the clan of the mother. Then the +speaker shall announce the child's name twice. The uncle of the child +shall then take the child in his arms and walking up and down the room +shall sing: "My head is firm, I am of the Confederacy." As he sings +the opposite cousinhood shall respond by chanting, "Hyenh, Hyenh, +Hyenh, Hyenh," until the song is ended. + + 47. If the female heirs of a Confederate Lord's title become extinct, +the title right shall be given by the Lords of the Confederacy to the +sister family whom they shall elect and that family shall hold the name +and transmit it to their (female) heirs, but they shall not appoint any +of their sons as a candidate for a title until all the eligible men of +the former family shall have died or otherwise have become ineligible. + + 48. If all the heirs of a Lordship title become extinct, and all the +families in the clan, then the title shall be given by the Lords of the +Confederacy to the family in a sister clan whom they shall elect. + + 49. If any of the Royaneh women, heirs of a titleship, shall wilfully +withhold a Lordship or other title and refuse to bestow it, or if such +heirs abandon, forsake or despise their heritage, then shall such women +be deemed buried and their family extinct. The titleship shall then +revert to a sister family or clan upon application and complaint. The +Lords of the Confederacy shall elect the family or clan which shall in +future hold the title. + + 50. The Royaneh women of the Confederacy heirs of the Lordship titles +shall elect two women of their family as cooks for the Lord when the +people shall assemble at his house for business or other purposes. + +It is not good nor honorable for a Confederate Lord to allow his people +whom he has called to go hungry. + + 51. When a Lord holds a conference in his home, his wife, if she +wishes, may prepare the food for the Union Lords who assemble with him. + +This is an honorable right which she may exercise and an expression of +her esteem. + +52. The Royaneh women, heirs of the Lordship titles, shall,should it +be necessary, correct and admonish the holders oftheir titles. Those +only who attend the Council may do thisand those who do not shall not +object to what has been said norstrive to undo the action. + + 53. When the Royaneh women, holders of a Lordship title, select one of +their sons as a candidate, they shall select one who is trustworthy, of +good character, of honest disposition, one who manages his own affairs, +supports his own family, if any, and who has proven a faithful man to +his Nation. + + 54. When a Lordship title becomes vacant through death or other cause, +the Royaneh women of the clan in which the title is hereditary shall +hold a council and shall choose one from among their sons to fill the +office made vacant. Such a candidate shall not be the father of any +Confederate Lord. + If the choice is unanimous the name is referred to +the men relatives of the clan. If they should disapprove it shall be +their duty to select a candidate from among their own number. If then +the men and women are unable to decide which of the two candidates +shall be named, then the matter shall be referred to the Confederate +Lords in the Clan. They shall decide which candidate shall be named. +If the men and the women agree to a candidate his name shall be +referred to the sister clans for confirmation. If the sister clans +confirm the choice, they shall refer their action to their Confederate +Lords who shall ratify the choice and present it to their cousin Lords, +and if the cousin Lords confirm the name then the candidate shall be +installed by the proper ceremony for the conferring of Lordship titles. + + + OFFICIAL SYMBOLISM + + 55. A large bunch of shell strings, in the making of which the Five +Nations Confederate Lords have equally contributed, shall symbolize the +completeness of the union and certify the pledge of the nations +represented by the Confederate Lords of the Mohawk, the Oneida, the +Onondaga, the Cayuga and the Senecca, that all are united and formed +into one body or union called the Union of the Great Law, which they +have established. + +A bunch of shell strings is to be the symbol of the council fire of the +Five Nations Confederacy. And the Lord whom the council of Fire +Keepers shall appoint to speak for them in opening the council shall +hold the strands of shells in his hands when speaking. When he +finishes speaking he shall deposit the strings on an elevated place (or +pole) so that all the assembled Lords and the people may see it and +know that the council is open and in progress. + +When the council adjourns the Lord who has been appointed by his +comrade Lords to close it shall take the strands of shells in his hands +and address the assembled Lords. Thus will the council adjourn until +such time and place as appointed by the council. Then shall the shell +strings be placed in a place for safekeeping. + +Every five years the Five Nations Confederate Lords andthe people shall +assemble together and shall ask one another iftheir minds are still in +the same spirit of unity for the Great + Binding Law and if any of the Five +Nations shall not pledge continuance and steadfastness to the pledge of +unity then the Great Binding Law shall dissolve. + + 56. Five strings of shell tied together as one shall represent the +Five Nations. Each string shall represent one territory and the whole +a completely united territory known as the Five Nations Confederate +territory. + + 57. Five arrows shall be bound together very strong and each arrow +shall represent one nation. As the five arrows are strongly bound this +shall symbolize the complete union of the nations. Thus are the Five +Nations united completely and enfolded together, united into one head, +one body and one mind. Therefore they shall labor, legislate and +council together for the interest of future generations. + +The Lords of the Confederacy shall eat together from one bowl the feast +of cooked beaver's tail. While they are eating they are to use no +sharp utensils for if they should they might accidentally cut one +another and bloodshed would follow. All measures must be taken to +prevent the spilling of blood in any way. + + 58. There are now the Five Nations Confederate Lords standing with +joined hands in a circle. This signifies and provides that should any +one of the Confederate Lords leave the council and this Confederacy his +crown of deer's horns, the emblem of his Lordship title, together with +his birthright, shall lodge on the arms of the Union Lords whose hands +are so joined. He forfeits his title and the crown falls from his brow +but it shall remain in the Confederacy. + +A further meaning of this is that if any time any one of the Con- +federate Lords choose to submit to the law of a foreign people he is no +longer in but out of the Confederacy, and persons of this class shall +be called "They have alienated themselves." Likewise such persons who +submit to laws of foreign nations shall forfeit all birthrights and +claims on the Five Nations Confederacy and territory. + +You, the Five Nations Confederate Lords, be firm so that if a tree +falls on your joined arms it shall not separate or weaken your hold. +So shall the strength of the union be preserved. + 59. A bunch of wampum shells on strings, three spans of the hand +in length, the upper half of the bunch being white and the lower half +black, and formed from equal contributions of the men of the Five +Nations, shall be a token that the men have combined themselves into +one head, one body and one thought, and it shall also symbolize their +ratification of the peace pact of the Confederacy, whereby the Lords of +the Five Nations have established the Great Peace. + +The white portion of the shell strings represent the women and the +black portion the men. The black portion, furthermore, is a token of +power and authority vested in the men of the Five Nations. + +This string of wampum vests the people with the right to correct their +erring Lords. In case a part or all the Lords pursue a course not +vouched for by the people and heed not the third warning of their women +relatives, then the matter shall be taken to the General Council of the +women of the Five Nations. If the Lords notified and warned three +times fail to heed, then the case falls into the hands of the men of +the Five Nations. The War Chiefs shall then, by right of such power +and authority, enter the open concil to warn the Lord or Lords to +return from the wrong course. If the Lords heed the warning they shall +say, "we will reply tomorrow." If then an answer is returned in favor +of justice and in accord with this Great Law, then the Lords shall +individualy pledge themselves again by again furnishing the necessary +shells for the pledge. Then shall the War Chief or Chiefs exhort the +Lords urging them to be just and true. + + Should it happen that the Lords refuse to heed the third warning, +then two courses are open: either the men may decide in their council +to depose the Lord or Lords or to club them to death with war clubs. +Should they in their council decide to take the first course the War +Chief shall address the Lord or Lords, saying: "Since you the Lords of +the Five Nations have refused to return to the procedure of the +Constitution, we now declare your seats vacant, we take off your horns, +the token of your Lordship, and others shall be chosen and installed in +your seats, therefore vacate your seats." + +Should the men in their council adopt the second course, the War Chief +shall order his men to enter the council, to take positions beside the +Lords, sitting bewteen them wherever possible. When this is ac- +complished the War Chief holding in his outstretched hand a bunch of +black wampum strings shall say to the erring Lords: "So now, Lords of +the Five United Nations, harken to these last words from your men. You +have not heeded the warnings of the women relatives, you have not +heeded the warnings of the General Council of women and you have not +heeded the warnings of the men of the nations, all urging you to return +to the right course of action. Since you are determined to resist and +to withhold justice from your people there is only one course for us to +adopt." At this point the War Chief shall let drop the bunch of black +wampum and the men shall spring to their feet and club the erring Lords +to death. Any erring Lord may submit before the War Chief lets fall +the black wampum. Then his execution is withheld. + +The black wampum here used symbolizes that the power to execute is +buried but that it may be raised up again by the men. It is buried but +when occasion arises they may pull it up and derive their power and +authority to act as here described. + + 60. A broad dark belt of wampum of thirty-eight rows, having a white +heart in the center, on either side of which are two white squares all +connected with the heart by white rows of beads shall be the emblem of +the unity of the Five Nations. + +[ed note: This is the Hiawatha Belt now in the Congressional Library.] + +The first of the squares on the left represents the Mohawk nation and +its territory; the second square on the left and the one near the +heart, represents the Oneida nation and its territory; the white heart +in the middle represents the Onondaga nation and its territory, and it +also means that the heart of the Five Nations is single in its loyalty +to the Great Peace, that the Great Peace is lodged in the heart +(meaning the Onondaga Lords), and that the Council Fire is to burn +there for the Five Nations, and further, it means that the authority is +given to advance the cause of peace whereby hostile nations out of the +Confederacy shall cease warfare; the white square to the right of the +heart represents the Cayuga nation and its territory and the fourth and +last white square represents the Seneca nation and its territory. + +White shall here symbolize that no evil or jealous thoughts shall creep +into the minds of the Lords while in Council under the Great Peace. +White, the emblem of peace, love, charity and equity surrounds and +guards the Five Nations. + + 61. Should a great calamity threaten the generations rising and living +of the Five United Nations, then he who is able to climb to the top of +the Tree of the Great Long Leaves may do so. When, then, he reaches +the top of the tree he shall look about in all directions, and, should +he see that evil things indeed are approaching, then he shall call to +the people of the Five United Nations assembled beneath the Tree of the +Great Long Leaves and say: "A calamity threatens your happiness." + +Then shall the Lords convene in council and discuss the impending evil. + +When all the truths relating to the trouble shall be fully known and +found to be truths, then shall the people seek out a Tree of Ka-- +hon-ka-ah-go-nah, [ a great swamp Elm ], and when they shall find it +they shall assemble their heads together and lodge for a time between +its roots. Then, their labors being finished, they may hope for +happiness for many days after. + + 62. When the Confederate Council of the Five Nations declares for a +reading of the belts of shell calling to mind these laws, they shall +provide for the reader a specially made mat woven of the fibers of wild +hemp. The mat shall not be used again, for such formality is called +the honoring of the importance of the law. + + 63. Should two sons of opposite sides of the council fire agree in a +desire to hear the reciting of the laws of the Great Peace and so +refresh their memories in the way ordained by the founder of the +Confederacy, they shall notify Adodarho. He then shall consult with +five of his coactive Lords and they in turn shall consult with their +eight brethern. Then should they decide to accede to the request of +the two sons from opposite sides of the Council Fire, Adodarho shall +send messengers to notify the Chief Lords of each of the Five Nations. +Then they shall despatch their War Chiefs to notify their brother and +cousin Lords of the meeting and its time and place. + +When all have come and have assembled, Adodarhoh, in conjunction with +his cousin Lords, shall appoint one Lord who shall repeat the laws of +the Great Peace. Then shall they anneat Peace to the two sons. Then +shall the chosen one repeat the laws of the Great Peace. + + 64. At the ceremony of the installation of Lords if there is only one +expert speaker and singer of the law and the Pacification Hymn to stand +at the council fire, then when this speaker and singer has finished +addressing one side of the fire he shall go to the oposite side and +reply to his own speech and song. He shall thus act for both sides of +the fire until the entire ceremony has been completed. Such a speaker +and singer shall be termed the "Two Faced" because he speaks and sings +for both sides of the fire. + + 65. I, Dekanawida, and the Union Lords, now uproot the tallest pine +tree and into the cavity thereby made we cast all weapons of war. Into +the depths of the earth, down into the deep underearth currents of +water flowing to unknown regions we cast all the weapons of strife. We +bury them from sight and we plant again the tree. Thus shall the Great +Peace be established and hostilities shall no longer be known between +the Five Nations but peace to the United People. + + + LAWS OF ADOPTION + + 66. The father of a child of great comliness, learning, ability or +specially loved because of some circumstance may, at the will of the +child's clan, select a name from his own (the father's) clan and bestow +it by ceremony, such as is provided. This naming shall be only +temporary and shall be called, "A name hung about the neck." + + 67. Should any person, a member of the Five Nations' Confederacy, +specially esteem a man or woman of another clan or of a foreign nation, +he may choose a name and bestow it upon that person so esteemed. The +naming shall be in accord with the ceremony of bestowing names. Such a +name is only a temporary one and shall be called "A name hung about the +neck." A short string of shells shall be delivered with the name as a +record and a pledge. + + 68. Should any member of the Five Nations, a family or person belong- +ing to a foreign nation submit a proposal for adoption into a clan of +one of the Five Nations, he or they shall furnish a string of shells, a +span in length, as a pledge to the clan into which he or they wish to +be adopted. The Lords of the nation shall then consider the proposal +and submit a decision. + + 69. Any member of the Five Nations who through esteem or other feeling +wishes to adopt an individual, a family or number of families may offer +adoption to him or them and if accepted the matter shall be brought to +the attention of the Lords for confirmation and the Lords must confirm +adoption. + + 70. When the adoption of anyone shall have been confirmed by the Lords +of the Nation, the Lords shall address the people of their nation and +say: "Now you of our nation, be informed that such a person, such a +family or such families have ceased forever to bear their birth +nation's name and have buried it in the depths of the earth. Hence- +forth let no one of our nation ever mention the original name or nation +of their birth. To do so will be to hasten the end of our peace. + + + LAWS OF EMIGRATION + + 71. When any person or family belonging to the Five Nations desires to +abandon their birth nation and the territory of the Five Nations, they +shall inform the Lords of their nation and the Confederate Council of +the Five Nations shall take cognizance of it. + + 72. When any person or any of the people of the Five Nations emigrate +and reside in a region distant from the territory of the Five Nations +Confederacy, the Lords of the Five Nations at will may send a messenger +carrying a broad belt of black shells and when the messenger arrives he +shall call the people together or address them personally displaying +the belt of shells and they shall know that this is an order for them +to return to their original homes and to their council fires. + + RIGHTS OF FOREIGN NATIONS + + 73. The soil of the earth from one end of the land to the other is the +property of the people who inhabit it. By birthright the Ongwehonweh +(Original beings) are the owners of the soil which they own and occupy +and none other may hold it. The same law has been held from the oldest +times. + +The Great Creator has made us of the one blood and of the same soil he +made us and as only different tongues constitute different nations he +established different hunting grounds and territories and made boundary +lines between them. + + 74. When any alien nation or individual is admitted into the Five +Nations the admission shall be understood only to be a temporary one. +Should the person or nation create loss, do wrong or cause suffering of +any kind to endanger the peace of the Confederacy, the Confederate +Lords shall order one of their war chiefs to reprimand him or them and +if a similar offence is again committed the offending party or parties +shall be expelled from the territory of the Five United Nations. + + 75. When a member of an alien nation comes to the territory of the +Five Nations and seeks refuge and permanent residence, the Lords of the +Nation to which he comes shall extend hospitality and make him a member +of the nation. Then shall he be accorded equal rights and privileges +in all matters except as after mentioned. + + 76. No body of alien people who have been adopted temporarily shall +have a vote in the council of the Lords of the Confederacy, for only +they who have been invested with Lordship titles may vote in the +Council. Aliens have nothing by blood to make claim to a vote and +should they have it, not knowing all the traditions of the Confederacy, +might go against its Great Peace. In this manner the Great Peace would +be endangered and perhaps be destroyed. + + 77. When the Lords of the Confederacy decide to admit a foreign nation +and an adoption is made, the Lords shall inform the adopted nation that +its admission is only temporary. They shall also say to the nation +that it must never try to control, to interfere with or to injure the +Five Nations nor disregard the Great Peace or any of its rules or +customs. That in no way should they cause disturbance or injury. Then +should the adopted nation disregard these injunctions, their adoption +shall be annuled and they shall be expelled. + +The expulsion shall be in the following manner: The council shall +appoint one of their War Chiefs to convey the message of annulment and +he shall say, "You (naming the nation) listen to me while I speak. I +am here to inform you again of the will of the Five Nations' Council. +It was clearly made known to you at a former time. Now the Lords of +the Five Nations have decided to expel you and cast you out. We disown +you now and annul your adoption. Therefore you must look for a path in +which to go and lead away all your people. It was you, not we, who +committed wrong and caused this sentence of annulment. So then go your +way and depart from the territory of the Five Nations and from the +Confederacy." + + 78. Whenever a foreign nation enters the Confederacy or accepts the +Great Peace, the Five Nations and the foreign nation shall enter into +an agreement and compact by which the foreign nation shall endeavor to +pursuade other nations to accept the Great Peace. + + + RIGHTS AND POWERS OF WAR + + 79. Skanawatih shall be vested with a double office, duty and with +double authority. One-half of his being shall hold the Lordship title +and the other half shall hold the title of War Chief. In the event of +war he shall notify the five War Chiefs of the Confederacy and command +them to prepare for war and have their men ready at the appointed time +and place for engagement with the enemy of the Great Peace. + + 80. When the Confederate Council of the Five Nations has for its +object the establishment of the Great Peace among the people of an +outside nation and that nation refuses to accept the Great Peace, then +by such refusal they bring a declaration of war upon themselves from +the Five Nations. Then shall the Five Nations seek to establish the +Great Peace by a conquest of the rebellious nation. + + 81. When the men of the Five Nations, now called forth to become +warriors, are ready for battle with an obstinate opposing nation that +has refused to accept the Great Peace, then one of the five War Chiefs +shall be chosen by the warriors of the Five Nations to lead the army +into battle. It shall be the duty of the War Chief so chosen to come +before his warriors and address them. His aim shall be to impress upon +them the necessity of good behavior and strict obedience to all the +commands of the War Chiefs. He shall deliver an oration exhorting them +with great zeal to be brave and courageous and never to be guilty of +cowardice. At the conclusion of his oration he shall march forward and +commence the War Song and he shall sing: + + Now I am greatly surprised + And, therefore I shall use it -- + The powerr of my War Song. + + I am of the Five Nations + And I shall make supplication + To the Almighty Creator. + + He has furnished this army. + My warriors shall be mighty + In the strength of the Creator. + Between him and my song they are + For it was he who gave the song + This war song that I sing! + + 82. When the warriors of the Five Nations are on an expedition against +an enemy, the War Chief shall sing the War Song as he approaches the +country of the enemy and not cease until his scouts have reported that +the army is near the enemies' lines when the War Chief shall approach +with great caution and prepare for the attack. + + 83. When peace shall have been established by the termination of the +war against a foreign nation, then the War Chief shall cause all the +weapons of war to be taken from the nation. Then shall the Great Peace +be established and that nation shall observe all the rules of the Great +Peace for all time to come. + + 84. Whenever a foreign nation is conquered or has by their own will +accepted the Great Peace their own system of internal government may +continue, but they must cease all warfare against other nations. + + 85. Whenever a war against a foreign nation is pushed until +that nation is about exterminated because of its refusal to +accept the Great Peace and if that nation shall by its obstinacy +become exterminated, all their rights, property and territory +shall become the property of the Five Nations. + + 86. Whenever a foreign nation is conquered and the survivors are +brought into the territory of the Five Nations' Confederacy and placed +under the Great Peace the two shall be known as the Conqueror and the +Conquered. A symbolic relationship shall be devised and be placed in +some symbolic position. The conquered nation shall have no voice in +the councils of the Confederacy in the body of the Lords. + + 87. When the War of the Five Nations on a foreign rebellious nation is +ended, peace shall be restored to that nation by a withdrawal of all +their weapons of war by the War Chief of the Five Nations. When all +the terms of peace shall have been agreed upon a state of friendship +shall be established. + + 88. When the proposition to establish the Great Peace is made to a +foreign nation it shall be done in mutual council. The foreign nation +is to be persuaded by reason and urged to come into the Great Peace. +If the Five Nations fail to obtain the consent of the nation at the +first council a second council shall be held and upon a second failure +a third council shall be held and this third council shall end the +peaceful methods of persuasion. At the third council the War Chief of +the Five nations shall address the Chief of the foreign nation and +request him three times to accept the Great Peace. If refusal stead- +fastly follows the War Chief shall let the bunch of white lake shells +drop from his outstretched hand to the ground and shall bound quickly +forward and club the offending chief to death. War shall thereby be +declared and the War Chief shall have his warriors at his back to meet +any emergency. War must continue until the contest is won by the Five +Nations. + + 89. When the Lords of the Five Nations propose to meet in conference +with a foreign nation with proposals for an acceptance of the Great +Peace, a large band of warriors shall conceal themselves in a secure +place safe from the espionage of the foreign nation but as near at hand +as possible. Two warriors shall accompany the Union Lord who carries +the proposals and these warriors shall be especially cunning. Should +the Lord be attacked, these warriors shall hasten back to the army of +warriors with the news of the calamity which fell through the treachery +of the foreign nation. + + 90. When the Five Nations' Council declares war any Lord of the +Confederacy may enlist with the warriors by temporarily renouncing his +sacred Lordship title which he holds through the election of his women +relatives. The title then reverts to them and they may bestow it upon +another temporarily until the war is over when the Lord, if living, may +resume his title and seat in the Council. + + 91. A certain wampum belt of black beads shall be the emblem of the +authority of the Five War Chiefs to take up the weapons of war and with +their men to resist invasion. This shall be called a war in defense +of the territory. + + + TREASON OR SECESSION OF A NATION + + 92. If a nation, part of a nation, or more than one nation within the +Five Nations should in any way endeavor to destroy the Great Peace by +neglect or violating its laws and resolve to dissolve the Confederacy, +such a nation or such nations shall be deemed guilty of treason and +called enemies of the Confederacy and the Great Peace. + +It shall then be the duty of the Lords of the Confederacy who remain +faithful to resolve to warn the offending people. They shall be warned +once and if a second warning is necessary they shall be driven from the +territory of the Confederacy by the War Chiefs and his men. + + + RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE FIVE NATIONS + + 93. Whenever a specially important matter or a great emergency is +presented before the Confederate Council and the nature of the matter +affects the entire body of the Five Nations, threatening their utter +ruin, then the Lords of the Confederacy must submit the matter to the +decision of their people and the decision of the people shall affect +the decision of the Confederate Council. This decision shall be a +confirmation of the voice of the people. + + 94. The men of every clan of the Five Nations shall have a Council +Fire ever burning in readiness for a council of the clan. When it +seems necessary for a council to be held to discuss the welfare of the +clans, then the men may gather about the fire. This council shall have +the same rights as the council of the women. + + 95. The women of every clan of the Five Nations shall have a Council +Fire ever burning in readiness for a council of the clan. When in +their opinion it seems necessary for the interest of the people they +shall hold a council and their decisions and recommendations shall be +introduced before the Council of the Lords by the War Chief for its +consideration. + + 96. All the Clan council fires of a nation or of the Five Nations may +unite into one general council fire, or delegates from all the council +fires may be appointeed to unite in a general council for discussing +the interests of the people. The people shall have the right to make +appointments and to delegate their power to others of their number. +When their council shall have come to a conclusion on any matter, their +decision shall be reported to the Council of the Nation or to the +Confederate Council (as the case may require) by the War Chief or the +War Chiefs. + + 97. Before the real people united their nations, each nation had its +council fires. Before the Great Peace their councils were held. The +five Council Fires shall continue to burn as before and they are not +quenched. The Lords of each nation in future shall settle their +nation's affairs at this council fire governed always by the laws and +rules of the council of the Confederacy and by the Great Peace. + + 98. If either a nephew or a niece see an irregularity in the perfor- +mance of the functions of the Great Peace and its laws, in the Con- +federate Council or in the conferring of Lordship titles in an improper +way, through their War Chief they may demand that such actions become +subject to correction and that the matter conform to the ways pre- +scribed by the laws of the Great Peace. + + + RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES PROTECTED + + 99. The rites and festivals of each nation shall remain undisturbed +and shall continue as before because they were given by the people of +old times as useful and necessary for the good of men. + +100. It shall be the duty of the Lords of each brotherhood to confer at +the approach of the time of the Midwinter Thanksgiving and to notify +their people of the approaching festival. They shall hold a council +over the matter and arrange its details and begin the Thanksgiving five +days after the moon of Dis-ko-nah is new. The people shall assemble at +the appointed place and the nephews shall notify the people of the time +and place. From the beginning to the end the Lords shall preside over +the Thanksgiving and address the people from time to time. + +101. It shall be the duty of the appointed managers of the Thanksgiving +festivals to do all that is needed for carrying out the duties of the +occasions. + +The recognized festivals of Thanksgiving shall be the Midwinter Thanks- +giving, the Maple or Sugar-making Thanksgiving, the Raspberry Thanks- +giving, the Strawberry Thanksgiving, the Cornplanting Thanksgiving, the +Corn Hoeing Thanksgiving, the Little Festival of Green Corn, the Great +Festival of Ripe Corn and the complete Thanksgiving for the Harvest. + +Each nation's festivals shall be held in their Long Houses. + +102. When the Thansgiving for the Green Corn comes the special man- +agers, both the men and women, shall give it careful attention and do +their duties properly. + +103. When the Ripe Corn Thanksgiving is celebrated the Lords of the +Nation must give it the same attention as they give to the Midwinter +Thanksgiving. + +104. Whenever any man proves himself by his good life and his knowledge +of good things, naturally fitted as a teacher of good things, he shall +be recognized by the Lords as a teacher of peace and religion and the +people shall hear him. + + + THE INSTALLATION SONG + +105. The song used in installing the new Lord of the Confederacy shall +be sung by Adodarhoh and it shall be: + + "Haii, haii Agwah wi-yoh + " " A-kon-he-watha + " " Ska-we-ye-se-go-wah + " " Yon-gwa-wih + " " Ya-kon-he-wa-tha + + Haii, haii It is good indeed + " " (That) a broom, -- + " " A great wing, + " " It is given me + " " For a sweeping instrument." + +106. Whenever a person properly entitled desires to learn the Pacifica- +tion Song he is privileged to do so but he must prepare a feast at +which his teachers may sit with him and sing. The feast is provided +that no misfortune may befall them for singing the song on an occasion +when no chief is installed. + + + PROTECTION OF THE HOUSE + +107. A certain sign shall be known to all the people of the Five Nat- +ions which shall denote that the owner or occupant of a house is absent +absent. A stick or pole in a slanting or leaning position shall indi- +cate this and be the sign. Every person not entitled to enter the +house by right of living within it upon seeing such a sign shall not +approach the house either by day or by night but shall keep as far away +as his business will permit. + + + FUNERAL ADDRESSES + +108. At the funeral of a Lord of the Confederacy, say: Now we become +reconciled as you start away. You were once a Lord of the Five +Nations' Confederacy and the United People trusted you. Now we release +you for it is true that it is no longer possible for us to walk about +together on the earth. Now, therefore, we lay it (the body) here. +Here we lay it away. Now then we say to you, 'Persevere onward to the +place where the Creator dwells in peace. Let not the things of the +earth hinder you. Let nothing that transpired while yet you lived +hinder you. In hunting you once took delight; in the game of Lacrosse +you once took delight and in the feasts and pleasant occasions your +mind was amused, but now do not allow thoughts of these things to give +you trouble. Let not your relatives hinder you and also let not your +friends and associates trouble your mind. Regard none of these +things.' + +"Now then, in turn, you here present who were related to this man and +you who were his friends and associates, behold the path that is yours +also! Soon we ourselves will be left in that place. For this reason +hold yourselves in restraint as you go from place to place. In your +actions and in your conversation do no idle thing. Speak not idle talk +neither gossip. Be careful of this and speak not and do not give way +to evil behavior. One year is the time that you must abstain from +unseemly levity but if you can not do this for ceremony, ten days is +the time to regard these things for respect." + +109. At the funeral of a War Chief, say: + + "Now we become reconciled as you start away. You were once a + War Chief of the Five Nations' Confederacy and the United + People trusted you as their guard from the enemy." (The + remainder is the same as the address at the funeral of a + Lord). + +110. At the funeral of a Warrior, say: + + "Now we become reconciled as you start away. Once you were a + devoted provider and protector of your family and you were + ever ready to take part in battles for the Five Nations' + Confederacy. The United People trusted you." (The remainder + is the same as the address at the funeral of a Lord). + +111. At the funeral of a young man, say: + + "Now we become reconciled as you start away. In the beginn- + ing of your career you are taken away and the flower of your + life is withered away." (The remainder is the same as the + address at the funeral of a Lord). + +112. At the funeral of a chief woman, say: + + "Now we become reconciled as you start away. You were once a + chief woman in the Five Nations' Confederacy. You once were + a mother of the nations. Now we release you for it is true + that it is no longer possible for us to walk about together + on the earth. Now, therefore, we lay it (the body) here. + Here we lay it away. Now then we say to you, 'Persevere + onward to the place where the Creator dwells in peace. Let + not the things of the earth hinder you. Let nothing that + transpired while you lived hinder you. Looking after your + family was a sacred duty and you were faithful. You were one + of the many joint heirs of the Lordship titles. Feastings + were yours and you had pleasant occasions. . ." (The remain- + der is the same as the address at the funeral of a Lord). + +113. At the funeral of a woman of the people, say: + + "Now we become reconciled as you start away. You were once a + woman in the flower of life and the bloom is now withered + away. You once held a sacred position as a mother of the + nation. (Etc.) Looking after your family was a sacred duty + and you were faithful. Feastings . . . (etc.)" (The remain- + der is the same as the address at the funeral of a Lord). + +114. At the funeral of an infant or young woman, say: + + "Now we become reconciled as you start away. You were a + tender bud and gladdened our hearts for only a few days. Now + the bloom has withered away...(etc.) Let none of the things + that transpired on earth hinder you. Let nothing that + happened while you lived hinder you." (The remainder is the + same as the address at the funeral of a Lord). + +[Editors note: the above ellipses and 'etc.' remarks are transcribed +directly from the text I copied.] + +115. When an infant dies within three days, mourning shall continue +only five days. Then shall you gather the little boys and girls at the +house of mourning and at the funeral feast a speaker shall address the +children and bid them be happy once more, though by a death, gloom has +been cast over them. Then shall the black clouds roll away and the sky +shall show blue once more. Then shall the children be again in +sunshine. + +116. When a dead person is brought to the burial place, the speaker on +the opposite side of the Council Fire shall bid the bereaved family +cheer their minds once again and rekindle their hearth fires in peace, +to put their house in order and once again be in brightness for +darkness has covered them. He shall say that the black clouds shall +roll away and that the bright blue sky is visible once more. Therefore +shall they be in peace in the sunshine again. + +117. Three strings of shell one span in length shall be employed in +addressing the assemblage at the burial of the dead. The speaker shall +say: + + "Hearken you who are here, this body is to be covered. + Assemble in this place again ten days hence for it is the + decree of the Creator that mourning shall cease when ten days + have expired. Then shall a feast be made." + +Then at the expiration of ten days the speaker shall say: + + "Continue to listen you who are here. The ten days of + mourning have expired and your minds must now be freed of + sorrow as before the loss of a relative. The relatives have + decided to make a little compensation to those who have + assisted at the funeral. It is a mere expression of thanks. + This is to the one who did the cooking while the body was + lying in the house. Let her come forward and receive this + gift and be dismissed from the task." + +In substance this shall be repeated for everyone who assisted in any +way until all have been remembered. + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/iroquois.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/iroquois.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..92cf43a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/iroquois.txt @@ -0,0 +1,325 @@ +Newsgroups: freenet.shrine.songs +From: aa300 (Jerry Murphy) +Subject: Speech by Dr. Grinde +Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 15:35:39 EST + + +THE IROQUOIS AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY + +Speech by Dr. Donald A. Grinde, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Interdiscipli- +nary Studies, Gettysburg College, and Crawford Research Fellow, 1987-1988. +Delivered at Cornell University September 11, 1987. + +(To be published by the Native American Studies Program at Cornell +University in "Northeast Indian Quarterly, V (Winter, 1988)) + +Permission granted by the author to post in the Cleveland Free- +Net in a letter of May 6, 1988, addressed to Mr. Jerry Murphy. + +------------------------- + +First of all, I would like to thank the Iroquois people that I worked with some +fifteen or more years ago. They gave me encouragement in this project since I +did not receive much encouragement outside of the Iroquois people. I want to +also thank the Indian Historian Press whose stated purpose, then as well as now, +is to publish works by American Indian scholars and others that contribute to +new viewpoints on American Indian history. Finally, I would like to thank +Americans for Indian Opportunity and the Meredith Fund for research funds that +made my present research possible. + +Today, I would like to share with you some of the new data that I have found in +the last year or so that supplements my earlier findings. I will focus on four +items: + + 1) The Treaty Congress at Albany in August of 1775 + 2) Benjamin Franklin and his ideas about the Covenant Chain + of the Iroquois. + 3) Thomas Paine and some of the things that he wrote that + have not been attributed to him. + 4) John Rutledge of South Carolina and how he learned of the + Great Law of the Iroquois, and how he helped to write the first + draft of the U. S. Constitution. + +As Eugene Crawford Memorial Fellow for 1987-1988, my purpose will be to analyze, +from a historian's viewpoint, the extent and impact of the Iroquois ideas on +American democracy. This analysis will include, of course, the U. S. Constitu- +tion. I want to make this study an integral part of the analysis of the +Constitution. In the future, I want to make sure that when people talk about +the roots of the Constitution, they include the ideas of the Iroquois. Ancient +Greece and Rome, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, no doubt, influenced the +thinking of the Founding Fathers, but Iroquois concepts had a profound influence +upon the formation of our government as well. The ideas of the Iroquois +influenced the thinking of the English and the French theorists of the eigh- +teenth century also. I will also attempt to approach the Founding Fathers +as human beings, and this is extremely important since I have found that it is +the best way to look at them. When one looks for Iroquois ideas in the Founding +Fathers, I have to always remember that these men were politicians.. Many of +them, of course, had a good education for the times and were wealthy. However, +most of them had a fairly long history of political activity in one way or +another. + +The noted Cherokee humorist, Will Rogers, said that politicians are like fog- +horns; they call attention to the problems but they don't do a damned thing +about them. When I read the Records of the Constitutional Convention and other +materials leading up to the first draft of the Constitution, I see a lot of +foghorn stuff. What about the problem of money and debts? What about the +executive and legislative powers? How can we secure a stronger union? For +brevity's sake, I will not go back to the Albany Plan of Union because I think +that it will be discussed later, but Albany is an important place to begin the +discussion of the Iroquois' influence on American democracy. + +In August of 1775, before the Declaration of Independence, the Continental +Congress sent a group of treaty commissioners to speak with the Six Nations of +the Iroquois Confederacy at Albany, New York. The Congress and the American +people were contemplating independence and a long war. Already, there was much +tension and the Congress did not want to fight a two front war against the +British in the East and the Indians in the West. In the spring of 1775, +Congress began to formulate a speech that was to be sent to the Iroquois in the +summer of 1775. Signed by John Hancock, this speech recalls the history of the +relations between the Iroquois and the American colonists since the 1740s. The +speech quotes the Iroquois chief, Cannassatego, at the Treaty of Lancaster in +1744. In that speech, Cannassatego admonishes the Americans to unite and become +strong as the forefathers of the Iroquois had done under the Great Law. The +speech from the Continental Congress said that the American people are united +and have taken the advice of the Iroquois. The U. S. treaty commissioners +added: + + "...the advice was good, it was kind. They said to one + another, the Six Nations are a wise people, let us hearken + to their Council and teach our children to follow it. Our + old men have done so. They have frequently taken a single + arrow and said, children, see how easy it is broken, then + they have tied twelve together with strong cords--And our + strongest men could not break them--See said they--this is + what the Six Nations mean. Divided a single man may destroy + you--United, you are a match for the whole world." + +Unity is a major concept in this speech by the Congress, and it is one of the +foremost concepts of the Iroquois Great Law. Unity is not a novel concept, but +the way in which the Iroquois did it, fascinated Europeans and particularly, +American colonists. Hence, the treaty commissioners at Albany, in 1775, were +not just engaging in the rhetoric of Iroquois diplomacy, they were demonstrating +that they had a knowledge of and were using parts of the Great Law in their +deliberations even before independence was declared. The speech goes on to +point out that the American people have delegated leaders to go to Philadelphia +and kindle a great fire and plant a Great Tree to become strong like the +Iroquois. At the conclusion of the analogy, the treaty commissioners invited +the Iroquois to come to Philadelphia to their "Grand Council". + +A few days after this speech, the treaty commissioners tell the Iroquois that: + + "We live upon the same ground with you--the same island is + our common birthplace. We desire to sit down under the + same Tree of Peace with you; let us water its roots and + cherish its growth, till the large leaves and flourishing + branches shall extend to the setting sun and reach the skies." + +In some more references to Iroquois cosmology, the Americans say when this + + "island began to shake and tremble along the Eastern Shore, + and the Sun darkened by a Black cloud which arose from + beyond the great water, we kindled up a Great Council Fire + at Philadelphia...so...that we are now twelve colonies + united as one man...And...As God has put it into our hearts + to love the Six Nations...we now make the chain of + friendship so that nothing but an evil spirit can or will + attempt to break it." + +Through these words, we can see the extent of the Continental Congress' knowl- +edge of the Great Law of the Iroquois and its cosmology a year before the +Declaration of Independence. In an analysis of this cultural and intellectual +exchange, it is significant (since it often goes unnoticed) that the Iroquois +people delegated leaders or had self-appointed people to educate the colonists +to the wisdom of unity. + +A generation before the conference at Albany in 1775, the Mohawk Chief, Hend- +rick, had admonished the colonists to unify. In August of 1775, when the +Iroquois chiefs had asked the Americans who should speak for the Iroquois at the +conference, the Americans immediately asked that Abraham be appointed the main +speaker. Abraham was the adopted brother of Hendrick, and the Americans +remembered his words urging unity at the Albany conference in 1754. It should +be noted that the treaty commissioners recognized that Abraham and Hendrick were +part of an Iroquois tradition to teach the American people strength through +unity. After he is made speaker, Abraham rose and stated that he was glad that +"...your grandfathers had inculcated the doctrine into their children...". He +noted that an invitation had been extended to go to Philadelphia where the Great +Tree was planted and "...sit under it and water its roots, till the branches +should flourish and reach to heaven...". Abraham said, "This the Six Nations +say shall be done." In May of 1776, the Iroquois chiefs would go to Philadel- +phia as the Continental Congress was readying itself for independence (the +Iroquois camped outside of Independence Hall in the square). After John Hancock +welcomed the Iroquois chiefs to the Congress as "brothers", an Onondaga chief +named the President of the Continental Congress, (John Hancock), "Karanduawn, or +the Great Tree", on June 11, 1776. + +In effect, the Iroquois were present during the debates on independence and when +a draft of the Articles of Confederation was introduced (this draft was a +revision of Franklin's Albany Plan and it has been demonstrated that it was +borrowed from the Iroquois Great Law). With the Iroquois in the halls of +government on the eve of independence, it is no longer a question of whether the +Iroquois had an impact on the nature of American government but rather it now +becomes a question of degree. We can now see that both the Americans and the +Iroquois were aware of the interchange of ideas for over a generation. Essen- +tially, the Iroquois had a tradition of instructing, cajoling and admonishing +the colonies to unity, and the Americans were cognizant of this process in some +very profound ways. + +Now, I would like to discuss Benjamin Franklin and his knowledge of Iroquois +imagery and ideas. Franklin, of course, was the author of the Albany Plan of +Union. However, an examination of the oral traditions about Franklin has +yielded some interesting insights into Franklin's use of Iroquois ideas. By +looking at the record of the people that knew Franklin in England before the +Revolution and in France during the Revolution, it is apparent that Franklin +talked a great deal about the Iroquois. In England, Franklin's circle of +friends gave him a silver tea service that was engraved "keep bright the chain" +because it was one of his favorite phrases. His friends remarked that he used +it often and that they sought Franklin's ideas about American Indians. + +When Franklin goes to France in late 1776 as the Congress' Minister to France, +he was welcomed as a hero. There was a rumor that he was coming with 100 +American Indian warriors. Once in France, Franklin "...loved to cite and to +practice faithfully the proverb of his friends, the American Indians, "Keep the +chain of friendship bright and shining", when discussing the concept of liberty +among distinguished French philosophers like Turgot, Helvetius, La Rochefoucault +and Condorcet. French observers in the salons stated that Franklin would dis- +cuss the politics of the Indians with great exactness and interest. Further- +more, Franklin thought the ways of American Indians more conducive to the good +life than the ways of "...Civilized Nations". Frequently, Franklin used the +French curiosity about Native Americans and particularly the Iroquois to his +personal and diplomatic advantage. + +When Franklin came back to America after the Revolution, he became a member in +the Constitutional Sons of Saint Tammany in Philadelphia. This was a society of +non-Indians that dressed up as Indians, entertained Indian delegations to Phila- +delphia, stood for a unicameral legislature like Franklin, and freely used +Iroquois ideas and imagery in its rhetoric. In 1785, George Washington attended +a St. Tammany society meeting in Richmond, Virginia. Washington was called our +"Great Grand Sachem" and our "brother" by the society. Franklin was often +toasted as "brother" also. During the Constitutional Convention, Franklin +wrote several letters to American Indians like "the old chief", "the...Beloved +Indian Woman", and the "Cornstalk". These terms and names were used by the +Constitutional Sons of Saint Tammany. Since they were written on June 30, 1787 +after the bitter controversy over the Virginia and New Jersey Plans were +resolved, they may well be "coded" letters to the Constitutional Sons of Saint +Tammany. The Saint Tammany Society was intensely interested in the outcome of +the Constitutional Convention and the structure of the new government. At any +rate, Franklin stated in one of these letters that: + + "I am sorry that the Great Council fire of our nation is + not now burning, so that you cannot do business there. + In a few months, the coals will be rak'd out of the ashes + and will again be rekindled." + +Franklin also had designed currency using the Iroquois Covenant Chain at the +beginning of the Revolution that was reissued in 1787. The currency depicted a +Covenant Chain of thirteen links with an admonition to unite. Hence, there is +plenty of evidence that Franklin continued and cultivated his interest in the +Iroquois after he used their ideas of unity to forge the Albany Plan of Union in +1754. + +Thomas Paine was also influenced by the Iroquois. Although it is generally not +acknowledged, Thomas Paine was a secretary to an Iroquois Treaty at Easton, +Pennsylvania in early 1777. It appears that Paine heard an Iroquois prophecy +about struggling beasts that would shake the very foundation of the League of +the Iroquois. In the end, lesser beast (the Americans) would win and take up +the ideas of the Iroquois. A pamphlet published by the Continental Congress +recounts a similar prophecy. It is printed in France in 1777 before the French +publicly began to support the American cause. Thomas Paine was appointed to the +Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Continental Congress in April of 1777. He +may have sent over to Franklin an account of the prophecy since Franklin and the +other American ministers to France were constantly asking for good news (the +good news would come late in 1777 with the victory at Saratoga). Again, it is +important to note that the Continental Congress is writing propaganda using the +imagery and prophecies of the Iroquois since they knew that the French were +fascinated by Iroquois ideas. After Paine leaves America for France, he was +reputed to have talked a great deal about the Iroquois. + +Finally, there is John Rutledge of South Carolina, chairman of the Committee of +Detail that writes the first draft of the U. S. Constitution. According to his +biographer, Rutledge learned of the Great Law while attending the Stamp Act +Congress in New York City as a young man. During the Stamp Act Congress, Rut- +ledge rented a cab and rode out to see Sir William Johnson and some Mohawks +camped on the edge of Greenwich Village. Sir William Johnson was upset about +the Stamp Act because it was cutting into his Indian trade. Sir William Johnson +had come down in the fall from Albany to get supplies for the Indian trade. +Johnson greeted Rutledge by saying: "I see you've come to comb the King's hair", +and Rutledge was puzzled by this phrase (an obvious allusion to the evil +Onondaga wizard, Tadodaho, that Hiawatha tamed to pave the way for the creation +of the Great Law of the Iroquois). In this way, Johnson characterized the Stamp +Act Congress as attempting to pacify the King's mind about taxation and other +things. With this opening remark, John Rutledge sits down and has a few glasses +of rum with Johnson and the Mohawks and gets his first lesson about the Great +Law of the Iroquois. + +In late July, 1787, twenty years after the Stamp Act Congress, John Rutledge +found himself chairing the Committee of Detail at the Constitutional Convention. +The Committee was charged with taking all of the resolutions that had been +passed in Convention and drafting a document that could be polished and refined +through debate on the floor of the convention. Rutledge's biographer states +that he opened the meeting with some passages from the Great Law of the Iro- +quois. The main passages relate to the sovereignty of the people, peace and +unity. Rutledge had asserted earlier that a great empire was being created so +it must be firmly rooted in American soil. With this said, Rutledge bent over +and began the task of drafting the Constitution. + +Pressure in the printed media was already being brought to bear upon the Framers +of the U. S. Constitution. In the August, 1787 issue of The American Museum (a +Philadelphia magazine), "A Fable - Addressed to the Federal Convention" was +printed that used the bundle of arrows imagery of the Iroquois Constitution +(Section 57) and styled the Iroquois as "fathers" urging unity to their "sons". +No doubt, the Constitutional Sons of Saint Tammany were, in part responsible for +this reference. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 69, felt compelled to +address an editorial written by 'Tamony' that expressed reservations about the +executive powers in the proposed constitution. Appearing in Virginia and +Pennsylvania newspapers, the editorial clearly represented the fears of the St. +Tammany Society of a strong executive in peacetime. These examples are but a +few of the references to the Iroquois roots of American government. + +The major thing to remember is that if you know the code words like "combing the +King's hair" or "keep the chain bright" the Iroquois influence can be easily +seen. Indeed, there seems to be a kind of ignoring of these references in the +records. This ignoring of important references glosses over the fact that +Iroquois images were used frequently in eighteenth century America. + +But to modern scholars such references probably appear as anomalies since many +people are unfamiliar with the rhetoric and imagery of the Iroquois. In short, +the attitude might be: "What's this, Thomas Paine writing an Indian treaty?" +What does this have to do with political theory or his ideas? + +In conclusion, I think that the concept of unity was an important transference +that went on for generations bewteen the colonists and the Iroquois. Rutledge +recalled that exchange as he began to write the first draft of the Constitution +(the press of Philadelphia and the Saint Tammany society were also bound to +remind him and the other delegates to the convention of the American roots of +our unity and freedom). Federalism is another important concept here. The +Iroquois had a working federalism that gave maximum internal freedom while +providing for a strong defense. + +I think it is time to take away the veil that has deprived Americans from +realizing the Iroquois roots of American democracy. The new evidence that we +have all brought to bear here is extremely exciting. I hope that it will +convince people that when they look at the origins of American democracy that +one can no longer look only to the ancient Greeks and John Locke for sources but +you must also look to the Great Law of the Iroquois as a valid source of +ideas for the formation of our nation. With evidence at hand, the question is +not whether the Iroquois had an influence on formation of the American govern- +ment but to what degree. + +The next job. after this conference, is to increase cross-cultural kinds of +studies. I think that research funds in the institutions that study Indians +should be allocated in ways that reflect more the interests and questions that +are important to Indian people. Certainly, American Indian people and American +Indian scholars should have a greater say over research priorities and the +allocation of funds in places like the Smithsonian Institution. In the final +analysis, it was the Iroquois people that came to me and said "we're interested +in this, are you interested in the Iroquois roots of American democracy?" In +the future, questions that American Indian people deem important should have a +great deal of validity in institutions of culture and learning, i.e. the +National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian. Let us hope that the +call is heeded. Why can't people recognize that Native Americans have priorit- +ies about their history? American Indian people should not be ignored in their +pursuit of a new Native American history. + +Thank you. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/isdn-tec b/textfiles.com/politics/isdn-tec new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c37fc1ac --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/isdn-tec @@ -0,0 +1,187 @@ +Telephone Service That Rings of the Future +By Joshua Quittner. STAFF WRITER Newsday +(Copyright 1992 by Newsday,Inc. Reprinted and posted by permission) + + TO JOHN PERRY BARLOW, a point man for the computer culture, it's +the next step in the "Great Work. The physical wiring of collective +human consciousness--the idea of connecting every mind to every other +mind in fullduplex broadband." + To Ohio Bell, it's a way for customers to have up to nine +telephone numbers--some for specific friends, some for the bill +collectors--for the price of one. + This technological Rorschach test is called Integrated Services +Digital Network. And not since the invention of television have so many +people looked at one thing and interpreted it in so many different ways. + Technically, ISDN refers to an architecture--the software, +hardware and protocols needed to deliver a mix of voice, video and data +over a digital telephone network. This is important because it is a way +of squeezing every bit of capacity out of the twisted pair of copper +wires that the local telephone company runs into your house, bringing +the kind of services that are usually associated with more expensive +fiber optic cables. + When Barbara Bush videoconferenced from the White House with +children at a Baltimore hospital at Christmas, she was using an ISDN +connection. When a group of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory scientists +work at home, ISDN enables them to use their personal computers, without +a modem, to tap into the lab network and get a data connection 27 times +faster than normal. The Rochester Telephone Co. and AT&T recently +completed an ISDN experiment in which phone company employees used ISDN +to telecommute from their homes. + With the lifting of restrictions that barred local telephone +companies from providing information services, the Baby Bells are +looking for ways of getting into the information business. Fiber optic +cable, the hair-thin strands of glass that convey signals at the speed +of light, is considered the ultimate way to transmit information +services, both for its speed and high capacity. But the cost of +deploying fiber has stalled it at curbside; telephone companies estimate +it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to extend it into homes. + By using the existing copper wires that connect homes to lo +cal telephone companies, ISDN could be a far cheaper, more quickly +available alternative, a "ramping up technology," to fiber, said Barlow. +With software developer Mitchell Kapor, who is famous for the business +spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3, Barlow founded the Cambridge, Mass.- +based Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest group dedicated +to defining and promoting the rights of computer users. The organization +is lobbying for ISDN as the medium for an easy-to-access, national +public network of computer users. + Will ISDN stay where it is, mostly with businesses, or will it make +the connection to people's homes? The answer depends on whom you ask. + "I think we're at a critical period in the deployment of ISDN +because up until now, it has not been possible to make an ISDN telephone +call from the service area of one phone company to another," said Marvin +Sirbu, a telecommunications expert and professor at Carnegie Mellon +University in Pittsburgh. Sirbu said that ISDN gained momentum recently +with industrywide agreements that created standards for equipment makers +and service providers to interconnect nationally. That should occur by +the end of 1992. It means that the 300 or so isolated ISDN islands will +be able to talk to each other and the technology is almost certain to +proliferate, at least between businesses, he said. + BUT SIRBU discounted the EFF's notion of a public national network +based on ISDN and said it was wrong to expect the telephone companies to +deploy it for information services. + "I have followed the trials and tribulations of home information +services for more than 10 years," he said. "Everybody keeps saying when +the technology gets cheaper it will be a big success or when the +technology gets better it will be a big success. But I haven't seen any +applications that would make this a big success in the home. The issues +here are marketing issues and finding out what the right product is that +someone wants at home." + Commercial interest in ISDN seemed to peak in 1986, when +McDonald's Corp. was the first business to try it out. (Two executives, +two miles apart, spoke on the phone while looking at video images of +each other and while transmitting a graphic of the Golden Arches onto +their computer screens.) Though the technology spread to the rest of +corporate and high-tech America, it did so slowly; uses were pretty much +limited to a kind of advanced Caller ID option. + For instance, if you call your credit card company's 800 number +from home, chances are your name and records will pop up automatically-- +before you even identify yourself--on the computer screen of the +customer service rep as he takes your call. With ISDN, a company can +also tell if you called, were put on hold and hung up without ever +speaking to a person; if they want to, they can call you back. It also +allows them to note in their database that you speak only Spanish and +automatically route you to a bilingual operator. + The anticipated--and current uses--for ISDN run from the poetic +to the prosaic. + On the poetic end of the spectrum is the Electronic Frontier, which +is pushing ISDN as the ideal platform for what has beendubbed the +National Public Network. Barlow said that that network would carry, in +addition to normal telephone calls, multimedia electronic mail, in which +users could send a mixture of voice and video; personal faxes, software, +games "and other media not yet imagined." The network, in his view, +would be the ultimate expression of "global free speech," giving all +users an unprecedented chance to interact. + "We believe that ISDN, whatever its limitations, is rapid enough to +jump start the greatest free market the world has ever known," said +Barlow. + ISDN can deliver data 27 times faster than a 2400-baud modem, the +telephone-computer interface that most PC users use. It does this +digitally, by creating two 64-kilobit-a-second channels that can be used +for voice or data, and one 16-kilobit-a-second channel, on your phone +line. With developing data- +compression techniques, users could get a combination of voice, +pictures, music and video. "Multimedia postcards," as Kapor put it. +"Today, it's the case that you can do very high-quality picture phones +over ISDN at very, very good quality," he said. "Compression techniques +are continuing to evolve so it's reasonable to expect that we will have +VHS-level quality" over copper wires. + But, while more than 60 percent of the country will be ISDNready +within two years, Kapor, Barlow and others worry that the telephone +companies will do little with it for residential users, aside from +offering their business customers--where most of the money is for phone +companies--some ISDN services. + "Telco mindset was developed in an era of highly centralized +networks in which it took a decade of court battles to give you the +right to attach a suction cup to your telephone," said Kapor. "Computer +industry mindset, especially PCs, was born in garages and attics where +teenagers, kids, and outsiders invented the Apple II and Lotus 1-2-3." +So Kapor and the EFF has been trying to line up the support of computer +and software manufacturers, among others, to lobby in Congress and among +the public utility commissions state by state, for a more directed and +speedy deployment of ISDN. + Currently, there are some 300 ISDN "islands," each centered around +discrete ISDN-equipped phone switches. No one knows exactly how many +there are, nor how many users they serve, though the vast majority are +dedicated telephone lines that run from telephone company switches to +specific businesses. + Though users within each island can interact using ISDN, they can +not interact between islands because the companies that manufacture ISDN +switches used different standards, and because there was no standard +interface between the ISDN that a local telephone company uses, and the +ISDN that a long-distance carrier uses. + However, standards by Bellcore, the research arm of the Baby Bells, +should bring all the switches into conformity by the fall of 1992. + Stan Kluz, an ISDN expert at Lawrence Livermore, recently hooked +the first group of ISDN users off site, into the laboratory's computer +network. Kluz said that through this arrangement, 12 scientists who live +near the University of California at Berkeley can use their computers at +home, and have access to data at 64 kilobits a second. + With speeds that fast, the scientists can manipulate huge amounts +of data and see their problems displayed in three dimensional graphics +on their home computers. + Kluz sees the future of telecommunications and it is ISDN. He says +that videoconferencing on all ISDN-equipped computers at Lawrence +Livermore will be available soon; with nationwide interconnection +agreements, he hopes to see "distance learning" in which a class in, +say, nuclear physics, could be videoconferenced at the Massachusetts +Institute of Technology to the computer of a Lawrence Livermore +scientist, who can take part in the class. + But Kluz, who also serves as president of the California ISDN Users +Group, echoed Kapor and said that the phone companies aren't moving fast +enough to create demand for the service. "They're not marketing it +well," he said. + NYNEX spokesman Joe Gagen--as well as virtually everyone else +interviewed for this story--said residential ISDN is a classic chicken +and egg problem. In order for people to want it, there have to be +services. But information service providers won't proliferate until +there's a demand. Gagen said that residential demand will grow as people +become exposed to ISDN at work. + "It's not going to happen overnight," said Colin Beasley, staff +director of network planning at NYNEX. "My guess is that from an +affordability and deployment point of view, you're probably talking +about 1994-1995 before you'll see broad penetration into the [New York] +residence market." + **** + Telephone Service That Rings of the Future ISDN has already +penetrated New Albany, Ohio, where 16 ISDNaccessible homes have been +built. The country-club-style development (median house price, $700,000) +surrounds a Jack Nicklausdesigned golf course and, its developers say, +is the first commercial application of residential ISDN. + Neil Toeppe of Ohio Bell Telephone Co. said homeowners have the +option of giving out up to nine telephone numbers from an existing +telephone line, each with a different function. For instance, the number +listed in a phone book could be programmed to run into an answering +machine; a second line can be given out to friends, and ring only on +telephones in designated rooms; a third number could be for the +children's phone and it could divert to voice mail after 7:30 p.m. + Within a year or so, residents will be able to have the local +utility company monitor their thermostats, using the 16 kilobit data +channel. That will let homeowners subscribe to a kind of power sharing +agreement under which the power company will virtually control the +thermostat in exchange for discounted rates. Other features will also be +available--as soon as someone figures out what they are. + **** + -- + josh quittner + voice: 1.800.544.5410 (2806 at tone) + quit@newsday.com diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/isdn-tes b/textfiles.com/politics/isdn-tes new file mode 100644 index 00000000..40896bca --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/isdn-tes @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +ISDN as an Enabler of Innovation +Statement of Mitchell Kapor +Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc. +June 13, 1991 + + + My name is Mitchell Kapor. I am the founder and former chief +executive of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, +the world's most successful business software application. I am here today +representing the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc., a non-profit +organization concerned with the development of information and +telecommunications policy which promotes innovation and free enterprise. + + It is often said that computer and communications technologies are +converging to the point that it is no longer meaningful to speak of two +separate industries. At the same time, I can tell you from my own personal +experience that while the the microelectronics revolution may be providing +a common technical base that unifies computing and telecommunications, the +cultures and industrial dynamics of the two are still alien to each other. +This is a shame, because unless the cultural gulf which separates the two +is successfully bridged, society as a whole will be the loser. + + I believe there are substantial and vastly under-appreciated +entrepreneurial opportunities which would arise out of the wide-spread +availability of ISDN at affordable prices. To understand why, it's helpful +to appreciate a bit of history of the personal computer field. + + The most important contribution of the PC field is not a product, +but an idea. It is the idea that a good computer system is simply a +platform upon which other parties can exercise their ingenuity to build +great applications. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak conceived of the +Apple II computer in a Silicon Valley garage in the mid-1970's, they had no +clear idea what it would be used for. But they went to great trouble to +make it attractive for software developers to use. They added graphics, +sound, a low-cost disk drive, and a host of other capabilities. In 1979 +Dan Bricklin invented the first spreadsheet, Visicalc, for the Apple II. + + In 1981 IBM followed Apple's lead with the introduction of the IBM +PC, an "open architecture" machine for which anyone could develop programs. +The explosive growth of the PC industry which followed the introduction of +Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC can be directly attributed to the widespread +availability of inexpensive personal computers. + + Perhaps ten thousand separate commercial programs were introduced +in the span of a few short years. Only a few were successes, but it was +the market and the market alone which was capable of selecting the winners +out of the multitude. And it was only the conditions of low barriers to +entry for software companies which made it possible to mount the vast +numbers of offering necessary to spawn the small number of eventual +winners. + + In short, it was the existence of open platforms for innovation, +such as the Apple II and the IBM PC, which catalyzed the development of +vast amounts of software necessary to the process of market-mediated +innovation. Today, with the desktop PC a commonplace in business and the +home, it's important to remember the basic dynamic by which this PC +revolution occurred. + + Just as the desktop personal computer represented the revolutionary +platform for innovation of the 1980's, it is my belief that ubiquitous +digital communications media, such as are enabled by ISDN, represent the +hope of the 1990's. With the proper ISDN platform, we can have another +generation of explosive growth of services, led by a generation of +information entrepreneurs. + + Today these information entrepreneurs enjoy a margin existence in +the largely non-commercial world of bulletin boards and on the national +research and education network called the Internet. Give them a commercial +information infrastructure which can reach large numbers of people +inexpensively, and I believe we will all be truly amazed at the results. + + The telecommunications industry, unlike computers, is, as you know, +a highly regulated one, for very good reasons of social policy. In this +regard, its heritage and the heritage of computing could not be more +different. While Jobs and Wozniak could create the Apple II as a platform +for innovation in a garage, without let or hindrance from anyone, creating +the ISDN platform will require the wise administration of policies set by +bodies such as this Department of Public Utilities. + + In order to become ubiquitous, ISDN access must be priced low +enough that the average consumer finds it affordable. As a practical +matter, this means that there must be a residential tariff comparable to +the unlimited local calling plans available to residential customers. This +is not the case with the tariff filed by New England Telephone which is +under consideration here. + + It is my understanding that while ISDN access itself would be +available for a fixed monthly fee to business and residential subscribers, +there would always be a "metered" usage fee. Circuit-switched connection +would be charged under the "Switchway" tariff, which carries a substantial +per minute usage charge. Packet-switched connections would be charged +under the "Infopath" tariff, which carries a substantial per kilopacket +charge. + + It may well be the case that the usage assumed by New England +Telephone in the preparation of the tariff under-estimates the demand surge +which would be created by an appropriately low price. + + I therefore ask the Department to take appropriate action, not to +approve the tariff, but require its reconsideration. + + It is also my understanding that fee-based information service +providers who wished to provide packet-switched connections to business or +residential ISDN customers would be required to connect to N.E. Tel's +Infopath packet-switch network. This bundling of another telephone company +service with ISDN unfairly restricts the ability of third parties to offer +services competitive with Infopath at lower prices or with different +arrangements, such as flat-fee connections. Private inter-networking +carriers should be able to connect to ISDN access lines either in central +offices or other access points in the network and should be able to set +their own rates for charging service providers. + + If the Department acts now to insure the availability of ISDN +services at an affordable price to consumers, it will help Massachusetts +and the entire New England economy by helping create a new platform for +telecommunications innovation. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/ita_bc.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/ita_bc.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..aa3fd5f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/ita_bc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1937 @@ + + °±²Û An Introduction to the Anarchist Movement Û²±° + °±²Û - by Brian Crabtree - Û²±° + + Anti-Copyright 1993: + + This work may be freely reproduced, by any means, in + whole or in part, but may not be copyrighted by + any other individual or corporate entity. + + +Contents: + + 1. Introduction + 2. Anarchist Principles + 2.1 Anarchist Ideals + 3. Anarchist Society + 3.1 A Model of an Anarchist Community? + 3.2 Technology and Anarchy + 4. The Case For Anarchism + 4.1 The Problem Exists + 4.2 The Problem Is Inherent + 4.3 Anarchy Will Solve the Problem + 5. The History of Anarchism + 5.1 Proudhon and the Mutualists + 5.2 Bakunin and Collectivism + 5.3 Peter Kropotkin + 5.4 The Anarchist Movement + 6. Anarchy As a Way of Life + 6.1 Civil Disobedience + 6.2 D-I-Y + 7. Modern Anarchist Activism + 7.1 Direct Action + 7.2 Propaganda + 7.3 Anarchist Networking + 7.31 The Zine Network + 7.32 Electronic Networking + 8. Conclusion + 9. Appendices: Getting Connected + 9.1 Anarchist Periodicals + 9.2 Anarchist Organizations + 9.3 Anarchist Publishing and Distribution + 9.4 Anarchist Electronic Contacts + 9.5 Sources For Further Information About Anarchism + 9.6 Contacting the Author + + + + + þ Introduction þ + + What comes to mind when you hear the word "anarchy"? Chaos and +disorder? Bomb throwers and assassins? Wearing black clothes and combat +boots? None of these popular conceptions adequately describes anarchism or the +anarchist movement. + Over the years, there have probably been more nonsense and +misconceptions about anarchism than about any other political theory or +ideology. To this very day, if you look up "anarchism" in the Reader's Guide +to Periodical Literature, you will be told to "See also: Terrorism". Anarchism +is not terrorism, nor is it a fad or style of dress, nor is it necessarily +chaotic or violent. Anarchy is a viable system of non-hierarchical +organization - a method of voluntary human interaction. The words "anarchy", +"anarchism", and "anarchist" should be used to refer to this, not to be used as +a catch-all term for "people and ideas that the government doesn't like". + Dissenters have always been persecuted by the majority. In this book I +will attempt to resolve some of the fears, misconceptions, and outright lies +that have been propagated about anarchism. This is in no way an attempt to +speak for all anarchists. It has been said that there as many definitions of +anarchy as there are anarchists, and I want this book to reflect that. As you +read this, be careful not to fall into the trap of classifying people with +labels. Everyone has their own ideas and morals, and will behave differently. +The purpose of this book is to promote a better understanding of anarchism. + + + + + þ Anarchist Principles þ + + Government is an evil and unnecessary institution. The utilization of +government as a control device for the population of an area is immoral and +inefficient. Anarchy is the alternative to this artificially imposed order. +Anarchists envision a libertarian and egalitarian society in which +participation is voluntary and mutual aid replaces coercion as the binding +force between individuals. Everyone must be allowed to judge for themselves +wwhat is right and wrong, and act according to reason and ethics instead of +laws and pre-packaged morality. Whose ethics? Each person's conscience. My +ethics are: If what you do infringes the rights of someone else, then it is +wrong. Anything else is acceptable. + Some anarchists believe that anarchy is not disorderly - that it is a +much more complex form of organization than the simple hierarchical structure +imposed on us by government. Still others view organization as just another +tool used my the state to control us. + + - Anarchist Ideals - + + Liberty. Freedom. Freedom of conscience, or as Thomas Jefferson said +it, the right to "the persuit of happiness", is said to be the basis for all +other freedoms; freedom is the highest ideal of anarchists. With liberty comes +equality. Liberty does not truly exist unless it exists for everyone, +regardless of race, age, gender, sexual preference, or ideology. All people +are born equal, it is existing society that forces us into groups and classes. + Government takes away rights. If it did any less it would not be +government. Our government takes away our right to bear arms, our right to +persue happiness in whatever form we find it, our freedom of expression, and +our freedom to choose what is best for ourselves. Government takes away our +liberty. Government also denies us equality, another fundamental freedom, by +separating us into classes and discouraging interaction between the classes. +If you are born into a poor family, you will probably stay poor; if you are +born into a rich family, you will probably be no worse off than your parents. +The rich stay in control, and the workers continue to sell their lives to the +system. + Government also prevents free association by placing arbitrary +political barriers between members of different countries as well +as economic barriers between members of the same country. Militarism is a +tragic example of the barriers between countries. If countries would spend as +much effort trying to get along with each other as they spend trying to keep +their own affairs in order, there would be much less war. There would also be +less war if we settled disagreements between countries by putting the leaders +of the countries in the ring and let them fight it out themselves. I'm sure +all of us would agree that that method of war is absolutely absurd, but this is +almost exactly what we are doing by fighting wars in the first place. Brute +strength is no way to settle an argument. By what logic is the more powerful +country correct? More often than not, the citizens of one country have no +grudge against the citizens of the opposing country, but their governments turn +them against each other with propaganda and lies. Soldiers don't stop to think +that they are actually taking a human life. If every soldier in the world woke +up one morning and decided that how many people one has killed is not really +the best way to keep score, we'd all be a lot better off. + + + + þ Anarchist Society þ + + There are many differing points of view concerning how an anarchist +society should be organized, including communist anarchy, collectivist anarchy, +Proudhon's anarchy (which consisted of a federal system of autonomous +villages), and even capitalist anarchy (an oxymoron in itself). + In a communist anarchy, all property is owned by everyone. Theft is +therefore eliminated because everyone owns everything; everyone shares common +property. + Some anarchists criticize all order and restraint, and that all +interaction is good because good and evil are arbitrarily defined. Ontological +anarchists believe that chaos is the solution - that the hidden order inherent +in human interaction will emerge when artificial barriers are completely +eliminated. + I feel that the most probable and the most truly anarchic of all the +systems is individualist anarchy. Individualist anarchists often criticize the +tendency to place people into groups, such as blacks, whites, women, men, +anarchist, feminists, homosexuals, etc., and expecting that all of the members +of a defined group will think or behave in the same way. In fact, everyone is +unique and no system will be right for everyone. In an individualist anarchy, +people can form whatever kind of community suits them best. An anarchy in +which every community was identical would be almost as coercive as majority +rule. + + - A Model of an Anarchist Community? - + + There is no set model of an anarchist community. In an individualist +anarchy, there could be many different systems. If you ask most anarchists, +however, they will reply with words like "mutual aid" and "voluntary +association". The idea is that people should work with each other instead of +for each other, and that an anarchist society would be organized in a more +complex way than modern society. Instead of some people being leaders and +others followers, people cooperate. Attempts to model anarchist communities +before-the-fact cannot be only theoretical, so I will instead answer some +questions about an anarchist society which will help to define what an +anarchist society could be. The following is taken from Objections to +Anarchism, by George Barrett, which appeares in The Raven (#12), an anarchist +journal published by Freedom Press in London. Freedom Press can be reached at +84B Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + +1. What will you do with the man who will not work? + +First of all, let us notice that this question belongs to a class to which +many others belong. All social theories must obviously be based on the +assumption that men are social: that is, that they will live and work +together naturally, because by so doing they can individually better enjoy +their lives. Therefore all such difficulties, which are really based on the +supposition that men are not social, can be raised not against anarchism +alone, but against any system of society that one chooses to suggest. + Questions 11, 12, 13 and 15 belong to this class, which are merely +based on supposition. My opponents will realise how futile they are if I +use a similar kind of argument against their system of government. Suppose, +I argue, that having sent your representatives into the House of Commons +they will not sit down and legislate but that they will just play the fool, +or, perhaps, vote themselves comfortable incomes, instead of looking after +your welfare. It will be answered to this that they are sent there to +legislate, and that in all human probability they will do so. Quite so; but +we may still say 'Yes, but suppose they don't?' and whatever arguments are +brought forward in favour of government they can always, by simply +supposing, be rendered quite useless, since those who oppose us would never +be able to actually guarantee that our governors would govern. Such an +argument would be absurd, it is quite true; for though it may happen that +occasionally legislators will sit down and vote themselves incomes instead +of attending to the affairs of the nation, yet we could not use this as a +logical argument against the government system. + Similarly, when we are putting forward our ideas of free +co-operation of anarchism, it is not good enough to argue, 'Yes, but +suppose your co-operators will not co-operate?' for that is what questions +of this class amount to. + It is because we claim to be able to show that it is wrong in +principle that we, as anarchists, are against government. In the same way, +then, those who oppose anarchism ought not to do so by simply supposing +that a man will do this, or won't do that, but they ought to set themselves +to show that anarchism is in principle opposed to the welfare of mankind. + The second interesting point to notice about the question is that +it is generally asked by a Socialist. Behind the question there is +obviously the implication that he who asks it has in his mind some way of +forcing men to work. Now the most obvious of all those who will not work is +the man who is on strike, and if you have a method of dealing with the man +who will not work it simply means that you are going to organise a system +of society where the government will be so all-powerful that the rebel and +the striker will be completely crushed out. You will have a government +class dictating to a working class the conditions under which it must +labour, which is exactly what both anarchists and Socialists are supposed +to be struggling against to-day. + In a free society the man who will not work, if he should exist at +all, is at least brought on equal terms with the man who will. He is not +placed in a position of privilege so that he need not work, but on the +contrary the argument which is so often used against anarchism comes very +neatly into play here in its favour. It is often urged that it is necessary +to organise in order to live. Quite so, and for this reason the struggle +for life compels us to organise, and there is no need for any further +compulsion on the part of the government. Since to organise in society is +really to work in society, it is the law of life which constantly tends to +make men work, whilst it is the artificial laws of privilege which put men +in such a position that they need not work. Anarchism would do away with +these artificial laws, and thus it is the only system which constantly +tends to eliminate the man who will not work. + We might perhaps here quote John Stuart Mill's answer to this objection: + +The objection ordinarily made to a system of community of property and +equal distribution of produce-'that each person would be incessantly +occupied in evading his share of the work'-is, I think, in general, +considerably overstated . . . Neither in a rude nor in a civilised society +has the supposed difficulty been experienced. In no community has idleness +ever been a cause of failure. [1] +... + +4. It is necessary to organise in order to live, and to organise means +Government; therefore anarchism is impossible. + +It is true that it is necessary to organise in order to live, and since we +all wish to live we shall all of our own free will organise, and do not +need the compulsion of government to make us do so. Organisation does not +mean government. All through our ordinary daily work we are organising +without government. If two of us lift a table from one side of the room to +the other, we naturally take hold one at each end, and we need no +government to tell us that we must not overbalance it by both rushing to +the same end; the reason why we agree silently, and organise ourselves to +the correct positions, is because we both have a common purpose: we both +wish to see the table moved. In more complex organisations the same thing +takes place. So long as organisations are held together only by a common +purpose they will automatically do their work smoothly. But when, in spite +of conflicting interests, you have people held together in a common +organisation, internal conflict results, and some outside force becomes +necessary to preserve order; you have, in fact, governmental society. It is +the anarchist's purpose to so organise society that the conflict of +interests will cease, and men will co-operate and work together simply +because they have interests in common. In such a society the organisations +or institutions which they will form will be exactly in accordance with +their needs; in fact, it will be a representative society. +Free organisation is more fully discussed in answer to Questions 5 and 23. + + +5. How would you regulate the traffic? + +We should not regulate it. It would be left to those whose business it was +to concern themselves in the matter. It would pay those who use the roads +(and therefore had, in the main, interests in common in the matter) to come +together and discuss and make agreements as to the rules of the road. Such +rules in fact which at present exist have been established by custom and +not by law, though the law may sometimes take it on itself to enforce them. + This question we see very practically answered to-day by the great +motor clubs, which are entered voluntarily, and which study the interest of +this portion of the traffic. At dangerous or busy corners a sentry is +stationed who with a wave of the hand signals if the coast is clear, or if +it is necessary to go slowly. First-aid boxes and repair shops are +established all along the road, and arrangements are made for conveying +home motorists whose cars are broken down. + A very different section of road users, the carters, have found an +equally practical answer to the question. There are, even to-day, all kinds +of understandings and agreements amongst these men as to which goes first, +and as to the position each shall take up in the yards and buildings where +they work. Amongst the cabmen and taxi-drivers the same written and +unwritten agreements exist, which are as rigidly maintained by free +understandings as they would be by the penalties of law. + Suppose now the influence of government were withdrawn from our +drivers. Does anyone believe that the result would be chaos? Is it not +infinitely more likely that the free agreements at present existing would +extend to cover the whole necessary field? And those few useful duties now +undertaken by the government in the matter: would they not be much more +effectively carried out by free organisation among the drivers? + This question has been much more fully answered by Kropotkin in The +Conquest of Bread. In this he shows how on the canals in Holland the +traffic (so vital to the life of that nation) is controlled by free +agreements, to the perfect satisfaction of all concerned. The railways of +Europe, he points out, also, are brought into co-operation with one another +and thus welded into one system, not by a centralised administration, but +by agreements and counter-agreements between the various companies. + If free agreement is able to do so much even now, in a system of +competition and government, how much more could it do when competition +disappears, and when we trust to our own organisation instead of to that of +a paternal government. +... + +7. If you abolish competition you abolish the incentive to work. + +One of the strangest things about society to-day is that whilst we show a +wonderful power to produce abundant wealth and luxury, we fail to bring +forth the simplest necessities. Everyone, no matter what his political, +religious or social opinions may be, will agree in this. It is too obvious +to be disputed. On the one hand there are children without boots; on the +other hand are the boot-makers crying out that they cannot sell their +stock. On the one hand there are people starving or living upon unwholesome +food, and on the other hand provision merchants complain of bad trade. Here +are homeless men and women sleeping on the pavements and wandering nightly +through our great cities, and here again are property-owners complaining +that no one will come and live in their houses. And in all these cases +production is held up because there is no demand. Is not this an +intolerable state of affairs? What now shall we say about the incentive to +work? Is it not obvious that the present incentive is wrong and mischievous +up to the point of starvation and ruination. That which induces us to +produce silks and diamonds and dreadnoughts and toy pomeranians, whilst +bread and boots and houses are needed, is wholly and absolutely wrong. + To-day the scramble is to compete for the greatest profits. If +there is more profit to be made in satisfying my lady's passing whim than +there is in feeding hungry children, then competition brings us in feverish +haste to supply the former, whilst cold charity or the poor law can supply +the latter, or leave it unsupplied, just as it feels disposed. That is how +it works out. This is the reason: the producer and the consumer are the two +essentials; a constant flow of wealth passes from one to the other, but +between them stands the profit-maker and his competition system, and he is +able to divert that stream into what channel best pleases him. Sweep him +away and the producer and the consumer are brought into direct relationship +with one another. When he and his competitive system are gone there will +still remain the only useful incentive to work, and that will be the needs +of the people. The need for the common necessities and the highest luxuries +of life will be not only fundamental as it is to-day, but the direct motive +power behind all production and distribution. It is obvious, I think, that +this is the ideal to be aimed at, for it is only in such circumstances that +production and distribution will be carried on for its legitimate +purpose-to satisfy the needs of the people; and for no other reason. +... + +9. Under anarchism the country would be invaded by a foreign enemy. + +At present the country is held by that which we consider to be an enemy +-the landlord and capitalist class. If we are able to free ourselves from +this, which is well established and at home on the land, surely we should +be able to make shift against a foreign invading force of men, who are +fighting, not for their own country, but for their weekly wage. + It must be remembered, too, that anarchism is an international +movement, and if we do establish a revolution in this country, in other +countries the people would have become at least sufficiently rebellious for +their master class to consider it advisable to keep their armies at home. +... + +11. If two people want the same piece of land under anarchism, how will you +settle the dispute? + +First of all, it is well to notice here that Questions 11, 12 and 13 all +belong to the same class. No. 11, at least, is based upon a fallacy. If +there are two persons who want the exclusive right to the same thing, it is +quite obvious that there is no satisfactory solution to the problem. It +does not matter in the least what system of society you suggest, you cannot +possibly satisfy that position. It is exactly as if I were suggesting a new +system of mathematics, and someone asked me: 'Yes, but under this new +system suppose you want to make ten go into one hundred eleven times?' The +truth is that if you do a problem by arithmetic, or if you do it by +algebra, or trigonometry, or by any other method, the same answer must be +produced for the given problem; and just as you cannot make ten go into one +hundred more than ten times, so you cannot make more than one person have +the exclusive right to one thing. If two people want it, then at least one +must remain in want, whatever may be the form of society in which they are +living. Therefore, to begin with, we see that there cannot be a +satisfactory way of settling this trouble, for the objection has been +raised by simply supposing an unsatisfactory state of affairs. + All that we can say is that such disputes are very much better +settled without the interference of authority. If the two were reasonable, +they would probably mutually agree to allow their dispute to be settled by +some mutual friend whose judgement they could trust. But if instead of +taking this sane course they decide to set up a fixed authority, disaster +will be the inevitable result. In the first place, this authority will have +to be given power wherewith to enforce its judgement in such matters. What +will then take place? The answer is quite simple. Feeling it is a superior +force, it will naturally in each case take to itself the best of what is +disputed, and allot the rest to its friends. + What a strange question is this. It supposes that two people who +meet on terms of equality and disagree could not be reasonable or just. +But, on the other hand, it supposes that a third party, starting with an +unfair advantage, and backed up by violence, will be the incarnation of +justice itself. Commonsense should certainly warn us against such a +supposition, and if we are lacking in this commodity, then we may learn the +lesson by turning to the facts of life. There we see everywhere Authority +standing by, and in the name of justice and fair play using its organised +violence in order to take the lion's share of the world's wealth for the +governmental class. + We can only say, then, in answer to such a question, that if people +are going to be quarrelsome and constantly disagree then, of course, no +state of society will suit them, for they are unsocial animals. If they are +only occasionally so, then each case must stand on its merits and be +settled by those concerned. +... + +12. Suppose one district wants to construct a railway to pass through a +neighbouring community, which opposes it. How would you settle this? + +It is curious that this question is not only asked by those who support the +present system, but it is also frequently put by the Socialists. Yet surely +it implies at once the aggressive spirit of Capitalism, for is it not the +capitalist who talks of opening up the various countries of the world, and +does he not do this in the very first instance by having a war in order +that he may run his railways through, in spite of the local opposition by +the natives? Now, if you have a country in which there are various +communes, it stands to reason that the people in those communes will want +facilities for travelling, and for receiving and sending their goods. That +will not be much more true of one little community than of another. This, +then, not only implies a local railway, but a continuous railway running +from one end of the country to the other. If a certain district, then, is +going to object to have such a valuable asset given to it, it will surely +be that there is some reason for such an objection. That being so, would it +not be folly to have an authority to force that community to submit to the +railway passing through? + If this reason does not exist, we are simply supposing a society of +unreasonable people and asking how they should co-operate together. The +truth is that they could not co-operate together, and it is quite useless +to look for any state of society which will suit such a people. The +objection, therefore, need not be raised against anarchism, hut against +society itself. What would a government society propose to do? Would it +start a civil war over the matter? Would it build a prison large enough to +enclose this community, and imprison all the people for resisting the law? +In fact, what power has any authority to deal with the matter which the +anarchists have not got? + The question is childish. It is simply based on the supposition +that people are unreasonable, and if such suppositions are allowed to pass +as arguments, then any proposed state of society may be easily argued out +of existence. I must repeat that many of these questions are of this type, +and a reader with a due sense of logic will be able to see how worthless +they are, and will not need to read the particular answers I have given to +them. + + +13. Suppose your free people want to build a bridge across a river, but +they disagree as to position. How will you settle it? + +To begin with, it is obvious, but important, to notice that it is not I, +but they, who would settle it. The way it would work out, I imagine, is +something like this: +We will call the two groups who differ A and B. Then- +1 A may be of opinion that the B scheme would be utterly useless to it, +and that the only possible position for the bridge is where it has +suggested. In which case it will say: 'Help our scheme, or don't co-operate +at all.' +2 A may be of opinion that the B scheme is useless, but, recognising +the value of B's help, it may be willing to budge a few yards, and so +effect a compromise with B. +3 A, finding it can get no help from B unless it gives way altogether, may +do so, believing that the help thus obtained is worth more than the +sacrifice of position. +These are, I think, the three courses open to A. The same three are open to +B. I will leave it to the reader to combine the two, and I think he will +find the result will be either: +1 That the bridge is built in the A position, with, we will say, the +half-hearted support of B; +or +2 The same thing, but with letters A and B reversed; +or +3 The bridge is built somewhere between, with the partial support of +both parties; +or +4 Each party pursues its own course, independent of the other. + In any case it will be seen, I hope, that the final structure will +be representative, and that, on the other hand, if one party was able to +force the other to pay for what it did not want, the result would not be +representative or just. + The usefulness of this somewhat dreary argument will be seen if it +be applied not merely to bridge-building but to all the activities of life. +By so doing we are able to imagine growing into existence a state of +society where groups of people work together so far as they agree, and work +separately when they do not. The institutions they construct will be in +accord with their wishes and needs. It will indeed be representative. How +different is this from the politician's view of things, who always wants to +force the people to co-operate in running his idea of society! + + +14. What would you do with the criminal? + +There is an important question which should come before this, but which our +opponents never seem to care to ask. First of all, we have to decide who +are the criminals, or rather, even before this, we have to come to an +understanding as to who is to decide who are the criminals? To-day the rich +man says to the poor man: 'If we were not here as your guardians you would +be beset by robbers who would take away from you all your possessions.' But +the rich man has all the wealth and luxury that the poor man has produced, +and whilst he claims to have protected the people from robbery he has +secured for himself the lion's share in the name of the law. Surely then it +becomes a question for the poor man which he has occasion to dread most-the +robber, who is very unlikely to take anything from him, or the law, which +allows the rich man to take all the best of that which is manufactured. + To the majority of people the criminals in society are not to be +very much dreaded even to-day, for they are for the most part people who +are at war with those who own the land and have captured all the means of +life. In a free society, where no such ownership existed, and where all +that is necessary could be obtained by all that have any need, the criminal +will always tend to die out. To-day, under our present system, he is always +tending to become more numerous. + + +15. It is necessary for every great town to have a drainage. Suppose +someone refuses to connect up, what would you do with him? + +This objection is another of the 'supposition' class, all of which have +really been answered in dealing with question No. 1. It is based on the +unsocial man, whereas all systems of society must be organised for social +people. The truth, of course, is that in a free society the experts on +sanitation would get together and organise our drainage system, and the +people who lived in the district would be only too glad to find these +convenient arrangements made for them. But still it is possible to suppose +that somebody will not agree to this; what then will you do with him? What +do our government friends suggest? + The only thing that they can do which in our anarchist society we +would not do, is to put him in prison, for we can use all the arguments to +persuade him that they can. How much would the town gain by doing this? +Here is a description of an up-to-date prison cell into which he might be +thrown: + +I slept in one of the ordinary cells, which have sliding panes, leaving at +the best two openings about six inches square. The windows are set in the +wall high up and are 3 by I l/2 or 2 feet area. Added to this they are very +dirty, so that the light in the cell is always dim. After the prisoner has +been locked in the cell all night the air is unbearable, and its +unhealthiness is increased by damp. + The 'convenience' supplied in the cell is totally inadequate, and +even if it be of a proper size and does not leak, the fact that it remains +unemptied from evening till morning is, in case of illness especially, very +insanitary and dangerous to health. 'Lavatory time' is permitted only at a +fixed hour twice a day, only one water-closet being provided for twenty +three cells. [2] + +Thus we see that whilst we are going to guarantee this man being cleanly by +means of violence, we have no guarantee that the very violence itself which +we use will not be filthy. + But there is another way of looking at this question. Mr Charles +Mayl, MB (Bachelor of Medicine) of New College, Oxford, after an outbreak +of typhoid fever, was asked to examine the drainage of Windsor; he stated +that: + +In a previous visitation of typhoid fever the poorest and lowest parts of +the town had entirely escaped, whilst the epidemic had been very fatal in +good houses. The difference was that whilst the better houses were all +connected with sewers the poor part of the town had not drains, but made +use of cesspools in the gardens. And this is by no means an isolated +instance. + +It would not be out of place to quote Herbert Spencer here: + +One part of our Sanitary Administration having insisted upon a drainage +system by which Oxford, Reading, Maidenhead, Windsor, etc, pollute the +water which Londoners have to drink, another part of our Sanitary +Administration makes loud protests against the impurity of water which he +charges with causing diseases -not remarking, however, that law-enforced +arrangements have produced the impurity. + + We begin to see therefore that the man who objected to connecting +his house with the drains would probably be a man who is interested in the +subject, and who knows something about sanitation. It would be of the +utmost importance that he should be listened to and his objections removed, +instead of shutting him up in an unhealthy prison. The fact is, the rebel +is here just as important as he is in other matters, and he can only +profitably be eliminated by giving him satisfaction, not by trying to crush +him out. + As the man of the drains has only been taken as an example by our +objector, it would be interesting here to quote a similar case where the +regulations for stamping out cattle diseases were objected to by someone +who was importing cattle. In a letter to the Times, signed 'Landowner', +dated 2nd August, 1872, the writer tells how he bought 'ten fine young +steers, perfectly free from any symptom of disease, and passed sound by the +inspector of foreign stock'. Soon after their arrival in England they were +attacked by foot and mouth disease. On inquiry he found that foreign stock, +however healthy, 'mostly all go down with it after the passage'. The +government regulations for stamping out this disease were that the stock +should be driven from the steamer into the pens for a limited number of +hours. There seems therefore very little doubt that it was in this +quarantine that the healthy animals contracted the disease and spread it +among the English cattle. [3] + +Every new drove of cattle is kept for hours in an infected pen. Unless the +successive droves have been all healthy (which the very institution of the +quarantine implies that they have not been) some of them have left in the +pen disease matter from their mouths and feet. Even if disinfectants are +used after each occupation, the risk is great-the disinfectant is almost +certain to be inadequate. Nay, even if the pen is adequately disinfected +every time, yet if there is not also a complete disinfection of the landing +appliances, the landing-stage and the track to the pen, the disease will be +communicated . . . The quarantine regulations . . . might properly be +called regulations for the better diffusion of cattle diseases'. + +Would our objector to anarchism suggest that the man who refuses to put his +cattle in these pens should be sent to prison? +... + +18. We cannot all agree and think alike and be perfect, and therefore laws +are necessary, or we shall have chaos. + +It is because we cannot all agree that anarchism becomes necessary. If we +all thought alike it would not matter in the least if we had one common law +to which we must all submit. But as many of us think differently, it +becomes absurd to try to force us to act the same by means of the +government which we are silly enough to call representative. + A very important point is touched upon here. It is because +anarchists recognise the absolute necessity of allowing for this difference +among men that they are anarchists. The truth is that all progress is +accompanied by a process of differentiation, or of the increasing +difference of parts. If we take the most primitive organism we can find it +is simply a tiny globule of plasm, that is, of living substance. It is +entirely undifferentiated: that is to say, all its parts are alike. An +organism next above this in the evolutionary scale will be found to have +developed a nucleus. And now the tiny living thing is composed of two +distinctly different parts, the cell-body and its nucleus. If we went on +comparing various organisms we should find that all those of a more complex +nature were made up of clusters of these tiny organisms or cells. In the +most primitive of these clusters there would be very little difference +between one cell and another. As we get a little higher we find that +certain cells in the clusters have taken upon themselves certain duties, +and for this purpose have arranged themselves in special ways. By and by, +when we get to the higher animals, we shall find that this process has +advanced so far that some cells have grouped together to form the breathing +apparatus, that is, the lungs; others are responsible for the circulation +of the blood; others make up the nervous tissue; and so on, so that we say +they form the various 'organs' of the body. The point we have to notice is +that the higher we get in the animal or vegetable kingdom, the more +difference we find between the tiny units or cells which compose the body +or organism. Applying this argument to the social body or organism which we +call society, it is clear that the more highly developed that organism +becomes, the more different will be the units (ie the people) and organs +(ie institutions and clubs) which compose it. + (For an answer to the argument based on the supposed need of a +controlling centre for the 'social organism', see Objection No. 21.) + When, therefore, we want progress we must allow people to differ. +This is the very essential difference between the anarchists and the +governmentalists. The government is always endeavouring to make men +uniform. So literally true is this that in most countries it actually +forces them into the uniform of the soldier or the convict. Thus government +shows itself as the great reactionary tendency. The anarchist, on the other +hand, would break down this and would allow always for the development of +new ideas, new growth, and new institutions; so that society would be +responsive always to the influence of its really greatest men, and to the +surrounding influences, whatever they may be. + It would be easier to get at this argument from a simpler +standpoint. It is really quite clear that if we were all agreed, or if we +were forced to act as if we did agree, we could not have any progress +whatever. Change can take place only when someone disagrees with what is, +and with the help of a small minority succeeds in putting that disagreement +into practice. No government makes allowance for this fact, and +consequently all progress which is made has to come in spite of +governments, not by their agency. + I am tempted to touch upon yet another argument here, although I +have already given this question too much space. Let me add just one +example of the findings of modern science. Everyone knows that there is sex +relationship and sex romance in plant life just as there is in the animal +world, and it is the hasty conclusion with most of us that sex has been +evolved for the purposes of reproduction of the species. A study of the +subject, however, proves that plants were amply provided with the means of +reproduction before the first signs of sex appeared. Science then has had +to ask itself: what was the utility of sex evolution? The answer to this +conundrum it has been found lies in the fact that 'the sexual method of +reproduction multiplies variation as no other method of reproduction can.' +[4] + If I have over-elaborated this answer it is because I have wished +to interest (but by no means to satisfy) anyone who may see the importance +of the subject. A useful work is waiting to be accomplished by some +enthusiast who will study differentiation scientifically, and show the +bearing of the facts on the organisation of human society. + + +19. If you abolish government, you will do away with the marriage laws. + +We shall. + + +20. How will you regulate sexual relationship and family affairs? + +It is curious that sentimental people will declare that love is our +greatest attribute, and that freedom is the highest possible condition. Yet +if we propose that love shall go free they are shocked and horrified. + There is one really genuine difficulty, however, which people do +meet in regard to this question. With a very limited understanding they +look at things as they are to-day, and see all kinds of repulsive +happenings: unwanted children, husbands longing to be free from their +wives, and-there is no need to enumerate them. For all this, the sincere +thinker is able to see the marriage law is no remedy; but, on the other +hand, he sees also that the abolition of that law would also in itself be +no remedy. + This is true, no doubt. We cannot expect a well-balanced humanity +if we give freedom on one point and slavery on the remainder. The movement +towards free love is only logical and useful if it takes its place as part +of the general movement towards emancipation. + Love will only come to a normal and healthy condition when it is +set in a world without slums and poverty, and without all the incentives to +crime which exist to-day. When such a condition is reached it will be folly +to bind men and women together, or keep them apart, by laws. Liberty and +free agreement must be the basis of this most essential relationship as +surely as it must be of all others. +... + +22. You can't change human nature. + +To begin with, let me point out that I am a part of human nature, and by +all my own development I am contributing to and helping in the development +and modification of human nature. + If the argument is that I cannot change human nature and mould it +into any form at will, then, of course, it is quite true. If, on the other +hand, it is intended to suggest that human nature remains ever the same, +then the argument is hopelessly unsound. Change seems to be one of the +fundamental laws of existence, and especially of organic nature. Man has +developed from the lowest animals, and who can say that he has reached the +limits of his possibilities? + However, as it so happens, social reformers and revolutionists do +not so much rely on the fact that human nature will change as they do upon +the theory that the same nature will act differently under different +circumstances. + A man becomes an outlaw and a criminal to-day because he steals to +feed his family. In a free society there would be no such reason for theft, +and consequently this same criminal born into such a world might become a +respectable family man. A change for the worse? Possibly; but the point is +that it is a change. The same character acts differently under the new +circumstances. + To sum up, then: +1 Human nature does change and develop along certain lines, the + direction of which we may influence; +2 The fundamental fact is that nature acts according to the condition in +which it finds itself. + The latter part of the next answer (No. 23) will be found to apply +equally here. + + +23. Who would do the dirty work under anarchism? + +To-day machinery is introduced to replace, as far as possible, the highly +paid man. It can only do this very partially, but it is obvious that since +machinery is to save the cost of production it will be applied to those +things where the cost is considerable. In those branches where labour is +very cheap there is not the same incentive to supersede it by machines. + Now things are so strangely organised at present that it is just +the dirty and disagreeable work that men will do cheaply, and consequently +there is no great rush to invent machines to take their place. In a free +society, on the other hand, it is clear that the disagreeable work will be +one of the first things that machinery will be called upon to eliminate. It +is quite fair to argue, therefore, that the disagreeable work will, to a +large extent, disappear in a state of anarchism. + This, however, leaves the question only partially answered. Some +time ago, during a strike at Leeds, the roadmen and scavengers refused to +do their work. The respectable inhabitants of Leeds recognised the danger +of this state of affairs, and organised themselves to do the dirty work. +University students were sweeping the streets and carrying boxes of refuse. +They answered the question better than I can. They have taught us that a +free people would recognise the necessity of such work being done, and +would one way or another organise to do it. + Let me give another example more interesting than this and widely +differing from it, thus showing how universally true is my answer. + Within civilised society probably it would be difficult to find two +classes differing more widely than the University student of to-day and the +labourer of Western Ireland nearly a hundred years ago. At Ralahine in 1830 +was started the most successful of the many Co-operative or Communist +experiments for which that period was remarkable. There, on the poorest of +bog-soil, amongst 'the lowest order of Irish poor, discontented, disorderly +and vicious, and under the worst circumstances imaginable', an ideal little +experimental community was formed. Among the agreements entered into by +these practical impossibilists was one which said that 'no member be +expected to perform any service or work but such as is agreeable to his or +her feelings', yet certain it is that the disagreeable work was daily +performed. The following dialogue between a passing stage-coach passenger +and a member of the community, whom he found working in water which reached +his middle, is recorded: + +'Are you working by yourself?' inquired the traveller. 'Yes', was the +answer. 'Where is your steward?' 'We have no steward.' 'Who is your +master?' 'We have no master. We are on a new system.' 'Then who sent you to +do this work?' 'The committee', replied the man in the dam. 'Who is the +committee?' asked the mail-coach visitor. 'Some of the members.' 'What +members do you mean?' 'The ploughmen and labourers who are appointed by us +as a committee. I belong to the new systemites.' + + Members of this community were elected by ballot among the peasants +of Ralahine. 'There was no inequality established among them', says G. J. +Holyoake, [5] to whom I am indebted for the above description. He adds: 'It +seems incredible that this simple and reasonable form of government [6] +should supersede the government of the bludgeon and the blunderbuss-the +customary mode by which Irish labourers of that day regulated their +industrial affairs. Yet peace and prosperity prevailed through an +arrangement of equity.' + The community was successful for three and a half years, and then +its end was brought about by causes entirely external. The man who had +given his land up for the purposes of the experiment lost his money by +gambling, and the colony of 618 acres had to be forfeited. This example of +the introduction of a new system among such unpromising circumstances might +well have been used in answer to Objection No. 22 -'You can't change human +nature'. + +1. J. S. Mill, Political Economy Vol. I, p.251. +2. Women end Prisons Fabian Tract No. 16. +3. The typhoid and the cattle disease cases are both quoted in the notes to +Herbert Spencer's The Study of Sociology. +4. The Evolution of Sex in Plants by Professor J. Merle Coulter. It is +interesting to add that he closes his book with these words: 'Its +[sexuality's] significance lies in the fact that it makes organic evolution +more rapid and far more varied. ' +5. History of Co-operation. +6. I need not, I think, stay to explain the sense in which this word is +used. The committee were workers, not specialised advisers; above all, they +had no authority and could only suggest and not issue orders. They were, +therefore, not a Government. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + - Technology and Anarchy - + + Some anachists, such as "anarcho-primitivists", denounce technology as +slavery. I firmly believe that technology - using tools to improve quality of +life - is a basic characteristic of all human beings. While we must not +completely rely on technology and government-funded research for survival, +technology and its advancement are important parts of any society. Government +is not responsible for scientific advancement. Almost all of the great +historical scientific discoveries were made without the "benefit" of government +grants. Government funding only allows scientists to be exploited and made to +do science to suit the state's purposes. Science should be done for the good +of humanity, not the good of the government - you can always depend on +government to find a way to make a weapon out of any new technology. When +resources are readily accessible to everyone, technology will be free to +advance as rapidly as it does now. + + + + + þ The Case For Anarchism þ + + To prove a need for change, one must prove that a problem exists with +the status quo, that the problem is inherent in the status quo, that the harm +is sufficient to cause concern, and that the proposed change will solve the +problem and eliminate the harm. In the following paragraphs I will show that a +change to anarchy is preferable to the status quo: coercion. + + - The Problem Exists - + + There are many problems with government as a foundation of society. +Aside from coercion being unethical, there are many practical reasons why +anarchy will work better. + #1: Power corrupts. Anyone put in a position of power is highly likely +to use that power to use that power to their own ends, and will not be able to +fairly represent the interests of everyone that he or she is supposed to +"represent". + #2: The majority does not necessarily know better than the minority. +Truth does not change simply because 51% of the people think differently. The +majority, who simply think along with the most popular opinion of the day, +cannot possibly be placed in charge and expected to look after the rights of +the minority. The only way everyone's rights can be protected is if every +person is his or her own government, and be restrained only by conscience and +reason. We are perfectly capable of making our own conscious choices, and have +our decisions made for us by someone else. In this age we have been +conditioned to blindly accept coercion as the only way of life. + #3: The class system restrains the rights of indivisuals by forcing +them into positions in society that they may not be best suited for. Someone +who is born into the working class will, in all likelyhood, do no better than +their parents. People born into the upper class can afford to do no work at +all while depending upon the exploitation of the working class to support them. + #4: Capitalism is a zero-sum game. Capitalism is a pyramid sceme, +based on the assumption that property accumulated by the rich will "trickle +down", eventually reaching the even the poorest citizen. it is also based on +the assumption that people are by nature competitive, and that a community will +be better off if everyone is continually fighting everyone else and no one +cares about anyone but him or her self. This is about as foolish as putting +thirty people into a locked room with thirty baseball bats and telling them +that to "win", they have to hit everyone else harder than they get hit. It +won't take them long to realize that they would really all win if no one hit +anyone else at all: if they cooperate rather than compete. Capitalism assumes +that for one person to be happy (by a capitalist definition, read: rich and +powerful), someone else must be made miserable (read: poor and powerless). For +the anarchist, happiness does not come from having the most money (dollars, +gold, cattle) or having the most control over others. In an anarchist society, +no one has to be stepped on in order for everyone to profit. In a capitalist +society, everyone does as little work as they possibly can - time is money, +after all. An anarchist society, in which everyone is equal and no one can +profit from the slavery of others, would be much more efficient. + #5. Government is a wasteful bureaucracy. Government and the ruling +class waste the products of the working class's labor, through taxes, +enforcement of unnecessary laws, and the rich living in luxury while the poor +suffer. The American government pays social security to old rich people, while +young poor children are dying on the streets of easily treatable illnesses. + #6. Supply/demand economics doesn't work. The pyramid scheme must +eventually collapse. If capitalism works, then why are there people struggling +to earn or steal enough to buy enough shoes for all of their children when shoe +store owners are complaining that they can't sell enough shoes? + #7. Government creates crime. The government prohibits, and +prohibition creates crime. The status quo creates poverty and poverty creates +crime. The government artificially increases the prices of drugs by +criminalizing them. As Emma Goldman said, "The most absurd apology for +authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact +that the state itself is the greatest criminal, breaking every written and +natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and +capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. +It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the terrible scourge of its +own creation." The government only protects those in control, and cares little +about the lower classes. Do you feel that you are protected when you walk +through the streets in the "bad" part of town? The government places little +value in the poor and inner-city youth. + + There is harm in the status quo, and certainly they are enough to cause +concern. Society is degrading every day because of classism, racism, ageism, +sexism, and innumerable other -isms. Every day, the government seizes more +power, supposedly for our own protection. We don't need to be protected from +ourselves and we don't need to be protected from each other. + + - The Problem Is Inherent - + + These problems are inherent in any system based on coercion or +competition. They cannot be solved within the present system, partly because +of people's attitudes and partly because of the structure of authoritarian +government itself. + #1. Power is always corruptive, no matter if the power is in the hands +of a dictator, a congress, or a majority. + #2. While we agree that the majority does not have any more right to +rule than the minority, a system of minority rule would still by tyranny. No +individual or group should be given the right to control any other. + #3. The class system does not have to be imposed directly. Under a +capitalist, democratic, "free" society, classes are imposed more subtly, by +allowing certain people to accumulate more property than others and allowing +them to use it to exploit the rest of the people. + #4. Not just capitalism, but any money economy is based on the passing +around of a fixed amount of money. Even if the value of a country's monetary +unit gains value, that money is coming from somewhere. Specifically, the money +is either coming from other countries or people are doing more work for less +money. Any time anyone makes money, they are indirectly taking it away from +someone else. + #5. All governments require the expenditure of wealth to operate: to +feed their armies, to build killing machines, and to hire police to control +their citizens and extort money from them. In an anarchist society, the +workers get to reap all the benefits of their labor, without their employers +and government taking it away from them. + #6. Poverty is a problem in every country. In an anarchist community, +people would trade freely with each other and with the local shoe-makers, and +every person would have everything he or she needs. When money and the +accumulation of property have been abolished, so too will poverty. + #7. Crime is created by government because all authority causes us to +substitute laws for ethics and act only according to what is legal rather than +what is acceptable by our conscience. + + - Anarchy Will Solve the Problem - + + Will anarchy solve these problems? Yes. Power will not be corruptive +because power will not exist. Neither the majority nor the minority will rule +because each person will govern themselves. Class will finally be eliminated +forever, and equality will finally be realized. Political and economic slavery +will be abolished. A capitalist society would not simply spring up again +because the only people who would want to become members of such a society are +the rich, and a capitalist society depends on the exploitation of the working +class for its survival. Poverty would be resolved. There are enough goods to +go around; the problem not is that the upper 1% of households control more of +it than the lower 90%. In an anarchist society, people would not have to be +exploited in order for people to profit and society to advance. Voluntary +association and mutual aid are certainly preferable to force. Humanity's full +potential may finally be realized if we only stop fighting each other and +trying to control one another. Anarchy will solve the problems of the status +quo, eliminate the harm, and open up immeasurable possibilities. + + + + + þ The History of Anarchism þ + + The rejection of authority dates back to the Stoics and Cynics, and +has been around for millenia. However, the terms anarchist, anarchism, and +anarchy, from the Greek "an archos" (without a rule), were used entirely in a +negative manner before the nineteenth century. + + - Proudhon and the Mutualists - + + In 1840, in his controversial "What Is Property", French political +writer and socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon became the first person to call +himself an anarchist. In this book, Proudhon stated that the real laws of +society have nothing to do with authority, but stem instead from the nature of +society itself. He also predicted the eventual dissolve of authority and the +appearence of a natural social order. "As man seeks justice in equality, so +society seeks justice in anarchy. Anarchy - the absence of a sovereign - such +is the form of government to which we are every day approximating." He was a +'peaceful anarchist'; he believed that within existing society, the +organizations could be created that would eventually replace it. Proudhon was +born in 1809, originally a peasant, the son of a brewer. His "What Is Property" +and "System of Economic Contradictions" established him in the socialist +community. Later he went on to write "The Federal Principle" and "The +Political Capability of the Working Class". + + Although he declared in "What Is Property" that "property is theft", +he did not support communism, and regarded the right of workers to control the +means of production as an important part of freedom. He never considered +himself the originator of a movement, but he did propose a federal system of +autonomous communes. He had many followers, but they preferred the title +'Mutualists' to 'Anarchists'; anarchism still bore a negative connotation. +Proudhon and the Mutualists, along with British tradeunionists and socialists, +formed the First International Workingmen's Association. + + - Bakunin and Collectivism - + + "The passion for destruction is also a creative passion" - These words +would accurately summarize the position of Mikail Bakunin and the +Collectivists. Bakunin believed that anarchy was only possible through a +violent revolution, obliterating all existing institutions. He was originally +a nobleman, but became a revolutionary and joined the International in the +1860's, after founding the Social Democratic Alliance and modifying Proudhon's +teachings into a new doctrine known as Collectivism. Bakunin taught that +property rights were impractical and that the means of production should be +owned collectively. He was strongly opposed to Karl Marx, also a member of +the International, and his ideas of a proletarian dictatorship. This conlict +eventually tore the International apart in 1872. He died in 1876, but the +next International that he and the Collectivists started in 1873 lasted for +another year. Later, his followers finally accepted the title of 'anarchist'. + + - Peter Kropotkin - + + In 1876, when he became a revolutionary, Peter Kropotkin renounced his +title of Prince and became successor to Mikail Bakunin. He developed the +theory of anarchist communism: not only should the means of production be owned +collectively, but the products should be completely communized as well. This +revised Thomas More's Utopian idea of storehouses, "From each according to his +means, to each according to his needs." Kropotkin wrote "The Conquest of +Bread" in 1892, in which he sketched his vision of a federation of free +Communist groups. In 1899 he wrote "Memoirs of a Revolutionist", an +autobiographical work, and "Fields, Factories, and Workshops", which put +forward ideas on the decentralization of industry necessary for an anarchist +society. He later proved by biological and sociological evidence that +cooperation is more natural than coercion ("Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution" +- 1902). Kropotkin's writings completed the vision of the Anarchist future, +and little new has been added since. + + - The Anarchist Movement - + + Even before Proudhon entered the scene, anarchist activism was going +on. The first plans for an anarchist commonwealth were made by an Englishman +named Gerrard Winstanley, who founded the tiny Digger movement. In his 1649 +pamphlet, "Truth Lifting Up Its Head Above Scandals", he wrote that power +corrupts, that property is incompatible with freedom, and that men can only be +free and happy in a society without governmental interference, where work and +its products are shared (what was to become the foundation for anarchist +theory in the years to come). He led a group of followers to a hillside where +they established an anarchist village, but this experiment was quickly +destroyed by local opposition. Later another Englishman, William Godwin, +would write 'Political Justice', which said that authority was against nature, +and that social evils exist because men are not free to act according to +reason. + + Among Italian anarchists, an active attitude was prevalent. Said +Errico Malatesta in 1876, "The insurrectionary deed, destined to affirm +socialist principles by acts, is the most efficacious means of propaganda." +The first acts were rural insurrections, meant to arouse the uneducated +citizens of the Italian countryside, but these were unsuccessful. Afterward +this activism tended to take the form of individual acts of protest by +'terrorists', who attempted to assassinate ruling figures in the hope of +demonstrating the vulnerability of the structure of authority and inspiring +others by their self-sacrifice. From 1890- 1901, a chain of assassinations +took place: King Umberto I, Italy; Empress Elizabeth, Austria; President +Carnot, France; President McKinley, United Stated; and Spanish Prime Minister +Antonio C novas del Castillo. Unfortunately, these acts had the opposite +effect of what was intended- they established the idea of the anarchist as a +mindless destroyer. + + Also during the 1890's, many French painters, writers, and other +artists discovered anarchism, and were attracted to it because of its +individualist ideas. In England, writer Oscar Wilde became an anarchist, and +in 1891 wrote "The Soul of Man Under Socialism". + + Anarchism was a strong movement Spain. The first anarchist journal, +"El Porvenir", was published in 1845, but was quickly silenced. Branches of +the International were established by Guiseppe Fanelli in Barcelona and +Madrid. By 1870, there were over 40,000 Spanish anarchists members; by 1873, +60,000, mostly organized in workingmen's associations, but in 1874 the +movement was forced underground. In the 1880's and '90's, the Spanish +anarchist movement tended toward terrorism and insurrections. + + The Spanish civil war was the perfect opportunity to finally put ideas +into action on a large scale. Factories and railways were taken over. In +Andalusia, Catalonia, and Levante, peasents seized the land. Autonomous +libertarian villages were set up, like those described in Kropotkin's 'The +Conquest of Bread'. Internal use of money was abolished, the land was tilled +collectively, the village products were sold or exchanged on behalf of the +entire community, and each family recieved an equal share of necessities they +could not produce themselves. Many of these such communes were even more +efficient than the other villages. Although the Spanish anarchists failed +because they did not have the ability to carry out sustained warfare, they +succeeded in inspiring many and showing that anarchy can work efficiently. + + Although two of the greatest anarchist leaders, Bakunin and Kropotkin, +were Russian, totalitarian censorship managed to supress most of the movement, +and it was never very strong in Russia. Only one revolutionary, N.I. Makhno, a +peasant, managed to raise an insurrectionary army and, by brilliant guerilla +tactics, took temporary control of a large part of the Ukraine from both Red +and White armies. His exile in 1921 marked the death of the anarchist +movement in Russia. + + Throughout American history, there has been a tradition of both +violent and pacifist anarchism. Henry David Thoreau, a nonviolent Anarchist +writer, and Emma Goldman, an anarchist activist, are a couple of examples. +activist anarchism, however, was mainly sustained by immigrants from Europe. +In the late 1800's, anarchism was a part of life for many. In 1886, four +anarchists were wrongfully executed for alleged involvement in the Haymarket +bombing, in which seven policemen were killed. President McKinley was +assassinated in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, a Polish Anarchist. + + Especially since 1917, anarchism has appealed to intellectuals. In +1932, Aldous Huxley wrote "Brave New World", which warned of a mindless, +materialistic existence a modernized society could produce, and in the +'Foreword' of the 1946 edition, he said that he believed that only through +radical decentralization and a politics that was "Kropotkinesque and +cooperative" could the dangers of modern society be escaped. After World War +][, anarchist groups reappeared in almost all countries where they had once +existed, excepting Spain and the Soviet Union. In the 1970's, anarchism drew +much attention and interest, and rebellious students often started collectives. +Still published is a monthly British publication, called "Anarchy", which +applies anarchist principles to modern life. + + Anarchism, although often mistakenly thought of a violent and +destructive, is not that at all. Anarchists, though some may advocate a +swift and violent revolution, envision a peaceful and harmonious society, +based on a natural order rather than an artificial system based on coercion. + + + + + þ Anarchy As a Way of Life þ + + At first glance, you'd expect that people living in a society would be +happier if they agreed with the way they were being governed. Quite the +opposite is actually true, however - anarchists refuse to let the state get +them down. To prepare for the revolution, which can only be by changing +popular opinion, we must live anarchy every day. + We must remain committed to our ideals no matter what the +circumstances. Every time you laugh at a discriminatory joke, every time you +don't speak up when you should - you contribute to the problem. + Intellectual freedom - the freedom to think for one's self - is one of +the foundations for other freedoms. Freedom of expression is integral to art +and creativity. Anarchists should oppose the idea of intellectual property and +copyrights, as these only block the free flow of information. Express yourself +freely and don't copyright your work. + No one, least of all government, has any right to control you. Show +the anarchist spirit in your attitude and actions. Perhaps most importantly, +don't follow the crowd. Be yourself. + + - Civil Disobedience - + + Many laws are around todat because no one will stand up and break them +and say, "this law is unjust!" Practice civil disobedience in your daily life; +don't let the government's arbitrarily defined guidelines confine you. + + - D-I-Y - + + Do-it-yourself rather than relying on government or large corporations +whenever possible. If you are a musician, consider recording independently. +If you are a writer, consider publishing independently and not copyrighting +your work. + + + + + þ Modern Anarchist Activism þ + + - Direct Action - + + Anarchists, for the most part, are opposed to voting. Not only are +you, by voting, agreeing to having someone make your decisions for you, but you +are contributing to the illusion that voting actually makes a difference. The +best way to effect real change is by direct action. Direct action may take the +form of strikes, protests... anything that directly fights coercion. To quote +the I.W.W.: "It [the General Strike] debunks the myth that power flows +downward, and proves instead that all teal power still resides at the +grassroots level, if we only choose to excersize it." + Anarchists are often present at political marches and protests. The +gay/lesbian march for equal rights in Washington, D.C. drew about a hundred +marching with the anarchist contingent. + The I.W.W., an anti-capitalist labor union, supports sabotage in the +workplace - not necessarily destructivem just a concious slowing down of +production. + The most direct for of direct action is shown in clinic defense (the +protection of women's clinics from anti-choice groups such as "Operation +Rescue") - actually, physicalls fighting coercion. + Food Not Bombs is another direct action group working for rights for +the poor in San Francisco. They distribute free, hot, vegetarian meals to the +homeless, and many of them were arrested because they had no permit (when in +fact it would have been impossible for them to get a permit in the first +place). Propositions have been introduced that would make Food Not Bombs +illegal. In October 1993, a ruling was made that allowed FNB to continue +distributing free food, but the individual charges against the members were not +dropped. + + - Propaganda - + + Propaganda is an important part of anarchist activism. Some anarchists +believe that a revolution now would be pointless - people today have been so +indoctrinated with authoritarian dogmas that a revolution now really would +cause chaos. A revolution can only take place when a significant portion of +the population are tired of being told what to do and decide that they aren't +going to obey the government anymore. As Bakunin said, "The end justifies the +means, but the means determine the end." An anarchist revolution must be by +the people and not by a vanguard. Others believe that freedom is a +precondition for the development of the maturity necessary for freedom. Either +way, one of the most revolutionary things we can do right now is to encourage +people to think for themselves. Posters, flyers, and articles about anarchism +help to spread the word and get people thinking. Effective flyers get the +point across as quickly as possible, but allow the reader to come to his/her +own conclusions, without forcing ideas on anyone. Here is the text of a +general purpose anarchist flyer I put together. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + Are you a patriotic American? + Do you believe in the "American Way"? + + Just what is the "American Way?" America supposely represents +freedom and equality. Patriots continually praise the American system for +giving rights to everyone. The fact is that basic human rights are the same +whether we have a government or not. All governments can do is try to take +rights away from us. + + - The "American Way" - + + What is free about democracy? Why should 51% of the people, who have +been almost completely brainwashed by the power elite, get to impose +their will on the remaining 49%, and have their views enforced by police and +the military? Truth is not dependent on whether or not the majority agrees +with it. To wish to think along with the majority, simply because the majority is the +majority, only proves that one is unable think for oneself. Democracy has been +compared to two wolves and a sheep trying to decide what's going to be for +dinner. It would be more accurate to compare it to two wolves, a sheep, a +bird, and a fish. The sheep can form a coalition with the fish and the bird to +beat the wolves, but there's really no reason they should all be eating the +same thing in the first place. Democracy is a way of giving citizens the +illusion that they have control while opressing them behind their backs. + + - Class Struggle - + + What does free market capitalism have to do with equality? "Free" +indeed. Capitalism is just as tyrannical as feudalism. Some ninty thousand +hours of your life will be sold to someone else - to someone who has +accumulated more wealth and property than you have and will use it to exploit +you every chance he/she gets. The working class does all the work and the +upper class profits. A member of the poorer class is only trying to survive, +while a member of the working class spends all of his/her time trying to become +a member of the upper class, so that s/he can in turn exploit his/her fellow +workers. All of this is presented to you as equality. If you still insist +that we are equal under democracy and capitalism, ask yourself: when was the +last time we had a poor president? A poor governor? A mayor? The reason for +this is that only the rich have the money to do the extensive campaigning +necessary to win an election, and many make a career out of politics. What's +more, the rich control the media, and have a great influence over the ideas of +the masses. If you don't think there is a definite ruling class in America, +think again. + + - Where To From Here? - + + What is the answer? Socialism? Communism? The problems of America are +the same problems that are inherent in any government system based on coercion +and enforcement by police. Simply put, power corrupts. No person should have +control over any other person. The solution is a completely new society, based +on mutual aid, cooperation, and voluntary association, rather than force and +government authority. Peaceful cooperation can only exist when people are free +to act according to reason - according to ethics instead of laws. Crime exists +only because the government prohibits. For example, how many thousands of +robberies, shootings, and deaths each year would be prevented if drugs were +legalized, normalizing their artificially inflated prices? The state is the +greatest criminal of all, violating our individual liberty by stealing in the +form of taxes and property seizures, and murdering in the form of execution and +war. Despite this fact, government has come to a complete standstill in coping +with crime. We don't need a government to protect us from ourselves and we +don't need a government to protect us from each other. Government is a +completely artificial institution which restricts human interaction. + + - What You Can Do To Help - + + We're not ready for a revolution yet. People have grown too accustommed +to having their decisions made for them. They don't know how to live without +government intervention. Government restrictions have caused them to +substitute laws for ethics. They've lost the ability to make their own +choices. The most revolutionary thing we can do right now is to encourage +people to think for themselves. Get involved. We are a Dallas-based group of +anarchists who want to get the word out and get people involved. If you want +to learn more or recieve anarchist literature by mail, write to: + + Digital Revolution + 11111-A N. Central Expwy + Dallas, TX 75243 + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + - Anarchist Networking - + + Unity among anarchists is not often emphasized because to unite, we +must, to some extent, sacrifice our individuality. There are, however, many +anarchist gatherings every year. To organize and exchange ideas, anarchists +must form loose connections through networks rather than getting involved in +hierarchical organizations. Some anarchists form collectives; others are just +part of affinity groups - small, non-hierarchical groups of individuals with +common interests. + + The Zine Network + + Zines are small, low-budget, independently published magazines. +Anarchist zines are usually specifically anti-copyright, to encourage +rprinting of articles. A lot of information gets traded around the global +anarchist community in this way. What makes the zine network so unique is that +you can't really tell the average zine editor from the average zine reader. +Anyone with time and a copier can do a zine. + + Electronic Networking + + Another useful tool for networking is the telecommunications network. With +only a few hundred dollars worth of computer equipment, anyone can tap into +immeasurable online resources. Electronic publishers can "print" zines in +text-file format without any costs for paper and stamps. Almost all electronic +magazines are free, since it is virtually impossible to curb their +distribution. There are also file transfer sites, such as SPUNK Press, which +are directly connected to the internet, and provide archives of electronic +magazines, articles, essays by anarchist writers, and even scanned-in books. +If you have an internet email account, you can subscribe to mailing lists, +which send all submissions to all subscribed accounts. Users who can get +usenet also probably have access to such newsgroups as alt.society.anarchy and +alt.society.revolution. + + + + + þ Conclusion þ + + We're sick and tired of being pushed around by the ruling class. If +you want to get involved and start taking action to end coercion, see the +appendices for information and addresses useful to get connected with other +anarchists across the country and across the world. + + + + + þ Appendix 1 þ + - Anarchist Periodicals - + +Anarchy / POBox 1446 / Columbia, MO 65205-1446 +Anti-Power / 1961 Pike Place #12-367 / Seattle, WA 98101 +Bayou La Rose / POBox 5464 / Tacoma, WA 98415-0464 +Beyond the Wall of Injustice / POBox 6188 / Fullerton, CA 92634 +Class War / POBox 1021 / Edinburgh EH8 9PW / Scotland Britain +Fifth Estate / 4632 Second Ave. / Detroit, MI 48201 +Free Society / POBox 7293 / Minneapolis, MN 55407 +Green Anarchist / POBox H / 34 Crowley Rd. / Oxford OX4 1HZ / U.K. +Infinite Onion / POBox 263 / Colorado Springs, CO 80901-0263 +Kaboom! / POBox 4472 / Long Beach, CA 90804-0472 +Libertarian Labor Review / POBox 2824 / Champaign, IL 61825 +Love and Rage / POBox 3 / Prince St. Station / New York, NY 10012 +Madworld Survival Guide / POBox 791377 / New Orleans, LA 70179 +Plain Words / POBox 832 / Haledon, NJ 0780-832 +Practical Anarchy / POBox 173 / Madison, WI 3701-0173 +Profane Existence / POBox 8722 / Minneapolis, MN 55408 +Slingshot / 700 Eshleman Hall / Berkeley, CA 94720 +Wind Chill Factor / POBox 2824 / Champaign, IL 60681 +Workers' Solidarity / POBox 40400 / San Francisco, CA 94140 + + [Taken from Anarchism Everywhere: a contact list for the + revolutionary community, from the United Anarchist Front.] + + + + + þ Appendix 2 þ + - Anarchist Organizations - + +Amor y Rabia Apartado Postal / 11-351 C.P. / 06101 Mexico D.F. / Mexico +Anarchist Black Cross / POBox ABC / 121 Raiton Rd. / London, SE24 OLR UK +Anarchist Youth Federation / POBox 365 / New York, NY 10013-0365 +AWOL / POBox 7293 / Minneapolis, MN / 55407 +Bloomington Anarchist Union / POBox 3207 / Bloomington, IN 47042 +The Germinal UCSD Student Coop Center / B-0323-Z / La Jolla, CA 92093 +Impulse / Route 1 / Redwing, MN 55066 +Midwest Eco-Anarchist Network/ POBox 7511 / Minneapolis, MN 55407 +Neither East nor West / 528 5th St. / Brooklyn, NY 11215 +Patterson Anarchist Collective / POBox 8532 Haledon, NJ 07508 +United Anarchist Front / POBox 1115 / Whittier, CA 90609 +United Anarchist Front / POBox 3941 / Fullerton, CA 92634 +The Web Collective / POBox 40890 / San Francisco, CA 94117 +Worker's Solidarity Alliance / 339 Lafayette St. Rm 202 / New York, NY 10012 + + [Taken from Anarchism Everywhere: a contact list for the + revolutionary community, from the United Anarchist Front.] + + + + + þ Appendix 3 þ + - Anarchist Publishing and Distribution - + +AK Distribution / 3 Balmoral Place / Stirling FK8 2RD / Scotland +Anarchist Archives Project / POBox 1323 / Cambridge, MA 02238 +@ Distribution / POBox 021835 / Brooklyn, NY 11012 +Anok and Peace Collective / 3332 Peachtree Place / Lima, OH 45805 +Bound Together Books / 1369 Haight St. / San Francisco, CA 94117 +Collective Chaos Distribution / POBox 81961 / Chicago, IL 60681 +Left Bank Books / 92 Pike St. / Seattle, WA 98101 +Librarie Alternative / 2035 Boulevard St. Laurent / + Montreal, Quebec H2X 2T3 Canada +Never Ending Vegetable / POBox 263 / Colorado Springs, CO 80901 +Profane Existence Mailorder / POBox 8722 / Minneapolis, MN 55408 +Silid Aklatan / POBox 187 / N. Hollywood, CA 91603 + + [Taken from Anarchism Everywhere: a contact list for the + revolutionary community, from the United Anarchist Front.] + + + + + þ Appendix 4 þ + - Anarchist Electronic Contact List v1.7 - + +Newsgroups: + + alt.society.anarchy + alt.politics.radical-left + alt.society.revolution + talk.politics.theory + talk.philosophy.misc + alt.postmodern + alt.amateur-comp + + +Anonymous ftp sites: + + Site: Contact: Paul Southworth(pauls@umich.edu) + + This site carries most, if not all, + of the electrnonic newsletters and other + material listed below. + + +Electronic newsletters and distribution: + + Autonome Forum (Various) + aforum@moose.uvm.edu + + Practical Anarchy Online (electronic newsletter) + cmunson@macc.wisc.edu + cardell@lysator.liu.se + + Spunk Press Distribution List (Anarchist Literature) + spunk-info-request@lysator.liu.se + + Love & Rage: (electronic newsletter) + loveandrage@org.igc (Todd Prane) + + Baklava Autonomist Collective, WIND CHILL FACTOR paper/zine + thak@midway.uchicago.edu + +Mailing lists: + + Anarchy mailing list: + Organiser: jack@cwi.nl + List address: anarchy-list-request@cwi.nl + + 1-Union Mailing List (Syndicalist) + Organizer: mlepore@mcimail.com + List address: 1-union-request@uvmvm.bitnet + + Non Serviam mailing list + solan@math.uio.no + + Libertarian mailing list + Coordinators: Barry Fagin + June Genis + List Address:LIBERNET@DARTMOUTH.EDU + + Anarchocapitalists mailing lists + extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu + + pnews Mailing List + Organise:odin@world.std.com + pnews-request@world.std.com + + +Magazines: + + Processed World + pwmag@well.sf.ca + + 2600 Magazine (The Hacker Quarterly) + 2600@well.sf.ca.us + + Here and Now (Leeds, U.K.) + Alastair Dickson + +Contacts: + + San Francisco IWW + iww@igc.apc.org (Mike Ballard) + BEKKENJ@snycorva.bitnet (Jon Bekken) + + Chicago Anarchist Black Cross + 74230.1540@compuserve.com (Tony Atoms) + + Boston Anarchists' Drinking Brigade + bbrigade@world.std.com. + + Worker's Solidarity Movement (Ireland) + Andrew Flood + + Omega (contact for infoshops in Berlin) + omega@ibb.berlinet.in-berlin.de + + Anarchist Communist Federation (U.K.) + is_s425@ceres.king.ac.uk (Chris Hutchinson) + + Edinburgh Class War (U.K.) + rar@castle.ed.ac.uk + + Glasgow Anarchists (U.K.) + Ian Heavens + +Miscellaneous: + + Jerry Mintz + jmintz@igc.apc.org + + + + + þ Appendix 5 þ + - Sources For Further Information About Anarchism - + +General: + +'Anarchism Today', David E. Apter and James Joll, MacMillan (ISBN 333 12041 +8), has chapters on various movements and a bibliography of Anarchism in +print. George Woodcock's Anarchist Reader and Anarchism also have useful +bibliographies. Daniel Guerin's 'Anarchism' (Monthly Review Press, +ISBN 85345-175-3) takes an anarchosyndicalist point of view (and has +a bibliography). + +'Classics': + +'The ABC of Anarchism' - Alexander Berkman +'Civil Disobedience' - Thoreau +'Anarchy' - Malatesta +Anything by Kropotkin, Bakunin, Proudhon. +'Enquiry Concerning Political Justice' - William Godwin. + +On individualism: Max Stirner's 'The Ego And His Own' + +On the situationists: + +BAMN:By Any Means Necessary, Penguin (out of print, cannot remember the +author - I'd like to get hold of a copy of this). + +Raoul Vaneigem's 'The Revolution of Everyday Life' +Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle' + +Also, 'The Situationist Anthology' (editor??) + +On the squatters' movement: + +'The Squatters' by Ron Bailey. + +- Visions of utopia: + +'Journey to Utopia' by Marie Bernelli (an anthology) +'News from Nowhere' by William Morris +'The Dispossessed' - Ursula Le Guin + +Anarchosyndicalism: + +IWW: + +'The Living Spirit of the Wobblies' by Len de Caux, International +Publishers, 381 Park Avenue South, New York 10016, ISBN. This has +an extensive bibliography on the IWW. + +Also, 'The Case of Joe Hill', Philip S.Foner, same publisher. + + +Spain: + +Books published outside the anarchist press on the Spanish revolution +are in the above bibliographies. George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' +is a good introduction to the Civil War. + +The definitive work is 'Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution' Jose +Peirats, Freedom Press (ISBN 0 900 384 53 0), also see 'Collectives in the +Spanish Revolution', Gaston Leval, Freedom Press (ISBN 0 900384 11 5), +'Anarchist Organisation:the History of the F.A.I', by Juan Gomez Casas, +Black Rose Books (Quebec), (ISBN 0-920057-38-1), plus others by +Freedom Press and Black Rose Books, e.g. +'Spain 1936-1939:Social Revolution-Counter Revolution', Freedom Press +(ISBN 0 900384 54-9) + +[ NB Freedom Press titles are nice and cheap, and only 10% for +overseas postage; they're at 84B Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX +(Tel 081-247-9249) ] + +Latin America: + +'Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class 1860-1931', John M. Hart, +Univ. of Texas press (ISBN 0 292 70400 3). + +Chapter on Argentina and Uruguay in 'Anarchism Today' (above) + +'The Cuban Revolution' by Sam Dolgoff + +Britain: + +'The Slow Burning Fuse' by John Quail (also see bibliography in the +Anarchist Reader) + +Russian: + +I don't know which of these are anarchosyndicalist, there are a number +listed in the above bibliographies, esp. Voline's 'The Unknown Revolution' +Paul Avrich's 'The Russian Anarchists' and Peter Arshinov's 'History +of the Makhnovist movement'. Emma Goldman wrote a fair bit, in +'Living My Life', volume 2, 'My Disillusionment with Russia', etc. + +[From Ian Heavens] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + þ Appendix 6 þ + - Contacting the Author - + +BBS's: The Subversive Anarchist and cyberpunk discussion, + (USA)+214/224.7858 electronic magazines, + 14.4kbps - N/8/1 electronic publishing. + SysOp: Brian Crabtree + +Zines: Digital Revolution News from the anarchist front, + attn: Brian Crabtree some artwork, poetry, articles, + 11111-A N. Central Expwy. cyberpunk stuff. $1 or three + Dallas, TX 75243 stamps suggested for sample copy, + Editor: Brian Crabtree $6-7 for a ten-issue subscription. + +Internet addresses: + + Brian Crabtree: subv@netcom.com, + brian.crabtree@chrysalis.com, + bri@sdf.lonestar.org. + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/japan.cod b/textfiles.com/politics/japan.cod new file mode 100644 index 00000000..40f0cecb --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/japan.cod @@ -0,0 +1,344 @@ +Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military +From: jfb200@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (joseph.f.baugher) +Subject: Allied Code Names for Japanese World War II Aircraft +Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois +Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 02:34:32 GMT +Message-ID: <1992Dec10.023432.4863@cbnewsd.cb.att.com> +Keywords: Betty, Peggy, Zeke, and Frank +Lines: 335 + +Someone requested that a list of Allied code names for Japanese aircraft +used during the Second World War be posted. Ask and ye shall receive! +Enjoy! + +The code name system for Japanese aircraft originated in the Southwest +Pacific theatre in the second half of 1942. Before Pearl Harbor, very +little was known about Japanese military aircraft of any type, and it was +widely assumed that most Japanese military aircraft were second-rate copies +of obsolescent Western designs. It goes without saying that the first +six months of the Pacific War showed just how wrong that view was! + +The Allies were thus faced with a desperate need for accurate, up-to-date +intelligence on the Japanese aircraft which were at that time riding +roughshod over the entire Pacific theatre of operations. In June, 1942 +Captain Frank T. McCoy of Nashville, Tennessee became head of the Material +Section of the Directorate of Intelligence of the allied air forces in the +entire Southwest Pacific area. His team was assigned the task of identifying +and classifying Japanese aircraft. + +Since Captain McCoy was from Tennessee, he initially assigned hillbilly names +such as ZEKE, RUFE, NATE, and JAKE to Japanese aircraft--chosen so that they +were short, simple, unusual, and easy to remember. 75 code names were assigned +the first month. By September 1942, these names were in wide use throughout +the entire Southwest Pacific. Shortly thereafter, they went into use +throughout the entire Pacific. + +These odd-sounding code names soon attracted attention from high-ranking +military brass. Captain McCoy assigned to what later turned out to be a +modified Zero the code name HAP, the nickname of General Henry H. ("Hap") +Arnold, USAAF Chief of Staff. The General was NOT amused, and had Capt +McCoy summoned before General MacArthur's chief of operations to explain +what he was up to. Captain McCoy seems to have gotten himself out of this +particular jam, but the name HAP was quietly changed to HAMP. + +In the summer of 1944, a joint Army-Navy Air Technical Center in Washington +took over responsibility for assigning the names. + +The code names were alloted according to the following system: + + Male first names: Fighters and reconnaissance seaplanes + Female first names: Bombers, attack bombers, dive bombers + Reconnaissance aircraft + Flying boats + Transports (names beginning with letter T). + Tree names: Trainers + Bird names: Gliders + +However, there were some exceptions to the rule. The Ki-44 Shoki single- +seat fighter was assigned the name TOJO. + +Here is a list of code names. Supposedly it is complete, but I would +appreciate being informed of any omissions. + + + ALLIED CODE NAMES FOR JAPANESE AIRCRAFT + +CODE NAME JAPANESE DESIGNATION DESCRIPTION +__________ ____________________________ ________________________ + +ABDUL Nakajima Ki-27 Army single-seat fighter serving + in CBI theatre. Duplicate of + NATE in Southwest Pacific. + After 1943, code name NATE + was used exclusively. +ADAM "Nakajima STK-97" Nonexistent fighter seaplane +ALF Kawanishi E7K Navy single-engined + reconnaissance biplane + seaplane +ANN Mitsubishi Ki-30 Army single-engined light bomber +BABS Mitsubishi Ki-15/C5M Army/Navy single-engined + reconnaissance aircraft +BAKA Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka Navy rocket-powered suicide + (Cherry Blossom) attacker. +BELLE Kawanishi H3K1 Navy biplane flying boat +BEN "Nagoya-Sento KI-001" Did not exist. +BEN Mitsubishi A6M Reisen Name briefly assigned to Zero + (Zero Fighter) in CBI theatre. +BESS Heinkel He 111 Erroneously believed to being + built under license in Japan +BETTY Mitsubishi G4M Navy twin-engined land-based + attack bomber +BOB Aichi Type 97 Navy recon seaplane - did not + exist +BOB Kawasaki Ki-28 Erroneously believed to be in + production as fighter +BUZZARD Kokusai Ku-7 Manazuru Army transport glider + (Crane) +CEDAR Tachikawa Ki-17 Army single-engined two-seat + biplane primary trainer +CHERRY Yokosuka H5Y Navy flying boat +CLARA Tachikawa Ki-70 Army command reconnaissance + aircraft +CLAUDE Mitsubishi A5M Navy carrier-based single-seat + fighter +CYPRESS Kyushu K9W Navy primary trainer + Kokusai Ki-86 Army primary trainer +DAVE Nakajima E8N Navy two-seat reconnaissance + seaplane biplane. +DICK Seversky A8V1 Seversky 2PA-B3 purchased + from USA and operated as + two-seat Navy land-based + fighters. +DINAH Mitsubishi Ki-46 Army twin-engined reconnaissance + and interceptor aircraft. +DOC Messerschmitt Bf 110 German twin-engined fighter + erroneously believed to be + in service in Japan. +DORIS Mitsubishi B-97 Medium bomber- did not exist +DOT Yokosuka D4Y Carrier-based dive bomber - + duplicate of JUDY +EDNA Mansyu Ki-71 Army experimental single-engined + two-seat tactical + reconnaissance aircraft. + Development of Mitsubishi + Ki-51. +EMILY Kawanishi H8K Navy four-engined long-range + reconnaissance flying boat +EVA(EVE) Mitsubishi Ohtori Erroneously believed to be a + bomber +FRANCES Yokosuka P1Y Ginga Navy land-based twin-engined + (Milky Way) light bomber/night fighter +FRANK "Mitsubishi TK-4" Fictional twin-engined fighter. + Name later applied to + Nakajima Ki-84 +FRANK Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Gale) Single-seat Army fighter. +FRED Focke-Wulf FW 190A-5 Erroneously believed to be + in service in Japan +GANDER Kokusai Ku-8 Army transport glider + Formerly named GOOSE +GEORGE Kawanishi N1K Shiden Navy single-seat land-based + (Violet Lightning) interceptor-fighter +GLEN Yokosuka E14Y Navy single-engined + reconnaissance seaplane +GOOSE Kokusai Ku-8 Army transport glider + Named changed to GANDER +GRACE Aichi B7A Ryusei Navy single-engined carrier- + (Shooting Star) based attack bomber. +GUS "Nakajima AT-27" Fictional twin-engined fighter. +GWEN Mitsubishi Ki-21-IIb Army heavy bomber - name later + changed to SALLY III. +HAMP Mitsubishi A6M3 Navy carrier-based fighter. + First named HAP, then HAMP, + then finally ZERO 32. +HANK Aichi E10A Navy reconnaissance seaplane +HELEN Nakajima Ki-49 Donryu Army twin-engined heavy bomber + (Storm Dragon) +HICKORY Tachikawa Ki-54 Army twin-engined advanced crew + trainer and light transport. +IDA Tachikawa Ki-55 and Ki-36 Army single engined two-seat + monoplane trainer and army + cooperation aircraft +IONE "Aichi AI-104" Nonexistent reconnaissance + seaplane. +IRENE Junkers Ju 87A German single-engine dive + bomber erroneously believed + to be in service with + Japanese army. +IRVING Nakajima J1N Gekko (Moonlight) Navy twin-engined land-based + night fighter and + reconnaissance aircraft. +JACK Mitsubishi J2M Raiden Navy single-seat land-based + (Thunderbolt) interceptor. +JAKE Aichi E13A Navy single-engined + reconnaissance seaplane. +JANE Mitsubishi Ki-21 Army heavy bomber - Name later + changed to SALLY +JANICE Junkdrs Ju 88A-5 German light bomber erroneously + believed to be in service in + Japan. +JEAN Yokosuka B4Y Navy carrier-based single- + engined attack bomber biplane. +JERRY Heinkel A7He1 Heinkel He 112B-0 in service in + Japan as Navy land-based + fighter. +JILL Nakajima B6N Tenzan Navy single-engined carrier- + (Heavenly Mountain) based attack bomber. +JIM Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa Army single-seat fighter - name + later changed to OSCAR +JOE "TK-19" Fictional single-seat fighter +JOYCE Misidentified HICKORY Believed to be a light bomber + version of Tachikawa Ki-54 +JUDY Yokosuka D4Y Suisei Navy carrier-based single- + (Comet) engined dive bomber. +JULIA Misidentified LILY Believed to be a heavy bomber +JUNE Misidentified JAKE Believed to be a floatplane + version of VAL +KATE Nakajima B5N Navy single-engined + carrier-based attack bomber +LAURA Aichi E11A Navy reconnaissance seaplane +LILY Kawasaki Ki-48 Army twin-engined light bomber +LIZ Nakajima G5N Shinzan Navy four-engined attack bomber + (Mountain Recess) operated as freight transport. +LORNA Kyushu Q1W Tokai Navy twin-engined land-based + (Eastern Sea) patrol aircraft. +LOUISE Mitsubishi Ki-2 Army twin-engined light bomber +LUKE Mitsubishi J4M Senden Navy interceptor +MABEL Mitsubishi B5M Carrier-based attack bomber. + Name later changed to + KATE 61 +MARY Kawasaki Ki-32 Army single-engined, two-seat + light bomber +MAVIS Kawanishi H6K Navy four-engined maritime + reconnaissance flying boat +MIKE Messerschmitt Bf 109E German fighter erroneously + believed to be in service in + Japan. +MILLIE Vultee V-11GB Erroneously believed to be in + production by Showa in Japan +MYRT Nakajima C6N Saiun Navy single-engined carrier- + (Painted Cloud) based reconnaissance aircraft +NATE Nakamima Ki-27 Army single-seat fighter + Name initially used only in + Southwest Pacific theatre, + whereas the same plane was + called ABDUL in CBI theatre. + From 1943 onward used name + NATE exclusively. +NELL Mitsubishi G3M Navy land-based twin-engined + attack bomber +NICK Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu Army two-seat, twin-engined + (Dragon Killer) fighter +NORM Kawanishi E15K Shiun Navy single-engined high-speed + (Violet Cloud) reconnaissance seaplane +NORMA Misidentified BABS Believed to be a light bomber +OAK Kyushu K10W Navy intermediate trainer + License-built North American + NA-16 +OMAR "Suzukaze 20" Fictional twin-engined fighter +OSCAR Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa Army single-seat fighter - known + (Peregrine Falcon) for a time in CBI theatre as + JIM +PAT Tachikawa Ki-74 Erroneously believed to be a + long-range fighter. Name + changed to PATSY when true + role of bomber became known. +PATSY Tachikawa Ki-74 Army experimental long-range, + high-altitude reconnaissance + bomber. +PAUL Aichi E16A Zuiun Navy single-engined + (Auspicious Cloud) reconnaissance seaplane +PEGGY Mitsubishi Ki-67 Hiryu Army twin-engined heavy bomber + (Flying Dragon) +PERRY Kawasaki Ki-10 Army single-seat biplane fighter + Relegated to training roles by + beginning of Pacific War +PETE Mitsubishi F1M Navy single-engined observation + biplane seaplane. +PINE Mitsubishi K3M Navy single-engined crew trainer +RANDY Kawasaki Ki-102b Army twin-engined assault plane +RAY Mitsubishi A6M Reisen Name briefly assigned to Zero + (Zero Fighter) in CBI theatre. +REX Kawanishi N1K Kyofu Navy single-engined seaplane + (Mighty Wind) fighter. +RITA Nakajima G8N Renzan Navy land-based four-engined + (Mountain Range) attack bomber +ROB Kawasaki Ki-64 Experimental Army single-seat + fighter +RUFE Nakajima A6M2-N Seaplane fighter version of + Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisen. +RUTH Fiat BR-20 Italian-built heavy bomber in + Japanese service +SALLY Mitsubishi Ki-21 Army twin-engined heavy bomber. + Formerly named JANE. +SAM Mitsubishi A7M Reppu Navy single-seat carrier-based + (Hurricane) fighter +SANDY Mitsubishi A5M Navy carrier-based fighter. + Name given to a non-existent + inverted-gull wing version + of CLAUDE. +SLIM Watanabe E9W Navy Reconnaissance Seaplane +SONIA Mitsubishi Ki-51 Army two-seat, single-engined + assault aircraft +SPRUCE Tachikawa Ki-9 Army medium-grade two-seat + single-engined biplane trainer +STELLA Kokusai Ki-76 Army single-engined command + liaison aircraft. Generally + similar to Fieseler Fi 156 + Storch but not a copy. +STEVE Mitsubishi Ki-72 Army experimental twin-engined + fighter +SUSIE Aichi D1A Navy single-engined carrier- + based biplane dive bomber +TABBY Showa/Nakajima L2D Navy land-based twin-engined + transport. License-built + version of Douglas DC-3. +TESS Douglas DC-2 License-built DC-2s + erroneously believed to be + in widespread use by + Japanese Navy. +THALIA Kawasaki Ki-56 Army twin-engined transport. + Japanese-built adaptation of + Lockheed Model 14-WG3. +THELMA Tachikawa/Kawasaki Type LO Twin-engined Army transport. + License built version of + Lockheed Model 14. +THERESA Kokusai Ki-59 Army twin-engined light + personnel transport +THORA Nakajima Ki-34/L1N Army/Navy twin-engined transport +TINA Mitsubishi Ki-33 Army transport - misidentified + Yokosuka L3Y transport version + of G3M attack bomber. +TILLIE Yokosuka H7Y Navy experimental flying boat +TOBY Lockheed 14 Commercial Lockheed 14s used + by Japan during Pacific War. +TOJO Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki Army single-seat fighter + (Devil-Queller) +TONY Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (Swallow) Army single-seat fighter +TOPSY Mitsubishi Ki-57/L4M Army/Navy twin-engine transport +TRIXIE Junkers Ju 52/3m German trimotor transport + erroneously believed to be in + service in Japan +TRUDY Focke-Wulf Fw 200 German four-engined maritime + reconnaissance aircraft + erroneously believed to be + in service in Japan +VAL Aichi D3A Navy single-engined two-seat + carrier-based dive bomber +WILLOW Yokosuka K5Y Navy intermediate trainer + biplane. +ZEKE Mitsubishi A6M Reisen Navy single-engined carrier- + (Zero Fighter) based fighter. + +Source: + Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Rene J. Francillon, + Naval Institute Press, 1979 + + +Joe Baugher ************************************** +AT&T Bell Laboratories * "You see, something's going to * +2000 North Naperville Road * happen. Something wonderful!" * +P. O. Box 3033 ************************************** +Naperville, Illinois 60566-7033 +(708) 713 4548 +ihlpl!jfb Who, me? Speak for AT&T? Surely you jest! +jfb200@cbnewsd.att.com diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/japan.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/japan.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..833b6a0d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/japan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3177 @@ + + + THE JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO + + INTRODUCTORY NOTE + + This is ... a translation of a best-selling Japanese book called "The + Japan That Can Say No." If you read no further in this introductory + note, please at least read this: the group that has typed in and + posted this translation wishes to secure for it the widest possible + distribution. Please ... mail [this document] either in print or + electronically, to colleagues, newspaper editors, members of the + national and local government, academics, radio talk-show hosts, + friends, and family; hand them out at work; leave piles of them by + the coffee machine. Note that the book is rather short, and so can + be conveniently Xerox-copied. + + This book has been a best-seller in Japan, and has been the subject + of some attention in the United States; members of Congress have read + it, and some spoke of reading it into the Congressional Record, but + none of them ever did that. It has been excerpted in newspaper + articles and Usenet postings, but these excerpts are always the same, + because nearly no one has available the full text of a translation. + + This has not been an oversight on the part of the authors, Akio + Morita and Shintaro Ishihara. Akio Morita is the chairman of Sony, + the very large electronics conglomerate that has recently purchased + Columbia Pictures. Shintaro Ishihara has been described in some news + accounts as a right-wing extremist, and Morita's association with him + has been described as a foolish mistake. These accounts are very + misleading; so nearly as I can tell, Mr. Ishihara is no more an + extremist in his country than, say, Bob Dole is in ours. He is a + somewhat right-of-center, charismatic and powerful member of the + ruling Liberal Democratic Party who placed third in the race to + succeed Prime Minister Sosuke Uno this past August. Ishihara has + served as the Minister of Transport, and is currently a member of the + Diet, Japan's legislative body. + + The writers of American news accounts that call Mr. Morita's + co-authorship of the book with Mr. Ishihara a foolish mistake are + making a basic error of a sort that has complicated our understanding + of the relationship between the United States and Japan: they are + imagining that the reception the book would be given in the United + States should have played a major factor in Morita's decision. But + this book was not written to be read in the United States (and, so + far, it has not been); it was written to be read by a Japanese public + that questions the nature of the post-war political relationship + between the United States and Japan. It is a political instrument + that has helped to define for the public the positions of its authors + in much the same way that a popular book of political essays might do + so for an up-and-coming politician in the United States, and more so, + because the Japanese read such books more avidly than does the + American public. + + The book's publisher, Kobunsha Publishing Ltd., has said that it has + no plans to publish the book in English and has authorized no + translations. Ishihara and Morita have spoken of how the United + States government has violated their copyright in distributing + translations of the book to members of Congress, and Morita has gone + on record as saying that he does not want to publish the book in the + United States, as this might inflame relations between the two + countries. + + According to rumor, the translations available in Washington have + been written by either DARPA or the CIA. We have no idea if this is + true, or which translation this might be; however, it is one of those + circulated in Washington. It was apparently done in haste (and + perhaps by non-native speakers of English), as it contains numerous + typographical errors, errors of grammar, and errors of diction, which + we have made no attempt to rectify. + + This translation has been entered and electronically distributed by a + group that wishes to remain anonymous. This is because we have no + wish to be bear-hugged in court by a powerful Japanese politician and + the CEO of an immense Japanese conglomerate, all under the approving + eye of the U.S. Department of State. However, we should like to + explain why we wished to embark on a project whose success could only + worsen the trade relationship, and even the political relationship + between the United States and Japan. + + We Americans live in a country controlled by a variety of interests. + Over the past ten years we have repeatedly put into government a + group of people who cannot even make up their minds as to whether + public education should be funded; who are against the creation of a + national industrial policy; and who do not believe that the + government should take any steps to ensure that manufacturing jobs + should continue to exist in the United States. + + Like many Americans, those of us who have undertaken to distribute + this book are able to make up our minds about all of these issues. + We believe that public education should be one of the first national + priorities and that the United States should have national industrial + and trade policies to ensure the continued existence of domestic + manufacturing. Our feelings about this are based on a simple desire + to see the United States maintain a decent standard of living for its + citizens. People who flip burgers are able to realize fewer of their + dreams than are skilled laborers who build things, not least because + people who flip burgers create less value for the economy and so make + less money. + + How does "The Japan That Can Say No" figure in this? Our country is + obsessed with feeling good, to the exclusion of good sense. The + popular conception of our time runs something like this: + "Everything's great, just like the president says. Those crazy folks + on Wall Street go up and down, but they do okay, and if some more + factories close, if a few shiftless characters can't afford housing, + what the hell, huh? And those clever Japanese, what will they think + of next? They're always thinking of neat new toys to make for us." + + The reality is much more grim. It seems very possible that in ten or + twenty years there will be no sector in which American-made products + are internationally competitive. Many American industrial concerns + no longer establish domestic manufacturing plants because they are + unable to find laborers sufficiently skilled to operate them + efficiently. We educate fewer and fewer engineers each year. Much + of American commerce is controlled by a managerial class that has + been trained mostly in marketing, has trouble with simple technical + concepts, and prefers the ease of marketing foreign products to the + complexities of managing manufacturing and development. Meanwhile, + many American citizens are unable to make ends meet, and their number + is clearly increasing. + + All of these points are made regularly by domestic policy analysts, + to absolutely no significant effect. We were struck by the fact that + they are also made repeatedly in "The Japan That Can Say No," + although here they are often couched in racist and belligerent + language. Ishihara and Morita wrote their book for domestic + consumption, to promote themselves and particular Japanese national + policies. We wish to use the book for an analogous purpose: we hope + that reading "The Japan That Can Say No" will help to jolt Americans + out of their complacency. + + We believe that the urgency of our country's situation justifies our + disregard for the wishes of the book's authors. Their interest in + analyzing the United States' problems seems to be motivated at best + by a penchant for self-congratulation and at worst by one for + jingoistic sentiment and self-promotion. The fact that they are + attempting to ensure that their audience remains exclusively Japanese + reinforces our sense that they do not see our country's interests as + theirs. Still, much of what they say is accurate, and we believe + that reading it may help our country to act in its own interests. + + Consider the analogy of a family who make their living by farming, + and who are in domestic trouble. The head of the family (say the + father) is a compulsive gambler, and, although some family members do + their best to wake him up to the fact that he is destroying the + family's livelihood, he pays no attention, selling off the tractor, + the truck, the cows, mortgaging the house and the fields. He points + out to his family that his good friends in town who run the bank, the + general store, and the casino are still happy to do business with + him. The bank still gives him mortgages, the general store still + buys what's left of the farming equipment, and the casino always lets + him in to play. + + Perhaps if the farmer knew he was the laugh of the town, he'd pay + some attention. If he heard his friends clucking their tongues and + saying that it was an awful shame, what he was doing to his family + and that they didn't think he'd ever again get back on his feet, even + as they eagerly bought his tractor and his fields and continued + taking his money at the casino, he might think twice. Maybe he'd + even realize how far he'd fallen, and set about the difficult work of + putting his farm back in order. + + + If this makes sense to you, please work to disseminate copies of this + book as much as possible, especially to people outside of the Usenet + community -- those of us with access to networks are, after all, a + small minority of the national community. Please feel free to + disseminate as well this introductory note. + + + + + + THE JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO + The New U.S.-Japan Relations Card + by + Akio Morita + Shintaro Ishihara + + + Published in Japan by Kobunsha Publishing Ltd. + + [the cover sheet then says:] + Kappa-Holmes + + + Translator's Note: The material written by Mr. Morita is very + straightforward; however, Mr. Ishihara tends to ramble, change from + one subject to another without much transition, and uses a great deal + of sayings and proverbs which when directly translated to English make + no sense. What has been translated is the closest equivalent in + English we could get. + + Editor's Note: This material was given numbered section headings and + reformatted for easier reading. Also, a number of small misspellings + were corrected. + + + 1.0 THE NECESSITY FOR PRESENT DAY JAPANESE TO REFORM THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS + (Ishihara) + + 1.1 Japanese People Have Become Top Heavy + + Each month, there is the Cabinet meeting for the economic report. I + am one of those kinds of guys who gets up early and goes before the + cabinet meeting, which winds up by 9 a.m., or 8 at the earliest. + While rubbing my sleepy eyes, I go over the reports by the Bureau + Chief of the Economic Planning Agency and by the Director of the Bank + of Japan. Each month, the reports are almost identical. Generally, + the Cabinet ministers sleep through it. When I suggested to the Chief + Cabinet Secretary that in this age of governmental administra- tive + reform, why not give up these meetings, the reponse, not entirely + unexpected on my part, was that these were absolutely necessary, even + if there were some Party executives who did not attend. + + Thus, each month, there is a repetition of a nearly identical report. + + The Bureau Chief of the Economic Planning Agency said this month, just + as he did last month, that the magnitude of Japan's surplus in + international revenues was tending to shrink. In other words, this + means he is saying that it is perfectly alright for business not to be + so good. The Cabinet members all nod and underline this in red. + + Myself, I thought this was a really strange phenomenon, so I turned to + the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr. Kajiyama, who was sitting beside + me, and asked what was going on here. Everybody is thinking it's just + great that business isn't prospering that much and eagerly red-lining + that information. Couldn't you say, however, that a country like that + won't last long? Words, words -- if the meaning of words keeps + changing, you can never be really sure what is being said. In other + words, aren't our values changing? + + If we take Japan's vast trade surpluses as one type of crisis + situation, then this points to the necessity of changing Japan's + economic and industrial structure. While leaving undetermined for the + moment whether or not the conclusions of the Maekawa Report were + valid, it is true that the "comprehensive and vast" industries are + tending to recede and the lean and mean knowledge-intensive types are + coming into their own. When the term "comprehensive and vast" + (jukochodai) is applied to human beings, it is a form of praise, while + the opposite, "light and small" would be to berate the same. However, + when these terms are applied to the industrial structure, their + meaning has come to change. + + What matters, however, is whether or not this is good. Should we all + be at ease, not that we are not dirtying our hands and sweating in + order to make things with our own hands? Certainly know-how comes + about from one type of mental activity, and coming up with it is a + work worthy of respect. Looking at history, however, in cases where + the whole society of the country was using their brains instead of + their hands, not one has lasted to prosper today. In some sense, it + may be true that the Japanese people are being forced into a new + historical experience, but can we go on now, as we are, thinking we + are the chosen people? + + When looking at the actions of the Japanese people these days, I + recall that these seem similar to ET, the extra-terrestrial, in the + Speilburg films. I feel that it may well be the Japanese people will + evolve into something like ET with pronounced eyes and noses and a big + head making them top-heavy, over an abnormally thin body and slender + arms and legs. + + Therefore, it was impossible for Japan to get more than a few gold + medals at the Seoul Olympics, which many Japanese read as being + abnormal. While it may be that this is a sign that a new people has + arisen to make contributions in other areas, it seems more natural to + me that our descendants would be able to continue to sweat and work to + keep the country strong. + + + 1.2 Japan's Advanced Technology Is at the Heart of Military Strength + + This is something advocated by Mr. Morita, who is a company leader + that has driven Japan's advanced technology and who is known for + manufacturing excellent products. He pointed out that the INF + limitations (the restrictions on intermediate range nuclear forces) + was something that the Soviet and American leaders came to each other + on. While this was an epoch-making event, it was certainly not done + because Americans and Russians had a new sense of the danger of + nuclear weapons, they were not acting from the standpoint of human + morality. + + There may be some people who took the INF negotiaions as a sign that + both countries were beginning to act from their sense of humanity, but + I think the reason why they got together on this is different. + + Whether it be mid-range nuclear weapons or inter-continental ballistic + missiles, what ensures the accuracy of weapons is none other than + compact, high-precision computers. As everyone knows, current ICBMs + use the MIRV concept where there are multiple warheads. When an + attacking missile gets near enough to be detected, the warhead splits + into 8 or 9 separate heads. Not all of them contain hydrogen bombs, + however, some are dummies designed just to dupe the enemy. + + The remaining warheads lose speed, reenter from space, fall, run + sideways and follow complicated paths, but in the end, they hit the + targets picked for them by spy satellites and destroy them to within 1 + second of latitudinal and longitudinal accuracy. For a Soviet ICBM, + this would mean hitting the silo containing the retaliatory ICBM in + Vandenburg AFB California. + + These silos go 50 or 60 meters underground and are strong fortresses + having thick walls of reinforced concrete. If a direct hit is not + scored upon them, one cannot destroy the hydrogen bombs inside. The + equipment will not even be affected as much as it is in an earthquake + if a direct hit is not made. Thus, it is absolutely vital that a + direct hit is made. + + At the present time, Soviet technology allows these missiles to hit + within a 60 meter accuracy, while for the U.S., it is 15 meters, and + there is concern that this 15 meters has to be brought down to zero. + This type of precision calls for a more complex orbit the further the + attack proceeds, and only artificial intelligence can ensure accuracy. + It may well be that America was the 4th generation leader and that the + 1 megabit and several megabit devices which will support the next, the + 5th generation, can be developed by American know-how. However, to + use this know-how across diverse applications, including weapons, + requires a country with dramatically advanced production management; + it is only Japan that can deliver on it. + + In sum, if Japanese semiconductors are not used, this accuracy cannot + be assured. It has come to the point that no matter how much they + continue military expansion, if Japan stopped selling them the chips, + there would be nothing more they could do. + + If, for example, Japan sold chips to the Soviet Union and stopped + selling them to the U.S., this would upset the entire military + balance. Some Americans say that if Japan were thinking of doing + that, it would be occupied. Certainly, this is an age where things + could come to that. The more technology advances, the more the U.S. + and the Soviet Union will become dependent upon the initiative of the + Japanese people -- this is getting crazy now, but the point is clear. + + The U.S. Defense Department's Science Commission recently prepared a + huge classified report on electronic engineering. Looking at this, + one can well understand the sense of crisis that the U.S. has with + respect to Japan. + + The report states that if Japan is left to go as it is, it will be + impossible to get the lead back. This report is very accurate in + assessing the areas of weakness in the U.S. and the strengths in + Japan, but only the President and a few select people have seen the + report. If it were seen by the general public, it would certainly + raise quite a commotion. It is in this area where the U.S. + specialists have their greatest sense of danger, primarily centering + on Japan's semiconductor technology. + + -- We have grown very dependent upon America's technological + superiority in military strength. In that technology, electronic + equipment is the most effective technology. Semiconductors are the + "key" to preserving this superiority in electronic equipment, they are + the "heart of the equipment." If competitive, mass production of + semiconductors is the key, then this is in turn dependent upon having + the market to support mass production. -- + + This dependence on the market for supporting mass production can be + seen in that America did not have the vast and diverse needs for + semiconductors, as Japan did in rice cookers and other household + appliances. In Japan, these sizable and diverse needs created the + market for semiconductor production. The report continues: + + -- American's Semiconductor Industry for its commercial mass + production is losing its superiority minute by minute. There is a + strong relationship between superiority in production technology and + superiority in semiconductor technology, this is being transferred to + foreign countries minute by minute. Very soon now, the defense of + America will become dependent upon supply sources abroad. It is the + opinion of the task team that this is something which is absolutely + unacceptable for the United States. -- + + What is meant in the report by "foreign supply sources" is none other + than Japan. Further, they seem to worry about the following: + + -- What is more problematic is that the electronic equipment systems + are being transferred abroad, where they could more easily get + transferred into the hands of the Soviet Union. -- + + In other words, their sense of crisis stems from the fact that the + semiconductor technology is absolutely vital in maintaining military + superiority, and that this might flow from Japan to the Soviet Union. + I feel that what is behind this abnormal hysteria on the part of this + country is that this pivotal military technology is in the hands of + another country, not even Europe, but in the hands of an Asian + country, Japan. + + Toshiba, etc. which was speared by COCOM is the fault of this hysteria + by the U.S. If that had been criticism from the pure perspective of + the law, it would not for a moment have any basis at all. + + The 1 megabit semiconductors which are used in the hearts of + computers, which carry hundreds of millions of circuits in an area + which is one-third the size of your little fingernail, are only made + in Japan. Japan has nearly a 100 percent share of these 1 megabit + semiconductors. + + The United States has the know-how to make them, but when it comes + down to actual production, they don't have the technicians; they don't + have the employees. Further, they don't have the production + management. Because they don't have development and production linked + into one unit, they guard know-how like a jewel. + + America went after cheap labor and set up factories in Southeast Asia, + where they could make 256k chips (1/4 the capacity of 1 megabit + chips), but they could not catch Japan. Now, Japan is at least 5 + years ahead of the U.S. in this area and the gap is widening. There + is even some kinds of basic research which cannot be accomplished + without using one of these advanced computers. It take excellent + computers in order to develop other advanced computers -- it is a + cycle of technology. In other words, the bigger the gap in advanced + computer technology, the more difficult it is to catch up. + + The current situation in the world is that those kinds of computers + are central to military strength and therefore central to national + power. This is why the U.S. is being driven so hard. For example, in + performing simulations of what elements would be needed by aircraft + flying at mach 2, a regular computer might take 40 years to perform + the necessary computations. If the same query is put to a new, + advanced, computer, however, the answer will come out in a year. + Japan has almost the total share of the 1 megabit chips which are at + the heart of these computers. In that sense, Japan has become a very + important country. + + + 1.3 There Is A Need for Japanese to Change Their Consciousness in Light + of High Technology + + As the world goes smaller, and issues in the world further settle + down, whether it be China or Siberia, development will proceed. In + order to get the needed access (participation in the market), the most + important possibility lies in linear technology. Japan and West + Germany are the most advanced countries in this research and + development, and the theoretical base of Japanese technology is far + superior. West Germany has given up in research on superconducting, + but Japan has cleared three technological obstacles which were + envisioned by West Germany. + + To make a long story short, the West German magnetic floating train + development realized a levitation of only 8mm, but Japan's "Maglevel" + superconducting linear motorcar realized a levitation of 10 + centimeters, and speeds of 500 kilometers per hour. This type of + technology does not exist anywhere in the Soviet Union or the United + States, it only exists in Japan and West Germany. If the giants in + the economic field and the politicians can join together around this + type of technology, it would open up new possibilities for our + advancement. Whether or not this can be achieved depends upon our + large and small choices in the future; in sum, it is a question + involving the sensibilities of our politicians. + + There is a Jiyu Shakai Kenkyu-kai (Free Society Research Association) + which is presided over by Mr. Morita. This was formed more than 10 + years ago as an association of politicians and businessmen. I am the + youngest, but I also participate. We get together for discussions one + or twice per year. + + Recently, Mr. Kissinger predicted that Japan might become a military + superpower. This, however, was not the foolish step of Japan getting + ICBMs and refurbishing the old Yamato battleship, it pointed to the + danger that no matter how much the U.S. or Soviet Union developed + space, equippped themselves with space platform weapons, the military + initiative to control these would be dependent upon Japanese + technology. The question now is whether Japan has politicians who + accurately understand the history behind what we have now become. + + We Japanese now face choices on whether we can boldly proceed or stand + back quietly. It may be possible that Japan can secure a new culture + for itself based upon the skeleton of the development of high + technology. We must not restrain ourselves to what we have done up to + this point. The dregs of the postwar period are too prominent in the + consciousness of Japanese. I feel that however hesitatingly, the + revolution in our consciousness has already begun. + + The Soviet Union implemented a revolution in consciousness with its + criticism of Stalinism, and China achieved the Great Cultural + Revolution. The United States also realized a type of consciousness + reform through its bitter experiences in the Vietnam War. Japan is + the only one which has not felt the need for some kind of reform since + the end of the war. We do not need a drastic reform of consciousness, + but rather, a smooth reform based upon the technology that we have + developed for ourselves. I think that only by doing this will we + realize a society which is mature in the true sense of the word. + + + 2.0 THE DECLINE OF AN AMERICAN WHICH CAN ONLY SEE 10 MINUTES AHEAD (Morita) + + 2.1 American Neglects the Significance of Production + + The gist of the Ishihara message is the importance of production + activities. + + I have had frequent occasion to deliver speeches, both in Europe and + in the United States, due to the nature of my business activities, and + have involved myself in many debates at international conferences. As + a result of my conversations with Europeans and Americans, I have + become very aware of and concerned about the fact that they appear to + have forgotten the importance of production acitivities. + + Americans make money by playing "money games," namely M&A (mergers and + acquistions), by simply moving money back and forth. If you look at + the exchange rate, for example, the dollar is now worth about 120 + Japanese yen, and enormous and quick profits are made by just moving + money by computer, satellite, and even by telephone. + + The summer before last, I had the opportunity to talk to a group of + three thousand foreign currency dealers, who specialize in buying and + selling money, at a conference on the future of money transfers and + financing. I have been known to be critical of the floating exchange + rate system. Talking to money dealers about my ideas was like telling + stockbrokers that the movement of stock prices if wrong; it takes a + lot of courage. I stressed that money should not be the subject of + speculation, because the fundamental function of money should not be + to enrich banks and security companies, but to smooth the path of + production activities. It has been said that America is entering a + so-called post-industrialist society where the weight of the service + industry sector is growing. Yet, when people forget how to produce + goods, and that appears to be the case in America, they will not be + able to supply themselves even with their most basic needs. + + Last summer, a friend of mine who is always criticizing Japan for + being "unfair" invited me to his summer home to play golf. At the + first tee, I pulled out my MacGregor driver whereas my friend had a + Japanese Yonex club. I criticized him for using Japanese clubs since + he had been telling everyone not to buy Japanese products. He + responded simply: "These clubs give me better distance." Well, I was + not able to sacrifice distance and so I kept quiet. After the game, he + invited me to his house and while his wife was preparing dinner, he + showed me around. In the garage, I saw a Kawasaki snowmobile, which + he said he needed because winters in the northern part of New York + State have a lot of snow. Next to it was a Japanese motor boat, which + he said he needs because his house is surrounded by lakes. I also saw + an off-road vehicle made in Japan. + + Finally, dinner was ready and as I went into the house, I saw a Sony + television and numerous other Japanese-made products. I said, "You + criticize us all the time for not buying American products while it's + obvious that you prefer Japanese products. Are you asking us to buy + something you won't buy yourself?" + + Americans today make money by "handling" money and shuffling it + around, instead of creating and producing goods with some actual + value. + + + 2.2 America Looks 10 Minutes Ahead; Japan Looks 10 Years + + I delivered a speech in Chicago entitled "Ten Minutes vs. Ten Years." + I stated that we Japanese plan and develop our business strategies ten + years ahead. When I asked an American money trader, "how far ahead do + you plan...one week?" The reply was "no, no...ten minutes." He was + moving money through a computer, targeting the fate of that + transaction ten minutes later. So, as I told the Americans, we are + focusing on business ten years in advance, while you seem to be + concerned only with profits ten minutes from now. At that rate, you + may well never be able to compete with us. + + A well-known economist, Peter Drucker, wrote recently: "Americans + cannot live in a symbol economy where businessmen play only with + numbers; Americans should come back to a real economy where money + moves in accordance with real production acitivities." + + Unfortunately, in America, stocks are owned and handled by + institutional investors whose fund managers actually buy and sell + stocks in huge numbers in an attempt to maximize profits in a given + short period of time. At the slightest increase in stock prices, they + sell, and when the profit margin of any company declines as a result + of poor management, they sell before the company's stock prices begin + to decline. For them, the name of the game of nothing but quick + profits. + + It is expected that the American service industry will flourish. This + includes finance and financial services, where entrepreneurs and + investors alike do not leave their money in long-term projects, such + as the ten-year projects that have been implemented in Japan. The + American economy is, then, an economy without substance. It must + return to a real production economy. + + In America, R&D is closely linked to the military budget. R&D in the + private sector is heavily dependent on military expenditure. As a + result, a corporation can engage in the development of a new fighter + without worrying about profit or loss. On the other hand, budget + constraints on NASA and the military agencies will directly reduce the + volume of R&D. + + A ten-minute profit cycle economy does not permit companies to invest + in long term development. There are some exceptions, such as IBM, + AT&T, DuPont, and some others. But they do not represent the + mainstream of American business nowadays. Gradually but surely, + American business is shifting toward a symbol economy. In addition, + it seems fashionable to call the service industry the "futuristic + third wave" and information and intelligence is the business of the + future. But these produce nothing. Business, in my mind, is nothing + but "value added;" we must add value and wisdom to things and this is + what America seems to have forgotten. And this is the most deplorable + aspect of America today. + + Japan will do fine as long as it continues to develop and produce + things of tangible value; a shift from high-technology industry to + quick profits from the money game will only serve to accelerate the + degeneration of the country. We must take precautions against such + developments, providing for, for example, tax advantages for long term + investments. + + It is even more the case in America. A quick profit from a stock deal + should be taxed at a higher rate than those on long term investments. + Capital gains should be subject to a lower rate of taxation. + + Recently I said, "America is supposedly the number one industrial + country in the world. Why don't you have a Department of Industry?" + Seated next to me was the chairman of the Ford Motor Corporation, Mr. + Caldwell, who replied, "that's right - we are supervised by the + Department of Transportation." The Department of Transportation is + interested in emissions control and highway safety, but has no + interest or jurisdiction over the future of the automobile industry in + the United States. + + America is the only nation among the advanced industrial countries + that does not have a Department of Industry which is responsible for + industrial policy. Instead, the Department of Commerce and U.S.T.R. + preside and their only real concern is trade-related matters and they + criticize others for the failure of American industry. + + + 2.3 Japan's Impact on the World Economy Will Be Recognized + + The American Economy appears to be deteriorating. I assume that the + Bush administration will take steps to tackle the present problems, + but the country as a whole seems to be extremely nonchalant about the + so-called twin deficits: budget and trade. + + There seems to be the feeling that Reaganomics raised the standard of + living, taxes are relatively low, and they can buy goods from all over + the world. When the Republicans captured the White House again, I + began to wonder if there was any sector in America which was truly + concerned about the twin deficits since Bush repeatedly denies any + possibility of a tax increase. How in the world do the Americans + expect to restore their economy? + + Let's examine the price of gasoline. Consumption of gasoline is + growing rapidly, yet the price is still below a dollar a gallon. The + ongoing world price per gallon is $4 U.S. A one-cent per gallon tax + increase means an additional $10 billion; think what the government + could get if they levied an additional 25 cents per gallon. Yet the + government will not even begin to initiate such a move. + + In fact, even with such an additional tax, American gasoline prices + will still remain less than international prices. Politicians are + simply afraid of losing votes by adopting unpopular policies. Some of + my closest American friends have said that Bush could have been + elected without promising not to raise taxes. He has so firmly + committed himself and his Administration to not raising taxes, yet it + is so obvious that the twin deficits cannot be solved without + additional national revenue. + + Bush should have been more realistic if he was, and is, honestly + concerned with the American bugdet crisis. Tactically, he could have + said early on that he would not raise taxes, but as he gained support, + he should have become more honest and direct, and told the people that + it was necessary to pursue a more realistic financial policy. On the + contrary, he confirmed his pledge even after he was elected. + Solutions to the deficit problem seem even more remote. + + This being the case, the U.S. dollar has continued to decline, and the + U.S. has had to increase interest rates to further attract foreign + money to the U.S., for which it will have to pay a great deal of + interest. The result is an increasingly vicious circle. + + The U.S. inflation situation might well become an even more chronic + phenomenon. Economic growth without inflation is ideal, whereas + endless inflation might well bring the dollar's value to the level of + trash. This, in turn will make European and Japanese assets trash + since sizable asset of both are in U.S. dollars. + + Both the Europeans and the Japanese cannot sit idly by, ignoring or + overlooking the trend in the American economy. At one time, when the + U.S. dollar was very high, the Japanese and Europeans asked Americans + if "they could absorb the trade deficit caused by the high dollar?" + At that time, Treasury Secretary Regan was of the opinion that the + U.S. dollar should stay high and strong. When James Baker became the + new Secretary of the Treasury, he recognized the problem and entered + into the Plaza Accord to lower the value of the dollar. + + The American economy does not stand alone. It is not only a domestic + issue. The collapse of the American economy would cause a worldwide + disaster. 1987's Black Monday chilled all nations momentarily. I am + not a pessimist, but I cannot help thinking that unless the Bush + Adminstration handles economic issues very seriously, a worldwide + collapse is not just a worry, but a very real possibility. The + ever-growing American inflation and thus its economic crisis will not + only make other nations catch cold, but bring their economies into + crisis as well. + + It is said that Japan contributed to efforts to stop a possible + disastrous chain reaction ignited by Black Monday which began in + America and soon affected the London stock market as well. At that + point, the Japanese Ministry of Finance asked Japanese institutional + investors to support prices for a time, which instantly normalized + Japanese stock prices. Later, the chairman of one of the major U.S. + banks, who was visiting Japan, told me, "It was Japan who put a stop + to the chain reaction and it was the Ministry of Finance who was able + to move the Tokyo stock market. The Japanese government now has the + clout to sustain Wall Street and the City of London. So-called + Japanese guidance is truly powerful." + + This gentlemen went on to say, "we are worried about the fact that the + Japanese people are unaware of the fact that they have a significant + impact on the world economy. And I believe that it is true that + Japan's economic status has been much enhanced." + + Like it or not, this is the picture held by Americans, and the + Japanese people have to recognize it and, inevitably, they have to + behave in accordance with that status in the world community today. + + + 3.0 RACIAL PREJUDICE IS AT THE ROOT OF JAPAN BASHING (Ishihara) + + 3.1 America Will Never Hold Its World Leadership Position Unless It Ends + Its Racial Prejudice + + I had the opportunity to visit Washingotn, D.C. in April a year ago, + and was suprised at the very hostile atmosphere. It was only five + days after Congress passed the resolution condemning Japan on the + semiconductor issue. I met some of my old friends, senators and + congressmen, who with subtle smiles admitted that racial + considerations, or more directly, racial prejudice, played a role in + U.S.-Japan relations. This was after I had discussed several concrete + examples with them. Although they shied away from the subject of + racial prejudice as if it were taboo, they did admit that it is there. + + Initially, they violently denied my allegations, citing that the + Pacific War of 40-some years ago as the only real source of prejudice + against the Japanese. I declared that it was not as simple as that. + It appears that the Americans were firmly of the opinion that it was + the West, namely Euro-Americans, who established modernism. My + reaction was as follows. + + It may be true that the modern era is a creation of the white race, + but you have become somewhat presumptous about it. In the pre-modern + era, Asiatic races such as Genghis Khan and his armies raided the + European continent, destroying towns and villages, looting and raping. + Yet at that time, many Europeans actually imitated the style and + behavior of Khan's hordes, cutting their hair short, shaving their + eyebrows, and walking menacingly with knees apart. That was nothing + compared to the strange ways modern Europeans and American adopt the + style and fashions of some of the present era's heros, such as the + Beatles and Michael Jackson. Even Asian kids do this. Probably Khan + was some kind of cult figure then and while women regarded him as a + "hero" of sorts. + + Some say that the roots of the so-called "yellow peril" can be traced + back to the atrocities committed by Khan and his men. At any rate, we + should keep in mind that there is prejudice committed by Khan and his + men. At any rate, we should keep in mind that there is prejudice + against Orientals, as the following episode illustrates. + + I had a chance to talk with the Secretary of the Navy about the Amber + System. Amber is supposed to be the color of caution and danger and + this system is named for this concept. Under the Amber System, + ordinary vessels such as tankers and container ships, are equipped + with sonar on their bows. The sonar can detect underwater objects. + Some objects are rocks, etc. which navigational charts will show. + What the system is looking for are nuclear submarines. +l + The Amber System alone cannot detect the nationality of the submarines + detected; it cannot tell if they are American, Russian, or whatever. + It simply detects the presence of some foreign object and this + information is relayed directly to the Pentagon, which knows what is + on the navigational charts and also where U.S. subs are located, so + they will be able to ascertain whether the particular sub is American + or not. + + I suggested that the Navy equip all Japanese commerical vessels with + this system. Japanese seamen are reliable and the Japanese merchant + marine travels all the oceans and seas. Japanese vessels, including + our oil tankers, could gather information along vital cargo routes and + the U.S. could analyze the information received from the Japanese + ships. + + To my suprise, the Americans said that it was none of Japan's + business. I asked that how, in light of the very limited number of + U.S. ships, how can you deny the need for such assistance. Their + answer: "We cannot leave such a critical matter with Japan." I asked + if it was appropriate to involve the British and the Germans, and they + said it would be. + + The fact of the matter is that Americans do not trust Japan. Japan + would have no basis with which to analyze the information collected by + the Amber System, yet they were still worried about the Japanese + reliability in merely collecting the information. It seems that in + their minds, even the Soviets are more trustworthy than the Japanese. + American racial prejudice toward Japan is very fundamental and we + should always keep it in mind when dealing with the Americans. + + During the Second World War, Americans bombed civilian targets in + Germany, but only on Japan did they use the atomic bomb. While they + refuse to admit it, the only reason they could use the atomic bomb on + Japan was because of their racial attitude toward Japan. The fact + that they actually dropped the atomic bomb on Japan is sufficient + indication that racial prejudice was a factor. + + It is my firm conviction that the roots of the U.S.-Japan friction lie + in the soil of racial prejudice. American racial prejudice is based + upon the cultural belief that the modern era is the creation of the + white race, including Americans. This confidence appears a bit + overwhelming, probably due to America's relative youth as a nation, + which tends to blind it to other cultures. If Americans were ever to + be made aware of the presence of a real Japanese culture in the + Azuchi-Momoyama period as did the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries, + they might develop some respect for Japanese cultural history. + Unfortunately, the present American education system does not teach + children the value of other cultures. In the period noted above, + there were over 20,000 "terakoya" schools all over Japan. No other + nation had such an extensive schooling system at such an early point + in their history. + + During the Edo period, even farmers and peasants were able to read and + write at least one or two thousand characters, including hiragana and + katakana. Japan already, at that time, had a complete postal network, + called "hikyaku" as far as the southernmost end of Kyushu. Documents + and information of various kinds were available in libraries in many + cities and towns. + + This is the kind of information I give to Americans who exhibit + ignorance of our culture. Unfortunately, most Americans don't like to + see these facts, and they tend to change the subject. In short, their + historical prejudice and cultural narrowness has reached a point where + they cannot see another's point or see the value of another culture. + All this has made Americans, in the post war period, very irritable on + the issue. + + The American position at this point seems to be that the British and + Germans can play whatever role the Japanese could, and can do so + without irritating the U.S. Americans are essentially an honest + people, and in fact do admit to the existence of racial prejudice, if + they are pressed on the subject, which I do. However, this is not + enough. They should also admit that prejudice does not hold any + solutions to the problems developing in the world today. It is + important that they face the situation, aware of the historical + context, seeing that the reality is that the power in the world, + including the economic power, is shifting gradually from West to East. + It may not be as strong a shift as is expressed in the expression the + "Pacific era," but at any rate it is in America's interest to rid + itself of prejudice against Asis, including that against Japan, in + order to maintain a position of leadership in the world. + + + 3.2 Japan Should Become More Cosmopolitan + + The calendar clearly indicates that we are moving toward the end of a + century, and with it is coming the end of the modern era as developed + by white Westerners. History is entering a period of new genesis. + The promoter of this era is Japan as well as the U.S. It is a + historical development which America's political leaders should make + known, so that America will be better equipped to meet the tasks of + the future. + + The Japanese have their own problems. They may have to go through a + mental evolution to meet the needs of this new era. As Mr. Morita has + pride and confidence in the products of his company, and attitude + which has made him a truly cosmopolitan man, so must the Japanese + develop pride and confidence in our culture and our technology. We + cannot become overbearing, which will not be tolerated in the new era, + but by the same token, an inferiority complex is equally harmful. The + Japanese people must move out of their current mental stagnation; I + feel this is especially important for Japanese diplomats. + + Except for the young and especially qualified, most Japanese diplomats + suffer from a peculiar inferiority complex [and] as a result are + spreading the seeds of misunderstanding throughout the world. When I + was young, I had the opportunity to live with one of Japan's + ambassadors and his family. He was a hell of a nice guy -- a really + wonderful human being. However, he seldom socialized with anyone. At + the end of a game of golf, if someone suggested dropping into the + lounge for beer, he would refuse, saying that he preferred to have one + when he got home. This is the same attitude that some Japanese have + when they won't even accept a cup of tea while a guest in another's + home. It may be for most Japanese that only in his home and only with + his family can he really relax. If this is true, then the Japanese + can never truly be cosmopolitan. When the heads of some of Japan's + top trading companies, such as Mitsubishi and Mitsui, wanted to join + prestigious country clubs in the countries in which they were + stationed, their applications were rejected because it was felt that + Japanese were too parochial, staying to themselves and not socializing + with others. Some Japanese diplomats don't hesitate to show their + inferiority complex. One ambassador even publicly said that the + Japanese were a race a "pygmies." Such things happen all the time! + + The Ministry of Foreign Affairs tried to cover up the news of the + firing training by an American cruiser (the Towers, 3370 tons) last + year in Tokyo Bay. A single cannon on the Towers, the Mark 42, can + send a 32kg ball over 23 kilometers at 36 rounds per minute. American + authorities said non-explosive training ammunition was being used. + But even these could easily damage of Uraga class Japanese Coast Guard + frigate (33231 [sic] tons), not to mention what it could do to small + fishing vessels. Tokyo Bay is a busy commerical harbor, similar to + New York Harbor inside the Verrazano Bridge. American television + reported that the American people would be furious if that happened in + their country. + + The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the Japanese media to hold the + story until further notice, since that event was incidental. I was + very angry and protested, saying that I would release the news on my + own. This happened on Japanese soverign territory in an area clearly + barred from such firings due to the fact it was a vital maritime + channel. It was a clear violation of Japan's sovereign rights. I + observed that "It was like seeing a ranking Self Defense Agency + official firing his service revolver at the Ginza junction." I still + feel the same way. + + Americans can say that they are here to protect Japan under the + U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. But at times, it appears to me that the + Americans behave more like mad dogs instead of watch dogs. + + I use the term "mad dogs" when referring to the Americans recalling + that Mr. Shiina, Deputy President of the LDP, used it when he was + Foreign Minister. This is another instance where "no" clearly [must + be] said when that is what is meant [and] would be useful. One must + say "no" when he means "no" and failure to do so reduces credibility. + In the case of the U.S.-Japan relationship, such an attitude only + further increases American racial prejudice. The Japanese people + should know that they are in essence protecting American interests as + the new era in international relations begins, something the Americans + seem quicker to sense. This is the reality of the U.S.-Japan + relationship today. + + + 4.0 BASHING JAPAN GETS VOTES (Morita) + + 4.1 The Paradox of Welcoming Investment but Criticism of Japan + + I am worried about the tide of attitude in America with respect to + Japan. The U.S. Government and the Congress have adopted a number of + harsh policies with respect to Japan. Some 37 states in the U.S. have + established offices in Tokyo. Since I am responsible for + investment-related matters in the Keidanren (Federation of Economic + Organizations), when the state governors visit, I am the one to meet + with them, if my time permits. + + It never fails, they are always coming to Japan saying, "invest, + please invest." Just when I am about to assume that America welcomes + Japanese, U.S. congressmen elected from these same states are bashing + Japan. The state government has no involvement with this, of course, + but they are saying to Japan's big business, "come on, come on." + + "What in the world is the meaning of this?" I wonder. In addition, + recently a number of famous academics and journalists have published + books which are critical of Japan. Recently, there has been a book, + "Buying into America" which suggests that Japan is buying up America, + and there is a book called "Yen" which envisions a future after the + year 200 in which Japan uses its financial power to control the world. + The latter is rather calm in its perspective, but both books reveal a + clear Japanese menace - the tides have really shifted since "Japan As + Number One" was published. + + A book written by a famous journalist which depicts Japan in a very + harsh light has become a best seller, so this is indicative of the + critical attitude on Japan held by the American masses. The more this + attitude increases, politicians will beat up on Japan in an attempt to + make votes for themselves, because getting votes is the most important + aspect of being a politician. + + The politicians themselves are not at all concerned, however. When + asked why they bash Japan, they respond that if they say "Japan is + good," votes will drop off. If Japan is bashed, further, if a Toshiba + radio-cassette player is smashed, this is not indicative of hating + Toshiba, but they think if they do such things, votes will increase. + + The state governments welcome Japanese industry because if they invest + in their state, tax collections increase, along with employment, but + among the American people, the attitude with respect to Japan is + becomming more and more critical. + + The Keidanren has established a "Council for Better Investment in the + United States," which is the English language name of the council + (literally it is the "Council for Investment in the U.S." - + translator). What we mean by "better investment" is the type of + investment which will get Americans on Japan's side. If the number of + Americans who view things the way Japan does increases, then bashing + Japan will cause lower vote counts. That would probably make + politicians stop bashing Japan. + + I think that it is vital that we help build a feeling of friendship + among the American masses with respect to Japan. At the present time, + everyone buys Japanese goods and is delighted with them. They do not + hate Japanese products. What makes them hate Japan, however, is that + when Japanese businesses enter the American society, they have the + feeling that foreigners are coming. + + + 4.2 Japanese Industries in the U.S. Should Work at Community Service + + Direct investment in the United States is currently expanding very + rapidly. The end result of this is that Japanese companies, including + Sony, have established themselves in local districts throughout the + country. When the English or French invest in a local area, the + communities and local society do not see this as an invasion of + foreigners. However, when the Japanese come, they feel that + strangers, or something foreign has entered their midst. This gives + them strong feelings of fear and anxiety. + + To give a simple example, when Japanese go to the U.S., their children + go to schools. The schools have an organization, the P.T.A. This + stands for Parent and Teachers Association. The corresponding + organization in Japan is called the "Fathers and Brothers Association" + but no fathers and brothers participate, it is more of a "mothers and + sisters" association. Myself, I have never attended the Fathers and + Brothers Association in Japan. In the case of America, however, + husbands go with their wives to attend meetings for their elementary + school or local area school and discuss how those schools should be + run. In Japan, it is the mother's duty to take care of educational + matters for the children, so the father does not attend. In America, + however, when the father takes off work to attend a PTA meeting, his + company does not charge him leave. The man, therefore, must go to the + PTA meetings. + + When I was living in the U.S., I went to PTA meetings where I was able + to associate with persons from various walks of life. My daughter + went to the Nightingale Bonford School in Manhattan and my son went to + St. Bernards. I got to know Stokowski (the late) conductor at one of + the PTA meetings. John Gunther, a very influential behind-the-scenes + man was also someone I met through [the] PTA; he is now the Ambassador + to Austria. Henry Grunwald, the editor of Time, was [the father of] a + classmate of my daughter's who I also got to know. + + At a gathering of Japanese businessment in the United States, I got up + and told them "to go as a couple to the PTA to get to know the other + people involved and to start getting personally involved in the + school." The people I was speaking to made such remarks as "I don't + like to hear that," or "Why do we have to do that?" When I told them + there was actually a meeting the other night and asked what they did, + the responses were "I was too busy, I sent my wife," or "My wife can't + speak English, so she just gossiped with the other Japanese women and + came home." Because of instances like this, there is no doubt that + the PTA would view them as the foreigners who'd come to town. + + Also, when Sunday morning came, the whole community dresses up and + goes to church. At that time, however, the Japanese are all walking in + the opposite direction to the country club. When they are asked why + they are not going to church, they are likely to respond that "I'm a + Buddhist," or a similar reply. I'm not saying that they should + necessarily go to church, but it is natural for the people in the + community to think that some really strange foreigners are in their + midst when they see them all trotting off to the golf course on Sunday + morning. + + I golf in America too. But I always do it with foreigners. When + Saturday night comes, I take my wife to the country club, have dinner + and talk with the other members. However, golf for Japanese is + usually a business-related event; there are usually guests from Japan + and a group solely composed of Japanese people plays the course. This + is another way in which a strange image is transmitted to the local + community. + + Another example is that American wives often volunteer their spare + time for community service activities, such as preparing Braille for + the visually handicapped. Japanese housewives normally do not + participate in such activities. + + There are also public fund-raising dinner parties for local community + centers, which do not involve mere contributions, it is a major social + event where funds are raised. Tickets for the party are $30, $50, + $100 and $200 which represent contributions to the fund-raising event. + They view participation in these events as a contribution to their + local society. While this is a little different than the golf example + above, it is another area where Japanese isolate themselves as strange + foreigners. + + It is vital that we participate in the local society in order to + resolve any racial problems. When Japanese build factories in the + United States, these usually go to the regional or rural areas due to + the large amount of space they require. In such a small community + context, if Japanese avoid contributing to the local community, they + will be disliked in the area, and then the people of that area will + cast their votes for Japan-bashing politicians. + + One Japanese company that had established in the U.S. had its + headquarters in Japan make a very substantial contribution to build a + community center, in an effort to counter any adverse prejudice, even + though the local company had not yet become profitable. The local + community was delighted and named the hall after the company that had + contributed. When the plant manager was reassigned back to Japan, the + whole community threw a "sayonara" party for him. + + I am not saying that all Japanese companies coming to the United + States are bad, but just a little kindness and consideration can turn + around attitudes about Japanese people. The Council for Better + Investment in the United States is trying very hard to get this + information out in an effort to have the Japanese company weave itself + into the fabric of the local community in which it is locating. + + At the current time, two hundred and forty or fifty companies who have + invested in the U.S. are members of the Council, but it aims to + attract even more members. + + Information about these efforts is gradually becoming known in the + U.S., and this has already done much to change perceptions there. I + think Japanese people in the U.S. are also making better efforts. + + + 4.3 Let's Build an American Society Where Japan Bashing Causes Votes to + Decline + + Therefore, I think that the only way to erase the perception Mr. + Ishihara points to where Japanese are disliked just for being Japanese + is to make the above types of efforts. This is because they + [Americans] are stubborn and not likely to be induced by saying "you + guys change." + + I have so many American friends myself that I have been accused of + being an American. Since I have lived in America and have been + counted as a friend by many Americans, I am not overly sensitive to + what is said about me. As Ishihara has said, to Americans, they feel + that because their hair color is different, it is difficult for them + to know what Japanese are thinking. I think there is another + important point. The structure of the Japanese language and English + is different, and this affects our discussions together. + + I have written this elsewhere in a book, but when Japanese read + Chinese, they put in arrows and symbols to change word order, but + Chinese read it directly and understand the meaning of the sentence + immediately. English is the same kind of language, which is read one + word after another. In sum, this means that Americans have a + different sequential order in thought processes. Therefore, no matter + if you use interpreters, it is impossible to interpret in the same + sequential order as the thought processes that that generated the + words in Japanese. Thus, when a message is to be delivered, it is + regrettable but true, that the sequential thought process of Japanese + is in the minority in the world. When communicating with occidentals, + who are in the majority, if things are not communicated in an order + they can comprehend, they do not understand what we are saying. It is + necessary that we be cognizant of this disadvantage that Japan has in + this area. + + While the color of our hair will never be identical to Americans, from + the point of view of practical businessmen, I think we must recognize + that if the current trade imbalance with the U.S. is not rectified, + America will always say Japan is at fault. If Japanese business does + not go to the U.S. with manufacturing and sales to bring down the + imbalance, there is no way the problem will be rectified. We must + bring our factories to foreign shores, and invest in these areas where + our goods are sold. + + At this point, if there are any racial problems, it would be the fault + of the Americans, but that does nothing to resolve them. Through the + success of Japanese-American citizens' groups, racial problems are not + so prominent anymore. When the Second World War began, all + Japanese-Americans were placed in detention camps. + + In the United States, people having different colored skin have + realized great successes. An example is the Wang company which was + founded by a Chinese. In our quest to find out why it is only Japan + that is bashed, it would be a bit strange to say it is because Japan + is not internationalized, but it is really because we have been lax in + not following the "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" in incorporating + ourselves in the local community. I think this is why we remain + foreign. That is exactly why I am saying we need to make such + efforts. I am not saying that everything they do is alright, but I am + saying there is a need for internationalization by both parties, and + we have the need to do business. + + The internment of Japanese-Americans during the war was a prime + example of the emotionalism that the U.S. displayed with respect to + Japan. After the passage of 40 years, the President has finally + publicly recognized that this was wrong. It would be nice if + emotionalism with respect to Japan ended right there, but that is not + the case. An example is the Toshiba clause included in the Omnibus + Trade and Competitiveness Bill -- no buying of Toshiba products -- + Toshiba Machine is bad. + + I said in a speech that this was a violation of the U.S. Constitution. + This was due to the provision in the Constitution that proscribes the + enactment of laws which would deal retroactively with crimes. It also + allows anyone accused of a crime the opportunity to defend himself. + In the process of compiling this bill, sanctions were put on Toshiba + for its crime. Toshiba had already been punished for its crime under + Japanese law; but by adopting these sanctions restricting Toshiba's + business activities, the Bill would impose retroactive punishment. + + When I recently spoke in Seattle, I suggested that this Bill was + unconstitutional, that it was an emotional response, and that it + should be treated as an emotional international issue, which was + similar in substance to the internment of Japanese-Americans during + the war. + + When something can become this emotional, perhaps Mr. Ishihara is + right in his contention that racial problems lie at the root of the + problem. During the occupation era, the Americans built fences and + stayed inside and didn't mingle too much with the Japanese people. + This created an unpleasant atmosphere. Now, however, there are no + occupation zones and we are at peace, we must behave appropriately and + associate with each other. + + If we do make efforts in this direction I have indicated to establish + a framework where Japan-bashing politicians are rewarded by fewer + votes for their efforts, there is no doubt that political pressure + will be exerted to the point where there can be no reduction in + frictions between the countries. + + Thus, it is my way of thinking that Japan must take the kind of action + this situation calls for. + + + 5.0 THE CRITICISM OF JAPAN AS AN IMITATOR IS OFF THE MARK (Ishihara) + + 5.1 The America Which Closes Its Eyes to Its Own Unfairness, and Criticizes + Japan + + The more I hear Americans bellowing complaints that Japan is unfair, + the more I would like them to calm down and think. An example is a + harsh exchange between myself and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. It + was a coincidence, but at the time when Commerce Secretary Verity + visited Japan, there had been an agreement for an American company to + participate in the second phase construction at Haneda International + Airport. Verity was in Japan, and his mission included offering his + thanks for this deal. However, I threw some cold water on him by + saying that this would be the only time I would permit such a big + commotion over such an issue. + + The U.S. Congress had been criticizing Japan for having a "closed" + market in large construction projects. In fact, however, there was + only one U.S. construction firm that had been licensed to work in + Japan - two, if you count pending applications. They say that the + barriers are too thick, but I think that anyone wishing to do business + in a foreign country has to make some adjustments to correspond to the + local conditions. + + After we went back and forth along that line, I commented that Japan's + design for the Airport Building and the Shinkansen [bullet train] + station, including the interior was poor -- not refined enough and too + idiosyncratic. I went on to say that this might well be something + which could be consigned to a foreign country. + + This was true of Narita International Airport too. I noticed the + other day that the pillars were painted with rust-proofing primer + coat. When I suggested to the person in charge that he get busy and + have them painted, he said, "Mr. Minister, did you just notice this? + They have been that way since the airport was completed." When I + asked why, he replied that it was OK this way because of the contrast + between the red, white and black. When I asked whose design that was, + he calmly replied that the painting contractor had made the + determination. + + Actually, there is not even a bar in the whole airport. One might + like to have a drink to ease one's tension about flying before the + flight, or one after to relax. Foreign airports always have a place + where you can get a drink. Day or night, there is a place where the + customer can get a drink. This is an integral part of air travel. + + When I relayed these stories, Secretary Verity nodded his head, + indicating that he understood my point. You could tell he was the + Commerce Secretary, because when we went on to discuss the Kansai + Airport, he said it would be a great idea if American companies could + do the design. + + Just that would be nice, he went on, but after it is completed, he + said that the same number of U.S. aircraft should be permitted to fly + from the airport as was permitted by Japanese carriers. I replied + sharply, "No, that won't do." He turned colors and asked back, "Why + not?" + + There is an aviation treaty between the U.S. and Japan. It is a relic + of the occupation era. Not only is it not balanced, it is outright + unfair. + + Among the mutually agreed upon rights in this treaty is the right for + air transport to points in the signatory country, and for rights from + those airports to points beyond in third countries. These rights are + all rights held unilaterally by the U.S. side. American can fly into + whatever Japanese airport it pleases and then fly to anywhere else. + In other words, it has unlimited rights to fly through Japan to + destinations beyond. + + Japan, however, only has the right to navigate through limited + airports, the economically unprofitable routes from San Francisco->New + York->Europe. Actually, these routes are not even being used. During + the U.S.-Japan Summit in 1982, we were allowed two flights per week + from Los Angeles to Rio and San Paulo, Brazil. One of the concerns on + the Japan side is that Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) was finally + obtaining 9 flights weekly in 1985 on the Tokyo->San Francisco->New + York route. + + However, in exchange for this, America got the right to land jumbo + jets in Japan, and then fly from there further in small cargo aircraft + to Manila, Taiwan, and Korea. The most profitable rights went to the + U.S. in this agreement too. In the midst of all this, Japan cannot + get the right to fly a cargo aircraft in and out of Chicago. + + While points of origin are limited by land space, Japan is restricted + to just three points, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. America can fly to + Japan from 19 airports. Looking at the number of flights, according + to a study made in November of 1988, Japan had 204.5 and the U.S. 371 + passenger flights, and 60 cargo flights for Japan versus 170 for the + U.S. This is really unfair of the U.S. to be party to the U.S.-Japan + Aviation Treaty which gives it so overwhelming of an advantage. + + American specialists are well aware of this situation, so they do not + want to engage in further negotiations. This type of situation + continues while the U.S makes selfish assertions. + + I explained to the Secretary that since the U.S. maintained that + attitude, it was at fault. The Secretary said he knew nothing of + these matters. I pointed out to him that we couldn't even begin + talking about getting negotiations started if he knew nothing about + these matters. + + An official from the State Department was accompanying the Secretary + on his visit. He was an honest guy, and told the Secretary that the + Treaty was indeed unfair. Secretary Verity became troubled. It was a + very strange atmosphere between the Commerce Secretary and the + official from the State Department, standing there in front of me, a + Japanese. America is not the solid rock we thought it to be. + + For example, relations are extremely poor between the Department of + Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative. Yeutter and Verity + quarreled like dogs and monkeys, they never got along and were always + bad mouthing each other. While none of these references about these + two went on in front of me, there was an official from the U.S.T.R in + the delegation who was there to keep an eye on things. + + Anyway, once the potential for a scene between the Secretary and me + had quieted down, the "spy" from the U.S.T.R. caught my eye and said + "Hang in there." I laughed, thinking what an interesting country the + U.S. was. + + + 5.2 Japan, A Country Where Each Person Is Highly Creative + + America closes its eyes to its own unfairness and criticizes others. + I think that it should not be forgotten what such a shifty country has + done. + + As Mr. Morita has pointed out, it is off the mark to say that Japan + has relied on the U.S. for the creativity to develop technology, and + then has just cleverly developed and marketed it. Americans and + Europeans say that Japan can do nothing but imitate, but it is not + right for Japanese themselves to begin to agree with such a statement. + The Japanese people have been possessed of creativity for ages. + + There has been a gradual increase in the number of Americans and + Europeans who recognize creativity in the Japanese. The same can be + said for cultural creativity. + + Take the field of literature. Some while ago, the French did not + recognize Japanese literature at all. They did not think it had any + value. More recently, however, the French have grown to appreciate + Japanese literature more and more. The reason for this is quite + interesting; it came about because of Japan's high technology. That + is, foreigners who were interested in Japan's high technology began + studying the Japanese language and started reading modern Japanese + novels. + + They recognized that modern Japanese literature was indeed quite + interesting. It was not their masters of literature or translators + who pointed this out, but the intelligentsia who were coming from + scientific backgrounds. + + In any case, I do not think we should stand still and agree that + outside of literature, we are still nothing but imitators as the + Americans say. It is time that Japanese take pride in their own + spontaneous creativity and march forward. + + Sony developed the transistor [possible ambiguity in translation -- as + Morita notes in essay 4, Sony licensed the transistor from Bell + Laboratories in 1953] and took it to the U.S. market and changed the + way Americans thought. In other words, they ripped apart the immutable + principle of one radio per each family. The concept of making radios + a personal appliance was nothing other than an exhibition of + creativity on the order of that shown by Columbus. + + The bountiful creativity of the Japanese is not something which can + only be seen in a few of the elite, but something which can be broadly + witnessed across the board in the general citizenry. + + Japanese technology has found its way to the very heart of the world's + military forces. I think this the product of the integration of our + creativity. + + Even if you have one creative genius, unless you can produce the + product of his creativity in a factory, it will not come to anything. + It takes a large number of excellent general technicians and excellent + employees or one will not begin to see the light of day. + + + 5.3 The Excellence of Japanese Products Relates to the Educational High + Level of the Employees + + One can partially grasp the superiority of Japan's technological + ability in the low rate of breakdown in Japanese products. The vital + element in the excellence of technology and in tackling the problem of + product breakdowns is possible because of the excellence in abilities + of the general employees. + + The U.S. Boeing Corporation which was scrutinized due to an aircraft + crash was found to have problems with its employees' work methods, and + they quickly set about making improvements. Certainly the + re-education of the management could be undertaken quickly to the + satisfaction of Japan and other countries, but since the level of the + general employees was so low, concern remains in that area. When the + president of Boeing's Seattle plant was asked: "How long will it take + after re-education has begun before the technological strength [of + your company] will begin bearing fruit?" His answer was seven years. + Seven years! How can we ride around in jumbo jets for seven years not + knowing what types of defects they might have? + + As we learned from the tragic Boeing crash in Japan, all of those + responsible got off, bearing no criminal responsibility. The legal + systems in Japan and the U.S. are different: in Japan, a national + inspector is sent out, but in America, aircraft manufacturers are not + held responsible. The Boeing company did not even name the + responsible persons. They say that it is better to prevent a + recurrence than to spend all of their energies in finding fault, but + the thinking that exemption from prosecution is the only way the truth + can be told is something that is very hard to take for the families of + those killed in the accident. According to an investigation by the + Japanese police, there were four Boeing employees who should have been + further pursued to assess their responsibility. The U.S. side + acknowledges this. + + The Boeing accident was nothing more than a worker's mistake -- it + happened well before the crash. There was no follow up after the + crash except to say that the maintenance operations were sloppily + done. While the specifications had called for three thick divider + walls to be tightly bolted on, it just was not done. + + Bolts had been placed on the left and right, but they did not reach + through the three sheets, just to the second one. This caused a + serious weakening of the aircraft strength. This tells the story of + the low level of the people who are performing maintenance. + + Despite the fact that they are employees of the Boeing Corporation, a + world-class manufacturer of aircraft, it would still take 7 years to + re-educate them. This is a story which could not be comprehended in + Japan's industrial circles. + + The United States wants everyone to buy American-made semiconductors, + and these are even being used in Japan, but the number of defective + ones is amazingly high. When we complain, the answer is: Japan is the + only country that is complaining, nobody else has any complaints. It + leads me to think that there is no hope for the U.S. + + The manufacturing defect rate in the United States has improved + somewhat recently, but it is still 5 to 6 times higher than that in + Japan - it used to be 10 times higher. The report by the task team in + the Pentagon also admits this. + + To contrast this with Japan, I would like to insert the following + episode. + + This is an episode illustrating the exceptional knowledge and decision + making capability of one female employee of the Kumamoto plant of + Nippon Electric Corporation(NEC). For one reason or the other, the + rate of rejects at the Kumamoto plant had been higher than it was at + other NEC plants. No matter how hard they tried, they could not get + the reject rate down. If it could be done in other plants, why + couldn't it be done in Kumamoto? There were all-hands meetings with + the plant supervisor daily on this problem. + + One day, a female shift worker at the plant stopped at a crossing for + the Kagoshima Line which ran in front of the factory. This was on her + way to work. It was a rare event, but this day, she had to wait while + a long freight train passed. Rumbling vibrations were sent through + her legs as the train passed. The thought crossed her mind that these + vibrations might have some sort of adverse effect on the products made + at the plant. While she was working, she paid attention to the time + and stopped when a train was scheduled to pass by. In the factory, + however, she couldn't feel anything unusual. She still wondered, + however, if the machines were not being affected. She reported her + concerns to the foreman, suggesting that the precision machinery in + the plant might be so affected. + + The plant supervisor said, "That's it." He reacted immediately by + digging a large ditch between the plant and the railroad tracks and + filling it with water. The result was a drastic decline in the number + of rejects. + + That woman was 18 years old. This woman took pride in the products + made by her company and identified with it. It is my feeling that + this type of result is due to the vast differences in our formal + education system. + + In any case, when it comes to economics among the free world + countries, the basis for existence is economic warfare, or, if that is + too harsh of [a] word, in economic competition. It is probably + natural, therefore, that various cheerleading groups of the other + party will rough you up by calling you unfair, but we cannot stand + still and be defeated just because our adversary is making a lot of + noise. This is exactly the position Japan is in today. + + + 6.0 IS AMERICA A COUNTRY WHICH PROTECTS HUMAN RIGHTS? (Morita) + + 6.1 Workers' Rights Are Ignored by American Companies + + American demands of Japan may increase in the future but America has a + great many defects of its own, to which we must continuously direct + its attention. + + My long observation of American corporations leaves me puzzled about + American human rights legitimacy. Human rights are held to be such + high moral values in America and it preaches on the subject + continuously all over the world. America has been criticizing and + condemning nations such as South Africa and Afghanistan on human + rights issues; however, I must ask Americans if they are applying + these same standards to their own workers. + + American corporations hire workers right and left and build new plants + all over whenever the market is bullish, in an attempt to maximize + their profits. Yet once the tide shifts, they lay off workers simply + to protect company profits. These laid-off workers have nothing to do + with poor market conditions. + + American corporate executives are of the opinion that it is a + corporate right to pursue maximum profits and that fired workers + should be able to live on their savings. However, people do not work + for wages alone. Work has more meaning to most people than just as a + means of subsistence. A Japanese worker has a sense of mission in + holding his job for his lifetime as well as supporting the corporation + which provides him with meaning to his life. This may well not be the + case in America. American workers may only expect a comfortable wage + for their work. However, this attitude could change. People can + easily develop loyalty to a group or to a company to which they + belong, depending upon conditions and guidance provided. This sense + of loyalty to the company is a formidable asset. Repetitive hiring + and firing denies any possibility of cultivating a sense of loyalty. + + I must ask American executives if they regard workers as mere tools + which they can use to assure profits and then dump whenever the market + sags. It seems that workers are treated simply as resources or tools + rather than as human beings with inalienable rights. I would like to + suggest that they should first do something to protect the human + rights of workers in America before they start asking other nations to + protect and enhance the human rights of their citizens. There are + good reasons why American labor unions must be confrontational in + protecting their members and attempting to assure maximum wages during + periods of employment since they have no assurance that the jobs will + continue. Attitudes of executives are not actually much different + than those of the union to the extent that they grab whatever they can + - as much as half the company's annual profits in the form of huge + bonuses, claiming that this is just since they were responsible for + the profits. + + A corporate chairman with whom I am acquainted, complained that he has + no use for all the money he receives. His company is doing well and + his income is in the multi-million dollar a year range. His children + are all grown and he and his wife already have vacation villas, a + yacht and a private airplane; he said they just have no way to spend + any more money on themselves. + + Japanese executives work morning to night to improve the position of + their companies, and yet the majority of their salaries are wiped out + by taxes. The income gap between American and Japanese business + executives is astounding. In Japan, even if one works very hard to + increase his income to assure himself of some of the amenities of + life, there is no way that he could expect to equal the luxuries + enjoyed by American executives. Mr. Matsushita, probably the + wealthiest man in Japan, when traveling abroad with his secretary, + uses regular commercial flights. Having a private plane is simply out + of his realm of consideration. + + There is some talk in Japan concerning levying taxes on profits + generated by the founder of a corporation. I am opposed to this + proposal as I believe the spirit of free enterprise must be protected. + While an unbridled pursuit of personal gain is not ideal, those who + have created new business through extraordinary effort and who have + made this contribution to society, should be rewarded financially to a + certain extent as this will provide encouragement to young people, + motivating them to follow their dreams and create new industries. + + The current popular idea that everyone belongs in the middle class and + the wealthy are suspect may undermine the very basis of a free + economy. The Liberal Democratic Party, however, tends to accept this + premise, as put forth by the opposition for the sole purpose of + parliamentary manipulation, which is a shame since they have a + 300-seat majority. + + Japan has been a practicing free economy and a good majority of the + people do in fact belong to the so-called middle class, which I think + is marvelous. We have no real social classes and everyone is free to + choose whatever profession or occupation they wish. + + Today in Japan, nearly all company executives dine out on company + accounts and ride in corporate-owned cars. As a child, I never saw + this kind of lavish living by corporate executives such as my father. + He had a car and a chauffeur, but they were financed directly by him, + out of his own pocket. It would be beyond his comprehension to use a + company car and driver for his personal use. I am not particularly + opposed to such benefits enjoyed by today's executives, as they can be + correct rewards and incentives. + + American corporate practices, from my personal observations, are + extreme. An example is the so-called "golden parachute," which is the + ultimate executive privilege. When one's reputation as an executive + is well established, and he is hired by another company, his contract + may well contain these "golden parachutes." The executive may demand + a certain percentage of corporate profits as his bonus, or perhaps + some stock options. Upon retirement, he may still receive his salary + for a number of years. Should he pass away during this period, his + wife may be entitled to receive all or a percentage of these benefits. + Should he be fired, for whatever reason, he may still collect his + salary under his contract. A contract is a contract and "golden + parachutes" are a part of the system. + + So even though the corporation may stall or crash, the executive is + equipped with his "golden parachute" and is thereby guaranteed to land + safely and comfortably. He may go to Florida and elsewhere to enjoy a + rich retirement life. Who suffers? Who suffers is America: the + American economy suffers from this outrageous system. + + + 6.2 American Executives Prefer Immediate Rewards + + Poverty is very visible all over America, particularly among blacks + and Hispanics. The minority issue is a crucial one in America. The + gap between rich and poor is enormous. Only one percent of the + population controls 36% of the national wealth, an outrageous + condition that should somehow be corrected. + + A free economy basically should assure profit to anyone who works. + Yet if an individual's gains go to the extreme, he becomes a celebrity + and an egotist. This is what I have seen to be the case in many + corporations today. + + Such individuals regard their employees as their own tools to enhance + their personal performance for which they collect all the rewards. + Should one fail and be fired, he will land comfortable on his feet, + thanks to his golden parachute. As an example of an extreme case of + such, a friend of mine mismanaged his company while he was its + chairman. The company failed, but he and his wife are leading a + luxurious life, something that would never happen in Japan. This man + simply played the American game. He had no real intention of + remaining with that company in any case; he was only working to + maximize his personal income during that time. + + I have been involved in a number of joint venture projects in America. + I make every effort to improve my joint venture situations. I want to + close the deal as quickly as possible whenever we are involved in + substantial capital investment. When we spend capital on facilities + investment, we are entitled to tax benefits. I like to utilize the + extra profits generated by these tax benefits to get rid of debt + service. Whenever I suggest that, my partners ask "why do we have to + sacrifice our profits for people in the future?" + + For me, the most crucial objective is to make the company healthy and + free of debt service, hoping that our successors will do the same for + their successors by availing whatever profits we get from repaying the + debt, while my joint venture partners feel that their personal gains + should not be so sacrificed. They have no intention of remaining with + these companies for very long and so they want to increase their + personal income by maximizing disposable company profits in the short + run. + + For example, they moved production facilities to Singapore or Japan + when the U.S. dollar was high because they could not expect to + maintain high profits when production costs were high. + + This is the case in the semiconductor industry as well. Production + has been moved out of the U.S., leaving production primarily with + Japan. This has deprived America of the capacity for anything other + than 256K bit chips. It is cheaper and easier to buy them from Japan + rather than dealing with expensive, unionized workers in America. + These very same business executives have been blaming the trade + imbalance and the Japanese trade surplus for their difficulties while + at the same time choosing to import these products from Japan. Japan + has not forced them to buy its products, but it cannot begin to catch + up on orders placed by American firms. + + + 6.3 A Japanese Corporation is a Community Bound Together by a Common + Destiny + + The fundamental principles which govern a Japanese corporation are + basically different from those of an American corporation, from the + viewpoint of both executives and workers. + + The structure of pre-war Japanese corporations bear some resemblance + to American corporations today to the extent that the president could + fire anyone at his discretion. A variety of labor activities were + implemented to meet such situations. Taxes were low and executives + were leading comfortable lives, able to have company stock allocated, + assuring themselves of a comfortable retirement. A top executive was + able to buy a house with just one bonus. By the time he retired, he + could have several houses for rental, which alone would have ensured a + luxurious life. + + After the war, General MacArthur changed Japanese labor laws as well + as tax laws, among other things, which put Japanese business + executives in a different situation. First, they were now unable to + fire employees at their discretion, not even to reduce the size of + their labor force. At times a company must reduce the size of the + work force if it cannot afford to keep them or if they are + unproductive. + + When I first found that American companies can hire and fire and + rehire at will, I wondered perhaps if Japanese companies were more + charitable organizations than profit making institutions. However, + Japanese managers have developed a concept which, in essence binds the + company, workers, and management, into a community with a common fate + or destiny. I have explained to American corporate managers that in + Japan, once an individual is hired, he has been hired for life and + unless he commits some serious offense, the company cannot fire him. + Americans want to know how in the world we are capable of operating + profitably. I say that since a Japanese company is a community bound + together by a common destiny, like the relationship between a married + couple, all must work together to solve common problems. + + This concept of a fate-sharing community might sound particular to + Japan. However, recently, it appears to have had some impact on + American corporations, which are showing interest in the Japanese + corporate management system. They seem anxious to absorb some of the + positive elements of the Japanese system. + + When I find an employee who turns out to be wrong for a job, I feel it + is my fault because I made the decision to hire him. Generally, I + would invest in additional training, education, or change of duty, + even perhaps sending him overseas for additional experience. As a + result, he will usually turn out to be an asset in the long run. Even + if the positive return is only one out of every five, that one + individual's productivity will cover the losses incurred by the other + four. It is a greater loss to lose that one productive person than to + maintain the presence of the four incompetents. + + In a fate-sharing corporation, one capable individual can easily carry + a number of other not-so-capable individuals. The confidence of + Japanese employees in their company, knowing that he is employed for + life, means that he will develop a strong sense of dedication to that + company. For these reasons, Japanese corporate executives are anxious + to train their employees well, as they will be their successors. + + As the chief executive officer, it is my responsibility not only to + pursue profit, but also to create a community where those I have + employed can complete their careers 20-30 years from now with the + feeling that he had truly made a good life with the company. + + Japanese company employees know that they are members of a community + bound together by a mutual fate for which they bear the hardships of + today in anticipation of a better future. There are many company + presidents today in Japan who at one time or another served as union + leaders. This fact makes present union leaders feel that they too + may, sometime in the future, move into management positions within + their company, and therefore their long term interests are closely + tied to the company. They do not pursue short term, myopic profits + for the immediate future. When the company proposes a plan to save a + certain portion of profits for facility investment or to pool to the + following year, unions may well be willing to make compromises, + because they know that the future of the workers is tied to the future + of the corporation. I would like to ask presidents of American + corporations if they ever heard of any American union leaders who have + become heads of corporations. Japanese executives have a + categorically different corporate philosophy than do American + executives, who are more anxious to demonstrate profitability to + please stockholders. I have asked Americans what, in their minds, is + the meaning of "company." In my mind, it is a group of people + conforming where interests are shared. I must point out that in the + American interpretation of company, this concept does not exist. It + is my firm conviction that man is created equal, irrespective of color + of skin or nationality and it is natural that my concept of company + includes the employees of my overseas Sony operations. My California + plant opened in 1972, initially with 250 employees. Soon after the + plant opened, we were hit with the worldwide oil crisis, which caused + a recession. The California plant was not immune to this development + and the facility lost business and was unable to support its 250 + employees. + + The president of Sony America was, of course, an American and he came + to me saying that there was no other choice but to lay off some of the + employees. I refused his proposal, telling him that I would take the + responsibility for possible losses in order to retain the employees. + We sent capital from the Japanese headquarters to sustain the 250 + person work force for some time. During this period, there was not + enough work to keep everyone busy, so we developed educational + programs, out of which grew not only a sense of appreciation, but also + a real emotional involvement with the company. They began to feel + that the plant was their home, and began to clean and polish the + facilities, and take care of their work sites on their own. These + people became the central core of the California plant, which now + employs 1500 people. They don't even talk about unionizing + themselves. American unions are basically industrial, which means + that there is always active union leaders from outside who attempt to + unionize our plant. Our workers had T-shirts made, with their own + money, saying "WE DON'T NEED THE UNION." + + The United Kingdom has a unique law which unionizes every company. + Sony U.K. is no exception. Yet our women union members insisted, in + an interview on the BBC, that their union is different than other, + ordinary ones. This is a positive demonstration of the feeling that + we all share the same fate, no matter where we are in the world. + + In the U.S. and the U.K., most employees never have even seen their + top executives. When I go to one of our plants, I normally mingle + with the employees and eat together with them in the company + cafeteria. This helps in developing communication and trust. It may + be a bit difficult to expect the same response from foreign employees, + but it is still the best approach. The Japanese system is not + completely applicable to the American system, of course. Yet patient + demonstration to show that the company truly wishes to protect their + interests, even when business is at its worst, will show results. + People tend to develop trust under these circumstances. The best + thing a company can do is to treat its employees as dignified human + beings. + + + 6.4 The Japanese Approach Can Be Used Worldwide + + European corporations appear to be treating their employees more + humanely than their American counterparts, although they are still far + from the concept of lifetime employment. Large corporations do not + hesitate to lay off employees whenever business is down; they even + close operations without notice or sell out, treating employees as if + they were tools or equipment. + + There is also obvious class discrimination within companies. + Engineers, for example, wear white collars, stay in their offices, and + seldom show up in the factories. They want to tell workers what to + do, rather than donning blues and showing them. In my company, all + workers wear the same uniforms. I also wear the same uniform, not + only in the plants, but also at company headquarters. All our plant + managers do the same. Those who are in training have been instructed + to walk through the plant frequently, establishing personal contacts + with the workers. Those who become foremen or section managers are + encouraged to hold brief meetings each morning with their subordinates + to read their mood and detect problems in advance. They are + instructed to talk with those who seem ill or depressed, to find out + if they need medical care or if they are having family or personal + problems. Should this be the case, they should be allowed to take + time off and deal with these problems first, while the other workers + cover for them. This also helps the sense of togetherness among + workers. + + On the occasion of 20th and 25th anniversaries of Sony America, my + wife and I visited all our American plants, gave talks, had dinner + with our employees and shook the hands of all our workers. Since at + some plants we had three shifts, we had dinner three times in one day, + with the night shift taking their turn at 4:00a.m. I told everyone + that we greatly appreciated their contributions which helped make the + 25th anniversary a celebration and shook everyone's hand. I was able + to feel their response even physically. These employees told me that + this experience was something they never would have had in an American + company. I felt our Japanese approach was not foreign to them at all! + + One episode made me particularly happy. I visited one of our rather + small laboratories, and said that I wanted to meet all of its members, + [when] the head of the lab asked if he could take my picture. He took + his camera from his desk drawer and took me to each member of his + staff, introducing me to him or her and taking our picture as we shook + hands. There were almost 80 people at this facility and he promised + to make a print for each person. I was surprised that this typically + Japanese activity was taking place in a facility where there were no + Japanese! There again, I felt that we are all basically the same, + irrespective of national and cultural differences. + + Our style and our efforts have a ripple effect and make other members + of our company feel the Sony spirit. I am not saying that whatever + style and customs we have developed are automatically good and + acceptable everywhere. What I am emphasizing here is that the basic + attitude of a corporation and its philosophy can be understood + worldwide, and certain aspects of Japanese tradition and style can be + rooted overseas. + + On the other hand, I recognize fully that certain aspects of American + business administration, such as numerical and analytical operations, + are excellent as we have sent many individuals from our company to + American business schools to learn such matters. Combining good + traditions and practices of both the Japanese and American systems + will, I believe, make for a very strong corporation. + + + 7.0 LET'S BECOME A JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO (Morita) + + 7.1 Saying "No" Actually Represents a Deepening of Mutual Understanding + + It is inevitable that Japanese companies have been establishing + American operations. America after the era of Reaganomics is now + responding to that trend with new Bush Administration policies. In + response, Japan should now begin to make it a habit to say no when its + position is clearly negative. It [is] the rule in the West to say + "no" whenever one's position is clearly negative. We are in a + business environment where "well" or "probably" have no place in + normal business conduct. I have been saying "no" to foreigners for + the last thirty years. Clearly, the Japanese Government has missed + many, many opportunities to say "no." + + Take the auto trade issue, for example. America forced Japan to limit + its auto exports to two million units per year under the guise of + voluntary restrictions. When the American market became more + lucrative, and the number of imported cars could have been increased, + American auto manufacturers demanded that the quota be tripled. MITI + and the Prime Minister gave in to American demands. + + In my opinion, this was a great mistake. Both the MITI minister and + the prime minister at that time should have taken the position that + the American demands were unfair. The Big Three had already increased + their profits enormously and individuals such as Lee Iacocca and Roger + Smith were receiving more than a million dollars each in bonuses. + They simply demanded special treatment in order to increase profits + from the Japanese imports which they sold under their company brands + when they requested that the quotas be tripled. That was the time for + Japan to have said "you are being hypocritical, criticizing others as + unfair when in fact what you are demanding is what is really unfair." + The timing was crucial; unless one registers opposition or negative + reaction at precisely the right time, Americans take the situation for + granted and later insist that they were right as no opposition was + registered at the time of the demand. This has always been the case + in the past. + + The trade imbalance is another case which should be scrutinized as to + whether or not American demands are based on fact and reality. I once + asked Americans to investigate what Americans had been importing from + Japan. + + American imports from Japan are mostly products which require a high + tech capacity to produce. Many of these products fall into the area + of military procurement, but it is true that even the private sector + is buying Japanese products which are technologically indispensable. + Even some of the inexpensive home electrical appliances may be + obtained from Japanese manufacturers within a short time frame if they + require high technological skills in the production process. + + America has left the production responsibility with Japan, resulting + in a heavy dependency upon Japan. American politicians only talk + about the results of this situation, blaming Japan for the trade + deficit to get votes. Yet it seems that these same politicians don't + even know specifically what it is that America buys from Japan. If + they took the time and the effort to seriously investigate the matter, + they could not condemn Japan so out of hand. + + Japan should tell America that it may buy these quality products + irrespective of the exchange rates, even when the U.S. dollar falls to + the 100 [presumably yen] to 1 ratio. Artificial manipulation of the + exchange rate does not benefit the American economy. Such products as + transistors, which Sony originally marketed, may today be purchased + anywhere outside Japan, and so are not a matter of friction between + the U.S. and Japan. Products recently developed in Japan are not as + easily obtained elsewhere. There are some things that can only be + found in Japan and Japan cannot be blamed for over-exporting. Those + who say otherwise simply do not know the facts. + + Computer terminals are in short supply and are being rapidly developed + in Japan. Japan should let America know what the situation is and + make the U.S. realize that the relationship between the two nations is + increasingly mutually dependent. + + My purpose in advocating saying "no" is to promote that awareness. + "No" is not the beginning of a disagreement or a serious argument. On + the contrary, "no" is the beginning of a new collaboration. If Japan + truly says "no" when it means "no" it will serve as a means of + improving the U.S.-Japan relationship. + + + 7.2 National Characteristics Which Make It Difficult for the Japanese to + Say "No" + + The question arises as to who should say "no?" Japan's Confucian + background makes it very difficult for its people to say "no" within + the context of normal human relationships. In a traditional + hierarchy, subordinates dare not say "no" to higher-ups without + violating normal courtesy. The higher-up takes a "no" from a + subordinate as insubordination. In a staff relationship, "no" is + something to be avoided in order to maintain smooth human + relationships. + + Living in a homogeneous society since childhood, we Japanese have + grown up without practical experience in quarreling and fighting in a + heterocultural environment. Many of us feel that others will + eventually understand our true feelings on an issue without [our] + verbalizing them. In short, we expect a lot when it comes to mutual + understanding. Americans may go directly to their boss to offer an + explanation when they feel they are not properly understood. Japanese, + on the other fand, even if they feel they are not properly understood, + remain hopeful that they will eventually be understood or that the + truth will reveal itself sooner or later. They do the same with + foreigners in foreign countries. They feel that sincerity and effort + should automatically be reciprocated. In my mind, this can only + happen in Japan, but never in foreign countries. Wordless + communication and telepathy will just not happen. + + I admit that I may be more westernized than most Japanese, since I + believe that we should be more straightforward as we become closer, + and that a serious quarrel need not destroy a friendship. This may + not be accepted in a traditional Japanese relationship; we avoid + serious confrontation by turning away from the cold facts. Instead, + we tend to make loose compromises. It is quite simply not our + tradition to say "no" to our friends. + + We should not expect to find a similar understanding from foreigners + concerning this particular Japanese mentality. It is too easy to + expect understanding of one's opposition without using "no." I could + say it is a Japanese defect to expect something without using the + rational verbal procedures. + + If you stay silent when you have a particular demand or an opposing + position to express, the other party will take it for granted that you + have no demands or opposition. When you close your mind to the + outside, remaining in a uniquely Japanese mental framework, you will + be isolated in this modern, interdependent world. + + + 8.0 LET'S NOT GIVE IN TO AMERICA'S BLUSTER (Ishihara) + + 8.1 Statesmen Ought to Make Best Use of All Available Cards + + America has renewed its bluster in the last year. Politicians must + sense that they will win more votes bashing Japan than bashing the + Soviet Union. Criticism of Japan by U.S. politicians has taken on a + rather hysterical tone these days. I experienced it personally when I + was there and met with politicians who told me that there was a new + power shift between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., as if this development + should scare Japan somehow. These same politicians indicated that + since both Americans and the Soviets are white, at a final + confrontation, they might gang up against a non-white Japan. + + Japan should never give in to such irrational threats. Japan also + holds very strong cards in high technology capabilities which are + indispensable to military equipment in both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. Yet + Japan has never played this card to improve its position vis-a-vis the + U.S. Japan could well have said "no" to making available specific + technology. Japan has substantial national strength to deal with + other nations, yet some of the powerful cards it holds have been + wasted diplomatically. + + I happened to be in America at the time the U.S. Congress passed a + resolution to impose sanctions on Japan on the semiconductor issue. + Congress seemed to be very excited, almost in the same mood as was the + League of Nations when it sent the Litton Mission to Manchuria to + observe Japanese activities there in relation to the Manchukuo + incident. + + I talked with members of Congress in this tense atmosphere, and I did + not feel they were conducting matters on a rational basis. Some + Congressmen were actually brandishing sledgehammers, smashing Toshiba + electronic equipment, with their sleeves rolled up. It was just ugly + to watch them behave so. + + I commented at that time that the U.S. Congress is too hysterical to + trust. their faces turned red in anger and they demanded an + explanation. I told them: "Look -- only a few decades ago you passed + the Prohibition Amendment. No sincere Congress would ever pass such + irrational legislation." They all just grinned at me in response. + + Yet I must admit, that it was Japan who aggravated the semiconductor + issue to such a low level, by not saying "no" on the appropriate + occasions. + + After he was elected to a second term, Mr. Nakasone promised America + that Japan would avail highly strategic technology without giving + adequate thought to the significance of that kind of commitment. The + strongest card, which he should have played, was virtually given away + free to America. He probably wanted to impress America, hoping for a + tacit reciprocity from a thankful U.S. Unfortunately, it was only Mr. + Nakasone who recognized the value of that card at the time. Both the + Liberal Democrats and opposition parties overlooked the significance + of this issue. I assume that the leaders of those parties, such as + Takeshita, Miyazawa and Abe did not know it either. It is such a pity + that Japan's politicians are not aware of the political significance + of Japan's high technology capabilities. + + In reality, Japanese technology has advanced so much that America gets + hysterical, an indication of the tremendous value of that card -- + perhaps our ace. My frustration stems from the fact that Japan has + not, so far, utilized that powerful card in the arena of international + relations. + + What Mr. Nakasone got out of the free gift was Reagan's friendship, + so-called. We all know that love and friendship alone cannot solve + international conflicts and hardships. + + + 8.2 Nakasone Bungled the Relationship + + I truly regret that Japanese diplomacy has been based on a series of + "yesses" instead of skillful manipulation of strong ace cards. Former + prime minister Nakasone has done a substantial disservice to Japan in + terms of his handling of relations with the U.S. These are among his + most unfortunate mistakes. He boasted of the so-called "Ron-Yasu" + relationship as if he had succeeded in bringing about a skillful + policy toward the U.S. In reality, he was simply a lowly yes-man to + Reagan. + + It was actually I who introduced Mr. Nakasone to Mr. Reagan. I asked + one of Mr. Reagan's assistants if he ever recalled a "no" from + Nakasone to reagan. He immediately replied he did not know of any, and + Mr. Nakasone was a "nice guy with a sardonic smile." + + Former Prime Minister Nakasone was in a position to know that Japan's + leading edge technology was superior to that of the U.S.; so much so + that Americans had become nervous concerning the magnitude of Japan's + superiority in the area. Yet he still did not say "no." Was he taken + advantage of? Did he have some weak spot as did the prime minister + (Tanaka) at the time of the Lockheed scandal during the Nixon + Administration? Otherwise, Japanese leaders who hold such high cards + should be able to play them in dealing with American demands. + + The FSX, the next generation of fighters, developed by Mitsubishi + Heavy Industries during the Nakasone era, has become another source of + controversy in the U.S. as it relates to defense matters. Further + development of the FSX appears to be quashed by the U.S. I am unaware + of any deals made under the table, but there is considerable + frustration in Japan over the matter. + + Mitsubishi Heavy industries is a conglomerate with a wide variety of + technology used in manufacturing advanced products. The chief + engineer there is a contemporary of mine who developed the most + advanced land-to-air missile. He is also the man responsible for the + design of the next generation fighter and he believes that Japan + should have its own capacity to provide such equipment, which of + course astonishes Americans. + + The FSX is a marvelous and formidable fighter. No existing fighter, + including the F-15 and F-16 can match it in a dog fight. I recall + when Secretary of Defense Weinberger became serious about quashing the + FSX Japanese development plan, simply out of fear. + + Unfortunately, Japan has not yet developed a powerful enough jet + engine, although I advocated such development while I was a member of + the Upper House. Japan still must purchase jet engines, which are + mounted on the F-15 and F-16. If America gets really nasty, Japan + could buy engines from France, which is quite anxious to export + military equipment (at the same time that that country's president is + advocating truces all over the world, I might add). If France is + reluctant to sell what we need, I would not mind going to the Soviet + Union, although the quality of the Russian engines is not particularly + impressive. + + New Mitsubishi-designed jet fighters equipped with Russian engines may + only have a top speed of 95% of existing F-15 and -16 class fighters, + so one might think them inferior. On the contrary: their combat + capability is far superior in a dogfight situation. It can make a 380 + degree turn [sic] with a third of the diameter needed by other top + fighters. The F-15 and -16 require 5000 meters; the Mitsubishi + fighter only requires 1600 meters. Just think of war as a game of + tag. What is necessary is not maximum speed but great maneuver- + ability. Mitsubishi's FSX fighter can get right on an enemy plane + and send heat-seeking missiles with 100% accuracy. Incidentally, + there are two types of air-to-air missiles, heat-seeking and + radar-controlled. The radar-controlled type may even fail to hit a + jumbo jet, while the heat-tracing type can fine-tune its direction to + head for the enemy's source of heat. + + The FSX was a surprise to Americans, as were to Zero fighters at the + beginning of the Second World War. They never expected to see such an + advanced fighter as the Zero, which virtually controlled the air at + the beginning of the war. That such a formidable weapon as the FSX is + in production today outside the U.S. came as a shock to Americans. + The Japanese FSX is equipped with four vertical fins, similar to a + shark's fins. Each acts as a steering mechanism, like the steering + wheel of a four wheel drive [four-wheel steering intended, presumably] + automobile that can make a complete turn in a small area without + moving back and forth. Such a marvelous idea probably is not the + monopoly of Japan, but it was a Japanese manufacturer who developed + the idea to reality, thanks to Japanese advanced high technology. + + Russian fighters are also equipped using Japanese know-how, especially + in the areas of ceramics and carbon fibers. Special paints on + American reconaissance planes which assist in avoiding radar detection + are also made in Japan. + + Shocked by the high standards of the FSX, I guess that the U.S. + pressured Mr. Nakasone, probably citing his earlier commitment on + technology. His submission to American pressure eventually caused the + mothballing of the FSX, to be replaced by future products of a joint + U.S.-Japan development plan. In November 1988, the governments signed + an agreement that set the course for the joint development of the FSX; + an agreement which leaves many unsolved problems at the industry + level. + + One of the manufacturers involved, General Dynamics, was very anxious + to assume the initiative on the project, dividing it up among others. + It met with resistance from Mitsubishi, and General Dynamics came up + with a plan that would separate the development of the left and right + wing -- a very peculiar approach. + + In short, America wants to steal Japanese know-how. They cannot + manufacture the most technologically advanced fighters without + advanced ceramic and carbon fiber technology from Japan. That is why + America is applying so much pressure, attempting to force Japan to + come to American terms. Some of Japan's industry representatives + appear willing to deal with the Americans under the table, probably + with the good intentions of smoothing U.S.-Japan relations on the + issue. I happen to disagree with such an approach. We just cannot + give in on this issue. We must be persistent -- to the maximum + degree. If America does not appreciate a rational division of labor + on the project, we should discontinue the project and start all over + from scratch. + + The joint development idea is a legacy of the Reagan-Nakasone era. + Both men are now out of power and we can retract the whole thing and + tell the U.S. that we have decided to develop our own project without + its participation. It is our choice. We must bluff to counter + American bluff, otherwise we will continue to be the loser. + + I brought this subject up the other day to Mr. Nakasone. He + responded, "Well, you had a pretty sharp interest in that issue at + that time." I said that I was "probably the only one concerned about + the issue at the time." Mr. Nakasone then insisted that he made the + decision to compromise in order to maintain good U.S.-Japan relations. + He also admitted that America was then already very much afraid of + further Japanese technical advances. Well, compromise is fine, but in + reality this was not a compromise: it was a sell-out -- a simple + sell-out of Japan's interests. + + I don't regret it any less when we make the silly mistake of not + saying "no" especially when we hold the strong cards. Such freebies + are now taken for granted and America comes back with more bluff. On + the record, U.S.T.R.'s Yeutter stated that the "application of high + pressure is the best way to manipulate Japan." + + My position may draw some criticism in Japan, where it probably will + be said that I am playing with dynamite in dealing with America in + this fashion. It goes without saying that an equal partnership must be + carried out without humiliating pressure or compromise as the result + of such pressure. This is the reason I am advocating that Japan say + "no." "No" is an important instrument in the bargaining process. + + + 8.3 Diplomacy Should Be Free of External Pressures + + Diplomacy which lacks the "no" factor cannot be diplomacy for the + benefit of Japan. Japan has a solid basis for saying "no" on many + occasions. All we must do is play our cards wisely, playing our ace + intelligently. Japan is very poor at diplomatic tactics. It is a + wonder too me that Japan has failed to recognize that its initiatives + are instrumental in the ultimate decision-making process in the + international arena. + + Mr. Glen Fukushima, an American of Japanese descent in the office of + the U.S.T.R. (Deputy Assistant U.S.T.R. for Japan and China), who was + acquainted with Senator Aquino of the Philippines while both were at + Harvard, is one of the most capable Asian specialists. His wife is an + intellectual Keio University graduate, who prefers to live in Japan, + forcing Glen to commute to Japan two or three times a month. + + On one occasion, I had dinner with him and asked him what America's + next Japan-bashing scenario would entail. He replied that the U.S. + would take up the distribution issue since this cannot be rectified by + Japanese politicians without pressure from the U.S. I have to use + American pressure in order to accomplish a national objective, yet, I + must admit that the distribution system is one of Japan's biggest + headaches today. There is no question that the high prices in Japan + are caused by the distribution system itself, which is made worse by + Japanese politicians. + + There are domestic areas where we Japanese must say "no" also, even + before we say "no" to outsiders. The liberalization of rice is one + such issue. Opinions on the rice issue sharply divide politicians such + as I, whose constituents are urban, from those representing farmers. + + Former Minister of Agriculture Sato is a good friend of mine, but his + advocacy of food security is becoming diminished. Inevitably, mutual + dependence is becoming more and more a reality in our world today. + America was not even able to place [a] ban on exports of grain to the + Soviet Union when the Russians invaded Afghanistan. There would have + been too much pressure from American farmers. If that is the case, it + would probably be practically impossible to put a ban on agricultural + exports to Japan. The rice issue has its sentimental aspects in Japan + as well as its practical aspects, which make the overall issue more + complicated. Yet it is obvious that we must liberalize the market. + Such is also true of construction projects. It is inevitable that we + allow foreign construction firms to participate in Japanese public + construction projects. Japanese general contractors have been + maintaining prices as much as 40% higher in comparison to foreign + bidders, due to bid-rigging traditions to assure a monopoly on + business for themselves. There is no way these practices could ever + be free of foreign criticism. + + In the course of my conversation with Glen Fukushima, I asked whom + among the Japanese negotiators he considers the best. He immediately + came up with the name of MITI's Kuroda, whom the Japanese press used + to criticize for his tough positions. The press claimed that his + participation aggravated the problems with the U.S. The Americans + criticized him for being stubborn. Strabgely, the American negotiator + named him the most effective. He is stubborn and is able to say "no" + decisively whenever he should do so. The Americans usually try to + overpower negotiations by increasing pressure. But Kuroda does not + feel that he must say "yes" to American pressure. America is a giant + in many ways, and, in many ways, Japan is a dwarf. This obvious + contrast has been exploited by the Americans often in the past. + + Mr. Kuroda kept pointing out that irrational pressure is not always + the result of reason or logic, and reinforced this position by + withstanding increased pressure. His "no" is not a no for its own + sake; he always states his reasons. This is the proper approach and + attitude in negotiations. In the past, there have been allegations + that Japanese logic and opinions have not made any sense to the other + side. + + When the opposing side points out that Japanese opinions and demands + have no logical basis, all of a sudden the illogical Japanese start + saying "yes, yes, yes..." in a panic. But these "yesses" do not + necessarily mean yes in the sense of positive assertion. At any rate, + the other side then comes to the conclusion that Japan will not take + action unless pressure is placed on them. This is a rather unfortunate + situation for the people of Japan. The Japanese image of being soft + in the face of pressure does not help Japan's diplomatic efforts at + all. + + I have often suggested that at least half of Japan's diplomats + stationed abroad be civilians. Those who are in business and other + professions who have dealt with foreigners are in a better position to + represent the interests of Japan than are career diplomats. Send Mr. + Morita to America as our ambassador: a brilliant idea! But it should + not be just an idea. I truly believe that it would be most beneficial + to the U.S.-Japan relationship to have such an ambassador from Japan + to the U.S. + + + 9.0 THE U.S. AND JAPAN ARE "INESCAPABLY INTERDEPENDENT" (Morita) + + 9.1 No Way To Avoid the Trade Frictions + + Recently the expression, "inescapable interdependence" has been heard + quite often among Americans. If we dare to explain this concept in a + more extreme way, perhaps we can say it's a "fatal attraction". With + this trend now prevailing in the world, we have no choice but to live + cooperatively. Everyone on earth, not just the United States and + Japan, is mutually dependent and this is unavoidable. This is the + times that we are facing now. What does cooperation mean? + + A Japanese tends to say, "Let's work together". But I often wonder + whether they really understand its meaning. This can be applicable to + Americans as well. We are at home using this expression but it seems + to only be used as a convenience. Furthermore it is out of the + question to force "cooperation" through threats. + + To cooperate means to maintain harmony. It is not harmonious to force + your adversary. When they cope with you, you too, must cope with + them. You have to give up some of your interests; you must abandon + something. + + I tell people whenever I have a chance that we know what it is to be + selfish but hardly anybody is aware when he himself is being selfish. + We say that one is selfish but actually this person probably has no + idea that he is perceived as such. In this sense, Japan also can be + thought a little bit selfish by other countries, although we hardly + have such ideas. + + Looking for the reason, we are so perceived, the opening of the + domestic market can be one example. Everyone agrees that we should + open our markets to foreign traders, but when it comes to individual, + this is hard to actualize since someone says, "no, I cannot accept + this", and then someone says, "no, I cannot accept that." Although at + summit meetings, Japanese leaders assure others that they will do + their best, and they actually do try to open the market. In the end, + however, this is never actualized since their promise goes against + domestic interest groups and they are forced to back down. Only + lip-service followed by no achievement might result in being called + "liars" and this is surely worse than "selfish". + + The development of communication technologies means this is a + shrinking world and any country will be left alone if it does not talk + frankly to its people and friendly countries about the compromises + that they must accept. + + Free people in the free world ask for their freedom but at the same + time they respect the freedom of others. And I think it is genuine + freedom to think "we should abandon some so that we can respect + others." It will simply increase friction if we just look out for our + own benefit, and put priority on winning the race based on the premise + that we simply can focus on our interests alone since we are in the + world of free economy. + + We should also recognize that friction seldom occurs with those who + are far from you. Friction occurs as we move closer. We cannot + escape from the trade friction as long as we belong to the world of + "inescapable interdependence". + + + 9.2 Japan's Central Role is Asia + + The closer we become, the harsher the friction can be. So it would be + wise for us to prepare for problems with neighboring Asian countries. + + I went to Singapore recently to attend a ceremony marking the opening + of our new plant, and had a chance to talk with President Lee Kuan Yew + who has been a friend for a long time. He invited me to his home, we + talked over dinner and I stayed with him. + + The plant our company opened this time in Singapore is operated + automatically by robots. We use materials Singapore supplies and + employ able engineers graduated from good schools in Singapore, + producing special parts in large numbers. The plant itself will be a + foothold to supply the products all over the world. When I proudly + held forth my new plant, he was very pleased and said that in the past + when Japanese firms opened plants in his country, they needed a large + number of employees, where they in fact have never had enough + personnel. Because of the nature of his country, that is, Singapore + is a small island, this caused wage increases at a drastic pace. This + is what they had wanted; a plant with sophisticated technology. + + Transferring our technologies, not teaching management, I believe, is + the best way to alleviate friction between Southeast Asian countries + and Japan. These countries, NICS, then NIES, are now the Four Tigers + or Five Tigers. It might be too much to say they developed thanks to + the Japanese economy and industrial technologies, but I believe we + contributed to them in such a way that contributed to their current + prosperity. From now on Japan will need to take a major role in Asia. + You are already able to see this is happening when you recognize that + Tokyo has taken on a major role as a finance and money center like New + York and London. + + In the past, we yearned to go to New York when we were young. + Similarly, the youth of Southeast Asia yearn to visit Tokyo or + Disneyland in Japan. I should avoid the expression, "leadership", but + Japan has begun to assume that role as a center in Asia. + + To take on the role as an initiator means we must also be able to take + on the role of arbitrator. That is, we must think carefully what + constitutes a real leadership role in this mutually dependent world. + + + 9.3 America, You Had Better Give Up Certain Arrogance + + As you (Mr. Ishihara) mentioned before, rapprochement between the + United States and the Soviet Union and Japan's involvement in their + military strategies because of its highly-sophisticated technology + directly affects new trends on the world scene. + + I do not think anybody imagined a decade ago that these two + superpowers would be mutually dependent on each other in a military + sense and that there would be a strange structure in the power balance + among the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan. Nobody can deny + that we are going to have a totally new configuration in the balance + of power in the world. + + Facing this, most important to Japan in the practical sense is the + relationship between Japan and the United States. Japan needs the + United States. I think the United States need Japan as well. It is a + bond we can never cut, and this might be the "fatal attraction" + between us. Since we can never seperate, we had better look for the + way to develop through cooperation a healthy relationship through + cooperation. And we want to ask you Americans, "what is going on now + in your country? Do Americans really understand the meaning of + 'freedom' and the role of Japan which is so necessary to the United + States?." When you see present conditions, it is obvious that the + United States is not strong enough in a fundamental and structural + sense. So, I think what is most important is that we ask them frankly + as equal and not as a subordinate, "Are you really sure that you are + all right?" We will be in trouble as will the whole world if the + United States is not strong enough in the fundamentals and this means + more than talking about something that is current. It must be + recognized by Mr. Bush as well. In this sense, it is important for + Mr. Takeshita to deliver our message correctly at the coming summit. + In my understanding, however, these summit meetings are held according + to an itinerary prepared at the working level and they decided what + was supposed to be said by the leaders. In negotiations among + business leaders, we, top management hold discussions face to face, + saying "yes" or "no", or "if you do that we will do this." However, + we have a tendency to prepare answers for negotiations even in + business world in Japan. Take my case, for example. Once a chairman + of a large Japanese firm was vistiting me and I planned to talk to him + face to face. Then, someone from that office called us and asked what + I was going to talk about when we met. "Our chairman is going to say + such and such. How will you respond?" They wanted to prepare all + answers beforehand. I do not think we need to have meetings if the + content is planned beforehand. I want Mr. Takeshita to say correctly + how we, Japanese, see the present situation in the United States and + tell them clearly what we want to do. I think we should tell them, + "please do not cling to the image that you are the superpower, but + rather look for the way to get your economy on the road to recovery." + We should tell them, "we are going to back up your dollar, so face the + fact and issue yen-bonds, for example, as Carter Administration issued + pound-bonds." Americans have to abandon the idea, such as, "our + federal obligations do not bother us since we can print more green + backs." They have to change the way they think about their own + economy. To this end, we Japanese must deliver the message, "if you + cannot make both ends meet, we cannot either." We must do this even + if it takes time to make them understand. + + It is high time to let them know we might go bankrupt together if + things are not worked. The United States and Japan relationship is in + serious trouble. Because of our historical discipline, Japan has + adhered to the principle that "silence is golden," but I believe Japan + must insist that the United States do what must be done. An outspoken + person like me is easily criticized from every corner and I am sure + Mr. Ishihara has had the same experience since he is also very + outspoken. But to be silent and to put up with things do not work at + all in the West. As Ishihara has suggested, I think we should say + what we have to say. If not, I am afraid we will lose our own + identity as Japanese in the world. + + + 10.0 AMERICAN ITSELF IS UNFAIR (Morita) + + 10.1 America Lacks Business Creativity + + Americans and Europeans are always saying "We're getting ripped off by + Japan. They take the ideas we have invented, make products, and then + the onslaught comes. We are being damaged, they're disgraceful." + Japan has certainly done better more recently, but the U.S. and Europe + are very much advanced in basic research. + + Last year, I was invited to speak to about 100 researchers who worked + at the Bell Laboratories at ATT. + + The Bell Laboratories have about 7 people who have won the Nobel + Prize. To me, it seemed that I would be speaking before some of the + greatest men of our time. Prior to the speech, I was shown around the + Bell Laboratories, where a number of wonderful research projects were + underway. + + As you must know, the transistor and the semiconductor, which are at + the root of the current revolution in industry were invented at the + Bell Laboratories. It really brought home to me how wonderful America + was. + + The basic message I brought that day was that this type of research + was extremely significant academically in terms of both science and + culture, but to be significant from the standpoint of business and + industry, two other types of creativity, in addition to the creativity + required to make the original invention, were absolutely necessary. + + Industry requires three types of creativity. The first, of course, is + the basic creativity necessary to make technological inventions and + discoveries. This alone, however, does not make for good business or + good industry. + + The second type of creativity that is necessary is that involving how + to use this new technology, and how to use it in large quantities and + in a manner that is appropriate. In English, this would be called + "product planning and production creativity." + + The third type of creativity is in marketing. That is, selling the + things you have produced. Even if you succeed in manufacturing + something, it takes marketing to put that article into actual use + before you have a business. + + The strength in Japanese industry is in finding many ways to turn + basic technology into products and using basic technology. In basic + technology, it is true that Japan has relied on a number of foreign + sources. Turning technology into products is where Japan is number 1 + in the world. + + Sony was the first company in Japan to license the transistor patent + from Bell Laboratories, back in 1953. At that time, the transistor + was only being used in hearing aids. We were repeatedly told to take + this transistor and manufacture hearing aids. + + When we brought this new transistor back to Japan, however, Mr. Ibuka + of Sony said, "There is not much potential in hearing aids, let's make + a new transistor and build radios." At that point, we put all of our + energies each day in developing radios which used transistors. One of + our researchers during this development effort, Mr. Esaki, + subsequently went to work for IBM where he earned a Nobel Prize, but + it was at our company where he did work worthy of the Prize. There + are a number of Japanese who have received Nobel Prizes, but Esaki was + the only one who worked for a research laboratory of a company. We + poured money into development of new transistors, and developed small + radios for the market, an effort that was worthy of the Nobel Prize. + + It was an American company, however, who made the first transistor + radio. I became a salesman, and took my product with full confidence + to the United States to sell it. Prior to this sales effort, the + newest invention was a vacuum tube type of amplifier which required a + lot of space. When the American company, which was a famous radio + manufacturer, was initially rebuffed by people telling him "since we + have this great sound and large speakers, who would want to buy your + little radio?", that company just quit trying to manufacture + transistor radios. + + We, however, had something else in mind as a way to sell these radios. + "Currently in New York, there are 20 radio stations broadcasting 20 + different programs during the same time frame. If everyone had their + own radio, then each person could tune in to the program he or she + wanted to listen to. Don't be satisfied with one radio for the whole + family, get your own radio. The next step was to do the same for + televisions." This was a new marketing concept. One radio for one + person became a kind of catch phrase in this campaign and the result + was that Sony transistor radios became famous throughout the world. + + While it was true that Sony was second in developing the transistor + radio, the company who did it first lacked the marketing creativity, + so without much thought, they simply quit and pulled out of the + market. + + America has stopped manufacturing things, but this does not mean that + they do not have the technology. The reason why the link between this + technology and business has not been firmly connected is because they + lack the second and third types of creativity, turning products made + with the new technology into a business. I feel that this is a big + problem for them. This exact area happens to be Japan's stronghold + for the moment. + + When I went to speak at the Bell Laboratories, I got the chance to + look at a lot of their research on advanced technology. I felt that + they may well come up with something new that was even more important + than the transistor, but since Bell Labs is a part of ATT, they are + not thinking of anything except telecommunications applications. + There is not one person there who is thinking about how to use the new + technology they are developing as a business. I think that this is + one area where the U.S. comes up wanting. It is my feeling that even + though times are good in American now and employment is up, the time + will never again come when America will regain its strength in + industry. + + There is a television network in the U.S. called CBS. CBS has a + weekly program which airs every Sunday evening called "60 Minutes," + which has a very high viewership rating. This is a news program which + devotes segments just under 20 minutes to various stories and opinion + from around the whole world. More than 10 years ago, I was on the + program. This is a program that takes a lot of money to produce. A + crew followed me around Europe for about 6 months to prepare the + segment. + + Now they want me to do another one. A cameraman followed me to + London, and when I went to Singapore, they followed me there too. + The other day, a famous and beautiful interviewer in the U.S., Diane + Sawyer, came to Japan to interview me for the program. We spent a + long time in front of the TV cameras, and the questions grew sharper. + This made me mad and at the end, it was like we were in a fight. + + She asked me what I thought of Lee Iacocca. Since this is a program + he would be sure to see, I was frank in my statements. I said he was + a disgrace, and that he was unfair. Iacocca comes to Japan and says + Japanese are unfair. Very recently, he headed his sentence with, "Let + me make myself very clear," and then he went on to slander Japan. I + know he wrote that book which labeled Japan as "unfair" but I think it + is Iacocca who is unfair, and that is what I said. + + When I was asked why he was unfair, I answered clearly, in front of + the camera. + + The president of a Chrysler company came to Japan. I had met this + person before. I knew he was involved in selling Chrysler auto- + mobiles, so I asked him how sales were going. He turned to me and + said quite plainly that he had not come to Japan to sell cars, but he + had come to purchase Japanese parts and engines. He said he had come + to Japan to buy Japanese products so they could sell them in the U.S. + + At the present time, the three big automobile manufacturers have + purchased 250,000 automobiles from Japan in 1987. How many have they + sold to Japan? Only 4,000. They make no effort at all to sell their + cars in Japan, and then call Japan unfair because Japan sells too much + in the U.S. and Japan will not buy their products. + + One of the reasons why U.S.-Japan relations are in such a mess is that + Japan has not told the U.S. the things that need to be said. + + + 10.2 Japan Has Not Forced Its Sales on the U.S. + + When I go to foreign countries, I hear that Japanese work too much. + But why is working too hard so bad? Our society cannot continue to + eat unless we keep producing products. People have to have products + in order to live. They use golf clubs, and drive automobiles. If + they want these products and do not wish to import them, they must + manufacture them. I am a businessman. I am not forcing my customers + to buy things from me. We expend our energies on how to make our + products most attractive to the customer. + + The Americans say that there is a U.S.-Japan trade imbalance, and it + is not because Japan is not buying U.S. products or because Japan is + forcibly selling the products. There are few things in the U.S. that + Japanese want to buy, but there are a lot of things in Japan that + Americans want to buy. This is at the root of the trade imbalance. + The problem arises in that American politicians fail to understand + this simple fact. It could never be the case that we are selling too + much; it is not because we are exporting; the imbalance arises as a + result of commercial transactions based on preferences. + + Therefore, the only thing that Americans or Europeans can do to + correct this imbalance is reassess themselves and make an effort to + produce products which are attractive to Japanese consumers. It is in + this area where I would like to see Japanese politicians get courage + enough to expound abroad to our trading partners. + + Recently, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Verity brought representatives of + 25 companies to Japan who wanted to sell their company's products in + Japan. I was the person responsible for welcoming this group, and I + told them Japan would do its best to help out. I remarked, however, + that I had been doing my best to sell Japanese products in the United + States over the past 30 years. Yet, not once had the Minister of + International Trade and Industry accompanied me and helped out in my + efforts. I asked the Secretary of Commerce if it was his intention to + create an "America Incorporated." Secretary Verity smiled, but + everyone else laughed out loud. + + The Government of Japan has, in both the good sense and the bad sense, + passed along various types of administrative guidance, which have been + criticized by foreign countries as being an alliance between + government and business -- even if the Minister of international Trade + and Industry does not go on trade missions. + + One of the Americans in the group then asked me why the Japanese + government backed up Japanese industry. Let's think about it. Even + though the government does not own one share of my stock, I pay more + than half of my profits to the government in taxes. If my business + does not do well, the government does not receive more revenues. + Thus, the government, we feel, is a kind of partner. I asked them why + American industries, which are paying taxes to the government say, + "the government is trying to control industry; don't touch us." Your + viewing of the government as the enemy seems strange. + + During this visit, Secretary Verity did voice his support for + cooperation between government and business to sell products, but it + is my feeling that the establishment of a framework for this type of + cooperation is still a long way off. + + + 10.3 Let Us Think About the Role Japan Should Play in the World + + On the other side of the question, however, there are certainly + aspects of Japan which are "unfair" when viewed from the U.S. + perspective. When you consider what Japan has done for the world in + the course of its becoming the second largest economy, I think this is + an area where Japan is in line for some critical reflection. + + Recently, since the time of Prime Minister Takeshita, Japan has been + making enormous efforts to become the second most open country in the + world for trading. The long-boiling problems over beef and citrus + imports were gradually resolved through efforts directed at those + problems. However, from the perspective of Americans, Japan has still + not done what it should do. I am not saying we should put more money + in defense spending, but if we are not to exceed 1% of GNP on defense, + then the government should put more money into Official Development + Assistance (ODA) (foreign aid), which helps the other countries of the + world. + + In addressing the ODA to GNP ratio, of the 18 countries in the world + who provide foreign aid, Japan is number 15. Also, if we look at the + amount of non-loan foreign aid for which there is no remuneration, + Japan is number eighteen of eighteen. I shrink when I am asked + whether that record is something Japan can be proud of. + + Almost all U.S. corporations make donations of about 1 percent of + their pre-tax profits to the community -- using some of their money + for the community is a kind of custom with them. In Japan too, we + also make some contributions to return money to society, and at the + current time many Japanese companies are returning more than 1 + percent. + + But when Japan is looked at as a state, it is perceived as unfair by + the rest of the world because it is not returning some of the benefits + it reaps from the world back into the world society. + + Therefore, when I speak before Japanese groups, I emphasize what is + meant when America says Japan is acting disgracefully. I tell them, + "Shouldn't we review what we are doing once again?" Japan should be + bold in telling the U.S. what it needs to be told, but at the same + time, Japan must establish a code of standards for the role it should + be playing in the world. + + Japan should open its markets to the extent where there would be no + room for their complaints, and money that Japan has should be provided + to help developing countries where people are not being oppressed. + This would be a magnificaent behavior on Japan's part, and I think + that Japan needs to become aware of its responsibilities. + + Certainly the full opening of our markets and advancing large sums of + money for developing countries is very painful. However, things will + not get better in the world until the pain is shared more equitably. + How much pain do you think was involved during the Meiji Restoration + where the privileged class of samurai gave up their power, cut their + special hair styles, and tossed out their swords? It allowed a + bloodless revolution to take place within Japan. + + Mr. Ishihara has said there is a need for a reform of consciousness in + Japan. He is exactly on the mark. If we do not reorient our + consciousness from the perspective of being international people, then + I do not feel Japan will be able to continue to walk the globe as an + economic power. + + + 11.0 JAPAN SHOULD LIVE IN HARMONY WITH ASIA (Ishihara) + + 11.1 Restrain America! + + When the time comes when Japan does say "no" decisively on a + particular issue, there may be a dramatic reaction. It could come as + a shock to the Americans, and a number of different reactions would be + possible. Even now, some Americans suggest the possible physical + occupation of Japan in case Japan engages in semicondcutor trade with + the Soviet Union. + + Yet when the time comes, we may well dare say "no." The relationship + between Japan and the U.S., as Mr. Morita describes it, is unbreakable. + However, the whole world does not exist for the sake of Japan and the + U.S. Japan's relationship with the rest of the world does not exist + only in relation to or through the U.S. Should America behave + unreasonably toward Japan, Japan must open channels to deal with the + rest of the world from a different standpoint than on the basis of the + U.S.-Japan relationship and it must show that it is doing this to the + Americans. + + America itself has already exhibited certain indications that it is + shifting towards a closer relationship with the Soviet Union, as Alvin + Toffler stated, insinuating that Japan will be threatened once the + U.S. establishes a more collaborative realetionship with the Soviet + Union similar to the case of the U.S. movement toward China, which burst + forth in December 1978, there was also an astonishing high technolgy + demostration. + + I for one had a chance to observe some of that demonstration. It + began with a set of satellte photos which Dr. Kissinger brought to + China. At that time Viet Nam was engaged in a military conflict with + China, subsequent to the fall of the Saigon government in April 1970 + and the Cambodian war. The Sino-Vietnamese war was recklessly + provoked by Deng Shoa Ping, chief of staff in China. In the initial + encounters, China was severely defeated. The real power behind Viet + Nam was the Soviet Union. The Soviets provided Viet Nam with detailed + satellite photos illustrating the movements of the Chinese military, + the number of soldiers and divisions, the number of tanks unloaded at + Kuang Tong station and which direction all these troops took. Taking + adavantage of the superior information available to them, as provided + by the Soviet Union, Viet Nam was able to lure the Chinese troops deep + into the mountains, then desroy them with anti-tank missiles. This + miserable battle was all recorded by American satellites, which Dr. + Kissinger presented to the Chinese with the comment "what a silly war + you have conducted." + + Needless to say, it was a shock to the Chinese leaders to see how step + by step their military was demolished. + + I assume that the Americans showed another series of satellite + pictures showing the horrible massacre of Chinese soldiers at the + siege of Damansky Island (in Russian) or Chin Pao Island (in Chinese), + which is located in the middle of the Amur (phonetic rendering) River. + At first, only a small number of Russian soldiers occupied the island + and they were soon driven off by the Chinese, who had many more troops + than did the Russians. The Russians returned in greater numbers and + recaptured the island. Fianlly, the Chinese sent the equivalent of a + human wave of troops, almost flooding the island with soldiers. As + the Chinese shouted victory, the island was surrounded by a sudden + mist and eventually it was covered by a dense fog. The Russians + exploited this climactic assistance, surrounding the island with tanks + and opening a salvo. At dawn, there were a great many dead Chinese + troops. The Russians landed their tanks, rolling over the dead, + wounded, and living, reducing all to nothing. + + The Americans showed clear pictures of the events, illustrating what + had taken place using satellite pictures, a great demonstration of the + combination of technology and intelligence gathering. China was + shocked and disturbed that it could not effectively counter a + situation like that as they simply did not have access to the + technology required. They listened to the Americans, and agreed to + the development of a bilateral relationship with the U.S. on American + terms. America had played its high tech card quite effectively. + + The normalization of relations with China, by-passing Japan, set a + precedent and provided a basis for other such threats to Japan by the + U.S. America can bluff Japan by indicating that it can develop a + similar relationship with the Soviet Union, without consultation, so + that Japan would be less needed within the framework of U.S. global + strategy. But Japan has a similar card to play, counter to the + American bluff. + + Some of Japan's business leaders have long had an interest in Siberian + development, which now appears to be a realistic possibility. Some of + them are of the opinion that Japan could go neutral, revoking the + U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, if the Soviets will return the northern + islands, granted that Japan would be given the right to develop + Siberian resources. + + This may be a realistice choice from the Soviet point of view since + some critical technologies such as linear technology are available + from Japan. The U.S. simply does not have them. Japan had better + start sending some signals of its own to America. My American friends + comment that my behavior in the U.S. is too provocative; I feel that + more of us should speak out like this more often. + + Japan could have the Soviets formally request Japan's linear + technolgy. The COCOM would claim that it is illegal for Japan to + provide this technology. Japan would then mount a public relations + campaign, appealing to the rest of the world that the use of its + linear technology is simply to enhance the efficiency of the Soviet + railroad system in Siberia so that travel time is shortened and the + whole thing will be rationalized as an attempt to restrain American + intervention. In fact, the U.K. and France are champions at this kind + of public relations game, in combination with diplomacy. We need more + skillful players in the game to counter the formidable American + challenges in the international arena. + + + 11.2 Japan Is Not a Free Ride on the U.S.-Japan Security Pact + + It goes witout saying that the U.S.-Japan relationship is a vital one. + The security treaty has certainly been helpful to Japan. America, + however, has chosen to become involved for American interests; it did + not want to see the restoration of Japanese military power. However, + the so-called American nuclear umbrella as a deterent power for Japan + is not as valuable as the Americans have said. I verified this myself + twenty years ago and put it into the official record. The American + nuclear umbrella is just an illusion as far as the Japanese people are + concerned. Also, the so-called "free ride" on the U.S.-Japan Security + treaty is no such thing and has no earthly basis. I have stated this + repeatedly. The Japanese people have been forced to thank the U.S. + for an illusion. Both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had to enter the INF + agreement due to the nature of a changing power shift in the world, + which on the bottom line, is inevitable in light of the high tech- + nology dominance by Japan. This has been clearly seen by individuals + such as Dr. Kissinger, who even foresaw the situation today long ago, + a position he has stated on a number of occasions. Poor Japanese + politicians have never studied these issues systematically and + therefore can never provide a rebuttal to American allegations. + Americans, for their part, seem to have emotional and intellectual + difficulties in admitting to changes and new developments. + + A Pentagon task force sent a warning on electronics, with particular + emphasis on semiconductors, those who have nothing to worry about but + Japan [sic]. America is very seriously concerned about losing power + of any kind to Japan. Some Americans have been raising their voices + in advocation of an increased Japanese defense capacity. This may be + a worthwile suggestion. We should overhaul our current defense + system, although I am not advocating an abrupt cutting of ties with + the U.S. We have accepted this absurd defense formal [formula?] + consisting of three defense forces. This system must be completely + overhauled to suit present realities, including a much greater + deterrent capacity, exploiting our high technology to the maximum. We + should develop the most persuasive and demonstratable deterrent + formula which would, without any doubt, show our adversaries that any + attack on Japn will end with unbearable damage to the aggressor from + both a stategic and a tactical viewpoint. + + Production and maintenance of escort ships which can only exhaust + their missiles and ammunition in a few minutes, and then sit and wait + for death is absurd. Participation in RIMPAC with such equipment + makes no sense. RIMPAC has nothing to do with the concept of active + defense. + + In a lecture that the Defense College of Japan, the commander of the + U.S. 7th Fleet declared it 100% unlikely that Soviet forces could land + on Japanese territory. This is [an] honest -- but stupid -- comment. + Some time ago we invited a famous Israeli tank division commander + named Tam (phonetic rendering) to Japan. He kept annoying the Defense + Agency by asking why Japan was building tanks. He was considered to + be one of the top tank strategists in the world, and he told us that + even on Hokkaido there is no need [for] tanks for defense. He said + that Soviet attacks would have to be destroyed at sea. He also + expressed doubt in the value of escort ships. + + His points are absolutely valid. Tanks and escort ships were built + and maintained at the direction of the Americans. America has imposed + its defense formula for Japan on Japan, reproducing its own defense + formula within Japan. Thus, Japan has ended up with the defense system + it has simply because of one-sided, pro-American diplomacy: one in + which Japan says only "yes." + + I conducted my own cost analysis of Japanese defense systems and + discovered that the whole thing would be far less expensive if Japan + developed its own system in accordance with its own initiative and + planning, in comparison to the expenditures forced on us today by the + U.S. Despite the bowing under to American will by Japan, it is still + the target of American politicians such as McClosky who charge that + "Japan is protected by American bloodshed in the Persian Gulf." + + The time has come for Japan to tell the U.S. that we do not need + American protection. Japan will protect itself with its own power and + wisdom. This will require a strong commitment and will on our part. + We can do it as long as there is a national consensus to do so. There + may be some political difficulties at this point in forming this + consensus. From both a financial and technological point of view, + there are no barriers to accomplishing this goal in the near future. + We can develop a more effective and efficient defense capability at + less than we are paying today. + + In reality, the abrupt cancellation of the security treaty is not + feasible. But it is a diplomatic option and a powerful card. + Outright refusal to consider such an option means giving up a valuable + diplomatic card. The fact remains that we do not necessarily need the + security treaty and a security system which will meet Japanese [needs] + can be built by Japan alone. + + Both the right and left on this issue tend to become fanatical on the + security treaty debate. It is most regrettable that we do not have a + cool and rational forum where the objective profit and loss aspects of + the issue can be analyzed. But the time will come when we will have + to face this issue and this time is in the near future. + + The current state of the Liberal Democratic Party means that it cannot + afford a serious deliberation on this issue. Once the opposition + parties disassociate themselves from a one-sided pro Russian and + Chinese policy and demonstrate their capacity to be able to replace + the LDP as alternative political parties fully recognized by the + voters, we will be in the position to examine our options with greater + flexibility. + + + 11.3 Japan Should Live in Harmony With Asia + + Japanese popular songs are heard all over Asia these days; it reminds + me of the time when Japanese became so interested in American pop + music, which, at the time, conditioned our psycho-emotional base so + that post-war Japan evolved into a consumer-oriented society. + Structurally, there must be similar powers during such social + phenomena and I wonder what it is today. + + As a matter of fact, it has always been some technological + breakthrough which has moved history into the next stage, during any + given era, even as far back as the stone age or the copper epoch. + Technology has always set the pace of civilization and cultures + flourish on this basis. When we start seeing only the pretty flowers + that are the result of this flourishing, and forget about the roots + that nourish the blossoms, we soon experience the decline of the + civilization, as has been the case of nations in the past. This is + the way I interpret history, in cool and orthodox terms. + + With respect to the development of commercial uses of the + semiconductor, materialized by Japan in Asia, I must say that we can + easily understand the reason why this happened. When the French + minister of culture, Andre Malroux, came to Japan, he pointed out the + distinction between Western religious artifacts and those of Japan. + He told an audience that the Western expression of a crucified Christ + is bloody and even grotesque and might well discourage a religious + attachment to Christ. However, he said, the Miroku Buddha at the + Horiyuji Temple emits such a sublime beauty, beyond the barriers of + race and religion, that it is raised to the level of an eternal or + ultimate object to be revered. + + What he meant was that the type of beauty and the impression given in + such an artifact as the Miroku Buddha or the Horiyuji Temple attract + interest and respect from all over the world, beyond national, racial, + and cultual boundaries. These are products of refinement from the + Japanese people. The original image of Buddha came from India, by way + of China and the Korean peninsula. The image of Buddha in Japan is + the product of refinement of Japanese art. The process has been + constantly refined and it becomes a product of Japanese intellectual + processes, as the Minister explained, it is clearly Japanese. + + In my judgement, Japan has acquired this ability primarily because of + the particular geographical environment surrounding the Japanese + archipelago. In the long journey from West to East, Japan is located + at a dead end; there is nothing beyond except the Pacific Ocean. + Japan is in no position to pass on to other nations what it has + received; it must live with what it receives for the rest of history. + Everything stops at Japan; the Japanese people refine what has come + their way; Japan is the last stop in cultural transition. + + Among Japanese statesmen, Mr. Minoru Genda is one I truly respect. He + once said that Western swords were basically instruments of killing, + although there are some variations, such as those used in the sport of + fencing. But these swords are just tools and we cannot be impressed + looking at Western swords. Japanese swords make viewers feel they are + looking at artifacts and that they are being invited in the world of + art and mystery. He went on to say that the Japanese people have + converted these awful tools, made originally to butcher other people, + into art objects. + + Another time, Mr Genda told me: "Mr Ishihara -- after all, in the end, + Japan will be all right. It is able to defend itself." When I + replied, "how," he said that "Japan's technology can be the basis of + Japan's defense." What he pointed out was that Japanese technology, + which has been refined and polished to the ultimate extent, just like + the swords, would provide the basis for Japan's future existence. + + Mr. Genda also affirmed the points I made, suggesting that in certain + crucial technological areas, Japan should move at least five years + ahead of other nations and if possible, further, to at least ten + years. As long as Japan maintains that ten year advance, it will be + in a safe position for the first twenty-five years of the 21st + century. And this can be accomplished if politicians use their ace + card wisely. + + I had an argument with an American correspondent recently. I asked + him to look at those developing nations which were under American + auspices. The Philippines and those in Africa, Central and South + America are all in hopeless situations. Americans once called the + Philippines "a showcase for democracy." I said that Americans are + mistaken. + + While the Philippines may have felt more comfortable under American + administration than under Spanish colonial rule, and while they still + listen to America, the U.S. never really imparted to them an under- + standing of genuine democracy. The chairman of the House Subcommittee + on Southeast Asia once suggested to me that the U.S. and Japan should + split the cost of financial aid to the Philippines. I responded + "You're kidding!" He said that money alone cannot improve the + situation in the Pilippines because of the internal situation. The + U.S. does not even know where its aid money actually ends up. And most + fundamentally, social conflict in a nation cannot be solved with an + outsider's cash. + + The most crucial task in the Philippines if to face the cause of + social turmoil there. The cause is the role of the landowners; + Philippine landowners have accumulated incredible power and wealth, + siphoning everything from the ordinary people. These landowners will + get no sympathy from me. The Philippines must act to redistribute the + land and wealth in much the same manner as took place in Japan after + the war. Landowners cannot remain landowners unless the country is + stabilized. Should a military junta take power, and decide upon a + socialist economic policy, these landowners would be wiped out. + + Usurpers must be removed, otherwise there is no way the seeds of + democracy can be planted. This so-called "showcase of democracy" is + empty. And pouring additonal aid money into the hands of the + landowners in the form of compensation for losing their land is not + only a utter waste of funds, but also ruins any basis for self-help + and self-motivation. + + There is a chieftan in the Truk Islands, who speaks Japanese, and who + said that since the Japanese left, their children have only learned to + be lazy as the Americans give aid-money and things which spoil human + beings. If you give people lettuce seeds, they will learn to grow + lettuce, but if you give them money they will simply import lettuce + and learn nothing. + + America is reluctant to recognize the importance and value of local + cultures. Christian missionaries do not permit the natives to chant + their charms and they prohibit the use of herbs as medicine -- herbs + that have traditionally been used in healing sicknesses, found in + certain localities and used according to local customs. Local + festivals are banned so that traditional songs and dances are + forgotten. Tradition is dismantled. Americans force other cultures to + give up their traditional value and impose American culture upon them. + And they do not even recognize that this is an atrocity -- a barbaric + act! + + Natives who once had a traditional festival similar to Japan's + ceremony of tasting the fruits of the first harvest. (Our ancestors + may well have come from these southern islands, by the way). The + festival was held on the night of the full moon. Beating drums and + dancing, the people indulged in open sex as the festival had by its + nature this element of fertility. Christian priests prohibited these + festivals and instructed the natives to bring the fruits of the + harvest to the church altar. One hour after this was done, the + priests ate the gifts. The chieftan, still speaking Japanese, + complained "we did not grow this to feed priests." This kind of + misunderstanding goes on and on and Americans don't even realize it. + + Those Asian nations where the economy has been a success story, such + as Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, were all, at one time or another, + under Japanese administration. We are aware that some negative things + happened under the Japanese administration, but it cannot be denied + that many positive changes were left behind. + + Among the resource-supplying nations, the only Southeast Asian nations + which have developed stable socio-economic systems are those where + Japan has cooperated as a fellow Asian country. I pointed this out to + that correspondent with whom I had the argument; in return he only + kept silent. + + In any case, these NICS are turning into NIES who are catching up to + Japan, which make Japan nervous. However, this is fine with me. + Japan should work more positively, basing its approach on the premise + that we must live in harmony with other Asian nations, developing + constructive political strategies to assist these countries + economically and politically. Entering a new era -- the Pacific Age + -- Japan cannot remain prosperous without the rest of Asia. We need + Asia more than we need America. + + + 11.4 Japan Can Be Admitted to the World Community by Saying "No" + + Japan is not quite the tiny country most Japanese think it is. We + should not be presumptuous or arrogant, ending up hated by others, but + we should have pride and dignity as a respected memeber of the world + community. + + Our world view appears to be very peculiar, conditioned in part by our + geography and our climate. In our mind, Japan and the rest of the + world do not exist in a concentric circle. The rest of the world has + its center and the center of Japan is somewhere outside this. I feel + it is time to overhaul this concept and enter into the concentric + world. + + We want to enter that arena not through the kind is individual + performance as given by Mr. Nakasone [sic], but rather by saying "no" + decisively. The Japanese people will define their position in facing + the consequences and significance of their "no" and will be able to + join the world community in the concentric circle as a true "adult" + member. It is therefore imperative to normalize our relationship with + the U.S., so we can get on with becoming a true member of the world + community + + I often suggested a G2 conference with the U.S. This would help + establish Japan's status and America might welcome the suggestion. + When there are only two parties meeting, Japan will have no choice but + to say "yes" or "no" without resorting to gray areas. Japan must be + equipped with logic and reason whenever it says "no." Best of all, by + holding a G2, Japan will only have itself and the U.S. with which to + be concerned, making it easier to stick to the "no." No other nation + will pay attention to Japan if Japan cannot say "no" to the U.S. A + good example is China. + + Japan is flattered by many nations these days for no reason than its + wealth. Money is important, but Japan has many more valuable assets, + such as tradition, culture, creativity, as well as powerful high + technology; this last item is one that even the U.S. and U.S.S.R. + cannot afford to ignore. In order to make the rest of the world + realize that Japan has much more to offer than wealth, we must develop + the logic and reasoning to be able to say "no", explain why, and stick + to it at certain crucial moments. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/japan.yes b/textfiles.com/politics/japan.yes new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7b0a6119 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/japan.yes @@ -0,0 +1,1726 @@ +From: buzy@quads.uchicago.edu (Len Buzyna) +Subject: Does America say Yes to Japan +Message-ID: <1992Dec5.023139.16824@midway.uchicago.edu> +Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992 02:31:39 GMT +Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations +Lines: 822 + +This has been an immensely popular and requested paper about Japan at my +(and many other) sites. A new edition has come out which you may find +interesting. -Len +----------------------------------- +(JAPANYES; From Internet FTP: monu6.cc.monash.edu.au in: pub/nihongo) +(This contains both sections concatenated.) + +Japanyes; THE SECOND EDITION; + +The following article, JAPANYES, (2nd edition) comes from FTP site +monu6.cc.monash.edu.au. The most recent version is in pub/nihongo. + +This paper was written by: Louis Leclerc; lleclerc@nyx.cs.du.edu + +Please send him any corrections or additions to this paper. + +NOTE: This is a rather long but fascinating paper on how Japan Inc. functions. +For a former free-trader like myself, it has shaken some of my beliefs to the +very core. It will open your eyes a little, it will disturb you, and it will +quite possibly lead you to ask some serious questions about the future of the +United States of America as a world-leader. Reading this, IMHO, is well worth +the effort. + +The level of detail and the overall gist is documented in many well-known, +albeit difficult to read, books (see appendix). The author's prime service to +us is the distillation of this information into a (relatively) brief synopsis. + +Tom Mathes tom-mathes@email.sps.mot.com + +--------------- +In the 2nd edition, typographical and content errors/omissions were corrected, +sections re-organized for better flow and less relevant sections were +deleted/condensed to make room for new material (the entire file must be under +100K to fit through email gateways). Japanese names were removed to protect +their anonymity. + +Sections significantly expanded/added in the 2nd edition: +DISCRIMINATION +TRUE, BUT ONLY ON THE SURFACE +IT'S NOT ALL JAPAN'S FAULT +CONCLUSION +COMPANY LISTING (many new names) + +Sections deleted/condensed in the 2nd edition: +WHERE IT ALL BEGINS (combined with BUSINESS IS WAR) +DEBT, AMERICA'S SUPERWEAPON OF SELF DESTRUCTION (important, but less relevant) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +(ed112992) + + Second Edition + + + D O E S A M E R I C A S A Y Y E S T O J A P A N ? + + (A M E R I C A W A N I H O N N I "H A I" T O I U K A) + + + + There are many misconceptions about Japan and its miraculous success in +the post-war era. While staying in Japan in mid 1992, I tried to look at +Japan's seemingly miraculous success with the hope to understand it so that +maybe we could apply some of their plan in our own country. "What makes Japan +so good?", "How did they get from a third world country to be the richest in +the world so quickly?" are common questions asked in America. Today, I will try +to answer with examples, at least partially, these questions. + + Going to Japan, I expected to see a very efficient country from which +America could learn in order to regain her former prosperity. During my trip, +the reality began to sink in that what is really happening was quite different +from expectations and in some ways quite disturbing. The Japanese have a very +different approach to doing business than we do. This paper will elaborate, +justify and try to show what is happening and why it is important that this be +understood here in America. + + Don't be afraid to question what you read here as I am confident that if +you research the points yourself (hopefully by going to Japan to see for +yourself or reading materials on the topic), you will find the points made in +this paper to be truthful. + +THE "JAPAN PROBLEM": + + Some claims echoed in America which are commonly dismissed as "Japan +Bashing" statements, surprisingly turn out to be true upon investigation. The +following statements may seem brash right now, but their meanings will become +clearer in the explanations and examples that follow. + + It seems that Japan is in some kind of economic war against us. Their +objective is for them to win and for us to lose. Through the use of cartels, +price fixing, government-corporate 'anti-foreigner' tactics as well as +adversarial trade and predation strategies, Japan is destroying much of +America's strategic industries, standard of living and military strength. These +actions are also destroying the jobs of ordinary American people. As a result, +the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world from one country +to an other is happening right now, from the United States, to Japan. As well, +Japan is today, the largest holder of net foreign assets in the world. + + Those who study these types of topics know that economic wars can be even +more devastating to a country's long term future than conventional wars. Japan +is organized to fight, uses a tactical strategy and has a fundamental plan. +America's economic strategy is in disarray and there is no plan. As a result, +America is losing the economic war by default. + +IN THE BEGINNING, THE TV CARTEL: + + A very famous example of Japanese national government and corporate +coordination to take over a foreign industry is that of the Japanese TV cartel, +first set up in the 1960's. This is how Japan took the free-world TV industry +away from the United States. PBS Frontline did an excellent documentary on this +called "Coming From Japan", (see Appendix for how to get transcript via +Internet). + + In the 1960's, the Matsushita Industrial Electric Company, Sanyo, Toshiba +and others formed a TV cartel in Japan. They got US TV technology from the +giants in the industry (Zenith, RCA, Quasar) in the following way. The Japanese +government prohibited US made TVs from being sold in Japan. Instead, they +insisted that the technology be licensed to Japanese manufacturing companies +rather than importing (still often the case today in Japan). The US companies +thinking they could still make money this way, agreed to these terms which +enabled the Japanese companies to acquire the technology on how to build TVs. + + The above Japanese companies, with tacit approval from the Japanese +government, set up a cartel to inflate TV prices in Japan in order to turn +around and use the money to sell below cost TVs in America. This was to drive +US makers out of the American and world markets. US TV makers went bankrupt or +left the industry as they could no longer fund research to continue making +improved and high quality TVs. They could not compete with the artificially low +Japanese TV prices in America and were forbidden to enter the Japanese market +to take advantage of the high prices there. Hence, the US makers could not make +money. Furthermore, secret deals, illegal under US trade law, were set up by +Japanese TV makers and US retailers such as Sears and Woolworths to sell the +TVs under store brand names. As a result, once famous brands such as Sylvania, +Quasar, Admiral, Philco and RCA have vanished or are foreign/Japanese owned. +Zenith is the only remaining US TV maker today. No US companies make VCRs +although they were an American invention. + + In the 1980's the Japanese applied this same strategy to the machine tool +industry and now completely dominate that industry as well (a point well made +at a machine tool exhibition I visited in Tokyo). Before that was motorcycles +and computer memory chips (the US tried to retaliate but failed as our +companies couldn't organize with each other during the now famous 'dram +shortages' a few years ago). It will be happening again with major and smaller +kitchen/washing appliances and telecommunications equipment during the 1990s. +It has already happened with liquid crystal computer displays where the +Japanese today have 100% market share (these were also invented in the USA). + +DISPELLING SOME STATISTICS: + + Several misleading claims are made in the media about how the trade +situation today with Japan is fine. These will now be dispelled. One claim +states that Japan is opening its market because it has increased imports by 9% +in 1986-87 and 18% in 1988. This is a half truth because Japanese exports +during the same period increased by much more than that. In other words, the +trade gap got bigger, not smaller between Japan and its trading partners. + + An other false claim, most often made by Japanese trade representatives, +states that it is naturally expected and ok that Japan has a trade surplus with +America. This is because if every Japanese bought $100 of goods from America, +and every American bought $100 worth of goods from Japan, an imbalance would +occur in Japan's favor as there are twice as many Americans as Japanese in the +world. + + In the real world though, this is not ok, and cannot happen for very long +without serious consequences. To see more clearly this picture, imagine a world +with 2 countries, one with 100 citizens, and an other with 1 citizen, you. Each +person has $200 to their name. Every year you buy $100 of goods from the other +country, and each of their citizens buys $100 of goods from your country. If +you work out this example, you will see that in a little over 2 years, you will +have accumulated all of the money in the world and the other country will be +penniless. This is the current state of affairs between Japan and its trading +partners. Although things are actually occurring more slowly, this is the +trend. + +POLITENESS AND CODED LANGUAGES, A BACKGROUND: + + Japanese communicate with each other and the outside world a bit +differently than we do. This is often a cause for misunderstanding between our +two peoples, so it will be clarified below. + + Because Japan was a communal society, a way of speaking in a way not to +directly offend the other person (who they still had to live close to after a +discussion had finished) has developed over time. There is even a Japanese +word, called 'Tatemae,' which refers to this kind of phrase. These kinds of +phrases are a type of 'lie' in order to be polite. Often, when Japanese use +words like 'goal' or 'difficult' in reference to a request you make, this is +tatemae. + + Some recent examples from the evening news will make this point clear. +Recently, George Bush went to Japan to open the Japanese market to US goods and +to get the Japanese to use more US made car parts in the cars they sell to +America. After he left, the Japanese Prime Minister said the agreement they +reached was 'a difficult goal'. This is Tatemae code for 'we have no intention +of meeting your demand'. But of course, the Japanese PM would not say this +directly to George Bush, who is president of America. This would be extremely +impolite and Mr. Miyazawa could never say such a thing directly to an +individual of such prestige. The Japanese PM is thus in a difficult position. +This is an occasion for Tatemae. Foreigners (especially Americans) who aren't +used to Tatemae have extreme difficulty to understand its usage. Later, when +the 'promise' is broken, Americans often end up thinking they were lied to by +the Japanese when this was never the case. Really, the Americans were supposed +to pick up on the Japanese polite refusal, but failed to because they took what +the Japanese said literally. + + As an other example, an agreement was reached where Japan would allow more +US made computer chips to be sold in Japanese products. Recently, the Japanese +have said this goal would be 'difficult' to reach. This is code for 'we will +renege on the agreement'. If you know about Tatemae, it is much easier to know +what the Japanese really plan on doing when faced with a politically difficult +position as well as what they might be trying to say when they talk on +television. + + Finally, a claim is often made by cornered Japanese officials that "Japan +is at a crossroads" and the problems described in this article are being +resolved today. "The Japanese market is opening, but it takes time and +Americans must be patient for Japan to succeed at this difficult task." Japan +has been saying this for the last 20 years. + +SHAME AND HONOR IN BUSINESS: + + Japanese people operate on a system of shame and honor (or the appearance +of it anyways). This developed due to the fact that so many people must live +peacefully in crowded conditions. When something does go wrong, there is a lot +of shame on the individual responsible. If the failure was bad enough, he may +commit suicide (a practice dating back to when Samurai committed suicide in +front of their superiors when they were responsible for a major failure). Some +major public figure commits suicide out of shame at least once a year in Tokyo. + + For example, while I was there, the CEO of Toyo Rubber (they operate as +B.F. Goodrich here in America) committed suicide by jumping in front of the +train because company profits were poor this year. A couple years back, after +a train wreck in which some people died, the manager responsible for the whole +affair also committed suicide. + + An interesting side note to this case is the existence of laws +discouraging suicide by jumping in front of trains in Japan. These demonstrate +the 'group' orientation of this society. The government has laws to fine the +jumper's surviving family members based on how much disruption to service was +caused by the suicide of the now dead family member. Apparently, the intent of +the laws is to force the jumper to think about the harm they will do to their +family by choosing the train as a means of suicide, hoping they will instead +choose other means to end their life and minimize service disruptions. In +practice though, these fines are hardly ever enforced. + +DISCRIMINATION: + + Although the Japanese are individually are very polite people, Japan is +a very racist country, maybe even more so than we are. The common name for +foreigners is 'gaijin' in Japan. This is a racial slur somewhat in the way +'nigger' refers to a black person in America. There is however a polite form +of this word, 'gaikokujin', which means literally 'outsider country person'. + + When you enter a rental agency to rent an apartment (the only way to get +an apartment in Tokyo), some of the rental books say on the cover 'no gaijin'. +If you are a gaijin, you cannot rent anything in these books. This type of +practice seems to be very widespread. + + As an example of how deeply this goes, one may look at the now famous +Konishiki affair of last summer. Konishiki was the best sumo wrestler in all +of Japan. However, he was an American (Hawaiian). The overseers of Japanese +sumo continuously denied him the title of 'Yokozuna' (sort of an entry into the +Japanese sumo Hall of Fame for grand champions like Konishiki). Konishiki won +title after title, but was still refused. When pressed, the overseers claimed +that the holder of the Yokozuna title must possess 'hinkaku', a special kind +of 'Japanese grace'. They also claimed that it was impossible for a non +Japanese to be capable of possessing hinkaku. As a result, Konishiki was +refused the honor of the Yokozuna title. In the end, he never became Yokozuna +(and neither has any other foreigner in the history of the sport). + + Discrimination does not extend only to foreigners. Looking through any +major newspaper, you will see ads which ask for Japanese only (no foreigners), +men only, young women only, or people of a certain age. Discrimination doesn't +seem to be illegal in Japan. A law does exist however stating that it is a +Japanese 'goal' not to have discrimination (hint:this is Tatemae). This 'anti- +discrimination' goal/law does not seem to be enforced in any way. Races are +ranked in a kind of social order in Japan, first are Japanese, then white +people, other asians, then all other races besides black people, who are last. + + The government is sometimes a partner in racism and discrimination. There +exists an 'unclean' sect of Japanese society who are referred to as +'Burakumin'. They are a particular sect who's ancestors had an 'unclean' +religious history. A small square on the top corner of the Japanese birth +certificate is filled in if a person is a Burakumin, or is blank if they are +not. This is used by the government and the companies to deny Burakumin people +good jobs and advancement during their careers. + + There exists an other dark side to government sponsored racism, dating +from World War II, which exists even to this day. During the war, many Koreans +were forcibly taken to Japan, made 'Japanese citizens' and enslaved, or forced +to serve in the Japanese Imperial Army. Upon the end of the war, Japan revoked +Japanese citizenship from these people and their children. Unlike other +Japanese, they lost all rights to military pensions and healthcare (even for +injuries suffered while fighting for Japan in the war). As a result, today +these people live in Japan, but are stateless, have no passport and cannot +travel outside of Japan. The Japanese government considers these people (and +even their descendants who were in fact born in Japan) to be foreigners. It is +'difficult' for many of these people to get Japanese citizenship as Japan has +no diplomatic ties with North Korea. One requirement is that they must abandon +their real names and choose Japanese sounding ones (a requirement made on most +people seeking Japanese citizenship). Needless to say, the number of people +accepted as Japanese citizens or as immigrants to Japan is very very small in +number each year. Some claim that Japan sees it as an advantage to maintain a +racially pure society as it is less 'disruptive' to social order. + +THE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, WHY FOREIGNERS ARE SET UP TO FAIL IN JAPAN: + + An extensive hierarchy of small distributers and shops exists in Japan +which hinders the distribution of foreign goods. When Americans say the +Japanese distribution system is 'difficult', 'byzantine' or 'complex', this is +what they are referring to. In reality, the Japanese distribution system is +fixed. This is why it is so difficult and complicated for the foreigner to +succeed in. + + Japan, being a communal society, follows a strict code of loyalty. +Shopkeepers have loyalty to their suppliers and customers. They all have +loyalty to the nation, Japan. Undoing this arrangement that brought the country +and its companies so much wealth and power via the entry of foreign goods would +be disruptive to this system of loyalty. This is one reason it is so difficult +for a foreigner to enter the Japanese market. There are higher forces at work +too though: + + How important this was became very clear when I befriended a Japanese +government worker. He explained to me how the system worked and why a foreigner +cannot usually circumvent it. I suggested the following proposal as an example. +The discussion went something like this: + + I can sell high quality made in USA GE refrigerators and Hoover vacuums +at a much cheaper price in Japan that Toshiba and Sanyo can (this is in fact +true). I want to start a business. I go to Japan, but no store will carry my +products because I am a 'gaijin' (foreigner), and my products are foreign. +Doing so would anger the domestic suppliers of these distributers who may hold +some of the shop's loans or offer them favorable payment plans. + + I decide then, I will set up my own company in Japan, open a shop and sell +the appliances myself since no Japanese store will do so for me. The government +worker said 'You can't because you are a foreigner. Foreigners cannot own +companies in Japan'. This is in fact true. It is this government practice which +keeps foreign business ventures in the control of the Japanese (and hence why +they tend not to succeed). It is also the reason there are so many 'joint +ventures' between a Japanese company and a foreign one to enter the Japanese +market. Otherwise, the foreigner is forbidden to enter, or later set up to +fail. + + So, anyway to get around this law, I told him that I will open the +business in my Japanese wife's name, so now a Japanese owns the company. He +said 'you will still fail because as you find success in the market with your +inexpensive American goods, the other vendors will get angry at you. They will +politely ask you to raise your prices to that of the Japanese made goods so the +system doesn't get disrupted'. I, of course, replied that I would refuse to do +this as its not in the interest of my customers. He replied 'then the vendors +and the Japanese companies (such as Toshiba, Mitsubishi and other appliance +makers) will complain to the government. The government will then prevent you +(subtly though as free competition is 'the law' in Japan) from operating your +business successfully or profitably. New building permits for your stores will +be delayed for months for no reason. Business license paperwork will get +misfiled or lost without explanation causing you legal hardship. Goods will be +delayed unloading off your ships for 'too busy customs officials' or 'lost +somewhere on the pier for 6 weeks' making you miss delivery deadlines and +angering your customers...' Such 'subtle' persuasion is how you are brought +into line in Japan. + +True-life examples of this abound. Here are a few: + + This is exactly what was done when a foreign garment manufacturer tried +to sell their clothing in that country (threatening the domestic garment +industry). Customs delayed unloading of the goods until enough of the summer +season had passed making the summer fashion clothing unsaleable. Making foreign +farm produce which competes against domestic Japanese produce wait on ships +long enough to rot or not be appetizing to the consumer is an other practice. + + The Feb 10, 1992 of Time Magazine describes how a US lamp manufacturing +company encountered also exactly this problem. It took them 9 months to get +lamps off the ship sitting in the harbor and into retail stores in Japan after +customs, and other government agencies stalled and stalled (which cost this +particular company lots of money). + + Many anti-foreign goods laws are often written in the form of 'protection' +to the consumer. These are applied discretionarily and are really written to +prevent or make it expensive/slow/impossible for foreign goods to enter the +Japanese market. For example, one well known Japanese tactic is the use of only +one or two 'inspectors' who are responsible for 'inspecting' every single one +of an importer's products entering Japan (ie. bicycles or cars). As every item +must be individually 'inspected' (ie. ridden or driven) very carefully and one +at a time, this takes very very long to do (one never knows how long). This +causes enormous delays and costs the importer lots of money as well as +preventing timely delivery to the customer. Competing Japanese domestic goods +are often exempted from these 'consumer protection' laws as inspection is 'done +at the factory by the manufacturer'. + + Of some other more famous 'consumer protection 'laws, one for many years +banned US beef from Japan because 'Japanese intestines were the wrong length +and couldn't digest US beef which is too hard'. An other banned european skiis +because the snow in Japan was 'different'. US made towels were banned because +the fibers were 'too rough' for Japanese ears, which are 'softer' than ours. +All foreign rice is banned for 'national security'. Rice in Japan as a +consequence, is the most expensive in the world. + + Finally, as an example of the no-foreign ownership rule, the recent +baseball team fiasco comes to mind: Nintendo recently bought the Seattle +Mariners Pro Baseball team. It is in great irony that it is illegal under +Japanese law for an American to buy (very lucrative) Japanese Pro baseball +teams (from ABC News Nightline). + +THE BUSINESS CARTEL, KEIRETSU: + + Let us go now to a primer on Japanese business organization. Almost all +the significant companies in Japan are aligned into one of about 6 keiretsu or +business 'groupings'. These are loosely linked 'super-corporations' for lack +of a better term. Most of the Japanese companies whose brands we know and love +here in North America are in these keK;netsus. These keiretsus have been around +a very long time (before WWII) dating back to feudal-like family run trading +houses. Mitsubishi and Mitsui are two of the more famous ones. Famous companies +like Nissan, Toshiba, Sumitomo Bank are all in keiretsus. The keiretsus were +disbanded by U.S. forces during the occupation because it was feared they could +one day be dangerous to America. However, upon departure of U.S. occupying +troops from Japan, the ex-member companies rejoined each other to reconstitute +the keiretsus which had previously been disbanded. + + Here is why this is so important. Each of these keiretsus have under them, +member companies who operate in each of the major critical business areas. +These are: banking, distribution, steel making, heavy manufacturing and +electronics. Mitsubishi Bank, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Mitsubishi Heavy +Industries and a wide array of other Mitsubishi companies (several hundred) +making all kinds of other things are in a keiretsu. (Mitsubishi is unusual as +most of their operations have the same name). Each of the companies in the +keiretsu are independent and very specialized in what they do in all senses of +the word except for loyalty. Imagine a keiretsu is something like a college +fraternity, but for companies. Their individual independence is what keeps +things from getting too big and out of control, yet they can make a united +front for issues important to the national or keiretsu effort. + + To make the point, a car company and electronics company in the same +keiretsu have a long term relationship to help each other, for example to make +a really fancy computer control system for cars, or to make special +lift-loaders for the computer company's factory. If you walk into a Japanese +transplant auto assembly plant in the United States, you will find that the +equipment from the stamping presses to the forklifts are Japanese brands, even +if it is more expensive (in the short run) to do this. This is national and +keiretsu loyalty at work. + + Every Keiretsu has a bank. This is the heart of the keiretsu. The bank is +like a national central bank, but for the keiretsu. The bank takes money from +winning operations and gives it to new ventures in the keiretsu without the red +tape that a bank would usually give before lending to a new start up venture. +Having a bank who is in fact a part of your company means they will be fiercely +loyal, understand your business and not call your loans for silly reasons like +US banks do. This is much more efficient than the way America does banking and +lets companies join forces to use their capital much more effectively than the +US can. + + This is also why buying a Japanese product may put buyers of that product +out of a job, even if they work in a different industry. They take the profits +from the product that person bought, shift it through the keiretsu bank to +develop, invest in and dump products into the industry or market that person +now works in, and put them out of a job. See the telecommunications example at +the end of this paper for how this works in practice. + +COMMAND AND CONTROL: + + Japan's business effort is directed by the powerful Ministry of +International Technology and Industry (MITI). It decides national strategic +industrial policy and determines with the corporations, which industries to +target, enter, exit, take over...etc. This is where Japan's 'united front' when +entering a market is co-ordinated from. This is also why you often see several +Japanese companies entering a particular market at the same time (ie. TVs, and +more recently, luxury cars). By acting in unison, the companies, banks and +government can attack and overrun a foreign industry with a much bigger 'punch' +then had they done so separately. It also enables strategic moves which +countries like America cannot do as American business efforts are not +co-ordinated in any kind of way. + + In fact, such moves are illegal for US companies under antitrust laws from +the 1930s. This puts us at an enormous disadvantage against US Japanese rivals +as it is legal for example for Ford and Mazda to join forces, but not for Ford +and GM to do so. The US antitrust laws were written at a time when US companies +were the most powerful in the world. This is not true anymore and hurts America +greatly as US firms struggle in the world marketplace against large foreign +firms who are able to join their forces to defeat America's companies. + +THE PROTECTED HOME MARKET...JAPAN'S LAUNCH PAD TO THE WORLD: + + Japan has a protected home market which serves a very important purpose +to the country and the national business effort. The home market is for trying +out new products, copying and improving foreign designs, getting capital +(through price gouging) without fear of foreign companies entering and ruining +the game. + + An unwritten rule is that there is no real competition in the Japanese +home market between Japanese companies which are also strategic exporters. Real +competition occurs in foreign markets outside Japan. The home market is a +'safe' market where these companies can experiment with their products, improve +upon them, and fix problems with out fear of any real foreign competition +capitalizing on their blunders (a luxury our own companies do not have in +America). For example, SONY and Mazda did or had done this frequently within +Japan. The scheme works as follows and is the critical reason why a Japanese +company can enter almost any world market or industry from scratch and overrun +it so quickly: + + Imagine Sony comes out with a new type cassette player which is very +small. It breaks often because the small plastic gears inside are of low +quality and wear out (this was true, actually). This machine though, is only +sold within Japan. Only in the future when it is perfected will it be sold to +the outside world. Now lets imagine GE is the dominant manufacturer in this +market worldwide. They want to sell their player in Japan (which is better than +SONY's) but can't because they are forbidden for all the reasons mentioned in +this article. Sony fixes their gear problems, tests it in the home market (this +is one reason why the latest Japanese products hit the Japanese market at least +6 months before anywhere else) and later exports it abroad. Sony maintains its +good reputation in America as their player works well (the US customer never +got a machine with the defective gears). Sony sells this player at 3/4's the +cost to make it in order to increase their market share and drive GE out of the +cassette player business. Sony doesn't go bankrupt doing this because they can +sell players in Japan at twice the cost to make them and hence cover their +losses in America. Because GE is forbidden to sell in Japan, and can't make +money at home in America because Japanese players sold there are too cheap, +they surrender and lose market share. GE asks the US government for help but +is refused. Later when this is exposed, GE is accused of 'whining' and 'not +trying hard enough to enter the Japanese market' by the Japanese Prime +Minister. + + Now, imagine the reverse situation. GE also makes a machine that is poor +quality in its home market of America (this was also true). The Japanese then +enter unimpeded, dump their perfected goods here and drive GE out of the +market. As you can see, whenever a US company makes a mistake in the home +market, it suffers greatly, but when a Japanese company does in their home +market, they don't suffer so much. Hence, even if the American company is more +efficient and generally of higher quality, the Japanese companies will +ultimately defeat the US competition. This is true even if the US companies +make fewer and smaller mistakes over the same period of time because the US +company gets hurt for a mistake in the home market, but the Japanese one does +not. For example, Japanese car companies have also come out with disasters +comparable to the 'exploding Ford Pinto'. But by using their protected market +for experimentation and improvement, they are able to resolve problems like +this before they arrive on our shores. Our car companies have no such luxury +and hence suffer the consequences each time they make a mistake. This is an +other reason why the Japanese protected/non competitive home market is so +important to their success. + + The non-competitive home market serves an other important function to +Japanese industry. Smaller/weaker Japanese companies are allowed to survive +because it is possible they may some day have a 'winner' which would be good +for Japan (this actually happened to Mazda with the Miata and other recent +offerings in their foreign markets). If the company were bankrupt though, they +could not come up with 'winners' sometime in the future. Its better to let the +weak competitors survive in Japanese market in the hopes they become strong +someday. Because of laws restricting foreign ownership as well as +'cross-holding' agreements between the Japanese companies, there is very little +risk a non-Japanese company could take over these weaker players and enter the +Japanese market. Unfortunately, the same protection is not bestowed among +America's promising small companies who are easily taken over by major Japanese +players who want their technology. + + The no-home-competition point is ironic, because some newspaper reporters +who don't understand the Japanese economy write quotes like "there are 7 car +companies in Japan (a country with 1/2 the population of America) therefore the +car industry must be extremely competitive in Japan". The truth is that there +are 7 car companies in Japan because there is almost *NO* competition in the +home market. This is why their market shares in Japan are stable. They are +basically fixed. If there were competition, the strong players like Toyota and +Nissan would have absorbed or bankrupted their less powerful rivals like Mazda +and Daihatsu long ago. + +WHAT IS DUMPING AND WHY IS IT BAD: + + A New York Times writer last year wrote in his commentary that Japanese +companies are foolish because they practice 'dumping' (selling their products +here for a price lower than it costs to make them), and that he hopes they +continue as it benefits the American consumer. His article is misguided and +shows why it is so difficult to understand why Japanese business practices are +so dangerous to America. + + Some Americans think buying dumped products is good. This happens because +they don't see the real costs to themselves which are not on the low sticker +price. These costs turn out to be higher to the buyer than the savings on the +product price (otherwise the Japanese would not be dumping... ...there's no +such thing as the deal that's too good to be true). The key is that this cost +is indirect but very real nevertheless. It turns up somewhere else than at the +checkout counter and is how Japan profits by 'dumping'. + + The cost to America (and the benefit to Japan) turns up in the long term. +This is why it is not seen so easily. It turns up in America as unemployment, +closed factories and reduced national strength as US companies cannot compete +against this practice. Japan's factories run, their people get jobs and later +on Japan makes much more profit than it originally cost to do the dumping. +Japan can do dumping by raising prices in the home Japanese market to pay for +dumping in America. US companies don't have this luxury as the US market is +open to the outside world and prices cannot be artificially raised to pay for +dumping elsewhere. + +ECONOMIC STRATEGY, WHAT IT ALL MEANS: + + Many people ask, what is a national industrial strategy. Some people claim +it is a form of socialism or communism. Nothing could be further from the +truth. Again, the best explanation is by example. + + A few years ago Japanese industry co-ordinated a successful attack to take +over the entire world commercial supply of LCD computer screens by selling them +at 1/3 the price to make them, (PBS Frontline, "Losing the war with Japan") and +waiting for the small US upstarts who invented them to go bankrupt. As a +result, today all LCD screens in any non military computer in the world are +made in Japan. This is a very strategic component because it will be used in +portable computers, medical imaging equipment, videophones, HDTV, touch +sensitive visual programmable refrigerators and stereos..etc. + + If you are a non Japanese maker of any of the above items, this is very +bad for you, because you will have to go to the Japanese to buy these screens +to put into your product (say a portable PC computer). However, the Japanese +companies also want to make these products too (entering your industry is part +of their long term strategic plan (which is 200 years long)). As a result, they +want to make you uncompetitive. They do this by selling these screens to you +at a price higher than they sell the same screens to Japanese PC makers (which +might even be the same company as the screen maker). They can do this because +they have destroyed the US competition. You are forced to go to them if you +want these screens. + + You need these screens though so your PCs can compete with the Japanese +PCs which will be on the market soon, so you must buy them as there is no other +supply. This means though, that your PCs are more expensive then the Japanese +ones because you are paying more for your critical components than the Japanese +companies are paying. ...You lose... + + Besides offering to sell you the screen at some ridiculously high price, +the Japanese will often offer to manufacture your entire product at a +reasonable price and put your name on it. For example, some of the Mac +Powerbook portable computers are not Macs at all, but really SONYs. Most +portable PC computers today are made in Japan for the above reasons (even if +they have American brand names on them). + + This type of deal is really nice for Japan because it gives the Japanese +companies the rest of the technology to make your product (besides the +strategic component). This also makes you dependant on them for all your +manufacturing (because your factory is now closed, your workers unemployed and +new ones too hard to train quickly). Finally, your Japanese supplier can bypass +you entirely at a future date and sell the computers they make for you, but +with their own name on them. They do this in the factory your sales helped them +to build in the first place. Mitsubishi did this to Chrysler with cars, first +it was the Eagle Talon, then later the Mitsubishi Eclipse....both cars are +identical, but really Mitsubishi's. + + The LCD screen monopoly is what enables Japanese companies to have such +a large market share in portable PCs which use these screens yet almost no +market share in desktop PC computers (which don't need these screens). Japan +hasn't been able to take over the desktop PC market because its still advancing +too quickly and they have no monopoly on any critical components in these +machines. As a result, this industry can still belong to America. America is +able to hold on rapidly advancing industries through innovation, but Japan +cannot. This is because by the time Japan copies a foreign design, it is +already obsolete. Japan has poor luck trying to hit a moving industrial target +and will usually miss. So long as an industry moves fast enough, and the +Japanese don't succeed in taking hold of some critical component of that +industry, the US will be able to hang on to it until it slows down or matures, +then the Japanese can successfully take it over. + + By focusing on taking over markets like LCD screens, critical computer +chips, high precision machining, and auto manufacturing, Japan has +significantly reduced America's ability to make these things in time of +national need. Japan lost World War II because they had a poor manufacturing +base (they had to stockpile for 4 years before starting World War II). They +have learned very well from that mistake, which now America is making. + + This example shows why something like LCD screens are a strategic +component and why Japan needs to dominate this industry. This is what is meant +by a famous Japanese phrase: 'Business is War'. Key markets overlooking +industries are like peaks overlooking cities. The strategy in a business war +and economic war is the same, and the outcome is the same. Domestic factories +are gone because the industry has been killed economically (rather than being +bombed), workers are out of a job, and the target country has much less power +and safety in the world. It is like a real war, but less bloody. + +THE ECONOMIC WAR, A SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL PLAN: + + Free world trade is a good thing for all countries. Generally, countries +raising protectionist barriers against each other is very bad. This in fact, +helped cause the 1929 depression. What is happening now though is worse. +Although some will tell you that the US and Japan are practicing free bilateral +trade, this is not true. Today, Japan and America have basically a one-way +trade relationship. Japan closes their market towards us, but we don't towards +them. + + Some say that Japan has a national strategy to control economically, what +it could not get militarily 50 years ago. An impulsive claim perhaps. But, +today, I am not so sure. + + Some may think that only America is having trade problems with Japan +right now. This is not true. Most other industrial countries in the world are +in the same predicament. Today, Japan has a huge trade surplus not only with +America, but with almost every other country in the world it trades with. This +happens when Japan buys less in products from other countries than the other +countries buy from Japan. This is bad because it means Japan takes money out +of America's economy and uses it for their own purposes (such as buying our +real estate, or companies). + + Japan's trade surplus is no accident. It is not the result of Japanese +efficiency, American laziness or anything else the Japanese government +officials may tell you on the TV. The real cause is this: Japan trade patterns +are not bi-directional in the common sense where two countries buy each others +exports and a happy state of affairs results. Japanese policy is to +intentionally use foreign cash profits not to buy a foreign country's +exportable products, but rather its capital assets like companies, real-estate +and art, while preventing the other countries from doing the same thing in +Japan. This enables Japan to get wealthy and powerful extremely quickly while +still being more inefficient and averse to business risk than its trading +partners. When 'whiners and Japan bashers' claim Japan is 'cheating', the +following is what they are trying to say. Here is an explanation of how it +works. + +-->Defense: + + There is a three tier economic defense which the Japanese use. First is +a set of laws which severely restrict/prevent foreign ownership and control of +Japanese companies and assets in Japan. As a consequence, GM must sell their +cars through Isuzu and Ford through Mazda. Chrysler doesn't sell many cars in +Japan. Long ago Ford used to have a large market share in Japan but the +government closed their operations and forced them out of the country. Today, +foreigners typically cannot own Japanese companies, especially those in +strategic industries such as manufacturing and technology. It is because of +these laws and regulations that you hear about so many 'joint' ventures between +US and Japanese companies, where the venture is intended to help the US company +penetrate the 'difficult' Japanese market. These joint ventures really enable +the Japanese companies to get foreign technology without having to invent it +themselves. The foreign company gets only a token market share in the Japanese +market in return. + + It was in this way Japan learned from the US companies how to make TV's +in the 1960's. More recently, the Japanese government recently forced Texas +Instruments to join a venture with SONY, where SONY got technology in exchange +for TI being able to sell some of their products in Japan. + + The second defense mechanism is the wide 'cross holding' of stock shares +between the companies in Japan. This basically works by having the Japanese +companies print up lots of shares and exchanging equal values of these shares +with other Japanese companies. This is very cheap for the companies there to +do. As these shares are never given up or sold, they are effectively taken out +of circulation. Because companies own such a large percentage of each others +shares, it is impossible for a foreign firm or individual to accumulate enough +shares (51%) to take over a Japanese company. As a result, a foreign takeover +of a major Japanese company has never occured. + + A side note of all this is that Japanese companies are able to think long +term because they don't have to answer to stock holders at the annual +shareholders meeting. Because so many shares are cross held, private +shareholders tend to be not so significant in number and hence not a threat to +the board. This is why US companies must worry about short term performance so +much, often at the expense of wiser long term decisions. Japanese companies do +not have to worry about this, so they tend to invest much more in the future +than we do and hence are much more successful. + + The final defense system is a well set up structure of government laws, +behaviour and corporate co-operation which prevent foreign companies who get +around the first defense system from succeeding to make money by selling +products in Japan. The government delays foreign entry of goods through lots +of intentional customs and other regulatory snafu's as well as red tape +designed to hinder a foreign company to the point it becomes non competitive +in the Japanese market place. + +-->Offense: + + The offensive strategy is also a three tiered system. Firstly, government +(through the powerful Ministry of International Technology and Industry) and +corporations co-ordinate and select targeted strategic industries which they +want to enter, or take over. + + Secondly, they obtain the basic technology (often from the current foreign +firms in the industry), then copy and improve upon it. They do trials, have +failures and make further improvements in the Japanese home market which is +protected against encroachment by foreign firms which may be already +established in the rest of the world within that particular industry. + + The final and most critical stage in the offensive system is the practice +of product dumping in order to gain market share overseas. Japanese companies +will initially export a product overseas at a price usually lower than it costs +to make it. The same product is usually sold in Japan at a higher price so the +Japanese company doesn't go bankrupt. This lets the Japanese companies increase +their marketshare as foreign buyers tend to buy the lowest price quality +product. This places stress on non-Japanese competition. Sometimes the foreign +competition is a well deserved target (ie. poor quality US autos), but more +often they are not. Once the foreign competition has given up, or has been +sufficiently weakened and the Japanese dominate that industry, they bring the +prices to a level reflecting cost of manufacture and development and move on +to the next market they want to take over. Using this technique, the Japanese +can enter and take over in a short while, almost any industry they choose no +matter how unrelated (which they have done). Their system is virtually +foolproof as long as you have trading partners and individual consumers who +tolerate or don't understand the dynamics of what's really happening. + + It should be noted that raising the price of a good within Japan in order +to pay for dumping in the foreign country is becoming less and less prevalent +as the Japanese companies today have enough cash to finance dumping in the +foreign country strictly from cash reserves. Once they have wiped out the +foreign competition, the profits start to roll in. + + In some ways this is America's fault as Japan has taken advantage of the +open US market, as well as America's tolerance to Japan's closed market in +order to help them rebuild their country after WWII. Ironically, America's best +scientists and engineers are working for military projects, whereas Japan's are +working on commercial ventures, where the war is actually being waged. + +SUCCESS DOESN'T ALWAYS COME THE FIRST TIME: + + Sometimes, the Japanese will fail at first to enter a market. For example, +the Japanese auto companies entered, and retreated from the US auto market +several times before making their successful onslaught. During the intervals +that they were not so active in the US market, they were learning from their +mistakes, improving, refining and testing their products in their protected +home market, preparing to enter the US market again at a later time, which +ultimately they did. + + This strategy is still used today. For example, recently the Hitachi +company, a major Japanese telecommunications maker announced it was withdrawing +from the US telephone switching market (large specialized computers used by +telephone companies to make your phones work). It would be foolish on the part +of the US telecommunications makers to believe that they have defeated Hitachi +(some actually believe they have) because telecommunications is a Japanese +government designated target strategic industry and Hitachi will most certainly +be in it in the future (as they have for 40 years). As happened in the auto +industry, Hitachi is at home right now refining and improving their products +based on what they learned from their last campaign in America. They will be +back stronger than before. I know this because I saw some of their new and +upcoming products when I was Japan. Once their improvements are complete and +proven in the home market, they will re-enter the US market, possibly +surprising America's domestic makers. + +INNOVATION: + + A serious problem, which the Japanese themselves have acknowledged, is the +lack of originality and innovation. This is quite notable when you look at +their companies' histories. The Toshiba company in Tokyo has a big science +center with a time line of its history on a wall. On it were its achievements. +It read something like 'transistor imported into Japan 1950, manufactured here +in 1953', 'teletype imported 1931, manufactured here 1935'...etc. There were +no inventions, only refinements. Hitachi, NTT (the telephone company), Nissan +and Matsushita had similar 'timelines' in their centers with quotes like above. + + This happens because inventing means failure (for a time at least) and no +guarantee of success. Because the Japanese cannot be seen to fail (this is +shameful and very bad in Japan), they do not invent. As their companies become +more powerful, I wondered who would be around to make the discoveries like +xerography, the transistor and LCD TV (all invented in USA). I found two +Japanese government sponsored organizations in Japan with the task of short +circuiting this problem. + + One, the Technology Transfer Institute, specializes in finding small +companies around the world with new technology and helping Japanese firms buy +the technology. If the Japanese firm wants it but can't buy it, they sometimes +steal it by patenting similar items copied from the foreign company's original +and then intimidating/bankrupting the small company through a blizzard of legal +action. If the company is publicly traded, or the owner wants to sell, the +company is bought outright by the Japanese. America, unlike Japan, makes no +effort to protect its strategic companies from foreign takeover. Imagine your +small company and its patents versus the attorney war chest of Mitsubishi +Industrial Company. + + This is actually what happened to Fusion Systems, a small American firm +which invented and patented a new way to get spray paint to stick on pop cans +(PBS Frontline, "American Game, Japanese Rules"). Mitsubishi bought one of this +firm's machines and came out a few months later with one of their own. The +small firm sued. Mitsubishi then made many small modifications to the machine +(not improvements, just voluminous iterative changes), patented all of them and +sued the US company many times over (for each patent). Mitsubishi just waited +for Fusion Systems to run out of money defending them all (and offered to drop +the cases if the small company sold them the rights to the machine). + + If Japan can't get technology this way, they get it free from public +foreign research. A Japanese institution exists which is called the 'Japan +Research Foundation'. It actually does no research, but translates foreign +research papers into Japanese for the Japanese companies to use. + + A major reason for getting foreign research this way is that Japanese +universities themselves don't do much research. Their equipment is extremely +outdated (in contrast to corporate labs). These schools are literally straight +out of the third world (possibly the last physical part of the third world +still in Japan). University is a place for students to drink and party before +joining a company, often for life. At the University of Tokyo, the most +prestigious university in all of Japan, the buildings are in extreme state of +disrepair. Stench of raw sewage permeates and leaks down the hallways of the +buildings and the (often drunk) students live in extreme squalor. Academics did +not seem to be taken seriously by the students who were too busy drinking or +playing sports. The libraries were almost devoid of students. Some buildings +like the Library for American Studies were very nice, but many others were in +shambles. Half of all the windows in many of the buildings were broken and +glass was strewn about the floors. There were no working safety/fire control +systems. Electricity wires were hanging exposed in hallways and lighting was +not functioning (for many years it seemed) in parts of buildings. Old gas +stoves were running unattended in kitchens with cardboard covering broken +windows. Piles of garbage and wrecked cars were strewn about the campus and +behind buildings. Nothing had been painted or cleaned in about 20 years. The +grass hadn't been cut in a very long time and had reached full height. Cats and +other creatures lived in some of the buildings. The school swimming pool was +a filthy algead mess. If this seems unbelievable, one can get off at +Todai-komaba station in Tokyo and go see for themselves. This is all the more +surprising as the rest of the country is so rich and modern, more so than most +parts of America today. + + There is an important reason for all of this. In the world, universities +typically do research to advance learning and science for the world. This is +extremely expensive to fund, and is a lousy way for a country to get the most +value for its money, so Japan does not do this. The Japanese government makes +no effort to seriously support its universities. Furthermore, unlike their US +counterparts, Japanese companies give no money to universities. This does not +mean that Japan does not value basic university research. Quite to the +contrary. It is far cheaper to let the other countries' schools and governments +do and pay for basic research (which is published openly to the world) and to +simply translate and read their papers. + + Japanese research money and results stays in the corporate and government +labs, where it may be kept secret from the foreign countries, which are the +enemy in the economic war. Japan does do research (lots of it actually), but +not for public dissemination and world advancement. Research is done to gain +advantage over their rivals. Last year, the Toshiba Company alone spent more +on research than was spent (privately and publicly) in all the country of +Canada. This is the fundamental reason why Japan refuses to fund universities +and diverts it to corporate research instead. It is something we must +understand. + + Ironically, it may not be a weakness of theirs that their universities are +so awful. If they know that they can get research from America for free, they +are smart to put their money in their private and company labs instead; where +they can use it against US companies in order to defeat them. + + In spite of all this, Japanese workers still get an excellent education. +This is because education up to (but not including) university is very good and +extremely well funded. In great contrast to the universities, the elementary, +secondary and tertiary schools are very well stocked with the best of +equipment, facilities and teachers. They are as nice as anything in America. +Furthermore, highly specialized training programs are provided to newly hired +workers when they join their companies. This makes up for the weakness of the +Japanese university system. + + A further point to this, companies do not to give grants to charities (nor +universities). Corporate citizenry doesn't not exist in Japan in the way we +know it here. This is why it is extremely rare to find Japanese corporate run +foundations in Japan or America. This is also why it is extremely unusual to +see for example, a PBS program sponsored by a Japanese company (though +recently, this is changing for the US branches of Japanese firms as they learn +how important Americans relate charity to a company's image). + +JAPANESE PEOPLE AND THE MARKET: + + The Japanese people are extremely kind and polite, don't go stealing +things out of each other's houses nor do they go shooting each other as much +as Americans do. They are however naive about the forces in their world around +them (a point which probably can also be made about America's own citizens). +There is little individual thought nor questioning of the government and +companies, which is very dangerous. This is compounded by the fact that 1 +political party (the LDP) has ruled the country ever since it has had a +democratic constitution. Results of this include the fact that many cartels +operate in the country yet no one seems to notice this occurs. Many Japanese +aren't even aware that foreign countries make the same products that Japanese +companies make. Formally, Japan has laws against cartels, but they are not +enforced. Only one major cartel group has been prosecuted in the last 15 years +(plastic wrap companies), and this was only after a lot of pressure from the +United States. As America's power in the world diminishes, so will its ability +to exert such pressure. + + Ordinary Japanese don't have much idea of why they can't buy foreign goods +at reasonable prices in their stores. When I asked Japanese people why they +don't buy American (or other foreign goods), they often say because they can't +find them, or they are much too expensive. This is true. + + Foreign goods are often impossible to buy at any price and are usually +very expensive when found. For example, I looked for, but found no Korean +products at all in Japan even though this country is very close to Japan on the +map (1000 miles max distance). Because Korea has little political influence, +it cannot pressure Japan to allow their products in. As a consequence Korea +cannot sell their products in Japan even though they make many of the same +types of high quality electronics and automotive goods the Japanese make, but +at a lower price. US (and other foreign products) which must face a Japanese +domestic maker are also extremely hard to find in Japan. Even the American +flags in the Tokyo-Shinjuku Mitsukoshi department store were made in Japan. + + I realized that Japanese people would buy American goods if they could when +I told them the prices of US and Japanese goods in America. I used some of the +examples in this paper to try to explain why there was 'Japan bashing' in +America. I also happened to have a US newspaper, so I showed them product +prices of US and Japanese goods in America. I took them out into their shops +and proved the differences to them. When I finished, they were shocked at what +I had just shown them. Japanese goods are sometimes cheaper in America than in +Japan and non Japanese goods are much more expensive in Japan than they should +be, especially if the goods are in an industry targeted by the Japanese +companies and government. + + For example, the major Japanese appliance manufacturers are planning to +enter the US market for appliances (refrigerators, stoves, vacuums) in the +1990's. In a major Hiroshima appliance store (the only store I could find any +foreign appliances), I saw a GE refrigerator selling for $3000 (US). This was +a very low end model you could buy here in America for about $600. The Toshiba +right next to it was a high end model and sold for $2500. It is these Japanese +cartel tactics which lead ordinary Japanese people to believe that US goods are +inferior and overpriced. In America, Japanese made Sears brand refrigerators +similar to the Toshiba sold for about $1000. This didn't seem right to me. The +government and more elite business people I spoke with already knew about these +points and acknowledged that they could see it was a 'problem' for America. + +ESCALATOR DOLLS AND OFFICE LADIES: + + An escalator doll is a young women in her 20's who stands by the escalator +all day and welcomes you to the floor of the store or office building. She says +goodbye and thank you when you leave. You find these at Mitsukoshi (the +classiest department store I've ever walked into), the Toyota main showroom in +Tokyo, the government offices and the corporation offices (Sony, Toshiba, +Nissan..). Other women serve as temporary labor to bear the bumps generated by +the economic cycle. It is these people (and foreigners) who get laid off in +order to permit a system of lifetime employment for the Japanese males. +Escalator dolls (and their counterparts within corporate offices, 'Office +Ladies') must often sign a contract with the employer stating that they will +quit when they reach the age of 25. The true purpose of these girls (besides +serving tea and welcoming guests) is to be marriage material for the men, who +are at work for such long hours that they have difficulty to find women on +their own. + + Young women in Japan are typically expected to marry by 25 years old. A +well known quote in Japan makes the point bluntly: "Single women are like +Christmas cake, after the 25th, useless, so they go for 1/2 price." Marrying +by 25 is important. If a women is nearing 25 and can't find a mate, chances are +she will have a pre-arranged wedding to an eligible bachelor set up by the +parents. + + I sometimes wonder how much of a willingness to change the system exists +in Japan, even among the women themselves. While there, I met one Japanese +woman who went to university in America and studied Political Science. I asked +her what she thought of the way Japan treated their women. She didn't see a +problem. In her opinion, women should stay at home as it leads to family +stability and enables the husband to concentrate on his work and not family +affairs. I asked her where she was working. She works at a Japanese company as +a tea server (office lady). 'What would you like to do at your job in the +future', I asked. She replied 'they told me that if I did a good job now, I +could be a secretary in a few years and file things'. This person has a +university degree. + + In Japan, the percentage of women who are managers of men is much lower +than in America. Furthermore, women typically don't hold any positions of +importance. They are more like office decoration or marriage material for the +men. It may also surprise you, but almost all women in Japanese companies, +regardless of professional status or level in the organization are required to +prepare and serve tea daily for the men as part of their daily chores. + +"BUSINESS IS WAR": + + This is a well known quote in Japan. It may be surprising, but this has +more meaning to the Japanese than you may first think. The word 'business man' +in Japanese translates literally into English as 'Company Soldier'. Japanese +businessmen do not have pictures of their family or loved ones at the office +because they 'do not mix family with battle'. When a Japanese man joins a +company, he usually does so for life. His first allegiance and loyalty is to +this company and his team. His family, if he has one, is secondary in +importance. It should be noted that this philosophy does not begin when one +joins a Japanese company. It begins much earlier in life; in elementary school: + + While I was in Japan, I went to an elementary school to see Japanese +students participate in their 'Olympic Sports Day'. This event though, was +quite unusual. There were no individual activities, and the theme of the day +was extremely militaristic in nature. There were two main teams, the red and +white teams symbolizing the country's national colors. They had big banners, +taiko (battle) drums which the team leader beat on while chanting the team +slogan. Contests were set up such that if one person made an error in the +competition, the whole team would suffer. Rewards, and failure were shared +among all members of the team. Stress and peer pressure were very high, as they +are for most Japanese throughout their lifetimes. Before the competition, +everyone on the teams sang the school anthem louder and more clearly than I +ever heard any anthem sung here in America. Their diligence and effort were +quite remarkable. + + What we call individuality in America is called deviation (be it in +school, or at work) in Japan. It is not tolerated nor tried very much. (In +fact, kids who's hair is not black enough get it dyed so as not to get in +trouble at school by the teacher). Anyone with an 'outsider's' mind is rejected +by the others, even by the teacher. A consequence resulting from this fact +appears when families who have lived outside Japan for a few years return to +the country. These people have a lot of trouble being accepted and integrating +back into Japanese society. + + 'Peer stresses' in Japan are very strong. Many kids can't take it and +commit suicide before reaching university age. Many Japanese suffer from a wide +variety of stress related nervous ticks and twitches (if you ride the subway +in Tokyo and look at the other riders, you will notice this very readily). + +MILITARISM: + + In the book 'Japan that can say no! (to America)', by Akio Morita (CEO of +SONY) and Shintaro Ishihara (an influential parliament member), the authors +state that Japan has under development the world's most advanced military jet +because American made planes are not suitable for Japanese terrain, which is +'different' because it has mountains. I also learned about one Japanese who +quit the Fujitsu company partially because they were working on a nuclear +weapons research project and didn't feel a Japanese company should be involved +in such work. In Japan, Fujitsu has built at least 2 nuclear breeder reactors +(such reactors often are used to enrich plutonium for nuclear weapons). The +Japanese claim however, that they are for peaceful purposes. Hopefully this is +so. + + The military mindset even extends to city planning. Most streets in Tokyo +have no names in order to 'confuse the enemy' in the event Japan was ever to +be invaded again. The US Army did name many of the streets during the +occupation, but these were removed by the Japanese shortly after US occupying +forces left the country. + + There also exists a well funded extremist nationalist movement in Japan +which posts large posters at most major intersections and subway stations in +Tokyo calling for restoration of the emperor as ruler and re-militarization of +the country. Every day in the business and shopping areas of the city, vans +drive around with huge loudspeakers blaring nationalistic music and making the +above demands. Apparently, the older Japanese ignore this, aware of the west's +generosity after the war, but feelings of the younger people who don't have the +memories of Japan's dark past are more uncertain. What is happening today in +Germany may be a foreshadowing of things to come. + + This may seem implausible at first, but not after one looks at Japanese +elementary students' textbooks. In the texts, the sections about World War II +are extremely distorted. In these books, Japan is played out as the victim to +world aggression and the atrocities of the Japanese Imperial Army are not +mentioned anywhere. The massive US aid to rebuild Japan after the war is +mentioned on only one line which went "America provided Japan with some help". +Japan's postwar success is credited only to the hardworking values of its +people (partially true), and not to US aid for reconstruction of its industries +(paid for by American tax payers), free access to the US market, and US +tolerance of Japan's closed market. After reading these books, one is lead to +believe that WWII was America's fault. It is hoped that the younger Japanese +learn what really happened before their parents grow old and die, or America +and Japan may face new misunderstanding and confrontation in the future. + +EFFICIENCY: + + Japan is perceived by the outside world to be an efficient country. In +actuality, Japan is a very inefficient country. The subway people count change +out of tin plates. The valuable intellectual resource of women is wasted by +giving them only the most menial jobs such as 'escalator dolls' and tea +servers. The farming system is one of the most inefficient you will find in the +modern world. Because of this inefficiency, there are a lot of people employed +on the farms who otherwise may not have a job. Although this is an inefficient +use of people and resources, it helps maintain a low unemployment rate. The +protected domestic market keeps all this from collapsing. As a result Japan can +be inefficient, yet still be rich. It is now per-capita, the richest +industrialized country in the world (and is expected to be the richest +absolutely by the year 2000, surpassing America). It may surprise many people, +but the most efficient country in the world is the United States, not Japan. +Japan ranks a bit of the way down. In manufacturing though, they are best in +the world. + +TRUE, BUT ONLY ON THE SURFACE: + + it is claimed that Japanese transplant factories in the USA are good for +America and create jobs. Although a Japanese transplant factory may be good for +the town which gets it, its bad for the country as a whole. Japanese factories +opened here tend to be only assembly plants. This is important because most of +the value of manufactured products resides in the research and development of +machine tools, plastics, technology as well as the manufacture of parts which +make up that product. There is little value in assembling pre-made parts +together to make a final product. Parts machining and manufacturing (and those +jobs) is typically done in Japan, with the finished parts being shipped to the +US for final assembly. This is true even for Japanese products 'made in USA' +like the famous 'US made Honda Accord'. As a result, when a Japanese auto plant +opens in the US; for every 1 job created, an other 4 are lost (in the parts and +high tech sectors of US industry). Hence, the true consequences are bad for +America as we lose the technology on how to make advanced manufactured +components. Final assembly of Japanese auto parts is pretty low tech and also +doesn't keep money in America. Final assembly only adds about $700 to the price +of a car. This is the only money which stays here when you buy a 'US made' +Japanese car. The costs of paying for welfare and unemployment for unemployed +US engineers and parts maker employees are much much higher and later wind up +on American's tax bills. + + An other claim goes that "America is successful in Japan and one only has +to look at Mcdonald's, Disneyland and others to see America's success". These +are not 'American successes' in Japan because in reality, these are Japanese +owned franchise companies. Their appearance is American, but their ownership, +production and management is Japanese. A very small token number of foreign +companies are allowed to have a presence in Japan (ie. Toys-R-Us, P&G, BMW, +Kodak, IBM), but their overall market share is kept quite small via the means +described in this paper. + +EXAMPLE, HOW ALL THIS WORKS TOGETHER: + + Buying a Japanese product, even in an industry unrelated to yours can +cause you to lose your job! This is much more likely than one may think. Many +otherwise smart people do not understand this so I will explain it with the +following true example: + + AT&T is a large US telecommunications manufacturer that is well placed in +the world market and hence pays its employees very well. Many of them like to +buy Hondas, Acuras, Mitsubishis and Toyotas. Most of these Japanese companies +are in one of the 6 or so keiretsus in Japan. + + MITI and Japanese industry have publicly declared the world +telecommunications manufacturing industry to be a Japanese national priority +(target). As a result, they have planned and are starting to execute a strategy +to enter and to become the major player (today, they are a very minor force) +in the telecommunications industry during the 1990s. In fact, they have a plan +to wire every house in Japan with fiber optic cable within the next 10-15 years +in order to perfect making fiber and its associated communications hardware. + + Japan will have to spend money to research and develop their new +telecommunications equipment. This will be very expensive and they will need +the help of the keiretsu banks to do it. Where do the banks get this money? +From their biggest export of course, automobile sales. This means that although +AT&T managers and engineers only bought cars, they are helping fund Toshiba's, +NEC's, Hitachi's and Matsushita's effort to put them out of a job. + + Imagine one of AT&T's engineers recently bought a new Honda automobile. +One day, that engineer loses his job due to fierce Japanese competition in the +telecommunications industry, get into his Honda, go home, yet never ever equate +the two events! + + Let's continue this example a little further to summarize this paper The +Japanese want to enter a new industry, telecommunications. Based on previous +experience, this is how they are likely to do it. + + Firstly, telecommunications in the future will be based on something +called digital technology. This will enable those picture-phones you used to +see on Star-Trek to be a reality. Fiber optic cable and data transmission are +very important to do this too. This is why they want to get good at making +fiber optic cable by making and putting fiber cable all over their entire +country. + + Today, the Japanese are lousy at making high quality major +telecommunications equipment that your telephone company would buy. In the +world market though, there is lots of money to be made in this, which right now +AT&T mostly gets. Because Japan doesn't know how to make good telecom +equipment, they will need to do three things: + +>1) get some good telecom equipment so they can copy it and improve it. + +>2) pick a very strategic but simple niche market in the industry and take it +over completely (ie. dumping) to get a foothold so they can use it as an anchor +to increase the market share in telecommunications (same strategy as the LCD +screens example above). + +>3) start small. + + It turns out they have already started to do these things. For (1), they +promised some US big name telecom makers that they might get a piece of the +Japanese telecommunications market in return for a small sale of their best +equipment to the Japanese national telephone company. AT&T and other North +American firms fell for this scheme (maybe the laid off TV maker executives +went to work for AT&T). AT&T sold them one copy of their most advanced +equipment for a promise from the Japanese to 'possibly' buy many more. This is +foolish as AT&T has just let a country which has made a public declaration to +be the world leader in telecommunications get a copy of their best equipment. +AT&T's equipment will get copied and show up as Japanese brands a few years +from now. Perhaps AT&T doesn't understand that Japanese phone companies and +Japanese manufacturers work together to defeat foreign firms like AT&T. Hence, +selling equipment to a Japanese phone company is not much different from +selling it to a competing Japanese manufacturer. + + For (2), Japan already has acquired two main strategic industries. +Firstly, as you know they have 100% market share in the small LCD screens that +the new picture phones and tele-computers/tele-bank machines will use. If AT&T +wants to make a picturephone, they have to get the screen from their +competition who also makes these phones (which I saw when I was Japan). Imagine +the laptop computer example above all over again. This is an other reason why +these small LCD screens are so strategic. Secondly, Japan has made an effort +to be the best and cheapest (via dumping) at making a highly specialized +component of fiber optic transmission systems which America uses in its +network. Now Japan's salesmen talk to almost every phone company in the world +to sell them this part. Now on his future visits, he can use his existing +contacts to sell them other things Japan will soon be making. + + For (3), you probably have already seen what's going on when you go +shopping. Panasonic, Murata, Fujitsu and others all make very fancy electronic +phones. They also make small telephone switching equipment (like AT&T's smaller +products). Eventually, these will get bigger and bigger until they make the +bread and butter items of AT&T. This is the same strategy they used to enter +the car market too. They started with motorcycles, moved to cheap cars, then +to trucks, then to sports cars, then to luxury cars. Today we know the results. +Again, this is also true with TVs, first they made black and whites, then color +TVs. Today the TV in your house is most likely Japanese (even if its a store +brand). This was an industry which America had 100% market share about 25 years +ago. This is what is likely to happen to telecommunications too. + +ITS NOT ALL JAPAN'S FAULT: + + American's behavior when trying to do business in Japan is not what it +should be. After seeing how some American firms operate there, it is little +wonder our success rate is often so poor. For example, something of an +annoyance (and also advantage) to the Japanese is American business people +working in Japan who don't speak Japanese, or know nothing about the country +they are dealing with. These included some trade representatives from an Oregon +company, some people from Boeing whom I met at a Nissan factory, and some from +the Government of Wisconsin at a machine tools fair trying to attract Japanese +industry to their state. + + The group of businessmen I met from the Oregon company I met in Roppongi +(an entertainment district in Tokyo). These people were a disgrace to American +industry and opened my eyes to why the Japanese are able to take advantage of +us in business. Firstly, these men spoke no Japanese at all (so they couldn't +understand what their opponents at the negotiating table were saying) and knew +nothing about the culture. They asked me what it was like to be a 'gringo' in +Japan. It seemed that they thought the business adversaries they were +negotiating against in Japan were running some 2 peso Mexican hot dog factory. +My conversation with them was a real eye opener to many of America's problems +when dealing with the Japanese in business. + + At least their company didn't send a women to do their negotiating. This +would have been a mistake of huge proportions. Japanese corporations and +businessmen typically treat any company who sends a woman with ridicule. Its +one of the best ways to lose a contract. Although Americans may dislike +Japanese sexism, Japan is fast becoming the world's economic power which means +they get to make the rules, not us. This is part of the price Americans pay for +buying all those Toyotas and Sonys for so many years. As Japanese industrial +influence spreads throughout the world, more of this type of treatment of women +by Japanese companies will take place (as many women working in Japanese +transplant companies in the US can attest). + + The very presence of the trade group from Wisconsin at machine tools fair +is the result of a very foolish, self destructive and shortsighted US practice +which will now be explained. With so many jobs leaving America (due to many of +the above Japanese tactics), some states have decided to go to Japan to try to +attract Japanese companies to their state. Because America (unlike almost all +other industrialized countries) doesn't co-ordinate or regulate this in any +way, what happens is that states get played off against each other by Japanese +companies and the Japanese government. The state which gives the most tax +breaks or contributes the most money to build the plant gets the plant. This +is probably good for the winning state in the short run, but is much worse for +the country as a whole (and that state) in the long run. + + Here's why: What this leads to is Japanese companies opening US branch +plants paid for by the US taxpayer and which pay little or no taxes themselves. +With many states doing this to each other to 'win' a few jobs, everyone winds +up losing. This is because after each state has 'won' a plant from some other +state, the final tally shows that no one state has gained any jobs from any +other state (or very little anyways), yet every state is short lots of tax +money which must be made up by placing more taxes on individuals, or US +businesses (who must now compete against the American state subsidized Japanese +businesses). The only winner in all of this is Japan who gets property tax free +factories and in worse cases plants which we the taxpayer, sometimes pay to +partially build through government grants. The Honda Accord plant in +Marysville, Ohio was a result of this practice. Japanese companies producing +out of tax free plants are also at an advantage to defeat US companies, who +must pay taxes. Ultimately, this practice makes America lose, not gain, jobs +(see above section 'assembly plants') and pay more taxes. This very topic is +the subject of many sick jokes in Tokyo about America's greed and foolishness +today. + + An other problem (and the subject of other good jokes in Tokyo) lies +within our federal government. There has been much talk recently about 'foreign +agents'. These are very high level Federal public servants and elected members +Americans sent to Washington to represent them, who go work in the U.S. Federal +government for a short time, make contacts in the government or trade +department, then betray the country by selling themselves out as +representatives to foreign interests. These people were our front line trade +negotiators, staff members, trade attorneys, elected officials and have the +inside knowledge the foreign interests need to circumvent our trade laws, +defeat our companies and find out what our confidential future trade laws are +likely to be. These people sell themselves to the other side in order that they +may personally get rich through the resulting huge amounts of 'blood money' as +they use their contacts they made while serving the public, in order to betray +America. The amount of money involved is in the millions of dollars per person. +Some are delayed bribes which are paid after public service is completed for +favors done while in public office. Often, these people start representing +foreign interests within weeks of quitting their government job. The book +'Agents of Influence' (1991) by Pat Choate, contains the foreign agents list, +a thorough explanation of how this scam works, and how this is obliterating our +status as a rich industrial country. The book also explains very well the point +made on the Nov 27, 1992 edition of ABC's 20/20 (which did a segment on this +problem) about how the Japanese are way way ahead of everyone else in paying +bribe money and how we have lost billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands +of jobs as a result of this small handful of people willing to sell out their +country and their kids for cash. + + As can be seen, America has many problems which are not the fault of the +Japanese, but are of our own doing. Japanese work as a team much better than +we do. They struggle together to save their companies when in need (versus +jumping ship, staging strikes like the recent ones at GM, or selling out to +foreign interests). They don't pay their CEO's millions while driving their +companies into the ground. They also realize that management and workers are +not each other's enemy. The competition is the enemy. No war was ever won with +internal conflict and the same goes for this one. Labor strikes (no matter how +justified) and management selfishness and shortsightedness are not the answer +to our problems. Co-operation and a common vision is the only solution. + + One only has to look at the social and economic troubles today in +countries like Britain (which years ago in its time, was also the richest and +most powerful in the world) to see our destiny if we continue in our erroneous +and divisive ways. They failed to take action in time and suffered the +consequences. They were once the world's most powerful economy. They too +thought that any damage to their economy would have profound impact to the +world, and hence, thought they were safe as the rest of world would not let +anything bad happen to the British economy. They were wrong. People saying this +today about the US economy are also wrong. Britain's economic power diminished +gradually and unnoticeably, such that today, what happens in the Britain is not +so important to the world global economy. They are now a minor player and now +have a much lower standard of living. Our economic power is now in decline, +following the 'British pattern' which occured many years ago. We will suffer +their fate if we don't change. + +CONCLUSION: + + The article is not meant as an affront to the ordinary Japanese people (to +whom nothing is held against). Like most conflicts, it is the ordinary people +who get caught in the middle and wind up suffering. The same, unfortunately, +is true for this conflict. This paper is not about them, but is about their +companies and their government policies. + + America's citizens have failed to realize that Japan practices a different +kind of trade than America does. Japan practices adversarial trade, where the +goal is to wipe out the foreign countries' industries in order to dominate them +entirely. For the Japanese, business is in every sense of the word, like war. +Americans who buy Japanese goods, unknowingly help them reach this goal. The +Japanese (and other countries such as Korea and Taiwan who have adopted +Japanese style business practices) are not our economic allies, they are our +competitors and they are dangerous to us. + + America often complains that Japan must change its ways to become more +like us. This is not true as America is not number one anymore. It is not a +request we can make. Today, the tables are turned. This time, America will have +to change its ways to become more like the Japanese. Japan will likely surpass +the United States to become the world's leading economic, technological and +manufacturing nation by the end of this decade, even though it has only 1/2 the +population of America. History has pointed out every time, that the richest and +most economically powerful country in the world, ultimately becomes the +strongest militarily. We have to realize this and be prepared to accept it, or +we have to do something about it. Japan will not have to change their ways to +become like us, as tomorrow they will wield the power, not us. + +This article by: + +lleclerc@nyx.cs.du.edu + +Louis Leclerc +P.O. Box 453 +Jackman, Maine 04945-0453 +USA + +Please send me any corrections or omissions and this article will be updated. +The most recent version of this article (JAPANYES) is kept at FTP site: +monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (login: anonymous), in directory pub/nihongo + +This article is copyright (1992) under the laws of the United States of +America. However, I hereby give permission that it be distributed widely and +freely over any media. This article cannot be sold or licensed. + + + + A P P E N D I X + + + +-->List of companies: + +This is a list of some Japanese (or Japanese owned and controlled) +companies. Some of the names that make this list may surprise you, +depicted by '*': + +* 7/11 Convenience Stores (US operations) (Ito-Yokado, Japanese Investor) + Acura (Honda Motor Company, cars) + Aiwa (consumer electronics, stereos) +* B.F. Goodrich Tire (owned by Toyo Rubber) +* Brother (electronic typewriters) +* Bridgestone Tire Company (tires) +* Bruce Springsteen (works for SONY) + C. Itoh (computer printers) + Canon (laser printers, cameras, photocopiers, consumer electronics) +* CBS Records/Columbia House Records (owned by SONY) + Citizen (watch company) +* Columbia Pictures (owned by SONY) + Denon (cassette tapes, consumer electronics, stereos) +* Dunlop Tire and Rubber (Sumitomo keiretsu) + Epson (computer company) +* Firestone Tire and Rubber (Bridgestone Tire Company, Japan) + Fisher Electronics (Stereo Maker) + Fuji Film (film and chemical products) + Fujitsu (nuclear and breeder reactors, consumer electronics, heavy + industry) + Geisha Foods (tuna and canned food products in the USA) + Hino (heavy truck maker) + Hitachi Industries (heavy industry, railroad, appliances & electronics) + Honda (autos, motorcycles, small trucks) +* IBM World Headquarters Bldg, Atlanta GA + Infiniti cars (Nissan Motor) + Isuzu (autos) +* JVC (Japan Victor Company; owned by Matsushita Industrial Electric) + Kao (computer disks and supplies) + Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Motorcycles, trains, industrial steel) + Kikkomann Foods + Kenwood Electronics (Stereo Maker) + Komatsu (A heavy Equipment maker) + Konica (photocopiers, cameras) + Kubota (heavy equipment, backhoes, tractors, bulldozers) + Kyocera (computer and electronics maker) + Lexus Automobile (Toyota Motor Company) + Makita (power tools) +* Maxell (cassette tapes) + Mazda (autos) +* MCA Home Entertainment (Home videos, tv shows;ie. Dragnet..etc) (Matsushita) + Michael Jackson (works for SONY) + Minolta (copiers, fax machines, electronics) + Mita (photocopiers) + Mitsubishi (a huge keiretsu;...banking, steel, autos, trucks, lead pencils, + electronics, electricity generation, bicycles...and on and on) + Mitsui (an other huge keiretsu, similar to Mitsubishi) + Miyata (bicycles) + Murata (fax machines and electronics) + NEC (Nippon Electric Company; computers, cash registers, TV's, + electronics) + Nikko (consumer electronics, stereos) + Nintendo Electronics (video games) + Nishiki (bicycles) + Nissan (autos, power boats, trucking and heavy transport vehicles) +* Nomura Securities (financial firm) + Okidata (computer printers and accessories) + Olympus (cameras) + Onkyo (electronics and stereo maker) + Panasonic (Matsushita Industrial Electric Company) +* Pebble Beach Golf Course California (Japanese Investors) + Pentax (cameras) +* Pentel (lead pencil company...Japanese have a huge share of the lead + pencil market, look at your lead pencil, its probably + Japanese) +* Pilot (lead pencil company) +* Pioneer (Stereo and electronics maker) +* Quasar (Matsushita Industrial Electric Company) (Televisions, VCR's) +* Raven (computer printers, faxes and accessories) (Matsushita Industrial) + Ricoh (they make computer printers) +* Roland (musical instruments) +* Rockafeller Center (a Japanese holding company) + Sanyo (electronics) +* Seattle Mariners Pro Baseball Team (Owned by Nintendo) + Sega (video games) + Seiko (Watches) + Sharp (copiers, faxes, TV's, electronics) +* Shiseido (perfumes, cosmetics) + Sony (electronics, movie production) +* Star Electronics (they make computer printers) + Subaru (autos) + Sumitomo (banks, heavy industry, trains, shipbuilding, steel, electronics) + Suzuki (autos, motor bikes) + TDK (cassette tapes) + Taito (video arcade games) +* Tokyo Disneyland (it belongs to a Japanese holding company) + Tomy (toy company) + Toshiba (electronics, eletrical, home appliances, heavy industry, + nuclear reactors) + Toyota (autos, heavy transport trucks, industrial machinery) +* Universal Pictures (Matsushita Industrial Electric Company) + Yamaha (motorcycles, musical instruments) + Yokohama Tire and Rubber (tire and rubber goods) +* YKK (zipper company (look at the zipper on your clothes, its + probably YKK as this company has an over 50% market share + in the world)) + + + +-->Some US products which are really Japanese (or other) + +Chevy Nova car (Toyota) +Chevy Sprint/Pontiac Firefly (Suzuki) +Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi) +Dodge Stealth (Mitsubishi) +Eagle Talon (Mitsubishi) +Ford Mercury Villager (Nissan) +Ford Mercury Tracer (Mazda) +GM's Geo cars (mostly Japanese) +HP printers (some of them are Japanese) +Macintosh Powerbook Computer (some are SONYs) +Some Sears major appliances, TVs, and electronics (Matsushita and others) + + +'Strategic markets' the Japanese have entered (or are doing so now) include: + +>machine tools and robotics: The world is now dependant on Japan for much of +the most modern robotic manufacturing equipment and machine making equipment +in the world (imagine the importance of this if a real war broke out somewhere +in the world where the US and Japan each supported the opposing parties). +Originally attacked in the 1980's, today Japan dominates the world machine tool +and robotics industries. Japan has also made a strong effort in the area of +power tools (Makita, Hitachi), again with some dumping. + +>computer memory chips and semiconductors: (Akio Morita (SONY CEO) and +Ishihara, in their famous book "Japan that can say no! (to America)" stated +that Japan was powerful because they could alter the balance of power by +selling its critical Japanese-made-only microchips to the Russians instead of +the USA). They also claim that we dropped the A-bomb on Japan because we are +racists. Today, Japan dominates the semiconductor industry, having first +attacked it in the 1980s. + +>high performance telecommunications equipment: They don't dominate this yet, +but they may by the end of the decade. + +>automotive: US auto plants were used in WWII to make bombers...today many of +these plants don't exist anymore. + +>automotive parts: (Japanese cars made in USA are really assembled from parts +which are usually MADE in Japan). These are the cars' critical components. The +high precision equipment and technology to make these parts reside in Japan, +not here. That's why high precision machining and advanced manufacturing is +usually done in Japan (and why they also targeted that industry), and only +final assembly is done here. + +-------- + +-->The following articles referred to in the above paper are available via the +Internet Computer Network at FTP Site: monu6.cc.monash.edu.au +in directory: pub/nihongo + +You login with name: anonymous +Use your first name as the password + +(Also available at public access bbs: 516-473-6351) + +JAPANNO: +An unauthorized translation of a best selling book in Japan "A Japan that can +say no (to America)!" about why Japan is now number one and should take the +place of the US as world leader. By Shintaro Ishihara (Japanese Parliament +Member "Americans are lazy, ignorant and stupid") and Akio Morita (SONY CEO). +This is actually a good analysis of many of America's problems. Note the +version of this book sold in stores is a phony. 1/2 of the original version is +missing (Akio Morita removed his part fearing it would hurt SONY's sales in the +U.S.) and there is a new appendix specifically written for American +consumption, much of which seems to be false). + +MATSUSHITA.PBS: +Transcript of a shocking PBS Frontline special about how a Japanese cartel +wiped out the US TV industry and went on to take over the rest of world +consumer electronics. + +LOSEWAR.PBS: +Transcript of an other excellent PBS Frontline special about how yet an other +Japanese cartel conspired and took over the world supply of small computer +displays. Good segments on how Honda used unethical (and possibly illegal) +measures to drive U.S. auto parts makers out of business. + +-->The following article referred to in the above paper is available via the +Internet Computer Network at FTP Site: slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com +in directory: pub/doc/misc + +(Also available at public access bbs: 516-473-6351) + +AGNTLIST: +The list of 'foreign agents' (with figures): former high level U.S. government +public officials who later used their inside government contacts to work as +agents for foreign interests in order to make quick money while betraying +America. Many of them made over a million dollars doing this. + +-------------- +Here are a few good books to read on the topic: + +-->"The Enigma of Japanese Power"; by Karl Van Wolferen, 1989, Alfred A. Knopf +Press (this book used to be given away whenever your bought a subscription to +Fortune Magazine. It may still be.) + +-->"Trading Places, How we are giving our future to the Japanese and how +to reclaim it", Clyde Prestowitz, New York: Basic Books 1989 + +-->"Agents of Influence", The list of 'foreign agents': former U.S. government +public officials who later used their inside government contacts to work as +agents for foreign interests in order to make quick money, Pat Choate, 1991 + +-->"Unequal Equities, Power and Risk in Japan's Stock Market"; Zielinski, +Kodansha International, 1991 + +-->"The Japanese Company", Rodney Clark, Charles E. Tuttle Company 1979 +(Yale University) + +-->"The Reckoning", by David Halberstam, William Morrow & Co., 1986. +An historical novel about Ford and Nissan from founding to the present. + +-->"Head to Head - The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe, and +America", by Lester Thurow, William Morrow & Co., 1992. + + +------------------------------------------------------------------- +AFTERWARD, by Andre Robotewskyj; ar12@midway.uchicago.edu + + Japan's government and companies have organized to fight an economic war +against us which we are losing badly. What the ordinary Japanese people allow +their government and companies to do is not acceptable. Outright discrimination +against foreigners and treating women as 'non-people' is not tolerable in the +modern world. The Japanese government and industries have treated the America +that helped them so much after World War II with contempt and insolence. We had +accepted their closed market and opened ours to them so they could rebuild +their country and become full members of the peaceful world. Instead, their +government and their industries chose to use this generosity as weapons against +us in order to destroy our companies, our jobs, and our nation. + + I used to buy lots of Japanese products, probably for the same reasons you +might now. Others may not know the full consequences of their decisions like +you do now. Telling them is important. If you know an effective way to get this +message out to people, then it would be wise to do so, don't wait for someone +else to do it for you. + + America belongs to you and you have to do something for it once in a +while. This is one of those times. She needs your help. If you have questions, +please ask. Use this network and fax machines to organize yourselves to get +this message out. Put copies of this article in lounges or on the +company/school computer network. Send this article to your representatives, or +your favorite political party. Scatter copies of it into the 4 winds. These are +all things which can be done. + + If you are a student, you probably realize much more than your parents do +that your standard of living is likely to be a considerably lower than theirs. +You are much more likely to have trouble finding a good job upon graduation +than they ever had. That is how this problem affects you directly. As a result, +you may wish to get your friends & family to tell others and organize or inform +student groups to get the word out about this problem. If you don't act, its +you (and your kids someday) who will suffer the most as a result of all this, +so its up to you. + + In the meantime, one very good way to get people aware of the topic is to +get them a copy of Rising Sun (by Michael Crichton) as a birthday or Christmas +present. This is a very good factually based fiction murder mystery book on the +subject. It is a #1 best seller and is by the same author who wrote "Andromeda +Strain", "Great Train Robbery" and other very famous books and movies. A movie +version of this book (starring Shawn Connery) is being made and should be out +next year. + + Remember that a problem like this can be fought, one American at a time. +Think of America when you do business and remember that exclusive self-centered +thinking will only make problems in America worse than they are. That is the +true lesson of the 1980's. Self centeredness doesn't work in the long run. If +we were as loyal to each other as the Japanese are to each other, we wouldn't +be in the economic and social mess we are now. Remember that, and expect it +from your family, friends and associates. If you don't get what you expect, let +them know. Hopefully in the future, the economic war will be called off and our +two countries will live peacefully and with co-operation. I look forward to +that day. + + I run a mailing list which occasionally distributes articles like this +one. If you'd like to be on the email receiver list, please send me a note (to +the address below). + +Andre Robotewskyj; ar12@midway.uchicago.edu diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/japanyes b/textfiles.com/politics/japanyes new file mode 100644 index 00000000..622e7b77 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/japanyes @@ -0,0 +1,2221 @@ +Japanyes; THE SECOND EDITION; (plus US DEBT section) + +The following article, JAPANYES, (2nd edition) has gained a lot of interest and +has circulated extensively among some of America's biggest corporations and +universities. When you read it, you'll see why. JAPANYES comes from Internet FTP +site monu6.cc.monash.edu.au. The most recent version is in directory +pub/nihongo. It is also available for free by calling a free public access +computer modem bbs at 516-473-6351. + +This paper was written by: Louis Leclerc; lleclerc@nyx.cs.du.edu +His US mail address and information about him are at the end of the article. +Please send him any corrections or additions to this paper. + +NOTE: This is a rather long but fascinating paper on how Japan Inc. functions. +For a former free-trader like myself, it has shaken some of my beliefs to the +very core. It will open your eyes a little, it will disturb you, and it will +quite possibly lead you to ask some serious questions about the future of the +United States of America as a world-leader. Reading this, IMHO, is well worth +the effort. + +The level of detail and the overall gist is documented in many well-known, +albeit difficult to read, books (see appendix). The author's prime service to us +is the distillation of this information into a (relatively) brief synopsis. + +Tom Mathes tom-mathes@email.sps.mot.com + +--------------- +In the 2nd edition, typographical and content errors/omissions were corrected, +sections re-organized for better flow and less relevant sections were +deleted/condensed to make room for new material. Japanese names were removed to +protect their anonymity. + +Sections significantly expanded/added in the 2nd edition: +DISCRIMINATION +TRUE, BUT ONLY ON THE SURFACE +AMERICA IS ALSO TO BLAME +CONCLUSION +COMPANY LISTING (many new names) + +Sections deleted/condensed in the 2nd edition: +WHERE IT ALL BEGINS (combined with BUSINESS IS WAR) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +(ed031993) (orig.ed111292) + + Second Edition + + + D O E S A M E R I C A S A Y Y E S T O J A P A N ? + + (A M E R I C A W A N I H O N N I "H A I" T O I U K A) + + + + There are many misconceptions about Japan and its success in the post-war +era. While staying in Japan in mid 1992, I tried to look at Japan's seemingly +miraculous success with the hope to understand it so that maybe we could apply +some of their plan in our own country. "What makes Japan so good?", "How did +they get from a third world country to be the richest in the world so quickly?" +are common questions asked today in America. Today, I will try to answer with +examples, at least partially, these questions. + + Going to Japan, I expected to see a very efficient country from which +America could learn in order to regain her former prosperity. During my trip, +the reality began to sink in that what is really happening was quite different +from expectations and in some ways quite disturbing. Today, Japanese companies +are the among the largest in the world and own large US firms like 7/11 stores, +Loews Theaters, Firestone Tires, Spencers mall stores and Columbia Pictures (a +short list among many, see appendix). Ironically, foreigners own very little of +Japanese industry inside and outside of Japan. There are many reasons for this, +some of which one may find surprising and disturbing. The Japanese have a very +different approach to doing business than we do. This paper will elaborate, +justify and try to show what is happening and why it is important that this be +understood here in America. + + Don't be afraid to question what you read here as I am confident that if +you research the points yourself (hopefully by going to Japan to see for +yourself or reading materials on the topic), you will find the points made in +this paper to be truthful. + +THE "JAPAN PROBLEM": + + Some claims echoed in America which are commonly dismissed as "Japan +Bashing" statements, upon investigation are in fact truthful. The following +statements may seem brash right now, but their meanings will become clearer in +the explanations and examples that follow. + + Japan is in a kind of economic war against us. Their objective is for them +to win and for us to lose. Through the use of cartels, price fixing, +government-corporate 'anti-foreigner' tactics as well as adversarial trade and +predation strategies, Japan is destroying much of America's strategic +industries, standard of living and military strength. These actions are also +destroying the jobs of ordinary American people. As a result, the greatest +transfer of wealth in the history of the world from one country to another is +happening right now, from the United States, to Japan. Today, Japan (not +Britain) is the largest foreign holder of assets in the US. Japan (a country +half America's population) is also today the largest holder of net foreign +assets in the world. + + Those who study these types of topics know that economic wars can be even +more devastating to a country's long term future than conventional wars. Japan +is organized to fight, uses a tactical strategy and has a fundamental plan. +America's economic strategy is in disarray and there is no plan. As a result, +America is losing the economic war by default. + +IN THE BEGINNING, THE TV CARTEL: + + A very famous example of Japanese national government and corporate +coordination to take over a foreign industry is that of the Japanese TV cartel, +first set up in the 1960's. This is how Japan took the free-world TV industry +away from the United States. PBS Frontline did an excellent documentary on this +called "Coming From Japan", (see Appendix for how to get transcript via +Internet). + + In the 1960's, the Matsushita Industrial Electric Company, Sanyo, Toshiba +and others formed a TV cartel in Japan. They got US TV technology from the +giants in the industry (Zenith, RCA, Quasar) in the following way. The Japanese +government prohibited US made TVs from being sold in Japan. Instead, they +insisted that the technology be licensed to Japanese manufacturing companies +rather than importing (still often the case today in Japan). The US companies +thinking they could still make money this way, agreed to these terms which +enabled the Japanese companies to acquire the technology on how to build TVs. + + The above Japanese companies, with tacit approval from the Japanese +government, set up a cartel to inflate TV prices in Japan in order to turn +around and use the money to sell below cost TVs in America. This was to drive US +makers out of the American and world markets. US TV makers went bankrupt or left +the industry as they could no longer fund research to continue making improved +and high quality TVs. They could not compete with the artificially low Japanese +TV prices in America and were forbidden to enter the Japanese market to take +advantage of the high prices there. Hence, the US makers could not make money. +Furthermore, secret deals, illegal under US trade law, were set up by Japanese +TV makers and US retailers such as Sears and Woolworths to sell Japanese TVs +under store brand names. As a result, once famous brands such as Sylvania, +Quasar, Admiral, Philco and RCA have vanished or are foreign/Japanese owned. +Zenith is the only remaining US TV maker today. No US companies make VCRs +although they were an American invention. + + In the 1980's the Japanese applied this same strategy to the machine tool +industry and now completely dominate that industry as well (a point well made at +a machine tool exhibition I visited in Tokyo). Before that was motorcycles and +computer memory chips (the US tried to retaliate but failed as our companies +couldn't organize with each other during the now famous 'dram shortages' a few +years ago). It will be happening again with major and smaller kitchen/washing +appliances, aircraft and telecommunications equipment during the 1990s. It has +already happened with liquid crystal portable computer displays where the +Japanese today have 100% market share (these were also invented in the USA). + +DISPELLING SOME STATISTICS: + + Several misleading claims are made in the media about how the trade +situation today with Japan is fine. These will now be dispelled. One claim +states that Japan is opening its market because it has increased imports by 9% +in 1986-87 and 18% in 1988. This is a half truth because Japanese exports during +the same period increased by much more than that. In other words, the trade gap +got bigger, not smaller between Japan and its trading partners. + + Another false claim, most often made by Japanese trade representatives, +states that it is naturally expected and ok that Japan has a trade surplus with +America. This is because if every Japanese bought $100 of goods from America, +and every American bought $100 worth of goods from Japan, an imbalance would +occur in Japan's favor as there are twice as many Americans as Japanese in the +world. + + In the real world though, this is not ok, and cannot happen for very long +without serious consequences. To see more clearly this picture, imagine a world +with 2 countries, one with 100 citizens, and another with 1 citizen, you. Each +person has $200 to their name. Every year you buy $100 of goods from the other +country, and each of their citizens buys $100 of goods from your country. If you +work out this example, you will see that in a little over 2 years, you will have +accumulated all of the money in the world and the other country will be +penniless. This is the current state of affairs between Japan and its trading +partners. Although things are actually occurring more slowly, this is the trend. + + The fallacy in the Japanese argument above lies in the fact that they state +'people buy from countries'. This is comparing apples and oranges. For the +Japanese claim to be accurate, they must compare either countries buying from +countries, or people buying from people. Done this way, the problem with the +Japanese argument surfaces as the numbers will no longer balance to a 'natural' +trade gap between the US and Japan. (for background on this fallacy, and others, +see the book "How to Lie with Statistics" by Huff, Darrell, 1954). + +POLITENESS AND CODED LANGUAGES, A BACKGROUND: + + Japanese communicate with each other and the outside world a bit +differently than we do. This is often a cause for misunderstanding between our +two peoples, so it will be clarified below. + + Because Japan was a communal society, a way of speaking in a way not to +directly offend the other person (who they still had to live close to after a +discussion had finished) has developed over time. There is even a Japanese word, +called 'Tatemae', which refers to this kind of phrase. These kinds of phrases +are a type of 'lie' in order to be polite. Often, when Japanese use words like +'goal' or 'difficult' in reference to a request you make, this is tatemae. + + Some recent examples from the evening news will make this point clear. +Recently, George Bush went to Japan to open the Japanese market to US goods and +to get the Japanese to use more US made car parts in the cars they sell to +America. After he left, the Japanese Prime Minister said the agreement they +reached was 'a difficult goal'. This is Tatemae code for 'we have no intention +of meeting your demand'. But of course, the Japanese PM would not say this +directly to George Bush, the president of America. This would be extremely +impolite and Mr. Miyazawa could never say such a thing directly to an individual +of such prestige. The Japanese PM is thus in a difficult position. This is an +occasion for tatemae. Foreigners (especially Americans) who aren't used to +Tatemae have extreme difficulty to understand its usage. Later, when the +'promise' is broken, Americans often end up thinking they were lied to by the +Japanese when this was never the case. Really, the Americans were supposed to +pick up on the Japanese polite refusal, but failed to because they took what the +Japanese said literally. + + As another example, an agreement was reached where Japan would allow more +US made computer chips to be sold in Japanese products. Recently, the Japanese +have said this goal would be 'difficult' to reach. This is code for 'we will +renege on the agreement'. If you know about Tatemae, it is much easier to know +what the Japanese really plan on doing when faced with a politically difficult +position as well as what they might be trying to say when they talk on +television. + + Finally, a claim is often made by cornered Japanese officials that "Japan +is at a crossroads" and the problems described in this article are being +resolved today. "The Japanese market is opening, but it takes time and Americans +must be patient for Japan to succeed at this difficult task." Japan has been +saying this for the last 20 years. + +DISCRIMINATION: + + Although the Japanese are individually are very polite people, Japan is a +very racist country, maybe even more so than we are. The common name Japanese +use for foreigners (people not of the Japanese race) is 'gaijin'. Although its +literal translation is innocuous, it is a loaded word. 'Gaijin' is a racial slur +somewhat in the way 'colored' or 'nigger' used to refer to a black person in +America. There is however a polite form of this word, 'gaikokujin', which means +literally 'outsider country person'. + + When you enter a rental agency to rent an apartment (the only way to get an +apartment in Tokyo), some of the rental books say on the cover 'no gaijin'. If +you are a gaijin, you cannot rent anything in these books. There are also a fair +number of restaurants and bars in Japan that do not welcome/serve 'gaijins' (a +point made once you enter or try to get service at the establishment). + + As an example of how deeply all this goes, one may look at the now famous +Konishiki affair in 1992. Konishiki was the best sumo wrestler in all of Japan. +However, he was an American (Hawaiian). The overseers of Japanese sumo +continuously denied him the title of 'Yokozuna' (sort of an entry into the +Japanese sumo Hall of Fame for grand champions like Konishiki). Konishiki won +title after title, but was still refused. When pressed, the overseers claimed +that the holder of the Yokozuna title must possess 'hinkaku', a special kind of +'Japanese grace'. They also claimed that it was impossible for a non Japanese to +be capable of possessing hinkaku. As a result, Konishiki was refused the honor +of the Yokozuna title. In the end, he never became Yokozuna. + + Ironically, the subsequent public outcry over this incident may have had an +impact on the way decisions are made regarding who can hold the Yokozuna title. +In 1993, for the first time, a non-Japanese was granted the title of Yokozuna. + + Discrimination does not extend only to foreigners. Looking through any +major newspaper, you will see ads which ask for Japanese only (no foreigners), +men only, young women only, or people of a certain age. Discrimination doesn't +seem to be illegal in Japan. A law does exist however stating that it is a +Japanese 'goal' not to have discrimination (hint:this is Tatemae). This 'anti- +discrimination' goal/law does not seem to be enforced in any way. Races are +ranked in a kind of social order in Japan, first are Japanese, then white +people, other asians, then all other races besides black people, who are last. + + The government is sometimes a partner in racism and discrimination. There +exists an 'unclean' sect of Japanese society who are referred to as 'Burakumin'. +They are a particular sect whose ancestors had an 'unclean' religious history. A +small square on the top corner of the Japanese birth certificate is filled in if +a person is a Burakumin, or is blank if they are not. This is used by the +government and the companies to deny Burakumin people good jobs and advancement +during their careers. + + There exists another dark side to government sponsored racism, dating from +World War II, which exists even to this day. During the war, many Koreans were +forcibly taken to Japan, made 'Japanese citizens' and enslaved, or forced to +serve in the Japanese Imperial Army. Upon the end of the war, Japan revoked +Japanese citizenship from these people and their children. Unlike other +Japanese, they lost all rights to military pensions and healthcare (even for +injuries suffered while fighting for Japan in the war). As a result, today these +people live in Japan, but are stateless, have no passport and cannot travel +outside of Japan. The Japanese government considers these people (and even their +descendants who were in fact born in Japan) to be foreigners. It is 'difficult' +for many of these people to get Japanese citizenship as Japan has no diplomatic +ties with North Korea. One requirement is that they must abandon their real +names and choose Japanese sounding ones (a requirement made on most foreigners +seeking Japanese citizenship). Needless to say, the number of people accepted as +Japanese citizens or as immigrants to Japan is very very small in number each +year. It is claimed that Japan sees it as an advantage to maintain a racially +pure society as it is less 'disruptive' to social order. + +SHAME AND HONOR IN BUSINESS: + + Japanese people operate on a system of shame and honor (or the appearance +of it anyways). This developed due to the fact that so many people must live +peacefully in crowded conditions. When something does go wrong, there is a lot +of shame on the individual responsible. If the failure was bad enough, he may +commit suicide (a practice dating back to when Samurai committed suicide in +front of their superiors when they were responsible for a major failure). Some +major public figure commits suicide out of shame at least once a year in Tokyo. + + For example, while I was there, the CEO of Toyo Rubber committed suicide by +jumping in front of the train because company profits were poor this year. A +couple years back, after a train wreck in which some people died, the manager +responsible for the whole affair also committed suicide. + + An interesting side note to this case is the existence of laws discouraging +suicide by jumping in front of trains in Japan. These demonstrate the 'group' +orientation of this society. The government has laws to fine the jumper's +surviving family members based on how much disruption to service was caused by +the suicide of the now dead family member. Apparently, the intent of the laws is +to force the jumper to think about the harm they will do to their family by +choosing the train as a means of suicide, hoping they will instead choose other +means to end their life and minimize service disruptions. In practice though, +these fines are hardly ever enforced. + +THE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, WHY FOREIGNERS ARE SET UP TO FAIL IN JAPAN: + + An extensive hierarchy of small distributers and shops exists in Japan +which hinders the distribution of foreign goods. When Americans say the Japanese +distribution system is 'difficult', 'byzantine' or 'complex', this is what they +are referring to. In reality, the Japanese distribution system is fixed. This is +why it is so difficult and complicated for the foreigner to succeed in the +Japanese market. + + Japan, being a communal society, follows a strict code of loyalty. +Shopkeepers have loyalty to their suppliers and customers. They all have loyalty +to the nation, Japan. Undoing this arrangement that brought the country and its +companies so much wealth and power via the entry of foreign goods would be +disruptive to this system of loyalty. This is one reason it is so difficult for +a foreigner to enter the Japanese market. There are higher forces at work too +though: + + How important this was became very clear when I befriended a Japanese +government worker I'll call Hiroshi. He explained to me how the system worked +and why a foreigner cannot usually circumvent it. I suggested the following +proposal as an example. The discussion went something like this: + + I can sell high quality made in USA GE refrigerators and Hoover vacuums at +a much cheaper price in Japan that Toshiba and Sanyo can (this is in fact true). +I want to start a business. I go to Japan, but no store will carry my products +because I am a 'gaijin' (foreigner), and my products are foreign. Doing so would +anger the domestic suppliers of these distributers who may hold some of the +shop's loans or offer them favorable payment plans. + + I decide then, I will set up my own company in Japan, open a shop and sell +the appliances myself since no Japanese store will do so for me. Hiroshi said +"You can't because you are a foreigner. Foreigners typically cannot own +companies in Japan". This is in fact true. It is this government practice which +keeps foreign business ventures in the control of the Japanese (and hence why +they tend not to succeed). It is also the reason there are so many 'joint +ventures' between a Japanese company and a foreign one to enter the Japanese +market. Otherwise, the foreigner is prevented from entering, or is later set up +to fail. + + So, anyway to get around this law, I told Hiroshi that I will open the +business in my Japanese wife's name (I told Hiroshi to imagine I was married for +purposes of this discussion), so now a Japanese owns the company. Hiroshi said +"you will still fail because as you find success in the market with your +inexpensive American goods, the other vendors will get angry at you. They will +politely ask you to raise your prices to that of the Japanese made goods so the +system doesn't get disrupted". I, of course, replied that I would refuse to do +this as its not in the interest of my customers. Hiroshi replied "then the +vendors and the Japanese companies (such as Toshiba, Mitsubishi and other +appliance makers) will complain to the government. The government will then +prevent you (subtly though as free competition is 'the law' in Japan) from +operating your business successfully or profitably. New building permits for +your stores will be delayed for months for no reason. Business license paperwork +will get misfiled or lost without explanation causing you legal hardship. Goods +will be delayed unloading off your ships for 'too busy customs officials' or +'lost somewhere on the pier for 6 weeks' making you miss delivery deadlines and +angering your customers..." Such 'subtle' persuasion is how you are brought into +line in Japan. + +True-life examples of this abound. Here are a few: + + This is exactly what was done when a foreign garment manufacturer tried to +sell their clothing in that country (threatening the domestic garment industry). +Customs delayed unloading of the goods until enough of the summer season had +passed making the summer fashion clothing unsaleable. Making foreign farm +produce which competes against domestic Japanese produce wait on ships long +enough to rot or not be appetizing to the consumer is another practice. + + The Feb 10, 1992 of Time Magazine describes how a US lamp manufacturing +company encountered also exactly this problem. It took them 9 months to get +lamps off the ship sitting in the harbor and into retail stores in Japan after +customs, and other government agencies stalled and stalled (which cost this +particular company lots of money). + + Many anti-foreign goods laws are often written in the form of 'protection' +to the consumer. These are applied discretionarily and are really written to +prevent or make it expensive/slow/impossible for foreign goods to enter the +Japanese market. For example, one well known Japanese tactic is the intentional +use of too few 'inspectors' who are responsible for 'inspecting' every single +one of an importer's products entering Japan (ie. bicycles or cars). As every +item must be individually 'inspected' (ie. ridden or driven) very carefully and +one at a time, this takes very very long to do (how long is usually unknown). +This intentional bottleneck causes enormous delays and costs the importer lots +of money as well as preventing timely delivery to the customer. Competing +Japanese domestic goods are often exempted from these 'consumer protection' laws +as inspection is 'done at the factory by the Japanese manufacturer'. + + As an example of a consumer 'protection' law really created to prevent +foreign competition in Japan, one may look at the auto industry. All non +Japanese cars which enter Japan today must be individually 'inspected' by Japan +for 'safety to the consumer'. The cost of this 'inspection' is several thousands +of dollars PER CAR imported and must be borne by the importer (and consequently +the buyer) of the car. Cars made by Japanese companies (even if they originate +from foreign Japanese plants such as the US Honda Accord plant) are exempted +from the inspection (and the multi-thousand dollar fee per car) as Japanese car +companies are permitted to 'do the inspection themselves' at their factories. +The result of this practice is to make the prices of non-Japanese brand cars +uncompetitive against Japanese brands sold within Japan. This law adds upwards +of $5000 to the price of a US car in Japan. (New York Times, 12/25/92). It is +this law (and not that the steering wheel is on the wrong side) that prevents US +car companies from making headway in the Japanese market. Both GM and Ford ship +cars to Japan with the steering wheel on the correct side for Japanese roads. + + On a ironic side note, the 'Ohio made' Honda Accords which Honda ships back +to Japan (claimed by Honda to be the most popular 'US made' car sold in Japan) +are built with the steering wheel on the wrong side for Japanese roads as the +large Japanese company didn't feel it worthwhile to retool their Ohio plant to +build the steering wheel on the correct side. + + Of some other more famous 'consumer protection 'laws, one for many years +banned US beef from Japan because 'Japanese intestines were the wrong length and +couldn't digest US beef which is too hard'. Another banned european skiis +because the snow in Japan was 'different'. US made towels were banned because +the fibers were 'too rough' for Japanese ears, which are 'softer' than ours. All +foreign rice is banned for 'national security'. Rice in Japan as a consequence, +is the most expensive in the world. + + Finally, as an example of the no-foreign ownership rule, the recent +baseball team fiasco comes to mind: Nintendo recently bought the Seattle +Mariners Pro Baseball team. It is in great irony that it is illegal under +Japanese law for an American to buy (very lucrative) Japanese Pro baseball teams +(from ABC News Nightline). + +THE BUSINESS CARTEL, KEIRETSU: + + Let us go now to a primer on Japanese business organization. Almost all the +significant companies in Japan are aligned into one of about 6 keiretsu or +business 'groupings'. These are loosely linked 'super-corporations' for lack of +a better term. Most of the Japanese companies whose brands we know and love here +in North America are in these keiretsus. These keiretsus have been around a very +long time (before WWII) dating back to feudal-like family run trading houses. +Mitsubishi and Mitsui are two of the more famous ones. Famous companies like +Nissan, Toshiba, Sumitomo Bank are all in keiretsus. The keiretsus were +disbanded by U.S. forces during the occupation because it was feared they could +one day be dangerous to America. However, upon departure of U.S. occupying +troops from Japan, the ex-member companies rejoined each other to reconstitute +the keiretsus which had previously been disbanded. + + Here is why this is so important. Each of these keiretsus have under them, +member companies who operate in each of the major critical business areas. These +are: banking, distribution, steel making, heavy manufacturing and +electronics/high technology. Mitsubishi Bank, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, +Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and a wide array of other Mitsubishi companies +(several hundred) making all kinds of other things are in a keiretsu. +(Mitsubishi is unusual as most of their operations have the same name). Each of +the companies in the keiretsu are independent and very specialized in what they +do in all senses of the word except for loyalty. Imagine a keiretsu is something +like a college fraternity, but for companies. Their individual independence is +what keeps things from getting too big and out of control, yet they can make a +united front for issues important to the national or keiretsu effort. + + To make the point, a car company and electronics company in the same +keiretsu have a long term relationship to help each other, for example to make a +really fancy computer control system for cars, or to make special lift-loaders +for the computer company's factory. If you walk into a Japanese transplant auto +assembly plant in the United States, you will find that the equipment from the +stamping presses to the forklifts are Japanese brands, even if it is more +expensive (in the short run) to do this. This is national and keiretsu loyalty +at work. + + Every Keiretsu has a bank. This is the heart of the keiretsu. The bank is +like a national central bank, but for the keiretsu. The bank takes money and +foreign cash from winning operations and gives it to new ventures in the +keiretsu for investment in foreign countries without the red tape that a bank +would usually give before lending to a new start up venture. Having a bank who +is in fact a part of your company means they will be fiercely loyal, understand +your business and not call your loans for silly reasons like US banks do. This +is much more efficient than the way America does banking and lets companies join +forces to use their capital much more effectively than the US can. + + This is also why buying a Japanese product may put buyers of that product +out of a job, even if they work in a different industry. They take the profits +from the product that person bought, shift it through the keiretsu bank to +develop, invest in and dump products into the industry or market that person now +works in, and put them out of a job. See the telecommunications example at the +end of this paper for how this works in practice. + +COMMAND AND CONTROL: + + Japan's business effort is directed by the Ministry of International +Technology and Industry (MITI). It decides national strategic industrial policy +and determines with the corporations, which industries to target, enter, exit, +take over...etc. This is where Japan's 'united front' when entering a market is +co-ordinated from. This is also why you often see several Japanese companies +entering a particular market at the same time (ie. TVs, and more recently, +luxury cars). By acting in unison, the companies, banks and government can +attack and overrun a foreign industry with a much bigger 'punch' than had they +done so separately. It also enables strategic moves which countries like America +cannot do as American business efforts are not co-ordinated in any kind of way. + + In fact, such moves are illegal for US companies under antitrust laws from +the 1930s. This puts us at an enormous disadvantage against US Japanese rivals +as it is legal for example for Ford and Mazda to join forces, but not for Ford +and GM to do so. The US antitrust laws were written at a time when US companies +were the most powerful in the world. This is not true anymore and hurts America +greatly as US firms struggle in the world marketplace against large foreign +firms who are able to join their forces to defeat America's companies. + +THE PROTECTED HOME MARKET...JAPAN'S LAUNCH PAD TO THE WORLD: + + Japan has a protected home market which serves a very important purpose to +the country and the national business effort. The home market is for trying out +new products, copying and improving foreign designs, getting capital (through +price gouging) without fear of foreign companies entering and ruining the game. + + An unwritten rule is that there is no real price competition in the +Japanese home market between Japanese companies which are also strategic +exporters. Real competition occurs in foreign markets outside Japan. The home +market is a 'safe' market where these companies can experiment with their +products, improve upon them, and fix problems with out fear of any real foreign +competition capitalizing on their blunders (a luxury our own companies do not +have in America). For example, SONY and Mazda did or had done this frequently +within Japan. The scheme works as follows and is the critical reason why a +Japanese company can enter almost any world market or industry from scratch and +overrun it so quickly: + + Imagine Sony comes out with a new type cassette player which is very small. +It breaks often because the small plastic gears inside are of low quality and +wear out (this was true, actually). This machine though, is only sold within +Japan. Only in the future when it is perfected will it be sold to the outside +world. Now lets imagine GE is the dominant manufacturer in this market +worldwide. They want to sell their player in Japan (which is better than SONY's) +but can't because they are forbidden for all the reasons mentioned in this +article. Sony fixes their gear problems, tests it in the home market (this is +one reason why the latest Japanese products hit the Japanese market at least 6 +months before anywhere else) and later exports it abroad. Sony maintains its +good reputation in America as their player works well (the US customer never +receives a machine with the defective gears). Sony sells this player at 3/4's +the cost to make it in order to increase their market share and drive GE out of +the cassette player business. Sony doesn't go bankrupt doing this because they +can sell players in Japan at twice the cost to make them and hence cover their +losses in America. Because GE is forbidden to sell in Japan, and can't make +money at home in America because Japanese players sold there are too cheap, they +surrender and lose market share. GE asks the US government for help but is +refused. Later when this is exposed, GE is accused of 'whining' and 'not trying +hard enough to enter the Japanese market' by the Japanese Prime Minister. + + Now, imagine the reverse situation. GE also makes a machine that is poor +quality in its home market of America (this was also true). The Japanese then +enter unimpeded, dump their perfected goods here and drive GE out of the market. +As you can see, whenever a US company makes a mistake in the home market, it +suffers greatly, but when a Japanese company does in their home market, they +don't suffer so much. Hence, even if the American company is more efficient and +generally of higher quality, the Japanese companies will ultimately defeat the +US competition. This is true even if the US companies make fewer and smaller +mistakes over the same period of time because the US company gets hurt for a +mistake in the home market, but the Japanese one does not. For example, Japanese +car companies have also come out with disasters comparable to the 'exploding +Ford Pinto'. But by using their protected market for experimentation and +improvement, they are able to resolve problems like this before they arrive on +our shores. Our car companies have no such luxury and hence suffer the +consequences each time they make a mistake. This is another reason why the +Japanese protected/non competitive home market is so important to their success. + + The non-competitive home market serves another important function to +Japanese industry. Smaller/weaker Japanese companies (ie. Mazda) are allowed to +survive because it is possible they may some day have a 'winner' which would be +good for Japan (this actually happened to Mazda with the Miata and other recent +offerings in their foreign markets). If the company were bankrupt though, they +could not come up with 'winners' sometime in the future. It's better to let the +weak competitors survive in Japanese market in the hopes they become strong +someday. Because of laws restricting foreign ownership as well as +'cross-holding' agreements between the Japanese companies, there is very little +risk a non-Japanese company could take over these weaker players and enter the +Japanese market. Unfortunately, the same protection is not bestowed among +America's promising small companies who are easily taken over by major Japanese +players who want their technology. + + The no-home-competition point is ironic, because some newspaper reporters +who don't understand the Japanese economy write quotes like "there are 7 car +companies in Japan (a country with 1/2 the population of America) therefore the +car industry must be extremely competitive in Japan". The truth is that there +are 7 car companies in Japan because there is almost *NO* competition in the +home market. This is why their market shares in Japan are stable. They are +basically fixed. If there were competition, the strong players like Toyota and +Nissan would have absorbed or bankrupted their less powerful rivals like Mazda +and Daihatsu long ago. + +WHAT IS DUMPING AND WHY IS IT BAD: + + A writer for a famous newspaper last year wrote in his commentary that +Japanese companies are foolish because they practice 'dumping' (selling their +products here for a price lower than it costs to make them), and that he hopes +they continue as it benefits the American consumer. His article is misguided and +shows why it is so difficult to understand why Japanese business practices are +so dangerous to America. + + Some Americans think buying dumped products is good. This happens because +they don't see the real costs to themselves which are not on the low sticker +price. These costs turn out to be higher to the buyer than the savings on the +product price (otherwise the Japanese would not be dumping... ...there's no such +thing as the deal that's too good to be true). The key is that this cost is +indirect but very real nevertheless. It turns up somewhere else than at the +checkout counter and is how Japan profits by 'dumping'. + + The cost to America (and the benefit to Japan) turns up in the long term. +This is why it is not seen so easily. It turns up in America as unemployment, +closed factories and reduced national strength as US companies cannot compete +against this practice. Japan's factories run, their people get jobs and later on +Japan makes much more profit than it originally cost to do the dumping once the +non Japanese competition has been wiped out by the practice. Japan can do +dumping by raising prices in the home Japanese market to pay for dumping in +America. US companies don't have this luxury as the US market is open to the +outside world and prices cannot be artificially raised to pay for dumping +elsewhere. + +ECONOMIC STRATEGY, WHAT IT ALL MEANS: + + Many people ask, what is a national industrial strategy. Some people claim +it is a form of socialism or communism. Nothing could be further from the truth. +Again, the best explanation is by example, in this case, the successful Japanese +takeover of the very strategic world LCD screen industry. + + LCD screens are the special 'flat' viewscreens which are found in almost +every laptop and portable computer on the market today. For a portable computer +to be light in weight, they must have this type of screen (opposed to a +conventional TV screen which is quite heavy and uses too much electricity). + + A few years ago Japanese industry co-ordinated a successful attack to take +over the entire world commercial supply of LCD computer screens by selling them +at 1/3 the price to make them, (PBS Frontline, "Losing the war with Japan") and +waiting for the small US upstarts who invented them to go bankrupt. As a result, +today all LCD screens in any non military computer in the world are made in +Japan. This is a very strategic component because it will be used in portable +computers, medical imaging equipment, videophones, HDTV, touch sensitive visual +programmable refrigerators and stereos..etc. + + If you are a non Japanese maker of any of the above items, this is very bad +for you, because you will have to go to the Japanese to buy these screens to put +into your product (say a portable PC computer). However, the Japanese companies +also want to make these products too (entering your industry is part of their +long term strategic plan (which is 200 years long)). As a result, they want to +make you uncompetitive. They do this by selling these screens to you at a price +higher than they sell the same screens to Japanese PC makers (which might even +be the same company as the screen maker). They can do this because they have +destroyed the US competition. You are forced to go to them if you want these +screens. + + You need these screens though so your PCs can compete with the Japanese PCs +which will be on the market soon, so you must buy them as there is no other +supply. This means though, that your PCs are more expensive then the Japanese +ones because you are paying more for your critical components than the Japanese +companies are paying. ...You lose... + + Besides offering to sell you the screen at some ridiculously high price, +the Japanese will often offer to manufacture your entire product at a reasonable +price and put your name on it. For example, some of the Apple Mac Powerbook +portable computers are not Macs at all, but really SONYs. Most portable PC +computers today are made in Japan for the above reasons (even if they have +American brand names on them). + + This type of deal is really nice for Japan because it gives the Japanese +companies the rest of the technology to make your product (besides the strategic +component). This also makes you dependant on them for all your manufacturing +(because your factory is now closed, your workers unemployed and new ones too +hard to train quickly). Finally, your Japanese supplier can bypass you entirely +at a future date and sell the computers they make for you, but with their own +name on them. They do this in the factory your sales helped them to build in the +first place. Mitsubishi did this to Chrysler with cars, first it was the Eagle +Talon, then later the Mitsubishi Eclipse....both cars are identical, but really +Mitsubishi's. + + The LCD screen monopoly is what enables Japanese companies to have such a +large market share in portable PCs which use these screens yet almost no market +share in desktop PC computers (which don't need these screens). Japan hasn't +been able to take over the desktop PC market because its still advancing too +quickly and they have no monopoly on any critical components in these machines. +As a result, this industry can still belong to America. America is able to hold +on rapidly advancing industries through innovation, but Japan cannot. This is +because by the time Japan copies a foreign design, it is already obsolete. Japan +has poor luck trying to hit a moving industrial target and will usually miss. So +long as an industry moves fast enough, and the Japanese don't succeed in taking +hold of some critical component of that industry, the US will be able to hang on +to it until it slows down or matures, then the Japanese can successfully take it +over. + + By focusing on taking over markets like LCD screens, critical computer +chips, high precision machining, and auto manufacturing, Japan has significantly +reduced America's ability to make these things in time of national need. Japan +lost World War II because they had a poor manufacturing base (they had to +stockpile for 4 years before starting World War II). They have learned very well +from that mistake, which now America is making. + + This example shows why something like LCD screens are a strategic component +and why Japan needs to dominate this industry. If one pauses to look, one will +notice that Japan is the dominant or a very major player in practically every +strategic world industry today. This is what is meant by a famous Japanese +phrase: 'Business is War'. Key markets overlooking industries are like peaks +overlooking cities. The national strategy in a business war and economic war is +the same, and the outcome is the same. Domestic factories are gone because the +industry has been killed economically (rather than being bombed), workers are +out of a job, and the target country has much less power and safety in the +world. It is like a real war, but less bloody. + +THE ECONOMIC WAR, A SUMMARY OF THE GLOBAL PLAN: + + It is said that because of the stock market crash in Tokyo, Japan is now +weak and America need not be so concerned. This is false. Manufacturing, +marketshare and technological knowledge are what make a country strong. Wealth +and power in the world comes from making and selling things, not exotic 'junk +bond' financing scams and stock mergers, which make companies so debt ridden, +they can no longer be competitive in world markets. If manufacturing and +marketshare in key industries is robust, the stock market will recover to become +stronger than before as this real manufacturing power becomes reflected in the +stock and financial markets of the country. Today, this is the case for Japan +industries and stock market, but not for America's. + + Free world trade is a good thing for all countries. Generally, countries +raising protectionist barriers against each other is very bad. This in fact, +helped cause the 1929 depression. What is happening now though is worse. +Although some will tell you that the US and Japan are practicing free bilateral +trade, this is not true. Today, Japan and America have basically a one-way trade +relationship. Japan closes their market towards us, but we don't towards them. + + Some may think that only America is having trade problems with Japan right +now. This is not true. Most other industrial countries in the world are in the +same predicament. Today, Japan has a huge trade surplus not only with America, +but with almost every other country in the world it trades with. This happens +when Japan buys less in products from other countries than the other countries +buy from Japan. This is bad because it means Japan takes money out of America's +economy and uses it for their own purposes (such as buying our real estate, or +companies). + + It is said that Japan has a national strategy to control economically, what +it could not get militarily 50 years ago. An impulsive claim perhaps. But, +today, I am not so sure. + + Japan's trade surplus is no accident. It is not the result of Japanese +efficiency, American laziness or anything else the Japanese government officials +may tell you on TV. The real cause is this: Japan trade patterns are not +bi-directional in the common sense where two countries buy each others exports +and a happy state of affairs results. Japanese policy is to intentionally use +foreign cash profits not to buy a foreign country's exportable products, but +rather its capital assets like companies, real-estate and art, while preventing +the other countries from doing the same thing in Japan. This enables Japan to +get wealthy and powerful extremely quickly while still being more inefficient +and averse to business risk than its trading partners. When 'whiners and Japan +bashers' claim Japan is 'cheating', the following is what they are trying to +say. Here is an explanation of how it works. + +-->Defense: + + There is a three tier economic defense which the Japanese use. First is a +set of laws which severely restrict/prevent foreign ownership and control of +Japanese companies and assets in Japan. As a consequence, GM must sell their +cars through Isuzu and Ford through Mazda (Autorama). Chrysler doesn't sell many +cars in Japan. Long ago, Ford used to have a large market share (around 70%) in +Japan but the Japanese government closed their operations and forced them out of +the country. + + Today, foreigners typically cannot own Japanese companies, especially those +in strategic industries such as manufacturing and technology. This is because of +many 'structural' laws and regulations which are really designed to +prevent/restrict foreign ownership. As an example, one such regulation states +that foreign businesses must have a Japanese guarantor 'to insure that their +debts will be paid'. For various reasons, it is very 'difficult' for a foreign +company (particularly a small or medium sized growing one) trying to enter Japan +to get such a guarantor. Conversely, Japanese companies entering America face +very few such restrictions and are allowed to enter the US market quite easily. + + These types of laws are also the reason why you hear about so many 'joint' +ventures between US and Japanese companies, where the venture is intended to +help the US company penetrate the 'difficult' Japanese market. These joint +ventures really enable the Japanese companies to get foreign technology without +having to invent it themselves. The foreign company receives only a token market +share in the Japanese market in return. + + It was in this way Japan learned from the US companies how to make TV's in +the 1960's. More recently, the Japanese government recently forced Texas +Instruments to join a venture with SONY, where SONY got technology in exchange +for TI being able to sell some of their products in Japan. + + The second defense mechanism is the wide 'cross holding' of stock shares +between the companies in Japan. This basically works by having the Japanese +companies print up lots of shares and exchanging equal values of these shares +with other Japanese companies. This is very cheap for the companies there to do. +As these shares are never given up or sold, they are effectively taken out of +circulation. Because companies own such a large percentage of each others +shares, it is impossible for a foreign firm or individual to accumulate enough +shares (51%) to take over a Japanese company. As a result, a foreign takeover of +a major Japanese company has never occured. + + A side note of all this is that Japanese companies are able to think long +term because they don't have to answer to stock holders at the annual +shareholders meeting. Because so many shares are cross held, private +shareholders tend to be not so significant in number and hence not a threat to +the board. This is why US companies must worry about short term performance so +much, often at the expense of wiser long term decisions. Japanese companies do +not have to worry about this, so they tend to invest much more in the future +than we do and hence are much more successful. + + The final defense system is a well set up structure of government laws, +behaviour and corporate co-operation which prevent foreign companies who get +around the first defense system from succeeding to make money by selling +products in Japan. The government delays foreign entry of goods through lots of +intentional customs and other regulatory snafu's as well as red tape designed to +hinder a foreign company to the point it becomes non competitive in the Japanese +market place. + + As an example of all this; today, in industries such as personal computers, +bicycle manufacturing, and home appliance manufacturing (just to name a few), +American companies are able to outcompete Japanese manufacturers in both price +and quality. Unfortunately, they don't get the chance. Lets look at the example +of bicycle manufacturing to make the point: + + A one speed bicycle in Japan costs about $300 (in this case it was a +Mitsubishi, but other comparable Japanese brand bicycles are similarly priced). +There was nothing extraordinary about this bicycle to justify its high price. +Fancier ones were even more expensive. Contrast this with US made bicycles, +which are much less expensive, vastly superior (10 speeds, better brakes), and +higher in quality for the same price. I could find no foreign made bicycles +available for sale in Japan at any price. US manufacturers of these goods fail +in Japan as they are either forbidden from entering the Japanese market or are +forced to incur hardship that the Japanese competitors don't have to bear, to +the point that the US makers are not able to compete. Ironically, Japanese +bicycle and accessory makers such as Suntour, Shimano and Miyata are now +beginning to defeat domestic manufacturers. + +-->Offense: + + The offensive strategy is also a three tiered system. Firstly, government +(through the Ministry of International Technology and Industry) and corporations +co-ordinate and select targeted strategic industries which they want to enter, +or take over. + + Secondly, they obtain the basic technology (often from the current foreign +firms in the industry), then copy and improve upon it. They do trials, have +failures and make further improvements in the Japanese home market which is +protected against encroachment by foreign firms which may be already established +in the rest of the world within that particular industry. + + The final and most critical stage in the offensive system is the practice +of product dumping in order to gain market share overseas. Japanese companies +will initially export a product overseas at a price usually lower than it costs +to make it. The same product is usually sold in Japan at a higher price so the +Japanese company doesn't go bankrupt. This lets the Japanese companies increase +their marketshare as foreign buyers tend to buy the lowest price quality +product. This places stress on non-Japanese competition. Sometimes the foreign +competition is a well deserved target (ie. poor quality US autos of the 1970s), +but more often they are not. Once the foreign competition has given up, or has +been sufficiently weakened and the Japanese dominate that industry, they bring +the prices to a level reflecting cost of manufacture and development and move on +to the next market they want to take over. Using this technique, the Japanese +can enter and take over in a short while, almost any industry they choose no +matter how unrelated (which they have done). + + Because several of their companies participate when Japan attacks an +industry, the industry doesn't become monopolistic on a company level and +monopoly pricing usually doesn't happen. What does happen though is, when the +attack is over, the players are mostly or all Japanese, meaning Japan as a +nation, gets the industry, jobs, technology and US dollar cash profits into +their economy (for use in buying up US real-estate or companies) instead of +America. It should be noted that Japan's goal is not to make excessive profits +by charging monopoly prices once the takeover is complete. The goal is simply to +ensure that the major players in the industry are Japanese so that manufacturing +and technology arising from that industry goes to Japan rather than elsewhere. +Their system is virtually foolproof as long as you have trading partners and +individual consumers who tolerate or don't understand the dynamics of what's +really happening. + + It should be noted that raising the price of a good within Japan in order +to pay for dumping in the foreign country is becoming less and less prevalent as +the Japanese companies today have enough cash to finance dumping in the foreign +country strictly from cash reserves. Once they have wiped out the foreign +competition, the profits start to roll in. + + In some ways this is America's fault as Japan has taken advantage of the +open US market, as well as America's tolerance to Japan's closed market in order +to help them rebuild their country after WWII. Ironically, America's best +scientists and engineers are working for military projects, whereas Japan's are +working on commercial ventures, where the war is actually being waged. + +SUCCESS DOESN'T ALWAYS COME THE FIRST TIME: + + Sometimes, the Japanese will fail at first to enter a market. For example, +the Japanese auto companies entered, and retreated from the US auto market +several times before making their successful onslaught. During the intervals +that they were not so active in the US market, they were learning from their +mistakes, improving, refining and testing their products in their protected home +market, preparing to enter the US market again at a later time, which ultimately +they did. + + This strategy is still used today. For example, recently the Hitachi +company, a major Japanese telecommunications maker announced it was withdrawing +from the US telephone switching market (large specialized computers used by +telephone companies to make your phones work). It would be foolish on the part +of the US telecommunications makers to believe that they have defeated Hitachi +(some actually believe they have) because telecommunications is a Japanese +government designated target strategic industry and Hitachi will most certainly +be in it in the future (as they have been for the past 40 years). As happened in +the auto industry, Hitachi is at home right now refining and improving their +products based on what they learned from their last campaign in America. They +will be back stronger than before. I know this because I saw some of their new +and upcoming products when I was Japan. Once their improvements are complete and +proven in the home market, they will re-enter the US market, possibly surprising +America's domestic makers. + +INNOVATION: + + A serious problem, which the Japanese themselves have acknowledged, is the +lack of originality and innovation. This is quite notable when you look at their +companies' histories. The Toshiba company in Tokyo has a big science center with +a time line of its history on a wall. On it were its achievements. It read +something like 'transistor imported into Japan 1950, manufactured here in 1953', +'teletype imported 1931, manufactured here 1935'...etc. There were no +inventions, only refinements. Hitachi, NTT (the telephone company), Nissan and +Matsushita had similar 'timelines' in their centers with quotes like above. + + This happens because inventing means failure (for a time at least) and no +guarantee of success. Because the Japanese cannot be seen to fail (this is +shameful and very bad in Japan), they do not invent. As their companies become +more powerful, I wondered who would be around to make the discoveries like +xerography, the transistor and LCD TV (all invented in USA). I found two +Japanese government sponsored organizations in Japan with the task of short +circuiting this problem. + + One, the Technology Transfer Institute, specializes in finding small +companies around the world with new technology and helping Japanese firms buy +the technology. If the Japanese firm wants it but can't buy it, they sometimes +steal it by patenting similar items copied from the foreign company's original +and then intimidating/bankrupting the small company through a blizzard of legal +action. If the company is publicly traded, or the owner wants to sell, the +company is bought outright by the Japanese. America, unlike Japan, makes no +effort to protect its strategic companies from foreign takeover. Imagine your +small company and its patents versus the attorney war chest of Mitsubishi +Industrial Company. + + This is actually what happened to Fusion Systems, a small American firm +which invented and patented a new way to get spray paint to stick on pop cans +(PBS Frontline, "American Game, Japanese Rules"). Mitsubishi bought one of this +firm's machines and came out a few months later with one of their own. The small +firm sued. Mitsubishi then made many small modifications to the machine (not +improvements, just voluminous iterative changes), patented all of them and sued +the US company many times over (for each patent). Mitsubishi just waited for +Fusion Systems to run out of money defending them all (and offered to drop the +cases if the small company sold them the rights to the machine). + + If Japan can't get technology this way, they get it free from public +foreign research. A Japanese institution exists which is called the 'Japan +Research Foundation'. It actually does no research, but translates foreign +research papers into Japanese for the Japanese companies to use. + + A major reason for getting foreign research this way is that Japanese +universities themselves don't do much research. Their equipment is extremely +outdated (in contrast to corporate labs). These schools are literally straight +out of the third world (possibly the last physical part of the third world still +in Japan). University is a place for students to drink and party before joining +a company, often for life. At the main campus of University of Tokyo, the most +prestigious university in all of Japan, the buildings are in extreme state of +disrepair. Stench of raw sewage permeates and leaks down the hallways of the +buildings and the (often drunk) students live in extreme squalor. Academics did +not seem to be taken seriously by the students who were too busy drinking or +playing sports. The libraries were almost devoid of students. Some buildings +like the Library for American Studies were very nice, but many others were in +shambles. Half of all the windows in many of the buildings were broken and glass +was strewn about the floors. There were no working safety/fire control systems. +Electricity wires were hanging exposed in hallways and lighting was not +functioning (for many years it seemed) in parts of buildings. Old gas stoves +were running unattended in kitchens with cardboard covering broken windows. +Piles of garbage and wrecked cars were strewn about the campus and behind +buildings. Nothing had been painted or cleaned in about 20 years. The grass +hadn't been cut in a very long time and had reached full height. Cats and other +creatures lived in some of the buildings. The school swimming pool was a filthy +algead mess. If this seems unbelievable, one can get off at Todai-komaba station +in Tokyo and go see for themselves. This is all the more surprising as the rest +of the country is so rich and modern, more so than most parts of America today. + + There is an important reason for all of this. In the world, universities +typically do research to advance learning and science for the world. This is +extremely expensive to fund, and is a lousy way for a country to get the most +value for its money, so Japan does not do this. The Japanese government makes no +effort to seriously support its universities. Furthermore, unlike their US +counterparts, Japanese companies give no money to universities. This does not +mean that Japan does not value basic university research. Quite to the contrary. +It is far cheaper to let the other countries' schools and governments do and pay +for basic research (which is published openly to the world) and to simply +translate and read their papers. + + Japanese research money and results stays in the corporate and government +labs, where it may be kept secret from the foreign countries, which are the +enemy in the economic war. Japan does do research (lots of it actually), but not +for public dissemination and world advancement. Research is done to gain +advantage over their rivals. In 1991, the Toshiba Company alone spent more on +research than was spent privately and publicly in all the country of Canada (CBC +News;Venture "Racing the Rising Sun"). This is the fundamental reason why Japan +refuses to fund universities and diverts it to corporate research instead. It is +something we must understand. + + Ironically, it may not be a weakness of theirs that their universities are +so awful. If they know that they can get research from America for free, they +are smart to put their money in their private and company labs instead; where +they can use it against US companies in order to defeat them. + + In spite of all this, Japanese workers still get an excellent education. +This is because education up to (but not including) university is very good and +extremely well funded. In great contrast to the universities, the elementary, +secondary and tertiary schools are very well stocked with the best of equipment, +facilities and teachers. They are as nice as anything in America. Furthermore, +highly specialized training programs are provided to newly hired workers when +they join their companies. This makes up for the weakness of the Japanese +university system. In cases where advanced training unavailable in Japan is +required (ie. in certain types of engineering, or technology), the student will +be sent to America or another foreign country that has good universities to +study. + + A further point to this, companies do not to give grants to charities (nor +universities). Corporate citizenry doesn't not exist in Japan in the way we know +it here. This is why it is extremely rare to find Japanese corporate run +foundations in Japan or America. This is also why it is extremely unusual to see +for example, a PBS program sponsored by a Japanese company (though recently, +this is changing for the US branches of Japanese firms as they learn how +important Americans relate charity to a company's image). + +JAPANESE PEOPLE AND THE MARKET: + + The Japanese people are extremely kind and polite, don't go stealing things +out of each other's houses nor do they go shooting each other as much as +Americans do. They are however naive about the forces in their world around them +(a point which probably can also be made about America's own citizens). There is +little individual thought nor questioning of the government and companies, which +is very dangerous. This is compounded by the fact that 1 political party (the +LDP) has ruled the country ever since it has had a democratic constitution. +Results of this include the fact that many cartels operate in the country yet no +one seems to notice this occurs. Many Japanese aren't even aware that foreign +countries make the same products that Japanese companies make. Formally, Japan +has laws against cartels, but they are not enforced. Only one major cartel group +has been prosecuted in the last 15 years (plastic wrap companies), and this was +only after a lot of pressure from the United States. As America's power in the +world diminishes, so will its ability to exert such pressure. + + Ordinary Japanese don't have much idea of why they can't buy foreign goods +at reasonable prices in their stores. When I asked Japanese people why they +don't buy American (or other foreign goods), they often say because they can't +find them, or they are much too expensive. This is true. + + Foreign goods are often impossible to buy at any price and are usually very +expensive when found. For example, I looked for, but found no Korean products at +all in Japan even though this country is very close to Japan on the map (1000 +miles max distance). Because Korea has little political influence, it cannot +pressure Japan to allow their products in. As a consequence Korea cannot sell +their products in Japan even though they make many of the same types of high +quality electronics and automotive goods the Japanese make, but at a lower +price. US (and other foreign products) which must face a Japanese domestic maker +are also extremely hard to find in Japan. Even the American flags in the +Tokyo-Shinjuku Mitsukoshi department store were made in Japan. + + I realized that Japanese people would buy American goods if they could when +I told them the prices of US and Japanese goods in America. I used some of the +examples in this paper to try to explain why there was 'Japan bashing' in +America. I also happened to have a US newspaper, so I showed them product prices +of US and Japanese goods in America. I took them out into their shops and proved +the differences to them. When I finished, they were shocked at what I had just +shown them. Japanese goods are sometimes cheaper in America than in Japan and +non Japanese goods are much more expensive in Japan than they should be, +especially if the goods are in an industry targeted by the Japanese companies +and government. + + For example, the major Japanese appliance manufacturers are planning to +enter the US market for appliances (refrigerators, stoves, vacuums) in the +1990's. In a major Hiroshima appliance store (the only store I could find any +foreign appliances), I saw a GE refrigerator selling for $3000 (US). This was a +very low end model you could buy here in America for about $600. The Toshiba +right next to it was a high end model and sold for $2500. It is these Japanese +cartel tactics which lead ordinary Japanese people to believe that US goods are +inferior and overpriced. + + In America, Japanese made Sears brand refrigerators similar to the Toshiba +I saw in Japan sold for about $1000. This didn't seem right to me. The +government and more elite business people I spoke with already knew about these +points and acknowledged that they could see it was a 'problem' for America. + +ESCALATOR DOLLS AND OFFICE LADIES: + + An escalator doll is a young women in her 20's who stands by the escalator +all day and welcomes you to the floor of the store or office building. She says +goodbye and thank you when you leave. You find these at Mitsukoshi (the +classiest department store I've ever walked into), the Toyota main showroom in +Tokyo, the government offices and the corporation offices (Sony, Toshiba, +Nissan..). Other women serve as temporary labor to bear the bumps generated by +the economic cycle. It is these people (and foreigners) who get laid off in +order to permit a system of lifetime employment for the Japanese males. +Escalator dolls (and their counterparts within corporate offices, 'Office +Ladies') must often sign a contract with the employer stating that they will +quit when they reach the age of 25. The true purpose of these girls (besides +serving tea and welcoming guests) is to be marriage material for the men, who +are at work for such long hours that they have difficulty to find women on their +own. + + Young women in Japan are typically expected to marry by 25 years old. A +well known quote in Japan makes the point bluntly: "Single women are like +Christmas cake, after the 25th, useless, so they go for 1/2 price." Marrying by +25 is important. If a women is nearing 25 and can't find a mate, chances are she +will have a pre-arranged wedding to an eligible bachelor set up by the parents. + + I sometimes wonder how much of a willingness to change the system exists in +Japan, even among the women themselves. While there, I met one Japanese woman +who went to university in America and studied Political Science. I'll call her +Tomoko. I asked Tomoko what she thought of the way Japan treated their women. +She didn't see a problem. In her opinion, women should stay at home as it leads +to family stability and enables the husband to concentrate on his work and not +family affairs. I asked Tomoko where she was working. She works at a Japanese +company as a tea server (office lady). 'What would you like to do at your job in +the future', I asked. Tomoko replied 'they told me that if I did a good job now, +I could be a secretary in a few years and file things'. Tomoko has a university +degree. + + In Japan, the percentage of women who are managers of men is much lower +than in America. Furthermore, women typically don't hold any positions of +importance. They are more like office decoration or marriage material for the +men. It may also surprise you, but most women in Japanese companies, regardless +of professional status or level in the organization are required to prepare and +serve tea daily for the men as part of their daily chores. + +"BUSINESS IS WAR": + + This is a well known quote in Japan. It may be surprising, but this has +more meaning to the Japanese than you may first think. The word 'business man' +in Japanese translates literally into English as 'Company Soldier'. Japanese +businessmen often do not have pictures of their family or loved ones at the +office because as a Japanese expression goes, they 'do not mix family with +battle'. When a Japanese man joins a company, he often does so for life. His +first allegiance and loyalty is to this company and his team. His family, if he +has one, is secondary in importance. It should be noted that this philosophy +does not begin when one joins a Japanese company. It begins much earlier in +life; in elementary school: + + While I was in Japan, I went to an elementary school to see Japanese +students participate in their 'Olympic Sports Day'. This event though, was quite +unusual. There were no individual activities, and the theme of the day was +extremely militaristic in nature. There were two main teams, the red and white +teams symbolizing the country's national colors. They had big banners (red or +white) and taiko/battle drums which the team leader beat on while chanting the +team slogan. The contests were team oriented and set up such that if one person +made an error in the competition, the whole team would suffer. Rewards, and +failures were shared among all members of the team. Stress and peer pressure +were very high, as they are for most Japanese throughout their lifetimes. Before +the competition, everyone on the teams sang the school anthem louder and more +clearly than I ever heard any anthem sung here in America. Their diligence and +effort were quite remarkable. + + What we call individuality in America is called deviation (be it in school, +or at work) in Japan. It is not tolerated nor tried very much. A well known +Japanese quote which goes "The nail which sticks up gets pounded down" makes the +point clearly. As an example of how far this goes, often, kids whose hair is not +black enough get it dyed so as not to get in trouble at school by the teacher). +An individual with an "outsider's" mind usually rejected by the others, even by +the teacher. A consequence resulting from this fact appears when families who +have lived outside Japan for a few years return to the country. These people +typically have a lot of trouble being accepted and integrating back into +Japanese society. + + 'Peer stresses' in Japan are very strong. Many kids can't take it and +commit suicide before reaching university age. Many Japanese suffer from a wide +variety of stress related nervous ticks and twitches (if you ride the subway in +Tokyo and look at the other riders, you will notice this readily). + +MILITARISM: + + In the book 'Japan that can say no! (to America)', by Akio Morita (CEO of +SONY) and Shintaro Ishihara (an influential parliament member), the authors +state that Japan has under development the world's most advanced military jet +because American made planes are not suitable for Japanese terrain, which is +'different' because it has mountains. I also learned about one Japanese who quit +the Fujitsu company partially because they were working on a nuclear weapons +research project and didn't feel a Japanese company should be involved in such +work. In Japan, Fujitsu has built several nuclear breeder reactors (such +reactors are sometimes used to make plutonium for nuclear weapons). The Japanese +claim however, that they are for peaceful purposes. Hopefully this is so. + + The military mindset even extends to city planning. Most streets in Tokyo +have no names in order to 'confuse the enemy' in the event Japan was ever to be +invaded again. The US Army did name many of the streets during the occupation, +but these were removed by the Japanese shortly after US occupying forces left +the country. + + There also exists a well funded extremist nationalist movement in Japan +which posts large posters at most major intersections and subway stations in +Tokyo calling for restoration of the emperor as ruler and re-militarization of +the country. Every day in the business and shopping areas of the city, vans +drive around with huge loudspeakers blaring nationalistic music and making the +above demands. Apparently, the older Japanese ignore this, aware of the west's +generosity after the war, but feelings of the younger people who don't have the +memories of Japan's dark past are more uncertain. What is happening today in +Germany may be a foreshadowing of things to come. + + This may seem implausible at first, but not after one looks at Japanese +elementary students' textbooks. In the texts, the sections about World War II +are extremely distorted. In these books, Japan is played out as the victim to +world aggression and the atrocities of the Japanese Imperial Army are not +mentioned anywhere. Furthermore, as unbelievable as it may sound, the Japanese +government to this day maintains and uses its legal right to overrule book +authors in order to 'whitewash' and dictate textbook history when it is in is +national interest to do so. They have recently done this to prevent disclosure +to the Japanese people of World War II Japanese atrocities in China and germ +warfare experiments on prisoners held by the Japanese (Toronto Globe & +Mail;A1;03/17/93 : LA Times;03/18/93). + + Even more unbelievable is the fact that the massive US aid to rebuild Japan +after the war is mentioned on only one line in the Japanese elementary text +which went "America provided Japan with some help". Japan's postwar success is +credited only to the hardworking values of its people (partially true), and not +to the massive US aid for reconstruction of its industries (paid for by American +taxpayers), free access to the US market, and US tolerance of Japan's closed +market. After reading these books, one is lead to believe that WWII was +America's fault. It is hoped that the younger Japanese learn what really +happened before their parents grow old and die, or America and Japan may face +new misunderstanding and confrontation in the future. + +EFFICIENCY: + + Japan is perceived by the outside world to be an efficient country. In +actuality, Japan is a very inefficient country. Many subway people count change +out of tin plates. The valuable intellectual resource of women is wasted by +giving them only the most menial jobs such as 'escalator dolls' and tea servers. +The farming system is one of the most inefficient you will find in the modern +world. Because of this inefficiency, there are a lot of people employed on the +farms who otherwise may not have a job. Although this is an inefficient use of +people and resources, it helps maintain a low unemployment rate. Japan prevents +all this from collapsing by keeping foreign products and services out of their +country. As a result Japan can be inefficient, non innovative, yet still get +enormously rich at the expense of its trading partners. Japan is now per-capita, +the richest industrialized country in the world (and is expected to be the +richest absolutely by the year 2000, surpassing America). Ironically, it may +surprise many people, but the most efficient country in the world today is the +United States ($49,600 production per person), not Japan. Japan ranks pretty far +behind ($38,200 production per person (New York Times 10/13/92)). In +manufacturing though, Japan is the best in the world. + +TRUE, BUT ONLY ON THE SURFACE: + + it is claimed that Japanese transplant factories in the USA are good for +America and create jobs. Although a Japanese transplant factory may be good for +the town which gets it, its bad for the country as a whole. Japanese factories +opened here tend to be only assembly plants. This is important because most of +the value of manufactured products resides in the research and development of +machine tools, plastics, technology as well as the manufacture of parts which +make up that product. There is little value in assembling pre-made parts +together to make a final product. Parts machining and manufacturing (and those +jobs) is typically done in Japan, with the finished parts being shipped to the +US for final assembly. This is true even for Japanese products 'made in USA' +like the famous 'US made Honda Accord'. As a result, when a Japanese auto plant +opens in the US; for every 1 job created, another 4 are lost (in the parts and +high tech sectors of US industry). Hence, the true consequences are bad for +America as we lose the technology on how to make advanced manufactured +components. Final assembly of Japanese auto parts is pretty low tech and also +doesn't keep money in America. Final assembly only adds about $700 to the price +of a car. This is the only money which stays here when you buy a 'US made' +Japanese car. The costs of paying for welfare and unemployment for unemployed US +engineers and parts maker employees are much much higher and later wind up on +American's tax bills. + + Another claim goes that "America is successful in Japan and one only has to +look at Mcdonald's, Disneyland and others to see America's success". These are +not 'American successes' in Japan because in reality, these are Japanese owned +franchise companies. Their appearance is American, but their ownership, +production and management is Japanese. A very small token number of foreign +companies are allowed to have a presence in Japan (ie. Toys-R-Us, P&G, BMW, +Kodak, IBM), but their overall market share is kept quite small via the means +described in this paper. + +EXAMPLE, HOW ALL THIS WORKS TOGETHER: + + Buying a Japanese product, even in an industry unrelated to yours can cause +one to lose their job. This is much more likely than one may think. Many +otherwise smart people do not understand this so I will explain it with the +following true example: + + AT&T is a large US telecommunications manufacturer that is well placed in +the world market and hence pays its employees very well. Many of them like to +buy Hondas, Acuras, Mitsubishis and Toyotas. Most of these Japanese companies +are in one of the 6 or so keiretsus in Japan. + + MITI and Japanese industry have publicly declared the world +telecommunications manufacturing industry to be a Japanese national priority +(target). As a result, they have planned and are starting to execute a strategy +to enter and to become the major player (today, they are a very minor force) in +the telecommunications industry during the 1990s and beyond. In fact, they have +a plan to wire every house in Japan with fiber optic cable within the next 10-15 +years in order to perfect making fiber and its associated communications +hardware. + + Japan will have to spend money to research and develop their new +telecommunications equipment. This will be very expensive and they will need the +help of the keiretsu banks to do it. Where do the banks get this money? From +their biggest export of course, automobile sales. This means that although AT&T +managers and engineers only bought cars, they are helping fund Toshiba's, NEC's, +Hitachi's and Matsushita's effort to put them out of a job. + + Imagine one of AT&T's engineers recently bought a new Honda automobile. One +day, that engineer loses his job due to fierce Japanese competition in the +telecommunications industry, gets into his Honda, goes home, yet never ever +equates the two events! + + Let's continue this example a little further to summarize this paper. The +Japanese want to enter a new industry, telecommunications. Based on previous +experience, this is how they are likely to do it. + + Firstly, telecommunications in the future will be based on something called +digital technology. This will enable those picture-phones you used to see on +Star-Trek to be a reality. Fiber optic cable and data transmission are very +important to do this too. This is why they want to get good at making fiber +optic cable by making and putting fiber cable all over their entire country. + + Today, the Japanese are lousy at making high quality major +telecommunications equipment that your telephone company would buy. In the world +market though, there is lots of money to be made in this, which right now AT&T +mostly gets. Because Japan doesn't know how to make good telecom equipment, they +will need to do three things: + +>1) get some good telecom equipment so they can copy it and improve it. + +>2) pick a very strategic but simple niche market in the industry and take it +over completely (ie. dumping) to get a foothold so they can use it as an anchor +to increase the market share in telecommunications (same strategy as the LCD +screens example above). + +>3) start with small or peripheral products + + It turns out they have already started to do these things. For (1), they +promised some US big name telecom makers that they might get a piece of the +Japanese telecommunications market in return for a small sale of their best +equipment to the Japanese national telephone company. AT&T and other North +American firms fell for this scheme (maybe the laid off TV maker executives went +to work for AT&T). AT&T sold them one copy of their most advanced equipment for +a promise from the Japanese to 'possibly' buy many more. This is foolish as AT&T +has just let a country which has made a public declaration to be the world +leader in telecommunications get a copy of their best equipment. AT&T's +equipment will get copied and show up as Japanese brands a few years from now. +Perhaps AT&T doesn't understand that Japanese phone companies and Japanese +manufacturers work together to defeat foreign firms like AT&T. Hence, selling +equipment to a Japanese phone company is not much different from selling it to a +competing Japanese manufacturer. + + For (2), Japan already has acquired two main strategic industries. Firstly, +as you know they have 100% market share in the small LCD screens that the new +picture phones and tele-computers/tele-bank machines will use. If AT&T wants to +make a picturephone, they have to get the screen from their competition who also +makes these phones (which I saw when I was Japan). Imagine the laptop computer +example above all over again. This is another reason why these small LCD screens +are so strategic. Secondly, Japan has made an effort to be the best and cheapest +(via dumping) at making a highly specialized component of fiber optic data +transmission systems which America uses in its network. Now Japan's salesmen +talk to almost every phone company in the US to sell them this part. Now on his +future visits, he can use his existing contacts to sell them other things Japan +will soon be making. + + For (3), you probably have already seen what's going on when you go +shopping. Panasonic, Murata, Fujitsu and others all make very fancy electronic +phones. They also make small telephone switching equipment (like AT&T's smaller +products). Eventually, these will get bigger and bigger until they make the +bread and butter items of AT&T. This is the same strategy they used to enter the +car market too. They started with motorcycles, moved to cheap cars, then to +trucks, then to sports cars, then to luxury cars. Today we know the results. +Again, this is also true with TVs, first they made black and whites, then color +TVs. Finally, the conquered the rest of the tele-video manufacturing industry, +such that if you walk into any TV production/broadcasting station in the US +today, almost all the equipment in the station is Japanese. It used to be all +American 25 years ago. Today the TV in your house is most likely Japanese (even +if its a store brand). Remember, this was an industry which America had 100% +market share about 25 years ago. This is what is likely to happen to +telecommunications too. + +AMERICA IS ALSO TO BLAME: + + American's behavior when trying to do business in Japan is not what it +should be. After seeing how some American firms operate there, it is little +wonder our success rate is often so poor. For example, something of an annoyance +(and also advantage) to the Japanese is American business people working in +Japan who don't speak Japanese, or know nothing about the country they are +dealing with. These included some trade representatives from an Oregon company, +some people from Boeing whom I met at a Nissan factory, and some from the +Government of Wisconsin at a machine tools fair trying to attract Japanese +industry to their state. + + The group of businessmen I met from the Oregon company I met in Roppongi +(an entertainment district in Tokyo). These people were a disgrace to American +industry and opened my eyes to why the Japanese are able to take advantage of us +in business. Firstly, these men spoke no Japanese at all (so they couldn't +understand what their opponents at the negotiating table were saying) and knew +nothing about the culture. They asked me what it was like to be a 'gringo' in +Japan. It seemed that they thought the business adversaries they were +negotiating against in Japan were running some 2 peso Mexican hot dog factory. +My conversation with them was a real eye opener to many of America's problems +when dealing with the Japanese in business. + + At least their company didn't send a women to do their negotiating. This +would have been a mistake of huge proportions. Japanese corporations and +businessmen typically treat any company who sends a woman with ridicule. Its one +of the best ways to lose a contract. Although Americans may dislike Japanese +sexism, Japan is fast becoming the world's economic power which means they get +to make the rules, not us. This is part of the price Americans pay for buying +all those Toyotas and Sonys for so many years. As Japanese industrial influence +spreads throughout the world, more of this type of treatment of women by +Japanese companies will take place (as many women working in Japanese transplant +companies in the US can attest). + + The very presence of the trade group from Wisconsin at the machine tools +fair is the result of a very foolish, self destructive and shortsighted US +practice which will now be explained. With so many jobs leaving America (due to +many of the above Japanese tactics), some states have decided to go to Japan to +try to attract Japanese companies and plants to their state. Because America +(unlike almost all other industrialized countries) doesn't co-ordinate or +regulate this in any way, what happens is that states get played off against +each other by Japanese companies and the Japanese government. The state which +gives the most tax breaks or contributes the most money to build the plant gets +the plant. This is probably good for the winning state in the short run, but is +much worse for the country as a whole (and that state) in the long run. + + Here's why; What this leads to is Japanese companies opening US branch +plants paid for by the US taxpayer and which pay little or no taxes themselves. +With many states doing this to each other to 'win' a few jobs, everyone winds up +losing. This is because after each state has 'won' a plant from some other +state, the final tally shows that no one state has gained any jobs from any +other state (or very little anyways), yet every state is short lots of tax money +which must be made up by placing more taxes on individuals, or pre-existing US +businesses (who must now compete against the American state subsidized Japanese +businesses). The only winner in all of this is Japan who receives property tax +free (or discounted) factories and in worse cases plants which we the taxpayer, +sometimes pay to partially build through government grants. The Honda Accord +plant in Marysville, Ohio was a result of this practice. Japanese companies +producing out of tax free plants are also at an advantage to defeat US +companies, who must pay taxes. Ultimately, this practice makes America lose, not +gain, jobs (see above section 'assembly plants') and pay more taxes. This very +topic is the subject of many sick jokes in Tokyo about America's greed and +foolishness today. + +-->"Foreign Agents" + + So, why does our government even allow the things explained in this paper +to take place? The reason is due to another problem (and is also the subject of +many good jokes in Tokyo). It lies at the highest levels of our federal +government and has to do with much of the recent talk in the last federal +election about 'foreign agents'. These are very high level Federal public +servants and elected members Americans sent to Washington to represent them, who +go work in the U.S. Federal government for a short time, make contacts in the +government or US Commerce Department, then betray the country by selling +themselves out as representatives to foreign interests. + + These people were our front line trade negotiators, staff members, trade +attorneys, elected officials and have the inside knowledge the foreign interests +need to circumvent our trade laws, defeat our companies and find out what our +confidential future trade laws are likely to be. These people sell themselves to +the other side in order that they may personally get rich through the resulting +huge amounts of 'blood money' as they use their contacts they made while serving +the public, in order to betray America. The amount of money involved is in the +millions of dollars per person. Some claim these are delayed bribes which are +paid after public service is completed for favors done while in public office. +Often, these people start representing foreign interests within weeks of +quitting their government job. + + The book 'Agents of Influence' (1991) by Pat Choate, contains the list of +people who became foreign agents, a thorough explanation of how this scam works, +and how this is obliterating our status as a rich industrial country. The book +also explains very well the point made on the Nov 27, 1992 edition of ABC's +20/20 (which did a segment on this problem) about how much more the Japanese +"invest" in bribery and how we have lost billions of dollars and hundreds of +thousands of jobs as a result of this small handful of people willing to sell +out their country and their kids for cash. + + For one example of bad this all really gets, one can look in the very +highest level of our national government, at the case of Mr. Ronald Brown (who +is by no means an exception). Ronald Brown has been appointed the Secretary of +Commerce by President Clinton. This is the highest position in the US Commerce +Department, the agency whose job it is to ensure US interests are protected in +the world trade arena. Mr. Brown however, is a foreign agent who until recently, +worked for the Japanese for big money. After leaving his past government job as +a US senate aide, Mr. Brown went to work as a lobbyist for big Japanese +companies such as Toshiba and Sony who wanted government insiders to help +further their interests in America. Now he is again "working for America" +('against' his old cronies at Sony, Toshiba and others) as he has been appointed +chief of the agency which is supposed to ensure that foreign companies +(including the ones Mr. Brown lobbied for) do not have undue advantage or resort +to illegal tactics (such as those mentioned in this paper) when competing +against US companies at home and abroad. The foreign agent list is US government +public information. See the appendix of this article for how to get a free copy +of it (rank, position and cash received per official) from the Internet computer +network. + +-->The "media war" + + The "Agents of Influence" book mentioned above has a very interesting +section on what the author depicts as the 'Japanese propaganda machine'. The +fact that today Japan has so much power in the US government and owns so much of +the US popular media industry has lead many (including the author of that book) +to believe that Japan uses their media power to prevent distribution to the +public of information unfavorable to Japan, such as many the facts contained in +this article. (The film "Rising Sun" however, made by one of America's remaining +non-Japanese movie companies, is a definite exception to this trend as it does +try indirectly to warn people about what is going on). Today, Japan owns many +very large US popular media companies including the following: CBS Records, +Ciniplex Odeon (a big piece), Columbia Pictures, Columbia House Records, Loews +Theatres, TriStar Pictures and Universal Pictures. America is prevented from +owning large Japanese media companies. + + Japan's media effort includes positive publicity as well. One example shows +MITI, the Japanese industrial ministry 'helping' foreign firms 'succeed in +complex Japan' by providing short terms of free office space in Japanese cities. +Such actions make Japan look helpful, while at the same time making non-Japanese +firms appear unable to do the job themselves and incompetent in the eyes of the +public (who aren't aware of all the barriers mentioned in this paper which +ensure that this 'token gesture' only remains as such, and that the companies +who are hosted do not in fact succeed in Japan). Secondly, the english news +program "Today's Japan", which appears on some US television stations is an +other part of this effort. A posting I saw on a wall in the Tokyo NHK +broadcasting studio where the program originates from makes the point abundantly +clear, "Today's Japan" primary goal is to portray Japan in a more favorable +light for foreign audiences. + +-->Accepting Reality, America's problems at home: + + America must pay more attention to the future and not take for granted that +it will always be rich and powerful. One only has to look at the social and +economic troubles today in countries like Britain (which years ago in its time, +was also the richest and most powerful in the world) to see our destiny if we +continue in our erroneous and divisive ways. Britain failed to take action in +time and suffered the consequences. They were once the world's most powerful +economy. They too thought that any damage to their economy would have profound +impact to the world, and hence, thought they were safe as the rest of world +would not let anything bad happen to the British economy. They were wrong. +People saying this today about the US economy are also wrong. Britain's economic +power diminished gradually and unnoticeably, such that today, what happens in +Britain is not so important to the world global economy. They are now a minor +player and now have a much lower standard of living. Our economic power is now +in decline, following the 'British pattern' which occurred many years ago. We +will suffer their fate if we don't change. + + America has many problems which are not the fault of the Japanese, but are +of our own doing. Japanese work as a team much better than we do. They struggle +together to save their companies when in need (versus jumping ship, staging +strikes like the recent ones at GM, or selling out to foreign interests). They +don't pay some of their CEO's millions while driving their companies into the +ground. They also realize that management and workers are not each other's +enemy. The competition is the enemy. No war was ever won with internal conflict +and the same goes for this one. Labor strikes (no matter how justified) and +management selfishness and shortsightedness are not the answer to our problems. + + The US auto industry is a prime example of this. Managers grossly overpaid +themselves and the UAW bosses kept in power by promising its workers a labor +monopoly, 'job security', outrageous salaries and ridiculously inefficient work +rules. Over the long term, this was of course, unworkable. Like many other +monopolies over time it self destructed. The environment the labor leaders +provided to their workers caused them to lose concern about quality and +efficiency. As a consequence, many of these people ultimately lost their jobs. +However, as much as many Americans want these companies to go bankrupt, it is a +unrealistic and dangerous hope. These are still US companies. We need them in +this country as they are a key part of our industrial base and our wealth. +Rather than destroying them, America will have to change them from the inside by +altering both worker and management attitudes. The current ways (on the part of +both management and labor leaders) only serves to ensure our kids won't have +these kinds of jobs in the future. Co-operation and a common vision are the only +solutions to this problem. On a positive note, it should be noted that quality +in the US auto industry has improved considerably and today is at par with the +Japanese (ironically as a result of the Japanese competition which broke the UAW +labor monopoly). The lesson from this is that America will have to revisit laws +which help enforce labor monopolies (which in the long term tends to destroy +American jobs and industries) and restrict the scams which allow public company +top management teams to set their own and their friends salaries to ridiculous +levels. + + One note should be remembered on this example. Some try to apply the model +of the US auto industry to other US industries devastated by Japan. This is +incorrect. Comparisons between the successful Japanese attack on US autos and +other industries must be made carefully, as US auto, a very old and very +unionized industry, is in many ways very different from the other US industries +Japan has successfully targeted. Though the US auto industry was complacent, +this is not true of most of the other US industries (such as high technology) +which were very efficient, innovative and high in quality, yet were still +devastated by Japan. + +CONCLUSION: + + The article is not meant as an affront to the ordinary Japanese people (to +whom nothing is held against). Like most conflicts, it is the ordinary people +who get caught in the middle and wind up suffering. The same, unfortunately, is +true for this conflict. This paper is not about them, but is about their +companies and their government policies. + + America's citizens have failed to realize that Japan practices a different +kind of trade than America does. Japan practices adversarial trade and 'taisen' +or war economics, where the goal is to wipe out the foreign countries' +industries in order to dominate them entirely. For the Japanese, business is in +every sense of the word, like war. + + Forty years ago, Japan was a third world country. It had almost no industry +and its people lived in third world squalor. Their 'war' economic strategy, +though devastating to its trading partners is very effective. It has quickly +made Japan the most modern country in the world and average Japanese people much +richer than they would have been otherwise under US style free-market capitalism +(which would have lead the development of Japan to take place much more slowly). +They did what was best for their country, which is what I would expect them to +do. Though I do not blame them for the economic strategy they use against us (a +pretty brave and clever plan on their part), we must still recognize it for what +it is. + + Consequences for a country defeated in economic conflict are strikingly +similar to consequences of being defeated in a military conflict. In both cases, +the industries of the defeated country are destroyed or severely weakened and +the nation's technological and advanced manufacturing base are shattered. The +standard of living of the defeated country ultimately declines drastically +(though slowly and steadily over many years in the case of an economic war). +Ultimately, the country tends to become less stable socially and politically as +people try to blame others or take personal/political advantage of the fact that +there is little wealth to go around (which ultimately is the root cause of +instability in most shaky countries around the world today). + + The danger of an economic conflict such as the Japanese have mounted +against America is that ordinary citizens generally are unaware or do not +understand what an economic war is, what the consequences of losing one is and +that one is taking place today here in America. Unethical politicians who +recognize the voters' ignorance can tell the people for example, that there is +nothing wrong with Japanese (and other countries) "dumping" because the voters +get cheaper prices. Though true in the short term, the fact that many voters +will lose their jobs as a result is generally not well understood and is not a +concern to many politicians as it occurs several elections in the future. + + Conversely, ethical politicians (there are surprisingly many) who do +understand what is happening, tend to lose elections as it is very difficult to +explain complex issues like those in this paper in 30 second TV spots to a +general population that has very little fundamental background in economics. +Such politicians often get painted by their opposition as "Mr. X. is in favor of +a trade law which will prevent you from buying the least expensive products +available, is against [Japanese] factory Y which will create 1000 jobs [but +indirectly cost 4000] from coming to town and he wants to raise your taxes and +cut your benefits [to pay down the national debt so you won't completely lose +your benefits later]". Unless one has taken the time to gain a good +understanding of economics and how they apply to economic wars, it is unlikely +that people will vote for Mr. X. although he is the correct choice. Basically, +the voter has been outsmarted. It is said that "a fool and their money is soon +parted". The Japanese and unscrupulous US politicians know this is true about +many US voters and consumers when it comes to economic war, and have applied +this maxim on a national scale against America. + + The Soviets used to parade their bombs every May through Red Square. The +threat to America and its way of life was very apparent and most people could +understand it. As a result, Americans stood up and took action to defend against +the Soviet threat. Economic wars are much more complex to understand and for +that reason, more dangerous. + + We either have to learn about and apply Japan's superior (for survival +anyways) economic strategy, or find a way to defeat it. Else, there is little +hope for us. Unfortunately, the world is a tough neighborhood and not a place +for the weak and the righteous. Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" maxim +fully applies in this case. If we do not adapt to today's economic climate, +America will most certainly fade away as a modern world leader. Most Americans +however, don't see the world for what it is: an economic and military jungle; +and the laws of the jungle do often apply. The Japanese realize this, we don't. + + Americans who buy Japanese goods, unknowingly help them reach the goal of +their economic war. As Michael Crichton wrote in "Rising Sun", The Japanese (and +other countries such as Korea and Taiwan who have adopted the same Japanese +style business practices described in this paper) are not our economic allies, +they are our competitors. + + America often complains that Japan must change its ways to become more like +us. This is not true as America is not number one anymore. It is not a request +we can make. Today, the tables are turned. This time, America will have to +change its ways to become more like the Japanese. Japan will likely surpass the +United States to become the world's leading economic, technological and +manufacturing nation by the end of this decade, even though it has only 1/2 the +population of America (CBC News;Venture "Racing the Rising Sun"). History has +pointed out every time, that the richest and most economically powerful country +in the world, ultimately becomes the strongest militarily. We have to realize +this and be prepared to accept it, or we have to do something about it. Japan +will not have to change their ways to become like us, as tomorrow they will +wield the power, not us. + +This article by: + +lleclerc@nyx.cs.du.edu + +Louis Leclerc +P.O. Box 453 +Jackman, Maine 04945-0453 + +Please send me any corrections or omissions and this article will be updated. +The most recent version of this article (JAPANYES) is kept at FTP site: +monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (login: anonymous), in directory pub/nihongo + +This article is copyright (1992, 1993) under the laws of the United States of +America. However, I hereby give permission that it be distributed widely and +freely over any media. This article cannot be sold or licensed without prior +written permission. + + + + A P P E N D I X + + +-->List of companies: + +This is a list of some Japanese (or Japanese owned and controlled) companies. +Some of the names that make this list may surprise you, depicted by '*': + +* 7/11 Convenience Stores: US operations owned by Ito-Yokado, Japanese Investor + Acura (Honda Motor Company, cars) + Aiwa (consumer electronics, stereos) +* Brother (electronic typewriters) +* Bridgestone Tire Company (tires) +* Bruce Springsteen (works for SONY, his record contract is with SONY) + C. Itoh (computer printers) + Canon (laser printers, cameras, photocopiers, consumer electronics) +* CBS Records/Columbia House Records (owned by SONY) +* Ciniplex Odeon (movie theater chain; big piece owned by Matsushita) +* Citizen (watch company) +* Clarion (musical instruments) +* Columbia Pictures (owned by SONY) + Denon (cassette tapes, consumer electronics, stereos) +* Dunlop Tire and Rubber (owned by Sumitomo keiretsu) + Epson (computer company) +* Firestone Tire and Rubber (owned by Bridgestone Tire Company, Japan) +* Fisher Electronics (stereo maker; owned by Sanyo) + Fuji Film (film and chemical products) + Fujitsu (nuclear and breeder reactors, consumer electronics, heavy + industry) + Geisha Foods (tuna and canned food products in the USA) + Hino (heavy truck maker) + Hitachi Industries (heavy industry, railroad, appliances & electronics) + Honda (autos, motorcycles, small trucks) +* The IBM Building, Atlanta GA + Infiniti cars (Nissan Motor) + Isuzu (autos) +* JVC (Japan Victor Company; owned by Matsushita Industrial Electric) + Kao (computer disks and supplies) + Kawasaki Heavy Industries (motorcycles, trains, industrial steel) + Kikkomann Foods +* Kenwood Electronics (stereo maker) + Komatsu (A heavy equipment maker) + Konica (photocopiers, cameras) + Kubota (heavy equipment, backhoes, tractors, bulldozers) + Kyocera (computer and electronics maker) + Lexus Automobile (Toyota Motor Company) +* Loews Theatres (owned by SONY) + Makita (power tools) +* Maxell (cassette tapes) + Mazda (autos) +* MCA Home Entertainment (home videos; tv shows,ie. Dragnet..etc)(Matsushita) + Michael Jackson (works for SONY, his record contract is with SONY) + Minolta (copiers, fax machines, electronics) + Mita (photocopiers) + Mitsubishi (a huge keiretsu;...banking, steel, autos, trucks, lead pencils, + electronics, electricity generation, bicycles...and on and on) + Mitsui (another huge keiretsu, similar to Mitsubishi) + Miyata (bicycles) + Murata (fax machines and electronics) + NEC (Nippon Electric Company; computers, cash registers, TV's, electronics) + Nikko (consumer electronics, stereos) + Nintendo Electronics (video games) + Nishiki (bicycles) + Nissan (autos, power boats, trucking and heavy transport vehicles) +* Nomura Securities (financial firm) + Okidata (computer printers and accessories) + Olympus (cameras) + Onkyo (electronics and stereo maker) + Panasonic (Matsushita Industrial Electric Company) +* Pebble Beach Golf Course California (Japanese Investors) + Pentax (cameras) +* Pentel (lead pencil company...Japan has a huge share of the lead pencil + market, look at your lead pencil, its probably Japanese) +* Pilot (lead pencil company) +* Pioneer (Stereo and electronics maker) +* Quasar (Matsushita Industrial Electric Company) (Televisions, VCR's) +* Raven (computer printers, faxes and accessories) (Matsushita Industrial) + Ricoh (they make computer printers) +* Roland (musical instruments) +* Rockafeller Center in New York City (a Japanese holding company) + Sanyo (electronics) +* Seattle Mariners Pro Baseball Team (Owned by Nintendo) + Sega (video games) + Seiko (Watches) + Sharp (copiers, faxes, TV's, electronics) + Shimano (bicycles) +* Shiseido (perfumes, cosmetics) + Sony (electronics, movie production) +* Spencer's (Shopping mall novelty store chain; owned by Matsushita Industrial) +* Star Electronics (they make computer printers) + Subaru (autos) + Sumitomo (banks, heavy industry, trains, shipbuilding, steel, electronics) +* Suntour (bicycle shifters & mechanical accessories) + Suzuki (autos, motor bikes) +* TDK (cassette tapes) + Taito (video arcade games) +* Tokyo Disneyland (majority share belongs to a Japanese holding company) + Tomy (toy company) + Toshiba (electronics, electrical, home appliances, heavy industry, nuclear + reactors) + Toyota (autos, heavy transport trucks, industrial machinery) +* TriStar Pictures (film production company, owned by SONY) +* Universal Pictures (Matsushita Industrial Electric Company) + Yamaha (motorcycles, musical instruments) + Yokohama Tire and Rubber (tire and rubber goods) +* YKK (zipper company (look at the zipper on your clothes, its probably YKK as + this company has an over 50% market share in the world)) +* Japan owns over 80% of all prime Honolulu hotel/resort real estate properties +* Japan owns over 40% of all prime downtown Los Angeles commercial real estate + properties + + America (or anyone else for that matter), owns very little real-estate in +Japan as it is Japanese practice through various means not to allow us to. + +-->Some US products which are really Japanese + +Chevy Nova car (Toyota) +Chevy Sprint/Pontiac Firefly (Suzuki) +Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi) +Dodge Stealth (Mitsubishi) +Eagle Talon (Mitsubishi) +Ford Mercury Villager (Nissan) +Ford Mercury Tracer (Mazda) +Ford Probe (The body & styling is by Ford, the engineering & 'guts' is Mazda) +GM's Geo cars (mostly Japanese) +HP printers (many of them are really Japanese) +Macintosh Powerbook Computer (some are SONYs) +Some Radio Shack Portable computers +Some Sears major appliances, TVs, and electronics (Matsushita and others) + + +-->'Strategic markets' which used to belong to America that the Japanese have +entered (or are doing so now) include: + +->popular media: Today Japan controls a vast portion of popular media in the US. +This is very strategic as one can affect the views of a population by +manipulating the popular media of a target country. Some claim Japan has already +tried to do this in the US. Large media companies that Japan own in the US +include: CBS Records, Ciniplex Odeon (a big piece), Columbia Pictures, Columbia +House Records, Loews Theatres, MCA Home Video, TriStar Pictures and Universal +Pictures. + +->machine tools and robotics: The world is now dependant on Japan for much of +the most modern robotic manufacturing equipment and machine making equipment in +the world (imagine the importance of this if a real war broke out somewhere in +the world where the US and Japan each supported the opposing parties). +Originally attacked in the 1980's, today Japan dominates the world machine tool +and robotics industries (20 years ago both these industries were dominated by +America). Japan has also made a strong effort in the area of power tools +(Makita, Hitachi), again with some dumping. + +->electronics, computer memory chips and semiconductors: (Akio Morita (SONY CEO) +and Ishihara, in their famous book "Japan that can say no! (to America)" stated +that Japan was powerful because they could alter the balance of power by selling +its critical Japanese-made-only microchips which make US bombs 'smart' to the +Russians instead of the USA). They also claim that we dropped the A-bomb on +Japan because we are racists. Today, Japan dominates the semiconductor industry, +having first attacked it in the 1980s. + +->high performance telecommunications equipment: They don't dominate this yet, +but they may by the end of the decade, or the beginning of the next. Already, +they are very very strong in data transmission systems, which are the foundation +of the next generation of telecommunications. + +->aviation: Japan, through companies like Toyota, is getting back into the +aviation industry. Japan may start by building small and midsized aircraft and +move on to large aircraft later (they are already doing some joint manufacturing +with Boeing to learn how build specific components they've never made before +such as major aircraft airframes). + +->automotive: US auto plants were used in WWII to make bombers...today many of +these plants don't exist anymore. + +->automotive parts: (Japanese cars 'made in USA' are really assembled from parts +which are usually MADE in Japan). These are the cars' critical components. The +high precision equipment and technology to make these parts resides in Japan, +not here. That's why high precision machining and advanced manufacturing is +usually done in Japan (and why they also targeted that industry), and only final +assembly is done in America. + +->banking and finance: Today, the Japanese and keiretsu banking system is the +largest and most powerful in the world. The Tokyo stock market today is so +influential, that shocks which occur on that exchange are strongly felt +throughout the entire world financial system. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +DEBT, AMERICA'S SUPERWEAPON OF SELF DESTRUCTION: + +First, some definitions: + +National Deficit: The amount of new money America borrows this year only + ($400,000,000,000 this year) + +National Debt: The total amount of money the government owes (a result + of national deficits adding onto each other year after year + + interest) + The government has now borrowed a total of $4,000,000,000,000. + Each American's share is $16,000 + + It should be noted that a lot of America's problems today are its own +fault; a poor educational system, poor corporate management, lack of loyalty to +our own country and its products as well as politicians who do exactly what we +want them to in the short term. Perhaps America though it was so rich it could +afford to be careless about its future. This all lead to the big issue, the +national debt. + + For the last 10 years, our standard of living has been maintained by +borrowing when it should have declined drastically as our imports shot up much +faster than exports. This resulted in significant erosion of our national +industries. Unfortunately, because of the massive borrowing, the cracks forming +in America's national economy were not so visible. + + Today, America is a much weaker player in automobiles (the motor capital of +the world is now in Toyota City, Japan, not Detroit), machine tools, +motorcycles, consumer electronics, display technology, banking (in 1970, 9 of +the 10 largest banks in the world were American, today 9 of the 10 largest banks +in the world are Japanese), robotics and materials. All of these industries +today are dominated by the Japanese. All were dominated by America only a short +time ago. Americans could not see the effects of losing industry after industry +on their national strength and standard of living because of the borrowing... +until now. + + Today about 1/3 of every American's taxes go to pay interest on the +national debt. Much of this debt is held by the Japanese, who have many dollars +to loan (from their huge trade surplus with us). If the US didn't have this +debt, everyone in America would be working 4 days instead of 5 and still have +the same living standards, as this is the part of each person's taxes which go +to the debt. Conversely, Every American's standard of living would be higher by +20% with 5 day workweeks but no debt. At the current rate, in 10 years, all +Federal taxes collected will go to the debt. This all points to extremely bad +things which will happen to the US economy in a few years. Already, America is +in the longest and severest recession since the depression. If America tries to +balance the budget now, it will likely trigger a much more severe recession or a +depression, as the US economy is extremely dependant on this borrowed money +flowing in (1/3 of this year's federal spending was borrowed) to keep everything +going. + + Balancing the budget now isn't so bad though, because depressions are +temporary and things would start to get better about 10 years later. After that, +several decades of lower standard of living would take place as Americans pay +down the debt back to a reasonable level (every American's debt share right now +is $16,000). Balancing the budget is of course political suicide. Many of the +politicians today prefer to commit national economic suicide as it lets them +save their jobs for now. + +Sadly, the (more likely) alternative is much worse: + + If America doesn't balance the budget now, but waits, then the debt and +interest costs will get much higher than they are today. The government will +start raising taxes and cutting services more rapidly than ever before, but will +be unable to raise taxes so high to pay such interest. They will then resort to +printing more money to pay the interest. This will lead to hyper inflation rates +and rapid decline of the standard of living in the country. This results in a +depression that won't go away. If it sounds unbelievable, one may read one of +the many books on Latin American economic history in the 20th century. You'll +see a play by play description of what is happening now in America. This is what +happened to all those Latin American countries who right now are wondering why +America is so foolishly making the same mistakes they did in the 60s and 70s. +This is why the debt has people like Paul Tsongas and Ross Perot so afraid right +now. + + Fixing the debt problem will require (for a short time) lots of pain that +Americans haven't experienced since the depression and tax hikes with the likes +that have never been seen before. Americans will have to expect this and be +tolerant. Gas will sell for $2.50, social security will be cut, taxed and many +loopholes will have to dissappear. For a time, American's living standards will +plummet drastically. + + On the other hand, not taking these measures will yield the same +consequences a little later, but they will be permanent instead. America will be +a very different place in 25 years should this happen. Its the choice of every +American about what happens. We will have to face our future grandkids about it +one day if we decide to do nothing about it now. There is still time, it would +be wise for us not to waste it. + +Organization: + +"The Concord Coalition", a grass roots organization, lead by Paul Tsongas and +former Senator Rudman (of Graham-Rudman fame), is dedicated to forcing your U.S. +government to get the national debt under control via grass roots pressure from +American citizens. It is non partisan and you can join or inquire about it by +calling 1-800-231-6800. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +-->The following articles referred to in the above paper are available via the +Internet Computer Network at FTP Site: monu6.cc.monash.edu.au in directory: +pub/nihongo + +You login with name: anonymous +Use your first name as the password + +(Also available at free public access computer modem bbs: 516-473-6351) + +JAPANNO: +An unauthorized translation of a best selling book in Japan "A Japan that can +say no (to America)!" about why Japan is now number one and should take the +place of the US as world leader. By Shintaro Ishihara (Japanese Parliament +Member "Americans are lazy, ignorant and stupid") and Akio Morita (SONY CEO). +This is actually a good analysis of many of America's problems. Note the version +of this book sold in stores is a phony. 1/2 of the original version is missing +(Akio Morita removed his part fearing it would hurt SONY's sales in the U.S.) +and there is a new appendix specifically written for American consumption, much +of which seems to be false). + +MATSUSHITA.PBS: +Transcript of a shocking PBS Frontline special about how a Japanese cartel wiped +out the US TV industry and went on to take over the rest of world consumer +electronics. + +LOSEWAR.PBS: +Transcript of another excellent PBS Frontline special about how yet another +Japanese cartel conspired and took over the world supply of small computer and +electronic displays. Good segments on how Honda used unethical (and possibly +illegal) measures to drive U.S. auto parts makers out of business. + +-->The following article referred to in the above paper is available via the +Internet Computer Network at FTP Site: slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com in directory: +pub/doc/misc + +(Also available at free public access computer modem bbs: 516-473-6351) + +AGNTLIST: +The list of 'foreign agents' (with figures): former high level U.S. government +public officials who later used their inside government contacts to work as +agents for foreign interests in order to make quick money while betraying +America. Many of them made over a million dollars doing this. + +-------------- +Here are a few good books to read on the topic: + +-->"Agents of Influence", The list of 'foreign agents': former U.S. government +public officials who later used their inside government contacts to work as +agents for foreign interests in order to make quick money, Pat Choate, 1991 This +is an excellent book on many of the topics mentioned in this paper. It is in +paperback and is highly recommended reading for in depth understanding of this +problem. + +-->"The Enigma of Japanese Power"; by Karl Van Wolferen, 1989, Alfred A. Knopf +Press (this book used to be given away whenever your bought a subscription to +Fortune Magazine. It may still be.) This is an other very good book on the +topic. + +-->"Trading Places, How we are giving our future to the Japanese and how to +reclaim it", Clyde Prestowitz, New York: Basic Books 1989 + +-->"Unequal Equities, Power and Risk in Japan's Stock Market"; Zielinski, +Kodansha International, 1991 + +-->"The Japanese Company", Rodney Clark, Charles E. Tuttle Company 1979 (Yale +University) + +-->"The Reckoning", by David Halberstam, William Morrow & Co., 1986. An +historical novel about Ford and Nissan from founding to the present. + +-->"Head to Head - The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe, and America", +by Lester Thurow, William Morrow & Co., 1992. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +AFTERWORD, by Andre Robotewskyj; ar12@midway.uchicago.edu + + Some time ago, Japan threw our companies out of their country, expropriated +our operations we had there, closed their market from our products and declared +economic war against the United States of America, which still occurs to this +day. It is time for America to do the same to Japan. Japan will resist, claiming +that it is different now and Japan is open. They will let in a few token +companies make big publicity of it, or even offer to "help US companies succeed +in Japan". They do this to make us complacent while they continue to destroy and +buy up our country. If America is to stay free in the future, it must control +and own its own companies, manufacturing and real-estate. Otherwise, more and +more, the important decisions for America will be made in Tokyo by people who +are not American. Soon, if the trend continues, Japan will replace the US as the +number one world economic and political power. Japan sees no ethical problem in +conducting an economic war against the US and see us as fools for falling for +it. + + Japan has chosen to destroy this country's industry and military not by +bombing it, but by ensuring that it is impossible for us to pay to maintain and +continue to develop it. Ultimately, the result is the same as bombing it. It is +time for Americans to wake up and see what is happening. Japan claims that they +are fair and so are their trade rules. If this is the game they want to play, +then it is time for Americans to force Japanese companies in America to play by +the same rules US companies must play by in Japan and not buy Japanese products +until this happens. + + Americans have to recognize that we are being attacked by the Japanese +Government and corporate cartels through deliberate and organized economic war +strategies. As a result, US companies and industries are collapsing or being +bought by the Japanese daily. Many of our key politicians have been bought, so +it is now up to the people and corporations of America to realize what is +happening and take charge by telling others, and by not selling our companies, +or outsourcing our manufacturing to Japanese producers. + + The Japanese government and industries have treated the America that +rebuilt (with US taxpayer dollars) and helped Japan so much after World War II +with contempt and insolence. We had accepted their closed market and opened ours +to them so they could rebuild their country and become full members of the +peaceful world. Instead, their government and their industries chose to use this +generosity as weapons against us in order to destroy our companies, our jobs, +and our nation. + + Some say protectionism is bad for America. This is true and this article is +not about protectionism. Free trade is almost always a better alternative. +America practices true free trade with many countries throughout the world and +benefits by these trade relationships which ensure foreign markets for our goods +and competition to keep our companies efficient. Today, however, we do not have +free trade with Japan, we have one way economic war 'trade' where Americans buy +Japanese goods and Japan buys America. + + I used to buy lots of Japanese products, probably for the same reasons you +might now. Others may not know the full consequences of their decisions like you +do now. Telling them is important. If you know an effective way to get this +message out to people, then it would be wise to do so, don't wait for someone +else to do it for you. + + America belongs to you and you have to do something for it once in a while. +This is one of those times. She needs your help. If you have questions, please +ask. Use this network and fax machines to organize yourselves to get this +message out. Put copies of this article in lounges or on the company/school +computer network. Send this article to your representatives, or your favorite +political party. Scatter copies of it into the 4 winds or call radio/TV talk +shows and tell the people. These are all things which can be done. + + If you are a student or recent graduate, you probably realize much more +than your parents do that your standard of living is likely to be a considerably +lower than theirs. You are much more likely to have trouble finding a good job +upon graduation than they ever had. That is how this problem affects you +directly. As a result, you may wish to get your friends & family to tell others +and organize or inform student groups to get the word out about this problem. If +you don't act, its you (and your kids someday) who will suffer the most as a +result of all this, so its up to you. + + In the meantime, one very good way to get people aware of the topic is to +get them a copy of Rising Sun (by Michael Crichton) as a birthday or Christmas +present. This is a very good factually based fiction murder mystery book on the +subject. It is a #1 best seller and is by the same author who wrote "Andromeda +Strain", "Great Train Robbery" and other very famous books and movies. A movie +version of this book (starring Shawn Connery) is being made and should be out in +the summer of 1993. + + Remember that a problem like this can be fought, one American at a time. +Think of America when you do business and remember that exclusive self-centered +thinking will only make problems in America worse than they are. That is the +true lesson of the 1980's. Self centeredness doesn't work in the long run. If we +were as loyal to each other as the Japanese are to each other, we wouldn't be in +the economic and social mess we are now. Remember that, and expect it from your +family, friends and associates. If you don't get what you expect, let them know. + + Hopefully in the future, the economic war will be called off and our two +countries will live peacefully and with co-operation. I look forward to that +day. + + I run a mailing list which occasionally distributes articles like this one. +If you'd like to be on the email receiver list, please send me a note (to the +address below). + +Andre Robotewskyj; ar12@midway.uchicago.edu + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some +notes about the author and this article, by author: Louis Leclerc;BSc,MBA + + This article is based on a trip taken to Japan in summer of 1992. Some of +the information in the article is from my trip, however most of it has already +been written on in excellent, but sometimes very thick and difficult to get +books, articles & documentaries (this is the reference list at the end of my +article). The intent of this article is to distil the information I read and saw +into a condensed form which can be more easily read and distributed. If people +want the sources (and probably a much better and more thorough explanation of +the points in this article, they can refer to some of the books on the included +reference list). Periodically, I will update and maintain this article. The most +recent version will be at Internet FTP site: monu6.cc.monash.edu.au in +directory: pub/nihongo as file: japanyes + + The article was mostly my effort with help from a friend who is a native +Japanese. We tried to be thoughtful when writing the article (something +difficult to do considering the volatility of this topic). We have showed it to +several of our Japanese friends in order to ensure it was as thoughtful, polite +and accurate as possible. I contributed mainly to the sections of the article +which pertained to business while she contributed mainly to the sections of the +article which pertained to the cultural and social aspects of Japanese society +(something which she, having lived in Japanese society almost all her life, +understands much better than me). + + Ishihara's book "A Japan that can say no! (to America)" (JAPANNO) is an +excellent analysis of many things wrong with America. I agree with many of its +contents. You can get it at the Internet file server listed above. + +Some background about my article: + + I didn't live in a 'Gaijin Ghetto', but with my friend's family in a Tokyo +suburb. I lived my daily life in Japanese with and among the ordinary Japanese. +Sadly, there is much that I learned which never made it into the article due to +length restrictions. + + I went to Nissan, SONY, Matsushita/Panasonic, Toshiba, NTT and other +centers and factories. The article is based upon my experiences while in Japan +(company visits, trip to the University of Tokyo...) and literature I read (or +had translated) while in the country. Much of what I read I verified personally +during my trip. + + We have much to learn from the Japanese. We have to be more like them (in +their good ways and bad) if we are to survive the 21st century as a modern +country. First, we have to know what they do and how they got to where they are +today, which was the goal of this article. I hope that it was a step in the +right direction. + + I hope that one day there will be genuine goodwill between our 2 countries +and its citizens. We have much to gain and learn from each other once our +nation's friendship is based on truth, not the deceit it is based on today. In +the long term, today's behavior on the part of our 2 countries is only +destructive to our relationship. + + Any corrections or additions you send will be taken seriously and the +article updated accordingly in a future revision. + +Louis Leclerc +P.O. Box 453 +Jackman, Maine 04945-0453 + +Internet: lleclerc@nyx.cs.du.edu diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/japsafe.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/japsafe.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..974f7787 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/japsafe.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ + HOW DOES JAPAN GET THAT LOW CRIME RATE, ANYWAY? + + Today's \Los Angeles Times\ has an article that + illuminates the difficulty of citing Japan's low crime rate + as evidence that gun-control is a factor. + + In a Column One story titled "Victims of a Safe + Society," the \Los Angeles Times\ details how the relatively + low rate of private criminality in Japan is achieved by + massive police criminality: beating suspects so severely + that they are permanently crippled in order to obtain + confessions, a massively high rate of false executions and + imprisonment, and virtually no penalties for police who + commit these crimes. + + "Many foreign people think Japan is a highly + developed, advanced, democratic country, and it is," says + Hideyuki Kayanuma, an attorney for an American entertainer + who was permanently crippled by Japanese police who + suspected him of drug possession. "But especially in the + field of criminal justice, it's a Third World country. + There are no human rights." + + Civil-rights attorney Kensuke Onuki says, "It's almost + like 'Midnight Express.'" + + In addition to beating of suspects, sleep deprivation + to achieve confessions, and common torture of arrestees, + the article describes a Japanese criminal justice system + with virtually no bail, strip searches for traffic + violations, and a conviction rate of 98% -- about that of + Stalinist USSR. In contrast, of 12,615 complaints of + torture and abuse filed against police over the last 40 + years, only 15 cases were tried, and only \half\ of that 15 + resulted in punishment for police officers. + + Citing "a typical example," of Japanese justice, the + article tells of a day laborer released after 16 years in + prison. The laborer was coerced into a false confession + during six months of detention in three different police + stations outside Tokyo. During that time, the laborer + says, "officers beat him on the head with fists, trampled + his thighs, and ordered him to 'apologize' to a photo of + the dead woman as they burned incense for her spirit in the + interrogation room. They interrogated him for a total of + 172 days as much as 13 hours a day." + + Other methods of interrogation, according to the + \Times\ article, involve telling suspects that their + families will suffer if they don't confess or that an + interrogation won't end without a confession. The article + cites human rights attorneys who have estimated forced + confessions to be as high as 50%. Suspects may be held in + custody for up to 23 days with no charges, bail, right to + an attorney, or court supervision. + + Nor is there much objection to this brutality by the + Japanese public. The Japanese Civil Liberties Union has + only 600 members, as compared to 280,000 ACLU members. + Instead, says the \Times\ article, "most Japanese place a + high degree of confidence and trust in police and assume + that suspects under arrest probably committed the crime." + + Those who wish to cite Japan's low murder rate as + proof that gun control works, had better think again. + And if after reconsidering the issue they still advocate + the Japanese approach, those Americans who value the + concepts of fairness and justice would do well to + understand what the goal of those who advocate gun control + actually is: the importation of fascism to America. + + ## diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jbissu.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jbissu.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3bd64220 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jbissu.txt @@ -0,0 +1,525 @@ +We the People... An Index of Issues + +Excerpts from the Record and Speeches of Governor Brown + +Our cause is clear. We must restore commitment to our nation, +vitality to the values of our society, vigor to our economy, +real democracy to our government, and purpose to our national +life. Above all, we must secure our childrens birthright of a +greater America than we ourselves inherited. + +At the heart of my campaign is a Family Bill of Rights with +this commitment: Every person has the right to a living wage. +Every person has the right to health care. Every person has the +right to shelter. Every person has the right to an education. +Every person has the right to be free from economic insecurity +in their old age. That is my commitment and if you join, it will +be our commitment. And it will be done. + + +Agriculture/Farm + +As governor, created Farm Workers Health Services Program to +increase health care to migrant workers and their families. We +have to design policies that recognize the stewardship of the +land, the continuity of families, and that means cooperatives, +marketing orders, expert assistance, and a recognition that +there is a value in making the same kinds of assistance +available to our own family farmers as we do to places like +Poland, or Egypt...where [loans are renegotiated, not +foreclosed]. When times get tough on the farm, its foreclosure. +I think we have to have a policy that...treats American citizens +and family farmers [better than] we do so many foreign +countries. + +AIDS + +Recently assisted Mother Teresa in opening AIDS hospice in San +Francisco. I think it ought to be at the top of the national +health care agenda. The President barely mentions it. Youve got +a million and a half people dying of AIDS; youve got good +research projects that are not even being funded; youve got +people who, while we're waiting for one or the other of these +health care plans, can't get covered. They are suffering, and no +other country, at least developed countries, would let that +happen. I think the Presidents got to stand up and say, `Look, +we've got a plague on our hands. We've got to talk about it- how +it's transmitted. We've got to warn people and we've got to pay +the money so that we don't abandon people who are suffering and +dying in every community in America. + +Bush/Reagan Era + +There has been unfair and unequal gain of wealth by the few at +the expense of the many. The stunning gains by the very rich did +not result from the success of hard work or a reward earned by +creative enhancement of the nation's prosperity. No, to the +contrary, this result reflects a decade of unfair tax breaks for +the privileged disguised as relief for all, the looting of the +National Treasury, the rigging of our free market economy, and a +host of successful scams and rip-offs best exemplified by +corporate take-overs on Wall Street and savings and loan +disasters on Main Street....The richest 1% increased their share +of the National income by almost $200 billion a yearand they +took it from the poor and the middle class without apology. +Truly, we have seen a class war and the redistribution of +income...by the self-interested and greedy who have manipulated +the tax codes for their own benefit. + +Business + +I believe the corporations should be encouraged to plow back +more of their money into what they're doing. What we need to +do is have an industrial...economic strategy like the Japanese +have to target areas of opportunity for environmentally sound, +resource efficient growth. And I would see that in space, in +bioscience, in electronics, in telecommunications, in materials +science. + +Campaign Financing + +The chokehold which campaign contributions have on the political +process must be broken. We need real and meaningful campaign +reforms, and not just regarding campaign finance. Equally +imperative, candidates must have free access to the means of +mass communication in a modern society. In terms of executive +orders...I'd find people for the Federal Communications +Commission who will develop a program of free television time so +candidates dont have to spend so much of their campaigning +raising huge [sums of] money to buy time on television to +manipulate voters. (Every Presidential campaign, hundreds of +millions of dollars go to consultants, advertising firms, and +the media.) + +Crime/Punishment + +As governor, mandatory prison terms for use of gun in a crime, +for repeat felons, for crimes against elderly and handicapped, +for heroin pushers; signed legislation creating Victim/Witness +assistance program and Rape Crisis Centers. We've tripled the +prison population...Every prison causes the need for another +prison two-thirds as large because of the 60% recidivistic rate. +But if you took that money, and you invested in children, and +child care, and Head Start, and jobs...you will see this country +prosper and flourish. You're never going to stop crime unless +there is an adequate opportunity for jobs and income for every +person. Opposes capital punishment. + +Defense - See Military/Defense + +Domestic Policy + +We have to be prepared to knit together a governing coalition of +labor, business, minorities, and people who represent +environmental concerns in a way that will allow investment in +our own people. I put that investment in three categories: in +human capital, which is education, job training and the +acquisition of skills; in technological capital, which provides +the competitive edge while allowing us to maintain our position +in the world; and in environmental capital, which will maintain +and enhance our forests, fisheries, agricultural land and air. +We need real reform. I think we have to reform the politics, +the tax code, the industrial policy, our health system. And as +we do that, we will be not only on the verge, but in the +beginning and the duration of a golden age. + +Drugs + +Decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana in +California. Favors drug treatment on demand. Would not legalize +marijuana. + +Economy + +Number One, I would cut payroll taxes so that the withholding on +the people of America would go down in the next two weeks. +Secondly, I'd move off the backlog every single public works +project in America to put people to work. Number three, I would +take some of the money were now spending abroad and invest it +here at home in things that will create efficiency and a more +innovative economy. One more thing, I would fully fund Head +Start. Youve got to put an income floor under those families +that are under stress...[Create] enterprise zones. Take 50 of +the hardest-pressed areas in America, cut out the taxes to any +business that will go in there and hire people. [For] people who +are on public assistance, let them take their government check +and turn it into a voucher so they can turn it into a job, so +that the employer adds more to it. Anything that will make sure +that every American has a living family wage... + +Education + +As governor, tripled K-12 education budget; opposed charging +tuition at state colleges and universities; raised standards for +high school graduation and college entrance; Worksite Education +and Training Act to put people to work in skilled labor +positions; MESA Program to motivate women and minorities to +complete college degrees in math, engineering, and the sciences. +The public school is the major integrating institution in our +society...I want to make sure its fully funded. We can put a +computer in front of every school child...and have learning +programs from Kindergarten through the 12th grade. The same +people who are designing the Star Wars defense....that level of +commitment and skill and money...can revolutionize American +education. + +Energy + +Our current energy policy...depends on foreign oil, on +squandering resources, on promoting nuclear power and wrecking +the environment both offshore and in wilderness areas. I say +its time for the President to say `no to future nuclear power +and `yes to solar, biomass conversion, synthetic fuels, wind +powerto a whole array of energy sources that are safer, more +economically secure, that will not lead to the disaster that +nuclear is now taking us. If we commit ourselves to an energy +system no more wasteful than in Germany and Japan, we would save +more money than were spending on the entire defense +system....you can invest in new engines, lights, retrofitting +buildings. And...youll reduce the energy spending that will +free us from dependence on foreign oil, protect the environment +and put millions of Americans to work. + +Environment/Ecology + +As governor, led the nation in creating and enforcing clean-air +laws, enacting legislation to curb toxic wastes, and promoting +environmental awareness. Despite opposition from special +interest groups and Federal Bureaucracy, his administration +accomplished much in the area of environmental protection and +preservation by instituting a strict climate of regulatory +compliance. Favors clean renewable alternate energy sources; +i.e. wind, solar, cogeneration, geothermal. + +Equal Opportunity + +As governor, strongest commitment to affirmative action anywhere +in country; prohibited payment of different wages for jobs +requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility; promoted +training of women for job classifications in which 70% of +employees were men; prohibited sex or marital status as factor +in denial of credit; designated sexual harassment as unfair +employment practice; banned mandatory retirement; made age +discrimination illegal. Brown appointed 287 Asians, 435 +African-Americans, 549 Hispanics, and 46 Native Americans to +government positions. + +Federal Spending + +As governor, reduced government costs and the growth of +government while saving money for taxpayers and delivering +exceptional service to citizens. Every year the federal +government takes at least half a trillion dollars and, +essentially, dumps it in the trash. There is enough money to +do what is needed to be done, and what must be done, and the +dying of cities and the destruction of a whole generation of +Americans right before our eyes is every bit as much a threat to +each of us and to our society as the collapse of the banking +system. + +Foreign Policy + +We ought to be able to find ways where people have the sense and +the power of their own national identity, but are harmoniously +integrated in regional economic and federal units...I would do +everything I could to bring together parties that are so far +apart and so different as the people there in the Middle East, +Israel, and its Arab neighbors...There is real fear and +insecurity and we have an historic relationship with Israel that +we must maintain.... Supports loan guarantees (the assurance +that Israel's loans will be repaid.) + +Foreign Trade + +Will we prosper as a virtual colony to the rest of the world by +supplying raw materials in exchange for imported, finished goods +of high value such as cars, TVs, steel and calculators? No, a +hundred times no. We will prosper by consciously setting forth +an economic agenda that will build for the future, not steal +from it. We have got to have better products...so the people +want it and have to have it. Then we'll go to Japan and we'll +open up their markets. How do you do trade? Not like we did in +the Gulf War 70% of the goods that we shipped over there for +that war were in foreign ships. You first build up your ports; +36 states in this nation have access to navigable waters. You +link it with trains, with rail...and then youre prepared to +enter into the vast growth of world trade, which can generate +the wealth. + +Gay/Lesbian + +As governor, repealed criminal penalties from private sexual +acts between consenting adults; signed executive order banning +discrimination based on sexual orientation. Favors passage of +the Gay Rights Bill. + +Global Ecology + +Global warming indicates that we have to reduce our fossil fuel +use dramatically...we have to get about the business of +alternative energy. As a small minority of the world's basic +resources for but a few percent of its people, but we can learn +to place quality above quatity and caring above consumption. + +Gun Control + +Believes in the right to bear arms but that automatic weapons +and Saturday Night Specials should be rigidly controlled. +Favors waiting periods, at least in accordance with California +laws. + +Handicapped + +As governor, instituted $25,000 tax deduction for remodeling for +handicapped access; created more than 25 living centers for the +disabled. + +Health Care + +As governor, developed health ed programs for students and +seniors; created Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse; created +many programs for prevention, education, training, etc.; funded +program of preventive health care for seniors. As governor, I +signed bills to let people compete with managed health care +plans, health maintenance organizations; there's 13 million +people in California that are now in them. I believe health +care should be available to all Americans, and...I believe that +should be a top priority for the next US Senate, and I would +make it mine. We should have a single payor, universal health +care, emphasizing wellness and prevention and including the +choice of different healing arts whether it's acupuncture or +chiropractic. In Canada, people are spending $500 less per +capita than we are, and they're living two years longer, and +they are covering every single citizen...[The Canadia system +would] save over $100 billion a year. A man standing out in +the street, homeless, and President Reagan ought to all be in +the same health care system. You bet it will be a good one. + +Homelessness + +Homelessness is a social phenomenon created by neglect. +Available housing, a mental health system that really takes care +of people, reducing alcohol and drug dependency, and providing +jobs and income among those people in society that are +increasingly in the backwater - all these things have to be done +to really get at homelessness. [We] would state as a premise +that every American has a right to shelter, and then we go from +there...we talk about the $10 billion loan guarantee for Israel. +[I would] link in the same legislation, a loan guarantee for +every single American...so we take care of our first +responsibility. + +Jobs + +The World Watch Institute has said that if you weatherize every +house in this country, you would cut energy consumption by +enough to pay for...that work and create 7 million jobs. [In +the Pentagon Budget there is] $300 billion a year of +unnecessary, wasteful and polluting envergy consumption...by +spending $300 billion to accomplish the goals of fuel efficient +homes, motors, refrigerators, fuel efficient cars, high speed +trains...you dont have to raise taxes one penny...If there was +a commitment, and if the oil companies...and the power companies +would stand aside...you would have seven million new jobs. We +need to make the commitment to make sure people have +jobs...whether it be building the infrastructure for high-speed +trains, or creating things like the Civilian Conservation Corps +to get young people out of adverse circumstances and give them +an opportunity. + +Military/Defense + +Favors cutting the defense budget by half the first year. +Examine the absurdity of what's happening: When the Soviet +Union agreed to pull troops out of Germany, the Germans [agreed +to] pay the Russians $5 billion over the next several years to +[care for the] troops...And we're spending tens of billions to +defend Germany against those same soldiers. + +Minorities + +I picked...the first black appointed to the California Supreme +Court. And then I appointed the second African-American...to the +California Supreme Court. And I appointed the first +Hispanic...and the first woman...to be Chief Justice of that +court. + +Native Americans + +As governor, provided financial assistance to health care +programs; appointed 46 to government positions. + +PACs/Lobbying I will tell you who is supporting the anti-term +limits. Phillip Morris gave $25,000 and the National Rifle +Association is the second biggest giver...if every 6 years +there's a new Congressman, somehow the clout is going to be gone. +`The clout - well, is that the clout for the tobacco company so +more kids can learn to be addicted to a Cancer causing +substance? Is that the clout we might lose? Then I say great, +the sooner, the better. + +Pay Raises + +That form of legalized bribery [honorarium] was something that +the individual senator took or not. And you took it, and now +you've given yourself a $40,000 pay raise in order to give up +$30,000 in honoraria. Now, you explain that one to me. I +disagree with you, I disagree very strongly...As governor, I +fought a pay raise eight out of eight years. + +Privacy + +As governor, signed legislation ensuring comprehensive right to +privacy for Californians. + +Qualifications + +I have the experience of being the chief executive of the +largest state in the country. That economy in California is +equivalent to the 8th largest country in the world. Just in our +medical budget alone we spent $5 billion a year. All the +problems we're talking about -- national service--we started. +The California Conservation corps--50,000 young men and women +have gone through it. Wellness and prevention--the first state +Wellness Commission, we did it there. Pioneering in controlling +toxics--the best environmental record anywhere in the country. +So I think there's a record there. for the future, I would say +the essence of what I'm doing here is reform. reform of the tax +code, reform of the politics. Of all the candidates, I have +more experience...and I have the message for 1992...What I am +trying to do is to transform the party that I belong to and +transform the country. Anything short of that is just going to +compound and continue the decline and the suffering and the +injustice that is spreading all around the country. + +Secrecy + +Believes that for the people to govern, they must be informed. +Favors opening the JFK files. + +Space + +We should be investing in projecting human beings into space; it +ought to be done on a multinational basis...as we create more +shared working and experimental opportunities for human beings. +Space research can break down political barriers as well as push +back scientific frontiers. And it's a crucial part of the +investment strategy of this nation. + +Taxes + +As governor, reduced tax burden, moving Californians from 3rd +highest to 24th ranking among states. Eliminated longstanding +oil and insurance company tax breaks. + +The tax code is a veritable feast of fundraising, corruption, +lobbying, and activities...a moneymaker for the people down in +congress. I know if we were to abolish the income tax, the +Social Security payroll tax, the gasoline tax, the airline +ticket tax, the corporate tax, and the estate and gift tax, we +can replace it with a simple 13% flat tax on gross income and +business added. With that, you'll get economic efficiency, +you'll see the stock market go, you'll see jobs being produced, +and I believe with that we'll be able to afford a national +health care system modeled on the Canadian variety. If you +apply [the 13% flat tax] on the business value added and the +personal adjusted gross income, it equals about $8 trillion. You +multiply something about 12.5% and you will come out with what +was collected last year...Three deductions only--rent, charity, +and home mortgage. That's it. (Federal excise taxes to remain +on cigarettes and alcohol.) + +Term Limits + +The problem is not that the president serves two terms, it's +that senators are down there for 30...for 40 years. That's not +right, and especially it's not right when you look at the +judiciary panel and you see those men there. Is that America? + +Voting + +As governor, signed into law the postcard registration +procedure. Bills to allow people to vote ought to be passed +forthwith...Let's have same-day voter registration...an election +holiday...so that every citizen in this country is invited and +empowered to vote. + +Welfare + +As governor, program assisted families to move from welfare to +self-support; provided job search assistance; Project Intercept +to collect child support payments; adoption programs. Favors +voucher system for promoting employment of welfare recipients by +private business. [The problem isn't] some Welfare Queenmaking +a few thousand dollars a month...The Welfare King' is the former +president of General Motors...[He helped] drive General Motors +into the ground, and he gets $1.2 million for the rest of his +life. That's the kind of privilege that is at the heart of +what's ailing America." + +Women's Issues + +As governor, supported women's right to personal choice +concerning her body and her reproductive system; extended child +care and unemployment disability benefits to all working women; +granted state employees one year of leave for purposes of +pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery; mandated against +discrimination in hiring based upon pregnancy; empowered +enforcement for child support payments; named women to fill +nearly one third of appointed posts, including 131 judges, 5 +cabinet members, 22 department directors, and 10 deputy +directors; appointed the first woman Chief Justice of Supreme +Court, the first African-American woman to the men's prison +system...the first woman in charge of the Highway Department, +the Business Department, the Finance Department, the Health +Department, the Veteran's Affairs Department. Regarding +abortion: "I support the right of a woman to make this decision +totally free from any pressure or inducement from the federal +government." Supports Roe v. Wad, the Freedom of Choice Act, +overturn of the "Gag Rule," Medicaid funding; opposes +Constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, mandatory parental +notification/consent laws. + +Workers + +As governor, increased unemployment insurance benefits; +collective bargaining for farm workers; collective bargaining +for teachers; Occupational Carcinogen Control Act required +registration of carcinogens; increased benefits for employment +disability; increased minimum wage above the federal minimum; +tripled job training programs, including health and vocational +apprenticeships; provided Californians 25% of all the new jobs +in the nation. "Banning the replacement of people who go out on +strike is nothing more than giving reality to the strikers +ultimate weapon--to withhold one's labor...when management can +just replace strikers, you've essentially destroyed organized +labor...a pillar of progressive politics since the '30s." + +What Would This Cost? + +Debate Moderator: "OK, you become president...What is the cost +of your program, of transforming it?" + +Governor Brown: "I'd say three things: On defense...[I could] +show a $700 billion saving between now and the next ten +years...The second point is that the tax amnesty...could +recapture 1%. You tell people in the underground +economy...who've not paid their taxes, that if they come back +in...we'll work out an installment plan. There have been about +$8 trillion in taxes paid in this country in the last six years. +If we could get 1% of that, that's somewhere in the neighborhood +of $80 billion. The third thing is that I recommend that you +eliminate the gasoline tax, the social security tax, all these +federal taxes and replace them with a simple, stable flat tax, +that's fair, that'll give stability over time, that will give +that longer horizon for investment and saving that every +economist says is needed if we're going to produce the +productivity that we need." + +Authorized by Brown for President/Labor Donated + +2121 Cloverfield, Suite 120 +Santa Monica, CA 90404-5277 Voice: +(310) 449-1992 Fax: (310) 449-1903 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jeff3_13.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jeff3_13.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4400ef25 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jeff3_13.txt @@ -0,0 +1,365 @@ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Jeff Cooper's Commentaries + +Previously Gunsite Gossip + +Vol. 3, No. 13 November, 1995 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Indian Summer, 1995 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +The annual Gunsite Reunion and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial held at +Whittington Center in honor of the great man's birthday was even more of a +success than in the past. The shooting, conducted by Rich Wyatt, John +Gannaway and David Kahn, was great fun. The declamations were inspiring, as +always, but perhaps the greatest exhilaration of the meeting was the sense +of unity and comradeship experienced by Orange Gunsite comrades, who in +many instances are forced by circumstance to dwell amongst the +unenlightened. + +While most of our people were from various parts of the United States, we +had members from England, Switzerland, and even way up in Darkest New +England. It is a long, long way to Whittington, but it is worth it when you +get there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, at the very peak of the +western autumn colors, and we were troubled by neither heat nor cold nor +wind until Sunday afternoon when we were breaking up. + +With all the family hard at work shooting, it was impossible for me to +single out every distinguished performance, but a couple that stick in my +mind were Finn Aagaard's erasing of two helium balloons with one shot as +they lined up, and Marc Heim's impressive performance on clay birds with +his "Kansas City Special." (That's a 16-inch iron-sighted lever gun in +caliber 44 Magnum.) Dr. Manning Picket also showed off with his +open-sighted 350 Magnum, and daughter Lindy managed to break four in a row +on sporting clays. + +We had occasion to break out the "Gunsite zeroing target" for the first +time on public display, and, not to my surprise, it worked very well. I +commend this target to all the faithful as the most efficient thing of its +kind I know. + +Dan Dennehy treated us to his usual knife throwing demonstration, as well +as to his rendition of "The Lure of the Tropics." + +Both Don Davis and Marc Heim showed us how to use a lever-gun from a +Condition 3 Ready, which is a technique not fully appreciated in the Age of +High Tech. + +Lindy's poetry is developing to astonishing levels, and we are approaching +the point where a bound volume of her collected works may be in order. +Prior to that, however, her prose work, "Wisdom on Cooper," must be put to +bed, published and out on the market. + +As always, the wildlife display at Whittington was delightful, with lots of +deer and elk, including one big bull, plus pronghorns and turkeys. Nobody +saw a cougar, but as these cats are becoming less and less secretive +year-by-year we may expect to sight one or more at the next event of +October '96. + +The Whittington Center cannot accommodate as many of you as we might wish, +so fix the date for '96 and plan to join us then. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +On a T-shirt we saw at the reunion was displayed the pungent phrase, + + "Visualize no Liberals!" + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +I have had the opportunity now for a couple of years to evaluate the Glock +pistol with sufficient care to give me justification in an opinion. I have +not used one much myself, but just enough to know that it is not for me. +However, I have some good friends in law enforcement who have pretty much +set matters straight. My conclusion is that the Glock pistol is a very good +choice for hired hands, but not for serious pistoleros. Its proper place +lies in the public sector, and the dedicated shottist is rarely found +therein. (Note: That is shottist rather than shootist. Look it up.) +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +It is with profound sorrow that we must report the death of our old friend +and comrade Milt Sparks, on 8 September 1995. Milt was a man of great +talent and he contributed measurably to American pistolcraft. + +He was a good artisan, a good shot, and a good man. He is sadly missed. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +We learn that the Chicoms placed an order for 10 million copies of the AUG +with Steyr-Mannlicher. How interesting that the commies could dream up a +demand for 10 million 22-caliber squirt guns! Apparently we will not +discover what they wanted with those pieces since the Austrian government +queered the deal, but if we are now hunting around for the next war, we may +have some hints here. Incidentally, while the American law enforcement +establishment refers to the piece in question as the AUG (pronounced OG), +not too many of our people know what the letters stand for. AUG signifies +Armee Universal Gewehr, which may be an exaggeration, but no more so than +"high power" tacked onto the 9-millimeter Belgian Browning. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +The columnist Tony Snow offers us a good campaign slogan for the Billary +Gang in '96: + + "We can't fool all the people all the time, but twice would be + nice." + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +I have almost passed the point at which I can be shocked anymore, but I was +perhaps amazed at a report from England about a lawsuit brought by a woman +against an importer of toys because when her little boy flung a boomerang +it came back and hit him on the head. Apparently she holds that the package +in which the toy was packed should have contained a statement to the effect +that the instrument actually worked as designed. I suppose the next step is +for someone to sue a gunmaker because when the gun fired it made a loud +noise which startled him. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Perhaps all is not lost. In Washington, D.C., of all places, family member +Bill O'Connor recently overheard the following comment from the driver of a +child-filled station wagon: + + "There are more armed men in the woods on opening day of deer + season in Pennsylvania than there are federal agents, and that + gives me a feeling of great comfort." + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Note that the new issue Burris Scoutscope is distinguished by a slightly +enlarged bell at the front end. There are other structural differences as +well, and up til now, the new glass has demonstrated increased honesty over +previous products. An "honest" telescope is one that does what you tell it, +in both planes, every time. When you dial in "left 4, up 6" that is what +you should get, but all too often you do not. The new Burris, however, in +samples inspected, has been quite satisfactory so far. We wish it a bright +future. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Sometimes I am convinced that the world is actually getting worse, and it +is not just my advanced age which makes it seem so. Consider the case +reported in the shooting industry magazine of a customer who bought a rifle +only to return it in a matter of days. He claimed that when he fired it and +opened the bolt a piece fell out, and he displayed an empty case to prove +it. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +From a recent issue of Tailhook magazine, we discover that Naval pilots +going into the Gulf War received no training nor familiarisation whatever +with sidearms. Furthermore, they were forbidden to bring their own. As one +post-modern bureaucrat sounded off, "This is war! You can't bring your own +guns!" + +Of course it maybe adduced that if a flier loses a 30-million-dollar +airplane, the taxpayer really should not be concerned about whether or not +he can shoot his way to safety on the ground. It may, of course, be of some +concern to him. + +Many years ago I was invited to a conference at the academy in Colorado +Springs on just this point. The colonels sat there and shot the breeze all +day without coming up with an answer to the question of what a combat pilot +needs a pistol for. One school holds that he should be able to sneak around +on the ground and put chickens in the pot. Another says he should stay on +top of his hill and threaten the bad guys at the bottom until the chopper +can come and pick him up. As many of you know, Gîring's answer in World War +II was to supply his combat pilots with beautifully made "drillings," +featuring two shotgun barrels and one rifle. I have no authoritative +accounts about how good an idea this was, but it is a lot different from +those manifest by the Navy in Desert Storm. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +As to the Vince Foster murder, Hillary does not want to hear any more about +it. So there! +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +In re-reading McBride for perhaps the tenth time, we discover again that a +heart shot is by no means necessarily a quick stop. A beast shot through +the heart will always die, and a man nearly always, unless he is wheeled +into thoracic surgery within a couple of minutes, but he will not +necessarily drop when hit. An armed antagonist can frequently shoot back, +and a charging lion may easily bite you dead between the time the shot is +delivered and the victim is no longer able to fight. + +From the collected writings I conclude that the larger the caliber the more +quickly a heart shot will stop the action, and this is a matter of some +interest in this day when the governments of the world seem determined to +reduce calibers as much as possible. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +At Whittington we had a long and thoughtful session about the matter of Spc +New, the soldier who maintains that he is not required to fight for the +United Nations. The issue here is the most important one that I can recall +during my lifetime. Can the Commander-in-Chief of American armed forces +order an American fighting man to obey orders issued by a foreign +sovereignty? In all the long history of mercenary soldiering it has been +accepted that a soldier may indeed fight for a foreign power, but only if +he volunteers for that duty. If we follow the example of the Swiss +mercenaries of the Renaissance we discover that the contract specifically +exempted the soldier from the obligation to fight against his own country. +I do not believe any of this has been taken up properly by the lawmen as of +yet. A soldier absolutely must do what he is told, but what happens if his +foreign commander orders him to fight against his own country? + +It appears that our masters in Washington are doing their best to sweep +this matter under the rug, just as they have done with other recent federal +transgressions, but this is a matter of enormous importance, and we the +people must demand an answer. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +On the occasion of the recent demonstration in Washington, engineered by +Louis Farrakhan and others, one of his lieutenants (sporting the +unimaginative name of Khalid Mohammed) is quoted in Human Events as +shouting, "This is the time of blackman's rise and the whiteman's demise." +Being genetically placed on one side of that confrontation, I apparently +have no choice but to join the fray. This being the case I am reminded of +the statement attributed to John Parker at Lexington on 19 April 1775, to +wit: "If they mean to have a war, let it begin here!" +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Daughter Lindy's pseudo-Scout, constructed by Robbie Barrkman on a +Springfield base, worked very well for her at Whittington, except that the +shortened stock permitted the cocking piece to bang her on the cheek bone. +When I was a lad we were all intimately introduced to the 03 Springfield, +which naturally featured a stock short enough for even very close-coupled +soldiers. We got banged, though I did learn to keep my thumb over on the +right side of the stock out of the way, and to open my firing hand a tad so +that my fingernails would not gouge my chin. When the rifle is private +property, however, and not government issue, another solution maybe +somewhat better. Simply saw the cocking piece off. + +It has long been claimed that the flared cocking piece on the 03, and the +Krag, and some other actions, is a safety feature in that it deflects hot +gas which may result from a punctured primer. I know from personal +experience on the 1917 action that if hot gas travels back along the +striker it ejects from the bolt an inch or so below the line of sight - +even an open sight. I sported a neat black tattoo on my right cheek for a +couple of months to illustrate this. When asked about it I found it very +macho to say casually, "Blown primer on my 30-06." + +I have never worn a really good facial scar, but those who have are one up +on the rest of us, if their narrative is sufficiently dramatic. The actor, +George McCready, was able to say when asked about a clean white scar on his +jaw bone that he got it when he flipped his Bugatti at LeMans, which is +exactly what happened. (At this point I think the feminists in the group +will drop out of the conversation.) +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Arizona T-shirt sign: + + "I will rope for beer." + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +On the subject of Africa, it is not too soon to start setting up schedules. +We are committed to be on station in Pretoria by 19 March, and to be back +here in the states by 18 April. Just what happens in the interim is yet to +be worked out, but our African adventures have been so totally successful +in the past that we do not foresee any problems. + +We are informed that the street scene in Johannesburg is bad and +degenerating, but that is true of any big city you can name. We expect to +get out into the country at once and thus be well clear of social strife, +if any. + +As to that, one thing that we have always liked about Africa is that if you +are attacked you may legally defend yourself, which is not true of London +or Toronto or Tokyo. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + "The rifleman, being a hunter, naturally always has an eye, and + an ear, for game. The great game movement along the front took + place at night. That in the back areas, of course, could only be + deduced, from daytime observation, and at night became the + business of the artillery and machine guns. But no-man's-land, in + quiet times, was the scene of an almost purely nocturnal life. + The sniper was lucky if, during the day, he spotted a couple of + Germans; but if he really cared for hunting he might have a dozen + pass within as many feet of him at night. He can well afford to + abandon his rifle for this - if he can still find time to get the + necessary sleep. There is nothing just like it for making one + feel at home in the trench areas. To spend the night in a funky + dugout or musty cellar, whether in the front line, supports or + reserves, is like closing the tent-fly at nightfall as soon as + you have made camp on the mountainside overlooking a pleasant - + and unknown - valley. Much better to get outside and see what's + happening." + + from A Rifleman Went to War by Captain Herbert W. McBride + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Danie van Graan, our good friend from the Low Veldt, has just shown us an +interesting photograph of a Burris Scoutscope mounted on an Enfield Combat +Rifle. The assembly looks good. It is not a Scout, being overweight and +overlong, but it is handy, powerful and easy to feed. Since it has a +full-weight barrel the base may be fastened thereto with screws with no +need for a custom forward extrusion. We hope to play with this piece next +year in Africa, and we expect that it will prove out well. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Family member Tom Berger sends us an extract from a piece of fiction called +"Flying Finish," by Dick Francis, which points up a peculiar aspect of +post-modern sociology that I had not thought about before. The idea is that +in an emasculated society there is no accepted outlet for the natural +combativeness of the young male, except in crime. Apparently it is +considered uncouth for a young man to say that he wants to fight, no matter +how much he does. This poses no problem for the counterculture, whose +members grow to adolescence with no ethical or moral base, but it becomes +an increasing affliction for young men brought up by decent parents. If +Louis Farrakhan gets his way, this difficulty may straighten itself out in +fairly short order. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + "This situation has turned congressional hearings into somewhat + of a joke and has made it obvious that federal law enforcement + cannot be expected to investigate itself." + + Robert K. Brown + in Soldier of Fortune, December 1995 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + "The government against which our ancestors took up arms was a + mild and distant irritant compared to the federal scourge that + rules us today. Constitutional restraints on tyranny are to our + masters only a hazy memory as they exercise powers beyond the + dreams of history's most famous dictators. Louis the XIV never + required an annual accounting of every centime every Frenchman + earned. He would never have dared then to demand a third of it in + yearly tribute. Ivan the Terrible never told Russian merchants + whom they could or could not hire, nor, heaven help us, where + they could have a smoke." + + Jared Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + "If the wound is large, the weapon with which the patient has + been wounded should be anointed daily: otherwise every two or + three days. The weapon should be kept in pure linen and a warm + place, but not too hot to scald lest the patient suffer harm." + +That was written in 1662, and after three hundred years some of our +legislators still insist on treating the weapon rather than the wound. (We +get this from David Kopel at a presentation at the University of Oklahoma.) +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Cross-eyed shooting - that is shooting right-handed and left-eyed, or vice +versa, is not difficult with a pistol, and it is not much of a problem in +slow-fire rifle shooting. It does become difficult with the rifle snapshot. +The shooter can dim his weaker eye by taping over his shooting glasses, or +by wearing a bandanna or eye patch, but while these expedients suffice for +the target range they are unlikely to be useful in the field. We can take +some comfort from observing that the snapshot with a rifle is a rare +occurrence, but the problem is still there and I do not have an answer for +it. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +All of this "whingeing" (British word) about our termination of the war in +the Pacific is interesting in view of McBride's observation about his +sniping in World War I. "We killed them when we could and we damned them +all to Hell. They started it and by God we finished it!" This calls to mind +the advice of Gunsite's Grand Patron Theodore Roosevelt to the effect that +you should never start a fight, but once you are in it you should finish +it. This is a principle which a series of recent American presidents seem +to have missed. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Family member and military historian Barrett Tillman tells us that Jim +Coxen, who did a tour with the 5th Marines, has now been shooting with new +devices and new techniques for sport. He maintains that he wished he had a +Scout rifle up in I CORPS. He feels that he would definitely have bagged +more bad guys. Well sure! Wouldn't you prefer a properly set up Scout to an +M16? +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Despite the best efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we now +have access to a photograph of Lon Horiuchi, who shot Vickie Weaver in the +face but who still has not been brought to justice. Col. Bob Brown ran it +down in a West Point yearbook and it appears on page 38 of the December +issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine. It is not very clear, and it is +twenty years old, but it is better than nothing. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +An Indian Summer here in the Arizona highlands maybe assessed as evidence +of God's goodwill to men. We count our blessings. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Please Note. These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for +publication. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jefferso.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jefferso.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3a047d22 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jefferso.txt @@ -0,0 +1,212 @@ +THOMAS JEFFERSON'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS: + + +Called upon to undertake the duties of the first +executive office of our country, I avail myself of the +presence of that portion of my fellow citizens which +is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for +the favor with which they have been pleased to look +toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the +task is above my talents, and that I approach it with +those anxious and awful presentiments which the +greatness of the charge and the weakness of my powers +so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a +wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with +the rich productions of their industry, engaged in +commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, +advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of +mortal eye, when I contemplate these transcendent +objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the +hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue, +and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the +contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude +of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair +did not the presence of many whom I see here remind me +that in the other high authorities provided by our +Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of +virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all +difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are +charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, +and to those associate with you, I look with +encouragement for that guidance and support which may +enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we +are all embarked amidst the conflicting elements of a +troubled world. + During the contest of opinion through which we +have passed the animation of discussions and of +exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might +impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak +and to write what they think; but this being now +decided by the voice of the nation, announced according +to the rules of the Constitution, all will of course +arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite +in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will +bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the +will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that +will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the +minority possesses their equal rights, which equal law +must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let +us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and +one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that +harmony and affection without which liberty and even +life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect +that, having banished from our land that religious +intolerance under which mankind so long bled and +suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance +a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and +capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During +the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during +the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through +blood and slaughter his long lost liberty, it was not +wonderful that the agitation of the billows should +reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this +should be more felt and feared by some and less by +others, and should divide opinions as to measures of +safety. But every difference of opinion is not a +difference of principle. We have called by different +names brethren of the same principle. We are all +republicans, we are all federalists. If there be any +among us who would wish to dissolve the Union or to +change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed +as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion +may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat +it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a +republican government can not be strong, that this +Government is not strong enough; but would the honest +patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, +abandon a government which has so far kept us free and +firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this +Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility +want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I +believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government +on earth. I believe it the only one where every man, +at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of +the law, and would meet invasions of the public order +as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that +man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. +Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? +Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern +him? Let history answer this question. + Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue +our own Federal and Republican principles, our +attachment to union and representative government. +Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the +exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too +high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; +possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our +descendants to the thousandth and thousandth +generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right +to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of +our own industry, to honor and confidence from our +fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our +actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a +benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in +various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, +truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; +acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, +which by all its dispensations proves that it delights +in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness +hereafter, with all these blessings, what more is +necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? +Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and +frugal Government, which shall restrain men from +injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free +to regulate their own pursuits of industry and +improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor +the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good +government, and this is necessary to close the circle +of our felicities. + About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise +of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable +to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem +the essential principles of our Government, and +consequently those which ought to shape its +Administration. I will compress them within the +narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general +principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and +exact justice to all men, of whatever state or +persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, +and honest friendship with all nations, entangling +alliances with none; the support of the State +governments in all their rights, as the most competent +administrations for our domestic concerns and the +surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the +preservation of the General Government in its whole +constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace +at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right +of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective +of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution +where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute +acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the +vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal +but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent +of despotism; a well disciplined militia, our best +reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, +till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the +civil over the military authority; economy in the public +expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest +payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the +public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of +commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information +and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public +reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and +freedom of person under the protection of the habeas +corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. +These principles form the bright constellation which +has gone before us and guided our steps through an age +of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our +sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to +their attainment. They should be the creed of our +political faith, the text of civic instruction, the +touchstone by which to try the services of those we +trust; and should we wander from them in moments of +error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps +and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, +liberty, and safety. + I repair, then, fellow citizens, to the post you +have assigned me. With experience enough in +subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of +this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that +it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to +retire from this station with the reputation and the +favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to +that high confidence you reposed in our first and +greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent +services had entitled him to the first place in his +country's love and destined for him the fairest page +in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much +confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the +legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go +wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall +often be thought wrong by those whose positions will +not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your +indulgence for my own errors, which will never be +intentional, and your support against the errors of +others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in +all its parts. The approbation implied by your +suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and +my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion +of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate +that of others by doing them all the good in my power, +and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of +all. + Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, +I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire +from it whenever you become sensible how much better +choice it is in your power to make. And may that +Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the +universe lead our councils to what is best, and give +them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. + +------------------------------------- + +Prepared by Nancy Troutman (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa345) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jekyll.rvw b/textfiles.com/politics/jekyll.rvw new file mode 100644 index 00000000..23098fe4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jekyll.rvw @@ -0,0 +1,360 @@ +============================================== +The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070 +============================================== +Book Review: The Creature From Jekyll Island. + + + Killing the Banking Beast + Jane H. Ingraham + The New American + Vol 10, Number 18 September 5, 1994 + + The Creature From Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin, Appleton, WI: + American Opinion Publishing, Inc., 1994, 608 pages, paperback, $19.50. + (For ordering information, see end of article.) + + Has it ever occurred to you that the federal government has no need of + taxes for revenue? Are you aware that banks prefer leriding to + governments because governments seldom repay loans? Do you realize that + if all debts, both public and private, were paid, there would be no money + at all in circulation? + + These are only a few of the startling facts that fill the pages of this + illuminating expose of the Insider scam called The Federal Reserve System + (Fed). Although author G. Edward Griffin admits to having wondered if + another book on the Federal Reserve is necessary (his six pages of + bibliography suggest that the subject may have previously attracted + attention), it is unlikely that any book has ranged across 2,000 years of + money and banking from Diocletian to the Rothschilds to Alan Greenspan -- + and tied it into the new world order -- as thoroughly as The Creature + From Jekyll Island. + + Griffin cuts through the obscurities about the Fed that are intentionally + meant to mystify and disarrn its victims (all of us). Convinced that the + subject of money and banking is too arcane and complicated to understand, + we victims are trapped in a world view that utterly fails to jibe with + reality. The money manipulators, says Griffin, are exploiting our + ignorance for the advancement of their own appalling plabs; the urgency + of awakening us to our danger has driven Griffin to write this + extraordinary book. + + Although Griffin has never held an academic position, he is a top-notch + teacher. Making this little-understood subject simple by splendid + organization, his account is divided into six sections with varying + numbers of chapters; each section and chapter is introduced by a concise + paragraph while each chapter is also summarized. Thus the reader is kept + in touch with where he has been and where he is going, an ingenious and + helpful device considering the enormous scope of Griffin's narrative. + + His explanations and definitions are meticulously worded; one can sense + the care with which each word was chosen, leaving no room for confusion. + Griffin continually draws documentation from primary sources, quoting + letters, speeches, and published works that both enlighten and horrify. + His own writing is difficult to quote; lt is so trenchant that nearly + every sentence entices. Yet at the same time Griffin has mastered the + art of speaking personally to the reader, who never loses the feeling of + being directly addressed. All this adds up to a superbly clear, + engrossing book that, once started, is impossible to put down. + + + Setting the Stage + + In order to help us fully understand our present predicament, Mr. Griffin + ranges far afield in explaining the historical, economic, and political + antecedents of today's money system. We are given a crash course on the + nature of money; the origin of banks and the concept of fractional + reserves; how this led to the seductive idea of using the same money over + and over; how this inevitably led to economic disaster wherever and + whenever tried. We are instructed about the Rothschild formula, which + perfected the art of making enormous profits from loans to governments, + especially for wars; how this led to preventing any one nation from + becoming strong enough to establish peace (the famous balance of power); + how those who could instigate wars or revolutions were financed + (including the Bolsheviks in 1917); how we Americans were sucked into + World War I in order to save J.P. Morgan's loans to England; how + environmentalism is now the weapon of choice replacing war. + + We are taken to the super-secret meeting of Insider financiers and + Rothschild agent Paul Warburg on Jekyll Island in 1910 where the basic + plan for what became the Federal Reserve Act was formulated; we learn + that these plotters were already affiliated with the conspiratorial + British oneworld Round Table group which preceded the Council on Foreign + Relations (our secret government); we are astounded by the brazen + deception of Congress that pushed through this unconstitutional act + creating the Insiders' fundamental tool -- a central bank with the + ability to inflate. We are told how this same tool has been expanded + internationally through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World + Bank in order to create worldwide inflation, pay enormous sums of + perpetual interest on never paid-up loans to Insider banks, and socialize + the Third World, all courtesy of us unsuspecting taxpayers. Lastly, + Griffin foretells our dismaying fate if our course is not altered; then + he lays out a step-by-step procedure of how to alter it, inviting us to + join with him in doing so. + + Griffin looks the Fed "creature" straight in the eye and tells us it is + not federal, it has no reserves, and it is not a bank. It is, in fact, a + pernicious cartel operating against the public interest. The widespread + belief that the Federal Reserve exists to "stabilize the economy" is + hogwash; the real reason for its existence is the making of money -- not + out of "thin air" as is commonly supposed, but, more accurately, out of + debt. Griffin explains that it is the act of borrowing by the federal + government that causes money to spring into existence. + + Griffin takes us through the Open Market steps by which Treasury IOUs + (bonds) are inverted by the Federal Reserve into money through the + issuance of Federal Reserve checks with no money in existence to cover + them; anyone else doing this would go to jail. Congress has made this + legal for the Fed, however, because this hidden process allows our + congressmen to enjoy unlimited revenue without having to visibly raise + taxes. Without this service, says Griffin, the monetary/political + partnership would dissolve, and Congress would abolish the Fed. + + + Money Multlplied + + Griffin explains that these Federal Reserve checks are endorsed by the + government, deposited in a Federal Reserve bank, and used to pay + government expenses by checks which create the first wave of fiat + (unbacked paper) money that floods into the economy. Recipients deposit + these checks into commercial banks that are part of the Fed system. Here + is where the real inflationary action is. (The Federal Reserve holds + "only" seven percent of the national debt of almost $5 trillion. The 12 + percent held by foreigners and the 56 percent held by Americans are not + inflationary because the money used for purchase already existed.) + + Commercial banks, like the Federal Reserve, also create money out of + nothing -- and collect interest on it -- by multiplying every dollar + deposited nine times. This amazing feat is accomplished through the + device of fractional reserves, whereby the Fed allows 90 percent of + deposits to be loaned out. As deposits become loans and loans become + deposits, this process repeats with smaller numbers each time around. For + instance, $1 million in government money (first wave) gives birth to + $900,000 (second wave), which gives birth to $810,000 (third wave), etc., + until the process plays itself out. Thus, the banking cartel creates an + amount of money that is nine times the amount of the original government + debt that made the process possible. + + Griffin shows that when the original debt is added in, the Federal + Reserve and the commercial banks together have created approximately ten + times the amount of the underlying government debt. Since this newly + created money causes the purchasing power of all money to decline, the + resulting rise in prices is, in reality, a hidden tax. As Griffin puts + it: + + Without realizing it, Americans have paid over the years, in addition + to their federal income taxes and excise taxes, a completely hidden + tax equal to approximately ten times the national debt! + + Griffin is astonished at the public's indifference to this fleecing; he + blames it on ignorance based on disinformation. Nothing could prove him + more right than the current deception that inflation is higher prices + caused by full employment and a strong economy; therefore, letting the + "steam" out of the economy and slowing growth (and thereby employment) is + "good." This talk is madness. Alan Greenspan. chairman of the Federal + Reserve (who has the temerity to say he is "worried about inflation"), is + repeating this claptrap as he pretends to control inflation by increasing + interest rates that merely devastated the bond market, clobbered the + stock market, and helped only the bankers. Thus the Insiders are + perfectly protected and the scaln rolls on. + + There are many more threads to Griffin's discourse on the operations of + the banking cartel that should not be missed, such as: + + * How holders of Treasury bonds can be paid off only by the creation + of an identical bond out of nothing. + + * Why the U.S. has to be, must be, in debt. + + * How the Discount Window (Fed loans to banks) creates more phony + money. + + * How the federal government could operate without levying any taxes + whatsoever. + + * How the Fed causes booms and busts. + + * How, since 1913, our money has depreciated by over 1,000 percent. + + * How a gold standard automatically stabilizes prices. + + * How the Fed can now monetize the debts offoreign governments! + + Without the extensive knowledge offered by Griffin, no American can fully + understand the financial reality of our time. + + + Understanding the Game + + Also critical to our reality check is an understanding of how the Fed + protects and enriches the banking brotherhood in the international arena. + The game our Insiders are playing makes the Rothschilds look like + novices. Here it is in a nutshell: The game starts with a mammoth loan + (created out of nothing through the magic of fractional reserves) from + one of our megabanks (Citicorp, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, etc.) + to a Third World country with scant means of servicing the debt much less + ever repaying the principle. Are these top bankers stupid? Hardly; + Griffin explains that this is the kind of loan these bankers love, since + they make their money from interest on the loan, not on repayment of the + loan. They prefer the loan never to be repaid. They know they can't lose + because the Federal Reserve guarantees that massive loans that go into + default will not be allowed to seriously affect the issuing bank (too big + to fail) because this would "disrupt the entire economy." + + So, says Griffin, "since the System makes it profitable for banks to make + large, unsound loans, that is the kind of loans banks will make. + Furthermore, it is predictable that most unsound loans will go into + default." Sure enough; pretty soon default threatens. The bank creates + additional money out of nothing and lends that so its interest stream + continues on both the original loan plus the new loan (the "roll-over" + play). At the next crisis, the bank creates still more money out of + nothing to cover the interest on both loans plus an additional amount for + the borrower to spend freely (the "up-the-ante" play). Finally the bank + agrees to a lower interest rate and a longer period for repayment (the " + rescheduling" play). Eventually it is time for the "Final Maneuver." + Congress agrees to guarantee future payments and the whole mess is + shifted to the backs of U.S. taxpayers while the borrower is trapped into + an IMF "austerity" program that makes an "end run" around his + sovereignty. + + Now money moves through various foreign aid channels to the deadbeat + borrower, who continues to pay perpetual interest to the bank. Almost all + of this money is generated by the Federal Reserve; as it moves out into + the economy it dilutes the value of the money already there. The American + people, says Griffin, have no idea they are footing the bill to enrich + the Insider bankers. + + + Founder' Fears Realized + + Readers may be surprised to learn that the Federal Reserve is the fourth + central bank the United States has had, the previous three having crashed + in inevitable raging inflation and widespread economic disaster. So + clearly did our Founders understand and fear worthless paper money forced + on the public by legal tender laws (precisely what we now have) that they + filled the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention with statements + of their horror of it. We Americans today, deprived of hearing such + truth, need to listen to their words: + + * George Mason of Virginia: + + "I have a mortal hatred of paper money." + + * John Langdon of New Hampshire: + + "I would rather reject the whole [Constitution] than grant the + new government the right to issue fiat money." + + * George Reed of Delaware: + + "The right to issue fiat money would be as alarming as the mark + of the beast in Revelation." + + * Thomas Paine: + + "The punishment of a member of Congress who should move for such + a law ought to be death." + + Griffin does not stop with presenting the known picture, but projects + today's reality into the future. His frst projection is a doomsday + scenario his second is a realistic plan for saving our country and + ourselves. These chapters might, after all, be the most important ones in + the book. + + Griffin sees doomsday as an engineered financial debacle the severity of + which will cause panicked Americans to welcome a World Bank "rescue" with + a world currency. The IMF/World Bank is already functioning-in + conjunction with the Federal Reserve-as a world central bank. A worldl + currency is already designed, awaiting a crisis to justify its + introduction. From this point on, writes Griffin, ere will be no escape + from the new world order. At present the U.S. is being deliberately + weakened by seemingly insane spending both at home and abroad: As just + one more dismaying example, during President Clinton's recent trip to + Europe he blithely promised more billions of dollars to Poland, Ukraine, + and the Baltic countries. The name of the game is to spend-on anything, + anywhere. The object is to bring down the system. + + + Life in the New World Order + + What will life be like in the Insiders' new world order? Griffin spells + it out from the words of the Insiders themselves. One source is the 1966 + secret Hudson Institute study commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert + McNamara, entitled Reportfrom Iron Mountain. This study cold-bloodedly + discusses various means by which government might control the populace + and perpetuate itself in power in the absence of war (UN peace). + + Griffin's review (with extensive quotes) of this truly diabolical Insider + study is masterful; he takes it apart and shows us its consummate evil. + The study's premise is that historically the only means by which a + government has ever been able to "secure the subordination of citizens to + the state" is war. Only war has been able to provide the external threat + without which no government can accumulate power. War is used to make the + masses put up with all kinds of privation, taxation, and controls without + complaint. No amount of sacrifice in the name of victory is rejected. + Resistance is viewed as treason. + + But, says Griffin, Report From Iron Mountain explains that the war system + may have to be replaced because "it may now be possible to create a world + government in which all nations will be disarmed and disciplined by a + world army, a condition which we will call peace." In this case, what + could be a substitute for war? + + Here, explains Griffin, is the origin of the stratagem to promote + ecological doom as the new enemy that threatens the entire world. The + threat need not be real, provided the masses can be convinced it is real. + Credibility is the key, not reality. Griffin writes that Report From Iron + Mountain explains the avalanche of phony scientific claims that are + uncritically publicized by the Insider-controlled media, as well as the + funding of environmental "crazies" by corporations and businesses that + would appear to have the most to lose. He sees the plan as being + brilliantly successful. + + The barrage of propaganda has had a phenomenal result. Politicians are + now being elected on nothing but "concern for the environment and a + promise to clamp down on nasty industries," with no one caring about the + damage done to the economy or our freedoms. Just as no sacrifice is too + great in time of war, what happens to the economy or our freedom is of no + consequence "when the very planet on which we live is sick and dying." + + Griffin introduces us to multi- millionaire Maurice Strong, the powerful + UN environmental czar, who gives us the whole line: The U.S. is + committing environmental aggression against the rest of the world. + Current lifestyles of the affluent middle class -- high meat intake, + frozen and convenience foods, electric household appliances, cars, air + conditioning, suburban housing -- all this has to go. The world's + ecosystems can be preserved only bg lowering our standard of living by + ratioing, taxation, and political dornination by world government. + + Reading this section will forever change the way in which you view + government. Yet, says Griffin, this perverted, power-mad Insider fix need + not prevail. None of these dreadful things needs to happen. He outlines a + procedure by which the Federal Reserve can be abolished, the national + debt paid, and the country returned to a sound monetary system based on + silver and gold. All that is neeeded are the efforts of concerned and + caring Americans. Griffin invites us to join him in freeing ourselves + from the one-world conspirators. It can be done. + + --- + + + To order: + + "The Creature from Jekyll Island" + + send $19.50 + $2.00 shipping to: + + American Opinion Book Services + P.O. Box 8040 + Appleton, WI 54913 + + or by credit card: + + 414-749-3783 + + G. Edward Griffin will be in a city near you, for details call: + + 414-749-3780 + + +[end] + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jesus-ab.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jesus-ab.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5aa546ab --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jesus-ab.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ + Jesus Should Have Been Aborted + by + Jenn Shreve + + I remember my mother, an active member of the pro-life movement, +taking me aside and in a serious whisper telling me: "What if the Virgin +Mary had had an abortion? She certainly had a lot of reason too. Where +would we all be then?" She was using this statement to prove how +horrible an abortion could be. That even the savior of the world was +subject to surgical removal. That an abortion was, in essence, the +potential wiping out the greatest person to ever die. Unfortunately +for her, I suppose, I didn't share here respect for the life of christ +or the results of his ultimate and untimely death. + When I turned over this statement in my mind, I considered why +Mary would want an abortion and decided she should, by all means have +had one, if she had so desired. The, I considered, the results of +Christ's life and death and could not fathom one truly good thing +accomplished by it. That was not necessarily his fault. I have the +feeling that Jesus himself wasn't all that bad, just a little misguided +into believing he was the Son of God. What resulted after the fact, +however, has turned into the nightmare of western civilization. + Christ should have been aborted. To begin with, Mary was raped +by the Holy Spirit. There was no consent, just a mere warning by the +Angel Gabriel. "Hey Mary, you've been chosen to get knocked up by God! +Have fun! Got some shepherds to scare, so see ya! And he was gone. +Sure enough, the Holy Spirit showed up while she was sleeping (so she +couldn't protest) and impregnated her. This was rape and it was wrong. +She was violated and had every right to choose to suffer less for what +was done to her. + One must also consider Mary's personal situation. She was an +unwed mother of 14 living in a society where women who lost their +virginity outside of marriage were stoned to death. Even the staunchest +of pro-life activists will often concede that abortion should be allowed +when the mother's life is at risk. In Mary's case, it most definitely +was. Furthermore, barring the risk of stoning, she had no way to +support the child. Women didn't earn money for their labors in those +days. Joseph bailed her out of the dilemma, proving himself to be quite +and exceptional male considering the times in which he lived. Most guys +would be searching for the largest rock. + So they married but didn't consummate and went to Bethlehem to +register for a census. They didn't have adequate health care, so they +were forced to birth the child in the filthiest of places, a barn. +Needless to say, Mary's life was once again at risk here, and +considering that, theoretically, she was still a virgin, the pain +involved in childbirth must have been doubled. ouch! She should have +died, but must have been some sort of wonder woman amazon to survive the +whole ordeal. + Besides the fact the child compromised Mary's life in every way, +there is another reason May should have considered an abortion. She +knew, as did every other good hebrew person at the time, that the +Messiah was destined to suffer horribly-- to be sacrificed like a fuzzy +little lamb. Gabriel informed her, prior to rape, of just whom she was +going to be pregnant with. Seeing how she was most certainly familiar +enough with the Scriptures, she easily could have figured out just how +this future life would end. it is imperative to ask the question +whether it is indeed moral to bring a fetus to term. giving life to a +child whose entire purpose in life is to be sentenced to die at the whim +of a hysterical mob. It seems almost malicious to bring into the world +a person who can know no joy of living, who will be tortured, +humiliated, beaten, then executed in the most inhumane way ever invented +by mankind. She could have spared herself and her child heaps of misery +if she had decided to end theses possibilities during the fetal phases +of development. + But what does all this matter now? Today Mary's trials and +tribulations seem small and insignificant to us. However, one can't +deny that the life and death of Jesus weighs heavily on our history and +our modern society. Scanning the records of the ages since his death, +there stands an overwhelming pattern that is rather difficult to +overlook. Christ followers have, in his name, raped, pillaged, +,murdered, tortured, and destroyed nations and people up to this very +day. yesterday there were religious wars waged against Muslims, +Protestants, Catholics, and presumed witches--the Spanish Inquisition +the Protestant Reformation, the Crusades, the numerous witch trials to +name a few. It continues today with the harassment and murders of +doctors who perform abortions. It will not stop there. History is +proof of that. + I don't believe Christ would have advocated all this evil, but +because he existed, it happened. It's almost impossible, now, to +imagine a world without a New Testament, but stretching as deep into my +imagination as I can, I can pretty easily assume it couldn't have been +much worse. If Mary had simply chosen and abortion, infinite amounts of +suffering could have been alleviated. She didn't make that choice. I'm +not even entirely sure that abortions were possible 2,000 years ago, but +if they were, she would have been totally justified in pursuing one. + I do know and am happy to say that abortion is still an option +for most women in the world today, but that right is being threatened +daily. Choosing Christ, patron saint of the pro-life movement, as a +case study is an extreme example, meant to take a stab back at the +pro-lifers who are attempting, as I write, to strip me of my personal +rights and freedoms as a woman--to send me back to Mary's time when +there were no choices. Obviously, there are times when it is good to +carry a child to term. There are other situations when it is better to +have an abortion, for yourself, for the fetus that will one day bear the +burden of life, and perhaps for all humanity, as was the case with Mary. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jesusall.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jesusall.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..93af634b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jesusall.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6891 @@ + 106 page printout + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + **** **** + THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS + + Is He a Myth? + + by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Independent Religious Society + + ORCHESTRA HALL + CHICAGO + + 1909 + + By education most have been misled, + So they believe because they were so bred; + The priest continues what the nurse began, + And thus the child imposes on the man. + DRYDEN. + Preface + + The following work offers in book form the series of studies +on the question of the historicity of Jesus, presented from time to +time before the Independent Religious Society in Orchestra Hall. No +effort has been made to change the manner of the spoken word into +the more regular form of the written word. + + M.M. MANGASAIRIAN. + ORCHESTRA HALL + CHICAGO + + PART I. + + A PARABLE + + I am today twenty-five hundred years old. I have been dead for +nearly as many years. My place of birth was Athens; my grave was +not far from those of Xenophon and Plato, within view of the white +glory of Athens and the shimmering waters of the Aegean sea. + + After sleeping in my grave for many centuries I awoke suddenly +-- I cannot tell how nor why -- and was transported by a force +beyond my control to this new day and this new city. I arrived here +at daybreak, when the sky was still dull and drowsy. As I +approached the city I heard bells ringing, and a little later I +found the streets astir with throngs of well dressed people in +family groups wending their way hither and thither. Evidently they +were not going to work, for they were accompanied by their children +in their best clothes, and a pleasant expression was upon their +faces. + + "This must be a day of festival and worship, devoted to one of +their gods," I murmured to myself + + Looking about me I saw a gentleman in a neat black dress, +smiling, and his hand extended to me with great cordiality. He must +have realized I was a stranger and wished to tender his hospitality +to me. I accepted it gratefully. I clasped his hand. He pressed + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +mine. We gazed for a moment into each other's eyes. He understood +my bewilderment amid my novel surroundings, and offered to +enlighten me. He explained to me the ringing of the bells and +meaning of the holiday crowds moving in the streets. It was Sunday +-- Sunday before Christmas, and the people were going to "the House +of God." + + "Of course you are going there, too," I said to my friendly +guide. + + "Yes," he answered, "I conduct the worship. I am a priest." + + "A priest of Apollo?" I interrogated. + + "No, no," he replied, raising his hand to command silence, +"Apollo is not a god; he was only an idol." + + "Am idol?" I whispered, taken by surprise. + + "I perceive you are a Greek," he said to me, "and the Greeks," +he continued, "notwithstanding their distinguished accomplishments, +were an idolatrous people. They worshipped gods that did not exist. +They built temples to divinities which were merely empty names -- +empty names," he repeated. "Apollo and Athene -- and the entire +Olympian lot were no more than inventions of the fancy." + + "But the Greeks loved their gods," I protested, my heart +clamoring in my breast. + + "They were not gods, they were idols, and the difference +between a god and an idol is this: an idol is a thing; God is a +living being. When you cannot prove the existence of your god, when +you have never seen him, nor heard his voice, nor touched him -- +when you have nothing provable about him, he is an idol. Have you +seen Apollo? Have you heard him? Have you touched him?" + + "No," I said, in a low voice. + + "Do you know of any one who has?" + + I had to admit that I did not. + "He was an idol, then, and not a god." + + "But many of us Greeks," I said, "have felt Apollo in our +hearts and have been inspired by him." + + "You imagine you have," returned my guide. "If he were really +divine be would be living to this day. + + "Is he, then, dead?" I asked. + + "He never lived; and for the last two thousand years or more +his temple has been a heap of ruins." + + I wept to hear that Apollo, the god of light and music, was no +more -- that his fair temple had fallen into ruins and the fire +upon his altar had been extinguished; then, wiping a tear from my +eyes, I said, "Oh, but our gods were fair and beautiful; our + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +religion was rich and picturesque. It made the Greeks a nation of +poets, orators, artists, warriors, thinkers. It made Athens a city +of light; it created the beautiful, the true, the good -- yes, our +religion was divine." + + "It had only one fault"' interrupted my guide. + + "What was that?" I inquired, without knowing what his answer +would be. + + "It was not true." + + "But I still believe in Apollo," I exclaimed; "he is not dead, +I know he is alive." + + "Prove it," he said to me; then, pausing for a moment, "if you +produce him," he said, "we shall all fall down and worship him. +Produce Apollo and be shall be our god." + + "Produce him!" I whispered to myself. "What blasphemy!" Then, +taking heart, I told my guide how more than once I had felt +Apollo's radiant presence in my heart, and told him of the immortal +lines of Homer concerning the divine Apollo. "Do you doubt Homer?" +I said to him; "Homer, the inspired bard? Homer, whose ink-well was +as big as the sea; whose imperishable page was Time? Homer, whose +every word was a drop of light?" Then I proceeded to quote from +Homer's Iliad, the Greek Bible, worshipped by all the Hellenes as +the rarest Manuscript between heaven and earth. I quoted his +description of Apollo, than whose lyre nothing is more musical, +than whose speech even honey is not sweeter. I recited how his +mother went from town to town to select a worthy place to give +birth to the young god, son of Zeus, the Supreme Being, and how he +was born and cradled amid the ministrations of all the goddesses, +who bathed him in the running stream and fed him with nectar and +ambrosia from Olympus. Then I recited the lines which picture +Apollo bursting his bands, leaping forth from his cradle, and +spreading his wings like a swan, soaring sun-ward, declaring that +he had come to announce to mortals the will of God. "Is it +possible," I asked, "that all this is pure fabrication, a fantasy +of the brain, as unsubstantial as the air? No, no, Apollo is not an +idol. He is a god, and the son of a god. The whole Greek world will +bear me witness that I am telling the truth." Then I looked at my +guide to see what impression this outburst of sincere enthusiasm +had produced upon him, and I saw a cold smile upon his lips that +cut me to the heart. It seemed as if he wished to say to me, "You +poor deluded pagan! You are not intelligent enough to know that +Homer was only a mortal after all, and that he was writing a play +in which he manufactured the gods of whom he sang -- that these +gods existed only in his imagination, and that today they are as +dead as is their inventer -- the poet." + + By this time we stood at the entrance of a large edifice which +my guide said was "the House of God." As we walked in I saw +innumerable little lights blinking and winking all over the +spacious interior. There were, besides, pictures, altars and images +all around me. The air was heavy with incense; a number of men in +gorgeous vestments were passing to and fro, bowing and kneeling +before the various lights and images. The audience was upon its + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +knees enveloped in silence -- a silence so solemn that it awed me. +Observing my anxiety to understand the meaning of all this, my +guide took me aside and in a whisper told me that the people were +celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of their beautiful +Savior -- Jesus, the Son of God. + + "So was Apollo the son of God," I replied, thinking perhaps +that after all we might find ourselves in agreement with one +another. + + "Forget Apollo," he said, with a suggestion of severity in his +voice. "There is no such person. He was only an idol. If you were +to search for Apollo in all the universe you would never find any +one answering to his name or description. Jesus," he resumed, "is +the Son of God. He came to our earth and was born of a virgin." + Again I was tempted to tell my guide that that was how Apollo +became incarnate; but I restrained myself. + + "Then Jesus grew up to be a man," continued my guide, +"performing unheard-of wonders, such as treading the seas, giving +sight, hearing and speech to the blind, the deaf and the dumb, +converting water into wine, feeding the multitudes miraculously, +predicting coming events and resurrecting the dead." + + "Of course, of your gods, too," he added, "it is claimed that +they performed miracles, and of your oracles that they foretold the +future, but there is this difference -- the things related of your +gods are a fiction, the things told of Jesus are a fact, and the +difference between Paganism and Christianity is the difference +between fiction and fact." + + Just then I heard a wave of murmur, like the rustling of +leaves in a forest, sweep over the bowed audience. I turned about +and unconsciously, my Greek curiosity impelling me, I pushed +forward toward where the greater candle lights were blazing. I felt +that perhaps the commotion in the house was the announcement that +the God Jesus was about to make his appearance, and I wanted to see +him. I wanted to touch him, or, if the crowd were too large to +allow me that privilege, I wanted, at least, to hear his voice. I, +who had never seen a god, never touched one, never heard one speak, +I who had believed in Apollo without ever having known anything +provable about him, I wanted to see the real God, Jesus. + + But my guide placed his hand quickly upon my shoulder, and +held me back. + + "I want to see Jesus," I hastened, turning toward him. I said +this reverently and in good faith. "Will he not be here this +morning? Will he not speak to his worshippers?" I asked again. +"Will he not permit them to touch him, to caress his hand, to clasp +his divine feet, to inhale the ambrosial fragrance of his breath, +to bask in the golden light of his eyes, to hear the music of his +immaculate accents? Let me, too, see Jesus," I pleaded. + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + "You cannot see him," answered my guide, with a trace of +embarrassment in his voice. "He does not show himself any more." + + I was too much surprised at this to make any immediate reply. + + "For the last two thousand years," my guide continued, "it has +not pleased Jesus to show himself to any one; neither has he been +heard from for the same number of years." + + "For two thousand years no one has either seen or heard +Jesus?" I asked, my eyes filled with wonder and my voice quivering +with excitement. + + "No," he answered. + + "Would not that, then," I ventured to ask, impatiently, "make +Jesus as much of an idol as Apollo? And are not these people on +their knees before a god of whose existence they are as much in the +dark as were the Greeks of fair Apollo, and of whose past they have +only rumors such as Homer reports of our Olympian gods -- as +idolatrous as the Athenians? What would you say," I asked my guide, +"if I were to demand that you should produce Jesus and prove him to +my eyes and ears as you have asked me to produce and prove Apollo? +What is the difference between a ceremony performed in honor of +Apollo and one performed in honor of Jesus, since it is as +impossible to give oracular demonstration of the existence of the +one as of the other? If Jesus is alive and a god, and Apollo is an +idol and dead, what is the evidence, since the one is as invisible, +as inaccessible, and as unproducible as the other? And, if faith +that Jesus is a god proves him a god, why will not faith in Apollo +make him a god? But if worshipping Jesus, whom for the best part of +the last two thousand years no man has seen, heard or touched; if +building temples to him, burning incense upon his altars, bowing at +his shrine and calling him "God," is not idolatry, neither is it +idolatry to kindle fire upon the luminous altars of the Greek +Apollo, -- God of the dawn, master of the enchanted lyre -- he with +the bow and arrow tipped with fire! I am not denying," I said, +"that Jesus ever lived. He may have been alive two thousand years +ago, but if he has not been heard from since, if the same thing +that happened to the people living at the time he lived has +happened to him, namely -- if he is dead, then you are worshipping +the dead, which fact stamps your religion as idolatrous." + + And, then, remembering what he had said to me about the Greek +mythology being beautiful but not true, I said to him: "Your +temples are indeed gorgeous and costly; your music is grand your +altars are superb; your litany is exquisite; your chants are +melting; your incense, and bells and flowers, your gold and silver +vessels are all in rare taste, and I dare say your dogmas are +subtle and your preachers eloquent, but your religion has one fault +-- it is not true." + + + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + IN CONFIDENCE + + I shall speak in a straightforward way, and shall say today +what perhaps I should say tomorrow, or ten years from now, -- but +shall say it today, because I cannot keep it back, because I have +nothing better to say than the truth, or what I hold to be the +truth. But why seek truths that are not pleasant? We cannot help +it. No man can suppress the truth. Truth finds a crack or crevice +to crop out of; it bobs up to the surface and all the volume and +weight of waters can not keep it down. Truth prevails! Life, death, +truth -- behold, these three no power can keep back. And since we +are doomed to know the truth, let us cultivate a love for it. It is +of no avail to cry over lost illusions, to long for vanished +dreams, or to call to the departing gods to come back. It may be +pleasant to play with toys and dolls all our life, but evidently we +are not meant to remain Children always. The time comes when we +must put away childish things and obey the summons of truth, stern +and high. A people who fear the truth can never be a free people. +If what I will say is the truth, do you know of any good reason why +I should not say it? And if for prudential reasons I should +sometimes hold back the truth, how would you know when I am telling +what I believe to be the truth, and when I am holding it back for +reasons of policy? + + The truth, however unwelcome, is not injurious; it is error +which raises false hopes, which destroys, degrades and pollutes, +and which, sooner or later, must be abandoned. Was it not Spencer, +whom Darwin called "our great philosopher," who said, "Repulsive as +is its aspect, the hard fact which dissipates a cherished illusion +is presently found to contain the germ of a more salutary belief?" +Spain is decaying today because her teachers, for policy's sake, +are withholding the disagreeable truth from the people. Holy water +and sainted bones can give a nation illusions and dreams, but +never, -- strength. + + A difficult subject is in the nature of a challenge to the +mind. One difficult task attempted is worth a thousand commonplace +efforts completed. The majority of people avoid the difficult and +fear danger. But he who would progress must even court danger. +Political and religious liberty were discovered through peril and +struggle. The world owes its emancipation to human daring. Had +Columbus feared danger, America might have slept for another +thousand years. + + I have a difficult subject in hand. It is also a delicate one. +But I am determined not only to know, if it is possible, the whole +truth about Jesus, but also to communicate that truth to others. +Some people can keep their minds shut. I cannot; I must share my +intellectual life with the world. If I lived a thousand years ago, +I might have collapsed at the sight of the burning stake, but I +feel sure I would have deserved the stake. + + People say to me, sometimes, Why do you not confine yourself +to moral and religious exhortation, such as, 'Be kind, do good, +love one another, etc.'?" But there is more of a moral tonic in the +open and candid discussion of a subject like the one in hand, than +in a multitude of platitudes. We feel our moral fiber stiffen into +force and purpose under the inspiration of a peril dared for the +advancement of truth. + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + "Tell us what you believe," is one of the requests frequently +addressed to me. I never deliver a lecture in which I do not, +either directly or indirectly, give full and free expression to my +faith in everything that is worthy of faith. If I do not believe in +dogma, it is because I believe in freedom. If I do not believe in +one inspired book, it is because I believe that all truth and only +truth is inspired. If I do not ask the gods to help us, it is +because I believe in human help, so much more real than +supernatural help. If I do not believe in standing still, it is +because I believe in progress. If I am not attracted by the vision +of a distant heaven, it is because I believe in human happiness, +now and here. If I do not say "Lord, Lord!" to Jesus, it is because +I bow my head to a greater Power than Jesus, to a more efficient +Savior than he has ever been -- Science! + + "Oh, he tears down, but does not build up," is another +criticism about my work. it is not true. No preacher or priest is +more constructive. To build up their churches and maintain their +creeds the priests pulled down and destroyed the magnificent +civilization of Greece and Rome, plunging Europe into the dark and +sterile ages which lasted over a thousand years. When Galileo waved +his hands for joy because he believed be had enriched humanity with +a new truth and extended the sphere of knowledge, what did the +church do to him? It conspired to destroy him. It shut him up in a +dungeon! Clapping truth into jail; gagging the mouth of the student +-- is that building up or tearing down? When Bruno lighted a new +torch to increase the light of the world what was his reward? The +stake! During all the ages that the church had the power to police +the world, every time a thinker raised his head he was clubbed to +death. Do you think it is kind of us -- does it square with our +sense of justice to call the priest constructive, and the +scientists and philosophers who have helped people to their feet -- +helped them to self-government in politics, and to self-help in +life, -- destructive? Count your rights -- political, religious, +social, intellectual -- and tell me which of them was conquered for +you by the priest. + + "He is irreverent," is still another hasty criticism I have +heard advanced against the rationalist. I wish to tell you +something. But first let us be impersonal. The epithets +"irreverent," "blasphemer," "atheist," and "infidel," are flung at +a man, not from pity, but from envy. Not having the courage or the +industry of our neighbor who works like a busy bee in the world of +men and books, searching with the sweat of his brow for the real +bread of life, wetting the open page before him with his tears, +pushing into the "wee" hours of the night his quest, animated by +the fairest of all loves, the love of truth, -- we ease our own +indolent conscience by calling him names. We pretend that it is not +because we are too lazy or too selfish to work as hard or think as +freely as he does, but because we do not want to be as irreverent +as he is that we keep the windows of our minds shut. To excuse our +own mediocrity we call the man who tries to get out of the rut a +"blasphemer." And so we ask the world to praise our indifference as +a great virtue, and to denounce the conscientious toil and thought +of another, as "blasphemy." + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + IS JESUS A MYTH? + + What is a myth? A myth is a fanciful explanation of a given +phenomenon. Observing the sun, the moon, and the stars overhead, +the primitive man wished to account for them. This was natural. The +mind craves for knowledge. The child asks questions because of an +inborn desire to know. Man feels ill at ease with a sense of a +mental vacuum, until his questions are answered. Before the days of +science, a fanciful answer was all that could be given to man's +questions about the physical world. The primitive man guessed where +knowledge failed him -- what else could he do? A myth, then, is a +guess, a story, a speculation, or a fanciful explanation of a +phenomenon, in the absence of accurate information. + + Many are the myths about the heavenly bodies, which, while we +call them myths, because we know better, were to the ancients +truths. The Sun and Moon were once brother and sister, thought the +child-man; but there arose a dispute between them; the woman ran +away, and the man ran after her, until they came to the end of the +earth where land and sky met. The woman jumped into the sky, and +the man after her, where they kept chasing each other forever, as +Sun and Moon. Now and then they came close enough to snap at each +other. That was their explanation of an eclipse. [Childhood of the +World, by Edward Clodd.] With this myth, the primitive man was +satisfied, until his developing intelligence realized its +inadequacy. Science was born of that realization. + + During the middle ages it was believed by Europeans that in +certain parts of the World, in India, for instance, there were +people who had only one eye in the middle of their foreheads, and +were more like monsters than humans. This was imaginary knowledge, +which travel and research have corrected. The myth of a one-eyed +people living in India has been replaced by accurate information +concerning the Hindoos. Likewise, before the science of ancient +languages was perfected -- before archaeology had dug up buried +cities and deciphered the hieroglyphics on the monuments of +antiquity, most of our knowledge concerning the earlier ages was +mythical, that is to say, it was knowledge not based on +investigation, but made to order. Just as the theologians still +speculate about the other world, primitive man speculated about +this world. Even we moderns, not very long ago, believed, for +instance, that the land of Egypt was visited by ten fantastic +plagues; that in one bloody night every first born in the land was +slain; that the angel of a tribal-god dipped his hand in blood and +printed a red mark upon the doors of the houses of the Jews to +protect them from harm; that Pharaoh and his armies were drowned in +the Red Sea; that the children of Israel wandered for forty years +around Mourit Sinai; and so forth, and so forth. But now that we +can read the inscriptions on the stone ages dug out of ancient +ruins; now that we can compel a buried world to reveal its secret +and to tell us its story, we do not have to go on making myths +about the ancients. Myths die when history is born. + + It will be seen from these examples that there is no harm in +myth-making if the myth is called a myth. It is when we use our +fanciful knowledge to deny or to shut out real and scientific +knowledge that the myth becomes a stumbling block. And this is + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +precisely the use to which myths have been put. The king with his +sword and the priest with his curses, have supported the myth +against science. When a man pretends to believe that the Santa +Claus of his childhood is real, and tries to compel also others to +play a part, he becomes positively immoral. There is no harm in +believing in Santa Claus as a myth, but there is in pretending that +he is real, because such an attitude of mind makes truth +unnecessary and not at all vital. + + Is Jesus a myth? There is in man a faculty for fiction. Before +history was born, there was myth; before men could think, they +dreamed. It was with the human race in its infancy as it is with +the child. The child's imagination is more active than its reason. +It is easier for it to fancy even than to see. It thinks less than +it guesses. This wild flight of fancy is checked only by +experience. It is reflection which introduces a bit into the mouth +of imagination, curbing its pace and subduing its restless spirit. +It is, then, as we grow older, and, if I may use the word, riper, +that we learn to distinguish between fact and fiction, between +history and myth. + + In childhood we need playthings, and the more fantastic and +bizarre they are, the better we are pleased with them. We dream, +for instance, of castles in the air -- gorgeous and clothed with +the azure hue of the skies. We fill the space about and over us +with spirits, fairies, gods, and other invisible and airy beings. +We covet the rainbow. We reach out for the moon. Our feet do not +really begin to touch the firm ground until we have reached the +years of discretion. + + I know there are those who wish they could always remain +children, -- living in dreamland. But even if this were desirable, +it is not possible. Evolution is our destiny; of what use is it, +then, to take up arms against destiny? + + Let it be borne in mind that all the religions of the world +were born in the childhood of the race. + + Science was not born until man had matured. There is in this +thought a world of meaning. + + Children make religions. + + Grown up people create science. + + The cradle is the womb of all the fairies and faiths of +mankind. + + The school is the birthplace of science. + + Religion is the science of the child. + + Science is the religion of the matured man. + + In the discussion of this subject, I appeal to the mature, not +to the child mind. I appeal to those who have cultivated a taste +for truth -- who are not easily scared, but who can "screw their + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +courage to the sticking point" and follow to the end truth's +leading. The multitude is ever joined to its idols; let them alone. +I speak to the discerning few. + + There is an important difference between a lecturer and an +ordained preacher. The latter can command a hearing in the name of +God, or in the name of the Bible. He does not have to satisfy his +hearers about the reasonableness of what he preaches. He is God's +mouthpiece, and no one may disagree with him. He can also invoke +the authority of the church and of the Christian world to enforce +acceptance of his teaching. The only way I may command your respect +is to be reasonable. You will not listen to me for God's sake, nor +for the Bible's sake, nor yet for the love of heaven, or the fear +of hell. My only protection is to be rational -- to be truthful. In +other words, the preacher can afford to ignore common sense in the +name of Revelation. But if I depart from it in the least, or am +caught once playing fast and loose with the facts, I will +irretrievably lose my standing. + + Our answer to the question, Is Jesus a Myth? must depend more +or less upon original research, as there is very little written on +the subject. The majority of writers assume that a person answering +to the description of Jesus lived some two thousand years ago. Even +the few who entertain doubts on the subject, seem to hold that +while there is a large mythical element in the Jesus story, +nevertheless there is a historical nucleus round which has +clustered the elaborate legend of the Christ. In all probability, +they argue, there was a man called Jesus, who said many helpful +things, and led an exemplary life, and all the miracles and wonders +represent the accretions of fond and pious ages. + + Let us place ourselves entirely in the hands of the evidence. +As far as possible, let us, be passive, showing no predisposition +one way or another. We can afford to be independent. If the +evidence proves the historicity of Jesus, well and good; if the +evidence is not sufficient to prove it, there is no reason why we +should fear to say so; besides, it is our duty to inform ourselves +on this question. As intelligent beings we desire to know whether +this Jesus, whose worship is not only costing the world millions of +the people's money, but which is also drawing to his service the +time, the energies, the affection, the devotion, and the labor of +humanity, -- is a myth, or a reality. We believe that an religious +persecutions, all sectarian wars, hatreds and intolerance, which +still cramp and embitter our humanity, would be replaced by love +and brotherhood, if the sects could be made to see that the God- +Jesus they are quarreling over is a myth, a shadow to which +credulity alone gives substance. Like people who have been fighting +in the dark, fearing some danger, the sects, once relieved of the +thraldom of a tradition which has been handed down to them by a +childish age and country, will turn around and embrace one another. +In every sense, the subject is an all-absorbing one. It goes to the +root of things; it touches the vital parts, and it means life or +death to the Christian religion. + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + THE PROBLEM STATED + + Let me now give an idea of the method I propose to follow in +the study of this subject. Let us suppose that a student living in +the year 3000 desired to make sure that such a man as Abraham +Lincoln really lived and did the things attributed to him. How +would he go about it? + + A man must have a birthplace and a birthday. All the records +agree as to where and when Lincoln was born. This is not enough to +prove his historicity but it is an important link in the chain. + + Neither the place nor the time of Jesus' birth is known. There +has never been any unanimity about this matter. There has been +considerable confusion and contradiction about it. It cannot be +proved that the twenty-fifth of December is his birthday. A number +of other dates were observed by the Christian church at various +times as the birthday of Jesus. The Gospels give no date, and +appear to be quite uncertain - really ignorant about it. When it is +remembered that the Gospels purport to have been written by Jesus' +intimate companions, and during the lifetime of his brothers and +mother, their silence on this matter becomes significant. The +selection of the twenty-fifth of December as his birthday is not +only an arbitrary one, but that date, having been from time +immemorial dedicated to the Sun, the inference is that the Son of +God and the Sun of heaven enjoying the same birthday, were at one +time identical beings. The fact that Jesus' death was accompanied +with the darkening of the Sun, and that the date of his +resurrection is also associated with the position of the Sun at the +time of the vernal equinox, is a further intimation that we have in +the story of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, an +ancient and nearly universal Sun-myth, instead of verifiable +historical events. The story of Jesus for three days in the heart +of the earth; of Jonah, three days in the belly of a fish; of +Hercules, three days in the belly of a whale, and of Little Red +Riding Hood, sleeping in the belly of a great black wolf, represent +the attempt of primitive man to explain the phenomenon of Day and +Night. The Sun is swallowed by a dragon, a wolf, or a whale, which +plunges the world into darkness; but the dragon is killed, and the +Sun rises triumphant to make another Day. This ancient Sun myth is +the starting point of nearly an miraculous religions, from the days +of Egypt to the twentieth century. + + The story which Matthew relates about a remarkable star, which +sailing in the air pointed out to some unnamed magicians the cradle +or cave in which the wonder-child was born, helps further to +identify Jesus with the Sun. What became of this "Performing" star, +or of the magicians, and their costly gifts, the records do not +say. It is more likely that it was the astrological predilections +of the gospel writer which led him to assign to his God-child a +star in the heavens. The belief that the stars determine human +destinies is a very ancient one. Such expressions in our language +as "ill starred," "a lucky star," "disaster," "lunacy," and so on, +indicate the hold which astrology once enjoyed upon the human mind. +We still call a melancholy man, Saturnine; a cheerful man, Jovial; +a quick-tempered man, Mercurial; Showing how closely our ancestors +associated the movements of celestial bodies with human affairs. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +[Childhood of the World. -- Edward Clodd.] The prominence, +therefore, of the sun and stars in the Gospel story tends to show +that Jesus is an astrological rather than a historical character. + + That the time of his birth, his death, and supposed +resurrection is not verifiable is generally admitted. + + This uncertainty robs the story of Jesus, to an extent at +least, of the atmosphere of reality. + + The twenty-fifth of December is celebrated as his birthday. +Yet there is no evidence that he was born on that day. Although the +Gospels are silent as to the date on which Jesus was born, there is +circumstantial evidence in the accounts given of the event to show +that the twenty-fifth of December could not have been his birthday. +It snows in Palestine, though a warmer country, and we know that in +December there are no shepherds tending their flocks in the night +time in that country. Often at this time of the year the fields and +hills are covered with snow. Hence, if the shepherds sleeping in +the fields really saw the heavens open and heard the. angel-song, +in all probability it was in some other month of the year, and not +late in December. We know, also, that early in the history of +Christianity the months of May and June enjoyed the honor of +containing the day of Jesus' birth. + + Of course, it is immaterial on which day Jesus was born, but +why is it not known? Yet not only is the date of his birth a matter +of conjecture, but also the year in which he was born. Matthew, one +of the Evangelists, suggests that Jesus was born in King Herod's +time, for it was this king who, hearing from the Magi that a King +of the Jews was born, decided to destroy him; but Luke, another +Evangelist, intimates that Jesus was born when Quirinus was ruler +of Judea, which makes the date of Jesus' birth about fourteen years +later than the date given by Matthew. Why this discrepancy in a +historical document, to say nothing about inspiration? The +theologian might say that this little difficulty was introduced +purposely into the scriptures to establish its infallibility, but +it is only religious books that are pronounced infallible on the +strength of the contradictions they contain. + + Again, Matthew says that to escape the evil designs of Herod, +Mary and Joseph, with the infant Jesus, fled into Egypt, Luke says +nothing about this hurried flight, nor of Herod's intention to kill +the infant Messiah. On the contrary he tells us that after the +forty days of purification were over Jesus was publicly presented +at the temple, where Herod, if he really, as Matthew relates, +wished to seize him, could have done so without difficulty. It is +impossible to reconcile the flight to Egypt with the presentation +in the temple, and this inconsistency is certainly insurmountable +and makes it look as if the narrative had no value whatever as +history. + + When we come to the more important chapters about Jesus, we +meet with greater difficulties. Have you ever noticed that the day +on which Jesus is supposed to have died falls invariably on a +Friday? What is the reason for this? It is evident that nobody +knows, and nobody ever knew the date on which the Crucifixion took + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +place, if it ever took place. It is so obscure and so mythical that +an artificial day has been fixed by the Ecclesiastical councils. +While it is always on a Friday that the Crucifixion is +commemorated, the week in which the day occurs varies from year to +year. "Good Friday" falls not before the spring equinox, but as +soon after the spring equinox as the full moon allows, thus making +the calculation to depend upon the position of the sun in the +Zodiac and the phases of the moon. But that was precisely the way +the day for the festival of the pagan goddess Oestera was +determined. The Pagan Oestera has become the Christian Easter. Does +not this fact, as well as those already touched upon, make the +story of Jesus to read very much like the stories of the Pagan +deities. + + The early Christians, Origin, for instance, in his reply to +the rationalist Celsus who questioned the reality of Jesus, instead +of producing evidence of a historical nature, appealed to the +mythology of the pagans to prove that the story of Jesus was no +more incredible than those of the Greek and Roman gods. This is so +important that we refer our readers to Origin's own words on the +subject. "Before replying to Celsus, it is necessary to admit that +in the matter of history, however true it might be," writes this +Christian Father, "it is often very difficult and sometimes quite +impossible to establish its truth by evidence which shall be +considered sufficient" [Origin Contre Celsus. 1. 58 et Suiv.] This +is a plain admission that, as early as the second and third +centuries the claims put forth about Jesus did not admit of +positive historical demonstration. But in the absence of evidence +Origin offers the following metaphysical arguments against the +skeptical Celsus: 1. Such stories as are told of Jesus are admitted +to be true when told of pagan divinities, why can they not also be +true when told of the Christian Messiah? 2. They must be true +because they are the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies +[Ibid.] In other words, the only proofs Origin can bring forth +against the rationalistic criticism of Celsus is, that to deny +Jesus would be equivalent to denying both the Pagan and Jewish +mythologies. If Jesus is not real, says Origin, then Apollo was not +real, and the Old Testament prophecies have not been fulfilled. If +we are to have any mythology at all, he seems to argue, why object +to adding to it the myths of Jesus? There could not be a more +damaging admission than this from one of the most conspicuous +defenders of Jesus' story against early criticism. + + Justin Martyr, another early Father, offers the following +argument against unbelievers in the Christian legend: "When we say +also that the Word, which is the first birth of God, was produced +without sexual union, and that he, Jesus Christ, our teacher, was +crucified, died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we +propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those +whom you esteem sons of Jupiter." [ +First Apology, Chapter xxi (Anti-Niacin Library.] Which is another +way of saying that the Christian myths is very similar to the +pagan, and should therefore be equally true. Pressing his argument +further, this interesting Father discovers many resemblances +between what he himself is preaching and the pagans have always +believed: "For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribe +to Jupiter. Mercury, the interpreting word (he spells this word + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +with small w, while in the above quotation he uses w to denote the +Christian incarnation) and teacher of all; Aesculapius ... to +heaven; one Hercules ... and Perseus; ... and Bellerophon, who, +from mortals, rose to heaven on the horses of Pegasus." [Ibid.] If +Jupiter can have, Justin Martyr seems to reason, half a dozen +divine sons, why cannot Jehovah have at least one? + + Instead of producing historical evidence or appealing to +creditable documents, as one would to prove the existence of a +Caesar or an Alexander, Justin Martyr draws upon pagan mythology in +his reply to the critics of Christianity. All he seems to ask for +is that Jesus be given a higher place among the divinities of the +ancient world. + + To help their cause the Christian apologists not infrequently +also changed the sense of certain Old Testament passages to make +them support the miraculous stories in the New Testament. For +example, having borrowed from Oriental books the story of the god +in a manger, surrounded by staring animals, the Christian fathers +introduced a prediction of this event into the following text from +the book of Habakkuk in the Bible: "Accomplish thy work in the +midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known, etc." +[Heb. iii. 2.] This Old Testament text appeared in the Greek +translation as follows: "Thou shalt manifest thyself in the midst +of two animals," which was fulfilled of course when Jesus was born +in a stable. How weak must be one's case to resort to such tactics +in order to command a following! And when it is remembered that +these follies were deemed necessary to prove the reality of what +has been claimed as the most stupendous event in all history, one +can readily see upon how fragile a foundation is built the story of +the Christian God-man. + + Let us continue: Abraham Lincoln's associates and +contemporaries are all known to history. The immediate companions +of Jesus appear to be, on the other hand, as mythical as he is +himself. Who was Matthew? Who was Mark? Who were John, Peter, +Judas, and Mary? There is absolutely no evidence that they ever +existed. They are not mentioned except in the New Testament books, +which, as we shall see, are "supposed" copies of "supposed" +originals. If Peter ever went to Rome with a new doctrine, how is +it that no historian has taken note of him? If Paul visited Athens +and preached from Mars Hill, how is it that there is no mention of +him or of his strange Gospel in the Athenian chronicles? For all we +know, both Peter and Paul may have really existed, but it is only +a guess, as we have no means of ascertaining. The uncertainty about +the apostles of Jesus is quite in keeping with the uncertainty +about Jesus himself. + + The report that Jesus had twelve apostles seems also mythical. +The number twelve, like the number seven, or three, or forty, plays +an important role in all Sun-myths, and points to the twelve signs +of the Zodiac. Jacob had twelve sons; there were twelve tribes of +Israel; twelve months in the year; twelve gates or pillars of +heaven, etc. In many of the religions of the world, the number +twelve is sacred. There have been few god-saviors who did not have +twelve apostles or messengers. In one or two places, in the New +Testament, Jesus is made to send out "the seventy" to evangelize + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +the world. Here again we see the presence of a myth. It was +believed that there were seventy different nations in the world -- +to each nation an apostle. Seventy wise men are supposed to have +translated the Old Testament, sitting in seventy different cells. +That is why their translation is called "the Septuagint." But it is +all a legend, as there is no evidence of seventy scholars working +in seventy individual cells on the Hebrew Bible. One of the Church +Fathers declares that he saw these seventy cells with his own eyes. +He was the only one who saw them. + + That the "Twelve Apostles" are fanciful may be inferred from +the obscurity in which the greater number of them have remained. +Peter, Paul, John, James, Judas, occupy the stage almost +exclusively. If Paul was an apostle, we have fourteen, instead of +twelve. Leaving out Judas, and counting Matthias, who was elected +in his place, we have thirteen apostles. + + The number forty figures also in many primitive myths. The +Jews were in the wilderness for forty years; Jesus fasted for forty +days; from the resurrection to the ascension were forty days; Moses +was on the mountain with God for forty days. An account in which +such scrupulous attention is shown to supposed sacred numbers is +apt to be more artificial than real. The biographers of Lincoln or +of Socrates do not seem to be interested in numbers. They write +history, not stories. + + Again, many of the contemporaries of Lincoln bear written +witness to his existence. The historians of the time, the +statesmen, the publicists, the chroniclers -- all seem to be +acquainted with him,or to have heard of him. It is impossible to +explain why the contemporaries of Jesus, the authors and historians +of his time, do not take notice of him. If Abraham Lincoln was +important enough to have attracted the attention of his +contemporaries, how much more Jesus. -- Is it reasonable to suppose +that these Pagan and Jewish writers knew of Jesus, -- had heard of +his incomparably great works and sayings, -- but omitted to give +him a page or a line? Could they have been in a conspiracy against +him? How else is this unanimous silence to be accounted for? Is it +not more likely that the wonder-working Jesus was unknown to them? +And he was unknown to them because no such Jesus existed in their +day. + + Should the student, looking into Abraham Lincoln's history, +discover that no one of his biographers knew positively just when +he lived or where he was born, he would have reason to conclude +that because of this uncertainty on the part of the biographers, he +must be more exacting than he otherwise would have been. That is +precisely our position. Of course, there are in history great men +of whose birthplaces or birthdays we are equally uncertain. But we +believe in their existence, not because no one seems to know +exactly when and where they were born, but because there is +overwhelming evidence corroborating the other reports about them, +and which is sufficient to remove the suspicion suggested by the +darkness hanging over their nativity. Is there any evidence strong +enough to prove the historicity of Jesus, in spite of the fact that +not even his supposed companions, writing during the lifetime of +Jesus' mother, have any definite information to give. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + But let us continue. The reports current about a man like +Lincoln are verifiable, while many of those about Jesus are of a +nature that no amount of evidence can confirm. That Lincoln was +President of these United States, that he signed the Emancipation +Proclamation, and that he was assassinated, can be readily +authenticated. + + But how can any amount of evidence satisfy one's self that +Jesus was born of a virgin, for instance? Such a report or rumor +can never even be examined; it does not lend itself to evidence; it +is beyond the sphere of history; it is not a legitimate question +for investigation. It belongs to mythology. Indeed, to put forth a +report of that nature is to forbid the use of evidence, and to +command forcible acquiescence, which, to say the least, is a very +suspicious circumstance, calculated to hurt rather than to help the +Jesus story. + + The report that Jesus was God is equally impossible of +verification. How are we to prove whether or not a certain person +was God? Jesus may have been a wonderful man, but is every +wonderful man a God? Jesus may have claimed to have been a God, but +is every one who puts forth such a claim a God? How, then, are we +to decide which of the numerous candidates for divine honors should +be given our votes? And can we by voting for Jesus make him a God? +Observe to what confusion the mere attempt to follow such a report +leads us. + + A human Jesus may or may not have existed, but we are as sure +as we can be of anything, that a virgin-born God, named Jesus, such +as we must believe in or be eternally lost, is an impossibility -- +except to credulity. But credulity is no evidence at all, even when +it is dignified by the name of FAITH. + + Let us pause for a moment to reflect: The final argument for +the existence of the miraculous Jesus, preached in church and +Sunday-school, these two thousand years, as the sole savior of the +world, is an appeal to faith -- the same to which Mohammed resorts +to establish his claims, and Joseph Smith, to prove his revelation. +There is no other possible way by which the virgin-birth or the +godhood of a man can be established. And such a faith is never +free, it is always maintained by the sword now, and by hell-fire +hereafter. + + Once more, if it had been reported of Abraham Lincoln that he +predicted his own assassination; that be promised some of his +friends they would not die until they saw him coming again upon the +clouds of heaven; that he would give them thrones to sit upon; that +they could safely drink deadly poisons in his name, or that he +would grant them any request which they might make, provided they +asked it for his sake, we would be justified in concluding that +such a Lincoln never existed. Yet the most impossible utterances +are put in Jesus' mouth. He is made to say: "Whatsoever ye shall +ask in my name that will I do." No man who makes such a promise can +keep it. It is not sayings like the above that can prove a man a +God. Has Jesus kept his promise? Does he give his people +everything, or "whatsoever" they ask of him? But, it is answered, +"Jesus only meant to say that he would give whatever he himself + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 16 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +considered good for his friends to have." Indeed! Is that the way +to crawl out of a contract? If that is what he meant, why did he +say something else? Could he not have said just what he meant, in +the first place? Would it not have been fairer not to have given +his friends any occasion for false expectations? Better to promise +a little and do more, than to promise everything and do nothing. +But to say that Jesus really entered into any such agreement is to +throw doubt upon his existence. Such a character is too wild to be +real. Only a mythical Jesus could virtually hand over the +government of the universe to courtier who have petitions to press +upon his attention. Moreover, if Jesus could keep his promise, +there would be today no misery in the world, no orphans, no +childless mothers no shipwrecks, no floods, no famines, no disease, +no crippled children, no insanity, no wars, no crime, no wrong! +Have not a thousand, thousand prayers been offered in Jesus' name +against every evil which has ploughed the face of our earth? Have +these prayers been answered? Then why is there discontent in the +world? Can the followers of Jesus move mountains, drink deadly +poisons, touch serpents, or work greater miracles than are ascribed +to Jesus, as it was promised that they would do? How many self- +deluded prophets these extravagant claims have produced! And who +can number the bitter disappointments caused by such impossible +promises? + + George Jacob Holyoake, of England, tells how in the days of +utter poverty, his believing mother asked the Lord, again and again +-- on her knees, with tears streaming from her eyes, and with +absolute faith in Jesus' ability to keep His promise, -- to give +her starving children their daily bread. But the more fervently she +prayed the heavier grew the burden of her life. A stone or wooden +idol could not have been more indifferent to a mother's tears. "My +mind aches as I think of those days," writes Mr. Holyoake. One day +he went to see the Rev. Mr. Cribbace, who had invited inquirers to +his house. "Do you really believe," asked young Holyoake to the +clergyman, "that what we ask in faith we shall receive?" "It never +struck me," continues Mr. Holyoake, "that the preacher's threadbare +dress, his half-famished look, and necessity of taking up a +collection the previous night to pay expense's showed that faith +was not a source of income to him. It never struck me that if help +could be obtained by prayer no church would be needy, no believer +would be poor." What answer did the preacher give to Holyoake's +earnest question? The same which the preachers of today give: "He +parried his answer with many words, and at length said that the +promise was to be taken with the provision that what we asked for +would be given, if God thought it for our good." Why then, did not +Jesus explain that important proviso when he made the promise? Was +Jesus only making a half statement, the other half of which he +would reveal later to protect himself against disappointed +petitioners. But he said: "If ye ask anything in my name, I will do +it," and "If it were not so, I would have told you." Did he not +mean just what be said? The truth is that no historical person in +his senses ever made such extraordinary, such impossible promises, +and the report that Jesus made them only goes to confirm that their +author is only a legendary being. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 17 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + When this truth dawned upon Mr. Holyoake he ceased to petition +Heaven, which was like "dropping a bucket into an empty well," and +began to look elsewhere for help. [Bygones Worth Remembering. -- +George Jacob Holyoake.] The world owes its advancement to the fact +that men no longer look to Heaven for help, but help themselves. +Self-effort, and not prayer, is the remedy against ignorance, +slavery, poverty, and moral degradation. Fortunately, by bolding up +before us an impossible Jesus, with his impossible promises, the +churches have succeeded only in postponing, but not in preventing, +the progress of man. This is a compliment to human nature, and it +is well earned. It is also a promise that in time humanity will be +completely emancipated from every phantom which in the past has +scared it into silence or submission, and + + "A loftier race than e'er the world + Hath known shall rise + With flame of liberty in their souls, + And light of science in their eyes." + + THE CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS + + The documents containing the story of Jesus are so unlike +those about Lincoln or any other historical character, that we must +be doubly vigilant in our investigation. + + The Christians rely mainly on the four Gospels for the +historicity of Jesus. But the original documents of which the books +in the New Testament are claimed to be faithful copies are not in +existence. There is absolutely no evidence that they ever were in +existence. This is a statement which can not be controverted. Is it +conceivable that the early believers lost through carelessness or +purposely every document written by an apostle, while guarding with +all protecting jealousy and zeal the writings of anonymous persons? +Is there any valid reason why the contributions to Christian +literature of an inspired apostle should perish while those of a +nameless scribe are preserved, why the original Gospel of Matthew +should drop quietly out of sight, no one knows how, while a +supposed copy of it in an alien language is preserved for many +centuries? Jesus himself, it is admitted, did not write a single +line. He bad come, according to popular belief, to reveal the will +of God -- a most important mission indeed, and yet he not only did +not put this revelation in writing during his lifetime, and with +his own hand, which it is natural to suppose that a divine teacher, +expressly come from heaven, would have done, but he left this all- +important duty to anonymous chroniclers, who, naturally, made +enough mistakes to split up Christendom into innumerable factions. +It is worth a moment's pause to think of the persecutions, the +cruel wars, and the centuries of hatred and bitterness which would +have been spared our unfortunate humanity, if Jesus himself had +written down his message in the clearest and plainest manner, +instead of leaving it to his supposed disciples to publish it to +the world, when he could no longer correct their mistakes. + + Moreover, not only did Jesus not write himself, but he has not +even taken any pains to preserve the writings of his "apostles." It +is well known that the original manuscripts, if there were any, are +nowhere to be found. This is a grave matter. We have only supposed + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 18 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +copies of supposed original manuscripts. Who copied them? When were +they copied? How can we be sure that these copies are reliable? And +why are there thousands upon thousands of various readings in these +numerous supposed copies? What means have we of deciding which +version or reading to accept? Is it possible that as the result of +Jesus' advent into our world, we have only a basketful of nameless +and dateless copies and documents? Is it conceivable, I ask, that +a God would send his Son to us, and then leave us to wander through +a pile of dusty manuscripts to find out why He sent His Son, and +what He taught when on earth? + + The only answer the Christian church can give to this question +is that the original writings were purposely allowed to perish. +When a precious document containing the testament of Almighty God, +and inscribed for an eternal purpose by the Holy Ghost, disappears +altogether there is absolutely no other way of accounting for its +disappearance than by saying, as we have suggested, that its divine +author must have intentionally withdrawn it from circulation. "God +moves in a mysterious way" is the last resort of the believer. This +is the one argument which is left to theology to fight science +with. Unfortunately it is an argument which would prove every cult +and "ism" under the heavens true. The Mohammedan, the Mazdaian, and +the Pagan may also fall back upon faith. There is nothing which +faith can not cover up from the light. But if a faith which ignores +evidence be not a superstition, what then is superstition? + + I wonder if the Catholic Church, which pretends to believe -- +and which derives quite an income from the belief -- that God has +miraculously preserved the wood of the cross, the Holy Sepulchre, +in Jerusalem, the coat of Jesus, and quite a number of other +mementos, can explain why the original manuscripts were lost. I +have a suspicion that there were no "original" manuscripts. I am +not sure of this, of course, but if nails, bones and holy places +could be miraculously preserved, why not also manuscripts? It is +reasonable to suppose that the Deity would not have permitted the +most important documents containing His Revelation to drop into +some hole and disappear, or to be gnawed into dust by the insects, +after having had them written by special inspiration. + + Again, when these documents, such as we find them, are +examined, it will be observed that, even in the most elementary +intelligence which they pretend to furnish, they are hopelessly at +variance with one another. It is, for example, utterly impossible +to reconcile Matthew's genealogy of Jesus with the one given by +Luke. In copying the names of the supposed ancestors of Jesus they +tamper with the list as given in book of Chronicles, in the Old +Testament, and thereby justly expose themselves to the charge of +bad faith. One evangelist says Jesus was descended from Solomon, +born of "her that had been the wife of Urias." It will be +remembered that David ordered Urias killed in a cowardly manner, +that may marry his widow, whom he coveted. According to Matthew, +Jesus is one of the offspring of this adulterous relation. + + According to Luke, it is not through Solomon, but through +Nathan, that Jesus is connected with the house of David. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 19 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Again, Luke tells us that the name of the father of Joseph was +Heli; Matthew says it was Jacob. If the writers of the gospels were +contemporaries of Joseph they could have easily learned the exact +name of his father. + + Again, why do these biographers of Jesus give us the genealogy +of Joseph if he was not the father of Jesus? It is the genealogy of +Mary which they should have given to prove the descent of Jesus +from the house of David, and not that of Joseph. These +irreconcilable differences between Luke, Matthew and the other +evangelists, go to prove that these authors possessed no reliable +information concerning the subjects they were writing about. For if +Jesus is a historical character, and these biographers were really +his immediate associates, and were inspired besides, how are we to +explain their blunders and contradictions about his genealogy? + + A good illustration of the mythical or unhistorical character +of the New Testament is furnished by the story of John the Baptist. +He is first represented as confessing publicly that Jesus is the +Christ; that he himself is not worthy to unloose the latchet of his +shoes; and that Jesus is the Lamb of God, "who taketh away the sins +of the. world." John was also present, the gospels say, when the +heavens opened and a dove descended on Jesus' head, and he heard +the voice from the skies, crying: "He is my beloved Son, in whom I +am well pleased." + + Is it possible that, a few chapters later, this same John +forgets his public confession, -- the dove and the voice from +heaven, -- and actually sends two of his disciples to find out who +this Jesus is. [Matthew xi.] The only way we can account for such +strange conduct is that the compiler or editor in question had two +different myths or stories before him, and he wished to use them +both. + + A further proof of the loose and extravagant style of the +Gospel writers is furnished by the concluding verse of the Fourth +Gospel: "There are also many other things which Jesus did, the +which, if they should be written, every one, I Suppose that even +the world itself could not contain the books that should be +written." This is more like the language of a myth-maker than of a +historian. How much reliance can we put in a reporter who is given +to such exaggeration? To say that the world itself would be too +small to contain the unreported sayings and doings of a teacher +whose public life possibly did not last longer than a year, and +whose reported words and deeds fill only a few pages, is to prove +one's statements unworthy of serious consideration. + + And it is worth oar while to note also that the documents +which have come down to our time and which purport to be the +biographies of Jesus, are not only written in an alien language, +that is to say, in a language which was not that of Jesus and his +disciples, but neither are they dated or signed. Jesus and his +twelve apostles were Jews; why are all the four Gospels written in +Greek? If they were originally written in Hebrew, how can we tell +that the Greek translation is accurate, since we can not compare it +with the originals? And why are these Gospels anonymous? Why are +they not dated? But as we shall say something more on this subject + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 20 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +in the present volume, we confine ourselves at this point to +reproducing a fragment of the manuscript pages from which our Greek +Translations have been made. It is admitted by scholars that owing +to the difficulty of reading these ancient and imperfect and also +conflicting texts, an accurate translation is impossible. But this +is another way of saying that what the churches call the Word of +God is not only the word of man, but a very imperfect word, at +that. + + The belief in Jesus, then, is founded on secondary documents, +altered and edited by various hands; on lost originals, and on +anonymous manuscripts of an age considerably later than the events +therein related -- manuscripts which contradict each other as well +as themselves. Such is clearly and undeniably the basis for the +belief in a historical Jesus. It was this sense of the +insufficiency of the evidence which drove the missionaries of +Christianity to commit forgeries. + + If there was ample evidence for the historicity of Jesus, why +did his biographers resort to forgery? The following admissions by +Christian writers themselves show the helplessness of the early +preachers in the presence of inquirers who asked for proofs. The +church historian, Mosheim, writes that, "The Christian Fathers +deemed it a pious act to employ deception and fraud." +[Ecclesiastical Hist., Vol. I, p. 347.] Again, he says: "The +greatest and most pious teachers were nearly all of them infected +with this leprosy." Will not some believer tell us why forgery and +fraud were necessary to prove the historicity of Jesus. + + Another historian, Milman, writes that, "Pious fraud was +admitted and avowed" by the early missionaries of Jesus. "It was an +age of literary frauds," writes Bishop Ellicott, speaking of the +times immediately following the alleged crucifixion of Jesus. Dr. +Giles declares that, "There can be no doubt that great numbers of +books were written with no other purpose than to deceive." And it +is the opinion of Dr. Robertson Smith that, "There was an enormous +floating mass of spurious literature created to suit party views." +Books which are now rejected as apocryphal were at one time +received as inspired, and books which are now believed to be +infallible were at one tune regarded as of no authority in the +Christian world. It certainly is puzzling that there should be a +whole literature of fraud and forgery in the name of a historical +person. But if Jesus was a myth, we can easily explain the legends +and traditions springing up in his name. + + The early followers of Jesus, then, realizing the force of +this objection, did actually resort to interpolation and forgery in +order to prove that Jesus was a historical character. + + One of the oldest critics of the Christian religion was a +Pagan, known to history under the name of Porphyry; yet, the early +Fathers did not hesitate to tamper even with the writings of an +avowed opponent of their religion. After issuing an edict to +destroy, among others, the writings of this philosopher, a work, +called Philosophy of Oracles, was produced, in which the author is +made to write almost as a Christian; and the name of Porphyry was +signed to it as its author. St. Augustine was one of the first to + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 21 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +reject it as a forgery. [Geo. W. Foote. Crimes of Christianity.] A +more astounding invention than this alleged work of a heathen +bearing witness to Christ is difficult to produce. Do these +forgeries, these apocryphal writings, these interpolations, freely +admitted to have been the prevailing practice of the early +Christians, help to prove the existence of Jesus? And when to this +wholesale manufacture of doubtful evidence is added the terrible +vandalism which nearly destroyed every great Pagan classic, we can +form an idea of the desperate means to which the early Christians +resorted to prove that Jesus was not a myth. It all goes to show +how difficult it is to make a man out of a myth. + + VIRGIN BIRTHS + + Stories of gods born of virgins are to be found in nearly +every age and country. There have been many virgin mothers, and +Mary with her child is but a recent version of a very old and +universal myth. In China and India, in Babylonia and Egypt, in +Greece and Rome, "divine" beings selected from among the daughters +of men the purest and most beautiful to serve them as a means of +entrance into the world of mortals. Wishing to take upon themselves +the human form, while retaining at the same time their "divinity," +this compromise -- of an earthly mother with a "divine" father -- +was effected. In the form of a swan Jupiter approached Leda, as in +the guise of a dove, or a Paracletug, Jehovah "overshadowed" Mary. + + A nymph bathing in a river in China is touched by a lotus +plant, and the divine Fohi is born. + + In Siam, a wandering sunbeam caresses a girl in her teens, and +the great and wonderful deliverer, Codom, is born. In the life of +Buddha we read that he descended on his mother Maya, "in likeness +as the heavenly queen, and entered her womb," and was born from her +right side, to save the world." [Stories of Virgin Births. +Reference: Lord Macartney. Voyage dans 'interview de la Chine et en +Tartarie. Vol. I p. 48. See also Les Vierges Meres et les Naissance +Miraculeuse. P. Saintyves. p. 19, etc.] In Greece, the young god +Apollo visits a fair maid of Athens, and a Plato is ushered into +the world. + + In ancient Mexico, as well as in Babylonia, and in modern +Corea, as in modern Palestine, as in the legends of all lands, +virgins gave birth and became divine mothers. But the real home of +virgin births is the land of the Nile. Eighteen hundred years +before Christ, we find carved on one of the walls of the great +temple of Luxor a picture of the annunciation, conception and birth +of King Amunothph III, an almost exact copy of the annunciation, +conception and birth of the Christian God. Of course no one will +think of maintaining that the Egyptians borrowed the idea from the +Catholics nearly two thousand years before the Christian era. "The +story in the Gospel of Luke, the first and second chapters is," +says Malvert, "a reproduction, 'point by point,' of the story in +stone of the miraculous birth of Amunothph." [Science and Religion. +p. 96.] + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 22 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Sharpe in his Egyptian Mythology, page 19, gives the following +description of the, Luxor picture, quoted by G.W. Foote in his +'Bible Romances,' page 126: "In this picture we have the +annunciation, the conception, the birth and the adoration, as +described in the first and second chapters of Luke's Gospel." +Massey gives a more minute description of the Luxor picture. "The +first scene on the left hand shows the god Taht, the divine Wolrd +or Loges, in the act of hailing the virgin queen, announcing to her +that she is to give birth to a son. In the second scene the god +Kneph (assisted by Hathor) gives life to her. This is the Holy +Ghost, or Spirit that causes conception. ... Next the mother is +seated on the midwife's stool, and the child is supported in the +hands of one of the nurses. The fourth scene is that of the +adoration. Here the child is enthroned, receiving homage from the +gods and gifts from men." [Natural Geneses. Massey, Vol. II, p. +398.] The picture on the wall of the Luxor temple, then, is one of +the sources to which the anonymous writers of the Gospels went for +their miraculous story. It is no wonder they suppressed their own +identity as well as the source from which they borrowed their +material. + + Not only the idea of a virgin mother, but all the other +miraculous events, such as the stable cradle, the guiding star, the +massacre of the children, the flight to Egypt, and the resurrection +and bodily ascension toward the clouds, have not only been +borrowed, but are even scarcely altered in the New Testament story +of Jesus. + + That the early Christians borrowed the legend of Jesus from +earthly sources is too evident to be even questioned. Gerald Massey +in his great work on Egyptian origins demonstrates the identity of +Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Isis, the mother of Horus. He says: +"The most ancient, goldbedizened, smoke-stained Byzantine pictures +of the virgin and child represent the mythical mother as Isis, and +not as a human mother of Nazareth. [Vol. II, p. 487.] Science and +research have made this fact so certain that, on the one hand +ignorance, and on the other interest only, can continue to claim +inspiration for the authors of the undated and unsigned fragmentary +documents which pass for the Word of God. If, then, Jesus is +stripped of all the borrowed legends and miracles of which he is +the subject; and if we also take away from him all the teachings +which collected from Jewish and Pagan sources have been attributed +to him -- what will be left of him? That the ideas put in his mouth +have been culled and compiled from other sources is as demonstrable +as the Pagan origin of the legends related of him. + + Nearly every one of the dogmas and ceremonies in the Christian +cult were borrowed from other and older religions. The resurrection +myth, the ascension, the eucharist, baptism, worship by kneeling or +prostration, the folding of the hands on the breast, the ringing of +bells and the burning of incense, the vestments and vessels used in +church, the candles, "holy" water, -- even the word Mass, were all +adopted and adapted by the Christians from the religions of the +ancients. The Trinity is as much Pagan, as much Indian or Buddhist, +as it is Christian. The idea of a Son of God is as old as 'the +oldest cult. The sun is the son of heaven in all primitive faiths. +The physical sun becomes in the course of evolution, the Son of +Righteousness, or the Son of God, and heaven is personified as the + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 23 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +Father on High. The halo around the head of Jesus, the horns of the +older deities, the rays of light radiating from the heads of Hindu +and Pagan gods are incontrovertible evidence that all gods were at +one time -- the sun in heaven. + + THE ORIGIN OF THE CROSS + + Only the uninformed, of whom, we regret to say, there are a +great many, and who are the main support of the old religions, +still believe that the cross originated with Christianity. Like the +dogmas of the Trinity, the virgin birth, and the resurrection, the +sign of the cross or the cross as an emblem or a symbol was +borrowed from the more ancient faiths of Asia. Perhaps one of the +most important discoveries which primitive man felt obliged never +to be ungrateful enough to forget, was the production of fire by +the friction of two sticks placed across each other in the form of +a cross. As early as the stone age we find the cross carved on +monuments which have been dug out of the earth and which can be +seen in the museums of Europe. On the coins of later generations as +well as on the altars of prehistoric times we find the "sacred" +symbol of the cross. The dead in ancient cemeteries slept under the +cross as they do in our day in Catholic churchyards. + + In ancient Egypt, as in modern China, India, Corea, the cross +is venerated by the masses as a charm of great power. In the Musee +Guimet, in Paris, we have seen specimens of pre-Christian crosses. +In the Louvre Museum one of the "heathen" gods carries a cross on +his head. During his second journey to New Zealand, Cook was +surprised to find the natives marking the graves of their dead with +the cross. We saw, in the Museum of St. Germain, an ancient +divinity of Gaul, before the conquest of the country by Julius +Caesar, wearing a garment on which was woven a cross. In the same +museum an ancient, altar of Gaul under Paganism, had a cross carved +upon it. That the cross was not adopted by the followers of Jesus +until a later date may be inferred from the silence of the earlier +disciples, Matthew, Mark and Luke, on the details of the +crucifixion, which is more fully developed in the later gospel of +John. The first three evangelists say nothing about the nails or +the blood, and give the impression that he was hanged. Writing of +the two thieves who were sentenced to receive the same punishment, +Luke says, "One of the malefactors that was hanged with him." The +idea of a bleeding Christ, such as we see on crosses in Catholic +churches, is not present in these earlier descriptions of the +crucifixion; the Christians of the time of Origin were called "the +followers of the god who was hanged." In the fourth gospel we see +the beginnings of the legend of the cross, of Jesus carrying or +falling under the weight of the cross, of the nail prints in his +hands and feet, of the spear drawing the blood from his side and +smearing his body. Of all this, the first three evangelists are +quite ignorant. + + Let it be further noted that it was not until eight hundred +years after the supposed crucifixion that Jesus is seen in the form +of a human being on the cross. Not in any of the paintings on the +ancient catacombs is found a crucified Christ. The earliest cross +bearing a human being is of the eighth century. For a long time a +lamb with a cross, or on a cross, was the Christian symbol, and it + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 24 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +is a lamb which we see entombed in the "holy sepulchre." In more +than one mosaic of early Christian times, it is not Jesus, but a +lamb, which is bleeding for the salvation of the world. How a lamb +came to play so important a role in Christianity is variously +explained. The similarity between the name of the Hindu god, Agni +and the meaning of the same word in Latin, which is a lamb, is one +theory. Another is that a ram, one of the signs of the zodiac, +often confounded by the ancients with a lamb, is the origin of the +popular reverence for the lamb as a symbol -- a reverence which all +religions based on sun-worship shared. The lamb in Christianity +takes away the sins of the people, just as the paschal lamb did in +the Old Testament, and earlier still, just as it did in Babylonia. + + To the same effect is the following letter of the bishop of +Mende, in France, bearing date of the year 800 A.D.: "Because the +darkness has disappeared, and because also Christ is a real man, +Pope Adrian commands us to paint him under the form of a man. The +lamb of God must not any longer be painted on a cross, but after a +human form has been placed on the cross, there is no objection to +have a lamb also represented with it, either at the foot of the +cross or on the opposite side." [Translated from the French of +Didron. Quoted by Malvert.] We leave it to our readers to draw the +necessary conclusions from the above letter. How did a lamb hold +its place on the cross for eight hundred years? If Jesus was really +crucified, and that fact was a matter of history, why did it take +eight hundred years for a Christian bishop to write, "now that +Christ is a real man," etc.? Today, it would be considered a +blasphemy to place a lamb on a cross. + + On the tombstones of Christians of the fourth century are +pictures representing, not Jesus, but a lamb, working the miracles +mentioned in the gospels, such as multiplying the loaves and +fishes, and raising Lazarus from the dead. + + The first representations of a human form on the cross differ +considerably from those which prevail at the present time. While +the figure on the modern cross is almost naked, those on the +earlier ones are clothed and completely covered. Wearing a flowing +tunic, Jesus is standing straight against the cross with his arms +outstretched, as though in the act of delivering an address. +Frequently, at his feet, on the cross, there is still painted the +figure of a lamb, which by and by, he is going to replace +altogether. Gradually the robe disappears from the crucified one, +until we see him crucified, as in the adjoining picture, with +hardly any clothes on, and wearing an expression of great agony. + + THE SILENCE OF PROFANE WRITERS + + In all historical matters, we cannot ask for more than a +reasonable assurance concerning any question. In fact, absolute +certainty in any branch of human knowledge, with the exception of +mathematics, perhaps, is impossible. We are finite beings, limited +in all our powers, and, hence, our conclusions are not only +relative, but they should ever be held subject to correction. When +our law courts send a man to the gallows, they can have no more +than a reasonable assurance that he is guilty; when they acquit +him, they can have no more than a reasonable assurance that he is + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 25 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +innocent. Positive assurance is unattainable. The dogmatist is the +only one who claims to possess absolute certainty. But his claim is +no more than a groundless assumption. When, therefore, we learn +that Josephus, for instance, who lived in the same country and +about the same time as Jesus, and wrote an extensive history of the +men and events of his day and country, does not mention Jesus, +except by interpolation, which even a Christian clergyman, Bishop +Warburton, calls "a rank forgery, and a very stupid one, too," we +can be reasonably sure that no such Jesus as is described in the +New Testament, lived about the same time and in the same country +with Josephus. + + The failure of such a historian as Josephus to mention Jesus +tends to make the existence of Jesus at least reasonably doubtful. + + Few Christians now place any reliance upon the evidence from +Josephus. The early Fathers made this Jew admit that Jesus was the +Son of God. Of course, the admission was a forgery. De Quincey says +the passage is known to be "a forgery by all men not lunatics." Of +one other supposed reference in Josephus, Canon Farrar says: "This +passage was early tampered with by the Christians." The same writer +says this of a third passage: "Respecting the third passage in +Josephus, the only question is whether it be partly or entirely +spurious." Lardner, the great English theologian, was the first man +to prove that Josephus was a poor witness for Christ. + + In examining the evidence from profane writers we must +remember that the silence of one contemporary author is more +important than the supposed testimony of another. There was living +in the same time with Jesus a great Jewish scholar by the name of +Philo. He was an Alexandrian Jew, and he visited Jerusalem while +Jesus was teaching and working miracles in the holy city. Yet Philo +in all his works never once mentions Jesus. He does not seem to +have heard of him. He could not have helped mentioning him if he +had really seen him or heard of him. In one place in his works +Philo is describing the difference between two Jewish names, Hosea +and Jesus. Jesus he says, means Savior of the people. What a fine +opportunity for him to have said that, at that very time, there was +living in Jerusalem a savior by the name of Jesus, or one supposed +to be, or claiming to be, a savior. He could not have helped +mentioning Jesus if he had ever seen or heard of him. + + We have elsewhere referred to the significant silence of the +Pagan historians and miscellaneous writers on the wonderful events +narrated in the New Testament. But a few remarks may be added here +in explanation of the supposed testimony of Tacitus. + + The quotation from Tacitus is an important one. That part of +the passage which concerns us is something like this: "They have +their denomination from Chrestus, put to death as a criminal by +Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius." I wish to say in the +first place that this passage is not in the History of Tacitus, +known to the ancients, but in his Annals, which is not quoted by +any ancient writer. The Annals of Tacitus were not known to be in +existence until the year 1468. An English writer, Mr. Ross, has +undertaken, in an interesting volume, to show that the Annals were +forged by an Italian, Bracciolini. I am not competent to say + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 26 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +whether or not Mr. Ross proves his point. But is it conceivable +that the early Christians would have ignored so valuable a +testimony had they known of its existence, and would they not have +known of it had it really existed? The Christian Fathers, who not +only collected assiduously all that they could use to establish the +reality of Jesus -- but who did not hesitate even to forge +passages, to invent documents, and also to destroy the testimony of +witnesses unfavorable to their cause -- would have certainly used +the Tacitus passage had it been in existence in their day. Not one +of the Christian Fathers in his controversy with the unbelievers +has quoted the passage from Tacitus, which passage is the church's +strongest proof of the historicity of Jesus, outside the gospels. + + But, to begin with, this passage has the appearance, at least, +of being penned by a Christian. It speaks of such persecutions of +the Christians in Rome which contradict all that we know of Roman +civilization. The abuse of Christians in the same passage may have +been introduced purposely to cover up the identity of the writer, +The terrible outrages against the Christians mentioned in the text +from Tacitus are supposed to have taken place in the year 64 A.D. +According to the New Testament, Paul was in Rome from the year 63 +to the year 65, and must, therefore, have been an eye-witness of +the persecution under Nero. Let me quote from the Bible to show +that there could have been no such persecution as the Tacitus +passage describes. The last verse in the book of Acts reads: "And +he (Paul) abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and +received all that went in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, +and teaching things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all +boldness, none forbidding him." How is this picture of peace and +tranquility to be reconciled with the charge that the Romans rolled +up the Christians in straw mats and burned them to illuminate the +streets at night, and also that the lions were let loose upon the +disciples of Jesus? + + Moreover, it is generally known that the Romans were +indifferent to religious propaganda, and never persecuted any sect +or party in the name of religion. In Rome, the Jews were free to be +Jews; why should the Jewish Christians -- and the early Christians +were Jews -- have been thrown to the lions? In all probability the +persecutions were much milder than the Tacitus passage describes, +and politics was the real cause. + + Until not very long ago, it was universally believed that +William Tell was a historical character. But it is now proven +beyond any reasonable doubt, that Tell and his apple are altogether +mythical. Notwithstanding that a great poet has made the theme of +a powerful drama, and a great composer devoted one of his operas to +his heroic achievements; notwithstanding also that the Swiss show +the crossbow with which he is supposed to have shot at the apple on +his son's head -- he is now admitted to be only a legendary hero. +The principal arguments which have led the educated world to revise +its views concerning William Tell are that, the Swiss historians, +Faber an Hamurbin, who lived shortly after the "hero." and who +wrote the history of the country, as Josephus did that of his, do +not mention Tell. Had such a man existed before their time, they +could not have failed to refer to him. Their complete silence +damaging beyond help to the historicity of Tell. Neither does the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 27 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +historian, who was an eye witness of the battle of Morgarten in +1315, mention the name of Tell. The Zurich Chronicle of 1497, also +omits to refer to his story. In the accounts of the struggle of the +Swiss against Austria, which drove the former into rebellion and +ultimate independence, Tell's name cannot be found. Yet all these +arguments are not half so damaging to the William Tell story, as +the silence of Josephus is to the Jesus story. Jesus was supposed +to have worked greater wonders and to have created a wider +sensation than Tell; therefore, it is more difficult to explain the +silence of historians like Josephus, Pliny and Quintilian; or of +philosophers like Philo, Seneca and Epictetus, concerning Jesus, +than to explain the silence of the Swiss chroniclers concerning +Tell. + + THE JESUS STORY A RELIGIOUS DRAMA + + We have now progressed far enough in our investigation to +pause a moment for reflection before we proceed any further. I am +conscious of no intentional misrepresentation or suppression of the +facts relating to the question in hand. If I have erred through +ignorance, I shall correct any mistake I may have made, if some +good reader will take the trouble to enlighten me. I am also +satisfied that I have not commanded the evidence, but have allowed +the evidence to command me. I am not interested in either proving +or in disproving the existence of the New-Testament Jesus. I am not +an advocate, I am rather an umpire, who hears the evidence and +pronounces his decision accordingly. Let the lawyers or the +advocates argue pro and con, I only weigh, -- and I am sure, +impartially, -- the evidence which the witnesses offer. We have +heard and examined quite a number of these, and I, at least, am +compelled to say, that unless stronger evidence be forthcoming, a +historical Jesus has not been proven by the evidence thus far taken +in. This does not mean that there is no evidence whatever that +Jesus was a real existence, but that the evidence is not enough to +prove it. + + To condemn or to acquit a man in a court of law, there must +not only be evidence, but enough of it to justify a decision. There +is some evidence for almost any imaginable proposition; but that is +not enough -- the evidence already examined fail to give this a +reasonable assurance. Not only does the evidence already examined +fail to give this assurance, but, on the contrary, it lends much +support to the opposite supposition, namely, that in all +probability, Jesus was a myth -- even as Mithra, Osiris, Isis, +Hercules, Sampson, Adonis, Moses, Attis, Hermes, Heracles, Apollo +of Tyanna, Chrishna, and Indra, were myths. + + The story of Jesus, we are constrained to say, possesses all +the characteristics of the religious drama, full of startling +episodes, thrilling situations, dramatic action and denouement. It +reads more like a play than plain history. From such evidence as +the gospels themselves furnish, the conclusion that he was no more +than the principal character in a religious play receives much +support. Mystery and morality plays are of a very ancient origin. +In earlier times, almost all popular instruction was by means of +Tableaux vivant. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 28 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + As a great scenic or dramatic performance, with Jesus as the +hero, Judas as the villain -- with conspiracy as its plot, and the +trial, the resurrection and ascension as its finale, the story is +intelligent enough. For instance, as the curtain rises, it +discloses upon the stage shepherds tending their flocks in the +green fields under the moonlit sky; again, as the scene shifts, the +clouds break, the heavens open, and voices are heard from above, +with a white-winged chorus chanting an anthem. The next scene +suggests a stable with the cattle in their stalls, munching hay. In +a corner of the stable, close to a manger, imagine a young woman, +stooping to kiss a newly born babe. Anon appear three bearded and +richly costumed men, with presents in their hands, bowing their +heads in ecstatic adoration. Surely enough this is not history. It +does not read like history. The element of fiction runs through the +entire Gospels, and is its warp and woof. A careful analysis of the +various incidents in this ensemble will not fail to convince the +unprejudiced reader that while they possess an the essentials for +dramatic presentation, they lack the requirements of real history. + + The "opened-heavens," "angel-choirs," "grazing flocks," +"watchful shepherds," "worshiping magicians," "the stable crib," +"the mother and child," "the wonderful star." "the presents," "the +anthem" -- all these, while they fit admirably as stage setting, +are questionable material for history. No historical person was +ever born in so spectacular a manner. The Gospel account of Jesus +is an embellished, ornamental, even sensationally dramatic creation +to serve as an introduction for a legendary hero. Similar +theatrical furniture has been used thousands of times to introduce +other legendary characters. All the Savior Gods were born +supernaturally. They were a all half god, half man. They were all +of royal descent. Miracles and wonders attended their birth. Jesus +was not an exception. We reject as mythical the birth-stories about +Mithra, and Apollo. Why accept as history those about Jesus? It +rests with the preachers of Christianity to show that while the +god-man of Persia, or of Greece, for example, was a myth, the god- +man of Palestine is historical. + + The dramatic element is again plainly seen in the account of +the betrayal of Jesus. Jesus, who preaches daily in the temples, +and in the public places; who talks to the multitude on the +mountain and at the seaside; who feeds thousands by miracle; the +report of whose wonderful cures has reached the ends of the earth, +and who is often followed by such a crush that to reach him an +opening has to be made in the ceiling of the house where he is +stopping; who goes in and out before the people and is constantly +disputing with the elders and leaders of the nation -- is, +nevertheless, represented as being so unknown that his enemies have +to resort to the device of bribing with thirty silver coins one of +his disciples to point him out to them, and which is to be done by +a kiss. This might make a great scene upon the stage, but it is not +the way things happen in life. + + Then read how Jesus is carried before Pilate the Roman +governor, and how while he is being tried a courier rushes in with +a letter from Pilate's wife which is dramatically torn open and +read aloud in the presence of the crowded court. The letter it is +said, was about a dream of Pilate' wife, in which some ghost tells + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 29 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +her that Jesus is innocent, and that her husband should not proceed +against him. Is this history? Roman jurisprudence had not +degenerated to that extent as to permit the dreams of a woman or of +a man to influence the course of justice. But this letter episode +was invented by the playwright -- if I may use the phrase -- to +prolong the dramatic suspense, to complicate the situation, to +twist the plot, and thereby render the impression produced by his +"piece" more lasting. The letter and the dream did not save Jesus. +Pilate was not influenced by his dreaming wife. She dreamed in +vain. + + In the next place we hear Pilate pronouncing Jesus guiltless; +but, forthwith, he hands him over to the Jews to be killed. Does +this read like history? Did ever a Roman court witness such a +trial? To pronounce a man innocent and then to say to his +prosecutors: "If you wish to kill him, you may do so," is +extraordinary conduct. Then, proceeding, Pilate takes water and +ostentatiously washes his hands, a proceeding introduced by a Greek +or Latin scribe, who wished, in all probability, to throw the blame +of the crucifixion entirely upon the Jews. Pilate, representing the +Gentile world, washes his hands of the responsibility for the death +of Jesus, while the Jews are made to say, "His blood be upon us and +our children." + + Imagine the clamoring, howling Jews, trampling on one another, +gesticulating furiously, gnashing their teeth, foaming at the +mouth, and spitting in one another's face as they shout, "Crucify +him! Crucify him!" A very powerful stage setting, to be sure -- but +it is impossible to imagine that such disorder, such anarchy could +be permitted in any court of justice. But think once more of those +terrible words placed in the mouths of the Jews, "His blood be upon +us and our children." Think of a people openly cursing themselves +and asking the whole Christian world to persecute them forever -- +"His blood be upon us and our children." + + Next, the composers of the gospels conduct us to the Garden of +Gethsemane, that we may see there the hero of the play in his +agony, fighting the great battle of his life alone, with neither +help nor sympathy from his distracted followers. He is shown to us +there, on his knees, crying tears of blood -- sobbing and groaning +under the shadow of an almost crushing fear. Tremblingly he prays, +"Let this cup pass from me -- if it be possible;" and then, +yielding to the terror crowding in upon him, he sighs in the +hearing of all the ages, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is +weak," precisely the excuse. given by everybody for not doing what +they would do if they could. Now, we ask in all seriousness, is it +likely that a God who has come down from heaven purposely to drink +that cup and to be the martyr-Savior of humanity -- would seek to +be spared the fate for which he was ordained from all eternity? + + The objection that Jesus' hesitation on the eve of the +crucifixion, as well as his cry of despair on the cross, were meant +to show that he was as human as he was divine, does not solve the +difficulty. In that event Jesus, then, was merely acting -- +feigning a fear which he did not feel, and pretending to dread a +death which he knew could not hurt him. If, however, Jesus really +felt alarmed at the approach of death, how much braver, then, were + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 30 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +many of his followers who afterwards faced dangers and tortures far +more cruel than his own! We honestly think that to have put in +Jesus' mouth the words above quoted, and also to have represented +him as closing his public career with a shriek on the cross: "My +God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" was tantamount to an +admission by the writers that they were dealing with a symbolic +Christ, an ideal figure., the hero of a play, and not a historical +character. + + It is highly dramatic, to be sure, to see the sun darkened, to +feel the whole earth quaking, to behold the graves ripped open and +the dead reappear in their shrouds -- to hear the hero himself +tearing his own heart with that cry of shuddering anguish, "My God! +my God!" -- but it is not history. If such a man as Jesus really +lived, then his biographers have only given us a caricature of him. +However beautiful some of the sayings attributed to Jesus, and +whatever the source they may have been borrowed from, they are not +enough to prove his historicity. But even as the Ten Commandments +do not prove Moses to have been a historical personage or the +author of the books and deeds attributed to him, neither do the +parables and miracles of Jesus prove him to have once visited this +earth as a god, or to have even existed as a man. + + Socrates and Jesus! Compare the quite natural behavior of +Socrates in prison with that of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. +The Greek sage is serene. Jesus is alarmed. The night agony of his +soul, his tears of blood, his pitiful collapse when he prays, "if +it be possible let this cup pass from me," -- all this would be +very impressive on the boards, but they seem incredible of a real +man engaged in saving a world. Once more we say that the defense +that it was the man in Jesus and not the god in him that broke +down, would be unjust to the memory of thousands of martyrs who +died by a more terrible death than that of Jesus. As elsewhere +stated, but which cannot be too often emphasized, what man would +not have embraced death with enthusiasm, -- without a moment's +misgiving, did he think that by his death, death and sin would be +no more! Who would shrink from a cross which is going to save +millions to millions added from eternal burnings. He must be a +phantom, indeed, who trembles and cries like a frightened child +because be cannot have the crown without the cross! What a +spectacle for the real heroes crowding the galleries of history! It +is difficult to see the shrinking and shuddering Savior of the +world, his face bathed in perspiration, blood oozing out of his +forehead, his lips pale, his voice breaking into a shriek, "My God, +my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" -- it is difficult to witness +all this and not to pity him. Poor Jesus! he is going to save the +world, but who is going to save him? + + If we compare the trial of Jesus with that of Socrates, the +fictitious nature of the former cannot possibly escape detection. +Socrates was so well known in Athens, that it was not necessary for +his accusers to bribe one of his disciples to betray him. Jesus +should have been even better known in Jerusalem than Socrates was +in Athens. He was daily preaching in the synagogues, and his +miracles had given him an eclat which Socrates did not enjoy. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 31 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Socrates is not taken to court at night, bound hand and feet. +Jesus is arrested in the glare of torchlights, after he is betrayed +by Judas with a kiss; then he is bound and forced into the high +priest's presence. All this is admirable setting for a stage, but +they are no more than that. + + The disciples of Socrates behave like real men, those of Jesus +are actors. They run away; they hide and follow at a distance. One +of them curses him. The cock crows, the apostate repents. This +reads like a play. + + In the presence of his judges, Socrates makes his own defense. +One by one he meets the charges. Jesus refused, according to two of +the evangelists, to open his mouth at his trial. This is dramatic, +but it is not history. It is not conceivable that a real person +accused as Jesus was, would have refused a great opportunity to +disprove the charges against him. Socrates' defense of himself is +one of the classics. Jesus' silence is a conundrum. "But he +answered nothing," "But Jesus as yet answered nothing", "And he +answered him never a word," is the report of two of his +biographers. The other two evangelists, as is usual, contradict the +former and produce the following dialogues between Jesus and his +judges, which from beginning to end possess all the marks of +unreality: + + Pilate. -- "Art thou the King of the Jews?" + + Jesus. -- "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others +tell it thee of me?" + + Pilate. -- "Art thou a King?" + + Jesus. -- "Thou sayest that I am a King." + + Is it possible that a real man, not to say the Savior of the +world, would give such unmeaning and evasive replies to straight- +forward questions? Does it not read like a page from fiction? + + In the presence of the priests of his own race Jesus is as +indefinite and sophistical as he is before the Roman Pilate. + + The Priests. -- "Art thou the Christ -- tell us?" + + Jesus. -- "If I tell you ye will not believe me." + + The Priests. -- "Art thou the Son o God?" + + Jesus. -- "Ye say that I am." + + In the first answer he refuses to reveal himself because he +does not think he can command belief in himself; in his second +answer be either blames them for saying he was the Son of God, or +quotes their own testimony to prove that he is the Son of God. But +if they believed he was God, would they try to kill him? Is it not +unthinkable? He intimates that the priests believe he is the Son of +God -- "Ye say that I am." Surely, it is more probable that these +dialogues were invented by his anonymous biographers than that they +really represent an actual conversation between Jesus and his +judges. + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 32 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Compare in the next place the manner in which the public +trials of Socrates and Jesus are conducted. There is order in the +Athenian court; there is anarchy in the Jerusalem court. Witnesses +and accusers walk up to Jesus and slap him on the face, and the +judge does not reprove them for it. The court is in the hands of +rowdies and hoodlums, who shout "Crucify him," and again, "Crucify +him." A Roman judge, while admitting that he finds no guilt in +Jesus deserving of death, is nevertheless represented as handing +him over to the mob to be killed, after he has himself scourged +him. No Roman judge could have behaved as this Pilate is reported +to have behaved toward an accused person on trial for his life. All +that we know of civilized government, all that we know of the +jurisprudence of Rome, contradicts this "inspired" account of a +pretended historical event. If Jesus was ever tried and condemned +to death in a Roman court, an account of it that can command belief +has yet to be written. + + Again, when we come to consider the random, disconnected and +fragmentary form in which the teachings of Jesus are presented, we +cannot avoid the conclusion that he is a dramatis persona brought +upon the stage to give expression not to a consistent, connected +and carefully worked-out thought, but to voice with many breaks an +interruptions, the ideas of his changing managers. He is made to +play a number of contradictory roles, and appears in the same story +in totally different characters. + + One editor or compiler of the Gospel describes Jesus as an +ascetic and a mendicant, wandering from place to place, without +"roof over his head, and crawling at eventide into his cave in the +Mount of Olives. He introduces him as the "Man of Sorrows," fasting +in the wilderness, counseling people to part with their riches, and +promising the Kingdom of Heaven to Lazarus, the beggar. + + Another redactor announces him as "eating and drinking" at the +banquets of "publicans and sinners," -- a "wine-bibbing" Son of +Man. "John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, but the +Son of Man came both eating and drinking," which, if it means +anything, means that Jesus was the very opposite of the ascetic +John. + + A partisan of the doctrine of non-resistance puts in Jesus' +mouth the words: "Resist not evil;" "The meek shall inherit the +earth," etc., and counsels that he who smites us on the one cheek +should be permitted to strike us also on the other, and that to him +who robs us of an undergarment, we should also hand over our outer +garments. + + Another draws the picture of a militant Jesus who could never +endorse such precepts of indolence and resignation. "The kingdom of +heaven is taken by violence," cries this new Jesus, and intimates +that no such beggar like Lazarus, sitting all day long with the +dogs and his sores, can ever earn so great a prize. With a scourge +in his hands this Jesus rushes upon the traders in the temple- +court, upturns their tables and whips their owners into the +streets. Surely this was resistance of the most pronounced type. +The right to use physical force could not have been given a better +endorsement than by this example of Jesus. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 33 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + It will not help matters to say that these money-changers were +violating a divine law, and needed chastisement with a whip. Is not +the man who smites us upon the cheek, or robs us of our clothing, +equally guilty? Moreover, these traders in the outer courts of the +synagogue were rendering the worshipers a useful service. Just as +candles, rosaries, images and literature are sold in church +vestibules for the accommodation of Catholics, so were doves, +pigeons and Hebrew coins, necessary to the Jewish sacrifices, sold +in the temple-courts for the Jewish worshiper. The money changer +who supplied the pious Jew with the only sacred coin which the +priests would accept was not very much less important to the Jewish +religion than the rabbi. To have fallen upon these traders with a +weapon, and to have caused them the loss of their property, was +certainly the most inconsistent thing that "meek" and "lowly" Jesus +preaching non-resistance could have done. + + Again; one writer makes Jesus the teacher 'par excellence' of +peace. He counsels forgiveness of injuries not seven time but +seventy times that number -- meaning unlimited love and charity. +"Love your enemies," "Bless them that curse you," is his unusual +advice. But another hand retouches this picture, and we have a +Jesus who breaks his own golden rule. This other Jesus heaps abuse +upon the people who displease him; calls his enemies "vipers," +"serpents," "devils," and predicts for them eternal burnings in +sulphur and brimstone. How could he who said, "Come unto me all ye +that are heavy laden," say also, "Depart from me ye cursed?" Who +curses them? How can there be an everlasting hell in a universe +whose author advises us to love our enemies, to bless them that +curse us, and to forgive seventy times seven? How could the same +Jesus who said, "Blessed are the peacemakers," say also, "I came +not to bring peace, but a sword?" Is it possible that the same +Jesus who commands us to love our enemies, commands us also to +"hate" father, mother, wife and child, for "his name's sake?" Yes! +the same Jesus who said, "Put up thy sword in its sheath," also +commands us to sell our effects and "buy a sword." + + Once more: A believer in the divinity of Jesus -- I am going +to say -- invents the following text: "The Father and I are one." +An opponent to this Trinitarian dogma introduces a correction which +robs the above text of its authority: "The Father is greater than +I," and makes Jesus admit openly that there are some things known +to the father only. It is not difficult not to see in these +passages the beginnings of the terrible controversies which, +starting with Peter and Paul, have come down to our day and which +will not end until Jesus shall take his place among the mythical +saviors of the world. + + To harmonize these many and different Jesuses into something +like unity or consistency a thousand books have been written by the +clergy. They have not succeeded. How can a Jesus represented at one +time as the image of divine perfection, and at another as +protesting against being called "good," for "none is good, save +one, God," -- how can these two conceptions be reconciled except by +a resort to artificial an arbitrary interpretations? If such +insurmountable contradictions in the teaching and character of + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 34 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +another would weaken our faith in his historicity, then we are +justified in inferring that in all probability Jesus was only a +name -- the name of an imaginary stage hero, uttering the +conflicting thoughts of his prompters. + + Again, such phrases as, "and he was caught up in a cloud," -- +describing the ascension and consequent disappearance of Jesus, +betray the anxiety of the authors of the Gospels to bring their +marvelous story to a close. Not knowing how to terminate the career +of an imaginary Messiah, his creators invented the above method of +dispatching him. "He was caught up in a cloud," -- but for that, +the narrators would have been obliged to continue their story +indefinitely. + + In tragedy the play ends with the death of the hero, but if +the biographers of Jesus had given a similar excuse for bringing +their narrative to a finale, there would have been the danger of +their being asked to point out his grave. "He was caught up in a +cloud," relieved them of all responsibility to produce his remains +if called upon to do so, and, at the same time, furnished them with +an excuse to bring their story to a close. + + It would hardly be necessary, were we all unbiased, to look +for any further proofs of the mythical and fanciful nature of the +Gospel narratives than this expedient to which the writers +resorted. To questions, "Where is Jesus?" "What became of his +body?" etc., they could answer, "He was caught up in a cloud." But +a career that ends in the clouds was never begun on the earth. + + Let us imagine ourselves in Jerusalem in the year One, of the +Christian era, when the apostles, as it is claimed, were +proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, crucified and risen. Desiring to +be convinced before believing in the strange story, let us suppose +the following conversation between the apostles and ourselves. We +ask: + + How long have you known Jesus? + + I have known him for one year. + + And I for two. + + And I for three. + + Has any of you known him for more than three years? + + No. + + Was he with his apostles for one year or for three? + +For one. + + No, for three. + + You are not certain, then, how long Jesus was with his +apostles. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 35 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + No. + + How old was Jesus when crucified? + + About thirty-one. + + No. about thirty-three. + + No, he was much older, about fifty. + + You cannot tell with any certainty, then, his age at the time +of his death. + + No. + + You say he was tried and crucified in Jerusalem before your +own eyes, can you remember the date of this great event? + + We cannot. + + Were you present when Jesus was taken down from the cross? + + We were not. + + You cannot tell, then, whether he was dead when taken down. + + We have no personal knowledge. + + Were you present when be was buried? + + We were not, because we were in hiding for our lives. + + You do not know, therefore, whether he was actually buried, or +where he was buried. + + We do not. + + Were any of you present when Jesus came forth from the +grave? + + Not one of us was present. + + Then, you were not with him when he was taken down from the +cross; you were not with him when he was interred, and you were not +present when he rose from the grave. + + We were not. + + When, therefore, you say, he was dead, buried and rose again, +you are relying upon the testimony of others? + + We are. + + Will you mention the names of some of the witnesses who saw +Jesus come forth from the tomb? + + Mary Magdalene, and she is here and may be questioned. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 36 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Were you present, Mary, when the angels rolled away the stone, +and when Jesus came forth from the dead? + + No, when I reached the burying place early in the morning, the +grave had already been vacated, and there was no one sleeping in +it. + + You saw him, then, as the apostles did after he had risen? + + Yes. + + But you did not see anybody rise out of the grave. + + I did not. + + Are there any witnesses who saw the resurrection? + + There are many who saw him after the resurrection. + + But if neither they nor you saw him dead, and buried, and did +not see him rise, either, how can you tell that a most astounding +and supposedly impossible miracle had taken place between the time +you saw him last and when you saw him again two or three days +after? Is it not more natural to suppose that, being in a hurry on +account of the approaching Sabbath, Jesus, if ever crucified, was +taken down from the cross before he had really died, and that he +was not buried, as rumor states, but remained in hiding; and his +showing himself to you under cover of darkness and in secluded +spots and in the dead of night only, would seem to confirm this +explanation. + + You admit also that the risen Jesus did not present himself at +the synagogue of the people, in the public streets, or at the +palace of the High Priest to convince them of his Messiahship. Do +you not think that if he had done this, it would then have been +impossible to deny his resurrection? Why, then, did Jesus hide +himself after he came out of the grave? Why did be not show himself +also to his enemies? Was he still afraid of them, or did he not +care whether they believed or not? If so, why are you trying to +convert them? The question waits for a reasonable answer; why did +not Jesus challenge the whole world with the evidence of his +resurrection? You say you saw him occasionally, a few moments at a +time, now here, and now there, and finally on the top of a mountain +whence he was caught up in a cloud and disappeared altogether. But +that "cloud" has melted away, the sky is clear, and there is no +Jesus visible there. The cloud, then, had nothing to hide. It was +unnecessary to call in a cloud to close the career of your Christ. +The grave is empty, the cloud has vanished. Where is Christ? In +heaven! Ah, you have at last removed him to a world unknown, to the +undiscovered country. Leave him there Criticism, doubt, +investigation, the light of day, cannot cross its shores. Leave him +there!" + + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 37 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + THE JESUS OF PAUL + + The central figure of the New Testament is Jesus, and the +question we are trying to answer is, whether we have sufficient +evidence to prove to the unbiased mind that he is historical. An +idea of the intellectual caliber of the average churchman may be +had by the nature of the evidence he offers to justify his faith in +the historical Jesus. "The whole world celebrates annually the +nativity of Jesus; how could there be a Christmas celebration if +there never was a Christ?" asks a Chicago clergyman. The simplicity +of this plea would be touching were it not that it calls attention +to the painful inefficiency of the pulpit as an educator. The +church goer is trained to believe, not to think. The truth is +withheld from him under the pious pretense that faith, and not +knowledge, is the essential thing. A habit of untruthfulness is +cultivated by systematically sacrificing everything to orthodoxy. +This habit in the end destroys one's conscience for any truths +which are prejudicial to one's interest. But is it true that the +Christmas celebration proves a historical Jesus? + + We can only offer a few additional remarks to what we have +already said elsewhere in these pages on the Pagan origin of +Christmas. It will make us grateful to remember that just as we +have to go to the Pagans for the origins of our civilized +institutions -- our courts of justice, our art and literature, and +our political and religious liberties -- we must thank them also +for our merry festivals, such as Christmas and Easter. The +ignorant, of course, do not know anything about the value and +wealth of the legacy bequeathed to us by our glorious ancestors of +Greek and Roman times, but the educated can have no excuse for any +failure to own their everlasting indebtedness to the Pagans. It +will be impossible today to write the history of civilization +without giving to the classical world the leading role. But while +accepting the gifts of the Pagan peoples we have abused the givers. +A beneficiary who will defame a bounteous benefactor is unworthy of +his good fortune. I regret to say that the Christian church, +notwithstanding that it owes many of its most precious privileges +to the Pagans, has returned for service rendered insolence and +vituperation. No generous or just institution would treat a rival +as Christianity has treated Paganism. + + Both Christmas and Easter are Pagan festivals. We do not know, +no one knows, when Jesus was born; but we know the time of the +winter solstice when the sun begins to retrace his steps, turning +his radiant face toward our earth once more. It was this event, a +natural, demonstrable, universal, event, that our European +ancestors celebrated with song and dance -- with green branches, +through which twinkled a thousand lighted candles, and with the +exchange of good wishes and gifts. Has the church had the courage +to tell its people that Christmas is a Pagan festival which was +adopted and adapted by the Christian world, reluctantly at first, +and in the end as a measure of compromise only? The Protestants, +especially, conveniently forget the severe Puritanic legislation +against the observance of this Pagan festival, both in England an +America. It is the return to Paganism which has given to Christmas +and Easter their great popularity, as it is the revival of Paganism +which is everywhere replacing the Bible ideas of monarchic + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 38 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +government republicanism. And yet, repeatedly, an without any +scruples of conscience, preach and people claim these festivals as +the gift of their creed to humanity, and quote them further to +prove the historical existence of their god-man, Jesus. It was this +open an persistent perversion of history by church, the manufacture +of evidence on the one hand, the suppression of witnesses +prejudiced to her interests on the other, and the deliberate +forging of documents, which provoked Carlyle into referring to one +of its branches as the great lying Church. + + We have said enough to show that, in all probability -- for +let us not be dogmatic -- the story of Jesus, -- his birth and +betrayal by one of his own disciples, his trial in a Roman court, +his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, -- belongs to the +order of imaginative literature. Conceived at first as a religious +drama, it received many new accretions as it traveled from country +to country and from age to age. The "piece" shows signs of having +been touched and retouched to make it acceptable to the different +countries in which it was played. The hand of the adapter, the +interpolator and the reviser is unmistakably present. As an +allegory, or as a dramatic composition, meant for the religious +stage, it proved one of the strongest productions of Pagan or +Christian times. But as real history, it lacks the fundamental +requisite -- probability. As a play, it is stirring and strong; as +history, it lacks naturalness and consistency. The miraculous is +ever outside the province of history. Jesus was a miracle, and as +such, at least, we are safe in declaring him unhistorical. + + We pass on now to the presentation of evidence which we +venture to think demonstrates with an almost mathematic precision, +that the Jesus of the four gospels is a legendary hero, as +unhistorical as William Tell of Switzerland. This evidence is +furnished by the epistles bearing the signature of Paul. He has +been accepted as not only the greatest apostle of Christianity, but +in a sense also the author of its theology. It is generally +admitted that the epistles bearing the name of Paul are among the +oldest apostolical writings. They are older than the gospels. This +is very important information. When Paul was preaching, the four +gospels had not yet been written. From the epistles of Paul, of +which there are about thirteen in the Bible -- making the New +Testament largely the work of this one apostle -- we learn that +there were in different parts of Asia, a number of Christian +churches already established. Not only Paul, then, but also the +Christian church was in existence before the gospels were composed. +It would be natural to infer that it was not the gospels which +created the church, but the church which produced the gospels. Do +not lose sight of the fact that when Paul was preaching to the +Christians there was no written biography of Jesus in existence. +There was a church without a book. + + In comparing the Jesus of Paul with the Jesus whose portrait +is drawn for us in the gospels, we find that they are not the same +persons at all. This is decisive. Paul knows nothing about a +miraculously born savior. He does not mention a single time, in all +his thirteen epistles, that Jesus was born of a virgin, or that his +birth was accompanied with heavenly signs and wonders. He knew +nothing of a Jesus born after the manner of the gospel writers. It + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 39 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +is not imaginable that he knew the facts, but suppressed them, or +that he considered them unimportant, or that he forgot to refer to +them in any of his public utterances. Today, a preacher is expelled +from his denomination if he suppresses or ignores the miraculous +conception of the Son of God; but Paul was guilty of that very +heresy. How explain it? It is quite simple: The virgin-born Jesus +was not yet invented when Paul was preaching Christianity. Neither +he, nor the churches he had organized, had ever heard of such a +person. The virgin-born Jesus was of later origin than the Apostle +Paul. + + Let the meaning of this discrepancy between the Jesus of Paul, +that is to say, the earliest portrait of Jesus, and the Jesus of +the four evangelists, be fully grasped by the student, and it +should prove beyond a doubt that in Paul's time the story of Jesus' +birth from the virgin-mother and the Holy Ghost, which has since +become a cardinal dogma of the Christian church, was not yet in +circulation. Jesus had not yet been Hellenized; he was still a +Jewish Messiah whose coming was foretold in the Old Testament, and +who was to be a prophet like unto Moses, without the remotest +suggestion of a supernatural origin. + + No proposition in Euclid is safer from contradiction than +that, if Paul knew what the gospels tell about Jesus, he would +have, at least once or twice during his long ministry, given +evidence of his knowledge of it. The conclusion is inevitable that +the gospel Jesus is later than Paul and his churches. Paul stood +nearest to the time of Jesus of those whose writings are supposed +to have come down to us, he is the most representative, and his +epistles are the first literature of the new religion. And yet +there is absolutely not a single hint or suggestion in them of such +a Jesus as is depicted in the gospels. The gospel Jesus was not yet +put together or compiled, when Paul was preaching. + + Once more; if we peruse carefully critically the writings of +Paul, the earliest and greatest Christian apostle and missionary, +we find that he is not only ignorant of the gospel stories about +the birth and miracles of Jesus, but he is equally and just as +innocently ignorant of the teachings of Jesus. In the gospels Jesus +is the author of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, the +Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Story of Dives, the Good +Samaritan, etc. Is it conceivable that a preacher of Jesus could go +throughout the world to convert people to the teachings of Jesus, +as Paul did, without ever quoting a single one of his sayings? Had +Paul known that Jesus had preached a sermon, or formulated a +prayer, or said many inspired things about the here and the +hereafter, he could not have helped quoting, now and then, from the +words of his master. If Christianity could have been established +without a knowledge of the teachings of Jesus, why then, did Jesus +come to teach, and why were his teachings preserved by divine +inspiration? But if a knowledge of these teachings of Jesus is +indispensable to making converts, Paul gives not the least evidence +that he possessed such knowledge. + + But the Apostle Paul, judging from his many epistles to the +earliest converts to Christianity which are really his testimony, +supposed to have been sealed by his blood, appears to be quite as + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 40 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +ignorant of a Jesus who went about working miracles, -- opening the +eyes of the blind, giving health to the sick, hearing to the deaf, +and life to the dead, -- as he is of a Jesus born of a virgin woman +and the Holy Ghost. Is not this remarkable? Does it not lend strong +confirmation to the idea that the miracle-working Jesus of the +gospels was not known in Paul's time, that is to say, the earliest +Jesus known to the churches was a person altogether different from +his namesake in the four evangelists. If Paul knew of a miracle- +working Jesus, one who could feed the multitude with a few loaves +and fishes -- who could command the grave to open, who could cast +out devils, and cleanse the land of the foulest disease of leprosy, +who could, and did, perform many other wonderful works to convince +the unbelieving generation of his divinity, -- is it conceivable +that either intentionally or inadvertently he would have never once +referred to them in all his preaching? Is it not almost certain +that, if the earliest Christians knew of the miracles of Jesus, +they would have been greatly surprised at the failure of Paul to +refer to them a single time? And would not Paul have told them of +the promise of Jesus to give power to work even greater miracles +than his own, had he known of such a promise. Could Paul really +have left out of his ministry so essential a chapter from the life +of Jesus, had he been acquainted with it? The miraculous fills up +the greater portion of the four gospels, and if these documents +were dictated by the Holy Ghost, it means that they were too +important to be left out. Why, then, does not Paul speak of them at +all? There is only one reasonable answer: A miracle-working Jesus +was unknown to Paul. + + What would we say of a disciple of Tolstoy, for example, who +came to America to make converts to Count Tolstoy and never once +quoted anything that Tolstoy had said? Or what would we think of +the Christian missionaries who go to India, China, Japan and Africa +to preach the gospel, if they never mentioned to the people of +these countries the Sermon on the Mount, the Parable of the +Prodigal Son, the Lord's Prayer -- nor quoted a single text from +the gospels? Yet Paul, the first missionary, did the very thing +which would be inexplicable in a modern missionary. There is only +one rational explanation for this: The Jesus of Paul was not born +of a virgin; he did not work miracles; and he was not a teacher. It +was after his day that such a Jesus was -- I have to use again a +strong word -- invented. + + It has been hinted by certain professional defenders of +Christianity that Paul's specific mission was to introduce +Christianity among the Gentiles, and not to call attention to the +miraculous element in the life of his Master. But this is a very +lame defense. What is Christianity, but the life and teachings of +Jesus? And how can it be introduced among the Gentiles without a +knowledge of the doctrines and works of its founder? Paul gives no +evidence of possessing any knowledge of the teachings of Jesus, how +could he, then, be a missionary of Christianity to the heathen? +There is no other answer which can be given than that the +Christianity of Paul was something radically different from the +Christianity of the later gospel writers, who in all probability +were Greeks and not Jews. Moreover, it is known that Paul was +reprimanded by his fellow-apostles for carrying Christianity to the +Gentiles. What better defense could Paul have given for his conduct +than to have quoted the commandment of Jesus -- "Go ye into all the + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 41 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +world and preach the gospel to every creature." And he would have +quoted the "divine" text had he been familiar with it. Nay, the +other apostles would not have taken him to task for obeying the +commandment of Jesus had they been familiar with such a +commandment. It all goes to support the proposition that the gospel +Jesus was of a date later than the apostolic times. + + That the authorities of the church realize how damaging to the +reality of the gospel Jesus is the inexplicable silence of Paul +concerning him, may be seen in their vain effort to find in a +passage put in Paul's mouth by the unknown author of the book of +Acts, evidence that Paul does quote the sayings of Jesus. The +passage referred to is the following: "It is more blessed to give +than to receive." Paul is made to state that this was a saying of +Jesus. In the first place, this quotation is not in the epistles of +Paul, but in the Acts, of which Paul was not the author; in the +second place, there is no such quotation in the gospels. The +position, then, that there is not a single saying of Jesus in the +gospels which is quoted by Paul in his many epistles is +unassailable, and certainly fatal to the historicity of the gospel +Jesus. + + Again, from Paul himself we learn that he was a zealous +Hebrew, a Pharisee of Pharisees, studying with Gamaliel in +Jerusalem, presumably to become a rabbi. Is it possible that such +a man could remain totally ignorant of a miracle worker an teacher +like Jesus, living in the same city with him? If Jesus really +raised Lazarus from the grave, and entered Jerusalem a the head of +a procession, waving branches and shouting, "hosanna" -- if he was +really crucified in Jerusalem, and ascended from one of its +environs -- is it possible that Paul neither saw Jesus nor heard +anything about these miracles? But if he knew all these things +about Jesus, is it possible that he could go through the world +preaching Christ and never once speak of them? It is more likely +that when Paul was studying in Jerusalem there was no miraculous +Jesus living or teaching in any part of Judea. + + If men make their gods they also make their Christs. +[Christianity and Mythology. J.M. Robertson, to whom the author +acknowledges his indebtedness, for the difference between Paul's +Jesus and that of the Gospels.] It is frequently urged that it was +impossible for a band of illiterate fishermen to have created out +of their own fancy so glorious a character as that of Jesus, and +that it would be more miraculous to suppose that the unique sayings +of Jesus and his incomparably perfect life were invented by a few +plain people than to believe in his actual existence. But it is not +honest to throw the question into that form. We do not know who +were the authors of the gospels. It is pure assumption that they +were written by plain fishermen. The authors of the gospels do not +disclose their identity. The words, according to Matthew, Mark, +etc., represent only the guesses or opinions of translators and +copyists. + + Both in the gospels and in Christian history the apostles are +represented as illiterate men. But if they spoke Greek, and could +also write in Greek, they could not have been just plain fishermen. +That they were Greeks, not Jews, and more or less educated, may be + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 42 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +safely inferred from the fact that they all write in Greek, and one +of them at least seems to be acquainted with the Alexandrian school +of philosophy. Jesus was supposedly a Jew, his twelve apostles all +Jews -- how is it, then, that the only biographies of him extant +are all in Greek? If his fishermen disciples were capable of +composition in Greek, they could not have been illiterate men, if +they could not have written in Greek -- which was a rare +accomplishment for a Jew, according to what Josephus says -- then +the gospels were not written by the apostles of Jesus. But the fact +that thou these documents are in a language alien both to Jesus and +his disciples, they are unsigned and undated, goes to prove, we +think, that their editors or authors wished to conceal their +identity that they may be taken for the apostles themselves. + + In the next place it is equally an assumption that the +portrait of Jesus is incomparable. It is now proven beyond a doubt +that there is not a single saying of Jesus, I say this +deliberately, which had not already been known both among the Jews +and Pagans. [Sometimes it is urged by pettifogging clergymen that +while it is true that Confucius gave the Golden Rule six hundred +years before Jesus, it was in a negative form. Confucius said, "Do +not unto another what you would not another to do unto you." Jesus +said, "Do unto others," etc. But every negative has its +corresponding affirmation. Moreover, are not the Ten Commandments +in the negative? But the Greek sages gave the Golden Rule in as +positive a form as we find it in the Gospels. "And may I do to +others as I would that others should do to me," said Plato. -- +Jowett Trans., V. 483. P. + + Besides if the only difference between Jesus and Confucius, +the one a God, the other a mere man, was that they both said the +same thing, the one in the negative, the other in the positive, it +is not enough to prove Jesus infinitely superior to Confucius. Many +of Jesus' own communications are in the negative: [Resist not +evil," for instance.] And as to his life; it is in no sense +superior or even as large and as many sided as that of Socrates. I +know some consider it blaphemy to compare Jesus with Socrates, but +that must be attributed to prejudice rather than to reason. + + And to the question that if Jesus be mythical, we cannot +account for the rise and progress of the Christian church, we +answer that the Pagan gods who occupied Mount Olympus were all +mythical beings -- mere shadows, and yet Paganism was the religion +of the most advanced and cultured nations of antiquity. How could +an imaginary Zeus, or Jupiter, draw to his temple the elite of +Greece and Rome? And if there is nothing strange in the rise and +spread of the Pagan church; in the rapid progress of the worship of +Osiris, who never existed; in the wonderful success of the religion +of Mithra, who is but a name; if the worship of Adonis, of Attis, +of Isis, and the legends of Heracles, Prometheus, Hercules, and the +Hindu trinity, -- Brahma, Shiva, Chrishna, -- with their rock-hewn +temples, can be explained without believing in the actual existence +of these gods -- why not Christianity? Religions, like everything +else, are born, they grow and die. They show the handiwork of whole +races, and of different epochs, rather than of one man or of age. +Time gives them birth, and changing environments determine their +career. Just as the portrait of Jesus we see in shops and churches +is an invention, so is his character. The artist gave him his +features, the theologian his attributes. + + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 43 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + What are the elements out of which the Jesus story was +evolved? The Jewish people were in constant expectation of a +Messiah. The belief prevailed that his name would be Joshua, which +in English is Jesus. The meaning of the word is savior. In ancient +Syrian mythology, Joshua was a Sun God. The Old-Testament Joshua, +who "stopped the Sun," was in all probability this same Syria, +divinity. According to tradition this Joshua, or Jesus, was the Son +of Mary, a name which with slight variations is found in nearly all +the old mythologies. Greek and Hindu divinities were mothered by +either a Mary, Meriam, Myrrah, or Merri, Maria or Mares is the +oldest word for sea -- the earliest source of life. The ancients +looked upon the sea-water as the mother of every living thing. +"Joshua (or Jesus), son of Mary," was already a part of the +religious outfit of the Asiatic world when Paul began his +missionary tours. His Jesus, or anointed one, crucified or slain, +did in no sense represent a new or original message. It is no more +strange that Paul's mythological "savior" should loom into +prominence and cast a spell over all the world, than that a +mythical Apollo or Jupiter should rule for thousands of years over +the fairest portions of the earth. + + It is also well known that there is in the Talmud the story of +a Jesus, Ben, or son, of Pandira, who lived about a hundred years +before the Gospel Jesus, and who was hanged from a tree. I believe +this Jesus is quite as legendary as the Syrian Hesous, or Joshua. +But may it not be that such a legend accepted as true -- to the +ancients all legends were true -- contributed its share toward +marking the outlines of the later Jesus, hanged on a cross? My idea +has been to show that the materials for a Jesus myth were at hand, +and that, therefore, to account for the rise and progress of the +Christian cult is no more difficult than to explain the widely +spread religion of the Indian Chrishna, or of the Persian Mithra. +[For a fuller discussion of the various "christs" in mythology read +Robertson's Christianity and Mythology and his Pagan Christs.] + + Now, why have I given these conclusions to the world? Would I +not have made more friends -- provoked a warmer response from the +public at large -- had I repeated in pleasant accents the familiar +phrases about the glory and beauty and sweetness of the Savior God, +the Virgin-born Christ? Instead of that, I have run the risk of +alienating the sympathies of my fellows by intimating that this +Jesus whom Christendom worships today as a god, this Jesus at whose +altar the Christian world bends its knees and bows its head, is as +much of an idol as was Apollo of the Greeks; and that we -- we +Americans of the twentieth century -- are an idolatrous people, +inasmuch as we worship a name, or at most, a man of whom we know +nothing provable. + + IS CHRISTIANITY REAL? + + It is assumed, without foundation, as I hope to show, that the +religion of Jesus alone can save the world. We are not surprised at +the claim, because there has never been a religion which has been +too modest to make a similar claim. No religion has ever been +satisfied to be one of the saviors of man. Each religion wants to +be the only savior of man. There is no monopoly like religious +monopoly. The industrial corporations with all their greed are less + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 44 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +exacting than the Catholic church, for instance, which keeps heaven +itself under lock and key. + + But what is meant by salvation? Let us consider its religious +meaning first. An unbiased investigation of the dogmas and their +supposed historical foundations will prove that the salvation which +Christianity offers, and the means by which it proposes to effect +the world's salvation, are extremely fanciful in nature. If this +point could be made clear, there will be less reluctance on the +part of the public to listen to the evidence on the unhistoricity +of the founder of Christianity. + + We are told that God, who is perfect, created this world +about half a hundred centuries ago. Of course, being perfect +himself the world which he created was perfect, too. But the +world did not stay perfect very long. Nay, from the heights it +fell, not slowly, but suddenly, into the lowest depths of +degradation. How a world which God had created perfect, could in +the twinkling of an eye become so vile as to be cursed by the +same being who a moment before had pronounced it "good," and +besides be handed the devil as fuel for eternal burnings, only +credulity can explain. I am giving the story of what is called +the "plan of salvation," in order to show its mythical nature. In +the preceding pages we have discussed the question, Is Jesus a +Myth, but I believe that when we have reflected upon the story of +man's fall and his supposed subsequent salvation by the blood of +Jesus, we shall conclude that the function, or the office, which +Jesus is said to perform, is as mythical as his person. + + The story of Eden possesses all the marks of an allegory. +Adam and Eve, and a perfect world suddenly plunged from a snowy +whiteness into the blackness of hell, are the thoughts of a child +who exaggerates because of an as yet undisciplined fancy. Yet, if +Adam and Eve are unreal, theologically speaking, Jesus is unreal. +If they are allegory and myth, so is Jesus. It is claimed that it +was the fall of Adam which necessitated the death of Jesus, but +if Adam's fall be a fiction, as we know it is, Jesus' death as an +atonement must also be a fiction. + + In the fall of Adam, we are told, humanity itself fell. +Could anything be more fanciful than that? And what was Adam's +sin? He coveted knowledge. He wished to improve his mind. He +experimented with forbidden things. He dared to take the +initiative. And for that imaginary crime, even the generations +not yet born are to be forever blighted. Even the animals, the +flowers and vegetables were cursed for it. Can you conceive of +anything more mythical than that? one of the English divines of +the age of Calvin declared that original sin, -- Adam's sin +imputed to us, -- was so awful, that "if a man had never been +born he would yet have been damned for it." It is from this +mythical sin that a mythical Savior saves us. And how does he do +it? In a very mythical way, as we shall see. + + When the world fell, it fell into the devil's hands. To +redeem a part of it, at least, the deity concludes to give up his +only son for a ransom. This is interesting. God is represented as +being greatly offended, because the world which he had created +perfect was all in a heap before him. To placate himself he +sacrificed his son -- not himself. + + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 45 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + But, as intimated above, he does not intend to restore the +whole world to its pristine purity, but only a part of it. This +is alarming. He creates the whole world perfect, but now he is +satisfied to have only a portion of it redeemed from the devil. +If he can save at all, pray, why not save all? This is not an +irrelevant question when it is remembered that the whole world +was created perfect in the first place. + + The refusal of the deity to save all of his world from the +devil would lead one to believe that even when God created the +world perfect he did not mean to keep all of it to himself, but +meant that some of it, the greater part of it, as some +theologians contend, should go to the devil! Surely this is +nothing but myth. Let us hope for the sake of our ideals that all +this is no more than the childish prattle of primitive man. + + But let us return to the story of the fall of man; God +decides to save a part of his ruined perfect world by the +sacrifice of his son. The latter is supposed to have said to his +father: "Punish me, kill me, accept my blood, and let it pay for +the sins of man." He thus interceded for the elect, and the deity +was mollified. As Jesus is also God, it follows that one God +tried to pacify another, which is. pure myth. Some theologians +have another theory -- there is room here for many theories. +According to these, God gave up his son as a ransom, not to +himself, but to the devil, who now claimed the world as his own. +I heard a distinguished minister explain this in the following +manner: A poor man whose house is mortgaged hears that some +philanthropist has redeemed the property by paying off the +mortgage. The soul of man was by the fall of Adam mortgaged to +the devil. God has raised the mortgage by abandoning his son to +be killed to satisfy the devil who held the mortgage. The debt +which we owed ha been paid by Jesus. By this arrangement the +devil loses his legal right to our souls and we are saved. All we +need to do is to believe in this story and we'll be sure to go to +heaven. And to think that intelligent Americans not only accept +all this as inspired, but denounce the man who venture to +intimate modestly that it might be a myth as a blasphemer! "O, +judgment!" cries Shakespeare, "thou hast fled to brutish beasts, +and men have lost their reason." + + The morality which the Christian church teaches is of as +mythical a nature as the story of the fall, and the blood- +atonement. It is not natural morality, but something quite +unintelligible and fictitious. For instance, we are told that we +cannot of our selves be righteous. We must first have the grace +of God. Then we are told that we cannot have the grace of God +unless he gives it to us. And he will not give it us unless we +ask for it. But we cannot ask for it, unless he moves us to ask +for it. And there we are. We shall be damned if we do not come to +God, and we cannot come to God unless he calls us. Besides, could +anything be more mythical than a righteousness which can only be +imputed to us, -- any righteousness of our own being but "filthy +rags?" + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 46 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + The Christian religion has the appearance of being one great +myth, constructed out of many minor myths. It is the same with +Mohammedanism, or Judaism, which latter is the mischievous parent +of both the Mohammedan and the Christian faiths. It is the same +with all supernatural creeds. Myth is the dominating element in +them all. Compared with these Asiatic religions how glorious is +science! How wholesome, helpful, and luminous, are her +commandments! + + If I were to command you to believe that Mount Olympus was +once tenanted by blue eyed gods and their consorts, -- sipping +nectar and ambrosia the live-long day, -- You will answer, "Oh, +that is only mythology." If I were to tell you that you cannot be +saved unless you believe that Minerva was born full-fledged from +the brain of Jupiter, you will laugh at me. If I were to tell you +that you must punish your innocent sons for the guilt of their +brothers and sisters, you will answer that I insult your moral +sense. + + And yet, every Sunday, the preacher repeats the myth of Adam +and Eve, and how God killed his innocent son to please himself, +or to satisfy the devil, and with bated breath, and on your +knees, you whisper, Amen. + + How is it that when you read the literature of the Greeks, +the literature of the Persians, the literature of Hindostan, or +of the Mohammedan world, you discriminate between fact and +fiction, between history and myth, but when it comes to the +literature of the Jews, you stammer, you stutter, you bite your +lips, you turn pale, and fall upon your face before it as the +savage before his fetish? You would consider it unreasonable to +believe that everything a Greek, or a Roman, or an Arab ever said +was inspired. And yet, men have been hounded to death for not +believing everything that a Jew ever said in olden times was +inspired. + + I do not have to use arguments, I hope, to prove to an +intelligent public that an infallible book is as much a myth as +the Garden of Eden, or the Star of Bethlehem. A mythical Savior, +a mythical Bible, a mythical plan of salvation! + + When we subject what are called religious truths to the same +tests by which we determine scientific or historical truths, we +discover that they are not truths at all; they are only opinions. +Any statement which snaps under the strain of reason is unworthy +of credence. But it is claimed that religious truth is discovered +by intuition and not by investigation. The believer, it is +claimed, feels in his own soul -- he has the witness of the +spirit, that the Bible is infallible, and that Jesus is the +Savior of man. The Christian does not have to look into the +arguments for or against his religion it is said, before he makes +up his mind; he knows by an inward assurance; he has proved it to +his own deepermost being that Jesus is real and that he is the +only Savior. But what is that but another kind of argument? The +argument is quite inadequate to inspire assurance, as you will +presently see, but it is an argument nevertheless. To say that we +must believe and not reason is a kind of reasoning, This device + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 47 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +of reasoning against reasoning is resorted to by people who have +been compelled by modern thought to give up, one after another, +the strongholds of their position. They run under shelter of what +they call faith, or the "inward witness of the spirit," or the +intuitive argument, hoping thereby to escape the enemy's fire, if +I may use so objectionable a phrase. + + What is called faith, then, or an intuitive spiritual +assurance, is a Species of reasoning; let its worth be tested +honestly. + + In the first place, faith or the intuitive argument would +prove too much. If Jesus is real, notwithstanding that there is +no reliable historical data to warrant the belief, because the +believer feels in his own soul that He is real and divine, I +answer that, the same mode of reasoning -- and let us not forget, +it is a kind of reasoning -- would prove Mohammed a divine +savior, and the wooden idol of the savage a god. The African +Bushman trembles before an image, because he feels in his own +soul that the thing is real. Does that make it real? The Moslem +cries unto Mohammed, because he believes in his innermost heart +that Mohammed is near and can hear him. He will risk his life on +that assurance. To quote to him history and science to prove that +Mohammed is dead and unable to save, would be of no avail, for he +has the witness of the spirit in him, an intuitive assurance, +that the great prophet sits on the right hand of Allah. An +argument which proves too much, proves nothing. + + In the second place, an intuition is not communicable. I may +have an intuition that I see spirits all about me this morning. +They come, they go, they nod, they brush my forehead with their +wings. But do you see them, too, because I see them? There is the +difference between a scientific demonstration and a purely +metaphysical assumption. I could go to the blackboard and assure +you, as I am myself assured, that two parallel lines running in +the same direction will not and cannot meet. That is +demonstration. A fever patient when in a state of delirium, and a +frightened child in the dark, see things. We do not deny that +they do, but their testimony does not prove that the things they +see are real. + + "What is this I see before me?" cries Macbeth, the murderer, +and be shrieks and shakes from head to foot -- he draws his sword +and rushes upon Banquo's ghost, which be sees coldly staring at +him. But is that any proof that what he saw we could see also? +Yes, we could, if we were in the same frenzy! And it is the +revivalist's aim, by creating a general excitement, to make +everybody see things. "Doctor, Doctor, help! they are coming to +kill me; there they are the assassins, -- one, two, three -- oh, +help," and the patient jumps out of bed to escape the banditti +crowding in upon him. But is that any reason why the attending +physician, his pulse normal and his brow cool should believe that +the room is filling up with assassins? I observe people jump up +and down, as they do in holiness meetings; I hear them say they +see angels, they see Jesus, they feel his presence. But is that +any evidence for you or me? An intuitive argument is not +communicable, and, therefore, it is no argument at all. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 48 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Our orthodox friends are finally driven by modern thought, +which is growing bolder every day, to the only refuge left for +them. It is the one already mentioned. Granted that Jesus was an +imaginary character, even then, as an ideal, they argue, he is an +inspiration, and the most effective moral force the world has +ever known. We do not care, they say, whether the story of his +birth, trial, death, and resurrection is myth or actual history; +such a man as Jesus may never have existed, the things he is +reported as saying may have been put in his mouth by others, but +what of that -- is not the picture of his character perfect? Are +not the Beatitudes beautiful -- no matter who said them? To +strengthen this position they call our attention to Shakespeare's +creations, the majority of whom -- Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Portia, +Imogen, Desdemona, are fictitious. Yet where are there grander +men, or finer women? These children of Shakespeare may never have +lived, but, surely, they will never die. In the same sense, Jesus +may be just as ideal a character as those of Shakespeare, they +say, and still be "the light of the world." A New York preacher +is reported as saying that if Christianity is a lie, it is a +"glorious lie." + + My answer to the above is that such an argument evades +instead of facing the question. It is receding from a position +under cover of a rhetorical manoeuvre. It is a retreat in +disguise. If Christianity is a "glorious lie," then call it such. +The question under discussion is, Is Jesus Historical? To answer +that it is immaterial whether or not he is historical, is to +admit that there is no evidence that he is historical. To urge +that, unhistorical though he be, he, is, nevertheless, the only +savior of the world, is, I regret to say, not only evasive, -- +not only does it beg the question, but it is also clearly +dishonest. How long will the tremendous ecclesiastical machinery +last, if it were candidly avowed that it is doubtful whether +there ever was such a historical character as Jesus, or that in +all probability he is no more real than one of Shakespeare's +creations? What! all these prayers, these churches, these +denominations, these sectarian wars which have shed oceans of +human blood -- these unfortunate persecutions which have +blackened the face of man -- the fear of hell and the devil which +has blasted millions of lives -- all these for a Christ who may, +after all, be only a picturer! + + Neither is it true that this pictorial Jesus saved the +world. He has had two thousand years to do it in, but as +missionaries are still being sent out, it follows that the world +is yet to be saved. The argument presented elsewhere in these +pages may here be recapitulated. + + There was war before Christianity; has Jesus abolished war? + + There was poverty and misery in the world before +Christianity; has Jesus removed these evils? + + There was ignorance in the world before Christianity; has +Jesus destroyed ignorance? + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 49 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + There were disease, crime, persecution, oppression, slavery, +massacres, and bloodshed in the world before Christianity; alas, +are they not still with us? + + When Jesus shall succeed in pacifying his own disciples; in +healing the sectarian world of its endless and bitter quarrels, +then it will be time to ask what else Jesus has done for +humanity. + + If the world is improving at all, and we believe it is, the +progress is due to the fact that man pays now more attention to +this life than formerly. He is thinking less of the other world +and more of this. He no longer sings with John Wesley: + + The world is all a fleeting show + For man's delusion given. + Its smiles of joy, its tears of woe, + Deceitful shine, deceitful flow, + There's nothing true but heaven. + + How could people with such feelings labor to improve a world +they hated? How could they be in the least interested in social +or political reforms when they were constantly repeating to +themselves -- + + I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger -- + I can tarry, I can tarry, but a night. + + That these same people should now claim not only a part of +the credit for the many improvements, but all of it -- saying +that but for their religion the "world would now have been a +hell," [Rev. Frank Gunsaulus, of the Central Church, Chicago.] +is really a little too much for even the most serene temperament. + + Which of the religions has persecuted as long and as +relentlessly as Christianity? + + Which of the many faiths of the world has opposed Science as +stubbornly and as bitterly as Christianity? + + In the name of what other prophets have more people been +burned at the stake than in the names of Jesus and Moses? + + What other revelation has given rise to so many sects, +hostile and irreconcilable, as the Christian? + + Which religion has furnished as many effective texts for +political oppression, polygamy, slavery, and the subjection of +woman [See A New Catechism. -- M.M. Mangasarian.] as the +religion of Jesus and Paul? + + Is there, -- has there ever been another creed which makes +salvation dependent on belief, -- thereby encouraging hypocrisy, +and making honest inquiry a crime? + + To send a thief to heaven from the gallows because he +believes, and an honest man to hell because he doubts, is that +the virtue which is going to save the world? + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 50 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + The claim that Jesus has saved the world is another myth. + + A pictorial Christ, then, has not done anything for humanity +to deserve the tremendous expenditure of time, energy, love, and +devotion, which has for two thousand years taxed the resources of +civilization. + + The passing away of this imaginary savior will relieve the +world of an unproductive investment. + + We conclude: Honesty, like charity, must begin at home. +Unless we can tell the truth in our churches we will never tell +the truth in our shops. Unless our teachers, the ministers of +God, are honest, our insurance companies and corporations will +have to be watched. Permit sham in your religious life, and the +disease will spread to every member of the social body. If you +may keep religion in the dark, and cry "hush," "hush," when +people ask that it be brought out into the light, why may not +polities or business cultivate a similar partiality for darkness? +If the king cries, "rebel," when a citizen asks for justice, it +is because he has heard the priest cry, "infidel," when a member +of his church asked for evidence. Religious hypocrisy is the +mother of all hypocrisies. Cure a man of that, and the human +world will recover its health. + + Not so long ago, nearly everybody believed in the existence +of a personal devil. People saw him, heard him, described him, +danced with him, and claimed, besides, to have whipped him. +Luther hurled his ink-stand at him, and American women accused as +witches were put to death in the name of the devil. Yet all this +"evidence" has not saved the devil from passing out of existence. +What has happened to the devil will happen to the gods. Man is +the only real savior. If he is not a savior, there is no other. + + PART II. + + IS THE WORLD INDEBTED TO CHRISTIANITY? + + "But," says the believer, again, as a last resort, "Jesus, +whether real or mythical, has certainly saved the world, and is +its only hope." If this assertion can be supported with facts, +then surely it would matter very little whether Jesus really +lived and taught, or whether he is a mere picture. Although even +then it would be more truthful to say we have no satisfactory +evidence that such a teacher as Jesus ever lived, than to affirm +dogmatically his existence, as it is now done. Whatever Jesus may +have done for the world, he has certainly not freed us from the +obligation of telling the truth. I call special attention to this +point. Because Jesus has saved the world, granting for the moment +that he has, is no reason why we should be indifferent to the +truth. Nay, it would show that Jesus has not saved the world, if +we can go on and speak of him as an actual existence, born of a +virgin and risen from the dead, and in his name persecute one +another -- oppose the advance of science, deny freedom of +thought, terrorize children and women with pictures of hellfire +and seek to establish a spiritual monopoly in the world, when the +evidence in hand seems clearly to indicate that such a person +never existed. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 51 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + We shall quote a chapter from Christian history to give our +readers an idea of how much the religion of Jesus, when +implicitly believed in, can do for the world. We have gone to the +earliest centuries for our examples of the influence exerted by +Christianity upon the ambitions and passions of human nature +because it is generally supposed that Christianity was then at +its best. Let us, then, present a picture of the world, strictly +speaking, of the Roman Empire, during the first four or five +hundred years after its conversion to Christianity. + + We select this specific period, because Christianity was at +this time fifteen hundred years nearer to its source, and was +more virile and aggressive than it has ever been since. + + Shakespeare speaks of the uses of adversity; but the uses of +prosperity are even greater. The proverb says that "adversity +tries a man." While there is considerable truth in this, the fact +is that prosperity is a much surer criterion of character. It is +impossible to tell for instance, what a man will do who has +neither the power nor the opportunity to do anything. +"Opportunity," says a French writer; "is the cleverest devil." +Both our good and bad qualities wait upon opportunity to show +themselves. It is quite easy to be virtuous when the opportunity +to do evil is lacking. Behind the prison bars, every criminal is +a penitent, but the credit belongs to the iron bars and not to +the criminal. To be good when one cannot be bad, is an +indifferent virtue. + + It is with institutions and religions as with individuals -- +they should be judged not by what they pretend in their weakness, +but by what they do when they are strong. Christianity, +Mohammedanism and Judaism, the three kindred religions -- we call +them kindred because they are related in blood and are the +offspring of the same soil and climate -- these three kindred +religions must be interpreted not by what they profess today, but +by what they did when they had both the power and the opportunity +to do as they wished. + + When Christianity, or Mohammedanism, was professed only by a +small handful of men -- twelve fishermen, or a dozen camel- +drivers of the desert -- neither party advocated persecution. The +worst punishment which either religion held out was a distant and +a future punishment; but as soon as Christianity converted an +Emperor, or Mohammed became the victorious warrior, that is to +say, as soon as, springing forth, they picked up the sword and +felt their grip sure upon its hilt, this future and distant +punishment materialized into a present and persistent persecution +of their opponents. Is not that suggestive? Then, again, when in +the course of human evolution, both Christianity and +Mohammedanism lost the secular support -- the throne, the favor +of the courts, the imperial treasury -- they fell back once more +upon future penalties as the sole menace against an unbelieving +world. As religion grows, secularly speaking, weaker and is more +completely divorced from the temporal, even the future penalties, +from being both literal and frightful, pale into harmless figures +of speech. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 52 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + It was but a short time after the conversion of the Emperor +Constantine, that the following edict was published throughout +the provinces of the Roman Empire: + + "O ye enemies of truth, authors and counsellors of + death -- we enact by this law that none of you dare + hereafter to meet at your conventicles ... nor keep any + meetings either in public buildings or private houses. We + have commanded that all your places of meeting -- your + temples -- be pulled down or confiscated to the Catholic + Church." + + The man who affixed his signature to this edict was a +monarch, that is to say, a man who had the power to do as he +liked. The man and monarch, then, who affixed his imperial +signature to this first document of persecution in Europe -- the +first, because, as Renan has beautifully remarked, "We may search +in vain the whole Roman law before Constantine for a single +passage against freedom of thought, and the history of the +imperial government furnishes no instance of a prosecution for +entertaining an abstract doctrine," -- this is glory enough for +the civilization which we call Pagan and which was replaced by +the Asiatic religion -- the man and the monarch who fathered the +first instrument of persecution in our Europe, who introduced +into our midst the crazed hounds of religious wars, unknown +either in Greece or Rome, Constantine, has been held up by +Cardinal Newman as "a pattern to all succeeding monarchs." Only +an Englishman, a European, infected with the malady of the East, +could hold up the author of such an edict, -- an edict which +prostitutes the State to the service of a fad -- as "a pattern." + + If we asked for a modern illustration of what a church will +do when it has the power, of Russia. there is the example of +Russia. Russia is today centuries behind the other European +nations. She is the most unfortunate, the most ignorant, the most +poverty-pinched country, with the most orthodox type of +Christianity. What is the difference between Greek Christianity, +such as prevails in Russia, and American Christianity? Only this: +The Christian Church in Russia has both the power and the +opportunity to do things, while the Christian church in America +or in France has not. We must judge Christianity as a religion by +what it does in Russia, more than by what it does not do in +France or America. There was a time when the church did in France +and in England what it is doing now in Russia, which is a further +confirmation of the fact that a religion must be judged not by +what it pretends in its weakness, but by what it does when it +can. In Russia, the priest can tie a man's hands and feet and +deliver him up to the government; and it does so. In Protestant +countries, the church, being deprived of all its badges and +prerogatives, is more modest and humble. The poet Heine gives +eloquent expression to this idea when be says: "Religion comes +begging to us, when it can no longer burn us." + + There will be no revolution in Russia, nor even any radical +improvement of existing conditions, so long as the Greek Church +has the education of the masses in charge. To become politically +free, men must first be intellectually emancipated. If a Russian + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 53 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +is not permitted to choose his own religion, will he be permitted +to choose his own form of government? If he will allow a priest +to impose his religion upon him, why may he not permit the Czar +to impose despotism upon him? If it is wrong for him to question +the tenets of his religion, is it not equally wrong for him to +discuss the laws of his government? If a slave of the church, why +may he not be a slave of the state? If there is room upon his +neck for the yoke of the church, there will be room, also, for +the yoke of the autocracy. If he is in the habit of bending his +knees, what difference does it make to how many or to whom he +bends them? + + Not until Russia has become religiously emancipated, will +she conquer political freedom. She must first cast out of her +mind the fear of the church, before she can enter into the +glorious fellowship of the free. In Turkey, all the misery of the +people will not so much as cause a ripple of discontent, because +the Moslem has been brought up to submit to the Sultan as to the +shadow on earth of Allah. Both in Russia and Turkey, the +protestants are the heretics. The orthodox Turk and the orthodox +Christian permit without a murmur both the priest and the king to +impose upon them at the point of a bayonet, the one his religion, +and the other his government. It is only by taking the education +of the masses out of the hands of the clergy that either country +can enjoy any prosperity. Orthodoxy and autocracy are twins. + + Let me now try to present to you a picture of the world +under Christianity about the year 400 of the present era. Let us +discuss this phase of the subject in a liberal spirit, +extenuating nothing, nor setting down aught in malice. Please +interpret what I say in the next few minutes metaphorically, and +pardon me if my picture is a repellant one. + + We are in the year of our Lord, 400: + + I rose up early this morning to go to church. As I +approached the building, I saw there a great multitude of people +unable to secure admission into the edifice. The huge iron doors +were closed, and upon them was affixed a notice from the +authorities, to the effect that all who worshiped in this church +would, by the authority of the state, be known and treated +hereafter as "infamous heretics," and be exposed to the extreme +penalty of the law if they persisted in holding services there. +But the party to which I belonged heeded not the prohibition, but +beat against the doors furiously and effected an entrance into +the church. The excitement ran high; men and, leaders shouted, +gesticulated and came to blows. The Archbishop was urged to +ascend his episcopal throne and officiate at the altar in spite +of the formal interdiction against him. He consented. But he had +not proceeded far when soldiers, with a wild rush, poured into +the building and began to discharge arrows at the panic-stricken +people. Instantly pandemonium was let loose. The officers +commanding the soldiers demanded the head of the offending +Archbishop. The worshipers made a attempt to resist; then blood +was shed, the sight of which reeled people's heads, and in an +instant, the sanctuary was turned into a house of murder. Taking +advantage of the uproar, the Archbishop, assisted by his + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 54 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +secretaries, escaped through a secret door behind the altar. +On my way home from this terrible scene, I fell upon a procession +of monks. They were carrying images and relies, and a banner upon +which were inscribed these words: "The Virgin Mary, Mother of +God." As they marched on, their number increased by new +additions. But suddenly they encountered another band of monks, +carrying a different banner, bearing the same words which were on +the other party's banner, but instead of "The Virgin Mary, Mother +of God," their banner read: "The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus +Christ." The two processions clashed, and a bloody encounter +followed; in an instant images, relies and banners were all in an +indiscriminate heap. The troops were called out again, but Such +was the zeal of the conflicting parties that not until the +majority of them were disabled and exhausted, was tranquility +restored. + + Looking about me, I saw the spire of neighboring church. My +curiosity prompted me to wend my steps thither. As soon as I +entered, I was recognized as belonging to the forbidden sect, and +in an instant a hundred fists rained down blows upon head. "He +has polluted the sanctuary,' they cried. "He has committed +sacrilege." "No quarter to the enemies of the true church," cried +others, and it was a miracle that, beaten, bruised, my clothes +torn from my back, I regained the street. A few seconds later, +looking up the streets, I saw another troop of soldiers, rushing +down toward this church at full speed. It seems that while I was +being beaten in the main auditorium, in the baptistery of the +church they were killing, in cold blood, the Archbishop, who was +suspected of a predilection for the opposite party, and who had +refused to retract or resign from his office. The next day I +heard that one hundred and thirty-seven bodies were taken out of +this building. + + Seized with terror, I now began to run, but, alas, I had +worse experiences in store for me. I was compelled to pass the +principal square in the center of the city before I could reach a +place of safety. When I reached this square, it had the +appearance of a veritable battlefield. It was Sunday morning, and +the partisans of rival bishops, differing in their interpretation +of theological doctrines, were fighting each other like maddened, +malignant creatures. One could hear, over the babel of discordant +yells, scriptural phrases. The words, "The Son is equal to the +Father," "The Father is greater than the Son," "He is begotten of +the same substance as the Father," "He is of like substance, but +not of the same substance," "You are a heretic," "You are an +atheist," were invariably accompanied with blows, stabs and sword +thrusts, until, as an eye-witness, I can take an oath that I saw +the streets leading out of the square deluged with palpitating +human blood. Suddenly the commander of the cavalry, Hermogenes, +rode upon the scene of feud and bloodshed. He ordered the +followers of the rival bishops to disperse, but instead of +minding his authority, the zealots of both sides rushed upon his +horse, tore the rider from the saddle and began to beat him with +clubs and stones which they picked up from the street. He managed +to escape into a house close by, but the religious rabble +surrounded the house and set fire to it. Hermogenes appeared at +the window, begging for his life. He was attacked again, an +killed, and his mangled body dragged through the streets and +rushed into a ditch. + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 55 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + The spectacle inflamed me, being a sectarian myself. I felt +ashamed that I was not showing an equal zeal for my party I, too, +longed to fight, to kill, to be killed for my religion. And, +anon! the opportunity presented itself. I saw, looking up the +street to my right, a group of my fellow-believers, who, like +myself, shut out of their own church by the orthodox authorities, +armed with whips loaded with lead and with clubs, were entering a +house. I followed them. As we went in, we commanded the head of +the family and his wife to appear. When they did, we asked them +if it was true that in their prayers to Mary they had refrained +from the use of the words, "The mother of God." They hesitated to +give a direct answer, whereupon we used the club, and then, the +scourge. Then they said they believed in and revered the blessed +virgin, but would not, even if we killed them, say that she was +the mother of God. This obstinacy exasperated us and we felt it +to be our religious duty, for the honor of our, divine Queen, to +perpetrate such cruelties upon them as would shock your gentle +ears to hear. We held them over slowly burning fires, flung lime +into their eyes, applied roasted eggs and hot irons to the +sensitive parts of their bodies, and even gagged them to force +the sacrament into their mouths. ... As we went from house to +house, bent upon our mission, I remember an expression of one of +the party who said to the poor woman who was begging for mercy: +"What! shall I be guilty of defrauding the vengeance of God of +its victims?" A sudden chill ran down my back. I felt my flesh +creep. Like a drop of poison the thought embodied in those words +perverted whatever of pity or humanity was left in me, and I felt +that I was only helping to secure victims with which to feed the +vengeance of God! + + I was willing to be a monster for the glory of God! + + The Christian sect to which I belonged was one of the oldest +in Christendom. Our ancestors were called the Puritans of the +fourth and fifth centuries. We believe that no one can be saved +outside of our communion. When a Christian of another church +joins us, we re-baptize him, for we do not believe in the +validity of other baptisms. We are so particular that we deny our +cemeteries to any other Christians than our own members. If we +find that we have, by mistake, buried a member of another church +in our cemetery, we dig up his bones, that he may not pollute the +soil. When one of the churches of another denomination falls into +our hands, we first fumigate the building, and with a sharp knife +we scrape the wood off the altars upon which other Christian +priests have offered prayers. We under no consideration, allow a +brother Christian from another church to commune with us; if by +stealth anyone does, we spare not his life. But we are persecuted +just as severely as we persecute, ourselves. [This sect +(Donatist) and others, lasted for a long time, and made Asia and +Africa a hornet's nest, -- a blood-stained arena, of feud and +riot and massacre, until Mohammedanism put an end, In these parts +of the world, not only to these sects, but to Christianity +itself.] + + As the sun was setting, fatigued with the holy Sabbath's +religious duties, I started to go home. On my way back, I saw +even wilder, bloodier scenes, between rival ecclesiastical +factions, streets even redder with blood, if possible, yea, + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 56 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +certain sections of the city seemed as if a storm of hail, or +tongues of flame had swept over them. Churches were on fire, +cowled monks attacking bishops' residences, rival prelates +holding uproarious debates, which almost always terminated in +bloodshed and, to cap the day of many vicissitudes, I saw a bear +on exhibition which bad been given its freedom by the ruler, as a +reward for his faithful services in devouring heretics. The +Christian ruler kept two fierce bears by his own chamber, to +which those who did not bold the orthodox faith were thrown in +his presence while he listened with delight to their groans. + + When I reached home, I was panting for breath. I had lived +through another Sabbath day. [If the reader will take the pains +to read Dean Milman's History of Christianity, and his History of +Latin Christianity; also Gibbon's Downfall of the Roman Empire, +and Mosheim's History of Christianity, he will see that we have +exaggerated nothing. The Athanasian and the Arian, the Donstist +and Sabellian, the Nestorian and Alexandrian factions converted +the early centuries into a long reign of terror.] + + I feel like covering my face for telling you so grewsome a +tale. But if this were the fourth or the fifth century, instead +of the twentieth, and this were Constantinople, or Alexandria, or +Antioch, instead of Chicago, I would have spent just such a +Sunday as I have described to you. In giving you this +concentrated view of human society in the great capitals of +Christendom in the year 400, I have restrained, rather than +spurred, my imagination. Remember, also that I have excluded from +my generalization all reference to the centuries of religious +wars which tore Europe limb from limb, -- the wholesale +exterminations, the crusades, which represented one of the +maddest spells of misguided and costly zeal which ever, shuck our +earth, the persecution of the Huguenots, the extermination of the +Albigenses and of the Waldenses, -- the massacre of St. +Bartholomew, the Inquisition with its red hand upon the intellect +of Europe, the Antibaptist outrages in Germany, the smithfield +fires in England, the religious outrages in Scotland, the Puritan +excesses in America, -- the reign of witchcraft and superstition +throughout the twenty centuries -- I have not touched my picture +with any colors borrowed from these terrible chapters in the +history of our unfortunate earth. I have also left out all +reference to Papal Rome, with its dungeons, its stakes, its +massacres and its burnings. I have said nothing of Galileo, +Vanini, Campanella or Bruno. I have passed over all this in +silence. You can imagine, now, how much more repellant and +appalling this representation of the Roman world under +Christianity would have been had I stretched my canvas to include +also these later centuries. + + But I tremble to be one-sided or unjust, and so I hasten to +say that during the twenty centuries reign of our religion, the +world has also seen some of the fairest flowers spring out of the +soil of our earth. During the past twenty centuries there have +been men and women, calling themselves Christians, who have been +as generous, as heroic and as deeply consecrated to high ideals +as any the world has ever produced. Christianity has in many +instances, softened the manners of barbarians and elevated the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 57 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +moral tone of primitive peoples. It gives us more pleasure to +speak of the good which religions have accomplished than to call +attention to the evil they have caused. But this raises a very +important question. "Why do you not confine yourself," we are +often asked, "to the virtues you find in Christianity or +Mohammedanism, instead of discussing so frequently their +short-comings? Is it not better to praise than to blame, to +recommend than to find fault?" This is a fair question, and we +may just as well meet it now as at any other time. + + Such is the economy of nature that no man, or institution or +religion, can be altogether evil. The poet spoke the truth when +he said: "There is a soul of goodness in things evil." Evil, in a +large sense, is the raw material of the good. All things +contribute to the education of man. The question, then, whether +an institution is helpful or hurtful, is a relative one. The +character of an institution, as that of an individual, is +determined by its ruling passion. Despotism, for instance, is +generally considered to be an evil. And yet, a hundred good +things can be said of despotism. The French people, over a +hundred years ago, overthrew the monarchy. And yet the monarchy +had rendered a thousand services to France, It was the monarchy +that created France, that extended her territory, developed her +commerce, built her great cities, defended her frontiers against +foreign invasion, and gave her a place among the first-class +nations of Europe. Was it just, then, to pull down an institution +that had done so much for France? + + Why did the Americans overthrow British rule in this +country? Had not England rendered innumerable services to the +colony? Was she not one of the most progressive, most civilizing +influences in the modern world? Was it just, then, that we should +have beaten out of the land a government that had performed for +us so many friendly acts? + + Referring once more to the case of Russia: Why do the +awakened people in that country demand the overthrow of the +autocracy? Is there nothing good to be said of Russian autocracy? +Have not the Czars loved their country and fought for her +prosperity? Have they not brought Russia up to her present size, +population and political influence in Europe? Have they not +beautified her cities and enacted laws for the protection of +their subjects? Is it right, then, in spite of all these things +that autocracy has done for Russia, to seek to overthrow it? + + Once more: Why do the missionaries go into India and China +and Japan trying to replace the ancestral religion of these +people with the Christian faith? Why does the missionary labor to +overthrow the worship of Buddha, Confucius and Zoroaster? Have +not these great teachers helped humanity? Have they not rendered +any services to their countrymen? Are there no truths in their +teachings? Are there no virtues in their lives? Is it right, +then, that the missionary should criticize these ancient faiths? + + Let us take an example from nearer home. We were talking +some years ago with a gentleman who had just returned from +Dowie's Zion. He was surprised to find there a clean, orderly and +well-behaved people, apparently quite happy. He said that after + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 58 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +his experience there, he would rather do business with Dowie and +his men than with the average member of other religious bodies. +He found the Dowieites honest, reliable and peaceful. Now, all +this may be true, and I hope it is; but what of it? Dowieism is +an evil, notwithstanding this recital of its virtues. It is an +evil, because it arrests the intellectual development of man, +because it makes dwarfs of the people it converts, because it +pinches the forehead of each convert into that of either a +charlatan or an idiot. We regret to have to use these harsh +terms. But Dowieism is denounced, because it brings up human +beings as if they were sheep, because it robs them of the most +glorious gift of life, the freedom to grow, Dowieism is an evil, +because it makes the human race mediocre by contracting its +intellect down to the measure of a creed. We would much rather +that the Dowieites smoked and drank and swore, than that they +should fear to think. There is hope for a bad man. There is no +hope for the stupid. + + In the case of an institution or a religion, then, it is not +by adding up the debit and credit columns and striking a balance +sheet that the question whether it has helped or hurt mankind is +to be determined. We cannot, for instance, place ninety-nine +vices in one column, and a hundred virtues in another, and +conclude therefrom that the institution or the religion should be +preserved. Nor, conversely speaking, can we place a hundred vices +against ninety-nine virtues, and, therefore, condemn the +institution. Even as a man is hanged for one act in his life, in +spite of the thousand good acts which may be quoted against the +one evil deed, so an institution or a religion is honored or +condemned, as we said above, for its ruling passion. +Mohammedanism, Judaism and Christianity have done much good, just +as other religions have, but they are condemned today by modern +thought, because they are a conspiracy against reason -- because +they combat progress, as if it were a crime! + + Another criticism frequently advanced against us is that we +fail to realize that all the evil of which Christianity is said +to have been the cause, is only the result of human ignorance and +passion. When attention is called, for instance, to the +intolerance and stubborn opposition to science, of Christianity, +the answer given is, that this conduct is not only not inspired +by the spirit of Christianity, but that it is in direct +contradiction to its teachings. The Christians claim that all the +luminous chapters in history have been inspired by their +religion, all its sorrowful and black pages have been written by +the passions of men. But this apology, which, we regret to say, +is in every preacher's mouth, is not an honest one. In our +opinion, both Mohammedanism and Christianity, as also Judaism, +are responsible for the evil as well as the good they have +accomplished in the world. They are responsible for the lives +they have destroyed, as for the lives they have saved. They are +responsible for the passions they have aroused, -- for the +hatred, the persecutions and the religious wars of the centuries, +as for the piety and charity they have encouraged. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 59 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + The central idea in all the three religions mentioned above, +is that God has revealed his will to man. There is, we say +frankly, the root of all the evil which religion has inflicted +upon our unfortunate earth. The poison is in both the flower and +the fruit which that idea brings forth. If it be true that God +has revealed his will, that he has told us, for instance, to +believe in the Trinity, the atonement, the fall of man, and the +dogma of eternal punishment, and we refuse to do so, will we not, +then, be regarded as the most odious, the most heinous, the most +rebellious, the most sacrilegious, the most stiff-necked, the +most criminal people in the world? Think of refusing to believe +as God has dictated to us! Think of saying no! to one's Creator +and Father in Heaven I Think of the consequences of differing +with God, and tempting others to do the same! Is it at all +strange that during the early centuries of Christianity, the +people who hesitated to agree with the deity, or to believe as he +wanted them to, were looked upon as incarnate fiends, as the +accomplices of the devil and the enemies of the human race, and +were treated accordingly? + +The doctrine of salvation by faith makes persecution inevitable. +If to refuse to believe in the Trinity, or in the divinity of +Christ, is a crime against God and will be punished by an +eternity of hell in the next world, and if such a man endangers +the eternal salvation of his fellows, is it not the duty of all +religious people to endeavor to exterminate him and his race, now +and here? How can Christian people tolerate the rebel against +their God, when God himself has pronounced sentence of death +against him? Why not follow the example of the deity, as set +forth in the persecutions of the Old Testament? + + When we have a God for a teacher, the highest and surest +virtue is unconditional acquiescence. Judaism, Mohaemmedanism and +Christianity, in giving us a God for a teacher, have taken away +from us the liberty to think for ourselves. Each one of these +three religions makes unconditional obedience the price of the +salvation it offers, but do you know what other word in the +English language unconditional obedience is a synonym of? -- +Silence! A dumb world, a tongue-tied humanity alone can be saved! +The good man is the man on his knees with his mouth in the dust. +But silence is sterility! Silence is slavery! Think, then, of the +character of a religion which makes free speech, free thought, a +crime -- which hurls hell against the Protestant! + + There is a third question to be answered: It is true, they +say to us, that there are many things in the Koran, the Old +Testament and the New, which are really injurious, and which +ought to be discarded, but there are also many beautiful +principles, noble sentiments and high educational maxims in these +scriptures. Why not, then, dwell upon these, and pass in silence +over the objectionable teachings of these religions? + + It is not necessary to repeat again that in all so-called +sacred scriptures, there are glorious truths. It could not have +been otherwise. All literature, whether secular or religious, is +the voice of man and sweeps the whole compass of human love and +hope. We have no objection to quoting from the Veddas, the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 60 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +Avestas, the Koran or the Bible; nor do we hesitate to admire and +enjoy and praise generously the ravishingly beautiful utterances +of the poets and prophets of all times and climes. Nevertheless, +it remains true that the modern world finds more practical help +and inspiration in secular authors, in the books of science and +philosophy, than in these so-called inspired scriptures. Jesus, +who is popularly believed to have preached the Sermon on the +Mount, has said little or nothing which can help the modern world +as much as the scientific revelations of a student like Darwin, +or of a philosopher like Herbert Spencer, or of a poet like +Goethe or Shakespeare. We know this will sound like blasphemy to +the believer, but a moment's honest and fearless reflection will +convince everyone of the fact that neither Mohammed nor Jesus had +in view modern conditions when they delivered their sermons. +Jesus could have had no idea of a world outside of his little +Palestine. The thought of the many races of the world mingling +together in one country could never have occurred to him. His +vision did not embrace the vista of two thousand years, nor did +his mind rise to the level of the problems which today tax the +brain and heart of man. Jesus believed implicitly that the world +would speedily come to an end, that the sun and the moon would +soon fall from the face of the sky, and that people living then +in Palestine would not taste of death before they saw "the Son of +Man return upon the clouds." Jesus had no idea of a progressive +evolution of humanity. It was beyond him to conceive the +consolidation of the nations into one fellowship, the new +resources which science would tap, or the new energies which +human industry would challenge. Jesus was in peaceful ignorance +of the social and international problems which confront the world +of today. The Sermon on the Mount, then, which is said to be the +best in our gospels, can be of little help to us, for it could +not have been meant for us. And it is very easy to show that the +modern world ignores, not out of disrespect to Jesus, but by the +force of circumstances and the evolution of society, the +principles contained in that renowned sermon. + + I was waiting for transportation at the corner of one of the +principal streets of Chicago, the other day, when, looking about +me, I saw the tremendous building's which commerce and wealth +have reared in our midst. On one hand was a savings bank, on the +other a colossal national bank, and up and down the street a +thousand equally solid and substantial buildings, devoted to the +interests of commerce and civilization. To bring out and +emphasize the wide breach between the man who preached the Sermon +on the Mount, and progressive and aggressive, busy and wealthy, +modern Chicago, I took the words of Jesus and mentally inscribed +them upon the walls of these buildings. Upon the savings bank -- +and a savings bank represents economy, frugality, self-sacrifice, +self-restraint, -- the desire of the people to provide for the +uncertainties of the future, to lay by something for the +education of their children, for the maintenance of their +families when they themselves have ceased to live, -- I printed +upon the facade of this institution, figuratively speaking, these +words of the Oriental Jesus: + + "Take no thought of the morrow, for the morrow + will take care of itself." + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 61 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + And upon the imposing front of the national bank, I wrote: + + "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth." + + If we followed these teachings, would not our industrial and +social life sink at once to the level of the stagnating Ascetics? + + Pursuing this comparison between Jesus and modern life, I +inscribed upon the handsome churches whose pews bring enormous +incomes, and on the palatial residences of Bishops with salaries +of from twenty-five to a hundred thousand dollars, (this was 1909 +folks! EFF) these words: + + "How hardly shall a rich man enter into the + kingdom of Heaven," and, "It is easier for a camel to + go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to + enter the kingdom of Heaven." + + In plain words, the gospel condemns wealth, and cries, "Woe +unto you rick," and "Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor," +which, by the way, would only be shifting the temptation of +wealth from one class to another. Buckle was nearer the truth, +and more modem in spirit, when he ascribed the progress of man to +the pursuit of truth and the acquisition of wealth. + + But let us apply the teachings of Jesus to still other +phases of modern life. Some years ago our Cuban neighbors +appealed to the United States for protection against the cruelty +and tyranny of Spanish rule. We sent soldiers over to aid the +oppressed and down-trodden people in the Island. Now, suppose, +instead of sending iron-clads and admirals, -- Schley, Sampson +and Dewey,-- we had advised the Cubans to "resist not evil," and +to "submit to the powers that be," or suppose the General of our +army, or the Secretary of our navy, had counseled seriously our +soldiers to remember the words of Jesus when fighting the +Spaniards: "If a man smite thee on one cheek," etc. + + Write upon our halls of justice and court-houses and statute +books, and on every lawyer's desk, these solemn words of Jesus: +"He that taketh away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." + + Introduce into our Constitution, the pride and bulwark of +our liberties, guaranteeing religious freedom unto all, -- these +words of Paul: "If any man preach any other gospel than that +which I have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Think of +placing nearly fifty millions of our American population under a +curse! + + Tell this to the workers in organized charities: "Give to +every man that asketh of thee," which, if followed, would make a +science of charity impossible. + + To the workingmen, or the oppressed seeking redress and +protesting against evil, tell this: "Blessed are they that are +persecuted," which is equivalent to encouraging them to submit +to, rather than to resist, oppression. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 62 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Or upon our colleges and universities, our libraries and +laboratories consecrated to science, write the words: "The wisdom +of this world is foolishness with God," and "God has chosen the +foolish to confound the wise." Ah, yes, the foolish of Asia, it +is true, succeeded in confounding the philosophers of Europe. +Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, did replace Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, Caesar and the Antonines! But it was a +trance, a spell, a delirium only, and it did not last, -- it +could not last. The charm is at last broken. Europe is forever +free from the exorcism of Asia. + + I believe the health and sanity and virtue of our Europe +would increase a hundred fold, if we could, from this day forth, +cease to pretend professing by word of mouth what in our own +hearts and lives we have completely outgrown. If we could be cere +and brave; if our leaders and teachers would only be honest with +themselves and, honest with the modern world, there would, +indeed, be a new earth and a new humanity -- But the past is +past. It is for us to sow the seeds which in the day of their +fruition shall emancipate humanity from the pressing yoke of a +stubborn Asiatic superstition, and push the future even beyond +the beauty and liberty of the old Pagan world! + + CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM + + Christianity as an Asiatic cult is not suitable to European +races. To prove this, let us make a careful comparison between +Paganism and Christianity. There are many foolish things, and +many excellent things, in both the Pagan and the Christian +religions. We are not concerned with particular beliefs and +rites; it is Paganism as a philosophy of life, and Christianity +as a philosophy of life, that we desire to investigate. And at +the threshold of our investigation we must bear in mind that +Paganism was born and grew into maturity in Europe, while Asia +was the cradle of Christianity. It would be superfluous to +undertake to prove that in politics, in government, in +literature, in art, in science, in the general culture of the +people, Europe was always in advance of Asia. Do we know of any +good reason, when it comes to religion, why Asia should be +incomparably superior to anything Europe has produced in that +line? Unless we believe in miracles, the natural inference would +be that a people who were better educated in every way than the +Ascetics should have also possessed the better religion. I admit +that this is only inferential, or a-priori reasoning, and that it +still remains to be shown by the recital of facts, that Europe +not only ought to have produced a better religion than Asia, but +that she did. + + In my opinion, between the Pagan and Christian view of life +there is the same difference that there is between a European and +an Asiatic. What makes a Roman a Roman, a Greek a Greek, and a +Persian a Persian? That is a very interesting, but also a very +difficult question. Why are not all nations alike? Why is the oak +more robust than the spruce? What are the subtle influences which +operate in the womb of nature, where "the embryos of races are +nourished into form and individuality?" I cannot answer that +question satisfactorily, and I am not going to attempt to answer + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 63 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +it at all. We know there is a radical difference between the +European and the Asiatic; we know that Oriental and Occidental +culture are the antitheses of each other, and nowhere else is +this seen more clearly than in their interpretations of the +universe, that is to say, in their religions. + + In order to understand the Oriental races, we must discover +the standpoint from which they take their observations. + + But first, it is admitted, of course, that there are +Europeans who are more Asiatic in their habits of life and +thought than the Ascetics themselves, and, conversely, there +are Ascetics who in spirit, energy and progressiveness are +abreast of the most advanced representatives of European culture. + + Nor has Asia been altogether barren; she has blossomed in +Many spots, and she nursed the flame of civilization at a time +when Europe was not yet even cradled. + + To show the intellectual point of view of the Asiatic, let +me quote a passage from the Book of Job, which certainly is an +oriental composition, and one of the finest: + + "How, then, can man be justified with God, or how can + he be clean that is born of a woman? Man that is a worm, and + the son of man, which is a worm." + + This, then, is the standpoint of the Oriental. He believes +he is a poor little worm. His philosophy must necessarily trail +in the dust. A worm cannot have the thoughts of an eagle; a worm +cannot have the imagination of a Titan; a worm sees the world +only as a worm may. This is the angle of vision of the Asiatic. +He calls himself a worm, and naturally his view of life shrinks +to the limits of his standpoint. To be perfectly fair, however, +we must admit there are passages in all the bibles of the Orient +which are as daring as those found in any European book, but they +represent only the strayings of the Oriental mind, not its normal +pulse. The habitual accent of the Oriental is that man, calling a +woman his mother, is a worm. In the Psalms of David, or whoever +wrote the book, we read these words: "I am a worm, and not a +man." What did the Oriental see in the worm, which, induced him +to select it out of all things as the original, so to speak, of +man? The worm crawls and creeps and writhes. Nothing is so +distressing as to see its helpless wiggling -- and its home is in +the dust; dirt is its daily food. Moreover, it is in danger of +being stamped or trampled into annihilation at any instant. A +worm represents the minimum of worth, -- the dregs in the cup of +existence; it is the scum or the froth of life, which one may +blow into the air. It is impossible to descend lower than this in +self-abasement. + + When the Oriental, therefore, says that man is a worm or "I +am a worm," he is just as much obeying the cumulative pressure of +his Asiatic ancestry, and voicing the inherited submission of the +Oriental mind, as Prometheus, with the vulture at his breast, and +shaking, his hand in the face of the gods, expresses the revolt +of the European mind. The normal state for the Asiatic is + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 64 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +submission; for the European it is independence. Slavery has a +fascination for the children of the east. The air of independence +is too sharp for them. They crave a master, a Sultan or a Czar, +who shall own them body and soul. Through long practice, they +have acquired the art of servility and flattery, of salaams and +prostrations -- an art in which they have become so efficient +that it would be to them like throwing away so much capital to +abandon its practice. They expect to go to Heaven on their knees. +This is not said to hurt the feelings of the races of the Orient. +We are explaining the influence of absolutism upon the products +and tendencies of the human mind. The religion of the Orient, +then, notwithstanding its many beautiful features like its +polities, is a product of the suppressed mind, which finds in the +creeping worm of the dust the measure of its own worth. How +different is the European from the Asiatic in this respect! The +latter crawls upon the stage of this magnificent universe with +the timidity, hesitancy and tremblings of a worm. True to his +bringing up, be falls prostrate, overwhelmed by the marvelous +immensities opening before him and the abysses yawning at his +feet. He contracts and dwindles in size, imploring with +outstretched hands to be spared because he is a poor worm. It is +a part of his religion or philosophy that if he admits he is +nothing but a worm, the dread powers will not consider him a +rival or a rebel, but will look upon him as a confirmed subject, +and permit him to live. This is his art, the strategy by which he +hopes to secure his salvation. + + There has never been a republic in Asia, which is another +way of saying that the Asiatic mind has never asserted its +independence. Hence its thought smacks of slavery. In politics, +as in religion, the Asiatic has always been passive. He has never +been an actor, but only a spectator. It is his to nod the head, +fold the arms and bend the knee. On earth he must have a king and +a pope, and in heaven an Allah or a Jehovah. He has not been +created for himself, but for the glory of his earthly and +heavenly Lords. This radical difference between European self- +appreciation and Asiatic self-depreciation furnishes the key to +the problem under discussion. + + Paganism is the religion of a self-governing race. Buddhism, +Judaism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity are religions born on a +soil where man is owned by another. It will be impossible to +imagine Marcus Aurelius, for instance, crawling upon his knees +before any being, or calling himself a worm. One must have in his +blood the taint of a thousand years of slavery, before he can +stoop so low. Marcus Aurelius was a gentleman. The European +conception of a gentleman implies self-respect and independence; +the Oriental conception of a gentleman implies self-abasement and +acquiescence. The Oriental gentleman is a man who serves his king +as though he were his slave. + + But observe now how the Oriental proceeds. to pull down his +mind to the level of his body, which he has likened to a worm. +When I was still a Presbyterian minister, I was invited to +address a Sunday-school camp-meeting at Asbury Park in New +Jersey. There were other speakers besides myself; one of them, +known as a Sunday-school leader, had brought with him a chart of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 65 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +the human heart, which, when he arose to address the children, he +spread on a black-board before them: This is a picture of your +heart before you have accepted Jesus. What do you think of it?" +he asked the school. "It is all black," was the answer; and it +was. He had drawn a totally black picture to represent the heart +of the child before conversion. + + In all the literature of Pagandom, there is not the least +intimation of so fearful an idea as the total depravity of human +nature. The Pagans never thought, spoke, or heard of such a +thing. It was inconceivable to them; they would have recoiled +from it as from a species of barbarism. How radically different, +then, must European culture have been from the Asiatic. There is +a gulf well-nigh impassible between the thought of a free-born +citizen and that of the oppressed and enslaved Oriental. + + But let us continue. Not satisfied with thinking of himself +as a worm, and of his Intellectual and moral nature as totally +degraded, the Oriental strikes with the same paralyzing stroke, +at the world in which he lives, until it, too, withers and +becomes an ugly and heinous thing. He calls the world a "vale of +tears," ruled by the powers of darkness, and groaning under a +primeval curse. "The world, the flesh and the devil" become a +trio of iniquity and sin. Some of you in your earlier days must +have sung that Methodist hymn which represents the world as a +snare and a delusion: + + "The world is a fleeting show + For man's illusion given." + + Given! Think of believing that the world has been purposely +given us to lead us astray. The thought staggers the mind. It +suggests a terrible conspiracy against man. For his ruin, sun, +moon and stars co-operate with the devil. Help! we cry, as we +realize our inability to cope with the tremendous powers hurling +themselves against us like billows of the raging sea, and taking +our breath away. It suggests that we are placed in a world which +has been made purposely beautiful, in order to tempt us into sin. +Think of such a belief! It is that of a slave. It is Asiatic; it +is not European. Neither you nor I, in all our readings, have +ever come across any such attitude toward nature in Pagan +literature. The Greeks and the Romans loved nature and made +lovely gods out of every running brook, caressing zephyr, dancing +wave, glistening dew, sailing cloud, beaming star, beautiful +woman, or brave man. The Oriental suspects nature and regards her +smiles -- the shining of the sun, the perfume of the meadows, the +swell of the seal the fluttering of the branches tipped with +blossoms, the emerald grass, the sapphire sky -- looks upon all +these as the seductive advances of a prostitute in whose embrace +lurks death! + + But, once more; not satisfied with dragging the world down +to the plane of his totally depraved nature, and that again to +the level of the worm, the Asiatic projects his fatal thought +into the next world and, crossing the grave, that silent and +painless home of a tired race, he crowds the beyond with a +thousand thousand pains and aches and horrors and fires -- with + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 66 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +sulphur and brimstone and burning hells. His frightened +imagination invokes dark and infernal beings without number, +fanning with their dark wings the very air he breathes. This is +too revolting to think of. Poor slave! Inured to suffering, -- to +the lash, to oppression's crushing heel, -- he dare not dream of +a painless future, of a quiet, peaceful sleep at life's end, nor +has he the divine audacity to invent a new world wherein the +misery and slavery of his present existence will be impossible, +-- where all his tyrants will be dead, where he shall taste of +sweet freedom and become himself a god. In his timidity and +shrinking submission, with the spring of his heartbroken, his +spirit crushed, all independence strangled in his soul, -- he +puts in the biggest corner of his heaven even, -- a hell! Nor +does he pause there, but, stinging his slave imagination once +more, he declares that this future of torture and hell-fire is +everlasting. He cannot improve upon that. Deeper in degradation +he cannot descend. That is the darkest thought he can have, and, +strange to say, he hugs it to his bosom as a mother would her +child. The doctrine of hell is the thought of a slave and of a +coward. No free-born man, no brave soul could ever have invented +so abhorrent an idea. Only under a regime of absolutism, only +under an Oriental Sultan whose caprice is law, whose vengeance is +terrible, whose favors are fickle whose power is crushing, whose +greed is insatiable, whose torture instruments are without +number, and whose dark dungeons always resound with the rattling +of chains and the groans of martyrs -- only under such a regime +could man have invented an unending hell. + + But we were mistaken when we said that hell was the darkest +that the Asiatic was capable of. He has grafted upon the European +mind a belief which is darker still. + + Is there anything more precious in human life than children? +The sternest heart melts, the fiercest features relax, at the +sight of an innocent, sweet, laughing, frolicking babe in its +mother's arms. Look at its glorious eyes, so full of surprises, +so deep, so appealing! Look at the soft round hands, the little +feet, the exquisite mouth, opening like a bud! Hear its prattle, +which is nothing but the mind beginning to stir! Watch its +gestures, the first language of the child! See it with its tiny +arms about its mother's neck. Mark its joy when it is kissed. +What else in our human world is more beautiful, more divine? And +yet, and yet, the slave creed of Asia has drawn into its burning +net of damnation even the cradle. John Burroughs describes how in +a Catholic cemetery near where he lives he was shown a neglected, +unkept corner, used for the burial of unbaptized children. +Consecrated ground is denied to them, and so their poor bodies +are huddled together in this profane plot, unblessed and unsaved. +I do not wish to live in a world where such absurdities are not +only countenanced, but where they are exalted to the dignity of a +religion! + + O holy children! O sweet children! huddled together in +unconsecrated ground, and thus exposed to the cruelty of +indescribable demons! Can you hear me? I am a man of compassion. +I can forgive the murderer. I can pardon and pity the meanest +wretch and take him into my arms, but I confess that even if I + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 67 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +had a heart as big as the ocean, I could not, I would not, +forgive the creed that can be guilty of such inhumanity against +you, -- dear, innocent ones, who were born to breathe but for a +moment the harsh air of this world! When such gloom overpowers me +and wrings from my lips such hard words, I find some little +respite in contemplating the old Pagan world in its best days. I +hasten for consolation to my Pagan friends, and in their sanity +find healing for my bruised heart. + + In one of his letters, the Greek Plutarch says this about +children, which I want you to compare with what St. Augustine, +the representative of the Asiatic creed, says on the same +subject. "It is irreligious," writes Plutarch, "to lament for +those pure souls (the children) who have passed into a better +life and a happier dwelling place." [Plutarch Ad Uxorem. Comp. +Lecky's History of European Morals, Vol. 1.] Compare this Pagan +tenderness for children with the Asiatic doctrine of infant +damnation but recently thrown out of the Presbyterian creed. Yet, +if St. Augustine is to be believed, it is a heresy to reject the +damnation of. unbaptized infants: "Whosoever shall tell," writes +this Father of the church, "that infants shall be quickened in +Christ who died without partaking in his sacrament, does both +contradict the apostles' teaching and condemn the whole church." +[St. Augustine Epist. 166.] It is infinitely more religious to +disagree with the apostles and the church, if that is their +teaching. The Pagan view of children is the holier view. The +doctrine of the damnation of children could only find lodgment in +the brain of a slave or a madman. It is Asiatic and altogether +foreign to the culture of Europe. + + All that we have advanced thus far may be summed up in one +phrase: Asia invented the idea that man is a fallen being. This +idea, which is the dors espinal, -- the backbone -- of +Christianity, never for once entered the mind of the European. We +have already quoted from Job and the psalms; the following is +from the book of Jeremiah: "The heart is deceitful above all +things and desperately wicked." This is one of the texts upon +which the doctrine of the fall of man is based. We repeat that +only under a religion of slavery, where one slave vies with +another to abase himself before his lords and masters, could such +an idea have been invented. There is not a man in all our sacred +scriptures who could stand before the deity erect and unabashed, +or who could speak in the accents of a Cicero Who said, "We boast +justly of our own virtue, which we could not do if we derived it +from the deity and not from ourselves," or this from Epictetus, +"It is characteristic of a wise man that he looks for all his +good and evil from himself." Such independence was foreign to a +race that believed itself fallen. + + In further confirmation of our position, it may be said that +the models which the Pagans set up for emulation were men like +themselves, only nobler. The models which the Orientals set up +for imitation, on the other hand, were supernatural beings, or +men who were supposed to possess supernatural powers. The great +men for the Oriental are men who can work miracles, who possess +magical powers, who possess secrets and can know how to influence +the deity, -- Moses, Joshua, David, Joseph, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 68 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +-- all demi-divinities. The Pagans, on the other hand, selected +natural men, men like themselves, who had earned the admiration +of their fellows. Let me quote to you Plutarch's eloquent +sentence relative to this subject: "Whenever we begin an +enterprise or take possession of a charge, or experience a +calamity, we place before our eyes the examples of the greatest +men of our own or of bygone ages, and we ask ourselves how Plato, +or Epaminondas, or Lycurgus, or Agesilaus, would have acted. +Looking into these personages, as into a faithful mirror, we can +remedy our defects in word or deed." + + The Westminster Catechism, which in its essentials is a +resume of our Asiatic religion, emphasizes the doctrine of the +fall of man, of which the Pagan world knew nothing, and refused +to believe it until priests succeeded in dominating the mind of +Europe: "The catechism following the Scripture teaches that ... +we are not only a disinherited family, but we are personally +depraved and demoralized." [Wsatminster Catechism, Comments.] +Goodness! the oriental imagination, abused by slavery, cannot rid +itself of the idea of being disinherited, turned out into the +cold, orphaned and smitten with moral sores from head to foot. To +the Pagan, such a description of man would have been the acme of +absurdity. Again: "It (the fall) affirms that he (man) is all +wrong, in all things and all the time." [Ibid] If this was +comforting news to the Asiatic, the Pagan world would have +rejected the idea as unworthy of men in their senses. Once more: +"All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his +wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life +and to the pains of hell forever." [Westminster Catechism, +Comments.] And this is the Gospel we have imported from Asia! + + is it not pathetic? Could slavery ever strike a deeper +bottom than that? Standing before his owner, the Asiatic, of his +own choice, hands himself over to be degraded, to be placed in +chains and delivered up to the torments of hell forever. I +despair of man. I would cry my heart out if I permitted myself to +dwell upon the folly and stupidity and slavery of which man +voluntarily makes himself the victim. Think of it! A man and a +woman, nobody knows where or when, are supposed to have tasted of +the fruit of a tree; the Oriental mind, with its crouching +imagination, pounces upon this flimsy, fanciful tale with the +appetite of a carrion crow, and exalts it to the dignity of an +excuse for the eternal damnation of a whole world. I am dazed! I +can say no more! + + Let us recapitulate. The Oriental distrust of the natural +man, born of self-depreciation, which is the fruit of prolonged +slavery, develops into a sort of mental canker spreading at a +raging pace until the whole universe, with its glorious sun and +stars, becomes an object of horror and loathing. Not satisfied +with thinking of himself as a worm, of his intellectual and moral +nature as totally depraved, he communicates his disease to the +world in which he lives until it, too, shrinks and wastes away. +Then the disease, finding no more on this side of the grave to +feed upon, leaps over the grave and converts the beyond, the +virgin worlds, into an inferno with which to satiate its fear. +Indeed frightful are the thoughts of a slave people! + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 69 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Let me now, in conclusion, call your attention to another +difference between the Occidental and the Oriental mind. When the +body is feeble or ill-nourished, it is less liable to resist +disease; likewise when the mind is alarmed, cowed, or pinched +with fear, it becomes more exposed to superstition. Superstition +is the disease of the mind. It will keep away from robust minds, +as physical disease from a body in health. Now, the Asiatic mind, +seared into silence and subjection, -- starved to a mere shadow +of what it should be, falls an easy prey to all the maladies that +mind is heir to. The European mind, on the other hand, with room +and air to move and grow in, develops a vitality which offers +resistance to all attacks of mental disease. That explains why +superstition thrives with ignorance and slavery, and expires when +science and liberty gain the ascendancy. Sanitary precautions +prevent physical disease; knowledge and liberty constitute the +therapeutics of the mind. Why is the Oriental so prone or partial +to miracle and mystery? His mind is sick. To believe is easier to +him than to reason. He follows the line of the least resistance: +he has invented faith that he may not have to think. The mental +cells in his brain are so starved, so devitalized, that they have +to be whipped into movement. Only the bizarre, the monstrous, the +supernatural, -- demons, ghosts, dream worlds, miracles and +mysteries, -- can hold his attention. Not science, but +metaphysics, barren speculation, -- is the product of the +Oriental mind. The philosopher Bacon describes the Asiatic when +he speaks of men who "have hitherto dwelt but little, or rather +only slightly touched upon experience, whilst they have wasted +much time on theories and fictions of the imagination." + + Again: I sometimes think that if it be true that monotheism, +the idea of one God, was first discovered in Asia, it must have +been suggested to them by the regime of Absolutism, under which +they lived. Unlike Asia, democratic Europe believed in a republic +of gods. Polytheism is more consonant with the republican idea, +than monotheism. If we would let the American President rule the +land without the aid of the two houses of congress or his cabinet +ministers, his power would be infinitely more than it is now, but +his gain would be the people's loss. His increased power would +only represent so much more power taken away from the people, One +God means not only more slaves, but more abject, more helpless +ones. One God is a centralization which reduces man's liberty to +a minimum. With more gods, and gods at times disagreeing among +themselves, and all bidding for man's support, man would count +for more, The Greeks could not tolerate a Jehovah, or an Allah, +before whom the Oriental rabble bent the knee. "Allah knows," +exclaims the Moslem; that is why the Mohammedans continue in +ignorance. "Allah is great," cries again the Turk. That is why he +himself is small. The more powerful the sovereign, the smaller +the subject. + + Now this leads us to a final reflection upon the difference +between the mind brought up under restraint, -- in slavery, -- +and the mind free. "The Pagan," to quote Lecky, "believed that to +become acceptable to the deity, one must be virtuous;" the +Asiatic doctrine, on the contrary, taught that "the most heroic +efforts of human virtue are insufficient to avert a sentence of +eternal condemnation, unless united with an implicit belief" in + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 70 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +the dogmas of religion. In other words, the noblest of men cannot +be saved by his own merits of character alone, for even when we +have done our best, we are but unprofitable slaves," quoting a +Bible text. Only by the merits of Christ, or by the grace of God, +can any man be saved. Have you ever paused to think of the +purpose of this piece of Orientalism? It wipes out every +imaginable claim or right of man. Even when he is just and great +and good, he has no rights, he is as vile as the vilest. Only the +favor of the king can save, -- only the grace of God, who can +save the thief on the cross if he so pleases. Is he not absolute? +If he extends his scepter, you live; if he smiles you are spared; +if he patronizes you, you are fortunate. He says, live! you live. +He says, die I you die. This is the apotheosis of despotism +exalted into a revelation. + + What, then, is our creed, but the thoughts of an eastern +slave population, cringing before the throne of a Sultan, and one +by one signing away their liberties? "The foundation of all real +grandeur is a spirit of proud and lofty independence," says +Buckle; but that is not the spirit of Asia, or of its religion. +It is, and we ought to try to keep it, the spirit of the Western +world. + + I cannot imagine how we in this country, born of sturdy +parents, born of the freedom-loving Pagans of Rome and Greece, +born of men who shook their hands in the face of heaven, and +pulled the gods off their thrones when they violated the rights +of man, -- I cannot understand how we have thrown overboard the +proud, lofty spirit of independence of the Pagans, -- our +forefathers, and taken upon our necks the strangling yoke of the +slave-thought of Asia! + + PART III. + + SOME MODERN OPINIONS ABOUT JESUS. + + Christianity "dwells with noxious exaggeration + about the person of Jesus." + -- Emerson. + + Christmas is the season in the year when pulpit and press +dwell, with what Emerson calls "noxious exaggeration," about the +work and life, as well as the person of Jesus. We have, lying +before us, the Christmas sermon of so progressive a teacher as +the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. [Unitarian -- independent preacher +of All Souls Church, Chicago.] Here is his text: "And the Word +became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory +as of the only begotten from the Father." -- John 1:14. How our +educated neighbor can find food for sober reflection in so +mystical and metaphysical an effusion, is more than we can tell. +Who is the Word that became flesh? And when did the event take +place? What does it mean to be the "only begotten from the +Father?" We know what it means in the orthodox sense, but what +does it mean from the Unitarian standpoint of Mr. Jones? But the +text faithfully reflects the discourse which follows. It is +replete with unlimited compliments to this Word which became +flesh and assumed the name of Jesus. The following is a fair +sample: + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 71 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + "I am compelled to think of Jesus of Nazareth as an + epoch-marking soul, an era-forming spirit, a character in + whom the light of an illustrious race and a holy ancestry + was focalized, a personality from which radiated that + subtle, creative power of the spirit which defies all + analysis, which baffles definition, which over-flows all + words." + + Goodness! this is strong rhetoric, and we regret that the +evidence justifying so sweeping an appreciation has been withheld +from us. Although the doctor says that Jesus "defies all +analysis, baffles definition and overflows all words," he +nevertheless proceeds to devote fifteen pages to the impossible +task. "I am compelled to think of him as one who won the right of +preeminence in the world's history," continues Mr. Jones, as if +he had not said enough. + + That is a definite claim, and personally, we would be glad +to see it made good. But truth compels us to state that the claim +is unjust. Without entering into the question of the authenticity +of the gospels, a question which we have discussed at some length +in our pamphlet on the "Worship of Jesus," we beg to submit that +there is nothing in the gospels, -- the only records which speak +of him, -- to entitle him to the "right of preeminence in the +world's history." No one knows better than Mr. Jones that the +sayings attributed to Jesus -- the finest of them -- are to be +found in the writings of Jewish and Pagan teachers antedating the +birth of Jesus by many centuries. + + Was it, then, for his "works," if not for his "words," that +Jesus "won the right of preeminence in the world's history"? What +did he do that was not done by his predecessors? Was he the only +one who worked miracles? Had the dead never been raised before? +Had the blind, and the lame, and the deaf, remained altogether +neglected before Jesus took compassion upon them? Moreover, what +credit is there in opening the eyes of the blind or in raising +the dead by miracle? Did it cost Jesus any effort to perform +miracles? Did it imply a sacrifice on his part to utilize a small +measure of his infinite power for the good of man? Who, if he +could by miracle feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give light +and sound to the blind and the deaf, would be selfish enough not +to do so? If Mr. Jones does not believe in miracles, then Jesus +contributed even less than many a doctor contributes today to the +welfare of the world. More poor and diseased people are visited +and medicined gratuitously by a modern physician in one month, +than Jesus cured miraculously in the two or three years of his +career. Jesus, if he was "the only begotten of God," as Mr. +Jones' text states, was not in any danger of contracting disease +himself, which is not the case with the doctors and nurses who +extend their services to people afflicted with contagious and +abhorrent diseases, Moreover, Jesus' power must have come to him +divinely, while we have to study, labor, and conquer with the +sweat of our brow any power for good that we may possess. If +Jesus as a God opened the eyes of the blind, would it not have +been kinder if he had prevented blindness altogether? If Jesus +can open the eyes of the blind, then, why is there blindness in +the world? How many of the world's multitude of sufferers did + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 72 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +Jesus help? Which of us, if he had the divine power, would not +have extended it unto every suffering child of man? Of what +benefit is it to open the eyes of a few blind people, two +thousand years ago, in one country, when he could, by his unique +divinity, have done so much more? Mr. Jones falls into the +orthodox habit of not applying to Jesus the same canons of +criticism by which human beings are judged. + + But perhaps the "preeminence of Jesus" lay in his +willingness to give his life for us. Noble is every soul who +prefers truth and duty to life. But was Jesus the only one, or +even the first to offer himself as a sacrifice upon the altar of +humanity? If Jesus died for us, how many thousands have died for +him -- and by infinitely more cruel deaths? It is easier for an +"only begotten" of God, himself a God -- who knows death can have +no power over him -- who sees a throne prepared for him in heaven +-- who is sure of rising from the dead on the third day -- to +face death? than for an ordinary mortal. Yet Jesus showed less +courage, if his reporters are reliable, than almost any martyr +whose name shine upon memory's golden page. + + The European churches are full of pictures showing Jesus +suffering indescribable agonies as the critical hour draws nigh. +We saw, in Paris, a painting called "The HOLY Face," La Sainte +Face, which was, truly, too horrible to look upon; big tears of +blood trickling down his cheeks, his head almost drooping over +his chest, an expression of excruciating pain upon his features, +his eyes fairly imploring for help, -- he is really breaking down +under the weight of his cross. Compare this picture with the +serenity of Socrates drinking the hemlock in prison! + + Nor would it do to say that this is only the Catholic way of +representing Jesus in his passion. The picture is in the gospels, +it may be seen in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross with +all its realism. Far be it from us to withhold from Jesus, if he +really suffered as the gospels report, one iota of the love and +sympathy he deserves, but why convert the whole world into a +black canvas upon which to throw the sole figure of Jesus? Which +of us, poor, weak, sinful though we are, would not be glad to +give his life, if thereby he could save a world? Do you think we +would mourn and groan and weep tears of blood, or collapse, just +when me should be the bravest, if we thought that by our death we +would become the divine Savior of all mankind? Would we stammer, +"Let this cup pass from me, if it be possible," or tear our +hearts with a cry of despair: "My God, my God, why hast thou +forsaken me," if we knew that the eternal welfare of the human +race depended upon our death? If the Russian or Japanese soldier +can take his home and wife and children, -- his hopes and loves, +his life, -- his all, -- and throw them into the mouth of the +cannon, dying with a shout upon his lips, -- who would hesitate +to do the same, when not the salvation of one country alone, but +of the whole world, depended upon it? There are examples of +heroism in the annals of man which would bring the blush to the +cheeks of Jesus, if his biographers have not abused his memory. + + Wherein, then, was the "preeminence" of Jesus? Upon what +grounds does Mr. Jones claim, with "unlimited rhetoric," to use +his own expression, for Jesus "the right of preeminence in the +world's history?" + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 73 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + While there is neither a commendable saying nor an act +attributed to Jesus in our gospels which teachers older than +himself had not already said or done, there are some things in +which his seniors clearly outshine him. King Asoka, for instance, +the Buddhist sovereign of India, 250 years before Jesus, in one +of his edicts chiseled on the rocks of India, declared against +human slavery and offered the sweet gift of liberty to all in +captivity. Jesus used the word slave in one of his parables +(improperly translated servant), without expressing himself on +the subject, except to intimate that when a slave does all his +duty faithfully, even then he is only an "unprofitable slave," +unworthy of the thanks of his master. There was slavery of the +worst kind in the world of Jesus, and yet he never opened his +mouth to denounce the awful curse. It is claimed that Jesus' +doctrine of love was indirectly a condemnation of slavery. Even +then, inasmuch as other and earlier teachers did more than strike +only indirectly at the ancient evil, -- for they not only taught +the brotherhood of man, too, but expressed themselves, besides, +positively on the subject of slavery, -- they have a prior claim +to the "right of preeminence in the world's history, if they +cared anything about ranks and titles. + + The doctrine of humanity to animals, our dumb neighbors, is +a positive tenet in Buddhism; is it in Christianity? + + Two and a half centuries before Jesus, under the influence +of Buddha's teaching, King Asoka convened a religious Parliament, +offering to each and every representative of other religions, +absolute religious liberty. Is there any trace of such tolerance +in any of the sayings of Jesus? On the contrary, the claim of +Jesus that he is the light, the way, the truth, and that no man +can come to the father except through him, leaves no room for the +great est of all boons-liberty, without which every promise of +religion is only a mockery and a cheat. Not even heaven and +eternal life can be accepted as a consideration for the loss of +liberty. The liberty of teaching is alien to a teacher who +claims, as Jesus did, that he alone is infallible, and that all +who came before him were "thieves and robbers." + + Of course, Mr. Jones will deny that Jesus ever said any of +the things ascribed to him which spoil his ideal picture of him. +But he finds his ideal Jesus, whose personality "defies analysis, +baffles definition and overflows all words," in the gospels; if +these are not reliable, what becomes of his argument? If the +writers of our gospels bear false witness against Jesus when they +represent him as "cursing the fig tree," as calling his enemies +liars and devils, as calling the Gentiles dogs, as claiming +equality with God, as menacing with damnation all who disagree +with him, -- what security have we that they speak truthfully +when they put the beatitudes in his mouth? We have no more +reliable authority for attributing to Jesus the beatitudes than +we have for holding him responsible for the curses attributed to +him in the gospels. + + To return to our comparison between Jesus and his +illustrious colleagues. It is with cheerful praise and generous +pleasure that we express our admiration for many of the sayings, +parables, and precepts attributed to Jesus. The fact that they + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 74 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +are much older than Jesus, more universal than Christianity, only +enhances their value and reflects glory upon the human race, a +glory of which Jesus, too, as a brother, if he ever existed, has +his share. We love and admire every teacher who has a message for +humanity; we feel our indebtedness to them and would deem +ourselves fortunate if we could contribute to the advancement of +their noble influence; but we have no idols, and in our pantheon, +truth is above all. We have no hesitation to sacrifice even Jesus +to the Truth. If we were in India, and some Hindoo preacher spoke +of Buddha, as Mr. Jones does of Jesus, as a "personality defying +all analysis, baffling definition and overflowing all words" -- +one who has "won the right to preeminence in the world's +history," -- we would protest against it, in the interest of +Jesus and other teachers, as we now protest against Mr. Jones' +Jesus, in the interest of truth. We have a suspicion, however, +that if Mr. Jones, or preachers of his style, were Hindoos, they +would speak of Buddha, as they now, being Christians, speak of +Jesus -- echoing in both instances the popular opinion. + + The best way to illustrate Mr. Jones' style of reasoning is +to quote a few examples from his sermon: + + "The story of the Good Samaritan has had a power beyond + the story of the senseless blighting of the fig tree; the + ages have loved to think of Jesus talking with the woman at + the well more than they have loved to think of him as + manufacturing wine at Canna. No man is so orthodox but that + he reads more often the Sermon on the Mount than he does the + story of the drowning of the pigs." + + But if he did not "drown the pigs," the reporter who says he +did might have also collected from ancient sources the texts in +the Sermon on the Mount and put them in Jesus' mouth. + + Again: + + "The dauntless crusaders who now in physical armament + and again in the more invulnerable armament of the spirit, + went forth, reckless of danger, regardless of cost, to + rescue the world from heathen hands or to gather souls into + the fold of Christ." + + We can hardly believe Mr. Jones speaking of "rescuing the +world from heathen hands," etc. Who were the heathen? And think +of countenancing the craze of the crusades, which cost a million +lives to possess the empty sepulchre of a mythical Savior! Is it +one of the merits of Christianity that it calls other people +"heathen," or that it kills them and lays waste their lands for +an empty grave? + + Once more: + + "Jesus had tremendous expectations. ... He believed + mightily in the future, not as some glory-rimmed heaven + after death, but as a conquering kingdom of love and + justice. Jesus took large stock in tomorrow; he laughed at + the prudence that never dares, the mock righteousness of the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 75 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + ledger that presumes to balance the books and pay all + accounts up to date. He knew that the prudence of commerce, + the thrift of trade, the exclusive pride of the synagogue, + must be broken through with a larger hope and a diviner + enterprise. He believed there was to be a day after today + and recognized his obligation to it; he acknowledged the + debt which can never be paid to the past and which is paid + only by enlarging the resources of the future. Life, to + Jesus, was an open account; he was a forward looker; he was + honest enough to recognize his obligations to the unborn. + Perhaps this adventurous spirit in the realms of morals, + even more than his heart of love, has made him the + superlative leader of men." + + We sincerely wish all this were true, and would be glad to +have Mr. Jones furnish us with the texts or evidences which have +led him to his conclusions. Would not his adjectives be equally +appropriate in describing any other teacher he admires? "Jesus +had tremendous expectations." Well, though this is somewhat vague +as a tribute to Jesus, we presume the preacher means that Jesus +was an optimist. The reports, unfortunately, flatly contradict +Mr. Jones. Jesus was a "man of sorrows." He expressly declared +that this earth belonged to the devil, that the road which led to +destruction was crowded, while few would enter the narrow gates +of life. He said: "Many are called but few are chosen;" he told +his disciples to confine their good work to the lost sheep of the +House of Israel, and intimated that it were not wise to take the +bread of children (his people) and give it to the dogs (other +people). The "Go ye into all the world" is a post-resurrection +interpolation, and Mr. Jones does not believe in the miracle of +the resurrection. Jesus looked forward to the speedy ending and +destruction of the world, "when the sun and moon would turn +black, and the stars would fall;" and he doubted whether he would +find any faith in the world when "the son of man cometh;" and it +was Jesus who expected to say to the people on his left, "depart +from me, ye cursed, into everlasting punishment." This is the +teacher, whose pessimism is generally admitted, of whom Mr. Jones +says that, he had "tremendous expectations." + + "He believed there was to be a day after today, and +recognized his obligation to it," writes Mr. Jones in his +indiscriminate laudation of Jesus. Is that why he said "Take no +thought of the morrow," and predicted the speedy destruction of +the world? "He acknowledged the debt which can never be paid to +the past." A sentence like this has all the ear-marks of a +glittering generality. Did Jesus show gratitude to the past when +he denounced all who had preceded him in the field of love and +labor as "thieves and robbers?" Equally uncertain is the +following: "He was honest enough to recognize his obligations to +the unborn." How does our clerical neighbor arrive at such a +conclusion? From what teaching or saying of Jesus does he infer +his respect for the rights of posterity? Indeed, how could a +teacher who said, "He that believeth not shall be damned," be +described as recognizing the rights of future generations? To +menace with damnation the future inquirer or doubter is to seek +to enslave as well as to insult the generations yet to be born, +instead of "recognizing his obligations" to them. The Jesus Mr. +Jones is writing about is not in the gospels. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 76 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + "Do you ask me if I am a 'Christian'?" writes Mr. Jones, and +he answers the question thus: "I do not know. Are you? If anyone +is inclined to give me that high name, with the spiritual and +ethical connotation in mind, I am complimented and will try to +merit it." As our excellent neighbor is still in the dark, and +does not know whether or not, or in what sense he is a Christian +-- unless he is allowed to define the word himself, -- and as he +also intimates that he would like to be a Jesus Christian, but +not a Church Christian, we humbly beg to express this opinion: +The American churches of today, notwithstanding all their +shortcomings, are, on every question of ethics and science, of +charity and the humanities, far in advance of Jesus, and that in +these churches there are men and women who in breadth of mind and +nobility of spirit are as good, and even better than Jesus. + + Does our neighbor grasp our meaning? Charging all the bad in +a religion to the account of man, and attributing all the good to +God, or to a demigod, is, after all, only a dodge. Had not the +disciples of Jesus been braver than their master, his religion +would not have come down to us. And had the Christian church +lived up to the letter of this Semitic teacher, Europe would +never have embraced Christianity. By modernizing Jesus, by +selecting his more essential teachings, and relegating his +eccentricities to the background, by making his name synonymous +with the best aspirations of humanity, by idealizing his +character and enclosing it with a human halo, the churches have +saved Jesus from oblivion. Jesus was a tribal teacher, the church +universalized him; Jesus had no gospel for woman, the church has +after much hesitation and wavering converted him to the European +attitude toward woman; Jesus was silent on the question of +slavery, the churches have urged him with success to champion the +cause of the bondsman; Jesus denounced liberty of conscience when +he threatened with hell-fire the unbeliever; but the churches +have won him over to the modern secular principle of religious +tolerance; Jesus believed only in the salvation of the elect, but +the church to a certain extent has succeeded in reconciling him +to the larger hope; Jesus was an ascetic, preferring the single +life to the joys of the home, and fasting and praying to the duty +and privilege of labor, but the church in America and Protestant +Europe at least has made Jesus a lover and a seeker of wealth and +knowledge, the two great forces of civilization. No longer does +Jesus say, "hate your father and mother;" no longer does he cry +in our great thoroughfares, "blessed are the poor;" no longer is +his voice heard denouncing this world as belonging to the devil. +The modern church, modernized by science, has in turn modernized +the gospels. And yet Mr. Jones prefers to be a Christian such as +Jesus was. He is repeating one of those phrases which apologists +use when they give God all the praise and man all the blame. + + In conclusion: Mr. Jones admits that Christianity is not +unique, that Buddha conquered greater tyrannies than Christ; that +"humility and self-sacrifice ... have world-wide foundations;" +but he draws no conclusions from these important facts, but +returns in a hurry to say that Jesus is the "finest and dearest +stream swelling the mighty tide of history." The only objection +we have to Mr. Jones' Jesus is that he is not real. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 77 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + ANOTHER RHETORICAL JESUS + + The Rev. W.H.H. Boyle, of St. Paul, improves even on Mr. +Jones' superlative tribute to Jesus. He says: + + "Can you imagine such a thing as a black sun, or the + reversal of creation or the annihilation of primal light? + Then, give rest to imagination and soberly think what it + would mean to have the spiritual processes of two + millenniums reversed, to have the light of life in the + unique personality of Jesus forever eclipsed." + + Here is an idolater, indeed. To make an idol of his Jesus he +takes a sponge, and without a twinge of conscience, wipes out all +the beauty and grandeur of the ancient world. Has this gentleman +never heard of Greece? During a short existence, in only two +centuries and a half, that little land of Greece achieved +triumphs in the life of the mind so unparalleled as to bring all +the subsequent centuries upon their knees before it. In +philosophy, in poetry, -- lyrical, epochal, dramatic, -- in +sculpture, in statesmanship, in ethics, in literature, in +civilization, -- where is there another Greece? + + Oh, land of Sophocles! whose poetry is the most perfect +flower the earth has ever borne, -- of Phidias and Praxiteles! +whose immortal children time cannot destroy, though the gods are +dead -- whose masterpieces the earth wears as the best gem upon +her brow, -- of Aristotle! the intellect of the world, -- of +Socrates! the parens philosophiae, and its first martyr! -- of +Aristides! the Just -- of Phocion and Epaminondas! -- of Chillon +and Anarcharchis! whose devotion to duty and beauty have perfumed +the centuries! O, Athens, the bloom of the world! Hear this +sectarian clergyman, in his black Sunday robes, closing his eyes +upon all thine immortal contributions, pulling down like a +vandal, as did the early Christians, the figures and temples, the +culture and civilization of the ancient world -- the monuments of +thy unfading glory -- to build therewith a pedestal for his +mythical Christ! I can imagine the reverend advocate saying: "But +there was slavery in Greece, and immorality, too," -- of course, +and is the Christian world free from them? Has Christ after two +thousand years abolished war? Indeed, he came to bring, as he +says, not peace, but a sword!" Has Jesus healed the world of the +maladies, for which we blame the Pagan world? Has he made +humanity free? Has he saved the world from the fear of hell? Has +he redeemed man from the blight of ignorance? Has he broken the +yoke of superstition and priestcraft? Has he even succeeded in +uniting into one loving fold his own disciples? How, then, can +this clergyman, with any conscience for truth, compare a world +deprived of the god of his sect, to a tomb -- to a blind man +groping under a blackened sun? Must a man rob the long past in +order to provide clothing for his idol? Must he close his eyes +upon all history before be can behold the beauty of his own cult? + + But let us quote again: + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 78 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + "To efface from the statute books of Christendom every + law which has its basal principle in Christian ethics; to + abolish every institution which ministers to human need and + misfortune in the name of Him whose sympathy is the heart of + the divine; to lower every sense of moral obligation between + man and man to the old level of Paganism to silence the + great oratorios which have made music the echo of the + divine; to take down from the galleries of the world the + sacred canvases with which genius has sanctified them; to + obliterate from memorial symbolism the cross of sublime + renunciation which has been the rebuke of human selfishness; + to disband every organization which makes prayer, through + the merit of one great name, the hand of man upon the arm of + God -- you may be able to think of an ocean without a + harbor, of a sky without a sun, of a garden without a + flower, of a face without a smile, of a home without a + mother; but, can you think of a world with holiness and + happiness in it and Jesus gone out of it? You cannot, "Then, + come, let us adore him," etc., etc. + + Observe how this special pleader avoids breathing so much as +a word about any of the many evils which may be laid at the door +of his religion with as much show of reason as the benefits he +enumerates. + + What about the dark ages which held all Europe for the space +of a thousand years in the clutches of an ignorance the like of +which no other religion in the world had known? + + What about the atrocious inquisition to which no other +religion in the world had ever been able to give the swing that +Christianity did? + + What about the persecution and burning of helpless women as +witches? Is there anything as infamous as that in any religion +outside of ours? + + What about the wholesale massacres in the name of the true +faith? + + What about the centuries of religious wars, the most +imbecile as well as the most bloody, from the effects of which +Germany, France, Italy and England are still suffering today? + + And need we also call attention to that obstinate resistance +to science and progress? which rewarded every discoverer of a new +power for man, with the halter or the stake, which filled the +dungeons with the elite of Europe, -- which even dug open graves +to punish the bones of the dead savants and illuminators of man? + + The Pagans, in their gladiatorial games, sacrificed the +lives of slaves; Christianity made a holocaust of the noblest +intellects of Europe. + + And shall we speak of the bigotry, the fanaticism, the +bitter sectarian prejudices which to this day embitter the life +of the world? Are not these, too, the fruits of Christianity? + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 79 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + We know the answer which the reverend gentleman would make +to this: "All the evils you speak of are chargeable, not to +Christianity, but to its abuse." But we have already shown that +that argument won't do. We might as well say that all the evil of +Paganism was due to its abuse. The mere fact that Christianity +lent itself to such fearful distortions, and was capable of +arousing the worst passions in man on such a fearful scale, is +condemnation enough. It shows that there was in it a potentiality +for evil beyond compare. Moreover, wherein does a "divine" +religion differ from a man-made cult, if it is equally powerless +to protect itself against perversion? In what sense is Jesus a +god, while all his rivals were "mere men," if he is as helpless +to prevent the abuse of his teachings as they were? But it would +not be difficult to show that the characteristic crimes we have +scheduled are the direct inspiration of a religion claiming +exclusiveness and infallibility. Such texts as, "there is no +other name given under heaven by which men can be saved;" "Let +such an one (the man who will not be converted) be like a heathen +and a publican to you;" John's advice to refrain from saying "God +speed" to the alien in faith; the bible command not to "suffer a +witch to live;" and many of the dogmas which might be cited, -- +corrupted the sympathies, perverted the judgment of the noblest, +while at the same time they stung the evil-minded into something +like madness. The world knew nothing of the tyranny of dogma, or +religious oppression and persecution, comparatively speaking, +until the advent of the Jewish-Christian Church. + + "Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the +land of Sodom and of Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for +that city," said Jesus, speaking of the people who might not +accept his teachings. How can Christianity be a religion of love, +and how can it believe in tolerance, when it threatens the +unbeliever with a fate worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah? + + The benefits which the Rev. Boyle parades as the direct +fruit of his cult, did not appear until after the Renaissance, +that is to say, -- the return to Pagan culture and ideals. The +art and science and the humanities which he praises, followed +upon the gradual decline of the Jewish-Christian religion which +had already destroyed two civilizations. + + But Greece and Rome triumphed. To this day, if we need +models in poetry, in art, in philosophy, in literature, in +politics, in patriotism, in service to the public, in heroism and +devotion to ideals -- we must go to the Greeks and the Romans. +Not that these nations were by any means perfect, but because +they have not been surpassed. In our colleges and schools, when +we wish to bring up our children in the ways of wisdom and +beauty, we do not give them the Christian fathers to read, we +give them the Pagan classics. + + We ask this St. Paul clergyman to read Gibbons' tribute to +Pagan Rome: "If a man was called upon to fix a period in the +history of the world during which the condition of the human race +was most happy and prosperous, he would without hesitation name +that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 80 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +Commodus." This period included such men and rulers as Nerva, +Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, and above all, the greatest of +them all -- the greatest ruler our earth has ever owned -- Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus. Let the Rev. W.H.H. Boyle look over the names +of the kings of Israel and of Christian France, Spain, Italy and +England, and find among them any one that can come up to the +stature of these Pagan monarchs. + + + "WE OWE EVERYTHING TO JESUS" + + But, behold! another clergyman with the claim that the +modern world owes all its joy and cheer, during the Christmas +season, "to the babe in Bethlehem." "What was it that brought +about such a condition that crowds the stores, that overflows the +mails, and loads the express with packages of every description? +The little babe in Bethlehem set all this in motion, -- the +wreath, the holly, are all from him." + + When we read the above and more to the same effect, we wrote +to the Rev. W.A. Bartlett, [Pastor First congregational Church, +Chicago.] the author of the words quoted, asking him if he was +correctly reported. We reproduce herewith a copy of our letter: + + Dec. 20, 1904. +Rev. W.A. Bartlett, + + Washington Boul. and Ann St., Chicago. + + DEAR MR. BARTLETT: In the report of your sermon of last + Sunday you are represented as claiming that it is to the + "babe in Bethlehem" we owe the Christmas festival, the + giving of presents, etc., etc. I write to ascertain whether + this report has stated your position correctly? I am sure + you know that Christmas is only a recomposition of an old + Pagan festival, and that "giving presents" at this season is + a much older practice than Christianity. Of course, you do + not believe that Christmas is celebrated in December and on + the 25th of the month because Jesus was born on that day. + You know as well as I do of the Pagan festivals celebrated + in the month of December throughout the Roman Empire -- + celebrations which were accompanied with the giving and + receiving of presents. Moreover, you know also, as every + student does, that in the Latin countries of Europe it is + not on Christmas day, but on New Year's day, that presents + are exchanged. Surely you would not claim that for New + Year's day, too, the world is indebted to the Bethlehem + babe. You must also have known that the use of the evergreen + and the holly was in vogue among the Druids of Pagan times. + Be kind enough, therefore, to give me, if I am not asking + too much, the facts which led you to make the statements to + which I have called your attention, and believe me, with + great respect, etc. + + To this neighborly letter the reverend gentleman did not +condescend to send an acknowledgment. We knocked at his door, as +it were, and he, a minister of the Gospel, declined to open it +unto us. Clergymen, as a rule, say that they are happy when + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 81 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +people will let them preach the gospel to them. In our case, we +saved the clergyman from calling upon us, we called upon him -- +that is to say, we wrote and gave him an opportunity to enlighten +us, to bring his influence to bear upon us, to open our eyes to +the error of our ways, -- and he would have nothing to do with +us. Was not our soul worth saving? Did the Rev. W.A. Bartlett +consider us beyond hope? We ask this clergyman to place his hand +upon his conscience and ask himself whether he did the brotherly +thing in not returning a friendly and kindly answer to our honest +inquiry for truth. But he did not answer us, because he had no +real faith in his gospel. It was not good enough for an inquirer. + + But the clergyman, according to reports, made an attempt on +the Sunday following the receipt of our letter, before his +congregation, to answer indirectly our question. He denied that +"Christmas was a recomposition of an old Pagan festival," and +said that the early Christians "fasted and wept" because of these +Pagan festivals, and that as early as the second century, the +birth of Jesus was commemorated. In short, he pronounced it "a +distortion of history" to assign to the Christmas festival a +Pagan origin. In his great work on the History of Civilization, +Buckle says this, to which we call Dr. Bartlett's attention: "As +soon as eminent men grow unwilling to enter any profession, the +luster of that profession will be tarnished; first its reputation +will be lessened, then its power abridged." We fear this is true +of Mr. Bartlett's profession. + + How can Christian ministers hope to engage the interest of +the reading public if they themselves abstain from reading? Ask a +secular newspaper about the origin of the Christmas celebration, +and it will tell you the truth. On the very Sunday that Dr. +Bartlett was denouncing, in his church, our claim that the Pagans +gave us the December season of joy and merry-making, as "a +distortion of history," an editorial in the Chicago Tribune said +this: + + But the festive character of the celebration, the + giving of presents, the feasting and merriment, the use of + evergreen and holly and mistletoe, are all remnants of Pagan + rites. + + Continuing, the same editorial called attention to the +antiquity of the institution: + + Long before the shepherds on the Judean plains saw the + star rise in the east and heard the tidings of "Peace on + earth, good will to man," the Roman populace surged through + the streets at the feast of Saturn, giving themselves up to + wild license and boisterous merry making. They exchanged + presents, they decorated their dwellings and temples with + green boughs; slaves were given special privileges, and the + spirit of good will was abroad among men. This Roman + Saturnalia came at the winter solstice, the same as does our + Christmas day, while the birth of Christ is widely believed + to have taken place at some other season of the year. + + But Dr. Bartlett may have had in mind the quotation from +Anastasius: + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 82 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + "Our Lord, Jesus Christ, was born of the Holy Virgin, Mary, +in Bethlehem, at one o'clock in the afternoon of December 25th," +-- appearing to quote from some old manuscript which, +unfortunately, is not to be found anywhere. But Clement of +Alexandria, in the year 210 A.D., dismisses all guesses as to +when Jesus was born, -- the 18th of April, 19th of May, etc., -- +as products of reckless speculation. March 28th is given as +Jesus' birthday in De Pascha Computius, in the year 243. Jan. 5th +is the date defended by Epiphanius. Baradaens, Bishop of Odessa, +says: "No one knows exactly the day of the nativity of our Lord: +this only is certain from what Luke writes, that he was born in +the night." Poor Dr. Bartlett, his December 25th does not receive +support from the Fathers. + + For our clerical brother's sake, we quote some more from the +Tribune editorial: + + Primeval man looked upon the sun as the revelation of + divinity. When the shortest day of the year was passed, when + the sun began his march northward, the primitive man + rejoiced in the thought of the coming seedtime and summer, + and he made feasts and revelry the mode of expressing the + gladness of his heart. Among the sun worshipers of Persia, + among the Druids of the far north, among the Phoenicians, + among the Romans, and among the ancient Goths and Saxons the + winter solstice was the occasion of festivities. Many of + them were rude and barbarous, but they were all + distinguished by hearty and profuse hospitality. + + And yet our neighbor calls it "distortion of history" to +connect Christmas with the Pagan festival, celebrated about this +time. We quote once more from the Secular press: + + The Christian church did not abolish these heathen + ceremonies, but grafted upon them a deeper spiritual + meaning. For this reason Christmas is an institution which + memorializes the best there was in Pagan man. Its good + cheer, its charity, its sports, its feasting, and the + features which most endear it to children are all the + heritage of our Pagan ancestors. + + How refreshing this, compared with the clergyman's silence, +or cry of "distortion." + + But in one thing the doctor is correct. The early Christians +did bewail the Pagan festivals, as they did everything else that +was Pagan. But it did not help them at all; they were compelled +to acquiesce. The Christians have "fasted and prayed" also +against science, progress, and modern thought, but what good has +it done? They asked God to hook Theodore Parker's tongue; to +overthrow Darwin, and to confound the wisdom of this world, but +the prayer remains unanswered. Yes, the doctor is right, the +church has "fasted and prayed" against religious tolerance, +against the use of Sunday as a day of recreation, -- the opening +of galleries and libraries on that day, the advancement of woman, +the emancipation of the negro, the secularization of education, +the revision of old creeds, and a thousand other things. But + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 83 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +their opposition has only damaged their own cause. They did try +to suppress the Pagan festival, which we call Christmas, and the +Puritans in this country, until recently, abstained from all +recognition of the day, and called it "Popery," and "Paganism," +but their efforts bore no fruit. Dr. Bartlett, if he will read, +will learn that for many years, in England and in this country, +the observance of Christmas was forbidden by law under severe +penalties. As to our being indebted for the cheer and merriment +of the December festival to the "Bethlehem babe," the doctor must +inform himself of those acts of Parliament which, under the +Puritan regime, compelled people to mourn on Christmas day and to +abstain from merry-making. In Christian Connecticut, for a man to +have a sprig of holly in his house on Christmas day was a finable +crime. In Massachusetts, any Christian detected celebrating +Christmas was fined five shillings and costs. But, see, having +failed to suppress these good institutions, they now turn about +and claim that they have always believed in them, and that, in +fact, we would not now be enjoying any one of these benefits but +for the Christian Church. + + In conclusion, we have one other word to say to the three +clerical teachers from whose writings we have quoted. Against +them we are constrained to bring the charge of looseness in +thought. They seem to have little conscience for evidence. Mr. +Jones says, for instance: + + "In short, I am compelled to think that this Light of + Souls, this saving and redeeming spirit, was the loved and + loving child of Joseph, the carpenter, and the loyal wife + Mary. I believe this, notwithstanding the stories of + immaculate conceptions, star-guided magi, choiring angels + and adoring shepherds that gathered around. the birth- + night." + + Which is another way of saying that he is "compelled to +believe" against the evidence, merely because it is his pleasure +or interest to do so. This is not very edifying, to be sure. Mr. +Jones takes all his information about Joseph and Mary and Jesus +from the gospels, and yet the gospels clearly contradict his +conclusions. Mary, the mother of Jesus, gives her word of honor +that Joseph was not the father of her child, and Joseph himself +testifies that he is not Jesus' father, but Mr. Jones pays no +attention to their testimony; he wishes Joseph to be the father +of Jesus, and that ought to be sufficient evidence, he thinks. We +quote from the gospel: + + "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When + his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they + came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. + And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not + willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her + away privily. But when he thought on these things, behold, + an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, + Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary + thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy + Ghost." + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 84 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Now, if Joseph admits be was not Jesus' father, and Mary +corroborates his testimony (See Luke, 1st chapter), Jesus was, if +he ever lived, and the records which give Mr. Jones his ideal +Jesus are reliable, the son of a man who has succeeded in +concealing his identity, unless, of course, we believe in the +virgin birth. If the real father of Jesus had come forth and +owned his son, and Mary had acknowledged that he was the father +of her child, what would have become of Christianity? We hope +these clergymen who have dwelt, as Emerson says, "With noxious +exaggeration about the person of Jesus," will reflect upon this, +and while doing so, will they not also remember this other saying +of the Concord philosopher: "The vice of our theology is seen in +the claim that Jesus was something different from a man." + + We take our leave of the three clergymen, assuring them that +in what we have said we have not been actuated, in the least, by +any personal motive whatever, and that we have only done to them +what we would have them do to us. + + A LIBERAL JEW ON JESUS + + FELIX ADLER, PRAISES JESUS + + That it is very easy for scholars to follow the people +instead of leading them, and to side with the view that commands +the majority, receives fresh confirmation from the recent +utterances of the founder of the Ethical Culture Society in New +York. Professor Adler the son of a rabbi, and at one time a +freethinker, has slowly drifted into orthodox waters, after +having tried for a period of years the open seas, and has become +a more enthusiastic champion of the god of the Christians than +many a Christian scholar whom we could name. The pendulum in the +Adler case has swung clear to the opposite side. We do not find +fault with a man because be changes his views, we only ask for +reasons for the change. It will be seen by the following extracts +from Adler's printed lectures that he has made absolutely no +critical study of the sources of the Jesus story, but has merely, +and hurriedly at that, accepted the conventional estimate of +Jesus and enlarged upon it. Jesus is entitled to all the praise +which is due him, but it must first be shown that in praising him +we are not sacrificing the truth. Praising any man at such a cost +is merely flattering the masses and bowing to the fashion of the +day. + + Let us hear what Professor Adler has to say about Jesus. He +writes: + + It has been said that if Christ came to New York or + Chicago, they would stone him in the very churches. it is + not so! If Christ came to New York or Chicago, the publicans + and sinners would sit at his feet! For they would know that + he cared for them better than they in their darkness knew + how to care for themselves, and they would love him as they + loved him in the days of yore. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 85 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + This would sound pious in the mouth of a Moody or a Torrey, +but, we confess, it sounds like affectation in the mouth of the +free thinking son of a rabbi. That Prof. Adler enters here into a +field for which his early Jewish training has not fitted him, is +apparent from the hasty way in which he has put his sentences +together. "It has been said," he writes, "that if Christ came to +New York or Chicago, they would stone him in the very churches. +It is not so." Why is it not so? And he answers: "If Christ came +to New York or Chicago, the publicans and sinners would sit at +his feet." But what has the reception which publicans and sinners +might give Jesus to do with how the churches would receive him? +He proves that Jesus would not be stoned in the churches of New +York and Chicago by saying that the "publicans and sinners would +sit at his feet." Does he mean that "New York and Chicago +churches" and "publicans and sinners" are the same thing? +"Publicans and sinners" might welcome him, and still the churches +might stone him, which in fact, according to Adler's own +admission, was the case in Jerusalem, where the synagogues +conspired against Jesus, while Mary Magdalene sat at his feet. +Nor are his words about "the publicans and sinners loving Jesus +as they loved him in the days of yore" edifying. Who does he mean +by the "publicans and sinners," and how many of them loved Jesus +in the days of yore, and why should this class of people have +felt a special love for him? + + On the question of the resurrection of Jesus, Prof. Adler +says this: + + "It is sometimes insinuated that the entire Christian + doctrine depends on the accounts contained in the New + Testament, purporting that Jesus actually rose on the third + day and was seen by his followers; and that if these reports + are found to be contradictory, unsupported by sufficient + evidence, and in themselves incredible, then the bottom + falls out of the belief in immortality as represented by + Christianity." + + It was the Apostle Paul himself who said that "if Jesus has +not risen from the dead, then is our faith in vain, -- and we +are, of all men, most miserable." So, you see, friend Adler, it +is not "Sometimes insinuated," as you say, but it is openly, and +to our thinking, logically asserted, that if Jesus did not rise +from the dead, the whole fabric of Christian eschatology falls to +the ground. But we must remember that Prof. Adler has not been +brought up a Christian. He has acquired his Christian +predilections only recently, so to speak, hence his unfamiliarity +with its Scriptures. Continuing, the Professor says: + + "But similar reports have arisen in the world time and + again, apparitions of the dead have been seen and have been + taken for real; and yet such stories, after being current + for a time, invariably have passed into oblivion. Why did + this particular story persist, despite the paucity and the + insufficiency of the evidence? Why did it get itself + believed and take root?" + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 86 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + What shall we think of such reasoning from the platform of a +presumably rationalist movement? Does not the Professor know that +the story of the resurrection of Jesus is not original, but a +repetition of older stories of the kind? Had the world never +heard of such after-death apparitions before Jesus' day, it would +never have invented the story of his resurrection. And how does +the Professor know that the story of Jesus' resurrection is not +going to meet the same fate which has overtaken all other similar +stories? Is it not already passing into the shade of neglect? Are +not the intelligent among the Christians themselves beginning to +explain the resurrection of Jesus allegorically, denying +altogether that he rose from the dead in a literal sense? +Moreover, the pre-christian stories of similar resurrections +lived to an old age, -- two or three thousand years -- before +they died, and the story of Jesus' resurrection has yet to prove +its ability to live longer. All miraculous beliefs are +disappearing, and the story of the Christian resurrection will +not be an exception. But Prof. Adler's motive in believing that +the story of the resurrection of Jesus shall live, is to offer it +as an argument for immortality, and in so doing be strains the +English language in lauding Jesus. He says: + + "In my opinion, people believed in the resurrection of + Jesus because of the precedent conviction in the minds of + the disciples that such a man as Jesus could not die, + because of the conviction that a personality of such + superlative excellence, so radiant, so incomparably lofty in + mien and port and speech and intercourse with others, could + not pass away like a forgotten wind, that such a star could + not be quenched." + + We regret to say that there are as many assumptions in the +above sentence as there are lines in it. Of course if we are for +emotionalism and not for exact and accurate conclusions, Adler's +estimate of Jesus is as rhetorical as that of Jones or Boyle, but +if we have any love for historical truth, there is not even the +shadow of evidence, for instance, that the disciples could not +believe "that such a man as Jesus could die." On the contrary, +the disciples left him at the cross and fled, and believed him +dead, until it was reported to them that he had been seen alive, +and even then "some doubted," and one wished to feel the flesh +with his fingers before he would credit his eyes. Jesus had to +eat and drink with them, he had to "open their eyes," and perform +various miracles before they would believe that he was not dead. +The text which says that the apostles hesitated to believe in the +resurrection because "as yet they knew not the scripture, that he +would rise from the dead," shows conclusively how imaginary is +the idea that there was a "precedent conviction" in the minds of +the disciples that such a man as Jesus could not die. Apparently +it was all a matter of prophecy, not of moral character at all. +Yet in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, Prof. Adler +tells his Carnegie Hall audience, who unfortunately are even less +informed in Christian doctrine than their leader, that "there was +a precedent conviction in the minds of the disciples that such a +man as Jesus could not die." And what gave the disciples this +supposed "precedent conviction?" "That a personality of such +superlative excellence, so radiant, so incomparably lofty in mien + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 87 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +and port and speech and intercourse with others, could not pass +away like a forgotten wind, that such a star could not be +quenched," We are simply astonished, and grieved as well, to see +the use which so enlightened a man as Prof. Adler makes of his +gifts. Will this Jewish admirer of the god of Christendom kindly +tell us wherein Jesus was superlatively excellent, or +incomparably lofty in mien and port and speech and intercourse +with others? Was there a weakness found in men like Buddha, +Confucius, Socrates, etc., from which Jesus was free? That Jesus +created no such ideal impression upon his disciples, is shown by +the fact that they represented him as a sectarian and an egotist +who denounced all who had preceded him as unworthy of respect and +to be despised. + + And how could a man whose public life did not cover more +than two or three years of time, and who lived as a celibate and +a monk, returning every night to his cave in the Mount of Olives, +taking no active part in the business life -- supporting no +family or parents, assuming no civil or social duties -- how can +such a man, we ask, be held up as a model for the men and women +of today? Jesus, according to his biographers, believed he could +raise the dead, and announced himself the equal of God. "I and my +father are one," he is reported to have said; and one of his +apostles writes: "He (Jesus) thought it no robbery to be equal to +God." Either this report is true, or it is not. If it is, what +shall we think of a man who thought he was a god and could raise +the dead? If the report is not true, what reliance can we place +in his biographers when the things which they affirm with the +greatest confidence are to be rejected? + + Yet Prof. Adler, swept off his feet by the popular and +conventional enthusiasm about Jesus, describes him as "a +personality of such superlative excellence, so radiant, so +incomparably lofty in mien and port and speech and intercourse +with others," that his followers could not believe he was a mere +mortal. But where is the Jesus to correspond to this rhetorical +language? He is not in the anonymous gospels. There we find only +a fragmentary character patched or pieced together, as it were, +by various contributors -- a character made up of the most +contradictory elements, as we have tried to show in the preceding +pages. The Jesus of Adler is not in history, he is not even in +mythology. There is no one of that name and answering that +description in the four gospels. + + That a loose way of speaking grows upon one if one is not +careful, and that sounding phrases and honest historical +criticism are not the same thing, will be seen by Prof. Adler's +lavish praise of John Calvin. He speaks of him in terms almost as +glowing as he does of Jesus. He calls Calvin "that mighty and +noble man." + + That Calvin ruled Geneva like a Russian autocrat; that he +was "mighty" in a community in which Jacques Gruet was beheaded +because be had "danced," and also because he had committed the +grave offense of saying that "Moses was only a man and no one +knows what God said to him," and in which Michael Servetus was +burned alive for holding opinions contrary to those which the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 88 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +Genevan pope was interested in, -- is readily conceded. But was +Calvin "mighty" in a beneficent sense? Did his power save people +from the Protestant inquisition? Was not the Geneva of his day +called the Protestant Rome? And if he did not use his powerful +influence to further religious tolerance and intellectual +honesty; if he did not use his position to save men from the grip +of superstition and the fear of hell, how can Prof. Adler refer +to him as "that mighty and noble man -- John Calvin?" + + It is not our purpose to grudge Calvin any compliments which +Felix Adler wishes to pay him. What we grieve to see is, that he +should, indirectly at least, recommend to the admiration of his +readers a man who, if he existed today and acted as he did in the +Geneva of the sixteenth century, would be regarded by every +morally and intellectually awakened man, as a criminal. Has not +Felix Adler examined the evidence which incriminates Calvin and +proves him beyond doubt as the murderer of Servetus? "If he +(Servetus) comes to Geneva, I shall see that he does not escape +alive," wrote John Calvin to Theodore Beza. And he carried out +his fearful menace; Servetus was put to death by the most +horrible punishment ever invented -- he was burned alive in a +smoking fire. What did this mighty and noble man do to save a +stranger and a scholar from so atrocious a fate? Let his +eulogist, Prof. Adler, answer. It will not do to say that those +were different times. A thousand voices were raised against the +wanton and cruel murder of Servetus, but Calvin's was not among +them. In fact, when Calvin himself was a fugitive and a wanderer, +he had written in favor of religious tolerance, but no sooner did +he become the Protestant pope of Geneva, than he developed into +an exterminator of heresy by fire. Such is the "mighty and noble +man" held up for our admiration. "Mighty" he was, but we ask +again, was he mighty in a noble sense? + + Had Calvin been considered a "mighty and noble man" by the +reformers who preceded Prof. Adler, there would have been no +Ethical Culture societies in America today. Prof. Adler is +indebted for the liberties which he enjoys in New York to the +Voltaires and the Condorcets, who regarded Calvin and his "isms" +as pernicious to the intellectual life of Europe, and did all +they could to lead the people away from them. Think of the leader +of the Ethical Societies exalting a persecutor, to say nothing of +his abominable theology, or of his five aliases, as "that mighty +and noble man, -- John Calvin!" We feel grateful to Prof. Adler +for organizing the Ethical Societies in American, but we would be +pleased to have him explain in what sense a man of Calvin's small +sympathies and terrible deeds could be called both "noble and +mighty." [See "The Kingdom of God in Geneva Under Calvin." -- +M.M. Mangaearian. + + It was predicted some years ago that the founder of the +Ethical Societies will before long return to the Jewish faith of +his fathers. However this may be, we have seen, in his estimate +of Jesus and John Calvin, evidences of his estrangement from +rationalism, of which in his younger days he was so able a +champion. In his criticism of the Russian scientist, Metchnikoff, +of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Prof. Adler, endorsing the +popular estimate of Jesus, accepts also the popular attitude + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 89 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +toward science. He appears to prefer the doctrine of special +creation to the theory of evolution. We would not have believed +this of Felix Adler if we did not have the evidence before us. We +speak of this to show the relation between an exaggerated praise +of a popular idol, and a denial of the conclusions of modem +science. It is the popular view which Prof. Adler champions in +both instances. In his criticism of Metchnikoff's able book, 'The +Nature of Man,' Prof. Adler writes: + + And to account for the reason in man, this divine spark + that has been set ablaze in him, it is not sufficient to + point to an ape as our ancestor. If we are descended from an + anthropoid ape on the physical side, we are not descended + from him in any strict sense of the word on our rational + side; for as life is born of life, so reason is born of + reason, and if the anthropoid ape does not possess reason as + we possess it, it cannot be said that on our rational side + we are his progeny. + + If the above had been written fifty years ago, when the +doctrine of evolution was a heresy, or by an orthodox clergyman +of today, we would have taken no note of it. But coming as it +does from the worthy founder of the Ethical Movement in America, +it deserves attention. "If," says Dr. Adler, "we are descended +from an anthropoid ape on the physical side, we are not descended +from him in any strict sense of the word on our rational side." +He is not sure, evidently, that even physically man is the +successor of the anthropoid ape, but he is sure that "we are not +descended from him ... on our rational side." Is Dr. Adler, then, +a dualist? Does he believe that there are two eternal sources, +from one of which we get our bodies, and from the other our +"rational side?" And why cannot Dr. Adler be a monist? He +answers, "for as life is born of life, so reason is born of +reason, and if the anthropoid ape does not possess reason as we +possess it, it cannot be said that on our rational side we are +his progeny." Not so, good doctor! There is no life without +reason. Do we mean to say that the jelly-fish, the creeping worm, +or the bud on the tree has reason? Yes; not as much reason as a +horse or a dog, and certainly not as much as a Metchnikoff or an +Adler, but these lower forms of life could not have survived but +for the element of rationality in them. We may call this +instinct, sensation, promptings of nature, but what's in a name? +The difference between a pump and a watch is only a difference of +mechanism. The stone and the soul represent different stages of +progression, not different substances. If a charcoal can be +transformed into a diamond, why may not nature, with the +resources of infinity at her command, refine a stone into a soul? +Let us not marvel at this; it is not less thinkable than the +proposition of two independent sources of life, the one physical, +the other rational. If "life is born of life," where did the +first life come from? Let us have an answer to that question. And +if, as the professor says, reason is born of reason," how did the +first reason come? Is it not very much simpler to think in +monistic terms, than to separate life from reason, and mind from +matter, as Prof. Adler does in the words quoted above? Why cannot +mind be a state of matter? What objection is there to thinking +that matter refined, elevated, ripened, cultured, becomes both + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 90 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +sentient and rational? If matter can feel, can see, can hear, can +it not also think? Does not the horse see, hear and think? There +is no lowering of the dignity of man to say that he tastes with +his palate, sees with his eyes, hears with his ears, and thinks +with the gray matter in his brain. Remove his optic nerve and he +becomes blind, destroy the ganglia in his brain, and he becomes +mindless. Gold is as much matter as the dust, but it is very much +more precious; so is mind infinitely more precious than the +matter which can only feel, see, taste or hear. "If the +anthropoid ape does not possess reason as we possess it, it +cannot be said that on our rational side we are his progeny," +says Dr. Adler: But, suppose we were to say that if our remote +African or Australian savage ancestors did not possess reason as +we possess it, "it cannot be said that on our rational side we +are their progeny." The child in the cradle does not possess +reason "as we do," any more than does the anthropoid ape, but the +beginnings of reason are in both. Let the worm climb and he will +overtake man. This is a most hopeful, a most beautiful gospel. +Its spirit is not one of isolation and exclusiveness from the +rest of nature, but one of fellowship and sympathy. We are all -- +plants, trees, birds, bugs, animals -- all members of one family, +children at various ages and stages of growth of the same great +mother, -- Nature. + +We quote again: + + "When I ask him (Metchnikoff) whence do I come, he + points to the simian stage which we have left behind; but I + would look beyond that stage to some ultimate fount of + being, to which all that is highest in me and in the world + around me can be traced, a source of things equal to the + best that I can conceive." + + But if there is "some ultimate fount of being"' to which our +"highest" nature "can be traced," whence did our lower nature +come? Is Prof. Adler trying to say God? We do not object to the +word, we only ask that he give the word a more intelligible +meaning than has yet been given. If God is the "ultimate fount of +being to which all that is highest in us can be traced," who or +what is the ultimate fount to which all that is lowest in us can +be traced? Let us have the names of the two ultimate founts of +being, and also to what still more ultimate founts these founts +may be traced. + + In our opinion Dr. Adler has failed to do justice to Prof. +Metchnikoff. It is no answer to the Darwinian Theory, which the +Russian scientist accepts in earnest, and in all its fullness, -- +not fractionally, as Adler seems to do -- to say that it does not +explain everything. No one claims that it does. Not all the +mystery of life has been cleared. Evolution has offered us only a +new key, so to speak, with which to attempt the doors which have +not yielded to metaphysics. And if the key has not opened all the +doors, it has opened many. Prof. Adler seems to think that the +doctrine of evolution explains only the physical descent of man; +for the genesis of the spiritual man, he looks for some +supernatural "fount" in the skies. Well, that is not science; +that is theology. and Adler's estimate of Jesus is just as +theological as his criticism of evolution. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 91 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + APPENDIX + + The argument in this volume will be better understood if we +give to our readers the comments and criticisms which our little +pamphlet, 'Jesus a Myth,' and 'The Mangasarian-Crapsey Debate' on +the Historicity of Jesus, [Price, 25c, Independent Religious +Society, Orchestra Hall, Chicago.] called forth from orthodox and +liberal clergymen. We shall present these together with our reply +as they appeared on the Sunday Programs of the Independent +Religious Society. + + Criticism is welcome. If the criticism is just, it prevents +us from making the same mistake twice; if it is unjust, it gives +us an opportunity to correct the error our critic has fallen +into. No one's knowledge is perfect. But the question is, does a +teacher suppress the facts? Does he insist on remaining ignorant +of the facts? + + FROM THE SUNDAY PROGRAMS + + I + + Now that the debate on one of the most vital questions of +modern religious thought -- The Historicity of Jesus -- is in +print, a few further reflections on some minor points in Dr. +Crapsey's argument may add to the value of the published copy. + + REV. DR. CRAPSEY: "Now, I say this is the great law of +religious variation, that in almost every instance, indeed, I +think, in every single instance in history, all such movements +begin with a single personality." (P. 5, Mangasarian-Crapsey +Debate.) + + ANSWER: The only way this question can be settled is by +appealing to history. Mithraism is a variant religion, which at +one time spread over the Roman Empire and came near outclassing +Christianity. Yet, Mithra, represented as a young man, and +worshiped as a god, is a myth. How, then, did Mithraism arise? + + Religions, as well as their variations, appear as new +branches do upon an old tree. The new branch is quite as much the +product of the soil and climate as the parent tree. Like +Brahmanism, Judaism, Shinto and the Babylonian and Egyptian +Cults, which had no single founders, Christianity is a deposit to +which Hellenic, Judaic and Latin tendencies have each contributed +its quota. + + But the popular imagination craves a Maker for the Universe, +a founder for Rome, a first man for the human race, and a great +chief as the starter of the tribe. In the same way it fancies a +divine, or semidivine being as the author of its credo. + + Because Mohammed is historical, it does not follow that +Moses is also historical. That argument would prove too much. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 92 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Rev. Dr. CRAPSEY: "We would be in the same position that the +astronomers were when they discovered the great planet Uranus -- +from their knowledge of the movements of these bodies they were +convinced that these perturbations could be occasioned by nothing +less than a great planet lying outside of the then view of +mankind." (P. 6, Ibid.) + + ANSWER: But the astronomers did not rest until they +converted the probability of a near-by planet into demonstration. +Jesus is still a probability. + + Rev. Dr. CRAPSEY: "We have of Jesus a very distinctly +outlined history. There is nothing vague about him." (P. 12, +Ibid.) + + ANSWER: But in the same sentence the doctor takes all this +back by adding: "There are a great many things in his history +that are not historical." If so, then we do not possess "a very +distinctly outlined history," but at best a mixture of fact and +fiction. + + Rev. Dr. CRAPSEY: "We can follow Jesus' history from the +time that he entered upon his public career until the time that +career closed, just as easily as we can follow Caesar, etc." (P. +12, Ibid.) + + ANSWER: How long was "the time from the opening of Jesus' +public career until the time that it closed?" -- One year! -- +according to the three gospels. It sounds quite a period to speak +of "following his public career" from beginning to end, +especially when compared with Caesar's, until it is remembered +that the entire public career of Jesus covers the space of only +one year. This is a most decisive argument against the +historicity of Jesus. With the exception of one year, his whole +life is hid in impenetrable darkness. We know nothing of his +childhood, nothing of his old age, if he lived to be old, and of +his youth, we know just enough to fill up a year. Under the +circumstances, there is no comparison between the public career +of a Caesar or a Socrates covering from fifty to seventy years of +time, and that of a Jesus of whose life only one brief year is +thrown upon the canvas. + + An historical Jesus who lived only a year! + + Rev. Dr. CRAPSEY: The Christ I admit to be purely +mythological ... the word Christ, you know, means the anointed +one ... they (the Hebrews) expected the coming of that Christ ... +But that is purely a mythical title. (The Debate -- p. 35.) + + ANSWER: Did the Hebrews then expect the coming of a title? +Were they looking forward to seeing the ancient throne of David +restored by a title? By Messiah or Christ the Jews did not mean a +name, but a man -- a real flesh and bone savior, anointed or +appointed by heaven. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 93 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + But if the 'Christ' which the Hebrews expected was "purely +mythical," what makes the same 'Christ' in the supposed Tacitus +passage historical? The New Testament Jesus is Jesus Christ, and +the apostle John speaks of those "who confess not that Jesus +Christ is come in the flesh" -- mark his words -- not Christ, but +Jesus Christ. The apostle does not separate the two names. There +were those, then, in the early church who denied the historicity, +not of a title, -- for what meaning would there be in denying +that a title "is come in the flesh," -- but of a person, known as +Jesus Christ. + + And what could the doctor mean when he speaks of a title +being "mythological?" There are no mythological titles. Titles +are words, and we do not speak of the historicity or the non- +historicity of words. We cannot say of words as we do of men, +that some are historical and others are mythical. William Tell is +a myth -- not the name, but the man the name stands for. William +is the name of many real people, and so is Tell. There were many +anointed kings, who are historical, and the question is, Is Jesus +Christ -- or Jesus the Anointed -- also historical? To answer +that Jesus is historical, but The Anointed is not, is to evade +the question. + + When Mosheim declares that "The prevalent opinion among +early Christians was that Christ existed in appearance only," he +could not have meant by 'Christ' only a title. There is no +meaning in saying that a man's title "existed in appearance +only?" + + We do not speak of a title being born, or crucified; and +when some early Christians denied that Jesus Christ was ever born +or ever crucified, they had in mind not a title but a person. + + In conclusion: If the 'Christ' by whom the Hebrews meant, +not a mere name, but a man, was "purely mythological," as the +reverend debater plainly admits (see pages 35, 36 of The Debate) +-- that is, if when the Hebrews said: "Christ is coming," they +were under the influence of an illusion, -- why may not the +Christians when they say that 'Christ' has come, be also under +the influence of an illusion? The Hebrew illusion said, Christ +was coming; the Christian illusion says, Christ has come. The +Hebrews had no evidence that 'Christ' was coming, although that +expectation was a great factor in their religion; and the +Christians have no more evidence for saying 'Christ' has come, +although that belief is a great factor in their religion. + + II + + The minister of the South Congregational Church, who heard +the debate, has publicly called your lecturer an "unscrupulous +sophist," who "practices imposition upon a popular audience" and +who "put forth sentence after sentence which every scholar +present knew to be a perversion of the facts so outrageous as to +be laughable." + + As one of the leading morning papers said, the above "is not +a reply to arguments made by Mr. Mangasarian." + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 94 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Invited by several people to prove these charges, the +Reverend replies: "In the absence of any full report of what he +(M. M. Mangasarian) said, or of any notes taken at the time, I am +unable to furnish you with quotations." When the Reverend was +addressing the public his memory was strong enough to enable him +to say, "sentence after sentence was put forth by Mr. Mangasarian +which every scholar present knew to be a perversion of the +facts." But when called upon to mention a few of them, his memory +forsakes him. Our critic is not careful to make his statements +agree with the fact. + + One instance, however, he is able to remember which "when it +fell upon my ears," he writes, "it struck me with such amazement, +that it completely drove from my mind a series of most +astonishing statements of various sorts which had just preceded +it." + + We refrain from commenting on the excuse given to explain so +significant a failure of memory. The instance referred to was +about the denial of some in apostolic times that "Jesus Christ is +come in the flesh." But as Mr. Mangasarian had hardly spoken more +than twenty minutes when he touched upon this point, it is not +likely that it could have been "preceded by a series of most +astonishing statements of various sorts." + + And what was the statement which, while it crippled his +memory, it did not moderate his zeal? We will let him present it +himself; "I refer to the use he made of one or two passages in +the New Testament, mentioning some who deny 'that Jesus Christ is +come in the flesh.' 'So that,' he went on to say, 'there were +those even among the early Christians themselves who denied that +Jesus had come in the flesh. Of course, they were cast out as +heretics.' Here came an impressive pause, and then without +further explanation or qualification, he proceeded to something +else." + + This is his most serious complaint. Does it justify hasty +language? + + St. John writes of those who "confessed not that Jesus +Christ is come in the flesh." The natural meaning of the words is +that even in apostolic times some denied the flesh and bone +Jesus, and regarded him as an idea or an apparition -- something +like the Holy Ghost. All church historians admit the existence of +sects that denied the New Testament Jesus -- the Gnostics, the +Essenes, the Ebionites, the Marcionites, the Cerinthians, etc. + + As the debate is now in print, further comment on this would +not be necessary. + + Incidents like the above, however, should change every +lukewarm rationalist into a devoted soldier of truth and honor. + + To us, more important than anything presented on this +subject, is this evidence of the existence of a very early +dispute among the first disciples of Jesus on the question of +whether he was real or merely an apparition. The Apostle John, in + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 95 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +his epistle, clearly states that even among the faithful there +were those who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the +flesh. This is very important. As early as John's time, if he is +the writer of the epistle, Jesus' historicity was questioned. + + The gospel of John also hints at the existence in the +primitive church of Christians who did not accept the reality of +Jesus. When doubting Thomas is told of the resurrection, he +answers that he must feel the prints of the nails with his +fingers before he will believe, and Jesus not only grants the +wishes of this skeptical apostle, but he also eats in the +presence of them all, which story is told evidently to silence +the critics who maintained that Jesus was only a spirit, "the +Wisdom of God," an emanation, a light, and not real flesh and +bones. + + III + + The same clergyman, to whom a copy of the Mangasarian- +Crapsey Debate was sent, has written a five page criticism of it. + + The strength of a given criticism is determined by asking: +Does it in any way impair the soundness of the argument against +which it is directed? Critics have discovered mistakes in Darwin +and Haecket, but are these mistakes of such a nature as to prove +fatal to the theory of evolution? + + To be effective, criticism must be aimed at the heart of an +argument. A man's life is not in his hat, which could be knocked +off, or in his clothes -- which could be torn in places by his +assailant without in the least weakening his opponent's position. +It is the blow that disables which counts. + + To charge that we have said 'Gospel,' where we should have +said 'Epistle,' or 'Trullum' instead of 'Trullo'; that it was not +Barnabas, but Nicholas who denied the Gospel Jesus, and that +there were variations of this denial, does not at all disprove +the fact that, according to the Christian scriptures themselves, +among the apostolic followers there were those to whom Jesus +Christ was only a phantom. + + Milman, the Christian historian, states that the belief +about Jesus Christ "adopted by almost all the Gnostic sects," was +that Jesus Christ was but an apparent human being, an impassive +phantom, (History of Christianity. Vol. 2, P. 61). Was ever such +a view entertained of Caesar, Socrates or of any other historical +character? + + On page 28 of The Debate we say: "The Apostle John complains +of those ... who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the +flesh." To this the clergyman replies: + + "The Apostle John never made any such complaint. Critical +scholarship is pretty well agreed that he did not write the +epistles ascribed to him." + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 96 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + We have a lecture on "How the Bible was Invented," and this +clergyman's admission that at least parts of the bible are +invented is very gratifying. + + In a former communication, this same clergyman tried to +prove that the Apostle John's complaint does not at all imply a +denial of the historical Jesus. In his recent letter he denies +that the apostle ever made such a complaint. + + John did not write the epistles, then, which the Christian +church for two thousand years, and at a cost of millions of +dollars, and at the greater sacrifice of truth and progress has +been proclaiming to the world as the work of the inspired John! + + The strenuous efforts to get around this terrible text in +the "Holy Bible," show what a decisive argument it is. Every +exertion to meet it only tightens the text, like a rope, around +the neck of the belief in the historical Jesus. Our desire, in +engaging in this argument, is to turn the thought and love of the +world from a mythical being, to humanity, which is both real and +present. + + On page 22 Of The Debate, we say: "St. Paul tells us that he +lived in Jerusalem at a time when Jesus must have been holding +the attention of the city; yet he never met him." To this the +clergyman replies: + + "Paul tells us nothing of the kind. In a speech which is put +into the mouth of Paul" -- put into the mouth of Paul! Is this +another instance of forgery? John did not write the epistles, and +Paul's speech in the Book of Acts was put into his mouth! Will +the clergyman tell us which parts of the bible are not invented? + + Let us make a remark: The church people blame us for not +believing in the trustworthiness of the bible; but when we reply +that if the bible is trustworthy, then Paul must have been in +Jerusalem with Jesus, and John admits that some denied the +historical Jesus, we are blamed for not knowing better than to +prove anything by quoting Paul and John as if everything they +said was trustworthy. + + In other words, only those passages in the bible are +authentic which the clergy quote; those which the rationalists +quote are spurious. In the meantime, the authentic as well as the +spurious passages together compose the churches' Word of God. + + IV + + In a letter of protest to Mr. Mangasarian, Rabbi Hirsch, of +this city, asks: "Was it right for you to assume that I was +correctly reported by the News!" After stating what he had said +in his interview with the reporter, the Rabbi continues: "But +said I to the reporter all these possible allusions do not prove +that Jesus existed ... You see in reality I agreed with you. I +personally believe Jesus lived. But I have no proof for this +beyond my feeling that the movement with which the name is +associated could even for Paul not have taken its nomenclature + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 97 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + +without a personal substratum. But, and this I told the reporter +also, this does not prove that the Jesus of the Gospels is +historical." Rabbi Hirsch writes in this same letter that he did +not say Jesus was mentioned in the Rabbinical Books. The News +reports the Rabbi as saying, "But we know through the Rabbinical +Books that Jesus lived." + + A committee from our Society waited on the editor of the +Daily News for an explanation. The editor promised to locate the +responsibility for the contradiction. + + As the report in the News was allowed to stand for four days +without correction, and as Rabbi Hirsch did not even privately, +by letter or by phone, disclaim responsibility for the article, +to Mr. Mangasarian, the latter claims he was justified in +assuming that the published report was reliable. But it is with +pleasure that the Independent Religious Society gives Rabbi +Hirsch this opportunity to explain his position. We hope he will +also let us know whether he said to the reporter "I do not +believe in Mr. Mangasarian's argument that Christianity has +inspired massacres, wars and inquisitions. It is a stock argument +and not to the point." This is extraordinary; and as the Rabbi +does not question the statement, we infer that it is a correct +report of what he said. Though we have room for only one +quotation from the Jewish-Christian Scriptures, it will be enough +to show the relation of religion to persecution: + + "And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord, thy +God, shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them." + + Why were women put to death as witches? Why were Quakers +hanged? For what "economic and political reasons," which the +Rabbi thinks are responsible for persecution, was the blind Derby +girl who doubted the Real Presence, burned alive at the age of +twenty-two? + + V + + The Rev. W.E. Barton, of Oak Park, is one of the ablest +Congregational ministers in the West. He has recently expressed +himself on the Mangasarian-Crapsey Debate. Let us hear what he +has to say on the historicity of Jesus. + + The Reverend begins by an uncompromising denial of our +statements, and ends by virtually admitting all that we contend +for. This morning we will write of his denials; next Sunday, of +his admissions. + + "Mr. Mangasarian," says Dr. Barton, "has not given evidence +of his skill as a logician or of his accuracy in the use of +history." Then he proceeds to apologize, in a way, for the +character of his reply to our argument, by saying that "Mr. +Mangasarian's arguments, fortunately, do not require to be taken +very seriously, for they are not in themselves serious." + + Notwithstanding this protest, Dr. Barton proceeds to do his +best to reply to our position. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 98 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + In The Debate we call attention to the fact that according +to the New Testament, Paul was in Jerusalem when Jesus was +teaching and performing his miracles there. Yet Paul never seems +to have met Jesus, or to have heard of his teachings or miracles. +To this Dr. Barton replies: "We cannot know and are not bound to +explain where Paul was on the few occasions when Jesus publicly +visited Jerusalem." + + The above reply, we are compelled to say, much to our +regret, is not even honest. Without 'actually telling any +untruths, it suggests indirectly two falsehoods: First, that +Jesus was not much in Jerusalem -- that he was there only on a +few occasions; and that, therefore, it is not strange that Paul +did not see him or hear of his preaching or miracles; and second, +that Paul was absent from the city when Jesus was there. The +question is not how often Jesus visited Jerusalem, but how +conspicuous was the part he played there. He may have visited +Jerusalem only once in all his life, yet if he preached there +daily in the synagogues; if he performed great miracles there; if +he marched through the streets followed by the palm-waving +multitude shouting Hosanna, etc.; if he attacked the high-priest +and the pharisees there, to which latter class Paul belonged; and +if he was arrested, tried and publicly executed there; and if his +teaching stirred the city from center to circumference, -- it +would not be honest to intimate that the "few" times Jesus +visited Jerusalem, Paul was engaged elsewhere. + + The Reverend attempts to belittle the Jerusalem career of +Jesus, by suggesting that he was not there much, when according +to the Gospels, it was in that city that his ministry began and +culminated. + + Again, to our argument that Paul never refers to any of the +teachings of Jesus, the Reverend replies: "Nor is it of +consequence that Paul seldom quotes the words of Jesus." "Seldom" +-- would imply that Paul quotes Jesus sometimes. We say Paul +gives not a single quotation to prove that he knew of a teaching +Jesus. He had heard of a crucified, risen, Christ -- one who had +also instituted a bread and wine supper, but of Jesus as a +teacher and of his teaching, Paul is absolutely ignorant. + + But by saying "Paul seldom quotes Jesus," Dr. Barton tries +to produce the impression that Paul quotes Jesus, though not very +often, which is not true. There is not a single miracle, parable +or moral teaching attributed to Jesus in the Gospels of which +Paul seems to possess any knowledge whatever. + + Nor is it true that it is of no consequence that "Paul +seldom quotes the words of Jesus." For it proves that the Gospel +Jesus was unknown to Paul, and that he was created at a later +date. + + Once more; we say that the only Jesus Paul knew was the one +he met in a trance on his way to Damascus. To this the pastor of +the First Congregational Church of Oak Park replies in the same +we-do-not-care-to-explain style. He says: "Nor is it of +consequence that Paul values comparatively lightly, having known +him in the flesh." + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 99 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + The words "Paul valued comparatively lightly" are as +misleading as the words "Paul seldom quotes Jesus." Paul never +quotes Jesus' teachings, and he never met Jesus in the flesh. The +clergyman's words, however, convey the impression that Paul knew +Jesus in the flesh, but he valued that knowledge "comparatively +lightly," that is to say, he did not think much of it. And Dr. +Barton is one of the foremost divines of the country. + + And now about his admissions: + + VI + + I. "The Gospels, by whomever written," says the clergyman, +"are reliable." By whomever written! After two thousand years, it +is still uncertain to whom we are indebted for the story of +Jesus. What, in Dr. Barton's opinion, could have influenced the +framers of the life of Jesus to suppress their identity? And why +does not the church instead of printing the words, "The Gospel +according to Matthew or John," which is not true, -- print, "The +Gospel by whomever written"? + + II. "At the very least, four of Paul's epistles are +genuine," says the same clergyman. Only four? Paul has thirteen +epistles in the bible, and of only four of them is Dr. Barton +certain. What are the remaining nine doing in the Holy Bible? And +which 'four' does the clergyman accept as doubtlessly "genuine?" +Only yesterday all thirteen of Paul's letters were infallible, +and they are so still wherever no questions are asked about them. +It is only where there is intelligence and inquiry that "four of +them" at least are reliable. As honesty and culture increase, the +number of inspired epistles decreases. What the Americans are too +enlightened to accept, the church sends to the heathen. + + III. "It is true that early a sect grew up which ... held +that Jesus could not have had a body of carnal flesh; but they +did not question that he had really lived." According to Dr. +Barton, these early Christians did not deny that Jesus had really +lived, -- they only denied that Jesus could have had a body of +carnal flesh. We wonder how many kinds of flesh there are +according to Dr. Barton. Moreover, does not the bible teach that +Jesus was tempted in all things, and was a man of like passions, +as ourselves? The good man controls his appetites and passions, +but his flesh is not any different from anybody else's. If Jesus +did not have a body like ours, then he did not exist as a human +being. Our point is, that if the New Testament is reliable, in +the time of the apostles themselves, the Gnostics, an influential +body of Christians, denied that Jesus was any more than an +imaginary existence. "But," pleads the clergyman, "these sects +believed that Jesus was real, though not carnal flesh." What kind +of flesh was he then? If by carnal the Gnostics meant 'sensual,' +then, the apostles in denouncing them for rejecting a carnal +Jesus, must have held that Jesus was carnal or sensual. How does +the Reverend Barton like the conclusion to which his own +reasoning leads him? + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 100 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + IV. "It is true that there were literary fictions in the age +following the apostles." This admission is in answer to the +charge that even in the first centuries the Christians were +compelled to resort to forgery to prove the historicity of Jesus. +The doctor admits the charge, except that he calls it by another +name. The difference between fiction and forgery is this: the +former is, what it claims to be; the latter is a lie parading as +a truth. Fiction is honest because it does not try to deceive. +Forgery is dishonest because its object is to deceive. If the +Gospel was a novel, no one would object to its mythology, but +pretending to be historical, it must square its claims with the +facts, or be branded as a forgery. + + V. "We may not have the precise words Jesus uttered; the +portrait may be colored; ... tradition may have had its +influence; but Jesus was real." A most remarkable admission from +a clerical! It concedes all that higher criticism contends for. +We are not sure either of Jesus' words or of his character, +intimates the Reverend. Precisely. + + In commenting on our remark that in the eighth century "Pope +Hadrian called upon the Christian world to think of Jesus as a +man," Dr. Barton replies with considerable temper: "To date +people's right to think of Jesus as a man from that decree is not +to be characterized by any polite term." Our neighbor, in the +first place, misquotes us in his haste. We never presumed to deny +anyone the right to think of Jesus what he pleased, before or +after the eighth century. (The Debate, p. 28.) We were calling +attention to Pope Hadrian's order to replace the lamb on the +cross by the figure of a man. But by what polite language is the +conduct of the Christian church -- which to this day prints in +its bibles "Translated from the Original Greek," when no original +manuscripts are in existence -- to be characterized? + + Dr. Barton's efforts to save his creed remind us of the +Japanese proverb: "It is no use mending the lid, if the pot be +broken." + + VII + + The most remarkable clerical effort thus far, which The +Mangasarian-Crapsey Debate has called forth, is that of the Rev. +E.V. Shayler, rector of Grace Episcopal Church of Oak Park. + + "In answer to your query, which I received, I beg to give +the following statement. Facts, not theories. The date of your +own letter 1908 tells what? 1908 years after what? The looking +forward of the world to Him." + + Rev. Shayler has an original way of proving the historicity +of Jesus. Every time we date our letters, suggests the clergyman, +we prove that Jesus lived. The ancient Greeks reckoned time by +the Olympiads, which fact, according to this interesting +clergyman, ought to prove that the Olympic games were instituted +by the God Heracles or Hercules, son of Zeus; the Roman +Chronology began with the building of Rome by Romulus, which by +the same reasoning would prove that Romulus and Remus, born of +Mars, and nursed by a she-wolf, are historical. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 101 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + Rev. Shayler has forgotten that the Christian era was not +introduced into Europe until the sixth century, and Dionysius, +the monkish author of the era, did not compute time from the +birth of Jesus, but from the day on which the Virgin Mary met an +angel from heaven. This date prevailed in many countries until +1745. Would the date on a letter prove that an angel appeared to +Mary and hailed her as the future Mother of God? According to +this clergyman, scientists, instead of studying the crust of the +earth and making geological investigations to ascertain the +probable age of the earth, ought to look at the date in the +margin of the bible which tells exactly the world's age. + + Rev. Shayler continues: ."The places where he was born, +labored and died are still extant, and have no value apart from +such testimony." + + While this is amusing, we are going to deny ourselves the +pleasure of laughing at it; we will do our best to give it a +serious answer. If the existence of such a country as Palestine +proves that Jesus is real, the existence of Switzerland must +prove that William Tell is historical; and the existence of an +Athens must prove that Athene and Apollo really lived; and from +the fact that there is an England, Rev. Shayler would prove that +Robin Hood and his band really lived in 1160. + + The Reverend knows of another 'fact' which he thinks proves +Jesus without a doubt: + + "A line of apostles and bishops coming right down from him +by his appointment to Anderson of Chicago," shows that Jesus is +historical. It does, but only to Episcopalians. The Catholics and +the other sects do not believe that Anderson is a descendant of +Jesus. Did the priests of Baal or Moloch prove that these beings +existed? + + The Reverend has another argument: + + "The Christian Church -- when, why and how did it begin?" +Which Christian church, brother? Your own church began with Henry +the Eighth in 1534, with persecution and murder, when the king, +his hands wet with the blood of his own wives and ministers, made +himself the supreme head of the church in England. The Methodist +church began with John Wesley not much over a hundred years ago; +the Presbyterian church began with John Calvin who burned his +guest on a slow fire in Geneva about three hundred years ago; and +the Lutheran church began with Martin Luther in the sixteenth +century, the man who said over his own signature: "It was I, +Martin Luther, who slew all the peasants in the Peasants War, for +I commanded them to be slaughtered ... But I throw the +responsibility on our Lord God who instructed me to give this +order;" and the Roman Catholic church, the parent of the smaller +churches -- all chips from the same block -- began its real +career with the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, who hanged +his father-in-law, strangled his brother-in-law, murdered his +nephew, beheaded his eldest son, and killed his wife. Gibbon +writes of Constantine that "the same year of his reign in which +he convened the council of Nice was polluted by the execution, or +rather murder, of his eldest son." + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 102 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + But our clerical neighbor from Oak Park has one more +argument: "Why is Sunday observed instead of Saturday?" Well, +why? Sun-day is the day of the Sun, whose glorious existence in +the lovely heavens over our heads has never been doubted; it was +the day which the Pagans dedicated to the Sun. Sunday existed +before the Jesus story was known -- the anniversary of whose +supposed resurrection falls in March one year, and in April +another. If Jesus rose at all, he rose on a certain day, and the +apostles must have known the date. Why then is there a different +date every year? + + Rev. Shayler concludes: "Haven't time to go deeper now," and +he intimates that to deny his 'facts' is either to be a fool or a +"liar." We will not comment on this. We are interested in +arguments, not in epithets. + + VIII + + One of our Sunday programs, the other day, found its way + +into a church. It went farther; it made its appearance in the +pulpit. + + "In my hand I hold the notice of a publication bearing the +title Is Jesus a Myth?" said Dr. Boyle. "This, too, just as +though Paul never bore testimony." + + This gave the clergyman a splendid opportunity to present in +clear and convincing form the evidence for the reality of Jesus. +But one thing prevented him: -- the lack of evidence. + + Therefore, after announcing the subject, he dismissed it, by +remarking that Paul's testimony was enough. + + The Rev. Morton Culver Hartzell, in a letter, offers the +same argument. "Let Mr. Mangasarian first disprove Paul," he +writes. The argument in a nutshell is this: Jesus is historical +because he is guaranteed by Paul. + + But who guarantees Paul? + + Aside from the fact that the Jesus of Paul is essentially a +different Jesus from the gospel Jesus there still remains the +question, Who is Paul? Let us see how much the church scholars +themselves know about Paul: + + "The place and manner and occasion of his death are not less +uncertain than the facts of his later life ... The chronology of +the rest of his life is as uncertain ... We have no means of +knowing when he was born, or how long he lived, or at what dates +the several events of his life took place." + + Referring to the epistles of Paul, the same authority says: +"The chief of these preliminary questions is the genuineness of +the epistles bearing Paul's name, which if they be his" -- yes, +IF -- + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 103 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + The Christian scholar whose article on Paul is printed in +the Britannica, and from which we are now quoting, gives further +expression to this uncertainty by adding that certain of Paul's +epistles "have given rise to disputes which cannot easily be +settled in the absence of collateral evidence. ... The pastoral +epistles ... have given rise to still graver questions, and are +probably even less defensible." + + Let the reader remember that the above is not from a +rationalist, but from the Rev. Edwin Hatch, D.D., Vice-Principal, +St. Mary Hall, Oxford, England. + + Were we disposed to quote rationalist authorities, the +argument against Paul would be far more decisive ... But we are +satisfied to rest the case on orthodox admissions alone. + + The strongest argument then of clergymen who have attempted +an answer to our position is something like this: + + Jesus is historical because a man by the name of Paul says +so, though we do not know much about Paul. + + It is just such evidence as the above that led Prof. Goldwin +Smith to exclaim: "Jesus has flown. I believe the legend of Jesus +was made by many minds working under a great religious impulse -- +one man adding a parable, another an exhortation, another a +miracle story;" -- and George Eliot to write: "The materials for +a real life of Christ do not exist." + + In the effort to untie the Jesus-knot by Paul, the church +has increased the number of knots to two. In other words, the +church has proceeded on the theory that two uncertainties make a +certainty. + + We promised to square also with the facts of history our +statement that the chief concern of the church, Jewish, +Christian, or Mohammedan, is not righteousness, but orthodoxy. + + IX + + Speaking in this city, Rev. W.H. Wray Boyle of Lake Forest, +declared that unbelief was responsible for the worst crimes in +history. He mentioned the placing. + + -- "of a nude woman on a pedestal in the city of Paris. + + -- "the assassination of William McKinley. + + -- "The same unbelief "sent a murderer down the isle of a +church in Denver to pluck the symbol of the sacrament from the +hands of a priest and slay him at the altar." + + The story of a "nude woman," etc., is pure fiction, and that +the two murders were caused by unbelief is mere assumption. To +help his creed, the preacher resorts to fable. We shall prove our +position by quoting facts: + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 104 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + I. HYPATIA [See Author's, The Martyrdom of Hypatia.] was +dragged into a Christian church by monks in Alexandria, and +before the altar she was stripped of her clothing and cut in +pieces with oyster shells, and murdered. Her innocent blood +stained the hands of the clergy, who also handle the Holy +Sacraments. She was murdered not by a crazed individual but by +the orders of the bishop of Alexandria. How does the true story +of Hypatia compare with the fable of "a nude woman placed on a +pedestal in the city of Paris?" The Reverend must answer, or +never tell an untruth again. + + Hypatia was murdered in church, and by the clergy, because +she was not orthodox. + + II. POLTROT, the Protestant, in the 16th century +assassinated Francois, the Catholic duke of Guise, in France, and +the leaders of the church, instead of disclaiming responsibility +for the act, publicly praised the assassin, and Theodore Beza, +the colleague of Calvin, promised him a crown in heaven, (De +l'etat etc, p. 82, Quoted by Jules Simon.) + +III. JAMES CLEMENT, a Catholic, assassinated Henry III. For this +act the clergy placed his portrait on the altar in the churches +between two great lighted candle-sticks. Because he had killed a +heretic prince, the Catholics presented the assassin's mother +with a purse. (Esprit de la Ligue I. III. p. 14.) + + If it was unbelief that inspired the murder of McKinley, +what inspired the assassins of Hypatia and Henry III? + + We read in the Bible that Gen. Sisera, a heathen, having +lost a battle, begged for shelter at the tent of Jael, a friendly +woman, but of the Bible faith. Jael assured the unfortunate +stranger that he was safe in her tent. The tired warrior fell +asleep from great weariness. Then Jael picked a tent-peg and with +a hammer in her hand "walked softly unto him, and smote the nail +into his temples, and fastened it into the ground ... So he +died." + + The BIBLE calls this assassin "blessed above women." (Judge +IV. 18, etc.) She had killed a heretic. + + In each of the instances given above, the assassin is +horrified because he committed murder in the interest of the +faith. We ask this clergyman and his colleagues who are only too +anxious to charge every act of violence to unbelief in their +creeds -- What about the crimes of believers? + + Without comment we recommend the following text to their +attention: + + "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own +eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of thy +brother's eye." (Matthew VII, 5.) + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 105 + + IS JESUS A MYTH? by M.M. MANGASARIAN + + PUBLICATIONS OF + + M.M. MANGASARIAN + +THE MARTYRDOM OF HYPATIA. +MORALITY WITHOUT GOD. +HOW THE BIBLE WAS INVENTED. +THE RATIONALISM OF SHAKESPEARE. +BRYAN ON RELIGION. +THE RELIGION OF WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON AND FRANKLIN. +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ANALYZED AND ANSWERED. +WHAT WAS THE RELIGION OF SHAKESPEARE? +DEBATE WITH A PRESBYTERIAN. PRELUDE: ROOSEVELT. +THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN GENEVA UNDER CALVIN. +WOMAN SUFFRAGE; OR THE CHILD-BEARING WOMAN AND CIVILIZATION. +THE CHURCH IN POLITICS-AMERICANS, BEWARE! + + 10 Cents per Copy. + +PEARLS -- BRAVE THOUGHTS FROM BRAVE MINDS. + +THE MANGASARIAN-CRAFSEY DEBATE ON THE HISTORICITY OF JESUS. +25 Cents a Copy. + +A NEW CATECHISM. Revised and enlarged -- with portrait of Author. +$1.00. + +THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS -- IS HE A MYTH? + + **** **** + + Christian Science + + A comedy in four acts. + 80 pages; cloth, 25c; paper, 10c. + + In this little volume the author discusses the so called +philosophy of Christian Science. The book is meant for those in +whom the spirit of inquiry is not hopelessly stifled. People who +enjoy doing their thinking, will relish reading this comedy. The +motto of the book is: "The light is known to have failed against +folly sometimes, the laugh never!" + + Order Through the + INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS SOCIETY + Orchestra Hall Building Chicago + + + + + + **** **** + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + **** **** + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 106 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jewishde.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jewishde.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2be8a96b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jewishde.txt @@ -0,0 +1,518 @@ +A JEWISH DEFECTOR WARNS AMERICA: +Benjamin Freedman Speaks + +by Benjamin H. Freedman + + +Introductory Note + +Benjamin H. Freedman was one of the most intriguing and amazing +individuals of the 20th century. Mr. Freedman, born in 1890, was a +successful Jewish businessman of New York City who was at one time +the principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company. He broke with +organized Jewry after the Judeo-Communist victory of 1945, and spent +the remainder of his life and the great preponderance of his considerable +fortune, at least 2.5 million dollars, exposing the Jewish tyranny which +has enveloped the United States. + +Mr. Freedman knew what he was talking about because he had been an +insider at the highest levels of Jewish organizations and Jewish +machinations to gain power over our nation. Mr. Freedman was +personally acquainted with Bernard Baruch, Samuel Untermyer, +Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Kennedy, and John F. +Kennedy, and many more movers and shakers of our times. + +This speech was given before a patriotic audience in 1961 at the Willard +Hotel in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Conde McGinley's patriotic +newspaper of that time, Common Sense. Though in some minor ways +this wide-ranging and extemporaneous speech has become dated, Mr. +Freedman's essential message to us -- his warning to the West -- is more +urgent than ever before. -- K.A.S. + +* + +HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, the Zionists and their co-religionists +have complete control of our government. For many reasons, too many +and too complex to go into here at this time, the Zionists and their co- +religionists rule these United States as though they were the absolute +monarchs of this country. Now you may say that is a very broad +statement, but let me show you what happened while we were all asleep. + +What happened? World War I broke out in the summer of 1914. There +are few people here my age who remember that. Now that war was +waged on one side by Great Britain, France, and Russia; and on the other +side by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. + +Within two years Germany had won that war: not only won it nominally, +but won it actually. The German submarines, which were a surprise to +the world, had swept all the convoys from the Atlantic Ocean. + +Great Britain stood there without ammunition for her soldiers, with one +week's food supply -- and after that, starvation. At that time, the French +army had mutinied. They had lost 600,000 of the flower of French youth +in the defense of Verdun on the Somme. The Russian army was + +defecting, they were picking up their toys and going home, they didn't +want to play war anymore, they didn't like the Tsar. And the Italian army +had collapsed. + +Not a shot had been fired on German soil. Not one enemy soldier had +crossed the border into Germany. And yet, Germany was offering +England peace terms. They offered England a negotiated peace on what +the lawyers call a status quo ante basis. That means: "Let's call the war +off, and let everything be as it was before the war started." England, in +the summer of 1916 was considering that -- seriously. They had no +choice. It was either accepting this negotiated peace that Germany was +magnanimously offering them, or going on with the war and being +totally defeated. + +While that was going on, the Zionists in Germany, who represented the +Zionists from Eastern Europe, went to the British War Cabinet and -- I +am going to be brief because it's a long story, but I have all the +documents to prove any statement that I make -- they said: "Look here. +You can yet win this war. You don't have to give up. You don't have to +accept the negotiated peace offered to you now by Germany. You can +win this war if the United States will come in as your ally." + +The United States was not in the war at that time. We were fresh; we +were young; we were rich; we were powerful. They told England: "We +will guarantee to bring the United States into the war as your ally, to +fight with you on your side, if you will promise us Palestine after you +win the war." + +In other words, they made this deal: "We will get the United States into +this war as your ally. The price you must pay is Palestine after you have +won the war and defeated Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey." +Now England had as much right to promise Palestine to anybody, as the +United States would have to promise Japan to Ireland for any reason +whatsoever. It's absolutely absurd that Great Britain, that never had any +connection or any interest or any right in what is known as Palestine +should offer it as coin of the realm to pay the Zionists for bringing the +United States into the war. + +However, they did make that promise, in October of 1916. And shortly +after that -- I don't know how many here remember it -- the United +States, which was almost totally pro-German, entered the war as Britain's +ally. + +I say that the United States was almost totally pro-German because the +newspapers here were controlled by Jews, the bankers were Jews, all the +media of mass communications in this country were controlled by Jews; +and they, the Jews, were pro-German. They were pro-German because +many of them had come from Germany, and also they wanted to see +Germany lick the Tsar. The Jews didn't like the Tsar, and they didn't +want Russia to win this war. These German-Jew bankers, like Kuhn Loeb +and the other big banking firms in the United States refused to finance +France or England to the extent of one dollar. They stood aside and they +said: "As long as France and England are tied up with Russia, not one +cent!" But they poured money into Germany, they fought beside +Germany against Russia, trying to lick the Tsarist regime. + +Now those same Jews, when they saw the possibility of getting Palestine, +went to England and they made this deal. At that time, everything +changed, like a traffic light that changes from red to green. Where the +newspapers had been all pro-German, where they'd been telling the +people of the difficulties that Germany was having fighting Great Britain +commercially and in other respects, all of a sudden the Germans were no +good. They were villains. They were Huns. They were shooting Red +Cross nurses. They were cutting off babies' hands. They were no good. +Shortly after that, Mr. Wilson declared war on Germany. + +The Zionists in London had sent cables to the United States, to Justice +Brandeis, saying "Go to work on President Wilson. We're getting from +England what we want. Now you go to work on President Wilson and get +the United States into the war." That's how the United States got into the +war. We had no more interest in it; we had no more right to be in it than +we have to be on the moon tonight instead of in this room. There was +absolutely no reason for World War I to be our war. We were railroaded +into -- if I can be vulgar, we were suckered into -- that war merely so that +the Zionists of the world could obtain Palestine. That is something that +the people of the United States have never been told. They never knew +why we went into World War I. + +After we got into the war, the Zionists went to Great Britain and they +said: "Well, we performed our part of the agreement. Let's have +something in writing that shows that you are going to keep your bargain +and give us Palestine after you win the war." They didn't know whether +the war would last another year or another ten years. So they started to +work out a receipt. The receipt took the form of a letter, which was +worded in very cryptic language so that the world at large wouldn't know +what it was all about. And that was called the Balfour Declaration. + +The Balfour Declaration was merely Great Britain's promise to pay the +Zionists what they had agreed upon as a consideration for getting the +United States into the war. So this great Balfour Declaration, that you +hear so much about, is just as phony as a three dollar bill. I don't think I +could make it more emphatic than that. + +That is where all the trouble started. The United States got in the war. +The United States crushed Germany. You know what happened. When +the war ended, and the Germans went to Paris for the Paris Peace +Conference in 1919, there were 117 Jews there, as a delegation +representing the Jews, headed by Bernard Baruch. I was there: I ought to +know. Now what happened? + +The Jews at that peace conference, when they were cutting up Germany +and parceling out Europe to all these nations who claimed a right to a +certain part of European territory, said, "How about Palestine for us?" +And they produced, for the first time to the knowledge of the Germans, +this Balfour Declaration. So the Germans, for the first time realized, "Oh, +so that was the game! That's why the United States came into the war." +The Germans for the first time realized that they were defeated, they +suffered the terrific reparations that were slapped onto them, because the +Zionists wanted Palestine and were determined to get it at any cost. + +That brings us to another very interesting point. When the Germans +realized this, they naturally resented it. Up to that time, the Jews had +never been better off in any country in the world than they had been in +Germany. You had Mr. Rathenau there, who was maybe 100 times as +important in industry and finance as is Bernard Baruch in this country. +You had Mr. Balin, who owned the two big steamship lines, the North +German Lloyd's and the Hamburg-American Lines. You had Mr. +Bleichroder, who was the banker for the Hohenzollern family. You had +the Warburgs in Hamburg, who were the big merchant bankers -- the +biggest in the world. The Jews were doing very well in Germany. No + +question about that. The Germans felt: "Well, that was quite a sellout." + +It was a sellout that might be compared to this hypothetical situation: +Suppose the United States was at war with the Soviet Union. And we +were winning. And we told the Soviet Union: "Well, let's quit. We offer +you peace terms. Let's forget the whole thing." And all of a sudden Red +China came into the war as an ally of the Soviet Union. And throwing +them into the war brought about our defeat. A crushing defeat, with +reparations the likes of which man's imagination cannot encompass. + +Imagine, then, after that defeat, if we found out that it was the Chinese in +this country, our Chinese citizens, who all the time we had thought were +loyal citizens working with us, were selling us out to the Soviet Union +and that it was through them that Red China was brought into the war +against us. How would we feel, then, in the United States against +Chinese? I don't think that one of them would dare show his face on any +street. There wouldn't be enough convenient lampposts to take care of +them. Imagine how we would feel. + +Well, that's how the Germans felt towards these Jews. They'd been so +nice to them: from 1905 on, when the first Communist revolution in +Russia failed, and the Jews had to scramble out of Russia, they all went +to Germany. And Germany gave them refuge. And they were treated +very nicely. And here they had sold Germany down the river for no +reason at all other than the fact that they wanted Palestine as a so-called +"Jewish commonwealth." + +Now Nahum Sokolow, and all the great leaders and great names that you +read about in connection with Zionism today, in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, +and 1923 wrote in all their papers -- and the press was filled with their +statements -- that the feeling against the Jews in Germany is due to the +fact that they realized that this great defeat was brought about by Jewish +intercession in bringing the United States into the war. The Jews +themselves admitted that. + +It wasn't that the Germans in 1919 discovered that a glass of Jewish +blood tasted better than Coca-Cola or Muenschner Beer. There was no +religious feeling. There was no sentiment against those people merely on +account of their religious belief. It was all political. It was economic. It +was anything but religious. Nobody cared in Germany whether a Jew +went home and pulled down the shades and said "Shema' Yisroel" or +"Our Father." Nobody cared in Germany any more than they do in the +United States. Now this feeling that developed later in Germany was due +to one thing: the Germans held the Jews responsible for their crushing +defeat. + +And World War I had been started against Germany for no reason for +which Germany was responsible. They were guilty of nothing. Only of +being successful. They built up a big navy. They built up world trade. +You must remember that Germany at the time of the French Revolution +consisted of 300 small city-states, principalities, dukedoms, and so forth. +Three hundred separate little political entities. And between that time, +between the times of Napoleon and Bismarck, they were consolidated +into one state. And within 50 years they became one of the world's great +powers. Their navy was rivaling Great Britain's, they were doing +business all over the world, they could undersell anybody, they could +make better products. What happened as a result of that? + +There was a conspiracy between England, France, and Russia to slap +down Germany. There isn't one historian in the world who can find a +valid reason why those three countries decided to wipe Germany off the +map politically. + +When Germany realized that the Jews were responsible for her defeat, +they naturally resented it. But not a hair on the head of any Jew was +harmed. Not a single hair. Professor Tansill, of Georgetown University, +who had access to all the secret papers of the State Department, wrote in +his book, and quoted from a State Department document written by +Hugo Schoenfelt, a Jew whom Cordell Hull sent to Europe in 1933 to +investigate the so-called camps of political prisoners, who wrote back +that he found them in very fine condition. They were in excellent shape, +with everybody treated well. And they were filled with Communists. +Well, a lot of them were Jews, because the Jews happened to comprise +about 98 per cent of the Communists in Europe at that time. And there +were some priests there, and ministers, and labor leaders, and Masons, +and others who had international affiliations. + +Some background is in order: In 1918-1919 the Communists took over +Bavaria for a few days. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and a +group of other Jews took over the government for three days. In fact, +when the Kaiser ended the war he fled to Holland because he thought the +Communists were going to take over Germany as they did Russia and +that he was going to meet the same fate as the Tsar. So he fled to Holland +for safety, for security. After the Communist threat in Germany was +quashed, the Jews were still working, trying to get back into their former + +status, and the Germans fought them in every way they could without +hurting a single hair on anyone's head. + +They fought them the same way that, in this country, the Prohibitionists +fought anyone who was interested in liquor. They didn't fight one +another with pistols. Well, that's the way they were fighting the Jews in +Germany. And at that time, mind you, there were 80 to 90 million +Germans, and there were only 460,000 Jews. About one half of one per +cent of the population of Germany were Jews. And yet they controlled all +the press, and they controlled most of the economy because they had +come in with cheap money when the mark was devalued and bought up +practically everything. + +The Jews tried to keep a lid on this fact. They didn't want the world to +really understand that they had sold out Germany, and that the Germans +resented that. + +The Germans took appropriate action against the Jews. They, shall I say, +discriminated against them wherever they could. They shunned them. +The same way that we would shun the Chinese, or the Negroes, or the +Catholics, or anyone in this country who had sold us out to an enemy and +brought about our defeat. + +After a while, the Jews of the world called a meeting in Amsterdam. +Jews from every country in the world attended this meeting in July 1933. +And they said to Germany: "You fire Hitler, and you put every Jew back +into his former position, whether he was a Communist or no matter what +he was. You can't treat us that way. And we, the Jews of the world, are +serving an ultimatum upon you." You can imagine what the Germans +told them. So what did the Jews do? + +In 1933, when Germany refused to surrender to the world conference of +Jews in Amsterdam, the conference broke up, and Mr. Samuel +Untermyer, who was the head of the American delegation and the +president of the whole conference, came to the United States and went +from the steamer to the studios of the Columbia Broadcasting System +and made a radio broadcast throughout the United States in which he in +effect said, "The Jews of the world now declare a Holy War against +Germany. We are now engaged in a sacred conflict against the Germans. +And we are going to starve them into surrender. We are going to use a +world-wide boycott against them. That will destroy them because they +are dependent upon their export business." + +And it is a fact that two thirds of Germany's food supply had to be +imported, and it could only be imported with the proceeds of what they +exported. So if Germany could not export, two thirds of Germany's +population would have to starve. There was just not enough food for +more than one third of the population. Now in this declaration, which I +have here, and which was printed in the New York Times on August 7, +1933, Mr. Samuel Untermyer boldly stated that "this economic boycott is +our means of self-defense. President Roosevelt has advocated its use in +the National Recovery Administration," which some of you may +remember, where everybody was to be boycotted unless he followed the +rules laid down by the New Deal, and which was declared +unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of that time. Nevertheless, the +Jews of the world declared a boycott against Germany, and it was so +effective that you couldn't find one thing in any store anywhere in the +world with the words "made in Germany" on it. + +In fact, an executive of the Woolworth Company told me that they had to +dump millions of dollars worth of crockery and dishes into the river; that +their stores were boycotted if anyone came in and found a dish marked +"made in Germany," they were picketed with signs saying "Hitler," +"murderer," and so forth, something like these sit-ins that are taking +place in the South. At a store belonging to the R. H. Macy chain, which +was controlled by a family called Strauss who also happen to be Jews, a +woman found stockings there which came from Chemnitz, marked +"made in Germany." Well, they were cotton stockings and they may +have been there 20 years, since I've been observing women's legs for +many years and it's been a long time since I've seen any cotton stockings +on them. I saw Macy's boycotted, with hundreds of people walking +around with signs saying "murderers," "Hitlerites," and so forth. Now up +to that time, not one hair on the head of any Jew had been hurt in +Germany. There was no suffering, there was no starvation, there was no +murder, there was nothing. + +Naturally, the Germans said, "Who are these people to declare a boycott +against us and throw all our people out of work, and make our industries +come to a standstill? Who are they to do that to us?" They naturally +resented it. Certainly they painted swastikas on stores owned by Jews. +Why should a German go in and give his money to a storekeeper who +was part of a boycott that was going to starve Germany into surrendering +to the Jews of the world, who were going to dictate who their premier or +chancellor was to be? Well, it was ridiculous. + +The boycott continued for some time, but it wasn't until 1938, when a +young Jew from Poland walked into the German embassy in Paris and +shot a German official, that the Germans really started to get rough with +the Jews in Germany. And you found them then breaking windows and +having street fights and so forth. + +Now I don't like to use the word "anti-Semitism" because it's +meaningless, but it means something to you still, so I'll have to use it. +The only reason that there was any feeling in Germany against Jews was +that they were responsible for World War I and for this world-wide +boycott. Ultimately they were also responsible for World War II, because +after this thing got out of hand, it was absolutely necessary for the Jews +and Germany to lock horns in a war to see which one was going to +survive. + +In the meanwhile, I had lived in Germany, and I knew that the Germans +had decided that Europe is going to be Christian or Communist: there is +no in between. And the Germans decided they were going to keep it +Christian if possible. And they started to re-arm. + +In November 1933 the United States recognized the Soviet Union. The +Soviet Union was becoming very powerful, and Germany realized that +"Our turn was going to come soon, unless we are strong." The same as +we in this country are saying today, "Our turn is going to come soon, +unless we are strong." Our government is spending 83 or 84 billion +dollars for defense. Defense against whom? Defense against 40,000 little +Jews in Moscow that took over Russia, and then, in their devious ways, +took over control of many other countries of the world. + + +For this country now to be on the verge of a Third World War, from +which we cannot emerge a victor, is something that staggers my +imagination. I know that nuclear bombs are measured in terms of +megatons. A megaton is a term used to describe one million tons of TNT. +Our nuclear bombs had a capacity of 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of +TNT, when they were first developed. Now, the nuclear bombs that are +being developed have a capacity of 200 megatons, and God knows how +many megatons the nuclear bombs of the Soviet Union have. + +What do we face now? If we trigger a world war that may develop into a +nuclear war, humanity is finished. Why might such a war take place? It +will take place as the curtain goes up on Act 3: Act 1 was World War I, +Act 2 was World War II, Act 3 is going to be World War III. The Jews of +the world, the Zionists and their co-religionists everywhere, are +determined that they are going to again use the United States to help +them permanently retain Palestine as their foothold for their world +government. That is just as true as I am standing here. Not alone have I +read it, but many here have also read it, and it is known all over the +world. + +What are we going to do? The life you save may be your son's. Your +boys may be on their way to that war tonight; and you don't know it any +more than you knew that in 1916 in London the Zionists made a deal +with the British War Cabinet to send your sons to war in Europe. Did +you know it at that time? Not a person in the United States knew it. You +weren't permitted to know it. Who knew it? President Wilson knew it. +Colonel House knew it. Other insiders knew it. + +Did I know it? I had a pretty good idea of what was going on: I was +liaison to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., in the 1912 campaign when President +Wilson was elected, and there was talk around the office there. I was +"confidential man" to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., who was chairman of the +finance committee, and I was liaison between him and Rollo Wells, the +treasurer. So I sat in these meetings with President Wilson at the head of +the table, and all the others, and I heard them drum into President +Wilson's brain the graduated income tax and what has become the +Federal Reserve, and I heard them indoctrinate him with the Zionist +movement. Justice Brandeis and President Wilson were just as close as +the two fingers on this hand. President Woodrow Wilson was just as +incompetent when it came to determining what was going on as a +newborn baby. That is how they got us into World War I, while we all +slept. They sent our boys over there to be slaughtered. For what? So the +Jews can have Palestine as their "commonwealth." They've fooled you so +much that you don't know whether you're coming or going. + +Now any judge, when he charges a jury, says, "Gentlemen, any witness +who you find has told a single lie, you can disregard all his testimony." I +don't know what state you come from, but in New York state that is the +way a judge addresses a jury. If that witness told one lie, disregard his +testimony. + +What are the facts about the Jews? (I call them Jews to you, because they +are known as Jews. I don't call them Jews myself. I refer to them as so- +called Jews, because I know what they are.) The eastern European Jews, +who form 92 per cent of the world's population of those people who call +themselves Jews, were originally Khazars. They were a warlike tribe +who lived deep in the heart of Asia. And they were so warlike that even +the Asiatics drove them out of Asia into eastern Europe. They set up a +large Khazar kingdom of 800,000 square miles. At the time, Russia did +not exist, nor did many other European countries. The Khazar kingdom +was the biggest country in all Europe -- so big and so powerful that when +the other monarchs wanted to go to war, the Khazars would lend them +40,000 soldiers. That's how big and powerful they were. + +They were phallic worshippers, which is filthy and I do not want to go +into the details of that now. But that was their religion, as it was also the +religion of many other pagans and barbarians elsewhere in the world. +The Khazar king became so disgusted with the degeneracy of his +kingdom that he decided to adopt a so-called monotheistic faith -- either +Christianity, Islam, or what is known today as Judaism, which is really +Talmudism. By spinning a top, and calling out "eeny, meeny, miney, +moe," he picked out so-called Judaism. And that became the state +religion. He sent down to the Talmudic schools of Pumbedita and Sura +and brought up thousands of rabbis, and opened up synagogues and +schools, and his people became what we call Jews. There wasn't one of +them who had an ancestor who ever put a toe in the Holy Land. Not only +in Old Testament history, but back to the beginning of time. Not one of +them! + +And yet they come to the Christians and ask us to support their armed +insurrections in Palestine by saying, "You want to help repatriate God's +Chosen People to their Promised Land, their ancestral home, don't you? +It's your Christian duty. We gave you one of our boys as your Lord and +Savior. You now go to church on Sunday, and you kneel and you +worship a Jew, and we're Jews." But they are pagan Khazars who were +converted just the same as the Irish were converted. It is as ridiculous to +call them "people of the Holy Land," as it would be to call the 54 million +Chinese Moslems "Arabs." + +Mohammed only died in 620 A.D., and since then 54 million Chinese +have accepted Islam as their religious belief. Now imagine, in China, +2,000 miles away from Arabia, from Mecca and Mohammed's birthplace. +Imagine if the 54 million Chinese decided to call themselves "Arabs." +You would say they were lunatics. Anyone who believes that those 54 +million Chinese are Arabs must be crazy. All they did was adopt as a +religious faith a belief that had its origin in Mecca, in Arabia. The same +as the Irish. When the Irish became Christians, nobody dumped them in +the ocean and imported to the Holy Land a new crop of inhabitants. They +hadn't become a different people. They were the same people, but they +had accepted Christianity as a religious faith. + +These Khazars, these pagans, these Asiatics, these Turko-Finns, were a +Mongoloid race who were forced out of Asia into eastern Europe. +Because their king took the Talmudic faith, they had no choice in the +matter. Just the same as in Spain: If the king was Catholic, everybody +had to be a Catholic. If not, you had to get out of Spain. So the Khazars +became what we call today Jews. + +Now imagine how silly it was for the great Christian countries of the +world to say, "We're going to use our power and prestige to repatriate +God's Chosen People to their ancestral homeland, their Promised Land." +Could there be a bigger lie than that? Because they control the +newspapers, the magazines, the radio, the television, the book publishing +business, and because they have the ministers in the pulpit and the +politicians on the soapboxes talking the same language, it is not too +surprising that you believe that lie. You'd believe black is white if you + +heard it often enough. You wouldn't call black black anymore -- you'd +start to call black white. And nobody could blame you. + +That is one of the great lies of history. It is the foundation of all the +misery that has befallen the world. + +Do you know what Jews do on the Day of Atonement, that you think is +so sacred to them? I was one of them. This is not hearsay. I'm not here to +be a rabble-rouser. I'm here to give you facts. When, on the Day of +Atonement, you walk into a synagogue, you stand up for the very first +prayer that you recite. It is the only prayer for which you stand. You +repeat three times a short prayer called the Kol Nidre. + +In that prayer, you enter into an agreement with God Almighty that any +oath, vow, or pledge that you may make during the next twelve months +shall be null and void. The oath shall not be an oath; the vow shall not be +a vow; the pledge shall not be a pledge. They shall have no force or +effect. And further, the Talmud teaches that whenever you take an oath, +vow, or pledge, you are to remember the Kol Nidre prayer that you +recited on the Day of Atonement, and you are exempted from fulfilling +them. How much can you depend on their loyalty? You can depend upon +their loyalty as much as the Germans depended upon it in 1916. We are +going to suffer the same fate as Germany suffered, and for the same +reason. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jfk11.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jfk11.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bf70263b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jfk11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ + +JFK's Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961, 12:11 EST + + +We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom. . . +symbolizing an end as well as a beginning. . .signifying renewal +as well as change for I have sworn before you and Almighty God +the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century +and three-quarters ago. + +The world is very different now, for man holds in his mortal hands +the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. +And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought +are still at issue around the globe. . .the belief that the rights of man +come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. +We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. + +Let the word go forth from this time and place. . .to friend and foe alike. . . +that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. . . +born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, +proud of our ancient heritage. . .and unwilling to witness or permit the slow +undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, +and to which we are committed today. . .at home and around the world. + +Let every nation know. . .whether it wishes us well or ill. . . +that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, +support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and +the success of liberty. This much we pledge. . .and more. + +To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share: +we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United. . .there is +little we cannot do in a host of co-operative ventures. +Divided. . .there is little we can do. . .for we dare not meet +a powerful challenge, at odds, and split asunder. +To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free: +we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not +have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. +We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. +But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their +own freedom. . .and to remember that. . .in the past. . .those who +foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside. +To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe +struggling to break the bonds of mass misery: we pledge our best +efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period +is required. . .not because the Communists may be doing it, +not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. +If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, +it cannot save the few who are rich. + +To our sister republics south of our border: we offer a special pledge. . . +to convert our good words into good deeds. . .in a new alliance for progress +. . .to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of +poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of +hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them +to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. . .and let +every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master +of its own house. + +To that world assembly of sovereign states: the United Nations. . . +our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war +have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge +of support. . .to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for +invective. . .to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak. . . +and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run. + +Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversaries, +we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew +the quest for peace; before the dark powers of destruction unleashed +by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction. +We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient +beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. +But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from +our present course. . .both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, +both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing +to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of Mankind's +final war. + +So let us begin anew. . .remembering on both sides that civility +is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. +Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. +Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring +those problems which divide us. Let both sides, for the first time, +formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and +control of arms. . .and bring the absolute power to destroy +other nations under the absolute control of all nations. +Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead +of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the +deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage +the arts and commerce. Let both sides unite to heed in all corners +of the earth the command of Isaiah. . .to "undo the heavy burdens. . . +let the oppressed go free." + +And if a beachhead of co-operation may push back the jungle of suspicion. . . +let both sides join in creating not a new balance of power. . . +but a new world of law. . .where the strong are just. . . +and the weak secure. . .and the peace preserved. . . . + +All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. +Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days. . . +nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps +in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. + +In your hands, my fellow citizens. . .more than mine. . .will rest the +final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, +each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony +to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered +the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again. . . +not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need. . .not as a call to battle. . . +though embattled we are. . .but a call to bear the burden of a long +twilight struggle. . .year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, +patient in tribulation. . .a struggle against the common enemies of man: +tyranny. . .poverty. . .disease. . .and war itself. Can we forge against +these enemies a grand and global alliance. . .North and South. . . +East and West. . .that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? +Will you join in that historic effort? + +In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted +the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger; I do not shrink +from this responsibility. . .I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us +would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. +The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor +will light our country and all who serve it. . .and the glow from +that fire can truly light the world. + +And so, my fellow Americans. . .ask not what your country can +do for you. . .ask what you can do for your country. My fellow +citizens of the world. . .ask not what America will do for you, +but what together we can do for the Freedom of Man. + +Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, +ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice +which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, +with history the final judge of our deeds; let us go forth to lead +the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that +here on earth God's work must truly be our own. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jgh_9510.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jgh_9510.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..95c0cd95 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jgh_9510.txt @@ -0,0 +1,232 @@ +Freedom Daily + +Loving Your Country and Hating Your Government +by Jacob G. Hornberger, October 1995 + +Several months ago, President Clinton condemned Americans who exposed and +criticized wrongdoing by the U.S. government. The president said: "There's +nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your +government but love your country." + +Let us examine the implications of the president's claim. + +In the 1930s and throughout World War II, there were a small group of German +citizens who sacrificed their lives resisting the Nazi regime. They believed +that the true patriot was the person who lived his life according to a certain +set of moral principles. When one's own government violated those principles, +it was the duty of the patriot, these Germans believed, to resist. + +Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, on the other hand, believed that the real +patriot is the citizen who supports his government, especially in times of +crisis and war. The traitors, in their eyes, were the Germans who opposed the +Nazi government, especially after the war had begun. + +The story of the small number of Germans who resisted the Nazi regime is told +in a recent book-- _An Honourable Defeat_ (1994) by Anton Gill. Gill points out +that by the end of the war, most of the German resisters had been identified by +the Gestapo and murdered. Gill points out: + +"That this is the story of a defeat none will doubt. Some will dispute that it +was an honourable one. It is certainly not the story of a failure. Against +terrible odds and in appalling circumstances a small group of people kept the +spirit of German integrity alive, and with it the elusive spirit of humanity. +We should all be grateful to them for that." + +What would President Clinton say about these resisters? Undoubtedly, he would +call them troublemaking traitors to the Nazi regime. After all, the president +would ask, how could these people claim to love their country and, at the same +time, claim to hate the Nazi government? The real patriot, the president would +say, was the German citizen who loved his country and, therefore, his +government. As President Clinton would have said to the German resisters, +"There's nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can +hate your government but love your country." + +What about the British colonists living in American in 1776? They certainly had +no love for their government. When we celebrate the Fourth of July, it is easy +to forget the real implications of what happened during the fight for +independence. It is important to remember that George Washington, Thomas +Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, John Hancock, and the like were not +American citizens when they signed the Declaration of Independence. They were +as British as you and I are Americans. And they hated the philosophy and +policies of King George--taxation, economic regulation, immigration controls, +trade restrictions, and so forth. + +The colonists were violent men. They did everything they could to kill the +soldiers who fought on the side of their own government. On the other hand, +British soldiers did all they could to bring death to their fellow citizens. As +we celebrate the Fourth of July each year with our fireworks and picnics, we +tend to forget that real people with real families were deliberately killed on +both sides of the conflict. + +Were the colonists patriots? Certainly the British government did not think so. +Nathan Hale (who regretted that he had but one life to give for _his country_) +was hung because he was a traitor to _his government_. If the rebellion had +failed, there is no doubt that the signers of the Declaration of Independence +would have all been put to death by their own government officials--for +treason. + +What would be President Clinton's position with respect to the War for +Independence? On the surface, he would, of course, sing the praises of +America's Founding Fathers and American Independence Day. But this would only +mask a deep-seated resentment against the colonists. What gave them the right +to take up arms against their own government? Clinton would ask. They had no +right to resist tyranny by force. They should have continued to plead and lobby +for political representation in the Parliament. William Jefferson Clinton would +have said to Thomas Jefferson: "There's nothing patriotic about hating your +government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country." + +A hundred and fifty years ago, a small band of Mexican citizens took up arms +against its own government. Despite popular misconceptions, Sam Houston, Jim +Bowie, David Crockett, William Travis, and the other rebels at the Alamo, +Goliad, and San Jacinto were not Americans. They were not Texans. They were +Mexican citizens. They had pledged allegiance to the flag of the Republic of +Mexico. Why did they engage in violent acts against their own government +officials? Because they hated the regulations and the taxation that the Mexican +president, Santa Ana, was imposing on them. + +Were the rebels patriots or traitors? Their position was that patriotism meant +devotion to ideas like liberty and property. They believed that the real +patriot--the person who loves freedom--resists his own government when his +government becomes destructive of fundamental rights. Of course, Santa Ana took +the position that these Mexicans were, instead, traitors to their government +and their country. + +Unfortunately, President Clinton would share Santa Ana's perspective. By +becoming Mexican citizens, he would say, the colonists had pledged to support +their government officials, even when the latter were taxing and regulating +them. It was wrong, President Clinton would claim, for the Mexican colonists to +have considered themselves patriots. After all, "There's nothing patriotic +about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but +love your country." + +Actually, the president's mind-set is the same as that held by tyrants +throughout history. In the mind of the ruler, the government and the country +are one and the same. The citizen who has the temerity to expose and criticize +wrongdoing by his own government is, ipso facto, a traitor to his country. The +citizen who supports his government's conduct, no matter how evil or +destructive--and who doesn't ask uncomfortable questions--is a real "loyalist." + +Consider the deaths at Ruby Ridge and Waco. At Ruby Ridge, U.S. government +officials persuaded Randy Weaver to commit a crime--selling them a shotgun that +was one-fourth inch too short. After a U.S. marshal was killed in a subsequent +shoot-out at the Weaver home, the FBI put out the following order: Do not +demand a surrender; do not try to arrest; we do not want a jury trial here; +instead, take them out; kill them all; shoot them until they are dead; teach +them that no one kills a federal official, not even in self-defense; but make +it look good by ensuring that the victims were armed. So, after having shot +Weaver's 14-year-old son in the back, the feds shot Weaver's wife Vicki in the +head. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful in killing Weaver and were humiliated +by the jury at Weaver's trial. + +Was that the end of it? Oh, no. The FBI then engaged in a cover-up of this +Latin American-style death squad's conduct. FBI officials falsified and +destroyed documents, perjured themselves, conspired to obstruct justice, and +refused to obey orders from the U.S. Attorney's Office. In their minds, the FBI +is an independent, national, patriotic police force (like the Gestapo and the +KGB) that can punish citizens with impunity, without the time and trouble of a +trial, and without having to answer to anyone. + +Has any federal official been brought to trial for murder, perjury, conspiracy, +or obstruction of justice? Of course not. The feds have tried to buy justice by +paying Weaver and his children $3.1 million. The money, of course, came from +American taxpayers, not those who committed the crimes. What happens if a +taxpayer refuses to pay his taxes by claiming that the taxpayer did not commit +the crimes? They kill him and call it "resisting arrest." All of this is what +Justice Department employees term "justice." + +Of course, the federal attitude towards what happened at Waco is exactly the +same. Federal officials secured a search warrant from a federal judge under a +perjured affidavit. They decided against a low-profile search of the premises +and against apprehending the Branch Davidian leader--David Koresh-- outside the +compound. They needed a bigger "splash" for upcoming budget hearings. + +So, the feds planned a high-profile raid that they termed "Showtime." But +"Showtime" did not quite work out as planned, for several federal officials +lost their lives in the raid. And the deaths of those officials ultimately +sealed the fate of the Branch Davidians. No one can ever accuse U.S. government +officials of playing "softball"--"kill a federal official, and you won't have +to worry about a trial or anything else." + +The recent movie _Braveheart_ shows that political attitudes toward defiant +citizenry have not changed much over the centuries. The attitude of King Edward +and his minions toward the Scottish people many centuries ago was quite similar +to that of President Clinton and his underlings toward American dissidents. +King Edward had Scottish people raped, tortured, and hanged for failing to pay +proper deference to His Royalty; and His Highness never had even one ounce of +remorse. + +Is President Clinton's and the Democrats' attitude toward American dissidents +any different? It is true that FBI and BATF officials did not rape Vicki Weaver +before they killed her--and that they did not rape the Branch Davidian women +before they gassed and burned them. And we should give credit where credit is +due. But is there _any remorse whatsoever_ over the political killings of +innocent people? + +In the recent congressional hearings on Waco, the Democrats, led by Congressman +Charles Schumer, made a grand spectacle of being concerned about child abuse in +the Branch Davidian compound. The implication was this: "Our concern for the +Branch Davidian children is evidenced by our concern about possible child abuse +in the compound." + +What nonsense. The truth is that the Democrats did not care one bit for the +Branch Davidian children or for any other individual who was gassed and burned +alive in the compound. How do we know this? Because, again, _there is not one +bit of remorse for the loss of life at Waco_. The Democratic attitude is +instead the same as that held by the FBI and the BATF: These were white-trash, +weird people, and so it is no big deal that they--and their children--died. + +Moreover, the Democrats feel that since David Koresh might have been engaged in +child abuse, then federal officials had the right to kill him without a trial +(despite the fact that he is innocent until proven guilty)--and, in the +process, to kill the other hundred people who were not even accused of child +abuse (including the dead children). + +And the Republicans? They are similar to the nobles in _Braveheart_. The nobles +would pontificate on the virtues of freedom and the importance of principle. +But as soon as the King offered them money and lands, the nobles would betray +all of their ideals. Is this not the case with Republicans? Republicans are +notorious for talking the libertarian talk--even now calling themselves +libertarians--but they are totally unable to walk the libertarian walk. Offer +them votes or campaign contributions or a congressional chairmanship, and they +sell their souls very easily. + +Unfortunately, during the recent hearings on Waco, the Republicans were so +concerned with upholding their law-and-order image that they treated the FBI +and BATF with kid gloves. The Republicans think that if they expose police +murders, conspiracies, perjuries, and cover-ups, this might hamper law +enforcement in the future. Thus, Republicans did not even try to secure the +appointment of an independent counsel to investigate and prosecute the FBI and +BATF death-squad activity. More important, the Republicans failed to gain any +reasonable assurance that the death squads would not be used again under +"appropriate" circumstances. + +What was so uplifting about _Braveheart_ was that small band of Scottish men, +led by William Wallace, who loved their country and hated their government. +Like many who had come before them--and who have come after them--they refused +to compromise their principles. + +President Clinton was wrong when he said: "There's nothing patriotic about +hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your +country." Throughout history, there have been courageous and honorable +individuals--patriots--who have loved their country and hated their government. +And, unfortunately, throughout history, there have also been weak and cowardly +people-- traitors--who have loved and supported the tyranny of their own +government. + +It is to the patriots--not the traitors--that we owe Magna Charta, the Petition +of Right, habeas corpus, the presumption of innocence, trial by jury, due +process of law, private property, and so many other aspects of human freedom. +It is the patriots--not the traitors--who have remained steadfast for +principles of right, even when it meant incurring the wrath and retribution of +their own government officials. And it will be the patriots--not the +traitors--who ultimately triumph in America and end our government of the +pestilence that pervades it--so that, once again, American patriots will love +their country and not hate their government. + +Permission is granted to reprint this article, provided appropriate credit is +given. Please send two copies of the reprint to The Future of Freedom +Foundation. + +Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom +Foundation. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jneil.bio b/textfiles.com/politics/jneil.bio new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f9b00f97 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jneil.bio @@ -0,0 +1,442 @@ + J. Neil Schulman + P.O. Box 94 + Long Beach, CA 90801-0094 + Voice, Fax & Modem: 310-839-7653 + GEnie Address: SOFTSERV + + + ABOUT J. NEIL SCHULMAN + +J. NEIL SCHULMAN is the author of two previous novels, short +fiction, nonfiction, and screenwritings, as well as having been +the founder of SoftServ Publishing, the first publishing company +to distribute "paperless books" via personal computers and +modems. + + Most recently he's hosted \The J. Neil Schulman Show\, a +program of interviews and music, on the American Radio Network's +Kaleidascope program, and has been writing frequent articles for +the \Los Angeles Times\ Op-Ed page which have been reprinted in +numerous major daily newspapers across the country. + + Schulman's first novel, \Alongside Night\ (Crown hardcover +1979, Ace paperback 1982, Avon paperback 1987, SoftServ 1990), a +prophetic story of an America beset by inflation and revolution, +was endorsed by Anthony Burgess and Nobel laureate Milton +Friedman, and received widely positive reviews, including the +\Los Angeles Times\ and \Publisher's Weekly\. The novel, +published in 1979, anticipated such 1980's and 1990's problems as +increased gang violence and homelessness, economic chaos such as +the 1980's stock market crash and S&L crisis, and political +trends such as the economic and political unification of Europe. +In 1989, \Alongside Night\ was entered into the "Prometheus Hall +of Fame" for classic works of fiction promoting liberty. + + \The Rainbow Cadenza\ (Simon & Schuster hardcover 1983, New +English library paperback 1984, Avon paperback 1986, SoftServ +1989) was his second novel, winning the 1984 Prometheus Award, +and was the basis for an all-classical-music LASERIUM concert +which played for several years in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and +Boston. It's the story of a young girl in the 22nd Century who +must fight the sexual exploitation of her era to pursue a career +as a performer of "lasegraphy," a classical form of visual music +evolved from the current laser shows. The book received +favorable comments from such diverse authors as psychologist/ +bestseller Nathaniel Branden, British author Colin Wilson, and +the late Robert A. Heinlein. + + Schulman also wrote the "Profile in Silver" episode, +exploring the JFK assassination, for \The Twilight Zone\ TV +series on CBS, which was run three times in network prime time in +1986 and 1987, and which can now be seen in syndication. + + \No Strings Attached: A Screenplay\ (SoftServ, 1990) +is an original screenplay Schulman wrote about the artistic +and cultural differences between classical and rock music. +It tells the story of a young violinist who, because of an +injury to his hand, attempts secretly to play an electronic +violin in a symphony orchestra, at the same time he's involved +romantically with the female lead singer of a rock band. The +story draws on Schulman's knowledge of both classical and +8rock music drawn from family members who have been +professionally involved in both. + + \The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana\ +(SoftServ, 1990) collected Schulman's writings on an author +who was not only particularly influential on Schulman but +also a friend for fifteen years, and features Schulman's +25,000 word interview with Heinlein for the \New York Daily +News\, in 1973. + + Schulman's short story, "The Musician," a psychological +mystery about a violinist whose career takes a sudden bizarre +turn, was dramatized for Los Angeles radio, broadcast several +times in 1980 on Pacifica/ KPFK FM's "Hour 25" show, read by the +late Mike Hodel, and with classical violin accompaniment by the +author's father, Julius Schulman. + + In addition to his opinion pieces for the \La Times\' Op-Ed +page, which have been syndicated in major newspapers nationwide, +Schulman's writings have appeared in magazines and newspapers +including \Reader's Digest\, the \Los Angeles Times Book Review\, +\Reason\ Magazine, \Liberty\, \Gun Week\, \The Lamp-Post\, and +\The Journal of Social and Biological Structures\, and he's +delivered talks at World Science Fiction conventions and other +conferences. Mr. Schulman has been written about in magazines +and newspapers including the \Wall Street Journal\, \USA Today\, +\Shooting Times\, \Analog\, and \Byte\ Magazine, and has been +interviewed on CNN, ABC's \World News Tonight\, and numerous radio +talk shows coast to coast on subjects ranging from his novels and +screenwriting, to electronic publishing, to firearms issues. He +has also taught a course entitled "Book Publishing in the 21st +Century" for the New School for Social Research/Connect-Ed. + + +___________________________________________________________________ + + + About J. Neil Schulman's \ALONGSIDE NIGHT\: + + + In 1973, shortly after he had interviewed his favorite +science fiction author, Robert Heinlein, for the \New York Daily +News\, J. Neil Schulman got an idea for a short story that would +capture the spirit of the times. It would be a near-future story +in which New York City was in such economic collapse that even +getting across town to a stash of gold was a major problem. In +February 1974, he started writing the idea as a novel. Schulman +finished his first draft on May Day, 1976. The novel wasn't +published, however, until October, 1979. + + In 1989, the Libertarian Futurist Society awarded it a +Prometheus "Hall of Fame" gold medallion for classic works of +fiction promoting liberty. + + In the years since \Alongside Night\ was written, much of +its short-term projections have come to pass. New York City's +Fifth Avenue is now the home to the homeless and the drug gang. +The end of the Cold War is bringing to pass the "European Common +Market Treaty Organization" portrayed in the novel. As the U.S. +federal debt cripples the economy, major banks collapse, working +people lose their jobs and end up on the street, foreigners buy +up American corporations and landmarks at fire-sale prices, and +U.S. foreign policy makes desperate efforts to prevent the world +from regarding it as a paper tiger. + + But what of the novel's longer-term projections? Can a book +which ends with the collapse of the United States really have a +happy ending? + + J. Neil Schulman thought so in 1974, and he still does. + + This book projects the collapse of the United States ... and +a way for America to save itself as a free land. + + If you're interested in seeing liberty prevail, this book is +a blueprint to the future. If you're not ... it's the face of +the nemesis you can't escape. + + + Praise for \ALONGSIDE NIGHT\: + + + "I received \Alongside Night\ at noon today. It is now +eight in the evening and I just finished it. I think I am +entitled to some dinner now as I had no lunch. The +unputdownability of the book ensured that. It is a remarkable +and original story, and the picture it presents of an inflation- +crippled America on the verge of revolution is all too +acceptable. I wish, and so will many novelists, that I, or they, +had thought of the idea first. A thrilling novel, crisply +written, that fires the imagination as effectively as it +stimulates the feelings." + --Anthony Burgess + + "One of the most widely hailed libertarian novels since the +classic works of Ayn Rand." + --\Reason Magazine\ + + "High Drama ... A story of high adventure, close escapes, +mistaken identities, and thrilling rescues. ... A fast-moving +tale of a future which is uncomfortably close at hand." + -- \Los Angeles Times Book Review\ + + "An absorbing novel--science fiction, yet also a cautionary +tale with a disturbing resemblance to past history and future +possibilities." + -- Milton Friedman, Nobel laureate in Economics + + "Let me begin with a disclaimer: I don't really agree with +many of J. Neil Schulman's ideas about society or politics or +money. But his first book, \Alongside Night\, is as enjoyable +piece of cautionary fiction as I have read in some years ... Like +Ayn Rand and Robert A. Heinlein, Schulman can tell a good story!" + -- \Sunday Detroit News\ + + "This is a radical novel. It pulls no punches, offers no +compromises. It effectively presents a social, moral, and +political point of view without polemic, without stridency. +Without hysteria, it projects a bleak future for us all, but not +without hope, for there's a deep affection for humanity despite +its foibles underlying every sentence." + -- F. Paul Wilson + + "Here is a frightening and all too plausible picture of the +near future. America is already a long way down the road that +leads to it. Yet there is also a hopefulness in the story, for +the author develops a philosophy, in considerable practical +detail, that we could begin living by today, if we will choose to +be free." + -- Poul Anderson + + "Not only a first-rate suspense thriller, but also a +brilliant exposition of libertarian ideas. I read it with great +enjoyment and heartily recommend it." + -- Robert Anton Wilson + + "As the seventies ended ... the time seemed ripe for a great +libertarian novel to appear, and so it did. The novel was +\Alongside Night\ ..." + --\Liberty\ Magazine + +___________________________________________________________________ + + + + About J. Neil Schulman's \THE RAINBOW CADENZA\ + + + This 1984 Prometheus-award-winning novel is fiction not +about the future of machines, but about the future of the human +soul: the story of Joan Darris, a brilliant young artist in the +medium of laser concerts, who swore she would tell the colors how +to make a rainbow. + + Was it her destiny to play music for men's eyes, or to make +herself a plaything for their desires? Why did her love for her +mother threaten to subject her to three years of legalized rape, +and why did her family -- the very politics on Earth in her time +-- tell her it was her duty to comply? How did the murder she +witnessed at five years old make legalized rape seem the lesser +of evils twelve years later -- and how did the lingering horror +of that murder threaten not only to rob her of her artistic +triumph but threaten the life of a man she loved but who could +not give himself to her without betraying everything he believed +in? + + Structured as carefully as one of the visual fugues it +describes -- beginning slowly and accelerating faster with each +movement -- \The Rainbow Cadenza\ conducts unforgettable +characters through a complex drama of human motive and variation +from Joan's mother, Eleanor, who learns the tragedy of trying to +live through a daughter -- to Joan's older sister Vera, the twin +daughter of Eleanor, whose struggle to find herself threatens to +destroy both her mother and sister -- to the elderly maestro, +Wolfgang Jaeger, who doesn't know whether Joan is a worthy +artistic heir or a cheap sensationalizer -- to the politician who +uses his power to make Joan his private love slave, and subject +her to his darkest desires -- to the secret Christian missionary +sent to Earth to teach the meaning of love, but who must learn +from Joan the ultimate meaning of his sermons. + + Joan Darris's world is an eccentric one, an Earth with seven +men for every woman, with Marnies who hunt Touchables, with +Gaylords and Ladies, with games shows that try people for capital +crimes and sentence them to death in microwave ovens -- an Earth +that has eliminated war, but which has found new outlets for +violence. + + Like the cautionary tales of Orwell and Huxley, the +philosophical novels of Ayn Rand, the realistic speculation of +Heinlein, the satiric fiction of Anthony Burgess, \The Rainbow +Cadenza\ uses the device of futuristic fiction to ask fundamental +questions about the personal, political, and religious values to +which we dedicate our lives, and to shed light on the problems we +face today. + + + + Praise for \THE RAINBOW CADENZA\: + + + "Every libertarian should read it. It should win the +Prometheus Award." + --Robert A. Heinlein, at the 1983 L-5 Society Conference, to + Libertarian Futurist Society Chairman Michael Grossberg + + "I found it absolutely fascinating ... A splendid +book." + --Colin Wilson + + "A thoughtful, unusually well-written book that raises the +most important questions about life and art." + --Michael Medved, host of PBS's \Sneak Previews\ + + "Particular praise is due to Schulman for the detailed +working out of the heroine's profession of laser-graphics +composer. Future art forms are seldom handled wih the +intelligence and vividness seen here." + --\Booklist\ + + "Engrossingly suspenseful ... wickedly funny and chilling at +the same time." + --\Publishers Weekly\ + + "A sonata of rational discourse ... A highly recommended +feast of invention and serious speculation." + --\Library Journal\ + + "It is that rare thing, a genuinely intellectual thriller." + --\San Jose Mercury News\ + + "The book left me feeling for three days that I wished I'd +been born without a penis." + --Larry Niven, to the author + + "The damn book haunted me." + --Poul Anderson, \Reason Magazine\ + + "An original and thoughtful book which raises questions that +have not appeared in fiction before." + --Gregory Benford + + "An intensively interesting evocation of complex +psychological realities. Imaginative and original. Mr. Schulman +is a remarkably gifted writer." + --Nathaniel Branden, author of \The Psychology of Self +Esteem\ and \Judgment Day: My Life With Ayn Rand\ + +___________________________________________________________________ + + + About J. Neil Schulman's + \THE ROBERT HEINLEIN INTERVIEW AND OTHER HEINLEINIANA\ + + + In 1973, Robert A. Heinlein was sixty-six and at the height +of his literary career, and J. Neil Schulman was twenty and +hadn't yet started his first novel. And because he was looking +for a way to meet his idol, Schulman wangled an assignment from +the \New York Daily News\ -- at the time the largest circulation +newspaper in the U.S. -- to interview Heinlein for its Sunday +Book Supplement. The resulting interview lasted six hours, four- +and-a-half hours of which were on tape, and when edited by +Schulman and Heinlein for later serialization in a libertarian +magazine came to 25,000 words. + + This turned out to be the longest interview Heinlein ever +granted, and the only one in which he talked freely and +extensively about his personal philosophy and ideology. + + "The Robert Heinlein Interview" contains Heinlein you won't +find anywhere else -- even in \Expanded Universe\. If you want +to know what Heinlein had to say about UFO's, life after death, +epistemology, or libertarianism, this interview is virtually the +only source available. It is available in this book for the +first time since 1974. + + Also included in this collection are articles, reviews, and +letters J. Neil Schulman wrote about Heinlein, including the +original article written for the \Daily News\, about which the +Heinleins wrote Schulman that it was, "The best article -- in +style, content, and accuracy -- of the many, many written about +him over the years." + + This book is must-reading for any serious student of +Heinlein, or any reader of his seeking to know him better. + + + + Praise for + \THE ROBERT HEINLEIN INTERVIEW AND OTHER HEINLEINIANA\: + + + "Once in a while you find a writer who says with +almost perfect clarity the things you have been thinking about +and the things you would like to say if you only had the skill +and artistry. This series of writings by and about RAH by J. +Neil Schulman have done that for me. A very articulate +proponent of the libertarian philosophy in his own right ... +he sheds light on RAH's libertarian feelings and beliefs. + ... The interview with RAH is the crown jewel of the book. + ... On my scale of 0 to 5, this is a 5. Worth reading, worth +rereading, and worth keeping to read again." + --Darryl Kenning + \Reading For Pleasure\ + + "Schulman's book helps put the great master's work and +life in context, helps us to see the magnitude and beauty of +Heinlein's accomplishments. And, through the feelings of +admiration and respect for Heinlein that come through in +Schulman's writings, we come to appreciate Heinlein more +ourselves. For Schulman seems to have absorbed all Heinlein's +writings, and admires him with good reason, and presents it +to us." + --Stephan Kinsella + GEnie, Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable + +___________________________________________________________________ + + + J. NEIL SCHULMAN + +* AUTHOR: +Prometheus-Award-Winning novelist of +\Alongside Night\ and \The Rainbow Cadenza\. +Listed in \International Who's Who of Authors and +Writers\ & \Contemporary American Authors\. + +* ENTREPRENEUR: +Founder of SoftServ Publishing and the SoftServ +Paperless Bookstore + +* TEACHER: +Taught graduate course "Book Publishing in the 21st +Century" for New School for Social Research/Connect-Ed. + +* ACTIVIST: +Founder and Chair of the Committee to Enforce +the Second Amendment + +* MEDIA EXPERT: +Screenwriter for CBS' Twilight Zone series +Radio Producer & Host on the American Radio Network +Producer of Classical Recital for Cable Television +Consultant to Public Television +Frequent interview guest on TV and radio + +___________________________________________________________________ + + + J. NEIL SCHULMAN + + PUBLIC SPEAKING TOPICS: + +* Writing Novels & Screenplays That Sell Freedom + +* Electronic Publishing: Freedom From Censorship + +* Using Computer Networks to Organize + +* Keeping Adults Juvenile: How to Enslave a Society + +* The Fully Privatized Society: Could it Happen? + +* Libertarian Futurism: The Technology of Freedom + +* Three Paladins of Liberty: Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein, C.S. +Lewis + +* Libertarian Science Fiction: Rewriting the Future + +* Informational Property: Logorights + +* Firearms and the Free Society + +* Artistic Inhumanism and the Destruction of the Human Spirit + +Speaking fee: $1,500 + expenses + + +Copyright (c) 1993 by J. Neil Schulman. All rights reserved. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jnews2.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jnews2.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3ac72c5d --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jnews2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,279 @@ + The Action is in the Reaction + by G. Vance Smith + + The following is a transcript of the remarks our Chief Executive Officer +made at our Southern California Council Dinner in Costa Mesa on February 27, +1993. + + The John Birch Society is in its 35th year, and, because of Robert Welch, +we as members are linked with a common understanding and commitment to some +basic principles. Perhaps the deep feelings I have for the members of the +John Birch Society stem from the depth of understanding of those principles. + + While the whole world seems to be running here and there boxing with +shadows and dueling windmills, the firmly rooted members of this +organization stand on a plane that escapes the imagination of most people. +For example run-of-the-mill conservatives think we are fighting the +liberals and bureaucrats. But we know that liberals and bureaucrats are not +the main enemy. Certainly, they do not make life any easier for us, and +most of their busy work is harmful, but they are not the enemy. + + The enemy is neither conservative, nor liberal, nor moderate. The +enemy is a criminal. His ideology is power. Nothing else. He seeks raw, +ruthless, total power over the lives and fortunes of all men, women, and +children who will occupy this earth. To accomplish this, he uses liberals +and conservatives alike. + + I am not talking about the informed, patriotic conservatives. I am +talking about the so-called "respectable" conservatives who see themselves +as too smart to be taken in by what they call "conspiracy theories." +By referring to conspiracy as a "theory", the so-called "respectable" +conservatives give themselves away. They allow themselves to be taken +in the very minute they think they are too smart to be beguiled. There is +nothing more blinding than human pride, and there are none so useful to +the Conspiracy as the haughty and the proud. + Such individuals often praise our battle plans and admire the tireless +persistence of our members. Then damning us with faint praise they will +say, "However, if you folks could just stop seeing a conspiracy everywhere, +you would get the support of many millions of Americans." And to this we +say, there would be no wisdom at all in our battle plans if we did not know +and expose the enemy. + It is our knowledge of the enemy - his nature, his tactics, and his +goals - that has guided our planning and has made our programs laudable and +workable. Our plans are practical because we know the tactics and +understand the strategy of our enemy. + The strategy employed by our enemy for getting a free people to +surrender is really quite simple. He gets the people - acting through their +representatives - to legislate away their freedoms while they are caught up +in the emotion of some dramatically serious problems. This tactic works +because so many of our citizens only see the problem; they fail to realize +that oftentimes the problem either does not exist or it has been created +by too much government in the first place. How often do we hear voices +crying out against this or against that terrible thing with, "There ought +to be a law." Our friends rush to the school board, to city hall, to the +courts, to the legislature, and ask for laws and regulations. Like the +importuning widow, they pound on the doors of our lawmakers and demand that +government do something. + In most cases, our good friends have been fooled. Those who have +engineered the real and imagined problems don't care about the harm and +danger they create. They want a fearful condition. In fact, the more +outrageous and the more dangerous the crisis, the better. All they really +want is your reaction. + This tactic has been summarized in these few but profoundly important +words: "The action is in the reaction." Or put another way, the action the +enemy really wants comes as a result of public reaction to a crisis - real +or imagined. The Conspiracy uses this tactic to get people to ask for +unconstitutional laws and more government. By this cunning device, would-be +totalitarians can and do get free people to supply the chains of their own +slavery. + Here are just a few examples of how such a strategy has been used +repeatedly to cheat Americans out of their freedom: + + Number One, Civil "Rights" + Does anyone really believe that those powerful individuals in Washington, +those who feigned so much compassion for black Americans, really cared +about what they called civil rights? Did they lay awake at night immersed +in sympathy for blacks who had to ride in the back of the bus, or attend +separate schools, or use separate facilities? + The civil rights fraud had nothing to do with protecting fundamental +rights, but it had everything to do with our reaction to all the marching, +rioting, and looting. It was America's reaction that gave the conspirators +what they really wanted: an excuse to send federal troops into the states, +and to break down the constitutional separation of state and federal +powers. It also enabled the federal government to exercise control over +the voting process. Our founders wanted to be certain that all +elections were state elections with absolutely no federal control over the +voting process. But by fanning the embers of bigotry, those who sought +power obtained it in wholesale fashion. The real movement in the so-called +civil rights movement was public reaction, which in turn created the +appearance of popular support for the passage of destructive legislation. + + Number Two, Communism + Communism served a purpose for the Conspiracy, but you may be certain +that that purpose had nothing to do with liberating exploited labor or any +of that ideological nonsense about sharing the wealth. The ugly face of +communism was intended to be ugly. No matter how hard duped liberals tried +to cover it up, its ugliness was blatant and intentional. The worldwide +communist menace was obvious to everyone. It was (and in some parts of the +world, still is) intended to elicit a revulsion, and a compelling sense of +urgency to stomp it out. + While the whole free world saw communism hiding behind many fronts, +Robert Welch saw the Master Conspiracy hiding behind the colossal front of +communism. And because of this brilliant and correct insight, we have +suffered intense persecution and opposition, even from many of our friends +who ought to have known better. + Communism was established as a means to an end, not an end in itself. +Its purpose of terrorizing the world was of tremendous help to the +Conspiracy in eliciting a massive global reaction. It is a worldwide +reaction that has moved us closer to the new world order. For without real +blood, terror and atrocities, no free nation would support the United +Nations, and no free state would consider giving up its national +sovereignty to a world body. The desired reaction would be impossible if +the presumed alternatives - communism or nuclear annihilation - were not +so blatant and so terrible. World government was the goal in the first +place. Yes, even after decades of suffering, the real action of communism +was in fact in the reaction. As I said, this is not just any run-of-the- +mill comprehension. But it is your depth of understanding that places the +members of the John Birch Society light years ahead of whoever is in second +place. And it is that quality that permeates this room tonight and accounts +for the depth of my feeling towards each one of you. + + Number Three, the Constitution + The plan to destroy our Constitution takes only a slightly different +form. That is, the desired reaction plays on the positive, rather than the +negative side. Because members of Congress refuse to undertake an +ostensible good (such as balanced budget amendment), we are supposed to +react by using the Constitution to force them to do good. The plan does +not require us to prevent some contrived evil by legislating ourselves +to death, but it calls for beguiling us into placing the Constitution in +the hands of forces that would destroy it. It is a bit more sophisticated +than reacting to a riot. And I might add, it is far more deadly. + The Constitution will face grave danger as a result of America's +reaction to such seemingly plausible causes as the balanced budget +amendment, term limits, the line item veto, the electoral college, and +anything on earth that sounds conservative and safe. These problems are +being laid before the public in order to stir up the necessary reaction +that will come in the form of a constitutional convention. + Again, the ostensible goals are not the issue and they are not what +the Conspiracy cares about. The reaction, a constitutional convention, +will set in motion the very condition desired by the Master Conspiracy. +Does anyone really think the Insiders care about ethics in Congress, or +about a balanced budget? Again, all they want is the reaction of 34 angry +states that will deliver the Constitution into the hands of the Conspiracy. + + Number Four, the Environment + This little gem comes in two kinds, national and global. + National: A reaction based on public ignorance is intended to lead to +laws that will grind business to a halt. This problem, as applied against +America, will lead to regulations so severe that they will destroy our free +market system. This, I believe is an intermediate goal which would bring +about the nationalization of all heavy industry and energy production. + Global: If the environmental fraud can be portrayed as a global crisis, +a deception that is certainly well on its way, then the desired reaction +will lead to the transfer of U.S. sovereignty to global power. Again, the +real action will come as a result of the reaction. + So the environmental fraud, if not exposed, will place the United States +in double jeopardy: more government and more internationalism - as an +increasingly socialistic United States gradually becomes a part of the +emerging global government. + The John Birch Society is under constant attack, not because of our +mistakes, but because we've got it all together. We understand how the +game is played. It is devastating to the Insiders when they see that we +refuse to fall into their traps. Birchers generally maintain a +sophistication that continues to frustrate the Insiders. We refuse to supply +the reaction they seek. We do not dash into the streets with rocks or +Molotov cocktails. We don't engage in race wars or foster civil unrest. We +don't "test laws" by civil disobedience, or refuse to pay taxes, or grab our +guns and head for the hills. Why? Because we understand the game. We know +that this is precisely what the Insiders want. All throughout history, +tyranny has been built on the ashes of anarchy. + Anyone who assumes we don't feel like reacting with anger and rage is +wrong, because very often we do feel that way. But wisdom dictates that +we take the action that counts, not the reaction our enemy wants. Why +should we react at all if we are on the offensive? Why should we allow +the Conspiracy to keep us busy dodging the darts of dishonesty, when all +we have to do is shoot the arrows of truth? + Exactly what are those arrows of truth, and how are they being set in +motion to hit their targets? + 1. We are exposing the design, strategy, and background of the master +conspirators whose ultimate goal is the reduction of the United States to a +colony in a world dictatorship run by them. Recognizing Bill Jasper's book, +"Global Tyranny...Step by Step", for the dynamite that it is - we are not +going to stop short by setting off a few scattered firecrackers; we are +going to get the biggest bang we can by launching a massive promotion and +distribution campaign. And the resulting explosion, we expect, will rock +the Establishment to its core! + 2. We are protecting the Constitution by circulating powerful documents +in the state legislatures of this nation, holding off a public reaction +intended to deliver a constitutional convention. But that is not all. We +are now developing a video documentary geared to helping the average +citizen understand the subtle tactics employed to destroy our form of +government. Our final victory can come about only through a ground swell +of public understanding. By holding off any new con-con calls since 1983, +we have won some valuable time to build a more firm base at the grass-roots +level. + 3. Since 1974, arrows of information have been aimed at Congress in the +form of TRIM Bulletins. Organized committees and dedicated individuals have +worked tirelessly to inform the electorate using these great tools. Within +the last two years, the influence of TRIM has increased dramatically with +National TRIM Bulletins having become available in all 435 congressional +districts. But we have only scratched the surface of the TRIM potential. +This is not the time to go into a full description of the far-sighted, +vastly expanded, TRIM 2000 Program. but the positive and realistic new +goals we have set can produce a constitutional Congress by the year 2000. + 4. Through our magazine, "The New American", we publish the truth. +It is not always easy, but it is a trademark of the John Birch Society. We +would not deserve the respect we receive if we were to play politics or +try to win popularity contests. Because of the standard we have set, "The +New American" will endure. During the past few months, thousands of new +subscribers have been added. We have received numerous notes of praise and +appreciation for this outstanding magazine. While we are extremely pleased +with the results of our recent subscription campaign, we again know we have +only scratched the surface. Ambitious circulation and advertising goals for +"The New American" are a key part of our strategic plan for victory. + 5. The Insiders have always proven proficient at providing leadership for +both sides of any issue, neither of which is correct. The John Birch +Society, on the other hand, has illustrated over and over how this strategy +of working both sides of the street has been used to confuse and to +confound the American people. It has always been, and still is, our +responsibility to expose false leadership. Today we see a billionaire +candidate now posing as the poor-man's bastion of common sense, a national +talk radio entertainer who ridicules conspiracy while bashing liberals and +Birchers, Insider-approved authors of popular books and magazine articles +dealing with the financial doomsday of America, and other-would be +conservative leaders who disguise their real intentions with the Cover of +some well chosen John Birch Society language. + 6. We are often asked, "How many warriors will it take?" Our answer: +As many as there are. Every one of us has had the experience of feeling +alone at certain times and on certain battlefronts. How many will it take? +It will take every soul who is willing to stand. An army of one million +can win quickly, save lives, and secure the land. But if a kind providence +so chooses, it can be done with 100,000, or 1000, or 100. He has honored +our struggle and our candor and our prayers. When everyone who would enlist +IS enlisted, the victory will come. Our duty is to make certain that every +red-blooded American has enough information and knowledge to enlist in the +John Birch Society and to be a part of Robert Welch's "epic undertaking." + Ladies and gentlemen, we will continue to go on the offensive, and we +will teach Americans to recognize the crisis calculated to elicit their +reaction. We will continue to act wisely, and to speak honestly. And we +will cut our way to victory with the sharp and terrible arrows of truth. +========================================================================= +contributed by: Richard Dudzic + 4501 Brownfield Dr #322 + Lubbock, TX 79410 + E-Mail 71034,555 +========================================================================== +Note from contributor: Come join us in the fight for preservation of our +liberty and help us return this nation back to the governing philosophy +which made this nation the greatest one on earth. Membership of the John +Birch Society includes Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Blacks, Whites +Jews and members of various backgrounds. + For $5. introductory packet call 1(800)JBS-USA1 + or write to: + P.O. Box 8040 + Appleton, Wisconsin 54913 + +To subscribe to "The New American" magazine, or to get "Global Tyranny... +Step By Step" book - call: + + General Birch Services + (414)749-3783 +========================================================================== + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jns-waco.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jns-waco.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e9f2ea3c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jns-waco.txt @@ -0,0 +1,159 @@ + The following article is under submission. Reproduction + on computer bulletin boards is permitted for informational + purposes only. Copyright (c) 1993 by J. Neil Schulman. + All other rights reserved. + + + WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM WACO? + + by J. Neil Schulman + + + Whoever said that extreme cases make for bad law must + have been thinking of the gun-control proposals that are + already being discussed in the wake of Waco. + + The February 25, 1993 warrant that the federal Bureau of + Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) obtained was for David + Koresh's arrest and the search of the Mount Carmel facility. + ATF had a reasonable suspicion that Koresh was buying up + parts to convert two semi-auto AR-15 rifles into full-auto + AR-15's functionally similar to the select-fire (semi-auto or + full-auto) M-16 assault rifles used by the military. Buying + such parts is of itself legal, but conversion of semi-auto to + full-auto without first paying a $200 federal excise tax has + been prohibited since the National Firearms Act of 1934. + + This 1934 law is convoluted and obscure. Congress passed + it under its authority to levy excise taxes, but the way ATF + interprets it, mere possession of parts which could be used + to convert a semi-auto rifle to full-auto is illegal unless + you \first\ get a manufacturing license from the ATF. In + other words, you have to pay the tax \before\ you have + possession of that which is being taxed -- a unique + interpretation of how excise taxes are supposed to work. + + Since 1986, when Congress passed the McClure-Volkmer Act, + no licenses to manufacture full-auto weapons with parts + manufactured after 1986 will be issued at all. This is + back-door federal gun control, since the Constitution grants + Congress no authority to regulate the manufacture or + possession of firearms, for their own use, by private + citizens. The 1938 Federal Firearms Act and the Gun Control + Act of 1968 -- which regulate interstate commerce in firearms + -- are constitutionally inapplicable to the manufacture, + possession, or peaceful use of firearms on one' own property + -- which is all the original warrant alleges Koresh did. + The tenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, "The + Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, + nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the + States respectively, or to the people." Texas does not + prohibit, nor does it require licenses, for manufacturing or + owning fully automatic firearms. + + The 1939 Supreme Court decision US v. Miller affirmed the + Second-amendment-right of a private citizen to own military + small arms, requiring that a weapon, to be protected by the + Second Amendment, must be "part of the ordinary military + equipment or that its use could contribute to the common + defense." In other words, the federal government would only + have authority to restrict arms that \don't\ have military + application. + + Now we get to Koresh. The affidavit attached to the + ATF's February 25th search warrant includes the following, + written by ATF Special Agent Davy Aguilera: + + On February 22, 1993 ATF Special Agent Robert Rodriguez + told me that on February 21, 1993, while acting in an + undercover capacity, he was contacted by David Koresh and + was invited to the Mount Carmel Compound. Special Agent + Rodriguez accepted the invitation and met with David Koresh + inside the compound. ... + + David Koresh told Special Agent Rodriguez that he believed + in the right to bear arms but that the U.S. Government was + going to take away that right. David Koresh asked Special + Agent Rodriguez if he knew that if he (Rodriguez) purchased + a drop-in-sear for an AR-15 rifle it would not be illegal, + but if he (Rodriguez) had an AR-15 rifle with the sear + that it would be against the law. David Koresh stated + that the sear could be purchased legally. David Koresh + stated that the Bible gave him the right to bear arms. + David Koresh then advised Special Agent Rodriguez that he + had something he wanted Special Agent Rodriguez to see. + At that point he showed Special Agent Rodriguez a video + tape of ATF which was made by the Gun Owners Association + (G.O.A.). This film portrayed ATF as an agency who + violated the rights of Gun Owners by threats and lies. + + Clearly, David Koresh believed that the federal gun- + control laws were unconstitutional, and that ATF was acting + illegally. If the serving of the ATF warrant had gone off + peacefully --as was the case when Koresh was arrested for + attempted murder several years earlier (he was exonerated) -- + then the issues raised under the 1934 National Firearms Act + probably would have been litigated. Now, even though the + federal firearms laws need even more pressingly to be + litigated, the emotions surrounding anything having to do + with the Davidians' fiery death are bound to make for bad + precedents. + + As it stands now, we have what is supposed to be a + federal tax law being used for constitutionally questionable + purposes -- and the warrant which was issued, based on David + Koresh having failed to pay four-hundred dollars in excise + taxes, resulted in an army of federal agents being used + to serve a warrant in a maximally aggressive manner on the + rumors that David Koresh had an immoral lifestyle and was + somehow, therefore, unworthy of possessing dangerous weapons. + + All of this finally comes down to prudential + considerations. What do we as a society have to fear more + -- a David Koresh, or an Adolf Hitler? The 1938 Nazi + Weapons Law -- which the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn) + had the Library of Congress translate as the basis for the 1968 + Gun Control Act which he authored -- disarmed Germany's + Jewish citizens and made it possible for the democratically- + elected German government to murder millions of innocent people. + Even if we concede that David Koresh had the lifestyle of Idi + Amin, Koresh did not represent anywhere near as lethal a threat + as a government gone feral. Clearly, if we make our gun-control + laws aggressive enough to be effective in disarming David Koresh, + we also disarm the bulk of the peaceful citizenry which is + supposed to deter political murders a hundred thousand times + as large as anything a minor cult could accomplish. + + The same arguments which demand that a balanced ecology + requires not eliminating species of toads can be used for a + political ecology. Political ecology demands that one + shouldn't remove weapons from the citizenry that + counterbalance weapons held by potentially predatory + governments. You have to decide whom you fear more: a + citizenry which outguns police or police which outgun the + citizenry. The former may tend towards anomie -- as our + epidemic violent crime demonstrates -- but the latter + has historically proved genocidal time and time again. + + If anything has come clearly out of this tragedy, it's + that the ideological conflict between those who believe public + security can be achieved by an armed government and a disarmed + populace, and those like me who believe that an armed + citizenry is the bulwark of a free society, needs to be + discussed dispassionately and publicly, until a social + consensus has been reached. The hyperemotionalism resulting + from using Waco as an example of what needs to be done, one + way or the other, is bound to make for bad law. + + The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms found plenty + of reason in existing gun-control laws to serve an arrest + warrant on David Koresh. That they failed to do so in an + effective manner is surely no reason to burden sane and civil + gun-owners with laws that will make them even more vulnerable + to the predations of the demagogues who roam this planet -- + whether they enchant eighty followers or eighty million. + + ## + + J. Neil Schulman is a novelist and screenwriter. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/joel@sko.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/joel@sko.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7facd6a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/joel@sko.txt @@ -0,0 +1,489 @@ +From: Joel @Skousen + +10 Packs for Survival + +INTRODUCTION + + This booklet was prepared to provide you with the essential minimums +for survival preparations. While it is not exhaustive in coverage, it is +complete as to the needs of most people. Before adding long lists of your +personal extra needs, try calculating the cost of these bare essentials. +You will be amazed at the high cost of contingency preparations. This is +not intended to discourage you, but rather, to help you realistically +determine your future financial priorities so as to ensure you have bought +the essentials before adding the sophisticated extras. After you have +acquired about half of the recommended items, you will become aware of a +critical lack of storage space within your home--if it is designed like +most American houses. To assist you in planning for a more self-sufficient +residence we have also included a brief summary of the concepts outlined +in the 500 page SURVIVAL Home Manual. If you desire to pursue the subject +in more detail, we suggest you order the manual direct from our +Architectural offices using the order form at the end to the booklet. + +PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN CRITERIA OF THE SURVIVAL HOME + + Survival architecture is the unique design combination (in the proper +proportion) of facilities, materials, supplies, equipment, knowledge and +skill exactly matching a correct analysis of what shortages and crises we +will face in the future. In achieving this purpose I make reference to the +fact that "survival means more than solar" to emphasize the need to avoid +becoming too involved with only one aspect of self-sufficiency at the +expense of the others. This error in proper perspective has become the most +common mistake in the entire craze for self-sufficiency. With each new +product devised, a corresponding marketing slogan usually appears +describing "how you can become totally self-sufficient" with their product. +The potential severity of future crises, however, seems to dictate that no +one product brings total self-sufficiency. It seems most probable in the +final analysis that no set of products or facilities, no matter how +complete,brings anything but temporary self-sufficiency for a lone +individual. + + There are a variety of terms and definitions floating around in the +"self-sufficiency" arena--one of the least understood pertains to "survival +and "retreat" philosophy. "Self-sufficiency" as a term is well accepted and +enjoys frequent use among the entire social strata, whereas "survival" +intimates "gloom and doom". However, under more careful scrutiny, it +becomes obvious that "survival" and "self-sufficiency" are nearly +synonymous. In actuality, the purpose of self-sufficiency is to SURVIVE +various crises where one is in competition with others for scarce +resources: ie, food and fuel shortages, dwindling finances, or social +unrest, etc. + + There is a significant difference between the general term "survival" +and its child, the "retreat" philosophy, which is an ultimate reaction at +the limits of the self-sufficiency concept. + +WHY SELF - SUFFICIENCY? + + Many subscribe to the view that most of our future economic woes and +commodity shortages will be government induced through bureaucratic +mismanagement and excessive regulation. So, you say, the responsibility +will simply fall back on ourselves, where it rightly belongs. However, this +view overlooks our prime and ever-increasing social weakness; that our +society has become so specialized in its occupational endeavors, we no +longer have the will or skills to revert rapidly to a generalists society +with each providing his own essential skills and services. Thus, we +encounter the real reason for the craze for self-sufficiency: the inner +need to become confident in our ability to provide for ourselves and our +family should a minor or major crisis or shortage arise. The motive to save +a few heating dollars is perhaps primary with many who may purchase a wood +stove, but it soon becomes obvious to most woodburners that wood heat is +only a small portion of their total self-sufficiency needs. + + In fact, when you tally all the other additional self-sufficiency +needs such as water, waste disposal, electricity, storage space, tools, and +security, you suddenly realize that you have come face to face with the +word "survival", which is the word that, in essence, reflects "ultimate +self-sufficiency". + +EVERYTHING INVOLVES A PRIORITY CHOICE. + + While the survival retreat concept gets all the headlines in the hard +money newsletters, its share of actual dollars invested is insignificant. +From my experience as the architect most often involved in survival +housing, the majority of client energy and funds are devoted to residential +upgrade and preparation within the bounds of suburban or semi-rural living. +Why? Frankly because very few people have the time, money or inclination +to separate themselves completely from society even though they believe +that difficult economic and social problems will be forthcoming. + + 100% rural self-sufficiency is almost impossible to achieve on +anything more than a hermit level. Even then it is either all-time +consuming or inordinately expensive and probably both. + + In the final analysis then, everything in the survival and +self-sufficiency field is a compromise or trade off of one lesser asset for +another more important to you. If you want isolation to have security, then +you usually sacrifice social ties, time and gasoline in commuting, and +maybe electricity, telephone, and leadership opportunities. + + There are ways of overcoming these compromises--if you have enough +money, additional manpower and equipment; but you may become so +sophisticated that you aren't self-sufficient any more. No two individuals +or families should utilize the same self-sufficiency plans. + +HERE ARE THE ESSENTIAL STEPS + + l. Begin reading non-governmental analyses of the state of the nation. + Specifically: political, Economic, social, military, and moral + trends. Reading recommendations include: + PERSONAL FINANCE newsletter + 901 N. Washington St. suite 605, + Alexandria, Va 22314 + + Gary North's REMNANT REVIEW. + P. O. BOX 39800, + Phoenix, AZ 85069 + + 2. Analyze the condition of your local state and community as to long + term survivability in a crisis: + Most favorable criteria are: + a. low population density (50 people per sq. mile or less) + b. High level of religious, moral character. + c. Lack of highly unionized heavy industry, or welfare populous. + d. Strong local autonomy with little attachment to federal funds. + e. Diversified economy with an agricultural base. + + 3. Make a series of decisions based upon your national and local + assessment as what problems you most likely will encounter. Note: You + cannot come to a proper design of a self-sufficient or survival + residence unless you have determined what shortages, crises, or + threats you face. The better your research, the more accurate your + predictions will be. + + 4. Read the SURVIVAL HOME MANUAL and study the essentials of survival + residential design to determine what your present home lacks and what + is available in new or remodeled survival construction. + + 5. Determine, financially and security wise, whether you should remain + in your present home and remodel, move and build or buy a more + suitable home. Consider job, and/or commuting time. It is imperative + that you do not destroy your income producing ability unless you have + other means or opportunities to turn to which will survive most + economic downturns. Don't be tricked into thinking you can go "live + off the land". The capital required for machinery and non-growable + necessities will require substantial monthly income. + + 6. Start saving and begin a monthly procurement plan for acquiring the + items listed in the 10 packs for survival. Do it each month--don't + wait for enough money to accumulate for a one time purchase of + everything--it may not be readily available then. + + The foregoing introductory material is essential in order to +appreciate the following survival design criteria. The quantity of +preparedness features I will describe may not be necessary in every case, +depending on the relative security of the location you choose to live in. +Remember, the more self-sufficient and secure the area in which you live, +the less it costs you to prepare for personal survival,, + +PRIMARY FAULTS OF CONVENTIONAL HOUSING + + The following are the six essential liabilities of the conventional +residential structure: + + 1. Lack of security (fire, intrusion, vandalism) + 2. Poor resistance to heat, cold, wind, and sun. + 3. Lack of storage facilities (food, dry goods, machinery etc). + 4. Poor floor plan efficiency (costly wasted space, lack of emergency + accommodations) + 5. Single source of heat for space heating, water heating, ,@Ind + cooking. + 6. Single source of water and electrical power. + +DESIGN CRITERIA + + In my actual design work, the most common concern expressed by the +wife of a client is that the home not look like a fortress or a bunker. +This is not only possible but preferable. There is no benefit in becoming +a known target for resentment during hard times. The best survival +residences are designed to look completely conventional both inside and +out, so that you may stay within the bounds of society without appearing +as an extremist and encouraging undue resentment. + + The properly designed survival residence has within its walls and +private recesses all the equipment and design technology that allows you +to maintain a nearly normal lifestyle throughout a crisis. This is +extremely important to the family man who must maintain his income during +hard times. He cannot afford to take time off from work to heat hot water +over a camp stove during an electrical outage or stand guard over his house +day and night when major civil disturbances occur. + + The following are some of the major design features of a survival +residence: + + l. Independent well water and/or water storage facilities integral + with the home. + 2. Multi-fuel furnace (burns at least three different fuels) + 3. Reserve or standby electrical power. + 4. Multi-fuel cooking facilities, and water heating equipment + 5. Secure walls, doors, and windows with intrusion monitoring + equipment. + 6. Superior energy-conserving structural design utilizing solar and + underground design where possible. + 7. Secret and semi-private storage facilities which include a fallout + shelter. + 8. Maintenance and repair facilities with appropriate tools. + 9. Greenhouse and other food production facilities + 10. Internal communications equipment. + + If you are questioning the potential costliness of a full survival +residence, consider this: it is not intended to discourage you from acting +due to lack of sufficient funds, but rather to show you the importance of +ordering your financial priorities In order to start preparing in the most +critical areas first. In all cases, never place all of your available funds +into one, or even two areas at the exclusion of all others. + + If, in the final analysis, you find that not all of your +self-sufficiency preparations were utilized, you will have at least spent +many a restful night with the assurance that you have done everything +within your ability to prepare you and your family for realistic potential +difficulties. + + Both those who wish to relocate permanently and those who may simply +desire to construct a vacation retreat cabin elsewhere will need some +guidance as to the best areas for security: We have made available to our +clients the most comprehensive security map covering the entire United +States, both as to the most dangerous areas and the most secure areas. It +represents many years of research and analysis and may be ordered direct +from the architectural and planning division using the order form at the +end of this booklet. + +FOOD PACK + + 200 LBS/PERSON, HARD WINTER WHEAT + 50 LBS/PERSON,RICE + 50 LBS/PERSON, BEANS + 10 LBS/PERSON, HONEY + 25 LBS/PERSON, POWDERED MILK(non-instant type) + 6-months supply NORMAL CANNED GOODS AND BOTTLED FRUIT + + 1-large bottle 1000mg VITAMIN C 1-large bottle MULTIPLE VITAMIN + 2-CLOVE GARLIC (nature's anti-biotic) (keep refrigerated) + + 4-#10 can/person dehydrated fruits and vegetables (use for variety-not + for bulk) + SALT, PEPPER, SPICES + OIL (keep refrigerated) + +WATER PACK + + 1- portable WATER WASHER filtering kit + (from AMERICAN WATER PURIFICATION CO. + 1990 @Olivera Rd. Concord, Ca 94520) + 1/person WATER STRAW individual filter straw (from American Water + @Purif.) + 1-PACK SCIENTIFIC FILTER PAPER (cone) (12v diameter papers) + 1/person 10 GALLON GLASS DISTILLED WATER BOTTLE. (date and seal with + stopper and tape. Wrap on bottom and sides with dense foam carpet + pad to protect against earthquake or jarring. + 1-Bottle HALAZONE TABS. or regular CHLORINE BLEACH for water + purification. + +POWER PACK + + 1-MOBILE, SELF-CONTAINED 3KW 120/220V GENERATOR (DIESEL OR + GASOLINE/GAS) with one month fuel supply in portable tanks + 1-12 volt AUTO BATTERY with carry strap trickle charger, and jumper + cables and 12V light attachment. + 1-100 ft. 4-PLUG HEAVY DUTY EXTENSION CORD with built in light bulb + (rough duty rated) in a "cage". + 2-HAND-OPERATED FLASHLIGHTS (item #605-771w695 from US GENERAL catalog + 100 General Place, @Jerico N.Y. 11753) + 2-NICAD FLASHLIGHTS (item # 852-5350W US GENERAL catalog) + 1-long range POLICE-TYPE FLASHLIGHT with extra bulbs. + SUPPLY OF NICAD BATTERIES with CHARGER: + 8-"D" CELL + 4-"C" CELL + 16-"AA" CELL + 2-9V TRANSISTOR TYPE. + +@MED PACK + + BLOOD PRESSURE GAUGE (electronic) + STETHOSCOPE + BANDAGE SCISSORS + LONG TWEEZERS + 2-LOCKING FORCEPS (1-curved point) + DISPOSABLE SCALPELS + THERMOMETER (ORAL AND RECTAL) + INFLATABLE SPLINTS + BANDAGES elastic, self adhesive + Band-aids + large compress type with straps. + SUTURES (dissolvable) + cotton backed ADHESIVE TAPE + GAUZE + ALOE VERA BURN OINTMENT + ANTI-BIOTIC OINTMENT + ASPIRIN + RUBBING ALCOHOL + IPECAC SYRUP (to induce vomiting) + CONTAINER OF STERILE WATER (1 qt) + CLEAN ABSORBENT COTTON RAGS + SOAP (liquid) + Long Stemmed cotton swabs + +TRANSPORTATION PACK + + 1/person: 10 speed BICYCLE with heavy. duty tires, rack and carriers. + lights + 1 emergency VEHICLE (recommend VW VANAGAN with trailer hitch, locking + gas cap, and camper options. Install bike racks front and rear, and + extra 30 gallon gas tank. Carry oil cans two flashlights + EMERGENCY TOOL KIT: extra fan belts, metric wrenches and sockets, oil + filter, air filter fuel filter, spark plugs, points, condenser, + fuses, light bulbs, head light, tire pump, aerosol tire repair + sealer, Jumper cables, tow cable w/hooks. + INFLATABLE RAFT (4 man) with paddles. + 1-250cc MOTORCYCLE equipped for road and off road use. Add equipment + and extra fuel tank carriers. + +TRAVEL PACK + +(THESE ITEMS SHOULD BE PACKED IN PORTABLE "DUFFLE BAGS" READY TO GO) + + 1-qt WATER per person + 2-"energy bars" per person + DEHYDRATED FOOD PACK for one week dried fruit, vegetables, meat flour, + oil, salt, pepper, spices vitamins, honey,peanut butter crackers, + protein powder, powder milk + collapsible 5 ga. WATER CONTAINERS + "WATER WASHER" FILTER + lightweight COOK KIT large pot, dishes, spoons, forks knives, cups, + non-stick skillet spatula, can opener, large spoon + TOWELS + 2-water proof nylon tarps + CHANGE OF CLOTHES FOR EACH PERSON + COATS, + 1-thermal blanket + 1-SLEEPING BAG / person + MATCHES, FIRE STARTER + COMPASS, MAPS of areas of intended use + 2-RECHARGEABLE FLASHLIGHTS + 12v TROUBLE LIGHT w/@cig. liter plug + FIRST AID KIT + TOILET PAPER, soap + 1-Pocket knife + 1-FISHING KIT + 1-large BOWIE KNIFE (western cutlery) (perfectly weighted to serve as + both fire knife and hatchet etc) + 1-small portable mt. climber's stove + 1-back pack with frame + paper, pencil + signaling Mirror + 1-manual flashlight + WHISTLE , PORTABLE CABLE SAW + small bottle of bleach, Insect Repellent. + MAGNIFYING GLASS + 100 ft. 1/2 dia. GOLDLINE ROPE, + 2 pulleys + 50 ft. nylon "shroudline" cord + .22 caliber pistol w/ 500 @rds. ammo. + +COMMUNICATIONS PACK + + MULTI-BAND RECEIVER/SCANNER + 1-CITIZENS BAND TRANSCEIVER + 2- 3 CHANNEL PORTABLE TRANSCEIVERS rechargeable batteries + PORTABLE POWER PACK, ANTENNAS + 1-SMALL PORTABLE TELEVISION (battery operated) + +EQUIPMENT PACK + + 1-GRIND ALL Grinder(for wheat, corn beans, peas, nuts etc.) + RAM PRODUCTS 765 So. University Ave. Provo, Ut. 84601 + 1-GRAIN COUNTRY bread mixer. FOOD SCIENCE @CORP. 95 NO. 200 E. + American Fork, Ut 84003 + 1- @VICTORIO STRAINER (@Vitantonio Corp @Willoughby, Ohio 44090) + 1-Hand operated CAN OPENER + 1-STEAM CANNER with canning bottles w/Lids and rings for two seasons + CUTLERY: high quality KNIVES- + a. peeler/filet knife + b. pairing knife (short small) + c. long Slicing knife. + 1-portable ELECTRIC ICEBOX 12V. + @KOOLATRON industries limited + 56 Harvester Ave. Batavia N.Y. 14020 + Kerosene LAMP/HEATER by ALADDIN + TWO BURNER KEROSENE OR PROPANE STOVE with one month fuel supply + HAND OPERATED CLOTHES WRINGER. + TREADLE SEWING MACHINE or treadle attachment for your electric + machine. + PORTABLE ELECTRIC HOT PLATE + FIRE EXTINGUISHER (portable) + +DEFENSE PACK + + .22 cal.PISTOL (9-shot revolver or 15 shot Auto) w/ 1000 rds. ammo. + .22 cal. RIFLE w/1000 rds. ammo. + 45 cal. auto PISTOL w/ 100 rds. am~o. + .223 RIFLE (Mini14 by RUGER) w/ 500 rds. ammo. + 2- canisters of AEROSOL MACE + 1-POCKET KNIFE 1- BOWIE KNIFE + +TOOL PACK + + 1- 250 amp PORTABLE ARC WELDER + PELLETIZED OXY-ACETYLENE TORCH + PROPANE TORCH w/SPARK LIGHTER + SOLDER/FLUX (electrical and non) + ALLEN WRENCH SET + NUT DRIVER SET + TAP & DIE SET (national course,fine) + SOCKET SET & RATCHET HANDLE, @EXTENS. + CHANNEL LOCK PLIERS + 2-ADJUSTABLE "CRESCENT" WRENCHES + NEEDLE NOSE PLIERS WITH WIRE CUT. + VISE GRIP PLIERS WITH NARROW JAW + METAL CHISEL + WOOD CHISEL SET + METAL PUNCH/DRIFT + TIN SNIPS + CLAW HAMMER + SMALL, LARGE SCREWDRIVERS + SMALL, LARGE PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVERS + HAND OPERATED TWIST DRILL + AUGER EXPANSION BIT WITH BRACE + HACK SAW + BOW SAW + HANDSAW (10 PT TEETH) + LARGE PRY BAR/WRECKING BAR + AX + HATCHET + SMALL BLOCK AND TACKLE or 'come-a-long" hand operated winch. + GLUE assorted + NAILS, NUTS, BOLTS, SCREWS + electric MULTI METER, + 110 circuit test light BARTER ITEMS + +BARTER + + These items generally meet all of the following criteria for Barter + +l. High consumer demand +2. Not easily home manufactured +3. Durable in storage +4. Divisible in small quantities +5. Authenticity easily recognizable + + LIQUID DETERGENT, LAUNDRY + DETERGENT + RUBBING ALCOHOL, BLEACH + TOOTHBRUSHES + RAZOR BLADES + TOILET PAPER + ALUMINUM FOIL + WRITING PAPER, TYPING PAPER, + PENS, + PENCILS, ERASERS + SHOELACES, STRING, CORD, ROPE + FISHING LINE + INSECT REPELLENT, WATER + REPELLENT + PAINT, VARNISH + MATCHES + WATCHES + TAPE + LIGHT BULBS + NEEDLES, THREAD, ZIPPERS, BUTTONS + ASPIRIN, VITAMINS, OTHER DRUGS + SEEDS, GRAIN, SUGAR, + COFFEE, LIQUOR, CIGARETTES + ANTI-BIOTICS, BURN OINTMENTS + SAFETY PINS + MANUAL CAN OPENER + KNIVES + CANNING JARS, LIDS, RINGS + SHOES, BOOTS, SOCKS, NYLON + STOCKINGS + UNDERWEAR, WINTER CLOTHES + COATS + BLANKETS + HAND GUNS, RIFLES,AMMUNITION + FUELS (ALL TYPES) + QUARTS OF MULTI-VIS MOTOR OIL + ANTI-FREEZE + WIRE + GLUES + BOLTS, SCREWS, NAILS + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/joinforc.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/joinforc.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c1ef7f93 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/joinforc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ + + The following article is reprinted by permission from the + Los Angeles Times of June 8, 1992. Reproduction on + computer bulletin boards is permitted for informational + purposes only. Copyright (c) 1992 by the Los Angeles + Times. All other rights reserved. + + [Note: the following text is drawn from the original + manuscript; there are insignificant changes in the + published version. -- JNS] + + + + JOINING FORCES AGAINST A COMMON FOE + + by J. Neil Schulman + + + There are about 200 million guns in America in the + hands of about 60 million Americans. The sale of guns + nationwide following the Los Angeles riots has reached + record levels, many of them to first-time buyers. Firearms + training classes are filled to capacity. The National + Rifle Association currently has 2.8 million members -- ten + times the membership of the American Civil Liberties Union + -- and expects to exceed 3 million by the end of 1992. + + Both advocates of gun control and advocates of gun + rights agree that there is an epidemic problem with the + criminal use of guns in America. But every time a gun- + control advocate points to the latest atrocity committed + with a firearm, the gun-rights advocate will surely ask: + why was there no armed citizen who could have tried to stop + the criminal? + + The difference between the advocate of gun control and + the advocate of gun rights lies in a perception of the + cause of the criminal use of a gun. Those who advocate gun + control think the cause is wide and easy availability of + guns. The advocates of gun rights think the cause is a + legal system which leaves criminals free to prey on a + public which is socially discouraged, and often legally + forbidden, from using guns for personal defense. + + The war over gun control is fought with news reports. + Advocates of gun control have no shortage of reports that + prove guns in the hands of criminals are a plague on our + society. Advocates of gun rights find, however, that the + use of firearms to prevent or stop a crime is often left + unreported by media which are worried that reporting gun + defenses will encourage irresponsible vigilantism. + + The war over gun control is fought with statistics. + The number of gun attacks in the United States is easy to + compile: just count up the thousands of bodies in the + morgues, and the hundreds of thousands of gunshot victims + treated in hospitals. The number of times a gun is used for + defense, however, has a built-in problem: the use of a + firearm to deter, prevent, or stop an attack is unrecorded, + overwhelmingly because the defense was accomplished without + pulling the trigger, and less often, because the person + using the gun for self-defense was legally forbidden to be + in possession of it at that time or place, and thus did not + report it. + + The war over gun control is fought with historical + debates about the intent of the Second Amendment. Those + who advocate gun control say the Second Amendment has no + Supreme Court ruling which defines the Second Amendment as + protecting an individual right of the citizenry to keep and + bear arms for personal defense. Those who advocate gun + rights say that the intent of the authors of the Second + Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment which would apply + it to the states, is indisputable, and it is a politicized + Supreme Court which does not have the courage to enforce + it. + + It's likely that the only other issue with such + polarized and deeply felt world views is abortion. Oddly, + those who advocate the right of choice on abortion are + often the same people advocating eliminating the right to + choose firearms as a defensive option. + + It's also likely that a final Supreme Court ruling on + the Second Amendment would fail to end the issue. A ruling + in favor of an individual rights interpretation of the + Second Amendment would probably coalesce gun-control + advocates into a movement to repeal the amendment. A + ruling against an individual rights interpretation of the + Second Amendment would alienate and radicalize the millions + of Americans who believe in that right as firmly as the + advocates of abortion rights believe in theirs. + + As long as the advocates of gun control write laws and + court rulings that abridge the right of private citizens to + buy, own, and carry the firearms they feel are theirs by + right to have for defensive and sporting use, gun owners + will continue to be alienated and radicalized, and become + more and more willing to engage in civil disobedience + against such abridgements. + + Advocates of gun control need to realize that passing + laws that honest gun owners will not obey is a self- + defeating strategy. Gun owners are not about to surrender + their rights or their guns, and only the most foolish of + politicians would risk the stability of the government by + trying to use the force of the State to disarm the people. + + If gun-control advocates do not acknowledge the right + of the people to keep and bear arms for individual and + civic defense before they attempt to remove guns from the + hands of those who abuse them, then sensible gun laws will + be out of reach, and the criminal plague of gun victimizing + will continue. + + Can't advocates of gun control see the advantage + of recruiting gun-rights advocates to a joint cause of + eliminating gun tragedies? We can all agree that guns + need to be kept out of the hands of the violent criminal + and the lunatic. We can agree that the solution to gun + accidents is safety training. We can agree that those who + own and carry firearms for protection must take + responsibility for knowing how to use them safely and + appropriately. + + Surely, instead of fighting one another, we can join + forces to fight our common enemy: the armed criminal? + + # + + J. Neil Schulman is a writer, hosts a radio program on the + American Radio Network, and is founder and chair of the + Committee to Enforce the Second Amendment. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/joke.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/joke.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..42aaa3cc --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/joke.txt @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@ + The Joke Is on You + + by J. Orlin Grabbe + + "I don't make jokes. I just + watch the government and report + the facts."--Will Rogers + + In Thomas Pynchon's novel *Vineland*, the character Zoyd Wheeler +specializes in transfenestration--throwing himself through windows. He +does this on a yearly basis, with full television coverage to provide +the documentary evidence he needs as proof of derangement in order to +continue receiving his government mental disability check. But one year +he encounters a problem. The media has rescheduled the location of this +annual event for their convenience. And Zoyd is ultimately forced to go +along, and to transfenestrate through a window not of his own choosing. + + Zoyd's problem was he needed to be publicly observed as nutty in +order to make it so. The converse proposition is if a person is portrayed +by the media as truthful, honorable, "caring", and wise, then no further +evidence need be considered. Niccolo Machiavelli said it well in A.D. +1532: + + "Generally, men judge by the eye rather than + the hand, for all men can see a thing, but + few come close to touch it. All men will see + what you seem to be; only a few will know what + you are, and those few will not dare to oppose + the many who have the majesty of the state on + their side to defend them" (*The Prince*). + + So in today's world we see brief glimpses of Bill and Hillary +Clinton leaving the Presidential jet or helicopter, walking hand-in-hand, +all lovey-dovey. Therefore this is the truth, and those who dare say +otherwise will bring the wrath of the many down upon them. + + Sandwiched between the pharmaceutical and financial service ads, we +see video clips of the President at a dais or a table, making a statement +to the press or signing a congressional bill into law, and are lead to +believe the welfare of the republic is the President's constant concern. + + We see the First Lady smiling cheerfully at a Hollywood party, +or making concerned cooing sounds about a possibly "depressed" and +"suicidal" Dick Morris, and do not ourselves appear to grasp that it +only takes a global village to raise a chimera. + + CNN does not show us the behind-the-scenes screaming fits. We +do not see a purposeful Hillary Clinton determinedly on the phone +arranging the transfer of files out of Vince Foster's office immediately +upon receiving word of his death. We do not see a cold-blooded bitch +plotting with I3 to murder Dick Morris. + + ABC news does not tell us about Bill Clinton doing five plus +lines of cocaine a day, about plane loads of government-sanctioned illegal +drugs traversing the Canadian border into Montana, about FBI agents +falsifying evidence, about the Justice Department stealing software and +taking payoffs, about billionaires hiring international assassins, about +NSA spying on domestic banking transactions, about "family value" +politicians who are pedophiles. + + After all, such things only happened in medieval Florence, or +among the Roman emperors, not in our country today. Surely not in today's +White House or at the Department of Commerce. The Secret Service and the +FBI are not political arms of the Emperor. Our government is good, this we +know, for the television tells us so. + + At a high-level intelligence briefing convened shortly after the +downing of TWA Flight 800, there was an almost uniform chorus of voices: +"We can't let the public know it was a terrorist incident, because they +will be all over us to do something about it. We can't let the public +know how easy it is to take down a plane with a missile, because they +will be afraid to fly, and it will depress airline stocks, and it will +induce copycat crimes." + + The government does not lie, but if it does lie, it is only for +our own good. + + Day after day we get treated to the FBI's explanation of the +course of the investigation. And we know that we are hearing the truth, +that it couldn't be an exercise in liar's poker, because the people who +report the news would already know the truth, and would have clued us in +that this is all a charade. And the fact that purveyors of news scarcely +set foot outside a broadcast studio or a news office, except to visit urban +dining and drinking environments, has no bearing, we feel, on their ability +to discern the facts. For otherwise, why would we listen to them +or read what they write? + + What is the most astonishing thing about this process is the +degree to which the captive press believes their own bullshit. + + "A variety of nationwide voter surveys + show that while many Americans harbor + misgivings about Clinton's character, + only about one in 10 worry greatly about + Whitewater--either as it may harm the + Clintons though nothing substantive is + there or produce a scandal to drive them + from the White House." ("Clinton Steps Up + Effort to Portray Whitewater Prosecutor as + Partisan," *The Washington Post*, Sept. 27, + 1996.) + +But why should anyone think there is anything to the Whitewater charges? +*The Washington Post* has long assured us there is nothing there. And after +assuring their readers there is nothing to the story, the *Post* takes a +poll of their readers and--lo and behold!--their readers think there is +nothing to the story. + + Truth, you see, is a matter of voter preference. + + With more Starr indictments due out this coming week, and the +Clinton resignation only days away, some attention should be given to the +way the press will react when forced to reverse their previous posturing. +What spin will they choose? + + I suspect they are going to blame it on you. After all, they will +say, Our audience doesn't want to hear the truth. They want to hear +things that make them comfortable. The bad Saddam Hussein. The good Bill +Clinton. They want to believe in things that are "obvious" and +"inevitable". The Presidential debates are restricted to Clinton and Dole +because it is obvious and inevitable that one of these two men will be +elected President in November. + + The news is, after all, a business. And a business becomes +successful by delivering to its customers what they want. Much like the +Grand Inquisitor in Fyodor Dostoevsky's *The Brothers Karamazov*, the +media will tell us they have delivered us from the burden of the truth, +just as the Grand Inquisitor's Church delivered mankind from the burden +of their freedom: + + "For fifteen hundred years we were pestered by + that notion of freedom, but in the end we succeeded + in getting rid of it, and now we are rid of it for + good. . . .[O]n this very day men are convinced they + are freer than they have ever been, although they + themselves brought us their freedom and put it meekly + at our feet. . . . They will marvel at us and worship + us like gods, because, by becoming their masters, + we have accepted the burden of freedom that they were + too frightened to face, just because we have agreed to + rule over them--that is how terrifying freedom will + have become to them finally!" + + So maybe the media will have a point. Or maybe they are full of +shit. But what are you going to do about it? + + After all, the joke's on you. + +November 28, 1996 +Web Page: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ + + +- + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jonestow.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/jonestow.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0bcbb4fb --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jonestow.txt @@ -0,0 +1,755 @@ +The following I am fowarding because it brings some things into light I +didn't know before, and, I haven't seen much circulating about it. I have +just come from verifying some of the references listed in the following +document. Any other info concerning this please send it to me. +Thanx, Danny + +---- + + +The following article is taken from New Dawn magazine - a +magazine exposing consensus reality and publishing suppressed +information. 6 issue subscription for US$30 can be obtained from: +GPO Box 3126FF, Melbourne, 3001, AUSTRALIA. + + + +JONESTOWN, THE CIA AND MIND CONTROL + +"When 912 followers of Jim Jones committed suicide in Guyana 15 +years ago, people said it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and +never could happen again, but it has happened in Waco," states +Boston "cult expert" John Gillespie. + +Until the Waco tragedy, self-proclaimed "cult experts" and the +media routinely mentioned the ominous name of "Jonestown" in just +about every story on the latest "religious cult" or community. +But despite all the references, the reality of Jonestown and the +reasons behind the bizarre events remain a mystery. The details +have faded from memory for most of us since November 18, 1978, +but not the outlines. Think back a moment and youll remember... + +You Know the Official Version... + +A fanatic religious leader in California led a multiracial +community into the jungles of remote Guyana to establish a +socialist utopia. The Peoples Temple, his church, was in the +heart of San Francisco and drew poor people, social activists, +Black and Hispanics, young and old. The message was racial +harmony and justice, and a criticism of the hypocrisy of the +world around his followers. + +The Temple rose in a vacuum of leadership at the end of an era. +The political confrontations of the 1960s were almost over, and +alternative religious movements and "personal transformation" +were on the rise. Those who had preached a similar message on the +political soap box were gone, burnt out, discredited, or dead. +The counterculture had apparently degenerated into drugs and +violence. Charlie Manson was the only visible image of the +period. Suddenly, religion seemed to offer a last hope. + +Even before they left for the Jonestown site, the Peoples Temple +members were subjects of scandalous attacks in the media. A +veritable persecution campaign had been launched in the United +States against Rev. Jim Jones and other members of the +organisation. Fleeing the U.S., over one thousand members +emigrated to Guyana in South America. Establishing "Jonestown" as +a successful and prosperous community, these American families +defied poverty and lack of rights that were their lot back home. +This act of political protest, of a kind never known in the +United States before, angered certain powerful elements in the +U.S. Establishment. But accusations continued to be made about +Jones, and these soon came to the attention of Congressional +members like Leo Ryan. Ryan decided to go the Guyana and +investigate the situation for himself. The nightmare began. + +Isolated on the tiny airstrip at Fort Kaituma, Ryan and several +reporters in his group were murdered. Then came the almost +unbelievable "White Night," a mass suicide pact of the Jonestown +camp. A community made up mostly of Blacks and women drank +cyanide from paper cups of Kool Aid, adults and children alike +died and fell around the main pavilion. Jones himself was shot in +the head, an apparent suicide. For days, the body count mounted, +from 400 to nearly 1,000. The bodies were flown to the United +States and later cremated or buried in mass graves. + +Pete Hammill called the corpses "all the loose change of the +sixties." The effect was electric. Any alternative to the current +system was seen as futile, if not deadly. Protest only led to +police riots and political assassination. Alternative life styles +led to drugs, "creepy crawly" communes and violent murders. And +religious experiments led to cults and suicide. Social utopias +were dreams that turned into nightmares. The television urged us +to go back to "The Happy Days" of the apolitical 50s. The message +was, get a job, and go back to the local church your grandparents +attended. The unyielding nuclear threat generated only nihilism +and hopelessness. There was no answer but death, no exit from the +grisly future. The new ethic was personal success, aerobics, +material consumption, a return to "American values"; and the +"moral majority"; White, Christian world. The official message +was clear. + +Suppose It Didnt Happen That Way... + +The headlines of the day of the massacre read, "CULT DIES IN +SOUTH AMERICAN JUNGLE: 400 Die in Mass Suicide, 700 Flee into +Jungle." By all accounts in the press, as well as Peoples Temple +statements, there were at least 1,100 people at Jonestown. There +were 809 adult passports found there, and reports of 300 children +(276 found among the dead, and 210 never identified). The +headline figures from the first day add to the same number, 1, +100. The original body count done by the Guyanese was 408. The +final count, given almost a week later by American military +authorities was 913. A total of 16 survivors were reported to +have returned to the U.S. Where were the others? At their first +press conference, the Americans claimed that the Guyanese "could +not count". These local people had carried out the gruesome job +of counting the bodies, and later assisted American troops in the +process of poking holes in the flesh lest they explode from the +gasses of decay. Then the Americans propose d another theory - +they had missed seeing a pile of bodies at the back of the +pavilion. The structure was the size of a small house, and they +had been at the scene for days. Finally, we were given the +official reason for the discrepancy - bodies had fallen on top of +other bodies, adults covering children. + +It was a simple, if morbid arithmetic that led to the first +suspicions. The 408 bodies discovered at first count would have +to be able to cover 505 bodies for a total of 913. In addition, +those who first worked on the bodies would have been unlikely to +miss bodies lying beneath each other since each body had to be +punctured. Eighty-two of the bodies first found were those of +children, reducing the number that could have been hidden below +others. A search of nearly 150 photographs, aerial and closeup, +fails to show even one body lying under another, much less 500. + +It seemed the first reports were true, 400 had died, and 700 had +fled to the jungle. The American authorities claimed to have +searched for people who had escaped, but found no evidence of +any in the surrounding area. At least a hundred Guyanese troops +were among the first to arrive, and they were ordered to search +the jungle for survivors. In the area, at the same time, British +Black Watch troops were on "training exercises", nearly 600 of +their best-trained commandos. Soon, American Green Berets were +on site as well. The presence of these soldiers, specially +trained in covert killing operations, may explain the increasing +numbers of bodies that appeared. + +Most of the photographs show the bodies in neat rows, face down. +There are few exceptions. Close shots indicate drag marks, as +though the bodies were positioned by someone after death. Is it +possible that the 700 who fled were rounded up by these troops, +brought back to Jonestown and added to the body count? + +If so, the bodies would indicate the cause of death. A new word +was coined by the media, "suicide-murder". But which was it? +Autopsies and forensic science are a developing art. The +detectives of death use a variety of scientific methods and clues +to determine how people die, when they expire, and the specific +cause of death. Dr. Mootoo, the top Guyanese pathologist, was at +Jonestown within hours after the massacre. Refused the assistance +of U.S. pathologists, he accompanied the teams that counted the +dead, examined the bodies, and worked to identify the deceased. +While the American press screamed about the "Kool-Aid Suicides", +Dr. Mootoo was reaching a much different opinion. + +There are certain signs that show the types of poisons that lead +to the end of life. Cyanide blocks the central nervous system. +Even the "involuntary" function like breathing and heartbeat get +mixed neural signals. It is a painful death, breath coming in +spurts. The other muscles spasm, limbs twist and contort. The +facial muscles draw back into a deadly grin, called "cyanide +rictus". All these telling signs were absent in the Jonestown +dead. Limbs were limp and relaxed, and the few visible faces +showed no sign of distortion. + +Instead, Dr. Mootoo found fresh needle marks at the back of the +left shoulder blades of 70-80% of the victims. Others had been +shot or strangled. One survivor reported that those who resisted +were forced by armed guards. The gun that reportedly shot Jim +Jones was lying nearly 200 feet from his body, not a likely +suicide weapon. As Chief Medical Examiner, his testimony to the +Guyanese grand jury investigating Jonestown led to their +conclusion that all but three of the people were murdered by +"persons unknown". Only two had committed suicide they said. +Several pictures show the gunshot wounds on the bodies as well. +The U.S. Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Schuler, said, "No autopsies +are needed. The cause of death is not an issue here." The +forensic doctors who later did autopsies at Dover, Delaware, were +never made aware of Dr. Mootoos findings. + +There are other indications that the Guyanese government +participated with American authorities in a cover-up of the real +story, despite their own findings. One good example was Guyanese +Police Chief Lloyd Barker, who interfered with investigations, +helped "recover" $2.5 million for the Guyanese government, and +was often the first to officially announce the cover stories +relating to suicide, body counts and survivors. Among the first +to the scene were the wife of Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes +Burnham, and his Deputy Prime Minister, Ptolemy Reid. They +returned from the massacre site with nearly one million dollars +in cash, gold and jewellery taken from the buildings and from +the dead. Inexplicably, one of Burnhams political party +secretaries had visited the site of the massacre only hours +before it occurred. When Shirley Field Ridley, Guyanese Minister +of Information announced the change in the body count to the +shocked Guyanese parliament, she refused to answer any further q +uestions. Other representatives began to point a finger of shame +at Ridley and the Burnham government, and the local press dubbed +the scandal "Templegate", and accused them of taking a ghoulish +payoff. + +Perhaps, more significantly, the Americans brought in 16 huge C- +131 cargo planes, but claimed they could only carry 36 caskets in +each one. These aircraft can carry tanks, trucks, troops, and +ammunition all in one load. At the scene, bodies were stripped of +identification, including the medical wrist tags visible in many +early photos. Dust off operations during Vietnam clearly +demonstrated that the military is capable of moving hundreds of +bodies in a short period. Instead, they took nearly a week to +bring back the Jonestown dead, bringing in the majority at the +end of the period. The corpses, rotting in the heat, made autopsy +impossible. At one point, the remains of 183 people arrived in 83 +caskets. Although the Guyanese had identified 174 bodies at the +site, only 17 (later 46) were tentatively identified at the +massive military mortuary in Dover, Delaware. + +Isolated there, hundreds of miles from their families who might +have visited the bodies at a similar mortuary in Oakland that +was used during Vietnam, many of the dead were eventually +cremated. Press was excluded, and even family members had +difficulty getting access to the remains. Officials in New Jersey +began to complain that state coroners were excluded, and that the +military coroners appointed were illegally performing cremations. +One of the top forensic body identification experts was denied +repeated requests to assist. In December, the President of the +National Association of Medical Examiners complained in an open +letter to the U.S. military that they "badly botched" procedures. +As noted, these military doctors were unaware of Dr. Mootoos +conclusions. Several civilian pathology experts said they +"shuddered at the ineptness", of the military, and that their +autopsy method was "doing it backwards". But in official +statements, the U.S. attempted to discredit the Guyanese grand +jury findings, saying they had uncovered "few facts". + +Guyanese troops and police, who had arrived with American Embassy +official Richard Dwyer, also failed to defend Congressman Leo +Ryan and others who came to Guyana with him when they were shot +down in cold blood at the Port Kaituma airstrip, even though the +troops were nearby with machine guns at the ready. Although +Temple member Larry Layton was charged with the murders of +Congressman Ryan, Temple defector Patricia Parks, and press +reporters Greg Robinson, Don Harris and Bob Brown, he was not in +position to shoot them. Blocked from boarding Ryans twin engine +Otter, he had entered another plane nearby. Once inside, he +pulled out a gun and wounded two Temple followers, before being +disarmed. [Later, Laytons own father called him "a robot" and +relatives described how he was in a "posthypnotic trance".] + +The others were clearly killed by armed men who descended from a +tractor trailer at the scene, after opening fire. Witnesses +described them as "zombies," walking mechanically, without +emotion, and "looking through you, not at you" as they murdered. +Only certain people, like Ryans aide Jackie Speier, were not +harmed further, but the killers made sure that Ryan and the +newsmen were dead. In some cases they shot people, already +wounded, directly in the head. + +At the Jonestown site, survivors described how a siren began to +scream. The men rushed to the storeroom where they had hunting +rifles and cross-bows. Meanwhile bursts of submachine-gun fire +could be heard from the edge of Jonestown as "mercenaries" shot +defenceless people. Agent provocateurs who had been infiltrated +into Jonestown created panic in order to allow the trained and +programmed killers, like the "zombies" who killed Ryan, to go +about their murderous business. + +A special squad broke through to Jim Jones and killed him. After +that the mass extermination of people began. When the last shots +were fired, there were still several hundred left alive in the +compound, mostly women, children and the elderly. They were +assembled near the central pavilion so as to receive a +"sedative". The "cocktail" took effect instantly as the first +victims began to collapse and die. Now everybody understood the +nature of the brew offered by the murderers. Some people began to +resist taking the poison. They were shot at point blank range. +Others had poison poured down their throat by force. The +murderers also used ampule injectors. People were forced to lie +on the ground with their faces down, and were then injected into +their upper arms right through their clothes, an unlikely spot +for a suicide shot. Most of those who had fled into the jungle +were rounded up and killed. One survivor clearly heard a group of +people cheering, 45 minutes after the massacre. + +Back in California, Peoples Temple members openly admitted that +they feared they were targeted by a intelligence agency "hit +squad", and the Temple was surrounded for some time by local +police forces. + +Survivors included Mark Lane and Charles Garry, lawyers for +Peoples Temple who managed to escape the massacre. In addition +to the 16 who officially returned with the Ryan party, others +managed to reach Georgetown and come back home. However, many of +these people were later murdered. Jeannie and Al Mills, who +intended to write a book about Jonestown, were murdered at home, +bound and shot. Evidence indicates a connection between the +Jonestown operation and the murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey +Milk by police agent Dan White. Moscone, a friend of Rev. Jones, +was killed in his office a few days after the Guyana tragedy, +thus preventing him from realising his plan to make a press +statement on the true reasons behind the destruction of Jim +Jones and his community. Another Jonestown survivor was shot +near his home in Detroit by unidentified killers. Yet another +was involved in a mass murder of school children in Los Angeles. + +Who Was Jim Jones? + +In order to understand the strange events surrounding Jonestown, +we must begin with a history of the people involved. The official +story of a "suicide cult" led by a religious fanatic adored by +his idealistic followers, doesnt make sense in light of the +evidence of murders, armed killers and autopsy cover-ups. + +If it happened the way we were told, there should be no reason to +try to hide the facts from the public, and full investigation +into the deaths at Jonestown, and the murder of Leo Ryan would +have been welcomed. What did happen is something else instead. + +Jim Jones grew up in the grinding poverty of the Great Depression +in the rural town of Lynn, southern Indiana. His friends found +him a little strange as he was interested in preaching the Bible +and in social justice issues. In the early 1950s, Jones graduated +from Butler University and was ordained by a Christian +denomination in Indianapolis. It was during this period that he +met and married his lifelong mate, Marceline. He also had a small +business to support his Christian ministry, selling monkeys, +purchased from the research department at Indiana State +University in Bloomington. + +A Charismatic evangelist and faith healer, Pastor Jones held +revival tent meetings in Indiana. With his wife, Marceline, he +adopted many children of different races. Because of his strong +convictions and social activism, he and his family were the +targets of intense harassment and racially-motivated violence. + +Seeking an atmosphere that would perhaps be more receptive to his +outspoken work, Jim Jones moved to California and established the +first Peoples Temple in Ukiah in 1965. There, despite continued +harassment, Peoples Temple flourished and grew to thousands of +members. Branches of the organisation were opened in several +cities, and the work of rehabilitating drug addicts, finding +jobs, and homes for destitute people, providing services for +youth and the elderly went on in each area. Despite all this, +Jones kept up a gruelling schedule of evangelistic rallies, +speaking five or six times a week to thousands of people, mostly +urban ghetto-dwellers, all across the state. Periodically he +would journey across the United States holding revival meetings +in a number of cities. + +Not a meeting went by that Rev. Jones did not integrate his +Charismatic, revival gospel with a comprehensive expose of the +smug corruption, blatant hypocrisy, and contradictions of the +American system. He was scathing in his denunciation of the +military-industrial complex, corporate greed, profiteering, the +politics of neglect and genocide, and a host of other abuses +both within the U.S. and around the world. He established a hard- +hitting newspaper Peoples Forum that exposed U.S. corruption +within, and U.S. imperialism without - and distributed each +issue free to over half a million people. The foundation +scripture of his ministry was Christs admonition recorded in +"Matthew" chapter 25, verses 35-40. + +The Peoples Temple newspaper Peoples Forum revealed Pastor Jones +perspective as well as some of his powerful enemies. An October, +1977 column titled "For the Ambitious, Curious, and Concerned" +provides commentary on some of the topics the Establishment press +prefers to pass over in silence. Among the questions raised here +are the following: + + + "The Rockefeller brothers: How they got their fortunes and +increase them + daily. Their influence over U.S. policy. How does Henry +Kissinger, e.g. + hop right over from being Secretary of State to become a +Board member of + the Chase Manhattan Bank." + + "The multinational corporations: By what network do they +influence + governmental decisions? Is it possible for any major +decisions to be made + independently of the corporate structure?" + +Many questions are related to the deteriorating conditions at +home: + + + "Schools: Why do they cost more and more and teach less and +less? Why are + colleges in deep financial trouble? What kind of job market +are students + facing and why?" + + "Prisons: Whats behind the push to build more of them? What +is the extent + of medical experimentation on prisoners? Psychosurgery?" + + "Medical care:....Is there any way to reverse the gigantic +machinery + which cuts anyone but the wealthy off from extended medical +care? Who + controls the nursing home circuits?" + + "Environmental controls: How widespread is: pollution? Lack +of safety + standards? Poisonous chemicals in food and other products?" + +Thus, it was by no means a "sect of religious fanatics advocating +the cult of suicide" who published the newspaper Peoples Forum. +There can be no doubt that the newspaper served as a vehicle for +radical Christianity, as a mouthpiece of those who fought against +the dictatorship of the monopolies and for freedom. As one letter +to the Editor frankly stated, "The only crime Jim Jones is guilty +of is bringing the poor together from various religious, racial, +and ethnic backgrounds." + +Early Converts + +Many professional people from stable family backgrounds were +converted to Joness dynamic vision. During this time Timothy +Stoen, a Stanford graduate and member of the city D.As office, +the Layton family, Terri Buford and other important members +joined the Temple. Bufords father was a Commander at the +Philadelphia Navy Base for years. Larry Schact, later to become +Jonestown medical superintendent, stated Jim Jones got him off +drugs and into medical school during this period. George Blakey +was from a wealthy, British family. He donated $60,000 to pay the +lease on the 27,000-acre Guyana site in 1974. Lisa Phillips +Layton had come to the U.S. from a rich Hamburg banking family in +Germany. Many of the top lieutenants around Jones were from +wealthy, educated backgrounds. + +For a number of years Stoen worked in close cooperation with +Jones whom he followed to Guyana as the communitys legal adviser. +It subsequently turned out that since his years at college Stoen +had been a CIA agent and spent some time in West Germany on a CIA +mission. In 1977, Stoens link to the CIA was exposed and he was +expelled from the Jonestown community. Under instructions from +the CIA, the agent provocateur set up and headed the so-called +"Concerned Relatives" organisation. It demanded the liquidation +of Jonestown. + +Jonestown survivor, JFK researcher and attorney, Mark Lane, +writes in The Strongest Poison: "I believe Tim Stoen was a CIA +operative, if not from the beginning, then certainly long before +the end. Where was the money coming from to keep him on the +Temples case full time with an office, to hire a private +detective (Mazor), and a prominent San Francisco public relations +firm (Lowery, Russom & Leeper) [a legal firm that fabricated +suits and charges against the Peoples Temple] to work against +the Temple. Where was the money coming from to send relatives +and attorneys to Guyana and put them up in the best hotels while +they did their dirty work? There was too much money behind Tim +Stoen...Stoens announced goal was the destruction of Jim Jones +and the Temple..." + +This period of rapid growth of the Peoples Temple also marked the +end of an important political decade. Nixons election had ushered +in a domestic intelligence war against the movements for peace, +civil rights and social justice. Names like COINTELPRO, CHAOS, +and OPERATION GARDEN PLOT or the HOUSTON PLAN made the news +following in the wake of Watergate revelations. Senator Ervin +called the White House plans against dissenters "fascistic." +These operations involved the highest levels of military and +civilian intelligence and all levels of police agencies in a +full-scale attempt to discredit, disrupt and destroy the +movements that sprang up in the 1960s. There are indications that +these plans, or the mood they created, led to the assassinations +of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, as unacceptable "Black +Messiahs." + +One of the architects under then-Governor Reagan in California +was the former Attorney General Edwin Meese. He coordinated +OPERATION GARDEN PLOT for military intelligence and all police +operations and intelligence in a period that was plagued with +violations of civil and constitutional rights. Perhaps you can +recall the police attacks on Peoples Park, the murder of many +Black Panthers and activists, the infiltration of the Free Speech +Movement and anti-war activity, and the experimentation on +prisoners at Vacaville, or the shooting of George Jackson. Meese +later bragged that this activity had damaged or destroyed the +people he called "revolutionaries." + +This was also the period in which the CIA and its allies began to +infiltrate the Peoples Temple. Michael Prokes was approached by a +government agent and promised two-hundred dollars a week payment +if he would join the full time staff of the Temple and spy on Jim +Jones. Prokes joined the Temple in October 1972. Mark Lane +relates how, during a visit to Jonestown on November 17, 1978, +only days before the massacre, Mike Prokes confided to him that, +"it would be a mistake for me to underestimate the duplicity and +cleverness of the American intelligence agents. He said, on the +eve of the destruction: 'I wouldnt be surprised if they have +agents infiltrated in here and in San Francisco [Peoples Temple +U.S. head office]'." (The Strongest Poison) + +Four months later, on March 13, 1979, Prokes called a press +conference in a California hotel. To the assembled reporters he +made available a forty-two-page statement and then silently rose, +entering the bathroom behind him. He closed the door and shot +himself. He was pronounced dead at a Modesto Hospital three hours +later. + +"In both his oral and written statements to the press, he +asserted: 'The truth about Jonestown is being covered up because +our government agencies were involved in its destruction up to +their necks. I am convinced of this because among many other +reasons, I was an informant when I first joined the Peoples +Temple.' + +"Prokes attached to that statement a four-page document in which +he detailed his role as a government agent... All of this +information was available to the reporters at the press +conference... Among those Mike mailed his final statement to +were: The New York Times, Newsweek, and Time. They, however, did +not print a word from the statement. Not a single national daily +in the United States, not a single magazine, radio or television +company, not a single news agency made public what Mike Prokes +had written in the last minutes of his life." (The Strongest +Poison) + +Shortly before Jonestowns tragic end, the Peoples Temples leaders +launched an open challenge against the U.S. authorities. On +October 4, 1978, The San Francisco Examiner, and the next day The +Sun Reporter announced that the Peoples Temple based in Guyana +were going to file a multi-million-dollar suit against U.S. +federal agencies, including the CIA, the FBI, Treasury +Department, Post Office, and the Internal Revenue Service, within +90 days. The suit would charge, the newspaper said, the agencies +of being involved in a government-inspired plot to destroy +Jonestown. The suit potentially threatened to cause great +embarrassment to the White House, the State Department and the U. +S. intelligence community. When, 45 days after the publication of +the news of the forthcoming suit, the majority of Jonestowns +residents were murdered, the question of the law suit was removed +from the agenda. + +Under pressure from influential relatives of some of the members +of the Peoples Temple and responding to the slanders of Rev. +Jones in the press, Congressman Leo Ryan took a personal +interest in Jonestown. Ryan had some years previous fallen out +with the U.S. intelligence community. The CIA was displeased +with him because in 1974 he and Senator Hughes had moved an +amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act which was to limit the +CIAs operations outside the United States. Later CIA operative +Tim Stoen would complain to Ryan about custody of his step son, +who was living with Jones, and urge him to visit the commune. +Against advice of friends and staff members, Ryan decided to take +a team of journalists to Guyana and seek the truth of the +situation. Some feel that Ryans journey there was planned and +expected, and used as a convenient excuse to set up his murder. + +The CIA and MK-ULTRA + +Significantly, the press and other evidence did indicate the +presence of a senior CIA agent on the scene at the time of the +massacre. This man, Richard Dwyer, was working as Deputy Chief of +Mission for the U.S. Embassy in Guyana. Identified in Whos Who in +the CIA, he has been involved with the agency since 1959. Present +at Jonestown and the airport strip, his accounts were used by the +State Department to confirm the death of Leo Ryan. + +Other Embassy personnel, who knew the situation at Jonestown +well, were also connected to intelligence work. U.S. Ambassador +John Burke, who served in the CIA with Dwyer in Thailand, was an +Embassy official described by Philip Agee as working for the CIA +since 1963. Burke tried to stop Ryans investigation. Also at the +Embassy was Chief Consular officer Richard McCoy, who worked for +military intelligence and was "on loan" from the Defense +Department at the time of the massacre. According to a standard +source, "The Embassy in Georgetown housed the Georgetown CIA +station. It now appears that the majority and perhaps all of the +Embassy officials were CIA officers operating under State +Department covers..." Dan Webber, who was sent to the site of the +massacre the day after, was also named as CIA. + +The direct orders to cover up the cause of death came from the +top levels of the American government. Zbigniew Brzezinski +delegated to Robert Pastor, and he in turn ordered Lt. Col. +Gordon Sumner to strip the bodies of identity. Pastor was Deputy +Director of the CIA under Reagan. One can only wonder how many +others tied to the Jonestown massacre were similarly promoted. +Almost everywhere you look at Jonestown, U.S. intelligence rears +its ugly head. + +"(The) possibility is that Jonestown was a mass mind-control +experiment by the CIA as part of its MK-ULTRA program," declared +Ryans friend and aid, Joseph Holsinger, in response to reports of +the involvement of senior CIA agents in the tragedy. A close +study of Senator Ervins 1974 intelligence report, "Individual +Rights and the Governments Role in Behaviour Modification", shows +that the CIA and military intelligence had certain "target +populations" in mind, for both individual and mass control. +Blacks, women, prisoners, the elderly, the young, and inmates of +psychiatric wards were selected as "potentially violent". There +were plans in California at the time for a "Centre for the Study +and Reduction of Violence", expanding on the horrific work of Dr. +Jose Delgado, Drs. Mark and Ervin, and Dr. Louis Jolyn West, +experts in implantation, psychosurgery and tranquillizers. + +The history of MK-ULTRA and its sister programs (ARTICHOKE, +BLUEBIRD, etc.) records a combination of drugs, drug mixtures, +electro-shock and torture as methods for control. The desired +results ranged from temporary and permanent amnesia, uninhabited +confessions, and creation of second personalities, to programmed +assassins and pre-conditioned suicidal urges. + +One goal was the ability to control mass populations especially +for cheap labor. Dr. Delgado told Congress that he hoped for a +future where a technology would control workers in the field and +troops at war with electronic remote signals. He found it hard to +understand why people would complain about electrodes implanted +in their brains to make them "both happy and productive". + +Along with the notorious MK-ULTRA-linked psychiatrist Louis +Jolyon West, Rabbi Maurice Davis is involved in an advisory +capacity with the Cult Awareness Network. The Rabbi worked +closely with Dr. Harris Isbell in the Lexington, Kentucky federal +prison. This MK-ULTRA program included the intentional +administering of LSD to federal prisoners to evaluate the drugs +use in mind control and modification. It may be more than a +strange coincidence that Rabbi Davis arranged for Jim Jones to +use an empty synagogue in Indianapolis for his early activities. +In a further cruel irony, Louis Jolyon West received the Cult +Awareness Networks 1990 "Leo J. Ryan Award", in recognition of +his work against "religious cults". + +Joyce Shaw, who spent six years in the Temple but left before the +move to Guyana, wondered if the reported "mass suicide" story was +a cover for "some kind of horrible government experiments, or +some sort of sick, racist thing..." + +Were the residents of Jonestown the victims of an elaborate U.S. +government plot, as their leaders publicly claimed only weeks +before their murder? Was the CIA, through its agents within the +Peoples Temple, actively involved in subverting the community in +a bizarre MK-ULTRA mind control experiment? + +On the evening of November 18, the Soviet Consul in Guyana was +approached by two extremely agitated members of the Peoples +Temple. One of them told him she had received news from +Jonestown, "Something terrible is going on there. I dont yet know +the details, but the life of all commune members is in danger. +The settlement is surrounded by armed men. Something has happened +to Ryan. He was attacked by some unknown men when he was +returning to Georgetown." + +The Consul relates in the book The Jonestown Carnage, how +returning home that evening his wife told him that Jim Joness +assistant, Sharon Amos, had called from the Temple office in +Georgetown. + +"Sharon was weeping and said that Jonestown had been surrounded +by armed men. In spite of the poor reception she had received a +radiogram which said that military helicopters were circling over +the settlement. 'Help us!' she screamed. 'Jonestown is being +destroyed! They wont spare anyone! Somebody is trying to get into +my flat. Do something! Save us!' Then they were cut off. My wife +immediately phoned the Guyanese police and was told that a +reinforced police detachment had been sent to the Amos home. But +it was too late. Amos and her three children were dead. They were +slaughtered by Blakey who was also a CIA agent infiltrated into +the Jones organisation. Later he was declared insane, and then +vanished from view. That terrible night of the 18th to the 19th +of November was the scene of a monstrous massacre." + +On November 19 the Timehri airport in Guyana was unusually busy +and crowded with American servicemen. Standing on the runway was +a giant S-141 aircraft of the U.S. airforce out of which American +troops were unloading disassembled helicopters, jeeps, and some +small armaments. The bewildered Guyanese soldiers and officials +stood by speechless. One airport employee said he did not know +why a U.S. military plane was at a Guyanan civil airport. Nobody +knew why it had landed. That was not the first plane to have +arrived that day, the airport employee stated. + +The Aftermath + +Operations aimed at mass extermination of civilians in different +countries have been widely practised by the CIA as a means of +attaining political goals. Over the last 25 years alone the U.S. +Central Intelligence Agency has undertaken over 900 major secret +operations and several thousand smaller-scale terrorist actions. +One such operation, carried out in Vietnam under the code name +Phoenix, took about 80,000 lives. + +What makes the carnage in Guyana so different from other CIA +crimes is that its victims were not foreigners; they were +Americans who had left their home country because they did not +want to live under the U.S. socio-political system. To this day, +the mass murder of hundreds of U.S. citizens in Jonestown has +never been investigated by U.S. authorities and the perpetrators +of the crime have been neither identified nor punished. + +Yet, Jonestown is deeply etched into the religious and social +history of the modern world. The media routinely reminds us of +the dangers of sinister Peoples Temple like "Armageddon cults" +and "Bible-based suicide sects". Jim Jones is remembered as the +sinister "Bible-thumper" and evil demagogue who led his +brainwashed followers to a bizarre mass suicide. + +This is, of course, the Establishment view. The image that +psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West and his friends in the Cult +Awareness Network do not want us to forget. + +"Jonestown," wrote Jonathan Vankin, "bloomed in the moral and +spiritual abyss of the 1970s...its members were said to be +brainwashed - living proof that human beings were just so much +wire and circuitry. Cult members were often kidnapped back by +their families. The hired kidnappers were called 'deprogrammers'. +They might better have been called 'reprogrammers'." +(Conspiracies, Cover-ups and Crimes) + +However, the Peoples Temple was not some strange, fringe-dwelling +"cult" and Jim Jones was not a small time preacher and part time +hustler. Back on March 31, 1977, journalist Bob Levering wrote +the following in The San Francisco Bay Guardian, before most of +the members moved to Guyana: + +"The biggest religion story these days is the phenomenon of +Peoples Temple...that has been in San Francisco less than five +years but has already become the largest single Protestant +congregation in the state (more than 20,000 members), +participating in activities as diverse as supporting the tenants +at the International Hotel (more than 3000 church members turned +out for a demonstration last January) and publishing...the +monthly Peoples Forum (they distribute between 600,000 and 1,000, +000 copies to every neighbourhood in San Francisco)...The church. +..also has a free meals program...It conducts a massive human +service program including...its own medical and legal clinics, a +home for mentally disabled children and four nursing homes..." + +The propaganda cover-up for the massacre of Jonestown was +provided by the U.S. intelligence agencies version of "the +suicide of religious fanatics." + +The real tragedy of Jonestown is not only that it occurred, but +that so few chose to ask themselves why or how, so few sought to +find out the facts behind the bizarre tale used to explain away +the deaths of more than 900 people, and that so many will +continue to be blind to the grim reality of our intelligence +agencies. In the long run, the truth will come out. Only our +complicity in the deception continues to dishonour the dead. + + + + + + + + + + + PSYOPS- HTTP://WWW.TELEPORT.COM/~WALTER + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/judge1.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/judge1.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..91f8f4d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/judge1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ + + + OUR PROTECTORS + + + Now let's take a look at the branch of government which + was supposed to be the protector of the American citizen. + The Judicial branch! Many who read this would say that + statement is the biggest joke of this book thus far. + Really, the federal courts are required to make secure + the people's unalienable rights by helping to keep all + governments and officials within the limits of their powers + imposed by the people under the Constitution. + A look-see on the background and operation of the + federal courts is first. The only court established by the + Constitution is the Supreme Court. The authority to + establish courts below the Supreme Court was given to the + Congress. Under this constitutional authority, the Congress + has established Circuit Courts of Appeal, District Courts, + the Court of Claims, Customs Court, Court of Customs and + Patents Appeals, Tax Court and Territorial Courts. + The Supreme Court has "original jurisdiction" in + certain cases spelled out in the Constitution. By original + jurisdiction, it means a case begins in that court. + Usually, the Supreme Court has 'appellate' jurisdiction + which means that an appeal from a lower federal court would + be taken to the Supreme Court. + However, the Supreme Court is not required to review + all appeals brought before it. + An action [case or suit] of certain kinds, is started + in a lower court and usually would be the district court. + If the decision of that court is something that a person + does not agree with or feels the court made an incorrect + decision, that can be appealed to the Circuit Court of + Appeals. And again, if the person does not agree with the + Court of Appeals decision, this can be further appealed to + the Supreme Court. + This is the usual procedure of the federal court + system. A system is also available for certain cases + decided in state courts to be appealed directly to the + Supreme Court. + This is just a general outline of the operation of the + federal court system. It's not nearly as complicated and + mysterious as judges and lawyers would have you to believe. + They want it secretive to perpetuate their own fraternity + and keep themselves and their brothers in business. + The first requirement for the judicial division of the + central government was that the branch be completely free of + any influence of the other two branches of government. Two + special grants were made to judges. First, that their + salary should never be reduced. Secondly, that they should + hold their positions during good behavior. + The intention of these special grants were to insure + that federal judges would be independent and be able to make + impartial decisions, especially when deciding for a citizen +  + of the United States. Let me point out here, that all + judges take an oath to uphold the Constitution, well, nearly + to uphold anyway. + Here is that oath: "I____________________, do solemnly + swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without + respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to + the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially + discharge and perform all duties incumbent upon me as + ________________ according to the best of my abilities, + agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States. + So help me God." + Pretty simple language, isn't it? Not easy to read in + any double meanings. Since no citizen must obey any law + which is made outside the authority of the Constitution that + oath makes it look as though no one has anything to fear + from the judiciary. However as we go along, it will appear + that the oath has a hollow ring to it. + The colonists had a great deal of trouble with judges + who were appointed under the authority of the king. They + were dependent on the King's will and good graces. If they + made any decision which the King disliked, they were ousted + from their positions. + As a consequence, the colonists suffered one injustice + heaped on another. + Notice some of the statements in the Declaration of + Independence: "He [the king] has obstructed the administra- + tion of justice . . . Has made judges dependent on his will + alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and + payment of their salaries." + Angry statements are included to show that people who + were accused of crimes were sent to England for trial and + the right to trial by jury was suspended. + The framers of the Constitution sought to protect + future citizens of this country from suffering the same + problems. Those are the reasons for a judges salary which + can't be reduced and the holding of their offices during + good behavior. + And since federal judges are nominated by the president + with the consent of the senate, the removal by impeachment + still applies. Impeachment for federal judges works the + same as it would for a president or other major government + dude. + The Constitution requires the House of Representatives + to investigate the charges and the Senate to conduct the + impeachment proceedings. This is an area which we will see + needs vigorous research and action by American citizens. + The first thing which should be pointed out is there is + no authority in the Constitution, actual or implied, that + any decision on a case by federal judge at ANY level should + carry any weight on other or future cases which come before + the courts. + This is not the case today. Law libraries are loaded + to the rafters with books showing decisions in previous + cases which lawyers research and use as arguments to sustain +  + their positions in the case on which they're working. This + is nonsense for there is no permission from our charter for + government for such arguments. + Each case should be decided on it's own merits and + "agreeably to the Constitution and the laws of the United + States." By laws of the United States is meant a bill + passed by the Congress which, as required, conforms with the + basic document. + These books which clog a law library are not "laws of + the United States." They are what legal eagles like to call + 'case law' and have no authority in the Constitution to be a + substitute for the laws of the United States. This case law + is a record of the case which was decided, if a record is + really necessary, and cannot become public policy. + Chief Supreme Court Justice John Marshall brought this + matter to the attention of the legal profession in 1821 when + Marshall included this opinion on decisions becoming 'law': + "It is a maxim not to be disregarded, that general expres- + sions, in every opinion, are to be taken in connection with + the case in which those expressions are used. If they go + beyond the case, they may be respected, but ought not to + control the judgment in a subsequent suit when the very + point is presented." + Even the Chief Justice agreed that it should involve + only the case at hand! So where does the legal profession + and the judicial branch find the right to say 'case law' is + the law in any opinion? + This matter of becoming "public policy" is a dangerous + violation of our Constitution. By allowing this to occur, + we are allowing federal judges to amend the Constitution in + direct violation of Article V which specifies the method of + amendment under our control. + No where is there any power for a judge to decide that + a particular school has to desegregate and by that single + decision, make all schools follow the same policy. + This is what is meant by becoming public policy. There + is no room in our form of government for 5 people (a + majority of 9 in the court) who are not elected and do not + represent anyone to make any decisions which affect us all. + NONE! + They have no right to decide any social policies or to + change our basic law by edict. They have no right to issue + any orders which, because of a mystique created by the + knights of the black robe, can become law! + The lawmaking ability is restricted to Congress and + cannot be spread throughout the government. By all the + examples thus far, all these 'lawmaking' decisions, orders, + regulations and so forth, are way out in left field. We are + being overrun by power hungry men and women and it is time + for all of us to assert our rights and demand that the basic + document be obeyed. + + + SUPPORT THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT . . . PLEASE REGISTER!  diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/jurydu.fun b/textfiles.com/politics/jurydu.fun new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4c8e91c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/jurydu.fun @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ + + ANY DAY NOW YOU WILL BE CALLED FOR JURY DUTY + + By: Godfrey Lehman + +As published in HEALTH FREEDOM NEWS, August 1987, pages 20-21, with the request +this be copied and disseminated as widely as possible. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Here are some facts you must know, but the judge won't tell you: + + FIRST: Your personal service as an honest juror -- true to your own + conscience -- is essential to a free country. + SECOND: As a free and Sovereign citizen/juror, you are superior in + rank and status to anybody in the court room, including the + judge in his/her black robe. + THIRD: In this capacity you are totally independent of the court, not + subject to direction nor dictation of any kind (except for + decorum, such as being in the court room on time and listening + to the evidence.) + +What this means is that the judge is PROHIBITED by the Constitution from +dictating or instructing you in any way, least of all as to how to apply the +law. + +As a Sovereign citizen, you have inherent power and actually the OBLIGATION to +overrule (nullify) any written law that you find objectionable. + +Few judges will inform you that this is a natural right of citizenship. They +will, instead, deceive you -- even attempt to coerce you -- into swearing you +will take the law "as I dictate it to you." + +But every judge knows you, as a Sovereign citizen/juror, possess the right +INHERENTLY -- not as a legal grant -- and that it is recognized and guaranteed +by the Constitution of the U.S.A. and all 50 states. + +The U.S. Supreme Court has many times acknowledged this, starting back in 1794 +when our first Chief Justice, John Jay, wrote, "it is presumed that juries are +the best judges of fact; it is...presumed that the courts are the best judges +of the law. But still both objects are within your (the juror's) decision. +You have a right to take it upon yourselves to judge both law as well as fact +in controversy." (Georgia v Brailsford, 3 Dall 1). + +The jury's power to nullify was no new discovery even then. It has been known +to exist virtually forever, and the pages of history shine with examples of +jurors ensuring the people's rights and liberties by overturning bad law, +although written in the law books. + +Yet it is as current as the Twentieth Century. + +***". . . the jury has the power to bring in a verdict in the teeth of both +law and facts," Oliver Wendell Holmes. (1920 Horning v DC, 254 US 135.) + +***The jury possesses "the undisputed power to acquit, even if its verdict is +contrary to the law as given by the judge and contrary to the evidence." (1969 +U.S. v Moylan, 417 F2d 1002.) + +***The jury has an "UNREVIEWABLE AND IRREVERSIBLE POWER...TO ACQUIT IN +DISREGARD OF THE INSTRUCTION ON THE LAW GIVEN BY THE TRIAL JUDGE." (1972 U.S. +v Dougherty, 473 F2d 1113.) + +Judges won't give out this information because if you knew you held more power +than they, they would be stripped of dictatorial authority. There is no drug +more habit forming than power, and the thirst for it is addictive, insatiable. +The same courts which acknowledge the fact of jury nullification hypocritically +advise concealing it from jurors. "If they're too stupid to know, keep them +that way" is official court policy. + +Four state constitutions specifically declare jury nullification to be a +NATURAL RIGHT OF BIRTH: Indiana, Maryland, Oregon and Georgia. And all 51 +(constitutions) contain a broader acceptance, over 40 stating with simple +clarity that: "ALL POLITICAL POWER IS INHERENT IN THE PEOPLE." + +"All political power" means precisely that: The people, acting together as +jurors, possess INHERENTLY ("endowed by their Creator") power to veto any +action of government they do not like. The Tenth Ammendment to the Federal +Constitution declares the same in different words: powers not delegated to +government "are reserved to...the people." Supporting statutes in most, if not +all, states clarify this as including jury power to nullify. Regardless, +lawyers and courts try to control and dominate jury verdicts by preparing false +"instructions" weeks before trial. + +You don't have to fear punishment for overriding; the judge knows he bluffs +when he "instructs" or demands you follow his dictates. He wants you ignorant. +But being educated is no crime. All he can rightfully do is tell you what the +written law is. By Constitutional mandate he MUST also inform you that you can +disregard any law in good conscience. + +IF YOU DOUBT THIS, ASK HIM. DEMAND THAT HE CITE THE SPECIFIC CONSTITUTIONAL +AUTHORITY EMPOWERING HIM TO "DICTATE" TO YOU. + +He may cite statutes, but these have NO CONSTITUTIONAL support; there- fore +they are not valid in law. + + YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS + +That's right! When judges and lawyers in the court room ply you with questions +you can simply say "I don't wish to answer for PRIVACY reasons." + +When you are called for jury duty--remember this: + +Every judge in the world KNOWS that both the Federal and your own state +CONSTITUTIONS IN THEIR ENTIRETY ABSOLUTELY PROHIBIT him from compelling you to +reveal anything about your private life, your thoughts, your job, what you +read, your personal associations, your family or anything else not just because +they protect you, but because privacy is AN INHERENT RIGHT endowed "BY OUR +CREATOR" as phrased in the Declaration of Independence. + +Judges assume you won't know this since there is no prohibition in ASKING--and +to ask in the forbidding atmosphere of the court room APPEARS to be a legal +demand. But it is not, and not to inform you that you don't have to respond is +to break faith with you. + +The court room inquisition of jurors is called "voir dire" and we are made to +think it is a legitimate attempt to form an "impartial jury." + +THAT IS A LIE! + +The ONLY purpose is to STACK THE JURY WITH BIAS--to build the DESIRED BIAS into +the jury so the jury can be controlled by the court. + +The Supreme Court has often commented upon this, possibly most strongly in +1941: "Tendencies, no matter how slight, toward the selection of jurors by any +method other than a process which will insure a trial by a representative group +are undermining...weakening the...jury...and should be strongly resisted." +(Glasser V U.S., 315 US 60) because fairness "necessarily contemplates an +impartial jury drawn from a cross section of the community (and) jurors shall +be selected . . . without systematic and intentional exclusion" of any +"stratum of society." (Thiel V So.Pac., 328 US 217, 1946). + +The function of "voir dire" is precisely to destroy the "impartial cross +section" which makes the questioning ILLEGAL from the start. + +Thus not only are you NOT REQUIRED to answer any questions you SHOULD NOT, +other than to identify who you are, that you are over 18, understand English, +are a citizen and resident of the area. Unless you have a personal reason for +offering additional information VOLUNTARILY you should say nothing. If the +judge presses, demand that he reads to you his CONSTITUTIONAL authority for +insisting you yield your INHERENT AND PRECIOUS RIGHT TO PRIVACY! (He won't do +it because there is none.) + +Reprinted from a brochure distributed by THE JUSTICE TIMES. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/justice.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/justice.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e23871e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/justice.txt @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ + In this Great and Glorious United States of America, the Land of the +Free, we have a different kind of justice... I call it... + + Fucked Justice + + written by Dissident of The Esoteric Society + + Consider, if you will, the following scenes... + I am a programmer. I am also bored. I seek new thrills, new challenges. +I want to do something noone else has done before. + I create. My creation? A virus. + Not just any virus, I write a mean virus. I have given it the ability to +learn. Not just learn from what I feed it, but to learn from what it sees me +do, to reason new situations out. + It is but an experiment. I was not serious about it, I have no desire to +release it upon the world. But one night, I leave it activated, and forget +about it. + I am angry. A sysop has taken the freedom of speech from his +users, as the country is doing to its citizens. I hack into the system. +I bring it down. My virus is watching. It sees what I do. It spreads +itself, and I do not even realize it. The sysop comes back up, learning +his lesson. My virus takes him down again. And again. It calls up all +systems that it can reach from that Sysop's phone, crashing all systems +that resemble his. It finds systems not like the one he saw me crash. It +does not have the morals I do, the reasons that I do. It knows only +that it saw me hack and crash. It must be the right thing to do. It +breaks into the unknown systems. It spreads itself. It crashes +systems. Of course I see what it does. But I admit creating the +monster to noone. I didn't tell it to do what it is doing. It grows +more powerful, smarter, faster. There is no system it cannot get in to. +And eventually, the inevitable happens... It is traced back to me. My +house is stormed as if I were the anti-Christ come to take over the +world. I am pushed, shoved, and kicked around. My system is rudely +unplugged and boxed up, I am led to jail, I am locked up. I know not +what my crime is. Eventually, I am told that the virus was traced back +to me. I admit it, but I tell them I did not release it, I did not +write it to do what it was doing. Do they believe that? No. I am taken +before a judge. The papers have blown everything out of proportion. I +suddenly am the anti-Christ. I suddenly am a Communist Agent, come to +take over America's computers... Never mind the fact that the virus did +not attack selectively, it hit the whole world. I am guilty before I +take the stand, I am guilty before being sworn in, my hand upon that +which tells us not to swear. Nothing I say or do convinces them that I +am not responsible. I am convicted, I am sent to prison, I am fined, +and I am scarred for eternity. It was MY creation, therefore *I* must be +punished for its mistakes. Is that justice? No. It is fucked justice. +Parents create a new human being in their lust-making. They bring an +unknowing child into a harsh, uncaring world. They treat it like a +baby, no matter what its age. They drink, do drugs, commit adultery, +molest the child, beat the child and each other, they steal, they lie, +they cheat. They promote war, and violence. They tell the kid that it +knows nothing because it is younger than they. They stunt its growth, +they clip its wings so that it cannot fly. But when their little bird +reaches 18, they kick it out of the nest. They have never taught it +responsibility..ethics..with no strength to fly, it crashes down into +the real world below. The child knows no other reality. How can it know +right from wrong when it has never been told or shown the difference? +It has only its parents' actions to go by...And the "Do as I say, Not as +I do"? Ha, we learn by example. The 'adult' knows no responsibility, +for it has never been given any before. It doesn't know how to handle +freedom, or even the lack of freedom that the responsibilities load onto +its back. It does the same things its parents did... Only this time, it +progresses beyond simple beatings... It kills. And it is caught. Whose +fault is it that the child grew up to be a murderer? The child's. It +should have known better. HOW? HOW can it know what to do and what NOT +to do if it is never allowed to make mistakes? EVERYTHING was done for +it, it was told what to THINK, what to SAY, how to ACT. WHAT is it +supposed to do when it gets on its own? Is it the child's fault? IS +IT? + + I can be convicted for creating a monster. Why is that my fault, +but if I was the child above, it would not be my parents' fault for +creating me? "Oh that is different! A Child should know better!" +HOW?!?!? + + In this society, being 18 automatically means you know what to do and +what not to do. You suddenly have ethics and morals. You suddenly are +responsible for your own actions. All these things, probably, for the first +time in your life. + + But are your parents held accountable? Not by the JUSTICE system of this +glorious country. If you write something that can devestate a world run by +computers, is the PROGRAM responsible for what it does? No. + + I, the parent of the world's worst virus, am accountable for its actions. +But you won't see MY parents on death row for me killing someone, now will you? + + Justice? Fucked Justice,whether you ask me or not. + +(c)1989 The Esoteric Society and Dissident + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/kal-007.art b/textfiles.com/politics/kal-007.art new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d97a4666 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/kal-007.art @@ -0,0 +1,673 @@ + +From: John Lepingwell + +I received a few expressions of interest in my KAL article, and I have +received approval from the copyright holders for posting it on the +sci.military newsgroup. I believe it is appropriate for this group, +for while it is not completely technical, it does try to untangle the +story as much as is possible. The second part, on the implications +for theories as to why KAL was in Soviet airspace, is more +controversial. While this may venture slightly out of sci.military's +bounds I hope it does not do so too much. + + [I'll go with it since its very thorough and well documented, + and it provides insight into Soviet air defense. --CDR] + + + NEW SOVIET REVELATIONS ABOUT THE KAL-007 SHOOTDOWN + + + + John W.R. Lepingwell + + Department of Political Science + University of Illinois at + Urbana-Champaign + 361 Lincoln Hall + 702 S. Wright St + Urbana, IL 61801 + + Copyright 1991 RFE/RL Inc. + +[AUTHOR'S NOTE AND DISCLAIMER: This is a preliminary draft of an +article published in "Report on the USSR" by the Radio Free +Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute. Any citations should be made +to the final, published work, which appeared in "Report on the USSR" +Vol. 3, Number 17 (April 26, 1991). This article is provided for the +information of Internet and Usenet users who may not have ready access +to "Report on the USSR." It is copyright 1991 by RFE/RL Inc, and this +posting is not to be considered a repudiation of copyright rights. + +"Report on the USSR" is a weekly publication of the RFE/RL Research +Institute that provides timely analysis of current affairs in the +Soviet Union. It is only available by subscription. For information +write to RFE/RL Inc, 1775 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. + +My disclaimer: I am an occasional contributer to "Report on the USSR" +and a frequent reader of it. I do not, however, work for Radio +Liberty or the U.S. Government. The opinions expressed in this +article are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the views +of RFE/RL Inc. or the U.S. government. + +N.B. This article was written in March 1991. There were no major +developments between March and late May 1991 (the date of posting) +that would lead me to reconsider the main arguments in the article. +Unfortunately, Gorbachev did not address the issue in any detail +during his trip to S. Korean in mid-April.] + + Despite the recent rollback in glasnost', the Soviet newspaper +Izvestiya has published a remarkable series of articles on the +shootdown of Korean Air Lines flight 007 in September 1983.1 The +revelations in the series shed light on one of the most critical +events in U.S.-Soviet relations of the past decade and resolve a +number of questions concerning the shootdown. In general, the new +Soviet reports tend to strengthen the argument that KAL-007 strayed +accidentally into Soviet airspace, while weakening the claims that it +was a deliberate intrusion. + +Background: Events and Interpretations + There is little disagreement about the basic facts of the KAL +tragedy. On September 1, 1983, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 deviated +from its planned flightpath from Anchorage to Seoul by hundreds of +miles, flying over the Kamchatka peninsula and then Sakhalin Island.2 +Soviet air defenses tracked KAL-007 over Kamchatka, finally intercepting +it over Sakhalin Island, where it was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 +interceptor just before exiting Soviet airspace. + Interpretations of the facts vary widely. The U.S. government +maintained that KAL-007 had inadvertently strayed from its flightpath, +that the Soviets had intercepted and identified the aircraft as a +civilian airliner, and destroyed it nonetheless. According to the U.S., +the aircraft was not on an intelligence mission, and was not coordinated +with other U.S. operations in the area that night.3 President Reagan +called the shootdown a "barbaric act" and imposed limited sanctions on +the Soviet Union.4 Several years later, however, the Reagan +administration quietly backed away from its initial assertion that the +Soviets had positively identified the aircraft as a civilian airliner, +and admitted that the Soviets might have believed it was a U.S. +reconnaissance aircraft.5 + The Soviet interpretation of the shootdown was very different. It +emerged slowly, over a few days, but eventually stabilized into a + + +detailed theory that laid the blame for the tragedy squarely on the +United States. Soviet officials charged that the airliner was part of a +deliberate "provocation" by the U.S. and South Korea, intended to force +the Soviets to reveal valuable information about their Far Eastern +defenses, and to provoke a new round in the cold war. According to this +view, KAL-007 deliberately left its assigned flightpath, and in +collaboration with a nearby U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft +proceeded to penetrate Soviet airspace. Responding to this intrusion, +the Soviet Air Defense Forces (Voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony--VPVO) +activated their entire radar and communications network, allowing the +U.S. to gain valuable intelligence.6 + A key component of the Soviet argument was that KAL-007 tried to +evade Soviet air defenses, both by changing its flightpath to avoid +surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, and by taking evasive action when a +Soviet interceptor tried to force the airliner to land. The standard +Soviet account claimed that the aircraft was flying "blacked out" +without its normal air navigation lights, that it was warned with tracer +fire from the Soviet interceptor, and that it was repeatedly hailed +(with no response) on the international emergency radio frequency. When +the aircraft allegedly ignored the warnings and took evasive action, the +Soviets decided to destroy it. According to the Soviet view, the KAL +incident was provoked by the U.S., and particularly the CIA, and the +U.S. should bear the responsibility for the deaths of the 269 people +on board. + Prompted by the apparent inconsistencies and unresolved questions +in official versions of the event, several authors have published +lengthy studies of the KAL-007 tragedy. Some of these studies have +expounded theories suggesting that the KAL flight was the result of a +conspiracy, rather than an accident or error.7 The evidence uncovered +by the Izvestiya investigation undermines a number of previous Soviet +assertions, and weakens the conspiracy theories. Among the revelations +are the following: + + 1) KAL-007's air navigation lights were on throughout the +interception. + + 2) The interceptor pilot did not fire tracer rounds to alert the +KAL airliner, because his aircraft was armed with only armor-piercing +rounds. + + 3) The Soviets did locate the wreckage of the airliner, and +mounted a campaign to keep U.S. forces away from the area. + + 4) The "black boxes" containing cockpit voice recordings and +flight data were found, and reportedly sent to Moscow for analysis. + + This information tends to confirm the argument that the KAL-007 +crew was unaware of the interception attempt. The implications of these +revelations for a more complete and accurate understanding of the KAL +tragedy are examined below. + +The Intercept and Shootdown + + + It is often forgotten that the KAL-007 incident was the tragic +culmination of a number of interceptions of unidentified aircraft in +Soviet airspace. In earlier interceptions the standard rules of +engagement were clear: intruders must be forced to land, or destroyed. +In some instances these rules led to attacks on civilian aircraft as +well as military aircraft that strayed into Soviet airspace.8 That this +policy was a reaction to U.S. U-2 overflights in the 1950s is likely, +but the fact that the policy remained in force until the late 1970s or +early 1980s signals a preoccupation with security and defense of Soviet +borders that seems far out of proportion to the threat posed by one +aircraft. + The background to the shootdown, then, is one of Soviet +determination to prevent any incursion into Soviet airspace, combined +with longstanding U.S. and NATO attempts to probe Soviet air defenses in +an attempt to gain intelligence information.9 + Most of the revelations come from an Izvestiya interview with +Gennadiy Nikolayevich Osipovich, the pilot of the Su-15 that shot down +KAL-007.10 Osipovich confirms Hersh's assertion that VPVO forces in the +Far East Military District were on high alert during the summer of 1983 +due to an April 1983 overflight of Zelenyy Island by U.S. aircraft.11 +After the intrusion, VPVO units were criticized for their laxity, +further increasing tension. But despite this criticism, and the +possibility of further air activity near the Kuriles, Soviet interceptor +pilots were not provided with sufficient fuel to allow them to conduct +air combat in the region, and return home. Their commanders were +reportedly concerned that a full fuel load would allow pilots to reach +Japan, raising the possibility of defection.12 Soviet pilots were +warned that after air combat, they would be directed to a land area over +which they could eject. This high alert level continued through the +summer, but by late August the tension had diminished. Nevertheless, +the pressure on the VPVO to react decisively against any intruder was +very great. + The restriction on aircraft range severely hampered Soviet +interceptor operations against the KAL-007 flight. The initial Soviet +interception of KAL-007 over the Kamchatka peninsula was broken off +because the interceptor did not have sufficient fuel to follow the +aircraft.13 But Soviet air defenses in the area were put on high alert +levels, and remained on alert as KAL-007 left Soviet airspace over +Kamchatka, and continued on a course for Sakhalin Island. + Lieutenant Colonel Osipovich was the most experienced pilot on +alert duty that night, and was ordered to his aircraft at 4:30 am local +time, although he did not take off until approximately 6:00 am.14 This +long time lag implies that Osipovich was alerted while KAL-007 was still +over Kamchatka.15 In his interview, Osipovich noted that he was +surprised to be alerted at that time of day, since RC-135 missions +usually occurred after 11:00 am. Osipovich was presumably referring to +the Rivet Joint RC-135 electronic intelligence missions, which were +normally, but not always, conducted during daytime.16 The timing of the +alert would therefore have been unusual, but not unprecedented. +Nevertheless, it might have raised some questions not only amongst the +pilots but the ground controllers and commanders as well. + Osipovich's account of what happened that morning differs +significantly from the Soviet reports of the time. Indeed, Osipovich +was shown the transcript made by the U.S. of Soviet air to ground +communications during the interception, and he confirmed their general +accuracy.17 Soviet transcripts were reportedly "doctored" to conform +with the official story, even though they were never released.18 In +interviews immediately after the shootdown, Osipovich was told what to +say, in order to bolster the Soviet case.19 In his interview with +Izvestiya, Osipovich confirms that when he sighted the aircraft its air +navigation lights were on, as alleged by the U.S. in its interpretation +of the transcript. At Osipovich's range from KAL-007, the aircraft only +appeared 2-3 centimeters across. In the dark this would have made +visual identification extremely difficult. + After making the intercept, KAL-007 and the interceptor entered a +region where there was no ground-based radar coverage.20 This blind +spot may have delayed the intercept, and perhaps forced the endgame to +proceed at a more rapid pace. + As KAL-007 crossed into Soviet airspace, and before any serious +attempt to identify it had been made, Osipovich was ordered to destroy +it. But before he could carry out the order, it was rescinded.21 +Instead, Osipovich was ordered to force the aircraft to land. Here, the +divergence from the old Soviet story are striking. According to +previous Soviet accounts, the Su-15 interceptor fired tracer rounds and +tried to contact KAL-007 on the international emergency frequency.22 As +Osipovich admits in his interview, he did neither. His aircraft was not +armed with tracer rounds, but only armor-piercing shells that could not +be observed. Nor did he try radio contact on the emergency frequency, +because there was no time to do so, and he would have had to break off +contact with his ground controller in order to tune to the emergency +frequency.23 + Osipovich maintains that the KAL-007 crew saw his "flashing" but it +is unclear from the interview whether Osipovich flashed his landing +lights or simply was referring to his standard strobe and navigation +lights. To see the Su-15's lights would have been difficult, since the +interceptor was apparently below the aircraft at the time.24 + Osipovich's reason for asserting that the KAL crew saw his +interceptor is that KAL-007 allegedly took evasive action, gaining +altitude and slowing as it did so. This is a weak argument. First, it +is unlikely that a 747 pilot would consider it possible to evade a +highly maneuverable interceptor. Second, if the KAL pilot was +attempting evasive action, his actions were quite mild. Osipovich makes +no suggestion that the pilot engaged in more extreme maneuvers, other +than a gradual climb of a few thousand feet. Presumably, a pilot +concerned that he was under attack would "jink" and change course and +altitude more dramatically. Third, the ascent to higher altitude +appears to have been a fuel economy maneuver, and the copilot calmly +reported the altitude change to Japanese air traffic control.25 In +retrospect, it appears that Osipovich may have been "rationalizing" the +aircraft's actions, reading intentionality into an action that may have +been completely unrelated to the attempts at interception. +Nevertheless, Osipovich became convinced, and remains convinced, that +the KAL crew was trying to escape him. + At no time during the interception did Osipovich identify the +aircraft as a civilian airliner. He apparently was never closer than 2 +kilometers to KAL-007, and claims not to have been familiar with the +silouhette of the 747. Osipovich recalls that only after firing two air +to air missiles did he begin to wonder what kind of aircraft it was, for +it seemed larger than an Ilyushin-76 (a large Soviet transport +aircraft), and roughly resembled a Soviet Tu-16 bomber. An indicator of +Osipovich's concern (if not confusion) is that his first question for +his commander upon returning to base was whether he had downed a Soviet +aircraft.26 + Osipovich confirms that the two missiles hit the aircraft on the +left wing and rear fuselage. KAL-007 immediately began to lose +altitude, and there seems to have been some confusion amongst the +decisionmakers on the ground as to what was happening. Soviet ground +controllers apparently ordered the MiG following Osipovich's aircraft to +try and track KAL-007 on the way down, but the MiG pilot was unable to +make visual contact.27 + The account of the interception thus matches that provided by the +U.S. in many ways. The interception was clearly hurried, with the +ground controllers uncertain as to what they were trying to intercept. +The attempts to contact the crew of KAL-007 were performed hastily, and +without much concern for their effectiveness. There is no evidence that +Osipovich identified the "target" as a civilian aircraft. Hersh +maintains that in 1983 the Soviets violated their own rules of +engagement, requiring a positive identification of the aircraft before +attack.28 Indeed, even had Osipovich identified the aircraft as +civilian it is not certain that the Soviet response would have been any +different. In 1978 a KAL airliner had been clearly identified as +civilian, yet the pilot was ordered to destroy the aircraft.29 +Similarly, in the aftermath of the Rust affair, the tone of the articles +implied that the VPVO's main error had been in not stopping the +intrusion.30 + +After the Shootdown: The Search for the Black Boxes + In the wake of the tragedy, both the U.S. and Soviet Union mounted +massive search operations in the Sea of Japan. The Izvestiya series +discusses Soviet efforts to find the wreckage in some detail. The +account states that the Soviet Navy did not have sufficient equipment +and trained personnel, and had to rely on a ship, divers, and diving +equipment assigned to the task by the Ministry of the Gas Industry.31 + Soviet forces did their best to hamper U.S. and Japanese efforts to +locate and retrieve the black boxes. According to the account, the +Soviet Navy placed a false black box with a "pinger" in a deep part of +the sea (620 meters), to divert the U.S. search effort. This may have +triggered a mistaken U.S. assertion that the black boxes had been +located, an assertion that was later dropped.32 + Soviet forces did finally locate the wreckage 11 miles off Moneron +Island at a depth of 160 meters, sometime in late September or early +October.33 A special drilling ship, able to stabilize its position +above the wreckage, was brought in to support the diving and retrieval +operations. For almost a month divers searched the area for parts of +the aircraft and the black boxes.34 + According to Izvestiya's interviews with the diving team, little +was left of the aircraft, which apparently broke up upon hitting the + + +water's surface. The largest pieces found were only about a meter in +size. The divers were also surprised to find few human remains, +discovering instead primarily clothes and personal effects. As the +articles speculate, the decomposition of the bodies apparently was very +rapid, leaving little for the divers to find.35 No evidence of +espionage equipment was found amongst the wreckage. + In addition to the diving team borrowed from the Ministry of the +Gas Industry, a submersible from the Academy of Sciences was brought to +the scene. It was this submersible that allegedly recovered one of the +two black boxes found by the Soviets.36 The black boxes were reportedly +sent to the mainland, and thence to Moscow for analysis.37 The +retrieval of the black boxes was a closely held secret and the results +of the analysis have never been revealed. + The reluctance of the Soviets to announce their retrieval of the +black boxes raises questions as to their contents. The black boxes +would contain cockpit voice recordings and other data that are +critically important to understanding the last moments of KAL-007 and +how it came to be over Sakhalin. + +Implications and Explanations + The case of KAL-007 has been debated in a highly charged +atmosphere. The string of errors and coincidences that might have led +the aircraft to its destruction appears incredible, and many authors +have therefore concluded that KAL-007's flight was not accidental. But +evidence for the KAL-007 flight being a planned intrusion into Soviet +airspace is dubious at best, and many of the arguments that it was +intentional are based on weak suppositions.38 + How do the new Soviet revelations affect the balance of evidence +between accident and premeditation? While there is little new material +on the origins of KAL-007, the account of the interception and the +recovery operation contradicts some portions of the conspiracy theories. +Both Pearson and Johnson find fault with U.S. reports of the +interception, reinterpreting the transcripts and arguing that the Soviet +pilot had indeed attempted to communicate with KAL-007 by the emergency +radio channel, firing tracers, and possibly blinking his lights. +Furthermore, they question the U.S. assertion that KAL-007's navigation +lights were on.39 According to the conspiracy theories, the failure of +the KAL-007 crew to respond to Soviet attempts to communicate strongly +supports the hypothesis that they were on a spy mission, and tried to +evade the Su-15.40 Indeed, they suggest that Soviet radars were being +jammed by U.S. electronic warfare assets, with Johnson explicitly +pointing to the "blind zone" that the Su-15 entered, and that this +jamming caused one of the two missiles launched (a radar-guided missile) +to miss KAL-007.41 + These assertions are falsified by the new Soviet information. KAL- +007's lights were on, the Su-15 fired cannon shells that could not have +been seen by the crew of KAL-007, and the pilot made no attempt to +contact the aircraft on the emergency radio frequency. There is no +evidence in the interview with Osipovich of jamming or interference with +the Soviet intercept operation. The "blind spot" in radar coverage was +apparently a previously existing weak link in the Soviet air defenses +about which the pilots had never been informed. Osipovich also confirms +that both missiles hit the aircraft, causing extensive damage. + + + The new account of the recovery operation also punctures some of +the assumptions of the conspiracy theorists. Early reports indicated +that the U.S. may have detected a black box "pinger" in mid-September, +but the reports soon disappeared. These reports have led to allegations +that the U.S. found the black boxes and covered up the retrieval +operation in order to suppress evidence implicating U.S. intelligence +services.42 The information that the wreckage and black boxes were +found in Soviet waters explains the failure of U.S. recovery efforts, +and the decoy black box planted by the Soviets apparently triggered the +mistaken U.S. claims. Furthermore, it is quite likely that U.S. +intelligence was aware of the arrival and positioning of the Soviet +drilling ship, and may have recognized that the Soviets had located the +wreckage and black boxes. This, in turn, may have led to the U.S. +decision to call off further searches in November 1983. + These new revelations, and confirmations of old data, seriously +weaken some of the conspiracy theory arguments, even if they do not +constitute a complete refutation.43 The key question, how KAL-007 went +off course, cannot be satisfactorily resolved without access to the +black box information that the Soviet Ministry of Defense may hold.44 + The evidence does clearly show that the Soviets were confused about +the intrusion, and that they reacted without making a positive +identification of the aircraft. But there is no indication that the +crew of KAL-007 was ever, or even could have been, aware of the Su-15 +interceptor, let alone that KAL-007 took evasive action. On balance the +evidence makes it seem far less likely that KAL-007 was serving any +intelligence agency. + +Current Soviet Defense Debates and KAL-007 + While the KAL-007 tragedy is now history, its reexamination is +taking place during a period of debate concerning the role and fate of +the Soviet air defense forces (the VPVO), and against a backdrop of +improving Soviet--South Korean relations. + Questions have already been raised in the Soviet press over the +need for maintaining a separate air defense service, and the Izvestiya +revelations do little to boost the image of the VPVO.45 Current +military reform plans call for 18-20 percent cuts in VPVO personnel +levels--the largest cut being planned for any of the military +services.46 The new information on VPVO performance in 1983 may +therefore play a role in the upcoming debate on military reform, perhaps +significantly weakening the VPVO's claim to remain a separate service. + The KAL-007 affair also has direct implications for the current +Commander in Chief of the VPVO, General Ivan Tret'yak, a relatively +conservative military officer. Tret'yak was commander of the Far East +military district in 1983, and almost certainly played a role in the +decision to shoot down KAL-007. His rise in the military, culminating +in his appointment to the VPVO after the Rust incident, indicates that +the KAL-007 affair did not harm his career. The new questions being +raised might therefore reflect badly not only on the VPVO, but also +directly on its Commander in Chief. + That the Izvestiya revelations were unwelcome news for the military +is also clear. The reports indicate a substantial disinformation +campaign on the part of the senior Soviet military leadership of the + + +time. This revelation may serve to further inflame tensions between +the media and the military. In fact, the General Staff attempted to +dissuade the reporters from publishing the series on KAL-007, and +refused access to documents concerning the case.47 + Finally, the series appears when Soviet--South Korean relations are +warming rapidly, with the possibility of a visit by President Gorbachev +to South Korea some time in the near future. A move +to release more information about KAL-007, and perhaps even to accept +blame and issue a formal apology, might play a significant role in +improving relations between the two countries. Indeed, during South +Korean President Roh's recent visit to the Soviet Union, Soviet Foreign +Minister Shevardnadze reportedly expressed his "regret" over the +shootdown. The South South Korean Foreign Minister reportedly accepted +the comment as an apology.48 + Given the sensitivity of the issue, and the ongoing debate over +the future of Soviet strategic air defenses, it is unlikely that the +last word on KAL-007 has been said.49 Izvestiya is also publishing a +series based on research in the U.S., and other publications may try +to get their own "scoops." In addition to the mystery of the black +boxes there remain a number of unanswered questions on the Soviet +side, particularly concerning the decisionmaking process within the +VPVO. Answering these questions may finally clear up the aura of +mystery surrounding the tragedy. + + + NOTES + + + 1 The ten part series is the result of investigative reporting + by Izvestiya correspondent Andrey Illesh, published under the + title "Tayna Koreyskogo "Boinga-747" in January 1991. Not all + of the original Russian language articles were available to the + author. Where possible, citations are to the Russian originals + published in the Izvestiya Moscow evening edition. Other + citations are based on the collected translation published in + the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report FBIS-SOV- + 91-025 (February 6, 1991), pp. 3-27. An update to the series, + based on new evidence, was published in FBIS-SOV-91-031-S, pp. + 1-4. A later series written by Izvestiya's New York + correspondent, investigating the U.S. side of the tragedy, is + not covered in this report. + 2 The most detailed, and plausible, account of the KAL-007 + tragedy is "The Target is Destroyed" What Really Happened to + Flight 007 and What America Knew About It (New York: Random + House, 1986) by Seymour M. Hersh, a well-known investigative + reporter. An earlier analysis that concentrates more on the + internal Soviet decisionmaking process and background is + Alexander Dallin, Black Box: KAL 007 and the Superpowers + (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985). + 3 For the official U.S. view see U.S. Information Agency, The + + + Shootdown of KAL 007: Moscow's Charges--and the Record + (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 1983), and + U.S. Department of State, KAL Flight #007: Compilation of + Statements and Documents (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of + State, 1983). + 4 Reagan's remarks on the shootdown are reported in Kal Flight + #007 p. 3. + 5 The intelligence assessment indicating that the Soviets had + not identified the aircraft wasn't released until January 1988, + after action by Congressman Lee H. Hamilton. See Young and + Launer, Flights of Fancy, p. 202. + 6 The development of the Soviet version of events is critically + examined in Young and Launer, Flights of Fancy, pp. 137-167. + 7 The best-known conspiracy theories are those of R.W. Johnson, + Shootdown: Flight 007 and the American Connection (New York: + Viking, 1986) and David Pearson, KAL 007: The Cover-Up (New + York: Summit, 1987). These conspiracy theories and the + propaganda wars surrounding the KAL shootdown are incisively + critiqued in Marilyn J. Young, Michael K. Launer, Flights of + Fancy, Flight of Doom: KAL 007 and Soviet-American Rhetoric + (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988). In adddition + to analyzing the rhetoric, the Young and Launer introduce some + new evidence and carefully dissect previously existing evidence. + 8 Of particular note is the 1978 Soviet interception and attack + on a KAL flight that strayed far off course and over the Kola + peninsula. After much effort the target was intercepted, and + despite clear identification of its civilian nature, was fired + upon. The pilot managed to land the crippled aircraft, and even + though the Soviets had the opportunity to inspect the aircraft, + no evidence of espionage equipment was ever reported. See + Hersh, The Target is Destroyed pp. 3-15. Other incidents are + described in James E. Oberg, Uncovering Soviet Disasters (New + York: Random House, 1988), pp. 32-49. There have also been + claims that Soviet civilian airliners have also been shot down + by Soviet air defenses in cases of mistaken identity. For a + Soviet account of an intercept and near attack on a Soviet + civilian transport aircraft see V. Lavrinenkov, Bez voyny (Kiev: + Politizdat, 1982) pp. 215-217. In the wake of the Rust flight, + the VPVO revealed more information on attacks on intruding + aircraft, see "Bditel'nost i reshitel'nost'--Chest' i doblest' + voyna PVO," Vestnik PVO No. 8, 1987, pp. 3-6. + 9 The Su-15 pilot reports that he flew more than 1000 + intercepts over a ten year period, see Izvestiya January 23, + 1991 p. 5. VPVO concerns over near incursions are reported in + A. Galunov, "V zone--strategicheskiy razvedchik," Krasnaya + zvezda September 10, 1988, p. 1; M. Lukyanin, A. Smolyanko, V. + Strel'tsov, A. Ladin, V. Khabarov, "Lyudi i nebo," Krasnaya + zvezda April 9, 1989, p. 1-2. For detailed information on U.S. + reconnaissance flights in the Far East see Hersh, The Target is + Destroyed pp. 35-43, 222-223. + 10 Marshal Ogarkov, Chief of the General Staff in 1983, ordered + Izvestiya to misidentify the pilot responsible for shooting down + KAL-007, and consequently most Western accounts refer to him as + + + Major Vassiliy Kasmin. See Johnson, Shootdown p. 20 for an + example. It does appear that a pilot by that name intercepted + the KAL aircraft over Kamchatka, however, see FBIS-SOV-91-025, + p. 6. + 11 Izvestiya Jan. 23, 1991, p. 5; Hersh, The Target is + Destroyed pp. 18-22. Zelenyy Island is part of the disputed + Kurile chain (or Japanese Northern Territories). Hersh notes + that it remains uncertain whether the overflight was intentional + or not. + 12 Soviet authorities were concerned over a possible repetition + of the incident in which Viktor Belenko, a Soviet pilot, + defected to Japan in his modern MiG-25 interceptor. Izvestiya + January 23, 1991, p. 5. + 13 FBIS-SOV-91-025, p. 6. + 14 Izvestiya January 23, 1991, p. 5. The local time on + Sakhalin is 9 hours different from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and + 3 hours different from Japanese Summer Time (i.e. 3:00 am in + Japan is the same as 6:00 am on Sakhalin). Hersh uses Japan + time, while other sources use GMT. For a convenient summary see + Dallin, Black Box p. 1. + 15 This contradicts some accounts of VPVO operations that night. + For example, Hersh, The Target is Destroyed p. 218, suggests + that the VPVO forces on Kamchatka may have kept information + concerning the overflight quiet, perhaps to prevent criticism + for not stopping it. + 16 Izvestiya January 23, p. 5. Rivet Joint missions were RC- + 135 missions flown over the Sea of Okhotsk and other areas in + order to monitor Soviet communications and air defense radars. + See Hersh, The Target is Destroyed pp. 8-11, 220. + 17 One difference between the transcript compiled by the U.S. + and that published in Izvestiya is significant. In the U.S. + transcript, Osipovich is reported as commenting at 1819:08 + (6:19:08 local time) after the initial intercept that "They + [KAL-007] do not see me." Dallin Black Box p. 24. The Izvestiya + report (January 23, 1991, p. 5) gives this as "vremya ne vyydet" + or "time is short." No explanation is given for this change, or + mistranslation, from the English. This statement comes before + Osipovich made his attempt to signal the aircraft, so it would + be wrong to construe it as indicating that Osipovich believed he + wasn't observed at any time during the intercept. The + transcript is reproduced in Dallin, Black Box pp. 22-25. + 18 Izvestiya January 23, 1991, p. 5. + 19 Izvestiya January 24, 1991, p. 7. + 20 This seems to be the period from 1815 GMT to perhaps 1820. + Dallin, Black Box pp. 23-24. + 21 This seems to be around 1820 GMT, judging from the + transcript. Dallin, Black Box p. 24. This account seems to + confirm that given in Hersh, The Target is Destroyed p. 233. + 22 See the summary in Young and Launer, Flights of Fancy pp. + 152-164. + 23 Izvestiya January 24, 1991, p. 7. + 24 On Osipovich's claim see Izvestiya January 24, 1991, p. 7. + It is possible that the crew might have been preoccupied with + + + work inside the cockpit. On the difficulty involved in getting + a pilot's attention, even with tracers, see Hersh, The Target is + Destroyed p. 233-234. Hersh also notes that the pilot (or co- + pilot) may well have been absent from the cockpit at the time + the Su-15 tried to signal the aircraft. See Ibid, pp. 205-208. + 25 See Hersh, The Target is Destroyed p. 234. + 26 Izvestiya January 24, 1991, p. 7. Osipovich's claim that + Soviet pilots were not familiar with foreign civilian aircraft + is amazing. The Boeing 747 is a distinctive design, and had + been prominent in the aviation industry for over a decade. That + Soviet pilots were ignorant of the Boeing 747 indicates very + tight constraints on their training. The comparison to a Tu-16 + bomber is also puzzling, for the Tu-16 is much smaller than + either an Ilyushin 76 or a Boeing 747, and has quite a different + configuration. Clearly, there was some confusion as to what + kind of aircraft was being intercepted. Dallin, Black Box pp. + 62-63, notes the difficulty in distinguishing between aircraft + in the darkness at that range. + 27 Izvestiya January 24, 1991, p. 7. After the missiles hit + the air navigation lights went out, presumably because of a + power failure. This confirms Hersh, The Target is Destroyed p. + 235. + 28 Hersh, The Target is Destroyed p. 232. + 29 Hersh, The Target is Destroyed pp. 12-14. + 30 Other articles have hinted at VPVO authority to open fire + with surface-to-air missiles without any attempt to intercept + intruders first. A. Galunov, "V zone--strategicheskiy + razvedchik," Krasnaya zvezda September 10, 1988, p. 1. + 31 Izvestiya January 25, 1991, p. 6. + 32 FBIS-SOV-91-025, p. 26. The initial Izvestiya account was + later confirmed by a naval officer in a follow-up article. see + FBIS-SOV-91-031-S (February 14, 1991) p. 3-4. + 33 Izvestiya January 25,p. 6; FBIS-SOV-91-025, p. 15, 18. + 34 FBIS-SOV-91-025, p. 19. + 35 Izvestiya January 29, 1991, p. 8; January 30, 1991, p. 5. + 36 Izvestiya January 30, 1991, p. 5. The Izvestiya series + claims that 3 black boxes were found, even though only 2 were on + board the aircraft. See Izvestiya January 31, 1991, p. 7. + 37 Izvestiya January 30, p. 5. + 38 Peason's book is examined and critiqued in Young and Launer, + Flights of Fancy, while Johnson's Shootdown is reviewed in + Marilyn J. Young and Michael K. Launer, "007--Conspiracy or + Accident?" Commonweal pp. September 12 1986, pp. 472-473. One + example of a clear error by Johnson is his assertion that the + fuselage of KAL-007 could not have been hit by a Soviet air to + air missile because it would have caused a large hole and "all + the passengers and crew would have been irresistably sucked out + and flung into the freezing blackness." (pp. 27-28) There have + been recent cases of substantial damage to fuselages resulting + in rapid decompression, without having "all" the passengers and + crew sucked out. Furthermore, this groundless assertion is + belied by Osipovich's account. + 39 Pearson's attempts at reinterpreting the transcript of the + + + shootdown are demolished in Young and Launer, Flights of Fancy, + pp. 83-96. + 40 See Johnson, Shootdown pp. 19-28; David Pearson "K.A.L. 007 + What the U.S. Knew And When We Knew It," The Nation August 18- + 25, 1984, pp. 118-119. + 41 Johnson, Shootdown p. 21, 27-28. + 42 See, for example, Johnson, Shootdown pp. 200-207. + 43 Refuting such an argument is extremely difficult, for new + layers of conspiracy may always be added. Furthermore, it is + easier to raise doubts about the facts than to answer them. + + 44 Hersh, in The Target is Destroyed gives perhaps the most + convincing scenario for accidental deviation from the + flightpath. + 45 This debate was triggered by Aleksey Arbatov, "Skol'ko + oborony dostatochno?" Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn' No. 3, 1989, pp. + 41-43. The initial VPVO response is Yu. Lyubimov, "O + dostatochnosti oborony i nedostatke kompetentnosti," Kommunist + vooruzhenykh sil No. 16, 1990, pp. 21-26. + 46 "Kontseptsiya voyennoy reformy," Pravitel'stvenniy Vestnik + p. 7. + 47 Izvestiya January 31, 1990, p. 7. + 48 Far Eastern Economic Review December 27, 1990, p. 6. + Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Rogachev repeated this comment + during a visit to South Korea in January. See Report on the + USSR January 18, 1991, p. 34. For a review of improving + Soviet--South Korean relations see The Economist December 22, + 1990, pp. 39-41. + 49 As this article was being prepared for publication +the Air Defense Forces replied to the Izvestiya series with four +articles covering the KAL 1978 incident, KAL-007, and the Rust affair, +along with some lesser known intrusions into Soviet airspace. These +cases are compared to the destruction of an Iranian airbus by the +U.S.S. Vincennes. (See A. Dokuchayev, "O 'Boingakh', 'Tsessne', i +drugikh," Krasnaya zvezda March 13, 1991, p. 2; March 14, 1991, p. 2; +March 15, 1991, p. 2; March 20, 1991, p. .), The series sheds little +new light on the KAL- 007 incident, although it emphasizes that U.S. +air activity in the Far East in 1983 was "terrorizing" the Air Defense +Forces and raising tensions. The series plays up the Air Defense +Force's professionalism and expertise in the very difficult task of +intercepting and identifying intruding aircraft. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/kerrey.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/kerrey.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7d1e6f5f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/kerrey.txt @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ + SENATOR BOB KERREY OF NEBRASKA + WITHDRAWAL FROM PRESIDENTIAL RACE + Thursday, March 5, 1992 + + Well, first of all, [spectator comment] You talking to me now? +Well, first of all I must confess I feel a little badly about the race, +coming to an end, but I don't feel nearly as badly as I do for Dave Kotok +out there, with the Omaha World Herald, he's got to go back to Omaha and +cover a county commissioner's race now. But at least he gets to go back +home. + After New Hampshire I was delighted, or at least I appeared delighted, +to say that I had won a bronze. Then went on to South Dakota and was happy +to be able to say that I won a gold. But after Tuesday I feel a little like +the Jamaican bobsled team. We had a lot of spirit, but unfortunately we +didn't get a lot of medals. About the only good news for me came on Tuesday +in the state of Colorado. I'd like to have done better in Colorado, but +when you're a Cornhusker from Nebraska, any time you get twelve points on +the road in the state of Colorado, you've done pretty well. + At the end of the campaign we were ready to go full throttle, but +unfortunately we ran out of gas. While we have plenty of potential, plenty +of enthusiasm, unfortunately we do not have plenty of money. So it is with +regret, but with great pride for all that we have done together, that I am +here this morning to end my candidacy for President of the United States +of America. + But make no mistake, this is no retreat, Bruce Springsteen's words, +this is no retreat and this is no surrender. For me the fight simply is +going to move on to a new arena. + I thought last night for a moment that I might go on in the race +simply by changing my name to Bob "Uncommitted". Then I thought better of it. +I want to first of all congratulate all the other candidates, the four +remaining Democratic candidates who did win. And I want to wish them well. +I know there's a long road ahead, and there's a lot of work for all of them, +and I might have exercised some political hyperbole on a number of +occasions, and called them unelectable, but with each passing day it is +clear to me that the only unelectable politician running for President of +the United States is George Bush. + As to my own campaign, while my candidacy for President of the United +States is over, the cause of the campaign, the urgent need for fundamental +change, is not over. I will continue to struggle to describe the course +I believe America should set in the uncharted waters of the post cold-war +era. And I will continue to fight to make the changes needed to move in +this new direction. + Paraphrasing the late Lou Gehrig, `As you may have heard I've got some +bad breaks, most of the self-inflicted, but today I consider myself the +luckiest man on the face of the Earth.' + I lucky for having a state like Nebraska, that would give me its +faith and encouragement. I lucky for the opportunity I've had these past +five months to lay out my views before the wisdom of the American people. +And I'm lucky for the thousands who have supported me with their confidence, +idealism, money, time and effort. + I want to especially as well thank my colleagues who stood in with me +through thick and unfortunately, mostly thin. Stayed with me from beginning +to end, I'm very grateful for their support, their friendship. I wish I +could say that I'm enthusiastically looking forward to getting back to Strom +Thurmond's filibuster, but I will do the best I can. + I'm also very grateful and indeed very moved by the support and +friendship, the love in fact, given to me by my fellow comrades in arms from +the Vietnam era. I hope, that as much as the war was slightly opened during +this campaign, that America understands that Vietnam is no longer the issue. +The issue instead is the eagerness and the sense of purpose with which Vietnam +veterans return to political life. I take as a sign of hope that my campaign +has awakened in thousands of Vietnam veterans the realization that their +government is no longer an enemy. That government can be an instrument of +power which can, after all, be used wisely, if only one gets involved in +defining the mission. + The point must be made this morning that too many Americans feel like +their government cannot be used wisely for anything. Two Americans in three +are afraid they may lose their jobs in the coming year. Perhaps the strongest +message of this campaign is that job security in Washington DC must be +reduced if we ever hope to reverse the uncertainty everywhere else in this +country. Americans are full of doubt about the future, anger about the +present, and longing for the past. + The buzzword for the 1990's, `down-sizing', has ripped through American +confidence like a chainsaw. For forty five years, two generations, this +nation knew where we were going. We were containing Soviet Communism abroad +while we were building increased prosperity here at home. Suddenly, Soviet +Communism has vanished, and prosperity, long assumed to be ever growing, +and ever-satisfying, is now seen to be leaving. + America's leaders need to wake up. As leaders, we need to awaken to +the new world and the new possibilities in it. In the old era, we contained +a clear enemy. Now we must contain the more elusive enemy. Of hatred, +violence, bitterness, selfishness, intolerance, and ignorance. We must +control as well and fight as well the desire to punish, discourage, subdue, +or terrorize the human spirit. + As this moment between the world of the known past and the unknown +future, we are called upon as Americans and we have a duty to answer this +question: What is going on in our country, anyway? + Here's how I see it: We need a massive economic conversion from an +economy that produces weapons the world fears to an economy that produces +goods and services that the world wants to purchase. + We need to begin with fundamental change in the way we finance health +care. Soon, within two years in fact, we will be spending a trillion dollars +a year in America for health care, financing a system that does not provide +continuous health care for our children, and continues to place a penalty on +job mobility and re-training. + We need fundamental change in the way we treat our children. America is +no longer the land built on the dreams and values of our parents. In city +streets, teenagers no longer play stick ball or kick-the-can on hot summer +nights. Instead, they prowl in war-like gangs with cheap handguns and semi- +automatic weapons. Our 350 billion dollar annual investment in the ordeal +known as primary and secondary education resembles an assembly line in +reverse. The finished product is not inquisitive, excited children, but +instead is disassembled parts; dull, lost and frightened teenagers. + We need to shake our federal government to its core. Not timid change; +not change at the margins; but radical change; to restore a sense of purpose +and mission to our experiment in self-government. We need fundamental change +in America. Fundamental change in our foreign policy, to build a new world +economy and move one step closer to the elusive goal of world peace. + Fundamental change in our domestic policy to restore America's health. +Fundamental change in our values to give hope to our children; they were the +reason for my running for President. And they will always be my compass to +guide me in the fight ahead. + This is the end of a single presidential campaign -- unfortunately, +my own. But it is not a surrender or a retreat. + As I look back on my campaign, difficult though that might be to do, +I feel neither regret nor disappointment. I am proud of the effort and +more committed than ever to carrying on the fight. + The President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, recently observed that +the end of Soviet Communism was as much a victory of the human spirit over +the tyranny of government as it was a military victory. Just as they were +inspired by our example, we should be inspired by theirs. + Our government also stands between us and a new world of freedom, +exploration and progress. It is time for Americans to rise up with a full +spirit of our indominatable nature to seize this moment and build the +nation and world of our dreams. + Thank you all very much. + + + + +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/kidslie.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/kidslie.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..eaf8c6c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/kidslie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +CHICAGO - When 11 fourth-graders accused their substitute teacher +of molesting them, authorities were ready to believe them. Even +the teacher agreed that children so young rarely lie about such +things. + +This time, they did lie - prodded, police say, by a classmate who +had offered them $1 apiece to accuse the teacher falsely. + +"What's so scary - and so sad - is that you've got 9-year-old +kids sophisticated enough to know they can get a teacher by +saying he fondled them," Chicago Teachers Union spokeswoman +Jackie Gallagher said. + +"You just don't want to think that our little kids who you're +still reading nursery rhymes to are figuring they're going to +stick it to their teacher." + +Albert Thompson told police his class at Fuller Elementary School +on Chicago's South Side became unruly during his May 9 +assignment. He said some children ran out of the classroom, and +he had to stand by the door to keep others inside. + +When Thompson threatened to report their misbehavior, a +9-year-old girl offered to pay 10 classmates - nine girls and a +boy - $1 each if they joined her in claiming that Thompson +fondled them, police said. + +Thompson, 43, never was charged. Police cleared him after some of +the children made inconsistent statements and one admitted they +had made up the story to get him in trouble. The 9-year-old also +recanted, police said. + +But he hasn't gotten another teaching assignment. + +"We're in a society where you're guilty until proven innocent," +Thompson said Tuesday. Political correctness and children's +rights "overrode my rights," he said. + +At the same time, even Thompson said the case was unusual. "For +every case like mine, there are nine cases" where a child really +was abused, he said. + +"This is really the exception," said Bette L. Bottoms, an +assistant psychology professor at the University of Illinois at +Chicago who has researched the use of child witnesses in sexual +abuse cases. "Let's not use this as an example to discredit +children in general." + +Lt. Robert Hargesheimer said the children probably had not +thought through their actions and how the allegations "could +damage this guy personally and professionally." + +The district still must review the police report before giving +Thompson more teaching assignments, said schools spokesman Dawne +Simmons. + +School officials are also trying to decide how to punish the +youngsters. + +"What these kids have done is as evil in many ways as the kid who +poisoned a teacher's coffee cup or as the kid who points a knife +at the teacher," Gallagher said. + +But she added that she thinks the children will benefit more from +counseling than severe punishment. + +Erin Sorenson, executive director of the Children's Advocacy +Center of Northwest Cook County in suburban Hoffman Estates, said +the children need to be made aware that their actions have +consequences. + +She suggested community service, letters of apology to Thompson +or deductions from the children's allowances to show that police +investigations cost money. + +Thompson said he hopes to turn his ordeal into something positive +by becoming an advocate for abused and molested children. + +He wasn't sure if he wanted to return to substitute teaching. He +said he thought he'd be better off teaching Bible studies at his +church. + +And he said, "I think that I need a vacation." diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/king.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/king.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..da96c3f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/king.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1593 @@ + + + + + + + + + My dear Fellow Clergymen, + + While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came + + across your recent statement calling our present activities + + "unwise and untimely." Seldom, if every, do I pause to answer + + criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the + + criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in + + little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time + + for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of + + genuine goodwill and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I + + would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be + + patient and reasonable terms. + + I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham + + since you have been influenced by the argument of "outsiders com- + + ing in." I have the honor of serving as president of the + + Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operat- + + ing in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Geor- + + gia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across + + the South -- one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human + + Rights. Whenever necessary and possible we share staff, educa- + + tional and financial resources with our affiliates. Several + + months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to + + be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if + + such were deemed necessary. We readily consented and when the + + + 1 + + + + + + + hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with + + several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am + + here because I have basic organizational ties here. + + Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. + + Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages + + and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries + + of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little + + village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to prac- + + tically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am + + compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular + + home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the + + Macedonian call for aid. + + Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all com- + + munities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be + + concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere + + is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an ines- + + capable network of mutuality, tied in a single gourmet of des- + + tiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. + + Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial + + "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United + + States can never be considered an outsider anywhere int his + + country. + + You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking + + place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not + + + 2 + + + + + + + express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the + + demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want + + to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at + + effects, and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would + + not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called + + demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I + + would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate + + that the white power structure of this city left the Negro com- + + munity with no other alternative. + + In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) + + Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are + + alive. 2) Negotiations. 3) Self-purification and 4) Direct Ac- + + tion. WE have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. + + There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice en- + + gulfs this community. + + Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city + + in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is + + known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of + + Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been + + more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham + + than any city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal and un- + + believable facts. On the basis of these conditions Negro leaders + + sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political + + leaders consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation. + + + 3 + + + + + + + Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some + + of the leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating + + sessions certain promises were made by the merchants--such as the + + promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores. + + On the basis of these promises Rev. Shuttlesworth and the leaders + + of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call + + a moratorium on any type of demonstrations. As the weeks and + + months unfolded we realized that we were the victims of a broken + + promise. The signs remained. Like so many experiences of the + + past we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow + + of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So we had no alterna- + + tive except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would + + present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the + + conscience of the local and national community. We were not un- + + mindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go + + through a process of self-purification. We started having + + workshops on non-violence and repeatedly asked ourselves the + + questions, "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" + + "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?" We decided to set + + our direct action program around the Easter season, realizing + + that with the exception of Christmas, this was the largest shop- + + ping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic + + withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we + + felt that this was the best time to bring pressure on the mer- + + + 4 + + + + + + + chants for the needed changes. Then it occurred to us that the + + March election was ahead and so we speedily decided to postpone + + action until after election day. When we discovered that Mr. + + Connor was in the run-off, we decided again to postpone action so + + that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. + + At this time we agreed to being our nonviolent witness the day + + after run-off. + + This reveals that we did not more irresponsibly into direct + + action. We too wanted to see Mr. Connor defeated; so we went + + through postponement after postponement to aid in this community + + need. After this we felt that direct action would be delayed no + + longer. + + You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, + + etc.? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in + + your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct + + action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis + + and establish such creative tension that a community that has + + constantly refused to negotiated is forced to confront the issue. + + It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ig- + + nored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of + + the work of the nonviolent resister. This may sound rather + + shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word + + tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent + + tension, but there is a type of construction nonviolent tension + + + 5 + + + + + + + that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was + + necessary to create a tension in the mind so individuals could + + rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered + + realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see + + the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of ten- + + sion in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths + + of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding + + and brotherhood. So the purpose of the direct action is to + + create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open + + the door to negotiation. We, therefore, concur with you in your + + call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been + + bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather + + than dialogue. + + One of the basic points in your statement is that our acts + + are untimely. Some have asked, "Why didn't you give the new ad- + + ministration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to + + this inquiry is that the new administration must be prodded about + + as much as the outgoing one before it acts. We will be sadly + + mistaken if we feel that the election of Mr. Boutwell will bring + + the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is more more + + articulate and gentle than Mr. Connor, they are both + + segregationists, dedicated to the task of maintaining the status + + quo. The hope I see in Mr. Boutwell is that he will be + + reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to + + + 6 + + + + + + + desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from + + the devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that + + we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined + + legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic + + story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their + + privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and + + voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr + + has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals. + + We know through painful experience that freedom is never + + voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the + + oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct action + + movement that was "well timed", according to the timetable of + + those who have not suffered unduly from he disease of segrega- + + tion. For years now I have heard the words "Wait!" It rings in + + the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "Wait" + + has almost always meant "Never." It has been a tranquilizing + + thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to + + give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come + + to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice + + too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more + + than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and + + God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with + + jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we + + still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup + + + 7 + + + + + + + of coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who + + have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." + + but when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and + + fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when + + you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and + + even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you + + see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers + + smothering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an af- + + fluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and + + your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year- + + old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that + + has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up + + in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to + + colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority + + begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to dis- + + tort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitter- + + ness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for + + a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: "Daddy, why do + + white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a + + cross country drive and find in necessary to sleep night after + + night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no + + motel will accept; when you are humiliated day in and day out by + + nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name + + becomes "nigger" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old + + + 8 + + + + + + + you are) and your last name becomes "John", and when you wife and + + mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."l; when you are + + harried by day and haunted at night by the fact that you are + + Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing + + what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer + + resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense + + of "nobodiness"; then you will understand why we find it dif- + + ficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance + + runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an + + abyss of injustice where they experience the blackness of corrod- + + ing despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and + + unavoidable impatience. + + You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to + + break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so + + diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of + + 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather + + strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. + + One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and + + obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are + + two types of laws; There are just and unjust laws. I would + + agree with Saint Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all." + + Now what is the difference between the two? How does one + + determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made + + code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An un- + + + 9 + + + + + + + just law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To + + put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a + + human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law + + that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades + + human personality is unjust. All segregation statues are unjust + + because segregation distorts the soul and damages the per- + + sonality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, + + and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the + + words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation + + substitutes an "I-it" relationship for the "I-thou" relationship, + + and ends up relating persons to the status of things. So + + segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologi- + + cally unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich + + has said that sin is separation. Isn't segregation an exist- + + ential expression of man's tragic separation, an expression of + + his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? So I can urge + + men to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally + + wrong. + + Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust + + laws. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a + + minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made + + legal. On the other hand a just law is a code that a majority + + compels a minority to follow that is willing to follow itself. + + this is sameness made legal. + + + 10 + + + + + + + Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code + + inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in + + enacting or creating because they did not have the unhampered + + right to vote. who can say that the legislature of Alabama which + + set up the segregation laws was democratically elected? + + Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods + + are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered votes and + + there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote + + despite the fact that the Negro constitutes a majority of the + + population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered + + democratically structured? + + These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. + + There are some instances when a law is just on its fact and un- + + just in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on + + a charge of parading without a permit. Now there is nothing + + wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but + + when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny + + citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and + + peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust. + + I hope you can see the distinction I am trying to point out. + + In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law as the rabid + + segregationist would do. This would lead to anarchy. One who + + breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly, (not hatefully + + as the white mothers did in New Orleans when they were seen on + + + 11 + + + + + + + television screaming "nigger, nigger, nigger"), and with a will- + + ingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who + + breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly + + accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience + + of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the + + very highest respect for law. + + of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil + + disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shardrach, + + Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a + + higher moral law was involved. It is practiced superbly by the + + early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the + + excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to cer- + + tain unjust laws of the Roman empire. To a degree academic + + freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil dis- + + obedience. + + We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany + + was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in + + Hungary was "illegal". It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew + + in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany + + during that time I would have aided and comforted my Jewish + + brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist + + country today where certain principles dear to the Christian + + faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobey- + + ing these anti-religious laws. I must make two honest confes- + + + 12 + + + + + + + sions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. first, I must + + confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disap- + + pointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the + + regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in + + the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er + + or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more + + devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peach + + which is the absence of tension to a positive peach which is the + + presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in + + the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct + + action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the + + timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of + + time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more + + convenient season". Shallow understanding from people of good- + + will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from + + people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewilder- + + ing than outright rejection. + + I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that + + law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and + + that when they fail to do this they become dangerously structured + + dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hopes that + + the white moderate would understand that the present tension of + + the South is merely a necessary phase of the transition from an + + obnoxious negative peace, where the Negro passively accepted his + + + 13 + + + + + + + unjust plight, to a substance-filled positive peace, where all + + men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Ac- + + tually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the + + creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden + + tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open where + + it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be + + cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its + + pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, + + injustice must likewise be exposed, with all of the tension its + + exposing creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of + + national opinion before it can be cured. + + In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though + + peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. + + But can this assertion be logically made? Isn't this like con- + + demning the robbed man because his possession of money + + precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning + + Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his + + philosophical delvings precipitated the misguided popular mind to + + make him drink the hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus be- + + cause hIs unique God-Consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to + + His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come + + to see, as federal courts have consistently affirmed, that it is + + immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his + + basic constitutional rights because the quest precipitates + + + 14 + + + + + + + violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. + + I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the + + myth of time. I received a letter this morning from a white + + brother in Texas which said: "All Christians know that the + + colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is + + possible that you are in too great of a religious hurry. It has + + taken Christianity almost 2000 years to accomplish what it has. + + The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." All that is + + said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the + + strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very + + flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually time + + is neutral. It can be used either destructively or construc- + + tively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have + + used time more more effectively than the people of goodwill. We + + will have to repent in this generation not merely for the + + vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the ap- + + palling silence of the good people. We must come to see that + + human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It + + comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men + + willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work + + time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. + + We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is + + always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the + + promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy + + + 15 + + + + + + + into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift + + our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the + + solid rock of human dignity. + + You spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At + + first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see + + my nonviolent efforts as those of the extremist. I started + + thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two oppos- + + ing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency + + made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, + + have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of + + "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation, and, of a + + few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of + + academic and economic security, and because at points they profit + + by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the + + problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and + + hatred, and comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is + + expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are spring + + up over the nation, the larger and best known being Elijah + + Muhammad's Muslim movement. This movement is nourished by the + + contemporary frustration over the continued existence of racial + + discrimination. It is made up of people who have lost faith in + + America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who + + have concluded that the white man is an incurable "devil". I + + have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need + + + 16 + + + + + + + not follow the "do-nothingism" of the complacent or the hatred + + and despair of the black nationalist. There is the more excel- + + lent way of love and non-violent protest. I'm grateful to God + + that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence en- + + tered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am + + convinced that by now many streets of the south would be flowing + + the floods of blood. And I am further convinced that if our + + white brothers dismiss as "rabble rousers" and "outside + + agitators" those of us who are working through the channels of + + nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes, out of frustration and + + despair, will seek solace and security in black nationalist + + ideologies, a development that he will lead inevitably to a + + frightening racial nightmare. + + Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge + + for freedom will eventually come. It is what happened to the + + American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his + + birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he + + can gain it. Consciously and unconsciously, he has been swept in + + by what the Germans call the Zeitgeist, and with his black + + brothers of Africa, and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, + + South America and the Caribbean, he is moving with a sense of + + cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. + + Recognizing this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro com- + + munity, one should readily understand public demonstrations. The + + + 17 + + + + + + + Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He + + has to get them out. So let him march sometime; let him have his + + prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; understand why he must have + + sit-ins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come + + out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous ex- + + pressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of + + history. So I have not said to my people "get rid of your + + discontent". But I have tried to say that this normal and heal- + + thy discontent can be channelized through the creative outlet of + + nonviolent direct action. Now this approach is being dismissed + + as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in + + being so categorized. + + But as I continued to think about the matter I gradually + + gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. + + Was not Jesus an extremist in love - "Love your enemies, bless + + them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." + + Was not Amos an extremist for justice -- "Let justice roll down + + like waters and righteousness like a might stream." Was not Paul + + an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ -- "bear in my body + + the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist + + -- "Here I stand; I can do none other so help me God." Was not + + John Bunyan an extremist -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my + + days before I make a butchery of my conscience." Was not Abraham + + Lincoln an extremist -- "This nation cannot survive half slave + + + 18 + + + + + + + and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist -[- "We + + hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created + + equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist but + + what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for + + hate or will be be extremists for love? Will be be extremists + + for the preservation of injustice -- or will we be extremists for + + the cause of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill, + + three men were crucified. We must not forget that all three + + were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. Two + + were extremists for immorality, and thusly fell below their en- + + vironment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, + + truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. So, + + after all, maybe the South, the nation and the world are in dire + + need of creative extremists. + + I had hoped that the white moderate would see this. Maybe I + + was too optimistic. Maybe I expected too much. I guess I should + + have realized that few members of a race that has oppressed + + another race can understand or appreciate the deep groans and + + passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed and still + + fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by + + strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, + + however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning + + of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They + + are still all too small in quantity, but they are big in quality. + + + 19 + + + + + + + Some like Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden and James + + Dabbs have written about our struggle in eloquent, prophetic and + + understanding terms. Others have marched with us down nameless + + streets of the South. They have languished in filthy roach- + + infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of angry + + policemen who see them as "dirty nigger lovers." They, unlike so + + many of their moderate brothers and sisters, have recognized the + + urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" + + antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. + + Let me rush on to mention my other disappointment. I have + + been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its + + leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am + + not the unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some + + significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Rev. Stallings, + + for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming + + Negroes to your worship service on a non-segregated basis. I + + commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Sprin- + + ghill College several years ago. + + But despite these notable exceptions I must honestly + + reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do + + not say that as one of the negative critics who can always find + + something wrong with the church; I say it as a minister of the + + gospel, who loves the church; who has nurtured in its bosom; who + + has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain + + + 20 + + + + + + + true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen. + + I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted + + into the leadership off the bus protest in Montgomery several + + years ago that we would have the support of the white church. I + + felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South + + would be some of our strongest allies. Instead, some have been + + outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement + + and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been + + more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the + + anesthetizing security of the stained-glass windows. + + In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Bir- + + mingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of + + this community would see the justice of our cause, and with deep + + moral concern, serve as the channel through which our just + + grievances would get to the power structure. I had hoped that + + each of you would understand. But again I have been disap- + + pointed. I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South + + call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation deci- + + sion because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white min- + + isters say, "Follow this decree because integration is morally + + right and the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant + + injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white + + churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious ir- + + relevances and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a + + + 21 + + + + + + + mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injus- + + tice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social + + issues with which the gospel has no real concern," and I have + + watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely other- + + worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body + + and soul, the sacred and the secular. + + So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth cen- + + tury with a religious community largely adjusted to the status + + quo, standing as a tail-light behind other community agencies + + rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice. + + I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Missis- + + sippi and all the other southern states. On weltering summer + + days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at her beautiful + + churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have be- + + held the impressive outlay of her massive religious education + + buildings. Over and over again I have found myself asking: + + "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were + + their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words + + of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Gover- + + nor Wallace gave the clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where + + were their voices of support when tired, bruised and weary Negro + + men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of com- + + placency to the bright hills of creative protest?" + + Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disap- + + + 22 + + + + + + + pointment, I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be as- + + sured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no + + deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love + + the church; I love her sacred walls. How could I do otherwise? + + I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson + + and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as + + the body of Christ. but, oh! How we have blemished and scarred + + that body through social neglect and fear of being nonconform- + + ists. + + There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was + + during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they + + were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those + + days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the + + ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that + + transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians + + entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately + + sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and + + "outside agitators." But they went on with the convection that + + they were "a colony of heaven," and had to obey God rather than + + man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were + + too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They + + brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and + + gladiatorial contest. + + Things are different now. The contemporary church is often + + + 23 + + + + + + + a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so of- + + ten the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being dis- + + turbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the + + average community is consoled by the church's silent and often + + vocal sanction of things as they are. + + But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. + + If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit + + of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the + + loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social + + club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting + + young people every day whose disappointment with the church has + + risen to outright disgust. + + Maybe again, I have been too optimistic. Is organized + + religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our na- + + tion and the world? Maybe I must turn my faith to the inner + + spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ec- + + clesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God + + that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have + + broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined + + us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have + + left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, + + Georgia, with us. They have gone through the highways of the + + South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail + + with us. Some have been kicked out of their churches, and lost + + + 24 + + + + + + + support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have + + gone with the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil + + triumphant. These men have been the leaven in the lump of the + + race. Their witness have been the spiritual salt that has + + preserved the true meaning of the Gospel in these troubled times. + + They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of + + disappointment. + + I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this + + decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid + + of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear + + about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our mo- + + tives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of + + freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal + + of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our + + destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. before the + + pilgrims landed at Plymouth we were here. Before the pen of Jef- + + ferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of + + the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two + + centuries our foreparents labored in this country without wages; + + they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters + + in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation-and yet + + out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and + + develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not + + stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will + + + 25 + + + + + + + win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the + + eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. + + I must close now. But before closing I am impelled to men- + + tion one other point in your statement that troubled me + + profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for + + keeping "order" and preventing violence". I don't believe you + + would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen + + its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent + + Negroes. I don't believe you would so quickly commend the + + policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment + + of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push + + and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see + + them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you will ob- + + serve them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food + + because we wanted to sing our grace together. I'm sorry that I + + can't join you in your praise for the police department. + + It is true that they have been rather disciplined in their + + public handling of the demonstrators. In this sense they have + + been rather publicly "nonviolent". But for what purpose? To + + preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the last few years + + I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the + + means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have + + tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to + + attain moral ends. but now I must affirm that it is just as + + + 26 + + + + + + + wrong, or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral + + ends. Maybe Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather + + publicly nonviolent, as Chief Pritchett was in Albany, Georgia, + + but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the + + immoral end of flagrant racial injustice. T. S. Eliot has said + + that there is no greater treason than to do the right deed for + + the wrong reason. + + I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and + + demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their + + willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst + + of the most inhuman provocation. One day the South will recog- + + nize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, + + courageiously and with a majestic sense of purpose facing jeering + + and hostile mobs and the agonizing loneliness that characterizes + + the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered + + Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two year old woman of + + Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with + + her people decided not to ride the segregated buses, and + + responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungram- + + matical profundity: "My feet is tired, but my soul is rested." + + They will be the young high school and college students, young + + ministers of the Gospel and a host of their elders courageously + + and nonviolently sitting-in at lunch counters and willingly going + + to jail for conscience's sake. One day the South will know that + + + 27 + + + + + + + when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch coun- + + ters they were in reality standing up for the best in the + + American dream and the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian + + heritage, and thusly, carrying our whole nation back to those + + great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding + + fathers in the formulation of the constitution and the Declara- + + tion of Independence. + + Never before have I written a letter this long (or should I + + say a book?). I'm afraid that it is much to long to take your + + precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much + + shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what + + else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull + + monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, + + think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers? + + If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstate- + + ment of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable im- + + patience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in + + this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indica- + + tive of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything + + less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me. + + I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also + + hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet + + each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader, + + but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all + + + 28 + + + + + + + hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away + + and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our + + fear-drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow + + the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our + + great nation with all of their scintillating beauty. + + Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, + + Martin Luther King, Jr. + + + + + 29 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/klassasu.ufo b/textfiles.com/politics/klassasu.ufo new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d9786870 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/klassasu.ufo @@ -0,0 +1,183 @@ +--------------- +NEWS & COMMENT: KLASS AT ASU +--------------- + +ParaNet Alpha 03/06 -- Philip J. Klass, billed as the world's +foremost UFO debunker, lectured a small audience at Arizona State +University's Neeb Hall last night. + +The event was promoted by the Phoenix Skeptics, whose members +constituted the majority of the audience. Several members of +ParaNet were also in attendance. + +Klass was introduced by Skeptic Ron Harvey as "The Sherlock Holmes +of Ufology," and indeed, his investigative approach is methodical +and detailed. He is responsible for succesfully debunking some of +the more mysterious and baffling UFO reports over the past 22 +years. + +To his credit, Klass began his lecture by debunking the myth that +all UFO percipients are "kooks and nuts," saying that particular +attention should be paid to reports made by credible witnesses such +as pilots, astronomers, and other seasoned observers. He attempted +to separate himself from those skeptics who would "dismiss all UFO +reports out of hand." + +The first half of the lecture was devoted to two famous cases +which, according to Klass, encapsulated many elements of standard +UFO sighting reports, mainly nocturnal lights and daylight "disks" +(something of a misnomer, since all daytime object sightings, +regardless of shape, are lumped under this category). The cases +were of a May, 1968 multiple witness report centering on Nashville, +TN, and a 1969 report of fast-moving daytime objects sighted by +three sets of jet crews centered around St. Louis. The first case +turned out to be the re-entry of a Soviet Zond spacecraft, and the +second, according to Klass, was a bright meteor-fireball, or +bolide. Klass builds his case for the mundane nature of UFOs +around these two sightings, because they exemplify many of his +published "Ufological Principles," such as the fact that a majority +of witnesses to an event CAN be mistaken in their descriptions; the +fact that the human mind tends to fill in details that it doesn't +see but expects, through societal archetypes, to find; and the fact +that we tend to draw correlations between events where none may +exist. + +Extrapolating from these two stereotypical cases, Klass then +attempted to explain the famous Mansfield/Coyne Helicopter case, +which won the National Enquirer award for the most baffling UFO +case of 1973. A slide showing the four primary witnesses receiving +their National Enquirer checks drew the expected chuckles from some +members of the audience, who behaved like good little Skeptics and +snickered appropriately throughout the presentation. + +The Mansfield case is one of the most oft-told in UFO literature, +and details can be found in several sources, including two of +Klass' four books, and a pamphlet available from the Fund for UFO +Research, so I won't recount it in full here, but briefly, in +October of 1973, four National Guardsmen flying North near +Mansfield, OH in a Bell UH-1H helicopter had a nighttime encounter +with an object which approached them from the east, threatened to +collide with their chopper, hovered briefly, then flew off to the +west where it disappeared. During the encounter, the pilot-in- +command, Capt. (now Col.-ret.) Lawrence Coyne pitched the +helicopter into an 800 ft. descent; when the encounter was over, he +found he had actually CLIMBED from 1700 ft above sea level (MSL) to +3500 ft., and was still climbing at 1000 feet per minute. This +unintentional climb has been attributed by many to some sort of +"tractor beam" emanating from the UFO. + +Making use of his "Ufological principles," Klass proceeded to +debunk the case as being another bright meteor-fireball. He +contended that Coyne subconsciously noticed that his descent was +bringing him close to the ground, and at approx. 400 ft above +ground level (AGL), brought the collective up and initiated an +ascent. + +All four men reported that the interior of the chopper was bathed +in a green light while the object hovered above them. Klass points +out that the windows on the top of the Huey are tinted green, and +that the bright light of the fireball, caused by an envelope of +ionized air, merely shone through the top windows, causing the +"green" effect. The other anomalous elements of the report, the +hovering, the structure, the temporary loss of radio contact with +area airport towers, Klass dismissed with aplomb. + +It would be a momentous job of demystification, if it were not for +a few basic flaws in Klass' main argument, the most challenging +being the possibility of a bolide of such duration going unnoticed +by the rest of humanity. + +Time is a crucial element in this case, for the duration of a +bolide has an upper limit, as does the rate of climb of a Huey +helicopter. While it has been demonstrated many times that +percipients of sudden, extraordinary events have unreliable recall +of the passage of time, some idea of the duration of the event can +be gleaned from the fact that the Huey began descending from 2500 +ft. MSL at the start of the event, reached 1700 MSL, then rose to +3500 MSL just after the event. The lowest amount of time +acceptable to anyone is 45 seconds; most investigators agree, +however, that the event lasted at least a minute. But let's take +the 45 second figure. + +In order for a bolide to even theoretically last this long, it +would have to be travelling in the very upper reaches of the +Earth's atmosphere, where there is little friction to slow down the +object or affect the arc of its trajectory. Recall that the object +was first seen in the east, then disappeared on the western +horizon. We can therefore say that, due to its great altitude and +the amount of Earth's atmosphere it subtended, it would have to +have been visible, not just over a large portion of Ohio, but over +a large portion of the North American continent. As Klass points +out, the event occured during the height of the Orionid meteor +shower, at just after 11PM -- a late hour, but not too late for +avid skywatchers, of which there would surely be a great number. +Yet NOT A LIVING SOUL REPORTED SEEING A BRIGHT METEOR-FIREBALL on +that night. + +When challenged on this point, Klass retorted by asking why no +credible independent witnesses stepped forward to report a large +UFO either. (A group of four witnesses DID attest to seeing the +helicopter/UFO encounter some time later, however, their testimony +is flawed in some respects, and hence cannot be considered +reliable.) Ignoring for the moment the perceived unlikelyhood of +alien spacecraft, it is much easier to believe that such a craft, +operating at the low altitude of the helicopter over an area which +Klass himself characterizes as sparsely populated, would go +unnoticed, whereas a high-altitude bolide would be a spectacle most +likely observed by thousands. + +Count forty-five seconds off to yourself, and imagine that, while +you're counting, a fireball is traversing the night skies. Now +imagine no one seeing it. + +Add to all this the fact that very few astronomers and meteor +experts agree that a bolide event CAN last for that period of time. +In answer, Klass characteristically trots out an event that +occurred in 1972 over the Western part of the U.S., which was +captured on 26 seconds of film, arguing that it had to have lasted +even longer in order for the photographer to notice it and ready +her camera. The event (which occurred in broad daylight, over a +more sparsely populated area of the country, and yet was reported +by thousands) was characterized by Carl Sagan as something that +happens "once in a century." Yet Klass has used the "bright +meteor-fireball" device to explain SEVERAL cases throughout his +three previous books. How many times can a once-in-a-century event +occur since 1947? + +In his book "UFO's: The Public Deceived" (Prometheus 1981), Klass +states that, since he believes the chopper crew saw SOMETHING +strange and are not making the whole thing up, the event can only +be one of two things, a bolide or a real, honest-to-goodness alien +starship. He begins his argument against the latter on the basis +of facts and evidence, but when challenged, falls back on theory, +relying on Science's characterization of alien visits as +"unlikely." I must ask how one measures such unlikelyhood, absent +any reference data on such visits. We DO have some idea of the +unlikelyhood of 45-second bolides, however, and I am here to tell +you that they are SO unlikely as to put Klass in the position of +virtually endorsing, by his own words, the ET Hypothesis. + +In the middle part of the lecture, Klass showed a slide of Dr. J. +Allen Hynek, widely recognized as the father of scientific ufology. +Klass strongly implied that Hynek's decision to switch from skeptic +to proponent on the UFO issue was financially motivated. He +related that Hynek drew $150 a day as a consultant to Project Blue +Book; when the Air Force shut down that project, Klass said, Hynek +changed into a believer and drew up to $2000 for lectures. + +Klass' implication is nothing short of contemptible. He ignores +the fact that Hynek's path to advocacy of UFO research began long +before the end of Blue Book; it can be traced to the aftermath of +the 1966 Swamp Gas Incident in Dexter, MI. In addition, much of +Hynek's lecture income was known to have gone back into UFO +research. + +Skepticism is a necessity in the badly muddled world of ufology, +and much of Klass' work has served to define the boundaries and +goal lines for would-be saucer seekers. But the raison d'etre of +skepticism is Science, and Klass, who accuses Ufology of having +none, seems to have forsaken Science in favor of his own myopic +axe-grinding. + + -- Jim Speiser + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/knocks.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/knocks.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e8c40fc9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/knocks.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4929 @@ + +THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS, by RALPH PARLETTE. + +Digitized by Cardinalis Etext Press, C.E.K. +Posted to Wiretap in July 1993, as knocks.txt. + +This text is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN. + + + + + + The University of Hard Knocks + + The School That Completes Our Education + + +"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his +God, and he shall be my son"--Revelation 21:7. + + "Sweet are the uses of adversity; + Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, + Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; + And thus our life, exempt from public haunt, + Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks + Sermons in stones, and good in everything." + --Shakespeare + + PARLETTE-PADGET COMPANY + Chicago + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1914, 1915, 1917 + By Parlette-Padget Company + Publishers + 122 S. Michigan Ave. + Chicago + + + First Edition, September, 1914 + Second Edition, January, 1916 + Third Edition, April, 1917 + Fourth Edition, August, 1917 + Fifth Edition (Khaki), February, 1918 + + + + Why It Is Printed + +MORE than a million people have sat in audiences in all parts of +the United States and have listened to "The University of Hard +Knocks." It has been delivered to date more than twenty-five +hundred times upon lyceum courses, at chautauquas, teachers' +institutes, club gatherings, conventions and before various other +kinds of audiences. Ralph Parlette is kept busy year after year +lecturing, because his lectures deal with universal human experience. + +"Can I get the lecture in book form?" That continuous question from +audiences brought out this book in response. Here is the overflow +of many deliveries. + +"What is written here is not the way I would write it, were I +writing a book," says Ralph Parlette. "It is the way I say it. The +lecture took this unconscious colloquial form before audiences. An +audience makes a lecture, if the lecture survives. I wish I could +shake the hand of every person who has sat in my audiences. And I +wish I could tell the lecture committees of America how I +appreciate the vast amount of altruistic work they have done in +bringing the audiences of America together. For lecture audiences +are not drawn together, they are pushed together." + +The warm reception given "The University of Hard Knocks" by the +public, has encouraged the publishers to put more of Mr. Parlette's +lectures into book form, "Big Business" and "Pockets and Paradises" +are now in preparation as this, the third edition of "The +University of Hard Knocks" comes from the press. + + + + Contents + +SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS--The lecturer the delivery wagon--The +sorghum barrel--Audience must have place to put lecture--Why so +many words + +The University of Hard Knocks + +I. THE BOOKS ARE BUMPS--Every bump a lesson--Why the two kinds of +bumps--Description of University--"Sweet are the uses of +Adversity"--Why children are not interested + +II. THE COLLEGE OF NEEDLESS KNOCKS, the bumps that we bump +into--Getting the coffee-pot--Teaching a wilful child--Bumps make +us "stop, look, listen"--Blind man learns with one bump--Going up +requires effort--Prodigals must be bumped--The fly and the sticky +fly-paper--"Removed" and "knocked out" + +III. THE COLLEGE OF NEEDFUL KNOCKS, the bumps that bump into +us--Our sorrows and disappointments--How the piano was made--How +the "red mud" becomes razor-blades--The world our mirror--The +cripple taught by the bumps--Every bump brings a blessing--You are +never down and out + +IV. "SHAKE THE BARREL"--How we decide our destinies--Why the big +ones shake up and the little ones shake down--The barrel of life +sorting people--How we hold our places, go down, go up--Good luck +and bad luck--The girl who went up--The man who went down--The +fatal rattle--We must get ready to get--Testimonials and press +notices--You cannot uplift people with derrick--No laws can +equalize--Help people to help themselves--We cannot get things till +we get ready for them + +V. GOING UP--How we become great--We must get inside greatness-- +There is no top--We make ourselves great by service--the +first step at hand--All can be greatest--Where to find great +people--A glimpse of Gunsaulus + +VI. THE PROBLEM OF "PREPAREDNESS"--Preparing children for +life--Most "advantages" are disadvantages--Buying education for +children--The story of "Gussie" and "Bill Whackem"--Schools and +books only give better tools for service--"Hard knocks" graduates-- +Menace of America not swollen fortunes but shrunken souls-- +Children must have struggle to get strength--Not packhorse work-- +Helping the turkeys killed them--the happiness of work we love-- +Amusement drunkards--Lure of the city--Strong men from the country-- +Must save the home towns--A school of struggle--New School experiment + +VII. THE SALVATION OF A "SUCKER"--You can't get something for +nothing--The fiddle and the tuning--How we know things--Trimmed at +the shell game--My "fool drawer"--Getting "selected to receive +1,000 per cent"--You must earn what you own--Commencement +orations--My maiden sermon--The books that live have been +lived--Singer must live songs--Successful songs written from +experience--Theory and practice--Tuning the strings of life + +VIII. LOOKING BACKWARD--Memories of the price we pay--My first +school teaching--Loaning the deacon my money--Calling the roll of +my schoolmates--At the grave of the boy I had envied--Why Ben Hur +won the chariot race--Pulling on the oar + +IX. GO ON SOUTH!--The book in the running brook--The Mississippi +keeps on going south and growing greater--We generally start well, +but stop--Few go on south--The plague of incompetents--Today our +best day, tomorrow to be better--Birthdays are promotions--I am +just beginning--Bernhardt, Davis, Edison--Moses begins at +eighty--Too busy to bury--Sympathy for the "sob squad"--Child sees +worst days, not best--Waiting for the second table--Better days on +south--Overcoming obstacles develops power--Go on south from +principle, not praise--Doing duty for the joy of it--Becoming the +"Father of Waters"--Go on south forever! + + +X. GOING UP LIFE'S MOUNTAIN--The defeats that are victories-- +Climbing Mount Lowe--Getting above the clouds into the sunshine-- +Each day we rise to larger vision--Getting above the night into +the eternal day--Going south is going upward + + * * * + + + + Some Preliminary Remarks + +LADIES and Gentlemen: +I do not want to be seen in this lecture. I want to be heard. I am +only the delivery wagon. When the delivery wagon comes to your house, +you are not much interested in how it looks; you are interested in +the goods it brings you. You know some very good goods are sometimes delivered +to you in some very poor delivery wagons. + +So in this lecture, please do not pay any attention to the delivery +wagon--how much it squeaks and wheezes and rattles and wabbles. Do +not pay much attention to the wrappings and strings. Get inside to +the goods. + +Really, I believe the goods are good. I believe I am to recite to +you some of the multiplication table of life--not mine, not yours +alone, but everybody's. + + * * * + + I Can Only Pull the Plug! + + +Every audience has a different temperature, and that makes a +lecture go differently before every audience. The kind of an +audience is just as important as the kind of a lecture. A cold +audience will make a good lecture poor, while a warm audience will +make a poor lecture good. + +Let me illustrate: + +When I was a boy we had a barrel of sorghum in the woodshed. When +mother wanted to make ginger-bread or cookies, she would send me to +the woodshed to get a bucket of sorghum from that barrel. + +Some warm September day I would pull the plug from the barrel and +the sorghum would fairly squirt into my bucket. Later in the fall +when it was colder, I would pull the plug but the sorghum would not +squirt. It would come out slowly and reluctantly, so that I would +have to wait a long while to get a little sorghum. And on some real +cold winter day I would pull the plug, but the sorghum would not run +at all. It would just look out at me. + +I discovered it was the temperature. + +I have brought a barrel of sorghum to this audience. The name of +the sorghum is "The University of Hard Knocks." I can only pull the +plug. I cannot make it run. That will depend upon the temperature +of this audience. You can have all you want of it, but to get it to +running freely, you will have to warm up. + + * * * + + Did You Bring a Bucket? + + +No matter how the sorghum runs, you have to have a bucket to get +it. How much any one gets out of a lecture depends also upon the +size of the bucket he brings to get it in. A big bucket can get +filled at a very small stream. A little bucket gets little at the +greatest stream. With no bucket you can get nothing at Niagara. + +That often explains why one person says a lecture is great, while +the next person says he got nothing out of it. + + * * * + + What It's All About + + +Here is a great mass of words and sentences and pictures to express +two or three simple little ideas of life, that our education is our +growing up from the Finite to the Infinite, and that it is done by +our own personal overcoming, and that we never finish it. + +Have you noticed that no sentence, nor a million sentences, can +bound life? Have you noticed that every statement does not quite +cover it? No statement, no library, can tell all about life. No +success rule can alone solve the problem. You must average it all +and struggle up to a higher vision. + +We are told that the stomach needs bulk as well as nutriment. It +would not prosper with the necessary elements in their condensed +form. So abstract truths in their lowest terms do not always +promote mental digestion like more bulk in the way of pictures and +discussions of these truths. Here is bulk as well as nutriment. + +If you get the feeling that the first personal pronoun is being +overworked, I remind you that this is more a confession than a +lecture. You cannot confess without referring to the confesser. + + + +To Everybody in My Audience + + +I like you because I am like you. + + +I believe in you because I believe in myself. We are all one +family. I believe in your Inside, not in your Outside, whoever you +are, whatever you are, wherever you are. + + +I believe in the Angel of Good inside every block of human marble. +I believe it must be carved out in The University of Hard Knocks. + + +I believe all this pride, vanity, selfishness, self-righteousness, +hypocrisy and human frailty are the Outside that must be chipped away. + + +I believe the Hard Knocks cannot injure the Angel, but can only reveal it. + + +I hope you are getting your Hard Knocks. + + +I care little about your glorious or inglorious past. I care little +about your present. I care much about your future for that is to +see more of the Angel in you. + + + + The University of Hard Knocks + + Chapter I + + The Books Are Bumps + + +THE greatest school is the University of Hard Knocks. Its books are bumps. + +Every bump is a lesson. If we learn the lesson with one bump, we do +not get that bump again. We do not need it. We have traveled past +it. They do not waste the bumps. We get promoted to the next bump. + +But if we are "naturally bright," or there is something else the +matter with us, so that we do not learn the lesson of the bump we +have just gotten, then that bump must come back and bump us again. + +Some of us learn to go forward with a few bumps, but most of us are +"naturally bright" and have to be pulverized. + +The tuition in the University of Hard Knocks is not free. +Experience is the dearest teacher in the world. Most of us spend +our lives in the A-B-C's of getting started. + +We matriculate in the cradle. + +We never graduate. When we stop learning we are due for another bump. + +There are two kinds of people--wise people and fools. The fools are +the people who think they have graduated. + +The playground is all of God's universe. + +The university colors are black and blue. + +The yell is "ouch" repeated ad lib. + + * * * + + The Need of the Bumps + + +When I was thirteen I knew a great deal more than I do now. There +was a sentence in my grammar that disgusted me. It was by some +foreigner I had never met. His name was Shakespeare. It was this: + + "Sweet are the uses of adversity; + Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, + Wears yet a priceless jewel in its head; + And thus our life, exempt from public haunt, + Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, + Sermons in stones, and good in everything." + + +"Tongues in trees," I thought. "Trees can't talk! That man is +crazy. Books in running brooks! Why nobody never puts no books in +no running brooks. They'd get wet. And that sermons in stones! They +get preachers to preach sermons, and they build houses out of stones." + +I was sorry for Shakespeare--when I was thirteen. + +But I am happy today that I have traveled a little farther. I am +happy that I have begun to learn the lessons from the bumps. I am +happy that I am learning the sweet tho painful lessons of the +University of Adversity. I am happy that I am beginning to listen. +For as I learn to listen, I hear every tree speaking, every stone +preaching and every running brook the unfolding of a book. + + + * * * + + +Children, I fear you will not be greatly interested in what is to follow. +Perhaps you are "naturally bright" and feel sorry for Shakespeare. + +I was not interested when father and mother told me these things. I +knew they meant all right, but the world had moved since they were +young, and now two and two made seven, because we lived so much faster. + +It is so hard to tell young people anything. They know better. So +they have to get bumped just where we got bumped, to learn that two +and two always makes four, and "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall +he also reap." + +But if you will remember some of these things, they will feel like +poultices by and by when the bumps come. + + * * * + + The Two Colleges + + +As we get bumped and battered on life's pathway, we discover we get +two kinds of bumps--bumps that we need and bumps that we do not need. + +Bumps that we bump into and bumps that bump into us. + +We discover, in other words, that The University of Hard Knocks has two +colleges--The College of Needless Knocks and The College of Needful Knocks. + +We attend both colleges. + + + + Chapter II + + The College of Needless Knocks + + The Bumps That We Bump Into + + +NEARLY all the bumps we get are Needless Knocks. + +There comes a vivid memory of one of my early Needless Knocks as I +say that. It was back at the time when I was trying to run our home +to suit myself. I sat in the highest chair in the family circle. I +was three years old and ready to graduate. + +That day they had the little joy and sunshine of the family in his +high-chair throne right up beside the dinner table. The coffee-pot +was within grabbing distance. + +I became enamored with that coffee-pot. I decided I needed that +coffee-pot in my business. I reached over to get the coffee-pot. +Then I discovered a woman beside me, my mother. She was the most +meddlesome woman I had ever known. I had not tried to do one thing +in three years that that woman had not meddled into. + +And that day when I wanted the coffee-pot--I did want it. Nobody knows +how I desired that coffee-pot. "One thing thou lackest," a coffee-pot-- +I was reaching over to get it, that woman said, "Don't touch that!" + +The longer I thought about it the more angry I became. What right +has that woman to meddle into my affairs all the time? I have stood +this petticoat tyranny three years, and it is time to stop it! + +I stopped it. I got the coffee-pot. I know I got the coffee-pot. I +got it unanimously. I know when I got it and I also know where I +got it. I got about a gallon of the reddest, hottest coffee a bad +boy ever spilled over himself. + +O-o-o-o-o-o! I can feel it yet! + +There were weeks after that when I was upholstered. They put +applebutter on me--and coal oil and white-of-an-egg and starch and +anything else the neighbors could think of. They would bring it +over and rub it on the little joy and sunshine of the family, who +had gotten temporarily eclipsed. + + * * * + + Teaching a Wilful Child + + +You see, my mother's way was to tell me and then let me do as I +pleased. She told me not to get the coffee-pot and then let me get +it, knowing that it would burn me. She would say, "Don't." Then she +would go on with her knitting and let me do as I pleased. + +Why don't mothers knit today? + +Mother would say, "Don't fall in the well." I could go and jump in +the well after that and she would not look at me. I do not argue +that this is the way to raise children, but I insist that this was +the most kind and effective way to rear one stubborn boy I know of. +The neighbors and the ladies' aid society often said my mother was +cruel with that angel child. But the neighbors did not know what +kind of an insect mother was trying to raise. Mother did know. She +knew how stubborn and self-willed I was. It came from father's +"side of the house." + +Mother knew that to argue with me was to flatter me. Tell me, serve +notice upon me, and then let me go ahead and get my coffee-pot. +That was the quickest and kindest way to teach me. + +I learned very quickly that if I did not hear mother, and heed, a +coffee-pot would spill upon me. I cannot remember when I disobeyed my +mother that a coffee-pot of some kind did not spill upon me, and I got +my blisters. Mother did not inflict them. Mother was not much of an +inflicter. Father attended to that in the laboratory behind the parsonage. + + * * * + + "Stop, Look, Listen" + + +And thru the bumps we learn that The College of Needless Knocks +runs on the same plan. The Voice of Wisdom says to each of us, +"Child of humanity, do right, walk in the right path. You will be +wiser and happier." The tongues in the trees, the books in the +running brooks and the sermons in the stones all repeat it. + +But we are not compelled to walk in the right path. We are free +im-moral agents. + +We get off the right path. We go down forbidden paths. They seem +easier and more attractive. It is so easy to go downward. We slide +downward, but we have to make effort to go upward. + +Anything that goes downward will run itself. Anything that goes +upward has to be pushed. + +And going down the wrong path, we get bumped harder and harder +until we listen. + +We are lucky if we learn the lesson with one bump. We are unlucky +when we get bumped twice in the same place, for it means we are +making no progress. + +When we are bumped, we should "stop, look, listen." "Safety first!" + +One time I paid a seeress two dollars to look into my honest palm. +She said, "It hain't your fault. You wasn't born right. You was +born under an unlucky star." You don't know how that comforted me. +It wasn't my fault--all my bumps and coffee-pots! I was just unlucky +and it had to be. + +How I had to be bumped to learn better! Now when I get bumped I try +to learn the lesson of the bump and find the right path, so that +when I see that bump coming again I can say, "Excuse me; it hath a +familiar look," and dodge it. + +The seeress is the soothing syrup for mental infants. + + * * * + + Blind Man's Fine Sight + + +The other day I watched a blind man go down the aisle of the car to +get off the train. Did you ever study the walk of a blind man? He +"pussyfooted" it along so carefully. He bumped his hand against a +seat. Then he did what every blind man does, he lifted his hand +higher and didn't bump any more seats. + +I looked down my nose. "Ralph Parlette," I said to myself, "when +are you going to learn to see as well as that blind man? He learns +his lesson with one bump, and you have to go bumping into the same +things day after day and wonder why you have so much `bad luck'!" + + * * * + + Are You Going Up or Down? + + +Let me repeat, things that go downward will run themselves. Things +that go upward have to be pushed. Going upward is overcoming. +Notice that churches, schools, lyceums, chautauquas, reform +movements--things that go upward--never run themselves. They must +be pushed all the time. + +And so with our own lives. Real living is conscious effort to go +upward to larger life. + +If you are making no effort in your life, if you are moving in the +line of least resistance, depend upon it you are going downward. +Look out for the bumps! + +Look over your community. Note the handful of brave, faithful, +unselfish souls who are carrying the community burdens and pushing +upward. Note the multitude making little or no effort, and even +getting in the way of the pushers. + +Majorities do not rule. Majorities never have ruled. It is the +brave minority of thinking, self-sacrificing people that decides +the tomorrow of communities that go upward. Majorities are not +willing to make the effort to rule themselves. They are content to +drift and be amused and follow false gods that promise something +for nothing. They must be led--sometimes driven--by minorities. + +People are like sheep. The shepherd can lead them to heaven--or to hell. + + * * * + + Bumping the Prodigals + + +Human life is the story of the Prodigal Son. We look over the fence +of goodness into the mystery of the great unknown world beyond and +in that unknown realm we fondly imagine is happiness. + +Down the great white way of the world go the million prodigals, +seeking happiness where nobody ever found happiness. Their days +fill up with disappointment, their vision becomes dulled. They +become anaemic feeding upon the husks. + +They just must get their coffee-pot! + +How they must be bumped to think upon their ways. Every time we do +wrong we get a Needless Knock. Every time! We may not always get +bumped on the outside, but we always get bumped on the inside. A +bump on the conscience is worse than a bump on the "noodle." + +"I can do wrong and not get bumped. I have no feelings upon the +subject," somebody says, You can? You poor old sinner, you have +bumped your conscience numb. That is why you have no feelings on +the subject. You have pounded your soul into a jelly. You don't +know how badly you are hurt. + +How the old devil works day and night to keep people amused and doped +so that they will not think upon their ways! How he keeps the music +and the dazzle going so they will not see they are bumping themselves! + + * * * + + Consider the Sticky Flypaper + + +Did you ever watch a fly get his Needless Knocks on the sticky flypaper? + +The last thing Mamma Fly said as Johnny went off to the city was, +"Remember, son, to stay away from the sticky flypaper. That is +where your poor dear father was lost." And Johnny Fly remembers for +several minutes. But when he sees all the smart young flies of his +set go over to the flypaper, he goes over, too. He gazes down at +his face in the stickiness. "Ah! how pretty I am! This sticky +flypaper shows me up better than anything at home. What a fine +place to skate. Just see how close I can fly over it and not get +stuck a bit. Mother is such a silly old worryer. She means all +right, of course, but she isn't up-to-date. We young set of modern +flies are naturally bright and have so many more advantages. You +can't catch us. They were too strict with me back home." + +You see Johnny fly back and forth and have the time of his +naturally bright young life. Afterwhile, tho, he stubs his toe and +lands in the stickiness. "Well, well, how nice this is on the feet, +so soft and soothing!" + +First he puts one foot down and pulls it out. That is a lot of fun. +It shows he is not a prisoner. He is a strong-minded fly. He can +quit it or play in it, just as he pleases. After while he puts two +feet down in the stickiness. It is harder to pull them out. Then he +puts three down and puts down a few more trying to pull them out. + +"Really," says Johnny Fly bowing to his comrades also stuck around +him, "really, boys, you'll have to excuse me now. Good-bye!" But he +doesn't pull loose. He feels tired and he sits down in the sticky +flypaper. It is a fine place to stick around. All his young set of +flies are around him. He does like the company. They all feel the +same way--they can play in the sticky flypaper or let it alone, +just as they please, for they are strong-minded flies. They have +another drink and sing, "We won't go home till morning." + +Johnny may get home, but he will leave a wing or a leg. Most of them +stay. They just settle down into the stickiness with sleeping sickness. + +The tuition in The College of Needless Knocks is very high indeed! + + * * * + + "Removed" or "Knocked Out"? + + +The man who goes to jail ought to congratulate himself if he is +guilty. It is the man who does not get discovered who is to be +pitied, for he must get some more knocks. + +The world loves to write resolutions of respect. How often we +write, "Whereas, it has pleased an all-wise Providence to remove," +when we might reasonably ask whether the victim was "removed" or +merely "knocked out." + +There is a good deal of suicide charged up to Providence. + + + + Chapter III + + The College of Needful Knocks + + The Bumps That Bump Into Us + + +BUT occasionally all of us get bumps that we do not bump into. They +bump into us. They are the guideboard knocks that point us to the +higher pathway. + +You were bumped yesterday or years ago. Maybe the wound has not yet +healed. Maybe you think it never will heal. You wondered why you +were bumped. Some of you in this audience are just now wondering why. + +You were doing right--doing just the best you knew how--and yet +some blow came crushing upon you and gave you cruel pain. + +It broke your heart. You have had your heart broken. I have had my +heart broken more times than I care to talk about now. Your home +was darkened, your plans were wrecked, you thought you had nothing +more to live for. + +I am like you. I have had more trouble than anybody else. I have +never known anyone who had not had more trouble than anyone else. + +But I am discovering that life only gets good after we have been +killed a few times. Each death is a larger birth. + +We all must learn, if we have not already learned, that these blows +are lessons in The College of Needful Knocks. They point upward to +a higher path than we have been traveling. + +In other words, we are raw material. You know what raw material +is--material that needs more Needful Knocks to make it more useful +and valuable. + +The clothing we wear, the food we eat, the house we live in, all +have to have the Needful Knocks to become useful. And so does +humanity need the same preparation for greater usefulness. + +I should like to know every person in this audience. But the ones +I should most appreciate knowing are the ones who have known the +most of these knocks--who have faced the great crises of life and +have been tried in the crucibles of affliction. For I am learning +that these lives are the gold tried in the fire. + + * * * + + The Sorrows of the Piano + + +See the piano on this stage? Good evening, Mr. Piano. I am glad to +see you. You are so shiny, beautiful, valuable and full of music, +if properly treated. + +Do you know how you got upon this stage, Mr. Piano? You were bumped +here. This is no reflection upon the janitor. You became a piano by +the Needful Knocks. + +I can see you back in your callow beginnings, when you were just a +tree--a tall, green tree. You were green! Only green things grow. +Did you get the meaning of that, children? I hope you are green. + +There you stood in the forest, a perfectly good, green young tree. +You got your lessons, combed your hair, went to Sunday school and +were the best young tree you could be. + +That is why you were bumped--because you were good! There came a +man into the woods with an ax, and he looked for the best trees +there to bump. He bumped you--hit you with the ax! How it hurt you! +And how unjust it was! He kept on hitting you. "The operation was +just terrible." Finally you fell, crushed, broken, bleeding. + +It is a very sad story. They took you all bumped and bleeding to +the sawmill and they bumped and ripped you more. They cut you in +pieces and hammered you day by day. + +They did not bump the little, crooked, dissipated, cigaret-stunted +trees. They were not worth bumping. + +But shake, Mr. Piano. That is why you are on this stage. You were +bumped here. All the beauty, harmony and value were bumped into you. + + * * * + + The Sufferings of the Red Mud + + +One day I was up the Missabe road about a hundred miles north of +Duluth, Minnesota, and came to a hole in the ground. It was a big +hole--about a half-mile of hole. There were steam-shovels at work +throwing out of that hole what I thought was red mud. + +"Kind sir, why are they throwing that red mud out of that hole?" I +asked a native. + +"That hain't red mud. That's iron ore, an' it's the best iron ore +in the world." + +"What is it worth?" + +"It hain't worth nothin' here; that's why they're movin' it away." + +There's red mud around every community that "hain't worth nothin'" +until you move it--send it to college or somewhere. + +Not very long after this, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I saw some +of this same red mud. It had been moved over the Great Lakes and +the rails to what they call a blast furnace, the technological name +of which being The College of Needful Knocks for Red Mud. + +I watched this red mud matriculate into a great hopper with +limestone, charcoal and other textbooks. Then they corked it up and +school began. They roasted it. It is a great thing to be roasted. + +When it was done roasting they stopped. Have you noticed that they +always stop when anything is done roasting? If we are yet getting +roasted, perhaps we are not done! + +Then they pulled the plug out of the bottom of the college and held +promotion exercises. The red mud squirted out into the sand. It was +not red mud now, because it had been roasted. It was a freshman-- +pig iron, worth more than red mud, because it had been roasted. + +Some of the pig iron went into another department, a big teakettle, +where it was again roasted, and now it came out a sophomore--steel, +worth more than pig iron. + +Some of the sophomore steel went up into another grade where it was +roasted yet again and rolled thin into a junior. Some of that went on up +and up, at every step getting more pounding and roasting and affliction. + +It seemed as tho I could hear the suffering red mud crying out, "O, +why did they take me away from my happy hole-in-the-ground? Why do +they pound me and break my heart? I have been good and faithful. O, +why do they roast me? O, I'll never get over this!" + +But after they had given it a diploma--a pricemark telling how much +it had been roasted--they took it proudly all over the world, +labeled "Made in America." They hung it in show windows, they put +it in glass cases. Many people admired it and said, "Isn't that +fine work!" They paid much money for it now. They paid the most +money for what had been roasted the most. + +If a ton of that red mud had become watch-springs or razor-blades, +the price had gone up into thousands of dollars. + +My friends, you and I are the raw material, the green trees, the +red mud. The Needful Knocks are necessary to make us serviceable. + +Every bump is raising our price. Every bump is disclosing a path to a +larger life. The diamond and the chunk of soft coal are exactly the same +material, say the chemists. But the diamond has gone to The College of +Needful Knocks more than has her crude sister of the coal-scuttle. + +There is no human diamond that has not been crystallized in the +crucibles of affliction. There is no gold that has not been refined +in the fire. + + * * * + + Cripple Taught by Bumps + + +One evening when I was trying to lecture in a chautauqua tent in +Illinois, a crippled woman was wheeled into the tent and brought +right down to the foot of the platform. The subject was The +University of Hard Knocks. Presently the cripple's face was shining +brighter than the footlights. + +She knew about the knocks! + +Afterwards I went to her. "Little lady, I want to thank you for +coming here. I have the feeling that I spoke the words, but you are +the lecture itself." + +What a smile she gave me! "Yes, I know about the hard knocks," she +said. "I have been in pain most of my life. But I have learned all +that I know sitting in this chair. I have learned to be patient and +kind and loving and brave." + +They told me this crippled woman was the sweetest-spirited, +best-loved person in the town. + +But her mother petulantly interrupted me. She had wheeled the +cripple into the tent. She was tall and stately. She was +well-gowned. She lived in one of the finest homes in the city. She +had everything that money could buy. But her money seemed unable to +buy the frown from her face. + +"Mr. Lecture Man," she said, "why is everybody interested in my +daughter and nobody interested in me? Why is my daughter happy and +why am I not happy? My daughter is always happy and she hasn't a +single thing to make her happy. I am not happy. I have not been +happy for years. Why am I not happy?" + +What would you have said? Just on the spur of the moment--I said, +"Madam, I don't want to be unkind, but I really think the reason +you are not happy is that you haven't been bumped enough." + +I discover when I am unhappy and selfish and people don't use me +right, I need another bump. + +The cripple girl had traveled ahead of her jealous mother. For +selfishness cripples us more than paralysis. + + * * * + + Schools of Sympathy + + +When I see a long row of cots in a hospital or sanitarium, I want +to congratulate the patients lying there. They are learning the +precious lessons of patience, sympathy, love, faith and courage. +They are getting the education in the humanities the world needs +more than tables of logarithms. Only those who have suffered can +sympathize. They are to become a precious part of our population. +The world needs them more than libraries and foundations. + + * * * + + The Silver Lining + + +There is no backward step in life. Whatever experiences come to us are +truly new chapters of our education if we are willing to learn them. + +We think this is true of the good things that come to us, but we do +not want to think so of the bad things. Yet we grow more in lean +years than in fat years. In fat years we put it in our pockets. In +lean years we put it in our hearts. Material and spiritual +prosperity do not often travel hand-in-hand. When we become +materially very prosperous, so many of us begin to say, "Is not +this Babylon that I have builded?" And about that time there comes +some handwriting on the wall and a bump to save us. + +Think of what might happen to you today. Your home might burn. We +don't want your home to burn, but somebody's home is burning just +now. A conflagration might sweep your town from the map. Your +business might wreck. Your fortune might be swept away. Your good +name might be tarnished. Bereavement might take from you the one +you love most. + +You would never know how many real friends you have until then. But +look out! Some of your friends would say, "I am so sorry for you. +You are down and out." Do not believe that you are down and out, +for it is not true. The old enemy of humanity wants you to believe +you are down and out. He wants you to sympathize with yourself. You +are never down and out! + +The truth is, another chapter of your real education has been +opened. Will you read the lesson of the Needful Knocks? + +A great conflagration, a cyclone, a railroad wreck, an epidemic or +other public disaster brings sympathy, bravery, brotherhood and +love in its wake. + +There is a silver lining to every hard knocks cloud. + +Out of the trenches of the Great War come nations chastened by +sacrifice and purged of their dross. + + + + Chapter IV + + "Shake The Barrel" + + How We Decide Our Destinies + + +NOW as we learn the lessons of the Needless and the Needful Knocks, +we get wisdom, understanding, happiness, strength, success and +greatness. We go up in life. We become educated. Let me bring you +a picture of it. + +One day the train stopped at a station to take water. Beside the +track was a grocery with a row of barrels of apples in front. There +was one barrel full of big, red, fat apples. I rushed over and got +a sack of the big, red, fat apples. Later as the train was under +way, I looked in the sack and discovered there was not a big, red, +fat apple there. + +All I could figure out was that there was only one layer of the +big, red, fat apples on the top, and the groceryman, not desiring +to spoil his sign, had reached down under the top layer. He must +have reached to the bottom, for he gave me the worst mess of runts +and windfalls I ever saw in one sack. The things I said about the +grocery business must have kept the recording angel busy. + +Then I calmed down. Did the groceryman do that on purpose? Does +the groceryman ever put the big apples on top and the little +ones down underneath? + +Do you? Is there a groceryman in the audience? + +Man of sorrows, you have been slandered. It never occurred to me +until that day on the train that the groceryman does not put the +big ones on top and the little ones down underneath. He does not +need to do it. It does itself. It is the shaking of the barrel that +pushes the big ones up and the little ones down. + + * * * + + Shake to Their Places + + +You laugh? You don't believe that? Maybe your roads are so good +and smooth that things do not shake on the road to town. But back +in the Black Swamp of Ohio we had corduroy roads. Did you ever see +a corduroy road? It was a layer of logs in the mud. Riding over it +was the poetry of motion! The wagon "hit the high spots." And as I +hauled a wagon-bed full of apples to the cider-mill over a corduroy +road, the apples sorted out by the jolting. The big apples would +try to get to the top. The little, runty apples would try to hold +a mass meeting at the bottom. + +I saw that for thirty years before I saw it. Did you ever notice +how long you have to see most things before you see them? I saw +that when I played marbles. The big marbles would shake to the top +of my pocket and the little ones would rattle down to the bottom. + +You children try that tomorrow. Do not wait thirty years to learn +that the big ones shake up and the little ones shake down. Put some +big ones and some little things of about the same density in a box +or other container and shake them. You will see the larger things +shake upward and the smaller shake downward. You will see every +thing shake to the place its size determines. A little larger one +shakes a little higher, and a little smaller one a little lower. + +When things find their place, you can shake on till doomsday, but +you cannot change the place of one of the objects. + +Mix them up again and shake. Watch them all shake back as they were +before, the largest on top and the smallest at the bottom. + + * * * + + Lectures in Cans + + +At this place the lecturer exhibits a glass jar more than +half-filled with small white beans and a few walnuts. + + +Let us try that right on the platform. Here is a glass jar and +inside of it you see two sizes of objects--a lot of little white +beans and some walnuts. You will pardon me for bringing such a +simple and crude apparatus before you in a lecture, but I ask your +forbearance. I am discovering that we can hear faster thru the eye +than thru the ear. I want to make this so vivid that you will never +forget it, and I do not want these young people to live thirty +years before they see it. + +If there are sermons in stones, there must be lectures in cans. +This is a canned lecture. Let the can talk to you awhile. + +You note as I shake the jar the little beans quickly settle down +and the big walnuts shake up. Not one bean asks, "Which way do I +go?" Not one walnut asks, "Which way do I go?" Each one +automatically goes the right way. The little ones go down and the +big ones go up. + +Note that I mix them all up and then shake. Note that they arrange +themselves just as they were before. + +Suppose those objects could talk. I think I hear that littlest bean +down in the bottom saying, "Help me! Help me! I am so unfortunate +and low down. I never had no chance like them big ones up there. +Help me up." + +I say, "Yes, you little bean, I'll help you." So I lift him up to +the top. See! I have boosted him. I have uplifted him. + +See, the can shakes. Back to the bottom shakes the little bean. And +I hear him say, "King's ex! I slipped. Try that again and I'll +stay on top." So I put him back again on top. + +The can shakes. The little bean again shakes back to the bottom. He +is too small to stay up. He cannot stand prosperity. + +Then I hear Little Bean say, "Well, if I cannot get to the top, you +make them big ones come down. Give every one an equal chance." + +So I say, "Yes, sir, Little Bean. Here, you big ones on top, get +down. You Big Nuts get right down there on a level with Little +Bean!" And you see I put them down. + +But I shake the can, and the big ones go right back to the top with +the same shakes that send the little ones back to the bottom. + +There is only one way for those objects to change their place in +the can. Lifting them up or putting them down will not do it. But +change their size! + +Equality of position demands quality of size. Let the little one +grow bigger and he will shake up. Let the big one grow smaller and +he will shake down. + + * * * + + The Shaking Barrel of Life + + +O, fellow apples! We are all apples in the barrel of life on the +way to the market place of the future. It is a corduroy road and +the barrel shakes all the time. + +In the barrel are big apples, little apples, freckled apples, +speckled apples, green apples, and dried apples. A bad boy on the +front row shouted the other night, "And rotten apples!" + +In other words, all the people of the world are in the great barrel +of life. That barrel is shaking all the time. Every community is +shaking, every place is shaking. The offices, the shops, the +stores, the schools, the pulpits, the homes--every place where we +live or work is shaking. Life is a constant survival of the fittest. + +The same law that shakes the little ones down and the big ones up +in that can is shaking every person to the place he fits in the +barrel of life. It is sending small people down and great people up. + +And do you not see that we are very foolish when we want to be +lifted up to some big place, or when we want some big person to be +put down to some little place? We are foolishly trying to overturn +the eternal law of life. + +We shake right back to the places our size determines. We must get +ready for places before we can get them and keep them. + +The very worst thing that can happen to anybody is to be +artificially boosted up into some place where he rattles. + +I hear a good deal about destiny. Some people seem to think destiny +is something like a train and if we do not get to the depot in time +our train of destiny will run off and leave us, and we will have no +destiny. There is destiny--that jar. + +If we are small we shall have a small destiny. If we are great we +shall have a great destiny. We cannot dodge our destiny. + + * * * + + Kings and Queens of Destiny + + +The objects in that jar cannot change their size. But thank God, +you and I are not helpless victims of blind fate. We are not +creatures of chance. We have it in our hands to decide our destiny +as we grow or refuse to grow. + +We shake down if we become small; we shake up if we become great. +And when we have reached the place our size determines, we stay +there so long as we stay that size. + +If we wish to change our place, we must first change our size. If +we wish to go down, we must grow smaller and we shall shake down. +If we wish to go up, we must grow greater, and we shall shake up. + +Each person is doing one of three things consciously or unconsciously. + +1. He is holding his place. + +2. He is going down. + +3. He is going up. + +In order to hold his place he must hold his size. He must fill the +place. If he shrinks up he will rattle. Nobody can stay long where he +rattles. Nature abhors a rattler. He shakes down to a smaller place. + +In order to stay the same size he must grow enough each day to supply +the loss by evaporation. Evaporation is going steadily on in lives +as well as in liquids. If we are not growing any, we are rattling. + + * * * + + We Compel Promotion + + +So you young people should keep in mind that you will shake into +the places you fit. And when you are in your places--in stores, +shops, offices or elsewhere, if you want to hold your place you +must keep growing enough to keep it tightly filled. + +If you want a greater place, you simply grow greater and they +cannot keep you down. You do not ask for promotion, you compel +promotion. You grow greater, enlarge your dimensions, develop new +capabilities, do more than you are paid to do--overfill your place, +and you shake up to a greater place. + +I believe if I were so fortunate or unfortunate as to have a number +of people working for me, I would have a jar in my office filled +with various sizes of objects. When an employee would come into the +office and say, "Isn't it about time I was getting a raise?" I +would say, "Go shake the jar, Charlie. That is the way you get +raised. As you grow greater you won't need to ask to be promoted. +You will promote yourself." + + * * * + + "Good Luck" and "Bad Luck" + + +This jar tells me so much about luck. I have noted that the lucky +people shake up and the unlucky people shake down. That is, the +lucky people grow great and the unlucky people shrivel and rattle. + +Notice as I bump this jar. Two things happened. The little ones +shook down and the big ones shook up. The bump that was bad luck to +the little ones was good luck to the big ones. The same bump was +both good luck and bad luck. + +Luck does not depend upon the direction of the bump, but upon the +size of the bump-ee! + + * * * + + The "Lucky" One + + +So everywhere you look you see the barrel sorting people according +to size. Every business concern can tell you stories like that of +the Chicago house where a number of young ladies worked. Some of +them had been there for a long time. There came a raw, green Dutch +girl from the country. It was her first office experience, and she +got the bottom job. + +The other girls poked fun at her and played jokes upon her because +she was so green. + +Do you remember that green things grow? + +"Is not she the limit?" they oft spake one to another. She was. She +made many blunders. But it is now recalled that she never made the same +blunder twice. She learned the lesson with one helping to the bumps. + +And she never "got done." When she had finished her work, the work +she had been put at, she would discover something else that ought +to be done, and she would go right on working, contrary to the +rules of the union! Without being told, mind you. She had that rare +faculty the world is bidding for--initiative. + +The other girls "got done." When they had finished the work they +had been put at, they would wait--O, so patiently they would +wait--to be told what to do next. + +Within three months every other girl in that office was asking +questions of the little Dutch girl. She had learned more about +business in three months than the others had learned in all the +time they had been there. Nothing ever escaped her. She had become +the most capable girl in the office. + +The barrel did the rest. Today she is giving orders to all of them, +for she is the office superintendent. + +The other girls feel hurt about it. They will tell you in +confidence that it was the rankest favoritism ever known. "There +was nothing fair about it. Jennie ought to have been made +superintendent. Jennie had been here four years." + + * * * + + The "Unlucky" One + + +The other day in a paper-mill I was standing beside a long machine +making shiny super-calendered paper. I asked the man working there +some questions about the machine, which he answered fairly well. +Then I asked him about a machine in the next room. He said, "I +don't know nothing about it, boss, I don't work in there." + +I asked him about another process, and he replied, "I don't know +nothing about it, I never worked in there." I asked him about the +pulpmill. He replied, "No, I don't know nothing about that, +neither. I don't work in there." And he did not betray the least +desire to know anything about anything. + +"How long have you worked here?" + +"About twelve years." + +Going out of the building, I asked the foreman, "Do you see that +man over there at the supercalendered machine?" pointing to the man +who didn't know. "Is he a human being?" + +The foreman's face clouded. "I hate to talk to you about that man. +He is one of the kindest-hearted men we ever had in the works, but +we've got to let him go. We're afraid he'll break the machine. He +isn't interested, does not learn, doesn't try to learn." + +So he had begun to rattle. Nobody can stay where he rattles. It is +grow or go. + + * * * + + Life's Barrel the Leveler + + +So books could be filled with just such stories of how people have +gone up and down. You may have noticed two brothers start with the +same chance, and presently notice that one is going up and the +other is going down. + +Some of us begin life on the top branches, right in the sunshine of +popular favor, and get our names in the blue-book at the start. +Some of us begin down in the shade on the bottom branches, and we +do not even get invited. We often become discouraged as we look at +the top-branchers, and we say, "O, if I only had his chance! If I +were only up there I might amount to something. But I am too low down." + +We can grow. Everybody can grow. + +And afterwhile we are all in the barrel of life, shaken and bumped +about. There the real people do not often ask us, "On what branch +of that tree did you grow?" But they often inquire, "Are you big +enough to fill this place?" + + * * * + + The Fatal Rattle! + + +Now life is mainly routine. You and I and everybody must go on +doing pretty much the same things over and over. Every day we +appear to have about the same round of duties. + +But if we let life become routine, we are shaking down. The very +routine of life must every day flash a new attractiveness. We must +be learning new things and discovering new joys in our daily +routine or we become unhappy. If we go on doing just the same things +in the same way day after day, thinking the same thoughts, our eyes +glued to precedents--just turning round and round in our places and +not growing any, pretty soon we become mere machines. We wear +smaller. The joy and juice go out of our lives. We shrivel and rattle. + +The success, joy and glory of life are in learning, growing, going +forward and upward. That is the only way to hold our place. + +The farmer must be learning new things about farming to hold his +place this progressive age as a farmer. The merchant must be +growing into a greater, wiser merchant to hold his place among his +competitors. The minister must be getting larger visions of the +ministry as he goes back into the same old pulpit to keep on +filling it. The teacher must be seeing new possibilities in the +same old schoolroom. The mother must be getting a larger horizon in +her homemaking. + +We only live as we grow and learn. When anybody stays in the same +place year after year and fills it, he does not rattle. + +Unless the place is a grave! + +I shiver as I see the pages of school advertisements in the +journals labeled "Finishing Schools," and "A Place to Finish Your +Child." I know the schools generally mean all right, but I fear the +students will get the idea they are being finished, which finishes +them. We never finish while we live. A school finishing is a +commencement, not an end-ment. + +I am sorry for the one who says, "I know all there is to know about +that. You can't tell me anything about that." He is generally rattling. +The greater and wiser the man, the more anxious he is to be told. + +I am sorry for the one who struts around saying, "I own the job. +They can't get along without me." For I feel that they are getting +ready to get along without him. That noise you hear is the +death-rattle in his throat. + +Big business men keep their ears open for rattles in their machinery. + +I am sorry for the man, community or institution that spends much +time pointing backward with pride and talking about "in my day!" +For it is mostly rattle. The live one's "my day" is today and +tomorrow. The dead one's is yesterday. + + * * * + + We Must Get Ready to Get + + +We young people come up into life wanting great places. I would not +give much for a young person (or any other person) who does not +want a great place. I would not give much for anybody who does not +look forward to greater and better things tomorrow. + +We often think the way to get a great place is just to go after it +and get it. If we do not have pull enough, get some more pull. Get +some more testimonials. + +We think if we could only get into a great place we would be great. +But unless we have grown as great as the place we would be a great +joke, for we would rattle. And when we have grown as great as the +place, that sized place will generally come seeking us. + +We do not become great by getting into a great place, any more than +a boy becomes a man by getting into his father's boots. He is in +great boots, but he rattles. He must grow greater feet before he +gets greater boots. But he must get the feet before he gets the boots. + +We must get ready for things before we get them. + +All life is preparation for greater things. + +Moses was eighty years getting ready to do forty years work. The +Master was thirty years getting ready to do three years work. So +many of us expect to get ready in "four easy lessons by mail." + +We can be a pumpkin in one summer, with the accent on the "punk." +We can be a mushroom in a day, with the accent on the "mush." But +we cannot become an oak that way. + +The world is not greatly impressed by testimonials. The man who has +the most testimonials generally needs them most to keep him from +rattling. A testimonial so often becomes a crutch. + +Many a man writes a testimonial to get rid of somebody. "Well, I +hope it will do him some good. Anyhow, I have gotten him off my +hands." I heard a Chicago superintendent say to his foreman, "Give +him a testimonial and fire him!" + +It is dangerous to overboost people, for the higher you boost them +the farther they will fall. + + * * * + + The Menace of the Press-Notice + + +Now testimonials and press-notices very often serve useful ends. In +lyceum work, in teaching, in very many lines, they are often useful +to introduce a stranger. A letter of introduction is useful. A +diploma, a degree, a certificate, a license, are but different +kinds of testimonials. + +The danger is that the hero of them may get to leaning upon them. Then +they become a mirror for his vanity instead of a monitor for his vitality. + +Most testimonials and press-notices are frank flatteries. They +magnify the good points and say little as possible about the bad +ones. I look back over my lyceum life and see that I hindered my +progress by reading my press-notices instead of listening to the +verdict of my audiences. I avoided frank criticism. It would hurt +me. Whenever I heard an adverse criticism, I would go and read a +few press-notices. "There, I am all right, for this clipping says +I am the greatest ever, and should he return, no hall would be able +to contain the crowd." + +And my vanity bump would again rise. + +Alas! How often I have learned that when I did return the hall that +was filled before was entirely too big for the audience! The +editors of America--God bless them! They are always trying to boost +a home enterprise--not for the sake of the imported attraction but +for the sake of the home folks who import it. + +We must read people, not press-notices. + +When you get to the place where you can stand aside and "see +yourself go by"--when you can keep still and see every fibre of you +and your work mercilessly dissected, shake hands with yourself and +rejoice, for the kingdom of success is yours. + + * * * + + The Artificial Uplift + + +There are so many loving, sincere, foolish, cruel uplift movements +in the land. They spring up, fail, wail, disappear, only to be +succeeded by twice as many more. They fail because instead of +having the barrel do the uplifting, they try to do it with a derrick. + +The victims of the artificial uplift cannot stay uplifted. They +rattle back, and "the last estate of that man is worse than the first." + +You cannot uplift a beggar by giving him alms. You are using the +derrick. We must feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but that is +not helping them, that is propping them. The beggar who asks you to +help him does not want to be helped. He wants to be propped. He +wants you to license him and professionalize him as a beggar. + +You can only help a man to help himself. Help him to grow. You +cannot help many people, for there are not many people willing to +be helped on the inside. Not many willing to grow up. + +When Peter and John went up to the temple they found the lame +beggar sitting at the gate Beautiful. Every day the beggar had been +"helped." Every day as they laid him at the gate people would pass +thru the gate and see him. He would say, "Help me!" "Poor man," +they would reply, "you are in a bad fix. Here is help," and they +would throw him some money. + +And so every day that beggar got to be more of a beggar. The public +"helped" him to be poorer in spirit, more helpless and a more +hopeless cripple. No doubt he belonged after a few days of the +"helping" to the Jerusalem Beggars' Union and carried his card. +Maybe he paid a commission for such a choice beggars' beat. + +But Peter really helped him. "Silver and gold have I none; but such +as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise +up and walk." + + * * * + + Fix the People, Not the Barrel + + +I used to say, "Nobody uses me right. Nobody gives me a chance." +But if chances had been snakes, I would have been bitten a hundred +times a day. We need oculists, not opportunities. + +I used to work on the "section" and get a dollar and fifteen cents +a day. I rattled there. I did not earn my dollar fifteen. I tried +to see how little I could do and look like I was working. I was the +Artful Dodger of Section Sixteen. When the whistle would blow--O, +joyful sound!--I would leave my pick hang right up in the air. I +would not bring it down again for a soulless corporation. + +I used to wonder as I passed Bill Barlow's bank on the way down to +the section-house, why I was not president of that bank. I wondered +why I was not sitting upon one of those mahogany seats instead of +pumping a handcar. I was naturally bright. I used to say "If the rich +wasn't getting richer and the poor poorer, I'd be president of a bank." + +Did you ever hear that line of conversation? It generally comes +from somebody who rattles where he is. + +I am so glad now that I did not get to be president of the bank. +They are glad, too! I would have rattled down in about fifteen +minutes, down to the peanut row, for I was only a peanut. Remember, +the hand-car job is just as honorable as the bank job, but as I was +not faithful over a few things, I would have rattled over many things. + +The fairy books love to tell about some clodhopper suddenly +enchanted up into a king. But life's good fairies see to it that +the clodhopper is enchanted into readiness for kingship before he +lands upon the throne. + +The only way to rule others is to learn to rule ourself. + +I used to say, "Just wait till I get to Congress." I think they are +all waiting! "I'll fix things. I'll pass laws requiring all apples +to be the same size. Yes, I'll pass laws to turn the barrel upside +down, so the little ones will be on the top and the big ones will +be at the bottom." + +But I had not seen that it wouldn't matter which end was the top, +the big ones would shake right up to it and the little ones would +shake down to the bottom. + +The little man has the chance now, just as fast as he grows. You +cannot fix the barrel. You can only fix the people inside the barrel. + +Have you ever noticed that the man who is not willing to fix +himself, is the one who wants to get the most laws passed to fix +other people? He wants something for nothing. + + * * * + + That Cruel Fate + + +O, I am so glad I did not get the things I wanted at the time I +wanted them! They would have been coffee-pots. Thank goodness, we +do not get the coffee-pot until we are ready to handle it. + +Today you and I have things we couldn't have yesterday. We just +wanted them yesterday. O, how we wanted them! But a cruel fate +would not let us have them. Today we have them. They come to us as +naturally today, and we see it is because we have grown ready for +them, and the barrel has shaken us up to them. + +Today you and I want things beyond our reach. O, how we want them! +But a cruel fate will not let us have them. + +Do you not see that "cruel fate" is our own smallness and +unreadiness? As we grow greater we have greater things. We have +today all we can stand today. More would wreck us. More would start +us to rattling. + +Getting up is growing up. + +And this blessed old barrel of life is just waiting and anxious to +shake everybody up as fast as everybody grows. + + + + Chapter V + + Going Up + + How We Become Great + +WE go up as we grow great. That is, we go up as we grow up. But so +many are trying to grow great on the outside without growing great +on the inside. They rattle on the inside! + +They fool themselves, but nobody else. + +There is only one greatness--inside greatness. All outside +greatness is merely an incidental reflection of the inside. + +Greatness is not measured in any material terms. It is not measured +in inches, dollars, acres, votes, hurrahs, or by any other of the +world's yardsticks or barometers. + +Greatness is measured in spiritual terms. It is education. It is +life expansion. + +We go up from selfishness to unselfishness. + +We go up from impurity to purity. + +We go up from unhappiness to happiness. + +We go up from weakness to strength. + +We go up from low ideals to high ideals. + +We go up from little vision to greater vision. + +We go up from foolishness to wisdom. + +We go up from fear to faith. + +We go up from ignorance to understanding. + +We go up by our own personal efforts. We go up by our own service, +sacrifice, struggle and overcoming. We push out our own skyline. We +rise above our own obstacles. We learn to see, hear, hold and understand. + +We may become very great, very educated, rise very high, and yet +not leave our kitchen or blacksmith shop. We take the kitchen or +blacksmith shop right up with us! We make it a great kitchen or +great blacksmith shop. It becomes our throne-room! + +Come, let us grow greater. There is a throne for each of us. + + * * * + + "Getting to the Top" + + +"Getting to the top" is the world's pet delusion. There is no top. +No matter how high we rise, we discover infinite distances above. +The higher we rise, the better we see that life on this planet is +the going up from the Finite to the Infinite. + +The world says that to get greatness means to get great things. So +the world is in the business of getting--getting great fortunes, +great lands, great titles, great applause, great fame, and +folderol. Afterwhile the poor old world hears the empty rattle of +the inside, and wails, "All is vanity. I find no pleasure in them. +Life is a failure." All outside life is a failure. Real life is in +being things on the inside, not in getting things on the outside. + +I weary of the world's pink-sheet extras about "Getting to the Top" +and "Forging to the Front." Too often they are the sordid story of +a few scrambling over the heads of the weaker ones. Sometimes they +are the story of one pig crowding the other pigs out of the trough +and cornering all the swill! + + * * * + + The Secret of Greatness + + +Christ Jesus was a great Teacher. His mission was to educate humanity. + +There came to him those two disciples who wanted to "get to the +top." Those two sons of Zebedee wanted to have the greatest places +in the new kingdom they imagined he would establish on earth. + +They got very busy pursuing greatness, but I do not read that they +were half so busy preparing for greatness. They even had their +mother out electioneering for them. + +"O, Master," said the mother, "grant that these my two sons may sit, +the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom." + +The Master looked with love and pity upon their unpreparedness. +"Are ye able to drink of the cup?" Then he gave the only definition +of greatness that can ever stand: "Whosoever will be great among +you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among +you, let him be your servant." + +That is we cannot be "born great," nor "have greatness thrust upon" +us. We must "achieve greatness" by developing it on the +inside--developing ability to minister and to serve. + +We cannot buy a great arm. Our arm must become a great servant, and +thus it becomes great. + +We cannot buy a great mind. Our mind must become a great servant, +and thus it becomes great. + +We cannot buy a great character. It is earned in great moral service. + + * * * + + The First Step at Hand + + +This is the Big Business of life--going up, getting educated, +getting greatness on the inside. Getting greatness on the outside +is little business. Much of it mighty little. + +Everybody's privilege and duty is to become great. And the joy of +it is that the first step is always nearest at hand. We do not have +to go off to New York or Chicago or go chasing around the world to +become great. It is a great stairway that leads from where our feet +are now upward for an infinite number of steps. + +We must take the first step now. Most of us want to take the +hundredth step or the thousandth step now. We want to make some +spectacular stride of a thousand steps at one leap. That is why we +fall so hard when we miss our step. + +We must go right back to our old place--into our kitchen or our +workshop or our office and take the first step, solve the problem +nearest at hand. We must make our old work luminous with a new +devotion. We must battle up over every inch. And as fast as we +solve and dissolve the difficulties and turn our burdens into +blessings, we find love, the universal solvent, shining out of our +lives. We find our spiritual influences going upward. So the winds +of earth are born; they rush in from the cold lands to the warm +upward currents. And so as our problems disappear and our life +currents set upward, the world is drawn toward us with its problems. +We find our kitchen or workshop or office becoming a new throne +of power. We find the world around us rising up to call us blessed. + +As we grow greater our troubles grow smaller, for we see them thru +greater eyes. We rise above them. + +As we grow greater our opportunities grow greater. That is, we +begin to see them. They are around us all the time, but we must get +greater eyes to see them. + +Generally speaking, the smaller our vision of our work, the more we +admire what we have accomplished and "point with pride." The +greater our vision, the more we see what is yet to be accomplished. + +It was the sweet girl graduate who at commencement wondered how one +small head could contain it all. It was Newton after giving the +world a new science who looked back over it and said, "I seem to +have been only a boy playing on the seashore * * * while the great +ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." That great ocean is +before us all. + + * * * + + The Widow's Mites + + +The great Teacher pointed to the widow who cast her two mites into +the treasury, and then to the rich men who had cast in much more. +"This poor widow hath cast in more than they all. For all these +have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she +of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had." + +Tho the rich men had cast in more, yet it was only a part of their +possessions. The widow cast in less, but it was all she had. The +Master cared little what the footings of the money were in the +treasury. That is not why we give. We give to become great. The +widow had given all--had completely overcome her selfishness and +fear of want. + +Becoming great is overcoming our selfishness and fear. He that +saveth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for the +advancement of the kingdom of happiness on earth shall find it +great and glorified. + +Our greatness therefore does not depend upon how much we give or +upon what we do, whether peeling potatoes or ruling a nation, but +upon the percentage of our output to our resources. Upon doing with +our might what our hands find to do. Quit worrying about what you +cannot get to do. Rejoice in doing the things you can get to do. +And as you are faithful over a few things you go up to be ruler +over many. + +The world says some of us have golden gifts and some have copper +gifts. But when we cast them all into the treasury of right +service, there is an alchemy that transmutes every gift into gold. +Every work is drudgery when done selfishly. Every work becomes +golden when done in a golden manner. + + * * * + + Finding the Great People + + +I do not know who fitted the boards into the floor I stand upon. I +do not know all the great people who may come and stand upon this +floor. But I do know that the one who made the floor--and the one +who sweeps it--is just as great as anybody in the world who may +come and stand upon it, if each be doing his work with the same +love, faithfulness and capability. + +We have to look farther than the "Who's Who" and Dun and Bradstreet +to make a roster of the great people of a community. You will find +the community heart in the precious handful who believe that the +service of God is the service of man. + +The great people of the community serve and sacrifice for a better +tomorrow. They are the faithful few who get behind the churches, +the schools, the lyceum and chautauqua, and all the other movements +that go upward. + +They are the ones who are "always trying to run things." They are +the happy ones, happy for the larger vision that comes as they go +higher by unselfish service. They are discovering that their +sweetest pay comes from doing many things they are not paid for. +They rarely get thanked, for the community does not often think of +thanking them until it comes time to draft the "resolutions of respect." + +I had to go to the mouth of a coal-mine in a little Illinois town, +to find the man the bureau had given as lyceum committeeman there. +I wondered what the grimy-faced man from the shaft, wearing the +miner's lamp in his cap, could possibly have to do with the lyceum +course. But I learned that he had all to do with it. He had sold +the tickets and had done all the managing. He was superintendent of +the Sunday school. He was the storm-center of every altruistic +effort in the town--the greatest man there, because the most +serviceable, tho he worked every day full time with his pick at his +bread-and-butter job. + +The great people are so busy serving that they have little time to +strut and pose in the show places. Few of them are "prominent +clubmen." You rarely find their names in the society page. They +rarely give "brilliant social functions." Their idle families +attend to such things. + + * * * + + A Glimpse of Gunsaulus + + +I found a great man lecturing at the chautauquas. He preaches in +Chicago on Sundays to thousands. He writes books and runs a college +he founded by his own preaching. He is the mainspring of so many +uplift movements that his name gets into the papers about every day, +and you read it in almost every committee doing good things in Chicago. + +He had broken away from Chicago to have a vacation. Many people +think that a vacation means going off somewhere and stretching out +under trees or letting the mind become a blank. But this Chicago +preacher went from one chautauqua town to another, and took his +vacation going up and down the streets. He dug into the local +history of each place, and before dinner he knew more about the +place than most of the natives. + +"There is a sermon for me," he would exclaim every half-hour. He +went to see people who were doing things. He went to see people who +were doing nothing. In every town he would discover somebody of +unusual attainment. He made every town an unusual town. He turned +the humdrum travel map into a wonderland. He scolded lazy towns and +praised enterprising ones. He stopped young fellows on the streets. +"What are you going to do in life?" Perhaps the young man would +say, "I have no chance." "You come to Chicago and I'll give you a +chance," the man on his vacation would reply. + +So this Chicago preacher was busy every day, working overtime on +his vacation. He was busy about other people's business. He did not +once ask the price of land, nor where there was a good investment +for himself, but every day he was trying to make an investment in +somebody else. + +His friends would sometimes worry about him. They would say, "Why +doesn't the doctor take care of himself, instead of taking care of +everybody else? He wears himself out for other people until he +hasn't strength enough left to lecture and do his own work." + +Sometimes they were right about that. + +But he that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his +life in loving service finds it returning to him great and +glorious. This man's preaching did not make him great. His college +did not make him great. His books did not make him great. These are +the by-products. His life of service for others makes him +great--makes his preaching, his college and his books great. + +This Chicago man gives his life into the service of humanity, and +it becomes the fuel to make the steam to accomplish the wonderful +things he does. Let him stop and "take care of himself," and his +career would stop. + +If he had begun life by "taking care of himself" and "looking out +for number one," stipulating in advance every cent he was to get +and writing it all down in the contract, most likely Dr. Frank W. +Gunsaulus would have remained a struggling, discouraged preacher in +the backwoods of Morrow county, Ohio. + + * * * + + Give It Now + + +Gunsaulus often says, "You are planning and saving and telling +yourself that afterwhile you are going to give great things and do +great things. Give it now! Give your dollar now, rather than your +thousands afterwhile. You need to give it now, and the world needs +to get it now." + + + + Chapter VI + + The Problem of "Preparedness" + + Preparing Children to Live + +THE problem of "preparedness" is the problem of preparing children +for life. All other kinds of "preparedness" fade into insignificance +before this. The history of nations shows that their strength was not +in the size of their armies and in the vastness of their population +and wealth, but in the strength and ideals of the individual citizens. + +As long as the nation was young and growing--as long as the people were +struggling and overcoming--that nation was strong. It was "prepared." + +But when the struggle stopped, the strength waned, for the strength +came from the struggle. When the people became materially +prosperous and surrendered to ease and indulgence, they became fat, +stall-fed weaklings. Then they fell a prey to younger, hardier peoples. + +Has the American nation reached that period? + +Many homes and communities have reached it. + +All over America are fathers and mothers who have struggled and +have become strong men and women thru their struggles, who are +saying, "Our children shall have better chances than we had. We are +living for our children. We are going to give them the best +education our money can buy." + +Then, forgetful of how they became strong, they plan to take away +from their children their birthright--their opportunity to become +strong and "prepared"--thru struggle and service and overcoming. + +Most "advantages" are disadvantages. Giving a child a chance +generally means getting out of his way. Many an orphan can be +grateful that he was jolted from his life-preserver and cruelly +forced to sink or swim. Thus he learned to swim. + +"We are going to give our children the best education our money can buy." + +They think they can buy an education--buy wisdom, strength and +understanding, and give it to them C. O. D! They seem to think they +will buy any brand they see--buy the home brand of education, or +else send off to New York or Paris or to "Sears Roebuck," and get +a bucketful or a tankful of education. If they are rich enough, +maybe they will have a private pipeline of education laid to their +home. They are going to force this education into them regularly +until they get them full of education. They are going to get them +fully inflated with education! + +Toll the bell! There's going to be a "blow out." Those inflated +children are going to have to run on "flat tires." + +Father and mother cannot buy their children education. All they can +do is to buy them some tools, perhaps, and open the gate and say, +"Sic 'em, Tige!" The children must get it themselves. + +A father and mother might as well say, "We will buy our children +the strength we have earned in our arms and the wisdom we have +acquired in a life of struggle." As well expect the athlete to give +them his physical development he has earned in years of exercise. +As well expect the musician to give them the technic he has +acquired in years of practice. As well expect the scholar to give +them the ability to think he has developed in years of study. As +well expect Moses to give them his spiritual understanding acquired +in a long life of prayer. + +They can show the children the way, but each child must make the journey. + +Here is a typical case. + + * * * + + The Story of "Gussie" + + +There was a factory town back East. Not a pretty town, but just a +great, dirty mill and a lot of little dirty houses around the mill. +The hands lived in the little dirty houses and worked six days of +the week in the big mill. + +There was a little, old man who went about that mill, often saying, +"I hain't got no book l'arnin' like the rest of you." He was the +man who owned the mill. He had made it with his own genius out of +nothing. He had become rich and honored. Every man in the mill +loved him like a father. + +He had an idolatry for a book. + +He also had a little pink son, whose name was F. Gustavus Adolphus. +The little old man often said, "I'm going to give that boy the best +education my money can buy." + +He began to buy it. He began to polish and sandpaper Gussie from +the minute the child could sit up in the cradle and notice things. +He sent him to the astrologer, the phrenologer and all other +"ologers" they had around there. When Gussie was old enough to +export, he sent the boy to one of the greatest universities in the +land. The fault was not with the university, not with Gussie, who +was bright and capable. + +The fault was with the little old man, who was so wise and great +about everything else, and so foolish about his own boy. In the +blindness of his love he robbed his boy of his birthright. + +The birthright of every child is the opportunity of becoming +great--of going up--of getting educated. + +Gussie had no chance to serve. Everything was handed to him on a +silver platter. Gussie went thru that university about like a steer +from Texas goes thru Mr. Armour's institute of packnology in +Chicago. Did you ever go over into Packingtown and see a steer +receive his education? + +You remember, then, that after he matriculates--after he gets the +grand bump, said steer does not have to do another thing. His +education is all arranged for in advance and he merely rides thru +and receives it. There is a row of professors with their sleeves +rolled up who give him the degrees. So as Mr. T. Steer of Panhandle +goes riding thru on that endless cable from his A-B-C's to his +eternal cold storage, each professor hits him a dab. He rides along +from department to department until he is canned. + +They "canned" Gussie. He had a man hired to study for him. He rode +from department to department. They upholstered him, enameled him, +manicured him, sugar-cured him, embalmed him. Finally Gussie was +done and the paint was dry. He was a thing of beauty. + + * * * + + +Gussie and Bill Whackem Gussie came back home with his education in +the baggage-car. It was checked. The mill shut down on a week day, +the first time in its history. The hands marched down to the depot, +and when the young lord alighted, the factory band played, "See, +the Conquering Hero Comes." + +A few years later the mill shut down again on a week day. There was +crape hanging on the office door. Men and women stood weeping in +the streets. The little old man had been translated. + +When they next opened up the mill, F. Gustavus Adolphus was at its head. +He had inherited the entire plant. "F. Gustavus Adolphus, President." + +Poor little peanut! He rattled. He had never grown great enough to +fill so great a place. In two years and seven months the mill was +a wreck. The monument of a father's lifetime was wrecked in two +years and seven months by the boy who had all the "advantages." + +So the mill was shut down the third time on a week day. It looked +as tho it never could open. But it did open, and when it opened it +had a new kind of boss. If I were to give the new boss a +descriptive name, I would call him "Bill Whackem." He was an +orphan. He had little chance. He had a new black eye almost every +day. But he seemed to fatten on bumps. Every time he was bumped he +would swell up. How fast he grew! He became the most useful man in +the community. People forgot all about Bill's lowly origin. They +got to looking up to him to start and run things. + +So when the courts were looking for somebody big enough to take +charge of the wrecked mill, they simply had to appoint Hon. William +Whackem. It was Hon. William Whackem who put the wreckage together and +made the wheels go round, and finally got the hungry town back to work. + + * * * + + Colleges Give Us Tools + + +After that a good many people said it was the college that made a +fool of Gussie. They said Bill succeeded so well because he never +went to one of "them highbrow schools." I am sorry to say I thought +that way for a good while. + +But now I see that Bill went up in spite of his handicaps. If he had +had Gussie's fine equipment he might have accomplished vastly more. + +The book and the college suffer at the hands of their friends. They +say to the book and the college, "Give us an education." They +cannot do that. You cannot get an education from the book and the +college any more than you can get to New York by reading a +travelers' guide. You cannot get physical education by reading a +book on gymnastics. + +The book and the college show you the way, give you instruction and +furnish you finer working tools. But the real education is the +journey you make, the strength you develop, the service you perform +with these instruments and tools. + +Gussie was in the position of a man with a very fine equipment of +tools and no experience in using them. Bill was the man with the +poor, homemade, crude tools, but with the energy, vision and +strength developed by struggle. + + * * * + + The "Hard Knocks Graduates" + + +For education is getting wisdom, understanding, strength, +greatness, physically, mentally and morally. I believe I know some +people liberally educated who cannot write their own names. But +they have served and overcome and developed great lives with the +poor, crude tools at their command. + +In almost every community are what we sometimes call "hard knocks +graduates"--people who have never been to college nor have studied +many or any books. Yet they are educated to the degree they have +acquired these elements of greatness in their lives. + +They realized how they have been handicapped by their poor mental tools. +That is why they say, "All my life I have been handicapped by lack of +proper preparation. Don't make my mistake, children, go to school." + +The young person with electrical genius will make an electrical +machine from a few bits of junk. But send him to Westinghouse and +see how much more he will achieve with the same genius and with +finer equipment. + +Get the best tools you can. But remember diplomas, degrees are not +an education, they are merely preparations. When you are thru with +the books, remember, you are having a commencement, not an +end-ment. You will discover with the passing years that life is +just one series of greater commencements. + +Go out with your fine equipment from your commencements into the +school of service and write your education in the only book you +ever can know--the book of your experience. + +That is what you know--what the courts will take as evidence when +they put you upon the witness stand. + + * * * + + The Tragedy of Unpreparedness + + +The story of Gussie and Bill Whackem is being written in every +community in tears, failure and heartache. It is peculiarly a +tragedy of our American civilization today. + +These fathers and mothers who toil and save, who get great farms, +fine homes and large bank accounts, so often think they can give +greatness to their children--they can make great places for them in +life and put them into them. + +They do all this and the children rattle. They have had no chance +to grow great enough for the places. The child gets the blame for +making the wreck, even as Gussie was blamed for wrecking his +father's plant, when the child is the victim. + +A man heard me telling the story of Gussie and Bill Whackem, and he +went out of my audience very indignant. He said he was very glad +his boy was not there to hear it. But that good, deluded father now +has his head bowed in shame over the career of his spoiled son. + +I rarely tell of it on a platform that at the close of the lecture +somebody does not take me aside and tell me a story just as sad +from that community. + +For years poor Harry Thaw was front-paged on the newspapers and +gibbeted in the pulpits as the shocking example of youthful +depravity. He seems never to have had a fighting chance to become +a man. He seems to have been robbed of his birthright from the +cradle. Yet the father of this boy who has cost America millions in +court and detention expenses was one of the greatest business +generals of the Keystone state. He could plat great coal empires +and command armies of men, but he seems to have been pitifully +ignorant of the fact that the barrel shakes. + +It is the educated, the rich and the worldly wise who blunder most in +the training of their children. Poverty is a better trainer for the rest. + +The menace of America lies not in the swollen fortunes, but in the +shrunken souls who inherit them. + +But Nature's eliminating process is kind to the race in the barrel +shaking down the rattlers. Somebody said it is only three +generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves. + +How long this nation will endure depends upon how many Gussie boys +this nation produces. Steam heat is a fine thing, but do you notice +how few of our strong men get their start with steam heat? + + * * * + + Children, Learn This Early + + +You boys and girls, God bless you! You live in good homes. Father +and mother love you and give you everything you need. You get to +thinking, "I won't have to turn my hand over. Papa and mamma will +take care of me, and when they are gone I'll inherit everything +they have. I'm fixed for life." + +No, you are unfixed. You are a candidate for trouble. You are going +to rattle. Father and mother can be great and you can be a peanut. + +You must solve your own problems and carry your own loads to have +a strong mind and back. Anybody who does for you regularly what you +can do for yourself--anybody who gives you regularly what you can +earn for yourself, is robbing you of your birthright. + +Father and mother can put money in your pocket, ideas in your head +and food in your stomach, but you cannot own it save as you digest +it--put it into your life. + +I have read somewhere about a man who found a cocoon and put it in +his house where he could watch it develop. One day he saw a little +insect struggling inside the cocoon. It was trying to get out of +the envelope. It seemed in trouble and needed help. He opened the +envelope with a knife and set the struggling insect free. But out +came a monstrosity that soon died. It had an over-developed body +and under-developed wings. He learned that helping the insect was +killing it. He took away from it the very thing it had to have--the +struggle. For it was this struggle of breaking its own way out of +that envelope that was needed to reduce its body and develop its wings. + + * * * + + Not Packhorse Work + + +But remember there is little virtue in work unless it is getting us +somewhere. Just work that gets us three meals a day and a place to +lie down to sleep, then another day of the same grind, then a year +of it and years following until our machine is worn out and on the +junkpile, means little. "One day nearer home" for such a worker +means one day nearer the scrapheap. + +Such a worker is like the packhorse who goes forward to keep ahead +of the whip. Such a worker is the horse we used to have hitched to +the sorghum mill. Round and round that horse went, seeing nothing, +hearing nothing, his head down, without ambition enough to prick up +his ears. Such work deadens and stupefies. The masses work about +that way. They regard work as a necessary evil. They are +right--such work is a necessary evil, and they make it such. They +follow their nose. "Dumb, driven cattle." + +But getting a vision of life, and working to grow upward to it, +that is the work that brings the joy and the greatness. + +When we are growing and letting our faculties develop, we will love +even the packhorse job, because it is our "meal ticket" that +enables us to travel upward. + + * * * + + "Helping" the Turkeys + + +One time I put some turkey eggs under the mother hen and waited day +by day for them to hatch. And sure enough, one day the eggs began +to crack and the little turkeys began to stick their heads out of +the shells. Some of the little turkeys came out from the shells all +right, but some of them stuck in the shells. + +"Shell out, little turkeys, shell out," I urged, "for Thanksgiving +is coming. Shell out!" + +But they stuck to the shells. + +"Little turkeys, I'll have to help you. I'll have to shell you by +hand." So I picked the shells off. "Little turkeys, you will never +know how fortunate you are. Ordinary turkeys do not have these +advantages. Ordinary turkeys do not get shelled by hand." + +Did I help them? I killed them, or stunted them. Not one of the turkeys +was "right" that I helped. They were runts. One of them was a regular +Harry Thaw turkey. They had too many silk socks. Too many "advantages." + +Children, you must crack your own shells. You must overcome your +own obstacles to develop your own powers. + +A rich boy can succeed, but he has a poorer chance than a poor boy. The +cards are against him. He must succeed in spite of his "advantages." + +I am pleading for you to get a great arm, a great mind, a great +character, for the joy of having a larger life. I am pleading with +you to know the joy of overcoming and having the angels come and +minister to you. + + * * * + + Happiness in Our Work + + +Children, I am pleading with you to find happiness. All the world +is seeking happiness, but so many are seeking it by rattling down +instead of by shaking up. + +The happiness is in going up--in developing a greater arm, a +greater mind, a greater character. + +Happiness is the joy of overcoming. It is the delight of an +expanding consciousness. It is the cry of the eagle mounting +upward. It is the proof that we are progressing. + +We find happiness in our work, not outside of our work. If we +cannot find happiness in our work, we have the wrong job. Find the +work that fits your talents, and stop watching the clock and +planning vacations. + +Loving friends used to warn me against "breaking down." They scared +me into "taking care" of myself. And I got to taking such good care +of myself and watching for symptoms that I became a physical wreck. + +I saved myself by getting busier. I plunged into work I love. I +found my job in my work, not away from it, and the work refreshed +me and rejuvenated me. Now I do two men's work, and have grown from +a skinny, fretful, nervous wreck into a hearty, happy man. This has +been a great surprise to my friends and a great disappointment to +the undertaker. I am an editor in the daytime and a lecturer at night. + +I edit all day and take a vacation lecturing at night. I lecture +almost every day of the year--maybe two or three times some +days--and then take a vacation by editing and writing. Thus every +day is jam full of play and vacation and good times. The year is +one round of joy, and I ought to pay people for the privilege of +speaking and writing to them instead of them paying me! + +If I did not like my work, of course, I would be carrying a +terrible burden and would speedily collapse. + +You see, I have no time nowadays to break down. I have no time to +think and grunt and worry about my body. And like Paul I am happy +to be "absent from the body and present with the Lord." Thus this +old body behaves just beautifully and wags along like the tail +follows the dog when I forget all about it. The grunter lets the +tail wag the dog. + + * * * + + +I have never known a case of genuine "overwork." I have never known +of anyone killing himself by working. But I have known of +multitudes killing themselves by taking vacations. + +The people who think they are overworking are merely overworrying. +This is one species of selfishness. + +To worry is to doubt God. + +To work at the things you love, or for those you love, is to turn +work into play and duty into privilege. + +When we love our work, it is not work, it is life. + + * * * + + Many Kinds of Drunkards + + +The world is trying to find happiness in being amused. The world is +amusement-mad. Vacations, Coca Cola and moviemania! + +What a sad, empty lot of rattlers! Look over the bills of the +movies, look over the newsstands and see a picture of the popular +mind, for these places keep just what the people want to buy. What +a lot of mental frog-pond and moral slum our boys and girls wade thru! + +There are ten literary drunkards to one alcoholic drunkard. There +are a hundred amusement drunkards to one victim of strong drink. +And all just as hard to cure. + +We have to have amusement, but if we fill our lives with nothing +but amusement, we never grow. We go thru our lives babies with new +rattleboxes and "sugar-tits." + +Almost every day as I go along the street to some hall to lecture, I +hear somebody asking, "What are they going to have in the hall tonight?" + +"Going to have a lecture." + +"Lecture?" said with a shiver as tho it was "small pox." "I ain't +goin'. I don't like lectures." + +The speaker is perfectly honest. He has no place to put a lecture. +I am not saying that he should attend my lecture, but I am grieving +at what underlies his remark. He does not want to think. He wants +to follow his nose around. Other people generally lead his nose. +The man who will not make the effort to think is the great menace +to the nation. The crowd that drifts and lives for amusement is the +crowd that finds itself back near the caboose, and as the train of +progress leaves them, they wail, they "never had no chanct." They +want to start a new party to reform the government. + + * * * + + The Lure of the City + + +Do you ever get lonely in a city? How few men and women there. A +jam of people, most of them imitations--most of them trying to look +like they get more salary. Poor, hungry, doped butterflies of the +bright lights,--hopers, suckers and straphangers! Down the great +white way they go chasing amusement to find happiness. They must be +amused every moment, even when they eat, or they will have to be +alone with their empty lives. + +The Prodigal Son came to himself afterwhile and thought upon his +ways. Then he arose and went to his father's house. Whenever one +will stop chasing amusements long enough to think upon his ways, he +will arise and go to his father's house of wisdom. But there is no +hope for the person who will not stop and think. And the devil +works day and night shifts keeping the crowd moving on. + +That is why the crowd is not furnishing the strong men and women. + +We must have amusement and relaxation. Study your muscles. First +they contract, then they relax. But the muscle that goes on +continually relaxing is degenerating. And the individual, the +community, the nation that goes on relaxing without +contracting--without struggling and overcoming--is degenerating. + +The more you study your muscles, the more you learn that while one +muscle is relaxing another is contracting. So you must learn that +your real relaxation, vacation and amusement, are merely changing +over to contracting another set of muscles. + +Go to the bank president's office, go to the railroad magnate's +office, go to the great pulpit, to the college chair--go to any +place of great responsibility in a city and ask the one who fills +the place, "Were you born in this city?" + +The reply is almost a monotony. "I born in this city? No, I was +born in Poseyville, Indiana, and I came to this city forty years +ago and went to work at the bottom." + +He glows as he tells you of some log-cabin home, hillside or +farmside where he struggled as a boy. Personally, I think this +log-cabin ancestry has been over-confessed for campaign purposes. +Give us steam heat and push-buttons. There is no virtue in a +log-cabin, save that there the necessity for struggle that brings +strength is most in evidence. There the young person gets the +struggle and service that makes for strength and greatness. And as +that young person comes to the city and shakes in the barrel among +the weaklings of the artificial life, he rises above them like the +eagle soars above a lot of chattering sparrows. + +The cities do not make their own steam. The little minority from +the farms controls the majority. The red blood of redemption flows +from the country year by year into the national arteries, else +these cities would drop off the map. + +If it were not for Poseyville, Indiana, Chicago would disappear. If it +were not for Poseyville, New York would disintegrate for lack of leaders. + + * * * + + "Hep" and "Pep" for the Home Town + + +But so many of the home towns of America are sick. Many are dying. +Many are dead. + +It is the lure of the city--and the lure-lessness of the country. +The town the young people leave is the town the young people ought +to leave. Somebody says, "The reason so many young people go to +hell is because they have no other place to go." + +What is the matter with the small town? Do not blame it all upon +the city mail order house. With rural delivery, daily papers, +telephones, centralized schools, automobiles and good roads, there +are no more delightful places in the world to live than in the +country or in the small town. They have the city advantages plus +sunshine, air and freedom that the crowded cities cannot have. + +I asked the keeper who was showing me thru the insane asylum at +Weston, West Virginia, "You say you have nearly two thousand insane +people in this institution and only a score of guards to keep them +in. Aren't you in danger? What is to hinder these insane people +from getting together, organizing, overpowering the few guards and +breaking out?" + +The keeper was not in the least alarmed at the question. He smiled. +"Many people say that. But they don't understand. If these people +could get together they wouldn't be in this asylum. They are +insane. No two of them can agree upon how to get together and how +to break out. So a few of us can hold them." + +It would be almost unkind to carry this further, but I have been +thinking ever since that about three-fourths of the small towns of +America have one thing in common with the asylum folks--they can't +get together. They cannot organize for the public good. They break +up into little antagonistic social, business and even religious +factions and neutralize each other's efforts. + +A lot of struggling churches compete with each other instead of +massing for the common good. And when the churches fight, the devil +stays neutral and furnishes the munitions for both sides. + +So the home towns stagnate and the young people with visions go +away to the cities where opportunity seems to beckon. Ninety-nine +out of a hundred of them will jostle with the straphangers all +their lives, mere wheels turning round in a huge machine. +Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them might have had a larger +opportunity right back in the home town, had the town been awake +and united and inviting. + +We must make the home town the brightest, most attractive, most +promising place for the young people. No home town can afford to +spend its years raising crops of young people for the cities. That +is the worst kind of soil impoverishment--all going out and nothing +coming back. That is the drain that devitalizes the home towns more +than all the city mail order houses. + +America is to be great, not in the greatness of a few crowded +cities, but in the greatness of innumerable home towns. + +The slogan today should be, For God and Home and the Home Town! + + * * * + + A School of Struggle + + +Dr. Henry Solomon Lehr, founder of the Ohio Northern University at +Ada, Ohio, one of Ohio's greatest educators, used to say with +pride, "Our students come to school; they are not sent." + +He encouraged his students to be self-supporting, and most of them +were working their way thru school. He made the school calendar and +courses elastic to accommodate them. He saw the need of combining +the school of books with the school of struggle. He organized his +school into competing groups, so that the student who had no +struggle in his life would at least have to struggle with the +others during his schooling. + + +He pitted class against class. He organized great literary and +debating societies to compete with each other. He arranged contests +for the military department. His school was one surging mass of +contestants. Yet each student felt no compulsion. Rather he felt +that he was initiating an individual or class effort to win. The +literary societies vied with each other in their programs and in +getting new members, going every term to unbelievable efforts to +win over the others. They would go miles out on the trains to +intercept new students, even to their homes in other states. Each +old student pledged new students in his home country. The military +companies turned the school into a military camp for weeks each +year, scarcely sleeping while drilling for a contest flag. + +Those students went out into the world trained to struggle. I do +not believe there is a school in America with a greater alumni roll +of men and women of uniformly greater achievement. + +I believe the most useful schools today are schools of struggle +schools offering encouragement and facilities for young people to +work their way thru and to act upon their own initiative. + + * * * + + Men Needed More Than Millions + + +We are trying a new educational experiment today. + +The old "deestrick" school is passing, and with it the small +academies and colleges, each with its handful of students around a +teacher, as in the old days of the lyceum in Athens, when the +pupils sat around the philosopher in the groves. + +From these schools came the makers and the preservers of the nation. + +Today we are building wonderful public schools with equally +wonderful equipment. Today we are replacing the many small colleges +with a few great centralized state normal schools and state +universities. We are spending millions upon them in laboratories, +equipment and maintenance. Today we scour the earth for specialists +to sit in the chairs and speak the last word in every department of +human research. + +O, how the students of the "dark ages" would have rejoiced to see +this day! Many of them never saw a germ! + +But each student has the same definite effort to make in +assimilation today as then. Knowing and growing demand the same +personal struggle in the cushions of the "frat" house as back on +the old oak-slab bench with its splintered side up. + +I am anxiously awaiting the results. I am hoping that the boys and +girls who come out in case-lots from these huge school plants will +not be rows of lithographed cans on the shelves of life. I am +hoping they will not be shorn of their individuality, but will have +it stimulated and unfettered. I am anxious that they be not +veneered but inspired, not denatured but discovered. + +All this school machinery is only machinery. Back of it must be +men--great men. I am anxious that the modern school have the modern +equipment demanded to serve the present age. But I am more anxious +that each student come in vital touch with great men. We get life +from life, not from laboratories, and we have life more abundantly +as our lives touch greater lives. + +A school is vastly more than machinery, methods, microscopes and millions. + +Many a small school struggling to live thinks that all it needs is +endowment, when the fact is that its struggle for existence and the +spirit of its teachers are its greatest endowment. And sometimes +when the money endowment comes the spiritual endowment goes in +fatty degeneration. Some schools seem to have been visited by +calamities in the financial prosperity that has engulfed them. + +Can we keep men before millions, and keep our ideals untainted by +foundations? That is the question the age is asking. + +You and I are very much interested in the answer. + + + + Chapter VII + + The Salvation of a "Sucker" + + The Fiddle and the Tuning + +HOW long it takes to learn things! I think I was thirty-four years +learning one sentence, "You can't get something for nothing." I +have not yet learned it. Every few days I stumble over it somewhere. + +For that sentence utters one of the fundamentals of life that +underlies every field of activity. + +What is knowing? + +One day a manufacturer took me thru his factory where he makes +fiddles. Not violins--fiddles. + +A violin is only a fiddle with a college education. + +I have had the feeling ever since that you and I come into this +world like the fiddle comes from the factory. We have a body and a +neck. That is about all there is either to us or to the fiddle. We +are empty. We have no strings. We have no bow--yet! + +When the human fiddles are about six years old they go into the +primary schools and up thru the grammar grades, and get the first +string--the little E string. The trouble is so many of these human +fiddles think they are an orchestra right away. They want to quit +school and go fiddling thru life on this one string! + +We must show these little fiddles they must go back into school and +go up thru all the departments and institutions necessary to give +them the full complement of strings for their life symphonies. + +After all this there comes the commencement, and the violin comes +forth with the E, A, D and G strings all in place. Educated now? +Why is a violin? To wear strings? Gussie got that far and gave a +lot of discord. The violin is to give music. + +So there is much yet to do after getting the strings. All the book +and college can do is to give the strings--the tools. After that +the violin must go into the great tuning school of life. Here the +pegs are turned and the strings are put in tune. The music is the +knowing. Learning is tuning. + +You do not know what you have memorized, you know what you have +vitalized, what you have written in the book of experience. + +Gussie says, "I have read it in a book." Bill Whackem says," I know!" + + * * * + + Reading and Knowing + + +All of us are Christopher Columbuses, discovering the same new-old +continents of Truth. That is the true happiness of +life--discovering Truth. We read things in a book and have a hazy +idea of them. We hear the preacher utter truths and we say with +little feeling, "Yes, that is so." We hear the great truths of life +over and over and we are not excited. Truth never excites--it is +falsehood that excites--until we discover it in our lives. Until we +see it with our own eyes. Then there is a thrill. Then the old +truth becomes a new blessing. Then the oldest, driest platitude +crystallizes into a flashing jewel to delight and enrich our +consciousness. This joy of discovery is the joy of living. + +There is such a difference between reading a thing and knowing a +thing. We could read a thousand descriptions of the sun and not +know the sun as in one glimpse of it with our own eyes. + +I used to stand in the row of blessed little rascals in the +"deestrick" school and read from McGuffey's celebrated literature, +"If--I-p-p-play--with--the--f-f-f-i-i-i-i-r-r-e--I--will--g-e-e-et +--my-y-y-y-y--f-f-f-f--ingers--bur-r-r-rned--period!" + +I did not learn it. I wish I had learned by reading it that if I +play with the fire I will get my fingers burned. I had to slap my +hands upon hot stoves and coffee-pots, and had to get many kinds of +blisters in order to learn it. + +Then I had to go around showing the blisters, boring my friends and +taking up a collection of sympathy. "Look at my bad luck!" Fool! + +This is not a lecture. It is a confession! It seems to me if you in +the audience knew how little I know, you wouldn't stay. + + * * * + + "You Can't Get Something for Nothing" + + +Yes, I was thirty-four years learning that one sentence. "You can't +get something for nothing." That is, getting it in partial tune. It +took me so long because I was naturally bright. It takes that kind +longer than a human being. They are so smart you cannot teach them +with a few bumps. They have to be pulverized. + +That sentence takes me back to the days when I was a "hired man" on +the farm. You might not think I had ever been a "hired man" on the +farm at ten dollars a month and "washed, mended and found." You see +me here on this platform in my graceful and cultured manner, and +you might not believe that I had ever trained an orphan calf to +drink from a copper kettle. But I have fed him the fingers of this +hand many a time. You might not think that I had ever driven a yoke +of oxen and had said the words. But I have! + +I remember the first county fair I ever attended. Fellow sufferers, +you may remember that at the county fair all the people sort out to +their own departments. Some people go to the canned fruit +department. Some go to the fancywork department. Some go to the +swine department. Everybody goes to his own department. Even the +"suckers"! Did you ever notice where they go? That is where I +went--to the "trimming department." + +I was in the "trimming department" in five minutes. Nobody told me +where it was. I didn't need to be told. I gravitated there. The +barrel always shakes all of one size to one place. You notice +that--in a city all of one size get together. + +Right at the entrance to the "local Midway" I met a gentleman. I +know he was a gentleman because he said he was a gentleman. He had +a little light table he could move quickly. Whenever the climate +became too sultry he would move to greener pastures. On that table +were three little shells in a row, and there was a little pea under +the middle shell. I saw it there, being naturally bright. I was the +only naturally bright person around the table, hence the only one +who knew under which shell the little round pea was hidden. + +Even the gentleman running the game was fooled. He thought it was +under the end shell and bet me money it was under the end shell. +You see, this was not gambling, this was a sure thing. (It was!) +I had saved up my money for weeks to attend the fair. I bet it all +on that middle shell. I felt bad. It seemed like robbing father. +And he seemed like a real nice old gentleman, and maybe he had a +family to keep. But I would teach him a lesson not to "monkey" with +people like me, naturally bright. + +But I needn't have felt bad. I did not rob father. Father cleaned +me out of all I had in about five seconds. + +I went over to the other side of the fairgrounds and sat down. That +was all I had to do now--just go, sit down. I couldn't see the +mermaid now or get into the grandstand. + +Sadly I thought it all over, but I did not get the right answer. I said +the thing every fool does say when he gets bumped and fails to learn +the lesson from the bump. I said, "Next time I shall be more careful." + +When anybody says that he is due for a return date. + + * * * + + I Bought the Soap + + +Learn? No! Within a month I was on the street a Saturday night when +another gentleman drove into town. He stopped on the public square +and stood up in his buggy. "Let the prominent citizens gather +around me, for I am going to give away dollars." + +Immediately all the prominent "suckers" crowded around the buggy. +"Gentlemen, I am introducing this new medicinal soap that cures all +diseases humanity is heir to. Now just to introduce and advertise, +I am putting these cakes of Wonder Soap in my hat. You see I am +wrapping a ten-dollar bill around one cake and throwing it into the +hat. Now who will give me five dollars for the privilege of taking a +cake of this wonderful soap from my hat--any cake you want, gentlemen!" + +And right on top of the pile was the cake with the ten wrapped +around it! I jumped over the rest to shove my five (two weeks' farm +work) in his hands and grab that bill cake. But the bill +disappeared. I never knew where it went. The man whipped up his +horse and also disappeared. I never knew where he went. + + * * * + + My "Fool Drawer" + + +I grew older and people began to notice that I was naturally bright +and therefore good picking. They began to let me in on the ground +floor. Did anybody ever let you in on the ground floor? I never +could stick. Whenever anybody let me in on the ground floor it +seemed like I would always slide on thru and land in the cellar. + +I used to have a drawer in my desk I called my "fool drawer." I +kept my investments in it. I mean, the investments I did not have +to lock up. You get the pathos of that--the investments nobody +wanted to steal. And whenever I would get unduly inflated I would +open that drawer and "view the remains." + +I had in that drawer the deed to my Oklahoma corner-lots. Those +lots were going to double next week. But they did not double I +doubled. They still exist on the blueprint and the Oklahoma +metropolis on paper is yet a wide place in the road. + +I had in that drawer my deed to my rubber plantation. Did you ever hear +of a rubber plantation in Central America? That was mine. I had there +my oil propositions. What a difference, I have learned, between an +oil proposition and an oil well! The learning has been very expensive. + +I used to wonder how I ever could spend my income. I do not wonder +now. I wonder how I will make it. + +I had in that drawer my "Everglade" farm. Did you ever hear of the +"Everglades"? I have an aligator ranch there. It is below the +frost-line, also below the water-line. I will sell it by the gallon. + +I had also a bale of mining stock. I had stock in gold mines and +silver mines. Nobody knows how much mining stock I have owned. +Nobody could know while I kept that drawer shut. As I looked over +my gold and silver mine stock, I often noticed that it was printed +in green. I used to wonder why they printed it in green--wonder if +they wanted it to harmonize with me! And I would realize I had so +much to live for--the dividends. I have been so near the dividends +I could smell them. Only one more assessment, then we will cut the +melon! I have heard that all my life and never got a piece of the rind. + + * * * + + Getting "Selected" + + +Why go farther? I am not half done confessing. Each bump only +increased my faith that the next ship would be mine. Good, honest, +retired ministers would come periodically and sell me stock in some +new enterprise that had millions in it--in its prospectus. I would +buy because I knew the minister was honest and believed in it. He +was selling it on his reputation. Favorite dodge of the promoter to +get the ministers to sell his shares. + +I was also greatly interested in companies where I put in one +dollar and got back a dollar or two of bonds and a dollar or two of +stock. That was doubling and trebling my money over night. An old +banker once said to me, "Why don't you invest in something that +will pay you five or six per cent. and get it?" + +I pitied his lack of vision. Bankers were such "tightwads." They +had no imagination! Nothing interested me that did not offer fifty +or a hundred per cent.--then. Give me the five per cent. now! + +By the time I was thirty-four I was a rich man in worthless paper. +It would have been better for me if I had thrown about all my +savings into the bottom of the sea. + +Then I got a confidential letter from a friend of our family I had +never met. His name was Thomas A. Cleage, and he was in the Rialto +Building, St. Louis, Missouri. He wrote me in extreme confidence, +"You have been selected." + +Were you ever selected? If you were, then you know the thrill that +rent my manly bosom as I read that letter from this man who said he +was a friend of our family. "You have been selected because you are +a prominent citizen and have a large influence in your community. +You are a natural leader and everybody looks up to you." + +He knew me! He was the only man who did know me. So I took the +cork clear under. + +"Because of your tremendous influence you have been selected to go +in with us in the inner circle and get a thousand per cent. dividends." + +Did you get that? I hope you did. I did not! But I took a night +train for St. Louis. I was afraid somebody might beat me there if +I waited till next day. I sat up all night in a day coach to save +money for Tom, the friend of our family. But I see now I need not +have hurried so. They would have waited a month with the +sheep-shears ready. Lambie, lambie, lambie, come to St. Louis! + +I don't get any sympathy from this crowd. You laugh at me. You +respect not my feelings. I am not going to tell you a thing that +happened in St. Louis. It is none of your business! + +O, I am so glad I went to St. Louis. Being naturally bright, I +could not learn it at home, back in Ohio. I had to go clear down to +St. Louis to Tom Cleage's bucket-shop and pay him eleven hundred +dollars to corner the wheat market of the world. That is all I paid +him. I could not borrow any more. I joined what he called a "pool." I +think it must have been a pool, for I know I fell in and got soaked! + +That bump set me to thinking. My fever began to reduce. I got the thirty- +third degree in financial suckerdom for only eleven hundred dollars. + +I have always regarded Tom as one of my great school teachers. I +have always regarded the eleven hundred as the finest investment I +had made up to that time, for I got the most out of it. I do not +feel hard toward goldbrick men and "blue sky" venders. I sometimes +feel that we should endow them. How else can we save a sucker? You +cannot tell him anything, because he is naturally bright and knows +better. You simply have to trim him till he bleeds. + + * * * + + I Am Cured + + +It is worth eleven hundred dollars every day to know that one +sentence, You cannot get something for nothing. Life just begins to +get juicy when you know it. Today when I open a newspaper and see +a big ad, "Grasp a Fortune Now!" I will not do it! I stop my +subscription to that paper. I simply will not take a paper with +that ad in it, for I have graduated from that class. + +I will not grasp a fortune now. Try me, I dare you! Bring a +fortune right up on this platform and put it down there on the +floor. I will not grasp it. Come away, it is a coffee-pot! + +Today when somebody offers me much more than the legal rate of +interest I know he is no friend of our family. + +If he offers me a hundred per cent. I call for the police! + +Today when I get a confidential letter that starts out, "You have +been selected--" I never read farther than the word "selected." +Meeting is adjourned. I select the waste-basket. Here, get in there +just as quick as you can. I was selected! + + +O, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son! Learn it early in life. The +law of compensation is never suspended. You only own what you earn. +You can't get something for nothing. If you do not learn it, you +will have to be "selected." There is no other way for you, because +you are naturally bright. When you get a letter, "You have been +selected to receive a thousand per cent. dividends," it means you +have been selected to receive this bunch of blisters because you +look like the biggest sucker on the local landscape. + +The other night in a little town of perhaps a thousand, a banker +took me up into his office after the lecture in which I had related +some of the above experiences. "The audience laughed with you and +thought it very funny," said he. "I couldn't laugh. It was too +pathetic. It was a picture of what is going on in our own little +community year after year. I wish you could see what I have to see. +I wish you could see the thousands of hard-earned dollars that go +out of our community every year into just such wildcat enterprises +as you described. The saddest part of it is that the money nearly +always goes out of the pockets of the people who can least afford +to lose it." + +Absalom, wake up! This is bargain night for you. I paid eleven +hundred dollars to tell you this one thing, and you get it for a +dollar or two. This is no cheap lecture. It cost blood. + +Learn that the gambler never owns his winnings. The man who +accumulates by sharp practices or by undue profits never owns it. +Even the young person who has large fortune given him does not own +it. We only own what we have rendered definite service to bound. +The owning is in the understanding of values. + +This is true physically, mentally, morally. You only own what you +have earned and stored in your life, not merely in your pocket, +stomach or mind. + +I often think if it takes me thirty-four years to begin to learn +one sentence, I see the need of an eternity. + +To me that is one of the great arguments for eternal life--how slowly +I learn, and how much there is to learn. It will take an eternity! + + * * * + + Those Commencement Orations + + +The young person says, "By next June I shall have finished my education." +Bless them all! They will have put another string on their fiddle. + +After they "finish" they have a commencement, not an end-ment, as +they think. This is not to sneer, but to cheer. Isn't it glorious +that life is one infinite succession of commencements and promotions! + +I love to attend commencements. The stage is so beautifully +decorated and the joy of youth is everywhere. There is a row of +geraniums along the front of the stage and a big oleander on the +side. There is a long-whiskered rug in the middle. The graduates +sit in a semicircle upon the stage in their new patent leather. I +know how it hurts. It is the first time they have worn it. + +Then they make their orations. Every time I hear their orations I +like them better, because every year I am getting younger. Damsel +Number One comes forth and begins: + +"Beyond the Alps (sweep arms forward to the left, left arm leading) +lieth Italy!" (Bring arms down, letting fingers follow the wrist. +How embarrassing at a commencement for the fingers not to follow +the wrist! It is always a shock to the audience when the wrist +sweeps downward and the fingers remain up in the air. So by all +means, let the fingers follow the wrist, just as the elocution +teacher marked on page 69.) + +Applause, especially from relatives. + +Sweet Girl Graduate Number 2, generally comes second. S. G. G. No. +2 stands at the same leadpencil mark on the floor, resplendent in +a filmy creation caught with something or other. + +"We (hands at half-mast and separating) are rowing (business of +propelling aerial boat with two fingers of each hand, head +inclined). We are not drifting (hands slide downward)." + +Children, we are not laughing at you. We are laughing at ourselves. +We are laughing the happy laugh at how we have learned these great +truths that you have memorized, but not vitalized. + +You get the most beautiful and sublime truths from Emerson's +essays. (How did they ever have commencements before Emerson?) But +that is not knowing them. You cannot know them until you have lived +them. It is a grand thing to say, "Beyond the Alps lieth Italy," +but you can never really say that until you know it by struggling +up over Alps of difficulty and seeing the Italy of promise and +victory beyond. It is fine to say, "We are rowing and not drifting," +but you cannot really say that until you have pulled on the oar. + +O, Gussie, get an oar! + + * * * + + My Maiden Sermon + + +Did you ever hear a young preacher, just captured, just out of a factory? +Did you ever hear him preach his "maiden sermon"? I wish you had heard +mine. I had a call. At least, I thought I had a call. I think now I +was "short-circuited." The "brethren" waited upon me and told me I had +been "selected": Maybe this was a local call, not long distance. + +They gave me six weeks in which to load the gospel gun and get +ready for my try-out. I certainly loaded it to the muzzle. + +But I made the mistake I am trying to warn you against. Instead of +going to the one book where I might have gotten a sermon--the book +of my experience, I went to the books in my father's library. "As +the poet Shakespeare has so beautifully said," and then I took a +chunk of Shakespeare and nailed it on page five of my sermon. "List +to the poet Tennyson." Come here, Lord Alfred. So I soldered these +fragments from the books together with my own native genius. I +worked that sermon up into the most beautiful splurges and spasms. +I bedecked it with metaphors and semaphores. I filled it with +climaxes, both wet and dry. I had a fine wet climax on page +fourteen, where I had made a little mark in the margin which meant +"cry here." This was the spilling-point of the wet climax. I was to +cry on the lefthand side of the page. + +I committed it all to memory, and then went to a lady who taught +expression, to get it expressed. You have to get it expressed. + +I got the most beautiful gestures nailed into almost every page. +You know about gestures--these things you make with your arms in +the air as you speak. You can notice it on me yet. + +I am not sneering at expression. Expression is a noble art. All +life is expression. But you have to get something to express. Here +I made my mistake. I got a lot of fine gestures. I got an +express-wagon and got no load for it. So it rattled. I got a +necktie, but failed to get any man to hang it upon. I got up before +a mirror for six weeks, day by day, and said the sermon to the +glass. It got so it would run itself. I could have gone to sleep +and that sermon would not have hesitated. + +Then came the grand day. The boy wonder stood forth and before his +large and enthusiastic concourse delivered that maiden sermon more +grandly than ever to a mirror. Every gesture went off the bat +according to the blueprint. I cried on page fourteen! I never knew +it was in me. But I certainly got it all out that day! + +Then I did another fine thing, I sat down. I wish now I had done +that earlier. I wish now I had sat down before I got up. I was the +last man out of the church--and I hurried. But they beat me +out--all nine of them. When I went out the door, the old sexton +said as he jiggled the key in the door to hurry me, "Don't feel +bad, bub, I've heerd worse than that. You're all right, bub, but +you don't know nothin' yet." + +I cried all the way to town. If he had plunged a dagger into me he +would not have hurt me so much. It has taken some years to learn +that the old man was right. I had wonderful truth in that sermon. +No sermon ever had greater truth, but I had not lived it. The old +man meant I did not know my own sermon. + + * * * + + +So, children, when you prepare your commencement oration, write +about what you know best, what you have lived. If you know more +about peeling potatoes than about anything else, write about +"Peeling Potatoes," and you are most likely to hear the applause +peal from that part of your audience unrelated to you. + +Out of every thousand books published, perhaps nine hundred of them +do not sell enough to pay the cost of printing them. As you study +the books that do live, you note that they are the books that have +been lived. Perhaps the books that fail have just as much of truth +in them and they may even be better written, yet they lack the +vital impulse. They come out of the author's head. The books that +live must come out of his heart. They are his own life. They come +surging and pulsating from the book of his experience. + +The best part of our schooling comes not from the books, but from +the men behind the books. + +We study agriculture from books. That does not make us an +agriculturist. We must take a hoe and go out and agricult. That is +the knowing in the doing. + + * * * + + You Must Live Your Song + + + "There was never a picture painted, + There was never a poem sung, + But the soul of the artist fainted, + And the poet's heart was wrung." + + +So many young people think because they have a good voice and they have +cultivated it, they are singers. All this cultivation and irritation +and irrigation and gargling of the throat are merely symptoms of +a singer--merely neckties. Singers look better with neckties. + +They think the song comes from the diaphragm. But it comes from the heart, +chaperoned by the diaphragm. You cannot sing a song you have not lived. + +Jessie was singing the other day at a chautauqua. She has a +beautiful voice, and she has been away to "Ber-leen" to have it +attended to. She sang that afternoon in the tent, "The Last Rose of +Summer." She sang it with every note so well placed, with the +sweetest little trills and tendrils, with the smile exactly like +her teacher had taught her. Jessie exhibited all the machinery and +trimmings for the song, but she had no steam, no song. She sang the +notes. She might as well have sung, "Pop, Goes the Weasel." + +The audience politely endured Jessie. That night a woman sang in +the same tent "The Last Rose of Summer." She had never been to +Berlin, but she had lived that song. She didn't dress the notes +half so beautifully as Jessie did, but she sang it with the +tremendous feeling it demands. The audience went wild. It was a +case of Gussie and Bill Whackem. + +All this was gall and wormwood to Jessie. "Child," I said to her, +"this is the best singing lesson you have ever had. Your study is +all right and you have a better voice than that woman, but you +cannot sing "The Last Rose of Summer" yet, for you do not know very +much about the first rose of summer. And really, I hope you'll +never know the ache and disappointment you must know before you can +sing that song, for it is the sob of a broken-hearted woman. Learn +to sing the songs you have lived." + +Why do singers try to execute songs beyond the horizon of their +lives? That is why they "execute" them. + + * * * + + The Success of a Song-Writer + + +The guest of honor at a dinner in a Chicago club was a woman who is +one of the widely known song-writers of this land. As I had the +good fortune to be sitting at table with her I wanted to ask her, +"How did you get your songs known? How did you know what kind of +songs the people want to sing?" + +But in the hour she talked with her friends around the table I +found the answer to every question. "Isn't it good to be here? +Isn't it great to have friends and a fine home and money?" she +said. "I have had such a struggle in my life. I have lived on one +meal a day and didn't know where the next meal was coming from. I +know what it is to be left alone in the world upon my own +resources. I have had years of struggle. I have been sick and +discouraged and down and out. It was in my little back-room, the +only home I had, that I began to write songs. I wrote them for my +own relief. I was writing my own life, just what was in my own +heart and what the struggles were teaching me. No one is more +surprised and grateful that the world seems to love my songs and +asks for more of them." + +The woman was Carrie Jacobs-Bond, who wrote "The Perfect Day," +"Just a Wearyin' for You," "His Lullaby" and many more of those +simple little songs so full of the pathos and philosophy of life +that they tug at your heart and moisten your eyes. + +Anybody could write those songs--just a few simple words and notes. +No. Books of theory and harmony and expression only teach us how to +write the words and where to place the notes. These are not the +song, but only the skeleton into which our own life must breathe +the life of the song. + +The woman who sat there clad in black, with her sweet, expressive +face crowned with silvery hair, had learned to write her songs in +the University of Hard Knocks. She here became the song philosopher +she is today. Her defeats were her victories. If Carrie Jacobs-Bond +had never struggled with discouragement, sickness, poverty and +loneliness, she never would have been able to write the songs that +appeal to the multitudes who have the same battles. + +The popular song is the song that best voices what is in the +popular heart. And while we have a continual inundation of popular +songs that are trashy and voice the tawdriest human impulses, yet +it is a tribute to the good elements in humanity that the +wholesome, uplifting sentiments in Carrie Jacobs-Bond's songs +continue to hold their popularity. + + * * * + + Theory and Practice + + +My friends, I am not arguing that you and I must drink the dregs of +defeat, or that our lives must fill up with poverty or sorrow, or +become wrecks. But I am insisting upon what I see written all +around me in the affairs of everyday life, that none of us will +ever know real success in any line of human endeavor until that +success flows from the fullness of our experience just as the songs +came from the life of Carrie Jacobs-Bond. + +The world is full of theorists, dreamers, uplifters, reformers, who +have worthy visions but are not able to translate them into +practical realities. They go around with their heads in the clouds, +looking upward, and half the time their feet are in the flower-beds +or trampling upon their fellow men they dream of helping. Their +ideas must be forged into usefulness available for this day upon +the anvil of experience. + +Many of the most brilliant theorists have been the greatest +failures in practice. + +There are a thousand who can tell you what is the matter with +things to one person who can give you a practical way to fix them. + +I used to have respect amounting to reverence for great readers and +book men. I used to know a man who could tell in what book almost +anything you could think of was discussed, and perhaps the page. He +was a walking library index. I thought him a most wonderful man. +Indeed, in my childhood I thought he was the greatest man in the world. + +He was a remarkable man--a great reader and with a memory that +retained it all. That man could recite chapters and volumes. He could +give you almost any date. He could finish almost any quotation. +His conversation was largely made up of classical quotations. + +But he was one of the most helpless men I have ever seen in +practical life. He seemed to be unable to think and reason for +himself. He could quote a page of John Locke, but somehow the page +didn't supply the one sentence needed for the occasion. The man was +a misfit on earth. He was liable to put the gravy in his coffee +and the gasoline in the fire. He seemed never to have digested any +of the things in his memory. Since I have grown up I always think +of that man as an intellectual cold storage plant. + +The greatest book is the textbook of the University of Hard Knocks, +the Book of Human Experience the "sermons in stones" and the "books +in running brooks." Most fortunate is he who has learned to read +understandingly from it. + + * * * + + +Note the sweeping, positive statements of the young person. + +Note the cautious, specific statements of the person who has lived +long in this world. + +Our education is our progress from the sweeping, positive, +wholesale statements we have not proved, to the cautious, specific +statements we have proved. + + * * * + + Tuning the Strings of Life + + +Many audiences are gathered into this one audience. Each person +here is a different audience, reading a different page in the Book +of Human Experience. Each has a different fight to make and a +different burden to carry. Each one of us has more trouble than +anybody else! + +I know there are chapters of heroism in the lives of you older +ones. You have cried yourselves to sleep, some of you, and walked +the floor when you could not sleep. You have learned that "beyond +the Alps lieth Italy." + +A good many of you were bumped today or yesterday, or maybe years +ago, and the wound has not healed. You think it never will heal. +You came here thinking that perhaps you would forget your trouble +for a little while. I know there are people in this audience in pain. +Never do this many gather but what there are some with aching hearts. + +And you young people here with lives like June mornings, are not +much interested in this lecture. You are polite and attentive +because this is a polite and attentive neighborhood. But down in +your hearts you are asking, "What is this all about? What is that +man talking about? I haven't had these things and I'm not going to +have them, either!" + +Maybe some of you are naturally bright! + +You are going to be bumped. You are going to cry yourselves to +sleep. You are going to walk the floor when you cannot sleep. Some +of you are going to know the keen sorrow of having the one you +trust most betray you. Maybe, betray you with a kiss. You will go +through your Gethsemane. You will see your dearest plans wrecked. You +will see all that seems to make life livable lost out of your horizon. +You will say, "God, let me die. I have nothing more to live for." + +For all lives have about the same elements. Your life is going to +be about like other lives. + + * * * + + +And you are going to learn the wonderful lesson thru the years, the +bumps and the tears, that all these things somehow are necessary to +promote our education. + +These bumps and hard knocks do not break the fiddle--they turn the pegs. + +These bumps and tragedies and Waterloos draw the strings of the +soul tighter and tighter, nearer and nearer to God's great concert +pitch, where the discords fade from our lives and where the music +divine and harmonies celestial come from the same old strings that +had been sending forth the noise and discord. + +Thus we know that our education is progressing, as the evil and +unworthy go out of our lives and as peace, harmony, happiness, love +and understanding come into our lives. + +That is getting in tune. + +That is growing up. + + + + Chapter VIII + + Looking Backward + + Memories of the Price We Pay + + +WHAT a price we pay for what we know! I laugh as I look +backward--and weep and rejoice. + +I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, altho it is quite +evident that I could have handled a pretty good-sized spoon. But +father being a country preacher, we had tin spoons. We never had to +tie a red string around our spoons when we loaned them for the +ladies' aid society oyster supper. We always got our spoons back. +Nobody ever traded with us by mistake. + +Do you remember the first money you ever earned? I do. I walked +several miles into the country those old reaper days and gathered +sheaves. That night I was proud when that farmer patted me on the +head and said, "You are the best boy to work, I ever saw." Then the +cheerful old miser put a nickel in my blistered hand. That nickel +looked bigger than any money I have since handled. + + * * * + + That "Last Day of School" + + +Yet I was years learning it is much easier to make money than to +handle it, hence the tale that follows. + +I was sixteen years old and a school teacher. Sweet sixteen--which +means green sixteen. But remember again, only green things grow. +There is hope for green things. I was so tall and awkward then--I +haven't changed much since. I kept still about my age. I was +several dollars the lowest bidder. They said out that way, "Anybody +can teach kids." That is why I was a teacher. + +I had never studied pedagogy, but I had whittled out three rules +that I thought would make it go. My first rule was, Make 'em study. +My second, Make, em recite. That is, fill 'em up and then empty 'em. + +My third and most important rule was, Get your money! + +I walked thirteen miles a day, six and a half miles each way, most of +the time, to save money. I think I had all teaching methods in use. +With the small fry I used a small paddle to win their confidence and +arouse their enthusiasm for an education. With the pupils larger and +more muscular than their teacher I used love and moral suasion. + +We ended the school with an "exhibition." Did you ever attend the +old back-country "last day of school exhibition"? The people that +day came from all over the township. They were so glad our school +was closing they all turned out to make it a success. They brought +great baskets of provender and we had a feast. We covered the +school desks with boards, and then covered the boards with piles of +fried chicken, doughnuts and forty kinds of pie. + +Then we had a "doings." Everybody did a stunt. We executed a lot of +literature that day. Execute is the word that tells what happened +to literature in District No. 1, Jackson Township, that day. I can +shut my eyes and see it yet. I can see my pupils coming forward to +speak their "pieces." I hardly knew them and they hardly knew me, +for we were "dressed up." Many a head showed father had mowed it +with the sheepshears. Mother had been busy with the wash-rag--clear +back of the ears! And into them! So many of them wore collars that +stuck out all stiff like they had pushed their heads on thru their +big straw hats. + +I can see them speaking their "pieces." I can see "The Soldier of +the Legion lay dying in Algiers." We had him die again that day, +and he had a lingering end as we executed him. I can see "The boy +stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled." I can see +"Mary's little lamb" come slipping over the stage. I see the +tow-headed patriot in "Give me liberty or give me death." I feel +now that if Patrick Henry had been present, he would have said, +"Give me death." + +There came a breathless hush as "teacher" came forward as the last +act on the bill to say farewell. It was customary to cry. I wanted +to yell. Tomorrow I would get my money! I had a speech I had been +saying over and over until it would say itself. But somehow when I +got up before that "last day of school" audience and opened my +mouth, it was a great opening, but nothing came out. It came out of +my eyes. Tears rolled down my cheeks until I could hear them +spatter on my six-dollar suit. + +And my pupils wept as their dear teacher said farewell. Parents +wept. It was a teary time. I only said, "Weep not for me, dear +friends. I am going away, but I am coming back." I thought to cheer +them up, but they wept the more. + + * * * + + +Next day I drew my money. I had it all in one joyous wad--$240. I +was going home with head high and aircastles even higher. But I +never got home with the money. Talk about the fool and his money +and you get very personal. + +For on the way home I met Deacon K, and he borrowed it all. Deacon K +was "such a good man" and a "pillar of the church." I used to wonder, +tho, why he didn't take a pillow to church. I took his note for $240, +"due at corncutting," as we termed that annual fall-time paying up +season. I really thought a note was not necessary, such was my +confidence in the deacon. + +For years I kept a faded, tear-spattered, yellow note for $240, +"due at corncutting," as a souvenir of my first schoolteaching. +Deacon K has gone from earth. He has gone to his eternal reward. I +scarcely know whether to look up or down as I say that. He never +left any forwarding address. + +I was paid thousands in experience for that first schoolteaching, +but I paid all the money I got from it--two hundred and forty +thirteen-mile-a-day dollars to learn one thing I could not learn +from the books, that it takes less wisdom to make money, than it +does to intelligently handle it afterwards. Incidentally I learned +it may be safer to do business with a first-class sinner than with +a second-class saint. + +Which is no slap at the church, but at its worst enemies, the foes +of its own household. + + * * * + + Calling the Class-Roll + + +A lyceum bureau once sent me back to my home town to lecture. I +imagine most lecturers have a hard time lecturing in the home town. +Their schoolmates and playmates are apt to be down there in the +front rows with their families, and maybe all the old scores have +not yet been settled. The boy he fought with may be down there. +Perhaps the girl who gave him the "mitten" is there. + +And he has gotten his lecture out of that home town. The heroes and +villains live there within striking distance. Perhaps they have +come to hear him. "Is not this the carpenter's son?" Perhaps this +is why some lecturers and authors are not so popular in the home +town until several generations pass. + +I went back to the same hall to speak, and stood upon the same +platform where twenty-one years before I had stood to deliver my +graduating oration, when in impassioned and well modulated tones I +had exclaimed, "Greece is gone and Rome is no more, but fe-e-e-e-ear +not, for I will sa-a-a-a-ave you!" or words to that effect. + + * * * + + +Then I went back to the little hotel and sat up alone in my room +half the night living it over. Time was when I thought anybody who +could live in that hotel was a superior order of being. But the +time had come when I knew the person who could go on living in any +hotel has a superior order of vitality. + +I held thanksgiving services that night. I could see better. I had +a picture of the school in that town that had been taken twenty-one +years before, just before commencement. I had not seen the picture +these twenty-one years, for I could not then afford to buy one. The +price was a quarter. + +I got a truer perspective of life that night. Did you ever sit +alone with a picture of your classmates taken twenty-one years +before? It is a memorable experience. + +A class of brilliant and gifted young people went out to take +charge of the world. They were so glad the world had waited so long +on them. They were so willing to take charge of the world. They +were going to be presidents and senators and authors and +authoresses and scientists and scientist-esses and geniuses and +genius-esses and things like that. + +There was one boy in the class who was not naturally bright. It was +not the one you may be thinking of! No, it was Jim Lambert. He had +no brilliant career in view. He was dull and seemed to lack +intellect. He was "conditioned" into the senior class. We all felt +a little sorry for Jim. + +As commencement day approached, the committee of the class +appointed for that purpose took Jim back of the schoolhouse and +broke the news to him that they were going to let him graduate, but +they were not going to let him speak, because he couldn't make a +speech that would do credit to such a brilliant class. They hid Jim +on the stage back of the oleander commencement night. + +Shake the barrel! + +The girl who was to become the authoress became the helloess in the +home telephone exchange, and had become absolutely indispensable to +the community. The girl who was to become the poetess became the +goddess at the general delivery window and superintendent of the +stamp-licking department of the home postoffice. The boy who was +going to Confess was raising the best corn in the county, and his +wife was speaker of the house. + +Most of them were doing very well even Jim Lambert. Jim had become +the head of one of the big manufacturing plants of the South, with +a lot of men working for him. The committee that took him out +behind the schoolhouse to inform him he could not speak at +commencement, would now have to wait in line before a frosted door +marked, "Mr. Lambert, Private." They would have to send up their +cards, and the watchdog who guards the door would tell them, "Cut +it short, he's busy!" before they could break any news to him today. + +They hung a picture of Mr. Lambert in the high school at the last +alumni meeting. They hung it on the wall near where the oleander +stood that night. + +Dull boy or girl--you with your eyes tear-dimmed sometimes because +you do not seem to learn like some in your classes can you not get +a bit of cheer from the story of Jim? + + * * * + + +Hours pass, and still as I sat in that hotel room I was lost in +that school picture and the twenty-one years. There were fifty-four +young people in that picture. They had been shaken these years in +the barrel, and now as I called the roll on them, most of them that +I expected to go up had shaken down and some that I expected to +stay down had shaken up. + +Out of that fifty-four, one had gone to a pulpit, one had gone to +Congress and one had gone to the penitentiary. Some had gone to +brilliant success and some had gone down to sad failure. Some had +found happiness and some had found unhappiness. It seemed as tho +almost every note on the keyboard of human possibility had been +struck by the one school of fifty-four. + +When that picture was taken the oldest was not more than eighteen, +yet most of them seemed already to have decided their destinies. +The twenty-one years that followed had not changed their courses. + +The only changes had come where God had come into a life to uplift +it, or where Mammon had entered to pull it down. And I saw better +that the foolish dreams of success faded before the natural +unfolding of talents, which is the real success. I saw better that +"the boy is father to the man." + +The boy who skimmed over his work in school was skimming over his +work as a man. The boy who went to the bottom of things in school +was going to the bottom of things in manhood. Which had helped him +to go to the top of things! + +Jim Lambert had merely followed the call of talents unseen in him +twenty-one years before. + +The lazy boy became a "tired" man. The industrious boy became an +industrious man. The sporty boy became a sporty man. The +domineering egotist boy became the domineering egotist man. + +The boy who traded knives with me and beat me--how I used to envy +him! Why was it he could always get the better of me? Well, he went +on trading knives and getting the better of people. Now, twenty-one +years afterwards, he was doing time in the state penitentiary for +forgery. He was now called a bad man, when twenty-one years ago +when he did the same things on a smaller scale they called him +smart and bright. + +The "perfectly lovely" boy who didn't mix with the other boys, who +didn't whisper, who never got into trouble, who always had his hair +combed, and said, "If you please," used to hurt me. He was the +teacher's model boy. All the mothers of the community used to say +to their own reprobate offspring, "Why can't you be like Harry? +He'll be President of the United States some day, and you'll be in +jail." But Model Harry sat around all his life being a model. I +believe Mr. Webster defines a model as a small imitation of the +real thing. Harry certainly was a successful model. He became a +seedy, sleepy, helpless relic at forty. He was "perfectly lovely" +because he hadn't the energy to be anything else. It was the boys +who had the hustle and the energy, who occasionally needed +bumping--and who got it--who really grew. + +I have said little about the girls of the school. Fact was, at that +age I didn't pay much attention to them. I regarded them as in the +way. But I naturally thought of Clarice, our social pet of the +class--our real pretty girl who won the vase in the home paper +beauty contest. Clarice went right on remaining in the social +spotlight, primping and flirting. She outshone all the rest. But it +seemed like she was all out-shine and no in-shine. She mistook +popularity for success. The boys voted for her, but did not marry +her. Most of the girls who shone with less social luster became the +happy homemakers of the community. + +But as I looked into the face of Jim Lambert in the picture, my +heart warmed at the sight of another great success--a sweet-faced +irish lass who became an "old maid." She had worked day by day all +these years to support a home and care for her family. She had kept +her grace and sweetness thru it all, and the influence of her +white, loving life radiated far. + + * * * + + The Boy I Had Envied + + +Frank was the boy I had envied. He had everything--a fine home, a +loving father, plenty of money, opportunity and a great career awaiting +him. And he was bright and lovable and talented. Everybody said Frank +would make his mark in the world and make the town proud of him. + +I was the janitor of the schoolhouse. Some of my classmates will +never know how their thoughtless jeers and jokes wounded the +sensitive, shabby boy who swept the floors, built the fires and +carried in the coal. After commencement my career seemed to end and +the careers of Frank and the rest of them seemed to begin. They +were going off to college and going to do so many wonderful things. + +But the week after commencement I had to go into a printing office, +roll up my sleeves and go to work in the "devil's corner" to earn +my daily bread. Seemed like it took so much bread! + +Many a time as I plugged at the "case" I would think of Frank and wonder +why some people had all the good things and I had all the hard things. + +How easy it is to see as you look backward. But how hard it is to +see when you look forward. + +Twenty-one years afterward as I got off the train in the home town, +I asked, "Where is he?" We went out to the cemetery, where I stood +at a grave and read on the headstone, "Frank." + +I had the story of a tragedy--the tragedy of modern unpreparedness. +It was the story of the boy who had every opportunity, but who had +all the struggle taken out of his life. He never followed his +career, never developed any strength. He disappointed hopes, spent +a fortune, broke his father's heart, shocked the community, and +finally ended his wasted life with a bullet fired by his own hand. + + * * * + + Why Ben Hur Won + + +It revived the memory of the story of Ben Hur. + +Do you remember it? The Jewish boy is torn from his home in +disgrace. He is haled into court and tried for a crime he never +committed. Ben Hur did not get a fair trial. Nobody can get a fair +trial at the hands of this world. That is why the great Judge has +said, judge not, for you have not the full evidence in the case. I +alone have that. + +Then they condemn him. They lead him away to the galleys. They +chain him to the bench and to the oar. There follow the days and +long years when he pulls on the oar under the lash. Day after day +he pulls on the oar. Day after day he writhes under the sting of +the lash. Years of the cruel injustice pass. Ben Hur is the +helpless victim of a mocking fate. + +That seems to be your life and my life. In the kitchen or the +office, or wherever we work we seem so often like slaves bound to +the oar and pulling under the sting of the lash of necessity. Life +seems one futureless round of drudgery. We wonder why. We often +look across the street and see somebody who lives a happier life. +That one is chained to no oar. See what a fine time they all have. +Why must we pull on the oar? + +How blind we are! We can only see our own oar. We cannot see that +they, too, pull on the oar and feel the lash. Most likely they are +looking back at us and envying us. For while we envy others, others +are envying us. + +But look at the chariot race in Antioch. See the thousands in the +circus. See Messala, the haughty Roman, and see! Ben Hur from the +galleys in the other chariot pitted against him. Down the course +dash these twin thunderbolts. The thousands hold their breath. "Who +will win?" "The man with the stronger forearms," they whisper. + +There comes the crucial moment in the race. See the man with the +stronger forearms. They are bands of steel that swell in the +forearms of Ben Hur. They swing those flying Arabians into the +inner ring. Ben Hur wins the race! Where got the Jew those huge +forearms? From the galleys! + +Had Ben Hur never pulled on the oar, he never could have won the +chariot race. + +Sooner or later you and I are to learn that Providence makes no +mistakes in the bookkeeping. As we pull on the oar, so often lashed +by grim necessity, every honest effort is laid up at compound +interest in the bank account of strength. Sooner or later the time +comes when we need every ounce. Sooner or later our chariot race is +on--when we win the victory, strike the deciding blow, stand while +those around us fall--and it is won with the forearms earned in the +galleys of life by pulling on the oar. + + * * * + + +That is why I thanked God as I stood at the grave of my classmate. +I thanked God for parents who believed in the gospel of struggle, +and for the circumstances that compelled it. + +I am not an example of success. + +But I am a very grateful pupil in the first reader class of The +University of Hard Knocks. + + + + Chapter IX + + Go On South! + + The Book in the Running Brook + +THERE is a little silvery sheet of water in Minnesota called Lake +Itasca. There is a place where a little stream leaps out from the lake. + +"Ole!" you will exclaim, "the lake is leaking. What is the name of +this little creek?" + +"Creek! It bane no creek. It bane Mississippi river." + +So even the Father of Waters has to begin as a creek. We are at the +cradle where the baby river leaps forth. We all start about alike. +It wabbles around thru the woods of Minnesota. It doesn't know +where it is going, but it is "on the way." + +It keeps wabbling around, never giving up and quitting, and it gets +to the place where all of us get sooner or later. The place where +Paul came on the road to Damascus. The place of the "heavenly vision." + +It is the place where gravity says, "Little Mississippi, do you +want to grow? Then you will have to go south." + +The little Mississippi starts south. He says to the people, +"Goodbye, folks, I am going south." The folks at Itascaville say, +"Why, Mississippi, you are foolish. You hain't got water enough to +get out of the county." That is a fact, but he is not trying to get +out of the county. The Mississippi is only trying to go south. + +The Mississippi knows nothing about the Gulf of Mexico. He does not +know that he has to go hundreds of miles south. He is only trying +to go south. He has not much water, but he does not wait for a +relative to die and bequeath him some water. That is a beautiful +thought! He has water enough to start south, and he does that. + +He goes a foot south, then another foot south. He goes a mile +south. He picks up a little stream and he has some more water. He +goes on south. He picks up another stream and grows some more. Day +by day he picks up streamlets, brooklets, rivulets. Business is +picking up! He grows as he flows. Poetry! + +My friends, here is one of the best pictures I can find in nature +of what it seems to me our lives should be. I hear a great many +orations, especially in high school commencements, entitled, "The +Value of a Goal in Life." But the direction is vastly more +important than the goal. Find the way your life should go, and then +go and keep on going and you'll reach a thousand goals. + +We do not have to figure out how far we have to go, nor how many +supplies we will need along the way. All we have to do is to start +and we will find the resources all along the way. We will grow as +we flow. All of us can start! And then go on south! + +Success is not tomorrow or next year. Success is now. Success is +not at the end of the journey, for there is no end. Success is +every day in flowing and growing. The Mississippi is a success in +Minnesota as well as on south. + +You and I sooner or later hear the call, "Go on south." If we +haven't heard it, let us keep our ear to the receiver and live a +more natural life, so that we can hear the call. We are all called. +It is a divine call--the call of our unfolding talents to be used. + +Remember, the Mississippi goes south. If he had gone any other +direction he would never have been heard of. + + * * * + + +Three wonderful things develop as the Mississippi goes on south. + +1. He keeps on going on south and growing greater. + +2. He overcomes his obstacles and develops his power. + +3. He blesses the valley, but the valley does not bless him. + + * * * + + Go On South and Grow Greater + + +You never meet the Mississippi after he starts south, but what he +is going on south and growing greater. You never meet him but what +he says, "Excuse me, but I must go on south." + +The Mississippi gets to St. Paul and Minneapolis. He is a great +river now--the most successful river in the state. But he does not +retire upon his laurels. He goes on south and grows greater. He +goes on south to St. Louis. He is a wonderful river now. But he +does not stop. He goes on south and grows greater. + +Everywhere you meet him he is going on south and growing greater. + +Do you know why the Mississippi goes on south? To continue to be +the Mississippi. If he should stop and stagnate, he would not be +the Mississippi, river. he would become a stagnant, poisonous pond. + +As long as people keep on going south, they keep on living. When +they stop and stagnate, they die. + +That is why I am making it the slogan of my life--GO ON SOUTH AND +GROW GREATER! I hope I can make you remember that and say it over +each day. I wish I could write it over the pulpits, over the +schoolrooms, over the business houses and homes--GO ON SOUTH AND +GROW GREATER. For this is life, and there is no other. This is +education--and religion. And the only business of life. + +You and I start well. We go on south a little ways, and then we +retire. Even young people as they start south and make some little +knee-pants achievement, some kindergarten touchdown, succumb to +their press notices. Their friends crowd around them to congratulate +them. "I must congratulate you upon your success. You have arrived." + +So many of those young goslings believe that. They quit and get +canned. They think they have gotten to the Gulf of Mexico when they +have not gotten out of the woods of Minnesota. Go on south! + +We can protect ourselves fairly well from our enemies, but heaven +deliver us from our fool friends. + +Success is so hard to endure. We can endure ten defeats better than +one victory. Success goes to the head and defeat goes to "de feet." +It makes them work harder. + + * * * + + The Plague of Incompetents + + +Civilization is mostly a conspiracy to keep us from going very far south. +The one who keeps on going south defies custom and becomes unorthodox. + +But contentment with present achievement is the damnation of the race. + +The mass of the human family never go on south far enough to become +good servants, workmen or artists. The young people get a +smattering and squeeze into the bottom position and never go on +south to efficiency and promotion. They wonder why their genius is +not recognized. They do not make it visible. + +Nine out of ten stenographers who apply for positions can write a +few shorthand characters and irritate a typewriter keyboard. They +think that is being a stenographer, when it is merely a symptom of +a stenographer. They mangle the language, grammar, spelling, +capitalization and punctuation. Their eyes are on the clock, their +minds on the movies. + +Nine out of ten workmen cannot be trusted to do what they advertise +to do, because they have never gone south far enough to become +efficient. Many a professional man is in the same class. + +Half of our life is spent in getting competents to repair the +botchwork of incompetents. + +No matter how well equipped you are, you are never safe in your job +if you are contented to do today just what you did yesterday. +Contented to think today what you thought yesterday. + +You must go on south to be safe. + +I used to know a violinist who would say, "If I were not a genius, +I could not play so well with such little practice." The poor +fellow did not know how poor a fiddler he really was. Well did +Strickland Gillilan, America's great poet-humorist, say, "Egotism is +the opiate that Nature administers to deaden the pains of mediocrity. + + * * * + + This Is Our Best Day + + +Just because our hair gets frosty or begins to rub off in spots, we +are so prone to say, "I am aging rapidly." It pays to advertise. We +always get results. See the one shrivel who goes around +front-paging his age. Age is not years; age is grunts. + +We say, "I've seen my best days." And the undertaker goes and +greases his buggy. He believes in "preparedness." + +Go on south! We have not seen our best days. This is the best day +so far, and tomorrow is going to be better on south. + +We are only children in God's great kindergarten, playing with our +A-B-C's. I do not utter that as a bit of sentiment, but as the +great fundamental of our life. I hope the oldest in years sees that +best. I hope he says, "I am just beginning. Just beginning to +understand. Just beginning to know about life." + +We are not going on south to old age, we are going on south to +eternal youth. It is the one who stops who "ages rapidly." Each day +brings us a larger vision. Infinity, Eternity, Omnipotence, +Omniscience are all on south. + +We have left nothing behind but the husks. I would not trade this +moment for all the years before it. I have their footings at +compound interest! They are dead. This is life. + + * * * + + Birthdays and Headmarks + + +Yesterday I had a birthday. I looked in the glass and communed with +my features. I saw some gray hairs coming. Hurrah! + +You know what gray hairs are? Did you ever get a headmark in school? +Gray hairs are silver headmarks in our education as we go on south. + +You children cheer up. Your black hair and auburn hair and the other +first reader hair will pass and you'll get promoted as you go on south. + +Don't worry about gray hair or baldness. Only worry about the location +of your gray hair or baldness. If they get on the inside of the head, +worry. Do you know why corporations sometimes say they do not want +to employ gray-headed men? They have found that so many of them +have quit going on south and have gotten gray on the inside--or bald. + +These same corporations send out Pinkertons and pay any price for +gray-headed men--gray on the outside and green on the inside. They +are the most valuable, for they have the vision and wisdom of many +years and the enthusiasm and "pep" and courage of youth. + +The preacher, the teacher--everyone who gets put on the retired +list, retires himself. He quits going on south. + +The most wonderful person in the world is the one who has lived +years and years on earth and has perhaps gotten gray on the +outside, but has kept young and fresh on the inside. Put that +person in the pulpit, in the schoolroom, in the office, behind the +ticket-window or on the bench--or under the hod--and you find the +whole world going to that person for direction, advice, vision, +help, sympathy, love. + + * * * + + +I am happy today as I look back over my life. I have been trying to +lecture a good while. I am almost ashamed to tell you how long, for +I ought to know more about it by this time. But when anybody says, +"I heard you lecture twenty years ago over at----" I stop him. +"Please don't throw it up to me now. I am just as ashamed of it as +you are. I am trying to do better now." + +O, I want to forget all the past, save its lessons. I am just +beginning to live. If anybody wants to be my best friend, let him +come to me and tell me how to improve--what to do and what not to +do. Tell me how to give a better lecture. + +Years ago a bureau representative who booked me told me my lectures +were good enough. I told him I wanted to get better lectures, for +I was so dissatisfied with what little I knew. He told me I could +never get any better. I had reached my limit. Those lectures were +the "limit." I shiver as I think what I was saying then. I want to +go on south shivering about yesterday. These years I have noticed +the people on the platform who were contented with their offerings, +were not trying to improve them, and were lost in admiration of +what they were doing, did not stay long on the platform. I have +watched them come and go, come and go. I have heard their fierce +invectives against the bureaus and ungrateful audiences that were +"prejudiced" against them. + +Birthdays are not annual affairs. Birthdays are the days when we +have a new birth. The days when we go on south to larger visions. +I wish I could have a birthday every minute! + +Some people seem to string out to near a hundred years with mighty +few birthdays. Some people spin up to Methuselahs in a few years. + +From what I can learn of Methuselah, he never grew past copper-toed +boots. He just hibernated and "chawed on." + +The more birthdays we have, the nearer we approach eternal youth! + + * * * + + Bernhardt, Davis and Edison + + +The spectacle of Sarah Bernhardt, past seventy, thrilling and +gripping audiences with the fire and brilliancy of youth, is +inspiring. No obstacle can daunt her. Losing a leg does not end her +acting, for she remains the "Divine Sarah" with no crippling of her +work. She looks younger than many women of half her years. "The +years are nothing to me." + +Senator Henry Gassaway Davis, West Virginia's Grand Old Man, at +ninety-two was working as hard and hopefully as any man of the +multitudes in his employ. He was an ardent Odd Fellow, and one day +at ninety-two--just a short time before his passing--he went out to +the Odd Fellows' Home near Elkins, where he lived. On the porch of +the home was a row of old men inmates. The senator shook hands with +these men and one by one they rose from the bench to return his +hearty greetings. + +The last man on the bench did not rise. He helplessly looked up at +the senator and said, "Senator, you'll have to excuse me from +getting up. I'm too old. When you get as old as I am, you'll not +get up, either." + +"That's all right. But, my man, how old are you?" + +"Senator, I'm old in body and old in spirit. I'm past sixty." + +"My boy," laughed Senator Davis, "I was an Odd Fellow before +you were born." + +The senator at ninety-two was younger than the man "past sixty," +because he was going on south. + + * * * + + +When I was a little boy I saw them bring the first phonograph that +Mr. Edison invented into the meeting at Lakeside, Ohio. The people +cheered when they heard it talk. + +You would laugh at it today. It had a tinfoil cylinder, it +screeched and stuttered. You would not have it in your barn today +to play to your ford! + +But the people said, "Mr. Edison has succeeded." There was one man +who did not believe that Mr. Edison had succeeded. His name was +Thomas Alva Edison. He had gotten to St. Paul, and he went on +south. A million people would have stopped there and said, "I have +arrived." They would have put in their time litigating for their +rights with other people who would have gone on south with the +phonograph idea. + +Mr. Edison has said that his genius is mainly his ability to keep +on south. A young lady succeeded in getting into his laboratory the +other day, and she wrote me that the great inventor showed her one +invention. "I made over seven thousand experiments and failed +before I hit upon that." + +"Why make so many experiments?" + +"I know more than seven thousand ways now that won't work." + +I doubt if there are ten men in America who could go on south in +the face of seven thousand failures. Today he brings forth a +diamond-pointed phonograph. I am sure if we could bring Mr. Edison +to this platform and ask him, "Have you succeeded?" he would say +what he has said to reporters and what he said to the young lady, +"I have not succeeded. I am succeeding. All I have done only shows +me how much there is yet to do." + +That is success supreme. Not "succeeded" but "succeeding." + +What a difference between "ed" and "ing"! The difference between +death and life. Are you "ed-ing" or "ing-ing"? + + * * * + + Moses Begins at Eighty + + +Moses, the great Hebrew law-giver, was eighty years old before he +started south. It took him eighty years to get ready. Moses did not +even get on the back page of the Egyptian newspapers till he was +eighty. He went on south into the extra editions after that! + +If Moses had retired at seventy-nine, we'd never have heard of him. +If Moses had retired to a checkerboard in the grocery store or to +pitching horseshoes up the alley and talking about "ther winter of +fifty-four," he would have become the seventeenth mummy on the +thirty-ninth row in the green pickle-jar! + +Imagine Moses living today amidst the din of the high school +orations on "The Age of the Young Man" and the Ostler idea that you +are going down hill at fifty. Imagine Moses living on "borrowed +time" when he becomes the leader of the Israelite host. + +I would see his scandalized friends gather around him. "Moses! Moses! +what is this we hear? You going to lead the Israelites to the +Promised Land? Why, Moses, you are an old man. Why don't you act like +an old man? You are liable to drop off any minute. Here is a pair of +slippers. And keep out of the night air. It is so hard on old folks." + +I think I would hear Moses say, "No, no, I am just beginning to see +what to do. Watch things happen from now on. Children of +Israel, forward, march!" + +I see Moses at eighty starting for the Wilderness so fast Aaron can +hardly keep up. Moses is eighty-five and busier and more +enthusiastic than ever. The people say, "Isn't Moses dead?" "No." +"Well, he ought to be dead, for he is old enough." + +They appoint a committee to bury Moses. You cannot do anything in +America without a committee. The committee gets out the invitations +and makes all the arrangements for a gorgeous funeral next +Thursday. They get ready the resolutions of +respect--"Whereas,--Whereas,--Resolved,--Resolved." + +Then I see the committee waiting on Moses. That is what a committee +does--it "waits" on something or other. And this committee goes up +to General Moses' private office. It is his busy day. They have to +stand in line and wait their turn. When they get up to Moses' desk, +the great prophet says, "Boys, what is it? Cut it short, I'm busy." + +The committee begins to weep. "General Moses, you are a very old +man. You are eighty-five years old and full of honors. We are the +committee duly authorized to give you gorgeous burial. The funeral +is to be next Thursday. Kindly die." + +I see Moses look over his appointments. "Next Thursday? Why, boys, +every hour is taken next Thursday. I simply cannot attend my +funeral next Thursday." + +They cannot bury Moses. He cannot attend. You cannot bury anybody +who is too busy to attend his own funeral! You cannot bury anybody +until he consents. It is bad manners! The committee is so +mortified, for all the invitations are out. It waits. + +Moses is eighty-six and the committee 'phones over, "Moses, can you +attend next Thursday?" And Moses says, "No, boys, you'll just have +to hold that funeral until I get this work pushed off so I can +attend it. I haven't even time to think about getting old." + +The committee waits. Moses is ninety and rushed more than ever. He +is doing ten men's work and his friends all say he is killing +himself. But he makes the committee wait. + +Moses is ninety-five and burning the candle at both ends. He is a +hundred. And the committee dies! + +Moses goes right on shouting, "Onward!" He is a hundred and ten. He +is a hundred and twenty. Even then I read, "His eye was not dim, +nor his natural force abated." He had not time to stop and abate. + +So God buried him. The committee was dead. O, friends, this is not +irreverence. It is joyful reverence. It is the message to all of +us, Go on south to the greater things, and get so enthused and +absorbed in our going that we'll fool the "committee." + + * * * + + +All the multitudes of the Children of Israel died in the +Wilderness. They were afraid to go on south. Only two of them went +on south--Joshua and Caleb. They put the giants out of business. + +The Indians once owned America. But they failed to go on south. So +another crop of Americans came into the limelight. If we modern +Americans do not go on south we will join the Indians, the auk and +the dodo. + + * * * + + The "Sob Squad" + + +I am so sorry for the folks who quit, retire, "get on the shelf" or +live on "borrowed time." + +They generally join the "sob squad." + +They generally discover the world is "going to the dogs." They cry +on my shoulder, no matter how good clothes I wear. + +They tell me nobody uses them right. The person going on south has +not time to look back and see how anybody uses him. + +They say nobody loves them. Which is often a fact. Nobody loves the +clock that runs down. + +They say, "Only a few more days of trouble, only a few more +tribulations, and I'll be in that bright and happy land." What will +they do with them when they get them there? They would be dill +pickles in the heavenly preserve-jar. + +They say, "I wish I were a child again. I was happy when I was a +child and I'm not happy now. Them was the best days of my life +childhood's palmy days." + +Wake up! Your clock has run down. Anybody who wants to be a child again +is confessing he has lost his memory. Anybody who can remember the +horrors of childhood could not be hired to live it over again. + +If there is anybody who does not have a good time, if there is +anybody who gets shortchanged regularly, it is a child. I am so +sorry for a child. Hurry up and go on south. It is better on south. + + * * * + + Waiting till the "Second Table" + + +I wish I could forget many of my childhood memories. I remember the +palmy days. And the palm! + +I often wonder how I ever lived thru my childhood. I would not take +my chances living it thru again. I am not ungrateful to my parents. +I had advantages. I was born in a parsonage and was reared in the +nurture and admiration of the Lord. I am not just sure I quoted +that correctly, but I know I was reared in a parsonage. About all +I inherited was a Godly example and a large appetite. That was +about all there was to inherit. I cannot remember when I was not +hungry. I used to go around feeling like the Mammoth Cave, never +thoroly explored. + +I never sit down as "company" at a dinner and see some little +children going sadly into the next room to "wait till the second table" +that my heart does not go out to them. I remember when I did that. + +I can only remember about four big meals in a year. That was +"quart'ly meeting day." We always had a big dinner on "quart'ly +meeting day." Elder Berry would stay for dinner. His name was +Berry, but being "presiding elder," we called him Elder Berry. + +Elder Berry always stayed for dinner. He was one of the easiest men +to get to stay for dinner I ever saw. + +Mother would stay home from "quart'ly meeting" to get the big +dinner ready. She would cook up about all the "brethren" brought in +at the last donation. We had one of those stretchable tables, and +mother would stretch it clear across the room and put on two +table-cloths. She would lap them over in the middle, where the hole was. + +I would watch her get the big dinner ready. I would look over the +long table and view the "promised land." I would see her set on the +jelly. We had so much jelly--red jelly, and white jelly, and blue +jelly. I don't just remember if they had blue jelly, but if they +had it we had it on that table. All the jelly that ever "jelled" +was represented. I didn't know we had so much jelly till "quart'ly +meeting" day. I would watch the jelly tremble. Did you ever see +jelly tremble? I used to think it ought to tremble, for Elder Berry +was coming for dinner. + +I would see mother put on the tallest pile of mashed potatoes you +ever saw. She would make a hollow in the top and fill it with +butter. I would see the butter melt and run down the sides, and I +would say, "Hurry, mother, it is going to spill!" O, how I wanted +to spill it! I could hardly hold out faithful. + +And then Elder Berry would sit down at the table, at the end +nearest the fried chicken. The "company" would sit down. I used to +wonder why we never could have a big dinner but what a lot of +"company" had to come and gobble it up. They would fill the table +and father would sit down in the last seat. There was no place for +me to sit. Father would say, "You go into the next room, my boy, +and wait. There's no room for you at the table." + +The hungriest one of that assemblage would have to go in the next +room and hear the big dinner. Did you ever hear a big dinner when +you felt like the Mammoth Cave? I used to think as I would sit in +the next room that heaven would be a place where everybody would +eat at the first table. + +I would watch them thru the key-hole. It was going so fast. There +was only one piece of chicken left. It was the neck. O, Lord, spare +the neck! And I would hear them say, "Elder Berry, may we help you +to another piece of the chicken?" + +And Elder Berry would take the neck! + +Many a time after that, Elder Berry would come into the room where +I was starving. He would say, "Brother Parlette, is this your +boy?" He would come over to the remains of Brother Parlette's boy. +He would often put his hand in benediction upon my head. + +My head was not the place that needed the benediction. + +He would say, "My boy, I want you to have a good time now." Now! +When all the chicken was gone and he had taken the neck! "My boy, +you are seeing the best days of your life right now as a child." + +The dear old liar! I was seeing the worst days of my life. If there +is anybody shortchanged--if there is anybody who doesn't have a +good time, it's a child. Life has been getting better ever since, +and today is the best day of all. Go on south! + + * * * + + It's Better on South + + +Seeing your best days as a child? No! You are seeing your worst +days. Of course, you can be happy as a child. A boy can be happy +with fuzz on his upper lip, but he'll be happier when his lip feels +more like mine like a piece of sandpaper. There are chapters of +happiness undreamed of in his philosophy. + +A child can be full of happiness and only hold a pint. But +afterwhile the same child will hold a quart. + +I think I hold a gallon now. And I see people in the audience who +must hold a barrel! Go on south. Of course, I do not mean +circumference. But every year we go south increases our capacity +for joy. Our life is one continual unfolding as we go south. +Afterwhile this old world gets too small for us and we go on south +into a larger one. + +So we cannot grow old. Our life never stops. It goes on and on +forever. Anything that does not stop cannot grow old or have age. +Material things will grow old. This stage will grow old and stop. +This hall will grow old and stop. This house we live in will grow +old and stop. This flesh and blood house we live in will grow old +and stop. This lecture even will grow old--and stop! But you and I +will never grow old, for God cannot grow old. You and I will go on +living as long as God lives. + +I am not worried today over what I do not know. I used to be +worried. I used to say, "I have not time to answer you now!" But +today it is such a relief to look people in the face and say, +"I do not know." + +And I have to say that to many questions, "I do not know." I often +think if people in an audience only knew how little I know, they +would not stay to hear me. + +But some day I shall know! I patiently wait for the answer. Every +day brings the answer to something I could not answer yesterday. + +It will take an eternity to know an infinity! + +What a wonderful happiness to go on south to it! + + * * * + + Overcoming Obstacles Develops Power + + +As the Mississippi River goes on south he finds obstacles along the +way. You and I find obstacles along our way south. What shall we do? + +Go to Keokuk, Iowa, for your answer. + +They have built a great concrete obstacle clear across the path of +the river. It is many feet high, and many, many feet long. The +river cannot go on south. Watch him. He rises higher than the +obstacle and sweeps over it on south. + +Over the great power dam at Keokuk sweeps the Mississippi. And then +you see the struggle of overcoming the obstacle develops light and +power to vitalize the valley. A hundred towns and cities radiate +the light and power from the struggle. The great city of St. Louis, +many miles away, throbs with the victory. + +So that is why they spent the millions to build the obstacle--to +get the light and the power. The light and the power were latent in +the river, but it took the obstacle and the overcoming to develop +it and make it useful. + +That is exactly what happens when you and I overcome our obstacles. +We develop our light and power. We are rivers of light and power, +but it is all latent and does no good until we overcome obstacles +as we go on south. + +Obstacles are the power stations on our way south! + +And where the most obstacles are, there you find the most power to +be developed. So many of us do not understand that. We look +southward and we see the obstacles in the road. "I am so +unfortunate. I could do these great things, but alas! I have so +many obstacles in the way." + +Thank God! You are blessed of Providence. They do not waste the +obstacles. The presence of the obstacles means that there is a lot +of light and power in you to be developed. If you see no obstacles, +you are confessing to blindness. + +I hear people saying, "I hope the time may speedily come when I +shall have no more obstacles to overcome!" When that time comes, +ring up the hearse, for you will be a "dead one." + + * * * + + +Life is going on south, and overcoming the obstacles. Death is +merely quitting. + +The fact that we are not buried is no proof that we are alive. Go +along the street in almost any town and see the dead ones. There +they are decorating the hitching-racks and festooning the +storeboxes. There they are blocking traffic at the postoffice and +depot. There they are in the hotel warming the chairs and making +the guests stand up. There they are--rows of retired farmers who +have quit work and moved to town to block improvements and die. But +they will never need anything more than burying. + +For they are dead from the ears up. They have not thought a new +thought the past month. Sometimes they sit and think, but generally +they just sit. They have not gone south an inch the past year. + +Usually the deadest loafer is married to the livest woman. Nature +tries to maintain an equilibrium. + +They block the wheels of progress and get in the way of the people +trying to go on south. They say of the people trying to do things. +"Aw, he's always tryin' to run things." + +They do not join in to promote the churches and schools and big +brother movements. They growl at the lyceum courses and chautauquas, +because they "take money outa town." They do not take any of their +money "outa town." Ringling and Barnum & Bailey get theirs. + +I do not smile as I refer to the dead. I weep. I wish I could +squirt some "pep" into them and start them on south. + +But all this lecture has been discussing this, so I hurry on to the +last glimpse of the book in the running brook. + + * * * + + Go on South From Principle + + +Here we come to the most wonderful and difficult thing in life. It +is the supreme test of character. That is, Why go on south? Not for +blessing nor cursing, not for popularity nor for selfish ends, not +for anything outside, but for the happiness that comes from within. + +The Mississippi blesses the valley every day as he goes on south +and overcomes. But the valley does not bless the river in return. +The valley throws its junk back upon the river. The valley pours +its foul, muddy, poisonous streams back upon the Mississippi to +defile him. The Mississippi makes St. Paul and Minneapolis about +all the prosperity they have, gives them power to turn their mills. +But the Twin Cities merely throw their waste back upon their benefactor. + +The Mississippi does not resign. He does not tell a tale of woe. He +does not say, "I am not appreciated. My genius is not understood. +I am not going a step farther south. I am going right back to Lake +Itasca." No, he does not even go to live with his father-in-law. + +He says, "Thank you. Every little helps, send it all along." Go a +few miles below the Twin Cities and see how, by some mysterious +alchemy of Nature, the Mississippi has taken over all the poison +and the defilement, he has purified it and clarified it, and has +made it a part of himself. And he is greater and farther south! + +He fattens upon bumps. Kick him, and you push him farther south. +"Hand him a lemon," and he makes lemonade. + +Civilization conspires to defeat the Mississippi. Chicago's +drainage canal pollutes him. The flat, lazy Platte, three miles +wide and three inches deep; the peevish, destructive Kaw, and all +those streams that unite to form the treacherous, sinful, +irresponsible lower Missouri; the big, muddy Ohio, the Arkansas, the +Red, the black and the blue floods--all these pour into the Mississippi. + +Day by day the Father of Waters goes on south, taking them over and +purifying them and making them a part of himself. Nothing can +discourage, divert nor defile him. No matter how poisonous he +becomes, he goes a few miles on south and he is all pure again. + + * * * + + +Wonderful the book in the running brook! We let our life stream +become poisoned by bitter memories and bitter regrets. We carry +along such a heart full of the injuries that other people have done +us, that sometimes we are bank to bank full of poison and a menace +to those around us. We say, "I can forgive, but I cannot forget." + +Oh, forget it! Drop it all. Purify your life and go on south all +sweet again. We forget what we ought to remember and remember what +we ought to forget. We need schools of memory, but we need schools +of forgettery, even more. + +As you go on south and bless your valley, do you notice the valley +does not bless you very much? Have you sadly noted that the people +you help the most often are the least grateful in return? + +Don't wait to be thanked. Hurry on to avoid the kick! Do good to +others because that is the way to be happy, but do not wait for a +receipt for your goodness; you will need a poultice every time you +wait. I know, for I have waited! + + * * * + + +We get so discouraged. We say, "I have gone far enough south." +There is nobody who does not have that to meet. The preacher, the +teacher, the editor, the man in office, the business man, the +father and mother--every one who tries to carry on the work of the +church, the school, the lyceum and chautauqua, the work that makes +for a better community, gets discouraged at times. + +We fail to see what we are doing or why we are doing it. Sometimes +we sit down completely discouraged and say, "I'm done. I'm going to +quit. I have done my share. Nobody appreciates what I do. Let +somebody else do it awhile." + +Stop! You are not saying that. The evil one is whispering that into +your heart. His business is to stop you from going south. His most +successful tool is discouragement, which is a wedge, and if he can get +the sharp edge started into your thought, he is going to drive it deeper. + +You do not go south and overcome your obstacles and bless the +valley for praise or blame, for appreciation or lack of it. You do +it to live. You do it to remain a living river and not a stagnant, +unhappy pond or swamp. + +YOU ARE SAVING YOURSELF BY SAVING OTHERS. GO ON SOUTH! + + * * * + + +Almost everybody is deceived. We work from mixed motives. We fool +ourselves that we are working to do good, when as we do the good, +if we are not praised or thanked for it, if people do not present +us a medal or resolutions, we want to quit. That is why there are so +many disappointed and disgruntled people in the world. They worked +for outside thanks instead of inside thanks. They were trying to +be personal saviours. They say this is an ungrateful world. + +O, how easy it is to say these things, and how hard it is to do them! + + * * * + + Reaching the Gulf + + +But because the Mississippi does these things, one day the train I +was riding stopped in Louisiana. We had come to a river so great +science has not yet been able to put a bridge across it. + +I watched them pile the steel train upon a ferry-boat. I watched +the boat crossing a river more than a mile wide. Standing upon the +ferry-boat, I could look down into the lordly river and then far +north perhaps fifteen hundred miles to the little struggling +streamlet starting southward thru the forests of Minnesota, there +writing the first chapter of this wonderful book in the running brook. + +I thank God that I had gone a little farther southward in my own +life. Father of Waters, you have fought a good fight. You are +conquering gloriously. You bear upon your bosom the commerce of +many nations. I know why. I saw you born, saw your struggles, saw +you get in the right channel, saw you learn the lessons of your +knocks, and saw that you never stopped going southward. + +And may we read it into our own lives. May we get the vision of +which way to go, and then keep on going south--on and on, overcoming, +getting the lessons of the bumps, the strength from the struggle and +thus making it a part of ourselves, and thus growing greater. + + * * * + + Go on South Forever! + + +Where shall we stop going south? At the Gulf of Mexico? + +The Mississippi knows nothing about the gulf. He goes on south +until he reaches the gulf. Then he pushes right on into the gulf as +tho nothing had happened. So he pushes his physical banks on south +many miles right out into the gulf. + +And when he comes to the end of his physical banks, he pushes on +south into the gulf, and goes on south round and round the globe. + +When you and I come to our Gulf of Mexico, we must push right on +south. So we push our physical banks years farther into the gulf. And +when physical banks fail, we go on south beyond this mere husk, into +the great Gulf of the Beyond, to go on south unfolding thru eternity. + +WE NEVER STOP GOING SOUTH. + + + + Chapter X + + Going Up Life's Mountain + + The Defeats that are Victories + +HOW often we say, "I wish I had a million!" Perhaps it is a +blessing that we have not the million. Perhaps it would make us +lazy, selfish and unhappy. Perhaps we would go around giving it to +other people to make them lazy, selfish and unhappy. + +O, the problem is not how to get money, but how to get rid of +money with the least injury to the race! + +Perhaps getting the million would completely spoil us. Look at the +wild cat and then look at the tabby cat. The wild cat supports +itself and the tabby cat has its million. So the tabby cat has to +be doctored by specialists. + +If the burden were lifted from most of us we would go to wreck. +Necessity is the ballast in our life voyage. + +When you hear the orator speak and you note the ease and power of +his work, do you think of the years of struggle he spent in +preparing? Do you ever think of the times that orator tried to +speak when he failed and went back to his room in disgrace, +mortified and broken-hearted? Thru it all there came the +discipline, experience and grim resolve that made him succeed. + +When you hear the musician and note the ease and grace of the +performance, do you think of the years of struggle and overcoming +necessary to produce that finish and grace? That is the story of +the actor, the author and every other one of attainment. + +Do you note that the tropics, the countries with the balmiest +climates, produce the weakest peoples? Do you note that the +conquering races are those that struggle with both heat and cold? +The tropics are the geographical Gussielands. + +Do you note that people grow more in lean years than in fat years? +Crop failures and business stringencies are not calamities, but +blessings in disguise. People go to the devil with full pockets; +they turn to God when hunger hits them. "Is not this Babylon that +I have builded?" says the Belshazzar of material prosperity as he +drinks to his gods. Then must come the Needful and Needless Knocks +handwriting upon the wall to save him. + +You have to shoot many men's eyes out before they can see. You have +to crack their heads before they can think, knock them down before +they can stand, break their hearts before they can sing, and +bankrupt them before they can be rich. + +Do you remember that they had to lock John Bunyan in Bedford jail +before he would write his immortal "Pilgrim's Progress"? It may be +that some of us will have to go to jail to do our best work. + +Do you remember that one musician became deaf before he wrote music +the world will always hear? Do you remember that one author became +blind before writing "Paradise Lost" the world will always read? + +Do you remember that Saul of Tarsus would have never been +remembered had he lived the life of luxury planned for him? He had +to be blinded before he could see the way to real success. He had +to be scourged and fettered to become the Apostle to the Gentiles. +He, too, had to be sent to prison to write his immortal messages to +humanity. What throne-rooms are some prisons! And what prisons are +some throne-rooms! + +Do you not see all around you that success is ever the phoenix +rising from the ashes of defeat? + +Then, children, when you stand in the row of graduates on +commencement day with your diplomas in your hands, and when your +relatives and friends say, "Success to you!" I shall take your hand +and say, "Defeat to you! And struggles to you! And bumps to you!" + +For that is the only way to say, "Success to you!" + + * * * + + Go Up the Mountain + +O UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS, we learn to love you more with each +passing year. We learn that you are cruel only to be kind. We learn +that you are saving us from ourselves. But O, how most of us must +be bumped to see this! + +I know no better way to close this lecture than to tell you of a +great bump that struck me one morning in Los Angeles. It seemed as +tho twelve years of my life had dropped out of it, and had been lost. + +Were you ever bumped so hard you were numb? I was numb. I wondered +why I was living. I thought I had nothing more to live for. When a +dog is wounded he crawls away alone to lick his wounds. I felt like +the wounded dog. I wanted to crawl away to lick my wounds. + +That is why I climbed Mount Lowe that day. I wanted to get alone. + + * * * + + +It is a wonderful experience to climb Mount Lowe. The tourists go up +half a mile into Rubio Canyon, to the engineering miracle, the +triangular car that hoists them out of the hungry chasm thirty-five +hundred feet up the side of a granite cliff, to the top of Echo Mountain. + +Here they find that Echo Mountain is but a shelf on the side of +Mount Lowe. Here they take an electric car that winds five miles on +towards the sky. There is hardly a straight rail in the track. +Every minute a new thrill, and no two thrills alike. Five miles of +winding and squirming, twisting and ducking, dodging and summersaulting. + +There are places where the tourist wants to grasp his seat and +lift. There is a wooden shelf nailed to the side of the +perpendicular rockwall where his life depends upon the honesty of +the man who drove the nails. He may wonder if the man was working +by the day or by the job! He looks over the edge of the shelf +downward, and then turns to the other side to look at the face of +the cliff they are hugging, and discovers there is no place to resign! + +The car is five thousand feet high where it stops on that last +shelf, Alpine Tavern. One cannot ride farther upward. This is not +the summit, but just where science surrenders. There is a little +trail that winds upward from Alpine Tavern to the summit. It is +three miles long and rises eleven hundred feet. + +To go up that last eleven hundred feet and stand upon the flat rock +at the summit of Mount Lowe is to get a picture so wonderful it +cannot be described with this poor human vocabulary. It must be +lived. On a pure, clear day one looks down this sixty-one hundred +feet, more than a mile, into the orange belt of Southern +California. It spreads out below in one great mosaic of turquoise +and amber and emerald, where the miles seem like inches, and where his +field-glass sweeps one panoramic picture of a hundred miles or more. + +Just below is Pasadena and Los Angeles. To the westward perhaps +forty miles is the blue stretch of the Pacific Ocean, on westward +the faint outlines of Catalina Islands. The ocean seems so close +one could throw a pebble over into it. How a mountain does reduce +distances. You throw the pebble and it falls upon your toes! + +And Mount Lowe is but a shelf on the side of the higher Sierras. The +granite mountains rise higher to the northward, and to the east rises +"Old Baldy," twelve thousand feet high and snow eternally on his head. + +This is one of the workshops of the infinite! + + * * * + + +All alone I scrambled up that three-mile trail to the summit. All +alone I stood upon the flat rock at the summit and looked down into +the swimming distances. I did not know why I had struggled up into +that mountain sanctuary, for I was not searching for sublimity. I +was searching for relief. I was heartsick. + +I saw clouds down in the valley below me. I had never before looked +down upon clouds. I thought of the cloud that had covered me in the +valley below, and dully watched the clouds spread wider and blacker. + +Afterwhile the valley was all hidden by the clouds. I knew rain +must be falling down there. The people must be saying, "The sun +doesn't shine. The sky is all gone." But I saw the truth--the sun +was shining. The sky was in place. A cloud had covered down over +that first mile. The sun was shining upon me, the sky was all blue +over me, and there were millions of miles of sunshine above me. I +could see all this because I had gone above the valley. I could see +above the clouds. + +A great light seemed to break over my stormswept soul. I am under +the clouds of trouble today, BUT THE SUN IS SHINING! + +I must go on up the mountain to see it. + +The years have been passing, the stormclouds have many times hidden +my sun. But I have always found the sun shining above them. No +matter how black and sunless today, when I have struggled on up the +mountain path, I have gotten above the clouds and found the sun +forever shining and God forever in His heavens. + +Each day as I go up the mountain I get a larger vision. The miles +that seem so great down in the valley, seem so small as I look down +upon them from higher up. Each day as I look back I see more +clearly the plan of a human life. The rocks, the curves and the +struggles fit into a divine engineering plan to soften the +steepness of the ascent. The bumps are lifts. The things that seem +so important down in the smudgy, stormswept valley, seem so +unimportant as we go higher up the mountain to more important things. + +Today I look back to the bump that sent me up Mount Lowe. I did not +see how I could live past that bump. The years have passed and I now +know it was one of the greatest blessings of my life. It closed one +gate, but it opened another gate to a better pathway up the mountain. + +Late that day I was clambering down the side of Mount Lowe. Down in +the valley below me I saw shadows. Then I looked over into the +southwest and I could see the sun going down. I could see him sink +lower and lower until his red lips kissed the cheek of the Pacific. +The glory of the sunset filled sea and sky with flames of gold and +fountains of rainbows. Such a sunset from the mountain-side is a +promise of heaven. + +The shadows of sunset widened over the valley. Presently all the +valley was black with the shadow. It was night down there. The +people were saying, "The sun doesn't shine." But it was not night +where I stood. I was farther up the mountain. I turned and looked +up to the summit. The beams of the setting sun were yet gilding +Mount Lowe's summit. It was night down in the valley, but it was +day on the mountain top! + + * * * + + +Go on south! + + +That means, go on up! + + +Child of humanity, are you in the storm? Go on upward. Are you in +the night? Go on upward. + + +For the peace and the light are always above the storm and the +night, and always in our reach. + + +I am going on upward. Take my hand and let us go together. Mount Lowe +showed the way that dark day. There I heard the "sermons in stones." + + +Some day my night will come. It will spread over all this valley of +material things where the storms have raged. + + +But I shall be on the mountain top. I shall look down upon the +night, as I am learning to climb and look down upon the storms. I +shall be in the new day of the mountain-top, forever above the night. + + +I shall find this mountain-top just another shelf on the side of +the Mountain of Infinite Unfolding. I shall have risen perhaps only +the first mile. I shall have millions of miles yet to rise. + + +This will be another Commencement Day and Master's Degree. Infinite +the number on up. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have +entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared +for them that love Him." + +We are not growing old. We are going up to Eternal Life. + +Rejoice and Go Upward! + + * * * + + + ANOTHER BEGINNING + + + + The Big Business of Life + Turning work Into Play + + By Ralph Parlette + +This book proves that the real big business is that of getting our +happiness now in our work, and not tomorrow for our work. + +Judge Ben B. Lindsey, the kids' Judge, says: +"It is a great big boost for everybody who will read it. People +ought to buy them by the gross and send them to their friends." + +Dr. J. G. Crabbe, President of the State Teachers College, +Greeley, Colo., says: +"The Big Business of Life is a real joy to read. It is big and +ought to be read today and tomorrow and forevermore every +where. It is truly `A Book of Rejoicing'." + +The Augsberg Teacher, a Magazine for Teachers, says: +"In The Big Business of Life we have the practical philosophy +that it is everyone's business to abolish work and turn this +world into a playground. Who will not confess that many +mortals take their work too seriously, and that to them it is a +joyless, cheerless thing? To be able to find happiness, and to +find it when we are bending to our duties is to possess the +secret of living to the full. And happiness is to be sought +within, and not among the things that lie at our feet. The +book before us is wholesome and vivacious. It provokes many +a smile, and beneath each one is a bit of wisdom it would do us +a world of good to learn. It recalls the saying of the wise man +`A merry heart doeth good like a medicine'." + + +Many who have read The Big Business of Life +write us that they think it is even better than "The +University of Hard Knocks," which, they add, is +mighty hard to beat. + + Similar in size and binding to + "The University of Hard Knocks." + + Price $1.00 Net + Add 10c for postage + PARLETTE-PADGET COMPANY +122 South Michigan Avenue Chicago + + + + It's Up To You! + Are You Shaking Up or Rattling Down? + + Go On South! + The Best is Yet to Come + + The Salvation of a Sucker + You Can't Get Something for Nothing + + +These booklets by Ralph Parlette are short stories adapted from +chapters in "The University of Hard Knocks." + + +John C. Carroll, President of the Hyde Park State Bank of Chicago, +bought 1000 copies of the booklet "It's Up to You!" and of it he +says. "Parlette's Beans and Nuts is just as good as the Message to +Garcia and will be handed around just us much. I have handed the book +to business men, to young fellows, bond salesmen and such, to our +own vice president, and they all want another copy to send to some +friend. I would rather be author of it than president of the bank." + + +Employers in every line of business are buying quantities of "It's +Up to You!" for their workers. + + +William Jennings Bryan says of the booklet "Go On South": "It is +one of the great stories of the day." + + +Charles Grilk of Davenport, says: "My two children and I read the +Mississippi River story together and we were thoroly delighted." + + +Instruct us to send one of these booklets to your friends. It will +delight them more than any small present you can make. + + Price 25c Each Postpaid + + Parlette-Padget Company +122 South Michigan Avenue Chicago + + +[End.] diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/land.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/land.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..cca28049 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/land.txt @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +[Excerted without permission from New Alchemy (Spring +1988).`Subscriptions $8/yr (4 issues) from New Alchemy, 237 Hatchville +Rd., East Falmouth, MA 02536.] + + + WHO REALLY OWNS THE LAND? + ------------------------- + by Judith M.Barnet + + How does it come to be that a non-renewable resource like land and a + basic human need like shelter are subject to the slings and arrows of + the marketplace and the buisness cycle? The root answer to that + subversive question takes us to the institution of private property, + defined as that which can be sold and whose possesion confers exclusive + rights upon the owner. THis aspect of our relationship to land is so + thoroughly taken for granted in our culture that to even raise the + topic seems absurd, until we remember that the ownership system brought + to North American shores by the colonists constituted an almost + unimaginable revolution to the indians. We tend to forget that in + Native American culture it was inconceivable that land could be sold - + because it wasn't something one owned. A further root of all this can + be traced back to what is probably the largest privatizing operation in + history; the enclosure movement in 15th century England, when common + rights to land were extinguished, individual title was established and + 15,000 peasants were cleared off 794,000 Scottish acres to create 29 + farms, each inhabited by a single family (with imported servants) and + 131,000 sheep. This institutional arrangement was required to launch + the woolen industr y, and land became from that moment and for all time + a commodity; to be valued at its 'highest and best use,' presumably + determined by what the market could bring. Is it too great a leap from + there to the speculation in real estate market today that has brought + us the current housing crisis? + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/landfill.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/landfill.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a70fdc2f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/landfill.txt @@ -0,0 +1,529 @@ + + + + To: Activists concerned about landfills + Fr: Greenpeace Research Division + Da: 2 May 1989 + + + If landfills are an issue in your area, you should find the + following information of interest: + + + + "Disposal of "nonhazardous" solid waste is regulated under + Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). + These Subtitle D wastes include many different types of waste + streams, such as municipal solid waste, industrial waste, and oil + and gas waste." + "More than 11 Billion Tons of Subtitle D Waste Are Produced + Annually in the United States. Of this total more than 95 percent + are industrial nonhazardous waste, oil and gas waste, mining waste, + and municipal solid waste. Each type of waste presents unique + management problems and risks." + "There are 226,732 Subtitle D units in the United States. + Eighty-four percent of this total are surface impoundments, 8 + percent are land application units, 6 percent are landfills, and 2 + percent are industrial waste piles. Of the nearly 13,000 landfill + units identified, 6,584 are municipal solid waste landfill units." + "Shortages of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Capacity are + Occurring in Some Areas of the Nation. The shortages are due to + several factors: (1) 83 percent of the municipal solid waste + generated in 1986 was landfilled; (2) 45 percent of all municipal + solid waste landfills will close by 1991; (3) some States have not + conducted long-term planning; and (4) siting of new disposal + facilities is difficult." + "Municipal solid waste landfills have degraded and may continue + to degrade the environment." + "... the data indicate that releases to the ground water from + municipal solid waste landfills present potential risks to human + health." + "Acute human health impacts associated with methane releases have + been documented." + "... the limited available data on industrial Subtitle D + facilities indicate that there is cause for concern and a need for + further study. Current findings include: (1) the use of design + controls at industrial facilities is very limited; (2) the number of + industrial facilities is large and the amount of industrial + nonhazardous waste generated annually dwarfs the amount of municipal + solid waste; ..." + "Waste tires, infections waste, and municipal waste combustion + ash are examples of special Subtitle D wastes. The special + management concerns posed by these waste streams arise from the + unique characteristics of these wastes. Current data are not + sufficient to estimate reliably the risks posed by these wastes." + "Federal and some State solid waste regulations lack the + following essential requirements: location criteria, appropriate + design criteria, ground-water monitoring, corrective action, closure + and post-closure care, and financial responsibility." + + + 1 + + + + + + + + + "... HSWA [1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to RCRA] + requires EPA to revise the current criteria for facilities that may + receive household hazardous waste or small-quantity generator + hazardous waste." + "... the Subtitle D waste stream is very diverse. Such different + waste types as waste tires, infectious waste, industrial + nonhazardous waste, and municipal solid wastes are all regulated + under Subtitle D of RCRA. .. the industrial nonhazardous waste + category includes waste from the pulp and paper industry, the + organic chemical industry, the textile manufacturing industry and a + variety of other industries." + "Each Subtitle D waste type presents unique problems and risks." + "Table 1. Subtitle D Waste Categories and Quantities + Estimated Annual Generation Rate + Waste Category (million tons) + Industrial Nonhazardous Waste 7,600 (a,b) + Oil and Gas Waste (c) + -drilling waste 129 - 871 (d,e) + -produced waters 1,966 - 2,738 (e,f) + Mining Waste (c) > 1,400 (g) + Municipal Solid Waste 158 (b) + -household hazardous waste 0.002 - 0.56 (b) + Municipal Waste Combustion Ash 3.2 - 8.1 (h) + Utility Waste (c) + - ash 69 (i) + -flue gas desulfurization waste 16 (i) + Construction and Demolition Waste 31.5 (j) + Municipal Sludge + - wastewater treatment 6.9 (b) + - water treatment 3.5 (b) + Very-Small-Quantity Generator + Hazardous Waste (<100 kg/mo) 0.2 (e) + Waste Tires 240 million tires (g) + Infectious Waste 2.1 (e,l) + Agricultural Waste Unknown + Approximate >11,387 + a: Not including industrial waste that is recycled or disposed + of off site. + b: These estimates are derived from 1986 data. + c: Waste category is the subject of a separate report to + Congress + d: Converted to tons from barrels: 42 gals = 1 barrel, ~17 + lbs/gal + e: These estimates are derived from 1985 data. + f: Converted to tons from barrels: 42 gals = 1 barrel, ~8 + lbs/gal + g: These estimates are derived from 1983 data. + h: This estimate is derived from 1988 data. + i: These estimates are derived from 1984 data. + j: This estimate is derived from 1970 data. + k: Small quantity generators (100-1,000 kg/mo) have been + regulated under RCRA, Subtitle C, since October 1986. Before + then, approximately 830,000 tons of small-quantity generator + hazardous wastes were disposed of in Subtitle D facilities + every year. + + + 2 + + + + + + + + + l: Includes only infectious hospital waste. + + "This study estimates that there are 226,732 Subtitle D units + located at approximately 128,000 establishments. (An establishment + may have more than one unit.) Of these units, 84 percent are + surface impoundments, 8 percent are land application units, 6 + percent are landfills, and 2 percent are industrial waste piles ... + More than half the units are oil and gas surface impoundments. + Municipal solid waste landfills account for nearly half of the + landfills and more than two-thirds of the land application units + are municipal sewage sludge units." + "Most of the Subtitle D facilities are privately owned. This is + because of the overwhelming number of privately owned oil and gas, + industrial, and mining waste facilities. In addition, + approximately 17 percent of municipal solid waste landfills are + privately owned. However, municipal solid waste landfills are + predominantly publicly owned. Nearly 78 percent of municipal solid + waste landfills are owned by local governments, approximately 4 + percent by the Federal government, and 1 percent by State + government." + "Table 2. Estimated Number of Active Subtitle D Units + Unit Type + Waste Category Landfills Surface Land Waste + Impoundments Application Piles Total + Municipal solid + waste 6,584(a) b b b 6,584 + Industrial waste 2,757(c) 15,253 (c) 4,308(c) 5,335 (c) 27,654 + Municipal Sewage + Sludge d 1,938 11,937 b 13,875 + Oil and Gas Waste (e) b 125,074 726 b 125,800 + Agricultural Waste d 17,159 b b 17,159 + Mining Waste (e) d 19,183 b d 19,813 + Municipal Runoff b 488 b b 488 + Construction and + Demolition Debris 2,591 b b d 2,591 + Miscellaneous + Waste 1,030 11,118 621 d 12,769 + Appropriate Total + Number of Units 12,962 190,843 17,592 5,335 226,732 + a: The results of a previous census of the States indicated 9,300 + municipal solid waste landfills. However, the table entry is + considered more accurate. It is based on a 1986 Survey. + b: Unknown, none or few thought to exist. + c: These estimates differ from previously published results from a + census of the States. Table entries are considered to be more + accurate. They are based on a 1986 Industrial Survey. + d. Unknown, some may exist. + e. Waste category is the subject of a separate report to Congress. + "Approximately 83 percent of the municipal solid waste generated + in 1986 was disposed of in landfills, while only 11 percent was + recycled, and only 6 percent was combusted." + "Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of all municipal solid waste + landfills are expected to close within 15 years, with 45 percent + expected to close in 5 years .... These shortages are becoming + critical in densely populated areas of the country, particularly in + + + 3 + + + + + + + + + the Northeast." + "Municipal solid waste landfills and the waste they receive have + been characterized reasonably well, and some impacts associated with + municipal solid waste landfills have been identified. However, + leachate and gas data for these facilities are limited." + "Comparatively less is known about industrial wastes and + facilities. Specific industrial waste streams have not been well + characterized and little is known about the hazards they may pose." + "... the data indicate that some municipal solid waste landfills + present potential risks to human health. Human health impacts from + exposure to contaminant releases to ground water from municipal + solid waste landfills are difficult to isolate due to the complex + interaction of factors that affect human health." + "With regard to air emissions from municipal solid waste + landfills, acute impacts associated with methane releases have been + documented. The Agency is currently determining the extent of human + health risks that may result from emission of volatile organic + compounds, which have been estimated to be in the range of 200,000 + megagrams per year." + "The number of industrial facilities is very large, as is the + amount of waste they handle. Because current data are limited, it + is not possible to draw conclusions regarding the risks posed by + these facilities. Existing data however, do suggest that these + facilities need to be further investigated to determine the need for + additional regulatory action." + "Data on post-1980 facilities [solid waste landfills] are very + limited. (These newer sites represent only 30 percent of the + municipal solid waste landfills in existence today)." + "... on a national basis, EPA found little difference in the + location, design, and operation of newer municipal solid waste + landfills versus older landfills." + "Some large-quantity [hazardous waste] generators may also be + illegally disposing of their hazardous wastes in municipal solid + waste landfills." + "... environmental impacts and threats to human health have been + documented at 163 municipal solid waste landfills." + "Ground-water and surface water quality were adversely affected + at 146 and 73 municipal solid waste landfills, respectively. While + the impacts identified range in severity, 33 sites have contaminated + drinking water resources, and three other sites pose a threat to + water supply systems. For example, one active municipal solid waste + landfill has contaminated a square mile of a sole-source aquifer and + has closed a major community well field. ... Elevated levels of + organics, including pesticides, and metal contaminants have been + found in ground water and/or surface water at many sites." + "Impacts on fish or other aquatic life have been documented at 13 + sites. ... this small number of cases does not likely reflect the + actual number of occurrences." + Superfund Statistics + "To be listed on the NPL [Superfund National Priorities List], a + site must present or be capable of presenting significant + environmental and/or human health impacts. Of the 850 sites listed + or proposed for listing on the NPL in May 1986, 184 sites (22 + percent) were identified as municipal solid waste landfills." + "Halogenated organics, aromatics, and metals were found at most + + + 4 + + + + + + + + + of these sites. Releases of hazardous materials to ground water + were documented at nearly 75 percent of the sites. Forty-three + percent had releases to surface water, and 16 percent had + significant air emission problems." + Methane Damage + "Methane is produced in municipal solid waste landfills through + anaerobic decomposition of organic waste, and is explosive at + sufficiently high concentrations (the lower explosive limit). ... + where methane is not controlled, it can cause fires and explosions." + Ground-Water Risk Assessment + "To characterize typical leachate from a municipal solid waste + landfill, the AGency chose eight constituents from more than 200 + chemical constituents found in municipal solid waste leachate. ... + The eight constituents and the effect of concern for each are as + follows: + - Vinyl Chloride human health risk (cancer) + - Arsenic human health risk (cancer) + - Iron resource damage (taste and + odor) + - 1,1,2,2,-Tetrachloroethane human health risk (cancer) + - Methylene chloride human health risk (cancer) + - Antimony human health risk (systemic + poisoning) + - Carbon Tetrachloride human health risk (cancer) + - Phenol resource damage (taste and odor)" + The analysis estimates human health risk for the maximum exposed + individual and the total population using ground water as a drinking + water source within one mile of the facility. ... Current data + indicate that 54 percent of existing municipal solid waste landfills + have no downgradient drinking water wells within one mile." + "For the subgroup of landfills located within one mile of a + drinking water well (46 percent of all landfills), nearly 40 percent + have risk exceeding 10(-6), with 14 percent posing risk in the 10(- + 5) to 10(-4) range." + "The overall risk distribution changes significantly if it is + assumed that all drinking water wells are located at the facility + boundary (assumed to be 10 meters from the landfill unit). This + scenario, although certainly very conservative, helps to identify + the number of landfills that may contaminate the ground water + beneath the facility above health-based limits. Making this + assumption, over 67 percent of the landfills would hypothetically + pose risks exceeding 10(-6), with approximately 35 percent posing + risks in the 10(-5) to 10(-4) range." + "In present-value terms, the Agency estimates that resource + damage from municipal solid waste landfills ranges from $0 to more + than $4 million per site. The model predicts that nearly a third of + the landfills would have resource damage exceeding $200,000, and + about 13 percent have resource damage in excess of $1 million." + "The model estimates that the resulting total plume area from + 6,000 new facilities placed in existing landfill locations would be + roughly 1,114 square miles (an area slightly smaller than the state + of Rhode Island) over the 300-year modeling period." + "Municipal solid waste landfills receive a variety of wastes ... + While the overall waste stream is considered to be less hazardous + than that received at RCRA Subtitle C (hazardous waste) facilities, + + + 5 + + + + + + + + + it nevertheless is a source of concern. By far, the majority of + waste disposed of at municipal solid waste landfills is household + waste (72 percent of the total waste stream). Household waste + is primarily made up of nonhazardous materials such as paper. Some + nonhazardous material, however may contain hazardous constituents, + such as, lead in newsprint. In addition, within a landfill, some of + these nonhazardous materials may degrade biologically and/or + chemically and form more toxic constituents. ... Also, about 0.35 to + 0.40 percent of the overall household waste stream includes + hazardous components. Constituents of concern in household + hazardous waste include solvents, pesticides, other organics, acids, + bases, medicines, and inks ... + "Table 4: Wastes Disposed of in a Typical Municipal Solid Waste + Landfill + Waste Types Waste Composition Percentage (a) + (mean value) + Household Waste 72 + Commercial Waste 17 + Construction/Demolition Waste 6 + Industrial Process Waste 2.73 + Other Waste 1.18 + Sewage Sludge 0.50 + Other Incinerator Ash 0.22 + Asbestos-Containing Waste 0.16 + Municipal Incinerator Ash 0.08 + VSQG Hazardous Waste 0.08 + Infectious Waste 0.05 + (a) Percentages are rounded and do not add to 100 percent. + "The other 28 percent of wastes received at municipal solid waste + landfills includes very-small-quantity generator (VSQG) hazardous + waste, commercial waste, industrial process waste, infectious waste, + municipal incinerator ash, and asbestos-containing wastes. Some of + these waste streams may contain potentially hazardous constituents. + Congress, in the 1984 amendments to RCRA, was particularly concerned + with VSQG waste. This waste stream accounts for a small part of the + overall waste stream received at municipal solid waste landfills; + however, some relatively hazardous or toxic materials are present in + the VSQG waste stream ... Used lead acid batteries are the largest + single source of VSQG waste. + "Categories of Very-Small-Quantity Generator Wastes + Arsenic waste Photographic wastes + Cyanide wastes Solutions of sludges + Dry cleaning filtration containing silver + residues Solvent still bottoms + Empty pesticide containers Spent plating wastes + Heavy metal dust Spent solvents + Heavy metal solutions Strong acids or alkalies + Heavy metal waste materials Used lead-acid batteries + Ignitable paint wastes Waste formaldehyde + Ignitable wastes Waste inks containing flammable + Ink sludges containing solvents or heavy metals + chromium or lead Waste pesticides + Mercury wastes Wastes containing ammonia + Other reactive wastes Wastewater containing + Paint wastes containing wood preservatives + + + 6 + + + + + + + + + heavy metals Wastewater sludges containing + Pesticide solutions heavy metals" + + "Of the 70 sites [municipal solid waste landfills] for which EPA + has data, 53 of them were analyzed for some organic constituents, + and 62 for some inorganic constituents. ... A total of + approximately 82 leachate constituents were found -- 63 organics and + 19 inorganics. ... the median concentration values of the leachate + constituent data were compared to EPA drinking water and/or human + health criteria concentrations. ... The median concentrations of + all the carcinogens (nine constituents) were above the health-based + criteria for these compounds. In a number of cases, the median + concentrations of all the carcinogens (nine constituents) were above + the health-based criteria for these compounds. In a number of + cases, the median concentrations would take more than a 1000-fold + dilution in order to meet the health criteria." + "... leachate quality tends to change over time as the landfill + moves through the stabilization process. However, where leachate + data are available for both pre- and post-1980 landfills, no trend + is apparent. Median concentrations for leachate from post-1980 + landfills are higher than those for pre-1980 landfills for + approximately 50 percent of the constituents." + "Landfill gas adds to the potential for impacts from municipal + solid waste landfills ... Methane, which is explosive, accounts for + about 50 percent by volume of the total gas stream. ... trace + constituents (up to 2 percent) of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) + and toxic constituents also may be present. Toxic constituents + commonly found in municipal solid waste landfill gas include vinyl + chloride, benzene, trichloroethylene, and methylene chloride." + MSW Disposal on Indian Lands + "At present there are 314 Federally recognized Indian Tribes and + 198 Alaskan Native villages in the United States covering an area of + approximately 87,000 square miles ... The total population of this + land is approximately one million. The Indian Health Service (IHS) + has identified 576 municipal solid waste disposal sites on Indian + lands." + "Several EPA-sponsored surveys indicate that Indian Tribes + perceive municipal solid waste disposal as current and future + environmental problem. One survey reported that on half of the + reservations surveyed (24) "community dumps" were used for disposal. + Another reported 66 open dumps on Indian lands in EPA's Region 5 + alone. Roadside dumping and other illegal dumping were also + reported. Landfill leachate was cited several times by the Tribes + surveyed as the potential source of water pollution. + [unfinished: more on Industrial Subtitle D facilities; waste + tires; infectious waste; municipal solid waste combustion ash] + --Source: "Report to Congress: Solid Waste Disposal in the United + States," Volume I, EPA 530-SW-88-011, October 1988 + + + + + + + + + + 7 + + + + + + + + + ===================================================================== + + Citizens fighting landfill problems will also be interested in + the following resources: + + "Landfill Packet" A series of ten articles about problems with + landfills, available from the Environmental Research Foundation, + P O Box 3541, Princeton NJ 08543, 609-683-0707. + + "Debunking the Landfill High Technology Myth" A thick, excellent + report on the facts behind what the disposal companies try to + tell you. By Blythe Coza, produced by People Against Hazardous + Landfill Sites, 219-759-1800. + + "Recycling Kit" Produced by Bryan Bence of Greenpeace. Write to + Bryan at Greenpeace, 1436 U St NW, Washington DC 20009, 202-462- + 1177. + + + ---===000===--- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8 + + + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/landown.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/landown.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d850655f --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/landown.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +[Excerted without permission from New Alchemy (Spring +1988).`Subscriptions $8/yr (4 issues) from New Alchemy, 237 Hatchville +Rd., East Falmouth, MA 02536.] + + + WHO REALLY OWNS THE LAND? + ------------------------- + by Judith M.Barnet + + How does it come to be that a non-renewable resource like land and a + basic human need like shelter are subject to the slings and arrows of + the marketplace and the buisness cycle? The root answer to that + subversive question takes us to the institution of private property, + defined as that which can be sold and whose possesion confers exclusive + rights upon the owner. THis aspect of our relationship to land is so + thoroughly taken for granted in our culture that to even raise the + topic seems absurd, until we remember that the ownership system brought + to North American shores by the colonists constituted an almost + unimaginable revolution to the indians. We tend to forget that in + Native American culture it was inconceivable that land could be sold - + because it wasn't something one owned. A further root of all this can + be traced back to what is probably the largest privatizing operation in + history; the enclosure movement in 15th century England, when common + rights to land were extinguished, individual title was established and + 15,000 peasants were cleared off 794,000 Scottish acres to create 29 + farms, each inhabited by a single family (with imported servants) and + 131,000 sheep. This institutional arrangement was required to launch + the woolen industr y, and land became from that moment and for all time + a commodity; to be valued at its 'highest and best use,' presumably + determined by what the market could bring. Is it too great a leap from + there to the speculation in real estate market today that has brought + us the current housing crisis? + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/larouche.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/larouche.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..334f6c3b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/larouche.txt @@ -0,0 +1,819 @@ +Path: uuwest!spies!mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!aq817 +From: aq817@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steve Crocker) +Newsgroups: alt.activism +Subject: LaRouche Trial Fact Sheet (40K) +Message-ID: <1992Mar28.053617.16367@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> +Date: Sat, 28 Mar 92 05:36:17 GMT +Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu +Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA) +Lines: 809 +Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns2.ins.cwru.edu + + +The file below is from the Lincoln Legacy BBS (703)777-5987. +It is run by John Covici and has many LaRouche related text +files. The file below is found there compressed as TRIAL_FC.ZIP. +This has been previously posted to alt.conspiracy - apologies to +anyone seeing it twice. +-Steve + + TEXT + +The following is a fact sheet documenting the background to the +trial of Lyndon LaRouche at the Federal Court in Alexandria, +Virginia USA. + +Prehistory + +Oct. 6, 1986: Massive search and seizure operation by 400 FBI +agents and police of the Leesburg, Virginia offices of the +Executive Intelligence Review and the newspaper New Solidarity. +Indictments, based on findings of a Boston Grand Jury, are +issued to the LaRouche campaign organization and LaRouche- +associated companies, and against 10 LaRouche collaborators. (On +Dec. 16, 1987 three more LaRouche associates are indicted, and +then LaRouche himself on July 2, 1987.) The accusations are +"conspiracy to obstruct justice" and "credit card fraud." +Truckloads of documents are seized, supposedly to provide +additional documentation of the accusations. A second search +warrent mentions "[illegal] sale of stocks and bonds". For this +latter accusation, a Grand Jury in Loudon County Virginia +indicts, on Feb. 18, 1987, another 16 LaRouche associated +individuals and 5 companies. + +Nov. 24, 1986: First press stories appear, in the Washington +Post and Loudon Times Mirror, referencing an Alexandria, Virgina +Grand Jury investigation (again using material seized in raid) of +alleged tax evasion by LaRouche and associated companies. These +investigations, like the ones in Loudon County, make use of the +huge mass of documents seized in the FBI raid. + +Apr. 20, 1987: Alexandria, Virginia bankrupcy judge Bostetter +orders three companies (one is a scientific organization) to be +placed under involuntary supervision and forced to suspend their +activities. + +May 1988: After a 6-month Boston trial, judge Robert Keeton +declares a mistrial, following serious errors by the prosecution. +The prosecution refused to disclose crucial evidence to the +defense. After the mistrial, a Boston newspaper published an +interview with one of the jurors, who stated that the jury, in +an informal vote, was unanimously in favor of acquitting the +defendants, because the prosecution could not prove its case and +had destroyed its credibility through its legal misconduct. + +Oct. 14, 1988: Federal attorney Henry Hudson of Alexandria, +Virginia, announces that he is indicting LaRouche and six +associates for "conspiracy to commit mail fraud" and "conspiracy +to defraud the Internal Revenue Service." + +The accused William Wertz, Edward Spannaus, Michael Billington, +Dennis Small, Paul Greenberg and Joyce Rubinstein are each +indicted on between 3 and 11 counts. LaRouche on the other hand +is indicted on a total of 13 counts. Count 13 charges him with +having conspired "with persons known and unknown to the Grand +Jury" in order to prevent the IRS from assessing and collecting +his taxes. + +The other 12 counts charge the defendants with having devised "a +scheme and artifice to defraud and obtain money by false and +fraudulant pretenses, representations and promises... The policy +of the NCLC (a LaRouche-associated organisation) was not to repay +loans in accordance with the promises made to lenders; ... +between January 1984 and September 1986 the organisation never +established a system for making, and never made, routine payments +of promised principal and interest on loans in general." The +prosecution cited 11 individual cases in which creditors were +mailed written agreements. (For technical legal reasons, the main +accusations -- fraud and violation of loan contracts -- were +subsumed under the designation "mail fraud") + +The accusations stand or fall with the basic claim, that the +National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC), a philosophical +association founded nearly 20 years ago, is in fact a criminal +conspiracy whose essential purpose is to enrich Lyndon LaRouche. +The political goals of this organisation--fighting drugs and +hunger, for a new just world economic order, for a strong western +defense, against the decay of westerm culture and for a cultural +and scientific renaissance--were considered side aspects of the +"conspiracy". + + +Pretrial events + + +By setting a very short period between the indictment and trial +opening, Alexandria Judge Bryan created the preconditions for a +summary trial, in which the defendants were deprived of the +possibility of comprehensive defense. + +Oct. 14, 1988: LaRouche's lawyers submit a legal challenge +against the indictment, on grounds that the indictment would +damage LaRouche's ongoing electoral campaign, and that it was +largely identical to that of the Boston trial, and therefore +violated the fundamental legal principle excluding "double +jeopardy" -- no one can be tried for the same accusation twice. +Judge Stanley Sporkin dismisses the challenge following a brief +oral hearing without having read the written motions. + +October 17, 1988: Arraignment before Chief Judge Albert V. +Bryan. All defendants plead not guilty and move to shift the +proceedings to Boston, on the grounds of similar content of the +two cases. Bryant fixes a Nov. 10 deadline for submission of all +defense pre-trial motions and Nov. 21 for the trial. When even +the state prosecutor Robinson objects, Judge Bryan remarks that +90 percent of the defense motions would just come of a computer +and only three or four would be worth considering. + +Oct. 21, 1988: Judge Bryan dismisses the motion to move the +trial to Boston, despite the fact that the circumstance of +"double jeopardy" is underlined by the presence of the Boston +prosecutors John Markham and Mark Rasch, who assist the deputy +prosecutor of Alexandria in the trial. + +Oct. 28, 1988: Hearing of defense motion that the prosecution +must indicate all documents to be used as evidence for the +accusations. At this point, Judge Bryant admits that "we are +pushing the defendants a bit hard in this case in terms of time". + +Nov. 4, 1988: The defense protests the hurried tempo of the trial +and the trial date, only five weeks after the indictment. +Defense Attorney Kenley Webster points out that he had only two +weeks to work on the case, while the prosecution had been working +on it for four years. Furthermore, since October 1986 defendants +had been deprived access to the more than two million documents +seized and available to the prosecution. Judge Bryan supports +the argument of prosecutor Kent Robinson, that most of the +defense attorneys had become familiar with the case already in +Boston. Motions to shift the trial and to delay trial date are +denied. The Judge also denies defense motion to separate +proceedings on the tax evasion count from the other, completely +different, counts. + +Nov. 7, 1988: The Alexandria prosecution, represented by Boston +state attorney Markham as signer (!), moves that defendants +and their attorneys should not be allowed to mention harrassment +and financial warfare by government institutions as a reason for +non-payment of loans. The prosecution demands that no mention be +made of illegal investigations by the FBI, of documented +infiltration of the LaRouche organization by informants, or of +the involuntary bankruptcy proceedings brought against LaRouche- +associated companies by the government in April 1987. This demand +is particularly bizarre: the alleged conspiracy according to the +prosecution was supposed to have terminated on April 19, 1987, +one day before the involuntary bankruptcy proceeding. + +The attorneys for Ed Spannaus and the other defendants submit an +Emergency Petition for Mandamus to the U.S. Court of Appeals in +Richmond, arguing that Judge Bryan be ordered to move the trial +to a later date. + +In addition, the defense submits a Motion to release exculpatory +evidence. This includes information concerning agents and +informants infiltrated into LaRouche-associated organizations by +government agencies and government pressure applied to financial +supporters and banks carrying accounts of LaRouche organizations +and supporters. + +Nov. 9, 1988: Defense submits a motion to suspend the trial on +grounds it is politically motivated and selectively directed +against LaRouche, while other politicians, for example Gary Hart, +would never consider repaying campaign debts of millions of +dollars. + +Nov. 10, 1988: Judge Bryan dismisses the above and 26 of the 28 +motions, and supports the prosecution's demands to limit scope of +the defense. Bryant claims that harrassment by government +agencies was irrelevant to the case in point. He denies the +defense the right to individually question the prospective jurors +or to submit a list of questions for jury selection. + +By these actions Judge Bryan preprogrammed a guilty verdict +against the defendants. Limiting the defense meant that the true +political nature of the case, which had begun to emerge during +the Boston trial, would be excluded. Instead, attention was to be +given to the obscure conspiracy theory of the prosecution. + +November 14: Refering to their Petition to the Richmond court, +the attorneys for the defense submit sworn personal oaths to the +effect that an adequate defense would be impossible under the +conditions set by Judge Bryan, a situation which would violate +the constitutional right to a fair trial. + +At the same time, the defense submits a new motion against the +ruling of Judge Bryan requiring the defense to reveal its +strategy prior to the opening of the trial. + +November 17: The Richmond Court of Appeals rejects the defense's +petition for a setting a later trial date. + +November 18: Final deliberation before opening of the trial. +Judge Bryan rejects the defense motion asking that the +prosecution be ordered to submit a list of prosecutions +witnesses. The prosecution is only required to name a witness 24 +hours before the witness is to appear in court. Judge Bryan also +dismisses the motion of November 14. + + Jury "Selection" + +On Nov. 21, after denial of further motions to suspend or delay +the trial, jury selection begins. This process, which took three +weeks in Boston, was now completed in less than three hours. Out +of the pool of 175 prospective jurors 46 were employees of the +U.S. government, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), the +FBI, the CIA, the IRS, the Secret Service, and government +departments. Even employees of law enforcement agencies, were only +excluded when they themselves admitted to being "biased." One of +them, a Secret Service Agent, was disqualified after he flashed +his badge and revealed that he himself had been involved in +investigations against LaRouche! After 145 candidates had been +excluded for cause the remaining 30 still included an employee of +the DOJ, an FBI employee, the wife of a former FBI consultant, a +government official working with the IRS, a Defense Intelligence +Agency employee with contacts to the CIA, a secretary of the Drug +Enforcement Agency, an employee of the Department of Labor, a +worker for the television company NBC which is known for its +hatred of LaRouche. Since the defense had only 9 veto rights, +there was no way to exclude all biased witnesses. + + The Trial Arguments + + "Loan Fraud" + +On the first day of the trial, government witnesses testified +as summarized below. Objectively speaking, none of the charges -- +fraud, violation of loan conditions, tax evasion and conspiracy +to commit the same -- were substantiated by the prosecutions. On +the contrary, most of the creditors who testified made statements +in direct contradiction to the allegations, as for example: + +1) Efforts were made to repay loans and considerable amounts were +actually paid. + +2) LaRouche collaborators acted in good faith when soliciting +loans, having reason to believe that the conditions arranged +would actually be met. + +3) Creditors understood that the loans were a form of political +support and were accurately informed concerning the political +purpose to which the funds loaned were to be used. + +4) Persons giving loans were informed concerning the risk +involved. + +5) Press attacks such as the ones which followed LaRouche +candidates' victories in Illinois, negatively affected creditors +and new contributions. + +6) Creditors were encouraged and pressured by government +agents to press charges against LaRouche. + +7) Loans would most likely have been paid if massive government +interference had not made this impossible. + +Defense showed that the firms involved enjoyed massive expansion +in income over 1984-85, thereby justifying major loans. Certified +Public Accountant Thomas Seavy showed with charts, how the wave +of violent press slanders and attacks by Democratic Party +figures, following the March 1986 victory of two LaRouche +candidates in the Illinois primaries, had interrupted the +increase in sales. Even more dramatic was the effect of the +October 1986 FBI raid on the offices of LaRouche-associated +organizations. In all, the campaign of financial warfare against +these organizations following March 1986 caused an estimated +income loss of $45 mio. Seay's charts showed that during the +preceeding growth period, the ratio of loans continually +decreased as a percentage of income. + +Thus, according to Seays, the accused had been justified in +assuming that continuing sales would cover loan repayment costs. +The decisive criterion for fraud -- bad faith or the intent to +defraud -- could not be claimed in this case. + + There was a plan to repay debts + +Two active LaRouche collaborators Frank Bell and Richard Welsh +testified on November 23 and 29, to the heroic efforts made to +repay loans. These efforts covered the 4-year period cited by the +prosecution and continued up to the present. + +Bell presented his repayment plan, which involved for example +$15,000 in weekly repayments throughout 1985. Welsh described his +plan to contact 3000 creditors in order to verify the amount of +the loans and discuss a repayment schedule or forgiveness of the +loans. These plans, whose existence completely contradict the +claim by the prosecution that the LaRouche-associated +organizations pursued a general policy of non-repayment, were +seriously hampered by the seizure of the necessary documents in +October 1986. Nevertheless, debts were reduced by payment of a +total of $4.5 mio in principal and interest prior to the +involuntary bankrupcy proceedings of April, 1987, which ended all +possibility of further repayment. + +The defense cited as evidence more than six memoranda written by +LaRouche making proposals for means of repaying the debt. Welsh +described his efforts over nearly seven years to realize these +proposals. + +Even government witness Wayne Hintz, who had formerly worked in +the bookkeeping department of LaRouche-associated organizations, +confirmed this existence of a repayment program. Hintz himself +had written memos on repayment plans which the NCLC leadership +and LaRouche endorsed. According to Hintz, LaRouche personally +had always pushed for cutting back and even eliminating the +soliciting of loans, and for increasing sales instead. Hintz +stated in court on December 6: "There was no policy I was aware +of not to repay loans." [check English quote] + +These statements confirmed not only that no criminal intention +existed to defraud creditors, but moreover that all humanly +possible efforts had been undertaken to save the creditors from +financial losses. This contradicted the second major criterion +for the charge of fraud. + +In addition, it emerged that the government's figures regarding +outstanding debt were wrong. Government witness, IRS employee +Harry Chusid presented a 900-page report which he claimed showed +that from 1984 to 1986 more than $33 mio. had been taken out in +loans, while only $3.7 mio. were repayed. This "analysis" fell +apart during cross-examination, however, when a random check +demonstrated, as Chusid was then forced to admit, that loans had +been calculated in full each time reference to partial payment +was made. On only 10 randomly-chosen pages of the report, it was +shown that the government had calculated $301,000 in non-existent +loan sums due to this multiple counting proceedure. + +Most creditors testifying as government witnesses confirmed what +LaRouche stated in a press conference following the verdict: 95% +of those who gave financial support during the period in +question continue to support LaRouche's policies and programs; most +of them know that it is the government which is guilty for the +financial difficulties of organizations associated with LaRouche. +Of the remaining 5%, only a tiny number could be brought to work +actively with FBI, Secret Service or IRS agents and issue false +statements. + +Creditor Dorothy Powers, for example, testified on November 30 +that defendant Michael Billington had explained to her very +clearly that her loan constituted a kind of "war bond" and +carried a corresponding element of risk. Creditor Martha Van +Sickie testified to similar effect, and during examination of +witness Max Harrell the defense presented a transcript of a +telephone conversation in which Harrell was literally told +concerning his loan, "of course it's a risk". This was again +confirmed on December 7 by witness Alan Rither, a Washington +lawyer who also loaned money to the organizations of the +defendants. + +Mrs. Audrey Carter testified that her 1985 loan to Caucus +Distributors, Inc. (CDI) was due for repayment in November 1986, +the month after the dramatic FBI raid. In April 1987 CDI was shut +down on orders of the government. Alan Rither, who had also made +a loan to CDI, testified that even after the involuntary +bankrupcy he had recieved assurances that the remainder of +repayments due would be paid back to him. + +John Perricone, an active supporter of the NDPC (the National +Democratic Policy Committee, which promoted the electoral +campaigns of LaRouche-associated candidates) testified that he +had known defendant Joyce Rubenstein since 1979 and regarded her +as an honest, committed woman. In cross examination Perricone +confirmed that he had loaned a total of more than $30,000, but +had not insisted on repayment. Testimony by Perricone concerning +FBI harassment against him was suppressed at the demand of +prosecutor John Markham. However, statements by creditor +Elizabeth Sexton, who had allegedly been cheated by the +defendants, revealed all the more clearly the methods by which +government agencies pressured contributors and creditors and even +incited them to lay traps for the defendants. + +All of this demonstrated, as attorney Ed Williams for Joyce +Rubenstein and attorney James Clark for Michael Billington +emphasized in their final summaries, that the testimony of even +the most hostile witnesses had only proved that loans were taken +which had not been paid back. The defendants' motives were to +defend political ideas, and not to pursue criminal aims. + + Vindictive Witnesses + +A crucial element of the prosecution's case, and especially for +the prosecution's characterization of LaRouche as the +authoritarian dictator of the alleged conspiracy, was the +testimony of former members of the NCLC: Charles Tate, Chris +Curtis, Vera Cronk, Steve Bardwell and Pam Goldman. Their +malicious, lying testimony demonstrated that a conspiracy did +indeed exist -- namely on the part of those who had orchestrated +the indictments and legal harassment of the defendants! It was +quite clear that these witnesses were motivated by personal +animosity toward LaRouche, and had possibly been pressured to +testify by promiss of avoiding prosecution themselves. It became +clear that the witnesses had been coached by representatives of +the prosecution in repeated intensive sessions in order to fit +their testimony to the prosecution's case. + +An unbiased court could only dismiss these witnesses' testimony +as worthless. The final blow to their credibility was delivered +when witnesses Steve Bardwell and Charles Tate were forced to +confirm descriptions of a Halloween Party held on October 31, +1986, in which former NCLC members celebrated the huge FBI raid, +earlier that month, on the offices of LaRouche-associated +organizations. Bardwell had himself written a five-page +invitation to that party, announcing the performance of a play +entitled "Pin the Rap on LaRouche." The guests at the party came +in costume; Charles Tate, who had dressed himself up as a credit +card, acted out an imaginary testimony against LaRouche. Kostas +Kalimtgis, a former leading associate of LaRouche presently +suspected of having been a long-time KGB plant, gave a major +speach at the Halloween party calling upon those present to do +everything possible "to put LaRouche behind bars." + +While most statements by the ex-members were discredited by their +obvious vindictive intent, Charles Tate and Chris Curtis +entangled themselves in serious contradictions. Curtis had +earlier testified, in the Boston case, that LaRouche associates +had acted in good faith and he had no knowledge of an intention +not to repay debts. Now, in Alexandria, he claimed that non- +repayment had been the general policy. Especially under cross +examination, Curtis revealed himself to be an obedient +instrument of the prosecution. His coaching for testimony had +clearly been much more than the originally acknowledged 15 hours +of consultation with U.S. government officials. Curtis admitted +that since leaving the NCLC he had applied for employment to 12 +different government agencies, including the CIA. It emerged that +in the course of his attempts to secure employment, Curtis had +successively changed his line on LaRouche and his associates, in +the direction of increasingly damaging statements. Tate revealed +himself as a notorious liar, admitting that he had lied to +LaRouche in a number of written reports. He had spent the +equivalent of two weeks preparing his testimony under the +supervision of various government agents, including +representatives of the prosecution. + + Claim of "Conspiracy" Key to Prosecution's Case + +The case of defendant Edward Spannaus demonstrated most clearly +how the claim of "conspiracy" was the prosecution's only way to +implicate him in criminal actions. Spannaus was charged with +Count 1 (conspiracy to defraud) as well as Counts 3-11, where he +was accused of participation in 9 individual cases of +sollicitation of loans. However, in none of those 9 specific +cases was any criminal action on his part demonstrated. There was +only a remark in one of Spannaus' notebooks concerning an +unverified statement by LaRouche on loan policy. Spannaus' only +involvement in the cited loan cases was in discussing with a +lawyer changes in loan contracts. + +On December 2 Richard Vepez, a former NCLC member confirmed in +testimony that Spannaus had in one case objected to a change in a +loan contract which might have caused misunderstandings +concerning the political nature of activities for which the money +was to be used. + +Spannaus' defense attorney Kenley Webster cited the flimsy nature +of the charges against Spannaus as exemplary of the shakey +foundation of the prosecution's entire case. + + The Case of Dennis Small + +Defendant Dennis Small was indicted on only one count, for +allegedly having sollicited a large loan from Mrs. Goodwill for +the declared purpose of supporting a campaign against drugs. It +emerged, however, that Chris Curtis was the one who made the loan +agreement with Mrs. Goodwill -- according to Curtis' own +testimony! Dennis Small had never had anything to do with this +loan. Curtis left the distinct impression that his false +testimony in court had been elicited under threat of indictment. + +"Tax Fraud" + +Count 13 embodies the political nature of the trial better than +any other. Government witnesses ended up establishing that + +1) LaRouche has had no taxable income since 1979. + +2) LaRouche had been completely open about his financial +situation, and tax officials had never attempted to collect taxes +from him. + +3) Tax experts, lawyers and accountants consulted by LaRouche had +advised him that he had no taxable income and was not obliged to +file a tax return; indeed, he had been advised not to file. + + 4) LaRouche had thus acted in good faith that his actions were +in accordance with U.S. tax law. + +5) the government's contention that LaRouche had a "lavish +lifestyle" was a fabricated falsehood. + +Experienced lawyer Mayer Morgenroth confirmed in testimony that +LaRouche had decided not to file a tax return on the basis of +sound professional advice, and that material goods provided him +(housing, clothing, security) did not constitute taxable income. +Morgenroth reported that he had participated in 1979 and 1984 in +consultations concerning the tax status of LaRouche and his +associates. These consultations established that LaRouche wrote +as a politician and publicist for various publishing concerns +sympathetic with his views. These companies had a legitimate +interest in providing meals, housing, a minimum of clothing and +necessary security arrangements for LaRouche. A tax consultant +from Michigan, Gerry Doherty, had explained to Morgenroth that +these provisions to Mr. LaRouche could not be counted as income. +Furthermore Harold Dubrowsky of the tax consulting firm Grant +Thorton, had advised that LaRouche was not required to file a tax +return. + +Thomas Seay, a certified public accountant (CPA) testified that +according to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, LaRouche +could be classified as an employee of various publishing houses, +however this determination was somewhat ambiguous. The same +regulations prescribe that meals, housing and even medical and +clothing expenses, insofar as they are provided as gifts, do not +constitute taxable income. Seay had advised LaRouche that he need +not file a tax return. + +New York accountant Murray Altman testified that during the four +years he had completed tax returns for LaRouche-associated +publishing companies and firms, LaRouche himself had been free of +tax obligations. + +Finally, IRS tax official Elizabeth Jeu, who had been involved +for the last 12-14 in a tax investigation of LaRouche, testified +to the effect that since 1979, the IRS had never seriously tried +to collect taxes from LaRouche. + +LaRouche's lawyer Odin Anderson stressed in his closing +statement, that the IRS could have demanded at any time since +1979 that LaRouche file a tax return. This had not happened, but +instead a bizarre tax evasion conspiracy theory had been +constructed. + +The prosecution alleged that loans and contributions were used to +maintain LaRouche's alleged "lavish life-style," and that security +measures constituted a prestige symbol rather than necessary +defense against real threats. Contradicting these claims, Richard +McGraw, a LaRouche associate responsible for LaRouche's personal +security, testified as to the actually quite austere living +situation of Mr. and Mrs. LaRouche, and described how urgently +necessary security arrangements had deprived LaRouche of privacy +and freedom of movement, and made him a virtual prisoner in his +working room. + +General Luis Giuffreda, who headed under President Reagan the +Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) between 1981 and 1985, +testified to the considerable danger LaRouche's life, referenced +numerous reports of threats to LaRouche, from terrorist groupings +including the Baader-Meinhof band, Weather-Underground, Yippies +and Jewish Defense League, as well as threats from the Communist +Party U.S.A. and the Soviet Union directly. In view of these +threats, LaRouche's security arrangements were much too little. +LaRouche's security was not in the "Cadillac category" but rather +in the "VW bug" category, and that LaRouche's living quarters +reminded Gen. Giuffreda of his son's student housing. + +Following this testimony the prosecution modified its approach, +asserting explicitly that neither the threat to LaRouche nor the +legitimacy of his security costs had been denied by the +prosecution or the American government. + +Throughout the testimony no significant substantiation at all was +presented for Count 13, "Conspiracy to defraud the United States +by impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful +function of the U.S. Treasury Department and IRS in the +ascertainment, computation, assessment and collection of the +revenue, to witt: the individual income taxes of Lyndon LaRouche +jr. Indicative was the manner in which Prosecutor Robinson cited +Kavaler, the attorney for the television company NBC, as supposed +evidence in his closing summary. In 1984 LaRouche had sued NBC +for a vicious slander program, broadcast nationwide by NBC and +coinciding with the initiation of the investigation of LaRouche +by the Boston Grand Jury. Robinson quoted from the transcript of +the NBC trial, in which Kaveler questions LaRouche on his income. + +The judge's detailed instructions to the jury concerning Count +13, including his emphasis that demonstration of "good faith" on +the part of the defendants would be conclusive proof of +innocence, should have led unambiguously to a verdict of +"innocent" on this count. The verdict of guilty is clear proof +that the jury's decision was a total miscarriage of justice. + + The True Lyndon LaRouche + + + + +On Dec. 8, a number of prominent personalities from several +countries took the stand to testify to LaRouche's personal +integrity, his standing as an influential political figure whose +initiatives and policies are respected throughout the world, and +to the reasons why LaRouche had become a target of harassment, +slander and assassination threats. This testimony succeeded in at +least partially casting light upon the political motives behind +the trial. + +Juan Rebaza, President of the Peruvian national fishing company +Pesca Peru, testified on the political activities of Dennis Small +in Iberoamerica, including Small's meetings with Peru's President +Alan Garcia, with the labor movement in Mexico and with the +LaRouche-associated Schiller Institute's initiative for formation +of a Latin American common market. + +Retired Brigadier General Paul-Albert Scherer, former head of +West German military counterintelligence, testified to LaRouche's +contributions to the Western Alliance and to the campaign of +attacks against LaRouche by the Soviet Union. LaRouche became a +major threat to the Soviets especially for his role in the +development of the SDI policy. Gen. Scherer testified that +LaRouche was man of integrity and modest way of living, who is +working for his ideals without interest in personal gain. + +Internationally-known AIDS expert Dr. John Seale, member of the +Royal Society of Medicine in London, documented the crucial +importance of the fight against AIDS and testified on how his +cooperation with LaRouche in that fight had led to slanders and +harassment against him directed by agencies of the U.S. +government. + +The 78 year-old Amelia Robinson, a long-time +close associate of Dr, Martin Luther King, active since the 1930s +in the American civil rights movement, emphasized in her +testimony the role of the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche- +associated Club of Life in the worldwide battle against hunger +and the drug plague. She portrayed LaRouche as an absolutely +honest man, who had "devoted his life to the wellbeing of his +nation and the world." + +General Lucio Anez, former Chief of Staff of the Bolivian Armed +Forces, head of the Bolivian Military Academy and Bolivian +representative to the Inter American Defense Board, testified on +his meetings with Dennis Small and Lyndon LaRouche. He had +discussed with LaRouche the latter's 15-point program for a war +against drugs. He had also invited Dennis Small, whom he +described as a "an honest, truth-loving man", to give "lectures +on economics and the drug problem before the highest-level +military institution in my country." + +In addition to this testimony, many written attestations were +submitted by personalities familiar with LaRouche from France, +Spain, Italy, England, Germany and other countries. These all +attested to LaRouche's personal integrity and to the respect +LaRouche enjoys among former leaders of the Resistance in Europe, +scientists, politicians and religious figures. + + Government Dirty Tricks + +Despite the efforts of the prosecution to exclude from the court +proceedings all evidence of government involvement in efforts to +harass, entrap and frame up LaRouche and his associates, +testimony did provide a tiny glimpse of the powerful political +motives behind bringing LaRouche to trial. + +Richard Morris, a California lawyer who worked for several years +as Chief Assistant to "Judge" William Clark in the U.S. State +Department and National Security Council, testified on his +numerous meetings with LaRouche and LaRouche associates in the +period 1982-83. In these meetings, according to Morris, LaRouche +had often provided useful information relevant to various aspects +of national security. Many attempts had been made from various +sides to stop these contacts. Morris testified that he was +approached in the middle of 1982 by three persons, from the CIA, +the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security +Council, who told him that LaRouche was "pro-communist, pro- +socialist, a fascist, KGB, and even a Democrat"! + +Dr. John Seale was prevented by the court from testifying on the +fact, that following Seale's endorsement of Proposition 64 -- an +anti-AIDS measure originally proposed by LaRouche associates and +placed on the California referendum ballot in November 1986 --, +Seale was slandered by official U.S. State Department spokesman +Charles Redman, and accused of spreading "Soviet disinformation". + +Herbert Quinde, a member of the LaRouche security staff, +testified on a telephone conversation he had conducted with +Edward Bennett Williams, member of the President's Foreign +Intelligence Advisory Board PFIAB during the first Reagan +Administration. During that conversation, Williams reported that +Henry Kissinger had personally requested that he, Williams, take +part in Justice Department operations against LaRouche. At that +time he had refused, on the grounds that the Justice Department +"should not intervene into politics." In addition, Williams spoke +of a faction of the National Security Council which was opposed +to LaRouche's policies and wanted to eliminate him. + +Impressive further proof of government dirty tricks was provided +even during the court proceedings, when the U.S. Embassy in Peru +refused to grant an entry visa to the well-known Peruvian lawyer +Maritza Hidalga Garcia, who had been called as a witness for the +defense. Although Judge Bryan had told the prosecution to +insure the granting of the visa, the American Embassy in Peru +continued to refuse the visa, upon the proposterous grounds that +Mrs. Hidalga lacked an assured income! + + The Jury Disregards Judge Bryan's Instructions + +Following testimony by prosecution and defense witnesses, Judge +Bryan spent one hour instructing the jury on the criteria the 12 +jurors should follow in deciding on a verdict of innocent or +guilty for each of the defendants upon each of the counts with +which they were charged -- a total of 48 decisions requiring +unanimous agreement by the jurors. The jury took only 11 hours to +reach its decision: a verdict of guilty against all defendants on +all counts. If the jury had followed the instructions of the +judge, the verdict would have been the opposite. + +The following are key points of Judge Bryan's instructions to the +jury: + + * The overall definition of a "conspiracy," is defined +as two or more persons combined wilfully and knowingly for a +criminal purpose, with the addition of only one overt act--which +needn't have been an illegal act in itself, but done in +furtherance of the conspiracy. A conspiracy does not have to be +written down, or even expressed explicitly orally, but is defined +as a "shared agreement." Once an individual is found to be a +participant in the conspiracy, he can be found responsible for +the acts of all other persons in the conspiracy. + + * The judge cautioned the jury that "membership in a +political organization like the NCLC or in a political committee +like the NEC is not criminal; nor is it evidence of criminal +activity or participation in a criminal conspiracy. Active +membership in a political organization which espouses honest, +albeit controversial, views is not only lawful under our +constitutional system, but is in fact protected activity." + + * The defendants have a legal right to free political +expression under our system, but if those expressions, otherwise +legal, are judged to be made "in furtherance of the conspiracy," +then it can be an overt act. + + * The tax law instruction outlined the same exemption code +which the expert witness had cited, adding that "employee" status +is an objective aspect of the tax code, not based on subjective +belief. It stressed that negligence or trying to reduce taxes is +not evidence of criminality. It emphasized that the intent of the +defendant is critical, and that "good faith is a complete defense +against Count 13 (the tax count)." + + In summarizing what the government charged in the tax +count, the Judge said this amounted to counting as income +LaRouche's housing, food and wine, clothing, entertainment and +services, but not costs of physical security, security +facilities, or improvement of security facilities. + + * The judge noted that if the defendant sought the advice of +an attorney or an accountant, and made full disclosure to his +ability, and acted on that expert's advice, then he is not +wilfully acting to defraud or deceive the IRS. + + * Judge Bryan said that the key point of proof of +the 11 individual mail fraud counts is deception by the +defendants, which can be defined as half-truths, omissions, or +otherwise concealing material effects in relationship to the +solicitation. It also noted that "willfull blindless" is no +defense. + + * He again stressed the intent of the defendants as being +the critical feature, and that good faith on the part of the +defendant is a complete defense: + + "You are further instructed that good faith and an honest +purpose on the part of any defendant is an absolute defense as to +the charges set forth in Counts 1 through 12. It matters not how +visionary you may find the defendants' political goals to be, or +how unreasonable the prospects of success of any of the +defendants' political undertakings--e.g. the war on drugs--may +seem to you, if the defendants honestly and genuinely believed +that their political movement would gather increasing popular +support and that they would have the resources to repay their +loans...." + + * He noted that being late on loan payments is not evidence +of an intent to defraud. + + * Finally, he stressed that the burden of proof was +completely on the government, that the defendants not taking the +witness stand could not be used as prejudice against them, and that +while the jury should aim to come to its unanimous verdict, +jurors should not surrender their opinions for mere interest in +getting a verdict. + + +Following the verdict it became evident that the foreman of the +jury, one Buster Horton, had played the decisive role in +manipulating the jury into its unanimous decision of "guilty on +all counts". Horton, it turns out, is a career civil service +employee working as a middle-level official of the U.S. Dept. of +Agriculture, one of the hotbeds of LaRouche's political enemies +within the government. The very weekend before the judgement in +Alexandria, the Department of Agriculture had used front +organizations to circulate slanderous leaflets attacking LaRouche +at a conference on agriculture policy, organized by the Schiller +Institute in Chicago. + +As the clerk read the verdict, no juror, except Horton, looked +the defendents in the eye. At least one juror was seen crying as +she left the courtroom, a sign of the evil process which had +taken place behind closed doors. + + --30-- +-30- diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/laws b/textfiles.com/politics/laws new file mode 100644 index 00000000..72e42cb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/laws @@ -0,0 +1,163 @@ + + + + + Chapter 10 + + GOOFY LAWS + + The following are bits excerpted from a book, itself almost + one hundred years old: + + THE FAMOUS CONNECTICUT BLUE LAWS. - These laws, enacted + by the people of the "Dominion of New Haven," became + known as the blue laws because they were printed on blue + paper. They were as follows: - + The governor and magistrates convened in general + assembly are the supreme power, under god, of the + independent dominion. From the determination of the + assembly no appeal shall be made. + No one shall be a freeman or have a vote unless he + is converted and a member of one of the churches + allowed in the dominion. + Each freeman shall swear by the blessed God to + bear true allegiance to this dominion and that Jesus is + the only king. + No dissenter from the essential worship of this + dominion shall be allowed to give a vote for electing of + magistrates or any officer. + No food or lodging shall be offered to a heretic. + No one shall cross a river on the Sabbath but + authorized clergymen. + No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, + sweep houses, cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath Day. + No one shall kiss his or her children on the + Sabbath or feasting days. + The Sabbath Day shall begin at sunset Saturday. + Whoever wears clothes trimmed with gold, silver, + or bone lace above one shilling per yard shall be + presented by the grand jurors and the selectmen shall + tax the estate L300. + Whoever brings cards or dice into the dominion + shall pay a fine of L5. + No one shall eat mince pies, dance, play cards, or + play any instrument of music except the drum, trumpet, + or jewsharp. + No gospel minister shall join people in marriage. + The magistrate may join them, as he may do it with less + scandal to Christ's church. + When parents refuse their children convenient + marriages, the magistrate shall determine the point. + A man who strikes his wife shall be fined L10. + A woman who strikes her husband shall be punished + as the law directs. + No man shall court a maid in person or by letter + without obtaining the consent of her parents; L5 + penalty for the first offense; L10 for the second, and + for the third imprisonment during the pleasure of the + court. + + MASSACHUSETTS BLUE-LAWS. - In regard to the so-called + "blue-laws" of Massachusetts it is difficult to + determine just where the line between fact and fancy is + to be drawn. It is claimed that the founders of + Connecticut borrowed most of their laws and judicial + proceedings from Massachusetts. Many of these laws were + enacted previous to 1640, and a number were the orders + and sentences of the Massachusetts Court of Assistants + and General Court. For instance, one order we find is + as follows: "It is ordered, that all Rich. Clough's + strong water shall presently be seazed upon, for his + selling greate quantytie thereof to several men + servants, which was the occasion of much disorder, + drunkeness, and misdemeanor. + Another record, in March, 1631, is to the effect + that "Nieh. Knopp is fyned 5L for takeing upon him to + cure the scurvey, by a water of noe worth nor value, + which he solde att a very deare rate, to be imprisoned + till hee pay his fine or give securitye for it, or else + to be whipped; and shal be lyable to any man's action of + whome he hath receved money for the said water. + In September, 1636: Robert Shorthose, for swearing + by the bloud of God, was sentenced to have his tongue + put into a cleft stick, and to stand so by the space of + haulfe an houre. + - from The Century Book of Facts, 1900 + + When Marquis de Pelier whistled at Queen Marie Antoinette, he + was promptly thrown in jail and kept there for fifty years. + + Four hundred years ago in Turkey drinking coffee was illegal. + The sentence: death. + + Anyone caught drunk in public in ancient China was put to + death. + + In 1871, James Macandrew was the Chief Executive of Otago, + New Zealand. He was ordered to go to debtors' prison. So, he + declared a law that his home was a prison. + + When Peter the Great, who couldn't grow a respectable beard, + was in power, any Russian who had a beard had to pay a beard tax. + + During the 1920's there was a law in Russia that all private + automobiles (not ones used by the government) had to have a yellow + stripe painted all the way around the whole body. + + It was illegal to teach evolution in Tennessee until 1968. + + In Massachusetts you can't legally use tomatoes in clam + chowder. + + There is a man whose official name has been legally changed + to Mr. 1069. + + According to one source, in Idaho it is illegal to give your + lover a box of candy smaller than fifty pounds in weight. Another + source stated that it is illegal to give any other citizen a box + of candy weighing more than 50 pounds. In any case, the giving of + huge quantities of candy is regulated in Idaho. + + There is a law against shooting rabbits from a New York City + trolley car. + + In Texas when two trains meet at a crossing "neither shall + proceed until the other has gone." + + You are violating the law if you mispronounce the name of + Arkansas. + + In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman cannot legally drive unless + there is a man running on foot ahead of her car with a red flag to + warn motorists that a woman is driving. + + In Chaseville, New York, you may not "drive a goat past a + church in a ridiculous fashion." + + In New York City is a special court that hears about 400 + complaints per day against taxi drivers. Since the cabbies in the + Big Apple carry approximately 400,000 people per day, that means + about one in every thousand passengers feel the need to bring a + complaint against a driver. + Overheard in court recently: A cab driver who had recently + immigrated from Pakistan was in court because he punched a + passenger. Asked why, the driver said, "In my country women + aren't allowed to speak disrespectfully to a man." + Many cabbies do not like this court because they have to + waste hours waiting for their case to come up. In one case, a + professor from Columbia University took a cab driver to court + because he had made a face when he discovered the tip was a small + one. + + Draft resisters take note: The U.S. Navy will not accept + anyone with an obscene tattoo. + + All gondolas must be black in Venice. Only government + officials are allowed fancy colors. + + Do not burn "offal" or bones, or grow ragweed in New York + City. These are legal offenses. + + It is illegal in Arizona to hunt camels. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/lawschl b/textfiles.com/politics/lawschl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..79051a1c --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/lawschl @@ -0,0 +1,271 @@ +How to Survive the First Year of Law School +At The University of Texas + +by Mike Godwin, mnemonic@eff.org + +(Copyright 1988,1992. This article may be freely distributed on any +computer forum, including commercial online services. To reproduce it +in print or in any other non-computer medium, please seek permission +from the author.) + +----------- + +You went to a decent college, you scored well on your Law School +Admission Test, and you ranked in the top 10 percent of your class. So, +now that you're here at The University of Texas School of Law, you can +look forward to an unbroken string of acadernic successes, right? + +Not so fast. No matter how easy you found undergraduate school to be, +law school is a different story. And the sooner you learn that, the +better your chances of coming out of the law-school game a winner. + +First, disabuse yourself of any notions about your natural academic +superiority. Sure, you're good, but so is everyone else in your class. +And since everyone is graded against everyone else on a curve, the +chances are nine out of 10 that you'll be in the bottom 90 percent of +your class, regardless of your undergraduate performance. + +This means that law-school success doesn't come merely from knowing the +law; you have to know it better than most of your peers. So you can't +be complacent. + +If you start heeding the following hints early in your first semester, +they'll improve your chances of hot job offers...and maybe even an +editorship on the law review. + +Class Participation + +If you saw the movie "The Paper Chase" (and odds are that you did, or +you wouldn't be here), you probably know that large classes in law +school normally are run by "the Socratic method." Rather than +lecturing, the professor will assign some reading for the day and +conduct the class by asking students questions about the material. + +Watching the movie, you probably got the impression that the best +law students are those who are eager and able to answer the +professor's questions. Don't be fooled. Glibness and self-possession +in class are only roughly correlated to exam performance, and your +grades are based almost entirely on final exams, not on your +quickness in the classroom. Because the finals are graded +anonymously, the professor won't even be able to link your +classroom participation with the exam. + +It's far wiser to spend your time mastering the principles behind +each case you read rather than memorizing its facts. If you try the +latter tactic, your brain will be too muddled with facts at exam time +to allow you to apply the law. Don't worry about the inevitable +instances in which a professor tries to embarass you for knowing +less than he does. (I refer to the professor as "he" because almost all +UT law professors are male. Most are white, too). You can get your +revenge by earning an honors grade in the course. + +Class Preparation + +Keep up with the assigned reading. Onerous though the reading may +be, it's easier to keep up than to catch up. And reading the cases for +the day will enable you to answer most of the questions any +professor tries to throw at you. + +If for some reason you do get behind on the reading, however, don't +panic. This happens to some of the best law students. Attend class +anyway, even if you haven't read that day's class materials. The +professor's Socratic questions will clue you in to the issues he expects +you to know for the exam. + +Professors + +Some law professors are frightening; others are charming. +Ultimately, however, their personalities don't matter very much. +Whether he likes you or not, each professor will grade your exam +according to the curve. There's no such thing as an "easy" law course, +although you may find some lectures more tolerable than oothers. If +the material is easy for you, it may well be easy for everybody, so the +curve can get you anyway. + +While some law professors make a pretense of keeping office hours, +most of them don't really want to see you outside the classroom, a +milieu they prefer because that's where they have all the control. +Any question you want to ask a professor probably can be answered +by a "hornbook" (legal treatise) anyway, and library is full of +hornbooks. + +Don't expect too much sympathy from your professors. After all, law +school is a game they've *won.* They may have some sort of abstract +pity for the poor contracts student who's agonizing over Sec. 2-207 of +the Uniform Commercial Code, but under no cirumstances will you be able to +persuade them to change your grade. + +Briefing your cases + +The rule here is "Condense, condense, condense." Nothing's more +pathetic than the law nerd whose brief is longer than the case +excerpt in the casebook. Remember this rule: Each case has one or +two main ideas. Find them, and you'll have what you need to know +for the exam. + +And good, *brief* briefs can be easily incorporated in your study +outline. + +Some professors like to ask tricky questions about the fact pattern of +a case during the lecture, but don't write these details down. + +Instead, make notes in the margin or highlight key facts of your +casebook. If you've read the case, you should be able to remember +the facts long enough to get through the class period. And if the +professor stresses a particular type of fact pattern in the lecture, +he's signalling to you a possible exam issue. Note the issue, not the +facts of the particular case. + +Buying study aids + +Basically, there are two types of study aids you can buy for first- +year courses: commercial outlines and hornbooks. A commercial +outline is a prepackaged, detailed skeleton of the material you +need to know for a particular course. There are several brands of +outlines, and each has something to recommend it. The Legalines +outlines track particular casebooks, while the Emanuel Law Outlines +and Gilbert Law Summaries are more general, although they will +include many of the cases in your casebook. + +You may find it best to buy Legalines outlines for each of your +courses except contracts. (The UT professors who wrote the contracts +casebook designed it in a way that makes it difficult to produce a +commercial outline for it.) Then you can supplement the Legalines +with general-purpose outlines like Emanuel's and Gilbert's for +courses you're having trouble with. Be aware that occasionally the case +summaries and discussions in the commercial outlines are *mistaken*-- +let your professor and your classmates supplement your take on a given +case or issue. + +Some students buy "hornbooks" for particular +subjects, but for a first-year student the treatises often go into too +much unnecessary detail. Theyre also very expensive, and in general +it's best not to buy them; but you may want to make an exception for +contracts, which many students find a particularly subtle and +difficult branch of law. The Calamari and Perillo hombook is good for +general contract law, while the White and Summers hornbook is +necessary for a thorough understanding of the parts of your +contracts course that deal with the Uniform Commercial Code. You +may also want to consult UT Professor Charles Alan Wright's treatise +on the law of federal courts for your civil-procedure class. +Finally, if you signed up early for a bar-review course (believe it +or not, some people do this during their first year), some bar-review +courses will allow you to "check out" their reviews of black-letter +law. + +Study Groups + +Try to get into one. When you find a likely group, make sure that +most of the people in the group are dedicated enough to stick with it. +Discussing difficult ideas with other law students is a good way of +making sure you understand them. In general, study groups work +best with about five people, with each person concentrating on one of +the five first-year courses you'll be taking each semester. If you +have a choice about which course to concentrate on, choose the +course you think you'll find most difficult your responsibility to +your friends in the study grou p will give you an added incentive to +master that material. + +Computers + +Buy a computer--you can purchase them at near-wholesale cost at +the Texas Union MicroCenter on 21st Street. Only if you own a +computer will you be able to produce and edit a legible course outline +in a hurry. You'll need two types of software: a good word +processing program to help you with the briefs and memos you have +to produce for your legal research and writing seminar, and an +outline program to produce the course outlines you'll need for exams. +(Some word processors include outlining capability--in general, those +word processors are not as good at outlining as programs designed for just +that purpose.) + +If you buy a Macintosh, the outlining software of choice is MORE; if you +own an IBM PC, buy Thinktank or Grandview.. Both products are available +at local computer stores. + +Exam-taking strategy + +Your heart's beating rapidly, your palms are sweaty, and your mind is a +blank. Yes, you're taking your first law-school exam. How on earth do +you handle those exam questions? + +The first thing to remember is that all law-exam questions are more or +less alike. Each describes an invented and often quite complex situation +that, had it occurred in real life, would probably generate one or more +lawsuits. Following the fact situation is usually a question or +instruction such as "Describe the potential legal claims and liabilities +of each party." + +Your best strategy, when you outline your answer, is to pretend you're +the lawyer for each party in turn. Pretending to be Smith's lawyer, +quickly list all the legal principles from your course outline that +could advance Smith's case against Jones. Now play the part of Jones' +lawyer how would you answer each of these legal arguments or daims? What +counterclaims could you use against Smith? What will Smith say in +response to your responses? What other parties in the fact situation +could sue or be sued? And so on. + +Inevitably, you'll see some obvious legal issues in the fact pattern. +You have to deal with them, of course, but don't make the fatal mistake +of assurning that by handling the obvious or major issues you've written +a good exam answer. After all, your peers probably share your gift for +seeing the obvious. + +So, how do you make sure you catch the subtle issues as well as the +straightforward ones? When you're preparing for the exam, condense your +outline into a checklist of one- or two-word shorthand expressions for +legal principles. Memorize the checklist, and recite it in your head +each time you pretend to be the attorney for one of the parties. (Better +yet--write it down on your scratch paper at the beginning of your exam +as soon as you're allowed to start writing, before you even read the +first question. The checklist will remind you of issues you'd otherwise +overlook. + +Practice Exams + +Besides creating a legal-issues outline, the best way to prepare for +exams is to take practice exams. Almost all professors keep their old +exams on file in the lbirary. After you've done the bulk of your study +outlines, photocopy your professors' exams from the last couple of +years. Then sit down with a friend and practice outlining exams answers +based on the old questions. Don't bother writing a full exam answer! +Time yourself, and give yourself about as much time to outline each +answer as you would during a real exam. YOu should budget about a third +of the time you're given to answer an essay question for outlining your +answer (e.g., 20 minutes for a 60- minute question). + +After each question, compare your outlined answer with your friend's. +He or she will have seen somepoints you missed, and vice versa. This +pinpoints issues you may tend to overlook during the real exam. + +Other matters + +Four of your first-year law courses contracts, torts, civil procedure, +and property will last your entire first year. You'll also take two +semester-long courses: criminal law in the fall and constitutional law +in the spring. + +Thus, if you have to concentrate on any particular exam during winter +midterms, concentrate on criminal law; that's the only exam you'll take +in your first semester that counts as a grade for an entire course. +Conversely, the exam for the three-hour constitutional-law course in the +spring will count less toward your average than the exams for your +year-long courses, which are each worth five or six hours' credit. + +Don't get too competitive. It's the friends you make during your first +few months as a law student who'll help you get through the year. Don't +be deluded into thinking that other students are the enemy; they're not. +It's the system you've got to beat, and you can do it with the right +attitude. A vicious competitive streak, however, tends to undermine +your karma in the long run. + +Finally, try to enjoy yourself. The law really can be fun to learn if +you let yourself relax. Most people who make it through the first year +look back at it as a time of rapid intellectual growth and the building +of mental discipline. Don't regard law school as just the +stepping-stone to a career. A law-school education has value in itself +-- it will teach you a lot about what makes our society tick. + + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/legal-ca b/textfiles.com/politics/legal-ca new file mode 100644 index 00000000..524c4956 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/legal-ca @@ -0,0 +1,336 @@ + + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + +ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION + +LEGAL CASE SUMMARY +July 10, 1990 + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation is currently providing litigation +support in two cases in which it perceived there to be substantial civil +liberties concerns which are likely to prove important in the overall +legal scheme by which electronic communications will, now and in the +future, be governed, regulated, encouraged, and protected. + +Steve Jackson Games + +Steve Jackson Games is a small, privately owned adventure game +manufacturer located in Austin, Texas. Like most businesses today, +Steve Jackson Games uses computers for word processing and bookkeeping. +In addition, like many other manufacturers, the company operates an +electronic bulletin board to advertise and to obtain feedback on its +product ideas and lines. + +One of the company's most recent products is GURPS CYBERPUNK, a science +fiction role-playing game set in a high-tech futuristic world. The +rules of the game are set out in a game book. Playing of the game is +not performed on computers and does not make use of computers in any +way. This game was to be the company's most important first quarter +release, the keystone of its line. + +On March 1, 1990, just weeks before GURPS CYBERPUNK was due to be +released, agents of the United States Secret Service raided the premises +of Steve Jackson Games. The Secret Service: + +% seized three of the company's computers which were used in the +drafting and designing of GURPS CYBERPUNK, including the computer used +to run the electronic bulletin board, + +% took all of the company software in the neighborhood of the computers +taken, + +% took with them company business records which were located on the +computers seized, and + +% destructively ransacked the company's warehouse, leaving many items +in disarray. + +In addition, all working drafts of the soon-to-be-published GURPS +CYBERPUNK game book -- on disk and in hard-copy manuscript form -- were +confiscated by the authorities. One of the Secret Service agents told +Steve Jackson that the GURPS CYBERPUNK science fiction fantasy game book +was a, "handbook for computer crime." + +Steve Jackson Games was temporarily shut down. The company was forced +to lay-off half of its employees and, ever since the raid, has operated +on relatively precarious ground. + +Steve Jackson Games, which has not been involved in any illegal activity +insofar as the Foundation's inquiries have been able to determine, tried +in vain for over three months to find out why its property had been +seized, why the property was being retained by the Secret Service long +after it should have become apparent to the agents that GURPS CYBERPUNK +and everything else in the company's repertoire were entirely lawful and +innocuous, and when the company's vital materials would be returned. In +late June of this year, after attorneys for the Electronic Frontier +Foundation became involved in the case, the Secret Service finally +returned most of the property, but retained a number of documents, +including the seized drafts of GURPS CYBERPUNKS. + +The Foundation is presently seeking to find out the basis for the search +warrant that led to the raid on Steve Jackson Games. Unfortunately, the +application for that warrant remains sealed by order of the court. The +Foundation is making efforts to unseal those papers in order to find out +what it was that the Secret Service told a judicial officer that +prompted that officer to issue the search warrant. + +Under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a search +warrant may be lawfully issued only if the information presented to the +court by the government agents demonstrates "probable cause" to believe +that evidence of criminal conduct would be found on the premises to be +searched. Unsealing the search warrant application should enable the +Foundation's lawyers, representing Steve Jackson Games, to determine the +theory by which Secret Service Agents concluded or hypothesized that +either the GURPS CYBERPUNK game or any of the company's computerized +business records constituted criminal activity or contained evidence of +criminal activity. + +Whatever the professed basis of the search, its scope clearly seems to +have been unreasonably broad. The wholesale seizure of computer +software, and subsequent rummaging through its contents, is precisely +the sort of general search that the Fourth Amendment was designed to +prohibit. + +If it is unlawful for government agents to indiscriminately seize all of +the hard-copy filing cabinets on a business premises -- which it surely +is -- that the same degree of protection should apply to businesses +that store information electronically. + +The Steve Jackson Games situation appears to involve First Amendment +violations as well. The First Amendment to the United States +Constitution prohibits the government from "abridging the freedom of +speech, or of the press". The government's apparent attempt to prevent +the publication of the GURPS CYBERPUNK game book by seizing all copies +of all drafts in all media prior to publication, violated the First +Amendment. The particular type of First Amendment violation here is the +single most serious type, since the government, by seizing the very +material sought to be published, effectuated what is known in the law as +a "prior restraint" on speech. This means that rather than allow the +material to be published and then seek to punish it, the government +sought instead to prevent publication in the first place. (This is not +to say, of course, that anything published by Steve Jackson Games could +successfully have been punished. Indeed, the opposite appears to be the +case, since SJG's business seems to be entirely lawful.) In any effort +to restrain publication, the government bears an extremely heavy burden +of proof before a court is permitted to authorize a prior restraint. + +Indeed, in its 200-year history, the Supreme Court has never upheld a +prior restraint on the publication of material protected by the First +Amendment, warning that such efforts to restrain publication are +presumptively unconstitutional. For example, the Department of Justice +was unsuccessful in 1971 in obtaining the permission of the Supreme +Court to enjoin The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston +Globe from publishing the so-called Pentagon Papers, which the +government strenuously argued should be enjoined because of a perceived +threat to national security. (In 1979, however, the government sought +to prevent The Progressive magazine from publishing an article +purporting to instruct the reader as to how to manufacture an atomic +bomb. A lower federal court actually imposed an order for a temporary +prior restraint that lasted six months. The Supreme Court never had an +opportunity to issue a full ruling on the constitutionality of that +restraint, however, because the case was mooted when another newspaper +published the article.) + +Governmental efforts to restrain publication thus have been met by +vigorous opposition in the courts. A major problem posed by the +government's resort to the expedient of obtaining a search warrant, +therefore, is that it allows the government to effectively prevent or +delay publication without giving the citizen a ready opportunity to +oppose that effort in court. + +The Secret Service managed to delay, and almost to prevent, the +publication of an innocuous game book by a legitimate company -- not by +asking a court for a prior restraint order that it surely could not have +obtained, but by asking instead for a search warrant, which it obtained +all too readily. + +The seizure of the company's computer hardware is also problematic, for +it prevented the company not only from publishing GURPS CYBERPUNK, but +also from operating its electronic bulletin board. The government's +action in shutting down such an electronic bulletin board is the +functional equivalent of shutting down printing presses of The New York +Times or The Washington Post in order to prevent publication of The +Pentagon Papers. Had the government sought a court order closing down +the electronic bulletin board, such an order effecting a prior restraint +almost certainly would have been refused. Yet by obtaining the search +warrant, the government effected the same result. + +This is a stark example of how electronic media suffer under a less +stringent standard of constitutional protection than applies to the +print media -- for no apparent reason, it would appear, other than the +fact that government agents and courts do not seem to readily equate +computers with printing presses and typewriters. It is difficult to +understand a difference between these media that should matter for +constitutional protection purposes. This is one of the challenges +facing the Electronic Frontier Foundation. + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation will continue to press for return of +the remaining property of Steve Jackson Games and will take formal +steps, if necessary, to determine the factual basis for the search. +The purpose of these efforts is to establish law applying the First and +Fourth Amendments to electronic media, so as to protect in the future +Steve Jackson Games as well as other individuals and businesses from +the devastating effects of unlawful and unconstitutional government +intrusion upon and interference with protected property and speech +rights. + +United States v. Craig Neidorf + +Craig Neidorf is a 20-year-old student at the University of Missouri who +has been indicted by the United States on several counts of interstate +wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property in +connection with his activities as editor and publisher of the +electronic magazine, Phrack. + +The indictment charges Neidorf with: (1) wire fraud and interstate +transportation of stolen property for the republication in Phrack of +information which was allegedly illegally obtained through the accessing +of a computer system without authorization, though it was obtained not +by Neidorf but by a third party; and (2) wire fraud for the publication +of an announcement of a computer conference and for the publication of +articles which allegedly provide some suggestions on how to bypass +security in some computer systems. + +The information obtained without authorization is a file relating to the +provision of 911 emergency telephone services that was allegedly removed +from the BellSouth computer system without authorization. It is +important to note that neither the indictment, nor any briefs filed in +this case by the government, contain any factual allegation or +contention that Neidorf was involved in or participated in the removal +of the 911 file. + +These indictments raise substantial constitutional issues which have +significant impact on the uses of new computer communications +technologies. The prosecution of an editor or publisher, under +generalized statutes like wire fraud and interstate transportation of +stolen property, for the publication of information received lawfully, +which later turns out to be have been "stolen," presents an +unprecedented threat to the freedom of the press. The person who should +be prosecuted is the thief, and not a publisher who subsequently +receives and publishes information of public interest. To draw an +analogy to the print media, this would be the equivalent of prosecuting +The New York Times and The Washington Post for publishing the Pentagon +Papers when those papers were dropped off at the doorsteps of those +newspapers. + +Similarly, the prosecution of a publisher for wire fraud arising out of +the publication of articles that allegedly suggested methods of +unlawful activity is also unprecedented. Even assuming that the +articles here did advocate unlawful activity, advocacy of unlawful +activity cannot constitutionally be the basis for a criminal +prosecution, except where such advocacy is directed at producing +imminent lawless action, and is likely to incite such action. The +articles here simply do not fit within this limited category. The +Supreme Court has often reiterated that in order for advocacy to be +criminalized, the speech must be such that the words trigger an +immediate action. Criminal prosecutions such as this pose an extreme +hazard for First Amendment rights in all media of communication, as it +has a chilling effect on writers and publishers who wish to discuss the +ramifications of illegal activity, such as information describing +illegal activity or describing how a crime might be committed. + +In addition, since the statutes under which Neidorf is charged clearly +do not envision computer communications, applying them to situations +such as that found in the Neidorf case raises fundamental questions of +fair notice -- that is to say, the publisher or computer user has no +way of knowing that his actions may in fact be a violation of criminal +law. The judge in the case has already conceded that "no court has +ever held that the electronic transfer of confidential, proprietary +business information from one computer to another across state lines +constitutes a violation of [the wire fraud statute]." The Due Process +Clause prohibits the criminal prosecution of one who has not had fair +notice of the illegality of his action. Strict adherence to the +requirements of the Due Process Clause also minimizes the risk of +selective or arbitrary enforcement, where prosecutors decide what +conduct they do not like and then seek some statute that can be +stretched by some theory to cover that conduct. + +Government seizure and liability of bulletin board systems + +During the recent government crackdown on computer crime, the government +has on many occasions seized the computers which operate bulletin board +systems ("BBSs"), even though the operator of the bulletin board is not +suspected of any complicity in any alleged criminal activity. The +government seizures go far beyond a "prior restraint" on the publication +of any specific article, as the seizure of the computer equipment of a +BBS prevents the BBS from publishing at all on any subject. This akin +to seizing the word processing and computerized typesetting equipment +of The New York Times for publishing the Pentagon Papers, simply because +the government contends that there may be information relating to the +commission of a crime on the system. Thus, the government does not +simply restrain the publication of the "offending" document, but it +seizes the means of production of the First Amendment activity so that +no more stories of any type can be published. + +The government is allowed to seize "instrumentalities of crime," and a +bulletin board and its associated computer system could arguably be +called an instrumentality of crime if individuals used its private +e-mail system to send messages in furtherance of criminal activity. +However, even if the government has a compelling interest in interfering +with First Amendment protected speech, it can only do so by the least +restrictive means. Clearly, the wholesale seizure and retention of a +publication's means of production, i.e., its computer system, is not the +least restrictive alternative. The government obviously could seize +the equipment long enough to make a copy of the information stored on +the hard disk and to copy any other disks and documents, and then +promptly return the computer system to the operator. + +Another unconstitutional aspect of the government seizures of the +computers of bulletin board systems is the government infringement on +the privacy of the electronic mail in the systems. It appears that the +government, in seeking warrants for the seizures, has not forthrightly +informed the court that private mail of third parties is on the +computers, and has also read some of this private mail after the systems +have been seized. + +The Neidorf case also raises issues of great significance to bulletin +board systems. As Neidorf was a publisher of information he received, +BBSs could be considered publishers of information that its users post +on the boards. BBS operators have a great deal of concern as to the +liability they might face for the dissemination of information on their +boards which may turn out to have been obtained originally without +authorization, or which discuss activity which may be considered +illegal. This uncertainty as to the law has already caused a decrease +in the free flow of information, as some BBS operators have removed +information solely because of the fear of liability. + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation stands firmly against the +unauthorized access of computer systems, computer trespass and computer +theft, and strongly supports the security and sanctity of private +computer systems and networks. One of the goals of the Foundation, +however, is to ensure that, as the legal framework is established to +protect the security of these computer systems, the unfettered +communication and exchange of ideas is not hindered. The Foundation is +concerned that the Government has cast its net too broadly, ensnaring +the innocent and chilling or indeed supressing the free flow of +information. The Foundation fears not only that protected speech will +be curtailed, but also that the citizen's reasonable expectation in the +privacy and sanctity of electronic communications systems will be +thwarted, and people will be hesitant to communicate via these networks. +Such a lack of confidence in electronic communication modes will +substantially set back the kind of experimentation by and communication +among fertile minds that are essential to our nation's development. The +Foundation has therefore applied for amicus curiae (friend of the +court) status in the Neidorf case and has filed legal briefs in support +of the First Amendment issues there, and is prepared to assist in +protecting the free flow of information over bulletin board systems and +other computer technologies. + +For further information regarding Steve Jackson Games please contact: + +Harvey Silverglate or Sharon Beckman +Silverglate & Good +89 Broad Street, 14th Floor +Boston, MA 02110 +617/542-6663 + +For further information regarding Craig Neidorf please contact: + +Terry Gross or Eric Lieberman +Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman +740 Broadway, 5th Floor +New York, NY 10003 +212/254-1111 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/lets.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/lets.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b51f9078 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/lets.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1119 @@ +LETS AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF A NEW MONEY SYSTEM + + + +Richard Kay, 1993 +Compuserve: 100265,3530 +Internet: richard.kay@uce.ac.uk +Janet: RICHARD.KAY@UK.AC.UCE +GreenNet: richkay +Phone: +44 203 450152 + +Contents + +1. Introduction + +2. Local Exchange Trading Systems: What they are and how they +work + +3. The tax and benefits position + +4. Starting a LETS group + +5. Developing the LETS system + +6. Interest and inflation + +7. savings and investment + +8. Inter-LETS: how you get round the limitations + +9. LETS and the finance of public and community projects + +10. The demise of the old money system ? + +11. The emergence of a new social contract + +12. Where do we go from here ? + + + +1. Introduction + + + +I have been interested in economics for a number of years and am +currently involved in setting up a Local Exchange Trading System +(LETS) in Coventry. I have also been involved in developments in +information technology which have made it technically feasible +for all currency transactions to be carried out electronically. +The rapid growth and development of the LETS movement in the +English speaking world has encouraged me to communicate some of +my perspectives on this subject to a wider audience. + +LETS means different things to different people. No two LETS +systems are the same; any group of people can set one up to suit +themselves, so long as they operate within the law. Some of +these schemes will be more successful than others because they +more closely meet the needs of their participants. The potential +impact of this growing movement on public and economic policy is +significant. + +Developments in the methods of financing all sorts of public and +private projects made possible by LETS type currencies may +ultimately affect everyone; changes such as these should not +take place in a democratic society in the absence of a full and +open public debate. This pamphlet represents my attempt both to +contribute towards this debate and to persuade others of the +potential benefits of joining and supporting the LETS movement. + +In chapters 2 to 8 I look at how LETS systems operate, how they +are set up and how they may be developed in future. In chapters +9 to 12 I look at some of the wider implications. + + + +2. Local Exchange Trading Systems: What they are and how they +work + + + +A Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) association is simply a +group of people who exchange goods and services amongst +themselves. Examples of the very many goods and services which +are traded include organic vegetables, second hand cars, +bricklaying, child minding and computer consultancy. In order to +facilitate their many and various trades, the members of a LETS +association create a currency which circulates amongst +themselves and exists solely within the accounts of the +association. + +Money is often defined as being the medium of exchange. It is +also a measure of value, as agreed between buyer and seller; in +a similar manner hours are used as a measure of time. The act of +measuring value for the purpose of quoting prices and then +agreeing sales of goods and services also results in +measurements, or information about the creditworthyness, credit +and debt held by the parties involved in the exchange. So money +is not just the medium of exchange; it is also information about +credit. For example, when I go into a shop with a five pound +note, the writing on it indicates that the Governor of the +issuing bank has given me an IOU for the stated amount. + +This credit used to be based on known weights of valuable metal. +The un-creditworthiness of governments and the economic +inefficiency of digging gold from deep in the earth so that it +could be reinterred inside a guarded bank vault (and other +technical reasons which I will not explain here) ended the +custom of retaining some returnable commodity for the purpose of +redeeming the circulating IOUs. Technically the promise to pay +is cancelled by exchanging a banknote at the issuing bank for +any coin or token claiming itself to be the sum involved, rather +than a promise to pay it, and deemed by the government of the +day to be legal tender. + +In a society which enjoys freedom of expression and association, +no laws can prevent a group of people from choosing to form an +association and recording and distributing information about +credit relating to the sales of goods and services between +individuals within this group. Every credit worth describing as +such must be based on an equal and opposite debt or debit for +which there can be a reasonable expectation of repayment. +However there is nowadays little reason why all or part of the +sum total of these debits should represent borrowing by the +state; e.g. during bank strikes in the past, people have +continued trading by circulating IOUs issued by local businesses +and individuals whose standing in the local community is +sufficient that their credit is accepted by others. + +So within a LETS association an agreed currency unit circulates; +the credits result from sales while the debits result from +purchases. Repayment of the debits involves cancellation of the +equivalent credit, and the money supply fluctuates according to +need. There is no requirement for interest in this scheme of +things, but there may need to be occasional provisions for +debits which are both inadequately secured and cannot be repaid +and also to pay for the costs of administrating the system. One +way or another, these costs are shared by the members of the +association. + +Before the availability of cheap and powerful computers, the +regular compilation, update and circulation of information about +credit within an association of more than 30 to 40 trading +members without using physical money tokens such as notes and +coins would have required an unwieldy bureaucracy. Smaller LETS +associations can do this job using a card index, but the fact +that the first LETS system started together with the +availability of the cheap personal computer in 1983 is no +coincidence. Historically therefore, the credit used in old +money systems was most conveniently circulated using physical +tokens except for large amounts where the expense of clearing +cheques was accepted in return for better security. + +LETS associations use cheque or automated money transfers and +avoid using physical money tokens for the following reasons: + +a. If all transactions go through sufficiently open accounts all +members can know the creditworthyness of everyone else. + +b. It avoids the high costs of manufacturing notes and coin +which are difficult to counterfeit. + +c. In some countries there are legal obstacles to anyone other +than the government issuing banknotes. + +d. The fact that a LETS currency only exists within the accounts +of an association makes it impossible to steal. + +LETS type currencies do not need to circulate solely within +local communities but they work best with individuals and +businesses where the people involved recognise mutual economic +interests before they set up a LETS association. + +For some the key reason why many LETS associations are getting +established is because this enables these communities to take +control over their own economic development from distant central +bankers, governments and global market forces. Why should a +community suffer unemployment if it has unused local resources +capable of meeting local needs ? For others the most important +reason for starting a LETS association is that a local currency +is more likely to encourage sustainable development. It makes it +easier to reuse, repair and recycle things in preference to +wasting them. LETS currencies are not called "green" for +nothing. + +There are those who compare the ethics of the western banks in +their dealings with the third world unfavourably with those of a +back-street loan shark. LETS, however, as an interest-free money +system is an opportunity for fairer economic relations between +rich and poor. For most people however, the key benefit is being +able to draw on the skills and resources of others in exchange +for their own when they know they can't achieve this using a +conventional currency which drains too quickly away from regions +of high unemployment. + +Whatever advantages LETS has to offer, very many people are +getting involved. Because the rate of growth is so fast it is +difficult to present accurate figures; most information is +quickly out of date. In Australia, the largest LETS association +has over 1000 members, while in England, the number of LETS +associations known to LETSLINK UK grew from 40 to 110 in the +first 8 months of 1993. No doubt the average size of the more +established groups increased as well; the Stroud group being the +largest with over 300 members by summer 93. + + + +3. The tax and benefits position + + + +Some who know little of LETS consider it an opportunity for +benefit fraud and tax evasion. Nothing could be further from the +truth, because it is in the nature of a LETS system that the +income, expenditure and current balances of all members are made +available to all others. There is nothing to prevent tax or +benefits officials joining privately and making use of this +information in their official capacity; nor would any LETS +administrators be likely to refuse cooperation in response to a +legitimate official enquiry. I can only comment on the position +in the UK as I must claim ignorance of the tax and benefit laws +elsewhere, but from what little I have gathered, I understand +that similar principles apply throughout the English speaking +world. According to Michael Linton, the originator of the first +LETS system in British Columbia, Canada, the current tax and +benefit laws (presumably in Canada ?) are as appropriate to LETS +money systems as the 19th century transport laws were to jet +travel. + +The tax laws are less of a problem to the development and use of +LETS than the benefit rules. Tax is payable on any regular +source of income earned in connection with a business. I am not +aware of anyone with a regular contract of employment where the +income is paid wholly or partly in LETS currency but presumably +in this event similar principles will apply as to the taxation +of fringe benefits. So if you were working as a full-time +computer programmer and you sold a bicycle for LETS you would +not be liable for tax, but if you sold bicycles as a regular +business activity and sold one or two for LETS then you would be +liable for tax on the income earned, the tax being payable using +legal tender. A business operating mainly using LETS must +therefore earn sufficient old currency to pay the obligatory +taxes under current law. One way of doing this is for a business +to charge a percentage of the total price using old currency. + +The position on benefits is variable and seems open to +negotiation, as it currently depends on the attitude of +different claims assessment officials. This varies between +benefits officers threatening to cut off all benefit in response +to the suggestion that a claimant was thinking about earning +LETS income and ignoring LETS income totally because the limited +range of goods and services available within a small and new +scheme can only represent social favours for which benefits are +not normally provided; e.g. if single parents on benefit barter +occasional babysitting services this should not be classified as +income for the purpose of deciding whether benefits should be +withheld. A kind of income for which it is not easy to calculate +a financial equivalent can result in much extra work for the +officials involved and many would privately prefer not to know +about it. + +Another reason why the benefit regulations are problematic is +that the social security system was never designed for the +modern reality of many people being able to gain temporary and +occasional marginal employment which does not together add up to +enough for life's essentials. Having to reassess the benefit +level involved for each of these many changes in personal +circumstances goes beyond the ability of the officials and +claimants to handle the paperwork and administration. In +practice this is why so many are forced into a semi-criminal +underclass where anything other than the absolute bare +essentials of survival is obtained through the black economy. + +There seems to be a need for clearer procedures for claimants to +become more self-sufficient within the law and for less +reduction in benefit for each additional unit of income earned. +These changes may need to be combined with a different approach +to providing minimum benefits to those in need of them. + +Are we to accept that the purpose of a money system is to match +needs and resources and that there are many unmet needs ? If so +then it follows that if the money system operated correctly +there would be no such thing as unemployment. Supplementary +benefits and the dole are patches which are only needed because +the system is malfunctioning. In later chapters I will look at +the question of how using a LETS based money system enables us +to tackle this problem. + + + +4. Starting a LETS group + + + +Experience has shown that a LETS scheme is best started by +organising a meeting intended to attract the people most likely +to become involved. It is useful to obtain one or two speakers +from LETS associations which have already become established and +there are some useful LETS trading games which can be played to +break the ice. Such a meeting is a good place to form a core +group involving those who are going to be active in organising +the scheme. If this meeting generates sufficient interest, this +will lead to further meetings to coordinate the work involved in +setting up. It is useful to draw up a few simple pieces of paper: + +a. A members agreement + +b. A cheque form + +c. A form which can be used to collect information which will go +into a directory containing information about goods and services +offered and wanted + +d. A leaflet for general publicity + +e. A description of how the LETS system operates + +At these meetings decisions can be made about who will carry out +the key responsibilities, such as drawing up the accounts, +liaison with the media, organising social events etc. Decisions +will also be needed about the cost of membership and the nominal +value and name of the currency unit. These meetings are needed +but don't have too many of them. Groups which start trading at +the earliest opportunity are more likely to grow quickly. Useful +assets include a permanent address to which the cheques can be +sent and collected by whoever is doing the accounts; having a +local cafe, church or community centre is useful for this as it +is likely to act as a focus for the community served by the LETS +scheme. + +Once the group is established, trading and regularly publishing +its accounts and directories, further attention is likely to be +given to encouraging new members to join. Obviously the more +members, the greater the variety of goods and services on offer +and the higher the volume of trading. To start with much +voluntary work will be needed by those willing to form the core +group. When the trading volume is sufficient, the service +charges that can reasonably be levied on accounts can be +expected to cover the efforts involved in administrating and +developing the system. + + + +5. Developing the LETS system + + + +At a certain stage of growth, perhaps having reached 100 members +or so, a LETS group is likely to be interested in involving more +local businesses. The ones most likely to want to join will be +those mainly serving the same community within which the LETS +system operates. Many such businesses will be willing to offer a +discount to members of a local association if this provides them +with free advertising by virtue of the fact that the association +is likely to publicise the members' discount. This discount can +act as the starting point for negotiations intended to get a +suitable business involved. Supposing a business were willing to +offer a 10% discount anyway, then why not negotiate a 20% +discount on the cash price if 20% is also paid in LETS ? The +business owner might feel that this cuts the cash profit margins +by too much, but if the LETS can be spent on goods and services +available within the community then the extra turnover this +arrangement can be expected to bring is likely to be of more +interest. + +Of course by taking a greater share of the local market from +competitors, a business involved in using LETS in this manner +will be accused of unfair competition, but no-one will be +excluding competitors from joining on fair terms. Once they are +asking to join in order to avoid losing business it becomes +reasonable to expect them to contribute more towards the cost of +administration and development. This will result in competition +between local businesses by offering a higher percentage LETS +contribution to their prices, thereby encouraging trade that +stays within the community. + +With more people joining and more LETS being traded it is likely +that the character of the scheme will change; those who take the +small is beautiful perspective to great lengths might feel that +the system is becoming less personal and are naturally at +liberty to found new smaller LETS groups within the larger +community so that the extended-family nature of the original +LETS group is not lost. Computer software is already available +to enable those who are concerned about this to do just that +with little administrative inconvenience. + +The larger scheme will need to adapt to these new realities. For +the credit circulating within the system to be valued as a +useful kind of money, more thought will need to be given towards +preventing some members from acquiring more debit than they can +(or want to) repay. Within a smaller scheme, people won't do +jobs for or supply goods to those who are doing relatively +little for others compared to what others are doing for them. +The "offenders" will be easily identifiable to anyone who looks +at the accounts, but in a larger scheme some members are likely +to be less concerned about minding other people's business in +this manner so long as they can still spend their credits. In a +group which has so many members that the people involved don't +know each other, different controls are needed. + +By this stage the larger group is likely to have adopted a +formal constitution which allows for democratic elections for an +executive committee, perhaps by postal voting or at general +meetings. Experience within other kinds of voluntary +associations which try to expand significantly without formal +constitutions suggests that these are likely to split into +factions. + +Up to this point I have been dealing with known practice. +Further expansion will depend on the credibility of the LETS +currency which will itself depend upon how reasonable are the +expectations that debits can be repaid and whether the accounts +have been kept in good order. Larger volumes of trading will +require an adequate money supply. This will mean there are +incentives for allowing individuals and businesses which have +demonstrated that they can generate a steady income to go into +debit up to agreed limits, with these limits to be reduced at an +agreed rate. Perhaps debit limits could be based on the previous +income into the relevant account. + +A second method of control might involve weighting the cost of +repaying any bad debits disproportionately on those who have +obtained most credits from an account which is defined as going +into default under the rules of the scheme. This has the +advantage of decentralising responsibility for setting debit +limits within a larger system. For example, supposing someone +succeeds in opening an account under a false identity, buys some +valuable jewels from someone else and then departs with no +forwarding address, then at some stage this account would be +declared as being in default and the member who sold the jewels +might then be expected to make good most or all of the credit +obtained. A business would then need up-to date and accurate +account information (preferably on-line) to help determine a +prospective customer's credit rating before deciding whether to +take on a large contract or sell valuable goods. + +I am not sure if the clause in a LETS member's agreement which +prevents someone leaving the group without balancing their +account can be enforced under civil law because there has not +yet been such a serious default that a group has wanted to take +an ex-member to court. It may require a test case before we find +out whether this kind of agreement is as enforceable as any +other voluntary organisation's member's agreement under contract +law. If this proves to be a problem, minor legislative change +may be needed. + +Eventually there will be a need to secure larger debits on +assets such as title deeds or share certificates, both to reduce +the risk of fraud and to give new and existing members +sufficient confidence in the system to use it to its full +potential. This could probably be done in much the same manner +as a mortgage is secured on existing assets, the only difference +being a need to translate the LETS currency liability into a +legal tender liability for the benefit of courts which do not +recognise a LETS currency as legal tender for the purpose of +discharging debts. The manner in which this translation could be +made would be written into a mortgage agreement. This provision +would only come into effect in the event of a default on +repayments on an interest free LETS debit secured in this manner. + +Another important area of development concerns how cheque or +direct debit type payment messages are best handled. Small +groups can use various methods. Here are the most popular: + +a. Using cheque books with the cheques being sent to a +collection address by the vendor. + +b. Expecting the purchaser to leave a message on a telephone +answering machine, + +c. Keeping a book for the purchasers to write in their payments +at a central place such as a cafe, church or community centre. + +Method b. can be the cheapest and simplest for a small system +whose members do not all visit the same place regularly, but it +has been found to be less reliable because people tend to forget +whether they have left a message on the machine. This can result +in entries being made twice or not at all and sometimes messages +may be lost due to technical difficulties. Method c. will only +be suitable if there is a central point which members visit +regularly during the normal course of events. With more powerful +computers now being cheap enough, there is interest in +developing the software needed to enable tone-dialling phones to +be used to input transactions to computer systems connected to a +phone line and capable of speaking standardised messages; this +could also be used to request account information and statements +at less cost than other means. + +Another method of handling automated accounting might involve +running a LETS currency from within a standard Bulletin Board +System run on a computer connected to a modem accessed by other +computers through ordinary telephone lines or other networks. +This method is only likely to be useful for a LETS group whose +members all have access to computers and modems. + +With larger schemes there is likely to be more interest in +authentication of the messages to further reduce the small +probability of fraud. Currently the use of either a signature on +a cheque or in a book, or a PIN number or password for an +automated credit transfer is adequate. One advantage of LETS +money is that it is inherently more secure than older +currencies, because all payments must go through the accounts +and the money only exists within them. Technological +developments will inevitably result in further improvements: few +would object to using a plastic card with their own picture on +it and letting a point of sale terminal in a shop display their +picture accessed from a central database for comparison. Other +possibilities such as automated voice, face or fingerprint +recognition seem less likely to be politically acceptable. + + + +6. Interest and inflation + + + +For those involved in a new LETS scheme there is little point in +building up credit unless you spend it reasonably soon because +you don't earn any interest on it. Most of us have known the +continuous devaluation of the purchasing power of money for so +long that the idea that inflation is not a necessary condition +of money seems strange. In countries with very high inflation +rates people don't save money; if there is temporarily more +money available than needed they look for things to spend it on +which can be resold later. In countries suffering lower +inflation rates, say between 1 and 20 percent, few would save +much money for long unless it earned interest at more than the +prevailing rate of inflation. Neither inflation nor interest are +necessary conditions. LETS money does not earn interest by its +very nature; I will now explain why it need not suffer from +inflation either. + +The conventional explanation of inflation is that it results +from too much money chasing too few goods and services. To some +extent this depends on the psychology of workers and merchants; +if everyone were willing to take real cuts in profits and wages +then a temporary increase in the money supply would not +necessarily result in inflation; but everyone knows that +increases in the supply of old kinds of money are permanent and +workers and traders will not voluntarily respond to exhortations +to accept lower returns . + +With modern governments being elected on promises to tax low and +spend high, the resulting deficit cannot be prevented from +entering the money supply. Issuing longer term bonds in +preference to banknotes has bought time in the past, but this +has gone on for so long that the problem is now greater and its +solution more drastic. True, high interest rates will prevent +some of the public deficit from being re-circulated for a while, +but we are now suffering from the long term effects of our +debilitating addiction to public deficit financing. The +resulting economic stagnation and consequent unpopularity will +not be endured for very long by any government, so more money is +printed and the usury is temporarily reduced in the hope of +buying the next election; consequently we are stuck in a vicious +spiral of high interest and unemployment followed by inflation. + +LETS type currencies can be used to address this problem by +spreading the debits, on which the circulating currency is +based, between many business owners and other individuals who +can be expected to repay them. Those of us who are involved in +LETS systems which are receiving encouraging help from our local +authorities must be careful that we do not let them spend LETS +which we have neither given nor paid them, otherwise inflation +will creep in by the back door. So long as charities, public +agencies and banks are prevented from taking on the debit on +which the currency is based and we do not allow too many +individual members to vanish into the wide blue yonder with +large unsecured debits, then the LETS currency supply can be +controlled. The role of the LETS system, as a voluntary agency +which exists to maintain the accounts of its members and thereby +controls the circulation of a currency, is similar to a bank in +some respects and a public agency in others. The LETS system +should not go into debit to its members if it wants to maintain +the credibility of its currency; this requires that the total +credits are balanced by debits which are unlikely not to be +repaid. + +If one of the members defaults, the bad debit may need to be +written off by payment from a service or general insurance +account which may temporarily go into debit for this purpose, +but the cost of bad debits and administration will need to be +paid for by some or all of the members one way or another. For a +charity, spending more than it is given involves going beyond +the authority vested in it by its donors. The same principle +needs to be established in relation to state spending in excess +of the taxes which we are prepared to vote for. ( It goes +without saying that the state can also legitimately spend +revenues obtained from services which we are willing to pay for +directly.) If the distribution of this authorised public revenue +can be carried out more efficiently and more in accordance with +the wishes of the taxpayers ( I will propose how this may be +achieved in a later chapter ), this sensible restriction need +not result in any essential public service being underfunded. +That is not to say that any public services will ever be perfect +but there is little purpose blaming the government for the +nature of reality. + +Some LETS currency units are based initially on the value of the +relevant old currency; others are based on the minimum, average +or common wage paid for an hours work. Basing the currency unit +on an old currency has the advantage of making it easier for +people to set realistic prices initially and helps businesses +offering price options involving a percentage in LETS. The +disadvantage is that if buyers and sellers expect this parity to +be maintained, it is unlikely that the value of a LETS currency +will be stable when an old currency depreciates. If those in +credit see the value of what they have done in the past +depreciate, this will limit the total of goods and services they +will sell to others for the purpose of savings, which in turn +will limit the contribution the LETS currency can make to the +local economy. + +Basing the currency unit on the minimum hourly wage has the +following advantages: + +a. Traditional socialists are likely to be concerned about the +existence and purchasing power of a minimum wage. Basing the +currency on it will give them an incentive to defend the +purchasing power of the currency unit. + +b. Traditional conservatives will be concerned about sound +money. In order to achieve this they will have to defend minimum +wages. + +c. This standard is more likely to slowly improve the purchasing +power of the currency unit than depreciate it. Over many years, +productivity and expectations of the purchasing power of minimum +wages will rise. + +d. Using a currency unit based on a commodity such as gold can +cause a slump in trade whenever there is an increase in the +value of this commodity relative to wages. Basing the currency +standard on wages, however defined, avoids this problem. + +At the expense of making initial LETS or mixed currency +transactions slightly more difficult to calculate, it is worth +adopting a minimum hourly wage rate as the basis of the currency +unit. This will help guarantee the stability of this currency +because a new political consensus can be built around its base +value. If the decisions concerning how public finance is to be +divided between the various services which compete for it can be +delegated to the taxpayer, politicians will no longer have any +incentive for financing state expenditure through public +borrowing or by increasing the money supply in order to devalue +the standard by which the public debt is measured. + + + +7. Savings and investment + + + +People will not hold savings in a depreciating currency without +the incentive of interest if they have alternative methods of +retaining the value of money not required immediately, e.g. by +purchasing durable goods, land or buildings etc. solely for the +purpose of resale later. This is grossly inefficient and +wasteful because these assets are withdrawn from use or +production. Saving is a natural human activity because some +large purchases cannot be afforded immediately; the desire to +put something aside for retirement can be harnessed to enable +others in the community to invest in the productive assets and +resources needed by all its members. + +Currently most LETS currencies are too new and have insufficient +turnover to support much of this kind of use, but there have +been cases where individuals have taken on large debits to build +their own houses, and then repaid these debits more quickly than +would be possible using an interest-burdened currency. + +Macroeconomic theory states that savings must always equal +investment; savings being the money put aside for future use +while investments represent that which is spent on lasting +assets, means of production or stocks i.e. what is not currently +being consumed or lost through depreciation. This follows from +the fact that expenditure is split between consumption and +investment, while income, which equals expenditure for the +community as a whole, is split between consumption and savings. +Now clearly not everything thought of as being saved is actually +saved if the money is not invested in something productive or of +intrinsic value by the savings institution. One example of this +is where the manager of a bank is stealing and spending the +money and presenting false accounts. A far more serious problem +for most people concerns the money thought of as savings which +are used to purchase the bonds sold to individuals, banks and +pension funds by a government which simultaneously sells public +assets to pay for its current account deficit. + +Traditionally state borrowing was only acceptable when +governments invested the money in schools, roads and state-owned +industries. Now that these bonds are simply sold to finance the +public deficit the savings supposedly secured by government +bonds should no longer be considered as such either by the +person who puts money into them or for the purpose of +understanding the state of the economy. Public deficit financing +ruins the economy in two ways; firstly by taking much of the +money people intend to save and using it for consumption rather +than investment and secondly by driving up interest rates to the +point where few investments can pay the cost of financing them. + +Savings and investment are activities generally carried out by +different people, though they share common objectives. For +example, if one person wants to build a home while another wants +to put something aside for retirement then both can benefit from +a sound money system which enable credits being accumulated for +retirement to mirror debits accumulated while a house is built +by someone else. The retired person should later be able to +spend these credits reflecting regular reductions of debit or +repayments made by the house purchaser. + +Before LETS type currencies become real vehicles for economic +regeneration they will need to become a credible means for +channelling savings towards investment. It will probably take a +few years for the users of a new currency to trust it for long +term savings. This does not need an interest incentive for the +saver so long as the currency can maintain or improve its real +value over a period of a few years and be expected to continue +doing so. + +Not everyone involved in LETS schemes wants to see them used to +finance substantial investments; some see no value in having +money unless it is spent. They are welcome to continue forming +smaller LETS schemes where this use for investment purposes is +less likely or to spend the currency of the larger schemes as +soon as they earn it. Enough people are likely to want to use +the new currencies to channel their savings towards other's +investments to ensure that this will happen. + + + +8. Inter-LETS: how you get round the limitations + + + +The astute reader may have noticed that I have referred to +separate LETS systems as organising separate currencies rather +than a single new kind of currency that can be traded between +all members of all LETS schemes. This is both the strength and +the weakness of LETS based economies. The smaller the currency, +the sooner your money comes back to you and the more trading +will depend on non-economic values such as a sense of community. +There may on occasion be the need to combine two LETS currencies +into one, because a large overlap forms between their +memberships and to avoid the duplication of administrative and +development effort. But much of the beauty of the LETS concept +derives from the smallness of its origins and the fact that it +starts from the grass roots of society, grows organically and +encourages both diversity and a healthy form of competition +between different LETS schemes. The smaller community based LETS +scheme matches local needs and resources well but does not +provide sufficient competition or economy of scale to generate +adequate trade or sufficient diversity and choice to enable its +members to enjoy the quality of life which they have come to +expect, without using another currency which operates on a +larger scale. + +The business of keeping separate currencies in separate pockets +for those trading on more than one LETS system need not be too +complicated in practice, because LETS money systems are +inherently simple in comparison with the old currencies. Some +will find it easier to earn in one kind of currency while +another is easier to spend. There should be no need for a busy +specialist to become a jack of all trades simply so he or she +can be involved in a small LETS group which provides an +insufficient market for his or her specialism. There is +inherently no reason why someone should not be able to buy one +currency in exchange for a second if someone else wants to buy +the second in exchange for the first; the extra flexibility this +gives is of benefit to both parties and enables greater +participation in a LETS scheme. To use a LETS currency you must +be a member of a LETS association. For such a transaction to +take place between two LETS type currencies both parties would +need to be members of both schemes. + +If, as I propose in the next chapter, taxes are to be charged in +future on all transactions resulting in income to a private +account, this would make imports relatively uneconomic compared +to local products and exports relatively uncompetitive. There +would still be a place for global industries where the economies +of scale are sufficient to justify the extra taxes, e.g. the +computer, telecommunications and air-travel industries. + +LETS does not have to be local. There is no reason why a LETS +type currency should not serve a major conurbation or regional +community with several million inhabitants. This will obviously +need a more professional approach to the administration and +facilities management. The essential features that will need to +be maintained for it not to deteriorate into something just like +another old kind of currency are as follows: + +a. The currency should only be used within a community which +values itself as such. + +b. The circulating credit should be based on debits spread +between many individuals or businesses. Banks, charities, public +agencies or the LETS system itself should not go into debit. + +c. All payments go through the accounts. There are no notes or +coins. + +d. The administration of the system is accountable to the +community it serves; i.e. the trading members who hold accounts. + +e. There should be no interest charged on balances in debit or +paid to those in credit, though administration, service charges +and taxes may be deducted from income received. + +f. Transactions only take place by agreement between buyer and +seller. + +g. Information about the income, expenditure and current +balances on all accounts is made available to all members of the +scheme. + +There are many situations where those engaged in a cooperative +form of economic activity can benefit from using a LETS type +currency to enable and encourage their internal transactions. +For example, The European farmers will need to replace some of +their specialised technological inputs with local skills and +resources resulting in more sustainable and organic forms of +agriculture if trading extensively using local or regional +currencies, but their customers will still want to buy foods +produced more easily in different climates so they have every +reason to trade amongst themselves using their own currency +system. Some would also be able to trade farm machinery or +specialised goods or services into this scheme if these were +available locally in exchange for currencies obtainable through +sale of agricultural products into the farmer's local community. + +Other areas where this kind of approach would work include the +global telecommunications, computer and software industries +where the businesses involved in this already carry out much +inter-trading amongst themselves and need to operate on a global +scale. On a smaller scale, a good basis for a local LETS scheme +involving building and construction trades is the idea of a +"self build" cooperative, whose members buy a large plot of land +which is subdivided into smaller plots so they can pool skills +to build a house for each member. By using a LETS currency to +account for the use of each other's skills, this can continue to +circulate and expand to finance other community activities and +projects after the original houses are completed. + +A new currency system could also be used to enable the +industrialised countries to provide their technological +expertise and abilities to help the third world build up its +basic infrastructure to the point where this effort can be +repaid without harming these emerging economies. This trade is +necessary, both for the third world to become more self-reliant +and to provide useful employment among those with the necessary +skills and organisational abilities in the industrialised world. + +I can see no sustainable objection to this kind of currency +being brought into existence if it operates according to the +principles described above and helps liberate the poorer half +the world from having to pay so much of its earnings as interest +to the richer half. Income received in the form of a global +currency could also result in taxation being raised for the +finance of global institutions. The UN is in urgent need of +finance without strings attached by governments with their own +nationalist agendas, to pay for its peacekeeping, health and +educational programmes. + +The experience gained so far with operating LETS type currencies +at the local level indicates that any community can create its +own currency system. If we are serious about solving the third +world debt crisis it is time we started thinking of all humanity +as belonging to a global community. + + + +9. LETS and the finance of public and community projects + + + +One of the main incentives for forming a LETS scheme is that +this gives a community more control over its own economic +development. So far we have only looked at the private side of +the resulting economy but this is only half of the picture. LETS +currencies are already being used to finance voluntary or +charitable activities typically by levying a percentage on each +transaction or by encouraging voluntary donations by individual +or businesses members, particularly those who have difficulty +spending all the LETS money credited to them. This is all well +and good, but it is unlikely to provide enough for all of the +necessary activities within the community which have +traditionally been funded by the state. + +As a LETS currency operates on a smaller scale it becomes +possible to enable more people to contribute to and participate +in the economy, but we still need to provide benefits for the +elderly and disabled and health and education services; the +people who need these most are those least able to pay for them. +Those involved in using a new money system will prefer to +contribute more directly to these needs rather than through the +current kind of system where the administration, collection and +disbursement of taxes is expensive and bureaucratic and people +feel they have little control over it. + +Why not let individuals decide for themselves to which public +services their taxes should be distributed ? People are capable +of doing as good or better a job of cutting the tax cake than +most politicians because the latter have too many conflicting +responsibilities. Some might decide to put all of their taxes +into just one kind of public service but this would even out. If +it were generally felt that some services were underfunded then +people would divert a higher proportion of their taxes +appropriately. This would be easy to automate, because the +private and public service funds all exist within the same +computerised system for the same LETS currency. + +We would still need a democratic process to decide the minimum +tax rate and to elect representatives to supervise the audit and +use of these funds to prevent misuse. However if politicians are +freed from the task of setting public service account budgets +this will help them to discharge their other responsibilities +more effectively. This change will help them ensure that these +funds are properly managed and that the need for public finance +is not allowed to compromise the integrity of the money system +through which it is provided. + +Much has gone wrong in the public services because excessive +regulation and management has stifled enterprise and initiative. +Those working in these areas feel prevented from advancing new +ideas because of the probability that they will be penalised for +rocking the boat: any improvement inevitably challenges vested +interests. If a branch of government is not seen to be using the +tax revenues which we choose to give it effectively, why should +it go on having an unlimited licence to spend our money if +others are able to do a better job for less ? Enabling tax +payers to decide how their taxes should be split would introduce +a real and necessary atmosphere of competition, flexibility and +innovation into our public services. + +LETS Benefits for those unable to provide for their own +accommodation, clothing or food should be supplied in kind, +rather than money; the direct provision of basic necessities +will be more popular amongst those contributing tax revenues for +this purpose. This will also be easier to administrate within a +smaller community. Perhaps there could also be a small LETS fund +for a universal money benefit. For the rich this would replace +the need for personal tax allowances; for the poor this money +should not be taken away as soon as they earn a little more. +Everyone needs some income whether or not they can earn it, but +the incentive to work openly should not be removed as occurs +under the current system of unemployment. We could then also get +rid of the current tax breaks on so many individual or business +transactions which result in income flowing into privately held +accounts. + +Income tax need not be the only source of revenue; there are +sound reasons for taxing the ownership of land and property, the +use of polluting processes and the sale of unhealthy products +etc. However there is a strong case for considering all payments +into private accounts as being private income and taxing it +equally, because: + +a. This will put an end both to the misuse of money for short +term speculation and lending for interest because these +activities would attract so much tax that no-one would find them +worthwhile. + +b. Investment markets will be forced to take a long term view, +resulting in things being made to last, with more consideration +of the environmental effects being needed if an investment is to +be profitable. + +c. This would make the deduction of tax from income ( and +crediting tax payments to the public service or charitable +accounts nominated by the taxpayer ) capable of being automated +relatively easily. + +For LETS systems to be encouraged to develop in this manner +alongside the current money and tax system some minor enabling +legislation is needed. Any LETS system whose accounts are +properly audited, and which levies taxes in the manner described +above on all internal transactions at or above the basic rate of +income tax, should be in a position where all income earned +through this scheme by its members is exempt from other forms of +taxation. If LETS systems keep growing and proliferating over +the next few years as they have in the past, I think it very +likely that sufficient support can be gained in legislatures for +proposals of this nature to succeed. + + + +10. The demise of the old money system ? + + + +Having developed local and regional LETS currency and tax +systems in the manner in which I have described, we must now +address the question of whether the old money system still has a +useful role to play. In the recent report of the National +Performance Review by US Vice President Al Gore (September 7, +1993, From Red Tape to Results, Creating a Government that Works +Better & Costs Less ) the performance of the system of +government inherited by the new presidency was likened to a car +with a broken engine; with new policies being as ineffective as +pointing a broken down car in a different direction. Clearly +most public agencies have a useful job to do but need to undergo +fundamental change if they are to be responsive to the needs of +their clients. I think something more than just propagating good +practice from the more to the less responsive public agencies is +needed if the system of financing state enterprise is defective. + +We must first ask whether this system is even capable of being +repaired. Certainly all of the principles which I have written +about could, in theory, be incorporated into the existing system +piecemeal in which case the old system would survive by a +process of evolutionary change. This would obviously require +very major surgery, but it is doubtful whether the patient would +make it out of the operating theatre. There is a more practical +difficulty to this approach: the public-deficit problem which +lies at the core of the disintegration and collapse of the old +system is politically insolvable. How do you get people to vote +for higher taxes in return for further cutbacks in the financing +of public services ? + +It is not only the third world governments that have become +bankrupt; this condition is near universal. The collective +government debt forms the basis of credit in the old currency +system and I doubt many believe it to be sustainable either with +or without further massive doses of the same medicine: i.e. +further borrowing to pay interest on the loans. Under this state +of affairs, global hyperinflation is both a necessary +precondition for and an inevitable consequence of the +cancellation of this debt. + +If people can meet some of their needs by using a new currency +they will work less hard in return for an old one; either the +supply of the old one will have to be decreased or its value +will diminish. Global hyperinflation is therefore made more +possible by, and its probability requires, the kind of +developments in alternative currency systems which I have +described. The possibility of getting rid of the old system is +created by the availability of a new one, but we do not want a +sinking ship to go down until we have got as many of the +passengers into lifeboats as can be managed. In conclusion, +various factors will accelerate the transition from the old +system to the new one and appear likely to result in the demise +of the old money system. + + + +11. The emergence of a new social contract + + + +These changes will bring the old system to a crisis point. In +the short term it is likely that things will get worse before +they get better. The result of the emergence of a new money +system on the lines which I have described will involve some +fundamental changes in the relationship between government and +the individual. For starters, to use money you will need to join +an organisation and agree to its rules. There will still be a +need for the common law to regulate and where necessary punish +the basest of human instincts in a fair and impartial manner, +but much social harmony can be achieved through the codes of +conduct governing voluntary associations. These rules are +typically treated as having the status of a legally binding +contract between two parties when tested before the courts +unless there are good reasons to ignore them. + +Many are still thrown into jail for non-payment of fines or +taxes etc. When there is no such thing as money outside of an +account this practice will seem mediaeval. So much crime could +be traced and would be prevented if there were no longer a +financial incentive or much prospect of it escaping detection. +There is no reason why our society should have to accept having +one in ten or more of its members excluded from making a +contribution or receiving an economic reward. + +No system can alter man's basic nature or result in a perfect +society, but people can change and in doing so they will +inevitably seek improvements in their social conditions and +those of others; without this basic desire we would never have +known the end of slavery or the beginnings of democracy. A LETS +based money system may enable us to tackle some of our problems +but this will inevitably leave others for future generations to +solve. + +These changes will result in a radically different perception of +our relationship with government. Instead of regarding the +government as them, we will have to get used to thinking of it +as us. + + + +12. Where do we go from here ? + + + +Nothing about the possibilities that I have written about is +inevitable or predestined. We have the ability to choose our +future to a degree never before imagined, but our essentially +passive mass media has made us closer to events elsewhere in the +world while lulling us into believing that it is other people's +responsibility to do something about it. Change does not happen +as if we are machines following a predefined program; it happens +because we desire it, choose to accept it into our own lives and +take action to bring it about. First we need to understand the +path we are following; once this is clear there is no excuse for +sitting back and expecting others to act while the world +crumbles around us. + +If there is a LETS association near you then why not join it ? +If there isn't then why not get together with some of your +friends and start one ? If you can't do this then please +consider whether you can afford to support others already +involved in starting and encouraging LETS developments. Many +LETS activists are working long hours on this for little +economic reward. They need your help, support, enthusiasm, +encouragement and prayers. The experience already gained with +LETS developments proves that people from all walks of life can +use their talents, skills and resources to the full in this +great, exciting and challenging project. With your help it may +result in the greatest improvement in social, economic and +environmental conditions seen in our lifetime. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/letters b/textfiles.com/politics/letters new file mode 100644 index 00000000..54eb6785 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/letters @@ -0,0 +1,29830 @@ + LETTERS + by Thomas Jefferson + + + A YOUTH OF SIXTEEN + + _To John Harvie_ + _Shadwell, Jan. 14, 1760_ + + SIR, -- I was at Colo. Peter Randolph's about a Fortnight ago, +& my Schooling falling into Discourse, he said he thought it would be +to my Advantage to go to the College, & was desirous I should go, as +indeed I am myself for several Reasons. In the first place as long +as I stay at the Mountains the Loss of one fourth of my Time is +inevitable, by Company's coming here & detaining me from School. And +likewise my Absence will in a great Measure put a Stop to so much +Company, & by that Means lessen the Expences of the Estate in +House-Keeping. And on the other Hand by going to the College I shall +get a more universal Acquaintance, which may hereafter be serviceable +to me; & I suppose I can pursue my Studies in the Greek & Latin as +well there as here, & likewise learn something of the Mathematics. I +shall be glad of your opinion. + + + OLD COKE AND YOUNG LADIES + + _To John Page_ + _Fairfield, December 25, 1762_ + + + DEAR PAGE, -- This very day, to others the day of greatest +mirth and jollity, sees me overwhelmed with more and greater +misfortunes than have befallen a descendant of Adam for these +thousand years past, I am sure; and perhaps, after excepting Job, +since the creation of the world. I think his misfortunes were +somewhat greater than mine: for although we may be pretty nearly on a +level in other respects, yet, I thank my God, I have the advantage of +brother Job in this, that Satan has not as yet put forth his hand to +load me with bodily afflictions. You must know, dear Page, that I am +now in a house surrounded with enemies, who take counsel together +against my soul; and when I lay me down to rest, they say among +themselves, come let us destroy him. I am sure if there is such a +thing as a Devil in this world, he must have been here last night and +have had some hand in contriving what happened to me. Do you think +the cursed rats (at his instigation, I suppose) did not eat up my +pocket-book, which was in my pocket, within a foot of my head? And +not contented with plenty for the present, they carried away my +jemmy-worked silk garters, and half a dozen new minuets I had just +got, to serve, I suppose, as provision for the winter. But of this I +should not have accused the Devil, (because, you know rats will be +rats, and hunger, without the addition of his instigations, might +have urged them to do this,) if something worse, and from a different +quarter, had not happened. You know it rained last night, or if you +do not know it, I am sure I do. When I went to bed, I laid my watch +in the usual place, and going to take her up after I arose this +morning, I found her in the same place, it's true! but _Quantum +mutatus ab illo!_ all afloat in water, let in at a leak in the roof +of the house, and as silent and still as the rats that had eat my +pocket-book. Now, you know, if chance had had anything to do in this +matter, there were a thousand other spots where it might have chanced +to leak as well as at this one, which was perpendicularly over my +watch. But I'll tell you; it's my opinion that the Devil came and +bored the hole over it on purpose. Well, as I was saying, my poor +watch had lost her speech. I should not have cared much for this, +but something worse attended it; the subtle particles of the water +with which the case was filled, had, by their penetration, so +overcome the cohesion of the particles of the paper, of which my dear +picture and watch-paper were composed, that, in attempting to take +them out to dry them, good God! _Mens horret referre!_ My cursed +fingers gave them such a rent, as I fear I never shall get over. +This, cried I, was the last stroke Satan had in reserve for me: he +knew I cared not for anything else he could do to me, and was +determined to try this last most fatal expedient. _"Multis fortunae +vulneribus percussus, huic uni me imparem sensi, et penitus +succubui!"_ I would have cried bitterly, but I thought it beneath the +dignity of a man, and a man too who had read {ton onton, ta men +ephemin, ta dok ephemin}. However, whatever misfortunes may attend +the picture or lover, my hearty prayers shall be, that all the health +and happiness which Heaven can send may be the portion of the +original, and that so much goodness may ever meet with what may be +most agreeable in this world, as I am sure it must be in the next. +And now, although the picture be defaced, there is so lively an image +of her imprinted in my mind, that I shall think of her too often, I +fear, for my peace of mind; and too often, I am sure, to get through +old Coke this winter; for God knows I have not seen him since I +packed him up in my trunk in Williamsburg. Well, Page, I do wish the +Devil had old Coke, for I am sure I never was so tired of an old dull +scoundrel in my life. What! are there so few inquietudes tacked to +this momentary life of our's, that we must need be loading ourselves +with a thousand more? Or, as brother Job says, (who, by the bye, I +think began to whine a little under his afflictions,) "Are not my +days few? Cease then, that I may take comfort a little before I go +whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the +shadow of death." But the old fellows say we must read to gain +knowledge, and gain knowledge to make us happy and admired. _Mere +jargon!_ Is there any such thing as happiness in this world? No. +And as for admiration, I am sure the man who powders most, perfumes +most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most admired. +Though to be candid, there are some who have too much good sense to +esteem such monkey-like animals as these, in whose formation, as the +saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God Almighty; and +since these are the only persons whose esteem is worth a wish, I do +not know but that, upon the whole, the advice of these old fellows +may be worth following. + + You cannot conceive the satisfaction it would give me to have a +letter from you. Write me very circumstantially everything which +happened at the wedding. Was she there? because, if she was, I ought +to have been at the Devil for not being there too. If there is any +news stirring in town or country, such as deaths, courtships, or +marriages, in the circle of my acquaintance, let me know it. +Remember me affectionately to all the young ladies of my +acquaintance, particularly the Miss Burwells, and Miss Potters, and +tell them that though that heavy earthly part of me, my body, be +absent, the better half of me, my soul, is ever with them; and that +my best wishes shall ever attend them. Tell Miss Alice Corbin that I +verily believe the rats knew I was to win a pair of garters from her, +or they never would have been so cruel as to carry mine away. This +very consideration makes me so sure of the bet, that I shall ask +everybody I see from that part of the world what pretty gentleman is +making his addresses to her. I would fain ask the favour of Miss +Becca Burwell to give me another watch-paper of her own cutting, +which I should esteem much more, though it were a plain round one, +than the nicest in the world cut by other hands -- however, I am +afraid she would think this presumption, after my suffering the other +to get spoiled. If you think you can excuse me to her for this, I +should be glad if you would ask her. Tell Miss Sukey Potter that I +heard, just before I came out of town, that she was offended with me +about something, what it is I do not know; but this I know, that I +never was guilty of the least disrespect to her in my life, either in +word or deed; as far from it as it has been possible for one to be. +I suppose when we meet next, she will be _endeavouring_ to repay an +imaginary affront with a real one: but she may save herself the +trouble, for nothing that she can say or do to me shall ever lessen +her in my esteem, and I am determined always to look upon her as the +same honest-hearted, good-humored, agreeable lady I ever did. Tell +-- tell -- in short, tell them all ten thousand things more than +either you or I can now or ever shall think of as long as we live. + + My mind has been so taken up with thinking of my acquaintances, +that, till this moment, I almost imagined myself in Williamsburg, +talking to you in our old unreserved way; and never observed, till I +turned over the leaf, to what an immoderate size I had swelled my +letter -- however, that I may not tire your patience by further +additions, I will make but this one more, that I am sincerely and +affectionately, Dear Page, your friend and servant. + + P. S. I am now within an easy day's ride of Shadwell, whither I +shall proceed in two or three days. + + + A VISIT TO ANNAPOLIS + + _To John Page_ + _Annapolis, May 25, 1766_ + + DEAR PAGE -- I received your last by T. Nelson whom I luckily +met on my road hither. surely never did small hero experience greater +misadventures than I did on the first two or three days of my +travelling. twice did my horse run away with me and greatly endanger +the breaking my neck on the first day. on the second I drove two +hours through as copious a rain as ever I have seen, without meeting +with a single house to which I could repair for shelter. on the third +in going through Pamunkey, being unacquainted with the ford, I passed +through water so deep as to run over the cushion as I sat on it, and +to add to the danger, at that instant one wheel mounted a rock which +I am confident was as high as the axle, and rendered it necessary for +me to exercise all my skill in the doctrine of gravity, in order to +prevent the center of gravity from being left unsupported the +consequence of which would according to Bob. Carter's opinion have +been the corruition of myself, chair and all into the water. whether +that would have been the case or not, let the learned determine: it +was not convenient for me to try the experiment at that time, and I +therefore threw my whole weight on the mounted wheel and escaped the +danger. I confess that on this occasion I was seised with a violent +hydrophobia. I had the pleasure of passing two or three days on my +way hither at the two Will. Fitzhugh's and Col'o. Harrison's where +were S. Potter, P. Stith, and Ben Harrison, since which time I have +seen no face known to me before, except Cap't. Mitchell's who is +here. -- but I will now give you some account of what I have seen in +this metropolis. the assembly happens to be sitting at this time. +their upper and lower house, as they call them, sit in different +houses. I went into the lower, sitting in an old courthouse, which, +judging from it's form and appearance, was built in the year one. I +was surprised on approaching it to hear as great a noise and hubbub +as you will usually observe at a publick meeting of the planters in +Virginia. the first object which struck me after my entrance was the +figure of a little old man dressed but indifferently, with a yellow +queue wig on, and mounted in the judge's chair. this the gentleman +who walked with me informed me was the speaker, a man of a very fair +character, but who by the bye, has very little the air of a speaker. +at one end of the justices' bench stood a man whom in another place I +should from his dress and phis have taken for Goodall the lawyer in +Williamsburgh, reading a bill then before the house with a schoolboy +tone and an abrupt pause at every half dozen words. this I found to +be the clerk of the assembly. the mob (for such was their appearance) +sat covered on the justices' and lawyers' benches, and were divided +into little clubs amusing themselves in the common chit chat way. I +was surprised to see them address the speaker without rising from +their seats, and three, four, and five at a time without being +checked. when a motion was made, the speaker instead of putting the +question in the usual form, only asked the gentlemen whether they +chose that such or such a thing should be done, and was answered by a +yes sir, or no sir: and tho' the voices appeared frequently to be +divided, they never would go to the trouble of dividing the house, +but the clerk entered the resolutions, I supposed, as he thought +proper. in short everything seems to be carried without the house in +general's knowing what was proposed. the situation of this place is +extremely beautiful, and very commodious for trade having a most +secure port capable of receiving the largest vessels, those of 400 +hh'ds being able to brush against the sides of the dock. the houses +are in general better than those in Williamsburgh, but the gardens +more indifferent. the two towns seem much of a size. they have no +publick buildings worth mentioning except a governor's house, the +hull of which after being nearly finished, they have suffered to go +to ruin. I would give you an account of the rejoicings here on the +repeal of the stamp act, but this you will probably see in print +before my letter can reach you. I shall proceed tomorrow to +Philadelphia where I shall make the stay necessary for inoculation, +thence going on to New-York I shall return by water to Williamsburgh, +about the middle of July, till which time you have the prayers of + + Dear Page + Your affectionate friend + + + P. S. I should be glad if you could in some indirect manner, +without discovering that it was my desire, let J. Randolph know when +I propose to be in the city of Williamsburgh. + + + THE STUDY OF LAW + + _To Thomas Turpin_ + _Shadwell, Feb. 5, 1769_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I am truly concerned that it is not in my power to +undertake the superintendance of your son in his studies; but my +situation both present and future renders it utterly impossible. I +do not expect to be here more than two months in the whole between +this and November next, at which time I propose to remove to another +habitation which I am about to erect, and on a plan so contracted as +that I shall have but one spare bedchamber for whatever visitants I +may have. nor have I reason to expect at any future day to pass a +greater proportion of my time at home. thus situated it would even +have been injustice to Phill to have undertaken to give him an +assistance which will not be within my power; a task which I +otherwise should with the greatest pleasure have taken on me, and +would have desired no higher satisfaction than to see him hold that +rank in the profession to which his genius and application must +surely advance him. these however encourage me to hope that the +presence of an assistant will be little necessary. I always was of +opinion that the placing a youth to study with an attorney was rather +a prejudice than a help. we are all too apt by shifting on them our +business, to incroach on that time which should be devoted to their +studies. the only help a youth wants is to be directed what books to +read, and in what order to read them. I have accordingly recommended +strongly to Phill to put himself into apprenticeship with no one, but +to employ his time for himself alone. to enable him to do this to +advantage I have laid down a plan of study which will afford him all +the assistance a tutor could, without subjecting him to the +inconvenience of expending his own time for the emolument of another. +one difficulty only occurs, that is, the want of books. but this I +am in hopes you will think less of remedying when it is considered +that had he been placed under the care of another, a proper +collection of books must have been provided for him before he engaged +in the practice of his profession; for a lawyer without books would +be like a workman without tools. the only difference then is that +they must now be procured something earlier. should you think it +necessary, it would be better to consider the money laid out in books +as a part of the provision made for him and to deduct it from what +you intended to give him, than that he should be without them. I +have given him a catalogue of such as will be necessary, amounting in +the whole to about pound 100 sterling, but divided into four +invoices. Should Phill enter on the plan of study recommended, I +shall endeavor as often as possible to take your house in on my way +to and from Williamsburgh as it will afford me the double +satisfaction of observing his progress in science and of seeing +yourself, my aunt, and the family. I am Dear Sir with great respect + + Your most humble servant + + + A GENTLEMAN'S LIBRARY + + _To Robert Skip with a List of Books_ + _Monticello, Aug. 3, 1771_ + + I sat down with a design of executing your request to form a +catalogue of books to the amount of about 50 lib. sterl. But could +by no means satisfy myself with any partial choice I could make. +Thinking therefore it might be as agreeable to you I have framed such +a general collection as I think you would wish and might in time find +convenient to procure. Out of this you will chuse for yourself to +the amount you mentioned for the present year and may hereafter as +shall be convenient proceed in completing the whole. A view of the +second column in this catalogue would I suppose extort a smile from +the face of gravity. Peace to its wisdom! Let me not awaken it. A +little attention however to the nature of the human mind evinces that +the entertainments of fiction are useful as well as pleasant. That +they are pleasant when well written every person feels who reads. +But wherein is its utility asks the reverend sage, big with the +notion that nothing can be useful but the learned lumber of Greek and +Roman reading with which his head is stored? + + I answer, everything is useful which contributes to fix in the +principles and practices of virtue. When any original act of charity +or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or +imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a +strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts +also. On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we +are disgusted with it's deformity, and conceive an abhorence of vice. +Now every emotion of this kind is an exercise of our virtuous +dispositions, and dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body +acquire strength by exercise. But exercise produces habit, and in +the instance of which we speak the exercise being of the moral +feelings produces a habit of thinking and acting virtuously. We +never reflect whether the story we read be truth or fiction. If the +painting be lively, and a tolerable picture of nature, we are thrown +into a reverie, from which if we awaken it is the fault of the +writer. I appeal to every reader of feeling and sentiment whether +the fictitious murther of Duncan by Macbeth in Shakespeare does not +excite in him as great a horror of villany, as the real one of Henry +IV. by Ravaillac as related by Davila? And whether the fidelity of +Nelson and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate his +breast and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident +which real history can furnish? Does he not in fact feel himself a +better man while reading them, and privately covenant to copy the +fair example? We neither know nor care whether Lawrence Sterne +really went to France, whether he was there accosted by the +Franciscan, at first rebuked him unkindly, and then gave him a peace +offering: or whether the whole be not fiction. In either case we +equally are sorrowful at the rebuke, and secretly resolve _we_ will +never do so: we are pleased with the subsequent atonement, and view +with emulation a soul candidly acknowleging it's fault and making a +just reparation. Considering history as a moral exercise, her +lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life. Of those +recorded by historians few incidents have been attended with such +circumstances as to excite in any high degree this sympathetic +emotion of virtue. We are therefore wisely framed to be as warmly +interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The field of +imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to +illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life. +Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually +impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than +by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were +written. This is my idea of well written Romance, of Tragedy, Comedy +and Epic poetry. -- If you are fond of speculation the books under +the head of Criticism will afford you much pleasure. Of Politics and +Trade I have given you a few only of the best books, as you would +probably chuse to be not unacquainted with those commercial +principles which bring wealth into our country, and the +constitutional security we have for the enjoiment ofthat wealth. In +Law I mention a few systematical books, as a knowledge of the +minutiae of that science is not neces-sary for a private gentleman. +In Religion, History, Natural philosophy, I have followed the same +plan in general, -- But whence the necessity of this collection? +Come to the new Rowanty, from which you may reach your hand to a +library formed on a more extensive plan. Separated from each other +but a few paces the possessions of each would be open to the other. +A spring centrically situated might be the scene of every evening's +joy. There we should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them +in music, chess or the merriments of our family companions. The +heart thus lightened our pillows would be soft, and health and long +life would attend the happy scene. Come then and bring our dear +Tibby with you, the first in your affections, and second in mine. +Offer prayers for me too at that shrine to which tho' absent I pray +continual devotions. In every scheme of happiness she is placed in +the foreground of the picture, as the princi-pal figure. Take that +away, and it is no picture for me. Bear my affections to Wintipock +clothed in the warmest expressions of sincerity; and to yourself be +every human felicity. Adieu. + + ENCLOSURE + + _FINE ARTS_. + Observations on gardening. Payne. 5/ + Webb's essay on painting. 12mo 3/ + Pope's Iliad. 18/ + ------- Odyssey. 15/ + Dryden's Virgil. 12mo. 12/ + Milton's works. 2 v. 8vo. Donaldson. Edinburgh 1762. 10/ + Hoole's Tasso. 12mo. 5/ + Ossian with Blair's criticisms. 2 v. 8vo. 10/ + Telemachus by Dodsley. 6/ + Capell's Shakespear. 12mo. 30/ + Dryden's plays. 6v. 12mo. 18/ + Addison's plays. 12mo. 3/ + Otway's plays. 3 v. 12mo. 9/ + Rowe's works. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Thompson's works. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Young's works. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Home's plays. 12mo. 3/ + Mallet's works. 3 v. 12mo. 9/ + Mason's poetical works. 5/ + Terence. Eng. 3/ + Moliere. Eng. 15/ + Farquhar's plays. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Vanbrugh's plays. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Steele's plays. 3/ + Congreve's works. 3 v. 12mo. 9/ + Garric's dramatic works. 2 v. 8vo. 10/ + Foote's dramatic works. 2 v. 8vo. 10/ + Rousseau's Eloisa. Eng. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + ----- Emilius and Sophia. Eng. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Marmontel's moral tales. Eng. 2 v. 12mo. 12/ + Gil Blas. by Smollett. 6/ + Don Quixot. by Smollett 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + David Simple. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Roderic Random. } + 2 v. 12mo. 6/ } + Peregrine Pickle. } _these are written by Smollett_ + 4 v. 12mo. 12/ } + Launcelot } + Graves. 6/ } + Adventures of a } + guinea. 2 v. } + 12mo. 6/ } + + Pamela. 4 v. 12mo. } + 12/ } _these are by Richardson._ + Clarissa. 8 v. 12mo. } + 24/ + Grandison. 7 v. } + 12mo. 9/ } + Fool of quality. 3 v. } + 12mo. 9/ } + + Feilding's works. 12 v. 12mo. pound 1.16 + + Constantia. 2 v. } + 12mo. 6/ } _by Langhorne._ + Solyman and } + Almena. 12mo. } + 3/ } + + Belle assemblee. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Vicar of Wakefeild. 2 v. 12mo. 6/. by + Dr. Goldsmith + Sidney Bidulph. 5 v. 12mo. 15/ + Lady Julia Mandeville. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Almoran and Hamet. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Tristam Shandy. 9 v. 12mo. pound 1.7 + Sentimental journey. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Fragments of antient poetry. Edinburgh. 2/ + Percy's Runic poems. 3/ + Percy's reliques of antient English + poetry. 3 v. 12mo. 9/ + Percy's Han Kiou Chouan. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Percy's Miscellaneous Chinese peices. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Chaucer. 10/ + Spencer. 6 v. 12mo. 15/ + + Waller's poems. 12mo. 3/ + Dodsley's collection of poems. 6 v. 12mo. 18/ + Pearch's collection of poems. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Gray's works. 5/ + Ogilvie's poems. 5/ + Prior's poems. 2 v. 12mo. Foulis. 6/ + Gay's works. 12mo. Foulis. 3/ + Shenstone's works. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Dryden's works. 4 v. 12mo. Foulis. 12/ + Pope's works. by Warburton. 12mo. pound 1.4 + Churchill's poems. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Hudibrass. 3/ + Swift's works. 21 v. small 8vo. pound 3.3 + Swift's literary correspondence. 3 v. 9/ + Spectator. 9 v. 12mo. pound 1.7 + Tatler. 5 v. 12mo. 15/ + Guardian. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Freeholder. 12mo. 3/ + Ld. Lyttleton's Persian letters. 12mo. 3/ + + _CRITICISM ON THE FINE ARTS._ + + Ld. Kaim's elements of criticism. + 2 v. 8vo. 10/ + Burke on the sublime and beautiful. + 8vo. 5/ + Hogarth's analysis of beauty. 4to. + pound 1.1 + Reid on the human mind. 8vo. 5/ + Smith's theory of moral sentiments. + 8vo. 5/ + Johnson's dictionary. 2 v. fol. pound 3 + Capell's prolusions. 12mo. 3/ + + _POLITICKS, TRADE._ + + Montesquieu's spirit of the laws. + 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Locke on government. 8vo. 5/ + Sidney on government. 4to. 15/ + Marmontel's Belisarius. 12mo. Eng. + 3/ + Ld. Bolingbroke's political works. + 5 v. 8vo. pound 1.5 + Montesquieu's rise & fall of the Roman + governmt. 12mo. 3/ + Steuart's Political oeconomy. 2 v. + 4to. pound 1.10 + Petty's Political arithmetic. 8vo. 5/ + + _RELIGION._ + + Locke's conduct of the mind in + search of truth. 12mo. 3/ + Xenophon's memoirs of Socrates. by + Feilding. 8vo. 5/ + Epictetus. by Mrs. Carter. 2 v. + 12mo. 6/ + Antoninus by Collins. 3/ + Seneca. by L'Estrange. 8vo. 5/ + Cicero's Offices. by Guthrie. 8vo. 5/ + Cicero's Tusculan questions. Eng. 3/ + Ld. Bolingbroke's Philosophical + works. 5 v. 8vo. pound 1.5 + Hume's essays. 4 v. 12mo. 12/ + Ld. Kaim's Natural religion. 8vo. 6/ + Philosophical survey of Nature. 3/ + Oeconomy of human life. 2/ + Sterne's sermons. 7 v. 12mo. pound 1.1 + Sherlock on death. 8vo. 5/ + Sherlock on a future state. 5/ + + _LAW._ + + Ld. Kaim's Principles of equity. fol. + pound 1.1 + Blackstone's Commentaries. 4 v. + 4to. pound 4.4 + Cuningham's Law dictionary. 2 v. + fol. pound 3 + + _HISTORY. ANTIENT._ + + Bible. 6/ + Rollin's Antient history. Eng. 13 v. + 12mo. pound 1.19 + Stanyan's Graecian history. 2 v. 8vo. + 10/ + Livy. (the late translation). 12/ + Sallust by Gordon. 12mo. 12/ + Tacitus by Gordon. 12mo. 15/ + Caesar by Bladen. 8vo. 5/ + Josephus. Eng. 1.0 + Vertot's Revolutions of Rome. Eng. + 9/ + Plutarch's lives. by Langhorne. 6 v. + 8vo. pound 1.10 + Bayle's Dictionary. 5 v. fol. pound 7.10. + Jeffery's Historical & Chronological + chart. 15/ + + _HISTORY. MODERN._ + + Robertson's History of Charles the + Vth. 3 v. 4to. pound 3.3 + Bossuet's history of France. 4 v. + 12mo. 12/ + Davila. by Farneworth. 2 v. 4to. + pound 1.10. + Hume's history of England. 8 v. + 8vo. pound 2.8. + Clarendon's history of the rebellion. + 6 v. 8vo. pound 1.10. + Robertson's history of Scotland. + 2 v. 8vo. 12/ + Keith's history of Virginia. 4to. 12/ + Stith's history of Virginia. 6/ + + _NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. NATURAL HISTORY &c._ + + Nature displayed. Eng. 7 v. 12mo. + Franklin on Electricity. 4to. 10/ + Macqueer's elements of Chemistry. + 2 v. 8vo. 10/ + Home's principles of agriculture. + 8vo. 5/ + Tull's horse-hoeing husbandry. 8vo. + 5/ + Duhamel's husbandry. 4to. 15/ + Millar's Gardener's diet. fol. pound 2.10. + Buffon's natural history. Eng. + pound 2.10. + A compendium of Physic & Surgery. + Nourse. 12mo. 1765. 3/ + Addison's travels. 12mo. 3/ + Anson's voiage. 8vo. 6/ + Thompson's travels. 2 v. 12mo. 6/ + Lady M. W. Montague's letters. 3 v. + 12mo. 9/ + + _MISCELLANEOUS._ + + Ld. Lyttleton's dialogues of the + dead. 8vo. 5/ + Fenelon's dialogues of the dead. + Eng. 12mo. 3/ + Voltaire's works. Eng. pound 4. + Locke on Education. 12mo. 3/ + Owen's Dict. of arts & sciences 4 v. + 8vo. pound 2. + + + THE SUBLINE OSSIAN + + _To Charles McPherson_ + _Albemarle, in Virga, Feb. 25, 1773_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Encouraged by the small acquaintance which I had +the pleasure of having contracted with you during your residence in +this country, I take the liberty of making the present application to +you. I understood you were related to the gentleman of your name +(Mr. James McPherson), to whom the world is so much indebted for the +elegant collection, arrangement, and translation of Ossian's poems. +These pieces have been and will, I think, during my life, continue to +be to me the sources of daily pleasures. The tender and the sublime +emotions of the mind were never before so wrought up by the human +hand. I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the +North the greatest poet that has ever existed. Merely for the +pleasure of reading his works, I am become desirous of learning the +language in which he sung, and of possessing his songs in their +original form. Mr. McPherson, I think, informs us he is possessed of +the originals. Indeed, a gentleman has lately told me he had seen +them in print; but I am afraid he has mistaken a specimen from +Temora, annexed to some of the editions of the translation, for the +whole works. If they are printed, it will abridge my request and +your trouble, to the sending me a printed copy; but if there be more +such, my petition is, that you would be so good as to use your +interest with Mr. McPherson to obtain leave to take a manuscript copy +of them, and procure it to be done. I would choose it in a fair, +round hand, on fine paper, with a good margin, bound in parchments as +elegantly as possible, lettered on the back, and marbled or gilt on +the edges of the leaves. I would not regard expense in doing this. +I would further beg the favor of you to give me a catalogue of the +books written in that language, and to send me such of them as may be +necessary for learning it. These will, of course, include a grammar +and dictionary. The cost of these, as well as the copy of Ossian, +will be (for me), on demand, answered by Mr. Alexander McCaul, +sometime of Virginia, merchant, but now of Glasgow, or by your friend +Mr. Ninian Minzees, of Richmond, in Virginia, to whose care the books +may be sent. You can, perhaps, tell me whether we may ever hope to +see any more of those Celtic pieces published. Manuscript copies of +any which are in print, it would at any time give me the greatest +happiness to receive. The glow of one warm thought is to me worth +more than money. I hear with pleasure from your friend that your +path through life is likely to be smoothed by success. I wish the +business and the pleasures of your situation would admit leisure now +and then to scribble a line to one who wishes you every felicity, and +would willingly merit the appellation of, dear sir, Your friend and +humble servant. + + + NEWS FROM BOSTON + + _To William Small_ + _May 7, 1775_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I had the pleasure by a gentleman who saw you at +Birmingham to hear of your welfare. By Capt. Aselby of the +True-patriot belonging to Messrs. Farrell & Jones of Bristol I send +you 3 doz. bottles of Madeira, being the half of a present which I +had laid by for you. The capt was afraid to take more on board lest +it should draw upon him the officers of the customs. The remaining +three doz. therefore I propose to send by Cap;att Drew belonging to +the same mercantile house, who is just arrived here. That which goes +by Aselby will be delivered by him to your order, the residue by +Drew, or by Farrell & Jones, I know not which as yet. I hope you +will find it fine as it came to me genuine from the island & has been +kept in my own cellar eight years. Within this week we have received +the unhappy news of an action of considerable magnitude, between the +King's troops and our brethren of Boston, in which it is said five +hundred of the former, with the Earl of Percy, are slain. That such +an action has occurred, is undoubted, though perhaps the +circumstances may not have reached us with truth. This accident has +cut off our last hope of reconciliation, and a phrensy of revenge +seems to have seized all ranks of people. It is a lamentable +circumstance, that the only mediatory power, acknowledged by both +parties, instead of leading to a reconciliation of his divided +people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the +flames, as we find him constantly doing, in every speech and public +declaration. This may, perhaps, be intended to intimidate into +acquiescence, but the effect has been most unfortunately otherwise. +A little knowledge of human nature, and attention to its ordinary +workings, might have foreseen that the spirits of the people here +were in a state, in which they were more likely to be provoked, than +frightened, by haughty deportment. And to fill up the measure of +irritation, a proscription of individuals has been substituted in the +room of just trial. Can it be believed, that a grateful people will +suffer those to be consigned to execution, whose sole crime has been +the developing and asserting their rights? Had the Parliament +possessed the power of reflection, they would have avoided a measure +as impotent, as it was inflammatory. When I saw Lord Chatham's bill, +I entertained high hope that a reconciliation could have been brought +about. The difference between his terms, and those offered by our +Congress, might have been accommodated, if entered on, by both +parties, with a dispostion to accommodate. But the dignity of +Parliament, it seems, can brook no opposition to its power. Strange, +that a set of men, who have made sale of their virtue to the +Minister, should yet talk of retaining dignity! But I am getting +into politics, though I sat down only to ask your acceptance of the +wine, and express my constant wishes for your happiness. This +however seems to be ensured by your philosophy & peaceful vocation. +I shall still hope that amidst public dissention private friendship +may be preserved inviolate and among the warmest you can ever possess +is that of your humble servt. + + + RECONCILIATION OR INDEPENDENCE + + _To John Randolph_ + _Monticello, August 25, 1775_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received your message by Mr. Braxton & +immediately gave him an order on the Treasurer for the money which +the Treasurer assured me should be answered on his return. I now +send the bearer for the violin & such music appurtaining to her as +may be of no use to the young ladies. I beleive you had no case to +her. If so, be so good as to direct Watt Lenox to get from Prentis's +some bays or other coarse woollen to wrap her in & then to pack her +securely in a wooden box. I am sorry the situation of our country +should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it. I hope +the returning wisdom of Great Britain will, ere long, put an end to +this unnatural contest. There may be people to whose tempers and +dispositions contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a +continuance of confusion, but to me it is of all states but one, the +most horrid. My first wish is a restoration of our just rights; my +second, a return of the happy period, when, consistently with duty, I +may withdraw myself totally from the public stage, and pass the rest +of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, banishing every desire +of ever hearing what passes in the world. Perhaps (for the latter +adds considerably to the warmth of the former wish), looking with +fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help +hoping you may be able to contribute towards expediting this good +work. I think it must be evident to yourself, that the Ministry have +been deceived by their officers on this side of the water, who (for +what purpose I cannot tell) have constantly represented the American +opposition as that of a small faction, in which the body of the +people took little part. This, you can inform them, of your own +knowledge, is untrue. They have taken it into their heads, too, that +we are cowards, and shall surrender at discretion to an armed force. +The past and future operations of the war must confirm or undeceive +them on that head. I wish they were thoroughly and minutely +acquainted with every circumstance relative to America, as it exists +in truth. I am persuaded, this would go far towards disposing them +to reconciliation. Even those in Parliament who are called friends +to America, seem to know nothing of our real determinations. I +observe, they pronounced in the last Parliament, that the Congress of +1774 did not mean to insist rigorously on the terms they held out, +but kept something in reserve, to give up; and, in fact, that they +would give up everything but the article of taxation. Now, the truth +is far from this, as I can affirm, and put my honor to the assertion. +Their continuance in this error may, perhaps, produce very ill +consequences. The Congress stated the lowest terms they thought +possible to be accepted, in order to convince the world they were not +unreasonable. They gave up the monopoly and regulation of trade, and +all acts of Parliament prior to 1764, leaving to British generosity +to render these, at some future time, as easy to America as the +interest of Britain would admit. But this was before blood was +spilt. I cannot affirm, but have reason to think, these terms would +not now be accepted. I wish no false sense of honor, no ignorance of +our real intentions, no vain hope thatpartial concessions of right +will be accepted, may induce the Ministry to trifle with +accommodation, till it shall be out of their power ever to +accommodate. If, indeed, Great Britain, disjointed from her +colonies, be a match for the most potent nations of Europe, with the +colonies thrown into their scale, they may go on securely. But if +they are not assured of this, it would be certainly unwise, by trying +the event of another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid, +which, perhaps, may not be attainable, but on condition of +everlasting avulsion from Great Britain. This would be thought a +hard condition, to those who still wish for reunion with their parent +country. I am sincerely one of those, and would rather be in +dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on anyother +nation on earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too, +who, rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, assumed +by the British Parliament, and which late experience has shown they +will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole Island +in the ocean. + + If undeceiving the Minister, as to matters of fact, may change +his disposition, it will, perhaps, be in your power, by assisting to +do this, to render service to the whole empire, at the most critical +time, certainly, that it has ever seen. Whether Britain shall +continue the head of the greatest empire on earth, or shall return to +her original station in the political scale of Europe, depends, +perhaps, on the resolutions of the succeeding winter. God send they +may be wise and salutary for us all. I shall be glad to hear from +you as often as you may be disposed to think of things here. You may +be at liberty, I expect, to communicate some things, consistently +with your honor, and the duties you will owe to a protecting nation. +Such a communication among individuals, may be mutually beneficial to +the contending parties. On this or any future occasion, if I affirm +to you any facts, your knowledge of me will enable you to decide on +their credibility; if I hazard opinions on the dispositions of men or +other speculative points, you can only know they are my opinions. My +best wishes for your felicity, attend you, wherever you go, and +believe me to be assuredly, Your friend and servant. + + P. S. My collection of classics, & of books of parliamentary +learning particularly is not so complete as I could wish. As you are +going to the land of literature & of books you may be willing to +dispose of some of yours here & replace them there in better +editions. I should be willing to treat on this head with any body +you may think proper to empower for that purpose. + + + SAXONS, NORMANS, AND LAND TENURE + + _To Edmund Pendleton_ + _Philadelphia, Aug. 13, 1776_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your's of Aug. 3. came to hand yesterday; having +had no moment to spare since, I am obliged to set down to answer it +at a Committee table while the Committee is collecting. My thoughts +therefore on the subject you propose will be merely extempore. The +opinion that our lands were allodial possessions is one which I have +very long held, and had in my eye during a pretty considerable part +of my law reading which I found always strengthened it. It was +mentioned in a very hasty production, intended to have been put under +a course of severe correction, but produced afterwards to the world +in a way with which you are acquainted. This opinion I have thought +& still think to prove if ever I should have time to look into books +again. But this is only meant with respect to the English law as +transplanted here. How far our acts of assembly or acceptance of +grants may have converted lands which were allodial into feuds I have +never considered. This matter is now become a mere speculative +point; & we have it in our power to make it what it ought to be for +the public good. + + + It may be considered in the two points of view 1st. as bringing +a revenue into the public treasury. 2d. as a tenure. I have only +time to suggest hints on each of these heads. 1. Is it consistent +with good policy or free government to establish a perpetual revenue? +is it not against the practice of our wise British ancestors? have +not the instances in which we have departed from this in Virginia +been constantly condemned by the universal voice of our country? is +it safe to make the governing power when once seated in office, +independent of it's revenue? should we not have in contemplation & +prepare for an event (however deprecated) which may happen in the +possibility of things; I mean a reacknowledgment of the British +tyrant as our king, & previously strip him of every prejudicial +possession? Remember how universally the people run into the idea of +recalling Charles the 2d after living many years under a republican +government. -- As to the second was not the separation of the +property from the perpetual use of lands a mere fiction? Is not it's +history well known, & the purposes for which it was introduced, to +wit, the establishment of a military system of defence? + + Was it not afterwards made an engine of immense oppression? Is +it wanting with us for the purpose of military defence? May not it's +other legal effects (such as them at least as are valuable) be +performed in other more simple ways? Has it not been the practice of +all other nations to hold their lands as their personal estate in +absolute dominion? Are we not the better for what we have hitherto +abolished of the feudal system? Has not every restitution of the +antient Saxon laws had happy effects? Is it not better now that we +return at once into that happy system of our ancestors, the wisest & +most perfect ever yet devised by the wit of man, as it stood before +the 8th century. + + The idea of Congress selling out unlocated lands has been +sometimes dropped, but we have alwais met the hint with such +determined opposition that I believe it will never be proposed. -- I +am against selling the lands at all. The people who will migrate to +the Westward whether they form part of the old, or of a new colony +will be subject to their proportion of the Continental debt then +unpaid. They ought not to be subject to more. They will be a people +little able to pay taxes. There is no equity in fixing upon them the +whole burthen of this war, or any other proportion than we bear +ourselves. By selling the lands to them, you will disgust them, and +cause an avulsion of them from the common union. They will settle +the lands in spite of everybody. -- I am at the same time clear that +they should be appropriated in small quantities. It is said that +wealthy foreigners will come in great numbers, & they ought to pay +for the liberty we shall have provided for them. True, but make them +pay in settlers. A foreigner who brings a settler for every 100, or +200 acres of land to be granted him pays a better price than if he +had put into the public treasury 5/ or 5 pound. That settler will be +worth to the public 20 times as much every year, as on our old plan +he would have paid in one paiment. I have thrown these loose +thoughts together only in obedience to your letter, there is not an +atom of them which would not have occurred to you on a moment's +contemplation of the subject. Charge yourself therefore with the +trouble of reading two pages of such undigested stuff. + + By Saturday's post the General wrote us that Ld. Howe had got +(I think 100) flat bottomed boats alongside, & 30 of them were then +loaded with men; by which it was concluded he was preparing to +attack, yet this is Tuesday & we hear nothing further. The General +has by his last return, 17000 some odd men, of whom near 4000 are +sick & near 3000 at out posts in Long Island &c. So you may say he +has but 10000 effective men to defend the works of New York. His +works however are good & his men in spirits, which I hope will be +equal to an addition of many thousands. He had called for 2000 men +from the flying camp which were then embarking to him & would +certainly be with him in time even if the attack was immediate. The +enemy have (since Clinton & his army joined them) 15.000 men of whom +not many are sick. Every influence of Congress has been exerted in +vain to double the General's force. It was impossible to prevail on +the people to leave their harvest. That is now in, & great numbers +are in motion, but they have no chance to be there in time. Should +however any disaster befall us at New York they will form a great +army on the spot to stop the progress of the enemy. I think there +cannot be less than 6 or 8000 men in this city & between it & the +flying camp. Our council complain of our calling away two of the +Virginia battalions. But is this reasonable. They have no British +enemy, & if human reason is of any use to conjecture future events, +they will not have one. Their Indian enemy is not to be opposed by +their regular battalions. Other colonies of not more than half their +military strength have 20 battalions in the field. Think of these +things & endeavor to reconcile them not only to this, but to yield +greater assistance to the common cause if wanted. I wish every +battalion we have was now in New York. -- We yesterday received +dispatches from the Commissioners at Fort Pitt. I have not read +them, but a gentleman who has, tells me they are favorable. The +Shawanese & Delewares are disposed to peace. I believe it, for this +reason. We had by different advices information from the Shawanese +that they should strike us, that this was against their will, but +that they must do what the Senecas bid them. At that time we knew +the Senecas meditated war. We directed a declaration to be made to +the six nations in general that if they did not take the most +decisive measures for the preservation of neutrality we would never +cease waging war with them while one was to be found on the face of +the earth. They immediately changed their conduct and I doubt not +have given corresponding information to the Shawanese and Delewares. + + I hope the Cherokees will now be driven beyond the Missisipi & +that this in future will be declared to the Indians the invariable +consequence of their beginning a war. Our contest with Britain is +too serious and too great to permit any possibility of avocation from +the Indians. This then is the season for driving them off, & our +Southern colonies are happily rid of every other enemy & may exert +their whole force in that quarter. + + I hope to leave this place some time this month. + I am Dear Sir, Your affectionate friend + + P. S. Mr. Madison of the college & Mr. Johnson of Fredsb'gh +are arrived in New York. They say nothing material had happened in +England. The French ministry was changed. + + + THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION + + _To Edmund Pendleton_ + _Philadelpha, Aug. 26, 1776_ + + DEAR SIR -- Your's of the 10'th. inst. came to hand about three +days ago, the post having brought no mail with him the last week. +You seem to have misapprehended my proposition for the choice of a +Senate. I had two things in view: to get the wisest men chosen, & to +make them perfectly independent when chosen. I have ever observed +that a choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished +for it's wisdom. This first secretion from them is usually crude & +heterogeneous. But give to those so chosen by the people a second +choice themselves, & they generally will chuse wise men. For this +reason it was that I proposed the representatives (& not the people) +should chuse the Senate, & thought I had notwithstanding that made +the Senators (when chosen) perfectly independant of their electors. +However I should have no objection to the mode of election proposed +in the printed plan of your committee, to wit, that the people of +each county should chuse twelve electors, who should meet those of +the other counties in the same district & chuse a senator. I should +prefer this too for another reason, that the upper as well as lower +house should have an opportunity of superintending & judging of the +situation of the whole state & be not all of one neighborhood as our +upper house used to be. So much for the wisdom of the Senate. To +make them independent, I had proposed that they should hold their +places for nine years, & then go out (one third every three years) & +be incapable for ever of being re-elected to that house. My idea was +that if they might be re-elected, they would be casting their eye +forward to the period of election (however distant) & be currying +favor with the electors, & consequently dependant on them. My reason +for fixing them in office for a term of years rather than for life, +was that they might have in idea that they were at a certain period +to return into the mass of the people & become the governed instead +of the governor which might still keep alive that regard to the +public good that otherwise they might perhaps be induced by their +independance to forget. Yet I could submit, tho' not so willingly to +an appointment for life, or to any thing rather than a mere creation +by & dependance on the people. I think the present mode of election +objectionable because the larger county will be able to send & will +always send a man (less fit perhaps) of their own county to the +exclusion of a fitter who may chance to live in a smaller county. -- +I wish experience may contradict my fears. -- That the Senate as +well as lower [or shall I speak truth & call it upper] house should +hold no office of profit I am clear; but not that they should of +necessity possess distinguished property. You have lived longer than +I have and perhaps may have formed a different judgment on better +grounds; but my observations do not enable me to say I think +integrity the characteristic of wealth. In general I beleive the +decisions of the people, in a body, will be more honest & more +disinterested than those of wealthy men: & I can never doubt an +attachment to his country in any man who has his family & peculium in +it: -- Now as to the representative house which ought to be so +constructed as to answer that character truly. I was for extending +the right of suffrage (or in other words the rights of a citizen) to +all who had a permanent intention of living in the country. Take +what circumstances you please as evidence of this, either the having +resided a certain time, or having a family, or having property, any +or all of them. Whoever intends to live in a country must wish that +country well, & has a natural right of assisting in the preservation +of it. I think you cannot distinguish between such a person residing +in the country & having no fixed property, & one residing in a +township whom you say you would admit to a vote. -- The other point +of equal representation I think capital & fundamental. I am glad you +think an alteration may be attempted in that matter. -- The +fantastical idea of virtue & the public good being a sufficient +security to the state against the commission of crimes, which you say +you have heard insisted on by some, I assure you was never mine. It +is only the sanguinary hue of our penal laws which I meant to object +to. Punishments I know are necessary, & I would provide them, strict +& inflexible, but proportioned to the crime. Death might be +inflicted for murther & perhaps for treason if you would take out of +the description of treason all crimes which are not such in their +nature. Rape, buggery &c -- punish by castration. All other crimes +by working on high roads, rivers, gallies &c. a certain time +proportioned to the offence. But as this would be no punishment or +change of condition to slaves (me miserum!) let them be sent to other +countries. By these means we should be freed from the wickedness of +the latter, & the former would be living monuments of public +vengeance. Laws thus proportionate & mild should never be dispensed +with. Let mercy be the character of the lawgiver, but let the judge +be a mere machine. The mercies of the law will be dispensed equally +& impartially to every description of men; those of the judge, or of +the executive power, will be the eccentric impulses of whimsical, +capricious designing man. -- I am indebted to you for a topic to +deny to the Pensylvania claim to a line 39 complete degrees from the +equator. As an advocate I shall certainly insist on it; but I wish +they would compromise by an extension of Mason & Dixon's line. -- +They do not agree to the temporary line proposed by our assembly. + + We have assurance (not newspaper, but Official) that the French +governors of the West Indies have received orders not only to furnish +us with what we want but to protect our ships. They will convoy our +vessels, they say, thro' the line of British cruisers. What you will +see in the papers of capt Weeks is indubitably true. The inhabitants +of S't. Pierre's went out in boats to see the promised battle, but +the British captain chose not to shew. -- By our last letters from +N. York the enemy had landed 8000 men on Long island. On Friday a +small party, about 40, of them were out maroding & had got some +cattle in a barn. Some riflemen (with whom was our Jamieson) +attacked them, took away the cattle, they retired as far as the house +of Judge Lifford where were their officer's quarters, they were +beaten thence also, & the house burnt by the riflemen. It is alwais +supposed you know that good execution was done. One officer was +killed & left with 9 guineas in his pocket, which shews they were in +a hurry; the swords & fusees of three other officers were found, the +owners supposed to be killed or wounded & carried away. On Saturday +about 2000 of them attempted to march to Bedford. Colo Hans's +battalion of 300 Pennsylvania riflemen having posted themselves in a +cornfeild & a wood to advantage attacked them. The enemy had some of +their Jagers with the m, who it seems are German riflemen used to the +woods. General Sullivan (who commands during the illness of Gen'l. +Green) sent some musquetry to support the riflemen. The enemy gave +way & were driven half a mile beyond their former station. Among the +dead left on the way, were three Jagers. Gen'l. Washington had sent +over 6 battal's. to join Sullivan who had before three thousand, some +say & rightly I beleive 6000; & had posted 5 battalions more on the +water side ready to join Sullivan if the enemy should make that the +field of trial, or to return to N. York if wanted there. A general +embarkation was certainly begun. 13. transports crouded with men had +fallen down to the narrows & others loading. So that we expect every +hour to hear of this great affair. Washington by his last return had +23,000 men of whom however 5000 were sick. Since this, Colo Aylett +just returned from there, tells us he has received 16 new England +battalions, so that we may certainly hope he has 25,000 effective, +which is about the strength of the enemy probably, tho' we have never +heard certainly that their last 5000, are come, in which case I +should think they have but 20,000. Washington discovers a +confidence, which he usually does only on very good grounds. He sais +his men are high in spirits. Those ordered to Long island went with +the eagerness of young men going to a dance. A few more skirmishes +would be an excellent preparative for our people. Provisions on +Staten island were become so scarce that a cow sold for ten pounds, a +sheep for ten dollars. They were barreling up all the horse flesh +they could get. -- Colo Lee being not yet come I am still here, & +suppose I shall not get away till about this day se'nnight. I shall +see you in Williamsburgh the morning of the Assembly. Adieu. + + + FIRST LETTER TO ADAMS + + _To John Adams_ + _Williamsburgh, May 16, 1777_ + + DEAR SIR -- Matters in our part of the continent are too much +in quiet to send you news from hence. Our battalions for the +Continental service were some time ago so far filled as rendered the +recommendation of a draught from the militia hardly requisite, and +the more so as in this country it ever was the most unpopular and +impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people even under +the monarchical government had learnt to consider it as the last of +all oppressions. I learn from our delegates that the Confederation +is again on the carpet. A great and a necessary work, but I fear +almost desperate. The point of representation is what most alarms +me, as I fear the great and small colonies are bitterly determined +not to cede. Will you be so good as to recollect the proposition I +formerly made you in private and try if you can work it into some +good to save our union? It was that any proposition might be +negatived by the representatives of a majority of the people of +America, or of a majority of the colonies of America. The former +secures the larger the latter the smaller colonies. I have mentioned +it to many here. The good whigs I think will so far cede their +opinions for the sake of the Union, and others we care little for. +The journals of congress not being printed earlier gives more +uneasiness than I would ever wish to see produced by any act of that +body, from whom alone I know our salvation can proceed. In our +assembly even the best affected think it an indignity to freemen to +be voted away life and fortune in the dark. Our house have lately +written for a M.S. copy of your journals, not meaning to desire a +communication of any thing ordered to be kept secret. I wish the +regulation of the post office adopted by Congress last September +could be put in practice. It was for the riders to travel night and +day, and to go their several stages three times a week. The speedy +and frequent communication of intelligence is really of great +consequence. So many falshoods have been propagated that nothing now +is beleived unless coming from Congress or camp. Our people merely +for want of intelligence which they may rely on are become lethargick +and insensible of the state they are in. Had you ever a leisure +moment I should ask a letter from you sometime directed to the care +of Mr. Dick, Fredericksburgh: but having nothing to give in return it +would be a tax on your charity as well as your time. The esteem I +have for you privately, as well as for your public importance will +always render assurances of your health and happiness agreeable. I +am Dear Sir Your friend and servt: + + + "THE FAVORITE PASSION OF MY SOUL" + + _To Giovanni Fabbroni_ + _Williamsburg in Virginia, June 8, 1778_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of Sep. 15. 1777 from Paris comes safe to +hand. We have not however had the pleasure of seeing Mr. De Cenis, +the bearer of it in this country, as he joined the army in +Pennsylvania as soon as he arrived. I should have taken particular +pleasure in serving him on your recommendation. From the kind +anxiety expressed in your letter as well as from other sources of +information we discover that our enemies have filled Europe with +Thrasonic accounts of victories they had never won and conquests they +were fated never to make. While these accounts alarmed our friends +in Europe they afforded us diversion. We have long been out of all +fear for the event of the war. I enclose you a list of the killed, +wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of +hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since +which there has been no event of any consequence. This is the best +history of the war which can be brought within the compass of a +letter. I believe the account to be near the truth, tho' it is +difficult to get at the numbers lost by an enemy with absolute +precision. Many of the articles have been communicated to us from +England as taken from the official returns made by their General. I +wish it were in my power to send you as just an account of our loss. +But this cannot be done without an application to the war office +which being in another county is at this time out of my reach. I +think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost +by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference +is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every +soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his +infancy. If there could have been a doubt before as to the event of +the war it is now totally removed by the interposition of France, & +the generous alliance she has entered into with us. Tho' much of my +time is employed in the councils of America I have yet a little +leisure to indulge my fondness for philosophical studies. I could +wish to correspond with you on subjects of that kind. It might not +be unacceptable to you to be informed for instance of the true power +of our climate as discoverable from the thermometer, from the force & +direction of the winds, the quantity of rain, the plants which grow +without shelter in winter &c. On the other hand we should be much +pleased with contemporary observations on the same particulars in +your country, which will give us a comparative view of the two +climates. Farenheit's thermometer is the only one in use with us, I +make my daily observations as early as possible in the morning & +again about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, these generally showing the +maxima of cold & heat in the course of 24 hours. I wish I could +gratify your Botanical taste; but I am acquainted with nothing more +than the first principles of that science; yet myself & my friends +may furnish you with any Botanical subjects which this country +affords, and are not to be had with you; and I shall take pleasure in +procuring them when pointed out by you. The greatest difficulty will +be the means of conveyance during the continuance of the war. + + If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this +world, it is to your country its music. This is the favorite passion +of my soul, & fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a +state of deplorable barbarism. From the line of life in which we +conjecture you to be, I have for some time lost the hope of seeing +you here. Should the event prove so, I shall ask your assistance in +procuring a substitute, who may be a proficient in singing, & on the +Harpsichord. I should be contented to receive such an one two or +three years hence, when it is hoped he may come more safely and find +here a greater plenty of those useful things which commerce alone can +furnish. The bounds of an American fortune will not admit the +indulgence of a domestic band of musicians, yet I have thought that a +passion for music might be reconciled with that economy which we are +obliged to observe. I retain for instance among my domestic servants +a gardener (Ortolans), a weaver (Tessitore di lino e lin), a cabinet +maker (Stipeltaio) and a stone cutter (Scalpellino laborante in +piano) to which I would add a vigneron. In a country where like +yours music is cultivated and practised by every class of men I +suppose there might be found persons of those trades who could +perform on the French horn, clarinet or hautboy & bassoon, so that +one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets, & hautboys +& a bassoon, without enlarging their domestic expenses. A certainty +of employment for a half dozen years, and at the end of that time to +find them if they choose a conveyance to their own country might +induce them to come here on reasonable wages. Without meaning to +give you trouble, perhaps it might be practicable for you in [your] +ordinary intercourse with your people, to find out such men disposed +to come to America. Sobriety and good nature would be desirable +parts of their characters. If you think such a plan practicable, and +will be so kind as to inform me what will be necessary to be done on +my part I will take care that it shall be done. The necessary +expenses, when informed of them, I can remit before they are wanting, +to any port in France, with which country alone we have safe +correspondence. I am Sir with much esteem your humble servant. + + + "A TRUE WHIG IN SCIENCE" + + _To David Rittenhouse_ + _Monticello in Albemarle, Virginia, July 19, 1778_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I sincerely congratulate you on the recovery of +Philadelphia, and wish it may be found uninjured by the enemy -- how +far the interests of literature may have suffered by the injury or +removal of the Orrery (as it is miscalled) the publick libraries, +your papers & implements, are doubts which still excite anxiety. We +were much disappointed in Virginia generally on the day of the great +eclipse, which proved to be cloudy. In Williamsburgh, where it was +total, I understand only the beginning was seen. At this place which +is in Lat. 38 degrees-8' and Longitude West from Williamsburgh about +1 degrees-45' as is conjectured, eleven digits only were supposed to +be covered, as it was not seen at all till the moon had advanced +nearly one third over the sun's disc. Afterwards it was seen at +intervals through the whole. The egress particularly was visible. +It proved however of little use to me for want of a time piece that +could be depended on; which circumstance, together with the +subsequent restoration of Philadelphia to you, has induced me to +trouble you with this letter to remind you of your kind promise of +making me an accurate clock; which being intended for astronomical +purposes only, I would have divested of all apparatus for striking or +for any other purpose, which by increasing it's complication might +disturb it's accuracy. A companion to it, for keeping seconds, and +which might be moved easily, would greatly add to it's value. The +theodolite, for which I spoke to you also, I can now dispense with, +having since purchased a most excellent one. + + Writing to a philosopher, I may hope to be pardoned for +intruding some thoughts of my own tho' they relate to him personally. +Your time for two years past has, I believe, been principally +employed in the civil government of your country. Tho' I have been +aware of the authority our cause would acquire with the world from +it's being known that yourself & Doc't. Franklin were zealous friends +to it and am myself duly impressed with a sense of the arduousness of +government, and the obligation those are under who are able to +conduct it, yet I am also satisfied there is an order of geniusses +above that obligation, & therefore exempted from it, nobody can +conceive that nature ever intended to throw away a Newton upon the +occupations of a crown. It would have been a prodigality for which +even the conduct of providence might have been arraigned, had he been +by birth annexed to what was so far below him. Cooperating with +nature in her ordinary economy we should dispose of and employ the +geniusses of men according to their several orders and degrees. I +doubt not there are in your country many persons equal to the task of +conducting government: but you should consider that the world has but +one Ryttenhouse, & that it never had one before. The amazing +mechanical representation of the solar system which you conceived & +executed, has never been surpassed by any but the work of which it is +a copy. Are those powers then, which being intended for the +erudition of the world are, like air and light, the world's common +property, to be taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace +drudgery of governing a single state, a work which my be executed by +men of an ordinary stature, such as are always & everywhere to be +found? Without having ascended mount Sinai for inspiration, I can +pronounce that the precept, in the decalogue of the vulgar, that they +shall not make to themselves "the likeness of anything that is in the +heavens above" is reversed for you, and that you will fulfil the +highest purposes of your creation by employing yourself in the +perpetual breach of that inhibition. For my own country in +particular you must remember something like a promise that it should +be adorned with one of them. The taking of your city by the enemy +has hitherto prevented the proposition from being made & approved by +our legislature. The zeal of a true whig in science must excuse the +hazarding these free thoughts, which flow from a desire of promoting +the diffusion of knowledge & of your fame, and from one who can +assure you truly that he is with much sincerity & esteem Your most +obed't. & most humble serv't. + + P. S. If you can spare as much time as to give me notice of +the receipt of this, & what hope I may form of my clocks, it will +oblige me. If sent to Fredericksburgh it will come safe to hand. + + + WAR AND HUMANITY + + _To Patrick Henry_ + _Albemarle, March 27, 1779_ + + Sir, -- A report prevailing here, that in consequence of some +powers from Congress, the Governor and Council have it in +contemplation to remove the Convention troops, either wholly or in +part, from their present situation, I take the liberty of troubling +you with some observations on that subject. The reputation and +interest of our country, in general, may be affected by such a +measure: it would, therefore, hardly be deemed an indecent liberty in +the most private citizen, to offer his thoughts to the consideration +of the Executive. The locality of my situation, particularly in the +neighborhood of the present barracks, and the public relation in +which I stand to the people among whom they are situated, together +with a confidence which a personal knowledge of the members of the +Executive gives me, that they will be glad of information from any +quarter, on a subject interesting to the public, induce me to hope +that they will acquit me of impropriety in the present +representation. + + By an article in the Convention of Saratoga, it is stipulated, +on the part of the United States, that the officers shall not be +separated from their men. I suppose the term officers, includes +_general_ as well as _regimental_ officers. As there are general +officers who command all the troops, no part of them can be separated +from these officers without a violation of the article: they cannot, +of course, be separated from one another, unless the same general +officer could be in different places at the same time. It is true, +the article adds the words, "as far as circumstances will admit." +This was a necessary qualification; because, in no place in America, +I suppose, could there have been found quarters for both officers and +men together; those for the officers to be according to their rank. +So far, then, as the circumstances of the place where they should be +quartered, should render a separation necessary, in order to procure +quarters for the officers, according to their rank, the article +admits that separation. And these are the circumstances which must +have been under the contemplation of the parties; both of whom, and +all the world beside (who are ultimate judges in the case), would +still understand that they were to be as near in the environs of the +camp, as convenient quarters could be procured; and not that the +qualification of the article destroyed the article itself, and laid +it wholly at our discretion. Congress, indeed, have admitted of this +separation; but are they so far lords of right and wrong as that our +consciences may be quiet with their dispensation? Or is the case +amended by saying they leave it optional in the Governor and Council +to separate the troops or not? At the same time that it exculpates +not them, it is drawing the Governor and Council into a participation +in the breach of faith. If indeed it is only proposed, that a +separation of the troops shall be referred to the consent of their +officers; that is a very different matter. Having carefully avoided +conversation with them on public subjects, I cannot say, of my own +knowledge, how they would relish such a proposition. I have heard +from others, that they will choose to undergo anything together, +rather than to be separated, and that they will remonstrate against +it in the strongest terms. The Executive, therefore, if voluntary +agents in this measure, must be drawn into a paper war with them, the +more disagreeable, as it seems that faith and reason will be on the +other side. As an American, I cannot help feeling a thorough +mortification, that our Congress should have permitted an infraction +of our public honor; as a citizen of Virginia, I cannot help hoping +and confiding, that our Supreme Executive, whose acts will be +considered as the acts of the Commonwealth, estimate that honor too +highly to make its infraction their own act. I may be permitted to +hope, then, that if any removal takes place, it will be a general +one; and, as it is said to be left to the Governor and Council to +determine on this, I am satisfied that, suppressing every other +consideration, and weighing the matter dispassionately, they will +determine upon this sole question, Is it for the benefit of those for +whom they act, that the Convention troops should be removed from +among them? Under the head of interest, these circumstances, viz., +the expense of building barracks, said to have been pound 25,000, and +of removing the troops back-wards and forwards, amounting to, I know +not how much, are not to be permitted, merely because they are +Continental expenses; for we are a part of the Continent; we must pay +a shilling of every dollar wasted. But the sums of money which, by +these troops, or on their account, are brought into, and expended in +this State, are a great and local advantage. This can require no +proof. If, at the conclusion of the war, for instance, our share of +the Continental debt should be twenty millions of dollars, or say +that we are called on to furnish an annual quota of two millions four +hundred thousand dollars, to Congress, to be raised by tax, it is +obvious that we should raise these given sums with greater or less +ease, in proportion to the greater or less quantity of money found in +circulation among us. I expect that our circulating money is +[increased?], by the presence of these troops, at the rate of $30,000 +a week, at the least. I have heard, indeed, that an objection arises +to their being kept within this State, from the information of the +commissary that they cannot be subsisted here. In attending to the +information of that officer, it should be borne in mind that the +county of King William and its vicinities are one thing, the +territory of Virginia another. If the troops could be fed upon long +letters, I believe the gentleman at the head of that department in +this country, would be the best commissary upon earth. But till I +see him determined to act, not to write; to sacrifice his domestic +ease to the duties of his appointment, and apply to the resources of +this country, wheresoever they are to be had, I must entertain a +different opinion of him. I am mistaken if, for the animal +subsistence of the troops hitherto, we are not principally indebted +to the genius and exertions of Hawkins, during the very short time he +lived after his appointment to that department, by your board. His +eye immediately pervaded the whole State, it was reduced at once to a +regular machine, to a system, and the whole put into movement and +animation by the fiat of a comprehensive mind. If the Commonwealth +of Virginia cannot furnish these troops with bread, I would ask of +the commissariat, which of the thirteen is now become the grain +colony? If we are in danger of famine from the addition of four +thousand mouths, what is become of that surplus of bread, the +exportation of which used to feed the West Indies and Eastern States, +and fill the colony with hard money? When I urge the sufficiency of +this State, however, to subsist these troops, I beg to be understood, +as having in contemplation the quantity of provisions necessary for +their real use, and not as calculating what is to be lost by the +wanton waste, mismanagement, and carelessness of those employed about +it. If magazines of beef and pork are suffered to rot by slovenly +butchering, or for want of timely provision and sale; if quantities +of flour are exposed, by the commissaries entrusted with the keeping +it, to pillage and destruction; and if, when laid up in the +Continental stores, it is still to be embezzled and sold, the land of +Egypt itself would be insufficient for their supply, and their +removal would be necessary, not to a more plentiful country, but to +more able and honest commissaries. Perhaps the magnitude of this +question, and its relation to the whole State, may render it worth +while to await the opinion of the National Council, which is now to +meet within a few weeks. There is no danger of distress in the +meantime, as the commissaries affirm they have a great sufficiency of +provisions for some time to come. Should the measure of removing +them into another State be adopted, and carried into execution, +before the meeting of Assembly, no disapprobation of theirs will +bring them back, because they will then be in the power of others, +who will hardly give them up. + + Want of information as to what may be the precise measure +proposed by the Governor and Council, obliges me to shift my ground, +and take up the subject in every possible form. Perhaps, they have +not thought to remove the troops out of this State altogether, but to +some other part of it. Here, the objections arising from the +expenses of removal, and of building new barracks, recur. As to +animal food, it may be driven to one part of the country as easily as +to another: that circumstance, therefore, may be thrown out of the +question. As to bread, I suppose they will require about forty or +forty-five thousand bushels of grain a year. The place to which it +is to be brought to them, is about the centre of the State. Besides, +that the country round about is fertile, all the grain made in the +counties adjacent to any kind of navigation, may be brought by water +to within twelve miles of the spot. For these twelve miles, wagons +must be employed; I suppose half a dozen will be a plenty. Perhaps, +this part of the expense might have been saved, had the barracks been +built on the water; but it is not sufficient to justify their being +abandoned now they are built. Wagonage, indeed, seems to the +commissariat an article not worth economising. The most wanton and +studied circuity of transportation has been practised: to mention +only one act, they have bought quantities of flour for these troops +in Cumberland, have ordered it to be wagoned down to Manchester, and +wagoned thence up to the barracks. This fact happened to fall within +my own knowledge. I doubt not there are many more such, in order +either to produce their total removal, or to run up the expenses of +the present situation, and satisfy Congress that the nearer they are +brought to the commissary's own bed, the cheaper they will be +subsisted. The grain made in the western counties may be brought +partly in wagons, as conveniently to this as to any other place; +perhaps more so, on account of its vicinity to one of the best passes +through the Blue Ridge; and partly by water, as it is near to James +river, to the navigation of which, ten counties are adjacent above +the falls. When I said that the grain might be brought hither from +all the counties of the State adjacent to navigation, I did not mean +to say it would be proper to bring it from all. On the contrary, I +think the commissary should be instructed, after the next harvest, +not to send one bushel of grain to the barracks from below the falls +of the rivers, or from the northern counties. The counties on tide +water are accessible to the calls for our own army. Their supplies +ought, therefore, to be husbanded for them. The counties in the +northwestern parts of the State are not only within reach for our own +grand army, but peculiarly necessary for the support of Macintosh's +army; or for the support of any other northwestern expedition, which +the uncertain conduct of the Indians should render necessary; +insomuch, that if the supplies of that quarter should be misapplied +to any other purpose, it would destroy, in embryo, every exertion, +either for particular or general safety there. The counties above +tide water, in the middle and southern and western parts of the +country, are not accessible to calls for either of those purposes, +but at such an expense of transportation as the article would not +bear. Here, then, is a great field, whose supplies of bread cannot +be carried to our army, or rather, which will raise no supplies of +bread, because there is nobody to eat them. Was it not, then, wise +in Congress to remove to that field four thousand idle mouths, who +must otherwise have interfered with the pasture of our own troops? +And, if they are removed to any other part of the country, will it +not defeat this wise purpose? The mills on the waters of James +river, above the falls, open to canoe navigation, are very many. +Some of them are of great note, as manufacturers. The barracks are +surrounded by mills. There are five or six round about +Charlottesville. Any two or three of the whole might, in the course +of the winter, manufacture flour sufficient for the year. To say the +worst, then, of this situation, it is but twelve miles wrong. The +safe custody of these troops is another circumstance worthy +consideration. Equally removed from the access of an eastern or +western enemy; central to the whole State, so that should they +attempt an irruption in any direction, they must pass through a great +extent of hostile country; in a neighborhood thickly inhabited by a +robust and hardy people zealous in the American cause, acquainted +with the use of arms, and the defiles and passes by which they must +issue: it would seem, that in this point of view, no place could have +been better chosen. + + Their health is also of importance. I would not endeavor to +show that their lives are valuable to us, because it would suppose a +possibility, that humanity was kicked out of doors in America, and +interest only attended to. The barracks occupy the top and brow of a +very high hill, (you have been untruly told they were in a bottom.) +They are free from bog, have four springs which seem to be plentiful, +one within twenty yards of the piquet, two within fifty yards, and +another within two hundred and fifty, and they propose to sink wells +within the piquet. Of four thousand people, it should be expected, +according to the ordinary calculations, that one should die every +day. Yet, in the space of near three months, there have been but +four deaths among them; two infants under three weeks old, and two +others by apoplexy. The officers tell me, the troops were never +before so healthy since they were embodied. + + But is an enemy so execrable, that, though in captivity, his +wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed? I think +not. It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war +as much as possible. The practice, therefore, of modern nations, of +treating captive enemies with politeness and generosity, is not only +delightful in contemplation, but really interesting to all the world, +friends, foes, and neutrals. Let us apply this: the officers, after +considerable hardships, have all procured quarters, comfortable and +satisfactory to them. In order to do this, they were obliged, in +many instances, to hire houses for a year certain, and at such +exorbitant rents, as were sufficient to tempt independent owners to +go out of them, and shift as they could. These houses, in most +cases, were much out of repair. They have repaired them at a +considerable expense. One of the general officers has taken a place +for two years, advanced the rent for the whole time, and been +obliged, moreover, to erect additional buildings for the +accommodation of part of his family, for which there was not room in +the house rented. Independent of the brick work, for the carpentry +of these additional buildings, I know he is to pay fifteen hundred +dollars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has paid to one person +three thousand six hundred and seventy dollars for different articles +to fix himself commodiously. They have generally laid in their +stocks of grain and other provisions, for it is well known that +officers do not live on their rations. They have purchased cows, +sheep, &c., set in to farming, prepared their gardens, and have a +prospect of comfort and quiet before them. To turn to the soldiers: +the environs of the barracks are delightful, the ground cleared, laid +off in hundreds of gardens, each enclosed in its separate paling; +these well prepared, and exhibiting a fine appearance. General +Riedezel alone laid out upwards of two hundred pounds in garden seeds +for the German troops only. Judge what an extent of ground these +seeds would cover. There is little doubt that their own gardens will +furnish them a great abundance of vegetables through the year. Their +poultry, pigeons and other preparations of that kind, present to the +mind the idea of a company of farmers, rather than a camp of +soldiers. In addition to the barracks built for them by the public, +and now very comfortable, they have built great numbers for +themselves, in such messes as fancied each other; and the whole +corps, both officers and men, seem now happy and satisfied with their +situation. Having thus found the art of rendering captivity itself +comfortable, and carried it into execution, at their own great +expense and labor, their spirits sustained by the prospect of +gratifications rising before their eyes, does not every sentiment of +humanity revolt against the proposition of stripping them of all +this, and removing them into new situations, where, from the advanced +season of the year, no preparations can be made for carrying +themselves comfortably through the heats of summer; and when it is +known that the necessary advances for the conveniences already +provided, have exhausted their funds and left them unable to make the +like exertions anew. Again, review this matter, as it may regard +appearances. A body of troops, after staying a twelvemonth at +Boston, are ordered to take a march of seven hundred miles to +Virginia, where, it is said, they may be plentifully subsisted. As +soon as they are there, they are ordered on some other march, +because, in Virginia, it is said, they cannot be subsisted. +Indifferent nations will charge this either to ignorance, or to whim +and caprice; the parties interested, to cruelty. They now view the +proposition in that light, and it is said, there is a general and +firm persuasion among them, that they were marched from Boston with +no other purpose than to harass and destroy them with eternal +marches. Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, +is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object +shifts light. A character of steadiness in our councils, is worth +more than the subsistence of four thousand people. + + There could not have been a more unlucky concurrence of +circumstances than when these troops first came. The barracks were +unfinished for want of laborers, the spell of weather the worst ever +known within the memory of man, no stores of bread laid in, the +roads, by the weather and number of wagons, soon rendered impassable: +not only the troops themselves were greatly disappointed, but the +people in the neighborhood were alarmed at the consequences which a +total failure of provisions might produce. In this worst state of +things, their situation was seen by many and disseminated through the +country, so as to occasion a general dissatisfaction, which even +seized the minds of reasonable men, who, if not affected by the +contagion, must have foreseen that the prospect must brighten, and +that great advantages to the people must necessarily arise. It has, +accordingly, so happened. The planters, being more generally sellers +than buyers, have felt the benefit of their presence in the most +vital part about them, their purses, and are now sensible of its +source. I have too good an opinion of their love of order to believe +that a removal of these troops would produce any irregular proofs of +their disapprobation, but I am well assured it would be extremely +odious to them. + + To conclude. The separation of these troops would be a breach +of public faith, therefore I suppose it is impossible; if they are +removed to another State, it is the fault of the commissaries; if +they are removed to any other part of the State, it is the fault of +the commissaries; and in both cases, the public interest and public +security suffer, the comfortable and plentiful subsistence of our own +army is lessened, the health of the troops neglected, their wishes +crossed, and their comforts torn from them, the character of whim and +caprice, or, what is worse, of cruelty, fixed on us as a nation, and, +to crown the whole, our own people disgusted with such a proceeding. + + I have thus taken the liberty of representing to you the facts +and the reasons, which seem to militate against the separation or +removal of these troops. I am sensible, however, that the same +subject may appear to different persons, in very different lights. +What I have urged as reasons, may, to sounder minds, be apparent +fallacies. I hope they will appear, at least, so plausible, as to +excuse the interposition of + + Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant. + + + THE TRAITOR ARNOLD + + _To J. P. G. Muhlenberg_ + _Richmond, Jan. 31, 1781_ + + SIR, -- Acquainted as you are with the treasons of Arnold, I +need say nothing for your information, or to give you a proper +sentiment of them. You will readily suppose that it is above all +things desirable to drag him from those under whose wing he is now +sheltered. On his march to and from this place I am certain it might +have been done with facility by men of enterprise & firmness. I +think it may still be done though perhaps not quite so easily. +Having peculiar confidence in the men from the Western side of the +Mountains, I meant as soon as they should come down to get the +enterprise proposed to a chosen number of them, such whose courage & +whose fidelity would be above all doubt. Your perfect knowlege of +those men personally, and my confidence in your discretion, induce me +to ask you to pick from among them proper characters, in such number +as you think best, to reveal to them our desire, & engage them to +undertake to seize and bring off this greatest of all traitors. +Whether this may be best effected by their going in as friends & +awaiting their opportunity, or otherwise is left to themselves. The +smaller the number the better; so that they be sufficient to manage +him. Every necessary caution must be used on their part, to prevent +a discovery of their design by the enemy, as should they be taken, +the laws of war will justify against them the most rigorous sentence. +I will undertake if they are successful in bringing him off alive, +that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them. And +to men formed for such an enterprise it must be a great incitement to +know that their names will be recorded with glory in history with +those of Vanwert, Paulding & Williams. The enclosed order from Baron +Steuben will authorize you to call for & dispose of any force you may +think necessary, to place in readiness for covering the enterprise & +securing the retreat of the party. Mr. Newton the bearer of this, & +to whom its contents are communicated in confidence, will provide men +of trust to go as guides. These may be associated in the enterprise +or not, as you please; but let that point be previously settled that +no difficulties may arise as to the parties entitled to participate +of the reward. You know how necessary profound secrecy is in this +business, even if it be not undertaken. + + + WELCOME TO THE MARGUIS + + _To Lafayette_ + _Richmond, March 10th, 1781_ + + SIR, -- Intending that this shall await your arrival in this +State I with great joy welcome you on that event. I am induced to +from the very great esteem your personal character and the Hopes I +entertain of your relieving us from our enemy within this State. +Could any circumstances have rendered your presence more desirable or +more necessary it is the unfortunate one which obliges me to enclose +you the enclosed papers. + + I trust that your future Acquaintance with the Executive of the +State will evince to you that among their faults is not to be counted +a want of dispostion to second the views of the Commander against our +common Enemy. We are too much interested in the present scene & have +too much at stake to leave a doubt on that Head. Mild Laws, a People +not used to prompt obedience, a want of provisions of War & means of +procuring them render our orders often ineffectual, oblige us to +temporise & when we cannot accomplish an object in one way to attempt +it in another. Your knowledge of these circumstances with a temper +to accommodate them ensure me your cooperation in the best way we +can, when we shall be able to pursue the way we would wish. + + I still hope you will find our preparations not far short of +the Information I took the Liberty of giving you in my letter of the +8th instant. I shall be very happy to receive your first +Applications for whatever may be necessary for the public service and +to convince you of our disposition to promote it as far as the +Abilities of the State and Powers of the Executive will enable us. + + + APPEAL TO THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF + + _To George Washington_ + _Charlottesville, May 28th, 1781_ + + SIR, -- I make no doubt you will have heard, before this shall +have the honour of being presented to your Excellency, of the +junction of Ld Cornwallis with the force at Petersburg under Arnold, +who had succeeded to the command on the death of Majr. Genl Phillips. +I am now advised that they have evacuated Petersburg, joined at +Westover a reinforcement of 2000 men just arrived from New york, +crossed James River, and on the 26th instant, were three miles +advanced on their way towards Richmond; at which place Majr Genl the +Marquis Fayette, lay with three thousand men Regulars and militia: +these being the whole number we could arm, until the arrival of the +1100 arms from Rhode Island, which are about this time at the place +where our Public stores are deposited. The whole force of the Enemy +within this State, from the best intelligence I have been able to +get, is I think about 7000 men, infantry and cavalry, including, +also, the small garrison left at Portsmouth: a number of privateers, +which are constantly ravaging the Shores of our rivers, prevent us +from receiving any aid from the Counties lying on navigable waters; +and powerful operations meditated against our Western frontier, by a +joint force of British, and Indian Savages, have as your Excellency +before knew, obliged us to embody, between two and three thousand men +in that quarter. Your Excellency will judge from this State of +things, and from what you know of our country, what it may probably +suffer during the present campaign. Should the Enemy be able to +produce no opportunity of annihilating the Marquis's army a small +proportion of their force may yet restrain his movements effectually +while the greater part employed in detachment to waste an unarmed +country and lead the minds of the people to acquiesce under those +events which they see no human power prepared to ward off. We are +too far removed from the other scenes of war to say whether the main +force of the Enemy be within this State. But I suppose they cannot +anywhere spare so great an army for the operations of the field. +Were it possible for this circumstance to justify in your Excellency +a determination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident from the +universal voice, that the presence of their beloved Countryman, whose +talents have so long been successfully employed, in establishing the +freedom of kindred States, to whose person they have still flattered +themselves they retained some right and have ever looked up as their +dernier resort in distress. That your appearance among them I say +would restore full confidence of salvation, and would render them +equal to whatever is not impossible. I cannot undertake to foresee +and obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a +resolution: The whole subject is before you of which I see only +detached parts; and your judgment will be formed on a view of the +whole. Should the danger of this State and its consequence to the +Union be such as to render it best for the whole that you should +repair to its assistance the difficulty would be how to keep men out +of the field. I have undertaken to hint this matter to your +Excellency not only on my own sense of its importance to us but at +the solicitations of many members of weight in our Legislature which +has not yet Assembled to speak their own desires. + + A few days will bring to me that relief which the constitution +has prepared for those oppressed with the labours of my office and a +long declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands has +prepared my way for retirement to a private station: still as an +individual I should feel the comfortable effects of your presence, +and have (what I thought could not have been) an additional motive +for that gratitude, esteem, & respect with which I have the honour to +be, your Excellency's most obedient humble servant. + + + LIMITS OF PUBLIC DUTY + + _To James Monroe_ + _Monticello, May 20, 1782_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have been gratified with the receipt of your two +favours of the 6th & 11th inst. It gives me pleasure that your +county has been wise enough to enlist your talents into their +service. I am much obliged by the kind wishes you express of seeing +me also in Richmond, and am always mortified when anything is +expected from me which I cannot fulfill, & more especially if it +relate to the public service. Before I ventured to declare to my +countrymen my determination to retire from public employment, I +examined well my heart to know whether it were thoroughly cured of +every principle of political ambition, whether no lurking particle +remained which might leave me uneasy when reduced within the limits +of mere private life. I became satisfied that every fibre of that +passion was thoroughly eradicated. I examined also in other views my +right to withdraw. I considered that I had been thirteen years +engaged in public service, that during that time I had so totally +abandoned all attention to my private affairs as to permit them to +run into great disorder and ruin, that I had now a family advanced to +years which require my attention & instruction, that to these were +added the hopeful offspring of a deceased friend whose memory must be +forever dear to me who have no other reliance for being rendered +useful to themselves & their country, that by a constant sacrifice of +time, labour, loss, parental & family duties, I had been so far from +gaining the affection of my countrymen, which was the only reward I +ever asked or could have felt, that I had even lost the small +estimation I before possessed. That however I might have comforted +myself under the disapprobation of the well-meaning but uninformed +people yet that of their representatives was a shock on which I had +not calculated: that this indeed had been followed by an exculpatory +declaration. But in the meantime I had been suspected & suspended in +the eyes of the world without the least hint then or afterwards made +public which might restrain them from supposing that I stood +arraigned for treason of the heart and not merely weakness of the +head; and I felt that these injuries, for such they have been since +acknowledged had inflicted a wound on my spirit which will only be +cured by the all-healing grave. If reason & inclination unite in +justifying my retirement, the laws of my country are equally in favor +of it. Whether the state may command the political services of all +it's members to an indefinite extent, or if these be among the rights +never wholly ceded to the public power, is a question which I do not +find expressly decided in England. Obiter dictums on the subject I +have indeed met with, but the complexion of the times in which these +have dropped would generally answer them, besides that this species +of authority is not acknowledged in our profession. In this country +however since the present government has been established the point +has been settled by uniform, pointed & multiplied precedents. +Offices of every kind, and given by every power, have been daily & +hourly declined & resigned from the declaration of independance to +this moment. The genl assembly has accepted these without +discrimination of office, and without ever questioning them in point +of right. If a difference between the office of a delegate & any +other could ever have been supposed, yet in the case of Mr. Thompson +Mason who declined the office of delegate & was permitted so to do by +the house that supposition has been proved to be groundless. But +indeed no such distinction of offices can be admitted. Reason and +the opinions of the lawyers putting all on a footing as to this +question and so giving to the delegate the aid of all the precedents +of the refusal of other offices. The law then does not warrant the +assumption of such a power by the state over it's members. For if it +does where is that law? nor yet does reason, for tho' I will admit +that this does subject every individual if called on to an equal tour +of political duty yet it can never go so far as to submit to it his +whole existence. If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a +greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling & +indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less right in himself +than one of his neighbors or indeed all of them put together. This +would be slavery & not that liberty which the bill of rights has made +inviolable and for the preservation of which our government has been +charged. Nothing could so completely divest us of that liberty as +the establishment of the opinion that the state has a _perpetual_ +right to the services of all it's members. This to men of certain +ways of thinking would be to annihilate the blessing of existence; to +contradict the giver of life who gave it for happiness & not for +wretchedness; and certainly to such it were better that they had +never been born. However with these I may think public service & +private misery inseparably linked together, I have not the vanity to +count myself among those whom the state would think worth oppressing +with perpetual service. I have received a sufficient memento to the +contrary. I am persuaded that having hitherto dedicated to them the +whole of the active & useful part of my life I shall be permitted to +pass the rest in mental quiet. I hope too that I did not mistake the +modes any more than the matter of right when I preferred a simple act +of renunciation to the taking sanctuary under those disqualifications +provided by the law for other purposes indeed, but which afford +asylum also for rest to the wearied. I dare say you did not expect +by the few words you dropped on the right of renunciation to expose +yourself to the fatigue of so long a letter, but I wished you to see +that if I had done wrong I had been betrayed by a semblance of right +at least. + + I take the liberty of inclosing to you a letter for Genl +Chastellux for which you will readily find means of conveyance. But +I meant to give you more trouble with the one to Pelham who lives in +the neighborhood of Manchester & to ask the favor of you to send it +by your servant express which I am in hopes may be done without +absenting him from your person but during those hours in which you +will be engaged in the house. I am anxious that it should be +received immediately. Mrs Jefferson has added another daughter to +our family. She has been ever since & still continues very +dangerously ill. It will give me great pleasure to see you here +whenever you can favor us with your company. You will find me still +busy but in lighter occupations. But in these & all others you will +find me to retain a due sense of your friendship & to be with sincere +esteem, Dr Sir + Your mo ob & mo hble servt. + + P. S. did you ever receive a copy of the Parl. debates & +Histor. Register with a letter left for you with Mr Jas. Buchanan? + + + "A SINGLE EVENT. . ." + + _To Chastellux_ + _Ampthill, Nov. 26, 1782_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received your friendly letters of ----- and June +30 but the latter not till the 17th of Oct. It found me a little +emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the +world as she was whose loss occasioned it. Your letter recalled to +my memory that there were persons still living of much value to me. +If you should have thought me remiss in not testifying to you sooner +how deeply I had been impressed with your worth in the little time I +had the happiness of being with you you will I am sure ascribe it to +it's true cause the state of dreadful suspense in which I had been +kept all the summer & the catastrophe which closed it. Before that +event my scheme of life had been determined. I had folded myself in +the arms of retirement, and rested all prospects of future happiness +on domestic & literary objects. A single event wiped away all my +plans and left me a blank which I had not the spirits to fill up. In +this state of mind an appointment from Congress found me, requiring +me to cross the Atlantic. And that temptation might be added to duty +I was informed at the same time from his Excy the Chevalier de +Luzerne that a vessel of force would be sailing about the middle of +Dec. in which you would be passing to France. I accepted the +appointment and my only object now is so to hasten over those +obstacles which would retard my departure as to be ready to join you +in your voyage, fondly measuring your affections by my own & +presuming your consent. It is not certain that by any exertion I can +be in Philadelphia by the middle of December. The contrary is most +probable. But hoping it will not be much later and counting on those +procrastinations which usually attend the departure of vessels of +size I have hopes of being with you in time. This will give me full +leisure to learn the result of your observations on the natural +bridge, to communicate to you my answers to the queries of Monsr de +Marbois, to receive edification from you on these and on other +subjects of science, considering chess too as a matter of science. +Should I be able to get out in tolerable time and any extraordinary +delays attend the sailing of the vessel I shall certainly do myself +the honor of waiting on his Excy Count Rochambeau at his Head +quarters and assuring him in person of my high respect and esteem for +him -- an object of which I have never lost sight. To yourself I am +unable to express the warmth of those sentiments of friendship & +attachment with which I have the honour to be, Dr Sir, + Your most obedt & mo hble servt. + + + ADVICE TO A YOUNG DAUGHTER + + _To Martha Jefferson_ + _Annapolis, Nov. 28, 1783_ + + MY DEAR PATSY -- After four days journey I arrived here without +any accident and in as good health as when I left Philadelphia. The +conviction that you would be more improved in the situation I have +placed you than if still with me, has solaced me on my parting with +you, which my love for you has rendered a difficult thing. The +acquirements which I hope you will make under the tutors I have +provided for you will render you more worthy of my love, and if they +cannot increase it they will prevent it's diminution. Consider the +good lady who has taken you under her roof, who has undertaken to see +that you perform all your exercises, and to admonish you in all those +wanderings from what is right or what is clever to which your +inexperience would expose you, consider her I say as your mother, as +the only person to whom, since the loss with which heaven has been +pleased to afflict you, you can now look up; and that her displeasure +or disapprobation on any occasion will be an immense misfortune which +should you be so unhappy as to incur by any unguarded act, think no +concession too much to regain her good will. With respect to the +distribution of your time the following is what I should approve. + + from 8. to 10 o'clock practise music. + from 10. to 1. dance one day and draw another + from 1. to 2. draw on the day you dance, and write a letter the +next day. + from 3. to 4. read French. + from 4. to 5. exercise yourself in music. + from 5. till bedtime read English, write &c. + + Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson and if she approves of +it pursue it. As long as Mrs. Trist remains in Philadelphia +cultivate her affections. She has been a valuable friend to you and +her good sense and good heart make her valued by all who know her and +by nobody on earth more than by me. I expect you will write to me by +every post. Inform me what books you read, what tunes you learn, and +inclose me your best copy of every lesson in drawing. Write also one +letter every week either to your aunt Eppes, your aunt Skipwith, your +aunt Carr, or the little lady from whom I now inclose a letter, and +always put the letter you so write under cover to me. Take care that +you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word +consider how it is spelt, and if you do not remember it, turn to a +dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. I +have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished, and no +distress which this world can now bring on me could equal that of +your disappointing my hopes. If you love me then, strive to be good +under every situation and to all living creatures, and to acquire +those accomplishments which I have put in your power, and which will +go far towards ensuring you the warmest love of your affectionate +father, + P. S. Keep my letters and read them at times that you may +always have present in your mind those things which will endear you +to me. + + + THE MAMMOTH AND WESTERN EXPLORATION + + _To George Rogers Clark_ + _Annapolis, Dec. 4, 1783_ + + DEAR SIR -- I received here about a week ago your obliging +letter of Oct. 12. 1783. with the shells and seeds for which I return +you many thanks. You are also so kind as to keep alive the hope of +getting for me as many of the different species of bones, teeth and +tusks of the _Mammoth_ as can now be found. This will be most +acceptable. Pittsburg and Philadelphia or Winchester will be the +surest channel of conveyance. I find they have subscribed a very +large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the +Missisipi to California. They pretend it is only to promote knolege. +I am afraid they have thoughts of colonising into that quarter. Some +of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to +search that country. But I doubt whether we have enough of that kind +of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a +party? Tho I am afraid our prospect is not worth asking the +question. The definitive treaty of peace is at length arrived. It +is not altered from the preliminaries. The cession of the territory +West of Ohio to the United states has been at length accepted by +Congress with some small alterations of the conditions. We are in +daily expectation of receiving it with the final approbation of +Virginia. Congress have been lately agitated by questions where they +should fix their residence. They first resolved on Trentown. The +Southern states however contrived to get a vote that they would give +half their time to Georgetown at the Falls of Patowmac. Still we +consider the matter as undecided between the Delaware and Patowmac. +We urge the latter as the only point of union which can cement us to +our Western friends when they shall be formed into separate states. +I shall always be happy to hear from you and am with very particular +esteem Dr. Sir Your friend & humble servt. + + + MORE ADVICE + + _To Martha Jefferson_ + _Annapolis, Dec. 11, 1783_ + + MY DEAR PATSY -- I wrote you by the post this day fortnight, +since which I h received two letters from you. I am afraid that you +may not have sent to the post office and therefore that my letter may +be still lying there. Tho' my business here may not let me write to +you every week yet it will not be amiss for you to enquire at the +office every week. I wrote to Mr. House by the last post. Perhaps +his letter may still be in the office. I hope you will have good +sense enough to disregard those foolish predictions that the world is +to be at an end soon. The almighty has never made known to any body +at what time he created it, nor will he tell any body when he means +to put an end to it, if ever he means to do it. As to preparations +for that event, the best way is for you to be always prepared for it. +The only way to be so is never to do nor say a bad thing. If ever +you are about to say any thing amiss or to do any thing wrong, +consider before hand. You will feel something within you which will +tell you it is wrong and ought not to be said or done: this is your +conscience, and be sure to obey it. Our maker has given us all, this +faithful internal Monitor, and if you always obey it, you will always +be prepared for the end of the world: or for a much more certain +event which is death. This must happen to all: it puts an end to the +world as to us, and the way to be ready for it is never to do a wrong +act. I am glad you are proceeding regularly under your tutors. You +must not let the sickness of your French master interrupt your +reading French, because you are able to do that with the help of your +dictionary. Remember I desired you to send me the best copy you +should make of every lesson Mr. Cimitiere should set you. In this I +hope you will be punctual because it will let me see how you are +going on. Always let me know too what tunes you play. Present my +compliments to Mrs. Hopkinson, Mrs. House and Mrs. Trist. I had a +letter from your uncle Eppes last week informing me that Polly is +very well, and Lucy recovered from an indispostion. I am my dear +Patsy your affectionate father, + + + AMERICAN "POLITICS & POVERTY" + + _To Chastellux_ + _Annapolis, Jan. 16, 1784_ + + DEAR SIR -- L't. Colo Franks being appointed to carry to Paris +one of the copies of our ratifn of the Def. treaty, & being to depart +in the instant of his appointm't. furnishes me a hasty oppy of +obtruding myself on your recollection. Should this prove troublesome +you must take the blame as having exposed yourself to my esteem by +letting me become acquainted with your merit. Our transactions on +this side the water must now have become uninteresting to the rest of +the world. We are busy however among ourselves endeavoring to get +our new governments into regular and concerted motion. For this +purpose I beleive we shall find some additions requisite to our +Confederation. As yet every thing has gone smoothly since the war. +We are diverted with the European acc'ts. of the anarchy & opposition +to govmt in America. Nothing can be more untrue than these +relations. There was indeed some disatisfaction in the army at not +being paid off before they were disbanded, and a very trifling mutiny +of 200 souldiers in Philadelphia, on the latter occasion Congress +left that place disgusted with the pusillanimity of the govmt and not +from any want of security to their own persons. The indignation +which the other states felt at this insult to their delegates has +enlisted them more warmly in support of Congress & the people, the +legislature, & the Exec. themselves of Pennsvta have made the most +satisfactory atonements. Some people also of warm blood undertook to +resolve as commees for proscribing the refugees. But they were few, +scattered here & there through the several states, were absolutely +unnoticed by those both in & out of power, and never expressed an +idea of not acquiescing ultimately under the decisions of their +governments. The greatest difficulty we find is to get money from +them. The reason is not founded in their unwillingness, but in their +real inability. You were a witness to the total destruction of our +commerce, devastation of our country, and absence of the precious +metals. It cannot be expected that these should flow in but through +the channels of commerce, or that these channels can be opened in the +first instant of peace. Time is requisite to avail ourselves of the +productions of the earth, and the first of these will be applied to +renew our stock of those necessaries of which we had been totally +exhausted. But enough of America it's politics & poverty. -- +Science I suppose is going on with you rapidly as usual. I am in +daily hopes of seeing something from your pen which may portray us to +ourselves. Aware of the bias of self love & prejudice in myself and +that your pictures will be faithful I am determined to annihilate my +own opinions and give full credit to yours. I must caution you to +distrust information from my answers to Monsr. de Marbois' queries. +I have lately had a little leisure to revise them. I found some +things should be omitted, many corrected, and more supplied & +enlarged. They are swelled to treble bulk. Being now too much for +M.S. copies I think the ensuing spring to print a dozen or 20 copies +to be given to my friends, not suffering another to go out. As I +have presumed to place you in that number I shall take the liberty of +sending you a copy as a testimony of the sincere esteem and affection +with which I have the honor to be D'r Sir Your mo. ob. & mo. hbl +serv't + + + WESTERN COMMERCE + + _To George Washington_ + _Annapolis, Mar. 15, 1784_ + + D'r. SIR, -- Since my last nothing new has occurred, I suppose +the crippled state of Congress is not new to you. We have only 9 +states present, 8. of whom are represented by two members each, and +of course, on all great questions not only an unanimity of States but +of members is necessary. An unanimity which never can be obtained on +a matter of any importance. The consequence is that we are wasting +our time & labour in vain efforts to do business. -- Nothing less +than the presence of 13. States, represented by an odd number of +delegates will enable us to get forward a single capital point. The +deed for the cession of Western territory by Virginia was executed & +accepted on the 1'st instant. I hope our country will of herself +determine to cede still further to the meridian of the mouth of the +great Kanhaway. Further she cannot govern; so far is necessary for +her own well being. The reasons which call for this boundary (which +will retain all the waters of the Kanhaway) are 1. That within that +are our lead mines. 2. This river rising in N. Carola traverses our +whole latitude and offers to every part of it a channel for +navigation & commerce to the Western Country, but 3. It is a channel +which can not be opened but at immense expense and with every +facility which an absolute power over both shores will give. 4. This +river & it's waters forms a band of good land passing along our whole +frontier, and forming on it a barrier which will be strongly seated. +5. For 180 miles beyond these waters is a mountainous barren which +can never be inhabited & will of course form a safe separation +between us & any other State. 6. This tract of country lies more +convenient to receive it's government from Virginia than from any +other State. 7. It will preserve to us all the upper parts of +Yohogany & Cheat rivers within which much will be done to open these +which are the true doors to the Western commerce. The union of this +navigation with that of the Patowmac is a subject on which I +mentioned that I would take the liberty of writing to you. I am sure +it's value and practicability are both well known to you. This is +the moment however for seizing it if ever we mean to have it. All +the world is becoming commercial. Was it practicable to keep our new +empire separated from them we might indulge ourselves in speculating +whether commerce contributes to the happiness of mankind. But we +cannot separate ourselves from them. Our citizens have had too full +a taste of the comforts furnished by the arts & manufactures to be +debarred the use of them. We must then in our defence endeavour to +share as large a portion as we can of this modern source of wealth & +power. That offered to us from the Western Country is under a +competition between the Hudson, the Patowmac & the Missisipi itself. +Down the last will pass all heavy commodities. But the navigation +through the gulf of Mexico is so dangerous, & that up the Missisipi +so difficult & tedious, that it is not probable that European +merchandize will return through that channel. It is most likely that +flour, lumber & other heavy articles will be floated on rafts which +will be themselves an article of sale as well as their loading, the +navigators returning by land or in light batteaux. There will +therefore be a rivalship between the Hudson & Patowmac for the +residue of the commerce of all the country Westward of L. Erie, on +the waters of the lakes, of the Ohio & upper parts of the Missisipi. +To go to N. York, that part of the trade which comes from the lakes +or their waters must first be brought into L. Erie. So also must +that which comes from the waters of the Missisipi, and of course must +cross at some portage into the waters of the lakes. When it shall +have entered L. Erie it must coast along it's Southern Shore on +account of the number & excellence of it's harbours, the Northern, +tho' shortest, having few harbours & these unsafe. Having reached +Cuyahoga, to proceed on to N. York will be 970 miles from thence & +five portages, whereas it is but 430 miles to Alexandria, if it turns +into the Cuyahoga & passes through that, Big beaver, Ohio, Yohogany +(or Monongahela & Cheat) & Patowmac, & there are but two portages. +For the trade of the Ohio or that which shall come into it from it's +own waters or the Missisipi, it is nearer to Alexandria than to New +York by 730 miles, and is interrupted by one portage only. Nature +then has declared in favour of the Patowmac, and through that channel +offers to pour into our lap the whole commerce of the Western world. +But unfortunately the channel by the Hudson is already open & known +in practice; ours is still to be opened. This is the moment in which +the trade of the West will begin to get into motion and to take it's +direction. It behoves us then to open our doors to it. I have +lately pressed this subject on my friends in the General assembly, +proposing to them to endeavor to have a tax laid which shall bring +into a separate chest from five to ten thousand pounds a year, to be +employed first in opening the upper waters of the Ohio & Patowmac, +where a little money & time will do a great deal, leaving the great +falls for the last part of the work. To remove the idea of +partiality I have suggested the propriety & justice of continuing +this fund till all the rivers shall be cleared successively. But a +most powerful objection always arises to propositions of this kind. +It is that public undertakings are carelessly managed and much money +spent to little purpose. To obviate this objection is the purpose of +my giving you the trouble of this discussion. You have retired from +public life. You have weighed this determination & it would be +impertinence in me to touch it. But would the superintendence of +this work break in too much on the sweets of retirement & repose? If +they would I stop here. Your future time & wishes are sacred in my +eye. If it would be only a dignified amusement to you, what a +monument of your retirement would it be! It is one which would +follow that of your public life and bespeak it the work of the same +great hand. I am confident that would you either alone or jointly +with any persons you think proper be willing to direct this business, +it would remove the only objection the weight of which I apprehend. +Tho' the tax should not come in till the fall, it's proceeds should +be anticipated by borrowing from some other fund to enable the work +to be begun this summer. When you view me as not owning, nor ever +having a prospect of owning one inch of land on any water either of +the Patowmac or Ohio, it will tend to apologize for the trouble I +have given you of this long letter, by showing that my zeal in this +business is public & pure. The best atonement for the time I have +occupied you will be not to add to it longer than while I assure you +of the sincerity & esteem with which I have the honour to be D'r. Sir +Your most obedient & most humble servt. + + P. S. The hurry of time in my former letter prevented my +thanking you for your polite & friendly invitation to Mount Vernon. +I shall certainly pay my respects there to Mrs Washington & yourself +with great pleasure whenever it shall be in my power. + + + THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI + + _To George Washington_ + _Annapolis, Apr. 16, 1784_ + + DEAR SIR -- I received your favor of Apr. 8. by Colo. Harrison. +The subject of it is interesting, and, so far as you have stood +connected with it, has been matter of anxiety to me; because whatever +may be the ultimate fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, as in +it's course it draws to it some degree of disapprobation, I have +wished to see you standing on ground separated from it, and that the +character which will be handed to future ages at the head of our +revolution may in no instance be compromitted in subordinate +altercations. The subject has been at the point of my pen in every +letter I have written to you, but has been still restrained by the +reflection that you had among your friends more able counsellors, +and, in yourself, one abler than them all. Your letter has now +rendered a duty what was before a desire, and I cannot better merit +your confidence than by a full and free communication of facts & +sentiments, as far as they have come within my observation. When the +army was about to be disbanded, & the officers to take final leave, +perhaps never again to meet, it was natural for men who had +accompanied each other thro' so many scenes of hardship, of +difficulty and danger, who in a variety of instances must have been +rendered mutually dear by those aids & good offices to which their +situations had given occasion; it was natural I say for these to +seize with fondness any proposition which promised to bring them +together again at certain & regular periods. And this I take for +granted was the origin & object of this institution; & I have no +suspicion that they foresaw, much less intended, those mischiefs, +which exist perhaps in the forebodings of politicians only. I doubt +however whether, in it's execution, it would be found to answer the +wishes of those who framed it, and to foster those friendships it was +intended to preserve. The members would be brought together at their +annual assemblies no longer to encounter a common enemy, but to +encounter one another in debate & sentiment. For something I suppose +is to be done at these meetings, & however unimportant, it will +suffice to produce difference of opinion, contradiction & irritation. +The way to make friends quarrel is to put them in disputation under +the public eye. An experience of near twenty years has taught me +that few friendships stand this test, & that public assemblies, where +every one is free to act & speak, are the most powerful looseners of +the bands of private friendship. I think therefore that this +institution would fail in it's principal object, the perpetuation of +the personal friendships contracted thro' the war. + + The objections of those who are opposed to the institution +shall be briefly sketched. You will readily fill them up. They urge +that it is against the confederation -- against the letter of some of +our constitutions; -- against the spirit of all of them -- that the +foundation on which all these are built is the natural equality of +man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to legal +office, & particularly the denial of a preeminence by birth; that +however, in their present dispositions, citizens might decline +accepting honorary instalments into the order, a time may come when a +change of dispositions would render these flattering, when a well +directed distribution of them might draw into the order all the men +of talents, of office & wealth, and in this case would probably +procure an ingraftment into the government; that in this they will be +supported by their foreign members, & the wishes & influence of +foreign courts; that experience has shewn that the hereditary +branches of modern governments are the patrons of privilege & +prerogative, & not of the natural rights of the people whose +oppressors they generally are: that besides these evils, which are +remote, others may take place more immediately; that a distinction is +kept up between the civil & military, which it is for the happiness +of both to obliterate; that when the members assemble they will be +proposing to do something, & what that something may be will depend +on actual circumstances; that being an organized body under habits of +subordination, the first obstructions to enterprize will be already +surmounted; that the moderation & virtue of a single character has +probably prevented this revolution from being closed as most others +have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to +establish; that he is not immortal, & his successor, or some of his +successors, may be led by false calculation into a less certain road +to glory: + + + What are the sentiments of Congress on this subject, & what +line they will pursue, can only be stated conjecturally. Congress, +as a body, if left to themselves, will in my opinion say nothing on +the subject. They may however be forced into a declaration by +instructions from some of the states, or by other incidents. Their +sentiments, if forced from them, will be unfriendly to the +institution. If permitted to pursue their own path, they will check +it by side blows whenever it comes in their way, & ---, in +competitions for office, on equal or nearly equal ground, will give +silent preferences to those who are not of the fraternity. My +reasons for thinking this are 1. The grounds on which they lately +declined the foreign order proposed to be conferred on some of our +citizens. 2. The fourth of the fundamental articles of constitution +for the new states. I inclose you the report. It has been +considered by Congress, recommitted & reformed by a committee +according to sentiments expressed on other parts of it, but the +principle referred to, having not been controverted at all, stands in +this as in the original report. It is not yet confirmed by Congress. +3. Private conversations on this subject with the members. Since the +receipt of your letter I have taken occasion to extend these; not +indeed to the military members, because, being of the order, delicacy +forbade it; but to the others pretty generally; and among these I +have as yet found but one who is not opposed to the institution, & +that with an anguish of mind, tho' covered under a guarded silence, +which I have not seen produced by any circumstance before. I arrived +at Philadelphia before the separation of the last Congress, & saw +there & at Princetown some of its members not now in delegation. +Burke's piece happened to come out at that time, which occasioned +this institution to be the subject of conversation. I found the same +impressions made on them which their successors have received. I +hear from other quarters that it is disagreeable generally to such +citizens as have attended to it, & therefore will probably be so to +all when any circumstance shall present it to the notice of all. + + This, Sir, is as faithful an account of sentiments & facts as I +am able to give you. You know the extent of the circle within which +my observations are at present circumscribed, & can estimate how far, +as forming a part of the general opinion, it may merit notice, or +ought to influence your particular conduct. + + It remains now to pay obedience to that part of your letter +which requests sentiments on the most eligible measures to be pursued +by the society at their next meeting. I must be far from pretending +to be a judge of what would in fact be the most eligible measures for +the society. I can only give you the opinions of those with whom I +have conversed, & who, as I have before observed, are unfriendly to +it. They lead to these conclusions. 1. If the society proceeds +according to it's institution, it will be better to make no +applications to Congress on that subject or any other in their +associated character. 2. If they should propose to modify it, so as +to render it unobjectionable, I think this would not be effected +without such a modification as would amount almost to annihilation; +for such would it be to part with it's inheritability, it's +organization, & it's assemblies. 3. If they shall be disposed to +discontinue the whole, it would remain with them to determine whether +they would chuse it to be done by their own act only, or by a +reference of the matter to Congress which would infallibly produce a +recommendation of total discontinuance. + + You will be sensible, Sir, that these communications are +without all reserve. I supposed such to be your wish, & mean them +but as materials with such others as you may collect, for your better +judgment to work on. I consider the whole matter as between +ourselves alone, having determined to take no active part in this or +anything else, which may lead to altercation, or disturb that quiet & +tranquillity of mind to which I consign the remaining portion of my +life. I have been thrown back by events on a stage where I had never +more thought to appear. It is but for a time however, & as a day +labourer, free to withdraw, or be withdrawn at will. While I remain +I shall pursue in silence the path of right, but in every situation, +public or private, I shall be gratified by all occasions of rendering +you service, & of convincing you there is no one to whom your +reputation & happiness are dearer. + + + HOT-AIR BALLOONS + + _To Dr. Philip Turpin_ + _Annapolis, Apr. 28, 1784_ + + DEAR SIR -- Supposing you may not have received intelligence to +be relied on as to the reality & extent of the late discovery of +traversing the air in ballons, & having lately perused a book in +which everything is brought together on that subject as low down as +Decemb. last, I will give you a detail of it. I will state the +several experiments, with the most interesting circumstances +attending them, by way of table, which will give you a clearer view & +in less compass. + + They suppose the minimum of these ballons to be of 6 inches +diameter: these are constructed of gold-beaters' skin & filled with +inflammeable air. this air produced from iron-filings, the vitriolic +acid & distilled water is, in weight, to Atmospheric air as 7. to 43. +on an average of the trials: & when produced from the filings of +Zinc, the Marine acid & distilled water, is to the Atmospheric air as +5. to 53. or 1. to 10 1/2. but Montgolfier's air is half the weight +of Atmospheric. this is produced by burning straw & wool. the straw +must be dry & open, & the wool shred very fine, so that they may make +a clear flame, with as little smoke as possible. 50 lb. of straw & 5 +lb. of wool filled the ballons of Oct. 19. & Nov. 21. in five +minutes. these ballons contained 60,000 cubic feet. no analysis of +this air is given us. Mons'r de Saintford the author of the book, +gives us a very great & useless display of Mathematical learning, +which certainly has as yet had very little to do with this discovery: +& when he comes to the chemical investigations, which are +interesting, he sais little. the ballons sometimes were torn by the +pressure of the internal air being insufficiently counteracted in the +higher regions of the Atmosphere. these rents were of 6. or 7. f. +length, yet the machine descended with a gentle equable motion & not +with an accelerated one. by the trials at Versailles & Champ de Mars +it appears that they will go with a moderate wind 150. leagues in 24 +hours. there are yet two principal desiderata. 1. the cheapest & +easiest process of making the lightest inflammable air. 2. an +envelopment which will be light, strong, impervious to the air & +proof against rain. supplies of gas are desireable + + too, without being oblirry fire with the machine: for in those +in which men ascended there was a store of straw & wool laid in the +gallery which surrounded the bottom of the ballon & in which the men +stood, & a chaffing dish of 3. feet cube in which they burnt the +materials to supply air. it is conjectured that these machines may be +guided by oars & raised & depressed by having vessels wherein, by the +aid of pumps, they can produce a vacuum or condensation of +atmospheric air at will. they are, from some new circumstances, +strengthened in the opinion that there are generally opposite or +different currents in the atmosphere: & that if the current next the +earth is not in the direction which suits you, by ascending higher +you may find one that does. between these there is probably a region +of eddy where you may be stationary if philosophical experiments be +your object. the uses of this discovery are suggested to be 1. +transportation of commodities under some circumstances. 2. +traversing deserts, countries possessed by an enemy, or ravaged by +infectious disorders, pathless & inaccessible mountains. 3. +conveying intelligence into a beseiged place, or perhaps enterprising +on it, reconnoitring an army &c. 4. throwing new lights on the +thermometer, barometer, hygrometer, rain, snow, hail, wind & other +phenomena of which the Atmosphere is the theatre. 5. the discovery +of the pole which is but one day's journey in a baloon. from where +the ice has hitherto stopped adventurers. 6. raising weights; +lightening ships over bars. 7. housebreaking, smuggling &c. some of +these objects are ludicrous, others serious, important & probable. I +will give you the figures of the baloons on the last page. + + Congress has determined to adjourn on the 3d of June to meet in +November at Trenton. a vessel arrived here yesterday which left +London the 25th of March. she brings papers to the 20th of that +month. mr. Pitt was still in place, supported by the city of London, +the nation in general, & the House of Lords. still however the +majority in the H. of commons was against him, tho reduced to 12. it +was thought the parliament would be dissolved. + + + Be so good as to present my dutiful respects to my uncle & aunt +& to be assured of the esteem with which I am Dr. Sir + your friend & serv't + + + "NIL DESPERANDUM" + + _To Richard Price_ + _Paris, Feb. 1, 1785_ + + SIR, -- The copy of your Observations on the American +Revolution which you were so kind as to direct to me came duly to +hand, and I should sooner have acknowledged the receipt of it but +that I awaited a private conveiance for my letter, having experienced +much delay and uncertainty in the posts between this place and +London. I have read it with very great pleasure, as have done many +others to whom I have communicated it. The spirit which it breathes +is as affectionate as the observations themselves are wise and just. +I have no doubt it will be reprinted in America and produce much good +there. The want of power in the federal head was early perceived, +and foreseen to be the flaw in our constitution which might endanger +its destruction. I have the pleasure to inform you that when I left +America in July the people were becoming universally sensible of +this, and a spirit to enlarge the powers of Congress was becoming +general. Letters and other information recently received shew that +this has continued to increase, and that they are likely to remedy +this evil effectually. The happiness of governments like ours, +wherein the people are truly the mainspring, is that they are never +to be despaired of. When an evil becomes so glaring as to strike +them generally, they arrouse themselves, and it is redressed. He +only is then the popular man and can get into office who shews the +best dispositions to reform the evil. This truth was obvious on +several occasions during the late war, and this character in our +governments saved us. Calamity was our best physician. Since the +peace it was observed that some nations of Europe, counting on the +weakness of Congress and the little probability of a union in measure +among the States, were proposing to grasp at unequal advantages in +our commerce. The people are become sensible of this, and you may be +assured that this evil will be immediately redressed, and redressed +radically. I doubt still whether in this moment they will enlarge +those powers in Congress which are necessary to keep the peace among +the States. I think it possible that this may be suffered to lie +till some two States commit hostilities on each other, but in that +moment the hand of the union will be lifted up and interposed, and +the people will themselves demand a general concession to Congress of +means to prevent similar mischeifs. Our motto is truly "nil +desperandum." The apprehensions you express of danger from the want +of powers in Congress, led me to note to you this character in our +governments, which, since the retreat behind the Delaware, and the +capture of Charlestown, has kept my mind in perfect quiet as to the +ultimate fate of our union; and I am sure, from the spirit which +breathes thro your book, that whatever promises permanence to that +will be a comfort to your mind. I have the honour to be, with very +sincere esteem and respect, Sir, + Your most obedient and most humble serv't. + + + ON AMERICAN DEGENERACY + + _To Chastellux_ + _Paris, June 7, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have been honored with the receipt of your +letter of the 2nd instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincerely, +for the partiality with which you receive the copy of the Notes on my +country. As I can answer for the facts therein reported on my own +observation, and have admitted none on the report of others, which +were not supported by evidence sufficient to command my own assent, I +am not afraid that you should make any extracts you please for the +Journal de Physique, which come within their plan of publication. +The strictures on slavery and on the constitution of Virginia, are +not of that kind, and they are the parts which I do not wish to have +made public, at least, till I know whether their publication would do +most harm or good. It is possible, that in my own country, these +strictures might produce an irritation, which would indispose the +people towards the two great objects I have in view; that is, the +emancipation of their slaves, and the settlement of their +constitution on a firmer and more permanent basis. If I learn from +thence, that they will not produce that effect, I have printed and +reserved just copies enough to be able to give one to every young man +at the College. It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and +not to the one now in power, for these great reformations. The other +copy, delivered at your hotel, was for Monsieur de Buffon. I meant +to ask the favor of you to have it sent to him, as I was ignorant how +to do it. I have one also for Monsieur Daubenton, but being utterly +unknown to him, I cannot take the liberty of presenting it, till I +can do it through some common acquaintance. + + I will beg leave to say here a few words on the general +question of the degeneracy of animals in America. 1. As to the +degeneracy of the man of Europe transplanted to America, it is no +part of Monsieur de Buffon's system. He goes, indeed, within one +step of it, but he stops there. The Abbe Raynal alone has taken that +step. Your knowledge of America enables you to judge this question, +to say, whether the lower class of people in America, are less +informed and less susceptible of information, than the lower class in +Europe: and whether those in America, who have received such an +education as that country can give, are less improved by it than +Europeans of the same degree of education. 2. As to the aboriginal +man of America, I know of no respectable evidence on which the +opinion of his inferiority of genius has been founded, but that of +Don Ulloa. As to Robertson, he never was in America, he relates +nothing on his own knowledge, he is a compiler only of the relations +of others, and a mere translator of the opinions of Monsieur de +Buffon. I should as soon, therefore, add the translators of +Robertson to the witnesses of this fact, as himself. Paw, the +beginner of this charge, was a compiler from the works of others; and +of the most unlucky description; for he seems to have read the +writings of travellers, only to collect and republish their lies. It +is really remarkable, that in three volumes 12mo, of small print, it +is scarcely possible to find one truth, and yet, that the author +should be able to produce authority for every fact he states, as he +says he can. Don Ulloa's testimony is of the most respectable. He +wrote of what he saw, but he saw the Indian of South America only, +and that, after he had passed through ten generations of slavery. It +is very unfair, from this sample, to judge of the natural genius of +this race of men; and after supposing that Don Ulloa had not +sufficiently calculated the allowance which should be made for this +circumstance, we do him no injury in considering the picture he draws +of the present Indians of South America, as no picture of what their +ancestors were, three hundred years ago. It is in North America we +are to seek their original character. And I am safe in affirming, +that the proofs of genius given by the Indians of North America, +place them on a level with whites in the same uncultivated state. +The North of Europe furnishes subjects enough for comparison with +them, and for a proof of their equality. I have seen some thousands +myself, and conversed much with them, and have found in them a +masculine, sound understanding. I have had much information from men +who had lived among them, and whose veracity and good sense were so +far known to me, as to establish a reliance on their information. +They have all agreed in bearing witness in favor of the genius of +this people. As to their bodily strength, their manners rendering it +disgraceful to labor, those muscles employed in labor will be weaker +with them, than with the European laborer; but those which are +exerted in the chase, and those faculties which are employed in the +tracing an enemy or a wild beast, in contriving ambuscades for him, +and in carrying them through their execution, are much stronger than +with us, because they are more exercised. I believe the Indian, +then, to be, in body and mind, equal to the white man. I have +supposed the black man, in his present state, might not be so; but it +would be hazardous to affirm, that, equally cultivated for a few +generations, he would not become so. 3. As to the inferiority of the +other animals of America, without more facts, I can add nothing to +what I have said in my Notes. + + As to the theory of Monsieur de Buffon, that heat is friendly, +and moisture adverse to the production of large animals, I am lately +furnished with a fact by Dr. Franklin, which proves the air of London +and of Paris to be more humid than that of Philadelphia, and so +creates a suspicion that the opinion of the superior humidity of +America may, perhaps, have been too hastily adopted. And supposing +that fact admitted, I think the physical reasonings urged to show, +that in a moist country animals must be small, and that in a hot one +they must be large, are not built on the basis of experiment. These +questions, however, cannot be decided, ultimately, at this day. More +facts must be collected, and more time flow off, before the world +will be ripe for decision. In the mean time, doubt is wisdom. + + I have been fully sensible of the anxieties of your situation, +and that your attentions were wholly consecrated, where alone they +were wholly due, to the succour of friendship and worth. However +much I prize your society, I wait with patience the moment when I can +have it without taking what is due to another. In the mean time, I +am solaced with the hope of possessing your friendship, and that it +is not ungrateful to you to receive assurances of that with which I +have the honor to be, Dear Sir, + + your most obedient, + and most humble servant, + + + SOME THOUGHTS ON TREATIES + + _To James Monroe_ + _Paris, June 17, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received three days ago your favor of Apr. 12. +You therein speak of a former letter to me, but it has not come to +hand, nor any other of later date than the 14th of December. My last +letter to you was of the 11th of May by Mr. Adams who went in the +packet of that month. These conveiances are now becoming deranged. +We have had expectations of their coming to Havre which would +infinitely facilitate the communication between Paris & Congress: but +their deliberations on the subject seem to be taking another turn. +They complain of the expence, and that their commerce with us is too +small to justify it. They therefore talk of sending a packet every +six weeks only. The present one therefore, which should have sailed +about this time, will not sail until the 1st of July. However the +whole matter is as yet undecided. I have hoped that when Mr. St. +John arrives from N. York he will get them replaced on their monthly +system. By the bye what is the meaning of a very angry resolution of +Congress on this subject? I have it not by me and therefore cannot +cite it by date, but you will remember it, and will oblige me by +explaining it's foundation. This will be handed you by Mr. Otto who +comes to America as Charge des Affaires in the room of Mr. Marbois +promoted to the Intendancy of Hispaniola, which office is next to +that of Governor. He becomes the head of the civil as the Governor +is of the military department. I am much pleased with Otto's +appointment. He is good humored, affectionate to America, will see +things in a friendly light when they admit of it, in a rational one +always, and will not pique himself on writing every trifling +circumstance of irritation to his court. I wish you to be acquainted +with him, as a friendly intercourse between individuals who do +business together produces a mutual spirit of accommodation useful to +both parties. It is very much our interest to keep up the affection +of this country for us, which is considerable. A court has no +affections, but those of the people whom they govern influence their +decisions even in the most arbitrary governments. -- The negociations +between the Emperor & Dutch are spun out to an amazing length. At +present there is no apprehension but that they will terminate in +peace. This court seems to press it with ardour and the Dutch are +averse considering the terms cruel & unjust as they evidently are. +The present delays therefore are imputed to their coldness & to their +forms. In the mean time the Turk is delaying the demarcation of +limits between him and the emperor, is making the most vigorous +preparations for war, and has composed his ministry of war-like +characters deemed personally hostile to the emperor. Thus time seems +to be spinning outboth by the Dutch & Turks, & time is wanting for +France. Every year's delay is a great thing to her. It is not +impossible therefore but that she may secretly encourage the delays +of the Dutch & hasten the preparations of the Porte while she is +recovering vigour herself and, in order to be able to present such a +combination to the emperor as may dictate to him to be quiet. But +the designs of these courts are inscrutable. It is our interest to +pray that this country may have no continental war till our peace +with England is perfectly settled. The merchants of this country +continue as loud & furious as ever against the Arret of August 1784, +permitting our commerce with their islands to a certain degree. Many +of them have actually abandoned their trade. The Ministry are +disposed to be firm, but there is a point at which they will give +way, that is if the clamours should become such as to endanger their +places. It is evident that nothing can be done by us, at this time, +if we may hope it hereafter. I like your removal to N. York, and +hope Congress will continue there and never execute the idea of +building their federal town. Before it could be finished a change of +Members in Congress or the admission of new states would remove them +somewhere else. It is evident that when a sufficient number of the +Western states come in they will remove it to George town. In the +mean time it is our interest that it should remain where it is, and +give no new pretensions to any other place. I am also much pleased +with the proposition to the states to invest Congress with the +regulation of their trade, reserving it's revenue to the states. I +think it a happy idea, removing the only objection which could have +been justly made to the proposition. The time too is the present, +before the admission of the Western states. I am very differently +affected towards the new plan of opening our land office by dividing +the lands among the states and selling them at vendue. It separates +still more the interests of the states which ought to be made joint +in every possible instance in order to cultivate the idea of our +being one nation, and to multiply the instances in which the people +shall look up to Congress as their head. And when the states get +their portions they will either fool them away, or make a job of it +to serve individuals. Proofs of both these practices have been +furnished, and by either of them that invaluable fund is lost which +ought to pay our public debt. To sell them at vendue, is to give +them to the bidders of the day be they many or few. It is ripping up +the hen which lays golden eggs. If sold in lots at a fixed price as +first proposed, the best lots will be sold first. As these become +occupied it gives a value to the interjacent ones, and raises them, +tho' of inferior quality, to the price of the first. I send you by +Mr. Otto a copy of my book. Be so good as to apologize to Mr. +Thomson for my not sending him one by this conveiance. I could not +burthen Mr. Otto with more on so long a road as that from here to +l'Orient. I will send him one by a Mr. Williams who will go ere +long. I have taken measures to prevent it's publication. My reason +is that I fear the terms in which I speak of slavery and of our +constitution may produce an irritation which will revolt the minds of +our countrymen against reformation in these two articles, and thus do +more harm than good. I have asked of Mr. Madison to sound this +matter as far as he can, and if he thinks it will not produce that +effect, I have then copies enough printed to give one to each of the +young men at the college, and to my friends in the country. + + _I am sorry_ to see a possibility of _A. L.'s being put into_ +the _Treasury. He_ has no _talents_ for the _office_, and what _he +has_ will be _employed_ in _rummaging old accounts_ to _involve_ you +in _eternal war with R. M._ and _he_ will in a short time _introduce_ +such _dissensions_ into the _Commission_ as to _break it up_. If _he +goes_ on the _other appointment to Kaskaskia he will produce a +revolt_ of that _settlement from_ the _U. S. I thank you_ for _your +attention_ to _my outfit. For_ the _articles_ of _household +furniture_, _clothes_, and a _carriage_, _I have already paid 28,000 +livres_ and _have_ still _more_ to _pay._ For the _greatest part_ of +_this I_ have _been obliged_ to _anticipate my salary_ from which +_however I_ shall never be able to _repay_ it. _I find_ that by a +_rigid economy_, _bordering_ however on _meanness I_ can _save_ +perhaps _$500_ a _month_, at _least_ in _the summer._ The _residue_ +goes for _expences_ so much of _course_ & of _necessity that I_ +cannot _avoid_ them _without abandoning all respect_ to _my public +character. Yet I_ will _pray you to touch_ this _string_, which _I +know to be a tender one_ with _Congress_ with the utmost _delicacy. +I_ had _rather be ruined_ in _my fortune_, than in their _esteem._ If +they _allow me half_ a _year's salary_ as an _outfit I_ can _get +through my debts in time. If they raise_ the _salary_ to what _it +was, or even pay our house rent_ & _taxes, I_ can _live with more +decency. I trust_ that _Mr. A.'s house_ at _the Hague_ & _Dr. F.'s +at Passy_ the _rent_ of which had been always _allowed him_ will +_give just expectations_ of the _same allowance_ to _me. Mr. Jay_ +however did not _charge it. But he lived oeconomically_ and _laid up +money._ I will take the liberty of hazarding to you some thoughts on +the policy of entering into treaties with the European nations, and +the nature of them. I am not wedded to these ideas, and therefore +shall relinquish them chearfully when Congress shall adopt others, +and zealously endeavor to carry theirs into effect. First as to the +policy of making treaties. Congress, by the Confederation have no +original and inherent power over the commerce of the states. But by +the 9'th. article they are authorized to enter into treaties of +commerce. The moment these treaties are concluded the jurisdiction +of Congress over the commerce of the states springs into existence, +and that of the particular states is superseded so far as the +articles of the treaty may have taken up the subject. There are two +restrictions only on the exercise of the power of treaty by Congress. +1'st. that they shall not by such treaty restrain the legislatures of +the states from imposing such duties on foreigners as their own +people are subject to. 2'dly. nor from prohibiting the exportation or +importation of any particular species of goods. Leaving these two +points free, Congress may by treaty establish any system of commerce +they please. But, as I before observed, it is by treaty alone they +can do it. Though they may exercise their other powers by resolution +or ordinance, those over commerce can only be exercised by forming a +treaty, and this probably by an accidental wording of our +Confederation. If therefore it is better for the states that +Congress should regulate their commerce, it is proper that they +should form treaties with all nations with whom we may possibly +trade. You see that my primary object in the formation of treaties +is to take the commerce of the states out of the hands of the states, +and to place it under the superintendence of Congress, so far as the +imperfect provisions of our constitution will admit, and until the +states shall by new compact make them more perfect. I would say then +to every nation on earth, _by treaty_, your people shall trade freely +with us, & ours with you, paying no more than the most favoured +nation, in order to put an end to the right of individual states +acting by fits and starts to interrupt our commerce or to embroil us +with any nation. As to the terms of these treaties, the question +becomes more difficult. I will mention three different plans. 1. +that no duties shall be laid by either party on the productions of +the other. 2. that each may be permitted to equalize their duties to +those laid by the other. 3. that each shall pay in the ports of the +other such duties only as the most favoured nations pay. 1. Were the +nations of Europe as free and unembarrassed of established system as +we are, I do verily believe they would concur with us in the first +plan. But it is impossible. These establishments are fixed upon +them, they are interwoven with the body of their laws & the +organization of their government & they make a great part of their +revenue; they cannot then get rid of them. 2. The plan of equal +imposts presents difficulties insurmountable. For how are the equal +imposts to be effected? Is it by laying in the ports of A. an equal +percent on the goods of B. with that which B. has laid in his ports +on the goods of A.? But how are we to find what is that percent? +For this is not the usual form of imposts. They generally pay by the +ton, by the measure, by the weight, & not by the value. Besides if +A. sends a million's worth of goods to B. & takes back but the half +of that, and each pays the same percent, it is evident that A. pays +the double of what he recovers in the same way with B. This would be +our case with Spain. Shall we endeavour to effect equality then by +saying A. may levy so much on the sum of B.'s importations into his +ports, as B. does on the sum of A's importations into the ports of +B.? But how find out that sum? Will either party lay open their +custom house books candidly to evince this sum? Does either keep +their books so exactly as to be able to do it? This proposition was +started in Congress when our institutions were formed, as you may +remember, and the impossibility of executing it occasioned it to be +disapproved. Besides who should have a right of deciding when the +imposts were equal. A. would say to B. my imposts do not raise so +much as yours; I raise them therefore. B. would then say you have +made them greater than mine, I will raise mine, and thus a kind of +auction would be carried on between them, and a mutual imitation, +which would end in anything sooner than equality, and right. 3. I +confess then to you that I see no alternative left but that which +Congress adopted, of each party placing the other on the footing of +the most favoured nation. If the nations of Europe from their actual +establishments are not at liberty to say to America that she shall +trade in their ports duty free they may say she may trade there +paying no higher duties than the most favoured nation. And this is +valuable in many of these countries where a very great difference is +made between different nations. There is no difficulty in the +execution of this contract, because there is not a merchant who does +not know, or may not know, the duty paid by every nation on every +article. This stipulation leaves each party at liberty to regulate +their own commerce by general rules; while it secures the other from +partial and oppressive discriminations. The difficulty which arises +in our case is, with the nations having American territory. Access +to the West Indies is indispensably necessary to us. Yet how to gain +it, when it is the established system of these nations to exclude all +foreigners from their colonies. The only chance seems to be this, +our commerce to the mother countries is valuable to them. We must +endeavor then to make this the price of an admission into their West +Indies, and to those who refuse the admission we must refuse our +commerce or load theirs by odious discriminations in our ports. We +have this circumstance in our favour too, that what one grants us in +their islands, the others will not find it worth their while to +refuse. The misfortune is that with this country we gave this price +for their aid in the war, and we have now nothing more to offer. She +being withdrawn from the competition leaves Gr. Britain much more at +liberty to hold out against us. This is the difficult part of the +business of treaty, and I own it does not hold out the most +flattering prospect. -- I wish you would consider this subject and +write me your thoughts on it. Mr. Gherry wrote me on the same +subject. Will you give me leave to impose on you the trouble of +communicating this to him? It is long, and will save me much labour +in copying. I hope he will be so indulgent as to consider it as an +answer to that part of his letter, and will give me his further +thoughts on it. + + Shall I send you so much of the Encyclopedia as is already +published or reserve it here till you come? It is about 40 vols. +which probably is about half the work. Give yourself no uneasiness +about the money. Perhaps I may find it convenient to ask you to pay +trifles occasionally for me in America. I sincerely wish you may +find it convenient to come here. The pleasure of the trip will be +less than you expect but the utility greater. It will make you adore +your own country, it's soil, it's climate, it's equality, liberty, +laws, people & manners. My God! how little do my country men know +what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other +people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. While +we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in +America, I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an +instance of an American removing to settle in Europe & continuing +there. Come then & see the proofs of this, and on your return add +your testimony to that of every thinking American, in order to +satisfy our countrymen how much it is their interest to preserve +uninfected by contagion those peculiarities in their government & +manners to which they are indebted for these blessings. Adieu, my +dear friend. Present me affectionately to your collegues. If any of +them think me worth writing to, they may be assured that in the +epistolary account I will keep the debit side against them. Once +more adieu. + + June 19. Since writing the above we receive the following +account. Mons. Pilatre de Rosiere, who has been waiting some months +at Boulogne for a fair wind to cross the channel, at length took his +ascent with a companion. The wind changed after a while and brought +him back on the French coast. Being at a height of about 6000 f. +some accident happened to his baloon of inflammable air. It burst, +they fell from that height & were crushed to atoms. There was a +Montgolfier combined with the baloon of inflammable air. It is +suspected the heat of the Montgolfier rarified too much the +inflammable air of the other & occasioned it to burst. The +Montgolfier came down in good order. + + + ROYAL SCANDAL AND THIRD-RANK BIRDS + + _To Abigail Adams_ + _Paris, June 21, 1785_ + + DEAR MADAM -- I have received duly the honor of your letter, +and am now to return you thanks for your condescension in having +taken the first step for settling a correspondence which I so much +desired; for I now consider it as _settled_ and proceed accordingly. +I have always found it best to remove obstacles first. I will do so +therefore in the present case by telling you that I consider your +boasts of the splendour of your city and of it's superb hackney +coaches as a flout, and declaring that I would not give the polite, +self-denying, feeling, hospitable, goodhumoured people of this +country and their amability in every point of view, (tho' it must be +confessed our streets are somewhat dirty, and our fiacres rather +indifferent) for ten such races of rich, proud, hectoring, swearing, +squibbing, carnivorous animals as those among whom you are; and that +I do love this _people_ with all my heart, and think that with a +better religion and a better form of government and their present +governors their condition and country would be most enviable. I pray +you to observe that I have used the term _people_ and that this is a +noun of the masculine as well as feminine gender. I must add too +that we are about reforming our fiacres, and that I expect soon an +Ordonance that all their drivers shall wear breeches unless any +difficulty should arise whether this is a subject for the police or +for the general legislation of the country, to take care of. We have +lately had an incident of some consequence, as it shews a spirit of +treason, and audaciousness which was hardly thought to exist in this +country. Some eight or ten years ago a Chevalier --- was sent on a +message of state to the princess of --- of --- of (before I proceed +an inch further I must confess my profound stupidity; for tho' I have +heard this story told fifty times in all it's circumstances, I +declare I am unable to recollect the name of the ambassador, the name +of the princess, and the nation he was sent to; I must therefore +proceed to tell you the naked story, shorn of all those precious +circumstances) some chevalier or other was sent on some business or +other to some princess or other. Not succeeding in his negociation, +he wrote on his return the following song. + + Ennivre du brillant poste + Que j'occupe recemment, + Dans une chaise de poste + Je me campe fierement: + Et je vais en ambassade + Au nom de mon souverain + Dire que je suis malade, + Et que lui se porte bien. + + Avec une joue enflee + Je debarque tout honteux: + La princesse boursoufflee, + Au lieu d'une, en avoit deux; + Et son altesse sauvage + Sans doute a trouve mauvais + Que j'eusse sur mon visage + La moitie de ses attraits. + + Princesse, le roi mon maitre + M'a pris pour Ambassadeur; + Je viens vous faire connoitre + Quelle est pour vous son ardeur. + Quand vous seriez sous le chaume, + Il donneroit, m'a-t-il dit, + La moitie de son royaume + Pour celle de votre lit. + + + La princesse a son pupitre + Compose un remerciment: + Elle me donne une epitre + Que j'emporte lestement, + Et je m'en vais dans la rue + Fort satisfait d'ajouter + A l'honneur de l'avoir vue + Le plaisir de la quitter. + + This song run through all companies and was known to every +body. A book was afterwards printed, with a regular license, called +`Les quatres saisons litteraires' which being a collection of little +things, contained this also and all the world bought it or might buy +it if they would, the government taking no notice of it. It being +the office of the Journal de Paris to give an account and criticism +of new publications, this book came in turn to be criticised by the +redacteur, and he happened to select and print in his journal this +song as a specimen of what the collection contained. He was seised +in his bed that night and has been never since heard of. Our +excellent journal de Paris then is suppressed and this bold traitor +has been in jail now three weeks, and for ought any body knows will +end his days there. Thus you see, madam, the value of energy in +government; our feeble republic would in such a case have probably +been wrapt in the flames of war and desolation for want of a power +lodged in a single hand to punish summarily those who write songs. +The fate of poor Pilatre de Rosiere will have reached you before this +does, and with more certainty than we yet know it. This will damp +for a while the ardor of the Phaetons of our race who are endeavoring +to learn us the way to heaven on wings of our own. I took a trip +yesterday to Sannois and commenced an acquaintance with the old +Countess d'Hocquetout. I received much pleasure from it and hope it +has opened a door of admission for me to the circle of literati with +which she is environed. I heard there the Nightingale in all it's +perfection: and I do not hesitate to pronounce that in America it +would be deemed a bird of the third rank only, our mockingbird, and +fox-coloured thrush being unquestionably superior to it. The squibs +against Mr. Adams are such as I expected from the polished, mild +tempered, truth speaking people he is sent to. It would be ill +policy to attempt to answer or refute them. But counter-squibs I +think would be good policy. Be pleased to tell him that as I had +before ordered his Madeira and Frontignac to be forwarded, and had +asked his orders to Mr. Garvey as to the residue, which I doubt not +he has given, I was afraid to send another order about the Bourdeaux +lest it should produce confusion. In stating my accounts with the +United states, I am at a loss whether to charge house rent or not. +It has always been allowed to Dr. Franklin. Does Mr. Adams mean to +charge this for Auteuil and London? Because if he does, I certainly +will, being convinced by experience that my expences here will +otherwise exceed my allowance. I ask this information of you, Madam, +because I think you know better than Mr. Adams what may be necessary +and right for him to do in occasions of this class. I will beg the +favor of you to present my respects to Miss Adams. I have no secrets +to communicate to her in cypher at this moment, what I write to Mr. +Adams being mere commonplace stuff, not meriting a communication to +the Secretary. I have the honour to be with the most perfect esteem +Dr. Madam Your most obedient and most humble servt., + + + A STATUE OF WASHINGTON + + _To the Virginia Delegates in Congress_ + _Paris, July 12, 1785_ + + GENTLEMEN, -- In consequence of the orders of the Legislative & +Executive bodies of Virginia, I have engaged Monsr. Houdon to make +the Statue of Genl. Washington. For this purpose it is necessary for +him to see the General. He therefore goes with Doctr. Franklin, & +will have the honor of delivering you this himself. As his journey +is at the expence of the State according to our contract, I will pray +you to favor him with your patronage & counsels, and to protect him +as much as possible from those impositions to which strangers are but +too much exposed. I have advised him to proceed in the stages to the +General's. I have also agreed, if he can see General Greene & Gates, +whose busts he has a desire to make, that he may make a moderate +deviation for this purpose, after he is done with General Washington. + + But the most important object with him is to be employed to +make General Washington's equestrian statue for Congress. Nothing +but the expectation of this could have engaged him to have undertaken +this voyage. The pedestrian statue for Virginia will not make it +worth the business he loses by absenting himself. I was therefore +obliged to assure him of my recommendations for this greater work. +Having acted in this for the state, you will I hope think yourselves +in some measure bound to patronize & urge his being employed by +Congress. I would not have done this myself, nor asked you to do it, +did I not see that it would be better for Congress to put this +business into his hands, than those of any other person living, for +these reasons: 1. he is without rivalship the first statuary of this +age; as a proof of which he receives orders from every other country +for things intended to be capital: 2. he will have seen General +Washington, have taken his measures in every part, and of course +whatever he does of him will have the merit of being original, from +which other workmen can only furnish copies. 3. He is in possession +of the house, the furnaces, & all the apparatus provided for making +the statue of Louis XV. If any other workman is employed, this will +all be to be provided anew and of course to be added to the price of +the statue, for no man can ever expect to make two equestrian +statues. The addition which this would be to the price will much +exceed the expectation of any person who has not seen that apparatus. +In truth it is immense. As to the price of the work it will be much +greater than Congress is aware of, probably. I have enquired +somewhat into this circumstance, and find the prices of those made +for two centuries past have been from 120.000 guineas down to 16.000 +guineas, according to the size. And as far as I have seen, the +smaller they are, the more agreeable. The smallest yet made is +infinitely above the size of the life, and they all appear outree and +monstrous. That of Louis XV. is probably the best in the world, and +it is the smallest here. Yet it is impossible to find a point of +view from which it does not appear a monster, unless you go so far as +to lose sight of the features and finer lineaments of the face and +body. A statue is not made, like a mountain, to be seen at a great +distance. To perceive those minuter circumstances which constitute +its beauty you must be near it, and, in that case, it should be so +little above the size of the life, as to appear actually of that size +from your point of view. I should not therefore fear to propose that +the one intended by Congress should be considerably smaller than any +of those to be seen here; as I think it will be more beautiful, and +also cheaper. I have troubled you with these observations as they +have been suggested to me from an actual sight of works in this kind, +& supposed they might assist you in making up your minds on this +subject. In making a contract with Monsr. Houdon it would not be +proper to advance money, but as his disbursements and labour advance. +As it is a work of many years, this will render the expence +insensible. The pedestrian statue of marble is to take three years. +The equestrian of course much more. Therefore the sooner it is begun +the better. + + + "AN HONEST HEART. . . A KNOWING HEAD" + + _To Peter Carr_ + _Paris, August 19, 1785_ + + DEAR PETER, -- I received, by Mr. Mazzei, your letter of April +the 20th. I am much mortified to hear that you have lost so much +time; and that when you arrived in Williamsburg, you were not at all +advanced from what you were when you left Monticello. Time now +begins to be precious to you. Every day you lose, will retard a day +your entrance on that public stage whereon you may begin to be useful +to yourself. However, the way to repair the loss is to improve the +future time. I trust, that with your dispositions, even the +acquisition of science is a pleasing employment. I can assure you, +that the possession of it is, what (next to an honest heart) will +above all things render you dear to your friends, and give you fame +and promotion in your own country. When your mind shall be well +improved with science, nothing will be necessary to place you in the +highest points of view, but to pursue the interests of your country, +the interests of your friends, and your own interests also, with the +purest integrity, the most chaste honor. The defect of these virtues +can never be made up by all the other acquirements of body and mind. +Make these then your first object. Give up money, give up fame, give +up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do +an immoral act. And never suppose, that in any possible situation, +or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable +thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to +do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask +yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act +accordingly. Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise +them whenever an opportunity arises; being assured that they will +gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that +exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest +virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts +in every moment of life, and in the moment of death. If ever you +find yourself environed with difficulties and perplexing +circumstances, out of which you are at a loss how to extricate +yourself, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate +you the best out of the worst situations. Though you cannot see, +when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, +justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of +the labyrinth, in the easiest manner possible. The knot which you +thought a Gordian one, will untie itself before you. Nothing is so +mistaken as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself +from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by +trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the +difficulties ten fold; and those who pursue these methods, get +themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but their +infamy becomes more exposed. It is of great importance to set a +resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no +vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself +to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third +time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without +attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This +falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time +depraves all its good dispositions. + + An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the +second. It is time for you now to begin to be choice in your +reading; to begin to pursue a regular course in it; and not to suffer +yourself to be turned to the right or left by reading any thing out +of that course. I have long ago digested a plan for you, suited to +the circumstances in which you will be placed. This I will detail to +you, from time to time, as you advance. For the present, I advise +you to begin a course of antient history, reading every thing in the +original and not in translations. First read Goldsmith's history of +Greece. This will give you a digested view of that field. Then take +up antient history in the detail, reading the following books, in the +following order: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophontis Hellenica, +Xenophontis Anabasis, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, +Justin. This shall form the first stage of your historical reading, +and is all I need mention to you now. The next, will be of Roman +history (*). From that, we will come down to modern history. In +Greek and Latin poetry, you have read or will read at school, Virgil, +Terence, Horace, Anacreon, Theocritus, Homer, Euripides, Sophocles. +Read also Milton's Paradise Lost, Shakspeare, Ossian, Pope's and +Swift's works, in order to form your style in your own language. In +morality, read Epictetus, Xenophontis Memorabilia, Plato's Socratic +dialogues, Cicero's philosophies, Antoninus, and Seneca. In order to +assure a certain progress in this reading, consider what hours you +have free from the school and the exercises of the school. Give +about two of them, every day, to exercise; for health must not be +sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong. As to +the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a +moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and +independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of +that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on +the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your +walks. Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking +is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even +to think while you walk; but divert your attention by the objects +surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate +yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value themselves on having +subdued the horse to the uses of man; but I doubt whether we have not +lost more than we have gained, by the use of this animal. No one has +occasioned so much, the degeneracy of the human body. An Indian goes +on foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as an enfeebled +white does on his horse; and he will tire the best horses. There is +no habit you will value so much as that of walking far without +fatigue. I would advise you to take your exercise in the afternoon: +not because it is the best time for exercise, for certainly it is +not; but because it is the best time to spare from your studies; and +habit will soon reconcile it to health, and render it nearly as +useful as if you gave to that the more precious hours of the day. A +little walk of half an hour, in the morning, when you first rise, is +advisable also. It shakes off sleep, and produces other good effects +in the animal economy. Rise at a fixed and an early hour, and go to +bed at a fixed and early hour also. Sitting up late at night is +injurious to the health, and not useful to the mind. Having ascribed +proper hours to exercise, divide what remain, (I mean of your vacant +hours) into three portions. Give the principal to History, the other +two, which should be shorter, to Philosophy and Poetry. Write to me +once every month or two, and let me know the progress you make. Tell +me in what manner you employ every hour in the day. The plan I have +proposed for you is adapted to your present situation only. When +that is changed, I shall propose a corresponding change of plan. I +have ordered the following books to be sent to you from London, to +the care of Mr. Madison. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon's +Hellenics, Anabasis and Memorabilia, Cicero's works, Baretti's +Spanish and English Dictionary, Martin's Philosophical Grammar, and +Martin's Philosophia Britannica. I will send you the following from +hence. Bezout's Mathematics, De la Lande's Astronomy, Muschenbrock's +Physics, Quintus Curtius, Justin, a Spanish Grammar, and some Spanish +books. You will observe that Martin, Bezout, De la Lande, and +Muschenbrock are not in the preceding plan. They are not to be +opened till you go to the University. You are now, I expect, +learning French. You must push this; because the books which will be +put into your hands when you advance into Mathematics, Natural +philosophy, Natural history, &c. will be mostly French, these +sciences being better treated by the French than the English writers. +Our future connection with Spain renders that the most necessary of +the modern languages, after the French. When you become a public +man, you may have occasion for it, and the circumstance of your +possessing that language, may give you a preference over other +candidates. I have nothing further to add for the present, but +husband well your time, cherish your instructors, strive to make +every body your friend; and be assured that nothing will be so +pleasing, as your success, to, Dear Peter, + + Your's affectionately, + + (*) Livy, Sullust, Caesar, Cicero's epistles, Suetonius, +Tacitus, Gibbon. + + + + COMMERCE AND SEA POWER + + _To John Jay_ + _Paris, Aug. 23, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I shall sometimes ask your permission to write you +letters, not official but private. The present is of this kind, and +is occasioned by the question proposed in yours of June 14. "whether +it would be useful to us to carry all our own productions, or none?" +Were we perfectly free to decide this question, I should reason as +follows. We have now lands enough to employ an infinite number of +people in their cultivation. Cultivators of the earth are the most +valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, +the most virtuous, & they are tied to their country & wedded to it's +liberty & interests by the most lasting bonds. As long therefore as +they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into +mariners, artisans or anything else. But our citizens will find +employment in this line till their numbers, & of course their +productions, become too great for the demand both internal & foreign. +This is not the case as yet, & probably will not be for a +considerable time. As soon as it is, the surplus of hands must be +turned to something else. I should then perhaps wish to turn them to +the sea in preference to manufactures, because comparing the +characters of the two classes I find the former the most valuable +citizens. I consider the class of artificers as the panders of vice +& the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally +overturned. However we are not free to decide this question on +principles of theory only. Our people are decided in the opinion +that it is necessary for us to take a share in the occupation of the +ocean, & their established habits induce them to require that the sea +be kept open to them, and that that line of policy be pursued which +will render the use of that element as great as possible to them. I +think it a duty in those entrusted with the administration of their +affairs to conform themselves to the decided choice of their +constituents: and that therefore we should in every instance preserve +an equality of right to them in the transportation of commodities, in +the right of fishing, & in the other uses of the sea. But what will +be the consequence? Frequent wars without a doubt. Their property +will be violated on the sea, & in foreign ports, their persons will +be insulted, imprisoned &c. for pretended debts, contracts, crimes, +contraband, &c., &c. These insults must be resented, even if we had +no feelings, yet to prevent their eternal repetition, or in other +words, our commerce on the ocean & in other countries must be paid +for by frequent war. The justest dispositions possible in ourselves +will not secure us against it. It would be necessary that all other +nations were just also. Justice indeed on our part will save us from +those wars which would have been produced by a contrary disposition. +But to prevent those produced by the wrongs of other nations? By +putting ourselves in a condition to punish them. Weakness provokes +insult & injury, while a condition to punish it often prevents it. +This reasoning leads to the necessity of some naval force, that being +the only weapon with which we can reach an enemy. I think it to our +interest to punish the first insult; because an insult unpunished is +the parent of many others. We are not at this moment in a condition +to do it, but we should put ourselves into it as soon as possible. +If a war with England should take place, it seems to me that the +first thing necessary would be a resolution to abandon the carrying +trade because we cannot protect it. Foreign nations must in that +case be invited to bring us what we want & to take our productions in +their own bottoms. This alone could prevent the loss of those +productions to us & the acquisition of them to our enemy. Our seamen +might be employed in depredations on their trade. But how dreadfully +we shall suffer on our coasts, if we have no force on the water, +former experience has taught us. Indeed I look forward with horror +to the very possible case of war with an European power, & think +there is no protection against them but from the possession of some +force on the sea. Our vicinity to their West India possessions & to +the fisheries is a bridle which a small naval force on our part would +hold in the mouths of the most powerful of these countries. I hope +our land office will rid us of our debts, & that our first attention +then will be to the beginning a naval force of some sort. This alone +can countenance our people as carriers on the water, & I suppose them +to be determined to continue such. + + I wrote you two public letters on the 14th inst., since which I +have received yours of July 13. I shall always be pleased to receive +from you in a private way such communications as you might not chuse +to put into a public letter. + + + BOOKS FOR A STATESMAN + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, September 1, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last to you by Monsieur de Doradour, was dated +May the 11th. Since that, I have received yours of January the 22nd, +with six copies of the revisal, and that of April the 27th, by Mr. +Mazzei. + + All is quiet here. The Emperor and Dutch have certainly +agreed, though they have not published their agreement. Most of his +schemes in Germany must be postponed, if they are not prevented, by +the confederacy of many of the Germanic body, at the head of which is +the King of Prussia, and to which the Elector of Hanover is supposed +to have acceded. The object of the league is to preserve the members +of the empire in their present state. I doubt whether the jealousy +entertained of this prince, and which is so fully evidenced by this +league, may not defeat the election of his nephew to be King of the +Romans, and thus produce an instance of breaking the lineal +succession. Nothing is as yet done between him and the Turks. If +any thing is produced in that quarter, it will not be for this year. +The court of Madrid has obtained the delivery of the crew of the brig +Betsey, taken by the Emperor of Morocco. The Emperor had treated +them kindly, new clothed them, and delivered them to the Spanish +minister, who sent them to Cadiz. This is the only American vessel +ever taken by the Barbary States. The Emperor continues to give +proofs of his desire to be in friendship with us, or, in other words, +of receiving us into the number of his tributaries. Nothing further +need be feared from him. I wish the Algerines may be as easily dealt +with. I fancy the peace expected between them and Spain, is not +likely to take place. I am well informed that the late proceedings +in America, have produced a wonderful sensation in England in our +favor. I mean the disposition which seems to be becoming general, to +invest Congress with the regulation of our commerce, and, in the mean +time, the measures taken to defeat the avidity of the British +government, grasping at our carrying business. I can add with truth, +that it was not till these symptoms appeared in America, that I have +been able to discover the smallest token of respect towards the +United States, in any part of Europe. There was an enthusiasm +towards us, all over Europe, at the moment of the peace. The torrent +of lies published unremittingly, in every day's London paper, first +made an impression, and produced a coolness. The republication of +these lies in most of the papers of Europe, (done probably by +authority of the governments, to discourage emigrations) carried them +home to the belief of every mind. They supposed every thing in +America was anarchy, tumult, and civil war. The reception of the +Marquis Fayette gave a check to these ideas. The late proceedings +seem to be producing a decisive vibration in our favor. I think it +possible that England may ply before them. It is a nation which +nothing but views of interest can govern. If they produce us good +there, they will here also. The defeat of the Irish propositions is +also in our favor. + + I have at length made up the purchase of books for you, as far +as it can be done at present. The objects which I have not yet been +able to get, I shall continue to seek for. Those purchased, are +packed this morning in two trunks, and you have the catalogue and +prices herein enclosed. The future charges of transportation shall +be carried into the next bill. The amount of the present is 1154 +livres 13 sous, which, reckoning the French crown of six livres at +six shillings and eight pence, Virginia money, is pound 64, 3s. +which sum you will be so good as to keep in your hands, to be used +occasionally in the education of my nephews, when the regular +resources disappoint you. To the same use I would pray you to apply +twenty-five guineas, which I have lent the two Mr. Fitzhughs of +Marmion, and which I have desired them to repay into your hands. You +will of course deduct the price of the revisals, and of any other +articles you may have been so kind as to pay for me. Greek and Roman +authors are dearer here, than, I believe, any where in the world. +Nobody here reads them; wherefore they are not reprinted. Don Ulloa, +in the original, is not to be found. The collection of tracts on the +economies of different nations, we cannot find; nor Amelot's travels +into China. I shall send these two trunks of books to Havre, there +to wait a conveyance to America; for as to the fixing the packets +there, it is as uncertain as ever. The other articles you mention, +shall be procured as far as they can be. Knowing that some of them +would be better got in London, I commissioned Mr. Short, who was +going there, to get them. He has not yet returned. They will be of +such a nature, as that I can get some gentleman who may be going to +America, to take them in his portmanteau. Le Maire being now able to +stand on his own legs, there will be no necessity for your advancing +him the money I desired, if it is not already done. I am anxious to +hear from you on the subject of my Notes on Virginia. I have been +obliged to give so many of them here, that I fear their getting +published. I have received an application from the Directors of the +public buildings, to procure them a plan for their capitol. I shall +send them one taken from the best morsel of antient architecture now +remaining. It has obtained the approbation of fifteen or sixteen +centuries, and is, therefore, preferable to any design which might be +newly contrived. It will give more room, be more convenient, and +cost less, than the plan they sent me. Pray encourage them to wait +for it, and to execute it. It will be superior in beauty to any +thing in America, and not inferior to any thing in the world. It is +very simple. Have you a copying press? If you have not, you should +get one. Mine (exclusive of paper which costs a guinea a ream) has +cost me about fourteen guineas. I would give ten times that sum, to +have had it from the date of the stamp act. I hope you will be so +good as to continue your communications, both of the great and small +kind, which are equally useful to me. Be assured of the sincerity +with which I am, Dear Sir, + your friend and servant, + + ENCLOSURE + + _livres sous den_ + Dictionnaire de Trevoux. 5 vol. fol. , 5f12 . . . 28 - 0 - 0 + La Conquista di Mexico. De Solis. fol. 7f10. + relieure 7f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 - 10 + Traite de morale et de bonheur. 12mo. 2 v. in 1. 2 - 8 + Wicquefort de l'Ambassadeur. 2. v. 4to. . . . . . 7 - 4 + Burlamaqui. Principes du droit Politique 4to. + 3f12 relieure 2f5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 - 17 + Conquista de la China por el Tartaro por Palafox. + 12mo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 - + Code de l'humanite de Felice. 13. v. 4to. . . . . 104 - 0 + 13. first livrasons of the Encyclopedie 47. vols. + 4to. (being 48f less than subscription) . . . . 348 - 0 + 14th. livraison of do. 4. v. 4to. . . . . . . . . 24 - 0 + Peyssonel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 0 + Bibliotheque physico-oeconomique. 4. v. 12mo. + 10f4. rel. 3f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 - 4 + Cultivateur Americain. 2. v. 8vo. 7f17. rel. 2f10. 10 - 7 + Mirabeau sur l'ordre des Cincinnati. 10f10. rel. 1f5 + (prohibited). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 - 15 + Coutumes Amglo-Normads de Houard. 4. v. + 4to. 40f rel. 10f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 - 0 + Memories sur l'Amerique 4 v. 4to. . . . . . . . . 24 - 0 + Tott sur les Turcs. 4. v. in 2. 8vo. 10f. rel. 2f10 12 - 10 + Neckar sur l'Administration des Finances de + France. 3. v. 12mo. 7f10 rel. 2f5 . . . . . . . 9 - 15 + le bon-sens. 12mo. 6f rel. 15s (prohibited). . . 6 - 15 + + _livres sous den_ + Mably. Princess de morale. + 1. 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Oiseaux 17. 18. + Mineraux 1. 2. 3. 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24. + Lettres de Pascal. 12mo. 2f. rel. 15s. . . . . . . . 2 - 15 + Le sage a la cour et le roi voiageur (prohibited). . 10 - 15 + Principles de legislation universelle 2. v. 8vo. . . 12 - 0 + Ordonnances de la Marine par Valin. 2. v. 4to. . . . 22 + Diderot sur les sourds and muets } + 12mo. 3f12. sur les } 4. v. 12mo. 13 - 7 + aveugles 3f. sur la nature 3f. } + sur la morale 3f15 } + Mariana's history of Spain II. v. 12mo.. . . . . . . 21 + 2 trunks & packing paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 - 0 + ---------- + 1154 - 13 + + CLIMATE AND AMERICAN CHARACTER + + _To Chastellux_ + _Paris, Sep. 2, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- You were so kind as to allow me a fortnight to +read your journey through Virginia. but you should have thought of +this indulgence while you were writing it, and have rendered it less +interesting if you meant that your readers should have been longer +engaged with it. in fact I devoured it at a single meal, and a second +reading scarce allowed me sang-froid enough to mark a few errors in +the names of persons and places which I note on a paper herein +inclosed, with an inconsiderable error or two in facts which I have +also noted because I supposed you wished to state them correctly. +from this general approbation however you must allow me to except +about a dozen pages in the earlier part of the book which I read with +a continued blush from beginning to end, as it presented me a lively +picture of what I wish to be, but am not. no, my dear Sir, the +thousand millionth part of what you there say, is more than I +deserve. it might perhaps have passed in Europe at the time you wrote +it, and the exaggeration might not have been detected. but consider +that the animal is now brought there, and that every one will take +his dimensions for himself. the friendly complexion of your mind has +betrayed you into a partiality of which the European spectator will +be divested. respect to yourself therefore will require indispensably +that you expunge the whole of those pages except your own judicious +observations interspersed among them on animal and physical subjects. +with respect to my countrymen there is surely nothing which can +render them uneasy, in the observations made on them. they know that +they are not perfect, and will be sensible that you have viewed them +with a philanthropic eye. you say much good of them, and less ill +than they are conscious may be said with truth. I have studied their +character with attention. I have thought them, as you found them, +aristocratical, pompous, clannish, indolent, hospitable, and I should +have added, disinterested, but you say attached to their interest. +this is the only trait in their character wherein our observations +differ. I have always thought them so careless of their interests, so +thoughtless in their expences and in all their transactions of +business that I had placed it among the vices of their character, as +indeed most virtues when carried beyond certain bounds degenerate +into vices. I had even ascribed this to it's cause, to that warmth +of their climate which unnerves and unmans both body and mind. while +on this subject I will give you my idea of the characters of the +several states. + + In the north they are In the south they are + cool fiery + sober voluptuary + laborious indolent + persevering unsteady + independant independant + jealous of their own liberties, zealous for their own liberties, + and just to those of others but trampling on those of + others. + interested generous + chicaning candid + superstitious and hypocritical in without attachment or + pretensions + their religion to any religon but that + of the heart. + + these characteristics grow weaker and weaker by gradation from +North to South and South to North, insomuch that an observing +traveller, without the aid of the quadrant may always know his +latitude by the character of the people among whom he finds himself. +it is in Pennsylvania that the two characters seem to meet and blend, +and form a people free from the extremes both of vice and virtue. +peculiar circumstances have given to New York the character which +climate would have given had she been placed on the South instead of +the north side of Pennsylvania. perhaps too other circumstances may +have occasioned in Virginia a transplantation of a particular vice +foreign to it's climate. you could judge of this with more +impartiality than I could, and the probability is that your estimate +of them is the most just. I think it for their good that the vices +of their character should be pointed out to them that they may amend +them; for a malady of either body or mind once known is half cured. +I wish you would add to this piece your letter to mr. Madison on the +expediency of introducing the arts into America. I found in that a +great deal of matter, very many observations, which would be useful +to the legislators of America, and to the general mass of citizens. +I read it with great pleasure and analysed it's contents that I might +fix them in my own mind. + + I have the honor to be with very sincere esteem, dear Sir, your +most obedient and most humble servt. + + + "THIS BEAUTIFUL ART" + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, September 20, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- By Mr. Fitzhugh, you will receive my letter of the +first instant. He is still here, and gives me an opportunity of +again addressing you much sooner than I should have done, but for the +discovery of a great piece of inattention. In that letter I send you +a detail of the cost of your books, and desire you to keep the amount +in your hands, as if I had forgot that a part of it was in fact your +own, as being a balance of what I had remained in your debt. I +really did not attend to it in the moment of writing, and when it +occurred to me, I revised my memorandum book from the time of our +being in Philadelphia together, and stated our account from the +beginning, lest I should forget or mistake any part of it. I enclose +you this statement. You will always be so good as to let me know, +from time to time, your advances for me. Correct with freedom all my +proceedings for you, as, in what I do, I have no other desire than +that of doing exactly what will be most pleasing to you. + + I received this summer a letter from Messrs. Buchanan and Hay, +as Directors of the public buildings, desiring I would have drawn for +them, plans of sundry buildings, and, in the first place, of a +capitol. They fixed, for their receiving this plan, a day which was +within about six weeks of that on which their letter came to my hand. +I engaged an architect of capital abilities in this business. Much +time was requsite, after the external form was agreed on, to make the +internal distribution convenient for the three branches of +government. This time was much lengthened by my avocations to other +objects, which I had no right to neglect. The plan however was +settled. The gentlemen had sent me one which they had thought of. +The one agreed on here, is more convenient, more beautiful, gives +more room, and will not cost more than two thirds of what that would. +We took for our model what is called the Maison quarree of Nismes, +one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful and precious +morsel of architecture left us by antiquity. It was built by Caius +and Lucius Caesar, and repaired by Louis XIV., and has the suffrage +of all the judges of architecture, who have seen it, as yielding to +no one of the beautiful monuments of Greece, Rome, Palmyra, and +Balbec, which late travellers have communicated to us. It is very +simple, but it is noble beyond expression, and would have done honor +to our country, as presenting to travellers a specimen of taste in +our infancy, promising much for our maturer age. I have been much +mortified with information, which I received two days ago from +Virginia, that the first brick of the capitol would be laid within a +few days. But surely, the delay of this piece of a summer would have +been repaired by the savings in the plan preparing here, were we to +value its other superiorities as nothing. But how is a taste in this +beautiful art to be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail +ourselves of every occasion when public buildings are to be erected, +of presenting to them models for their study and imitation? Pray try +if you can effect the stopping of this work. I have written also to +E. R. on the subject. The loss will be only of the laying the bricks +already laid, or a part of them. The bricks themselves will do again +for the interior walls, and one side wall and one end wall may +remain, as they will answer equally well for our plan. This loss is +not to be weighed against the saving of money which will arise, +against the comfort of laying out the public money for something +honorable, the satisfaction of seeing an object and proof of national +good taste, and the regret and mortification of erecting a monument +of our barbarism, which will be loaded with execrations as long as it +shall endure. The plans are in good forwardness, and I hope will be +ready within three or four weeks. They could not be stopped now, but +on paying their whole price, which will be considerable. If the +undertakers are afraid to undo what they have done, encourage them to +it by a recommendation from the Assembly. You see I am an enthusiast +on the subject of the arts. But it is an enthusiasm of which I am +not ashamed, as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, +to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the +world, and procure them its praise. + + I shall send off your books, in two trunks, to Havre, within +two or three days, to the care of Mr. Limozin, American agent there. +I will advise you, as soon as I know by what vessel he forwards them. +Adieu. + + Your's affectionately, + + + MARS AND MINERVA + + _To Abigail Adams_ + _Paris, Sep. 25, 1785_ + + DEAR MADAM -- Mr. Short's return the night before last availed +me of your favour of Aug. 12. I immediately ordered the shoes you +desired which will be ready tomorrow. I am not certain whether this +will be in time for the departure of Mr. Barclay or of Colo. Franks, +for it is not yet decided which of them goes to London. I have also +procured for you three plateaux de dessert with a silvered +ballustrade round them, and four figures of Biscuit. The former cost +192't, the latter 12't each, making together 240 livres or 10. Louis. +The merchant undertakes to send them by the way of Rouen through the +hands of Mr. Garvey and to have them delivered in London. There will +be some additional expences of packing, transportation and duties +here. Those in England I imagine you can save. When I know the +amount I will inform you of it, but there will be no occasion to +remit it here. With respect to the figures I could only find three +of those you named, matched in size. These were Minerva, Diana, and +Apollo. I was obliged to add a fourth, unguided by your choice. +They offered me a fine Venus; but I thought it out of taste to have +two at table at the same time. Paris and Helen were presented. I +conceived it would be cruel to remove them from their peculiar +shrine. When they shall pass the Atlantic, it will be to sing a +requiem over our freedom and happiness. At length a fine Mars was +offered, calm, bold, his faulchion not drawn, but ready to be drawn. +This will do, thinks I, for the table of the American Minister in +London, where those whom it may concern may look and learn that +though Wisdom is our guide, and the Song and Chase our supreme +delight, yet we offer adoration to that tutelar god also who rocked +the cradle of our birth, who has accepted our infant offerings, and +has shewn himself the patron of our rights and avenger of our wrongs. +The groupe then was closed, and your party formed. Envy and malice +will never be quiet. I hear it already whispered to you that in +admitting Minerva to your table I have departed from the principle +which made me reject Venus: in plain English that I have paid a just +respect to the daughter but failed to the mother. No Madam, my +respect to both is sincere. Wisdom, I know, is social. She seeks +her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a +rival -- but, Allons, let us turn over another leaf, and begin the +next chapter. I receive by Mr. Short a budget of London papers. +They teem with every horror of which human nature is capable. +Assassinations, suicides, thefts, robberies, and, what is worse than +assassination, theft, suicide or robbery, the blackest slanders! +Indeed the man must be of rock, who can stand all this; to Mr. Adams +it will be but one victory the more. It would have illy suited me. +I do not love difficulties. I am fond of quiet, willing to do my +duty, but irritable by slander and apt to be forced by it to abandon +my post. These are weaknesses from which reason and your counsels +will preserve Mr. Adams. I fancy it must be the quantity of animal +food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible +of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their +churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries +of that description from hence would avail more than those who should +endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy. But +what do the foolish printers of America mean by retailing all this +stuff in our papers? As if it was not enough to be slandered by +one's enemies without circulating the slanders among his friends +also. + + To shew you how willingly I shall ever receive and execute your +commissions, I venture to impose one on you. From what I recollect +of the diaper and damask we used to import from England I think they +were better and cheaper than here. You are well acquainted with +those of both countries. If you are of the same opinion I would +trouble you to send me two sets of table cloths and napkins for 20 +covers each, by Colo. Franks or Mr. Barclay who will bring them to +me. But if you think they can be better got here I would rather +avoid the trouble this commission will give. I inclose you a +specimen of what is offered me at 100. livres for the table cloth and +12 napkins. I suppose that, of the same quality, a table cloth 2. +aunes wide and 4. aunes long, and 20 napkins of 1. aune each, would +cost 7. guineas. -- I shall certainly charge the publick my house +rent and court taxes. I shall do more. I shall charge my outfit. +Without this I can never get out of debt. I think it will be +allowed. Congress is too reasonable to expect, where no imprudent +expences are incurred, none but those which are required by a decent +respect to the mantle with which they cover the public servants, that +such expences should be left as a burthen on our private fortunes. +But when writing to you, I fancy myself at Auteuil, and chatter on +till the last page of my paper awakes me from my reverie, and tells +me it is time to assure you of the sincere respect and esteem with +which I have the honour to be Dear Madam your most obedient and most +humble servt., + + P.S. The cask of wine at Auteuil, I take chearfully. I +suppose the seller will apply to me for the price. Otherwise, as I +do not know who he is, I shall not be able to find him out. + + + THE VAUNTED SCENE + + _To Charles Bellini_ + _Paris, September 30, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your estimable favor, covering a letter to Mr. +Mazzei, came to hand on the 26th instant. The letter to Mr. Mazzei +was put into his hands in the same moment, as he happened to be +present. I leave to him to convey to you all his complaints, as it +will be more agreeable to me to express to you the satisfaction I +received, on being informed of your perfect health. Though I could +not receive the same pleasing news of Mrs. Bellini, yet the +philosophy with which I am told she bears the loss of health, is a +testimony the more, how much she deserved the esteem I bear her. +Behold me at length on the vaunted scene of Europe! It is not +necessary for your information, that I should enter into details +concerning it. But you are, perhaps, curious to know how this new +scene has struck a savage of the mountains of America. Not +advantageously, I assure you. I find the general fate of humanity +here, most deplorable. The truth of Voltaire's observation, offers +itself perpetually, that every man here must be either the hammer or +the anvil. It is a true picture of that country to which they say we +shall pass hereafter, and where we are to see God and his angels in +splendor, and crowds of the damned trampled under their feet. While +the great mass of the people are thus suffering under physical and +moral oppression, I have endeavored to examine more nearly the +condition of the great, to appreciate the true value of the +circumstances in their situation, which dazzle the bulk of +spectators, and, especially, to compare it with that degree of +happiness which is enjoyed in America, by every class of people. +Intrigues of love occupy the younger, and those of ambition, the +elder part of the great. Conjugal love having no existence among +them, domestic happiness, of which that is the basis, is utterly +unknown. In lieu of this, are substituted pursuits which nourish and +invigorate all our bad passions, and which offer only moments of +ecstacy, amidst days and months of restlessness and torment. Much, +very much inferior, this, to the tranquil, permanent felicity with +which domestic society in America, blesses most of its inhabitants; +leaving them to follow steadily those pursuits which health and +reason approve, and rendering truly delicious the intervals of those +pursuits. + + In science, the mass of the people is two centuries behind +ours; their literati, half a dozen years before us. Books, really +good, acquire just reputation in that time, and so become known to +us, and communicate to us all their advances in knowledge. Is not +this delay compensated, by our being placed out of the reach of that +swarm of nonsensical publications, which issues daily from a thousand +presses, and perishes almost in issuing? With respect to what are +termed polite manners, without sacrificing too much the sincerity of +language, I would wish my countrymen to adopt just so much of +European politeness, as to be ready to make all those little +sacrifices of self, which really render European manners amiable, and +relieve society from the disagreeable scenes to which rudeness often +subjects it. Here, it seems that a man might pass a life without +encountering a single rudeness. In the pleasures of the table they +are far before us, because, with good taste they unite temperance. +They do not terminate the most sociable meals by transforming +themselves into brutes. I have never yet seen a man drunk in France, +even among the lowest of the people. Were I to proceed to tell you +how much I enjoy their architecture, sculpture, painting, music, I +should want words. It is in these arts they shine. The last of +them, particularly, is an enjoyment, the deprivation of which with +us, cannot be calculated. I am almost ready to say, it is the only +thing which from my heart I envy them, and which, in spite of all the +authority of the Decalogue, I do covet. But I am running on in an +estimate of things infinitely better known to you than to me, and +which will only serve to convince you, that I have brought with me +all the prejudices of country, habit and age. But whatever I may +allow to be charged to me as prejudice, in every other instance, I +have one sentiment at least, founded in reality: it is that of the +perfect esteem which your merit and that of Mrs. Bellini have +produced, and which will for ever enable me to assure you of the +sincere regard, with which I am, Dear Sir, + your friend and servant, + + + BRITISH HOSTILITY, AMERICAN COMMERCE + + _To G. K. van Hogendorp_ + _Paris, Oct. 13, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Having been much engaged lately, I have been +unable sooner to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Sep. 8. What +you are pleased to say on the subject of my Notes is more than they +deserve. The condition in which you first saw them would prove to +you how hastily they had been originally written; as you may remember +the numerous insertions I had made in them from time to time, when I +could find a moment for turning to them from other occupations. I +have never yet seen Monsr. de Buffon. He has been in the country all +the summer. I sent him a copy of the book, & have only heard his +sentiments on one particular of it, that of the identity of the +Mammoth & Elephant. As to this he retains his opinion that they are +the same. If you had formed any considerable expectations from our +Revised code of laws you will be much disappointed. It contains not +more than three or four laws which could strike the attention of the +foreigner. Had it been a digest of all our laws, it would not have +been comprehensible or instructive but to a native. But it is still +less so, as it digests only the British statutes & our own acts of +assembly, which are but a supplementary part of our law. The great +basis of it is anterior to the date of the Magna charta, which is the +oldest statute extant. The only merit of this work is that it may +remove from our book shelves about twenty folio volumes of our +statutes, retaining all the parts of them which either their own +merit or the established system of laws required. + + You ask me what are those operations of the British nation +which are likely to befriend us, and how they will produce this +effect? The British government as you may naturally suppose have it +much at heart to reconcile their nation to the loss of America. This +is essential to the repose, perhaps even to the safety of the King & +his ministers. The most effectual engines for this purpose are the +public papers. You know well that that government always kept a kind +of standing army of news writers who without any regard to truth, or +to what should be like truth, invented & put into the papers whatever +might serve the minister. This suffices with the mass of the people +who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true +paragraphs of a newspaper. When forced to acknolege our independance +they were forced to redouble their efforts to keep the nation quiet. +Instead of a few of the papers formerly engaged, they now engaged +every one. No paper therefore comes out without a dose of paragraphs +against America. These are calculated for a secondary purpose also, +that of preventing the emigrations of their people to America. They +dwell very much on American bankruptcies. To explain these would +require a long detail, but would shew you that nine tenths of these +bankruptcies are truly English bankruptcies in no wise chargeable on +America. However they have produced effects the most desirable of +all others for us. They have destroyed our credit & thus checked our +disposition to luxury; & forcing our merchants to buy no more than +they have ready money to pay for, they force them to go to those +markets where that ready money will buy most. Thus you see they +check our luxury, they force us to connect ourselves with all the +world, & they prevent foreign emigrations to our country all of which +I consider as advantageous to us. They are doing us another good +turn. They attempt without disguise to possess themselves of the +carriage of our produce, & to prohibit our own vessels from +participating of it. This has raised a general indignation in +America. The states see however that their constitutions have +provided no means of counteracting it. They are therefore beginning +to invest Congress with the absolute power of regulating their +commerce, only reserving all revenue arising from it to the state in +which it is levied. This will consolidate our federal building very +much, and for this we shall be indebted to the British. + + You ask what I think on the expediency of encouraging our +states to be commercial? Were I to indulge my own theory, I should +wish them to practise neither commerce nor navigation, but to stand +with respect to Europe precisely on the footing of China. We should +thus avoid wars, and all our citizens would be husbandmen. Whenever +indeed our numbers should so increase as that our produce would +overstock the markets of those nations who should come to seek it, +the farmers must either employ the surplus of their time in +manufactures, or the surplus of our hands must be employed in +manufactures, or in navigation. But that day would, I think be +distant, and we should long keep our workmen in Europe, while Europe +should be drawing rough materials & even subsistence from America. +But this is theory only, & a theory which the servants of America are +not at liberty to follow. Our people have a decided taste for +navigation & commerce. They take this from their mother country: & +their servants are in duty bound to calculate all their measures on +this datum: we wish to do it by throwing open all the doors of +commerce & knocking off its shackles. But as this cannot be done for +others, unless they will do it for us, & there is no great +probability that Europe will do this, I suppose we shall be obliged +to adopt a system which may shackle them in our ports as they do us +in theirs. + + With respect to the sale of our lands, that cannot begin till a +considerable portion shall have been surveyed. They cannot begin to +survey till the fall of the leaf of this year, nor to sell probably +till the ensuing spring. So that it will be yet a twelve-month +before we shall be able to judge of the efficacy of our land office +to sink our national debt. It is made a fundamental that the +proceeds shall be solely & sacredly applied as a sinking fund to +discharge the capital only of the debt. It is true that the tobaccos +of Virginia go almost entirely to England. The reason is that they +owe a great debt there which they are paying as fast as they can. -- +I think I have now answered your several queries, & shall be happy to +receive your reflections on the same subjects, & at all times to hear +of your welfare & to give you assurances of the esteem with which I +have the honor to be Dear Sir your most obedient & most humble +servant. + + + ON EUROPEAN EDUCATION + + _To John Banister, Jr._ + _Paris, October 15, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I should sooner have answered the paragraph in +your letter, of September the 19th, respecting the best seminary for +the education of youth, in Europe, but that it was necessary for me +to make inquiries on the subject. The result of these has been, to +consider the competition as resting between Geneva and Rome. They +are equally cheap, and probably are equal in the course of education +pursued. The advantage of Geneva, is, that students acquire there +the habit of speaking French. The advantages of Rome, are, the +acquiring a local knowledge of a spot so classical and so celebrated; +the acquiring the true pronunciation of the Latin language; a just +taste in the fine arts, more particularly those of painting, +sculpture, architecture, and music; a familiarity with those objects +and processes of agriculture, which experience has shewn best adapted +to a climate like ours; and lastly, the advantage of a fine climate +for health. It is probable, too, that by being boarded in a French +family, the habit of speaking that language may be obtained. I do +not count on any advantage to be derived in Geneva, from a familiar +acquaintance with the principles of that government. The late +revolution has rendered it a tyrannical aristocracy, more likely to +give ill, than good ideas to an American. I think the balance in +favor of Rome. Pisa is sometimes spoken of, as a place of education. +But it does not offer the first and third of the advantages of Rome. +But why send an American youth to Europe for education? What are the +objects of an useful American education? Classical knowledge, modern +languages, chiefly French, Spanish and Italian; Mathematics, Natural +philosophy, Natural history, Civil history, and Ethics. In Natural +philosophy, I mean to include Chemistry and Agriculture, and in +Natural history, to include Botany, as well as the other branches of +those departments. It is true that the habit of speaking the modern +languages, cannot be so well acquired in America; but every other +article can be as well acquired at William and Mary college, as at +any place in Europe. When college education is done with, and a +young man is to prepare himself for public life, he must cast his +eyes (for America) either on Law or Physic. For the former, where +can he apply so advantageously as to Mr. Wythe? For the latter, he +must come to Europe: the medical class of students, therefore, is the +only one which need come to Europe. Let us view the disadvantages of +sending a youth to Europe. To enumerate them all, would require a +volume. I will select a few. If he goes to England, he learns +drinking, horse racing and boxing. These are the peculiarities of +English education. The following circumstances are common to +education in that, and the other countries of Europe. He acquires a +fondness for European luxury and dissipation, and a contempt for the +simplicity of his own country; he is fascinated with the privileges +of the European aristocrats, and sees, with abhorrence, the lovely +equality which the poor enjoy with the rich, in his own country; he +contracts a partiality for aristocracy or monarchy; he forms foreign +friendships which will never be useful to him, and loses the season +of life for forming in his own country, those friendships, which, of +all others, are the most faithful and permanent; he is led by the +strongest of all the human passions, into a spirit for female +intrigue, destructive of his own and others' happiness, or a passion +for whores, destructive of his health, and, in both cases, learns to +consider fidelity to the marriage bed as an ungentlemanly practice, +and inconsistent with happiness; he recollects the voluptuary dress +and arts of the European women, and pities and despises the chaste +affections and simplicity of those of his own country; he retains, +through life, a fond recollection, and a hankering after those +places, which were the scenes of his first pleasures and of his first +connections; he returns to his own country, a foreigner, unacquainted +with the practices of domestic economy, necessary to preserve him +from ruin, speaking and writing his native tongue as a foreigner, and +therefore unqualified to obtain those distinctions, which eloquence +of the pen and tongue ensures in a free country; for I would observe +to you, that what is called style in writing or speaking, is formed +very early in life, while the imagination is warm, and impressions +are permament. I am of opinion, that there never was an instance of +a man's writing or speaking his native tongue with elegance, who +passed from fifteen to twenty years of age, out of the country where +it was spoken. Thus, no instance exists of a person's writing two +languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native +language, which was most familiar to him in his youth. It appears to +me then, that an American coming to Europe for education, loses in +his knowledge, in his morals, in his health, in his habits, and in +his happiness. I had entertained only doubts on this head, before I +came to Europe: what I see and hear, since I came here, proves more +than I had even suspected. Cast your eye over America: who are the +men of most learning, of most eloquence, most beloved by their +countrymen, and most trusted and promoted by them? They are those +who have been educated among them, and whose manners, morals and +habits, are perfectly homogeneous with those of the country. + + + Did you expect by so short a question, to draw such a sermon on +yourself? I dare say you did not. But the consequences of foreign +education are alarming to me, as an American. I sin, therefore, +through zeal, whenever I enter on the subject. You are sufficiently +American to pardon me for it. Let me hear of your health, and be +assured of the esteem with which I am, Dear Sir, + your friend and servant, + + + PROPERTY AND NATURAL RIGHT + + _To James Madison_ + _Fontainebleau, Oct. 28, 1785_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Seven o'clock, and retired to my fireside, I have +determined to enter into conversation with you. This is a village of +about 15,000 inhabitants when the court is not here, and 20,000 when +they are, occupying a valley through which runs a brook and on each +side of it a ridge of small mountains, most of which are naked rock. +The King comes here, in the fall always, to hunt. His court attend +him, as do also the foreign diplomatic corps; but as this is not +indispensably required and my finances do not admit the expense of a +continued residence here, I propose to come occasionally to attend +the King's levees, returning again to Paris, distant forty miles. +This being the first trip, I set out yesterday morning to take a view +of the place. For this purpose I shaped my course towards the +highest of the mountains in sight, to the top of which was about a +league. + + As soon as I had got clear of the town I fell in with a poor +woman walking at the same rate with myself and going the same course. +Wishing to know the condition of the laboring poor I entered into +conversation with her, which I began by enquiries for the path which +would lead me into the mountain: and thence proceeded to enquiries +into her vocation, condition and circumstances. She told me she was +a day laborer at 8 sous or 4d. sterling the day: that she had two +children to maintain, and to pay a rent of 30 livres for her house +(which would consume the hire of 75 days), that often she could no +employment and of course was without bread. As we had walked +together near a mile and she had so far served me as a guide, I gave +her, on parting, 24 sous. She burst into tears of a gratitude which +I could perceive was unfeigned because she was unable to utter a +word. She had probably never before received so great an aid. This +little _attendrissement_, with the solitude of my walk, led me into a +train of reflections on that unequal division of property which +occasions the numberless instances of wretchedness which I had +observed in this country and is to be observed all over Europe. + + The property of this country is absolutely concentred in a very +few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year +downwards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some +of them having as many as 200 domestics, not laboring. They employ +also a great number of manufacturers and tradesmen, and lastly the +class of laboring husbandmen. But after all there comes the most +numerous of all classes, that is, the poor who cannot find work. I +asked myself what could be the reason so many should be permitted to +beg who are willing to work, in a country where there is a very +considerable proportion of uncultivated lands? These lands are +undisturbed only for the sake of game. It should seem then that it +must be because of the enormous wealth of the proprietors which +places them above attention to the increase of their revenues by +permitting these lands to be labored. I am conscious that an equal +division of property is impracticable, but the consequences of this +enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, +legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, +only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the +natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of +every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and +sisters, or other relations in equal degree, is a politic measure and +a practicable one. Another means of silently lessening the +inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain +point, and to tax the higher portions or property in geometrical +progression as they rise. Whenever there are in any country +uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of +property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The +earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. If +for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we +must take care that other employment be provided to those excluded +from the appropriation. If we do not, the fundamental right to labor +the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our +country to say that every man who cannot find employment, but who can +find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a +moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible +means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of +land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state. + + The next object which struck my attention in my walk was the +deer with which the wood abounded. They were of the kind called +"Cerfs," and not exactly of the same species with ours. They are +blackish indeed under the belly, and not white as ours, and they are +more of the chestnut red; but these are such small differences as +would be sure to happen in two races from the same stock breeding +separately a number of ages. Their hares are totally different from +the animals we call by that name; but their rabbit is almost exactly +like him. The only difference is in their manners; the land on which +I walked for some time being absolutely reduced to a honeycomb by +their burrowing. I think there is no instance of ours burrowing. +After descending the hill again I saw a man cutting fern. I went to +him under pretence of asking the shortest road to town, and +afterwards asked for what use he was cutting fern. He told me that +this part of the country furnished a great deal of fruit to Paris. +That when packed in straw it acquired an ill taste, but that dry fern +preserved it perfectly without communicating any taste at all. + + I treasured this observation for the preservation of my apples +on my return to my own country. They have no apples here to compare +with our Redtown pippin. They have nothing which deserves the name +of a peach; there being not sun enough to ripen the plum-peach and +the best of their soft peaches being like our autumn peaches. Their +cherries and strawberries are fair, but I think lack flavor. Their +plums I think are better; so also their gooseberries, and the pears +infinitely beyond anything we possess. They have nothing better than +our sweet-water; but they have a succession of as good from early in +the summer till frost. I am to-morrow to get [to] M. Malsherbes (an +uncle of the Chevalier Luzerne's) about seven leagues from hence, who +is the most curious man in France as to his trees. He is making for +me a collection of the vines from which the Burgundy, Champagne, +Bordeaux, Frontignac, and other of the most valuable wines of this +country are made. Another gentleman is collecting for me the best +eating grapes, including what we call the raisin. I propose also to +endeavor to colonize their hare, rabbit, red and grey partridge, +pheasants of different kinds, and some other birds. But I find that +I am wandering beyond the limits of my walk and will therefore bid +you adieu. Yours affectionately. + + + "OUR CONFEDERACY . . . THE NEST" + + _To Archibald Stuart_ + _Paris, Jan. 25, 1786_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have received your favor of the 17th of October, +which though you mention as the third you have written me, is the +first which has come to hand. I sincerely thank you for the +communications it contains. Nothing is so grateful to me at this +distance as details both great & small of what is passing in my own +country. Of the latter we receive little here, because they either +escape my correspondents or are thought unworthy notice. This +however is a very mistaken opinion, as every one may observe by +recollecting that when he has been long absent from his neighborhood +the small news of that is the most pleasing and occupies his first +attention either when he meets with a person from thence, or returns +thither himself. I shall hope therefore that the letter in which you +have been so good as to give me the minute occurrences in the +neighborhood of Monticello may yet come to hand. And I venture to +rely on the many proofs of friendship I have received from you, for a +continuance of your favors. This will be the most meritorious as I +have nothing to give you in exchange. The quiet of Europe at this +moment furnishes little which can attract your notice. Nor will that +quiet be soon disturbed, at least for the current year. Perhaps it +hangs on the life of the K. of Prussia, and that hangs by a very +slender thread. American reputation in Europe is not such as to be +flattering to its citizens. Two circumstances are particularly +objected to us, the nonpaiment of our debts, and the want of energy +in our government. These discourage a connection with us. I own it +to be my opinion that good will arise from the destruction of our +credit. I see nothing else which can restrain our disposition to +luxury, and the loss of those manners which alone can preserve +republican government. As it is impossible to prevent credit, the +best way would be to cure it's ill effects by giving an instantaneous +recovery to the creditor; this would be reducing purchases on credit +to purchases for ready money. A man would then see a poison painted +on everything he wished but had not ready money to pay for. I fear +from an expression in your letter that the people of Kentucke think +of separating not only from Virginia (in which they are right) but +also from the confederacy. I own I should think this a most +calametous event, and such an one as every good citizen on both sides +should set himself against. Our present federal limits are not too +large for good government, nor will the increase of votes in Congress +produce any ill effect. On the contrary it will drown the little +divisions at present existing there. Our confederacy must be viewed +as the nest from which all America, North & South is to be peopled. +We should take care too, not to think it for the interest of that +great continent to press too soon on the Spaniards. Those countries +cannot be in better hands. My fear is that they are too feeble to +hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it +from them piece by piece. The navigation of the Mississippi we must +have. This is all we are as yet ready to receive. I have made +acquaintance with a very sensible candid gentleman here who was in +South America during the revolt which took place there while our +revolution was working. He says that those disturbances (of which we +scarcely heard anything) cost on both sides an hundred thousand +lives. -- I have made a particular acquaintance here with Monsieur +de Buffon, and have a great desire to give him the best idea I can of +our elk. Perhaps your situation may enable you to aid me in this. +Were it possible, you could not oblige me more than by sending me the +horns, skeleton, & skin of an elk. The most desireable form of +receiving them would be to have the skin slit from the under paw +along the belly to the tail, & down the thighs to the knee, to take +the animal out, leaving the legs and hoofs, the bones of the head, & +the horns attached to the skin by sewing up the belly & shipping the +skin it would present the form of the animal. However as an +opportunity of doing this is scarcely expected I shall be glad to +receive them detached, packed in a box, & sent to Richmond to the +care of Doctor Currie. Every thing of this kind is precious here, +and to prevent my adding to your trouble I must close my letter with +assurances of the esteem & attachment with which I am Dr Sir Your +friend & servt. + + P. S. I must add a prayer for some Peccan nuts, 100, if +possible, to be packed in a box of sand and sent me. They might come +either directly or via N. York. + + + A ROMAN TEMPLE FOR VIRGINA + + _To William Buchanan and James Hay_ + _Paris, January 26, 1786_ + + GENTLEMEN, -- I had the honor of writing to you, on the receipt +of your orders to procure draughts for the public buildings, and +again, on the 13th of August. In the execution of these orders, two +methods of proceeding presented themselves to my mind. The one was, +to leave to some architect to draw an external according to his +fancy, in which way, experience shews, that, about once in a thousand +times, a pleasing form is hit upon; the other was, to take some model +already devised, and approved by the general suffrage of the world. +I had no hesitation in deciding that the latter was best, nor after +the decision, was there any doubt what model to take. There is at +Nismes, in the south of France, a building called the Maison quarree, +erected in the time of the Caesars, and which is allowed, without +contradiction, to be the most perfect and precious remain of +antiquity in existence. Its superiority over any thing at Rome, in +Greece, at Balbec or Palmyra, is allowed on all hands; and this +single object has placed Nismes in the general tour of travellers. +Having not yet had leisure to visit it, I could only judge of it from +drawings, and from the relation of numbers who had been to see it. I +determined, therefore, to adopt this model, and to have all its +proportions justly observed. As it was impossible for a foreign +artist to know, what number and sizes of apartments would suit the +different corps of our government, nor how they should be connected +with one another, I undertook to form that arrangement, and this +being done, I committed them to an architect (Monsieur Clerissault) +who had studied this art twenty years in Rome, who had particularly +studied and measured the Maison quarree of Nismes, and had published +a book containing most excellent plans, descriptions, and +observations on it. He was too well acquainted with the merit of +that building, to find himself restrained by my injunctions not to +depart from his model. In one instance, only, he persuaded me to +admit of this. That was, to make the portico two columns deep only, +instead of three, as the original is. His reason was, that this +latter depth would too much darken the apartments. Economy might be +added, as a second reason. I consented to it, to satisfy him, and +the plans are so drawn. I knew that it would still be easy to +execute the building with a depth of three columns, and it is what I +would certainly recommend. We know that the Maison quarree has +pleased, universally, for near two thousand years. By leaving out a +column, the proportions will be changed, and perhaps the effect may +be injured more than is expected. What is good, is often spoiled by +trying to making it better. + + The present is the first opportunity which has occurred of +sending the plans. You will, accordingly, receive herewith the +ground plan, the elevation of the front, and the elevation of the +side. The architect having been much busied, and knowing that this +was all which would be necessary in the beginning, has not yet +finished the sections of the building. They must go by some future +occasion, as well as the models of the front and side, which are +making in plaister of Paris. These were absolutely necessary for the +guide of workmen, not very expert in their art. It will add +considerably to the expense, and I would not have incurred it, but +that I was sensible of its necessity. The price of the model will be +fifteen guineas. I shall know in a few days, the cost of the +drawings, which probably will be the triple of the model: however, +this is but conjecture. I will make it as small as possible, pay it, +and render you an account in my next letter. You will find, on +examination, that the body of this building covers an area, but two +fifths of that which is proposed and begun; of course, it will take +but about one half the bricks; and, of course, this circumstance will +enlist all the workmen, and people of the art against the plan. +Again, the building begun, is to have four porticoes; this but one. +It is true that this will be deeper than those were probably +proposed, but even if it be made three columns deep, it will not take +half the number of columns. The beauty of this is insured by +experience, and by the suffrage of the whole world: the beauty of +that is problematical, as is every drawing, however well it looks on +paper, till it be actually executed: and though I suppose there is +more room in the plan begun, than in that now sent, yet there is +enough in this for all the three branches of government, and more +than enough is not wanted. This contains sixteen rooms; to wit, four +on the first floor, for the General Court, Delegates, lobby, and +conference. Eight on the second floor, for the Executive, the +Senate, and six rooms for committees and juries: and over four of +these smaller rooms of the second floor, are four mezzininos or +entresols, serving as offices for the clerks of the Executive, the +Senate, the Delegates, and the Court in actual session. It will be +an objection, that the work is begun on the other plan. But the +whole of this need not be taken to pieces, and of what shall be taken +to pieces, the bricks will do for inner work. Mortar never becomes +so hard and adhesive to the bricks, in a few months, but that it may +be easily chipped off. And upon the whole, the plan now sent will +save a great proportion of the expense. + + Hitherto, I have spoken of the capitol only. The plans for the +prison, also, accompany this. They will explain themselves. I send, +also, the plan of the prison proposed at Lyons, which was sent me by +the architect, and to which we are indebted for the fundamental idea +of ours. You will see, that of a great thing a very small one is +made. Perhaps you may find it convenient to build, at first, only +two sides, forming an L; but of this, you are the best judges. It +has been suggested to me, that fine gravel, mixed in the mortar, +prevents the prisoners from cutting themselves out, as that will +destroy their tools. In my letter of August the 13th, I mentioned +that I could send workmen from hence. As I am in hopes of receiving +your orders precisely, in answer to that letter, I shall defer +actually engaging any, till I receive them. In like manner, I shall +defer having plans drawn for a Governor's house, &c., till further +orders; only assuring you, that the receiving and executing these +orders, will always give me a very great pleasure, and the more, +should I find that what I have done meets your approbation. + + I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect +esteem, gentlemen, + + your most obedient and + most humble servant, + + + THE NOTES, HOUDON, AND THE ENCYCLOPEDIE + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, Feb. 8, 1786_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last letters have been of the 1st & 20th of +Sep. and the 28th of Oct. Yours unacknowledged are of Aug. 20, Oct. +3, & Nov. 15. I take this the first safe opportunity of enclosing to +you the bills of lading for your books, & two others for your +namesake of Williamsburgh & for the attorney which I will pray you to +forward. I thank you for the communication of the remonstrance +against the assessment. Mazzei who is now in Holland promised me to +have it published in the Leyden gazette. It will do us great honour. +I wish it may be as much approved by our assembly as by the wisest +part of Europe. I have heard with great pleasure that our assembly +have come to the resolution of giving the regulation of their +commerce to the federal head. I will venture to assert that there is +not one of it's opposers who, placed on this ground, would not see +the wisdom of this measure. The politics of Europe render it +indispensably necessary that with respect to everything external we +be one nation only, firmly hooped together. Interior government is +what each state should keep to itself. If it could be seen in Europe +that all our states could be brought to concur in what the Virginia +assembly has done, it would produce a total revolution in their +opinion of us, and respect for us. And it should ever be held in +mind that insult & war are the consequences of a want of +respectability in the national character. As long as the states +exercise separately those acts of power which respect foreign +nations, so long will there continue to be irregularities committing +by some one or other of them which will constantly keep us on an ill +footing with foreign nations. + + I thank you for your information as to my Notes. The copies I +have remaining shall be sent over to be given to some of my friends +and to select subjects in the college. I have been unfortunate here +with this trifle. I gave out a few copies only, & to confidential +persons, writing in every copy a restraint against it's publication. +Among others I gave a copy to a Mr. Williamos. He died. I +immediately took every precaution I could to recover this copy. But +by some means or other a bookseller had got hold of it. He employed +a hireling translator and was about publishing it in the most +injurious form possible. An Abbe Morellet, a man of letters here to +whom I had given a copy, got notice of this. He had translated some +passages for a particular purpose: and he compounded with the +bookseller to translate & give him the whole, on his declining the +first publication. I found it necessary to confirm this, and it will +be published in French, still mutilated however in it's freest parts. +I am now at a loss what to do as to England. Everything, good or +bad, is thought worth publishing there; and I apprehend a translation +back from the French, and a publication there. I rather believe it +will be most eligible to let the original come out in that country; +but am not yet decided. + + I have purchased little for you in the book way, since I sent +the catalogue of my former purchases. I wish first to have your +answer to that, and your information what parts of those purchases +went out of your plan. You can easily say buy more of this kind, +less of that &c. My wish is to conform myself to yours. I can get +for you the original Paris edition in folio of the Encyclopedie for +620 livres, 35. vols.; a good edn in 39 vols, 4to, for 380#; and a +good one in 39 vols 8vo, for 280#. The new one will be superior in +far the greater number of articles: but not in all. And the +possession of the ancient one has moreover the advantage of supplying +present use. I have bought one for myself, but wait your orders as +to you. I remember your purchase of a watch in Philadelphia. If it +should not have proved good, you can probably sell her. In that case +I can get for you here, one made as perfect as human art can make it +for about 24 louis. I have had such a one made by the best & most +faithful hand in Paris. It has a second hand, but no repeating, no +day of the month, nor other useless thing to impede and injure the +movements which are necessary. For 12 louis more you can have in the +same cover, but on the back side & absolutely unconnected with the +movements of the watch, a pedometer which shall render you an exact +account of the distances you walk. Your pleasure hereon shall be +awaited. + + Houdon is returned. He called on me the other day to +remonstrate against the inscription proposed for Genl W.'s statue. +He says it is too long to be put on the pedestal. I told him I was +not at liberty to permit any alteration, but I would represent his +objection to a friend who could judge of it's validity, and whether a +change could be authorized. This has been the subject of +conversations here, and various devices & inscriptions have been +suggested. The one which has appeared best to me may be translated +as follows: "Behold, Reader, the form of George Washington. For his +worth, ask History: that will tell it, when this stone shall have +yielded to the decays of time. His country erects this monument: +Houdon makes it." This for one side. On the 2d represent the +evacuation of Boston with the motto "Hostibus primum fugatis." On the +3d the capture of the Hessians with "Hostibus iterum devictis." On +the 4th the surrender of York, with "Hostibus ultimum debellatis." +This is seizing the three most brilliant actions of his military +life. By giving out here a wish of receiving mottos for this statue, +we might have thousands offered, of which still better might be +chosen. The artist made the same objection of length to the +inscription for the bust of the M. de la Fayette. An alteration of +that might come in time still, if an alteration was wished. However +I am not certain that it is desirable in either case. The state of +Georgia has given 20.000 acres of land to the Count d' Estaing. This +gift is considered here as very honourable to him, and it has +gratified him much. I am persuaded that a gift of lands by the state +of Virginia to the Marquis de la Fayette would give a good opinion +here of our character, and would reflect honour on the Marquis. Nor +am I sure that the day will not come when it might be an useful +asylum to him. The time of life at which he visited America was too +well adapted to receive good & lasting impressions to permit him ever +to accommodate himself to the principles of monarchical government; +and it will need all his own prudence & that of his friends to make +this country a safe residence for him. How glorious, how comfortable +in reflection will it be to have prepared a refuge for him in case of +a reverse. In the meantime he could settle it with tenants from the +freest part of this country, Bretagny. I have never suggested the +smallest idea of this kind to him: because the execution of it should +convey the first notice. If the state has not a right to give him +lands with their own officers, they could buy up at cheap prices the +shares of others. I am not certain however whether in the public or +private opinion, a similar gift to Count Rochambeau could be +dispensed with. If the state could give to both, it would be better: +but in any event, I think they should to the Marquis. C. Rochambeau +too has really deserved more attention than he has received. Why not +set up his bust, that of Gates, Greene, Franklin in your new capitol? +A propos of the Capitol. Do my dear friend exert yourself to get the +plan begun on set aside, & that adopted which was drawn here. It was +taken from a model which has been the admiration of 16. centuries, +which has been the object of as many pilgrimages as the tomb of +Mahomet: which will give unrivalled honour to our state, and furnish +a model whereon to form the taste of our young men. It will cost +much less too than the one begun, because it does not cover one half +the Area. Ask, if you please, a sight of my letter of Jan. 26 to +Messrs. Buchanan & Hay, which will spare me the repeating its +substance here. + + + Everything is quiet in Europe. I recollect but one new +invention in the arts which is worth mentioning. It is a mixture of +the arts of engraving & printing, rendering both cheaper. Write or +draw anything on a plate of brass with the ink of the inventor, and +in half an hour he gives you engraved copies of it so perfectly like +the original that they could not be suspected to be copies. His +types for printing a whole page are all in one solid piece. An +author therefore only prints a few copies of his work from time to +time as they are called for. This saves the loss of printing more +copies than may possibly be sold, and prevents an edition from being +ever exhausted. + + I am with a lively esteem Dear Sir, your sincere friend & +servant. + + P. S. Could you procure & send me an hundred or two nuts of the +peccan? they would enable me to oblige some characters here whom I +should be much gratified to oblige. They should come packed in sand. +The seeds of the sugar maple too would be a great present. + + + BRITISH ARTS AND BRITISH HATRED + + _To John Page_ + _Paris, May 4, 1786_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your two favours of Mar 15 and Aug 23, 1785, by +Monsieur de la Croix came to hand on the 15th of November. His +return gives me an opportunity of sending you a copy of the nautical +almanacs for 1786, 7, 8, 9. There is no late and interesting +publication here, or I would send it by the same conveiance. With +these almanacs I pack a copy of some Notes I wrote for Monsr de +Marbois in the year 1781, of which I had a few printed here. They +were written in haste & for his private inspection. A few friends +having asked copies I found it cheaper to print than to write them. +One of these got into the hands of a bookseller who getting a bad +translation of them made, obliged me to consent that they should +appear on condition of their being translated by a better hand. I +apprehend therefore they will get further than I intended: tho' as +yet they are in few hands. They will offer nothing new to you, not +even as an oblation of my friendship for you which is as old almost +as we are ourselves. Mazzei brought me your favor of Apr 28. I +thank you much for your communications. Nothing can be more grateful +at such a distance. It is unfortunate that most people think the +occurrences passing daily under their eyes, are either known to all +the world, or not worth being known. They therefore do not give them +place in their letters. I hope you will be so good as to continue +your friendly information. The proceedings of our public bodies, the +progress of the public mind on interesting questions, the casualties +which happen among our private friends, and whatever is interesting +to yourself and family will always be anxiously received by me. +There is one circumstance in the work you were concerned in which has +not yet come to my knowledge, to wit how far Westward from Fort Pitt +does the Western boundary of Pennsylvania pass, and where does it +strike the Ohio? The proposition you mention from Mr. Anderson on +the purchase of tobacco, I would have made use of, but that I have +engaged the abuses of the tobacco trade on a more general scale. I +confess their redress does not appear with any certainty: but till I +see all hope of removing the evil by the roots, I cannot propose to +prune it's branches. + + I returned but three or four days ago from a two months trip to +England. I traversed that country much, and own both town & country +fell short of my expectations. Comparing it with this, I found a +much greater proportion of barrens, a soil in other parts not +naturally so good as this, not better cultivated, but better manured, +& therefore more productive. This proceeds from the practice of long +leases there, and short ones here. The labouring people here are +poorer than in England. They pay about one half their produce in +rent, the English in general about a third. The gardening in that +country is the article in which it surpasses all the earth. I mean +their pleasure gardening. This indeed went far beyond my ideas. The +city of London, tho' handsomer than Paris, is not so handsome as +Philadelphia. Their architecture is in the most wretched stile I +ever saw, not meaning to except America where it is bad, nor even +Virginia where it is worse than in any other part of America, which I +have seen. The mechanical arts in London are carried to a wonderful +perfection. But of these I need not speak, because of them my +countrymen have unfortunately too many samples before their eyes. I +consider the extravagance which has seized them as a more baneful +evil than toryism was during the war. It is the more so as the +example is set by the best and most amiable characters among us. +Would that a missionary appear who would make frugality the basis of +his religious system, and go thro the land preaching it up as the +only road to salvation, I would join his school tho' not generally +disposed to seek my religion out of the dictates of my own reason & +feelings of my own heart. These things have been more deeply +impressed on my mind by what I have heard & seen in England. That +nation hates us, their ministers hate us, and their King more than +all other men. They have the impudence to avow this, tho' they +acknolege our trade important to them. But they say we cannot +prevent our countrymen from bringing that into their laps. A +conviction of this determines them to make no terms of commerce with +us. They say they will pocket our carrying trade as well as their +own. Our overtures of commercial arrangement have been treated with +a derision which shows their firm persuasion that we shall never +unite to suppress their commerce or even to impede it. I think their +hostility towards us is much more deeply rooted at present than +during the war. In the arts the most striking thing I saw there, +new, was the application of the principle of the steam-engine to +grist mills. I saw 8 pr. of stones which are worked by steam, and +they are to set up 30 pair in the same house. A hundred bushels of +coal a day are consumed at present. I do not know in what proportion +the consumption will be increased by the additional geer. + + Be so good as to present my respects to Mrs. Page & your +family, to W. Lewis, F. Willis & their families and to accept +yourself assurances of the sincere regard with which I am Dr Sir your +affectionate friend & servt. + + P. S. Mazzei is still here and will publish soon a book on the +subject of America. + + + WAR ON BARBARY + + _To John Adams_ + _Paris, July 11, 1786_ + + DEAR SIR -- Our instructions relative to the Barbary states +having required us to proceed by way of negotiation to obtain their +peace, it became our duty to do this to the best of our power. +Whatever might be our private opinions, they were to be suppressed, +and the line marked out to us, was to be followed. It has been so +honestly, and zealously. It was therefore never material for us to +consult together on the best plan of conduct towards these states. I +acknolege I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace +thro' the medium of war. Tho' it is a question with which we have +nothing to do, yet as you propose some discussion of it I shall +trouble you with my reasons. Of the 4. positions laid down in your +letter of the 3d. instant, I agree to the three first, which are in +substance that the good offices of our friends cannot procure us a +peace without paying it's price, that they cannot materially lessen +that price, and that paying it, we can have the peace in spight of +the intrigues of our enemies. As to the 4th. that the longer the +negotiation is delayed the larger will be the demand, this will +depend on the intermediate captures: if they are many and rich the +price may be raised; if few and poor it will be lessened. However if +it is decided that we shall buy a peace, I know no reason for +delaying the operation, but should rather think it ought to be +hastened. But I should prefer the obtaining it by war. 1. Justice +is in favor of this opinion. 2. Honor favors it. 3. It will procure +us respect in Europe, and respect is a safe-guard to interest. 4. It +will arm the federal head with the safest of all the instruments of +coercion over their delinquent members and prevent them from using +what would be less safe. I think that so far you go with me. But in +the next steps we shall differ. 5. I think it least expensive. 6. +Equally effectual. I ask a fleet of 150. guns, the one half of which +shall be in constant cruise. This fleet built, manned and victualled +for 6. months will cost 450,000 pound sterling. It's annual expence +is 300 pound sterl. a gun, including every thing: this will be 45,000 +pound sterl. a year. I take British experience for the basis of my +calculations, tho' we know, from our own experience, that we can do, +in this way, for pounds lawful, what costs them pounds sterling. +Were we to charge all this to the Algerine war it would amount to +little more than we must pay if we buy peace. But as it is proper +and necessary that we should establish a small marine force (even +were we to buy a peace from the Algerines,) and as that force laid up +in our dockyards would cost us half as much annually as if kept in +order for service, we have a right to say that only 22,500 pound +sterl. per ann. should be charged to the Algerine war. 6. It will +be as effectual. To all the mismanagements of Spain and Portugal +urged to shew that war against those people is ineffectual, I urge a +single fact to prove the contrary where there is any management. +About 40. year ago, the Algerines having broke their treaty with +France, this court sent Monsr. de Massac with one large and two small +frigates, he blockaded the harbour of Algiers three months, and they +subscribed to the terms he dictated. If it be admitted however that +war, on the fairest prospects, is still exposed to incertainties, I +weigh against this the greater incertainty of the duration of a peace +bought with money, from such a people, from a Dey 80. years old, and +by a nation who, on the hypothesis of buying peace, is to have no +power on the sea to enforce an observance of it. + + So far I have gone on the supposition that the whole weight of +this war would rest on us. But 1. Naples will join us. The +character of their naval minister (Acton), his known sentiments with +respect to the peace Spain is officiously trying to make for them, +and his dispositions against the Algerines give the greatest reason +to believe it. 2. Every principle of reason tells us Portugal will +join us. I state this as taking for granted, what all seem to +believe, that they will not be at peace with Algiers. I suppose then +that a Convention might be formed between Portugal, Naples and the +U.S. by which the burthen of the war might be quotaed on them +according to their respective wealth, and the term of it should be +when Algiers should subscribe to a peace with all three on equal +terms. This might be left open for other nations to accede to, and +many, if not most of the powers of Europe (except France, England, +Holland and Spain if her peace be made) would sooner or later enter +into the confederacy, for the sake of having their peace with the +Pyratical states guarantied by the whole. I suppose that in this +case our proportion of force would not be the half of what I first +calculated on. + + These are the reasons which have influenced my judgment on this +question. I give them to you to shew you that I am imposed on by a +semblance of reason at least, and not with an expectation of their +changing your opinion. You have viewed the subject, I am sure in all +it's bearings. You have weighed both questions with all their +circumstances. You make the result different from what I do. The +same facts impress us differently. This is enough to make me suspect +an error in my process of reasoning tho' I am not able to detect it. +It is of no consequence; as I have nothing to say in the decision, +and am ready to proceed heartily on any other plan which may be +adopted, if my agency should be thought useful. With respect to the +dispositions of the states I am utterly uninformed. I cannot help +thinking however that on a view of all circumstances, they might be +united in either of the plans. + + Having written this on the receipt of your letter, without +knowing of any opportunity of sending it, I know not when it will go: +I add nothing therefore on any other subject but assurances of the +sincere esteem and respect with which I am Dear Sir your friend and +servant, + + + "A CRUSADE AGAINST IGNORANCE" + + _To George Wythe_ + _Paris, August 13, 1786_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favors of Jan. 10 & Feb. 10, came to hand on +the 20th & 2d of May. I availed myself of the first opportunity +which occurred, by a gentleman going to England, of sending to Mr. +Joddrel a copy of the Notes on our country, with a line informing him +that it was you who had emboldened me to take that liberty. Madison, +no doubt, informed you of the reason why I had sent only a single +copy to Virginia. Being assured by him that they will not do the +harm I had apprehended, but on the contrary may do some good, I +propose to send thither the copies remaining on hand, which are fewer +than I had intended. But of the numerous corrections they need, +there are one or two so essential that I must have them made, by +printing a few new leaves & substituting them for the old. This will +be done while they are engraving a map which I have constructed of +the country from Albemarle sound to Lake Erie, & which will be +inserted in the book. A bad French translation which is getting out +here, will probably oblige me to publish the original more freely, +which it neither deserved nor was ever intended. Your wishes, which +are laws to me, will justify my destining a copy for you, otherwise I +should as soon have thought of sending you a hornbook; for there is +no truth there that which is not familiar to you, and it's errors I +should hardly have proposed to treat you with. + + Immediately on the receipt of your letter, I wrote to a +correspondent at Florence to inquire after the family of Tagliaferro +as you desired. I received his answer two days ago, a copy of which +I now inclose. The original shall be sent by some other occasion. I +will have the copper-plate immediately engraved. This may be ready +within a few days, but the probability is that I shall be long +getting an opportunity of sending it to you, as these rarely occur. +You do not mention the size of the plate but, presuming it is +intended for labels for the inside of books, I shall have it made of +a proper size for that. I shall omit the word _agisos_, according to +the license you allow me, because I think the beauty of a motto is to +condense much matter in as few words as possible. The word omitted +will be supplied by every reader. The European papers have announced +that the assembly of Virginia were occupied on the revisal of their +code of laws. This, with some other similar intelligence, has +contributed much to convince the people of Europe, that what the +English papers are constantly publishing of our anarchy, is false; as +they are sensible that such a work is that of a people only who are +in perfect tranquillity. Our act for freedom of religion is +extremely applauded. The ambassadors & ministers of the several +nations of Europe resident at this court have asked of me copies of +it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in +several books now in the press; among others, in the new +Encyclopedie. I think it will produce considerable good even in +these countries where ignorance, superstition, poverty, & oppression +of body & mind in every form, are so firmly settled on the mass of +the people, that their redemption from them can never be hoped. If +the Almighty had begotten a thousand sons, instead of one, they would +not have sufficed for this task. If all the sovereigns of Europe +were to set themselves to work to emancipate the minds of their +subjects from their present ignorance & prejudices, & that as +zealously as they now endeavor the contrary, a thousand years would +not place them on that high ground on which our common people are now +setting out. Ours could not have been so fairly put into the hands +of their own common sense had they not been separated from their +parent stock & kept from contamination, either from them, or the +other people of the old world, by the intervention of so wide an +ocean. To know the worth of this, one must see the want of it here. +I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for +the diffusion of knowlege among the people. No other sure foundation +can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness. If +anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators +of the public happiness send them here. It is the best school in the +universe to cure them of that folly. They will see here with their +own eyes that these descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy +against the happiness of the mass of the people. The omnipotence of +their effect cannot be better proved than in this country +particularly, where notwithstanding the finest soil upon earth, the +finest climate under heaven, and a people of the most benevolent, the +most gay and amiable character of which the human form is +susceptible, where such a people I say, surrounded by so many +blessings from nature, are yet loaded with misery by kings, nobles +and priests, and by them alone. Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade +against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the +common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can +protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid +for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be +paid to kings, priests & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave +the people in ignorance. The people of England, I think, are less +oppressed than here. But it needs but half an eye to see, when among +them, that the foundation is laid in their dispositions for the +establishment of a despotism. Nobility, wealth & pomp are the +objects of their adoration. They are by no means the free-minded +people we suppose them in America. Their learned men too are few in +number, and are less learned and infinitely less emancipated from +prejudice than those of this country. An event too seems to be +preparing, in the order of things, which will probably decide the +fate of that country. It is no longer doubtful that the harbour of +Cherburg will be complete, that it will be a most excellent one, & +capacious enough to hold the whole navy of France. Nothing has ever +been wanting to enable this country to invade that, but a naval force +conveniently stationed to protect the transports. This change of +situation must oblige the English to keep up a great standing army, +and there is no King, who, with sufficient force, is not always ready +to make himself absolute. My paper warns me it is time to recommend +myself to the friendly recollection of Mrs. Wythe, of Colo. +Tagliaferro & his family & particularly of Mr. R. T.; and to assure +you of the affectionate esteem with which I am Dear Sir your friend +and servt. + + + EDUACTION OF A FUTURE SON-IN-LAW + + _To Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr._ + _Paris, Aug. 27, 1786_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I am honoured with your favour of the 16th +instant, and desirous, without delay, of manifesting my wishes to be +useful to you I shall venture to you some thoughts on the course of +your studies, which must be submitted to the better choice with which +you are surrounded. A longer race through life may have entitled me +to seize some truths which have not yet been presented to your +observation & more intimate knowledge of the country in which you are +to live & of the circumstances in which you will be placed, may +enable me to point your attention to the branches of science which +will administer the most to your happiness there. The foundations +which you have laid in languages and mathematics are proper for every +superstructure. The former exercises our memory while that and no +other faculty is yet matured & prevents our acquiring habits of +idleness. The latter gives exercise to our reason, as soon as that +has acquired a certain degree of strength, and stores the mind with +truths which are useful in other branches of science. At this moment +then a second order of preparation is to commence. I shall propose +to you that it be extensive, comprehending Astronomy, Natural +Philosophy (or Physics), Natural History, Anatomy, Botany & +Chemistry. No inquisitive mind will be content to be ignorant of any +of these branches. But I would advise you to be contented with a +course of lectures in most of them, without attempting to make +yourself master of the whole. This is more than any genius joined to +any length of life is equal to. You will find among them some one +study to which your mind will more particularly attach itself. This +then I would pursue & propose to attain eminence in. Your own +country furnishes the most aliment for Natural History, Botany & +Physics & as you express a fondness for the former you might make it +your principal object, endeavoring however to make yourself more +acquainted with the two latter than with other branches likely to be +less useful. In fact you will find botany offering it's charms to +you at every step -- during summer & Physics in every season. All +these branches of science will be better attained by attending +courses of lectures in them. You are now in a place where the best +courses upon earth are within your reach and being delivered in your +native language -- you lose no part of their benefit. Such an +opportunity you will never again have. I would therefore strongly +press on you to fix no other limit to your stay in Edinborough than +your having got thro this whole course. The omission of any one part +of it will be an affliction & loss to you as long as you live. +Beside the comfort of knowledge, every science is auxiliary to every +other. While you are attending these courses you can proceed by +yourself in a regular series of historical reading. It would be a +waste of time to attend a professor of this. It is to be acquired +from books and if you pursue it by yourself you can accommodate it to +your other reading so as to fill up those chasms of time not +otherwise appropriated. There are portions of the day too when the +mind should be eased, particularly after dinner it should be applied +to lighter occupation: history is of this kind. It exercises +principally the memory. Reflection also indeed is necessary but not +generally in a laborious degree. To conduct yourself in this branch +of science you have only to consider what aeras of it merit a grasp & +what a particular attention, & in each aera also to distinguish +between the countries the knowledge of whose history will be useful & +those where it suffices only to be not altogether ignorant. Having +laid down your plan as to the branches of history you would pursue, +the order of time will be your sufficient guide. After what you have +read in antient history I should suppose Millot's digest would be +useful & sufficient. The histories of Greece and Rome are worthy a +good degree of attention, they should be read in the original +authors. The transition from antient to modern history will be best +effected by reading Gibbon's. Then a general history of the +principal states of Europe, but particular ones of England. Here too +the original writers are to be preferred. Kennet published a +considerable collection of these in 3 vols. folio, but there are some +others not in his collection well worth being read. After the +history of England that of America will claim your attention. Here +too original authors & not compilers are best. An author who writes +of his own times or of times near his own presents in his own ideas & +manner the best picture of the moment of which he writes. History +need not be hurried but may give way to the other sciences because +history can be pursued after you shall have left your present +situation as well as while you remain in it. When you shall have got +thro this second order of preparation the study of the law is to be +begun. This like history is to be acquired from books. All the aid +you will want will be a catalogue of the books to be read & the order +in which they are to be read. It being absolutely indifferent in +what place you carry on this reading I should propose your doing it +in France. The advantages of this will be that you will at the same +time acquire the habit of speaking French which is the object of a +year or two. You may be giving attention to such of the fine arts as +your turn may lead you to & you will be forming an acquaintance with +the individuals & characters of a nation with whom we must long +remain in the closest intimacy & to whom we are bound by the strong +ties of gratitude and policy. A nation in short of the most amiable +dispositions on earth, the whole mass of which is penetrated with an +affection for us. You might before you return to your own country +make a visit to Italy also. + + I should have performed the office of but half a friend were I +to confine myself to the improvement of the mind only. Knowledge +indeed is a desirable, a lovely possession, but I do not scruple to +say that health is more so. It is of little consequence to store the +mind with science if the body be permitted to become debilitated. If +the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong -- the sovereign +invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all exercises walking is +best. A horse gives but a kind of half exercise, and a carriage is +no better than a cradle. No one knows, till he tries, how easily a +habit of walking is acquired. A person who never walked three miles +will in the course of a month become able to walk 15 or 20 without +fatigue. I have known some great walkers & had particular accounts +of many more: and I never knew or heard of one who was not healthy & +long lived. This species of exercise therefore is much to be +advised. Should you be disposed to try it, as your health has been +feeble, it will be necessary for you to begin with a little, & to +increase it by degrees. For the same reason you must probably at +first ascribe to it the hours most precious for study, I mean those +about the middle of the day. But when you shall find yourself strong +you may venture to take your walks in the evening after the digestion +of the dinner is pretty well over. This is making a compromise +between health & study. The latter would be too much interrupted +were you to take from it the early hours of the day and habit will +soon render the evening's exercise as salutary as that of the +morning. I speak this from my own experience having, from an +attachment to study, very early in life, made this arrangement of my +time, having ever observed it, & still observing it, & always with +perfect success. Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to +exercise, and the weather should be little regarded. A person not +sick will not be injured by getting wet. It is but taking a cold +bath which never gives a cold to any one. Brute animals are the most +healthy, & they are exposed to all weather and, of men, those are +healthiest who are the most exposed. The recipe of those two +descriptions of beings is simple diet, exercise and the open air, be +it's state what it will; and we may venture to say that this recipe +will give health & vigor to every other description. -- By this time +I am sure you will think I have sermonized enough. I have given you +indeed a lengthy lecture. I have been led through it by my zeal to +serve you; if in the whole you find one useful counsel, that will be +my reward, & a sufficient one. Few persons in your own country have +started from as advantageous ground as that whereon you will be +placed. Nature and fortune have been liberal to you. Every thing +honourable or profitable there is placed within your own reach, and +will depend on your own efforts. If these are exerted with +assiduity, and guided by unswerving honesty, your success is +infallible: and that it may be as great as you wish is the sincere +desire of Dear Sir, your most affectionate humble servant. + + P.S. Be so good as to present me affectionately to your brother +& cousin. + + + ARCHAEOLOGY, LEDYARD, A NEW INVENTION + + _To Ezra Stiles_ + _Paris, Sep. 1, 1786_ + + SIR, -- I am honoured with your letter of May 8. That which +you mention to have written in the winter preceding never came to +hand. I return you my thanks for the communications relative to the +Western country. When we reflect how long we have inhabited those +parts of America which lie between the Alleghaney & the ocean, that +no monument has ever been found in them which indicated the use of +iron among its' aboriginal inhabitants, that they were as far +advanced in arts, at least, as the inhabitants on the other side the +Alleghaney, a good degree of infidelity may be excused as to the new +discoveries which suppose regular fortifications of brickwork to have +been in use among the Indians on the waters of the Ohio. +Intrenchments of earth they might indeed make: but brick is more +difficult. The art of making it may have preceded the use of iron, +but it would suppose a greater degree of industry than men in the +hunter state usually possess. I should like to know whether General +Parsons himself saw actual bricks among the remains of fortification. +I suppose the settlement of our continent is of the most remote +antiquity. The similitude between its' inhabitants & those of +Eastern parts of Asia renders it probable that ours are descended +from them or they from ours. The latter is my opinion, founded on +this single fact. Among the red inhabitants of Asia there are but a +few languages radically different, but among our Indians the number +of languages is infinite which are so radically different as to +exhibit at present no appearance of their having been derived from a +common source. The time necessary for the generation of so many +languages must be immense. A countryman of yours, a Mr. Lediard, who +was with Capt. Cook on his last voiage, proposes either to go to +Kamschatka, cross from thence to the Western side of America, and +penetrate through the Continent to our side of it, or to go to +Kentucke, & thence penetrate Westwardly to the South sea, the vent +from hence lately to London, where if he finds a passage to +Kamschatka or the Western coast of America he would avail himself of +it: otherwise he proposes to return to our side of America to attempt +that route. I think him well calculated for such an enterprise, & +wish he may undertake it. Another countryman of yours Mr. Trumbul +has paid us a visit here & brought with him two pictures which are +the admiration of the Connoisseurs. His natural talents for this art +seem almost unparalleled. I send you the 5th & 6th vols. of the +_Bibliotheque physico ecconomie_ erroneously lettered as the 7th & +8th, which are not yet come out. I inclose with them the article +"Etats Unis" of the new Encyclopedie. This article is recently +published, & a few copies have been printed separate. For this +twelvemonth past little new & excellent has appeared either in +literature or the arts. An Abbe Rochon has applied the metal called +platina to the telescope instead of the mixed metal of which the +specula were formerly composed. It is insusceptible of rust, as gold +is, and he thinks it's reflective power equal to that of the mixed +metal. He has observed a very curious effect of the natural +chrystals, & especially of those of Iceland; which is that lenses +made of them have two distinct focuses, and present you the object +distinctly at two different distances. This I have seen myself. A +new method of copying has been invented here. I called on the +inventor, & he presented me a plate of copper, a pen & ink. I wrote +a note on the plate, and in about three quarters of an hour he +brought me an hundred copies, as perfect as the imagination can +conceive. Had I written my name, he could have put it to so many +bonds, so that I should have acknoleged the Signature to be my own. +The copying of paintings in England is very conceivable. Any number +may be taken, which shall give you the true lineaments & colouring of +the original without injuring that. This is so like creation, that +had I not seen it, I should have doubted it. -- The death of the K. +of Prussia, which happened on the 17th inst. will probably employ the +pens, if not the swords of politicians. We had exchanged the +ratifications of our treaty with him. The articles of this which +were intended to prevent or miticate wars, by lessening their aliment +are so much applauded in Europe that I think the example will be +followed. I have the honour to be with very sincere esteem, Dear +Sir, your most obedt. humble servant. + + + "DIALOGUE BETWEEN MY HEAD & MY HEART" + + _To Maria Cosway_ + _Paris, October 12, 1786_ + + MY DEAR MADAM, -- Having performed the last sad office of +handing you into your carriage at the pavillon de St. Denis, and seen +the wheels get actually into motion, I turned on my heel & walked, +more dead than alive, to the opposite door, where my own was awaiting +me. Mr. Danquerville was missing. He was sought for, found, & +dragged down stairs. We were crammed into the carriage, like +recruits for the Bastille, & not having soul enough to give orders to +the coachman, he presumed Paris our destination, & drove off. After +a considerable interval, silence was broke with a _"Je suis vraiment +afflige du depart de ces bons gens."_ This was a signal for a mutual +confession of distress. We began immediately to talk of Mr. & Mrs. +Cosway, of their goodness, their talents, their amiability; & tho we +spoke of nothing else, we seemed hardly to have entered into matter +when the coachman announced the rue St. Denis, & that we were +opposite Mr. Danquerville's. He insisted on descending there & +traversing a short passage to his lodgings. I was carried home. +Seated by my fireside, solitary & sad, the following dialogue took +place between my Head & my Heart: + + _Head._ Well, friend, you seem to be in a pretty trim. + + _Heart._ I am indeed the most wretched of all earthly beings. +Overwhelmed with grief, every fibre of my frame distended beyond its +natural powers to bear, I would willingly meet whatever catastrophe +should leave me no more to feel or to fear. + + _Head._ These are the eternal consequences of your warmth & +precipitation. This is one of the scrapes into which you are ever +leading us. You confess your follies indeed; but still you hug & +cherish them; & no reformation can be hoped, where there is no +repentance. + + _Heart._ Oh, my friend! this is no moment to upbraid my +foibles. I am rent into fragments by the force of my grief! If you +have any balm, pour it into my wounds; if none, do not harrow them by +new torments. Spare me in this awful moment! At any other I will +attend with patience to your admonitions. + + _Head._ On the contrary I never found that the moment of +triumph with you was the moment of attention to my admonitions. +While suffering under your follies, you may perhaps be made sensible +of them, but, the paroxysm over, you fancy it can never return. +Harsh therefore as the medicine may be, it is my office to administer +it. You will be pleased to remember that when our friend Trumbull +used to be telling us of the merits & talents of these good people, I +never ceased whispering to you that we had no occasion for new +acquaintance; that the greater their merits & talents, the more +dangerous their friendship to our tranquillity, because the regret at +parting would be greater. + + _Heart._ Accordingly, Sir, this acquaintance was not the +consequence of my doings. It was one of your projects which threw us +in the way of it. It was you, remember, & not I, who desired the +meeting at Legrand & Molinos. I never trouble myself with domes nor +arches. The Halle aux bleds might have rotted down before I should +have gone to see it. But you, forsooth, who are eternally getting us +to sleep with your diagrams & crotchets, must go & examine this +wonderful piece of architecture. And when you had seen it, oh! it +was the most superb thing on earth! What you had seen there was +worth all you had yet seen in Paris! I thought so too. But I meant +it of the lady & gentleman to whom we had been presented; & not of a +parcel of sticks & chips put together in pens. You then, Sir, & not +I, have been the cause of the present distress. + + _Head._ It would have been happy for you if my diagrams & +crotchets had gotten you to sleep on that day, as you are pleased to +say they eternally do. My visit to Legrand & Molinos had public +utility for it's object. A market is to be built in Richmond. What +a commodious plan is that of Legrand & Molinos; especially if we put +on it the noble dome of the Halle aux bleds. If such a bridge as +they shewed us can be thrown across the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, +the floating bridges taken up & the navigation of that river opened, +what a copious resource will be added, of wood & provisions, to warm +& feed the poor of that city? While I was occupied with these +objects, you were dilating with your new acquaintances, & contriving +how to prevent a separation from them. Every soul of you had an +engagement for the day. Yet all these were to be sacrificed, that +you might dine together. Lying messengers were to be despatched into +every quarter of the city, with apologies for your breach of +engagement. You particularly had the effrontery to send word to the +Dutchess Danville that, on the moment we were setting out to dine +with her, despatches came to hand which required immediate attention. +You wanted me to invent a more ingenious excuse; but I knew you were +getting into a scrape, & I would have nothing to do with it. Well, +after dinner to St. Cloud, from St. Cloud to Ruggieri's, from +Ruggieri to Krumfoltz, & if the day had been as long as a Lapland +summer day, you would still have contrived means among you to have +filled it. + + + _Heart._ Oh! my dear friend, how you have revived me by +recalling to my mind the transactions of that day! How well I +remember them all, & that when I came home at night & looked back to +the morning, it seemed to have been a month agone. Go on then, like +a kind comforter & paint to me the day we went to St. Germains. How +beautiful was every object! the Port de Reuilly, the hills along the +Seine, the rainbows of the machine of Marly, the terrace of St. +Germains, the chateaux, the gardens, the statues of Marly, the +pavillon of Lucienne. Recollect too Madrid, Bagatelle, the King's +garden, the Dessert. How grand the idea excited by the remains of +such a column! The spiral staircase too was beautiful. Every moment +was filled with something agreeable. The wheels of time moved on +with a rapidity of which those of our carriage gave but a faint idea. +And yet in the evening when one took a retrospect of the day, what a +mass of happiness had we travelled over! Retrace all those scenes to +me, my good companion, & I will forgive the unkindness with which you +were chiding me. The day we went to St. Germains was a little too +warm, I think; was it not? + + _Head._ Thou art the most incorrigible of all the beings that +ever sinned! I reminded you of the follies of the first day, +intending to deduce from thence some useful lessons for you, but +instead of listening to these, you kindle at the recollection, you +retrace the whole series with a fondness which shews you want nothing +but the opportunity to act it over again. I often told you during +its course that you were imprudently engaging your affections under +circumstances that must have cost you a great deal of pain: that the +persons indeed were of the greatest merit, possessing good sense, +good humour, honest hearts, honest manners, & eminence in a lovely +art; that the lady had moreover qualities & accomplishments, +belonging to her sex, which might form a chapter apart for her: such +as music, modesty, beauty, & that softness of disposition which is +the ornament of her sex & charm of ours, but that all these +considerations would increase the pang of separation: that their stay +here was to be short: that you rack our whole system when you are +parted from those you love, complaining that such a separation is +worse than death, inasmuch as this ends our sufferings, whereas that +only begins them: & that the separation would in this instance be the +more severe as you would probably never see them again. + + _Heart._ But they told me they would come back again the next +year. + + _Head._ But in the meantime see what you suffer: & their return +too depends on so many circumstances that if you had a grain of +prudence you would not count upon it. Upon the whole it is +improbable & therefore you should abandon the idea of ever seeing +them again. + + _Heart._ May heaven abandon me if I do! + + _Head._ Very well. Suppose then they come back. They are to +stay two months, & when these are expired, what is to follow? +Perhaps you flatter yourself they may come to America? + + _Heart._ God only knows what is to happen. I see nothing +impossible in that supposition. And I see things wonderfully +contrived sometimes to make us happy. Where could they find such +objects as in America for the exercise of their enchanting art? +especially the lady, who paints landscapes so inimitably. She wants +only subjects worthy of immortality to render her pencil immortal. +The Falling Spring, the Cascade of Niagara, the Passage of the +Potowmac through the Blue Mountains, the Natural bridge. It is worth +a voyage across the Atlantic to see these objects; much more to +paint, and make them, & thereby ourselves, known to all ages. And +our own dear Monticello, where has nature spread so rich a mantle +under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty +do we there ride above the storms! How sublime to look down into the +workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, +all fabricated at our feet! and the glorious sun when rising as if +out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, & +giving life to all nature! I hope in God no circumstance may ever +make either seek an asylum from grief! With what sincere sympathy I +would open every cell of my composition to receive the effusion of +their woes! I would pour my tears into their wounds: & if a drop of +balm could be found on the top of the Cordilleras, or at the remotest +sources of the Missouri, I would go thither myself to seek & to bring +it. Deeply practised in the school of affliction, the human heart +knows no joy which I have not lost, no sorrow of which I have not +drunk! Fortune can present no grief of unknown form to me! Who then +can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the +same wound himself? But Heaven forbid they should ever know a +sorrow! Let us turn over another leaf, for this has distracted me. + + _Head._ Well. Let us put this possibility to trial then on +another point. When you consider the character which is given of our +country by the lying newspapers of London, & their credulous copyers +in other countries; when you reflect that all Europe is made to +believe we are a lawless banditti, in a state of absolute anarchy, +cutting one another's throats, & plundering without distinction, how +can you expect that any reasonable creature would venture among us? + + _Heart._ But you & I know that all this is false: that there is +not a country on earth where there is greater tranquillity, where the +laws are milder, or better obeyed: where every one is more attentive +to his own business, or meddles less with that of others: where +strangers are better received, more hospitably treated, & with a more +sacred respect. + + _Head._ True, you & I know this, but your friends do not know +it. + + _Heart._ But they are sensible people who think for themselves. +They will ask of impartial foreigners who have been among us, whether +they saw or heard on the spot any instances of anarchy. They will +judge too that a people occupied as we are in opening rivers, digging +navigable canals, making roads, building public schools, establishing +academies, erecting busts & statues to our great men, protecting +religious freedom, abolishing sanguinary punishments, reforming & +improving our laws in general, they will judge I say for themselves +whether these are not the occupations of a people at their ease, +whether this is not better evidence of our true state than a London +newspaper, hired to lie, & from which no truth can ever be extracted +but by reversing everything it says. + + _Head._ I did not begin this lecture my friend with a view to +learn from you what America is doing. Let us return then to our +point. I wished to make you sensible how imprudent it is to place +your affections, without reserve, on objects you must so soon lose, & +whose loss when it comes must cost you such severe pangs. Remember +the last night. You knew your friends were to leave Paris to-day. +This was enough to throw you into agonies. All night you tossed us +from one side of the bed to the other. No sleep, no rest. The poor +crippled wrist too, never left one moment in the same position, now +up, now down, now here, now there; was it to be wondered at if it's +pains returned? The Surgeon then was to be called, & to be rated as +an ignoramus because he could not divine the cause of this +extraordinary change. In fine, my friend, you must mend your +manners. This is not a world to live at random in as you do. To +avoid those eternal distresses, to which you are forever exposing us, +you must learn to look forward before you take a step which may +interest our peace. Everything in this world is a matter of +calculation. Advance then with caution, the balance in your hand. +Put into one scale the pleasures which any object may offer; but put +fairly into the other the pains which are to follow, & see which +preponderates. The making an acquaintance is not a matter of +indifference. When a new one is proposed to you, view it all round. +Consider what advantages it presents, & to what inconveniences it may +expose you. Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there +is no hook beneath it. The art of life is the art of avoiding pain: +& he is the best pilot who steers clearest of the rocks & shoals with +which he is beset. Pleasure is always before us; but misfortune is +at our side: while running after that, this arrests us. The most +effectual means of being secure against pain is to retire within +ourselves, & to suffice for our own happiness. Those, which depend +on ourselves, are the only pleasures a wise man will count on: for +nothing is ours which another may deprive us of. Hence the +inestimable value of intellectual pleasures. Even in our power, +always leading us to something new, never cloying, we ride serene & +sublime above the concerns of this mortal world, contemplating truth +& nature, matter & motion, the laws which bind up their existence, & +that eternal being who made & bound them up by those laws. Let this +be our employ. Leave the bustle & tumult of society to those who +have not talents to occupy themselves without them. Friendship is +but another name for an alliance with the follies & the misfortunes +of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then +as volunteers into those of another? Is there so little gall poured +into our cup that we must needs help to drink that of our neighbor? +A friend dies or leaves us: we feel as if a limb was cut off. He is +sick: we must watch over him, & participate of his pains. His +fortune is shipwrecked; ours must be laid under contribution. He +loses a child, a parent, or a partner: we must mourn the loss as if +it were our own. + + _Heart._ And what more sublime delight than to mingle tears +with one whom the hand of heaven hath smitten! to watch over the bed +of sickness, & to beguile it's tedious & it's painful moments! to +share our bread with one to whom misfortune has left none! This +world abounds indeed with misery: to lighten it's burthen we must +divide it with one another. But let us now try the virtues of your +mathematical balance, & as you have put into one scale the burthen of +friendship, let me put it's comforts into the other. When +languishing then under disease, how grateful is the solace of our +friends! how are we penetrated with their assiduities & attentions! +how much are we supported by their encouragements & kind offices! +When heaven has taken from us some object of our love, how sweet is +it to have a bosom whereon to recline our heads, & into which we may +pour the torrent of our tears! Grief, with such a comfort, is almost +a luxury! In a life where we are perpetually exposed to want & +accident, yours is a wonderful proposition, to insulate ourselves, to +retire from all aid, & to wrap ourselves in the mantle of +self-sufficiency! For assuredly nobody will care for him who cares +for nobody. But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in +the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, +the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the +days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly. +How gay did the face of nature appear! Hills, valleys, chateaux, +gardens, rivers, every object wore it's liveliest hue! Whence did +they borrow it? From the presence of our charming companion. They +were pleasing, because she seemed pleased. Alone, the scene would +have been dull & insipid: the participation of it with her gave it +relish. Let the gloomy monk, sequestered from the world, seek +unsocial pleasures in the bottom of his cell! Let the sublimated +philosopher grasp visionary happiness while pursuing phantoms dressed +in the garb of truth! Their supreme wisdom is supreme folly; & they +mistake for happiness the mere absence of pain. Had they ever felt +the solid pleasure of one generous spasm of the heart, they would +exchange for it all the frigid speculations of their lives, which you +have been vaunting in such elevated terms. Believe me then my +friend, that that is a miserable arithmetic which could estimate +friendship at nothing, or at less than nothing. Respect for you has +induced me to enter into this discussion, & to hear principles +uttered which I detest & abjure. Respect for myself now obliges me +to recall you into the proper limits of your office. When nature +assigned us the same habitation, she gave us over it a divided +empire. To you she allotted the field of science; to me that of +morals. When the circle is to be squared, or the orbit of a comet to +be traced; when the arch of greatest strength, or the solid of least +resistance is to be investigated, take up the problem; it is yours; +nature has given me no cognizance of it. In like manner, in denying +to you the feelings of sympathy, of benevolence, of gratitude, of +justice, of love, of friendship, she has excluded you from their +controul. To these she has adapted the mechanism of the heart. +Morals were too essential to the happiness of man to be risked on the +incertain combinations of the head. She laid their foundation +therefore in sentiment, not in science. That she gave to all, as +necessary to all: this to a few only, as sufficing with a few. I +know indeed that you pretend authority to the sovereign controul of +our conduct in all its parts: & a respect for your grave saws & +maxims, a desire to do what is right, has sometimes induced me to +conform to your counsels. A few facts however which I can readily +recall to your memory, will suffice to prove to you that nature has +not organized you for our moral direction. When the poor wearied +souldier whom we overtook at Chickahomony with his pack on his back, +begged us to let him get up behind our chariot, you began to +calculate that the road was full of souldiers, & that if all should +be taken up our horses would fail in their journey. We drove on +therefore. But soon becoming sensible you had made me do wrong, that +tho we cannot relieve all the distressed we should relieve as many as +we can, I turned about to take up the souldier; but he had entered a +bye path, & was no more to be found; & from that moment to this I +could never find him out to ask his forgiveness. Again, when the +poor woman came to ask a charity in Philadelphia, you whispered that +she looked like a drunkard, & that half a dollar was enough to give +her for the ale-house. Those who want the dispositions to give, +easily find reasons why they ought not to give. When I sought her +out afterwards, & did what I should have done at first, you know that +she employed the money immediately towards placing her child at +school. If our country, when pressed with wrongs at the point of the +bayonet, had been governed by it's heads instead of it's hearts, +where should we have been now? Hanging on a gallows as high as +Haman's. You began to calculate & to compare wealth and numbers: we +threw up a few pulsations of our warmest blood; we supplied +enthusiasm against wealth and numbers; we put our existence to the +hazard when the hazard seemed against us, and we saved our country: +justifying at the same time the ways of Providence, whose precept is +to do always what is right, and leave the issue to him. In short, my +friend, as far as my recollection serves me, I do not know that I +ever did a good thing on your suggestion, or a dirty one without it. +I do forever then disclaim your interference in my province. Fill +papers as you please with triangles & squares: try how many ways you +can hang & combine them together. I shall never envy nor controul +your sublime delights. But leave me to decide when & where +friendships are to be contracted. You say I contract them at random. +So you said the woman at Philadelphia was a drunkard. I receive no +one into my esteem till I know they are worthy of it. Wealth, title, +office, are no recommendations to my friendship. On the contrary +great good qualities are requisite to make amends for their having +wealth, title, & office. You confess that in the present case I +could not have made a worthier choice. You only object that I was so +soon to lose them. We are not immortal ourselves, my friend; how can +we expect our enjoyments to be so? We have no rose without it's +thorn; no pleasure without alloy. It is the law of our existence; & +we must acquiesce. It is the condition annexed to all our pleasures, +not by us who receive, but by him who gives them. True, this +condition is pressing cruelly on me at this moment. I feel more fit +for death than life. But when I look back on the pleasures of which +it is the consequence, I am conscious they were worth the price I am +paying. Notwithstanding your endeavours too to damp my hopes, I +comfort myself with expectations of their promised return. Hope is +sweeter than despair, & they were too good to mean to deceive me. In +the summer, said the gentleman; but in the spring, said the lady: & I +should love her forever, were it only for that! Know then, my +friend, that I have taken these good people into my bosom; that I +have lodged them in the warmest cell I could find: that I love them, +& will continue to love them through life: that if fortune should +dispose them on one side the globe, & me on the other, my affections +shall pervade it's whole mass to reach them. Knowing then my +determination, attempt not to disturb it. If you can at any time +furnish matter for their amusement, it will be the office of a good +neighbor to do it. I will in like manner seize any occasion which +may offer to do the like good turn for you with Condorcet, +Rittenhouse, Madison, La Cretelle, or any other of those worthy sons +of science whom you so justly prize. + + I thought this a favorable proposition whereon to rest the +issue of the dialogue. So I put an end to it by calling for my +night-cap. Methinks I hear you wish to heaven I had called a little +sooner, & so spared you the ennui of such a sermon. I did not +interrupt them sooner because I was in a mood for hearing sermons. +You too were the subject; & on such a thesis I never think the theme +long; not even if I am to write it, and that slowly & awkwardly, as +now, with the left hand. But that you may not be discouraged from a +correspondence which begins so formidably, I will promise you on my +honour that my future letters shall be of a reasonable length. I +will even agree to express but half my esteem for you, for fear of +cloying you with too full a dose. But, on your part, no curtailing. +If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to +me. Only let them be brimful of affection. I shall read them with +the dispositions with which Arlequin, in _Les deux billets_ spelt the +words "_je t'aime_," and wished that the whole alphabet had entered +into their composition. + + We have had incessant rains since your departure. These make +me fear for your health, as well as that you had an uncomfortable +journey. The same cause has prevented me from being able to give you +any account of your friends here. This voyage to Fontainebleau will +probably send the Count de Moustier & the Marquise de Brehan to +America. Danquerville promised to visit me, but has not done it as +yet. De la Tude comes sometimes to take family soup with me, & +entertains me with anecdotes of his five & thirty years imprisonment. +How fertile is the mind of man which can make the Bastile & Dungeon +of Vincennes yield interesting anecdotes! You know this was for +making four verses on Mme de Pompadour. But I think you told me you +did not know the verses. They were these: _"Sans esprit, sans +sentiment, Sans etre belle, ni neuve, En France on peut avoir le +premier amant: Pompadour en est l' epreuve."_ I have read the memoir +of his three escapes. As to myself my health is good, except my +wrist which mends slowly, & my mind which mends not at all, but +broods constantly over your departure. The lateness of the season +obliges me to decline my journey into the south of France. Present +me in the most friendly terms to Mr. Cosway, & receive me into your +own recollection with a partiality & a warmth, proportioned, not to +my own poor merit, but to the sentiments of sincere affection & +esteem with which I have the honour to be, my dear Madam, your most +obedient humble servant. + + + HOMER, NEW JERSEY FARMERS, AND THE WHEEL + + _To St. John de Crevecoeur_ + _Paris, January 15, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I see by the Journal of this morning, that they +are robbing us of another of our inventions to give it to the +English. The writer, indeed, only admits them to have revived what +he thinks was known to the Greeks, that is, the making the +circumference of a wheel of one single piece. The farmers in New +Jersey were the first who practised it, and they practised it +commonly. Dr. Franklin, in one of his trips to London, mentioned +this practice to the man now in London, who has the patent for making +those wheels. The idea struck him. The Doctor promised to go to his +shop, and assist him in trying to make the wheel of one piece. The +Jersey farmers do it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it, +while green and juicy, into a circle; and leaving it so until it +becomes perfectly seasoned. But in London there are no saplings. +The difficulty was, then, to give to old wood the pliancy of young. +The Doctor and the workman labored together some weeks, and +succeeded; and the man obtained a patent for it, which has made his +fortune. I was in his shop in London, he told me the whole story +himself, and acknowledged, not only the origin of the idea, but how +much the assistance of Dr. Franklin had contributed to perform the +operation on dry wood. He spoke of him with love and gratitude. I +think I have had a similar account from Dr. Franklin, but cannot be +quite certain. I know, that being in Philadelphia when the first set +of patent wheels arrived from London, and were spoken of by the +gentleman (an Englishman) who brought them, as a wonderful discovery, +the idea of its being a new discovery was laughed at by the +Philadelphians, who, in their Sunday parties across the Delaware, had +seen every farmer's cart mounted on such wheels. The writer in the +paper, supposes the English workman got his idea from Homer. But it +is more likely the Jersey farmer got his idea from thence, because +ours are the only farmers who can read Homer; because, too, the +Jersey practice is precisely that stated by Homer: the English +practice very different. Homer's words are (comparing a young hero +killed by Ajax to a poplar felled by a workman) literally thus: `He +fell on the ground, like a poplar, which has grown smooth, in the +west part of a great meadow; with its branches shooting from its +summit. But the chariot maker, with his sharp axe, has felled it, +that he may bend a wheel for a beautiful chariot. It lies drying on +the banks of the river.' Observe the circumstances which coincide +with the Jersey practice. 1. It is a tree growing in a moist place, +full of juices and easily bent. 2. It is cut while green. 3. It is +bent into the circumference of a wheel. 4. It is left to dry in that +form. You, who write French well and readily, should write a line +for the Journal, to reclaim the honor of our farmers. Adieu. Yours +affectionately, + + + "THE PEOPLE ARE THE ONLY CENSORS . . ." + + _To Edward Carrington_ + _Paris, Jan. 16, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Uncertain whether you might be at New York at the +moment of Colo. Franks's arrival, I have inclosed my private letters +for Virginia under cover to our delegation in general, which +otherwise I would have taken the liberty to inclose particularly to +you, as best acquainted with the situation of the persons to whom +they are addressed. Should this find you at New York, I will still +ask your attention to them. The two large packages addressed to +Colo. N. Lewis contain seeds, not valuable enough to pay passage, but +which I would wish to be sent by the stage, or any similar quick +conveyance. The letters to Colo. Lewis & Mr. Eppes (who take care of +my affairs) are particularly interesting to me. The package for +Colo. Richd. Cary our judge of Admiralty near Hampton, contains seeds +& roots, not to be sent by Post. Whether they had better go by the +stage, or by water, you will be the best judge. I beg your pardon +for giving you this trouble. But my situation & your goodness will I +hope excuse it. In my letter to Mr. Jay, I have mentioned the +meeting of the Notables appointed for the 29th inst. It is now put +off to the 7th or 8th of next month. This event, which will hardly +excite any attention in America, is deemed here the most important +one which has taken place in their civil line during the present +century. Some promise their country great things from it, some +nothing. Our friend de La Fayette was placed on the list originally. +Afterwards his name disappeared; but finally was reinstated. This +shews that his character here is not considered as an indifferent +one; and that it excites agitation. His education in our school has +drawn on him a very jealous eye from a court whose principles are the +most absolute despotism. But I hope he has nearly passed his crisis. +The King, who is a good man, is favorably disposed towards him: & he +is supported by powerful family connections, & by the public good +will. He is the youngest man of the Notables except one whose office +placed him on the list. + + The Count de Vergennes has within these ten days had a very +severe attack of what is deemed an unfixed gout. He has been well +enough however to do business to-day. But anxieties for him are not +yet quieted. He is a great & good minister, and an accident to him +might endanger the peace of Europe. + + The tumults in America, I expected would have produced in +Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has +not. On the contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to +have given more confidence in the firmness of our governments. The +interposition of the people themselves on the side of government has +had a great effect on the opinion here. I am persuaded myself that +the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best +army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct +themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors: and +even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of +their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to +suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to +prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them +full information of their affairs thro' the channel of the public +papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole +mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion +of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; +and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government +without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not +hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every +man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them. I am +convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without +government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree +of happiness than those who live under the European governments. +Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains +morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, +under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two +classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true +picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and +keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, +but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become +inattentive to the public affairs, you & I, & Congress & Assemblies, +judges & governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law +of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and +experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own +kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, +and to the general prey of the rich on the poor. The want of news +has led me into disquisition instead of narration, forgetting you +have every day enough of that. I shall be happy to hear from you +sometimes, only observing that whatever passes thro' the post is +read, & that when you write what should be read by myself only, you +must be so good as to confide your letter to some passenger or +officer of the packet. I will ask your permission to write to you +sometimes, and to assure you of the esteem & respect with which I +have honour to be Dear Sir your most obedient & most humble servt. + + + REBELLION, SECESSION, AND DIPLOMACY + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, Jan. 30, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last to you was of the 16th of Dec, since which +I have received yours of Nov 25, & Dec 4, which afforded me, as your +letters always do, a treat on matters public, individual & +oeconomical. I am impatient to learn your sentiments on the late +troubles in the Eastern states. So far as I have yet seen, they do +not appear to threaten serious consequences. Those states have +suffered by the stoppage of the channels of their commerce, which +have not yet found other issues. This must render money scarce, and +make the people uneasy. This uneasiness has produced acts absolutely +unjustifiable; but I hope they will provoke no severities from their +governments. A consciousness of those in power that their +administration of the public affairs has been honest, may perhaps +produce too great a degree of indignation: and those characters +wherein fear predominates over hope may apprehend too much from these +instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily that nature +has formed man insusceptible of any other government but that of +force, a conclusion not founded in truth, nor experience. Societies +exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without +government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the +will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in +a slight degree, and in our states, in a great one. 3. Under +governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in +most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of +existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of +wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the +1st condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent +with any great degree of population. The second state has a great +deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious +degree of liberty & happiness. It has it's evils too: the principal +of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this +against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. _Malo +periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem_. Even this evil is +productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and +nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a +little rebellion now and then is a good thing, & as necessary in the +political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions +indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the +people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should +render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of +rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine +necessary for the sound health of government. If these transactions +give me no uneasiness, I feel very differently at another piece of +intelligence, to wit, the possibility that the navigation of the +Mississippi may be abandoned to Spain. I never had any interest +Westward of the Alleghaney; & I never will have any. But I have had +great opportunities of knowing the character of the people who +inhabit that country. And I will venture to say that the act which +abandons the navigation of the Mississippi is an act of separation +between the Eastern & Western country. It is a relinquishment of +five parts out of eight of the territory of the United States, an +abandonment of the fairest subject for the paiment of our public +debts, & the chaining those debts on our own necks _in perpetuum_. I +have the utmost confidence in the honest intentions of those who +concur in this measure; but I lament their want of acquaintance with +the character & physical advantages of the people who, right or +wrong, will suppose their interests sacrificed on this occasion to +the contrary interests of that part of the confederacy in possession +of present power. If they declare themselves a separate people, we +are incapable of a single effort to retain them. Our citizens can +never be induced, either as militia or as souldiers, to go there to +cut the throats of their own brothers & sons, or rather to be +themselves the subjects instead of the perpetrators of the parricide. +Nor would that country requite the cost of being retained against the +will of it's inhabitants, could it be done. But it cannot be done. +They are able already to rescue the navigation of the Mississippi out +of the hands of Spain, & to add New Orleans to their own territory. +They will be joined by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This will bring +on a war between them & Spain; and that will produce the question +with us whether it will not be worth our while to become parties with +them in the war, in order to reunite them with us, & thus correct our +error? & were I to permit my forebodings to go one step further, I +should predict that the inhabitants of the U S would force their +rulers to take the affirmative of that question. I wish I may be +mistaken in all these opinions. + + We have for some time expected that the Chevalier de la Luzerne +would obtain a promotion in the diplomatic line, by being appointed +to some of the courts where this country keeps an ambassador. But +none of the vacancies taking place which had been counted on, I think +the present disposition is to require his return to his station in +America. He told me himself lately, that he should return in the +spring. I have never pressed this matter on the court, tho' I knew +it to be desirable and desired on our part; because if the compulsion +on him to return had been the work of Congress, he would have +returned in such ill temper with them, as to disappoint them in the +good they expected from it. He would forever have laid at their door +his failure of promotion. I did not press it for another reason, +which is that I have great reason to believe that the character of +the Count de Moustier, who would go were the Chevalier to be +otherwise provided for, would give the most perfect satisfaction in +America. + + + As you are now returned into Congress it will become of +importance that you should form a just estimate of certain public +characters: on which therefore I will give you such notes as my +knolege of them has furnished me with. You will compare them with +the materials you are otherwise possessed of, and decide on a view of +the whole. You know the opinion I _formerly_ entertained of _my +friend Mr_. _Adams_. Yourself & the governor were the first who +_shook_ that opinion. I afterwards saw proofs which _convicted him_ +of a degree of _vanity_, and of a _blindness_ to it, of which no germ +_had appeared_ in Congress. A 7-_month's_ intimacy with him _here_ +and _as_ many _weeks_ in _London_ have given me opportunities of +studying him closely. _He is vain,_ _irritable and a bad calculator +of_ the force & probable effect of the motives which govern men. +This is _all_ the _ill_ which can possibly be _said of him_. He is +as disinterested as the being which made him: he is profound in his +views: and accurate in his judgment _except where knowledge of the +world_ is necessary to form a judgment. He is so amiable, that I +pronounce you will love him, if ever you become acquainted with him. +He would be, as he was, a great man in _Congress_. _Mr_. +_Carmichael_, is, I think, very little _known_ in _America_. I never +_saw him_, & while I was _in Congress I_ formed rather a +_disadvantageous idea_ of him. His letters, received then, showed +him _vain_, & more attentive to _ceremony & etiquette_ than we +suppose men _of sense_ should be. _I_ have now a constant +correspondence with him, and find _him_ a little _hypochondriac_ and +_discontented_. He possesses very _good understanding_, tho' not of +the _first order_. _I have_ had great opportunities of _searching +into_ his _character_, and have availed myself _of them_. Many +persons of different nations, _coming_ from _Madrid_ to _Paris_, all +speak of _him as_ in _high esteem_, & _I think_ it certain that he +has more of the _Count de Florida Blanca's friendship_, than any +_diplomatic_ character at _that court_. As long as this _minister_ +is in _office_, _Carmichael_ can do _more than_ any other _person +who_ could be _sent there_. You will see _Franks_, _and_ doubtless +he will be _asking some appointment_. I wish there may be any one +for _which_ he is _fit_. He is _light, indiscreet, active, honest, +affectionate_. Tho' _Bingham_ is not in _diplomatic office_, yet as +he wishes to be so, I will mention such circumstances of _him_, _as +you might_ otherwise be _deceived in_. _He will_ make _you believe +he_ was on the most intimate footing with the first _characters in +Europe_, & versed in the _secrets_ of every _cabinet_. Not a word of +this _is true_. _He_ had a rage for being _presented_ to _great +men_, & had no _modesty_ in the methods by which he could if _he +attained acquaintance_. Afterwards it was with such 90 who were +susceptible of impression from the _beauty of his wife_. I must +_except_ the Marquis de Bonclearren who had been an _old +acquaintance_. + + The _Marquis de La Fayette_ is a most valuable _auxiliary to +me_. His _zeal_ is unbounded, & his _weight_ with those in _power_, +_great_. His _education_ having been merely _military_, _commerce_ +was an unknown field to him. But his good sense enabling him to +_comprehend_ perfectly whatever is _explained to him_, _his agency_ +has been very _efficacious_. _He_ has a great deal of _sound +genius_, is well _remarked_ by the _King_, & rising in _popularity_. +_He_ has nothing against _him_, _but_ the _suspicion_ of _republican +principles_. I think he will one day _be of_ the _ministry_. His +foible is, a _canine appetite for popularity and fame_; but he will +get _above_ this. _The Count de Vergennes_ is _ill_. The +possibility of his _recovery_, renders it dangerous for _us to +express a doubt of it: but_ he is _in danger_. He is _a great +minister_ in _European affairs_, but has very _imperfect ideas_ of +_our institutions_, _and no confidence in_ them. His _devotion_ to +the principles of _pure despotism_, renders him _unaffectionate to +our governments_. But _his fear_ of _England makes him value us_ as +a _make weight_. He is _cool, reserved in political conversations, +but free and familiar_ on other _subjects_, and a very _attentive, +agreeable person_ to _do business with_. It is _impossible_ to have +a clearer, better _organized head_; but _age_ has _chilled his +heart_. Nothing should be spared, on our part, to attach this +country to us. It is the only one on which we can rely for support, +under every event. Its inhabitants love us more, I think, than they +do any other nation on earth. This is very much the effect of the +good dispositions with which the French officers returned. In a +former letter, I mentioned to you the dislocation of my wrist. I can +make not the least use of it, except for the single article of +writing, though it is going on five months since the accident +happened. I have great anxieties, lest I should never recover any +considerable use of it. I shall, by the advice of my surgeons, set +out in a fortnight for the waters of Aix, in Provence. I chose these +out of several they proposed to me, because if they fail to be +effectual, my journey will not be useless altogether. It will give +me an opportunity of examining the canal of Languedoc, and of +acquiring knowledge of that species of navigation, which may be +useful hereafter; but more immediately, it will enable me to make the +tour of the ports concerned in commerce with us, to examine, on the +spot, the defects of the late regulations respecting our commerce, to +learn the further improvements which may be made in it, and on my +return, to get this business finished. I shall be absent between two +and three months, unless anything happens to recall me here sooner, +which may always be effected in ten days, in whatever part of my +route I may be. In speaking _of characters_, I omitted _those of +Reyneval and Hennin_, the _two eyes_ of _Count de Vergennes_. The +_former_ is the most important _character_, _because possessing_ the +most of the _confidence_ of the _Count_. _He_ is rather _cunning_ +than _wise_, his views of things being neither _great_ nor _liberal_. +_He governs_ himself by _principles_ which he has _learned_ by +_rote_, and is _fit only_ for the _details_ of _execution_. _His +heart_ is susceptible of little _passions_ but not of _good ones_. +_He_ is _brother_-_in_-_law_ to _M_. _Gerard_, from whom he received +_disadvantageous impressions_ of _us_, _which_ cannot be _effaced_. +_He_ has much _duplicity_. _Hennin_ is a _philosopher, sincere, +friendly, liberal, learned, beloved_ by everybody; the _other_ by +_nobody_. I _think_ it a great _misfortune_ that the _United States_ +are in the _department_ of the _former_. As particulars of this kind +may be useful to you, in your present situation, I may hereafter +continue the chapter. I know it will be safely lodged in your +discretion. + + Feb. 5. Since writing thus far, _Franks_ is _returned_ from +_England_. _I learn_ that _Mr_. _Adams_ desires to be _recalled_, & +that _Smith_ should be _appointed charge des affaires_ there. It is +not for me to decide whether any _diplomatic character_ should be +_kept_ at a _court_, which _keeps_ none with _us_. You can judge of +_Smith's_ abilities by _his letters_. They are not of the _first +order_, but they are _good_. For his _honesty_, he is like our +friend _Monroe_; turn his _soul_ wrong side outwards, and there is +not a speck on it. _He_ has one _foible_, an _excessive +inflammability_ of _temper_, but he feels it when it comes on, and +has _resolution enough_ to _suppress_ it, and to _remain silent_ till +it _passes_ over. + + I send you by Colo. Franks, your pocket telescope, walking +stick & chemical box. The two former could not be combined together. +The latter could not be had in the form you referred to. Having a +great desire to have a portable copying machine, & being satisfied +from some experiments that the principle of the large machine might +be applied in a small one, I planned one when in England & had it +made. It answers perfectly. I have since set a workman to making +them here, & they are in such demand that he has his hands full. +Being assured that you will be pleased to have one, when you shall +have tried it's convenience, I send you one by Colo. Franks. The +machine costs 96 livres, the appendages 24 livres, and I send you +paper & ink for 12 livres; in all 132 livres. There is a printed +paper of directions; but you must expect to make many essays before +you succeed perfectly. A soft brush, like a shaving brush, is more +convenient than the sponge. You can get as much ink & paper as you +please from London. The paper costs a guinea a ream. + + + "THE EMPTY BUSTLE OF PARIS" + + _To Anne Willing Bingham_ + _Paris, February 7, 1787_ + + I know, Madam, that the twelve month is not yet expired; but it +will be, nearly, before this will have the honor of being put into +your hands. You are then engaged to tell me, truly and honestly, +whether you do not find the tranquil pleasures of America, preferable +to the empty bustle of Paris. For to what does that bustle tend? At +eleven o'clock, it is day, _chez madame_. The curtains are drawn. +Propped on bolsters and pillows, and her head scratched into a little +order, the bulletins of the sick are read, and the billets of the +well. She writes to some of her acquaintance, and receives the +visits of others. If the morning is not very thronged, she is able +to get out and hobble round the cage of the Palais royal; but she +must hobble quickly, for the _coeffeur's_ turn is come; and a +tremendous turn it is! Happy, if he does not make her arrive when +dinner is half over! The torpitude of digestion a little passed, she +flutters half an hour through the streets, by way of paying visits, +and then to the spectacles. These finished, another half hour is +devoted to dodging in and out of the doors of her very sincere +friends, and away to supper. After supper, cards; and after cards, +bed; to rise at noon the next day, and to tread, like a mill horse, +the same trodden circle over again. Thus the days of life are +consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; +ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us; +eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before us. +If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is +matter for the buz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by the +next morning. In America, on the other hand, the society of your +husband, the fond cares for the children, the arrangements of the +house, the improvements of the grounds, fill every moment with a +healthy and an useful activity. Every exertion is encouraging, +because to present amusement, it joins the promise of some future +good. The intervals of leisure are filled by the society of real +friends, whose affections are not thinned to cob-web, by being spread +over a thousand objects. This is the picture, in the light it is +presented to my mind; now let me have it in yours. If we do not +concur this year, we shall the next; or if not then, in a year or two +more. You see I am determined not to suppose myself mistaken. + + To let you see that Paris is not changed in its pursuits, since +it was honored with your presence, I send you its monthly history. +But this relating only to the embellishments of their persons, I must +add, that those of the city go on well also. A new bridge, for +example, is begun at the Place Louis Quinze; the old ones are +clearing of the rubbish which encumbered them in the form of houses; +new hospitals erecting; magnificent walls of inclosure, and Custom +houses at their entrances, &c. &c. &c. I know of no interesting +change among those whom you honored with your acquaintance, unless +Monsieur de Saint James was of that number. His bankruptcy, and +taking asylum in the Bastile, have furnished matter of aston-ishment. +His garden, at the Pont de Neuilly, where, on seventeen acres of +ground he had laid out fifty thousand louis, will probably sell for +somewhat less money. The workmen of Paris are making rapid strides +towards English perfection. Would you believe, that in the course of +the last two years, they have learned even to surpass their London +rivals in some articles? Commission me to have you a phaeton made, +and if it is not as much handsomer than a London one, as that is than +a Fiacre, send it back to me. Shall I fill the box with caps, +bonnets, &c.? Not of my own choosing, but -- I was going to say, of +Mademoiselle Bertin's, forgetting for the moment, that she too is +bankrupt. They shall be chosen then by whom you please; or, if you +are altogether nonplused by her eclipse, we will call an Assemblee +des Notables, to help you out of the difficulty, as is now the +fashion. In short, honor me with your commands of any kind, and they +shall be faithfully executed. The packets now established from Havre +to New York, furnish good opportunities of sending whatever you wish. + + + I shall end where I began, like a Paris day, reminding you of +your engagement to write me a letter of respectable length, an +engagement the more precious to me, as it has furnished me the +occasion, after presenting my respects to Mr. Bingham, of assuring +you of the sincerity of those senti-ments of esteem and respect, with +which I have the honor to be, Dear Madam, your most obedient and most +humble servant, + + + "A LITTLE REBELLION NOW AND THEN" + + _To Abigail Adams_ + _Paris, Feb. 22, 1787_ + + DEAR MADAM -- I am to acknolege the honor of your letter of +Jan. 29. and of the papers you were so good as to send me. They were +the latest I had seen or have yet seen. They left off too in a +critical moment; just at the point where the Malcontents make their +submission on condition of pardon, and before the answer of +government was known. I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of +resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I +wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when +wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a +little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the Atmosphere. +It is wonderful that no letter or paper tells us who is president of +Congress, tho' there are letters in Paris to the beginning of +January. I suppose I shall hear when I come back from my journey, +which will be eight months after he will have been chosen. And yet +they complain of us for not giving them intelligence. Our Notables +assembled to-day, and I hope before the departure of Mr. Cairnes I +shall have heard something of their proceedings worth communicating +to Mr. Adams. The most remarkeable effect of this convention as yet +is the number of puns and bon mots it has generated. I think were +they all collected it would make a more voluminous work than the +Encyclopedie. This occasion, more than any thing I have seen, +convinces me that this nation is incapable of any serious effort but +under the word of command. The people at large view every object +only as it may furnish puns and bon mots; and I pronounce that a good +punster would disarm the whole nation were they ever so seriously +disposed to revolt. Indeed, Madam, they are gone. When a measure so +capable of doing good as the calling the Notables is treated with so +much ridicule, we may conclude the nation desperate, and in charity +pray that heaven may send them good kings. -- The bridge at the +place Louis XV. is begun. The hotel dieu is to be abandoned and new +ones to be built. The old houses on the old bridges are in a course +of demolition. This is all I know of Paris. We are about to lose +the Count d'Aranda, who has desired and obtained his recall. Fernand +Nunnez, before destined for London is to come here. The Abbes Arnoux +and Chalut are well. The Dutchess Danville somewhat recovered from +the loss of her daughter. Mrs. Barrett very homesick, and fancying +herself otherwise sick. They will probably remove to Honfleur. This +is all our news. I have only to add then that Mr. Cairnes has taken +charge of 15. aunes of black lace for you at 9 livres the aune, +purchased by Petit and therefore I hope better purchased than some +things have been for you; and that I am with sincere esteem Dear +Madam your affectionate humble servt., + + + THE MAISON CARREE + + _To Madame de Tesse_ + _Nismes, March 20, 1787_ + + Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison quarree, +like a lover at his mistress. The stocking weavers and silk spinners +around it, consider me as a hypochondriac Englishman, about to write +with a pistol, the last chapter of his history. This is the second +time I have been in love since I left Paris. The first was with a +Diana at the Chateau de Laye-Epinaye in Beaujolois, a delicious +morsel of sculpture, by M. A. Slodtz. This, you will say, was a +rule, to fall in love with a female beauty: but with a house! It is +out of all precedent. No, Madam, it is not without a precedent, in +my own history. While in Paris, I was violently smitten with the +Hotel de Salm, and used to go to the Thuileries almost daily, to look +at it. The _loueuse des chaises_, inattentive to my passion, never +had the complaisance to place a chair there, so that sitting on the +parapet, and twisting my neck round to see the object of my +admiration, I generally left it with a _torti_-_colli_. + + From Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of +Roman grandeur. They have always brought you to my mind, because I +know your affection for whatever is Roman and noble. At Vienne I +thought of you. But I am glad you were not there; for you would have +seen me more angry than, I hope, you will ever see me. The +Praetorian palace, as it is called, comparable, for its fine +proportions, to the Maison quarree, defaced by the barbarians who +have converted it to its present purpose, its beautiful fluted +Corinthian columns cut out, in part, to make space for Gothic +windows, and hewed down, in the residue, to the plane of the +building, was enough, you must admit, to disturb my composure. At +Orange too, I thought of you. I was sure you had seen with pleasure, +the sublime triumphal arch of Marius at the entrance of the city. I +went then to the Arenae. Would you believe, Madam, that in this +eighteenth century, in France, under the reign of Louis XVI. they are +at this momont pulling down the circular wall of this superb remain, +to pave a road? And that too from a hill which is itself an entire +mass of stone, just as fit, and more accessible? A former intendant, +a M. de Basville has rendered his memory dear to the traveller and +amateur, by the pains he took to preserve and restore these monuments +of antiquity. The present one (I do not know who he is) is +demolishing the object, to make a good road to it. I thought of you +again, and I was then in great good humor, at the Pont du Gard, a +sublime antiquity, and well preserved. But most of all here, where +Roman taste, genius and magnificence, excite ideas analogous to yours +at every step. I could no longer oppose the inclination to avail +myself of your permission to write to you, a permission given with +too much complaisance by you, and used by me, with too much +indiscretion. Madame de Tott did me the same honor. But she, being +only the descendant of some of those puny heroes who boiled their own +kettles before the walls of Troy, I shall write to her from a +Grecian, rather than a Roman canton: when I shall find myself, for +example among her Phocaean relations at Marseilles. + + Loving, as you do madam, the precious remains of antiquity, +loving architecture, gardening, a warm sun and a clear sky, I wonder +you have never thought of moving Chaville to Nismes. This, as you +know, has not always been deemed impracticable; and therefore, the +next time a _Sur-intendant des batiments du roi_, after the example +of M. Colbert, sends persons to Nismes to move the Maison quarree to +Paris, that they may not come empty handed, desire them to bring +Chaville with them, to replace it. A propos of Paris. I have now +been three weeks from there, without knowing any thing of what has +passed. I suppose I shall meet it all at Aix, where I have directed +my letters to be lodged, _poste restante_. My journey has given me +leisure to reflect on this Assemblee des Notables. Under a good and +a young King, as the present, I think good may be made of it. I +would have the deputies then, by all means, so conduct themselves as +to encourage him to repeat the calls of this Assembly. Their first +step should be, to get themselves divided into two chambers instead +of seven; the Noblesse and the Commons separately. The second, to +persuade the King, instead of choosing the deputies of the Commons +himself, to summon those chosen by the people for the Provincial +administrations. The third, as the Noblesse is too numerous to be +all of the Assemblee, to obtain permission for that body to choose +its own deputies. Two Houses, so elected, would contain a mass of +wisdom which would make the people happy, and the King great; would +place him in history where no other act can possibly place him. They +would thus put themselves in the track of the best guide they can +follow, they would soon overtake it, become its guide in turn, and +lead to the wholesome modifications wanting in that model, and +necessary to constitute a rational government. Should they attempt +more than the established habits of the people are ripe for, they may +lose all, and retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim. +These, Madam, are my opinions; but I wish to know yours, which, I am +sure, will be better. + + From a correspondent at Nismes, you will not expect news. Were +I to attempt to give you news, I should tell you stories one thousand +years old. I should detail to you the intrigues of the courts of the +Caesars, how they affect us here, the oppressions of their praetors, +prefects, &c. I am immersed in antiquities from morning to night. +For me, the city of Rome is actually existing in all the splendor of +its empire. I am filled with alarms for the event of the irruptions +daily making on us, by the Goths, the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and +Vandals, lest they should re-conquer us to our original barbarism. +If I am sometimes induced to look forward to the eighteenth century, +it is only when recalled to it by the recollection of your goodness +and friendship, and by those sentiments of sincere esteem and +respect, with which I have the honor to be, Madam, your most obedient +and most humble servant, + + + THE REWARDS OF TRAVEL + + _To Lafayette_ + _Nice, April 11, 1787_ + + Your head, my dear friend, is full of Notable things; and being +better employed, therefore, I do not expect letters from you. I am +constantly roving about, to see what I have never seen before, and +shall never see again. In the great cities, I go to see what +travellers think alone worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it, +and generally gulp it all down in a day. On the other hand, I am +never satiated with rambling through the fields and farms, examining +the culture and cultivators, with a degree of curiosity which makes +some take me to be a fool, and others to be much wiser than I am. I +have been pleased to find among the people a less degree of physical +misery than I had expected. They are generally well clothed, and +have a plenty of food, not animal indeed, but vegetable, which is as +wholesome. Perhaps they are over worked, the excess of the rent +required by the landlord, obliging them to too many hours of labor in +order to produce that, and where-with to feed and clothe themselves. +The soil of Champagne and Burgundy I have found more universally good +than I had expected, and as I could not help making a comparison with +England, I found that comparison more unfavorable to the latter than +is generally admitted. The soil, the climate, and the productions +are superior to those of England, and the husbandry as good, except +in one point; that of manure. In England, long leases for twenty-one +years, or three lives, to wit, that of the farmer, his wife, and son, +renewed by the son as soon as he comes to the possession, for his own +life, his wife's and eldest child's, and so on, render the farms +there almost hereditary, make it worth the farmer's while to manure +the lands highly, and give the landlord an opportunity of +occasionally making his rent keep pace with the improved state of the +lands. Here the leases are either during pleasure, or for three, +six, or nine years, which does not give the farmer time to repay +himself for the expensive operation of well manuring, and therefore, +he manures ill, or not at all. I suppose, that could the practice of +leasing for three lives be introduced in the whole kingdom, it would, +within the term of your life, increase agricultural productions fifty +per cent; or were any one proprietor to do it with his own lands, it +would increase his rents fifty per cent, in the course of twenty-five +years. But I am told the laws do not permit it. The laws then, in +this particular, are unwise and unjust, and ought to give that +permission. In the southern provinces, where the soil is poor, the +climate hot and dry, and there are few animals, they would learn the +art, found so precious in England, of making vegetable manure, and +thus improving these provinces in the article in which nature has +been least kind to them. Indeed, these provinces afford a singular +spectacle. Calculating on the poverty of their soil, and their +climate by its latitude only, they should have been the poorest in +France. On the contrary, they are the richest, from one fortuitous +circumstance. Spurs or ramifications of high mountains, making down +from the Alps, and as it were, reticulating these provinces, give to +the vallies the protection of a particular inclosure to each, and the +benefit of a general stagnation of the northern winds produced by the +whole of them, and thus countervail the advantage of several degrees +of latitude. From the first olive fields of Pierrelatte, to the +orangeries of Hieres, has been continued rapture to me. I have often +wished for you. I think you have not made this journey. It is a +pleasure you have to come, and an improvement to be added to the many +you have already made. It will be a great comfort to you, to know, +from your own inspection, the condition of all the provinces of your +own country, and it will be interesting to them at some future day, +to be known to you. This is, perhaps, the only moment of your life +in which you can acquire that knowledge. And to do it most +effectually, you must be absolutely incognito, you must ferret the +people out of their hovels as I have done, look into their kettles, +eat their bread, loll on their beds under pretence of resting +yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft. You will feel a +sublime pleasure in the course of this investigation, and a sublimer +one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply your knowledge to the +softening of their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat into their +kettle of vegetables. + + You will not wonder at the subjects of my letter: they are the +only ones which have been presented to my mind for some time past; +and the waters must always be what are the fountains from which they +flow. According to this, indeed, I should have intermixed, from +beginning to end, warm expressions of friendship to you. But, +according to the ideas of our country, we do not permit ourselves to +speak even truths, when they may have the air of flattery. I content +myself, therefore, with saying once for all, that I love you, your +wife and children. Tell them so, and adieu. + + Yours affectionately, + + + "THE GRAND RECIPE FOR FELICITY" + + _To Martha Jefferson_ + _May 21, 1787_ + + I write to you, my dear Patsy, from the Canal of Languedoc, on +which I am at present sailing, as I have been for a week past, +cloudless skies above, limpid waters below, and find on each hand a +row of nightingales in full chorus. This delightful bird had given +me a rich treat before at the fountain of Vaucluse. After visiting +the tomb of Laura at Avignon, I went to see this fountain, a noble +one of itself, and rendered for ever famous by the songs of Petrarch +who lived near it. I arrived there somewhat fatigued, and sat down +by the fountain to repose myself. It gushes, of the size of a river, +from a secluded valley of the mountain, the ruins of Petrarch's +chateau being perched on a rock 200 feet perpendicular above. To add +to the enchantment of the scene, every tree and bush was filled with +nightingales in full song. I think you told me you had not yet +noticed this bird. As you have trees in the garden of the convent, +there must be nightingales in them, and this is the season of their +song. Endeavor my dear, to make yourself acquainted with the music +of this bird, that when you return to your own country you may be +able to estimate it's merit in comparison with that of the mocking +bird. The latter has the advantage of singing thro' a great part of +the year, whereas the nightingale sings but about 5. or 6 weeks in +the spring, and a still shorter term and with a more feeble voice in +the fall. I expect to be at Paris about the middle of next month. +By that time we may begin to expect our dear Polly. It will be a +circumstance of inexpressible comfort to me to have you both with me +once more. The object most interesting to me for the residue of my +life, will be to see you both developing daily those principles of +virtue and goodness which will make you valuable to others and happy +in yourselves, and acquiring those talents and that degree of science +which will guard you at all times against ennui, the most dangerous +poison of life. A mind always employed is always happy. This is the +true secret, the grand recipe for felicity. The idle are the only +wretched. In a world which furnishes so many emploiments which are +useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever +know what ennui is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable +resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a +habit of hostility against all mankind. We are now entering the port +of Toulouse, where I quit my bark; and of course must conclude my +letter. Be good and be industrious, and you will be what I shall +most love in the world. Adieu my dear child. Yours affectionately, + + + AFFAIRS OF DIPLOMACY + + _To John Adams_ + _Paris, July 1, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR -- I returned about three weeks ago from a very +useless voiage. Useless, I mean, as to the object which first +suggested it, that of trying the effect of the mineral waters of Aix +en Provence on my hand. I tried these because recommended among six +or eight others as equally beneficial, and because they would place +me at the beginning of a tour to the seaports of Marseilles, +Bourdeaux, Nantes and Lorient which I had long meditated, in hopes +that a knowlege of the places and persons concerned in our commerce +and the information to be got from them might enable me sometimes to +be useful. I had expected to satisfy myself at Marseilles of the +causes of the difference of quality between the rice of Carolina and +that of Piedmont which is brought in quantities to Marseilles. Not +being able to do it, I made an excursion of three weeks into the rice +country beyond the Alps, going through it from Vercelli to Pavia +about 60 miles. I found the difference to be, not in the management +as had been supposed both here and in Carolina, but in the species of +rice, and I hope to enable them in Carolina to begin the Cultivation +of the Piedmont rice and carry it on hand in hand with their own that +they may supply both qualities, which is absolutely necessary at this +market. I had before endeavored to lead the depot of rice from Cowes +to Honfleur and hope to get it received there on such terms as may +draw that branch of commerce from England to this country. It is an +object of 250,000 guineas a year. While passing thro' the towns of +Turin, Milan and Genoa, I satisfied myself of the practicability of +introducing our whale oil for their consumption and I suppose it +would be equally so in the other great cities of that country. I was +sorry that I was not authorized to set the matter on foot. The +merchants with whom I chose to ask conferences, met me freely, and +communicated fully, knowing I was in a public character. I could +however only prepare a disposition to meet our oil merchants. On the +article of tobacco I was more in possession of my ground, and put +matters into a train for inducing their government to draw their +tobaccos directly from the U.S. and not as heretofore from G.B. I am +now occupied with the new ministry here to put the concluding hand to +the new regulations for our commerce with this country, announced in +the letter of M. de Calonnes which I sent you last fall. I am in +hopes in addition to those, to obtain a suppression of the duties on +Tar, pitch, and turpentine, and an extension of the privileges of +American _whale_ oil, to their _fish_ oils in general. I find that +the quantity of Codfish oil brought to Lorient is considerable. This +being got off hand (which will be in a few days) the chicaneries and +vexations of the farmers on the article of tobacco, and their +elusions of the order of Bernis, call for the next attention. I have +reason to hope good dispositions in the new ministry towards our +commerce with this country. Besides endeavoring on all occasions to +multiply the points of contact and connection with this country, +which I consider as our surest main-stay under every event, I have +had it much at heart to remove from between us every subject of +misunderstanding or irritation. Our debts to the king, to the +officers, and the farmers are of this description. The having +complied with no part of our engagements in these draws on us a great +deal of censure, and occasioned a language in the Assemblees des +notables very likely to produce dissatisfaction between us. Dumas +being on the spot in Holland, I had asked of him some time ago, in +confidence, his opinion on the practicability of transferring these +debts from France to Holland, and communicated his answer to +Congress, pressing them to get you to go over to Holland and try to +effect this business. Your knowlege of the ground and former +successes occasioned me to take this liberty without consulting you, +because I was sure you would not weigh your personal trouble against +public good. I have had no answer from Congress, but hearing of your +journey to Holland have hoped that some money operation had led you +there. If it related to the debts of this country I would ask a +communication of what you think yourself at liberty to communicate, +as it might change the form of my answers to the eternal applications +I receive. The debt to the officers of France carries an interest of +about 2000 guineas, so we may suppose it's principal is between 30. +and 40,000. This makes more noise against [us] than all our other +debts put together. + + I send you the arrets which begin the reformation here, and +some other publications respecting America: together with copies of +letters received from Obryon and Lambe. It is believed that a naval +armament has been ordered at Brest in correspondence with that of +England. We know certainly that orders are given to form a camp in +the neighborhood of Brabant, and that Count Rochambeau has the +command of it. It's amount I cannot assert. Report says 15,000 men. +This will derange the plans of oeconomy. I take the liberty of +putting under your cover a letter for Mrs. Kinloch of South Carolina, +with a packet, and will trouble you to enquire for her and have them +delivered. The packet is of great consequence, and therefore +referred to her care, as she will know the safe opportunities of +conveying it. Should you not be able to find her, and can forward +the packet to it's address by any very safe conveiance I will beg you +to do it. I have the honour to be with sentiments of the most +perfect friendship and esteem Dear Sir your most obedient and most +humble servant, + + + "A PEEP . . . INTO ELYSIUM" + + _To Maria Cosway_ + _Paris, July 1, 1787_ + + You conclude, Madam, from my long silence that I am gone to the +other world. Nothing else would have prevented my writing to you so +long. I have not thought of you the less, but I took a peep only +into Elysium. I entered it at one door, & came out at another, +having seen, as I past, only Turin, Milan, & Genoa. I calculated the +hours it would have taken to carry me on to Rome, but they were +exactly so many more than I had to spare. Was not this provoking? +In thirty hours from Milan I could have been at the espousals of the +Doge and the Adriatic, but I am born to lose every thing I love. Why +were you not with me? So many enchanting scenes which only wanted +your pencil to consecrate them to fame. Whenever you go to Italy you +must pass at the Col de Tende. You may go in your chariot in full +trot from Nice to Turin, as if there were no mountain. But have your +pallet & pencil ready: for you will be sure to stop in the passage, +at the chateau de Saorgio. Imagine to yourself, madam, a castle & +village hanging to a cloud in front, on one hand a mountain cloven +through to let pass a gurgling stream; on the other a river, over +which is thrown a magnificent bridge; the whole formed into a bason, +it's sides shagged with rocks, olive trees, vines, herds, &c. I +insist on your painting it. How do you do? How have you done? and +when are you coming here? If not at all, what did you ever come for? +Only to make people miserable at losing you. Consider that you are +but a day from Paris. If you come by the way of St. Omers, which is +but two posts further, you will see a new & beautiful country. Come +then, my dear Madam, and we will breakfast every day _a Angloise_, +hie away to the Desert, dine under the bowers of Marly, and forget +that we are ever to part again. I received, in the moment of my +departure your favor of Feb. 15. and long to receive another: but +lengthy, warm, & flowing from the heart, as do the sentiments of +friendship & esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Madam, +your affectionate friend and servant. + + + "THE HOMAGE OF REASON" + + _To Peter Carr_ + _Paris, Aug. 10, 1787_ + + DEAR PETER, -- I have received your two letters of Decemb. 30 +and April 18, and am very happy to find by them, as well as by +letters from Mr. Wythe, that you have been so fortunate as to attract +his notice & good will; I am sure you will find this to have been one +of the most fortunate events of your life, as I have ever been +sensible it was of mine. I inclose you a sketch of the sciences to +which I would wish you to apply in such order as Mr. Wythe shall +advise; I mention also the books in them worth your reading, which +submit to his correction. Many of these are among your father's +books, which you should have brought to you. As I do not recollect +those of them not in his library, you must write to me for them, +making out a catalogue of such as you think you shall have occasion +for in 18 months from the date of your letter, & consulting Mr. Wythe +on the subject. To this sketch I will add a few particular +observations. + + 1. Italian. I fear the learning this language will confound +your French and Spanish. Being all of them degenerated dialects of +the Latin, they are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a +person speaking the three languages who did not mix them. It is a +delightful language, but late events having rendered the Spanish more +useful, lay it aside to prosecute that. + + 2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, & endeavor to +acquire an accurate knowlege of it. Our future connections with +Spain & Spanish America will render that language a valuable +acquisition. The antient history of a great part of America, too, is +written in that language. I send you a dictionary. + + 3. Moral philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures in +this branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler if he +had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one +man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have +become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality +therefore was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a +sense of right & wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as +much a part of his nature as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; +it is the true foundation of morality, & not the {to kalon}, truth, +&c. as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or +conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given +to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of +members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be +strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. +This sense is submitted indeed in some degree to the guidance of +reason; but it is a small stock which is required for this: even a +less one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a +ploughman & a professor. The former will decide it as well, & often +better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by +artificial rules. In this branch therefore read good books because +they will encourage as well as direct your feelings. The writings of +Sterne particularly form the best course of morality that ever was +written. Besides these read the books mentioned in the enclosed +paper; and above all things lose no occasion of exercising your +dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be +humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous &c. Consider +every act of this kind as an exercise which will strengthen your +moral faculties, & increase your worth. + + 4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this +object. In the first place divest yourself of all bias in favour of +novelty & singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject +rather than that of religion. It is too important, & the +consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand shake +off all the fears & servile prejudices under which weak minds are +servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her +tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the +existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of +the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. You will +naturally examine first the religion of your own country. Read the +bible then, as you would read Livy or Tacitus. The facts which are +within the ordinary course of nature you will believe on the +authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind in Livy & +Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor in one +scale, and their not being against the laws of nature does not weigh +against them. But those facts in the bible which contradict the laws +of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of +faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to +inspiration from god. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are +founded, and whether that evidence is so strong as that its falsehood +would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature in the +case he relates. For example in the book of Joshua we are told the +sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or +Tacitus we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of +statues, beasts, &c. But it is said that the writer of that book was +inspired. Examine therefore candidly what evidence there is of his +having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry, +because millions believe it. On the other hand you are astronomer +enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body +revolving on its axis as the earth does, should have stopped, should +not by that sudden stoppage have prostrated animals, trees, +buildings, and should after a certain time have resumed its +revolution, & that without a second general prostration. Is this +arrest of the earth's motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most +within the law of probabilities? You will next read the new +testament. It is the history of a personage called Jesus. Keep in +your eye the opposite pretensions 1. of those who say he was begotten +by god, born of a virgin, suspended & reversed the laws of nature at +will, & ascended bodily into heaven: and 2. of those who say he was a +man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, +who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, +& was punished capitally for sedition by being gibbeted according to +the Roman law which punished the first commission of that offence by +whipping, & the second by exile or death _in furca_. See this law in +the Digest Lib. 48. tit. 19. 28. 3. & Lipsius Lib. 2. de cruce. cap. +2. These questions are examined in the books I have mentioned under +the head of religion, & several others. They will assist you in your +inquiries, but keep your reason firmly on the watch in reading them +all. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of it's +consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will +find incitements to virtue in the comfort & pleasantness you feel in +it's exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If +you find reason to believe there is a god, a consciousness that you +are acting under his eye, & that he approves you, will be a vast +additional incitement; if that there be a future state, the hope of a +happy existence in that increases the appetite to deserve it; if that +Jesus was also a god, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid +and love. In fine, I repeat that you must lay aside all prejudice on +both sides, & neither believe nor reject anything because any other +persons, or description of persons have rejected or believed it. +Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are +answerable not for the rightness but uprightness of the decision. I +forgot to observe when speaking of the new testament that you should +read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom a council of +ecclesiastics have decided for us to be Pseudo-evangelists, as those +they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended +to inspiration as much as the others, and you are to judge their +pretensions by your own reason, & not by the reason of those +ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are some however still +extant, collected by Fabricius which I will endeavor to get & send +you. + + 5. Travelling. This makes men wiser, but less happy. When men +of sober age travel, they gather knolege which they may apply +usefully for their country, but they are subject ever after to +recollections mixed with regret, their affections are weakened by +being extended over more objects, & they learn new habits which +cannot be gratified when they return home. Young men who travel are +exposed to all these inconveniences in a higher degree, to others +still more serious, and do not acquire that wisdom for which a +previous foundation is requisite by repeated & just observations at +home. The glare of pomp & pleasure is analogous to the motion of +their blood, it absorbs all their affection & attention, they are +torn from it as from the only good in this world, and return to their +home as to a place of exile & condemnation. Their eyes are for ever +turned back to the object they have lost, & it's recollection poisons +the residue of their lives. Their first & most delicate passions are +hackneyed on unworthy objects here, & they carry home only the dregs, +insufficient to make themselves or anybody else happy. Add to this +that a habit of idleness, an inability to apply themselves to +business is acquired & renders them useless to themselves & their +country. These observations are founded in experience. There is no +place where your pursuit of knolege will be so little obstructed by +foreign objects as in your own country, nor any wherein the virtues +of the heart will be less exposed to be weakened. Be good, be +learned, & be industrious, & you will not want the aid of travelling +to render you precious to your country, dear to your friends, happy +within yourself. I repeat my advice to take a great deal of +exercise, & on foot. Health is the first requisite after morality. +Write to me often & be assured of the interest I take in your +success, as well as of the warmth of those sentiments of attachment +with which I am, dear Peter, your affectionate friend. + + P.S. Let me know your age in your next letter. Your cousins +here are well & desire to be remembered to you. + + ENCLOSURE + + Antient history. Herodot. Thucyd. Xenoph. hellen. Xenoph. Anab. + Q. Curt. Just. + Livy. Polybius. Sallust. Caesar. Suetonius. Tacitus. Aurel. + Victor. Herodian. + Gibbons' decline of the Roman empire. Milot histoire ancienne. + Mod. hist. English. Tacit. Germ. & Agricole -- Hume to the end of + H.VI. then Habington's E.IV. -- S't. Thomas Moor's E.5. & + R.3. -- L'd Bacon's H.7. -- L'd. Herbert of Cherbury's H.8. -- K. + Edward's journal (in Burnet) B'p. of Hereford's E.6. & Mary.-- + Cambden's Eliz. -- Wilson's Jac.I. -- Ludlow (omit Clarendon as + too seducing for a young republican. By and by read him) + Burnet's Charles 2. Jac.2. W'm. & Mary & Anne -- L'd Orrery down to + George 1. & 2. -- Burke's G.3. -- Robertson's hist. of Scotland. + American. Robertson's America. -- Douglass's N. America -- + Hutcheson's Massachusets. Smith's N. York. -- Smith's N. Jersey + -- Franklin's review of Pennsylvania. -- Smith's, Stith's, + Keith's, & Beverley's hist. of Virginia + Foreign. Mallet's North'n. Antiquities by Percy -- + Puffendorf's hist'y. + of Europe & Martiniere's of Asia, Africa & America -- Milot + histoire Moderne. Voltaire histoire universelle -- Milot hist. de + France -- Mariana's hist. of Spain in Span. -- Robertson's Charles + V. -- Watson's Phil. II. & III. -- Grotii Belgica. Mosheim's + Ecclesiastical history. + Poetry Homer -- Milton -- Ossian -- Sophocles -- Aeschylus + -- Eurip. -- Metastasio -- Shakesp. -- Theocritus + -- Anacreon [ . . . ] + Mathematics Bezout & whatever else Mr. Madison recommends. + Astronomy Delalande &'c. as Mr. Madison shall recommend. + Natural Philosophy. Musschenbroeck. + + Botany. Linnaei Philosophia Botanica -- Genera plantarum -- + Species plantarum -- Gronorii flora [ . . . ] + Chemistry. Fourcroy. + Agriculture. Home's principles of Agriculture -- Tull &c. + Anatomy. Cheselden. + Morality. The Socratic dialogues -- Cicero's Philosophies -- Kaim's + principles of Nat'l. religion -- Helvetius de l'esprit et + de l'homme. Locke's Essay. -- Lucretius -- Traite de Morale + & du bonheur + Religion. Locke's Conduct of the mind. -- Middleton's works -- + Bolingbroke's philosoph. works -- Hume's essays -- Voltaire's + works -- Beattie + Politics & Law. Whatever Mr. Wythe pleases, who will be so good + as to correct also all the preceding articles which are only + intended as a groundwork to be finished by his pencil. + + + REVOLT OF THE NOBLES + + _To John Adams_ + _Paris, Aug. 30, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR -- Since your favor of July 10. mine have been of July +17. 23 and 28. The last inclosed a bill of exchange from Mr. Grand +on Tessier for pound 46-17-10 sterl. to answer Genl. Sullivan's bill +for that sum. I hope it got safe to hand, tho' I have been anxious +about it as it went by post and my letters thro' that channel +sometimes miscarry. + + From the separation of the Notables to the present moment has +been perhaps the most interesting interval ever known in this +country. The propositions of the Government, approved by the +Notables, were precious to the nation and have been in an honest +course of execution, some of them being carried into effect, and +others preparing. Above all the establishment of the Provincial +assemblies, some of which have begun their sessions, bid fair to be +the instrument for circumscribing the power of the crown and raising +the people into consideration. The election given to them is what +will do this. Tho' the minister who proposed these improvements +seems to have meant them as the price of the new supplies, the game +has been so played as to secure the improvements to the nation +without securing the price. The Notables spoke softly on the subject +of the additional supplies, but the parliament took them up roundly, +refused to register the edicts for the new taxes, till compelled in a +bed of justice and prefered themselves to be transferred to Troyes +rather than withdraw their opposition. It is urged principally +against the king, that his revenue is 130. millions more than that of +his predecessor was, and yet he demands 120. millions further. You +will see this well explained in the `Conference entre un ministre +d'etat et un Conseiller au parlement' which I send you with some +other small pamphlets. In the mean time all tongues in Paris (and in +France as it is said) have been let loose, and never was a license of +speaking against the government exercised in London more freely or +more universally. Caracatures, placards, bon mots, have been +indulged in by all ranks of people, and I know of no well attested +instance of a single punishment. For some time mobs of 10; 20; +30,000 people collected daily, surrounded the parliament house, +huzzaed the members, even entered the doors and examined into their +conduct, took the horses out of the carriages of those who did well, +and drew them home. The government thought it prudent to prevent +these, drew some regiments into the neighborhood, multiplied the +guards, had the streets constantly patrolled by strong parties, +suspended privileged places, forbad all clubs, etc. The mobs have +ceased: perhaps this may be partly owing to the absence of +parliament. The Count d'Artois, sent to hold a bed of justice in the +Cour des Aides, was hissed and hooted without reserve by the +populace; the carriage of Madame de (I forget the name) in the +queen's livery was stopped by the populace under a belief that it was +Madame de Polignac's whom they would have insulted, the queen going +to the theater at Versailles with Madame de Polignac was received +with a general hiss. The king, long in the habit of drowning his +cares in wine, plunges deeper and deeper; the queen cries but sins +on. The Count d'Artois is detested, and Monsieur [Louis, Comte de +Provence] the general favorite. The Archbishop of Thoulouse is made +Ministre principale, a virtuous, patriotic and able character. The +Marechal de Castries retired yesterday notwithstanding strong +sollicitations to remain in office. The Marechal de Segur retired at +the same time, prompted to it by the court. Their successors are not +yet known. M. de St. Prist goes Ambassador to Holland in the room of +Verac transferred to Switzerland, and the Count de Moustier goes to +America in the room of the Chevalier de la Luzerne who has a promise +of the first vacancy. These nominations are not yet made formally, +but they are decided on and the parties are ordered to prepare for +their destination. As it has been long since I have had a +confidential conveiance to you, I have brought together the principal +facts from the adjournment of the Notables to the present moment +which, as you will perceive from their nature, required a +confidential conveyance. I have done it the rather because, tho' you +will have heard many of them and seen them in the public papers, yet +floating in the mass of lies which constitute the atmospheres of +London and Paris, you may not have been sure of their truth: and I +have mentioned every truth of any consequence to enable you to stamp +as false the facts pretermitted. I think that in the course of three +months the royal authority has lost, and the rights of the nation +gained, as much ground, by a revolution of public opinion only, as +England gained in all her civil wars under the Stuarts. I rather +believe too they will retain the ground gained, because it is +defended by the young and the middle aged, in opposition to the old +only. The first party increases, and the latter diminishes daily +from the course of nature. You may suppose that under this +situation, war would be unwelcome to France. She will surely avoid +it if not forced by the courts of London and Berlin. If forced, it +is probable she will change the system of Europe totally by an +alliance with the two empires, to whom nothing would be more +desireable. In the event of such a coalition, not only Prussia but +the whole European world must receive from them their laws. But +France will probably endeavor to preserve the present system if it +can be done by sacrifising to a certain degree the pretensions of the +patriotic party in Holland. But of all these matters you can judge, +in your position, where less secrecy is observed, better than I can. +I have news from America as late as July 19. Nothing had then +transpired from the Federal convention. I am sorry they began their +deliberations by so abominable a precedent as that of tying up the +tongues of their members. Nothing can justify this example but the +innocence of their intentions, and ignorance of the value of public +discussions. I have no doubt that all their other measures will be +good and wise. It is really an assembly of demigods. Genl. +Washington was of opinion they should not separate till October. I +have the honour to be with every sentiment of friendship and respect +Dear Sir Your most obedient and most humble servant, + + + A MOOSE FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE + + _To Buffon_ + _Paris, Octob. 1, 1787_ + + SIR, -- I had the honour of informing you some time ago that I +had written to some of my friends in America, desiring they would +send me such of the spoils of the Moose, Caribou, Elk & deer as might +throw light on that class of animals; but more particularly to send +me the complete skeleton, skin, & horns of the Moose, in such +condition as that the skin might be sewed up & stuffed on it's +arrival here. I am happy to be able to present to you at this moment +the bones & skin of a Moose, the horns of the Caribou, the elk, the +deer, the spiked horned buck, & the Roebuck of America. They all +come from New Hampshire & Massachusetts. I give you their popular +names, as it rests with yourself to decide their real names. The +skin of the Moose was drest with the hair on, but a great deal of it +has come off, and the rest is ready to drop off. The horns of the +elk are remarkably small. I have certainly seen of them which would +have weighed five or six times as much. This is the animal which we +call elk in the Southern parts of America, and of which I have given +some description in the Notes on Virginia, of which I had the honour +of presenting you a copy. I really doubt whether the flat-horned elk +exists in America; and I think this may be properly classed with the +elk, the principal difference being in the horns. I have seen the +Daim, the Cerf, the Chevreuil of Europe. But the animal we call Elk, +and which may be distinguished as the Round-horned elk, is very +different from them. I have never seen the Brand-hirtz or Cerf +d'Ardennes, nor the European elk. Could I get a sight of them I +think I should be able to say to which of them the American elk +resembles most, as I am tolerably well acquainted with that animal. +I must observe also that the horns of the Deer, which accompany these +spoils, are not of the fifth or sixth part of the weight of some that +I have seen. This individual has been of age, according to our +method of judging. I have taken measures particularly to be +furnished with large horns of our elk & our deer, & therefore beg of +you not to consider those now sent as furnishing a specimen of their +ordinary size. I really suspect you will find that the Moose, the +Round horned elk, & the American deer are species not existing in +Europe. The Moose is perhaps of a new class. I wish these spoils, +Sir, may have the merit of adding anything new to the treasures of +nature which have so fortunately come under your observation, & of +which she seems to have given you the key: they will in that case be +some gratification to you, which it will always be pleasing to me to +have procured, having the honor to be with sentiments of the most +perfect esteem & respect, Sir, your most obedient, & most humble +servant. + + + THE NEW CONSTITUTION + + _To William S. Smith_ + _Paris, Nov. 13, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I am now to acknoledge the receipt of your favors +of October the 4th, 8th, & 26th. In the last you apologise for your +letters of introduction to Americans coming here. It is so far from +needing apology on your part, that it calls for thanks on mine. I +endeavor to shew civilities to all the Americans who come here, & +will give me opportunities of doing it: and it is a matter of comfort +to know from a good quarter what they are, & how far I may go in my +attentions to them. Can you send me Woodmason's bills for the two +copying presses for the M. de la Fayette, & the M. de Chastellux? +The latter makes one article in a considerable account, of old +standing, and which I cannot present for want of this article. -- I +do not know whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my +thanks for the copy of the new constitution. I beg leave through you +to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks before I shall +receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: & +very bad. I do not know which preponderate. What we have lately +read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder, +would have sufficed to set me against a chief magistrate eligible for +a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: & what we +have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever +excluded the idea of one continuable for life. Wonderful is the +effect of impudent & persevering lying. The British ministry have so +long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies +about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed +them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves +have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed +them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it +ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can +history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted? I +say nothing of it's motives. They were founded in ignorance, not +wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a +rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The +part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the +importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under +such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the +public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There +has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a +half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & +half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties +if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people +preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy +is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify +a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be +refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It +is it's natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed +by the insurrection of Massachusetts: and in the spur of the moment +they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard in order. I hope in +God this article will be rectified before the new constitution is +accepted. -- You ask me if any thing transpires here on the subject +of S. America? Not a word. I know that there are combustible +materials there, and that they wait the torch only. But this country +probably will join the extinguishers. -- The want of facts worth +communicating to you has occasioned me to give a little loose to +dissertation. We must be contented to amuse, when we cannot inform. + + + MORE ON THE CONSTITUTION + + _To John Adams_ + _Paris, Nov. 13, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR -- This will be delivered you by young Mr. Rutledge. +Your knowledge of his father will introduce him to your notice. He +merits it moreover on his own account. + + I am now to acknolege your favors of Oct. 8 and 26. That of +August 25. was duly received, nor can I recollect by what accident I +was prevented from acknoleging it in mine of Sep. 28. It has been +the source of my subsistence hitherto, and must continue to be so +till I receive letters on the affairs of money from America. Van +Staphorsts & Willinks have answered my draughts. -- Your books for M. +de la Fayette are received here. I will notify it to him, who is at +present with his provincial assembly in Auvergne. + + Little is said lately of the progress of the negociations +between the courts of Petersburg, Vienna, and Versailles. The +distance of the former and the cautious, unassuming character of it's +minister here is one cause of delays: a greater one is the greediness +and instable character of the emperor. Nor do I think that the +Principal here [Brienne] will be easily induced to lend himself to +any connection which shall threaten a war within a considerable +number of years. His own reign will be that of peace only, in all +probability; and were any accident to tumble him down, this country +would immediately gird on it's sword and buckler, and trust to +occurrences for supplies of money. The wound their honour has +sustained festers in their hearts, and it may be said with truth that +the Archbishop and a few priests, determined to support his measures +because proud to see their order come again into power, are the only +advocates for the line of conduct which has been pursued. It is said +and believed thro' Paris literally that the Count de Monmorin +`pleuroit comme un enfant ["wept like a child"]' when obliged to sign +the counter declaration. Considering the phrase as figurative, I +believe it expresses the distress of his heart. Indeed he has made +no secret of his individual opinion. In the mean time the Principal +goes on with a firm and patriotic spirit, in reforming the cruel +abuses of the government and preparing a new constitution which will +give to this people as much liberty as they are capable of managing. +This I think will be the glory of his administration, because, tho' a +good theorist in finance, he is thought to execute badly. They are +about to open a loan of 100. millions to supply present wants, and it +is said the preface of the Arret will contain a promise of the +Convocation of the States general during the ensuing year. 12. or 15. +provincial assemblies are already in action, and are going on well; +and I think that tho' the nation suffers in reputation, it will gain +infinitely in happiness under the present administration. I inclose +to Mr. Jay a pamphlet which I will beg of you to forward. I leave it +open for your perusal. When you shall have read it, be so good as to +stick a wafer in it. It is not yet published, nor will be for some +days. This copy has been ceded to me as a favor. + + How do you like our new constitution? I confess there are +things in it which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what +such an assembly has proposed. The house of federal representatives +will not be adequate to the management of affairs either foreign or +federal. Their President seems a bad edition of a Polish king. He +may be reelected from 4. years to 4. years for life. Reason and +experience prove to us that a chief magistrate, so continuable, is an +officer for life. When one or two generations shall have proved that +this is an office for life, it becomes on every succession worthy of +intrigue, of bribery, of force, and even of foreign interference. It +will be of great consequence to France and England to have America +governed by a Galloman or Angloman. Once in office, and possessing +the military force of the union, without either the aid or check of a +council, he would not be easily dethroned, even if the people could +be induced to withdraw their votes from him. I wish that at the end +of the 4. years they had made him for ever ineligible a second time. +Indeed I think all the good of this new constitution might have been +couched in three or four new articles to be added to the good, old, +and venerable fabrick, which should have been preserved even as a +religious relique. -- Present me and my daughters affectionately to +Mrs. Adams. The younger one continues to speak of her warmly. +Accept yourself assurances of the sincere esteem and respect with +which I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, your friend and servant, + + P. S. I am in negociation with de la Blancherie. You shall +hear from me when arranged. + + + OBJECTIONS TO THE CONSTITUTION + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, Dec. 20, 1787_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last to you was of Oct. 8 by the Count de +Moustier. Yours of July 18. Sep. 6. & Oct. 24. have been +successively received, yesterday, the day before & three or four days +before that. I have only had time to read the letters, the printed +papers communicated with them, however interesting, being obliged to +lie over till I finish my dispatches for the packet, which dispatches +must go from hence the day after tomorrow. I have much to thank you +for. First and most for the cyphered paragraph respecting myself. +These little informations are very material towards forming my own +decisions. I would be glad even to know when any individual member +thinks I have gone wrong in any instance. If I know myself it would +not excite ill blood in me, while it would assist to guide my +conduct, perhaps to justify it, and to keep me to my duty, alert. I +must thank you too for the information in Thos. Burke's case, tho' +you will have found by a subsequent letter that I have asked of you a +further investigation of that matter. It is to gratify the lady who +is at the head of the Convent wherein my daughters are, & who, by her +attachment & attention to them, lays me under great obligations. I +shall hope therefore still to receive from you the result of the +further enquiries my second letter had asked. -- The parcel of rice +which you informed me had miscarried accompanied my letter to the +Delegates of S. Carolina. Mr. Bourgoin was to be the bearer of both +& both were delivered together into the hands of his relation here +who introduced him to me, and who at a subsequent moment undertook to +convey them to Mr. Bourgoin. This person was an engraver +particularly recommended to D'r. Franklin & Mr. Hopkinson. Perhaps +he may have mislaid the little parcel of rice among his baggage. -- I +am much pleased that the sale of Western lands is so successful. I +hope they will absorb all the Certificates of our Domestic debt +speedily, in the first place, and that then offered for cash they +will do the same by our foreign one. + + The season admitting only of operations in the Cabinet, and +these being in a great measure secret, I have little to fill a +letter. I will therefore make up the deficiency by adding a few +words on the Constitution proposed by our Convention. I like much +the general idea of framing a government which should go on of itself +peaceably, without needing continual recurrence to the state +legislatures. I like the organization of the government into +Legislative, Judiciary & Executive. I like the power given the +Legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely approve of the +greater house being chosen by the people directly. For tho' I think +a house chosen by them will be very illy qualified to legislate for +the Union, for foreign nations &c. yet this evil does not weigh +against the good of preserving inviolate the fundamental principle +that the people are not to be taxed but by representatives chosen +immediately by themselves. I am captivated by the compromise of the +opposite claims of the great & little states, of the latter to equal, +and the former to proportional influence. I am much pleased too with +the substitution of the method of voting by persons, instead of that +of voting by states: and I like the negative given to the Executive +with a third of either house, though I should have liked it better +had the Judiciary been associated for that purpose, or invested with +a similar and separate power. There are other good things of less +moment. I will now add what I do not like. First the omission of a +bill of rights providing clearly & without the aid of sophisms for +freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against +standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal & +unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in +all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land & not by the law +of nations. To say, as Mr. Wilson does that a bill of rights was not +necessary because all is reserved in the case of the general +government which is not given, while in the particular ones all is +given which is not reserved, might do for the audience to whom it was +addressed, but is surely a gratis dictum, opposed by strong +inferences from the body of the instrument, as well as from the +omission of the clause of our present confederation which had +declared that in express terms. It was a hard conclusion to say +because there has been no uniformity among the states as to the cases +triable by jury, because some have been so incautious as to abandon +this mode of trial, therefore the more prudent states shall be +reduced to the same level of calamity. It would have been much more +just & wise to have concluded the other way that as most of the +states had judiciously preserved this palladium, those who had +wandered should be brought back to it, and to have established +general right instead of general wrong. Let me add that a bill of +rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on +earth, general or particular, & what no just government should +refuse, or rest on inferences. The second feature I dislike, and +greatly dislike, is the abandonment in every instance of the +necessity of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of +the President. Experience concurs with reason in concluding that the +first magistrate will always be re-elected if the Constitution +permits it. He is then an officer for life. This once observed, it +becomes of so much consequence to certain nations to have a friend or +a foe at the head of our affairs that they will interfere with money +& with arms. A Galloman or an Angloman will be supported by the +nation he befriends. If once elected, and at a second or third +election out voted by one or two votes, he will pretend false votes, +foul play, hold possession of the reins of government, be supported +by the States voting for him, especially if they are the central ones +lying in a compact body themselves & separating their opponents: and +they will be aided by one nation of Europe, while the majority are +aided by another. The election of a President of America some years +hence will be much more interesting to certain nations of Europe than +ever the election of a king of Poland was. Reflect on all the +instances in history antient & modern, of elective monarchies, and +say if they do not give foundation for my fears. The Roman emperors, +the popes, while they were of any importance, the German emperors +till they became hereditary in practice, the kings of Poland, the +Deys of the Ottoman dependances. It may be said that if elections +are to be attended with these disorders, the seldomer they are +renewed the better. But experience shews that the only way to +prevent disorder is to render them uninteresting by frequent changes. +An incapacity to be elected a second time would have been the only +effectual preventative. The power of removing him every fourth year +by the vote of the people is a power which will not be exercised. +The king of Poland is removeable every day by the Diet, yet he is +never removed. -- Smaller objections are the Appeal in fact as well +as law, and the binding all persons Legislative Executive & Judiciary +by oath to maintain that constitution. I do not pretend to decide +what would be the best method of procuring the establishment of the +manifold good things in this constitution, and of getting rid of the +bad. Whether by adopting it in hopes of future amendment, or, after +it has been duly weighed & canvassed by the people, after seeing the +parts they generally dislike, & those they generally approve, to say +to them `We see now what you wish. Send together your deputies +again, let them frame a constitution for you omitting what you have +condemned, & establishing the powers you approve. Even these will be +a great addition to the energy of your government.' -- At all events +I hope you will not be discouraged from other trials, if the present +one should fail of its full effect. -- I have thus told you freely +what I like & dislike: merely as a matter of curiosity, for I know +your own judgment has been formed on all these points after having +heard everything which could be urged on them. I own I am not a +friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. The +late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it +should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the +course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century & a half. +No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of +power in the hands of government prevent insurrections. France, with +all it's despotism, and two or three hundred thousand men always in +arms has had three insurrections in the three years I have been here +in every one of which greater numbers were engaged than in +Massachusetts & a great deal more blood was spilt. In Turkey, which +Montesquieu sup-poses more despotic, insurrections are the events of +every day. In England, where the hand of power is lighter than here, +but heavier than with us they happen every half dozen years. Compare +again the ferocious depredations of their insurgents with the order, +the moderation & the almost self extinguishment of ours. -- After +all, it is my principle that the will of the majority should always +prevail. If they approve the proposed Convention in all it's parts, +I shall concur in it chearfully, in hopes that they will amend it +whenever they shall find it work wrong. I think our governments will +remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly +agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands +in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in +large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe. +Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be +attended to; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the +most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty. I +have tired you by this time with my disquisitions & will therefore +only add assurances of the sincerity of those sentiments of esteem & +attachment with which I am Dear Sir your affectionate friend & +servant + + P. S. The instability of our laws is really an immense evil. I +think it would be well to provide in our constitutions that there +shall always be a twelve-month between the ingross-ing a bill & +passing it: that it should then be offered to it's passage without +changing a word: and that if circum-stances should be thought to +require a speedier passage, it should take two thirds of both houses +instead of a bare majority. + + + A STRATEGY ON RATIFICATION + + _To Alexander Donald_ + _Paris, February 7, 1788_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received duly your friendly letter of November +the 12th. By this time, you will have seen published by Congress, +the new regulations obtained from this court, in favor of our +commerce. You will observe, that the arrangement relative to tobacco +is a continuation of the order of Berni for five years, only leaving +the price to be settled between the buyer and seller. You will see +too, that all contracts for tobacco are forbidden, till it arrives in +France. Of course, your proposition for a contract is precluded. I +fear the prices here will be low, especially if the market be +crowded. You should be particularly attentive to the article, which +requires that the tobacco should come in French or American bottoms, +as this article will, in no instance, be departed from. + + I wish with all my soul, that the nine first conventions may +accept the new constitution, because this will secure to us the good +it contains, which I think great and important. But I equally wish, +that the four latest conventions, which ever they be, may refuse to +accede to it, till a declaration of rights be annexed. This would +probably command the offer of such a declaration, and thus give to +the whole fabric, perhaps as much perfection as any one of that kind +ever had. By a declaration of rights, I mean one which shall +stipulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of +commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all cases, no +suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing armies. These are +fetters against doing evil, which no honest government should +decline. There is another strong feature in the new constitution, +which I as strongly dislike. That is, the perpetual reeligibility of +the President. Of this I expect no amendment at present, because I +do not see that any body has objected to it on your side the water. +But it will be productive of cruel distress to our country, even in +your day and mine. The importance to France and England, to have our +government in the hands of a friend or a foe, will occasion their +interference by money, and even by arms. Our President will be of +much more consequence to them than a King of Poland. We must take +care, however, that neither this, nor any other objection to the new +form, produces a schism in our Union. That would be an incurable +evil, because near friends falling out, never re-unite cordially; +whereas, all of us going together, we shall be sure to cure the evils +of our new constitution, before they do great harm. The box of books +I had taken the liberty to address to you, is but just gone from +Havre for New York. I do not see, at present, any symptoms strongly +indicating war. It is true, that the distrust existing between the +two courts of Versailles and London, is so great, that they can +scarcely do business together. However, the difficulty and doubt of +obtaining money make both afraid to enter into war. The little +preparations for war, which we see, are the effect of distrust, +rather then of a design to commence hostilities. And in such a state +of mind, you know, small things may produce a rupture: so that though +peace is rather probable, war is very possible. + + Your letter has kindled all the fond recollections of antient +times; recollections much dearer to me than any thing I have known +since. There are minds which can be pleased by honors and +preferments; but I see nothing in them but envy and enmity. It is +only necessary to possess them, to know how little they contribute to +happiness, or rather how hostile they are to it. No attachments +soothe the mind so much as those contracted in early life; nor do I +recollect any societies which have given me more pleasure, than those +of which you have partaken with me. I had rather be shut up in a +very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, +dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, +than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can +give. I shall be glad to hear from you often. Give me the small +news as well as the great. Tell Dr. Currie, that I believe I am +indebted to him a letter, but that like the mass of our countrymen, I +am not, at this moment, able to pay all my debts; the post being to +depart in an hour, and the last stroke of a pen I am able to send by +it, being that which assures you of the sentiments of esteem and +attachment, with which I am, Dear Sir, your affectionate friend and +servant, + + + + + + "A SON OF NATURE" + + _To Maria Cosway_ + _Paris, April 24, 1788_ + + I arrived here, my dear friend, the last night, and in a bushel +of letters presented me by way of reception, I saw that one was of +your handwriting. It is the only one I have yet opened, and I answer +it before I open another. I do not think I was in arrears in our +epistolary account when I left Paris. In affection I am sure you +were greatly my debtor. I often determined during my journey to +write to you: but sometimes the fatigue of exercise, and sometimes +fatigued attention hindered me. + + At Dusseldorff I wished for you much. I surely never saw so +precious a collection of paintings. Above all things those of Van +der Werff affected me the most. His picture of Sarah delivering Agar +to Abraham is delicious. I would have agreed to have been Abraham +though the consequence could have been that I should have been dead +five or six thousand years. Carlo Dolce became also a violent +favorite. I am so little of a connoisseur that I preferred the works +of these two authors to the old faded red things of Rubens. I am but +a son of nature, loving what I see & feel, without being able to give +a reason, nor caring much whether there be one. At Heidelberg I +wished for you too. In fact I led you by the hand thro' the whole +garden. + + I was struck with the resemblance of this scene to that of +Vaucluse as seen from what is called the chateau of Petrarch. Nature +has formed both on the same sketch, but she has filled up that of +Heidelberg with a bolder hand, the river is larger, the mountains +more majestic and better clothed. Art too has seconded her views. +The chateau of Petrarch is the ruin of a modest country house, that +of Heidelberg would stand well along side the pyramids of Egypt. It +is certainly the most magnificent ruin after those left us by the +antients. + + At Strasbourg I sat down to write to you, but for my soul I +could think of nothing at Strasbourg but the promontory of noses, of +Diego, of Slawkenburgius his historiaga, & the procession of the +Strasburgers to meet the man with the nose. Had I written to you +from thence it would have been a continuation of Sterne upon noses, & +I knew that nature had not formed me for a Continuator of Sterne: so +let it alone till I came here and received your angry letter. It is +a proof of your esteem, but I love better to have soft testimonials +of it. + + You must therefore now write me a letter teeming with +affection; such as I feel for you. So much I have no right to ask. +Being but just arrived I am not _au fait_ of the small news affecting +your acquaintances here. I know only that the princess Lubomirski is +still here & that she has taken the house that was M. de Simoulin's. +When you come again therefore you will be somewhat nearer to me, but +not near enough: and still surrounded by a numerous cortege, so that +I shall see you only by scraps as I did when you were here last. The +time before we were half days & whole days together, & I found this +too little. Adieu! God bless you! + + Your's affectionately + + + "AMAZONS AND ANGELS" + + _To Anne Willing Bingham_ + _Paris, May 11, 1788_ + + DEAR MADAM, -- A gentleman going to Philadelphia furnishes me +the occasion of sending you some numbers of the Cabinet des Modes & +some new theatrical pieces. These last have had great success on the +stage, where they have excited perpetual applause. We have now need +of something to make us laugh, for the topics of the times are sad +and eventful. The gay and thoughtless Paris is now become a furnace +of Politics. All the world is now politically mad. Men, women, +children talk nothing else, & you know that naturally they talk much, +loud & warm. Society is spoilt by it, at least for those who, like +myself, are but lookers on. -- You too have had your political +fever. But our good ladies, I trust, have been too wise to wrinkle +their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe & calm +the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate. +They have the good sense to value domestic happiness above all other, +and the art to cultivate it beyond all others. There is no part of +the earth where so much of this is enjoyed as in America. You agree +with me in this; but you think that the pleasures of Paris more than +supply its wants; in other words that a Parisian is happier than an +American. You will change your opinion, my dear Madam, and come over +to mine in the end. Recollect the women of this capital, some on +foot, some on horses, & some in carriages hunting pleasure in the +streets, in routs & assemblies, and forgetting that they have left it +behind them in their nurseries; compare them with our own +countrywomen occupied in the tender and tranquil amusements of +domestic life, and confess that it is a comparison of Amazons and +Angels. -- You will have known from the public papers that Monsieur +de Buffon, the father, is dead & you have known long ago that the son +and his wife are separated. They are pursuing pleasure in opposite +directions. Madame de Rochambeau is well: so is Madame de la +Fayette. I recollect no other Nouvelles de societe interesting to +you. And as for political news of battles & sieges, Turks & +Russians, I will not detail them to you, because you would be less +handsome after reading them. I have only to add then, what I take a +pleasure in repeating, tho' it will be the thousandth time that I +have the honour to be with sentiments of very sincere respect & +attachment, dear Madam, your most obedient & most humble servant. + + + "THE CRUMBS OF SCIENCE" + + _To the Rev. James Madison_ + _Paris, July 19, 1788_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last letter to you was of the 13th of August +last. As you seem willing to accept of the crumbs of science on +which we are subsisting here, it is with pleasure I continue to hand +them on to you, in proportion as they are dealt out. Herschel's +volcano in the moon you have doubtless heard of, and placed among the +other vagaries of a head, which seems not organised for sound +induction. The wildness of the theories hitherto proposed by him, on +his own discoveries, seems to authorise us to consider his merit as +that of a good optician only. You know also, that Doctor Ingenhouse +had discovered, as he supposed, from experiment, that vegetation +might be promoted by occasioning streams of the electrical fluid to +pass through a plant, and that other physicians had received and +confirmed this theory. He now, however, retracts it, and finds by +more decisive experiments, that the electrical fluid can neither +forward nor retard vegetation. Uncorrected still of the rage of +drawing general conclusions from partial and equivocal observations, +he hazards the opinion that _light_ promotes vegetation. I have +heretofore supposed from observation, that light affects the color of +living bodies, whether vegetable or animal; but that either the one +or the other receives _nutriment_ from that fluid, must be permitted +to be doubted of, till better confirmed by observation. It is always +better to have no ideas, than false ones; to believe nothing, than to +believe what is wrong. In my mind, theories are more easily +demolished than rebuilt. + + An Abbe here, has shaken, if not destroyed, the theory of de +Dominis, Descartes and Newton, for explaining the phenomenon of the +rainbow. According to that theory, you know, a cone of rays issuing +from the sun, and falling on a cloud in the opposite part of the +heavens, is reflected back in the form of a smaller cone, the apex of +which is the eye of the observer: so that the eye of the observer +must be in the axis of both cones, and equally distant from every +part of the bow. But he observes, that he has repeatedly seen bows, +the one end of which has been very near to him, and the other at a +very great distance. I have often seen the same thing myself. I +recollect well to have seen the end of a rainbow between myself and a +house, or between myself and a bank, not twenty yards distant; and +this repeatedly. But I never saw, what he says he has seen, +different rainbows at the same time, intersecting each other. I +never saw coexistent bows, which were not concentric also. Again, +according to the theory, if the sun is in the horizon, the horizon +intercepts the lower half of the bow, if above the horizon, that +intercepts more than the half, in proportion. So that generally, the +bow is less than a semicircle, and never more. He says he has seen +it more than a semicircle. I have often seen the leg of the bow +below my level. My situation at Monticello admits this, because +there is a mountain there in the opposite direction of the +afternoon's sun, the valley between which and Monticello, is five +hundred feet deep. I have seen a leg of a rainbow plunge down on the +river running through the valley. But I do not recollect to have +remarked at any time, that the bow was more than half a circle. It +appears to me, that these facts demolish the Newtonian hypothesis, +but they do not support that erected in its stead by the Abbe. He +supposes a cloud between the sun and observer, and that through some +opening in that cloud, the rays pass, and form an iris on the +opposite part of the heavens, just as a ray passing through a hole in +the shutter of a darkened room, and falling on a prism there, forms +the prismatic colors on the opposite wall. According to this, we +might see bows of more than the half circle, as often as of less. A +thousand other objections occur to this hypothesis, which need not be +suggested to you. The result is, that we are wiser than we were, by +having an error the less in our catalogue; but the blank occasioned +by it, must remain for some happier hypothesist to fill up. + + The dispute about the conversion and reconversion of water and +air, is still stoutly kept up. The contradictory experiments of +chemists, leave us at liberty to conclude what we please. My +conclusion is, that art has not yet invented sufficient aids, to +enable such subtle bodies to make a well defined impression on organs +as blunt as ours: that it is laudable to encourage investigation, but +to hold back conclusion. Speaking one day with Monsieur de Buffon, +on the present ardor of chemical inquiry, he affected to consider +chemistry but as cookery, and to place the toils of the laboratory on +a footing with those of the kitchen. I think it, on the contrary, +among the most useful of sciences, and big with future discoveries +for the utility and safety of the human race. It is yet, indeed, a +mere embryon. Its principles are contested; experiments seem +contradictory; their subjects are so minute as to escape our senses; +and their result too fallacious to satisfy the mind. It is probably +an age too soon, to propose the establishment of a system. The +attempt, therefore, of Lavoisier to reform the chemical nomenclature, +is premature. One single experiment may destroy the whole filiation +of his terms, and his string of sulphates, sulfites and sulfures, may +have served no other end, than to have retarded the progress of the +science, by a jargon, from the confusion of which, time will be +requisite to extricate us. Accordingly, it is not likely to be +admitted generally. + + You are acquainted with the properties of the composition of +nitre, salt of tartar and sulphur, called pulvis fulminans. Of this, +the explosion is produced by heat alone. Monsieur Bertholet, by +dissolving silver in the nitrous acid, precipitating it with lime +water, and drying the precipitate on ammoniac, has discovered a +powder which fulminates most powerfully, on coming into contact with +any substance whatever. Once made, it cannot be touched. It cannot +be put into a bottle, but must remain in the capsula, where dried. +The property of the spathic acid, to corrode flinty substances, has +been lately applied by a Mr. Puymaurin, to engrave on glass, as +artists engrave on copper, with aquafortis. M. de la Place has +discovered, that the secular acceleration and retardation of the +moon's motion, is occasioned by the action of the sun, in proportion +as his excentricity changes, or, in other words, as the orbit of the +earth increases or diminishes. So that this irregularity is now +perfectly calculable. + + Having seen announced in a gazette, that some person had found +in a library of Sicily, an Arabic translation of Livy, which was +thought to be complete, I got the charge des affaires of Naples here, +to write to Naples to inquire into the fact. He obtained in answer, +that an Arabic translation was found, and that it would restore to us +seventeen of the books lost, to wit, from the sixtieth to the +seventy-seventh, inclusive: that it was in possession of an Abbe +Vella, who, as soon as he shall have finished a work he has on hand, +will give us an Italian, and perhaps a Latin translation of this +Livy. There are persons, however, who doubt the truth of this +discovery, founding their doubts on some personal cricumstances +relating to the person who says he has this translation. I find, +nevertheless, that the charge des affaires believes in the discovery, +which makes me hope it may be true. + + A countryman of ours, a Mr. Ledyard of Connecticut, set out +from hence some time ago for St. Petersburg, to go thence to +Kamtschatka, thence to cross over to the western coast of America , +and penetrate through the continent, to the other side of it. He had +got within a few days' journey of Kamtschatka, when he was arrested +by order of the Empress of Russia, sent back, and turned adrift in +Poland. He went to London; engaged under the auspices of a private +society, formed there for pushing discoveries into Africa; passed by +this place, which he left a few days ago for Marseilles, where he +will embark for Alexandria and Grand Cairo; thence explore the Nile +to its source; cross the head of the Niger, and descend that to its +mouth. He promises me, if he escapes through his journey, he will go +to Kentucky, and endeavor to penetrate westwardly to the South Sea. + + The death of M. de Buffon you have heard long ago. I do not +know whether we shall have any thing posthumous of his. As to +political news, this country is making its way to a good +constitution. The only danger is, they may press so fast as to +produce an appeal to arms, which might have an unfavorable issue for +them. As yet, the appeal is not made. Perhaps the war which seems +to be spreading from nation to nation, may reach them: this would +insure the calling of the States General, and this, as is supposed, +the establishment of a constitution. + + I have the honor to be, with sentiments of sincere esteem and +respect, Dear Sir, your friend and servant, + + + "A MONOPOLY OF DESPOTISM" + + _To St. John de Crevecoeur_ + _Paris, August 9, 1788_ + + DEAR SIR, -- While our second revolution is just brought to a +happy end with you, yours here, is but cleverly under way. For some +days, I was really melancholy with the apprehension, that arms would +be appealed to, and the opposition crushed in its first efforts. But +things seem now to wear a better aspect. While the opposition keeps +at its highest wholesome point, government, unwilling to draw the +sword, is not forced to do it. The contest here is exactly what it +was in Holland: a contest between the monarchical and aristocratical +parts of the government, for a monopoly of despotism over the people. +The aristocracy in Holland, seeing that their common prey was likely +to escape out of their clutches, chose rather to retain its former +portion, and therefore coalesced with the single head. The people +remained victims. Here, I think, it will take a happier turn. The +parliamentary part of the aristocracy is alone firmly united. The +Noblesse and Clergy, but especially the former, are divided partly +between the parliamentary and the despotic party, and partly united +with the real patriots, who are endeavoring to gain for the nation +what they can, both from the parliamentary and the single despotism. +I think I am not mistaken in believing, that the King and some of his +ministers are well affected to this band; and surely, that they will +make great cessions to the people, rather than small ones to the +parliament. They are, accordingly, yielding daily to the national +reclamations, and will probably end, in according a well tempered +constitution. They promise the States General for the next year, and +I have good information that an _Arret_ will appear the day after +tomorrow, announcing them for May, 1789. How they will be composed, +and what they will do, cannot be foreseen. Their convocation, +however, will tranquillise the public mind, in a great degree, till +their meeting. There are, however, two intervening difficulties. 1. +Justice cannot till then continue completely suspended, as it now is. +The parliament will not resume their functions, but in their entire +body. The baillages are afraid to accept of them. What will be +done? 2. There are well founded fears of a bankruptcy before the +month of May. In the mean time, the war is spreading from nation to +nation. Sweden has commenced hostilities against Russia; Denmark is +shewing its teeth against Sweden; Prussia against Denmark; and +England too deeply engaged in playing the back game, to avoid coming +forward, and dragging this country and Spain in with her. But even +war will not prevent the assembly of the States General, because it +cannot be carried on without them. War, however, is not the most +favorable moment for divesting the monarchy of power. On the +contrary, it is the moment when the energy of a single hand, shews +itself in the most seducing form. + + Your friend the Countess d'Houdetot has had a long illness at +Sanois. She was well enough the other day to come to Paris & was so +good as to call on me, as I did also on her, without finding each +other. The Dutchess Danville is in the country altogether. Your +sons are well. Their master speaks very highly of the genius & +application of Aly, and more favorably of the genius than application +of the younger. They are both fine lads, and will make you very +happy. I am not certain whether more exercise than the rules of the +school admit would not be good for Aly. I conferred the other day on +this subject with M. le Moine, who seems to be of that opinion, & +disposed to give him every possible indulgence. + + A very considerable portion of this country, has been desolated +by a hail. I considered the newspaper accounts, of hailstones of ten +pounds weight, as exaggerations. But in a conversation with the Duke +de la Rochefoucaut, the other day, he assured me, that though he +could not say he had seen such himself, yet he considered the fact as +perfectly established. Great contributions, public and private, are +making for the sufferers. But they will be like the drop of water +from the finger of Lazarus. There is no remedy for the present evil, +nor way to prevent future ones, but to bring the people to such a +state of ease, as not to be ruined by the loss of a single crop. +This hail may be considered as the _coup de grace_ to an expiring +victim. In the arts, there is nothing new discovered since you left +us, which is worth communicating. Mr. Payne's iron bridge was +exhibited here, with great approbation. An idea has been encouraged, +of executing it in three arches, at the King's garden. But it will +probably not be done. + + I am, with sentiments of perfect esteem and attachment, Dear +Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, + + + COMMERCE, WAR, AND REVOLUTION + + _To George Washington_ + _Paris, Dec. 4, 1788_ + + SIR, -- Your favor of Aug. 31. came to hand yesterday; and a +confidential conveiance offering, by the way of London, I avail +myself of it to acknolege the receipt. + + + I have seen, with infinite pleasure, our new constitution +accepted by 11. states, not rejected by the 12th. and that the 13th. +happens to be a state of the least importance. It is true, that the +minorities in most of the accepting states have been very +respectable, so much so as to render it prudent, were it not +otherwise reasonable, to make some sacrifice to them. I am in hopes +that the annexation of the bill of rights to the constitution will +alone draw over so great a proportion of the minorities, as to leave +little danger in the opposition of the residue; and that this +annexation may be made by Congress and the assemblies, without +calling a convention which might endanger the most valuable parts of +the system. Calculation has convinced me that circumstances may +arise, and probably will arise, wherein all the resources of taxation +will be necessary for the safety of the state. For tho' I am +decidedly of opinion we should take no part in European quarrels, but +cultivate peace and commerce with all, yet who can avoid seeing the +source of war, in the tyranny of those nations who deprive us of the +natural right of trading with our neighbors? The products of the +U.S. will soon exceed the European demand: what is to be done with +the surplus, when there shall be one? It will be employed, without +question, to open by force a market for itself with those placed on +the same continent with us, and who wish nothing better. Other +causes too are obvious, which may involve us in war; and war requires +every resource of taxation & credit. The power of making war often +prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of +peace. If the new government wears the front which I hope it will, I +see no impossibility in the availing ourselves of the wars of others +to open the other parts of America to our commerce, as the price of +our neutrality. + + The campaign between the Turks & two empires has been clearly +in favor of the former. The emperor is secretly trying to bring +about a peace. The alliance between England, Prussia and Holland, +(and some suspect Sweden also) renders their mediation decisive +whenever it is proposed. They seemed to interpose it so +magisterially between Denmark & Sweden, that the former submitted to +it's dictates, and there was all reason to believe that the war in +the North-Western parts of Europe would be quieted. All of a sudden +a new flame bursts out in Poland. The king and his party are devoted +to Russia. The opposition rely on the protection of Prussia. They +have lately become the majority in the confederated diet, and have +passed a vote for subjecting their army to a commission independent +of the king, and propose a perpetual diet in which case he will be a +perpetual cypher. Russia declares against such a change in their +constitution, and Prussia has put an army into readiness for marching +at a moment's warning on the frontiers of Poland. These events are +too recent to see as yet what turn they will take, or what effect +they will have on the peace of Europe. So is that also of the lunacy +of the king of England, which is a decided fact, notwithstanding all +the stuff the English papers publish about his fevers, his deliriums +&c. The truth is that the lunacy declared itself almost at once; and +with as few concomitant complaints as usually attend the first +development of that disorder. I suppose a regency will be +established, and if it consist of a plurality of members it will +probably be peaceable. In this event it will much favor the present +wishes of this country, which are so decidedly for peace, that they +refused to enter into the mediation between Sweden and Russia, lest +it should commit them. As soon as the convocation of the +States-general was announced, a tranquillity took place thro' the +whole kingdom. Happily no open rupture had taken place in any part +of it. The parliaments were re-instated in their functions at the +same time. This was all they desired, and they had called for the +States general only through fear that the crown could not otherwise +be forced to re-instate them. Their end obtained, they began to +foresee danger to themselves in the States general. They began to +lay the foundations for cavilling at the legality of that body, if +it's measures should be hostile to them. The court, to clear itself +of the dispute, convened the Notables who had acted with general +approbation on the former occasion, and referred to them the forms of +calling and organising the States-general. These Notables consist +principally of nobility & clergy, the few of the tiers etat among +them being either parliament-men, or other privileged persons. The +court wished that in the future States general the members of the +Tiersetat should equal those of both the other orders, and that they +should form but one house, all together, & vote by persons, not by +orders. But the Notables, in the true spirit of priests and nobles, +combining together against the people, have voted by 5 bureaux out of +6. that the people or tiers etat shall have no greater number of +deputies than each of the other orders separately, and that they +shall vote by orders: so that two orders concurring in a vote, the +third will be overruled, for it is not here as in England where each +of the three branches has a negative on the other two. If this +project of theirs succeeds, a combination between the two houses of +clergy & nobles, will render the representation of the Tiers etat +merely nugatory. The bureaux are to assemble together to consolidate +their separate votes; but I see no reasonable hope of their changing +this. Perhaps the king, knowing that he may count on the support of +the nation and attach it more closely to him, may take on himself to +disregard the opinion of the Notables in this instance, and may call +an equal representation of the people, in which precedents will +support him. In every event, I think the present disquiet will end +well. The nation has been awaked by our revolution, they feel their +strength, they are enlightened, their lights are spreading, and they +will not retrograde. The first states general may establish 3. +important points without opposition from the court. 1. their own +periodical convocation. 2. their exclusive right of taxation (which +has been confessed by the king.) 3. the right of registering laws and +of previously proposing amendments to them, as the parliaments have +by usurpation been in the habit of doing. The court will consent to +this from it's hatred to the parliaments, and from the desire of +having to do with one rather than many legislatures. If the states +are prudent they will not aim at more than this at first, lest they +should shock the dispositions of the court, and even alarm the public +mind, which must be left to open itself by degrees to successive +improvements. These will follow from the nature of things. How far +they can proceed, in the end, towards a thorough reformation of +abuse, cannot be foreseen. In my opinion a kind of influence, which +none of their plans of reform take into account, will elude them all; +I mean the influence of women in the government. The manners of the +nation allow them to visit, alone, all persons in office, to sollicit +the affairs of the husband, family, or friends, and their +sollicitations bid defiance to laws and regulations. This obstacle +may seem less to those who, like our countrymen, are in the habit of +considering Right, as a barrier against all sollicitation. Nor can +such an one, without the evidence of his own eyes, believe the +desperate state to which things are reduced in this country from the +omnipotence of an influence which, fortunately for the happiness of +the sex itself, does not endeavor to extend itself in our country +beyond the domestic line. + + Your communications to the Count de Moustier, whatever they may +have been, cannot have done injury to my endeavors here to open the +W. Indies to us. On this head the ministers are invincibly mute, +tho' I have often tried to draw them into the subject. I have +therefore found it necessary to let it lie till war or other +circumstance may force it on. Whenever they are in war with England, +they must open the islands to us, and perhaps during that war they +may see some price which might make them agree to keep them always +open. In the meantime I have laid my shoulder to the opening the +markets of this country to our produce, and rendering it's +transportation a nursery for our seamen. A maritime force is the +only one by which we can act on Europe. Our navigation law (if it be +wise to have any) should be the reverse of that of England. Instead +of confining _importations_ to home-bottoms or those of the +_producing_ nations, I think we should confine _exportations_ to home +bottoms or to those of nations _having treaties with us_. Our +exportations are heavy, and would nourish a great force of our own, +or be a tempting price to the nation to whom we should offer a +participation of it in exchange for free access to all their +possessions. This is an object to which our government alone is +adequate in the gross, but I have ventured to pursue it, here, so far +as the consumption of productions by this country extends. Thus in +our arrangements relative to tobacco, none can be received here but +in French or American bottoms. This is emploiment for nearly 2000 +seamen, and puts nearly that number of British out of employ. By the +_Arret_ of Dec, 1787, it was provided that our whale oils should not +be received here but in French or American bottoms, and by later +regulations all oils but those of France and America are excluded. +This will put 100 English whale vessels immediately out of employ, +and 150. ere long; and call so many of French & American into +service. We have had 6000 seamen formerly in this business, the +whole of whom we have been likely to lose. The consumption of rice +is growing fast in this country, and that of Carolina gaining ground +on every other kind. I am of opinion the whole of the Carolina rice +can be consumed here. It's transportation employs 2500 sailors, +almost all of them English at present; the rice being deposited at +Cowes & brought from thence here. It would be dangerous to confine +this transportation to French & American bottoms the ensuing year, +because they will be much engrossed by the transportation of wheat & +flour hither, and the crop of rice might lie on hand for want of +vessels; but I see no objections to the extensions of our principle +to this article also, beginning with the year 1790. However, before +there is a necessity of deciding on this I hope to be able to consult +our new government in person, as I have asked of Congress a leave of +absence for 6. months, that is to say from April to November next. +It is necessary for me to pay a short visit to my native country, +first to reconduct my family thither, and place them in the hands of +their friends, & secondly to place my private affairs under certain +arrangements. When I left my own house, I expected to be absent but +5 months, & I have been led by events to an absence of 5 years. I +shall hope therefore for the pleasure of personal conferences with +your Excellency on the subject of this letter and others interesting +to our country, of getting my own ideas set to rights by a +communication of yours, and of taking again the tone of sentiment of +my own country which we lose in some degree after a certain absence. +You know doubtless of the death of the Marquise de Chastellux. The +Marquis de La Fayette is out of favor with the court, but high in +favor with the nation. I once feared for his personal liberty, but I +hope he is on safe ground at present. On the subject of the whale +fishery I inclose you some observations I drew up for the ministry +here, in order to obtain a correction of their _Arret_ of Sepr last, +whereby they had involved our oils with the English in a general +exclusion from their ports. They will accordingly correct this, so +that our oils will participate with theirs in the monopoly of their +markets. There are several things incidentally introduced which do +not seem pertinent to the general question. They were rendered +necessary by particular circumstances the explanation of which would +add to a letter already too long. I will trespass no further then +than to assure you of the sentiments of sincere attachment and +respect with which I have the honor to be your Excellency's most +obedt. humble servant. + + P.S. The observations inclosed, tho' printed, have been put +into confidential hands only. + + + CONVENING THE ESTATES GENERAL + + _To Richard Price_ + _Paris, January 8, 1789_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I was favored with your letter of October 26th, +and far from finding any of its subjects uninteresting as you +apprehend, they were to me, as everything which comes from you, +pleasing and instructive. I concur with you strictly in your opinion +of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see +nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think +themselves Christians. Your opinions and writings will have effect +in bringing others to reason on this subject. Our new Constitution, +of which you speak also, has succeeded beyond what I apprehended it +would have done. I did not at first believe that eleven States out +of thirteen would have consented to a plan consolidating them as much +into one. A change in their dispositions, which had taken place +since I left them, had rendered this consolidation necessary, that is +to say, had called for a federal government which could walk upon its +own legs, without leaning for support on the State legislatures. A +sense of necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and +consolatory proof that, whenever the people are well-informed, they +can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get +so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set +them to rights. You say you are not sufficiently informed about the +nature and circumstances of the present struggle here. Having been +on the spot from its first origin, and watched its movements as an +uninterested spectator, with no other bias than a love of mankind, I +will give you my ideas of it. Though celebrated writers of this and +other countries had already sketched good principles on the subject +of government, yet the American war seems first to have awakened the +thinking part of this nation in general from the sleep of despotism +in which they were sunk. The officers too who had been to America, +were mostly young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and more +ready to assent to the dictates of common sense and common right. +They came back impressed with these. The press, notwithstanding its +shackles, began to disseminate them; conversation, too, assumed new +freedom; politics became the theme of all societies, male and female, +and a very extensive and zealous party was formed, which may be +called the Patriotic party, who, sensible of the abusive government +under which they lived, longed for occasions of reforming it. This +party comprehended all the honesty of the kingdom, sufficiently at +its leisure to think; the men of letters, the easy bourgeois, the +young nobility, partly from reflection, partly from mode; for those +sentiments became a matter of mode, and as such united most of the +young women to the party. Happily for the nation, it happened that, +at the same moment, the dissipations of the court had exhausted the +money and credit of the State, and M. de Calonnes found himself +obliged to appeal to the nation, and to develop to it the ruin of +their finances. He had no idea of supplying the deficit by +economies, he saw no means but new taxes. To tempt the nation to +consent to these some douceurs were necessary. The Notables were +called in 1787. The leading vices of the constitution and +administration were ably sketched out, good remedies proposed, and +under the splendor of the propositions, a demand for more money was +couched. The Notables concurred with the minister in the necessity +of reformation, adroitly avoided the demand of money, got him +displaced, and one of their leading men placed in his room. The +archbishop of Thoulouse, by the aid of the hopes formed of him, was +able to borrow some money, and he reformed considerably the expenses +of the court. Notwithstanding the prejudices since formed against +him, he appeared to me to pursue the reformation of the laws and +constitution as steadily as a man could do who had to drag the court +after him, and even to conceal from them the consequences of the +measures he was leading them into. In his time the criminal laws +were reformed, provincial assemblies and States established in most +of the provinces, the States General promised, and a solemn +acknowledgment made by the King that he could not impose a new tax +without the consent of the nation. It is true he was continually +goaded forward by the public clamors, excited by the writings and +workings of the Patriots, who were able to keep up the public +fermentation at the exact point which borders on resistance, without +entering on it. They had taken into their alliance the Parliaments +also, who were led, by very singular circumstances, to espouse, for +the first time, the rights of the nation. They had from old causes +had personal hostility against M. de Calonnes. They refused to +register his laws or his taxes, and went so far as to acknowledge +they had no power to do it. They persisted in this with his +successor, who therefore exiled them. Seeing that the nation did not +interest themselves much for their recall, they began to fear that +the new judicatures proposed in their place would be established and +that their own suppression would be perpetual. In short, they found +their own strength insufficient to oppose that of the King. They +therefore insisted that the States General should be called. Here +they became united with and supported by the Patriots, and their +joint influence was sufficient to produce the promise of that +assembly. I always suspected that the archbishops had no objections +to this force under which they laid him. But the Patriots and +Parliament insisted it was their efforts which extorted the promise +against his will. The re-establishment of the Parliament was the +effect of the same coalition between the Patriots and Parliament; +but, once re-established, the latter began to see danger in that very +power, the States General, which they had called for in a moment of +despair, but which they now foresaw might very possibly abridge their +powers. They began to prepare grounds for questioning their +legality, as a rod over the head of the States, and as a refuge if +they should really extend their reformations to them. Mr. Neckar +came in at this period and very dexterously disembarrassed the +administration of these disputes by calling the notables to advise +the form of calling and constituting the States. The court was well +disposed towards the people, not from principles of justice or love +to them; but they want money. No more can be had from the people. +They are squeezed to the last drop. The clergy and nobles, by their +privileges and influence, have kept their property in a great measure +untaxed hitherto. They then remain to be squeezed, and no agent is +powerful enough for this but the people. The court therefore must +ally itself with the people. But the Notables, consisting mostly of +privileged characters, had proposed a method of composing the States, +which would have rendered the voice of the people, or Tiers Etats, in +the States General, inefficient for the purpose of the court. It +concurred then with the Patriots in intriguing with the Parliament to +get them to pass a vote in favor of the rights of the people. This +vote, balancing that of the Notables, has placed the court at liberty +to follow its own views, and they have determined that the Tiers Etat +shall have in the States General as many votes as the clergy and +nobles put together. Still a great question remains to be decided, +that is, shall the States General vote by orders, or by persons? +precedents are both ways. The clergy will move heaven and earth to +obtain the suffrage by orders, because that parries the effect of all +hitherto done for the people. The people will probably send their +deputies expressly instructed to consent to no tax, to no adoption of +the public debts, unless the unprivileged part of the nation has a +voice equal to that of the privileged; that is to say, unless the +voice of the Tiers Etat be equalled to that of the clergy and nobles. +They will have the young noblesse in general on their side, and the +King and court. Against them will be the ancient nobles and the +clergy. So that I hope, upon the whole, that by the time they meet, +there will be a majority of the nobles themselves in favor of the +Tiers Etat. So far history. We are now to come to prophecy; for you +will ask, to what will all this lead? I answer, if the States +General do not stumble at the threshold on the question before +stated, and which must be decided before they can proceed to +business, then they will in their first session easily obtain, 1. +Their future periodical convocation of the States. 2. Their +exclusive right to raise and appropriate money which includes that of +establishing a civil list. 3. A participation in legislation; +probably at first, it will only be a transfer to them of the portion +of it now exercised by parliament, that is to say, a right to propose +amendments and a negative. But it must infallibly end in a right of +origination. 4. Perhaps they may make a declaration of rights. It +will be attempted at least. Two other objects will be attempted, +viz., a habeas corpus law and a free press. But probably they may +not obtain these in the first session, or with modifications only, +and the nation must be left to ripen itself more for their unlimited +adoption. Upon the whole, it has appeared to me that the basis of +the present struggle is an illumination of the public mind as to the +rights of the nation, aided by fortunate incidents; that they can +never retrograde, but from the natural progress of things, must press +forward to the establishment of a constitution which shall assure to +them a good degree of liberty. They flatter themselves they shall +form a better constitution than the English. I think it will be +better in some points -- worse in others. It will be better in the +article of representation, which will be more equal. It will be +worse, as their situation obliges them to keep up the dangerous +machine of a standing army. I doubt, too, whether they will obtain +the trial by jury, because they are not sensible of its value. + + I am sure I have by this time heartily tired you with this long +epistle, and that you will be glad to see it brought to an end, with +assurances of the sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have +the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble +servant. + + + BACON, LOCKE, AND NEWTON + + _To John Trumbull_ + _Paris, Feb. 15, 1789_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of the 5'th. inst. +With respect to the busts & pictures I will put off till my return +from America all of them except Bacon, Locke and Newton, whose +pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider +them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any +exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures +which have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences, I would wish +to form them into a knot on the same canvas, that they may not be +confounded at all with the herd of other great men. To do this I +suppose we need only desire the copyist to draw the three busts in +three ovals all contained in a larger oval in some such form as this +each bust to be the size of life. + + xxx. The large oval would I suppose be about between four & +five feet. Perhaps you can suggest a better way of accomplishing my +idea. In your hands be it, as well as the subaltern expences you +mention. I trouble you with a letter to Mrs. Church. We have no +important news here but of the revolution of Geneva which is not yet +sufficiently explained. But they have certainly reformed their +government. I am with great respect D'r. Sir Your affectionate +friend & humble serv't. + + + "NEITHER FEDERALIST NOR ANTIFEDERALIST" + + _To Francis Hopkinson_ + _Paris, Mar. 13, 1789_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Since my last, which was of Dec. 21. yours of Dec. +9. & 21. are received. Accept my thanks for the papers and pamphlets +which accompanied them, and mine & my daughter's for the book of +songs. I will not tell you how much they have pleased us, nor how +well the last of them merits praise for it's pathos, but relate a +fact only, which is that while my elder daughter was playing it on +the harpsichord, I happened to look towards the fire & saw the +younger one all in tears. I asked her if she was sick? She said +`no; but the tune was so mournful.' -- The Editor of the Encyclopedie +has published something as to an advanced price on his future +volumes, which I understand alarms the subscribers. It was in a +paper which I do not take & therefore I have not yet seen it, nor can +say what it is. -- I hope that by this time you have ceased to make +wry faces about your vinegar, and that you have received it safe & +good. You say that I have been dished up to you as an +antifederalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was never +worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it I will +tell it you. I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the +whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever +in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I +was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last +degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven +but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I protest +to you I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther +from that of the Antifederalists. I approved, from the first moment, +of the great mass of what is in the new constitution, the +consolidation of the government, the organization into Executive +legislative & judiciary, the subdivision of the legislative, the +happy compromise of interests between the great & little states by +the different manner of voting in the different houses, the voting by +persons instead of states, the qualified negative on laws given to +the Executive which however I should have liked better if associated +with the judiciary also as in New York, and the power of taxation. I +thought at first that the latter might have been limited. A little +reflection soon convinced me it ought not to be. What I disapproved +from the first moment also was the want of a bill of rights to guard +liberty against the legislative as well as executive branches of the +government, that is to say to secure freedom in religion, freedom of +the press, freedom from monopolies, freedom from unlawful +imprisonment, freedom from a permanent military, and a trial by jury +in all cases determinable by the laws of the land. I disapproved +also the perpetual reeligibility of the President. To these points +of disapprobation I adhere. My first wish was that the 9. first +conventions might accept the constitution, as the means of securing +to us the great mass of good it contained, and that the 4. last might +reject it, as the means of obtaining amendments. But I was corrected +in this wish the moment I saw the much better plan of Massachusetts +and which had never occurred to me. With respect to the declaration +of rights I suppose the majority of the United states are of my +opinion: for I apprehend all the antifederalists, and a very +respectable proportion of the federalists think that such a +declaration should now be annexed. The enlightened part of Europe +have given us the greatest credit for inventing this instrument of +security for the rights of the people, and have been not a little +surprised to see us so soon give it up. With respect to the +re-eligibility of the president, I find myself differing from the +majority of my countrymen, for I think there are but three states out +of the 11. which have desired an alteration of this. And indeed, +since the thing is established, I would wish it not to be altered +during the life of our great leader, whose executive talents are +superior to those I believe of any man in the world, and who alone by +the authority of his name and the confidence reposed in his perfect +integrity, is fully qualified to put the new government so under way +as to secure it against the efforts of opposition. But having +derived from our error all the good there was in it I hope we shall +correct it the moment we can no longer have the same name at the +helm. These, my dear friend, are my sentiments, by which you will +see I was right in saying I am neither federalist nor antifederalist; +that I am of neither party, nor yet a trimmer between parties. These +my opinions I wrote within a few hours after I had read the +constitution, to one or two friends in America. I had not then read +one single word printed on the subject. I never had an opinion in +politics or religion which I was afraid to own. A costive reserve on +these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, +but less from myself. My great wish is to go on in a strict but +silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice & to keep +my name out of newspapers, because I find the pain of a little +censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure +of much praise. The attaching circumstance of my present office is +that I can do it's duties unseen by those for whom they are done. -- +You did not think, by so short a phrase in your letter, to have drawn +on yourself such an egotistical dissertation. + + + A BILL OF RIGHTS + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, Mar 15, 1789_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I wrote you last on the 12th of Jan. since which I +have received yours of Octob 17, Dec 8 & 12. That of Oct. 17. came +to hand only Feb 23. How it happened to be four months on the way, I +cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came. Looking over my +letter of Jan 12th, I remark an error of the word "probable" instead +of "improbable," which doubtless however you had been able to +correct. Your thoughts on the subject of the Declaration of rights +in the letter of Oct 17. I have weighed with great satisfaction. +Some of them had not occurred to me before, but were acknoleged just +in the moment they were presented to my mind. In the arguments in +favor of a declaration of rights, you omit one which has great weight +with me, the legal check which it puts into the hands of the +judiciary. This is a body, which if rendered independent & kept +strictly to their own department merits great confidence for their +learning & integrity. In fact what degree of confidence would be too +much for a body composed of such men as Wythe, Blair & Pendleton? On +characters like these the _"civium ardor prava jubentium"_ would make +no impression. I am happy to find that on the whole you are a friend +to this amendment. The Declaration of rights is like all other human +blessings alloyed with some inconveniences, and not accomplishing +fully it's object. But the good in this instance vastly overweighs +the evil. I cannot refrain from making short answers to the +objections which your letter states to have been raised. 1. That the +rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal +powers are granted. Answer. A constitutive act may certainly be so +formed as to need no declaration of rights. The act itself has the +force of a declaration as far as it goes; and if it goes to all +material points nothing more is wanting. In the draught of a +constitution which I had once a thought of proposing in Virginia, & +printed afterwards, I endeavored to reach all the great objects of +public liberty, and did not mean to add a declaration of rights. +Probably the object was imperfectly executed; but the deficiencies +would have been supplied by others, in the course of discussion. But +in a constitutive act which leaves some precious articles unnoticed, +and raises implications against others, a declaration of rights +becomes necessary by way of supplement. This is the case of our new +federal constitution. This instrument forms us into one state as to +certain objects, and gives us a legislative & executive body for +these objects. It should therefore guard us against their abuses of +power within the field submitted to them. 2. A positive declaration +of some essential rights could not be obtained in the requisite +latitude. Answer. Half a loaf is better than no bread. If we +cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can. 3. The +limited powers of the federal government & jealousy of the +subordinate governments afford a security which exists in no other +instance. Answer. The first member of this seems resolvable into +the first objection before stated. The jealousy of the subordinate +governments is a precious reliance. But observe that those +governments are only agents. They must have principles furnished +them whereon to found their opposition. The declaration of rights +will be the text whereby they will try all the acts of the federal +government, In this view it is necessary to the federal government +also; as by the same text they may try the opposition of the +subordinate governments. 4. Experience proves the inefficacy of a +bill of rights. True. But tho it is not absolutely efficacious +under all circumstances, it is of great potency always, and rarely +inefficacious. A brace the more will often keep up the building +which would have fallen with that brace the less. There is a +remarkable difference between the characters of the Inconveniences +which attend a Declaration of rights, & those which attend the want +of it. The inconveniences of the Declaration are that it may cramp +government in it's useful exertions. But the evil of this is +short-lived, trivial & reparable. The inconveniences of the want of +a Declaration are permanent, afflicting & irreparable. They are in +constant progression from bad to worse. The executive in our +governments is not the sole, it is scarcely the principal object of +my jealousy. The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable +dread at present, and will be for long years. That of the executive +will come in it's turn, but it will be at a remote period. I know +there are some among us who would now establish a monarchy. But they +are inconsiderable in number and weight of character. The rising +race are all republicans. We were educated in royalism; no wonder if +some of us retain that idolatry still. Our young people are educated +in republicanism, an apostasy from that to royalism is unprecedented +& impossible. I am much pleased with the prospect that a declaration +of rights will be added; and hope it will be done in that way which +will not endanger the whole frame of the government, or any essential +part of it. + + I have hitherto avoided public news in my letters to you, +because your situation insured you a communication of my letters to +Mr. Jay. This circumstance being changed, I shall in future indulge +myself in these details to you. There had been some slight hopes +that an accommodation might be affected between the Turks & two +empires but these hopes do not strengthen, and the season is +approaching which will put an end to them for another campaign at +least. The accident to the King of England has had great influence +on the affairs of Europe. His mediation joined with that of Prussia, +would certainly have kept Denmark quiet, and so have left the two +empires in the hands of the Turks & Swedes. But the inactivity to +which England is reduced, leaves Denmark more free, and she will +probably go on in opposition to Sweden. The K. of Prussia too had +advanced so far that he can scarcely retire. This is rendered the +more difficult by the troubles he has excited in Poland. He cannot +well abandon the party he had brought forward there so that it is +very possible he may be engaged in the ensuing campaign. France will +be quiet this year, because this year at least is necessary for +settling her future constitution. The States will meet the 27th of +April: and the public mind will I think by that time be ripe for a +just decision of the Question whether they shall vote by orders or +persons. I think there is a majority of the nobles already for the +latter. If so, their affairs cannot but go on well. Besides +settling for themselves a tolerably free constitution, perhaps as +free a one as the nation is yet prepared to bear, they will fund +their public debts. This will give them such a credit as will enable +them to borrow any money they may want, & of course to take the field +again when they think proper. And I believe they mean to take the +field as soon as they can. The pride of every individual in the +nation suffers under the ignominies they have lately been exposed to +and I think the states general will give money for a war to wipe off +the reproach. There have arisen new bickerings between this court & +the Hague, and the papers which have passed shew the most bitter +acrimony rankling at the heart of this ministry. They have recalled +their ambassador from the Hague without appointing a successor. They +have given a note to the Diet of Poland which shews a disapprobation +of their measures. The insanity of the King of England has been +fortunate for them as it gives them time to put their house in order. +The English papers tell you the King is well: and even the English +ministry say so. They will naturally set the best foot foremost: and +they guard his person so well that it is difficult for the public to +contradict them. The King is probably better, but not well by a +great deal. 1. He has been bled, and judicious physicians say that +in his exhausted state nothing could have induced a recurrence to +bleeding but symptoms of relapse. 2. The Prince of Wales tells the +Irish deputation he will give them a definitive answer in some days; +but if the king had been well he could have given it at once. 3. +They talk of passing a standing law for providing a regency in +similar cases. They apprehend then they are not yet clear of the +danger of wanting a regency. 4. They have carried the king to +church; but it was his private chapel. If he be well why do not they +shew him publicly to the nation, & raise them from that consternation +into which they have been thrown by the prospect of being delivered +over to the profligate hands of the prince of Wales. In short, +judging from little facts which are known in spite of their teeth the +King is better, but not well. Possibly he is getting well, but +still, time will be wanting to satisfy even the ministry that it is +not merely a lucid interval. Consequently they cannot interrupt +France this year in the settlement of her affairs, & after this year +it will be too late. + + As you will be in a situation to know when the leave of absence +will be granted me which I have asked, will you be so good as to +communicate it by a line to Mr. Lewis & Mr. Eppes? I hope to see you +in the summer, and that if you are not otherwise engaged, you will +encamp with me at Monticello for awhile. + + + SCIENCE AND LIBERTY + + _To Joseph Willard_ + _Paris, March 24, 1789_ + + SIR, -- I have been lately honored with your letter of +September the 24th, 1788, accompanied by a diploma for a Doctorate of +Laws, which the University of Harvard has been pleased to confer on +me. Conscious how little I merit it, I am the more sensible of their +goodness and indulgence to a stranger, who has had no means of +serving or making himself known to them. I beg you to return them my +grateful thanks, and to assure them that this notice from so eminent +a seat of science, is very precious to me. + + The most remarkable publications we have had in France, for a +year or two past, are the following. `Les voyages d'Anacharsis par +l'Abbe Barthelemi,' seven volumes, octavo. This is a very elegant +digest of whatever is known of the Greeks; useless, indeed, to him +who has read the original authors, but very proper for one who reads +modern languages only. The works of the King of Prussia. The Berlin +edition is in sixteen volumes, octavo. It is said to have been +gutted at Berlin; and here it has been still more mangled. There are +one or two other editions published abroad, which pretend to have +rectified the maltreatment both of Berlin and Paris. Some time will +be necessary to settle the public mind, as to the best edition. + + Montignot has given us the original Greek, and a French +translation of the seventh book of Potolemy's great work, under the +title of `Etat des etoiles fixes au second siecle,' in quarto. He +has given the designation of the same stars by Flamstead and Beyer, +and their position in the year 1786. A very remarkable work is the +`Mechanique Analytique,' of Le Grange, in quarto. He is allowed to +be the greatest mathematician now living, and his personal worth is +equal to his science. The object of his work is to reduce all the +principles of mechanics to the single one of the equilibrium, and to +give a simple formula applicable to them all. The subject is treated +in the algebraic method, without diagrams to assist the conception. +My present occupations not permitting me to read any thing which +requires a long and undisturbed attention, I am not able to give you +the character of this work from my own examination. It has been +received with great approbation in Europe. In Italy, the works of +Spallanzani on digestion and generation, are valuable. Though, +perhaps, too minute, and therefore tedious, he has developed some +useful truths, and his book is well worth attention; it is in four +volumes, octavo. Clavigaro, an Italian also, who has resided +thirty-six years in Mexico, has given us a history of that country, +which certainly merits more respect than any other work on the same +subject. He corrects many errors of Dr. Robertson; and though sound +philosophy will disapprove many of his ideas, we must still consider +it as an useful work, and assuredly the best we possess on the same +subject. It is in four thin volumes, small quarto. De la Land has +not yet published a fifth volume. + + The chemical dispute about the conversion and reconversion of +air and water, continues still undecided. Arguments and authorities +are so balanced, that we may still safely believe, as our fathers did +before us, that these principles are distinct. A schism of another +kind, has taken place among the chemists. A particular set of them +here, have undertaken to remodel all the terms of the science, and to +give to every substance a new name, the composition, and especially +the termination of which, shall define the relation in which it +stands to other substances of the same family. But the science seems +too much in its infancy as yet, for this reformation; because, in +fact, the reformation of this year must be reformed again the next +year, and so on, changing the names of substances as often as new +experiments develope properties in them undiscovered before. The new +nomenclature has, accordingly, been already proved to need numerous +and important reformations. Probably it will not prevail. It is +espoused by the minority only here, and by very few, indeed, of the +foreign chemists. It is particularly rejected in England. + + In the arts, I think two of our countrymen have presented the +most important inventions. Mr. Paine, the author of Common Sense, +has invented an iron bridge, which promises to be cheaper by a great +deal than stone, and to admit of a much greater arch. He supposes it +may be ventured for an arch of five hundred feet. He has obtained a +patent for it in England, and is now executing the first experiment +with an arch of between ninety and one hundred feet. Mr. Rumsey has +also obtained a patent for his navigation by the force of steam, in +England, and is soliciting a similar one here. His principal merit +is in the improvement of the boiler, and, instead of the complicated +machinery of oars and paddles, proposed by others, the substitution +of so simple a thing as the reaction of a stream of water on his +vessel. He is building a sea vessel at this time in England, and she +will be ready for an experiment in May. He has suggested a great +number of mechanical improvements in a variety of branches; and upon +the whole, is the most original and the greatest mechanical genius I +have ever seen. The return of la Peyrouse (whenever that shall +happen) will probably add to our knowledge in Geography, Botany and +Natural History. What a field have we at our doors to signalise +ourselves in! The Botany of America is far from being exhausted, its +Mineralogy is untouched, and its Natural History or Zoology, totally +mistaken and misrepresented. As far as I have seen, there is not one +single species of terrestrial birds common to Europe and America, and +I question if there be a single species of quadrupeds. (Domestic +animals are to be excepted.) It is for such institutions as that over +which you preside so worthily, Sir, to do justice to our country, its +productions and its genius. It is the work to which the young men, +whom you are forming, should lay their hands. We have spent the +prime of our lives in procuring them the precious blessing of +liberty. Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great +parent of _science_ and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in +both, always in proportion as it is free. Nobody wishes more warmly +for the success of your good exhortations on this subject, than he +who has the honor to be, with sentiments of great esteem and respect, +Sir, your most obedient humble servant, + + + A REPORT FROM VERSAILLES + + _To John Jay_ + _Paris, May 9, 1789_ + + SIR, -- Since my letter of March the 1st, by the way of Havre, +and those of March the 12th and 15th, by the way of London, no +opportunity of writing has occurred, till the present to London. + + There are no symptoms of accommodation between the Turks and +two empires, nor between Russia and Sweden. The Emperor was, on the +16th of the last month, expected to die, certainly; he was, however, +a little better when the last news came away, so that hopes were +entertained of him; but it is agreed that he cannot get the better of +his complaints ultimately, so that his life is not at all counted on. +The Danes profess, as yet, to do no more against Sweden than furnish +their stipulated aid. The agitation of Poland is still violent, +though somewhat moderated by the late change in the demeanor of the +King of Prussia. He is much less thrasonic than he was. This is +imputed to the turn which the English politics may be rationally +expected to take. It is very difficult to get at the true state of +the British King; but from the best information we can get, his +madness has gone off, but he is left in a state of imbecility and +melancholy. They are going to carry him to Hanover, to see whether +such a journey may relieve him. The Queen accompanies him. If +England should, by this accident, be reduced to inactivity, the +southern countries of Europe may escape the present war. Upon the +whole, the prospect for the present year, if no unforeseen accident +happens, is, certain peace for the powers not already engaged, a +probability that Denmark will not become a principal, and a mere +possibility that Sweden and Russia may be accommodated. The interior +disputes of Sweden are so exactly detailed in the Leyden gazette, +that I have nothing to add on that subject. + + The revolution of this country has advanced thus far, without +encountering any thing which deserves to be called a difficulty. +There have been riots in a few instances, in three or four different +places, in which there may have been a dozen or twenty lives lost. +The exact truth is not to be got at. A few days ago, a much more +serious riot took place in this city, in which it became necessary +for the troops to engage in regular action with the mob, and probably +about one hundred of the latter were killed. Accounts vary from +twenty to two hundred. They were the most abandoned banditti of +Paris, and never was a riot more unprovoked and unpitied. They +began, under a pretence that a paper manufacturer had proposed in an +assembly, to reduce their wages to fifteen sous a day. They rifled +his house, destroyed every thing in his magazines and shops, and were +only stopped in their career of mischief, by the carnage above +mentioned. Neither this nor any other of the riots, have had a +professed connection with the great national reformation going on. +They are such as have happened every year since I have been here, and +as will continue to be produced by common incidents. The States +General were opened on the 4th instant, by a speech from the throne, +one by the Garde des Sceaux, and one from Mr. Neckar. I hope they +will be printed in time to send you herewith: lest they should not, I +will observe, that that of Mr. Neckar stated the real and ordinary +deficit to be fifty-six millions, and that he shewed that this could +be made up without a new tax, by economies and bonifications which he +specified. Several articles of the latter are liable to the +objection, that they are proposed on branches of the revenue, of +which the nation has demanded a suppression. He tripped too lightly +over the great articles of constitutional reformation, these being +not as clearly enounced in this discourse as they were in his +`Rapport au roy,' which I sent you some time ago. On the whole, his +discourse has not satisfied the patriotic party. It is now, for the +first time, that their revolution is likely to receive a serious +check, and begins to wear a fearful appearance. The progress of +light and liberality in the order of the Noblesse, has equalled +expectation in Paris only, and its vicinities. The great mass of +deputies of that order, which come from the country, shew that the +habits of tyranny over the people, are deeply rooted in them. They +will consent, indeed, to equal taxation; but five-sixths of that +chamber are thought to be, decidedly, for voting by orders; so that, +had this great preliminary question rested on this body, which formed +heretofore the sole hope, that hope would have been completely +disappointed. Some aid, however, comes in from a quarter whence none +was expected. It was imagined the ecclesiastical elections would +have been generally in favor of the higher clergy; on the contrary, +the lower clergy have obtained five-sixths of these deputations. +These are the sons of peasants, who have done all the drudgery of the +service, for ten, twenty and thirty guineas a year, and whose +oppressions and penury, contrasted with the pride and luxury of the +higher clergy, have rendered them perfectly disposed to humble the +latter. They have done it, in many instances, with a boldness they +were thought insusceptible of. Great hopes have been formed, that +these would concur with the Tiers Etat, in voting by persons. In +fact, about half of them seem as yet so disposed; but the bishops are +intriguing, and drawing them over with the address which has ever +marked ecclesiastical intrigue. The deputies of the Tiers Etat seem, +almost to a man, inflexibly determined against the vote by orders. +This is the state of parties, as well as can be judged from +conversation only, during the fortnight they have been now together. +But as no business has been yet begun, no votes as yet taken, this +calculation cannot be considered as sure. A middle proposition is +talked of, to form the two privileged orders into one chamber. It is +thought more possible to bring them into it, than the Tiers Etat. +Another proposition is, to distinguish questions, referring those of +certain descriptions to a vote by persons, others to a vote by +orders. This seems to admit of endless altercation, and the Tiers +Etat manifest no respect for that, or any other modification +whatever. Were this single question accommodated, I am of opinion, +there would not occur the least difficulty in the great and essential +points of constitutional reformation. But on this preliminary +question the parties are so irreconcilable, that it is impossible to +foresee what issue it will have. The Tiers Etat, as constituting the +nation, may propose to do the business of the nation, either with or +without the minorities in the Houses of Clergy and Nobles, which side +with them. In that case, if the King should agree to it, the +majorities in those two Houses would secede, and might resist the tax +gatherers. This would bring on a civil war. On the other hand, the +privileged orders, offering to submit to equal taxation, may propose +to the King to continue the government in its former train, resuming +to himself the power of taxation. Here, the tax gatherers might be +resisted by the people. In fine, it is but too possible, that +between parties so animated, the King may incline the balance as he +pleases. Happy that he is an honest, unambitious man, who desires +neither money nor power for himself; and that his most operative +minister, though he has appeared to trim a little, is still, in the +main, a friend to public liberty. + + I mentioned to you in a former letter, the construction which +our bankers at Amsterdam had put on the resolution of Congress, +appropriating the last Dutch loan, by which the money for our +captives would not be furnished till the end of the year 1790. +Orders from the board of treasury, have now settled this question. +The interest of the next month is to be first paid, and after that, +the money for the captives and foreign officers is to be furnished, +before any other payment of interest. This insures it when the next +February interest becomes payable. My representations to them, on +account of the contracts I had entered into for making the medals, +have produced from them the money for that object, which is lodged in +the hands of Mr. Grand. + + Mr. Neckar, in his discourse, proposes among his bonifications +of revenue, the suppression of our two free ports of Bayonne and +L'Orient, which he says, occasion a loss of six hundred thousand +livres annually, to the crown, by contraband. (The speech being not +yet printed, I state this only as it struck my ear when he delivered +it. If I have mistaken it, I beg you to receive this as my apology, +and to consider what follows, as written on that idea only.) I have +never been able to see that these free ports were worth one copper to +us. To Bayonne our trade never went, and it is leaving L'Orient. +Besides, the right of entrepot is a perfect substitute for the right +of free port. The latter is a little less troublesome only, to the +merchants and captains. I should think, therefore, that a thing so +useless to us and prejudicial to them might be relinquished by us, on +the common principles of friendship. I know the merchants of these +ports will make a clamour, because the franchise covers their +contraband with all the world. Has Monsieur de Moustier said any +thing to you on this subject? It has never been mentioned to me. If +not mentioned in either way, it is rather an indecent proceeding, +considering that this right of free port is founded in treaty. I +shall ask of M. de Montmorin, on the first occasion, whether he has +communicated this to you through his minister; and if he has not, I +will endeavor to notice the infraction to him in such manner, as +neither to reclaim nor abandon the right of free port, but leave our +government free to do either. + + The gazettes of France and Leyden, as usual, will accompany +this. I am in hourly expectation of receiving from you my leave of +absence, and keep my affairs so arranged, that I can leave Paris +within eight days after receiving the permission. I have the honor +to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, +your most obedient and most humble servant, + + + A CHARTER FOR FRANCE + + _To Rabout de St. Etienne, with Draft of a Charter of Rights_ + _Paris, June 3, 1789_ + + SIR, -- After you quitted us yesterday evening, we continued +our conversation (Monsr. de la Fayette, Mr. Short & myself) on the +subject of the difficulties which environ you. The desirable object +being to secure the good which the King has offered & to avoid the +ill which seems to threaten, an idea was suggested, which appearing +to make an impression on Monsr. de la Fayette, I was encouraged to +pursue it on my return to Paris, to put it into form, & now to send +it to you & him. It is this, that the King, in a _seance royale_ +should come forward with a Charter of Rights in his hand, to be +signed by himself & by every member of the three orders. This +charter to contain the five great points which the Resultat of +December offered on the part of the King, the abolition of pecuniary +privileges offered by the privileged orders, & the adoption of the +National debt and a grant of the sum of money asked from the nation. +This last will be a cheap price for the preceding articles, and let +the same act declare your immediate separation till the next +anniversary meeting. You will carry back to your constituents more +good than ever was effected before without violence, and you will +stop exactly at the point where violence would otherwise begin. Time +will be gained, the public mind will continue to ripen & to be +informed, a basis of support may be prepared with the people +themselves, and expedients occur for gaining still something further +at your next meeting, & for stopping again at the point of force. I +have ventured to send to yourself & Monsieur de la Fayette a sketch +of my ideas of what this act might contain without endangering any +dispute. But it is offered merely as a canvas for you to work on, if +it be fit to work on at all. I know too little of the subject, & you +know too much of it to justify me in offering anything but a hint. I +have done it too in a hurry: insomuch that since committing it to +writing it occurs to me that the 5'th. article may give alarm, that +it is in a good degree included in the 4'th., and is therefore +useless. But after all what excuse can I make, Sir, for this +presumption. I have none but an unmeasureable love for your nation +and a painful anxiety lest Despotism, after an unaccepted offer to +bind it's own hands, should seize you again with tenfold fury. +Permit me to add to these very sincere assurances of the sentiments +of esteem & respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most +obed't. & most humble serv't. + + _A Charter of Rights, solemnly established by the King and +Nation._ + + 1. The States General shall assemble, uncalled, on the first +day of November, annually, and shall remain together so long as they +shall see cause. They shall regulate their own elections and +proceedings, and until they shall ordain otherwise, their elections +shall be in the forms observed in the present year, and shall be +triennial. + + 2. The States General alone shall levy money on the nation, and +shall appropriate it. + + 3. Laws shall be made by the States General only, with the +consent of the King. + + 4. No person shall be restrained of his liberty, but by regular +process from a court of justice, authorized by a general law. +(Except that a Noble may be imprisoned by order of a court of +justice, on the prayer of twelve of his nearest relations.) On +complaint of an unlawful imprisonment, to any judge whatever, he +shall have the prisoner immediately brought before him, and shall +discharge him, if his imprisonment be unlawful. The officer in whose +custody the prisoner is, shall obey the orders of the judge; and both +judge and officer shall be responsible, civilly and criminally, for a +failure of duty herein. + + 5. The military shall be subordinate to the civil authority. + + 6. Printers shall be liable to legal prosecution for printing +and publishing false facts, injurious to the party prosecuting; but +they shall be under no other restraint. + + 7. All pecuniary privileges and exemptions, enjoyed by any +description of persons, are abolished. + + 8. All debts already contracted by the King, are hereby made +the debts of the nation; and the faith thereof is pledged for their +payment in due time. + + 9. Eighty millions of livres are now granted to the King, to be +raised by loan, and reimbursed by the nation; and the taxes +heretofore paid, shall continue to be paid to the end of the present +year, and no longer. + + 10. The States General shall now separate, and meet again on +the 1st day of November next. + + Done, on behalf of the whole nation, by the King and their +representatives in the States General, at Versailles, this -- day of +June, 1789. + + Signed by the King, and by every member individually, and in +his presence. + + + "THE FIRST CHAPTER . . . OF EUROPEAN LIBERTY" + + _To Diodati_ + _a Paris, ce 3'me. Aout 1789_ + + Je viens de recevoir, mon chere Monsieur, l'honneur de votre +lettre du 24. Juillet. La peine avec laquelle je m'exprime en +Fransois feroit que ma reponse seroit bien courte s'il ne m'etoit pas +permis de repondre que dans cette langue. Mais je ssais qu'avec +quelque connoissance de la langue Angloise vous meme, vous aurez une +aide tres suffisante dans Madame la comtesse que j'ose prier +d'ajouter a ses amities multipliees devers moi celle de devenir +l'interprete de ce que vais ecrire en ma propre langue, et qu'elle +embellira en la rendant en Fransois. + + I presume that your correspondents here have given you a +history of all the events which have happened. The Leyden gazette, +tho' it contains several inconsiderable errors, gives on the whole a +just enough idea. It is impossible to conceive a greater +fermentation than has worked in Paris, nor do I believe that so great +a fermentation ever produced so little injury in any other place. I +have been thro' it daily, have observed the mobs with my own eyes in +order to be satisfied of their objects, and declare to you that I saw +so plainly the legitimacy of them, that I have slept in my house as +quietly thro' the whole as I ever did in the most peaceable moments. +So strongly fortified was the despotism of this government by long +possession, by the respect & the fears of the people, by possessing +the public force, by the imposing authority of forms and of faste, +that had it held itself on the defensive only, the national assembly +with all their good sense, would probably have only obtained a +considerable improvement of the government, not a total revision of +it. But, ill informed of the spirit of their nation, the despots +around the throne had recourse to violent measures, the forerunners +of force. In this they have been completely overthrown, & the nation +has made a total resumption of rights, which they had certainly never +before ventured even to think of. The National assembly have now as +clean a canvas to work on here as we had in America. Such has been +the firmness and wisdom of their proceedings in moments of adversity +as well as prosperity, that I have the highest confidence that they +will use their power justly. As far as I can collect from +conversation with their members, the constitution they will propose +will resemble that of England in it's outlines, but not in it's +defects. They will certainly leave the king possessed completely of +the Executive powers, & particularly of the public force. Their +legislature will consist of one order only, & not of two as in +England: the representation will be equal & not abominably partial as +that of England: it will be guarded against corruption, instead of +having a majority sold to the king, & rendering his will absolute: +whether it will be in one chamber, or broke into two cannot be +foreseen. They will meet at certain epochs & sit as long as they +please, instead of meeting only when, & sitting only as long as the +king pleases as in England. There is a difference of opinion whether +the king shall have an absolute, or only a qualified Negative on +their acts. The parliaments will probably be suppressed; & juries +provided in criminal cases perhaps even in civil ones. This is what +appears probable at present. The Assembly is this day discussing the +question whether they will have a declaration of rights. Paris has +been led by events to assume the government of itself. It has +hitherto worn too much the appearance of conformity to continue thus +independently of the will of the nation. Reflection will probably +make them sensible that the security of all depends on the dependance +of all on the national legislature. I have so much confidence on the +good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I +am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her +force; and I will agree to be stoned as a false prophet if all does +not end well in this country. Nor will it end with this country. +Hers is but the first chapter of the history of European liberty. + + The capture of the Baron Besenval is very embarrassing for the +States general. They are principled against retrospective laws, & +will make it one of the corner stones of their new building. But it +is very doubtful whether the antient laws will condemn him, and +whether the people will permit him to be acquitted. The Duke de la +Vauguyon also & his son are taken at Havre. -- In drawing the +parallel between what England is, & what France is to be I forgot to +observe that the latter will have a real constitution, which cannot +be changed by the ordinary legislature; whereas England has no +constitution at all: that is to say there is not one principle of +their government which the parliament does not alter at pleasure. +The omnipotence of parliament is an established principle with them. +-- Postponing my departure to America till the end of September I +shall hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Paris before I go, & +of renewing in person to yourself & Madame la Comtesse assurances of +those sentiments of respect & attachment with which I have the honor +to be Dear Sir your most obedient humble serv't. + + + P. S. It is rumored & beleived in Paris that the English have +fomented with money the tumults of this place, & that they are arming +to attack France. I have never seen any reason to believe either of +these rumors. + + + "THE EARTH BELONGS TO THE LIVING" + + _To James Madison_ + _Paris, September 6, 1789_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I sit down to write to you without knowing by what +occasion I shall send my letter. I do it because a subject comes +into my head which I would wish to develope a little more than is +practicable in the hurry of the moment of making up general +despatches. + + The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind +another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side +of the water. Yet it is a question of such consequences as not only +to merit decision, but place also, among the fundamental principles +of every government. The course of reflection in which we are +immersed here on the elementary principles of society has presented +this question to my mind; and that no such obligation can be +transmitted I think very capable of proof. I set out on this ground +which I suppose to be self evident, "_that the earth belongs in +usufruct to the living_;" that the dead have neither powers nor +rights over it. The portion occupied by an individual ceases to be +his when himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society. If the +society has formed no rules for the appropriation of its lands in +severalty, it will be taken by the first occupants. These will +generally be the wife and children of the decedent. If they have +formed rules of appropriation, those rules may give it to the wife +and children, or to some one of them, or to the legatee of the +deceased. So they may give it to his creditor. But the child, the +legatee or creditor takes it, not by any natural right, but by a law +of the society of which they are members, and to which they are +subject. Then no man can by _natural right_ oblige the lands he +occupied, or the persons who succeed him in that occupation, to the +paiment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he might during +his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several +generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead, and +not to the living, which would be reverse of our principle. What is +true of every member of the society individually, is true of them all +collectively, since the rights of the whole can be no more than the +sum of the rights of individuals. To keep our ideas clear when +applying them to a multitude, let us suppose a whole generation of +men to be born on the same day, to attain mature age on the same day, +and to die on the same day, leaving a succeeding generation in the +moment of attaining their mature age all together. Let the ripe age +be supposed of 21. years, and their period of life 34. years more, +that being the average term given by the bills of mortality to +persons who have already attained 21. years of age. Each successive +generation would, in this way, come on and go off the stage at a +fixed moment, as individuals do now. Then I say the earth belongs to +each of these generations during it's course, fully, and in their own +right. The 2d. generation receives it clear of the debts and +incumbrances of the 1st., the 3d. of the 2d. and so on. For if the +1st. could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the +dead and not the living generation. Then no generation can contract +debts greater than may be paid during the course of it's own +existence. At 21. years of age they may bind themselves and their +lands for 34. years to come: at 22. for 33: at 23 for 32. and at 54 +for one year only; because these are the terms of life which remain +to them at those respective epochs. But a material difference must +be noted between the succession of an individual and that of a whole +generation. Individuals are parts only of a society, subject to the +laws of a whole. These laws may appropriate the portion of land +occupied by a decedent to his creditor rather than to any other, or +to his child, on condition he satisfies his creditor. But when a +whole generation, that is, the whole society dies, as in the case we +have supposed, and another generation or society succeeds, this forms +a whole, and there is no superior who can give their territory to a +third society, who may have lent money to their predecessors beyond +their faculty of paying. + + What is true of a generation all arriving to self-government on +the same day, and dying all on the same day, is true of those on a +constant course of decay and renewal, with this only difference. A +generation coming in and going out entire, as in the first case, +would have a right in the 1st year of their self dominion to contract +a debt for 33. years, in the 10th. for 24. in the 20th. for 14. in +the 30th. for 4. whereas generations changing daily, by daily deaths +and births, have one constant term beginning at the date of their +contract, and ending when a majority of those of full age at that +date shall be dead. The length of that term may be estimated from +the tables of mortality, corrected by the circumstances of climate, +occupation &c. peculiar to the country of the contractors. Take, for +instance, the table of M. de Buffon wherein he states that 23,994 +deaths, and the ages at which they happened. Suppose a society in +which 23,994 persons are born every year and live to the ages stated +in this table. The conditions of that society will be as follows. +1st. it will consist constantly of 617,703 persons of all ages. 2dly. +of those living at any one instant of time, one half will be dead in +24. years 8. months. 3dly. 10,675 will arrive every year at the age +of 21. years complete. 4thly. it will constantly have 348,417 persons +of all ages above 21. years. 5ly. and the half of those of 21. years +and upwards living at any one instant of time will be dead in 18. +years 8. months, or say 19. years as the nearest integral number. +Then 19. years is the term beyond which neither the representatives +of a nation, nor even the whole nation itself assembled, can validly +extend a debt. + + To render this conclusion palpable by example, suppose that +Louis XIV. and XV. had contracted debts in the name of the French +nation to the amount of 10.000 milliards of livres and that the whole +had been contracted in Genoa. The interest of this sum would be 500 +milliards, which is said to be the whole rent-roll, or nett proceeds +of the territory of France. Must the present generation of men have +retired from the territory in which nature produced them, and ceded +it to the Genoese creditors? No. They have the same rights over the +soil on which they were produced, as the preceding generations had. +They derive these rights not from their predecessors, but from +nature. They then and their soil are by nature clear of the debts of +their predecessors. Again suppose Louis XV. and his contemporary +generation had said to the money lenders of Genoa, give us money that +we may eat, drink, and be merry in our day; and on condition you will +demand no interest till the end of 19. years, you shall then forever +after receive an annual interest of (*) 12.'5 per cent. The money is +lent on these conditions, is divided among the living, eaten, drank, +and squandered. Would the present generation be obliged to apply the +produce of the earth and of their labour to replace their +dissipations? Not at all. + + (*) 100 pound at a compound interest of 6 per cent makes at the +end of 19 years an aggregate of principal and interest of pound +252.14 the interest of which is a pound 12 degrees degrees. 12". +7'd. which is nearly 12". p'r. cent on the first capital of pound +100. + + I suppose that the received opinion, that the public debts of +one generation devolve on the next, has been suggested by our seeing +habitually in private life that he who succeeds to lands is required +to pay the debts of his ancestor or testator, without considering +that this requisition is municipal only, not moral, flowing from the +will of the society which has found it convenient to appropriate the +lands become vacant by the death of their occupant on the condition +of a paiment of his debts; but that between society and society, or +generation and generation there is no municipal obligation, no umpire +but the law of nature. We seem not to have perceived that, by the +law of nature, one generation is to another as one independant nation +to another." + + The interest of the national debt of France being in fact but a +two thousandth part of it's rent-roll, the paiment of it is +practicable enough; and so becomes a question merely of honor or +expediency. But with respect to future debts; would it not be wise +and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are +forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can +validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, +or within the term of 19. years? And that all future contracts shall +be deemed void as to what shall remain unpaid at the end of 19. years +from their date? This would put the lenders, and the borrowers also, +on their guard. By reducing too the faculty of borrowing within its +natural limits, it would bridle the spirit of war, to which too free +a course has been procured by the inattention of money lenders to +this law of nature, that succeeding generations are not responsible +for the preceding. + + On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a +perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs +always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what +proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are +masters too of their own persons, and consequently may govern them as +they please. But persons and property make the sum of the objects of +government. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors +extinguished them, in their natural course, with those whose will +gave them being. This could preserve that being till it ceased to be +itself, and no longer. Every constitution, then, and every law, +naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer, +it is an act of force and not of right. + + It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in +fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the +constitution or law had been expressly limited to 19. years only. In +the first place, this objection admits the right, in proposing an +equivalent. But the power of repeal is not an equivalent. It might +be indeed if every form of government were so perfectly contrived +that the will of the majority could always be obtained fairly and +without impediment. But this is true of no form. The people cannot +assemble themselves; their representation is unequal and vicious. +Various checks are opposed to every legislative proposition. +Factions get possession of the public councils. Bribery corrupts +them. Personal interests lead them astray from the general interests +of their constituents; and other impediments arise so as to prove to +every practical man that a law of limited duration is much more +manageable than one which needs a repeal. + + This principle that the earth belongs to the living and not to +the dead is of very extensive application and consequences in every +country, and most especially in France. It enters into the +resolution of the questions Whether the nation may change the descent +of lands holden in tail? Whether they may change the appropriation +of lands given antiently to the church, to hospitals, colleges, +orders of chivalry, and otherwise in perpetuity? whether they may +abolish the charges and privileges attached on lands, including the +whole catalogue ecclesiastical and feudal? it goes to hereditary +offices, authorities and jurisdictions; to hereditary orders, +distinctions and appellations; to perpetual monopolies in commerce, +the arts or sciences; with a long train of _et ceteras_: and it +renders the question of reimbursement a question of generosity and +not of right. In all these cases the legislature of the day could +authorize such appropriations and establishments for their own time, +but no longer; and the present holders, even where they or their +ancestors have purchased, are in the case of _bona fide_ purchasers +of what the seller had no right to convey. + + Turn this subject in your mind, my Dear Sir, and particularly +as to the power of contracting debts, and develope it with that +perspicuity and cogent logic which is so peculiarly yours. Your +station in the councils of our country gives you an opportunity of +producing it to public consideration, of forcing it into discussion. +At first blush it may be rallied as a theoretical speculation; but +examination will prove it to be solid and salutary. It would furnish +matter for a fine preamble to our first law for appropriating the +public revenue; and it will exclude, at the threshold of our new +government the contagious and ruinous errors of this quarter of the +globe, which have armed despots with means not sanctioned by nature +for binding in chains their fellow-men. We have already given, in +example one effectual check to the Dog of war, by transferring the +power of letting him loose from the executive to the Legislative +body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay. I should +be pleased to see this second obstacle held out by us also in the +first instance. No nation can make a declaration against the +validity of long-contracted debts so disinterestedly as we, since we +do not owe a shilling which may not be paid with ease principal and +interest, within the time of our own lives. Establish the principle +also in the new law to be passed for protecting copy rights and new +inventions, by securing the exclusive right for 19. instead of 14. +years _[a line entirely faded]_ an instance the more of our taking +reason for our guide instead of English precedents, the habit of +which fetters us, with all the political herecies of a nation, +equally remarkable for it's encitement from some errors, as long +slumbering under others. I write you no news, because when an +occasion occurs I shall write a separate letter for that. + + + ADIEU TO FRANCE + + _To Madame d'Enville_ + _New York, April 2, 1790_ + + I had hoped, Madame la Duchesse, to have again had the honor of +paying my respects to you in Paris, but the wish of our government +that I should take a share in its administration, has become a law to +me. Could I have persuaded myself that public offices were made for +private convenience, I should undoubtedly have preferred a +continuance in that which placed me nearer to you; but believing on +the contrary that a good citizen should take his stand where the +public authority marshals him, I have acquiesced. Among the +circumstances which reconcile me to my new position the most powerful +is the opportunities it will give me of cementing the friendship +between our two nations. Be assured that to do this is the first +wish of my heart. I have but one system of ethics for men & for +nations -- to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements and +under all circumstances, to be open & generous, promotes in the long +run even the interests of both; and I am sure it promotes their +happiness. The change in your government will approximate us to one +another. You have had some checks, some horrors since I left you; +but the way to heaven, you know, has always been said to be strewed +with thorns. Why your nation have had fewer than any other on earth, +I do not know, unless it be that it is the best on earth. If I +assure you, Madam, moreover, that I consider yourself personally as +with the foremost of your nation in every virtue, it is not flattery, +my heart knows not that, it is a homage to sacred truth, it is a +tribute I pay with cordiality to a character in which I saw but one +error; it was that of treating me with a degree of favor I did not +merit. Be assured I shall ever retain a lively sense of all your +goodness to me, which was a circumstance of principal happiness to me +during my stay in Paris. I hope that by this time you have seen that +my prognostications of a successful issue to your revolution have +been verified. I feared for you during a short interval; but after +the declaration of the army, tho' there might be episodes of +distress, the denoument was out of doubt. Heaven send that the +glorious example of your country may be but the beginning of the +history of European liberty, and that you may live many years in +health & happiness to see at length that heaven did not make man in +it's wrath. Accept the homage of those sentiments of sincere and +respectfull esteem with which I have the honor to be, Madame la +Duchesse, your most affectionate & obedient humble servant. + + + READING THE LAW + + _To John Garland Jefferson_ + _New York, June 11, 1790_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your uncle mr Garland informs me, that, your +education being finished, you are desirous of obtaining some +clerkship or something else under government whereby you may turn +your talents to some account for yourself and he had supposed it +might be in my power to provide you with some such office. His +commendations of you are such as to induce me to wish sincerely to be +of service to you. But there is not, and has not been, a single +vacant office at my disposal. Nor would I, as your friend, ever +think of putting you into the petty clerkships in the several +offices, where you would have to drudge through life for a miserable +pittance, without a hope of bettering your situation. But he tells +me you are also disposed to the study of the law. This therefore +brings it more within my power to serve you. It will be necessary +for you in that case to go and live somewhere in my neighborhood in +Albemarle. The inclosed letter to Colo. Lewis near Charlottesville +will show you what I have supposed could be best done for you there. +It is a general practice to study the law in the office of some +lawyer. This indeed gives to the student the advantage of his +instruction. But I have ever seen that the services expected in +return have been more than the instructions have been worth. All +that is necessary for a student is access to a library, and +directions in what order the books are to be read. This I will take +the liberty of suggesting to you, observing previously that as other +branches of science, and especially history, are necessary to form a +lawyer, these must be carried on together. I will arrange the books +to be read into three columns, and propose that you should read those +in the first column till 12. oclock every day: those in the 2d. from +12. to 2. those in the 3d. after candlelight, leaving all the +afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as +reading: I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth +more than learning. + + 1st. + + Coke on Littleton + + Coke's 2d. 3d. & 4th. + institutes. + + Coke's reports. + + Vaughan's do + Salkeld's + + Ld. Raymond's + + Strange's. + + Burrows's + + Kaim's Principles of equity. + + Vernon's reports. + + Peere Williams. + + Precedents in Chancery. + + Tracy Atheyns. + + Verey. + + Hawkin's Pleas of the crown. + + Blackstone. + + Virginia laws. + + + 2d. + + Dalrymple's feudal system. + + Hale's history of the Com. law. + + Gilbert on Devises + Uses. + Tenures. + Rents. + Distresses. + Ejectments. + Executions. + Evidence. + + Sayer's law of costs. + + Lambard's circonantia. + + Bacon. voce Pleas & Pleadings. + + Cunningham's law of bills. + + Molloy de jure maritimo. + + Locke on government. + + Montesquieu's Spirit of law. + + Smith's wealth of nations. + + Beccaria. + + Kaim's moral essays. + + Vattel's law of nations. + + + 3d. + + Mallet's North antiquit'. + + History of England in 3. vols folio compiled by Kennet. + + Ludlow's memoirs + + Burnet's history. + + Ld. Orrery's history. + + Burke's George III. + + Robertson's hist. of Scotl'd + + Robertson's hist. of America. + + Other American histories. + + Voltaire's historical works. + + Should there be any little intervals in the day not otherwise +occupied fill them up by reading Lowthe's grammar, Blair's lectures +on rhetoric, Mason on poetic & prosaic numbers, Bolingbroke's works +for the sake of the stile, which is declamatory & elegant, the +English poets for the sake of the style also. + + As mr Peter Carr in Goochland is engaged in a course of law +reading, and has my books for that purpose, it will be necessary for +you to go to mrs Carr's, and to receive such as he shall be then done +with, and settle with him a plan of receiving from him regular the +before mentioned books as fast as he shall get through them. The +losses I have sustained by lending my books will be my apology to you +for asking your particular attention to the replacing them in the +presses as fast as you finish them, and not to lend them to any body +else, nor suffer anybody to have a book out of the Study under cover +of your name. You will find, when you get there, that I have had +reason to ask this exactness. + + I would have you determine beforehand to make yourself a +thorough lawyer, & not be contented with a mere smattering. It is +superiority of knowledge which can alone lift you above the heads of +your competitors, and ensure you success. I think therefore you must +calculate on devoting between two & three years to this course of +reading, before you think of commencing practice. Whenever that +begins, there is an end of reading. + + I shall be glad to hear from you from time to time, and shall +hope to see you in the fall in Albemarle, to which place I propose a +visit in that season. In the mean time wishing you all the industry +of patient perseverance which this course of reading will require I +am with great esteem Dear Sir Your most obedient friend & servant. + + + WHIPPOORWILLS AND STRAWBERRIES + + _To Mary Jefferson_ + _New York, June 13, 1790_ + + MY DEAR MARIA -- I have recieved your letter of May 23. which +was in answer to mine of May 2. but I wrote you also on the 23d. of +May, so that you still owe me an answer to that, which I hope is now +on the road. In matters of correspondence as well as of money you +must never be in debt. I am much pleased with the account you give +me of your occupations, and the making the pudding is as good an +article of them as any. When I come to Virginia I shall insist on +eating a pudding of your own making, as well as on trying other +specimens of your skill. You must make the most of your time while +you are with so good an aunt who can learn you every thing. We had +not peas nor strawberries here till the 8th. day of this month. On +the same day I heard the first Whip-poor-will whistle. Swallows and +martins appeared here on the 21st. of April. When did they appear +with you? And when had you peas, strawberries, and whip-poor-wills +in Virginia? Take notice hereafter whether the whip-poor-wills +always come with the strawberries and peas. Send me a copy of the +maxims I gave you, also a list of the books I promised you. I have +had a long touch of my periodical headach, but a very moderate one. +It has not quite left me yet. Adieu, my dear, love your uncle, aunt +and cousins, and me more than all. Your's affectionately, + + + RICE FROM TIMOR AND AFRICA + + _To Samuel Vaughan, Jr._ + _Philadelphia, Nov. 27, 1790_ + + DEAR SIR -- I feel myself much indebted to Mr. Vaughan your +father for the opportunity he has furnished me of a direct +correspondence with you, and also to yourself for the seeds of the +Mountain rice you have been so good as to send me. I had before +received from your brother in London some of the same parcel brought +by Capt. Bligh; but it was so late in the spring of the present year +that tho the plants came up and grew luxuriantly, they did not +produce seed. Your present will enable me to enlarge the experiment +I propose for the next year, and for which I had still reserved a few +seeds of the former parcel. About two months ago I was fortunate +enough to recieve a cask of mountain rice from the coast of Africa. +This has enabled me to engage so many persons in the experiment as to +be tolerably sure it will be fairly made by some of them. It will +furnish also a comparison with that from Timor. I have the success +of this species of rice at heart, because it will not only enable +other states to cultivate rice which have not lands susceptible of +inundation but because also if the rice be as good as is said, it may +take place of the wet rice in the Southern states, & by superseding +the necessity of overflowing their lands, save them from the +pestilential & mortal fevers brought on by that operation. + + We have lately had introduced a plant of the Melon species +which, from it's external resemblance to the pumpkin, we have called +a pumpkin, distinguishing it specifically as the _potatoe-pumpkin_, +on account of the extreme resemblance of it's taste to that of the +sweet-potatoe. It is as yet but little known, is well esteemed at +our table, and particularly valued by our negroe's. Coming much +earlier than the real potatoe, we are so much the sooner furnished +with a substitute for that root. I know not from whence it came; so +that perhaps it may be originally from your islands. In that case +you will only have the trouble of throwing away the few seeds I +enclose you herewith. On the other hand, if unknown with you, I +think it will probably succeed in the islands, and may add to the +catalogue of plants which will do as substitutes for bread. I have +always thought that if in the experiments to introduce or to +communicate new plants, one species in an hundred is found useful & +succeeds, the ninety nine found otherwise are more than paid for. My +present situation & occupations are not friendly to agricultural +experiments, however strongly I am led to them by inclination. I +will ask permission to address myself to you for such seeds as might +be worth trying from your quarter, freely offering you reciprocal +services in the same or any other line in which you will be so good +as to command them. I have the honor to be with great respect & +esteem, Sir Your most obedt. & most humble servt, + + + "A SCOLDING LETTER" + + _To Martha Jefferson Randolph_ + _Philadelphia, Dec. 23, 1790_ + + MY DEAR DAUGHTER -- This is a scolding letter for you all. I +have not recieved a scrip of a pen from home since I left it which is +now eleven weeks. I think it so easy for you to write me one letter +every week, which will be but once in three weeks for each of you, +when I write one every week who have not one moment's repose from +business from the first to the last moment of the week. Perhaps you +think you have nothing to say to me. It is a great deal to say you +are all well, or that one has a cold, another a fever &c., besides +that there is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me, +nor any thing that moves, from yourself down to Bergere or Grizzle. +Write then my dear daughter punctually on your day, and Mr. Randolph +and Polly on theirs. I suspect you may have news to tell me of +yourself of the most tender interest to me. Why silent then? + + I am still without a house, and consequently without a place to +open my furniture. This has prevented my sending you what I was to +send for Monticello. In the mean time the river is frozen up so as +that no vessel can get out, nor probably will these two months: so +that you will be much longer without them than I had hoped. I know +how inconvenient this will be and am distressed at it; but there is +no help. I send a pamphlet for Mr. Randolph. My best affections to +him, Polly and yourself. Adieu my dear, + + + A HERETICAL SECT + + _To George Mason_ + _Philadelphia, Feb. 4, 1791_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I am to make you my acknowledgments for your favor +of Jan. 10, & the information from France which it contained. It +confirmed what I had heard more loosely before, and accounts still +more recent are to the same effect. I look with great anxiety for +the firm establishment of the new government in France, being +perfectly convinced that if it takes place there, it will spread +sooner or later all over Europe. On the contrary a check there would +retard the revival of liberty in other countries. I consider the +establishment and success of their government as necessary to stay up +our own, and to prevent it from falling back to that kind of Half-way +house, the English constitution. It cannot be denied that we have +among us a sect who believe that to contain whatever is perfect in +human institutions; that the members of this sect have, many of them, +names & offices which stand high in the estimation of our countrymen. +I still rely that the great mass of our community is untainted with +these heresies, as is it's head. On this I build my hope that we +have not laboured in vain, and that our experiment will still prove +that men can be governed by reason. You have excited my curiosity in +saying "there is a particular circumstance, little attended to, which +is continually sapping the republicanism of the United States." What +is it? What is said in our country of the fiscal arrangements now +going on? I really fear their effect when I consider the present +temper of the Southern states. Whether these measures be right or +wrong abstractedly, more attention should be paid to the general +opinion. However, all will pass -- the excise will pass -- the bank +will pass. The only corrective of what is corrupt in our present +form of government will be the augmentation of the numbers in the +lower house, so as to get a more agricultural representation, which +may put that interest above that of the stock-jobbers. + + I had no occasion to sound Mr. Madison on your fears expressed +in your letter. I knew before, as possessing his sentiments fully on +that subject, that his value for you was undiminished. I have always +heard him say that though you and he appeared to differ in your +systems, yet you were in truth nearer together than most persons who +were classed under the same appellation. You may quiet yourself in +the assurance of possessing his complete esteem. I have been +endeavoring to obtain some little distinction for our useful +customers, the French. But there is a particular interest opposed to +it, which I fear will prove too strong. We shall soon see. I will +send you a copy of a report I have given in, as soon as it is +printed. I know there is one part of it contrary to your sentiments; +yet I am not sure you will not become sensible that a change should +be slowly preparing. Certainly, whenever I pass your road, I shall +do myself the pleasure of turning into it. Our last year's +experiment, however, is much in favor of that by Newgate. + + + MONUMENTS OF THE PAST + + _To Ebenezer Hazard_ + _Philadelphia, February 18, 1791_ + + SIR, -- I return you the two volumes of records, with thanks +for the opportunity of looking into them. They are curious monuments +of the infancy of our country. I learn with great satisfaction that +you are about committing to the press the valuable historical and +State papers you have been so long collecting. Time and accident are +committing daily havoc on the originals deposited in our public +offices. The late war has done the work of centuries in this +business. The last cannot be recovered, but let us save what +remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye +and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a +multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of +accident. This being the tendency of your undertaking, be assured +there is no one who wishes it more success than, Sir, your most +obedient and most humble servant. + + + MEMORIES OF FRANKLIN + + _To the Rev. William Smith_ + _Philadelphia, Feb. 19, 1791_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I feel both the wish & the duty to communicate, in +compliance with your request, whatever, within my knowledge, might +render justice to the memory of our great countryman, D'r Franklin, +in whom Philosophy has to deplore one of it's principal luminaries +extinguished. But my opportunities of knowing the interesting facts +of his life have not been equal to my desire of making them known. I +could indeed relate a number of those bon mots, with which he used to +charm every society, as having heard many of them. But these are not +your object. Particulars of greater dignity happened not to occur +during his stay of nine months, after my arrival in France. + + A little before that, Argand had invented his celebrated lamp, +in which the flame is spread into a hollow cylinder, & thus brought +into contact with the air within as well as without. Doct'r Franklin +had been on the point of the same discovery. The idea had occurred +to him; but he had tried a bull-rush as a wick, which did not +succeed. His occupations did not permit him to repeat & extend his +trials to the introduction of a larger column of air than could pass +through the stem of a bull-rush. + + The animal magnetism too of the maniac Mesmer, had just +received its death wound from his hand in conjunction with his +brethren of the learned committee appointed to unveil that compound +of fraud & folly. But, after this, nothing very interesting was +before the public, either in philosophy or politics, during his stay; +& he was principally occupied in winding up his affairs there. + + I can only therefore testify in general that there appeared to +me more respect & veneration attached to the character of Doctor +Franklin in France, than to that of any other person in the same +country, foreign or native. I had opportunities of knowing +particularly how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign +ambassadors & ministers at the court of Versailles. The fable of his +capture by the Algerines, propagated by the English newspapers, +excited no uneasiness; as it was seen at once to be a dish cooked up +to the palate of their readers. But nothing could exceed the anxiety +of his diplomatic brethren, on a subsequent report of his death, +which, tho' premature, bore some marks of authenticity. + + I found the ministers of France equally impressed with the +talents & integrity of Doct'r Franklin. The C't de Vergennes +particularly gave me repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his +entire confidence in him. + + When he left Passy, it seemed as if the village had lost its +patriarch. On taking leave of the court, which he did by letter, the +King ordered him to be handsomely complimented, & furnished him with +a litter & mules of his own, the only kind of conveyance the state of +his health could bear. + + No greater proof of his estimation in France can be given than +the late letters of condolence on his death, from the National +Assembly of that country, & the Community of Paris, to the President +of the United States, & to Congress, and their public mourning on +that event. It is, I believe, the first instance of that homage +having been paid by a public body of one nation to a private citizen +of another. + + His death was an affliction which was to happen to us at some +time or other. We have reason to be thankful he was so long spared; +that the most useful life should be the longest also; that it was +protracted so far beyond the ordinary span allotted to man, as to +avail us of his wisdom in the establishment of our own freedom, & to +bless him with a view of its dawn in the east, where they seemed, +till now, to have learned everything, but how to be free. + + The succession to D'r Franklin, at the court of France, was an +excellent school of humility. On being presented to any one as the +minister of America, the commonplace question used in such cases was +_"c'est vous, Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Franklin?"_ "it is +you, Sir, who replace Doctor Franklin?" I generally answered, "no one +can replace him, Sir: I am only his successor." + + These small offerings to the memory of our great & dear friend, +whom time will be making greater while it is spunging us from it's +records, must be accepted by you, Sir, in that spirit of love & +veneration for him, in which they are made; and not according to +their insignificance in the eyes of a world, who did not want this +mite to fill up the measure of his worth. + + + CAPITOL ON THE POTOMAC + + _To Major L'Enfant_ + _Philadelphia, April 10, 1791_ + + SIR, -- I am favored with your letter of the 4th instant, and +in compliance with your request, I have examined my papers, and found +the plans of Frankfort-on-the-Mayne, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam, Strasburg, +Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, Turin, and +Milan, which I send in a roll by the post. They are on large and +accurate scales, having been procured by me while in those respective +cities myself. As they are connected with the notes I made in my +travels, and often necessary to explain them to myself, I will beg +your care of them, and to return them when no longer useful to you, +leaving you absolutely free to keep them as long as useful. I am +happy that the President has left the planning of the town in such +good hands, and have no doubt it will be done to general +satisfaction. Considering that the grounds to be reserved for the +public are to be paid for by the acre, I think very liberal +reservations should be made for them; and if this be about the Tyber +and on the back of the town, it will be of no injury to the commerce +of the place, which will undoubtedly establish itself on the deep +waters towards the eastern branch and mouth of Rock Creek; the water +about the mouth of the Tyber not being of any depth. Those connected +with the government will prefer fixing themselves near the public +grounds in the centre, which will also be convenient to be resorted +to as walks from the lower and upper town. Having communicated to +the President, before he went away, such general ideas on the subject +of the town as occurred to me, I make no doubt that, in explaining +himself to you on the subject, he has interwoven with his own ideas, +such of mine as he approved. For fear of repeating therefore what he +did not approve, and having more confidence in the unbiassed state of +his mind, than in my own, I avoided interfering with what he may have +expressed to you. Whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the +Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of +antiquity, which have had the approbation of thousands of years; and +for the President's house, I should prefer the celebrated fronts of +modern buildings, which have already received the approbation of all +good judges. Such are the Galerie du Louire, the Gardes meubles, and +two fronts of the Hotel de Salm. But of this it is yet time enough +to consider. In the meantime I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most +obedient humble servant. + + + A NOTE ON INDIAN POLICY + + _To Charles Carroll_ + _Philadelphia, April 15, 1791_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received last night your favor of the 10th, with +Mr. Brown's receipt, and thank you for the trouble you have been so +kind as to take in this business. + + + Our news from the westward is disagreeable. Constant murders +committing by the Indians, and their combination threatens to be more +and more extensive. I hope we shall give them a thorough drubbing +this summer, and then change our tomahawk into a golden chain of +friendship. The most economical as well as most humane conduct +towards them is to bribe them into peace, and to retain them in peace +by eternal bribes. The expedition this year would have served for +presents on the most liberal scale for one hundred years; nor shall +we otherwise ever get rid of any army, or of our debt. The least rag +of Indian depredation will be an excuse to raise troops for those who +love to have troops, and for those who think that a public debt is a +good thing. Adieu, my dear Sir. Yours affectionately. + + + BURKE, PAINE, AND MR. ADAMS + + _To the President of the United States_ + (GEORGE WASHINGTON) + + _Philadelphia, May 8, 1791_ + + SIR, -- The last week does not furnish one single public event +worthy communicating to you: so that I have only to say "all is +well." Paine's answer to Burke's pamphlet begins to produce some +squibs in our public papers. In Fenno's paper they are Burkites, in +the others, Painites. One of Fenno's was evidently from the author +of the discourses on Davila. I am afraid the indiscretion of a +printer has committed me with my friend Mr. Adams, for whom, as one +of the most honest & disinterested men alive, I have a cordial +esteem, increased by long habits of concurrence in opinion in the +days of his republicanism; and even since his apostacy to hereditary +monarchy & nobility, tho' we differ, we differ as friends should do. +Beckley had the only copy of Paine's pamphlet, & lent it to me, +desiring when I should have read it, that I would send it to a Mr. J. +B. Smith, who had asked it for his brother to reprint it. Being an +utter stranger to J. B. Smith, both by sight & character I wrote a +note to explain to him why I (a stranger to him) sent him a pamphlet, +to wit, that Mr. Beckley had desired it; & to take off a little of +the dryness of the note, I added that I was glad to find it was to be +reprinted, that something would at length be publicly said against +the political heresies which had lately sprung up among us, & that I +did not doubt our citizens would rally again round the standard of +common sense. That I had in my view the Discourses on Davila, which +have filled Fenno's papers, for a twelvemonth, without contradiction, +is certain, but nothing was ever further from my thoughts than to +become myself the contradictor before the public. To my great +astonishment however, when the pamphlet came out, the printer had +prefixed my note to it, without having given me the most distant hint +of it. Mr. Adams will unquestionably take to himself the charge of +political heresy, as conscious of his own views of drawing the +present government to the form of the English constitution, and, I +fear will consider me as meaning to injure him in the public eye. I +learn that some Anglo men have censured it in another point of view, +as a sanction of Paine's principles tends to give offence to the +British government. Their real fear however is that this popular & +republican pamphlet, taking wonderfully, is likely at a single stroke +to wipe out all the unconstitutional doctrines which their +bell-weather Davila has been preaching for a twelvemonth. I +certainly never made a secret of my being anti-monarchical, & +anti-aristocratical; but I am sincerely mortified to be thus brought +forward on the public stage, where to remain, to advance or to +retire, will be equally against my love of silence & quiet, & my +abhorrence of dispute. -- I do not know whether you recollect that +the records of Virginia were destroyed by the British in the year +1781. Particularly the transactions of the revolution before that +time. I am collecting here all the letters I wrote to Congress while +I was in the administration there, and this being done I shall then +extend my views to the transactions of my predecessors, in order to +replace the whole in the public offices in Virginia. I think that +during my administration, say between June 1. 1779. & June 1. 1781. +I had the honor of writing frequent letters to you on public affairs, +which perhaps may be among your papers at Mount Vernon. Would it be +consistent with any general resolution you have formed as to your +papers, to let my letters of the above period come here to be copied, +in order to make them a part of the records I am endeavoring to +restore for the state? or would their selection be too troublesome? +if not, I would beg the loan of them, under an assurance that they +shall be taken the utmost care of, & safely returned to their present +deposit. + + The quiet & regular movements of our political affairs leaves +nothing to add but constant prayers for your health & welfare and +assurances of the sincere respect & attachment of Sir Your most +obedient, & most humble servt. + + + A NORTHERN TOUR + + _To Thomas Mann Randolph_ + _Bennington, in Vermont, June 5, 1791_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Madison & myself are so far on the tour we had +projected. We have visited in the course of it the principal scenes +of Genl. Burgoyne's misfortunes to wit the grounds at Stillwater +where the action of that name was fought, & particularly the +breastworks which cost so much blood to both parties, the encampments +at Saratoga & ground where the British piled their arms, the field of +the battle of Bennington about 9 miles from this place. We have also +visited Forts Wm. Henry & George, Ticonderoga, Crown point, &c. which +have been scenes of blood from a very early part of our history. We +were more pleased however with the botanical objects which +continually presented themselves. Those either unknown or rare in +Virgna were the Sugar maple in vast abundance, the Silver fir, White +pine, Pitch pine, Spruce pine, a shrub with decumbent stems which +they call Juniper, an azalea very different from the nudiflora, with +very large clusters of flowers, more thickly set on the branches, of +a deeper red, & high pink-fragrance. It is the richest shrub I have +seen. The honeysuckle of the gardens growing wild on the banks' of +L. George, the paper-birch, an Aspen with a velvet leaf, a +shrub-willow with downy catkins, a wild gooseberry, the wild cherry +with single fruit (not the bunch cherry) strawberries in abundance. +From the Highlands to the lakes it is a limestone country. It is in +vast quantities on the Eastern sides of the lakes, but none on the +Western sides. The Sandy hill falls & Wing's falls, two very +remarkable cataracts of the Hudson of about 35 f. or 40 f. each +between F. Edward & F. George are of limestone, in horizontal strata. +Those of the Cohoes, on the W. side of the Hudson, & of 70 f. height, +we thought not of limestone. We have met with a small red squirrel +of the color of our fox-squirrel, with a black stripe on each side, +weighing about 6 oz. generally, and in such abundance on L. Champlain +particularly as that twenty odd were killed at the house we lodged in +opposite Crown point the morning we arrived there, without going 10 +yards from the door. We killed 3 crossing the lakes, one of them +just as he was getting ashore where it was 3 miles wide, & where with +the high wind then blowing he must have made it 5 or 6 miles. + + I think I asked the favr. of you to send for Anthony in the +season for inoculn, as well as to do what is necessary in the +orchard, as to pursue the object of inoculating all the Spontaneous +cherry trees in the fields with good fruit. + + We have now got over about 400 miles of our tour and have still +about 450 more to go over. Arriving here on the Saturday evening, +and the laws of the state not permitting us to travel on the Sunday, +has given me time to write to you from hence. I expect to be at +Philadelphia by the 20th or 21st. I am, with great & sincere esteem +Dear Sir yours affectionately. + + + BREACH OF A FRIENDSHIP + + _To John Adams_ + _Philadelphia, July 17, 1791_ + + DEAR SIR -- I have a dozen times taken up my pen to write to +you and as often laid it down again, suspended between opposing +considerations. I determine however to write from a conviction that +truth, between candid minds, can never do harm. + + The first of Paine's pamphlets on the Rights of man, which came +to hand here, belonged to Mr. Beckley. He lent it to Mr. Madison +who lent it to me; and while I was reading it Mr. Beckley called on +me for it, and, as I had not finished it, he desired me, as soon as I +should have done so, to send it to Mr. Jonathan B. Smith, whose +brother meant to reprint it. I finished reading it, and, as I had no +acquaintance with Mr. Jonathan B. Smith, propriety required that I +should explain to him why I, a stranger to him, sent him the +pamphlet. I accordingly wrote a note of compliment informing him +that I did it at the desire of Mr. Beckley, and, to take off a little +of the dryness of the note, I added that I was glad it was to be +reprinted here, and that something was to be publicly said against +the political heresies which had sprung up among us etc. I thought +so little of this note that I did not even keep a copy of it: nor +ever heard a tittle more of it till, the week following, I was +thunderstruck with seeing it come out at the head of the pamphlet. I +hoped however it would not attract notice. But I found on my return +from a journey of a month that a writer came forward under the +signature of Publicola, attacking not only the author and principles +of the pamphlet, but myself as it's sponsor, by name. Soon after +came hosts of other writers defending the pamphlet and attacking you +by name as the writer of Publicola. Thus were our names thrown on +the public stage as public antagonists. That you and I differ in our +ideas of the best form of government is well known to us both: but we +have differed as friends should do, respecting the purity of each +other's motives, and confining our difference of opinion to private +conversation. And I can declare with truth in the presence of the +almighty that nothing was further from my intention or expectation +than to have had either my own or your name brought before the public +on this occasion. The friendship and confidence which has so long +existed between us required this explanation from me, and I know you +too well to fear any misconstruction of the motives of it. Some +people here who would wish me to be, or to be thought, guilty of +improprieties, have suggested that I was Agricola, that I was Brutus +etc. etc. I never did in my life, either by myself or by any other, +have a sentence of mine inserted in a newspaper without putting my +name to it; and I believe I never shall. + + + While the empress is refusing peace under a mediation unless +Oczakow and it's territory be ceded to her, she is offering peace on +the perfect statu quo to the Porte, if they will conclude it without +a mediation. France has struck a severe blow at our navigation by a +difference of duty on tob[acc]o carried in our and their ships, and +by taking from foreign built ships the capability of naturalization. +She has placed our whale oil on rather a better footing than ever by +consolidating the duties into a single one of 6. livres. They +amounted before to some sous over that sum. I am told (I know not +how truly) that England has prohibited our spermaceti oil altogether, +and will prohibit our wheat till the price there is 52/ the quarter, +which it almost never is. We expect hourly to hear the true event of +Genl. Scott's expedition. Reports give favorable hopes of it. Be so +good as to present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Adams and to +accept assurances of the sentiments of sincere esteem and respect +with which I am Dear Sir Your friend and servant. + + + HOPE FOR "OUR BLACK BRETHREN" + + _To Benjamin Banneker_ + _Philadelphia, Aug. 30, 1791_ + + SIR, -- I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th +instant and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I +do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our +black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, +and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the +degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa & America. I +can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good +system commenced for raising the condition both of their body & mind +to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility of their present +existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will +admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur +de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and +member of the Philanthropic society, because I considered it as a +document to which your whole colour had a right for their +justification against the doubts which have been entertained of them. +I am with great esteem, Sir Your most obed't humble serv't. + + + STRENGTHENING THE STATE GOVERNMENTS + + _To Archibald Stuart_ + _Philadelphia, Dec. 23, 1791_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received duly your favor of Octob 22. and should +have answered it by the gentleman who delivered it, but that he left +town before I knew of it. + + That it is really important to provide a constitution for our +state cannot be doubted: as little can it be doubted that the +ordinance called by that name has important defects. But before we +attempt it, we should endeavor to be as certain as is practicable +that in the attempt we should not make bad worse. I have understood +that Mr. Henry has always been opposed to this undertaking: and I +confess that I consider his talents and influence such as that, were +it decided that we should call a Convention for the purpose of +amending, I should fear he might induce that convention either to fix +the thing as at present, or change it for the worse. Would it not +therefore be well that means should be adopted for coming at his +ideas of the changes he would agree to, & for communicating to him +those which we should propose? Perhaps he might find ours not so +distant from his but that some mutual sacrifices might bring them +together. + + I shall hazard my own ideas to you as hastily as my business +obliges me. I wish to preserve the line drawn by the federal +constitution between the general & particular governments as it +stands at present, and to take every prudent means of preventing +either from stepping over it. Tho' the experiment has not yet had a +long enough course to shew us from which quarter encroachments are +most to be feared, yet it is easy to foresee from the nature of +things that the encroachments of the state governments will tend to +an excess of liberty which will correct itself (as in the late +instance) while those of the general government will tend to +monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of +working its own cure, as all experience shews. I would rather be +exposed to the inconve-niencies attending too much liberty than those +attending too small a degree of it. Then it is important to +strengthen the state governments: and as this cannot be done by any +change in the federal constitution, (for the preservation of that is +all we need contend for,) it must be done by the states themselves, +erecting such barriers at the constitutional line as cannot be +surmounted either by themselves or by the general government. The +only barrier in their power is a wise government. A weak one will +lose ground in every contest. To obtain a wise & an able government, +I consider the following changes as important. Render the +legislature a desirable station by lessening the number of +representatives (say to 100) and lengthening somewhat their term, and +proportion them equally among the electors: adopt also a better mode +of appointing Senators. Render the Executive a more desirable post +to men of abilities by making it more independant of the legislature. +To wit, let him be chosen by other electors, for a longer time, and +ineligible for ever after. Responsibility is a tremendous engine in +a free government. Let him feel the whole weight of it then by +taking away the shelter of his executive council. Experience both +ways has already established the superiority of this measure. Render +the Judiciary respectable by every possible means, to wit, firm +tenure in office, competent salaries, and reduction of their numbers. +Men of high learning and abilities are few in every country; & by +taking in those who are not so, the able part of the body have their +hands tied by the unable. This branch of the government will have +the weight of the conflict on their hands, because they will be the +last appeal of reason. -- These are my general ideas of amendments; +but, preserving the ends, I should be flexible & conciliatory as to +the means. You ask whether Mr. Madison and myself could attend on a +convention which should be called? Mr. Madison's engagements as a +member of Congress will probably be from October to March or April in +every year. Mine are constant while I hold my office, and my +attendance would be very unimportant. Were it otherwise, my office +should not stand in the way of it. I am with great & sincere esteem, +Dr Sir, your friend & servt. + + + "A STEPPING STONE TO MONARCHY" + + _To the President of the United States_ + (GEORGE WASHINGTON) + _Philadelphia, May 23, 1792_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have determined to make the subject of a letter, +what for some time past, has been a subject of inquietude to my mind +without having found a good occasion of disburthening itself to you +in conversation, during the busy scenes which occupied you here. +Perhaps too you may be able, in your present situation, or on the +road, to give it more time & reflection than you could do here at any +moment. + + When you first mentioned to me your purpose of retiring from +the government, tho' I felt all the magnitude of the event, I was in +a considerable degree silent. I knew that, to such a mind as yours, +persuasion was idle & impertinent: that before forming your decision, +you had weighed all the reasons for & against the measure, had made +up your mind on full view of them, & that there could be little hope +of changing the result. Pursuing my reflections too I knew we were +some day to try to walk alone; and if the essay should be made while +you should be alive & looking on, we should derive confidence from +that circumstance, & resource if it failed. The public mind too was +calm & confident, and therefore in a favorable state for making the +experiment. Had no change of circumstances intervened, I should not, +with any hope of success, have now ventured to propose to you a +change of purpose. But the public mind is no longer confident and +serene; and that from causes in which you are in no ways personally +mixed. Tho these causes have been hackneyed in the public papers in +detail, it may not be amiss, in order to calculate the effect they +are capable of producing, to take a view of them in the mass, giving +to each the form, real or imaginary, under which they have been +presented. + + It has been urged then that a public debt, greater than we can +possibly pay before other causes of adding new debt to it will occur, +has been artificially created, by adding together the whole amount of +the debtor & creditor sides of accounts, instead of taking only their +balances, which could have been paid off in a short time: That this +accumulation of debt has taken for ever out of our power those easy +sources of revenue, which, applied to the ordinary necessities and +exigencies of government, would have answered them habitually, and +covered us from habitual murmurings against taxes & tax-gatherers, +reserving extraordinary calls, for those extraordinary occasions +which would animate the people to meet them: That though the calls +for money have been no greater than we must generally expect, for the +same or equivalent exigencies, yet we are already obliged to strain +the impost till it produces clamour, and will produce evasion, & war +on our own citizens to collect it: and even to resort to an _Excise_ +law, of odious character with the people, partial in it's operation, +unproductive unless enforced by arbitrary & vexatious means, and +committing the authority of the government in parts where resistance +is most probable, & coercion least practicable. They cite +propositions in Congress and suspect other projects on foot still to +increase the mass of debt. They say that by borrowing at 2/3 of the +interest, we might have paid off the principal in 2/3 of the time: +but that from this we are precluded by it's being made irredeemable +but in small portions & long terms: That this irredeemable quality +was given it for the avowed purpose of inviting it's transfer to +foreign countries. They predict that this transfer of the principal, +when compleated, will occasion an exportation of 3. millions of +dollars annually for the interest, a drain of coin, of which as there +has been no example, no calculation can be made of it's consequences: +That the banishment of our coin will be compleated by the creation of +10. millions of paper money, in the form of bank bills, now issuing +into circulation. They think the 10. or 12. percent annual profit +paid to the lenders of this paper medium taken out of the pockets of +the people, who would have had without interest the coin it is +banishing: That all the capital employed in paper speculation is +barren & useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no +accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce & agriculture +where it would have produced addition to the common mass: That it +nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness instead of +industry & morality: That it has furnished effectual means of +corrupting such a portion of the legislature, as turns the balance +between the honest voters which ever way it is directed: That this +corrupt squadron, deciding the voice of the legislature, have +manifested their dispositions to get rid of the limitations imposed +by the constitution on the general legislature, limitations, on the +faith of which, the states acceded to that instrument: That the +ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change, from +the present republican form of government, to that of a monarchy, of +which the English constitution is to be the model. That this was +contemplated in the Convention is no secret, because it's partisans +have made none of it. To effect it then was impracticable, but they +are still eager after their object, and are predisposing every thing +for it's ultimate attainment. So many of them have got into the +legislature, that, aided by the corrupt squadron of paper dealers, +who are at their devotion, they make a majority in both houses. The +republican party, who wish to preserve the government in it's present +form, are fewer in number. They are fewer even when joined by the +two, three, or half dozen anti-federalists, who, tho they dare not +avow it, are still opposed to any general government: but being less +so to a republican than a monarchical one, they naturally join those +whom they think pursuing the lesser evil. + + Of all the mischiefs objected to the system of measures before +mentioned, none is so afflicting, and fatal to every honest hope, as +the corruption of the legislature. As it was the earliest of these +measures, it became the instrument for producing the rest, & will be +the instrument for producing in future a king, lords & commons, or +whatever else those who direct it may chuse. Withdrawn such a +distance from the eye of their constituents, and these so dispersed +as to be inaccessible to public information, & particularly to that +of the conduct of their own representatives, they will form the most +corrupt government on earth, if the means of their corruption be not +prevented. The only hope of safety hangs now on the numerous +representation which is to come forward the ensuing year. Some of +the new members will probably be either in principle or interest, +with the present majority, but it is expected that the great mass +will form an accession to the republican party. They will not be +able to undo all which the two preceding legislatures, & especially +the first, have done. Public faith & right will oppose this. But +some parts of the system may be rightfully reformed; a liberation +from the rest unremittingly pursued as fast as right will permit, & +the door shut in future against similar commitments of the nation. +Should the next legislature take this course, it will draw upon them +the whole monarchical & paper interest. But the latter I think will +not go all lengths with the former, because creditors will never, of +their own accord, fly off entirely from their debtors. Therefore +this is the alternative least likely to produce convulsion. But +should the majority of the new members be still in the same +principles with the present, & shew that we have nothing to expect +but a continuance of the same practices, it is not easy to conjecture +what would be the result, nor what means would be resorted to for +correction of the evil. True wisdom would direct that they should be +temperate & peaceable, but the division of sentiment & interest +happens unfortunately to be so geographical, that no mortal can say +that what is most wise & temperate would prevail against what is most +easy & obvious. I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil +than the breaking of the union into two or more parts. Yet when we +review the mass which opposed the original coalescence, when we +consider that it lay chiefly in the Southern quarter, that the +legislature have availed themselves of no occasion of allaying it, +but on the contrary whenever Northern & Southern prejudices have come +into conflict, the latter have been sacrificed & the former soothed; +that the owners of the debt are in the Southern & the holders of it +in the Northern division; that the Anti-federal champions are now +strengthened in argument by the fulfilment of their predictions; that +this has been brought about by the Monarchical federalists +themselves, who, having been for the new government merely as a +stepping stone to monarchy, have themselves adopted the very +constructions of the constitution, of which, when advocating it's +acceptance before the tribunal of the people, they declared it +insusceptible; that the republican federalists, who espoused the same +government for it's intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons, +that which they denied as prophecy being now become true history: who +can be sure that these things may not proselyte the small number +which was wanting to place the majority on the other side? And this +is the event at which I tremble, & to prevent which I consider your +continuance at the head of affairs as of the last importance. The +confidence of the whole union is centred in you. Your being at the +helm, will be more than an answer to every argument which can be used +to alarm & lead the people in any quarter into violence or secession. +North & South will hang together, if they have you to hang on; and, +if the first correction of a numerous representation should fail in +it's effect, your presence will give time for trying others not +inconsistent with the union & peace of the states. + + I am perfectly aware of the oppression under which your present +office lays your mind, & of the ardor with which you pant for +retirement to domestic life. But there is sometimes an eminence of +character on which society have such peculiar claims as to controul +the predelection of the individual for a particular walk of +happiness, & restrain him to that alone arising from the present & +future benedictions of mankind. This seems to be your condition, & +the law imposed on you by providence in forming your character, & +fashioning the events on which it was to operate; and it is to +motives like these, & not to personal anxieties of mine or others who +have no right to call on you for sacrifices, that I appeal from your +former determination & urge a revisal of it, on the ground of change +in the aspect of things. Should an honest majority result from the +new & enlarged representation; should those acquiesce whose +principles or interest they may controul, your wishes for retirement +would be gratified with less danger, as soon as that shall be +manifest, without awaiting the completion of the second period of +four years. One or two sessions will determine the crisis; and I +cannot but hope that you can resolve to add one or two more to the +many years you have already sacrificed to the good of mankind. + + The fear of suspicion that any selfish motive of continuance in +office may enter into this sollicitation on my part obliges me to +declare that no such motive exists. It is a thing of mere +indifference to the public whether I retain or relinquish my purpose +of closing my tour with the first periodical renovation of the +government. I know my own measure too well to suppose that my +services contribute any thing to the public confidence, or the public +utility. Multitudes can fill the office in which you have been +pleased to place me, as much to their advantage & satisfaction. I +therefore have no motive to consult but my own inclination, which is +bent irresistibly on the tranquil enjoyment of my family, my farm, & +my books. I should repose among them it is true, in far greater +security, if I were to know that you remained at the watch, and I +hope it will be so. To the inducements urged from a view of our +domestic affairs, I will add a bare mention, of what indeed need only +be mentioned, that weighty motives for your continuance are to be +found in our foreign affairs. I think it probable that both the +Spanish & English negotiations, if not completed before your purpose +is known, will be suspended from the moment it is known; & that the +latter nation will then use double diligence in fomenting the Indian +war. -- With my wishes for the future, I shall at the same time +express my gratitude for the past, at least my portion in it; & beg +permission to follow you whether in public or private life with those +sentiments of sincere attachment & respect, with which I am +unalterably, Dear Sir, Your affectionate friend & humble servant. + + + "THE MONSTER ARISTOCRACY" + + _To Lafayette_ + _Philadelphia, June 16, 1792_ + + Behold you, then, my dear friend, at the head of a great army, +establishing the liberties of your country against a foreign enemy. +May heaven favor your cause, and make you the channel thro' which it +may pour it's favors. While you are exterminating the monster +aristocracy, & pulling out the teeth & fangs of it's associate +monarchy, a contrary tendency is discovered in some here. A sect has +shewn itself among us, who declare they espoused our new +constitution, not as a good & sufficient thing itself, but only as a +step to an English constitution, the only thing good & sufficient in +itself, in their eye. It is happy for us that these are preachers +without followers, and that our people are firm & constant in their +republican purity. You will wonder to be told that it is from the +Eastward chiefly that these champions for a king, lords & commons +come. They get some important associates from New York, and are +puffed off by a tribe of Agioteurs which have been hatched in a bed +of corruption made up after the model of their beloved England. Too +many of these stock jobbers & king-jobbers have come into our +legislature, or rather too many of our legislature have become stock +jobbers & king-jobbers. However the voice of the people is beginning +to make itself heard, and will probably cleanse their seats at the +ensuing election. -- The machinations of our old enemies are such as +to keep us still at bay with our Indian neighbors. -- What are you +doing for your colonies? They will be lost if not more effectually +succoured. Indeed no future efforts you can make will ever be able +to reduce the blacks. All that can be done in my opinion will be to +compound with them as has been done formerly in Jamaica. We have +been less zealous in aiding them, lest your government should feel +any jealousy on our account. But in truth we as sincerely wish their +restoration, and their connection with you, as you do yourselves. We +are satisfied that neither your justice nor their distresses will +ever again permit their being forced to seek at dear & distant +markets those first necessaries of life which they may have at +cheaper markets placed by nature at their door, & formed by her for +their support. -- What is become of Mde de Tessy and Mde de Tott? I +have not heard of them since they went to Switzerland. I think they +would have done better to have come & reposed under the Poplars of +Virginia. Pour into their bosoms the warmest effusions of my +friendship & tell them they will be warm and constant unto death. +Accept of them also for Mde de la Fayette & your dear children -- but +I am forgetting that you are in the field of war, & they I hope in +those of peace. Adieu my dear friend! God bless you all. Yours +affectionately. + + + THE RIGHTS OF MAN + + _To Thomas Paine_ + _Philadelphia, June 19, 1792_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received with great pleasure the present of your +pamphlets, as well for the thing itself as that it was a testimony of +your recollection. Would you believe it possible that in this +country there should be high & important characters who need your +lessons in republicanism, & who do not heed them? It is but too true +that we have a sect preaching up & pouting after an English +constitution of king, lords, & commons, & whose heads are itching for +crowns, coronets & mitres. But our people, my good friend, are firm +and unanimous in their principles of republicanism & there is no +better proof of it than that they love what you write and read it +with delight. The printers season every newspaper with extracts from +your last, as they did before from your first part of the Rights of +Man. They have both served here to separate the wheat from the +chaff, and to prove that tho' the latter appears on the surface, it +is on the surface only. The bulk below is sound & pure. Go on then +in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword: +shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind +than on the body of man, and be assured that it has not a more +sincere votary nor you a more ardent well-wisher than Yrs. &c. + + + THE CONFLICT WITH HAMILTON + + _To the President of the United States_ + (GEORGE WASHINGTON) + _Monticello, Sep. 9, 1792_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received on the 2d inst the letter of Aug 23, +which you did me the honor to write me; but the immediate return of +our post, contrary to his custom, prevented my answer by that +occasion. The proceedings of Spain mentioned in your letter are +really of a complexion to excite uneasiness, & a suspicion that their +friendly overtures about the Missisipi have been merely to lull us +while they should be strengthening their holds on that river. Mr. +Carmichael's silence has been long my astonishment: and however it +might have justified something very different from a new appointment, +yet the public interest certainly called for his junction with Mr. +Short as it is impossible but that his knolege of the ground of +negotiation of persons & characters, must be useful & even necessary +to the success of the mission. That Spain & Gr Britain may +understand one another on our frontiers is very possible; for however +opposite their interests or disposition may be in the affairs of +Europe, yet while these do not call them into opposite action, they +may concur as against us. I consider their keeping an agent in the +Indian country as a circumstance which requires serious interference +on our part; and I submit to your decision whether it does not +furnish a proper occasion to us to send an additional instruction to +Messrs. Carmichael & Short to insist on a mutual & formal +stipulation to forbear employing agents or pensioning any persons +within each other's limits: and if this be refused, to propose the +contrary stipulation, to wit, that each party may freely keep agents +within the Indian territories of the other, in which case we might +soon sicken them of the license. + + I now take the liberty of proceeding to that part of your +letter wherein you notice the internal dissentions which have taken +place within our government, & their disagreeable effect on it's +movements. That such dissentions have taken place is certain, & even +among those who are nearest to you in the administration. To no one +have they given deeper concern than myself: to no one equal +mortification at being myself a part of them. Tho' I take to myself +no more than my share of the general observations of your letter, yet +I am so desirous ever that you should know the whole truth, & believe +no more than the truth, that I am glad to seize every occasion of +developing to you whatever I do or think relative to the government; +& shall therefore ask permission to be more lengthy now than the +occasion particularly calls for, or could otherwise perhaps justify. + + When I embarked in the government, it was with a determination +to intermeddle not at all with the legislature, & as little as +possible with my co-departments. The first and only instance of +variance from the former part of my resolution, I was duped into by +the Secretary of the Treasury and made a tool for forwarding his +schemes, not then sufficiently understood by me; and of all the +errors of my political life, this has occasioned me the deepest +regret. It has ever been my purpose to explain this to you, when, +from being actors on the scene, we shall have become uninterested +spectators only. The second part of my resolution has been +religiously observed with the war department; & as to that of the +Treasury, has never been farther swerved from than by the mere +enunciation of my sentiments in conversation, and chiefly among those +who, expressing the same sentiments, drew mine from me. If it has +been supposed that I have ever intrigued among the members of the +legislatures to defeat the plans of the Secretary of the Treasury, it +is contrary to all truth. As I never had the desire to influence the +members, so neither had I any other means than my friendships, which +I valued too highly to risk by usurpations on their freedom of +judgment, & the conscientious pursuit of their own sense of duty. +That I have utterly, in my private conversations, disapproved of the +system of the Secretary of the treasury, I acknolege & avow: and this +was not merely a speculative difference. His system flowed from +principles adverse to liberty, & was calculated to undermine and +demolish the republic, by creating an influence of his department +over the members of the legislature. I saw this influence actually +produced, & it's first fruits to be the establishment of the great +outlines of his project by the votes of the very persons who, having +swallowed his bait were laying themselves out to profit by his plans: +& that had these persons withdrawn, as those interested in a question +ever should, the vote of the disinterested majority was clearly the +reverse of what they made it. These were no longer the votes then of +the representatives of the people, but of deserters from the rights & +interests of the people: & it was impossible to consider their +decisions, which had nothing in view but to enrich themselves, as the +measures of the fair majority, which ought always to be respected. +-- If what was actually doing begat uneasiness in those who wished +for virtuous government, what was further proposed was not less +threatening to the friends of the Constitution. For, in a Report on +the subject of manufactures (still to be acted on) it was expressly +assumed that the general government has a right to exercise all +powers which may be for the _general welfare_, that is to say, all +the legitimate powers of government: since no government has a +legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed. +There was indeed a sham-limitation of the universality of this power +_to cases where money is to be employed_. But about what is it that +money cannot be employed? Thus the object of these plans taken +together is to draw all the powers of government into the hands of +the general legislature, to establish means for corrupting a +sufficient corps in that legislature to divide the honest votes & +preponderate, by their own, the scale which suited, & to have that +corps under the command of the Secretary of the Treasury for the +purpose of subverting step by step the principles of the +constitution, which he has so often declared to be a thing of nothing +which must be changed. Such views might have justified something +more than mere expressions of dissent, beyond which, nevertheless, I +never went. -- Has abstinence from the department committed to me +been equally observed by him? To say nothing of other interferences +equally known, in the case of the two nations with which we have the +most intimate connections, France & England, my system was to give +some satisfactory distinctions to the former, of little cost to us, +in return for the solid advantages yielded us by them; & to have met +the English with some restrictions which might induce them to abate +their severities against our commerce. I have always supposed this +coincided with your sentiments. Yet the Secretary of the treasury, +by his cabals with members of the legislature, & by high-toned +declamation on other occasions, has forced down his own system, which +was exactly the reverse. He undertook, of his own authority, the +conferences with the ministers of those two nations, & was, on every +consultation, provided with some report of a conversation with the +one or the other of them, adapted to his views. These views, thus +made to prevail, their execution fell of course to me; & I can safely +appeal to you, who have seen all my letters & proceedings, whether I +have not carried them into execution as sincerely as if they had been +my own, tho' I ever considered them as inconsistent with the honor & +interest of our country. That they have been inconsistent with our +interest is but too fatally proved by the stab to our navigation +given by the French. -- So that if the question be By whose fault is +it that Colo Hamilton & myself have not drawn together? the answer +will depend on that to two other questions; whose principles of +administration best justify, by their purity, conscientious +adherence? and which of us has, notwithstanding, stepped farthest +into the controul of the department of the other? + + To this justification of opinions, expressed in the way of +conversation, against the views of Colo Hamilton, I beg leave to add +some notice of his late charges against me in Fenno's gazette; for +neither the stile, matter, nor venom of the pieces alluded to can +leave a doubt of their author. Spelling my name & character at full +length to the public, while he conceals his own under the signature +of "an American" he charges me 1. With having written letters from +Europe to my friends to oppose the present constitution while +depending. 2. With a desire of not paying the public debt. 3. With +setting up a paper to decry & slander the government. 1. The first +charge is most false. No man in the U.S. I suppose, approved of +every title in the constitution: no one, I believe approved more of +it than I did: and more of it was certainly disproved by my accuser +than by me, and of it's parts most vitally republican. Of this the +few letters I wrote on the subject (not half a dozen I believe) will +be a proof: & for my own satisfaction & justification, I must tax you +with the reading of them when I return to where they are. You will +there see that my objection to the constitution was that it wanted a +bill of rights securing freedom of religion, freedom of the press, +freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, & a constant Habeas +corpus act. Colo Hamilton's was that it wanted a king and house of +lords. The sense of America has approved my objection & added the +bill of rights, not the king and lords. I also thought a longer term +of service, insusceptible of renewal, would have made a President +more independant. My country has thought otherwise, & I have +acquiesced implicitly. He wishes the general government should have +power to make laws binding the states in all cases whatsoever. Our +country has thought otherwise: has he acquiesced? Notwithstanding my +wish for a bill of rights, my letters strongly urged the adoption of +the constitution, by nine states at least, to secure the good it +contained. I at first thought that the best method of securing the +bill of rights would be for four states to hold off till such a bill +should be agreed to. But the moment I saw Mr. Hancock's proposition +to pass the constitution as it stood, and give perpetual instructions +to the representatives of every state to insist on a bill of rights, +I acknoleged the superiority of his plan, & advocated universal +adoption. 2. The second charge is equally untrue. My whole +correspondence while in France, & every word, letter, & act on the +subject since my return, prove that no man is more ardently intent to +see the public debt soon & sacredly paid off than I am. This exactly +marks the difference between Colo Hamilton's views & mine, that I +would wish the debt paid to morrow; he wishes it never to be paid, +but always to be a thing where with to corrupt & manage the +legislature. 3. I have never enquired what number of sons, relations +& friends of Senators, representatives, printers or other useful +partisans Colo Hamilton has provided for among the hundred clerks of +his department, the thousand excisemen, custom-house officers, loan +officers &c. &c. &c. appointed by him, or at his nod, and spread over +the Union; nor could ever have imagined that the man who has the +shuffling of millions backwards & forwards from paper into money & +money into paper, from Europe to America, & America to Europe, the +dealing out of Treasury-secrets among his friends in what time & +measure he pleases, and who never slips an occasion of making friends +with his means, that such an one I say would have brought forward a +charge against me for having appointed the poet Freneau translating +clerk to my office, with a salary of 250. dollars a year. That fact +stands thus. While the government was at New York I was applied to +on behalf of Freneau to know if there was any place within my +department to which he could be appointed. I answered there were but +four clerkships, all of which I found full, and continued without any +change. When we removed to Philadelphia, Mr. Pintard the translating +clerk, did not chuse to remove with us. His office then became +vacant. I was again applied to there for Freneau, & had no +hesitation to promise the clerkship for him. I cannot recollect +whether it was at the same time, or afterwards, that I was told he +had a thought of setting up a newspaper there. But whether then, or +afterwards, I considered it as a circumstance of some value, as it +might enable me to do, what I had long wished to have done, that is, +to have the material parts of the Leyden gazette brought under your +eye & that of the public, in order to possess yourself & them of a +juster view of the affairs of Europe than could be obtained from any +other public source. This I had ineffectually attempted through the +press of Mr. Fenno while in New York, selecting & translating +passages myself at first then having it done by Mr. Pintard the +translating clerk, but they found their way too slowly into Mr. +Fenno's papers. Mr. Bache essayed it for me in Philadelphia, but his +being a daily paper, did not circulate sufficiently in the other +states. He even tried, at my request, the plan of a weekly paper of +recapitulation from his daily paper, in hopes that that might go into +the other states, but in this too we failed. Freneau, as translating +clerk, & the printer of a periodical paper likely to circulate thro' +the states (uniting in one person the parts of Pintard & Fenno) +revived my hopes that the thing could at length be effected. On the +establishment of his paper therefore, I furnished him with the Leyden +gazettes, with an expression of my wish that he could always +translate & publish the material intelligence they contained; & have +continued to furnish them from time to time, as regularly as I +received them. But as to any other direction or indication of my +wish how his press should be conducted, what sort of intelligence he +should give, what essays encourage, I can protest in the presence of +heaven, that I never did by myself or any other, directly or +indirectly, say a syllable, nor attempt any kind of influence. I can +further protest, in the same awful presence, that I never did by +myself or any other, directly or indirectly, write, dictate or +procure any one sentence or sentiment to be inserted _in his, or any +other gazette_, to which my name was not affixed or that of my +office. -- I surely need not except here a thing so foreign to the +present subject as a little paragraph about our Algerine captives, +which I put once into Fenno's paper. -- Freneau's proposition to +publish a paper, having been about the time that the writings of +Publicola, & the discourses on Davila had a good deal excited the +public attention, I took for granted from Freneau's character, which +had been marked as that of a good whig, that he would give free place +to pieces written against the aristocratical & monarchical principles +these papers had inculcated. This having been in my mind, it is +likely enough I may have expressed it in conversation with others; +tho' I do not recollect that I did. To Freneau I think I could not, +because I had still seen him but once, & that was at a public table, +at breakfast, at Mrs. Elsworth's, as I passed thro' New York the +last year. And I can safely declare that my expectations looked only +to the chastisement of the aristocratical & monarchical writers, & +not to any criticisms on the proceedings of government: Colo Hamilton +can see no motive for any appointment but that of making a convenient +partizan. But you Sir, who have received from me recommendations of +a Rittenhouse, Barlow, Paine, will believe that talents & science are +sufficient motives with me in appointments to which they are fitted: +& that Freneau, as a man of genius, might find a preference in my eye +to be a translating clerk, & make good title to the little aids I +could give him as the editor of a gazette, by procuring subscriptions +to his paper, as I did some, before it appeared, & as I have with +pleasure done for the labours of other men of genius. I hold it to +be one of the distinguishing excellencies of elective over hereditary +succesions, that the talents, which nature has provided in sufficient +proportion, should be selected by the society for the government of +their affairs, rather than that this should be transmitted through +the loins of knaves & fools passing from the debauches of the table +to those of the bed. Colo Hamilton, alias "Plain facts," says that +Freneau's salary began before he resided in Philadelphia. I do not +know what quibble he may have in reserve on the word "residence." He +may mean to include under that idea the removal of his family; for I +believe he removed, himself, before his family did, to Philadelphia. +But no act of mine gave commencement to his salary before he so far +took up his abode in Philadelphia as to be sufficiently in readiness +for the duties of the office. As to the merits or demerits of his +paper, they certainly concern me not. He & Fenno are rivals for the +public favor. The one courts them by flattery, the other by censure, +& I believe it will be admitted that the one has been as servile, as +the other severe. But is not the dignity, & even decency of +government committed, when one of it's principal ministers enlists +himself as an anonymous writer or paragraphist for either the one or +the other of them? -- No government ought to be without censors: & +where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not +fear the fair operation of attack & defence. Nature has given to man +no other means of sifting out the truth either in religion, law, or +politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know, +nor notice, it's sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified & +criminal to pamper the former & persecute the latter. -- So much for +the past. A word now of the future. + + When I came into this office, it was with a resolution to +retire from it as soon as I could with decency. It pretty early +appeared to me that the proper moment would be the first of those +epochs at which the constitution seems to have contemplated a +periodical change or renewal of the public servants. In this I was +confirmed by your resolution respecting the same period; from which +however I am happy in hoping you have departed. I look to that +period with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the +land in view, & shall count the days & hours which still lie between +me & it. In the meanwhile my main object will be to wind up the +business of my office avoiding as much as possible all new +enterprize. With the affairs of the legislature, as I never did +intermeddle, so I certainly shall not now begin. I am more desirous +to predispose everything for the repose to which I am withdrawing, +than expose it to be disturbed by newspaper contests. If these +however cannot be avoided altogether, yet a regard for your quiet +will be a sufficient motive for my deferring it till I become merely +a private citizen, when the propriety or impropriety of what I may +say or do may fall on myself alone. I may then too avoid the charge +of misapplying that time which now belonging to those who employ me, +should be wholly devoted to their service. If my own justification, +or the interests of the republic shall require it, I reserve to +myself the right of then appealing to my country, subscribing my name +to whatever I write, & using with freedom & truth the facts & names +necessary to place the cause in it's just form before that tribunal. +To a thorough disregard of the honors & emoluments of office I join +as great a value for the esteem of my countrymen, & conscious of +having merited it by an integrity which cannot be reproached, & by an +enthusiastic devotion to their rights & liberty, I will not suffer my +retirement to be clouded by the slanders of a man whose history, from +the moment at which history can stoop to notice him, is a tissue of +machinations against the liberty of the country which has not only +received and given him bread, but heaped it's honors on his head. -- +Still however I repeat the hope that it will not be necessary to make +such an appeal. Though little known to the people of America, I +believe that, as far as I am known, it is not as an enemy to the +republic, nor an intriguer against it, nor a waster of it's revenue, +nor prostitutor of it to the purposes of corruption, as the American +represents me; and I confide that yourself are satisfied that, as to +dissensions in the newspapers, not a syllable of them has ever +proceeded from me; & that no cabals or intrigues of mine have +produced those in the legislature, & I hope I may promise, both to +you & myself, that none will receive aliment from me during the short +space I have to remain in office, which will find ample employment in +closing the present business of the department. -- Observing that +letters written at Mount Vernon on the Monday, & arriving at Richmond +on the Wednesday, reach me on Saturday, I have now the honor to +mention that the 22d instant will be the last of our post-days that I +shall be here, & consequently that no letter from you after the 17th, +will find me here. Soon after that I shall have the honor of +receiving at Mount Vernon your orders for Philadelphia, & of there +also delivering you the little matter which occurs to me as proper +for the opening of Congress, exclusive of what has been recommended +in former speeches, & not yet acted on. In the meantime & ever I am +with great and sincere affection & respect, dear Sir, your most +obedient and most humble servant. + + + "THE WILL OF THE NATION" + + _To the U.S. Minister to France_ + (Gouverneur Morris) + _Philadelphia, Dec. 30, 1792_ + + DEAR SIR -- My last to you was of Mar. 7. since which I have +received your Nos. 8. and 9. I am apprehensive that your situation +must have been difficult during the transition from the late form of +government to the re-establishment of some other legitimate +authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with +whom business might be done. Nevertheless when principles are well +understood their application is less embarrassing. We surely cannot +deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded, +that every one may govern itself under whatever forms it pleases, and +change these forms at it's own will, and that it may transact it's +business with foreign nations through whatever organ it thinks +proper, whether King, convention, assembly, committee, President, or +whatever else it may chuse. The will of the nation is the only thing +essential to be regarded. On the dissolution of the late +constitution in France, by removing so integral a part of it as the +King, the National Assembly, to whom a part only of the public +authority had been delegated, sensible of the incompetence of their +powers to transact the affairs of the nation legitimately, incited +their fellow citizens to appoint a national convention during this +defective state of the national authority. Duty to our constituents +required that we should suspend paiment of the monies yet unpaid of +our debt to that country, because there was no person or persons +substantially authorized by the nation of France to receive the +monies and give us a good acquittal. On this ground my last letter +desired you to suspend paiments till further orders, with an +assurance, if necessary, that the suspension should not be continued +a moment longer than should be necessary for us to see the +re-establishment of some person or body of persons with authority to +receive and give us a good acquittal. Since that we learn that a +Convention is assembled, invested with full powers by the nation to +transact it's affairs. Tho' we know that from the public papers +only, instead of waiting for a formal annunciation of it, we hasten +to act upon it by authorizing you, if the fact be true, to consider +the suspension of paiment, directed in my last letter, as now taken +off, and to proceed as if it had never been imposed; considering the +Convention, or the government they shall have established as the +lawful representatives of the Nation and authorized to act for them. +Neither the honor nor inclination of our country would justify our +withholding our paiment under a scrupulous attention to forms. On +the contrary they lent us that money when we were under their +circumstances, and it seems providential that we can not only repay +them the same sum, but under the same circumstances. Indeed, we wish +to omit no opportunity of convincing them how cordially we desire the +closest union with them: Mutual good offices, mutual affection and +similar principles of government seem to have destined the two people +for the most intimate communion, and even for a complete exchange of +citizenship among the individuals composing them. + + During the fluctuating state of the Assignats of France, I must +ask the favor of you to inform me in every letter of the rate of +exchange between them & coin, this being necessary for the regulation +of our custom houses. We are continuing our supplies to the island +of St. Domingo at the request of the Minister of France here. We +would wish however to receive a more formal sanction from the +government of France than has yet been given. Indeed, we know of +none but a vote of the late National Assembly for 4 millions of +livres of our debt, sent to the government of St. Domingo, +communicated by them to the Minister here, & by him to us. And this +was in terms not properly applicable to the form of our advances. We +wish therefore for a full sanction of the past & a complete +expression of the desires of their government as to future supplies +to their colonies. Besides what we have furnished publicly, +individual merchants of the U.S. have carried considerable supplies +to the island of St. Domingo, which have been sometimes purchased, +sometimes taken by force, and bills given by the administration of +the colony on the minister here, which have been protested for want +of funds. We have no doubt that justice will be done to these + + + PAEAN TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION + + _To William Short_ + _Philadelphia, Jan. 3, 1793_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last private letter to you was of Oct. 16. +since which I have received your No. 103, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, +113 & 114 and yesterday your private one of Sep 15, came to hand. +The tone of your letters had for some time given me pain, on account +of the extreme warmth with which they censured the proceedings of the +Jacobins of France. I considered that sect as the same with the +Republican patriots, & the Feuillants as the Monarchical patriots, +well known in the early part of the revolution, & but little distant +in their views, both having in object the establishment of a free +constitution, & differing only on the question whether their chief +Executive should be hereditary or not. The Jacobins (as since +called) yielded to the Feuillants & tried the experiment of retaining +their hereditary Executive. The experiment failed completely, and +would have brought on the reestablishment of despotism had it been +pursued. The Jacobins saw this, and that the expunging that officer +was of absolute necessity. And the Nation was with them in opinion, +for however they might have been formerly for the constitution framed +by the first assembly, they were come over from their hope in it, and +were now generally Jacobins. In the struggle which was necessary, +many guilty persons fell without the forms of trial, and with them +some innocent. These I deplore as much as any body, & shall deplore +some of them to the day of my death. But I deplore them as I should +have done had they fallen in battle. It was necessary to use the arm +of the people, a machine not quite so blind as balls and bombs, but +blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial friends met at +their hands the fate of enemies. But time and truth will rescue & +embalm their memories, while their posterity will be enjoying that +very liberty for which they would never have hesitated to offer up +their lives. The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the +issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little +innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some +of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it should have failed, +I would have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam & +an Eve left in every country, & left free, it would be better than as +it now is. I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are +really those of 99. in an hundred of our citizens. The universal +feasts, and rejoicings which have lately been had on account of the +successes of the French shewed the genuine effusions of their hearts. +You have been wounded by the sufferings of your friends, and have by +this circumstance been hurried into a temper of mind which would be +extremely disrelished if known to your countrymen. The _reserve of +the President of the United States_ had never permitted me to +discover the light in which he viewed it, and as I was more anxious +that you should satisfy him than me, I had still avoided explanations +with you on the subject. But your 113. induced him to break silence +and to notice the extreme acrimony of your expressions. He added +that he had been informed the sentiments you expressed _in your +conversations_ were equally offensive to our allies, & that you +should consider yourself as the representative of your country and +that what you say might be imputed to your constituents. He desired +me therefore to write to you on this subject. He added that he +considered _France as the sheet anchor of this country and its +friendship as a first object._ There are in the U.S. some characters +of opposite principles; some of them are high in office, others +possessing great wealth, and all of them hostile to France and fondly +looking to England as the staff of their hope. These I named to you +on a former occasion. Their prospects have certainly not brightened. +Excepting them, this country is entirely republican, friends to the +constitution, anxious to preserve it and to have it administered +according to it's own republican principles. The little party above +mentioned have espoused it only as a stepping stone to monarchy, and +have endeavored to approximate it to that in it's administration in +order to render it's final transition more easy. The successes of +republicanism in France have given the coup de grace to their +prospects, and I hope to their projects. -- I have developed to you +faithfully the sentiments of your country, that you may govern +yourself accordingly. I know your republicanism to be pure, and that +it is no decay of that which has embittered you against it's votaries +in France, but too great a sensibility at the partial evil which it's +object has been accomplished there. I have written to you in the +stile to which I have been always accustomed with you, and which +perhaps it is time I should lay aside. But while old men are +sensible enough of their own advance in years, they do not +sufficiently recollect it in those whom they have seen young. In +writing too the last private letter which will probably be written +under present circumstances, in contemplating that your +correspondence will shortly be turned over to I know not whom, but +certainly to some one not in the habit of considering your interests +with the same fostering anxieties I do, I have presented things +without reserve, satisfied you will ascribe what I have said to it's +true motive, use it for your own best interest, and in that fulfil +completely what I had in view. + + With respect to the subject of your letter of Sep. 15. you will +be sensible that many considerations would prevent my undertaking the +reformation of a system with which I am so soon to take leave. It is +but common decency to leave to my successor the moulding of his own +business. -- Not knowing how otherwise to convey this letter to you +with certainty, I shall appeal to the friendship and honour of the +Spanish commissioners here, to give it the protection of their cover, +as a letter of private nature altogether. We have no remarkable +event here lately, but the death of Dr. Lee; nor have I anything new +to communicate to you of your friends or affairs. I am with +unalterable affection & wishes for your prosperity, my dear Sir, you +sincere friend and servant. + + + PEACEABLE COERCION + + _To James Madison_ + _March 24, 1793_ + + The idea seems to gain credit that the naval powers combined +against France will prohibit supplies even of provisions to that +country. Should this be formally notified I should suppose Congress +would be called, because it is a justifiable cause of war, & as the +Executive cannot decide the question of war on the affirmative side, +neither ought it to do so on the negative side, by preventing the +competent body from deliberating on the question. But I should hope +that war would not be their choice. I think it will furnish us a +happy opportunity of setting another example to the world, by shewing +that nations may be brought to do justice by appeals to their +interests as well as by appeals to arms. I should hope that Congress +instead of a denunciation of war, would instantly exclude from our +ports all the manufactures, produce, vessels & subjects of the +nations committing this aggression, during the continuance of the +aggression & till full satisfaction made for it. This would work +well in many ways, safely in all, & introduce between nations another +umpire than arms. It would relieve us too from the risks & the +horrors of cutting throats. The death of the king of France has not +produced as open condemnations from the Monocrats as I expected. I +dined the other day in a company where the subject was discussed. I +will name the company in the order in which they manifested their +partialities; beginning with the warmest Jacobinism & proceeding by +shades to the most heart felt aristocracy. Smith (N.Y.) Coxe. +Stewart. T. Shippen. Bingham. Peters. Breck. Meredith. Wolcott. It +is certain that the ladies of this city, of the first circle are all +open-mouthed against the murderers of a sovereign, and they generally +speak those sentiments which the more cautious husband smothers. I +believe it is pretty certain that Smith (S.C.) and Miss A. are not to +come together. Ternant has at length openly hoisted the flag of +monarchy by going into deep mourning for his prince. I suspect he +thinks a cessation of his visits to me a necessary accompaniment to +this pious duty. A connection between him & Hamilton seems to be +springing up. On observing that Duer was secretary to the old board +of treasury, I suspect him to have been the person who suggested to +Hamilton the letter of mine to that board which he so tortured in his +Catullus. Dunlap has refused to print the piece which we had heard +of before your departure, and it has been several days in Bache's +hands, without any notice of it. The President will leave this about +the 27th inst., & return about the 20th of April. Adieu. + + + THE GALLANT GENET + + _To James Madison_ + _Phila, May 19, 1793_ + + I wrote you last on the 13'th.. Since that I have received +yours of the 8'th.. I have scribbled on a separate paper some +general notes on the plan of a house you enclosed. I have done more. +I have endeavored to throw the same area, the same extent of walls, +the same number of rooms, &of the same size, into another form so as +to offer a choiceto the builder. Indeed I varied my plan by shewing +that itwould be with alcove bed rooms, to which I am much attached. + + I dare say you will have judged from the pusillanimity of the +proclamation, from whose pen it came. A fear lest any affection +should be discovered is distinguishable enough. This base fear will +produce the very evil they wish to avoid. For our constituents +seeing that the government does not express their mind, perhaps +rather leans the other way, are coming forward to express it +themselves. It was suspected that there was not a clear mind in the +P.'s counsellors to receive Genet. The citizens however determined +to receive him. Arrangements were taken for meeting him at Gray's +ferry in a great body. He escaped that by arriving in town with the +letters which brought information that he was on the road. The +merchants _i.e._ Fitzsimmons & co. were to present an address to _the +P._ on the neutrality proclaimed. It contained much wisdom but no +affection. You will see it in the papers inclosed. The citizens +determined to address _Genet._ Rittenhouse, Hutcheson, Dallas, +Sargeant &c. were at the head of it. Tho a select body of only 30. +was appointed to present it, yet a vast concourse of people attended +them. I have not seen it; but it is understood to be the counter +address. -- Ternant's hopes of employment in the French army turn out +to be without grounds. He is told by the minister of war expressly +that the places of Marechal de camp are all full. He thinks it more +prudent therefore to remain in America. He delivered yesterday his +letters of recall, & Mr. Genet presented his of credence. It is +impossible for anything to be more affectionate, more magnanimous +than the purport of his mission. `We know that under present +circumstances we have a right to call upon you for the guarantee of +our islands. But we do not desire it. We wish you to do nothing but +what is for your own good, and we will do all in our power to promote +it. Cherish your own peace & prosperity. You have expressed a +willingness to enter into a more liberal treaty of commerce with us; +I bring full powers (& he produced them) to form such a treaty, and a +preliminary decree of the National convention to lay open our country +& it's colonies to you for every purpose of utility, without your +participating the burthens of maintaining & defending them. We see +in you the only person on earth who can love us sincerely & merit to +be so loved.' In short he offers everything & asks nothing. Yet I +know the offers will be opposed, & suspect they will not be accepted. +In short, my dear Sir, it is impossible for you to conceive what is +passing in our conclave: and it is evident that one or two at least, +under pretence of avoiding war on the one side have no great +antipathy to run foul of it on the other, and to make a part in the +confederacy of princes against human liberty. -- The people in the +Western parts of this state have been to the excise officer & +threatened to burn his house &c. They were blacked & otherwise +disguised so as to be unknown. He has resigned, and H. says there +is no possibility of getting the law executed there, & that probably +the evil will spread. A proclamation is to be issued, and another +instance of my being forced to appear to approve what I have +condemned uniformly from it's first conception. + + I expect every day to receive from Mr. Pinckney the model of +the Scotch threshing machine. It was to have come in a ship which +arrived 3. weeks ago, but the workman had not quite finished it. Mr. +P. writes me word that the machine from which my model is taken +threshes 8. quarters (64. bushels) of oats _an hour_, with 4. horses +& 4. men. I hope to get it in time to have one erected at Monticello +to clean out the present crop. -- I inclose you the pamphlet you +desired. Adieu. + + + THE DEBT OF SERVICE + + _To James Madison_ + _June 9, 1793_ + + I have to acknolege the receipt of your two favors of May 27 & +29, since the date of my last which was of the 2 inst. In that of +the 27th you say `you must not make your final exit from public life +till it will be marked with justifying circumstances which all good +citizens will respect, & to which your friends can appeal.' -- To my +fellow-citizens the debt of service has been fully & faithfully paid. +I acknolege that such a debt exists, that a tour of duty, in whatever +line he can be most useful to his country, is due from every +individual. It is not easy perhaps to say of what length exactly +this tour should be, but we may safely say of what length it should +not be. Not of our whole life, for instance, for that would be to be +born a slave -- not even of a very large portion of it. I have now +been in the public service four & twenty years; one half of which has +been spent in total occupation with their affairs, & absence from my +own. I have served my tour then. No positive engagement, by word or +deed, binds me to their further service. No commitment of their +interests in any enterprise by me requires that I should see them +through it. -- I am pledged by no act which gives any tribunal a call +upon me before I withdraw. Even my enemies do not pretend this. I +stand clear then of public right on all points. -- My friends I have +not committed. No circumstances have attended my passage from office +to office, which could lead them, & others through them, into +deception as to the time I might remain; & particularly they & all +have known with what reluctance I engaged & have continued in the +present one, & of my uniform determination to retire from it at an +early day. -- If the public then has no claim on me, & my friends +nothing to justify; the decision will rest on my own feelings alone. +There has been a time when these were very different from what they +are now: when perhaps the esteem of the world was of higher value in +my eye than everything in it. But age, experience & reflection, +preserving to that only it's due value, have set a higher on +tranquility. The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the +tumult of the world. It leads me to seek for happiness in the lap +and love of my family, in the society of my neighbors & my books, in +the wholesome occupations of my farm & my affairs, in an interest or +affection in every bud that opens, in every breath that blows around +me, in an entire freedom of rest or motion, of thought or +incogitancy, owing account to myself alone of my hours & actions. +What must be the principle of that calculation which should balance +against these the circumstances of my present existence! worn down +with labours from morning to night, & day to day; knowing them as +fruitless to others as they are vexatious to myself, committed singly +in desperate & eternal contest against a host who are systematically +undermining the public liberty & prosperity, even the rare hours of +relaxation sacrificed to the society of persons in the same +intentions, of whose hatred I am conscious even in those moments of +conviviality when the heart wishes most to open itself to the +effusions of friendship & confidence, cut off from my family & +friends, my affairs abandoned to chaos & derangement, in short giving +everything I love, in exchange for everything I hate, and all this +without a single gratification in possession or prospect, in present +enjoyment or future wish. -- Indeed my dear friend, duty being out of +the question, inclination cuts off all argument, & so never let there +be more between you & me, on this subject. + + I inclose you some papers which have passed on the subject of a +new loan. You will see by them that the paper-Coryphaeus is either +undaunted, or desperate. I believe that the statement inclosed has +secured a decision against his proposition. -- I dined yesterday in a +company where Morris & Bingham were, & happened to sit between them. +In the course of a conversation after dinner Morris made one of his +warm declarations that after the expiration of his present Senatorial +term nothing on earth should ever engage him to serve again in any +public capacity. He did this with such solemnity as renders it +impossible he should not be in earnest. -- The President is not well. +Little lingering fevers have been hanging about him for a week or ten +days, and have affected his looks most remarkably. He is also +extremely affected by the attacks made & kept up on him in the public +papers. I think he feels those things more than any person I ever +yet met with. I am sincerely sorry to see them. I remember an +observation of yours, made when I first went to New York, that the +satellites & sycophants which surrounded him had wound up the +ceremonials of the government to a pitch of stateliness which nothing +but his personal character could have supported, & which no character +after him could ever maintain. It appears now that even his will be +insufficient to justify them in the appeal of the times to common +sense as the arbiter of everything. Naked he would have been +sanctimoniously reverenced, but inveloped in the rags of royalty, +they can hardly be torn off without laceration. It is the more +unfortunate that this attack is planted on popular ground, on the +love of the people to France & it's cause, which is universal. -- +Genet mentions freely enough in conversation that France does not +wish to involve us in the war by our guarantee. The information from +St. Domingo & Martinique is that those two islands are disposed & +able to resist any attack which Great Britain can make on them by +land. A blockade would be dangerous, could it be maintained in that +climate for any length of time. I delivered to Genet your letter to +Roland. As the latter is out of office, he will direct it to the +Minister of the Interior. I found every syllable of it strictly +proper. Your ploughs shall be duly attended to. Have you ever taken +notice of Tull's horse-houghing plough? I am persuaded that that, +where you wish your work to be very exact, & our great plough where a +less degree will suffice, leave us nothing to wish for from other +countries as to ploughs, under our circumstances. -- I have not yet +received my threshing machine. I fear the late long & heavy rains +must have extended to us, & affected our wheat. Adieu. Yours +affectionately. + + + "MY FAMILY, MY FARM, AND MY BOOKS" + + _To Mrs. Church_ + _Germantown, Nov. 27th, 1793_ + + I have received, my good friend, your kind letter of August +19th, with the extract from that of Lafayette, for whom my heart has +been constantly bleeding. The influence of the United States has +been put into action, as far as it could be either with decency or +effect. But I fear that distance and difference of principle give +little hold to General Washington on the jailers of Lafayette. +However, his friends may be assured that our zeal has not been +inactive. Your letter gives me the first information that our dear +friend Madame de Corny has been, as to her fortune among the victims +of the times. Sad times, indeed! and much lamented victim! I know +no country where the remains of a fortune could place her so much at +her ease as this, and where public esteem is so attached to worth, +regardless of wealth; but our manners, and the state of our society +here, are so different from those to which her habits have been +formed, that she would lose more perhaps in that scale. And Madame +Cosway in a convent! I knew that to much goodness of heart she +joined enthusiasm and religion; but I thought that very enthusiasm +would have prevented her from shutting up her adoration of the God of +the universe within the walls of a cloister; that she would rather +have sought the _mountain-top._ How happy should I be that it were +_mine_ that you, she, and Madame de Corny would seek. You say, +indeed, that you are coming to America, but I know that means New +York. In the meantime I am going to Virginia. I have at length +become able to fix that to the beginning of the new year. I am then +to be liberated from the hated occupations of politics, and to remain +in the bosom of my family, my farm, and my books. I have my house to +build, my fields to farm, and to watch for the happiness of those who +labor for mine. I have one daughter married to a man of science, +sense, virtue, and competence; in whom indeed I have nothing more to +wish. They live with me. If the other shall be as fortunate, in due +process of time I shall imagine myself as blessed as the most blessed +of the patriarchs. Nothing could then withdraw my thoughts a moment +from home but the recollection of my friends abroad. I often put the +question, whether yourself and Kitty will ever come to see your +friends at Monticello? but it is my affection and not my experience +of things which has leave to answer, and I am determined to believe +the answer, because in that belief I find I sleep sounder, and wake +more cheerful. _En attendant_, God bless you. + + Accept the homage of my sincere and constant affection. + + + "LUCERNE AND POTATOES" + + _To Tench Coxe_ + _Monticello, May 1, 1794_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your several favors of Feb. 22, 27, & March 16. +which had been accumulating in Richmond during the prevalence of the +small pox in that place, were lately brought to me, on the permission +given the post to resume his communication. I am particularly to +thank you for your favor in forwarding the Bee. Your letters give a +comfortable view of French affairs, and later events seem to confirm +it. Over the foreign powers I am convinced they will triumph +completely, & I cannot but hope that that triumph, & the consequent +disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of +events, to kindle the wrath of the people of Europe against those who +have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to bring at +length, kings, nobles, & priests to the scaffolds which they have +been so long deluging with human blood. I am still warm whenever I +think of these scoundrels, tho I do it as seldom as I can, preferring +infinitely to contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne & +potatoes. I have so completely withdrawn myself from these +spectacles of usurpation & misrule, that I do not take a single +newspaper, nor read one a month; & I feel myself infinitely the +happier for it. We are alarmed here with the apprehensions of war; +and sincerely anxious that it may be avoided; but not at the expense +either of our faith or honor. It seems much the general opinion +here, that the latter has been too much wounded not to require +reparation, & to seek it even in war, if that be necessary. As to +myself, I love peace, and I am anxious that we should give the world +still another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of +punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the +punisher as to the sufferer. I love, therefore, mr. Clarke's +proposition of cutting off all communication with the nation which +has conducted itself so atrociously. This, you will say, may bring +on war. If it does, we will meet it like men; but it may not bring +on war, & then the experiment will have been a happy one. I believe +this war would be vastly more unanimously approved than any one we +ever were engaged in; because the aggressions have been so wanton & +bare-faced, and so unquestionably against our desire. -- I am sorry +mr. Cooper & Priestly did not take a more general survey of our +country before they fixed themselves. I think they might have +promoted their own advantage by it, and have aided the introduction +of our improvement where it is more wanting. The prospect of wheat +for the ensuing year is a bad one. This is all the sort of news you +can expect from me. From you I shall be glad to hear all sort of +news, & particularly any improvements in the arts applicable to +husbandry or household manufacture. + + + WHISKEY REBELS AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES + + _To James Madison_ + _Monticello, Dec. 28, 1794_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have kept mr. Jay's letter a post or two, with +an intention of considering attentively the observation it contains; +but I have really now so little stomach for anything of that kind, +that I have not resolution enough even to endeavor to understand the +observations. I therefore return the letter, not to delay your +answer to it, and beg you in answering for yourself to assure him of +my respects and thankful acceptance of Chalmers' Treaties, which I do +not possess, and if you possess yourself of the scope of his +reasoning, make any answer to it you please for me. If it had been +on the rotation of my crops, I would have answered myself, lengthily +perhaps, but certainly _con gusto._ + + The denunciation of the democratic societies is one of the +extraordinary acts of boldness of which we have seen so many from the +fraction of monocrats. It is wonderful indeed, that the President +should have permitted himself to be the organ of such an attack on +the freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, printing & +publishing. It must be a matter of rare curiosity to get at the +modifications of these rights proposed by them, and to see what line +their ingenuity would draw between democratical societies, whose +avowed object is the nourishment of the republican principles of our +constitution, and the society of the Cincinnati, _a self-created_ +one, carving out for itself hereditary distinctions, lowering over +our Constitution eternally, meeting together in all parts of the +Union, periodically, with closed doors, accumulating a capital in +their separate treasury, corresponding secretly & regularly, & of +which society the very persons denouncing the democrats are +themselves the fathers, founders, & high officers. Their sight must +be perfectly dazzled by the glittering of crowns & coronets, not to +see the extravagance of the proposition to suppress the friends of +general freedom, while those who wish to confine that freedom to the +few, are permitted to go on in their principles & practices. I here +put out of sight the persons whose misbehavior has been taken +advantage of to slander the friends of popular rights; and I am happy +to observe, that as far as the circle of my observation & information +extends, everybody has lost sight of them, and views the abstract +attempt on their natural & constitutional rights in all it's +nakedness. I have never heard, or heard of, a single expression or +opinion which did not condemn it as an inexcusable aggression. And +with respect to the transactions against the excise law, it appears +to me that you are all swept away in the torrent of governmental +opinions, or that we do not know what these transactions have been. +We know of none which, according to the definitions of the law, have +been anything more than riotous. There was indeed a meeting to +consult about a separation. But to consult on a question does not +amount to a determination of that question in the affirmative, still +less to the acting on such a determination; but we shall see, I +suppose, what the court lawyers, & courtly judges, & would-be +ambassadors will make of it. The excise law is an infernal one. The +first error was to admit it by the Constitution; the 2d., to act on +that admission; the 3d & last will be, to make it the instrument of +dismembering the Union, & setting us all afloat to chuse which part +of it we will adhere to. The information of our militia, returned +from the Westward, is uniform, that tho the people there let them +pass quietly, they were objects of their laughter, not of their fear; +that 1000 men could have cut off their whole force in a thousand +places of the Alleganey; that their detestation of the excise law is +universal, and has now associated to it a detestation of the +government; & that separation which perhaps was a very distant & +problematical event, is now near, & certain, & determined in the mind +of every man. I expected to have seen some justification of arming +one part of the society against another; of declaring a civil war the +moment before the meeting of that body which has the sole right of +declaring war; of being so patient of the kicks & scoffs of our +enemies, & rising at a feather against our friends; of adding a +million to the public debt & deriding us with recommendations to pay +it if we can &c., &c. But the part of the speech which was to be +taken as a justification of the armament, reminded me of parson +Saunders' demonstration why minus into minus make plus. After a +parcel of shreds of stuff from Aesop's fables, and Tom Thumb, he +jumps all at once into his Ergo, minus multiplied into minus make +plus. Just so the 15,000 men enter after the fables, in the speech. +-- However, the time is coming when we shall fetch up the leeway of +our vessel. The changes in your house, I see, are going on for the +better, and even the Augean herd over your heads are slowly purging +off their impurities. Hold on then, my dear friend, that we may not +shipwreck in the meanwhile. I do not see, in the minds of those with +whom I converse, a greater affliction than the fear of your +retirement; but this must not be, unless to a more splendid & a more +efficacious post. There I should rejoice to see you; I hope I may +say, I shall rejoice to see you. I have long had much in my mind to +say to you on that subject. But double delicacies have kept me +silent. I ought perhaps to say, while I would not give up my own +retirement for the empire of the universe, how I can justify wishing +one whose happinesss I have so much at heart as yours, to take the +front of the battle which is fighting for my security. This would be +easy enough to be done, but not at the heel of a lengthy epistle. + + Let us quit this, and turn to the fine weather we are basking +in. We have had one of our tropical winters. Once only a snow of 3. +inches deep, which went off the next day, and never as much ice as +would have cooled a bottle of wine. And we have now but a month to +go through of winter weather. For February always gives us a good +sample of the spring of which it is the harbinger. I recollect no +small news interesting to you. You will have heard, I suppose, that +Wilson Nicholas has bought Carr's Carrsgrove and Harvey's barracks. +I rejoice in the prosperity of a virtuous man, and hope his +prosperity will not taint his virtue. Present me respectfully to +Mrs. Madison, and pray her to keep you where you are for her own +satisfaction and the public good; and accept the cordial affections +of all. Adieu. + + + FARMING + + _To John Taylor_ + _Monticello, Dec. 29, 1794_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have long owed you a letter, for which my +conscience would not have let me rest in quiet but on the +consideration that the paiment would not be worth your acceptance. +The debt is not merely for a letter the common traffic of every day, +but for valuable ideas, which instructed me, which I have adopted, & +am acting on them. I am sensible of the truth of your observations +that the atmosphere is the great storehouse of matter for recruiting +our lands, that tho' efficacious, it is slow in it's operation, and +we must therefore give them time instead of the loads of quicker +manure given in other countries, that for this purpose we must avail +ourselves of the great quantities of land we possess in proportion to +our labour, and that while putting them to nurse with the atmosphere, +we must protect them from the bite & tread of animals, which are +nearly a counterpoise for the benefits of the atmosphere. As good +things, as well as evil, go in a train, this relieves us from the +labor & expence of crossfences, now very sensibly felt on account of +the scarcity & distance of timber. I am accordingly now engaged in +applying my cross fences to the repair of the outer ones and +substituting rows of peach trees to preserve the boundaries of the +fields. And though I observe your strictures on rotations of crops, +yet it appears that in this I differ from you only in words. You +keep half your lands in culture, the other half at nurse; so I +propose to do. Your scheme indeed requires only four years & mine +six; but the proportion of labour & rest is the same. My years of +rest, however, are employed, two of them in producing clover, yours +in volunteer herbage. But I still understand it to be your opinion +that clover is best where lands will produce them. Indeed I think +that the important improvement for which the world is indebted to +Young is the substitution of clover crops instead of unproductive +fallows; & the demonstration that lands are more enriched by clover +than by volunteer herbage or fallows; and the clover crops are highly +valuable. That our red lands which are still in tolerable heart will +produce fine clover I know from the experience of the last year; and +indeed that of my neighbors had established the fact. And from +observations on accidental plants in the feilds which have been +considerably harrassed with corn, I believe that even these will +produce clover fit for soiling of animals green. I think, therefore, +I can count on the success of that improver. My third year of rest +will be devoted to cowpenning, & to a trial of the buckwheat +dressing. A further progress in surveying my open arable lands has +shewn me that I can have 7 fields in each of my farms where I +expected only six; consequently that I can add more to the portion of +rest & ameliorating crops. I have doubted on a question on which I +am sure you can advise me well, whether I had better give this newly +acquired year as an addition to the continuance of my clover, or +throw it with some improving crop between two of my crops of grain, +as for instance between my corn & rye. I strongly incline to the +latter, because I am not satisfied that one cleansing crop in seven +years will be sufficient; and indeed I think it important to separate +my exhausting crops by alternations of amelioraters. With this view +I think to try an experiment of what Judge Parker informs me he +practises. That is, to turn in my wheat stubble the instant the +grain is off, and sow turneps to be fed out by the sheep. But +whether this will answer in our fields which are harrassed, I do not +know. We have been in the habit of sowing only our freshest lands in +turneps, hence a presumption that wearied lands will not bring them. +But Young's making turneps to be fed on by sheep the basis of his +improvement of poor lands, affords evidence that tho they may not +bring great crops, they will bring them in a sufficient degree to +improve the lands. I will try that experiment, however, this year, +as well as the one of buckwheat. I have also attended to another +improver mentioned by you, the winter-vetch, & have taken measures to +get the seed of it from England, as also of the Siberian vetch which +Millar greatly commends, & being a biennial might perhaps take the +place of clover in lands which do not suit that. The winter vetch I +suspect may be advantageously thrown in between crops, as it gives a +choice to use it as green feed in the spring if fodder be run short, +or to turn it in as a green-dressing. My rotation, with these +amendments, is as follows: -- + + 1. Wheat, followed the same year by turneps, to be fed on by +the sheep. + + 2. Corn & potatoes mixed, & in autumn the vetch to be used as +fodder in the spring if wanted, or to be turned in as a dressing. + + 3. Peas or potatoes, or both according to the quality of the +field. + + 4. Rye and clover sown on it in the spring. Wheat may be +substituted here for rye, when it shall be found that the 2'd., 3'd., +5'th., & 6'th. fields will subsist the farm. + + 5. Clover. + + 6. Clover, & in autumn turn it in & sow the vetch. + + 7. Turn in the vetch in the spring, then sow buckwheat & turn +that in, having hurdled off the poorest spots for cow-penning. In +autumn sow wheat to begin the circle again. + + I am for throwing the whole force of my husbandry on the +wheat-field, because it is the only one which is to go to market to +produce money. Perhaps the clover may bring in something in the form +of stock. The other feilds are merely for the consumption of the +farm. Melilot, mentioned by you, I never heard of. The horse bean I +tried this last year. It turned out nothing. The President has +tried it without success. An old English farmer of the name of +Spuryear, settled in Delaware, has tried it there with good success; +but he told me it would not do without being well shaded, and I think +he planted it among his corn for that reason. But he acknoleged our +pea was as good an ameliorater & a more valuable pulse, as being food +for man as well as horse. The succory is what Young calls Chicoria +Intubus. He sent some seed to the President, who gave me some, & I +gave it to my neighbors to keep up till I should come home. One of +them has cultivated it with great success, is very fond of it, and +gave me some seed which I sowed last spring. Tho' the summer was +favorable it came on slowly at first, but by autumn became large & +strong. It did not seed that year, but will the next, & you shall be +furnished with seed. I suspect it requires rich ground, & then +produces a heavy crop for green feed for horses & cattle. I had poor +success with my potatoes last year, not having made more than 60 or +70 bushels to the acre. But my neighbors having made good crops, I +am not disheartened. The first step towards the recovery of our +lands is to find substitutes for corn & bacon. I count on potatoes, +clover, & sheep. The two former to feed every animal on the farm +except my negroes, & the latter to feed them, diversified with +rations of salted fish & molasses, both of them wholesome, agreeable, +& cheap articles of food. + + For pasture I rely on the forests by day, & soiling in the +evening. Why could we not have a moveable airy cow house, to be set +up in the middle of the feild which is to be dunged, & soil our +cattle in that thro' the summer as well as winter, keeping them +constantly up & well littered? This, with me, would be in the clover +feild of the 1'st. year, because during the 2'd. year it would be +rotting, and would be spread on it in fallow the beginning of the +3'd., but such an effort would be far above the present tyro state of +my farming. The grosser barbarisms in culture which I have to +encounter, are more than enough for all my attentions at present. +The dung-yard must be my last effort but one. The last would be +irrigation. It might be thought at first view, that the +interposition of these ameliorations or dressings between my crops +will be too laborious, but observe that the turneps & two dressings +of vetch do not cost a single ploughing. The turning in the +wheat-stubble for the turneps is the fallow for the corn of the +succeeding year. The 1'st. sowing of vetches is on the corn (as is +now practised for wheat), and the turning it in is the +flush-ploughing for the crop of potatoes & peas. The 2'd. sowing of +the vetch is on the wheat fallow, & the turning it in is the +ploughing necessary for sowing the buckwheat. These three +ameliorations, then, will cost but a harrowing each. On the subject +of the drilled husbandry, I think experience has established it's +preference for some plants, as the turnep, pea, bean, cabbage, corn, +&c., and that of the broadcast for other plants as all the bread +grains & grasses, except perhaps lucerne & S't. foin in soils & +climates very productive of weeds. In dry soils & climates the +broadcast is better for lucerne & S't. foin, as all the south of +France can testify. + + I have imagined and executed a mould-board which may be +mathematically demonstrated to be perfect, as far as perfection +depends on mathematical principles, and one great circumstance in +it's favor is that it may be made by the most bungling carpenter, & +cannot possibly vary a hair's breadth in it's form, but by gross +negligence. You have seen the musical instrument called a sticcado. +Suppose all it's sticks of equal length, hold the fore-end +horizontally on the floor to receive the turf which presents itself +horizontally, and with the right hand twist the hind-end to the +perpendicular, or rather as much beyond the perpendicular as will be +necessary to cast over the turf completely. This gives an idea (tho +not absolutely exact) of my mould-board. It is on the principle of +two wedges combined at right angles, the first in the direct line of +the furrow to raise the turf gradually, the other across the furrow +to turn it over gradually. For both these purposes the wedge is the +instrument of the least resistance. I will make a model of the +mould-board & lodge it with Col'o. Harvie in Richmond for you. This +brings me to my thanks for the drill plough lodged with him for me, +which I now expect every hour to receive, and the price of which I +have deposited in his hands to be called for when you please. A good +instrument of this kind is almost the greatest desideratum in +husbandry. I am anxious to conjecture beforehand what may be +expected from the sowing turneps in jaded ground, how much from the +acre, & how large they will be? Will your experience enable you to +give me a probable conjecture? Also what is the produce of potatoes, +& what of peas in the same kind of ground? It must now have been +several pages since you began to cry out `mercy.' In mercy then I +will here finish with my affectionate remembrance to my old friend. +Mr. Pendleton, & respects to your fireside, & to yourself assurances +of the sincere esteem of, dear Sir, + Your friend & serv't, + + + THE GENEVA ACADEMY + + _To Fransois D'Ivernois_ + _Monticello, in Virginia, Feb. 6, 1795_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your several favors on the affairs of Geneva found +me here, in the month of December last. It is now more than a year +that I have withdrawn myself from public affairs, which I never liked +in my life, but was drawn into by emergencies which threatened our +country with slavery, but ended in establishing it free. I have +returned, with infinite appetite, to the enjoyment of my farm, my +family & my books, and had determined to meddle in nothing beyond +their limits. Your proposition, however, for transplanting the +college of Geneva to my own country, was too analogous to all my +attachments to science, & freedom, the first-born daughter of +science, not to excite a lively interest in my mind, and the essays +which were necessary to try it's practicability. This depended +altogether on the opinions & dispositions of our State legislature, +which was then in session. I immediately communicated your papers to +a member of the legislature, whose abilities & zeal pointed him out +as proper for it, urging him to sound as many of the leading members +of the legislature as he could, & if he found their opinions +favorable, to bring forward the proposition; but if he should find it +desperate, not to hazard it; because I thought it best not to commit +the honor either of our State or of your college, by an useless act +of eclat. It was not till within these three days that I have had an +interview with him, and an account of his proceedings. He +communicated the papers to a great number of the members, and +discussed them maturely, but privately, with them. They were +generally well-disposed to the proposition, and some of them warmly; +however, there was no difference of opinion in the conclusion, that +it could not be effected. The reasons which they thought would with +certainty prevail against it, were 1. that our youth, not +familiarized but with their mother tongue, were not prepared to +receive instructions in any other; 2d. that the expence of the +institution would excite uneasiness in their constituents, & endanger +it's permanence; & 3. that it's extent was disproportioned to the +narrow state of the population with us. Whatever might be urged on +these several subjects, yet as the decision rested with others, there +remained to us only to regret that circumstances were such, or were +thought to be such, as to disappoint your & our wishes. I should +have seen with peculiar satisfaction the establishment of such a mass +of science in my country, and should probably have been tempted to +approach myself to it, by procuring a residence in it's neighborhood, +at those seasons of the year at least when the operations of +agriculture are less active and interesting. I sincerely lament the +circumstances which have suggested this emigration. I had hoped that +Geneva was familiarized to such a degree of liberty, that they might +without difficulty or danger fill up the measure to its maximum; a +term, which, though in the insulated man, bounded only by his natural +powers, must, in society, be so far restricted as to protect himself +against the evil passions of his associates, & consequently, them +against him. I suspect that the doctrine, that small States alone +are fitted to be republics, will be exploded by experience, with some +other brilliant fallacies accredited by Montesquieu & other political +writers. Perhaps it will be found, that to obtain a just republic +(and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at +all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach +it's greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may +be found in it's councils free from particular interests, and giving, +therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice. The +smaller the societies, the more violent & more convulsive their +schisms. We have chanced to live in an age which will probably be +distinguished in history, for it's experiments in government on a +larger scale than has yet taken place. But we shall not live to see +the result. The grosser absurdities, such as hereditary +magistracies, we shall see exploded in our day, long experience +having already pronounced condemnation against them. But what is to +be the substitute? This our children or grand children will answer. +We may be satisfied with the certain knowledge that none can ever be +tried, so stupid, so unrighteous, so oppressive, so destructive of +every end for which honest men enter into government, as that which +their forefathers had established, & their fathers alone venture to +tumble headlong from the stations they have so long abused. It is +unfortunate, that the efforts of mankind to recover the freedom of +which they have been so long deprived, will be accompanied with +violence, with errors, & even with crimes. But while we weep over +the means, we must pray for the end. -- But I have been insensibly +led by the general complexion of the times, from the particular case +of Geneva, to those to which it bears no similitude. Of that we hope +good things. Its inhabitants must be too much enlightened, too well +experienced in the blessings of freedom and undisturbed industry, to +tolerate long a contrary state of things. I shall be happy to hear +that their government perfects itself, and leaves room for the +honest, the industrious & wise; in which case, your own talents, & +those of the persons for whom you have interested yourself, will, I +am sure, find welcome & distinction. My good wishes will always +attend you, as a consequence of the esteem & regard with which I am, +Dear Sir, your most obedient & most humble servant. + + + ABJURING THE PRESIDENCY + + _To James Madison_ + _Monticello, Apr. 27, 1795_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of Mar 23. came to hand the 7th of +April, and notwithstanding the urgent reasons for answering a part of +it immediately, yet as it mentioned that you would leave Philadelphia +within a few days, I feared that the answer might pass you on the +road. A letter from Philadelphia by the last post having announced +to me your leaving that place the day preceding it's date, I am in +hopes this will find you in Orange. In mine, to which yours of Mar +23. was an answer, I expressed my hope of the only change of position +I ever wished to see you make, and I expressed it with entire +sincerity, because there is not another person in the U S. who being +placed at the helm of our affairs, my mind would be so completely at +rest for the fortune of our political bark. The wish too was pure, & +unmixed with anything respecting myself personally. For as to +myself, the subject had been thoroughly weighed & decided on, & my +retirement from office had been meant from all office high or low, +without exception. I can say, too, with truth, that the subject had +not been presented to my mind by any vanity of my own. I know myself +& my fellow citizens too well to have ever thought of it. But the +idea was forced upon me by continual insinuations in the public +papers, while I was in office. As all these came from a hostile +quarter, I knew that their object was to poison the public mind as to +my motives, when they were not able to charge me with facts. But the +idea being once presented to me, my own quiet required that I should +face it & examine it. I did so thoroughly, & had no difficulty to +see that every reason which had determined me to retire from the +office I then held, operated more strongly against that which was +insinuated to be my object. I decided then on those general grounds +which could alone be present to my mind at the time, that is to say, +reputation, tranquillity, labor; for as to public duty, it could not +be a topic of consideration in my case. If these general +considerations were sufficient to ground a firm resolution never to +permit myself to think of the office, or to be thought of for it, the +special ones which have supervened on my retirement, still more +insuperably bar the door to it. My health is entirely broken down +within the last eight months; my age requires that I should place my +affairs in a clear state; these are sound if taken care of, but +capable of considerable dangers if longer neglected; and above all +things, the delights I feel in the society of my family, and the +agricultural pursuits in which I am so eagerly engaged. The little +spice of ambition which I had in my younger days has long since +evaporated, and I set still less store by a posthumous than present +name. In stating to you the heads of reasons which have produced my +determination, I do not mean an opening for future discussion, or +that I may be reasoned out of it. The question is forever closed +with me; my sole object is to avail myself of the first opening ever +given me from a friendly quarter (and I could not with decency do it +before), of preventing any division or loss of votes, which might be +fatal to the Republican interest. If that has any chance of +prevailing, it must be by avoiding the loss of a single vote, and by +concentrating all its strength on one object. Who this should be, is +a question I can more freely discuss with anybody than yourself. In +this I painfully feel the loss of Monroe. Had he been here, I should +have been at no loss for a channel through which to make myself +understood; if I have been misunderstood by anybody through the +instrumentality of mr. Fenno & his abettors. -- I long to see you. I +am proceeding in my agricultural plans with a slow but sure step. To +get under full way will require 4. or 5. years. But patience & +perseverance will accomplish it. My little essay in red clover, the +last year, has had the most encouraging success. I sowed then about +40. acres. I have sowed this year about 120. which the rain now +falling comes very opportunely on. From 160. to 200. acres, will +be my yearly sowing. The seed-box described in the agricultural +transactions of New York, reduces the expense of seeding from 6/ to +2/3 the acre, and does the business better than is possible to be +done by the human hand. May we hope a visit from you? If we may, +let it be after the middle of May, by which time I hope to be +returned from Bedford. I had had a proposition to meet mr. Henry +there this month, to confer on the subject of a convention, to the +calling of which he is now become a convert. The session of our +district court furnished me a just excuse for the time; but the +impropriety of my entering into consultation on a measure in which I +would take no part, is a permanent one. + + Present my most respectful compliments to mrs. Madison, & be +assured of the warm attachment of, Dear Sir, yours affectionately. + + + A NAIL-MAKER + + _To Jean Nicolas Demeunier_ + _Monticello, Virginia, Apr. 29, 1795_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Mar. 30. from Philadelphia came to +my hands a few days ago. That which you mention to have written from +London has never been received; nor had I been able to discover what +has been your fortune during the troubles of France after the death +of the King. Being thoroughly persuaded that under all circumstances +your conduct had been entirely innocent & friendly to the freedom of +your country, I had hopes that you had not been obliged to quit your +own country. Being myself a warm zealot for the attainment & +enjoiment by all mankind of as much liberty, as each may exercise +without injury to the equal liberty of his fellow citizens, I have +lamented that in France the endeavours to obtain this should have +been attended with the effusion of so much blood. I was intimate +with the leading characters of the year 1789. So I was with those of +the Brissotine party who succeeded them: & have always been persuaded +that their views were upright. Those who have followed have been +less known to me: but I have been willing to hope that they also +meant the establishment of a free government in their country, +excepting perhaps the party which has lately been suppressed. The +government of those now at the head of affairs appears to hold out +many indications of good sense, moderation & virtue; & I cannot but +presume from their character as well as your own that you would find +a perfect safety in the bosom of your own country. I think it +fortunate for the United States to have become the asylum for so many +virtuous patriots of different denominations: but their +circumstances, with which you were so well acquainted before, enabled +them to be but a bare asylum, & to offer nothing for them but an +entire freedom to use their own means & faculties as they please. +There is no such thing in this country as what would be called wealth +in Europe. The richest are but a little at ease, & obliged to pay +the most rigorous attention to their affairs to keep them together. +I do not mean to speak here of the Beaujons of America. For we have +some of these tho' happily they are but ephemeral. Our public +oeconomy also is such as to offer drudgery and subsistence only to +those entrusted with its administration, a wise & necessary +precaution against the degeneracy of the public servants. In our +private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment +is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker. On returning home +after an absence of ten years, I found my farms so much deranged that +I saw evidently they would be a burden to me instead of a support +till I could regenerate them; & consequently that it was necessary +for me to find some other resource in the meantime. I thought for +awhile of taking up the manufacture of pot-ash, which requires but +small advances of money. I concluded at length however to begin a +manufacture of nails, which needs little or no capital, & I now +employ a dozen little boys from 10. to 16. years of age, overlooking +all the details of their business myself & drawing from it a profit +on which I can get along till I can put my farms into a course of +yielding profit. My new trade of nail-making is to me in this +country what an additional title of nobility or the ensigns of a new +order are in Europe. In the commercial line, the grocers business is +that which requires the least capital in this country. The grocer +generally obtains a credit of three months, & sells for ready money +so as to be able to make his paiments & obtain a new supply. But I +think I have observed that your countrymen who have been obliged to +work out their own fortunes here, have succeeded best with a small +farm. Labour indeed is dear here, but rents are low & on the whole a +reasonable profit & comfortable subsistence results. It is at the +same time the most tranquil, healthy, & independent. And since you +have been pleased to ask my opinion as to the best way of employing +yourself till you can draw funds from France or return there +yourself, I do presume that this is the business which would yield +the most happiness & contentment to one of your philosophic turn. +But at the distance I am from New York, where you seem disposed to +fix yourself, & little acquainted with the circumstances of that +place I am much less qualified than disposed to suggest to you +emploiments analogous to your turn of mind & at the same time to the +circumstances of your present situation. Be assured that it will +always give me lively pleasure to learn that your pursuits, whatever +they may be may lead you to contentment & success, being with very +sincere esteem & respect, dear sir, your most obedient servant. + + + ROGUES AND A TREATY + + _To Mann Page_ + _Monticello, Aug. 30, 1795_ + + It was not in my power to attend at Fredericksburg according to +the kind invitation in your letter, and in that of mr. Ogilvie. The +heat of the weather, the business of the farm, to which I have made +myself necessary, forbade it; and to give one round reason for all, +_mature sanus_, I have laid up my Rosinante in his stall, before his +unfitness for the road shall expose him faultering to the world. But +why did not I answer you in time? Because, in truth, I am +encouraging myself to grow lazy, and I was sure you would ascribe the +delay to anything sooner than a want of affection or respect to you, +for this was not among the possible causes. In truth, if anything +could ever induce me to sleep another night out of my own house, it +would have been your friendly invitation and my sollicitude for the +subject of it, the education of our youth. I do most anxiously wish +to see the highest degrees of education given to the higher degrees +of genius, and to all degrees of it, so much as may enable them to +read & understand what is going on in the world, and to keep their +part of it going on right: for nothing can keep it right but their +own vigilant & distrustful superintendence. I do not believe with +the Rochefoucaults & Montaignes, that fourteen out of fifteen men are +rogues: I believe a great abatement from that proportion may be made +in favor of general honesty. But I have always found that rogues +would be uppermost, and I do not know that the proportion is too +strong for the higher orders, and for those who, rising above the +swinish multitude, always contrive to nestle themselves into the +places of power & profit. These rogues set out with stealing the +people's good opinion, and then steal from them the right of +withdrawing it, by contriving laws and associations against the power +of the people themselves. Our part of the country is in considerable +fermentation, on what they suspect to be a recent roguery of this +kind. They say that while all hands were below deck mending sails, +splicing ropes, and every one at his own business, & the captain in +his cabbin attending to his log book & chart, a rogue of a pilot has +run them into an enemy's port. But metaphor apart, there is much +dissatisfaction with mr. Jay & his treaty. For my part, I consider +myself now but as a passenger, leaving the world, & it's government +to those who are likely to live longer in it. That you may be among +the longest of these, is my sincere prayer. After begging you to be +the bearer of my compliments & apologies to mr. Ogilvie, I bid you +an affectionate farewell, always wishing to hear from you. + + + THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA + + _To George Wythe_ + _Monticello, January 16, 1796_ + + In my letter which accompanied the box containing my collection +of Printed laws, I promised to send you by post a statement of the +contents of the box. On taking up the subject I found it better to +take a more general view of the whole of the laws I possess, as well +Manuscript as printed, as also of those which I do not possess, and +suppose to be no longer extant. This general view you will have in +the enclosed paper, whereof the articles stated to be printed +constitute the contents of the box I sent you. Those in MS. were not +sent, because not supposed to have been within your view, and because +some of them will not bear removal, being so rotten, that in turning +over a leaf it sometimes falls into powder. These I preserve by +wrapping & sewing them up in oiled cloth, so that neither air nor +moisture can have access to them. Very early in the course of my +researches into the laws of Virginia, I observed that many of them +were already lost, and many more on the point of being lost, as +existing only in single copies in the hands of careful or curious +individuals, on whose death they would probably be used for waste +paper. I set myself therefore to work, to collect all which were +then existing, in order that when the day should come in which the +public should advert to the magnitude of their loss in these precious +monuments of our property, and our history, a part of their regret +might be spared by information that a portion has been saved from the +wreck, which is worthy of their attention & preservation. In +searching after these remains, I spared neither time, trouble, nor +expense; and am of opinion that scarcely any law escaped me, which +was in being as late as the year 1778 in the middle or Southern parts +of the State. In the Northern parts, perhaps something might still +be found. In the clerk's office in the antient counties, some of +these MS. copies of the laws may possibly still exist, which used to +be furnished at the public expense to every county, before the use of +the press was introduced; and in the same places, and in the hands of +antient magistrates or of their families, some of the fugitive sheets +of the laws of separate sessions, which have been usually distributed +since the practice commenced of printing them. But recurring to what +we actually possess, the question is, what means will be the most +effectual for preserving these remains from future loss? All the +care I can take of them, will not preserve them from the worm, from +the natural decay of the paper, from the accidents of fire, or those +of removal when it is necessary for any public purposes, as in the +case of those now sent you. Our experience has proved to us that a +single copy, or a few, deposited in MS. in the public offices, cannot +be relied on for any great length of time. The ravages of fire and +of ferocious enemies have had but too much part in producing the very +loss we are now deploring. How many of the precious works of +antiquity were lost while they were preserved only in manuscript? +Has there ever been one lost since the art of printing has rendered +it practicable to multiply & disperse copies? This leads us then to +the only means of preserving those remains of our laws now under +consideration, that is, a multiplication of printed copies. I think +therefore that there should be printed at public expense, an edition +of all the laws ever passed by our legislatures which can now be +found; that a copy should be deposited in every public library in +America, in the principal public offices within the State, and some +perhaps in the most distinguished public libraries of Europe, and +that the rest should be sold to individuals, towards reimbursing the +expences of the edition. Nor do I think that this would be a +voluminous work. The MSS. would probably furnish matter for one +printed volume in folio, would comprehend all the laws from 1624 to +1701, which period includes Purvis. My collection of Fugitive sheets +forms, as we know, two volumes, and comprehends all the extant laws +from 1734 to 1783; and the laws which can be gleaned up from the +Revisals to supply the chasm between 1701 & 1734, with those from +1783 to the close of the present century, (by which term the work +might be compleated,) would not be more than the matter of another +volume. So that four volumes in folio, would give every law ever +passed which is now extant; whereas those who wish to possess as many +of them as can be procured, must now buy the six folio volumes of +Revisals, to wit, Purvis & those of 1732, 1748, 1768, 1783, & 1794, +and in all of them possess not one half of what they wish. What +would be the expence of the edition I cannot say, nor how much would +be reimbursed by the sales; but I am sure it would be moderate, +compared with the rates which the public have hitherto paid for +printing their laws, provided a sufficient latitude be given as to +printers & places. The first step would be to make out a single copy +for the MSS., which would employ a clerk about a year or something +more, to which expence about a fourth should be added for the +collation of the MSS., which would employ 3. persons at a time about +half a day, or a day in every week. As I have already spent more +time in making myself acquainted with the contents & arrangement of +these MSS. than any other person probably ever will, & their +condition does not admit their removal to a distance, I will +chearfully undertake the direction & superintendence of this work, if +it can be done in the neighboring towns of Charlottesville or Milton, +farther than which I could not undertake to go from home. For the +residue of the work, my printed volumes might be delivered to the +Printer. + + I have troubled you with these details, because you are in the +place where they may be used for the public service, if they admit of +such use, & because the order of assembly, which you mention, shews +they are sensible of the necessity of preserving such of these laws +as relate to our landed property; and a little further consideration +will perhaps convince them that it is better to do the whole work +once for all, than to be recurring to it by piece-meal, as particular +parts of it shall be required, & that too perhaps when the materials +shall be lost. You are the best judge of the weight of these +observations, & of the mode of giving them any effect they may merit. +Adieu affectionately. + + + "AN AGE OF EXPERIMENTS" + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Feb. 28, 1796_ + + I am to thank you, my dear Sir, for forwarding Mr. D'Ivernois' +book on the French revolution. I recieve every thing with respect +which comes from him. But it is on politics, a subject I never +loved, and now hate. I will not promise therefore to read it +thoroughly. I fear the oligarchical executive of the French will not +do. We have always seen a small council get into cabals and +quarrels, the more bitter and relentless the fewer they are. We saw +this in our committee of the states; and that they were, from their +bad passions, incapable of doing the business of their country. I +think that for the prompt, clear and consistent action so necessary +in an Executive, unity of person is necessary as with us. I am aware +of the objection to this, that the office becoming more important may +bring on serious discord in elections. In our country I think it +will be long first; not within our day; and we may safely trust to +the wisdom of our successors the remedies of the evil to arise in +theirs. Both experiments however are now fairly committed, and the +result will be seen. Never was a finer canvas presented to work on +than our countrymen. All of them engaged in agriculture or the +pursuits of honest industry, independant in their circumstances, +enlightened as to their rights, and firm in their habits of order and +obedience to the laws. This I hope will be the age of experiments in +government, and that their basis will be founded on principles of +honesty, not of mere force. We have seen no instance of this since +the days of the Roman republic, nor do we read of any before that. +Either force or corruption has been the principle of every modern +government, unless the Dutch perhaps be excepted, and I am not well +enough informed to except them absolutely. If ever the morals of a +people could be made the basis of their own government, it is our +case; and he who could propose to govern such a people by the +corruption of their legislature, before he could have one night of +quiet sleep, must convince himself that the human soul as well as +body is mortal. I am glad to see that whatever grounds of +apprehension may have appeared of a wish to govern us otherwise than +on principles of reason and honesty, we are getting the better of +them. I am sure, from the honesty of your heart, you join me in +detestation of the corruption of the English government, and that no +man on earth is more incapable than yourself of seeing that copied +among us, willingly. I have been among those who have feared the +design to introduce it here, and it has been a strong reason with me +for wishing there was an ocean of fire between that island and us. +But away politics. + + I owe a letter to the Auditor [Richard Harrison] on the subject +of my accounts while a foreign minister, and he informs me yours hang +on the same difficulties with mine. Before the present government +there was a usage either practised on or understood which regulated +our charges. This government has directed the future by a law. But +this is not retrospective, and I cannot conceive why the treasury +cannot settle accounts under the old Congress on the principles that +body acted on. I shall very shortly write to Mr. Harrison on this +subject, and if we cannot have it settled otherwise I suppose we must +apply to the legislature. In this I will act in concert with you if +you approve of it. Present my very affectionate respects to Mrs. +Adams, and be assured that no one more cordially esteems your virtues +than Dear Sir Your sincere friend and servt. + + + "THE BOISTEROUS SEA OF LIBERTY" + + _To Philip Mazzei_ + _Monticello, Apr. 24, 1796_ + + MY DEAR FRIEND, -- Your letter of Oct. 26. 1795. is just +received and gives me the first information that the bills forwarded +for you to V. S. & H. of Amsterdam on V. Anderson for pound 39-17-10 +1/2 & on George Barclay for pound 70-8-6 both of London have been +protested. I immediately write to the drawers to secure the money if +still unpaid. I wonder I have never had a letter from our friends of +Amsterdam on that subject as well as acknoleging the subsequent +remittances. Of these I have apprised you by triplicates, but for +fear of miscarriage will just mention that on Sep. 8. I forwarded +them Hodgden's bill on Robinson Saunderson & Rumney of Whitehaven for +pound 300. and Jan. 31. that of the same on the same for pound +137-16-6 both received from mr. Blair for your stock sold out. I +have now the pleasure to inform you that Dohrman has settled his +account with you, has allowed the New York damage of 20. per cent +for the protest, & the New York interest of 7. per cent. and after +deducting the partial payments for which he held receipts the balance +was three thousand & eighty-seven dollars which sum he has paid into +mr. Madison's hands & as he (mr. Madison) is now in Philadelphia, I +have desired him to invest the money in good bills on Amsterdam & +remit them to the V. Staphorsts & H. whom I consider as possessing +your confidence as they do mine beyond any house in London. The +pyracies of that nation lately extended from the sea to the debts due +from them to other nations renders theirs an unsafe medium to do +business through. I hope these remittances will place you at your +ease & I will endeavor to execute your wishes as to the settlement of +the other small matters you mention: tho' from them I expect little. +E. R. is bankrupt, or tantamount to it. Our friend M. P. is +embarrassed, having lately sold the fine lands he lives on, & being +superlatively just & honorable I expect we may get whatever may be in +his hands. Lomax is under greater difficulties with less means, so +that I apprehend you have little more to expect from this country +except the balance which will remain for Colle after deducting the +little matter due to me, & what will be recovered by Anthony. This +will be decided this summer. + + I have written to you by triplicates with every remittance I +sent to the V. S. & H. & always recapitulated in each letter the +objects of the preceding ones. I enclosed in two of them some seeds +of the squash as you desired. Send me in return some seeds of the +winter vetch, I mean that kind which is sewn in autumn & stands thro +the cold of winter, furnishing a crop of green fodder in March. Put +a few seeds in every letter you may write to me. In England only the +spring vetch can be had. Pray fail not in this. I have it greatly +at heart. + + The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed since you +left us. In place of that noble love of liberty, & republican +government which carried us triumphantly thro' the war, an Anglican +monarchical, & aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed +object is to draw over us the substance, as they have already done +the forms, of the British government. The main body of our citizens, +however, remain true to their republican principles; the whole landed +interest is republican, and so is a great mass of talents. Against +us are the Executive, the Judiciary, two out of three branches of the +legislature, all the officers of the government, all who want to be +officers, all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the +boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants & Americans trading on +British capitals, speculators & holders in the banks & public funds, +a contrivance invented for the purposes of corruption, & for +assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound +parts of the British model. It would give you a fever were I to name +to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who +were Samsons in the field & Solomons in the council, but who have had +their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we are likely to +preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors & +perils. But we shall preserve them; and our mass of weight & wealth +on the good side is so great, as to leave no danger that force will +ever be attempted against us. We have only to awake and snap the +Lilliputian cords with which they have been entangling us during the +first sleep which succeeded our labors. I will forward the +testimonial of the death of mrs. Mazzei, which I can do the more +incontrovertibly as she is buried in my grave yard, and I pass her +grave daily. The formalities of the proof you require, will occasion +delay. John Page & his son Mann are well. The father remarried to a +lady from N. York. Beverley Randolph e la sua consorte living & +well. Their only child married to the 2d of T. M. Randolph. The +eldest son you know married my eldest daughter, is an able learned & +worthy character, but kept down by ill health. They have two +children & still live with me. My younger daughter well. Colo. +Innis is well, & a true republican still as are all those before +named. Colo. Monroe is our M. P. at Paris a most worthy patriot & +honest man. These are the persons you inquire after. I begin to +feel the effects of age. My health has suddenly broke down, with +symptoms which give me to believe I shall not have much to encounter +of the _tedium vitae_. While it remains, however, my heart will be +warm in it's friendships, and among these, will always foster the +affection with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant. + + + AN ENTENTE WITH ADAMS + + _To James Madison, with Enclosure_ + _Jan. 1, 1797_ + + Yours of Dec. 19. has come safely. The event of the election +has never been a matter of doubt in my mind. I knew that the Eastern +states were disciplined in the schools of their town meetings to +sacrifice differences of opinion to the great object of operating in +phalanx, & that the more free & moral agency practiced in the other +states would always make up the supplement of their weight. Indeed +the vote comes much nearer an equality than I had expected. I know +the difficulty of obtaining belief to one's declarations of a +disinclination to honors, & that it is greatest with those who still +remain in the world. But no arguments were wanting to reconcile me +to a relinquishment of the first office or acquiescence under the +second. As to the first it was impossible that a more solid +unwillingness settled on full calculation, could have existed in any +man's mind, short of the degree of absolute refusal. The only view +on which I would have gone into it for awhile was to put our vessel +on her republican tack before she should be thrown too much to +leeward of her true principles. As to the second, it is the only +office in the world about which I am unable to decide in my own mind +whether I had rather have it or not have it. Pride does not enter +into the estimate; for I think with the Romans that the general of +today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary. I can particularly +have no feelings which would revolt at a secondary position to mr. +Adams. I am his junior in life, was his junior in Congress, his +junior in the diplomatic line, his junior lately in the civil +government. Before the receipt of your letter I had written the +enclosed one to him. I had intended it some time, but had deferred +it from time to time under the discouragement of a despair of making +him believe I could be sincere in it. The papers by the last post +not rendering it necessary to change anything in the letter I enclose +it open for your perusal, not only that you may possess the actual +state of dispositions between us, but that if anything should render +the delivery of it ineligible in your opinion, you may return it to +me. If mr. Adams can be induced to administer the government on it's +true principles, & to relinquish his bias to an English constitution, +it is to be considered whether it would not be on the whole for the +public good to come to a good understanding with him as to his future +elections. He is perhaps the only sure barrier against Hamilton's +getting in. + + Since my last I have received a packet of books & pamphlets, +the choiceness of which testifies that they come from you. The +incidents of Hamilton's insurrection is a curious work indeed. The +hero of it exhibits himself in all the attitudes of a dexterous +balance master. + + The Political progress is a work of value & of a singular +complexion. The eye of the author seems to be a natural achromatic, +which divests every object of the glare of colour. The preceding +work under the same title had the same merit. One is disgusted +indeed with the ulcerated state which it presents of the human mind: +but to cure an ulcer we must go to its bottom: & no writer has ever +done this more radically than this one. The reflections into which +he leads one are not flattering to our species. In truth I do not +recollect in all the animal kingdom a single species but man which is +eternally & systematically engaged in the destruction of its own +species. What is called civilization seems to have no other effect +on him than to teach him to pursue the principle of bellum omnium in +omnia on a larger scale, & in place of the little contests of tribe +against tribe, to engage all the quarters of the earth in the same +work of destruction. When we add to this that as to the other +species of animals, the lions & tigers are mere lambs compared with +man as a destroyer, we must conclude that it is in man alone that +nature has been able to find a sufficient barrier against the too +great multiplication of other animals & of man himself, an +equilibriating power against the fecundity of generation. My +situation points my views chiefly to his wars in the physical world: +yours perhaps exhibit him as equally warring in the moral one. We +both, I believe, join in wishing to see him softened. Adieu. + + + ENCLOSURE TO JOHN ADAMS + _Monticello, Dec. 28, 1796_ + + DEAR SIR -- The public and the public papers have been much +occupied lately in placing us in a point of opposition to each other. +I trust with confidence that less of it has been felt by ourselves +personally. In the retired canton where I am, I learn little of what +is passing: pamphlets I see never; papers but a few; and the fewer +the happier. Our latest intelligence from Philadelphia at present is +of the 16th. inst. but tho' at that date your election to the first +magistracy seems not to have been known as a fact, yet with me it has +never been doubted. I knew it impossible you should lose a vote +North of the Delaware, and even if that of Pensylvania should be +against you in the mass, yet that you would get enough South of that +to place your succession out of danger. I have never one single +moment expected a different issue: and tho' I know I shall not be +believed, yet it is not the less true that I have never wished it. +My neighbors, as my compurgators, could aver that fact, because they +see my occupations and my attachment to them. Indeed it is possible +that you may be cheated of your succession by a trick worthy the +subtlety of your arch-friend [Alexander Hamilton] of New York, who +has been able to make of your real friends tools to defeat their and +your just wishes. Most probably he will be disappointed as to you; +and my inclinations place me out of his reach. I leave to others the +sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound +sleep and a warm birth below, with the society of neighbors, friends +and fellow laborers of the earth, than of spies and sycophants. No +one then will congratulate you with purer disinterestedness than +myself. The share indeed which I may have had in the late vote, I +shall still value highly, as an evidence of the share I have in the +esteem of my fellow citizens. But while, in this point of view, a +few votes less would be little sensible, the difference in the effect +of a few more would be very sensible and oppressive to me. I have no +ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office. Since +the day too on which you signed the treaty of Paris our horizon was +never so overcast. I devoutly wish you may be able to shun for us +this war by which our agriculture, commerce and credit will be +destroyed. If you are, the glory will be all your own; and that your +administration may be filled with glory and happiness to yourself and +advantage to us is the sincere wish of one who tho', in the course of +our voyage thro' life, various little incidents have happened or been +contrived to separate us, retains still for you the solid esteem of +the moments when we were working for our independance, and sentiments +of respect and affectionate attachment. + + + "PERFECTLY NEUTRAL AND INDEPENDENT" + + _To Elbridge Gerry_ + _Philadelphia, May 13, 1797_ + + MY DEAR FRIEND, -- Your favor of the 4th instt came to hand +yesterday. That of the 4th of Apr, with the one for Monroe, has +never been received. The first, of Mar 27, did not reach me till Apr +21, when I was within a few days of setting out for this place, & I +put off acknoleging it till I should come here. I entirely commend +your dispositions towards mr. Adams; knowing his worth as intimately +and esteeming it as much as any one, and acknoleging the preference +of his claims, if any I could have had, to the high office conferred +on him. But in truth, I had neither claims nor wishes on the +subject, tho I know it will be difficult to obtain belief of this. +When I retired from this place & the office of Secy of state, it was +in the firmest contemplation of never more returning here. There had +indeed been suggestions in the public papers, that I was looking +towards a succession to the President's chair, but feeling a +consciousness of their falsehood, and observing that the suggestions +came from hostile quarters, I considered them as intended merely to +excite public odium against me. I never in my life exchanged a word +with any person, on the subject, till I found my name brought forward +generally, in competition with that of mr. Adams. Those with whom I +then communicated, could say, if it were necessary, whether I met the +call with desire, or even with a ready acquiescence, and whether from +the moment of my first acquiescence, I did not devoutly pray that the +very thing might happen which has happened. The second office of +this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid +misery. + + You express apprehensions that stratagems will be used, to +produce a misunderstanding between the President and myself. Tho not +a word having this tendency has ever been hazarded to me by any one, +yet I consider as a certainty that nothing will be left untried to +alienate him from me. These machinations will proceed from the +Hamiltons by whom he is surrounded, and who are only a little less +hostile to him than to me. It cannot but damp the pleasure of +cordiality, when we suspect that it is suspected. I cannot help +fearing, that it is impossible for mr. Adams to believe that the +state of my mind is what it really is; that he may think I view him +as an obstacle in my way. I have no supernatural power to impress +truth on the mind of another, nor he any to discover that the +estimate which he may form, on a just view of the human mind as +generally constituted, may not be just in its application to a +special constitution. This may be a source of private uneasiness to +us; I honestly confess that it is so to me at this time. But neither +of us are capable of letting it have effect on our public duties. +Those who may endeavor to separate us, are probably excited by the +fear that I might have influence on the executive councils; but when +they shall know that I consider my office as constitutionally +confined to legislative functions, and that I could not take any part +whatever in executive consultations, even were it proposed, their +fears may perhaps subside, & their object be found not worth a +machination. + + I do sincerely wish with you, that we could take our stand on a +ground perfectly neutral & independent towards all nations. It has +been my constant object thro public life; and with respect to the +English & French, particularly, I have too often expressed to the +former my wishes, & made to them propositions verbally & in writing, +officially & privately, to official & private characters, for them to +doubt of my views, if they would be content with equality. Of this +they are in possession of several written & formal proofs, in my own +hand writing. But they have wished a monopoly of commerce & +influence with us; and they have in fact obtained it. When we take +notice that theirs is the workshop to which we go for all we want; +that with them centre either immediately or ultimately all the labors +of our hands and lands; that to them belongs either openly or +secretly the great mass of our navigation; that even the factorage of +their affairs here, is kept to themselves by factitious citizenships; +that these foreign & false citizens now constitute the great body of +what are called our merchants, fill our sea ports, are planted in +every little town & district of the interior country, sway everything +in the former places by their own votes, & those of their dependants, +in the latter, by their insinuations & the influence of their +ledgers; that they are advancing fast to a monopoly of our banks & +public funds, and thereby placing our public finances under their +control; that they have in their alliance the most influential +characters in & out of office; when they have shewn that by all these +bearings on the different branches of the government, they can force +it to proceed in whatever direction they dictate, and bend the +interests of this country entirely to the will of another; when all +this, I say, is attended to, it is impossible for us to say we stand +on independent ground, impossible for a free mind not to see & to +groan under the bondage in which it is bound. If anything after this +could excite surprise, it would be that they have been able so far to +throw dust in the eyes of our own citizens, as to fix on those who +wish merely to recover self-government the charge of subserving one +foreign influence, because they resist submission to another. But +they possess our printing presses, a powerful engine in their +government of us. At this very moment, they would have drawn us into +a war on the side of England, had it not been for the failure of her +bank. Such was their open & loud cry, & that of their gazettes till +this event. After plunging us in all the broils of the European +nations, there would remain but one act to close our tragedy, that +is, to break up our Union; and even this they have ventured seriously +& solemnly to propose & maintain by arguments in a Connecticut paper. +I have been happy, however, in believing, from the stifling of this +effort, that that dose was found too strong, & excited as much +repugnance there as it did horror in other parts of our country, & +that whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, we +shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, & that +alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming an +arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor war, and view it as the +greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out of +the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my brethren into these, +rather than separate from them. But I hope we may still keep clear +of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, & that time may be +given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed through, and +to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from foreign +influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other form it may be +attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from joining in the wish +of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire between us & the old +world. + + A perfect confidence that you are as much attached to peace & +union as myself, that you equally prize independence of all nations, +and the blessings of self-government, has induced me freely to +unbosom myself to you, and let you see the light in which I have +viewed what has been passing among us from the beginning of the war. +And I shall be happy, at all times, in an intercommunication of +sentiments with you, believing that the dispositions of the different +parts of our country have been considerably misrepresented & +misunderstood in each part, as to the other, and that nothing but +good can result from an exchange of information & opinions between +those whose circumstances & morals admit no doubt of the integrity of +their views. + + I remain, with constant and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your +affectionate friend and servant. + + + PEACE AND COMMERCE + + _To Thomas Pinckney_ + _Philadelphia, May 29, 1797_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received from you, before you left England, a +letter enclosing one from the Prince of Parma. As I learnt soon +after that you were shortly to return to America, I concluded to join +my acknolegments of it to my congratulations on your arrival; & both +have been delayed by a blameable spirit of procrastination, forever +suggesting to our indolence that we need not do to-day what may be +done to-morrow. Accept these now in all the sincerity of my heart. +It is but lately I have answered the Prince's letter. It required +some time to establish arrangements which might effect his purpose, & +I wished also to forward a particular article or two of curiosity. +You have found on your return a higher style of political difference +than you had left here. I fear this is inseparable from the +different constitutions of the human mind, & that degree of freedom +which permits unrestrained expression. Political dissension is +doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism, but still it is +a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as +of the philosopher, to exclude it's influence, if possible, from +social life. The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason +to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be +able so far to perfect the principles of society, as that political +opinions shall, in it's intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of +philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may well be doubted. Foreign +influence is the present & just object of public hue and cry, & -- , +as often happens, the most guilty are foremost & loudest in the cry. +If those who are truly independent, can so trim our vessels as to +beat through the waves now agitating us, they will merit a glory the +greater as it seems less possible. When I contemplate the spirit +which is driving us on here, & that beyond the water which will view +us as but a mouthful the more, I have little hope of peace. I +anticipate the burning of our sea ports, havoc of our frontiers, +household insurgency, with a long train of et ceteras, which is +enough for a man to have met once in his life. The exchange, which +is to give us new neighbors in Louisiana (probably the present French +armies when disbanded) has opened us to combinations of enemies on +that side where we are most vulnerable. War is not the best engine +for us to resort to, nature has given us one _in our commerce_, +which, if properly managed, will be a better instrument for obliging +the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice. If the +commercial regulations had been adopted which our legislature were at +one time proposing, we should at this moment have been standing on +such an eminence of safety & respect as ages can never recover. But +having wandered from that, our object should now be to get back, with +as little loss as possible, & when peace shall be restored to the +world, endeavor so to form our _commercial_ regulations as that +justice from other nations shall be their mechanical result. I am +happy to assure you that the conduct of Gen'l. Pinckney has met +universal approbation. It was marked with that coolness, dignity, & +good sense which we expected from him. I am told that the French +government had taken up an unhappy idea, that Monroe was recalled for +the candor of his conduct in what related to the British treaty, & +Gen'l. Pinckney was sent as having other dispositions towards them. +I learn further, that some of their well-informed citizens here are +setting them right as to Genl. Pinckney's dispositions, so well +known to have been just towards them; & I sincerely hope, not only +that he may be employed as envoy extraordinary to them, but that +their minds will be better prepared to receive him. I candidly +acknolege, however, that I do not think the speech & addresses of +Congress as conciliatory as the preceding irritations on both sides +would have rendered wise. I shall be happy to hear from you at all +times, to make myself useful to you whenever opportunity offers, and +to give every proof of the sincerity of the sentiments of esteem & +respect with which I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble +servant. + + + DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS + + _To Martha Jefferson Randolph_ + _Philadelphia, June 8, 1797_ + + MY DEAR MARTHA -- Yours of May 20 came to hand the 1st. inst. I +imagine you recieved mine of May 18. about six days after the date of +yours. It was written the first post day after my arrival here. The +commission you inclosed for Maria is executed, and the things are in +the care of Mr. Boyce of Richmond, who is returning from hence with +some goods of his own, and will deliver them to Mr. Johnston. I +recieve with inexpressible pleasure the information your letter +contained. After your own happy establishment, which has given me an +inestimable friend to whom I can leave the care of every thing I +love, the only anxiety I had remaining was to see Maria also so +asociated as to ensure her happiness. She could not have been more +so to my wishes, if I had had the whole earth free to have chosen a +partner for her. I now see our fireside formed into a groupe, no one +member of which has a fibre in their composition which can ever +produce any jarring or jealousies among us. No irregular passions, +no dangerous bias, which may render problematical the future fortunes +and happiness of our descendants. We are quieted as to their +condition for at least one generation more. In order to keep us all +together, instead of a present provision in Bedford, as in your case, +I think to open and resettle the plantation of Pantops for them. +When I look to the ineffable pleasures of my family society, I become +more and more disgusted with the jealousies, the hatred, and the +rancorous and malignant passions of this scene, and lament my having +ever again been drawn into public view. Tranquility is now my +object. I have seen enough of political honors to know that they are +but splendid torments: and however one might be disposed to render +services on which any of their fellow citizens should set a value; +yet when as many would deprecate them as a public calamity, one may +well entertain a modest doubt of their real importance, and feel the +impulse of duty to be very weak. The real difficulty is that being +once delivered into the hands of others, whose feelings are friendly +to the individual and warm to the public cause, how to withdraw from +them without leaving a dissatisfaction in their mind, and an +impression of pusillanimity with the public. + + Congress, in all probability will rise on Saturday the 17th. +inst. the day after you will recieve this. I shall leave +Philadelphia Monday the 19th. pass a day at Georgetown and a day at +Fredericksburg, at which place I wish my _chair_ and horses to be +Sunday evening the 25th. Of course they must set out Saturday +morning the 24th. This gives me the chance of another post, as you +will, the evening before that, recieve by the post a letter of a week +later date than this, so that if any thing should happen within a +week to delay the rising of Congress, I may still notify it and +change the time of the departure of my horses. Jupiter must pursue +the rout by Noel's to which he will come the first day, and by Chew's +to Fredericksburg the next. I fix his rout because were any accident +to get me along earlier, or him later, we might meet on the road. +Not yet informed that Mr. Randolph is returned I have thought it +safest to commit this article to my letter to you. The news of the +day I shall write to him. My warmest love to yourself and Maria. +Adieu affectionately. + + + PATIENCE AND THE REIGN OF WITCHES + + _To John Taylor_ + _Philadelphia, June 4, 1798_ + + I now inclose you Mr. Martin's patent. A patent had actually +been made out on the first description, and how to get this +suppressed and another made for a second invention, without a second +fee, was the difficulty. I practised a little art in a case where +honesty was really on our side, & nothing against us but the rigorous +letter of the law, and having obtained the 1st specification and got +the 2d put in its place, a second patent has been formed, which I now +inclose with the first specification. + + I promised you, long ago, a description of a mould board. I +now send it; it is a press copy & therefore dim. It will be less so +by putting a sheet of white paper behind the one you are reading. I +would recommend to you first to have a model made of about 3 i. to +the foot, or 1/4 the real dimensions, and to have two blocks, the +1'st of which, after taking out the pyramidal piece & sawing it +crosswise above & below, should be preserved in that form to instruct +workmen in making the large & real one. The 2'd block may be carried +through all the operations, so as to present the form of the mould +board complete. If I had an opportunity of sending you a model I +would do it. It has been greatly approved here, as it has been +before by some very good judges at my house, where I have used it for +5 years with entire approbation. + + Mr. New shewed me your letter on the subject of the patent, +which gave me an opportunity of observing what you said as to the +effect with you of public proceedings, and that it was not unusual +now to estimate the separate mass of Virginia and N. Carolina with a +view to their separate existence. It is true that we are compleatly +under the saddle of Massachusets & Connecticut, and that they ride us +very hard, cruelly insulting our feelings as well as exhausting our +strength and substance. Their natural friends, the three other +eastern States, join them from a sort of family pride, and they have +the art to divide certain other parts of the Union so as to make use +of them to govern the whole. This is not new. It is the old +practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in +order, and those who have once got an ascendency and possessed +themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and +offices, have immense means for retaining their advantages. But our +present situation is not a natural one. The body of our countrymen +is substantially republican through every part of the Union. It was +the irresistable influence & popularity of Gen'1 Washington, played +off by the cunning of Hamilton, which turned the government over to +anti-republican hands, or turned the republican members, chosen by +the people, into anti-republicans. He delivered it over to his +successor in this state, and very untoward events, since improved +with great artifice, have produced on the public mind the impression +we see; but still, I repeat it, this is not the natural state. Time +alone would bring round an order of things more correspondent to the +sentiments of our constituents; but are there not events impending +which will do it within a few months? The invasion of England, the +public and authentic avowal of sentiments hostile to the leading +principles of our Constitution, the prospect of a war in which we +shall stand alone, land-tax, stamp-tax, increase of public debt, &c. +Be this as it may, in every free & deliberating society there must, +from the nature of man, be opposite parties & violent dissensions & +discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the +other for a longer or shorter time. Perhaps this party division is +necessary to induce each to watch & delate to the people the +proceedings of the other. But if on a temporary superiority of the +one party, the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no +federal government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the +present rule of Massachusets & Connecticut we break the Union, will +the evil stop there? Suppose the N. England States alone cut off, +will our natures be changed? are we not men still to the south of +that, & with all the passions of men? Immediately we shall see a +Pennsylvania & a Virginia party arise in the residuary confederacy, +and the public mind will be distracted with the same party spirit. +What a game, too, will the one party have in their hands by eternally +threatening the other that unless they do so & so, they will join +their Northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to Virginia & N. +Carolina, immediately the conflict will be established between the +representatives of these two States, and they will end by breaking +into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an association of +men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet +existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town +meeting or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel +with, I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose +than to see our bickerings transferred to others. They are +circumscribed within such narrow limits, & their population so full, +that their numbers will ever be the minority, and they are marked, +like the Jews, with such a peculiarity of character as to constitute +from that circumstance the natural division of our parties. A little +patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their +spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore +their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the +mean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the +horrors of a war & long oppressions of enormous public debt. But who +can say what would be the evils of a scission, and when & where they +would end? Better keep together as we are, hawl off from Europe as +soon as we can, & from all attachments to any portions of it. And if +we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be +the happiest situation in which we can exist. If the game runs +sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, & +then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the _principles_ we +have lost, for this is a game where principles are the stake. Better +luck, therefore, to us all; and health, happiness, & friendly +salutations to yourself. Adieu. + + + P. S. It is hardly necessary to caution you to let nothing of +mine get before the public. A single sentence, got hold of by the +Porcupines, will suffice to abuse & persecute me in their papers for +months. + + + WILD HORSES + + _To Philip Nolan_ + _Philadelphia, June 24, 1798_ + + SIR, -- It is sometime since I have understood that there are +large herds of horses in a wild state, in the country west of the +Mississippi, and have been desirous of obtaining details of their +history in that State. Mr. Brown, Senator from Kentucky, informs me +it would be in your power to give interesting information on this +subject, and encourages me to ask it. The circumstances of the old +world have, beyond the records of history, been such as admitted not +that animal to exist in a state of nature. The condition of America +is rapidly advancing to the same. The present then is probably the +only moment in the age of the world, and the herds above mentioned +the only subjects, of which we can avail ourselves to obtain what has +never yet been recorded, and never can be again in all probability. +I will add that your information is the sole reliance, as far as I +can at present see, for obtaining this desideratum. You will render +to natural history a very acceptable service, therefore, if you will +enable our Philosophical society to add so interesting a chapter to +the history of this animal. I need not specify to you the particular +facts asked for; as your knowledge of the animal in his domesticated, +as well as his wild state, will naturally have led your attention to +those particulars in the manners, habits, and laws of his existence, +which are peculiar to his wild state. I wish you not to be anxious +about the form of your information, the exactness of the substance +alone is material; and if, after giving in a first letter all the +facts you at present possess, you would be so good, on subsequent +occasions, as to furnish such others in addition, as you may acquire +from time to time, your communications will always be thankfully +received, if addressed to me at Monticello; and put into any post +office in Kentucky or Tennessee, they will reach me speedily and +safely, and will be considered as obligations on, sir, your most +obedient, humble servant. + + + SUFFERANCE OF CALUMNY + + _To Samuel Smith_ + _Monticello, Aug. 22, 1798_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Aug 4 came to hand by our last post, +together with the "extract of a letter from a gentleman of +Philadelphia, dated July 10," cut from a newspaper stating some facts +which respect me. I shall notice these facts. The writer says that +"the day after the last despatches were communicated to Congress, +Bache, Leib, &c., and a Dr. Reynolds were _closeted_ with me." If the +receipt of visits in my public room, the door continuing free to +every one who should call at the same time, may be called +_closeting_, then it is true that I was _closeted_ with every person +who visited me; in no other sense is it true as to any person. I +sometimes received visits from Mr. Bache & Dr. Leib. I received them +always with pleasure, because they are men of abilities, and of +principles the most friendly to liberty & our present form of +government. Mr. Bache has another claim on my respect, as being the +grandson of Dr. Franklin, the greatest man & ornament of the age and +country in which he lived. Whether I was visited by Mr. Bache or Dr. +Leib the day after the communication referred to, I do not remember. +I know that all my motions at Philadelphia, here, and everywhere, are +watched & recorded. Some of these spies, therefore, may remember +better than I do, the dates of these visits. If they say these two +gentlemen visited me on the day after the communications, as their +trade proves their accuracy, I shall not contradict them, tho' I +affirm that I do not recollect it. However, as to Dr. Reynolds I can +be more particular, because I never saw him but once, which was on an +introductory visit he was so kind as to pay me. This, I well +remember, was before the communication alluded to, & that during the +short conversation I had with him, not one word was said on the +subject of any of the communications. Not that I should not have +spoken freely on their subject to Dr. Reynolds, as I should also have +done to the letter writer, or to any other person who should have +introduced the subject. I know my own principles to be pure, & +therefore am not ashamed of them. On the contrary, I wish them +known, & therefore willingly express them to every one. They are the +same I have acted on from the year 1775 to this day, and are the +same, I am sure, with those of the great body of the American people. +I only wish the real principles of those who censure mine were also +known. But warring against those of the people, the delusion of the +people is necessary to the dominant party. I see the extent to which +that delusion has been already carried, and I see there is no length +to which it may not be pushed by a party in possession of the +revenues & the legal authorities of the U S, for a short time indeed, +but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no +event, therefore, however atrocious, which may not be expected. I +have contemplated every event which the Maratists of the day can +perpetrate, and am prepared to meet every one in such a way, as shall +not be derogatory either to the public liberty or my own personal +honor. The letter writer says, I am "for peace; but it is only with +France." He has told half the truth. He would have told the whole, +if he had added England. I am for peace with both countries. I know +that both of them have given, & are daily giving, sufficient cause of +war; that in defiance of the laws of nations, they are every day +trampling on the rights of all the neutral powers, whenever they can +thereby do the least injury, either to the other. But, as I view a +peace between France & England the ensuing winter to be certain, I +have thought it would have been better for us to continue to bear +from France through the present summer, what we have been bearing +both from her & England these four years, and still continue to bear +from England, and to have required indemnification in the hour of +peace, when I verily believe it would have been yielded by both. +This seems to be the plan of the other neutral nations; and whether +this, or the commencing war on one of them, as we have done, would +have been wisest, time & events must decide. But I am quite at a +loss on what ground the letter writer can question the opinion, that +France had no intention of making war on us, & was willing to treat +with Mr. Gerry, when we have this from Taleyrand's letter, and from +the written and verbal information of our envoys. It is true then, +that, as with England, we might of right have chosen either peace or +war, & have chosen peace, and prudently in my opinion, so with +France, we might also of right have chosen either peace or war, & we +have chosen war. Whether the choice may be a popular one in the +other States, I know not. Here it certainly is not; & I have no +doubt the whole American people will rally ere long to the same +sentiment, & rejudge those who, at present, think they have all +judgment in their own hands. + + These observations will show you, how far the imputations in +the paragraph sent me approach the truth. Yet they are not intended +for a newspaper. At a very early period of my life, I determined +never to put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religiously +adhered to the resolution through my life, and have great reason to +be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of +the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time, & that of 20. +aids could effect. For while I should be answering one, twenty new +ones would be invented. I have thought it better to trust to the +justice of my countrymen, that they would judge me by what they _see_ +of my conduct on the stage where they have placed me, & what they +know of me _before_ the epoch since which a particular party has +supposed it might answer some view of theirs to vilify me in the +public eye. Some, I know, will not reflect how apocryphal is the +testimony of enemies so palpably betraying the views with which they +give it. But this is an injury to which duty requires every one to +submit whom the public think proper to call inn to it's councils. I +thank you, my dear Sir, for the interest you have taken for me on +this occasion. Though I have made up my mind not to suffer calumny +to disturb my tranquillity, yet I retain all my sensibilities for the +approbation of the good & just. That is, indeed, the chief +consolations for the hatred of so many, who, without the least +personal knowledge, & on the sacred evidence of Porcupine & Fenno +alone, cover me with their implacable hatred. The only return I will +ever make them, will be to do them all the good I can, in spite of +their teeth. + + + I have the pleasure to inform you that all your friends in this +quarter are well, and to assure you of the sentiments of sincere +esteem & respect with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant. + + + A PROFESSION OF POLITICAL FAITH + + _To Elbridge Gerry_ + _Philadelphia, Jan. 26, 1799_ + + MY DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Nov. 12 was safely delivered to +me by mr. Binney, but not till Dec. 28, as I arrived here only three +days before that date. It was received with great satisfaction. Our +very long intimacy as fellow-laborers in the same cause, the recent +expressions of mutual confidence which had preceded your mission, the +interesting course which that had taken, & particularly & personally +as it regarded yourself, made me anxious to hear from you on your +return. I was the more so too, as I had myself during the whole of +your absence, as well as since your return, been a constant butt for +every shaft of calumny which malice & falsehood could form, & the +presses, public speakers, or private letters disseminate. One of +these, too, was of a nature to touch yourself; as if, wanting +confidence in your efforts, I had been capable of usurping powers +committed to you, & authorizing negociations private & collateral to +yours. The real truth is, that though Dr Logan, the pretended +missionary, about 4. or 5. days before he sailed for Hamburgh, told +me he was going there, & thence to Paris, & asked & received from me +a certificate of his citizenship, character, & circumstances of life, +merely as a protection, should he be molested on his journey, in the +present turbulent & suspicious state of Europe, yet I had been led to +consider his object as relative to his private affairs; and tho', +from an intimacy of some standing, he knew well my wishes for peace +and my political sentiments in general, he nevertheless received then +no particular declaration of them, no authority to communicate them +to any mortal, nor to speak to any one in my name, or in anybody's +name, on that, or on any other subject whatever; nor did I write by +him a scrip of a pen to any person whatever. This he has himself +honestly & publicly declared since his return; & from his well-known +character & every other circumstance, every candid man must perceive +that his enterprise was dictated by his own enthusiasm, without +consultation or communication with any one; that he acted in Paris on +his own ground, & made his own way. Yet to give some color to his +proceedings, which might implicate the republicans in general, & +myself particularly, they have not been ashamed to bring forward a +suppositious paper, drawn by one of their own party in the name of +Logan, and falsely pretended to have been presented by him to the +government of France; counting that the bare mention of my name +therein, would connect that in the eye of the public with this +transaction. In confutation of these and all future calumnies, by +way of anticipation, I shall make to you a profession of my political +faith; in confidence that you will consider every future imputation +on me of a contrary complexion, as bearing on its front the mark of +falsehood & calumny. + + I do then, with sincere zeal, wish an inviolable preservation +of our present federal constitution, according to the true sense in +which it was adopted by the States, that in which it was advocated by +it's friends, & not that which it's enemies apprehended, who +therefore became it's enemies; and I am opposed to the monarchising +it's features by the forms of it's administration, with a view to +conciliate a first transition to a President & Senate for life, & +from that to a hereditary tenure of these offices, & thus to worm out +the elective principle. I am for preserving to the States the powers +not yielded by them to the Union, & to the legislature of the Union +it's constitutional share in the division of powers; and I am not for +transferring all the powers of the States to the general government, +& all those of that government to the Executive branch. I am for a +government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible +savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; +and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make +partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the +principle of it's being a public blessing. I am for relying, for +internal defence, on our militia solely, till actual invasion, and +for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors +from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing +army in time of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor +for a navy, which, by it's own expenses and the eternal wars in which +it will implicate us, will grind us with public burthens, & sink us +under them. I am for free commerce with all nations; political +connection with none; & little or no diplomatic establishment. And I +am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of +Europe; entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, +or joining in the confederacy of kings to war against the principles +of liberty. I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to +bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another: for freedom +of the press, & against all violations of the constitution to silence +by force & not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or +unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents. And I +am for encouraging the progress of science in all it's branches; and +not for raising a hue and cry against the sacred name of philosophy; +for awing the human mind by stories of raw-head & bloody bones to a +distrust of its own vision, & to repose implicitly on that of others; +to go backwards instead of forwards to look for improvement; to +believe that government, religion, morality, & every other science +were in the highest perfection in ages of the darkest ignorance, and +that nothing can ever be devised more perfect than what was +established by our forefathers. To these I will add, that I was a +sincere well-wisher to the success of the French revolution, and +still wish it may end in the establishment of a free & well-ordered +republic; but I have not been insensible under the atrocious +depredations they have committed on our commerce. The first object +of my heart is my own country. In that is embarked my family, my +fortune, & my own existence. I have not one farthing of interest, +nor one fibre of attachment out of it, nor a single motive of +preference of any one nation to another, but in proportion as they +are more or less friendly to us. But though deeply feeling the +injuries of France, I did not think war the surest means of +redressing them. I did believe, that a mission sincerely disposed to +preserve peace, would obtain for us a peaceable & honorable +settlement & retribution; and I appeal to you to say, whether this +might not have been obtained, if either of your colleagues had been +of the same sentiment with yourself. + + These, my friend, are my principles; they are unquestionably +the principles of the great body of our fellow citizens, and I know +there is not one of them which is not yours also. In truth, we never +differed but on one ground, the funding system; and as, from the +moment of it's being adopted by the constituted authorities, I became +religiously principled in the sacred discharge of it to the uttermost +farthing, we are united now even on that single ground of difference. + + I turn now to your inquiries. The enclosed paper will answer +one of them. But you also ask for such political information as may +be possessed by me, & interesting to yourself in regard to your +embassy. As a proof of my entire confidence in you, I shall give it +fully & candidly. When Pinckney, Marshall, and Dana, were nominated +to settle our differences with France, it was suspected by many, from +what was understood of their dispositions, that their mission would +not result in a settlement of differences, but would produce +circumstances tending to widen the breach, and to provoke our +citizens to consent to a war with that nation, & union with England. +Dana's resignation & your appointment gave the first gleam of hope of +a peaceable issue to the mission. For it was believed that you were +sincerely disposed to accommodation; & it was not long after your +arrival there, before symptoms were observed of that difference of +views which had been suspected to exist. In the meantime, however, +the aspect of our government towards the French republic had become +so ardent, that the people of America generally took the alarm. To +the southward, their apprehensions were early excited. In the +Eastern States also, they at length began to break out. Meetings +were held in many of your towns, & addresses to the government agreed +on in opposition to war. The example was spreading like a wildfire. +Other meetings were called in other places, & a general concurrence +of sentiment against the apparent inclinations of the government was +imminent; when, most critically for the government, the despatches of +Octr 22, prepared by your colleague Marshall, with a view to their +being made public, dropped into their laps. It was truly a God-send +to them, & they made the most of it. Many thousands of copies were +printed & dispersed gratis, at the public expence; & the zealots for +war co-operated so heartily, that there were instances of single +individuals who printed & dispersed 10. or 12,000 copies at their own +expence. The odiousness of the corruption supposed in those papers +excited a general & high indignation among the people. Unexperienced +in such maneuvres, they did not permit themselves even to suspect +that the turpitude of private swindlers might mingle itself +unobserved, & give it's own hue to the communications of the French +government, of whose participation there was neither proof nor +probability. It served, however, for a time, the purpose intended. +The people, in many places, gave a loose to the expressions of their +warm indignation, & of their honest preference of war to dishonor. +The fever was long & successfully kept up, and in the meantime, war +measures as ardently crowded. Still, however, as it was known that +your colleagues were coming away, and yourself to stay, though +disclaiming a separate power to conclude a treaty, it was hoped by +the lovers of peace, that a project of treaty would have been +prepared, ad referendum, on principles which would have satisfied our +citizens, & overawed any bias of the government towards a different +policy. But the expedition of the Sophia, and, as was supposed, the +suggestions of the person charged with your despatches, & his +probable misrepresentations of the real wishes of the American +people, prevented these hopes. They had then only to look forward to +your return for such information, either through the Executive, or +from yourself, as might present to our view the other side of the +medal. The despatches of Oct 22, 97, had presented one face. That +information, to a certain degree, is now received, & the public will +see from your correspondence with Taleyrand, that France, as you +testify, "was sincere and anxious to obtain a reconciliation, not +wishing us to break the British treaty, but only to give her +equivalent stipulations; and in general was disposed to a liberal +treaty." And they will judge whether mr. Pickering's report shews an +inflexible determination to believe no declarations the French +government can make, nor any opinion which you, judging on the spot & +from actual view, can give of their sincerity, and to meet their +designs of peace with operations of war. The alien & sedition acts +have already operated in the South as powerful sedatives of the X. Y. +Z. inflammation. In your quarter, where violations of principle are +either less regarded or more concealed, the direct tax is likely to +have the same effect, & to excite inquiries into the object of the +enormous expences & taxes we are bringing on. And your information +supervening, that we might have a liberal accommodation if we would, +there can be little doubt of the reproduction of that general +movement, by the despatches of Oct. 22. And tho' small checks & +stops, like Logan's pretended embassy, may be thrown in the way from +time to time, & may a little retard it's motion, yet the tide is +already turned, and will sweep before it all the feeble obstacles of +art. The unquestionable republicanism of the American mind will +break through the mist under which it has been clouded, and will +oblige it's agents to reform the principles & practices of their +administration. + + You suppose that you have been abused by both parties. As far +as has come to my knowledge, you are misinformed. I have never seen +or heard a sentence of blame uttered against you by the republicans; +unless we were so to construe their wishes that you had more boldly +co-operated in a project of a treaty, and would more explicitly +state, whether there was in your colleages that flexibility, which +persons earnest after peace would have practised? Whether, on the +contrary, their demeanor was not cold, reserved, and distant, at +least, if not backward? And whether, if they had yielded to those +informal conferences which Taleyrand seems to have courted, the +liberal accommodation you suppose might not have been effected, even +with their agency? Your fellow-citizens think they have a right to +full information, in a case of such great concern to them. It is +their sweat which is to earn all the expences of the war, and their +blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it. It may be +in your power to save them from these miseries by full communications +and unrestrained details, postponing motives of delicacy to those of +duty. It rests for you to come forward independently; to take your +stand on the high ground of your own character; to disregard calumny, +and to be borne above it on the shoulders of your grateful fellow +citizens; or to sink into the humble oblivion, to which the +Federalists (self-called) have secretly condemned you; and even to be +happy if they will indulge you with oblivion, while they have beamed +on your colleagues meridian splendor. Pardon me, my dear Sir, if my +expressions are strong. My feelings are so much more so, that it is +with difficulty I reduce them even to the tone I use. If you doubt +the dispositions towards you, look into the papers, on both sides, +for the toasts which were given throughout the States on the 4th of +July. You will there see whose hearts were with you, and whose were +ulcerated against you. Indeed, as soon as it was known that you had +consented to stay in Paris, there was no measure observed in the +execrations of the war party. They openly wished you might be +guillotined, or sent to Cayenne, or anything else. And these +expressions were finally stifled from a principle of policy only, & +to prevent you from being urged to a justification of yourself. From +this principle alone proceed the silence and cold respect they +observe towards you. Still, they cannot prevent at times the flames +bursting from under the embers, as mr. Pickering's letters, report, & +conversations testify, as well as the indecent expressions respecting +you, indulged by some of them in the debate on these despatches. +These sufficiently show that you are never more to be honored or +trusted by them, and that they await to crush you for ever, only till +they can do it without danger to themselves. + + When I sat down to answer your letter, but two courses +presented themselves, either to say nothing or everything; for half +confidences are not in my character. I could not hesitate which was +due to you. I have unbosomed myself fully; & it will certainly be +highly gratifying if I receive like confidence from you. For even if +we differ in principle more than I believe we do, you & I know too +well the texture of the human mind, & the slipperiness of human +reason, to consider differences of opinion otherwise than differences +of form or feature. Integrity of views more than their soundness, is +the basis of esteem. I shall follow your direction in conveying this +by a private hand; tho' I know not as yet when one worthy of +confidence will occur. And my trust in you leaves me without a fear +that this letter, meant as a confidential communication of my +impressions, will ever go out of your hand, or be suffered in anywise +to commit my name. Indeed, besides the accidents which might happen +to it even under your care, considering the accident of death to +which you are liable, I think it safest to pray you, after reading it +as often as you please, to destroy at least the 2d & 3d leaves. The +1st contains principles only, which I fear not to avow; but the 2d & +3d contain facts stated for your information, and which, though +sacredly conformable to my firm belief, yet would be galling to some, +& expose me to illiberal attacks. I therefore repeat my prayer to +burn the 2d & 3d leaves. And did we ever expect to see the day, +when, breathing nothing but sentiments of love to our country & it's +freedom & happiness, our correspondence must be as secret as if we +were hatching it's destruction! Adieu, my friend, and accept my +sincere & affectionate salutations. I need not add my signature. + + + "THE SPIRIT OF 1776" + + _To Thomas Lomax_ + _Monticello, Mar. 12, 1799_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your welcome favor of last month came to my hands +in Philadelphia. So long a time has elapsed since we have been +separated by events, that it was like a letter from the dead, and +recalled to my memory very dear recollections. My subsequent journey +through life has offered nothing which, in comparison with those, is +not cheerless & dreary. It is a rich comfort sometimes to look back +on them. + + I take the liberty of enclosing a letter to mr. Baylor, open, +because I solicit your perusal of it. It will, at the same time, +furnish the apology for my not answering you from Philadelphia. You +ask for any communication I may be able to make, which may administer +comfort to you. I can give that which is solid. The spirit of 1776 +is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American +people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have +been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the +dupes of artful man;oeuvres, & made for a moment to be willing +instruments in forging chains for themselves. But time & truth have +dissipated the delusion, & opened their eyes. They see now that +France has sincerely wished peace, & their seducers have wished war, +as well for the loaves & fishes which arise out of war expences, as +for the chance of changing the constitution, while the people should +have time to contemplate nothing but the levies of men and money. +Pennsylvania, Jersey & N York are coming majestically round to the +true principles. In Pensylva, 13. out of 22. counties had already +petitioned on the alien & sedition laws. Jersey & N Y had begun the +same movement, and tho' the rising of Congress stops that channel for +the expression of their sentiment, the sentiment is going on rapidly, +& before their next meeting those three States will be solidly +embodied in sentiment with the six Southern & Western ones. The +atrocious proceedings of France towards this country, had well nigh +destroyed its liberties. The Anglomen and monocrats had so artfully +confounded the cause of France with that of freedom, that both went +down in the same scale. I sincerely join you in abjuring all +political connection with every foreign power; and tho I cordially +wish well to the progress of liberty in all nations, and would +forever give it the weight of our countenance, yet they are not to be +touched without contamination from their other bad principles. +Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. + + Accept assurances of the constant & unaltered affection of, +dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant. + + + FREEDOM OF MIND + + _To William Green Munford_ + _Monticello, June 18, 1799_ + + DEAR SIR -- I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of +May 14 in which you mention that you have finished the 6. first books +of Euclid, plane trigonometry, surveying & algebra and ask whether I +think a further pursuit of that branch of science would be useful to +you. There are some propositions in the latter books of Euclid, & +some of Archimedes, which are useful, & I have no doubt you have been +made acquainted with them. Trigonometry, so far as this, is most +valuable to every man. There is scarcely a day in which he will not +resort to it for some of the purposes of common life. The science of +calculation also is indispensible as far as the extraction of the +square & cube roots; algebra as far as the quadratic equation & the +use of logarithms are often of value in ordinary cases: but all +beyond these is but a luxury; a delicious luxury indeed; but not to +be indulged in by one who is to have a profession to follow for his +subsistence. In this light I view the conic sections, curves of the +higher orders, perhaps even spherical trigonometry, algebraical +operations beyond the 2d dimension, and fluxions. There are other +branches of science however worth the attention of every man. +Astronomy, botany, chemistry, natural philosophy, natural history, +anatomy. Not indeed to be a proficient in them; but to possess their +general principles & outlines, so as that we may be able to amuse and +inform ourselves further in any of them as we proceed through life & +have occasion for them. Some knowledge of them is necessary for our +character as well as comfort. The general elements of astronomy & of +natural philosophy are best acquired at an academy where we can have +the benefit of the instruments & apparatus usually provided there: +but the others may well be acquired from books alone as far as our +purposes require. I have indulged myself in these observations to +you, because the evidence cannot be unuseful to you of a person who +has often had occasion to consider which of his acquisitions in +science have been really useful to him in life, and which of them +have been merely a matter of luxury. + + I am among those who think well of the human character +generally. I consider man as formed for society, and endowed by +nature with those dispositions which fit him for society. I believe +also, with Condorcet, as mentioned in your letter, that his mind is +perfectible to a degree of which we cannot as yet form any +conception. It is impossible for a man who takes a survey of what is +already known, not to see what an immensity in every branch of +science yet remains to be discovered, & that too of articles to which +our faculties seem adequate. In geometry & calculation we know a +great deal. Yet there are some desiderata. In anatomy great +progress has been made; but much is still to be acquired. In natural +history we possess knowlege; but we want a great deal. In chemistry +we are not yet sure of the first elements. Our natural philosophy is +in a very infantine state; perhaps for great advances in it, a +further progress in chemistry is necessary. Surgery is well +advanced; but prodigiously short of what may be. The state of +medecine is worse than that of total ignorance. Could we divest +ourselves of every thing we suppose we know in it, we should start +from a higher ground & with fairer prospects. From Hippocrates to +Brown we have had nothing but a succession of hypothetical systems +each having it's day of vogue, like the fashions & fancies of caps & +gowns, & yielding in turn to the next caprice. Yet the human frame, +which is to be the subject of suffering & torture under these learned +modes, does not change. We have a few medecines, as the bark, opium, +mercury, which in a few well defined diseases are of unquestionable +virtue: but the residuary list of the materia medica, long as it is, +contains but the charlataneries of the art; and of the diseases of +doubtful form, physicians have ever had a false knowlege, worse than +ignorance. Yet surely the list of unequivocal diseases & remedies is +capable of enlargement; and it is still more certain that in the +other branches of science, great fields are yet to be explored to +which our faculties are equal, & that to an extent of which we cannot +fix the limits. I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the +idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances. This is +precisely the doctrine which the present despots of the earth are +inculcating, & their friends here re-echoing; & applying especially +to religion & politics; `that it is not probable that any thing +better will be discovered than what was known to our fathers.' We are +to look backwards then & not forwards for the improvement of science, +& to find it amidst feudal barbarisms and the fires of Spital-fields. +But thank heaven the American mind is already too much opened, to +listen to these impostures; and while the art of printing is left to +us, science can never be retrograde; what is once acquired of real +knowlege can never be lost. To preserve the freedom of the human +mind then & freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to +devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, & +speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement. +The generation which is going off the stage has deserved well of +mankind for the struggles it has made, & for having arrested that +course of despotism which had overwhelmed the world for thousands & +thousands of years. If there seems to be danger that the ground they +have gained will be lost again, that danger comes from the generation +your cotemporary. But that the enthusiasm which characterises youth +should lift its parricide hands against freedom & science, would be +such a monstrous phaenomenon as I cannot place among possible things +in this age & this country. Your college at least has shewn itself +incapable of it; and if the youth of any other place have seemed to +rally under other banners it has been from delusions which they will +soon dissipate. I shall be happy to hear from you from time to time, +& of your progress in study, and to be useful to you in whatever is +in my power; being with sincere esteem Dear Sir your friend & servt + + + COMMON LAW AND THE WILL OF THE NATION + + _To Edmund Randolph_ + _Monticello, Aug. 18, 1799_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received only two days ago your favor of the +12th, and as it was on the eve of the return of our post, it was not +possible to make so prompt a despatch of the answer. Of all the +doctrines which have ever been broached by the federal government, +the novel one, of the common law being in force & cognizable as an +existing law in their courts, is to me the most formidable. All +their other assumptions of un-given powers have been in the detail. +The bank law, the treaty doctrine, the sedition act, alien act, the +undertaking to change the state laws of evidence in the state courts +by certain parts of the stamp act, &c., &c., have been solitary, +unconsequential, timid things, in comparison with the audacious, +barefaced and sweeping pretension to a system of law for theU S, +without the adoption of their legislature, and so infinitively beyond +their power to adopt. If this assumption be yielded to, the state +courts may be shut up, as there will then be nothing to hinder +citizens of the same state suing each other in the federal courts in +every case, as on a bond for instance, because the common law obliges +payment of it, & the common law they say is their law. I am happy +you have taken up the subject; & I have carefully perused & +considered the notes you enclosed, and find but a single paragraph +which I do not approve. It is that wherein (page 2.) you say, that +laws being emanations from the legislative department, &, when once +enacted, continuing in force from a presumption that their will so +continues, that that presumption fails & the laws of course fall, on +the destruction of that legislative department. I do not think this +is the true bottom on which laws & the administering them rest. The +whole body of the nation is the sovereign legislative, judiciary and +executive power for itself. The inconvenience of meeting to exercise +these powers in person, and their inaptitude to exercise them, induce +them to appoint special organs to declare their legislative will, to +judge & to execute it. It is the will of the nation which makes the +law obligatory; it is their will which creates or annihilates the +organ which is to declare & announce it. They may do it by a single +person, as an Emperor of Russia, (constituting his declarations +evidence of their will,) or by a few persons, as the Aristocracy of +Venice, or by a complication of councils, as in our former regal +government, or our present republican one. The law being law because +it is the will of the nation, is not changed by their changing the +organ through which they chuse to announce their future will; no more +than the acts I have done by one attorney lose their obligation by my +changing or discontinuing that attorney. This doctrine has been, in +a certain degree sanctioned by the federal executive. For it is +precisely that on which the continuance of obligation from our treaty +with France was established, and the doctrine was particularly +developed in a letter to Gouverneur Morris, written with the +approbation of President Washington and his cabinet. Mercer once +prevailed on the Virginia Assembly to declare a different doctrine in +some resolutions. These met universal disapprobation in this, as +well as the other States, and if I mistake not, a subsequent Assembly +did something to do away the authority of their former unguarded +resolutions. In this case, as in all others, the true principle will +be quite as effectual to establish the just deductions, for before +the revolution, the nation of Virginia had, by the organs they then +thought proper to constitute, established a system of laws, which +they divided into three denominations of 1, common law; 2, statute +law; 3, Chancery: or if you please, into two only, of 1, common law; +2, Chancery. When, by the declaration of Independence, they chose to +abolish their former organs of declaring their will, the acts of will +already formally & constitutionally declared, remained untouched. +For the nation was not dissolved, was not annihilated; it's will, +therefore, remained in full vigor; and on the establishing the new +organs, first of a convention, & afterwards a more complicated +legislature, the old acts of national will continued in force, until +the nation should, by its new organs, declare it's will changed. The +common law, therefore, which was not in force when we landed here, +nor till we had formed ourselves into a nation, and had manifested by +the organs we constituted that the common law was to be our law, +continued to be our law, because the nation continued in being, & +because though it changed the organs for the future declarations of +its will, yet it did not change its former declarations that the +common law was it's law. Apply these principles to the present case. +Before the revolution there existed no such nation as the U S; they +then first associated as a nation, but for special purposes only. +They had all their laws to make, as Virginia had on her first +establishment as a nation. But they did not, as Virginia had done, +proceed to adopt a whole system of laws ready made to their hand. As +their association as a nation was only for special purposes, to wit, +for the management of their concerns with one another & with foreign +nations, and the states composing the association chose to give it +powers for those purposes & no others, they could not adopt any +general system, because it would have embraced objects on which this +association had no right to form or declare a will. It was not the +organ for declaring a national will in these cases. In the cases +confided to them, they were free to declare the will of the nation, +the law; but till it was declared there could be no law. So that the +common law did not become, ipso facto, law on the new association; it +could only become so by a positive adoption, & so far only as they +were authorized to adopt. + + I think it will be of great importance, when you come to the +proper part, to portray at full length the consequences of this new +doctrine, that the common law is the law of theU S, & that their +courts have, of course, jurisdiction co-extensive with that law, that +is to say, general over all cases & persons. But, great heavens! +Who could have conceived in 1789 that within ten years we should have +to combat such windmills. Adieu. Yours affectionately. + + + IDEAS FOR A UNIVERSITY + + _To Dr. Joseph Priestley_ + _Philadelphia, Jan. 18, 1800_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have to thank you for the pamphlets you were so +kind as to send me. You will know what I thought of them by my +having before sent a dozen sets to Virginia to distribute among my +friends. Yet I thank you not the less for these, which I value the +more as they came from yourself. The stock of them which Campbell +had was, I believe, exhausted the first or second day of advertising +them. The Papers of political arithmetic, both in your & Mr. +Cooper's pamphlets, are the most precious gifts that can be made to +us; for we are running navigation mad, & commerce mad, & navy mad, +which is worst of all. How desirable is it that you could pursue +that subject for us. From the Porcupines of our country you will +receive no thanks; but the great mass of our nation will edify & +thank you. How deeply have I been chagrined & mortified at the +persecutions which fanaticism & monarchy have excited against you, +even here! At first I believed it was merely a continuance of the +English persecution. But I observe that on the demise of Porcupine & +division of his inheritance between Fenno & Brown, the latter (tho' +succeeding only to the _federal_ portion of Porcupinism, not the +_Anglican_, which is Fenno's part) serves up for the palate of his +sect, dishes of abuse against you as high seasoned as Porcupine's +were. You have sinned against church & king, & can therefore never +be forgiven. How sincerely have I regretted that your friend, before +he fixed his choice of a position, did not visit the vallies on each +side of the blue ridge in Virginia, as Mr. Madison & myself so much +wished. You would have found there equal soil, the finest climate & +most healthy one on the earth, the homage of universal reverence & +love, & the power of the country spread over you as a shield. But +since you would not make it your country by adoption, you must now do +it by your good offices. I have one to propose to you which will +produce their good, & gratitude to you for ages, and in the way to +which you have devoted a long life, that of spreading light among +men. + + We have in that state a college (Wm. & Mary) just well enough +endowed to draw out the miserable existence to which a miserable +constitution has doomed it. It is moreover eccentric in it's +position, exposed to bilious diseases as all the lower country is, & +therefore abandoned by the public care, as that part of the country +itself is in a considerable degree by it's inhabitants. We wish to +establish in the upper & healthier country, & more centrally for the +state, an University on a plan so broad & liberal & _modern_, as to +be worth patronizing with the public support, and be a temptation to +the youth of other states to come and drink of the cup of knowledge & +fraternize with us. The first step is to obtain a good plan; that +is, a judicious selection of the sciences, & a practicable grouping +of some of them together, & ramifying of others, so as to adapt the +professorships to our uses & our means. In an institution meant +chiefly for use, some branches of science, formerly esteemed, may be +now omitted; so may others now valued in Europe, but useless to us +for ages to come. As an example of the former, the oriental +learning, and of the latter, almost the whole of the institution +proposed to Congress by the Secretary of war's report of the 5th +inst. Now there is no one to whom this subject is so familiar as +yourself. There is no one in the world who, equally with yourself, +unites this full possession of the subject with such a knowledge of +the state of our existence, as enables you to fit the garment to him +who is to _pay_ for it & to _wear_ it. To you therefore we address +our solicitations, and to lessen to you as much as possible the +ambiguities of our object, I will venture even to sketch the sciences +which seem useful & practicable for us, as they occur to me while +holding my pen. Botany, Chemistry, Zoology, Anatomy, Surgery, +Medicine, Natl Philosophy, Agriculture, Mathematics, Astronomy, +Geology, Geography, Politics, Commerce, History, Ethics, Law, Arts, +Finearts. This list is imperfect because I make it hastily, and +because I am unequal to the subject. It is evident that some of +these articles are too much for one professor & must therefore be +ramified; others may be ascribed in groups to a single professor. +This is the difficult part of the work, & requires a head perfectly +knowing the extent of each branch, & the limits within which it may +be circumscribed, so as to bring the whole within the powers of the +fewest professors possible, & consequently within the degree of +expence practicable for us. We should propose that the professors +follow no other calling, so that their whole time may be given to +their academical functions; and we should propose to draw from Europe +the first characters in science, by considerable temptations, which +would not need to be repeated after the first set should have +prepared fit successors & given reputation to the institution. From +some splendid characters I have received offers most perfectly +reasonable & practicable. + + I do not propose to give you all this trouble merely of my own +head, that would be arrogance. It has been the subject of +consultation among the ablest and highest characters of our State, +who only wait for a plan to make a joint & I hope successful effort +to get the thing carried into effect. They will receive your ideas +with the greatest deference & thankfulness. We shall be here +certainly for two months to come; but should you not have leisure to +think of it before Congress adjourns, it will come safely to me +afterwards by post, the nearest post office being Milton. + + Will not the arrival of Dupont tempt you to make a visit to +this quarter? I have no doubt the alarmists are already whetting +their shafts for him also, but their glass is nearly run out, and the +day I believe is approaching when we shall be as free to pursue what +is true wisdom as the effects of their follies will permit; for some +of them we shall be forced to wade through because we are emerged in +them. + + Wishing you that pure happiness which your pursuits and +circumstances offer, and which I am sure you are too wise to suffer a +diminution of by the pigmy assaults made on you, and with every +sentiment of affectionate esteem & respect, I am, dear Sir, your most +humble, and most obedient servant. + + + "A SUBLIME LUXURY" + + _To Dr. Joseph Priestley_ + _Philadelphia, Jan. 27, 1800_ + + DEAR SIR, -- In my letter of the 18th, I omitted to say any +thing of the languages as part of our proposed university. It was +not that I think, as some do, that they are useless. I am of a very +different opinion. I do not think them essential to the obtaining +eminent degrees of science; but I think them very useful towards it. +I suppose there is a portion of life during which our faculties are +ripe enough for this, & for nothing more useful. I think the Greeks +& Romans have left us the present models which exist of fine +composition, whether we examine them as works of reason, or of style +& fancy; and to them we probably owe these characteristics of modern +composition. I know of no composition of any other antient people, +which merits the least regard as a model for it's matter or style. +To all this I add, that to read the Latin & Greek authors in their +original, is a sublime luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at +least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening, or the +other arts. I enjoy Homer in his own language infinitely beyond +Pope's translation of him, & both beyond the dull narrative of the +same events by Dares Phrygius; & it is an innocent enjoyment. I +thank on my knees, him who directed my early education, for having +put into my possession this rich source of delight; and I would not +exchange it for anything which I could then have acquired, & have not +since acquired. With this regard for those languages, you will +acquit me of meaning to omit them. About 20. years ago, I drew a +bill for our legislature, which proposed to lay off every county into +hundreds or townships of 5. or 6. miles square, in the centre of each +of which was to be a free English school; the whole state was further +laid off into 10. districts, in each of which was to be a college for +teaching the languages, geography, surveying, and other useful things +of that grade; and then a single University for the sciences. It was +received with enthusiasm; but as I had proposed that Wm & Mary, under +an improved form, should be the University, & that was at that time +pretty highly Episcopal, the dissenters after a while began to +apprehend some secret design of a preference to that sect and nothing +could then be done. About 3. years ago they enacted that part of my +bill which related to English schools, except that instead of +obliging, they left it optional in the court of every county to carry +it into execution or not. I think it probable the part of the plan +for the middle grade of education, may also be brought forward in due +time. In the meanwhile, we are not without a sufficient number of +good country schools, where the languages, geography, & the first +elements of Mathematics, are taught. Having omitted this information +in my former letter, I thought it necessary now to supply it, that +you might know on what base your superstructure was to be reared. I +have a letter from M. Dupont, since his arrival at N. York, dated the +20th, in which he says he will be in Philadelphia within about a +fortnight from that time; but only on a visit. How much would it +delight me if a visit from you at the same time, were to shew us two +such illustrious foreigners embracing each other in my country, as +the asylum for whatever is great & good. Pardon, I pray you, the +temporary delirium which has been excited here, but which is fast +passing away. The Gothic idea that we are to look backwards instead +of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to +the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, +in religion & in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion & +government, by whom it has been recommended, & whose purposes it +would answer. But it is not an idea which this country will endure; +and the moment of their showing it is fast ripening; and the signs of +it will be their respect for you, & growing detestation of those who +have dishonored our country by endeavors to disturb our tranquility +in it. No one has felt this with more sensibility than, my dear Sir, +your respectful & affectionate friend & servant. + + + THE 18TH BRUMAIRE + + _To John Breckinridge_ + _Philadelphia, Jan. 29, 1800_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 13th has been duly received, as +had been that containing the resolutions of your legislature on the +subject of the former resolutions. I was glad to see the subject +taken up, and done with so much temper, firmness and propriety. From +the reason of the thing I cannot but hope that the Western country +will be laid off into a separate Judiciary district. From what I +recollect of the dispositions on the same subject at the last +session, I should expect that the partiality to a general & uniform +system would yield to geographical & physical impracticabilities. I +was once a great advocate for introducing into chancery viva voce +testimony, & trial by jury. I am still so as to the latter, but have +retired from the former opinion on the information received from both +your state & ours, that it worked inconveniently. I introduced it +into the Virginia law, but did not return to the bar, so as to see +how it answered. But I do not understand how the viva voce +examination comes to be practiced in the Federal court with you, & +not in your own courts; the Federal courts being decided by law to +proceed & decide by the laws of the states. + + A great revolution has taken place at Paris. The people of +that country having never been in the habit of self-government, are +not yet in the habit of acknoleging that fundamental law of nature, +by which alone self government can be exercised by a society, I mean +the _lex majoris partis_. Of the sacredness of this law, our +countrymen are impressed from their cradle, so that with them it is +almost innate. This single circumstance may possibly decide the fate +of the two nations. One party appears to have been prevalent in the +Directory & council of 500. the other in the council of antients. +Sieyes & Ducos, the minority in the Directory, not being able to +carry their points there seem to have gained over Buonaparte, & +associating themselves with the majority of the Council of antients, +have expelled (*) 120. odd members the most obnoxious of the minority +of the Elders, & of the majority of the council of 500. so as to give +themselves a majority in the latter council also. They have +established Buonaparte, Sieyes & Ducos into an executive, or rather +Dictatorial consulate, given them a committee of between 20. & 30. +from each council, & have adjourned to the 20th of Feb. Thus the +Constitution of the 3d year which was getting consistency & firmness +from time is demolished in an instant, and nothing is said about a +new one. How the nation will bear it is yet unknown. Had the +Consuls been put to death in the first tumult & before the nation had +time to take sides, the Directory & councils might have reestablished +themselves on the spot. But that not being done, perhaps it is now +to be wished that Buonaparte may be spared, as, according to his +protestations, he is for liberty, equality & representative +government, and he is more able to keep the nation together, & to +ride out the storm than any other. Perhaps it may end in their +establishing a single representative & that in his person. I hope it +will not be for life, for fear of the influence of the example on our +countrymen. It is very material for the latter to be made sensible +that their own character & situation are materially different from +the French; & that whatever may be the fate of republicanism there, +we are able to preserve it inviolate here: we are sensible of the +duty & expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the +majority and can wait with patience till they get right if they +happen to be at any time wrong. Our vessel is moored at such a +distance, that should theirs blow up, ours is still safe, if we will +but think so. + + (*) 60. were expelled from the 500, so as to change the +majority there to the other side. It seems doubtful whether any were +expelled from the Antients. The majority there was already with the +Consular party. + + I had recommended the enclosed letter to the care of the +postmaster at Louisville; but have been advised it is better to get a +friend to forward it by some of the boats. I will ask that favor of +you. It is the duplicate of one with the same address which I +inclosed last week to mr. Innes & should therefore go by a different +conveyance. I am with great esteem dear sir your friend & servant. + + + ILLUMINATISM + + _To Bishop James Madison_ + _Philadelphia, Jan. 31, 1800_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have received your favor of the 17th, & +communicated it to Mr. Smith. I lately forwarded your letter from +Dr. Priestley, endorsed `with a book'; I struck those words through +with my pen, because no book had then come. It is now received, & +shall be forwarded to Richmond by the first opportunity: but such +opportunities are difficult to find; gentlemen going in the stage not +liking to take charge of a packet which is to be attended to every +time the stage is changed. The best chance will be by some captain +of a vessel going round to Richmond. I shall address it to the care +of Mr. George Jefferson there. + + I have lately by accident got a sight of a single volume (the +3d.) of the Abbe Barruel's `Antisocial conspiracy,' which gives me +the first idea I have ever had of what is meant by the Illuminatism +against which `illuminate Morse' as he is now called, & his +ecclesiastical & monarchical associates have been making such a hue +and cry. Barruel's own parts of the book are perfectly the ravings +of a Bedlamite. But he quotes largely from Wishaupt whom he +considers as the founder of what he calls the order. As you may not +have had an opportunity of forming a judgment of this cry of `mad +dog' which has been raised against his doctrines, I will give you the +idea I have formed from only an hour's reading of Barruel's +quotations from him, which you may be sure are not the most +favorable. Wishaupt seems to be an enthusiastic Philanthropist. He +is among those (as you know the excellent Price and Priestley also +are) who believe in the indefinite perfectibility of man. He thinks +he may in time be rendered so perfect that he will be able to govern +himself in every circumstance so as to injure none, to do all the +good he can, to leave government no occasion to exercise their powers +over him, & of course to render political government useless. This +you know is Godwin's doctrine, and this is what Robinson, Barruel & +Morse had called a conspiracy against all government. Wishaupt +believes that to promote this perfection of the human character was +the object of Jesus Christ. That his intention was simply to +reinstate natural religion, & by diffusing the light of his morality, +to teach us to govern ourselves. His precepts are the love of god & +love of our neighbor. And by teaching innocence of conduct, he +expected to place men in their natural state of liberty & equality. +He says, no one ever laid a surer foundation for liberty than our +grand master, Jesus of Nazareth. He believes the Free masons were +originally possessed of the true principles & objects of +Christianity, & have still preserved some of them by tradition, but +much disfigured. The means he proposes to effect this improvement of +human nature are `to enlighten men, to correct their morals & inspire +them with benevolence. Secure of our success, sais he, we abstain +from violent commotions. To have foreseen the happiness of posterity +& to have prepared it by irreproachable means, suffices for our +felicity. The tranquility of our consciences is not troubled by the +reproach of aiming at the ruin or overthrow of states or thrones.' As +Wishaupt lived under the tyranny of a despot & priests, he knew that +caution was necessary even in spreading information, & the principles +of pure morality. He proposed therefore to lead the Free masons to +adopt this object & to make the objects of their institution the +diffusion of science & virtue. He proposed to initiate new members +into his body by gradations proportioned to his fears of the +thunderbolts of tyranny. This has given an air of mystery to his +views, was the foundation of his banishment, the subversion of the +masonic order, & is the colour for the ravings against him of +Robinson, Barruel & Morse, whose real fears are that the craft would +be endangered by the spreading of information, reason, & natural +morality among men. This subject being new to me, I have imagined +that if it be so to you also, you may receive the same satisfaction +in seeing, which I have had in forming the analysis of it: & I +believe you will think with me that if Wishaupt had written here, +where no secrecy is necessary in our endeavors to render men wise & +virtuous, he would not have thought of any secret machinery for that +purpose. As Godwin, if he had written in Germany, might probably +also have thought secrecy & mysticism prudent. I will say nothing to +you on the late revolution of France, which is painfully interesting. +Perhaps when we know more of the circumstances which gave rise to it, +& the direction it will take, Buonaparte, its chief organ, may stand +in a better light than at present. I am with great esteem, dear sir, +your affectionate friend. + + + "A FEW PLAIN DUTIES" + + _To Gideon Granger_ + _Monticello, Aug. 13, 1800_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received with great pleasure your favor of June +4, and am much comforted by the appearance of a change of opinion in +your state; for tho' we may obtain, & I believe shall obtain, a +majority in the legislature of the United States, attached to the +preservation of the Federal constitution according to it's obvious +principles, & those on which it was known to be received; attached +equally to the preservation to the states of those rights +unquestionably remaining with them; friends to the freedom of +religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury & to economical +government; opposed to standing armies, paper systems, war, & all +connection, other than commerce, with any foreign nation; in short, a +majority firm in all those principles which we have espoused and the +federalists have opposed uniformly; still, should the whole body of +New England continue in opposition to these principles of government, +either knowingly or through delusion, our government will be a very +uneasy one. It can never be harmonious & solid, while so respectable +a portion of it's citizens support principles which go directly to a +change of the federal constitution, to sink the state governments, +consolidate them into one, and to monarchize that. Our country is +too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. +Public servants at such a distance, & from under the eye of their +constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to +administer & overlook all the details necessary for the good +government of the citizens, and the same circumstance, by rendering +detection impossible to their constituents, will invite the public +agents to corruption, plunder & waste. And I do verily believe, that +if the principle were to prevail, of a common law being in force in +the U S, (which principle possesses the general government at once of +all the powers of the state governments, and reduces us to a single +consolidated government,) it would become the most corrupt government +on the earth. You have seen the practises by which the public +servants have been able to cover their conduct, or, where that could +not be done, delusions by which they have varnished it for the eye of +their constituents. What an augmentation of the field for jobbing, +speculating, plundering, office-building & office-hunting would be +produced by an assumption of all the state powers into the hands of +the general government. The true theory of our constitution is +surely the wisest & best, that the states are independent as to +everything within themselves, & united as to everything respecting +foreign nations. Let the general government be reduced to foreign +concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all +other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage +the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and +our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization, +& a very unexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few +servants. But I repeat, that this simple & economical mode of +government can never be secured, if the New England States continue +to support the contrary system. I rejoice, therefore, in every +appearance of their returning to those principles which I had always +imagined to be almost innate in them. In this State, a few persons +were deluded by the X. Y. Z. duperies. You saw the effect of it in +our last Congressional representatives, chosen under their influence. +This experiment on their credulity is now seen into, and our next +representation will be as republican as it has heretofore been. On +the whole, we hope, that by a part of the Union having held on to the +principles of the constitution, time has been given to the states to +recover from the temporary frenzy into which they had been decoyed, +to rally round the constitution, & to rescue it from the destruction +with which it had been threatened even at their own hands. I see +copied from the American Magazine two numbers of a paper signed Don +Quixotte, most excellently adapted to introduce the real truth to the +minds even of the most prejudiced. + + I would, with great pleasure, have written the letter you +desired in behalf of your friend, but there are existing +circumstances which render a letter from me to that magistrate as +improper as it would be unavailing. I shall be happy, on some more +fortunate occasion, to prove to you my desire of serving your wishes. + + I sometime ago received a letter from a Mr. M'Gregory of Derby, +in your State; it is written with such a degree of good sense & +appearance of candor, as entitles it to an answer. Yet the writer +being entirely unknown to me, and the stratagems of the times very +multifarious, I have thought it best to avail myself of your +friendship, & enclose the answer to you. You will see it's nature. +If you find from the character of the person to whom it is addressed, +that no improper use would probably be made of it, be so good as to +seal & send it. Otherwise suppress it. + + How will the vote of your State and R I be as to A. and P.? + + I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your friend and +servant. + + + "I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD . . . " + + _To Dr. Benjamin Rush_ + _Monticello, Sep. 23, 1800_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have to acknolege the receipt of your favor of +Aug. 22, and to congratulate you on the healthiness of your city. +Still Baltimore, Norfolk & Providence admonish us that we are not +clear of our new scourge. When great evils happen, I am in the habit +of looking out for what good may arise from them as consolations to +us, and Providence has in fact so established the order of things, as +that most evils are the means of producing some good. The yellow +fever will discourage the growth of great cities in our nation, & I +view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the +liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts, but +the useful ones can thrive elsewhere, and less perfection in the +others, with more health, virtue & freedom, would be my choice. + + I agree with you entirely, in condemning the mania of giving +names to objects of any kind after persons still living. Death alone +can seal the title of any man to this honor, by putting it out of his +power to forfeit it. There is one other mode of recording merit, +which I have often thought might be introduced, so as to gratify the +living by praising the dead. In giving, for instance, a commission +of chief justice to Bushrod Washington, it should be in consideration +of his integrity, and science in the laws, and of the services +rendered to our country by his illustrious relation, &c. A +commission to a descendant of Dr. Franklin, besides being in +consideration of the proper qualifications of the person, should add +that of the great services rendered by his illustrious ancestor, Bn +Fr, by the advancement of science, by inventions useful to man, &c. +I am not sure that we ought to change all our names. And during the +regal government, sometimes, indeed, they were given through +adulation; but often also as the reward of the merit of the times, +sometimes for services rendered the colony. Perhaps, too, a name +when given, should be deemed a sacred property. + + I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not +forgotten. On the contrary, it is because I have reflected on it, +that I find much more time necessary for it than I can at present +dispose of. I have a view of the subject which ought to displease +neither the rational Christian nor Deists, and would reconcile many +to a character they have too hastily rejected. I do not know that it +would reconcile the _genus irritabile vatum_ who are all in arms +against me. Their hostility is on too interesting ground to be +softened. The delusion into which the X. Y. Z. plot shewed it +possible to push the people; the successful experiment made under the +prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the constitution, which, +while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom +of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of +obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity thro' +the U. S.; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, +every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians +& Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country +threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of +power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. +And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, +eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. +But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their +opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets +against me, forging conversations for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison, +&c., which are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to +rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei & Bishop Madison, +for they are men of truth. + + But enough of this: it is more than I have before committed to +paper on the subject of all the lies that has been preached and +printed against me. I have not seen the work of Sonnoni which you +mention, but I have seen another work on Africa, (Parke's,) which I +fear will throw cold water on the hopes of the friends of freedom. +You will hear an account of an attempt at insurrection in this state. +I am looking with anxiety to see what will be it's effect on our +state. We are truly to be pitied. I fear we have little chance to +see you at the Federal city or in Virginia, and as little at +Philadelphia. It would be a great treat to receive you here. But +nothing but sickness could effect that; so I do not wish it. For I +wish you health and happiness, and think of you with affection. +Adieu. + + + "PHILOSOPHICAL VEDETTE" AT A DISTANCE + + _To William Dunbar_ + _Washington, Jan. 12, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of July 14, with the papers +accompanying it, came safely to hand about the last of October. That +containing remarks on the line of demarcation I perused according to +your permission, and with great satisfaction, and then enclosed to a +friend in Philadelphia, to be forwarded to it's address. The papers +addressed to me, I took the liberty of communicating to the +Philosophical society. That on the language by signs is quite new. +Soon after receiving your meteorological diary, I received one of +Quebec; and was struck with the comparison between - 32 & + 19 3/4 +the lowest depression of the thermometer at Quebec & the Natchez. I +have often wondered that any human being should live in a cold +country who can find room in a warm one. I have no doubt but that +cold is the source of more sufferance to all animal nature than +hunger, thirst, sickness, & all the other pains of life & of death +itself put together. I live in a temperate climate, and under +circumstances which do not expose me often to cold. Yet when I +recollect on one hand all the sufferings I have had from cold, & on +the other all my other pains, the former preponderate greatly. What +then must be the sum of that evil if we take in the vast proportion +of men who are obliged to be out in all weather, by land & by sea, +all the families of beasts, birds, reptiles, & even the vegetable +kingdom! for that too has life, and where there is life there may be +sensation. I remark a rainbow of a great portion of the circle +observed by you when on the line of demarcation. I live in a +situation which has given me an opportunity of seeing more than the +semicircle often. I am on a hill 500 f. perpendicularly high. On +the east side it breaks down abruptly to the base, where a river +passes through. A rainbow, therefore, about sunset, plunges one of +it's legs down to the river, 500 f. below the level of the eye on the +top of the hill. I have twice seen bows formed by the moon. They +were of the color of the common circle round the moon, and were very +near, being within a few paces of me in both instances. I thank you +for the little vocabularies of Bedais, Jankawis and Teghas. I have +it much at heart to make as extensive a collection as possible of the +Indian tongues. I have at present about 30. tolerably full, among +which the number radically different, is truly wonderful. It is +curious to consider how such handfuls of men came by different +languages, & how they have preserved them so distinct. I at first +thought of reducing them all to one orthography, but I soon become +sensible that this would occasion two sources of error instead of +one. I therefore think it best to keep them in the form of +orthography in which they were taken, only noting whether that were +English, French, German, or what. I have never been a very punctual +correspondent, and it is possible that new duties may make me less +so. I hope I shall not on that account lose the benefit of your +communications. Philosophical vedette at the distance of one +thousand miles, and on the verge of the terra incognita of our +continent, is precious to us here. I pray you to accept assurances +of my high consideration & esteem, and friendly salutations. + + + THE REVOLUTION OF 1800 + + _To John Dickinson_ + _Washington, Mar. 6, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- No pleasure can exceed that which I received from +reading your letter of the 21st ult. It was like the joy we expect +in the mansions of the blessed, when received with the embraces of +our fathers, we shall be welcomed with their blessing as having done +our part not unworthily of them. The storm through which we have +passed, has been tremendous indeed. The tough sides of our Argosie +have been thoroughly tried. Her strength has stood the waves into +which she was steered, with a view to sink her. We shall put her on +her republican tack, & she will now show by the beauty of her motion +the skill of her builders. Figure apart, our fellow citizens have +been led hood-winked from their principles, by a most extraordinary +combination of circumstances. But the band is removed, and they now +see for themselves. I hope to see shortly a perfect consolidation, +to effect which, nothing shall be spared on my part, short of the +abandonment of the principles of our revolution. A just and solid +republican government maintained here, will be a standing monument & +example for the aim & imitation of the people of other countries; and +I join with you in the hope and belief that they will see, from our +example, that a free government is of all others the most energetic; +that the inquiry which has been excited among the mass of mankind by +our revolution & it's consequences, will ameliorate the condition of +man over a great portion of the globe. What a satisfaction have we +in the contemplation of the benevolent effects of our efforts, +compared with those of the leaders on the other side, who have +discountenanced all advances in science as dangerous innovations, +have endeavored to render philosophy and republicanism terms of +reproach, to persuade us that man cannot be governed but by the rod, +&c. I shall have the happiness of living & dying in the contrary +hope. Accept assurances of my constant & sincere respect and +attachment, and my affectionate salutations. + + + SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN + + _To Dr. Joseph Priestley_ + _Washington, Mar. 21, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I learnt some time ago that you were in +Philadelphia, but that it was only for a fortnight; & supposed you +were gone. It was not till yesterday I received information that you +were still there, had been very ill, but were on the recovery. I +sincerely rejoice that you are so. Yours is one of the few lives +precious to mankind, & for the continuance of which every thinking +man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. What an effort, my +dear Sir, of bigotry in Politics & Religion have we gone through! +The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to +bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put everything into +the hands of power & priestcraft. All advances in science were +proscribed as innovations. They pretended to praise and encourage +education, but it was to be the education of our ancestors. We were +to look backwards, not forwards, for improvement; the President +himself declaring, in one of his answers to addresses, that we were +never to expect to go beyond them in real science. This was the real +ground of all the attacks on you. Those who live by mystery & +_charlatanerie_, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying +the Christian philosophy, -- the most sublime & benevolent, but most +perverted system that ever shone on man, -- endeavored to crush your +well-earnt & well-deserved fame. But it was the Lilliputians upon +Gulliver. Our countrymen have recovered from the alarm into which +art & industry had thrown them; science & honesty are replaced on +their high ground; and you, my dear Sir, as their great apostle, are +on it's pinnacle. It is with heartfelt satisfaction that, in the +first moments of my public action, I can hail you with welcome to our +land, tender to you the homage of it's respect & esteem, cover you +under the protection of those laws which were made for the wise and +good like you, and disdain the legitimacy of that libel on +legislation, which under the form of a law, was for some time placed +among them. + + As the storm is now subsiding, and the horizon becoming serene, +it is pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. We can no +longer say there is nothing new under the sun. For this whole +chapter in the history of man is new. The great extent of our +Republic is new. Its sparse habitation is new. The mighty wave of +public opinion which has rolled over it is new. But the most +pleasing novelty is, it's so quickly subsiding over such an extent of +surface to it's true level again. The order & good sense displayed +in this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous crisis which +lately arose, really bespeak a strength of character in our nation +which augurs well for the duration of our Republic; & I am much +better satisfied now of it's stability than I was before it was +tried. I have been, above all things, solaced by the prospect which +opened on us, in the event of a non-election of a President; in which +case, the federal government would have been in the situation of a +clock or watch run down. There was no idea of force, nor of any +occasion for it. A convention, invited by the Republican members of +Congress, with the virtual President & Vice President, would have +been on the ground in 8. weeks, would have repaired the Constitution +where it was defective, & wound it up again. This peaceable & +legitimate resource, to which we are in the habit of implicit +obedience, superseding all appeal to force, and being always within +our reach, shows a precious principle of self-preservation in our +composition, till a change of circumstances shall take place, which +is not within prospect at any definite period. + + But I have got into a long disquisition on politics, when I +only meant to express my sympathy in the state of your health, and to +tender you all the affections of public & private hospitality. I +should be very happy indeed to see you here. I leave this about the +30th inst., to return about the twenty-fifth of April. If you do not +leave Philadelphia before that, a little excursion hither would help +your health. I should be much gratified with the possession of a +guest I so much esteem, and should claim a right to lodge you, should +you make such an excursion. + + + WISDOM AND PATRIOTISM + + _To Moses Robinson_ + _Washington, March 23, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of +the 3rd instant, and to thank you for the friendly expressions it +contains. I entertain real hope that the whole body of your fellow +citizens (many of whom had been carried away by the X. Y. Z. +business) will shortly be consolidated in the same sentiments. When +they examine the real principles of both parties, I think they will +find little to differ about. I know, indeed, that there are some of +their leaders who have so committed themselves, that pride, if no +other passion, will prevent their coalescing. We must be easy with +them. The eastern States will be the last to come over, on account +of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between +Church and State, and began to indulge reveries which can never be +realised in the present state of science. If, indeed, they could +have prevailed on us to view all advances in science as dangerous +innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our +forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising +groundwork would have been laid. But I am in hopes their good sense +will dictate to them, that since the mountain will not come to them, +they had better go to the mountain: that they will find their +interest in acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country, +and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which +they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and +simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others +most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the +human mind. + + I sincerely wish with you, we could see our government so +secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose +hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in, and with such an +immense patronage, may make great progress in corrupting the public +mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and +patriotism should be occupied. + + I pray you to accept assurances of my high respect and esteem. + + + RECONCILIATION AND REFORM + + _To Elbridge Gerry_ + _Washington, Mar. 29, 1801_ + + MY DEAR SIR, -- Your two letters of Jan. 15 and Feb. 24, came +safely to hand, and I thank you for the history of a transaction +which will ever be interesting in our affairs. It has been very +precisely as I had imagined. I thought, on your return, that if you +had come forward boldly, and appealed to the public by a full +statement, it would have had a great effect in your favor personally, +& that of the republican cause then oppressed almost unto death. But +I judged from a tact of the southern pulse. I suspect that of the +north was different and decided your conduct; and perhaps it has been +as well. If the revolution of sentiment has been later, it has +perhaps been not less sure. At length it is arrived. What with the +natural current of opinion which has been setting over to us for 18. +months, and the immense impetus which was given it from the 11th to +the 17th of Feb., we may now say that the U.S. from N.Y. southwardly, +are as unanimous in the principles of '76, as they were in '76. The +only difference is, that the leaders who remain behind are more +numerous & bolder than the apostles of toryism in '76. The reason +is, that we are now justly more tolerant than we could safely have +been then, circumstanced as we were. Your part of the Union tho' as +absolutely republican as ours, had drunk deeper of the delusion, & is +therefore slower in recovering from it. The aegis of government, & +the temples of religion & of justice, have all been prostituted there +to toll us back to the times when we burnt witches. But your people +will rise again. They will awake like Sampson from his sleep, & +carry away the gates & posts of the city. You, my friend, are +destined to rally them again under their former banner, and when +called to the post, exercise it with firmness & with inflexible +adherence to your own principles. The people will support you, +notwithstanding the howlings of the ravenous crew from whose jaws +they are escaping. It will be a great blessing to our country if we +can once more restore harmony and social love among its citizens. I +confess, as to myself, it is almost the first object of my heart, and +one to which I would sacrifice everything but principle. With the +people I have hopes of effecting it. But their Coryphaei are +incurables. I expect little from them. + + I was not deluded by the eulogiums of the public papers in the +first moments of change. If they could have continued to get all the +loaves & fishes, that is, if I would have gone over to them, they +would continue to eulogise. But I well knew that the moment that +such removals should take place, as the justice of the preceding +administration ought to have executed, their hue and cry would be set +up, and they would take their old stand. I shall disregard that +also. Mr. Adams' last appointments, when he knew he was naming +counsellors & aids for me & not for himself, I set aside as far as +depends on me. Officers who have been guilty of gross abuses of +office, such as marshals packing juries, &c., I shall now remove, as +my predecessor ought in justice to have done. The instances will be +few, and governed by strict rule, & not party passion. The right of +opinion shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have acted well +have nothing to fear, however they may have differed from me in +opinion: those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope; nor +shall I fail to do justice lest it should be ascribed to that +difference of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is not for the +interest of printers. They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they +can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is contest of +opinion in politics as well as religion which makes us take great +interest in them, and bestow our money liberally on those who furnish +aliment to our appetite. The mild and simple principles of the +Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much regularity +of good, to extract from it's disciples a support for a numerous +priesthood, were they not to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it +into hairs, and twist it's texts till they cover the divine morality +of it's author with mysteries, and require a priesthood to explain +them. The Quakers seem to have discovered this. They have no +priests, therefore no schisms. They judge of the text by the +dictates of common sense & common morality. So the printers can +never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They +would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough. In +the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election, they +seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their ordinary +state, to re-agitate the public mind. What appointments to office +have they detailed which had never been thought of, merely to found a +text for their calumniating commentaries. However, the steady +character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor; +and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early +discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct, +will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our +country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be +able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom & +harmony. I shall be happy to hear from you often, to know your own +sentiments & those of others on the course of things, and to concur +with you in efforts for the common good. Your letters through the +post will now come safely. Present my best respects to Mrs. Gerry, & +accept yourself assurances of my constant esteem and high +consideration. + + + "FREE SHIPS MAKE FREE GOODS" + + _To the U.S. Minister to France_ + (ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON) + _Monticello, Sep. 9, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- You will receive, probably by this post, from the +Secretary of State, his final instructions for your mission to +France. We have not thought it necessary to say anything in them on +the great question of the maritime law of nations, which at present +agitates Europe; that is to say, whether free ships shall make free +goods; because we do not mean to take any side in it during the war. +But, as I had before communicated to you some loose thoughts on that +subject, and have since considered it with somewhat more attention, I +have thought it might not be unuseful that you should possess my +ideas in a more matured form than that in which they were before +given. Unforeseen circumstances may perhaps oblige you to hazard an +opinion, on some occasion or other, on this subject, and it is better +that it should not be at variance with ours. I write this, too, +myself, that it may not be considered as official, but merely my +individual opinion, unadvised by those official counsellors whose +opinions I deem my safest guide, & should unquestionably take in +form, were circumstances to call for a solemn decision of the +question. + + When Europe assumed the general form in which it is occupied by +the nations now composing it, and turned its attention to maritime +commerce, we found among its earliest practices, that of taking the +goods of an enemy from the ship of a friend; and that into this +practice every maritime State went sooner or later, as it appeared on +the theatre of the ocean. If, therefore, we are to consider the +practice of nations as the sole & sufficient evidence of the law of +nature among nations, we should unquestionably place this principle +among those of natural laws. But it's inconveniences, as they +affected neutral nations peaceably pursuing their commerce, and it's +tendency to embroil them with the powers happening to be at war, and +thus to extend the flames of war, induced nations to introduce by +special compacts, from time to time, a more convenient rule; that +"free ships should make free goods;" and this latter principle has by +every maritime nation of Europe been established, to a greater or +less degree, in it's treaties with other nations; insomuch, that all +of them have, more or less frequently, assented to it, as a rule of +action in particular cases. Indeed, it is now urged, and I think +with great appearance of reason, that this is genuine principle +dictated by national morality; & that the first practice arose from +accident, and the particular convenience of the States which first +figured on the water, rather than from well-digested reflections on +the relations of friend and enemy, on the rights of territorial +jurisdiction, & on the dictates of moral law applied to these. Thus +it had never been supposed lawful, in the territory of a friend to +seize the goods of an enemy. On an element which nature has not +subjected to the jurisdiction of any particular nation, but has made +common to all for the purposes to which it is fitted, it would seem +that the particular portion of it which happens to be occupied by the +vessel of any nation, in the course of it's voyage, is for the +moment, the exclusive property of that, and nation, with the vessel, +is exempt from intrusion by any other, & from it's jurisdiction, as +much as if it were lying in the harbor of it's sovereign. In no +country, we believe, is the rule otherwise, as to the subjects of +property common to all. Thus the place occupied by an individual in +a highway, a church, a theatre, or other public assembly, cannot be +intruded on, while it's occupant holds it for the purposes of it's +institution. The persons on board a vessel traversing the ocean, +carry with them the laws of their nation, have among themselves a +jurisdiction, a police, not established by their individual will, but +by the authority of their nation, of whose territory their vessel +still seems to compose a part, so long as it does not enter the +exclusive territory of another. No nation ever pretended a right to +govern by their laws the ship of another nation navigating the ocean. +By what law then can it enter that ship while in peaceable & orderly +use of the common element? We recognize no natural precept for +submission to such a right; & perceive no distinction between the +movable & immovable jurisdiction of a friend, which would authorize +the entering the one & not the other, to seize the property of an +enemy. + + It may be objected that this proves too much, as it proves you +cannot enter the ship of a friend to search for contraband of war. +But this is not proving too much. We believe the practice of seizing +what is called contraband of war, is an abusive practice, not founded +in natural right. War between two nations cannot diminish the rights +of the rest of the world remaining at peace. The doctrine that the +rights of nations remaining quietly under the exercise of moral & +social duties, are to give way to the convenience of those who prefer +plundering & murdering one another, is a monstrous doctrine; and +ought to yield to the more rational law, that "the wrongs which two +nations endeavor to inflict on each other, must not infringe on the +rights or conveniences of those remaining at peace." And what is +_contraband_, by the law of nature? Either everything which may aid +or comfort an enemy, or nothing. Either all commerce which would +accommodate him is unlawful, or none is. The difference between +articles of one or another description, is a difference in degree +only. No line between them can be drawn. Either all intercourse +must cease between neutrals & belligerents, or all be permitted. Can +the world hesitate to say which shall be the rule? Shall two nations +turning tigers, break up in one instant the peaceable relations of +the whole world? Reason & nature clearly pronounce that the neutral +is to go onin the enjoyment of all it's rights, that it's commerce +remains free, not subject to the jurisdiction of another, nor +consequently it's vessels to search, or to enquiries whether their +contents are the property of an enemy, or are of those which have +been called contraband of war.2 + + Nor does this doctrine contravene the right of preventing +vessels from entering a blockaded port. This right stands on other +ground. When the fleet of any nation actually beleaguers the port of +its enemy, no other has a right to enter their line, any more than +their line of battle in the open sea, or their lines of +circumvallation, or of encampment, or of battle array on land. The +space included within their lines in any of those cases, is either +the property of their enemy, or it is common property assumed and +possessed for the moment, which cannot be intruded on, even by a +neutral, without committing the very trespass we are now considering, +that of intruding into the lawful possession of a friend. + + Although I consider the observance of these principles as of +great importance to the interests of peaceable nations, among whom I +hope the U S will ever place themselves, yet in the present state of +things they are not worth a war. Nor do I believe war the most +certain means of enforcing them. Those peaceable coercions which are +in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert & in time of +peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect. + + The opinions I have here given are those which have generally +been sanctioned by our government. In our treaties with France, the +United Netherlands, Sweden & Prussia, the principle of free bottom, +free goods, was uniformly maintained. In the instructions of 1784, +given by Congress to their ministers appointed to treat with the +nations of Europe generally, the same principle, and the doing away +contraband of war, were enjoined, and were acceded to in the treaty +signed with Portugal. In the late treaty with England, indeed, that +power perseveringly refused the principle of free bottoms, free +goods; and it was avoided in the late treaty with Prussia, at the +instance of our then administration, lest it should seem to take side +in a question then threatening decision by the sword. At the +commencement of the war between France & England, the representative +of the French republic then residing in the U S, complaining that the +British armed ships captured French property in American bottoms, +insisted that the principle of "free bottoms, free goods," was of the +acknowledged law of nations; that the violation of that principle by +the British was a wrong committed on us, and such an one as we ought +to repel by joining in a war against that country. We denied his +position, and appealed to the universal practice of Europe, in proof +that the principle of "free bottoms, free goods," was not +acknowledged as of the natural law of nations, but only of it's +conventional law. And I believe we may safely affirm, that not a +single instance can be produced where any nation of Europe, acting +professedly under the law of nations alone, unrestrained by treaty, +has, either by it's executive or judiciary organs, decided on the +principle of "free bottoms, free goods." Judging of the law of +nations by what has been _practised_ among nations, we were +authorized to say that the contrary principle was their rule, and +this but an exception to it, introduced by special treaties in +special cases only; that having no treaty with England substituting +this instead of the ordinary rule, we had neither the right nor the +disposition to go to war for it's establishment. But though we would +not then, nor will we now, engage in war to establish this principle, +we are nevertheless sincerely friendly to it. We think that the +nations of Europe have originally set out in error; that experience +has proved the error oppressive to the rights and interests of the +peaceable part of mankind; that every nation but one has acknoleged +this, by consenting to the change, & that one has consented in +particular cases; that nations have a right to correct an erroneous +principle, & to establish that which is right as their rule of +action; and if they should adopt measures for effecting this in a +peaceable way, we shall wish them success, and not stand in their way +to it. But should it become, at any time, expedient for us to +co-operate in the establishment of this principle, the opinion of the +executive, on the advice of it's constitutional counsellors, must +then be given; & that of the legislature, an independent & essential +organ in the operation, must also be expressed; in forming which, +they will be governed, every man by his own judgment, and may, very +possibly, judge differently from the executive. With the same honest +views, the most honest men often form different conclusions. As far, +however, as we can judge, the principle of "free bottoms, free +goods," is that which would carry the wishes of our nation. + + Wishing you smooth seas and prosperous gales, with the +enjoyment of good health, I tender you the assurances of my constant +friendship & high consideration and respect. + + + INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS + + _To James Monroe_ + _Washington, Nov. 14, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The bearer hereof is Mr. Whitney at Connecticut a +mechanic of the first order of ingenuity, who invented the cotton gin +now so much used in the South; he is at the head of a considerable +gun manufactory in Connecticut, and furnishes the U.S. with muskets +undoubtedly the best they receive. He has invented molds and +machines for making all the pieces of his locks so exactly equal, +that take 100 locks to pieces and mingle their parts and the hundred +locks may be put together as well by taking the first pieces which +come to hand. This is of importance in repairing, because out of 10 +locks e.g. disabled for the want of different pieces, 9 good locks +may be put together without employing a smith. Leblanc in France had +invented a similar process in 1788 and had extended it to the barrel, +mounting & stock. I endeavored to get the U.S. to bring him over, +which he was ready for on moderate terms. I failed and I do not know +what became of him. Mr. Whitney has not yet extended his +improvements beyond the lock. I think it possible he might be +engaged in our manufactory of Richmd. tho' I have not asked him the +question. I know nothing of his moral character. He is now on his +way to S. Carola. on the subject of his gin. Health & happiness cum +caeteris votis. + + + AFRICAN COLONIZATION + + _To the Governor of Virginia_ + (JAMES MONROE) + _Washington, Nov. 24, 1801_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I had not been unmindful of your letter of June +15, covering a resolution of the House of Representatives of +Virginia, and referred to in yours of the 17th inst. The importance +of the subject, and the belief that it gave us time for consideration +till the next meeting of the Legislature, have induced me to defer +the answer to this date. You will perceive that some circumstances +connected with the subject, & necessarily presenting themselves to +view, would be improper but for yours' & the legislative ear. Their +publication might have an ill effect in more than one quarter. In +confidence of attention to this, I shall indulge greater freedom in +writing. + + Common malefactors, I presume, make no part of the object of +that resolution. Neither their numbers, nor the nature of their +offences, seem to require any provisions beyond those practised +heretofore, & found adequate to the repression of ordinary crimes. +Conspiracy, insurgency, treason, rebellion, among that description of +persons who brought on us the alarm, and on themselves the tragedy, +of 1800, were doubtless within the view of every one; but many +perhaps contemplated, and one expression of the resolution might +comprehend, a much larger scope. Respect to both opinions makes it +my duty to understand the resolution in all the extent of which it is +susceptible. + + + The idea seems to be to provide for these people by a purchase +of lands; and it is asked whether such a purchase can be made of the +U S in their western territory? A very great extent of country, +north of the Ohio, has been laid off into townships, and is now at +market, according to the provisions of the acts of Congress, with +which you are acquainted. There is nothing which would restrain the +State of Virginia either in the purchase or the application of these +lands; but a purchase, by the acre, might perhaps be a more expensive +provision than the H of Representatives contemplated. Questions +would also arise whether the establishment of such a colony within +our limits, and to become a part of our union, would be desirable to +the State of Virginia itself, or to the other States --- especially +those who would be in its vicinity? + + Could we procure lands beyond the limits of the U S to form a +receptacle for these people? On our northern boundary, the country +not occupied by British subjects, is the property of Indian nations, +whose title would be to be extinguished, with the consent of Great +Britain; & the new settlers would be British subjects. It is hardly +to be believed that either Great Britain or the Indian proprietors +have so disinterested a regard for us, as to be willing to relieve +us, by receiving such a colony themselves; and as much to be doubted +whether that race of men could long exist in so rigorous a climate. +On our western & southern frontiers, Spain holds an immense country, +the occupancy of which, however, is in the Indian natives, except a +few insulated spots possessed by Spanish subjects. It is very +questionable, indeed, whether the Indians would sell? whether Spain +would be willing to receive these people? and nearly certain that she +would not alienate the sovereignty. The same question to ourselves +would recur here also, as did in the first case: should we be willing +to have such a colony in contact with us? However our present +interests may restrain us within our own limits, it is impossible not +to look forward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will +expand itself beyond those limits, & cover the whole northern, if not +the southern continent, with a people speaking the same language, +governed in similar forms, & by similar laws; nor can we contemplate +with satisfaction either blot or mixture on that surface. Spain, +France, and Portugal hold possessions on the southern continent, as +to which I am not well enough informed to say how far they might meet +our views. But either there or in the northern continent, should the +constituted authorities of Virginia fix their attention, of +preference, I will have the dispositions of those powers sounded in +the first instance. + + The West Indies offer a more probable & practicable retreat for +them. Inhabited already by a people of their own race & color; +climates congenial with their natural constitution; insulated from +the other descriptions of men; nature seems to have formed these +islands to become the receptacle of the blacks transplanted into this +hemisphere. Whether we could obtain from the European sovereigns of +those islands leave to send thither the persons under consideration, +I cannot say; but I think it more probable than the former +propositions, because of their being already inhabited more or less +by the same race. The most promising portion of them is the island +of St. Domingo, where the blacks are established into a sovereignty +_de facto_, & have organized themselves under regular laws & +government. I should conjecture that their present ruler might be +willing, on many considerations, to receive even that description +which would be exiled for acts deemed criminal by us, but +meritorious, perhaps, by him. The possibility that these exiles +might stimulate & conduct vindicative or predatory descents on our +coasts, & facilitate concert with their brethren remaining here, +looks to a state of things between that island & us not probable on a +contemplation of our relative strength, and of the disproportion +daily growing; and it is overweighed by the humanity of the measures +proposed, & the advantages of disembarrassing ourselves of such +dangerous characters. Africa would offer a last & undoubted resort, +if all others more desirable should fail us. Whenever the +Legislature of Virginia shall have brought it's mind to a point, so +that I may know exactly what to propose to foreign authorities, I +will execute their wishes with fidelity & zeal. I hope, however, +they will pardon me for suggesting a single question for their own +consideration. When we contemplate the variety of countries & of +sovereigns towards which we may direct our views, the vast +revolutions & changes of circumstances which are now in a course of +progression, the possibilities that arrangements now to be made, with +a view to any particular plan, may, at no great distance of time, be +totally deranged by a change of sovereignty, of government, or of +other circumstances, it will be for the Legislature to consider +whether, after they shall have made all those general provisions +which may be fixed by legislative authority, it would be reposing too +much confidence in their Executive to leave the place of relegation +to be decided on by _them_. They could accommodate their +arrangements to the actual state of things, in which countries or +powers may be found to exist at the day; and may prevent the effect +of the law from being defeated by intervening changes. This, +however, is for them to decide. Our duty will be to respect their +decision. + + + LIMITS OF THE PRACTICABLE + + _To P. S. Dupont de Nemours_ + _Washington, Jan. 18, 1802_ + + + DEAR SIR, -- It is rare I can indulge myself in the luxury of +philosophy. Your letters give me a few of those delicious moments. +Placed as you are in a great commercial town, with little opportunity +of discovering the dispositions of the country portions of our +citizens, I do not wonder at your doubts whether they will generally +and sincerely concur in the sentiments and measures developed in my +message of the 7th Jany. But from 40. years of intimate conversation +with the agricultural inhabitants of my country, I can pronounce them +as different from those of the cities, as those of any two nations +known. The sentiments of the former can in no degree be inferred +from those of the latter. You have spoken a profound truth in these +words, "Il y a dans les etats unis un bon sens silencieux, un esprit +de justice froide, qui lorsqu'il est question d'emettre un _vote_ +comme les bavardages de ceux qui font les habiles." A plain country +farmer has written lately a pamphlet on our public affairs. His +testimony of the sense of the country is the best which can be +produced of the justness of your observation. His words are "The +tongue of man is not his whole body. So, in this case, the noisy +part of the community was not all the body politic. During the +career of fury and contention (in 1800) the sedate, grave part of the +people were still; hearing all, and judging for themselves, what +method to take, when the constitutional time of action should come, +the exercise of the right of suffrage." The majority of the present +legislature are in unison with the agricultural part of our citizens, +and you will see that there is nothing in the message, to which they +do not accord. Some things may perhaps be left undone from motives +of compromise for a time, and not to alarm by too sudden a +reformation, but with a view to be resumed at another time. I am +perfectly satisfied the effect of the proceedings of this session of +congress will be to consolidate the great body of well meaning +citizens together, whether federal or republican, heretofore called. +I do not mean to include royalists or priests. Their opposition is +immovable. But they will be vox et preterea nihil, leaders without +followers. I am satisfied that within one year from this time were +an election to take place between two candidates merely republican +and federal, where no personal opposition existed against either, the +federal candidate would not get the vote of a single elector in the +U.S. I must here again appeal to the testimony of my farmer, who +says "The great body of the people are one in sentiment. If the +federal party and the republican party, should each of them choose a +convention to frame a constitution of government or a code of laws, +there would be no radical difference in the results of the two +conventions." This is most true. The body of our people, tho' +divided for a short time by an artificial panic, and called by +different names, have ever had the same object in view, to wit, the +maintenance of a federal, republican government, and have never +ceased to be all federalists, all republicans: still excepting the +noisy band of royalists inhabiting cities chiefly, and priests both +of city and country. When I say that in an election between a +republican and federal candidate, free from personal objection, the +former would probably get every vote, I must not be understood as +placing myself in that view. It was my destiny to come to the +government when it had for several years been committed to a +particular political sect, to the absolute and entire exclusion of +those who were in sentiment with the body of the nation. I found the +country entirely in the enemies hands. It was necessary to dislodge +some of them. Out of many thousands of officers in the U.S. 9. only +have been removed for political principle, and 12. for delinquincies +chiefly pecuniary. The whole herd have squealed out, as if all their +throats were cut. These acts of justice few as they have been, have +raised great personal objections to me, of which a new character +would be [_faded_]. When this government was first established, it +was possible to have kept it going on true principles, but the +contracted, English, half-lettered ideas of Hamilton, destroyed that +hope in the bud. We can pay off his debt in 15. years; but we can +never get rid of his financial system. It mortifies me to be +strengthening principles which I deem radically vicious, but this +vice is entailed on us by the first error. In other parts of our +government I hope we shall be able by degrees to introduce sound +principles and make them habitual. What is practicable must often +controul what is pure theory; and the habits of the governed +determine in a great degree what is practicable. Hence the same +original principles, modified in practice according to the different +habits of different nations, present governments of very different +aspects. The same principles reduced to forms of practice +accommodated to our habits, and put into forms accommodated to the +habits of the French nation would present governments very unlike +each other. I have no doubt but that a great man, thoroughly knowing +the habits of France, might so accommodate to them the principles of +free government as to enable them to live free. But in the hands of +those who have not this coup d'oeil, many unsuccessful experiments I +fear are yet to be tried before they will settle down in freedom and +tranquility. I applaud therefore your determination to remain here, +tho' for yourself and the adults of your family the dissimilitude of +our manners and the difference of tongue will be sources of real +unhappiness. Yet less so than the horrors and dangers which France +would present to you, and as to those of your family still in +infancy, they will be formed to the circumstances of the country, and +will, I doubt not, be happier here than they could have been in +Europe under any circumstances. Be so good as to make my respectful +salutations acceptable to Made. Dupont, and all of your family and to +be assured yourself of my constant and affectionate esteem. + + + "TO BE LOVED BY EVERY BODY" + + _To Anne Cary, Thomas Jefferson, and + Ellen Wayles Randolph_ + _Washington, Mar. 2, 1802_ + + MY DEAR CHILDREN -- I am very happy to find that two of you can +write. I shall now expect that whenever it is inconvenient for your +papa and mama to write, one of you will write on a piece of paper +these words `all is well' and send it for me to the post office. I +am happy too that Miss Ellen can now read so readily. If she will +make haste and read through all the books I have given her, and will +let me know when she is through them, I will go and carry her some +more. I shall now see whether she wishes to see me as much as she +says. I wish to see you all: and the more I perceive that you are +all advancing in your learning and improving in good dispositions the +more I shall love you, and the more every body will love you. It is +a charming thing to be loved by every body: and the way to obtain it +is, never to quarrel or be angry with any body and to tell a story. +Do all the kind things you can to your companions, give them every +thing rather than to yourself. Pity and help any thing you see in +distress and learn your books and improve your minds. This will make +every body fond of you, and desirous of doing it to you. Go on then +my dear children, and, when we meet at Monticello, let me see who has +improved most. I kiss this paper for each of you: it will therefore +deliver the kisses to yourselves, and two over, which one of you must +deliver to your Mama for me; and present my affectionate attachment +to your papa. Yourselves love and Adieux. + + + THE PROGRESS OF REFORM + + _To General Thaddeus Kosciusko_ + _Washington, April 2, 1802_ + + DEAR GENERAL, -- It is but lately that I have received your +letter of the 25th Frimaire (December 15) wishing to know whether +some officers of your country could expect to be employed in this +country. To prevent a suspense injurious to them, I hasten to inform +you, that we are now actually engaged in reducing our military +establishment one third, and discharging one third of our officers. +We keep in service no more than men enough to garrison the small +posts dispersed at great distances on our frontiers, which garrisons +will generally consist of a captain's company only, and in no case of +more than two or three, in not one, of a sufficient number to require +a field officer; and no circumstance whatever can bring these +garrisons together, because it would be an abandonment of their +forts. Thus circumstanced, you will perceive the entire +impossibility of providing for the persons you recommend. I wish it +had been in my power to give you a more favorable answer; but next to +the fulfilling your wishes, the most grateful thing I can do is to +give a faithful answer. The session of the first Congress convened +since republicanism has recovered its ascendancy, is now drawing to a +close. They will pretty completely fulfil all the desires of the +people. They have reduced the army and navy to what is barely +necessary. They are disarming executive patronage and preponderance, +by putting down one half the offices of the United States, which are +no longer necessary. These economies have enabled them to suppress +all the internal taxes, and still to make such provision for the +payment of their public debt as to discharge that in eighteen years. +They have lopped off a parasite limb, planted by their predecessors +on their judiciary body for party purposes; they are opening the +doors of hospitality to the fugitives from the oppressions of other +countries; and we have suppressed all those public forms and +ceremonies which tended to familiarise the public eye to the +harbingers of another form of government. The people are nearly all +united; their quondam leaders, infuriated with the sense of their +impotence, will soon be seen or heard only in the newspapers, which +serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke, and all is +now tranquil, firm and well, as it should be. I add no signature +because unnecessary for you. God bless you, and preserve you still +for a season of usefulness to your country. + + + THE AFFAIR OF LOUISIANA + + _To the U.S. Minister to France_ + (ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON) + _Washington, Apr. 18, 1802_ + + DEAR SIR -- A favorable and a confidential opportunity offering +by Mr. Dupont de Nemours, who is revisiting his native country gives +me an opportunity of sending you a cipher to be used between us, +which will give you some trouble to understand, but, once understood, +is the easiest to use, the most indecipherable, and varied by a new +key with the greatest facility of any one I have ever known. I am in +hopes the explanation inclosed will be sufficient. Let our key of +letters be [_some figures which are illegible_] and the key of lines +be [_figures illegible_] and lest we should happen to lose our key or +be absent from it, it is so formed as to be kept in the memory and +put upon paper at pleasure; being produced by writing our names and +residences at full length, each of which containing 27 letters is +divided into two parts of 9. letters each; and each of the 9. letters +is then numbered according to the place it would hold if the 9. were +arranged alphabetically, thus [_so blotted as to be illegible]. The +numbers over the letters being then arranged as the letters to which +they belong stand in our names, we can always construct our key. But +why a cipher between us, when official things go naturally to the +Secretary of State, and things not political need no cipher. 1. +matters of a public nature, and proper to go on our records, should +go to the secretary of state. 2. matters of a public nature not +proper to be placed on our records may still go to the secretary of +state, headed by the word `private.' But 3. there may be matters +merely personal to ourselves, and which require the cover of a cipher +more than those of any other character. This last purpose and others +which we cannot foresee may render it convenient and advantageous to +have at hand a mask for whatever may need it. But writing by Mr. +Dupont I need no cipher. I require from him to put this into your +own and no other hand, let the delay occasioned by that be what it +will. + + The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France +works most sorely on the U.S. On this subject the Secretary of State +has written to you fully. Yet I cannot forbear recurring to it +personally, so deep is the impression it makes in my mind. It +compleatly reverses all the political relations of the U.S. and will +form a new epoch in our political course. Of all nations of any +consideration France is the one which hitherto has offered the fewest +points on which we could have any conflict of right, and the most +points of a communion of interests. From these causes we have ever +looked to her as our _natural friend_, as one with which we never +could have an occasion of difference. Her growth therefore we viewed +as our own, her misfortunes ours. There is on the globe one single +spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It +is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our +territory must pass to market, and from its fertility it will ere +long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more than +half our inhabitants. France placing herself in that door assumes to +us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly +for years. Her pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce +her to increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the +place would be hardly felt by us, and it would not perhaps be very +long before some circumstance might arise which might make the +cession of it to us the price of something of more worth to her. Not +so can it ever be in the hands of France. The impetuosity of her +temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed in a +point of eternal friction with us, and our character, which though +quiet, and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth, is high-minded, +despising wealth in competition with insult or injury, enterprising +and energetic as any nation on earth, these circumstances render it +impossible that France and the U.S. can continue long friends when +they meet in so irritable a position. They as well as we must be +blind if they do not see this; and we must be very improvident if we +do not begin to make arrangements on that hypothesis. The day that +France takes possession of N. Orleans fixes the sentence which is to +restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union +of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession +of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the +British fleet and nation. We must turn all our attentions to a +maritime force, for which our resources place us on very high +grounds: and having formed and cemented together a power which may +render reinforcement of her settlements here impossible to France, +make the first cannon, which shall be fired in Europe the signal for +tearing up any settlement she may have made, and for holding the two +continents of America in sequestration for the common purposes of the +united British and American nations. This is not a state of things +we seek or desire. It is one which this measure, if adopted by +France, forces on us, as necessarily as any other cause, by the laws +of nature, brings on its necessary effect. It is not from a fear of +France that we deprecate this measure proposed by her. For however +greater her force is than ours compared in the abstract, it is +nothing in comparison of ours when to be exerted on our soil. But it +is from a sincere love of peace, and a firm persuasion that bound to +France by the interests and the strong sympathies still existing in +the minds of our citizens, and holding relative positions which +ensure their continuance we are secure of a long course of peace. +Whereas the change of friends, which will be rendered necessary if +France changes that position, embarks us necessarily as a belligerent +power in the first war of Europe. In that case France will have held +possession of New Orleans during the interval of a peace, long or +short, at the end of which it will be wrested from her. Will this +short-lived possession have been an equivalent to her for the +transfer of such a weight into the scale of her enemy? Will not the +amalgamation of a young, thriving, nation continue to that enemy the +health and force which are at present so evidently on the decline? +And will a few years possession of N. Orleans add equally to the +strength of France? She may say she needs Louisiana for the supply +of her West Indies. She does not need it in time of peace. And in +war she could not depend on them because they would be so easily +intercepted. I should suppose that all these considerations might in +some proper form be brought into view of the government of France. +Tho' stated by us, it ought not to give offence; because we do not +bring them forward as a menace, but as consequences not controulable +by us, but inevitable from the course of things. We mention them not +as things which we desire by any means, but as things we deprecate; +and we beseech a friend to look forward and to prevent them for our +common interests. + + If France considers Louisiana however as indispensable for her +views she might perhaps be willing to look about for arrangements +which might reconcile it to our interests. If anything could do this +it would be the ceding to us the island of New Orleans and the +Floridas. This would certainly in a great degree remove the causes +of jarring and irritation between us, and perhaps for such a length +of time as might produce other means of making the measure +permanently conciliatory to our interests and friendships. It would +at any rate relieve us from the necessity of taking immediate +measures for countervailing such an operation by arrangements in +another quarter. Still we should consider N. Orleans and the +Floridas as equivalent for the risk of a quarrel with France produced +by her vicinage. I have no doubt you have urged these considerations +on every proper occasion with the government where you are. They are +such as must have effect if you can find the means of producing +thorough reflection on them by that government. The idea here is +that the troops sent to St. Domingo, were to proceed to Louisiana +after finishing their work in that island. If this were the +arrangement, it will give you time to return again and again to the +charge, for the conquest of St. Domingo will not be a short work. It +will take considerable time to wear down a great number of souldiers. +Every eye in the U.S. is now fixed on this affair of Louisiana. +Perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy +sensations through the body of the nation. Notwithstanding temporary +bickerings have taken place with France, she has still a strong hold +on the affections of our citizens generally. I have thought it not +amiss, by way of supplement to the letters of the Secretary of State +to write you this private one to impress you with the importance we +affix to this transaction. I pray you to cherish Dupont. He has the +best dispositions for the continuance of friendship between the two +nations, and perhaps you may be able to make a good use of him. +Accept assurances of my affectionate esteem and high consideration. + + + DRY-DOCKING THE NAVY + + _To Benjamin H. Latrobe_ + _Washington, Nov. 2, 1802_ + + DEAR SIR -- The placing of a navy in a state of perfect +preservation, so that at the beginning of a subsequent war it shall +be as sound as at the end of the preceding one when laid up, and the +lessening the expence of repairs, perpetually necessary while they +lie in the water, are objects of the first importance to a nation +which to a certain degree must be maritime. The dry docks of Europe, +being below the level of tide water, are very expensive in their +construction and in the manner of keeping them clear of water, and +are only practicable at all where they have high tides: insomuch that +no nation has ever proposed to lay up their whole navy in dry docks. +But if the dry dock were above the level of tide water, and there be +any means of raising the vessels up into them, and of covering the +dock with a roof, thus withdrawn from the rot and the sun, they would +last as long as the interior timbers, doors and floors of a house. +The vast command of running water at this place, at different heights +from 30 to 200 feet above tide water, enables us to effect this +desirable object by forming a lower bason into which the tide water +shall float the vessel and then have its gates closed, and adjoining +to this, but 24 feet higher, an upper bason 275 feet wide, and 800 f. +long (sufficient to contain 12 frigates) into which running water can +be introduced from above, so that filling both basons (as in a lock) +the vessel shall be raised up and floated into the upper one, and the +water being discharged leave her dry. Over a bason not wider than +175 feet, a roof can be thrown, in the manner of that of the Halle au +ble at Paris, which needing no underworks to support it, will permit +the bason to be entirely open and free for the movement of the +vessels. I mean to propose the construction of one of these to the +National legislature, convinced it will be a work of no great cost, +that it will save us great annual expence, and be an encouragement to +prepare in peace the vessels we shall need in war, when we find they +can be kept in a state of perfect preservation and without expence. + + The first thing to be done is to chuse from which of the +streams we will derive our water for the lock. These are the Eastern +branch, Tyber, Rock creek, and the Potomak itself. Then to trace the +canal, draw plans of that and of the two basons, and calculate the +expence of the whole, that we may lead the legislature to no expence +in the execution of which they shall not be apprised in the +beginning. For this I ask your aid, which will require your coming +here. Some surveys and elevations have been already made by Mr. N. +King, a very accurate man in that line, and who will assist in any +thing you desire, and execute on the ground any tracings you may +direct, unless you prefer doing them yourself. It is very material +too that this should be done immediately, as we have little more than +4 weeks to the meeting of the legislature, and there will then be but +2 weeks for them to consider and decide before the day arrives (Jan. +1) at which alone any number of labourers can be hired here. Should +that pass either the work must lie over for a year, or be executed by +day labourers at double expence. I propose that such a force shall +be provided as to compleat the work in one year. If this results, as +it will receive all our present ships, the next work will be a second +one, to build and lay up additional ships. On the subject of your +superintending the execution of the work it would be premature to say +any thing till the legislature shall have declared their will. Be so +good as to let me hear from you immediately, if you cannot come so +soon as you can write. Accept my best wishes and respects. + + + "A NOISELESS COURSE" + + _To Thomas Cooper_ + _Washington, Nov. 29, 1802_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Oct 25 was received in due time, and +I thank you for the long extract you took the trouble of making from +Mr. Stone's letter. Certainly the information it communicates as to +Alexander kindles a great deal of interest in his existence, and +strong spasms of the heart in his favor. Tho his means of doing good +are great, yet the materials on which he is to work are refractory. +Whether he engages in private correspondences abroad, as the King of +Prussia did much, his grandmother sometimes, I know not; but +certainly such a correspondence would be very interesting to those +who are sincerely anxious to see mankind raised from their present +abject condition. It delights me to find that there are persons who +still think that all is not lost in France: that their retrogradation +from a limited to an unlimited despotism, is but to give themselves a +new impulse. But I see not how or when. The press, the only tocsin +of a nation, is compleatly silenced there, and all means of a general +effort taken away. However, I am willing to hope, as long as anybody +will hope with me; and I am entirely persuaded that the agitations of +the public mind advance its powers, and that at every vibration +between the points of liberty and despotism, something will be gained +for the former. As men become better informed, their rulers must +respect them the more. I think you will be sensible that our +citizens are fast returning, from the panic into which they were +artfully thrown to the dictates of their own reason; and I believe +the delusions they have seen themselves hurried into will be useful +as a lesson under similar attempts on them in future. The good +effects of our late fiscal arrangements will certainly tend to unite +them in opinion, and in a confidence as to the views of their public +functionaries, legislative & executive. The path we have to pursue +is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our +Legislature. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of +others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in +happiness. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors +of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must +become happy. Their finances are now under such a course of +application as nothing could derange but war or federalism. The +gripe of the latter has shown itself as deadly as the jaws of the +former. Our adversaries say we are indebted to their providence for +the means of paying the public debt. We never charged them with the +want of foresight in providing money, but with the misapplication of +it after they have levied it. We say they raised not only enough, +but too much; and that after giving back the surplus we do more with +a part than they did with the whole. + + Your letter of Nov 18 is also received. The places of +midshipman are so much sought that (being limited) there is never a +vacancy. Your son shall be set down for the 2d, which shall happen; +the 1st being anticipated. We are not long generally without +vacancies happening. As soon as he can be appointed you shall know +it. I pray you to accept assurances of my great attachment and +respect. + + + CRISIS ON THE MISSISSIPPI + + _To the Special Envoy to France_ + (JAMES MONROE) + _Washington, Jan. 13, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I dropped you a line on the 10th informing you of +a nomination I had made of you to the Senate, and yesterday I +enclosed you their approbation not then having time to write. The +agitation of the public mind on occasion of the late suspension of +our right of deposit at N. Orleans is extreme. In the western +country it is natural and grounded on honest motives. In the +seaports it proceeds from a desire for war which increases the +mercantile lottery; in the federalists generally and especially those +of Congress the object is to force us into war if possible, in order +to derange our finances, or if this cannot be done, to attach the +western country to them, as their best friends, and thus get again +into power. Remonstrances memorials &c. are now circulating through +the whole of the western country and signing by the body of the +people. The measures we have been pursuing being invisible, do not +satisfy their minds. Something sensible therefore was become +necessary; and indeed our object of purchasing N. Orleans and the +Floridas is a measure liable to assume so many shapes, that no +instructions could be squared to fit them, it was essential then to +send a minister extraordinary to be joined with the ordinary one, +with discretionary powers, first however well impressed with all our +views and therefore qualified to meet and modify to these every form +of proposition which could come from the other party. This could be +done only in full and frequent oral communications. Having +determined on this, there could not be two opinions among the +republicans as to the person. You possess the unlimited confidence +of the administration and of the western people; and generally of the +republicans everywhere; and were you to refuse to go, no other man +can be found who does this. The measure has already silenced the +Feds. here. Congress will no longer be agitated by them: and the +country will become calm as fast as the information extends over it. +All eyes, all hopes, are now fixed on you; and were you to decline, +the chagrin would be universal, and would shake under your feet the +high ground on which you stand with the public. Indeed I know +nothing which would produce such a shock, for on the event of this +mission depends the future destinies of this republic. If we cannot +by a purchase of the country insure to ourselves a course of +perpetual peace and friendship with all nations, then as war cannot +be distant, it behooves us immediately to be preparing for that +course, without, however, hastening it, and it may be necessary (on +your failure on the continent) to cross the channel. + + We shall get entangled in European politics, and figuring more, +be much less happy and prosperous. This can only be prevented by a +successful issue to your present mission. I am sensible after the +measures you have taken for getting into a different line of +business, that it will be a great sacrifice on your part, and +presents from the season and other circumstances serious +difficulties. But some men are born for the public. Nature by +fitting them for the service of the human race on a broad scale, has +stamped with the evidences of her destination and their duty. + + But I am particularly concerned that in the present case you +have more than one sacrifice to make. To reform the prodigalities of +our predecessors is understood to be peculiarly our duty, and to +bring the government to a simple and economical course. They, in +order to increase expense, debt, taxation, and patronage tried always +how much they could give. The outfit given to ministers resident to +enable them to furnish their house, but given by no nation to a +temporary minister, who is never expected to take a house or to +entertain, but considered on a footing of a voyageur, they gave to +their extraordinary missionaries by wholesale. In the beginning of +our administration, among other articles of reformation in expense, +it was determined not to give an outfit to missionaries +extraordinary, and not to incur the expense with any minister of +sending a frigate to carry him or bring him. The Boston happened to +be going to the Mediterranean, and was permitted therefore to take up +Mr. Livingstone and touch in a port of France. A frigate was denied +to Charles Pinckney and has been refused to Mr. King for his return. +Mr. Madison's friendship and mine to you being so well known, the +public will have eagle eyes to watch if we grant you any indulgencies +of the general rule; and on the other hand, the example set in your +case will be more cogent on future ones, and produce greater +approbation to our conduct. The allowance therefore will be in this +and all similar cases, all the expenses of your journey and voiage, +taking a ship's cabin to yourself, 9,000 D. a year from your leaving +home till the proceedings of your mission are terminated, and then +the quarter's salary for the expenses of the return as prescribed by +law. As to the time of your going you cannot too much hasten it, as +the moment in France is critical. St. Domingo delays their taking +possession of Louisiana, and they are in the last distress for money +for current purposes. You should arrange your affairs for an absence +of a year at least, perhaps for a long one. It will be necessary for +you to stay here some days on your way to New York. You will receive +here what advance you chuse. Accept assurances of my constant and +affectionate attachment. + + + CIVILIZATION OF THE INDIANS + + _To Benjamin Hawkins_ + _Washington, Feb. 18, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Hill's return to you offers so safe a +conveyance for a letter, that I feel irresistibly disposed to write +one, tho' there is but little to write about. You have been so long +absent from this part of the world, and the state of society so +changed in that time, that details respecting those who compose it +are no longer interesting or intelligible to you. One source of +great change in social intercourse arose while you were with us, tho' +it's effects were as yet scarcely sensible on society or government. +I mean the British treaty, which produced a schism that went on +widening and rankling till the years '98, '99, when a final +dissolution of all bonds, civil & social, appeared imminent. In that +awful crisis, the people awaked from the phrenzy into which they had +been thrown, began to return to their sober and ancient principles, & +have now become five-sixths of one sentiment, to wit, for peace, +economy, and a government bottomed on popular election in its +legislative & executive branches. In the public counsels the federal +party hold still one-third. This, however, will lessen, but not +exactly to the standard of the people; because it will be forever +seen that of bodies of men even elected by the people, there will +always be a greater proportion aristocratic than among their +constituents. The present administration had a task imposed on it +which was unavoidable, and could not fail to exert the bitterest +hostility in those opposed to it. The preceding administration left +99. out of every hundred in public offices of the federal sect. +Republicanism had been the mark on Cain which had rendered those who +bore it exiles from all portion in the trusts & authorities of their +country. This description of citizens called imperiously & justly +for a restoration of right. It was intended, however, to have +yielded to this in so moderate a degree as might conciliate those who +had obtained exclusive possession; but as soon as they were touched, +they endeavored to set fire to the four corners of the public fabric, +and obliged us to deprive of the influence of office several who were +using it with activity and vigilance to destroy the confidence of the +people in their government, and thus to proceed in the drudgery of +removal farther than would have been, had not their own hostile +enterprises rendered it necessary in self-defence. But I think it +will not be long before the whole nation will be consolidated in +their ancient principles, excepting a few who have committed +themselves beyond recall, and who will retire to obscurity & settled +disaffection. + + Altho' you will receive, thro' the official channel of the War +Office, every communication necessary to develop to you our views +respecting the Indians, and to direct your conduct, yet, supposing it +will be satisfactory to you, and to those with whom you are placed, +to understand my personal dispositions and opinions in this +particular, I shall avail myself of this private letter to state them +generally. I consider the business of hunting as already become +insufficient to furnish clothing and subsistence to the Indians. The +promotion of agriculture, therefore, and household manufacture, are +essential in their preservation, and I am disposed to aid and +encourage it liberally. This will enable them to live on much +smaller portions of land, and indeed will render their vast forests +useless but for the range of cattle; for which purpose, also, as they +become better farmers, they will be found useless, and even +disadvantageous. While they are learning to do better on less land, +our increasing numbers will be calling for more land, and thus a +coincidence of interests will be produced between those who have +lands to spare, and want other necessaries, and those who have such +necessaries to spare, and want lands. This commerce, then, will be +for the good of both, and those who are friends to both ought to +encourage it. You are in the station peculiarly charged with this +interchange, and who have it peculiarly in your power to promote +among the Indians a sense of the superior value of a little land, +well cultivated, over a great deal, unimproved, and to encourage them +to make this estimate truly. The wisdom of the animal which +amputates & abandons to the hunter the parts for which he is pursued +should be theirs, with this difference, that the former sacrifices +what is useful, the latter what is not. In truth, the ultimate point +of rest & happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs +meet and blend together, to intermix, and become one people. +Incorporating themselves with us as citizens of the U.S., this is +what the natural progress of things will of course bring on, and it +will be better to promote than to retard it. Surely it will be +better for them to be identified with us, and preserved in the +occupation of their lands, than be exposed to the many casualties +which may endanger them while a separate people. I have little doubt +but that your reflections must have led you to view the various ways +in which their history may terminate, and to see that this is the one +most for their happiness. And we have already had an application +from a settlement of Indians to become citizens of the U.S. It is +possible, perhaps probable, that this idea may be so novel as that it +might shock the Indians, were it even hinted to them. Of course, you +will keep it for your own reflection; but, convinced of its +soundness, I feel it consistent with pure morality to lead them +towards it, to familiarize them to the idea that it is for their +interest to cede lands at times to the U S, and for us thus to +procure gratifications to our citizens, from time to time, by new +acquisitions of land. From no quarter is there at present so strong +a pressure on this subject as from Georgia for the residue of the +fork of Oconee & Ockmulgee; and indeed I believe it will be difficult +to resist it. As it has been mentioned that the Creeks had at one +time made up their minds to sell this, and were only checked in it by +some indiscretions of an individual, I am in hopes you will be able +to bring them to it again. I beseech you to use your most earnest +endeavors; for it will relieve us here from a great pressure, and +yourself from the unreasonable suspicions of the Georgians which you +notice, that you are more attached to the interests of the Indians +than of the U S, and throw cold water on their willingness to part +with lands. It is so easy to excite suspicion, that none are to be +wondered at; but I am in hopes it will be in your power to quash them +by effecting the object. + + Mr. Madison enjoys better health since his removal to this +place than he had done in Orange. Mr. Giles is in a state of health +feared to be irrecoverable, although he may hold on for some time, +and perhaps be re-established. Browze Trist is now in the +Mississippi territory, forming an establishment for his family, which +is still in Albemarle, and will remove to the Mississippi in the +spring. Mrs. Trist, his mother, begins to yield a little to time. I +retain myself very perfect health, having not had 20. hours of fever +in 42 years past. I have sometimes had a troublesome headache, and +some slight rheumatic pains; but now sixty years old nearly, I have +had as little to complain of in point of health as most people. I +learn you have the gout. I did not expect that Indian cookery or +Indian fare would produce that; but it is considered as a security +for good health otherwise. That it may be so with you, I sincerely +pray, and tender you my friendly and respectful salutations. + + + MACHIAVELLIAN BENEVOLENCE AND THE INDIANS + + _To Governor William H. Harrison_ + _Washington, February 27, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- While at Monticello in August last I received your +favor of August 8th, and meant to have acknowledged it on my return +to the seat of government at the close of the ensuing month, but on +my return I found that you were expected to be on here in person, and +this expectation continued till winter. I have since received your +favor of December 30th. + + In the former you mentioned the plan of the town which you had +done me the honor to name after me, and to lay out according to an +idea I had formerly expressed to you. I am thoroughly persuaded that +it will be found handsome and pleasant, and I do believe it to be the +best means of preserving the cities of America from the scourge of +the yellow fever, which being peculiar to our country, must be +derived from some peculiarity in it. That peculiarity I take to be +our cloudless skies. In Europe, where the sun does not shine more +than half the number of days in the year which it does in America, +they can build their town in a solid block with impunity; buthere a +constant sun produces too great an accumulation ofheat to admit that. +Ventilation is indispensably necessary. Experience has taught us +that in the open air of the country the yellow fever is not only not +generated,but ceases to be infectious. I cannot decidefrom the +drawing you sent me, whether you havelaid off streets round the +squares thus: (Illustration omitted) or only the diagonal streets +therein marked. The former was my idea, and is, I imagine, most +convenient. + + You will receive herewith an answer to your letter as President +of the Convention; and from the Secretary of War you receive from +time to time information and instructions as to our Indian affairs. +These communications being for the public records, are restrained +always to particular objects and occasions; but this letter being +unofficial and private, I may with safety give you a more extensive +view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may the better +comprehend the parts dealt out to you in detail through the official +channel, and observing the system of which they make a part, conduct +yourself in unison with it in cases where you are obliged to act +without instruction. Our system is to live in perpetual peace with +the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them, by +everything just and liberal which we can do for them within the +bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual protection against +wrongs from our own people. The decrease of game rendering their +subsistence by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw them to +agriculture, to spinning and weaving. The latter branches they take +up with great readiness, because they fall to the women, who gain by +quitting the labors of the field for those which are exercised within +doors. When they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece +of land, they will perceive how useless to them are their extensive +forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in +exchange for necessaries for their farms and families. To promote +this disposition to ex-change lands, which they have to spare and we +want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we +shallpush our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and +influential individuals among them run in debt, because we ob-serve +that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they +become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. At our trading +houses, too, we mean to sell so low as merely to repay us cost and +charges, so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital. This is +what private traders cannot do, for they must gain; they will +consequently retire from the competition, and we shall thus get clear +of this pest without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians. In +this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the +Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens +of the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi. The former +is certainly the termination of their history most happy for +themselves; but, in the whole course of this, it is essential to +cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength +and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only +to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them +proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be +fool-hardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the +whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, +as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a +furtherance of our final consolidation. + + Combined with these views, and to be prepared against the +occupation of Louisiana by a powerful and enterprising people, it is +important that, setting less value on interior extension of purchases +from the Indians, we bend our whole views to the purchase and +settlement of the country on the Mississippi, from its mouth to its +northern regions, that we may be able to present as strong a front on +our western as on our eastern border, and plant on the Mississippi +itself the means of its own defence. We now own from 31 to the +Yazoo, and hope this summer to purchase what belongs to the Choctaws +from the Yazoo up to their boundary, supposed to be about opposite +the mouth of Acanza. We wish at the same time to begin in your +quarter, for which there is at present a favorable opening. The +Cahokias extinct, we are entitled to their country by our paramount +sovereignty. The Piorias, we understand, have all been driven off +from their country, and we might claim it in the same way; but as we +understand there is one chief remaining, who would, as the survivor +of the tribe, sell the right, it is better to give him such terms as +will make him easy for life, and take a conveyance from him. The +Kaskaskias being reduced to a few families, I presume we may purchase +their whole country for what would place every individual of them at +his ease, and be a small price to us, -- say by laying off for each +family, whenever they would choose it, as much rich land as they +could cultivate, adjacent to each other, enclosing the whole in a +single fence, and giving them such an annuity in money or goods +forever as would place them in happiness; and we might take them also +under the protection of the United States. Thus possessed of the +rights of these tribes, we should proceed to the settling their +boundaries with the Poutewatamies and Kickapoos; claiming all +doubtful territory, but paying them a price for the relinquishment of +their concurrent claim, and even prevailing on them, if possible, to +_cede_, for a price, such of their own unquestioned territory as +would give us a convenient northern boundary. Before broaching this, +and while we are bargaining with the Kaskaskies, the minds of the +Poutewatamies and Kickapoos should be soothed and conciliated by +liberalities and sincere assurances of friendship. Perhaps by +sending a well-qualified character to stay some time in Decoigne's +village, as if on other business, and to sound him and introduce the +subject by degrees to his mind and that of the other heads of +families, inculcating in the way of conversation, all those +considerations which prove the advantages they would receive by a +cession on these terms, the object might be more easily and +effectually obtained than by abruptly proposing it to them at a +formal treaty. Of the means, however, of obtaining what we wish, you +will be the best judge; and I have given you this view of the system +which we suppose will best promote the interests of the Indians and +ourselves, and finally consolidate our whole country to one nation +only; that you may be enabled the better to adapt your means to the +object, for this purpose we have given you a general commission for +treating. The crisis is pressing: whatever can now be obtained must +be obtained quickly. The occupation of New Orleans, hourly expected, +by the French, is already felt like a light breeze by the Indians. +You know the sentiments they entertain of that nation; under the hope +of their protection they will immediately stiffen against cessions of +lands to us. We had better, therefore, do at once what can now be +done. + + I must repeat that this letter is to be considered as private +and friendly, and is not to control any particular instructions which +you may receive through official channel. You will also perceive how +sacredly it must be kept within your own breast, and especially how +improper to be understood by the Indians. For their interests and +their tranquillity it is best they should see only the present age of +their history. I pray you to accept assurances of my esteem and high +consideration. + + + JESUS, SOCRATES, AND OTHERS + + _To Dr. Joseph Priestley_ + _Washington, Apr. 9, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I +received from you a copy of your comparative view of Socrates & +Jesus, and I avail myself of the first moment of leisure after my +return to acknolege the pleasure I had in the perusal of it, and the +desire it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive +scale. In consequence of some conversation with Dr. Rush, in the +year 1798-99, I had promised some day to write him a letter giving +him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected often on it +since, & even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should first +take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of +the antient philosophers, of whose ethics we have sufficient +information to make an estimate, say of Pythagoras, Epicurus, +Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice +to the branches of morality they have treated well; but point out the +importance of those in which they are deficient. I should then take +a view of the deism and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a +degraded state they were, and the necessity they presented of a +reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, character, & +doctrines of Jesus, who sensible of incorrectness of their ideas of +the Deity, and of morality, endeavored to bring them to the +principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of +God, to reform their moral doctrines to the standard of reason, +justice & philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future +state. This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity, +& even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to +remark the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having +been committed to writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of +men, by memory, long after they had heard them from him; when much +was forgotten, much misunderstood, & presented in very paradoxical +shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master +workman, and that his system of morality was the most benevolent & +sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more +perfect than those of any of the antient philosophers. His character +& doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend +to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and +sophisticated his actions & precepts, from views of personal +interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off +the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on +the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime +character that ever has been exhibited to man. This is the outline; +but I have not the time, & still less the information which the +subject needs. It will therefore rest with me in contemplation only. +You are the person who of all others would do it best, and most +promptly. You have all the materials at hand, and you put together +with ease. I wish you could be induced to extend your late work to +the whole subject. I have not heard particularly what is the state +of your health; but as it has been equal to the journey to +Philadelphia, perhaps it might encourage the curiosity you must feel +to see for once this place, which nature has formed on a beautiful +scale, and circumstances destine for a great one. As yet we are but +a cluster of villages; we cannot offer you the learned society of +Philadelphia; but you will have that of a few characters whom you +esteem, & a bed & hearty welcome with one who will rejoice in every +opportunity of testifying to you his high veneration & affectionate +attachment. + + + THE MORALS OF JESUS + + _To Dr. Benjamin Rush, with a Syllabus_ + _Washington, Apr. 21, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- In some of the delightful conversations with you, +in the evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the +afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then +laboring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic; and I then +promised you, that one day or other, I would give you my views of it. +They are the result of a life of inquiry & reflection, and very +different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who +know nothing ofmy opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am +indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I +am a Christian, in the only sense he wished any one to be; sincerely +attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to +himself every _human_ excellence; & believing he never claimed any +other. At the short intervals since these conversations, when I +could justifiably abstract my mind from public affairs, the subject +has been under my contemplation. But the more I considered it, the +more it expanded beyond the measure of either my time or information. +In the moment of my late departure from Monticello, I received from +Doctr Priestley, his little treatise of "Socrates & Jesus compared." +This being a section of the general view I had taken of the field, it +became a subject of reflection while on the road, and unoccupied +otherwise. The result was, to arrange in my mind a syllabus, or +outline of such an estimate of the comparative merits of +Christianity, as I wished to see executed by some one of more leisure +and information for the task, than myself. This I now send you, as +the only discharge of my promise I can probably ever execute. And in +confiding it to you, I know it will not be exposed to the malignant +perversions of those who make every word from me a text for new +misrepresentations & calumnies. I am moreover averse to the +communication of my religious tenets to the public; because it would +countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them +before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself +into that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws +have so justly proscribed. It behoves every man who values liberty +of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of +others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his +own. It behoves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of +concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by +answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God & +himself. Accept my affectionate salutations. + + SYLLABUS OF AN ESTIMATE OF THE MERIT OF THE DOCTRINES OF JESUS, +COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHERS + _April, 1803_ + + In a comparative view of the Ethics of the enlightened nations +of antiquity, of the Jews and of Jesus, no notice should be taken of +the corruptions of reason among the ancients, to wit, the idolatry & +superstition of the vulgar, nor of the corruptions of Christianity by +the learned among its professors. + + Let a just view be taken of the moral principles inculcated by +the most esteemed of the sects of ancient philosophy, or of their +individuals; particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, +Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus. + + I. PHILOSOPHERS. 1. Their precepts related chiefly to +ourselves, and the government of those passions which, unrestrained, +would disturb our tranquillity of mind. In this branch of philosophy +they were really great. + + 2. In developing our duties to others, they were short and +defective. They embraced, indeed, the circles of kindred & friends, +and inculcated patriotism, or the love of our country in the +aggregate, as a primary obligation: toward our neighbors & countrymen +they taught justice, but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of +benevolence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity & love +to our fellow men, or embraced with benevolence the whole family of +mankind. + + II. JEWS. 1. Their system was Deism; that is, the belief of one +only God. But their ideas of him & of his attributes were degrading +& injurious. + + 2. Their Ethics were not only imperfect, but often +irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason & morality, as they +respect intercourse with those around us; & repulsive & anti-social, +as respecting other nations. They needed reformation, therefore, in +an eminent degree. + + III. JESUS. In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus +appeared. His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his +education null; his natural endowments great; his life correct and +innocent: he was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, & of +the sublimest eloquence. + + The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are +remarkable. + + 1. Like Socrates & Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself. + + 2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write +for him. On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched +in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors should +undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing his life & +doctrines fell on the most unlettered & ignorant men; who wrote, too, +from memory, & not till long after the transactions had passed. + + 3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to +enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy +& combination of the altar and the throne, at about 33. years of age, +his reason having not yet attained the _maximum_ of its energy, nor +the course of his preaching, which was but of 3. years at most, +presented occasions for developing a complete system of morals. + + 4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were defective +as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us +mutilated, misstated, & often unintelligible. + + 5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of +schismatising followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating +& perverting the simple doctrines he taught by engrafting on them the +mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, & +obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject +the whole in disgust, & to view Jesus himself as an impostor. + + Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is +presented to us, which, if filled up in the true style and spirit of +the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime +that has ever been taught by man. + + The question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct +communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and +denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an +estimate of the intrinsic merit of his doctrines. + + 1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their +belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of his +attributes and government. + + 2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred & friends, were +more pure & perfect than those of the most correct of the +philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews; and they +went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only +to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all +mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, +charity, peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this +head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over +all others. + + 3. The precepts of philosophy, & of the Hebrew code, laid hold +of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; +erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the +waters at the fountain head. + + + 4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrines of a future state, +which was either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews; and wielded it +with efficacy, as an important incentive, supplementary to the other +motives to moral conduct. + + + EXPEDITION TO THE PACIFIC + + _Instructions to Captain Lewis_ + _June 20, 1803_ + + To Merryweather Lewis, Esq., Captain of the 1st Regiment of +Infantry of the United States of America. + + Your situation as Secretary of the President of the United +States has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential +message of Jan. 18, 1803, to the legislature. You have seen the act +they passed, which, tho' expressed in general terms, was meant to +sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into +execution. + + Instruments for ascertaining by celestial observations the +geography of the country thro' which you will pass, have been already +provided. Light articles for barter, & presents among the Indians, +arms for your attendants, say for from 10 to 12 men, boats, tents, & +other travelling apparatus, with ammunition, medicine, surgical +instruments & provision you will have prepared with such aids as the +Secretary at War can yield in his department; & from him also you +will receive authority to engage among our troops, by voluntary +agreement, the number of attendants above mentioned, over whom you, +as their commanding officer are invested with all the powers the laws +give in such a case. + + As your movements while within the limits of the U.S. will be +better directed by occasional communications, adapted to +circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What +follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the +U.S. + + Your mission has been communicated to the Ministers here from +France, Spain, & Great Britain, and through them to their +governments: and such assurances given them as to it's objects as we +trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been ceded +by Spain to France, the passport you have from the Minister of +France, the representative of the present sovereign of the country, +will be a protection with all it's subjects: And that from the +Minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any +traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet. + + The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & +such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with +the water of the Pacific Ocean may offer the most direct & +practicable water communication across this continent, for the +purposes of commerce. + + Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take +observations of latitude and longitude at all remarkable points on +the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at +islands & other places & objects distinguished by such natural marks +& characters of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be +recognized hereafter. The courses of the river between these points +of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line & by +time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of +the compass too, in different places should be noticed. + + The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the +Missouri & the water offering the best communication with the Pacific +Ocean should be fixed by observation & the course of that water to +the ocean, in the same manner as that of the Missouri. + + Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy, +to be entered distinctly, & intelligibly for others as well as +yourself, to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of +the usual tables to fix the latitude & longitude of the places at +which they were taken, & are to be rendered to the war office, for +the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper +persons within the U.S. Several copies of these as well as of your +other notes, should be made at leisure times & put into the care of +the most trustworthy of your attendants, to guard by multiplying them +against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. A +further guard would be that one of these copies be written on the +paper of the birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common +paper. + + + The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting +the line you will pursue, renders a knolege of these people +important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, +as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit. + with the names of the nations & their numbers; + the extent & limits of their possessions; + their relations with other tribes or nations; + their language, traditions, monuments; + their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, + war, arts, & the implements for these; + their food, clothing, & domestic accommodations; + the diseases prevalent among them, & the remedies they + use; + moral and physical circumstance which distinguish them + from the tribes they know; + peculiarities in their laws, customs & dispositions; + and articles of commerce they may need or furnish & to + what extent. + + And considering the interest which every nation has in +extending & strengthening the authority of reason & justice among the +people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knolege you can +of the state of morality, religion & information among them, as it +may better enable those who endeavor to civilize & instruct them, to +adapt their measures to the existing notions & practises of those on +whom they are to operate. + + Other objects worthy of notice will be + the soil & face of the country, its growth & vegetable +productions; especially those not of the U.S. + the animals of the country generally, & especially those not +known in the U.S. + The remains & accounts of any which may be deemed rare or +extinct; + the mineral productions of every kind; but more particularly +metals, limestone, pit coal & saltpetre; salines & mineral waters, +noting the temperature of the last & such circumstances as may +indicate their character; volcanic appearances; + climate as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion +of rainy, cloudy & clear days, by lightening, hail, snow, ice, by the +access & recess of frost, by the winds, prevailing at different +seasons, the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their +flowers, or leaf, times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles +or insects. + + Altho' your route will be along the channel of the Missouri, +yet you will endeavor to inform yourself by inquiry, of the character +and extent of the country watered by its branches, and especially on +it's southern side. The north river or Rio Bravo which runs into the +gulph of Mexico, and the north river, or Rio colorado, which runs +into the gulph of California, are understood to be the principal +streams heading opposite to the waters of the Missouri, & running +Southwardly. Whether the dividing grounds between the Missouri & +them are mountains or flatlands, what are their distance from the +Missouri, the character of the intermediate country, & the people +inhabiting it, are worthy of particular enquiry. The northern waters +of the Missouri are less to be enquired after, because they have been +ascertained to a considerable degree, and are still in a course of +ascertainment by English traders & travellers. But if you can learn +anything certain of the most northern source of the Mississippi, & of +it's position relative to the lake of the woods, it will be +interesting to us. Some account too of the path of the Canadian +traders from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Ouisconsin river, +to where it strikes the Missouri and of the soil and rivers in it's +course, is desirable. + + In all your intercourse with the natives treat them in the most +friendly & conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit; +allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey, satisfy them +of it's innocence, make them acquainted with the position, extent, +character, peaceable & commercial dispositions of the U.S., of our +wish to be neighborly, friendly & useful to them, & of our +dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them +on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, & the articles of +most desirable interchange for them & us. If a few of their +influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit us, +arrange such a visit with them, and furnish them with authority to +call on our officers, on their entering the U.S. to have them +conveyed to this place at the public expense. If any of them should +wish to have some of their young people brought up with us, & taught +such arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct & take +care of them. Such a mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of +young people, would give some security to your own party. Carry with +you some matter of the kine-pox, inform those of them with whom you +may be of it's efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox; and +instruct & encourage them in the use of it. This may be especially +done wherever you may winter. + + As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will +be received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, +so is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance +with which you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the +lives of citizens to offer them to probably destruction. Your +numbers will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized +opposition of individuals, or of small parties: but if a superior +force, authorized or not authorized, by a nation, should be arrayed +against your further passage, & inflexibly determined to arrest it, +you must decline it's further pursuit, & return. In the loss of +yourselves, we should lose also the information you will have +acquired. By returning safely with that, you may enable us to renew +the essay with better calculated means. To your own discretion +therefore must be left the degree of danger you may risk, & the point +at which you should decline, only saying we wish you to err on the +side of your safety, & to bring back your party safe, even if it be +with less information. + + As far up the Missouri as the white settlements extend, an +intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the +Spanish posts at St. Louis, opposite Cahokia, or Ste. Genevieve +opposite Kaskaskia. From still farther up the river, the traders may +furnish a conveyance for letters. Beyond that you may perhaps be +able to engage Indians to bring letters for the government to Cahokia +or Kaskaskia on promising that they shall there receive such special +compensation as you shall have stipulated with them. Avail yourself +of these means to communicate to us at seasonable intervals a copy of +your journal, notes & observations of every kind, putting into cipher +whatever might do injury if betrayed. + + + Should you reach the Pacific Ocean inform yourself of the +circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may +not be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri +(convenient as is supposed to the waters of the Colorado & Oregon or +Columbia) as at Nootka Sound or any other point of that coast; & that +trade be consequently conducted through the Missouri & U.S. more +beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practised. + + On your arrival on that coast endeavor to learn if there be any +port within your reach frequented by the sea-vessels of any nation, +and to send two of your trusted people back by sea, in such way as +shall appear practicable, with a copy of your notes. And should you +be of opinion that the return of your party by the way they went will +be eminently dangerous, then ship the whole, & return by sea by way +of Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, as you shall be able. As you +will be without money, clothes or provisions, you must endeavor to +use the credit of the U.S. to obtain them; for which purpose open +letters of credit shall be furnished you authorizing you to draw on +the Executive of the U.S. or any of its officers in any part of the +world, in which drafts can be disposed of, and to apply with our +recommendations to the consuls, agents, merchants or citizens of any +nation with which we have intercourse, assuring them in our name that +any aids they may furnish you, shall be honorably repaid and on +demand. Our consuls Thomas Howes at Batavia in Java, William +Buchanan of the Isles of France and Bourbon & John Elmslie at the +Cape of Good Hope will be able to supply your necessities by drafts +on us. + + Should you find it safe to return by the way you go, after +sending two of your party round by sea, or with your whole party, if +no conveyance by sea can be found, do so; making such observations on +your return as may serve to supply, correct or confirm those made on +your outward journey. + + In re-entering the U.S. and reaching a place of safety, +discharge any of your attendants who may desire & deserve it: +procuring for them immediate paiment of all arrears of pay & +cloathing which may have incurred since their departure & assure them +that they shall be recommended to the liberality of the Legislature +for the grant of a souldier's portion of land each, as proposed in my +message to Congress: & repair yourself with your papers to the seat +of government. + + To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy, +dispersion & the consequent danger to your party, and total failure +of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized by any instrument signed +& written in your own hand to name the person among them who shall +succeed to the command on your decease, & by like instruments to +change the nomination from time to time, as further experience of the +characters accompanying you shall point out superior fitness: and all +the powers & authorities given to yourself are, in the event of your +death transferred to & vested in the successor so named, with further +power to him, & his successors in like manner to name each his +successor, who, on the death of his predecessor shall be invested +with all the powers & authorities given to yourself. + + Given under my hand at the city of Washington, this 20th day of +June, 1803. + + + A NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY + + _To Sir John Sinclair_ + _Washington, June 30, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- It is so long since I have had the pleasure of +writing to you, that it would be vain to look back to dates to +connect the old and the new. Yet I ought not to pass over my +acknowledgments to you for various publications received from time to +time, and with great satisfaction and thankfulness. I send you a +small one in return, the work of a very unlettered farmer, yet +valuable, as it relates plain facts of importance to farmers. You +will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast for the use of gypsum. +But there are two facts which prove he has a right to be so: 1. He +began poor, andhas made himself tolerably rich by his farming alone. +2. The county of Loudon, in which he lives, had been so exhausted and +wasted by bad husbandry, that it began to depopulate, the inhabitants +going Southwardly in quest of better lands. Binns' success has +stopped that emigration. It is now becoming one of the most +productive counties of the State of Virginia, and the price given for +the lands is multiplied manifold. + + We are still uninformed here whether you are again at war. +Bonaparte has produced such a state of things in Europe as it would +seem difficult for him to relinquish in any sensible degree, and +equally dangerous for Great Britain to suffer to go on, especially if +accompanied by maritime preparations on his part. The events which +have taken place in France have lessened in the American mind the +motives of interest which it felt in that revolution, and its amity +towards that country now rests on its love of peace and commerce. We +see, at the same time, with great concern, the position in which +Great Britain is placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were any +disaster to deprive mankind of the benefit of such a bulwark against +the torrent which has for some time been bearing down all before it. +But her power and powers at sea seem to render everything safe in the +end. Peace is our passion, and the wrongs might drive us from it. +We prefer trying _ever_ other just principles, right and safety, +before we would recur to war. + + I hope your agricultural institution goes on with success. I +consider you as the author of all the good it shall do. A better +idea has never been carried into practice. Our agricultural society +has at length formed itself. Like our American Philosophical +Society, it is voluntary, and unconnected with the public, and is +precisely an execution of the plan I formerly sketched to you. Some +State societies have been formed heretofore; the others will do the +same. Each State society names two of its members of Congress to be +their members in the Central society, which is of course together +during the sessions of Congress. They are to select matter from the +proceedings of the State societies, and to publish it; so that their +publications may be called _l'esprit des societes d'agriculture_, &c. +The Central society was formed the last winter only, so that it will +be some time before they get under way. Mr. Madison, the Secretary +of State, was elected their President. + + Recollecting with great satisfaction our friendly intercourse +while I was in Europe, I nourish the hope it still preserves a place +in your mind; and with my salutations, I pray you to accept +assurances of my constant attachment and high respect. + + + PEACE FOUNDED ON INTEREST + + _To the Earl of Buchan_ + _Washington, July 10, 1803_ + + MY LORD, -- I received, through the hands of Mr. Lenox, on his +return to the United States, the valuable volume you were so good as +to send me on the life and writings of Fletcher, of Saltoun. The +political principles of that patriot were worthy the purest periods +of the British Constitution; they are those which were in vigor at +the epoch of the American emigration. Our ancestors brought them +here, and they needed little strengthening to make us what we are. +But in the weakened condition of English whigism at this day, it +requires more firmness to publish and advocate them than it then did +to act on them. This merit is peculiarly your Lordship's; and no one +honors it more than myself. While I freely admit the right of a +nation to change its political principles and constitution at will, +and the impropriety of any but its own citizens censuring that +change, I expect your Lordship has been disappointed, as I +acknowledge I have been, in the issue of the convulsions on the other +side the channel. This has certainly lessened the interest which the +philanthropist warmly felt in those struggles. Without befriending +human liberty, a gigantic force has risen up which seems to threaten +the world. But it hangs on the thread of opinion, which may break +from one day to another. I feel real anxiety on the conflict to +which imperious circumstances seem to call your nation, and bless the +Almighty Being, who, in gathering together the waters under the +heavens into one place, divided the dry land of your hemisphere from +the dry lands of ours, and said, at least be there peace. I hope +that peace and amity with all nations will long be the character of +our land, and that its prosperity under the Charter will react on the +mind of Europe, and profit her by the example. My hope of preserving +peace for our country is not founded in the greater principles of +non-resistance under every wrong, but in the belief that a just and +friendly conduct on our part will procure justice and friendship from +others. In the existing contest, each of the combatants will find an +interest in our friendship. I cannot say we shall be unconcerned +spectators of this combat. We feel for human sufferings, and we wish +the good of all. We shall look on, therefore, with the sensations +which these dispositions and the events of the war will produce. + + I feel a pride in the justice which your Lordship's sentiments +render to the character of my illustrious countryman, Washington. +The moderation of his desires, and the strength of his judgment, +enabled him to calculate correctly, that the road to that glory which +never dies is to use power for the support of the laws and liberties +of our country, not for their destruction; and his will accordingly +survives the wreck of everything now living. + + Accept, my lord, the tribute of esteem, from one who renders it +with warmth to the disinterested friend of mankind, and assurances of +my high consideration and respect. + + + PHILOSOPHY AND BLASTED HOPES + + _To Pierre J. G. Cabanis_ + _Washington, July 12, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I lately received your friendly letter of 28 +Vendem. an. 11, with the two volumes on the relations between the +physical and moral faculties of man. This has ever been a subject of +great interest to the inquisitive mind, and it could not have got +into better hands for discussion than yours. That thought may be a +faculty of our material organization, has been believed in the gross; +and though the "modus operandi" of nature, in this, as in most other +cases, can never be developed and demonstrated to beings limited as +we are, yet I feel confident you will have conducted us as far on the +road as we can go, and have lodged us within reconnoitering distance +of the citadel itself. While _here_, I have time to read nothing. +But our annual recess for the months of August and September is now +approaching, during which time I shall be at the Montrials, where I +anticipate great satisfaction in the presence of these volumes. It +is with great satisfaction, too, I recollect the agreeable hours I +have past with yourself and M. de La Roche, at the house of our late +excellent friend, Madame Helvetius, and elsewhere; and I am happy to +learn you continue your residence there. Antevil always appeared to +me a delicious village, and Madame Helvetius's the most delicious +spot in it. In those days how sanguine we were! and how soon were +the virtuous hopes and confidence of every good man blasted! and how +many excellent friends have we lost in your efforts towards +self-government, _et cui bono_? But let us draw a veil over the +dead, and hope the best for the living. If the hero who has saved +you from a combination of enemies, shall also be the means of giving +you as great a portion of liberty as the opinions, habits and +character of the nation are prepared for, progressive preparation may +fit you for progressive portions of that first of blessings, and you +may in time attain what we erred in supposing could be hastily seized +and maintained, in the present state of political information among +your citizens at large. In this way all may end well. + + You are again at war, I find. But we, I hope, shall be +permitted to run the race of peace. Your government has wisely +removed what certainly endangered collision between us. I now see +nothing which need ever interrupt the friendship between France and +this country. Twenty years of peace, and the prosperity so visibly +flowing from it, have but strengthened our attachment to it, and the +blessings it brings, and we do not despair of being always a +peaceable nation. We think that peaceable means may be devised of +keeping nations in the path of justice towards us, by making justice +their interest, and injuries to react on themselves. Our distance +enables us to pursue a course which the crowded situation of Europe +renders perhaps impracticable there. + + Be so good as to accept for yourself and M. de La Roche, my +friendly salutations, and assurances of great consideration and +respect. + + + THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE + + _To John C. Breckinridge_ + _Monticello, Aug. 12, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The enclosed letter, tho' directed to you, was +intended to me also, and was left open with a request, that when +perused, I would forward it to you. It gives me occasion to write a +word to you on the subject of Louisiana, which being a new one, an +interchange of sentiments may produce correct ideas before we are to +act on them. + + Our information as to the country is very incompleat; we have +taken measures to obtain it in full as to the settled part, which I +hope to receive in time for Congress. The boundaries, which I deem +not admitting question, are the high lands on the western side of the +Missisipi enclosing all it's waters, the Missouri of course, and +terminating in the line drawn from the northwestern point of the Lake +of the Woods to the nearest source of the Missipi, as lately settled +between Gr Britain and the U S. We have some claims, to extend on +the sea coast Westwardly to the Rio Norte or Bravo, and better, to go +Eastwardly to the Rio Perdido, between Mobile & Pensacola, the +antient boundary of Louisiana. These claims will be a subject of +negociation with Spain, and if, as soon as she is at war, we push +them strongly with one hand, holding out a price in the other, we +shall certainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good time. In the +meanwhile, without waiting for permission, we shall enter into the +exercise of the natural right we have always insisted on with Spain, +to wit, that of a nation holding the upper part of streams, having a +right of innocent passage thro' them to the ocean. We shall prepare +her to see us practise on this, & she will not oppose it by force. + + Objections are raising to the Eastward against the vast extent +of our boundaries, and propositions are made to exchange Louisiana, +or a part of it, for the Floridas. But, as I have said, we shall get +the Floridas without, and I would not give one inch of the waters of +the Mississippi to any nation, because I see in a light very +important to our peace the exclusive right to it's navigation, & the +admission of no nation into it, but as into the Potomak or Delaware, +with our consent & under our police. These federalists see in this +acquisition the formation of a new confederacy, embracing all the +waters of the Missipi, on both sides of it, and a separation of it's +Eastern waters from us. These combinations depend on so many +circumstances which we cannot foresee, that I place little reliance +on them. We have seldom seen neighborhood produce affection among +nations. The reverse is almost the universal truth. Besides, if it +should become the great interest of those nations to separate from +this, if their happiness should depend on it so strongly as to induce +them to go through that convulsion, why should the Atlantic States +dread it? But especially why should we, their present inhabitants, +take side in such a question? When I view the Atlantic States, +procuring for those on the Eastern waters of the Missipi friendly +instead of hostile neighbors on it's Western waters, I do not view it +as an Englishman would the procuring future blessings for the French +nation, with whom he has no relations of blood or affection. The +future inhabitants of the Atlantic & Missipi States will be our sons. +We leave them in distinct but bordering establishments. We think we +see their happiness in their union, & we wish it. Events may prove +it otherwise; and if they see their interest in separation, why +should we take side with our Atlantic rather than our Missipi +descendants? It is the elder and the younger son differing. God +bless them both, & keep them in union, if it be for their good, but +separate them, if it be better. The inhabited part of Louisiana, +from Point Coupee to the sea, will of course be immediately a +territorial government, and soon a State. But above that, the best +use we can make of the country for some time, will be to give +establishments in it to the Indians on the East side of the Missipi, +in exchange for their present country, and open land offices in the +last, & thus make this acquisition the means of filling up the +Eastern side, instead of drawing off it's population. When we shall +be full on this side, we may lay off a range of States on the Western +bank from the head to the mouth, & so, range after range, advancing +compactly as we multiply. + + This treaty must of course be laid before both Houses, because +both have important functions to exercise respecting it. They, I +presume, will see their duty to their country in ratifying & paying +for it, so as to secure a good which would otherwise probably be +never again in their power. But I suppose they must then appeal to +_the nation_ for an additional article to the Constitution, approving +& confirming an act which the nation had not previously authorized. +The constitution has made no provision for our holding foreign +territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our +Union. The Executive in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so +much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the +Constitution. The Legislature in casting behind them metaphysical +subtleties, and risking themselves like faithful servants, must +ratify & pay for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing +for them unauthorized what we know they would have done for +themselves had they been in a situation to do it. It is the case of +a guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an +important adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this +for your good; I pretend to no right to bind you: you may disavow me, +and I must get out of the scrape as I can: I thoughtit my duty to +risk myself for you. But we shall not be disavowed by the nation, +and their act of indemnity will confirm & not weaken the +Constitution, by more strongly marking out its lines. + + We have nothing later from Europe than the public papers give. +I hope yourself and all the Western members will make a sacred point +of being at the first day of the meeting of Congress; for _vestra res +agitur._ + + Accept my affectionate salutations & assurances of esteem & +respect. + + + A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT + + _To Wilson Cary Nicholas_ + _Monticello, Sep. 7, 1803_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 3d was delivered me at court; +but we were much disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison & +the Gov. being here at the time. I enclose you a letter from Monroe +on the subject of the late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to +do without delay what we are bound to do. There is reason, in the +opinion of our ministers, to believe, that if the thing were to do +over again, it could not be obtained, & that if we give the least +opening, they will declare the treaty void. A warning amounting to +that has been given to them, & an unusual kind of letter written by +their minister to our Secretary of State, direct. Whatever Congress +shall think it necessary to do, should be done with as little debate +as possible, & particularly so far as respects the constitutional +difficulty. I am aware of the force of the observations you make on +the power given by the Constn to Congress, to admit new States into +the Union, without restraining the subject to the territory then +constituting the U S. But when I consider that the limits of the U S +are precisely fixed by the treaty of 1783, that the Constitution +expressly declares itself to be made for the U S, I cannot help +believing the intention was to permit Congress to admit into the +Union new States, which should be formed out of the territory for +which, & under whose authority alone, they were then acting. I do +not believe it was meant that they might receive England, Ireland, +Holland, &c. into it, which would be the case on your construction. +When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe, the other +dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that which +is safe & precise. I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the +nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a +construction which would make our powers boundless. Our peculiar +security is in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make +it a blank paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion +of those who consider the grant of the treaty making power as +boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution. If it has +bounds, they can be no others than the definitions of the powers +which that instrument gives. It specifies & delineates the +operations permitted to the federal government, and gives all the +powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of these +enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law; +whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President & +Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a +judicial sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more +likely than that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is +the ordinary case of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting +it, by adding, by way of amendment to the Constitution, those powers +which time & trial show are still wanting. But it has been taken too +much for granted, that by this rigorous construction the treaty power +would be reduced to nothing. I had occasion once to examine its +effect on the French treaty, made by the old Congress, & found that +out of thirty odd articles which that contained, there were one, two, +or three only which could not now be stipulated under our present +Constitution. I confess, then, I think it important, in the present +case, to set an example against broad construction, by appealing for +new power to the people. If, however, our friends shall think +differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with satisfaction; +confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct the evil +of construction when it shall produce ill effects. + + No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are +necessary. On the contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to +me, & proves to me their friendship so clearly, as the information +they give me of their sentiments & those of others on interesting +points where I am to act, and where information & warning is so +essential to excite in me that due reflection which ought to precede +action. I leave this about the 21st, and shall hope the District +Court will give me an opportunity of seeing you. + + Accept my affectionate salutations, & assurances of cordial +esteem & respect. + + + JESUS, LOUISIANA, AND MALTHUS + + _To Dr. Joseph Priestley_ + _Washington, Jan. 29, 1804_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 12 came duly to hand, as +did the 2'd. letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise of Phlogiston, +for which I pray you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. +Livingston has been delivered, together with your letter to him, to +Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who departs in a day or two for Paris, & +will deliver them himself to Mr. Livingston, whose attention to your +matter cannot be doubted. I have also to add my thanks to Mr. +Priestley, your son, for the copy of your Harmony, which I have gone +through with great satisfaction. It is the first I have been able to +meet with, which is clear of those long repetitions of the same +transaction, as if it were a different one because related with some +different circumstances. + + I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the +moral doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You +are so much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it +easier & better than any other person living. I think you cannot +avoid giving, as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral +doctrines, extracted in his own words from the Evangelists, and +leaving out everything relative to his personal history and +character. It would be short and precious. With a view to do this +for my own satisfaction, I had sent to Philadelphia to get two +testaments Greek of the same edition, & two English, with a design to +cut out the morsels of morality, and paste them on the leaves of a +book, in the manner you describe as having been pursued in forming +your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by better hands. + + I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our +horizon which was to burst in a tornado; and the public are +unapprized how near this catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank & +friendly development of causes & effects on our part, and good sense +enough in Bonaparte to see that the train was unavoidable, and would +change the face of the world, saved us from that storm. I did not +expect he would yield till a war took place between France and +England, and my hope was to palliate and endure, if Messrs. Ross, +Morris, &c. did not force a premature rupture, until that event. I +believed the event not very distant, but acknolege it came on sooner +than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense of Bonaparte +might not see the course predicted to be necessary & unavoidable, +even before a war should be imminent, was a chance which we thought +it our duty to try; but the immediate prospect of rupture brought the +case to immediate decision. The _denoument_ has been happy; and I +confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending a +government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to +the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one +confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I +believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of +the western confederacy will be as much our children & descendants as +those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with that +country, in future time, as with this; and did I now foresee a +separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty & the +desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, +doing all the good for both portions of our future family which +should fall within my power. + + Have you seen the new work of Malthus on population? It is one +of the ablest I have ever seen. Altho' his main object is to +delineate the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the +poor laws of England, & other palliations for that evil, several +important questions in political economy, allied to his subject +incidentally, are treated with a masterly hand. It is a single 4'to. +volume, and I have been only able to read a borrowed copy, the only +one I have yet heard of. Probably our friends in England will think +of you, & give you an opportunity of reading it. Accept my +affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem & respect. + + + MALTHUS AND THE NEW WORLD + + _To Jean Baptiste Say_ + _Washington, February 1, 1804_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging +letter, and with it, of two very interesting volumes on Political +Economy. These found me engaged in giving the leisure moments I +rarely find, to the perusal of Malthus' work on population, a work of +sound logic, in which some of the opinions of Adam Smith, as well as +of the economists, are ably examined. I was pleased, on turning to +some chapters where you treat the same questions, to find his +opinions corroborated by yours. I shall proceed to the reading of +your work with great pleasure. In the meantime, the present +conveyance, by a gentleman of my family going to Paris, is too safe +to hazard a delay in making my acknowledgments for this mark of +attention, and for having afforded to me a satisfaction, which the +ordinary course of literary communications could not have given me +for a considerable time. + + The differences of circumstance between this and the old +countries of Europe, furnish differences of fact whereon to reason, +in questions of political economy, and will consequently produce +sometimes a difference of result. There, for instance, the quantity +of food is fixed, or increasing in a slow and only arithmetical +ratio, and the proportion is limited by the same ratio. +Supernumerary births consequently add only to your mortality. Here +the immense extent of uncultivated and fertile lands enables every +one who will labor to marry young, and to raise a family of any size. +Our food, then, may increase geometrically with our laborers, and our +births, however multiplied, become effective. Again, there the best +distribution of labor is supposed to be that which places the +manufacturing hands alongside the agricultural; so that the one part +shall feed both, and the other part furnish both with clothes and +other comforts. Would that be best here? Egoism and first +appearances say yes. Or would it be better that all our laborers +should be employed in agriculture? In this case a double or treble +portion of fertile lands would be brought into culture; a double or +treble creation of food be produced, and its surplus go to nourish +the now perishing births of Europe, who in return would manufacture +and send us in exchange our clothes and other comforts. Morality +listens to this, and so invariably do the laws of nature create our +duties and interests, that when they seem to be at variance, we ought +to suspect some fallacy in our reasonings. In solving this question, +too, we should allow its just weight to the moral and physical +preference of the agricultural, over the manufacturing, man. My +occupations permit me only to ask questions. They deny me the time, +if I had the information, to answer them. Perhaps, as worthy the +attention of the author of the Traite d'Economie Politique, I shall +find them answered in that work. If they are not, the reason will +have been that you wrote for Europe; while I shall have asked them +because I think for America. Accept, Sir, my respectful salutations, +and assurances of great consideration. + + + GRIEF AND GRIEVANCES + + _To Abigail Adams_ + _Washington, June 13, 1804_ + + DEAR MADAM -- The affectionate sentiments which you have had +the goodness to express in your letter of May 20. towards my dear +departed daughter, have awakened in me sensibilities natural to the +occasion, and recalled your kindnesses to her which I shall ever +remember with gratitude and friendship. I can assure you with truth +they had made an indelible impression on her mind, and that, to the +last, on our meetings after long separations, whether I had heard +lately of you, and how you did, were among the earliest of her +enquiries. In giving you this assurance I perform a sacred duty for +her, and at the same time am thankful for the occasion furnished me +of expressing my regret that circumstances should have arisen which +have seemed to draw a line of separation between us. The friendship +with which you honoured me has ever been valued, and fully +reciprocated; and altho' events have been passing which might be +trying to some minds, I never believed yours to be of that kind, nor +felt that my own was. Neither my estimate of your character, nor the +esteem founded in that, have ever been lessened for a single moment, +although doubts whether it would be acceptable may have forbidden +manifestations of it. Mr. Adams's friendship and mine began at an +earlier date. It accompanied us thro' long and important scenes. +The different conclusions we had drawn from our political reading and +reflections were not permitted to lessen mutual esteem, each party +being conscious they were the result of an honest conviction in the +other. Like differences of opinion existing among our fellow +citizens attached them to the one or the other of us, and produced a +rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We never stood +in one another's way: for if either had been withdrawn at any time, +his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would have +sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration was +sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our +friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can +say with truth that one act of Mr. Adams's life, and one only, ever +gave me a moment's personal displeasure. I did consider his last +appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from among my +most ardent political enemies, from whom no faithful cooperation +could ever be expected, and laid me under the embarrasment of acting +thro' men whose views were to defeat mine; or to encounter the odium +of putting others in their places. It seemed but common justice to +leave a successor free to act by instruments of his own choice. If +my respect for him did not permit me to ascribe the whole blame to +the influence of others, it left something for friendship to forgive, +and after brooding over it for some little time, and not always +resisting the expression of it, I forgave it cordially, and returned +to the same state of esteem and respect for him which had so long +subsisted. Having come into life a little later than Mr. Adams, his +career has preceded mine, as mine is followed by some other, and it +will probably be closed at the same distance after him which time +originally placed between us. I maintain for him, and shall carry +into private life an uniform and high measure of respect and good +will, and for yourself a sincere attachment. I have thus, my dear +Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which I have long wished +an opportunity of doing; and, without knowing how it will be +recieved, I feel relief from being unbosomed. And I have now only to +entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject of +domestic affliction to one which seems of a different aspect. But +tho connected with political events, it has been viewed by me most +strongly in it's unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The +injury these have sustained has been a heavy price for what has never +given me equal pleasure. That you may both be favored with health, +tranquility and long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the +assurances of his highest consideration and esteem. + + + FREEDOM OF THE PRESS + + _To Judge John Tyler_ + _Washington, June 28, 1804_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 10th instant has been duly +received. Amidst the direct falsehoods, the misrepresentations of +truth, the calumnies and the insults resorted to by a faction to +mislead the public mind, and to overwhelm those entrusted with its +interests, our support is to be found in the approving voice of our +conscience and country, in the testimony of our fellow citizens, that +their confidence is not shaken by these artifices. When to the +plaudits of the honest multitude, the sober approbation of the sage +in his closet is added, it becomes a gratification of an higher +order. It is the sanction of wisdom superadded to the voice of +affection. The terms, therefore, in which you are so good as to +express your satisfaction with the course of the present +administration cannot but give me great pleasure. I may err in my +measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the +public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the +power of the few to riot on the labors of the many. No experiment +can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we +trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by +reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave +open to him all the avenues to truth.The most effectual hitherto +found, is the freedom of the press. It is therefore, the first shut +up by those who fear the investigation of their actions. The +firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the +press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and +falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything +true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them. As +little is it necessary to impose on their senses, or dazzle their +minds by pomp, splendor, or forms. Instead of this artificial, how +much surer is that real respect, which results from the use of their +reason, and the habit of bringing everything to the test of common +sense. + + I hold it, therefore, certain, that to open the doors of truth, +and to fortify the habit of testing everything by reason, are the +most effectual manacles we can rivet on the hands of our successors +to prevent their manacling the people with their own consent. The +panic into which they were artfully thrown in 1798, the frenzy which +was excited in them by their enemies against their apparent readiness +to abandon all the principles established for their own protection, +seemed for awhile to countenance the opinions of those who say they +cannot be trusted with their own government. But I never doubted +their rallying; and they did rally much sooner than I expected. On +the whole, that experiment on their credulity has confirmed my +confidence in their ultimate good sense and virtue. + + + I lament to learn that a like misfortune has enabled you to +estimate the afflictions of a father on the loss of a beloved child. +However terrible the possibility of such another accident, it is +still a blessing for you of inestimable value that you would not even +then descend childless to the grave. Three sons, and hopeful ones +too, are a rich treasure. I rejoice when I hear of young men of +virtue and talents, worthy to receive, and likely to preserve the +splendid inheritance of self-government, which we have acquired and +shaped for them. + + The complement of midshipmen for the Tripoline squadron, is +full; and I hope the frigates have left the Capes by this time. I +have, however, this day, signed warrants of midshipmen for the two +young gentlemen you recommended. These will be forwarded by the +Secretary of the Navy. He tells me that their first services will be +to be performed on board the gun boats. + + Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem +and respect. + + + "THE OFFICE OF HANGMAN" + + _To Larkin Smith_ + _Washington, Nov. 26, 1804_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of the 10th came to hand yesterday evening. +It was written with frankness and independance and will be answered +in the same way. You complain that I did not answer your letters +applying for office. But if you will reflect a moment you may judge +whether this ought to be expected. To the successful applicant for +an office the commission is the answer. To the unsuccessful +multitude am I to go with every one into the reasons for not +appointing him? Besides that this correspondence would literally +engross my whole time, into what controversies would it lead me. +Sensible of this dilemma, from the moment of coming into office I +laid it down as a rule to leave the applicants to collect their +answer from the facts. To entitle myself to the benefit of the rule +in any case it must be observed in every one: and I never have +departed from it in a single case, not even for my bosom friends. +You observe that you are, or probably will be appointed an elector. +I have no doubt you will do your duty with a conscientious regard to +the public good & to that only. Your decision in favor of another +would not excite in my mind the slightest dissatisfaction towards +you. On the contrary I should honor the integrity of your choice. +In the nominations I have to make, do the same justice to my motives. +Had you hundreds to nominate, instead of one, be assured they would +not compose for you a bed of roses. You would find yourself in most +cases with one loaf and ten wanting bread. Nine must be +disappointed, perhaps become secret, if not open enemies. The +transaction of the great interests of our country costs us little +trouble or difficulty. There the line is plain to men of some +experience. But the task of appointment is a heavy one indeed. He +on whom it falls may envy the lot of a Sisyphus or Ixion. Their +agonies were of the body: this of the mind. Yet, like the office of +hangman it must be executed by some one. It has been assigned to me +and made my duty. I make up my mind to it therefore, & abandon all +regard to consequences. Accept my salutations & assurances of +respect. + + + BLUEPRINT OF THE UNIVERSITY + + _To Littleton Waller Tazewell_ + _Washington, Jan. 5, 1805_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 24 never came to my hands +till last night. It's importance induces me to hasten the answer. +No one can be more rejoiced at the information that the legislature +of Virginia are likely at length to institute an University on a +liberal plan. Convinced that the people are the only safe +depositories of their own liberty, & that they are not safe unless +enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state +of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people +could be informed to a certain degree. This requires two grades of +education. First some institution where science in all it's branches +is taught, and in the highest degree to which the human mind has +carried it. This would prepare a few subjects in every State, to +whom nature has given minds of the first order. Secondly such a +degree of learning given to every member of the society as will +enable him to read, to judge & to vote understandingly on what is +passing. This would be the object of the township schools. I +understand from your letter that the first of these only is under +present contemplation. Let us receive with contentment what the +legislature is now ready to give. The other branch will be +incorporated into the system at some more favorable moment. + + The first step in this business will be for the legislature to +pass an act of establishment equivalent to a charter. This should +deal in generals only. It's provisions should go 1. to the object of +the institution. 2. it's location. 3. it's endowment. 4. it's +Direction. On each of these heads I will hazard a first thought or +two. 1. It's object should be defined only generally for teaching +the useful branches of science, leaving the particulars to the +direction of the day. Science is progressive. What was useful two +centuries ago is now become useless, e.g. one half the professorships +of Wm & Mary. What is now deemed useful will in some of it's parts +become useless in another century. The visitors will be the best +qualified to keep their institution up in even pace with the science +of the times. Every one knows that Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, +etc. are now a century or two behind the science of the age. 2. The +location. The legislature is the proper judges of a general +position, within certain limits, as for instance the county in which +it shall be. To fix on the spot identically they would not be so +competent as persons particularly appointed to examine the grounds. +This small degree of liberty in location would place the landholders +in the power of the purchasers: to fix the spot would place the +purchaser in the power of the landholder. 3. It's endowment. Bank +stock, or public stock of any kind should be immediately converted +into real estate. In the form of stock it is a dead fund, it's +depreciation being equal to it's interest. Every one must see that +money put into our funds when first established (in 1791) with all +its interest from that day would not buy more now than the principal +would then have done. Mr. Pitt states to parliament that the +expenses of living in England have, in the last 20 years, increased +50. percent: that is that money has depreciated that much. Even the +precious metals depreciate slowly so that in perpetual institutions, +as colleges, that ought to be guarded against. But in countries +admitting paper, the abusive emissions of that produces two, three or +four courses of depreciation & annihilation in a century. Lands will +keep _advancing_ nominally so as to keep _even_ really. Canal shares +are as good as lands, perhaps better: but the whole funds should not +be risked in any one form. They should be vested in the visitors, +without any power given them to lessen their capital, or even to +_change_ what is real. 4. The Direction. This would of course be in +the hands of Visitors. The legislature would name the first set, & +lay down the laws of their succession. On death or resignation the +legislature or the Chancellor might name three persons of whom the +visitors should chuse one. The visitors should be few. If many, +those half qualified would by their numbers bring every thing down to +the level of their own capacities, by out-voting the few of real +science. I doubt if they should exceed five. For this is an office +for which good sense alone does not qualify a man. To analyse +science into it's different branches, to distribute these into +professorships, to superintend the course practiced by each +professor, he must know what these sciences are and possess their +outlines at least. Can any state in the union furnish more than 5. +men so qualified as to the whole field of the sciences. The Visitors +should receive no pay. Such qualifications are properly rewarded by +honor, not by money. + + The charter being granted & the Visitors named, these become +then the agents as to every thing else. Their first objects will be +1. the special location. 2. the institution of professorships. 3. +the employment of their capital. 4. the necessary buildings. A word +on each. 1. Special location needs no explanation. 2. +Professorships. They would have to select all the branches of +science deemed useful at this day, & in this country: to groupe as +many of these together as could be taught by one professor and thus +reduce the number of professors to the minimum consistent with the +essential object. Having for some years entertained the hope that +our country would some day establish an institution on a liberal +scale, I have been taking measures to have in readiness such +materials as would require time to collect. I have from Dr. +Priestley a designation of the branches of science grouped into +professorships which he furnished at my request. He was an excellent +judge of what may be called the old studies, of those useful and +those useless. I have the same thing from Mr. Dupont, a good judge +of the new branches. His letter to me is quite a treatise. I have +the plan of the institutions of Edinburgh, & those of the National +institute of France; and I expect from Mr. Pictet, one of the most +celebrated professors of Geneva, their plan, in answer to a letter +written some time ago. From these the Visitors could select the +branches useful for the country & how to groupe them. A hasty view +of the subject on a former occasion led me to believe 10. +professorships would be necessary, but not all immediately. Half a +dozen of the most urgent would make a good beginning. The salaries +of the first professors should be very liberal, that we might draw +the first names of Europe to our institution in order to give it a +celebrity in the outset, which will draw to it the youth of all the +states, and make Virginia their cherished & beloved Alma mater. I +have good reasons to believe we can command the services of some of +the first men of Europe. 3. The emploiment of their capital. On +this subject others are so much better judges than myself that I +shall say nothing. 4. Buildings. The greatest danger will be their +over-building themselves, by attempting a large house in the +beginning, sufficient to contain the whole institution. Large houses +are always ugly, inconvenient, exposed to the accident of fire, and +bad in cases of infection. A plain small house for the school & +lodging of each professor is best. These connected by covered ways +out of which the rooms of the students should open would be best. +These may then be built only as they shall be wanting. In fact an +University should not be an house but a village. This will much +lessen their first expenses. + + Not having written any three lines of this without interruption +it has been impossible to keep my ideas rallied to the subject. I +must let these hasty outlines go therefore as they are. Some are +premature, some probably immature: but make what use you please of +them except letting them get into print. Should this establishment +take place on a plan worthy of approbation, I shall have a valuable +legacy to leave it, to wit, my library, which certainly has not cost +less than 15,000 Dollars. But it's value is more in the selection, a +part of which, that which respects America, is the result of my own +personal searches in Paris for 6. or 7. years, & of persons employed +by me in England, Holland, Germany and Spain to make similar +searches. Such a collection on that subject can never again be made. +With my sincere wishes for the success of this measure accept my +salutations & assurances of great esteem & respect. + + + THE TWO-TERM PRECEDENT + + _To John Taylor_ + _Washington, Jan. 6, 1805_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Dec. 26th has been duly received, +and was received as a proof of your friendly partialities to me, of +which I have so often had reason to be sensible. My opinion +originally was that the President of the U.S. should have been +elected for 7. years, & forever ineligible afterwards. I have since +become sensible that 7. years is too long to be irremovable, and that +there should be a peaceable way of withdrawing a man in midway who is +doing wrong. The service for 8. years with a power to remove at the +end of the first four, comes nearly to my principle as corrected by +experience. And it is in adherence to that that I determined to +withdraw at the end of my second term. The danger is that the +indulgence & attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair +after he becomes a dotard, that reelection through life shall become +habitual, & election for life follow that. Genl. Washington set the +example of voluntary retirement after 8. years. I shall follow it, +and a few more precedents will oppose the obstacle of habit to anyone +after a while who shall endeavor to extend his term. Perhaps it may +beget a disposition to establish it by an amendment of the +constitution. I believe I am doing right, therefore, in pursuing my +principle. I had determined to declare my intention, but I have +consented to be silent on the opinion of friends, who think it best +not to put a continuance out of my power in defiance of all +circumstances. There is, however, but one circumstance which could +engage my acquiescence in another election, to wit, such a division +about a successor as might bring in a Monarchist. But this +circumstance is impossible. While, therefore, I shall make no formal +declarations to the public of my purpose, I have freely let it be +understood in private conversation. In this I am persuaded yourself +& my friends generally will approve of my views: and should I at the +end of a 2d term carry into retirement all the favor which the 1st +has acquired, I shall feel the consolation of having done all the +goodin my power, and expect with more than composure thetermination +of a life no longer valuable to others or of im-portance to myself. +Accept my affectionate salutations & assurances of great esteem & +respect. + + + CLIMATE, FEVERS, AND THE POLYGRAPH + + _To C. F. de C. Volney_ + _Washington, February 8, 1805_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May +the 14th; the books some time after, which were all distributed +according to direction. The copy for the East Indies went +immediately by a safe conveyance. The letter of April the 28th, and +the copy of your work accompanying that, did not come to hand till +August. That copy was deposited in the Congressional library. It +was not till my return here from my autumnal visit to Monticello, +that I had an opportunity of reading your work. I have read it, and +with great satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a judge than +most people, having never travelled westward of Staunton, so as to +know any thing of the face of the country; nor much indulged myself +in geological inquiries, from a belief that the skin-deep scratches +which we can make or find on the surface of the earth, do not repay +our time with as certain and useful deductions, as our pursuits in +some other branches. The subject of our winds is more familiar to +me. On that, the views you have taken are always great, supported in +their outlines by your facts; and though more extensive observations, +and longer continued, may produce some anomalies, yet they will +probably take their place in this first great canvass which you have +sketched. In no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or +judgment more than in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in +his sleigh and snow, the very idea of which gives me the shivers. +The comparison of climate between Europe and North America, taking +together its corresponding parts, hangs chiefly on three great +points. 1. The changes between heat and cold in America, are greater +and more frequent, and the extremes comprehend a greater scale on the +thermometer in America than in Europe. Habit, however, prevents +these from affecting us more than the smaller changes of Europe +affect the European. But he is greatly affected by ours. 2. Our sky +is always clear; that of Europe always cloudy. Hence a greater +accumulation of heat here than there, in the same parallel. 3. The +changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and sudden in +Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls in +half the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate +of the United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful +one. It is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our +constitutions all disposition to hang ourselves, which we might +otherwise have inherited from our English ancestors. During a +residence of between six and seven years in Paris, I never, but once, +saw the sun shine through a whole day, without being obscured by a +cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the moment, in which, +viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could say there was +not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at Monticello, on +my return from France, in January, and during only two months' stay +there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to France, +that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of a +cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an +European should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our +taste in this, as in most other cases. + + The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable +to what we then knew of it. Further experience has developed more +and more its peculiar character. Facts appear to have established +that it is originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never +generated but in the lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large +cities, in the neighborhood of the water; and that, to catch the +disease, you must enter the local atmosphere. Persons having taken +the disease in the infected quarter, and going into the country, are +nursed and buried by their friends, without an example of +communicating it. A vessel going from the infected quarter, and +carrying its atmosphere in its hold into another State, has given the +disease to every person who there entered her. These have died in +the arms of their families without a single communication of the +disease. It is certainly, therefore, an epidemic, not a contagious +disease; and calls on the chemists for some mode of purifying the +vessel by a decomposition of its atmosphere, if ventilation be found +insufficient. In the long scale of bilious fevers, graduated by many +shades, this is probably the last and most mortal term. It seizes +the native of the place equally with strangers. It has not been long +known in any part of the United States. The shade next above it, +called the stranger's fever, has been coeval with the settlement of +the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit, Norfolk, Charleston, +New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the months of July, +August or September, find this fever as mortal as the genuine yellow +fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them some +time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no +respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger's +fever, and every species of bilious fever which produces a black +vomit, that is to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear +of yellow fever on the Alleganey mountains, in Kentucky, &c. This is +a matter of definition only: but it leads into error those who do not +know how loosely and how interestedly some physicians think and +speak. So far as we have yet seen, I think we are correct insaying, +that the yellow fever which seizes on all indiscriminately, is an +ultimate degree of bilious fever never known in the United States +till lately, nor farther south, as yet, than Alexandria, and that +what they have recently called the yellow fever in New Orleans, +Charleston and Norfolk, is what has always been known in those places +as confined chiefly to strangers, and nearly as mortal _to them_, as +the other is to _all_ its subjects. But both grades are local: the +stranger's fever less so, as it sometimes extends a little into the +neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so, confined within +narrow and well defined limits, and not communicable out of those +limits. Such a constitution of atmosphere being requisite to +originate this disease as is generated only in low, close, and +ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have supposed it practicable to +prevent its generation by building our cities on a more open plan. +Take, for instance, the chequer board for a plan. Let the black +squares only be building squares, and the white ones be left open, in +turf and trees. Every square of houses will be surrounded by four +open squares, and every house will front an open square. The +atmosphere of such a town would be like that of the country, +insusceptible of the miasmata which produce yellow fever. I have +accordingly proposed that the enlargements of the city of New +Orleans, which must immediately take place, shall be on this plan. +But it is only in case of enlargements to be made, or of cities to be +built, that this means of prevention can be employed. + + The _genus irritabile vatum_ could not let the author of the +Ruins publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of +discrediting that puzzling composition. Some one of those holy +calumniators has selected from your new work every scrap of a +sentence, which, detached from its context, could displease an +American reader. A cento has been made of these, which has run +through a particular description of newspapers, and excited a +disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the reading +of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct +error. + + Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life, +that they have little time to write or invent. A good invention +here, therefore, is such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the +acceptance of a friend. A Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near +Philadelphia, has invented a machine which he calls a polygraph, and +which carries two, three, or four pens. That of two pens, with which +I am now writing, is best; and is so perfect that I have laid aside +the copying-press, for a twelve month past, and write always with the +polygraph. I have directed one to be made, of which I ask your +acceptance. By what conveyance I shall send it while Havre is +blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you will be pleased with it, +and will use it habitually as I do; because it requires only that +degree of mechanical attention which I know you to possess. I am +glad to hear that M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the reformation +of medicine. It needs the hand of a reformer, and cannot be in +better hands than his. Will you permit my rekspects to him and the +Abbe de la Roche to find a place here. + + A word now on our political state. The two parties which +prevailed with so much violence when you were here, are almost wholly +melted into one. At the late Presidential election I have received +one hundred and sixty-two votes against fourteen only. Connecticut +is still federal by a small majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she +has been since 1775, and will be till Anglomany with her yields to +Americanism. Connecticut will be with us in a short time. Though +the people in mass have joined us, their leaders had committed +themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps them hostile; they brood +over their angry passions, and give them vent in the newspapers which +they maintain. They still make as much noise as if they were the +whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile papers, +published chiefly in the sea ports, are the only ones which find +their way to Europe, and make very false impressions there. I am +happy to hear that the late derangement of your health is going +off,and that you are re-established. I sincerely pray for the +continuance of that blessing, and with my affectionate salutations, +tender you assurances of great respect and attachment. + + P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying pen +of the polygraph, not of the one with which I have written. + + + NEWS OF CAPTAIN LEWIS + + _To C. F. de C. Volney_ + _Washington, Feb. 11, 1806_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Since mine of Feb. 18 of the last year, I have +received yours of July 2. I have been constantly looking out for an +opportunity of sending your Polygraph; but the blockade of Havre has +cut off that resource, and I have feared to send it to a port from +which there would be only land carriage. A safe conveyance now +offering to Nantes, & under the particular care of Mr. Skipwith, who +is returning to France, he will take care of it from Nantes by land +if an easy carriage is found, or if not, then by the canal of Briare. +Another year's constant use of a similar one attaches me more and +more to it as a most valuable convenience. I send you also a +pamphlet published here against the English doctrine which denies to +neutrals a trade in war not open to them in peace in which you will +find it pulverized by a logic not to be controverted. + + Our last news of Captn Lewis was that he had reached the upper +part of the Missouri, & had taken horses to cross the Highlands to +the Columbia river. He passed the last winter among the Manians 1610 +miles above the mouth of the river. So far he had delineated it with +as great accuracy as will probably be ever applied to it, as his +courses & distances by mensuration were corrected by almost daily +observations of latitude and longitude. With his map he sent us +specimens or information of the following animals not before known to +the northern continent of America. 1. The horns of what is perhaps a +species of Ovis Ammon. 2. A new variety of the deer having a black +tail. 3. An antelope. 4. The badger, not before known out of +Europe. 5. A new species of marmotte. 6. A white weasel. 7. The +magpie. 8. The Prairie hen, said to resemble the Guinea hen +(peintade). 9. A prickly lizard. To these are added a considerable +collection of minerals, not yet analyzed. He wintered in Lat. 47 +degrees 20' and found the maximum of cold 43 degrees below the zero +of Fahrenheit. We expect he has reached the Pacific, and is now +wintering on the head of the Missouri, and will be here next autumn. +Having been disappointed in our view of sending an exploring party up +the Red river the last year, they were sent up the Washita, as far as +the hot springs, under the direction of Mr. Dunbar. He found the +temperature of the springs 150 degrees of Fahrenheit & the water +perfectly potable when cooled. We obtain also the geography of that +river, so far with perfect accuracy. Our party is just at this time +setting out from Natchez to ascend the Red river. These expeditions +are so laborious, & hazardous, that men of science, used to the +temperature & inactivity of their closet, cannot be induced to +undertake them. They are headed therefore by persons qualified +expressly to give us the geography of the rivers with perfect +accuracy, and of good common knolege and observation in the animal, +vegetable & mineral departments. When the route shall be once open +and known, scientific men will undertake, & verify & class it's +subjects. Our emigration to the western country from these states +the last year is estimated at about 100,000. I conjecture that about +one-half the number of our increase will emigrate westwardly +annually. A newspaper paragraph tells me, with some details, that +the society of agriculture of Paris had thought a mould-board of my +construction worthy their notice & Mr. Dupont confirms it in a +letter, but not specifying anything particular. I send him a model +with an advantageous change in the form, in which however the +principle is rigorously the same. I mention this to you lest he +should have left France for America, and I notice it no otherwise +lest there should have been any error in the information. Present my +respectful salutations to Doctr. Cabanis & accept them yourself with +assurances of my constant friendship & attachment. + + + A NATIONAL ACADEMY + + _To Joel Barlow_ + _Feb. 24, 1806_ + + I return you the draft of the bill for the establishment of a +National Academy & University at the city of Washington, with such +alterations as we talked over the last night. They are chiefly +verbal. I have often wished we could have a Philosophical society or +academy so organized as that while the central academy should be at +the seat of government, it's members dispersed over the states, +should constitute filiated academies in each state, publish their +communications, from which the central academy should select +unpublished what should be most choice. In this way all the members +wheresoever dispersed might be brought into action, and an useful +emulation might arise between the filiated societies. Perhaps the +great societies now existing might incorporate themselves in this way +with the National one. But time does not allow me to pursue this +idea, nor perhaps had we time at all to get it into the present bill. +I procured an Agricultural society to be established (voluntarily) on +this plan, but it has done nothing. Friendly salutations. + + + COURTING ALEXANDER + + _To the Emperor Alexander_ + _Washington, April 19, 1806_ + + I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty for the great +satisfaction I have received from your letter of Aug. 20, 1805, and +embrace the opportunity it affords of giving expression to the +sincere respect and veneration I entertain for your character. It +will be among the latest and most soothing comforts of my life, to +have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a portion of the +earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign whose ruling +passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity of his +people; and not of his own people only, but who can extend his eye +and his good will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its +course, unambitious in its views. + + The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, +that observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide +of their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect +that your Majesty's interposition in them has been disinterested and +generous, and having in view only the general good of the great +European family. When you shall proceed to the pacification which is +to re-establish peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind +will lead you to think of the general intercourse of nations, and to +make that provision for its future maintenance which, in times past, +it has so much needed. The northern nations of Europe, at the head +of which your Majesty is distinguished, are habitually peaceable. +The United States of America, like them, are attached to peace. We +have then with them a common interest in the neutral rights. Every +nation indeed, on the continent of Europe, belligerent as well as +neutral, is interested in maintaining these rights, in liberalizing +them progressively with the progress of science and refinement of +morality, and in relieving them from restrictions which the extension +of the arts has long since rendered unreasonable and vexatious. + + Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it +in their power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent +service to nations in general, by incorporating into the act of +pacification, a correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the +high seas. Such a definition, declared by all the powers lately or +still belligerent, would give to those rights a precision and +notoriety, and cover them with an authority, which would protect them +in an important degree against future violation; and should any +further sanction be necessary, that of an exclusion of the violating +nation from commercial intercourse with all the others, would be +preferred to war, as more analogous to the offence, more easy and +likely to be executed with good faith. The essential articles of +these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily to be defined. + + Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of +Europe, we have no part to act in its pacification. But as +principles may then be settled in which we have a deep interest, it +is a great happiness for us that they are placed under the protection +of an umpire, who, looking beyond the narrow bounds of an individual +nation, will take under the cover of his equity the rights of the +absent and unrepresented. It is only by a happy concurrence of good +characters and good occasions, that a step can now and then be taken +to advance the well-being of nations. If the present occasion be +good, I am sure your Majesty's character will not be wanting to avail +the world of it. By monuments of such good offices, may your life +become an epoch in the history of the condition of man; and may He +who called it into being, for the good of the human family, give it +length of days and success, and have it always in His holy keeping. + + + A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE + + _To Dr. Edward Jenner_ + _Monticello, May 14, 1806_ + + SIR, -- I have received a copy of the evidence at large +respecting the discovery of the vaccine inoculation which you have +been pleased to send me, and for which I return you my thanks. +Having been among the early converts, in this part of the globe, to +its efficiency, I took an early part in recommending it to my +countrymen. I avail myself of this occasion of rendering you a +portion of the tribute of gratitude due to you from the whole human +family. Medicine has never before produced any single improvement of +such utility. Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood was +a beautiful addition to our knowledge of the animal economy, but on a +review of the practice of medicine before and since that epoch, I do +not see any great amelioration which has been derived from that +discovery. You have erased from the calendar of human afflictions +one of its greatest. Yours is the comfortable reflection that +mankind can never forget that you have lived. Future nations will +know by history only that the loathsome small-pox has existed and by +you has been extirpated. + + Accept my fervent wishes for your health and happiness and +assurances of the greatest respect and consideration. + + + SCHISM AND THE MAJORITY LEADSHIP + + _To Barnabas Bidwell_ + _Washington, July 5, 1806_ + + SIR, -- Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We +have not as yet heard from General Skinner on the subject of his +office. Three persons are proposed on the most respectable +recommendations, and under circumstances of such equality as renders +it difficult to decide between them. But it shall be done +impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on the triumph of +republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of federalism has now lost +all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow +Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, +a mere county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, +but always disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority +only. + + Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an +accommodation there on both the points of `accustomed commerce and +impressment.' In this there must probably be some mutual concession, +because we cannot expect to obtain every thing and yield nothing. +But I hope it will be such an one as may be accepted. The arrival of +the Hornet in France is so recently known, that it will yet be some +time before we learn our prospects there. Notwithstanding the +efforts made here, and made professedly to assassinate that +negotiation in embryo, if the good sense of Buonaparte should prevail +over his temper, the present state of things in Europe may induce him +to require of Spain that she should do us justice at least. That he +should require her to sell us East Florida, we have no right to +insist: yet there are not wanting considerations which may induce him +to wish a permanent foundation for peace laid between us. In this +treaty, whatever it shall be, our old enemies the federalists, and +their new friends, will find enough to carp at. This is a thing of +course, and I should suspect error where they found no fault. The +buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their rallying point is `war with +France and Spain, and alliance with Great Britain:' and every thing +is wrong with them which checks their new ardor to be fighting for +the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted. There one +nation is to monopolise all the liberties of the others. + + I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination +on your part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, +more than all others, calls for the service of every man; but I will +say, there never was a time when the services of those who possess +talents, integrity, firmness and sound judgment, were more wanted in +Congress. Some one of that description is particularly wanted to +take the lead in the House of Representatives, to consider the +business of the nation as his own business, to take it up as if he +were singly charged with it, and carry it through. I do not mean +that any gentleman, relinquishing his own judgment, should implicitly +support all the measures of the administration; but that,where he +does not disapprove of them, he should not suffer them to go off in +sleep, but bring them to the attention of the House, and give them a +fair chance. Where he disapproves, he will of course leave them to +be brought forward by those who concur in the sentiment. Shall I +explain my idea by an example? The classification of the militia was +communicated to General Varnum and yourself merely as a proposition, +which, if you approved, it was trusted you would support. I knew, +indeed, that General Varnum was opposed to any thing which might +break up the present organization of the militia: but when so +modified as to avoid this, I thought he might, perhaps, be reconciled +to it. As soon as I found it did not coincide with your sentiments, +I could not wish you to support it; but using the same freedom of +opinion, I procured it to be brought forward elsewhere. It failed +there also, and for a time perhaps, may not prevail: but a militia +can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and +Buonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of +composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health +enable them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through +zeal for the public service, undertakes to do the public business, we +know that we shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we +never heard this while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as +he calls it, but in the confidence and views of the administration, +as may more properly and respectfully be said. But if the members +are to know nothing but what is important enough to be put into a +public message, and indifferent enough to be made known to all the +world; if the executive is to keep all other information to himself, +and the House to plunge on in the dark, it becomes a government of +chance and not of design. The imputation was one of those artifices +used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual arms; and men of +mind will place themselves above a gabble of this order. The last +session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time: but as soon +as the members penetrated into the views of those who were taking a +new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have ever seen +act together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better +dispositions. They want only a man of business & in whom they can +confide to conduct things in the house; and they are as much disposed +to support him as can be wished. It is only speaking a truth to say +that all eyes look to you. It was not perhaps expected from a new +member, at his first session, & before the forms & style of doing +business were familiar. But it would be a subject of deep regret +were you to refuse yourself to the conspicuous part in the business +of the house which all assign you. Perhaps I am not entitled to +speak with so much frankness; but it proceeds from no motive which +has not a right to your forgiveness. Opportunities of candid +explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I must not lose them when +they occur. + + The information I receive from your quarter agrees with that +from the south; that the late schism has made not the smallest +impression on the public, and that the seceders are obliged to give +to it other grounds than those which we know to be the true ones. +All we have to wish is, that at the ensuing session, every one may +take the part openly which he secretly befriends. I recollect +nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you. As for what is +not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers. Among +other things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for no +one ofwhich has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the +suggestions of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the +Indians, to perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you +with esteem and respect. + + + GARDENS FOR MONTICELLO + + _To William Hamilton_ + _Washington, July, 1806_ + + Your favor of the 7'th came duly to hand and the plant you are +so good as to propose to send me will be thankfully rec'd. The +little Mimosa Julibrisin you were so kind as to send me the last year +is flourishing. I obtained from a gardener in this nbh'd +[neighborhood] 2 plants of the paper mulberry; but the parent plant +being male, we are to expect no fruit from them,unless your [trees] +should chance to be of the sex wanted. at a future day, say two years +hence I shall ask from you some seeds of the Mimosa Farnesiana or +Nilotica, of which you were kind enough before to furnish me some. +but the plants have been lost during my absence from home. I +remember seeing in your greenhouse a plant of a couple of feet height +in a pot the fragrance of which (from it's gummy bud if I recollect +rightly) was peculiarly agreeable to me and you were so kind as to +remark that it required only a greenhouse, and that you would furnish +me one when I should be in a situation to preserve it. but it's name +has entirely escaped me & I cannot suppose you can recollect or +conjecture in your vast collection what particular plant this might +be. I must acquiese therefore in a privation which my own defect of +memory has produced, unless indeed I could some of these days make an +impromptu visit to Phila. & recognise it myself at the Woodlands. + + Having decisively made up my mind for retirement at the end of +my present term, my views and attentions are all turned homewards. I +have hitherto been engaged in my buildings which will be finished in +the course of the present year. The improvement of my grounds has +been reserved formy occupation on my return home. For this reason it +is that I have put off to the fall of the year after next the +collection of such curious trees as will bear our winters in the open +air. + + The grounds which I destine to improve in the style of the +English gardens are in a form very difficult to be managed. They +compose the northern quadrant of a mountain for about 2/3 of its +height & then spread for the upper third over its whole crown. They +contain about three hundred acres, washed at the foot for about a +mile, by a river of the size of the Schuylkill. The hill is +generally too steep for direct ascent, but we make level walks +successively along it's side, which in it's upper part encircle the +hill & intersect these again by others of easy ascent in various +parts. They are chiefly still in their native woods, which are +majestic, and very generally a close undergrowth, which I have not +suffered to be touched, knowing how much easier it is to cut away +than to fill up. The upper third is chiefly open, but to the South +is covered with a dense thicket of Scotch broom (Spartium scoparium +Lin.) which being favorably spread before the sun will admit of +advantageous arrangement for winter enjoyment. You are sensible that +this disposition of the ground takes from me the first beauty in +gardening, the variety of hill & dale, & leaves me as an awkward +substitute a few hanging hollows & ridges, this subject is so unique +and at the same time refractory, that to make a disposition analogous +to its character would require much more of the genius of the +landscape painter & gardener than I pretend to. I had once hoped to +get Parkins to go and give me some outlines, but I was disappointed. +Certainly I could never wish your health to be such as to render +travelling necessary; but should a journey at any time promise +improvement to it, there is no one on which you would be received +with more pleasure than at Monticello. Should I be there you will +have an opportunity of indulging on a new field some of the taste +which has made the Woodlands the only rival which I have known in +America to what may be seen in England. + + Thither without doubt we are to go for models in this art. +Their sunless climate has permitted them to adopt what is certainly a +beauty of the very first order in landscape. Their canvas is of open +ground, variegated with clumps of trees distributed with taste. They +need no more of wood than will serve to embrace a lawn or a glade. +But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, +shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye +can be enjoyed. This organ must yield it's gratification to that of +the other senses; without the hope of any equivalent to the beauty +relinquished. The only substitute I have been able to imagine is +this. Let your ground be covered with trees of the loftiest stature. +Trim up their bodies as high as the constitution & form of the tree +will bear, but so as that their tops shall still unite & yeild dense +shade. A wood, so open below, will have nearly the appearance of +open grounds. Then, when in the open ground you would plant a clump +of trees, place a thicket of shrubs presenting a hemisphere the crown +of which shall distinctly show itself under the branches of the +trees. This may be effected by a due selection & arrangement of the +shrubs, & will I think offer a group not much inferior to that of +trees. The thickets may be varied too by making some of them of +evergreens altogether, our red cedar made to grow in a bush, +evergreen privet, pyrocanthus, Kalmia, Scotch broom. Holly would be +elegant but it does not grow in my part of the country. + + Of prospect I have a rich profusion and offering itself at +every point of the compass. Mountains distant & near, smooth & +shaggy, single & in ridges, a little river hiding itself among the +hills so as to shew in lagoons only, cultivated grounds under the eye +and two small villages. To prevent a satiety of this is the +principal difficulty. It may be successively offered, & in different +portions through vistas, or which will be better, between thickets so +disposed as to serve as vistas, with the advantage of shifting the +scenes as you advance on your way. + + You will be sensible by this time of the truth of my +information that my views are turned so steadfastly homeward that the +subject runs away with me whenever I get on it. I sat down to thank +you for kindnesses received, & to bespeak permission to ask further +contributions from your collection & I have written you a treatise on +gardening generally, in which art lessons would come with more +justice from you to me. + + + DISCONTENTS IN THE WEST + + _To John Dickinson_ + _Washington, Jan. 13, 1807_ + + MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND, -- I have duly received your favor +of the 1st inst., and am ever thankful for communications which may +guide me in the duties which I wish to perform as well as I am able. +It is but too true that great discontents exist in the territory of +Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have for their sources, 1, +the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be partly removed by +Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the other States, +which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger; 2, the +administration of justice in our forms, principles, & language, with +all of which they are unacquainted, & are the more abhorrent, because +of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption of +bankrupt & greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the Ud S. & +engrossed the practice; 3, the call on them by the land commissioners +to produce the titles of their lands. The object of this is really +to record & secure their rights. But as many of them hold on rights +so ancient that the title papers are lost, they expect the land is to +be taken from them wherever they cannot produce a regular deduction +of title in writing. In this they will be undeceived by the final +result, which will evince to them a liberal disposition of the +government towards them. Among the American inhabitants it is the +old division of federalists & republicans. The former are as hostile +there as they are everywhere, & are the most numerous & wealthy. +They have been long endeavoring to batter down the Governor, who has +always been a firm republican. There were characters superior to him +whom I wished to appoint, but they refused the office: I know no +better man who would accept of it, and it would not be right to turn +him out for one not better. But it is the 2d. cause, above +mentioned, which is deep-seated & permanent. The French members of +the Legislature, being the majority in both Houses, lately passed an +act declaring that the civil, or French laws, should be the laws of +their land, and enumerated about 50 folio volumes, in Latin, as the +depositories of these laws. The Governor negatived the act. One of +the houses thereupon passed a vote for self-dissolution of the +Legislature as a useless body, which failed in the other House by a +single vote only. They separated, however, & have disseminated all +the discontent they could. I propose to the members of Congress in +conversation, the enlisting 30,000 volunteers, Americans by birth, to +be carried at the public expense, & settled immediately on a bounty +of 160 acres of land each, on the west side of the Mississippi, on +the condition of giving two years of military service, if that +country should be attacked within 7 years. The defence of the +country would thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number +would entitle the territory to become a State, would make the +majority American, & make it an American instead of a French State. +This would not sweeten the pill to the French; but in making that +acquisition we had some view to our own good as well as theirs, and I +believe the greatest good of both will be promoted by whatever will +amalgamate us together. + + I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your +tedium will end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to +endure. I am tired of an office where I can do no more good than +many others, who would be glad to be employed in it. To myself, +personally, it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery & daily loss of +friends. Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, me +donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis. My only consolation is in the +belief that my fellow citizens at large give me credit for good +intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the continuance of +that good-will which follows well-intended actions, and their +approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement. + + God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many +healthy and happy years. + + + LAWS OF VIRGINIA + + _To William Waller Hening_ + _Washington, January 14, 1807_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of Dec. 26th, was received in due time. +The only object I had in making my collection of the laws of +Virginia, was to save all those for the Public which were not then +already lost, in the hope that at some future day they might be +republished. Whether this be by public or private enterprise, my end +will be equally answered. The work divides itself into two very +distinct parts; to wit, the printed and the unprinted laws. The +former begin in 1682, (Purvis' collection.) My collection of these is +in strong volumes, well bound, and therefore may safely be +transported anywhere. Any of these volumes which you do not possess, +are at your service for the purpose of republication, but the +unprinted laws are dispersed through many MS. volumes, several of +them so decayed that the leaf can never be opened but once without +falling into powder. These can never bear removal further than from +their shelf to a table. They are, as well as I recollect, from 1622 +downwards. I formerly made such a digest of their order, and the +volumes where they are to be found, that, under my own +superintendence, they could be copied with once handling. More they +would not bear. Hence the impracticability of their being copied but +at Monticello. But independent of them, the printed laws, beginning +in 1682, with all our former printed collections, will be a most +valuable publication, & sufficiently distinct. I shall have no doubt +of the exactness of your part of the work, but I hope you will take +measures for having the typography & paper worthy of the work. I am +lead to this caution by the scandalous volume of our laws printed by +Pleasants in 1803, & those by Davis, in 1796 were little better; both +unworthy the history of Tom Thumb. You can have them better & +cheaper printed anywhere north of Richmond. Accept my salutations & +assurances of respect. + + + LESSONS OF THE BURR CONSPIRACY + + _To Governor William C. C. Claiborne_ + _Washington, February 3, 1807_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I pray you to read the enclosed letter, to seal +and deliver it. It explains itself so fully, that I need say +nothing. I am sincerely concerned for Mr. Reibelt, who is a man of +excellent understanding and extensive science. If you had any +academical berth, he would be much better fitted for thatthan for the +bustling business of life. I enclose to General Wilkinson my message +of January 22d. I presume, however, you will have seen it in the +papers. It gives the history of Burr's conspiracy, all but the last +chapter, which will, I hope, be that of his capture before this time, +at Natchez. Your situations have been difficult, and we judge of the +merit of our agents there by the magnitude of the danger as it +appeared to them, not as it was known to us. On great occasions +every good officer must be ready to risk himself in going beyond the +strict line of law, when the public preservation requires it; his +motives will be a justification as far as there is any discretion in +his ultra-legal proceedings, and no indulgence of private feelings. +On the whole, this squall, by showing with what ease our government +suppresses movements which in other countries requires armies, has +greatly increased its strength by increasing the public confidence in +it. It has been a wholesome lesson too to our citizens, of the +necessary obedience to their government. The Feds, and the little +band of Quids, in opposition, will try to make something of the +infringement of liberty by the military arrest and deportation of +citizens, but if it does not go beyond such offenders as Swartwout, +Bollman, Burr, Blennerhasset, Tyler, &c., they will be supported by +the public approbation. Accept my friendly salutations, and +assurances of esteem and respect. + + + THE BURR TRIAL + + _To William Branch Giles_ + _Monticello, April 20, 1807_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 6th, on the subject of Burr's +offences, was received only 4 days ago. That there should be anxiety +& doubt in the public mind, in the present defective state of the +proof, is not wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by +the tricks of the judges to force trials before it is possible to +collect the evidence, dispersed through a line of 2000 miles from +Maine to Orleans. The federalists, too, give all their aid, making +Burr's cause their own, mortified only that he did not separate the +Union or overturn the government, & proving, that had he had a little +dawn of success, they would have joined him to introduce his object, +their favorite monarchy, as they would any other enemy, foreign or +domestic, who could rid them of this hateful republic for any other +government in exchange. + + The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the +administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. +The present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for +execution, so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be +true; tho' I believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly +by way of letter, we do not know of a certainty yet what will be +proved. We have set on foot an inquiry through the whole of the +country which has been the scene of these transactions, to be able to +prove to the courts, if they will give time, or to the public by way +of communication to Congress, what the real facts have been. For +obtaining this, we are obliged to appeal to the patriotism of +particular persons in different places, of whom we have requested to +make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on such information as +shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process or facilities from +the _federal_ courts, but frowned on by their new born zeal for the +liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow the liberties +of their country, we can expect no revealments from the accomplices +of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the judges have +been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What loophole +they will find in it, when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee. +Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, will +satisfy the world, if not the judges, on that head. And I do suppose +the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment of men in +a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round +Blennerhassett's island when they expected Governor Tiffin's men to +be on them, _modo guerrino arraiali_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with +his men at the mouth of the Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting +Governor of Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. +His capitulation regularly signed with the aids of the Governor, as +between two independent & hostile commanders. + + But a moment's calculation will shew that this evidence cannot +be collected under 4 months, probably 5. from the moment of deciding +when & where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to +inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall +says, "more than 5 weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the +Supreme court has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, +if they exist. Why are they not proved?" In what terms of decency +can we speak of this? As if an express could go to Natchez, or the +mouth of Cumberland, & return in 5 weeks, to do which has never taken +less than twelve. Again, "If, in Nov. or Dec. last, a body of troops +had been assembled on the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the +affidavits establishing the fact could not have been obtained by the +last of March." But I ask the judge where they should have been +lodged? At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at Nashville? St. Louis? +Natchez? New Orleans? These were the probable places of apprehension +& examination. It was not known at _Washington_ till the 26th of +March that Burr would escape from the Western tribunals, be retaken & +brought to an Eastern one; and in 5 days after, (neither 5. months +nor 5. weeks, as the judge calculated,) he says, it is "impossible to +suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained." Where? At +Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the eyes +of his audience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted +which would bear on the favorite offenders who endeavor to overrun +this odious Republic. "I understand," sais the judge, "_probable_ +cause of guilt to be a case made out by _proof_ furnishing good +reason to believe," &c. Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal +proof, i. e., proof on oath, at least. But this is confounding +_probability_ and _proof_. We had always before understood that +where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender must +be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable, the judge +believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters +of information in Mr. Rodney's hands, the letters and facts published +in the local newspapers, Burr's flight, & the universal belief or +rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of +enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threats of civil war, or +capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in +the U S who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt +acts to have taken place? + + If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding +administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as +to condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have +judged them in the present case with more charity. All this, +however, will work well. The nation will judge both the offender & +judges for themselves. If a member of the Executive or Legislature +does wrong, the day is never far distant when the people will remove +him. They will see then & amend the error in our Constitution, which +makes any branch independent of the nation. They will see that one +of the great co-ordinate branches of the government, setting itself +in opposition to the other two, and to the common sense of the +nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders which endeavors +to overturn the Constitution, and are themselves protected in it by +the Constitution itself; for impeachment is a farce which will not be +tried again. If their protection of Burr produces this amendment, it +will do more good than his condemnation would have done. Against +Burr, personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I never indeed +thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a +crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or stroke you +could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the confidence of +the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their confidence, +& to treat him as if he deserved it; and if this punishment can be +commuted now for any useful amendment of the Constitution, I shall +rejoice in it. My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to +offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and +affectionate esteem and respect. + + + HISTORY, HUME, AND THE PRESS + + _To John Norvell_ + _Washington, June 14, 1807_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of May 9 has been duly received. The +subject it proposes would require time & space for even moderate +development. My occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. +I think there does not exist a good elementary work on the +organization of society into civil government: I mean a work which +presents in one full & comprehensive view the system of principles on +which such an organization should be founded, according to the rights +of nature. For want of a single work of that character, I should +recommend Locke on Government, Sidney, Priestley's Essay on the first +Principles of Government, Chipman's Principles of Government, & the +Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on crimes & punishments, +because of the demonstrative manner in which he has treated that +branch of the subject. If your views of political inquiry go +further, to the subjects of money & commerce, Smith's Wealth of +Nations is the best book to be read, unless Say's Political Economy +can be had, which treats the same subject on the same principles, but +in a shorter compass & more lucid manner. But I believe this work +has not been translated into our language. + + History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. +But as we have employed some of the best materials of the British +constitution in the construction of our own government, a knolege of +British history becomes useful to the American politician. There is, +however, no general history of that country which can be recommended. +The elegant one of Hume seems intended to disguise & discredit the +good principles of the government, and is so plausible & pleasing in +it's style & manner, as to instil it's errors & heresies insensibly +into the minds of unwary readers. Baxter has performed a good +operation on it. He has taken the text of Hume as his ground work, +abridging it by the omission of some details of little interest, and +wherever he has found him endeavoring to mislead, by either the +suppression of a truth or by giving it a false coloring, he has +changed the text to what it should be, so that we may properly call +it Hume's history republicanised. He has moreover continued the +history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it, to the year +1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is republican; +and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a single 4to. +volume. Adding to this Ludlow's Memoirs, Mrs. M'Cauley's & Belknap's +histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free principles +of the English constitution. + + To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a +newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should +answer, `by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.' +Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a +melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more +compleatly deprive the nation of it's benefits, than is done by it's +abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed +which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by +being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state +of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to +confront facts within their knolege with the lies of the day. I +really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow +citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in the belief, that +they have known something of what has been passing in the world in +their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are +just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the +present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their +fables. General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as +that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful +warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, +&c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that the man +who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads +them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he +whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing +will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false. + + Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as +this. Divide his paper into 4 chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. +2d, Probabilities. 3d, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The first chapter +would be very short, as it would contain little more than authentic +papers, and information from such sources, as the editor would be +willing to risk his own reputation for their truth. The 2d would +contain what, from a mature consideration of all circumstances, his +judgment should conclude to be probably true. This, however, should +rather contain too little than too much. The 3d & 4th should be +professedly for those readers who would rather have lies for their +money than the blank paper they would occupy. + + Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the +demoralising practice of feeding the public mind habitually on +slander, & the depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment +induces. Defamation is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that +a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without +this stimulant. Even those who do not believe these abominations, +still read them with complaisance to their auditors, and instead of +the abhorrence & indignation which should fill a virtuous mind, +betray a secret pleasure in the possibility that some may believe +them, tho they do not themselves. It seems to escape them, that it +is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing a slander, who is +it's real author. + + These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at +your request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not +been intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which +political enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings +imagined by their own wickedness only, justify my expressing a +solicitude, that this hasty communication may in nowise be permitted +to find it's way into the public papers. Not fearing these political +bull-dogs, I yet avoid putting myself in the way of being baited by +them, and do not wish to volunteer away that portion of tranquillity, +which a firm execution of my duties will permit me to enjoy. + + I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success. + + + A SUBPOENA FOR THE PRESIDENT + + _To George Hay_ + _Washington, June 20, 1807_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against +Burr. His presence here is with great inconvenience dispensed with, +as 150 workmen require his constant directions on various public +works of pressing importance. I hope you will permit him to come +away as soon as possible. How far his testimony will be important as +to the prisoner, I know not; but I am desirous that those meetings of +Yrujo with Burr and his principal accomplices, should come fully out, +and judicially, as they will establish the just complaints we have +against his nation. + + I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the +_subpoena duces tecum_ against the President. Considering the +question there as _coram non judice_, I did not read his argument +with much attention. Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual +where an opinion is to be supported, right or wrong, he dwells much +on smaller objections, and passes over those which are solid. Laying +down the position generally, that all persons owe obedience to +subpoenas, he admits no exception unless it can be produced in his +law books. But if the Constitution enjoins on a particular officer +to be always engaged in a particular set of duties imposed on him, +does not this supersede the general law, subjecting him to minor +duties inconsistent with these? The Constitution enjoins his +constant agency in the concerns of 6. millions of people. Is the law +paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single one? Let +us apply the Judge's own doctrine to the case of himself & his +brethren. The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to +quell a riot somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the +general law, a part of the _posse_ of the State sheriff. Would the +Judge abandon major duties to perform lesser ones? Again; the court +of Orleans or Maine commands, by subpoenas, the attendance of all the +judges of the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their posts as +judges, and the interests of millions committed to them, to serve the +purposes of a single individual? The leading principle of our +Constitution is the independence of the Legislature, executive and +judiciary of each other, and none are more jealous of this than the +judiciary. But would the executive be independent of the judiciary, +if he were subject to the _commands_ of the latter, & to imprisonment +for disobedience; if the several courts could bandy him from pillar +to post, keep him constantly trudging from north to south & east to +west, and withdraw him entirely from his constitutional duties? The +intention of the Constitution, that each branch should be independent +of the others, is further manifested by the means it has furnished to +each, to protect itself from enterprises of force attempted on them +by the others, and to none has it given more effectual or diversified +means than to the executive. Again; because ministers can go into a +court in London as witnesses, without interruption to their executive +duties, it is inferred that they would go to a court 1000. or 1500. +miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans by +every criminal who will swear that their testimony `may be of use to +him.' The Judge says, `_it is apparent_ that the President's duties +as chief magistrate do not demand his whole time, & are not +unremitting.' If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat of +government, during the sickly season, he should be told that such +arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at and +between the several stations we take, that it goes on as +unremittingly there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass +more hours in public business at Monticello than I do here, every +day; and it is much more laborious, because all must be done in +writing. Our stations being known, all communications come to them +regularly, as to fixed points. It would be very different were we +always on the road, or placed in the noisy & crowdedtaverns where +courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected here every hour, having been +kept away by a sick child. + + I salute you with friendship and respect. + + + "UNLEARNED VIEWS OF MEDICINE" + + _To Dr. Caspar Wistar_ + _Washington, June 21, 1807_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now +about 15 years of age, in whose education I take a lively interest. +His time has not hitherto been employed to the greatest advantage, a +frequent change of tutors having prevented the steady pursuit of any +one plan. Whether he possesses that lively imagination, usually +called genius, I have not had opportunities of knowing. But I think +he has an observing mind & sound judgment. He is assiduous, orderly, +& of the most amiable temper & dispositions. As he will be at ease +in point of property, his education is not directed to any particular +possession, but will embrace those sciences which give to retired +life usefulness, ornament or amusement. I am not a friend to placing +growing men in populous cities, because they acquire there habits & +partialities which do not contribute to the happiness of their after +life. But there are particular branches of science, which are not so +advantageously taught anywhere else in the U.S. as in Philadelphia. +The garden at the Woodlands for Botany, Mr. Peale's Museum for +Natural History, your Medical school for Anatomy, and the able +professors in all of them, give advantages not to be found elsewhere. +We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia to attend the +schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, & perhaps Surgery; but +not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask? Being led +to the subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express my +opinions on that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, +to finish first with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I +ask of you, which is the object of this letter. + + Having been born & brought up in a mountainous & healthy +country, we should be unwilling he should go to Philadelphia until +the autumnal diseases cease. It is important therefore for us to +know, at what period after that, the courses of lectures in Natural +history, Botany, Chemistry, Anatomy & Surgery begin and end, and what +days or hours they occupy? The object of this is that we may be able +so to marshal his pursuits as to bring their accomplishment within +the shortest space practicable. I shall write to Doctor Barton for +information as to the courses of natural history & botany but not +having a sufficient acquaintance with professors of chemistry & +surgery, if you can add the information respecting their school to +that of your own, I shall be much obliged to you. What too are the +usual terms of boarding? What the compensations to professors? And +can you give me a conjectural estimate of other necessary expenses? +In these we do not propose to indulge him beyond what is necessary, +decent, & usual, because all beyond that leads to dissipation & +idleness, to which, at present, he has no propensities. I think Mr. +Peale has not been in the habit of receiving a boarder. His house & +family would, of themselves, be a school of virtue & instruction; & +hours of leisure there would be as improving as busy ones elsewhere. +But I say this only on the possibility of so desirable a location for +him, and not with the wish that the thought should become known to +Mr. Peale, unless some former precedent should justify it's +suggestion to him. I am laying a heavy tax on your busy time, but I +think your goodness will pardon it in consideration of it's bearing +on my happiness. + + This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, +and further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; +which, as in most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in +proportion as they are less enlightened. + + We know, from what we see & feel, that the animal body in it's +organs and functions is subject to derangement, inducing pain, & +tending to it's destruction. In this disordered state, we observe +nature providing for the re-establishment of order, by exciting some +salutary evacuation of the morbific matter, or by some other +operation which escapes our imperfect senses and researches. She +brings on a crisis, by stools, vomiting, sweat, urine, expectoration, +bleeding, &c., which, for the most part, ends in the restoration of +healthy action. Experience has taught us, also, that there are +certain substances, by which, applied to the living body, internally +or externally, we can at will produce these same evacuations, and +thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but slowly, and do +effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength to accomplish. +Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized by specific signs +or phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural evacuation or +process, whenever that disease recurs under the same appearances, we +may reasonably count on producing a solution of it, by the use of +such substances as we have found produce the same evacuation or +movement. Thus, fulness of the stomach we can relieve by emetics; +diseases of the bowels, by purgatives; inflammatory cases, by +bleeding; intermittents, by the Peruvian bark; syphilis, by mercury: +watchfulness, by opium; &c. So far, I bow to the utility of +medicine. It goes to the well-defined forms of disease, & happily, +to those the most frequent. But the disorders of the animal body, & +the symptoms indicating them, are as various as the elements of which +the body is composed. The combinations, too, of these symptoms are +so infinitely diversified, that many associations of them appear too +rarely to establish a definite disease; and to an unknown disease, +there cannot be a known remedy. Here then, the judicious, the moral, +the humane physician should stop. Having been so often a witness to +the salutary efforts which nature makes to re-establish the +disordered functions, he should rather trust to their action, than +hazard the interruption of that, and a greater derangement of the +system, by conjectural experiments on a machine so complicated & so +unknown as the human body, & a subject so sacred as human life. Or, +ifthe appearance of doing something be necessary to keep alive the +hope & spirits of the patient, it should be of the most innocent +character. One of the most successful physicians I have ever known, +has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of colored +water, & powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put +together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous +physician goes on, & substitutes presumption for knolege. From the +scanty field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region +of what is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful +theory of corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical +powers, of stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of +depletion by the lancet & repletion by mercury, or some other +ingenious dream, which lets him into all nature's secrets at short +hand. On the principle which he thus assumes, he forms his table of +nosology, arrays his diseases into families, and extends his curative +treatment, by analogy, to all the cases he has thus arbitrarily +marshalled together. I have lived myself to see the disciples of +Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stalh, Cullen, Brown, succeed one another like +the shifting figures of a magic lantern, & their fancies, like the +dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris, becoming, from their +novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to the next novelty their +ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the fashionable theory, +sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. The medicine therefore +restored him, & the young doctor receives new courage to proceed in +his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow creatures. I believe +we may safely affirm, that the inexperienced & presumptuous band of +medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys more of human life +in one year, than all the Robinhoods, Cartouches, & Macheaths do in a +century. It is in this part of medicine that I wish to see a reform, +an abandonment of hypothesis for sober facts, the first degree of +value set on clinical observation, and the lowest on visionary +theories. I would wish the young practitioner, especially, to have +deeply impressed on his mind, the real limits of his art, & that when +the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office is to be a +watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature, giving +them fair play by a well-regulated regimen, & by all the aid they can +derive from the excitement of good spirits & hope in the patient. I +have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be +transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I +would rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than +hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my +hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate +knolege of the human body, and observation on the effects of +medicinal substances on that. The anatomical & clinical schools, +therefore, are those in which the young physician should be formed. +If he enters with innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is +scarcely possible he should come out untainted with error. His mind +must be strong indeed, if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can +maintain a wise infidelity against the authority of his instructors, +& the bewitching delusions of their theories. You see that I +estimate justly that portion of instruction which our medical +students derive from your labors; &, associating with it one of the +chairs which my old & able friend, Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I +consider them as the two fundamental pillars of the edifice. Indeed, +I have such an opinion of the talents of the professors in the other +branches which constitute the school of medicine with you, as to hope +& believe, that it is from this side of the Atlantic, that Europe, +which has taught us so many other things, will at length be led into +sound principles in this branch of science, the most important of all +others, being that to which we commit the care of health & life. + + I dare say, that by this time, you are sufficiently sensible +that old heads as well as young, may sometimes be charged with +ignorance and presumption. The natural course of the human mind is +certainly from credulity to scepticism; and this is perhaps the most +favorable apology I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, & +to one too, to whom the strong as well as the weak points of this +science are so familiar. But having stumbled on the subject in my +way, I wished to give a confession of my faith to a friend; & the +rather, as I had perhaps, at time, to him as well as others, +expressed my scepticism in medicine, without defining it's extent or +foundation. At any rate, it has permitted me, for a moment, to +abstract myself from the dry & dreary waste of politics, into which I +have been impressed by the times on which I happened, and to indulge +in the rich fields of nature, where alone I should have served as a +volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations & partialities. + + I salute you at all times with affection & respect. + + + TORPEDOES AND SUBMARINES + + _To Robert Fulton_ + _Monticello, August 16, 1807_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of July 28, came to hand just as I was +about leaving Washington, & it has not been sooner in my power to +acknolege it. I consider your torpedoes as very valuable means of +defence of harbors, & have no doubt that we should adopt them to a +considerable degree. Not that I go the whole length (as I believe +you do) of considering them as solely to be relied on. Neither a +nation nor those entrusted with it's affairs, could be justifiable, +however sanguine their expectations, in trusting solely to an engine +not yet sufficiently tried, under all the circumstances which may +occur, & against which we know not as yet what means of parrying may +be devised. If, indeed, the mode of attaching them to the cable of a +ship be the only one proposed, modes of prevention cannot be +difficult. But I have ever looked to the submarine boat as most to +be depended on for attaching them, & tho' I see no mention of it in +your letter, or your publications, I am in hopes it is not abandoned +as impracticable. I should wish to see a corps of young men trained +to this service. It would belong to the engineers if at land, but +being nautical, I suppose we must have a corps of naval engineers, to +practise & use them. I do not know whether we have authority to put +any part of our existing naval establishment in a course of training, +but it shall be the subject of a consultation with the Secretary of +the Navy. Genl Dearborne has informed you of the urgency of our want +of you at N Orleans for the locks there. + + I salute you with great respect & esteem. + + + RELIGIOUS FREEDOM + + _To Rev. Samuel Miller_ + _Washington, Jan. 23, 1808_ + + SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of the 18th and am +thankful to you for having written it, because it is more agreeable +to prevent than to refuse what I do not think myself authorized to +comply with. I consider the government of the U S. as interdicted by +the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, +their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only +from the provision that no lawshall be made respecting the +establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also +which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U.S. +Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume +authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general +government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be +in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should +_recommend_, not prescribe a day of fasting & prayer. That is, that +I should _indirectly_ assume to the U.S. an authority over religious +exercises which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. +It must be meant too that this recommendation is to carry some +authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who +disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree +of proscription perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in +the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less _a law_ of +conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for +the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct +it's exercises, it's discipline, or it's doctrines; nor of the +religious societies that the general government should be invested +with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among +them. Fasting & prayer are religious exercises. The enjoining them +an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to +determine for itself the times for these exercises, & the objects +proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this +right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the +constitution has deposited it. + + I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. +But I have ever believed that the example of state executives led to +the assumption of that authority by the general government, without +due examination, which would have discovered that what might be a +right in a state government, was a violation of that right when +assumed by another. Be this as it may, every one must act according +to the dictates of his own reason, & mine tells me that civil powers +alone have been given to the President of the U S. and no authority +to direct the religious exercises of his constituents. + + I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as +to give me an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, +in which I could give my reasons more in detail than might have been +done in a public answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of +my high esteem & respect. + + + "SUBJECTS FOR A MAD-HOUSE" + + _To Dr. Thomas Leib_ + _Washington, June 23, 1808_ + + SIR, -- I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the +talk to the Tammany society, for which I thank you, and particularly +for the favorable sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, +nothing will so much sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of +retirement, as the knoledge that I carry with me the good will & +approbation of my republican fellow citizens, and especially of the +individuals in unison with whom I have so long acted. With respect +to the federalists, I believe we think alike; for when speaking of +them, we never mean to include a worthy portion of our fellow +citizens, who consider themselves as in duty bound to support the +constituted authorities of every branch, and to reserve their +opposition to the period of election. These having acquired the +appellation of federalists, while a federal administration was in +place, have not cared about throwing off their name, but adhering to +their principle, are the supporters of the present order of things. +The other branch of the federalists, those who are so in principle as +well as in name, disapprove of the republican principles & features +of our Constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any public +calamity (war with England excepted) which might lessen the +confidence of our country in those principles & forms. I have +generally considered them rather as subjects for a mad-house. But +they are now playing a game of the most mischevious tendency, without +perhaps being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to +convince England that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, & +that if they will but hold out awhile, we must abandon it. It is +true, the time will come when we must abandon it. But if this is +before the repeal of the orders of council, we must abandon it only +for a state of war. The day is not distant, when that will be +preferable to a longer continuance of the embargo. But we can never +remove that, & let our vessels go out & be taken under these orders, +without making reprisal. Yet this is the very state of things which +these federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring about; and in this +it is but too possible they may succeed. But the fact is, that if we +have war with England, it will be solely produced by their +manoeuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what +will be the issue. + + I salute you with esteem & respect. + + + BONES FOR THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE + + _To Lacepede, with a Catalogue_ + _Washington, July 14, 1808_ + + SIR, -- If my recollection does not deceive me, the collection +of the remains of the animal incognitum of the Ohio (sometimes called +mammoth), possessed by the Cabinet of Natural History at Paris, is +not very copious. Under this impression, and presuming that this +Cabinet is allied to the National Institute, to which I am desirous +of rendering some service, I have lately availed myself of an +opportunity of collecting some of those remains. General Clarke (the +companion of Governor Lewis in his expedition to the Pacific Ocean) +being,on a late journey, to pass by the Big-bone Lick of the Ohio, +was kind enough to undertake to employ for me a number of laborers, +and to direct their operations in digging for these bones at this +important deposit of them. The result of these researches will +appear in the enclosed catalogue of specimens which I am now able to +place at the disposal of the National Institute. An aviso being to +leave this place for some port of France on public service, I deliver +the packages to Captain Haley, to be deposited with the Consul of the +United States, at whatever port he may land. They are addressed to +Mr. Warden of our legation at Paris, for the National Institute, and +he will have the honor of delivering them. To these I have added the +horns of an animal called by the natives the Mountain Ram, resembling +the sheep by his head, but more nearly the deer in his other parts; +as also the skin of another animal, resembling the sheep by his +fleece but the goat in his other parts. This is called by the +natives the Fleecy Goat, or in thestyle of the natural historian, the +Pokotragos. I suspect it to be nearly related to the Pacos, and were +we to group the fleecy animals together, it would stand perhaps with +the Vigogne, Pacos, and Sheep. The Mountain Ram was found in +abundance by Messrs. Lewis and Clarke on their western tour, and was +frequently an article of food for their party, and esteemed more +delicate than the deer. The Fleecy Goat they did not see, but +procured two skins from the Indians, of which this is one. Their +description will be given in the work of Governor Lewis, the journal +and geographical part of which may be soon expected from the press; +but the parts relating to the plants and animals observed in his +tour, will be delayed by the engravings. In the meantime, the plants +of which he brought seeds, have been very successfully raised in the +botanical garden of Mr. Hamilton of the Woodlands, and by Mr. +McMahon, a gardener of Philadelphia; and on the whole, it is with +pleasure I can assure you that the addition to our knowledge in every +department, resulting from this tour of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, has +entirely fulfilled my expectations in setting it on foot, and that +the world will find that those travellers have well earned its favor. +I will take care that the Institute as well as yourself shall receive +Governor Lewis's work as it appears. + + It is with pleasure I embrace this occasion of returning you my +thanks for the favor of your very valuable works, _sur les poissons +et les cetacees_, which you were so kind as to send me through Mr. +Livingston and General Turreau, and which I find entirely worthy of +your high reputation in the literary world. That I have not sooner +made this acknowledgment has not proceeded from any want of respect +and attachment to yourself, or a just value of your estimable +present, but from the strong and incessant calls of duty to other +objects. The candor of your character gives me confidence of your +indulgence on this head, and I assure you with truth that no +circumstances are more welcome to me than those which give me the +occasion of recalling myself to your recollection, and of renewing to +you the assurances of sincere personal attachment, and of great +respect and consideration. + + _Contents of the large square Box._ + + A Fibia. + + A Radius. + + Two ribs belonging to the upper part of the thorax. + + + Two ribs from a lower part of the thorax. + + One entire vertebra. + + Two spinous processes of the vertebra broken from the bodies. + + Dentes molares, which appear to have belonged to the full-grown +animal. + + A portion of the under-jaw of a young animal with two molar +teeth in it. + + These teeth appear to have belonged to a first set, as they are +small, and the posterior has but three grinding ridges, instead of +five, the common number in adult teeth of the lower jaw. + + Another portion of the under-jaw, including the symphisis, or +chin. In this portion the teeth of one side are every way complete; +to wit, the posterior has five transverse ridges, and the anterior +three. + + A fragment of the upper-jaw with one molar tooth much worn. + + Molar teeth which we suppose to be like those of the mammoth or +elephant of Siberia. They are essentially different from those of +the mammoth or elephant of this country, and although similar in some +respects to the teeth of the Asiatic elephant, they agree more +completely with the description of the teeth found in Siberia in the +arrangement and size of the transverse lamina of enamel. This idea, +however, is not derived from actual comparison of the different teeth +with each other, for we have no specimens of Siberian teeth in this +country; but from inferences deduced from the various accounts and +drawings of these teeth to be found in books. A few of these teeth +have been found in several places where the bones of the American +animal have existed. + + An Astragalus. + + An Oscalcis. + + Os naviculare. + + In the large box in which the preceding bones are, is a small +one containing a promiscuous mass of small bones, chiefly of the +feet. + + In the large irregular-shaped box, a tusk of large size. The +spiral twist in all the specimens of these tusks which we have seen, +was remarked so long ago as the time of Breyneus, in his description +of the tusks of the Siberian mammoth in the Philosophical +Transactions, if that paper is rightly recollected, for the book is +not here to be turned to at present. Many fragments of tusks have +been sent from the Ohio, generally resembling portions of such tusks +as are brought to us in the course of commerce. But of these spiral +tusks, in a tolerable complete state, we have had only four. One was +found near the head of the north branch of the Susquehanna. A second +possessed by Mr. Peale, was found with the skeleton, near the Hudson. +A third is at Monticello, found with the bones of this collection at +the Big-bone lick of Ohio, and the fourth isthat now sent for the +Institute, found at the same place and larger than that at +Monticello. + + The smallest box contains the horns of the mountain ram, and +skin of the fleecy goat. + + + PLOUGHS + + _To Monsieur Sylvestre_ + _Washington, July 15, 1808_ + + SIR, -- I had received from you on a former occasion the four +first volumes of the Memoirs of the Agricultural Society of the +Seine, and since that, your letter of September 19th, with the 6th, +7th, 8ths, and 9th volumes, being for the years 1804 '5 '6, with some +separate memoirs. These I have read with great avidity and +satisfaction, and now return you my thanksfor them. But I owe +particular acknowledgments for the valuable present of the Theatre de +De Serres, which I consider as a prodigy for the age in which it was +composed, and shows an advancement in the science of agriculture +which I had never suspected to have belonged to that time. Brought +down to the present day by the very valuable notes added, it is +really such a treasure of agricultural knowledge, as has not before +been offered to the world in a single work. + + It is not merely for myself, but for my country, that I must do +homage to the philanthropy of the Society, which has dictated their +destination for me of their newly-improved plough. I shall certainly +so use it as to answer their liberal views, by making the +opportunities of profiting by it as general as possible. + + I have just received information that a plough addressed to me +has arrived at New York, _from England_, but unaccompanied by any +letter or other explanation. As I have had no intimation of such an +article to be forwarded to me from that country, I presume it is the +one sent by the Society of the Seine, that it has been carried into +England under their orders of council, and permitted to come on from +thence. This I shall know within a short time. I shall with great +pleasure attend to the construction and transmission to the Society +of a plough with my mould board. This is the only part of that +useful instrument to which I have paid any particular attention. But +knowing how much the perfection of the plough must depend, 1st, on +the line of traction; 2d, on the direction of the share; 3d, on the +angle of the wing; 4th, on the form of the mould-board; and persuaded +that I shall find the three first advantages eminently exemplified in +that which the Society sends me, I am anxious to see combined with +these a mould-board of my form, in the hope it will still advance the +perfection of that machine. But for this I must ask time till I am +relieved from the cares which have now a right to all my time, that +is to say, till the next Spring. Then giving, in the leisure of +retirement, all the time and attention this construction merits and +requires, I will certainly render to the Society the result in a +plough of the best form I shall be able to have executed. In the +meantime, accept for them and yourself the assurances of my high +respect and consideration. + + + EDUCATION OF A GRANDSON + + _To Thomas Jefferson Randolph_ + _Washington, Nov. 24th, 1808_ + + MY DEAR JEFFERSON -- I have just recieved the inclosed letter +under cover from Mr. Bankhead which I presume is from Anne and will +inform you she is well. Mr. Bankhead has consented to go and pursue +his studies at Monticello, and live with us till his pursuits or +circumstances may require a separate establishment. Your situation, +thrown at such a distance from us and alone, cannot but give us all, +great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you, by your +particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been +recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers +which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire +strangers without a friend or guardian to advise so young too and +with so little experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and +still your safety must rest on yourself. A determination never to do +what is wrong, prudence, and good humor, will go far towards securing +to you the estimation of the world. When I recollect that at 14. +years of age, the whole care and direction of my self was thrown on +my self entirely, without a relation or friend qualified to advise or +guide me, and recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I +associated from time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with +some of them, and become as worthless to society as they were. I had +the good fortune to become acquainted very early with some characters +of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could +even become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I +could ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do +in this situation? What course in it will ensure me their +approbation? I am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct +tended more to it's correctness than any reasoning powers I +possessed. Knowing the even and dignified line they pursued, I could +never doubt for a moment which of two courses would be in character +for them. Whereas seeking the same object through a process of moral +reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I should often have +erred. From the circumstances of my position I was often thrown into +the society of horseracers, cardplayers, Foxhunters, scientific and +professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked +myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory +of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the +bar or in the great Council of the nation, well, which of these kinds +of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse jockey? A foxhunter? +An Orator? Or the honest advocate of my country's rights? Be +assured my dear Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, +this self-cathechising habit, is not trifling, nor useless, but leads +to the prudent selection and steady pursuits of what is right? I +have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace +and tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and it's effect is +so well imitated and aided artificially by politeness, that this also +becomes an acquisition of first rate value. In truth, politeness is +artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by +rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. +It is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society +all the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, +and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the +giving a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions which will +conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as +themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another! When +this is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to +his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, +and places him at the feet of your good nature in the eyes of the +company. But in stating prudential rules for our government in +society I must not omit the important one of never entering into +dispute or argument withanother. I never yet saw an instance of one +of two disputantsconvincing the other by argument. I have seen many +on their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. +Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either +in solitude, or weighing within ourselves dispassionately what we +hear from others standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was +one of the rules which above all others made Doctr. Franklin the most +amiable of men in society, `never to contradict any body.' If he was +urged to anounce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as +if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another +express an opinion, which is not mine, I say to myself, He has a +right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it. His +error does me no injury, and shall I becomea Don Quixot to bring all +men by force of argument, to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it +is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to +deprive him of the gratification. If he wants information he will +ask it, and then I will give it in measured terms; but if he still +believes his own story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with +me, I hear him and say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he +prefers error. There are two classes of disputants most frequently +to be met with among us. The first is of young students just entered +the threshold of science, with a first view of it's outlines, not yet +filled up with the details and modifications which a further progress +would bring to their knoledge. The other consists of the +ill-tempered and rude men in society who have taken up a passion for +politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into mixed +society a question on which they foresee there will be a difference +of opinion.) From both of these classes of disputants, my dear +Jefferson, keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of +yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as +among the patients of Bedlam needing medical more than moral counsel. +Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish +with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics. In the +fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any +attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights either in fact or +principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, +and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore as +you would by an angry bull: it is not for a man of sense to dispute +the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than others +to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the +relation in which you stand with me and to hate me as a chief in the +antagonist party your presence will be to them what the vomit-grass +is to the sick dog a nostrum for producing an ejaculation. Look upon +them exactly with that eye, and pity them as objects to whom you can +administer only occasional ease. My character is not within their +power. It is in the hands of my fellow citizens at large, and will +be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican mass +of our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what +their enemies and mine shall have said. Never therefore consider +these puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and +always shew that you are not afraid to leave my character to the +umpirage of public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have +carried you to Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach +yourself to; avoid taverns, drinkers, smoakers, and idlers and +dissipated persons generally; for it is with such that broils and +contentions arise, and you will find your path more easy and +tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is time for me to +close with my affectionate Adieux. + + P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and in doing +the same to Mr. Peale tell him I am writing with his polygraph and +shall send him mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack +it. + + + SOWING THE UPLAND RICE + + _To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse_ + _Washington, December 1, 1808_ + + SIR, -- In answer to the inquiries of the benevolent Dr. De +Carro on the subject of the upland or mountain rice, Oryza Mutica, I +will state to you what I know of it. I first became informed of the +existence of a rice which would grow in uplands without any more +water than the common rains, by reading a book of Mr. De Porpre, who +had been Governor of the Isle of France, who mentions it as growing +there and all along the coast of Africa successfully, and as having +been introduced from Cochin-China. I was at that time (1784-89) in +France, and there happening to be there a Prince of Cochin-China, on +his travels, and then returning home, I obtained his promise to send +me some. I never received it however, and mention it only as it may +have been sent, and furnished the ground for the inquiries of Dr. De +Carro, respecting my receiving it from China. When at Havre on my +return from France, I found there Captain Nathaniel Cutting, who was +the ensuing spring to go on a voyage along the coast of Africa. I +engaged him to inquire for this; he was there just after the harvest, +procured and sent me a thirty-gallon cask of it. It arrived in time +the ensuing spring to be sown. I divided it between the Agricultural +Society of Charleston and some private gentlemen of Georgia, +recommending it to their care, in the hope which had induced me to +endeavor to obtain it, that if it answered as well as the swamp rice, +it might rid them of that source of their summer diseases. Nothing +came of the trials in South Carolina, but being carried into the +upper hilly parts of Georgia, it succeeded there perfectly, has +spread over the country, and is now commonly cultivated; still, +however, for family use chiefly, as they cannot make it for sale in +competition with the rice of the swamps. The former part of these +details is written from memory, the papers being at Monticello which +would enable me to particularize exactly the dates of times and +places. The latter part is from the late Mr. Baldwin, one of those +whom I engaged in the distribution of the seed in Georgia, and who in +his annual attendance on Congress, gave me from time to time the +history of its progress. It has got from Georgia into Kentucky, +where it is cultivated by many individuals for family use. I +cultivated it two or three years at Monticello, and had good crops, +as did my neighbors, but not having conveniences for husking it, we +declined it. I tried some of it in a pot, while I lived in +Philadelphia, and gave seed to Mr. Bartram. It produced luxuriant +plants with us both, but no seed; nor do I believe it will ripen in +the United States as far north as Philadelphia. Business and an +indisposition of some days must apologize for this delay in answering +your letter of October 24th, which I did not receive till the 6th of +November. And permit me here to add my salutations and assurances of +esteem and respect. + + + "LAST TRIAL FOR PEACE" + + _To James Monroe_ + _Washington, January 28, 1809_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, +and the answer has been delayed as well by a pressure of business, as +by the expectation of your absence from Richmond. + + The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is +not entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from +the former, and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of +respect as an extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against +which all minds revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of +Representatives a few days ago, by a member, and an approbation +expressed by another, but rejected indignantly by every other person +who spoke, and very generally in conversation by all others; and I am +satisfied such a proposition would get no vote in the Senate. The +course the Legislature means to pursue, may be inferred from the act +now passed for a meeting in May, and a proposition before them for +repealing the embargo in June, and then resuming and maintaining by +force our right of navigation. There will be considerable opposition +to this last proposition, not only from the federalists, old and new, +who oppose everything, but from sound members of the majority. Yet +it is believed it will obtain a good majority, and that it is the +only proposition which can be devised that could obtain a majority of +any kind. Final propositions will, therefore, be soon despatched to +both the belligerents through the resident ministers, so that their +answers will be received before the meeting in May, and will decide +what is to be done. This last trial for peace is not thought +desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should be successful in +Spain, however every virtuous and liberal sentiment revolts at it, it +may induce both powers to be more accommodating with us. England +will see here the only asylum for her commerce and manufactures, +worth more to her than her orders of council. And Bonaparte, having +Spain at his feet, will look immediately to the Spanish colonies, and +think our neutrality cheaply purchased by a repeal of the illegal +parts of his decrees, with perhaps the Floridas thrown into the +bargain. Should a change in the aspect of affairs in Europe produce +this disposition in both powers, our peace and prosperity may be +revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take the tented +field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances. + + There never has been a situation of the world before, in which +such endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It +is probable there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I +fear we may renounce forever the hope of seeing an end of our +national debt. If we can keep at peace eight years longer, our +income, liberated from debt, will be adequate to any war, without new +taxes or loans, and our position and increasing strength put us _hors +d'insulte_ from any nation. I am now so near the moment of retiring, +that I take no part in affairs beyond the expression of an opinion. +I think it fair that my successor should now originate those measures +of which he will be charged with the execution and responsibility, +and that it is my duty to clothe them with the forms of authority. +Five weeks more will relieve me from a drudgery to which I am no +longer equal, and restore me to a scene of tranquillity, amidst my +family and friends, more congenial to my age and natural +inclinations. In that situation, it will always be a pleasure to me +to see you, and to repeat to you the assurances of my constant +friendship and respect. + + + THE REPUBLIC OF SCIENCE + + _To John Hollins_ + _Washington, February 19, 1809_ + + DEAR SIR, -- A little transaction of mine, as innocent an one +as I ever entered into, and where an improper construction was never +less expected, is making some noise, I observe, in your city. I beg +leave to explain it to you, because I mean to ask your agency in it. +The last year, the Agricultural Society of Paris, of which I am a +member, having had a plough presented to them, which, on trial with a +graduated instrument, did equal work with half the force of their +best ploughs, they thought it would be a benefit to mankind to +communicate it. They accordingly sent one to me, with a view to its +being made known here, and they sent one to the Duke of Bedford also, +who is one of their members, to be made use of for England, although +the two nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now going to +France, I have given permission to two individuals in Delaware and +New York, to import two parcels of Merino sheep from France, which +they have procured there, and to some gentlemen in Boston, to import +a very valuable machine which spins cotton, wool and flax equally. +The last spring, the Society informed me they were cultivating the +cotton of the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean, and wished +to try also that of our southern States. I immediately got a friend +to have two tierces of seed forwarded to me. They were consigned to +Messrs. Falls and Brown of Baltimore, and notice of it being given +me, I immediately wrote to them to re-ship them to New York, to be +sent by the Mentor. Their first object was to make a show of my +letter, as something very criminal, and to carry the subject into the +newspapers. I had, on a like request, some time ago, (but before the +embargo) from the President of the Board of Agriculture of London, of +which I am also a member, to send them some of the genuine May wheat +of Virginia, forwarded to them two or three barrels of it. General +Washington, in his time, received from the same Society the seed of +the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had carried over from +France to England, and I have since received from a member of it the +seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known here. I +mention these things, to shew the nature of the correspondence which +is carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent purpose +of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is +discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace, +however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters, +they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and +their correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation. +Vaccination has been a late and remarkable instance of the liberal +diffusion of a blessing newly discovered. It is really painful, it +is mortifying, to be obliged to note these things, which are known to +every one who knows any thing, and felt with approbation by every one +who has any feeling. But we have a faction to whose hostile passions +the torture even of right into wrong is a delicious gratification. +Their malice I have long learned to disregard, their censure to deem +praise. But I observe, that some republicans are not satisfied (even +while we are receiving liberally from others) that this small return +should be made. They will think more justly at another day: but in +the mean time, I wish to avoid offence. My prayer to you, therefore, +is, that you will be so good, under the inclosed order, as to receive +these two tierces of seed from Falls and Brown, and pay them their +disbursements for freight, &c. which I will immediately remit you on +knowing the amount. Of the seed, when received, be so good as to +make manure for your garden. When rotted with a due mixture of +stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world. I rely on your +friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I should not +commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of it, I +know nothing. + + Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect. + + + THE NEGRO RACE + + _To Henri Gregoire_ + _Washington, February 25, 1809_ + + SIR, -- I have received the favor of your letter of August +17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the +"Literature of Negroes." Be assured that no person living wishes more +sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I +have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding +allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are +on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal +observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the +opportunities for the development of their genius were not favorable, +and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore +with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is +no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to +others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or +property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the +opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their +re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the +human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many +instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence +in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening +the day of their relief; and to be assured of the sentiments of high +and just esteem and consideration which I tender to yourself with all +sincerity. + + + "A PRISONER, RELEASED FROM HIS CHAINS" + + _To P. S. Dupont de Nemours_ + _Washington, March 2, 1809_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I +have received yours of May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, +24th, and September the 5th, and distributed the two pamphlets +according to your desire. They are read with the delight which every +thing from your pen gives. + + After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being +entangled in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. +The edicts of the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the +ocean, we met by an embargo. This gave us time to call home our +seamen, ships and property, to levy men and put our sea ports into a +certain state of defence. We have now taken off the embargo, except +as to France and England and their territories, because fifty +millions of exports, annually sacrificed, are the treble of what war +would cost us; besides, that by war we should take something, and +lose less than at present. But to give you a true description of the +state of things here, I must refer you to Mr. Coles, the bearer of +this, my secretary, a most worthy, intelligent and well informed +young man, whom I recommend to your notice, and conversation on our +affairs. His discretion and fidelity may be relied on. I expect he +will find you with Spain at your feet, but England still afloat, and +a barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all these concerns I am now +leaving to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison. Within a few days I +retire to my family, my books and farms; and having gained the harbor +myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting the storm, with +anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner, released +from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the +shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of +science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of +the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in +resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of +political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from +them without censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs +of public approbation. I leave every thing in the hands of men so +able to take care of them, that if we are destined to meet +misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could avert them. +Should you return to the United States, perhaps your curiosity may +lead you to visit the hermit of Monticello. He will receive you with +affection and delight; hailing you in the mean time with his +affectionate salutations, and assurances of constant esteem and +respect. + + P.S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred +shepherd's dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now +beginning to pay great attention to the raising sheep. + + + A PARTING BLESSING + + _To Mrs. Samuel H. Smith_ + _Washington, Mar. 6, 1809_ + + Th: Jefferson presents his respectful salutations to mrs. +Smith, and sends her the Geranium she expressed a willingness to +receive. it is in very bad condition, having been neglected latterly, +as not intended to be removed. he cannot give it his parting blessing +more effectually than by consigning it to the nourishing hand of mrs. +Smith. If plants have sensibility, as the analogy of their +organisation with ours seems to indicate, it cannot but be proudly +sensible of her fostering attentions. of his regrets at parting with +the society of Washington, a very sensible portion attaches to mrs. +Smith, whose friendship he has particularly valued. her promise to +visit Monticello is some consolation; and he can assure her she will +be received with open arms and hearts by the whole family. he prays +her to accept the homage of his affectionate attachment and respect. + + + THE POTATO AND HARPER'S FERRY + + _To Horatio G. Spafford_ + _Monticello, May 14, 1809_ + + SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of April 3d, with the +copy of your "General Geography," for which I pray you to accept my +thanks. My occupations here have not permitted me to read it +through, which alone could justify any judgment expressed on the +work. Indeed, as it appears to be an abridgment of several branches +of science, the scale of abridgment must enter into that judgment. +Different readers require different scales according to the time they +can spare, and their views in reading, and no doubt that the view of +the sciences which you have brought into the compass of a 12mo volume +will be accommodated to the time and object of many who may wish for +but a very general view of them + + In passing my eye rapidly over parts of the book, I was struck +with two passages, on which I will make observations, not doubting +your wish, in any future edition, to render the work as correct as +you can. In page 186 you say the potatoe is a native of the United +States. I presume you speak of the Irish potatoe. I have inquired +much into the question, and think I can assure you that plant is not +a native of North America. Zimmerman, in his "Geographical Zoology," +says it is a native of Guiana; and Clavigero, that the Mexicans got +it from South America, _its native country._ The most probable +account I have been able to collect is, that a vessel of Sir Walter +Raleigh's, returning from Guiana, put into the west of Ireland in +distress, having on board some potatoes which they called +earth-apples. That the season of the year, and circumstance of their +being already sprouted, induced them to give them all out there, and +they were no more heard or thought of, till they had been spread +considerably into that island, whence they were carried over into +England, and therefore called the Irish potatoe. From England they +came to the United States, bringing their name with them. + + The other passage respects the description of the passage of +the Potomac through the Blue Ridge, in the Notes on Virginia. You +quote from Volney's account of the United States what his words do +not justify. His words are, "on coming from Fredericktown, one does +not see the rich perspective mentioned in the Notes of Mr. Jefferson. +On observing this to him a few days after, he informed me he had his +information from a French engineer who, during the war of +Independence, ascended the height of the hills, and I conceive that +at that elevation the perspective must be as imposing as a wild +country, whose horizon has no obstacles, may present." That the scene +described in the "Notes" is not visible from any part of the road +from Fredericktown to Harper's ferry is most certain. That road +passes along the valley, nor can it be seen from the tavern after +crossing the ferry; and we may fairly infer that Mr. Volney did not +ascend the height back of the tavern from which alone it can be seen, +but that he pursued his journey from the tavern along the high road. +Yet he admits, that at the elevation of that height the perspective +may be as rich as a wild country can present. But you make him +"surprised to find, _by a view of the spot_, that the description was +_amazingly exaggerated._" But it is evident that Mr. Volney did not +ascend the hill to _get a view of the spot_, and that he supposed +that that height may present as imposing a view as such a country +admits. But Mr. Volney was mistaken in saying I told him I had +received the description from a French engineer. By an error of +memory he has misapplied to this scene what I mentioned to him as to +the Natural Bridge. I told him I received a _drawing_ of that from a +French engineer sent there by the Marquis de Chastellux, and who has +published that drawing in his travels. I could not tell him I had +the description of the passage of the Potomac from a French engineer, +because I never heard any Frenchman say a word about it, much less +did I ever receive a description of it from any mortal whatever. I +visited the place myself in October 1783, wrote the description some +time after, and printed the work in Paris in 1784-5. I wrote the +description from my own view of the spot, stated no fact but what I +saw, and can now affirm that no fact is exaggerated. It is true that +the same scene may excite very different sensations in different +spectators, according to their different sensibilities. The +sensations of some may be much stronger than those of others. And +with respect to the Natural Bridge, it was not a description, but a +drawing only, which I received from the French engineer. The +description was written before I ever saw him. It is not from any +merit which I suppose in either of these descriptions, that I have +gone into these observations, but to correct the imputation of having +given to the world as my own, ideas, and false ones too, which I had +received from another. Nor do I mention the subject to you with a +desire that it should be any otherwise noticed before the public than +by a more correct statement in any future edition of your work. + + You mention having enclosed to me some printed letters +announcing a design in which you ask my aid. But no such letters +came to me. Any facts which I possess, and which may be useful to +your views, shall be freely communicated, and I shall be happy to see +you at Monticello, should you come this way as you propose. You will +find me engaged entirely in rural occupations, looking into the field +of science but occasionally and at vacant moments. + + I sowed some of the Benni seed the last year, and distributed +some among my neighbors; but the whole was killed by the September +frost. I got a little again the last winter, but it was sowed before +I received your letter. Colonel Fen of New York receives quantities +of it from Georgia, from whom you may probably get some through the +Mayor of New York. But I little expect it can succeed with you. It +is about as hardy as the cotton plant, from which you may judge of +the probability of raising it at Hudson. + + I salute you with great respect. + + + CIRCULATING LIBRARIES + + _To John Wyche_ + _Monticello, May 19, 1809_ + + SIR, -- Your favor of March 19th came to hand but a few days +ago, and informs me of the establishment of the Westward Mill Library +Society, of its general views and progress. I always hear with +pleasure of institutions for the promotion of knowledge among my +countrymen. The people of every country are the only safe guardians +of their own rights, and are the only instruments which can be used +for their destruction. And certainly they would never consent to be +so used were they not deceived. To avoid this, they should be +instructed to a certain degree. I have often thought that nothing +would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment +of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few +well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the county, under such +regulations as would secure their safe return in due time. These +should be such as would give them a general view of other history, +and particular view of that of their own country, a tolerable +knowledge of Geography, the elements of Natural Philosophy, of +Agriculture and Mechanics. Should your example lead to this, it will +do great good. Having had more favorable opportunities than fall to +every man's lot of becoming acquainted with the best books on such +subjects as might be selected, I do not know that I can be otherwise +useful to your society than by offering them any information +respecting these which they might wish. My services in this way are +freely at their command, and I beg leave to tender to yourself my +salutations and assurances of respect. + + + "THE SPIRIT OF MANUFACTURE" + + _To P. S. Dupont de Nemours_ + _Monticello, June 28, 1809_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The interruption of our commerce with England, +produced by our embargo and non-intercourse law, and the general +indignation excited by her barefaced attempts to make us accessories +and tributaries to her usurpations on the high seas, have generated +in this country an universal spirit for manufacturing for ourselves, +and of reducing to a minimum the number of articles for which we are +dependent on her. The advantages, too, of lessening the occasions of +risking our peace on the ocean, and of planting the consumer in our +own soil by the side of the grower of produce, are so palpable, that +no temporary suspension of injuries on her part, or agreements +founded on that, will now prevent our continuing in what we have +begun. The spirit of manufacture has taken deep root among us, and +its foundations are laid in too great expense to be abandoned. The +bearer of this, Mr. Ronaldson, will be able to inform you of the +extent and perfection of the works produced here by the late state of +things; and to his information, which is greatest as to what is doing +in the cities, I can add my own as to the country, where the +principal articles wanted in every family are now fabricated within +itself. This mass of _household_ manufacture, unseen by the public +eye, and so much greater than what is seen, is such at present, that +let our intercourse with England be opened when it may, not one half +the amount of what we have heretofore taken from her will ever again +be demanded. The great call from the country has hitherto been of +coarse goods. These are now made in our families, and the advantage +is toosensible ever to be relinquished. It is one of those obvious +improvements in our condition which needed only to be once forced on +our attention, never again to be abandoned. + + Among the arts which have made great progress among us is that +of printing. Heretofore we imported our books, and with them much +political principle from England. We now print a great deal, and +shall soon supply ourselves with most of the books of considerable +demand. But the foundation of printing, you know, is the +type-foundry, and a material essential to that is antimony. +Unfortunately that mineral is not among those as yet found in the +United States, and the difficulty and dearness of getting it from +England, will force us to discontinue our type-founderies, and resort +to her again for our books, unless some new source of supply can be +found. The bearer, Mr. Ronaldson, is of the concern of Binney & +Ronaldson, type-founders of Philadelphia. He goes to France for the +purpose of opening some new source of supply, where we learn that +this article is abundant; the enhancement of the price in England has +taught us the fact, that its exportation thither from France must be +interrupted, either by the war or express prohibition. Our +relations, however, with France, are too unlike hers with England, to +place us under the same interdiction. Regulations for preventing the +transportation of the article to England, under the cover of supplies +to America, may be thought requisite. The bearer, I am persuaded, +will readily give any assurances which may be required for this +object, and the wants of his own type-foundry here are a sufficient +pledge that what he gets is _bona fide_ to supply them. I do not +know that there will be any obstacle to his bringing from France any +quantity of antimony he may have occasion for; but lest there should +be, I have taken the liberty of recommending him to your patronage. +I know your enlightened and liberal views on subjects of this kind, +and the friendly interest you take in whatever concerns our welfare. +I place Mr. Ronaldson, therefore, in your hands, and pray you to +advise him, and patronize the object which carries him to Europe, and +is so interesting to him and to our country. His knowledge of what +is passing among us will be a rich source of information for you, and +especially as to the state and progress of our manufactures. Your +kindness to him will confer an obligation on me, and will be an +additional title to the high and affectionate esteem and respect of +an ancient and sincere friend. + + + AN EDITION OF WRITINGS + + _To John W. Campbell_ + _Monticello, September 3, 1809_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of July 29th came to hand some time since, +but I have not sooner been able to acknowledge it. In answer to your +proposition for publishing a complete edition of my different +writings, I must observe that no writings of mine, other than those +merely official, have been published, except the Notes on Virginia +and a small pamphlet under the title of a Summary View of the rights +of British America. The Notes on Virginia, I have always intended to +revise and enlarge, and have, from time to time, laid by materials +for that purpose. It will be long yet before other occupations will +permit me to digest them, and observations and inquiries are still to +be made, which will be more correct in proportion to the length of +time they are continued. It is not unlikely that this may be through +my life. I could not, therefore, at present, offer anything new for +that work. + + The Summary View was not written for publication. It was a +draught I had prepared for a petition to the king, which I meant to +propose in my place as a member of the convention of 1774. Being +stopped on the road by sickness, I sent it on to the Speaker, who +laid it on the table for the perusal of the members. It was thought +too strong for the times, and to become the act of the convention, +but was printed by subscription of the members, with a short preface +written by one of them. If it had any merit, it was that of first +taking our true ground, and that which was afterwards assumed and +maintained. + + I do not mention the Parliamentary Manual, published for the +use of the Senate of the United States, because it was a mere +compilation, into which nothing entered of my own but the +arrangement, and a few observations necessary to explain that and +some of the cases. + + I do not know whether your view extends to official papers of +mine which have been published. Many of these would be like old +newspapers, materials for future historians, but no longer +interesting to the readers of the day. They would consist of +reports, correspondences, messages, answers to addresses; a few of my +reports while Secretary of State, might perhaps be read by some as +essays on abstract subjects. Such as the report on measures, weights +and coins, on the mint, on the fisheries, on commerce, on the use of +distilled sea-water, &c. The correspondences with the British and +French ministers, Hammond and Genet, were published by Congress. The +messages to Congress, which might have been interesting at the +moment, would scarcely be read a second time, and answers to +addresses are hardly read a first time. + + So that on a review of these various materials, I see nothing +encouraging a printer to a re-publication of them. They would +probably be bought by those only who are in the habit of preserving +State papers, and who are not many. + + I say nothing of numerous draughts of reports, resolutions, +declarations, &c., drawn as a Member of Congress or of the +Legislature of Virginia, such as the Declaration of Independence, +Report on the Money Mint of the United States, the act of religious +freedom, &c., &c.; these having become the acts of public bodies, +there can be no personal claim to them, and they would no more find +readers now, than the journals and statute books in which they are +deposited. + + I have presented this general view of the subjects which might +have been within the scope of your contemplation, that they might be +correctly estimated before any final decision. They belong mostly to +a class of papers not calculated for popular reading, and not likely +to offer profit, or even indemnification to the re-publisher. +Submitting it to your consideration, I tender you my salutations and +respects. + + + INDIAN VOCABULARIES + + _To Dr. Benjamin S. Barton_ + _Monticello, September 21, 1809_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received last night your favor of the 14th, and +would with all possible pleasure have communicated to you any part or +the whole of the Indian vocabularies which I had collected, but an +irreparable misfortune has deprived me of them. I have now been +thirty years availing myself of every possible opportunity of +procuring Indian vocabularies to the same set of words: my +opportunities were probably better than will ever occur again to any +person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty, and had +digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have +printed them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having +yet digested Captain Lewis's collection, nor having leisure then to +do it, I put it off till I should return home. The whole, as well +digest as originals, were packed in a trunk of stationary, and sent +round by water with about thirty other packages of my effects, from +Washington, and while ascending James river, this package, on account +of its weight and presumed precious contents, was singled out and +stolen. The thief being disappointed on opening it, threw into the +river all its contents, of which he thought he could make no use. +Among these were the whole of the vocabularies. Some leaves floated +ashore and were found in the mud; but these were very few, and so +defaced by the mud and water that no general use can ever be made of +them. On the receipt of your letter I turned to them, and was very +happy to find, that the only morsel of an original vocabulary among +them, was Captain Lewis's of the Pani language, of which you say you +have not one word. I therefore inclose it to you, as it is, and a +little fragment of some other, which I see is in his hand writing, +but no indication remains on it of what language it is. It is a +specimen of the condition of the little which was recovered. I am +the more concerned at this accident, as of the two hundred and fifty +words of my vocabularies, and the one hundred and thirty words of the +great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the other quarters of +the globe, severty-three were common to both, and would have +furnished materials for a comparison from which something might have +resulted. Although I believe no general use can ever be made of the +wrecks of my loss, yet I will ask the return of the Pani vocabulary +when you are done with it. Perhaps I may make another attempt to +collect, although I am too old to expect to make much progress in it. + + I learn, with pleasure, your acquisition of the pamphlet on the +astronomy of the antient Mexicans. If it be antient and genuine, or +modern and rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most +interesting countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention. + + I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original +Spanish for my perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the +accidents of the post, and whenever you publish the translation, I +shall be satisfied to read that which shall be given by your +translator, who is, I am sure, a greater adept in the language than I +am. + + Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect. + + + AMERICAN QUAKERISM + + _To Samuel Kercheval_ + _Monticello, January 19, 1810_ + + SIR, -- Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with +the pamphlet inclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can +be more exactly and seriously true than what is there stated; that +but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the +Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those +who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an +engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandising their oppressors in +Church and State; that the purest system of morals ever before +preached to man, has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial +constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to +themselves; that rational men not being able to swallow their impious +heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the +hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest +obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do +in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ. + + You expect that your book will have some effect on the +prejudices which the society of Friends entertain against the present +and late administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. +The Friends are men, formed with the same passions, and swayed by the +same natural principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the +passions are neutral, men will display their respect for the +religious _professions_ of their sect. But where their passions are +enlisted, these _professions_ are no obstacle. You observe very +truly, that both the late and present administration conducted the +government on principles _professed_ by the Friends. Our efforts to +preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians, as to slavery, as to +religious freedom, were all in consonance with their _professions_. +Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them, and in this I +was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle in this, +to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the +_professions_ of religious sectaries. The theory of American +Quakerism is a very obvious one. The mother society is in England. +Its members are English by birth and residence, devoted to their own +country, as good citizens ought to be. The Quakers of these States +are colonies or filiations from the mother society, to whom that +society sends its yearly lessons. On these the filiated societies +model their opinions, their conduct, their passions and attachments. +A Quaker is, essentially, an Englishman, in whatever part of the +earth he is born or lives. The outrages of Great Britain on our +navigation and commerce, have kept us in perpetual bickerings with +her. The Quakers here have taken side against their own government; +not on their _profession_ of peace, for they saw that peace was our +object also; but from devotion to the views of the mother society. +In 1797 and 8, when an administration sought war with France, the +Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of peace, +as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of adherence to the +Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the original became +treason in the copy. On that occasion, they obliged their good old +leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from a petition to Congress, +against war, which had been delivered to a Representative of +Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present administration. He +accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his name. You must +not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more effect on +the society of Friends here, than on the English merchants settled +among us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally. +I know individuals among them as good patriots as we have. + + I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, +expressed in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the +blessings of health and happiness. + + + NEPOTISM AND THE REPUBLIC + + _To John Garland Jefferson_ + _Monticello, January 25, 1810_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 12th was long coming to +hand. I am much concerned to learn that any disagreeable impression +was made on your mind, by the circumstances which are the subject of +your letter. Permit me first to explain the principles which I had +laid down for my own observance. In a government like ours, it is +the duty of the Chief Magistrate, in order to enable himself to do +all the good which his station requires, to endeavor, by all +honorable means, to unite in himself the confidence of the whole +people. This alone, in any case where the energy of the nation is +required, can produce a union of the powers of the whole, and point +them in a single direction, as if all constituted but one body and +one mind, and this alone can render a weaker nation unconquerable by +a stronger one. Towards acquiring the confidence of the people, the +very first measure is to satisfy them of his disinterestedness, and +that he is directing their affairs with a single eye to their good, +and not to build up fortunes for himself and family, and especially, +that the officers appointed to transact their business, are appointed +because they are the fittest men, not because they are his relations. +So prone are they to suspicion, that where a President appoints a +relation of his own, however worthy, they will believe that favor and +not merit was the motive. I therefore laid it down as a law of +conduct for myself, never to give an appointment to a relation. Had +I felt any hesitation in adopting this rule, examples were not +wanting to admonish me what to do and what to avoid. Still, the +expression of your willingness to act in any office for which you +were qualified, could not be imputed to you as blame. It would not +readily occur that a person qualified for office ought to be rejected +merely because he was related to the President, and the then more +recent examples favored the other opinion. In this light I +considered the case as presenting itself to your mind, and that the +application might be perfectly justifiable on your part, while, for +reasons occurring to none perhaps, but the person in my situation, +the public interest might render it unadvisable. Of this, however, +be assured that I consider the proposition as innocent on your part, +and that it never lessened my esteem for you, or the interest I felt +in your welfare. + + My stay in Amelia was too short, (only twenty-four hours,) to +expect the pleasure of seeing you there. It would be a happiness to +me any where, but especially here, from whence I am rarely absent. I +am leading a life of considerable activity as a farmer, reading +little and writing less. Something pursued with ardor is necessary +to guard us from the _tedium-vitae,_ and the active pursuits lessen +most our sense of the infirmities of age. That to the health of +youth you may add an old age of vigor, is the sincere prayer of + + Yours, affectionately. + + + PROSTRATION OF REASON + + _To Caesar A. Rodney_ + _Monticello, February 10, 1810_ + + MY DEAR SIR, -- I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st +ultimo, which is just now received. It has been peculiarly +unfortunate for us, personally, that the portion in the history of +mankind, at which we were called to take a share in the direction of +their affairs, was such an one as history has never before presented. +At any other period, the even-handed justice we have observed towards +all nations, the efforts we have made to merit their esteem by every +act which candor or liberality could exercise, would have preserved +our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence of all other +nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which is now +blasting the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the mounds +of reason as well as right. All those calculations which, at any +other period, would have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a +moral sense in man, individually or associated, of the connection +which the laws of nature have established between his duties and his +interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of our fellow +men, have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of +imbecility. As if it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose +that others could be honest also, when it is their interest to be so. +And when is this state of things to end? The death of Bonaparte +would, to be sure, remove the first and chiefest apostle of the +desolation of men and morals, and might withdraw the scourge of the +land. But what is to restore order and safety on the ocean? The +death of George III? Not at all. He is only stupid; and his +ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are ephemeral. But +his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the tyrant of the +ocean. The principle that force is right, is become the principle of +the nation itself. They would not permit an honest minister, were +accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their system of +lawless piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with you. I +know they are not lessened, and I pity you. + + It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that +they are kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for +themselves, to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to +maintain their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of +their functionaries. _Macte virtute_ therefore. Continue to go +straight forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only +clue which can lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared +of either reason or passion, to preserve the public confidence +entire, as the only rock of our safety. In times of peace the people +look most to their representatives; but in war, to the executive +solely. It is visible that their confidence is even now veering in +that direction; that they are looking to the executive to give the +proper direction to their affairs, with a confidence as auspicious as +it is well founded. + + I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, +to express all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I +entertain of your faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the +debt I owe for the valuable aid I received from you. Though +separated from my fellow laborers in place and pursuit, my affections +are with you all, and I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, +as I love you. God bless you. + + + "THE BOOK OF KINGS" + + _To Governor John Langdon_ + _Monticello, March 5, 1810_ + + Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the +refreshing dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls antient +as well as recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and +thirty years we have walked together through a land of tribulations. +Yet these have passed away, and so, I trust, will those of the +present day. The toryism with which we struggled in '77, differed +but in name from the federalism of '99, with which we struggled also; +and the Anglicism of 1808, against which we are now struggling, is +but the same thing still, in another form. It is a longing for a +King, and an English King rather than any other. This is the true +source of their sorrows and wailings. + + The fear that Buonaparte will come over to us and conquer us +also, is too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have +finished Spain and Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. +The maxim of war was never sounder than in this case, not to leave an +enemy in the rear; and especially where an insurrectionary flame is +known to be under the embers, merely smothered, and ready to burst at +every point. These two subdued, (and surely the Anglomen will not +think the conquest of England alone a short work) antient Greece and +Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, his prototype, and +Constantinople, the seat of empire for the world, would glitter more +in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged forests. Egypt, too, +and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more than half a +century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria, you know, +he has an old affront to wipe out. Then come `Pontus and Galatia, +Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,' the fine countries on the Euphrates +and Tigris, the Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis, which +bounded the glories of his Macedonian rival; with the invitations of +his new British subjects on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after +receiving under his protection the mother country, he cannot refuse +to visit. When all this is done and settled, and nothing of the old +world remains unsubdued, he may turn to the new one. But will he +attack us first, from whom he will get but hard knocks and no money? +Or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, +and the diamonds of Brazil? A _republican_ Emperor, from his +affection to republics, independent of motives of expediency, must +grant to ours the Cyclop's boon of being the last devoured. While +all this is doing, we are to suppose the chapter of accidents read +out, and that nothing can happen to cut short or to disturb his +enterprises. + + But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer +dependance, than all these chances of death or disappointment. That +is, that we should first let England plunder us, as she has been +doing for years, for fear Buonaparte should do it; and then ally +ourselves with her, and enter into the war. A conqueror, whose +career England could not arrest when aided by Russia, Austria, +Prussia, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, she is now to destroy, with all +these on his side, by the aid of the United States alone. This, +indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be our +security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a +separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The +faith of a nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern +Carthage! Of the friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the +nation who never admitted a chapter of morality into her political +code! And is now boldly avowing, that whatever power can make hers, +is hers of right. Money, and not morality, is the principle of +commerce and commercial nations. But, in addition to this, the +nature of the English government forbids, of itself, reliance on her +engagements; and it is well known she has been the least faithful to +her alliances of any nation of Europe, since the period of her +history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and +corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and Brunswick. +To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her Methuin +treaty she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable to her. +It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits +England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her +King is a cypher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which +is to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere +instrument of the will of the administration. The real power and +property in the government is in the great aristocratical families of +the nation. The nest of office being too small for all of them to +cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the +other out. For this purpose, they are divided into two parties, the +Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the +balance. To keep themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem +must be practised, every artifice used which may flatter thepride, +the passions or power of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must +yield to the necessity of keeping themselves in place. The question +whether a measure is moral, is never asked; but whether it will +nourish the avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of +their navy, or produce any other effect which may strengthen them in +their places. As to engagements, however positive, entered into by +the predecessors of the Ins, why, they were their enemies; they did +every thing which was wrong; and to reverse every thing they did, +must, therefore, be right. This is the true character of the English +government in practice, however different its theory; and it presents +the singular phenomenon of a nation, the individuals of which are as +faithful to their private engagements and duties, as honorable, as +worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and whose government is yet +the most unprincipled at this day known. In an absolute government +there can be no such equiponderant parties. The despot is the +government. His power suppressing all opposition, maintains his +ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, +through them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he +identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation. + + When I observed, however, that the King of England was a +cypher, I did not mean to confine the observation to the mere +individual now on that throne. The practice of Kings marrying only +into the families of Kings, has been that of Europe for some +centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine them in idleness +and inaction, whether in a stye, a stable, or a state room, pamper +them with high diet, gratify all their sexual appetites, immerse them +in sensualities, nourish their passions, let every thing bend before +them, and banish whatever might lead them to think, and in a few +generations they become all body and no mind: and this, too, by a law +of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant practice +of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we raise +for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in +this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often +amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning +sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own +knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. +The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed +their lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one +thousand miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the +preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were +Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. +And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised +the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the +great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus +of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of +England you know was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, +none but old Catherine, who had been too lately picked up to have +lost her common sense. In this state Buonaparte found Europe; and it +was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. +These animals had become without mind and powerless; and so will +every hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alexander, the +grandson of Catherine, is as yet an exception. He is able to hold +his own. But he is only of the third generation. His race is not +yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of whom the +Lord deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good men and +true, in his holy keeping. + + + "AN ACADEMICAL VILLAGE" + + _To Messrs. Hugh L. White and Others_ + _Monticello, May 6, 1810_ + + GENTLEMEN, -- I received, some time ago, your letter of +February 28th, covering a printed scheme of a lottery for the benefit +of the East Tennessee College, and proposing to send tickets to me to +be disposed of. It would be impossible for them to come to a more +inefficient hand. I rarely go from home, and consequently see but a +few neighbors and friends, who occasionally call on me. And having +myself made it a rule never to engage in a lottery or any other +adventure of mere chance, I can, with the less candor or effect, urge +it on others, however laudable or desirable its object may be. No +one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind +than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards +supporting free and good government. I am sincerely rejoiced, +therefore, to find that so excellent a fund has been provided for +this noble purpose in Tennessee. Fifty-thousand dollars placed in a +safe bank, will give four thousand dollars a year, and even without +other aid, must soon accomplish buildings sufficient for the object +in its early stage. I consider the common plan followed in this +country, but not in others, of making one large and expensive +building, as unfortunately erroneous. It is infinitely better to +erect a small and separate lodge for each separate professorship, +with only a hall below for his class, and two chambers above for +himself; joining these lodges by barracks for a certain portion of +the students, opening into a covered way to give a dry communication +between all the schools. The whole of these arranged around an open +square of grass and trees, would make it, what it should be in fact, +an academical village, instead of a large and common den of noise, of +filth and of fetid air. It would afford that quiet retirement so +friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and +tumult. Every professor would be the police officer of the students +adjacent to his own lodge, which should include those of his own +class of preference, and might be at the head of their table, if, as +I suppose, it can be reconciled with the necessary economy to dine +them in smaller and separate parties, rather than in a large and +common mess. These separate buildings, too, might be erected +successively and occasionally, as the number of professorships and +students should be increased, or the funds become competent. + + I pray you to pardon me if I have stepped aside into the +province of counsel; but much observation and reflection on these +institutions have long convinced me that the large and crowded +buildings in which youths are pent up, are equally unfriendly to +health, to study, to manners, morals and order; and, believing the +plan I suggest to be more promotive of these, and peculiarly adapted +to the slender beginnings and progressive growth of our institutions, +I hoped you would pardon the presumption, in consideration of the +motive which was suggested by the difficulty expressed in your +letter, of procuring funds for erecting the building. But, on +whatever plan you proceed, I wish it every possible success, and to +yourselves the reward of esteem, respect and gratitude due to those +who devote their time and efforts to render the youths of every +successive age fit governors for the next. To these accept, in +addition, the assurances of mine. + + + A PLAN FOR THE MERINOS + + _To the President of the United States_ + (James Madison) + _Monticello, May 13, 1810_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I thank you for your promised attention to my +portion of the Merinos, and if there be any expenses of +transportation, &c., and you will be so good as to advance my portion +of them with yours and notify the amount, it shall be promptly +remitted. What shall we do with them? I have been so disgusted with +the scandalous extortions lately practised in the sale of these +animals, and with the description of patriotism and praise to the +sellers, as if the thousands of dollars apiece they have not been +ashamed to receive were not reward enough, that I am disposed to +consider as right, whatever is the reverse of what they have done. +Since fortune has put the occasion upon us, is it not incumbent upon +us so to dispense this benefit to the farmers of our country, as to +put to shame those who, forgetting their own wealth and the honest +simplicity of the farmers, have thought them fit objects of the +shaving art, and to excite, by a better example, the condemnation due +to theirs? No sentiment is more acknowledged in the family of +Agriculturists than that the few who can afford it should incur the +risk and expense of all new improvements, and give the benefit freely +to the many of more restricted circumstances. The question then +recurs, What are we to do with them? I shall be willing to concur +with you in any plan you shall approve, and in order that we may have +some proposition to begin upon, I will throw out a first idea, to be +modified or postponed to whatever you shall think better. + + Give all the full-blooded males we can raise to the different +counties of our State, one to each, as fast as we can furnish them. +And as there must be some rule of priority for the distribution, let +us begin with our own counties, which are contiguous and nearly +central to the State, and proceed, circle after circle, till we have +given a ram to every county. This will take about seven years, if we +add to the full descendants those which will have past to the fourth +generation from common ewes, to make the benefit of a single male as +general as practicable to the county, we may ask some known character +in each county to have a small society formed which shall receive the +animal and prescribe rules for his care and government. We should +retain ourselves all the full-blooded ewes, that they may enable us +the sooner to furnish a male to every county. When all shall have +been provided with rams, we may, in a year or two more, be in a +condition to give an ewe also to every county, if it be thought +necessary. But I suppose it will not, as four generations from their +full-blooded ram will give them the pure race from common ewes. + + In the meantime we shall not be without a profit indemnifying +our trouble and expense. For if of our present stock of common ewes, +we place with the ram as many as he may be competent to, suppose +fifty, we may sell the male lambs of every year for such reasonable +price as in addition to the wool, will pay for the maintenance of the +flock. The first year they will be half bloods, the second +three-quarters, the third seven-eights, and the fourth full-blooded, +if we take care in selling annually half the ewes also, to keep those +of highest blood, this will be a fund for kindnesses to our friends, +as well as for indemnification to ourselves; and our whole State may +thus, from this small stock, so dispersed, be filled in a very few +years with this valuable race, and more satisfaction result to +ourselves than money ever administered to the bosom of a shaver. +There will be danger that what is here proposed, though but an act of +ordinary duty, may be perverted into one of ostentation, but malice +will always find bad motives for good actions. Shall we therefore +never do good? It may also be used to commit us with those on whose +example it will truly be a reproof. We may guard against this +perhaps by a proper reserve, developing our purpose only by its +execution. + + Vive, vale, et siquid novisti rectius istis + Candidus imperti sinon, his ulere mecum. + + + SCHOOLS AND "LITTLE REPUBLICS" + + _To John Tyler_ + _Monticello, May 26, 1810_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your friendly letter of the 12th has been duly +received. Although I have laid it down as a law to myself, never to +embarrass the President with my solicitations, and have not till now +broken through it, yet I have made a part of yourletter the subject +of one to him, and have done it with all my heart, and in the full +belief that I serve him and the public in urging that appointment. +We have long enough suffered under the base prostitution of law to +party passions in one judge, and the imbecility of another. In the +hands of one the law is nothing more than an ambiguous text, to be +explained by his sophistry into any meaning which may subserve his +personal malice. Nor can any milk-and-water associate maintain his +own dependance, and by a firm pursuance of what the law really is, +extend its protection to the citizens or the public. I believe you +will do it, and where you cannot induce your colleague to do what is +right, you will be firm enough to hinder him from doing what is +wrong, and by opposing sense to sophistry, leave the juries free to +follow their own judgment. + + I have long lamented with you the depreciation of law science. +The opinion seems to be that Blackstone is to us what the Alcoran is +to the Mahometans, that everything which is necessary is in him, and +what is not in him is not necessary. I still lend my counsel and +books to such young students as will fix themselves in the +neighborhood. Coke's institutes and reports are their first, and +Blackstone their last book, after an intermediate course of two or +three years. It is nothing more than an elegant digest of what they +will then have acquired from the real fountains of the law. Now men +are born scholars, lawyers, doctors; in our day this was confined to +poets. You wish to see me again in the legislature, but this is +impossible; my mind is now so dissolved in tranquillity, that it can +never again encounter a contentious assembly; the habits of thinking +and speaking off-hand, after a disuse of five and twenty years, have +given place to the slower process of the pen. I have indeed two +great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain +itself in strength. 1. That of general education, to enable every +man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. +2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the +children of each will be within reach of a central school in it. But +this division looks to many other fundamental provisions. Every +hundred, besides a school, should have a justice of the peace, a +constable and a captain of militia. These officers, or some others +within the hundred, should be a corporation to manage all its +concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its police by +patrols, &c., (as the select men of the Eastern townships.) Every +hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite, and +all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and +the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. Our present +Captaincies might be declared hundreds for the present, with a power +to the courts to alter them occasionally. These little republics +would be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them the +vigor given to our revolution in its commencement in the Eastern +States, and by them the Eastern States were enabled to repeal the +embargo in opposition to the Middle, Southern and Western States, and +their large and lubberly division into counties which can never be +assembled. General orders are given out from a centre to the foreman +of every hundred, as to the sergeants of an army, and the whole +nation is thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in one +instant and as one man, and becomes absolutely irresistible. Could I +once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of +the republic, and say with old Simeon, "nunc dimittas Domine." But +our children will be as wise as we are, and will establish in the +fulness of time those things not yet ripe for establishment. So be +it, and to yourself health, happiness and long life. + + + HUME AND MONTESQUIEU + + _To William Duane_ + _Monticello, August 12, 1810_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of July 16th has been duly received, with +the paper it enclosed, for which accept my thanks, and especially for +the kind sentiments expressed towards myself. These testimonies of +approbation, and friendly remembrance, are the highest gratifications +I can receive from any, and especially from those in whose principles +and zeal for the public good I have confidence. Of that confidence +in yourself the military appointment to which you allude was +sufficient proof, as it was made, not on the recommendations of +others, but on our own knowledge of your principles and +qualifications. While I cherish with feeling the recollections of my +friends, I banish from my mind all political animosities which might +disturb its tranquillity, or the happiness I derive from my present +pursuits. I have thought it among the most fortunate circumstances +of my late administration that, during its eight years continuance, +it was conducted with a cordiality and harmony among all the members, +which never were ruffled on any, the greatest or smallest occasion. +I left my brethren with sentiments of sincere affection and +friendship, so rooted in the uniform tenor of a long and intimate +intercourse, that the evidence of my own senses alone ought to be +permitted to shake them. Anxious, in my retirement, to enjoy +undisturbed repose, my knowledge of my successor and late coadjutors, +and my entire confidence in their wisdom and integrity, were +assurances to me that I might sleep in security with such watchmen at +the helm, and that whatever difficulties and dangers should assail +our course, they would do what could be done to avoid or surmount +them. In this confidence I envelope myself, and hope to slumber on +to my last sleep. And should difficulties occur which they cannot +avert, if we follow them in phalanx, we shall surmount them without +danger. + + I have been long intending to write to you as one of the +associated company for printing useful works. + + Our laws, language, religion, politics and manners are so +deeply laid in English foundations, that we shall never cease to +consider their history as a part of ours, and to study ours in that +as its origin. Every one knows that judicious matter and charms of +style have rendered Hume's history the manual of every student. I +remember well the enthusiasm with which I devoured it when young, and +the length of time, the research and reflection which were necessary +to eradicate the poison it had instilled into my mind. It was +unfortunate that he first took up the history of the Stuarts, became +their apologist, and advocated all their enormities. To support his +work, when done, he went back to the Tudors, and so selected and +arranged the materials of their history as to present their arbitrary +acts only, as the genuine samples of the constitutional power of the +crown, and, still writing backwards, he then reverted to the early +history, and wrote the Saxon and Norman periods with the same +perverted view. Although all this is known, he still continues to be +put into the hands of all our young people, and to infect them with +the poison of his own principles of government. It is this book +which has undermined the free principles of the English government, +has persuaded readers of all classes that these were usurpations on +the legitimate and salutary rights of the crown, and has spread +universal toryism over the land. And the book will still continue to +be read here as well as there. Baxter, one of Horne Tooke's +associates in persecution, has hit on the only remedy the evil +admits. He has taken Hume's work, corrected in the text his +misrepresentations, supplied the truths which he suppressed, and yet +has given the mass of the work in Hume's own words. And it is +wonderful how little interpolation has been necessary to make it a +sound history, and to justify what should have been its title, to +wit, "Hume's history of England abridged and rendered faithful to +fact and principle." I cannot say that his amendments are either in +matter or manner in the fine style of Hume. Yet they are often +unperceived, and occupy so little of the whole work as not to +depreciate it. Unfortunately he has _abridged_ Hume, by leaving out +all the less important details. It is thus reduced to about one half +its original size. He has also continued the history, but very +summarily, to 1801. The whole work is of 834 quarto pages, printed +close, of which the continuation occupies 283. I have read but +little of this part. As far as I can judge from that little, it is a +mere chronicle, offering nothing profound. This work is so +unpopular, so distasteful to the present Tory palates and principles +of England, that I believe it has never reached a second edition. I +have often inquired for it in our book shops, but never could find a +copy in them, and I think it possible the one I imported may be the +only one in America. Can we not have it re-printed here? It would +be about four volumes 8vo. + + I have another enterprise to propose for some good printer. I +have in my possession a MS. work in French, confided to me by a +friend, whose name alone would give it celebrity were it permitted to +be mentioned. But considerations insuperable forbid that. It is a +Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. The history +of that work is well known. He had been a great reader, and had +commonplaced everything he read. At length he wished to undertake +some work into which he could bring his whole commonplace book in a +digested form. He fixed on the subject of his Spirit of Laws, and +wrote the book. He consulted his friend Helvetius about publishing +it, who strongly dissuaded it. He published it, however, and the +world did not confirm Helvetius' opinion. Still, every man who +reflects as he reads, has considered it as a book of paradoxes; +having, indeed, much of truth and sound principle, but abounding also +with inconsistencies, apochryphal facts and false inferences. It is +a correction of these which has been executed in the work I mention, +by way of commentary and review; not by criticising words or +sentences, but by taking a book at a time, considering its general +scope, and proceeding to confirm or confute it. And much of +confutation there is, and of substitution of true for false +principle, and the true principle is ever that of republicanism. I +will not venture to say that every sentiment in the book will be +approved, because, being in manuscript, and the French characters, I +have not read the whole, but so much only as might enable me to +estimate the soundness of the author's way of viewing his subject; +and, judging from that which I have read, I infer with confidence +that we shall find the work generally worthy of our high approbation, +and that it everywhere maintains the preeminence of representative +government, by showing that its foundations are laid in reason, in +right, and in general good. I had expected this from my knowledge of +the other writings of the author, which have always a precision +rarely to be met with. But to give you an idea of the manner of its +execution, I translate and enclose his commentary on Montesquieu's +eleventh book, which contains the division of the work. I wish I +could have added his review at the close of the twelve first books, +as this would give a more complete idea of the extraordinary merit of +the work. But it is too long to be copied. I add from it, however, +a few extracts of his reviews of some of the books, as specimens of +his plan and principles. If printed in French, it would be of about +180 pages 8vo, or 23 sheets. If any one will undertake to have it +translated and printed on their own account, I will send on the MS. +by post, and they can take the copyright as of an original work, +which it ought to be understood to be. I am anxious it should be +ably translated by some one who possesses style as well as capacity +to do justice to abstruse conceptions. I would even undertake to +revise the translation if required. The original sheets must be +returned to me, and I should wish the work to be executed with as +little delay as possible. + + I close this long letter with assurances of my great esteem and +respect. + + + A LAW BEYOND THE CONSTITUTION + + _To John B. Colvin_ + _Monticello, September 20, 1810_ + + SIR, -- Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I +have to thank you for the many obliging things respecting myself +which are said in it. If I have left in the breasts of my fellow +citizens a sentiment of satisfaction with my conduct in the +transaction of their business, it will soften the pillow of my repose +through the residue of life. + + The question you propose, whether circumstances do not +sometimes occur, which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to +assume authorities beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, +but sometimes embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the +written laws is doubtless _one_ of the high duties of a good citizen, +but it is not _the highest_. The laws of necessity, of +self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of +higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to +written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, +property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly +sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of Germantown, +General Washington's army was annoyed from Chew's house, he did not +hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of a +citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling +that the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the +nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia +took horses, carriages, provisions and even men by force, to enable +that army to stay together till it could master the public enemy; and +he was justified. A ship at sea in distress for provisions, meets +another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of +self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a supply by +force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of +self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws +of _meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will +state an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the +Executive of the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the +Floridas for a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so +appropriated by law, but that Congress were to meet within three +weeks, and might appropriate it on the first or second day of their +session. Ought he, for so great an advantage to his country, to have +risked himself by transcending the law and making the purchase? The +public advantage offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense; +but a reverence for law, and the probability that the advantage might +still be _legally_ accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were +powerful reasons against hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen +that a John Randolph would find means to protract the proceeding on +it by Congress, until the ensuing spring, by which time new +circumstances would change the mind of the other party. Ought the +Executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to have secured +the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice for the +transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would +have been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought +war a very possible result. Our magazineswere illy provided with +some necessary articles, nor had any appropriations been made for +their purchase. We ventured, however, to provide them, and to place +our country in safety; and stating the case to Congress, they +sanctioned the act. + + To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to +General Wilkinson's situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, +we are bound to consider the state of the information, correct and +incorrect, which he then possessed. He expected Burr and his band +from above, a British fleet from below, and he knew there was a +formidable conspiracy within the city.Under these circumstances, was +he justifiable, 1st, in seizing notorious conspirators? On this there +can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty and their accomplices; +the other, that of all honest men. 2d. In sending them to the seat +of government, when the written law gave them a right to trial in the +territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing their +machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of the +judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown +disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, +salvation of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been +convulsed to its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these +constituted a law of necessity and self-preservation, and rendered +the _salus populi_ supreme over the written law. The officer who is +called to act on this superior ground, does indeed risk himself on +the justice of the controlling powers of the constitution, and his +station makes it his duty to incur that risk. But those controlling +powers, and his fellow citizens generally, are bound to judge +according to the circumstances under which he acted. They are not to +transfer the information of this place or moment to the time and +place of his action; but to put themselves into his situation. We +knew here that there never was danger of a British fleet from below, +and that Burr's band was crushed before it reached the Mississippi. +But General Wilkinson's information was very different, and he could +act on no other. + + From these examples and principles you may see what I think on +the question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged +with petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed +for a legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of +the written law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of +greater evil than a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It +is incumbent on those only who accept of great charges, to risk +themselves on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some +of its very high interests are at stake. An officer is bound to obey +orders; yet he would be a bad one who should do it in cases for which +they were not intended, and which involved the most important +consequences. The line of discrimination between cases may be +difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his own peril, +and throw himself on the justice of his country and the rectitude of +his motives. + + I have indulged freer views on this question, on your +assurances that they are for your own eye only, and that they will +not get into the hands of newswriters. I met their scurrilities +without concern, while in pursuit of the great interests with which I +was charged. But in my present retirement, no duty forbids my wish +for quiet. + + Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect. + + + RELATIONS WITH ADAMS + + _To Dr. Benjamin Rush_ + _Monticello, January 16, 1811_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I had been considering for some days, whether it +was not time by a letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when +I received your welcome favor of the 2d instant. I had before heard +of the heart-rending calamity you mention, and had sincerely +sympathized with your afflictions. But I had not made it the subject +of a letter, because I knew that condolences were but renewals of +grief. Yet I thought, and still think, this is one of the cases +wherein we should "not sorrow, even as others who have no hope." I +have myself known so many cases of recovery from confirmed insanity, +as to reckon it ever among the recoverable diseases. One of them was +that of a near relative and namesake of mine, who, after many years +of madness of the first degree, became entirely sane, and amused +himself to a good old age in keeping school; was an excellent teacher +and much valued citizen. + + You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. My present course +of life admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at +latest, to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farm or +other concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind and affairs; +and the few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by +correspondences; not those with my intimate friends, with whom I +delight to interchange sentiments, but with others, who, writing to +me on concerns of their own in which I have had an agency, or from +motives of mere respect and approbation, are entitled to be answered +with respect and a return of good will. My hope is that this +obstacle to the delights of retirement, will wear away with the +oblivion which follows that, and that I may at length be indulged in +those studious pursuits, from which nothing but revolutionary duties +would ever have called me. + + I shall receive your proposed publication and read it with the +pleasure which everything gives me from your pen. Although much of a +sceptic in the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its +ingenious theories. + + I receive with sensibility your observations on the +discontinuance of friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and +myself, and the concern you take in its restoration. This +discontinuance has not proceeded from me, nor from the want of +sincere desire and of effort on my part, to renew our intercourse. +You know the perfect coincidence of principle and of action, in the +early part of the Revolution, which produced a high degree of mutual +respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself. Certainly no man +was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of +rational republicanism which, after the necessity of throwing off our +monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new +government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the +principles of the English constitution, our friendship did not abate +on that account. While he was Vice President, and I Secretary of +State, I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount +Vernon, desiring me to call together the Heads of departments, and to +invite Mr. Adams to join us (which, by-the-bye, was the only instance +of that being done) in order to determine on some measure which +required despatch; and he desired me to act on it, as decided, +without again recurring to him. I invited them to dine with me, and +after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our question, other +conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion arose between +Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the British +constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some of +its defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect +constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the +contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most +perfect model of government that could be formed; and that the +correction of its vices would render it an impracticable government. +And this you may be assured was the real line of difference between +the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another incident +took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate Mr. +Hamilton's political principles. The room being hung around with a +collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those +of Bacon, Newton and Locke, Hamilton asked me who they were. I told +him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever +produced, naming them. He paused for some time: "the greatest man," +said he, "that ever lived, was Julius Caesar." Mr. Adams was honest +as a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as +a politician, believing in the necessity of either force or +corruption to govern men. + + You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, +about that time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of +our constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their +favor, to bring us into war with France and alliance with England, +and finally to homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. +Adams, you know, was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated by +the fear, and often by the pen, of the _bloody buoy_, and was seduced +by them into some open indications of his new principles of +government, and in fact, was so elated as to mix with his kindness a +little superciliousness towards me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her +good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed. And you recollect the +short suspension of our intercourse, and the circumstance which gave +rise to it, which you were so good as to bring to an early +explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial satisfaction of +us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the political +principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in +the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the +vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide +the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I +called on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very sensibly +affected, and accosted me with these words: "Well, I understand that +you are to beat me in this contest, and I will only say that I will +be as faithful a subject as any you will have." "Mr. Adams," said I, +"this is no personal contest between you and me. Two systems of +principles on the subject of government divide our fellow citizens +into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with the +other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those +now living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of +these parties, therefore, has put your name at its head, the other +mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two other names would be +in the place of ours, without any change in the motion of the +machinery. Its motion is from its principle, not from you or +myself." "I believe you are right," said he, "that we are but passive +instruments, and should not suffer this matter to affect our personal +dispositions." But he did not long retain this just view of the +subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies which +the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their +ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their +busy intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between +Burr and myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they +were mediating to place the President of the Senate at the head of +the government, I called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this +desperate measure prevented by his negative. He grew warm in an +instant, and said with a vehemence he had not used towards me before, +"Sir, the event of the election is within your own power. You have +only to say you will do justice to the public creditors, maintain the +navy, and not disturb those holding offices, and the government will +instantly be put into your hands. We know it is the wish of the +people it should be so." "Mr. Adams," said I, "I know not what part +of my conduct, in either public or private life, can have authorized +a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements. I say, however, I +will not come into the government by capitulation. I will not enter +on it, but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates of my own +judgment." I had before given the same answer to the same intimation +from Gouverneur Morris. "Then," said he, "things must take their +course." I turned the conversation to something else, and soon took +my leave. It was the first time in our lives we had ever parted with +anything like dissatisfaction. And then followed those scenes of +midnight appointment, which have been condemned by all men. The last +day of his political power, the last hours, and even beyond the +midnight, were employed in filling all offices, and especially +permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing for me +the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies, +whose study it would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to +incur the odium of such numerous removals from office, as might bear +me down. A little time and reflection effaced in my mind this +temporary dissatisfaction with Mr. Adams, and restored me to that +just estimate of his virtues and passions, which a long acquaintance +had enabled me to fix. And my first wish became that of making his +retirement easy by any means in my power; for it was understood he +was not rich. I suggested to some republican members of the +delegation from his State, the giving him, either directly or +indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that State, and then +offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem it +affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the +offer; and moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such +a step in the outset as arguing very ill of the course I meant to +pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for +some opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding. + + Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a +daughter, between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable +attachment, she made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in +which, with the tenderest expressions of concern at this event, she +carefully avoided a single one of friendship towards myself, and even +concluded it with the wishes "of her who _once_ took pleasure in +subscribing herself your friend, Abigail Adams." Unpromising as was +the complexion of this letter, I determined to make an effort towards +removing the cloud from between us. This brought on a correspondence +which I now enclose for your perusal, after which be so good as to +return it to me, as I have never communicated it to any mortal +breathing, before. I send it to you, to convince you I have not been +wanting either in the desire, or the endeavor to remove this +misunderstanding. Indeed, I thoughtit highly disgraceful to us both, +as indicating minds notsufficiently elevated to prevent a public +competition fromaffecting our personal friendship. I soon found from +thecorrespondence that conciliation was desperate, and yielding to an +intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further explanation. I +have the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had. I know him +to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful +advocate on the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from me, by +belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering +purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the +occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly +passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; +but no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none +ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence, without my asserting +his just character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless +disapproved of the principles and practices of his administration. +This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him +any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me, if +disposition had not; and I am satisfied Mr. Adams' conduct was +equally honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character +to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily +to relinquish his suspicions. + + I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might +know everything which had passed between us, might be fully possessed +of the state of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself +whether they admit a revival of that friendly intercourse for which +you are so kindly solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in +anything on my part which may second your efforts, which will be the +easier with me, inasmuch as I do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. +Adams, the expression of which could give him reasonable offence. +And I submit the whole to yourself, with the assurance, that whatever +be the issue, my friendship and respect for yourself will remain +unaltered and unalterable. + + + "THE SEEDS OF CIVILIZATION" + + _To John Lynch_ + _Monticello, January 21, 1811_ + + SIR, -- You have asked my opinion on the proposition of Mrs. +Mifflin, to take measures for procuring, on the coast of Africa, an +establishment to which the people of color of these States might, +from time to time, be colonized, under the auspices of different +governments. Having long ago made up my mind on this subject, I have +no hesitation in saying that I have ever thought it the most +desirable measure which could be adopted, for gradually drawing off +this part of our population, most advantageously for themselves as +well as for us. Going from a country possessing all the useful arts, +they might be the means of transplanting them among the inhabitants +of Africa, and would thus carry back to the country of their origin, +the seeds of civilization which might render their sojournment and +sufferings here a blessing in the end to that country. + + I received, in the first year of my coming into the +administration of the General Government, a letter from the Governor +of Virginia, (Colonel Monroe,) consulting me, at the request of the +Legislature of the State, on the means of procuring some such asylum, +to which these people might be occasionally sent. I proposed to him +the establishment of Sierra Leone, to which a private company in +England had already colonized a number of negroes, and particularly +the fugitives from these States during the Revolutionary War; and at +the same time suggested, if this could not be obtained, some of the +Portuguese possessions in South America, as next most desirable. The +subsequent Legislature approving these ideas, I wrote, the ensuing +year, 1802, to Mr. King, our Minister in London, to endeavor to +negotiate with the Sierra Leone company a reception of such of these +people as might be colonized thither. He opened a correspondence +with Mr. Wedderburne and Mr. Thornton, secretaries of the company, on +the subject, and in 1803 I received through Mr. King the result, +which was that the colony was going on, but in a languishing +condition; that the funds of the company were likely to fail, as they +received no returns of profit to keep them up; that they were +therefore in treaty with their government to take the establishment +off their hands; but that in no event should they be willing to +receive more of these people from the United States, as it was +exactly that portion of their settlers which had gone from hence, +which, by their idleness and turbulence, had kept the settlement in +constant danger of dissolution, which could not have been prevented +but for the aid of the Maroon negroes from the West Indies, who were +more industrious and orderly than the others, and supported the +authority of the government and its laws. I think I learned +afterwards that the British Government had taken the colony into its +own hands, and I believe it still exists. The effort which I made +with Portugal, to obtain an establishment for them within their +claims in South America, proved also abortive. + + You inquire further, whether I would use my endeavors to +procure for such an establishment security against violence from +other powers, and particularly from France? Certainly, I shall be +willing to do anything I can to give it effect and safety. But I am +but a private individual, and could only use endeavors with private +individuals; whereas, the National Government can address themselves +at once to those of Europe to obtain the desired security, and will +unquestionably be ready to exert its influence with those nations for +an object so benevolent in itself, and so important to a great +portion of its constituents. Indeed, nothing is more to be wished +than that the United States would themselves undertake to make such +an establishment on the coast of Africa. Exclusive of motives of +humanity, the commercial advantages to be derived from it might repay +all its expenses. But for this, the national mind is not yet +prepared. It may perhaps be doubted whether many of these people +would voluntarily consent to such an exchange of situation, and very +certain that few of those advanced to a certain age in habits of +slavery, would be capable of self-government. This should not, +however, discourage the experiment, nor the early trial of it; and +the proposition should be made with all the prudent cautions and +attentions requisite to reconcile it to the interests, the safety and +the prejudices of all parties. + + Accept the assurances of my respect and esteem. + + + THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE + + _To A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy_ + _Monticello, January 26, 1811_ + + SIR, -- The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, +was on its way to me, and my absence from home the greater part of +the autumn, delayed very much the pleasure which awaited me of +reading the packet which accompanied it. I cannot express to you the +satisfaction which I received from its perusal. I had, with the +world, deemed Montesquieu's work of much merit; but saw in it, with +every thinking man, so much of paradox, of false principle and +misapplied fact, as to render its value equivocal on the whole. +Williams and others had nibbled only at its errors. A radical +correction of them, therefore, was a great desideratum. This want is +now supplied, and with a depth of thought, precision of idea, of +language and of logic, which will force conviction into every mind. +I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that I +consider it the most precious gift the present age has received. But +what would it have been, had the author, or would the author, take up +the whole scheme of Montesquieu's work, and following the correct +analysis he has here developed, fill up all its parts according to +his sound views of them? Montesquieu's celebrity would be but a +small portion of that which would immortalize the author. And with +whom? With the rational and high-minded spirits of the present and +all future ages. With those whose approbation is both incitement and +reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope desperate? To what +object can the occupation of his future life be devoted so usefully +to the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must leave to others +who have higher claims on his attention, to press these +considerations. + + My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not +favorable to the object of getting this work translated and printed. +Philadelphia is the least distant of the great towns of our States, +where there exists any enterprise in this way; and it was not till +the spring following the receipt of your letter, that I obtained an +arrangement for its execution. The translation is just now +completed. The sheets came to me by post, from time to time, for +revisal; but not being accompanied by the original, I could not judge +of verbal accuracies. I think, however, it is substantially correct, +without being an adequate representation of the excellences of the +original; as indeed no translation can be. I found it impossible to +give it the appearance of an original composition in our language. I +therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the author towards +a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view, propose to +prefix the prefatory epistle, now enclosed. As soon as a copy of the +work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret of +the author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint +lives; and those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death, +will be equally worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, +or his living consent shall permit the world to know their +benefactor, both his and my papers will furnish the evidence. In the +meantime, the many important truths the work so solidly establishes, +will, I hope, make it the political rudiment of the young, and manual +of our older citizens. + + One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a +singular executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our +present government was first established, we had many doubts on this +question, and many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It +happened that at that time the experiment of such an one was +commenced in France, while the single executive was under trial here. +We watched the motions and effects of these two rival plans, with an +interest and anxiety proportioned to the importance of a choice +between them. The experiment in France failed after a short course, +and not from any circumstance peculiar to the times or nation, but +from those internal jealousies and dissensions in the Directory, +which will ever arise among men equal in power, without a principal +to decide and control their differences. We had tried a similar +experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of the States, +composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to exercise the +executive functions during the recess of Congress. They fell +immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so +inveterate as to render all co-operation among them impracticable: +they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it +continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. +This was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but +the wise ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French +Directory, and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief +that the form of a plurality, however promising in theory, is +impracticable with men constituted with the ordinary passions. While +the tranquil and steady tenor of our single executive, during a +course of twenty-two years of the most tempestuous times the history +of the world has ever presented, gives a rational hope that this +important problem is at length solved. Aided by the counsels of a +cabinet of heads of departments, originally four, but now five, with +whom the President consults, either singly or altogether, he has the +benefit of their wisdom and information, brings their views to one +centre, and produces an unity of action and direction in all the +branches of the government. The excellence of this construction of +the executive power has already manifested itself here under very +opposite circumstances. During the administration of our first +President, his cabinet of four members was equally divided by as +marked an opposition of principle as monarchism and republicanism +could bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a directory, like +positive and negative quantities in algebra, the opposing wills would +have balanced each other and produceda state of absolute inaction. +But the President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of +each, decided the course to be pursued, and kept the government +steadily in it, unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well +the dissensions of the cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on +their account, because they knew also they had provided a regulating +power which would keep the machine in steady movement. I speak with +an intimate knowledge of these scenes, _quorum pars fui_; as I may of +others of a character entirely opposite. The third administration, +which was of eight years, presented an example of harmony in a +cabinet of six person, to which perhaps history has furnished no +parallel. There never arose, during the whole time, an instance of +an unpleasant thought or word between the members. We sometimes met +under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever failed, by conversing +and reasoning, so to modify each other's ideas, as to produce an +unanimous result. Yet, able and amicable as these members were, I am +not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed equal +and independent powers. Ill-defined limits of their respective +departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and +strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of +designing persons to build an importance to themselves on the +divisions of others, might, from small beginnings, have produced +persevering oppositions. But the power of decision in the President +left no object for internal dissension, and external intrigue was +stifled in embryo by the knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that +no division they could foment would change the course of the +executive power. I am not conscious that my participations in +executive authority have produced any bias in favor of the single +executive; because the parts I have acted have been in the +subordinate, as well as superior stations, and because, if I know +myself, what I have felt, and what I have wished, I know that I have +never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, +on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how +any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the +exercise of power over others. + + I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your +principle, that, to insure the safety of the public liberty, its +depository should be subject to be changed with the greatest ease +possible, and without suspending or disturbing for a moment the +movements of the machine of government. You apprehend that a single +executive, with eminence of talent, and destitution of principle, +equal to the object, might, by usurpation, render his powers +hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes as many examples of a +single usurper arising out of a government by a plurality, as of +temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered permanent by +usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger is +lessened in the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly +increased, by the state of inefficiency to which they are liable from +feuds and divisions among themselves. The conservative body you +propose might be so constituted, as, while it would be an admirable +sedative in a variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable +sentinel and check on the liberticide views of an ambitious +individual. I am friendly to this idea. But the true barriers of +our liberty in this country are our State governments; and the wisest +conservative power ever contrived by man, is that of which our +Revolution and present government found us possessed. Seventeen +distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their foreign concerns, +but single and independent as to their internal administration, +regularly organized with legislature and governor resting on the +choice of the people, and enlightened by a free press, can never be +so fascinated by the arts of one man, as to submit voluntarily to his +usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to it by any force he can +possess. While that may paralyze the single State in which it +happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of two +thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for +deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their +governor, constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State, +that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms; and that +militia, too, regularly formed into regiments and battalions, into +infantry, cavalry and artillery, trained under officers general and +subordinate, legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom they +are already in habits of obedience. The republican government of +France was lost without a struggle, because the party of _"un et +indivisible"_ had prevailed; no provincial organizations existed to +which the people might rally under authority of the laws, the seats +of the directory were virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to +turn the legislature out of their chamber, and to salute its leader +chief of the nation. But with us, sixteen out of seventeen States +rising in mass, under regular organization, and legal commanders, +united in object and action by their Congress, or, if that be in +_duresse_, by a special convention, present such obstacles to an +usurper as forever to stifle ambition in the first conception of that +object. + + Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended +from this perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of +the States; to wit, that certain States from local and occasional +discontents, might attempt to secede from the Union. This is +certainly possible; and would be befriended by this regular +organization. But it is not probable that local discontents can +spread to such an extent, as to be able to face the sound parts of so +extensive an Union; and if ever they should reach the majority, they +would then become the regular government, acquire the ascendency in +Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by laws +peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which +local discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, +would be paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into +parties into which we have fallen, into which all States must fall +wherein men are at liberty to think, speak, and act freely, according +to the diversities of their individual conformations, and which are, +perhaps, essential to preserve the purity of the government, by the +censorship which these parties habitually exercise over each other. + + You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of +the grounds on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing +from yours. They prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence +in my own, which have forbidden me to retain, without examination, an +opinion questioned by you. Permit me now to render my portion of the +general debt of gratitude, by acknowledgements in advance for the +singular benefaction which is the subject of this letter, to tender +my wishes for the continuance of a life so usefully employed, and to +add the assurances of my perfect esteem and respect. + + + THE LATIN AMERICAN REVOLUTION + + _To Alexander von Humboldt_ + _Monticello, April 14, 1811_ + + MY DEAR BARON, -- The interruption of our intercourse with +France for some time past, has prevented my writing to you. A +conveyance now occurs, by Mr. Barlow or Mr. Warden, both of them +going in a public capacity. It is the first safe opportunity offered +of acknowledging your favor of September 23d, and the receipt at +different times of the IIId part of your valuable work, 2d, 3d, 4th +and 5th livraisons, and the IVth part, 2d, 3d, and 4th livraisons, +with the _Tableaux de la nature_, and an interesting map of New +Spain. For these magnificent and much esteemed favors, accept my +sincere thanks. They give us a knowledge of that country more +accurate than I believe we possess of Europe, the seat of the science +of a thousand years. It comes out, too, at a moment when those +countries are beginning to be interesting to the whole world. They +are now becoming the scenes of political revolution, to take their +stations as integral members of the great family of nations. All are +now in insurrection. In several, the Independents are already +triumphant, and they will undoubtedly be so in all. What kind of +government will they establish? How much liberty can they bear +without intoxication? Are their chiefs sufficiently enlightened to +form a well-guarded government, and their people to watch their +chiefs? Have they mind enough to place their domesticated Indians on +a footing with the whites? All these questions you can answer better +than any other. I imagine they will copy our outlines of +confederation and elective government, abolish distinction of ranks, +bow the neck to their priests, and persevere in intolerantism. Their +greatest difficulty will be in the construction of their executive. +I suspect that, regardless of the experiment of France, and of that +of the United States in 1784, they will begin with a directory, and +when the unavoidable schisms in that kind of executive shall drive +them to something else, their great question will come on whether to +substitute an executive elective for years, for life, or an +hereditary one. But unless instruction can be spread among them more +rapidly than experience promises, despotism may come upon them before +they are qualified to save the ground they will have gained. Could +Napoleon obtain, at the close of the present war, the independence of +all the West India islands, and their establishment in a separate +confederacy, our quarter of the globe would exhibit an enrapturing +prospect into futurity. You will live to see much of this. I shall +follow, however, cheerfully my fellow laborers, contented with having +borne a part in beginning this beatific reformation. + + I fear, from some expressions in your letter, that your +personal interests have not been duly protected, while you were +devoting your time, talents and labor for the information of mankind. +I should sincerely regret it for the honor of the governing powers, +as well as from affectionate attachment to yourself and the sincerest +wishes for your felicity, fortunes and fame. + + In sending you a copy of my Notes on Virginia, I do but obey +the desire you have expressed. They must appear chetif enough to the +author of the great work on South America. But from the widow her +mite was welcome, and you will add to this indulgence the acceptance +of my sincere assurances of constant friendship and respect. + + + "A YOUNG GARDENER" + + _To Charles Willson Peale_ + _Poplar Forest, August 20, 1811_ + + It is long, my dear Sir, since we have exchanged a letter. Our +former correspondence had always some little matter of business +interspersed; but this being at an end, I shall still be anxious to +hear from you sometimes, and to know that you are well and happy. I +know indeed that your system is that of contentment under any +situation. I have heard that you have retired from the city to a +farm, and that you give your whole time to that. Does not the museum +suffer? And is the farm as interesting? Here, as you know, we are +all farmers, but not in a pleasing style. We have so little labor in +proportion to our land that, although perhaps we make more profit +from the same labor, we cannot give to our grounds that style of +beauty which satisfies the eye of the amateur. Our rotations are +corn, wheat, and clover, or corn, wheat, clover and clover, or wheat, +corn, wheat, clover and clover; preceding the clover by a plastering. +But some, instead of clover substitute mere rest, and all are +slovenly enough. We are adding the care of Merino sheep. I have +often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and +calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, +and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No +occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no +culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of +subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one +thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest +a continued one through the year. Under a total want of demand +except for our family table, I am still devoted to the garden. But +though an old man, I am but a young gardener. + + Your application to whatever you are engaged in I know to be +incessant. But Sundays and rainy days are always days of writing for +the farmer. Think of me sometimes when you have your pen in hand, +and give me information of your health and occupations; and be always +assured of my great esteem and respect. + + + REPRISE: WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND COINS + + _To Dr. Robert Patterson_ + _Monticello, November 10, 1811_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of September 23d came to hand in due +time, and I thank you for the nautical almanac it covered for the +year 1813. I learn with pleasure that the Philosophical Society has +concluded to take into consideration the subject of a fixed standard +of measures, weights and coins, and you ask my ideas on it; insulated +as my situation is, I am sure I can offer nothing but what will occur +to the committee engaged on it, with the advantage on their part of +correction by an interchange of sentiments and observations among +themselves. I will, however, hazard some general ideas because you +desire it, and if a single one be useful, the labor will not be lost. + + The subject to be referred to as a standard, whether it be +matter or motion, should be fixed by nature, invariable and +accessible to all nations, independently of others, and with a +convenience not disproportioned to its utility. What subject in +nature fulfils best these conditions? What system shall we propose +on this, embracing measures, weights and coins? and in what form +shall we present it to the world? These are the questions before the +committee. + + Some other subjects have, at different times, been proposed as +standards, but two only have divided the opinions of men: first, a +direct admeasurement of a line on the earth's surface, or second, a +measure derived from its motion on its axis. To measure directly +such a portion of the earth as would furnish an element of measure, +which might be found again with certainty in all future times, would +be too far beyond the competence of our means to be taken into +consideration. I am free, at the same time, to say that if these +were within our power in the most ample degree, this element would +not meet my preference. The admeasurement would of course be of a +portion of some great circle of the earth. If of the equator, the +countries over which that passes, their character and remoteness, +render the undertaking arduous, and we may say impracticable for most +nations. If of some meridian, the varying measures of its degrees +from the equator to the pole, require a mean to be sought, of which +some aliquot part may furnish what is desired. For this purpose the +45th degree has been recurred to, and such a length of line on both +sides of it terminating at each end in the ocean, as may furnish a +satisfactory law for a deduction of the unmeasured part of the +quadrant. The portion resorted to by the French philosophers, (and +there is no other on the globe under circumstances equally +satisfactory,) is the meridian passing through their country and a +portion of Spain, from Dunkirk to Barcelona. The objections to such +an admeasurement as an element of measure, are the labor, the time, +the number of highly-qualified agents, and the great expense +required. All this, too, is to be repeated whenever any accident +shall have destroyed the standard derived from it, or impaired its +dimensions. This portion of that particular meridian is accessible +of right to no one nation on earth. France, indeed, availing herself +of a moment of peculiar relation between Spain and herself, has +executed such an admeasurement. But how would it be at this moment, +as to either France or Spain? and how is it at all times as to other +nations, in point either of right or of practice? Must these go +through the same operation, or take their measures from the standard +prepared by France? Neither case bears that character of +independence which the problem requires, and which neither the +equality nor convenience of nations can dispense with. How would it +now be, were England the deposit of a standard for the world? At war +with all the world, the standard would be inaccessible to all other +nations. Against this, too, are the inaccuracies of admeasurements +over hills and valleys, mountains and waters, inaccuracies often +unobserved by the agent himself, and always unknown to the world. +The various results of the different measures heretofore attempted, +sufficiently prove the inadequacy of human means to make such an +admeasurement with the exactness requisite. + + Let us now see under what circumstances the pendulum offers +itself as an element of measure. The motion of the earth on its axis +from noon to noon of a mean solar day, has been divided from time +immemorial, and by very general consent, into 86,400 portions of time +called seconds. The length of a pendulum vibrating in one of these +portions, is determined by the laws of nature, is invariable under +the same parallel, and accessible independently to all men. Like a +degree of the meridian, indeed, it varies in its length from the +equator to the pole, and like it, too, requires to be reduced to a +mean. In seeking a mean in the first case, the 45th degree occurs +with unrivalled preferences. It is the mid-way of the celestial ark +from the equator to the pole. It is a mean between the two extreme +degrees of the terrestrial ark, or between any two equi-distant from +it, and it is also a mean value of all its degrees. In like manner, +when seeking a mean for the pendulum, the same 45th degree offers +itself on the same grounds, its increments being governed by the same +laws which determine those of the different degrees of the meridian. + + In a pendulum loaded with a Bob, some difficulty occurs in +finding the centre of oscillation; and consequently the distance +between that and the point of suspension. To lessen this, it has +been proposed to substitute for the pendulum, a cylindrical rod of +small diameter, in which the displacement of the centre of +oscillation would be lessened. It has also been proposed to prolong +the suspending wire of the pendulum below the Bob, until their +centres of oscillation shall coincide. But these propositions not +appearing to have received general approbation, we recur to the +pendulum, suspended and charged as has been usual. And the rather as +the the laws which determine the centre of oscillation leave no room +for error in finding it, other than that minimum in practice to which +all operations are subject in their execution. The other sources of +inaccuracy in the length of the pendulum need not be mentioned, +because easily guarded against. But the great and decisive +superiority of the pendulum, as a standard of measure, is in its +accessibility to all men, at all times and in all places. To obtain +the second pendulum for 45 degrees it is not necessary to go actually +to that latitude. Having ascertained its length in our own parallel, +both theory and observation give us a law for ascertaining the +difference between that and the pendulum of any other. To make a new +measure therefore, or verify an old one, nothing is necessary in any +place but a well-regulated time-piece, or a good meridian, and such a +knowledge of the subject as is common in all civilized nations. + + + Those indeed who have preferred the other element, do justice +to the certainty, as well as superior facilities of the pendulum, by +proposing to recur to one of the length of their standard, and to +ascertain its number of vibrations in a day. These being once known, +if any accident impair their standard it is to be recoved by means of +a pendulum which shall make the requisite number of vibrations in a +day. And among the several commissions established by the Academy of +Sciences for the execution of the several branches of their work on +measures and weights, that respecting the pendulum was assigned to +Messrs. Borda, Coulomb & Cassini, the result of whose labors, +however, I have not learned. + + Let our unit of measures then be a pendulum of such length as +in the latitude of 45 degrees, in the level of the ocean, and in a +given temperature, shall perform its vibrations, in small and equal +arcs, in one second of mean time. + + What ratio shall we adopt for the parts and multiples of this +unit? The decimal without a doubt. Our arithmatic being founded in +a decimal numeration, the same numeration in a system of measures, +weights and coins, tallies at once with that. On this question, I +believe, there has been no difference of opinion. + + In measures of length, then, the pendulum is our unit. It is a +little more than our yard and less than the ell. Its tenth or dime, +will not be quite .4 inches. Its hundredth, or cent, not quite .4 of +an inch; its thousandth, or mill, not quite .04 of an inch, and so +on. The traveller will count his road by a longer measure. 1,000 +units, or a kiliad, will not be quite two-thirds of our present mile, +and more nearly a thousand paces than that. + + For measures of surface, the square unit, equal to about ten +square feet, or one-ninth more than a square yard, will be generally +convenient. But for those of lands a larger measure will be wanted. +A kiliad would be not quite a rood, or quarter of an acre; a myriad +not quite 2 1/2 acres. + + For measures of capacity, wet and dry, + + The cubic Unit = .1 would be about .35 cubic feet, .28 bushels +dry, or 7/8 of a ton liquid. + Dime = .1 would be about 3.5 cubic feet, 2.8 bushels, or about +7/8 of a barrel liquid. + Cent = .01 about 50 cubic inches, or 7/8 of a quart. + Mill = .001 = .5 of a cubic inch, or 2/3 of a gill. + + To incorporate into the same system our weights and coins, we +must recur to some natural substance, to be found everywhere, and of +a composition sufficiently uniform. Water has been considered as the +most eligible substance, and rain-water more nearly uniform than any +other kind found in nature. That circumstance renders it preferable +to distilled water, and its variations in weight may be called +insensible. + + The cubic unit of this = .1 would weigh about 2,165 lbs. or a +ton between the long and short. + The Dime = .1 a little more than 2. kentals. + Cent = .01 a little more than 20 lb. + Mill = .001 a little more than 2 lb. + Decimmil = .0001 about 3 1/2 oz. avoirdupoise. + Centimmil = .00001 a little more than 6 dwt. + Millionth = .000001 about 15 grains. + Decimmillionth = .0000001 about 1 1/2 grains. + Centimmillionth = .00000001 about .14 of a grain. + Billionth = .000000001 about .014 of a grain. + + With respect to our coins, the pure silver in a dollar being +fixed by law at 347 1/4 grains, and all debts and contracts being +bottomed on that value, we can only state the pure silver in the +dollar, which would be very nearly 23 millionths. + + I have used loose and round numbers (the exact unit being yet +undetermined) merely to give a general idea of the measures and +weights proposed, when compared with those we now use. And in the +names of the subdivisions I have followed the metrology of the +ordinance of Congress of 1786, which for their series below unit +adopted the Roman numerals. For that above unit the Grecian is +convenient, and has been adopted in the new French system. + + We come now to our last question, in what form shall we offer +this metrical system to the world? In some one which shall be +altogether unassuming; which shall not have the appearance of taking +the lead among our sister institutions in making a general +proposition. So jealous is the spirit of equality in the republic of +letters, that the smallest excitement of that would mar our views, +however salutary for all. We are in habits of correspondence with +some of these institutions, and identity of character and of object, +authorize our entering into correspondence with all. Let us then +mature our system as far as can be done at present, by ascertaining +the length of the second pendulum of 45 degrees by forming two +tables, one of which shall give the equivalent of every different +denomination of measures, weights and coins in these States, in the +unit of that pendulum, its decimals and multiples; and the other +stating the equivalent of all the decimal parts and multiples of that +pendulum, in the several denominations of measures, weights and coins +of our existing system. This done, we might communicate to one or +more of these institutions in every civilized country a copy of those +tables, stating as our motive, the difficulty we had experienced, and +often the impossibility of ascertaining the value of the measures, +weights and coins of other countries, expressed in any standard which +we possess; that desirous of being relieved from this, and of +obtaining information which could be relied on for the purposes of +science, as well as of business, we had concluded to ask it from the +learned societies of other nations, who are especially qualified to +give it with the requisite accuracy; that in making this request we +had thought it our duty first to do ourselves, and to offer to +others, what we meant to ask from them, by stating the value of our +own measures, weights and coins, in some unit of measure already +possessed, or easily obtainable, by all nations; that the pendulum +vibrating seconds of mean time, presents itself as such an unit; its +length being determined by the laws of nature, and easily +ascertainable at all times and places; that we have thought that of +45 degrees would be the most unexceptionable, as being a mean of all +other parallels, and open to actual trial in both hemispheres. In +this, therefore, as an unit, and in its parts and multiples in the +decimal ratio, we have expressed, in the tables communicated, the +value of all the measures, weights and coins used in the United +States, and we ask in return from their body a table of the weights, +measures and coins in use within their country, expressed in the +parts and multiples of the same unit. Having requested the same +favor from the learned societies of other nations, our object is, +with their assistance, to place within the reach of our fellow +citizens at large a perfect knowledge of the measures, weights and +coins of the countries with which they have commercial or friendly +intercourse; and should the societies of other countries interchange +their respective tables, the learned will be in possession of an +uniform language in measures, weights and coins, which may with time +become useful to other descriptions of their citizens, and even to +their governments. This, however, will rest with their pleasure, not +presuming, in the present proposition, to extend our views beyond the +limits of our own nation. I offer this sketch merely as the outline +of the kind of communication which I should hope would excite no +jealousy or repugnance. + + Peculiar circumstances, however, would require letters of a +more special character to the Institute of France, and the Royal +Society of England. The magnificent work which France has executed +in the admeasurement of so large a portion of the meridian, has a +claim to great respect in our reference to it. We should only ask a +communication of their metrical system, expressed in equivalent +values of the second pendulum of 45 degrees as ascertained by Messrs. +Borda, Coulomb and Cassini, adding, perhaps, the request of an actual +rod of the length of that pendulum. + + With England, our explanations will be much more delicate. +They are the older country, the mother country, more advanced in the +arts and sciences, possessing more wealth and leisure for their +improvement, and animated by a pride more than laudable (*). It is +their measures, too, which we undertake to ascertain and communicate +to themselves. The subject should therefore be opened to them with +infinite tenderness and respect, and in some way which might give +them due place in its agency. The parallel of 45 degrees being +within our latitude and not within theirs, the actual experiments +under that would be of course assignable to us. But as a corrective, +I would propose that they should ascertain the length of the pendulum +vibrating seconds in the city of London, or at the observatory of +Greenwich, while we should do the same in an equi-distant parallel to +the south of 45 degrees, suppose in 38 degrees 29'.We might ask of +them, too, as they are in possession of thestandards of Guildhall, of +which we can have but an unauthentic account, to make the actual +application of those standards to the pendulum when ascertained. The +operation we should undertake under the 45th parallel, (about +Passama-quoddy,) would give us a happy occasion, too, of engaging our +sister society of Boston in our views, by referring to them the +execution of that part of the work. For that of 38 degrees 29' we +should be at a loss. It crosses the tide waters of the Potomac, +about Dumfries, and I do not know what our resources there would be +unless we borrow them from Washington, where there are competent +persons. + + (*) We are all occupied in industrious pursuits. They abound +with persons living on the industry of their fathers, or on the +earnings of their fellow citizens, given away by their rulers in +sinecures and pensions. Some of these, desirous of laudable +distinction, devote their time and means to the pursuits of science, +and become profitable members of society by an industry of a higher +order. + + + + Although I have not mentioned Philadelphia in these operations, +I by no means propose to relinquish the benefit of observations to be +made there. Her science and perfection in the arts would be a +valuable corrective to the less perfect state of them in the other +places of observation. Indeed, it is to be wished that Philadelphia +could be made the point of observation south of 45 degrees, and that +the Royal Society would undertake the counterpoint on the north, +which would be somewhere between the Lizard and Falmouth. The actual +pendulums from both of our points of observation, and not merely the +measures of them, should be delivered to the Philosophical Society, +to be measured under their eye and direction. + + As this is really a work of common and equal interest to +England and the United States, perhaps it would be still more +respectful to make our proposition to her Royal Society in the +outset, and to agree with them on a partition of the work. In this +case, any commencement of actual experiments on our part should be +provisional only, and preparatory to the ultimate results. We might, +in the meantime, provisionally also, form a table adapted to the +length of the pendulum of 45 degrees, according to the most approved +estimates, including those of the French commissioners. This would +serve to introduce the subject to the foreign societies, in the way +before proposed, reserving to ourselves the charge of communicating +to them a more perfect one, when that shall have been completed. + + We may even go a step further, and make a general table of the +measures, weights and coins of all nations, taking their value +hypothetically for the present, from the tables in the commercial +dictionary of the encyclopedia methodique, which are very extensive, +and have the appearance of being made with great labor and exactness. +To these I expect we must in the end recur, as a supplement for the +measures which we may fail to obtain from other countries directly. +Their reference is to the foot or inch of Paris, as a standard, which +we may convert into parts of the second pendulum of 45 degrees. + + I have thus, my dear sir, committed to writing my general ideas +on this subject, the more freely as they are intended merely as +suggestions for consideration. It is not probable they offer +anything which would not have occurred to the committee itself. My +apology on offering them must be found in your request. My +confidence in the committee, of which I take for granted you are one, +is too entire to have intruded a single idea but on that ground. + + Be assured of my affectionate and high esteem and respect. + + + RECONCILIATION + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Jan. 21, 1812_ + + DEAR SIR -- I thank you before hand (for they are not yet +arrived) for the specimens of homespun you have been so kind as to +forward me by post. I doubt not their excellence, knowing how far +you are advanced in these things in your quarter. Here we do little +in the fine way, but in coarse and midling goods a great deal. Every +family in the country is a manufactory within itself, and is very +generally able to make within itself all the stouter and midling +stuffs for it's own cloathing and household use. We consider a sheep +for every person in the family as sufficient to clothe it, in +addition to the cottom, hemp and flax which we raise ourselves. For +fine stuff we shall depend on your Northern manufactures. Of these, +that is to say, of company establishments, we have none. We use +little machinery. The Spinning Jenny and loom with the flying +shuttle can be managed in a family; but nothing more complicated. +The economy and thriftiness resulting from our household manufactures +are such that they will never again be laid aside; and nothing more +salutary for us has ever happened than the British obstructions to +our demands for their manufactures. Restore free intercourse when +they will, their commerce with us will have totally changed it's +form, and the articles we shall in future want from them will not +exceed their own consumption of our produce. + + A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. +It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and +dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for +what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring +always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to +overwhelm us and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew not +how, we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and made a happy +port. Still we did not expect to be without rubs and difficulties; +and we have had them. First the detention of the Western posts: then +the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce with France, and the +British enforcement of the outlawry. In your day French +depredations: in mine English, and the Berlin and Milan decrees: now +the English orders of council, and the piracies they authorise: when +these shall be over, it will be the impressment of our seamen, or +something else: and so we have gone on, and so we shall go on, +puzzled and prospering beyond example in the history of man. And I +do believe we shall continue to growl, [i.e., grow] to multiply and +prosper until we exhibit an association, powerful, wise and happy, +beyond what has yet been seen by men. As for France and England, +with all their pre-eminence in science, the one is a den of robbers, +and the other of pirates. And if science produces no better fruits +than tyranny, murder, rapine and destitution of national morality, I +would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest and estimable as +our neighboring savages are. + + + But whither is senile garrulity leading me? Into politics, of +which I have taken final leave. I think little of them, and say +less. I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and +Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid; and I find myself much the +happier. Sometimes indeed I look back to former occurrences, in +remembrance of our old friends and fellow laborers, who have fallen +before us. Of the signers of the Declaration of Independance I see +now living not more than half a dozen on your side of the Potomak, +and, on this side, myself alone. You and I have been wonderfully +spared, and myself with remarkable health, and a considerable +activity of body and mind. I am on horseback 3. or 4. hours of every +day; visit 3. or 4. times a year a possession I have 90 miles +distance, performing the winter journey on horseback. I walk little +however; a single mile being too much for me; and I live in the midst +of my grandchildren, one of whom has lately promoted me to be a great +grandfather. I have heard with pleasure that you also retain good +health, and a greater power of exercise in walking than I do. But I +would rather have heard this from yourself, and that, writing a +letter, like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your health, +your habits, occupations and enjoyments, I should have the pleasure +of knowing that, in the race of life, you do not keep, in it's +physical decline, the same distance ahead of me which you have done +in political honors and atchievements. No circumstances have +lessened the interest I feel in these particulars respecting +yourself; none have suspended for one moment my sincere esteem for +you; and I now salute you with unchanged affections and respect. + + + CONCERNING THE INDIANS + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, June 11, 1812_ + + DEAR SIR -- By our post preceding that which brought your +letter of May 21, I had recieved one from Mr. Malcolm on the same +subject with yours, and by the return of the post had stated to the +President my recollections of him. But both of your letters were +probably too late; as the appointment had been already made, if we +may credit the newspapers. + + You ask if there is any book that pretends to give any account +of the traditions of the Indians, or how one can acquire an idea of +them? Some scanty accounts of their traditions, but fuller of their +customs and characters are given us by most of the early travellers +among them. These you know were chiefly French. Lafitau, among +them, and Adair an Englishman, have written on this subject; the +former two volumes, the latter one, all in 4to [quarto]. But +unluckily Lafitau had in his head a preconcieved theory on the +mythology, manners, institutions and government of the antient +nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and seems to have entered on +those of America only to fit them into the same frame, and to draw +from them a confirmation of his general theory. He keeps up a +perpetual parallel, in all those articles, between the Indians of +America, and the antients of the other quarters of the globe. He +selects therefore all the facts, and adopts all the falsehoods which +favor his theory, and very gravely retails such absurdities as zeal +for a theory could alone swallow. He was a man of much classical and +scriptural reading, and has rendered his book not unentertaining. He +resided five years among the Northern Indians, as a Missionary, but +collects his matter much more from the writings of others, than from +his own observation. + + Adair too had his kink. He believed all the Indians of +American to be descended from the Jews: the same laws, usages; rites +and ceremonies, the same sacrifices, priests, prophets, fasts and +festivals, almost the same religion, and that they all spoke Hebrew. +For altho he writes particularly of the Southern Indians only, the +Catawbas, Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws, with whom alone +he was personally acquainted, yet he generalises whatever he found +among them, and brings himself to believe that the hundred languages +of America, differing fundamentally every one from every other, as +much as Greek from Gothic, have yet all one common prototype. He was +a trader, a man of learning, a self-taught Hebraist, a strong +religionist, and of as sound a mind as Don Quixot in whatever did not +touch his religious chivalry. His book contains a great deal of real +instruction on it's subject, only requiring the reader to be +constantly on his guard against the wonderful obliquities of his +theory. + + The scope of your enquiry would scarcely, I suppose, take in +the three folio volumes of Latin by De Bry. In these fact and fable +are mingled together, without regard to any favorite system. They +are less suspicious therefore in their complexion, more original and +authentic, than those of Lafitau and Adair. This is a work of great +curiosity, extremely rare, so as never to be bought in Europe, but on +the breaking up, and selling some antient library. On one of these +occasions a bookseller procured me a copy, which, unless you have +one, is probably the only one in America. + + You ask further, if the Indians have any order of priesthood +among them, like the Druids, Bards or Minstrels of the Celtic +nations? Adair alone, determined to see what he wished to see in +every object, metamorphoses their Conjurers into an order of priests, +and describes their sorceries as if they were the great religious +ceremonies of the nation. Lafitau calls them by their proper names, +Jongleurs, Devins, Sortileges; De Bry praestigiatores, Adair himself +sometimes Magi, Archimagi, cunning men, Seers, rain makers, and the +modern Indian interpreters, call them Conjurers and Witches. They +are persons pretending to have communications with the devil and +other evil spirits, to foretel future events, bring down rain, find +stolen goods, raise the dead, destroy some, and heal others by +enchantment, lay spells etc. And Adair, without departing from his +parallel of the Jews and Indians, might have found their counterpart, +much more aptly, among the Soothsayers, sorcerers and wizards of the +Jews, their Jannes and Jambres, their Simon Magus, witch of Endor, +and the young damsel whose sorceries disturbed Paul so much; instead +of placing them in a line with their High-priest, their Chief +priests, and their magnificent hierarchy generally. In the solemn +ceremonies of the Indians, the persons who direct or officiate, are +their chiefs, elders and warriors, in civil ceremonies or in those of +war; it is the Head of the Cabin, in their private or particular +feasts or ceremonies; and sometimes the Matrons, as in their Corn +feasts. And, even here, Adair might have kept up his parallel, with +ennobling his Conjurers. For the antient Patriarchs, the Noahs, the +Abrahams, Isaacs and Jacobs, and, even after the consecration of +Aaron, the Samuels and Elijahs, and we may say further every one for +himself, offered sacrifices on the altars. The true line of +distinction seems to be, that solemn ceremonies, whether public or +private, addressed to the Great Spirit, are conducted by the worthies +of the nation, Men, or Matrons, while Conjurers are resorted to only +for the invocation of evil spirits. The present state of the several +Indian tribes, without any public order of priests, is proof +sufficient that they never had such an order. Their steady habits +permit no innovations, not even those which the progress of science +offers to increase the comforts, enlarge the understanding, and +improve the morality of mankind. Indeed so little idea have they of +a regular order of priests, that they mistake ours for their +Conjurers, and call them by that name. + + So much in answer to your enquiries concerning Indians, a +people with whom, in the very early part of my life, I was very +familiar, and acquired impressions of attachment and commiseration +for them which have never been obliterated. Before the revolution +they were in the habit of coming often, and in great numbers to the +seat of our government, where I was very much with them. I knew much +the great Outassete [i.e., Outacity], the warrior and orator of the +Cherokees. He was always the guest of my father, on his journeys to +and from Williamsburg. I was in his camp when he made his great +farewell oration to his people, the evening before his departure for +England. The moon was in full splendor, and to her he seemed to +address himself in his prayers for his own safety on the voyage, and +that of his people during his absence. His sounding voice, distinct +articulation, animated actions, and the solemn silence of his people +at their several fires, filled me with awe and veneration, altho' I +did not understand a word he uttered. That nation, consisting now of +about 2000. wariors, and the Creeks of about 3000. are far advanced +in civilisation. They have good Cabins, inclosed fields, large herds +of cattle and hogs, spin and weave their own clothes of cotton, have +smiths and other of the most necessary tradesmen, write and read, are +on the increase in numbers, and a branch of the Cherokees is now +instituting a regular representative government. Some other tribes +were advancing in the same line. On those who have made any +progress, English seductions will have no effect. But the backward +will yeild, and be thrown further back. These will relapse into +barbarism and misery, lose numbers by war and want, and we shall be +obliged to drive them, with the beasts of the forest into the Stony +mountains. They will be conquered however in Canada. The possession +of that country secures our women and children for ever from the +tomahawk and scalping knife, by removing those who excite them: and +for this possession, orders I presume are issued by this time; taking +for granted that the doors of Congress will re-open with a +Declaration of war. That this may end in indemnity for the past, +security for thefuture, and compleat emancipation from Anglomany, +Gallomany, and all the manias of demoralized Europe, and that you may +live in health and happiness to see all this, is the sincere prayer +of Yours affectionately. + + + WAR WITH ENGLAND + + _To General Thaddeus Kosciusko_ + _Monticello, June 28, 1812_ + + Nous voila donc, mon cher ami, en guerre avec l'Angleterre. +This was declared on the 18th instant, thirty years after the +signature of our peace in 1782. Within these thirty years what a +vast course of growth and prosperity we have had! It is not ten +years since Great Britain began a series of insults and injuries +which would have been met with war in the threshold by any European +power. This course has been unremittingly followed up by increasing +wrongs, with glimmerings indeed of peaceable redress, just sufficient +to keep us quiet, till she has had the impudence at length to +extinguish even these glimmerings by open avowal. This would not +have been borne so long, but that France has kept pace with England +in iniquity of principle, although not in the power of inflicting +wrongs on us. The difficulty of selecting a foe between them has +spared us many years of war, and enabled us to enter into it with +less debt, more strength and preparation. Our present enemy will +have the sea to herself, while we shall be equally predominant at +land, and shall strip her of all her possessions on this continent. +She may burn New York, indeed, by her ships and congreve rockets, in +which case we must burn the city of London by hired incendiaries, of +which her starving manufacturers will furnish abundance. A people in +such desperation as to demand of their government _autparcem, aut +furcam_, either bread or the gallows, will not reject the same +alternative when offered by a foreign hand. Hunger will make them +brave every risk for bread. The partisans of England here have +endeavored much to goad us into the folly of choosing the ocean +instead of the land, for the theatre of war. That would be to meet +their strength with our own weakness, instead of their weakness with +our strength. I hope we shall confine ourselves to the conquest of +their possessions, and defence of our harbors, leaving the war on the +ocean to our privateers. These will immediately swarm in every sea, +and do more injury to British commerce than the regular fleets of all +Europe would do. The government of France may discontinue their +license trade. Our privateers will furnish them much more abundantly +with colonial produce, and whatever the license trade has given them. +Some have apprehended we should be overwhelmed by the new +improvements of war, which have not yet reached us. But the British +possess them very imperfectly, and what are these improvements? +Chiefly in the management of artillery, of which our country admits +little use. We have nothing to fear from their armies, and shall put +nothing in prize to their fleets. Upon the whole, I have known no +war entered into under more favorable auspices. + + Our manufacturers are now very nearly on a footing with those +of England. She has not a single improvement which we do not +possess, and many of them better adapted by ourselves to our ordinary +use. We have reduced the large and expensive machinery for most +things to the compass of a private family, and every family of any +size is now getting machines on a small scale for their household +purposes. Quoting myself as an example, and I am much behind many +others in this business, my household manufactures are just getting +into operation on the scale of a carding machine costing 60 only, +which may be worked by a girl of twelve years old, a spinning +machine, which may be made for $10, carrying 6 spindles for wool, to +be worked by a girl also, another which can be made for $25, carrying +12 spindles for cotton, and a loom, with a flying shuttle, weaving +its twenty yards a day. I need 2,000 yards of linen, cotton and +woollen yearly, to clothe my family, which this machinery, costing +$150 only, and worked by two women and two girls, will more than +furnish. For fine goods there are numerous establishments at work in +the large cities, and many more daily growing up; and of merinos we +have some thousands, and these multiplying fast. We consider a sheep +for every person as sufficient for their woollen clothing, and this +State and all to the north have fully that, and those to the south +and west will soon be up to it. In other articles we are equally +advanced, so that nothing is more certain than that, come peace when +it will, we shall never again go to England for a shilling where we +have gone for a dollar's worth. Instead of applying to her +manufacturers there, they must starve or come here to be employed. I +give you these details of peaceable operations, because they are +within my present sphere. Those of war are in better hands, who know +how to keep their own secrets. Because, too, although a soldier +yourself, I am sure you contemplate the peaceable employment of man +in the improvement of his condition, with more pleasure than his +murders, rapine and devastations. + + Mr. Barnes, some time ago, forwarded you a bill of exchange for +5,500 francs, of which the enclosed is a duplicate. Apprehending +that a war with England would subject the remittances to you to more +casualties, I proposed to Mr. Morson, of Bordeaux, to become the +intermediate for making remittances to you, which he readily acceded +to on liberal ideas arising from his personal esteem for you, and his +desire to be useful to you. If you approve of this medium I am in +hopes it will shield you from the effect of the accidents to which +the increased dangers of the seas may give birth. It would give me +great pleasure to hear from you oftener. I feel great interest in +your health and happiness. I know your feelings on the present state +of the world, and hope they will be cheered by the successful course +of our war, and the addition of Canada to our confederacy. The +infamous intrigues of Great Britain to destroy our government (of +which Henry's is but one sample), and with the Indians to tomahawk +our women and children, prove that the cession of Canada, their +fulcrum for these Machiavelian levers, must be a _sine qua non_ at a +treaty of peace. God bless you, and give you to see all these +things, and many and long years of health and happiness. + + + "A RADICAL DIFFERENCE OF POLITICAL PRINCIPLE" + + _To John Melish_ + _Monticello, January 13, 1813_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I received duly your favor of December the 15th, +and with it the copies of your map and travels, for which be pleased +to accept my thanks. The book I have read with extreme satisfaction +and information. As to the western States, particularly, it has +greatly edified me: for of the actual condition of that interesting +portion of our country, I had not an adequate idea. I feel myself +now as familiar with it as with the condition of the maritime States. +I had no conception that manufactures had made such progress there, +and particularly of the number of carding and spinning machines +dispersed through the whole country. We are but beginning here to +have them in our private families. Small spinning jennies of from +half a dozen to twenty spindles, will soon, however, make their way +into the humblest cottages, as well as the richest houses; and +nothing is more certain, than that the coarse and middling clothing +for our families, will forever hereafter continue to be made within +ourselves. I have hitherto myself depended entirely on foreign +manufactures; but I have now thirty-five spindles agoing, a hand +carding machine, and looms with the flying shuttle, for the supply of +my own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The +continuance of the war will fix the habit generally, and out of the +evils of impressment and of the orders of council, a great blessing +for us will grow. I have not formerly been an advocate for great +manufactories. I doubted whether our labor, employed in agriculture, +and aided by the spontaneous energies of the earth, would not procure +us more than we could make ourselves of other necessaries. But other +considerations entering into the question, have settled my doubts. + + The candor with which you have viewed the manners and condition +of our citizens, is so unlike the narrow prejudices of the French and +English travellers preceding you, who, considering each the manners +and habits of their own people as the only orthodox, have viewed +everything differing from that test as boorish and barbarous, that +your work will be read here extensively, and operate great good. + + Amidst this mass of approbation which is given to every other +part of the work, there is a single sentiment which I cannot help +wishing to bring to what I think the correct one; and, on a point so +interesting, I value your opinion too highly not to ambition its +concurrence with my own. Stating in volume one, page sixty-three, +the principle of difference between the two great political parties +here, you conclude it to be, `whether the controlling power shall be +vested in this or that set of men.' That each party endeavors to get +into the administration of the government, and exclude the other from +power, is true, and may be stated as a motive of action: but this is +only secondary; the primary motive being a real and radical +difference of political principle. I sincerely wish our differences +were but personally who should govern, and that the principles of our +constitution were those of both parties. Unfortunately, it is +otherwise; and the question of preference between monarchy and +republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere, threatens +a permanent division here. + + Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there +are three shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the _leaders_ +and _people_ who compose it, the _leaders_ consider the English +constitution as a model of perfection, some, with a correction of its +vices, others, with all its corruptions and abuses. This last was +Alexander Hamilton's opinion, which others, as well as myself, have +often heard him declare, and that a correction of what are called its +vices, would render the English an impracticable government. This +government they wished to have established here, and only accepted +and held fast, _at first_, to the present constitution, as a +stepping-stone to the final establishment of their favorite model. +This party therefore always clung to England as their prototype, and +great auxiliary in promoting and effecting this change. A weighty +MINORITY, however, of these _leaders_, considering the voluntary +conversion of our government into a monarchy as too distant, if not +desperate, wish to break off from our Union its eastern fragment, as +being, in truth, the hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a +commencement of their favorite government, from whence the other +States may gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally +to the desired point. For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this +enterprise, is the last State in the Union to mean a _final_ +separation, as being of all the most dependent on the others. Not +raising bread for the sustenance of her own inhabitants, not having a +stick of timber for the construction of vessels, her principal +occupation, nor an article to export in them, where would she be, +excluded from the ports of the other States, and thrown into +dependence on England, her direct and natural, but now insidious +rival? At the head of this MINORITY is what is called the Essex +Junto of Massachusetts. But the MAJORITY of these _leaders_ do not +aim at separation. In this, they adhere to the known principle of +General Hamilton, never, under any views, to break the Union. +Anglomany, monarchy, and separation, then, are the principles of the +Essex federalists. Anglomany and monarchy, those of the +Hamiltonians, and Anglomany alone, that of the portion among the +_people_ who call themselves federalists. These last are as good +republicans as the brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them +only in their devotion to England and hatred of France which they +have imbibed from their leaders. The moment that these leaders +should avowedly propose a separation of the Union, or the +establishment of regal government, their popular adherents would quit +them to a man, and join the republican standard; and the partisans of +this change, even in Massachusetts, would thus find themselves an +army of officers without a soldier. + + The party called republican is steadily for the support of the +present constitution. They obtained at its commencement, all the +amendments to it they desired. These reconciled them to it +perfectly, and if they have any ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, +to popularize it further, by shortening the Senatorial term, and +devising a process for the responsibility of judges, more practical +than that of impeachment. They esteem the people of England and +France equally, and equally detest the governing powers of both. + + This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with +the public councils and characters, is a true statement of the +grounds on which they are at present divided, and that it is not +merely an ambition for power. An honest man can feel no pleasure in +the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. And considering as +the only offices of power those conferred by the people directly, +that is to say, the executive and legislative functions of the +General and State governments, the common refusal of these and +multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient that power is not +alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the primary principle +of contest. This is my belief of it; it is that on which I have +acted; and had it been a mere contest who should be permitted to +administer the government according to its genuine republican +principles, there has never been a moment of my life in which I +should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, +my friends and books. + + You expected to discover the difference of our party principles +in General Washington's valedictory, and my inaugural address. Not +at all. General Washington did not harbor one principle of +federalism. He was neither an Angloman, a monarchist, nor a +separatist. He sincerely wished the people to have as much +self-government as they were competent to exercise themselves. The +only point on which he and I ever differed in opinion, was, that I +had more confidence than he had in the natural integrity and +discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to which they +might trust themselves with a control over their government. He has +asseverated to me a thousand times his determination that the +existing government should have a fair trial, and that in support of +it he would spend the last drop of his blood. He did this the more +repeatedly, because he knew General Hamilton's political bias, and my +apprehensions from it. It is a mere calumny, therefore, in the +monarchists, to associate General Washington with their principles. +But that may have happened in this case which has been often seen in +ordinary cases, that, by oft repeating an untruth, men come to +believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in this party to +bolster themselves up on the revered name of that first of our +worthies. If I have dwelt longer on this subject than was necessary, +it proves the estimation in which I hold your ultimate opinions, and +my desire of placing the subject truly before them. In so doing, I +am certain I risk no use of the communication which may draw me into +contention before the public. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of +a Septagenaire. + + To return to the merits of your work: I consider it as so +lively a picture of the real state of our country, that if I can +possibly obtain opportunities of conveyance, I propose to send a copy +to a friend in France, and another to one in Italy, who, I know, will +translate and circulate it as an antidote to the misrepresentations +of former travellers. But whatever effect my profession of political +faith may have on your general opinion, a part of my object will be +obtained, if it satisfies you as to the principles of my own action, +and of the high respect and consideration with which I tender you my +salutations. + + + TYRANTS OF LAND AND SEA + + _To Madame de Stael_ + _United States of America, May 24, 1813_ + + I received with great pleasure, my dear Madam and friend, your +letter of November the 10th, from Stockholm, and am sincerely +gratified by the occasion it gives me of expressing to you the +sentiments of high respect and esteem which I entertain for you. It +recalls to my remembrance a happy portion of my life, passed in your +native city; then the seat of the most amiable and polished society +of the world, and of which yourself and your venerable father were +such distinguished members. But of what scenes has it since been the +theatre, and with what havoc has it overspread the earth! Robespiere +met the fate, and his memory the execration, he so justly merited. +The rich were his victims, and perished by thousands. It is by +millions that Buonaparte destroys the poor, and he is eulogised and +deified by the sycophants even of science. These merit more than the +mere oblivion to which they will be consigned; and the day will come +when a just posterity will give to their hero the only pre-eminence +he has earned, that of having been the greatest of the destroyers of +the human race. What year of his military life has not consigned a +million of human beings to death, to poverty and wretchedness! What +field in Europe may not raise a monument of the murders, the +burnings, the desolations, the famines and miseries it has witnessed +from him! And all this to acquire a reputation, which Cartouche +attained with less injury to mankind, of being fearless of God or +man. + + To complete and universalise the desolation of the globe, it +has been the will of Providence to raise up, at the same time, a +tyrant as unprincipled and as overwhelming, for the ocean. Not in +the poor maniac George, but in his government and nation. Buonaparte +will die, and his tyrannies with him. But a nation never dies. The +English government and its piratical principles and practices, have +no fixed term of duration. Europe feels, and is writhing under the +scorpion whips of Buonaparte. We are assailed by those of England. +The one continent thus placed under the gripe of England, and the +other of Buonaparte, each has to grapple with the enemy immediately +pressing on itself. We must extinguish the fire kindled in our own +house, and leave to our friends beyond the water that which is +consuming theirs. It was not till England had taken one thousand of +our ships, and impressed into her service more than six thousand of +our citizens; till she had declared, by the proclamation of her +Prince Regent, that she would not repeal her aggressive orders _as to +us_, until Buonaparte should have repealed his _as to all nations_; +till her minister, in formal conference with ours, declared, that no +proposition for protecting our seamen from being impressed, under +color of taking their own, was practicable or admissible; that, the +door to justice and to all amicable arrangement being closed, and +negotiation become both desperate and dishonorable, we concluded that +the war she had been for years waging against us, might as well +become a war on both sides. She takes fewer vessels from us since +the declaration of war than before, because they venture more +cautiously; and we now make full reprisals where before we made none. +England is, in principle, the enemy of all maritime nations, as +Buonaparte is of the continental; and I place in the same line of +insult to the human understanding, the pretension of conquering the +ocean, to establish continental rights, as that of conquering the +continent, to restore maritime rights. No, my dear Madam; the object +of England is the _permanent dominion of the ocean_, and the +_monopoly of the trade of the world_. To secure this, she must keep +a larger fleet than her own resources will maintain. The resources +of other nations, then, must be impressed to supply the deficiency of +her own. This is sufficiently developed and evidenced by her +successive strides towards the usurpation of the sea. Mark them, +from her first war after William Pitt the little, came into her +administration. She first forbade to neutrals all trade with her +enemies in time of war, which they had not in time of peace. This +deprived them of their trade from port to port of the same nation. +Then she forbade them to trade from the port of one nation to that of +any other at war with her, although a right fully exercised in time +of peace. Next, instead of taking vessels only _entering_ a +blockaded port, she took them over the whole ocean, if destined to +that port, although ignorant of the blockade, and without intention +to violate it. Then she took them returning from that port, as if +infected by previous infraction of blockade. Then came her paper +blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without sending +a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they must, +of course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her +orders of council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any +other, without coming first to some port of Great Britain, there +paying a tribute to her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her +a license to proceed to the port of destination; which operation the +vessel was to repeat with the return cargo on its way home. +According to these orders, we could not send a vessel from St. Mary's +to St. Augustine, distant six hours' sail, on our own coast, without +crossing the Atlantic four times, twice with the outward cargo, and +twice with the inward. She found this too daring and outrageous for +a single step, retracted as to certain articles of commerce, but left +it in force as to others which constitute important branches of our +exports. And finally, that her views may no longer rest on +inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in open +parliament, that the object of the present war is a _monopoly of +commerce_. + + In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in +speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical +execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the +other with the initiation of the outrage. As if two combatants might +retaliate on an innocent bystander, the blows they received from each +other. To make war on both would have been ridiculous. In order, +therefore, to single out any enemy, we offered to both, that if +either would revoke its hostile decrees, and the other should refuse, +we would interdict all intercourse whatever with that other; which +would be war of course, as being an avowed departure from neutrality. +France accepted the offer, and revoked her decrees as to us. England +not only refused, but declared by a solemn proclamation of her Prince +Regent, that she would not revoke her orders _even as to us_, until +those of France should be annulled _as to the whole world_. We +thereon declared war, and with abundant additional cause. + + In the mean time, an examination before parliament of the +ruinous effects of these orders on her own manufacturers, exposing +them to the nation and to the world, their Prince issued a palinodial +proclamation, _suspending_ the orders on certain conditions, but +claiming to renew them at pleasure, as a matter of right. Even this +might have prevented the war, if done and known here before its +declaration. But the sword being once drawn, the expense of arming +incurred, and hostilities in full course, it would have been unwise +to discontinue them, until effectual provision should be agreed to by +England, for protecting our citizens on the high seas from +impressment by her naval commanders, through error, voluntary or +involuntary; the fact being notorious, that these officers, entering +our ships at sea under pretext of searching for their seamen, (which +they have no right to do by the law or usage of nations, which they +neither do, nor ever did, as to any other nation but ours, and which +no nation ever before pretended to do in any case,) entering our +ships, I say, under pretext of searching for and taking out their +seamen, they took ours, native as well as naturalised, knowing them +to be ours, merely because they wanted them; insomuch, that no +American could safely cross the ocean, or venture to pass by sea from +one to another of our own ports. It is not long since they impressed +at sea two nephews of General Washington, returning from Europe, and +put them, as common seamen, under the ordinary discipline of their +ships of war. There are certainly other wrongs to be settled between +England and us; but of a minor character, and such as a proper spirt +of conciliation on both sides would not permit to continue them at +war. The sword, however, can never again be sheathed, until the +personal safety of an American on the ocean, among the most important +and most vital of the rights we possess, is completely provided for. + + As soon as we heard of her partial repeal of her orders of +council, we offered instantly to suspend hostilities by an armistice, +if she would suspend her impressments, and meet us in arrangements +for securing our citizens against them. She refused to do it, +because impracticable by any arrangement, as she pretends; but, in +truth, because a body of sixty to eighty thousand of the finest +seamen in the world, which we possess, is too great a resource for +manning her exaggerated navy, to be relinquished, as long as she can +keep it open. Peace is in her hand, whenever she will renounce the +practice of aggression on the persons of our citizens. If she thinks +it worth eternal war, eternal war we must have. She alleges that the +sameness of language, of manners, of appearance, renders it +impossible to distinguish us from her subjects. But because we speak +English, and look like them, are we to be punished? Are free and +independent men to be submitted to their bondage? + + England has misrepresented to all Europe this ground of the +war. She has called it a new pretension, set up since the repeal of +her orders of council. She knows there has never been a moment of +suspension of our reclamations against it, from General Washington's +time inclusive, to the present day: and that it is distinctly stated +in our declaration of war, as one of its principal causes. She has +pretended we have entered into the war to establish the principle of +`free bottoms, free goods,' or to protect her seamen against her own +right over them. We contend for neither of these. She pretends we +are partial to France; that we have observed a fraudulent and +unfaithful neutrality between her and her enemy. She knows this to +be false, and that if there has been any inequality in our +proceedings towards the belligerents, it has been in her favor. Her +ministers are in possession of full proofs of this. Our accepting at +once, and sincerely, the mediation of the virtuous Alexander, their +greatest friend, and the most aggravated enemy of Buonaparte, +sufficiently proves whether we have partialities on the side of her +enemy. I sincerely pray that this mediation may produce a just +peace. It will prove that the immortal character, which has first +stopped by war the career of the destroyer of mankind, is the friend +of peace, of justice, of human happiness, and the patron of +unoffending and injured nations. He is too honest and impartial to +countenance propositions of peace derogatory to the freedom of the +seas. + + Shall I apologise to you, my dear Madam, for this long +political letter? But yours justifies the subject, and my feelings +must plead for the unreserved expression of them; and they have been +the less reserved, as being from a private citizen, retired from all +connection with the government of his country, and whose ideas, +expressed without communication with any one, are neither known, nor +imputable to them. + + The dangers of the sea are now so great, and the possibilities +of interception by sea and land such, that I shall subscribe no name +to this letter. You will know from whom it comes, by its reference +to the date of time and place of yours, as well as by its subject in +answer to that. This omission must not lessen in your view the +assurances of my great esteem, of my sincere sympathies for the share +which you bear in the afflictions of your country, and the +deprivations to which a lawless will has subjected you. In return, +you enjoy the dignified satisfaction of having met them, rather than +be yoked with the abject, to his car; and that, in withdrawing from +oppression, you have followed the virtuous example of a father, whose +name will ever be dear to your country and to mankind. With my +prayers that you may be restored to it, that you may see it +re-established in that temperate portion of liberty which does not +infer either anarchy or licentiousness, in that high degree of +prosperity which would be the consequence of such a government, in +that, in short, which the constitution of 1789 would have insured it, +if wisdom could have stayed at that point the fervid but imprudent +zeal of men, who did not know the character of their own countrymen, +and that you may long live in health and happiness under it, and +leave to the world a well educated and virtuous representative and +descendant of your honored father, is the ardent prayer of the +sincere and respectful friend who writes this letter. + + + LIGHT AND LIBERTY AND THE PARTIES + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, June 15, 1813_ + + DEAR SIR -- I wrote you a letter on the 27th. of May, which +probably would reach you about the 3d. inst. and on the 9th. I +recieved yours of the 29th. of May. Of Lindsay's Memoirs I had never +before heard, and scarcely indeed of himself. It could not therefore +but be unexpected that two letters of mine should have any thing to +do with his life. The name of his editor was new to me, and +certainly presents itself, for the first time, under unfavorable +circumstances. Religion, I suppose, is the scope of his book: and +that a writer on that subject should usher himself to the world in +the very act of the grossest abuse of confidence, by publishing +private letters which passed between two friends, with no views to +their ever being made public, is an instance of inconsistency, as +well as of infidelity of which I would rather be the victim than the +author. By your kind quotation of the dates of my two letters I have +been enabled to turn to them. They had compleatly evanished from my +memory. The last is on the subject of religion, and by it's +publication will gratify the priesthood with new occasion of +repeating their Comminations against me. They wish it to be believed +that he can have no religion who advocates it's freedom. This was +not the doctrine of Priestley, and I honored him for the example of +liberality he set to his order. The first letter is political. It +recalls to our recollection the gloomy transactions of the times, the +doctrines they witnessed, and the sensibilities they excited. It was +a confidential communication of reflections on these from one friend +to another, deposited in his bosom, and never meant to trouble the +public mind. Whether the character of the times is justly portrayed +or not, posterity will decide. But on one feature of them they can +never decide, the sensations excited in free yet firm minds, by the +terrorism of the day. None can concieve who did not witness them, +and they were felt by one party only. This letter exhibits their +side of the medal. The Federalists no doubt have presented the +other, in their private correspondences, as well as open action. If +these correspondencies should ever be laid open to the public eye, +they will probably be found not models of comity towards their +adversaries. The readers of my letter should be cautioned not to +confine it's view to this country alone. England and it's alarmists +were equally under consideration. Still less must they consider it +as looking personally towards you. You happen indeed to be quoted +because you happened to express, more pithily than had been done by +themselves, one of the mottos of the party. This was in your answer +to the address of the young men of Philadelphia. [See Selection of +patriotic addresses. pa. 198.] One of the questions you know on which +our parties took different sides, was on the improvability of the +human mind, in science, in ethics, in government etc. Those who +advocated reformation of institutions, pari passu, with the progress +of science, maintained that no definite limits could be assigned to +that progress. The enemies of reform, on the other hand, denied +improvement, and advocated steady adherence to the principles, +practices and institutions of our fathers, which they represented as +the consummation of wisdom, and akme of excellence, beyond which the +human mind could never advance. Altho' in the passage of your answer +alluded to, you expressly disclaim the wish to influence the freedom +of enquiry, you predict that that will produce nothing more worthy of +transmission to posterity, than the principles, institutions, and +systems of education recieved from their ancestors. I do not +consider this as your deliberate opinion. You possess, yourself, too +much science, not to see how much is still ahead of you, unexplained +and unexplored. Your own consciousness must place you as far before +our ancestors, as in the rear of our posterity. I consider it as an +expression lent to the prejudices of your friends; and altho' I +happened to cite it from you, the whole letter shews I had them only +in view. In truth, my dear Sir, we were far from considering you as +the author of all the measures we blamed. They were placed under the +protection of your name, but we were satisfied they wanted much of +your approbation. We ascribed them to their real authors, the +Pickerings, the Wolcotts, the Tracys, the Sedgwicks, et id genus omne +["and all of their kind"], with whom we supposed you in a state of +Duresse. I well remember a conversation with you, in the morning of +the day on which you nominated to the Senate a substitute for +Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience under `the legacy +of Secretaries which Gen. Washington had left you' and whom you +seemed therefore to consider as under public protection. Many other +incidents shewed how differently you would have acted with less +impassioned advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your +minds were not together. You would do me great injustice therefore +by taking to yourself what was intended for men who were then your +secret, as they are now your open enemies. Should you write on the +subject, as you propose, I am sure we shall see you place yourself +farther from them than from us. + + As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions. I leave +others to judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that +place which they shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written +libels on one side; others, I suppose, will be written on the other +side; and the world will sift both, and separate the truth as well as +they can. I should see with reluctance the passions of that day +rekindled in this, while so many of the actors are living, and all +are too near the scene not to participate in sympathies with them. +About facts, you and I cannot differ; because truth is our mutual +guide. And if any opinions you may express should be different from +mine, I shall recieve them with the liberality and indulgence which I +ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the sentiments of +affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth tender you the +assurance. + + + DEBT, TAXES, BANKS, AND PAPER + + _To John Wayles Eppes_ + _Monticello, June 24, 1813_ + + DEAR SIR, -- This letter will be on politics only. For +although I do not often permit myself to think on that subject, it +sometimes obtrudes itself, and suggests ideas which I am tempted to +pursue. Some of these relating to the business of finance, I will +hazard to you, as being at the head of that committee, but intended +for yourself individually, or such as you trust, but certainly not +for a mixed committee. + + It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government +disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the +use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a +dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the +interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to +consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith." +On such a pledge as this, sacredly observed, a government may always +command, on a _reasonable interest_, all the lendable money of their +citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary +warning to them and their constituents against oppressions, +bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution. But the term +of redemption must be moderate, and at any rate within the limits of +their rightful powers. But what limits, it will be asked, does this +prescribe to their powers? What is to hinder them from creating a +perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to +the living, not to the dead. The will and the power of man expire +with his life, by nature's law. Some societies give it an artificial +continuance, for the encouragement of industry; some refuse it, as +our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians. The generations +of men may be considered as bodies or corporations. Each generation +has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its continuance. +When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the succeeding +generation, free and unincumbered, and so on, successively, from one +generation to another forever. We may consider each generation as a +distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind +themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the +inhabitants of another country. Or the case may be likened to the +ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate the land for +his debts, during the continuance of his usufruct; but at his death, +the reversioner (who is also for life only) receives it exonerated +from all burthen. The period of a generation, or the term of its +life, is determined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little +only in different climates, offer a general average, to be found by +observation. I turn, for instance, to Buffon's tables, of +twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the +ages at which they happened, and I find that of the numbers of all +ages living at one moment, half will be dead in twenty-four years and +eight months. But (leaving out minors, who have not the power of +self-government) of the adults (of twenty-one years of age) living at +one moment, a majority of whom act for the society, one half will be +dead in eighteen years and eight months. At nineteen years then from +the date of a contract, the majority of the contractors are dead, and +their contract with them. Let this general theory be applied to a +particular case. Suppose the annual births of the State of New York +to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four, the whole +number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon, will be six hundred +and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of all ages. Of +these there would constantly be two hundred and sixty-nine thousand +two hundred and eighty-six minors, and three hundred and forty-eight +thousand four hundred and seventeen adults, of which last, one +hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and nine will be a +majority. Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, +had borrowed a sum of money equal to the fee-simple value of the +State, and to have consumed it in eating, drinking and making merry +in their day; or, if your please, in quarrelling and fighting with +their unoffending neighbors. Within eighteen years and eight months, +one half of the adult citizens were dead. Till then, being the +majority, they might rightfully levy the interest of their debt +annually on themselves and their fellow-revellers, or +fellow-champions. But at that period, say at this moment, a new +majority have come into place, in their own right, and not under the +rights, the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are they +bound to acknowledge the debt, to consider the preceding generation +as having had a right to eat up the whole soil of their country, in +the course of a life, to alienate it from them, (for it would be an +alienation to the creditors,) and would they think themselves either +legally or morally bound to give up their country and emigrate to +another for subsistence? Every one will say no; that the soil is the +gift of God to the living, as much as it had been to the deceased +generation; and that the laws of nature impose no obligation on them +to pay this debt. And although, like some other natural rights, this +has not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no less a +law, and ought to be acted on by honest governments. It is, at the +same time, a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, +which, since the modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has +drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under +burthens ever accumulating. Had this principle been declared in the +British bill of rights, England would have been placed under the +happy disability of waging eternal war, and of contracting her +thousand millions of public debt. In seeking, then, for an ultimate +term for the redemption of our debts, let us rally to this principle, +and provide for their payment within the term of nineteen years at +the farthest. Our government has not, as yet, begun to act on the +rule of loans and taxation going hand in hand. Had any loan taken +place in my time, I should have strongly urged a redeeming tax. For +the loan which has been made since the last session of Congress, we +should now set the example of appropriating some particular tax, +sufficient to pay the interest annually, and the principal within a +fixed term, less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your +committee will render the immortal service of introducing this +practice. Not that it is expected that Congress should formally +declare such a principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on +abstract questions. But they may be induced to keep themselves +within its limits. + + I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbitant an interest. +And yet, even at that you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. +We are an agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in +the purchase or improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money +among them is chiefly that of orphans and wards in the hands of +executors and guardians, and that which the farmer lays by till he +has enough for the purchase in view. In such a nation there is one +and one only resource for loans, sufficient to carry them through the +expense of war; and that will always be sufficient, and in the power +of an honest government, punctual in the preservation of its faith. +The fund I mean, is _the mass of circulating coin_. Every one knows, +that although not literally, it is nearly true, that every paper +dollar emitted banishes a silver one from the circulation. A nation, +therefore, making its purchases and payments with bills fitted for +circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out of circulation. This +is equivalent to borrowing that sum, and yet the vendor receiving +payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his purchases or +payments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may continue +to issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits of the +circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend with +us at present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum than +would be necessary for any war. But this, the only resource which +the government could command with certainty, the States have +unfortunately fooled away, nay corruptly alienated to swindlers and +shavers, under the cover of private banks. Say, too, as an +additional evil, that the disposal funds of individuals, to this +great amount, have thus been withdrawn from improvement and useful +enterprise, and employed in the useless, usurious and demoralizing +practices of bank directors and their accomplices. In the war of +1755, our State availed itself of this fund by issuing a paper money, +bottomed on a specific tax for its redemption, and, to insure its +credit, bearing an interest of five per cent. Within a very short +time, not a bill of this emission was to be found in circulation. It +was locked up in the chests of executors, guardians, widows, farmers, +&c. We then issued bills bottomed on a redeeming tax, but bearing no +interest. These were readily received, and never depreciated a +single farthing. In the revolutionary war, the old Congress and the +States issued bills without interest, and without tax. They occupied +the channels of circulation very freely, till those channels were +overflowed by an excess beyond all the calls of circulation. But +although we have so improvidently suffered the field of circulating +medium to be filched from us by private individuals, yet I think we +may recover it in part, and even in the whole, if the States will +co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a tax +appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure +preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest +of six per cent. there is no one who would not take them in +preference to the bank paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism +as well as interest; and they would be withdrawn from circulation +into private hoards to a considerable amount. Their credit once +established, others might be emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not +bearing interest; and if ever their credit faltered, open public +loans, on which these bills alone should be received as specie. +These, operating as a sinking fund, would reduce the quantity in +circulation, so as to maintain that in an equilibrium with specie. +It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which, in the beginning, we +should encounter in ousting the banks from their possession of the +circulation; but a steady and judicious alternation of emissions and +loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going on, +another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right to +the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer the +right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, _in +perpetuum_, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving +of charter rights. I believe that every State west and South of +Connecticut river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the +others would follow in time. Congress would, of course, begin by +obliging unchartered banks to wind up their affairs within a short +time, and the others as their charters expired, forbidding the +subsequent circulation of their paper. This they would supply with +their own, bottomed, every emission, on an adequate tax, and bearing +or not bearing interest, as the state of the public pulse should +indicate. Even in the non-complying States, these bills would make +their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks, by their +solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their +receivability for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, +too, to curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by +gathering up their paper, and running it constantly on them. The +national paper might thus take place even in the non-complying +States. In this way, I am not without a hope, that this great, this +sole resource for loans in an agricultural country, might yet be +recovered for the use of the nation during war; and, if obtained _in +perpetuum_, it would always be sufficient to carry us through any +war; provided, that in the interval between war and war, all the +outstanding paper should be called in, coin be permitted to flow in +again, and to hold the field of circulation until another war should +require its yielding place again to the national medium. + + But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants +and others to be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, +found so convenient? I answer, let us have banks; but let them be +such as are alone to be found in any country on earth, except Great +Britain. There is not a bank of discount on the continent of Europe, +(at least there was not one when I was there,) which offers anything +but cash in exchange for discounted bills. No one has a natural +right to the trade of a money lender, but he who has the money to +lend. Let those then among us, who have a monied capital, and who +prefer employing it in loans rather than otherwise, set up banks, and +give cash or national bills for the notes they discount. Perhaps, to +encourage them, a larger interest than is legal in the other cases +might be allowed them, on the condition of their lending for short +periods only. It is from Great Britain we copy the idea of giving +paper in exchange for discounted bills; and while we have derived +from that country some good principles of government and legislation, +we unfortunately run into the most servile imitation of all her +practices, ruinous as they prove to her, and with the gulph yawning +before us into which these very practices are precipitating her. The +unlimited emission of bank paper has banished all her specie, and is +now, by a depreciation acknowledged by her own statesmen, carrying +her rapidly to bankruptcy, as it did France, as it did us, and will +do us again, and every country permitting paper to be circulated, +other than that by public authority, rigorously limited to the just +measure for circulation. Private fortunes, in the present state of +our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money +lenders, and are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which +their avarice deluges us. He who lent his money to the public or to +an individual, before the institution of the United States Bank, +twenty years ago, when wheat was well sold at a dollar the bushel, +and receives now his nominal sum when it sells at two dollars, is +cheated of half his fortune; and by whom? By the banks, which, since +that, have thrown into circulation ten dollars of their nominal money +where was one at that time. + + Reflect, if you please, on these ideas, and use them or not as +they appear to merit. They comfort me in the belief, that they point +out a resource ample enough, without overwhelming war taxes, for the +expense of the war, and possibly still recoverable; and that they +hold up to all future time a resource within ourselves, ever at the +command of government, and competent to any wars into which we may be +forced. Nor is it a slight object to equalize taxes through peace +and war. + + I was in Bedford a fortnight in the month of May, and did not +know that Francis and his cousin Baker were within 10. miles of me at +Lynchburg. I learnt it by letters from themselves after I had +returned home. I shall go there early in August and hope their +master will permit them to pass their Saturdays & Sundays with me. +Ever affectionately yours. + + + NO PATENTS ON IDEAS + + _To Isaac McPherson_ + _Monticello, August 13, 1813_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of August 3d asking information on the +subject of Mr. Oliver Evans' exclusive right to the use of what he +calls his Elevators, Conveyers, and Hopper-boys, has been duly +received. My wish to see new inventions encouraged, and old ones +brought again into useful notice, has made me regret the +circumstances which have followed the expiration of his first patent. +I did not expect the retrospection which has been given to the +reviving law. For although the second proviso seemed not so clear as +it ought to have been, yet it appeared susceptible of a just +construction; and the retrospective one being contrary to natural +right, it was understood to be a rule of law that where the words of +a statute admit of two constructions, the one just and the other +unjust, the former is to be given them. The first proviso takes care +of those who had lawfully used Evans' improvements under the first +patent; the second was meant for those who had lawfully erected and +used them after that patent expired, declaring they "should not be +liable to damages therefor." These words may indeed be restrained to +uses already past, but as there is parity of reason for those to +come, there should be parity of law. Every man should be protected +in his lawful acts, and be certain that no _ex post facto_ law shall +punish or endamage him for them. But he is endamaged, if forbidden +to use a machine lawfully erected, at considerable expense, unless he +will pay a new and unexpected price for it. The proviso says that he +who erected and used lawfully should not be liable to pay damages. +But if the proviso had been omitted, would not the law, construed by +natural equity, have said the same thing. In truth both provisos are +useless. And shall useless provisos, inserted _pro majori cautela_ +only, authorize inferences against justice? The sentiment that _ex +post facto_ laws are against natural right, is so strong in the +United States, that few, if any, of the State constitutions have +failed to proscribe them. The federal constitution indeed interdicts +them in criminal cases only; but they are equally unjust in civil as +in criminal cases, and the omission of a caution which would have +been right, does not justify the doing what is wrong. Nor ought it +to be presumed that the legislature meant to use a phrase in an +unjustifiable sense, if by rules of construction it can be ever +strained to what is just. The law books abound with similar +instances of the care the judges take of the public integrity. Laws, +moreover, abridging the natural right of the citizen, should be +restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest limits. + + Your letter, however, points to a much broader question, +whether what have received from Mr. Evans the new and proper name of +Elevators, are of his invention. Because, if they are not, his +patent gives him no right to obstruct others in the use of what they +possessed before. I assume it is a Lemma, that it is the invention +of the machine itself, which is to give a patent right, and not the +application of it to any particular purpose, of which it is +susceptible. If one person invents a knife convenient for pointing +our pens, another cannot have a patent right for the same knife to +point our pencils. A compass was invented for navigating the sea; +another could not have a patent right for using it to survey land. A +machine for threshing _wheat_ has been invented in Scotland; a second +person cannot get a patent right for the same machine to thresh +_oats_, a third _rye_, a fourth _peas_, a fifth _clover_, &c. A +string of buckets is invented and used for raising water, ore, &c., +can a second have a patent right to the same machine for raising +wheat, a third oats, a fourth rye, a fifth peas, &c? The question +then whether such a string of buckets was invented first by Oliver +Evans, is a mere question of fact in mathematical history. Now, +turning to such books only as I happen to possess, I find abundant +proof that this simple machinery has been in use from time +immemorial. Doctor Shaw, who visited Egypt and the Barbary coast in +the years 1727-8-9, in the margin of his map of Egypt, gives us the +figure of what he calls a Persian wheel, which is a string of round +cups or buckets hanging on a pully, over which they revolved, +bringing up water from a well and delivering it into a trough above. +He found this used at Cairo, in a well 264 feet deep, which the +inhabitants believe to have been the work of the patriarch Joseph. +Shaw's travels, 341, Oxford edition of 1738 in folio, and the +Universal History, I. 416, speaking of the manner of watering the +higher lands of Egypt, says, "formerly they made use of Archimedes's +screw, thence named the Egyptian pump, but they now generally use +wheels (wallowers) which carry a rope or chain of earthen pots +holding about seven or eight quarts apiece, and draw the water from +the canals. There are besides a vast number of wells in Egypt, from +which the water is drawn in the same manner to water the gardens and +fruit trees; so that it is no exaggeration to say, that there are in +Egypt above 200,000 oxen daily employed in this labor." Shaw's name +of Persian wheel has been since given more particularly to a wheel +with buckets, either fixed or suspended on pins, at its periphery. +Mortimer's husbandry, I. 18, Duhamel III. II., Ferguson's Mechanic's +plate, XIII; but his figure, and the verbal description of the +Universal History, prove that the string of buckets is meant under +that name. His figure differs from Evans' construction in the +circumstances of the buckets being round, and strung through their +bottom on a chain. But it is the principle, to wit, a string of +buckets, which constitutes the invention, not the form of the +buckets, round, square, or hexagon; nor the manner of attaching them, +nor the material of the connecting band, whether chain, rope, or +leather. Vitruvius, L. x. c. 9, describes this machinery as a +windlass, on which is a chain descending to the water, with vessels +of copper attached to it; the windlass being turned, the chain moving +on it will raise the vessel, which in passing over the windlass will +empty the water they have brought up into a reservoir. And Perrault, +in his edition of Vitruvius, Paris, 1684, fol. plates 61, 62, gives +us three forms of these water elevators, in one of which the buckets +are square, as Mr. Evans' are. Bossut, Histoire de Mathematiques, i. +86, says, "the drum wheel, the wheel with buckets and the +_Chapelets_, are hydraulic machines which come to us from the +ancients. But we are ignorant of the time when they began to be put +into use." The _Chapelets_ are the revolving bands of the buckets +which Shaw calls the Persian wheel, the moderns a chain-pump, and Mr. +Evans elevators. The next of my books in which I find these +elevators is Wolf's Cours de Mathematiques, i. 370, and plate 1, +Paris 1747, 8vo; here are two forms. In one of them the buckets are +square, attached to two chains, passing over a cylinder or wallower +at top, and under another at bottom, by which they are made to +revolve. It is a nearly exact representation of Evans' Elevators. +But a more exact one is to be seen in Desagulier's Experimental +Philosophy, ii. plate 34; in the Encyclopedie de Diderot et +D'Alembert, 8vo edition of Lansanne, 1st volume of plates in the four +subscribed Hydraulique. Norie, is one where round eastern pots are +tied by their collars between two endless ropes suspended on a +revolving lantern or wallower. This is said to have been used for +raising ore out of a mine. In a book which I do not possess, +L'Architecture Hidraulique de Belidor, the 2d volume of which is said +[De la Lande's continuation of Montuclas' Historie de Mathematiques, +iii. 711] to contain a detail of all the pumps, ancient and modern, +hydraulic machines, fountains, wells, &c, I have no doubt this +Persian wheel, chain pump, chapelets, elevators, by whichever name +you choose to call it, will be found in various forms. The last book +I have to quote for it is Prony's Architecture Hydraulique i., +Avertissement vii., and 648, 649, 650. In the latter of which +passages he observes that the first idea which occurs for raising +water is to lift it in a bucket by hand. When the water lies too +deep to be reached by hand, the bucket is suspended by a chain and +let down over a pulley or windlass. If it be desired to raise a +continued stream of water, the simplest means which offers itself to +the mind is to attach to an endless chain or cord a number of pots or +buckets, so disposed that, the chain being suspended on a lanthorn or +wallower above, and plunged in water below, the buckets may descend +and ascend alternately, filling themselves at bottom and emptying at +a certain height above, so as to give a constant stream. Some years +before the date of Mr. Evans' patent, a Mr. Martin of Caroline county +in this State, constructed a drill-plough, in which he used the band +of buckets for elevating the grain from the box into the funnel, +which let them down into the furrow. He had bands with different +sets of buckets adapted to the size of peas, of turnip seed, &c. I +have used this machine for sowing Benni seed also, and propose to +have a band of buckets for drilling Indian Corn, and another for +wheat. Is it possible that in doing this I shall infringe Mr. Evans' +patent? That I can be debarred of any use to which I might have +applied my drill, when I bought it, by a patent issued after I bought +it? + + These verbal descriptions, applying so exactly to Mr. Evans' +elevators, and the drawings exhibited to the eye, flash conviction +both on reason and the senses that there is nothing new in these +elevators but their being strung together on a strap of leather. If +this strap of leather be an invention, entitling the inventor to a +patent right, it can only extend to the strap, and the use of the +string of buckets must remain free to be connected by chains, ropes, +a strap of hempen girthing, or any other substance except leather. +But, indeed, Mr. Martin had before used the strap of leather. + + The screw of Archimedes is as ancient, at least, as the age of +that mathematician, who died more than 2,000 years ago. Diodorus +Siculus speaks of it, L. i., p. 21, and L. v., p. 217, of Stevens' +edition of 1559, folio; and Vitruvius, xii. The cutting of its +spiral worm into sections for conveying flour or grain, seems to have +been an invention of Mr. Evans, and to be a fair subject of a patent +right. But it cannot take away from others the use of Archimedes' +screw with its perpetual spiral, for any purposes of which it is +susceptible. + + The hopper-boy is an useful machine, and so far as I know, +original. + + It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) +that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their +inventions, and not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to +their heirs. But while it is a moot question whether the origin of +any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be +singular to admit a natural and even an hereditary right to +inventors. It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the +subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate +property in an acre of land, for instance. By an universal law, +indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men +equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who +occupies it; but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property +goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is +given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if +an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of +natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If +nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of +exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an +idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps +it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into +the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess +himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses +the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who +receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without +lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light +without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to +another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, +and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and +benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, +expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any +point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our +physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. +Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society +may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an +encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but +this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of +the society, without claim or complaint from any body. Accordingly, +it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until +wecopied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, +gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other +countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and +personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought +that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to +society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse +monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful +devices. + + Considering the exclusive right to invention as given not of +natural right, but for the benefit of society, I know well the +difficulty of drawing a line between the things which are worth to +the public the embarrassment of an exclusive patent, and those which +are not. As a member of the patent board for several years, while +the law authorized a board to grant or refuse patents, I saw with +what slow progress a system of general rules could be matured. Some, +however, were established by that board. One of these was, that a +machine of which we were possessed, might be applied by every man to +any use of which it is susceptible, and that this right ought not to +be taken from him and given to a monopolist, because the first +perhaps had occasion so to apply it. Thus a screw for crushing +plaster might be employed for crushing corn-cobs. And a chain-pump +for raising water might be used for raising wheat: this being merely +a change of application. Another rule was that a change of material +should not give title to a patent. As the making a ploughshare of +cast rather than of wrought iron; a comb of iron instead of horn or +of ivory, or the connecting buckets by a band of leather rather than +of hemp or iron. A third was that a mere change of form should give +no right to a patent, as a high-quartered shoe instead of a low one; +a round hat instead of a three-square; or a square bucket instead of +a round one. But for this rule, all the changes of fashion in dress +would have been under the tax of patentees. These were among the +rules which the uniform decisions of the board had already +established, and under each of them Mr. Evans' patent would have been +refused. First, because it was a mere change of application of the +chain-pump, from raising water to raise wheat. Secondly, because the +using a leathern instead of a hempen band, was a mere change of +material; and thirdly, square buckets instead of round, are only a +change of form, and the ancient forms, too, appear to have been +indifferently square or round. But there were still abundance of +cases which could not be brought under rule, until they should have +presented themselves under all their aspects; and these +investigations occupying more time of the members of the board than +they could spare from higher duties, the whole was turned over to the +judiciary, to be matured into a system, under which every one might +know when his actions were safe and lawful. Instead of refusing a +patent in the first instance, as the board was authorized to do, the +patent now issues of course, subject to be declared void on such +principles as should be established by the courts of law. This +business, however, is but little analogous to their course of +reading, since we might in vain turn over all the lubberly volumes of +the law to find a single ray which would lighten the path of the +mechanic or the mathematician. It is more within the information of +a board of academical professors, and a previous refusal of patent +would better guard our citizens against harrassment by law-suits. +But England had given it to her judges, and the usual predominancy of +her examples carried it to ours. + + It happened that I had myself a mill built in the interval +between Mr. Evans' first and second patents. I was living in +Washington, and left the construction to the mill-wright. I did not +even know he had erected elevators, conveyers and hopper-boys, until +I learnt it by an application from Mr. Evans' agent for the patent +price. Although I had no idea he had a right to it by law, (for no +judicial decision had then been given,) yet I did not hesitate to +remit to Mr. Evans the old and moderate patent price, which was what +he then asked, from a wish to encourage even the useful revival of +ancient inventions. But I then expressed my opinion of the law in a +letter, either to Mr. Evans or to his agent. + + I have thus, Sir, at your request, given you the facts and +ideas which occur to me on this subject. I have done it without +reserve, although I have not the pleasure of knowing you personally. +In thus frankly committing myself to you, I trust you will feel it as +a point of honor and candor, to make no use of my letter which might +bring disquietude on myself. And particularly, I should be unwilling +to be brought into any difference with Mr. Evans, whom, however, I +believe too reasonable to take offence at an honest difference of +opinion. I esteem him much, and sincerely wish him wealth and honor. +I deem him a valuable citizen, of uncommon ingenuity and usefulness. +And had I not esteemed still more the establishment of sound +principles, I should now have been silent. If any of the matter I +have offered can promote that object, I have no objection to its +being so used; if it offers nothing new, it will of course not be +used at all. I have gone with some minuteness into the mathematical +history of the elevator, because it belongs to a branch of science in +which, as I have before observed, it is not incumbent on lawyers to +be learned; and it is possible, therefore, that some of the proofs I +have quoted may have escaped on their former arguments. On the law +of the subject I should not have touched, because more familiar to +those who have already discussed it; but I wished to state my own +view of it merely in justification of myself, my name and approbation +being subscribed to the act. With these explanations, accept the +assurance of my respect. + + + A "DUCTILE AND COPIOUS" LANGUAGE + + _To John Waldo_ + _Monticello, August 16, 1813_ + + SIR, -- Your favor of March 27th came during my absence on a +journey of some length. It covered your "Rudiments of English +Grammar," for which I pray you to accept my thanks. This +acknowledgment of it has been delayed, until I could have time to +give the work such a perusal as the avocations to which I am subject +would permit. In the rare and short intervals which these have +allotted me, I have gone over with pleasure a considerable part, +although not yet the whole of it. But I am entirely unqualified to +give that critical opinion of it which you do me the favor to ask. +Mine has been a life of business, of that kind which appeals to a +man's conscience, as well as his industry, not to let it suffer, and +the few moments allowed me from labor have been devoted to more +attractive studies, that of grammar having never been a favorite with +me. The scanty foundation, laid in at school, has carried me through +a life of much hasty writing, more indebted for styleto reading and +memory, than to rules of grammar. I have been pleased to see that in +all cases you appeal to usage, as the arbiter of language; and justly +consider that as giving law to grammar, and not grammar to usage. I +concur entirely with you in opposition to Purists, who would destroy +all strength and beauty of style, by subjecting it to a rigorous +compliance with their rules. Fill up all the ellipses and syllepses +of Tacitus, Sallust, Livy, &c., and the elegance and force of their +sententious brevity are extinguished. + + "Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus, imperium +appellant." "Deorum injurias, diis curae." "Allieni appetens, sui +profusus; ardens in cupiditatibus; satis loquentiae, sapientiae +parum." "Annibal peto pacem." "Per diem Sol non _uret_ te, neque Luna +per noctem." Wire-draw these expressions by filling up the whole +syntax and sense, and they become dull paraphrases on rich +sentiments. We may say then truly with Quinctilian, "Aliud est +Grammatice, aliud Latine loqui." I am no friend, therefore, to what +is called _Purism_, but a zealous one to the _Neology_ which has +introduced these two words without the authority of any dictionary. +I consider the one as destroying the nerve and beauty of language, +while the otherimproves both, and adds to its copiousness. I have +been not a little disappointed, and made suspicious of my own +judgment, on seeing the Edinburgh Reviews, the ablest critics of the +age, set their faces against the introduction of new words into the +English language; they are particularly apprehensive that the writers +of the United States will adulterate it. Certainly so great growing +a population, spread over such an extent of country, with such a +variety of climates, of productions, of arts, must enlarge their +language, to make it answer its purpose of expressing all ideas, the +new as well as the old. The new circumstances under which we are +placed, call for new words, new phrases, and for the transfer of old +words to new objects. An American dialect will therefore be formed; +so will a West-Indian and Asiatic, as a Scotch and an Irish are +already formed. But whether will these adulterate, or enrich the +English language? Has the beautiful poetry of Burns, or his Scottish +dialect, disfigured it? Did the Athenians consider the Doric, the +Ionian, the Aeolic, and other dialects, as disfiguring or as +beautifying their language? Did they fastidiously disavow Herodotus, +Pindar, Theocritus, Sappho, Alcaeus, or Grecian writers? On the +contrary, they were sensible that the variety of dialects, still +infinitely varied by poetical license, constituted the riches of +their language, and made the Grecian Homer the first of poets, as he +must ever remain, until a language equally ductile and copious shall +again be spoken. + + Every language has a set of terminations, which make a part of +its peculiar idiom. Every root among the Greeks was permitted to +vary its termination, so as to express its radical idea in the form +of any one of the parts of speech; to wit, as a noun, an adjective, a +verb, participle, or adverb; and each of these parts of speech again, +by still varying the termination,could vary the shade of idea +existing in the mind. + + * * * + + It was not, then, the number of Grecian roots (for some other +languages may have as many) which made it the most copious of the +ancient languages; but the infinite diversification which each of +these admitted. Let the same license be allowed in English, the +roots of which, native and adopted, are perhaps more numerous, and +its idiomatic terminations more various than of the Greek, and see +what the language would become. Its idiomatic terminations are: -- + + _Subst._ Gener-ation--ator; degener-acy; +gener-osity--ousness--alship--alissimo; king-dom--ling; joy-ance; +enjoy-er--ment; herb-age--alist; sanct-uary--imony--itude; royal-ism; +lamb-kin; child-hood; bishop-ric; proceed-ure; horseman-ship; +worthi-ness. + + _Adj_. Gener-ant--ative--ic--ical--able--ous--al; +joy-ful--less--some; herb-y; accous-escent--ulent; child-ish; +wheat-en. + + + _Verb_. Gener-ate--alize. + + _Part_. Gener-ating--ated. + + _Adv_. Gener-al--ly. + + I do not pretend that this is a complete list of all the +terminations of the two languages. It is as much so as a hasty +recollection suggests, and the omissions are as likely to be to the +disadvantage of the one as the other. If it be a full, or equally +fair enumeration, the English are the double of the Greek +terminations. + + But there is still another source of copiousness more abundant +than that of termination. It is the composition of the root, and of +every member of its family, 1, with prepositions, and 2, with other +words. The prepositions used in the composition of Greek words are: +-- + + * * * + + Now multiply each termination of a family into every +preposition, and how prolific does it make each root! But the +English language, besides its own prepositions, about twenty in +number, which it compounds with English roots, uses those of the +Greek for adopted Greek roots, and of the Latin for Latin roots. The +English prepositions, with examples of their use, are a, as in +a-long, a-board, a-thirst, a-clock; be, as in be-lie; mis, as in +mis-hap; these being inseparable. The separable, with examples, are +above-cited, after-thought, gain-say, before-hand, fore-thought, +behind-hand, by-law, for-give, fro-ward, in-born, on-set, over-go, +out-go, thorough-go, under-take, up-lift, with-stand. Now let us see +what copiousness this would produce, were it allowed to compound +every root and its family with every preposition, where both sense +and sound would be in its favor. Try it on an English root, the verb +"to place," Anglo Saxon _plaece_, (*) for instance, and the Greek and +Latin roots, of kindred meaning, adopted in English, to wit, {thesis} +and locatio, with their prepositions. + + (*) Johnson derives "place" from the French "place," an open +square in a town. But its northern parentage is visible in its +syno-nime _platz_, Teutonic, and _plattse_, Belgic, both of which +signify locus, and the Anglo-Saxon _plaece, platea, vicus_. + + mis-place amphi-thesis a-location inter-location + after-place ana-thesis ab-location intro-location + gain-place anti-thesis abs-location juxta-location + fore-place apo-thesis al-location ob-location + hind-place dia-thesis anti-location per-location + by-place ek-thesis circum-location post-location + for-place en-thesis cis-location pre-location + fro-place epi-thesis col-location preter-location + in-place cata-thesis contra-location pro-location + on-place para-thesis de-location retro-location + over-place peri-thesis di-location re-location + out-place pro-thesis dis-location se-location + thorough-place pros-thesis e-location sub-location + under-place syn-thesis ex-location super-location + up-place hyper-thesis extra-location trans-location + with-place hypo-thesis il-location ultra-location + + Some of these compounds would be new; but all present distinct +meanings, and the synonisms of the three languages offer a choice of +sounds to express the same meaning; add to this, that in some +instances, usage has authorized the compounding an English root with +a Latin preposition, as in de-place, dis-place, re-place. This +example may suffice to show what the language would become, in +strength, beauty, variety, and every circumstance which gives +perfection to language, were it permitted freely to draw from all its +legitimate sources. + + The second source of composition is of one family of roots with +another. The Greek avails itself of this most abundantly, and +beautifully. The English once did it freely, while in its +Anglo-Saxon form, _e. g. boc-craeft_, book-craft, learning, +_riht-Zeleaf-full_, right-belief-ful, orthodox. But it has lost by +desuetude much of this branch of composition, which it is desirable +however to resume. + + If we wish to be assured from experiment of the effect of a +judicious spirit of Neology, look at the French language. Even +before the revolution, it was deemed much more copious than the +English; at a time, too, when they had an academy which endeavored to +arrest the progress of their language, by fixing it to a Dictionary, +out of which no word was ever to be sought, used, or tolerated. The +institution of parliamentary assemblies in 1789, for which their +language had no opposite terms or phrases, as having never before +needed them, first obliged them to adopt the Parliamentary vocabulary +of England; and other new circumstances called for corresponding new +words; until by the number of these adopted, and by the analogies for +adoption which they have legitimated, I think we may say with truth +that a Dictionaire Neologique of these would be half as large as the +dictionary of the academy; and that at this time it is the language +in which every shade of idea, distinctly perceived by the mind, may +be more exactly expressed, than in any language at this day spoken by +man. Yet I have no hesitation in saying that the English language is +founded on a broader base, native and adopted, and capable, with the +like freedom of employing its materials, of becoming superior to that +in copiousness and euphony. Not indeed by holding fast to Johnson's +Dictionary; not by raising a hue and cry against every word he has +not licensed; but by encouraging and welcoming new compositions of +its elements. Learn from Lye and Benson what the language would now +have been if restrained to their vocabularies. Its enlargement must +be the consequence, to a certain degree, of its transplantation from +the latitude of London into every climate of the globe; and the +greater the degree the more precious will it become as the organ of +the development of the human mind. + + These are my visions on the improvement of the English language +by a free use of its faculties. To realize them would require a +course of time. The example of good writers, the approbation of men +of letters, the judgment of sound critics, and of none more than of +the Edinburgh Reviewers, would give it a beginning, and once begun, +its progress might be as rapid as it has been in France, where we see +what a period of only twenty years has effected. Under the auspices +of British science and example it might commence with hope. But the +dread of innovation there, and especially of any example set by +France, has, I fear, palsied the spirit of improvement.Here, where +all is new, no innovation is feared which offersgood. But we have no +distinct class of literati in our country. Every man is engaged in +some industrious pursuit, and science is but a secondary occupation, +always subordinate to the main business of his life. Few therefore +of those who are qualified, have leisure to write. In time it will +be otherwise. In the meanwhile, necessity obliges us to neologize. +And should the language of England continue stationary, we shall +probably enlarge our employment of it, until its new character may +separate it in name as well as in power, from the mother-tongue. + + Although the copiousness of a language may not in strictness +make a part of its grammar, yet it cannot be deemed foreign to a +general course of lectures on its structure and character; and the +subject having been presented to my mind by the occasion of your +letter, I have indulged myself in its speculation, and hazarded to +you what has occurred, with the assurance of my great respect. + + + + THE CODE OF JESUS + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Oct. 12, 1813_ + + DEAR SIR -- Since mine of Aug. 22. I have recieved your favors +of Aug. 16. Sep. 2. 14. 15. and -- and Mrs. Adams's of Sep. 20. I +now send you, according to your request a copy of the Syllabus. To +fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins, with nerves, muscles +and flesh, is really beyond my time and information. Whoever could +undertake it would find great aid in Enfield's judicious abridgment +of Brucker's history of Philosophy, in which he has reduced 5. or 6. +quarto vols. of 1000. pages each of Latin closely printed, to two +moderate 8 vos. of English, open, type. + + To compare the morals of the old, with those of the new +testament, would require an attentive study of the former, a search +thro' all it's books for it's precepts, and through all it's history +for it's practices, and the principles they prove. Ascommentaries +too on these, the philosophy of the Hebrews must be enquired into, +their Mishna, their Gemara, Cabbala, Jezirah, Sohar, Cosri, and their +Talmud must be examined and understood, in order to do them full +justice. Brucker, it should seem, has gone deeply into these +Repositories of their ethics, and Enfield, his epitomiser, concludes +in these words. `Ethics were so little studied among the Jews, that, +in their whole compilation called the Talmud, there is only one +treatise on moral subjects. Their books of Morals chiefly consisted +in a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of Moses were +deduced 613. precepts, which were divided into two classes, +affirmative and negative, 248 in the former, and 365 in the latter. +It may serve to give the reader some idea of the low state of moral +philosophy among the Jews in the Middle age, to add, that of the 248. +affirmative precepts, only 3. were considered as obligatory upon +women; and that, in order to obtain salvation, it was judged +sufficient to fulfill any one single law in the hour of death; the +observance of the rest being deemed necessary, only to increase the +felicity of the future life. What a wretched depravity of sentiment +and manners must have prevailed before such corrupt maxims could have +obtained credit! It is impossible to collect from these writings a +consistent series of moral Doctrine.' Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3. It was +the reformation of this `wretched depravity' of morals which Jesus +undertook. In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we +should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have +been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, +as instruments of riches and power to them. We must dismiss the +Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the +Eclectics the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and +emanations, their Logos and Demi-urgos, Aeons and Daemons male and +female, with a long train of Etc. Etc. Etc. or, shall I say at once, +of Nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, +select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the +Amphibologisms into which they have been led by forgetting often, or +not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own +misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others +what they had not understood themselves. There will be found +remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has +ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own +use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and +arranging, the matter which is evidently his, andwhich is as easily +distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill.The result is an 8 vo. of +46. pages of pure and unsophisticated doctrines, such as were +professed and acted on by the _unlettered_ apostles, the Apostolic +fathers, and the Christians of the 1st. century. Their Platonising +successors indeed, in after times, in order to legitimate the +corruptions which they had incorporated into the doctrines of Jesus, +found it necessary to disavow the primitive Christians, who had taken +their principles from the mouth of Jesus himself, of his Apostles, +and the Fathers cotemporary with them. They excommunicated their +followers as heretics, branding them with the opprobrious name of +Ebionites or Beggars. + + For a comparison of the Graecian philosophy with that of Jesus, +materials might be largely drawn from the same source. Enfield gives +a history, and detailed account of the opinions and principles of the +different sects. These relate to + the gods, their natures, grades, places and powers; + the demi-gods and daemons, and their agency with man; + the Universe, it's structure, extent, production and duration; + the origin of things from the elements of fire, water, air and +earth; + the human soul, it's essence and derivation; + the summum bonum and finis bonorum; with a thousand idle dreams +and fancies on these and other subjects the knolege of which is +withheld from man, leaving but a short chapter for his moral duties, +and the principal section of that given to what he owes himself, to +precepts for rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the evils +of life, and for preserving his mind in a state of constant serenity. + + Such a canvas is too broad for the age of seventy, and +especially of one whose chief occupations have been in the practical +business of life. We must leave therefore to others, younger and +more learned than we are, to prepare this euthanasia for Platonic +Christianity, and it's restoration to the primitive simplicity of +it's founder. I think you give a just outline of the theism of the +three religions when you say that the principle of the Hebrew was the +fear, of the Gentile the honor, and of the Christian the love of God. + + An expression in your letter of Sep. 14. that `the human +understanding is a revelation from it's maker' gives the best +solution, that I believe can be given, of the question, What did +Socrates mean by his Daemon? He was too wise to believe, and too +honest to pretend that he had real and familiar converse with a +superior and invisible being. He probably considered the suggestions +of his conscience, or reason, as revelations, or inspirations from +the Supreme mind, bestowed, on important occasions, by a special +superintending providence. + + I acknolege all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, +which you ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and +correct imagination can permit itself to go. Yet in the +contemplation of a being so superlative, the hyperbolic flights of +the Psalmist may often be followed with approbation, even with +rapture; and I have no hesitation in giving him the palm over all the +Hymnists of every language, and of every time. Turn to the 148th. +psalm, in Brady and Tate's version. Have such conceptions been ever +before expressed? Their version of the 15th. psalm is more to be +esteemed for it's pithiness, than it's poetry. Even Sternhold, the +leaden Sternhold, kindles, in a single instance, with the sublimity +of his original, and expresses the majesty of God descending on the +earth, in terms not unworthy of the subject. + + 'The Lord descended from And bowed the heav'ns most + above high; + And underneath his feet he cast The darkness of the sky. + On Cherubim and Seraphim Full royally he rode; + And on the wings of mighty Came flying all abroad.' + winds Psalm xviii. 9. 10. + + The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, +are but mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation. + + {Oyranon agklinas katebe ypo possi d' eoisin + Achlys amphi melaina chythe kai nyx erebenne. + Rimpha potato Cheroybo ocheymenos, osper eph' ippo. + Iptato de pterygessi polyplagktoy anemoio.} + + The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian +dissenters of Liverpool, in their printed Form of prayer; but they +are not always the best versions. Indeed bad is the best of the +English versions; not a ray of poetical genius having ever been +employed on them. And how much depends on this may be seen by +comparing Brady and Tate's XVth. psalm with Blacklock's Justum et +tenacem propositi virum ["a man just and steadfast of purpose"] of +Horace, quoted in Hume's history, Car. 2. ch. 65. A translation of +David in this style, or in that of Pompei's Cleanthes, might give us +some idea of the merit of the original. The character too of the +poetry of these hymns is singular to us. Written in monostichs, each +divided into strophe and antistrophe, the sentiment of the 1st. +member responded with amplification or antithesis in the second. + + On the subject of the Postscript of yours of Aug. 16. and of +Mrs. Adams's letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction +it has caused, and can sympathise with it the more sensibly, inasmuch +as there is no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those +dear to us, which experience has not taught me to estimate. I have +ever found time and silence the only medecine, and these but assuage, +they never can suppress, the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for +ever brings up, until recollection and life are extinguished +together. Ever affectionately yours + + P. S. Your's of Sep -- just recieved + + + THE NATURAL ARISTOCRACY + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Oct. 28, 1813_ + + DEAR SIR -- According to the reservation between us, of taking +up one of the subjects of our correspondence at a time, I turn to +your letters of Aug. 16. and Sep. 2. + + The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an Ethical, +rather than a political object. The whole piece is a moral +_exhortation_, {parainesis}, and this passage particularly seems to +be a reproof to man, who, while with his domestic animals he is +curious to improve the race by employing always the finest male, pays +no attention to the improvement of his own race, but intermarries +with the vicious, the ugly, or the old, for considerations of wealth +or ambition. It is in conformity with the principle adopted +afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by Ocellus in another +form. {Peri de tes ek ton allelon anthropon geneseos} etc. -- {oych +edones eneka e} {mixis}. Which, as literally as intelligibility will +admit, may be thus translated. `Concerning the interprocreation of +men, how, and of whom it shall be, in a perfect manner, and according +to the laws of modesty and sanctity, conjointly, this is what I think +right. First to lay it down that we do not commix for the sake of +pleasure, but of the procreation of children. For the powers, the +organs and desires for coition have not been given by god to man for +the sake of pleasure, but for the procreation of the race. For as it +were incongruous for a mortal born to partake of divine life, the +immortality of the race being taken away, god fulfilled the purpose +by making the generations uninterrupted and continuous. This +therefore we are especially to lay down as a principle, that coition +is not for the sake of pleasure.' But Nature, not trusting to this +moral and abstract motive, seems to have provided more securely for +the perpetuation of the species by making it the effect of the +oestrum implanted in the constitution of both sexes. And not only +has the commerce of love been indulged on this unhallowed impulse, +but made subservient also to wealth and ambition by marriages without +regard to the beauty, the healthiness, the understanding, or virtue +of the subject from which we are to breed. The selecting the best +male for a Haram of well chosen females also, which Theognis seems to +recommend from the example of our sheep and asses, would doubtless +improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and produce a race of +veritable {aristoi} ["aristocrats"]. For experience proves that the +moral and physical qualities of man, whether good or evil, are +transmissible in a certain degree from father to son. But I suspect +that the equal rights of men will rise up against this privileged +Solomon, and oblige us to continue acquiescence under the {'Amayrosis +geneos aston} ["the degeneration of the race of men"] which Theognis +complains of, and to content ourselves with the accidental aristoi +produced by the fortuitous concourse of breeders. For I agree with +you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of +this are virtue and talents. Formerly bodily powers gave place among +the aristoi. But since the invention of gunpowder has armed the weak +as well as the strong with missile death, bodily strength, like +beauty, good humor, politeness and other accomplishments, has become +but an auxiliary ground of distinction. There is also an artificial +aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or +talents; for with these it would belong to the first class. The +natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature +for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And +indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man +for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom +enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say +that that form of government is the best which provides the most +effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the +offices of government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous +ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent +it's ascendancy. On the question, What is the best provision, you +and I differ; but we differ as rational friends, using the free +exercise of our own reason, and mutually indulging it's errors. +_You_ think it best to put the Pseudo-aristoi into a separate chamber +of legislation where they may be hindered from doing mischief by +their coordinate branches, and where also they may be a protection to +wealth against the Agrarian and plundering enterprises of the +Majority of the people. I think that to give them power in order to +prevent them from doing mischief, is arming them for it, and +increasing instead of remedying the evil. For if the coordinate +branches can arrest their action, so may they that of the +coordinates. Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively. +Of this a cabal in the Senate of the U.S. has furnished many proofs. +Nor do I believe them necessary to protect the wealthy; because +enough of these will find their way into every branch of the +legislation to protect themselves. From 15. to 20. legislatures of +our own, in action for 30. years past, have proved that no fears of +an equalisation of property are to be apprehended from them. + + _I_ think the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our +constitutions, to leave to the citizens the free election and +separation of the aristoi from the pseudo-aristoi, of the wheat from +the chaff. In general they will elect the real good and wise. In +some instances, wealth may corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in +sufficient degree to endanger the society. + + It is probable that our difference of opinion may in some +measure be produced by a difference of character in those among whom +we live. From what I have seen of Massachusets and Connecticut +myself, and still more from what I have heard, and the character +given of the former by yourself, [vol. 1. pa. 111.] who know them so +much better, there seems to be in those two states a traditionary +reverence for certain families, which has rendered the offices of the +government nearly hereditary in those families. I presume that from +an early period of your history, members of these families happening +to possess virtue and talents, have honestly exercised them for the +good of the people, and by their services have endeared their names +to them. + + In coupling Connecticut with you, I mean it politically only, +not morally. For having made the Bible the Common law of their land +they seem to have modelled their morality on the story of Jacob and +Laban. But altho' this hereditary succession to office with you may +in some degree be founded in real family merit, yet in a much higher +degree it has proceeded from your strict alliance of church and +state. These families are canonised in the eyes of the people on the +common principle `you tickle me, and I will tickle you.' In Virginia +we have nothing of this. Our clergy, before the revolution, having +been secured against rivalship by fixed salaries, did not give +themselves the trouble of acquiring influence over the people. Of +wealth, there were great accumulations in particular families, handed +down from generation to generation under the English law of entails. +But the only object of ambition for the wealthy was a seat in the +king's council. All their court then was paid to the crown and it's +creatures; and they Philipised in all collisions between the king and +people. Hence they were unpopular; and that unpopularity continues +attached to their names. A Randolph, a Carter, or a Burwell must +have great personal superiority over a common competitor to be +elected by the people, even at this day. + + At the first session of our legislature after the Declaration +of Independance, we passed a law abolishing entails. And this was +followed by one abolishing the privilege of Primogeniture, and +dividing the lands of intestates equally among all their children, or +other representatives. These laws, drawn by myself, laid the axe to +the root of Pseudo-aristocracy. And had another which I prepared +been adopted by the legislature, our work would have been compleat. +It was a Bill for the more general diffusion of learning. This +proposed to divide every county into wards of 5. or 6. miles square, +like your townships; to establish in each ward a free school for +reading, writing and common arithmetic; to provide for the annual +selection of the best subjects from these schools who might recieve +at the public expence a higher degree of education at a district +school; and from these district schools to select a certain number of +the most promising subjects to be compleated at an University, where +all the useful sciences should be taught. Worth and genius would +thus have been sought out from every condition of life, and +compleatly prepared by education for defeating the competition of +wealth and birth for public trusts. + + My proposition had for a further object to impart to these +wards those portions of self-government for which they are best +qualified, by confiding to them the care of their poor, their roads, +police, elections, the nomination of jurors, administration of +justice in small cases, elementary exercises of militia, in short, to +have made them little republics, with a Warden at the head of each, +for all those concerns which, being under their eye, they would +better manage than the larger republics of the county or state. A +general call of ward-meetings by their Wardens on the same day thro' +the state would at any time produce the genuine sense of the people +on any required point, and would enable the state to act in mass, as +your people have so often done, and with so much effect, by their +town meetings. The law for religious freedom, which made a part of +this system, having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and +restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind, and those of entails +and descents nurturing an equality of condition among them, this on +Education would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground +of moral respectability necessary to their own safety, and to orderly +government; and would have compleated the great object of qualifying +them to select the veritable aristoi, for the trusts of government, +to the exclusion of the Pseudalists: and the same Theognis who has +furnished the epigraphs of your two letters assures us that +{`oydemian po Kyrn agathoi polin olesan andres,} ["Curnis, good men +have never harmed any city"]'. Altho' this law has not yet been +acted on but in a small and inefficient degree, it is still +considered as before the legislature, with other bills of the revised +code, not yet taken up, and I have great hope that some patriotic +spirit will, at a favorable moment, call it up, and make it the +key-stone of the arch of our government. + + With respect to Aristocracy, we should further consider that, +before the establishment of the American states, nothing was known to +History but the Man of the old world, crouded within limits either +small or overcharged, and steeped in the vices which that situation +generates. A government adapted to such men would be one thing; but +a very different one that for the Man of these states. Here every +one may have land to labor for himself if he chuses; or, preferring +the exercise of any other industry, may exact for it such +compensation as not only to afford a comfortable subsistence, but +where-with to provide for a cessation from labor in old age. Every +one, by his property, or by his satisfactory situation, is interested +in the support of law and order. And such men maysafely and +advantageously reserve to themselves a wholsome controul over their +public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which in the hands of the +Canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the +demolition and destruction of every thing public and private. The +history of the last 25. years of France, and of the last 40. years in +America, nay of it's last 200. years, proves the truth of both parts +of this observation. + + But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the +mind of Man. Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and +reflect, and the American example had kindled feelings of right in +the people. An insurrection has consequently begun, of science, +talents and courage against rank and birth, which have fallen into +contempt. It has failed in it's first effort, because the mobs of +the cities, the instrument used for it's accomplishment, debased by +ignorance, poverty and vice, could not be restrained to rational +action. But the world will recover from the panic of this first +catastrophe. Science is progressive, and talents and enterprize on +the alert. Resort may be had to the people of the country, a more +governable power from their principles and subordination; and rank, +and birth, and tinsel-aristocracy will finally shrink into +insignificance, even there. This however we have no right to meddle +with. It suffices for us, if the moral and physical condition of our +own citizens qualifies them to select the able and good for the +direction of their government, with a recurrence of elections at such +short periods as will enable them to displace an unfaithful servant +before the mischief he meditates may be irremediable. + + I have thus stated my opinion on a point on which we differ, +not with a view to controversy, for we are both too old to change +opinions which are the result of a long life of inquiry and +reflection; but on the suggestion of a former letter of yours, that +we ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other. +We acted in perfect harmony thro' a long and perilous contest for our +liberty and independance. A constitution has been acquired which, +tho neither of us think perfect, yet both consider as competent to +render our fellow-citizens the happiest and the securest on whom the +sun has ever shone. If we do not think exactly alike as to it's +imperfections, it matters little to our country which, after devoting +to it long lives of disinterested labor, we have delivered over to +our successors in life, who will be able to take care of it, and of +themselves. + + Of the pamphlet on aristocracy which has been sent to you, or +who may be it's author, I have heard nothing but thro' your letter. +If the person you suspect it may be known from the quaint, mystical +and hyperbolical ideas, involved in affected, new-fangled and +pedantic terms, which stamp his writings. Whatever it be, I hope +your quiet is not to be affected at this day by the rudeness of +intemperance of scribblers; but that you may continue in tranquility +to live and to rejoice in the prosperity of our country until it +shall be your own wish to take your seat among the Aristoi who have +gone beforeyou. Ever and affectionately yours. + + P. S. Can you assist my memory on the enquiries of my letter of +Aug. 22.? + + + + + "A HEMISPHERE TO ITSELF" + + _To Alexander von Humboldt_ + _December 6, 1813_ + + MY DEAR FRIEND AND BARON, -- I have to acknowledge your two +letters of December 20 and 26, 1811, by Mr. Correa, and am first to +thank you for making me acquainted with that most excellent +character. He was so kind as to visit me at Monticello, and I found +him one of the most learned and amiable of men. It was a subject of +deep regret to separate from so much worth in the moment of its +becoming known to us. + + The livraison of your astronomical observations, and the 6th +and 7th on the subject of New Spain, with the corresponding atlasses, +are duly received, as had been the preceding cahiers. For these +treasures of a learning so interesting to us, accept my sincere +thanks. I think it most fortunate that your travels in those +countries were so timed as to make them known to the world in the +moment they were about to become actors on its stage. That they will +throw off their European dependence I have no doubt; but in what kind +of government their revolution will end I am not so certain. +History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people +maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of +ignorance, of which their civil as well as religious leaders will +always avail themselves for their own purposes. The vicinity of New +Spain to the United States, and their consequent intercourse, may +furnish schools for the higher, and example for the lower classes of +their citizens. And Mexico, where we learn from you that men of +science are not wanting, may revolutionize itself under better +auspices than the Southern provinces. These last, I fear, must end +in military despotisms. The different casts of their inhabitants, +their mutual hatreds and jealousies, their profound ignorance and +bigotry, will be played off by cunning leaders, and each be made the +instrument of enslaving others. But of all this you can best judge, +for in truth we have little knowledge of them to be depended on, but +through you. But in whatever governments they end they will be +_American_ governments, no longer to be involved in the never-ceasing +broils of Europe. The European nations constitute a separate +division of the globe; their localities make them part of a distinct +system; they have a set of interests of their own in which it is our +business never to engage ourselves. America has a hemisphere to +itself. It must have its separate system of interests, which must +not be subordinated to those of Europe. The insulated state in which +nature has placed the American continent, should so far avail it that +no spark of war kindled in the other quarters of the globe should be +wafted across the wide oceans which separate us from them. And it +will be so. In fifty years more the United States alone will contain +fifty millions of inhabitants, and fifty years are soon gone over. +The peace of 1763 is within that period. I was then twenty years +old, and of course remember well all the transactions of the war +preceding it. And you will live to see the epoch now equally ahead +of us; and the numbers which will then be spread over the other parts +of the American hemisphere, catching long before that the principles +of our portion of it, and concurring with us in the maintenance of +the same system. You see how readily we run into ages beyond the +grave; and even those of us to whom that grave is already opening its +quiet bosom. I am anticipating events of which you will be the +bearer to me in the Elsyian fields fifty years hence. + + You know, my friend, the benevolent plan we were pursuing here +for the happiness of the aboriginal inhabitants in our vicinities. +We spared nothing to keep them at peace with one another. To teach +them agriculture and the rudiments of the most necessary arts, and to +encourage industry by establishing among them separate property. In +this way they would have been enabled to subsist and multiply on a +moderate scale of landed possession. They would have mixed their +blood with ours, and been amalgamated and identified with us within +no distant period of time. On the commencement of our present war, +we pressed on them the observance of peace and neutrality, but the +interested and unprincipled policy of England has defeated all our +labors for the salvation of these unfortunate people. They have +seduced the greater part of the tribes within our neighborhood, to +take up the hatchet against us, and the cruel massacres they have +committed on the women and children of our frontiers taken by +surprise, will oblige us now to pursue them to extermination, or +drive them to new seats beyond our reach. Already we have driven +their patrons and seducers into Montreal, and the opening season will +force them to their last refuge, the walls of Quebec. We have cut +off all possibility of intercourse and of mutual aid, and may pursue +at our leisure whatever plan we find necessary to secure ourselves +against the future effects of their savage and ruthless warfare. The +confirmed brutalization, if not the extermination of this race in our +America, is therefore to form an additional chapter in the English +history of the same colored man in Asia, and of the brethren of their +own color in Ireland, and wherever else Anglo-mercantile cupidity can +find a two-penny interest in deluging the earth with human blood. +But let us turn from the loathsome contemplation of the degrading +effects of commercial avarice. + + That their Arrowsmith should have stolen your Map of Mexico, +was in the piratical spirit of his country. But I should be +sincerely sorry if our Pike has made an ungenerous use of your candid +communications here; and the more so as he died in the arms of +victory gained over the enemies of his country. Whatever he did was +on a principle of enlarging knowledge, and not for filthy shillings +and pence of which he made none from that work. If what he has +borrowed has any effect it will be to excite an appeal in his readers +from his defective information to the copious volumes of it with +which you have enriched the world. I am sorry he omitted even to +acknowledge the source of his information. It has been an oversight, +and not at all in the spirit of his generous nature. Let me solicit +your forgiveness then of a deceased hero, of an honest and zealous +patriot, who lived and died for his country. + + You will find it inconceivable that Lewis's journey to the +Pacific should not yet have appeared; nor is it in my power to tell +you the reason. The measures taken by his surviving companion, +Clarke, for the publication, have not answered our wishes in point of +despatch. I think, however, from what I have heard, that the mere +journal will be out within a few weeks in two volumes 8vo. These I +will take care to send you with the tobacco seed you desired, if it +be possible for them to escape the thousand ships of our enemies +spread over the ocean. The botanical and zoological discoveries of +Lewis will probably experience greater delay, and become known to the +world through other channels before that volume will be ready. The +Atlas, I believe, waits on the leisure of the engraver. + + Although I do not know whether you are now at Paris or ranging +the regions of Asia to acquire more knowledge for the use of men, I +cannot deny myself the gratification of an endeavor to recall myself +to your recollection, and of assuring you of my constant attachment, +and of renewing to you the just tribute of my affectionate esteem and +high respect and consideration. + + + WAR AND BOTANICAL EXCHANGES + + _To Madame de Tesse_ + _December 8, 1813_ + + While at war, my dear Madam and friend, with the leviathan of +the ocean, there is little hope of a letter escaping his thousand +ships; yet I cannot permit myself longer to withhold the +acknowledgment of your letter of June 28 of the last year, with which +came the memoirs of the Margrave of Bareuth. I am much indebted to +you for this singular morsel of history which has given us a certain +view of kings, queens and princes, disrobed of their formalities. It +is a peep into the state of the Egyptian god Apis. It would not be +easy to find grosser manners, coarser vices, or more meanness in the +poorest huts of our peasantry. The princess shows herself the +legitimate sister of Frederic, cynical, selfish, and without a heart. +Notwithstanding your wars with England, I presume you get the +publications of that country. The memoirs of Mrs. Clarke and of her +_darling_ prince, and the book emphatically so called, because it is +the Biblia Sacra Deorum et Dearum sub-coelestium, the Prince Regent, +his Princess and the minor deities of his sphere, form a worthy +sequel to the memoirs of Bareuth; instead of the vulgarity and penury +of the court of Berlin, giving us the vulgarity and profusion of that +of London, and the gross stupidity and profligacy of the latter, in +lieu of the genius and misanthropism of the former. The whole might +be published as a supplement of M. de Buffon, under the title of the +"Natural History of Kings and Princes," or as a separate work and +called "Medicine for Monarchists." The "Intercepted Letters," a later +English publication of great wit and humor, has put them to their +proper use by holding them up as butts for the ridicule and contempt +of mankind. Yet by such worthless beings is a great nation to be +governed and even made to deify their old king because he is only a +fool and a maniac, and to forgive and forget his having lost to them +a great and flourishing empire, added nine hundred millions sterling +to their debt, for which the fee simple of the whole island would not +sell, if offered farm by farm at public auction, and increased their +annual taxes from eight to seventy millions sterling, more than the +whole rent-roll of the island. What must be the dreary prospect from +the son when such a father is deplored as a national loss. But let +us drop these odious beings and pass to those of an higher order, the +plants of the field. I am afraid I have given you a great deal more +trouble than I intended by my inquiries for the Maronnier or Castanea +Sativa, of which I wished to possess my own country, without knowing +how rare its culture was even in yours. The two plants which your +researches have placed in your own garden, it will be all but +impossible to remove hither. The war renders their safe passage +across the Atlantic extremely precarious, and, if landed anywhere but +in the Chesapeake, the risk of the additional voyage along the coast +to Virginia, is still greater. Under these circumstances it is +better they should retain their present station, and compensate to +you the trouble they have cost you. + + I learn with great pleasure the success of your new gardens at +Auenay. No occupation can be more delightful or useful. They will +have the merit of inducing you to forget those of Chaville. With the +botanical riches which you mention to have been derived to England +from New Holland, we are as yet unacquainted. Lewis's journey across +our continent to the Pacific has added a number of new plants to our +former stock. Some of them are curious, some ornamental, some +useful, and some may by culture be made acceptable to our tables. I +have growing, which I destine for you, a very handsome little shrub +of the size of a currant bush. Its beauty consists in a great +produce of berries of the size of currants, and literally as white as +snow, which remain on the bush through the winter, after its leaves +have fallen, and make it an object as singular as it is beautiful. +We call it the snow-berry bush, no botanical name being yet given to +it, but I do not know why we might not call it Chionicoccos, or +Kallicoccos. All Lewis's plants are growing in the garden of Mr. +McMahon, a gardener of Philadelphia, to whom I consigned them, and +from whom I shall have great pleasure, when peace is restored, in +ordering for you any of these or of our other indigenous plants. The +port of Philadelphia has great intercourse with Bordeaux and Nantes, +and some little perhaps with Havre. I was mortified not long since +by receiving a letter from a merchant in Bordeaux, apologizing for +having suffered a box of plants addressed by me to you, to get +accidentally covered in his warehouse by other objects, and to remain +three years undiscovered, when every thing in it was found to be +rotten. I have learned occasionally that others rotted in the +warehouses of the English pirates. We are now settling that account +with them. We have taken their Upper Canada and shall add the Lower +to it when the season will admit; and hope to remove them fully and +finally from our continent. And what they will feel more, for they +value their colonies only for the bales of cloth they take from them, +we have established manufactures, not only sufficient to supersede +our demand from them, but to rivalize them in foreign markets. But +for the course of our war I will refer you to M. de La Fayette, to +whom I state it more particularly. + + Our friend Mr. Short is well. He makes Philadelphia his winter +quarters, and New York or the country, those of the summer. In his +fortune he is perfectly independent and at ease, and does not trouble +himself with the party politics of our country. Will you permit me +to place here for M. de Tesse the testimony of my high esteem and +respect, and accept for yourself an assurance of the warm +recollections I retain of your many civilities and courtesies to me, +and the homage of my constant and affectionate attachment and +respect. + + + THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON + + _To Dr. Walter Jones_ + _Monticello, January 2, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of November the 25th reached this place +December the 21st, having been near a month on the way. How this +could happen I know not, as we have two mails a week both from +Fredericksburg and Richmond. It found me just returned from a long +journey and absence, during which so much business had accumulated, +commanding the first attentions, that another week has been added to +the delay. + + I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers +have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit +of those who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the +production of a New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of +degradation into which we are fallen. These ordures are rapidly +depraving the public taste, and lessening its relish for sound food. +As vehicles of information, and a curb on our functionaries, they +have rendered themselves useless, by forfeiting all title to belief. +That this has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and +malignity of party spirit, I agree with you; and I have read with +great pleasure the paper you enclosed me on that subject, which I now +return. It is at the same time a perfect model of the style of +discussion which candor and decency should observe, of the tone which +renders difference of opinion even amiable, and a succinct, correct, +and dispassionate history of the origin and progress of party among +us. It might be incorporated as it stands, and without changing a +word, into the history of the present epoch, and would give to +posterity a fairer view of the times than they will probably derive +from other sources. In reading it with great satisfaction, there was +but a single passage where I wished a little more development of a +very sound and catholic idea; a single intercalation to rest it +solidly on true bottom. It is near the end of the first page, where +you make a statement of genuine republican maxims; saying, "that the +people ought to possess as much political power as can possibly exist +with the order and security of society." Instead of this, I would +say, "that the people, being the only safe depository of power, +should exercise in person every function which their qualifications +enable them to exercise, consistently with the order and security of +society; that we now find them equal to the election of those who +shall be invested with their executive and legislative powers, and to +act themselves in the judiciary, as judges in questions of fact; that +the range of their powers ought to be enlarged," &c. This gives both +the reason and exemplification of the maxim you express, "that they +ought to possess as much political power," &c. I see nothing to +correct either in your facts or principles. + + You say that in taking General Washington on your shoulders, to +bear him harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter a +perilous topic. I do not think so. You have given the genuine +history of the course of his mind through the trying scenes in which +it was engaged, and of the seductions by which it was deceived, but +not depraved. I think I knew General Washington intimately and +thoroughly; and were I called on to delineate his character, it +should be in terms like these. + + His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very +first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a +Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever +sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention +or imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of +his officers, of the advantage he derived from councils of war, where +hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly +no General ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if +deranged during the course of the action, if any member of his plan +was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he was slow in re-adjustment. +The consequence was, that he often failed in the field, and rarely +against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was incapable +of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern. +Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never +acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely +weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going +through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity +was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no +motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being +able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the +words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was naturally +high toned; but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and +habitual ascendency over it. If ever, however, it broke its bonds, +he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he was +honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever promised +utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects and +all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its +affections; but he exactly calculated every man's value, and gave him +a solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, +his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect +and noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure +that could be seen on horseback. Although in the circle of his +friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free +share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above +mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of +words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was +unready, short and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather +diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he had acquired by +conversation with the world, for his education was merely reading, +writing and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later +day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and +that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence +became necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural +proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors. On the +whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in +few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did +nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to +place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have +merited from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the +singular destiny and merit, of leading the armies of his country +successfully through an arduous war, for the establishment of its +independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a +government, new in its forms and principles, until it had settled +down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the +laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which +the history of the world furnishes no other example. + + How, then, can it be perilous for you to take such a man on +your shoulders? I am satisfied the great body of republicans think +of him as I do. We were, indeed, dissatisfied with him on his +ratification of the British treaty. But this was short lived. We +knew his honesty, the wiles with which he was encompassed, and that +age had already begun to relax the firmness of his purposes; and I am +convinced he is more deeply seated in the love and gratitude of the +republicans, than in the Pharisaical homage of the federal +monarchists. For he was no monarchist from preference of his +judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct views of the rights +of man, and his severe justice devoted him to them. He has often +declared to me that he considered our new constitution as an +experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with +what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good; that he +was determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would +lose the last drop of his blood in support of it. And these +declarations he repeated to me the oftener and more pointedly, +because he knew my suspicions of Colonel Hamilton's views, and +probably had heard from him the same declarations which I had, to +wit, "that the British constitution, with its unequal representation, +corruption and other existing abuses, was the most perfect government +which had ever been established on earth, and that a reformation of +those abuses would make it an impracticable government." I do believe +that General Washington had not a firm confidence in the durability +of our government. He was naturally distrustful of men, and inclined +to gloomy apprehensions; and I was ever persuaded that a belief that +we must at length end in something like a British constitution, had +some weight in his adoption of the ceremonies of levees, birth-days, +pompous meetings with Congress, and other forms of the same +character, calculated to prepare us gradually for a change which he +believed possible, and to let it come on with as little shock as +might be to the public mind. + + These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would +vouch at the judgment seat of God, having been formed on an +acquaintance of thirty years. I served with him in the Virginia +legislature from 1769 to the Revolutionary war, and again, a short +time in Congress, until he left us to take command of the army. +During the war and after it we corresponded occasionally, and in the +four years of my continuance in the office of Secretary of State, our +intercourse was daily, confidential and cordial. After I retired +from that office, great and malignant pains were taken by our federal +monarchists, and not entirely without effect, to make him view me as +a theorist, holding French principles of government, which would lead +infallibly to licentiousness and anarchy. And to this he listened +the more easily, from my known disapprobation of the British treaty. +I never saw him afterwards, or these malignant insinuations should +have been dissipated before his just judgment, as mists before the +sun. I felt on his death, with my countrymen, that "verily a great +man hath fallen this day in Israel." + + More time and recollection would enable me to add many other +traits of his character; but why add them to you who knew him well? +And I cannot justify to myself a longer detention of your paper. + + _Vale, proprieque tuum, me esse tibi persuadeas_. + + + CHRISTIANITY AND THE COMMON LAW + + _To Dr. Thomas Cooper_ + _Monticello, February 10, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- In my letter of January 16, I promised you a +sample from my common-place book, of the pious disposition of the +English judges, to connive at the frauds of the clergy, a disposition +which has even rendered them faithful allies in practice. When I was +a student of the law, now half a century ago, after getting through +Coke Littleton, whose matter cannot be abridged, I was in the habit +of abridging and common-placing what I read meriting it, and of +sometimes mixing my own reflections on the subject. I now enclose +you the extract from these entries which I promised. They were +written at a time of life when I was bold in the pursuit of +knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever +results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their +way. This must be the apology, if you find the conclusions bolder +than historical facts and principles will warrant. Accept with them +the assurances of my great esteem and respect. + + _Common-place Book._ + 873. In Quare imp. in C. B. 34, H. 6, fo. 38, the def. Br. of +Lincoln pleads that the church of the pl. became void by the death of +the incumbent, that the pl. and J. S. each pretending a right, +presented two several clerks; that the church being thus rendered +litigious, he was not obliged, by the _Ecclesiastical law_ to admit +either, until an inquisition de jure patronatus, in the +ecclesiastical court: that, by the same law, this inquisition was to +be at the suit of either claimant, and was not _ex-officio_ to be +instituted by the bishop, and at his proper costs; that neither party +had desired such an inquisition; that six months passed whereon it +belonged to him of right to present as on a lapse, which he had done. +The pl. demurred. A question was, How far the _Ecclesiastical law_ +was to be respected in this matter by the common law court? and +Prisot C. 3, in the course of his argument uses this expression, "A +tiels leis que ils de seint eglise ont en _ancien scripture_, covient +a nous a donner credence, car ces common ley sur quel touts manners +leis sont fondes: et auxy, sin, nous sumus obliges de conustre nostre +ley; et, sin, si poit apperer or a nous que lievesque ad fait comme +un ordinary fera en tiel cas, adong nous devons ces adjuger bon +autrement nemy," &c. It does not appear that judgment was given. Y. +B. ubi supra. S. C. Fitzh. abr. Qu. imp. 89. Bro. abr. Qu. imp. 12. +Finch mistakes this in the following manner: "To such laws of the +church as have warrant in _Holy Scripture_, our law giveth credence," +and cites the above case, and the words of Prisot on the margin. +Finch's law. B. 1, ch. 3, published 1613. Here we find "ancien +scripture" converted into "Holy Scripture," whereas it can only mean +the _ancient written_ laws of the church. It cannot mean the +Scriptures, 1, because the "ancien scripture" must then be understood +to mean the "Old Testament" or Bible, in opposition to the "New +Testament," and to the exclusion of that, which would be absurd and +contrary to the wish of those |P1323|p1 who cite this passage to +prove that the Scriptures, or Christianity, is a part of the common +law. 2. Because Prisot says, "Ceo [est] common ley, sur quel touts +manners leis sont fondes." Now, it is true that the ecclesiastical +law, so far as admitted in England, derives its authority from the +common law. But it would not be true that the Scriptures so derive +their authority. 3. The whole case and arguments show that the +question was how far the Ecclesiastical law in general should be +respected in a common law court. And in Bro. abr. of this case, +Littleton says, "Les juges del common ley prendra conusans quid est +_lax ecclesiae_, vel admiralitatis, et trujus modi." 4. Because the +particular part of the Ecclesiastical law then in question, to wit, +the right of the patron to present to his advowson, was not founded +on the law of God, but subject to the modification of the lawgiver, +and so could not introduce any such general position as Finch +pretends. Yet Wingate [in 1658] thinks proper to erect this false +quotation into a maxim of the common law, expressing it in the very +words of Finch, but citing Prisot, wing. max. 3. Next comes +Sheppard, [in 1675,] who states it in the same words of Finch, and +quotes the Year-Book, Finch and Wingate. 3. Shepp. abr. tit. +Religion. In the case of the King _v_. Taylor, Sir Matthew Hale lays +it down in these words, "Christianity is parcel of the laws of +England." 1 Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority, +resting it on his own, which was good in all cases in which his mind +received no bias from his bigotry, his superstitions, his visions +above sorceries, demons, &c. The power of these over him is +exemplified in his hanging of the witches. So strong was this +doctrine become in 1728, by additions and repetitions from one +another, that in the case of the King _v_. Woolston, the court would +not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity +was punishable in the temporal courts at common law, saying it had +been so settled in Taylor's case, ante 2, stra. 834; therefore, Wood, +in his Institute, lays it down that all blasphemy and profaneness are +offences by the _common law_, and cites Strange ubi supra. Wood 409. +And Blackstone [about 1763] repeats, in the words of Sir Matthew +Hale, that "Christianity is part of the laws of England," citing +Ventris and Strange ubi supra. 4. Blackst. 59. Lord Mansfield +qualifies it a little by saying that "The essential |P1324|p1 +principles of revealed religion are part of the common law." In the +case of the Chamberlain of London _v_. Evans, 1767. But he cities no +authority, and leaves us at our peril to find out what, in the +opinion of the judge, and according to the measure of his foot or his +faith, are those essential principles of revealed religion obligatory +on us as a part of the common law. + + Thus we find this string of authorities, when examined to the +beginning, all hanging on the same hook, a perverted expression of +Prisot's, or on one another, or nobody. Thus Finch quotes Prisot; +Wingate also; Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch and Wingate; Hale cites +nobody; the court in Woolston's case cite Hale; Wood cites Woolston's +case; Blackstone that and Hale; and Lord Mansfield, like Hale, +ventures it on his own authority. In the earlier ages of the law, as +in the year-books, for instance, we do not expect much recurrence to +authorities by the judges, because in those days there were few or +none such made public. But in latter times we take no judge's word +for what the law is, further than he is warranted by the authorities +he appeals to. His decision may bind the unfortunate individual who +happens to be the particular subject of it; but it cannot alter the +law. Though the common law may be termed "Lex non Scripta," yet the +same Hale tells us "when I call those parts of our laws Leges non +Scriptae, I do not mean as if those laws were only oral, or +communicated from the former ages to the latter merely by word. For +all those laws have their several monuments in writing, whereby they +are transferred from one age to another, and without which they would +soon lose all kind of certainty. They are for the most part extant +in records of pleas, proceedings, and judgments, in books of reports +and judicial decisions, in tractates of learned men's arguments and +opinions, preserved from ancient times and still extant in writing." +Hale's H. c. d. 22. Authorities for what is common law may therefore +be as well cited, as for any part of the Lex Scripta, and there is no +better instance of the necessity of holding the judges and writers to +a declaration of their authorities than the present; where we detect +them endeavoring to make law where they found none, and to submit us +at one stroke to a whole system, no particle of which has its +foundation in the common law. For we know that the common law is +that system of law which was introduced by the Saxons on their +settlement in England, and altered from time to time by proper +legislative authority from that time to the date of Magna Charta, +which terminates the period of the common law, or lex non scripta, +and commences that of the statute law, or Lex Scripta. This +settlement took place about the middle of the fifth century. But +Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century; the +conversion of the first christian king of the Heptarchy having taken +place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686. Here, +then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law +was in existence, and Christianity no part of it. If it ever was +adopted, therefore, into the common law, it must have been between +the introduction of Christianity and the date of the Magna Charta. +But of the laws of this period we have a tolerable collection by +Lambard and Wilkins, probably not perfect, but neither very +defective; and if any one chooses to build a doctrine on any law of +that period, supposed to have been lost, it is incumbent on him to +prove it to have existed, and what were its contents. These were so +far alterations of the common law, and became themselves a part of +it. But none of these adopt Christianity as a part of the common +law. If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons to the +introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion +could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet +Christians, and if, having their laws from that period to the close +of the common law, we are all able to find among them no such act of +adoption, we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges +and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a +part of the common law. Another cogent proof of this truth is drawn +from the silence of certain writers on the common law. Bracton gives +us a very complete and scientific treatise of the whole body of the +common law. He wrote this about the close of the reign of Henry +III., a very few years after the date of the Magna Charta. We +consider this book as the more valuable, as it was written about fore +gives us the former in its ultimate state. Bracton, too, was an +ecclesiastic, and would certainly not have failed to inform us of the +adoption of Christianity as a part of the common law, had any such +adoption ever taken place. But no word of his, which intimates +anything like it, has ever been cited. Fleta and Britton, who wrote +in the succeeding reign (of Edward I.), are equally silent. So also +is Glanvil, an earlier writer than any of them, (viz.: temp. H. 2,) +but his subject perhaps might not have led him to mention it. +Justice Fortescue Aland, who possessed more Saxon learning than all +the judges and writers before mentioned put together, places this +subject on more limited ground. Speaking of the laws of the Saxon +kings, he says, "the ten commandments were made part of their laws, +and consequently were _once_ part of the law of England; so that to +break any of the ten commandments was then esteemed a breach of the +common law, of England; and why it is not so now, perhaps it may be +difficult to give a good reason." Preface to Fortescue Aland's +reports, xvii. Had he proposed to state with more minuteness how +much of the scriptures had been made a part of the common law, he +might have added that in the laws of Alfred, where he found the ten +commandments, two or three other chapters of Exodus are copied almost +verbatim. But the adoption of a part proves rather a rejection of +the rest, as municipal law. We might as well say that the Newtonian +system of philosophy is a part of the common law, as that the +Christian religion is. The truth is that Christianity and +Newtonianism being reason and verity itself, in the opinion of all +but infidels and Cartesians, they are protected under the wings of +the common law from the dominion of other sects, but not erected into +dominion over them. An eminent Spanish physician affirmed that the +lancet had slain more men than the sword. Doctor Sangrado, on the +contrary, affirmed that with plentiful bleedings, and draughts of +warm water, every disease was to be cured. The common law protects +both opinions, but enacts neither into law. See post. 879. + + 879. Howard, in his Contumes Anglo-Normandes, 1.87, notices the +falsification of the laws of Alfred, by prefixing to them four +chapters of the Jewish law, to wit: the 20th, 21st, 22d and 23d +chapters of Exodus, to which he might have added the 15th chapter of +the Acts of the Apostles, v. 23, and precepts from other parts of the +scripture. These he calls a _hors d'oeuvre_ of some pious copyist. +This awkward monkish fabrication makes the preface to Alfred's +genuine laws stand in the body of the work, and the very words of +Alfred himself prove the fraud; for he declares, in that preface, +that he has collected these laws from those of Ina, of Offa, +Aethelbert and his ancestors, saying nothing of any of them being +taken from the Scriptures. It is still more certainly proved by the +inconsistencies it occasions. For example, the Jewish legislator +Exodus xxi. 12, 13, 14, (copied by the Pseudo Alfred [symbol omitted] +13,) makes murder, with the Jews, death. But Alfred himself, Le. +xxvi., punishes it by a fine only, called a Weregild, proportioned to +the condition of the person killed. It is remarkable that Hume +(append. 1 to his History) examining this article of the laws of +Alfred, without perceiving the fraud, puzzles himself with accounting +for the inconsistency it had introduced. To strike a pregnant woman +so that she die is death by Exodus, xxi. 22, 23, and Pseud. Alfr. 18; +but by the laws of Alfred ix., pays a Weregild for both woman and +child. To smite out an eye, or a tooth, Exod. xxi. 24-27. Pseud. +Alfr. 19, 20, if of a servant by his master, is freedom to the +servant; in every other case retaliation. But by Alfr. Le. xl. a +fixed indemnification is paid. Theft of an ox, or a sheep, by the +Jewish law, Exod. xxii. 1, was repaid five-fold for the ox and +four-fold for the sheep; by the Pseudograph 24, the ox double, the +sheep four-fold; but by Alfred Le. xvi., he who stole a cow and a +calf was to repay the worth of the cow and 401 for the calf. Goring +by an ox was the death of the ox, and the flesh not to be eaten. +Exod. xxi. 28. Pseud. Alfr. 21 by Alfred Le. xxiv., the wounded +person had the ox. The Pseudograph makes municipal laws of the ten +commandments, 1-10, regulates concubinage, 12, makes it death to +strike or to curse father or mother, 14, 15, gives an eye for an eye, +tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, +wound for wound, strife for strife, 19; sells the thief to repay his +theft, 24; obliges the fornicator to marry the woman he has lain +with, 29; forbids interest on money, 35; makes the laws of bailment, +28, very different from what Lord Holt delivers in Coggs _v_. +Bernard, ante 92, and what Sir William Jones tells us they were; and +punishes witchcraft with death, 30, which Sir Matthew Hale, 1 H. P. +C. B. 1, ch. 33, declares was not a felony before the Stat. 1, Jac. +12. It was under that statute, and not this forgery, that he hung +Rose Cullendar and Amy Duny, 16 Car. 2, (1662,) on whose trial he +declared "that there were such creatures as witches he made no doubt +at all; for first the Scripture had affirmed so much, secondly the +wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such persons, and +such hath been the judgment of this kingdom, as appears by that act +of Parliament which hath provided punishment proportionable to the +quality of the offence." And we must certainly allow greater weight +to this position that "it was no felony till James' Statute," laid +down deliberately in his H. P. C., a work which he wrote to be +printed, finished, and transcribed for the press in his life time, +than to the hasty scripture that "at _common law_ witchcraft was +punished with death as heresy, by writ de Heretico Comburendo" in his +Methodical Summary of the P. C. p. 6, a work "not intended for the +press, not fitted for it, and which he declared himself he had never +read over since it was written;" Pref. Unless we understand his +meaning in that to be that witchcraft could not be punished at common +law as witchcraft, but as heresy. In either sense, however, it is a +denial of this pretended law of Alfred. Now, all men of reading know +that these pretended laws of homicide, concubinage, theft, +retaliation, compulsory marriage, usury, bailment, and others which +might have been cited, from the Pseudograph, were never the laws of +England, not even in Alfred's time; and of course that it is a +forgery. Yet palpable as it must be to every lawyer, the English +judges have piously avoided lifting the veil under which it was +shrouded. In truth, the alliance between Church and State in England +has ever made their judges accomplices in the frauds of the clergy; +and even bolder than they are. For instead of being contented with +these four surreptitious chapters of Exodus, they have taken the +whole leap, and declared at once that the whole Bible and Testament +in a lump, make a part of the common law; ante 873: the first +judicial declaration of which was by this same Sir Matthew Hale. And +thus they incorporate into the English code laws made for the Jews +alone, and the precepts of the gospel, intended by their benevolent +author as obligatory only in _foro concientiae_; and they arm the +whole with the coercions of municipal law. In doing this, too, they +have not even used the Connecticut caution of declaring, as is done +in their blue laws, that the laws of God shall be the laws of their +land, except where their own contradict them; but they swallow the +yea and nay together. Finally, in answer to Fortescue Aland's +question why the ten commandments should not now be a part of the +common law of England? we may say they are not because they never +were made so by legislative authority, the document which has imposed +that doubt on him being a manifest forgery. + + + CLASSIFICATION IN NATURAL HISTORY + + _To Dr. John Manners_ + _Monticello, February 22, 1814_ + + SIR, -- The opinion which, in your letter of January 24, you +are pleased to ask of me, on the comparative merits of the different +methods of classification adopted by different writers on Natural +History, is one which I could not have given satisfactorily, even at +the earlier period at which the subject was more familiar; still +less, after a life of continued occupation in civil concerns has so +much withdrawn me from studies of that kind. I can, therefore, +answer but in a very general way. And the text of this answer will +be found in an observation in your letter, where, speaking of +nosological systems, you say that disease has been found to be an +unit. Nature has, in truth, produced units only through all her +works. Classes, orders, genera, species, are not of her work. Her +creation is of individuals. No two animals are exactly alike; no two +plants, nor even two leaves or blades of grass; no two +crystallizations. And if we may venture from what is within the +cognizance of such organs as ours, to conclude on that beyond their +powers, we must believe that no two particles of matter are of exact +resemblance. This infinitude of units or individuals being far +beyond the capacity of our memory, we are obliged, in aid of that, to +distribute them into masses, throwing into each of these all the +individuals which have a certain degree of resemblance; to subdivide +these again into smaller groups, according to certain points of +dissimilitude observable in them, and so on until we have formed what +we call a system of classes, orders, genera and species. In doing +this, we fix arbitrarily on such characteristic resemblances and +differences as seem to us most prominent and invariable in the +several subjects, and most likely to take a strong hold in our +memories. Thus Ray formed one classification on such lines of +division as struck him most favorably; Klein adopted another; Brisson +a third, and other naturalists other designations, till Linnaeus +appeared. Fortunately for science, he conceived in the three +kingdoms of nature, modes of classification which obtained the +approbation of the learned of all nations. His system was +accordingly adopted by all, and united all in a general language. It +offered the three great desiderata: First, of aiding the memory to +retain a knowledge of the productions of nature. Secondly, of +rallying all to the same names for the same objects, so that they +could communicate understandingly on them. And Thirdly, of enabling +them, when a subject was first presented, to trace it by its +character up to the conventional name by which it was agreed to be +called. This classification was indeed liable to the imperfection of +bringing into the same group individuals which, though resembling in +the characteristics adopted by the author for his classification, yet +have strong marks of dissimilitude in other respects. But to this +objection every mode of classification must be liable, because the +plan of creation is inscrutable to our limited faculties. Nature has +not arranged her productions on a single and direct line. They +branch at every step, and in every direction, and he who attempts to +reduce them into departments, is left to do it by the lines of his +own fancy. The objection of bringing together what are disparata in +nature, lies against the classifications of Blumenbach and of Cuvier, +as well as that of Linnaeus, and must forever lie against all. +Perhaps not in equal degree; on this I do not pronounce. But neither +is this so important a consideration as that of uniting all nations +under one language in Natural History. This had been happily +effected by Linnaeus, and can scarcely be hoped for a second time. +Nothing indeed is so desperate as to make all mankind agree in giving +up a language they possess, for one which they have to learn. The +attempt leads directly to the confusion of the tongues of Babel. +Disciples of Linnaeus, of Blumenbach, and of Cuvier, exclusively +possessing their own nomenclatures, can no longer communicate +intelligibly with one another. However much, therefore, we are +indebted to both these naturalists, and to Cuvier especially, for the +valuable additions they have made to the sciences of nature, I cannot +say they have rendered her a service in this attempt to innovate in +the settled nomenclature of her productions; on the contrary, I think +it will be a check on the progress of science, greater or less, in +proportion as their schemes shall more or less prevail. They would +have rendered greater service by holding fast to the system on which +we had once all agreed, and by inserting into that such new genera, +orders, or even classes, as new discoveries should call for. Their +systems, too, and especially that of Blumenbach, are liable to the +objection of giving too much into the province of anatomy. It may be +said, indeed, that anatomy is a part of natural history. In the +broad sense of the word, it certainly is. In that sense, however, it +would comprehend all the natural sciences, every created thing being +a subject of natural history in extenso. But in the subdivisions of +general science, as has been observed in the particular one of +natural history, it has been necessary to draw arbitrary lines, in +order to accommodate our limited views. According to these, as soon +as the structure of any natural production is destroyed by art, it +ceases to be a subject of natural history, and enters into the domain +ascribed to chemistry, to pharmacy, to anatomy, &c. Linnaeus' method +was liable to this objection so far as it required the aid of +anatomical dissection, as of the heart, for instance, to ascertain +the place of any animal, or of a chemical process for that of a +mineral substance. It would certainly be better to adopt as much as +possible such exterior and visible characteristics as every traveller +is competent to observe, to ascertain and to relate. But with this +objection, lying but in a small degree, Linnaeus' method was +received, understood, and conventionally settled among the learned, +and was even getting into common use. To disturb it then was +unfortunate. The new system attempted in botany, by Jussieu, in +mineralogy, by Hauiy, are subjects of the same regret, and so also +the no-system of Buffon, the great advocate of individualism in +opposition to classification. He would carry us back to the days and +to the confusion of Aristotle and Pliny, give up the improvements of +twenty centuries, and co-operate with the neologists in rendering the +science of one generation useless to the next by perpetual changes of +its language. In botany, Wildenow and Persoon have incorporated into +Linnaeus the new discovered plants. I do not know whether any one +has rendered us the same service as to his natural history. It would +be a very acceptable one. The materials furnished by Humboldt, and +those from New Holland particularly, require to be digested into the +Catholic system. Among these, the Ornithorhyncus mentioned by you, +is an amusing example of the anomalies by which nature sports with +our schemes of classification. Although with out mammae, naturalists +are obliged to place it in the class of mammiferae; and Blumenbach, +particularly, arranges it in his order of Palmipeds and toothless +genus, with the walrus and manatie. In Linnaeus' system it might be +inserted as a new genus between the anteater and manis, in the order +of Bruta. It seems, in truth, to have stronger relations with that +class than any other in the construction of the heart, its red and +warm blood, hairy integuments, in being quadruped and viviparous, and +may we not say, in its _tout ensemble_, which Buffon makes his sole +principle of arrangement? The mandible, as you observe, would draw +it towards the birds, were not this characteristic overbalanced by +the weightier ones before mentioned. That of the Cloaca is +equivocal, because although a character of birds, yet some mammalia, +as the beaver and sloth, have the rectum and urinary passage +terminating at a common opening. Its ribs also, by their number and +structure, are nearer those of the bird than of the mammalia. It is +possible that further opportunities of examination may discover the +mammae. Those of the Opossum are asserted, by the Chevalier +d'Aboville, from his own observations on that animal, made while here +with the French army, to be not discoverable until pregnancy, and to +disappear as soon as the young are weaned. The Duckbill has many +additional particularities which liken it to other genera, and some +entirely peculiar. Its description and history needs yet further +information. + + In what I have said on the method of classing, I have not at +all meant to insinuate that that of Linnaeus is intrinsically +preferable to those of Blumenbach and Cuvier. I adhere to the +Linnean because it is sufficient as a ground-work, admits of +supplementary insertions as new productions are discovered, and +mainly because it has got into so general use that it will not be +easy to displace it, and still less to find another which shall have +the same singular fortune of obtaining the general consent. During +the attempt we shall become unintelligible to one another, and +science will be really retarded by efforts to advance it made by its +most favorite sons. I am not myself apt to be alarmed at innovations +recommended by reason. That dread belongs to those whose interests +or prejudices shrink from the advance of truth and science. My +reluctance is to give up an universal language of which we are in +possession, without an assurnace of general consent to receive +another. And the higher the character of the authors recommending +it, and the more excellent what they offer, the greater the danger of +producing schism. + + I should seem to need apology for these long remarks to you who +are so much more recent in these studies, but I find it in your +particular request and my own respect for it, and with that be +pleased to accept the assurance of my esteem and consideration. + + + THE CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS + + _To N. G. Dufief_ + _Monticello, April 19, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 6th instant is just received, +and I shall with equal willingness and truth, state the degree of +agency you had, respecting the copy of M. de Becourt's book, which +came to my hands. That gentleman informed me, by letter, that he was +about to publish a volume in French, "Sur la Creation du Monde, un +Systeme d'Organisation Primitive," which, its title promised to be, +either a geological or astronomical work. I subscribed; and, when +published, he sent me a copy; and as you were my correspondent in the +book line in Philadelphia, I took the liberty of desiring him to call +on you for the price, which, he afterwards informed me, you were so +kind as to pay him for me, being, I believe, two dollars. But the +sole copy which came to me was from himself directly, and, as far as +I know, was never seen by you. + + I am really mortified to be told that, _in the United States of +America_, a fact like this can become a subject of inquiry, and of +criminal inquiry too, as an offence against religion; that a question +about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. +Is this then our freedom of religion? and are we to have a censor +whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may +buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our +citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to +be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a +layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what +we are to read, and what we must believe? It is an insult to our +citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and +blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of +truth and reason. If M. de Becourt's book be false in its facts, +disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's +sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose. I know little of +its contents, having barely glanced over here and there a passage, +and over the table of contents. From this, the Newtonian philosophy +seemed the chief object of attack, the issue of which might be +trusted to the strength of the two combatants; Newton certainly not +needing the auxiliary arm of the government, and still less the holy +author of our religion, as to what in it concerns him. I thought the +work would be very innocent, and one which might be confided to the +reason of any man; not likely to be much read if let alone, but, if +persecuted, it will be generally read. Every man in the United +States will think it a duty to buy a copy, in vindication of his +right to buy, and to read what he pleases. I have been just reading +the new constitution of Spain. One of its fundamental basis is +expressed in these words: "The _Roman Catholic_ religion, the only +true one, is, and always shall be, that of the Spanish nation. The +government protects it by wise and just laws, and prohibits the +exercise of any other whatever." Now I wish this presented to those +who question what you may sell, or we may buy, with a request to +strike out the words, "Roman Catholic," and to insert the +denomination of their own religion. This would ascertain the code of +dogmas which each wishes should domineer over the opinions of all +others, and be taken, like the Spanish religion, under the +"protection of wise and just laws." It would shew to what they wish +to reduce the liberty for which one generation has sacrificed life +and happiness. It would present our boasted freedom of religion as a +thing of theory only, and not of practice, as what would be a poor +exchange for the theoretic thraldom, but practical freedom of Europe. +But it is impossible that the laws of Pennsylvania, which set us the +first example of the wholesome and happy effects of religious +freedom, can permit the inquisitorial functions to be proposed to +their courts. Under them you are surely safe. + + At the date of yours of the 6th, you had not received mine of +the 3d inst., asking a copy of an edition of Newton's Principia, +which I had seen advertised. When the cost of that shall be known, +it shall be added to the balance of $4.93, and incorporated with a +larger remittance I have to make to Philadelphia. Accept the +assurance of my great esteem and respect. + + + THE MORAL SENSE + + _To Thomas Law_ + _Poplar Forest, June 13, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The copy of your Second Thoughts on Instinctive +Impulses, with the letter accompanying it, was received just as I was +setting out on a journey to this place, two or three days' distant +from Monticello. I brought it with me and read it with great +satisfaction, and with the more as it contained exactly my own creed +on the foundation of morality in man. It is really curious that on a +quesion so fundamental, such a variety of opinions should have +prevailed among men, and those, too, of the most exemplary virtue and +first order of understanding. It shows how necessary was the care of +the Creator in making the moral principle so much a part of our +constitution as that no errors of reasoning or of speculation might +lead us astray from its observance in practice. Of all the theories +on this question, the most whimsical seems to have been that of +Wollaston, who considers _truth_ as the foundation of morality. The +thief who steals your guinea does wrong only inasmuch as he acts a +lie in using your guinea as if it were his own. Truth is certainly a +branch of morality, and a very important one to society. But +presented as its foundation, it is as if a tree taken up by the +roots, had its stem reversed in the air, and one of its branches +planted in the ground. Some have made the _love of God_ the +foundation of morality. This, too, is but a branch of our moral +duties, which are generally divided into duties to God and duties to +man. If we did a good act merely from the love of God and a belief +that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the +Atheist? It is idle to say, as some do, that no such being exists. +We have the same evidence of the fact as of most of those we act on, +to-wit: their own affirmations, and their reasonings in support of +them. I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in protestant +countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the +priests is to Deism, in catholic countries they are to Atheism. +Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been +among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had +some other foundation than the love of God. + + The {To chylon} of others is founded in a different faculty, +that of taste, which is not even a branch of morality. We have +indeed an innate sense of what we call beautiful, but that is +exercised chiefly on subjects addressed to the fancy, whether through +the eye in visible forms, as landscape, animal figure, dress, +drapery, architecture, the composition of colors, &c., or to the +imagination directly, as imagery, style, or measure in prose or +poetry, or whatever else constitutes the domain of criticism or +taste, a faculty entirely distinct from the moral one. +Self-interest, or rather self-love, or _egoism_, has been more +plausibly substituted as the basis of morality. But I consider our +relations with others as constituting the boundaries of morality. +With ourselves we stand on the ground of identity, not of relation, +which last, requiring two subjects, excludes self-love confined to a +single one. To ourselves, in strict language, we can owe no duties, +obligation requiring also two parties. Self-love, therefore, is no +part of morality. Indeed it is exactly its counterpart. It is the +sole antagonist of virtue, leading us constantly by our propensities +to self-gratification in violation of our moral duties to others. +Accordingly, it is against this enemy that are erected the batteries +of moralists and religionists, as the only obstacle to the practice +of morality. Take from man his selfish propensities, and he can have +nothing to seduce him from the practice of virtue. Or subdue those +propensities by education, instruction or restraint, and virtue +remains without a competitor. Egoism, in a broader sense, has been +thus presented as the source of moral action. It has been said that +we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bind up the wounds of the man +beaten by thieves, pour oil and wine into them, set him on our own +beast and bring him to the inn, because we receive ourselves pleasure +from these acts. So Helvetius, one of the best men on earth, and the +most ingenious advocate of this principle, after defining "interest" +to mean not merely that which is pecuniary, but whatever may procure +us pleasure or withdraw us from pain, [_de l'esprit_ 2, 1,] says, +[ib. 2, 2,] "the humane man is he to whom the sight of misfortune is +insupportable, and who to rescue himself from this spectacle, is +forced to succor the unfortunate object." This indeed is true. But +it is one step short of the ultimate question. These good acts give +us pleasure, but how happens it that they give us pleasure? Because +nature hath implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense of +duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us +irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses, and protests +against the language of Helvetius, [ib. 2, 5,] "what other motive +than self-interest could determine a man to generous actions? It is +as impossible for him to love what is good for the sake of good, as +to love evil for the sake of evil." The Creator would indeed have +been a bungling artist, had he intended man for a social animal, +without planting in him social dispositions. It is true they are not +planted in every man, because there is no rule without exceptions; +but it is false reasoning which converts exceptions into the general +rule. Some men are born without the organs of sight, or of hearing, +or without hands. Yet it would be wrong to say that man is born +without these faculties, and sight, hearing, and hands may with truth +enter into the general definition of man. The want or imperfection +of the moral sense in some men, like the want or imperfection of the +senses of sight and hearing in others, is no proof that it is a +general characteristic of the species. When it is wanting, we +endeavor to supply the defect by education, by appeals to reason and +calculation, by presenting to the being so unhappily conformed, other +motives to do good and to eschew evil, such as the love, or the +hatred, or rejection of those among whom he lives, and whose society +is necessary to his happiness and even existence; demonstrations by +sound calculation that honesty promotes interest in the long run; the +rewards and penalties established by the laws; and ultimately the +prospects of a future state of retribution for the evil as well as +the good done while here. These are the correctives which are +supplied by education, and which exercise the functions of the +moralist, the preacher, and legislator; and they lead into a course +of correct action all those whose disparity is not too profound to be +eradicated. Some have argued against the existence of a moral sense, +by saying that if nature had given us such a sense, impelling us to +virtuous actions, and warning us against those which are vicious, +then nature would also have designated, by some particular ear-marks, +the two sets of actions which are, in themselves, the one virtuous +and the other vicious. Whereas, we find, in fact, that the same +actions are deemed virtuous in one country and vicious in another. +The answer is that nature has constituted _utility_ to man the +standard and best of virtue. Men living in different countries, +under different circumstances, different habits and regimens, may +have different utilities; the same act, therefore, may be useful, and +consequently virtuous in one country which is injurious and vicious +in another differently circumstanced. I sincerely, then, believe +with you in the general existence of a moral instinct. I think it +the brightest gem with which the human character is studded, and the +want of it as more degrading than the most hideous of the bodily +deformities. I am happy in reviewing the roll of associates in this +principle which you present in your second letter, some of which I +had not before met with. To these might be added Lord Kaims, one of +the ablest of our advocates, who goes so far as to say, in his +Principles of Natural Religion, that a man owes no duty to which he +is not urged by some impulsive feeling. This is correct, if referred +to the standard of general feeling in the given case, and not to the +feeling of a single individual. Perhaps I may misquote him, it being +fifty years since I read his book. + + The leisure and solitude of my situation here has led me to the +indiscretion of taxing you with a long letter on a subject whereon +nothing new can be offered you. I will indulge myself no farther +than to repeat the assurances of my continued esteem and respect. + + + BONAPARTE AND PLATO + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, July 5, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR -- Since mine of Jan. 24. yours of Mar. 14. was +recieved. It was not acknoleged in the short one of May 18. by Mr. +Rives, the only object of that having been to enable one of our most +promising young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you. +I learned with great regret the serious illness mentioned in your +letter: and I hope Mr. Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely +restored. But our machines have now been running for 70. or 80. +years, and we must expect that, worn as they are, here a pivot, there +a wheel, now a pinion, next a spring, will be giving way: and however +we may tinker them up for awhile, all will at length surcease motion. +Our watches, with works of brass and steel, wear out within that +period. Shall you and I last to see the course the seven-fold +wonders of the times will take? The Attila of the age dethroned, the +ruthless destroyer of 10. millions of the human race, whose thirst +for blood appeared unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights +and liberties of the world, shut up within the circuit of a little +island of the Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an +humble and degraded pensioner on the bounty of those he had most +injured. How miserably, how meanly, has he closed his inflated +career! What a sample of the Bathos will his history present! He +should have perished on the swords of his enemies, under the walls of +Paris. + + + `Leon piagato a morte Cosi fra l'ire estrema + Sente mancar la vita, rugge, minaccia, e freme, + Guarda la sua ferita, Che fa tremar morendo + Ne s'avilisce ancor. Tal volta il cacciator.' + Metast Adriano. + + But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life a +cold-blooded, calculating unprincipled Usurper, without a virtue, no +statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil +government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I had +supposed him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly des +cinq cens, 18. Brumaire (an. 8.) From that date however I set him +down as a great scoundrel only. To the wonders of his rise and fall, +we may add that of a Czar of Muscovy dictating, _in Paris_, laws and +limits to all the successors of the Caesars, and holding even the +balance in which the fortunes of this new world are suspended. I own +that, while I rejoice, for the good of mankind, to the deliverance of +Europe from the havoc which would have never ceased while Bonaparte +should have lived in power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the +ocean remaining in vigor, and even participating in the merit of +crushing his brother tyrant. While the world is thus turned up side +down, on which side of it are we? All the strong reasons indeed +place us on the side of peace; the interests of the continent, their +friendly dispositions, and even the interests of England. Her +passions alone are opposed to it. Peace would seem now to be an easy +work, the causes of the war being removed. Her orders of council +will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers, and, war +ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course. But I fear +there is foundation for the design intimated in the public papers, of +demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries. What will +Massachusets say to this? I mean her majority, which must be +considered as speaking, thro' the organs it has appointed itself, as +the Index of it's will. She chose to sacrifice the liberty of our +seafaring citizens, in which we were all interested, and with them +her obligations to the Co-states; rather than war with England. Will +she now sacrifice the fisheries to the same partialities? This +question is interesting to her alone: for to the middle, the Southern +and Western States they are of no direct concern; of no more than the +culture of tobacco, rice and cotton to Massachusets. I am really at +a loss to conjecture what our refractory sister will say on this +occasion. I know what, as a citizen of the Union, I would say to +her. `Take this question ad referendum. It concerns you alone. If +you would rather give up the fisheries than war with England, we give +them up. If you had rather fight for them, we will defend your +interests to the last drop of our blood, chusing rather to set a good +example than follow a bad one.' And I hope she will determine to +fight for them. With this however you and I shall have nothing to +do; ours being truly the case wherein `non tali auxilio, nec +defensoribus istis Tempus eget.' Quitting this subject therefore I +will turn over another leaf. + + I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at +my other home for five weeks past. Having more leisure there than +here for reading, I amused myself with reading seriously Plato's +republic. I am wrong however in calling it amusement, for it was the +heaviest task-work I ever went through. I had occasionally before +taken up some of his other works, but scarcely ever had patience to +go through a whole dialogue. While wading thro' the whimsies, the +puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down +often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have +so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this? How +the soi-disant Christian world indeed should have done it, is a piece +of historical curiosity. But how could the Roman good sense do it? +And particularly how could Cicero bestow such eulogies on Plato? +Altho' Cicero did not wield the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet he +was able, learned, laborious, practised in the business of the world, +and honest. He could not be the dupe of mere style, of which he was +himself the first master in the world. With the Moderns, I think, it +is rather a matter of fashion and authority. Education is chiefly in +the hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in +the reputation and the dreams of Plato. They give the tone while at +school, and few, in their after-years, have occasion to revise their +college opinions. But fashion and authority apart, and bringing +Plato to the test of reason, take from him his sophisms, futilities, +and incomprehensibilities, and what remains? In truth, he is one of +the race of genuine Sophists, who has escaped the oblivion of his +brethren, first by the elegance of his diction, but chiefly by the +adoption and incorporation of his whimsies into the body of +artificial Christianity. His foggy mind, is forever presenting the +semblances of objects which, half seen thro' a mist, can be defined +neither in form or dimension. Yet this which should have consigned +him to early oblivion really procured him immortality of fame and +reverence. The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ +levelled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, +saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might +build up an artificial system which might, from it's indistinctness, +admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and +introduce it to profit, power and pre-eminence. The doctrines which +flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of +a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the +Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that +nonsense can never be explained. Their purposes however are +answered. Plato is canonized; and it is now deemed as impious to +question his merits as those of an Apostle of Jesus. He is +peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality of the soul; +and yet I will venture to say that were there no better arguments +than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe it. It +is fortunate for us that Platonic republicanism has not obtained the +same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all +living, men, women and children, pell mell together, like beasts of +the field or forest. Yet `Plato is a great Philosopher,' said La +Fontaine. But says Fontenelle `do you find his ideas very clear'? +`Oh no! he is of an obscurity impenetrable.' `Do you not find him +full of contradictions?' `Certainly,' replied La Fontaine, `he is +but a Sophist.' Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, `Oh Plato +was a great Philosopher.' Socrates had reason indeed to complain of +the misrepresentations of Plato; for in truth his dialogues are +libels on Socrates. + + But why am I dosing you with these Ante-diluvian topics? +Because I am glad to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who +will not recieve them as if dropped from the moon. Our +post-revolutionary youth are born under happier stars than you and I +were. They acquire all learning in their mothers' womb, and bring it +into the world ready-made. The information of books is no longer +necessary; and all knolege which is not innate, is in contempt, or +neglect at least. Every folly must run it's round; and so, I +suppose, must that of self-learning, and self sufficiency; of +rejecting the knolege acquired in past ages, and starting on the new +ground of intuition. When sobered by experience I hope our +successors will turn their attention to the advantages of education. +I mean of education on the broad scale, and not that of the petty +_academies_, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every +neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin, and +sometimes Greek, a knolege of the globes, and the first six books of +Euclid, imagine and communicate this as the sum of science. They +commit their pupils to the theatre of the world with just taste +enough of learning to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and not +enough to do service in the ranks of science. We have some +exceptions indeed. I presented one to you lately, and we have some +others. But the terms I use are general truths. I hope the +necessity will at length be seen of establishing institutions, here +as in Europe, where every branch of science, useful at this day, may +be taught in it's highest degrees. Have you ever turned your +thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I mean to a +specification of the particular sciences of real use in human +affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many +professors only as might bring them within the views of a just but +enlightened economy? I should be happy in a communication of your +ideas on this problem, either loose or digested. But to avoid my +being run away with by another subject, and adding to the length and +ennui of the present letter, I will here present to Mrs. Adams and +yourself the assurance of my constant and sincere friendship and +respect. + + + EMANCIPATION AND THE YOUNGER GENERATION + + _To Edward Coles_ + _Monticello, August 25, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favour of July 31, was duly received, and was +read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed through the +whole do honor to both the head and heart of the writer. Mine on the +subject of slavery of negroes have long since been in possession of +the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. The +love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of +these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have +pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single +effort, nay I fear not much serious willingness to relieve them & +ourselves from our present condition of moral & political +reprobation. From those of the former generation who were in the +fulness of age when I came into public life, which was while our +controversy with England was on paper only, I soon saw that nothing +was to be hoped. Nursed and educated in the daily habit of seeing +the degraded condition, both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate +beings, not reflecting that that degradation was very much the work +of themselves & their fathers, few minds have yet doubted but that +they were as legitimate subjects of property as their horses and +cattle. The quiet and monotonous course of colonial life has been +disturbed by no alarm, and little reflection on the value of liberty. +And when alarm was taken at an enterprize on their own, it was not +easy to carry them to the whole length of the principles which they +invoked for themselves. In the first or second session of the +Legislature after I became a member, I drew to this subject the +attention of Col. Bland, one of the oldest, ablest, & most respected +members, and he undertook to move for certain moderate extensions of +the protection of the laws to these people. I seconded his motion, +and, as a younger member, was more spared in the debate; but he was +denounced as an enemy of his country, & was treated with the grossest +indecorum. From an early stage of our revolution other & more +distant duties were assigned to me, so that from that time till my +return from Europe in 1789, and I may say till I returned to reside +at home in 1809, I had little opportunity of knowing the progress of +public sentiment here on this subject. I had always hoped that the +younger generation receiving their early impressions after the flame +of liberty had been kindled in every breast, & had become as it were +the vital spirit of every American, that the generous temperament of +youth, analogous to the motion of their blood, and above the +suggestions of avarice, would have sympathized with oppression +wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own +share of it. But my intercourse with them, since my return has not +been sufficient to ascertain that they had made towards this point +the progress I had hoped. Your solitary but welcome voice is the +first which has brought this sound to my ear; and I have considered +the general silence which prevails on this subject as indicating an +apathy unfavorable to every hope. Yet the hour of emancipation is +advancing, in the march of time. It will come; and whether brought +on by the generous energy of our own minds; or by the bloody process +of St Domingo, excited and conducted by the power of our present +enemy, if once stationed permanently within our Country, and offering +asylum & arms to the oppressed, is a leaf of our history not yet +turned over. As to the method by which this difficult work is to be +effected, if permitted to be done by ourselves, I have seen no +proposition so expedient on the whole, as that as emancipation of +those born after a given day, and of their education and expatriation +after a given age. This would give time for a gradual extinction of +that species of labour & substitution of another, and lessen the +severity of the shock which an operation so fundamental cannot fail +to produce. For men probably of any color, but of this color we +know, brought from their infancy without necessity for thought or +forecast, are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of +taking care of themselves, and are extinguished promptly wherever +industry is necessary for raising young. In the mean time they are +pests in society by their idleness, and the depredations to which +this leads them. Their amalgamation with the other color produces a +degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence +in the human character can innocently consent. I am sensible of the +partialities with which you have looked towards me as the person who +should undertake this salutary but arduous work. But this, my dear +sir, is like bidding old Priam to buckle the armour of Hector +"trementibus aequo humeris et inutile ferruncingi." No, I have +overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat +mutual confidence and influence. This enterprise is for the young; +for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to its +consummation. It shall have all my prayers, & these are the only +weapons of an old man. But in the mean time are you right in +abandoning this property, and your country with it? I think not. My +opinion has ever been that, until more can be done for them, we +should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to +feed and clothe them well, protect them from all ill usage, require +such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, & +be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, and our duties to them. +The laws do not permit us to turn them loose, if that were for their +good: and to commute them for other property is to commit them to +those whose usage of them we cannot control. I hope then, my dear +sir, you will reconcile yourself to your country and its unfortunate +condition; that you will not lessen its stock of sound disposition by +withdrawing your portion from the mass. That, on the contrary you +will come forward in the public councils, become the missionary of +this doctrine truly christian; insinuate & inculcate it softly but +steadily, through the medium of writing and conversation; associate +others in your labors, and when the phalanx is formed, bring on and +press the proposition perseveringly until its accomplishment. It is +an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed, +which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end. We have proof +of this in the history of the endeavors in the English parliament to +suppress that very trade which brought this evil on us. And you will +be supported by the religious precept, "be not weary in well-doing." +That your success may be as speedy & complete, as it will be of +honorable & immortal consolation to yourself, I shall as fervently +and sincerely pray as I assure you of my great friendship and +respect. + + + A SYSTEM OF EDUCATION + + _To Peter Carr_ + _Monticello, September 7, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- On the subject of the academy or college proposed +to be established in our neighborhood, I promised the trustees that I +would prepare for them a plan, adapted, in the first instance, to our +slender funds, but susceptible of being enlarged, either by their own +growth or by accession from other quarters. + + I have long entertained the hope that this, our native State, +would take up the subject of education, and make an establishment, +either with or without incorporation into that of William and Mary, +where every branch of science, deemed useful at this day, should be +taught in its highest degree. With this view, I have lost no +occasion of making myself acquainted with the organization of the +best seminaries in other countries, and with the opinions of the most +enlightened individuals, on the subject of the sciences worthy of a +place in such an institution. In order to prepare what I have +promised our trustees, I have lately revised these several plans with +attention; and I am struck with the diversity of arrangement +observable in them -- no two alike: Yet, I have no doubt that these +several arrangements have been the subject of mature reflection, by +wise and learned men, who, contemplating local circumstances, have +adapted them to the conditions of the section of society for which +they have been framed. I am strengthened in this conclusion by an +examination of each separately, and a conviction that no one of them, +if adopted without change, would be suited to the circumstances and +pursuit of our country. The example they set, then, is authority for +us to select from their different institutions the materials which +are good for us, and, with them, to erect a structure, whose +arrangement shall correspond with our own social condition, and shall +admit of enlargement in proportion to the encouragement it may merit +and receive. As I may not be able to attend the meetings of the +trustees, I will make you the depository of my ideas on the subject, +which may be corrected, as you proceed, by the better view of others, +and adapted, from time to time, to the prospects which open upon us, +and which cannot be specifically seen and provided for. + + In the first place, we must ascertain with precision the object +of our institution, by taking a survey of the general field of +science, and marking out the portion we mean to occupy at first, and +the ultimate extension of our views beyond that, should we be enabled +to render it, in the end, as comprehensive as we would wish. + + 1. Elementary schools. + + It is highly interesting to our country, and it is the duty of +its functionaries, to provide that every citizen in it should receive +an education proportioned to the condition and pursuits of his life. +The mass of our citizens may be divided into two classes -- the +laboring and the learned. The laboring will need the first grade of +education to qualify them for their pursuits and duties; the learned +will need it as a foundation for further acquirements. A plan was +formerly proposed to the legislature of this State for laying off +every county into hundreds or wards of five or six miles square, +within each of which should be a school for the education of the +children of the ward, wherein they should receive three years' +instruction gratis, in reading, writing, arithmetic as far as +fractions, the roots and ratios, and geography. The Legislature at +one time tried an ineffectual expedient for introducing this plan, +which having failed, it is hoped they will some day resume it in a +more promising form. + + 2. General schools. + + At the discharging of the pupils from the elementary schools, +the two classes separate -- those destined for labor will engage in +the business of agriculture, or enter into apprenticeships to such +handicraft art as may be their choice; their companions, destined to +the pursuits of science, will proceed to the college, which will +consist, 1st of general schools; and, 2d, of professional schools. +The general schools will constitute the second grade of education. + + The learned class may still be subdivided into two sections: 1, +Those who are destined for learned professions, as means of +livelihood; and, 2, The wealthy, who, possessing independent +fortunes, may aspire to share in conducting the affairs of the +nation, or to live with usefulness and respect in the private ranks +of life. Both of these sections will require instruction in all the +higher branches of science; the wealthy to qualify them for either +public or private life; the professional section will need those +branches, especially, which are the basis of their future profession, +and a general knowledge of the others, as auxiliary to that, and +necessary to their standing and association with the scientific +class. All the branches, then, of useful science, ought to be taught +in the general schools, to a competent degree, in the first instance. +These sciences may be arranged into three departments, not rigorously +scientific, indeed, but sufficiently so for our purposes. These are, +I. Language; II. Mathematics; III. Philosophy. + + I. Language. In the first department, I would arrange a +distinct science. 1, Languages and History, ancient and modern; 2, +Grammar; 3, Belles Lettres; 4, Rhetoric and Oratory; 5, A school for +the deaf, dumb and blind. History is here associated with languages, +not as a kindred subject, but on the principle of economy, because +both may be attained by the same course of reading, if books are +selected with that view. + + II. Mathematics. In the department of Mathematics, I should +give place distinctly: 1, Mathematics pure; 2, Physico-Mathematics; +3, Physic; 4, Chemistry; 5, Natural History, to wit: Mineralogy; 6, +Botany; and 7, Zoology; 8, Anatomy; 9, the Theory of Medicine. + + III. Philosophy. In the Philosophical department, I should +distinguish: 1, Ideology; 2, Ethics; 3, the Law of Nature and +Nations; 4, Government; 5, Political Economy. + + But, some of these terms being used by different writers, in +different degrees of extension, I shall define exactly what I mean to +comprehend in each of them. + + I. 3. Within the term of Belles Lettres I include poetry and +composition generally, and criticism. + + II. 1. I consider pure mathematics as the science of, 1, +Numbers, and 2, Measure in the abstract; that of numbers +comprehending Arithmetic, Algebra and Fluxions; that of Measure +(under the general appellation of Geometry), comprehending +Trigonometry, plane and spherical, conic sections, and transcendental +curves. + + II. 2. Physico-Mathematics treat of physical subjects by the +aid of mathematical calculation. These are Mechanics, Statics, +Hydrostatics, Hydrodynamics, Navigation, Astronomy, Geography, +Optics, Pneumatics, Acoustics. + + II. 3. Physics, or Natural Philosophy (not entering the limits +of Chemistry) treat of natural substances, their properties, mutual +relations and action. They particularly examine the subjects of +motion, action, magnetism, electricity, galvanism, light, +meteorology, with an etc. not easily enumerated. These definitions +and specifications render immaterial the question whether I use the +generic terms in the exact degree of comprehension in which others +use them; to be understood is all that is necessary to the present +object. + + 3. Professional Schools. + + At the close of this course the students separate; the wealthy +retiring, with a sufficient stock of knowledge, to improve themselves +to any degree to which their views may lead them, and the +professional section to the professional schools, constituting the +third grade of education, and teaching the particular sciences which +the individuals of this section mean to pursue, with more minuteness +and detail than was within the scope of the general schools for the +second grade of instruction. In these professional schools each +science is to be taught in the highest degree it has yet attained. +They are to be the + + 1st Department, the fine arts, to wit: Civil Architecture, +Gardening, Painting, Sculpture, and the Theory of Music; the + + 2nd Department, Architecture, Military and Naval; Projectiles, +Rural Economy (comprehending Agriculture, Horticulture and +Veterinary), Technical Philosophy, the Practice of Medicine, Materia +Medica, Pharmacy and Surgery. In the + + 3rd Department, Theology and Ecclesiastical History; Law, +Municipal and Foreign. + + To these professional schools will come those who separated at +the close of their first elementary course, to wit: + + The lawyer to the law school. + + The ecclesiastic to that of theology and ecclesiastical +history. + + The physican to those of medicine, materia medica, pharmacy and +surgery. + + The military man to that of military and naval architecture and +projectiles. + + The agricultor to that of rural economy. + + The gentleman, the architect, the pleasure gardener, painter +and musician to the school of fine arts. + + + And to that of technical philosophy will come the mariner, +carpenter, shipwright, pumpmaker, clockmaker, machinist, optician, +metallurgist, founder, cutler, druggist, brewer, vintner, distiller, +dyer, painter, bleacher, soapmaker, tanner, powdermaker, saltmaker, +glassmaker, to learn as much as shall be necessary to pursue their +art understandingly, of the sciences of geometry, mechanics, statics, +hydrostatics, hydraulics, hydrodynamics, navigation, astronomy, +geography, optics, pneumatics, physics, chemistry, natural history, +botany, mineralogy and pharmacy. + + The school of technical philosophy will differ essentially in +its functions from the other professional schools. The others are +instituted to ramify and dilate the particular sciences taught in the +schools of the second grade on a general scale only. The technical +school is to abridge those which were taught there too much _in +extenso_ for the limited wants of the artificer or practical man. +These artificers must be grouped together, according to the +particular branch of science in which they need elementary and +practical instruction; and a special lecture or lectures should be +prepared for each group. And these lectures should be given in the +evening, so as not to interrupt the labors of the day. The school, +particularly, should be maintained wholly at the public expense, on +the same principles with that of the ward schools. Through the whole +of the collegiate course, at the hours of recreation on certain days, +all the students should be taught the manual exercise; military +evolutions and man;oeuvers should be under a standing organization as +a military corps, and with proper officers to train and command them, + + A tabular statement of this distribution of the sciences will +place the system of instruction more particularly in view: + + 1st or Elementary Grade in the Ward Schools. + Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography. + 2d, or General Grade. + 1. Language and History, ancient and modern. + 2. Mathematics, viz: Mathematics pure, +Physico-Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Anatomy, Theory of Medicine, +Zoology, Botany and Mineralogy. |P1352|p1 + 3. Philosophy, viz: Ideology, and Ethics, Law of Nature +and Nations, Government, Political Economy. + 3d, or Professional Grades. + Theology and Ecclesiastical History; Law, Municipal and +Foreign; Practice of Medicine; Materia Medica and Pharmacy; Surgery; +Architecture, Military and Naval, and Projectiles; Technical +Philosophy; Rural Economy; Fine Arts. + + On this survey of the field of science, I recur to the +question, what portion of it we mark out for the occupation of our +institution? With the first grade of education we shall have nothing +to do. The sciences of the second grade are our first object; and, +to adapt them to our slender beginnings, we must separate them into +groups, comprehending many sciences each, and greatly more, in the +first instance, than ought to be imposed on, or can be competently +conducted by a single professor permanently. They must be subdivided +from time to time, as our means increase, until each professor shall +have no more under his care than he can attend to with advantage to +his pupils and ease to himself. For the present, we may group the +sciences into professorships, as follows, subject, however, to be +changed, according to the qualifications of the persons we may be +able to engage. + + I. Professorship. + Languages and History, ancient and modern. + Belles-Lettres, Rhetoric and Oratory. + II. Professorship. + Mathematics pure, Physico-Mathematics. + Physics, Anatomy, Medicine, Theory. + III. Professorship. + Chemistry, Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy. + IV. Professorship. + Philosophy. + + The organization of the branch of the institution which +respects its government, police and economy, depending on principles +which have no affinity with those of its institution, may be the +subject of separate and subsequent consideration. + + With this tribute of duty to the board of trustees, accept +assurances of my great esteem and consideration. + + + A LIBRARY FOR CONGRESS + + _To Samuel H. Smith_ + _Monticello, September 21, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I learn from the newspapers that the Vandalism of +our enemy has triumphed at Washington over science as well as the +arts, by the destruction of the public library with the noble edifice +in which it was deposited. Of this transaction, as of that of +Copenhagen, the world will entertain but one sentiment. They will +see a nation suddenly withdrawn from a great war, full armed and full +handed, taking advantage of another whom they had recently forced +into it, unarmed, and unprepared, to indulge themselves in acts of +barbarism which do not belong to a civilized age. When Van Ghent +destroyed their shipping at Chatham, and De Ruyter rode triumphantly +up the Thames, he might in like manner, by the acknowledgment of +their own historians, have forced all their ships up to London +bridge, and there have burnt them, the tower, and city, had these +examples been then set. London, when thus menaced, was near a +thousand years old, Washington is but in its teens. + + I presume it will be among the early objects of Congress to +re-commence their collection. This will be difficult while the war +continues, and intercourse with Europe is attended with so much risk. +You know my collection, its condition and extent. I have been fifty +years making it, and have spared no pains, opportunity or expense, to +make it what it is. While residing in Paris, I devoted every +afternoon I was disengaged, for a summer or two, in examining all the +principal book-stores, turning over every book with my own hand, and +putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever +was rare and valuable in every science. Besides this, I had standing +orders during the whole time I was in Europe, on its principal +book-marts, particularly Amsterdam, Frankfort, Madrid and London, for +such works relating to America as could not be found in Paris. So +that in that department particularly, such a collection was made as +probably can never again be effected, because it is hardly probable +that the same opportunities, the same time, industry, perseverance +and expense, with some knowledge of the bibliography of the subject, +would again happen to be in concurrence. During the same period, and +after my return to America, I was led to procure, also, whatever +related to the duties of those in the high concerns of the nation. +So that the collection, which I suppose is of between nine and ten +thousand volumes, while it includes what is chiefly valuable in +science and literature generally, extends more particularly to +whatever belongs to the American statesman. In the diplomatic and +parliamentary branches, it is particularly full. It is long since I +have been sensible it ought not to continue private property, and had +provided that at my death, Congress should have the refusal of it at +their own price. But the loss they have now incurred, makes the +present the proper moment for their accommodation, without regard to +the small remnant of time and the barren use of my enjoying it. I +ask of your friendship, therefore, to make for me the tender of it to +the library committee of Congress, not knowing myself of whom the +committee consists. I enclose you the catalogue, which will enable +them to judge of its contents. Nearly the whole are well bound, +abundance of them elegantly, and of the choicest editions existing. +They may be valued by persons named by themselves, and the payment +made convenient to the public. It may be, for instance, in such +annual instalments as the law of Congress has left at their disposal, +or in stock of any of their late loans, or of any loan they may +institute at this session, so as to spare the present calls of our +country, and await its days of peace and prosperity. They may enter, +nevertheless, into immediate use of it, as eighteen or twenty wagons +would place it in Washington in a single trip of a fortnight. I +should be willing indeed, to retain a few of the books, to amuse the +time I have yet to pass, which might be valued with the rest, but not +included in the sum of valuation until they should be restored at my +death, which I would carefully provide for, so that the whole library +as it stands in the catalogue at this moment should be theirs without +any garbling. Those I should like to retain would be chiefly +classical and mathematical. Some few in other branches, and +particularly one of the five encyclopedias in the catalogue. But +this, if not acceptable, would not be urged. I must add, that I have +not revised the library since I came home to live, so that it is +probable some of the books may be missing, except in the chapters of +Law and Divinity, which have been revised and stand exactly as in the +catalogue. The return of the catalogue will of course be needed, +whether the tender be accepted or not. I do not know that it +contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude +from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a +member of Congress may not have occasion to refer. But such a wish +would not correspond with my views of preventing its dismemberment. +My desire is either to place it in their hands entire, or to preserve +it so here. I am engaged in making an alphabetical index of the +author's names, to be annexed to the catalogue, which I will forward +to you as soon as completed. Any agreement you shall be so good as +to take the trouble of entering into with the committee, I hereby +confirm. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect. + + + A JUST BUT SAD WAR + + _To William Short_ + _Monticello, November 28, 1814_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Yours of October 28th came to hand on the 15th +instant only. The settlement of your boundary with Colonel Monroe, +is protracted by circumstances which seem foreign to it. One would +hardly have expected that the hostile expedition to Washington could +have had any connection with an operation one hundred miles distant. +Yet preventing his attendance, nothing could be done. I am satisfied +there is no unwillingness on his part, but on the contrary a desire +to have it settled; and therefore, if he should think it +indispensable to be present at the investigation, as is possible, the +very first time he comes here I will press him to give a day to the +decision, without regarding Mr. Carter's absence. Such an occasion +must certainly offer soon after the fourth of March, when Congress +rises of necessity, and be assured I will not lose one possible +moment in effecting it. + + Although withdrawn from all anxious attention to political +concerns, yet I will state my impressions as to the present war, +because your letter leads to the subject. The essential grounds of +the war were, 1st, the orders of council; and 2d, the impressment of +our citizens; (for I put out of sight from the love of peace the +multiplied insults on our government and aggressions on our commerce, +with which our pouch, like the Indian's, had long been filled to the +mouth.) What immediately produced the declaration was, 1st, the +proclamation of the Prince Regent that he would never repeal the +orders of council as to us, until Bonaparte should have revoked his +decrees as to all other nations as well as ours; and 2d, the +declaration of his minister to ours that no arrangement whatever +could be devised admissible in lieu of impressment. It was certainly +a misfortune that _they_ did not know themselves at the date of this +silly and insolent proclamation, that within one month they would +repeal the orders, and that _we_, at the date of our declaration, +could not know of the repeal which was then going on one thousand +leagues distant. Their determinations, as declared by themselves, +could alone guide us, and they shut the door on all further +negotiation, throwing down to us the gauntlet of war or submission as +the only alternatives. We cannot blame the government for choosing +that of war, because certainly the great majority of the nation +thought it ought to be chosen, not that they were to gain by it in +dollars and cents; all men know that war is a losing game to both +parties. But they know also that if they do not resist encroachment +at some point, all will be taken from them, and that more would then +be lost even in dollars and cents by submission than resistance. It +is the case of giving a part to save the whole, a limb to save life. +It is the melancholy law of human societies to be compelled sometimes +to choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater; to deter their +neighbors from rapine by making it cost them more than honest gains. +The enemy are accordingly now disgorging what they had so ravenously +swallowed. The orders of council had taken from us near one thousand +vessels. Our list of captures from them is now one thousand three +hundred, and, just become sensible that it is small and not large +ships which gall them most, we shall probably add one thousand prizes +a year to their past losses. Again, supposing that, according to the +confession of their own minister in parliament, the Americans they +had impressed were something short of two thousand, the war against +us alone cannot cost them less than twenty millions of dollars a +year, so that each American impressed has already cost them ten +thousand dollars, and every year will add five thousand dollars more +to his price. We, I suppose, expend more; but had we adopted the +other alternative of submission, no mortal can tell what the cost +would have been. I consider the war then as entirely justifiable on +our part, although I am still sensible it is a deplorable misfortune +to us. It has arrested the course of the most remarkable tide of +prosperity any nation ever experienced, and has closed such prospects +of future improvement as were never before in the view of any people. +Farewell all hopes of extinguishing public debt! farewell all visions +of applying surpluses of revenue to the improvements of peace rather +than the ravages of war. Our enemy has indeed the consolation of +Satan on removing our first parents from Paradise: from a peaceable +and agricultural nation, he makes us a military and manufacturing +one. We shall indeed survive the conflict. Breeders enough will +remain to carry on population. We shall retain our country, and +rapid advances in the art of war will soon enable us to beat our +enemy, and probably drive him from the continent. We have men +enough, and I am in hopes the present session of Congress will +provide the means of commanding their services. But I wish I could +see them get into a better train of finance. Their banking projects +are like dosing dropsy with more water. If anything could revolt our +citizens against the war, it would be the extravagance with which +they are about to be taxed. It is strange indeed that at this day, +and in a country where English proceedings are so familiar, the +principles and advantages of funding should be neglected, and +expedients resorted to. Their new bank, if not abortive at its +birth, will not last through one campaign; and the taxes proposed +cannot be paid. How can a people who cannot get fifty cents a bushel +for their wheat, while they pay twelve dollars a bushel for their +salt, pay five times the amount of taxes they ever paid before? Yet +that will be the case in all the States south of the Potomac. Our +resources are competent to the maintenance of the war if duly +economized and skillfuly employed in the way of anticipation. +However, we must suffer, I suppose, from our ignorance in funding, as +we did from that of fighting, until necessity teaches us both; and, +fortunately, our stamina are so vigorous as to rise superior to great +mismanagement. This year I think we shall have learnt how to call +forth our force, and by the next I hope our funds, and even if the +state of Europe should not by that time give the enemy employment +enough nearer home, we shall leave him nothing to fight for here. +These are my views of the war. They embrace a great deal of +sufferance, trying privations, and no benefit but that of teaching +our enemy that he is never to gain by wanton injuries on us. To me +this state of things brings a sacrifice of all tranquillity and +comfort through the residue of life. For although the debility of +age disables me from the services and sufferings of the field, yet, +by the total annihilation in value of the produce which was to give +me subsistence and independence, I shall be like Tantalus, up to the +shoulders in water, yet dying with thirst. We can make indeed enough +to eat, drink and clothe ourselves; but nothing for our salt, iron, +groceries and taxes, which must be paid in money. For what can we +raise for the market? Wheat? we can only give it to our horses, as +we have been doing ever since harvest. Tobacco? it is not worth the +pipe it is smoked in. Some say Whiskey; but all mankind must become +drunkards to consume it. But although we feel, we shall not flinch. +We must consider now, as in the revolutionary war, that although the +evils of resistance are great, those of submission would be greater. +We must meet, therefore, the former as the casualties of tempests and +earthquakes, and like them necessarily resulting from the +constitution of the world. Your situation, my dear friend, is much +better. For, although I do not know with certainty the nature of +your investments, yet I presume they are not in banks, insurance +companies, or any other of those gossamer castles. If in +ground-rents, they are solid; if in stock of the United States, they +are equally so. I once thought that in the event of a war we should +be obliged to suspend paying the interest of the public debt. But a +dozen years more of experience and observation on our people and +government, have satisfied me it will never be done. The sense of +the necessity of public credit is so universal and so deeply rooted, +that no other necessity will prevail against it; and I am glad to see +that while the former eight millions are steadfastly applied to the +sinking of the old debt, the Senate have lately insisted on a sinking +fund for the new. This is the dawn of that improvement in the +management of our finances which I look to for salvation; and I trust +that the light will continue to advance, and point out their way to +our legislators. They will soon see that instead of taxes for the +whole year's expenses, which the people cannot pay, a tax to the +amount of the interest and a reasonable portion of the principal will +command the whole sum, and throw a part of the burthens of war on +times of peace and prosperity. A sacred payment of interest is the +only way to make the most of their resources, and a sense of that +renders your income from our funds more certain than mine from lands. +Some apprehend danger from the defection of Massachusetts. It is a +disagreeable circumstance, but not a dangerous one. If they become +neutral, we are sufficient for one enemy without them, and in fact we +get no aid from them now. If their administration determines to join +the enemy, their force will be annihilated by equality of division +among themselves. Their federalists will then call in the English +army, the republicans ours, and it will only be a transfer of the +scene of war from Canada to Massachusetts; and we can get ten men to +go to Massachusetts for one who will go to Canada. Every one, too, +must know that we can at any moment make peace with England at the +expense of the navigation and fisheries of Massachusetts. But it +will not come to this. Their own people will put down these +factionists as soon as they see the real object of their opposition; +and of this Vermont, New Hampshire, and even Connecticut itself, +furnish proofs. + + You intimate a possibility of your return to France, now that +Bonaparte is put down. I do not wonder at it, France, freed from +that monster, must again become the most agreeable country on earth. +It would be the second choice of all whose ties of family and fortune +gives a preference to some other one, and the first of all not under +those ties. Yet I doubt if the tranquillity of France is entirely +settled. If her Pretorian bands are not furnished with employment on +her external enemies, I fear they will recall the old, or set up some +new cause. + + + God bless you and preserve you in bodily health. Tranquillity +of mind depends much on ourselves, and greatly on due reflection "how +much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened." +Affectionately adieu. + + + WAR, REVOLUTION, AND RESTORATION + + _To Lafayette_ + _Monticello, February 14, 1815_ + + MY DEAR FRIEND, -- Your letter of August the 14th has been +received and read again, and again, with extraordinary pleasure. It +is the first glimpse which has been furnished me of the interior +workings of the late unexpected but fortunate revolution of your +country. The newspapers told us only that the great beast was +fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted, and what the +egotists, whether the former slept while the latter were awake to +their own interests only, the hireling scribblers of the English +press said little and knew less. I see now the mortifying +alternative under which the patriot there is placed, of being either +silent, or disgraced by an association in opposition with the remains +of Bonapartism. A full measure of liberty is not now perhaps to be +expected by your nation, nor am I confident they are prepared to +preserve it. More than a generation will be requisite, under the +administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge +in the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an +independent security of person and property, before they will be +capable of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a +sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests for +preservation. Instead of that liberty which takes root and growth in +the progress of reason, if recovered by mere force or accident, it +becomes, with an unprepared people, a tyranny still, of the many, the +few, or the one. Possibly you may remember, at the date of the _jeu +de paume_, how earnestly I urged yourself and the patriots of my +acquaintance, to enter then into a compact with the king, securing +freedom of religion, freedom of the press, trial by jury, _habeas +corpus_, and a national legislature, all of which it was known he +would then yield, to go home, and let these work on the amelioration +of the condition of the people, until they should have rendered them +capable of more, when occasions would not fail to arise for +communicating to them more. This was as much as I then thought them +able to bear, soberly and usefully for themselves. You thought +otherwise, and that the dose might still be larger. And I found you +were right; for subsequent events proved they were equal to the +constitution of 1791. Unfortunately, some of the most honest and +enlightened of our patriotic friends, (but closet politicians merely, +unpractised in the knowledge of man,) thought more could still be +obtained and borne. They did not weigh the hazards of a transition +from one form of government to another, the value of what they had +already rescued from those hazards, and might hold in security if +they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving up the certainty of such a +degree of liberty, under a limited monarch, for the uncertainty of a +little more under the form of a republic. You differed from them. +You were for stopping there, and for securing the constitution which +the National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you were right; and +from this fatal error of the republicans, from their separation from +yourself and the constitutionalists, in their councils, flowed all +the subsequent sufferings and crimes of the French nation. The +hazards of a second change fell upon them by the way. The foreigner +gained time to anarchise by gold the government he could not +overthrow by arms, to crush in their own councils the genuine +republicans, by the fraternal embraces of exaggerated and hired +pretenders, and to turn the machine of Jacobinism from the change to +the destruction of order; and, in the end, the limited monarchy they +had secured was exchanged for the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of +Robespierre, and the equally unprincipled and maniac tyranny of +Bonaparte. You are now rid of him, and I sincerely wish you may +continue so. But this may depend on the wisdom and moderation of the +restored dynasty. It is for them now to read a lesson in the fatal +errors of the republicans; to be contented with a certain portion of +power, secured by formal compact with the nation, rather than, +grasping at more, hazard all upon uncertainty, and risk meeting the +fate of their predecessor, or a renewal of their own exile. We are +just informed, too, of an example which merits, if true, their most +profound contemplation. The gazettes say that Ferdinand of Spain is +dethroned, and his father re-established on the basis of their new +constitution. This order of magistrates must, therefore, see, that +although the attempts at reformation have not succeeded in their +whole length, and some secession from the ultimate point has taken +place, yet that men have by no means fallen back to their former +passiveness, but on the contrary, that a sense of their rights, and a +restlessness to obtain them, remain deeply impressed on every mind, +and, if not quieted by reasonable relaxations of power, will break +out like a volcano on the first occasion, and overwhelm everything +again in its way. I always thought the present king an honest and +moderate man; and having no issue, he is under a motive the less for +yielding to personal considerations. I cannot, therefore, but hope, +that the patriots in and out of your legislature, acting in phalanx, +but temperately and wisely, pressing unremittingly the principles +omitted in the late capitulation of the king, and watching the +occasions which the course of events will create, may get those +principles engrafted into it, and sanctioned by the solemnity of a +national act. + + With us the affairs of war have taken the most favorable turn +which was to be expected. Our thirty years of peace had taken off, +or superannuated, all our revolutionary officers of experience and +grade; and our first draught in the lottery of un-tried characters +had been most unfortunate. The delivery of the fort and army of +Detroit by the traitor Hull; the disgrace at Queenstown, under Van +Rensellaer; the massacre at Frenchtown under Winchester; and +surrender of Boerstler in an open field to one-third of his own +numbers, were the inauspicious beginnings of the first year of our +warfare. The second witnessed but the single miscarriage occasioned +by the disagreement of Wilkinson and Hampton, mentioned in my letter +to you of November the 30th, 1813, while it gave us the capture of +York by Dearborne and Pike; the capture of Fort George by Dearborne +also; the capture of Proctor's army on the Thames by Harrison, Shelby +and Johnson, and that of the whole British fleet on Lake Erie by +Perry. The third year has been a continued series of victories, +to-wit: of Brown and Scott at Chippewa, of the same at Niagara; of +Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie; that of Brown over Drummond at the +same place; the capture of another fleet on Lake Champlain by +M'Donough; the entire defeat of their army under Prevost, on the same +day, by M'Comb, and recently their defeats at New Orleans by Jackson, +Coffee and Carroll, with the loss of four thousand men out of nine +thousand and six hundred, with their two Generals, Packingham and +Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded, mortally, as is said. + + This series of successes has been tarnished only by the +conflagration at Washington, a _coup de main_ differing from that at +Richmond, which you remember, in the revolutionary war, in the +circumstance only, that we had, in that case, but forty-eight hours' +notice that an enemy had arrived within our capes; whereas, at +Washington, there was abundant previous notice. The force designated +by the President was double of what was necessary; but failed, as is +the general opinion, through the insubordination of Armstrong, who +would never believe the attack intended until it was actually made, +and the sluggishness of Winder before the occasion, and his +indecision during it. Still, in the end, the transaction has helped +rather than hurt us, by arousing the general indignation of our +country, and by marking to the world of Europe the Vandalism and +brutal character of the English government. It has merely served to +immortalize their infamy. And add further, that through the whole +period of the war, we have beaten them single-handed at sea, and so +thoroughly established our superiority over them with equal force, +that they retire from that kind of contest, and never suffer their +frigates to cruize singly. The Endymion would never have engaged the +frigate President, but knowing herself backed by three frigates and a +razee, who, though somewhat slower sailers, would get up before she +could be taken. The disclosure to the world of the fatal secret that +they can be beaten at sea with an equal force, the evidence furnished +by the military operations of the last year that experience is +rearing us officers who, when our means shall be fully under way, +will plant our standard on the walls of Quebec and Halifax, their +recent and signal disaster at New Orleans, and the evaporation of +their hopes from the Hartford convention, will probably raise a +clamor in the British nation, which will force their ministry into +peace. I say _force_ them, because, willingly, they would never be +at peace. The British ministers find in a state of war rather than +of peace, by riding the various contractors, and receiving _douceurs_ +on the vast expenditures of the war supplies, that they recruit their +broken fortunes, or make new ones, and therefore will not make peace +as long as by any delusions they can keep the temper of the nation up +to the war point. They found some hopes on the state of our +finances. It is true that the excess of our banking institutions, +and their present discredit, have shut us out from the best source of +credit we could ever command with certainty. But the foundations of +credit still remain to us, and need but skill which experience will +soon produce, to marshal them into an order which may carry us +through any length of war. But they have hoped more in their +Hartford convention. Their fears of republican France being now done +away, they are directed to republican America, and they are playing +the same game for disorganization here, which they played in your +country. The Marats, the Dantons and Robespierres of Massachusetts +are in the same pay, under the same orders, and making the same +efforts to anarchise us, that their prototypes in France did there. + + I do not say that all who met at Hartford were under the same +motives of money, nor were those of France. Some of them are Outs, +and wish to be Inns; some the mere dupes of the agitators, or of +their own party passions, while the Maratists alone are in the real +secret; but they have very different materials to work on. The +yeomanry of the United States are not the _canaille_ of Paris. We +might safely give them leave to go through the United States +recruiting their ranks, and I am satisfied they could not raise one +single regiment (gambling merchants and silk-stocking clerks +excepted) who would support them in any effort to separate from the +Union. The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood of every +American. I do not believe there is on earth a government +established on so immovable a basis. Let them, in any State, even in +Massachusetts itself, raise the standard of separation, and its +citizens will rise in mass, and do justice themselves on their own +incendiaries. If they could have induced the government to some +effort of suppression, or even to enter into discussion with them, it +would have given them some importance, have brought them into some +notice. But they have not been able to make themselves even a +subject of conversation, either of public or private societies. A +silent contempt has been the sole notice they excite; consoled, +indeed, some of them, by the _palpable_ favors of Philip. Have then +no fears for us, my friend. The grounds of these exist only in +English newspapers, endited or endowed by the Castlereaghs or the +Cannings, or some other such models of pure and uncorrupted virtue. +Their military heroes, by land and sea, may sink our oyster boats, +rob our hen roosts, burn our negro huts, and run off. But a campaign +or two more will relieve them from further trouble or expense in +defending their American possessions. + + You once gave me a copy of the journal of your campaign in +Virginia, in 1781, which I must have lent to some one of the +undertakers to write the history of the revolutionary war, and forgot +to reclaim. I conclude this, because it is no longer among my +papers, which I have very diligently searched for it, but in vain. +An author of real ability is now writing that part of the history of +Virginia. He does it in my neighborhood, and I lay open to him all +my papers. But I possess none, nor has he any, which can enable him +to do justice to your faithful and able services in that campaign. +If you could be so good as to send me another copy, by the very first +vessel bound to any port in the United States, it might be here in +time; for although he expects to begin to print within a month or +two, yet you know the delays of these undertakings. At any rate it +might be got in as a supplement. The old Count Rochambeau gave me +also his _memoire_ of the operations at York, which is gone in the +same way, and I have no means of applying to his family for it. +Perhaps you could render them as well as us, the service of procuring +another copy. + + I learn, with real sorrow, the deaths of Monsieur and Madame de +Tesse. They made an interesting part in the idle reveries in which I +have sometimes indulged myself, of seeing all my friends of Paris +once more, for a month or two; a thing impossible, which, however, I +never permitted myself to despair of. The regrets, however, of +seventy-three at the loss of friends, may be the less, as the time is +shorter within which we are to meet again, according to the creed of +our education. + + + This letter will be handed you by Mr. Ticknor, a young +gentleman of Boston, of great erudition, indefatigable industry, and +preparation for a life of distinction in his own country. He passed +a few days with me here, brought high recommendations from Mr. Adams +and others, and appeared in every respect to merit them. He is well +worthy of those attentions which you so kindly bestow on our +countrymen, and for those he may receive I shall join him in +acknowledging personal obligations. + + I salute you with assurances of my constant and affectionate +friendship and respect. + + P. S. February 26th. My letter had not yet been sealed, when I +received news of our peace. I am glad of it, and especially that we +closed our war with the eclat of the action at New Orleans. But I +consider it as an armistice only, because no security is provided +against the impressment of our seamen. While this is unsettled we +are in hostility of mind with England, although actual deeds of arms +may be suspended by a truce. If she thinks the exercise of this +outrage is worth eternal war, eternal war it must be, or +extermination of the one or the other party. The first act of +impressment she commits on an American, will be answered by reprisal, +or by a declaration of war here; and the interval must be merely a +state of preparation for it. In this we have much to do, in further +fortifying our seaport towns, providing military stores, classing and +disciplining our militia, arranging our financial system, and above +all, pushing our domestic manufactures, which have taken such root as +never again can be shaken. Once more, God bless you. + + + LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION + + _To George Watterston_ + _Monticello, May 7, 1815_ + + SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of April 26th, in which +you are pleased to ask my opinion on the subject of the arrangement +of libraries. I shall communicate with pleasure what occurs to me on +it. Two methods offer themselves, the one alphabetical, the other +according to the subject of the book. The former is very +unsatisfactory, because of the medley it presents to the mind, the +difficulty sometimes of recalling an author's name, and the greater +difficulty, where the name is not given, of selecting the word in the +title, which shall determine its alphabetical place. The arrangement +according to subject is far preferable, although sometimes presenting +difficulty also, for it is often doubtful to what particular subject +a book should be ascribed. This is remarkably the case with books of +travels, which often blend together the geography, natural history, +civil history, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, arts, +occupations, manners, &c., of a country, so as to render it difficult +to say to which they chiefly relate. Others again, are polygraphical +in their nature, as Encyclopedias, magazines, etc. Yet on the whole +I have preferred arrangement according to subject, because of the +peculiar satisfaction, when we wish to consider a particular one, of +seeing at a glance the books which have been written on it, and +selecting those from which we effect most readily the information we +seek. On this principle the arrangement of my library was formed, +and I took the basis of its distribution from Lord Bacon's table of +science, modifying it to the changes in scientific pursuits which +have taken place since his time, and to the greater or less extent of +reading in the science which I proposed to myself. Thus the law +having been my profession, and politics the occupation to which the +circumstances of the times in which I have lived called my particular +attention, my provision of books in these lines, and in those most +nearly connected with them was more copious, and required in +particular instances subdivisions into sections and paragraphs, while +other subjects of which general views only were contemplated are +thrown into masses. A physician or theologist would have modified +differently, the chapters, sections, and paragraphs of a library +adapted to their particular pursuits. + + You will receive my library arranged very perfectly in the +order observed in the catalogue, which I have sent with it. In +placing the books on their shelves, I have generally, but not always, +collocated distinctly the folios, quarto, octavo, and duodecimo, +placing with the last all smaller sizes. On every book is a label, +indicating the chapter of the catalogue to which it belongs, and the +other it holds among those of the same format. So that, although the +numbers seem confused on the catalogue, they are consecutive on the +volumes as they stand on their shelves, and indicate at once the +place they occupy there. Mr. Milligan in packing them has preserved +their arrangement so exactly, in their respective presses, that on +setting the presses up on end, he will be able readily to replace +them in the order corresponding with the catalogue, and thus save you +the immense labor which their rearrangement would otherwise require. + + To give to my catalogue the convenience of the alphabetical +arrangement I have made at the end an alphabet of authors' names and +have noted the chapter or chapters, in which the name will be found; +where it occurs several times in the same chapter, it is indicated, +by one or more perpendicular scores, thus according to the number of +times it will be found in the chapter. Where a book bears no +author's name, I have selected in its title some leading word for +denoting it alphabetically. This member of the catalogue would be +more perfect if, instead of the score, the number on the book were +particularly noted. This could not be done when I made the +catalogue, because no label of numbers had then been put on the +books. That alteration can now be readily made, and would add +greatly to the convenient use of the catalogue. I gave to Mr. +Milligan a note of three folio volumes of the laws of Virginia +belonging to the library, which being in known hands, will be +certainly recovered, and shall be forwarded to you. One is a MS. +volume from which a printed copy is now preparing for publication. + + This statement meets, I believe, all the enquiries of your +letter, and where it is not sufficiently minute, Mr. Milligan, from +his necessary acquaintance with the arrangement, will be able to +supply the smaller details. Accept the assurances of my respect and +consideration. + + + MANUFACTURES + + _To Benjamin Austin_ + _Monticello, January 9, 1816_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 21st has been received, and +I am first to thank you for the pamphlet it covered. The same +description of persons which is the subject of that is so much +multiplied here too, as to be almost a grievance, and by their +numbers in the public councils, have wrested from the public hand the +direction of the pruning knife. But with us as a body, they are +republican, and mostly moderate in their views; so far, therefore, +less objects of jealousy than with you. Your opinions on the events +which have taken place in France, are entirely just, so far as these +events are yet developed. But they have not reached their ultimate +termination. There is still an awful void between the present and +what is to be the last chapter of that history; and I fear it is to +be filled with abominations as frightful as those which have already +disgraced it. That nation is too high-minded, has too much innate +force, intelligence and elasticity, to remain under its present +compression. Samson will arise in his strength, as of old, and as of +old will burst asunder the withes and the cords, and the webs of the +Philistines. But what are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and +how widely they may spread between brethren of the same house, our +ignorance of the interior feuds and antipathies of the country places +beyond our ken. It will end, nevertheless, in a representative +government, in a government in which the will of the people will be +an effective ingredient. This important element has taken root in +the European mind, and will have its growth; their despots, sensible +of this, are already offering this modification of their governments, +as if on their own accord. Instead of the parricide treason of +Bonaparte, in perverting the means confided to him as a republican +magistrate, to the subversion of that republic and erection of a +military despotism for himself and his family, had he used it +honestly for the establishment and support of a free government in +his own country, France would now have been in freedom and rest; and +her example operating in a contrary direction, every nation in Europe +would have had a government over which the will of the people would +have had some control. His atrocious egotism has checked the +salutary progress of principle, and deluged it with rivers of blood +which are not yet run out. To the vast sum of devastation and of +human misery, of which he has been the guilty cause, much is still to +be added. But the object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they +will press on to its accomplishment and to the general amelioration +of the condition of man. What a germ have we planted, and how +faithfully should we cherish the parent tree at home! + + You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our +dependence on England for manufactures. There was a time when I +might have been so quoted with more candor, but within the thirty +years which have since elapsed, how are circumstances changed! We +were then in peace. Our independent place among nations was +acknowledged. A commerce which offered the raw material in exchange +for the same material after receiving the last touch of industry, was +worthy of welcome to all nations. It was expected that those +especially to whom manufacturing industry was important, would +cherish the friendship of such customers by every favor, by every +inducement, and particularly cultivate their peace by every act of +justice and friendship. Under this prospect the question seemed +legitimate, whether, with such an immensity of unimproved land, +courting the hand of husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that +of manufactures, would add most to the national wealth? And the +doubt was entertained on this consideration chiefly, that to the +labor of the husbandman a vast addition is made by the spontaneous +energies of the earth on which it is employed: for one grain of wheat +committed to the earth, she renders twenty, thirty, and even fifty +fold, whereas to the labor of the manufacturer nothing is added. +Pounds of flax, in his hands, yield, on the contrary, but +penny-weights of lace. This exchange, too, laborious as it might +seem, what a field did it promise for the occupations of the ocean; +what a nursery for that class of citizens who were to exercise and +maintain our equal rights on that element? This was the state of +things in 1785, when the "Notes on Virginia" were first printed; +when, the ocean being open to all nations, and their common right in +it acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the +assent and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim +some consideration. But who in 1785 could foresee the rapid +depravity which was to render the close of that century the disgrace +of the history of man? Who could have imagined that the two most +distinguished in the rank of nations, for science and civilization, +would have suddenly descended from that honorable eminence, and +setting at defiance all those moral laws established by the Author of +nature between nation and nation, as between man and man, would cover +earth and sea with robberies and piracies, merely because strong +enough to do it with temporal impunity; and that under this +disbandment of nations from social order, we should have been +despoiled of a thousand ships, and have thousands of our citizens +reduced to Algerine slavery. Yet all this has taken place. One of +these nations interdicted to our vessels all harbors of the globe +without having first proceeded to some one of hers, there paid a +tribute proportioned to the cargo, and obtained her license to +proceed to the port of destination. The other declared them to be +lawful prize if they had touched at the port, or been visited by a +ship of the enemy nation. Thus were we completely excluded from the +ocean. Compare this state of things with that of '85, and say +whether an opinion founded in the circumstances of that day can be +fairly applied to those of the present. We have experienced what we +did not then believe, that there exists both profligacy and power +enough to exclude us from the field of interchange with other +nations: that to be independent for the comforts of life we must +fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the +side of the agriculturist. The former question is suppressed, or +rather assumes a new form. Shall we make our own comforts, or go +without them, at the will of a foreign nation? He, therefore, who is +now against domestic manufacture, must be for reducing us either to +dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins, and to +live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of these; +experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to +our independence as to our comfort; and if those who quote me as of a +different opinion, will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing +foreign where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, +without regard to difference of price, it will not be our fault if we +do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand, and wrest that +weapon of distress from the hand which has wielded it. If it shall +be proposed to go beyond our own supply, the question of '85 will +then recur, will our _surplus_ labor be then most beneficially +employed in the culture of the earth, or in the fabrications of art? +We have time yet for consideration, before that question will press +upon us; and the maxim to be applied will depend on the circumstances +which shall then exist; for in so complicated a science as political +economy, no one axiom can be laid down as wise and expedient for all +times and circumstances, and for their contraries. Inattention to +this is what has called for this explanation, which reflection would +have rendered unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it +with those who use the former opinion only as a stalking horse, to +cover their disloyal propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to +a foreign and unfriendly people. + + I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem. + + + "A REAL CHRISTIAN" + + _To Charles Thomson_ + _Monticello, January 9, 1816_ + + MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND, -- An acquaintance of fifty-two +years, for I think ours dates from 1764, calls for an interchange of +notice now and then, that we remain in existence, the monuments of +another age, and examples of a friendship unaffected by the jarring +elements by which we have been surrounded, of revolutions of +government, of party and of opinion. I am reminded of this duty by +the receipt, through our friend Dr. Patterson, of your synopsis of +the four Evangelists. I had procured it as soon as I saw it +advertised, and had become familiar with its use; but this copy is +the more valued as it comes from your hand. This work bears the +stamp of that accuracy which marks everything from you, and will be +useful to those who, not taking things on trust, recur for themselves +to the fountain of pure morals. I, too, have made a wee-little book +from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is +a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the +book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain +order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of +ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that _I_ am a +_real Christian_, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of +Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call _me_ infidel and +_themselves_ Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw +all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor +saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond +the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious +ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not +recognize one feature. If I had time I would add to my little book +the Greek, Latin and French texts, in columns side by side. And I +wish I could subjoin a translation of Gosindi's Syntagma of the +doctrines of Epicurus, which, notwithstanding the calumnies of the +Stoics and caricatures of Cicero, is the most rational system +remaining of the philosophy of the ancients, as frugal of vicious +indulgence, and fruitful of virtue as the hyperbolical extravagances +of his rival sects. + + I retain good health, am rather feeble to walk much, but ride +with ease, passing two or three hours a day on horseback, and every +three or four months taking in a carriage a journey of ninety miles +to a distant possession, where I pass a good deal of my time. My +eyes need the aid of glasses by night, and with small print in the +day also; my hearing is not quite so sensible as it used to be; no +tooth shaking yet, but shivering and shrinking in body from the cold +we now experience, my thermometer having been as low as 12 degrees +this morning. My greatest oppression is a correspondence +afflictingly laborious, the extent of which I have been long +endeavoring to curtail. This keeps me at the drudgery of the +writing-table all the prime hours of the day, leaving for the +gratification of my appetite for reading, only what I can steal from +the hours of sleep. Could I reduce this epistolary corvee within the +limits of my friends and affairs, and give the time redeemed from it +to reading and reflection, to history, ethics, mathematics, my life +would be as happy as the infirmities of age would admit, and I should +look on its consummation with the composure of one _"qui summum nec +me tuit diem nec optat."_ + + So much as to myself, and I have given you this string of +egotisms in the hope of drawing a similar one from yourself. I have +heard from others that you retain your health, a good degree of +activity, and all the vivacity and cheerfulness of your mind, but I +wish to learn it more minutely from yourself. How has time affected +your health and spirits? What are your amusements, literary and +social? Tell me everything about yourself, because all will be +interesting to me who retains for you ever the same constant and +affectionate friendship and respect. + + + YOUR PROPHECY AND MINE + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Jan. 11, 1816_ + + DEAR SIR -- Of the last five months I have past four at my +other domicil, for such it is in a considerable degree. No letters +are forwarded to me there, because the cross post to that place is +circuitous and uncertain. During my absence therefore they are +accumulating here, and awaiting acknolegments. This has been the +fate of your favor of Nov. 13. + + I agree with you in all it's eulogies on the 18th. century. It +certainly witnessed the sciences and arts, manners and morals, +advanced to a higher degree than the world had ever before seen. And +might we not go back to the aera of the Borgias, by which time the +barbarous ages had reduced national morality to it's lowest point of +depravity, and observe that the arts and sciences, rising from that +point, advanced gradually thro' all the 16th. 17th. and 18th. +centuries, softening and correcting the manners and morals of man? I +think too we may add, to the great honor of science and the arts, +that their natural effect is, by illuminating public opinion, to +erect it into a Censor, before which the most exalted tremble for +their future, as well as present fame. With some exceptions only, +through the 17th. and 18th. centuries morality occupied an honorable +chapter in the political code of nations. You must have observed +while in Europe, as I thought I did, that those who administered the +governments of the greater powers at least, had a respect to faith, +and considered the dignity of their government as involved in it's +integrity. A wound indeed was inflicted on this character of honor +in the 18th. century by the partition of Poland. But this was the +atrocity of a barbarous government chiefly, in conjunction with a +smaller one still scrambling to become great, while one only of those +already great, and having character to lose, descended to the +baseness of an accomplice in the crime. France, England, Spain +shared in it only inasmuch as they stood aloof and permitted it's +perpetration. How then has it happened that these nations, France +especially and England, so great, so dignified, so distinguished by +science and the arts, plunged at once into all the depths of human +enormity, threw off suddenly and openly all the restraints of +morality, all sensation to character, and unblushingly avowed and +acted on the principle that power was right? Can this sudden +apostacy from national rectitude be accounted for? The treaty of +Pilnitz seems to have begun it, suggested perhaps by the baneful +precedent of Poland. Was it from the terror of monarchs, alarmed at +the light returning on them from the West, and kindling a Volcano +under their thrones? Was it a combination to extinguish that light, +and to bring back, as their best auxiliaries, those enumerated by +you, the Sorbonne, the Inquisition, the Index expurgatorius, and the +knights of Loyola? Whatever it was, the close of the century saw the +moral world thrown back again to the age of the Borgias, to the point +from which it had departed 300. years before. France, after crushing +and punishing the conspiracy of Pilnitz, went herself deeper and +deeper into the crimes she had been chastising. I say France, and +not Bonaparte; for altho' he was the head and mouth, the nation +furnished the hands which executed his enormities. England, altho' +in opposition, kept full pace with France, not indeed by the manly +force of her own arms, but by oppressing the weak, and bribing the +strong. At length the whole choir joined and divided the weaker +nations among them. Your prophecies to Dr. Price proved truer than +mine; and yet fell short of the fact, for instead of a million, the +destruction of 8. or 10. millions of human beings has probably been +the effect of these convulsions. I did not, in 89. believe they +would have lasted so long, nor have cost so much blood. But altho' +your prophecy has proved true so far, I hope it does not preclude a +better final result. That same light from our West seems to have +spread and illuminated the very engines employed to extinguish it. +It has given them a glimmering of their rights and their power. The +idea of representative government has taken root and growth among +them. Their masters feel it, and are saving themselves by timely +offers of this modification of their own powers. Belguim, Prussia, +Poland, Lombardy etc. are now offered a representative organization: +illusive probably at first, but it will grow into power in the end. +Opinion is power, and that opinion will come. Even France will yet +attain representative government. You observe it makes the basis of +every constitution which has been demanded or offered: of that +demanded by their Senate; of that offered by Bonaparte; and of that +granted by Louis XVIII. The idea then is rooted, and will be +established, altho' rivers of blood may yet flow between them and +their object. The allied armies now couching upon them are first to +be destroyed, and destroyed they will surely be. A nation united can +never be conquered. We have seen what the ignorant bigotted and +unarmed Spaniards could do against the disciplined veterans of their +invaders. What then may we not expect from the power and character +of the French nation? The oppressors may cut off heads after heads, +but like those of the Hydra, they multiply at every stroke. The +recruits within a nation's own limits are prompt and without number; +while those of their invaders from a distance are slow, limited, and +must come to an end. I think too we percieve that all these allies +do not see the same interest in the annihilation of the power of +France. There are certainly some symptoms of foresight in Alexander +that France might produce a salutary diversion of force were Austria +and Prussia to become her enemies. France too is the natural ally of +the Turk, as having no interfering interests, and might be useful in +neutralizing and perhaps turning that power on Austria. That a +re-acting jealousy too exists with Austria and Prussia I think their +late strict alliance indicates; and I should not wonder if Spain +should discover a sympathy with them. Italy is so divided as to be +nothing. Here then we see new coalitions in embrio which after +France shall in turn have suffered a just punishment for her crimes, +will not only raise her from the earth on which she is prostrate, but +give her an opportunity to establish a government of as much liberty +as she can bear, enough to ensure her happiness and prosperity. When +insurrection begins, be it where it will, all the partitioned +countries will rush to arms, and Europe again become an Arena of +gladiators. And what is the definite object they will propose? A +restoration certainly of the status quo prius, of the state of +possession of 89. I see no other principle on which Europe can ever +again settle down in lasting peace. I hope your prophecies will go +thus far, as my wishes do, and that they, like the former, will prove +to have been the sober dictates of a superior understanding, and a +sound calculation of effects from causes well understood. Some +future Morgan will then have an opportunity of doing you justice, and +of counterbalancing the breach of confidence of which you so justly +complain, and in which no one has had more frequent occasion of +fellow-feeling than myself. Permit me to place here my affectionate +respects to Mrs. Adams, and to add for yourself the assurances of +cordial friendship and esteem. + + + THE WARD SYSTEM + + _To Joseph C. Cabell_ + _Monticello, February 2, 1816_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favors of the 23d and 24th ult., were a week +coming to us. I instantly enclosed to you the deeds of Capt. Miller, +but I understand that the Post Master, having locked his mail before +they got to the office, would not unlock it to give them a passage. + + Having been prevented from retaining my collection of the acts +and journals of our legislature by the lumping manner in which the +Committee of Congress chose to take my library, it may be useful to +our public bodies to know what acts and journals I had, and where +they can now have access to them. I therefore enclose you a copy of +my catalogue, which I pray you to deposit in the council office for +public use. It is in the eighteenth and twenty-fourth chapters they +will find what is interesting to them. The form of the catalogue has +been much injured in the publication; for although they have +preserved my division into chapters, they have reduced the books in +each chapter to alphabetical order, instead of the chronological or +analytical arrangements I had given them. You will see sketches of +what were my arrangements at the heads of some of the chapters. + + The bill on the obstructions in our navigable waters appears to +me proper; as do also the amendments proposed. I think the State +should reserve a right to the use of the waters for navigation, and +that where an individual landholder impedes that use, he shall remove +that impediment, and leave the subject in as good a state as nature +formed it. This I hold to be the true principle; and to this Colonel +Green's amendments go. All I ask in my own case is, that the +legislature will not take from me _my own works_. I am ready to cut +my dam in any place, and at any moment requisite, so as to remove +that impediment, if it be thought one, and to leave those interested +to make the most of the natural circumstances of the place. But I +hope they will never take from me my canal, made through the body of +my own lands, at an expense of twenty thousand dollars, and which is +no impediment to the navigation of the river. I have permitted the +riparian proprietors above (and they not more than a dozen or twenty) +to use it gratis, and shall not withdraw the permission unless they +so use it as to obstruct too much the operations of my mills, of +which there is some likelihood. + + Doctor Smith, you say, asks what is the best elementary book on +the principles of government? None in the world equal to the Review +of Montesquieu, printed at Philadelphia a few years ago. It has the +advantage, too, of being equally sound and corrective of the +principles of political economy; and all within the compass of a thin +8vo. Chipman's and Priestley's Principles of Government, and the +Federalists, are excellent in many respects, but for fundamental +principles not comparable to the Review. I have no objections to the +printing my letter to Mr. Carr, if it will promote the interests of +science; although it was not written with a view to its publication. + + My letter of the 24th ult. conveyed to you the grounds of the +two articles objected to the College bill. Your last presents one of +them in a new point of view, that of the commencement of the ward +schools as likely to render the law unpopular to the country. It +must be a very inconsiderate and rough process of execution that +would do this. My idea of the mode of carrying it into execution +would be this: Declare the county _ipso facto_ divided into wards for +the present, by the boundaries of the militia captaincies; somebody +attend the ordinary muster of each company, having first desired the +captain to call together a full one. There explain the object of the +law to the people of the company, put to their vote whether they will +have a school established, and the most central and convenient place +for it; get them to meet and build a log school-house; have a roll +taken of the children who would attend it, and of those of them able +to pay. These would probably be sufficient to support a common +teacher, instructing gratis the few unable to pay. If there should +be a deficiency, it would require too trifling a contribution from +the county to be complained of; and especially as the whole county +would participate, where necessary, in the same resource. Should the +company, by its vote, decide that it would have no school, let them +remain without one. The advantages of this proceeding would be that +it would become the duty of the alderman elected by the county, to +take an active part in pressing the introduction of schools, and to +look out for tutors. If, however, it is intended that the State +government shall take this business into its own hands, and provide +schools for every county, then by all means strike out this provision +of our bill. I would never wish that it should be placed on a worse +footing than the rest of the State. But if it is believed that these +elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and +council, the commissioners of the literary fund, or any other general +authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it +is a belief against all experience. Try the principle one step +further, and amend the bill so as to commit to the governor and +council the management of all our farms, our mills, and merchants' +stores. No, my friend, the way to have good and safe government, is +not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, +distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to. +Let the national government be entrusted with the defence of the +nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments +with the civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what +concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of +the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It +is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great +national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in +the administration of every man's farm by himself; by placing under +every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for +the best. What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every +government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing +and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter +whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats +of a Venetian senate. And I do believe that if the Almighty has not +decreed that man shall never be free, (and it is a blasphemy to +believe it,) that the secret will be found to be in the making +himself the depository of the powers respecting himself, so far as he +is competent to them, and delegating only what is beyond his +competence by a synthetical process, to higher and higher orders of +functionaries, so as to trust fewer and fewer powers in proportion as +the trustees become more and more oligarchical. The elementary +republics of the wards, the county republics, the States republics, +and the republic of the Union, would form a gradation of authorities, +standing each on the basis of law, holding every one its delegated +share of powers, and constituting truly a system of fundamental +balances and checks for the government. Where every man is a sharer +in the direction of his ward-republic, or of some of the higher ones, +and feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not +merely at an election one day in the year, but every day; when there +shall not be a man in the State who will not be a member of some one +of its councils, great or small, he will let the heart be torn out of +his body sooner than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a +Bonaparte. How powerfully did we feel the energy of this +organization in the case of embargo? I felt the foundations of the +government shaken under my feet by the New England townships. There +was not an individual in their States whose body was not thrown with +all its momentum into action; and although the whole of the other +States were known to be in favor of the measure, yet the organization +of this little selfish minority enabled it to overrule the Union. +What would the unwieldy counties of the middle, the south, and the +west do? Call a county meeting, and the drunken loungers at and +about the court houses would have collected, the distances being too +great for the good people and the industrious generally to attend. +The character of those who really met would have been the measure of +the weight they would have had in the scale of public opinion. As +Cato, then, concluded every speech with the words, _"Carthago delenda +est,"_ so do I every opinion, with the injunction, "divide the +counties into wards." Begin them only for a single purpose; they will +soon show for what others they are the best instruments. God bless +you, and all our rulers, and give them the wisdom, as I am sure they +have the will, to fortify us against the degeneracy of one +government, and the concentration of all its powers in the hands of +the one, the few, the well-born or the many. + + + "HOPE IN THE HEAD . . . FEAR ASTERN" + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Apr. 8, 1816_ + + DEAR SIR -- I have to acknolege your two favors of Feb. 16. and +Mar. 2. and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams, and +regret that distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation +would be worth a volume of letters. But we must take things as they +come. + + You ask if I would agree to live my 70. or rather 73. years +over again? To which I say Yea. I think with you that it is a good +world on the whole, that it has been framed on a principle of +benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are +indeed (who might say Nay) gloomy and hypocondriac minds, inhabitants +of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and despairing of the +future; always counting that the worst will happen, because it may +happen. To these I say How much pain have cost us the evils which +have never happened? My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark +with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes indeed +sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. +There are, I acknolege, even in the happiest life, some terrible +convulsions, heavy set-offs against the opposite page of the account. +I have often wondered for what good end the sensations of Grief could +be intended. All our other passions, within proper bounds, have an +useful object. And the perfection of the moral character is, not in +a Stoical apathy, so hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, +because impossible, but in a just equilibrium of all the passions. I +wish the pathologists then would tell us what is the use of grief in +the economy, and of what good it is the cause, proximate or remote. + + Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. +He was the pleasantest, and most conversible member of the diplomatic +corps while I was there: a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, +cunning, and egoism: no heart, not much of any science, yet enough of +every one to speak it's language. His fort was Belles-lettres, +painting and sculpture. In these he was the oracle of the society, +and as such was the empress Catharine's private correspondent and +factor in all things not diplomatic. It was thro' him I got her +permission for poor Ledyard to go to Kamschatka, and cross over +thence to the Western coast of America, in order to penetrate across +our continent in the opposite direction to that afterwards adopted +for Lewis and Clarke: which permission she withdrew after he had got +within 200. miles of Kamschatska, had him siesed, brought back and +set down in Poland. Altho' I never heard Grimm express the opinion, +directly, yet I always supposed him to be of the school of Diderot, +D'Alembert, D'Holbach, the first of whom committed their system of +atheism to writing in `Le bon sens,' and the last in his `Systeme de +la Nature.' It was a numerous school in the Catholic countries, while +the infidelity of the Protestant took generally the form of Theism. +The former always insisted that it was a mere question of definition +between them, the hypostasis of which on both sides was `Nature' or +`the Universe:' that both agreed in the order of the existing system, +but the one supposed it from eternity, the other as having begun in +time. And when the atheist descanted on the unceasing motion and +circulation of matter thro' the animal vegetable and mineral +kingdoms, never resting, never annihilated, always changing form, and +under all forms gifted with the power of reproduction; the Theist +pointing `to the heavens above, and to the earth beneath, and to the +waters under the earth,' asked if these did not proclaim a first +cause, possessing intelligence and power; power in the production, +and intelligence in the design and constant preservation of the +system; urged the palpable existence of final causes, that the eye +was made to see, and the ear to hear, and not that we see because we +have eyes, and hear because we have ears; an answer obvious to the +senses, as that of walking across the room was to the philosopher +demonstrating the nonexistence of motion. It was in D'Holbach's +conventicles that Rousseau imagined all the machinations against him +were contrived; and he left, in his Confessions the most biting +anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after I left France; but I have +heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by them, that he kept his +bed several weeks. I have never seen these Memoirs of Grimm. Their +volume has kept them out of our market. + + I have been lately amusing myself with Levi's book in answer to +Dr. Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is +inelegant and incorrect, harsh and petulent to his adversary, and his +reasoning flimsey enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, +particularly that of his two resurrections: the first a particular +one of all the dead, in body as well as soul, who are to live over +again, the Jews in a state of perfect obedience to god, the other +nations in a state of corporeal punishment for the sufferings they +have inflicted on the Jews. And he explains this resurrection of +bodies to be only of the original stamen of Leibnitz, or the +homunculus in semine masculino, considering that as a mathematical +point, insusceptible of separation, or division. The second +resurrection a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to enjoy +divine glory in the presence of the supreme being. He alledges that +the Jews alone preserve the doctrine of the unity of god. Yet their +god would be deemed a very indifferent man with us: and it was to +correct their Anamorphosis of the deity that Jesus preached, as well +as to establish the doctrine of a future state. However Levi insists +that that was taught in the old testament, and even by Moses himself +and the prophets. He agrees that an anointed prince was prophecied +and promised: but denies that the character and history of Jesus has +any analogy with that of the person promised. He must be fearfully +embarrassing to the Hierophants of fabricated Christianity; because +it is their own armour in which he clothes himself for the attack. +For example, he takes passages of Scripture from their context (which +would give them a very different meaning) strings them together, and +makes them point towards what object he pleases; he interprets them +figuratively, typically, analogically, hyperbolically; he calls in +the aid of emendation, transposition, ellipsis, metonymy, and every +other figure of rhetoric; the name of one man is taken for another, +one place for another, days and weeks for months and years; and +finally avails himself of all his advantage over his adversaries by +his superior knolege of the Hebrew, speaking in the very language of +the divine communication, while they can only fumble on with +conflicting and disputed translations. Such is this war of giants. +And how can such pigmies as you and I decide between them? For +myself I confess that my head is not formed tantas componere lites. +And as you began your Mar. 2. with a declaration that you were about +to write me the most frivolous letter I had ever read, so I will +close mine by saying I have written you a full match for it, and by +adding my affectionate respects to Mrs. Adams, and the assurance of +my constant attachment and consideration for yourself. + + + "CONSTITUTIONALLY AND CONSCIENTIOUSLY DEMOCRATS" + + _To P. S. Dupont de Nemours_ + _Poplar Forest, April 24, 1816_ + + I received, my dear friend, your letter covering the +constitution for your Equinoctial republsetting out for this place. +I brought it with me, and have read it with great satisfaction. I +suppose it well formed for those for whom it was intended, and the +excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of +those to be governed by it. For us it would not do. Distinguishing +between the structure of the government and the moral principles on +which you prescribe its administration, with the latter we concur +cordially, with the former we should not. We of the United States, +you know, are constitutionally and conscientiously democrats. We +consider society as one of the natural wants with which man has been +created; that he has been endowed with faculties and qualities to +effect its satisfaction by concurrence of others having the same +want; that when, by the exercise of these faculties, he has procured +a state of society, it is one of his acquisitions which he has a +right to regulate and control, jointly indeed with all those who have +concurred in the procurement, whom he cannot exclude from its use or +direction more than they him. We think experience has proved it +safer, for the mass of individuals composing the society, to reserve +to themselves personally the exercise of all rightful powers to which +they are competent, and to delegate those to which they are not +competent to deputies named, and removable for unfaithful conduct, by +themselves immediately. Hence, with us, the people (by which is +meant the mass of individuals composing the society) being competent +to judge of the facts occurring in ordinary life, they have retained +the functions of judges of facts, under the name of jurors; but being +unqualified for the management of affairs requiring intelligence +above the common level, yet competent judges of human character, they +chose, for their management, representatives, some by themselves +immediately, others by electors chosen by themselves. Thus our +President is chosen by ourselves, directly in _practice_, for we vote +for A as elector only on the condition he will vote for B, our +representatives by ourselves immediately, our Senate and judges of +law through electors chosen by ourselves. And we believe that this +proximate choice and power of removal is the best security which +experience has sanctioned for ensuring an honest conduct in the +functionaries of society. Your three or four alembications have +indeed a seducing appearance. We should conceive _prima facie_, that +the last extract would be the pure alcohol of the substance, three or +four times rectified. But in proportion as they are more and more +sublimated, they are also farther and farther removed from the +control of the society; and the human character, we believe, requires +in general constant and immediate control, to prevent its being +biased from right by the seductions of self-love. Your process +produces therefore a structure of government from which the +fundamental principle of ours is excluded. You first set down as +zeros all individuals not having lands, which are the greater number +in every society of long standing. Those holding lands are permitted +to manage in person the small affairs of their commune or +corporation, and to elect a deputy for the canton; in which election, +too, every one's vote is to be an unit, a plurality, or a fraction, +in proportion to his landed possessions. The assemblies of cantons, +then, elect for the districts; those of districts for circles; and +those of circles for the national assemblies. Some of these highest +councils, too, are in a considerable degree self-elected, the regency +partially, the judiciary entirely, and some are for life. Whenever, +therefore, an _esprit de corps_, or of party, gets possession of +them, which experience shows to be inevitable, there are no means of +breaking it up, for they will never elect but those of their own +spirit. Juries are allowed in criminal cases only. I acknowledge +myself strong in affection to our own form, yet both of us act and +think from the same motive, we both consider the people as our +children, and love them with parental affection. But you love them +as infants whom you are afraid to trust without nurses; and I as +adults whom I freely leave to self-government. And you are right in +the case referred to you; my criticism being built on a state of +society not under your contemplation. It is, in fact, like a critic +on Homer by the laws of the Drama. + + But when we come to the moral principles on which the +government is to be administered, we come to what is proper for all +conditions of society. I meet you there in all the benevolence and +rectitude of your native character; and I love myself always most +where I concur most with you. Liberty, truth, probity, honor, are +declared to be the four cardinal principles of your society. I +believe with you that morality, compassion, generosity, are innate +elements of the human constitution; that there exists a right +independent of force; that a right to property is founded in our +natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy +these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without +violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that no one +has a right to obstruct another, exercising his faculties innocently +for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that +justice is the fundamental law of society; that the majority, +oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, +and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations +of society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within +their reach and competence, and in all others by representatives, +chosen immediately, and removable by themselves, constitutes the +essence of a republic; that all governments are more or less +republican in proportion as this principle enters more or less into +their composition; and that a government by representation is capable +of extension over a greater surface of country than one of any other +form. These, my friend, are the essentials in which you and I agree; +however, in our zeal for their maintenance, we may be perplexed and +divaricate, as to the structure of society most likely to secure +them. + + In the constitution of Spain, as proposed by the late Cortes, +there was a principle entirely new to me, and not noticed in yours, +that no person, born after that day, should ever acquire the rights +of citizenship until he could read and write. It is impossible +sufficiently to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of all those +which have been thought of for securing fidelity in the +administration of the government, constant ralliance to the +principles of the constitution, and progressive amendments with the +progressive advances of the human mind, or changes in human affairs, +it is the most effectual. Enlighten the people generally, and +tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil +spirits at the dawn of day. Although I do not, with some +enthusiasts, believe that the human condition will ever advance to +such a state of perfection as that there shall no longer be pain or +vice in the world, yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement, +and most of all, in matters of government and religion; and that the +diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by +which it is to be effected. The constitution of the Cortes had +defects enough; but when I saw in it this amendatory provision, I was +satisfied all would come right in time, under its salutary operation. +No people have more need of a similar provision than those for whom +you have felt so much interest. No mortal wishes them more success +than I do. But if what I have heard of the ignorance and bigotry of +the mass be true, I doubt their capacity to understand and to support +a free government; and fear that their emancipation from the foreign +tyranny of Spain, will result in a military despotism at home. +Palacios may be great; others may be great; but it is the multitude +which possess force: and wisdom must yield to that. For such a +condition of society, the constitution you have devised is probably +the best imaginable. It is certainly calculated to elicit the best +talents; although perhaps not well guarded against the egoism of its +functionaries. But that egoism will be light in comparison with the +pressure of a military despot, and his army of Janissaries. Like +Solon to the Athenians, you have given to your Columbians, not the +best possible government, but the best they can bear. By-the-bye, I +wish you had called them the Columbian republics, to distinguish them +from our American republics. Theirs would be the most honorable +name, and they best entitled to it; for Columbus discovered their +continent, but never saw ours. + + To them liberty and happiness; to you the meed of wisdom and +goodness in teaching them how to attain them, with the affectionate +respect and friendship of, + + + CAPTAIN LEWIS'S PAPERS + + _To Correa da Serra_ + _Poplar Forest, April 26, 1816_ + + DEAR SIR -- Your favor of Mar. 29. was recieved just as I was +setting out for this place. I brought it with me to be answered +hence. Since you are so kind as to interest yourself for Capt. +Lewis's papers, I will give you a full statement of them. + + + 1. Ten or twelve such pocket volumes, Morocco bound, as that +you describe, in which, in his own hand writing, he had journalised +all occurences, day by day, as he travelled. They were small 8vos +and opened at the end for more convenient writing. Every one had +been put into a separate tin case, cemented to prevent injury from +wet. But on his return the cases, I presume, had been taken from +them, as he delivered me the books uncased. There were in them the +figures of some animals drawn with the pen while on his journey. The +gentlemen who published his travels must have had these Ms. volumes, +and perhaps now have them, or can give some account of them. + + 2. Descriptions of animals and plants. I do not recollect +whether there was such a book or collection of papers, distinct from +his journal; altho' I am inclined to think there was one: because his +travels as published, do not contain all the new animals of which he +had either descriptions or specimens. Mr. Peale, I think, must know +something of this, as he drew figures of some of the animals for +engraving, and some were actually engraved. Perhaps Conrad, his +bookseller, who was to have published the work, can give an account +of these. + + 3. Vocabularies. I had myself made a collection of about 40. +vocabularies of the Indians on this side of the Missisipi, and Capt. +Lewis was instructed to take those of every tribe beyond, which he +possibly could: the intention was to publish the whole, and leave the +world to search for affinities between these and the languages of +Europe and Asia. He was furnished with a number of printed +vocabularies of the same words and form I had used, with blank spaces +for the Indian words. He was very attentive to this instruction, +never missing an opportunity of taking a vocabulary. After his +return, he asked me if I should have any objection to the printing +his separately, as mine were not yet arranged as I intended. I +assured him I had not the least; and I am certain he contemplated +their publication. But whether he had put the papers out of his own +hand or not, I do not know. I imagine he had not: and it is probable +that Doctr. Barton, who was particularly curious on this subject, and +published on it occasionally, would willingly recieve and take care +of these papers after Capt. Lewis's death, and that they are now +among his papers. + + + 4. His observations of longitude and latitude. He was +instructed to send these to the war-office, that measures might be +taken to have the calculations made. Whether he delivered them to +the war-office, or to Dr. Patterson, I do not know; but I think he +communicated with Dr. Patterson concerning them. These are +all-important: because altho', having with him the Nautical almanacs, +he could & did calculate some of his latitudes, yet the longitudes +were taken merely from estimates by the log-line, time and course. +So that it is only as to latitudes that his map may be considered as +tolerably correct; not as to its longitudes. + + 5. His Map. This was drawn on sheets of paper, not put +together, but so marked that they could be joined together with the +utmost accuracy; not as one great square map, but ramifying with the +courses of the rivers. The scale was very large, and the sheets +numerous, but in perfect preservation. This was to await +publication, until corrected by the calculations of longitude and +latitude. I examined these sheets myself minutely, as spread on the +floor, and the originals must be in existence, as the Map published +with his travels must have been taken from them. + + These constitute the whole. They are the property of the +government, the fruits of the expedition undertaken at such expense +of money and risk of valuable lives. They contain exactly the whole +of the information which it was our object to obtain for the benefit +of our own country and of the world. But we were willing to give to +Lewis and Clarke whatever pecuniary benefits might be derived from +the publication, and therefore left the papers in their hands, taking +for granted that their interests would produce a speedy publication, +which would be better if done under their direction. But the death +of Capt. Lewis, the distance and occupations of General Clarke, and +the bankruptcy of their bookseller, have retarded the publication, +and rendered necessary that the government should attend to the +reclamation & security of their papers. Their recovery is now become +an imperious duty. Their safest deposit as fast as they can be +collected, will be the Philosophical Society, who no doubt will be so +kind as to receive and preserve them, subject to the orders of +government; and their publication, once effected in any way, the +originals will probably be left in the same deposit. As soon as I +can learn their present situation, I will lay the matter before the +government to take such order as they think proper. As to any claims +of individuals to these papers, it is to be observed that, as being +the property of the public, we are certain neither Lewis nor Clarke +would undertake to convey away the right to them, and that they could +not convey them, had they been capable of intending it. Yet no +interest of that kind is meant to be disturbed, if the individual can +give satisfactory assurance that he will promptly & properly publish +them. Otherwise they must be restored to the government, & the +claimant left to settle with those on whom he has any claim. My +interference will, I trust, be excused, not only from the portion +which every citizen has in whatever is public, but from the peculiar +part I have had in the design and execution of this expedition. + + To you, my friend, apology is due for involving you in the +trouble of this inquiry. It must be found in the interest you take +in whatever belongs to science, and in your own kind offers to me of +aid in this research. Be assured always of my affectionate +friendship and respect. + + + THE TEST OF REPUBLICANISM + + _To John Taylor_ + _Monticello, May 28, 1816_ + + DEAR SIR, -- On my return from a long journey and considerable +absence from home, I found here the copy of your "Enquiry into the +principles of our government," which you had been so kind as to send +me; and for which I pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties +of getting new works in our situation, inland and without a single +bookstore, are such as had prevented my obtaining a copy before; and +letters which had accumulated during my absence, and were calling for +answers, have not yet permitted me to give to the whole a thorough +reading; yet certain that you and I could not think differently on +the fundamentals of rightful government, I was impatient, and availed +myself of the intervals of repose from the writing table, to obtain a +cursory idea of the body of the work. + + + I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which +should confirm our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of +our constitution, and fix our attention on what is yet to be made +good. The sixth section on the good moral principles of our +government, I found so interesting and replete with sound principles, +as to postpone my letter-writing to its thorough perusal and +consideration. Besides much other good matter, it settles +unanswerably the right of instructing representatives, and their duty +to obey. The system of banking we have both equally and ever +reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our +constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, +which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping +away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. +Funding I consider as limited, rightfully, to a redemption of the +debt within the lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; +every generation coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the +world, to the free possession of the earth he made for their +subsistence, unincumbered by their predecessors, who, like them, were +but tenants for life. You have successfully and completely +pulverized Mr. Adams' system of orders, and his opening the mantle of +republicanism to every government of laws, whether consistent or not +with natural right. Indeed, it must be acknowledged, that the term +_republic_ is of very vague application in every language. Witness +the self-styled republics of Holland, Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, +Poland. Were I to assign to this term a precise and definite idea, I +would say, purely and simply, it means a government by its citizens +in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules +established by the majority; and that every other government is more +or less republican, in proportion as it has in its composition more +or less of this ingredient of the direct action of the citizens. +Such a government is evidently restrained to very narrow limits of +space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable beyond the +extent of a New England township. The first shade from this pure +element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life of +itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided, +should be exercised each by representatives chosen either _pro hac +vice_, or for such short terms as should render secure the duty of +expressing the will of their constituents. This I should consider as +the nearest approach to a pure republic, which is practicable on a +large scale of country or population. And we have examples of it in +some of our States constitutions, which, if not poisoned by +priest-craft, would prove its excellence over all mixtures with other +elements; and, with only equal doses of poison, would still be the +best. Other shades of republicanism may be found in other forms of +government, where the executive, judiciary and legislative functions, +and the different branches of the latter, are chosen by the people +more or less directly, for longer terms of years or for life, or made +hereditary; or where there are mixtures of authorities, some +dependent on, and others independent of the people. The further the +departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less +has the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none +where the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &c., or +self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion +as the life continues in being after the act of election. + + The purest republican feature in the government of our own +State, is the House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the +first year, less the second, and so on. The Executive still less, +because not chosen by the people directly. The Judiciary seriously +anti-republican, because for life; and the national arm wielded, as +you observe, by military leaders irresponsible but to themselves. +Add to this the vicious constitution of our county courts (to whom +the justice, the executive administration, the taxation, police, the +military appointments of the county, and nearly all our daily +concerns are confided), self-appointed, self-continued, holding their +authorities for life, and with an impossibility of breaking in on the +perpetual succession of any faction once possessed of the bench. +They are in truth, the executive, the judiciary, and the military of +their respective counties, and the sum of the counties makes the +State. And add, also, that one half of our brethren who fight and +pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the rights of +representation, as if society were instituted for the soil, and not +for the men inhabiting it; or one half of these could dispose of the +rights and the will of the other half, without their consent. + + + "What constitutes a State? + Not high-raised battlements, or labor'd mound, + Thick wall, or moated gate; + Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd; + No: men, high minded men; + Men, who their duties know; + But know their rights; and knowing, dare maintain. + These constitute a State." + + In the General Government, the House of Representatives is +mainly republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by +the people directly, and so long secured even against those who do +elect them; the Executive more republican than the Senate, from its +shorter term, its election by the people, in _practice_, (for they +vote for A only on an assurance that he will vote for B,) and +because, _in practice also_, a principle of rotation seems to be in a +course of establishment; the judiciary independent of the nation, +their coercion by impeachment being found nugatory. + + If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their +government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know +no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much +less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other +words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, +than their rights and their interests require. And this I ascribe, +not to any want of republican dispositions in those who formed these +constitutions, but to a submission of true principle to European +authorities, to speculators on government, whose fears of the people +have been inspired by the populace of their own great cities, and +were unjustly entertained against the independent, the happy, and +therefore orderly citizens of the United States. Much I apprehend +that the golden moment is past for reforming these heresies. The +functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions +to abridge it, and an unorganized call for timely amendment is not +likely to prevail against an organized opposition to it. We are +always told that things are going on well; why change them? _"Chi +sta bene, non si muove,"_ said the Italian, "let him who stands well, +stand still." This is true; and I verily believe they would go on +well with us under an absolute monarch, while our present character +remains, of order, industry and love of peace, and restrained, as he +would be, by the proper spirit of the people. But it is while it +remains such, we should provide against the consequences of its +deterioration. And let us rest in the hope that it will yet be done, +and spare ourselves the pain of evils which may never happen. + + On this view of the import of the term _republic_, instead of +saying, as has been said, "that it may mean anything or nothing," we +may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less +republican as they have more or less of the element of popular +election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, +that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own +rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of +the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their +agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in +it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, +that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; +and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, +under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large +scale. + + I salute you with constant friendship and respect. + + + REFORM OF THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION + + _To Samuel Kercheval_ + _Monticello, July 12, 1816_ + + SIR, -- I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the +copy of the letters on the calling a convention, on which you are +pleased to ask my opinion. I have not been in the habit of +mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions +within my own doublet. On the contrary, while in public service +especially, I thought the public entitled to frankness, and +intimately to know whom they employed. But I am now retired: I +resign myself, as a passenger, with confidence to those at present at +the helm, and ask but for rest, peace and good will. The question +you propose, on equal representation, has become a party one, in +which I wish to take no public share. Yet, if it be asked for your +own satisfaction only, and not to be quoted before the public, I have +no motive to withhold it, and the less from you, as it coincides with +your own. At the birth of our republic, I committed that opinion to +the world, in the draught of a constitution annexed to the "Notes on +Virginia," in which a provision was inserted for a representation +permanently equal. The infancy of the subject at that moment, and +our inexperience of self-government, occasioned gross departures in +that draught from genuine republican canons. In truth, the abuses of +monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, +that we imagined everything republican which was not monarchy. We +had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that "governments are +republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their +people, and execute it." Hence, our first constitutions had really no +leading principles in them. But experience and reflection have but +more and more confirmed me in the particular importance of the equal +representation then proposed. On that point, then, I am entirely in +sentiment with your letters; and only lament that a copy-right of +your pamphlet prevents their appearance in the newspapers, where +alone they would be generally read, and produce general effect. The +present vacancy too, of other matter, would give them place in every +paper, and bring the question home to every man's conscience. + + But inequality of representation in both Houses of our +legislature, is not the only republican heresy in this first essay of +our revolutionary patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be +agreed that a government is republican in proportion as every member +composing it has his equal voice in the direction of its concerns +(not indeed in person, which would be impracticable beyond the limits +of a city, or small township, but) by representatives chosen by +himself, and responsible to him at short periods, and let us bring to +the test of this canon every branch of our constitution. + + In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by +less than half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who +do choose. The Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long +terms of irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is +entirely independent of the choice of the people, and of their +control; his Council equally so, and at best but a fifth wheel to a +wagon. In the Judiciary, the judges of the highest courts are +dependent on none but themselves. In England, where judges were +named and removable at the will of an hereditary executive, from +which branch most misrule was feared, and has flowed, it was a great +point gained, by fixing them for life, to make them independent of +that executive. But in a government founded on the public will, this +principle operates in an opposite direction, and against that will. +There, too, they were still removable on a concurrence of the +executive and legislative branches. But we have made them +independent of the nation itself. They are irremovable, but by their +own body, for any depravities of conduct, and even by their own body +for the imbecilities of dotage. The justices of the inferior courts +are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own body in +succession forever, so that a faction once possessing themselves of +the bench of a county, can never be broken up, but hold their county +in chains, forever indissoluble. Yet these justices are the real +executive as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary +concerns. They tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most +important of all the executive officers of the county; name nearly +all our military leaders, which leaders, once named, are removable +but by themselves. The juries, our judges of all fact, and of law +when they choose it, are not selected by the people, nor amenable to +them. They are chosen by an officer named by the court and +executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up by the sheriff from the +loungings of the court yard, after everything respectable has retired +from it. Where then is our republicanism to be found? Not in our +constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of our people. That +would oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly. Owing to this +spirit, and to nothing in the form of our constitution, all things +have gone well. But this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by the +enemies of reformation, is not the fruit of our constitution, but has +prevailed in spite of it. Our functionaries have done well, because +generally honest men. If any were not so, they feared to show it. + + But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend +them. I do not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. +Only lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not +be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the +croakings of wealth against the ascendency of the people. If +experience be called for, appeal to that of our fifteen or twenty +governments for forty years, and show me where the people have done +half the mischief in these forty years, that a single despot would +have done in a single year; or show half the riots and rebellions, +the crimes and the punishments, which have taken place in any single +nation, under kingly government, during the same period. The true +foundation of republican government is the equal right of every +citizen, in his person and property, and in their management. Try by +this, as a tally, every provision of our constitution, and see if it +hangs directly on the will of the people. Reduce your legislature to +a convenient number for full, but orderly discussion. Let every man +who fights or pays, exercise his just and equal right in their +election. Submit them to approbation or rejection at short +intervals. Let the executive be chosen in the same way, and for the +same term, by those whose agent he is to be; and leave no screen of a +council behind which to skulk from responsibility. It has been +thought that the people are not competent electors of judges _learned +in the law_. But I do not know that this is true, and, if doubtful, +we should follow principle. In this, as in many other elections, +they would be guided by reputation, which would not err oftener, +perhaps, than the present mode of appointment. In one State of the +Union, at least, it has long been tried, and with the most +satisfactory success. The judges of Connecticut have been chosen by +the people every six months, for nearly two centuries, and I believe +there has hardly ever been an instance of change; so powerful is the +curb of incessant responsibility. If prejudice, however, derived +from a monarchical institution, is still to prevail against the vital +elective principle of our own, and if the existing example among +ourselves of periodical election of judges by the people be still +mistrusted, let us at least not adopt the evil, and reject the good, +of the English precedent; let us retain amovability on the +concurrence of the executive and legislative branches, and nomination +by the executive alone. Nomination to office is an executive +function. To give it to the legislature, as we do, is a violation of +the principle of the separation of powers. It swerves the members +from correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office themselves, +and to a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys responsibility by +dividing it among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper +place, among executive functions, the principle of the distribution +of power is preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest +force on a single head. + + The organization of our county administrations may be thought +more difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself. +Divide the counties into wards of such size as that every citizen can +attend, when called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them the +government of their wards in all things relating to themselves +exclusively. A justice, chosen by themselves, in each, a constable, +a military company, a patrol, a school, the care of their own poor, +their own portion of the public roads, the choice of one or more +jurors to serve in some court, and the delivery, within their own +wards, of their own votes for all elective officers of higher sphere, +will relieve the county administration of nearly all its business, +will have it better done, and by making every citizen an acting +member of the government, and in the offices nearest and most +interesting to him, will attach him by his strongest feelings to the +independence of his country, and its republican constitution. The +justices thus chosen by every ward, would constitute the county +court, would do its judiciary business, direct roads and bridges, +levy county and poor rates, and administer all the matters of common +interest to the whole country. These wards, called townships in New +England, are the vital principle of their governments, and have +proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man +for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its +preservation. We should thus marshal our government into, 1, the +general federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal; 2, +that of the State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively; +3, the county republics, for the duties and concerns of the county; +and 4, the ward republics, for the small, and yet numerous and +interesting concerns of the neighborhood; and in government, as well +as in every other business of life, it is by division and subdivision +of duties alone, that all matters, great and small, can be managed to +perfection. And the whole is cemented by giving to every citizen, +personally, a part in the administration of the public affairs. + + The sum of these amendments is, 1. General Suffrage. 2. Equal +representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen by the +people. 4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices, jurors, and +sheriffs elective. 6. Ward divisions. And 7. Periodical amendments +of the constitution. + + I have thrown out these as loose heads of amendment, for +consideration and correction; and their object is to secure +self-government by the republicanism of our constitution, as well as +by the spirit of the people; and to nourish and perpetuate that +spirit. I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the +rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve +their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual +debt. We must make our election between _economy and liberty_, or +_profusion and servitude_. If we run into such debts, as that we +must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and +our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and +our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must +come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of +fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily +expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we +must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to +think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to +obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the +necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our landholders, too, like theirs, +retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, +but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, +in foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, +and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary +lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by +private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human +governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a +precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the +bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and +to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then +begins, indeed, the _bellum omnium in omnia_, which some philosophers +observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the +natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of +this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in +its train wretchedness and oppression. + + Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, +and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. +They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than +human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that +age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of +its country. It was very like the present, but without the +experience of the present; and forty years of experience in +government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would +say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not +an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and +constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne +with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and +find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know +also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the +progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more +enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and +manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, +institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We +might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him +when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of +their barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has +lately deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely +yielding to the gradual change of circumstances, of favoring +progressive accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to +old abuses, entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged +their subjects to seek through blood and violence rash and ruinous +innovations, which, had they been referred to the peaceful +deliberations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have been put +into acceptable and salutary forms. Let us follow no such examples, +nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another +of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs. Let us, +as our sister States have done, avail ourselves of our reason and +experience, to correct the crude essays of our first and +unexperienced, although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning councils. +And lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its revision at +stated periods. What these periods should be, nature herself +indicates. By the European tables of mortality, of the adults living +at any one moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen +years. At the end of that period, then, a new majority is come into +place; or, in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as +independent as the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone +before. It has then, like them, a right to choose for itself the +form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness; +consequently, to accommodate to the circumstances in which it finds +itself, that received from its predecessors; and it is for the peace +and good of mankind, that a solemn opportunity of doing this every +nineteen or twenty years, should be provided by the constitution; so +that it may be handed on, with periodical repairs, from generation to +generation, to the end of time, if anything human can so long endure. +It is now forty years since the constitution of Virginia was formed. +The same tables inform us, that, within that period, two-thirds of +the adults then living are now dead. Have then the remaining third, +even if they had the wish, the right to hold in obedience to their +will, and to laws heretofore made by them, the other two-thirds, who, +with themselves, compose the present mass of adults? If they have +not, who has? The dead? But the dead have no rights. They are +nothing; and nothing cannot own something. Where there is no +substance, there can be no accident. This corporeal globe, and +everything upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants, +during their generation. They alone have a right to direct what is +the concern of themselves alone, and to declare the law of that +direction; and this declaration can only be made by their majority. +That majority, then, has a right to depute representatives to a +convention, and to make the constitution what they think will be the +best for themselves. But how collect their voice? This is the real +difficulty. If invited by private authority, or county or district +meetings, these divisions are so large that few will attend; and +their voice will be imperfectly, or falsely pronounced. Here, then, +would be one of the advantages of the ward divisions I have proposed. +The mayor of every ward, on a question like the present, would call +his ward together, take the simple yea or nay of its members, convey +these to the county court, who would hand on those of all its wards +to the proper general authority; and the voice of the whole people +would be thus fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed, discussed, and +decided by the common reason of the society. If this avenue be shut +to the call of sufferance, it will make itself heard through that of +force, and we shall go on, as other nations are doing, in the endless +circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and oppression, +rebellion, reformation, again; and so on forever. + + These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among +men, and of the principles by which alone we may prevent our own from +falling into the same dreadful track. I have given them at greater +length than your letter called for. But I cannot say things by +halves; and I confide them to your honor, so to use them as to +preserve me from the gridiron of the public papers. If you shall +approve and enforce them, as you have done that of equal +representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them to yourself +as the effusions of withered age and useless time. I shall, with not +the less truth, assure you of my great respect and consideration. + + + "NEVER AN INFIDEL, IF NEVER A PRIEST" + + _To Mrs. Samuel H. Smith_ + _Monticello, August 6, 1816_ + + I have received, dear Madam, your very friendly letter of July +21st, and assure you that I feel with deep sensibility its kind +expressions towards myself, and the more as from a person than whom +no others could be more in sympathy with my own affections. I often +call to mind the occasions of knowing your worth, which the societies +of Washington furnished; and none more than those derived from your +much valued visit to Monticello. I recognize the same motives of +goodness in the solicitude you express on the rumor supposed to +proceed from a letter of mine to Charles Thomson, on the subject of +the Christian religion. It is true that, in writing to the +translator of the Bible and Testament, that subject was mentioned; +but equally so that no adherence to any particular mode of +Christianity was there expressed, nor any change of opinions +suggested. A change from what? the priests indeed have heretofore +thought proper to ascribe to me religious, or rather anti-religious +sentiments, of their own fabric, but such as soothed their +resentments against the act of Virginia for establishing religious +freedom. They wished him to be thought atheist, deist, or devil, who +could advocate freedom from their religious dictations. But I have +ever thought religion a concern purely between our God and our +consciences, for which we were accountable to him, and not to the +priests. I never told my own religion, nor scrutinized that of +another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change +another's creed. I have ever judged of the religion of others by +their lives, and by this test, my dear Madam, I have been satisfied +yours must be an excellent one, to have produced a life of such +exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not +from our words, that our religion must be read. By the same test the +world must judge me. But this does not satisfy the priesthood. They +must have a positive, a declared assent to all their interested +absurdities. My opinion is that there would never have been an +infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures +they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose +of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for +themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there. +These, therefore, they brand with such nick-names as their enmity +chooses gratuitously to impute. I have left the world, in silence, +to judge of causes from their effects; and I am consoled in this +course, my dear friend, when I perceive the candor with which I am +judged by your justice and discernment; and that, notwithstanding the +slanders of the saints, my fellow citizens have thought me worthy of +trusts. The imputations of irreligion having spent their force; they +think an imputation of change might now be turned to account as a +holster for their duperies. I shall leave them, as heretofore, to +grope on in the dark. + + + Our family at Monticello is all in good health; Ellen speaking +of you with affection, and Mrs. Randolph always regretting the +accident which so far deprived her of the happiness of your former +visit. She still cherishes the hope of some future renewal of that +kindness; in which we all join her, as in the assurances of +affectionate attachment and respect. + + + HORIZONTAL PLOUGHING + + _To Tristam Dalton_ + _Monticello, May 2, 1817_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I am indebted to you for your favor of Apr. 22, +and for the copy of the Agricultural magazine it covered, which is +indeed a very useful work. While I was an amateur in Agricultural +science (for practical knolege my course of life never permitted me) +I was very partial to the drilled husbandry of Tull, and thought +still better of it when reformed by Young to 12 rows. But I had not +time to try it while young, and now grown old I have not the +requisite activity either of body or mind. + + With respect to field culture of vegetables for cattle, instead +of the carrot and potato recommended by yourself and the magazine, & +the best of others, we find the Jerusalem artichoke best for winter, +& the Succory for Summer use. This last was brought over from France +to England by Arthur Young, as you will see in his travels thro' +France, & some of the seed sent by him to Genl. Washington, who +spared me a part of it. It is as productive as the Lucerne, without +its laborious culture, & indeed without any culture except the +keeping it clean the first year. The Jerusalem artichoke far exceeds +the potato in produce, and remains in the ground thro' the winter to +be dug as wanted. A method of ploughing over hill sides +horizontally, introduced into the most hilly part of our country by +Colo. T. M. Randolph, my son in law, may be worth mentioning to you. +He has practised it a dozen or 15 years, and it's advantages were so +immediately observed that it has already become very general, and has +entirely changed and renovated the face of our country. Every rain, +before that, while it gave a temporary refreshment, did permanent +evil by carrying off our soil: and fields were no sooner cleared than +wasted. At present we may say that we lose none of our soil, the +rain not absorbed in the moment of it's fall being retained in the +hollows between the beds until it can be absorbed. Our practice is +when we first enter on this process, with a rafter level of 10 f. +span, to lay off guide lines conducted horizontally around the hill +or valley from one end to the other of the field, and about 30 yards +apart. The steps of the level on the ground are marked by a stroke +of a hoe, and immediately followed by a plough to preserve the trace. +A man or a lad, with the level, and two small boys, the one with +sticks, the other with the hoe, will do an acre of this in an hour, +and when once done it is forever done. We generally level a field +the year it is put into Indian corn laying it into beds of 6 ft. +wide, with a large water furrow between the beds, until all the +fields have been once leveled. The intermediate furrows are run by +the eye of the ploughman governed by these guide lines, & occasion +gores which are thrown into short beds. As in ploughing very steep +hill sides horizontally the common ploughman can scarcely throw the +furrow uphill, Colo. Randolph has contrived a very simple alteration +of the share, which throws the furrow down hill both going and +coming. It is as if two shares were welded together at their +straight side, and at a right angle with each other. This turns on +it's bar as on a pivot, so as to lay either share horizontal, when +the other becoming verticle acts as a mould board. This is done by +the ploughman in an instant by a single motion of the hand, at the +end of every furrow. I enclose a bit of paper cut into the form of +the double share, which being opened at the fold to a right angle, +will give an idea of it's general principle. Horizontal and deep +ploughing, with the use of plaister and clover, which are but +beginning to be used here will, as we believe, restore this part of +our country to it's original fertility, which was exceeded by no +upland in the state. Believing that some of these things might be +acceptable to you I have hazarded them as testimonials of my great +esteem & respect. + + + ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS + + _To Lafayette_ + _Monticello, May 14, 1817_ + + Although, dear Sir, much retired from the world, and meddling +little in its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to +salute at times my old friends, were it only to say and to know that +"all's well." Our hobby has been politics; but all here is so quiet, +and with you so desperate, that little matter is furnished us for +active attention. With you too, it has long been forbidden ground, +and therefore imprudent for a foreign friend to tread, in writing to +you. But although our speculations might be intrusive, our prayers +cannot but be acceptable, and mine are sincerely offered for the +well-being of France. What government she can bear, depends not on +the state of science, however exalted, in a select band of +enlightened men, but on the condition of the general mind. That, I +am sure, is advanced and will advance; and the last change of +government was fortunate, inasmuch as the new will be less +obstructive to the effects of that advancement. For I consider your +foreign military oppressions as an ephemeral obstacle only. + + Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt; but +that is a cheap price for the good it has done us. The establishment +of the necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof that our +government is solid, can stand the shock of war, and is superior even +to civil schism, are precious facts for us; and of these the +strongest proofs were furnished, when, with four eastern States tied +to us, as dead to living bodies, all doubt was removed as to the +achievements of the war, had it continued. But its best effect has +been the complete suppression of party. The federalists who were +truly American, and their great mass was so, have separated from +their brethren who were mere Anglomen, and are received with +cordiality into the republican ranks. Even Connecticut, as a State, +and the last one expected to yield its steady habits (which were +essentially bigoted in politics as well as religion), has chosen a +republican governor, and republican legislature. Massachusetts +indeed still lags; because most deeply involved in the parricide +crimes and treasons of the war. But her gangrene is contracting, the +sound flesh advancing on it, and all there will be well. I mentioned +Connecticut as the most hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had +escaped my attention. That is essentially a Quaker State, the +fragment of a religious sect which, there, in the other States, in +England, are a homogeneous mass, acting with one mind, and that +directed by the mother society in England. Dispersed, as the Jews, +they still form, as those do, one nation, foreign to the land they +live in. They are Protestant Jesuits, implicitly devoted to the will +of their superior, and forgetting all duties to their country in the +execution of the policy of their order. When war is proposed with +England, they have religious scruples; but when with France, these +are laid by, and they become clamorous for it. They are, however, +silent, passive, and give no other trouble than of whipping them +along. Nor is the election of Monroe an inefficient circumstance in +our felicities. Four and twenty years, which he will accomplish, of +administration in republican forms and principles, will so consecrate +them in the eyes of the people as to secure them against the danger +of change. The evanition of party dissensions has harmonized +intercourse, and sweetened society beyond imagination. The war then +has done us all this good, and the further one of assuring the world, +that although attached to peace from a sense of its blessings, we +will meet war when it is made necessary. + + I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The +achievement of their independence of Spain is no longer a question. +But it is a very serious one, what will then become of them? +Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of +self-government. They will fall under military despotism, and become +the murderous tools of the ambition of their respective Bonapartes; +and whether this will be for their greater happiness, the rule of one +only has taught you to judge. No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to +see them and all mankind exercising self-government, and capable of +exercising it. But the question is not what we wish, but what is +practicable? As their sincere friend and brother then, I do believe +the best thing for them, would be for themselves to come to an accord +with Spain, under the guarantee of France, Russia, Holland, and the +United States, allowing to Spain a nominal supremacy, with authority +only to keep the peace among them, leaving them otherwise all the +powers of self-government, until their experience in them, their +emancipation from their priests, and advancement in information, +shall prepare them for complete independence. I exclude England from +this confederacy, because her selfish principles render her incapable +of honorable patronage or disinterested co-operation; unless, indeed, +what seems now probable, a revolution should restore to her an honest +government, one which will permit the world to live in peace. +Portugal, grasping at an extension of her dominion in the south, has +lost her great northern province of Pernambuco, and I shall not +wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and send their royal family +back to Portugal. Brazil is more populous, more wealthy, more +energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly led, my +dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of +sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that +these are matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who +have still many years to be a spectator of these events. That these +years may indeed be many and happy, is the sincere prayer of your +affectionate friend. + + + "THE FLATTERIES OF HOPE" + + _To Fransois de Marbois_ + _Monticello, June 14, 1817_ + + I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy of the interesting +narrative of the Complet d'Arnold, which you have been so kind as to +send me. It throws light on that incident of history which we did +not possess before. An incident which merits to be known as a lesson +to mankind, in all its details. This mark of your attention recalls +to my mind the earlier period of life at which I had the pleasure of +your personal acquaintance, and renews the sentiments of high respect +and esteem with which that acquaintance inspired me. I had not +failed to accompany your personal sufferings during the civil +convulsions of your country, and had sincerely sympathized with them. +An awful period, indeed, has passed in Europe since our first +acquaintance. When I left France at the close of '89, your +revolution was, as I thought, under the direction of able and honest +men. But the madness of some of their successors, the vices of +others, the malicious intrigues of an envious and corrupting +neighbor, the tracasserie of the Directory, the usurpations, the +havoc, and devastations of your Attila, and the equal usurpations, +depredations and oppressions of your hypocritical deliverers, will +form a mournful period in the history of man, a period of which the +last chapter will not be seen in your day or mine, and one which I +still fear is to be written in characters of blood. Had Bonaparte +reflected that such is the moral construction of the world, that no +national crime passes unpunished in the long run, he would not now be +in the cage of St. Helena; and were your present oppressors to +reflect on the same truth, they would spare to their own countries +the penalties on their present wrongs which will be inflicted on them +on future times. The seeds of hatred and revenge which they are now +sowing with a large hand, will not fail to produce their fruits in +time. Like their brother robbers on the highway, they suppose the +escape of the moment a final escape, and deem infamy and future risk +countervailed by present gain. Our lot has been happier. When you +witnessed our first struggles in the war of independence, you little +calculated, more than we did, on the rapid growth and prosperity of +this country; on the practical demonstration it was about to exhibit, +of the happy truth that man is capable of self-government, and only +rendered otherwise by the moral degradation designedly superinduced +on him by the wicked acts of his tyrants. + + I have much confidence that we shall proceed successfully for +ages to come, and that, contrary to the principle of Montesquieu, it +will be seen that the larger the extent of country, the more firm its +republican structure, if founded, not on conquest, but in principles +of compact and equality. My hope of its duration is built much on +the enlargement of the resources of life going hand in hand with the +enlargement of territory, and the belief that men are disposed to +live honestly, if the means of doing so are open to them. With the +consolation of this belief in the future result of our labors, I have +that of other prophets who foretell distant events, that I shall not +live to see it falsified. My theory has always been, that if we are +to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter than +the gloom of despair. I wish to yourself a long life of honors, +health and happiness. + + + FEMALE EDUCATION + + _To Nathaniel Burwell_ + _Monticello, March 14, 1818_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of February 17th found me suffering +under an attack of rheumatism, which has but now left me at +sufficient ease to attend to the letters I have received. A plan of +female education has never been a subject of systematic contemplation +with me. It has occupied my attention so far only as the education +of my own daughters occasionally required. Considering that they +would be placed in a country situation, where little aid could be +obtained from abroad, I thought it essential to give them a solid +education, which might enable them, when become mothers, to educate +their own daughters, and even to direct the course for sons, should +their fathers be lost, or incapable, or inattentive. My surviving +daughter accordingly, the mother of many daughters as well as sons, +has made their education the object of her life, and being a better +judge of the practical part than myself, it is with her aid and that +of one of her eleves that I shall subjoin a catalogue of the books +for such a course of reading as we have practiced. + + A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion +prevalent for novels, and the time lost in that reading which should +be instructively employed. When this poison infects the mind, it +destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome reading. Reason +and fact, plain and unadorned, are rejected. Nothing can engage +attention unless dressed in all the figments of fancy, and nothing so +bedecked comes amiss. The result is a bloated imagination, sickly +judgment, and disgust towards all the real businesses of life. This +mass of trash, however, is not without some distinction; some few +modelling their narratives, although fictitious, on the incidents of +real life, have been able to make them interesting and useful +vehicles of sound morality. Such, I think, are Marmontel's new moral +tales, but not his old ones, which are really immoral. Such are the +writings of Miss Edgeworth, and some of those of Madame Genlis. For +a like reason, too, much poetry should not be indulged. Some is +useful for forming style and taste. Pope, Dryden, Thompson, +Shakspeare, and of the French, Moliere, Racine, the Corneilles, may +be read with pleasure and improvement. + + The French language, become that of the general intercourse of +nations, and from their extraordinary advances, now the depository of +all science, is an indispensable part of education for both sexes. +In the subjoined catalogue, therefore, I have placed the books of +both languages indifferently, according as the one or the other +offers what is best. + + The ornaments too, and the amusements of life, are entitled to +their portion of attention. These, for a female, are dancing, +drawing, and music. The first is a healthy exercise, elegant and +very attractive for young people. Every affectionate parent would be +pleased to see his daughter qualified to participate with her +companions, and without awkwardness at least, in the circles of +festivity, of which she occasionally becomes a part. It is a +necessary accomplishment, therefore, although of short use, for the +French rule is wise, that no lady dances after marriage. This is +founded in solid physical reasons, gestation and nursing leaving +little time to a married lady when this exercise can be either safe +or innocent. Drawing is thought less of in this country than in +Europe. It is an innocent and engaging amusement, often useful, and +a qualification not to be neglected in one who is to become a mother +and an instructor. Music is invaluable where a person has an ear. +Where they have not, it should not be attempted. It furnishes a +delightful recreation for the hours of respite from the cares of the +day, and lasts us through life. The taste of this country, too, +calls for this accomplishment more strongly than for either of the +others. + + I need say nothing of household economy, in which the mothers +of our country are generally skilled, and generally careful to +instruct their daughters. We all know its value, and that diligence +and dexterity in all its processes are inestimable treasures. The +order and economy of a house are as honorable to the mistress as +those of the farm to the master, and if either be neglected, ruin +follows, and children destitute of the means of living. + + This, Sir, is offered as a summary sketch on a subject on which +I have not thought much. It probably contains nothing but what has +already occurred to yourself, and claims your acceptance on no other +ground than as a testimony of my respect for your wishes, and of my +great esteem and respect. + + + THE CLASSICAL PRESS + + _To Wells and Lilly_ + _Monticello, April 1, 1818_ + + You must have thought me very tardy in acknoleging the receipt +of your letter of Jan. 13. and in returning my thanks, which I now +do, for the very handsome copy of Cicero's works from your press, +which you have been so kind as to present me. I waited first the +receipt of that and the books accompanying it, but I happened at the +time of their arrival to be reading the 5th book of Cicero's +Tusculans, which I followed by that of his Offices, and concluded to +lay aside the variorum edition, and to use yours, after which I might +write more understandingly on the subject. having been extremely +disgusted with the Philadelphia and New York Delphin editions, some +of which I had read, and altho executed with a good type on good +paper, yet so full of errors of the press as not to be worth the +paper they were printed on, I wished to see the state of the +classical press with you. their editions had on an average about one +error for every page. I read therefore the portions of your's above +mentioned with a pretty sharp eye, and in something upwards of 200. +pages I found the errors noted on the paper inclosed, being an +average of one for every 13. pages. this is a good advance on the +presses of N.Y. and Philada., and gives hopes of rapid improvements. +the errors in the Variorum editions however are fewer than these, the +Elzevirs still fewer: but the perfection of accuracy is to be found +in the folio edition of Homer by the Foulis of Glasgow. I have +understood they offered 1000 guineas for the discovery of any error +in it, even of an accent, and that the reward was never claimed. I +am glad to find you are thinking of printing Livy. there should be +no hesitation between that and Quinctilian. this last is little +wanting. we have Blair's and Adams's books which give us the +rhetoric of our own language and that of a foreign and a dead one +will interest few readers. but of Livy there is not, nor ever has +been an edition meriting the name of an editio optima. the Delphin +edition might have been, but for it's numerous errors of the press, +and unmanageable size in 4to. it's notes are valuable, and it has +the whole of Freinsheim's supplement with the marginal references to +his authorities. Clerk's edition is of a handy size, has the whole +of Freinsheim, but without the references, which we often wish to +turn to, and it is without notes. the late Paris edition of La Malle +has only the supplement of the 2d decad and no notes. I possess +these two last mentioned editions, but would gladly become a +subscriber to such a one as I describe, that is to say, an 8vo +edition with the Delphin notes and all Freinsheim's supplements and +references. if correctly executed it would be the editio optima, be +called for in Europe and do us honor there. since consigning my +library to Congress I have supplied myself from Europe with most of +the classics, and of the best editions, in which I have been much +aided by mr. Ticknor, your most learned and valuable countryman. + + I make you my acknolegement for the sermon on the Unity of God, +and am glad to see our countrymen looking that question in the face. +it must end in a return to primitive christianity, and the +disbandment of the unintelligible Athanasian jargon of 3. being 1. +and 1. being 3. this sermon is one of the strongest pieces against +it. I observe you are about printing a work of Belsham's on the same +subject, for which I wish to be a subscriber, and inclose you a 5 D. +bill, there being none of fractional denominations. the surplus +therefore may stand as I shall be calling for other things. Accept +the assurance of my great respect. + + + INFLATION AND DEMORALIZATION + + _To Nathaniel Macon_ + _Monticello, January 12, 1819_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The problem you had wished to propose to me was +one which I could not have solved; for I knew nothing of the facts. +I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the +advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a +newspaper. I feel a much greater interest in knowing what has passed +two or three thousand years ago, than in what is now passing. I read +nothing, therefore, but of the heroes of Troy, of the wars of +Lacedaemon and Athens, of Pompey and Caesar, and of Augustus too, the +Bonaparte and parricide scoundrel of that day. I have had, and still +have, such entire confidence in the late and present Presidents, that +I willingly put both soul and body into their pockets. While such +men as yourself and your worthy colleagues of the legislature, and +such characters as compose the executive administration, are watching +for us all, I slumber without fear, and review in my dreams the +visions of antiquity. There is, indeed, one evil which awakens me at +times, because it jostles me at every turn. It is that we have now +no measure of value. I am asked eighteen dollars for a yard of +broadcloth, which, when we had dollars, I used to get for eighteen +shillings; from this I can only understand that a dollar is now worth +but two inches of broadcloth, but broadcloth is no standard of +measure or value. I do not know, therefore, whereabouts I stand in +the scale of property, nor what to ask, or what to give for it. I +saw, indeed, the like machinery in action in the years '80 and '81, +and without dissatisfaction; because in wearing out, it was working +out our salvation. But I see nothing in this renewal of the game of +"Robin's alive" but a general demoralization of the nation, a +filching from industry its honest earnings, wherewith to build up +palaces, and raise gambling stock for swindlers and shavers, who are +to close too their career of piracies by fraudulent bankruptcies. My +dependence for a remedy, however, is with the wisdom which grows with +time and suffering. Whether the succeeding generation is to be more +virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they +will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that +honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. I have made a +great exertion to write you thus much; my antipathy to taking up a +pen being so intense that I have never given you a stronger proof, +than in the effort of writing a letter, how much I value you, and of +the superlative respect and friendship with which I salute you. + + + HABITS OF "A HARD STUDENT" + + _To Dr. Vine Utley_ + _Monticello, March 21, 1819_ + + SIR, -- Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the +1st instant; and the request of the history of my physical habits +would have puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model +with which you accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a similar +inquiry. I live so much like other people, that I might refer to +ordinary life as the history of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, I +have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an +aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute +my principal diet. I double, however, the Doctor's glass and a half +of wine, and even treble it with a friend; but halve its effects by +drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor +do I use ardent spirits in any form. Malt liquors and cider are my +table drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of my friend, is of +tea and coffee. I have been blest with organs of digestion which +accept and concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate +chooses to consign to them, and I have not yet lost a tooth by age. +I was a hard student until I entered on the business of life, the +duties of which leave no idle time to those disposed to fulfil them; +and now, retired, and at the age of seventy-six, I am again a hard +student. Indeed, my fondness for reading and study revolts me from +the drudgery of letter writing. And a stiff wrist, the consequence +of an early dislocation, makes writing both slow and painful. I am +not so regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he was, devoting to it +from five to eight hours, according as my company or the book I am +reading interests me; and I never go to bed without an hour, or half +hour's previous reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in +the intervals of sleep. But whether I retire to bed early or late, I +rise with the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in +the day, unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in +particular conversation, but confused when several voices cross each +other, which unfits me for the society of the table. I have been +more fortunate than my friend in the article of health. So free from +catarrhs that I have not had one, (in the breast, I mean) on an +average of eight or ten years through life. I ascribe this exemption +partly to the habit of bathing my feet in cold water every morning, +for sixty years past. A fever of more than twenty-four hours I have +not had above two or three times in my life. A periodical headache +has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps, in six or eight years, +for two or three weeks at a time, which seems now to have left me; +and except on a late occasion of indisposition, I enjoy good health; +too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without fatigue six or +eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I may end these +egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has been so +much like that of other people, that I might say with Horace, to +every one _"nomine mutato, narratur fabula de te."_ I must not end, +however, without due thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you are +so good as to express towards myself; and with my acknowledgments for +these, be pleased to accept the assurances of my respect and esteem. + + + SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT + + _To Samuel Adams Wells_ + _Monticello, May 12, 1819_ + + SIR, -- An absence of some time at an occasional and distant +residence must apologize for the delay in acknowledging the receipt +of your favor of April 12th. And candor obliges me to add that it +has been somewhat extended by an aversion to writing, as well as to +calls on my memory for facts so much obliterated from it by time as +to lessen my confidence in the traces which seem to remain. One of +the inquiries in your letter, however, may be answered without an +appeal to the memory. It is that respecting the question whether +committees of correspondence originated in Virginia or Massachusetts? +On which you suppose me to have claimed it for Virginia. But +certainly I have never made such a claim. The idea, I suppose, has +been taken up from what is said in Wirt's history of Mr. Henry, p. +87, and from an inexact attention to its precise term. It is there +said "this house [of burgesses of Virginia] had the merit of +originating that powerful engine of resistance, corresponding +committees _between the legislatures_ of the _different colonies_." +That the fact as here expressed is true, your letter bears witness +when it says that the resolutions of Virginia for this purpose were +transmitted to the speakers of the different Assemblies, and by that +of Massachusetts was laid at the next session before that body, who +appointed a committee for the specified object: adding, "thus in +Massachusetts there were two committees of correspondence, one chosen +by the people, the other appointed by the House of Assembly; in the +former, Massachusetts preceded Virginia; in the latter, Virginia +preceded Massachusetts." To the origination of committees for the +interior correspondence between the counties and towns of a State, I +know of no claim on the part of Virginia; but certainly none was ever +made by myself. I perceive, however, one error into which memory had +led me. Our committee for national correspondence was appointed in +March, '73, and I well remember that going to Williamsburg in the +month of June following, Peyton Randolph, our chairman, told me that +messengers, bearing despatches between the two States, had crossed +each other by the way; that of Virginia carrying our propositions for +a committee of national correspondence, and that of Massachusetts +bringing, as my memory suggested, a similar proposition. But here I +must have misremembered; and the resolutions brought us from +Massachusetts were probably those you mention of the town meeting of +Boston, on the motion of Mr. Samuel Adams, appointing a committee "to +state the rights of the colonists, and of that province in +particular, and the infringements of them, to communicate them to the +several towns, as the sense of the town of Boston, and to request of +each town a free communication of its sentiments on this subject"? I +suppose, therefore, that these resolutions were not received, as you +think, while the House of Burgesses was in session in March, 1773; +but a few days after we rose, and were probably what was sent by the +messenger who crossed ours by the way. They may, however, have been +still different. I must therefore have been mistaken in supposing +and stating to Mr. Wirt, that the proposition of a committee for +national correspondence was nearly simultaneous in Virginia and +Massachusetts. + + A similar misapprehension of another passage in Mr. Wirt's +book, for which I am also quoted, has produced a similar reclamation +of the part of Massachusetts by some of her most distinguished and +estimable citizens. I had been applied to by Mr. Wirt for such facts +respecting Mr. Henry, as my intimacy with him, and participation in +the transactions of the day, might have placed within my knowledge. +I accordingly committed them to paper, and Virginia being the theatre +of his action, was the only subject within my contemplation, while +speaking of him. Of the resolutions and measures here, in which he +had the acknowledged lead, I used the expression that "Mr. Henry +certainly gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution." [Wirt, +p. 41.] The expression is indeed general, and in all its extension +would comprehend all the sister States. But indulgent construction +would restrain it, as was really meant, to the subject matter under +contemplation, which was Virginia alone; according to the rule of the +lawyers, and a fair canon of general criticism, that every expression +should be construed _secundum subjectam materiem_. Where the first +attack was made, there must have been of course, the first act of +resistance, and that was of Massachusetts. Our first overt act of +war was Mr. Henry's embodying a force of militia from several +counties, regularly armed and organized, marching them in military +array, and making reprisal on the King's treasury at the seat of +government for the public powder taken away by his Governor. This +was on the last days of April, 1775. Your formal battle of Lexington +was ten or twelve days before that, which greatly overshadowed in +importance, as it preceded in time our little affray, which merely +amounted to a levying of arms against the King, and very possibly you +had had military affrays before the regular battle of Lexington. + + These explanations will, I hope, assure you, Sir, that so far +as either facts or opinions have been truly quoted from me they have +never been meant to intercept the just fame of Massachusetts, for the +promptitude and perseverance of her early resistance. We willingly +cede to her the laud of having been (although not exclusively) "the +cradle of sound principles," and if some of us believe she has +deflected from them in her course, we retain full confidence in her +ultimate return to them. + + I will now proceed to your quotation from Mr. Galloway's +statements of what passed in Congress on their declaration of +independence, in which statement there is not one word of truth, and +where, bearing some resemblance to truth, it is an entire perversion +of it. I do not charge this on Mr. Galloway himself; his desertion +having taken place long before these measures, he doubtless received +his information from some of the loyal friends whom he left behind +him. But as yourself, as well as others, appear embarrassed by +inconsistent accounts of the proceedings on that memorable occasion, +and as those who have endeavored to restore the truth have themselves +committed some errors, I will give you some extracts from a written +document on that subject, for the truth of which I pledge myself to +heaven and earth; having, while the question of independence was +under consideration before Congress, taken written notes, in my seat, +of what was passing, and reduced them to form on the final +conclusion. I have now before me that paper, from which the +following are extracts: * * * + + Governor McKean, in his letter to McCorkle of July 16th, 1817, +has thrown some lights on the transactions of that day, but trusting +to his memory chiefly at an age when our memories are not to be +trusted, he has confounded two questions, and ascribed proceedings to +one which belonged to the other. These two questions were, 1. The +Virginia motion of June 7th to declare independence, and 2. The +actual declaration, its matter and form. Thus he states the question +on the declaration itself as decided on the 1st of July. But it was +the Virginia motion which was voted on that day in committee of the +whole; South Carolina, as well as Pennsylvania, then voting against +it. But the ultimate decision in _the House_ on the report of the +committee being by request postponed to the next morning, all the +States voted for it, except New York, whose vote was delayed for the +reason before stated. It was not till the 2d of July that the +declaration itself was taken up, nor till the 4th that it was +decided; and it was signed by every member present, except Mr. +Dickinson. + + The subsequent signatures of members who were not then present, +and some of them not yet in office, is easily explained, if we +observe who they were; to wit, that they were of New York and +Pennsylvania. New York did not sign till the 15th, because it was +not till the 9th, (five days after the general signature,) that their +convention authorized them to do so. The convention of Pennsylvania, +learning that it had been signed by a minority only of their +delegates, named a new delegation on the 20th, leaving out Mr. +Dickinson, who had refused to sign, Willing and Humphreys who had +withdrawn, reappointing the three members who had signed, Morris who +had not been present, and five new ones, to wit, Rush, Clymer, Smith, +Taylor and Ross; and Morris and the five new members were permitted +to sign, because it manifested the assent of their full delegation, +and the express will of their convention, which might have been +doubted on the former signature of a minority only. Why the +signature of Thornton of New Hampshire was permitted so late as the +4th of November, I cannot now say; but undoubtedly for some +particular reason which we should find to have been good, had it been +expressed. These were the only post-signers, and you see, Sir, that +there were solid reasons for receiving those of New York and +Pennsylvania, and that this circumstance in no wise affects the faith +of this declaratory charter of our rights and of the rights of man. + + With a view to correct errors of fact before they become +inveterate by repetition, I have stated what I find essentially +material in my papers; but with that brevity which the labor of +writing constrains me to use. + + On the fourth particular articles of inquiry in your letter, +respecting your grandfather, the venerable Samuel Adams, neither +memory nor memorandums enable me to give any information. I can say +that he was truly a great man, wise in council, fertile in resources, +immovable in his purposes, and had, I think, a greater share than any +other member, in advising and directing our measures, in the northern +war especially. As a speaker he could not be compared with his +living colleague and namesake, whose deep conceptions, nervous style, +and undaunted firmness, made him truly our bulwark in debate. But +Mr. Samuel Adams, although not of fluent elocution, was so rigorously +logical, so clear in his views, abundant in good sense, and master +always of his subject, that he commanded the most profound attention +whenever he rose in an assembly by which the froth of declamation was +heard with the most sovereign contempt. I sincerely rejoice that the +record of his worth is to be undertaken by one so much disposed as +you will be to hand him down fairly to that posterity for whose +liberty and happiness he was so zealous a laborer. + + With sentiments of sincere veneration for his memory, accept +yourself this tribute to it with the assurances of my great respect. + + P. S. August 6th, 1822, since the date of this letter, to wit, +this day, August 6th, '22, I received the new publication of the +secret Journals of Congress, wherein is stated a resolution, July +19th, 1776, that the declaration passed on the 4th be fairly +engrossed on parchment, and when engrossed, be signed by every +member; and another of August 2d, that being engrossed and compared +at the table, was signed by the members. That is to say the copy +engrossed on parchment (for durability) was signed by the members +after being compared at the table with the original one, signed on +paper as before stated. I add this P.S. to the copy of my letter to +Mr. Wells, to prevent confounding the signature of the original with +that of the copy engrossed on parchment. + + + THE VALUE OF CLASSICAL LEARNING + + _To John Brazier_ + _Poplar Forest, August 24, 1819_ + + SIR, -- The acknowledgment of your favor of July 15th, and +thanks for the Review which it covered of Mr. Pickering's Memoir on +the Modern Greek, have been delayed by a visit to an occasional but +distant residence from Monticello, and to an attack here of +rheumatism which is just now moderating. I had been much pleased +with the memoir, and was much also with your review of it. I have +little hope indeed of the recovery of the ancient pronunciation of +that finest of human languages, but still I rejoice at the attention +the subject seems to excite with you, because it is an evidence that +our country begins to have a taste for something more than merely as +much Greek as will pass a candidate for clerical ordination. + + You ask my opinion on the extent to which classical learning +should be carried in our country. A sickly condition permits me to +think, and a rheumatic hand to write too briefly on this litigated +question. The utilities we derive from the remains of the Greek and +Latin languages are, first, as models of pure taste in writing. To +these we are certainly indebted for the national and chaste style of +modern composition which so much distinguishes the nations to whom +these languages ae familiar. Without these models we should probably +have continued the inflated style of our northern ancestors, or the +hyperbolical and vague one of the east. Second. Among the values of +classical learning, I estimate the luxury of reading the Greek and +Roman authors in all the beauties of their originals. And why should +not this innocent and elegant luxury take its preeminent stand ahead +of all those addressed merely to the senses? I think myself more +indebted to my father for this than for all the other luxuries his +cares and affections have placed within my reach; and more now than +when younger, and more susceptible of delights from other sources. +When the decays of age have enfeebled the useful energies of the +mind, the classic pages fill up the vacuum of _ennui_, and become +sweet composers to that rest of the grave into which we are all +sooner or later to descend. Third. A third value is in the stores +of real science deposited and transmitted us in these languages, +to-wit: in history, ethics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, natural +history, &c. + + But to whom are these things useful? Certainly not to all men. +There are conditions of life to which they must be forever estranged, +and there are epochs of life too, after which the endeavor to attain +them would be a great misemployment of time. Their acquisition +should be the occupation of our early years only, when the memory is +susceptible of deep and lasting impressions, and reason and judgment +not yet strong enough for abstract speculations. To the moralist +they are valuable, because they furnish ethical writings highly and +justly esteemed: although in my own opinion, the moderns are far +advanced beyond them in this line of science, the divine finds in the +Greek language a translation of his primary code, of more importance +to him than the original because better understood; and, in the same +language, the newer code, with the doctrines of the earliest fathers, +who lived and wrote before the simple precepts of the founder of this +most benign and pure of all systems of morality became frittered into +subtleties and mysteries, and hidden under jargons incomprehensible +to the human mind. To these original sources he must now, therefore, +return, to recover the virgin purity of his religion. The lawyer +finds in the Latin language the system of civil law most conformable +with the principles of justice of any which has ever yet been +established among men, and from which much has been incorporated into +our own. The physician as good a code of his art as has been given +us to this day. Theories and systems of medicine, indeed, have been +in perpetual change from the days of the good Hippocrates to the days +of the good Rush, but which of them is the true one? the present, to +be sure, as long as it is the present, but to yield its place in turn +to the next novelty, which is then to become the true system, and is +to mark the vast advance of medicine since the days of Hippocrates. +Our situation is certainly benefited by the discovery of some new and +very valuable medicines; and substituting those for some of his with +the treasure of facts, and of sound observations recorded by him +(mixed to be sure with anilities of his day) and we shall have nearly +the present sum of the healing art. The statesman will find in these +languages history, politics, mathematics, ethics, eloquence, love of +country, to which he must add the sciences of his own day, for which +of them should be unknown to him? And all the sciences must recur to +the classical languages for the etymon, and sound understanding of +their fundamental terms. For the merchant I should not say that the +languages are a necessary. Ethics, mathematics, geography, political +economy, history, seem to constitute the immediate foundations of his +calling. The agriculturist needs ethics, mathematics, chemistry and +natural philosophy. The mechanic the same. To them the languages +are but ornament and comfort. I know it is often said there have +been shining examples of men of great abilities in all the businesses +of life, without any other science than what they had gathered from +conversations and intercourse with the world. But who can say what +these men would not have been had they started in the science on the +shoulders of a Demosthenes or Cicero, of a Locke or Bacon, or a +Newton? To sum the whole, therefore, it may truly be said that the +classical languages are a solid basis for most, and an ornament to +all the sciences. + + I am warned by my aching fingers to close this hasty sketch, +and to place here my last and fondest wishes for the advancement of +our country in the useful sciences and arts, and my assurances of +respect and esteem for the Reviewer of the Memoir on modern Greek. + + + LIMITS TO JUDICIAL REVIEW + + _To Judge Spencer Roane_ + _Poplar Forest, September 6, 1819_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I had read in the Enquirer, and with great +approbation, the pieces signed Hampden, and have read them again with +redoubled approbation, in the copies you have been so kind as to send +me. I subscribe to every tittle of them. They contain the true +principles of the revolution of 1800, for that was as real a +revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in +its form; not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the +rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the +people. The nation declared its will by dismissing functionaries of +one principle, and electing those of another, in the two branches, +executive and legisltaive, submitted to their election. Over the +judiciary department, the constitution had deprived them of their +control. That, therefore, has continued the reprobated system, and +although new matter has been occasionally incorporated into the old, +yet the leaven of the old mass seems to assimilate to itself the new, +and after twenty years' confirmation of the federal system by the +voice of the nation, declared through the medium of elections, we +find the judiciary on every occasion, still driving us into +consolidation. + + In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the +constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your +quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that "the judiciary is +the last resort in relation _to the other departments_ of the +government, but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the +compact under which the judiciary is derived." If this opinion be +sound, then indeed is our constitution a complete _felo de se_. For +intending to establish three departments, co-ordinate and +independent, that they might check and balance one another, it has +given, according to this opinion, to one of them alone, the right to +prescribe rules for the government of the others, and to that one +too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation. For +experience has already shown that the impeachment it has provided is +not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent +cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to +the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public +opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are +to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited +animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with +impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing +of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape +into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of +eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is +independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the +spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes. +Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. +They are inherently independent of all but moral law. My +construction of the constitution is very different from that you +quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the +others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the +meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and +especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal. I will +explain myself by examples, which, having occurred while I was in +office, are better known to me, and the principles which governed +them. + + A legislature had passed the sedition law. The federal courts +had subjected certain individuals to its penalties of fine and +imprisonment. On coming into office, I released these individuals by +the power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which could +never be more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering +without the authority of law, or, which was equivalent, under a law +unauthorized by the constitution, and therefore null. In the case of +Marbury and Madison, the federal judges declared that commissions, +signed and sealed by the President, were valid, although not +delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete a deed, which, as +long as it remains in the hands of the party, is as yet no deed, it +is in _posse_ only, but not in _esse_, and I withheld delivery of the +commissions. They cannot issue a mandamus to the President or +legislature, or to any of their officers (*). When the British +treaty of ----- arrived, without any provision against the +impressment of our seamen, I determined not to ratify it. The Senate +thought I should ask their advice. I thought that would be a mockery +of them, when I was predetermined against following it, should they +advise its ratification. The constitution had made their advice +necessary to confirm a treaty, but not to reject it. This has been +blamed by some; but I have never doubted its soundness. In the cases +of two persons, _antenati_, under exactly similar circumstances, the +federal court had determined that one of them (Duane) was not a +citizen; the House of Representatives nevertheless determined that +the other (Smith, of South Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him +to his seat in their body. Duane was a republican, and Smith a +federalist, and these decisions were made during the federal +ascendancy. + + (*) The constitution controlling the common law in this +particular. + + These are examples of my position, that each of the three +departments has equally the right to decide for itself what is its +duty under the constitution, without any regard to what the others +may have decided for themselves under a similar question. But you +intimate a wish that my opinion should be known on this subject. No, +dear Sir, I withdraw from all contest of opinion, and resign +everything cheerfully to the generation now in place. They are wiser +than we were, and their successors will be wiser than they, from the +progressive advance of science. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ +of age. I wish, therefore, to offend no man's opinion, nor to draw +disquieting animadversions on my own. While duty required it, I met +opposition with a firm and fearless step. But loving mankind in my +individual relations with them, I pray to be permitted to depart in +their peace; and like the superannuated soldier, _"quadragenis +stipendiis emeritis,"_ to hang my arms on the post. I have unwisely, +I fear, embarked in an enterprise of great public concern, but not to +be accomplished within my term, without their liberal and prompt +support. A severe illness the last year, and another from which I am +just emerged, admonish me that repetitions may be expected, against +which a declining frame cannot long bear up. I am anxious, +therefore, to get our University so far advanced as may encourage the +public to persevere to its final accomplishment. That secured, I +shall sing my _nunc demittas_. I hope your labors will be long +continued in the spirit in which they have always been exercised, in +maintenance of those principles on which I verily believe the future +happiness of our country essentially depends. I salute you with +affectionate and great respect. + + + GREEK PRONUNCIATION + + _To Nathaniel F. Moore_ + _Monticello, September 22, 1819_ + + I thank you, Sir for the remarks on the pronunciation of the +Greek language which you have been so kind as to send me. I have +read them with pleasure, as I had the pamphlet of Mr. Pickering on +the same subject. This question has occupied long and learned +inquiry, and cannot, as I apprehend, be ever positively decided. +Very early in my classical days, I took up the idea that the ancient +Greek language having been changed by degrees into the modern, and +the present race of that people having received it by tradition, they +had of course better pretensions to the ancient pronunciation also, +than any foreign nation could have. When at Paris, I became +acquainted with some learned Greeks, from whom I took pains to learn +the modern pronunciation. But I could not receive it as genuine _in +toto_. I could not believe that the ancient Greeks had provided six +different notations for the simple sound of {i}, iota, and left the +five other sounds which we give to _n, v, {i-i}, {oi}, {yi},_ without +any characters of notation at all. I could not acknowledge the {y}, +upsillon, as an equivalent to our {n}, as in {Achilleys}, which they +pronounce Achillevs, nor the {g}, gamma, to our _y_, as in {alge}, +which they pronounce alye. I concluded, therefore, that as +experience proves to us that the pronunciation of all languages +changes, in their descent through time, that of the Greek must have +done so also in some degree; and the more probably, as the body of +the words themselves had substantially changed, and I presumed that +the instances above mentioned might be classed with the degeneracies +of time; a presumption strengthened by their remarkable cacophony. +As to all the other letters, I have supposed we might yield to their +traditionary claim of a more orthodox pronunciation. Indeed, they +sound most of them as we do, and, where they differ, as in the {e, d, +ch,} their sounds do not revolt us, nor impair the beauty of the +language. + + If we adhere to the Erasmian pronunciation, we must go to Italy +for it, as we must do for the most probably correct pronunciation of +the language of the Romans, because rejecting the modern, we must +argue that the ancient pronunciation was probably brought from +Greece, with the language itself; and, as Italy was the country to +which it was brought, and from which it emanated to other nations, we +must presume it better preserved there than with the nations copying +from them, who would be apt to affect its pronunciation with some of +their own national peculiarities. And in fact, we find that no two +nations pronounce it alike, although all pretend to the Erasmian +pronunciation. But the whole subject is conjectural, and allows +therefore full and lawful scope to the vagaries of the human mind. I +am glad, however, to see the question stirred here; because it may +excite among our young countrymen a spirit of inquiry and criticism, +and lead them to more attention to this most beautiful of all +languages. And wishing that the salutary example you have set may +have this good effect, I salute you with great respect and +consideration. + + + "I TOO AM AN EPICUREAN" + + _To William Short, with a Syllabus_ + _Monticello, October 31, 1819_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 21st is received. My late +illness, in which you are so kind as to feel an interest, was +produced by a spasmodic stricture of the ilium, which came upon me on +the 7th inst. The crisis was short, passed over favorably on the +fourth day, and I should soon have been well but that a dose of +calomel and jalap, in which were only eight or nine grains of the +former, brought on a salivation. Of this, however, nothing now +remains but a little soreness of the mouth. I have been able to get +on horseback for three or four days past. + + As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the +genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing +everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have +left us. Epictetus indeed, has given us what was good of the stoics; +all beyond, of their dogmas, being hypocrisy and grimace. Their +great crime was in their calumnies of Epicurus and misrepresentations +of his doctrines; in which we lament to see the candid character of +Cicero engaging as an accomplice. Diffuse, vapid, rhetorical, but +enchanting. His prototype Plato, eloquent as himself, dealing out +mysticisms incomprehensible to the human mind, has been deified by +certain sects usurping the name of Christians; because, in his foggy +conceptions, they found a basis of impenetrable darkness whereon to +rear fabrications as delirious, of their own invention. These they +fathered blasphemously on him whom they claimed as their founder, but +who would disclaim them with the indignation which their caricatures +of his religion so justly excite. Of Socrates we have nothing +genuine but in the Memorabilia of Xenophon; for Plato makes him one +of his Collocutors merely to cover his own whimsies under the mantle +of his name; a liberty of which we are told Socrates himself +complained. Seneca is indeed a fine moralist, disfiguring his work +at times with some Stoicisms, and affecting too much of antithesis +and point, yet giving us on the whole a great deal of sound and +practical morality. But the greatest of all the reformers of the +depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. +Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is +buried, easily distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his +biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the +dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime +morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man; outlines which +it is lamentable he did not live to fill up. Epictetus and Epicurus +give laws for governing ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties +and charities we owe to others. The establishment of the innocent +and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing +it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from +artificial systems, (*) invented by ultra-Christian sects, +unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most +desirable object, and one to which Priestley has successfully devoted +his labors and learning. It would in time, it is to be hoped, effect +a quiet euthanasia of the heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which +have so long triumphed over human reason, and so generally and deeply +afflicted mankind; but this work is to be begun by winnowing the +grain from the chaff of the historians of his life. I have sometimes +thought of translating Epictetus (for he has never been tolerable +translated into English) by adding the genuine doctrines of Epicurus +from the Syntagma of Gassendi, and an abstract from the Evangelists +of whatever has the stamp of the eloquence and fine imagination of +Jesus. The last I attempted too hastily some twelve or fifteen years +ago. It was the work of two or three nights only, at Washington, +after getting through the evening task of reading the letters and +papers of the day. But with one foot in the grave, these are now +idle projects for me. My business is to beguile the wearisomeness of +declining life, as I endeavor to do, by the delights of classical +reading and of mathematical truths, and by the consolations of a +sound philosophy, equally indifferent to hope and fear. + + (*) _e. g._ The immaculate conception of Jesus, his +deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, +his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the +Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, +election, orders of Hierarchy, &c. + + I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true +disciple of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which +you say you are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that "the +indulgence which prevents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater +pain, is to be avoided." Your love of repose will lead, in its +progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, +an indifference to everything around you, and finally to a debility +of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all things from the +happiness which the well-regulated indulgences of Epicurus ensure; +fortitude, you know, is one of his four cardinal virtues. That +teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, +like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will meet and arrest +us at every turn of our road. Weigh this matter well; brace yourself +up; take a seat with Correa, and come and see the finest portion of +your country, which, if you have not forgotten, you still do not +know, because it is no longer the same as when you knew it. It will +add much to the happiness of my recovery to be able to receive Correa +and yourself, and prove the estimation in which I hold you both. +Come, too, and see our incipient University, which has advanced with +great activitiy this year. By the end of the next, we shall have +elegant accommodations for seven professors, and the year following +the professors themselves. No secondary character will be received +among them. Either the ablest which America or Europe can furnish, +or none at all. They will give us the selected society of a great +city separated from the dissipations and levities of its ephemeral +insects. + + I am glad the bust of Condorcet has been saved and so well +placed. His genius should be before us; while the lamentable, but +singular act of ingratitude which tarnished his latter days, may be +thrown behind us. + + I will place under this a syllabus of the doctrines of +Epicurus, somewhat in the lapidary style, which I wrote some twenty +years ago, a like one of the philosophy of Jesus, of nearly the same +age, is too long to be copied. _Vale, et tibi persuade carissimum te +esse mihi_. + + _Syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus._ + + _Physical_. -- The Universe eternal. + Its parts, great and small, interchangeable. + Matter and Void alone. + Motion inherent in matter which is weighty and declining. + Eternal circulation of the elements of bodies. + Gods, an order of beings next superior to man, enjoying in +their sphere, their own felicities; but not meddling with the +concerns of the scale of beings below them. + _Moral_. -- Happiness the aim of life. + Virtue the foundation of happiness. + Utility the test of virtue. + Pleasure active and In-do-lent. + In-do-lence is the absence of pain, the true felicity. + Active, consists in agreeable motion; it is not happiness, but +the means to produce it. + Thus the absence of hunger is an article of felicity; eating +the means to obtain it. + The _summum bonum_ is to be not pained in body, nor troubled in +mind. + _i. e._ In-do-lence of body, tranquillity of mind. + To procure tranquillity of mind we must avoid desire and fear, +the two principal diseases of the mind. + Man is a free agent. + Virtue consists in 1. Prudence. 2. Temperance. 3. Fortitude. 4. +Justice. + To which are opposed, 1. Folly. 2. Desire. 3. Fear. 4. Deceit. + + + "A FIRE BELL IN THE NIGHT" + + _To John Holmes_ + _Monticello, April 22, 1820_ + + I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to +send me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. +It is a perfect justification to them. I had for a long time ceased +to read newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident +they were in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to +the shore from which I am not distant. But this momentous question, +like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I +considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, +indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final +sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, +moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions +of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark +it deeper and deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is +not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve +us from this heavy reproach, in any _practicable_ way. The cession +of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which +would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, a general +emancipation and _expatriation_ could be effected; and gradually, and +with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, we have the +wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. +Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. Of one +thing I am certain, that as the passage of slaves from one State to +another, would not make a slave of a single human being who would not +be so without it, so their diffusion over a greater surface would +make them individually happier, and proportionally facilitate the +accomplishment of their emancipation, by dividing the burthen on a +greater number of coadjutors. An abstinence too, from this act of +power, would remove the jealousy excited by the undertaking of +Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions of +men composing a State. This certainly is the exclusive right of +every State, which nothing in the constitution has taken from them +and given to the General Government. Could Congress, for example, +say, that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen, or that +they shall not emigrate into any other State? + + I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless +sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire +self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away +by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only +consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it. If they would +but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away, against +an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by +scission, they would pause before they would perpetrate this act of +suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of the world. +To yourself, as the faithful advocate of the Union, I tender the +offering of my high esteem and respect. + + + JESUS AND THE JEWS + + _To William Short_ + _Monticello, August 4, 1820_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I owe you a letter for your favor of June the +29th, which was received in due time; and there being no subject of +the day, of particular interest, I will make this a supplement to +mine of April the 13th. My aim in that was, to justify the character +of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers, which have +exposed him to the inference of being an impostor. For if we could +believe that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods and +the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, and admit the +misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of +the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be +irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give no +credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to +rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is +granted in reading every other historian. When Livy and Siculus, for +example, tell us things which coincide with our experience of the +order of nature, we credit them on their word, and place their +narrations among the records of credible history. But when they tell +us of calves speaking, of statues sweating blood, and other things +against the course of nature, we reject these as fables not belonging +to history. In like manner, when an historian, speaking of a +character well known and established on satisfactory testimony, +imputes to it things incompatible with that character, we reject them +without hesitation, and assent to that only of which we have better +evidence. Had Plutarch informed us that Caesar and Cicero passed +their whole lives in religious exercises, and abstinence from the +affairs of the world, we should reject what was so inconsistent with +their established characters, still crediting what he relates in +conformity with our ideas of them. So again, the superlative wisdom +of Socrates is testified by all antiquity, and placed on ground not +to be questioned. When, therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such +paralogisms, such quibbles on words, and sophisms, as a school boy +would be ashamed of, we conclude they were the whimsies of Plato's +own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates of puerilities so unlike his +character. (Speaking of Plato, I will add, that no writer, antient +or modern, has bewildered the world with more _ignes fatui_, than +this renowned philosopher, in Ethics, in Politics and Physics. In +the latter, to specify a single example, compare his views of the +animal economy, in his Timaeus, with those of Mrs. Bryan in her +Conversations on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonised +philosopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But +Plato's visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of +mystical theology, and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian +saint. It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to +throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified. But to +return from this parenthasis.) I say, that this free exercise of +reason is all I ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus. +We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct +descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things +impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications. +Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the Supreme Being, +aphorisms and precepts of the purest morality and benevolence, +sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence and simplicity of +manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors, +with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed. +These could not be inventions of the groveling authors who relate +them. They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds. They +shew that there was a character, the subject of their history, whose +splendid conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations +from their hands. Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, +and ascribing each to its genuine author? The difference is obvious +to the eye and to the understanding, and we may read as we run to +each his part; and I will venture to affirm, that he who, as I have +done, will undertake to winnow this grain from its chaff, will find +it not to require a moment's consideration. The parts fall asunder +of themselves, as would those of an image of metal and clay. + + There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, +which we may, with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but +claiming indulgence from the circumstances under which he acted. His +object was the reformation of some articles in the religion of the +Jews, as taught by Moses. That sect had presented for the object of +their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, +capricious and unjust. Jesus, taking for his type the best qualities +of the human head and heart, wisdom, justice, goodness, and adding to +them power, ascribed all of these, but in infinite perfection, to the +Supreme Being, and formed him really worthy of their adoration. +Moses had either not believed in a future state of existence, or had +not thought it essential to be explicitly taught to his people. +Jesus inculcated that doctrine with emphasis and precision. Moses +had bound the Jews to many idle ceremonies, mummeries and +observances, of no effect towards producing the social utilities +which constitute the essence of virtue; Jesus exposed their futility +and insignificance. The one instilled into his people the most +anti-social spirit towards other nations; the other preached +philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence. The office of +reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous. Jesus +had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a +step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests +of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless +as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of +Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were +constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. +He was justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by +sophisms, by misconstructions and misapplications of scraps of the +prophets, and in defending himself with these their own weapons, as +sufficient, _ad homines_, at least. That Jesus did not mean to +impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I +have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself +in that lore. But that he might conscientiously believe himself +inspired from above, is very possible. The whole religion of the +Jews, inculcated on him from his infancy, was founded in the belief +of divine inspiration. The fumes of the most disordered imaginations +were recorded in their religious code, as special communications of +the Deity; and as it could not but happen that, in the course of +ages, events would now and then turn up to which some of these vague +rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of allegories, figures, +types, and other tricks upon words, they have not only preserved +their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times, but are the +foundation of much of the religions of those who have schismatised +from them. Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure heart, +conscious of the high strains of an eloquence which had not been +taught him, he might readily mistake the coruscations of his own fine +genius for inspirations of an higher order. This belief carried, +therefore, no more personal imputation, than the belief of Socrates, +that himself was under the care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon. +And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these +inspirations, while perfectly sane on all other subjects. Excusing, +therefore, on these considerations, those passages in the gospels +which seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus, ascribing to him what +alone is consistent with the great and pure character of which the +same writings furnish proofs, and to their proper authors their own +trivialities and imbecilities, I think myself authorised to conclude +the purity and distinction of his character, in opposition to the +impostures which those authors would fix upon him; and that the +postulate of my former letter is no more than is granted in all other +historical works. + + Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been +much pleased with the plan and progress of our University, and has +given some valuable hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I +hope, much good in his new country; the public instruction there, as +I understand, being within the department destined for him. He is +not without dissatisfaction, and reasonable dissatisfaction too, with +the piracies of Baltimore; but his justice and friendly dispositions +will, I am sure, distinguish between the iniquities of a few +plunderers, and the sound principles of our country at large, and of +our government especially. From many conversations with him, I hope +he sees, and will promote in his new situation, the advantages of a +cordial fraternization among all the American nations, and the +importance of their coalescing in an American system of policy, +totally independent of, and unconnected with that of Europe. The day +is not distant, when we may formally require a meridian of partition +through the ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the hither +side of which no European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on +the other; and when, during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, +the lion and the lamb, within our regions, shall lie down together in +peace. The excess of population in Europe and want of room, render +war, in their opinion, necessary to keep down that excess of numbers. +Here, room is abundant, population scanty, and peace the necessary +means for producing men, to whom the redundant soil is offering the +means of life and happiness. The principles of society there and +here, then, are radically different, and I hope no American patriot +will ever lose sight of the essential policy of interdicting in the +seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious and sanguinary +contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. I am +earnest for an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, +assigning them the task of keeping down the piracies of their seas +and the cannibalisms of the African coasts, and to us, the +suppression of the same enormities within our seas: and for this +purpose, I should rejoice to see the fleets of Brazil and the United +States riding together as brethren of the same family, and pursuing +the same object. And indeed it would be of happy augury to begin at +once this concert of action here, on the invitation of either to the +other government, while the way might be preparing for withdrawing +our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval collisions there which +daily endanger our peace. + + Turning to another part of your letter, I do not think the +obstacles insuperable which you state as opposed to your visit to us. +From one of the persons mentioned, I never heard a sentiment but of +esteem for you and I am certain you would be recieved with kindness +and cordiality. But still the call may be omitted without notice. +The mountain lies between his residence and the main road, and +occludes the expectation of transient visits. I am equally ignorant +of any dispositions not substantially friendly to you in the other +person. But the alibi there gives you ten free months in the year. +But if the visit is to be but once in your life, I would suppress my +impatience and consent it should be made a year or two hence. +Because, by that time our University will be compleate and in full +action: and you would recieve the satisfaction, in the final adieu to +your native state, of seeing that she would retain her equal standing +in the sisterhood of our republics. However, come now, come then, or +come when you please, your visit will give me the gratification I +feel in every opportunity of proving to you the sincerity of my +friendship and respect for you. + + + THE UNIVERSITY, NEOLOGY, AND MATERIALISM + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Aug. 15, 1820_ + + I am a great defaulter, my dear Sir, in our correspondence, but +prostrate health rarely permits me to write; and, when it does, +matters of business imperiously press their claims. I am getting +better however, slowly, swelled legs being now the only serious +symptom, and these, I believe, proceed from extreme debility. I can +walk but little; but I ride 6. or 8. miles a day without fatigue; and +within a few days, I shall endeavor to visit my other home, after a +twelve month's absence from it. Our University, 4 miles distant, +gives me frequent exercise, and the oftener as I direct it's +architecture. It's plan is unique, and it is becoming an object of +curiosity for the traveller. I have lately had an opportunity of +reading a critique on this institution in your North American Review +of January last, having been not without anxiety to see what that +able work would say of us: and I was relieved on finding in it much +coincidence of opinion, and even, where criticisms were indulged, I +found they would have been obviated had the developements of our plan +been fuller. But these were restrained by the character of the paper +reviewed, being merely a report of outlines, not a detailed treatise, +and addressed to a legislative body, not to a learned academy. E.g. +as an inducement to introduce the Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was +said that it would reward amply the _few weeks_ of attention which +alone would be requisite for it's attainment; leaving both term and +degree under an indefinite expression, because I know that not much +time is necessary to attain it to an useful degree, sufficient to +give such instruction in the etymologies of our language as may +satisfy ordinary students, while more time would be requisite for +those who would propose to attain a critical knolege of it. In a +letter which I had occasion to write to Mr. Crofts (who sent you, I +believe, as well as myself, a copy of his treatise on the English and +German languages, as preliminary to an Etymological dictionary he +meditated) I went into explanations with him of an easy process for +simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors, +and difficulties presented by it's rude Alphabet, and unformed +orthography. But this is a subject beyond the bounds of a letter, as +it was beyond the bounds of a Report to the legislature. Mr. Crofts +died, I believe, before any progress was made in the work he had +projected. + + The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on our +placing Military and Naval architecture in the department of Pure +Mathematics. Military architecture embraces fortification and field +works, which with their bastions, curtains, hornworks, redoubts etc. +are based on a technical combination of lines and angles. These are +adapted to offence and defence, with and against the effects of +bombs, balls, escalades etc. But lines and angles make the sum of +elementary geometry, a branch of Pure Mathematics: and the direction +of the bombs, balls, and other projectiles, the necessary appendages +of military works, altho' no part of their architecture, belong to +the conic sections, a branch of transcendental geometry. Diderot and +Dalembert therefore, in their Arbor scientiae, have placed military +architecture in the department of elementary geometry. Naval +architecture teaches the best form and construction of vessels; for +which best form it has recourse to the question of the Solid of least +resistance, a problem of transcendental geometry. And it's +appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch, as in the +preceding case. It is true that so far as respects the action of the +water on the rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it may be +placed in the department of mechanics, as Diderot and Dalambert have +done: but belonging quite as much to geometry, and allied in it's +military character, to military architecture, it simplified our plan +to place both under the same head. These views are so obvious that I +am sure they would have required but a second thought to reconcile +the reviewer to their _location_ under the head of Pure Mathematics. +For this word _Location_, see Bailey, Johnson, Sheridan, Walker etc. +But if Dictionaries are to be the Arbiters of language, in which of +them shall we find _neologism_. No matter. It is a good word, well +sounding, obvious, and expresses an idea which would otherwise +require circumlocution. The Reviewer was justifiable therefore in +using it; altho' he noted at the same time, as unauthoritative, +_centrality_, _grade_, _sparse_; all which have been long used in +common speech and writing. I am a friend to _neology_. It is the +only way to give to a language copiousness and euphony. Without it +we should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred or of Ulphilas; +and held to their state of science also: for I am sure they had no +words which could have conveyed the ideas of Oxigen, cotyledons, +zoophytes, magnetism, electricity, hyaline, and thousands of others +expressing ideas not then existing, nor of possible communication in +the state of their language. What a language has the French become +since the date of their revolution, by the free introduction of new +words! The most copious and eloquent in the living world; and equal +to the Greek, had not that been regularly modifiable almost ad +infinitum. Their rule was that whenever their language furnished or +adopted a root, all it's branches, in every part of speech were +legitimated by giving them their appropriate terminations. +{adelphos} ["brother"], {adelphe} ["sister"], {adelphidion} ["little +brother"], {adelphotes} ["brotherly affection"], {adelphixis} +["brotherhood"], {adelphidoys} ["nephew"], {adelphikos} ["brotherly," +adj.], {adelphizo} ["to adopt as a brother"], {adelphikos} +["brotherly," adv.]. And this should be the law of every language. +Thus, having adopted the adjective _fraternal_, it is a root, which +should legitimate fraternity, fraternation, fraternisation, +fraternism, to fraternate, fraternise, fraternally. And give the +word neologism to our language, as a root, and it should give us it's +fellow substantives, neology, neologist, neologisation; it's +adjectives neologous, neological, neologistical, it's verb neologise, +and adverb neologically. Dictionaries are but the depositories of +words already legitimated by usage. Society is the work-shop in +which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new word, +if illformed it is rejected in society, if wellformed, adopted, and, +after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. And if, +in this process of sound neologisation, our transatlantic brethren +shall not choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after the Ionians, +a second example of a colonial dialect improving on it's primitive. + + But enough of criticism: let me turn to your puzzling letter of +May 12. on matter, spirit, motion etc. It's croud of scepticisms +kept me from sleep. I read it, and laid it down: read it, and laid +it down, again and again: and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged +to recur ultimately to my habitual anodyne, `I feel: therefore I +exist.' I feel bodies which are not myself: there are other +existencies then. I call them _matter_. I feel them changing place. +This gives me _motion_. Where there is an absence of matter, I call +it _void_, or _nothing_, or _immaterial space_. On the basis of +sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect the fabric of all the +certainties we can have or need. I can concieve _thought_ to be an +action of a particular organisation of matter, formed for that +purpose by it's creator, as well as that _attraction_ in an action of +matter, or _magnetism_ of loadstone. When he who denies to the +Creator the power of endowing matter with the mode of action called +_thinking_ shall shew how he could endow the Sun with the mode of +action called _attraction_, which reins the planets in the tract of +their orbits, or how an absence of matter can have a will, and, by +that will, put matter into motion, then the materialist may be +lawfully required to explain the process by which matter exercises +the faculty of thinking. When once we quit the basis of sensation, +all is in the wind. To talk of _immaterial_ existences is to talk of +_nothings_. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, +is to say they are _nothings_, or that there is no god, no angels, no +soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my +creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of +the Christian church this heresy of _immaterialism_, this masked +atheism, crept in, I do not know. But a heresy it certainly is. +Jesus taught nothing of it. He told us indeed that `God is a +spirit,' but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor said that it is +not _matter_. And the antient fathers generally, if not universally, +held it to be matter: light and thin indeed, an etherial gas; but +still matter. Origen says `Deus reapse corporalis est; sed graviorum +tantum corporum ratione, incorporeus.' Tertullian `quid enim deus +nisi corpus?' and again `quis negabit deumesse corpus? Etsi deus +spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est, sui generis, in sua effigie.' +St. Justin Martyr `{to Theion phamen einai asomaton oyk oti asomaton +-- epeide de to me krateisthai ypo tinos, toy krateisthai timioteron +esti, dia toyto kaloymen ayton asomaton.}' And St. Macarius, speaking +of angels says `quamvis enim subtilia sint, tamen in substantia, +forma et figura, secundum tenuitatem naturae eorum, corpora sunt +tenuia.' And St. Austin, St. Basil, Lactantius, Tatian, Athenagoras +and others, with whose writings I pretend not a familiarity, are said +by those who are, to deliver the same doctrine. Turn to your Ocellus +d'Argens 97. 105. and to his Timaeus 17. for these quotations. In +England these Immaterialists might have been burnt until the 29. Car. +2. when the writ de haeretico comburendo was abolished: and here +until the revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All +heresies being now done away with us, these schismatists are merely +atheists, differing from the material Atheist only in their belief +that `nothing made something,' and from the material deist who +believes that matter alone can operate on matter. + + Rejecting all organs of information therefore but my senses, I +rid myself of the Pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in +speculations hyperphysical and antiphysical so uselessly occupy and +disquiet the mind. A single sense may indeed be sometimes decieved, +but rarely: and never all our senses together, with their faculty of +reasoning. They evidence realities; and there are enough of these +for all the purposes of life, without plunging into the fathomless +abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently +occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling +myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no +evidence. I am sure that I really know many, many, things, and none +more surely than that I love you with all my heart, and pray for the +continuance of your life until you shall be tired of it yourself. + + + JUDICIAL SUBVERSION + + _To Thomas Ritchie_ + _Monticello, December 25, 1820_ + + DEAR SIR, -- On my return home after a long absence, I find +here your favor of November the 23d, with Colonel Taylor's +"Construction Construed," which you have been so kind as to send me, +in the name of the author as well as yourself. Permit me, if you +please, to use the same channel for conveying to him the thanks I +render you also for this mark of attention. I shall read it, I know, +with edification, as I did his Inquiry, to which I acknowledge myself +indebted for many valuable ideas, and for the correction of some +errors of early opinion, never seen in a correct light until +presented to me in that work. That the present volume is equally +orthodox, I know before reading it, because I know that Colonel +Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any political +principle of importance. Every act of his life, and every word he +ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also, as to the two +Presidents, late and now in office, I know them both to be of +principles as truly republican as any men living. If there be +anything amiss, therefore, in the present state of our affairs, as +the formidable deficit lately unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it +to the inattention of Congress to their duties, to their unwise +dissipation and waste of the public contributions. They seemed, some +little while ago, to be at a loss for objects whereon to throw away +the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury. I had feared the +result, because I saw among them some of my old fellow laborers, of +tried and known principles, yet often in their minorities. I am +aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries, the people were +themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their Representatives. +The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it, will, I trust, +bring both to their sober senses. + + But it is not from this branch of government we have most to +fear. Taxes and short elections will keep them right. The judiciary +of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners +constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our +confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a +co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and +supreme one alone. This will lay all things at their feet, and they +are too well versed in English law to forget the maxim, _"boni +judicis est ampliare juris-dictionem."_ We shall see if they are bold +enough to take the daring stride their five lawyers have lately +taken. If they do, then, with the editor of our book, in his address +to the public, I will say, that "against this every man should raise +his voice," and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this +admirable address? Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor +one which can be changed but for the worse. That pen should go on, +lay bare these wounds of our constitution, expose the decisions +_seriatim_, and arouse, as it is able, the attention of the nation to +these bold speculators on its patience. Having found, from +experience, that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere +scare-crow, they consider themselves secure for life; they sculk from +responsibility to public opinion, the only remaining hold on them, +under a practice first introduced into England by Lord Mansfield. An +opinion is huddled up in conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, +delivered as if unanimous, and with the silent acquiescence of lazy +or timid associates, by a crafty chief judge, who sophisticates the +law to his mind, by the turn of his own reasoning. A judiciary law +was once reported by the Attorney General to Congress, requiring each +judge to deliver his opinion _seriatim_ and openly, and then to give +it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the record. A judiciary +independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but +independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a +republican government. + + But to return to your letter; you ask for my opinion of the +work you send me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have +ever made a point of declining, (one or two instances only excepted.) +Complimentary thanks to writers who have sent me their works, have +betrayed me sometimes before the public, without my consent having +been asked. But I am far from presuming to direct the reading of my +fellow citizens, who are good enough judges themselves of what is +worthy their reading. I am, also, too desirous of quiet to place +myself in the way of contention. Against this I am admonished by +bodily decay, which cannot be unaccompanied by corresponding wane of +the mind. Of this I am as yet sensible, sufficiently to be unwilling +to trust myself before the public, and when I cease to be so, I hope +that my friends will be too careful of me to draw me forth and +present me, like a Priam in armor, as a spectacle for public +compassion. I hope our political bark will ride through all its +dangers; but I can in future be but an inert passenger. + + I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect. + + + THE MISSOURI QUESTION + + _To Albert Gallatin_ + _Monticello, Dec. 26, 1820_ + + DEAR SIR, -- `It is said to be an ill wind which blows +favorably to no one.' My ill health has long suspended the too +frequent troubles I have heretofore given you with my European +correspondence. To this is added a stiffening wrist, the effect of +age on an antient dislocation, which renders writing slow and +painful, and disables me nearly from all correspondence, and may very +possibly make this the last trouble I shall give you in that way. + + Looking from our quarter of the world over the horizon of yours +we imagine we see storms gathering which may again desolate the face +of that country. So many revolutions going on, in different +countries at the same time, such combinations of tyranny, and +military preparations and movements to suppress them. England & +France unsafe from internal conflict, Germany, on the first favorable +occasion, ripe for insurrection, such a state of things, we suppose, +must end in war, which needs a kindling spark in one spot only to +spread over the whole. Your information can correct these views +which are stated only to inform you of impressions here. + + At home things are not well. The flood of paper money, as you +well know, had produced an exaggeration of nominal prices and at the +same time a facility of obtaining money, which not only encouraged +speculations on fictitious capital, but seduced those of real +capital, even in private life, to contract debts too freely. Had +things continued in the same course, these might have been +manageable. But the operations of the U.S. bank for the demolition +of the state banks, obliged these suddenly to call in more than half +of their paper, crushed all fictitious and doubtful capital, and +reduced the prices of property and produce suddenly to 1/3 of what +they had been. Wheat, for example, at the distance of two or three +days from market, fell to and continues at from one third to half a +dollar. Should it be stationary at this for a while, a very general +revolution of property must take place. Something of the same +character has taken place in our fiscal system. A little while back +Congress seemed at a loss for objects whereon to squander the +supposed fathomless funds of our treasury. This short frenzy has +been arrested by a deficit of 5 millions the last year, and of 7. +millions this year. A loan was adopted for the former and is +proposed for the latter, which threatens to saddle us with a +perpetual debt. I hope a tax will be preferred, because it will +awaken the attention of the people, and make reformation & economy +the principles of the next election. The frequent recurrence of this +chastening operation can alone restrain the propensity of governments +to enlarge expence beyond income. The steady tenor of the courts of +the US. to break down the constitutional barrier between the +coordinate powers of the States, and of the Union, and a formal +opinion lately given by 5. lawyers of too much eminence to be +neglected, give uneasiness. But nothing has ever presented so +threatening an aspect as what is called the Missouri question. The +Federalists compleatly put down, and despairing of ever rising again +under the old division of whig and tory, devised a new one, of +slave-holding, & non-slave-holding states, which, while it had a +semblance of being Moral, was at the same time Geographical, and +calculated to give them ascendancy by debauching their old opponents +to a coalition with them. Moral the question certainly is not, +because the removal of slaves from one state to another, no more than +their removal from one country to another, would never make a slave +of one human being who would not be so without it. Indeed if there +were any morality in the question it is on the other side; because by +spreading them over a larger surface, their happiness would be +increased, & the burthen of their future liberation lightened by +bringing a greater number of shoulders under it. However it served +to throw dust into the eyes of the people and to fanaticise them, +while to the knowing ones it gave a geographical and preponderant +line of the Patomac and Ohio, throwing 12. States to the North and +East, & 10. to the South & West. With these therefore it is merely a +question of power: but with this geographical minority it is a +question of existence. For if Congress once goes out of the +Constitution to arrogate a right of regulating the conditions of the +inhabitants of the States, its majority may, and probably will next +declare that the condition of all men within the US. shall be that of +freedom, in which case all the whites South of the Patomak and Ohio +must evacuate their States; and most fortunate those who can do it +first. And so far this crisis seems to be advancing. The Missouri +constitution is recently rejected by the House of Representatives. +What will be their next step is yet to be seen. If accepted on the +condition that Missouri shall expunge from it the prohibition of free +people of colour from emigration to their state, it will be expunged, +and all will be quieted until the advance of some new state shall +present the question again. If rejected unconditionally, Missouri +assumes independent self-government, and Congress, after pouting +awhile, must recieve them on the footing of the original states. +Should the Representative propose force, 1. the Senate will not +concur. 2. were they to concur, there would be a secession of the +members South of the line, & probably of the three North Western +states, who, however inclined to the other side, would scarcely +separate from those who would hold the Misisipi from it's mouth to +it's source. What next? Conjecture itself is at a loss. But +whatever it shall be you will hear from others and from the +newspapers. And finally the whole will depend on Pensylvania. While +she and Virginia hold together, the Atlantic states can never +separate. Unfortunately in the present case she has become more +fanaticised than any other state. However useful where you are, I +wish you were with them. You might turn the scale there, which would +turn it for the whole. Should this scission take place, one of it's +most deplorable consequences would be it's discouragement of the +efforts of the European nations in the regeneration of their +oppressive and Cannibal governments. + + Amidst this prospect of evil, I am glad to see one good effect. +It has brought the necessity of some plan of general emancipation & +deportation more home to the minds of our people than it has ever +been before. Insomuch, that our Governor has ventured to propose one +to the legislature. This will probably not be acted on at this time. +Nor would it be effectual; for while it proposes to devote to that +object one third of the revenue of the State, it would not reach one +tenth of the annual increase. My proposition would be that the +holders should give up all born after a certain day, past, present, +or to come, that these should be placed under the guardianship of the +State, and sent at a proper age to S. Domingo. There they are +willing to recieve them, & the shortness of the passage brings the +deportation within the possible means of taxation aided by charitable +contributions. In this I think Europe, which has forced this evil on +us, and the Eastern states who have been it's chief instruments of +importation, would be bound to give largely. But the proceeds of the +land office, if appropriated, would be quite sufficient. God bless +you and preserve you multos aNos. + + + BOLINGBROKE AND PAINE + + _To Francis Eppes_ + _Monticello, January 19, 1821_ + + DEAR FRANCIS, -- Your letter of the 1st came safely to hand. I +am sorry you have lost Mr. Elliot, however the kindness of Dr. Cooper +will be able to keep you in the track of what is worthy of your time. + + + You ask my opinion of Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine. They +were alike in making bitter enemies of the priests and pharisees of +their day. Both were honest men; both advocates for human liberty. +Paine wrote for a country which permitted him to push his reasoning +to whatever length it would go. Lord Bolingbroke in one restrained +by a constitution, and by public opinion. He was called indeed a +tory; but his writings prove him a stronger advocate for liberty than +any of his countrymen, the whigs of the present day. Irritated by +his exile, he committed one act unworthy of him, in connecting +himself momentarily with a prince rejected by his country. But he +redeemed that single act by his establishment of the principles which +proved it to be wrong. These two persons differed remarkably in the +style of their writing, each leaving a model of what is most perfect +in both extremes of the simple and the sublime. No writer has +exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in perspicuity of +expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and unassuming +language. In this he may be compared with Dr. Franklin; and indeed +his Common Sense was, for awhile, believed to have been written by +Dr. Franklin, and published under the borrowed name of Paine, who had +come over with him from England. Lord Bolingbroke's, on the other +hand, is a style of the highest order. The lofty, rhythmical, +full-flowing eloquence of Cicero. Periods of just measure, their +members proportioned, their close full and round. His conceptions, +too, are bold and strong, his diction copious, polished and +commanding as his subject. His writings are certainly the finest +samples in the English language, of the eloquence proper for the +Senate. His political tracts are safe reading for the most timid +religionist, his philosophical, for those who are not afraid to trust +their reason with discussions of right and wrong. + + You have asked my opinion of these persons, and, _to you_, I +have given it freely. But, remember, that I am old, that I wish not +to make new enemies, nor to give offence to those who would consider +a difference of opinion as sufficient ground for unfriendly +dispositions. God bless you, and make you what I wish you to be. + + + THE UNIVERSITY AND THE SCHOOLS + + _To General James Breckinridge_ + _Monticello, February 15, 1821_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I learn, with deep affliction, that nothing is +likely to be done for our University this year. So near as it is to +the shore that one shove more would land it there, I had hoped that +would be given; and that we should open with the next year an +institution on which the fortunes of our country may depend more than +may meet the general eye. The reflections that the boys of this age +are to be the men of the next; that they should be prepared to +receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to deliver over to +them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for them, we +secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling this +duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of seeing +our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high +promise; these are considerations which will occur to all; but all, I +fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as +a tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out +between different portions of our confederacy, is such as will never, +I fear, be obliterated, and we are now trusting to those who are +against us in position and principle, to fashion to their own form +the minds and affections of our youth. If, as has been estimated, we +send three hundred thousand dollars a year to the northern +seminaries, for the instruction of our own sons, then we must have +there five hundred of our sons, imbibing opinions and principles in +discord with those of their own country. This canker is eating on +the vitals of our existence, and if not arrested at once, will be +beyond remedy. We are now certainly furnishing recruits to their +school. If it be asked what are we to do, or said we cannot give the +last lift to the University without stopping our primary schools, and +these we think most important; I answer, I know their importance. No +body can doubt my zeal for the general instruction of the people. +Who first started that idea? I may surely say, myself. Turn to the +bill in the revised code, which I drew more than forty years ago, and +before which the idea of a plan for the education of the people, +generally, had never been suggested in this State. There you will +see developed the first rudiments of the whole system of general +education we are now urging and acting on: and it is well known to +those with thom I have acted on this subject, that I never have +proposed a sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of +instruction. Let us keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If +we cannot do every thing at once, let us do one at a time. The +primary schools need no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade +requires a considerable expenditure in advance. A suspension of +proceeding for a year or two on the primary schools, and an +application of the whole income, during that time, to the completion +of the buildings necessary for the University, would enable us then +to start both institutions at the same time. The intermediate +branch, of colleges, academies and private classical schools, for the +middle grade, may hereafter receive any necessary aids when the funds +shall become competent. In the mean time, they are going on +sufficiently, as they have ever yet gone on, at the private expense +of those who use them, and who in numbers and means are competent to +their own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I presume, +left no doubt that the present plan of primary schools, of putting +money into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for nothing, +and under no responsibility, is entirely inefficient. Some other +must be thought of; and during this pause, if it be only for a year, +the whole revenue of that year, with that of the last three years +which has not been already thrown away, would place our University in +readiness to start with a better organization of primary schools, and +both may then go on, hand in hand, for ever. No diminution of the +capital will in this way have been incurred; a principle which ought +to be deemed sacred. A relinquishment of interest on the late loan +of sixty thousand dollars, would so far, also, forward the University +without lessening the capital. + + But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to +yourself and your colleagues in legislation, who know better than I +do the conditions of the literary fund and its wisest applications +and I shall acquiesce with perfect resignation to their will. I have +brooded, perhaps with fondness, over this establishment, as it held +up to me the hope of continuing to be useful while I continued to +live. I had believed that the course and circumstances of my life +had placed within my power some services favorable to the outset of +the institution. But this may be egoism; pardonable, perhaps, when I +express a consciousness that my colleagues and successors will do as +well, whatever the legislature shall enable them to do. + + I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its +anxieties, freely to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a +different light. I am sure that all act conscientiously, and that +all will be done honestly and wisely which can be done. I yield the +concerns of the world with cheerfulness to those who are appointed in +the order of nature to succeed to them; and for yourself, for our +colleagues, and for all in charge of our country's future fame and +fortune, I offer up sincere prayers. + + + A DANGEROUS EXAMPLE + + _To Jedidiah Morse_ + _Monticello, March 6, 1822_ + + SIR, -- I have duly received your letter of February the 16th, +and have now to express my sense of the honorable station proposed to +my ex-brethren and myself, in the constitution of the society for the +civilization and improvement of the Indian tribes. The object too +expressed, as that of the association, is one which I have ever had +much at heart, and never omitted an occasion of promoting, while I +have been in situations to do it with effect, and nothing, even now, +in the calm of age and retirement, would excite in me a more lively +interest than an approvable plan of raising that respectable and +unfortunate people from the state of physical and moral abjection, to +which they have been reduced by circumstances foreign to them. That +the plan now proposed is entitled to unmixed approbation, I am not +prepared to say, after mature consideration, and with all the +partialities which its professed object would rightfully claim from +me. + + I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between +private associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and +those whose magnitude may rivalise and jeopardise the march of +regular government. Yet such a line does exist. I have seen the +days, they were those which preceded the Revolution, when even this +last and perilous engine became necessary; but they were days which +no man would wish to see a second time. That was the case where the +regular authorities of the government had combined against the rights +of the people, and no means of correction remained to them, but to +organise a collateral power, which, with their support, might rescue +and secure their violated rights. But such is not the case with our +government. We need hazard no collateral power, which, by a change +of its original views, and assumption of others we know not how +virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready organised and in force +sufficient to shake the established foundations of society, and +endanger its peace and the principles on which it is based. Is not +the machine now proposed of this gigantic stature? It is to consist +of the ex-Presidents of the United States, the Vice President, the +Heads of all the executive departments, the members of the supreme +judiciary, the Governors of the several States and territories, all +the members of both Houses of Congress, all the general officers of +the army, the commissioners of the navy, all Presidents and +Professors of colleges and theological seminaries, all the clergy of +the United States, the Presidents and Secretaries of all associations +having relation to Indians, all commanding officers within or near +Indian territories, all Indian superintendants and agents; all these +_ex-officio_; and as many private individuals as will pay a certain +price for membership. Observe too, that the clergy will constitute +(*) nineteen twentieths of this association, and, by the law of the +majority, may command the twentieth part, which, composed of all the +high authorities of the United States, civil and military, may be +outvoted and wielded by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, +both as to purpose and process. Can thisformidable array be reviewed +without dismay? It will besaid, that in this association will be all +the confidential officers of the government; the choice of the people +themselves. No man on earth has more implicit confidence than myself +in the integrity and discretion of this chosen band of servants. But +is confidence or discretion, or is _strict limit_, the principle of +our constitution? It will comprehend, indeed, all the functionaries +of the government; but seceded from their constitutional stations as +guardians of the nation, and acting not by the laws of their station, +but by those of a voluntary society, having no limit to their +purposes but the same will which constitutes their existence. It +will be the authorities of the people and all influential characters +from among them, arrayed on one side, and on the other, the people +themselves deserted by their leaders. It is a fearful array. It +will be said, that these are imaginary fears. I know they are so at +present. I know it is as impossible for these agents of our choice +and unbounded confidence, to harbor machinations against the adored +principles of our constitution, as for gravity to change its +direction, and gravid bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed +imaginary: but the example is _real_. Under its authority, as a +precedent, future associations will arise with objects at which we +should shudder at this time. The society of Jacobins, in another +country, was instituted on principles and views as virtuous as ever +kindled the hearts of patriots. It was the pure patriotism of their +purposes which extended their association to the limits of the +nation, and rendered their power within it boundless; and it was this +power which degenerated their principles and practices to such +enormities, as never before could have been imagined. Yet these were +men; and we and our descendants will be no more. The present is a +case where, if ever, we are to guard against ourselves; not against +ourselves as we are, but as we may be; for who can now imagine what +we may become under circumstances not now imaginable? The object too +of this institution, seems to require so hazardous an example as +little as any which could be proposed. The government is, at this +time, going on with the process of civilising the Indians, on a plan +probably as promising as any one of us is able to devise, and with +resources more competent than we could expect to command by voluntary +taxation. Is it that the new characters called into association with +those of the government, are wiser than these? Is it that a plan +originated by a meeting of private individuals, is better than that +prepared by the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not +self-chosen, but clothed with the full confidence of the people? Is +it that there is no danger that a new authority, marching, +independently, along side of the government, in the same line and to +the same object, may not produce collision, may not thwart and +obstruct the operations of the government, or wrest the object +entirely from their hands? Might we not as well appoint a committee +for each department of the government, to counsel and direct its head +separately, as volunteer ourselves to counsel and direct the whole, +in mass? And might we not do it as well for their foreign, their +fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian affairs? And how +many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we expect to see +spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate themselves in +this and that of its functions? In a word, why not take the +government out of its constitutional hands, associate them indeed +with us, to preserve a semblance that the acts are theirs, but +insuring them to be our own by allowing them a minor vote only? + + (*) The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated +at eight thousand. The residue of this society at four hundred; but +if the former number be halved, the reasoning will be the same. + + These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so +irresistible, that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter, +without which I should not have obtruded an opinion,) I have not been +able to withhold the expression of them. Not knowing the individuals +who have proposed this plan, I cannot be conceived as entertaining +personal disrespect for them. On the contrary, I see in the printed +list persons for whom I cherish sentiments of sincere friendship; and +others, for whose opinions and purity of purpose I have the highest +respect. Yet thinking as I do, that this association is unnecessary; +that the government is proceeding to the same object under control of +the law; that they are competent to it in wisdom, in means, and +inclination; that this association, this wheel within a wheel, is +more likely to produce collision than aid; and that it is, in its +magnitude, of dangerous example; I am bound to say, that, as a +dutiful citizen, I cannot in conscience become a member of this +society, possessing as it does my entire confidence in the integrity +of its views. I feel with awe the weight of opinion to which I may +be opposed, and that, for myself, I have need to ask the indulgence +of a belief, that the opinion I have given is the best result I can +deduce from my own reason and experience, and that it is sincerely +conscientious. Repeating therefore, my just acknowledgments for the +honor proposed to me; I beg leave to add the assurances to the +society and yourself of my highest confidence and consideration. + + + A UNITARIAN CREED + + _To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse_ + _Monticello, June 26, 1822_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have received and read with thankfulness and +pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, +however sound in its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to +the wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanative +precepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince an +Athanasian that there is but one God. I wish success to both +attempts, and am happy to learn from you that the latter, at least, +is making progress, and the more rapidly in proportion as our +Platonizing Christians make more stir and noise about it. The +doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man. + + 1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect. + + 2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments. + + 3. That to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as +thyself, is the sum of religion. These are the great points on which +he endeavored to reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with +these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin. + + 1. That there are three Gods. + + 2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing. + + 3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the +proposition, the more merit in its faith. + + 4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use. + + 5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to +be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the +former can damn them; no virtues of the latter save. + + Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He +who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus? Or the +impious dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are +the false shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the +sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of +the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the +_deliria_ of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is +that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven thinking men into +infidelity, who have too hastily rejected the supposed author +himself, with the horrors so falsely imputed to him. Had the +doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his +lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I +rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, +which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor +priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I +trust that there is not a _young man_ now living in the United States +who will not die an Unitarian. + + But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be +re-established, its votaries will fall into the fatal error of +fabricating formulas of creed and confessions of faith, the engines +which so soon destroyed the religion of Jesus, and made of +Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they will give up morals for +mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser are the Quakers, who, +agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, schismatize +about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale of common sense, +suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any more than of +feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom of +Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its +charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who love +their neighbor! I conclude my sermon with sincere assurances of my +friendly esteem and respect. + + + SERIATIM OPINIONS AND THE HISTORY OF PARTIES + + _To Justice William Johnson_ + _Monticello, Oct. 27, 1822_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I have deferred my thanks for the copy of your +Life of Genl. Greene, until I could have time to read it. This I +have done, and with the greatest satisfaction; and can now more +understandingly express the gratification it has afforded me. I +really rejoice that we have at length a fair history of the Southern +war. It proves how much we were left to defend ourselves as we +could, while the resources of the Union were so disproportionately +devoted to the North. I am glad too to see the Romance of Lee +removed from the shelf of History to that of Fable. Some small +portion of the transactions he relates were within my own knolege; +and of these I can say he has given more falsehood than fact; and I +have heard many officers declare the same as to what had passed under +their eyes. Yet this book had begun to be quoted as history. Greene +was truly a great man, he had not perhaps all the qualities which so +peculiarly rendered Genl. Washington the fittest man on earth for +directing so great a contest under so great difficulties. +Difficulties proceeding not from lukewarmness in our citizens or +their functionaries, as our military leaders supposed; but from the +pennyless condition of a people, totally shut out from all commerce & +intercourse with the world, and therefore without any means for +converting their labor into money. But Greene was second to no one +in enterprise, in resource, in sound judgment, promptitude of +decision, and every other military talent. In addition to the work +you have given us, I look forward with anxiety to that you promise in +the last paragraph of your book. Lee's military fable you have put +down. Let not the invidious libel on the views of the Republican +party, and on their regeneration of the government go down to +posterity as hypocritically masked. I was myself too laboriously +employed, while in office, and too old when I left it, to do justice +to those who had labored so faithfully to arrest our course towards +monarchy, and to secure the result of our revolutionary sufferings +and sacrifices in a government bottomed on the only safe basis, the +elective will of the people. You are young enough for the task, and +I hope you will undertake it. + + There is a subject respecting the practice of the court of +which you are a member, which has long weighed on my mind, on which I +have long thought I would write to you, and which I will take this +opportunity of doing. It is in truth a delicate undertaking, & yet +such is my opinion of your candor and devotedness to the +Constitution, in it's true spirit, that I am sure I shall meet your +approbation in unbosoming myself to you. The subject of my +uneasiness is the habitual mode of making up and delivering the +opinions of the supreme court of the US. + + You know that from the earliest ages of the English law, from +the date of the year-books, at least, to the end of the IId George, +the judges of England, in all but self-evident cases, delivered their +opinions seriatim, with the reasons and authorities which governed +their decisions. If they sometimes consulted together, and gave a +general opinion, it was so rarely as not to excite either alarm or +notice. Besides the light which their separate arguments threw on +the subject, and the instruction communicated by their several modes +of reasoning, it shewed whether the judges were unanimous or divided, +and gave accordingly more or less weight to the judgment as a +precedent. It sometimes happened too that when there were three +opinions against one, the reasoning of the one was so much the most +cogent as to become afterwards the law of the land. When Ld. +Mansfield came to the bench he introduced the habit of caucusing +opinions. The judges met at their chambers, or elsewhere, secluded +from the presence of the public, and made up what was to be delivered +as the opinion of the court. On the retirement of Mansfield, Ld. +Kenyon put an end to the practice, and the judges returned to that of +seriatim opinions, and practice it habitually to this day, I believe. +I am not acquainted with the late reporters, do not possess them, and +state the fact from the information of others. To come now to +ourselves I know nothing of what is done in other states, but in this +our great and good Mr. Pendleton was, after the revolution, placed at +the head of the court of Appeals. He adored Ld. Mansfield, & +considered him as the greatest luminary of law that any age had ever +produced, and he introduced into the court over which he presided, +Mansfield's practice of making up opinions in secret & delivering +them as the Oracles of the court, in mass. Judge Roane, when he came +to that bench, broke up the practice, refused to hatch judgments, in +Conclave, or to let others deliver opinions for him. At what time +the seriatim opinions ceased in the supreme Court of the US., I am +not informed. They continued I know to the end of the 3d Dallas in +1800. Later than which I have no Reporter of that court. About that +time the present C. J. came to the bench. Whether he carried the +practice of Mr. Pendleton to it, or who, or when I do not know; but I +understand from others it is now the habit of the court, & I suppose +it true from the cases sometimes reported in the newspapers, and +others which I casually see, wherein I observe that the opinions were +uniformly prepared in private. Some of these cases too have been of +such importance, of such difficulty, and the decisions so grating to +a portion of the public as to have merited the fullest explanation +from every judge seriatim, of the reasons which had produced such +convictions on his mind. It was interesting to the public to know +whether these decisions were really unanimous, or might not perhaps +be of 4. against 3. and consequently prevailing by the preponderance +of one voice only. The Judges holding their offices for life are +under two responsibilities only. 1. Impeachment. 2. Individual +reputation. But this practice compleatly withdraws them from both. +For nobody knows what opinion any individual member gave in any case, +nor even that he who delivers the opinion, concurred in it himself. +Be the opinion therefore ever so impeachable, having been done in the +dark it can be proved on no one. As to the 2d guarantee, personal +reputation, it is shielded compleatly. The practice is certainly +convenient for the lazy, the modest & the incompetent. It saves them +the trouble of developing their opinion methodically and even of +making up an opinion at all. That of seriatim argument shews whether +every judge has taken the trouble of understanding the case, of +investigating it minutely, and of forming an opinion for himself, +instead of pinning it on another's sleeve. It would certainly be +right to abandon this practice in order to give to our citizens one +and all, that confidence in their judges which must be so desirable +to the judges themselves, and so important to the cement of the +union. During the administration of Genl. Washington, and while E. +Randolph was Attorney General, he was required by Congress to digest +the judiciary laws into a single one, with such amendments as might +be thought proper. He prepared a section requiring the Judges to +give their opinions seriatim, in writing, to be recorded in a +distinct volume. Other business prevented this bill from being taken +up, and it passed off, but such a volume would have been the best +possible book of reports, and the better, as unincumbered with the +hired sophisms and perversions of Counsel. + + What do you think of the state of parties at this time? An +opinion prevails that there is no longer any distinction, that the +republicans & Federalists are compleatly amalgamated but it is not +so. The amalgamation is of name only, not of principle. All indeed +call themselves by the name of Republicans, because that of +Federalists was extinguished in the battle of New Orleans. But the +truth is that finding that monarchy is a desperate wish in this +country, they rally to the point which they think next best, a +consolidated government. Their aim is now therefore to break down +the rights reserved by the constitution to the states as a bulwark +against that consolidation, the fear of which produced the whole of +the opposition to the constitution at it's birth. Hence new +Republicans in Congress, preaching the doctrines of the old +Federalists, and the new nick-names of Ultras and Radicals. But I +trust they will fail under the new, as the old name, and that the +friends of the real constitution and union will prevail against +consolidation, as they have done against monarchism. I scarcely know +myself which is most to be deprecated, a consolidation, or +dissolution of the states. The horrors of both are beyond the reach +of human foresight. + + I have written you a long letter, and committed to you thoughts +which I would do to few others. If I am right, you will approve +them; if wrong, commiserate them as the dreams of a Superannuate +about things from which he is to derive neither good nor harm. But +you will still receive them as a proof of my confidence in the +rectitude of your mind and principles, of which I pray you to receive +entire assurance with that of my continued and great friendship and +respect. + + + RELIGION AND THE UNIVERSITY + + _To Dr. Thomas Cooper_ + _Monticello, November 2, 1822_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of October the 18th came to hand +yesterday. The atmosphere of our country is unquestionably charged +with a threatening cloud of fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser +in others, but too heavy in all. I had no idea, however, that in +Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and freedom of religion, it +could have arisen to the height you describe. This must be owing to +the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphemy and absurdity of the +five points of Calvin, and the impossibility of defending them, +render their advocates impatient of reasoning, irritable, and prone +to denunciation. In Boston, however, and its neighborhood, +Unitarianism has advanced to so great strength, as now to humble this +haughtiest of all religious sects; insomuch that they condescend to +interchange with them and the other sects, the civilities of +preaching freely and frequently in each others' meeting-houses. In +Rhode Island, on the other hand, no sectarian preacher will permit an +Unitarian to pollute his desk. In our Richmond there is much +fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night +meetings and praying parties, where, attended by their priests, and +sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of +their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their modesty +would permit them to use to a mere earthly lover. In our village of +Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small +spice only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without either +church or meeting-house. The court-house is the common temple, one +Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, +Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in hymning their Maker, +listen with attention and devotion to each others' preachers, and all +mix in society with perfect harmony. It is not so in the districts +where Presbyterianism prevails undividedly. Their ambition and +tyranny would tolerate no rival if they had power. Systematical in +grasping at an ascendency over all other sects, they aim, like the +Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country, are hostile to +every institution which they do not direct, and jealous at seeing +others begin to attend at all to that object. The diffusion of +instruction, to which there is now so growing an attention, will be +the remote remedy to this fever of fanaticism; while the more +proximate one will be the progress of Unitarianism. That this will, +ere long, be the religion of the majority from north to south, I have +no doubt. + + + In our university you know there is no Professorship of +Divinity. A handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea +that this is an institution, not merely of no religion, but against +all religion. Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the +Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might silence this calumny, +which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to the institution. +In our annual report to the legislature, after stating the +constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any +religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging the +different religious sects to establish, each for itself, a +professorship of their own tenets, on the confines of the university, +so near as that their students may attend the lectures there, and +have the free use of our library, and every other accommodation we +can give them; preserving, however, their independence of us and of +each other. This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an +institution professing to give instruction in _all_ useful sciences. +I think the invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid +intentions, and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by +bringing the sects together, and mixing them with the mass of other +students, we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize +their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion of peace, +reason, and morality. + + The time of opening our university is still as uncertain as +ever. All the pavilions, boarding houses, and dormitories are done. +Nothing is now wanting but the central building for a library and +other general purposes. For this we have no funds, and the last +legislature refused all aid. We have better hopes of the next. But +all is uncertain. I have heard with regret of disturbances on the +part of the students in your seminary. The article of discipline is +the most difficult in American education. Premature ideas of +independence, too little repressed by parents, beget a spirit of +insubordination, which is the great obstacle to science with us, and +a principal cause of its decay since the revolution. I look to it +with dismay in our institution, as a breaker ahead, which I am far +from being confident we shall be able to weather. The advance of +age, and tardy pace of the public patronage, may probably spare me +the pain of witnessing consequences. + + I salute you with constant friendship and respect. + + + CALVIN AND COSMOLOGY + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, April 11, 1823_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The wishes expressed, in your last favor, that I +may continue in life and health until I become a Calvinist, at least +in his exclamation of `_mon Dieu!_ jusque a quand'! would make me +immortal. I can never join Calvin in addressing _his god._ He was +indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was +Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did. The being +described in his 5. points is not the God whom you and I acknolege +and adore, the Creator and benevolent governor of the world; but a +daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe +in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes +of Calvin. Indeed I think that every Christian sect gives a great +handle to Atheism by their general dogma that, without a revelation, +there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a god. Now one +sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Christians: the other five +sixths then, who do not believe in the Jewish and Christian +revelation, are without a knolege of the existence of a god! This +gives compleatly a gain de cause to the disciples of Ocellus, +Timaeus, Spinosa, Diderot and D'Holbach. The argument which they +rest on as triumphant and unanswerable is that, in every hypothesis +of Cosmogony you must admit an eternal pre-existence of something; +and according to the rule of sound philosophy, you are never to +employ two principles to solve a difficulty when one will suffice. +They say then that it is more simple to believe at once in the +eternal pre-existence of the world, as it is now going on, and may +for ever go on by the principle of reproduction which we see and +witness, than to believe in the eternal pre-existence of an ulterior +cause, or Creator of the world, a being whom we see not, and know +not, of whose form substance and mode or place of existence, or of +action no sense informs us, no power of the mind enables us to +delineate or comprehend. On the contrary I hold (without appeal to +revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in it's parts +general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to +percieve and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and +indefinite power in every atom of it's composition. The movements of +the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance +of centrifugal and centripetal forces, the structure of our earth +itself, with it's distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere, +animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest +particles, insects mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organised as +man or mammoth, the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it +is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there +is, in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a +fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and +regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their +regenerator into new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of +the necessity of a superintending power to maintain the Universe in +it's course and order. Stars, well known, have disappeared, new ones +have come into view, comets, in their incalculable courses, may run +foul of suns and planets and require renovation under other laws; +certain races of animals are become extinct; and, were there no +restoring power, all existences might extinguish successively, one by +one, until all should be reduced to a shapeless chaos. So +irresistible are these evidences of an intelligent and powerful Agent +that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed thro' all time, +they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to Unit, +in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather +than in that of a self-existent Universe. Surely this unanimous +sentiment renders this more probable than that of the few in the +other hypothesis. Some early Christians indeed have believed in the +coeternal pre-existance of both the Creator and the world, without +changing their relation of cause and effect. That this was the +opinion of St. Thomas, we are informed by Cardinal Toleto, in these +words `Deus ab aeterno fuit jam omnipotens, sicut cum produxit +mundum. Ab aeterno potuit producere mundum. -- Si sol ab aeterno +esset, lumen ab aeterno esset; et si pes, similiter vestigium. At +lumen et vestigium effectus sunt efficientis solis et pedis; potuit +ergo cum causa aeterna effectus coaeterna esse. Cujus sententiae est +S. Thomas Theologorum primus' Cardinal Toleta. + + Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us +that `God is a spirit.' 4. John 24. but without defining what a +spirit is {pneyma o Theos}. Down to the 3d. century we know that it +was still deemed material; but of a lighter subtler matter than our +gross bodies. So says Origen. `Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, +juxta Originem, reapte corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione +corporum incorporeus.' These are the words of Huet in his commentary +on Origen. Origen himself says `appelatio {asomaton} apud nostros +scriptores est inusitata et incognita.' So also Tertullian `quis +autem negabit Deum esse corpus, etsi deus spiritus? Spiritus etiam +corporis sui generis, in sua effigie.' Tertullian. These two fathers +were of the 3d. century. Calvin's character of this supreme being +seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the reformation of +these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those more worthy, +pure and sublime, seems to have been the chief object of Jesus in his +discources to the Jews: and his doctrine of the Cosmogony of the +world is very clearly laid down in the 3 first verses of the 1st. +chapter of John, in these words, `{en arche en o logos, kai o logos +en pros ton Theon kai Theos en o logos. `otos en en arche pros ton +Theon. Panta de ayto egeneto, kai choris ayto egeneto ode en, o +gegonen}. Which truly translated means `in the beginning God +existed, and reason (or mind) was with God, and that mind was God. +This was in the beginning with God. All things were created by it, +and without it was made not one thing which was made'. Yet this +text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of Jesus that the world was +created by the supreme, intelligent being, has been perverted by +modern Christians to build up a second person of their tritheism by a +mistranslation of the word {logos}. One of it's legitimate meanings +indeed is `a word.' But, in that sense, it makes an unmeaning jargon: +while the other meaning `reason', equally legitimate, explains +rationally the eternal preexistence of God, and his creation of the +world. Knowing how incomprehensible it was that `a word,' the mere +action or articulation of the voice and organs of speech could create +a world, they undertake to make of this articulation a second +preexisting being, and ascribe to him, and not to God, the creation +of the universe. The Atheist here plumes himself on the uselessness +of such a God, and the simpler hypothesis of a self-existent +universe. The truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of +Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have +perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely +incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. +And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the +supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed +with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. +But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in +these United States will do away with all this artificial +scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of +this the most venerated reformer of human errors. + + So much for your quotation of Calvin's `mon dieu! jusqu'a +quand' in which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our God, I +join you cordially, and await his time and will with more readiness +than reluctance. May we meet there again, in Congress, with our +antient Colleagues, and recieve with them the seal of approbation +`Well done, good and faithful servants.' + + + THE SUPREME COURT AND THE CONSTITUTION + + _To Justice William Johnson_ + _Monticello, June 12, 1823_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Our correspondence is of that accommodating +character, which admits of suspension at the convenience of either +party, without inconvenience to the other. Hence this tardy +acknowledgment of your favor of April the 11th. I learn from that +with great pleasure, that you have resolved on continuing your +history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of us in +preparations for placing their cause favorably before posterity. Yet +I hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry +explosions or effusions of vanity, which will betray the genuine +monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what +they endeavor to inculcate, that we were an opposition party, not on +principle, but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the +formation of our government, many had formed their political opinions +on European writings and practices, believing the experience of old +countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was, to be a +safer guide than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men +in numerous associations cannot be restrained within the limits of +order and justice, but by forces physical and moral, wielded over +them by authorities independent of their will. Hence their +organization of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still further +to constrain the brute force of the people, they deem it necessary to +keep them down by hard labor, poverty and ignorance, and to take from +them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting +labor shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to +sustain a scanty and miserable life. And these earnings they apply +to maintain their privileged orders in splendor and idleness, to +fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite in them an humble +adoration and submission, as to an order of superior beings. +Although few among us had gone all these lengths of opinion, yet many +had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And in the +convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw the +cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the +dependence of the general functionaries on their constituents, to +subject to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of +maintaining the steady equilibrium which the majority of the +convention had deemed salutary for both branches, general and local. +To recover, therefore, in practice the powers which the nation had +refused, and to warp to their own wishes those actually given, was +the steady object of the federal party. Ours, on the contrary, was +to maintain the will of the majority of the convention, and of the +people themselves. We believed, with them, that man was a rational +animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of +justice; and that he could be restrained from wrong and protected in +right by moderate powers, confided to persons of his own choice, and +held to their duties by dependence on his own will. We believed that +the complicated organization of kings, nobles, and priests, was not +the wisest nor best to effect the happiness of associated man; that +wisdom and virtue were not hereditary, that the trappings of such a +machinery, consumed by their expense, those earnings of industry, +they were meant to protect, and, by the inequalities they produced, +exposed liberty to sufferance. We believed that men, enjoying in +ease and security the full fruits of their own industry, enlisted by +all their interests on the side of law and order, habituated to think +for themselves, and to follow their reason as their guide, would be +more easily and safely governed, than with minds nourished in error, +and vitiated and debased, as in Europe, by ignorance, indigence and +oppression. The cherishment of the people then was our principle, +the fear and distrust of them, that of the other party. Composed, as +we were, of the landed and laboring interests of the country, we +could not be less anxious for a government of law and order than were +the inhabitants of the cities, the strongholds of federalism. And +whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our +constitution have not been salutary, let the present republican +freedom, order and prosperity of our country determine. History may +distort truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior +efforts at justification of those who are conscious of needing it +most. Nor will the opening scenes of our present government be seen +in their true aspect, until the letters of the day, now held in +private hoards, shall be broken up and laid open to public view. +What a treasure will be found in General Washington's cabinet, when +it shall pass into the hands of as candid a friend to truth as he was +himself! When no longer, like Caesar's notes and memorandums in the +hands of Anthony, it shall be open to the high priests of federalism +only, and garbled to say so much, and no more, as suits their views! + + With respect to his farewell address, to the authorship of +which, it seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you +some facts. He had determined to decline re-election at the end of +his first term, and so far determined, that he had requested Mr. +Madison to prepare for him something valedictory, to be addressed to +his constituents on his retirement. This was done, but he was +finally persuaded to acquiesce in a second election, to which no one +more strenuously pressed him than myself, from a conviction of the +importance of strengthening, by longer habit, the respect necessary +for that office, which the weight of his character only could effect. +When, at the end of his second term, his Valedictory came out, Mr. +Madison recognized in it several passages of his draught, several +others, we were both satisfied, were from the pen of Hamilton, and +others from that of the President himself. These he probably put +into the hands of Hamilton to form into a whole, and hence it may all +appear in Hamilton's hand-writing, as if it were all of his +composition. + + I have stated above, that the original objects of the +federalists were, 1st, to warp our government more to the form and +principles of monarchy, and, 2d, to weaken the barriers of the State +governments as coordinate powers. In the first they have been so +completely foiled by the universal spirit of the nation, that they +have abandoned the enterprise, shrunk from the odium of their old +appellation, taken to themselves a participation of ours, and under +the pseudo-republican mask, are now aiming at their second object, +and strengthened by unsuspecting or apostate recruits from our ranks, +are advancing fast towards an ascendancy. I have been blamed for +saying, that a prevalence of the doctrines of consolidation would one +day call for reformation or _revolution_. I answer by asking if a +single State of the Union would have agreed to the constitution, had +it given all powers to the General Government? If the whole +opposition to it did not proceed from the jealousy and fear of every +State, of being subjected to the other States in matters merely its +own? And if there is any reason to believe the States more disposed +now than then, to acquiesce in this general surrender of all their +rights and powers to a consolidated government, one and undivided? + + You request me confidentially, to examine the question, whether +the Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional limits, and +trespassed on those of the State authorities? I do not undertake it, +my dear Sir, because I am unable. Age and the wane of mind +consequent on it, have disqualified me from investigations so severe, +and researches so laborious. And it is the less necessary in this +case, as having been already done by others with a logic and learning +to which I could add nothing. On the decision of the case of Cohens +_vs_. The State of Virginia, in the Supreme Court of the United +States, in March, 1821, Judge Roane, under the signature of Algernon +Sidney, wrote for the Enquirer a series of papers on the law of that +case. I considered these papers maturely as they came out, and +confess that they appeared to me to pulverize every word which had +been delivered by Judge Marshall, of the extra-judicial part of his +opinion; and all was extra-judicial, except the decision that the act +of Congress had not purported to give to the corporation of +Washington the authority claimed by their lottery law, of controlling +the laws of the States within the States themselves. But unable to +claim that case, he could not let it go entirely, but went on +gratuitously to prove, that notwithstanding the eleventh amendment of +the constitution, a State _could_ be brought as a defendant, to the +bar of his court; and again, that Congress might authorize a +corporation of its territory to exercise legislation within a State, +and paramount to the laws of that State. I cite the sum and result +only of his doctrines, according to the impression made on my mind at +the time, and still remaining. If not strictly accurate in +circumstance, it is so in substance. This doctrine was so completely +refuted by Roane, that if he can be answered, I surrender human +reason as a vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to +guide us. And I mention this particular case as one only of several, +because it gave occasion to that thorough examination of the +constitutional limits between the General and State jurisdictions, +which you have asked for. There were two other writers in the same +paper, under the signatures of Fletcher of Saltoun, and Somers, who, +in a few essays, presented some very luminous and striking views of +the question. And there was a particular paper which recapitulated +all the cases in which it was thought the federal court had usurped +on the State jurisdictions. These essays will be found in the +Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th. It is not in +my present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie can furnish +them, I will procure and forward them. If they had been read in the +other States, as they were here, I think they would have left, there +as here, no dissentients from their doctrine. The subject was taken +up by our legislature of 1821 - '22, and two draughts of +remonstrances were prepared and discussed. As well as I remember, +there was no difference of opinion as to the matter of right; but +there was as to the expediency of a remonstrance at that time, the +general mind of the States being then under extraordinary excitement +by the Missouri question; and it was dropped on that consideration. +But this case is not dead, it only sleepeth. The Indian Chief said +he did not go to war for every petty injury by itself, but put it +into his pouch, and when that was full, he then made war. Thank +Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and rational mode of +redress. + + This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case +to prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before the +court, is very irregular and very censurable. I recollect another +instance, and the more particularly, perhaps, because it in some +measure bore on myself. Among the midnight appointments of Mr. +Adams, were commissions to some federal justices of the peace for +Alexandria. These were signed and sealed by him, but not delivered. +I found them on the table of the department of State, on my entrance +into office, and I forbade their delivery. Marbury, named in one of +them, applied to the Supreme Court for a mandamus to the Secretary of +State, (Mr. Madison) to deliver the commission intended for him. The +court determined at once, that being an original process, they had no +cognizance of it; and therefore the question before them was ended. +But the Chief Justice went on to lay down what the law would be, had +they jurisdiction of the case, to wit: that they should command the +delivery. The object was clearly to instruct any other court having +the jurisdiction, what they should do if Marbury should apply to +them. Besides the impropriety of this gratuitous interference, could +anything exceed the perversion of law? For if there is any principle +of law never yet contradicted, it is that delivery is one of the +essentials to the validity of the deed. Although signed and sealed, +yet as long as it remains in the hands of the party himself, it is in +_fieri_ only, it is not a deed, and can be made so only by its +delivery. In the hands of a third person it may be made an escrow. +But whatever is in the executive offices is certainly deemed to be in +the hands of the President; and in this case, was actually in my +hands, because, when I countermanded them, there was as yet no +Secretary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and Madison is +continually cited by bench and bar, as if it were settled law, +without any animadversion on its being merely an _obiter_ +dissertation of the Chief Justice. + + It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of +words which shall decide at once, and with precision, in every case, +this limit of jurisdiction. But there are two canons which will +guide us safely in most of the cases. 1st. The capital and leading +object of the constitution was to leave with the States all +authorities which respected their own citizens only, and to transfer +to the United States those which respected citizens of foreign or +other States: to make us several as to ourselves, but one as to all +others. In the latter case, then, constructions should lean to the +general jurisdiction, if the words will bear it; and in favor of the +States in the former, if possible to be so construed. And indeed, +between citizens and citizens of the same State, and under their own +laws, I know but a single case in which a jurisdiction is given to +the General Government. That is, where anything but gold or silver +is made a lawful tender, or the obligation of contracts is any +otherwise impaired. The separate legislatures had so often abused +that power, that the citizens themselves chose to trust it to the +general, rather than to their own special authorities. 2d. On every +question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the +constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the +debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of +the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in +which it was passed. Let us try Cohen's case by these canons only, +referring always, however, for full argument, to the essays before +cited. + + 1. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a law +of his State. It was a domestic case, therefore, and not a foreign +one. + + 2. Can it be believed, that under the jealousies prevailing +against the General Government, at the adoption of the constitution, +the States meant to surrender the authority of preserving order, of +enforcing moral duties and restraining vice, within their own +territory? And this is the present case, that of Cohen being under +the ancient and general law of gaming. Can any good be effected by +taking from the States the moral rule of their citizens, and +subordinating it to the general authority, or to one of their +corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning of words, hunting +after possible constructions, and hanging inference on inference, +from heaven to earth, like Jacob's ladder? Such an intention was +impossible, and such a licentiousness of construction and inference, +if exercised by both governments, as may be done with equal right, +would equally authorize both to claim all power, general and +particular, and break up the foundations of the Union. Laws are made +for men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be +construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is +not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make +anything mean everything or nothing, at pleasure. It should be left +to the sophisms of advocates, whose trade it is, to prove that a +defendant is a plaintiff, though dragged into court, _torto collo_, +like Bonaparte's volunteers, into the field in chains, or that a +power has been given, because it ought to have been given, _et alia +talia_. The States supposed that by their tenth amendment, they had +secured themselves against constructive powers. They were not +lessoned yet by Cohen's case, nor aware of the slipperiness of the +eels of the law. I ask for no straining of words against the General +Government, nor yet against the States. I believe the States can +best govern our home concerns, and the General Government our foreign +ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome +distribution of powers established by the constitution for the +limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to +Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, +they may more secretly be bought and sold as at market. + + But the Chief Justice says, "there must be an ultimate arbiter +somewhere." True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? +The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their +deputies in convention, at the call of Congress, or of two-thirds of +the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority +claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom +and felicity of our constitution, to have provided this peaceable +appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force. + + I rejoice in the example you set of _seriatim_ opinions. I +have heard it often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some +of your brethren will be encouraged to follow it occasionally, and in +time, it may be felt by all as a duty, and the sound practice of the +primitive court be again restored. Why should not every judge be +asked his opinion, and give it from the bench, if only by yea or nay? +Besides ascertaining the fact of his opinion, which the public have a +right to know, in order to judge whether it is impeachable or not, it +would show whether the opinions were unanimous or not, and thus +settle more exactly the weight of their authority. + + The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now to +relieve you from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder +how I have accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one +scarcely able to move my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am +hurried sometimes beyond the sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to +friends who harmonize with me in principle. You and I may differ +occasionally in details of minor consequence, as no two minds, more +than two faces, are the same in every feature. But our general +objects are the same, to preserve the republican form and principles +of our constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers +which that has established. These are the two sheet anchors of our +Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering. +To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I add those for the +continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness to your +country. + + + "RIVERS OF BLOOD MUST YET FLOW" + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Sep. 4, 1823_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of Aug. 15. was recieved in due time, +and with the welcome of every thing which comes from you. With it's +opinions on the difficulties of revolutions, from despotism to +freedom, I very much concur. The generation which commences a +revolution can rarely compleat it. Habituated from their infancy to +passive submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, they +are not qualified, when called on, to think and provide for +themselves and their inexperience, their ignorance and bigotry make +them instruments often, in the hands of the Bonapartes and Iturbides +to defeat their own rights and purposes. This is the present +situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is not desperate. +The light which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing has +eminently changed the condition of the world. As yet that light has +dawned on the midling classes only of the men of Europe. The kings +and the rabble of equal ignorance, have not yet recieved it's rays; +but it continues to spread. And, while printing is preserved, it can +no more recede than the sun return on his course. A first attempt to +recover the right of self-government may fail; so may a 2d. a 3d. +etc., but as a younger, and more instructed race comes on, the +sentiment becomes more and more intuitive, and a 4th. a 5th. or some +subsequent one of the ever renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. +In France the 1st. effort was defeated by Robespierre, the 2d. by +Bonaparte, the 3d. by Louis XVIII. and his holy allies; another is +yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the spirit, +and all will attain representative government, more or less perfect. +This is now well understood to be a necessary check on kings, whom +they will probably think it more prudent to chain and tame, than to +exterminate. To attain all this however rivers of blood must yet +flow, and years of desolation pass over. Yet the object is worth +rivers of blood, and years of desolation for what inheritance so +valuable can man leave to his posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard +and his deadly and eternal hatred to a Frenchman, gives me much +confidence that he will never submit, but finally defeat this +atrocious violation of the laws of god and man under which he is +suffering; and the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes afford +reasonable hope that that nation will settle down in a temperate +representative government, with an Executive properly subordinated to +that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece will follow suit. +You and I shall look down from another world on these glorious +atchievements to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven. + + I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th. of July, wherein +you say that the omission of his signature to the Declaration of +Independance was by _accident_. Our impressions as to this fact +being different, I shall be glad to have mine corrected, if wrong. +Jay, you know, had been in constant opposition to our laboring +majority. Our estimate, at the time, was that he, Dickinson and +Johnson of Maryland by their ingenuity, perseverance and partiality +to our English connection, had constantly kept us a year behind where +we ought to have been in our preparations and proceedings. From +about the date of the Virginia instructions of May 15. 76. to declare +Independance Mr. Jay absented himself from Congress, and never came +there again until Dec. 78. Of course he had no part in the +discussions or decision of that question. The instructions to their +delegates by the Convention of New York, then sitting, to sign the +Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th. of July only, +and on that day the journals shew the absence of Mr. Jay by a letter +recieved from him, as they had done as early as the 29th. of May by +another letter. And, I think, he had been omitted by the Convention +on a new election of Delegates when they changed their instructions. +Of this last fact however having no evidence but an antient +impression, I shall not affirm it. But whether so or not, no agency +of _accident_ appears in the case. This error of fact however, +whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to the public. But +truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it for our +own satisfaction. + + I have had a fever of about three weeks during the last and +preceding month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to +strength. Ever and affectionately yours + + + "THE BEST LETTER THAT EVER WAS WRITTEN . . ." + + _To John Adams_ + _Monticello, Oct. 12, 1823_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I do not write with the ease whichyour letter of +Sep. 18. supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and +laborious. But, while writing to you, I lose the sense of these +things, in the recollection of antient times, when youth and health +made happiness out of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary +winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves +warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours until the friendly hand +of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this tedium vitae +however I am fortunately mounted on a Hobby, which indeed I should +have better managed some 30. or 40. years ago, but whose easy amble +is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an Octogenary +rider. This is the establishment of an University, on a scale more +comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than our old +William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in a state of +languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness with which such works +proceed may render it doubtful whether I shall live to see it go into +action. + + Putting aside these things however for the present, I write +this letter as due to a friendship co-eval with our government, and +now attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by +new affections. I had for some time observed, in the public papers, +dark hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours +with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and +which was to be made public by that friend, or his representative. +And now it is said to be actually published. It has not yet reached +us, but extracts have been given, and such as seemed most likely to +draw a curtain of separation between you and myself. Were there no +other motive than that of indignation against the author of this +outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed +at yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every +honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to it's impression +a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With me however no +such armour is needed. The circumstances of the times, in which we +have happened to live, and the partiality of our friends, at a +particular period, placed us in a state of apparent opposition, which +some might suppose to be personal also; and there might not be +wanting those who wish'd to make it so, by filling our ears with +malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous phantoms of their own +creation, presenting them to you under my name, to me under your's, +and endeavoring to instill into our minds things concerning each +other the most destitute of truth. And if there had been, at any +time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper to let the +whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of each +other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men who +have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen the +false colours under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and +motives of others, have seen also these passions subsiding with time +and reflection, dissipating, like mists before the rising sun, and +restoring to us the sight of all things in their true shape and +colours. It would be strange indeed if, at our years, we were to go +an age back to hunt up imaginary, or forgotten facts, to disturb the +repose of affections so sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be +assured, my dear Sir, that I am incapable of recieving the slightest +impression from the effort now made to plant thorns on the pillow of +age, worth, and wisdom, and to sow tares between friends who have +been such for near half a century. Beseeching you then not to suffer +your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison it's +peace, and praying you to throw it by, among the things which have +never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated, and constant +attachment, friendship and respect. + + + THE MONROE DOCTRINE + + _To the President of the United States_ + (JAMES MONROE) + _Monticello, October 24, 1823_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The question presented by the letters you have +sent me, is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my +contemplation since that of Independence. That made us a nation, +this sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer +through the ocean of time opening on us. And never could we embark +on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first and fundamental +maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. +Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic +affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct +from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should therefore +have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. +While the last is laboring to become the domicil of despotism, our +endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom. +One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she now +offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her +proposition, we detach her from the bands, bring her mighty weight +into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at one +stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty. +Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, +or all on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole +world. With her then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial +friendship; and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than +to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that +I would purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her +wars. But the war in which the present proposition might engage us, +should that be its consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object +is to introduce and establish the American system, of keeping out of +our land all foreign powers, of never permitting those of Europe to +intermeddle with the affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our +own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we +can effect a division in the body of the European powers, and draw +over to our side its most powerful member, surely we should do it. +But I am clearly of Mr. Canning's opinion, that it will prevent +instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their +scale and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe +combined would not undertake such a war. For how would they propose +to get at either enemy without superior fleets? Nor is the occasion +to be slighted which this proposition offers, of declaring our +protest against the atrocious violations of the rights of nations, by +the interference of any one in the internal affairs of another, so +flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, and now continued by the equally +lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy. + + But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to +acquire to our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish +provinces? I candidly confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as +the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system +of States. The control which, with Florida Point, this island would +give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus +bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, +would fill up the measure of our political well-being. Yet, as I am +sensible that this can never be obtained, even with her own consent, +but by war; and its independence, which is our second interest, (and +especially its independence of England,) can be secured without it, I +have no hesitation in abandoning my first wish to future chances, and +accepting its independence, with peace and the friendship of England, +rather than its association, at the expense of war and her enmity. + + I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, +that we aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that +we will not stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them +and the mother country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, +the forcible interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, +stipendiary, or under any other form or pretext, and most especially, +their transfer to any power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in +any other way. I should think it, therefore, advisable, that the +Executive should encourage the British government to a continuance in +the dispositions expressed in these letters, by an assurance of his +concurrence with them as far as his authority goes; and that as it +may lead to war, the declaration of which requires an act of +Congress, the case shall be laid before them for consideration at +their first meeting, and under the reasonable aspect in which it is +seen by himself. + + I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so +long ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not +qualified to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the +question now proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects +so decisive of our future destinies, as to rekindle all the interest +I have heretofore felt on such occasions, and to induce me to the +hazard of opinions, which will prove only my wish to contribute still +my mite towards anything which may be useful to our country. And +praying you to accept it at only what it is worth, I add the +assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect. + + + A PLAN OF EMANCIPATION + + _To Jared Sparks_ + _Monticello, February 4, 1824_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I duly received your favor of the 13th, and with +it, the last number of the North American Review. This has +anticipated the one I should receive in course, but have not yet +received, under my subscription to the new series. The article on +the African colonization of the people of color, to which you invite +my attention, I have read with great consideration. It is, indeed, a +fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more, too, than I +had before known, of the degree of success and promise of that +colony. + + In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two +rational objects to be distinctly kept in view. First. The +establishment of a colony on the coast of Africa, which may introduce +among the aborigines the arts of cultivated life, and the blessings +of civilization and science. By doing this, we may make to them some +retribution for the long course of injuries we have been committing +on their population. And considering that these blessings will +descend to the _"nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis,"_ we shall +in the long run have rendered them perhaps more good than evil. To +fulfil this object, the colony of Sierra Leone promises well, and +that of Mesurado adds to our prospect of success. Under this view, +the colonization society is to be considered as a missionary society, +having in view, however, objects more humane, more justifiable, and +less aggressive on the peace of other nations, than the others of +that appellation. + + The subject object, and the most interesting to us, as coming +home to our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and +safety, is to provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the +whole of that population from among us, and establish them under our +patronage and protection, as a separate, free and independent people, +in some country and climate friendly to human life and happiness. +That any place on the coast of Africa should answer the latter +purpose, I have ever deemed entirely impossible. And without +repeating the other arguments which have been urged by others, I will +appeal to figures only, which admit no controversy. I shall speak in +round numbers, not absolutely accurate, yet not so wide from truth as +to vary the result materially. There are in the United States a +million and a half of people of color in slavery. To send off the +whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be practicable for us, or +expedient for them. Let us take twenty-five years for its +accomplishment, within which time they will be doubled. Their +estimated value as property, in the first place, (for actual property +has been lawfully vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it +from the possessors?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, +young and old, would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which +must be paid or lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their +transportation by land and sea to Mesurado, a year's provision of +food and clothing, implements of husbandry and of their trades, which +will amount to three hundred millions more, making thirty-six +millions of dollars a year for twenty-five years, with insurance of +peace all that time, and it is impossible to look at the question a +second time. I am aware that at the end of about sixteen years, a +gradual detraction from this sum will commence, from the gradual +diminution of breeders, and go on during the remaining nine years. +Calculate this deduction, and it is still impossible to look at the +enterprise a second time. I do not say this to induce an inference +that the getting rid of them is forever impossible. For that is +neither my opinion nor my hope. But only that it cannot be done in +this way. There is, I think, a way in which it can be done; that is, +by emancipating the after-born, leaving them, on due compensation, +with their mothers, until their services are worth their maintenance, +and then putting them to industrious occupations, until a proper age +for deportation. This was the result of my reflections on the +subject five and forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to +conceive any other practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes on +Virginia, under the fourteenth query. The estimated value of the +new-born infant is so low, (say twelve dollars and fifty cents,) that +it would probably be yielded by the owner gratis, and would thus +reduce the six hundred millions of dollars, the first head of +expense, to thirty-seven millions and a half; leaving only the +expense of nourishment while with the mother, and of transportation. +And from what fund are these expenses to be furnished? Why not from +that of the lands which have been ceded by the very States now +needing this relief? And ceded on no consideration, for the most +part, but that of the general good of the whole. These cessions +already constitute one fourth of the States of the Union. It may be +said that these lands have been sold; are now the property of the +citizens composing those States; and the money long ago received and +expended. But an equivalent of lands in the territories since +acquired, may be appropriated to that object, or so much, at least, +as may be sufficient; and the object, although more important to the +slave States, is highly so to the others also, if they were serious +in their arguments on the Missouri question. The slave States, too, +if more interested, would also contribute more by their gratuitous +liberation, thus taking on themselves alone the first and heaviest +item of expense. + + In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular +place of asylum was specified; because it was thought possible, that +in the revolutionary state of America, then commenced, events might +open to us some one within practicable distance. This has now +happened. St. Domingo has become independent, and with a population +of that color only; and if the public papers are to be credited, +their Chief offers to pay their passage, to receive them as free +citizens, and to provide them employment. This leaves, then, for the +general confederacy, no expense but of nurture with the mother a few +years, and would call, of course, for a very moderate appropriation +of the vacant lands. Suppose the whole annual increase to be of +sixty thousand effective births, fifty vessels, of four hundred tons +burthen each, constantly employed in that short run, would carry off +the increase of every year, and the old stock would die off in the +ordinary course of nature, lessening from the commencement until its +final disappearance. In this way no violation of private right is +proposed. Voluntary surrenders would probably come in as fast as the +means to be provided for their care would be competent to it. +Looking at my own State only, and I presume not to speak for the +others, I verily believe that this surrender of property would not +amount to more, annually, than half our present direct taxes, to be +continued fully about twenty or twenty-five years, and then gradually +diminishing for as many more until their final extinction; and even +this half tax would not be paid in cash, but by the delivery of an +object which they have never yet known or counted as part of their +property; and those not possessing the object will be called on for +nothing. I do not go into all the details of the burthens and +benefits of this operation. And who could estimate its blessed +effects? I leave this to those who will live to see their +accomplishment, and to enjoy a beatitude forbidden to my age. But I +leave it with this admonition, to rise and be doing. A million and a +half are within their control; but six millions, (which a majority of +those now living will see them attain,) and one million of these +fighting men, will say, "we will not go." + + I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional +scruples. But a liberal construction, justified by the object, may +go far, and an amendment of the constitution, the whole length +necessary. The separation of infants from their mothers, too, would +produce some scruples of humanity. But this would be straining at a +gnat, and swallowing a camel. + + I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject of +the duty on imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept up against +it, until those in power shall become sensible of this stain on our +legislation, and shall wipe it from their code, and from the +remembrance of man, if possible. + + I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem. + + + PROFESSORS FROM ABROAD + + _To Dugald Stewart_ + _Monticello in Virginia, Apr. 26, 1824_ + + DEAR SIR, -- It is now 35 years since I had the great pleasure +of becoming acquainted with you in Paris, and since we saw together +Louis XVI. led in triumph by his people thro' the streets of his +capital; these years too have been like ages in the events they have +engendered without seeming at all to have bettered the condn of +suffering man. Yet his mind has been opening and advancing, a +sentiment of his wrongs has been spreading, and it will end in the +ultimate establishment of his rights. To effect this nothing is +wanting but a general concurrence of will, and some fortunate +accident will produce that. At a subsequent period you were so kind +as to recall me to your recollection on the publicn of your +invaluable book on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, a copy of which +you sent me, and I have been happy to see it become the text book of +most of our colleges & academies, and pass thro' several +reimpressions in the U.S. An occurrence of a character dear to us +both leads again to a renewal of our recollections and associates us +in an occasion of still rendering some service to those we are about +to leave. The State of Virga, of which I am a native and resident, +is establishing an university on a scale as extensive and liberal as +circumstances permit or call for. We have been 4 or 5 years in +preparing our buildings, which are now ready to recieve their +tenants. We proceed, therefore, to the engaging professors, and +anxious to recieve none but of the highest grade of science in their +respective lines, we find we must have recourse to Europe, where +alone that grade is to be found, and to Gr. Br. of preference, as the +land of our own language, morals, manners, and habits. To make the +selection we send a special agent, M'r Francis W. Gilmer, who will +have the honor of delivering you this letter. He is well educated +himself in most of the branches of science, of correct morals and +habits, an enlarged mind, and a discretion meriting entire +confidence. From the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where we +expect he will find persons duly qualified in the particular branches +in which these seminaries are respectively eminent, he will pass on +to Edinburg, distinguished for it's school of Medicine as well as of +other sciences, but when arrived there he will be a perfect stranger, +and would have to grope his way in darkness and uncertainty; you can +lighten his path, and to beseech you to do so is the object of this +letter. Your knolege of persons and characters there can guard him +against being misled and lead him to the consummation of our wishes. +We do not expect to engage the high characters there who are at the +head of their schools, established in offices, honors, & emoluments +which can be bettered no where. But we know there is always a junior +set of aspirants, treading on their heels, ready to take their +places, and as well & sometimes better qualified than they are. +These persons, unsettled as yet, surrounded by competitors of equal +claims, and perhaps greater credit and interest, may be willing to +accept immediately a comfortable certainty here in place of uncertain +hopes there, and a lingering delay of even these. From this +description of persons we may hope to procure characters of the first +order of science. But how to distinguish them? For we are told that +were the mission of our agent once known, he would be overwhelmed +with applicants, unworthy as well as worthy, yet all supported on +recommendns and certificates equally exaggerated, and by names so +respectable as to confound all discrimination. Yet this +discrimination is all important to us. An unlucky selection at first +would blast all our prospects. Let me beseech you, then, good Sir, +to lead Mr. Gilmer by the hand in his researches, to instruct him as +to the competent characters, & guard him against those not so. +Besides the first degree of eminence in science, a professor with us +must be of sober and correct morals & habits, having the talent of +communicating his knolege with facility, and of an accomodating and +peaceable temper. The latter is all important for the harmony of the +institution. For minuter particulars I will refer you to Mr. Gilmer, +who possesses a full knolege of everything & our full confidence in +everything. He takes with him plans of our establm't, which will +shew the comfortable accommodns provided for the professors, whether +with or without families; and by the expensiveness and extent of the +scale they will see it is not an ephemeral thing to which they are +invited. + + A knolege of your character & disposns to do good dispenses +with all apology for the trouble I give you. While the character and +success of this institN, involving the future hopes and happiness of +my country, will justify the anxieties I feel in the choice of it's +professors, I am sure the object will excite in your breast such +sympathies of kind disposN, as will give us the benefits we ask of +your counsels & attentions. And, with my acknolegements for these, +accept assurances of constant and sincere attamt, esteem & respect. + + + SAXONS, CONSTITUTIONS, AND A CASE OF PIOUS FRAUD + + _To Major John Cartwright_ + _Monticello, June 5, 1824_ + + DEAR AND VENERABLE SIR, -- I am much indebted for your kind +letter of February the 29th, and for your valuable volume on the +English constitution. I have read this with pleasure and much +approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution of the English +nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon. It is really +wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have failed in +their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder then, that +Paine, who thought more than he read, should have credited the great +authorities who have declared, that the will of parliament is the +constitution of England. So Marbois, before the French revolution, +observed to me, that the Almanac Royal was the constitution of +France. Your derivation of it from the Anglo-Saxons, seems to be +made on legitimate principles. Having driven out the former +inhabitants of that part of the island called England, they became +aborigines as to you, and your lineal ancestors. They doubtless had +a constitution; and although they have not left it in a written +formula, to the precise text of which you may always appeal, yet they +have left fragments of their history and laws, from which it may be +inferred with considerable certainty. Whatever their history and +laws shew to have been practised with approbation, we may presume was +permitted by their constitution; whatever was not so practised, was +not permitted. And although this constitution was violated and set +at naught by Norman force, yet force cannot change right. A +perpetual claim was kept up by the nation, by their perpetual demand +of a restoration of their Saxon laws; which shews they were never +relinquished by the will of the nation. In the pullings and haulings +for these antient rights, between the nation, and its kings of the +races of Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts, there was sometimes gain, +and sometimes loss, until the final re-conquest of their rights from +the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the +thread of pretended inheritance, extinguished all regal usurpations, +and the nation re-entered into all its rights; and although in their +bill of rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the +omission of the others was no renunciation of the right to assume +their exercise also, whenever occasion should occur. The new King +received no rights or powers, but those expressly granted to him. It +has ever appeared to me, that the difference between the whig and the +tory of England is, that the whig deduces his rights from the +Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory from the Norman. And Hume, the +great apostle of toryism, says, in so many words, note AA to chapter +42, that, in the reign of the Stuarts, `it was the people who +encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who attempted, as is +pretended, to usurp upon the people.' This supposes the Norman +usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, C, 159, `the +commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and seems +specious, but is belied by all history and experience, _that the +people are the origin of all just power_.' And where else will this +degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow men, find the +origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will +it be in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority? + + Our Revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It +presented us an album on which we were free to write what we pleased. +We had no occasion to search into musty records, to hunt up royal +parchments, or to investigate the laws and institutions of a +semi-barbarous ancestry. We appealed to those of nature, and found +them engraved on our hearts. Yet we did not avail ourselves of all +the advantages of our position. We had never been permitted to +exercise self-government. When forced to assume it, we were novices +in its science. Its principles and forms had entered little into our +former education. We established however some, although not all its +important principles. The constitutions of most of our States +assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may +exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think +themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive +and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all +judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by +representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right +and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom +of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of +the press. In the structure of our legislatures, we think experience +has proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two separate bodies +of deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right has been +mistaken, some making one of these bodies, and some both, the +representatives of property instead of persons; whereas the double +deliberation might be as well obtained without any violation of true +principle, either by requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or +by electing a proper number of representatives of persons, dividing +them by lots into two chambers, and renewing the division at frequent +intervals, in order to break up all cabals. Virginia, of which I am +myself a native and resident, was not only the first of the States, +but, I believe I may say, the first of the nations of the earth, +which assembled its wise men peaceably together to form a fundamental +constitution, to commit it to writing, and place it among their +archives, where every one should be free to appeal to its text. But +this act was very imperfect. The other States, as they proceeded +successively to the same work, made successive improvements; and +several of them, still further corrected by experience, have, by +conventions, still further amended their first forms. My own State +has gone on so far with its _premiere ebauche_; but it is now +proposing to call a convention for amendment. Among other +improvements, I hope they will adopt the subdivision of our counties +into wards. The former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four +miles square; the latter should be about six miles square each, and +would answer to the hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each of these +might be, 1. An elementary school. 2. A company of militia, with its +officers. 3. A justice of the peace and constable. 4. Each ward +should take care of their own poor. 5. Their own roads. 6. Their own +police. 7. Elect within themselves one or more jurors to attend the +courts of justice. And 8. Give in at their Folk-house, their votes +for all functionaries reserved to their election. Each ward would +thus be a small republic within itself, and every man in the State +would thus become an acting member of the common government, +transacting in person a great portion of its rights and duties, +subordinate indeed, yet important, and entirely within his +competence. The wit of man cannot devise a more solid basis for a +free, durable and well administered republic. + + With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not +think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They +generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this is +not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and +integral whole. To the State governments are reserved all +legislation and administration, in affairs which concern their own +citizens only, and to the federal government is given whatever +concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States; these functions +alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the +foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over +the other, but within its own department. There are one or two +exceptions only to this partition of power. But, you may ask, if the +two departments should claim each the same subject of power, where is +the common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of +little importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep +them aloof from the questionable ground: but if it can neither be +avoided nor compromised, a convention of the States must be called, +to ascribe the doubtful power to that department which they may think +best. You will perceive by these details, that we have not yet so +far perfected our constitutions as to venture to make them +unchangeable. But still, in their present state, we consider them +not otherwise changeable than by the authority of the people, on a +special election of representatives for that purpose expressly: they +are until then the _lex legum_. + + But can they be made unchangeable? Can one generation bind +another, and all others, in succession forever? I think not. The +Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and +powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter, +unendowed with will. The dead are not even things. The particles of +matter which composed their bodies, make part now of the bodies of +other animals, vegetables, or minerals, of a thousand forms. To what +then are attached the rights and powers they held while in the form +of men? A generation may bind itself as long as its majority +continues in life; when that has disappeared, another majority is in +place, holds all the rights and powers their predecessors once held, +and may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. +Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights +of man. + + I was glad to find in your bo ok a formal contradition, at +length, of the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such +the judges have usurped in their repeated decisions, that +Christianity is a part of the common law. The proof of the contrary, +which you have adduced, is incontrovertible; to wit, that the common +law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when +they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that +such a character had ever existed. But it may amuse you, to shew +when, and by what means, they stole this law in upon us. In a case +of _quare impedit_ in the Year-book 34. H. 6. folio 38. (anno 1458,) +a question was made, how far the ecclesiastical law was to be +respected in a common law court? And Prisot, Chief Justice, gives +his opinion in these words, `A tiel leis qu' ils de seint eglise ont +en _ancien scripture_, covient a nous a donner credence; car ceo +common ley sur quels touts manners leis sont fondes. Et auxy, Sir, +nous sumus obleges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise: et +semblablement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si +poit apperer or a nous que l'evesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en +tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo adjuger bon, ou auterment nemy,' &c. +See S. C. Fitzh. Abr. Qu. imp. 89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in +his first book, c. 3. is the first afterwards who quotes this case, +and mistakes it thus. `To such laws of the church as have warrant in +_holy scripture_, our law giveth credence.' And cites Prisot; +mistranslating _`ancien scripture,'_ into _`holy scripture.'_ Whereas +Prisot palpably says, `to such laws as those of holy church have in +_antient writing_, it is proper for us to give credence;' to wit, to +their _antient written_ laws. This was in 1613, a century and a half +after the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in 1658, erects this false +translation into a maxim of the common law, copying the words of +Finch, but citing Prisot. Wing. Max. 3. And Sheppard, title, +`Religion,' in 1675, copies the same mistranslation, quoting the Y. +B. Finch and Wingate. Hale expresses it in these words; +`Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.' 1 Ventr. 293. 3 Keb. +607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings and re-echoings +from one to another, it had become so established in 1728, that in +the case of the King _vs._ Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court would not +suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity was +punishable in the temporal court at common law? Wood, therefore, +409, ventures still to vary the phrase, and say, that all blasphemy +and profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra. +Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that +`Christianity is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and +Strange. And finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, +in Evans' case, in 1767, says, that `the essential principles of +revealed religion are part of the common law.' Thus ingulphing Bible, +Testament and all into the common law, without citing any authority. +And thus we find this chain of authorities hanging link by link, one +upon another, and all ultimately on one and the same hook, and that a +mistranslation of the words _`ancien scripture,'_ used by Prisot. +Finch quotes Prisot; Wingate does the same. Sheppard quotes Prisot, +Finch and Wingate. Hale cites nobody. The court in Woolston's case, +cite Hale. Wood cites Woolston's case. Blackstone quotes Woolston's +case and Hale. And Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own +authority. Here I might defy the best read lawyer to produce another +scrip of authority for this judiciary forgery; and I might go on +further to shew, how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated +into the text of Alfred's laws, the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd +chapters of Exodus, and the 15th of the Acts of the Apostles, from +the 23rd to the 29th verses. But this would lead my pen and your +patience too far. What a conspiracy this, between Church and State! +Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues all, Sing Tantarara, rogues all! + + I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my +acknowledgments for your good wishes to the University we are now +establishing in this State. There are some novelties in it. Of that +of a professorship of the principles of government, you express your +approbation. They will be founded in the rights of man. That of +agriculture, I am sure, you will approve: and that also of +Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us in that type and +dialect, must be the text books of the reading of the learners, they +will imbibe with the language their free principles of government. +The volumes you have been so kind as to send, shall be placed in the +library of the University. Having at this time in England a person +sent for the purpose of selecting some Professors, a Mr. Gilmer of my +neighborhood, I cannot but recommend him to your patronage, counsel +and guardianship, against imposition, misinformation, and the +deceptions of partial and false recommendations, in the selection of +characters. He is a gentleman of great worth and correctness, my +particular friend, well educated in various branches of science, and +worthy of entire confidence. + + Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure us +a speedy meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on +the good and evil, which, in the course of our long lives, we have +both witnessed; and in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances +of my high veneration and esteem for your person and character. + + + THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY + + _To William Ludlow_ + _Monticello, September 6, 1824_ + + SIR, -- The idea which you present in your letter of July 30th, +of the progress of society from its rudest state to that it has now +attained, seems conformable to what may be probably conjectured. +Indeed, we have under our eyes tolerable proofs of it. Let a +philosophic observer commence a journey from the savages of the Rocky +Mountains, eastwardly towards our sea-coast. These he would observe +in the earliest stage of association living under no law but that of +nature, subscribing and covering themselves with the flesh and skins +of wild beasts. He would next find those on our frontiers in the +pastoral state, raising domestic animals to supply the defects of +hunting. Then succeed our own semi-barbarous citizens, the pioneers +of the advance of civilization, and so in his progress he would meet +the gradual shades of improving man until he would reach his, as yet, +most improved state in our seaport towns. This, in fact, is +equivalent to a survey, in time, of the progress of man from the +infancy of creation to the present day. I am eighty-one years of +age, born where I now live, in the first range of mountains in the +interior of our country. And I have observed this march of +civilization advancing from the sea coast, passing over us like a +cloud of light, increasing our knowledge and improving our condition, +insomuch as that we are at this time more advanced in civilization +here than the seaports were when I was a boy. And where this +progress will stop no one can say. Barbarism has, in the meantime, +been receding before the steady step of amelioration; and will in +time, I trust, disappear from the earth. You seem to think that this +advance has brought on too complicated a state of society, and that +we should gain in happiness by treading back our steps a little way. +I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is +necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. +I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who +maintain it. Your experiment seems to have this in view. A society +of seventy families, the number you name, may very possibly be +governed as a single family, subsisting on their common industry, and +holding all things in common. Some regulators of the family you +still must have, and it remains to be seen at what period of your +increasing population your simple regulations will cease to be +sufficient to preserve order, peace, and justice. The experiment is +interesting; I shall not live to see its issue, but I wish it success +equal to your hopes, and to yourself and society prosperity and +happiness. + + + RETURN OF THE HERO + + _To Lafayette_ + _Monticello, October 9, 1824_ + + I have duly received, my dear friend and General, your letter +of the 1st from Philadelphia, giving us the welcome assurance that +you will visit the neighborhood which, during the march of our enemy +near it, was covered by your shield from his robberies and ravages. +In passing the line of your former march you will experience pleasing +recollections of the good you have done. My neighbors, too, of our +academical village, who well remember their obligations to you, have +expressed to you, in a letter from a committee appointed for that +purpose, their hope that you will accept manifestations of their +feelings, simple indeed, but as cordial as any you will have +received. It will be an additional honor to the University of the +State that you will have been its first guest. Gratify them, then, +by this assurance to their committee, if it has not been done. But +what recollections, dear friend, will this call up to you and me! +What a history have we to run over from the evening that yourself, +Meusnier, Bernau, and other patriots settled, in my house in Paris, +the outlines of the constitution you wished! And to trace it through +all the disastrous chapters of Robespierre, Barras, Bonaparte, and +the Bourbons! These things, however, are for our meeting. You +mention the return of Miss Wright to America, accompanied by her +sister; but do not say what her stay is to be, nor what her course. +Should it lead her to a visit of our University, which, in its +architecture only, is as yet an object, herself and her companion +will nowhere find a welcome more hearty than with Mrs. Randolph, and +all the inhabitants of Monticello. This Athenaeum of our country, in +embryo, is as yet but promise; and not in a state to recall the +recollections of Athens. But everything has its beginning, its +growth, and end; and who knows with what future delicious morsels of +philosophy, and by what future Miss Wright raked from its ruins, the +world may, some day, be gratified and instructed? Your son George we +shall be very happy indeed to see, and to renew in him the +recollections of your very dear family; and the revolutionary merit +of M. le Vasseur has that passport to the esteem of every American, +and, to me, the additional one of having been your friend and +co-operator, and he will, I hope, join you in making head-quarters +with us at Monticello. But all these things _a revoir_ -- ; in the +meantime we are impatient that your ceremonies at York should be +over, and give you to the embraces of friendship. + + P. S. Will you come by Mr. Madison's, or let him or me know on +what day he may meet you here, and join us in our greetings? + + + COUNSEL TO A NAMESAKE + + _To Thomas Jefferson Smith_ + _Monticello, February 21, 1825_ + + This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer +will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your +affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address +to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on +the course of life you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an +interest in that course. Few words will be necessary, with good +dispositions on your part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your +parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than +yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. +So shall the life into which you have entered, be the portal to one +of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is permitted +to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will +be under my regard. Farewell. + + _The portrait of a good man by the most sublime of poets, for +your imitation_ + Lord, who's the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair; + Not stranger-like to visit them but to inhabit there? + 'Tis he whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves; + Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart +disproves. + Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor's fame to wound; + Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round. + Who vice in all its pomp and power, can treat with just +neglect; + And piety, though clothed in rages, religiously respect. + Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood; + And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good. + Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ; + Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy. +|P1500|p1 + The man, who, by his steady course, has happiness insur'd. + When earth's foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence +secur'd. + + _A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life_. + 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. + 2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. + 3. Never spend your money before you have it. + 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will +be dear to you. + 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. + 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. + 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. + 8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never +happened. + 9. Take things always by their smooth handle. + 10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an +hundred. + + + THE OBJECT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE + + _To Henry Lee_ + _Monticello, May 8, 1825_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of Apr. 29 has been duly recieved, and +the offer of mineralogical specimens from Mr. Myer has been +communicated to Dr. Emmet our Professor of Natural history. The last +donation of the legislature to the University was appropriated +specifically to a library and apparatus of every kind. But we apply +it first to the more important articles of a library, of an +astronomical, physical, & chemical apparatus. And we think it safest +to see what these will cost, before we venture on collections of +mineral & other subjects, the last we must proportion to what sum we +shall have left only. The Professor possesses already what he thinks +will be sufficient for mineralogical and geological explanations to +his school. I do not know how far he might be tempted to enlarge his +possession by a catalogue of articles and prices, if both should be +satisfactory. If Mr. Myer chuses to send such a catalogue, it shall +be returned to you immediately, if the purchase be not approved. + + That George Mason was the author of the bill of rights, and the +constitution founded on it, the evidence of the day established fully +in my mind. Of the paper you mention, purporting to be instructions +to the Virginia delegation in Congress, I have no recollection. If +it were anything more than a project of some private hand, that is to +say, had any such instructions been ever given by the convention, +they would appear in the journals, which we possess entire. But with +respect to our rights, and the acts of the British government +contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of +the water. All American whigs thought alike on these subjects. When +forced, therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the +tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. This +was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out +new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely +to say things which had never been said before; but to place before +mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm +as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the +independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at +originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any +particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression +of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone +and spirit called for by the occasion. All its authority rests then +on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in +conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books +of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, &c. The +historical documents which you mention as in your possession, ought +all to be found, and I am persuaded you will find, to be +corroborative of the facts and principles advanced in that +Declaration. Be pleased to accept assurances of my great esteem and +respect. + + + THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE + + _To the Honorable J. Evelyn Denison, M.P._ + _Monticello, November 9, 1825_ + + DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of July 30th was duly received, and we +have now at hand the books you have been so kind as to send to our +University. They are truly acceptable in themselves, for we might +have been years not knowing of their existence; but give the greater +pleasure as evidence of the interest you have taken in our infant +institution. It is going on as successfully as we could have +expected; and I have no reason to regret the measure taken of +procuring Professors from abroad where science is so much ahead of +us. You witnessed some of the puny squibs of which I was the butt on +that account. They were probably from disappointed candidates, whose +unworthiness had occasioned their applications to be passed over. +The measure has been generally approved in the South and West; and by +all liberal minds in the North. It has been peculiarly fortunate, +too, that the Professors brought from abroad were as happy selections +as could have been hoped, as well for their qualifications in science +as correctness and amiableness of character. I think the example +will be followed, and that it cannot fail to be one of the +efficacious means of promoting that cordial good will, which it is so +much the interest of both nations to cherish. These teachers can +never utter an unfriendly sentiment towards their native country; and +those into whom their instructions will be infused, are not of +ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to +succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future +enmities, its friendships and fortunes. As it is our interest to +receive instruction through this channel, so I think it is yours to +furnish it; for these two nations holding cordially together, have +nothing to fear from the united world. They will be the models for +regenerating the condition of man, the sources from which +representative government is to flow over the whole earth. + + I learn from you with great pleasure, that a taste is reviving +in England for the recovery of the Anglo-Saxon dialect of our +language; for a mere dialect it is, as much as those of Piers +Plowman, Gower, Douglas, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, for +even much of Milton is already antiquated. The Anglo-Saxon is only +the earliest we possess of the many shades of mutation by which the +language has tapered down to its modern form. Vocabularies we need +for each of these stages from Somner to Bailey, but not grammars for +each or any of them. The grammar has changed so little, in the +descent from the earliest, to the present form, that a little +observation suffices to understand its variations. We are greatly +indebted to the worthies who have preserved the Anglo-Saxon form, +from Doctor Hickes down to Mr. Bosworth. Had they not given to the +public what we possess through the press, that dialect would by this +time have been irrecoverably lost. I think it, however, a misfortune +that they have endeavored to give it too much of a learned form, to +mount it on all the scaffolding of the Greek and Latin, to load it +with their genders, numbers, cases, declensions, conjugations, &c. +Strip it of these embarrassments, vest it in the Roman type which we +have adopted instead of our English black letter, reform its uncouth +orthography, and assimilate its pronunciation, as much as may be, to +the present English, just as we do in reading Piers Plowman or +Chaucer, and with the cotemporary vocabulary for the few lost words, +we understand it as we do them. For example, the Anglo-Saxon text of +the Lord's prayer, as given us 6th Matthew, ix., is spelt and written +thus, in the equivalent Roman type: "Faeder ure thu the eart in +heofenum, si thin nama gehalgod. to becume thin rice. gewurthe thin +willa on eorthan. swa swa on heofenum. urne daeghwamlican hlaf syle +us to daeg. and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgifath urum +gyltendum. and ne ge-laedde thu us on costnunge, ac alys us of +yfele'. I should spell and pronounce thus: 'Father our, thou tha art +in heavenum. si thine name y-hallowed. come thin ric. y-wurth +thine will on earthan. so so on heavenum. ourn daywhamlican loaf +sell us to day. and forgive us our guilts so so we forgivath ourum +guiltendum. and no y-lead thou us on costnunge, ac a-lease us of +evil'. And here it is to be observed by-the-bye, that there is but +the single word "temptation" in our present version of this prayer +that is not Anglo-Saxon; for the word "trespasses" taken from the +French, ({ofeilemata} in the original) might as well have been +translated by the Anglo-Saxon "guilts." + + The learned apparatus in which Dr. Hickes and his successors +have muffled our Anglo-Saxon, is what has frightened us from +encountering it. The simplification I propose may, on the contrary, +make it a regular part of our common English education. + + So little reading and writing was there among our Anglo-Saxon +ancestors of that day, that they had no fixed orthography. To +produce a given sound, every one jumbled the letters together, +according to his unlettered notion of their power, and all jumbled +them differently, just as would be done at this day, were a dozen +peasants, who have learnt the alphabet, but have never read, desired +to write the Lord's prayer. Hence the varied modes of spelling by +which the Anglo-Saxons meant to express the same sound. The word +_many_, for example, was spelt in twenty different ways; yet we +cannot suppose they were twenty different words, or that they had +twenty different ways of pronouncing the same word. The Anglo-Saxon +orthography, then, is not an exact representation of the sounds meant +to be conveyed. We must drop in pronunciation the superfluous +consonants, and give to the remaining letters their present English +sound; because, not knowing the true one, the present enunciation is +as likely to be right as any other, and indeed more so, and +facilitates the acquisition of the language. + + It is much to be wished that the publication of the present +county dialects of England should go on. It will restore to us our +language in all its shades of variation. It will incorporate into +the present one all the riches of our ancient dialects; and what a +store this will be, may be seen by running the eye over the county +glossaries, and observing the words we have lost by abandonment and +disuse, which in sound and sense are inferior to nothing we have +retained. When these local vocabularies are published and digested +together into a single one, it is probable we shall find that there +is not a word in Shakspeare which is not now in use in some of the +counties in England, from whence we may obtain its true sense. And +what an exchange will their recovery be for the volumes of idle +commentaries and conjectures with which that divine poet has been +masked and metamorphosed. We shall find in him new sublimities which +we had never tasted before, and find beauties in our ancient poets +which are lost to us now. It is not that I am merely an enthusiast +for Palaeology. I set equal value on the beautiful engraftments we +have borrowed from Greece and Rome, and I am equally a friend to the +encouragement of a judicious neology; a language cannot be too rich. +The more copious, the more susceptible of embellishment it will +become. There are several things wanting to promote this +improvement. To reprint the Saxon books in modern type; reform their +orthography; publish in the same way the treasures still existing in +manuscript. And, more than all things, we want a dictionary on the +plan of Stephens or Scapula, in which the Saxon root, placed +alphabetically, shall be followed by all its cognate modifications of +nouns, verbs, &c., whether Anglo-Saxon, or found in the dialects of +subsequent ages. We want, too, an elaborate history of the English +language. In time our country may be able to co-operate with you in +these labors, of common advantage, but as yet it is too much a blank, +calling for other and more pressing attentions. We have too much to +do in the improvements of which it is susceptible, and which are +deemed more immediately useful. Literature is not yet a distinct +profession with us. Now and then a strong mind arises, and at its +intervals of leisure from business, emits a flash of light. But the +first object of young societies is bread and covering; science is but +secondary and subsequent. + + I owe apology for this long letter. It must be found in the +circumstance of its subject having made an interesting part in the +tenor of your letter, and in my attachment to it. It is a hobby +which too often runs away with me where I meant not to give up the +rein. Our youth seem disposed to mount it with me, and to begin +their course where mine is ending. + + Our family recollects with pleasure the visit with which you +favored us; and join me in assuring you of our friendly and +respectful recollections, and of the gratification it will ever be to +us to hear of your health and welfare. + + + A GIFT TO A GRANDDAUGHTER + + _Ellen Randolph Coolidge_ + _Monticello, Nov. 14, 1825_ + + MY DEAR ELLEN -- In my letter of Oct. 13. to Mr. Coolidge, I +gave an account of the riot we had at the University, and of it's +termination. You will both of course be under anxiety till you know +how it has gone off? With the best effects in the world. Having let +it be understood, from the beginning, that we wished to trust very +much to the discretion of the Students themselves for their own +government. With about four fifths of them, this did well, but there +were about 15. or 20. bad subjects who were disposed to try whether +our indulgence was without limit. Hence the licentious transaction +of which I gave an account to Mr. Coolidge. But when the whole mass +saw the serious way in which that experiment was met, the Faculty of +Professors assembled, the Board of Visitors coming forward in support +of that authority, a grand jury taking up the subject, four of the +most guilty expelled, the rest reprimanded, severer laws enacted, and +a rigorous execution of them declared in future, it gave them a shock +and struck a terror, the most severe, as it was less expected. It +determined the well disposed among them to frown upon every thing of +the kind hereafter, and the ill-disposed returned to order from fear +if not from better motives. A perfect subordination has succeeded, +entire respect towards the Professors, and industry, order, and quiet +the most exemplary, has prevailed ever since. Every one is sensible +of the strength which the institution has derived from what appeared +at first to threaten it's foundation. We have no further fear of any +thing of the kind from the present set. But as at the next term +their numbers will be more than doubled by the accession of an +additional band, as unbroken as these were, we mean to be prepared, +and to ask of the legislature a power to call in the civil authority +in the first instant of disorder, and to quell it on the spot by +imprisonment and the same legal coercions, provided against disorder +generally, committed by other citizens, from whom, at their age, they +have no right to distinction. + + We have heard of the loss of your baggage, with the vessel +carrying it, and sincerely condole with you on it. It is not to be +estimated by it's pecuniary value, but by that it held in your +affections. The documents of your childhood, your letters, +correspondencies, notes, books, &c., &c., all gone! And your life +cut in two, as it were, and a new one to begin, without any records +of the former. John Hemmings was the first who brought me the news. +He had caught it accidentally from those who first read the letter +from Col. Peyton announcing it. He was au desespoir! That beautiful +writing desk he had taken so much pains to make for you! Everything +else seemed as nothing in his eye, and that loss was everything. +Virgil could not have been more afflicted had his Aeneid fallen a +prey to the flames. I asked him if he could not replace it by making +another? No. His eyesight had failed him too much, and his +recollection of it was too imperfect. It has occurred to me however, +that I can replace it, not, indeed, to you, but to Mr. Coolidge, by a +substitute, not claiming the same value from it's decorations, but +from the part it has _borne_ in our history and the events with which +it has been associated. I recieved a letter from a friend in +Philadelphia lately, asking information of the house, and room of the +house there, in which the Declaration of Independence was written, +with a view to future celebrations of the 4th. of July in it, +another, enquiring whether a paper given to the Philosophical society +there, as a rough draught of that Declaration was genuinely so? A +society is formed there lately for an annual celebration of the +advent of Penn to that place. It was held in his antient Mansion, +and the chair in which he actually sat when at his writing table was +presented by a lady owning it, and was occupied by the president of +the celebration. Two other chairs were given them, made of the elm, +under the shade of which Penn had made his first treaty with the +Indians. If then things acquire a superstitious value because of +their connection with particular persons, surely a connection with +the great Charter of our Independence may give a value to what has +been associated with that; and such was the idea of the enquirers +after the room in which it was written. Now I happen still to +possess the writing-box on which it was written. It was made from a +drawing of my own, by Ben. Randall, a cabinet maker in whose house I +took my first lodgings on my arrival in Philadelphia in May 1776. +And I have used it ever since. It claims no merit of particular +beauty. It is plain, neat, convenient, and, taking no more room on +the writing table than a moderate 4to. volume, it yet displays it +self sufficiently for any writing. Mr. Coolidge must do me the favor +of accepting this. Its imaginary value will increase with the years, +and if he lives to my age, or another half century, he may see it +carried in the procession of our nation's birthday, as the relics of +teh saints are in those of the church. I will send it thro' Colonel +Peyton, and hope with better fortune than that for which it is to be +a substitute. + + I remark what you say in your letter to your mother, relative +to Mr. Willard and our University clock. Judging from that that he +is the person whom Mr. Coolidge would recommend, and having recieved +from Dr. Waterhouse a very strong recommendation of him, you may +assure the old gentleman from me that he shall have the making of it. +We have lately made an important purchase of lands amounting to 7000. +D. and the government is taking from us, under their old and new +Tariff, 2700. D. duty on the marble caps and bases of the portico of +our Rotunda, of 10 columns only. These things try our funds for the +moment. At the end of the year we shall see how we stand, and I +expect we may be able to give the final order for the clock by +February. + + I want to engage you, as my agent at Boston, for certain +articles not to be had here, and for such only. But it will be on +the indispensable condition that you keep as rigorous an account of +Dollars and cents as old Yerragan our neighbor would do. This alone +can induce friends to ask services freely, which would otherwise be +the asking of presents and amount to a prohibition. We should be +very glad occasionally to get small supplies of the fine dumb codfish +to be had at Boston, and also of the tongues and sounds of the Cod. +This selection of the articles I trouble you for is not of such as +are better there than here; for on that ground we might ask for every +thing from thence, but such only as are not to be had here to all. +Perhaps I should trepass on Mr. Coolidge for one other article. We +pay here 2. D. a gallon for bad French brandy. I think I have seen +in Degrand's Price current Marseilles brandy, from Dodge and Oxnard, +advertised good at 1. Dollar, and another kind called Seignettes, +which I am told is good Cognac at 1.25. D. I will ask of you then a +supply of a kental of good dumb fish, and about 20 or 30 lbs. of +tongues and sounds; and of Mr. Collidge a 30 gallon cask of Dodge and +Oxnard's Marseilles brandy, if tolerable good at 1. D. or +thereabouts, but double cased to guard against spoliation. Knowing +nothing of the prices of the fish, I will at a venture, desire Col. +Peyton to remit 60. D. to Mr. Coolidge immediately, and any little +difference between this and actual cost either way, may stand over to +your next account. We should be the better perhaps of your recipe +for dressing both articles. + + I promised Mr. Ticknor to inform him at times how our +University goes on. I shall be glad if you will read to him that +part of this letter which respects it, presuming Mr. Coolidge may +have communicated to him the facts of my former letter to him. These +facts may be used ad libitum, only keeping my name out of sight. +Writing is so irksome to me, especially since I am obliged to do it +in a recumbent posture, that I am sure Mr. Ticknor will excuse my +economy in this exercise. To you perhaps I should apologize for the +want of it on this occasion. The family is well. My own health +changes little. I ride two or three miles in a carriage every day. +With my affectionate salutations to Mr. Coolidge, be assured yourself +of my tender and constant love. + + + CONSOLIDATION! + + _To William Branch Giles_ + _Monticello, December 26, 1825_ + + DEAR SIR, -- I wrote you a letter yesterday, of which you will +be free to make what use you please. This will contain matters not +intended for the public eye. I see, as you do, and with the deepest +affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our +government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights +reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all +powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, +if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. Take together the +decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the President, and +the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on by the +legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too evident, that +the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to +strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved +by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and +domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume +indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it +regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry, +and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the +other, the most flourishing of all. Under the authority to establish +post roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the +construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a little +sophistry on the words "general welfare," a right to do, not only the +acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted, +but whatsoever they shall think, or pretend will be for the general +welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the +constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and +argue with the marble columns encircling them. The representatives +chosen by ourselves? They are joined in the combination, some from +incorrect views of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient +voting together to out-number the sound parts; and with majorities +only of one, two, or three, bold enough to go forward in defiance. +Are we then _to stand to our arms_, with the hot-headed Georgian? +No. That must be the last resource, not to be thought of until much +longer and greater sufferings. If every infraction of a compact of +so many parties is to be resisted at once, as a dissolution of it, +none can ever be formed which would last one year. We must have +patience and longer endurance then with our brethren while under +delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of +consequences; keep ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter +of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the sole +alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or +submission to a government without limitation of powers. Between +these two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no +hesitation. But in the meanwhile, the States should be watchful to +note every material usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as +they occur in the most peremptory terms; to protest against them as +wrongs to which our present submission shall be considered, not as +acknowledgments or precedents of r yeomanry. This will be to them a +next best blessing to the monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps +the surest stepping-stone to it. + + I learn with great satisfaction that your school is thriving +well, and that you have at its head a truly classical scholar. He is +one of three or four whom I can hear of in the State. We were +obliged the last year to receive shameful Latinists into the +classical school of the University, such as we will certainly refuse +as soon as we can get from better schools a sufficiency of those +properly instructed to form a class. We must get rid of this +Connecticut Latin, of this barbarous confusion of long and short +syllables, which renders doubtful whether we are listening to a +reader of Cherokee, Shawnee, Iroquois, or what. Our University has +been most fortunate in the five professors procured from England. A +finer selection could not have been made. Besides their being of a +grade of science which has left little superior behind, the +correctness of their moral character, their accommodating +dispositions, and zeal for the prosperity of the institution, leave +us nothing more to wish. I verily believe that as high a degree of +education can now be obtained here, as in the country they left. And +a finer set of youths I never saw assembled for instruction. They +committed some irregularities at first, until they learned the lawful +length of their tether; since which it has never been transgressed in +the smallest degree. A great proportion of them are severely devoted +to study, and I fear not to say that within twelve or fifteen years +from this time, a majority of the rulers of our State will have been +educated here. They shall carry hence the correct principles of our +day, and you may count assuredly that they will exhibit their country +in a degree of sound respectability it has never known, either in our +days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot live to see it. My joy +must only be that of anticipation. But that youo may see it in full +fruition, is the probable consequence of the twenty years I am ahead +of you in time, and is the sincere prayer of your affectionate and +constant friend. + + + "TAKE CARE OF ME WHEN DEAD" + + _To James Madison_ + _Monticello. February 17, 1826_ + + DEAR SIR, -- My circular was answered by Genl. Breckenridge, +approving, as we had done, of the immediate appointment of Terril to +the chair of Law. But our four Colleagues, who were together in +Richmond, concluded not to appoint until our meeting in April. In +the meantime the term of the present lamented Incumbent draws near to +a close. About 150. students have already entered; many of those who +engaged for a 2d. year, are yet to come; and I think we may count +that our dormitories will be filled. Whether there will be any +overflowing for the accomodations provided in the vicinage, which are +quite considerable, is not yet known. None will enter there while a +dormitory remains vacant. Were the Law-chair filled it would add 50. +at least to our number. + + Immediately on seeing the overwhelming vote of the House of +Representatives against giving us another dollar, I rode to the +University and desired Mr. Brockenbrough to engage in nothing new, to +stop everything on hand which could be done without, and to employ +all his force and funds in finishing the circular room for the books, +and the anatomical theatre. These cannot be done without; and for +these and all our debts we have funds enough. But I think it prudent +then to clear the decks thoroughly, to see how we shall stand, and +what we may accomplish further. In the meantime, there have arrived +for us in different ports of the United States, ten boxes of books +from Paris, seven from London, and from Germany I know not how many; +in all, perhaps, about twenty-five boxes. Not one of these can be +opened until the book-room is completely finished, and all the +shelves ready to receive their charge directly from the boxes as they +shall be opened. This cannot be till May. I hear nothing definite +of the three thousand dollars duty of which we are asking the +remission from Congress. In the selection of our Law Professor, we +must be rigorously attentive to his political principles. You will +recollect that before the revolution, Coke Littleton was the +universal elementary book of law students, and a sounder whig never +wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the +British constitution, or in what were called English liberties. You +remember also that our lawyers were then all whigs. But when his +black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning learning got out of +fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone became the +student's hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the nursery of +our Congress) began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the young +brood of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves, +indeed, to be whigs, because they no longer know what whigism or +republicanism means. It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is +to be kept alive; it is thence it is to spread anew over our own and +the sister States. If we are true and vigilant in our trust, within +a dozen or twenty years a majority of our own legislature will be +from one school, and many disciples will have carried its doctrines +home with them to their several States, and will have leavened thus +the whole mass. New York has taken strong ground in vindication of +the constitution; South Carolina had already done the same. Although +I was against our leading, I am equally against omitting to follow in +the same line, and backing them firmly; and I hope that yourself or +some other will mark out the track to be pursued by us. + + You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the +legislature, which have cost me much mortification. My own debts had +become considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of +property, which would have been little felt, when our friend Nicholas +gave me the _coup de grace_. Ever since that I have been paying +twelve hundred dollars a year interest on his debt, which, with my +own, was absorbing so much of my annual income, as that the +maintenance of my family was making deep and rapid inroads on my +capital, and had already done it. Still, sales at a fair price would +leave me competently provided. Had crops and prices for several +years been such as to maintain a steady competition of substantial +bidders at market, all would have been safe. But the long succession +of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration +of the farming business, under levies for the support of +manufactures, &c., with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our +paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject depression, +which has peopled the western States by silently breaking up those on +the Atlantic, and glutted the land market, while it drew off its +bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character +of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the +days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred +dollars the acre, (and such sales were many then,) would not now sell +for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one-quarter or one-fifth +of its former price. Reflecting on these things, the practice +occurred to me, of selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery, +often resorted to before the Revolution to effect large sales, and +still in constant usage in every State for individual as well as +corporation purposes. If it is permitted in my case, my lands here +alone, with the mills, &c., will pay every thing, and leave me +Monticello and a farm free. If refused, I must sell everything here, +perhaps considerably in Bedford, move thither with my family, where I +have not even a log hut to put my head into, and whether ground for +burial, will depend on the depredations which, under the form of +sales, shall have been committed on my property. The question then +with me was _ultrum horum_? But why afflict you with these details? +Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by communication +with a frt, which, with my own, was absorbing so much of my annual +income, as that the maintenance of my family was making deep and +rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it. Still, sales +at a fair price would leave me competently provided. Had crops and +prices for several years been such as to maintain a steady +competition of substantial bidders at market, all would have been +safe. But the long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced +prices, the general prostration of the farming business, under levies +for the support of manufactures, &c., with the calamitous +fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a +state of abject depression, which has peopled the western States by +silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land +market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things, +property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. +Highland in Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily +for from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre, (and such sales were +many then,) would not now sell for more than from ten to twenty +dollars, or one-quarter or one-fifth of its former price. Reflecting +on these things, the practice occurred to me, of selling, on fair +valuation, and by way of lottery, often resorted to before the +Revolution to effect large sales, and still in constant usage in +every State for individual as well as corporation purposes. If it is +permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the mills, &c., will +pay every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free. If +refused, I must sell everything here, perhaps considerably in +Bedford, move thither with my family, where I have not even a log hut +to put my head into, and whether ground for burial, will depend on +the depredations which, under the form of sales, shall have been +committed on my property. The question then with me was _ultrum +horum_? But why afflict you with these details? Indeed, I cannot +tell, unless pains are lessened by communication with a friend. The +friendship which has subsisted between us, now half a century, and +the harmony of our political principles and pursuits, have been +sources of constant happiness to me through that long period. And if +I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the University, or beyond +the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a comfort to leave +that institution under your care, and an assurance that it will not +be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to believe that +you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have +pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of +self-government, which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If +ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a +single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of +those committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know +reproach, it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself +you have been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when +dead, and be assured that I shall leave with you my last affections. + + + _NUNC DIMITTIS_ ON SLAVERY + + _To James Heaton_ + _Monticello, May 20, 1826_ + + DEAR SIR, -- The subject of your letter of April 20, is one on +which I do not permit myself to express an opinion, but when time, +place, and occasion may give it some favorable effect. A good cause +is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the +arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance, and patience are +the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others. The +revolution in public opinion which this cause requires, is not to be +expected in a day, or perhaps in an age; but time, which outlives all +things, will outlive this evil also. My sentiments have been forty +years before the public. Had I repeated them forty times, they would +only have become the more stale and threadbare. Although I shall not +live to see them consummated, they will not die with me; but living +or dying, they will ever be in my most fervent prayer. This is +written for yourself and not for the public, in compliance with your +request of two lines of sentiment on the subject. Accept the +assurance of my good will and respect. + + + LAST LETTER: APOTHEOSIS OF LIBERTY + + _To Roger C. Weightman_ + _Monticello, June 24, 1826_ + + RESPECTED SIR, -- The kind invitation I receive from you, on +the part of the citizens of the city of Washington, to be present +with them at their celebration on the fiftieth anniversary of +American Independence, as one of the surviving signers of an +instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world, is most +flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment +proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the +sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal +participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence is a +duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to +control. I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and +exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the +remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in +the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, +between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the +consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of +experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. +May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts +sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing +men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and +superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the +blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have +substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of +reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to +the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has +already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of +mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored +few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace +of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let +the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of +these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them. + + I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I +should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and +its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social +intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of +the public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my +affections, as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health +forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive +for yourself, and those for whom you write, the assurance of my +highest respect and friendly attachments. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/lfp52.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/lfp52.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bb053bff --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/lfp52.txt @@ -0,0 +1,249 @@ + 1 + + Little Free Press + + 2714 1st Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55408 USA + #52 Reprinting Permissible "food for thought since 1969" + F R E E + + + UTOPIA NOW POSSIBLE + + A revolutionary breakthrough in employee motivation may be +forthcoming by making jobs so attractive, interesting and enjoyable +that employees will work without pay. These volunteers will be +attracted by good working conditions, the latest in fine tools, +machines and technology, such as; robots, computers and satellite +communication systems. Volunteerism would eliminate the "monetary +cost" of production which in turn would permit all products and +services to be distributed free of charge, thus allowing people to +work without pay and enabling industry to provide the marvelous +technologies and tools. Work would then become a privilege instead of +a duty. + This Priceless Economic System would cause the following +departments to become unnecessary: +1. Payroll +2. Sales +3. Advertising +4. Credit +5. Banking +6. Insurance +7. Legal & Tax +8. Much Accounting +9. Much Administration + This would make tremendous savings in resources and energy and +free more than 16 million people for useful work. + People leaving these unnecessary jobs could volunteer for any +jobs they liked and receive free on-the-job training and begin to +learn and produce immediately. + Volunteers take more responsibility to do better work and create +better working environments for themselves. Instead of working +because one "had to" and hating it, people would work because they +desired to. Then employees could enjoy their work in creative ways +without pressure to make profits. + People who own the raw materials would then have no need for +money because everything would be free for everyone. Their employees +would be distributing their raw materials free of charge as would all +employees in industry and on farms. + Stockholders would have no need for money nor any reason for +worries about inflation, depression or stockmarket-ulcers. + Because everything would be free there would be no reason to +steal. 94% of the people in prison and jails1 are there for +stealing. Priceless economics would end 94% of the need for: +1. 4,052 jails and prisons +2. 630,000 lawyers and judges +3. 1,267,000 guards and police +4. 412,000 prisoners + Thus giving us 2,170,460 more people to help with the essential +____________________ +1 Statistical Abstract of the US. 1985; American Prisons & Jails, +1980, Vol.3; Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1983, Dept of Labor. + + + 2 +work. + There would no longer be a reason to starve or revolt when +everything is free. Malnutrition would become a thing of the past +when land is used to feed people instead of for "cash crops." + Because there would no longer be a "profit" in starting wars, +there wouldn't be a need for defense or military, thus releasing: +1. 223.3 billion dollars worth of resources each year. +2. 4.1 million active military personnel, direct-hire civilians and +defense related workers. + When the unnecessary departments are discontinued we could stop +producing the supplies these departments had been consuming, i.e., +this would lower the demand for: +1. office buildings +2. office machines +3. supplies +4. furniture +5. fixtures +6. electricity +7. fuel, etc. + This would save millions of human work-hours and billions of tons +of raw materials. + Savings in check-out clerks, cashiers and cash registers alone +would be fantastic. + With no monetary cost for labor, rent, energy and machines, all +factory waste materials could be reclaimed, processed and recycled -- +instead of polluting the environment. With free labor, the farmers +would all be able to practice organic farming methods and produce more +nutritious food and halt their pollution. + There would be no inducement to rush new products into the +market. They could be thoroughly tested to get all the bugs out and +be sure they were safe and that their wastes could be reclaimed. + With priceless economics there wouldn't be a reason for special +interest groups to suppress cheaper energy sources, more efficient +production and distribution methods and machines which used less or +cheaper fuels. + With priceless economics there wouldn't be a profit in designing +planned obsolescence and planned deterioration into products. Instead +products would be designed for utility, long life, efficiency, beauty, +safety and be trouble-free and easy to repair with universal parts. + Work would take on a new meaning. It would become an art and +employees would all become artists doing creative things to make their +products or services better and the process more enjoyable. + People would no longer resist automation and robots because these +machines would be employed to do the dangerous and boring work. This +would further reduce human working hours. + We may discover the fact that we have very little or no need for +government, thereby saving most of the nearly trillion dollar budget +and freeing 14.8 million more people for essential work. The few +useful services which government now performs are: +1. postal service +2. fire departments +3. sewer and water +4. highways +5. forestry +6. parks, etc. + These departments could function more efficiently without +bureaucratic and political interference and without budget +limitations. + People would no longer have: +1. money worries + + 3 +2. credit problems +3. rent or mortgage payments +4. unemployment +5. taxes +6. recessions + There would be no need for TV commercials and war fear-mongering. +This will reduce stress and restore hope and confidence. There would +be an abundance of good food for everyone and much more free time to +enjoy ones family and friends. Happy people get along better. People +could then cooperate instead of compete and create a synergy which +would yield more health, creativity, efficiency and happiness. + There would no longer be a reason to create make-work projects. +There is plenty of important work which needs to be done. + Without the stresses of the Profit System people could enjoy +working with the neat fantastic tools, machines and computers which +industry provides. Work would then become a place that people could +go to enjoy themselves, to gain satisfaction in creating beautiful +products or services and enjoy the camaraderie that would be shared. +Work could become our most treasured recreation. + We have what it takes to produce abundance: +1. resources2 +2. labor +3. skills +4. machines +5. factories +6. land3 + With an abundance of top quality products which were free, there +would be no reason to take too much. Too much, is a burden and free +things are not status symbols. + Competing companies could then cooperate to produce the best +products they could mutually design -- cooperation being more +efficient than competition. + The "Law of Supply and Demand" would function more efficiently +when we work to fill the demand, rather than attempt to create the +demand. + This Motivation Revolution would work best on a world-wide scale +because ALL the world's people would be far better off with this new +system. Underdeveloped nations could then develop as quickly as they +desired, with free guidance from advanced nations if they wished it. + If we are able to increase the life of durable goods (cars for +example) to only twice their present useful life, that alone would +reduce the consumption of resources for durable goods by 50% and +reduce working hours for their production by half. + When the 38 million people now engaged in the above mentioned +non-essential jobs; enter essential employment they will greatly +reduce the working hours for everyone -- or, they will greatly expand +certain fields, such as; research and development, reclamation of +factory waste products, cleaning up the environment, working on +organic farms, the space program and/or -- they may prefer to slow +down the pace of all work to have more time to enjoy the journey +through life. + Priceless economics would create an almost Utopian atmosphere by +eliminating 7 of the world`s greatest problems: +1. war +2. pollution +____________________ +2 Buckminister Fuller's "World Game" findings. +3 There are 7.28 acres of food-growable land per person in the world. +FAO Production Yearbook, 1981, Vol. 35, By Food and Agriculture +Organization of the United Nations. + + 4 +3. starvation +4. stealing +5. taxes +6. money worries +7. government + "Giving" produces better feelings than "selling." Getting +something for "free" produces better feelings than parting with money. +(Who can resist a Giver?) Being part of the work force which creates +this near Utopia would be an Honor. Thus, we would pass something on +to our children and grandchildren that future generations would be +grateful for and remember us by, instead of the wars, pollution and +starvation that our parents left for us. Some say that people don't +deserve Utopia, but if people create it -- they will deserve it! + + TO END WARS & POLLUTION AND BEGIN UTOPIA: + First--I think our job right now is to get the word out and get +everyone talking and arguing about the Priceless Economic System. + Second--I think after everyone understands Priceless Economics +they can set a date to all stop taking pay and begin giving all +products and services free of charge. + + "Progress is a matter of trying new ideas. For example, try -- +not beating your head against a brick wall, for a change. See how you +like that." + +7/20/85 Ernest Mann + +Statement of Purpose: + The Little Free Press is dedicated to the idea that we solve +problems by first finding the primary cause of the problem and then +focus on making changes in their area of "cause", instead of fiddling +with layer upon layer of laws aimed at slowing-down the destruction +(symptoms) i.e., finding and replacing the destructive motive with a +life supportive motive. + To encourage the discovery and use of one's individual POWER +rather than giving it to a leader. + Perhaps the essence of the LFP focus is in the area of total +freedom and access to abundance for each individual. + We might call this UTOPIA. "What the mind can conceive, it can +create." + +SUBSCRIPTIONS + The LFP is FREE, except please enclose 25 cents for postage in +the U.S. for each issue you desire. Little Free Press, 2714 1st +Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55408 + +NO COPYRIGHT + If you can relate to these ideas, please make copies of this +issue and pass them around. + +About the author: + The author was in business in Minneapolis for 22 years. He +gained enough knowledge in economics to retire at the age of 42 in +1969. Since then he has had the space to observe economics from a +different perspective and the time to travel, read, observe, discuss, +think, evaluate and form his own conclusions about the economic +system, life and individual freedom which he presents in his +newsletter, the Little Free Press. He distributes this free of charge +(except for postage). + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/lghtye.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/lghtye.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..732aa544 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/lghtye.txt @@ -0,0 +1,608 @@ + LIGHT YEARS + ------------- + The Controversy Over + The Eduard "Billy" Meier Case + + + In response to an ad in the January 23 issue of +Publishers Weekly announcing the forthcoming publication of +LIGHT YEARS, by Gary Kinder, both Kinder and his publisher +received a flurry of letters and phone calls from UFO +investigators across the country. The emotions registered +in these calls and letters ranged from surprise to anger to +indignation, but all those who wrote or called shared one +trait: each was convinced that the Eduard Meier case was a +hoax. + + One UFO group described LIGHT YEARS in a press release +as "a glorification of patently phony UFO photographs." A +representative of another UFO group wrote that if Kinder's +publisher proceeded with the publication of LIGHT YEARS, +they would be "guilty of perpetuating one of the greatest +hoaxes in ufology." Yet another wrote that he hoped the +publisher "will elect to include a disclaimer of some type, +if not make an outright statement that this is fiction, not +non-fiction." + + It is important to note that none of these +correspondents had read a single word of LIGHT YEARS. + + Why do emotions run so high in the ufo community over +the Meier case? What could compel these people to condemn a +book they'd never read? A word of explanation is necessary. + + In 1979, the investigators on the Eduard Meier case -- +Lee and Brit Elders, Tom Welch, and Wendelle Stevens -- +published a photo journal titled UFO...Contact from the +Pleiades. The book claimed that photographs, sound +recordings, and metal samples offered by Meier as evidence +of his experiences had baffled scientists. But it mentioned +no names and quoted no reports. The book also maintained +that many people in Switzerland had witnessed strange lights +in the sky when Meier claimed to have a contact. But the +investigators provided no names of witnesses, the UFO groups +(who vie for such evidence) protested: The case was a hoax, +they claimed, and the investigators had perpetrated a fraud. +The groups published scathing articles about Meier in their +monthly newsletters. + + But the evidence did exist, and it was analyzed by +scientists, engineers, and a special effects expert, all +with impeccable credentials. This is the part of the story +the UFO community knows nothing about. + + Gary Kinder researched the Meier case for two years, +beginning in the fall of 1983. Kinder conducted over 120 +interviews, spending thirteen weeks in Switzerland to visit +the alleged contact sights, speak with Meier and his family, +track down witnesses, and talk to neighbors and town +administrators. He also interviewed witnesses in Munich and +London. In the States, he traveled several times to +Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, San Jose, Washington, DC, and +the Los Angeles area to speak with the people who +investigated the case, the ufologists who called it a hoax, +and the scientists who analyzed the evidence. + + Well into his research, Kinder realized that the Meier +case had drawn such hostility from the UFO community for two +reasons: First was Meier's sometimes preposterous claims, +and the general reluctance of ufologists to believe any +claim of contact, especially repeated contact; second was +the investigators' refusal to release the evidence. (In +1979 and 1980, some of the articles on the Meier case +suggested that evidence may indeed exist, but until the +investigators produced some of that evidence, they deserved +to be castigated by the UFO community. The Elders then +offered to make material available for analysis, as long as +it did not leave their possession. No one accepted their +offer.) + + In the beginning, Kinder, too, doubted Meier's story +for the typical reason: It couldn't be true. His editor +gave him the option to quit the project at any time should +he discover that Meier was a fraud; but Kinder found the +story to be the most fascinating he had ever encountered. +If the poor, one-armed farmer had faked the hundreds of +clear, color, daylight photographs, the 8mm films, the sound +recordings, the landing tracks, and the metal samples, no +one knew how he did it; nor did anyone have an idea who +could have been an accomplice. + + Many of the witnesses that Kinder interviewed in +Switzerland described seeing things happen to Meier that no +one could explain. Louise Zinsstag, cousin of famed Swiss +psychiatrist Carl Jung and the most prominent of UFO +researchers in Europe, visited Meier on several occasions +and wrote of her experiences in a series of letters between +June 1976 and October 1977. In one letter she called Meier +"the most intriguing man I have ever met." In another +letter she wrote, "If Meier turns out to be a fake, I shall +take my whole collection of photographs to the ferry boat +and drown it in the old man river of Basle." + + In the States, Kinder interviewed four scientists, two +sound engineers, an astronautical engineer, a special +effects expert, and the head of the photo lab at NASA's Jet +Propulsion Laboratory, all of whom (unbeknownst to those in +the UFO community) had analyzed or otherwise studied the +Meier evidence. (A sampling of what they had to say is +enclosed.) After submitting portions of the LIGHT YEARS +manuscript to these scientists for their comments and +suggestions for changes, Kinder received not only approval +from each of them, but two of the scientists -- Dr. Michael +Malin and Eric Eliason -- wrote that they were impressed +with Kinder's objectivity in presenting the case. "Thanks +for letting me see what you've written," said Malin. "It's +a credit to your writing that I cannot tell whether you are +a supporter or a detractor of Dilettoso, and of the claims +of the people who supplied the UFO images." Eliason wrote, +"Thank you for the accurate representation of my views on +the Meier UFO photographs. If your LIGHT YEARS publication +remains as objective as the pages you provided, I will look +forward to reading what you have to say." + + In February of this year, Kinder sent an 8-page outline +of his research into the Meier case to one of the UFO +investigators who had contacted him in response to the +Publishers Weekly ad. In early March he sent a slightly +expanded version of this outline as an open letter to the +UFO community (a copy is enclosed). So far the response has +been encouraging. Jerome Clark, editor of the International +UFO Reporter, wrote to Kinder saying, in part: + + "I can hardly wait to read your book. . . . I also look +forward, by the way, to the reception your book gets from +the ufological community. I think -- I know -- my +colleagues are going to be astounded and confused. It +really has been an article of faith among us (me included) +that this whole business was just an exercise in heavy- +handed fraud. + But apparently you have shown it is rather more +interesting than that. It's ironic. Ufologists forever +complain that scientists and debunkers won't take an +objective look at the UFO evidence. You have demonstrated, +I think, that in this case the ufologists acted just like +the people they criticize!" + + Mr. Clark then sent a letter to one of the UFO +community's more vocal critics of the Meier case, in which +he wrote: + + "After correspondence with Gary Kinder. . . and a +follow-up phone conversation, I have concluded that our +initial response -- i.e., anger and resentment -- to the +announcement of his forthcoming book was unwarranted. There +seems no doubt that Kinder has conducted by far the most +through probe into this peculiar episode." + + As for Kinder himself, he remains fascinated but +uncertain about the truth behind the Meier sightings. "I +would not call him a prophet, though he may be," Kinder +writes in LIGHT YEARS. "I would not rule out imposter, +though I have no proof. I know that if you boiled the story +in a kettle you would find a hard residue composed of two +things: One would be Meier's ravings about time travel, +space travel, philosophy, and religion; the other would be +the comments by the scientists and engineers impressed with +the evidence he has produced. I can't believe the former, +nor can I dismiss the latter..." + + "Meier may simply be one of the finest illusionists the +world has ever known, possessing not the power but the skill +to persuade others to see things that did not happen and do +not exist. Or, perhaps he has no such ability; perhaps +beings on a much higher plane have selected him and used him +for reasons far beyond our comprehension. I do know this: +Trying to make sense of it all has been the most difficult +thing I will ever do. Finally I realized, as the Elders had +years before, that the truth of the Meier contacts will +never be known." + + * * * * + + Now on to the substance of LIGHT YEARS. Many of the +witnesses I interviewed in Switzerland, none of whom had +ever been contacted by anyone in ufology, had seen things +happen to Meier that no one could explain: Standing next to +another man, he once disappeared instantly from the roof of +a barn twelve feet off the ground; in a separate incident he +suddenly reappeared, warm and dry, in a group of men +standing in a dark and secluded forest in a freezing +rainstorm. These scenes, associated with alleged contact +experiences, appear in much greater detail in the book. +They may be tricks, but if so they were performed by a +master illusionist. When Meier claimed to have had a +contact, sets of three six-foot diameter circles would +appear in a meadow surrounded by thick woods. I did not see +these myself, but I talked to several people who had seen +them and who had photographed them while still fresh. +Swirled counter-clockwise and perfectly delineated in tall +grass, one set remained for nine weeks, until a farmer came +and mowed the grass. Here is the mystery of the landing +tracks: Grass that is green rises even after being mashed +down; grass that dies turns brown and lies flat. This grass +remained green but never rose; it continued to grow in a +flat circle. The landing tracks puzzled everyone I spoke to +who had viewed them, including Meier's most ardent +detractor, Hans Schutzbach. Schutzbach told me that other +people had tried to duplicate the landing tracks, but that +their efforts were "a bad copy." Meier's were "perfect." I +listened to dozens of such stories, so many I could not +include all of them in the book, including nighttime +sightings of strange lights reported by a variety of people, +many of whom witnessed the same incidents and corroborated +each other's accounts. One nighttime photograph, taken by a +school principal from Austria during an alleged contact, +will appear in the book. On the other side, I know that +Meier's photos of the alleged future destruction of San +Francisco, for instance, came right out of the September, +1977, issue of GEO Magazine. After one of the witnesses +reported this to me, I found the magazine myself and +compared the photographs. They were identical. All of this +is in the book - the crazy claims, the apparent lies, the +unexplained disappearances, the mysterious landing tracks, +all weaved into the narrative. + + In London, Timothy Good provided me with many lengthy +letters from Lou Zinsstag (who often had been pointed out by +the ufologists in the States as one who thought that Meier +was a fraud and "crazy"). Zinsstag had written the letters +between June, 1976, and October, 1977, as she investigated +Meier and reported back to Good. In one letter she calls +Meier "the most intriguing man I ever met." She goes into +great detail in her observations, including a description of +"this feeling of discomfort" she experiences in Meier's +presence. In another letter she writes, "If Meier turns out +to be a fake, I shall take my whole collection of +photographs to the ferry boat and drown it in the old man +river of Basle." + + Back in the States I interviewed nine scientists, +engineers, and special effects experts who had analyzed or +otherwise studied the Meier evidence. (One, Bob Post, is +none of the three, but heads the photo lab at JPL.) +Following is a sampling of what they had to say. Realize +that where the photos are concerned an original transparency +was never available for analysis, so none of the work done +on those was definitive (Spaulding himself told me he had no +idea the generation of the photographs he analyzed); +however, knowing this limitation, the scientists who did +agree to examine them told me they would have been able to +detect all but a very sophisticated hoax. + + Dr. Michael Malin is an associate professor of +planetary sciences at Arizona State University; he wrote his +doctoral thesis on the computer analysis of spacecraft +images beamed back from Mars. He was at JPL for four years +and he's worked with the special effects people at +LucusFilm. He works under various government grants at ASU, +and a recent experiment he devised has just been accepted +for a future Shuttle launch. A friend of mine who is the +science editor at National Geographic and who has researched +and written many cover stories on the Universe, the Space +Shuttle, etc., had spoken to Malin before and once told me, +"If Malin says it, you can believe it." Here is one thing +Malin said concerning the Meier photographs which he +analyzed in 1981: "I find the photographs themselves +credible, they're good photographs. They appear to +represent a real phenomenon. The story that some farmer in +Switzerland is on a first name basis with dozens of aliens +who come and visit him...I find that incredible. But I find +the photographs more credible. They're reasonable evidence +of something. What that something is I don't know." Malin +also told me, "If the photographs are hoaxes then I am +intrigued by the quality of the hoax. How did he do it? +I'm always interested in seeing a master at work." These +quotes, and all of the rest of the quotes I attribute to the +scientists here, appear verbatim in the book. + + Steve Ambrose, sound engineer for Stevie Wonder and +inventor of the Micro Monitor, a radio set complete with +speaker that fits inside Wonder's ear, analyzed the Meier +sound recordings. "The sound recording's got some +surprising things in it," he told me. "How would you +duplicate it? I'm not just talking about how to duplicate +it audio-wise, but how do you show those various things on a +spectrum analyzer and on the 'scope that it was doing? It's +one thing to make something that sounds like it, it's +another thing to make something that sounds like it and has +those consistent and random oscillations in it. The sound +of the spacecraft," he added, "was a single sound source +recording that had an amazing frequency response. If it is +a hoax I'd like to meet the guy that did it, because he +could probably make a lot of money in special effects." His +findings were corroborated by another sound engineer names +Nils Rognerus. + + In 1979 Dr. Robert Nathan at JPL was sufficiently +impressed with the Meier photographs to have copies made of +Meier transparencies at the JPL photo lab. After the +transfer he refused to analyze the photographs, however, +because his developer discovered they were several +generations away from the originals. Nathan felt that the +transparencies were so far away in generation from the +photographs he had seen that Wendelle Stevens had attempted +to trick him. Later, I showed the Meier films to Nathan, +and he laughed at some of them, but he couldn't figure out +how Meier flew the ship into a scene and had it come to a +sudden halt; or how it could hover motionless while a pine +branch in the lower right hand corner blows in a stiff wind. +Nathan said, "He would have to be awfully clever, because +that's a very steady holding. It would have to be very, +very good tethering." Then he said, "Apparently he's a +sharp guy, very clever. So he should be given some points +for effort." Nathan concluded about the films, "If this is +a hoax, and it looks like it is to me but I have no proof, +this is very carefully done. Tremendous amount of effort. +An awful lot of work for one guy." From all of the +scientists, these were the most negative comments I +received. + + With Nathan saying in theory the films could be hoaxed, +I was curious about the logistics involved. Then I +discovered that a special effects expert, Wally Gentleman, +who for ten years had served as Director of Special Effects +on the Canadian Film Board and who, for a year and a half, +was director of special photographic effects for Stanley +Kubrick's film 2001, had viewed these same films. This is +what he told me: "To produce the films, Meier really had to +have a fleet of clever assistants, at least 15 people. And +the equipment would be totally out of (Meier's) means. If +somebody wanted me to cheat one of the films, $30,000 would +probably do it, but this is in a studio where the equipment +exists. The equipment would cost another $50,000." That's +for each of the seven Meier films. Gentleman also had +examined the photographs. "My greatest problem is that for +anybody faking this," (he pointed to one of the +photographs), "the shadow that is thrown onto that tree is +correct. Therefore, if somebody is faking it they have an +expert there. And being an expert myself, I know that that +expert knowledge is very hard to come by. So I say, 'Well, +is that expert knowledge there or isn't it there?' Because +if the expert knowledge isn't there, this has got to be +real." + + Then there is Robert Post, who had been at the JPL +photo laboratory for 22 years and was the head of that lab +in 1979, when Nathan brought the Meier photos to him to have +copies made. Post oversees the developing and printing of +every photograph that comes out of JPL. Though he analyzed +nothing, his eye for spotting fabrications far surpasses a +lay person's. Post told me: "From a photography +standpoint, you couldn't see anything that was fake about +the Meier photo's. That's what struck me. They looked like +legitimate photographs. I thought, 'God, if this is real, +this is going to be really something.'" + + Besides working in the highly classified field of +military defense, David Froning, an astronautical engineer +with McDonnell Douglas for 25 years, has done exploratory +research to develop ideas and technology for advanced +spacecraft design. As a longtime member if the British +Interplanetary Society and the American Institute of +Aeronautics and Astronautics, he has presented many papers +on interstellar flight at technical conferences in Europe +and the United States. In October, 1985, he addressed the +XXXVI International Astronautical Congress in Stockholm. +Froning's wife discovered at a friend's house the photo +journal published by the Elders in fall, 1979, and took it +home to her husband because of one word in the text - +tachyon. In Meier's notes from 1975, he spoke of the +tachyon propulsion system utilized by the Pleiadians. For +over a year Froning had been spending most of his spare time +working to design just such a theoretical system. When he +read more of Meier's notes on faster-than-light travel (he +had contacted the Elders and Stevens for more information), +he found that Meier's figures for the time required to +achieve the speed of light (at which point, according to +Meier, the tachyon system would kick in to make the hyper +leap), and the distance a ship would have traveled at that +point, were within 20 percent of his own calculations +determined through the use of complex acceleration formulas. +Froning told me, "If what this Meier is saying is just a +hoax, he's being cued by some very knowledgeable scientists. +I've only discussed this Meier case with scientists who are +fairly open-minded about interstellar flight, but I'll tell +you, the majority of them think it's credible and agree with +at least part, or sometimes all, of the things talked about +by the Pleiadians." + + During my research I read an article from a British +publication called The Unexplained, in which the author, +referring to the alleged Meier metal analysis by Marcel +Vogal at IBM, wrote, "Jim Dilettoso characteristically +failed to further the cause by claiming that (the Elders) +hold a 10-hour videotape of 'the entire lab proceedings' +(which Dr. Vogal denies having made). 'And,' Delettoso +incautiously persisted, 'we have about an hour of him +discussing why the metal samples are not possible in earth +technology, going into intrinsic detail of why it is not +done anywhere on earth.'" The author, of course, is poking +fun at such a claim. I have seen that video. I have also +seen another video in which Vogel states, "I cannot explain +the metal sample. By any known combination of materials I +could not put it together myself, as a scientist. With any +technology that I know of, we could not achieve this on this +planet." I've interviewed Vogel twice and he insists that +the metal sample he spent so much time analyzing is unique. +I spoke with him again three weeks ago and to this day he +remains fascinated with the specimen. He said that if the +metal sample had not disappeared while in his possession, he +would now be continuing research on it with a number of +other scientists from IBM and Ames Research. A reporter +from the Washington Post also called Vogel two days ago and +Vogel again verified the above quote. + + With the exception of Vogel, and possibly Nathan, +though he doesn't remember, none of these men had ever been +interviewed by anyone in the UFO community. And Vogel even +said to me on tape regarding one of the ufologists who did +interview him about Meier: "Treat him with caution. He'll +ramble on and he'll quote you out of context. So watch it." +He also told me this same person "has taken my statements +completely out of context and published them. This case has +been badly mangled." + + In the book, I go into much greater detail with each of +the scientists and engineers. I mention each by his real +name (as I do everyone else in the story) and I include his +place of employment. After completing the final draft of +the manuscript I mailed to each of the scientists a packet +which included everything in the manuscript pertaining to +him. I asked that each make any corrections, technical or +otherwise, he cared to make. I have heard back now from all +of them either by mail or by phone during the past six +weeks. Some had nothing to change, others made minor +changes. Everything concerning their analysis of the +evidence will appear in the book exactly as they have +authorized it to appear. (Two weeks before sending his +letter to my publisher attempting to persuade him not to +publish LIGHT YEARS, Walt Andrus called me and we talked for +forty-five minutes. During that conversation, I told Andrus +of the comments made by the scientists. I gave him their +names, I spelled the names for him, I gave him their places +of employment, and I encouraged him to contact them for +verification of their statements, three of which appeared in +an ad for the book in "Publishers Weekly." Apparently, he +never did so.) In this letter to me Michael Malin opened +with this: "Thanks for letting me see what you have +written. It's a credit to your writing that I cannot tell +whether you are a supporter or a detractor of Dilettoso, and +of the claims of the people who supplied the UFO images." + + Eric Eliason of the U.S. Geological Survey in +Flagstaff, Arizona, is the ninth of the experts I spoke +with. After receiving his packet, he wrote to me, "Thank +you for the accurate representation of my views of the Meier +UFO photographs. If your LIGHT YEARS publication remains as +objective as the pages you provided, I will look forward to +reading what you have to say." Eliason creates image +processing software so astrogeologists can analyze +photographs of the planets beamed back from space. He spent +two years producing the intricate radar map of cloud covered +Venus acquired by Pioneer 10, and his software has been +applied in processing space photography beamed back by both +Viking and Voyager. He was sent to France and to China as a +representative of the U.S. Space Program and an expert in +image processing. He had analyzed the Meier photos on his +equipment in 1981. He told me in an interview in August, +1984: "In the photographs there were no sharp breaks where +you could see it had been somehow artificially dubbed. And +if that dubbing was registered in the film, the computer +would have seen it. We didn't see anything." + + What would you do with evidence like this? Would you +disagree it because Meier makes outlandish claims? Or +because a ufologist reports that a colleague in Germany has +a friend who saw ropes and pulleys hanging in Meier's barn? +Or because Wendelle Stevens is a believer anyhow? Or +because Wendelle Stevens is now in prison? Or because Meier +has an 18-inch model of one of the Pleiadian beamships +sitting in his office? Or because a group of believers has +formed around the man? And if you had a choice between the +analysis performed by Bill Spaulding at Ground Saucer Watch, +on which would you stake your reputation? After all the bad- +mouthing given the Meier case, I was surprised to learn that +ufologists like Walt Andrus had never heard of Malin, or +Eliason, or Gentleman, or Froning, or Ambrose, or even the +alleged detractors in Switzerland Hans Schutzbach and Martin +Sorge. Schutzbach was Meier's right-hand man for two years, +with him night and day, driving him to contacts, organizing +and cataloguing all of the photographs, measuring and +photographing the landing tracks. Then they had a falling +out, and Schutzbach left. He hates Meier and is certain +Meier is a fraud; if anyone would know Meier's "technique" +and be ready to divulge it, Schutzbach would be the man, yet +to this day he has no clue how Meier could have made the +tracks, or the photos, or the sound recordings, or the +films. Nor does he have even one suggestion for an +accomplice. Sorge, a cultured man with a university degree +in chemistry and author of two books, had been mentioned +frequently by ufologists as the one who discovered charred +photographs and thereby exposed Meier as a fraud. He told +me in the summer of 1985 that he is "certain" the contacts +took place, though in a different fashion than Meier +describes. He also told me the real story of how he +obtained the burned slides. That, too, is much different +than the version I got from ufologists here in the States. +Again, all of this is in the book. + + One of the more interesting ironies in the current +uprising of the UFO community against the publication of +LIGHT YEARS is that every time someone slams the book +(before it has been read) he points to Bill Spaulding and +Kal Korff as the two authorities in whose skills the +community places great faith. After all of the negative +comments I have heard about Bill Spaulding's work from +various members of the UFO community, why would anyone rely +on his analysis of anything? Bill Moore, who is not known +for his kind of feelings toward the Meier case or the people +who investigated it, had this to say about Spaulding in an +interview on March 25, 1985: "He's generally regarded by +anybody in the field as somebody to ignore. It's all +puffery. He wrote a paper on the analysis of photographs, +and I have a critique of that paper by a scientist who knows +what he's talking about, and he just rips it to shreds. It +sounds good unless you know what the system is and then you +realize that the guy's a phony." + + While Korff was young and inexperienced, these factors +do not necessarily discredit his work. But I am certain +that few ufologists have heard him say what he told me in an +interview on April 13, 1985: "I'm even open to the +possibility that Meier had some genuine experience somewhere +in there," he said, "but there's so much noise around his +signal that I don't even know how to sift it. I've always +maintained that, yeah, maybe there's something to it. Most +of the people who have read my work say, 'Ah, the Meier case +is totally a hoax, there's nothing to it.' I say, 'The +claims (Stevens and the Elders) have made don't hold up; but +it's possible the guy may have something somewhere.'" + + After three years of researching and thinking about +this story it finally came clear to me that two things kept +the UFO community from taking a far more serious look at the +Meier case: One, of course, is Meier's preposterous claims, +and (in an ongoing effort to insulate itself from the +fringe) the general reluctance of the community to accept +any claim of contact, especially repeated contact; the other +is that Lee Elders grabbed all of the evidence and sat on +it. George Early, after reviewing the Elder's UFO...Contact +from the Pleiadies, wrote in Saucer Smear that until the +Intercep group produced some of the evidence they claimed to +have, they deserved to be castigated by the UFO community. +And Earley was right. So was Korff. The claims by +themselves don't hold up. But the evidence in fact existed; +I've talked to the people who examined it. + + None of the foregoing is offered as proof that Meier +sat in a Swiss meadow and conversed with Pleiadians, but +only to demonstrate that people intrigued by the Meier case, +who see a fascinating story in the man, are not simplistic +in their thinking. No one, including Stevens and the +Elders, has ever claimed he possesses irrefutable evidence +of the Meier contacts, and I do not make that claim now. No +one in ufology can make that statement about any case. +After I sent a letter similar to this one to Jerry Clark, he +responded that while he continued to have serious +reservations about Meier's claims to meet with +extraterrestrials, he, too, found the Meier story +"fascinating." "My colleagues are going to be astounded and +confused," he wrote. "It really has been an article of +faith among us (me included) that this whole business was +just an exercise in heavy-handed fraud. But apparently you +have shown it is rather more interesting than that. It's +ironic. Ufologists forever complain that scientists and +debunkers won't take an objective look at the UFO evidence. +You have demonstrated, I think, that in this case the +ufologists acted just like the people they criticize." + + You will find the book a balanced report that holds +many surprises for you and other ufologists, and in no way +degrades the stature of the UFO community or impedes its +progress. Due to cooperation from many of you, the +historical sections in LIGHT YEARS will provide readers with +a true appreciation of the UFO phenomenon and those who +study it. Like Jerry Clark, I myself remain fascinated with +Meier, but uncertain about the truth behind the actual +contacts. I end LIGHT YEARS with this: "I would not call +him a prophet, though he may be. I would not rule out +imposter, though I have no proof. I know that if you boiled +the story in a kettle you would find hard residue composed +of two things: One would be Meier's ravings about time +travel, space travel, philosophy, and religion; the other +would be the comments by the scientists and engineers +impressed with the evidence he has produced. I can't +believe the former, nor can I dismiss the latter. He may +simply be one of the finest illusionists the world has ever +known, possessing not the power but the skill to persuade +others to see things that did not happen and do not exist. +Perhaps he has no such ability; perhaps beings on a much +higher plane have selected him and controlled him and used +him for reasons far beyond our comprehension. I do know +this: Trying to make sense of it all has been the most +difficult thing I will ever to. Finally I realized, as the +Elders had years before, that the truth of the Meier +contacts will never be known." + + ** END ** diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/liar b/textfiles.com/politics/liar new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b7c30143 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/liar @@ -0,0 +1,256 @@ + +ONCE A LIAR . . . + by Jack R. Voltz + + + Scott always thought Hell was hot. But it wasn't. It was +freezing cold. He brought the subject up with the nearest Red demon, +who was enjoying a coffee break. + + "Yeah, that's what everyone thinks," said the demon. "Until +they get here. Actually, it used to be hot, but the Boss discovered +that too many people were ENJOYING themselves." + + "Heaven forbid," agreed Scott. He remembered the guide's advice +about placating the demons. They tended to pull your arms out of +their sockets when you disagreed with them. + + "Well, enough chit-chat," said the demon, picking up its whip. +"Back to work." + + Scott watched as the demon waded through the Pool of Souls, +whacking and thwacking people to its left and right. Now there's a +fellow who looks like he enjoys his job, Scott thought. Why +couldn't I have had a job that I enjoyed topside? + + Scott heard someone weeping. He turned slightly to his right, +barely able to move his head inside the nail helmet. He winced as a +nail drove itself a little deeper into his right ear. The weeping +sound was coming from a man in another pain cubicle, next to +Scott's. Scott assumed the demons must've brought the man down in +the night, while he was asleep. If the man hadn't started crying, +Scott would have never known he was there. + + Scott looked at the man's pain cubicle, remembering the first +day he was placed in his own. The memory sent chills running down +his spine. The man was wearing a nail helmet, and was shackled to +the floor of the cubicle exactly like Scott was. The man was +slightly bigger than Scott, but his cubicle was bigger too, leaving +him just enough room to squat on his haunches. + + "How long have you been down?" Scott asked. + + The man moaned pitifully. + + "Just got here, huh? Yeah, I know what you mean brother. I was +disoriented myself the day I got here." + + The man wept. + + "Buck up, friend. Stiff upper lip, and all that crap. Besides, +there's nothing you can do about it now." + + Scott was getting a crick in his neck trying to get a good look +at the man. "What are you in for?" + + The man sobbed. + + "Ah c'mon. I'm bored to death. I need some conversation. +Look, if it'll help, I'll start first..." + + "I've destroyed the world," the man said suddenly. + + Scott found this amusing. The man didn't look like the sort of +person who could step on an ant, much less destroy the world. But +then again, everyone looked innocent in Hell. "C'mon," Scott said. +"You're pulling my leg." + + "No, really" the man sniffed. "I did. I murdered the alien +ambassadors. By now their mother ship has completely destroyed the +Earth." + + "Buddy," Scott said with a wry grin, "if that was true, everyone +here would've known about it by now. On Doomsday we all get a +special treat... What's your name, anyway?" + + "Cartlesworth. Melvin Cartlesworth." + + Melvin Cartlesworth? Helluva name for a destroyer of worlds, +Scott thought. "Well -- Melvin Cartlesworth," he said. "I'm Scott +Newman. Can't say it's a pleasure meeting you here, 'cause it aint. +How'd you go about doing it?" he snickered. "Destroying the world, +I mean." + + "I told you. I killed the alien ambassadors. After I learned +of their evil plan to steal the Earth's food, I planted a bomb in +their scout ship. The last I remember, their mother ship was getting +even by stomping the shit out of New York City." + + Scott lifted his arm to try to massage the crick in his neck, +but the shackles prevented that, as always. Didn't hurt to try, +though. "Now I know you're yankin' my chain," he said, grinning in +pain as the leg cramps began. "The Boss says there are no aliens." + + "Oh, really?" said Melvin bitterly. "Then what were those +things that I killed?" + + "Probably demons. I'm surprised they let you blow 'em up. +They're tough hombres, y'know." Scott winced as the cramp in his +leg doubled then quadrupled in strength. He rubbed his thigh, +trying the massage the cramp out. "I heard the Boss say one time +that aliens were his favorite trick on humans. He loves it every +time humans fall for the old 'lights in the sky' gag." + + "They didn't look like tricks to me," said Melvin. "Look, I +never used to believe in UFO's or aliens or any of that shit until +the day their scout ship landed in Central Park. What about that? +I saw it. I was INSIDE of it. It was real. After I planted the +bomb, I watched it climb into the sky and then explode! And their +mother ship...it was HUGE! You can't tell me both of those ships +were tricks." + + "Sure they were. You just saw some good special effects. All +the best special effects guys are down here, y'know." + + "Here? You keep saying HERE. Where's HERE?" + + "Don't you know?" Scott's back itched terribly. He struggled +to scratch himself against the nails embedded in the back wall of +his cubicle. "Your guide should've told you about all of this." + + "I don't understand what you're saying. None of this is real. +This is all just a bad dream..." + + "Don't I wish. This is the real thing, fella. Better get used +to it." Scott yelped as a demon kicked his cubicle, driving the nail +he was scratching himself on deep into his back. He started to +complain, but thought better of it when the demon came into view. +It was a Blue demon. The worst kind. They didn't take any crap. + + "Shut up, maggots!" said the Blue demon, its yellow eyes +blazing. "You know the rules!" + + Scott shut up and waited for the demon to go away. When it was +gone, he continued. "Don't worry, it's gone. They're not all like +that asshole. The Red Ones are ok, once you get to know 'em, but +don't mess with those Blue demons. They'll rip you apart just for +kicks. But the Boss is the worst of 'em all. You can thank your +lucky stars he's not allowed to touch us -- at least not yet. Not +until Doomsday. That's the rules." + + "My head hurts," said Melvin. + + "Of course it hurts. You're in Hell, stupid. You'll get used +to it." Sure, Scott thought. You never get used to the pain in +Hell. "Didn't your guide explain all this to you?" + + "What guide? What are you talking about?" + + "Your guide. You know, the big fat guy on the elevator?" + + "What elevator?" + + Scott sighed. "The elevator you took to get here." The guide +must be slipping. + + "I never saw any elevator," Melvin said. "One minute I'm being +knocked unconcious by an alien laser blast, and the next minute I'm +here...in a nightmare." + + "Listen, buddy," said Scott, beginning to lose his patience. +"You'd better face the facts. You're in Hell. Go ahead and say it. +HELL. You're in H-E-L-L, with a capital H." + + Reality suddenly hit Melvin like a ton of wet manure. "Oh +Jesus. It's true." + + "Shhhhh!" Scott looked around wildly, searching for Blue demons. +"Are you nuts? Don't mention that name down here! They all go +apeshit!" + + Scott shifted towards the rear of the cubicle to stretch his +legs a little, preferring the pain from the nails in his back to the +cramps. He drifted off into a light sleep. + + * * * + + When he awoke, two Blue demons were standing in front of +Melvin's cubicle. The taller one opened the cubicle, unlocked +Melvin's shackles and pulled the unconscious man out by the neck. +"C'mon, shithead," it said. "The Boss wants to have a little fun +with you." + + "Hey!" Scott heard someone shout. "That's against the rules!" +To his horror, he realized that he had said it. He shut his mouth +so fast that he bit off the tip of his tongue. Too late. Suddenly, +a pair of huge, scaly blue hands lifted him out of his cubicle. +Unfortunately, the demon forgot to unlock the shackles. Scott felt +his arms and legs rip painfully out of their sockets. + + "What's that, pissant?" said the smaller demon. It lifted Scott +up like he was a piece of tissue paper. Scott found himself +face-to-face with the ugliest, meanest, foulest-smelling creature +he'd ever seen. "You say something, pissant?" + + Scott mumbled something. He turned away from the demon's +baleful stare. He watched in amazement as new limbs began to grow +from the bloody stumps where his arms and legs used to be. + + "What's that?" the demon snarled, "Speak up, pissant!" + + Scott mustered up every last bit of courage he possessed and +stared the demon in the eyes. "That's against the rules, and you +know it," he said defiantly, tasting the blood in his mouth. "The +Boss can't touch us until it's time. That's the rules." + + Both demons chuckled, producing a hideous, rattling sound like a +dog dragging a bag full of dead mens' bones through a gravel pit. +Scott shivered. + + "Oh really?" said the smaller demon. "Look, T.F., we've got us +a lawyer here..." This sent both demons into spasms of their +sinister laughter. + + The smaller demon pointed to Melvin. "See that piece of slime, +pissant? He made it possible. You can thank your buddy there." + + "What...what do you mean?" Scott stammered. + + Melvin suddenly woke up and caught a glance at the demon holding +him. "Oh Jesus," he moaned. This earned him the pleasure of having +his left arm torn from its socket. The socket began to grow a new +arm almost immediately. The taller demon started beating Melvin +over the head with the old one. + + "The last of the pissants is dead," said the small demon with +evil glee. "They're all dead!" + + Scott noticed the temperature beginning to rise to an +uncomfortable level. + + "You mean...all that stuff..." Scott gasped in pain as the demon +squeezed him, cracking several ribs. "...that stuff...Melvin told +me about...aliens... the end of the world...was TRUE?" + + The two demons laughed again. "He must've fell for that line +the Boss fed him about the aliens," said the tall demon, beginning +to move, dragging Melvin along with it. "I'll bet he believed the +line about Hell not being hot, too!" + + "Yeah," said the smaller one, following with Scott securely +tucked under its arm. "These pissants are suckers for a good +story." + + # # # + +Copyright 1994 Jack R. Voltz +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Jack Voltz resides in Ohio and had essays and articles published in news- +papers, Wheeling Intelligencer, Martins Ferry Times-Leader, and Pittsburgh +Post-Gazette. He's been interested in writing fiction since junior high +school. He is an avid reader of all types of fiction. Jack's hobbies +include computer programming, chess, electronics, and astronomy. He also +had an article placed in WRITERS' JOURNAL, vol. 14, No. 5. +========================================================================= + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/lib b/textfiles.com/politics/lib new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b3237810 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/lib @@ -0,0 +1,514 @@ + +THE LIBERTY TREE PUB AND GRILLE + by D. M. Hanna + + I know a place where the steaks are aged green with envy and +the cook boils the potatoes in pure, salted butter. Not only that, +both the whiskey and the beer are specialties of the house, served +in generous steins, and sold at '76 prices. The clients of this +establishment are wondrously uninhibited in their talk and song, and +will encourage you to join their throng for some of both. Perhaps it +sounds too amazing to be true, but you have my word on it; this place +actually exists, and they call it the Liberty Tree Pub and Grille. + + The storefront doesn't look like a meetinghouse from the street, +largely because there is no posted sign to draw the attention of +passers-by. I am told an over zealous patron so dearly loved the place +that he removed its placard a very long time ago and hid it in the +atticroom. + + The regulars were unaware of this fact until his last will and +testament was found, where they read of the deception and learned of +his last request. Feeling duty bound that his last wish be indulged, +they fashioned the lid of his coffin with that very board. Imagine! +This lovely old sot requested that he face that weather worn old +plank and its faded pigments into eternity! + + (Some believe that to be his penitence for a selfish act, but others +consider it to have been his way of remaining near the glorious old +tavern and friends. And a very few others wish they had thought of it +first, and toast his memory quite often.) + + Of course, they insist that the story is true, and have even offered +to accompany me to the graveyard to exhume his plot, that I may add my +initials to the lid and share witness. They tell me that it isn't +necessary to dig the old coot up, but only to expose the top side of +his box, as the sign was painted in the same fashion on both its sides. +I have not yet consented to visiting the grave, but I, none-the-less, +have faith in their account and believe them all to be trustworthy of +their vouch. + + This and many other subjects are raised for discussion in that dear +place, and I openly admit a growing fondness for its spirit and those +who frequent there. Most of them have nearly taken up residence behind +its seasoned oak doors, and even receive mail through its auspices +almost daily. More than mere persons or acquaintances, these who +welcome the newcomer with plenteous platters of hearty food, a +bottomless mug, and an over-flowing passion for good talk and randy +song have counted me as their friend, and have sworn me to their one +and only rule: that admission into those rooms is by invitation only, +and that such inclusion be for life. + + Keeping of this regulation is no hardship for me, as I have taken +them all to my heart and cannot betray the spirit which abides there. + + Do not become downhearted, or regret reading this account with envy or +longing. When I tell you of my own invitation to sup and song, you may +well appreciate the whole of this experience and be better prepared to +answer the call when that turn is yours. + + Know this also: what I tell you here is not a breech of privacy, or +a treacherous act. These friends of mine are a patriotic bunch, and they +do not fear the common man's approach, nor the tyranny of various human +governments. As you continue to interpret the words written here, you +will develop an understanding of the pub's immunity to such trivial +matters, and you may well desire its protections all the more! + + * * * + + My own inclusion began in this way: + + Nearly a full week's weather had remained so hot and muggy that a sane +man could not find rest from its torment by night or day. I tell you +honestly, that the daylight seared the early summer lawns brown despite +the village gardener's best efforts, and the people's crops wilted for +want of relief. Even in the darkness of middle night, the unbearable heat +hung on like the breath of an iron forge freshly stoked. Day after +blinding day and night after torturous night, the damning weather refused +to give way to a cooler climate. + + Four cycles of this damnation caused my spouse and I to raise voices +and utter foul words at one another -- just one too many times -- and I +took my leave of home. Though the evening hour was late, I hoped to +return some time later and avoid the bed, so as to escape a repeat of the +scene. So out into the night I strode, like a proud cock with ruffled +feathers and spurs sharpened for battle. + + Mind you, I was not looking to brawl, or locate another confrontation +with anyone; I simply was of no mood to be targeted or succumb to a like +challenge. + + After some good many pavements had been sufficiently scuffed by my boots +and my ire had been spent, the heat of the night reminded me that argument +parches the throat, and I began searching for a parlor in which to quench +my thirst. Much to my dismay, most all of them were closed at such a late +hour, or not a welcome place for the likes of me. (Those of you who visit +bars know that, though you may be served, you may not be welcome. The +experience of straying into a closed fellowship can sour the palate and +make the best of liquors far from satisfying.) + + Feeling quite dejected in my quest, I happened upon a public fountain +which gushed up a ready stream of luke-warm water when I applied the tap. +Though it was little compensation to my intent, I sipped enough to rinse +and swallow, then cupped a small amount in one hand and splashed it in +my face. + + And it was while I stood there, with water dripping from my face, that +I was approached by the deliberate stranger in black cloak and hat. "I +find that spring to be too brackish," he said, offering his handkerchief; +"and you would look to be a man, who finds no pleasure from such a meager +refreshment." + + "Thank you," I said, handing back the dampened cloth to its owner. "I +admit, I found short comfort from the fount, but one does with what +one finds." + + "Then your coming here was not an expressed intent, I take it," he +muttered strolling away. + + Without hesitation, I walked beside him and matched his pace. "The +truth be known, I was in search of stronger drink before I happened +there. Unfortunate to my wants, I found no roadhouse to be open for me +at this hour, so I accepted what was available." + + Stopping under the next streetlamp, he turned and looked me full in +the face, and I found his to be an appearance both cheerful and fatherly. +"Are you sated, or would you require a stronger libation?" + + Here it was then: a solicitation from a gent altogether strange to me. +A blend of fortune and fear washed over me while the chancer inside +decided my fate. + + Being human presents us with these conflicting prompts so often that +we should expect them, but it remains that we rarely do. Even when we +may anticipate, or even secretly wish an invitation, committing to +action can sicken the stomach. + + Distrusting others more often means we suspect our own intentions, and +all of us would find a better world for mankind if confidence were tender, +rather than a game. + + "The stronger the better," I replied with a sheepish grin. + + "Splendid!" he returned, heartily clapping my shoulder. "I promise you +a great recompense for your faith, my friend. Come with me, and I promise +you a good stay." + + Walking together a number of streets and alleys, we exchanged common +names and comments about the recent weather, but nothing more. When at +last we stopped just outside the storefront, it appeared to be abandoned +and as silent as a pauper's grave. Fishing a key from his pocket, the man +presented it to my attention much as a conjurer displays a coin prior to +its disappearance. Without a word, he applied it to the doors lock, pulled +it out again, and pushed the door open bidding me to enter before him. + + A better illusion I defy the best parlor magician to produce. + + Once inside the establishment, it was plain to see that the premises +were far from deserted. For here were people engaged in a flurry of +activities and imbibing in all manners of spirit. As we threaded our way +through the room, I found myself glancing from face to face of people who +seemed strangely familiar . Most of the patrons took no notice of us as +my companion led me to a table in the back, and bid me to sit there while +he spoke to the bartender. + + Sitting in the back of that room gave me a voyeurous vantage point of +my surroundings, and I tried very hard to take it all in. Among those in +attendance, only a very few were, it seemed, in quiet contemplation, and +I noticed that their solitude was uninterrupted by the others. + + Those others were engaged in conversations ranging from subdued to +raucous, playing games of chance and skill, or involved in entertainments +that I could not well make out. One group in particular had enjoined a +certain patron to accompany their song with music from a piano near the +bar. Though I did not recognize the composition or recognize the lyrics, +I found their spirituous rendering lent to the animation of the place. +Before my associate returned with two sloshing mugs of frothy brew, I +had surrendered myself over to the collective atmosphere of the Liberty +Tree, and was glad for the experience. + + "Now then, my friend, a toast," he said, setting a stein before me +and sitting himself at the table. "To our little vessel plying this sea +of uncertainty; may your joining bring new wind to its sails, and bring +our friendship safely to port." + + With smiles and a clink of cups, we sealed the thought and both drew +long quaffs of the cold, dark contents. Much to my pleasure, I regarded +the quality of that lager to be, perhaps, the best I have ever sampled. +Unlike the bottled varieties commonly consumed, this brew contained an +exceptional blend of barley and hops well malted, and a hint of oak. + + "Again, I find myself thanking you, Ben. For both the brew and the +view." + + "The pleasure is mine, William." + + "A pleasure shared," I muttered after another sip. Quickly glancing +around the room then back to my host I added, "This place is charming! +I can't recall ever encountering quite the same atmosphere in a pub +before." + + "So tell me Wil," he began; and while carefully rebalancing the +bifocals on his nose, "how is it that you took to wandering the streets +this night? Have you not a home?" + + "Oh, I'm not homeless, Ben," I stammered. "I was looking for a bar +that would serve me." + + "So you say," he whispered, leaning in close. "But is that all you +were searching for?" + + A blush colored my cheeks and brought be sudden discomfort, before I +replied, "I guess not." + + Ben sat back in his chair and eyed me closely, obviously yielding the +forum to my use. A true introvert would have found the pause painful, +but the talker foolishly takes center stage when invited. + + "The wife and I were disputing just before I left," I mumbled ashamedly. +"For the life of me, I can't clearly remember how it began." + + "Do not be downhearted, Wil; that same thing happens to many each and +every day," he replied in a soothing tone. "The beginnings of marital +spats rarely matter. It's quite likely that a little thing disturbed you, +and she reacted, as she thought best." + + "I didn't start it!" I shot back curtly, "I was miserable for the heat, +and she could see it plainly!" + + Ben sat there quietly and waited for the realization to hit me. Just as +he had said, she had known my distress and prompted me to `cool off,' as +it were. A long, awkward moment passed while my embarrassment played out +and I collected my wits. Before I continued, I finished off the last +dregs of my beer. + + "Please excuse my outburst," I said sheepishly, "I apologize for not +presenting myself in a good light." + + "No apologies are necessary," he chuckled, gently patting my arm. "I +understand these things -- are you ready for another?" + + Realizing he meant another beer, I quickly offered to buy a round. + + "Your money is no good in here," he replied matter-of-factly, while +signaling a barmaid with a wink and a nod. "I dare say, it is of +questionable value outside these doors." + + As she threaded her way through the room, Ben once again leaned in +close and said in confidential tones, "This dear lass' name is Eva, +and I warn you now to not avoid her advances." + + An unintelligent blurt of, "What?" passed my lips before he quipped, +"Listen and learn." + + Once at the table, she quickly set the tray on its top and plopped +down in Ben's lap, wrapping her thin, freckled arms around his neck. +"You nasty old man," she said with a grin. "How is it that your master +turned loose your leash this night?" (All the while, I could not help +but notice that his hand had strayed to cup the breast of her frock, +and that her right hand now reached to his lap under the table.) + + "Never you mind girl," he chortled, turning her to face me. "I have +the pleasure of introducing you to William, a newcomer in the home. +William, I present to you the saucy wench of the Tree, Missy Eva." + + In an instant, she was out of his lap and into mine. (In much the +same way as with Ben; in interest of modesty, dear reader, I will +not elaborate further on the matter.) Finding myself in such an intimate +position, I fought down the urge to react adversely and caressed her +posterior in exchange. + + "And who's pet are you?" she giggled, leaning in deliciously close +and cooing. "Give us a kiss." + + I implore the reader to understand that it is not my practice, nor +my intent, to seek out the affections of women other than my wife. But +when confronted by the likes of Eva, this beautiful and vibrant soul, +I admit to succumbing to that private urge every man secretly holds, +and letting that thought power my greeting. + + Thereafter, she remained in my lap and leaned on the tabletop with +her elbows. The scent of her lilac perfume filled the air around me, +and the taste of her mint flavored mouth danced on my tongue. Addressing +my companion, she said, "Would you do us a favor old man? Had you +noticed poor Jack over there, starring glumly in his beer? Mind you, +now, I welcomed him this evening, but I think the misses and he have +been at it again. Would you be a dear and draw him into your company?" + + "I'll do what I can," Ben said sincerely with a wink and a smile. +"You just tell the old bastard to come meet Wil, or he and his foul +funk will be out on the street." + + Like a shot, she popped out of my lap, kissed him affectionately, and +deposited the pitcher of beer on the table. "You're a dear old fart," +she chirped at him, then turned to me. "Sweet William, are you hungry? +I can cook for you, and it would be a pleasure," she said with a wink. + + Raising the pitcher to pour, I told her no thank you, and she went +to replenishing our mugs, with Ben's being filled first. Much as her +approach, her leave was -- well . . . an event. + + "Well done," Ben muttered with a sly grin. "Though she presents +herself much as a bawdy streetwalker, you'll come to know that it's +just her nature. Many a man has thought that her advances were leading +upstairs, but she has yet to slake that thirst in any man I know." + + "I met her sister-in-kind in my school years," I mused while setting +down the pitcher and taking up my stein. With brief description, I told +Ben about Lynne, and how I relished her sweet kisses and caresses in the +privacy of the cloakroom so many years ago. Speaking of her was like +composing a sonnet, and old Ben listened intently as I rambled on. When +at last I returned from my indulgence, I found that our number had +increased by not one, but two, and felt chagrin for my lapse in control. + + "*She* is a wonder," said the first, offering me his hand to shake. +"I'm James to the collectors, and Jim to friends. Though I was not +formally invited to join you, I hope you'll accept my company." + + His handshake was intriguing, and showed the influence of a +`brotherhood'. Still, he made no covert signal to the others at my +fumbling response at its finish, so I felt well received. Quickly I +gave him my name and turned my attention back to Ben. + + "And this sullen old shit is John, called Jack. Jack! Show your better +nature and welcome Wil to our fold." + + A hasty glance, the flash of a smile, and a mumbled, "Howd-a-do," was +all the offer he made before returning to the depths of his mug. + + "What was it this time, friend Jack," muttered Jim, putting his arm +around John's shoulders, "insult or assault?" + + John turned and glared (and I think he may have growled), and Jim +pulled his arm back in mock defense. + + "Come now, Jacko," chuckled Ben, "you abuse the privilege of the house +when courting a mood like this. Remember Richard's blunder in these +hallowed halls? I doubt you are ready to turn in your key." Then he +leaned in close and whispered something that I couldn't make out, but +I'm sure John did. Because suddenly -- without a word in return -- John +was up out of his chair and heading for the door. + + When he went out it, both Jim and Ben were laughing, and I was alone +in my confusion. + + I'm sure it showed, because Ben looked at me as if to say `boo' +then spoke in a loud, boisterous tone. "Curious of my advice to him +concerning the wife, my man? For if you are, I can give you much the +same." + + "Ask him . . . Willie, ask him!" urged Jim with a devil's gleam in +his eyes. "There can be no doubt that he's right, and old John knows +it! Truly, Wil, Ben's known more ladyfriends than any ten men you'll +know, and that's because he knows a surefire truth in dealings of we +two breeds." + + Hesitating to ask, made the table's silence near unbearable for me, +as it was obvious that these two wanted so desperately to let the cat +out of the bag. I'm sure they would have remained near bursting their +shirt buttons waiting for curiosity to gut me, an so, to release the +tension, I asked. + + "Go home and apologize," was all Ben answered in a proud, sure voice. + + Jim burst into laughter and fell to the floor. + + "I don't get it," I whined in return. "I don't understand any of +it! That's all you said? `Go home and apologize?' It doesn't make any +sense! That poor man storms out, mad as blazes at that? And you're +proud? And you!" I called to Jim, who was just now pulling himself +back up from below and laughing just a trifle less. "What's so funny? +I am sorry, gentlemen, but I fail to see the humor, or the pride to be +had, OR the value of the so called *advice*!" + + And now I found them both laughing at me, (at ME); and I felt confusion +laced with frustration fill-out to ire intent -- towards them both! +Included out and vexed, I teetered on the verge of walking out myself! + + "Calm down now, William, and open your mind! Surely you cannot think +we to be sadists at your or Jack's expense! Drink up!" he called, as +Jim replenished my mug, then Ben's and his own. "You're young, just as +was Jim when he first heard the same sad song from me, and if he could +keep from laughing, I'm sure he'd tell you the same explanation. Drink- +up, and I will make you understand." + + Before he continued, the mood of our table became quite secure, as +if he were about to impart some sacred wisdom to the initiates. In +retrospect, I imagine it was Jim's abrupt sobriety which caused me to +relax enough to listen. + + "Now listen, young man, and I will justify the advice you scoffed +off -- and you best heed it in your own affairs, so that you'll find +Jim's release, and not Jack's crotchety glum! `Go home and apologize' +is the only answer that will matter to a caring spouse, whether it be +husband or wife." + + "Look at your own dire straits, lad. Do you recall how you happened +to be walking these streets this night? Same matter as John's, was it +not? Of course it was! And can you remember what first got your dander +up? Can you?" + + "Yes." + + "And what was it?" + + "You told me I started the argument," I replied. + + "No! I told you that what started the spat didn't matter! And I also +told you she paid you a kindness by sending you on your way. Don't you +see? I can tell the dear sweet girl loves you, or she couldn't have let +you go out and change your mind -- or to make it up, whichever." + + Ben paused to swig his beer, then went on, "Wil, you told me yourself +that the weather had got you irked, and she saw she could do precious +little to soothe or please. You took her advice and went out into the +night; a bit of a walk to vent excess energy, a nip of spirits to sweat +out the ire -- and she may well suspect you to be discussing it with the +likes of me." Again he paused to quaff his beer. "Preaching is a thirsty +business!" (He took one more swig for good measure.) "William, I can tell +you this: When you get home, with the stench of fine ale on your breath +and the scent of another woman on your clothing, you'll have plenty to +remind you why you're sorry." + + The sudden realization that Eva had pressed her luscious perfumed self +square in the middle of my clothing hit me like a lightning bolt, and +I'm sure that it showed, because Jim started laughing once again. + + "Oh, now son, don't be afraid! We haven't set you up for a fall, and +the misses won't kill you straight off! Ask Jim here about my advice; +he'll tell you of its worth." + + "It's true," he chortled with a great grin. "Women are wiser than men +because they know less and understand more -- it's a fact! She will know +that you feel like a fool, and if you admit it, you'll be home free!" +(I first looked at him, and then at Ben, then looked once again to Jim +as if to say, `promise?') "Trust us, Wil-boy! This man knows his women." + + "But, I still don't understand why John left in such a huff -- or why +you were hysterical!" + + "John hates to admit when he's wrong," resigned Jim. + + "As he often is," added Ben, "and we know his dear Dolly dearly loves +to be reminded of her right action in his care." + + "It drives him to lunacy!" Jim exclaimed as he began laughing once again. + + "And Jimmy's laughter should tell you that the same matter still causes +him distress. Laughter is a release, my boy! We men-folk are taught to +avoid sobbing in public, where a lady's tears are well accepted. And the +ladies learn quite the opposite -- it's a queer, simple difference between +the two! But don't muddy the waters, or you'll pay a damning price!" + + "Muddy the waters? How?" + + Ben reached into his pocket and drew out the key to the front door and +slid it across the table to me. "Go home and apologize for your ill +temper, and remember that penitence is good for the soul. If you feel +remorseful of your devilish fury and it aches your stomach, let your +tears sog her frock; and accept it that she does her best for you. Tell +her you've been foolish, and ask her how she knew -- and thank the lovely +girl whether she tells you her intuitions or not!" + + "Just one other thing," Jim toned, devoid of snigger or smile, "don't +laugh. You have my word on that!" + + Ben seemed just as sober, and added nothing but a nod. I stood up, +pocketed the key, downed the last of my brew, and bid them ado. + + * * * + + All the way home that night, I thought about it. I considered giving +her reasons, but thought better of them because none could serve as +more than a feeble excuse. + + Stepping in the door, I found her sitting by the window, swaying in +her rocking chair and looking worried. Straight off, I found myself +apologizing for being such a bastard and taking out my bad temper on +her. I confessed that I was childish, and that I didn't know what was +best for me. And all during my admissions, I had the gnawing childish +monster of shame, and fear, and foolish pride struggling to claw his +way up and out of my belly. And when, at last, he found release, bled +from my eyes in a great torrent of tears, she was careful to wipe his +ugliness and misery well off my cheeks, and rock me in her arms until +he was gone. + + I had forgotten when first my lover saw me crying, but I remembered +it just now . . . and I think our closest moments have been when we +both shared a cry . . . . + + Laughter among friends can serve to entertain and convey jitters, but +tears shared among loved ones wash away the grief we carry in our souls +. . . women know this almost instinctively, but we little boys have to +learn it over and over again till . . . . + + As to the pub, I can only tell you this: if she detected the telltale +signs of drink or debauchery, she never mentioned them, and we both lost +track of time that night. Upon the next day's dawning, I seriously +doubted that the place even existed -- that is, until the key fell from +my pocket and onto the floor. + + Looking much like a fob, I have attached it to my pocketwatch for +safe keeping, and will visit there again . . . that next night, when +the master sends the boy in me out to play. + + # # # + +Copyright 1994 D. M. Hanna +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Don, residing in NW PA and originally from Ohio, has decided to focus on +witing for his soul income. He enjoys writing both SF as well as main- +stream short stories. He has a novel in progress, and when taking a break, +works on his shorts. You will see more of his work in RUNE'S RAG. +========================================================================== + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/libcong.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/libcong.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ba7ca9ac --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/libcong.txt @@ -0,0 +1,775 @@ +FTP'd from seq1.loc.gov +File Library.of.Congress/About.LC/LC.history + + + 2/22/91 + + + JEFFERSON'S LEGACY: THE FUNCTIONS OF + THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PAST AND PRESENT + + + by John Y. Cole + Director, Center for the Book + Library of Congress + Washington, DC 20540-8200 + + + *************************************************************** + +NOTE: (#) Denotes an end-note number. + + The Library of Congress occupies a unique place in American +civilization. Established as a legislative library in 1800, it +grew into a national institution in the nineteenth century and, +since World War II, has become an international resource of +unparalleled dimension. + + In 1950, the sesquicentennial year of the Library of Congress, +the eminent librarian S.R. Ranganathan paid the Library and the +U.S. Congress an unusual tribute: + + "The institution serving as the national library of + the United States is perhaps more fortunate than its + predecessors in other countries. It has the Congress as + its godfather. . . This stroke of good fortune has made + it perhaps the most influential of all the national + libraries of the world."(1) + + Forty years later, the Library built by the American Congress +has achieved an even greater degree of prominence. Since 1950 the +size of its collections and its staff have tripled and its annual +appropriation has soared from $9 million to $300 million. With +collections totaling over 90 million items in most formats, +subjects, and languages, a staff of 4,800 persons, and services +unmatched in scope by any other research library, the Library of +Congress is one of the leading cultural institutions of the +world.(2) + + The diversity of the Library of Congress, is startling. It is +1) a legislative library and the major research arm for the U.S. +Congress; 2) the copyright agency of the United States; 3) a public +institution open without restriction to everyone over high school +age; 4) a government library that serves executive agencies and the +judiciary; 5) a national library for the blind and physically +handicapped; 6) the world's largest producer of bibliographic data; +and 7) an international institution that collects research +materials from throughout the world in more than 400 languages and +operates seven overseas acquisitions offices. Its Chinese, +Japanese, and Russian collections are the largest outside of these +countries and its Arabic collections are the largest outside of +Egypt. + + In order to perform these functions, the Library of Congress +occupies three massive structures on Capitol Hill, near the U.S. +Capitol. The Jefferson Building, opened in 1897, is a grand +monument to civilization, culture, and American achievement. The +austere Adams Building, opened in 1938, functions primarily as a +giant bookstack for over 12 million of the Library's approximately +20 million books and pamphlets. The modern Madison Building, +completed in 1980, with its 2.5 million square feet of space, is by +far the largest structure. The Library operates 22 reading rooms +in these three buildings. Over two million researchers, scholars, +and tourists visit the Library of Congress each year. + + Since its creation, the Library of Congress has been part of +the legislative branch of the American government, and even though +it is recognized as the de facto national library of the United +States, it is not officially designated as a national library. Yet +it performs most of the functions performed by most national +libraries and has become a symbol of American democracy and faith +in the power of learning. + + How did a library established by the legislature for its own +use become such an ambitious, multi-purpose institution? Two +points are clear: the expansion of the Library's functions derives +from the expansion of its collections; and the growth of the +institution is tied to the growth and ambitions of the entire +American nation. The development of the Library of Congress cannot +be separated from the history of the nation it serves. Nor can it +be separated from the aspirations and achievements of three +individuals who shaped the institution and its functions: Thomas +Jefferson, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, and Herbert Putnam. + + The Library of Congress was established as the American +legislature prepared to move from Philadelphia to the new capital +city of Washington. On April 24, 1800, President John Adams +approved legislation that appropriated $5,000 to purchase "such +books as may be necessary for the use of Congress." The first +books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801 and were stored in the +U.S. Capitol, the Library's first home. On January 26, 1802, +President Thomas Jefferson approved the first law defining the role +and functions of the new institution. This measure created the +post of Librarian of Congress and gave Congress, through a Joint +Committee on the Library, the authority to establish the Library's +rules and regulations. From the beginning, however, the +institution was more than a legislative library, for the 1802 law +made the appointment of the Librarian of Congress a presidential +responsibility. It also permitted the President and Vice President +to borrow books, a privilege that, in the next two decades, was +extended to the judiciary and to most government agencies. + + Three developments in the Library's early history permanently +established the institution's national roots. First, the Library +of Congress was created by the NATIONAL legislature, which took +direct responsibility for its operation. Secondly, the Library of +Congress served as the first library of the American GOVERNMENT. +Finally, in 1815, the scope of the Library's collection was +permanently expanded. The philosophy and ideals of the Library's +principal founder, Thomas Jefferson (1732-1826), were the key to +this transformation. + + Bibliophile and book collector extraordinaire, Jefferson took +a keen interest in the Library and its collection while he was +President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Throughout his +presidency, he personally recommended books for the Library, and he +appointed the first two Librarians of Congress. In 1814 the +British army invaded Washington and burned the Capitol, including +the 3,000-volume Library of Congress. By then retired to +Monticello, Jefferson offered to sell his personal library to the +Congress to "recommence" its library. The purchase was approved in +1815, doubling the size of the Library of Congress and, more +significantly, expanding it beyond the scope of a legislative +library devoted primarily to legal, economic, and historical works. + + Jefferson's library reflected his wide-ranging interests in +subjects such as architecture, science, geography, and literature. +It included books in French, German, Latin, Greek, and one three- +volume statistical work in Russian. Jefferson believed that a +democratic legislature needed information on all subjects and in +many languages in order to do its job. Anticipating the argument +that his collection might be too comprehensive for use by a +legislative body, he argued that there was "no subject to which a +Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."(3) + + The acquisition by Congress of Jefferson's library forever +broadened the scope of the Library of Congress and provided the +base for the expansion of the Library's functions. The +Jeffersonian concept of universality is of fundamental importance +as both the philosophy and the rationale behind the comprehensive +collecting policies of today's Library of Congress. + + Congressman who favored the purchase of Jefferson's library +argued that it would make "a most admirable substratum for a +National Library," expressing a growing cultural nationalism in the +United States. Many Americans, aware of the cultural dependence of +the United States on Europe, were anxious that their country +establish its own traditions and institutions. For example, an +editorial in the July 15, 1815 (Washington, D.C.) daily NATIONAL +INTELLIGENCER pointed out: "In all civilized nations of Europe +there are national libraries. . . In a country of such general +intelligence as this, the Congressional or National Library of the +United States (should) become the great repository of the +literature of the world." + + Yet in the early 1850's it appeared that the Smithsonian +Institution might become the American national library. Its +talented and aggressive librarian, Charles Coffin Jewett, tried to +move the institution in that direction and turn it into a national +bibliographical center as well. Jewett's efforts were opposed, +however, by Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, who insisted that +the Smithsonian focus its activities on scientific research and +publication. In fact, the Secretary favored the eventual +development of a national library at the Library of Congress, which +he viewed as the appropriate foundation for "a collection of books +worthy of a Government whose perpetuity principally depends on the +intelligence of the people." On July 10, 1854, Henry dismissed +Jewett, ending any possibility that the Smithsonian might become +the national library. Moreover, 12 years later Henry was to +transfer the entire 40,000-volume library of the Smithsonian +Institution to the Library of Congress. + + In all, the Library of Congress suffered difficult times +during the 1850's. In the first place, the growing intersectional +rivalry between North and South hindered the strengthening of any +government institution. Furthermore, in late 1851 the most serious +fire in the Library's history destroyed about two-thirds of its +55,000 volumes, including two-thirds of Jefferson's library. +Congress responded quickly and generously: in 1852 a total of +$168,700 was appropriated to restore the Library's rooms in the +Capitol and to replace the lost books. But the books were to be +replaced only, with no particular intention of supplementing or +expanding the collection. This policy reflected the conservative +philosophy of Senator James A. Pearce of Maryland, the chairman of +the Joint Committee on the Library, who favored keeping a strict +limit on the Library's activities. In fact, a few years later, the +Library lost two of its most important governmental functions. On +January 28, 1857, a joint resolution transferred responsibility for +the distribution of public documents to the Bureau of the Interior, +and responsibility for the international exchange of books and +documents on behalf of the U.S. government was shifted to the +Department of State. Back in 1846, when the Smithsonian +Institution was founded, both the Smithsonian and the Library of +Congress were designated repositories for U.S. copyright deposits. +On February 5, 1859, with the consent of Library officials, this +law was repealed. + + Two years later, a new President replaced Librarian Meehan. +President Lincoln's choice was John G. Stephenson, an Indiana +physician who served as Librarian of Congress until the end of +1864. As the Civil War came to a close, the Library had a total +staff of seven and a mediocre collection of only 80,000 volumes; +nonetheless the "national character" of its origins and first 64 +years was indisputable. + + The individual responsible for transforming the Library of +Congress into an institution of national significance was Ainsworth +Rand Spofford, a former Cincinnati bookseller and journalist who +served as Librarian of Congress from 1865 until 1897. Spofford +accomplished this task by permanently linking the legislative and +national functions of the Library, first in practice and then, +through the 1897 reorganization of the Library, in law. He +provided his successors as Librarian with four essential +prerequisites for the development of an American national library: +(1) firm congressional support for the notion of the Library of +Congress as both a legislative and a national library; (2) the +beginning of a comprehensive collection of Americana; (3) a +magnificent new building, itself a national monument; and (4) a +strong and independent office of Librarian of Congress. It was +Spofford who had the interest, skill, and perseverance to +capitalize on the Library of Congress' claim to a national role. +Each Librarian of Congress since Spofford has shaped the +institution in a different manner, but none has wavered from +Spofford's assertion that the Library was both a legislative and a +national library. + + Spofford revived the idea of an American national library, +which had been languishing since Jewett's departure from the +Smithsonian in 1854, and convinced first the Joint Committee on the +Library and then the Congress itself that the Library of Congress +was also a national institution. Spofford and Jewett shared +several ideas relating to a national library; in particular, both +recognized the importance of copyright deposit in developing a +comprehensive collection of a nation's literature. Yet there was +a major difference in their views. Spofford never envisioned the +Library of Congress as the center of a network of American +libraries, a focal point for providing other libraries with +cataloging and bibliographic services. Instead, he viewed it, in +the European model, as a unique, independent institution -- a +single, comprehensive collection of national literature to be used +both by Congressmen and by the American people. Congress needed +such a collection because, as Spofford paraphrased Jefferson, +"there is almost no work, within the vast range of literature and +science, which may not at some time prove useful to the legislature +of a great nation." It was imperative, he felt, that such a great +national collection be shared with all citizens, for the United +States was "a Republic which rests upon the popular +intelligence."(4) + + Immediately after the Civil War, American society began a +rapid transformation; one of the major changes was the expansion of +the federal government. Spofford took full advantage of the +favorable political and cultural climate, and the increasing +national confidence, to promote the Library's expansion. He always +believed that the Library of Congress WAS the national library and +he used every conceivable argument to convince others. + + In the first years of his administration Spofford obtained +congressional approval of six laws or resolutions that ensured a +national role for the Library of Congress. The legislative acts +were: + +1. an appropriation providing for the expansion of the Library in + the Capitol building, approved in early 1865; + +2. the copyright amendment of 1865, which once again brought + copyright deposits into the Library's collections; + +3. the Smithsonian deposit of 1866, whereby the entire library of + the Smithsonian Institution, a collection especially strong in + scientific materials, was transferred to the Library; + +4. the 1867 purchase, for $100,000, of the private library of + historian and archivist Peter Force, establishing the + foundation of the Library's Americana and incunabula + collections; + +5. the international exchange resolution of 1867, providing for + the development of the Library's collection of foreign public + documents; and + +6. the copyright act of 1870, which centralized all copyright + registration and deposit activities at the Library. + +Finally, in his 1872 annual report, Spofford presented a plan for +a separate Library of Congress building, initiating an endeavor +that soon dominated his librarianship. + + Spofford's most impressive collection-building feat, and +certainly the one that had the most far-reaching significance for +the Library, was the centralization of all U.S. copyright deposit +and registration activities at the Library in 1870. The copyright +law ensured the continuing development of the Americana +collections, for it stipulated that two copies of every book, +pamphlet, map, print, and piece of music registered for copyright +in the United States be deposited in the Library. This act also +eventually forced the construction of a separate Library building, +for by 1875 all shelf space was exhausted and the books, "from +sheer force of necessity," were being "piled on the floor in all +directions." + + In the long struggle for a separate Library building, Spofford +enlisted the support of many powerful public figures: Congressmen, +cultural leaders, journalists, and even Presidents. Moreover, +their speeches and statements usually endorsed not only a separate +building but also the concept of the Library of Congress as a +national library. + + To Spofford also goes primary credit for establishing the +Library's tradition of broad public service. In 1865 he extended +the hours of service, so that the Library was open every weekday +all year. In 1869 he began advocating evening hours of opening, +but this innovation was not approved by Congress until 1898. +Finally, in 1870 Spofford reinstated the earlier policy of lending +books directly to the public if an appropriate sum was left on +deposit, a procedure that remained in effect until 1894, when +preparations were started for the move into the new Library +building. + + In 1896, just before the actual move, the Joint Library +Committee held hearings about "the condition" of the Library and +its possible reorganization. The hearings provided an occasion for +a detailed examination of the Library's history and present +functions, furnished by Librarian Spofford, as well as for a review +of what new functions the Library might perform once it occupied +the spacious new building. The American Library Association sent +six witnesses, including future Librarian of Congress Herbert +Putnam from the Boston Public Library and Melvil Dewey from the New +York State Library. Congressmen listened with great interest to +the testimony of Putnam and Dewey, who argued that the national +services of the Library should be greatly expanded. Dewey felt +that the Library of Congress now had the opportunity to act as a +true national library, which he defined as "a center to which the +libraries of the whole country can turn for inspiration, guidance, +and practical help, which can be rendered so economically and +efficiently in no other possible way."(5) + + Testimony at the 1896 hearings greatly influenced the +reorganization of the Library, which was incorporated into the +Legislative Appropriations Act approved February 19, 1897, and +became effective on July 1, 1897. In accordance with the +recommendations of Spofford, Putnam, Dewey, and the other officials +who testified, all phases of the Library's activities were +expanded. The size of the staff was increased from 42 to 108, and +separate administrative units for copyright, law, cataloging, +periodicals, maps, manuscripts, music, and graphic arts were +established. During his 32 years in office, and with the consent +of the Joint Library Committee, Librarian Spofford had assumed full +responsibility for directing the Library's affairs. This authority +formally passed to the office of Librarian of Congress in the 1897 +reorganization, for the Librarian explicitly was assigned sole +responsibility for making the "rules and regulations for the +government" of the Library. The same reorganization act stipulated +that the President's appointment of a Librarian of Congress +thereafter was to be approved by the Senate. + + President McKinley appointed a new Librarian of Congress to +supervise the move from the Capitol and implement the new +reorganization. He was John Russell Young, who held office from +July 1, 1897, until his death on January 17, 1899. A journalist +and former diplomat, Young was a skilled administrator who worked +hard to strengthen both the comprehensiveness of the collections +and the scope of the services provided to Congress. In February +1898, for example, he sent a letter to U.S. diplomatic and consular +representatives throughout the world, asking them to send "to the +national library" newspapers, serials, pamphlets, manuscripts, +broadsides, "documents illustrative of the history of those various +nationalities now coming to our shores to blend into our national +life," and many other categories of research materials, broadly +summarized as "whatever, in a word, would add to the sum of human +knowledge." By the end of 1898, books and documents had arrived +from 11 legations and seven consulates. + + Young also inaugurated what today is one of the Library's best +known national activities, library service for the blind. In +November of 1897 the Library began a program of daily readings for +the blind in a special "pavilion for the blind" complete with its +own library. In 1913 Congress directed the American Printing House +for the Blind to begin depositing embossed books in the Library, +and in 1931 a separate appropriation was authorized for providing +"books for the use of adult blind residents of the United States." + + Young's successor, Herbert Putnam, served as Librarian of +Congress for 40 years, from 1899 to 1939. The first experienced +professional librarian to hold the past, Putnam was able to +establish a working partnership between the Library of Congress and +the American library movement. In fact, three years after Putnam +had taken office, the Library of Congress was the leader among +American libraries. This turn of events was in accord with +Putnam's view of the proper role of a national library, a view +expressed at the 1896 hearings concerning the Library of Congress. +Rather than serving primarily as a great national accumulation of +books, a national library should, he felt, actively serve other +libraries. Building upon the tradition created by Spofford, Putnam +established a systematic program of widespread public service. + + In the quarter century before Putnam took office, a new +structure of scientific and scholarly activity had evolved in the +United States. Professional schools and new universities offering +graduate work were established; numerous professional associations +and societies came into existence; and the federal government +became an active supporter of education, research, and scientific +activity. By 1900, as Arthur Bestor has pointed out, the age of +the great library had arrived in America; its characteristics +included huge bookstacks, scientific cataloging and classification, +and full-time professional staffs.(6) By the end of 1901 the +Library of Congress, the first American library to reach one +million volumes, had become part of this new pattern of +intellectual activity, for it had started organizing its enormous +collections of recorded knowledge for public service. + + Putnam's actions in 1901 were imaginative and decisive and +were approved by both the Joint Library Committee and the +professional library community. In that year the first volume of +a completely new classification scheme, based on the Library's own +collections, was published; access to the Library was extended to +"scientific investigators and duly qualified individuals" +throughout the United States; an interlibrary loan service was +inaugurated; the sale and distribution of Library of Congress +printed catalog cards began; the equivalent of a national union +catalog was started; and finally, appended to the 1901 annual +report was a 200-page manual describing the organization, +facilities, collections, and operations of the Library -- a +description that set high standards for all other libraries. + + Librarian Putnam's sharing of the Library's "bibliographic +apparatus" helped shape and systematize American scholarship and +librarianship and propelled the Library into a position of +leadership among the world's research institutions.(7) The +development of the Library's collections into a nationally useful +resource was a key Putnam goal. To aid historical research, he +felt that the national library "should be able to offer original +sources." Material pertinent to a certain region "should be left +to the local library having a particular duty to that locality," +but "material relating to the country as a whole" should come to +the Library of Congress.(8) In 1903 Putnam persuaded his friend +and supporter, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, to issue an +executive order that transferred the papers of most of the nation's +founders (including those of Jefferson) from the State Department +archives to the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress -- +the beginning of the Library's presidential papers collection, +which today includes the papers of the first twenty-three +Presidents. + + The Librarian was especially far-sighted in acquiring research +materials about other countries and cultures. In 1904 he purchased +a 4,000-volume library of Indica, explaining in the Library's +annual report that he "could not ignore the opportunity to acquire +a unique collection which scholarship thought worthy of prolonged, +scientific, and enthusiastic research, even though the immediate +use of such a collection may prove meager." In 1906 he boldly +acquired the 80,000-volume private library of Russian literature +owned by G.V. Yudin of Siberia, even sending a staff member to +Russia to supervise the packing and shipping of the books. Large +and important collections of Hebraica, Chinese, and Japanese books +were also acquired. + + A traditional function, legislative support, was strengthened +in 1914 when a separate Legislative Reference Service was +established. Putnam established new functions as well; many of +them resulted from the creation of the Library of Congress Trust +Fund Board in 1925. This act enabled the Library to accept gifts +and bequests from private citizens. This new private funding, +which supplemented the annual government appropriation, allowed the +Library to hold chamber music concerts, to establish a series of +consultantships for scholars, to purchase new material, and in +general, as Putnam stated, in his 1925 annual report, to "do for +American scholarship and cultivation what is not likely to be done +by other agencies." The success of the Trust Fund Board was of +crucial importance to the Librarian's vision of the nationalization +of the Library's collections and services. + + The role of the Library of Congress as a symbol of American +democracy was enhanced by Putnam in 1921 when the nation's two most +precious documents, the Declaration of Independence and the +Constitution, were transferred to the Library from the State +Department. In 1924 the documents went on permanent public display +in a specially-designed "Shrine" in the Library's Great Hall. +Calvin Coolidge, the President of the United States, and many other +dignitaries took place in the ceremony, but there were no speeches, +only the singing of two stanzas of "America." (The Library +transferred both documents to the National Archives in 1952.) In +1931, in his book THE EPIC OF AMERICA, historian James Truslow +Adams paid tribute to the Library of Congress "as a symbol of what +democracy can accomplish on its own behalf," noting that "anyone +who has used the great collections of Europe, with their +restrictions and red tape and difficulty of access, praises God for +democracy when he enters the stacks of the Library of Congress."(9) + + The Library of Congress as a democratic institution and +repository of American cultural traditions was a concept that +captured the imagination of Putnam's successor, writer and poet +Archibald MacLeish. Appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt in +1939, MacLeish served as Librarian of Congress until the end of +1944, when he became assistant secretary of state. An advocate of +U.S. involvement in World War II, MacLeish urged all librarians to +"become active and not passive agents of the democratic process." +In 1941, the Library set aside a "democracy alcove" containing +books and writings about American democracy in the Main Reading +Room. MacLeish also was responsible for a major administrative +reorganization and for articulating the Jeffersonian rationale as +it applied to foreign materials, asserting, in his 1940 annual +report, that the Library should acquire the "written records of +those societies and peoples whose experience is of most immediate +concern to the people of the United States." Indeed, World War +II's most important effect on the Library was to stimulate further +development of its collections about other nations. + + In this vein, political scientist Luther H. Evans, who served +as Librarian of Congress from 1945 to 1953, felt that the major +lesson of World War II was that "however, large our collections may +now be, they are pitifully and tragically small in comparison with +the demands of the nation." He described the need for larger +collections of research materials about foreign countries in +practical, patriotic terms, noting that during the war, while +weather data on the Himalayas from the Library's collections helped +the Air Force, "the want of early issues of the VOELKISCHE +BEOBACHTER prevented the first auguries of Naziism." + + Through the leadership of Luther Evans, the Library of +Congress became committed to international library and cultural +cooperation.(10) The Library of Congress Mission in Europe, +organized by Evans and his Library of Congress colleague Verner W. +Clapp in 1945, acquired European publications for the Library and +for other American libraries. The Library soon initiated automatic +purchase agreements (blanket orders) with foreign dealers around +the world, and greatly expanded its agreements for the +international exchange of official publications. It organized a +reference library in San Francisco in 1945 to assist the +participants in the meeting that established the United Nations. +In 1947, a Library of Congress Mission to Japan, headed by Clapp, +provided advice for the establishment of the National Diet Library. + + Evans' successor as Librarian of Congress was L. Quincy +Mumford, who was director of the Cleveland Public Library in 1954 +when he was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. +Eventually Mumford guided the Library through its greatest period +of national and international expansion. In the 1960's the Library +of Congress benefited from increased Federal funding for education, +libraries and research. Most dramatic was the growth of the +foreign acquisitions program, an expansion based on Evans' +achievements a decade earlier. In 1958 the Library was authorized +by Congress to acquire books by using U.S.-owned foreign currency +under the terms of the Agricultural Trade Development and +Assistance Act of 1954 (Public Law 480). The first appropriation +for this purpose was made in 1961, enabling the Library to +establish acquisitions centers in New Delhi and Cairo to purchase +publications and distribute them to research libraries throughout +the United States. This was only the first step, however. + + In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson approved the Higher +Education Act of 1965. Title IIC of the new law had great +significance for the Library of Congress and for academic and +research libraries. It authorized the Office of Education to +transfer funds to the Library of Congress for the ambitious +purposes of acquiring, insofar as possible, all current library +materials of value to scholarship published throughout the world, +and of providing cataloging information for these materials +promptly after they had been received. This law came closer than +any other legislation affecting the Library of Congress to making +Jefferson's concept of comprehensiveness part of the Library's +official mandate. The new effort was christened the National +Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging (NPAC). The first NPAC +office was opened in London in 1966. By 1971, the Library of +Congress had 13 overseas offices. + + The development of international bibliographical standards was +now recognized as an important concern. The crucial development +had taken place at the Library of Congress in the mid-1960s: the +creation of the Library of Congress MARC (Machine Readable +Cataloging) format for communicating bibliographic data in machine- +readable form. This new capability for converting, maintaining, +and distributing bibliographic information soon became the standard +format for sharing data about books and other research materials. +The possibility of worldwide application was immediately +recognized, and the MARC format structure became an official +national standard in 1971 and an international standard in 1973. + + The Mumford administration, a period of rapid growth, was also +the last time there has been serious public debate about the dual +legislative and national roles of the Library of Congress. The +Library of Congress has played a leadership role in the American +library community since 1901; however, its FIRST responsibility, as +part of the legislative branch of the American government, always +has been to support the reference and research needs of the +American national legislature. In spite of the impressive list of +"national library functions" it performs, the Library of Congress +is not the official National Library of the United States or even +necessarily the center of American library and information +activities. It does not, for example, play the powerful national +role that the British Library has assumed under the terms of the +1972 British Library Act. + + In 1962, at the request of Senator Claiborne Pell of the Joint +Library Committee, Douglas Bryant of the Harvard University Library +prepared a memorandum on "what the Library of Congress does and +ought to do for the Government and the Nation generally." Bryant +urged further expansion of the Library's national activities and +services, proposals endorsed by many professional librarians, and +suggested several organizational changes. Mumford replied to the +Bryant memorandum in his 1962 annual report, strongly defending the +Library's position in the legislative branch and reiterating his +opposition to changing or altering the Library's name to reflect +its national role: "The Library of Congress is a venerable +institution, with a proud history, and to change its name would do +unspeakable violence to tradition." The Librarian asserted that +"on the question of being the national library the substance is +more important than the form," and pointed out that, while +fulfilling its responsibilities to the legislature, the Library of +Congress also performed "more national library functions than any +other national library in the world." + + The debate continued through the decade, however. For +example, in LIBRARIES AT LARGE (1967), a resource book based on +materials gathered for the new National Advisory Commission on +Libraries, an article by "the Staff of the Library of Congress" +described an ambitious set of programs that the Library of Congress +"might expand or undertake if it were formally recognized as the +National Library and acted accordingly."(11) But the fiscal +retrenchments of the 1970s and a reemphasis of the Library's +legislative services under the provisions of the Legislative +Reorganization Act of 1970 soon rendered any increased national +library aspirations impractical. + + Librarian Mumford retired in 1974. The American Library +Association suggested the names of several professional librarians +for the job, but President Gerald R. Ford nominated historian +Daniel J. Boorstin, who had been director of the Smithsonian +Institution's Museum of American History. Boorstin had wide +support in Congress, but his nomination was opposed by the American +Library Association for the same reason it had opposed MacLeish's +in 1939: the nominee had no experience in administering a library. +Boorstin was confirmed without debate, however. He was sworn in on +November 12, 1975, in a ceremony in the Library's Great Hall that +signaled the new Librarian's sense of tradition. The oath of +office, taken on a Bible from the Jefferson collection, was +administered by Carl Albert, the Speaker of the House of +Representatives, with President Gerald R. Ford and Vice President +Nelson A. Rockefeller participating in the ceremony. + + Boorstin immediately faced two major challenges: the need to +review the Library's organization and functions and the lack of +space for both collections and staff. His response to the first +was the creation of a Task Force on Goals, Organization, and +Planning, a staff group which conducted, with help from outside +advisors, a one-year review of the Library and its role. Many of +the Task Force's recommendations were incorporated into a +subsequent reorganization. The move into the Library's James +Madison Memorial Building, which began in 1980 and was completed in +1982, relieved administrative as well as physical pressures, and +enabled Librarian Boorstin to focus on what he deemed most +important: the strengthening of the Library's ties with Congress, +and the development of new relationships between the Library and +scholars, authors, publishers, cultural leaders, and the business +community. + + The Library of Congress grew steadily during Boorstin's +administration, with its annual appropriation increasing from $116 +million to over $250 million. Like MacLeish, Boorstin relied +heavily on his professional staff in technical areas such as +cataloging, automation, and library preservation. But he took a +keen personal interest in collection development; in copyright; in +book and reading promotion; in the symbolic role of the Library of +Congress in American life; and in the Library as "the world's +greatest Multi-Media Encyclopedia." Boorstin's style and +accomplishments increased the visibility of the Library to the +point where in January 1987 a NEW YORK TIMES reporter, discussing +Boorstin's retirement, called the post of Librarian of Congress +"perhaps the leading intellectual public position in the nation." + + Boorstin's successor, historian James H. Billington, was +nominated by President Ronald Reagan and took the oath of office as +the thirteenth Librarian of Congress on September 14, 1987. +Billington immediately took personal charge of the Library, +instituting his own one-year review through a Management and +Planning Committee and subsequently initiating a major +administrative reorganization. Convinced that the Library of +Congress needed to share its resources throughout the nation more +widely, he instituted several projects to use new technologies in +extending direct access to the Library's collections and data +bases. Envisioning a new educational role for the Library, he +strengthened its national cultural programming and initiated +national prizes for literary and intellectual achievement. A +Development Office to raise private funds was established in 1988. +The creation in 1990 of the James Madison National Council, a +private-sector support body consisting mostly of business +executives and entrepreneurs, brought new support. Working closely +with the U.S. Congress, Dr. Billington obtained a 12% budget +increase for the Library in fiscal 1991. + + Librarian Billington's determination to extend the reach and +influence of the Library of Congress is very much in the ambitious +tradition of his predecessors. Alone among the world's great +libraries, the Library of Congress still attempts to be a universal +library, collecting printed materials in almost all languages and +non-print materials in almost all media. As it approaches its +bicentennial in the year 2000, it still is guided by Thomas +Jefferson's belief that all subjects are important to the library +of the American national legislative -- and therefore to the +American people. + + ********************************************************** + + END-NOTES + +1. S.R. Ranganathan, "The Library of Congress Among National +Libraries," ALA BULLETIN 44 (October 1950): 356. + +2. For a summary of the history of the Library of Congress and +its functions, see John Y. Cole, "For Congress & the Nation: The +Dual Nature of the Library of Congress," QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE +LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 32 (April 1975): 119-138. Unless otherwise +stated, dates and statistics are from John Y. Cole, FOR CONGRESS +AND THE NATION: A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS +(Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979). + +3. Jefferson to Samuel H. Smith, September 21, 1814, Jefferson +Papers, Library of Congress. + +4. Ainsworth Rand Spofford, "The Government Library at +Washington," INTERNATIONAL REVIEW 5 (November 1878): 769. + +5. U.S. Congress, Joint committee on the Library, CONDITION OF +THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, March 3, 1897, 54th Cong., 2d sess., S. +Rept. 1573, p. 142. + +6. Arthur E. Bestor, Jr., "The Transformation of American +Scholarship, 1875-1917," in LIBRARIANS, SCHOLARS, AND BOOKSELLERS +AT MID-CENTURY, ed. Pierce Butler (Chicago: University of Chicago +Press, 1953), p. 19. + +7. For a more detailed discussion, see John Y. Cole, "The Library +of Congress and American Scholarship, 1865-1939," in LIBRARIES AND +SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION IN THE UNITED STATES: THE HISTORICAL +DIMENSION, ed. Phyllis Dain and John Y. Cole (N.Y.: Greenwood +Press, 1990), pp. 45-61. + +8. Herbert Putnam, "The Relation of the National Library to +Historical Research in the United States," AMERICAN HISTORICAL +ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1901 (Washington, D.C., 1902), p. +120. + +9. James Truslow Adams, THE EPIC OF AMERICA (N.Y.: Garden City +Books, 1931), p. 325. + +10. For a more detailed discussion, see John Y. Cole, "The +International Role of the Library of Congress: A Brief History," +ALEXANDRIA 1 (December 1989): 43-51. + +11. Library of Congress Staff, "The Library of Congress as the +National Library: Potentialities for Service," in LIBRARIES AT +LARGE: TRADITION, INNOVATION, AND THE NATIONAL INTEREST, ed. by +Douglas M. Knight and E. Shepley Nourse (N.Y.: R.R. Bowker Company, +1969), pp. 435-465. + + + END + ************************************************************* + +Note: This file has been edited for use on computer networks. +This editing required the removal of diacritics, underlining, and +fonts such as italics and bold. + +kde 8/92 + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/liberty.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/liberty.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f5c4baf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/liberty.txt @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775. + + +No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, +of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different +men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it +will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do +opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my +sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The +questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own +part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and +in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the +debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and +fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should +I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I +should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act +of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly +kings. + +Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We +are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of +that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, +engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of +the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the +things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever +anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know +the worst, and to provide for it. + +I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of +experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And +judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the +British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which +gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that +insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it +not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be +betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our +petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and +darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and +reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that +force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, +sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to +which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if +its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other +possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the +world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she +has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are +sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry +have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try +argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we +anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up +in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we +resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which +have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive +ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm +which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have +supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored +its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and +Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have +produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been +disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the +throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace +and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be +free - if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which +we have been so long contending - if we mean not basely to abandon the noble +struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged +ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be +obtained - we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms +and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! + +They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an +adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the +next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard +shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength but irresolution +and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying +supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our +enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a +proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. +The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a +country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy +can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. +There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will +raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the +strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we +have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to +retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! +Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! +The war is inevitable - and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. + +It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace - +but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps +from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our +brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that +gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as +to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! +I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give +me death! + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/libr-ism.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/libr-ism.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5a77e2fa --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/libr-ism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ + The Moral Case _For_ Taking Federal Matching Funds + + by Michael Emerling + +As a "matter of principle", Libertarian Presidential candidates have +refused to seek federal matching campaign funds. Taxation is theft and +accepting tax funds makes us party to the crime. By taking the loot, by +welcoming stolen goods, the Libertarian Party betrays the +non-aggression principle. We surrender our morality, integrity and +principles. + +So we've been told. + +This position is not merely wrong. It is the exact opposite of the +truth. + +As Frank Chodorov observed, "Taxation is robbery." Government is funded +by legalized looting. Government has no right to the proceeds of +plunder. Nor does it have the right to "assign" or "transfer" the booty +to others. + +Who has the right to this loot? The rightful owners. The victims of the +tax crime: those who earned and owned it. The tax payers. + +Let's look at Libertarian taxpayers. How many Libertarians are there in +America today? No one knows. Libertarians don't like being counted or +registered by the State. + +Individuals who believe that they have a right to their life, liberty, +and property; Individuals who know that their life is their own and +intend to run it by their own judgement; Individuals who value +voluntary relations and oppose force and fraud; these individuals mind +their own business and live their lives as they see fit. Their privacy +is their protection, so they jealously guard it. They live by the code +of liberty. They are libertarians, whether they know it or not. But +their way of life makes them invisible, uncounted and forgotten. + +A few Libertarians organized to reclaim their rights to life, liberty +and property. They did so as a matter of self-defense. They called +their organization the Libertarian Party. + +Today there are 9000 dues paying National Libertarian Party members in +America. And perhaps another 6000 local Libertarian Party members. +There are over 50,000 voters registered as Libertarians, even though +many states do not allow us to register Libertarian. + +For the sake of discussion, assume that there are only 10,000 +Libertarians in America. Assume that the average Libertarian earns +$30,000 a year. (Probably a low figure, with all the professionals and +computer programmers in the Libertarian Party.) A person earning +$30,000 a year is paying a minimum of $3,000 a year in federal income +taxes. Using these deliberately low figures, we can see that +Libertarians are paying a minimum of $30,000,000 each year in income +taxes. That's $2,500,000 each month. + +Libertarians have a right to recover this money. Or authorize another +to recover it. + +In light of this, let's reframe the matching funds issue: + +1. "Do taxpaying libertarians have the right to authorize the +Libertarian Presidential Candidate to use the matching funds process to +recover taxes taken from them?" + +2. "Do they have the right to authorize their candidate to use the +recovered taxes to fight the looters?" + +An example from history might highlight the issue. During the +Revolutionary War, Francis Marion ("the Swamp Fox") organized a +guerilla army in South Carolina. Marion staged midnight raids, hit and +run attacks and sabotage. This frustrated the British officers and tied +up troops that might have been used to defeat Washington or Lee. + +Marion and his men ran out of ammunition. So they raided British +armories, taking all the weapons and ammunition they could carry. They +did return the bullets to the British ... one at a time. + +These British weapons were paid for by past taxation and the source of +future taxation. + +Did the Swamp Fox have the right to seize and use the weapons against +the British? Or should Francis Marion have left them in the hands of +the enemy? + +***Libertarians not only have the right to recover their taxes through +matching funds, they have the moral obligation to do so.*** The taxes +we do not recover will fund the State... or be turned over to +Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates who will seek to make +Big Government bigger. Your taxes either fund the State or Statist +Campaigns. Every tax dollar we do not reclaim will be used to sustain +or expand the State. As State Power grows, individual liberty and +self-responsibility dies. + +Can you afford to have the money you've earned used against you? You've +been disarmed and your own weapons have been turned against you. Take +them back. + +After all, whose money is it? Yours. + +Do you live off the State or does the State live off you? Are you a tax +producer or a tax consumer? Are you a tax victim or a tax beneficiary? + +When you fill out your 1040, if you have a refund due from the IRS, do +you take back your money? Why? Because it's yours. It's not welfare. +It's recovering a part of what is rightfully yours. + +Matching funds are tax refunds. By contributing to the Marrou +Libertarian Presidential Campaign, you are allowing us to recover money +looted from you through federal income taxes and use it to fight the +government for liberty. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +This text appeared in a brochure distributed by the Marrou for President +campaign in November 1990. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/libxtrem.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/libxtrem.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..74b467c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/libxtrem.txt @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +IS LIBERTY TOO EXTREME? + +By RICHARD M. EBELING + + +There is one type of question, more than any other, that the +advocate of freedom is likely to be asked over the years: +Human liberty and freedom of choice are, of course, important +social and moral goods, but can't they be pushed too far? Is +it not better to work for, and accept, a more moderate balance +in society? Your position, it will be said, seems to offer no +compromise, no happy medium through which a common ground can +be found so that a reasonable amount of freedom can be +attained. Don't you think your dogmatic extremism only serves +to work against the very goals for which you are devoting your +energies? + +The first reply to this type of question, is to ask back, With +what are we asked to compromise and to offer a more moderate +position? The answer, of course, is that the advocate of +freedom is being asked to find a common ground with state +power and the use of government coercion in social affairs. + +The problem is that ultimately there can be no compromise +between freedom and coercion, between social relationships +based upon mutual, voluntary consent, and human relationships +ordered by command and backed up by the threat, or actual use, +of force. There is an irreconcilable tension in a society that +is part-free and part-slave. An individual who is prohibited +from, or restrained in, his peaceful intercourse with other +free men is not his own master. And to that extent he is a +slave to the will and wishes of another. + +But such a response by the advocate of freedom fails to touch +the real heart of the matter. Who, in this debate over freedom +and coercion, is the actual extremist and who is the actual +moderate? The advocate of state coercion in social affairs +cannot stand the fact that people make choices, and undertake +courses of action, of which he disapproves. He objects to the +fact that people fail to follow the paths that his reason and +values consider rational and good. Everything else is either +chaotic and sinister. + +In this sense, he is like the maniac of whom G.K. Chesterton +speaks in his book, Orthodoxy. The madman, Chesterton says, is +the one "who has lost everything except his reason . . . . He +is not hampered by a sense of humor or by charity, or by the +dumb certainties of experience. The madman's explanation of a +thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense +satisfactory." The madman has a "most sinister quality" of +"connecting of one thing with another in a map more elaborate +than a maze." + +The advocate of state coercion has, in this sense, been driven +mad by the outcomes of a free society. If some men are poor +while others are well to do, he cannot accept the idea that +this is due to natural scarcity of resources, or is merely as +far as capitalism has yet been able to raise people's +standards of living in an on-going, and time-consuming, +process of savings and investment. No, it must be because men +have been unreasonable, have not submitted themselves to a +plan--his plan--that his reason has given him, and not others, +the superior wisdom and insight to see. + +If some men receive lower pay than others, or do not have +access to all the goods and services they desire, the advocate +of state coercion--like the madman--often sees sinister +motives and dark conspiracies. If some workers receive lower +wages, it can't be because of a lack of marketable skills or +insufficient personal ambition to better themselves. No, it +must be because of the businessman's greed and unwillingness +to pay "a fair wage," or a plot among the employers to exploit +their fellow human beings. The advocate of state coercion can +see beneath the charade and he, of course, knows the +regulation or intervention to put the conspirators in their +place and remedy the problem. + +The social madman has the answer and the solution for +everything. He has no patience for ignorance, good intentions +that go astray, or some natural scheme of things. And like the +madman, he has no doubts about his knowledge, the goodness of +his intentions and their outcome, or what the scheme of things +should be turned into. Human freedom and its advocates are the +irritants that he tolerates when he has to, but with which he +never compromises. He has too much confidence in his own +vision. In his mind, extremism in the defense of the state- +molded "great society" is no vice. + +In his book, The Pleasures of a Nonconformist, the Chinese +philosopher and social critic, Lin Yutang, explains that, "The +aim of Chinese classical education has always been the +cultivation of the reasonable man as the model of culture. An +educated man should, above all, be a reasonable being. A +reasonable being is always characterized by his common sense, +his love of moderation and restraint . . . . To be reasonable +is to avoid extremes . . . . To say to a man, 'Do be +reasonable` is the same as saying 'Make some allowance for +human nature. Do not push a fellow too far.'" + +I would like to suggest that regardless of whether or not +Professor Lin was right that this is what Chinese classical +education produced, it does capture essential qualities of +what the advocate of freedom sees as some of the hallmarks of +the free society: moderation, restraint and allowance for +human nature. + +Let me try to explain this with two examples. In February of +this year, a federal regulation was passed banning smoking on +all domestic airline flights of less that six hours of +duration. The anti-smoking advocate just cannot reconcile +himself to the existence of others who gain pleasure from +something of which he disapproves, and by people who weigh the +enjoyment of the present against the consequences of the +future differently than himself. Nor can he stand a world in +which the market provides options to those with different +preferences: some airlines that permit smoking and others +(i.e., Northwest Airlines) that ban smoking on all domestic +flights as a response to what they view as a market +opportunity to get a larger share of the non-smoking public +that flies. + +For the advocate of freedom, the market alternative is +precisely the reasonable and moderate one. It recognizes and +accepts the varieties and preferences among men and offers a +compromise, a peaceful resolution, of the differences among +them. And it leaves a wide avenue open for one group of men to +reason and persuade another to modify their choices and +forswear "a filthy and corrupting" habit. + +Another example is affirmative action. In the old days, people +of different races were forcefully kept apart. Segregation +laws prohibited various forms of voluntary interaction among +men and women of different color. Now the laws forcefully +require the interaction of different races both inside and +outside the workplace. The enemy of racism, just like the +advocate of racism, abhors tolerance and refuses to restrain +himself when he objects to the foolish and perverse conduct of +his fellow men. + +Neither is willing to allow for human nature: the racist who +could not stand the fact that opportunities created incentives +for people of different color to peacefully and voluntarily +trade and interact with each other; and the anti-racist who +cannot stand the fact that obstinate people without atavistic +ideas may be willing to pay the price of lost market +opportunities so as not to associate with people of a +different race. + +The advocate of freedom, with his deep belief and faith in the +sanctity and uniqueness of the individual, has always been +repelled by the evaluation of a human being on the basis of +his skin pigmentation. But he has also appreciated the danger +of pushing a fellow too far. A good society is not produced by +forcing one person on another. The freedom advocate has known +that this may only cause a backlash of the very type of racist +sentiment that the affirmative action laws were meant to +overcome. + +To be reasonable, the free society must avoid extremes, and it +does so through the diversity of free men that it both permits +and fosters. It restrains the practice of "extreme" personal +behavior because it imposes costs and consequences upon +everyone who practices them--loss of economic opportunity, +social ostracism by those who are repelled by it. And it +teaches the advantages of moderation--courtesy, good manners, +tolerance and "socially acceptable" conduct. + +In other words, the free society, accepting human nature, +nudges men toward better behavior rather than compels it. It +teaches rational and moral conduct through reason and example. +It fosters compromise by demonstrating the personal costs of +being too extreme in one's personal actions. And it raises the +ethical conduct of the society by the discovered advantages of +personal improvement through time. + +Is liberty too extreme? Quite the contrary. Freedom is the +epitome of moderation. And it is its moderation, its tolerance +and diversity that drives some men mad. But madness, by +definition, is not the normal condition of a healthy human +being. The history of western civilization is the story of +man's slow escape from the madness of political and social +extremism. Our dilemma and our challenge is that this sickness +still controls the minds of too many. + +Professor Ebeling is the Ludwig von Mises Professor of +Economics at Hillsdale College in Michigan and also serves as +Vice-President of Academic Affairs of The Future of Freedom +Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the August 1990 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1990, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/life12.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/life12.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..84681bac --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/life12.txt @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ + + + + + + +L I V I N G G R E E N : 1 0 1 T H I N G S Y O U C A N D O + +T O P R O M O T E G R E E N V A L U E S + +by Mary-Clayton & Christopher Enderlein + + + +(via EnviroNet, February 1, 1989) + + + + + + Green values are not just guidelines you use once every +few years in deciding how to vote; they are things you can live +by every day. This list is for those who have the "Green spirit" +and want to incorporate it further into our lives. + + + +1. Recycle newspaper, aluminum, glass, and tin + +2. Recycle motor oil + +3. Use cloth diapers + +4. Reuse egg cartons and plastic bags + +5. Avoid using styrofoam - it can't be recycled + +6. Avoid disposable plates, cups, and utensils + +7. Use rags instead of paper towels + +8. Use paper bags, not paper towels, to drain grease + +9. Recycle unneeded items + +10. Use the back of discardable paper for scratch paper + + + +11. Be responsible and creative with leftover food + +12. Use the water from cooking vegetables to make soup + +13. Mend and repair, rather than discard and replace + + +15. Buy bulk & unpackaged rather than packaged goods + +16. Purchase goods in reusable or recyclable containers + +17. Buy organic, pesticide-free foods + +18. Buy foods without additives and preservatives + +19. Use non-toxic pest control + +20. Compost your food scraps + + + +21. Grow your own food (even small kitchen gardens!) + +22. Volunteer to start or help with a community garden + +23. Eat foods from low on the food chain, not meat + +24. Avoid highly processed foods + +25. Support food co-ops + +26. Discover where the food and goods you buy come from + +27. Buy locally grown produce and other foods + +28. Volunteer to maintain local parks and wilderness + +29. Buy living Christmas trees + +30. Plant trees in your community + + + +31. Learn about the plants and animals in your region + +32. Learn about the cultural diversity of your bioregion + +33. Explore and learn about your bioregion + +34. Discover your watershed and work to protect it + +35. Oppose the use of roadside defoliants in your area + +36. Use non-toxic, biodegradable soaps & detergents + +37. Put in a water-conserving showerhead + +38. Learn where your waste and sewage goes + +39. Keep hazardous chemicals in spillproof containers + +40. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth + + + +41. Put a water conservation device in your toilet tank + +42. Shop by phone first, then pick up your purchase + +43. Learn where the energy for your home comes from + +44. Support your local utility's conservation program + +45. Hang your clothes out to dry + +46. Be sure your home is well insulated + +47. Weather-seal your home thoroughly + +48. Heat your home responsibly, with renewable energy + +49. Don't burn green wood + +50. Put a catalytic converter on your wood stove + + + +51. Turn lights off when not in use + +52. Turn down your hot water heater + +53. Lower your thermostat and wear warmer clothes + +54. Take sho + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/linc111.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/linc111.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ee39cd82 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/linc111.txt @@ -0,0 +1,376 @@ + + +Lincoln's First Inaugural Address +March 4, 1861 + + + +Fellow citizens of the United States: in compliance with a custom as old +as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly +and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution +of the United States, to be taken by the President "before he enters +on the execution of his office." + +I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those matters +of administration about which there is no special anxiety, or excitement. + +Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States +that by the accession of a Republican administration their property +and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. +There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. +Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while +existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in +nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. +I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that +"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with +the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have +no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." +Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge +that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had +never recanted them. And, more than this, they placed in the +platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, +the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: + +"Resolved: that the maintenance inviolate +of the rights of the States, and especially +the right of each State to order and control +its own domestic institutions according to +its own judgment exclusively, is essential +to that balance of power on which the perfection +and endurance of our political fabric depend, +and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed +force of the soil of any State or Territory, +no matter under what pretext, +as among the gravest of crimes." + +I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon +the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case +is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section +are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming administration. +I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the +Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given +to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause-- +as cheerfully to one section as to another. + +There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives +from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly +written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions: + +"No person held to service or labor in one State, +under the laws thereof, escaping into another, +shall in consequence of any law or regulation +therein be discharged from such service or labor, +but shall be delivered up on claim of the party +to whom such service or labor may be due." + +It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those +who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; +and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members +of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution-- +to this provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, +then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause +"shall be delivered up", their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they +would make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly +equal unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good +that unanimous oath? + +There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should +be enforced by national or by State authority; but surely that +difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be +surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others +by which authority it is done. And should any one in any case be +content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial +controversy as to HOW it shall be kept? + +Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of +liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, +so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? +And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the +enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that +"the citizen of each State shall be entitled to all privileged and +immunities of citizens in the several States?" + +I take the official oath today with no mental reservations, +and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by +any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify +particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest +that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, +to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, +than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having +them held to be unConstitutional. + +It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President +under our national Constitution. During that period fifteen different +and greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, administered +the executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through +many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope +of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief Constitutional +term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of +the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. + +I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, +the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, +if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. +It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision +in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all +the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will +endure forever--it being impossible to destroy it except by some action +not provided for in the instrument itself. + +Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association +of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, +be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? +One party to a contract may violate it--break it, so to speak; +but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? + +Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition +that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by +the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than +the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of +Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the +Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, +and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted +and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation +in 1778. And, finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for ordaining +and establishing the Constitution was "TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION." + +But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States +be lawfully possible, the Union is LESS perfect than before the Constitution, +having lost the vital element of perpetuity. + +It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion +can lawfully get out of the Union; that Resolves and Ordinances +to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence, +within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, +are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. + +I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, +the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, +as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the +laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. +Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; +and I shall perform it so far as practicable, unless my +rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the +requisite means, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. +I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the +declared purpose of the Union that it WILL Constitutionally +defend and maintain itself. + +In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there +shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. +The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess +the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect +the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, +there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people +anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any interior locality, +shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens +from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force +obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict +legal right may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of +these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, +and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better +to forego for the time the uses of such offices. + +The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts +of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that +sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought +and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current +events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, +and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised +according to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and +a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the +restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. + +That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy +the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will +neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word +to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak? + +Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our +national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, +would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? +Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility +that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? +Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all +the real ones you fly from--will you risk the commission of so +fearful a mistake? + +All profess to be content in the Union if all Constitutional rights +can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written +in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human +mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. +Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision +of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a +majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written Constitutional right, +it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution--certainly would if such +a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of +minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations +and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that +controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be +framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may +occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, +nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions +for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered +by national or State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. +May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not +expressly say. MUST Congress protect slavery in the Territories? +The Constitution does not expressly say. + +From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, +and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority +will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. +There is no other alternative; for continuing the government is +acquiescence on one side or the other. + +If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, +they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; +for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever +a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. +For instance, why may not any portion of a new +confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, +precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? +All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the +exact temper of doing this. + +Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States +to compose a new Union, as to produce harmony only, +and prevent renewed secession? + +Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. +A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, +and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular +opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. +Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. +Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, +is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, +anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. + +I do not forget the position, assumed by some, that Constitutional +questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny +that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties +to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled +to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other +departments of the government. And while it is obviously possible that +such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect +following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that +it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, +can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. +At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy +of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, +is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, +the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties +in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, +having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands +of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon +the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink +to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of +theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. + +One section of our country believes slavery is RIGHT, and ought +to be extended, while the other believes it is WRONG, and ought +not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. +The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, and the law for the +suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced, +perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral +sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. +The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation +in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, +cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be worse in both cases +AFTER the separation of the sections than BEFORE. The foreign +slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, +without restriction, in one section, while fugitive slaves, +now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered +at all by the other. + +Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our +respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall +between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of +the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different +parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain +face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, +must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make +that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after +separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than +friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced +between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, +you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, +an no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions +as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. + +This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. +Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise +their CONSTITUTIONAL right of amending it, or their REVOLUTIONARY right +to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact +that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the +national Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of +amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people +over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed +in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, +favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people +to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode +seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with +the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or +reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen +for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would +wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment +to the Constitution--which amendment, however, I have not seen--has +passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall +never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, +including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction +of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular +amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be +implied Constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express +and irrevocable. + +The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, +and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the +separation of the states. The people themselves can do this +also if they choose; but the executive, as such, has nothing to +do with it. His duty is to administer the present government, +as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, +to his successor. + +Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice +of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? +In our present differences is either party without faith of being +in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal +truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours +of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail, +by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. + +By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people +have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; +and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little +to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain +their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of +wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government +in the short space of four years. + +My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and WELL upon this +whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. +If there be an object to HURRY any of you in hot haste to a step +which you would never take DELIBERATELY, that object will be +frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated +by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the +old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, +the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration +will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. +If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the +right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason +for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, +and a firm reliance on him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, +are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. + +In YOUR hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in MINE, +is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail YOU. +You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. +YOU have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while _I_ +shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." + +I am loathe to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not +be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break +our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from +every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone +all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union +when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/linc211.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/linc211.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..97ade378 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/linc211.txt @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ + +Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address +March 4, 1865 + + + +Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath +of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended +address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat +in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. +Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations +have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great +contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies +of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress +of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known +to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory +and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction +in regard to it is ventured. + +On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts +were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it-- +all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered +from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, +insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-- +seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. +Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather +than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather +than let it perish. And the war came. + +One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed +generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. +These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew +that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, +perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the +insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed +no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. + +Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration +which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause +of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself +should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less +fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray +to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. +It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's +assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; +but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both +could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully. + +The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because +of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe +to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose +that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the +providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued +through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he +gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due +to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any +departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a +living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently +do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. +Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by +the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil +shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash +shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said +three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The +judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in +the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on +to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; +to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, +and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just +and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/lock-imm.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/lock-imm.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6cb93cf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/lock-imm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,202 @@ +LOCKING OUT THE IMMIGRANT + +By JACOB G. HORNBERGER + +America of the 1800s was the most unique society in the +history of man. People could engage in virtually any economic +enterprise without permission of their public officials. +People could become as wealthy as they wanted, and there was +nothing the government could do about it. They could dispose +of their money in any way they saw fit. And they could travel +anywhere they desired without a passport or other evidence of +governmental consent. This is what it once meant to be an +American. This is what it once meant to be free. + +But perhaps the most unique aspect of American society of the +1800s was that reflected by the Statue of Liberty: free +immigration. For this was a society in which the citizenry +prohibited their public officials from interfering with the +right of people everywhere to come to the United States to +live and work. + +What was the result of this unusual society--a society without +income taxation, welfare, social security, licensing, +passports, subsidies, economic regulations, and immigration +restrictions? The result was the most economically prosperous +nation in the history of man! And this despite the fact that +thousands of penniless immigrants, many of whom could not +speak English, were flooding American shores every day. + +But prosperity for the poor was not the real significance of +our ancestors' policy of freedom of immigration. The true +significance is a much more profound one. For the first time +in history, oppressed and persecuted people everywhere had +hope--hope that if they were able to escape the tyranny under +which they suffered, there was a place which would accept +them. America was a beacon--a beacon of liberty which shone +through the darkness of oppression, persecution, and tyranny +throughout the world--a beacon which lit the hearts of +millions who knew that if they could just escape, there was a +nation, albeit faraway, to which they could flee. + +But no longer--and not for many decades. While the Statue of +Liberty is a nice place for tourists to visit, it now stands +as an sad reminder of the rejection and abandonment by 20th- +century Americans of the principles of liberty on which our +nation was founded. And while the welfare-state, planned- +economy way of life most clearly evidences this rejection and +abandonment, the consequences, while bad, have not been as +evil and horrible as those resulting from the abandonment of +the principles of free immigration. + +We must never forget that citizens are responsible for +wrongdoing by their own government--even when they consciously +choose to ignore it. The best-known example in recent times of +conscious disregard of wrongdoing by one's own government +involved the German people in the 1930s--when Hitler embarked +on his policy of extermination of the Jews. Most Americans +believe that under same or similar circumstances, the people +of this nation would act differently. Unfortunately, they are +wrong. Because what Americans have never been taught in their +public schools is that the American government, as well as +other Western governments (including Britain, Canada, and most +of Latin America), through their control of immigration, +sealed all avenues of Jewish escape from the Holocaust. + +The sordid facts and details are set forth in two books: While +Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy by Arthur D. +Morse, first published in 1967, and The Holocaust Conspiracy: +An International Policy of Genocide by William R. Perl, +published in 1989. Morse was executive producer of "CBS +Reports" and the winner of numerous broadcasting awards. Perl +served as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army Intelligence Service, +worked in the Prosecution Branch of the War Crimes trials, and +later taught at George Washington University. + +An American cannot read these two books without total +revulsion at the reaction of his own government to Hitler's +policies against the Jews. Both authors detail the methods by +which American politicians and bureaucrats, while maintaining +an appearance of great humanitarianism, used immigration +policies to prevent Germany's Jews from escaping to the United +States. Morse writes: + + In 1938 the Nazis burned every synagogue in the nation, + shattered the windows of every Jewish establishment, + hauled twenty-five thousand innocent people to + concentration camps, and fined the Jews 1,000,000,000 + marks for the damage. + + Five days later, at a White House press conference, a + reporter asked the President, "Would you recommend a + relaxation of our immigration restrictions so that the + Jewish refugees could be received in this country?" + + "This is not in contemplation," replied the President. + "We have the quota system." + + The United States not only insisted upon its immigration + law throughout the Nazi era, but administered it with + severity and callousness. In spite of unprecedented + circumstances, the law was constricted so that even its + narrow quotas were not met. The lamp remained lifted + beside the golden door, but the flame had been + extinguished and the door was padlocked. + +And Perl writes: + + Anti-Semitism . . . was certainly a part of the anti- + immigration mood of the country, but it was not the sole + cause. This was 1938, the U.S. was still on the fringes + of the 1929 depression, and fear that newcomers would + take away jobs needed from those already in the country + was genuine. The fact that newcomers mean also increased + consumption, that many of them, as they actually did, + created new jobs rather than occupy existing ones was not + considered. . . . + + President Roosevelt was first of all a politician, and a + shrewd and ruthless one at that. He was not going to + imperil his fragile coalition for moral or humanitarian + reasons. He was not ready to put it to a test over an + issue that, he knew, was loaded with emotion among + supporters as well as opponents and which was in summary + not popular at all. He was at that time preparing to run + for an unprecedented third term of the presidency, and + any rocking of the boat was out of the question. . . . + Yet, it was necessary to keep up the image of a great + liberal and humanitarian. + +One of the most dramatic and tragic examples of the U.S. +government's immigration policy against the Jews was evidenced +by what has become known as "the voyage of the damned." Just +before war broke out in Europe, a German cruise ship loaded +with almost 1,000 Jewish refugees left Germany and headed to +Cuba--where friends and relatives of the passengers waited for +their loved ones. When the ship arrived, the Cuban government +refused to permit the Jews to disembark. When the ship began +moving close to American waters, the United States Coast Guard +closely followed to make certain that no Jew jumped ship and +infiltrated America. + +Since no other nations were willing to accept the refugees, +the ship headed back to Germany where certain death awaited +its passengers. At the last minute, England and some of the +European nations reluctantly agreed to accept the refugees. +Unfortunately, many of those who went to Europe were later +killed under the Nazi occupation. + +It is easy for present-day Americans to say, "We would never +let that happen again." Yet, we continue to permit our public +officials to control immigration. And the results of this +control point only in the direction of future catastrophe. + +The U.S. government rightly criticizes the Soviet Union for +not letting Jews emigrate . . . but then is horrified at the +prospect of having to let Soviet Jews enter the United States. + +The U.S. government rightly criticizes Vietnam for its +oppressive society . . . but then is horrified at the prospect +of having to let Vietnamese "boat people" enter the United +States. + +And on the southern border of the United States, good and +honorable people of the Republic of Mexico have been +incarcerated, year after year, in American concentration +centers for committing the heinous "crime" of trying to +sustain and improve their lives through labor. I personally +have been inside these concentration centers and visited with +these victims of 20th-century political tyranny, and I shall +never forget the looks on their faces--looks which asked, "Why +are you doing this to us?" + +Free immigration is nothing to fear. As free-market economists +have shown for years (i.e., Julian L. Simon's 1989 book, The +Economic Consequences of Immigration), immigration is actually +an economic boon to a society. Of course, fears of huge +burdens associated with welfare, public schooling, and other +aspects of the welfare state are a legitimate concern. But we +should not use the welfare state as an excuse for rejecting +free immigration; instead, we should use freedom as a reason +for ending both the welfare state and immigration controls-- +and for ending the real and potential evils and horrors +associated with them. + +As walls separating people are crumbling all over the world, +it is time for us to tear down our walls. It is time for us to +recapture the spirit of liberty which guided our American +ancestors and lead the world to the highest reaches of freedom +ever known by man. It is time for us to let the world know +that its beacon of liberty is once again lighted for its poor, +its tired, its huddled masses yearning to breathe free! + +Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of +Freedom Foundation. + + +------------------------------------------------------------ +From the June 1991 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, +Copyright (c) 1991, The Future of Freedom Foundation, +PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. +Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit +and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/locke-sd.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/locke-sd.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dac318e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/locke-sd.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +Nothing is to be accounted hostile force but where it leaves +not the remedy of such an appeal [to the law], and it is such +force alone that puts him that uses it into a state of war, +and makes it lawful to resist him. + +A man with a sword in his hand demands my purse on the +highway, when perhaps I have not 12 pennies in my pocket. + +This man I may lawfully kill. + +To another I deliver 100 pounds to hold only whilst I alight, +which he refuses to restore to me when I am got up again, +but draws his sword to defend the possession of it by force. +I endeavour to retake it. + +The mischief this man does me is a hundred, or possibly +a thousand times more than the other perhaps intended +me (whom I killed before he really did me any); and yet +I might lawfully kill the one and cannot so much as hurt +the other lawfully. + +The reason whereof is plain to see; because the one using +force which threatened my life, I could not have time to +appeal to the law to secure it, and when it was gone it +was too late to appeal. + +The law could not restore life to my dead carcass. + +The loss was irreparable; which to prevent, the law of +Nature gave me a right to destroy him who had put himself +into a state of war with me and threatened my destruction. + +But in the other case, my life not being in danger, I might +have the benefit of appealing to the law, and have reparation +for my 100 pounds in that way. + +-- John Locke, "An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent + and End of Civil Government", Chapter 18 "Of Tyranny", + #207, originally published in England, 1690. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/logan.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/logan.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2f888855 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/logan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ +Newsgroups: freenet.shrine.songs +From: aa300 (Jerry Murphy) +Subject: Who Will Mourn for Logan? +Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 15:40:03 EST + + +WHO IS THERE TO MOURN FOR LOGAN? + +On April 22, 1749, Talgayeeta, better known as John Logan to the white men in +the area, was made Mingo Chief of the Cayuga Indians at Shamokin, PA. He made +his home in western Pennsylvania a safe haven for all people, white or red. He +was always the peacemaker, never entering into the atrocities blamed on either +side except as a man of peace. He was widely known and respected through all +levels of government in the Colonies and in the Iroquois League, as well as +throughout the Indian Nations of Ohio and other nearby states. His wife and +children caught smallpox from the whites, none of them survived but Logan. +Still, he remained a peacemaker. + +Twenty-five years later, while Chief Logan and his nephew were on a hunting +trip, white surveyors under the direction of Michael Cresap held a party in +honor of the family of Logan, following which they murdered them and mutilated +their bodies. The dead included his father, his sister, his brother, his +brother-in-law, and several of his friends and neighbors. In his grief, Logan +swore revenge and retaliation. + +His retaliation was swift and sure, and finally led the white rulers to seek +peace. The Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, summoned all the local Indian +leaders to a council. Logan refused to come, sending instead this message which +has made his name famous throughout not only Ohio, but in world capitals. +Logan's headquarters were dominated by a giant Elm tree, under which he composed +this reply to Lord Dunmore. The reply was presented by an interpreter, John +Gibson, on October 20, 1774. + +"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry and I +gave him not meat; if ever he came cold or naked and I gave him not clothing." + +"During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained in his tent, +an advocate for peace. Nay, such was my love for the whites that those of my +own country pointed at me as they passed by and said, 'Logan is the friend of +the white men.' I had even thought to live with you, but for the injuries of one +man, Colonel Cresap. He last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all +the relatives of Logan; not sparing even my women and children. There runs not +a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for +revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my +vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. Yet do not harbor +any thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan has never felt fear. He will +not turn on his heels to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? +Not one." + +A monument commemorating this event is at Logan Elm Park, 6 miles south of +Circleville, OH, erected in 1919. Another monument to Logan is in Fort Hill +Cemetery, Auburn, NY. + +Logan died in 1780, his elm tree died in 1964. + +Who is there to mourn for Logan? + +Gerald E. Murphy +Copyright (c) 1988 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/loonylaw.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/loonylaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..79020068 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/loonylaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,177 @@ + Loonly Laws in L.A. + + Against the law to ride an "ugly horse?" Illegal for a fireman to rescue a +woman wearing a nightgown? Prohibited from walking around with an ice-cream +cone in your pocket? Author Samuel Johnson once said, "The law is the last +result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the +public." A noble philosophy, perhaps, but Johnson's opinion is debatable at +best. + + Officials who wrote some of the L.A. area's old laws appear to have acted +for no greater purpose than a good belly laugh. But there are real reasons +for some of these laws. For instance, those regarding horses were largely +passed to favor and protect the horse in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when +horses were still the primary mode of transportation. An old ordinance won't +allow acrobats to perform on any city sidewalk in L.A. because the city +fathers decreed acrobatics might frighten some of the local horses. + + Clothing laws, by and large, originated around the same time period. Laws +dealing with women were always designed by men who were often quite +prejudiced by today's standards in their thinking toward "the weaker sex." +The extremely fundamentalistic attitudes of many small-town religious leaders +often prevailed - hence, we find laws governing the wearing of corsets, +nightgowns, shoes, and hats. Doctors practicing in Long Beach, for example, +seem to have a special social responsibility. An unusual piece of loony +legislation says every woman must "be found to be wearing a corset" when +attending any public dance. A physician is required to inspect each female at +the dance. The doctor must ascertain that the woman is, in fact, complying +with this archaic law. + + Any laws having to do with Sunday were usually written and passed as the +need arose with the intent of keeping the Sabbath holy. The church has +enormous influence on laws pertaining to gambling, curfews for young women, +women drinking alcoholic beverages, flirting, and even eating ice cream. In +Bonsall, no one may read the Sunday paper while sitting in a rocking chair on +their front porch while church services are in session. + + There's a strange ordinance in Covina where "A husband is not guilty of +desertion when his wife rents his room to a boarder and crowds him out of the +house." + + Drivers in Hemet should be aware that the driver of "any vehicle involved +in an accident resulting in death...shall immediately stop...and give his +name and address to the person struck." + + A true dog lover, according to City Managaer Doug Weiford, might enjoy +living in Riverside. An old piece of legislation stops local citizens from +"sticking out a tongue in the direction of a dog." Nor can people living in +Ventura make "ugly faces" at dogs who are found to be "freely roaming" the +community. Animals appear to be treated fairly in Upland but pity the poor +owner: "It shall be unlawful for the owner or keeper of horses, mules, +cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs to run at large." And don't bother duck +hunting at night in Apple Valley. Ducks aren't allowed to be heard quacking +after 10:00 p.m. + + Do you have difficulty flirting? You can't, according to the municipal +code in Inglewood: "It is unlawful for any male person, within the corporate +limits of the city of Inglewood, to wink at any female person with whom he +is unacquainted." Beverly Hills also has an anti-flirting law. City Manager +Ed Kreins quotes this ordinance: "No male person shall make remarks to or +concerning, or cough or whistle at, or do any other act to attract the +attention of any woman upon or traveling along any of the sidewalks." + + Males in Buena Park have an even more difficult time in this regard. They +are specifically prohibited from "turning and looking at a woman in that way" +on the Sabbath. If he's caught a second time, the violator has to "wear horse +blinders" for a 24-hour period in public. + + Community lawmakers do sometimes have a sense of humor. According to City +Manager Ralph Webb, Baldwin Park politcos once decreed that "No female shall +appear in a bathing suit on any street within this community unless she is +escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club." An +amendment to the original ordinance reads "The provisions of this status +shall not apply to females weighing less than 90 pounds or exceeding 200 +pounds nor shall it apply to female horses." + + You probably don't know that Santa Moinca has a "bean snapper" law. City +Manager John Jalili declares: "Any person who shall in the city of Santa +Monica use or carry concealed or unconcealed any bean snapper or like +article, shall, upon conviction, be fined." + + Drivers beware when going through Los Angeles County. An early speed law +was worded: "Speed upon county roads will be limited to 10 miles an hour +unless the motorist sees a baliff who does not appear to have had a drink in +30 days, then the driver will be permitted to make what he can." And +"Whoever operates an automobile on any public way - laid out under the +authority of law recklessly or while under the influence of liquor shall be +punished; thereby imposing upon the motorist the duty of finding out at his +peril whether certain highways had been laid out recklessly or while under +the influence of liquor before driving his car over them." You figure it +out. In the same vein, there's a beauty from Whittier that says "Two vehicles +which are passing each other in opposite directions shall have the right of +way." Uh huh. + + An old-fashioned piece of legislation in Hesperia outlaws dueling under +certain circumstances: no one is allowed to duel when the opponents select +water pistols for use as the weapons. + + Monrovia has a unique old wedding law. No young man can marry the girl of +his dreams until he has "proven his manhood." How? It's quite simple; all +the poor fellow is required to do is go out and shoot six blackbirds or three +crows which must then be brought to his prospective father-in-law. + + Stay away from Compton while wearing slack with hip pockets. The city +fathers long ago passed an ordinance banning hip pockets in all men's pants - +it was considered to be a perfect place to hide a pint of liquor. Let's hope +thirst doesn't become a major problem if you're a woman in Ojai. No female +can expect to walk into a tavern and be graciously served. It's illegal for a +woman to stand within five feet of a bar when she takes a drink in any public +establishment serving alcoholic beverages. She's in violation of this law +even if she only wants a glass of water! + + A thirsty married man, according to the law in Camarillo, could have +serious problems. He can't purchase any form of liquor without first having +the written consent of his loving spouse. And an old law in Gardena, +according to City Manager Ken Landau, prohibits a woman from chewing tobacco +without first having permission from her husband. + + You could be breaking the law when you're just trying to have an innocent +night out. Boisterous adults and children can be penalized in Mailbu should +they "laugh out loud" in a movie theater. And in Costa Mesa, citizens aren't +allowed to enter a movie theater within four hours of eating garlic. + + Don't even thing of playing cards with a pregnant woman or a child on the +curb of any street in Temecula. And according to the revised ordinances in +Pomona, "No person shall hallo, shout, bawl, scream, use profane language, +dance, sing, whoop, quarrel, or make any unusual noise or sound in any house +in such a manner as to disturb the peace and quiet of the neighborhood." + + Fashion can be dangerous. In Norwalk, "Any person who shall wear in a +public place any device or thing attached to her head, hair, headgear or hat, +which device or thing is capable or lacerating the flesh of any other person +with whom it may come in contact and which is not sufficiently guarded +against the possibility of so doing, shall be adjudged a disorderly person." +Watch out, fashion victims. + + If you've been out on the trail a bit too long and your horse is weary, be +sure you don't let it fall asleep within the city limits of El Monte. They +have an antiquated law in them parts that prohibits a horse from falling +asleep in a bathtub, unless the rider is also sleeping with the horse. And if +you own a horse in Pico Rivera, it's strictly forbidden - if you're a woman, +attired in shorts, and you weigh over 200 pounds - to ride your horse in +public. In Santa Ana, it's illegal to let a horse sleep in a bakery. + + You've got to be careful even when you're hungry. If you can't find a can +opener, whatever you do, don't try to shoot your canned foods open with a +revolver in Victorville. And if you're a barber in Valencia, don't dare eat +onions between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. + + Ice cream crops up quite a few times in the various cities' law books. In +Chino, citizens are prohibited from carrying an ice-cream cone in their +pocket, and in Rosemead, it's against the law to eat an ice cream in public +with a fork. + + Try to stay away from Arcadia if you're planning to take your date for a +late cup of coffee. An old ordinance prohibits "young women" from drinking a +delicious cup of brew after 6:00 p.m. Speaking of drinking, a law in +Bellflower actually offers a degree of protection to drunks: "A drunken man +had as good a right to a perfect sidewalk as a sober man since he needs one a +good deal more." + + Have to pay a visit to a dentist in the near future? In Irvine a patient +is not allowed to pull a dentist's tooth. Those who partake of such frivolous +activities can be jailed. But in Castaic, fairness seems to govern the +thinking of former lawmakers. A dentist had better not accidentally pull the +wrong tooth. Should this happen, the patient has the right to pull one of the +dentist's teeth in return. + + These are merely a few of the unusual situations covered by ludicrous laws +throughout the Los Angeles area. Most of these decrees were written and then +forgotten with the swift passage of time. Relevant or ridiculous, most are +still around today. Clergyman Henry Ward Beecher said it all when he summed +up his view on the art of lawmaking: "We bury men when they are dead, but we +try to embalm the dead body of laws, keeping the corpse in sight long after +the vitality has gone. It usually takes a hundred years to make a law; and +then, after the law had done its work, it usually takes another hundred years +to get rid of it." + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/m_m_hand.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/m_m_hand.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..efbe8016 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/m_m_hand.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1718 @@ +THE MM'S BOOK +by J.S.M. Ward + +PREFACE + +THE third degree in Freemasonry is termed the Sublime Degree and the +title is truly justified. Even in its exoteric aspect its simple, yet +dramatic, power must leave a lasting impression on the mind of every +Cand.. But its esoteric meaning contains some of the most profound +spiritual instruction which it is possible to obain to-day. + +Even the average man, who entered The Craft with little realisation of +its real antiquity and with the solemnity of this, its greatest degree. +In its directness and apparent simplicity rests its tremendous power. +The exoteric and esoteric are interwoven in such a wonderful way that it +is almost imopssible to separate the one from the other, and the longer +it is studied the more we realise the profound and ancient wisdom +concealed therein. Indeed, it is probable that we shall never master all +that lies hidde n in this degree till we in very truth pass through that +reality of which it is a allegory. + +The two degrees which have gone before, great and beautiful though they +be are but the training and preparation for the message which the third +degree holds in almost every line of the ritual. Here at length we learn +the true purpose of Freemasonry. It is not merely a system of morality +veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, but a great adventure, a +search after that which was lost; in other words, the Mystic Quest, the +craving of the Soul to comprehend the nature of God and to achieve union +with Hi m. + +Diffirent men vary greatly; to some the most profound teachings appeal, +while to others simpler and more direct instruction is all they crave. +But there is hardly a man who has not, at some time or other, amid the +turmoil and distraction of this material world, felt a strange and +unaccountable longing for knowledge as to why he was ever sent here, +whence he came, and whither he is wending. At such times he feels Iike a +wanderer in a strange land, who has almost forgotten his native country, +because he left it so long ago, but yet vaguely realises that he is an +exile, and dimly craves for some message from that home which he knew of +yore. + +This is the voice of the Divine Spark in man calling out for union with +the Source of its being, and at such times the third degree carries with +it a message which till then, perhaps, the brother had not realized. The +true s...ts are lost, but we are told how and where we shall find them. +The gateway of d. opens the way to the p. within the c., where the +longing spirit will find peace in the arms of the Father of All. + + +Thus it will be seen that the third degree strikes a more solemn note +thane even that of d. itself, and I have endeavoured in this little book +to convey in outline form some part at least of this sublime message. + +As in my previous books, I freely confess that I have not covered the +whole ground. Not only would it be impossible to do so in a book of this +size, but in so doing I should have defeated one of my principal objects +in writing namely, to inspire others to study for themselves and +endeavour to find in our ceremonies further and deeper meanings. + +The success of the earlier books shows clearly that my efforts have not + been in vain, and that the brethren are more than anxious to fathom the + inner meaning of the ceremonies we all love so well. This book + completes the series dealing with the meaning of the three craft + degrees, but their popularity has convinced me that the experiment of + producing a small and inexpensive handbook has been completely + justified. I have therefore been encouraged to write further volumes, + and the next of the series will be an outline history of Freemasonry " + from time Immemorial." + +PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION + +The success of the fust edition of this book has necessitated a second +wherein I have corrected a few printing errors and added a few points +which may help my brother students. + +From the number of letters I have received from all parts of the world, +thanking me for the light these books throw on the meaning of our +ceremonies, it is clear that the new members who are entering our Order +are tending to take an increasing interest in the meaning of our Rites +and are no longer content to regard the Ceremonies merely as a pastime +for an idle hour. + +J.S.M. WARD. + +CONTENTS + +Introduction by The Hon. Sir John Cockburn, M.D., K.C.M.G., P.G.D.Eng., P.D.G.M. S.Australia + +Chapter 1 Questions and P.W. +Chapter 2 The Opening +Chapter 3 The Symbolical Journeys, etc. +Chapter 4 The Exhortation +Chapter 5 The S..s +Chapter 6 The Badge +Chapter 7 The Legend +Chapter 8 The Tracing Board, etc. +Chapter 9 Closing +Chapter 10 Conclusion + +INTRODUCTION +By Sir John A. Cockburn, + +W.Bro. Ward has lost no time in supplying his large circle of readers +with this little book on the 3 degree. With becoming reverence he +touches on the last great lesson which Masonry presents to the mind of +the Craftsman. Among the manifold blessings that Freemasonry has +conferred on mankind none is greater than that of taking the sting from +death and robbing the grave of victory. No man can be called Free who +lives in dread of the only event that is certain in his life. Until +emancipated from the fear of d eath, he is all his life long subject to +bondage. Yet how miserably weak is this phantom king of Terrors who +enslaves so many of the uninitiated. As Francis Bacon remarked, there is +no passion in the mind of man that does not master the dread of death. +Revenge triumphs over it; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief +flieth to it. Death has always been regarded as the elucidation of the +Great Mystery. It was only at the promise of dissolution that the seeker +after the El ixir of Life exclaimed Eureka. Masonry regards death but as +the gate of life, and the Master Mason learns to look forward with firm +but humble confidence to the moment when he will receive his summons to +ascend to the Grand Lodge above. + +Brother Ward very properly attaches much significance to the Pass Word +leading to the 2 degree and 3 degree. In the Eleusinian Mysteries an ear +of corn was presented to the Epoptai. This, as an emblem of Ceres, +represented by the S.W., is appropriate to the F.C.'s, who are under the +guidance of that officer, while the name of the first artificier in +metals, which is reminiscent of Vulcan, the Celestial Blacksmith, seems +specially befitting to the attributes of the J.W., as it was in the days +before 1740. The author sees in the lozenge formed by two of the great +lights a representation of the Vesica Piscis. This symbol, whose literal +meaning is "the bladder of the fish,' is of deep significance. Some see +in it the essential scheme of ecclesiastical archi tecture. But as the +spiritually blind are unable to discern similitudes, so those who are +gifted with deep insight are apt to over estimate analogies. The Vesica +Piscis being, as Brother Ward rightly states, a feminine emblem, and +therefore one sided, can hardly represent the equilibrium attained by +the conjunction of the square and compasses. These respectively stand +for the contrasted correlatives which pervade Creation, and, like the +pillars, are typical when conjoined of new stability resulting from +their due proportion in the various stages of Evolution. The pr +ogressive disclosures of the points of the compasses seems to indicate +the ultimate realisation of the spirituality of matter; the at-one-ment +and reconciliation at which Freemasonry and all true religions aim. +Brother Ward repeatedly points out the similarity that exists between +the lessons of Christianity and of Freemasonry. It is indeed difficult +to distinguish between them, The Ancient Mysteries undoubtedly possessed +in secret many of the t ruths proclaimed in the gospel. St. Augustine +affirms that Chris tianity, although not previously known by that name, +had always existed. But whereas the hope of immortality was formerly in +the Mysteries confined to a favoured few, the new Convenant opened the +Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Incidentally this little volume +clears up many passages which are obscure in the Ritual. For example, +there could be no object in directing that the F.C's, who, on account of +their trust-worthiness, were selected by the King to search for the +Master, should be clothed in white to prove their innocence. That was +already beyond question. The order was evidently meant for the repentant +twelve who took no actual part in the crime. This and similar +inconsistencies in the Ritual may be accepted as evidence of its +antiquity. Had it been a modern compilation such contradictions would +have been studiously avoided. + +It is probable that many earnest Masons may not agree with all Brother +Ward's interpretations. Nor can such unanimity reasonably be expected. +Freemasonry, as a gradual accretion of the Wisdom of Ages Immemorial, +bears traces of many successive schools of thought. But all its messages +are fraught with hope for the regeneration of humanity. The author +intimated his desire in this series of handbooks to lead others to +prosecute the study of Masonry for themselves; and indeed he has +abundantly proved that in it s unfathomable depths there are many gems +of priceless ray serene which will well repay the search. Brother Ward +is heartily to be congratulated on having attained the object he had in +view. + +John A. Cockburn. + +CHAPTER I + +QUESTIONS AND P.W. + +Those of our Brethren who have read the previous two books of this +series will not need much help in understanding the significance of the +questions which are put to the Cand. before being raised. Practically +every question has been dealt with in detail in the previous books; the +majority of them are taken from incidents in the Lectures and Tracing +Board, and since the latter was explained at some length we shall not +now detain our readers long. + +The manner of preparation for the second degree stressed the masculine +side, which is characteristic of it. The admission on a S. indicated +that the Cand. had profited by the moral training rcceived in the First +degree, and that his conduct had always been on the S.. There is, +however a deep esoteric meaning in the apparent platitude that it is the +fourth part of a circle. Among all the ancient nations the circle is a +symbol of God the Infinite, Whose name we discovered in the second +degree in the M.Ch., wh ere we leamt that it consisted of four letters. +Thus the Cand. was admitted on one letter of the Mystic Name, and if the +four Sq.s are united with the circle in a peculiar way they form the +cosmic cross, emblem of matter, within the circle of the Infinite. + +We have in the last book considered at such length what is implied by +the words "Hidden mysteries of nature and science," that we need here +only refer our readers to that section, wherein we saw that in former +times these hidden mysteries undoubtedly referred to certain occult +powers, which would be dangerous if acquired by a man who had not proved +himself to be of the highest moral character. + +The "wages" we receive consist of the power to comprehend the nature of +God, Who resides in the M.Ch. of the Soul of every Mason. The F.C. +receives his wages without scruple or diffidence because the Spiritual +benefit he receives from Freemasonry is in exact proportion to his +desire, and ability, to comprehend its inner meaning. + +He cannot receive either more or less than he has earned, for if he has +not understood the profound lesson of the Divinity within him, naturally +he cannot benefit therefrom. + +His employers are the Divine Trinity, of Whom Justice is one of the +outstanding attributes. God could not be unjust and remain God. This +conception is almost a platitude, but the average man, while realising +that God will not withhold any reward earned, is at times apt to assume +that because God is love He will reward us more than we deserve. This is +clearly a mistake, for God could not be partial without ceasing to be +God, therefore the F.C. receives exactly the Spiritual wages he has +earned, and neither m ore nor less, but some F.C.'s will nevertheless +obtain a greater reward than others, because spiritually they have +earned it. + +The significance of the names of the P....rs was explained in the last +book, but in view of the nature of the third degree it seems advisable +to point out once more that their secret Kabalistic meaning is (1) Being +fortified by every moral virtue, (2) you are now properly prepared, (3) +to undergo that last and greatest trial which fits you to become a M M.. +Thus we see that even the w..ds of the preceding degrees lead up to +this, the last and greatest. + +As in the former case, the remark of the W.M. that he will put other +questions if desired indicates the possibility of members of the Lodge +asking qucstions based on the Lectures of the Second Degree, or even on +the Tracing Board. It is, indeed, a pity that this right is practically +never exercised. For example, a particularly appropriate question would +be "What was the name of the man who cast the two great p....rs ? " As +it is, the Cand. in a dramatic way represents the closing incidents in +the life of th is great man, whose importance till then he has hardly +had any opportunity of realising. + +Having answered these test questions, the cand. is again entrusted with +a P.W., etc., to enable him to enter the Lodge after it has been raised +to the Third degree during this temporary absence. We have in the +previous book explained that the raising of a Lodge should alter the +vibrations of those present by a process well recognised in the +ceremonies of Magic, and, to enable the Cand. quickly to become in ttme +with these higher spiritual vibrations, a word of "power" is given him, +which in a moment places him on the same plane as the other members of +the Lodge. This word he has to give, not only outside the d....r of the +Lodge, but also immediately before his presentation by the S.W. as +"Properly prepared to be raised to the Third Degree." It is only after +this has been done that the real ceremony of the Third Degree, so far as +the c. is concerned, begins, and therefore that the full force of the +vibrations of the M.M.'s come into play. + +The P.W. itself is of the greatest significance, more especially when +combined with the P.W. leading from the First to the Second degree. At +one time the P.W.'s were reversed. T.C. being the W. leading to the +Second, and Sh... . the W. leading to the Third. This is still the case +in those foreign Grand Lodges, such as the Dutch and the French, which +derive from us before 1740, when the W.s were altered owing to certain +un-authorised revelations. This alteration was one of the just +grievances which brought a bout the secession of the so-called +"Ancients," who charged Grand Lodge with altering the Ancient Landmarks. +When the Irish followed our example they continued the prohibition of +the introduction of m..ls until the Third degree, which is a logical +procedure, for clearly you have no right to bring them into Lodge until +you have been symbolically introduced to the first artificer in that +material. As the W.s now stand they convey the following spiritual +lesson:- the F.C. is one who finds the simple necessitie s of life, such +as C. and W., sufficient for his requirements. They are plenty to the +spiritually minded man, whose soul becomes clogged and hampered by the +acquistion of worldly possessions and since it is hard for a rich man to +enter the Kingdom of Heaven, immediatdy the Cand. has symbolically +received W.P. he is Sl....n. + +T.C. conveys the lesson that W.P. in themselves bring death to the soul +and prevent its upward progress. To-day, the river of death connected +with the P.W. leading to the Second degree has largely lost its +significance, whereas when it was a P.W. leading to the Third, it was in +itself a fine allegory. + +We must remember that Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was well known and +widely read at the beginning of the 18th Century, and those who were +re-organising our rituals at that time could not have been blind to the +similarity of the allegory hidden in the w. Sh. and the account by +Bunyan of Christian's fording the river of death on the way to the Holy +City. The change of about 1740 destroyed this allegory, and its survival +in the Tracing Board is now merely one of those numerous footnotes +which, to the careful s tudent, are invaluable indications of the +various transformations though which our ritual has passed during the +course of years. Nevertheless, I do not regret the change, as I think +the present spiritual lesson is even finer than the former one, but the +other arrangement was more logical. Firstly, from the practical point of +view the F.C. required the use of m..1 tools to perform his operative +tasks, and in the process of his work acquired W.P., in contradiction to +the E.A., who did only rough work and rece ived only maintenance: i.e., +corn, wine , and oil. Secondly, from the symbolical standpoint the +sequence was also more logical, for the F.C., having acquired wealth by +means of his skill, was brought to the river of d., and passed through +it in the Third Degree. + +According to Bro. Sanderson, in his "Examination of the Masonic Ritual," +the actual translation of the Hebrew w. Sh. is an " e. of c., or a f. of +w."- hence the manner in which it is depicted in a F.C.'s Lodge-while +the w. T.C. in Hebrew means only a blacksmith, though another w. +similarly pronounced means acquisition. Hence, as he points out, " an +allegorical title has, in translating the Old Testament, been mistaken +for the name of an actual person, for the name itself means `A worker in +M...t...ls'" Therefore the connection with H.A.B. is obvious. Bro. +Sanderson, quoting from the "Secret Discipline," by S. L. Knapp, says, +"In a work on ancient ecclesiastical history the following occurs, 'By a +singular plasus lingua e the moderns have substituted T.C. in the Third +Degree for tymboxein-to be entombed.' " While I am unable to say whether +Knapp is justified in this statement, it is quitee probable that this +P.W., and indeed all the P.W.s are comparatively modern substitutes, +taken from the Bible to replace ancient W.s of power whose full meaning +was lost and whose form in consequence had become corrupt and +unintelligible. The Greek word tymboxein would be peculiariy suitable +for a P.W. leading to t he Third Degree, in view of its meaning, and +mediaeval magi cal ceremonies are full of corrupt Greek words +indiscriminately mingled with equally corrupt Hebrew and Arabic. There +is, therefore, nothing intrinsically improbable in the suggestion that +this ancient Greek word was the original from which T.C. has been +evolved. We know as a fact that large pieces of Biblical history were +imported wholesale into our rituals in the 18th Century, and what is +more likely than that an unintelligible work, already so corrupt as not +even to be recognisable as Gree k, should be am ended into a well known +Biblical character? However, the word as it stands, because of its +Hebrew meaning of acquisition, can correctly be translated as W.P., +while as meaning an artificer in M. it clearly refers to H.A.B., who +made the two p.....rs, and whom the Cand. is to represent. Thus, +following this line of interpretation, we perceive that the Cand. really +represents H.A.B. when he enters the Lodge, although under the disguised +title conveyed by the P.W .. + +In dealing with these P.W.s I have endeavoured to show that there are +meanings within meanings, and the same is true of practically every +important incident in the whole ceremony. In a book of thissize it is +obviously impossible to attempt to give all of these meanings, and even +if one did the result would be to befog the young reader and so prevent +him from getting a clear and connected interpretation of the ceremony. +It is for this reason that, in the main, I am concentrating on one line +of interpretation, but I have thought it desirable in this section to +give a hint to more advanced students, so that they can follow up +similar lines of investigation for themselves. + +PREPARATION + +In English and Scotch workings there is no c.t. around the Cand. in +preparation for the Third Degree, but in the Irish working it is wound +once around his n., in the Second degree twice, and the First three +times. If we regard the c.t. as symbolising those things which hamper a +man's spiritual progress, the gradual unwinding of it as used in Irish +workings becomes of great significance. This interpretation implies that +the Cand. is hampered in Body, Soul and Spirit in the First Degree, +whereas by the time h e has reached this point in the Third Degree the +Body and Soul have triumphed over the sins which peculiarly assail them, +and in that stage symbolised by the Degree itself the Spirit has only to +triumph over Spiritual sins, such as Spiritual Pride. With this +exception the manner of preparation is the same in all these British +workings, and indicates that the Cand. is now about to consecrate both +sides of his nature, active and passive, creative and preservative, +etc., to the service of the Most High. + +The explanation already given in the previous books of the various +details, such as being s.s., holds here, and a brief glance at the other +volumes will render it unnecessary for me to take up valuable space +therewith in this third book. The Can. is then brought to the Lodge door +and gives the Kn.s of a F.C. These Kn's indicate that Soul and Body are +in union, but the Spirit is still out of contact whereas the proper Kn's +of a M.M. (2/1) indicates that the Spirit dominates the Soul and is in +union with it, the body having fallen away into significance. It will be +remembered that in the first book of this series I pointed out that the +three separate kn's of an E.A. symbolise that in the uninitiated man, +Body, Soul and Spirit are all at variance. Meanwhile the Lodge has been +raised to a Third Degree by a ceremony whose profound significance +demands consideration in a separate chapter. + +CHAPTER II + +THE OPENING + +Having satisfied himself that all present are symbolically upright and +moral men, the W.M. asks the J.W. if his spiritual nature has evolved +sufficiently to control both soul and body. The J.W. suggests that he +should be tested, not only by the emblem of upright conduct, but also by +the Compasses. Now these combined with the Square form a lozenge, which +is itself a symbol for the Vesica Piscis, emblem of the female +principle. The Compasses, moreover, are the instruments with which +geometrical figures are cr eated, and more especially the Circle. By +means of two circles the triangle, emblem of the triune nature of God,. +is produced, while the Cirde itself is the emblem of Eternity and +therefore of Spirit. A point within the cirle forms the symbol for the +Hindu conception of the Supreme Being, Paramatma, whence we have come +and whither we shall all ultimately return. At the centre of the circle +rests all knowledge; there shall we find every lost secret. Now such a +figure can only be dr awn with the help of the Co mpasses, and in +drawing it the following significant symbolical act takes place. + +One point of the Compass rests at the centre, and the other makes the +circle of the Infinite. No matter how far the legs of the Compass be +extended, or how large the Circle, the fact remains that one leg is +always at the centre. Thus the Compasses, while they travel through +infinity, are at the same time never separated from the centre, and from +that point cannot err. + +This instrument may therefore be considered as standing for the Divine +Spark in Man, in all its manifestations. One of these is conscience; but +the Divine Spark has many attributes and names. + +So the J.W.'s reply indicates that he is prepared to be tested both by +the moral code and by the spiritual laws of our being. + +But after these preliminaries the proceedings become of an even more +exalted nature. All that has gone before has been but preparation for +the Great Quest on which we must now set forth. It is the quest of the +Soul for realisation of God, and at-one-ment with Him. This is the +Mystic Quest of all ages, and, true to the ancient symbolism, it starts +from the East, the place of Light, and goes towards the West, the place +of darkness and death. + +The East represents God, Who is our home. It indicates that each soul +comes out from the place of Light, from Light itself, that is, from the +very substance of God, descends through the Gateway of the Dawn and +becomes incarnate in Matter. But it brings with it a sense of loss and +separation, for it has come out from God, and the Divine Spark within it +longs return whence it came. Having lost the secret of its true nature +and the way of return, it wanders in darkness, seeking and for most men +the way of retu rn is through the Western portal, the gateway of Death, +for so long as we are finite beings we cannot hope to comprehend the +Infinite. + +Yet there are some few exceptions to the general rule, who, while still +in the flesh, have a vision of the Divine splendour, are caught up in +it, and became one with God. To such men the return to ordinary mundane +existence seems unreal and shadowy. Where others believe in God they +Know Him, but it is almost impossible for them to convey to others the +experience through which they have gone. Yet that such experiences are +real, as real as any other fact in life, is attested by a long line of +witnesses right throughout the ages. + +To the average man, however, the first real step towards the realisation +of what constitutes God is through the portal of physical death; - but +even then the end is still far off. + +Hence the answer explaining how the true secrets came to be lost +indicates, not the cause of the loss, but the first step towards the +recovery, and this fact is borne out by the subsequent events in the +ceremony itself. + +Note, it is the body only that dies, and by its death enables the Soul +and Spirit to re-discover in part the secrets which were last. Yet this +death of the Body effectually debars the communication of these secrets +to the sorrowing F.C.'s left behind. It is the passing through that veil +which separates life and death which stars us on the road which ends +with God. + +It must never be forgotten, however, that the genuine secrets are never +recovered in the Craft, although symbolically we rise from the grave, +for that secret can only be discovered at or with the C.-i.e., with God. +To that exalted position we can only attain after long journeys through +the planes of existence beyond the grave. In our symbolism there is +nothing which indicates that immediately after death man is fit to pass +into the presence of the King of Kings. + +But the Divine Spark within us is never really separated from the Great +and All-Pervading Spirit. It is still part of it, though its glory is +dimmed by the veil of flesh. Therefore, just as one arm of the compasses +ever rests on the centre, no matter how far the other leg travels; so +however far we may travel from God, and however long and hard may be the +journey, the Divine Spark within us can never be truly separated from +Him, or err from that Centre. Thus the point of the Compasses at the +centre of the c ircle may be considered to be the Spirit, the head of +the Compasses the Soul, and the point on the circumference the body. + +So the task is set and the brethren go forth on the quest, that quest + which must lead through the darkness of death, as the ceremony that + follows tells in allegory. It is not correct to say that the search + hinted at in the Opening ceremony is suddenly abandoned, and those who + think this misinterpret the whole meaning of the legend. Never in + earthly life shall we find the answer we seek, nay, even death itself + will not give it; but, having passed beyond the grave, through the four + veils of the Scottish rite, and so into the H.R.A., we find an + excellent answer in allegorical and symbolical language, whilst the + jewel of the degree emphasises what the end of the quest is. + +Nor must it be forgotten that the body alone cannot realise the nature +of God, and that is why without the help of the other two, H.A.B. +neither could, nor would, disclose the S........t. + +The W.M.'s promise to help indicates that the Spirit will render +assistance, but though the Spirit subsequently raises man from the grave +it is not sufficiently evolved to give him the true secret. This can +only come about when the Spirit has raised the Soul to a far higher +stage of spirituality. + +Though this is the degree of Destruction, that form of the Trinity is +not invoked, and the title used corresponds more closely to the Hindu +name for the All-Embracing than to their form of the Destroyer. This no +doubt is deliberate, for the symbol of this degree is the same emblem +which among the Hindus denotes the Most High, namely the Circle with a +Point within it. + +In some Scotch rituals, after the Lodge has been opened in the first +degree the I.P.M., or the D.C., opens the V.S.L., and, strange to say, +does so with the words, "In the beginning was the Word." Similarly, when +the Lodge is closed in the first degree the book is closed with the +words, "And the word was with God." Here then we get two striking +features: 1) the use of words from the first chapter of the Gospel +according to St. John, and 2) their correlation with the phrase in the +Third Degree, "At, or with the C." This procedure suggests that the lost +W. is the Logos, or Christ, and remembering what we have previously +pointed out in the earlier books, i.e., that there is a perfectly +logical Christian interpretation of the whole of the Craft ceremonies, +this fact becomes of increasing significance. + +Before closing this chapter, I would like to add that the Third Degree +lends itself to a Christian interpretation even more markedly than the +former ones, and several of the higher degrees in Freemasonry adopt and +expand this line of teaching. + +In view of the fact that in the Middle Ages Freemasonry was undoubtedly +Christian, we cannot lightly reject this view of the inner meaning of +the ceremonies, but as the frame work of our ceremonies apparently goes +back before Christian times, a non-Christian interpretation is equally +permissible. + +CHAPTER III + +THE SYMBOLICAL JOURNEYS, ETC. + +The Can. is admitted on he C....... s, and this fact is of far greater +significance than most brethren probably realise. Firstly, as has been +noted, one arm of the C.s is always at the C., no matter how far the +other may travel, and from the point of view of the Can., though he +knows it not, this act in a sense indicates that his heart, and +therefore he himself, is at or on the C........e. Secondly, the C....s +in this degree link up with the Sq. used in the former degree on a +similar occasion. We have seen in the previous books that the Sq. and +C........s are united on the Ped. in such a way as to form the vesica +piscis, the emblem of the female principle, and the symbol of birth and +rebirth. Hence symbolically thc Can. passes through the vesica piscis. +Also after entering the Lodge in this, as in the previous degrees, he +kn....s while the blessing of Heaven is invoked, and as he does so the +wands of the deacons are crossed above his head. He thus kn........s in +a triangle, the emblem of Spirit, and itself co nnected with the +lozenge. Two equilateral triangles make a lozenge, which is produced +from the vesica piscis-formed by two circles, as shown by the first +proposition in Euclid. In view of the great stress laid upon Geometry +throughout the whole of our rituals these facts cannot be ignored. Our +Operative Brn. must have realised that the whole science of Geometry +arises out of this first proposition, which shows how to make a triangle +(the emblem of the Trinity and the Spirit) by means of two circles whose +ci rcumferences pass through the centre of each other. In doing so they +form the vesica piscis, which gives birth first of all to the triangle, +and secondly, to the double triangle, in the form of a lozenge. This +last emblem is symbolised by the sq., denoting matter, and the c...s, +denoting spirit. The above facts throw a flood of light upon the +interplay between these Masonic emblems. + +Before leaving this subject it is worth while pointing out that the Can. +likewise takes every Ob. in Craft masonry within this triangle, and that +the same method is employed in other ancient rites, including those of +the Society of Heaven and Earth in China, where the Can. kn...s on one +sword, while two others are held over his head so as to form a triangle +of steel. + +The Can. now starts on his three symbolical journeys. He first satisfies +the J.W., representing the Body, that he is an E.A., i.e., a man of good +moral character. He next satisfies the S.W., representing the Soul, that +he has benefited by the lessons of life and acquired intellectual +knowledge. Then comes the third journey, when he is once more challenged +by the Soul, who demands the P.W., the full significance of which has +already been explained. Let us combine these meanings! He comes laden +with worldly p ossessions, which in themselves carry the seeds of death, +unconsciously representing in his person the worker in metals who made +the twin colunms, and is about to be entombed. (tymboxein). + +Therefore the Soul presents him to the Spirit as one properly prepared +to carry out the part of his great predecessor. There is a point here +which we need to realise, for it is one which is often overlooked. In +the previous degrees only one Deacon was instructed to lead the Can. by +the proper S...ps to the E., but here both are needed. From the +practical point of view there is no obvious reason why the help of the +J.D. should be invoked at all, and as the ceremony is usually carried +out he does nothing but look on. I believe, however, the S.D. should +first go through the S...ps and the J.D., should assist the Can. to copy +his example. If thus were so we should get an almost exact repetition of +the analogous ceremony in the R.A. where the p.s., corresponding to the +S.D., is helped by an assistant. Thus, with the Can., in both cases we +get a Trinity, only one of whom actually descends into the g., or, in +the other case, into the v. As Major Sanderson has pointed out in An +Examination of the Masonic Ritual, among the primitive, races usually, a +man who stepped over an o.g. would be considered to have committed +sacrilege, and almost certainly would be slain, but, on the other hand, +we do know that in many Initiatory Rites either the Can., or someone +else for him, steps down into a gr., and is subsequently symbolically +sl...n therein. If this be the true interpretation of this part of the +ceremony, the reason for the presence of the two deacons in addition to +the Can. becomes clear. It is only the Body that descends into the clear +the Soul and the Spirit have no part therein. Thus, for the moment, +though only temporarily, these three represene the triune nature of man, +while the three principal officers represent the triune nature of God. +The fact that this is undoubtedly true in the case of the R.A., makes it +almost certain that the same idea underlies this apparently unimportant +diffirence between the arrangements in the third degree, an d those +followed in the first and second. + +Again and again when one comes to study carefully the details of our +ritual, one finds little points, such as these, which would certainly +not have survived the drastic revision of 1816 if there had not been +present some men who really did understand the inner meaning of our +ceremonies, and refused to allow important lessons to be lost by the +removal of what, at first sight, appear to be unnecessary details. + +Therefore, those of us who value the inner meaning of our ceremonies owe +a deep debt of gratitude to these men, even though their actual names be +unknown to us, and on our part a duty is imposed on us that we shall not +hastily tamper with the rituals, merely because we do not ourselves see +the full significance of a phrase or think that by revising it we can +make the wording run more smoothly. + +The next factor we must consider most carefuUy is the actual sp...s +themselves. These make the Latin cross of suffuring and sacrifice. + +Sometimes the sp..s are not done quite correctly, for the Can. should be +careful to face due North, due South, and due East respectively. This +procedure undoubtedly refers to the three entrances of the Temple +through which H.A.B. endeavoured to escape. Hence it is we see that the +Master himself trod out the cross of Calvary during the tragedy, and in +a sense made the Consecration Cross of the Temple. + +In a mediaeval church, and even to-day at the consecration of a church + according to the Anglican ordinance, there should be a dedication cross + marked on the building. In the Middle Ages these were usually marked on + the pillars, and apparently corresponded to the mark made by an + illiterate person when witnessing a deed. The Consecrating Bishop + sometimes drew this cross on the pillar or wall, or sometimes merely + traced over a cross already painted there for the purpose. Any new + piece of work in a church, even if only a new fresco, had its + dedication cross. For example :-At Chaldon Church, Surrey, the + dedication cross is marked on the margin of a fresco depicting The Brig + of Dread, described at length in Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods. + +Bearing these facts in mind, we shall perceive that, even from the +Operative point of view, the manner of advancing in this degree, and the +manner in which H.A.B. met his end, had a peculiar significance. The +Great Architect of the Temple must have traced the dedication cross the +whole length and breadth of the Temple in his own blood. Moreover, such +dedication crosses as have actually survived are nearly always found to +be painted in red. Thus, H.A.B.'s last work was, as it were, to commence +the consecrati on of the Temple which was completed by K.S., for until +that cross had been marked either on the wail or pavement, according to +mediaeval Operative ideas the building could not be consecrated. +Therefore, the Can., who is reenacting the same drama, must obviously do +likewise, and in so doing dedicates the Temple of his body. + +But there is still more hidden within this ceremonial act. The ancient +Knights Templar were accused of trampling on the cr., and a careful +examination of the evidence taken at the trial shows that in reality +they took a ritual sp., somewhat similar to those taken by the Can. in +this degree. + +One of the esoteric meanings indicated is the Way of the Cross which +leads to Calvary. Furhermore, having thus traced out a cr. he is +subsequendy laid on it, and this fact is emphasised by the position in +which his legs or feet are placed. The foot of this cr. reaches to the +Ped., on which rests the O.T. If, therefore, this symbolical cr. were +raised as it was on Calvary it would rest on the O.T., and the Can. +would face the E., and would be, as it were, on a mountain. This fact +should be borne in mind by t hose who seek a Christian interpretation of +our Craft ceremonies. Mystically interpreted, it indicates that every +aspirant for union with the Divine must tread the Way of the Cross, and +suffer and die thereon, in order that he may rise to a new life, a +realisation of his union with the Infinite. + +Even those who are disinclined to admit the possibility of a Christian +interpretatior, of the Craft degrees, must recognise the fact that this +cr. is the cr. of sacrifice and means that the true aspirant must be +prepared to sacrifice everything in his search after Truth. + +The number of the sp...s is the combination of the Trinity and of the +four elements, representing matter. It is the same number as forms the +perfect lodge, and also the seven elements which form man, whether we +interpret it according to the ancient Egyptian system, or in the more +modern form of the five physical senses, the Soul and the Spirit. In the +latter case it indicates that the man must be prepared to sacrifice, or +shall we say dedicate to God, Body, Soul and Spirit. + +There are yet other profound meanings in this one ritual act, but enough +has been written to set my readers pondering for themselves, and we will +therefore proceed to consider the next point in the ceremony. + +The Ob. itself contains one or two interesting points. Thus it indicates +that a M.M.'s Lodge must always be open on the C.. This shows us at once +that we are dealing with a ceremony with a mystical meaning, for the C. +means the same as the middle ch. in the second degree-the secret chamber +of the heart, where dwells the Divine Spark-and so tells us in veiled +language that all that happens thereafter is a spiritual experience, +which sooner or later comes to every mystic. The special moral +obligations which t he Can. undertakes should be noted, but require no +explanation. It is, however, difficult to understand why they should be +deferred until this stage. In the ancient charges similar obligations +are imposed apparently on the E.A., and this seems more logical. + +The Py. varies even in different parts of England, but in essentials is +always the same. You are s. at the c., and the manner of disposal is +very reminiscent of the way in which the dead are cremated in India in +honour of Shiva. There the corpse is burnt near running water, +preferably near the Ganges, and the ashes are thrown into the air over +the river to the four cardinal points, that the winds may scatter them. +It must be remembered that Shiva represents the destructive attribute of +the Diety and he make s the P.S. of a M.M. on his statues. His is the +element of fire, and all these facts must be born in mind when +considering our own Py. + +The position of the Sq. and Cs., in addition to the explanation given, +indicates that the spirit, represented by the Cs., now dominates the +body, typified by the Sq.. + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EXHORTATION + +The opening part of the exhortation gives a convenient summary of the +previous degress and quite clearly indicates that the first inner +meaning of the series is Birth, Life which is of course educational and +preparatory for its sequel, and Death. The phrase relating to the second +degree "And to trace it, from its devlopment through the paths of +Heavenly Science even to the throne of God Himself," shows plainly its +real significance. As pointed out in the F.C. Handbook, in the Mid. Ch. +the F.C. discovers no t only the name of God, but that he himself is the +fifth letter Shin which transforms the name Jehovah into the name +Jeheshue, or Messias, the King. + +But according to the old Kabala Jeheshue must be raised on the cross of +Tipareth, and the significance of this fact is impressed on our Can. by +the incidents now to take place. The average Christian need not trouble +about the subtleties of the Kabala, for the story in the New Testament +supplies him with a very similar interpretation. + +The W.M. having, almost casually, given him this key to the inner +meaning of what is about to follow, proceeds at once to the most +dramatic part of the ceremony. Up to this point almost all forms of our +ritual are practically the same, but henceforward there are many marked +differences. "Emulation" ritual may be regarded as containing the bare +minimum, but the additional details found in many Provincial workings in +England, and in Scotland, Ireland, America, and many of the Continental +Lodges, are too impor tant to be ignored. There is no reason to assume +that they are innovations; on the contrary all the evidence points to +the fact that they are integral parts of the ceremony which, for various +reasons, were omitted by the revisers of our ritual who met in the Lodge +of Reconciliation. I shall therefore proceed to note and explain them +where necessary. + +Whereas in Emulation working as soon as the Ws. are called on the +deacons retire, in most others, in the Provinces, etc., they fall back +to the head of the g.. Thus with the W.M. the W.s form the triangle of +Spirit, and with the D.s the Sq. of matter, on which the triangle rests, +for the M. descends from his chair and stands in front of the Ped.. As a +practical piece of advice I would recommend that the J.W. should not +direct the Can. to c. his f. until after the S.W. has dealt with him, +for it is impossibl e for him to drop on his respective k...s if his f. +are c., whereas by carrying out these instructions before the last +attack he will fall the more readily. + +In most of the old Scotch rituals the Can. journeys round the Lodge, is +attacked by the J.W. in the S., by the S.W. in the W. (note that), and +returns to the M. in the E., where the final incident takes place. I +think, however, our English system of having the attack in the N. +instead of in the W. is preferable, and is probably the correct form. In +the Scotch ritual the three villains have names, and the same is the +case in America. They are Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum. The word itself +clearly comes from th e Latin word meaning "To command," and refers to +the fact that they commanded him to give up the S....s. But the +terminations of the three names appear to have a curious esoteric +reference to India. It can hardly be by accident that these three names +form the mystic word AUM. The U in India in this case is pronounced +almost like O, and when this word is disguised, as it usually is, it is +written OMN. If this be so we have the Creative Preservative, and +Annihilative aspects of the Deity emphasised in the Thi rd Degree, and +it is the Destructive aspect, symbolised by the letter M, which deals +the final stroke. + +This variation is therefore of importance, but I must warn my readers +that not all Scotch workings have it, some of them being much more akin +to our own, even having the attack in the N.. Practically all of them, +however, have the perambulations, during which solemn music is played. +The usual procedure is for the brethren to pass round the gr. once +making the P. S. of an E.A.. When this is done the J.W. makes his +abortive attempt. The second round is made with the H. S. of an F.C., +after which the S.W. trie s and fails. The third round is made with the +S. of G. and D. of a M.M., on the conclusion of which the Can. is r... +by the lion's g.... It is a great pity that the use of this name for +the M. M.'s g. is falling into disuse in London, for it has in itself +important symbolical references, to which we shall refer later in the +chapter. + +In many parts of England it is still customary to place the Can., either + in a c----n or in a g. made in the floor, and the same method is found + in most other parts of tke world. Indeed, in the Dutch ritual the Can. + is first of all shown a c..n in which is a human skeleton. This is + subsequently removed, though he does not know it and he thinks when he + is laid therein he will find himself in its bony clutches. Even as near + London as Windsor there is a Masonic Temple which has a special chamber + of d. with a g. actually in the floor and until recently it was still + used although whether it is to-day I cannot say. + +Let us now turn to consider the meanings of the main incidents. The +first meaning of the degree is obvious; it prepares a man for his final +end and hints of a possibility of life beyond the grave but it must be +admitted that the lesson is not driven home with the same force as it is +in most of the ancient mysteries. Osiris Himself rose from the dead and +became the Judge of all who followed after Him, and because of this fact +His worshippers believed that they too would rise. In our legend, +however, it is on ly the dead body of H.A.B. which is lifted out ofthe +g. in a peculiar manner, and in the legend there is not even a hint as +to what befell his Soul. The question is often asked why they should +have raised a c..s and placed it on its feet. (1) + +(1) See Ward, Who Was Hiram Abiff? + +One explanation probably is, by analogy with the Greek story of the +manner in which Hercules recovered Alcestis and ransomed her from the +bondage of Thanatos-Death himself. We are told that Hercules wrestled +with Thanatos and would nor let him go until he had agreed to allow +Hercules to bring her back from the realm of the Shades to the land of +living men. It may be that the corpse here represents Death. It is also +worth noting that Isis joined together the fragments of the body of +Osiris, and the "Setting up" of the backbone of the God was a ceremony +carried out every year by the ancient Egyptian Priests. The body of +Osiris apparently was raised from the bier by Anubis in precisely the +same way as the M.M. is r.. When it was set on its feet life returned to +it. One fact is certain, that in every Rite which has as its central +theme symbolic d. the Can. is r. by the same g., and in precisely the +same manner, and this manner becomes a method of greeting and of +recognition among all who have passed through this type of ceremony. For +example :-it is known and used in the Dervish Rite, among West African +Negroes, among the Red Indians of Central America, and was apparently +known to the ancient Druids, for it is carved on a stone found at Iona. +In the ancient rites of Mithra it also appears to have been the method +used upon a similar occasion. These facts show that it is an ancient +landmark and one to be most carefully guarded. + +The use of the phrase The Lion Grip is peculiarly significant, as Major +Sanderson shows in his work, An Examination of the Masonic Ritual. +Therein he points out that in the Book of the Dead the Supreme God, +whether Ra or Osiris, is appealed to as the " God in the Lion form," and +in all such cases the prayer of the Soul is that he may be permitted to +" Come forth " in the East, rising with the sun from the d..s of the g.. +In Egypt the lion was the `personification of strength and power, but it +is usually ass ociated with the idea of the regeneration of the Sun, and +therefore with the resurrection. Major Anderson goes on to point out as +follows. "Shu (Anheru, `the Lifter') who as the light of the Dawn was +said to lift up the sky-goddess from the arms of the sleeping Earth, is +often represented as a lion, for only through him was the rebirth of the +Sun made possible. Osiris is called the lion of yesterday, and Ra the +Lion of tomorrow : the bier of Osiris is always represented as having +the head and legs of a lion ." Thus as Major Sanderson indicates, the +expression "the lion grip" is a survival from, the Solar cult, and +therefore a landmark which should be carefully preserved. + +The Bright Morning Star whose rising brings peace and Salvation, almost +certainly was originally Sirius, but to Englishmen it must seem strange +that Sirius should be said to bring peace and Salvation. The association +of these ideas with the Dog Star is undoubtedly a fragment which has +come down from Ancient Egypt, for the rising of Sirius marked the +beginning of the inundation of the Nite, which literally brought +salvation to the people of Egypt by irrigating the land and enabling it +to produce food. That S irius was an object of veneration to the +philosophers of the ancient world is well known to all archaeologists, +and many of the Temples in Egypt have been proved to have been oriented +on Sirius. There is also a good deal of evidence showing that some of +the stone circles in Great Britain were similarly oriented on Sirius by +the Druids. It is therefore not surprising that this star is still +remembered in our rituals. Naturally it has acquired a deeper spiritual +meaning in the course o f years, and may be rega rded as representing +the First Fruits of the Resurrection, the sure hope of our Redemption. +This aspect is set forth in the lectures drawn up by Dunckerley, who +regarded it as the star of Bethlehem, and as typifying Christ. See Rev. +xxii, 16. + +At this point the Can.. who has been carefully put in the N., the place +of darkness, is moved round by the right to the South. From the +practical point of view this is to enable the M. to re-enter his chair +from the proper side, but there is also an inner meaning. Immediately +after death the Soul is said to find itself on the earth plane amid murk +and darkness. Lacking mortal eyes, it cannot perceive the sun, and, on +the other hand, is still so immersed in matter that it cannot yet see +clearly with its spir it eyes; but this stage rapidly passes away, and +the Soul is received into a higher plane of existence, being brought +thither by messengers of Light. The position in the North represents +this period of darkness on the earth plane, and that this is not +accidental is shown by the fact that in most rituals the lights are not +turned up until the phrase "That bright morning star, etc." has been +uttered. Then the M., representing one of these spirit messengers, leads +the Can. gently round to the South, thereby sy mboling his entry into +the place of light. And who is this messenger? Every installed master +who has received the P.W. leading to the Chair should realise that, no +matter how unworthy, he represents the risen Christ. Thus we see the +peculiarly appropriate nature of the act coming after the reference to +the bright morning star, which also in another sense represents the +risen Christ. + + +CHAPTER V + +THE S....TS + +Having thus been brought into the place of light the Can. is given not +the Gen. Ss, but only substitued ones. This fact must often have puzzled +the Can.. The pratical reason given in the ritual, though perfecdy +inteligible to a R.A. mason, cannot be the real one. In view of the +unexpected calamity no-one could have thought K.S. was breaking his ob. +by nominating a successor to H.A.B. and giving him the full ss..ts. +Actually according to the R.A. story he did something much worse, for he +wrote them down and placed them somewhere, in the hopes that they would +be subsequently rediscovered, and he had no assurance that their +discoverers would even be masons, much less that they would keep their +discovery secret. Of course this is also an allegory, and from this +stand-point perfectly correct. The lost s...ts are the nature and +attributes of God, which must be realised by each man for himself, and +no other man can really communicate them. Moreover, this complete +realisation of the nature of God, and the union of th e Divine Spark +within us with the Source of All, can never be achieved during mortal +life. Even after death we shall need to leave the world long behind and +travel far, before we can hope to attain that state of spiritual +evolution which will enable us to approach the Holy of Holies, and gaze +with unveiled eyes upon Him, Who is the beginning and the end of all. + +With regard to these substituted s..ts. let us note that they grow out +of those used by the F.C.. Having already shown in the last book that +the sn.s of the F.C., and in fact the real s..t of that degree, is the +transformation of Jehovah into Jeheshue, + +we see that this is most appropriate. To use modern language, the second +degree teaches of the birth of the Christ Spirit within us, while the +third indicates that mystically we, like the great Master, must die and +rise again. As St. Paul says, " Die daily in Christ." + +The sn.s given are probably all of great antiquity. Of some we have +evidence which shows that they were venerated in ancient Egypt and +Mexico, are still employed in the primitive Initiatory Rites of the +savages, and are associated with the Gods in India. For example, the +P.S. is used by Shiva, the Great Destroyer, Who when He makes it, holds +in His hand the lariet of death. The sn. of G. and D. is found all round +the world, as I have shown in full detail in Sign Language of the +Ancient Mysteries. Ancient Me xico, where Quetzacoatl makes it, can be +matched with Easter Island in the far Pacific, Peru, West Africa, East +Africa, New Guinea, Malaya and many other places. + +Major Sanderson points out that the second Cas. Sn. is depicted in +Egyptian pictures as being used by those who are saluting Osiris in his +coffin. Those who desire will find it in Papyrus 9,908 in the British +Museum. + +The English sn. of g. and d. (for up till now we have been speaking of +the Scotch form) is almost certainly not the correct one. Its general +appearance would incline one to believe that it is a penal sn., though +whence derived it is difficult to say. A little thought will indicate +the nature of the penalty as being somewhat similar to that of one of +the higher degrees. So far as I can find it is not recognised as a sn. +of g. and d. to-day, except among masons who are descended masonically +from the Grand Lod ge of England, but in a picture by Guercino of Christ +cleansing the Temple, in the Palazzo Rosso, Crenoa, both this and the +Scotch form are shown, while the G. of H. constantly appears in +mediaeval paintings, e.g., in the Raising of Lazarus. (1) + +The so-called Continental form undoubtedly comes from a well known high +degree, where it is much more appropriate: it is apparently restricted +to the Latin countries, whereas even in Germany it is the Scotch form +that is employed. + +The sn. of Exul. is a form used to this day in of Asia to indicate +worship, and was similarly employed in Ancient Egypt. Major Sanderson +suggests that it was copied from the position in which Shu upheld the +sky. + +Thus we see that six out of the so-called seven sn.s can be shown to be +of ancient origin, and it is quite probable that further research will +enable us to prove that the other one is equally old. Such sn.s as these +originally had a magical significance, and the explanation given in the +ritual as to their + + +(1) see The Sign Language of the Mysteries by Ward. + + +origin is no doubt of a much later date than the sn.s themselves. +Indeed, a careful study of certain of the sn.s will show that they are +not the natural sn.s which would have been used to indicate the feeling +they are said to express. For example, in the sn. of h...r the left hand +would not naturally be placed in the position in which we are taught to +put it, if this sn. had originated as related in. the story. So obvious +is this that some modern preceptors of Lodges of Instruction have to my +knowledge alte red the position of the left hand in order to make it +conform to the story, but I venture to think that in so doing they are +committing a very serious mistake, nothing less than the removal of an +ancient landnrark. + +Some day we shall probably discover the real origin of this sn., but if +it is altered that will of course become impossible. + +The lion's grip and the actual position of r..s...g are equally old, +and, so far as we can find, this manner of r..s...g is employed in every +rite, whether ancient or primitive, which deals with the dramatic +representation of d.. As a manner of greeting it is employed by the +initiated men in many Red Indian Trihes, in West Africa, among the +Senussi in North Africa, and in the Dervish Rites. (1) + +The parts of the b. brought in contact with each other are all parts +presided over by some sign of the Zodiac, and there would appear to be +some old astrological meaning which has now become lost. It may possibly +have been connected with Gemini, the Twins, and this fact is made the +more probable by the survival of the name "The Ln's Gr." The explanation +given, although possibly of a fairly recent origin, nevertheless +contains a valuable inner meaning, for it shows that we cannot hope to +advance towards God unless we do our duty to our fellow men. Thus in +dramatic form is shown that the brotherhood of man necessitates the +Fatherhood of God. + +It hardly seems necessary in this book to point out again that the +regular st. forms a tau cross and teaches us that we must trample under +foot our animal passions, if we desire to approach near to God. We note, +however, that the Can., in advancing to obtain the s..ts, has perforce +to make three tau crosses, and the Christian Mystic will + +(1) For further explanation see Ward, Who Was Hiram Abiff? + +doubtless perceive in this a hidden reference to the three crosses on +Calvary. + +Finally, as has already been pointed out, the penalties of the first and +second degrees draw attention to two important occult centres, and so +also in this degree the Solar Plexus, the most important occult centre +of all, is indicated, and since the object of every Mystic is to achieve +the Beatific vision, the fact that the monks of Mt. Athos, near +Salonica, do so by fixing their eye on this part, shows that there is a +very special reason for the special form of the p.s of the third degree. + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BADGE + +On his re-entering the Lodge the Can. is presented, and in due course +invested by the S.W., as in the previous degrees, thereby indicating +that even after death man's spiritual advancement is registered by the +Soul. The Badge itself, however, is full of symbolic meaning, and though +in its present form it is of comparatively recent date, it is evident +that those who designed it had a much deeper knowledge of symbolism than +some modern critits are apt to believe. + +Firstly, the colour, which is that of Cambridge University, and likewise +that used by Parliament when fighting King Charles, has a much deeper +significance than is generally known. It is closely related to the +colour of the Virgin Mary, which itself had been brought forward from +Isis and the other Mother Goddesses of the ancient world. It is possible +that the designers were also influenced by the existence of certain +Orders of Knighthood which had their appropriate colours, for the aprons +of Grand Lodge Off icers have Garter blue, but this blue is also the +colour of Oxford, and the colour associated with the Royalist cause at +the time of the Civil War. At any rate, it is appropriate that our +aprons should thus employ the colours of the two great Universities of +England. There is, of course, an exception in the case of the red aprons +allocated to Grand Stewarts, for which there are historical reasons into +which we need not now enter. We may, however point out that the dark +blue aprons of Gran d Lodge are often, though erroneously, spoken of as +the Purple, indicating a Royal colour, and thereby implying no doubt +that Brn. entitled to wear this colour are rulers in the Craft, and +represent the masculine element. Light blue, on the other hand, +represents the feminine or passive aspect, and is most appropriate for +the ordinary M.M., whose duty it is to obey, and not to command. Indeed, +the M.M.'s apron contain: other emblems which indicate this feminine +aspect. These are the thre e rosettes, which symbolise the rose, i tself +a substitute for the Vesica Piscis, and they are arranged so as to form +a triangle with the point upwards, interpenetrating the triangle formed +by the flap of the apron. The two triangles only interpenetrate half +way, therein differing from the double triangles seen on the jewels worn +by R. A. Masons, which completely overlap. These two triangles deserve a +little careful study. The lower triangle with its point upwards is the +triangle of fire, the emblem of Shiva, and the symbol of the Divine +Spark. T he triangle made by the flap of the apron, which has its point +directed downwards, is the triangle of water, and is thus to some extent +representative of the Soul. These two triangles are within a sq., the +emblem of matter, and therefore of the body, and so we see that the +M.M.'s apron symbolically represents the triune nature of man, whereas +the R.A. jewel, (the only high degree jewel which may be worn in a Craft +Lodge) has these two triangles within a circle, which is the emblem of +the Infinite. In this c ase the triangle of water presents the +preservative aspect, the triangle of fire, the destructive aspect, the +point or eye at the centre, the creative aspect, and the circle, the +everlasting nature of the Supreme Being. There is therefore a curious +correspondence, and also a marked difference, between the jewel of the +R.A. Mason, and the apron of the M.M.. + +Viewed from another standpoint the apron has another set of meanings. +The triangle represents Spirit, and the Sq., matter. The flap forms a +triangle entering into the sq., and so depicts the entry of Spirit into +matter, and therefore, man. The E.A.'s apron should have the flap +pointing upward, indicating that the Divine Wisdom has not yet truly +penetrated the gross matter of our bodies. This custom is unfortunately +going out of use in modern Masonry, which is a great pity, as +undoubtedly a valuable lesson i s thus lost. The F.C. has the flap +pointing downward for several reasons. Firstly, to indicate that wisdom +has begun to enter and therefore to control matter; secondly, to +represent the triangle of water and thus indicate that Soul and Body are +acting in unison; thirdly, because this triangle is the emblem of Vishnu +the Preserver, and so emphasises - the fact that the aspect of God +taught in this degree is the preservative aspect, whereas the addition +of the three rosettes in the third degree shows, not onl y the union of +Body, Soul and Spirit, but also that the great lesson of this degree is +the importance of the Destructive side of the Diety, or as we may prefer +to tall it, the Transformative side. + +What, however, of the two rosettes worn by the F.C.? Firstly, they + stress the dual nature of man, and have a very clear reference to the + two p...rs. Similarly, no doubt, they indicate that the F.C. is not yet + a complete and united being ; Body and Soul are in union, but unlike + the M.M., these two are not in complete accord with the Spirit. Thus we + obtain a correspondence between the knocks of the F.C. and the two + rosettes. Furthermore, the triangle is incomplete, showring that the + F.C. is not yet a complete F.M., and this correlates with the position + of the C.s when taking the ob. in the F. C. degree. + +Two other features of the apron must also be considered. Firstly, the +tassels, which appear originally to have been the ends of the string +with which the apron was bound round the waist. There is little doubt +that in the 18th century the aprons had not the present symbolic +tassels, but were fastened round the body in a very similar way to that +in which the E.A. and F.C. aprons are to this day. It is interesting to +note in this connection that the actual aprons worn by the officers of +Grand Lodge for the yea r, as distinct from the Past Grand Officers' +aprons, have no tassels at all. + +In the course of years, no doubt, the ends of the strings were +ornamented by tassels, and to this day the aprons of the Royal Order of +Scotland are bounmd round the body by an ornamental cord with tassels, +which are tied in front in such a way that the two tassels stick out +from underneath the flap. These tassels, when the final form of our +aprons was fixed, were separated from the bands which fasten the apron, +and attached to the apron itself, becoming as we now see simply strips +of ribbon on which are fas tened seven chains. When this change took +place it is clear that those who made the alteration deliberately chose +the number 7, and intended thereby to convey a symbolic meaning. We have +already explained the numerous symbolic meanings of the number 7; for +example, it represents God and Man, Spirit and Matter, etc. + +Naturally they had to have two tassels to balance, and it would have + been very inartistic to have had four chains on one tassel and three on + the other, and so it would be unwise to lay too much stress on the + number 14, which is the sum total. We may regard it merely as a curious + and interesting coincidence that the body of Osiris was stated to have + been divided by Set into 14 pieces. But in addition to these details as + to the historical development of the tassels, we must not forget that + in many of the 18th century aprons the two p....rs are depicted. These + aprons were usually decorated by paintings on the leather, and varied + considerably from Lodge to Lodge, but one of the most usual kinds of + decoration included the two p..rs, and the remembrance of these may + very probably have influenced those who designed our present apron. + +The modern arrangement by which the apron is fastened, namely, a piece +of webbing with a hook and eye attachment, gave a fine opportunity for +some really profound symbolism, and I feel certain that it was not an +accident which led to the universal adoption of the snake to serve this +purpose. + +There are two kinds of symbolism attached to the snake in all ancient +religions. Firstly, the snake as the enemy of man, and therefore as the +representative of the powers of evil; and secondly the snake as emblem +of the Divine Wisdom. " Be ye wise as serpents" does not refer to the +craftiness of the Devil, but to the Divine Wisdom itself. + +In Ancient Egypt the Soul as he passed through the Underworld met with + serpents of evil, and also with serpents of good. In India, legend + tells us of a whole order of beings, the Serpent Folk, who are of a + Spiritual nature different from man, possessed their own rulers, and + were endowed with superhuman wisdom. Some of these are considered to be + friendly to man, while others are hostile. The Sacred Cobra is well + known to every student of Hindu religions, and is essentially good. + Actual worship is paid to the Serpent throughout the whole of India, + and in many other parts of the world, and in the Kapala we get clear + traces of the fact that under certain circumstances the serpent is + regarded as "The Shining One" -the Holy Wisdom Itself. Thus we see that + the serpent on our apron denotes that we are encircled by the Holy + Wisdom. + +Finally, the serpent biting its tail, and thus forming a circle, has +always been regarded as the emblem of eternity, and more especially of +the Eternal Wisdom of God. Nor must we forget that the snake is +peculiarly associated with Shiva, whose close symbolic association with +the third degree has already been clearly shown. + +Much more might be written on the meaning of the apron, but we cannot + devote any more space to this subject, interesting though it may be, + although before considering our next point it will perhaps be well to + recall what has already been mentioned in the E.A. handbook, viz., that + aprons, in addition to their Operative significance, have right through + the ages been employed in connection with religious ceremonial. On the + monuments of Egypt a garment, which can best be described as a + triangular apron with the point upward, is depicted in circumstances + indicating that the wearer is taking part in some kind of ceremony of + initiation. In ancient Mexico the Gods are depicted wearing aprons, and + it is not without interest to note that the modern Anglican bishop + wears an apron, although it appears to have developed from a long + flowing robe somewhat the shape of a cassock. + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LEGEND + +After the ceremonial investiture of the Cand. the W.M. continues the +narrative of the traditional history. At least this is the case in most +English workings, but in some Scotch workings the whole story is told +first, and subsequently the Cand. and the other Brn. act the chief +parts. Perhaps one of the most important points to realise is the +correct meaning of the name H.A.B. . Major Sanderson in An Examination +of the Masonic Ritual gives the following interesting interpretations, +which we will proceed to e xpand further.-" The title H.A.B. is taken +direct from the Hebrew of 2 Chron., Chapter 4, verse 16., and means, ` +H. His father.' H. means 'Exaltation of light, their liberty or +whiteness, he that destroys'; It is of interest to note that abib in +Hebrew means `Ears of corn,' or `Green fruits,' and there is just a +possibility that this is the correct title of H." + +Bearing these translations in mind we at once perceive a whole series of +inner meanings hidden in the name of the principal Architect. Taking the +Christian interpretation of our rituals :-firstly, we shall remember +that Christ said " If I am raised up (or exalted) I shall draw all men +unto me." Secondly, Christ died to make us free, that is, to give us +liberty from the bonds of death and hell. Thirdly, mediaeval divines +were never tired of referring to Christ's whiteness and purity, and +relate many beautifu l legends and allegories to drive home this lesson. +One phrase alone will suffice to bring this aspect of the Christ to our +minds, i.e. , that He is constantly spoken of as " the lily of the +valley." Fourthly, He came to destroy the bonds of death and hell, nor +must we forget the old prophecy spoken concerning the coming Christ and +the serpent, representing Satan, " It (Christ) shall bruise thy head, +and thou shalt bruise His heel," Gen. 3. v. 15. It is of interest to +note that Quetzaco atl, the Mexican Pres erver, who fought and overthrew +the great giant of evil, was himself smitten in the foot, near to a fall +of water, subsequently died from the wound, and ultimately rose again +from the grave. In India Krishna similarly died from an arrow wound in +the heel. Moreover, in mediaeval frescoes Christ is constantly +represented as crushing the head of the great dragon under His left +foot, while in His right hand He upraises a staff on which is a cross. +Such scenes are usually described as " The Harrowing of Hell." + +Fifthly, if the word abib is the correct rendering for the second half +of the name in question, we get a clear reference to the Sacramental +bread. The ears of corn are obviously synonymous with the wafer or +consecrated bread, which in mediaeval days alone was given to the laity: +while the alternative translation, "Green Fruits," brings to our mind +the Biblical saying that Christ is "the first fruits of them that slept" +(1 Corin, 15. 20). Bearing this possible Christian interpretation in +mind, installed mast ers will perceive the deep significance of the P.W. +which leads from the degree of M.M. to that of I.M. + +But in addition to these Christian interpretations of H.A.B. there was +yet another, which in some senses may be regarded as older, and the key +to which is supplied by India. In this sense H.A.B. takes on the +characteristics of Shiva, the Destroyer. + + +Firstly, "Exaltation of life" reminds us of the legend that Shiva on a +certain day increased in stature until He overtopped the universe, and, +as a result, overthrew Brahma, the Creator, and was ackowledged by +Vishnu as His superior. On that great day He gathered unto Himself the +beginning and the end of all things, Alpha and Omega, and henceforth +birth and death alike were in His hands. + +Secondly, "Their liberty" refers to the fact that, to the pious Hindu, +Shiva by death grants liberty from the toil and anguish of this world, +and sets the soul free to mount to greater heights of spiriruality. + +Thirdly, Shiva is always spoken of as the "Great White God, white with +the ashes of the dead who are ever burned in His honour." Nor must we +forget that these ashes are always scattered to the four cardinal points +of Heaven. + +Fourthly, He is in His very essence " The Great Destroyer." + +The "Ears of corn" are symbols of Vishnu the Preserver, Who Himself, +according to numerous Hindu legends, was slain and rose from the dead, +thereby paying allegiance to the Lord of Death ; and so: + +Fifthly, we obtain the idea of the Resurrection as symbolised by the +ears of corn, which are planted in the earth and bring forth an abundant +harvest, the "Green fruits" of the fields. In this connection it is as +well to remember that the central theme of the Eleusinian Mysteries was +the ear of corn which was shown to the Cand. at the most solemn point of +the whole ceremony, and similarly taught the doctrine of the +resurrection from the dead. + +The next point that strikes us in the legend is the number of craftsmen +who "went in search." The Irish version is of peculiar interest, for it +relates that it was the twelve who relented who afterwards "went in +search," and not a new company of ffiteen. In many ways this is more +logical, and certainly has a deep symbolic meaning. It is logical in +that it shows that the penitent twelve did their best to make amends for +ever having allowed themselves to listen to the wicked schemes of the +other three, and the subsequent decree of K.S., ordering them to wear +white gloves and white aprons as a mark of their innocence, is most +appropriate. It was a public announcement that K.S. forgave them their +indiscretion and acquitted them of responsibility for the crime. + +On the other hand, in our version there seems no logical reason why K.S. +should order an entirely new batch of F.C.'s to wear these emblems of +their innocence, since they clearly had nothing to do with the crime, +and moreover, all the others, except the penitent twelve, were equally +innocent, and should therefore likewise have been instructed to wear +white gloves and aprons. It must be remembered that these white gloves, +etc., were not bestowed as a reward for having taken part in the search, +but are specif ically stated to have been ordered to be worn to denote +innocence. + +The Irish account goes on to state that the twelve set out from the +Temple and went together in one company until they came to a place where +four roads met, and formed a cross; then they divided into four +companies, and three went North, three East, three South, and three +West. Thus they trod the Way of the Cross. In some old Irish workings we +are told that the three who went North never returned. This symbolically +implies that they went into the Place of Darkness. As the tendency in +modern Irish masonry ap pears to be to adjust its ritual in main +essentials to our English workings, it is but fair that I should say +that I have a tangible proof of this form of legend, in the shape of an +old Irish apron dated 1790, which, unlike modern Irish aprons, has a +number of paintings on it depicting incidents in the ritual. One of the +paintings shows the twelve F.C.'s separating at the four cross roads. +(See frontispiece). + +It is clear from all accounts, whether English, Irish, Scotch or +American, that the scoundrels, the agents of death, were found by those +who went in the direction of Joppa, that is in the W., but we are left +in considerable doubt as to whether the b. was found in the E. or in the +S.. Symbolically, however, it would clearly be in the S., for H.A.B., +like the Christ, was struck down at High Twelve, when the sun is in the +S.. From a practical point of view it is fairly obvious that the +scoundrels who were carrying away the b. could never have reached Joppa +if they had once gone E., for they would have had to fetch half a circle +round Jerusalem, a procedure which would have rendered their chance of +escape almost hopeless. By going S. they might hope to throw their +pursuers off the track, and then turn back at an angle, reach Joppa, and +escape by boat. That this was their intention is clear from many old +forms of the legend, and especially in those worked in America. King S., +however, foresaw this possibility and prevented their escape by +forbidding any ships to sail. In the American working one of the +officers of the Lodge enacts the part of a sea captain, and even wears a +yachtman's cap. The villains come t o him and beg him to take them +aboard, but he refused because of the embargo ordered by K.S.. That the +same incident was known in the old Irish working is shown by the little +picture on the same Irish apron depicting the arrest of the villains on +the sea shore, for in the back ground there is a ship. + +Let us interpret the meaning of the Irish working first. From the +Christian standpoint the twelve F.C's represent the twelve apostles, +Mathias replacing the traitor Judas. But in the non-Christian, and +possibly earlier interpretation, these twelve would of course be the +twelve signs of the Zodiac, searching for the sun which had been +eclipsed. We must never forget that in addition to the deep spiritual +meaning hidden in our ritual there is also a Solar Myth embedded, which +has in the course of years become allegorized and filled with deeper +spiritual truths. + +But being English masons we must be prepared to find an explanation of +the fifteen. In ancient Egyptian times the month consisted of 30 days, +and the year of twelve such months, plus five extra days. Now the first +fifteen, of whom twelve recanted, presumably represent the first half of +that month, while the second half of the month is represented by the +fifteen who went in search. But spiritually the meaning of the fifteen +is fairly clear. Man has five senses and is triune in nature, and thus +implies that B ody, Soul and Spirit must cooperate in trying to find +God, and employ on that quest their five senses. + +Lest there be any misapprehension here I would explain that man is + considered to have not only the five physical senses, but also + corresponding senses of Soul and Spirit. The phrase "To see with the + eyes of the Spirit" is perfectly well known, and similarly we can speak + of the eyes of the Soul. To give concrete examples :-Students of + psychic science constantly speak of clairaudience and clairvoyance. + While it is not necessary to accept this type of phenomena, it is + clearly obvious that if man survives death at all his Soul must have a + means of communicating with other Souls and that these correspond in + some way to our physical senses. In like manner how are we to describe + the visions of the great seers and prophets, related in the Bible, + except by the possession of spiritual sight ? + +Bearing this in mind, we obtain the following interpretation of the fate +which befell the three F.C. Lodges into which the fifteen formed +themselves. Those who found nothing represent the physical senses of +man, which are useless beyond the grave : the next company must +therefore represent the Soul, for despite the logic of the physical +world, it is the Soul which realises that death does not end all, and so +it was one of these who r...d the M But the power which tells us what is +right and wrong, and which ultimately punishes us for our offences, is +what we call conscience, and thus assuredly is the Divine Spark within +us-the Spirit. + +Let us now turn to consider the details connected with the dlscovery of +the body. The incident of the shrub is such a striking analogy with a +similar one found in AEneid, wherein AEneas finds the body of the +murdered Polydorus by plucking up a shrub which is near him on the side +of a hill, that some students suggest that in the revision of our ritual +this incident was copied from Virgil. But, in Who was Hiram Abiff, I +show that both refer back to an ancient source and have an allegorical +meaning. One proof supporting this view; is that this particular tree, +the Acacia, has from time immemorial been more or less sacred in the +near East. In ancient Egypt the earliest forms of the legend of Osiris +relate that it was an acacia which grew up round the coffin of Osiris, +and not a tamarisk as in the later versions. (See An Examination of the +Masonic Ritual, by Major Sanderson). In like manner this tree is sacred +in Arabia, India, and many parts of Africa, while it is the Shittim wood +of the Old Te stament, from which the ark was made. No doubt in this +reverence for the acacia we have a survival of the primitive veneration +for trees, usually spoken of as "tree and serpent worship." In India the +assouata tree is stated to be a symbol of Trimurti, The Three in One. +Its roots represent Brahma, its trunk Vishnu, and its branches Shiva, +the Destroyer. + +At any rate we can regard the acacia tree as in itself an emblem of the +resurrection, for the tiny seed which is buried brings forth a mighty +tree, covered with fragrant blossoms. + +The account of the manner in which the Cas. S...s came into existence, +though ingenious, can hardly be taken as historic. As we have already +dealt with this point previously, we shall only say that every folk-lore +student is well aware that, in the vast majority of cases, legends +purporting to explain the origin of a certain custom do not give the +real origin at all, but merely indicate that the origin of the custom +has been lost, owing to its great antiquity. The very manner in which +some of the S..s are g iven is sufficient to indicate that they did not +originate in the way suggested, while, on the other hand, we find these +same S...s all round the world, with entirely different explanations as +to their origin. They are indeed ancient landmarks, and the utmost care +should be taken not to alter them in any way. + +The next incident in the legend is the capture of the scoundrels. In +some rituals it is given with much interesting detail of a picturesque +nature. All agree that they were apprehended in a tavern, and many say +explicidy that it was near the sea shore. Some of the rituals state that +the fugitives were overheard lamenting as follows:- "One said, 'Oh, that +my t. had been c.a. rather than I should have done it;' while another +more sorrowfully exclaimed, `Oh, that my h...t had been t.o. rather than +that I shoul d have struck him;' and a third voice brokenly said, `Oh, +that my b. had been s. in t. rather than that I should have smitten +him,' " This last version is of interest as explaining the legendary +origin of the py. of the three degrees, and incidentally it shows how +legend incorporates facts into a story, in order to explain something +whose original meaning is lost. It would also appear from this version +as if the scoundrels had not intended to actually kill their victim but +merely to terrorise h im, and in th e excitement of the moment lost +their heads. Symbolically this contains a valuable piece of teaching. +According to one interpretation the three scoundrels represent "The lust +of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John, +2. 16). In other words, the sins of the flesh, the sins of the Soul, +such as covetousness, and spiritual pride, the most deadly of all. + +These sins assuredly destroy man both physically and spiritually, yet it +can truly be said that in giving way to them no man intends to destroy +himself. From the more strictly Christian standpoint the three +scoundrels are Herod, Caiaphas, and Pontius Pilate, and it is perfectly +clear that Pilate and Herod, at any rate, did not wish to kill our Lord; +but were caught in a position from which they found it impossible to +escape. + +Returning to the deeper mystical interpretation we notice that the + scoundrels were found in the West, the region of Death, which teaches + us that the just retribution for all our sins, whether of body, soul, + or spirit, will overtake us after death, and that though in one sense + it is God, here shadowed forth by K.S., who punishes, yet in another + sense it is our five spiritual faculties which themselves rise up in + judgment against us. We ourselves, doom ourselves, and therefore we can + obtain nothing but strict justice. + +Without pretending that we have exhausted this subject, this brief +explanation of the true character of the scoundrels and their captors +must suffice, and we will only mention in passing that here also there +appears to be a half forgotten astrological reference to the three +winter months which oppress the sun. + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TRACING BOARD, ETC. + +The next part of the narrative is incorporated in most English workings +with the Tracing Board. The most interesting feature is the description +of the g.. It is obvious that peculiar stress is laid on the centre, +even in the present form of our ritual, because of the way in which the +measurements are given. Why should it not have been said that it was six +feet long? In some old rituals the g.. or rather the monument, is +described as a dome, which made a complete circle at its base, and was +three feet from t he centre every way. If so it must have been like a +small replica of the earliest form of the Buddhist Pagoda, and the +Master was thus buried at the centre. In that case the top of the dome +would have been five feet from the surface of the ground, and we should +thus get the correct symbolic use of 5 as representing the body, and 3 +as representing the spirit, while enabling the human body to be +decorously interred. It seems probably that when the g.. was made to +conform to the type familiar in England, a des perate effort was made to +retain the 3 and 5. It is worth noting that there is no mention of the +use of any c...f...n, despite the picture on the tracing board, and if a +c...f....n had been used at the supposed date of the incident it +certainly would not have been of the European shape depicted, but much +more like an Egyptian Sarcophagus. Nevertheless, though the ritual does +not justify the existence of any c..f....n on the tracing board, it was +an integral par t of the ancient mysteries of Osiris, and its r etention +in other ritual is almost certainly an ancient landmark. On the same +tracing board may be seen certain letters in the Masonic cypher, which +are practically never explained. Very often when transliterated, among +other things, they will be found to give the P.W. leading to the three +degree. This fact is of interest, for the true meaning of that W., as +already explained, is a w...k...r in m...ls, the correct description of +H.A.B. The fact that he was buried as near the Sanctum Sanctortum as +possible, symbolically denotes that he had reached the centre, and was +in union with the Source of All. + +The Dormer window historically is the hypostyle, the method by which + Egyptian and classical temples obtained light. The pillars of the + central nave of such temples rose considerably higher than the roofs of + the aisles, thus leaving openings through which the light could enter + the building. These, however, were many in number, and it is difficult + to justify the apparent statement that there was only one such opening. + Symbolically it is intended to represent the means by which the Divine + Light penetrates into the deepest recesses of every man's nature. + +The squared pavement has already been explained under the section +dealing with the mosaic pavement, in the first degree, and our readers +are therefore referred to it. Briefly, it indicates that man's progress +towards the centre is through alternate experiences of good and evil, +darkness and light, mercy and severity, life and death. + +The Porch which is the entrance to the Sanctum Sanctorum is the gateway +of death. + +The working tools, "as in other cases, contain much sound moral teaching +of typical 18th Century work, but there is one implement which deserves +rather more than passing attention. For what follows I must express my +indedtedness to W. Bro. Sir John Cockburn, P.G.D. The s..k...t does not +appear to be much in use among Operative masons. It is used by +gardeners, but the Operative mason has other means for marking out the +ground for the foundations. This implement has more than a superficial +resemblance to the Caduceus of Mercury, and Sir John Cockburn suggests +that it has been employed to replace this "Heathen" emblem. For my part, +I think this is most probable, for it is clear that at the beginning of +the 19th century a deliberate attempt was made to eliminate this emblem +from our ceremonies. The jewel of the Deacons in the 18th century was +not a dove, but a figure of Mercury, bearing the Caduceus. A number of +these old jewels can be seen in the library of Grand Lodge, and there +are still a f ew old Lodges which continue to use them, instead of the +modern jewel. Now this jewel is far more appropriate to the Deacons than +is a dove. A dove is the emblem of peace and a carrier pigeon bears +messages, but neither of these birds do all the work of the Deacons. +Mercury, however, was the Messenger of the Gods, and carried the +instructions of Jupiter, thus fulfilling one set of the duties of a +deacon. He was also the conductor of souls through the underworld; +taking the dead by one hand, a nd uplifting the Caduceus in the o ther, +he led the Shade from the grave, through the perils of the underworld, +to the Elysian Fields; before his Caduceus the powers of evil fled. In +mediaeval escatology it is Christ who leads the Souls on a similar +journey, uplifting in His Hand the Cross of Salvation. Even to-day the +jewels of the Deacons in a Mark Lodge bear the Caduceus, a mute but +convincing witness to the use of this emblem in Freemasonry. + +We can thus see that on the one hand a deliberate effort was made to + delete from our ceremonies the Caduceus, probably because it was + considered to be Pagan, while on the other hand it was clearly quite + easy for ignorant masonic furnishers, in the course of years, to make + the Caduceus approximate more and more to a masonic tool, so as to fit + it in with other avowedly masonic implemens. As a masonic tool it has + very little significance, even to a Speculative, and is of no practical + value to an Operative, but the Caduceus would be peculiarly appropriate + to the third degree. In short, it is an ancient landmark, an emblem of + the dead and forgotten Mysteries, and symbolical of Him who leads the + soul from the darkness of the grave to the light of the resurrection. + +Before leaving the M.M. degree let me say to all installed masters that +if they have received the P.W., not the W. of an Installed master, but +the P.W. leading from the M.M. to that further degree, they will find in +it evidence not of a mere hint of the resurrection, but of the +Resurrection itself, and a close association with the version of that +doctrine set forth in the life of the Perfect Master. + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CLOSING + +Here we are reminded that we are working in symbolism, for we come back +from the West, i.e., the grave, to this material world. But we have only +obtained substitutes, and we offer them as some consolation to the +spirit, i.e., the W.M. The advance to the centre of the room is an +obvious reference to the other centre. The s...s are communicated by the +body to the soul, which passes them on to the spirit. The meaning of +these s....s is dealt with in the ceremony, but it is worth noting that +the word shows clea rly that the s....t is to be found only through the +death of the body. The actual Hebrew word whose corrupt form we use +really means " My son is slain." It is also well to remember that the +p.s. and the s. of G.& D. (Scottish form) are, old signs which come down +from the ancient mysteries, and are still found throughout the world. A +brief summary of that has already been said may be helpful. The p.s. is +often associated with Shiva, the Destroyer, and is also found +appropriately used at B urobudor in Java; it refers to that occult +centre, the solar plexus. In view of what the lost s...t is, this sign +is therefore most significant. In other words, it is a hint to those who +deserve to know while it conceals from those who do not. + +The Scottish sign of G. & D. is found all round the world, and always + has the same meaning of an appeal for heIp. It is used in the most + primitive initiatory rites of a boy into manhood, and in Kenya the boy + takes it to indicate that he is ready for the operation of circumcision + to begin. In Nyasaland, among the Yaos, it is associated with a grave, + and in Mexico the Preserver is shown making it. He was slain and rose + from the dead, and it is constantly found in Mexico in the form of a + carving, consisting of a skeleton cut in half at the centre and making + this sign, as, for example, at the Temple of Uxmal. + +The manner of communicating the s..s and the gr. are equally old. +Indeed, the lion's grip appears to be the grip of all the Mysteries. It +was the Grip of Mithra, and by this grip Osiris was raised. Among the +Druids it was also known, as is shown by a carving at Iona. I have, +however, gone into the evidence for the antiquity of our signs so fully +that I will not take up further space here. + +We may as well add, however, that the number "5" no doubt refers to the +five senses of man, just as the seven steps remind us of the Egyptian +sub-division of every mortal. + +Having received the sub. s...s the W.M., or Spirit, confirms their use +till the true ones are discovered. This last remark indicates that the +quest is not ended or abandoned, in reality it has just begun; the first +stage only has been passed, which stage is death. It also tells every +Craft Mason that he a good craftsman till he has at least taken the +Royal Arch. + +Thus the spirit acknowledges that death is a step forward. It has freed +the soul of the trammels imposed on it by the body, and so our life's +work on earth, as symbolised in the Lodge, is closed. The knocks +indicate that the spirit now dominates the soul and body and before we +leave these heights it is well to point out that almost all the great +religious teachers have taught that in some mysterious way this physical +body will be transformed, and still be used after death. In short, that +matter, as well as spirit, is part of God. Science has shown that matter +is indestructable, though its form may be changed completely, and so +even after the symbolical death and resurrection, three knocks are still +required. + +CHAPTER X + +CONCLUSION + +This then concludes the third degree. More than any other degree in +Craft Masonry it has embedded in it ancient landmarks, brought down from +a long distant past. Under the surface lie hidden, meanings within +meanings, which I make no pretence to have exhausted. Already this book +has exceeded in length either of the two previous ones, but to do full +justice to the sublime degree one would require a volume four times as +large as this. I trust, however, that I have given some help, more +especially to younger b rethren, which will aid them to glimpse the +deeper side of Freemasonry. If they too will strive to discover further +alternative meanings, I shall feel this labour of mine has been well +repaid. + +Let me again warn them that just because Masonry is so old, its rituals, +in the course of years, have been again and again revised, and newer +meanings have continually been grafted on to the old stock. We are not +entitled to say one meaning is right and another wrong. Both may be +right. Christianity itself has taken over a vast mass of pre-Christian +ceremonies and symbols, and the student is perfectly entitled to +consider that both the Christian and the pre-Christian interpretations +of these symbols are equ ally deserving of respect. + + +There is also another point which should be borne in mind. Again and +again we find that incidents and phrases which appear to have come from +the Bible, on closer investigation are found not to correspond exactly +with the Biblical narrative. At one time there was a tendency to say +that in these cases it was our duty to substitute the Biblical version +for the "Inaccurate" traditional form. With all due respect I venture to +say that such action is totally unjustifiable. Masonry is not the Bible. +It is a tradit ional ritual into which 18th century revisers inserted +fragments from the Bible, because that was the only book dealing with +the period of the masonic incidents which was then available to them. +To-day, we know a great deal more about this period than did our 18th +century predecessors, and the modern investigator has just cause to +lament the well meaning, but misdirected, zeal of these worthy masons, +who thereby have probably destroyed for ever valuable landmarks, which +would have helped us t o discover the historical growth and the symbolic +meaning of many parts of our ceremonies. + +Such apparent contraditions, and even mistakes, as appear to exist, +should be carefully retained, for they are sure indications to the +conscientous student of a connection with a long distant past, which +modern methods of research may enable us finally to trace to its origin. +If, however, they are revised out of existence, future generations will +have nothing to help them in the task of unravelling the true history +and meaning of Freemasonry. + +If a Sn. does not correspond with the explanation of the manner in which +it is said to have originated, don't alter the way of giving the Sn., +for it is an ancient landmark. Rather try to discover if anywhere in the +world that Sn. is still used in some old ceremony which may throw light +on its true origin. If H.A.B. was not buried in a c...f...n, don't +eliminate the c...f...n from the tracing board, but rather bear in mind +that his great prototype, Osiris, was so buried and that the c...f...n +played a pecul iarly important part in the legend which recounts his +death : which legend was hoary with antiquity before K.S. was born. + +Finally, let me say that even if a man can never fathom the full meaning +of the third degree, yet there is no man worthy of the name who has +passed through that third degree but will certainly have learnt one +important lesson, namely, how to d., and thereby will be the better man. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/magna_ca.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/magna_ca.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0bce85ac --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/magna_ca.txt @@ -0,0 +1,583 @@ +THE MAGNA CARTA (The Great Charter): + + + +Preamble: + John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord +of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count +of Anjou, to the archbishop, bishops, abbots, earls, +barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, +servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, +greetings. Know that, having regard to God and for the +salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors +and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement +of his holy Church and for the rectifying of our +realm, we have granted as underwritten by advice of our +venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, +primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman +Church, Henry, archbishop of Dublin, William of London, +Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, +Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of +Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of Master +Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our +lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the +Knights of the Temple in England), and of the +illustrious men William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, +William, earl of Salisbury, William, earl of Warenne, +William, earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable +of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerold, Peter Fitz Herbert, +Hubert De Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville, +Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, +Philip d'Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal, +John Fitz Hugh, and others, our liegemen. + 1. In the first place we have granted to God, and +by this our present charter confirmed for us and our +heirs forever that the English Church shall be free, +and shall have her rights entire, and her liberties +inviolate; and we will that it be thus observed; which +is apparent from this that the freedom of elections, +which is reckoned most important and very essential +to the English Church, we, of our pure and +unconstrained will, did grant, and did by our charter +confirm and did obtain the ratification of the same +from our lord, Pope Innocent III, before the quarrel +arose between us and our barons: and this we will +observe, and our will is that it be observed in good +faith by our heirs forever. We have also granted to +all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs +forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had +and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs +forever. + 2. If any of our earls or barons, or others +holding of us in chief by military service shall have +died, and at the time of his death his heir shall be +full of age and owe "relief", he shall have his +inheritance by the old relief, to wit, the heir or heirs +of an earl, for the whole baroncy of an earl by L100; +the heir or heirs of a baron, L100 for a whole barony; +the heir or heirs of a knight, 100s, at most, and +whoever owes less let him give less, according to +the ancient custom of fees. + 3. If, however, the heir of any one of the +aforesaid has been under age and in wardship, let him +have his inheritance without relief and without fine +when he comes of age. + 4. The guardian of the land of an heir who is thus +under age, shall take from the land of the heir nothing +but reasonable produce, reasonable customs, and +reasonable services, and that without destruction or +waste of men or goods; and if we have committed the +wardship of the lands of any such minor to the sheriff, +or to any other who is responsible to us for its +issues, and he has made destruction or waster of what +he holds in wardship, we will take of him amends, and +the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet +men of that fee, who shall be responsible for the +issues to us or to him to whom we shall assign them; +and if we have given or sold the wardship of any such +land to anyone and he has therein made destruction or +waste, he shall lose that wardship, and it shall be +transferred to two lawful and discreet men of that +fief, who shall be responsible to us in like manner +as aforesaid. + 5. The guardian, moreover, so long as he has the +wardship of the land, shall keep up the houses, parks, +fishponds, stanks, mills, and other things pertaining +to the land, out of the issues of the same land; and +he shall restore to the heir, when he has come to full +age, all his land, stocked with ploughs and wainage, +according as the season of husbandry shall require, +and the issues of the land can reasonable bear. + 6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, +yet so that before the marriage takes place the nearest +in blood to that heir shall have notice. + 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall +forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage +portion and inheritance; nor shall she give anything +for her dower, or for her marriage portion, or for the +inheritance which her husband and she held on the day +of the death of that husband; and she may remain in +the house of her husband for forty days after his +death, within which time her dower shall be assigned +to her. + 8. No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long +as she prefers to live without a husband; provided +always that she gives security not to marry without +our consent, if she holds of us, or without the +consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds +of another. + 9. Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any +land or rent for any debt, as long as the chattels of +the debtor are sufficient to repay the debt; nor shall +the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the +principal debtor is able to satisfy the debt; and if +the principal debtor shall fail to pay the debt, having +nothing wherewith to pay it, then the sureties shall +answer for the debt; and let them have the lands and +rents of the debtor, if they desire them, until they +are indemnified for the debt which they have paid for +him, unless the principal debtor can show proof that +he is discharged thereof as against the said sureties. + 10. If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, +great or small, die before that loan be repaid, the +debt shall not bear interest while the heir is under +age, of whomsoever he may hold; and if the debt fall +into our hands, we will not take anything except the +principal sum contained in the bond. + 11. And if anyone die indebted to the Jews, his +wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; +and if any children of the deceased are left under +age, necessaries shall be provided for them in keeping +with the holding of the deceased; and out of the +residue the debt shall be paid, reserving, however, +service due to feudal lords; in like manner let it be +done touching debts due to others than Jews. + 12. No scutage not aid shall be imposed on our +kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom, +except for ransoming our person, for making our eldest +son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest +daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more +than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be +done concerning aids from the city of London. + 13. And the city of London shall have all it +ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as +by water; furthermore, we decree and grant that all +other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have +all their liberties and free customs. + 14. And for obtaining the common counsel of the +kingdom anent the assessing of an aid (except in the +three cases aforesaid) or of a scutage, we will cause +to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, +earls, and greater barons, severally by our letters; +and we will moveover cause to be summoned generally, +through our sheriffs and bailiffs, and others who hold +of us in chief, for a fixed date, namely, after the +expiry of at least forty days, and at a fixed place; +and in all letters of such summons we will specify +the reason of the summons. And when the summons has +thus been made, the business shall proceed on the day +appointed, according to the counsel of such as are +present, although not all who were summoned have come. + 15. We will not for the future grant to anyone +license to take an aid from his own free tenants, +except to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a +knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter; and on +each of these occasions there shall be levied only a +reasonable aid. + 16. No one shall be distrained for performance +of greater service for a knight's fee, or for any +other free tenement, than is due therefrom. + 17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but +shall be held in some fixed place. + 18. Inquests of novel disseisin, of mort +d'ancestor, and of darrein presentment shall not be +held elsewhere than in their own county courts, and +that in manner following; We, or, if we should be out +of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two +justiciaries through every county four times a year, +who shall alone with four knights of the county chosen +by the county, hold the said assizes in the county +court, on the day and in the place of meeting of that +court. + 19. And if any of the said assizes cannot be +taken on the day of the county court, let there remain +of the knights and freeholders, who were present at the +county court on that day, as many as may be required +for the efficient making of judgments, according as the +business be more or less. + 20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a slight +offense, except in accordance with the degree of the +offense; and for a grave offense he shall be amerced +in accordance with the gravity of the offense, yet +saving always his "contentment"; and a merchant in the +same way, saving his "merchandise"; and a villein shall +be amerced in the same way, saving his "wainage" if +they have fallen into our mercy: and none of the +aforesaid amercements shall be imposed except by the +oath of honest men of the neighborhood. + 21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced except +through their peers, and only in accordance with the +degree of the offense. + 22. A clerk shall not be amerced in respect of +his lay holding except after the manner of the others +aforesaid; further, he shall not be amerced in +accordance with the extent of his ecclesiastical +benefice. + 23. No village or individual shall be compelled +to make bridges at river banks, except those who from +of old were legally bound to do so. + 24. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or others of +our bailiffs, shall hold pleas of our Crown. + 25. All counties, hundred, wapentakes, and +trithings (except our demesne manors) shall remain at +the old rents, and without any additional payment. + 26. If anyone holding of us a lay fief shall die, +and our sheriff or bailiff shall exhibit our letters +patent of summons for a debt which the deceased owed +us, it shall be lawful for our sheriff or bailiff to attach +and enroll the chattels of the deceased, found upon the +lay fief, to the value of that debt, at the sight of +law worthy men, provided always that nothing whatever +be thence removed until the debt which is evident +shall be fully paid to us; and the residue shall be +left to the executors to fulfill the will of the +deceased; and if there be nothing due from him to us, +all the chattels shall go to the deceased, saving to +his wife and children their reasonable shares. + 27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his +chattels shall be distributed by the hands of his +nearest kinsfolk and friends, under supervision of the +Church, saving to every one the debts which the +deceased owed to him. + 28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall +take corn or other provisions from anyone without +immediately tendering money therefor, unless he can +have postponement thereof by permission of the seller. + 29. No constable shall compel any knight to give +money in lieu of castle-guard, when he is willing to +perform it in his own person, or (if he himself cannot +do it from any reasonable cause) then by another +responsible man. Further, if we have led or sent him +upon military service, he shall be relieved from guard +in proportion to the time during which he has been on +service because of us. + 30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or other +person, shall take the horses or carts of any freeman +for transport duty, against the will of the said +freeman. + 31. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for +our castles or for any other work of ours, wood which +is not ours, against the will of the owner of that +wood. + 32. We will not retain beyond one year and one +day, the lands those who have been convicted of felony, +and the lands shall thereafter be handed over to the +lords of the fiefs. + 33. All kydells for the future shall be removed +altogether from Thames and Medway, and throughout all +England, except upon the seashore. + 34. The writ which is called praecipe shall not +for the future be issued to anyone, regarding any +tenement whereby a freeman may lose his court. + 35. Let there be one measure of wine throughout +our whole realm; and one measure of ale; and one +measure of corn, to wit, "the London quarter"; and one +width of cloth (whether dyed, or russet, or +"halberget"), to wit, two ells within the selvedges; +of weights also let it be as of measures. + 36. Nothing in future shall be given or taken for +a writ of inquisition of life or limbs, but freely it +shall be granted, and never denied. + 37. If anyone holds of us by fee-farm, either +by socage or by burage, or of any other land by knight's +service, we will not (by reason of that fee-farm, +socage, or burgage), have the wardship of the +heir, or of such land of his as if of the fief of that +other; nor shall we have wardship of that fee-farm, +socage, or burgage, unless such fee-farm owes knight's +service. We will not by reason of any small serjeancy +which anyone may hold of us by the service of +rendering to us knives, arrows, or the like, have +wardship of his heir or of the land which he holds +of another lord by knight's service. + 38. No bailiff for the future shall, upon his +own unsupported complaint, put anyone to his "law", +without credible witnesses brought for this purposes. + 39. No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned +or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor +will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the +lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. + 40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we +refuse or delay, right or justice. + 41. All merchants shall have safe and secure exit +from England, and entry to England, with the right to +tarry there and to move about as well by land as by +water, for buying and selling by the ancient and right +customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in time of +war) such merchants as are of the land at war with us. +And if such are found in our land at the beginning of +the war, they shall be detained, without injury to +their bodies or goods, until information be received by +us, or by our chief justiciar, how the merchants of our +land found in the land at war with us are treated; and +if our men are safe there, the others shall be safe in +our land. + 42. It shall be lawful in future for anyone +(excepting always those imprisoned or outlawed in +accordance with the law of the kingdom, and natives of +any country at war with us, and merchants, who shall be +treated as if above provided) to leave our kingdom and +to return, safe and secure by land and water, except +for a short period in time of war, on grounds of public +policy- reserving always the allegiance due to us. + 43. If anyone holding of some escheat (such as the +honor of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, +or of other escheats which are in our hands and are +baronies) shall die, his heir shall give no other +relief, and perform no other service to us than he +would have done to the baron if that barony had been +in the baron's hand; and we shall hold it in the same +manner in which the baron held it. + 44. Men who dwell without the forest need not +henceforth come before our justiciaries of the forest +upon a general summons, unless they are in plea, or +sureties of one or more, who are attached for the forest. + 45. We will appoint as justices, constables, +sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the +realm and mean to observe it well. + 46. All barons who have founded abbeys, concerning +which they hold charters from the kings of England, or +of which they have long continued possession, shall +have the wardship of them, when vacant, as they ought +to have. + 47. All forests that have been made such in our +time shall forthwith be disafforsted; and a similar +course shall be followed with regard to river banks +that have been placed "in defense" by us in our time. + 48. All evil customs connected with forests and +warrens, foresters and warreners, sheriffs and their +officers, river banks and their wardens, shall +immediately by inquired into in each county by twelve +sworn knights of the same county chosen by the honest +men of the same county, and shall, within forty days of +the said inquest, be utterly abolished, so as never to +be restored, provided always that we previously have +intimation thereof, or our justiciar, if we should not +be in England. + 49. We will immediately restore all hostages and +charters delivered to us by Englishmen, as sureties of +the peace of faithful service. + 50. We will entirely remove from their +bailiwicks, the relations of Gerard of Athee (so that +in future they shall have no bailiwick in England); +namely, Engelard of Cigogne, Peter, Guy, and Andrew of +Chanceaux, Guy of Cigogne, Geoffrey of Martigny with +his brothers, Philip Mark with his brothers and his +nephew Geoffrey, and the whole brood of the same. + 51. As soon as peace is restored, we will banish +from the kingdom all foreign born knights, crossbowmen, +serjeants, and mercenary soldiers who have come with +horses and arms to the kingdom's hurt. + 52. If anyone has been dispossessed or removed by +us, without the legal judgment of his peers, from his +lands, castles, franchises, or from his right, we will +immediately restore them to him; and if a dispute arise +over this, then let it be decided by the five and +twenty barons of whom mention is made below in the +clause for securing the peace. Moreover, for all +those possessions, from which anyone has, without the +lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or +removed, by our father, King Henry, or by our brother, +King Richard, and which we retain in our hand (or which +as possessed by others, to whom we are bound to warrant +them) we shall have respite until the usual term of +crusaders; excepting those things about which a plea +has been raised, or an inquest made by our order, +before our taking of the cross; but as soon as we return +from the expedition, we will immediately grant full +justice therein. + 53. We shall have, moreover, the same respite and +in the same manner in rendering justice concerning the +disafforestation or retention of those forests which +Henry our father and Richard our brother afforested, +and concerning the wardship of lands which are of the +fief of another (namely, such wardships as we have +hitherto had by reason of a fief which anyone held of +us by knight's service), and concerning abbeys founded +on other fiefs than our own, in which the lord of the +fee claims to have right; and when we have returned, +or if we desist from our expedition, we will +immediately grant full justice to all who complain of +such things. + 54. No one shall be arrested or imprisoned upon +the appeal of a woman, for the death of any other than +her husband. + 55. All fines made with us unjustly and against +the law of the land, and all amercements, imposed +unjustly and against the law of the land, shall be +entirely remitted, or else it shall be done concerning +them according to the decision of the five and twenty +barons whom mention is made below in the clause for +securing the pease, or according to the judgment of +the majority of the same, along with the aforesaid +Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be +present, and such others as he may wish to bring with +him for this purpose, and if he cannot be present the +business shall nevertheless proceed without him, +provided always that if any one or more of the +aforesaid five and twenty barons are in a similar +suit, they shall be removed as far as concerns this +particular judgment, others being substituted in +their places after having been selected by the rest +of the same five and twenty for this purpose only, and +after having been sworn. + 56. If we have disseised or removed Welshmen from +lands or liberties, or other things, without the +legal judgment of their peers in England or in Wales, +they shall be immediately restored to them; and if a +dispute arise over this, then let it be decided in the +marches by the judgment of their peers; for the +tenements in England according to the law of England, +for tenements in Wales according to the law of Wales, +and for tenements in the marches according to the law +of the marches. Welshmen shall do the same to us and +ours. + 57. Further, for all those possessions from which +any Welshman has, without the lawful judgment of his +peers, been disseised or removed by King Henry our +father, or King Richard our brother, and which we +retain in our hand (or which are possessed by others, +and which we ought to warrant), we will have respite +until the usual term of crusaders; excepting +those things about which a plea has been raised or an +inquest made by our order before we took the cross; but +as soon as we return (or if perchance we desist from +our expedition), we will immediately grant full +justice in accordance with the laws of the Welsh and in +relation to the foresaid regions. + 58. We will immediately give up the son of +Llywelyn and all the hostages of Wales, and the +charters delivered to us as security for the peace. + 59. We will do towards Alexander, king of Scots, +concerning the return of his sisters and his hostages, +and concerning his franchises, and his right, in the +same manner as we shall do towards our owher barons of +England, unless it ought to be otherwise according to +the charters which we hold from William his father, +formerly king of Scots; and this shall be according to +the judgment of his peers in our court. + 60. Moreover, all these aforesaid customs and +liberties, the observances of which we have granted +in our kingdom as far as pertains to us towards our +men, shall be observed b all of our kingdom, as well +clergy as laymen, as far as pertains to them towards +their men. + 61. Since, moveover, for God and the amendment +of our kingdom and for the better allaying of the +quarrel that has arisen between us and our barons, +we have granted all these concessions, desirous that +they should enjoy them in complete and firm endurance +forever, we give and grant to them the underwritten +security, namely, that the barons choose five and +twenty barons of the kingdom, whomsoever they will, +who shall be bound with all their might, to observe and +hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties +we have granted and confirmed to them by this our +present Charter, so that if we, or our justiciar, or +our bailiffs or any one of our officers, shall in +anything be at fault towards anyone, or shall have +broken any one of the articles of this peace or of +this security, and the offense be notified to four +barons of the foresaid five and twenty, the said +four barons shall repair to us (or our justiciar, if +we are out of the realm) and, laying the transgression +before us, petition to have that transgression +redressed without delay. And if we shall not have +corrected the transgression (or, in the event of our +being out of the realm, if our justiciar shall not +have corrected it) within forty days, reckoning from +the time it has been intimated to us (or to our +justiciar, if we should be out of the realm), the +four barons aforesaid shall refer that matter to the +rest of the five and twenty barons, and those five +and twenty barons shall, together with the community +of the whole realm, distrain and distress us in all +possible ways, namely, by seizing our castles, +lands, possessions, and in any other way they can, +until redress has been obtained as they deem fit, +saving harmless our own person, and the persons of our +queen and children; and when redress has been obtained, +they shall resume their old relations towards us. And +let whoever in the country desires it, swear to obey +the orders of the said five and twenty barons for the +execution of all the aforesaid matters, and along with +them, to molest us to the utmost of his power; and we +publicly and freely grant leave to everyone who wishes +to swear, and we shall never forbid anyone to swear. +All those, moveover, in the land who of themselves and +of their own accord are unwilling to swear to the +twenty five to help them in constraining and molesting +us, we shall by our command compel the same to swear to +the effect foresaid. And if any one of the five and +twenty barons shall have died or departed from the +land, or be incapacitated in any other manner which +would prevent the foresaid provisions being carried +out, those of the said twenty five barons who are left +shall choose another in his place according to their +own judgment, and he shall be sworn in the same way as +the others. Further, in all matters, the execution of +which is entrusted,to these twenty five barons, if +perchance these twenty five are present and disagree +about anything, or if some of them, after being +summoned, are unwilling or unable to be present, that +which the majority of those present ordain or command +shall be held as fixed and established, exactly as if +the whole twenty five had concurred in this; and the +said twenty five shall swear that they will faithfully +observe all that is aforesaid, and cause it to be +observed with all their might. And we shall procure +nothing from anyone, directly or indirectly, whereby any +part of these concessions and liberties might be +revoked or diminished; and if any such things has been +procured, let it be void and null, and we shall never +use it personally or by another. + 62. And all the will, hatreds, and bitterness that +have arisen between us and our men, clergy and lay, +from the date of the quarrel, we have completely +remitted and pardoned to everyone. Moreover, all +trespasses occasioned by the said quarrel, from Easter +in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration +of peace, we have fully remitted to all, both clergy +and laymen, and completely forgiven, as far as +pertains to us. And on this head, we have caused to +be made for them letters testimonial patent of the +lord Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, of the lord +Henry, archbishop of Dublin, of the bishops aforesaid, +and of Master Pandulf as touching this security and +the concessions aforesaid. + 63. Wherefore we will and firmly order that +the English Church be free, and that the men in our +kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, +rights, and concessions, well and peaceably, freely +and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their +heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respects and in all +places forever, as is aforesaid. An oath, moreover, +has been taken, as well on our part as on the art of +the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall +be kept in good faith and without evil intent. Given +under our hand - the above named and many others being +witnesses - in the meadow which is called Runnymede, +between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of +June, in the seventeenth year of our reign. + + +------------------------------------ + +This is but one of three different translations I found +of the Magna Carta; it was originally done in Latin, +probably by the Archbishop, Stephen Langton. It was in +force for only a few months, when it was violated by the +king. Just over a year later, with no resolution to the +war, the king died, being succeeded by his 9-year old son, +Henry III. The Charter (Carta) was reissued again, with +some revisions, in 1216, 1217 and 1225. As near as I can +tell, the version presented here is the one that preceeded +all of the others; nearly all of it's provisions were soon +superceded by other laws, and none of it is effective today. +The two other versions I found each professed to be the +original, as well. The basic intent of each is the same. + +- Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) + +------------------------------------ + +Prepared by Nancy Troutman (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa345) +Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the + National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). + +Permission is hereby given to download, reprint, and/or otherwise + redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin + credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public + Telecomputing Network. +VšR¥T + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/major-ch b/textfiles.com/politics/major-ch new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b97fd835 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/major-ch @@ -0,0 +1,221 @@ +MAJOR CHANGES AT THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION +Cambridge, Massachusetts +eff@eff.org +Wednesday, January 13, 1993 + + +The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in July, 1990 to assure +freedom of expression in digital media, with a particular emphasis on +applying the principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights +to computer-based communication. + +EFF has met many of those challenges. We have defended civil liberties in +court. We have shaped the policy debate on emerging communications +infrastructure and regulation. We have increased awareness both on the Net +and among those law enforcement officials, policy makers, and corporations +whose insufficient understanding of the digital environment threatened the +freedom of Cyberspace. + +But we've found that Cyberspace is huge. It extends not only beyond +constitutional jurisdiction but to the very limits of imagination. To +explore and understand all the new social and legal phenomena that +computerized media make possible is a task which grows faster than it can +be done. + +Maintaining an office in Cambridge and another in Washington DC, has been +expensive, logistically difficult, and politically painful. Many functions +were duplicated. The two offices began to diverge philosophically and +culturally. We had more good ideas than efficient means for carrying them +out. And an unreasonable share of leadership and work fell on one of our +founders, Mitch Kapor. + +These kinds of problems are common among fast-growing technology startups +in their early years, but we recognize that we have not always dealt with +them gracefully. Further, we didn't respond convincingly to those who began +to believe that EFF had lost sight of its founding vision. + +Against that background, the EFF Board met in Cambridge on January 7, 8, +and 9 to revisit EFF's mission, set priorities for the Foundation's future +activities, adopt a new structure and staff to carry them out, and clarify +its relationship to others outside the organization. + + +1. EFF'S CAMBRIDGE OFFICE WILL CLOSE. + +We will be shutting down our original Cambridge office over the next six +months, and moving all of EFF's staff functions to our office in +Washington. + + +2. JERRY BERMAN HAS BEEN NAMED EFF'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR + +In December, we announced that Mitch Kapor would be leaving the job of +Executive Director. He wanted to devote more time and energy to specific +EFF projects, such as The Open Platform Initiative, focusing less on +administrative details and more on EFF's strategic vision. We also said +that we would conduct a search for his replacement, appointing Jerry Berman +as our Interim Director. Jerry's appointment is now permanent, and the +search is terminated. + + +3. CLIFF FIGALLO WILL MAINTAIN EFF'S PRESENCE ON-LINE, AND WILL DIRECT THE + TRANSITION PROCESS. + +Cambridge Office Director Cliff Figallo will manage the EFF transition +process, working out of Cambridge. He is now considering a move to +Washington for organizational functions yet to be defined. In the meantime, +he will oversee our on-line presence and assure electronic accessibility. + + +4. STAFF COUNSEL MIKE GODWIN'S ROLE TO BE DETERMINED + +We recognize the enormous resource represented by Mike Godwin. He probably +knows more about the forming Law of Cyberspace than anyone, but differences +of style and agenda created an impasse which left us little choice but to +remove him from his current position. EFF is committed to continuing the +services he has provided. We will discuss with him a new relationship which +would make it possible for him to continue providing them. + + +5. COMMUNICATIONS STAFFERS GERARD VAN DER LEUN AND RITA ROUVALIS WILL LEAVE + EFF. + +Despite the departure of the Cambridge communications staff, we expect to +continue publishing EFFector Online on schedule as well as maintaining our +usual presence online. Both functions will be under the direction of Cliff +Figallo, who will be assisted by members of the Board and Washington staff. + + +6. JOHN PERRY BARLOW WILL ASSUME A GREATER LEADERSHIP ROLE. + +John will replace Mitch Kapor as Chairman of EFF's Executive Committee, +which works closely with the Executive Director to manage day to day +operations. Mitch will remain as Board Chairman of EFF. All of the +directors have committed themselves to a more active role in EFF so that +decisions can be made responsively during this transition. + + +7. EFF WILL NOT SPONSOR LOCAL CHAPTERS, BUT WILL WORK CLOSELY WITH + INDEPENDENT REGIONAL GROUPS. + +We have labored mightily and long over the whole concept of chapters, but, +in the end, the Board has decided not to form EFF chapters. Instead, EFF +will encourage the development of independent local organizations concerned +with Electronic Frontier issues. Such groups will be free to use the phrase +"Electronic Frontier" in their names (e.g., Omaha Electronic Frontier +Outpost), with the understanding that no obligation, formal or informal, is +implied in either direction between independent groups and EFF. While EFF +and any local groups that proliferate will remain organizationally +independent and autonomous, we hope to work closely with them in pursuit of +shared goals. The EFF Board still plans to meet with representatives of +regional groups in Atlanta next week to discuss ideas for future +cooperation. + + +8. WE CLARIFIED EFF'S MISSION AND ACTIVITIES + +In undertaking these changes, the board is guided by the sense that our +mission is to understand the opportunities and challenges of digital +communications to foster openness, individual freedom, and community. + +We expect to carry out our mission through activities in the following areas: + +POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND ADVOCACY. EFF has been working to promote an open +architecture for telecommunications by various means, including the Open +Platform Initiative, the fight against the FBI's Digital Telephony wiretap +proposal, and efforts to free robust encryption from NSA control. + +FOSTERING COMMUNITY. Much of the work we have done in the Cambridge office +has been directed at fostering a sense of community in the online world. +These efforts will continue. We have realized that we know far less about +the conditions conducive to the formation of virtual communities than is +necessary to be effective in creating them. Therefore, we will devote a +large portion of our R & D resources to developing better understanding in +this area. + +LEGAL SERVICES. We were born to defend the rights of computer users against +over-zealous and uninformed law enforcement officials. This will continue +to be an important focus of EFF's work. We expect to improve our legal +archiving and dissemination while continuing to provide legal information +to individuals who request it, and support for attorneys who are +litigating. Both the board and staff will go on writing and speaking about +these issues. Our continuing suit on behalf of Steve Jackson Games is +unaffected by these changes. + +RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT. We have started many projects over the years as +their need became apparent. Going forward, EFF will allocate resources to +investigating and initiating new projects. To ensure that our projects have +the greatest impact and can reasonably be completed with the resources +available, EFF will sharpen its selection and review process. + + +IN CONCLUSION... + +We expect that the foregoing may not sit well with many on the Net. We may +be accused of having "sold out" our bohemian birthright for a mess of +Washingtonian pottage. It may be widely, and perhaps hotly, asserted that +the "suits" have won and that EFF is about to become another handmaiden to +the large corporate interests which support our work on telecommunications +policy. + +However plausible, these conclusions are wrong. We made these choices with +many of the same misgivings our members will feel. We have toiled for many +months to restore harmony between our two offices. But in some cases, +personal animosities had grown bitter. It seems clear that much of the +difficulty was structural. We believe that our decisions will go far to +focus EFF's work and make it more effective. The decision to locate our one +office in Washington was unavoidable; our policy work can only be done +effectively there. + +Given the choice to centralize in Washington, the decision to permanently +appoint Jerry Berman as our Executive Director was natural. Jerry has, in a +very short time, built an extremely effective team there, so our confidence +in his managerial abilities is high. But we are also convinced of his +commitment to and growing understanding of the EFF programs which extend +beyond the policy establishment in Fortress Washington. + +We recognize that inside the Beltway there lies a very powerful reality +distortion field, but we have a great deal of faith in the ability of the +online world to keep us honest. We know that we can't succeed in insightful +policy work without a deep and current understanding of the networks as +they evolve -- technically, culturally, and personally. + +To those who believe that we've become too corporate, we can only say that +we founded EFF because we didn't feel that large, formal organizations +could be trusted with the future of Cyberspace. We have no intention of +becoming one ourselves. + +Some will read between these lines and draw the conclusion that Mitch Kapor +is withdrawing from EFF. That is absolutely not the case. Mitch remains +thoroughly committed to serving EFF's agenda. We believe however, that his +energies are better devoted to strategy and to developing a compelling +vision of future human communications than in day to day management. + +The difficult decision to reject direct chapter affiliation was based on a +belief that no organization which believes so strongly in +self-determination should be giving orders or taking them. Nevertheless, we +are eager to see the development of many outposts on the Electronic +Frontier, whether or not they agree with us or one another on every +particular. After all, EFF is about the preservation of diversity. + +This has been a hard passage. We have had to fire good friends, and this is +personally painful to us. We are deeply concerned that, in moving to +Washington, EFF is in peril for its soul. But we are also convinced that we +have made the best decisions possible under the circumstances, and that EFF +will be stronger as a result. Please cut us some slack during the +transition. And please tell us (either collectively at eff@eff.org or +individually at the addresses below) when we aren't meeting your +expectations. In detail and with examples. We don't promise to fix +everything, but we are interested in listening and working on the issues +that affect us all. + +The Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation + +Mitch Kapor, mkapor@eff.org +John Perry Barlow, barlow@eff.org +John Gilmore, gnu@toad.com +Stewart Brand, sbb@well.sf.ca.us +Esther Dyson, edyson@mcimail.com +Dave Farber, farber@cis.upenn.edu +Jerry Berman, jberman@eff.org +Cliff Figallo, fig@eff.org diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/malc-x.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/malc-x.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4d45331b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/malc-x.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +MALCOLM X: THE LEGACY CONTINUES + +Feb. 21 marks the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, +one of the greatest African American leaders in history. Despite +his untimely death in 1965, Malcolm's legacy of Black pride, +resistance and liberation remains as strong as ever, particularly +among African American and other oppressed youths. + +In this period when the ruling class has unleashed a vicious +anti-worker, racist offensive against poor and working people, +the revolutionary message of Malcolm X must never be forgotten. +On the contrary, his words and deeds must continue to be blazed +upon the banners of the workers and oppressed not only in the +U.S. but all over the world. + +Following is a selection of quotations from Malcolm X: + + +- "There is no kind of action in this country ever going to bear +fruit unless that action is tied in with the overall +international struggle." ("Separation or Integration" speech, +March 7, 1962) + +- "We live in one of the rottenest countries that has ever +existed on this earth. It's a system of exploitation, of outright +humiliation and degradation." (June 28, 1964, speech at Audubon +Ballroom, New York, Organization of Afro-American Unity founding +rally) + +- "Never at any time in the history of our people in this country +have we made advances or progress in any way based upon the +internal goodwill of this country. We have made advancement in +this country only when this country was under pressure from +forces above and beyond its control." (Dec. 31, 1964, speech at +Hotel Teresa, NYC) + +- "Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a +vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's +blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more +cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the +helpless." (Jan. 19, 1965, interview with Young Socialist paper) + +- "If George Washington didn't get independence for this country +nonviolently, and if Patrick Henry didn't come up with a +nonviolent statement, and you taught me to look upon them as +patriots and heroes, then it's time for you to realize that I +have studied your books well." (April 8, 1964, speech on "Black +Revolution") + +- "I've never advocated any violence. I've only said that Black +people who are the victims of organized violence perpetrated upon +us by the Klan, the Citizen's Council, and many other forms, we +should defend ourselves. ... I think the Black man in this +country above and beyond people all over the world will be more +than justified when he stands up and starts to protect himself no +matter how many necks he has to break." (Feb. 14, 1965, in +Detroit one week before his assassination) + + -30- + +(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted +if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, +55 West 17 St., New York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@blythe.org.) diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/mama.s b/textfiles.com/politics/mama.s new file mode 100644 index 00000000..643afebe --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/mama.s @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ + ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ + °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°Robert McKay°° + ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß + dedicated to Mama Cass Elliot + + The leaves on the trees were brown. It was fitting, for the + trees, growing out of squares in the sidewalk covered with metal + gratings, were stunted and deformed by the steady diet of noise and + smoke and graffiti. The cold sharp wind rattled the leaves as they + clung to their stalks. The leaves were already brown, but they + hadn't yet fallen. + The wind came with a thin, depressing whistle through the + buildings. Huddled in corners or behind flimsy shelters of + cardboard and newspaper, the few bums and defectives still out + shivered in their apathetic poverty. The sky pressed crouched + grayly overhead, not like a storm about to break, but rather as a + dull, heavy blanket of despair. It was winter in New York. + I was out of work, and nearly out of money, and looking at the + very real possibility of being out a place to live. There might be + jobs here, and the government might be working up a jobs program, + but nothing seemed to help me. I'd worn my clothes out of + presentability, and couldn't afford to replace them; consequently I + was forced to lower my sights and hunt for work where a suit worn to + an interview was a drawback rather than an advantage. The clothes, + threadbare as they were, didn't provide much protection against the + numbing wind that came down the street and scraped my cheeks and + forehead raw, and turned my limbs into stiff so many hunks much + wood. + I wasn't a native New Yorker. I was from what I, as a left- + hander, liked to refer to as the "left coast." I was born and raised + in California, but with the influx of people from elsewhere the + costs were so high and the jobs so scarce that I began to drift. I + worked my way from job to job, until by the time I reached Nebraska + I was a confirmed drifter. I crisscrossed the country, and finally + got across the Mississippi after 10 years of wandering around on the + western side. Once across, it seemed as if I'd burned a bridge + behind me; it was natural now to deliberately drift east. I wound + up in New York, where I settled, drifting now not from place to + place but from job to job. As it happened, I managed to work my way + up, until I was no longer a day laborer or a messenger, but a minor + executive who had an office and a computer terminal and wore suits + to work. + But I quit one job too many, and at the wrong time. There was + a recession on, and for every opening there were a hundred + applicants. When all an employer has to do to fill a position is + drop a hook into a starving mass of fish, he can afford to pick only + the very best. And that didn't describe me. I was competent, and + had always done my best at whatever job I'd held, but I'm no expert + at anything. Most drifters aren't; they do too many different jobs + to be truly expert at any one thing. We're generalists, not + specialists. + So now I was walking down the street, deliberately walking over + the subway gratings to get a touch of warm air if possible. I had + no gloves, and my hands, stuck in my armpits, were still red and + stiff and subject to pain when accidentally bumped. I'd just come + from the last stop of the day - a construction site where the + superintendent had said that when they needed someone with a license + to drive a wheelbarrow, he'd call me. He thought it was funny. + Back in California it wouldn't be this cold. Oh, yeah, they + have winter out there. It gets down to 60 sometimes. It rains, + sure, and up in the mountains it may snow. I've seen Mt. Baldy + white several times - when I could see that far through the smog. + But it's nothing like here in the east. It doesn't come ice and + snow in southern California, it doesn't blow knife blade winds down + from the north, it doesn't torment you with dreams of a warmer and + better place. + When I find a job, I'm going to stick with it until I can save + me some money. When I've got enough in the bank, I'll head for + California. and when I get there, where the Beach Boys and Ronald + Reagan and a lot of suntanned people live, I'll never leave. That's + a promise. + -end- + Copyright (c)1993 Robert McKay diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/manif11.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/manif11.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bfaed699 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/manif11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1544 @@ + + MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY + -------------------------------- +[From the English edition of 1888, edited by Friedrich Engels] + + {Transcribed by allen lutins + with assistance from Jim Tarzia} + + A spectre is haunting Europe -- the spectre of Communism. +All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to +exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, +French Radicals and German police-spies. + +Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as +Communistic by its opponents in power? Where the Opposition +that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, +against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against +its reactionary adversaries? + +Two things result from this fact. + +I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European Powers +to be itself a Power. + +II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the +face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their +tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of +Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself. + +To this end, Communists of various nationalities have +assembled in London, and sketched the following Manifesto, to be +published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and +Danish languages. + + +I. BOURGEOIS AND PROLETARIANS + +The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history +of class struggles. + +Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, +guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, +stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an +uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time +ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at +large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. + +In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a +complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a +manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have +patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, +feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, +serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate +gradations. + +The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins +of feudal society has not done away with clash antagonisms. It +has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, +new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the +epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive +feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms: Society as a +whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, +into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie +and Proletariat. + +From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers +of the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements +of the bourgeoisie were developed. + +The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up +fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and +Chinese markets, the colonisation of America, trade with the +colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in +commodities +generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an +impulse +never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in +the tottering feudal society, a rapid development. + +The feudal system of industry, under which industrial production +was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the +growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took +its place. The guild-masters were pushed on one side by the +manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the +different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of +labour in each single workshop. + +Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. +Even manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and +machinery revolutionised industrial production. The place of +manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of +the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the +leaders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois. + +Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the +discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an +immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication +by land. This development has, in its time, reacted on the +extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, +navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the +bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the +background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. + +We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the +product of a long course of development, of a series of +revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange. + +Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied +by a corresponding political advance of that class. An +oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed +and self-governing association in the mediaeval commune; here +independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany), there +taxable "third estate" of the monarchy (as in France), +afterwards, in the period of manufacture proper, serving either +the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise +against the nobility, and, in fact, corner-stone of the great +monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the +establishment of Modern Industry and of the world-market, +conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, +exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern State is +but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole +bourgeoisie. + +The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary +part. + +The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an +end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has +pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to +his "natural superiors," and has left remaining no other nexus +between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash +payment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of +religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine +sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It +has resolved personal worth into exchange value. And in place of +the numberless and feasible chartered freedoms, has set up that +single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word, for +exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked, +shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. + +The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation +hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has +converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the +man of science, into its paid wage labourers. + +The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental +veil, +and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. + +The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the +brutal display of vigour in the Middle Ages, which Reactionists +so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful +indolence. It has been the first to show what man's activity can +bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian +pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has +conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former Exoduses +of nations and crusades. + +The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising +the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of +production, and with them the whole relations of society. +Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, +was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all +earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of +production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, +everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois +epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, +with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and +opinions, +are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they +can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy +is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober +senses, +his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind. + +The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases +the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must +nestle +everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere. + +The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world-market +given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in +every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has +drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on +which it stood. All old-established national industries have +been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged +by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death +question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer +work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the +remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only +at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old +wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, we find new +wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant +lands and climes. In place of the old local and national +seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every +direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in +material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual +creations of individual nations become common property. National +one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more +impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, +there arises a world literature. + +The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of +production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, +draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. +The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with +which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the +barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to +capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to +adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to +introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to +become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world +after its own image. + +The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the +towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the +urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued +a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural +life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so +it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on +the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, +the East on the West. + +The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the +scattered state of the population, of the means of production, +and of property. It has agglomerated production, and has +concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence +of this was political centralisation. Independent, or but +loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, +governments and systems of taxation, became lumped together into +one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national +class-interest, one frontier and one customs-tariff. The +bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has +created more massive and more colossal productive forces than +have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature's +forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry +and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, +clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of +rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground -- what +earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive +forces slumbered in the lap of social labour? + +We see then: the means of production and of exchange, on whose +foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in +feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these +means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which +feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organisation of +agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal +relations of property became no longer compatible with the +already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. +They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder. + +Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a +social and political constitution adapted to it, and by the +economical and political sway of the bourgeois class. + +A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern +bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange +and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic +means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer, who is +no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he +has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history +of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of +modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, +against the property relations that are the conditions for the +existence of the bourgeoisie and of its rule. It is enough to +mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put +on its trial, each time more threateningly, the existence of the +entire bourgeois society. In these crises a great part not only +of the existing products, but also of the previously created +productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises +there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would +have seemed an absurdity -- the epidemic of over-production. +Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary +barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of +devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; +industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because +there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, +too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at +the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development +of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they +have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are +fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring +disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the +existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois +society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. +And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one +hand inforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the +other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough +exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way +for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by +diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented. + +The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the +ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. + +But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring +death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who +are to wield those weapons -- the modern working class -- the +proletarians. + +In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, +in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working +class, developed -- a class of labourers, who live only so long +as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour +increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves +piece-meal, are a commodity, like every other article of +commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of +competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. + +Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of +labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual +character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He +becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most +simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is +required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is +restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he +requires for his maintenance, and for the propagation of his +race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of +labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion +therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage +decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and +division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden +of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working +hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time or by +increased speed of the machinery, etc. + +Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the +patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial +capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are +organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they +are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers +and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, +and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by +the machine, by the over-looker, and, above all, by the +individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this +despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, +the more hateful and the more embittering it is. + +The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual +labour, in other words, the more modern industry becomes +developed, +the more is the labour of men superseded by that of women. +Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social +validity for the working class. All are instruments of labour, +more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex. + +No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the +manufacturer, +so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is +set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, +the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc. + +The lower strata of the middle class -- the small tradespeople, +shopkeepers, retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and +peasants -- all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly +because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale +on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the +competition with the large capitalists, partly because their +specialized skill is rendered worthless by the new methods of +production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes +of the population. + +The proletariat goes through various stages of development. +With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At +first the contest is carried on by individual labourers, then by +the workpeople of a factory, then by the operatives of one trade, +in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly +exploits them. They direct their attacks not against the +bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments +of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that +compete with their labour, they smash to pieces machinery, they +set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished +status of the workman of the Middle Ages. + +At this stage the labourers still form an incoherent mass +scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual +competition. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, +this is not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of +the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its +own political ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in +motion, and is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this +stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, +but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute +monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty +bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historical movement is concentrated +in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a +victory for the bourgeoisie. + +But with the development of industry the proletariat not only +increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, +its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various +interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the +proletariat are more and more equalised, in proportion as +machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour, and nearly +everywhere reduces wages to the same low level. The growing +competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial +crises, make the wages of the workers ever more fluctuating. The +unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, +makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions +between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and +more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon +the workers begin to form combinations (Trades Unions) against +the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of +wages; they found permanent associations in order to make +provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and +there the contest breaks out into riots. + +Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. +The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate +result, but in the ever-expanding union of the workers. This +union is helped on by the improved means of communication that +are created by modern industry and that place the workers of +different localities in contact with one another. It was just +this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local +struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle +between classes. But every class struggle is a political +struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers of the +Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, +the modern proletarians, thanks to railways, achieve in a few +years. + +This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and +consequently into a political party, is continually being upset +again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it +ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels +legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, +by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie +itself. Thus the ten-hours' bill in England was carried. + +Altogether collisions between the classes of the old society +further, in many ways, the course of development of the +proletariat. +The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. +At first with the aristocracy; later on, with those portions +of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become +antagonistic +to the progress of industry; at all times, with the bourgeoisie +of foreign countries. In all these battles it sees itself +compelled +to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for its help, and thus, to +drag +it into the political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, +supplies the proletariat with its own instruments of political +and general education, in other words, it furnishes the +proletariat +with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie. + +Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling +classes are, by the advance of industry, precipitated into the +proletariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions of +existence. These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements +of enlightenment and progress. + +Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive +hour, the process of dissolution going on within the ruling +class, in fact within the whole range of society, assumes such a +violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling +class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the +class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at +an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the +bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the +proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois +ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of +comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole. + +Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie +today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. +The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of +Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential +product. The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the +shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the +bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions +of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but +conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to +roll back the wheel of history. If by chance they are +revolutionary, they are so only in view of their impending +transfer into the proletariat, they thus defend not their +present, but their future interests, they desert their own +standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat. + +The "dangerous class," the social scum, that passively rotting +mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here +and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian +revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more +for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. + +In the conditions of the proletariat, those of old society at +large are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without +property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer +anything in common with the bourgeois family-relations; modern +industrial labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in +England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him +of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, +are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in +ambush just as many bourgeois interests. + +All the preceding classes that got the upper hand, sought to +fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at +large to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians +cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except +by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and +thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They +have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission +is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, +individual property. + +All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, +or in the interests of minorities. The proletarian movement is +the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, +in the interests of the immense majority. The proletariat, the +lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise +itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official +society being sprung into the air. + +Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the +proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. +The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all +settle matters with its own bourgeoisie. + +In depicting the most general phases of the development of the +proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging +within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks +out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the +bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. + +Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have +already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed +classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions +must be assured to it under which it can, at least, continue its +slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised +himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty +bourgeois, under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to +develop into a bourgeois. The modern laborer, on the contrary, +instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and +deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He +becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than +population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the +bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in +society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society +as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is +incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his +slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a +state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. +Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other +words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. + +The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of +the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of +capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour +rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. The +advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the +bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to +competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to +association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts +from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie +produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, +therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its +fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. + + +II. PROLETARIANS AND COMMUNISTS + +In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a +whole? + +The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other +working-class parties. + +They have no interests separate and apart from those of the +proletariat as a whole. + +They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, +by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement. + +The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class +parties is only: (1) In the national struggles of the +proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring +to the front the common interests of entire proletariat, +independently of nationality. (2) In the various stages of +development which the struggle of the working class against the +bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere +represent the interests of the movement as a whole. + +The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, +the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class +parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all +others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the +great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly +understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate +general results of the proletarian movement. + +The immediate aim of the Communist is the same as that of all +the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into +a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of +political power by the proletariat. + +The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way +based on ideas or principles that have been invented, or +discovered, by this or that would-be universal reformer. They +merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from +an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on +under our very eyes. The abolition of existing property +relations is not at all a distinctive feature of Communism. + +All property relations in the past have continually been subject +to +historical change consequent upon the change in historical +conditions. + +The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in +favour of bourgeois property. + +The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of +property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But +modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete +expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, +that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the +many by the few. + +In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in +the single sentence: Abolition of private property. + +We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing +the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a +man's own labour, which property is alleged to be the groundwork +of all personal freedom, activity and independence. + +Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned property! Do you mean the +property of the petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of +property that preceded the bourgeois form? There is no need to +abolish that; the development of industry has to a great extent +already destroyed it, and is still destroying it daily. + +Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property? + +But does wage-labour create any property for the labourer? Not +a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which +exploits wage-labour, and which cannot increase except upon +condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labour for fresh +exploitation. Property, in its present form, is based on the +antagonism of capital and wage-labour. Let us examine both sides +of this antagonism. + +To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a +social status in production. Capital is a collective product, +and only by the united action of many members, nay, in the last +resort, only by the united action of all members of society, +can it be set in motion. + +Capital is, therefore, not a personal, it is a social power. + +When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into +the +property of all members of society, personal property is not +thereby +transformed into social property. It is only the social +character of +the property that is changed. It loses its class-character. + +Let us now take wage-labour. + +The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., +that quantum of the means of subsistence, which is absolutely +requisite in bare existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the +wage-labourer appropriates by means of his labour, merely +suffices to prolong and reproduce a bare existence. We by no +means intend to abolish this personal appropriation of the +products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the +maintenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no +surplus wherewith to command the labour of others. All that we +want to do away with, is the miserable character of this +appropriation, under which the labourer lives merely to increase +capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of +the ruling class requires it. + +In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to increase +accumulated labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour +is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence +of the labourer. + +In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; +in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In +bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, +while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. + +And the abolition of this state of things is called by the +bourgeois, +abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The +abolition +of bourgeois individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois +freedom is undoubtedly aimed at. + +By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of +production, free trade, free selling and buying. +But if selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying +disappears also. This talk about free selling and buying, and +all the other "brave words" of our bourgeoisie about freedom in +general, have a meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted +selling and buying, with the fettered traders of the Middle Ages, +but have no meaning when opposed to the Communistic abolition of +buying and selling, of the bourgeois conditions of production, +and of the bourgeoisie itself. + +You are horrified at our intending to do away with private +property. But in your existing society, private property is +already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its +existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the +hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with +intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary +condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any +property for the immense majority of society. + +In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your +property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend. + +From the moment when labour can no longer be converted into +capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being +monopolised, i.e., from the moment when individual property can +no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, +from that moment, you say individuality vanishes. + +You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no +other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of +property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and +made impossible. + +Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the +products +of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to +subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriation. + +It has been objected that upon the abolition of private property +all work will cease, and universal laziness will overtake us. + +According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone +to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who +work, acquire nothing, and those who acquire anything, do not +work. +The whole of this objection is but another expression of the +tautology: +that there can no longer be any wage-labour when there is no +longer +any capital. + +All objections urged against the Communistic mode of producing +and appropriating material products, have, in the same way, been +urged against the Communistic modes of producing and +appropriating intellectual products. Just as, to the bourgeois, +the disappearance of class property is the disappearance of +production itself, so the disappearance of class culture is to +him identical with the disappearance of all culture. + +That culture, the loss of which he laments, is, for the enormous +majority, a mere training to act as a machine. + +But don't wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended +abolition of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois +notions of freedom, culture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but +the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and +bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of +your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential +character and direction are determined by the economical +conditions of existence of your class. + +The selfish misconception that induces you to transform into +eternal laws of nature and of reason, the social forms springing +from your present mode of production and form of +property-historical relations that rise and disappear in the +progress of production -- this misconception you share with every +ruling class that has preceded you. What you see clearly in the +case of ancient property, what you admit in the case of feudal +property, you are of course forbidden to admit in the case of +your own bourgeois form of property. + +Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this +infamous proposal of the Communists. + +On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, +based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed +form this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this +state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of +the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution. + +The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its +complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of +capital. + +Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of +children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty. + +But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, +when we replace home education by social. + +And your education! Is not that also social, and determined by +the social conditions under which you educate, by the +intervention, direct or indirect, of society, by means of +schools, etc.? The Communists have not invented the +intervention of society in education; they do but seek to alter +the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from +the influence of the ruling class. + +The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about +the hallowed co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the +more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all +family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their +children transformed into simple articles of commerce and +instruments of labour. + +But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams +the whole bourgeoisie in chorus. + +The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. +He hears that the instruments of production are to be exploited +in +common, and, naturally, can come to no other conclusion than that +the lot of being common to all will likewise fall to the women. + +He has not even a suspicion that the real point is to do away +with the status of women as mere instruments of production. + +For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous than the +virtuous indignation of our bourgeois at the community of women +which, they pretend, is to be openly and officially established +by the Communists. The Communists have no need to introduce +community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial. + +Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of +their +proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common +prostitutes, +take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives. + +Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and +thus, +at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached +with, +is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a +hypocritically +concealed, an openly legalised community of women. For the rest, +it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of +production must bring with it the abolition of the community +of women springing from that system, i.e., of prostitution +both public and private. + +The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish +countries and nationality. + +The working men have no country. We cannot take from them what +they have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all +acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of +the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, +itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word. + +National differences and antagonisms between peoples are daily +more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the +bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world-market, to +uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of +life corresponding thereto. + +The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still +faster. +United action, of the leading civilised countries at least, is +one of +the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat. + +In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another +is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will +also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between +classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation +to another will come to an end. + +The charges against Communism made from a religious, a +philosophical, and, generally, from an ideological standpoint, +are not deserving of serious examination. + +Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, +views and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, changes +with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in +his social relations and in his social life? + +What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual +production changes its character in proportion as material +production +is changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the +ideas of +its ruling class. + +When people speak of ideas that revolutionise society, they do +but express the fact, that within the old society, the elements +of a new one have been created, and that the dissolution of the +old ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution of the old +conditions of existence. + +When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient +religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas +succumbed in the 18th century to rationalist ideas, feudal +society fought its death battle with the then revolutionary +bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of +conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free competition +within the domain of knowledge. + +"Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religious, moral, philosophical +and juridical ideas have been modified in the course of +historical development. But religion, morality philosophy, +political science, and law, constantly survived this change." + +"There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, +etc. that are common to all states of society. But Communism +abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all +morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it +therefore +acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." + +What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all +past society has consisted in the development of class +antagonisms, +antagonisms that assumed different forms at different epochs. + +But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all +past ages, viz., the exploitation of one part of society by the +other. +No wonder, then, that the social consciousness of past ages, +despite +all the multiplicity and variety it displays, moves within +certain +common forms, or general ideas, which cannot completely vanish +except +with the total disappearance of class antagonisms. + +The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with +traditional property relations; no wonder that its development +involves the most radical rupture with traditional ideas. + +But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism. + +We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the +working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of +ruling as to win the battle of democracy. + +The proletariat will use its political supremacy top wrest, by +degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all +instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the +proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the +total of productive forces as rapidly as possible. + +Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by +means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the +conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, +therefore, +which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, +in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate +further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable +as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production. + +These measures will of course be different in different +countries. + +Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will +be pretty generally applicable. + +1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents + of land to public purposes. + +2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. + +3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. + +4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. + +5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means + of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive +monopoly. + +6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport + in the hands of the State. + +7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by +the + State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the + improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common +plan. + +8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of + industrial armies, especially for agriculture. + +9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; +gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by +a more equable distribution of the population over the country. + +10. Free education for all children in public schools. +Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. +Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c. + +When, in the course of development, class distinctions have +disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the +hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power +will lose its political character. Political power, properly so +called, is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing +another. If the proletariat during its contest with the +bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to +organise itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it +makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force +the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these +conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of +class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have +abolished its own supremacy as a class. + +In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and +class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the +free development of each is the condition for the free +development of all. + + + + +III SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST LITERATURE + + +1. REACTIONARY SOCIALISM + + +A. Feudal Socialism + + +Owing to their historical position, it became the vocation of +the aristocracies of France and England to write pamphlets +against modern bourgeois society. In the French revolution of +July 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these +aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart. +Thenceforth, a serious political contest was altogether out of +the question. A literary battle alone remained possible. But +even in the domain of literature the old cries of the restoration +period had become impossible. + +In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy were obliged to +lose sight, apparently, of their own interests, and to formulate +their indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the +exploited working class alone. Thus the aristocracy took their +revenge by singing lampoons on their new master, and whispering +in his ears sinister prophecies of coming catastrophe. + +In this way arose Feudal Socialism: half lamentation, half +lampoon; +half echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by +its bitter, +witty and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the +very heart's +core; but always ludicrous in its effect, through total +incapacity to +comprehend the march of modern history. + +The aristocracy, in order to rally the people to them, waved the +proletarian alms-bag in front for a banner. But the people, so +often as it joined them, saw on their hindquarters the old feudal +coats of arms, and deserted with loud and irreverent laughter. + +One section of the French Legitimists and "Young England" +exhibited this spectacle. + +In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different to +that of the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they +exploited under circumstances and conditions that were quite +different, and that are now antiquated. In showing that, under +their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget +that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their +own form of society. + +For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary +character of their criticism that their chief accusation against +the bourgeoisie amounts to this, that under the bourgeois regime +a class is being developed, which is destined to cut up root and +branch the old order of society. + +What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it +creates +a proletariat, as that it creates a revolutionary proletariat. + +In political practice, therefore, they join in all coercive +measures against the working class; and in ordinary life, despite +their high falutin phrases, they stoop to pick up the golden +apples dropped from the tree of industry, and to barter truth, +love, +and honour for traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato +spirits. + +As the parson has ever gone band in hand with the landlord, +so has Clerical Socialism with Feudal Socialism. + +Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist +tinge. +Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, against +marriage, +against the State? Has it not preached in the place of these, +charity and +poverty, celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life +and +Mother Church? Christian Socialism is but the holy, water with +which +the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat. + + +B. Petty-Bourgeois Socialism + +The feudal aristocracy was not the only class that has ruined by +the bourgeoisie, not the only class whose conditions of existence +pined and perished in the atmosphere of modern bourgeois society. +The mediaeval burgesses and the small peasant proprietors were +the precursors of the modern bourgeoisie. In those countries +which +are but little developed, industrially and commercially, these +two +classes still vegetate side by side with the rising bourgeoisie. + +In countries where modern civilisation has become fully +developed, a new class of petty bourgeois has been formed, +fluctuating between proletariat and bourgeoisie and ever renewing +itself as a supplementary part of bourgeois society. The +individual members of this class, however, are being constantly +hurled down into the proletariat by the action of competition, +and, as modern industry develops, they even see the moment +approaching when they will completely disappear as an independent +section of modern society, to be replaced, in manufactures, +agriculture and commerce, by overlookers, bailiffs and shopmen. + +In countries like France, where the peasants constitute far more +than half of the population, it was natural that writers who +sided with the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, should use, +in their criticism of the bourgeois regime, the standard of the +peasant and petty bourgeois, and from the standpoint of these +intermediate classes should take up the cudgels for the working +class. Thus arose petty-bourgeois Socialism. Sismondi was the +head of this school, not only in France but also in England. + +This school of Socialism dissected with great acuteness the +contradictions in the conditions of modern production. It laid +bare the hypocritical apologies of economists. It proved, +incontrovertibly, the disastrous effects of machinery and +division of labour; the concentration of capital and land in a +few hands; overproduction and crises; it pointed out the +inevitable ruin of the petty bourgeois and peasant, the misery of +the proletariat, the anarchy in production, the crying +inequalities in the distribution of wealth, the industrial war of +extermination between nations, the dissolution of old moral +bonds, of the old family relations, of the old nationalities. + +In its positive aims, however, this form of Socialism aspires +either to restoring the old means of production and of exchange, +and with them the old property relations, and the old society, or +to cramping the modern means of production and of exchange, +within the framework of the old property relations that have +been, and were bound to be, exploded by those means. In either +case, it is both reactionary and Utopian. + +Its last words are: corporate guilds for manufacture, +patriarchal relations in agriculture. + +Ultimately, when stubborn historical facts had dispersed all +intoxicating effects of self-deception, this form of Socialism +ended in a miserable fit of the blues. + + +C. German, or "True," Socialism + +The Socialist and Communist literature of France, a literature +that originated under the pressure of a bourgeoisie in power, and +that was the expression of the struggle against this power, was +introduced into Germany at a time when the bourgeoisie, in that +country, had just begun its contest with feudal absolutism. + +German philosophers, would-be philosophers, and beaux esprits, +eagerly seized on this literature, only forgetting, that when +these writings immigrated from France into Germany, French social +conditions had not immigrated along with them. In contact with +German social conditions, this French literature lost all its +immediate practical significance, and assumed a purely literary +aspect. Thus, to the German philosophers of the eighteenth +century, the demands of the first French Revolution were nothing +more than the demands of "Practical Reason" in general, and the +utterance of the will of the revolutionary French bourgeoisie +signified in their eyes the law of pure Will, of Will as it was +bound to be, of true human Will generally. + +The world of the German literate consisted solely in bringing +the new French ideas into harmony with their ancient +philosophical conscience, or rather, in annexing the French ideas +without deserting their own philosophic point of view. + +This annexation took place in the same way in which a foreign +language is appropriated, namely, by translation. + +It is well known how the monks wrote silly lives of Catholic +Saints over the manuscripts on which the classical works of +ancient heathendom had been written. The German literate +reversed this process with the profane French literature. They +wrote their philosophical nonsense beneath the French original. +For instance, beneath the French criticism of the economic +functions of money, they wrote "Alienation of Humanity," and +beneath the French criticism of the bourgeois State they wrote +"dethronement of the Category of the General," and so forth. + +The introduction of these philosophical phrases at the back of +the French historical criticisms they dubbed "Philosophy of +Action," "True Socialism," "German Science of Socialism," +"Philosophical Foundation of Socialism," and so on. + +The French Socialist and Communist literature was thus +completely emasculated. And, since it ceased in the hands of the +German to express the struggle of one class with the other, he +felt conscious of having overcome "French one-sidedness" and of +representing, not true requirements, but the requirements of +truth; +not the interests of the proletariat, but the interests of Human +Nature, +of Man in general, who belongs to no class, has no reality, who +exists +only in the misty realm of philosophical fantasy. + +This German Socialism, which took its schoolboy task so seriously +and solemnly, and extolled its poor stock-in-trade in such +mountebank fashion, meanwhile gradually lost its pedantic +innocence. + +The fight of the German, and especially, of the Prussian +bourgeoisie, +against feudal aristocracy and absolute monarchy, in other words, +the liberal movement, became more earnest. + +By this, the long wished-for opportunity was offered to "True" +Socialism of confronting the political movement with the +Socialist demands, of hurling the traditional anathemas against +liberalism, against representative government, against bourgeois +competition, bourgeois freedom of the press, bourgeois +legislation, bourgeois liberty and equality, and of preaching to +the masses that they had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, +by this bourgeois movement. German Socialism forgot, in the nick +of time, that the French criticism, whose silly echo it was, +presupposed the existence of modern bourgeois society, with its +corresponding economic conditions of existence, and the political +constitution adapted thereto, the very things whose attainment +was the object of the pending struggle in Germany. + +To the absolute governments, with their following of parsons, +professors, country squires and officials, it served as a welcome +scarecrow against the threatening bourgeoisie. + +It was a sweet finish after the bitter pills of floggings and +bullets with which these same governments, just at that time, +dosed the German working-class risings. + +While this "True" Socialism thus served the governments as a +weapon for fighting the German bourgeoisie, it, at the same time, +directly represented a reactionary interest, the interest of the +German Philistines. In Germany the petty-bourgeois class, a +relic of the sixteenth century, and since then constantly +cropping up again under various forms, is the real social basis +of the existing state of things. + +To preserve this class is to preserve the existing state of +things in Germany. The industrial and political supremacy of the +bourgeoisie threatens it with certain destruction; on the one +hand, from the concentration of capital; on the other, from the +rise of a revolutionary proletariat. "True" Socialism appeared +to +kill these two birds with one stone. It spread like an epidemic. + +The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with flowers of +rhetoric, steeped in the dew of sickly sentiment, this +transcendental robe in which the German Socialists wrapped their +sorry "eternal truths," all skin and bone, served to wonderfully +increase the sale of their goods amongst such a public. + +And on its part, German Socialism recognised, more and more, its +own calling as the bombastic representative of the petty- +bourgeois Philistine. + +It proclaimed the German nation to be the model nation, and the +German petty Philistine to be the typical man. To every +villainous meanness of this model man it gave a hidden, higher, +Socialistic interpretation, the exact contrary of its real +character. It went to the extreme length of directly opposing +the "brutally destructive" tendency of Communism, and of +proclaiming its supreme and impartial contempt of all class +struggles. With very few exceptions, all the so-called Socialist +and Communist publications that now (1847) circulate in Germany +belong to the domain of this foul and enervating literature. + + +2. CONSERVATIVE, OR BOURGEOIS, SOCIALISM + +A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social +grievances, in order to secure the continued existence of +bourgeois society. + +To this section belong economists, philanthropists, +humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, +organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of +cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner +reformers of every imaginable kind. This form of Socialism has, +moreover, been worked out into complete systems. + +We may site Proudhon's Philosophie de la Misere as an example of +this form. + +The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern +social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily +resulting therefrom. They desire the existing state of society +minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish +for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat. The bourgeoisie +naturally conceives the world in which it is supreme to be the +best; and bourgeois Socialism develops this comfortable +conception into various more or less complete systems. In +requiring the proletariat to carry out such a system, and thereby +to march straightway into the social New Jerusalem, it but +requires in reality, that the proletariat should remain within +the bounds of existing society, but should cast away all its +hateful ideas concerning the bourgeoisie. + +A second and more practical, but less systematic, form of this +Socialism sought to depreciate every revolutionary movement in +the eyes of the working class, by showing that no mere political +reform, but only a change in the material conditions of +existence, in economic relations, could be of any advantage to +them. By changes in the material conditions of existence, this +form of Socialism, however, by no means understands abolition of +the bourgeois relations of production, an abolition that can be +effected only by a revolution, but administrative reforms, based +on the continued existence of these relations; reforms, +therefore, that in no respect affect the + +relations between capital and labour, but, at the best, lessen +the cost, and simplify the administrative work, of bourgeois +government. + +Bourgeois Socialism attains adequate expression, when, and only +when, it becomes a mere figure of speech. + +Free trade: for the benefit of the working class. Protective +duties: for the benefit of the working class. Prison Reform: for +the benefit of the working class. This is the last word and the +only seriously meant word of bourgeois Socialism. + +It is summed up in the phrase: the bourgeois is a bourgeois -- +for the benefit of the working class. + + +3. CRITICAL-UTOPIAN SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM + +We do not here refer to that literature which, in every great +modern revolution, has always given voice to the demands of the +proletariat, such as the writings of Babeuf and others. + +The first direct attempts of the proletariat to attain its own +ends, made in times of universal excitement, when feudal society +was being overthrown, these attempts necessarily failed, owing to +the then undeveloped state of the proletariat, as well as to the +absence of the economic conditions for its emancipation, +conditions that had yet to be produced, and could be produced by +the impending bourgeois epoch alone. The revolutionary +literature +that accompanied these first movements of the proletariat had +necessarily a reactionary character. It inculcated universal +asceticism and social levelling in its crudest form. + +The Socialist and Communist systems properly so called, those of +Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen and others, spring into existence in +the early undeveloped period, described above, of the struggle +between proletariat and bourgeoisie (see Section 1. Bourgeois +and Proletarians). + +The founders of these systems see, indeed, the class antagonisms, +as well as the action of the decomposing elements, in the +prevailing +form of society. But the proletariat, as yet in its infancy, +offers +to them the spectacle of a class without any historical +initiative +or any independent political movement. + +Since the development of class antagonism keeps even pace with +the development of industry, the economic situation, as they find +it, does not as yet offer to them the material conditions for the +emancipation of the proletariat. They therefore search after a +new social science, after new social laws, that are to create +these conditions. + +Historical action is to yield to their personal inventive +action, historically created conditions of emancipation to +fantastic ones, and the gradual, spontaneous class-organisation +of the proletariat to the organisation of society specially +contrived by these inventors. Future history resolves itself, in +their eyes, into the propaganda and the practical carrying out of +their social plans. + +In the formation of their plans they are conscious of caring +chiefly for the interests of the working class, as being the most +suffering class. Only from the point of view of being the most +suffering class does the proletariat exist for them. + +The undeveloped state of the class struggle, as well as their +own surroundings, causes Socialists of this kind to consider +themselves far superior to all class antagonisms. They want to +improve the condition of every member of society, even that of +the most favoured. Hence, they habitually appeal to society at +large, without distinction of class; nay, by preference, to the +ruling class. For how can people, when once they understand +their system, fail to see in it the best possible plan of the +best possible state of society? + +Hence, they reject all political, and especially all +revolutionary, +action; they wish to attain their ends by peaceful means, and +endeavour, +by small experiments, necessarily doomed to failure, and by the +force of +example, to pave the way for the new social Gospel. + +Such fantastic pictures of future society, painted at a time +when the proletariat is still in a very undeveloped state and has +but a fantastic conception of its own position correspond with +the first instinctive yearnings of that class for a general +reconstruction of society. + +But these Socialist and Communist publications contain also a +critical element. They attack every principle of existing +society. Hence they are full of the most valuable materials for +the enlightenment of the working class. The practical measures +proposed in them -- -such as the abolition of the distinction +between town and country, of the family, of the carrying on of +industries for the account of private individuals, and of the +wage system, the proclamation of social harmony, the conversion +of the functions of the State into a mere superintendence of +production, all these proposals, point solely to the +disappearance +of class antagonisms which were, at that time, only just cropping +up, +and which, in these publications, are recognised in their +earliest, +indistinct and undefined forms only. These proposals, therefore, +are of a purely Utopian character. + +The significance of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism +bears an inverse relation to historical development. In +proportion as the modern class struggle develops and takes +definite shape, this fantastic standing apart from the contest, +these fantastic attacks on it, lose all practical value and all +theoretical justification. Therefore, although the originators +of these systems were, in many respects, revolutionary, their +disciples have, in every case, formed mere reactionary sects. +They hold fast by the original views of their masters, in +opposition to the progressive historical development of the +proletariat. They, therefore, endeavour, and that consistently, +to deaden the class struggle and to reconcile the class +antagonisms. They still dream of experimental realisation of +their social Utopias, of founding isolated "phalansteres," of +establishing "Home Colonies," of setting up a "Little Icaria" -- +duodecimo editions of the New Jerusalem -- and to realise all +these castles in the air, they are compelled to appeal to the +feelings and purses of the bourgeois. By degrees they sink into +the category of the reactionary conservative Socialists depicted +above, differing from these only by more systematic pedantry, and +by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous +effects of their social science. + +They, therefore, violently oppose all political action on the +part of the working class; such action, according to them, can +only result from blind unbelief in the new Gospel. + +The Owenites in England, and the Fourierists in France, +respectively, oppose the Chartists and the Reformistes. + + + +IV. POSITION OF THE COMMUNISTS IN RELATION TO THE +VARIOUS EXISTING OPPOSITION PARTIES + +Section II has made clear the relations of the Communists to the +existing working-class parties, such as the Chartists in England +and the Agrarian Reformers in America. + +The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, +for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working +class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent +and take care of the future of that movement. In France the +Communists ally themselves with the Social-Democrats, against the +conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the +right to take up a critical position in regard to phrases and +illusions traditionally handed down from the great Revolution. + +In Switzerland they support the Radicals, without losing sight +of the fact that this party consists of antagonistic elements, +partly of Democratic Socialists, in the French sense, partly of +radical bourgeois. + +In Poland they support the party that insists on an agrarian +revolution as the prime condition for national emancipation, that +party which fomented the insurrection of Cracow in 1846. + +In Germany they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a +revolutionary way, against the absolute monarchy, the feudal +squirearchy, and the petty bourgeoisie. + +But they never cease, for a single instant, to instil into the +working class the clearest possible recognition of the hostile +antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat, in order that the +German workers may straightaway use, as so many weapons against +the bourgeoisie, the social and political conditions that the +bourgeoisie must necessarily introduce along with its supremacy, +and in order that, after the fall of the reactionary classes in +Germany, the fight against the bourgeoisie itself may immediately +begin. + +The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because +that country is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution that is +bound to be carried out under more advanced conditions of +European civilisation, and with a much more developed +proletariat, than that of England was in the seventeenth, and of +France in the eighteenth century, and because the bourgeois +revolution in Germany will be but the prelude to an immediately +following proletarian revolution. + +In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary +movement against the existing social and political order of +things. + +In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading +question in each, the property question, no matter what its +degree of development at the time. + +Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of +the democratic parties of all countries. + +The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. +They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by +the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. +Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. +The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. +They have a world to win. + + + WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! + + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/mansonms.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/mansonms.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b14a31f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/mansonms.txt @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns N' Roses, has introduced +convicted mass murderer Charlie Manson to a generation of young +fans. Over the objections of other members of G N'R, Rose included +a version of a song by Manson, _Look at Your Game, Girl_, on their +new album, _The Spaghetti Incident?_ Audible on the album after +the unlisted song is Axl heaving a sigh and saying, "Thanks, +Chazz." Manson stands to earn $62,000 for every million copies of +the album sold. Thankfully, the album seems to be sinking swiftly +in sales. + +Most of the controversy over the recording has focused on +Manson's leadership of the group that killed actress Sharon Tate, +then pregnant, and six others in 1969. He was convicted of seven +counts of murder, and separately found guilty of murdering a stunt +man and a musician. The Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau, named for +the actress's mother, has called for a boycott of Geffen Records. + + But did you know about Manson's nazi beliefs and practices +both prior to and after his arrest for the Tate mass murder? +Manson has often been photographed with a self-inscribed swastika +tattoo. His avowed purpose in planning the killings was to blame +them on blacks and try to foment an apocalyptic race war. Even +inside prison, Manson continued to associate with neo-nazis. + + In 1982, Manson was visited repeatedly at Vacaville prison by +northern California nazi leader Perry "Red" Warthan. Warthan +shortly thereafter killed one of his own teen-age followers, Joe +Hoover, after Hoover admitted that he and other members of +Warthan's band had stuffed racist flyers into lockers at Oroville, +CA High School. Support for Manson was part of Warthan's program +in seeking to organize a group of youthful neo-nazis. In June, +1983 Warthan was sentenced to prison for murdering Hoover, whom he +called a race traitor and informant who deserved to die. + + Manson's earnings from the G N'R song are supposed to go to +the son of one of his victims, under the terms of a 1971 court +order. But Manson has pocketed most of the money he made over his +years in prison, including tens of thousands of dollars for +interviews and cash sent in by supporters and fans. + + Ignoring his nazism, "Satanism" and mass murders--or perhaps +glorifying him because of it--young fans have made Manson a cult +figure, and exploitative entrepreneurs have rushed in to make a +quick buck. Manson shirts, dresses, and children's clothes are +available. Some are bootlegged, but at least one, which Axl Rose +popularized by wearing on Guns N' Roses last tour, is officially +licensed by Manson himself. + + The T-shirt is produced in southern California by the Lemmons +brothers of Zooport Riot Gear in Newport Beach and pays Manson ten +cents for each shirt. Dan Lemmons of Zooport told the press, + + "There's a good side to Charlie that hasn't gotton out...Kids + today don't look at Charlie Manson as a mass murderer. He's + like a rebellious figure." + + Perhaps it is the neo-nazi nature of Manson's rebelliousness that +makes him such an appealing figure to the Lemmons brothers. They +are giving "a good chunk of the proceeds" from the Manson shirt--- +they won't say exactly how much--- to Randall Terry's anti- +abortion group ["Opperation 'Rescue'"]. + +In defending the shirt, which shows Manson and the slogan "Charlie +Don't Surf", Lemmons said to the _San Francisco Examiner_, + + "People get all worked up over some murders that happened almost + 25 years ago. Why not be concerned with the babies who are + murdered in the U.S. every year." + +This comment was made in reference to his anti-abortion beliefs. +The Lemmons also referred to Manson as a philanthropist and +environmentalist. Manson's "environmentalism" is probably akin +to the anti-immigrant, preserve the white-man's land variety +preached by neo-nazi Tom Metzger. + + Axl Rose and Guns N'Roses were promoted heavily by Metzger and +WAR when, on an early album, they recorded lyrics attacking gays +and immigrants. Rose claimed at the time that he was only singing, +and that his views were not racist. But with the flap over Manson, +and his promotion of the shirt which is benefitting both neo-nazi +murderer Manson and the Christian-fascistic Operation Rescue, Axl +Rose's true colors are showing through. + + What is the justification for a musician glorifying a man who +killed a musician? What is the hypocrisy of abortion opponents +promoting a man whose followers stabbed a pregnant woman to death, +killing her after she pleaded for the life of her unborn child, +stabbing her in the abdomen with a fork? What is the popularity +among young rock fans of a man whose nazi associate murdered a +teenaged band member for confessing to circulating racist flyers? + + This is the sinister appeal of the irrational that promotes +what Wilhelm Reich referred to as "the mass psychology of fascism." +It is rooted in racism, hatred of women's independence, and a +desire for fascist authority disguised as "rebelliousness." Only +an intense cultural and social struggle among young white people +will overcome these unhealthy tendencies. + +___-- + +Reprinted from Turning the Tide, a bi-monthly journal of anti- +racist activism, research, and education available from P.A.R.T. +(People Against Racist Terror), PO Box 1990 Burbank, CA 91507 diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/mansonsy.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/mansonsy.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..46556d72 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/mansonsy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +TOPIC: LIFE OF CHARLES MANSON + + Charles Milles Manson was born on November 12,1934. His +birthday was later changed to the eleventh because it is Armistice day +and was easier to remember. Charles was born in Cinncinatti, Ohio and +was the son of a sixteen year old prostitute named Kathle en Madox. She +married a man, William Manson just long enough to provide a last name +for her son. While Charles was growing up his mother was frequently in +and out of prison. During the times she was in prison he stayed with +his aunt who thought all things to be sins butt still gave him enough +love to survive. he was only eight years old. Up until the age of +twelve he lived a life of run down hotel rooms and new "uncles" with +whom his mother drank heavily. In 1947 he was placed in a foster home +and he kep t running away from them only to steal, return to his mother +and to return to his firends homes. most of the times he ran away he +was caught only to be sent into a school for delinquints and was in and +out of institutions for a while. He was finally sent to jail on +October 24, 1951 and he turned seventeen that november. He displayed +great behavior but less than a months time before being paroled he held +a razor blade against another boys throught while sodomizing him. On +may 8, 1954 he was granted parole and he was 19. Charles had spent 17 +years, almost half his life, in prison by the age of 32. While in +prison he claimed the religion of scientology which is based upon the +book dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. While in prison it is said that he +obtained the title Theta-Clear and that is te highest title and when +obtained you are one with the universe, at peace with nature. Finally +he got out of prison and he started what would become his family. he +starte3d by pimping women and then collecting more and more people off +the streets. Charles had picked up some male members too and they were +only kept around because they attracted women. after a while they moved +to sphan ranch in california and when that happened Charlie told about +Helter Skelter which would be an all out war between the blacks and +whites. He felt that the blacks would come out triumphant and he would +be in a hole in the desert and then ol blackie would come to him and he +would say "what do i do now i don't know how to rule the world?" and +Charl ie would take his "familt with him out of the hole and they would +rule the world. I'ts strange that he got the word Helter Skelter for it +ariginated in England and means a slide. well then he started killing +and when he was done it was estimated at about 30-40 people dead due to +his family and then he went on trial and he was scentenced and is on +death row if you want to write to him his adress is : + + CHARLES MANSON + CA MEDICAL FACILTIY + VACAVILLE, CA 95688 + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/market.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/market.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..12f46a88 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/market.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +I found this gem... take a look. +Kaya #78 @7 +Wed Sep 30 17:23:29 1992 + + + +(The following modest proposal was first posted several years ago to +one of the talk.politics groups. For those who enjoyed the saga of +BioHarvest, I hope you'll like this, too.) + + +Access to Food Must Be Equal! + +The Bush Administration is proposing radical changes in the way food +has been purchased by Americans for the past hundred years. +Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter is floating the idea of a +"voucher" system for groceries which would allow families to make +their food and beverage purchases at any supermarket, regardless of +location. Allowing this kind of choice would destroy the system which +has made America so competitive today! + +Equality of access to food, regardless of income or personal wishes, +has long been the hallmark of our food distribution system. Every +family knows which food district it is in and where its assigned +supermarket is, just as it knows which school district it is in and +which schools are in the district. Citizens elect members of the +District Food Boards, thus assuring democratic input into the food +distribution process. And parents are urged--without much success, I +might add--to join their regional Grocer-Parent Association (GPA) to +further ensure a wholesome food selection for their children. + +It should be noted that temporary shortages of such basic products as +milk, real, and high-fiber bread have almost become a thing of the +past, despite criticism from so-called libertarians that a free market +would eliminate all shortages (doubtful). It is true that some luxury +food items remain unavailable, but is it fair for some to eat quiche +while others can't get sushi? And we applaud the recent progress by +State Food Boards in eliminating unhealthful foods from the diet of +Americans. This progress would likely be undone if people were free +to choose their food stores. + +Consider the implications of free choice of supermarkets. The "food +voucher" system proposed by these nutritional anarchists would surely +encourage some supermarkets to offer needless luxuries and variety of +choice so as to lure gullible families into spending their food +vouchers at these stores. What would then happen is that some stores +would begin to cater to the tastes of these consumers and so become +more popular. This would draw even more shoppers, resulting in a kind +of spiraling prosperity for these opportunistic, greedy stores. +However, the remaining stores--no doubt disproportionately located in +inner cities and other poor areas--would suffer lost business and so +would be less able to provide the luxuries sought by selfish shoppers. +Some of these stores would obviously close, thus causing hunger and +unemployment in the affected regions. People of color and victims of +the class struggle would thus carry the burden of rampant capitalism, +as they have for thousands of years. + +Every American has the right to an equal share of the pie, regardless of +their income or personal spending habits. Say no to deregulation of +supermarkets! Competition just isn't the American way. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/mason_bi.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/mason_bi.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c37968e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/mason_bi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ +FREEMASONRY : Some Basics & a Partial Bibliography +-------------------------------------------------- + The earliest known use of the word "freemason" is +encountered in the London Assize of Wages, 1212 CE. +The first reference to a Mason's Lodge is found in +1277, and to "Freemasonry," in an English building +contract of 1436. + The oldest Masonic Document is the Regius MS., +circa 1390. the first use of the word "Freemason" in +print was in 1563, in a book entitled 'Dives Pragmaticus.' +The first extended printed account of Freemasonry +appears in Plot's 'Natural History Of Staffordshire', +Oxford, 1686, pp. 316-18. The first Masonic book is +known as the "Roberts Constitutions," printed and sold +by J. Roberts in London, 1722. The first Official +Masonic book is Anderson's 'The Constitutions of the +Free-Masons', London, 1723, of which Benjamin Franklin +(a Mason) published a reprint in Philadelphia in 1734, +it being the first American Masonic Book. + The first duly constituted Lodge in America was The +First Lodge of Boston (still in existance as St. John's +Lodge), constituted July 30, 1733 by Henry Price of +Boston. The first native-born American to be made a +Mason was Jonathan Belcher, born in Boston in 1681, and +made a Mason in Europe in 1704. He was governor of both +Massachusetts and New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741. + Just slighly shy of one half of the 56 signers of the +Declaration of Independence were Masons; 31 of the 55 +Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were Masons; +so were many of Washington's Generals. + Promiment famous masons of History include: Paul Revere, +John hancock, Joseph Warren, George Washington, James +Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James K. polk, James Buchanan, +Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, +Theodore Roosevelt, WIlliam Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, +Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon Baines +Johnson and Gerald R. Ford. + +PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS +-------------------- +These are books available from Macoy Publishing & Masonic +Supply Co., PO Box 9759, Richmond VA 23228 and are evidently +available in many libraries across the country. + +Freemason's Guide and Compendium. Bernard E. Jones. +What Masonry Means. William E. Hammond. +A Comprehensive View of Freemasonry. Henry Wilson Coil. +Famous Masons and Masonic Presidents. H.L. Haywood. +The Builders. Joseph Fort Newton. +Introduction to Freemasonry. Carl H. Claudy. +The Great Teachings of Masonry. H.L. Haywood. +House Undivided : The story of Freemasonry and the Civil + War. Allen E. Roberts. +Freemasonry Through Six Centuries (2 vols). Henry WIlson + Coil. +The Craft and Its Symbols. Allen E. Roberts. + + +MASONIC BIBLIOGRAPHY : THE NOT-SO-EASY-TO-FIND-BOOKS! +----------------------------------------------------- +Many of the following books are not as easy to find as +those I mentioned in my last post on the subject, either +they are extremely rare in the public sector or in many +cases long out of print except internally to the +organization itself. This list is in no way a complete +listing of books on the subject - The internally used +library (such as that in The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) +is huge in comparison and includes books, news clippings +and internal records not accessable to the public by any +known means. These books here actually represent what +American Freemasons use as a preliminary reading list for +candidates for the degrees within Masonry. + +Anderson's Constitutions of 1723. 1924. +Bailey. The Spirit Of Masonry. 1957. +Baird. Great American Masons. 1924. +Banner. These Men Were Masons. 1934. +Bede. 5-15 Minutes Talks. 1972. +Blake. Masonic Lodge Methods. 1953. +Boston. Saint John's Lodge. history of Saint John's Lodge of + Boston. 1917. +Brown. Freemasonry in Virginia (1733-1936). 1936. + Highlights of Templar History. 1944. + The Fourth Gospel and The Eighteenth Degree. 1956. +Carter. Masonry in Texas. 1955. +Cerza. A Masonic Thought For Each Day of The Year. 1971. +Chailley. The Magic Flute, Masonic Opera. 1971. +Claudy. Introduction to Freemasonry. [3v] 1953. + A Master's Wages. 1924. + Foreign Countries. 1925. + Old Tiler Talks. 1925. + Masonic Harvest. 1948. + The Old Past Master. 1924. + The Master's Book. 1935. +Coil. A Comprehensive View of Freemasonry. 1954. + Freemasonry Through Six Centuries. 1966. + Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia. 1961. +Coulton. Medieval Faith and Symbolism. 1958. +Darrah. The Evolution of Freemasonry. 1920. +Denslow. Freemasonry in the Western Hemisphere. 1953. + Masonic Rites and Degrees. 1955. + Freemasonry and The American Indian. 1956. +Deutsch. From Whence Came You? 1958. +Everskull. The Temples in Jerusalem. 1946. +Foss. Three Centuries of Freemasonry in New Hampshire. 1972. +Glick. A Treasury of Masonic Thought. 1953. +Gould. The Concise History of Freemasonry. 1924. + Military Lodges. 1899. +Hall. The Lost Keys of Freemasonry. 1931. +Hammond. What Masonry Means. 1939. +Harvey. "Not Made with Hands". 1958. +Haywood & Craig. A History of Freemasonry. 1927. + More About Masonry. 1948. + Masonic Essays. 1963. + The Newly-Made Mason. 1948. + Symbolic Masonry : an Interpetation of the three degrees. + 1923. + The Great Teachings of Masonry. 1923. + Famous Masons. 1944. +Hills. The Freemason's Craft. 1932. +Horne. King Solomon's Temple in the Masonic Tradition. 1972. +Hughan. The Old charges of British Freemasons. 1895. +Hunt. Some Thoughts on Masonic Symbolism. 1930. +Hunter. A Study of an Interpretation of the Regius Manuscript, + The Earliest Masonic Document. 1952. +Johnson. The Begining of Freemasonry in America. 1924. + One Common Purpose. 1937. + The Lure of Freemasonry. 1936. +Jones. Freemason's Guide and Compendium. 1950. +Kidd. Early Freemasonry in Williamsburg Virginia. 1957. +Knoop & Jones. The Genesis of Freemasonry. 1947. + Introduction to Freemasonry. 1933. + The Medieval Mason. 1967. +Lanier. Masonry and Citizenship. 1921. +Lawrence. Sidelights on Freemasonry. 1909. + Highways & By-Ways of Freemasonry. 1924. + The Keystone and Other Essays on Freemasonry. 1913. + The Perfect Ashlar and other Masonic Symbols. 1912. +Lindsay. The Scottish Rite for Scotland. 1958. +MacBride. Speculative Masonry : Its Mission, Its Evolution + and its Landmarks. 1914. +Mackey. Symbolism of Freemasonry. 1921. + Mackey's Masonic Jurisprudence; 10th ed. 1927. + Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.[3v] revised and supplemented + by Robert I. Clegg and H.L. Haywood. 1946. +Martin & Callaghan. The Treasury of Masonic Thought. 1924. +Masonry and Americanism. 1924. +Morse. Freemasonry in the American Revolution. 1924. +Museum of Our National Heritage. Masonic Symbols in American + Decorative Arts. 1976. +Nettl. Mozart and Masonry. 1957. +Newton. Modern Masonry. 1924. + The Builders : a Story and study of Masonry. 1951. + Short Talks on Masonry. 1928. + The Men's House. 1923. + The Great Light in Masonry. 1924. + The Three Degrees and Great Symbols of Masonry. 1924. + The Religion of Masonry. 1927. +Oppenheim. The Jews and Masonry in the United States Before 1810. + 1910. +Perry. Masonic Addresses. 1938-40. + The Masonic Way of Life. 1968. +Pick & Knight. The Pocket history of Freemasonry. 1969. +Pike. The Meaning of Masonry. 1924. +Poage. Masonic Meditations. 1925. +Poole. The Old Charges. 1924. +Pound. Masonic Addresses and Writings. 1953. + Lectures on Masonic Jurisprudence. 1924. +Robbins. English-Speaking Freemasonry. 1930. +Roberts. The Craft and its Symbols. 1974. +Roth. Masonry in the Formation of our Goverment. 1927. +Roy. Stalwart Builders, a History of the Grand Lodge of Masons + in Massachusetts 1733-1978. 1980. + Dare We Be Masons. 1966. +Shepherd. The Landmarks of Freemasonry. 1924. +Snodgrass. The History of Freemasonry in Tennessee. 1944. +Steiner. Masonry Illustrated. 1953. +Steinmetz. Freemasonry : Its Hidden Meaning. 1948. + The Lost Word : Its Hidden Meaning. 1953. + The Royal Arch : Its Hidden Meaning. 1946. +Stewart. Symbolic Teachings; or, Masonry and Its Message. 1923. +Street. Symbolism of The Three Degrees. 1922. +Tatsch. Short Readings in Masonic History. 1926. + Free Masonry in the Thirteen Colonies. 1933. + The Facts ABout George Washington as a Freemason; 1932. +Taylor & Beach. Historical Sketch of the Grand Lodge of Masons + in Massachusetts from its beginings in 1733 to the + present time. 1973. +Vibert. Freemasonry Before the Existance of Grand Lodges. 1916. +Voorhis. Masonic Rosicrutian Socities. 1958. +Vrooman & Roberts. Sword & Trowel. 1964. +Ward. Freemasonry : Its Aims and Ideals. 1923. +Wiest. Freemasonry in AMerican COurts. 1958. +Wilmhurst. The Meaning of Masonry. 1922. +Wright. The Ethics of Freemasonry. 1924. + Robert Burns and His Masonic Circle. 1929. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/mayfl11.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/mayfl11.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4eb9ec77 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/mayfl11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +The Mayflower Compact + +November 11, 1620 [This was November 21, old style calendar] + +In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, +the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereigne Lord, King James, +by the Grace of God, of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, +King, Defender of the Faith, &c. + +Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of +the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, +a Voyage to plant the first colony in the Northerne Parts +of Virginia; doe, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually +in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and +combine ourselves together into a civill Body Politick, +for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance +of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, +constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances, +Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, +as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the +Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise +all due Submission and Obedience. + +In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names +at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Raigne of our +Sovereigne Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland, +the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth, +Anno. Domini, 1620. + +Mr. John Carver Mr. Stephen Hopkins +Mr. William Bradford Digery Priest +Mr. Edward Winslow Thomas Williams +Mr. William Brewster Gilbert Winslow +Isaac Allerton Edmund Margesson +Miles Standish Peter Brown +John Alden Richard Bitteridge +John Turner George Soule +Francis Eaton Edward Tilly +James Chilton John Tilly +John Craxton Francis Cooke +John Billington Thomas Rogers +Joses Fletcher Thomas Tinker +John Goodman John Ridgate +Mr. Samuel Fuller Edward Fuller +Mr. Christopher Martin Richard Clark +Mr. William Mullins Richard Gardiner +Mr. William White Mr. John Allerton +Mr. Richard Warren Thomas English +John Howland Edward Doten +Edward Liester + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/mbrown.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/mbrown.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2694f991 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/mbrown.txt @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +The following is a letter written by Dr. James Dobson, Ph.D., concerning +Dan Quayle's infamous "Murphy Brown" speech. Dr. Dobson is the founder of +Focus on The Family, a Christian group which attempts to help Americans +discover the significance of a strong family in our society. Read the +letter, and then see if Quayle's speech was so funny. + +June 1992 + +Dear Friends, + ...Historically, we in North America have been indifferent to our +government's family policies. But that has changed radically since 1980. +Here in the United States, where the Presidential election is still nearly +five months away, the family and its moral upderpinnings are consistently +in the headlines. All of the candidates for the White House have been +addressing this concern in one way or another these past few weeks. +However, none of their pronouncements created much of a splash. None, that +is, until Vice President Dan Quayle's speech on May 20 in which he +criticized the Murphy Brown television show for glamorizing unwed +motherhood. That's when the media went into its familiar feeding frenzy. +And what a feast it was. + + David Letterman and a host of standup comedians tried to make Quayle +look like the world's biggest fool. Johnny Carson thanked the V.P. +mockingly for making his last week on the Tonight Show so easy. Barbara +Reynolds, columnist for USA Today, wrote with surprising venom: "Murphy +Brown or Dan Quayle? Which one is the most wretched excuse for a role +model in this country?" Ellen Snortland snorted in the L.A. Times, +"Traditionally family values is a right-wing euphemism for `a white +family where Daddy's the boss.'... Our country's government is not +pro-motherhood or even pro-parenthood. It's anit-choice, pro-married +and in favor of 'traditional motherhood' because the guys in government +want the old fairy-tale days back." + + CNN's Bernard Shaw, NBC's Andrea Mitchell and ABC's Peter Jennings +each took swipes at the Vice President. The New York Daily News carried +the headline "QUAYLE TO MURPHY BROWN: YOU TRAMP!" In Philadelphia it +was, "MURPHY HAS A BABY...QUAYLE HAS A COW." Matt Groening, the creator +of Fox's "The Simpsons," said, "You don't have to make up jokes about +Dan Quayle anymore. The real thing is too funny." + + Well just how funny was the real thing? Casual observers may not know +that the Vice President's comment about Murphy Brown represented a single +sentence in a seven-page speech that went largely unreported. Perhaps it +would be enlightening to read the context in which the remark was made. I +invite you to evaluate the following excerpts, which Hollywood and the +media considered to be the most stupid speech in recent memory. Judge +for yourself: + +________________________________________________________________________ + ...right now, the failure of our families is hurting America deeply. +When families fall, society falls. The anarchy and lack of structure in +our families inner cities are testament to how quickly civilization falls +apart when the family foundation cracks. Children need love and +discipline. The need mothers and fathers. A welfare check is not a +husband. The state is not a father. It is from parents that children +come to understand values and themselves as men and women, mothers and +fathers. + + And for those concerned about children growing up in poverty, we +should know this: marriage is probably the best anti-poverty program of +all. Among families headed by married couples today, there is a poverty +rate of 5.7 percent. But 33.4 percent of families headed by a single +mother are in poverty today. + + Nature abhors a vacuum. Where there are no mature, responsible +men around to teach boys how to become good men, gangs serve in their +place. In fact, gangs have become a surrogate family for much of a +generation of inner-city boys. I recently visited with some former +gang members in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In a private meeting, they +told me why the had joined gangs. These teenage boys said that gangs +gave them a sense of security. The made them feel wanted, and useful. +They got support from their friends. And they said, "It was like having +a family." "Like family" --unfortunately, that says it all. + + The system perpetuates itself as these young men father children +whom they have no intention of caring for, by women whose welfare checks +support them. Teenage girls, mired in the same hopelessness, lack +sufficient motive to say no to this trap. + + Answers to our problems won't be easy. + + We can start by dismantling a welfare system that encourages +dependency and subsidizes broken families. We can attach conditions +-- such as school attendance, or work--to welfare. We can limit the +time a recipient gets benefits. We can stop penalizing marriage for +welfare mothers. We can enforce child support payment. + + Ultimately, however, marriage is a moral issue that requires cultural +concensus, and the use of social sanctions. Bearing babies irresponsibly +is simply, wrong. Failure to support children one has fathered is wrong. +We must be unequivocal about this. + + It doesn't help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown -- a +character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, +professional woman -- mocking the importance of a father, by bearing a +child alone, and calling just another "lifestyle choice." + + I know it is not fashionable to talk about moral values, but we need +to do it. Even though our cultural leaders in Hollywood, network TV +and national newspapers routinely jeer at them, I think that most of us in +this room know that some things are good, and other things are wrong. Now +it's time to make the discussion public. + + It's time to talk again about family, hard work, integrity, and +personal responsibility. We cannot be embarrassed out of our belief that +two parents, married to each other, are better in most cases for children +than one. That honest work is better than hand-outs --or crime. That we +are our brothers' keepers. That it's worth making an effort, even when +rewards aren't immediate. + + So I think the time has come to renew our public commitment to +Judeo-Christian values -- in our churches and synagogues, our civic +organizations and our schools. We are, as our children recite each +morning "one nation under God." That's a useful framework for +acknowledging a duty and an authority higher than our own pleasures and +for personal ambitions. + +_________________________________________________________________________ + + Well that's the substance of Dan Quayle's infamous speech of May 20. +Pretty hilarious stuff, huh? With such funny things coming out of +Washington, comedians need not make up any more jokes about the Vice +President. Carson, Letterman and Arsenio had their monologues prepared +for them. But in the midst of the frivolity, did you notice who didn't +laugh? + + Virtually every poll taken during the firestorm revealed that the +majority of the people agreed with Mr. Quayle. Isn't that interesting? +Hollywood and the press fired every big gun in their mighty arsenal from +ridicule to sarcasm yet the public came out solidly against them! The +Rocky Mountain News recorded over 14,000 calls for Quayle and only 5,000 +against. ... On TV station KCBS in Los Angeles 62 percent agreed Murphy +Brown set a bad example. What this public response indicates is just how +dramatically out of touch the entertainment industry and the media elite +are with the American people. + +... + +Sincerely, + +James C. Dobson, Ph.D. +President \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/md4gun.txt b/textfiles.com/politics/md4gun.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..800bc74b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/md4gun.txt @@ -0,0 +1,298 @@ + THE TRUTH ABOUT THE USE OF GUNS IN THE UNITED STATES + + November 23, 1993 + +I came upon the following information through John Grossbohlin, a good friend +of mine who recently attended a gun rights conference in Phoenix, Arizona. +He provided me a pamphlet that was printed by the organization "Doctors for +Integrity in Research and Public Policy." The pamphlet was authored by Edgar +A. Suter, M.D., who is the organization's chair. + + While I have seen much of the information provided in this pamphlet before, +I have seen no other compendium that presents so much so concisely. For this +reason, I have chosen to commit its contents to a computer file so that it +can be distributed more widely. I would hope that each and every person +reading this file would copy it and upload it to various bulletin boards +across the country. I would also hope that you will use its contents widely +in debates, computer BB discussions, letters to the editor, and in +correspondence with your lawmakers. If so, Dr. Suter's efforts and my own +will have proven worthwhile. What follows is the text of Dr. Suter's +excellent pamphlet. + + Regards, + + John Marshall + El Paso, Texas + CompuServe 76366,663 + Prodigy VFCM83A + + +============================================================= + + GUNS: + Facts & + Fallacies + + + Doctors for + Integrity in + Research & + Public Policy + + Edgar A. Suter, MD, Chair + 5201 Norris Canyon Road + Suite 140 + San Ramon, CA 94583 + +"Guns are used defensively by good people 1. to 2.4 million times every year +- lives saved, injuries prevented, medical costs saved, and property +protected" + +Revised 10/27/93 + +-+--------------------------------------------------------- + +POLITICS OR RESEARCH? . . . THE TAXPAYERS PAY + +On the issue of guns and violence, our group has uncovered shocking +incompetence, distortions and outright lies in many major medical journals. +We have discovered it is quite common for TAXPAYER-FUNDED gun control +researchers to fabricate and sculpt their data to bolster their biased and +foregone conclusions. + +The "peer review" process is supposed to prevent the publication of research +that is flawed in method or conclusions. Editorial bias has caused a +breakdown of that review process, allowing publication of much shoddy work +simply because it supported the "politically correct" view. Unusual +showmanship accompanies the announcements of gun prohibition advocates. Why? + +Our group is also concerned that the 1990 Harvard Medical Practice Study - a +sample from New York state - suggests that Americans are five times as likely +to die from a doctor as from a gun. An estimated 150,000 Americans die every +year from medical negligence - over five times as many deaths from doctors as +from guns! A "public health emergency" about which the American Medical +Association is suspiciously silent. Politics, lies or incompetence? + + +THE NUMBERS + +Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and the Editor in Chief of the Journal +of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr. George Lundberg, in a June +10, 1992 JAMA editorial, claimed "one million US inhabitants die prematurely +each year as the result of intentional homicide or suicide." Since an +average of 30,000 Americans die from gunshots each year, JAMA's claim is a +35-FOLD EXAGGERATION. Yet congressmen listen with respect to their testimony +on guns. + +THE "INNOCENT CHILDREN" EXAGGERATION + +Powerful images of children are used to mislead us. Prohibitionists foster +the image of gun deaths of "thousands of innocent children." In order to make +this claim, they have had to include young adults (to age 24) involved in +gang and drug crime - hardly "innocent children." 10 TO 20 TIMES MORE +CHILDREN DIE FROM CAR AND OTHER LEADING CAUSES OF ACCIDENTAL DEATHS AS DIE +FROM GUNS - for example, in 1988, compared with 2,608 car, 1,014 drowning, +and 10,094 burn deaths, 123 children (ages 0-10) died from gun accidents. + +THE "43 TIMES" FALLACY + +We have all head that "a gunowner is 43 times more likely to kill a family +member than intruder." How did this fallacy start? In a 1985 article in the +New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. Kellerman and Reay described the proper +way to calculate how many people are saved by guns compared to how many are +hurt by guns. The benefits should include, in the authors' own words, "cased +in which burglars or intruders are wounded or frightened away by the use or +display of a firearm [and] cases in which would-be intruders may have +purposely avoided a house known to be armed..." + +However, when Kellerman and Reay calculated their comparison, they did NOT +include those cases, they only counted the times a homeowner KILLED the +criminal. Because only 0.1% (1 in a 1,000) of defensive gun usage involves +the death of the criminal, KELLERMAN AND REAY UNDERSTATED THE PROTECTIVE +BENEFITS OF FIREARMS BY A FACTOR OF 1,000! They turned the truth on its head! +Why? Kellerman emotionally confessed his anti-gun prejudice at the 1993 HELP +Conference. + +Honest analysis, even by Kellerman and Reay's own standards, shows the "43 +times" comparison to be superficially appealing, but actually a deceitful +contrivance - unfortunately, a lie that is parroted by the well-funded +gun-prohibition lobby and by gullible and biased journalists. + + +THE "POLICE CHIEF'S" FALLACY + +The victim disarmament lobby wants us to believe that it is dangerous to +resist crimes like rape and assault using a gun - but USING A GUN IS ACTUALLY +SAFER THAN NOT RESISTING OR RESISTING WITH LESS POWERFUL MEANS. Defense with +a gun results in fewer injuries (17%) than resisting with less powerful means +(knives, 40%; other weapon, 22%; physical force, 51%; evasion, 35%; etc.) and +in fewer injuries than not resisting at all (25%). + +When a victim is successful in repelling a crime, the victim is unlikely to +report the crime, leaving police to deal only with the unsuccessful attempts +to defend oneself. Since police are exposed to a skewed sample of failure, +they can honestly, though incorrectly, conclude that it is dangerous to +attempt to defend oneself with a gun, the so-called "Police Chief's Fallacy" +named after the former San Jose, CA Police Chief Joseph McNamara, a vocal gun +prohibitionist. + +LICENSING, REGISTRATION, & BANS + +In a 1991 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Colin Loftin +attempted to show that Washington, DC's 1976 ban on new gun sales decreased +murder. Loftin and his co-authors, funded by YOUR tax money from the anti-gun +Centers for Disease Control (CDC), produced a piece of "research" with +several major flaws. Despite these flaws, the editorial board of the New +England Journal of Medicine, known for its anti-gun bias, published the +article anyway. + +Most shocking amongst the dozen flaws: + +* the apparent homicide drop began during 1974, 2 years BEFORE the gun law - +so how could the law be responsible for the temporary drop? + +* if the gun freeze were responsible for the homicide drop, we would expect +the drop to continue - the law hasn't changed, but the overall Washington, DC +homicide rate has skyrocketed to 8 TIMES THE NATIONAL AVERAGE since 1988. + +* justifiable and excusable homicides, including those by police officers, +were treated the same as murders and were not excluded from the study. + +* the study used raw numbers rather than population corrected rates, so did +not correct for the 20% population decrease in Washington, DC during the +study period or for the 25% increase in the control population - the imagined +drop in total homicides was not due to the gun law, as Loftin claimed, but +was due to other factors, such as the population drop! + +If "guns cause murder," why doesn't Virginia, the alleged "easy purchase" +source of DC's guns, have DC's murder rate? The black teenage male homicide +rate in DC is 227 per 100,000, yet less than 7 for rural, middle-aged white +men, the US group for whom gun ownership is highest - there is an inverse +relationship between homicide and gun density. Homicide rates have been +falling for decades for every group EXCEPT inner-city teenage males, the +group for whom gun ownership is ALREADY illegal throughout the entire US. + +THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO RESEARCH THAT SHOWS LICENSING, REGISTRATION, WAITING +PERIODS, OR GUN BANS DECREASE CRIME IN THE LEAST - obviously criminals that +murder, rape and deal drugs won't comply with any gun law. It is only good +citizens that will be disarmed, defenseless, dialing 911, and dependent upon +the dubious resources and questionable will of a capricious, rapacious, +incompetent, and uncaring government. + +THE 'ASSAULT WEAPONS" DECEPTION + +It is not just the American Medical Association, Handgun Control Inc. (HCI) +and the media that have hysterically and grossly exaggerated the criminal use +of semiautomatic guns. The California Attorney General's Office conducted +two statewide studies of the use of "assault weapons" in crime. Both the +1988 Helsley and the 1990 Johnson studies showed that such guns almost never +used in crime, EVEN IN THE MAJOR CENTERS OF DRUG VIOLENCE. Criminals prefer +concealable weapons, not big rifles and shotguns. The Attorney General office +ignored and denied the existence of the studies until the studies were leaked +to the press. + +Of over two dozen published studies on "assault weapons," only one FLAWED +"study" done by two newspaper reporters, the Cox newspaper study, suggested +that, EVEN IN THE HIGHEST CRIME AREAS, semiautomatic guns were used in more +than 0 to 3% of crimes. The Cox "study" is invalid because it was based on +gun traces. The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and +the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress have all +explained why gun traces cannot be used for statistical purpose - simply, +because guns are CHOSEN for tracing, such traces do not represent a true +SAMPLING of the kinds of guns used in crime. THE COX "STUDY" EXAGGERATED THE +USE OF "ASSAULT WEAPONS" IN CRIME FROM 3 TO OVER 100 TIMES, depending on the +definition of "assault weapon" and the locale studied. + +Almost all of these newly fearsome, expensive target rifles banned are +functionally like guns designed 100 years ago! The Los Angeles riots and +other disasters show us that these so-called "assault weapons" are often the +most appropriate weapons for self-protection by good citizens against mob and +gang violence. + + +THE "RELATIVES & FRIENDS" FALLACY + +Gun prohibitionists would have us believe that most murders involve ordinary +people driven to kill in a sudden fit of rage only because a gun was present. +This is based on HCI's distortion of the FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics. + To the FBI, a murderer or rapist that lives in the victim's apartment +building or dueling drug dealers are "acquaintances." These are the "friends +and family" that HCI says kill each other - DEFINITELY NOT LIKE THE FRIENDS +AND FAMILY YOU AND I HAVE. + +Almost all the "relatives" killed each year are the very same men, well-known +to the police, that have been brutalizing their wives, girlfriends, and +children for years - those men are killed in self-defense. Would it be more +"politically correct" if those women or children were killed by their +abusers? + +Law professor Don Kates has written, "Far from being ordinary, otherwise +law-abiding citizens, those who commit murders, as every study of homicide +shows, are real criminals with long histories of violence against the people +around them...Indicative of this are FBI statistics showing that 74.7% of +persons arrested for murder had been arrested previously for a violent felony +or burglary..." + +CONCLUSIONS + +As a dozen national studies show, including a study by the National Institute +of Justice and two studies commissioned by gun-prohibition organization, GUNS +DO PROTECT US! GUNS ARE USED DEFENSIVELY BY GOOD PEOPLE 1 GO 2.4 MILLION +TIMES PER YEAR, far exceeding all reliable estimates of criminal misuse. +Using a gun to resist a crime or assault is safer than not resisting at all +or resisting with means other than firearms. Guns not only repel crime, guns +deter crime as is shown by numerous surveys of criminals. + +The studies proving the ineffectiveness and the dangers of gun prohibition +are met with "if it saves only one life..." The most loving person, however, +must admit that A GOOD PERSON'S LIFE LOST BECAUSE A GUN WAS ABSENT IS AT +LEAST AS VALUABLE AS A LIFE LOST BECAUSE A GUN WAS PRESENT. Since 50 to 75 +lives are saved by a gun for every life lost to a gun, we must see deceitful +images that pluck at our heartstrings for the lies they are - not a basis for +public policy - even when a doctor, a policeman, or a medical journal is +telling the lie! + +HOW CAN YOU HELP? + +SPREAD THE TRUTH! Make and distribute copies of this brochure, even to +advocates of "gun control." + +WRITE YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE LEGISLATORS. Insist that public policy be +formulated using honest data and that their be no taxpayer funding of biased +or incompetent research by the CDC or any other tax-funded group. Insist that +taxpayer-funded studies, like the assault weapon studies by the California +Attorney General's Office, be made public, not suppressed because the results +were "politically incorrect." + +WRITE newspapers, TV, and medical journals and tell them that you will not +tolerate dishonest or imbalanced reporting on gun control and other issues. +Expose the fallacies and show them the honest data. + +GET INVOLVED AND VOTE for legislators that are truthful and that support your +freedoms to defend yourself, your family, and your community. + +DONATE to our group and others that support your rights to protect yourself +from criminals, crazies, and tyrants. + +FOR FURTHER READING... + +POINT BLANK by Gary Kleck Ph.D. is a comprehensive evaluation of the research +on gun control and violence available from the publisher, Aldine de Gruyter, +at: (914) 747-0110. + +THE SAMURAI, THE MOUNTIE, AND THE COWBOY: SHOULD AMERICA ADOPT THE GUN +CONTROLS OF OTHER DEMOCRACIES? By David Kopel +JD is a comprehensive cross-cultural comparison of gun control and violence +in other countries available from the publisher, Prometheus Press, at: (716) +691-0133. + + +============================================================ + +Once again, please circulate this file as widely as possible, and do it +today. + + Thanks to all for reading, + + John Marshall + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/media-an b/textfiles.com/politics/media-an new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7cbbda4a --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/media-an @@ -0,0 +1,331 @@ +Here's a short article excerpted from my upcoming book tentatively +entitled "Communication in Peace and War" (Brooks-Cole, 1992). + + "Media Performance and International Law" + by Howard H. Frederick, Ph.D. + + Events since the end of the Cold War have shown that the old order +must be replaced with a new international order. But the world community +must seize the time to create a its own new order to prevent the unipolar +power from doing so. That new world order requires broad acceptance of the +rule of law and should conform to the principles and purposes of only one +institution: the United Nations and its Charter. + + A truly democratic "preferred" world order depends heavily on the +global information channels. Communication media do not merely report +violations and victories of human rights. There is also a growing +realization that communication and information are central to human rights. +What is worse, the media have often played a role in exacerbating tensions. +Today the media face the challenge of how to bring about peace, build +confidence among nations and strengthen international understanding. + + International communication and information law comprises those legal +institutions, instruments and processes that govern communication among and +between individuals, peoples, cultures, nations and technologies. It is +found throughout the legal instruments on human rights, international +security, telecommunications, postal service, outer space, intellectual +property, trade and customs regulation, and culture and education. In this +article we briefly sketch media norms on human rights and summarize the +entire body of law in thirteen basic norms for media performance under +international law. + + Oft-overlooked by the media themselves, a vast body of international +law regulates what is increasingly being called "international information +relations." Indeed, nations have obeyed the international law of +communication and information for more than a century. Every time a new +innovation in communication technology appears, international law arises to +regulate it. Gutenberg's invention of the printing press led John Milton +to call for a "right to freedom of expression." Morse's discovery of the +telegraph led to the creation of the International Telegraph Convention. +The development of wireless radio led quickly to the International Radio +Telegraph Convention. The "radio wars" of the 1930s led to the famous +International Convention Concerning the Use of Broadcasting in the +Cause of Peace. + + One perplexing question comes to mind when we speak of the media. Can +international law be applied to private media firms and individual +communicators? States themselves are of course the subjects of +international law; State-controlled or State-financed mass media (e.g. +government broadcasting stations) are necessarily included here. Private +media were traditionally not subjects of international law. But From +Article 26 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, we +can deduce that States today have general obligations in the sphere of +international law which they cannot evade by pointing to domestic laws. +The manner in which international law is enforced on private media is a +matter of a state's sovereign prerogative. If international law prohibits +propaganda for war or racism, the State has an obligation to regulate the +private media in this regard. + + One instance of a professional communicator being the subject of +international law was the Nazi propagandist, Julius Streicher, editor of +the anti-semitic newspaper Der Stuermer. He was accused of crimes +against humanity under the 1945 Charter of the International Military +Tribunal, the so-called Nuremberg Tribunal, which had the power to try +and punish Axis soldiers who committed crimes against peace, war crimes, +and crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg judges interpreted "crimes +against humanity" to include propaganda and incitement to genocide. The +Court determined that for more than twenty-five years Streicher had engaged +in writing and preaching anti-Semitism and had called for the extermination +of the Jewish people in 1938. Based on a content analysis of articles from +Der Stuermer, the judges further determined that Streicher had +aroused the German people to active persecution of the Jewish people. The +International Military Tribunal found Streicher guilty and condemned him to +death by hanging. + + ________________________________________________ + MAJOR DOCUMENTS OF THE + INTERNATIONAL LAW OF + COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION + ________________________________________________ + + When we examine the Charter and the many instruments that constitute +international communication and information law, we find thirteen basic +principles on media performance. + + Communications media may not be used for war and aggression. +The universally respected principle that prohibits the threat or use of +force by one State against another forbids not only war of aggression but +also propaganda for wars of aggression. This means that propaganda +glorifying the threat or use of force in international relations is +prohibited by law. States are forbidden from spreading warmongering +content themselves, e.g. through government-owned and -operated +international radio stations. They are also obligated to stop any war +propaganda emanating from their territory by private groups. + + Communications media shall not be used to intervene in the +internal affairs of another State. This principle forbids all forms of +interference or attempted threats against a State or against its political, +economic and cultural elements. This includes organizing, assisting, +fomenting, financing, inciting or tolerating subversive information +activities directed towards the overthrow of another state, or interfering +in civil strife in another state. It also bans systemically undermining +public support for the opponent's inner cohesion, gradually putting another +country's state leadership in a state of uncertainly and discouragement, +diminishing its ability to act under the pressure of a national public +opinion undergoing a process of reorientation. This principle prohibits +subversive foreign broadcasts which attempt to change another country's +governing system or which try to foment discontent and incite unrest. + + All dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, +incitement to racial discrimination are punishable by law. This +principle forbids the information activities of all organizations based on +ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one +color or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote racial +hatred, discrimination in any form. Binding international law prohibits +all dissemination of these ideas as well as all organizations which promote +and incite racial discrimination. It is a crime against humanity to +directly abet, encourage or cooperate in the commission of racial +discrimination. + + The direct and public incitement to destroy a national, ethnic, +racial or religious group is punishable by law. This includes using +the media to incite another person to destroy in whole or in part, a +national, ethnic, racial or religious group. As the Nuremberg Tribunal set +out, crimes against humanity include "murder, extermination, enslavement, +deportation, and other inhuman acts performed against any civilian +population prior to or during the war." + + States are obligated to modify the social and cultural practices, +including information and communication activities, that are based on the +inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes and to eliminate any +stereotyped concept of roles of men and women. These may mean changing +media practices which advocate discrimination against women. + + Media should play a positive role in educating and enlightening +the public toward peace. Through international law, media are +repeatedly called on to promote a better knowledge of the conditions of +life and the organization of peace. Media activities should incorporate +contents compatible with the task of the preparation for life in peace. +The mass media must contribute effectively to the strengthening of peace +and international understanding and to the promotion of human rights. + + Peoples enjoy equal rights and self-determination in communication +and information. All peoples have the right freely to pursue their +chosen system of economic, social and cultural development. This includes +the right to develop local information and communication infrastructures +without the interference of external parties, to establish communication +policies for the benefit of the people, and to participate in international +information relations without discrimination. + + State enjoy sovereign equality in the communication and +information infrastructures. Every state has an inalienable right to +choose its political, social economic and cultural systems without +interference in any form by another State. States enjoy the full rights of +sovereignty and territorial integrity in the area of communication and +information. From this we derive the principle of "information +sovereignty," which includes: the right to a locally controlled +communication infrastructure; the right to an indigenous communication +policy; the right to participate as an equal in international information +relations; the right to transmit non-belligerent foreign propaganda; the +right to conclude bilateral or multilateral agreements in the area of +communication and information; and the obligation to respect the +information sovereignty of other States. Every national communication +system has juridical expression through an "information authority," +especially in its constitutional, penal, civil, press, copyright, post and +telecommunications laws. + + Disputes about communication and information must be settled +peacefully. The principle that governments must settle their +international disputes by peaceful means applies to the processes of +international communication and information. Many international +communications activities require advance coordination and, if conflict +arises, peaceful resolution through negotiation. This principle implies +that conflicts such as unwanted direct satellite broadcasting must be +settled by negotiation. If a nation is aggrieved in an area of +international information relations, it may call upon the violating nation +to settle the dispute in a way that does not endanger international peace +and security. This duty also implies that States must refrain from and +prevent hostile and subversive ideological campaigns. + + Communication and information demand international +cooperation. Despite their differences, States have a built-in +incentive to cooperate in the field of international communication. +International broadcasters need to coordinate their frequencies to avoid +interference. New technologies such as transborder data flow and +international satellite television cannot succeed technically without the +willingness of States to work cooperatively toward mutually beneficial +solutions. Future technologies cannot prosper without international +cooperation in setting technical standards. Cooperation guarantees +technical success and assures the sovereign equality of States. + + Good faith obligations require States to uphold international +communication and information law. States must fulfill in good faith +their obligations under recognized international law. States must be aware +of such obligations and obligations to the United Nations Charter and +cannot refrain from upholding them by pointing to national law. This +applies in all areas of international law, including international +communication and information law. + + Certain kinds of international information content are +prohibited. There is an absolute ban on war propaganda. In addition, +there are prohibition of communication content advocating hatred, acts of +violence or hostility among peoples and races. Media may not advocate +colonialism, nor may they be used in propaganda against international +treaties. This includes all communication activities which attempts to +prohibit or impede the fulfillment of in-force treaty obligations among +States. In addition, the circulation of obscene publications is forbidden +under binding international law. + + Certain kinds of information content are encouraged. To +begin, the principle of free flow of information is prominent throughout +international communication and information law. Everyone has the right to +freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold +opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information +and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Although this +right is often abused by powerful countries, it is important to remember +that this is one of the fundamental goals of international communication +and information law. + + As we enter the 1990s, there is a growing realization that +communication and information are central to human rights. +Communication media do not merely defend human rights by reporting +violations and victories. There is a growing perception that the right +to communicate should be added to the Universal Declaration among the +basic human rights cherished by all peoples. This new right +transcends the right to receive information, as guaranteed in the Universal +Declaration. Today, communication among nations must be a two-way process +in which partners--both individual and collective--carry on a democratic +and balanced dialogue and the mass media operate in the service of peace +and international understanding. + + Just like their earthly counterparts, electronic highways require +"rules of the road." Regulation is important and necessary for our highly +congested communication thoroughfares. To carry this analogy one step +further, rules prohibiting drunk drivers from our streets are not meant to +limit freedom. They increase the freedom for the good drivers. In the +same way, regulations against communications violating international norms +are not meant to limit freedom to communicate. They are meant to +strengthen the freedom for responsible communication. In our lifetimes, +international law has grown immensely and is respected now more than ever. +The evolutionary trend is apparent--and so is the work before us. + + APPENDIX I + + MAJOR DOCUMENTS OF THE + INTERNATIONAL LAW OF + COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION + + U.S adherence to a binding treaty is indicated with the code +US=SRE, where S=signed, R=ratified, E=entered into force US=NS +means that the United States has not signed that particular +instrument. US=S means that the United States has signed that +treaty but not ratified it. + +1791 Bill of Rights, U.S Constitution +1883/1967 Convention Revising the Paris Convention of March 20, 1883, as + revised, for the Protection of Industrial Property US=SRE +1884 Convention for the Protection of Submarine Cables US=SRE +1886 Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Berne + US=SRE +1910 Agreement for the Suppression of the Circulation of Obscene Publica- + tions and 1949 Protocol US=SRE +1910 Convention Concerning Literary and Artistic Copyright US=SRE +1923 International Convention for the Suppression of the Circulation of and + Traffic in Obscene Publications US=NS +1936 International Convention Concerning the Use of Broadcasting the Cause + of Peace US=NS +1945 Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War + Criminals of the European Axis Powers and Charter of the International + Military Tribunal US=SRE +1945 Charter of the United Nations US=SRE +1945 Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and + Cultural Organizations US=WITHDRAWN 1984 +1945 Statute of the International Court of Justice US=DENOUNCED + 1986 +1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide + US=SRE +1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights +1949 Agreement for Facilitating the International Circulation of Visual and + Auditory Materials of an Educational, Scientific and Cultural + Character, with protocol US=SRE +1949 Conventions for the Protection of War Victims US=SRE +1950 Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural + Materials, with protocol US=SRE +1950 [Western European] Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and + Fundamental Freedoms US=NS +1952 Convention on the International Right of Correction US=NS +1952 Universal Copyright Convention as revised with two protocols annexed + thereto US=SRE +1958 Convention Concerning the Exchange of Official Publications and Gov- + ernment Documents between States US=SRE +1958 Convention Concerning the International Exchange of Publications + US=SRE +1960 Convention Against Discrimination in Education, and 1962 Protocol + US=NS +1961 International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers + and Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome Convention) + US=NS +1966 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial + Discrimination US=S +1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Optional + Protocol US=S +1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights + US=S +1966 Optional Protocol to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and + Human Rights US=NS +1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization + US=SRE +1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Explo- + ration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and other Celestial + Bodies US=SRE +1969 American Convention on Human Rights US=S +1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the + Crime of Apartheid US=NS +1974 Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme-Carrying Signals + Transmitted by Satellite US=SRE +1978 Final Document of the Tenth Special Session of the General Assembly on + Disarmament +1978 Unesco "Declaration on the Fundamental Principles Concerning the + Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and Internation- + al Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and to Countering + Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War" (Mass Media Declaration) +1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against + Women US=S +1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea US=NS +1982 International Telecommunications Convention US=SRE +1983 Declaration on the Condemnation of Nuclear War +1984 Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace +1984 Third Additional Protocol (Final Acts) to the Constitution of the + Universal Postal Union of July 10, 1964, General Regulations with + Annex, and the Universal Postal Convention with Final Protocol and + Detailed Regulations US=SRE diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/media_co.e-m b/textfiles.com/politics/media_co.e-m new file mode 100644 index 00000000..867f0b4b --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/media_co.e-m @@ -0,0 +1,415 @@ +From FrInk@andronix.org Sun Oct 23 09:40:47 1994 +Date: Thu Oct 20 15:23:02 1994 +From: FrInk@andronix.org +To: a-albionic.com!jhdaugh@uunet.uu.net +Subject: 'Congress and Media email accounts' + +******* Start of 'files\frink.002' ******* + +Date: Thu, 4 Aug 1994 22:53:54 -0700 +From: Jeff Chan +To: firearms-alert@nova.unix.portal.com +Subject: INFO: Congress, media email addresses + +Here is a list of Congressional Represeintatives and senators who can be +reached by e-mail. You may want to save it for future reference. + + CONGRESSIONAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES + + United States Senate + + ID Craig, Larry larry_craig@craig.senate.gov. + MA Kennedy, Ted senate@kennedy.senate.gov + NM Bingaman, Jeff Senator_Bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov + VA Robb, Charles senator_robb@robb.senate.gov + + + United States House of Representatives + + AK 4 Dickey, Jay JDICKEY@HR.HOUSE.GOV + AZ 1 Coppersmith, Sam SAMAZ01@HR.HOUSE.GOV + CA 7 Miller, George FGEORGEM@HR.HOUSE.GOV + CA 13 Stark, Pete PETEMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV + CA 14 Eshoo, Anna ANNAGRAM@HR.HOUSE.GOV + CN 2 Gejdenson, Sam BOZEH@HR.HOUSE.GOV + FL 20 Deutsch, Peter PDEUTSCH@HR.HOUSE.GOV + GA 6 Gingrich, Newton GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV + IL 14 Hastert, Dennis DHASTERT@HR.HOUSE.GOV + ME 1 Andrews, Thomas TANDREWS@HR.HOUSE.GOV + MI 3 Ehlers, Vernon CONGEHLR@HR.HOUSE.GOV + MI 4 Camp, Dave DAVECAMP@HR.HOUSE.GOV + MI 14 Conyers, John JCONYERS@HR.HOUSE.GOV + MN 3 Ramstad, Jim MN03@HR.HOUSE.GOV + MN 6 Grams, Rod RODGRAMS@HR.HOUSE.GOV + NC 7 Rose, Charlie CROSE@HR.HOUSE.GOV + NC 11 Taylor, Charles CHTAYLOR@HR.HOUSE.GOV + NC 12 Watt, Mel MELMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV + ND Pomeroy, Earl EPOMEROY@HR.HOUSE.GOV + NJ 12 Zimmer, Dick DZIMMER@ZHR.HOUSE.GOV + NY 23 Boehlert, Sherwood BOEHLERT@HR.HOUSE.GOV + OH 2 Hoke, Martin HOKEMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV + OR 1 Furse, Elizabeth FURSEOR@HR.HOUSE.GOV + TX 3 Johnson, Sam SAMTX03@HR.HOUSE.GOV + UT 2 Shepherd, Karen SHEPHERD@HR.HOUSE.GOV + WA 1 Cantwell, Maria CANTWELL@HR.HOUSE.GOV + WA 9 Kreidler, Mike KREIDLER@HR.HOUSE.GOV + + + U.S. House of Representatives Committees + + Education and Labor + Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations + SLABMGNT@HR.HOUSE.GOV + + Natural Resources + NATRES@HR.HOUSE.GOV + + Science, Space, and Technology + HOUSESST@HR.HOUSE.GOV + + + The above information was compiled from the Senate and House Gophers.. + Send corrections/additions to grace.york@um.cc.umich.edu + + +-------------------------------------------- + + + ---------------------- + Media on Internet list + ---------------------- + +What follows is a list of newpapers and other mass media outlets which +have some form of contact via internet. This is nowhere near as +comprehensive as it should be, so if you know of a paper which should be +added, or of corrections to be made, drop me a line giving details. + +If you plan on writing a letter or note to any of the following media, +don't forget to include your name, address and daytime phone. + +If you can't find a listing where you expect it, check at the very end, +where new entries have been placed. These either have not been +alphabetized yet, or their geographic location could not be ascertained +by my under rested thinking organ. If you can't find it there, submit a +correction / addition. + +My address is gsu0010@bgu.edu + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +ST CITY MEDIA OUTLET NAME INTERNET ADDRESS CONTACT + +AK Anchorage Daily News 74220.2560@compuserve.com +AL Birmingham Blazer Tribune kpate@vprua.vprua.uab.edu Ken Pate +AL Birmingham WYDE-AM tony.giles@the-matrix.com Tony Giles +AL Mobile WALA-TV gripper@aol.com Bob Grip +AR Little Rock KARK newsfour@aol.com +AZ Phoenix Phoenix Gazette phxgazette@aol.com +AZ Tuscon KUAT-TV, PBS comments@kuat.arizona.edu +BC Vancouver Vancouver Columbian vanpaper@aol.com +CA Contra Cost CC County Times cctletrs@netcom.com +CA Los Angeles Fox TV Network foxnet@delphi.com +CA Los Angeles Urb Magazine urbmag@netcom.com +CA Palo Alto Palo Alto Weekly paweekly@netcom.com. +CA Palo Alto KZSU-FM info@kzsu.stanford.edu + releases@kzsu.stanford.edu +CA Sacremento Sacremento Bee sacbee@netcom.com + sacbedit@netcom.com +CA San Diego SD Union-Tribune computerlink@sduniontrib.com +CA San Diego APR "Marketbasket" market@mizar.usc.edu +CA San Francis Associated Press weise@well.sf.ca.us On the Net +Col. +CA San Francis KDFC-AM/FM ------------------- + General comments comments@kksf.tbo.com + News releases news@kksf.tbo.com +CA San Francis KKSF-FM SAME AS KDFC-AM/FM +CA San Francis KPIX-TV, CBS 74001.3461@compuserve.com +CA San Francis SF Examiner sfexaminer@aol.com +CA San Francis SF Examiner Mag. sfxmag@mcimai.com +CA San Francis Whole Earth Review wer@well.sf.ca.us +CA San Francis U. Magazine umag@well.sf.ca.us +CA San Jose Mercury News ------------------ -------------- + Editorial Columnist JOJACOBS@aol.com Joanne +Jacobs + Environment Writer STHURM@aol.com Scott Thurm + Editorial PHILIPY809@aol.com Phil Yost +CA San Jose OutNOW! jct@netcom.com +CA San Jose The Spartan Daily MEAGHER@sjsuvm1.sjsu.edu Jason Meagher + (408)924-3280 Ed. (408)924-7932 V-mail +CA San Luis Ob KCBX kcbx@slonet.org +CA San Mateo San Mateo Times smtimes@crl.com +CA Santa Cruz Cruz Cnty Sentinel -------------------- + --------------- + Voice (408)423-4242 kevinw@cruzio.com Kevin Woodward + Letters to editor sented@cruzio.com + News desk sentcity@cruzio.com +CA Santa Cruz KUSP-FM kusp@cruzio.com +CA Santa Rosa The SRJC Oak Leaf roger@well.sf.ca.us Roger Karraker +CA Santa Rosa Silueta silueta@wave.sci.org +CA Travis AFB Tailwind paffairs@EMH1.TRAVIS.AF.MIL TSgt. DC +Washington Aviation Daily grahamg@mgh.com +DC Washington Journal Newspaper thejournal@aol.com +DC Washington National Pub Radio ---------------------- + Mon.Radio Letterbox letterbox@wshb.csms.com + Talk of the Nation totn@aol.com + Science Friday scifri@aol.com + Fresh Air freshair@hslc.org + West Coast Live west_coast_live@netcom.com + Weekend ATC watc@cap.gwu.edu + Weekend Ed./Sunday wesun@clark.net +DC Washington PBS "POV" povonline@aol.com +DC Washington Surveillant,Mil Int 70346.1166@compuserve.com +DC Washington U.S.News&World Rpt vic@access.digex.net Vic Sussman + Voice (202)955-2093 Fax (202)955-2549 +DC Washington USA Today usatoday@clark.net +DC Washington VOA/Worldnet TV ------------------- + From outside the US letters@voa.gov + From within the US letters-usa@voa.gov + QSLs outside US qsl@voa.gov + QSLs inside US qsl-usa@voa.gov + Agriculture Today agri@voa.gov + VOA-Europe(English) voa-europe@voa.gov + VOA-Morning Program voa-morning@voa.gov +FL Miami Sun-Sentinel vineeditor@aol.com +FL Orlando GQ Magazine gqmag@aol.com +FL St.Petersbu St.Petersburg Times 73174.3344@compuserve.com +FL Tallahassee Tallahasse Democrat letters@freenet.fsu.edu +IA Des Moines WHO-AM news@who-radio.com +IA Iowa City Icon icon@igc.apc.org +IL Chicago Playboy playboy@class.com +IL Chicago The Tribune tribletter@aol.com + ericzorn@aol.com Eric Zorn +IL Chicago The Sun Times decc@cs.uchicago.edu Don Crabb + Voice (312)702-7173 Fax(312)702-9417 +IL Chicago WBBM-TV, CBS wbbmch2@aol.com +IL Chicago WGN-TV wgntv@aol.com +IL Evanston Daily Northwestern daily@merle.acns.nwu.edu +IL Glen Ellyn WDCB Radio scotwitt@delphi.com +IL Park Forest 2nd Amend. Caucus gunsmoke@bgu.edu Karl +Rademacher +IL Peoria Peoria Journal Star xxnews@heartland.bradley.edu +IL Peoria WEEK-TV xxweek@heartland.bradley.edu +IL Springfield Illinois Issues wojcicki@eagle.sangamon.edu. +IL Univ. Park The Innovator gsurag@bgu.edu Jeff Dinelli + Voice (708)534-4517 +IL Urbana News-Gazette gazette@prairienet.org +IN Greencastle DePauw Magazine mlillich@depauw.edu +KS Lawrence C User's Journal cujsub@rdpub.com +MA Cambridge Sky & Telescope skytel@cfa.harvard.edu +MA Cambridge The Tech ------------------ ------------- + News news@the-tech.mit.edu Sports + sports@the-tech.mit.edu +MA Boston Bay Windows baywindo@world.std.com +MA Boston The Boston Globe multiple listings + letters to editor letter@globe.com + MA Framingham Middlesex News multiple listings + general news@news.ci.net + letters to editor letters@news.ci.net + op ed page oped@news.ci.net + The Answer guys guys@news.ci.net +MI Albion Student Newspaper cleverett@albion.bitnet Chris Leverett +MI Detroit WXYZ-TV, ABC Affil. wxyztv@aol.com +MI Flint Flint Journal fj@flintj.com +MI ? Student Movement smeditor@andrews.edu +ME Maine PubTV "Media Watch" greenman@maine.maine.edu +MN Minneapolis Minnesota Daily network@edit.mndly.umn.edu. +MN Minneapolis Training Magazine trainmag@aol.com +MN Minneapolis Twin Cities Reader sari23@aol.com +MN Minneapolis WCCO-TV wccotv@mr.net +MN St. Paul Pioneer Press vpress@aol.com +MO Columbia KOMU-TV, NBC swoelfel@bigcat.missouri.edu. +MO St. Charles St.Charles Countian pacmosteve@aol.com +MO St. Louis KWMU-FM kwmu@umslva.bitnet +MO Springfield News-Leader --------------------- -------------- + Letters to editor nleditor@ozarks.sgcl.lib.mo.us + Press releases nlnews@ozarks.sgcl.lib.mo.us +MO West County West Countian pacmosteve@aol.com +NAM Windhoek The Namibian tom@namibian.com.na +NE Lincoln Neb.Educational TV etv@unlinfo.unl.edu +NF St. John's The Muse muse@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Raylene Rowe + Voice (709)737-4758 Fax (709)737-4753 +NM Albequerque Albequerque Journal multiple listings + higher education ntipton@carina.unm.edu Nancy Tipton + columnist jbelshaw@triton.unm.edu Jim Belshaw + national security jfleck@hydra.unm.edu John Fleck +NOR Oslo Morgenbladet truls@telepost.no +NY Buffalo WBFO wbfo@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu +NY Geneva WEOS weos@hws.bitnet +NY Ithaca WICB wicb@aol.com +NY New York NBC Nightly News nightly@nbc.com +NY New York NBC Dateline dateline@nbc.ge.com +NY New York New York Press nyp@echonyc.com +NY New York Rolling Stone rollingstone@echonyc.com +NY New York Rush Limbaugh Show 70277.2502@compuserve.com +NY New York Small Business Gaz. jimd34@aol.com +NY New York Spectrum n.hantman@ieee.org +NY New York NY Transfer News nyt@blythe.org Kathleen Kelly + Modem (718)448-2358 Fax (718)448-3423 +NY New York The Village Voice voice@echonyc.com +NY New York Washington Squ.News nyuwsn@aol.com +NY New York WCBS-AM, CBS news88@prodigy.com +NY New York WNYC 76020.560@compuserve.com +NY Oswego WRVO-FM wrvo@oswego.edu +NY ? JSU Newsl, Poly UNY jsu@photon.poly.edu +NY ? Reporter, Poly UNY reporter@photon.poly.edu +OH Bowling Gre The BG News bgnews@andy.bgsu.edu Chris Hawley +OH Cleveland WWWE 1100 AM talk11a@prodigy.com +OH Elyria Chronicle-Telegram macroncl@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu +OH Elyria WEOL-AM maweol@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu +OH Elyria WNWV-FM maweol@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu +OH Lorain Morning Journal mamjornl@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu +OH Oberlin Oberlin Alumni Mag. pgrashoff@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu + Editor Voice(216)775-8182 Linda Grashoff +OH Oberlin Chronicle-Telegram macroncl@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu +OH Yellow Spri Antioch Comm.Record record@chaos.antioch.edu Anne Danahy + Voice(513)767-6418 C. Feuerstein +OH Youngstown WFMJ-TV news21a@yfn.ysu.edu +OH ? The Morning Journal a1356@freenet.lorain.oberlin.edu + R. Hendrickson +OH ? Ohio U.Public Radio radio@ohiou.edu +OH ? Ohio U.Public TV tv@ohiou.edu +ON ? TV Ont."The Future" the_future@tvo.org +ON Carleton The Charlatan --------------------- -------------- + wcsswag@ccs.carleton.ca + Voice(613)788-6680 wcspaper@ccs.carleton.ca + mcr@physics.carleton.ca Mike +Richardson +ON Ottawa CJOH-TV ab363@freenet.carleton.ca +ON Ottawa Frank Magazine ag419@freenet.carleton.ca +ON Ottawa Hill Times ab142@freenet.carleton.ca +ON Ottawa Ottawa Citizen ---------------------- -------------- + Editorial Pg Editor ac583@freenet.carleton.ca Peter Calamai +OR Eugene KLCC tammyr@efn.org Tammy Rae +OR Portland KOIN koin06A@prodigy.com +OR Portland Portland Oregonian oreeditors@aol.com +PA Philadelphi City Paper 71632.57@compuserve.com +PA Philadelphi Drexel U. Triangle blyweias@duvm.bitnet +PAPhiladelphi Phil. Inquirer editpage@aol.com +PA Pittsburg WRCT-FM wrct@andrew.cmu.edu +PA Univ. 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Just keep the letter breif, sign with +name and address and phone number. If your letter doesn't get published, it +will still contribute by supporting the publishing of a similar point of +view. + +Regards, Clint + +******* End of 'files\frink.002' ******* + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Disclaimer - Neither FrInk@andronix.org nor anyone mentioned herein nor | + | the author is responsible for its content. Distribution is NOT an | + | endorsement or agreement with the content herein. This information is the | + | opinion of the author ONLY, is for educational and entertainment purposes | + | ONLY, has not necessarily been verified in ANY way, is NOT legal or other | + | advice, and is distributed "With Explicit Reservation Of All Rights | + | (U.C.C. 1-207)" and "Without Prejudice". The sender receives no | + | compensation for distributing this text. Permission to copy and | + | redistribute is hereby granted so long as the entire text is duplicated | + | EXACTLY in its original form with all HEADERS, CREDITS, and and this or | + | other DISCLAIMERS intact and in no other circumstances. Under no | + | circumstances may this information be resold or redistributed for | + | compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the | + | author. Copyright Notice - All original material contained herein is "(C) | + | Copyright 1991, 1192, 1993, 1994 by FrInk@andronix.org, Sui Juris, S.L.E. | + | All Rights Reserved." All duplicated material is Copyright by the Author | + | and quoted under the "Fair Use Doctrine" with permission where possible. | + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +=*=-=*=-=*=-=*= RANDOM LIBERTY/FREEDOM QUOTE FOR THIS MESSAGE =*=-=*=-=*=-=*= +"The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state controlled police and +the military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of +democracy... If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. +Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our +rulers. Only the government - and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the +outlaws." --Edward Abbey +=*=-=*=-=*= EMAIL INFO@ANDRONIX.ORG FOR INFO ON ANDRONIX SERVICES =*=-=*=-=*= diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.09 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.09 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f17d3622 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.09 @@ -0,0 +1,192 @@ +Return-Path: +Date: Fri, 4 Oct 91 03:13:10 CDT +From: sjackson (Steve Jackson) +Message-Id: <9110040813.AA20489@aahsa.tic.com> +To: eff-a +Subject: Reports on the first two directors' meetings +Cc: chapters-discuss@eff.org + + +MINUTES OF EFF-AUSTIN DIRECTORS' MEETING - Sept. 16, 1991 + These minutes were originally prepared by Lew Oleinick, and +supplemented heavily from Steve Jackson's notes. SJ prepared +the final draft; blame him for any problems. + + The meeting was held at Steve Jackson's home. + Those attending: Steve Jackson, Lar Kaufman, John Quarterman, +Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Matt Lawrence, Bruce Sterling, Jon Lebkowski, +Lew Oleinick. Also present were two writers from the Netherlands, +who were visiting Bruce. + + Status - SJ reported that Mitch Kapor had given the Austin chapter +full verbal approval to proceed. However, he (Mitch) would certainly +appreciate it if we didn't take any surprising public stands +without checking with Cambridge. It was agreed that we would +like to have some written statement from EFF proper as to how +they perceive our relationship to them. Most of those present were +uneasy about taking any action on behalf of EFF, or even representing +themselves as directors of the Austin group, without *something* +in writing. Questions were also raised as to exactly how the national +group is organized, and what prompted them to become a membership +organization. Since the national group has 501(c)(3) status, do we +have to apply for non-profit status? Should we? Can we? + It was suggested that we explore the ways that other large +national organizations operate with regard to their local +chapters. Smoot will check into the Sierra Club. The ACLU and +Audubon Society were also suggested as possible models. + Since we are the "test site" for local chapters of the EFF, it +was agreed that we should prepare a proposal for Cambridge as +to our relationship: our responsibilities, our duties, and our +"jurisdiction." There was discussion about the obvious distinction +between official statements on behalf of EFF, and interviews in +which one speaks as a concerned citizen. + It was pointed out that when any interview asks for a comment +on a subject on which Cambridge hasn't taken a position, it would +be appropriate to refer the interviewer to Cambridge for an +"official" quote. Specifically, we should ask them to +talk to Mike Godwin if the issue is legal, and Gerard van der Leun +otherwise, unless Cambridge provides different contact people. + + Media - We discussed the media and how to work with them. It was +agreed that if it's easy for the media to find the local EFF, we +can serve as a useful information resource any time a case comes up. + + Education - Several education-related issues were discussed, +including + 1) producing a local newsletter + 2) offering BBS tutorials at high schools and for the Austin +police department + 3) setting up a meeting with the police chief to offer our +services (Smoot, as a recent member of the Austin city council, +is in a position to look into this and will do so) + 4) hold policy seminars at the Universities and law schools +in the Austin area, discussing computers and the net. + + EFF-Austin bulletin board - At the moment, we are using the SMOFboard +(512-467-7317) for public access, and running our e-mail through +tic.com. Possible functions for a bbs: + Maintain a current BBS list for Austin and Central Texas + Discuss BBS-related issues (like viri in downloads) + Offer virus protection information and perhaps software +on a local board as a form of community liaison. + Create a police-specific BBS, so that local police can get BBS +experience. + + Civil Liberties Watch - It was agreed that, should an "EFF case" +or potential EFF case appear, it would be our duty to collect as +much information as possible in order to keep the rest of the Net +better informed. It would also be our duty to put relevant people +in touch with Cambridge, ASAP, so they could get help, but NOT to +act as go-betweens once initial contact was made, unless specifically +asked to do so. + + Computer Underground - It was suggested that the EFF can't really +assure the media, etc., that the "underground" is basically small +and harmless, because we don't have exact numbers. After quite a bit +of discussion, no consensus was reached, but the majority opinion was +that there is no point in trying to do a "cracker census" in order to +say, e.g., "We know that out of every 1,000 users, only 3 are crackers +or phreaks." + + General Meetings - We discussed the desirability of general meetings, +as opposed to directors' meetings. The consensus seemed to be that +quarterly general meetings might be desirable, but that anything oftener +was overdoing it. However, *any* public activity we plan should be +announced to the EFF-Austin mailing list, so that anyone interested can +participate (and/or volunteer!). + The optimum size of the board was also discussed. The consensus was +that the optimum size for now was to include everyone who was interested +in working regularly for the EFF. + + Logo - Bruce Sterling offered to procure a logo, and it was agreed +that he should do so. SJ will make some buttons when we have a logo - +hopefully, in time for Armadillocon. + + Conferences - Lew Oleinick reported that in Dallas, in early October, +there will be a conference in Dallas on fiber optics. He knows a +professor, Susan Hadden, who will be moderating a panel there. Lew +will contact Mike Godwin to see if the national group has any +interest in having a presence at this conference. +national. + We will definitely have a table at Armadillocon. + + Conferences redux - We discussed the possibility of *hosting* a +conference in Austin, focusing on both futurism and civil liberties. +It was generally agreed that the idea was very interesting, +but that we had nowhere near enough active people . . . yet. + + Bruce Sterling announced that, after consideration, he thinks +that journalistic integrity should prohibit him from serving on +the Austin EFF board, since he is going to be reporting on the +actions of that board . . . but he remains interested in working +with us in any way that won't be too incestuous. + + The next meeting was set for Monday, Sept. 30th at Matt Lawrence's +house at 7pm. + + +MINUTES OF EFF-AUSTIN DIRECTORS' MEETING - Sept. 30, 1991 + Prepared by Steve Jackson; blame him for errors or omissions. + + Held chez Matt Lawrence, 7:30pm. Present: Steve Jackson, Lar Kaufman, +Matt Lawrence, John Quarterman, Bruce Sterling. Smoot Carl-Mitchell joined +briefly by phone. + + Announcements - SJ had the new legal filings in SJ Games vs. US Secret +Service. Also, SJ has been invited to participate in a debate as part +of the ACM Computer Science Conference (CSC '92). + + "Approval of the minutes" - Lew not being present with his revised +minutes, we decided not to worry about this. Lew has dropped off the +board due to school pressures, but has provided us with his notes. + + Conversational Right of Way - Agreed that we don't need Robert's +Rules of Order, but that we should start each meeting by running down +the prepared agenda and only then should we drop into a "jam session." + + Our official status - Smoot has nothing new for us yet. + + Armadillocon - We have approval to set up a table. Cambridge is +sending literature. We have volunteers for table help (Lawrence, +Jackson, Therel Moore and Perry Stokes, certainly others) but we +do NOT have anyone to organize the event. I (Jackson) will do it if +necessary, but don't have time to do it as well as it should be done. +A volunteer is really needed. + There will also be a panel on electronic freedoms. Time not yet known. + If anybody in EFF has a room there, hosting a party would be a great +idea. + + Other conventions - We will have other possible targets, including +a conference in Dallas on fiber optics (Lew was talking with Mike +Godwin about this; Lar will check) and a hypertext conference in San +Antonio in a few months. Which ones should we try to hit? Again, we may +need a Con Coordinator, to deal with such appearances, but we have no +volunteers. + + CACTUS - This organization is in need of speakers. Bruce will call +them and volunteer. He strongly feels that the general public should NOT +be invited to a CACTUS meeting. Perhaps other groups (Jaycees?) would be +interested in an Electronic Frontier presentation? + + Libertarians - Robert Howard is interested in the EFF and has +volunteered to liase between use and the local Libertarian Party; he +perceives a commonality of interests. His offer is accepted with thanks. + + Texas Observer - Bruce will touch base with the editorial staff. This +may not be a good time to publish an article, but it's not too early to +suggest the idea. Or perhaps he will suggest two articles: a backgrounder +now, and one later when a court case comes to trial. + + UT Law School - A liaison would be a good idea. A few interested law +students would be a boon to the organization at this point. SJ will +contact Mike Godwin and see what he suggests. + + TIC.COM - John and Smoot have upgraded their system since +our last meeting. Everything may or may not be working 100%. + + Logo: Bruce provided the fruits of his library research on +the "Come and Take It" flag logo. Lar is going to scan it, and +various people will see what could be done about making an EFF Austin +flag, button, or whatever out of it. + + Next meeting: Wednesday, Oct. 16, after Armadillocon, at Matt's. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.10 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.10 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1bdfb4e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.10 @@ -0,0 +1,112 @@ +Date: Wed, 30 Oct 91 01:21:41 CST +From: sjackson (Steve Jackson) +To: eff-a +Subject: Directors Meeting Minutes + + Whoops. I sent these to National within a couple of hours of +the meeting, and neglected to post them where Austin could see. Sorry! + +MINUTES OF EFF-AUSTIN DIRECTORS' MEETING - Oct. 23, 1991 + Prepared by Steve Jackson; blame him for errors or omissions. +These minutes prepared during and immediately after the meeting +through the miracle of SJ's new laptop . . . + + Held chez Matt Lawrence, 7:30pm. Present: Steve Jackson, Matt +Lawrence, Jon Lebkowski, Smoot Carl-Mitchell. John Quarterman +and Lar Kaufman had previously warned that they'd be out of town. + + "Approval of the minutes" - no one had any problems with the +previously posted minutes of the last meeting. + + Recommendations on organization and our official status - Smoot +has nothing new for us yet. A particular point we need to get +clarification on: Does the 501(c)(3) status of the national +organization extend to its branches? E.g. - Can a donation made +to EFF-Austin be tax deductible? + + Armadillocon - The table was organized by Jon L. and SJ. Thanks +to the volunteer helpers! Therel Moore, Chris McCubbin and Bruce +Sterling put in a lot of time; others filled in occasionally. + There were a great many signups on the "please send information" +sheet (most from outside Austin!). Two people wrote out membership +checks on the spot. + Everyone was interested and sympathetic, but many people were +surprisingly unfamiliar with the issues. + One person, who works for IBM, was AFRAID to sign our mailing list. +She later changed her mind, but her initial reluctance was very +interesting. + The table needed a good, readable banner and a legible sign +explaining, in ten words, what the group was about. There was +general agreement that a big professionally-made sign or banner +should be one of our first acquisitions, for use at this sort of +event. + We had a computer at the booth, with a large selection of EFF- +related files. This was a good idea, and it was used by some visitors +to the booth, but a user-friendly front end for file reading would have +been helpful. (After the meeting, SJ and Matt developed a design for +such a front end. Matt will implement code as time allows. If it +proves worthwhile, we'll spread it around - maybe as shareware with +a request for donation to EFF-Austin.) + Also at Armadillocon was a panel on electronic freedoms. This turned +into an argument about piracy and did not really address the +stated issues for more than a couple of minutes. Should this be +considered a problem? The moderator, and most of the audience, +obviously had more to say about piracy than about Constitutional +rights, and it's an important issue, but it's not an EFF issue at +the moment. + + Other conventions - We still have other possible targets, including +a conference in Dallas on fiber optics (the national EFF does not have +the manpower to go) and a professional conference in San Antonio in +a few months. Which ones should we try to hit? Do we need a Convention +Coordinator, to deal with such appearances? + + Meetings and publicity - Long discussion of this general +subject. Consensus reached as follows: + We should hold monthly directors' meetings and quarterly +general meetings. The general meetings should be Events, with +programs of interest to the general computer-literate public. + Before we can hold meetings, we need a meeting site. SJ and +Jon will check various local possibilities and report back. + We need to prepare a membership package for the local group, once +the first meeting is set. SJ will do DTP and printing, Smoot will take care of postage. + SJ will check with John Quarterman on just what our mailing +list format should be. + There should be local dues. Pending Cambridge approval, we like +$10/year, or $5 per students. Membership in the national EFF would +be required. (Meetings should probably be open to everyone, but +there should be some specific membership perks.) + When Bruce Sterling's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, EFF- +Austin should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . . . +maybe at a computer store. + Dean Langston is still interested in doing something for +cable TV. He and SJ have been playing phone tag since the first +meeting. SJ will work harder at making a good contact. (Videotaping +speakers at the quarterly meetings would be worthwhile.) + We could also no doubt get on the local radio shows. + + CACTUS - Bruce spoke to their last meeting. Matt reports that it +went well. (For out-of-towners, this is the Capital Area Central +Texas UNIX Society.) + + Conference/Convention - There is still interest in having the +Austin EFF host a local conference. What we lack most is the high +concept - a ten-word explanation of what the conference is about. The quarterly general meetings would be good practice. + + Texas Observer - Richard Steinberg has turned in an article. It is a popularization with lots of quotes, rather than an in-depth look at the issues, but it reads quite well. + + UT Law School - We have a potential liaison, a second-year law +student who runs the Bamboo Garden BBS in Austin. Jon will invite +him to the next directors' meeting. + + Legislative initiative - This is far in the future yet, but +SJ will bring copies of the Texas "computer crime" law to the +next meeting. + + The Houston group had a successful "CyberLunch" a couple of weeks ago, and collected lots of names. + + Next meeting: Wednesday, Nov. 27, at Matt's. + + Meeting after next: We want to do a holiday party sometime +around Christmas or New Year's. Matt has volunteered to host it. +Everyone will be invited. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.12 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.12 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..74344ced --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute91.12 @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ +From sjackson Fri Dec 13 12:41:34 1991 +To: eff-a, rita@eff.org +Subject: Minutes of Austin meeting 12-5-91 + +MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - Dec. 5, 1991 + Prepared by Steve Jackson; blame him for errors or omissions. + + Held chez Matt Lawrence, 7:30pm. Present: Steve Jackson, Matt +Lawrence, Jon Lebkowski, John Quarterman, Smoot Carl-Mitchell. Observing +by invitation: Ed Cavazos of the Bamboo Gardens BBS, Bruce Sterling, +Susan Cisco. Lar Kaufman is still out of town. + + Minutes of the last meeting approved, no corrections. + + Recommendations on organization and our official status - Smoot +recommended that we proceed as a voluntary, unincorporated association +until we need the protection of corporate status. Jon advocated the +preparation of a recommendation for more formal status, and some degree of +"official" connection with the national group - we could present this to +National and see how they feel about it. Considerable discussion. It was +pointed out that National expects us to be a test-bed for local chapters, +and it is probably part of our job to prepare the recommendation. Smoot +will do further research into the structures of such groups as the Sierra +Club. + It was agreed that we have no current need for tax-exempt or +tax-deductible status; we can worry about this later. + + Local dues - As reported last meeting, pending Cambridge approval, we +like $10/year, or $5 per students. Membership in the national EFF would +be required. (Meetings should probably be open to everyone, but +there should be some specific membership perks.) We haven't gotten a +comment from Cambridge on this. + It was also suggested that we offer a corporate membership rate. + + Meetings and publicity - Before we can hold meetings, we need a +meeting site. SJ has contacted Dell about their Arboretum site, and sent +information about the EFF, but has not gotten a response yet. + We need to prepare a membership package for the local group, once +the first meeting is set. SJ will do DTP and printing, Smoot will take +care of postage. + We have had an increasing demand for literature, as various of the +Austin EFFectives make public appearances. Steve volunteered to keep a +stock at his office and request replenishment as needed. If you need +literature, contact Steve. + + Convention appearances - We will definitely make an appearance at the +GTC Conference, Austin, Feb. 12-14. Jon has gotten us a table space. They +are interested in having Bruce appear on a panel. Jon is coordinating our +participation there, but will certainly need help, as his own job requires +him to be a participant in portions of the conference other than the EFF +table. + It was agreed that we do not have the manpower to do anything about +the Dallas conference on fiber optics or any of the other immediately +upcoming conventions. Should a qualified volunteer convention coordinator +appear in Austin, this could be changed. + + Local activities last month: + EFFectors and EFF materials have been placed in The Station, +a local computer store. Cambridge approves of this initiative. We could +put EFF materials in stores, co-ops, take them to computer club meetings +- there are lots of possibilities here. + VOLUNTEER NEEDED: We need a local EFF supporter with a car to be our +literature distributor . . . to make suggestions to the board about what +ought to go where, and to see that it gets there. If you're interested in +helping with this, please send e-mail to sjackson@tic.com. + SJ will appear on the TV show TAKING LIBERTIES, hosted by the ACLU - +two segments were taped in early November for airing in December. The host +was Kenneth Altes, producer was David Gallessich, other guests were Ed +Lenert and Dick Cutler of the UT Center for Research on Communication +Technology and Society. + The December 6 issue of the Austin Chronicle, out today, contains +Bruce's article on the Cyberpunk Bust - it's the cover story. SJ will +call the Chronicle to see if we can pick up their leftover copies. + There is supposed to be a Texas Observer out now with a story, too, +but nobody seems to have seen it. + SJ spoke to a large UT class on Dec. 4, along with representatives +from a local radio station and the American-Statesman. This was Joan +Stuller's RTF course; the discussion had to do with the future of media. + + Local activities, upcoming or proposed: + John and Smoot will participate in a seminar Friday, December 6, +for the Library and Information Science Department at UT. The topic is +The Use of Computer Networks and Electronic Mail to Support Routine +Organizational Functioning. The organizer is Susan Cisco, a Ph.D. +candidate. Rita at Cambridge F was very helpful in getting EFF materials +to us for this seminar on very short notice. + When Bruce Sterling's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, EFF-Austin +should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . . .maybe at a +computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be released in September. + Bruce will be doing a multi-city signing tour for the paperback +release of DIFFERENCE ENGINE, and is willing to distribute EFF material. +He and/or SJ will talk to Cambridge about logistics. + Dean Langston is still interested in doing something for +cable TV. He and SJ have been playing phone tag since the first +meeting. SJ will work harder at making a good contact. (Videotaping +speakers at the quarterly meetings would be worthwhile.) + It was suggested that if any of Mitch Kapor's appearances or +talks are available on video, they would be very valuable for +presentations, and we might even be able to get them broadcast. + We could also no doubt get on the local radio shows. + + Mailing list - We have volunteers to help with this. Since Earl Cooley +does databases for a living, it was agreed that SJ will sit down with him +and discuss design. + Bruce pointed out that a mailing list is just a special case of a +database, and we could use a general database with all kinds of +information on EFF-related issues - who, what, when, and how come. He has +prepared some of this in his researches, but says that there is a lot more +information out there, unknown or uncollected - other computer-raid cases, +4tc. He will give thought to pruning the "private" information out of his +own database so it could serve as a core for this project. + + Computer display program - SJ and Matt have done a top-down outline of +the design for this project, but no code has been written. + + Logo - No word from Lar on the status on the Austin logo. Cambridge +is working on a logo for the national group. + + UT Law School - Our contact there is Ed Cavazos, a second-year law +student who runs the Bamboo Garden BBS in Austin. He sat in on this +directors' meeting. We managed not to discuss the liaison too much, +though. Ed opines that there will be a great deal of interest in EFF +issues among individual students and professors, but that the school +as an organization is unlikely to take any sort of position. + Ed's BBS has an EFF discussion area. The number is 385-2941. + + Conference/Convention - We discussed this at length. Jon suggested +that we do the first one as a one- or maybe one-and-a-half-day +conference focusing mainly on BBS issues. This was greeted with +great enthusiasm. Ed says that there are well over 200 BBSs in Austin, +and a large percentage of the sysops would come. And, of course, we +would publicize the conference nationally. There were suggestions +for guests, and an interesting offer from Bruce. + Proposed time to do this is fall 1991. LOTS of helpers will be +needed - not just volunteer workers, but leaders and organizers. If +you are interested, please contact Jon (jonl@tic.com) immediately. + + Legislative initiative - We agreed to wait on this until Steve Ryan +gets into Austin. + + Christmas party - Everyone who has any interest in the EFF is +invited to the holiday party: 4pm until very, very late, at Matt +Lawrence's home, 1205 Gemini, on Sunday, Dec. 29th. Call 834-8455 +for directions. Bring whatever you like, edible or drinkable, to +share with fellow EFFectives. + + Our next directors' meeting will be Monday, January 6, at 7:30pm at +Matt's. + + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.1 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.1 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..32494462 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.1 @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ + From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson) + To: eff-a@tic.com +Subject: Minutes of Jan. 6 Austin meeting + +MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - Jan. 6, 1992 + Prepared by Steve Jackson; blame him for errors or omissions. + + 7:30pm at Matt Lawrence's. Present: Steve Jackson, Matt Lawrence, +Jon Lebkowsky, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Susan Cisco. + + There were no problems with the minutes of the last meeting. + + Structure - Smoot and Jon had not yet gotten together to discuss +group structure and status, but will definitely do so next week. + + Local dues - Cambridge having approved, we will have local +dues of $10/year, or $5 per students, or $50 for corporations. +There was a bit of question as to whether we should require Austin +members to join the national group as well. + + Meetings and publicity - Before we can hold meetings, we need a +meeting site. SJ has not gotten an answer from Dell, and will stay on it +and report to the Austin board via e-mail. + We still need a membership package for the local group, once +the first meeting is set. SJ will do DTP and printing, Smoot will take +care of postage. We can probably include some of the new handouts from +Cambridge. + We have had an increasing demand for literature, as various +of the Austin EFFectives make public appearances. Steve now has a +stock of literature at his office, including a few dozen leftover +copies of the CHRONICLE with Bruce Sterling's story - thanks to the +Chronicle for letting us have these. + + Convention appearances - We will definitely make an +appearance at the GTC Conference, Austin, Feb. 12-14. Jon has +gotten us a table space. He is still looking for Austin EFF members +to help run the table. + Jon brought some information on a Computer Security Institute +event - a paid seminar - to be held in San Antonio. He will contact +them and find out if they are interested in us. + + VOLUNTEER STILL NEEDED: We need someone with a car to be our +literature distributor . . . to make suggestions to the board about what +ought to go where, and to see that it gets there. If you're interested in +helping with this, please send e-mail to sjackson@tic.com. + +Local activities last month - + SJ appeared on the TV show TAKING LIBERTIES, hosted by the ACLU - +two segments were taped in early November. Segment 1 aired on the 3rd, +Segment 2 will air on the 10th; they will be repeated on the 17th and +24th, respectively, and probably a few more times in the next months. +These appear on Austin local access TV. + + John and Smoot participated in a seminar Friday, December 6, +for the Library and Information Science Department at UT. The topic was +The Use of Computer Networks and Electronic Mail to Support Routine +Organizational Functioning. The organizer was Susan Cisco, a Ph.D. +candidate, who is interested in joining our board. It went well. + + Christmas party - Thanks go to Matt for hosting this. +Turnout was only about a dozen - we obviously needed to publicize +it more than just to the eff-a mailing list - but there was some +good conversation. + +Local activities, upcoming or proposed: + The UT College of Communication is interested in having an +EFF speaker at their Communications Week, April 1-4. They're +talking with Steve. + Bruce will be doing a multi-city signing tour for the paperback +release of DIFFERENCE ENGINE, and is willing to distribute EFF material. +He and/or SJ will talk to Cambridge about logistics. + Dean Langston is still interested in doing something for +cable TV. He has been calling SJ, and says he will call back soon +with a specific proposal. (Videotaping speakers at the quarterly +meetings would be worthwhile.) + We could also no doubt get on the local radio shows. + When Bruce Sterling's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, +EFF-Austin should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . +. . maybe at a computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be +released in September. + + Mailing list - We have volunteers to help with this. Earl Cooley +and Steve Jackson discussed format at the Christmas party. Susan Cisco +is interested in working with the list once it's set up. + + Computer display program - No progress. + + Logo - we now have a working graphics file of the star, cannon and +"Come And Take It" image. What shall we do with it? + + Local BBSing conference - Jon reports that he has had no +significant offers of assistance. + +NEW BUSINESS + Do we want an Austin newsletter? The question was discussed, but +no particular conclusion was reached. An electronic newsletter would +be appropriate, and easier to do. How many potential members are not +yet on the net and would therefore not be able to read such a publica- +tion? Smoot points out that soon Austinites will be able to buy netmail +and newsgroup access for $25 per month. + + Ed Cavazos and Susan Cisco would like to join the Board. General +agreement that there is no upper limit, at present, to the number of +Board members we can have, as long as everyone is active. + + Susan Cisco wants to be the information-resource person for the +group. There was a long discussion about exactly what this might mean; +the final decision was "wait and see and let it evolve." Suggestions +included creating a database of computer-seizure incidents; archiving +publications of interest on both paper and disk; collecting data on +relevant court cases and legislation; and the more general goal of +making the EFF a research resource. Susan points out that a lot of +this information may already be well-organized somewhere, and we don't +want to duplicate effort - but we DO want to be able to give our members +pointers to the data we don't archive ourselves. + + Susan will do some basic research and report next meeting. + + Our next directors' meeting will be some weekday evening +before February 12, before the GTC conference - date to be set +after e-mail discussion. Site will be Matt's house. SJ will collate +preferences and announce the decision. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.2 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.2 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1b8f8be6 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.2 @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson) +To: eff-a@tic.com +Subject: Minutes of 2-12 meeting + +MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - Feb. 12, 1992 + + Held 7:30pm at Matt Lawrence's. Directors present were Jon Lebkowsky, +Matt Lawrence, Ed Cavazos, John Quarterman, Steve Jackson. Observing: +Nancy Loomis, Jon Boede, Bruce Sterling. + As usual, minutes taken by SJ, who is solely at fault for any +omissions or errors. + Minutes of the last meeting were approved w/o reading. + + Recommendations on organization and our official status - Smoot +and Jon worked on this and sent a letter to Mitch Kapor. His reply +was favorable. We have a GO to write organizational bylaws. Ed +Cavazos will prepare a draft, keeping it to the bare bones that +will satisfy Texas law if we later attempt to register as a nonprofit +corporation. We discussed directors, officers, etc., briefly. + + Local dues - Tentative approval of $10/year, or $5 per students, +or $50 for corporations. That does NOT have to be specified in the +bylaws - but it needs to be in our membership material. Final decision +to be made next meeting. (It was suggested that these rates might be +too low.) + + Meetings and publicity - General agreement that it's time to +find a site and hold a general meeting. SJ has talked repeatedly +to a Dell representative about their Arboretum site, and sent +information about the EFF, but has never gotten any commitment +from him. + Jon thinks that he can get permission to use the excellent MCC +auditorium. An Austin Community College facility near Highland Mall +was also mentioned; this won't be as pretty but is more central. + SJ will draft a membership package for the local group, in time +for the March meeting. Smoot will take care of postage. + We have had an increasing demand for literature, as various +Austin EFFectives make public appearances. Steve now has a stock of +literature at his office. Rita Rouvalis at the Cambridge office +continues to be very helpful in sending more as needed. We still need, +and do not have, a volunteer for local distribution of this material + The ACLU show TAKING LIBERTIES, with Steve Jackson as interviewee, +will rerun part 1 on March 6 and part 2 on March 13. + +Local activities since the last meeting: + Steve Jackson addressed the monthly meeting of the Central Texas +Civil Liberties Union. It went well. Questions afterward ranged from +exactly-on-point to out-in-left-field, which indicates that we were +not just preaching to the choir this time - some of these people were +not yet aware of the issues, but they were interested! + Steve Jackson also went to San Marcos to speak to the SWT chapter +of the ACM on February 5. This also went well. Audience about 30. + Bruce Sterling gave away 300 copies of EFFECTOR during his +promotional tour for DIFFERENCE ENGINE. + Today was the first day of the Government & Technology Conference. +Unanimous acclaim for Jon's excellent job of organizing our participa- +tion. The booth looked good, was well stocked with a variety of +EFF literature, and was staffed at all times. Lots of people stopped +to ask questions, and many signed up for more information. Bruce will +appear on a panel later in the conference. Improvements needed for +next time: a more prominent banner, sign or booth-back. For tomorrow +and Friday, John Quarterman is working on a supergraphic illustrating +the growth of the Net over the last few years and projections for the +next few. + +Local activities, upcoming or proposed: + SJ will appear this weekend at OrcCon, a very large gaming +convention in Los Angeles, and will take literature and discuss the EFF +in his main presentation. + The UT College of Communication is interested in having an EFF speaker +at their Communications Week, April 1-4. They're talking with SJ. Mike +Godwin is interested in coming down from Cambridge. + SJ has been invited to participate in a debate at the +yearly ACM meeting in Kansas City. The debate will concern licensing of +computer professionals. Mike Godwin will be on hand for that one, too. + When Bruce's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, EFF-Austin +should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . . . maybe at a +computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be released in September. +See the note from Bruce below. + + Mailing list - Nothing new on this. Jon will discuss again with +Earl Cooley. He may be waiting on some further go-ahead from us - not +clear. If he is able and willing to write the database, we need +something by next meeting. + We discussed whether we should fulfill, or block, requests for our +mailing list when it is created. Decision: There should be a flag in the +database so people can indicate that they're willing to have their names +given out, but the default is NO. + As for the online list, we will not share or redistribute it. + + Local conference: It has been pointed out that there may be a +conflict, though not a direct one, with the name BBScon. Nobody loves +that name anyway, it seems. The name CyberTex was suggested, and met +with general glee. + Ed Cavazos notes: "I have gathered a group of active Austin modem +users who are willing to help with the conference and any other EFF +activities. They could prove invaluable when it comes time to +publicize meetings, organize membership drives, etc." + We definitely want a dealer room and a flea market. We definitely +want some video, visual or VR-type activities. We definitely want +some good speakers. + Date: probably late in the year, at this point. Austin is a very +pleasant place even in November. + Jon and Ed will start holding convention committee meetings and +will announce them to eff-a. + + Computer display program - No progress. + + Logo - we now have a working graphics file of the star, cannon and +"Come And Take It" image. + +NEW BUSINESS + It's been proposed that we start feeding files to local BBSs which +are interested in carrying EFF material. Everyone thought this was a +reasonable thing to do. Ed Cavazos is already posting lots of EFF files +on his own BBS - the rest of the Board will just start sending him any +files that seem worthwhile. + On a related issue, Bruce Sterling writes: + "HACKER CRACKDOWN will be out in September. I visited my editor's +office in NYC two days ago and the Bantam crew seemed quite pleased with +the book and determined to promote it vigorously. One of their +promotional schemes is to give away a free floppy containing the +electronic text of the book and "other interesting material." Perhaps +the fertile imaginations of the EFF-A B.O.D. can conjure up some +possibilities for this "other material." The COME AND TAKE IT graphic +file leaps to mind, but what else? Perhaps a complete run of EFFector +Online? WELL log-on procedures? The mind boggles...." + Other suggested additions: Crime & Puzzlement, of course - see if +Barlow wants to update anything. Ten False Facts about the Cybergate Raid. +The Hacker Test. Material for law enforcement. The Tribe amendment. +Bibliography! + +Not discussed - held over till next meeting: + We've been sent an "Interactive University" proposal from Dick Cutler +at UT. Is this something we are able and willing to support in any way? + There's a report of a phreak bust in Houston - a kid going by the +handle of "Archaic Illume." Do we have any information about this? Do +we want to research further? + + Until further notice, directors' meetings will be held on +the second Tuesday of each month, at 7:30 pm, at Matt Lawrence's. That +makes the next two meetings March 10 and April 14. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.3 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.3 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0ae27946 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.3 @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson) +To: eff-a@tic.com +Subject: Minutes of March 10 meeting + +MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - March 10, 1992 + + Held at 7:30pm at Matt Lawrence's. Directors present were Jon +Lebkowsky, Matt Lawrence, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, Steve Jackson, Ed +Cavazos. Observing: Dick Anderson, Gavino Morin. + Minutes of the last meeting were approved w/o reading. + + Recommendations on organization and our official status - Ed +presented his first draft of a charter and by-laws. He and Gavino +had collaborated on these. Lots of discussion; some blanks filled +in, others debated but not filled in, more blanks discovered. Decisions +included: + We will ask Cambridge for a copy of their charter in order to +make language of purpose, etc., identical where possible. + There will be 9 directors and an undetermined number of advisory +directors. + Local dues will be $10/year, or $5 per students, but we won't set +a corporate structure yet. + Individual members will be strongly encouraged to join the national +EFF, but not required. + + Meetings and publicity - We still don't have any committments. Jon +and Dick will try to get something definite from MCC. + We need to prepare a membership package for the local group, once +the first meeting is set. SJ will do DTP and printing, Smoot will take +care of postage. + Jon is now keeping a separate stock of literature, to make it +easier for him and others to get material without going by SJ's office. + +Local activities since the last meeting: + The GTC finished as well as it started; we got lots of names of +people interested in information. Bruce participated in a panel and was +reportedly the hit of the show. + Steve Jackson, along with Mike Godwin, went to Kansas City to the +ACM meeting to take the negative in an ACM debate on the proposition +(stated briefly) "Should the states license software professionals?" +Audience of about 100; it went well. John Barlow was at the same event, +participating in another panel. + SJ also passed out EFF literature and answered questions at OrcCon, +a very large (2,000-plus attendees) gaming convention in Los Angeles. + +Local activities, upcoming or proposed: + The Austin Peace Festival takes place April 25. Jon reports that we +can reserve a booth for $20. He has not yet done so due to lack of Board +response to his postings on the subject. + The UT College of Communication is interested in having an EFF speaker +at their Communications Week, April 1-4. It looks as though Steve Jackson +and Mike Godwin will both participate. + When Bruce's HACKER CRACKDOWN book is published, EFF-Austin +should sponsor a signing. Maybe at a local bookstore . . . maybe at a +computer store. Bruce is willing. The book will be released in September. + + Mailing list - Jon was going to meet with Earl Cooley to discuss +this. Earl may be out of communication; Jon hadn't gotten back with +him, but will do so before next meeting. + + CyberTex was discussed again. Consensus that it can't happen this +year - tentatively, about this time next year sounds right. Jon and Ed +will call a meeting specifically for those interested in CyberTex; +the convention committee needs to start meeting separately. Important +decisions needed: Basic committee structure, basic agenda, preferred +date. SJ volunteered to call hotels once preferred date is set. + + Computer display program - No progress. + + Logo - we now have a working graphics file of the star, cannon and +"Come And Take It" image. The EFF logo has been completed, but we have +not yet seen it. + + Dick Anderson discussed a case, reported in the newest issue of +AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, of a gun owner who was subjected to an intrusive +and destructive surprise search by BATF (Treasury Department) agents. +He suggested that the EFF should contact the NRA and offer to share +information on Fourth Amendment issues, since the case sounds very +similar to the SJ Games and Sun Devil raids. For instance, the raid +was made in great force, on a sealed "no comment" warrant, but +nothing was found. + + Susan Cisco sent some searches done on SJ's name in the Nexus/Lexis +database. Consensus: Nothing new here, but the search is a good thing +- it just happens that this time we had all the data already. Susan +was not present, and sent word that she will not have time to be a +director but is interested in serving as an advisor. + + Jon's suggestion for a retreat was discussed. Reaction were mixed. +No action was taken. + + We have gotten no further data on the bust of "Archaic Illume." Ed +will make some calls and see if he can find anything further. + + Still awaiting discussion is the "Interactive University" proposal +from Dick Cutler at UT. Is this something we are able and willing to +support in any way? + + + Our next directors' meeting will be Tuesday, April 14, at 7:30 +at Matt's house. Note that the agenda for the March 10 meeting said +the next meeting would be April 7. This was wrong. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.4 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.4 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d283a1b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.4 @@ -0,0 +1,112 @@ + MINUTES OF EFF-AUSTIN MEETING, April 14, 1992 + +Held at 7:30 PM at Matt Lawrence's home. Directors present were (in +order of appearance) Matt Lawrence, Jon Lebkowsky, Ed Cavazos, and +John Quarterman. Observing: Dave Smith, Susan Cisco, Bob Anderson, +Dick Anderson. + +Focus of discussion: + +EFF-Austin on local bulletin boards: we discussed the possibility +of presence on a multiline board, establishing a board specifically +for EFF, or the possibility of helping Earl Cooley upgrade his bbs. +Discussion led to a fourth possibility, which all present seemed to +agree was better for now: coordinating a loose network between +smof, Bambo Garden, and possibly another bbs or two to ensure that +EFF archives and ongoing discussions are widely available locally. +Ed Cavazos is interested in overseeing this, but will be in Houston +for six weeks this summer. + +May General Meeting: Dick Anderson reports that Austin Technology +Incubators will give us meeting space, however we agreed that it +would be more advantageous to have a potluck picnic similar to last +year's 'cyberdawg' event, this time at one of the local parks, +possibly at Zilker Clubhouse. Ed Cavazos and Dave Smith agreed to +arrange reservations, after which we will post an announcement. +Tentative date: May 2 or May 3, noon or early afternoon. At this +picnic we will initiate dues collection. Will set ASAP so that +announcements can be proliferated hither and yon. + +Inks Lake retreat: will probably become a party instead, to be +hosted this summer by Jon and Marsha Lebkowsky. Will probably defer +discussion til June meeting. + +CyberTex Conference: Reviewed the document produced by Jon +Lebkowsky as a result of the initial CyberTex meeting. All agreed +that, though cyberarts and robot group participation will be +highlights, we want to be careful to focus on EFF-related issues +such as education about the Matrix and related civil liberties +issues. + Additions: a track called "Exhibits," and an additional role +to fill, that of "Technical Director." We probably also need +someone to handle City Services, perhaps someone who has been +connected with city government in the past :-) . + We also discussed the need for someone to run the +network access and display room, which is not precisely the +same as either exhibits or what is under the technical director. -jsq + Funding: we will seek grant money, and will begin selling +memberships asap (we need a treasurer before we accumulate +substantial sums of money, and we probably should incorporate as a +nonprofit). We can allow reduced rate for bbs sysops and students, +and we can award 'work scholarships.' + +Action items: +1) creation of a CyberTex e-mailing list (Jon and John); + Done: cybertex@tic.com -jsq +2) check for conflict with Comdex or other high-profile +events (might have to bump date to May?); + Everyone should send schedules of related events for April 1993 + to cybertex@tic.com. -jsq +3) begin work on budget; +4) find a volunteer coordinator, then staff. + +CyberTex meetings twice monthly beginning Wednesday, May 6, at Jon L.'s house. + +There was discussion of whether or how to approve the charter and bylaws +drafted by Ed Cavazos and incorporating input from extensive discussion +at the previous board meeting. It was noted that 9 directors were +required but only 6 were known, so that bootstrapping problems existed. +After discussion, the following solution was approved: + +Moved by John S. Quarterman that The Official Charter And By-Laws of +The Electronic Frontier Foundation -- Austin Chapter, +as submitted by Ed Cavazos and as amended by the changes listed below, +be approved by the quorum of charter directors present pending +ratification by the charter directors at the meeting of 12 May 1992. +The changes incorporated are: + + Sec (2): "The number of directors of the organization shall be 9" + changed to "The number of seats on the board shall be 9." + + Added at end of Sec: "The initial directors are listed in + Addendum A." + + Sec (6): Removed "fixed by section (2) of the bylaws" + + Sec (7): Will be clarified to define quorum based on existing + number of directors rather than available seats. + + An addendum (A) was added which lists the original charter Board + members as: Jon Lebkowsky, Matt Lawrence, Ed Cavazos, + John Quarterman, Smoot Carl-Mitchell, and Steve Jackson + +Seconded by Jon Lebkowsky. Approved unanimously by role call +of the charter directors present (Lebkowsky, Lawrence, Quarterman, +and Cavazos). The charter members present constituted a quorum +according to the charter and bylaws as amended and approved +pending ratification. + +A copy of the charter and bylaws as amended follows in a separate message. + +Agenda for next meeting (May 12) will include: + + Ratification of bylaws + Discussion of Potential Amendments: + Procedures for voting by proxy + Dissolution procedures + Statement of purpose (will probably assign a committee for this) + Election of officers + Appointment of initial Advisory Board + +Jon Lebkowsky noted that he will be traveling, therefore will be +unavailable for the May 12 meeting. diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.5 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.5 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a86f7207 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.5 @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ +From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson) +To: eff-abod@tic.com +Subject: Draft minutes for last night's meeting + +MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - May 12, 1992 + Prepared by Steve Jackson. + Board members present: John Quarterman, Matt Lawrence, Steve +Jackson, Ed Cavazos. Observing: Bruce Sterling, Susan Cisco, Dick +Anderson, Dave Smith. In phone contact for part of the meeting: +Smoot Carl-Mitchell. + The minutes of the last meeting were approved. It was noted that +minutes or a report need to be produced for the May 3 general meeting. + +Discussion of General Meeting + Overall, there was consensus that the facilities were +excellent, and that the meeting went off as well as possible given +the relatively short notice. Most of the attendees came because +they saw notices on Internet. We had very few students, very few +Austin-area BBSers. Almost nobody came because of notices in print +media. Nobody at all said that they came because of notices in +broadcast media, and indeed we are not certain that any of the +broadcast media ran the PSAs which we sent. A few people did show +up because they saw the TV show which the Houston group put on the +day before. + Room for improvement: It would have been good had we had a +more elaborate program, possibily with visual aids. The TTI site +could have supplied audiovisual equipment on request. + +Committees Named + Incorporation Committee - Steve Jackson, Ed Cavazos, Frank +Kurzawa. + Police Liaison Committee - Bruce Sterling, Dick Anderson +and, subject to his acceptance, Smoot Carl-Mitchell. + BBS Study Committee: Dave Smith, Matt Lawrence and, subject +to his acceptance, Loyd Blankenship. Dave reports that the Robot +Study Group would like to donate a Unix box to Austin EFF. + SPA Committee - Dave Smith, Bruce Sterling. Look into the +current rumors that the SPA is going house-to-house on the UT campus. + Program Committee - There were no takers for a general +Program Committee, so ad-hoc committees are geing set up for each +upcoming meeting. See below under Local Activities. + Local Activities since the last meeting + We held our first general members' meeting May 3, as +described above. + SJ went to a small SF convention in Jackson, MS, passed out +literature, and answered questions. + Local Activities, upcoming or proposed + We will start by holding one event a month; if this pace is +too fast, we will cut back. We will alternate informal Cyberdog +get-togethers (eat, talk, watch computer videos) with more formal +sit-down meetings with actual programs. + June: A Cyberdog. SJ will look for a site with a big TV +screen and somewhere to cook and eat hot dogs. Bruce will supply +videos. Susan will help publicize this and other meetings. + July: A sit-down meeting, to be held the third week in +July. Ed Cavazos will organize it. Program will be a panel on sysop +issues. Dick Anderson will help. + August: A Cyberdog. Volunteers still needed to run it. + September: JSQ will organize a sit-down meeting on NREN. + October: A cyberdog. Volunteers still needed to run it. + November: A sit-down meeting. Bruce Sterling will speak on +"The Hacker Crackdown." Volunteers still needed to run it. + Membership Outreach and Communication + The board thanked Monica Stephens for creating the +beautiful graphics on the new membership form. + SJ will post an ASCII version of the membership form to +eff-a. + Bruce will write an introductory letter to go into the +membership packet. + JSQ will immediately start sending out membership packets +to those who inquire. For now, the packet will include the Austin +membership form and a copy of EFFector. JSQ is not volunteering to +do this forever - this is a one-shot. + Agreed that we should have a newsgroup; that it should be +moderated; that the preferred name is austin.eff. We'll discuss +this again next meeting. + Matt will input the mailing list. He will work with TIC to +keep it on aahsa. Matt will get existing mailing list info from SJ +and Earl Cooley. + The privacy policy will be noted at the beginning of the +list document. Board members will have access to the list. Privacy +flags will be set in all copies of the list to remind users of the +privacy policy. + Financial Issues + We now have money, though we cannot touch it yet. We have +to incorporate first, and then open a checking account. At the +general meeting, we had 13 member signups at the regular rate, and +4 at the student rate, for a total of $150. We also had one signup +for National; that money will be forwarded to Cambridge. + We sold 24 shirts at $10.80, and had one 20-cent "keep the +change" donation. + At the board meeting, we had 5 more member signups at the +$10 rate. + That means that when we have a checking account, $499.40 +will be deposited. $130, in round figures, will go to Cambridge +immediately. + SJ reported that we must proceed in the following order: +Finalize the charter and bylaws. Get an attorney to check them. +Incorporate as a nonprofit organization. Get a checking account. +Cash the checks. + Incorporation and Bylaws + Amendments to the last version of the charter and bylaws +were discussed. It was agreed that dissolution provisions were +necessary, proxies were not desirable, and non-Board members could +be officers. + Memberships will run from the date of joining to the end of +the same month in the following year. + Checks will require the signatures of any two of the four +corporate officers. + We have a volunteer, Joan Stuller, to set up our books. +However, her CPA license is from California. We will need a Texas +CPA eventually. In the meantime, we are following her advice on +financial matters. Matt will try to find his old CPA to see if she +is interested in helping us. + Dick Anderson says that Frank Kurzawa is willing to be our +attorney. SJ will contact him tomorrow morning. + Ed Cavazos will rework the bylaws and charter and send them +to SJ, who will discuss them with Frank Kurzawa. When the material +seems ready, it will be posted to eff-abod. All directors will have +3 days for asynchronous voting on the final proposal. As soon as it +passes, incorporation can proceed. + Officers and Directors + We will not name any new directors until after incorporation. + Founding officers will be: President, John Quarterman; +Vice-President, Jon Lebkowsky; Secretary, Steve Jackson; Treasurer, +Smoot Carl-Mitchell. + Board members will discuss nominations for the "advisory +board" on eff-abod. Anyone with a suggestion for the advisory board +should send a note to eff-abod@tic.com. + Cybertex + Ed presented a brief report. April 23-25 appears to be the +preferred date. Meetings are being held regularly. + Other Things + John will find a flag shop that can correct thee e-mail +address on our flag. SJ will give him the flag. + We should perhaps change the name of eff-abod, because it's +too easy to confuse with eff-a. + JSQ will schedule net training sessions for Board members +starting in early June. + We need more outreach to BBSs - sysops who become +interested in the EFF will serve as proxies to their users. + Next Meeting + The agenda for the next meeting will definitely include +Dick Anderson's ideas for education, ACTV, Dick Cutler's +"Interactive University," the SPA in Austin, and more on meeting +plans and membership packets. + + Adjourned at 11:15 pm. + diff --git a/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.6 b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.6 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d7839fe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/textfiles.com/politics/minute92.6 @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +From: sjackson@tic.com (Steve Jackson) +To: eff-abod@tic.com +Subject: Minutes of June Meeting, Finally + + +MINUTES OF AUSTIN EFF DIRECTORS' MEETING - June 9, 1992 + Prepared by Steve Jackson. + Board members present: John Quarterman, Matt Lawrence, Steve +Jackson, Ed Cavazos. Observing: Bruce Sterling, Dick Anderson, Dave +Smith. + The minutes of the last meeting were approved. + +OFFICERS' REPORTS + PRESIDENT + VP - Office vacant, Jon Lebkowsky having resigned. He has said +that he will reconsider . . . but it's up in the air. + SECRETARY - "I'm doing agendas and minutes. I have turned the +finance notes and $ over to Smoot. What else should I be doing?" + TREASURER - We still do not have a Texas CPA. + +CHARTER, BYLAWS, INCORPORATION + The Board discussed the "status" question at great length. It was +decided that Steve Jackson would write a letter to Mitch Kapor, +covering the various points that were raised during the meeting and +expressing our great perceived need for a final decision about our +status. (Late note: Due to illness, SJ was unable to finish work +on the letter, but it was written and sent.) + In the meantime, Steve Ryan, in Houston, is preparing recommenda- +tions for a corporate charter. He strongly advises that the charter +be entirely separate from the bylaws. + +CYBERTEX + After lengthy discussion, the following decisions were made: + (1) Cybertex is not dead. The Board remains committed to organizing +a convention for the residents of cyberspace. + (2) However, the April 1992 date is no longer reasonable. Rather than +set a date now, we will take as much time as is necessary for study and +set a new date when we're confident of it. + (3) The first step is to rebuild the committee structure, from the +top down. Ed Cavazos will continue to ponder the problem. + +COMMITTEE REPORTS + Incorporation Committee - Steve Jackson, Ed Cavazos, Frank Kurzawa. +On hold until we have a decision from National. + Police Liaison Committee - Bruce Sterling, Dick Anderson and, subject +to his acceptance, Smoot Carl-Mitchell. No report. + BBS Study Committee: Dave Smith, Matt Lawrence, Loyd Blankenship. +Nothing new. + SPA Committee - Dave Smith, Bruce Sterling. Bruce reported that, +though rumors of a SPA presence are rife at UT, it seems to be an +urban legend. There is no sign that the SPA is really conducting raids, +investigations or anything else in Austin. + Program Committee - Ad-hoc committees for each upcoming meeting +are still needed. + June Cyberdawg: Will be held Monday the 22nd at High Time, 3rd +and Congress, 7:30pm. Bruce to supply videos, Susan to publicize. + July: Ed Cavazos, Dick Anderson - panel on sysop issues. Date not set. + August Cyberdawg: Volunteers still needed to run it. Date not set. + September meeting: JSQ - program on networks. Date not set. + October Cyberdawg: Volunteers still needed to run it. Date not set. + November meeting: Bruce Sterling will speak on "The Hacker Crackdown." +Volunteers still needed to run it. Date not set. + +COMMUNICATION + An ASCII version of our membership form has been posted to eff-a. + +LOCAL ACTIVITY SINCE LAST MEETING + SJ was on Brian Lynch's "Frontiers" TV show. It will be shown +9:30pm Saturday, June 13 and 5:30 Monday, June 15 on cable channel 10. +Rita has requested a copy for the Cambridge archives - SJ will get it. + +NEW BUSINESS . . . + Dick Anderson discussed his ideas for a school program. + Loyd Blankenship is interested in doing multimedia work to +support/publicize EFF. The Board agreed to let him head a +Multimedia Committee, with the understanding that nothing would +be released without showing it to the Board.